Hong Kong: Performance management reformed

The Government announced today that it will streamline the mechanism for retiring officers for reasons of public interest, with the aim of improving governance and enhancing performance management and professionalism in the civil service.

It aims to promulgate the new mechanism and procedures across the civil service before the end of this year.

Under the streamlined system, well-defined and clear guidelines will be outlined to all civil servants regarding procedures for handling persistent sub-standard performers. This will be done whilst upholding impartiality, due process and the rights of officers.

Civil servants affected will be entitled to make official representations in relation to performance issues twice, down from four times in the past. In addition, underperformers will only be able to extend an observation period  during which they are expected to show improvement  once, and for specific reasons only.

The Government will also remove the requirement for heads of department or heads of grades to set up and consult an independent panel within the department following an observation period and prior to submitting a case to the Civil Service Bureau.

Moreover, if a Special or Observation Appraisal is called for due to an officers persistent sub-standard performance but the officer has also been recommended for a salary increment in an annual appraisal, a stoppage or deferment of the increment will be mandated.

Secretary for the Civil Service Ingrid Yeung said: The procedures of the current mechanism are too complicated and lengthy. We have reviewed and streamlined the procedures under the principle of impartiality and fairness in order to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the mechanism and keep up with the times.

She met staff-side representatives of the four civil service central consultative councils, as well as individuals from four major civil service groups, to brief them on the new mechanism and gauge views. The bureau has also consulted the Public Service Commission.

Mrs Yeung added: We attach great importance to every member of the civil service, and the vast majority of civil servants serve the public with dedication in their respective positions.

With the rising public expectations on civil servants, management must provide supervision and assistance to officers with unsatisfactory performances early. For officers with persistent sub-standard performances, we must take actions resolutely so that they will not have an adverse impact on civil service morale or on the performance of the Government as a whole.

This story has been published on: 2023-08-04. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Feature: Chinese-funded ring road helps avert traffic jams, improve transport of goods in Cambodian capital

Xinhua) 09:55, August 04, 2023

Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen (C) cuts the ribbon during the inauguration ceremony of the third ring road in Kandal province, Cambodia, Aug. 3, 2023. (Photo by Ly Lay/Xinhua)

KANDAL, Cambodia, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- Connecting the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh's southwestern to eastern suburbs, the Chinese-funded third ring road will not only help avert traffic jams, but also improve transport of goods and logistics in the city.

The 53-km ring road, along with two river bridges and two flyovers, was constructed by the Shanghai Construction Group in a period of 52 months under concessional loan from the Export-Import Bank of China.

With two lanes for traffic in each direction, the road stretches from the Win-Win Boulevard Roundabout in southwestern Phnom Penh to National Road 1 in Kandal province in the east of the capital.

Local residents are delighted to see the completion of the third ring road, saying that it would facilitate their travel and transport of goods, especially the transport of agricultural produce from farms to markets.

"Previously, it was difficult to travel to the city because of traffic jams and many container trucks," Yay Art, a 68-year-old farmer in Kandal province, told Xinhua on Thursday.

"This road has helped reduce traffic congestion and it will give a boost to our economy and improve the transport of goods," he said.

Lim Soriya, a 46-year-old vegetable vendor in Kandal province, said the ring road allows people to travel from one side of the city to another without going through the city center, so it will reduce traffic jams and save travel time.

"I have traveled on this road and felt very happy," she told Xinhua. "This big road is good, and it makes the transport of goods easier and faster than before."

Saing Sokchea, a 41-year-old resident along the third ring road, said the road would not only help improve the livelihoods of locals, but also promote the bond of friendship between Cambodia and China.

"China is the best partner of Cambodia, helping us develop bridges, roads and other infrastructure," he told Xinhua.

Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen said the third ring road was another testament to the fruitful cooperation between Cambodia and China under the frameworks of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the Cambodia-China community with a shared future.

"This road is very important to cope with rising traffic flows and goods transportation in the capital," he said in a speech during the inauguration ceremony of the third ring road on Thursday.

The Cambodian leader added that the thoroughfare has also connected many key roads including expressways.

"The road will not only reduce traffic jams in the city center, but also contribute to promoting trade, investment, logistics and tourism, so people will greatly benefit from it," he said.

Cambodian Minister of Public Works and Transport Sun Chanthol said the road is a potential economic artery for people in Phnom Penh and Kandal province.

"The third ring road will facilitate the transport of goods in and out of the Phnom Penh Autonomous Port," he said. "It has been transforming areas along the route into housing development zones, logistics hubs, special economic zones, factories and warehouses."

Chanthol expressed his profound gratitude to China for having provided a great amount of aid to Cambodia "with no strings attached," saying that China's assistance was essential for the Southeast Asian kingdom's infrastructure and socioeconomic development.

This aerial photo taken on June 5, 2023 shows the Chinese-funded third ring road in Kandal province, Cambodia. (Photo by Ly Lay/Xinhua)

This aerial photo taken on June 5, 2023 shows the Chinese-funded third ring road in Kandal province, Cambodia. (Photo by Ly Lay/Xinhua)

This aerial photo taken on Aug. 2, 2023 shows the Chinese-funded third ring road in Kandal province, Cambodia. (Photo by Van Pov/Xinhua)

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
On Thursday, August 3, Burlington Fire Department received a call around 8:30 a.m. A woman had gone into labor on Route 128 while being driven to the hospital by her husband.

When first responders arrived, they found the woman and her newborn son, both healthy, on the side of the road in their car.

The family was brought to the hospital in an ambulance, and are all doing well.

The family did the right thing by calling 911, our firefighter paramedics are highly trained first responders with advanced medical skills that are critical in these situations, said Burlington Fire Chief Andrew Connerty. All of us at Burlington Fire are glad that this mother and her baby are doing well, and we are happy we were able to help them during this experience. We wish them a healthy and happy future.

Firefighter/Paramedics Evan Austin and Patrick OHalloran helped the mother, along with Lt. Kevin Pollicelli, Firefighter/Paramedic David Rosenberger, Firefighter/Paramedic Mitchell Cunningham, Firefighter/EMT John Hanafin, and Firefighter/EMT Rob Blenkhorn.

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The old saying goes: If a deal seems too good to be true, it probably is. In Texas, it needs an addendum: Dont count on the state to help you get your money back.

A number of Texans who wanted to build barndominiums to grab a piece of country life at an affordable price have learned this painful lesson. Star-Telegram reporter Jess Hardin recently detailed heartbreaking losses suffered by some would-be barndo buyers who gave builders tens of thousands of dollars in cash, only to be left with an incomplete building, an empty slab or nothing at all.

Buyers often pay cash because banks wont make loans to construct barndos. So, its a classic case of unscrupulous conduct slipping through the cracks of a low-regulation regime. The biggest chasm is the lack of licensing for general contractors, meaning that when a builder messes up or commits fraud, theres no go-to agency for Texans to seek relief.

The problem is compounded by local prosecutors reluctance to pursue these cases as fraud, for understandable reasons: lack of resources, the difficulty of winning a conviction and the fact that business disputes are usually better handled in civil court. And there, even if an owner wins a judgment, they may not be able to find the builder to collect.

It could be mitigated some if the Texas attorney generals office was functioning properly. The consumer fraud division could do a lot more to protect the state, if we had an attorney general who wasnt busy saving his own political skin and who was willing to robustly investigate and prosecute bad actors.

Texas has long failed to regulate builders, who have cultivated power through campaign donations. But theres also understandable reluctance, in a booming state with a deepening housing issue, to do much that would deter home construction.

Regulating general contractors would be a big step, and it shouldnt be taken lightly. A full-blown licensing requirement might be too much at once. Perhaps lawmakers can do more to encourage builders to carry adequate insurance and bonds against faulty work. Doing more to educate consumers and help them find resources to protect themselves would be a good start, too.

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One element that makes the barndominium buyers misfortune even more important is that these are just the kind of creative housing solutions that should be encouraged to sustain growth. Not everyone would want to live in a steel structure, but not everyone can afford a full-blown country ranch house, either. With trustworthy actors, ideas such as barndominiums can help fill the gaps.

For now, though, the best advice is: buyer beware. Anytime one pays cash for a project, rather than a bank loan, its on the consumer to ensure adequate protections. Be extra vigilant about vetting a contractor. Check references, and if possible, not just the ones the contractor supplies. Get specific details on what will be delivered when, and try not to pay in advance for too much work.

And of course, get the particulars of the deal in writing, and demand that modifications, delays or mishaps be reflected in writing, too.

No one wants to blame the victim of an unscrupulous business person who took advantage. Its especially sad to see someone who thought they could attain an otherwise unavailable dream home defrauded through no fault of their own. Texas should do more to protect them.

In the meantime, though, well have to do it ourselves.

Do you have an opinion on this topic? Tell us!

We love to hear from Texans with opinions on the news  and to publish those views in the Opinion section.

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Please note: Letters will be edited for style and clarity. Publication is not guaranteed. The best letters are focused on one topic.
Some of Californias highest-paid public employees are turning up the heat on Gov. Gavin Newsoms administration after six months of contract negotiations.

The Union of American Physicians and Dentists, which represents doctors, psychiatrists and other medical staff in state hospitals and prisons, said that 91% of participating members voted on Monday to authorize a strike  the first such vote in state worker history, union leaders claim.

Union leaders say staffing shortages among medical professionals within the states hospitals and prisons result in poor care for patients and inmates, and they point to stagnant wages as the main culprit for sluggish hiring. Nearly 45% of psychiatrist positions represented by Bargaining Unit 16 were vacant as of April, according to data from the State Controllers Office.

The unions contract expired on July 1, although negotiators have been at the bargaining table since March. The union wants at least 15% raises, but the states most recent offer was a total of 6% over three years, union negotiators said.

Just because a strike was authorized doesnt mean workers will suddenly stop coming to work. Union leaders say there are plenty of steps to go still before theyd walk off the job.

We dont want to strike, said Stuart Bussey, president of the union. Weve never done this really. This is so frustrating that weve come to this point.

The California Department of Human Resources declined to comment because of ongoing negotiations.

Navreet Mann, a union board member and a senior psychiatrist with the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said using limited-term contract employees to fill the care gap might fill vacancies, but it means patients dont have an opportunity to develop lasting and trusting relationships with their doctors.

The problem with contractors is when the rate goes up at one facility, theyll all move to there. And when it goes up at the other facility, because they have a shortage, theyre gonna move there. So theres no continuity, Mann said. You cant provide care to these patients without actually hiring psychiatrists who will stay.

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Before joining the civil service ranks 12 years ago, Mann started out as a contract psychiatrist for six months. Back then, before the Public Employees Pension Reform Act limited benefits in 2013, becoming a state worker made more financial sense than working as a contractor.

Now, the union alleges, the opposite is true. A series of 2020 contract amendments between CDCR and vendor Management Solutions LLC, which were reviewed by The Sacramento Bee, show that contract physicians were paid as much as $275 an hour at some facilities, including California State Prison, Sacramento, near Folsom and the California Correctional Center in Susanville. That amounts to roughly $48,400 per month.

Civil service staff psychiatrists who work in state correctional facilities can make as much as $28,600 per month, according to the CalHR pay scale. As a senior psychiatrist, Mann brought home a little more than $30,600 a month in 2022, according to The Bees state worker pay database.

The union acknowledges that the stability and benefits associated with state service offset some of the wage disparities. But they argue that the state should still work to close the gap. The last offer they proposed to the state was to increase wages to 12% below the rate of contract workers, according to chief negotiator Patricia Hernandez.

Hernandez said five doctors at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego County have recently left their civil service roles and come back to their same jobs as contractors to earn the higher rate.

California Correctional Health Care Services, which provides medical, dental and mental health services to inmates in the states 33 prisons, acknowledged that it employs contract workers to fill vacancies and ensure our patients are receiving an appropriate level of care, according to a statement Friday. The statement said the division also was recruiting for civil service positions to fill vacancies.

Compensation for outside contractors is based on a number of factors including location of the facility, demand and other operational factors, the agency said.
Anaheim Police Department

Shocked neighbors and scores of cops reportedly descended upon the Anaheim Hills home of Jeff Ferguson on Thursday night, where police arrested the Orange County Superior Court judge on suspicion he shot and killed his wife.

Officers responded to Fergusons subdivision home around 8 p.m. to find Sheryl Ferguson, 65, dead from a gunshot wound, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Curious neighbors reportedly swarmed the home in bewilderment, wondering how a seemingly happy couple in their mid-60s, who they regularly saw walking a dog together, could be at the center of such a tragedy.

John Poulter, a neighbor, told the Times the shooting was a shock.

So many people in the neighborhood flooded the street and just kept repeating, Theres no way he could have done this, he said.

Autopsy Reveals Strange Details in California Lawyers Mystery Death in Mexico

Cops said Ferguson was arrested without incident and booked into the Orange County Jail. Details about the shooting, including a potential motive, were not released by Friday morning.

Ferguson had been a judge in Orange County since 2015 after more than three decades at the Orange County district attorneys office, according to the North Orange County Bar Association. He was the bar associations president from 2012 to 2014.

A campaign bio for Ferguson said his wife previously worked for the Orange County and Santa Barbara probation departments.

Colleagues who spoke to the Times were equally shocked as those who lived next to the couple.

Absolutely shocked, one reportedly said. I had them sit on my couch. I would never have thought this for a minute.

Susan Kang, a former chief of staff for Orange Countys district attorney, told the paper that shes always known Jeff to be someone who was devoted to his wife and his sons.

To be shocked to hear Jeff was arrested for murdering Sheryl would be an understatement, she told the Times. I cannot wrap my mind around it. I am brokenhearted.

Story continues

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Cantons undefeated 12U Little League is heading to the New England Regional this weekend in Bristol, Connecticut.

The team is leaving this morning for Connecticut. They will be representing Massachusetts and playing against three other undefeated states.

The 12-year-olds and the team will be getting a police escort as they head off to Bristol. The team beat out Barnstable last Sunday for the title.

Canton will face the state champions from Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont.

The New England regional starts on Saturday and goes through next Thursday. The winner goes to the little league world series later this month.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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Miguel Blanco, a close friend of Barry Schmalbach, 56, holds up a missing person's sign on Friday, Aug. 4, 2023. The search for Schmalbach, who went missing July 19, 2023, is nearing two weeks.

Authorities announced they have a person of interest in the disappearance of a Cape Coral man days after the arrest of the man's boyfriend on an out-of-state warrant as the missing man's sister arrived in town.

Cape Carol Police Chief Anthony Sizemore said Friday the disappearance of Barry Schmalbach, 56, was "suspicious in nature."

"We're still hopeful that Barry's OK somewhere, but after hearing the news that has been released by CCPD, it's heart-wrenching," said Emily Scaletta, Schmalbach's sister, during a Friday press conference. "We know what this could mean, and to be honest our number-one concerns is still finding Barry.".

Sizemore said they have a person of interest in custody, but didn't provide his identity or the charges he could face. He said that person of interest is being helpful, but added that he had not always been so.

"This results in our team investigating a missing person's case as if it were a crime," Sizemore said. He added that authorities believe there's foul play involved in Schmalbach's disappearance.

Schmalbach's family and friends haven't heard from nor seen him since the evening of July 19, according to Sizemore.

Sizemore said in early releases, Christopher Davis, 35, called police three days later, on July 22, to report the disappearance.

Refusing to name the party he referred to on Friday, he said one call prompted police suspicion.

"The reporting party didn't give any indication that it was unusual or an exigent situation," Sizemore said. "In fact, he dialed back at the end of that call and tried to alleviate any fears."

Sizemore said that, given the "deceptive nature" of the call in question, authorities suspected foul play. He said that, since July 19, they've executed several search warrants for physical and digital evidence items.

He said the search for Schmalbach covers several counties, but added he couldn't disclose the areas.

Story continues

"Nothing in this case has given us any reason to back down," Sizemore said in an assertive tone.

Authorities declined to answer why a call went through Schmalbach's cellphone on Wednesday and whether they've collected the device as evidence.

Cape Coral Police Chief Anthony Sizemore on Aug. 4, 2023, provides an update on the search for Barry Schmalbach, 56, who's been missing since July 19, 2023.

While they investigated Schmalbach's disappearance, Sizemore said they uncovered a warrant for Davis' arrest. According to the warrant, Cape Coral Police arrested Davis in front of Esporta Gym, 2301 Del Prado Blvd. S., on an active warrant out of Columbia, South Carolina, for probation violation dated July 11, 2018.

The violation is related to a 2013 conviction on one county of grand larceny and two counts of credit card fraud, said Anita Dantzler, spokesperson for the South Carolina Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services.

Jail records indicate Davis remains in custody Friday morning at the Lee County Jail.

Friends, family search for answers in Barry Schmalbach's disappearance

The search for a man known to his family as "a great guy" and "one of the most intelligent people" continues in Cape Coral and beyond..

Southwest Florida Crime Stoppers announced Monday an increased reward of $6,000 for any tips that could lead to Schmalbach or making an arrest in the case. They raised the reward again in less than 24 hours to $16,000.

As the two-week mark approaches in the search for a missing Cape Coral man approaches, authorities announced Tuesday the reward has more than doubled in as many days. Cape Coral Police Department is asking for help in locating resident Barry Schmalbach, 56, after a friend reported him missing when he tried to kick out a roommate.

Scaletta said authorities have kept the family "as much in the loop as possible."

Scaletta, who lives in Chicago, said Schmalbach he had lived in Naples before moving to Cape Coral.

She said she and one of Schmalbach's close friends, Miguel Blanco, plans to pass flyers out to local businesses on Saturday.

"If you see us walking around tomorrow with these flyers and we come into your shop or we come into your restaurant, please know that we're coming from a really good place and that we just really want to find Barry," Scaletta said.

She added she plans to stay in Cape Coral for "a few more days."

Blanco, who stood beside Scaletta outside the Cape Coral Police headquarters, said Schmalbach would always respond to text messages, even if it was to say he'd get back to an inquiry later. Blanco said the two have known each other for nine years.

Blanco said he wasn't aware of Davis' warrants.

Scaletta said the family hasn't known Davis too long, but didn't want to speculate who authorities may have in custody.

She said authorities have partnered with the Marco Patriots Disaster Response, a volunteer civilian assistance group to those in need during natural disasters and other emergencies. She added that the search has reached parts of Alligator Alley, as well as the canals by his home.

The group has also searched for Schmalbach in the Cape Coral waterways, said Erin Milchman, spokesperson for the organization.

Schmalbach is described as a 6'3" white male who weighs 200 pounds and has balding blonde hair and blue eyes. His last known location was around the 1800 block of Beach Parkway, in Cape Coral, around 11 p.m. July 20.

Davis declined comment Tuesday.

Detectives with the Cape Coral major crime unit are asking residents and visitors with any tips on Schmalbach's whereabouts to contact them at 239-574-3223 or submit a tip to CCPDtips@Cape Coral.gov or Southwest Florida Crime Stoppers at (800) 780-8477.

Tipsters may also be eligible for a cash reward of up to $3,000 if their tip leads to an arrest. Trish Routte, spokesperson for Southwest Florida Crime Stoppers, told The News-Press that the $13,000 increase in the reward comes from "people who are close to Barry."

Tomas Rodriguez is a Breaking/Live News Reporter for the Naples Daily News and The News-Press. You can reach Tomas at TRodriguez@gannett.com or 772-333-5501. Connect with him on Threads @tomasfrobeltran, Instagram @tomasfrobeltran, Facebook @tomasrodrigueznews and Twitter @TomasFRoBeltran.

This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Barry Schmalbach case: Police announce 'person of interest' in
Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn, who was on duty during the Jan. 6 insurrection and has been a prominent critic of former President Trump since, said action should have been taken sooner after rioters broke into the Capitol Building.

They should have arrested him on January 7, but Im not the one doing the investigation, Dunn said in a CBS interview Thursday. Every day that goes by, the more that is at stake.

Dunn was in the courtroom Thursday when Trump was arraigned on four federal charges for his attempts to overturn the 2020 election. Dunn said the arraignment represents the beginning of a long process.

It was good to see the road to justice being followed, he said.

True accountability and true justice comes in the form of a guilty verdict, so I didnt expect much here, but this is a necessary step to getting to that ultimate destination that Ive been pounding the pavement for.

The arraignment is Trumps second on federal charges, with both investigations led by special counsel Jack Smith. The first Smith investigation handled allegations that Trump mishandled classified documents in Florida.

On Tuesday, Smith said in a statement that the Jan. 6 insurrection was an unprecedented assault on democracy and fueled by lies.

Dunn said those acknowledgements of the insurrection and police efforts meant a lot to me and were a special moment for himself and his coworkers.

Trump also faces a New York state trial over hush money payments and a separate investigation in Georgia looking into Trumps efforts to overturn the 2020 election in that state.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Rapper Cardi B has been cleared in the battery investigation started earlier this week after the rapper threw a microphone at a concertgoer. According to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, no charges will be filed against her.

After a thorough review of this case and with the consultation from the Clark County District Attorneys Office, this case has been closed as having insufficient evidence, the department said in a statement.

The WAP rapper who recently released a track with her partner Offset, was part of the investigation following the incident where she threw her microphone at a fan on Sunday. The fan threw a drink onstage hitting the rapper with liquid while she was performing at an outdoor event in Las Vegas. Although it was later revealed that, at some point during the show, Cardi B urged the crowd to throw water on her to help her cool down from the heat, the offending fan threw a drink on Cardi Bs face, which she seemingly objected to.

A Battery Suspect

On Monday, TMZ reported that although the microphone had hit the offending guest, it also bounced off and hit another guest at the event. Although it was unclear which of the affected guests reported to the police, Cardi B was swiftly considered a suspect in what the police described as a battery investigation.

Cardi Bs lawyers, spoke to TMZ about the Police Departments decision not to file.

This afternoon we were notified by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Dept., that as a result of their investigation, there will be NO charges against Cardi. On behalf of Cardi, we appreciate the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Depts diligent and prompt resolution of this matter, Cardis reps said.

Cardi B hasnt commented on the incident since it took place.

The post Cardi B Cleared in Battery Investigation after Mic Throwing Incident appeared first on 21Ninety.
Cardi B | Claudio Lavenia/Getty Images

Las Vegas Metropolitan Police announced Thursday that Cardi B would not face charges for throwing her microphone into the crowd at a Saturday concert.

After a thorough review of this case and with the consultation from the Clark County District Attorneys Office, this case has been closed as having insufficient evidence. No charges will be filed in relation to this case, authorities told CNN.

The Jealousy rappers lawyers, David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld, released a statement regarding the decision.

On behalf of Cardi, we appreciate the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Depts diligent and prompt resolution of this matter, they said.

An attendee at Cardis show filed a report with the LVMPD after they were struck by an item that was thrown from the stage. Authorities didnt name the New York native in their statement, but the address on the report was the exact location the 30-year-old was performing when the concertgoer was allegedly hit. According to CNN, Cardi performed at Drais Beach Club in Las Vegas.

Footage of the incident went viral on social media. In several clips, the rapper performs when a concertgoer appears to throw a drink at her. Thats when the Grammy Award-winner seemed to retaliate and throw her microphone into the crowd. Security guards rushed onto the stage shortly after.

Cardi B threw a microphone at an audience member who threw a drink at her while she was performing. https://t.co/fkXr3WZTzj  Pop Crave (@PopCrave) July 30, 2023

Another video showed Cardi and her DJ asking the crowd to splash her with water due to the warm weather. Its unclear whether this happened before or after the incident.
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police said a Cardi B concertgoer filed a battery report on Monday after being struck by an item that was thrown from the stage.

The legal system has once again ruled in favor of Cardi B.

According to CNN, the Bartier Cardi rapper  whose real name is Belcalis Marlenis Almanzar Cephus  will not face battery charges after she propelled her microphone into the crowd during a performance in Las Vegas last weekend.

Las Vegas Metropolitan Police said a Cardi B concertgoer filed a battery report on Monday after being struck by an item that was thrown from the stage.

Cardi B performs in December at the Chase Sapphire Lounge at the SLS South Beach in Miami Beach. Police said the rapper will not face battery charges after throwing her microphone into the crowd during a recent concert in Las Vegas. (Photo: Scott Roth/Invision/AP, File)

The address on the incident report matched that of Drais Beach Club, where Cardi B was onstage Saturday night when the concertgoer was allegedly injured. However, authorities did not mention her by name in their statement.

After a thorough review of this case and with the consultation from the Clark County District Attorneys Office, this case has been closed as having insufficient evidence, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police said Thursday, CNN reported. No charges will be filed in relation to this case.

As seen in video spread across social media, Cardi B was performing her 2018 hit, Bodak Yellow, when an audience member hurled a drink toward the stage.

The video shows the rapper getting doused with liquid from the cup. She quickly reacted by throwing her microphone into the crowd as security guards rushed to assess the situation.

Cardi B and her DJ encourage attendees to splash her with water because it is so hot in a second clip from the event posted to social media, though its unclear if this happened before or following the microphone incident, CNN reported.

On behalf of Cardi, said her lawyers, David Chesnoff, Drew Findling and Richard Schonfeld, in a statement Thursday, we appreciate the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Dept. s diligent and prompt resolution of this matter.

This is not the first court victory for Cardi B. In March, a federal appeals court upheld a 2022 judgment against YouTube personality Tasha K, who was accused of defaming the Grammy-winning performer. Also in 2022, the rapper prevailed in a copyright case.

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

The post Cardi B wont face charges for mic-throwing incident, police say appeared first on TheGrio.
Electricity pylons in Halifax, West Yorkshire

Households should be given cash if they live in the path of new large electricity pylons, a government-commissioned report says.

The recommendation is among several to speed up the building of new infrastructure in Great Britain to better connect with new renewable energy.

Key is a fast-track planning system to help halve the 12 to 14 years it currently takes to build new lines.

The government has welcomed the report.

Energy Security Secretary Grant Shapps will now consider the recommendations and is expected to present a plan later this year.

However, the construction of new lines could open fresh rifts with Conservative MPs campaigning against planned pylons in their area.

Environment Secretary Therese Coffey and former Home Secretary Dame Priti Patel are among high-profile MPs opposing plans for new lines affecting their constituencies.

The government ordered the review in July last year as part of plans to improve the transmission of renewable energy, including from wind farms and new nuclear stations, to homes and businesses.

The report, by energy industry veteran Nick Winser, said the push to decarbonise was being held back by the slow pace of new pylon projects.

It has recommended a streamlined planning process as part of plans to reduce the time it takes to around seven years, and closer alignment between planning rules in Scotland and the separate system for England and Wales.

It said people living near transmission pylons, the larger lines that connect electricity from where it is generated to regional substations, should get lump sum payments from operators.

The report does not recommend specific levels of compensation or qualification criteria. It says a further consultation may be needed to work out a formula, which would need to be approved by the energy watchdog Ofgem.

'Pay off communities'

It also supported community payments for areas where new "visible infrastructure", including substations, is built, to pay for local programmes such as energy efficiency schemes or electric vehicle charging points.

Story continues

The cost of compensation would be lower than building cables underground, it added, which it said was between five and 10 times more than overhead lines. Offshore cables were even more expensive, it noted.

But Rosie Pearson, founder of the Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk Pylons Action Group, said the idea of community payments was "very worrying".

"It sounds like they might be intending to essentially pay off communities with nominal sums instead of actually getting the right projects," she told the BBC.

Dame Priti Patel recently took part in a protest against proposed pylons in her Essex constituency

The National Grid says it needs five times more power lines to be built in the next seven years than in the past 30, as part of the transition towards greener forms of energy.

Ministers are consulting on new rules for compensation schemes designed to persuade local areas they are "positively benefitting" from living near the new infrastructure.

Currently, these are struck project-by-project, with community compensation schemes paid through consumer bills on a nationwide basis.

The three companies that maintain the transmission grid in Britain - National Grid in England and Wales, and Scottish Power and SSE in Scotland - do not offer payments to households at present.

But the government has signalled it is open to the idea, saying it would prefer a "blended approach" of community and direct payments, where this is supported locally.

It is also exploring whether people living near new onshore wind farms in England could get discounts off their energy bills.

Ministers have backed the current voluntary approach to payments, arguing it is quicker and allows for more flexibility, but are "retaining the option to move to a mandatory approach if necessary".

Some campaign groups have backed a mandatory compensation scheme, arguing it would ensure payments are fairer.

In the Irish Republic, people in rural areas living within 200m of a new overhead line or transmission station qualify for payments of 2,000-30,000 from EirGrid, the state-owned operator, depending on how close they are and the capacity of the line.

New pylon schemes have encountered opposition from some Conservative MPs, particularly in East Anglia, where a number of large projects are under way to bring clean power onshore.

Map showing planned route of East Anglia power line

Mr Winser told the BBC that frustration with new schemes was "understandable", adding that there was often "very little context provided" on the benefits and trade-offs of new projects.

He added that better nationwide planning, coupled with community benefits, would make new schemes more attractive and ensure local debates on schemes are "far less heated".

Speaking to the BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he said his recommendations would make debates within communities "open and transparent so people will be able to understand why something is being proposed".

His review also called for a government-led publicity campaign on "the need for a grid refresh", along with a review to tackle a shortage of qualified engineers and technicians.
Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Ali Blackburn.

Happy birthday, U.S. Coast Guard (USCG)! Today we come to celebrate the fact that the USCG has been defending our country's shores since 1790. So, in honor of the Coast Guard birthday, let's take a look at the history of this formidable force.

The Early Years

The USCG traces its origins back to August 4, 1790, when the first Congress authorized the construction of 10 vessels to enforce tariffs and prevent smuggling. These ships were crewed by only four men each and were armed with only eight guns each - hardly a force. And yet, the Coasties prevailed.

In 1791, these 10 ships seized 21 vessels violating American neutrality laws. They also captured 26 pirates and stopped numerous smugglers. As word of the USCG's effectiveness spread, more and more Americans began supporting the idea of a standing coastal defense force. In time, the Coast Guard grew into the formidable force we know today.

The Modern Era

Following World War II, the USCG was tasked with an entirely new mission: enforcing environmental laws. This was in response to the 1946 Oil Pollution Act, passed to prevent oil spills from damaging America's coastline. In time, the branch would also enforce laws about fisheries, drugs and human trafficking. Today, it's responsible for safeguarding our country's coastlines 24/7/365no small feat! Want to find out what it takes to become a Coastie? Find out more here.

U.S. Coast Guard History

The United States Coast Guard is one of the oldest maritime organizations in the world. Founded in 1790, the Coast Guard has a long and storied history of providing aid to those in need, safeguarding our coasts and protecting our waterways. Here's a quick look at some of the highlights from the Coast Guard's more than 200-year history.

Members of Coast Guard Sector Northern New England pose with Florence Manchester Smith at Coast Guard Station Jonesport, in Jonesport, Maine, Thursday, Sept. 29, 2022. Smith enlisted in the Coast Guard in December 1943 as part of the SPARs, the all-female workforce that was mobilized during World War II. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Lt. Pamela Manns)

The Early USCG

The Coast Guard traces its roots back to 1790, when President George Washington signed the Tariff Act. This act created the Revenue Cutter Service, which was charged with enforcing federal tariff laws and collecting import duties. In 1915, the Revenue Cutter Service merged with the U.S. Life-Saving Service to form the Coast Guard we know today.

During the Civil War, the USCG played a vital role in blockade running and shipbuilding. They also worked to suppress piracy and slave trading. In 1865, President Abraham Lincoln established the Bureau of Naval Intelligence, which included a division devoted to coast and harbor defense. This marks the beginning of the USCG's intelligence mission, which continues today.

In 1920, Congress passed the Volstead Act, which prohibited the manufacture, transport and sale of alcoholic beverages. The USCG was tasked with enforcing this law, which they did with great success. In fact, they seized more than 500 illegal liquor ships and destroyed over 5 million gallons of moonshine during Prohibition.

World War II: 1941-1945

During World War II, the USCG played a vital role in anti-submarine warfare and ship escort duty. They also assisted in troop transport and humanitarian missions. At the war's conclusion, the Coast Guard had grown significantly in size and scope; it now included 11 auxiliaries and over 200 cutters. Here are 7 wild things the Coasties did during WWII.

The Modern Era: 1946-Present Day

In 1946, Congress passed the Merchant Marine Act, establishing the branch as part of the Department of Transportation. In 1967, it became part of the Department of Transportation's newly created Maritime Administration. And finally, in 2002, it once again became an independent agency within the Department of Homeland Security following 9/11.

Today, the USCG is responsible for a wide range of tasks, including search and rescue operations, maritime law enforcement, boating safety initiatives, icebreaking operations, environmental protection efforts and much more. Here are 15 important differences between the Coast Guard and the Navy.

Happy birthday, Coast Guard!
Greg LaManna is the president for Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shields Medicaid Health Plan in Ohio.

Improving health for everyone is possible. It begins by redefining health, reimagining the system, and strengthening our communities.

The physical aspects of health have traditionally been the focus and the priority for healthcare. However, unique life circumstances and experiences impact every individual and their health.

More: Canal Winchester landing $31 million, health-care facility from OhioHealth

Taking a step back and looking more broadly at what drives health, its clear that health should be redefined to include the social and behavioral factors with the physical.

Greg LaManna

Ohio communities face a wide range of challenges that impact their quality of life. These factors, known as social drivers of health, are conditions in the places where people live, learn, work, and play, according to the CDC.

As much as 80 percent of a persons health status is influenced by social factors.

With this in mind, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield takes a whole-person approach in working with members and community-based organizations to improve health outcomes and make meaningful, sustainable advances to enhance overall wellness. We are committed to being present in the local community and connecting with members when they want and how they want it, putting them at the center.

Through the newly established Community Welcome Center located in the Short North, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield associates and experts will be able to connect members with health services and vital community resources in a way thats most convenient for them.

The Anthem Community Welcome Center will meet members where they are and serve as a one-stop-shop for a wide range of information including help accessing food, housing, transportation, employment and healthcare, social and financial supports, as well as innovative technology.

Members will be able to talk with an Anthem associate about plan benefits including Medicaid redetermination, find or change doctors, referrals for case management and even support finding free or low-cost resources in the community.

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Strengthening communities has a positive effect on health.

Building partnerships and creating connections within communities supports whole health. When we unveiled the new Anthem Community Welcome Center, we received a tremendous amount of community support from our local partners including a Certificate of Recognition from Mayor Andrew J. Ginthers staff at the grand opening. We also provided funds to three local community-based organizations so they can continue to deliver on their mission including:

The African American Male Wellness Agency which aims to reduce disparities in premature death and chronic diseases among African American males.

Community Development for All People to improve the economic, social and spiritual quality of life for residents of Columbus South side.

LifeCare Alliance to provide a comprehensive array of health and nutrition services to residents of Central Ohio.

To support health more holistically, we also need to reimagine the health system. We must understand a more complete picture of each individual and their health needs which can help make healthcare more personalized and equitable.

Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Ohio champions this whole health approach, and we are committed to approaching health with a broader view.

This focuses on supporting a persons overall health, rather than on treating their conditions. Its a person-centered, holistic approach that includes the physical drivers of health as well as the behavioral and social drivers of health.

This new innovative resource will provide community members with education, tools and resources so they can achieve optimal health and well-being with the intention of making access to care and resources simpler and more accessible.

To improve outcomes and equity, the healthcare system needs to redefine health. Partnering at the community level allows us to consider, identify, and address the most significant health drivers. When we do both, we can remove barriers and offer support for each persons physical, behavioral, and social drivers that are most likely to maintain and restore their health.

Greg LaManna is the president for Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shields Medicaid Health Plan in Ohio.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: New center in Short North example of how healthcare can be reimagined| Greg LaManna
In a battle likened to David versus Goliath, Cuyama Valley residents have launched a boycott of Big Carrot after two giant growers sued all landowners in the community over water rights.

Bolthouse Farms and Grimmway Farms are among the plaintiffs for the lawsuit claiming hundreds of defendants  and all property owners  including homeowners, businesses and public agencies in the Cuyama Valley.

At the heart of the fight is the rights to the water in the Cuyama Valley Basin, which has been designated among the Californias most overdrafted groundwater basins for years.

Overdrafted basins happen when the amount of water pumped out is larger than the long-term average supply of water into the basin. Groundwater remains the lone source since State Water Project delivery isnt available.

Cuyama Valley residents call for Big Carrot boycott

On July 30, a steady stream of people showed up at Cuyama Buckhorns backroom to hear about efforts to fight the massive lawsuit.

Along with waging war in the courtroom, Cuyama Valley residents plan to hit Bolthouse and Grimmway at the produce section.

When you see these labels, just walk away, the groups Cuyama vs. Carrots video states.

Water runs off a field of carrots irrigated at midday June 22, 2022, beside Highway 33 in the Cuyama Valley. Groundwater levels in wells around the region have been falling for years in the region near the eastern corners of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.

Bumper stickers and yard signs for the boycott were handed out July 30. Attendees were urged to take a photo with the Boycott Carrots banner to post on the campaign website to reveal who Cuyama residents are and show the faces of this fight.

This is just the start, Ella Boyajian said.

Not long after she and her husband purchased property on Wasioja Road in the valley, they received notice of the water rights lawsuit.

Show everybody you possibly can, smaller rancher Jake Furstenfled said. Tell our story. Tell your story.

Organizers urged residents to share the StandWithCuyama.com website to help spread the plight of the property owners.

Were really excited to get the conversation going, Boyajian added.

A large pump feeds water from a well to sprinklers along Highway 166 in the Cuyama Valley, creating a scene of lush, green farms butting up against brown hills.

Companies account for 80% of worlds carrot market

Grimmway and Bolthouse reportedly account for 80% of the worlds carrot market plus make other products such as dressings and smoothies. Grimmway also sells products under Cal-Organic Farms and Bunny-Luv brands.

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Representatives of the companies did not respond to a request for comment about the boycott.

The short video, Cuyama vs Carrots, was played multiple times at the July 30 event, spelling out the concerns. An online change.org petition Save the Cuyama Valley Groundwater Basin  Boycott Carrots quickly grew to more than 600 signatures and continued to gain supporters this week.

After the video aired, Boyajian answered one womans question about purchasing loose carrots.

I know. I like carrots, Boyajian said as the woman reacted to a negative answer. The safest bet is not to buy them.

Water pumped from underground has turned the arid Cuyama Valley in the southeastern corner of San Luis Obispo County into a productive farming region. But levels are falling, and farmers are worried.

Grimmways website lists carrot bunches among its many products.

Another man shared mixed feelings, calling himself a capitalist at heart. I feel awkward penalizing success, he said.

Frustration with the corporate giants doesnt include the workers, Boyajian said, placing the blame on executives making the decisions now affecting landowners.

Theyre so far removed I doubt they even know where Cuyama is on a map, Boyajian added.

As another local resident, Charlie Bosma, greeted new arrivals, a white board behind him spelled out their seemingly simple request of the growers: Stop over-pumping! Stop suing us! Pay us back!

They hope the campaign and Cuyamas story leads to the end of over-pumping of the groundwater basin, a dropped water-rights lawsuit and reimbursement for legal fees paid by those forced to defend against the legal action.

The difference between irrigated and non-irrigated land in the Cuyama Valley is stark. Here, overhead sprinklers fed by groundwater feed a field of carrots on Jue 22, 2022.

Growers sue over groundwater

The new campaign comes as the court case moved to the first phase  defining the Cuyama Valley groundwater basins boundaries.

The civil complaint filed by the agricultural companies identifies the basin as being about 378 square miles or approximately 8,685 acres, of which about 168 square miles are within Santa Barbara County, 120 square miles are within Ventura County, 77 square miles within San Luis Obispo County and 13 square miles within Kern County.

Locals remain frustrated that the lawsuits filing came after Grimmway and Bolthouse representatives along with others in the community worked together to craft a groundwater sustainability plan for the basin as required by the state Groundwater Sustainability Act.

A Boycott Carrots sign in the Cuyama Valley is posted in response to the legal action by two growers who have sued property owners over water rights.

What we are asking and hoping is we can get Grimmway and Bolthouse to go back to the government-provided democratic process that our community participated in, Bosma said.

The panel submitted the plan to the state, but the two firms surprised their Cuyama Valley neighbors by filing the complaint in state court  essentially suing everyone for water rights while buying them time to continue pumping at unsustainable and dangerous rates, according to the online petition.

Now, locals risk losing their water rights and are under financial stress as they are forced to engage in this legal battle, the petition noted, adding they fear the groundwater basin will dry up leaving locals to face devastating health, environmental, and financial impacts.

Noozhawk North County editor Janene Scully can be reached at jscully@noozhawk.com .
School starts for most Central Florida students next Thursday. Now, administrators and teachers are working up against a deadline, trying to figure out what class can replace AP Psychology.

The College Board says it will not abide by the states demand to remove a longstanding section on gender identity and sexual orientation. The organization advised districts not to teach AP Psych.

Kids have already gotten their schedules. So, we dont know whats going on. The school doesnt know whats going on. The teachers dont know what theyre teaching, parent Judi Hayes told Channel 9 Friday morning.

Judi Hayes son was set to start AP Psychology at Boone High School in Orange County next Thursday.

Read: No college psychology credit for Florida high schoolers after clash over teaching about gender

Hes one of the roughly 30,000 Florida students scheduled to take the course this year.

Seminole County announced it would offer an alternative on Thursday, and Orange County says theyre offering other classes that students can take instead of AP Psychology.

Hayes says shes concerned the alternative classes offered wont be as rigorous as AP Psych. She calls AP the golden standard for college credit classes.

Read: College Board: Florida schools cant teach AP psych if sexual orientation, gender identity censored

She says without the rigorous elective on the transcript, her son and other Florida students could be at a disadvantage when trying to get into big name colleges.

Our best and brightest students arent going to be competitive when were looking at these top tier schools ... theyre looking at students from Florida, and then students from other states that have had a full opportunity to study every subject with equal rigor, Hayes said.

Read: College Board wont alter AP courses for Floridas law banning lessons on gender, sexual orientation

Orange County says students have four options now that AP Psychology wont be offered. Students can take another elective, psychology with either the Cambridge or International Baccalaureate curriculums, or AP Seminar.

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AP Seminar has a little bit more room when it comes to psychological elements we can still talk about in there, said Dr. Robert Hovel, an AP Psychology teacher at Lyman High School in Seminole County.

Read: VP Kamala Harris says she wont meet with DeSantis about African American history standards

Hes one of the few AP Psych teachers in the state that actually know what theyre teaching next week. Seminole County announced Thursday that students who are signed up for AP Psych this year will be able to take AP Seminar instead.

Hovel says the course overlaps with much of the content in AP Psych. The difference is that AP Seminar does not include lessons on gender identity and sexual orientation.

Im an out gay male as a teacher at my school. And for that to be restricting of my students to not learn about something that possibly could be about them as well. Its again, its just asserting their rights. Its restricting their limits to understanding all knowledge, not just select knowledge. And thats unfair to our students in a public school, Hovel said.

Read: Orange County lacks hundreds of teachers as students return to school next week

Hayes says its unfair her child and others are caught in what she described as an invented culture war crisis.

Our kids are being used as pawns, Hayes said.

Hovel says hes never taught AP Seminar, and now, over the next six days, hell be preparing lessons for the rest of the school year.

Itll be day-to-day, week-to-week to make sure that I still am following what the Department of Education is saying is appropriate, but also knowing that my kids need to learn certain things, Hovel said.

Hovel says now is an extremely challenging time to be a teacher in Florida. He says his goal is to be an example for his students by showing perseverance and finding a way to teach psychology in a way thats in accordance to the state Department of Education.

Click here to download the free WFTV news and weather apps, click here to download the WFTV Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
By a unanimous vote of the landowners in 1952, the Westlands Water District was formed to secure and manage a sustainable water supply. Several of those founding families farm in Westlands to this day, continuing to invest and advocate for a water supply that will allow their grandchildren to continue the livelihoods of their family and feeding the nation.

August marks the end of my first three months as the new general manager for Westlands. I have a deep respect for the more than 70 years that the district has served our communities, first advocating for the investment in our states water delivery system and, for the last five decades, stewarding one of the Earths most precious resources. At the same time, we must usher in a new era of problem-solving, collaboration, conservation and innovation to address challenges brought on by changing hydrology, climate, politics and renewed priorities.

Opinion

California recently transitioned from the driest three-year period on record to extraordinary rains, dense snowpack and swollen reservoirs, proving just how volatile our water supply is and will be as we deal with increasingly extreme weather patterns.

Farmers rely on us to deliver water, so we must lead in conservation and sustainability to ensure water that is available today is used efficiently and stored for use in future dry spells.

For instance, water from the San Luis Canal never sees the light of day traveling through our buried pipe distribution system, helping to prevent seepage and evaporation. Every drop delivered is metered, helping to prevent waste. The commitment to using water wisely extends to our farmers, as they have invested in bringing our district to over 96% efficient drip or micro-drip irrigation.

The district is also taking aggressive actions to store the abundant water we received this winter by spearheading and funding groundwater recharge programs to help replenish the aquifers that store water for future droughts. Were seeing strong results: This year, the district has recharged approximately 80,000 acre-feet and is well on our way to hitting our goal of getting to over 200,000 acre-feet by February 2024, the end of the water contract year. Thats enough water to grow around 133,300 acres of cantaloupe or garbanzos or 100,000 acres of tomatoes.

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Were focused above ground, too. Prolonged drought and unreliable water supply have pushed the agricultural community and farmers in our district to repurpose agricultural lands. In doing so, we must mitigate the negative impacts of taking farmland out of production and pursue uses on those lands that maximize the benefits.

Westlands acquired 97,000 acres over two decades to retire from irrigated farming. Today, most of this land is being repurposed and destined for solar energy production, or, more recently, for groundwater recharge. Solar projects now generate enough energy to power more than 3 million homes, helping California meet our renewable energy goals and keeping jobs in the area.

Through a recent grant, Westlands landowners applied for funding to limit agricultural groundwater pumping near domestic wells. We saw 45 applicants apply and eight projects received funding, which will result in 2,422 acre-feet of groundwater saved. Thanks to support from another grant, we will be developing a community-informed, multi-benefit land repurposing plan for the district.

Were proud of the work weve done, but we know strengthening water security in California isnt something that can be done by just one water district, one water agency or even one region. Were committed to working collaboratively with communities and agencies at all levels to improve climate resiliency and quality of life in the communities we serve while continuing to provide food for our tables. We believe increased collaboration is the key to serving our farmers and our communities.

Allison Febbo is the general manager of the Westlands Water District and has nearly 25 years of experience in natural resources, hydrology and water operations.
In Ohio, GOP lawmakers have introduced House Bill 240, which would allow schools to employ or recruit volunteer religious leaders u0022to provide support, services and programs for students.u0022

Schools across the country are facing shortfalls of mental health professionals, and Republicans have a potentially no-cost solution: Letting districts use volunteer chaplains.

In Ohio, GOP lawmakers have introduced House Bill 240, which would allow schools to employ or recruit volunteer religious leaders "to provide support, services and programs for students."

"Whatever works thats ethical should be available," Rep. Gary Click, R-Vickery, said.

But Democrats, teachers' unions and LGBTQ groups worry the bill's "vague language" could open a backdoor to controversial religious beliefs like conversion therapy or get in the way of "scientifically proven treatments" for mental health problems.

"One thing that is particularly crucial here is there are no limits whatsoever on the proselytization to students," American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio's chief lobbyist Gary Daniels said. "These people could be unlicensed to do this professionally and have no limits on what they say or how they interact with children in school."

Taking a page from Texas

In June, Texas became the first state in the country to permit its public schools to hire chaplains. The bill's sponsor, Texas state Rep. Cole Hefner, told reporters the Lone Star State needed to give "school districts every tool that we can in the toolbox with all that weve been experiencing with mental health issues and catastrophes and crises."

Democrats there tried and failed to add amendments requiring parental consent, a ban on proselytizing and accreditation requirements like the ones for chaplains who work in prisons or the U.S. military.

And Ohio's HB 240 is nearly identical.

The key difference between what's being proposed here versus the Texas law is that Ohio wouldn't allow districts to substitute unlicensed chaplains for certified mental health professionals. HB 240 states, "chaplain services may be offered in addition to, but not in lieu of, school counselor services."

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What the bill would do is permit chaplains to serve in public, STEM and charter schools after they passed a background check. It doesn't specify any additional requirements or limits to the scope of their practices. Those decisions would be left to local districts.

"I think the local schools, they know the clergy. Theyre not going to bring someone in who is going to be harmful to the kids or not qualified," Click said. "I think we need to trust our educators to use their judgment."

Click, who has worked as a police and hospice chaplain, said he views that role as a support provider. "Youre not going there to bring people into your church. That should not be your purpose as a chaplain."

But LGBTQ groups worry that without clear guidelines, religious leaders could stray into territory that not only crosses First Amendment lines but inflicts real harm onto students who already feel marginalized by their communities.

"I totally support the right of any parent to say we want to involve our religion in this process, but that should be separate from what we offer in public school," said Ben Huelskamp, executive director of the Christian nonprofit LOVEboldy. "In my opinion, what we are really seeing is an attempt to put Christian ministers into schools."

Huelskamp pointed to those defeated amendments in Texas as proof and said he worried it could become a way to sneak culture war legislation into schools without having to pass laws.

"If we were able to ban conversion therapy in Ohio, the law wouldn't apply to these chaplains and you could send all your transgender students to a chaplain for counseling," he said. "(HB) 240 has the ability to re-introduce all the bad parts of those bills in this backdoor way through these unlicensed chaplains."

Ohio needs more mental health counselors

The American School Counselor Association recommends one counselor for every 250 students, but only two states, Vermont and New Hampshire, met that criterion in 2022.

Ohio has one counselor for every 403 students on average, according to data compiled by youth mental health provider Charlie Health.

"I think it's been an issue, but the pandemic really put a spotlight on it," Ohio Education Association President Scott DiMauro said. "There are a lot of mental health needs that were exacerbated, and Ohio now has a very serious and growing need for mental health supports for students and staff."

But that doesn't mean DiMauro thinks anyone can step into those roles. OEA, which is one of Ohio's largest teacher's unions, is pushing for more "licensed counselors, social workers, nurses and other professionals to help support the nonacademic needs of students in our schools."

"I think we want to hear more about the details of what is going on here," DiMauro said. "We don't want this to create an excuse for further shortcuts...The answer is not to lower professional standards, the solution is to hire more qualified people and compensate them appropriately."

For subscribers: Moms for Liberty says no to mental health care in schools, but it's Florida law

Click agreed that Ohio could better support its students, but he didn't see HB 240 as a hindrance to that goal. He used to share an office with a social worker and said the two roles were "different, but we can be complimentary."

"It seems like there is just an animosity sometimes toward people of faith," he said.

DiMauro thought there was a bigger-picture question Ohioans should be asking.

"Even more fundamentally the question is: Is this something that we really need in Ohio," DiMauro said. "I'm not sure this approach solves any problem, but it does open up all kinds of questions."

For subscribers: US kids face mental health crisis amid school psychologist shortage. Can new federal money help?

Anna Staver is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio Republican bill would let unlicensed chaplains in public schools
Close-up shot of lights on a police cruiser with a blurred background and dim lighting.

Charges have been filed against a man accused of killing his ex-wife at an Oklahoma City home and taking their 5-year-old son, prompting an alert and search last weekend.

On Saturday, police responded to a report of a domestic disturbance at a home near Southwest 104th Street and May Avenue. There they discovered an injured woman, later identified as 31-year-old Samantha Ainsworth, who died at a hospital later that day.

Police said in a news release that they identified the suspect as Samantha Ainsworth's ex-husband, Chase Ainsworth, 34, and that he had left the scene in a vehicle with their 5-year-old son.

An alert was issued for the child and suspect, and police found the 5-year-old unharmed, and took Chase Ainsworth into custody Saturday evening.

More: Police: Woman killed in OKC identified; 5-year-old safe; ex-husband in custody

On Thursday, Cleveland County District Attorney's Office announced that Chase Ainsworth has been charged with first-degree murder and child stealing.

Court records show that Samantha Ainsworth had filed several protective orders against Chase Ainsworth after the couple divorced in 2022, and he also faced a stalking charge in violation of a court order.

One of the protective orders was initially filed in February and granted in March 2023.

In lieu of a GoFundMe, family and friends of Samantha Ainsworth have set up a benefit account at BancFirst for the Ainsworth children. Donations can be made at any BancFirst location by asking for the Simon and Anastasia Ainsworth benefit account.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Chase Ainsworth formally charged after death of ex-wife, child stealing
Barley being harvested in Australia.

China says it will drop its tariffs on Australian barley imports that had been in place for three years and affected billions of dollars of trade.

Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese welcomed the move.

Canberra also said it will suspend its case at the World Trade Organization (WTO) over Beijing's duties on barley.

In another sign of the thawing relationship between the two nations, Australia this week invited China's new foreign minister to visit the country.

China's Ministry of Commerce said the tariffs will be dropped starting on Saturday.

"In view of the changes in China's barley market, it is no longer necessary to continue to impose anti-dumping duties and countervailing duties on imported barley from Australia," China's commerce ministry said.

Before the tariffs were imposed the Australian government had estimated that barley exports to China averaged around A$1.2 billion ($790m; 620m) a year.

In 2020, Beijing imposed tariffs on key Australian exports such as barley, beef and wine, as well as unofficial restrictions on lobster and meat exports from certain abattoirs.

Canberra is now urging Beijing to drop tariffs on Australian wine, which is the subject of a separate WTO complaint.

Australia's wine industry was hit hard when China imposed heavy tariffs on its exports in 2020, effectively cutting off what was once its most lucrative market.

The relationship between Australia and China deteriorated markedly in 2020 when then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison called for an international investigation into the origins of Covid-19.

Since the election of the centre-left Labor government in May 2022, communications between the two countries have resumed and their relationship has improved.
China has confirmed that it will take part in the meeting on achieving peace in Ukraine, which will be held in Saudi Arabia on 5-6 August.

Source: China's Foreign Affairs Ministry

Quote: "At the invitation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Special Representative of the Chinese Government on Eurasian Affairs Li Hui will travel to Jeddah to attend the meeting on the Ukraine issue.

China stands ready to work with the international community to continue to play a constructive role in seeking a political settlement of the Ukraine crisis."

Details: Russia was not invited to this meeting.

Background:

It was previously reported that the European Union expects the participation of representatives of about 40 states at an informal meeting in Saudi Arabia at the end of the week, where they will discuss ways to achieve peace in Ukraine.

The Wall Street Journal reported on the meeting in Saudi Arabia in Jeddah on 5-6 August; later, Andrii Yermak, the head of the President's Office, confirmed this information.

Ukrainian and Western officials hope the effort can culminate in a peace summit later this year, where world leaders will sign common principles to end the war.

China's Special Representative Li Hui met in Ukraine with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in May 2023 and told him there is no panacea for the "crisis" and ending the war will require all parties to "create conditions for ceasefire and peace talks".

Ukrainska Pravda is the place where you will find the most up-to-date information about everything related to the war in Ukraine. Follow us on Twitter, support us, or become our patron!
CANBERRA, Australia (AP)  China is lifting a stifling 3-year-old tariff on Australian barley starting Saturday  a sign of an improving bilateral trade relationship since Australias government changed.

China effectively closed its door to Australian barley in May 2020 by imposing an 80.5% tariff after the previous Australian government angered Beijing by calling for an independent inquiry into the origins of, and responses to, the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Friday, both governments confirmed the resumption of trade in the grain that was worth 916 million Australian dollars ($602 million) in the year before China blocked imports.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese welcomed the breakthrough, which comes as he plans his first visit to Beijing as government leader before the end of the year.

This is a very positive decision, Albanese told reporters.

When Albaneses government was elected in May 2022, he demanded Beijing drop a series of official and unofficial trade barriers against Australian exports  including barley, wine, coal, beef, wood and seafood  that were costing producers $15 billion a year.

Chinas Ministry of Commerce said in a statement it ruled that in view of the changes in Chinas barley market, it was unnecessary to continue to impose anti-dumping duties and countervailing duties on imported barley originating in Australia.

The ministry gave no details of the decision, nor did it explain the market changes.

Australia has denied Chinas claims that it subsidized barley and wine to export it at artificially low prices, a process known as dumping.

In April, Australia suspended a complaint to the World Trade Organization in a bid to reopen the Chinese market to barley. In exchange, China had agreed to review its duties on the grain.

With the barley trade reopened, the Australian government said it expects China will lift its trade barriers to Australian wine.

Australias complaint over wine remains before the Geneva-based WTO.

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China is Australias biggest trading partner, with two-way trade totaling $287 billion in 2022.

___

Associated Press reporter Joe McDonald in Beijing contributed to this report.
China imposed tariffs on Australian barley and other commodities in 2020 at the height of a bitter dispute with the then-conservative government in Canberra (William WEST)

China said Friday it will remove extra tariffs on Australian barley, in the latest thawing of ties between the two after years of tensions.

Beijing imposed hefty levies on key Australian exports such as barley, beef and wine in 2020, leveraging its economic muscle at the height of a bitter dispute with the then-conservative government.

It also stopped imports of some of Australia's most significant commodities, including coal, which curbed billions of dollars in trade.

But on Friday, China's commerce ministry said it was "no longer necessary to continue to impose anti-dumping duties and countervailing duties on imports of barley originating in Australia in view of changes in the Chinese barley market".

In turn, Australia said it would drop a retaliatory case against the world's second-biggest economy at the World Trade Organisation, which was paused earlier this year as the countries' trade ministers stepped up negotiations.

"We welcome this outcome, which paves the way for our barley exporters to re-enter the Chinese market -- benefiting Australian producers and Chinese consumers," Foreign Minister Penny Wong said in a statement.

China had been angered by Canberra's legislation against overseas influence operations, its barring Huawei from 5G contracts and its call for an independent investigation into the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic.

But their icy relations appear to have thawed since Australia's centre-left government adopted a less confrontational approach to China following its election a year ago.

Recent economic data released by Beijing suggests the country's post-Covid recovery is running out of steam and growth is slowing, and calls for government support measures are ramping up.

The softening of tensions with Canberra comes as Chinese President Xi Jinping has taken a more pragmatic approach to relations with its international partners, including a pick-up in talks with the United States.

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Xi had called for relations with Australia to "improve" in a November 2022 meeting with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

It was the first formal summit between the two countries in more than five years.

Australia has this year resumed exports of coal and timber, which were among a slew of commodities hit by Chinese import bans and restrictions as diplomatic relations soured in recent years.

And trade minister Don Farrell told reporters in June that barley was "the next cab off of the rank" following a "good meeting" with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Wentao, in Detroit.

Barley exports to China were worth about Aus$916 million (US$600 million) in the 2018-19 season.

Farrell said he is also keen to get quality Australian wine back into China by removing anti-dumping measures imposed since November 2020, adding that he had seen growers "leaving grapes to wilt on the vine rather than suffer the uncertainty of the global market".

sbr-je/dan
Two U.S. Navy sailors in California have been indicted on espionage charges by the Justice Department in cases that allege they provided classified documents and information to Chinese agents in exchange for money.

China "compromised enlisted personnel to secure sensitive military information that could seriously jeopardize U.S. national security," FBI Assistant Director Suzanne Turner said in a press release on the cases Thursday.

Jinchao Wei, a machinist mate assigned to the USS Essex in San Diego, was charged with four counts of conspiring and sending defense information to foreign powers. Wenheng Zhao, a petty officer 2nd class and construction electrician assigned to Naval Construction Battalion 3 in Port Hueneme, California, was charged with conspiracy and receiving a bribe.

Read Next: New Military Savings Accounts Allow Troops Flexibility for Child, Dependent Care

In Wei's case, court documents allege that in February 2022 he entered into a "handler/asset" relationship with a Chinese intelligence agent. Wei even went so far as to tell "another U.S. Navy sailor that he had been asked to spy" for China, his indictment claims.

Over the course of several months in 2022, Wei allegedly provided his handler more than 50 technical and mechanical manuals for various systems of the Essex and similar ships. Although he possessed a secret-level clearance, the indictment doesn't say whether Wei needed it to access the multitude of "export-controlled" manuals and documents that he passed to Chinese intelligence.

The indictment claims that Wei also passed along photos and videos of the Essex, the missions and locations of various Navy amphibious assault ships, and "what he believed was a weak point of the USS Essex."

In exchange, the indictment says Wei would often receive money. One batch of 30 documents netted the sailor $5,000. His handler remarked that at least 10 of those manuals were useful to him.

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Amid the back and forth of documents and tasking, Wei's handler found time to congratulate Wei on being granted his U.S. citizenship on May 18, 2022.

Wei continued to talk to his handler into 2023, including in January when, according to the indictment, the person offered to fly him and his mother to China for an in-person meeting. The court document does not say whether Wei accepted the offer.

The Justice Department press release says Wei was arrested Wednesday as he arrived for work at Naval Base San Diego.

Zhao, who also held a secret-level clearance, is alleged to have offered sensitive and non-public information to a Chinese agent who told the sailor that he was a maritime economic researcher seeking information for investment decisions.

Specifically, his indictment claims that between August 2021 and May, Zhao passed along operation plans for an unnamed large-scale U.S. military exercise in the Indo-Pacific region that included the specific location and timing of Navy movements, amphibious landings, and other operations. He also passed along blueprints for the electrical system of a radar installation in Okinawa, Japan, as well as various PowerPoint, Word and PDF documents.

For his efforts, Zhao was paid $14,866 over many payments, according to the indictment.

Court documents do not make it clear whether Zhao is currently in custody, though a court filing last week says investigators requested he be held ahead of trial and that they considered him a serious flight risk.

The pair of cases are a departure from some of the previous cases of espionage brought by federal officials against sailors and other military service members because both Zhao and Wei allegedly actually communicated with and transmitted information to Chinese officials.

In the case of Jonathan and Diana Toebbe -- the couple found guilty of trying to sell nuclear submarine secrets to Brazil -- the pair were communicating with federal agents. The couple was sentenced to 19 and 22 years, respectively.

Similarly, Maj. Jamie Lee Henry, and his wife, Anna Gabrielian, accused of trying to provide the personal health information of service members to Russia, were also caught when the FBI impersonated foreign officials. The pair is set to be retried in November after a mistrial was declared in their initial trial.

The Department of Justice said that, if convicted, Zhao faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. They did not provide a maximum penalty for Wei.

-- Konstantin Toropin can be reached at konstantin.toropin@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @ktoropin.

Related: Army Doctor and Wife Charged with Offering Troops' Sensitive Medical Records to Russia
By Nicoco Chan and Sophie Yu

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - As temperatures in China soar, pet owners are looking for novel ways to protect their four-legged friends from the heat, buying up cooling mats, clothes and miniature sun hats for dogs and cats.

Mi Jiayi, a public relations professional in Shanghai, spent more than 500 yuan ($70.04) on a cooling vest for Mary, a small mixed-breed dog that she adopted. To use it, she first dips it in water before wringing it out.

"When we go out, if the temperature is over 30 degrees (86 Fahrenheit), I will put on such cooling attire on my dog," the 31-year-old woman said. "The water will evaporate and take away the heat, then it will not be so hot for my dog."

"There are cheaper options but ... I want to get her the best product that I can afford."

Searches on online marketplaces JD.com and Alibaba's Taobao show hundreds of similar sun and heat protection products for dogs and cats costing as much as $100.

The market for pet products in China - from health care and toys to litter and clothing - was worth $5.16 billion in 2022, according to data from Euromonitor International.

It is expected to grow to nearly $6 billion this year, the market research provider has projected.

Jacqueline Cha, another Shanghai resident who has three small dogs and owns a pet care business, said this was the first summer she felt the need to use sun protection shirts on her pooches. She also had to adjust their daily walking schedule to avoid peak daily temperatures.

China has registered several rounds of record-breaking hot days in June and July, with temperatures in humid Shanghai topping 37 Celsius (99F) and capital Beijing reaching more than 41C (106F).

"This summer is exceptionally hot and I have been changing my pooches' sun protection shirts every two to three days," Cha said.

Dr. Grace Lin, founder and vet director at the Advanced Vet Care animal hospital in Shanghai, said those concerns were well-founded because of the 50% to 56% mortality rate for dogs diagnosed with severe heatstroke.

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However, she added the best treatment was not any product but simple prevention: keeping pets indoors on super-hot days.

Such concern for pet well-being has become common among many Chinese households, where many people have opted to adopt pets rather than have children and consider their furry friends as family members accordingly.

Last year, a report by Euromonitor and Asia Pet Alliance Institute forecast China's population of dogs and cats would reach 190 million in 2023, up from about 170 million in 2018.

($1 = 7.1389 yuan)

(Reporting by Nicoco Chan in Shanghai and Sophie Yu in Beijing; Editing by Jamie Freed)
BEIJING (Reuters) -Chinese Special Envoy for Eurasian Affairs Li Hui will visit Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, for international talks on the peaceful settlement of the Ukraine crisis, China's foreign ministry said on Friday.

"China is willing to work with the international community to continue to play a constructive role in promoting a political solution to the crisis in Ukraine," Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson at the Chinese ministry, said in a statement.

Ukrainian and Western diplomats hope the meeting in Jeddah this weekend of national security advisers and other senior officials from some 40 countries will agree on key principles for a future peace settlement to end Russia's war in Ukraine. Moscow will not be attending.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday he hoped the initiative will lead to a "peace summit" of leaders from around the world this autumn to endorse the principles, based on his own 10-point formula for a peace settlement.

The biggest diplomatic prize would be endorsement from China, which has maintained close economic and diplomatic ties with Russia and so far rejected international calls to condemn the invasion. China was invited to a previous round of talks in Copenhagen in late June but did not attend.

(Reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by Toby Chopra)
Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie made an unannounced trip to Ukraine Friday, meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and visiting Bucha and Moshchun, two sites devastated by the war with Russia, now in its second year.

Republican presidential candidate former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, center, participates in a flowers laying ceremony as he visits a former defense line from Russian offensive in March 2022 in the village of Moshchun, outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Aug. 4, 2023. / Credit: Efrem Lukatsky / AP

Christie visited Bucha, where over 1,000 civilians are believed to have been killed by Russian troops last year. Many of the bodies showed evidence of torture. Last spring, upon liberating Bucha from Russian control, Ukrainians found civilians who had been shot in the head with their hands bound and mass graves filled with hundreds of bodies. Christie met with Bucha's mayor and visited the site of a mass grave.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meets with GOP presidential candidate Chris Christie, Kyiv, Ukraine, Aug. 4, 2023. / Credit: President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tweet

In Kyiv, Zelenskyy thanked Christie for visiting Bucha and for U.S. support of Ukraine and said he would share some details about the counteroffensive against Russia with Christie.

Afterward, he tweeted that it was "very important" that Christie "began his visit to Ukraine with a visit to Bucha to see with his own eyes the threat to freedom and to everyone in the world posed by Russian aggression."

He also thanked all Americans for their support and expressed confidence that Ukraine would prevail in the war against Russia.

Republican presidential candidate former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, third left, participates in a flowers laying ceremony as he visits a former defence line from Russian massive offensive in March 2022 in the village of Moshchun, outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Aug. 4, 2023. / Credit: Efrem Lukatsky / AP

Christie told Zelenskyy that the "biggest reason" for his travel to Ukraine was so that he could see for himself what was happening there, so that he could tell other people about it. He said he mentioned to Bucha's mayor that in the U.S., the Ukrainian flag is being raised everywhere. There will always be political arguments, he told Zelenskyy, but he believes the majority of the American people agree on supporting Ukraine.

The New Jersey Republican also praised Zelenskyy and said he supported more substantial aid to help Ukraine win the war against Russia.

A reporter traveling with Christie asked about Americans who think U.S. support of Ukraine is a waste of money that would only prolong the war.

"That's why I came. Americans have become a particularly visual nation," Christie replied. "Things are not as real to them if we don't see them." He added, "I'm here because I want the American people to see what I'm seeing."

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Christie is the second Republican running for president to visit Ukraine, following former Vice President Mike Pence, who traveled to Ukraine in June.

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Republican presidential hopeful Chris Christie made a surprise visit to Ukraine on Friday and met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, amid growing divisions within the GOP over support for the war in Ukraine.

It was an honor to meet with President @ZelenskyyUa in Ukraine and see firsthand the heroism Ukrainians have displayed in their fight against Russia, Christie said in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

America has never moved forward by ignoring the rest of the world, he added. We cant start now.

Christie, who has vowed to expand U.S. aid to Ukraine if elected, met with Zelensky in Kyiv Friday and paid visits to Bucha and Moshchun, two towns outside the Ukrainian capital that saw intense fighting in the early stages of the war.

I feel the cruelty, and you feel the inhumanity, Christie said during his visit. And you look at this, and I dont think theres anyone in our country who would come here and see this and not feel as if these are the things that America needs to stand up to prevent.

The former New Jersey governor is the second GOP presidential candidate to travel to Ukraine, after former Vice President Mike Pence visited in June.

Support for Ukraine has increasingly become a flashpoint within the Republican Party, as some House Republicans and several GOP candidates have voiced opposition to continuing to provide Kyiv with military aid.

After former President Trump  the front-runner in the race for the Republican nomination declined to say whether he wanted Ukraine to win the war against Russia at a town hall in May, Christie accused the former president of being a puppet of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Donald Trump refused to say tonight that he wanted Ukraine to win the war with Russia, Christie tweeted at the time. More proof that he continues to be Putins puppet.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

 Updated 12:43 p.m.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie knocked his GOP rivals for presenting what he called a false choice over United States support in Ukraine.

During a trip to Ukraine, Christie called out former President Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who have all suggested that America scale back or cut off its aide to Kyiv to focus on domestic issues.

We have people in the party like Trump and Ron DeSantis, Vivek, who are giving people a false choice, which is Well, we can only do one thing; we can either improve things in the States or we can help Ukraine, Christie said in an interview with The Washington Post.

When you look at the amount of money weve sent to Ukraine as a percentage of the federal budget, anybody who can do the math knows thats a ridiculous statement.

Christies comments highlight the increasing divide among Republicans over the nations support for the war in Ukraine, both on the campaign trail and in Congress. Seventy Republicans voted in favor of an amendment last month that would have prohibited all future security assistance to Ukraine.

Christie, the former governor of New Jersey, made a surprise visit to Ukraine on Friday to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The trip makes Christie the second GOP presidential candidate to travel to the embattled country after former Vice President Mike Pence visited in June.

It was an honor to meet with President @ZelenskyyUa in Ukraine and see firsthand the heroism Ukrainians have displayed in their fight against Russia, Christie said in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Christie also told The Washington Post he hoped Republican voters are thinking about which candidates can handle the really complicated issues that the next next president will have to deal with.and who is going to be dealing with trying to keep themselves out of jail.

Christie was referencing Trump and his ongoing series of legal battles, including his most recent indictment over his attempts to stay in power after losing the 2020 presidential election

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Christie previously said he wants Ukraine to have every weapon they need to be able to win, in their fight against Russia. In an interview on NewsNation, Christie said he would increase U.S. commitment to Ukraine if he were to become the next president.

Trump, the frontrunner in the GOP race, has criticized the U.S. spending for Ukraine, arguing against the continued aid as Americans face financial challenges at home. Last week, the former president urged for a pause on all aid to Ukraine until federal agencies turn over every scrap of evidence connected to alleged corrupt business dealings from Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has shared similar sentiments, arguing there is not a sufficient interest, for the U.S. to escalate its involvement in the conflict. The White House hopeful walked back his controversial comments in March that characterized Russias war on Ukraine as a territorial dispute.

The U.S. has provided billions in support to Ukraine since its conflict with Russia began in February 2022.

A new poll from CNN found most Americans believe Congress should not authorize more funding for Ukraine. The poll found 55 percent of Americans said lawmakers should not authorize additional funding to support Ukraine, while 45 percent said they should.

The poll showed Republicans were more likely to oppose additional funding for Ukraine, with 71 percent saying Congress should not approve more funding, compared to 38 percent of Democrats and 55 percent of Independents.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie made a surprise visit to Ukraine on Friday to visit President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and reaffirm his support of the United States' funding efforts for the country.

The trip marked Christies first time to Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion last year and made him the second GOP presidential candidate to visit the nation. Former Vice President Mike Pence visited in June.

On the trip Friday, Christie met with Zelenskyy and visited towns affected by the war, including the once-Russian-occupied city of Bucha, a Christie spokesperson confirmed to POLITICO.

Zelenskyy posted a photo of himself shaking hands with Christie on X, formerly known as Twitter, Friday.

"And it is very important that Mr. Christie began his visit to Ukraine with a visit to Bucha to see with his own eyes the threat to freedom and to everyone in the world posed by Russian aggression," Zelenskyy said in the tweet. "I thanked all Americans, each and every one, for their vital support."



Christie, in a tweet after the visit, said it was an honor to see firsthand the heroism Ukrainians have displayed in their fight against Russia."

America has never moved forward by ignoring the rest of the world. We cant start now, Christie said in the tweet.

Christie has been supportive of the United States' alliance with Ukraine, saying last month that the U.S. "should be able to provide [Ukraine] with the hardware they need to be able to fight off an awful Russian invasion."

Other Republican presidential candidates, such as former President Donald Trump, say the United States should slow its financial support. The United States has sent over $75 billion in humanitarian and military assistance to Ukraine since the start of the war.

Congress should refuse to authorize a single additional shipment of our depleted weapons stockpiles  to Ukraine until the FBI, DOJ and IRS hand over every scrap of evidence they have on the Biden Crime Familys corrupt business dealings, Trump said at a rally last weekend, according to The Washington Post.

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In an interview with The Washington Post while in Ukraine, Christie took a shot at Trump, who pleaded not guilty Thursday to federal charges accusing him of plotting to overturn the 2020 election. Christie said he hoped Republican voters will think about which candidates have the bandwidth to address the really complicated issues that the next president will have to deal with  including Ukraine  and who is going to be dealing with trying to keep themselves out of jail.

But Christie said Zelenskyy was less interested in weighing in on the 2024 race.

There was no conversation from [Zelenskyy] about the race that Im in, Christie said, according to The New York Times. He said Zelenskyy told him, Whoever the next president is, I need to have that person feel a partnership with Ukraine.

A New York Times/Siena College poll this week showed Christie falling far behind Trump, who had 54 percent of likely Republican voters surveyed supporting him. Christie had 2 percent of likely voters surveyed supporting him.

I will tell everyone at home what I saw here, Christie told the mayor as he left Bucha, according to The Washington Post. Stay strong.
Oliver starred as Simba in The Lion King: on Broadway, and appeared in shows including In The Heights and Wicked.

Acclaimed Broadway stage actor Clifton Oliver, who appeared in shows such as In the Heights and The Lion King has died at 47.

According to People, his family announced the late actors passing on social media. His sister, Roxy Hall, wrote on Facebook, My baby brother, Clifton Oliver, has had his final curtain call. It was peaceful. His partner Richard was singing to him the song Psalm 23 as he took his last breath this morning at 3:20 AM.

Actor and singer Clifton Oliver (Berry Gordy, Jr.), poses for photos during a presentation of the national touring company of Motown The Musical, at the Oriental Theater  Ford Center for the Performing Arts on March 20, 2014, in Chicago. (Photo By Raymond Boyd/Getty Images)

He had a Gorgeous smile on his Beautiful face, she continued. He went twirling into the afterlife ready to make his Grand Appearance as the Star of his Homecoming Celebration! My heart is sad, and overjoyed at the same time! I will miss him, but he is finally at peace.

According to People, Oliver studied at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts in Jacksonville, Florida, and made his Broadway debut in 2010. His first show was Wicked, where he performed in the ensemble and was an understudy for Fiyero.

Oliver then performed in In the Heights opposite Jordin Sparks, and eventually starred in the beloved Disney musical The Lion King as Simba. He also starred in Bella: An American Tall Tale, Miracle Brothers, Dreamgirls and Motown the Musical.

The official Instagram account for The Lion King on Broadway posted a tribute for the late actor with a quote from the film and show: Look at the stars. The great kings of the past look down on us from those stars.

Per the tribute, the New Amsterdam Theatre will dim their lights in honor of Oliver on Aug. 8 at 5 p.m. EST.

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The post Clifton Oliver, acclaimed Broadway stage actor, dies at 47 appeared first on TheGrio.
Kenya on Thursday launched its first Open University in a bid to make higher education affordable and accessible to most citizens.

President William Ruto, who inaugurated and awarded a charter to the Open University in Machakos County, some 70 km southeast of Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, said the university opens a new chapter in the country's education sector, noting that for decades, the East African nation's higher education sector had failed to give citizens a chance to access learning opportunities due to limited availability of space in traditional institutions.

The Open University removes this challenge by taking courses online, which will cost a quarter of the minimum 200,000 shillings (about 1,401 U.S. dollars) that traditional universities charge, he said.

"This will help people at the bottom of the pyramid access education," Ruto said, adding that courses and training materials have been developed and uploaded online for the start of lessons in September.

Ruto said the Open University hosted at Konza Technopolis, Kenya's Silicon Savannah, will help the country achieve a 100 percent transition to higher learning. The courses to be offered at the institution include Bachelor of Data Science, Bachelor of Science in Cybersecurity and Bachelor of Technical Education.

Chaacha Nyaigotti-Chacha, the chairman of the Commission for University Education, said the Open University will provide flexibility and accessibility to learners unable to attend traditional universities. "The establishment of this university is timely as it provides learners with an alternative option to university education and will come in handy during disruptions as it happened during the COVID-19," he said.

Ezra Maritim, the chairman of the University Council, said the institution will repair injustices in university education, which saw the institutions lock out a majority of the poor and fail to recognize prior learning.
As California faces climate change and a future with bigger storms and longer droughts, the challenges before us lead to an often-asked question: Should we make some of our existing dams bigger?

That is precisely what is happening now on the American River above Sacramento. Folsom Dam and its 340-foot-tall wall of concrete has been protecting the capital from flood since 1956. It is halfway through a construction project to increase its elevation by about 3.5 feet.

Meanwhile, upstream on the Sacramento River, a possible project with very similar engineering is at Shasta Dam. A proposal to raise the 602-foot dam by another 18.5 feet has some fresh political support, with recent legislation in the House of Representatives. But decades of steadfast opposition has made raising Shasta by any amount one of the most controversial water ideas in California.

Opinion

Why does raising Folsom by 1% raise no hackles while the idea of raising Shasta 3% deeply divides the water community?

The benefits and the impacts of each possible dam are very different. And so are the politics.

Raising Folsom is a life-or-death matter to help ensure that the dam never fails. Raising Shasta is more of a balancing act of public values that pits some water benefits against environmental preservation and affected lands that are sacred to local native tribe.

Ron Stork personifies the California paradox about dams. A 34-year water warrior and senior policy advocate for the Sacramento-based Friends of the River, Stork supports the raising of Folsom Dam and opposes a similar raise of Shasta.

The Folsom raise is a good insurance policy for the state capital, Stork said.

But in the case of Shasta?

It is going to remain controversial and be a conflict zone, he said.

The idea of raising Folsom Dam began to surface more than two decades ago as a previous flood protection alternative  a large new dam in the northern American River canyon near the community of Auburn  faded into history.

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Floodplain interests in Sacramento concluded that it was politically impossible for Congress to approve a dam after multiple attempts. In 1999, the Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency, the Army Corps of Engineers and the federal Bureau of Reclamation all turned their attention to studying additional storage at Folsom and levee improvements downstream.

A single person opposed these ideas entirely because they were alternatives to the Auburn Dam. And it turns out this person was one of the most powerful members of Congress at the time, Republican John Doolittle of Rocklin.

Gridlock prevailed from 1999 into the new century, with Doolittle blocking efforts to raise Folsom Dam and construct a temporary replacement road for one that ran across the top of the dam at the time. Then Al Qaeda and the 9/11 attacks, of all things, began to change the politics of Folsom Dam.

After the infamous acts of terrorism on American soil, the Bureau of Reclamation forever closed the road atop the dam for security reasons. Money existed to help build a new replacement bridge as part of the project to raise the dam. Yet Doolittle tried to seek money solely to build the new bridge without additional flood protection at Folsom in the form of House Resolution 2301 in 2002.

He failed. Doolittle remained in Congress until 2009, but he could no longer stop progress at Folsom without literally causing gridlock in the area by blocking the replacement bridge, which was completed in 2009.

That left one potential remaining adversary: rafters.

Its a sensitive subject

Folsom Reservoir is the end of the most popular white-water rafting river in the western United States, Stork said of the American Rivers south fork.

It is a sensitive subject, he said. There was a dialogue over a number of years.

Raising a dam means raising the elevation of the water level. The higher the raise of the dam, the more the standing water moves upstream. And standing water isnt good for rafting.

In the end, this was a non-issue. The additional 3.5 feet of water behind Folsom will only happen during the peak of runoff from very large winter storm cycles and not impact rafting during drier, warmer times.

There is also a real public safety reason to make this dam slightly taller. At the moment, Folsom is not tall enough to contain the largest conceivable storm the dam is designed to protect against, an apocalyptic event known in water vernacular as the Probable Maximum Flood. Under this theoretical disaster of disasters, the peak of flood waters would flow over the top of Folsom Dam, endangering its very survival. With this slight raise, floodwaters are predicted to stay in the spillway system, protecting the infrastructure.

The raise increases the capacity of Folsom Dam by about 5%, or 50,000 acre-feet (each acre-foot is 326,000 gallons).

It is not a big increase in flood control space, but it is meaningful to the ability to regulate floods that are larger than we have ever seen on the American River, Stork said.

Work is now underway on a series of enlargements of wing dams, an auxiliary dam and the main dam itself. Completion of the $373 million project is scheduled for 2025.

Meanwhile, at Shasta Dam, the idea of enlarging this structure has been around for decades longer than enlarging Folsom.

A taller dam has its benefits.

More water storage, more yield, plus you are going to increase the cold water (behind Shasta) for fisheries, says proponent Jerry Meral, one of Californias true water veterans who served under both administrations of former Gov. Jerry Brown. Its such a winner.

Raising Shasta also has its impacts. While state law has nothing to prevent a taller Folsom Dam to slightly encroach upstream on the American River forks, it prohibits state participation in the same project at Shasta. The California Legislature since 1989 has prohibited any state agency or department from participating in the planning or construction of any dam on the McCloud River, one of three waterways behind the dam.

Raising Shasta by 18.5 feet would temporarily encroach upstream on the McCloud by more than half a mile. Which to some, in the grand scheme of things, is not a lot. To Meral, it is more the principle of backing up water in wild rivers.

To a local Indian tribe that is not officially recognized by the federal government, the Winnenum Wintu, the McCloud is the most sacred of landscapes. The tribe has staunchly fought the dam.

It is tough, admits Meral.

Undeterred, Central Valley Republicans in the House of Representatives are making another run at raising Shasta. HR 215 by David Valadao (R-Hanford) seeks to break the political logjam by Congress pre-empting the state prohibition on a larger dam.

Valadao views a larger Shasta as the most affordable, cost-efficient expansion of water infrastructure for the state of California on the table right now.

Stork disagrees.

It is not going anywhere in the Biden administration, he said. It is not my job to help them write a better bill. They dont have a clear path.

Rare is the California water project that has no opposition, particularly the raising of an onstream dam. With Folsom as a shining example, such rarity may be what it takes for a dam raise to actually happen.
Harrison County Supervisor Kent Jones is once again faced with losing the liability bond that allows him to hold office  with a contested Democratic primary for his seat only days away.

The company that issued his bond, Zurich Surety, first announced it would be canceled after Mississippi State Auditor Shad White formally accused Jones of fraudulently spending county money and demanded that it be repaid. Jones has denied any wrongdoing and has not been charged with a crime.

The auditors investigation and May 18 demand prompted Zurich to notify the county in a June 19 letter that his $100,000 bond would be canceled. The company changed its mind, withdrawing the cancellation notice on July 13 without explanation.

The back-and-forth about the bond between the county and insurers has created an uproar on the Board of Supervisors.

And the latest development hit days before the August 8 primary. Jones faces Democratic challengers Chris Fisher, a Gulfport attorney and former assistant district attorney, and John Johnson, who has previously served on the county school board and as an interim supervisor. The winner will claim the seat because no independent or third-party candidates are running.

County shouldnt defend Jones, supervisor says

Board attorney Tim Holleman told supervisors in a July 24 meeting that he believes Jones bond might have been reinstated because of questions Jones attorney raised about the auditors demand. The letter attorney Warren Conway of Gulfport sent the auditors office was copied to Zurich, Holleman said.

But Supervisor Marlin Ladner was incensed over separate correspondence: an email Holleman sent answering questions for insurers as they tried to find another bond for Jones after the initial cancellation notice.

Jones said during the meeting that the county has a responsibility to secure a bond for him.

In the email, Holleman addressed the auditors demand by saying all items bought at Jones request are still in the countys possession and purchasing laws were followed to buy them.

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But Ladner said the Board of Supervisors never approved Hollemans correspondence and has taken no position on the auditors demand.

Harrison County Board of Supervisors: Marlin Ladner, Rebecca Powers, Connie Rockco, Beverly Martin and Kent Jones.

More on state auditors demand

The county spent money on items Jones requested for the press box above the Amos Crouch ball field in District 4, which he represents. The auditors office also claims at least some of the purchases were for Jones personal use and says he was living in the press box.

White demanded that Jones pay $37,095.28. The total includes $20,705.03 in purchases, plus interest and investigative costs. Jones hasnt repaid the money.

Attorney Conway says Jones has done nothing wrong. He says the items purchased belong to the county and Jones was not living in the press box.

He didnt take a credit card and buy a TV at Best Buy, Conway said. He requested one and the county bought it. A television set, carpet and blinds are still sitting in the press box, he said.

Harrison County Supervisor Kent Jones speaks at an event in 2019

Securing bond for a public official





Holleman said he responded to an email from the insurers at the request of the county administrator because she was out of town and there was a deadline.

With a quorum of three supervisors present on July 24, board president Rebecca Powers and Ladner voted to inform insurers that the email Holleman sent was not the official position of the board. Jones voted against the motion.

Powers then sent an undated letter to insurers saying that Hollemans email was not the boards official position. She also said the purchase orders used to buy items for the ball field were fraudulent. She wrote that she cant answer Insurers questions about how the Board of Supervisors will avoid future purchasing pitfalls.

Ladner indicated Whites office has not given supervisors any information about the demand against Jones, including what county employee or employees signed purchase orders for the press box items.

Zurich sent a second notice Aug. 1 that Jones bond would be canceled in 30 days.

Attorney Conway said Jones has other options for securing a bond. One of the options would be putting up full collateral on the bond.

But a new bond could be difficult to secure, said Jaime McGrath, president of Surety Bond Connection in Tupelo. McGrath, who was speaking generally and is not familiar with Jones case, has been securing bonds for public officials for more than two decades.

With an outstanding demand for repayment from the state, she said, Theres not going to be a surety company that wants to touch that.
Genetra and Robert Quick, along with their three daughters, say they were wrongfully evicted from an Acworth rental home.

We got a knock at the door and it was Cobb County. He said, You guys are leaving with the clothes on your back, Genetra Quick told Channel 2 Investigative Reporter Ashli Lincoln.

Genetra Quick says they were in the process of moving after the landlords declined to renew their lease. They say they were only given one months notice to move.

Part of a court agreement included the family moving out of the home by the end of July 15. On July 16, the Quicks say their landlord was accompanied by two Cobb County police officers.

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The Quicks were receiving rental assistance from a metro Atlanta nonprofit that was paying a percentage of their rent. Genetra Quick is the sole provider. Robert Quick says hes unable to work because of a chronic medical condition.

A court judgement ruled they still owed $4,600, including rent through June 30, 2023. A Cobb County judge ruled during a July 21 hearing to have the Quicks pay their landlord the outstanding balance.

The couple said due to the expensive rental industry they, along with the nonprofit, were having a difficult time finding affordable housing.

Genetra Quick showed Lincoln text messages between herself and the landlord notifying the landlord they were in the process of packing on July 16. The Quicks say they thought they had an agreement with their landlord allowing an additional day to pack up based on those text messages.

Genetra says the police officers gave them minutes to grab whatever they could and leave the home. She says the officers threatened to arrest them for trespassing if they didnt leave.

The Quicks say a majority of their items were left behind, including critical medicine for Robert.

Seeing sad faces on my kids its been pretty rough, Im trying my best not to go to the hospital, I dont have insurance, Robert said.

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MORE 2 INVESTIGATES:

A spokesperson with the Cobb County Sheriffs Office told Channel 2 Action News in a statement they are the only law enforcement agency that works with the Cobb County courts to execute evictions.

Sheriffs were supposed to come out, they were supposed to have paperwork in hand, so we knew right then this was illegal, this wasnt done right, Quick said.

The Cobb County Sheriffs Office went on to say the department doesnt physically remove tenants items, arrest tenants for inability to pay their rent and decide who gets evicted and who does not. They also do not provide legal advice to tenants facing eviction.

Lincoln spoke with the landlords, Donald and Jennifer Freeland, over the phone. Both denied any wrongdoing and said they didnt tell the police to force the family to leave the house.

Cobb County police would have to be the ones to provide statements for their actions, Quick said.

After learning about Cobb County police not allowing the Quicks to retrieve their items, a Cobb County judge ruled to allow the family to return to the home to retrieve their belongings.

Channel 2 Action News reached out to Cobb County Police for a comment. A spokesperson told us they were looking into these claims. They have not provided us with a comment at this time.

The Quicks have started a GoFundMe campaign to help with moving expenses.

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IN OTHER NEWS:
The Florida Department of Education says AP Psychology will continue being taught in Florida schools.

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It comes a day after The College Board claimed the state had effectively banned the course, by requiring school districts to skip over a section on gender and sexual orientation.

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In a statement posted to social media Thursday, The College Board said it was sad to learn the Florida Department of Education has effectively banned AP Psychology in the state.

The statement went on to say, Any course that censors required course content cannot be labeled AP or Advanced Placement and the AP Psychology designation cannot be utilized on student transcripts.

Related Read: Florida effectively bans AP Psychology over gender identity, sexuality lessons

But Friday afternoon the Department of Education sent a letter to school superintendents, directing them to continue offering the course.

The Department believes that AP Psychology can be taught in its entirety in a manner that is age and developmentally appropriate, wrote Florida Commissioner of Education Manny Diaz in the letter.

The course framework has only one learning target under the Gender and Sexual Orientation section, which reads, Describe how sex and gender influence socialization and other aspects of development.

In response to the departments letter St. Johns County Schools told Action News Jax it will continue offering the course with the AP designation.

In an email sent to district high school principals, St. Johns County Superintendent Tim Forson said a district official will, work with your teachers to ensure all standards are taught within the law.

Read: New Florida law is providing more money for school safety resources

Duval County Public Schools also confirmed the AP course remains on its schedule, and it is monitoring the situation.

However, every school that offers AP Psychology is working on a contingency plan. Each contingency plan will provide students with either an accelerated college credit option or an honors option in the event a different course is in the best interest of students and teachers based on state law and requirements for AP college credit. If it is necessary to implement a contingency plan, each school will work directly with impacted families to determine the best path forward for each student under the circumstances, said a district spokesperson in an emailed statement.

Story continues

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The College Board weighed in on the new guidance Friday afternoon.

Todays statement from the Florida Department of Education represents new guidance on AP Psychology. While state superintendents continue to seek additional clarity from the department, we note the clear guidance that, AP Psychology may be taught in its entirety. We hope now that Florida teachers will be able to teach the full course, including content on gender and sexual orientation, without fear of punishment in the upcoming school year, said a College Board Spokesperson in an emailed statement to Action News Jax.

Action News Jax has also reached out to Clay and Nassau school districts and asked whether they plan to continue offering the course.

BREAKING: Florida Education Commissioner @CommMannyDiazJr has instructed Florida school superintendents they can teach the @CollegeBoard's AP Psychology course "in its entirety". @StJohnsCountySD has already announced it will continue providing the course next school year keeping pic.twitter.com/425fsgIqoi  Jake Stofan (@JakeStofan) August 4, 2023

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With the availability of the popular Advanced Placement psychology course in question in Florida, school districts including Pasco, Pinellas and Hillsborough counties are pivoting to the college-level course offered by Cambridge International instead.

The content is very similar, Pinellas superintendent Kevin Hendrick said. Our teachers are very prepared.

But its unclear if students in these classes will earn college credit, as they might have when taking the AP course. At issue is whether Cambridge is revising its course to meet state demands restricting lessons on gender identity and sexual orientation.

The College Board, which administers AP classes and exams, refused to change its course.

Education commissioners letter raises issues

Florida education commissioner Manny Diaz told superintendents Friday that the AP course remains in the states catalog of offerings, and it can be offered.

The department believes that AP Psychology can be taught in its entirety in a manner that is age and developmentally appropriate, Diaz wrote in a letter late Friday.

The College Board reacted cautiously to the letter. It observed that more understanding is needed about what the commissioner meant by age and developmentally appropriate lessons.

At the same time, the group said, We note the clear guidance that AP Psychology may be taught in its entirety. We hope now that Florida teachers will be able to teach the full course, including content on gender and sexual orientation, without fear of punishment in the upcoming school year.

Hendrick was not convinced the Department of Education letter represented any new ground, saying it sounded much like what officials said in a conference call on Thursday. That call prompted his and other districts to switch to the Cambridge AICE course.

Hendrick said Pinellas schools will continue with Cambridge AICE regardless. Were not going back, he said. Nor is Hillsborough County, which sent letters to more than 1,800 students who had signed up for AP Psychology, telling them they will be switched to Cambridge AICE.

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As of late afternoon Friday, the Miami-Dade school district hadnt decided about which course it would offer.

Miami-Dade County Public Schools is exploring all options to provide students who were enrolled in the Advanced Placement Psychology course the opportunity to earn college credit, Jaquelyn Calzadilla, a school district spokeswoman, wrote in an emailed statement Friday.

Broward County Public Schools spokespeople didnt immediately respond to a request for comment from the Herald on Friday.

The Cambridge course comes with its own set of concerns. Cambridge told the state its course would follow the law restricting instruction about gender and sexual orientation  raising questions about whether the course should be allowed to qualify for college credit.

Concerns over Cambridge course for college credit

We are quite concerned that the change in the law in Florida will make changes in Cambridges curriculum and Cambridges assessment, said Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, which evaluates advanced classes and issues recommendations for college credit. If that is the case, we will need to immediately review the Cambridge program and review our recommendation. ... It is a situation that is very much in flux.

In recent weeks, officials at Cambridge have insisted that they have not changed the psychology course and exam since the council recommended it a year ago for college credit. They also signed a letter to the Florida Department of Education affirming that its program will be taught in a way that teachers are not violating state law.

Mitchell, of the accrediting agency, said his organization wants to ensure the Cambridge course remains true to the qualities that made it worthy of college credits.

My biggest concern about the law is that it prohibits the analysis of a large area of psychology, he said. You can dress it up in a variety of ways, but this is censorship, saying a whole area in the field of psychology is not available for study.

He advised districts to proceed with caution before pivoting from AP to Cambridge. It would be very helpful to say, Not so fast. Its under review, he said, adding that the evaluation would be done as quickly as possible.

Officials at the College Board refused to meet a state requirement that lessons on gender be removed from its AP course, saying such a deletion would remove a critical piece of what makes it college material. The American Psychological Association backed up that contention, and urged Cambridge International to follow suit.

State officials accused the College Board of creating havoc with such remarks.

We encourage the College Board to stop playing games with Florida students and continue to offer the course and allow teachers to operate accordingly, Department of Education spokesperson Cassie Palelis said in a written statement. The other advanced course providers (including the International Baccalaureate program) had no issue providing the college credit psychology course.

Thousands of Florida students could be impacted

The changes and confusion affect thousands of teens across the state. Approximately 30,000 students had registered for AP psychology for the coming year, according to College Board.

A spokesperson for College Board reiterated that the group will not recognize the course if it is not taught in its entirety.

However, a student might be able to make arrangements to take the course or exam through a private school, which is not impacted by the state rule on curriculum.

The situation frustrated Palm Harbor University High School senior Eliza Lane, who had planned to take AP psychology this year. A leader of the protests against removing The Bluest Eye from her courses last year, Lane said she and others were waiting to see what her school does before asking her principal for permission to protest this action.

This is an incredibly tragic legacy for the DeSantis administration to leave on education, Lane said via email. Not only are they depriving students of a financially and educationally valuable class, they are allowing their extremist ideology to influence the education of future generations. Theyve effectively made a laughingstock of Florida education and they should expect intense pushback from students and teachers alike.

Tampa Bay Times staff writer Marlene Sokol contributed to this report.
A grand jury in Franklin County has indicted former Columbus K-9 officer Ricky Anderson on murder and reckless homicide charges in connection with the fatal shooting of Donovan Lewis inside his Hilltop apartment last year.

The indictment was filed Friday morning in Franklin County Common Pleas Court. A panel of nine people decided on the charges after special prosecutors appointed by Franklin County Prosecutor Gary Tyack's office presented evidence to them this week.

This comes a little less than a year after Anderson shot Lewis, 20, once in the abdomen after 2 a.m. Aug. 22, 2022, while there with other officers to arrest Lewis on multiple warrants.

Attorneys for Donovan Lewis' mother, Rebecca Duran, released a statement Friday morning:

We are relieved that a grand jury concluded what we've known all along: Officer Ricky Anderson broke the law when he shot and killed an unarmed Donovan Lewis as he laid in his bed. CPD bodycam video showed this clearly and nothing has changed in almost a year."

Body camera video shows officers knocking on the apartment door for nearly nine minutes, without a response from Lewis; Anderson's K-9 searching the apartment; and Anderson opening Lewis' bedroom door before shooting once, less than a second later. Lewis was sitting up in bed and holding what Police Chief Elaine Bryant said later turned out to be a vape pen. No other officers fired their weapons.

Donovan Lewis

The shooting sparked protests in the city. And for the past year, Lewis' family has called on prosecutors to quickly bring this matter before a grand jury.

"Although Mr. Lewis' family is pleased that his killer will soon face a jury of his peers, they are incredibly disappointed that it took so long to come to this conclusion in the first place," the statement by Duran's attorneys said. "Mr. Lewis' family understands that although there are many good officers doing their best to protect citizens, when an officer violates policy or breaks the law, they must be held accountable."

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Andersons attorneys, Mark Collins and Kaitlyn Stephens, in a statement to The Dispatch, said they expected the indictment and are confident the evidence will show Anderson was justified in his use of force.

This case is not about if Ricky Anderson made the decision to use deadly force, but why he made the decision to use deadly force," the statement said. "As we progress through litigation, the evidence will show that it was because he was justified in doing so.

Anderson, 60, who was a 30-year veteran of the Columbus Division of Police, retired in March in bad standing due to ongoing criminal and administrative investigations into the fatal shooting.

In a statement, Columbus police acknowledged the indictment and said they "will continue to fully cooperate with the Ohio Attorney General's Office and Franklin County Prosecutor's Office."

Anderson is scheduled to appear Monday afternoon in court, where he will be arraigned and a judge will set bond.

Donovan Lewis' mother, Rebecca Duran, from left, Attorney Rex Elliott and Attorney Michael Wright speak Friday during a news conference at Cooper Elliott Law Offices in Columbus after a grand jury indicted former Columbus police officer Ricky Anderson in connection with the fatal shooting of Lewis in August 2022.

During a news conference Friday morning, one of Duran's attorneys, Rex Elliott, called on the justice system to swiftly hold Anderson accountable for his actions.

"Donovan Lewis was given a death sentence, and it's time for Ricky Anderson to be held accountable for what he did, as well," Elliott said.

"We understand that investigations are important, but the reality is that in cases like this, I think police officers and the city and anybody else on the other side of the fence here  they want delay; they want people to become numb to what happened."

In a statement, Fraternal Order of Police Capital City Lodge No. 9 Executive Vice President Brian Steel, a Columbus police officer, criticized the grand jury's indictment:

"While the grand jury plays an important role in our system of justice, the grand jurors only hear the evidence the prosecutor wants (them) to hear. There is no defense attorney, no cross examination, no judge, essentially no rules. An indictment is far easier to secure than a conviction, which may also explain why Franklin County Prosecutor Tyack appointed special prosecutors to this case  to save his office the embarrassment of another acquittal."

Lewis family's lawsuit against Anderson, other officers continues

Meanwhile, the family continues its efforts in its ongoing lawsuit filed in February against Anderson and the four other officers who were there, Elliott said. In the absence of a criminal case, a Franklin County judge ruled in June the civil case could proceed.

"We intend to proceed full steam ahead, right along with the criminal case because getting accountability on the civil side of things is as important as accountability on the criminal side," Elliott said, adding the family might even take another step. "We do believe that suing the city is right around the corner, particularly if the city doesn't do the right thing with regard to this family.

"This case is about Donovan Lewis, but it's also about making sure we make the changes that are necessary that no family ever has to go through this ever again," Elliott said.

Donovan Lewis' mother, Rebecca Duran, from left, Attorney Rex Elliott and Attorney Michael Wright speak Friday during a news conference at Cooper Elliott Law Offices in Columbus after a grand jury indicted former Columbus police officer Ricky Anderson with murder in connection with the fatal shooting of Lewis in August 2022.

Duran said she is grateful the grand jury "did the right thing."

"We were promised accountability; we were promised transparency; now is the time to step up and give us that," she said. "It's rough for all of us, for anyone that knew him.  I'm doing my best to keep it together, day by day. Bottom line is he should still be here, and I'm going to be grieving that for the rest of my life."

Columbus Public Safety Director Kate Pishotti released a statement on Twitter:

"The death of Donovan Lewis is a tragedy for all involved. We respect the process of fully independent investigations for police-involved shootings. The grand jury has spoken and now we must let this case work through the criminal justice system."

Protesters gather outside Columbus Division of Police headquarters following the death of Donovan Lewis, the 20-year-old man fatally shot by a Columbus police officer on Aug. 22, 2022.

What criminal charges does former officer Ricky Anderson face?

According to the indictment, Anderson is charged under Ohio's felony murder rule, meaning he's accused of causing Lewis' death as the result of committing a felony, in this case, felonious assault.

The indictment charges Anderson with causing Lewis' death "as a proximate result of (Anderson) committing or attempting to commit an offense of violence that is a felony of the first or second degree, to wit: Felonious Assault."

Under count two, the charge alleges Anderson "did recklessly cause the death of Donovan Latrell Lewis."

Robert Barnhart, an assistant law professor at Capital University Law School, poses for a portrait Jan. 17 outside of the school on East Broad Street in Downtown Columbus.

A jury would be instructed to rule on each charge separately, said Robert Barnhart, a law professor at Capital University Law School.

"You start with your most serious one and then work your way down," said Barnhart a former grand jury prosecutor.

"You would tell the jury "I think we have enough evidence to charge the individual with intentional murder. However, you can also prosecute them for reckless homicide, a lesser offense."

If convicted of murder, Anderson faces a 15 years-to-life sentence plus a three-year gun specification.

The reckless homicide charge carries a nine-month-to-three years prison sentence, plus a three-year gun specification.

Past reporting: A timeline of the Columbus police fatal shooting of Donovan Lewis

What is a grand jury, and how does it work?

In Ohio, county grand juries decide whether there is enough evidence for somebody to be charged with a felony crime such as murder. Grand juries are made up of nine randomly selected registered voters in the county.

It is the policy of the Franklin County Prosecutor's Office to present all fatal shootings to a grand jury for possible indictment. And in recent years, the office has often brought in special prosecutors or the Ohio Attorney General's office to handle fatal shootings by local law enforcement.

Tim Merkle and Gary Shroyer, both former senior assistant Franklin County prosecutors, are being retained by Franklin County Prosecutor Gary Tyack's office to act as special prosecutors on this matter.

The shooting was investigated by the Ohio Attorney General's Bureau of Criminal Investigations.

Dispatch reporter Dean Narciso contributed to this report.

jlaird@dispatch.com

@LairdWrites

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ex-Columbus cop Ricky Anderson indicted in Donovan Lewis death
A man on a scooter rolls past a burned out RV sitting on the 1300 block of West Washington Boulevard on Sunday in Pico Union. The RV has been there for three weeks at the time the photo was taken. (Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)

When I think of Washington Boulevard, I think of one of L.A.s unsung thoroughfares.

I think of a 27-mile road that starts near the Pacific Ocean in Venice, hugs Culver City's northern border, runs parallel to the 10 Freeway through Black and Latino neighborhoods in Los Angeles before passing by Commerce, Montebello and Pico Rivera and finally petering out in Whittier.

I think of mom-and-pop shops and newer stores. Gentrifying neighborhoods and working class ones.

I dont think of a burned out RV next to kid-focused nonprofits. Yet thats what I found recently outside the Magnolia Place Family Center in Pico Union.

It was a Tuesday afternoon. I was late for an interview and thus barreling down the 1300 block of West Washington. But the sight of a massive, burned out vehicle on a busy street immediately made me do my best "Fast & Furious" imitation, pulling what was probably an illegal U-turn to inspect the scene.

The only parts of the RV that remained somewhat intact were the base, the tires and the frame around the rear window. Half of the branches of a nearby tree had charred. Backpacks, chairs and plywood inside the RV's outline were reduced to ashes. Wires and springs were strewn everywhere.

A man dug through what remained. He wouldnt give me his name but claimed the fire happened two weeks earlier, when vandals targeted his friend, who lived in the RV and got out just in time.

Read more: Column: The real and complicated reasons why Los Angeles still has so many RV encampments

I had to get to my assignment but told myself I would stop by again that Saturday, since I had to drop off food to a friend who lived off nearby San Vicente Boulevard. Surely, I reasoned, the city by then wouldve towed this hazardous eyesore from this stretch of Washington, where cars speed by at all hours and families walk by?

The RV was still there four days later, on Saturday  and a bathtub now lay on the sidewalk next to it.

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Joel Medrano and Ricardo Amaya were getting ready to repair a section of Magnolia Place's wall that had sustained damage during the fire. Every time they scraped off a blackened layer of paint, a noxious stench filled the air.

Was it two weeks ago when there was the fire? Medrano asked Amaya in Spanish. Amaya shrugged. I think it was three weeks, he said. However long, its too long.

Across the street, an employee at an air conditioner shop told me that not only had it been three weeks since the RV burned down, but the bright graffiti on one of the few standing sections of the vehicles shell was tagged after the fire.

The police pass by, but they never stop to investigate, said the employee, who declined to give his name because he wasnt authorized to speak. I was wondering who to call  City Hall? Fire? Does it matter? Will anyone even do anything?

Graffiti on the hulking frame of a burned out RV sitting on the 1300 block of West Washington Boulevard. The RV has been there through most of July. (Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)

On Monday, I talked to Magnolia Place facility manager Roland Salvador. He asked the fire crew that put out the blaze when the abandoned heap would be removed. He asked the same question to city workers who came a few days later, when someone set fire to what was left. He asked the parking enforcement officer with the Department of Transportation who regularly tickets illegally parked cars on Washington.

And the answer I keep hearing is that, Oh, this has been reported.'

Gustavo, he continued. Do you have any idea of any person, department or agency that can help me?"

RV encampments grew rapidly across L.A. during the pandemic, partly because of the citys ever-increasing cost of living but also because the Department of Transportation announced a moratorium on towing inhabited RVs in the beginning of 2021. The encampments have hung on despite the rescinding of the moratorium last year and assurances by Mayor Karen Bass this spring to my colleague Erika D. Smith that the issue would absolutely be dealt with because it's a very serious issue.

Despite the protestations of nearby residents, it's difficult, if not nigh impossible, to remove vehicles with people living inside, even if they're violating parking and sanitation laws. Those occupants have legal protections, after all. But there are those types of RVs, and then theres the mess on West Washington Boulevard that looks like a set prop from a Marvel movie battle scene.

Is it really that hard for L.A. to tow a torched RV?

Read more: Los Angeles lifts moratorium on towing RVs, pledges to move problem campers

L.A. Fire Department public information officer Erik B. Scott told me his department investigates all vehicle fires and calls in the arson unit if it suspects anything suspicious. The department then calls the LAPD to facilitate towing, but Scott had no idea what a typical turnaround time is, since "we are rarely involved through the entire process."

LAPD Community Safety Partnership Bureau Capt. Ryan Whiteman said officers are allowed to tow a vehicle if it's stolen, blocking a roadway or an entrance to a building, used in a crime or constitutes an imminent threat to public safety or property. But one big roadblock they're facing: not enough space to store impounded RVs, which Whiteman said "is being worked on within the city family of agencies."

He added that the RV next to Magnolia Place was referred to the Department of Transportation for follow up and removal, since that agency has the primary response for towing vehicles in L.A.

DOT spokesperson Colin Sweeney's initial response to my list of questions Monday was to ask for the location of the RV, since it has happened before that reporters ask us about issues located outside of city limits.

When I sent him the address proving that the RV was within city limits, he emailed a statement a day later confirming that the vehicle was subject to impound" but noting that the DOT had to work with the Department of Sanitation "to ensure hazardous materials are removed before the vehicle is towed."

Nevertheless, Sweeney concluded, the RV in question was expected to be removed this week.

Traffic passes the burned out RV on the 1300 block of West Washington Boulevard on Sunday in Pico Union. The RV had been there for three weeks. (Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)

He didnt respond when I asked if three weeks was how long it usually took. With a game of municipal kick-the-can like this one, imagine how the Department of Transportation treats regular folks!

Salvador did have some sympathy about the citys delayed response when we talked: I know this is not the only area where this is happening. But this is really very awful. If it was on my property, I can immediately take action.

He has worked at Magnolia Place for 20 years and said the only time there was a problem like this was during the pandemic, when unhoused people put up tents on a corner near the nonprofit's parking lot. The tents disappeared after someone set them on fire.

The city cleaned up that mess right away. "This RV, I don't know how come they cannot clean it," he said.

I drove back to Magnolia Place on Thursday afternoon. The RV was finally gone. But the clean-up job was weak salsa, at best. And around the corner, on a side street, was a hollowed-out RV I hadn't noticed before.

L.A.'s game of Wrecked RV Whac-a-Mole continues.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Get ready for a version of TikTok you've never seen before! Without the hyper-sticky, AI-driven 'For You' feed...

The video sharing platform has announced that TikTok users in the European Union will "soon" be able to switch off its infamously engaging content-selection algorithm as it prepares to comply with the bloc's updated digital rulebook.

The EU's Digital Services Act (DSA) puts a requirement on popular platforms like TikTok to offer users the choice to see content recommendations that are not based on tracking and profiling their activity on the platform -- a surveillance-based practice platforms typically refer to as "personalization". So the incoming choice for users in Europe to see a non-personalized 'For You' feed on TikTok is part of the its preparations to comply with the bloc's rebooted digital rules.

TikTok also recently announced the launch of its first ever ads transparency library (initially only for ads running in Europe) and a regional extension to its research API -- also as it preps to hit its DSA compliance deadline later this month (August 28).

Back in April the EU named TikTok as one of 19 so-called very large online platforms or search engines. The regulation requires these popular platforms provide users with a choice to switch off recommender systems based on profiling. VLOPs and VLOSE must also report on (and mitigate) algorithmic risk, as the EU dials up accountability around the use of AI by platform giants.

The incoming algo choice for TikTok users in Europe means that instead of seeing content in their For You and Live feeds that has been algorithmically selected for stickiness, based on what the platform's AI has assessed will most engage them based on tracking all the other stuff they've looked at on the platform, users will be able to opt out of its surveillance-based attention targeting.

Those that choose to give TikTok's eyeball-hogging AI the heave-ho will see For You and Live feeds populated by videos that are popular in their "region" and "preferred language", per the company.

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The DSA requirement that it offer a choice to deny personalization means further changes will apply for those that deny its profiling and AI-powered content sorting.

To wit: Search on the platform will also be non-personalized, meaning users will see search results with sorting also based on "popular content from their region and in their preferred language", rather than results selected with the intention of hacking their attention. While the Following and Friends feeds for these users will have content displayed in chronological order, rather than based on individual profiling.

The shift is a seismic one when you consider how much of TikTok's success as a platform in what remains a hyper competitive space (social media) has been credited to the stickiness of its algorithmic recommendations.

But of course TikTok is only now giving users the choice not to be attention hacked because the EU has passed legislation that explicitly requires it to let users deny personalization.

It won't be the only major platform having to do this in Europe, either. Others that will have to offer users the same choice under the DSA include the likes of Instagram and YouTube -- other ad-funded platforms which ply their users with algo-driven content recommendations by default in order to drive engagement and boost profits.

AI-powered recommender engines, such as YouTube's 'Up Next' video selector, have long been linked to highly unpleasant societal outcomes -- given the role the tech can play in spreading hate speech, disinformation and even terrorism.

Ad-funded platforms make money off their users' attention so driving engagement is core to their businesses. Which is why they haven't generally been incentivized to offer users a clear choice to deny personalization -- as TikTok will "soon". But the DSA changes that.

Twitter (now X) is an exception where a non-algorithmic feed has always been core to the product experience on the platform. Although it does also have its own algorithm-driven For You feed and may still inject personalized content selections into that user's Following feed so, for DSA compliance purposes, X is likely to need to go further and provide users with a choice to blanket deny its personalization.

If X-owner Elon Musk keeps thumbing his nose at the EU's rules he'll be opening himself up to serious regulatory risk (fines for non-compliance with the DSA can reach up to 6% of global annual turnover).

More DSA-driven changes

Today TikTok has detailed some further incoming tweaks as it prepares its platform for DSA compliance.

Its blog post notes that users in Europe who are aged between 13 and 17 will no longer see personalized advertising based on its tracking of their activity on (or off) its platform. Other (i.e. older) users do already have the ability to switch off personalised ads in the TikTok settings but the DSA puts a hard ban on serving personalized ads to kids.

The pan-EU regulation also bans the use of sensitive data for personalized ads but TikTok's blog post does not discuss how it will be complying with that requirement. (We've asked the company for more details of its compliance plan there. Update: TikTok told us it already prohibits advertisers from using special category data to target users.)

Another regional change the video sharing platform flags as coming within "weeks" is what it describes as an "additional content reporting option" for users in Europe to report content they believe is illegal -- which will supplement the AI-driven content moderation it already uses.

Again, the move isn't surprising; the DSA sets out a governance framework for how platforms should handle illegal content reporting and takedowns.

"To make this as easy as possible, people will be able to choose from a list of categories such as hate speech, harassment, and financial crimes. We will provide a guide to help people better understand each category," TikTok writes.

It further stipulates it will first review content European users are reporting as illegal against its Community Guidelines and remove it globally if it deems it violates its policies. If not, it will review content against local rules on illegality -- which can vary across EU Member States -- and restrict access only where local laws are breached.

"We will inform both the person who posted the content and the person who reported it of the decision we have made and why. Both will also be given the opportunity to appeal a decision they disagree with," TikTok adds.

In another DSA-driven change, European users are set to get a greater degree of transparency around TikTok's moderation decisions.

Currently TikTok only informs users when their content has been removed; when their account has received a strike; or when their account has been banned for violating its Community Guidelines.

But users in Europe should expect to get more detail about its content moderation decision-making in the coming weeks.

"Under the DSA, we will provide our community in Europe with information about a broader range of content moderation decisions," TikTok writes. "For example, if we decide a video is ineligible for recommendation because it contains unverified claims about an election that is still unfolding, we will let users know. We will also share more detail about these decisions, including whether the action was taken by automated technology, and we will explain how both content creators and those who file a report can appeal a decision."

All the changes being announced by TikTok today will apply in the European Union and EEA.

The ban on personalized ads ban for kids also applies in the U.K. -- and has already been implemented (as of last month) across the wider European region. But the illegal content reporting changes and additional detail provided around content moderation decisions are specific to countries where the DSA applies, per TikTok.

This report was updated after TikTok responded to questions about where the various changes apply
KYIV, Ukraine  Ukrainian sea drones attacked a major Russian port on the Black Sea on Friday, damaging a naval ship, according to a Ukrainian official, the latest in a series of strikes inside Russia as Kyiv vowed to bring the fight home to them. Moscow claimed it repelled the attack.

The strike on Novorossiysk marks the first time a commercial Russian port has been targeted in the 18-month war. The port  which hosts a naval base, shipbuilding yards and an oil terminal and is key for exports  lies just across the Black Sea from Crimea, where Russias Defense Ministry said it thwarted another attack overnight, taking down 13 drones.

The Security Service of Ukraine and the country's navy carried out the attack on Novorossiysk, according to an official with the security service, and the landing ship, Olenegorsky Gornyak, suffered a serious breach. As a result, the ship is unable to carry out its combat missions, the official added, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give the information to the media.

Ukrainian news agencies carried footage from social media channels that they suggested showed the Olenegorsky Gornyak listing to one side. The ship is designed to transport troops and heavy equipment and was sent for repairs in 2014, according to Russian media reports. It is normally based with Russias Northern Fleet in the Arctic.

Russia, however, claimed it fended off the attack on Novorossiysk, saying ships patrolling the perimeter of the naval base, including the Olenegorsky Gornyak, destroyed two sea drones. The Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which operates an oil terminal in the port, said maritime traffic was halted for a few hours but that its facilities were not damaged. The regional governor said there were no casualties.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to comment on the attack during a conference call with reporters.

Footage published on Russian social media channels appeared to show a ship firing into the sea and a burning object exploding. Ukrainian social media channels also posted nighttime video shot from what they indicated was a sea drone, floating near a ship. The Associated Press could not verify the videos.

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Friday's attack is the latest in a string of assaults inside Russian territory. Earlier this week, drones hit a building in Moscow  and a drone even struck the Kremlin harmlessly in May.

The assault comes as the Black Sea becomes an increasingly important battleground in the war following Russia's withdrawal from a deal that had allowed Ukrainian grain shipments through the sea. Since scrapping the deal, Russia has hammered the countrys ports, compounding the blow to food markets worldwide.

The Olenegorsky Gornyak warship stands moored at a harbour of Novorossiysk, Russia, Sunday, July 30, 2023. Russia accused Ukraine early Friday Aug. 4, 2023 of attacking its Black Sea navy base in the port of Novorossiysk with sea drones. The mayor of Novorossiysk, Andrey Kravchenko, said the crews of the Olenegorsky Gornyak and Suvorovets ships immediately reacted to the attack and helped to avoid consequences.

On Wednesday, Russian drones caused significant damage and a huge fire at facilities in the Odesa region that are key to Ukrainian grain exports. A day earlier, the Russian military said Kyivs forces tried to attack two patrol vessels in the sea, southwest of the Russian-controlled city of Sevastopol on the annexed Crimean peninsula.

Shortly after Russia invaded, Ukraine said it successfully sunk the flagship of Russia's Black Sea fleet, the Moskva. Ukraine said it hit the Moskva, a guided-missile cruiser, with missiles in a devastating symbolic blow to Russia.

The Russian Defense Ministry said the heavily damaged Moskva sank in a storm under tow after being gutted by fire. It previously said a fire set off some of its weapons and forced the crew to evacuate. It denied there had been an attack by Ukraine on the ship.

Minutes after confirming the attack on the Black Sea port early Friday morning, Russias Ministry of Defense said it had also repelled another attack by Ukraine on Crimea. The Defense Ministry said air defense systems shot down 10 drones and it had electronically jammed another three.

Videos shared on Russian social media channels reportedly from around the city of Feodosia in Crimea showed what appeared to be air defense systems working, as well as loud explosions.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Russian naval ship damaged by drones at Black Sea port, Ukraine says
Today marks six months since the toxic train derailment in East Palestine. Since then, its been a whirlwind for communities on both sides of the state line just trying to get back to normal.

I would say the new normal is just always second-guessing and always questioning everything, Misti Allison said. Shes raising her family in East Palestine.

We only want to stay here if its safe. So, even six months in, that might seem like a long time if you dont live in the area, she said. Six months isnt really a lot of time to be able to see if this is going to have long-term impacts.

Since the February 3rd derailment, shes been vocal. She testified in Washington, D.C. back in March and wrote an op-ed for a national publication.

I never once in a million years thought I would be in the middle of a chemical calamity, but here we are.

Norfolk Southern marked the milestone by pledging half a million dollars to support economic development in East Palestine. Across the border in Pennsylvania, Governor Josh Shapiro announced a reimbursement of more than $500,000 to fix a damaged road. This comes a week after the township received more than $700,000 in relief.

RELATED COVERAGE >>> Darlington Township community planning how to spend derailment relief money from Norfolk Southern

Marcy Ford lives in Darlington but owns a farm in East Palestine. She says the last few months have been stressful. Her plan to sell her Darlington home and fulfill a lifelong dream of a farmhouse in East Palestine is on hold.

We dont know if we should even do that or sell everything and move away, Ford said.

She wants to stay but knows not everyone does.

Buy the houses of the people that want to leave. If you guys really want to come out of this looking good, pat on the back, do what needs to be done, she said.

Both women told Channel 11 theyd like to see railway safety legislation passed by Congress.

We did reach out to Norfolk Southern and were told the company is committed to making it right in East Palestine. The company claims to have spent $65 million on community support so far.

Story continues

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Netizens have rallied around BooksChina.com, one of the country's biggest online bookstores, which has been severely affected by heavy rain and flooding triggered by Typhoon Doksuri.

In a statement issued on its website and multiple social media platforms, including WeChat and Sina Weibo, the bookseller said its warehouse in Zhuozhou, Hebei province, suffered the "most destructive impact" of flooding since the company was founded 25 years ago.

More than 4 million books, which accounted for roughly 80 percent of its inventory, have been damaged by floodwaters, the statement said.

On Tuesday night, after the company sent out messages on social media saying that some of its employees were trapped on the fourth floor of the warehouse, netizens helped direct emergency responders to the location.

Some social media users offered to buy damaged books, while others said they were willing to make donations to help BooksChina.com survive the ordeal.

Hebei was battered by heavy rainfall for about 144 hours since July 27, when Typhoon Doksuri plowed into East China's Fujian province.

Zhuozhou received 355 millimeters of rainfall between 8 am on Saturday and 11 am on Tuesday, and over 130,000 people were affected, according to local authorities.

Hebei serves as a logistics hub for many companies in Beijing, and nearly 100 publishing houses keep their books stocked in Zhuozhou.

At around 1:30 pm on Tuesday, employees working at the BooksChina.com warehouse shifted some books from the first floor to higher floors, and stacked up sandbags at the entrance, according to Paper.cn.

However, floodwaters inundated the first floor within an hour, and employees rushed to take shelter on the fourth floor. It all happened too quickly and they didn't have enough resources to relocate all the books, the employees said.

At around 9 pm on Tuesday, the company sent out messages seeking help. By 9 am on Wednesday, rescuers found all employees who were trapped in the warehouse and evacuated them to safety.

Netizens, who helped organize the rescue, sent words of encouragement to the company. Many ordered more books, gift cards and other items to extend their support.

"I have bought many books on your website, some of which saved me. ... It is time for me to rescue you," said one Weibo user.

Another user wrote, "Those who survive big disasters are blessed with good fortune afterward."

The company, which mentioned in a statement that the books at its Zhuozhou warehouse were almost its "entire stock", said it will not sell the damaged and contaminated books as it valued its readers' safety more.

"We have lost many out-of-print books," the company said in another post. "Many of our previous online orders cannot be delivered. After the flood recedes, we will check how many books can still be sold."

Deeply moved by the kind gestures of social media users, the company said, "Your support gives us the confidence to overcome this difficult period."

BooksChina.com needs three to four weeks to go over pending online orders, and will call or send text messages to clients whose orders cannot be delivered, the company said, adding that they will be refunded.
This photo shows a student and teacher raising their hand in class.

This article was originally published in EducationNC.

Since 1993, North Carolina has allocated money to the community college system to help students afford child care. The state Senates budget proposal would give an additional $1.2 million in recurring funds each of the next two years to the program.

But even more is needed to make a dent in the student need, said Brenda Long, director of financial aid at Carteret Community College. This past academic year, the college was able to help only three students with the grants. Thirteen were on the waiting list, and many more probably did not know to apply, she said.

Thats 13 students that we could have on campus, improving their quality of life, but we just dont have the funding to, or we dont know quickly enough to be able to assist them, Long said.  Were not notified until mid-to-late September that we have any funding at all, so these students have missed out on fall semester.

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The program needs more funding and wider eligibility, and communities need more child care investment to address systemic supply issues, local administrators of the grants told EdNC.

Community college students child care needs are difficult to quantify. Colleges do not have a way of knowing how many students do not engage with school because of child care barriers. And most colleges do not ask questions about child care when students stop coming to school.

The North Carolina Early Childhood Foundation surveyed a representative sample of 802 working parents with children younger than 5 in 2020, finding that 45% of respondents reported dropping out of college or training, or declining training, because of insufficient child care.

Ive heard it time and time again  students who will say, Kindra, if it wasnt for this program, I would not be here,' said Kindra Moore-Smith, who oversees child care grant funding at Fayetteville Technical Community College.

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The college was able to help 37 students pay for child care this past year, but less than half of the colleges funding comes from the state program. The college keeps a waitlist of about 40 students, Moore-Smith said.

I know Im probably really reaching, Moore-Smith said. It would be a dream for me (that) if you are a student parent and you have children, that you would automatically get funding.

A drop in the bucket, but an important resource

The community college grant program allocated a base of $20,000 to each college in 2022-23, plus an additional $3.88 for each of the colleges students who are enrolled full-time in a curriculum program. In 2022-23, colleges received a total of $3,038,215, which included an extra $1.2 million in nonrecurring funds.

In the scheme of child care, that expense is just so high, said Maggie West, director of student services at Durham Technical Community College.  (The allotment) doesnt go very far in terms of the number of students based on the level of funding.

Related

Without Affordable Child Care, Graduating from College Can Be Nearly Impossible

The average cost for center-based child care for a toddler in North Carolina is $9,916, according to a 2023 report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, or about 10% of the median income for a married couple and 33% of the median income for a single mother.

The grants are helpful, West said, in that they are flexible enough to fill in gaps in funding from other supports. The states child care subsidy program, which is mainly funded through a federal block grant, has its own set of requirements around income, work status, and licensing of the facility.

The community college grants, on the other hand, have relatively few statewide requirements on administration and eligibility. The community college system instructs colleges to coordinate with other local agencies to determine need. Students apply with their financial aid offices and, after the services are provided, colleges reimburse providers. The amount the grants reimburse depends on the college.

Unlike the traditional child care subsidy program, the community college grants can be used for unlicensed providers, grandparents, and personal nannies.

The need is critical for entire industries and communities, said Maggie Brown, vice president of instruction and student support at Carteret Community College.

In terms of keeping folks in agriculture, and keeping folks in those critical services that affect our entire state that are normally located in small rural areas, you have to support economic drivers if you want to keep that area thriving, Brown said. Child care, of course, is one of those critical services just like health care, that if it is lacking in that community, that community is not going to exist, or itll just be a commuter community because all of your resources are 30 miles down the road.

Getting the money to students

Multiple administrators spoke to EdNC about a lack of available child care in their communities. In some cases, that made it harder for colleges to spend all of their funding since the start of the pandemic.

The range of how much colleges spent in the 2021-22 school year, the latest available data, is wide. Fayetteville Tech spent every penny of its allotment of $119,620. Sandhills Community College, on the other hand, spent $2,130 out of $54,905.

That school year, Sandhills was able to help only one student. This year, they are helping four students with one child each, said Kellie Shoemake, vice president of student services at the college.

Sarah Barber, a financial aid advisor at the college who oversees the grants, tried everything she could think of to market the program to students who need it the most. She reached out to students in programs like nursing that she knew had in-person requirements. She requested the subsidy application form from the local Department of Social Services so she could help students figure out their eligibility for other supports. She also made sure students who listed dependents on their FAFSA applications automatically heard about the available funds.

Now Barber said she thinks there simply are not enough child care options at which students can use the funds.

I think now its more of an availability issue, she said.

The team at Sandhills also said making the grant eligible to students enrolled in continuing education courses, students in the military, and fully-online students would open up resources to parents.

Moore-Smith of Fayetteville Tech said besides basic marketing strategies  fliers around campus, emails, social media posts, and in-person events  she relies on relationships and word-of-mouth to make sure the funds get in the hands of those who need them most.

Moore-Smith described a different local child care landscape than Sandhills. She said programs are strained, but that she is normally able to find an open slot for students children.

She also makes sure to share other community resources from local organizations, such as NC Pre-K, Head Start, and Smart Start, if she does not have the grant funds to help immediately. She said her predecessor taught her the importance of holistically meeting students needs.

If you can listen, and if you can be kind and understanding of where a student is coming from and where theyre at at that particular point, youre going to be successful, she said.

Larger problems

Many pointed to larger issues than a single grant program, or a single college, can confront. Low pay for early childhood teachers and a lack of public investment in care and education for young children must be addressed before families can rely on care to go back to school or back to work, Long said.

Its a much broader issue than the community college can manage,  Long said. This is a statewide issue. It is a we dont pay enough issue. Its a we dont have the facilities issue. I dont know how the community college would get involved in that part of it. I mean, we can educate (child care teachers) all day long. Getting them to work in a field where they actually make a living wage  thats a major hurdle.

Brown said she sees the community college being situated at the right nexus of preparation of teachers and supports for students, but that more investment is needed.

I think that the community college is perfectly resourced and ready to both prepare child care workers and to distribute child care funds, she said. I see the gap being at the state and federal levels.

Editors Note: Hannah McClellan contributed reporting for this story.

This article first appeared on EducationNC and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
She says its the only job she ever wanted.

After 53 years as a teacher and administrator, Carolyn Lenhardt, known to generations of students simply as Ms. Carolyn, retired from St. Anthony of Padua Catholic School in June.

Lenhardt spent the lions share of her career in elementary school classrooms, mostly teaching second grade, but had served as Dean of Students at the small mission school since 2017.

As the school year ended in early June, St. Anthony declared it Ms. Carolyn Day. Colleagues, friends and students past and present gathered in the gymnasium to honor Lenhardt with tributes, music and gifts.

She was also presented with a resolution from the South Carolina General Assembly congratulating her on her remarkable career.

For her dedication to her students and community, Carolyn Lenhardt has been selected as a Greenville News Community Hero.

The Community Hero program, sponsored by the Greenville Federal Credit Union, recognizes generous and selfless work by those among us who make our community a better place.

Carolyn Lenhardt was honored by colleagues, students and friends at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic School in Greenville SC. Beginning in in 1970, 'Ms. Carolyn' served for 53 years as a teacher and administrator at the small school in Greenville's West End.

Greenville educator's impact has been profound, stretches across generations

Lenhardts impact has been profound and stretches across generations.

During her half-century in the classroom, she says she frequently taught the children and even a few grandchildren of former students.

You teach a young child in first or second grade and then here come their children  the next generation, she says. Thats something to see.

2019 Educators: 2019 Educators Who Make a Difference: Carolyn Lenhardt

She says that she is frequently recognized around town by now-grown former students. Most she recognizes, but sometimes she doesnt make the connection.

I can be in the store and hear, Hi, Ms. Carolyn!, she says. Sometimes I dont remember and Ill ask them their name  as soon as they tell me, I can see the child.

St. Anthony has traditionally served the children of the West End and Southernside neighborhoods surrounding the parish on Gower Street.

Story continues

Carolyn Lenhardt was honored by colleagues, students and friends at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic School in Greenville SC. Beginning in in 1970, 'Ms. Carolyn' served for 53 years as a teacher and administrator at the small school in Greenville's West End.

Most of the students are Black. Many are economically and socially disadvantaged. Few are Catholic. And though the neighborhood has changed in recent years as it is absorbed into Downtown Greenville, the mission has not.

Lenhardt, a Greenville native who grew up off Woodruff Road, graduated from Sterling High School and Benedict College in Columbia before beginning her teaching career.

A turbulent time for both public and private schools in Greenville

She began working at St. Anthony in 1970, after five years at Dunbar Elementary in Greer, then one of the countys segregated schools for Black children.

The late 60s and early 70s were a turbulent time for both public and private schools in Greenville, as racial integration was implemented in the county after years of court battles.

More Community Heroes: Sans Souci couple champions rebirth of Verner Springs Park

For Catholic schools, that included a short-lived plan to send kindergarten and first-grade students from other Catholic Schools to St. Anthony. St. Anthonys other students were assigned to St. Marys and Our Lady of the Rosary, then the only other Catholic Schools in Greenville.

Within a few years, the schools reverted to their more traditional roles. But enrollment at St. Anthony suffered because of the disruption, then recovered as it resumed its traditional mission.

From the Archives: Greenville history: In good times and bad, St. Anthony's has endured

In the 1980s, Lenhardt was there when the school dwindled to just a few dozen students as the parish and school suffered financial troubles and frequent leadership changes.

Lenhardt says that in 1986, when Sister Catherine Noecker arrived as principal, along with her fellow Franciscan sisters, the school began to recover and grow again.

She said to me, Ms. Carolyn, if it hadnt been for you, St. Anthony would have closed -- because you didnt leave, Lenhardt recalled. At first, Sister Catherine and I were the only teachers.

Over the next 25 years, St. Anthony continued to grow. Children at the school outperformed their peers and the school was able to boast an almost 100% high school graduation rate for students who completed their elementary years there.

Carolyn Lenhardt with one of her early 1970s classes at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic School in Greenville SC

By 2013, under former pastor Fr. Patrick Tuttle, a parish and community-wide fundraising effort led to the construction of a new, $6 million school building to ensure the schools future. Noecker retired in 2019. "Ms. Carolyn" was persuaded to to stay on for a few more years.

Ms. Carolyn: 'God granted my prayers to work with children'

As the new school year begins, Lenhardt says it will be strange not being there to greet the students and help guide them.

She doesnt have any world travels or big adventures planned for her retirement. She doesnt fly  she says she discovered during a field trip with one of her first groups of students that being on an airplane triggers severe claustrophobia  and has no interest in traveling by ship.

Though she wont be working at the school every day, she wont be too far away  she's already signed up to volunteer at the school, serving her former colleagues and another generation of St. Anthony teachers and students.

Thats the only job I ever wanted  to be a teacher, she said. God granted my prayers to work with children. Its the satisfaction of helping them see they can achieve their goals.

This article originally appeared on Herald-Journal: 'Ms. Carolyn' honored for 53 years at Greenville's St. Anthony School
Small businesses are the backbone of Wisconsins economy. Our 461,000 small businesses love what we do and contribute to our communities  including employing 1.3 million of our neighbors in every corner of the state.

But the path isnt always easy. Running a small business can be challenging even in the best of times. These days, family-owned businesses like mine face a combination of challenges unlike anything we have ever seen.

My company, Adams Power, provides electrical, heating and air conditioning, solar, plumbing, low voltage and standby power solutions from our three locations in Elkhorn, Green Bay and Hazelhurst. We employ hundreds of people throughout the region. The rate of retired skilled trades men and women is compressing an already tight labor market. Operating in a tight labor market drives up wages and makes it hard to maintain the skilled workforce we need. Supply chain delays continue to make it challenging to deliver products on time, and the post-pandemic recovery remains shaky, making it hard for our customers to plan for their futures.

None of this is to say that these last few years have been all bad. There has been a home improvement boom in many areas, and the increasing adoption of clean energy technologies like solar and battery storage has presented incredible opportunities for companies like mine. But economic storm clouds persistently linger and small businesses and the many families we employ need all the help we can get.

Fortunately, one of our keys to success as a business is the ability to remain optimistic in the face of hardship. In some ways, every business is founded on the basis of hope  our belief in our teams ability to deliver powerful solutions to our customers. Because of that, I perpetually see bright spots on the horizon. Right now, one of the most promising is the opportunity Wisconsin has to build a robust community solar program.

Adrian Lopez an Azco carpenter journeymen, works on installing some of the 240,000 solar panels at the future Springfield solar farm in the Town of Lomira on Tuesday, June 20, 2023. The nearly 900-acre, 100-megawatt solar project is being completed by Alliant Energy and is expected to create enough solar energy to power approximately 25,000 homes according to the company.

That is why lawmakers in Madison should pass Senate Bill 226 and Assembly Bill 258. Community solar allows for the construction of solar developments on land that typically goes unused, including farmland deemed unsuitable for agricultural use by farmers. Once a program is established, consumers can subscribe to a community solar project and source a portion of their energy through the infrastructure.

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The solar industry in the U.S. is white-hot right now and had its best first quarter in history this year, according to a report released in June by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Wood Mackenzie. As a solar installer, we have seen it firsthand.

Wisconsins residential solar industry already employs more than 48,000 people. Adding community solar to the mix will drive those numbers even higher.

Expanding the solar industry can be a game changer for the communities my company serves. These projects lead to more local jobs that create opportunities for families and generate tax revenue for municipalities straining to meet budgets.

Jesse Adams

Those jobs will support projects that can provide financial relief to residents who are striving to meet skyrocketing energy bills. I cannot tell you how many conversations we have with customers who are weighed down by crushing utility bills. With energy prices poised to increase next year, under proposals put forward by the states utility companies, our customers need relief. Subscribing to a community solar project can provide it.

Households in other states with community solar, including Minnesota and Utah, typically save at least 10 percent on their energy bills after signing up. That is hundreds of dollars in potential savings for families who need all the help they can get for their pocketbooks.

Lawmakers have tried establishing community solar in the past, but those efforts have faltered following opposition from the monopolistic utility companies who control the solar market. Thankfully, Sen. Duey Stroebel, R-Saukville, and Rep. Scott Krug, R-Nekoosa, reintroduced legislation earlier this year so lawmakers have another chance to get it right.

Lawmakers must stand up for our communities by passing SB 226 and AB 258 and placing this program at the top of their priority list when they return to session in September because Wisconsin needs community solar.

Jesse Adams is president of Adams Power in Fontana.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Lawmakers need to support community solar projects
WORCESTER - On Aug. 31, 1951, Trooper Alje Savela was shot and killed while conducting a traffic stop on Route 122 in Barre. His killer was never found.

On June 17, 1968, the body of 7-year-old David Larochelle was found in the Carpenter Pond area in Southbridge. His death was ruled a homicide. His killer was never found.

On June 6, 1973, the remains of Maureen Moynihan and her 4-year-old daughter Jennifer were located in a wooded area off Route 122A Rutland. Their killer was never brought to justice.

Maureen Moynihan and her 4-year-old daughter Jennifer, whose bodies were found in a wooded area in Rutland in 1973, are among the victims of unresolved homicides on the Worcester County District Attorney's website.

On April 6, 1979, John Donaldson was killed in his vehicle outside of his Harvard residence. His killer was never found.

On June 27, 2000, Molly Bish, a 16-year-old lifeguard, went missing from her post at Comins Pond in Warren. Mollys remains were located three years later in a wooded area in Palmer. Her killer was never brought to justice.

Those are just some of the unresolved homicide cases that Worcester County District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr. and his teams of investigators have made a pledge not rest or to forget until the victims families find justice.

With this in mind, Early unveiled a revamped website, worcesterda.com/prosecution/unresolved-cases/that includes a database of unresolved murder cases in Worcester County.

Representing victims who include men, women and children, young and old, the unresolved homicide cases accessible on the website include one dating back to the 1950s, three from the 1960s, 10 from the 1970s, 16 from the 1980s, two from the 1990s and 13 since 2000.

The unresolved homicides occurred in 22 different cities and towns.

Complacency kills. You never want to be complacent, Early said. You always got to fight against complacency, thinking youve done enough and you can do more. Thats some of the reasons that were changing the website. Are we perfect? No. Can we get better? Always.

When he got elected district attorney in 2007, Massachusetts State Police Superintendent Col. Marian J. McGovern called Early and said, Joe, I want you to start an unresolved homicide unit. So he did.

Story continues

It was called the Cold Case Unit, Early recalled. And, I said, Yeah, Im interested.' 

A month into the job, Early was approached by John Bish, father of Molly Bish.

Molly Bish of Warren, who went missing in her hometown in 2000. Her remains were found three years later in Palmer.

John Bish, in a very strong tone, said, Dont you dare call these cold cases, because they are not cold cases. Cold cases, the notes are filed, sitting on a desk somewhere, in a filing cabinet, on top of a filing cabinet, collecting dust. And thats not what these are. These are unresolved cases.  We would like all of you to call these unresolved cases, because those words give hope to the family. It lets the family know that you are working on them,  Early said. So we switched the name to Unresolved Homicide Unit. We talked to Worcester about their unit, which they also called the Cold Case Unit.  They switched theirs as well, to the Worcester Unresolved Homicide Unit.

When they started the Worcester County District Attorneys Office Unresolved Homicide Unit, Early said the team had a couple of breakthroughs right away.

We started going through different boxes, Early said. There were a lot of boxes that were in the attic in the Holden barracks. And we started sifting through boxes and it led us to get a couple of convictions.

Keeping these unresolved cases open and active is important, Early said.

People say, 'Well, its been a while. Is there still an expediency to it? Is there still an importance to it? Yeah, big-time. For these families, they want some type of justice. They want some type of closure, Early said. The thing they want, we cant give them. Thats their loved one.  What they really want then, they want justice. They want their son, daughter, brother, sisters killer put behind bars so it doesnt happen again to another family and they dont have to go through that.

The newly revamped Worcester County District Attorneys website has added narratives, and pictures when they are available, of the unresolved murder cases in Worcester County.

We are regularly going to call the families and let them know this is what were doing. Even if we have nothing to give them, Early said. And, oftentimes, they get a little frustrated because you got information in the case file but you cant share it with them because it can compromise the case.

Early said a prosecutor and victim witness advocate is assigned to each unresolved murder case.

We want people to know that none of these cases have been forgotten, Early said. We had two that just recently led to arrests: Jeremiah Oliver, the young child that was killed out in Fitchburg and found by the side of the highway on 190; and Franklin Mane, from Worcester, who was found out in Leominster in a parking lot. And getting information has led to a couple of these arrests.

Worcester County District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. reveals a newly revamped website that will have access to Worcester County's significant unresolved murders.

In addition, recently solved murder cases are also posted on the website.

Were showing the ones weve solved to give people hope, Early said. The unfortunate dynamic is when we do solve a case, the families are happy. But now you get the other families asking, 'What about us? Are they still working on the case?' Thats where the communication comes into play is we let them know were still working on your case. Nothing take a backseat to these murders.

Anyone with information on an unresolved case can call (508) 453-7589 or email WorcesterDAunresolved@mass.gov

While DNA tests has been instrumental in solving cases and bringing killers to justice, Early stresses that eyewitness testimony, identifications, investigations and even guilty consciences can lead to important breaks in a case.

Its not always DNA. Its old-fashioned, boots-on-the-ground, police doing work, shoe-leather, leading to tips and further information, Early said. Thats why tips are so important.

Brittany Tee

While 35 unsolved homicide cases are highlighted, Early said you wont see a case like that of Brittany Tee, the 35-year-old Brookfield woman missing since Jan. 10, on the list.

Brittany Tee is still one of those things they are working hard on, Early said. There are a couple of different possibilities we got on the case but we cant conclusively say its anything yet. But theyre still working hard on it and theyre still taking tips.

The DA list does not include unresolved cases in Worcester. Those are on the Worcester Police Department website: https://www.worcesterma.gov/police/investigations/unresolved-cases

Another high-profile case, the death of Holly Piirainen of Grafton, also remains unresolved. The remains of the 10-year-old girl were found in Brimfield on Oct. 23, 1993, 11 weeks after she was last seen in Sturbridge. The case is handled by the Hampden County district attorney.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Worcester County unsolved murders DA Joseph Early revamps website
Echoes of the school shooting in Parkland continued to reverberate Friday as families of murdered students and faculty walked with members of Congress through Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School hours before technicians involved in a lawsuit reenacted the shooting with live gunfire.

Family members who lost loved ones in the shooting greeted a bipartisan delegation of U.S. representatives at the campus early in the morning and then toured the schools 1200 building, where Nikolas Cruz gunned down 17 and wounded 17 more on Feb. 14, 2018.

After the walk-through  which led lawmakers through bullet-pocked corridors  the group left the school and reconvened for a private gathering at a Coral Springs hotel.

Going through that building is like going through a time capsule of that horrific moment, U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, a Miami Republican, later told reporters. To tell you the truth, I was kind of dreading this moment, but Im glad I was here. Im incredibly grateful to the loved ones because I cant even imagine what it has to be like to relive those moments, time and time again, as theyve had to do through trial.

The families gathered with members of Congress to discuss school safety. Gun-control was also discussed.

When it happened, the shooting spurred new gun laws and school-security policies in Florida, leading to speculation that gridlock in Congress over gun and school safety might budge. But legislative movement at the federal level has been more difficult to come by.

We just had a shared experience that will transform our lives for the rest of our lives. To see the blood of children on the floor, in a school together, is going to change the way we interact and collaborate with each other going forward, said Congressman Jamaal Bowman, D-NY, who was hopeful that the experience would bring lawmakers closer together and initiate change.

I want to see leadership in the House, leadership in the Senate, I want to see the White House come down here and take the tour, he said. They walked us through minute by minute of what happened that day and we got a chance to hear from the families who have lost loved ones. So while were playing politics, and theater, and all of that in Washington, these families are grieving every day.

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But after the tour of the building, which was preserved as evidence, it wasnt clear that anyones mind had changed on polarizing issues of gun safety.

Parkland, Florida, August 4, 2023 - Members of Congress along with Nikolas Cruzs prosecutors and members of the victims families visited the site of the shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School. They were led to the same door gunman Nikolas Cruz entered. They then took the same path he did during the six-minute attack. The tour of the building took place before a reenactment of the shooting featuring live gunfire. The reenactment is part of a lawsuit against the schools former resource officer Scot Peterson.

Today was not Walk people through the building and within a blink of an eye were going to have bills on the floor, said Democratic U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz, a Stoneman Douglas alum who as a state representative in 2018 voted on Floridas landmark gun legislation in the weeks after the Parkland shooting.

We have to start that conversation again, we have to figure out where there is agreement. We know where we disagree. But we have to figure out where we agree, he said. And we have to figure out how we build trust between the two parties to work together to where things dont get politicized.

After the families and U.S representatives left the school, men with equipment could be seen setting up gear near the 1200 building for a reenactment of the shooting, planned as part of an ongoing civil case between families of the victims and Scot Peterson, the Broward Sheriffs Office deputy assigned to the school at the time of the shooting.

The families sued Peterson because he did not enter the building as the shooter fired rounds from an AR-15-style rifle. Peterson faced child-neglect charges for failing to confront the shooter. He said he didnt know where the shooting was coming from  an account echoed by witnesses  and was acquitted by a jury.

The reenactment, approved by a judge, was intended to test those accounts.

Reporters were not allowed on campus Friday to observe the reenactment, and were stationed off-campus. According to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 49 rounds and four test shots were fired throughout the afternoon. Reporters were able to hear four shots.

Parkland, Florida, August 4, 2023 - Workers carry equipment inside the freshman building at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School where Nikolas Cruz killed 17 people 5 years ago. They were preparing for a reenactment of the shooting featuring live gunfire. The reenactment is part of a lawsuit against the schools former resource officer Scot Peterson.

With Cruzs trial ended  he received life in prison  the Broward County School Board intends to demolish the building in the near future.

Tony Montalto, whose daughter Gina was killed in the shooting, said while the building needed to stay up for reenactment, he hopes to see a memorial at the site when it eventually comes down.

You cant just make it a parking lot. We should have something thats visible from the road. Something so people know where the tragedy took place, said Montalto. But we should always remember, it was a tragedy because of who we lost.

Montalto is the president of the Stand with Parkland organization, an advocacy group for public safety reforms. With time and patience he believes that change will come.

Weve done a lot here in Florida and were going to continue to work in Florida. Were going to continue to work better. We just have to be patient, said Montalto. Let it take its course, proceed one step at a time and I am confident that we will see more congressional action.
Some members of Congress are calling for the January 6th trial of former president Donald Trump to be televised.

The resolution was put forward by Democrat Congressman Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania.

Calling on the Judicial Conference of the United States to authorize that the trial of former President Donald J. Trump for his alleged crimes related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his role in the January 6, 2021 insurrection be broadcast to the American public, according to the official resolution.

Massachusetts Congressman Stephen Lynch is among the leaders who signed the paper.

Trump pleaded not guilty on Thursday, just two days after a grand jury indicted him on four charges related to the Jan. 6, 2021, violence at the U.S. Capitol and attempts to pressure officials into changing the election results.

He faces charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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According to Wild Aware Utah, the mountain lion has been a protected species in Utah since 1967. Its still on the protected species list, but thanks to a new law passed in March, its no longer getting much actual protection, Utah Public Radio reports. Instead, the state legislature has decided to allow hunting and trapping of mountain lions year-round without a permit.

What happened?

The new law, H.B. 469 Wildlife Related Amendments, mostly concerns conservation and has set aside about $1 million for that effort, UPR reports. However, at the last minute, Sen. Scott Sandall added an amendment allowing mountain lion hunting.

While many species can be hunted only with a permit that specifies how many animals a hunter can take, there is no longer any such permit requirement for mountain lions, UPR explains. As of May 3, hunters need only a general hunting license from the state, and there is no annual limit on the number of mountain lions theyre allowed to shoot or trap.

Now, anyone with just a hunting license can go out any time of year. And they can hunt and they can trap mountain lions, Aaron Bott, a wildlife biologist, told UPR.

Why does the new bill matter?

Caitlin Curry, vice chair of the Utah Chapter of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers (BHA), told UPR that mountain lions are hard to hunt.

Given that, its probably unlikely that this will significantly impact harvest rates, Curry said, while adding that the BHA was surprised by the new rule.

According to the BHA, the way that the provision was added to the bill at the last minute without an opportunity for public comment is a concern, UPR reports.

If large predator populations like mountain lions are harmed, that can damage the entire ecosystem, as the National Science Foundation explains. The removal of large predators allows prey animals to multiply out of control, overwhelming their food sources and leading to mass die-offs  a series of events called a trophic cascade.

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This phenomenon can even affect the local geography, as in Yellowstone National Park, when the loss of native wolves affected the beaver population and changed the course of local streams.

A trophic cascade in Utah would damage the areas agriculture and economy and harm the environment.

What can be done to protect Utahs mountain lions?

While Utah residents werent given the opportunity to comment on this change, they can comment and vote on future policy changes regarding the states conservation and hunting programs. They can also vote for representatives who take conservation seriously.

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President Joe Biden. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Conservative groups just filed a lawsuit to block Biden's latest student-debt relief effort.

Last month, Biden announced $39 billion in relief for 800,000 borrowers through an adjustment to income-driven repayment plans.

The groups argued it was an overreach of authority and harmed their nonprofit recruiting efforts.

The lawsuits aren't over for President Joe Biden's student-loan forgiveness plans.

On Friday, the New Civil Liberties Alliance  a nonprofit organization aimed at protecting constitutional freedoms  filed a lawsuit on behalf of conservative groups Cato Institute and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy to stop Biden's latest plan to forgive student debt for a targeted group of borrowers.

Last month, the Education Department said it would be automatically canceling $39 billion in student debt for 804,000 borrowers as a result of changes to the department's income-driven repayment plans. The relief was for borrowers who have completed the necessary 20 or 25 years of qualifying payments. The groups wrote in a press release that the relief is an "utter disregard for federal law and the Constitution," and they sued the department in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, asking the court to set the relief aside.

The same groups also challenged Biden's broad plan to cancel up to $20,000 in student debt for federal borrowers, which the Supreme Court struck down at the end of June.

"Despite its massive expense and impact on the legal rights and obligations of millions of borrowers, the Department did not promulgate this policy through mandatory notice-and-comment and negotiated rulemaking procedures," the groups said in their complaint. "Instead, it used a press release that neither identified the policy's legal authority nor considered its exorbitant price tag."

The complaint added that the relief would harm the groups' recruiting efforts because it would make the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program  which forgives student debt for government and nonprofit workers after ten years of qualifying payments  less impactful for job candidates. They argued that as nonprofits, "unlawful cancellation of student-loan debt reduces the amount of a borrower's PSLF-cancellable debt and thus reduces the amount by which PSLF benefits qualified employment."

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An Education Department spokesperson said that "this lawsuit is nothing but a desperate attempt from right wing special interests to keep hundreds of thousands of borrowers in debt, even though these borrowers have earned the forgiveness that is promised through income-driven repayment plans. We are not going to back down or give an inch when it comes to defending working families."

The department has also already begun notifying borrowers who qualify to have their loans forgiven. This comes right before borrowers are set to resume payments again in October after an over three-year pause on payments  and the department said it was working to get relief to those eligible through the IDR before payments resume. It's unclear at this point how this lawsuit will impact that timeline.

Read the original article on Business Insider
ORLANDO, Fla.  Construction companies and outdoor workers across the Southeast and Southwest have been on the front lines of the heat wave this summer, and companies are taking extra steps to prevent heat-related illness and get the job done on time.

For DPR Construction, operating in Florida and across the Southeast, protecting their workers from heat has always been part of the business. This year, the messaging to employees about signs of heat exhaustion and illness started early as heat indices across job sites in Florida reached into the triple digits by mid-June and have shown little sign of wavering.

"One of the things that we do at DPR is in the springtime, we start talking about it. You have to get the message out before the actual summer temperatures are here. Even in some of the cooler days in the springtime," DPR Superintendent Lance Wafler said.

HOW HOT IS IT? RECORDS THAT HAVE STOOD FOR OVER 100 YEARS ARE TUMBLING

DPR will place water stations throughout project sites and provide workers with shaded break areas and electrolyte pops to help manage the heat. Additionally, DPR has a paramedic ready to respond to any health concerns. Wafler said they are a phone call away or onsite.

Lunch tables at a DPR Construction project site. (Image courtesy: DPR Construction)

Doctors are reporting the deadly U.S. heat wave is causing an increase in heat stroke and heat exhaustion patients across the country. Outdoor workers who know how to manage hot temperatures are now coming into urgent care centers and hospitals when they are usually the least likely to need treatment, according to doctors FOX Weather interviewed.

Wafler said it comes back to ensuring employees know the signs of heat exhaustion and heat stroke.

"So they can say, 'Hey, I'm not feeling well. I'm feeling lightheaded.' The symptoms that are well documented with heat illness," Wafler said. "Then we can bring them to see the onsite paramedic and say, 'OK yeah, I'm seeing that too. Why don't you here hang out their conditioning? Here's an electrolyte pop.' Then they can make the determination of we need to go further from a medical standpoint."

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Project managers face other challenges beyond keeping their workers safe.

WHAT'S WORSE: HUMID HEAT OR DRY HEAT?

Crews can begin work before the sun is up to help avoid peak temperatures.

In north Texas, crews working on the Methodist Celina Medical Center began pouring concrete at 1 a.m. to avoid heat interfering with the concrete setting. Another crew starts work at 4 a.m., reports FOX 4 Dallas-Fort Worth.

Texas was an early victim of the historic heat wave, with repeated Excessive Heat Warnings since mid-June in sweltering temperatures.

Wafler said pouring concrete overnight and finishing concrete in daylight is an industry standard because of how concrete sets.

A DPR project site. (Image courtesy: DPR Construction)

"It's a chemical reaction, and it generates heat. So when the ambient temperature in the air is hotter, that process will react faster, and there are times when we won't be able to perform our work if it's reacting too fast," Wafler said. "That's why we try to do it earlier in the morning when it's cooler, and then there's things you can do from a mix design standpoint to slow down that reaction."

HOW TO WATCH FOX WEATHER

There are additional challenges with pre-dawn work, including making sure there is enough lighting and managing different start times for other contractors.

The world saw its hottest June, and July is likely to be the world's warmest on record.

Project sites in the heat wave and Southeast are some of the most weather-dependent work sites. A late evening shift in Florida isn't an option because of afternoon and evening thunderstorms.

Wafler said early shifts aren't a new concept in construction, but now it's becoming "more of a question of when are we going to do it versus if we're going to do it."
Controversial internet influencer Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan have been released from house arrest in Romania ahead of their trial on charges of human trafficking and rape, Bucharests Court of Appeals announced on Friday.

The Tate brothers and two Romanian female accomplices were released from house arrest and put under judicial control for a period of 60 days from August 4 to October 2, according to a court statement.

The suspects were under house arrest pending a criminal investigation for abuses committed against seven women, accusations they have denied.

Tate was first arrested in the Romanian capital of Bucharest in December 2022, before he and his brother were detained in police custody until March.

Andrew Tate has also been charged with raping one of the victims, while his brother Tristan was charged with inciting others to violence.

Prosecutors have said the Tate brothers recruited their victims by seducing them and falsely claiming to want a relationship or marriage.

Andrew Tate (right) and his brother Tristan (left), pictured in Bucharest on August 1, 2023, were released from house arrest on Friday. They faces charges of rape and human trafficking in Romania. - Andreea Alexandru/AP

The Tate brothers are the highest-profile suspects to face trial on human-trafficking charges in Romania.

The American-British former kickboxer rose to internet fame last year, tallying 11.6 billion views on TikTok while ranting about male dominance, female submission and wealth. Already known for myriad scandals, he was one of the most-Googled people in 2022.

Human rights campaigners, school teachers and police figures have warned against his influence on young minds across communities around the world.

Earlier this year, the chief executive of Rape Crisis in England and Wales, Jayne Butler, said she was deeply concerned by the dangerous ideology of misogynistic rape culture that Mr. Tate spreads.

In the UK, his sway over teenage boys of all backgrounds has promoted concern in schools and discussion in parliament.

The court in Bucharest on Friday said the release comes on the grounds that the brothers do not leave the Municipality of Bucharest and Ilfov county without prior approval from the court.

In addition, they do not possess, use, or carry weapons, they regularly communicate updates, and that they do not come into contact with any of the other defendants (besides themselves), witnesses in the trial, victims, plaintiffs and their families, the statement said.

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A host of experts and officials have recently defended the safety of genetically modified food, as China seeks to bolster public acceptance of GMO products and invest more in technology-driven crop breeding.

An article published by the Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Affairs in April said that food and animal feed produced with genetically modified raw materials are as safe as ordinary products and do not cause infertility in humans or animals.

The article, released by the ministry's science education department, said before being made commercially available in China the products undergo lengthy safety vetting in accordance with internationally recognized standards.

Safety tests and assessments by respected scientific research institutions in recent years have shown that GMO products approved for market have no food safety issues. However, some opponents of such products have cited research papers questioning their safety, which the ministry said has "serious flaws".

A study by a professor at the University of Lyon in France, claimed that GMO feed caused tumors in mice. Another research paper produced at Italy's University of Naples concluded that farm animals had been harmed after feeding on GMO crops.

The ministry said these studies have been questioned by the scientific community for having flawed experiment designs or manipulated data. "These papers have been retracted, and the researchers involved have even faced investigations," it said.

A 2015 research paper by a Ukrainian agricultural research institution published in the scientific journal Reports of Morphology recently gained traction on Chinese social media. It said that feeding pigs genetically modified soybeans was found to lead to decreased fertility.

However, the ministry's article said that evaluation by China's National Agricultural GMO Safety Commission showed that the Ukrainian research paper's experiment design was flawed.

"Genetically modified feed has been used worldwide for over 20 years, and its safety has been extensively verified through practical applications. Claims that genetically modified products affect human or animal fertility have no scientific basis or medical evidence from authoritative sources and are purely falsehoods and misguidance," it said.

Farmer's Daily on Tuesday published a front-page commentary stressing that GMO products approved for market are all safe.

It said mandatory labeling of commercial genetically modified products helps consumers make informed choices and does not mean food safety is compromised.

"In the past, there were often 'non-GMO' labels for products such as sunflower seed oil and peanut oil, which misled the public and made consumers mistakenly believe that there were many genetically modified products in the market," it said.

It is ironic that there are no GMO sunflower seeds or peanuts in China or elsewhere, it added.

In an interview with People.cn, the website of People's Daily newspaper, Zhuo Qin, a nutritionist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said genetically modified crops have been planted across the world on commercial scales since 1996. Growing areas cover 2.66 billion hectares, and genetically modified food is being consumed by billions of people in over 70 countries and regions.

"There has not been a single scientifically confirmed safety incident," Zhuo said.

The efforts to repair the reputation of GMO products come as the Russia-Ukraine conflict and extreme weather conditions threaten global food production and supplies.

Huang Yubi, a professor at the Sichuan Agricultural University in Chengdu, Sichuan province, and a crop breeding expert, said genetic modification technology is a viable solution to ensuring food security and stability.

He told financial news outlet cls.cn that genetic modification can give food products traits such as resistance to insects and diseases, and eradicate the need for herbicides. This reduces costs and ensures yields, but does not technically bolster yields.

Future research efforts could focus on genes that provide drought resistance and heat tolerance. "In the context of global warming, genetic modification is one of the effective approaches," he said.

China has one of the world's strictest approval processes for genetically modified food production.

As of now, only four crops  cotton, rice, corn and papaya  have acquired safety clearance from the National Agricultural GMO Safety Commission.

Among the crops, only cotton and papaya have obtained further approval to be planted for commercial purposes.
Cook Outs spinoff taco concept appears headed to Charlotte  but little is known about the brand.

Cook Out apparently cooking up a new restaurant concept in North Carolina

Filings with the city of Charlotte in late May indicate that Cook Out-N Tryon St. Inc. is planning a Taco Roos location at 9605 N. Tryon St. The project is described as a 1,820-square-foot taco restaurant.

The Cook Out team first opened a concept called Taco Roos in Wilmington in 2020. That location has since closed, according to Instagram. CBJ sister publication the Triangle Business Journal reports that another concept, named Roos Chicken, is planned for Raleigh at the site of a former KFC.

Read more here.

VIDEO: Craving authentic Italian? Check out this Matthews market and deli




Oleksii Danilov, Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council (NSDC) of Ukraine, said that Ukraine will continue to do everything in its power to provide the world with food despite the threats coming from the Russian Federation.

Source: Danilov in an interview with Ukrainske Radio (Ukrainian Radio)

Details: The NSDC Secretary specified that the meeting of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief's Staff was held today for the 97th time since the beginning of the full-scale war on 24 February 2022. Todays meeting was quite long and lasted almost three hours.

One of the key issues on the agenda was the supply of grain to the world, which Ukraine keeps under control and is not going to stop.

Danilov emphasised that there was no "agreement" with Russia, there were agreements with the UN, which is directly responsible for certain processes in connection with the UN Charter, and there were certain agreements with Turkiye, which also has access to the Black Sea.

Quote: "We couldnt care less what [agreements - ed.] Russia withdrew from because we had no relations with them on this matter. We will do what we think is necessary, we will move ships with grain where we think it is necessary, and we will not ask anyone's permission.

The fact that a terrorist country is currently terrorising not just our country but also the whole world is more a question to the world itself: to what extent will they tolerate these atrocities committed by the Russian Federation? Whether it is flying into the territory of Poland, a NATO country, together with the Belarusians or attacking the ports of Izmail, which are actually on the border of Romania (also a NATO member-state). It's hard to say when they [the international community - ed.] will lose patience, but we'll definitely do everything in our power to make our food available to the world."

Ukrainska Pravda is the place where you will find the most up-to-date information about everything related to the war in Ukraine. Follow us on Twitter, support us, or become our patron!
More than 40 states participating in the meeting in the city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Saturday and Sunday will share responsibility for individual points of the Ukrainian peace formula.

Source: Ihor Zhovkva, deputy head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, said this in an interview with Radio Svoboda, European Pravda reports.

Details: Speaking about the role of the participants in the Jeddah meeting, Zhovkva explained that not all states will participate in the implementation of all 10 principles of the Ukrainian peace formula, and this is "absolutely normal".

Quote: "Therefore, one of the tasks of the summit in Jeddah will be the distribution of responsibilities between the countries regarding joint implementation or co-leadership for this or that point," he added.

"If China talks about nuclear safety, then China can absolutely, for example, be a co-leader in the first point on nuclear safety. And if Brazil is concerned about environmental issues, it can easily be a co-leader, co-organizer in point number eight," Zhovkva explained.

Zhovkva added that none of the leaders objected to the necessity of the Ukrainian peace formula and noted that there are fewer and fewer alternatives being suggested.

Quote: "Because the Ukrainian side, continuing work on this peace formula, takes into account the rational wishes of our partners," the official explained.

Background:

Ukrainska Pravda is the place where you will find the most up-to-date information about everything related to the war in Ukraine. Follow us on Twitter, support us, or become our patron!








BRANCH COUNTY  County commissioners approved a second $250,000 loan for Maple Lawn, the county-owned nursing home and rehabilitation facility, at its Thursday work session.

Official approval will come next Thursday at its formal meeting.

Financials for the cash-strapped facility were positive for the last four months, but a third $340,000 payroll in August left administrator Jayne Sabaitis and her board requesting a second loan.

Commission Chairman Tim Stoll raised questions about how the board could determine if Sabaitis is implementing the future business plan the county required a year ago when granting the first loan without benchmarks to measure success.

Commission Chairman Tim Stoll wants Maple Lawn accountants Plant/Moran to come answer board questions.

Commissioner Tom Matthew questioned the facilitys balance sheet and budget of $16 million. Stoll and Matthew questioned Sabaitis for over half an hour during the meeting.

Sabaitis said costs and expenses were comparable to Michigans other 42 county-owned nursing facilities.

The commission asked that representatives of accountants Plant Moran attend the commission meeting for her next report to the commissioners.

A year ago, state Medicaid officials began taking back payments made during COVID-19, causing Maple Lawn to face cash deficits for its operations.

Commissioner Tom Matthew

At that time, Maple Lawn learned it could qualify for $3.6 million in Employee Retention Credits from COVID-19 relief money.

Sabaitis said the IRS has denied the claim because Maple Lawn files federal tax returns under the same tax ID as the county. Plant Moran filed an appeal of that decision.

Sabaitis told commissioners Thursday, Plant Moran has indicated they believe we will receive that money. Other county medical care facilities have received those funds in whatever amounts were owed to them.

Prior story Financially strapped Maple Lawn budgets $1.2 million more revenue for 2023

With $500,000 in loans and $200,000 used from memorial funds, commissioners want assurance the nursing facility can pay back the loans and memorial fund.

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Commission liaison with Maple Lawn, Jon Houtz, pointed out the nursing home cannot cut back on its operations. If they cut staffing where do the patients go? They need that care.

Nursing and nursing assistant shortages during COVID-19 kept patient count down.

Sabaitis said the patient census hit 101 out of a maximum of 114 beds this month.

Maple Lawn must balance staffing with the number of those seeking care. Admission was down in July.

Maple Lawn administrator Jayne Sabiatis

Sabaitis told the commissioners, The highest census average in 2022 was 88. So far since January all the months in 2023 have been 90 or above. We are moving in the right direction.

The director said, In the first six months of 2022, the facility had lost $1.3 million. As of the first six months in 2023, the facility has made $156,000.

The director also pointed out that when the state withholds Medicaid money, it does so immediately. The state owes Maple Law between $800,000 and $1.2 million in Medicaid payments. We dont know when we will receive those.

Subscriber Follow county government. Subscribe to the Daily Reporter.

Those payments would allow Maple Lawn to meet its August third payroll, but the board wanted the second county loan to ensure it had funds to meet all expenses this month.

---Contact Don Reid: dReid@Gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Coldwater Daily Reporter: County commission OKs second Maple Lawn loan with questions
The Pechersk Court in Kyiv imposed restrictive measures on five State Emergency Service officials suspected in the case of the Brovary helicopter crash that killed Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky in January.

The head of the Emergency Service's Department of Aviation and Air Search and Rescue, its acting commander, the aviation squadron commander, and the deputy commander for flight training will be detained without bail.

Meanwhile, the head of the flight safety service of the Special Aviation unit from Nizhyn, Chernihiv Oblast, will be put under 24-hour house arrest.

According to the Suspilne news outlet, the pre-trial measures were imposed on all the suspects for the next two months. Department head Ivan Korobka and another Emergency Service official Oleh Ivanov told journalists they disagreed with the court's decision and would file appeals.

The officials were earlier charged with safety violations and negligence that allegedly led to the helicopter crash, which claimed the lives of 15 people.

On Jan. 18, a helicopter carrying Ukraine's Interior Ministry top officials crashed next to a kindergarten and an apartment building in Brovary, a city just east of Kyiv.

Read also: Explainer: What we know about helicopter crash that killed children, top officials

All 10 people on board were killed, including Monastyrsky, his deputy Yevhen Yenin, and the ministry's secretary Yurii Lubkovych. On the ground, four women and a child were also killed, while some 31 people, including 13 children, were wounded.

The State Bureau of Investigation discovered that Interior Ministry officials had been traveling to Kharkiv and Dnipro oblasts on a helicopter intended exclusively for emergency situations in Kyiv Oblast. The helicopter had to fly at an extremely low altitude due to adverse weather conditions and poor visibility.

The crew did not have appropriate permits to fly in such weather, and the commander was not provided with data on meteorological conditions before the flight, according to the investigation. The flight safety also failed to cancel the trip despite the dangerous weather conditions.

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However, Korobka told Suspilne that all actions and decisions during the flight occurred in accordance with the "guiding documents," and the crew level allowed to transport the ministry's management team.

"I am accused of making baseless decisions on the flight, which resulted in the disaster. I do not agree with this," he said, adding that the weather was okay for flying.

Read also: How kindergarten morning in Kyiv suburb turned into tragedy

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The court has ordered the detention of Ivan Korobka, head of the Main Aviation Coordination Centre of Search and Rescue of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, in the case concerning the helicopter crash in the town of Brovary in Kyiv Oblast of Ukraine.

Source: Ukrainian media outlet Suspilne

Details: Korobka stated that he does not agree with the ruling of the judge. Defence lawyers are planning to submit an appeal.

Quote: "I am accused of baseless decision-making during the flight that resulted in the catastrophe. I do not agree with this. The crew was authorised to conduct flights under bad weather conditions and to transport the leadership. There is no such thing as bad weather; there are just conditions under which the crew must conduct flights. The weather was good."

More details: In addition, the court chose two months in custody without the right to bail for Andrii Dvornyk, the official of the State Emergency Service. He is suspected of violating traffic safety rules or operating air transport, which led to the deaths of people.

Two months of detention without bail were chosen for Oleh Ivanov, the official of the State Emergency Service. In comments to reporters, he said that he did not agree with the decision and would appeal. When asked why the flight was not cancelled, he replied: "This is beyond my competence". According to Ivanov, the decision on the flight had to be made by the minister.

Acting unit commander Volodymyr Leonov and his lawyer declined to comment on the courts decision.

Update: The court ordered two months of round-the-clock house arrest with wearing an electronic bracelet to Yan Koshman, head of the flight safety service of the Special Aviation Squadron of the Operational Rescue Service of the Civil Protection of the State Emergency Service, with the exception of the need for medical care and a Russian air raid.

In addition, according to the Suspline, the court ordered him to hand over his Ukrainian and international passports for storage, and to report a change of residence. The court also forbade the suspect to visit the territory of the Special Aviation Squadron of the State Emergency Service and communicate with employees.

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Background:

On the morning of 18 January, a helicopter crashed near a kindergarten in Brovary, Kyiv Oblast, causing a fire to break out.

The helicopter crash killed the top leadership of the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs: Denys Monastyrskyi, Minister of Internal Affairs; Yevhen Yenin , First Deputy Interior Minister; and Yurii Lubkovych , State Secretary of the Interior Ministry are among those killed. There were 14 victims in total, including a child.

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, Deputy Head of the Presidents Office, has said that the helicopter crash in Brovary, Kyiv Oblast, occurred during a flight by Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyi to one of Ukraines hotspots where fighting is ongoing.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) has started an investigation into the helicopter crash in Brovary. Among the main avenues of investigation are the following: violation of flight rules, technical malfunction and intentional actions.

The State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) had served notices of suspicion on the five officials of the State Emergency Service (SES) of Ukraine whose actions caused the plane crash on 18 January 2023, which killed the top leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

It was revealed that they violated flight safety rules for a helicopter carrying the top officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine. The aircraft crashed on 18 January 2023 in Brovary.

The State Emergency Service of Ukraine suspended the officials served with a notice of suspicion in the case of the helicopter crash in the settlement of Brovary, Kyiv Oblast, which resulted in the deaths of the top leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine.

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By Olena Harmash

KYIV (Reuters) -A Ukrainian sea drone full of explosives struck a Russian fuel tanker overnight near a bridge linking Russia to annexed Crimea, the second such attack in 24 hours, both sides said on Saturday.

No one was hurt, but the Crimean Bridge and ferry transport were suspended for several hours, according to Russian-installed officials in Crimea, which Moscow seized from Ukraine in 2014.

A Ukrainian intelligence source told Reuters that the drone with 450 kg of explosives hit the SIG vessel as it transported fuel for the Russian military in Ukrainian territorial waters.

"The tanker was well loaded with fuel, so the 'fireworks' were seen from afar," the source said, of the joint operation by Ukraine's navy and security service.

Kyiv says destroying Russia's military infrastructure inside Russia or on Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine is crucial to its counteroffensive after the February 2022 invasion.

Another sea drone attack on Russia's navy base at Novorossiysk damaged a warship on Friday, the first time the Ukrainian navy had projected its power so far from its shores.

And a Ukrainian government agency warned on Saturday that six Russian Black Sea ports - Anapa, Novorossiysk, Gelendzhik, Tuapse, Sochi, and Taman - were in "war risk area".

Moscow has bombed Ukrainian ports since its withdrawal last month from a U.N.-brokered deal to let Ukraine export grain.

FUEL FOR TROOPS

The SIG tanker had been supplying oil to Russian troops in Syria, according to Vladimir Rogov, a Russian-appointed official in Ukraine's southeastern region of Zaporizhzhia.

The United States imposed sanctions on the tanker and its owner, St. Petersburg-based Transpetrochart, in 2019 for helping provide jet fuel in Syria.

Vasyl Malyuk, head of Ukraine's SBU security service, did not directly confirm the latest attack but said any incident with Russian ships or the Crimean bridge was "an absolutely logical and efficient step towards the enemy".

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"Moreover, such special operations are conducted in the territorial waters of Ukraine and are completely legal," Malyuk said on the Telegram messaging app.

Russia's Novorossiysk Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre was quoted by the RIA news agency as saying there was no fuel spill from the SIG, as the ship had been carrying only technical ballast. Recovery work was underway with two tugboats nearby.

Rogov posted an audio clip on Telegram in which the SIG requested a tow. He also posted pictures of what he described as shattered fixtures and equipment inside the vessel.

"The SIG tanker ... received a hole in the engine room near the waterline on the starboard side, preliminarily as a result of a sea drone attack," Russia's Federal Marine and River Transport agency said in a statement on Telegram.

The Moscow-installed authorities in Crimea said the bridge, which was completed by Russia in 2018 and has come under serious attack twice in the war, was not targeted.

(Reporting by Tom Balmforth, Lidia Kelly, Ron Popeski and Nick StarkovWriting by Lidia Kelly, Ron Popeski and Olena HarmashEditing by William Mallard, Andrew Cawthorne and Frances Kerry)
The Cal State University Office of the Chancellor in Long Beach. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

In 2015, the California State University embarked on an ambitious goal: Over the next decade, it would dramatically boost graduation rates and eliminate persistent gaps for Black, Latino and Indigenous students.

But a report released Thursday by the Campaign for College Opportunity, an organization that advocates for college access, predicts the system will fall short of most of its 2025 benchmarks. And while graduation rates have increased overall, the analysis found that racial gaps remain  and widened at some campuses.

While we celebrate the gains and graduation rates across the CSU system, not all students are being lifted equally by the tide, said Michele Siqueiros, president of the Campaign for College Opportunity and principal author of the report.

When Cal State, the nations largest four-year system of public higher education, announced its bold plan known as Graduation Initiative 2025, it aimed to improve two-, four- and six-year graduation rates for first-time and transfer students.

Read more: Cal State students: Brace yourselves for the possibility of a 6% tuition hike every year

The system set clear targets: It wants at least 40% of first-time students to graduate in four years and at least 70% to graduate in six years. For transfer students, the goal is to raise two-year graduation rates to 45% and four-year graduation rates to 85%.

The organization's analysis found the system has made progress on graduation across the board, and the system is on track to meet its four-year graduation goal for first-time students. But it is unlikely the system will meet its goals for six-year graduation rates for first-time students, and both goals for transfer students.

This of course would be devastating, not just for the students whose untapped talent has not been fully realized, but for the state of California and our nation, given the important need for educated workers of all backgrounds, Siqueiros said, adding that equity gaps remain unacceptably high.

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The report also found that graduation rates for Black, Latino and Indigenous students still lag significantly behind their white and Asian peers.

In 2022, 42% of first-time white, Asian, Pacific Islander and multi-ethnic students graduated in four years, according to the report. Meanwhile, 28% of first-time Black, Latino and Indigenous students graduated in the same amount of time.

The report also zeroed in on the experience of Black students, whose graduation rates are lower than other underrepresented groups in the system. Even at campuses with the highest graduation rates for Black students, including San Diego State University, their graduation rates lag behind white and Asian students by wide margins.

For the system to meet its graduation goals, Siqueiros said it must focus on improving the success for Black, Latino and Indigenous students by offering targeted, informed and differentiated strategies for supporting them.

The analysis also examined how each of the systems 23 campuses are faring individually, identifying vast differences across universities. Fourteen campuses narrowed gaps for Black, Latino and Indigenous students between 2016 and 2022 while the gap at nine other campuses widened, according to the report.

Overall graduation rates for first-time students in 2022 were highest at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, one of the most competitive campuses and least diverse in the system. They were lowest at Cal State Dominguez Hills and Cal State East Bay, according to the report.

Read more: Here's how new CSU Chancellor Mildred Garcia plans to take on a system in crisis

Between 2015 and 2022, the four-year graduation rate for first-time students at Cal State Los Angeles tripled to 25%, while the six-year graduation rate increased by 6 percentage points to 51%. At Cal State Long Beach, 38% of first-time students graduated in four years, and at Cal State Fullerton, 39%, according to the report.

CSU has said it is committed to eliminating equity gaps. In June, it released a report outlining recommendations for bolstering Black student success. And Mildred Garcia, a former two-time CSU president who was recently named chancellor, is credited with helping narrow gaps for Latino students during her time at Cal State Fullerton.

Jennifer Baszile, associate vice chancellor of student success and inclusive excellence for Cal State, acknowledged the system has more work to do. But she said during a webinar that the system must also acknowledge it has come a long way. For example, four-year graduation rates for first-time students leaped 19% to 35% in four years.

If institutions start from a challenged place and they are making progress, I think that we still have to have that deep appreciation for the work while we engage to push forward and to continue to make an impact, she said.

Melvin Ridley III, a San Diego State student and vice president of external relations for the universitys Associated Students, said the system must ensure that all students feel welcomed on campus. At San Diego State, Black, Indigenous and undocumented students have come to rely on campus resource centers for support, he said.

These centers have provided our students with spaces where they can come and find students that look like them, find professors and faculty administration that are willing to advocate for their needs, he said.

Also, campuses must make sure they are meeting students basic needs for housing and food, he said. Many Cal State students juggle multiple jobs , sometimes working 30 or 40 hours a week on top of attending class, to afford rent and other basic expenses.

If I, as a student, cannot basically feed myself and feel like I have the proper nutrition or the energy to go to class, I will not go to class, he said. My ability to live somewhere and sleep somewhere and obtain food comes first before obtaining my education.





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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
The Allegheny County District Attorneys Office is requesting records of a contract between the city of Pittsburgh and a consulting group.

The company, Matrix Consulting Group, released a report last month that suggested the city pull 188 officers out of the patrol unit.

RELATED >>> Channel 11 Exclusive: Police staffing study suggests Pittsburgh has enough officers

Its unclear why the D.A. made the request, but officials with the Gainey Administration were quick to defend the process that led to the contract with Matrix.

That study was procured in a legal, ethical and transparent fashion, Deputy Mayor Jake Pawlak said.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE >>> City Council president reacts to controversial Pittsburgh police staffing report

The contract was signed without a bidding process. Pawlak says the administration used an exemption because negotiations with the Fraternal Order of Police were about the begin and they believed information from the report may be needed.

Channel 11 obtained a copy of that waiver from our sources.

The exemption exists for a reason. We deployed it in a reasonable fashion, Pawlak said.

City council members also have questions about the exemption. District 4 representative Anthony Coghill tells Channel 11 they want to know more about the procurement process and who has the authority to award a no-bid contract.

We do feel maybe some things were done out of line there but not to the point where there was criminal activity by any means, Coghill said.

I have no idea what the concerns are because weve never received information from the district attorney as to what they are concerned about, Pawlak said.

District Attorney Stephen Zappala issued a statement Friday afternoon saying A number of concerns have been brought to my attention from the public and private officials pertaining to the citys public safety. Our office intends to thoroughly look into this to the best of our abilities.

We stand behind the process by which their services were secured and the questions now arising about the process, I believe, are frivolous and are either misguided or politically motivated, Pawlak said.

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My thoughts are I dont know. Could be. I know our district attorney very well. I dont think he does things out of spite, Coghill said.

The Gainey Administration plans to comply with both inquiries.

Coghill says he called Zappala and is hoping to have a conversation with him about the issue soon.

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In the occupied Crimean Peninsula, an unyielding spirit endures despite years of unremitting repression exerted by Russia upon Ukrainian citizens, particularly the Crimean Tatar population. Here, a determined force of Ukrainian partisans meticulously prepares for an armed uprising, waging a war largely in the shadows.

The resilience of Ukrainian partisans signifies an important shift: Crimean inhabitants are casting off their Russian-imposed fear, as they anticipate being liberated by Ukrainian armed forces in the near future.

Amidst continued Russian attempts to strengthen their defenses across Crimea, the flame of resistance against Russian occupation refuses to be extinguished. Ukrainian partisans make careful preparations to regain control of government buildings and military installations once Ukrainian forces reach Crimea's administrative borders.

Their actions attest to their readiness, from damaging railway lines, which Russia uses to transport military supplies, to covert displays of defiance and gathering critical intelligence for the Ukrainian army to strike Russian positions.

Read also: Ukraine war latest: More explosions reported in occupied Crimea

The Ukrainian National Resistance Center, created by the Ukrainian special forces, takes a leading role in organizing, training, and expanding these resistance movements. It provides guides on operating drones, capturing enemy tanks, and creating improvised weapons, all contributing to the continued liberation efforts.

Crimean partisans create havoc for Russian operations through various daring and disruptive actions. These include bombings, arson, and sabotage, specifically targeting infrastructure like rail networks and Russian military assets. There are often reported acts of sabotage inside Crimea by unknown actors.

For example, in December 2022, Russias Defense Ministry blamed saboteurs for explosions at a military warehouse in northern Crimea. In July 2023, Ukrainian intelligence reported that the explosions at ammunition warehouses near Sevastopol were caused by sabotage. The majority of these efforts are likely coordinated efforts with Ukrainian special forces, contributing significantly to their tactical disruptions.

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One of the primary partisan groups is ATESH, which translates to fire in Crimean Tatar. Based on its Telegram channel, the organizations primary mission is to dismantle the Russian army. Crimean Tatars account for 13% of the Crimean Peninsulas population, but 85% of political arrests and illegal searches were targeted against them by the Russian authorities. The frequency of confrontations between the pro-Ukrainian population and the occupational forces is on the rise.

Read also: Military intelligence: Crimean residents conduct systematic sabotage against Russian bases

Many in the Tatar population would take up arms if the Ukrainian army was approaching Crimea, according to Mustafa Dzemilev, one of the primary leaders of the Crimean Tatar community.

ATESHs public feats include setting a Russian military base ablaze in Sovietskyi and killing 30 Russian soldiers in the hospitals of Simferopol, among many others.

Despite such publicity, secrecy ultimately determines the effectiveness of partisan actions, creating a sense of paranoia among Russian occupiers. The group claimed that over 4,000 Russian soldiers have already enrolled in an online course on how to survive the war by destroying their own equipment.

Adding another layer to this unsettling environment is the work of the Yellow Ribbon organizers. Comprising about 2,000 individuals in Crimea, they counter Russian propaganda by defacing posters and other occupation symbols with yellow paint. The group opted for non-violent methods of resistance because they believe that in this way they can unite more people.

Yellow Ribbon partisans believe that such acts of defiance cause psychological stress among the Russian soldiers and their collaborators. Their disruptive actions echo across the digital sphere.

As one anonymous Yellow Ribbon coordinator told NV.UA, When he opens Telegram, when he opens online publications, YouTube, and sees everywhere the Yellow Ribbon, or some other actions of the Ukrainian resistance forces, he understands he doesnt belong here.

The Crimean Combat Seagulls, another partisan group, reportedly has over 1,000 members. It is a constant physical thorn in the side of Russian occupiers in Crimea, claiming responsibility for numerous acts of defiance, including arson attacks on Russian military vehicles and bombings on their military sites.

The partisans play a crucial role in the fight against the Russian occupiers. Their work in disrupting enemy logistics, gathering intelligence, and engaging in psychological warfare is integral to supporting Ukrainian military units. According to Ukraine's military intelligence, pro-Ukrainian residents have been conducting "systematic" attacks on Russian military bases in occupied Crimea using Molotov cocktails.

This resistance comes at great personal risk to partisans, as the peninsula is teeming with Russian intelligence and law enforcement agencies, revealing Russia's genuine fear of the movement. Russia is also resorting to mass detentions and violence to target individuals they consider "suspicious" and potentially involved in partisan activities.

The impending engagement of Crimea's partisans promises to further disrupt enemy operations to prepare the groundwork for Ukraine to liberate Crimea. This was evident even in Kherson, as the activity of partisans was critical to their liberation.

In response to these successful actions, Russia has increased efforts to identify Ukrainian underground members through random checks of passports and personal phones. The Russian occupational authorities have had to install over 150 new security cameras mainly along the railroads to protect against sabotage.

This also causes Russia to tie up resources in Crimea rather than deploying them to the front line. Crimean partisans even claimed they made an arrangement with a police chief, who offered them access to his arsenal when necessary, with the promise of putting in a good word on his behalf when the Ukrainian authorities return.

A student living on the occupied peninsula was fined 50,000 and 60,000 rubles ($546 and $655) for expressing support to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on TikTok. Similarly, another man received a fine for discrediting the Russian Armed Forces simply for sharing the Ukrainian flag on his Instagram. The Russian occupiers closely monitor even the smallest acts of resistance, aware that many locals are eager to rise and overthrow the occupying force.

Read also: Russias annexation of Crimea

In anticipation of an imminent Ukrainian operation, strict measures have been enforced by the occupying forces, such as banning recreational activities along the coast and disrupting mobile internet services to prevent locals from passing information to Ukrainian intelligence when Russian convoys are on the move.

Russian occupiers are digging trenches for many miles to prepare for trench warfare and families of military personnel are being secretly evacuated. Russia is also fortifying the region by mining a chemical factory in the northern town of Armiansk, to create a man-made disaster as a defense mechanism, much like what the Russians previously did by blowing up the Kakhovka Dam.

As the Ukrainian counteroffensive gradually progresses toward Crimea, the resistance movement within the occupied peninsula will only amplify. The involvement of Crimea's partisans in the resistance movement will play a crucial role in facilitating Ukraine's victorious liberation of the peninsula.

Today Crimea remains a territory of fear, but soon, like the rest of Ukraine, Crimea will be a territory of freedom once again.

Editors Note: The opinions expressed in the op-ed section are those of the authors and do not purport to reflect the views of the Kyiv Independent.

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The U.S. Coast Guard is known for many of its heroic endeavors, especially when it comes to rescuing civilians. However, the military branch known for its harrowing rescues has part of its origins in something people might find surprising: fighting smugglers and pirates.

The agency was founded on Aug. 4, 1790, when President George Washington signed the Tariff Act, according to the USCG.

Written and submitted by Secretary of Treasury Alexander Hamilton, the Tariff Act authorized the construction of 10 small ships called "cutters" under the control of the Treasury Department. The purpose of the ships, or "revenue cutters", was to enforce federal tariff and trade laws and to prevent smuggling and piracy.

A painting by Gil Cohen entitled: "Inspection of a Merchant Ship." Painting depicts crew of the Revenue Cutter Morris preparing to board the passenger ship Benjamin Adams on July 16, 1861.

In fact, the first anti-piracy action occurred in 1793. According to the USCG, the cutter Diligence ran a pirate vessel ashore in Chesapeake Bay.

Policing commerce on bays and other waterways was significant at the time. As neither the interstate nor the automobile existed, waterways and shipping vessels that traveled on them were the fastest and most convenient way to transport people and goods.

MAN, 2 DOGS RESCUED BY US COAST GUARD AS DISABLED SAILBOAT WRECKS AGAINST ROCKS

Given the valuable nature of some cargo, creating a maritime agency to protect them was a major priority for the American government, particularly the Treasury Department. In fact, the agency, which would later be called the Revenue Cutter Service, served as the countrys only maritime armed force until the Navy was established in 1798.

Nauset Life-Saving crew launching their surfboat, all wearing mixed uniforms with wading boots and cork life vests.

In the years that followed, the Revenue Cutter Service experienced a transformation. In 1915, it was combined with the U.S. Life-Saving Service, an agency comprised of dozens of crews stationed around the countrys coastlines with the purpose of saving the lives of people at sea. This merger resulted in the establishment of the "U.S. Coast Guard".

According to the USCG, the legislation that created the official USCG also codified the services long history of working alongside the nations other armed forces to defend the country by stating it "shall constitute a part of the military forces of the United States."

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A Coast Guard Cutter Stratton boarding team investigates a self-propelled semi-submersible interdicted in international waters off the coast of Central America, July 19, 2015.

In times of peace, the USCG operates as part of the Department of Homeland Security, while during times of war, it serves as part of the Navy.

HOW TO WATCH FOX WEATHER

Today, the Coast Guard serves as a law enforcement organization, a regulatory agency, a member of the U.S. Intelligence Community and a first responder, according to the USCG said.

It boasts a membership of more than 50,000, operating a fleet of 259 Cutters, 200 aircraft and more than 1,600 boats. According to the USCG, it oversees the high seas, more than 95,000 miles of U.S. coastline, 4.5 million square miles of the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone.
Carlos Barada was sentenced to life in prison for armed drug trafficking after a trial in Daytona Beach. He is also charged with first-degree murder in Polk County.

A Daytona Beach man may have briefly been relieved when a jury found him not guilty Friday of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer with a firearm. Then a court clerk read the rest of the verdict.

Jurors found 33-year-old Carlos L. Barada guilty of all the other charges: armed trafficking in fentanyl 28 grams or greater; armed trafficking in methamphetamine 28 grams or more but less than 200 grams; resisting an officer without violence; possession of paraphernalia; and carrying a concealed firearm.

Circuit Judge Karen Foxman said that given Baradas past criminal record involving guns and drugs, she felt he presented a danger to the community and sentenced him to life in prison on each of the two drug-trafficking charges. Barada also pleaded no contest after the trial to being a felon in possession of a firearm.

"I wish that you would have had hopefully a change of heart at any of the prior 12 felonies, but that did not happen," Foxman said.

And Barada is facing additional legal trouble in Polk County.

A Polk County grand jury indicted him and Justin Jenkins, 31, of South Daytona, on first-degree murder and other charges in the killing of 29-year-old Xavier Johnson of St. Petersburg, according to the Polk County Sheriffs Office.

The Daytona Beach case began Nov. 16, 2022, when police tried to stop a red Mercedes with dark-tinted windows. The car fled, and when officer Christopher Maher tracked it down, Barada ran from the vehicle.

Barada threw a bag of drugs onto the roof of a house as he ran from police, according to Assistant State Attorney Ashley Terwilleger. It turns out the bag included two separate bags of drugs: one with 163 grams of a mixture of fentanyl and xylazine and one with 189 grams of methamphetamine.

The officer caught up to Barada and took him to the ground. Maher accused him of trying to reach for a gun as the officer struggled to handcuff Barada while radioing for help.

Barada was arrested and police found a loaded 9 mm pistol in his pocket. Officers found an AK-47 assault rifle in the red Mercedes.

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Terwilleger told jurors during her closing argument that they can hear Maher telling Barada to stop reaching for the gun.

She said that Maher was still stressed minutes later saying that he thought Barada was going to shoot him.

She said another officer tried to calm Maher by saying Barada wasnt trying to shoot him.

You have the testimony that Christopher Maher was in fear for his life, Terwilleger said.

Terwilleger asked the judge to sentence Barada to life in prison.

"Obviously, the court is well aware of the epidemic in this country and particularly our community is facing when it comes to fentanyl and how dangerous fentanyl is," Terwilleger said.

Assistant Public Defenders Rachel Brothers and John Terhune represented Barada.

Terhune in his closing argument said that police told Barada not to reach into his waistband for the gun. But Terhune said the gun was in Baradas pocket, so he was not reaching for it.

Terhune also said that the officers body camera only activated when the officer was already struggling with Barada, so jurors did not have the full story from the video.

In a press release, State Attorney R.J. Larizza stated: This is an extremely dangerous individual. He traffics in fentanyl while armed with a firearm. He flees from law enforcement, and now he is on his way to Polk County to face murder charges. This scary individual will no longer be roaming our streets  he will die in our state prison system.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Daytona Beach man gets life for armed trafficking of fentanyl, meth
Lacey City Council on Thursday heard a mix of public reaction to the recent campaign sign controversy involving council members Ed Kunkel and Lenny Greenstein, both of whom were caught on video last month as Kunkel removed a campaign sign that wasnt his.

The sign belonged to Emily Clouse, a District 5 Thurston County Commission candidate. A lot has transpired since the incident: The council last week entertained a motion to censure both council members  a motion that ultimately did not pass  and then Kunkel later publicly apologized on his personal Facebook page.

The council on Thursday heard from those who support Kunkel, those who took issue with the censure vote, and those who said the council did not go far enough.

Michael Jameson, who said he has served and worked with Kunkel, called him a man of integrity and chalked up the whole incident to a misunderstanding.

It wasnt done with any malice aforethought, he said. It was confusion and thats the conclusion I have come to.

Joann Fletcher reminded those at the meeting that everyone makes mistakes and that what transpired was a minor mistake.

Hes a great man, a humble man and if you dont know him youre missing out, she said about Kunkel. Hes a great person and he would do anything for this community.

Nic Dunning, who is running for Kunkels seat on the council, said there was a lot of blame to go around.

He took issue with the council, saying he wished they had allowed public comment during last weeks work session and had done it before the censure vote. Dunning believes the council still needs to take some sort of action, he said.

He also addressed council member Michael Steadman, who had an excused absence on Thursday, saying Steadman, who is running against Clouse, failed to make clear that he had nothing to do with the sign incident.

Dunning said Kunkels removal of the sign cannot be tolerated and that Greenstein, with his years of experience on the council, should have understood the situation better.

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It put you in just a bad light, he said.

Dunning also said he was disappointed in Deputy Mayor Malcolm Miller and Mayor Andy Ryders votes not to censure.

The community needs better in the future, he said. It deserves better. Public trust and our democracy depends on it.

Spencer Zeman, who is running against Greenstein, said he, too, was disappointed in the council for its vote not to censure.

Our city council did not take a stand when they should have, he said.

Servant leaders set the example, servant leaders accept responsibility for there actions, and servant leaders care, and Im not seeing that right now, Zeman added.

But resident Scott Goodwin contended that the censure vote should never have taken place.

Having a city of Lacey council member call for a motion to censure a fellow Lacey City Council member was uncalled for, he said. Then to have another council member second the motion was totally unnecessary. Acting without knowing all the facts of the story and trusting a media hit piece instead was a total disgrace.

Both Greenstein and Kunkel were asked by The Olympian if they wanted to respond to Dunning and Zeman.

Greenstein declined to comment.

I am 100 percent in support of the First Amendment, Kunkel said. People can come in and speak however they wish. He had an opportunity to speak how we wished and he got what was on his chest off his chest and good for him.

Lacey council member at center of campaign sign controversy apologizes on social media

Lacey City Council votes 4-2 not to censure Kunkel, Greenstein over campaign sign removal

Video shows Lacey councilman removing candidates sign. That was my mistake, he says
MUNCIE, Ind.  Who killed Maggie Mae Fleming, shot as she sat at a window in her Muncie home in 1962?

Who killed Lou Ann Cox, her body found dumped near a Muncie reservoir in 1996?

Will the murder of Ruby Dean Moore, killed on Christmas Eve 1962, ever be solved?

"Cold Case Muncie," the fourth book by Keith Roysdon, now a freelancer based in Tennessee, and Doug Walker, still writing for The Star Press, will be available Aug. 14 wherever books are sold. The book features a number of unsolved murders in the Muncie, Ind., and Delaware County area.

Those unsolved murders related to Muncie, Ind., and other lingering mysteries consume the latest crime nonfiction by Douglas Walker and Keith Roysdon, whose tenure in Delaware County area journalism span several decades.

"Cold Case Muncie," the fourth book by Roysdon, now a freelancer based in Tennessee, and Walker, still writing for The Star Press, will be available Aug. 14 wherever books are sold. Through their careers, the two award-winning reporters have written about dozens of murders still awaiting justice and conclusion.

A murder mystery's conclusion isn't a common climax, Roysdon points out, as CBS News reported in 2022 that the the percentage of murders actually solved had fallen to about 50 percent. Therefore, "Cold Case Muncie" had a wealth of cases to depict.

We tried to do more than reintroduce those who were killed without justice, Roysdon said. I also hoped that we could help spur the creation of a cold case squad, a group of retired police investigators who would, working with local police departments, revisit cold cases, going over files and even re-interviewing people connected to the cases. So far, that hasnt happened.

We also wrote about a stumbling block that has hampered police whod like to review old cases: missing police files. In some cases, weve been told, files were damaged in flooding from broken water pipes in police storage rooms. In other cases, we fear, old case files were just disposed of.

"Cold Case Muncie," published by The History Press, also features the tale of Sebastian Cisneros, killed in 2009. His father still seeks justice; and the 1979 murder of Paula Garrett, whose young son Eric was bludgeoned and critically injured by the murderer of his mother.

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The publication of the book could help solve these murders, as "Cold Case Muncie" includes contact information for the police departments investigating the cases. For more information, go to the Facebook page for the authors series of books at https://www.facebook.com/wickedmuncie/

The authors have scheduled a few talks and book signings for the days following the Aug. 14 publication date of Cold Case Muncie.

The schedule, which continues to be updated as interest demands:

Noon, Wednesday, Aug. 16 - Talk and signing at Kiwanis Club of Muncie luncheon at MCL at Muncie Mall

6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug 16 - Talk and signing at E.B. and Bertha C. Ball Center

2 p.m. Friday, Aug 18 at Aw Yeah Comics

6-7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 18 - Talk and signing at Kennedy Library

9 a.m. to noon Saturday, Aug. 19 - Minnetrista Cultural Center and the Orchard Shop

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: New book by area reporters looks at Delaware County cold cases
State Senate Democrats have called on Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird to provide answers about her ongoing audit of victim services  including a review of the office's longstanding practice of paying for emergency contraception, and in rare cases abortions, for victims of sexual assault.

Bird, a Republican, paused those payments when she took office in January. She has previously said she is evaluating the use of public funds for these services as part of a larger review of the state's victim services program.

In a letter sent Thursday, Senate Democrats called on the attorney general to resume payments for victims' morning-after pills, stating there's "no cause to keep the growing number of sexual assault survivors in limbo." The letter was signed by Democrat Sens. Janet Petersen of Des Moines, Herman Quirmbach of Ames, Todd Taylor of Cedar Rapids and Janice Weiner of Iowa City.

Depriving funding for medical care to victims while your office continues its seemingly indefinite and indefensible audit is an attack on justice, the senators wrote. This deprivation is yet another violation to the victims bodily autonomy. Victims, advocates, prosecutors, and law enforcement deserve to know why needed resources are being withheld by your office.

The Attorney General's Office did not respond to a request for comment.

Senate Democrats say they are sending this week's letter after a previous request for information, which was sent to the Attorney General's Office three months ago, went unanswered. The letter again called on Bird to disclose details of the ongoing audit, including an expected timeline.

On Friday, on an episode of "Iowa Press" on Iowa PBS, Bird indicated that larger review is still ongoing. She also indicated she believed her office had the authority to make the change permanent, once a decision is made.

"So once this audit is done, do you intend that to be the permanent policy?" Kay Henderson, the program's host, asked Bird.

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"I do, yes. Once it's done," Bird said.

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird speaks during an Iowa March for Life rally at the Iowa State Capitol on Saturday, June 24, 2023, in Des Moines.

However, the senators questioned the legal basis for Bird's pause on payments for victims' morning-after pills and abortions.

In Thursday's letter, senators pointed to a section of Iowa Code that directs the state to award compensation for reasonable charges incurred for medical care" provided by a doctor. As such, they argued that medical care for pregnancy resulting from a sexual abuse, if it's recommended by a doctor, is an eligible cost.

"In short, no law or rule grants the attorney general the discretion to prohibit medical care she personally disagrees with," the letter states. "If you have evidence to the contrary, we would very much like to see it."

The section of Iowa law that requires the state to cover the cost of medical exams for victims, both to gather evidence and for treatment of sexually transmitted infections, makes no specific mention of pregnancy-related care.

However, under former Attorney General Tom Miller, who held office for 40 years, the state's Sexual Assault Examination Payment Program covered the cost of emergency contraception for sexual assault victims. In rare cases, the fund also covered the cost of victims' abortions.

Dollars for the victim compensation fund come from fines and penalties paid by individuals convicted of crimes. No general taxpayer dollars are used for the fund.

According to records provided to the Des Moines Register in April, the Iowa Attorney General's Office had 67 claims for morning-after pills on hold so far in 2023 that totaled to $2,582.05. The office also had one claim for an abortion on hold, which totaled to $730.

In 2022, the office paid $9,899.62 for 267 claims for morning-after pills, and zero dollars for abortions.

Sexual assault response teams across the state have also called on Bird to resume payment for morning-after pills, saying it's critical that victims continue to have access to free and confidential medical care.

Advocates say forcing women to seek out emergency contraceptives on their own, especially in the immediate aftermath, is not only harmful, it creates barriers for some to be able to access that care.

Victim services advocates say even if Bird decides to permanently halt payments, they will continue to provide these medications to victims without cost. However, some have raised concerns about their long-term ability to finance that service.

Michaela Ramm covers health care for the Des Moines Register. She can be reached at mramm@registermedia.com, at (319) 339-7354 or on Twitter at @Michaela_Ramm.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Critics call out Iowa AG on pause for emergency contraception payments
The nationwide organisation that oversees advanced placement high school courses says the state of Florida has effectively banned its psychology coursework, days before thousands of students enrolled in the classes begin the 2023-2024 school year.

State education officials have instructed school superintendents that teaching elements of the course regarding sexual orientation and gender identity are illegal under state law, according to a statement from the College Board. School districts are free to teach AP Psychology coursework only if it excludes any mention of such issues, according to the College Board.

The course asks students to describe how sex and gender influence socialization and other aspects of development, a framework that has been part of the curriculum for more than 30 years.

Recently enacted Florida law prohibits classroom instruction of sexual orientation and gender identity in all grade levels, what opponents have derided as a Dont Say Gay law, drawing fears that its broad scope could be used to effectively chill speech by and about LGBT+ people and threaten schools with potential lawsuits over perceived violations.

Requiring what is effectively censored educational material does an enormous disservice to students across Florida, who will receive an incomplete picture of the psychological research into human development, according to a statement from American Psychology Association CEP Arthur C Evans Jr.

An advanced placement course that ignores the decades of science studying sexual orientation and gender identity would deprive students of knowledge they will need to succeed in their studies, in high school and beyond, he added.

Without the inclusion of that unit in the curriculum, the College Board will not be able to recognise the course as an AP-level class, effectively preventing students from receiving college credit for taking it.

The Florida Association of District School Superintendents (FADSS) has disputed the College Boards statement that the state has banned the course.

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Superintendents are openly communicating with parents their districts plans for this course or an alternative college level course as we prepare for the start of the school year, according to a statement from FADSS shared with The Independent on 4 August.

AP Psychology continues to be listed in Floridas Course Code Directory and we hope that College Board will keep the best interests of students at the forefront and award college credit to all Florida students who successfully complete the AP Psychology exam, the statement added.

A spokesperson for the states Education Department blamed the College Board for restrictions on the AP Psychology course. We encourage the College Board to stop playing games with Florida students and continue to offer the course and allow teachers to operate accordingly, according to Cassie Palelis.

More than 326,000 students  including nearly 28,000 students in Florida  took the AP Psychology exam in 2023, according to the College Board.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is seeking the Republican nomination for president in 2024, has radically overhauled education policy in the state by eliminating honest lessons of race and racism in state schools, reshaping local school boards, and banning public colleges from offering classes that distort significant events or teach identity politics.

The governor also has signed a measure into law banning transgender people from using bathrooms that align with their gender and measures that eliminates access to gender-affirming care and restricts drag performances. Those laws have been temporarily blocked in federal court.

Mr DeSantis repeatedly defended the passage of the Parental Rights in Education Act, what opponents have called Dont Say Gay, to protect kindergarteners and young students from transgenderism and discussion of sex in classrooms. This year, he explicitly expanded the law to cover all grades.

Remember when DeSantis was adamant that his dont say gay law was about protecting kindergarteners? said Chasten Buttigieg, husband of US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. Now he doesnt think the smartest high schoolers taking college-level courses can handle the existence of LGBTQ people.

On the last day of Pride Month in June, the governors presidential campaign shared a video that appeared to celebrate headlines and comments labeling the governors anti-LGBT+ agenda draconian, a threat to trans existence and totalitarianism in disguise.

Earlier this year, state education officials also banned AP African American Studies in high schools, claiming that the course significantly lacks educational value and inexplicably contradicted Florida law.

A letter dated 12 January from the Florida Department of Education to the College Board said the board is welcome to return to the agency with lawful, historically accurate content.

Last month, Florida school officials approved a new set of standards for Black history curricula that enslaved people developed skills that could be applied for personal benefit. Another guideline instructs high schoolers to be taught that a massacre in the state led by white supremacists against Black residents to stop them from voting in 1920 included acts of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans.

The standards have faced widespread derision, with Vice President Kamala Harris delivering a speech in Florida condemning the language, while the governor continues to defend them in a series of interviews and statements.

With every passing day, Florida is going out of its way to limit, rather than expand, the educational opportunities available for its young people, Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, the nations largest union of educators, said in a statement.

It seems nothing can stop the slippery slope of government censorship and bans, even against a long-running and widely respected AP course that has helped the next generation pursue their dreams, she added. No state government should ever be engaged in the un-American practice of censoring the science that is taught to our students.

Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, the nations largest LGBT+ civil rights organization, said Florida officials have further compromised the quality of education in the state by acting as if LGBTQ+ people dont exist.

LGBTQ+ people do exist, and any decision to remove us from curricula isnt going to change that, she added.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday dismissed the theories of election fraud central to former President Donald Trumps attempt to overturn the 2020 election as unsubstantiated.

Breaking from his usual evasiveness when asked about his stance on Trumps claims of a stolen election, DeSantis rejected the notion without mentioning his leading rival for the Republican presidential nomination.

I've said many times the election is what it is," he said, responding to a reporters question after a campaign event in Iowa. All those theories that were put out did not prove to be true.

The governor went on to clarify that the 2020 election was not conducted the way I think that we want to, but thats different than saying 'Maduro stole votes,' or something like that.

The connection to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro referred to unsupported allegations made by former Trump attorney Sidney Powell after the election. Powell had baselessly linked late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez as the creator behind certain voting machines.

The New York Times first reported DeSantis' comments.

DeSantis remarks followed Trump pleading not guilty Thursday to federal charges accusing him of conspiring to stay in office after losing the 2020 election. Despite trailing Trump significantly in early presidential nomination polls, DeSantis hasnt displayed the same level of forceful criticism toward Trump as former Vice President Mike Pence and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson.

Despite admitting to not having read the indictment, DeSantis posted on X, previously known as Twitter, advocating for changes to "end the weaponization of government" and grant Americans the ability to transfer cases to their home districts. Those proposed reforms align with Trumps assertion that a fair trial in Washington would not have been possible.

Washington, D.C., is a swamp and it is unfair to have to stand trial before a jury that is reflective of the swamp mentality, he said.

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Previously when asked by reporters whether the election was rigged, DeSantis has often redirected the conversation.

Ive been asked that a hundred different times. Anyone have a question on the topic of the day? DeSantis said during a Florida press conference last year before going on to criticize the Jan. 6 hearings being held then.

Although he issued a statement calling the Capitol riot unacceptable that day, DeSantis has also refused to label the Jan. 6 attack as an insurrection. He reiterated that view last month in an interview with Russell Brand, blaming the press for having spun up the attack to get as much mileage out of it and use it for partisan and political aims.
Ron DeSantis speaking at a recent campaign event in Rye, N.H. (Reba Saldanha/Reuters)

Florida governor and Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis is facing widespread criticism for using violent imagery to describe his plan to reduce the size of the federal workforce, a long-standing Republican project that remains broadly unrealized.

Read more on Yahoo News: Why is the DeSantis campaign struggling?

What he said

Were going to have all of these deep state people, you know, we are going to start slitting throats on day one, DeSantis said at a Sunday barbecue in New Hampshire hosted by Scott Brown, a fellow Republican who served as a senator from Massachusetts.

The deep state is a vague concept popularized by former President Donald Trump that refers to the sprawling federal bureaucracy. It is generally used by the right to describe a shadowy and unaccountable  not to mention fictional  cabal of powerful elites.

DeSantiss comments were initially reported by New Hampshire Public Radio, which observed that some attendees at the barbecue were disturbed by the governors hard-edged terminology.

The remark led to renewed criticism of DeSantis, who has had to fend off attacks from both the pro-Trump right and disenchanted Republican moderates, not to mention Democrats and progressives who have taken to delighting in his recent political misfortunes.

Look, I know cruelty sells in my former world of the right, but this is ... this is such a bad thing to say, wrote Joe Walsh, a former Republican congressman from Illinois, on Twitter.

At the barbecue in New Hampshire, DeSantis also said that traffickers bringing drugs into the United States by crossing the border with Mexico would be shot stone-cold dead.

Read more on Yahoo News: DeSantis disappoints, and some Republicans seek new Trump-slaying savior

What he meant

DeSantis in New Hampshire. (Reba Saldanha/Reuters)

DeSantis is a former Navy attorney who served as a legal adviser at the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay for suspected terrorists. He has cultivated an image of toughness, and though he never served in a combat role, the governors rhetoric often includes military terms such as over the target and incoming fire.

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In an interview with a conservative outlet last week, DeSantis said that, were he to become president, his chosen defense secretary may have to slit some throats. He recently unveiled a proposal to rid the military of wokeness, his favored shorthand for the push for racial and gender justice.

The DeSantis campaign did not respond to requests for comment.

Read more on Yahoo News: Showtime pulled Vice episode about Ron DeSantis at Guantanamo Bay without explanation, via New York Daily News

Reducing the size of government

Ronald and Nancy Reagan the presidential inaugural parade, January 1981. (Ronald Reagan Presidential Library/Handout via Reuters)

The size and reach of the federal government expanded dramatically during the 20th century. The executive branch grew especially rapidly with the New Deal programs of President Franklin Roosevelt in the 1930s and, in the 1960s, with President Lyndon B. Johnsons Great Society initiative. As a result, the federal workforce  excluding the Department of Defense  expanded from 443,000 employees in 1940 to 1.2 million in 1979. (The national population grew from 132 million to 227 million during the same period.)

Ronald Reagan was elected president of the United States in 1980 on a conservative platform that treated the federal government as an intrusion on Americans liberties. Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem, he famously said during his first inaugural address.

Since then, conservative aspirants for the White House have promised to cut the size of the federal government.

Broken promises

President George Bush, left, with Vice President Dick Cheney and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice in the hours following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. (U.S. National Archives/Handout via Reuters)

It was Bill Clinton, a Democrat, who said in 1996 that the era of big government is over. And yet government kept getting biggerand bigger.

After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the administration of George W. Bush built out the national security apparatus to an extent that would have been unimaginable only a few years before. Under his successors, Barack Obama and Donald Trump, government kept growing.

Now Trump is promising to root out the deep state (that is, if he is elected president again) by firing rogue bureaucrats en masse. Doing so could be difficult because of protections afforded to government workers, but the promise nonetheless resonates with committed conservatives who retain the Reagan-era vision of a much smaller federal apparatus.

DeSantis, who is trying to court Trump voters, has made similar promises.

Read more on Yahoo News: DeSantis says he would eliminate four federal agencies if elected president, via NBC News.

Widespread criticism

Florida Governor and Republican U.S. presidential candidate Ron DeSantis attends a barbecue hosted by former diplomat Scott Brown, as part of his "No B.S. Backyard BBQ" series, in Rye, New Hampshire, U.S. July 30, 2023. REUTERS/Reba Saldanha

DeSantis made his controversial comment as his campaign seeks to recover from a difficult stretch of several months that has seen his standing in the polls fall precipitously.

His campaign announced a reset late last month, only to find itself embroiled in controversies about chattel slavery and Nazi iconography.

This reboot just keeps getting better and better!" close Trump adviser Jason Miller told Yahoo News in a text message. Trump is still the clear frontrunner, leading DeSantis by an arguably insurmountable margin in recent polls.

I know that language isnt everything, said Jay Nordlinger of the National Review, a prominent conservative publication that had been enthusiastic about DeSantiss candidacy but has recently grown skittish about his prospects. But its not nothing either. In an inflamed, often-violent atmosphere, Im not sure leaders should talk that way.

Olivia Troye, who served as an aide to former Vice President Mike Pence, called the comment atrocious.

DeSantis was also taken to task by the American Federation of Government Employees, the nations largest federal employee union. Governor DeSantis threat to start slitting throats of federal employees is dangerous, disgusting, disgraceful, and disqualifying, AFGE president Everett Kelley said in a statement.

Read more on Yahoo News: I Was Team DeSantis Before His Disgusting Anti-Gay Ad, via The Daily Beast
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis campaigns for the Republican presidential nomination on July 31, 2023, in Rochester, N.H.

Gov. Ron DeSantis vow to "start slitting throats" of government employees if elected president didn't go unnoticed by some of the 19,000 state workers in Tallahassee.

New Hampshire Public Radio reported Wednesday while he spoke about the deep state DeSantis vowed that when it comes to federal bureaucrats, we are going to start slitting throats on Day One.

During a radio talkshow appearance earlier in the week DeSantis spoke about the possible need toslit some throats at the Pentagon if he were to become president.

At a campaign stop in New Hampshire, DeSantis vowed that when it comes to federal bureaucrats, we are going to start slitting throats on Day One.



Not everyone liked the word choice, particularly the bit about slitting throats. https://t.co/197xUmBFDV  Bill Grueskin (@BGrueskin) August 3, 2023

Thursday, labor unions representing federal workers denounced DeSantis' comments.

The American Federation of Government Employees cited the Jan. 6, 2021 storming of the U.S. Capitol in a statement that warned violent anti-government rhetoric from politicians has deadly consequences.

Any candidate who positions themselves within that shameful tradition has no place in public office, said Everett Kelley, president of the federation which represents 750,000 civil servants.

The National Treasury Employees Union, which represents workers at 30 federal agencies, also released a statement that called DeSantis' comments "repulsive and unworthy of the presidential campaign trail.

In Tallahassee, it is not the first time that DeSantis has sent a chill through the halls of state office buildings in Tallahassee with threats to disrupt the lives of federal workers if he were to be elected president.

When DeSantis officially announced his candidacy in May, he cited a need to "re-constitutionalize" the federal government, that is, reduce the power and the authority of Washington, D.C., through the elimination of some agencies and the relocation of others across the country.

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That begs the question as to whether such a plan could apply to what he calls "Free Florida" and diffuse the state workforce beyond bright blue Tallahassee.

Governor's office praises state workers, while governor threatens jobs of federal ones

A gaggle of more than a half dozen state workers approached during Thursdays lunch break at three restaurants near the Capitol conceded DeSantis' comments did raise eyebrows among workers in state office buildings.

But not one was willing to comment for attribution about DeSantis ideas.

One state worker explained they did not work for the DeSantis campaign and therefore should not comment.

Another said throat slitting talk is not good for morale.

A third added morale was not good anyways.

When the governors office declined to comment for this story, a spokesman rejected the premise of a question that asked whether DeSantis believe there is a need to re-constitutionalize Florida government like he proposed he would do to the federal government if elected president? 

Floridas government is efficient. Our state has 84 full-time state workers per 10,000 while the national average is 171 per 10,000. When combined with part time workers, the ratio is 99 state workers per 10,000 while the national average is 208. Florida also uses taxpayer funds efficiently. Personnel costs account for $39 per resident, which is the lowest in the nation. The second closest state is Arizona at $52 per resident, and the national average is $91. This is all to say that Florida runs three branches of government efficiently while paying down our state debt and respecting taxpayer funds, said DeSantis spokesman Jeremy Redfern in an email exchange.

Pros and Cons: Is Ron DeSantis good for state workers? We look at the record

Redfern said to check with the DeSantis campaign for clarification of the governor's comments.

It did not respond to a request for comment.

Vicki Hall, AFSCME Florida president, suggested DeSantis has found a way to "re-constitutionalize" state government through leaving vacant positions unfilled.

There are more than 16,000 vacancies in the Florida state personnel system, jobs funded by the legislature but not staffed, leaving those on the job overworked, according to workers.

Thats a 25% state vacancy rate, said Hall. That means residents are not getting the services they deserve, and employees are overworked and burning out.

'Political theater'

Since that announcement, and a summer spent on the campaign trail promoting his ideas, DeSantis has fallen behind former President Donald Trump in the race for the Republican presidential nomination.

A RealClearPolitics review of eight polls taken during July gives Trump an average lead of 35 point.

That makes DeSantis a dead candidate walking at this point, according to Nova Southeastern University political scientist Charles Zelden.

State workers tell Florida Gov. DeSantis they're not safe from coronavirus at work

More: Is Ron DeSantis good for state workers? We look at the record

But if DeSantis fails to win the presidency, he will still have two years remaining as governor and the opportunity to use Tallahassee and Florida as a testing laboratory for his ideas.

Zelden, who teaches at a private university, dismissed DeSantis throat slitting comment as political theater and an attempt to draw attention to the campaign in a cluttered media environment.

There are more than 19,000 state workers in Tallahassee

In social media alone, there are so many things vying for peoples attention. How do you cut through the dance videos, people singing, funny animal tricks? You have to be interesting, said Zelden.

Or in this case, graphic.

Zelden said Tallahassee shouldn't need to worry about a mass exodus of state jobs to downstate locations because Florida, for the most part, has a pretty decentralized state government.

What you have in Tallahassee are the policy people. The bureaucrats, the people who actually make things happen, are situated in the counties. Its the counties that do most of the work, the actual checking up on things, the work, said Zelden.

James Call is a member of the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jcall@tallahassee.com. Follow on him Twitter: @CallTallahassee

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: DeSantis 'slitting' federal bureaucrats' throats: What of state workers?
Russia's Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu attends a reception for the Russian military delegation hosted by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang, North Korea, July 27, 2023, in this image released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency. KCNA via REUTERS

Russia's defense chief traveled to North Korea recently to try and secure more ammunition.

A top White House official said the visit underscored Vladimir Putin's desperation in Ukraine.

The US has long accused Russia of partnering with rogue states for military assistance.

Russia's defense chief recently traveled to North Korea to ask the country for ammunition, a top White House official said this week, underscoring a scramble to sustain Moscow's war efforts in Ukraine.

The Biden administration has long accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of turning to pariah countries like North Korea for weaponry and other security assistance throughout the 17-month-long Ukraine war, often suggesting that Moscow does so out of pure desperation.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and an accompanying delegation visited North Korea last week as the country marked 70 years since the 1953 Korean War armistice, which ended the fighting but not the actual war. There, Shoigu met with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and attended a high-profile military parade.

"We remain concerned that the DPRK continues to contemplate providing military support to Russia's military operations against Ukraine," White House National Security Council Spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Thursday, using North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Shoigu went to Pyongyang "in a bid to convince North Korea to sell munitions to Russia to support Russia's war," Kirby added. "To that end, our information indicates that Russia is seeking to increase military cooperation with the DPRK, such as through DPRK sale of artillery munitions, again, to Russia."

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Chinese Communist Party politburo member Li Hongzhong and Russia's Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu attend a military parade in Pyongyang, North Korea, July 27, 2023, in this image released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency. KCNA via REUTERS

North Korea is one of just a few countries  many of them isolated on the world stage  to support Moscow's war in Ukraine, but Pyongyang denies accusations that it provides weapons to the Russian military, even though North Korean rockets have been found in Ukraine. North Korean state media said that during their recent meeting, Shoigu and Kim discussed the regional and international security environments and that their meeting represented increased "collaboration and cooperation" on defense-related topics.

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Russia has previously sought ammunition from North Korea, according to US intelligence. Earlier this year, the White House said that North Korea provided rockets and missiles to the Kremlin-funded Wagner Group mercenary organization, which until recently fought in Ukraine, and that Russia offered food to impoverished Pyongyang in exchange for weapons.

The US Treasury Department in March sanctioned a Slovakian national for attempting to broker arms deals between Russia and North Korea through a deal that would have seen Pyongyang sending weapons and munitions to Moscow, which was to send raw materials, commodities, and commercial aircraft in return.

Kirby said on Thursday that any arms deal between Russia and North Korea would be in violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un walks with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in Pyongyang, North Korea, on July 27, 2023. Photo by API/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

"We are going to continue to identify, expose, and counter Russian efforts to acquire ammunition from North Korea, or quite frankly any other state that might be prepared to support its war in Ukraine," Kirby said.

"I think this is yet another example of how desperate Mr. Putin is becoming, because his war machine is being affected by the sanctions and the export controls, he is going through a vast amount of inventory to try to subjugate Ukraine, and he's reaching out to countries like North Korea, like Iran, and certainly he's been trying to reach out to China to get support for his war machine," he added.

Iran has outfitted Russia's military with explosive drones that Moscow has used for nearly a year to attack Ukrainian cities and the country's civil infrastructure. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday that Russia has launched nearly 2,000 Iranian-made "Shahed" drones, but Kyiv's air-defense systems have managed to shoot down a "significant number" of the deadly weapons.

Meanwhile, Washington has expressed concerns that Beijing may provide weaponry to Russia, and there are some indications it is using a sanctions loophole to do so, though there's apparently been no formal move to back Russia's war effort. US officials have said they are watching the situation very closely.

"We feel its important to make it plain and to make it clear to everybody when we see that happening," Kirby said on Thursday, referring to the US calling out Russia's attempt to seize additional military capabilities.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Hunter Biden's ex-business partner confirmed during his recent closed-door interview with the House Oversight Committee that then-Vice President Joe Biden was at the infamous spring 2015 dinner with son Hunter's foreign business associates, despite the Biden campaign repeatedly saying Biden was never there.

Devon Archer told investigators that the elder Biden "had dinner" with him and several others, including "Vadym P. from Burisma." When Biden arrived, Archer said Biden "shook everybody's hand" and joined their conversation.

In 2020, the New York Post reported an explosive story about Hunter Biden introducing his then-vice president father to a top executive at Ukrainian energy firm Burisma, where Hunter had served on its board and reportedly collected more than $50,000 per month.

The story set off a firestorm and rejections from Biden's close aides. Andrew Bates, who is now a White House spokesperson but at the time worked on the communication team of Biden's 2020 campaign, roundly denied the meeting ever happened.

DEVON ARCHER SAYS HUNTER USED JOE BIDEN AS 'DEFENSIVE LEVERAGE' FOR FOREIGN BIZ PARTNERS, TRANSCRIPT SHOWS

White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates speaks during a press briefing at the White House in Washington, D.C., on March 28, 2022.

Bates told Politico the campaign "reviewed Joe Biden's official schedules from the time, and no meeting, as alleged by the New York Post, ever took place."

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

Likewise, in that same Politico article, which centered around Biden's campaign "punching back" against the Post's story, other top Biden advisers flatly rejected that Biden met the Burisma executive. Michael Carpenter, who worked for Biden during the alleged encounter and was being paid more $200,000 at the Penn Biden Center, chalked it up as a Russian disinformation campaign.

"This is a Russian disinformation operation," said Carpenter, who now acts as the U.S. permanent representative to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. "I'm very comfortable saying that."

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President Biden and first lady Jill Biden are joined by Hunter Biden and Ashley Biden at granddaughter Maisy Biden's graduation from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, on May 15, 2023.

The Washington Post also published a fact-check piece in 2021 that referenced pushback from an unnamed "campaign spokesman for Joe Biden" and "officials who worked for [Biden]." It is unclear whether this spokesperson was also Bates.

"A campaign spokesman for Joe Biden had said a review of Bidens schedule for that day found no record of any such meeting. Officials who worked for him in 2015 also told The Fact Checker that no such meeting took place," the Washington Post piece reported.

The piece went on to say that a "White House individual with knowledge of Joe Bidens schedules said the decision to see Father Alex [Alex Karloutsos]" at the dinner was made late that day after the schedule was completed and that the decision to attend "was made that evening."

However, an email that was widely reported a couple of years ago shows that Hunter Biden told Karloutsos' son three weeks before the dinner on March 26, 2015, that Hunter's "dad will be there, but keep that [between] us for now."

Another guest at the dinner told The Washington Post that Biden "didnt even sit down" and that he "was not part of the dinner or part of the dinner discussion."

Devon Archer, a former business associate of Hunter Biden, arrives for closed-door testimony before the House Oversight Committee at the O'Neill House Office Building in Washington, D.C., on Monday.

But Archer, a longtime Hunter Biden business partner and friend, contradicted those claims and said that then-Vice President Biden was in attendance and was part of the dinner. Fox News Digital obtained the more than 140-page transcript of Archer's interview before the House Oversight Committee on Monday, which transpired behind closed doors.

The transcript shows that investigators had asked Archer about the dinner mentioned in the New York Post report, which happened at Washington, D.C.'s, upscale restaurant Cafe Milano in 2015. The story revolved around an April 2015 email from Burisma board adviser Vadym Pozharskyi, who had written to Hunter Biden the day after the dinner to thank him for inviting him to the nation's capital and allowing him to meet his father and spend "some time together."

"It's realty [sic] an honor and pleasure," Pozharskyi added.

"As we spoke yesterday evening, would be great to meet today for a quick coffee," he continued. "What do you think? I could come to you [sic] office somewhere around noon or so, before or on my way to airport."

DEVON ARCHER CONFIRMS JOE BIDEN 'LIED' ABOUT KNOWLEDGE OF HUNTER'S BUSINESS DEALINGS, COMER SAYS

A top Burisma executive emailed Hunter Biden the day after the April 2015 Cafe Milano dinner to thank him for the "opportunity to meet" then-Vice President Biden.

According to the transcript from Monday, congressional investigators asked Archer who attended that spring 2015 dinner.

"That dinner was  I think we went over it before, but it was Vadym, Hunter, Joe, myself, Karim Massimov, a Greek Orthodox priest, maybe someone from World Food Programme," Archer said.

"And what did Joe do at that dinner? Did he have dinner? How long was he there?" the congressional investigator asked Archer.

"He had dinner. He had dinner," Archer responded. "And there was  on that one, I believe the first one was, like, a birthday dinner, and then the second was  I think we were supposed to talk about the World Food Programme. So, there was some talk about that."

Pozharskyi made headlines last month after Fox News Digital reported about his correspondence with Hunter Biden, Archer and longtime business partner Eric Schwerin months after the dinner about the "ultimate purpose" of his involvement with the Ukrainian energy company.

"My only concern is for us to be on the same page re our final goals," Pozharskyi wrote. "With this in mind, I would like us to formulate a list of deliverables, including, but not limited to: a concrete course of actions, incl. meetings/communications resulting in high-ranking US officials in Ukraine (US Ambassador) and in US publicly or in private communication/comment expressing their positive opinion and support of Nikolay/Burisma to the highest level of decision makers here in Ukraine :President of Ukraine, president Chief of staff, Prosecutor General, etc."

"The scope of work should also include organization of a visit of a number of widely recognized and influential current and/or former US policy-makers to Ukraine in November aiming to conduct meetings with and bring positive signal/message and support on Nikolay's issue to the Ukrainian top officials above with the ultimate purpose to close down for any cases/pursuits against Nikolay in Ukraine," he continued.

"Looking forward to getting started on this," Hunter Biden replied.

Devon Archer golfs with Joe Biden and Hunter Biden in 2014.

A month before the dinner, Hunter and Archer discussed who they were going to invite to the dinner on April 16, 2015. The list included multiple guests, including "Pozharskyi," who was listed as "Vadim" and "Vadym." Both spellings were frequently used in their correspondence.

In the email chain, Archer followed up to Hunter's guest list and said, "Obviously save a seat for your guy," which appears to be a reference to Biden. During the interview with Archer, he acknowledged that Hunter would refer to his dad as "my guy." However, it is unclear whether this specific reference from Archer is about the elder Biden.

EXCLUSIVE: JOE BIDEN ALLEGEDLY PAID $5M BY BURISMA EXECUTIVE AS PART OF A BRIBERY SCHEME, ACCORDING TO FBI DOCUMENT

In March 2015, Hunter Biden and Devon Archer discussed the guest list for the April 2015 dinner at Cafe Milano, which included then-Vice President Biden and a top Burisma executive.

Bates' quote to Politico isn't the first time that he has pushed a false narrative. Fox News Digital previously reported that he was implicated in the effort to discredit Hunter Bidens laptop as Russian disinformation during the 2020 presidential election.

According to a report earlier this year by the House Weaponization Subcommittee, led by Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, former CIA senior adviser Nick Shapiro drafted a media pitch for the now-discredited letter signed by 51 former intelligence officials that tried to paint the laptop at the center of the New York Post's bombshell story as a Russian operation in October 2020.

"Giving this to you exclusively first if you guys want to run with it," Shapiro wrote in his pitch to the media outlets, according to the email on Oct. 19, 2020. "You can also use this on the record from me Nick Shapiro, describing what this is: A large group of former career intelligence officers, many specializing in Russia, joined by a group of former intelligence community leaders, are all saying that they believe the Russians were somehow involved here."

He would then forward the letter to Bates, who was on the Biden campaign at the time, adding, "This is what I gave them."

After Politico published the media pitch, Bates and other top Biden campaign officials, including former press secretary Jen Psaki, tweeted out the narrative that has since been debunked.

HUNTER DEMANDED $10M FROM CHINESE ENERGY FIRM BECAUSE 'BIDENS ARE THE BEST,' HAVE 'CONNECTIONS'

Former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell testified to the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees earlier this year that Secretary of State Antony Blinken, as President Bidens then-campaign senior adviser, "played a role in the inception" of the letter signed by intelligence officials seeking to discredit the story.

Morell also said that he received a call from Biden's White House counselor Steve Ricchetti, who was serving as the chairman of the 2020 campaign at the time, following the Oct. 22 debate, where Biden echoed this talking point despite providing zero evidence. Morell said the call was to thank him for spearheading the letter.

The White House declined to respond on the record, and Carpenter did not respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.

Fox News' Jessica Chasmar contributed to this report.
FALL RIVER  On the morning of Aug. 4, 1892, a murderer brutally butchered a married couple in their own home in an act of violence whose viciousness stunned police and the city at large into disbelief, captivated the world in horror, and changed Fall River history forever.

Lizzie Borden, accused of murdering her father Andrew and stepmother Abby, was the only suspect ever charged in the Second Street slaying. To the public, the idea of this prim, upper-class, Sunday-school-teaching matron hacking two relatives to death with a hatchet was an irony too delicious to ignore, and the Borden murder case became a worldwide media sensation  one that dogged Lizzie to the rest of her life, even after she was acquitted.

Lizzie Borden is perhaps Fall River's most famous, and notorious, residents -- acquitted of the brutal slayings of her father and stepmother in August 1892.

Why are people still fascinated? Here's why Fall River's infamous legend Lizzie Borden will never die

The killer of Andrew and Abby Borden has never been found, and their slaying remains one of the most notable unsolved crimes in American history. One hundred and 31 years, hundreds of studies, documentaries, novels, fictionalized films, songs and a ballet later, Lizzie Bordens story still fascinates people.

Here are five little-known facts you may not have known about Lizzie Borden:

Lizzie Borden has relatives with a macabre history too

This drawing depicts the skeleton in armor found on the banks of the Quequechan River in 1831.

In May 1831, housewife Hannah Borden Cook went to the banks of the Quequechan River to fetch some sand, used to scour her pots. While digging, she made a startling discovery: an intact skeleton buried in a sitting position, wearing a brass breastplate, a belt of brass tubes, near a quiver of arrows tipped with brass arrowheads. The archaeological find was a media sensation, and it was placed in the Fall River Atheneum, a private library inside Town Hall. Some speculated it was the body of a Native American warrior, a Portuguese explorer to the New World, a Phoenician that somehow made it across the Atlantic  but Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in 1840 wrote a poem imagining it to be a Viking warrior, and that myth has stuck ever since. Fall Rivers Great Fire of 1843  a devastating blaze that destroyed much of downtown and gave rise to the city motto Well Try  destroyed the Atheneum and the skeleton inside, so its identity will never be known.

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The Lizzie connection? Hannah Borden Cook was Andrews aunt, making her Lizzies great-aunt. Cook found that skeleton about 700 feet from the house where her nephew lived and was murdered.

A cut above: 11 ways pop culture took a whack at the legend of Fall River's Lizzie Borden

Andrew and Abby Borden had open-casket funerals

The skulls of Andrew, left, and Abigail Borden were smashed in with what is believed to have been a hatchet.

Whoever attacked the Bordens focused on their heads  and she (or he?) went buckwild.

According to Dr. Seabury Bowen, the Bordens' physician, Abby was making a bed on the second floor when the murderer attacked her, striking her two or three times from the front. She turned and fell, then the fiend chopped her head as if it had been a cake of ice.  One glance blow cut off nearly two square inches of flesh from the side of the head. A medical examination said the head was chopped into ribbons of flesh and the skull broken in several places.

Andrew was similarly savaged, the killer having rained heavy blows upon his face from above as he slept in the living room. The attack broke open Andrew's skull and jaw, leaving him a broken, bloody wreck. Physician that I am and accustomed to all kinds of horrible sights, it sickened me to look upon the dead mans face, Bowen said at the time. I am inclined to think that an axe was the instrument used. The cuts were about four and a half inches in length and one of them had severed the eye-ball and socket.

Still, two days later, in that same living room, the Bordens were waked for about 75 mourners, according to the contemporary account of reporter Edwin Porter, author of The Fall River Tragedy.

The bodies of the victims were laid in the caskets with the mutilated portions of the head turned down, so that the cuts could not be noticed, Porter wrote. The caskets were open and the faces of both looked wonderfully peaceful.

No one knows for sure what the Borden murder weapon was

The Lizzie Borden House on Second Street in Fall River is a museum and inn where the infamous murders occurred.

The teasing nursery rhyme claims Lizzie Borden took an axe. Rudimentary forensics at the time determined the murderer likely used a hatchet. Some people believe the murder weapon might've been a clothes iron.

The Fall River Historical Society contains in its vast collection of Borden evidence and memorabilia the handle-less hatchet, found in the basement of the Borden home and considered a possible murder weapon. However, even the society curators acknowledge its most likely not the Bordens instrument of death, since it contained no traces of blood and only one non-human hair.

So what was the murder weapon, and what happened to it? No one knows.

Message from beyond: Lizzie Borden letter delivered 126 years later  to the Fall River Historical Society

One day after the killings of Andrew and Abigail Borden, Emma and Lizzie Borden took out newspaper ads offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the killer.

Lizzie and Emma Borden offered a reward for the killer

On the day after their father and stepmothers killing, the Borden sisters put a bounty on the murderers head.

$5000 Reward! read their newspaper ads. The above Reward will be paid to any one who may secure the Arrest and Conviction of the person or persons who occasioned the death of Mr. Andrew J. Borden and his wife.

Those ads ran regularly in Fall River newspapers even while Lizzie was arrested and charged with the crime. They ran while Lizzie was jailed awaiting trial, and they ran during her trial and after it. In fact, the ads were published as late as October 1893, months after Lizzie was acquitted of the crime.

Despite the offer, investigators never seriously considered any suspects besides Lizzie, since the crime was so baffling  two murders in broad daylight in a house with other people inside, on a well-traveled street, with no apparent motive. If Lizzie didnt do it, then police were stumped.

That $5,000 reward wasnt chump change, either  in todays money, it would be worth about $170,000.

Lizzie Borden on the piazza of her Fall River residence, Maplecroft, holding her beloved Boston terrier, Laddie Miller Borden, circa 1916.

Lizzie Borden changed her name more than once

Most people familiar with the case know that after her trial Lizzie decided to go by Lizbeth in a futile attempt to shake off the stigma around her. Its not her birth name, but thats the name shes buried under in Oak Grove Cemetery.

Late in life, Lizzie is believed to have also used the name "Mary Smith Borden"  possibly the most bland alias ever  when seeking medical treatment to avoid publicity. In 1926, Lizzie was 65 years old and in declining health. At the advice of her doctor, she had what is believed to be gall bladder surgery, and was given a private room under this alternate name at Truesdale Hospital. In fact, the hospitals founder, Dr. Philemon Truesdale, performed her surgery.

While Dr. Truesdale knew the name of the patient, the members of his surgical staff were completely unaware of the true identity of the individual lying on the operating table, wrote Fall River Historical Society curator Michael Martins and assistant curator Dennis Binette in Parallel Lives, a history of Borden and Fall River during her lifetime.

They added that Truesdale let his first assistant in on the secret afterward, asking him, Do you know whose belly you just had your hands in?

Dan Medeiros can be reached at dmedeiros@heraldnews.com. Support local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to The Herald News today.

This article originally appeared on The Herald News: 5 things you didn't know about Lizzie Borden and the murders
The Scene

SANDUSKY, Ohio  Berardis Catering was the 70th stop of Frank LaRoses campaign tour  not for his U.S. Senate campaign, but for the cause that could inspire conservatives across America.

Ohios Republican Secretary of State had been stumping for Issue 1, which would amend the states constitution to make any further changes much tougher. If it passes next Tuesday, a looming November referendum on abortion will need to clear 60% of the vote. If it fails, a simple majority will be enough to make abortion permanently legal in LaRoses increasingly conservative state.

Failure, he warned, would let coastal elites with fat wallets cram other liberal policies into their red states constitution.

Next year they want to do a massive increase in the minimum wage, LaRose told the crowd in Sandusky. Do we care about protecting small businesses? Do we care about protecting Ohio farmers? Do we value life in Ohio? Do we want to protect our Second Amendment rights in Ohio?

Tuesdays vote gives conservatives their best chance yet at doing whats eluded them since the Dobbs decision: Halting a state ballot measure that locks in abortion rights. Democrats, as soon as the vote was set, called it a bank shot strategy to kill the Right to Reproductive Freedom campaign.

Republicans, including LaRose, have said as much  but the chance to smother all sorts of ballot measures has broadened their coalition and helped it out-raise the pro-abortion rights side. The Ohio Chamber of Commerce supports Issue 1; chambers in other states have stayed neutral on abortion measures, or backed them. The Ohio Farm Bureau, a non-factor in other abortion referenda, has backed Issue 1 to pre-empt the sort of animal rights regulations passed by referendum in California.

Davids view

Last year, conservatives in South Dakota and Arkansas tried to pass ballot measures much like Issue 1, requiring a supermajority for any referendum to take effect. In both states, they flopped, even as voters overwhelmingly elected Republicans.

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The campaign could flop in Ohio, too  polling is all over the place, and turnout is higher than anyone expected. But if it succeeds, the way Republicans got this on the ballot, and the way they framed it as a broad fight against progressive ideas run amok, may be copied elsewhere.

The GOP supermajority in Columbus scheduled an August 8 election on this, and nothing else, over Democratic protests, potentially creating a low-turnout referendum where conservatives hope activist energy will give them an edge. In the final days, defeated Arizona GOP candidate Kari Lake will campaign for Issue 1, along with Sound of Freedom star and anti-abortion activist Jim Caveziel.

Theyre testing the playbook in Ohio, said state Rep. Allison Russo, the leader of the Democratic minority in Columbus. If theyre successful here in fighting back against reproductive rights, theyve got a plan they can use in other states in 2024, and past that.

Know More

David Weigel

The groups spending to pass or beat Issue 1 have raised more than $35 million. Thats less money than flowed into Michigan last year, when an amendment that wrote abortion rights into the state constitution passed by 16 points.

But anti-abortion activists were out-spent in that race, and their messaging that insisted the amendment would allow minors to get gender assignment surgery without parental consent  an argument being made in Ohio, too  didnt close the gap.

In Ohio, the yes side has out-spent the no side. More than $11 million came from the D.C.-based Concord Fund and Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, funding ads that have warned of radical groups trying to mangle the state constitution and put trans ideology in classrooms.

Conservatives had been burned by double-digit losses on ballot measures related to abortion in Michigan and Kansas last year, and even a single-digit defeat in Kentucky. But abortion rights advocates hadnt cleared 60% of the vote in those races. In Ohio, the return-on-investment for the anti-abortion movement was obvious.

I think that some Republican donors got a little gun shy, and sat on their wallets for too long, LaRose told Semafor. Thats only started to change recently, when people started to consider all that could be on the ballot.

The no campaign has built its own, broad coalition, with Democrats and labor unions turning out votes and some prominent  but retired  Republicans echoing their concerns. At a Friday no rally in Columbus, ex-Gov. Ted Strickland joked that it was hard to thank John Kasich, the Republican who beat him, for joining the cause. Betty Montgomery, a Republican ex-attorney general, was the guest of honor, warning members of her party that theyd regret restricting the amendment process.

The short-term decision to get something done using this amendment  whether its abortion, whether its redistricting, whether its anything else youre concerned about  is just short-term, said Montgomery. You are giving up your democratic rights. And when you give up those rights, its a recipe for disaster.

The View From Progressives

Democrats think the conservative message  that the amendment process will enable them to grab guns and erase qualified immunity for police  is a far-fetched scare tactic. They point out that only 19 amendments have been enacted total since 1912, when the state constitution first allowed them, and getting progressive priorities on the ballot is an uphill battle. The problem Republicans have is that referendums on issues like abortion rights and minimum wage increases have proven popular in blue and red states alike by drawing in votes across party lines.

In the immediate term, liberal anger at the Issue 1 campaign may have helped abortion rights campaigners, marijuana legalization campaigners, and other progressive activists grab more signatures for their amendment votes. Cynthia Brown, the founder of the campaign to end qualified immunity, said that her opponents must be concerned  canvassers got 1,000 signatures for the cause in two days, just by walking the early voting lines in Columbus.

The View From Conservatives

If the measure fails on Tuesday, progressives who have no real access to power in Columbus will be emboldened. If it passes, abortion rights campaigners told me theyd keep working toward victory in November. And LaRose would be running for U.S. Senate as a hero of the anti-abortion movement, one who had to cajole other Republicans to get on board.

I do think that Ohio Republicans and Ohio conservatives appreciate that Im stepping up to lead, and theyve noticed that Im fighting for their values, LaRose said. Whether we win or lose, the base of our party appreciates my efforts. But we intend to win.

Notable
On behalf of the Florida Clinicians for Climate Action, I spoke to a group of farmworkers in Florida a few weeks ago about how their health risks were evolving along with our changing climate, and the conversation took on a tragic new urgency.

One of the groups co-workers, Efrain Lopez Garcia, a healthy 29-year-old man from Guatemala, had died on July 6 in the fields as a result of extreme heat. Community members were shaken and grieving, as well as confused and divided about what they should have done  or could have done  to save their friend.

One gentleman protested: They shouldnt have given him ice. It was too hot, and that made it worse.

I polled the audience to see if they also thought it was wrong to give the young man ice. Almost every hand  including the childrens  went up.

After nearly 40 years of practicing medicine, youd think Id be used to the highs and lows of patient care, but the truth is, some things dont get easier with time. I could feel their guilt for believing that they hastened their co-workers death, and witnessing their pain tied my heart into a knot.

That fateful day would be one of the hottest ever recorded, and I could only reassure them that they did their best. In fact, doctors do something very similar when someone is experiencing heat-related illness by placing the patient in an ice water bath.

As I explained more about heat illness prevention and treatment, the farmworkers apprehensive faces gradually relaxed. Even though they were feeling better about their efforts to help their friend, I had to be forthright about the risks that persisted for them: The days will only get hotter, and they need to remain vigilant.

Coincidentally, the Sunday I spent speaking with the group of farmworkers coincided with the National Weather Service issuing the very first excessive heat warning in Miami. The heat index, which measures the interaction between temperature and humidity, gives people a sense of the temperature it feels like outside.

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On that day, the heat index forecast was 110 degrees Fahrenheit for more than two hours. With July being the hottest month ever, its no wonder that heat is our countrys top weather-related killer.

Most scientists, doctors, and other health professionals acknowledge human-caused climate change as the greatest threat to our health and survival. Severe heat has engulfed more than half of the United States population for the past several weeks.

Coupled with wildfires in Canada and California and tornadoes in the Midwest, everyone has felt, either directly or indirectly, the impact of extreme weather. But some communities feel it earlier, more severely, and for longer.

Black and Hispanic populations in the U.S. are more likely to live in communities that fail EPA Air Quality standards, even before the wildfires. These communities also have higher energy burdens, are exposed to more particulate pollution, live in substandard housing, and have lower wealth than white communities.

When cross-referenced with other known health disparities, the data shows that these communities also have higher rates of chronic disease and worse health on average.

Recent studies have shown that increased preterm labor and poorer birth outcomes (especially in Black women), acute kidney failure in agricultural workers, and increased allergies and asthma are all related to heat and pollution.

Caring for patients like the agricultural workers in Miami who have no protection from the environment has provided me with early exposure and understanding of the severity of the climate crisis.

Other clinicians like me also have this opportunity to identify health impacts and to act. Many studies, including this one from Gallup, repeatedly demonstrate that clinicians are trusted messengers. Clinician messaging on these health risks can be effective in persuading patients to adopt protective behaviors.

But to educate better, we must first understand our patients better.

For example, in summertime, the human body will typically become stressed when temperatures rise above 90 degrees Fahrenheit. But, a patient who lives on the upper floors of an apartment building without air conditioning may learn after speaking with their physician that they should start hydrating when its 82 degrees Fahrenheit outside because of their living conditions.

This is a simple example of tailored messaging, but the philosophy can be applied broadly and at scale if we all start paying attention and prioritizing climate and health education.

There are more than 22 million healthcare professionals in the United States. If we all incorporated climate change education into our daily practice, we could help prepare communities mentally and physically for the health challenges they will face. For communities like the farmworkers I serve in Miami, we can even prevent death.

Dr. Cheryl Holder is the president of the Florida State Medical Association and the co-chair of Florida Clinicians for Climate Action, where she advocates for comprehensive medical prevention and care strategies for poor communities impacted by climate change.

This editorial was produced in partnership with the Aspen Institute to continue the conversations at the Aspen Ideas: Climate event.
Come November, most active-duty and some Reserve and National Guard members will be able to sign up for flexible spending accounts to help pay for child care, preschool, day camps and even adult day care services as part of the federal Flexible Spending Account program.

The program is one of several personnel initiatives announced in March by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and allows personnel to obtain a Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account, or DCFSA. Troops can set aside up to $5,000 in pretax income through payroll deductions -- money that can be spent on approved types of care.

By enrolling in a flexible spending account, service members contribute funds that aren't subject to payroll taxes, which lowers their taxable income and results in more take-home pay. The money can be used for before and after school care, nanny expenses, au pairs, babysitting, day care and nursery school, and summer day camps, as well as care for adults who can't take care of themselves.

Read Next: Niger Coup Forces Embassy Evacuation, But Marines Will Remain

The Defense Department estimates that roughly 400,000 service members will qualify for an account, including those with children under age 13 or who have older dependents, including spouses, with special needs who require around-the-clock care.

Those entitled to enroll include active-duty DoD service members, as well as National Guard and reserve members on Title 10 orders of at least 180 days or more, although those troops can sign up for the program with pending orders 31 days before or 60 days after activation.

Currently, Guard and reserve members on Title 32 orders, other reserve members and Coast Guard personnel are not eligible.

Service members can enroll for the new program during the federal benefits season from mid-November to mid-December -- exact dates to be announced by the Office of Personnel Management. The accounts will be active effective Jan. 1.

To help service members understand the benefits and limitations of DCFSAs, the DoD Office of Financial Readiness has included information on the accounts on its website. Military OneSource has launched an education campaign on the benefit with updated fact sheets, and FSAFeds, the federal office that manages the program, has a wealth of details on how to enroll and use the program.

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During a press conference with reporters Thursday, DCFSA Executive Director Jennifer Walker and Andy Cohen, director of the Office of Financial Readiness at the DoD, acknowledged that the program is new and may not be well understood by service members who haven't used similar accounts.

Cohen said DoD personal financial professionals or MilTax consultants will provide a free consultation on how the benefit can affect a family's finances.

"This is a tool to help families find affordable child care, and it's vital for maintaining overall military readiness," added Walker.

While the first opportunity to sign up will be during the federal benefits open season, military personnel will have additional times when they can start an account, during periods known as qualifying life events. These include a change in employment status; marriage; divorce; birth or adoption; change in child or elder care providers; change in coverage; deployment; and permanent change of station orders.

Once service members enroll, the Federal Flexible Spending Account Program will work with their payroll providers to ensure that the funds are deducted from pay. Members have a FSA savings account that they can access through an app. They then can choose to have funds paid directly to providers or submit a claim to receive the funds.

Walker said that, while there are segments of the military population who aren't eligible to access the benefit, the DoD is "continuing to work through the complexities of extending this benefit for those additional populations."

"[We] understand there are concerns from that population. We will share more information when it is available," Walker said.

Cohen encouraged members to learn more about the program and reach out to a DoD financial counselor or Military OneSource to learn more.

"The counselors can help walk them through the pros and cons to determine if the DCFSA is right for them and help them make that informed financial decision," Cohen said.

Even those who don't want to enroll should consider reaching out to these resources to learn more about DoD financial programs, he said.

"They're available to help with any other financial questions that folks have about making sure that they're building financial well-being," Cohen said.

Editor's Note: This article has been updated to correct the dates of the 2023 federal benefits open season, which have yet to be announced.

 Patricia Kime can be reached at Patricia.Kime@Military.com

Related: Defense Department Raises On-Base Child Care Fees
Donald Trump

Trump features front digi

It is unprecedented for a former US president to be facing federal criminal charges. It is unthinkable that, as a result, Donald J Trump could spend the rest of his life in prison. And it is ridiculous that, from behind bars, he could still contest the presidential election in 2024  and have a chance of winning.

Yet everything about Trumps political career is unprecedented, unthinkable and ridiculous. The only rule of the Donald is that he breaks all rules.

Trump was impeached twice in office. Hes been through countless investigations, yet he has always managed to escape the shackles of the law. This time, however, he has been accused of crimes that prosecutors say struck at the bedrock of American democracy: illegally attempting to subvert the 2020 election.

In the E.Barrett Prettyman Courthouse, in Washington DC, on Thursday, the former president pleaded not guilty to four charges related to the so-called Stop the Steal campaign and the storming of the US Capitol on Jan 6 2021  including conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiracy against the right to vote. The most serious charges carry a maximum prison sentence of 20 years.

All of which comes on top of a prosecution by the Department of Justice, which has indicted him on 37 counts for allegedly mishandling the classified documents he kept at his home in Mar-a-Lago, Florida; charges which could also lead to 10-to-20-year sentences if convicted. For a 76-year-old, that means life. If found guilty, then, Trumps only path to freedom would probably be to win the presidential election from behind bars and then pardon himself back into the White House.

Again, that sounds utterly implausible. That does not mean it is impossible. And there is nothing in the US Constitution that prevents someone who has been charged or convicted from seeking or taking office.

Of course, a criminal Trump conviction would throw up some immediate practical challenges: given his position and his fame, where on earth could he be safely incarcerated? Every living president is entitled to secret service security; would Trumps special agents have to join him in jail?

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A protestor outside the courthouse in Miami on Tuesday - Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg

Then there are the political implications, which are even more unfathomable. It seems unlikely that Trump would give up just because hed been found criminally guilty. On the contrary, he and his supporters would only be further radicalised. Already, his campaign messaging ahead of 2024 has been almost apocalyptic in tone. He promises voters he will be your retribution against the Deep State, by which he means the network of national security and intelligence agencies, politicised judges and nefarious journalists who are trying to bring him, and therefore America, down.

His more hardline supporters were outside the courthouse in Washington yesterday, carrying campaign flags that said Trump for President 24, Finish the Wall and Trump Won. Things could turn ugly fast.

Trumps voters agree with his assessment that he is the victim of a witch-hunt. He is already facing criminal charges in New York for falsifying business records and, earlier this year, a Manhattan court found him civilly liable for sexual abuse. Yet his presidential campaign never stops and  a curious dynamic  the more his legal problems mount, the more his support rises among Republican voters.

His political opponents, the Democrats, who run the Department of Justice, are quite sanguine about this situation: they believe that while Trump fans may love him no matter what, the majority will always find him and his MAGA movement too toxic to be suffered. His election in 2016, runs the argument, was an aberration: in the 2020 presidential election, as well as the 2018 and 2022 mid-term elections, Trumpism failed.

Gray: 'Trumps acolytes like to point out that anybody else, facing the legal and media onslaught he has faced, would be a broken man  but not Donald' - Shutterstock

Yet part of Trumps appeal, especially among evangelicals, has always been his messianic pitch to voters who feel that the system is rigged against them. Hes fond of sharing an online meme that says: In reality, its not me theyre after. Its you. Im just in the way. Trumps acolytes and campaign talking heads like to point out that anybody else, facing the legal and media onslaught he has faced, would be a broken man  but not Donald.

If he were to go to jail, even if the evidence against him were damning, his supporters would only feel hes been proven right. In 2016, he famously bragged: I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldnt lose any voters. In 2024, he could campaign to be re-elected as Commander-in-Chief while incarcerated as a grave threat to national security, and his admirers would only admire him more.

But its not just die-hard fans who prefer Donald the potential convict to the Department of Justice. The idea of the righteous rebel, the maverick, or the outlaw speaks to something deep in the freedom-loving American psyche  Think of Jesse James, James Dean, or the abolitionist John Brown. Americans tend to be more cynical about high-level criminal allegations than, say, the British, and therefore the stigma of being accused is less strong. If youre not indicted, youre not invited is a saying among party-going New Yorkers, for instance.

That scepticism stems in part from the fact that, for centuries, the more democratic American justice system has been more politicised than it is in Britain. Nakedly political people stand for and win elections as judges, district attorneys, or other positions of legal authority and the Department of Justice is led by the man in the White House, even if it is still in theory bound by the constitution.

Trump supporters outside the courthouse on Tuesday - Nathan Howard/Bloomberg

This inevitably leads to a widespread sense of bias. Trumps New York trial, for instance, was directed by a Democrat district attorney, Alvin Bragg, and overseen by the Democrat attorney general, Letitia James, both of whom are long-standing and outspoken critics of the politician they are trying to convict.

An incarcerated Trump would play on Americas in-built suspicion of the legal system. Convinced of his innocence, and regarding himself as Christ-like in his willingness to suffer for mankind, he wont be embarrassed by any perpetrator mug shot  indeed, hell use it as a badge of honour. His campaign team will circulate the image in their promotional materials.

We have seen this before, albeit never with a man who occupied the Oval Office. In 1920, Eugene V Debs, a socialist, ran for president from behind bars and won just shy of a million votes, a staggering amount for a man of his radicalism. Hed been cruelly jailed under the 1918 Sedition Act for his opposition to Americas involvement in the First World War.

His backers made a virtue of his renegade status, handing out photographs of him in convict denim as well as campaign lapel pins that said Prisoner 9653. I thank the capitalist masters for putting me here, said Debs from jail. They know where I belong under their criminal and corrupting system. It is the only compliment they could pay me. Its not impossible to imagine a jail-bird Trump saying something similar, though he would use the word globalists instead of capitalists.

Unlike Debs, Trump would be a major party nominee. And many Republicans, even Trump fans, might consider voting for a convict a step too far. After a blaze of media attention following his imprisonment, he would struggle to campaign. The legendary rallies would be Trump-less. He would probably ask his children, Eric, Donald Junior and Ivanka to represent him and push his message all over the country. Ivanka, who is widely thought to have political ambitions of her own, may shrink from attaching herself to a jail break campaign in 2024. The Trump family bonds would be tested as never before.

Trump's daughters Tiffany and Ivanka - Getty

Depending on the terms of his sentence, Trump may not even have a mobile phone or regular access to the internet.

The 2024 election could therefore turn out to be an even stranger version of 2020, when Joe Biden effectively campaigned locked inside his Delaware basement and won. That was the year of peak Covid panic and the Black Lives Matter riots, when a sense of madness prevailed and American cities were torched for weeks on end. If Trump is jailed, expect American democracy to get even crazier.

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Former President Donald Trump at Reagan National Airport following an arraignment in a Washington, D.C., court on Thursday. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

Former President Donald Trump was arraigned Thursday on charges stemming from his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. It was the third time he had been criminally arraigned this year, in addition to losing a civil trial.

Trump called Thursdays events a sad day for America and has claimed he is the victim of political persecution, noting his wide lead in the 2024 Republican presidential primary. The former presidents allies say the federal government is being weaponized against him, but Trumps dates in court are coming from numerous avenues and could continue to grow.

Here is Trumps legal calendar.

Aug. 28

An artists sketch of Trump, conferring with defense lawyer Todd Blanche, during his court appearance in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, as Trump lawyer John Lauro faces Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya. Special counsel Jack Smith sits at left. (Dana Verkouteren via AP)

During the hearing Thursday, both sides agreed to meet at the end of the month to set a trial date for the charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States, obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights.

While the government is pushing for a speedy trial, Trumps defense is aiming to extend the process, with his attorney John Lauro arguing it would be somewhat absurd to rush to trial.

Sept. 1

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said she would press charges against Trump at some point in August for his attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential results in Georgia. On Monday, a judge rejected an effort by Trump to get Willis, an elected Democrat, taken off the case and to throw out much of the evidence Willis had gathered during the years-long investigation.

The case is likely to center on the Georgia Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, and it could result in multiple members of Trumps team being charged. Trump has defended the call he made on Jan. 2, 2021, to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, asking him to find exactly enough votes to defeat Joe Biden in the state, as perfect.

Oct. 2

New York state Attorney General Letitia Jamess civil trial against Trump and the Trump Organization is set to begin. Last year, James accused Trump of staggering fraud, tied to lying about property values and his own net worth, in order to induce banks to lend money to the Trump Organization on more favorable terms than would otherwise have been available to the company, to pay lower taxes, to satisfy continuing loan agreements and to induce insurance companies to provide insurance coverage for higher limits and at lower premiums. In December, a Manhattan jury found the Trump Organization guilty of 17 counts of tax fraud.

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Trump attempted to have the lawsuit dismissed, but an appeals court judge rejected that argument in June.

Jan. 15, 2024

Writer E. Jean Carroll leaves a Manhattan courthouse on May 9 after a jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing her in a Manhattan department store in the 1990s. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

On May 9, a Manhattan jury found that Trump had sexually abused and defamed writer E. Jean Carroll in a civil judgment when he said she was lying in her rape allegation against him. A second trial, seeking $10 million for defamation, is set for the beginning of 2024, with Carroll citing Trump calling her a wack job at a May town hall on CNN.

On the same day, the 2024 Republican presidential primary will kick off with the Iowa caucuses. A New York Times/Siena poll of the Hawkeye State released this week showed Trump leading the field with 44% of the vote, 24 points ahead of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Jan. 29

Trump and his company are facing a federal class-action lawsuit over claims he promoted a pyramid scheme while hosting his reality competition show The Apprentice. Three of Trumps children  Don Jr., Eric and Ivanka  sat for depositions in the case but were dropped from the suit in May.

March 24

Trump with his legal team in a Manhattan court on April 4 during his arraignment on charges stemming from a hush money payment to a porn actress during his 2016 campaign. (Seth Wenig/AP)

Trumps first arraignment of 2023 came in Manhattan in April, when he was charged in conjunction with payments made to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels in the run-up to the 2016 election. Prosecutors allege that he violated campaign finance laws by repeatedly and fraudulently falsifying New York business records to conceal criminal conduct that hid damaging information from the voting public.

Eleven months later, Trump will stand trial for those allegations, generally seen as the weakest of the cases against him. As a criminal defendant in this case, he will need to be present in the courtroom.

May 20

Trumps second criminal hearing this year came in June, when he was indicted by a federal grand jury in Miami for his mishandling of classified documents and alleged attempts to obstruct justice while retaining them at his Mar-a-Lago resort. Last month, Judge Aileen Cannon said that trial would be held late next spring in Fort Pierce, Fla.

July also brought three new felony charges against Trump, with special prosecutor Jack Smith alleging in a superseding indictment that the former president asked a Mar-a-Lago employee to delete security footage. As in the New York case, Trump will need to be present for this trial.

July 15

The Republican National Convention begins in Milwaukee.

Nov. 5

Election Day.
Donald Trump Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

Donald Trump was finally indicted this week by the Department of Justice and special counsel Jack Smith for crimes connected with his coup attempt on Jan. 6 and the larger plan to end multiracial democracy by nullifying the results of the 2020 Election.

The specific charges are "conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding; and conspiracy against rights." The second paragraph of the indictment summarizes Trump's alleged coup plot:

Despite having lost, the Defendant was determined to remain in power. So for more than two months following election day on November 3, 2020, the Defendant spread lies that there had been outcome-determinative fraud in the election and that he had actually won. These claims were false, and the Defendant knew that they were false. But the Defendant repeated and widely disseminated them anyway to make his knowingly false claims appear legitimate, create an intense national atmosphere of mistrust and anger, and erode public faith in the administration of the election.

This is the third time that Trump has been charged with breaking federal laws  with the indictment for Jan. 6 and the coup plot being a literal crime against democracy and the worst betrayal ever committed by an American president against his own country.

On Thursday, Donald Trump was arraigned at the E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse in Washington D.C. This is the same courthouse where more than 1,000 of Trump's foot soldiers who overran the Capitol as part of his coup attempt were also arraigned.

In a cover story at the New York Times, Peter Baker perfectly describes the implications of Trump's repeated historic lawbreaking:

What makes the indictment against Donald J. Trump on Tuesday so breathtaking is not that it is the first time a president has been charged with a crime or even the second. Mr. Trump already holds those records. But as serious as hush money and classified documents may be, this third indictment in four months gets to the heart of the matter, the issue that will define the future of American democracy. At the core of the United States of America v. Donald J. Trump is no less than the viability of the system constructed during that summer in Philadelphia. Can a sitting president spread lies about an election and try to employ the authority of the government to overturn the will of the voters without consequence? The question would have been unimaginable just a few years ago, but the Trump case raises the kind of specter more familiar in countries with histories of coups and juntas and dictators. In effect, Jack Smith, the special counsel who brought the case, charged Mr. Trump with one of the most sensational frauds in the history of the United States, one "fueled by lies" and animated by the basest of motives, the thirst for power.

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At the Atlantic, Tom Nichols implores every American who claims to love their country to reject Trump and his neofascist movement:

The rest of us, as a nation but also as individuals, can no longer indulge the pretense that Trump is just another Republican candidate, that supporting Donald Trump is just another political choice, and that agreeing with Trump's attacks on our democracy is just a difference of opinion. (Those of us who share our views in the media have a particular duty to cease discussing Trump as if he were a normal candidateor even a normal personespecially after today's indictment.) I have long described Trump's candidacies as moral choices and tests of civic character, but I have also cautioned that Americans, for the sake of social comity, should resist too many arguments about politics among themselves. I can no longer defend this advice. The indictment handed down today challenges every American to put a shoulder to the wheel and defend our republic in every peaceful, legal, and civilized way they can.

At the Daily Beast, former Tea Party conservative and now leading never-Trumper and pro-democracy advocate Joe Walsh does not soften the truth that Donald Trump is a violent criminal who needs to be put in prison:

Please don't breeze past this fact: The former President of the United States believed violence was ultimately how he could execute his attempted coup. He incited that violence for months, and he exploited that violence on Jan. 6. You can't read this 45-page indictment and not understand that Donald Trump tried everything he could to overturn the election results, knowing his argument was based on nothing, and that he'd use his power as Commander in Chief of the armed forces to remain in office. (I repeat: Trump wanted to use the military.) "This was his plan all along. He wanted, he needed, depended upon, encouraged, and incited violence. And he was prepared to order the military to act violently on his behalf." Per the indictment, when Trump was warned by his Deputy White House Counsel on Jan. 3 that there was no "outcome-determinative fraud in the election," and that if Trump remained in office there would be "riots in every major city in the United States," the unnamed co-conspirator 4 responded, "Well [Deputy White House Counsel], that's why there's an Insurrection Act."

As I write about Trump's political crime spree against the nation, I keep thinking about one of the greatest "what if?" moments in recent history. Forgotten in the swift and filthy and disorienting currents of the Age of Trump and a media machine that enables and feeds off of it, was that moment in October 2020 when then-President Trump left Walter Reed Medical Center after almost dying from COVID and he had plans to tear open his shirt, revealing a Superman logo underneath it. If Trump had done such a thing  and I believe that he should have ignored his aides and followed his instincts  it would have been one of the most memorable events in presidential history. Would that have won Trump the 2020 Election by itself? We will never know. But my instincts tell me that gambit, the theater and spectacle of it all, would have pushed Trump closer to the finish line.

Of course, Donald Trump is not Superman; he shares none of Superman's qualities of selflessness, courage, strength, integrity, self-sacrifice, goodness, and love of humanity. But that does not matter: in reality, Trump is a supervillain who he and his followers delusionally believe to be a hero.

I also keep thinking about Donald Trump as a professional wrestling heel. And why does the heel inevitably end up losing to the babyface? Because the very traits that allowed the heel to stay on top  egomania, hubris, arrogance, lying, cheating, stealing, manipulation, bullying, and other bad behavior  are the cause of their final undoing.

That is Donald Trump's story to this point.

Let us not overlook how Donald Trump's criminal trials are a type of narrow legal remedy. Unfortunately, the harm and damage that Trump, the MAGA movement and the Republican fascists, and larger white right have done and continue to do to the nation cannot be solved or healed by legal means alone. So what does justice look like for those crimes and other acts of grand wrongdoing committed by Trump?

In all, Trumpism (and American neofascism) is much bigger than any one person or persons; it is a cultural problem that will persist far into the future. As I explained in a previous essay here at Salon, to begin that process of healing and purging Trumpism and neofascism from American society and life, requires that he be defeated in the courtroom(s) and at the ballot box.

In a press release, the pro-democracy advocacy group the Lincoln Project warned:

The nation needs to wake up to the very real threat that Trump will win the presidency. He IS the Republican nominee. He IS leading in the polls against Joe Biden. The MAGA GOP is a cult that no longer cares about the rule of law and wants to send Trump back to the White House. No indictment is going to stop his campaign. All Americans must realize the only choice before voters is between a functioning democracy versus a disgraced former President who tried to overthrow the government. There is only one functioning party in America that cares about the rule of law and believes in democracy - and President Joe Biden is its candidate.

At the Bulwark, Kim Wehle also warns that:

This indictment is a step toward justice. And it is a document of historic importance. But it is alsofor the Republican party and for America as a wholea reckoning. Because Trump's treasonous, criminal, and malevolent character, as described in this indictment, is exactly what could get him re-elected in 2024.

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Villains imagine in their own minds that they are the real victims. On Wednesday, Trump sent out the following fundraising email in response to his indictment and imminent arrest for the crimes of Jan. 6:

The Swamp that I am on a mission to drain is trying to imprison me for life as an innocent man. But I am not afraid in the slightest. This is the mission I signed up for when I first chose to run for president as a complete political outsider. When you begin to drain the Swamp, you finally catch a glimpse of the vile monsters that had been lurking at the bottom.

Summoning the phrase that is looming over Trump's criminal trials that "our long national nightmare is finally over," I very much wish that were in fact true. Unfortunately, the nightmare that is the Age of Trump continues, and it will be many months and perhaps longer with trials, appeals, a presidential election, and other things we can't accurately predict at this point in time before the traitor ex-president and the Republican fascists and their forces are finally defeated and vanquished  assuming such an outcome is even possible given the country's deep problems.

Yes, Donald Trump may be surrounded. But that also means Trump can hit a target in any direction when he rages and lashes out. He has lost the ability to fully write his own narrative. This enrages Trump. His rage will not be contained or disciplined. Now is not the time to lower our defenses because that is how evildoers and supervillains like Donald Trump win.

Read more

about Trump's legal woes
The State Bureau of Investigation (DBR) announced on Aug. 4 that the head of the Donetsk Oblast military enlistment office had been charged with illegal payments to his subordinates and helping criminals avoid justice.

The official, while in charge of the Zaporizhzhia Oblast military enlistment office between July and December 2022, oversaw a scheme where his subordinates to whom he was personally connected received an unjustified allowance for participating in combat.

The official's subordinates were sent to a brigade near the front line, but did not carry out any tasks nor were assigned to a combat unit. In spite of that, the enlistment office awarded them a total allowance of Hr 981,300 (over $26,600) for combat deployment, the DBR clarified.

One of the subordinates further received the support of Hr 700,000 (up to $19,000) for being allegedly unable to work due to the battlefield deployment, the investigators said.

As a second charge, the DBR accused the military official of employing local criminals at the enlistment office to help them avoid trial and responsibility for their crimes.

The DBR did not name the suspect, but the current head of the Donetsk Oblast military enlistment office is Colonel Hennadii Yaremenko.

Ukrainian authorities launched a country-wide inspection of military enlistment offices after an investigation by Ukrainska Pravda revealed that Yevhen Borysov, the former head of the Odesa Oblast military enlistment office, had acquired assets, including a villa and luxury cars, worth $4.5 million in Spain at the end of 2022 during Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Borysov is under investigation for illicit enrichment and the violation of the order of military service.

On July 27, the DBR detained the head of the Rivne Oblast enlistment office and one of his subordinates for physically abusing soldiers. The subordinate was also charged with possession of illegal narcotic substances.

A military enlistment officer in Zakarpattia Oblast is under investigation for forcing soldiers to build his private house and acquiring Russian state symbols, the Interior Ministry reported on Aug. 2.

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Your slice of the headlines in Ukraine. Daily. Friday, August 4, 2023

 Audacious Ukrainian sea drone attack at Novorossiysk leaves Russianwarship listing badly

A large Russian amphibious assault ship, the Olenegorsky Gornyak, is listing and appears to be in danger of sinking after a nighttime attack by Ukrainian sea drones near the Russian port city of Novorossiysk.

 No civilian flights to Ukraine in near future, maybe after Ukrainereceives F16s  Danilov

Flights in Ukraine will not be resumed until it is 100% safe, Ukraines National Security and Defense Council Secretary, Oleksiy Danilov, said on national television on Aug. 3.

 China expected at Ukrainian Peace Summit in Saudi Arabia this week: WSJ

The Chinese delegation is expected at the peace meeting in Saudi Arabia because China is changing its mind over the war that has dragged on for far too long, The Wall Street Journal wrote on Aug. 2.

 Ukraine claims significant progress in southern counteroffensive

Kyivs forces have made significant advancements in pushing against Russian forces in southern Ukraine, deputy commander of the Tavria operational-strategic group Serhii Kuzmin told Ukrainian TV broadcasters on Aug. 3.

 Ukraines SBU involved in both Crimean Bridge attacks, confirms National Security Secretary

Ukraine was involved in both attacks on Russias illegal Crimean Bridge, Ukraines National Security and Defense Council Secretary, Oleksiy Danilov, confirmed on national TV on Aug. 3.

 NSDC secretary Danilov aims to defuse tensions between Ukraine and Poland

Hoping to counter growing diplomatic tensions between Kyiv and Warsaw, Ukraines National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) secretary Oleksiy Danilov took to Twitter on Aug. 2 to remind everyone that Poland was the first country to give Ukraine heavy weapons after Russia invaded in 2022.

Story continues

 40,000 tons of grain destroyed in Russian attack on Izmail

Recent Russian attacks on grain warehouses in Izmail, Odesa Oblast, have destroyed or contaminated nearly 40,000 tons of grain intended for African countries, China, and Israel, Ukraines Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said in a Facebook post on Aug. 2.

 High probability ICC issues more arrest warrants for Putin andother top Russian officials

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is looking at the links between the Wagner private military company (PMC) and the Russian leadership, potentially leading to a new arrest warrant for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin in connection with the crimes committed by the Wagnerites in Ukraine, said David Scheffer, the former U.S. State Department Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes, Voice of America reported on Aug. 3.

 Whats next for drone attacks on Moscow

Probing attacks continue. We remember the major attack on Moscow (late May - early June) by some unknown drones. At that time, air defense was working hard in the Moscow region. That was the first wake-up call.  Prytula

 Former Wagner prisoner kills 5 Russians in drunken rampage after returnfrom Ukraine

Russia continues to reap the consequences of its reckless campaign to release dangerous criminals from prisons to dispatch in their illegal war against Ukraine, RFE/RLs Sever.Realii reported on Aug. 3.

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Dubinsky is suspected of falsifying documents for foreign travel

MP Oleksandr Dubinsky, who is suspected of falsifying documents for foreign travel, has arrived for questioning at the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) in Kyiv on Aug. 4.

A day before, law enforcement authorities conducted a search of Dubinskys residence in connection with the alleged falsification of documents.

According to the Prosecutor Generals Office, during the course of the war, the MP obtained permission to leave Ukraine claiming it was to accompany his father for medical treatment.

However, reports suggest that he did not actually accompany his father on the trip, and his father returned to Ukraine much earlier than Dubinsky did.

U.S. sanctions against Dubinsky

Read also: More Servant of the People MPs could be expelled, says faction head

On Jan. 11, Oleksandr Dubinsky, former MP Oleksandr Onyshchenko, and five other associates of MP Andriy Derkach, were included in the U.S. Treasury Departments sanctions list. The U.S.authorities believe that all of them were part of a Russian influence network.

Derkach has been on the sanctions list since 2020. During the height of the U.S. presidential race, he published alleged recordings of conversations between Ukraines fifth president, Petro Poroshenko, then former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, and Kremlin dictator Vladimir Putin.

Read also: Kremlin prepared two puppet leaderships for Ukraine ahead of invasion  media reports

Dubinsky was one of the initiators of a temporary parliamentary commission formed in response to these recordings. Furthermore, during a joint press conference with Derkach, they advocated for an investigation into corruption involving Joe Biden.

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Kominta, a Waorina hunter, is afraid oil exploration will destroy his Indigenous way of life (Galo Paguay)

Armed with a long blowgun and darts laced with poison extracted from plants, Kominta walks naked through the thick Ecuadorian jungle, where oil exploration is threatening his way of life.

"The jungle is my home, and I don't want strangers in my territory," the Waorani hunter tells AFP in the southeastern village of Bameno, in a region bordering Peru.

His community of about 200 people is in Yasuni National Park, one of the most diverse biospheres in the world, and home to two of the world's last uncontacted Indigenous populations.

On August 20, along with general elections, Ecuadorans will vote in a referendum on whether to halt the exploitation of crude oil within the reserve, which currently provides 12 percent of the 466,000 barrels per day produced by the country.

"I don't want an oil company to reach my territory. That's how I want to live, freely, in a healthy place," adds Kominta in the Wao Terero language.

The government -- which opposes the referendum that was granted by the Constitutional Court in May -- estimates losses of some $16 billion over 20 years if the oil is left underground.

There are about 4,800 Waorani, who own some 800,000 hectares (1.9 million acres) of jungle in the Amazon provinces of Orellana, Pastaza and Napo.

However, the community -- some of whom still choose to live in isolation -- is divided, with some supporting the oil companies and the benefit economic growth has brought to their villages.

Drilling inside the Yasuni reserve began in 2016 after years of fraught debate and failed efforts by then President Rafael Correa to persuade the international community to pay Ecuador $3.6 billion not to do so.

But with his government strapped for cash amid a plunge in global oil prices, in the end the leftist leader asked Congress to give the go-ahead to drill.

Current President Guillermo Lasso, who took office in 2021, wants to double Ecuador's oil production.

- Grandmother ready to fight -

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The oil industry "destroys the environment I live in," Kominta said through translator Elisa Enqueri.

Accessing Bameno requires 12 hours of navigation through various rivers in the Pastaza region.

"My grandmother says that she would fight with her spear. She has the energy and still feels young ... to prevent strange people from coming here," says Enqueri.

The Yasuni National Park houses some 2,000 tree, 610 bird, 204 mammal, 150 amphibian and more than 120 reptile species, according to the San Francisco University of Quito.

It is also home to the uncontacted Taromenane and Tagaeri tribes, who are rivals and sometimes fight each other. They have also attacked oil workers and loggers with their spears.

Oil activity "affects their way of life and puts their lives at risk. There is a serious risk of ethnocide, of the total extermination of these communities," said Pedro Bermeo, a lawyer and spokesman for Yasunidos, an environmental group backing the referendum.

Moi Guiquita, another young Wao, says the oil companies are "getting closer and closer" to Bameno.

"Sixty years ago they were much further away."

Indigenous communities seeking to escape their presence "can't go any further as there is no more" space, he said.

str-sp/pld/ds/fb/jh/tjj
Once upon a time, Floridas open-government laws  crowned by constitutional guarantees against secrecy  were regarded as a national model. State leaders boasted of their openness and backed their play with decisive action: Former Gov. Charlie Crist (then a Republican) and former Attorney General Bob Butterworth (a Democrat) formed a strong partnership to defend public access. Lawmakers like the late Sen. Dorothy Hukill, R-Port Orange, and former Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, took pride in their defense of public integrity.

That didnt keep lawmakers from filing hundreds of public records exemptions. But those that didnt pass constitutional muster usually didnt pass  often dying after one sharply worded communique from advocates like Barbara Petersen, former director of the Florida First Amendment Foundation. The laws that did pass were often quickly challenged and struck down if they didnt clear the high bar for exemptions.

Those days are over, says Bobby Block, current head of the First Amendment Foundation. Litigation is a fraction of what it used to be, he acknowledges.

As a result, Florida state and local officials seem to be emboldened to ignore the law.

A shifting culture

The defiance starts at the top. Public records requests to Gov. Ron DeSantis office and some state agencies rarely draw a quick response, and often go unacknowledged  an attitude that seems to be filtering down to some local governments, accountability experts say. Meanwhile, the Legislature seems to have forgotten about the Florida Constitutions requirement that public-records and open-meetings laws be narrowly tailored and serve a defined public necessity.

At one point, attempts to block out the Sunshine would have drawn immediate  and usually successful  challenges. Yet those are down as well, largely because theyve often been pursued by media organizations and public-interest groups that no longer have the resources to legally challenge governmental secrecy every time it rears its head.

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The longer flagrant violations go unchallenged, the more widespread they become and the harder they are to fight. And without these open-government provisions, attempts to hold elected officials and governmental employees crumbles. Incompetence and self-dealing become increasingly protected. Tax dollars are misspent. Corruption seeps in.

Everyone suffers. Businesses lose predictability and the guarantee that they will be treated fairly. Residents dont have the information they need to fight against decisions they dont agree with, and often cant afford the fight to gain access to something that is theirs by right.

Victories are rare

We can think of a few recent examples that point out how bad things have become.

The first, youve probably heard about: Last weeks pileup on a Tennessee highway involving multiple state vehicles being used to transport DeSantis to a campaign event. Florida officials refused to answer questions about it, citing a new law that puts a cone of silence over where the governor travels, who he meets with, and when he is using state resources to cover travel that has no bearing on his official duties.

Fortunately, Tennessee officials arent bound by that law. They provided the records that strongly suggest the governor was using state resources for personal gain  something that is also banned by the Florida Constitution.

The second comes from a recent court victory by the Florida Center for Governmental Accountability, which sued to unseal records in an investigation of two Daytona Beach Shores police officers accused of using handcuffs and a city holding cell to potty-train their 3-year-old son. Somebody thought that they were entitled to a special form of justice that doesnt exist, said Michael Barfield, FLCGA director of public access initiatives in a press release. Thats a road into darkness. Today theres been a U-turn.

But as fewer cases are litigated, those slam-dunk rulings become less predictable.

Instead, were seeing judges sign off on abuses of governmental openness, including a January decision  by a Tallahassee trial judge with an anti-Sunshine track record  that casually leapfrogged the lack of an official public-records exemption. Circuit Judge Angela Dempsey created a presumption that DeSantis had executive privilege to withhold official communications from his office. Thats as big a threat to open government as we can imagine, which is why the Orlando Sentinel is among the groups challenging that ruling in appellate court.

The Sentinel, like other media organizations around the state, will continue to demand public records and produce strong journalism detailing governmental abuses. But media companies , no longer have bottomless resources. And thats making a big difference, Block says. For a long time, residents and businesses in Florida depended on the media, along with advocacy groups like the FLGCA and the First Amendment Foundation, to fight these battles. They cant depend on that any more.

Time to rally

When the cause is right, Florida finds the resources for advocacy. Groups that fight for responsible growth management and defend environmental treasures, those who advocate for seniors, the LGBTQ community and vulnerable children, organizations that defend the homeless and people with disabilities, all draw support from corporate and individual donors. But many of those organizations will find their missions much more difficult if the integrity of state and local government continues to erode due to increasing secrecy.

Thats why were calling on Floridas corporate leaders and leading philanthropists to join this fight  either by supporting nonprofits like the First Amendment Foundation, FLGCA, League of Women Voters, Integrity Florida, Common Cause and others, or through direct litigation that goes beyond self-interest to defend good public policy.

Florida, its use-it-or-lose it time. The Sunshine is under attack, and everyone has a stake in defending it.

____

The Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Krys Fluker, Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson and Viewpoints Editor Jay Reddick. Contact us at insight@orlandosentinel.com.
At least 11 GOP senators who voted not to convict Donald Trump during his second impeachment trial in February 2021 referred to him as a private citizen, claiming obliquely or explicitly that they didnt have the power or jurisdiction to convict a man who was no longer president of the grave offenses he openly committed against the country. Alabamas Richard Shelbys sentiments were common: the Constitution speaks of removing a sitting president, not a private citizen.

This spineless cop-out, and the subsequent absence of a vote to bar Trump from ever holding public office, has left us in this position of having a fraudster who has taken the most concrete steps to terminate American democracy since the Civil War now a major-party front-runner again. Yet it also unwittingly made a separate case: if impeachment was not the proper place to convict a former president, then naturally a federal court, which has jurisdiction over offenses committed by non-presidents, is the proper venue, right?

Theres no possible way that those same craven senators, who waved their awesome responsibility away, would be against Special Counsel Jack Smith, a federal prosecutor, now bringing charges  backed up by ample evidence already  that were approved by a grand jury and are slated to be heard in a federal courtroom before a jury, as the law calls for when it comes to private citizens? Thats a rhetorical question, of course. They will obviously twist themselves into pretzels to claim that its this process thats political, actually.

Wyomings John Barrasso, the chair of the Senate Republican Conference, said back then that his no vote on impeachment was consistent with my duty to the Constitution, I opposed this impeachment trial of a private citizen and former president. After Smiths indictment of Trump this week on charges related to the former presidents efforts to overturn the 2020 election, Barrasso said the public are uncomfortable watching the current president weaponize the justice system against his political opponent. So, you cant impeach and try private citizen Trump in the House and Senate, but he cant be tried in the federal courts either. Its almost like these officials believe that Trump should face no consequences by any means.

Like many of his colleagues, Barrasso also absurdly brought up a U.S. attorneys recent deal with Hunter Biden over charges of gun possession and tax evasion, which Republican lawmakers crowed was a Joe Biden-directed sweetheart deal (ignoring that it was reached by a Trump-appointed prosecutor) and which fell apart for technical reasons.

Among these was the unusual requirement, rejected by Delaware Federal Judge Maryellen Noreika (also a Trump appointee), that she be the one to oversee Hunter Bidens compliance with conditions the agreement set, a stipulation the defense pursued in part out of concern that a potentially reelected Trump would order his Justice Department to arrest his political rivals son whether or not he complied. If anything the deal spoke to concerns over Trumps, not Bidens, weaponization of the Justice Department.

Not that any of these facts actually matter. A controlling subset of the GOP now exists in thrall to Trump, and to point out their increasingly strained rationalizations and hypocrisy is to miss the point. They know, and they dont care.

___
A young boy carries a cross to Ponder Park where a vigil is held on Aug. 3, 2023 for the fourth anniversary of the Aug. 3, 2019 mass shooting take took place inside a Walmart in El Paso, Texas

Four years ago, heartbroken El Pasoans mournfully gathered at Ponder Park to grieve and pray in honor of the 23 victims killed in the Walmart mass shooting on Aug. 3, 2019.

It was the first of many memorials for those killed by a white supremacist who traveled to attack Hispanics in El Paso's binational community.

Hundreds had gathered at the park near the Walmart in the wake of the shooting to show solidarity and Borderland pride. Among the mourners four years ago was a family of three wearing T-shirts that read: Hecho en Chuco, Proud future  UTEP and Strength. Stitched together, those words described the heart of El Paso.

As beautiful white doves were released to the heavens, El Pasoans return to Ponder Park on Thursday morning to ensure the world doesn't forget the names of victims or the racist motive that fueled one of the worst attacks on Hispanics in modern history.

The Border Network for Human Rights memorial brought together El Pasoans determined to speak out against evil and hatred.

At far right, Pat Benavides helps open a cage to release doves during a remembrance held by Border Network for Human Rights on Aug. 3, 2023, for the fourth anniversary of the Aug. 3, 2019 mass shooting that took place inside a Walmart in El Paso, Texas.

"This was an attack against the heart of our community," Border Network for Human Rights Executive Director Fernando Garcia told the crowd. "Let's not forget about it. It's racism, xenophobia and white supremacism."

This year's annual memorial, near the Walmart where shoppers were massacred by a gunman using a semiautomatic assault-style rifle, came less than a month after the white supremacist gunman was punished with 90 life sentences in prison in federal court after pleading guilty to numerous charges. He now faces a still-unscheduled trial in state court, where prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty.

The events podium emblazoned with the words El Paso Firme was flanked by two oversized banners, one in English and another in Spanish, which heralded the messages of the day: "We Will Never Forget" and "Stand Against White Supremacy, Racism and Xenophobia."

As the memorial began, a single drum pounded loudly as people picked up 23 crosses, each etched with the name of one of the lives lost four years ago, and started their slow, somber procession from the park to the nearby Walmart.

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Among those carrying crosses were El Paso County Commissioner Iliana Holguin and Rev. Michael Grady of Prince of Peace Christian Fellowship in El Paso, whose daughter was shot three times in the attack.

Rev. Micheal Grady from the Prince of Peace Christian Fellowship church carries a cross with the name Jordan Anchondo who died alongside his wife, Andre Anchondo, protecting their child inside a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, during a mass shooting on Aug. 3. 2019. The vigil was held on the fourth anniversary of the mass shooting in Ponder Park on Aug. 3, 2023.

Pastor Grady called on political leaders at all levels to denounce white supremacy and racism and urged those gathered to "say to hatred, we will not come to this place anymore."

The heartbreak caused by the attack remained fresh.

Pat Benavides, whose husband Arturo was among those killed in the 2019 attack, took the microphone and told her story.

"It feels like it just happened yesterday," Benavides said through tears, recalling the 34 years of marriage that ended in violence and one man's hatred. "I miss him terribly ... most of the time, I feel like he's (still) taking care of me."

Garcia condemned former President Donald Trump and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, describing both as a party to the violence that gripped El Paso and continues to paralyze the nation. The gunman's online tirade, posted before his attack, echoed language used by Trump, Abbott and other prominent elected officials to describe immigrants and immigration.

Pat Benavides (left), whose husband was among those murdered on Aug. 3, 2019, holds hands with Betty Camargo of Border Network for Human Rights during a remembrance ceremony Thursday, Aug. 3, 2023, at Ponder Park for the 23 victims of the racist mass shooting.

"Today, Texas is more violent than before," Garcia said, asserting that state leaders have done nothing to stymie the rise in racist rhetoric or decrease the number of guns being placed in dangerous hands. "The possibilities for an attack, from four years ago to now, have tripled."

El Paso County Commissioner Sergio Coronado called for the construction of a permanent landmark to remember the lives lost.

"We are El Paso humble," he said, "El Paso proud, El Paso united and El Paso strong."

The crowd clutched candles and quietly listened as the names of all 23 victims were read aloud. As each name was read, the single drum boomed and a wreath was placed on the corresponding cross.

Border Network for Human Rights holds a procession on August 3, 2023, from Ponder Park to Walmart during a remembrance of the 23 people killed by a racist in El Paso, Texas on August 3, 2019.

Hopeful words and phrases such as "Dignity," "Peace," "No More Gun Violence" and "No More White Supremacy," were read after each victims name.

Twenty-three doves were released. They fluttered before the eyes of the spectators, circled the park, and then disappeared out of sight into the Borderland blue sky.

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: El Paso remembers victims of racist attack in Walmart mass shooting
A Delray Beach man accused of dismembering his wife with a chainsaw and stuffing her body in three suitcases that were later found floating in the Intracoastal Waterway was caught climbing in a window of his home as police executed a search warrant.

William Lowe, 78, was arrested Wednesday on charges of first-degree murder and abusing a dead body in the killing of his 80-year-old wife, Aydil Barbosa Fontes, Delray Beach police announced at a press conference.

Mr Lowe had been questioned in his wifes case last week but returned home as they were searching the property. He told police he just needed his phone and key to a storage shed, which led to finding a Ryobi chainsaw that appeared to be covered in blood, bone matter, and human hair, according to a police report.

Investigators have been trying for weeks to identify the remains that were first discovered in a suitcase on 21 July in the water along the Intracoastal Waterway off Delray Beach, Florida.

A reconstructed image of what the woman may have looked like before she was killed was released last week, along with pictures of two of the suitcases that her body had been stuffed in.

Investigators believe the suitcases were placed in the water sometime between 17 July and 20 July. They used dental records to identify the remains as Fontes.

A motive is not yet known, lead Detective Mike Liberta said at the presser, adding that the heinous crime was probably the worst Ive seen.

The remains found in suitcases were identified as 80-year-old Aydil Barbosa Fontes (Delray Beach Police Department)

William Lowe, 78, was arrested Wednesday on charges of first-degree murder and abusing a dead body in the killing of his 80-year-old wife, Aydil Barbosa Fontes, Delray Beach police announced at a press conference (Delray Beach Police Department)

Police found the first suitcase with human remains hanging out of it when responding to a 911 call about a suspicious object in the waterway. It had been weighed down with landscaping rocks and had an airport barcode sticker for LATAM Airlines with the name "Barbosa."

Two more suitcases were found a short time later nearby which also contained human remains.

Police also found a tote bag that had its handles tied shut with twine and wrapped with a mans belt. The womans head with a gunshot wound was inside.

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Witnesses told police they had noticed a man looking out at the floating suitcases on 20 July. When one of the witnesses asked the man what he was doing, he said that he was waiting for the big boat to come into the harbour.

The witnesses added that the man appeared nervous" and immediately walked over to his car and drove away. The car was an older model gold sedan.

Investigators have been trying for weeks to identify the remains that were first discovered in a suitcase on July 21 in the water along the Intracoastal Waterway off Delray Beach, Florida (Delray Beach Police Department)

Police found the first suitcase with human remains hanging out of it when responding to a 911 call about a suspicious object in the waterway. It had been weighed down with landscaping rocks and had an airport barcode sticker for LATAM Airlines with the name "Barbosa." (Delray Beach Police Department)

More than one witness told police they had seen a man using a dock ladder to get into the water. And surveillance video also captured a man climbing on the dock ladder twice on 20 July, according to the report.

The report revealed that blood was later found on the dock near where the suitcases were found.

The witnesses who saw the man getting into his car, described the vehicle as a gold sedan or a Ford. Investigators later located the gold Ford Taurus nearby and ran the plates leading them to the Lowes home.

Police questioned Mr Lowe at the police department on 31 July and he claimed that Fontes was in Brazil where her family lives and that she had been there about three weeks, the report said.

But he could not provide details about which airline she flew or when he last spoke to her.

During a search of the couples home, police found blood splatter and drag marks throughout the living room, dining room, hallway, both bathrooms and the master bedroom, according to the report. They also found cleaning supplies containing blood splatter.

Mr Lowe was taken into custody on Wednesday and held without bond.
Kathleen McElroy, class of 1981, is announced as the Department of Communication and Journalisms Director of Journalism at a ceremony in front of A&Ms Academic Building on Tuesday, June 13, 2023, in College Station, Texas.

Texas A&M University is shelling out a hefty sum of cash to a veteran Black journalist and professor. On August 3, the school announced its agreement to pay a $1 million settlement to Kathleen McElroy after reducing an offer it made her for a tenured position.



McElroy received a signed offer letter from the university  at a public ceremony  for a tenured position as a director in the journalism program. However, soon after the festivities were over, she received word from Jose Luis Bermudez, interim dean of the schools College of Arts and Sciences, that the school was walking back its offer. McElroy ultimately turned down the schools counter offer for a one year position. Bermudez and Katherine Banks, former Texas A&M president resigned from their positions in the wake of the decision. However, Bermudez will continue as a professor at the university.

Read more

Ms. McElroys impressive background includes a doctorate from the University of Texas School of Journalism and editing positions at The New York Times. But Texas A&M ultimately made their decision after succumbing to pressure from from conservatives who criticized her work in Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI).

After investigating the matter, Texas A&M explained the decision reduce McElroys offer, by saying certain procedures were not followed. They concluded that race and gender were not a factor in their decision. The schools administration said in a statement that it has learned from its mistakes and will strive to ensure similar mistakes are not repeated in the future.

But while Texas A&M went low, Ms. McElroy went high saying in a statement, Texas A&M University remains in my heart despite the events of the past month. She added that she hopes the settlement will reinforce A&Ms allegiance to excellence in higher education and its commitment to academic freedom and journalism.

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Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

At times, the California Legislature is reminiscent of a high-school student council, except that instead of working with few-hundred-dollar activities budget lawmakers are spending more than $300 billion in revenues. I'm not the first commentator to notice that politicians often promise things they can't possibly provideand are no more realistic than a student body president offering free pizza on Fridays.

What can you do? Democracy is, as Winston Churchill said, "the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time." Fast forward to the latest capitol silliness. A group of Democratic lawmakers is starting the End Poverty In California caucus, which is unlikely to be as EPIC as its name suggests. Ending poverty is a large promiseand the Legislature is much better at passing laws that exacerbate poverty (minimum wage, anti-competitive union work rules, onerous licensing requirements) rather than reduce it.

For starters, legislative caucuses are notoriously ineffective. They're the equivalent of those high-school clubs where like-minded people get together to engage in virtue signaling and whatnot. The state legislature has 16 caucuses centering on identity (gender, ethnicity), issues (aviation, environment), or locale (rural communities, the Bay Area).

The latest newsworthy caucus formation is the Problem Solvers Caucus, which promises to put good policy over partisanship, but which has accomplished nothing remarkable. We can only hope the "ending poverty" effort is equally ineffective given the people whose ideas it is based upon. Politico reports the name is a "nod to Upton Sinclair's 1934 gubernatorial campaign" and is the "brainchild" of former Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs.

Sinclair was a socialist and Tubbs is best known for promoting "universal basic income." Sinclair's EPIC campaign plan promised to "develop a state-managed cooperative economy that would initially provide livelihoods for the unemployed while pointing the way to the eventual replacement of the private economy based on profit," the University of Washington explains.

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The new EPIC chairman is Assembly Majority Leader Isaac Bryan (DLos Angeles) so this comes from one of the Legislature's most powerful members. Tubbs has created a nonprofit group of the same name. He served as the mayor of one of the state's most impoverished citiesa San Joaquin Valley industrial city best known for its municipal bankruptcy (caused in part by excessive benefits for city employees) and atrocious crime rates.

Tubbs apparently was so busy basking in his national attention as a young progressive rising star that he didn't tend to matters at home. He lost re-election to a Republican political neophyte in a city with a two-to-one Democratic voter registration advantage. After his loss, he became an economic adviser to Gov. Gavin Newsom. Tubbs' major initiative was that privately funded project to provide $500 monthly in free money to select residents.

If you're still not understanding where this caucus is headed, then I'll quote from Tubbs' testimony at an Assembly subcommittee on poverty and inclusion, as captured in a video that his nonprofit released. Tubbs said the state has a "unique opportunity" to pass "common-sense, well-researched policies from baby bonds to guaranteed income to housing as a right to more affordable housing to truly make the state a golden one for all."

Baby bonds would have the government provide a set amount of money to every newborn child. Guaranteed income means the government would provide a stipend to everyone. Turning housing into a "right" means that landlords would lose the ability to evict tenants and also includes rent controlseven though "well-researched" studies have found such policies deplete the housing stock. More "affordable housing" means more subsidized housing.

Tubb's group is correct that poverty rates in California are atrocious. "California has the highest rate of poverty at 13.2% of any state in the U.S.," it notes. "28.7 percent of all California residents were poor or near poor in fall 2021." EPIC doesn't address that California's poverty rate is the worst in the nationespecially when cost-of-living factors are includeddespite this being the nation's most progressive state. It offers the most generous welfare programs.

One would think that politicians who are serious about ending poverty would at least address that paradox. The video features union organizers who point to the need for an even more powerful union presence in our state, yet unions were on the vanguard of some of the state's most poverty-inducing policiessuch as Assembly Bill 5, which tried to ban most forms of independent contracting and destroyed moderate-income jobs throughout the freelance economy.

With their progressive policies, lawmakers are destroying the incentive for developers to build more housing. They're always adding regulations and taxes that shutter businesses and discourage people from investing in new ones. Instead of recognizing that California's poverty problem largely is the result of government meddling, EPIC will propose more-aggressive interventions. At some point, lawmakers need to stop making unattainable high-school-level promises and begin wrestling with complex realities.

This column was first published in The Orange County Register.

The post Ending Poverty Requires Serious Policy, Not Political Platitudes appeared first on Reason.com.
EXCLUSIVE: Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm engaged in multiple conversations with the Chinese government's top energy official days before the Biden administration announced it would tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to combat high gas prices in 2021.

Granholm's previously-undisclosed talks with China National Energy Administration Chairman Zhang Jianhua  revealed in internal Energy Department calendars obtained by Americans for Public Trust (APT) and shared with Fox News Digital  reveal that the Biden administration likely discussed its plans to release oil from the SPR with China before its public announcement.

According to the calendars, Granholm spoke in one-on-one conversations with Jianhua, who is a longstanding senior member of the Chinese Communist Party, on Nov. 19, 2021, and two days later on Nov. 21, 2021. Then, on Nov. 23, 2021, the White House announced a release of 50 million barrels of oil from the SPR, the largest release of its kind in U.S. history at the time.

"Secretary Granholm's multiple closed-door meetings with a CCP-connected energy official raise serious questions about the level of Chinese influence on the Biden administrations energy agenda," APT Executive Director Caitlin Sutherland told Fox News Digital.

"Instead of focusing on creating real energy independence for America, Granholm has been too busy parroting Chinese energy propaganda and insisting we can all learn from what China is doing," Sutherland continued. "The public deserves to know the extent to which Chinese officials are attempting to infiltrate U.S. energy policy and security."

REPUBLICANS URGE INVESTIGATION INTO BIDEN'S 'MISMANAGEMENT' OF EMERGENCY OIL STOCKS

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm speaks about the Biden administration's decision to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve during a press briefing at the White House on Nov. 23, 2021.

In a statement, the DOE said the meeting was broadly part of the agency's effort to combat climate change, but didn't share what was discussed at the meeting.

"Solving the climate crisis means engaging with competitors and allies in clear and substantive discussions  especially among the nations emitting the most carbon pollution into the atmosphere," a DOE spokesperson told Fox News Digital. "We must all address the transnational challenge of climate change to our planet."

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As part of its announcement in November 2021, the White House said it was releasing oil from U.S. reserves in conjunction with "other major energy consuming nations including China." However, President Biden said in remarks after the announcement that China "may do more as well" and Granholm told reporters during a press briefing that China "will make its own announcement."

Chinese Minister of Energy Zhang Jianhua and European Climate Commissioner Miguel Arias Canete shake hands at a EU-China summit in Brussels on April 9, 2019.

Republican leaders have warned that China, instead of releasing oil stocks, has increased its own reserves since Biden and Granholm's announcement in November 2021. They have argued the SPR releases weakened U.S. national security and bolstered foreign adversaries' "geopolitical leverage."

REPUBLICANS' SPR BILL LEAVES DEMOCRATS SQUIRMING OVER OIL LEASING: 'IT'S THE PROCESS OF BALANCE'

"China ramped up its purchases of crude oil from Russia and the United States to boost its own reserves, even as oil prices surged and President Biden called for a coordinated release," House Energy and Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and former GOP Rep. Fred Upton wrote to Granholm last year.

"As a result, China may now control the worlds largest stockpile of oil, with total crude inventories estimated at 950 million barrels," they added.

In addition, the White House and Department of Energy has been heavily criticized for allowing SPR sales to flow to Chinese state-run energy companies. The White House then fired back in July 2022, arguing that its hands were tied since it is legally required to sell SPR oil to the highest bidder.

Under President Biden, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve has fallen to 346.8 million barrels of oil, its lowest level since August 1983, according to federal data.

The administration has sold at least two million barrels of oil from the SPR to Unipec, an affiliate of the state-controlled China Petrochemical Corporation. Jianhua, who met with Granholm in 2021, served in a leadership role for years at the China Petrochemical Corporation, Reuters previously reported.

The first such sale was part of a 20-million-barrel SPR sale awarded to eight companies in September 2021. The other two  both sales for 950,000 barrels of oil  came in April 2022 and July 2022, respectively.

"China is profiting from President Bidens political abuse of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve," Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Ranking member John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said earlier this year. "Meanwhile, America has become more vulnerable to true energy and national security emergencies."

Overall, Biden has ordered the Department of Energy to release a total of about 260 million barrels of oil stored in the SPR since taking office to combat record fuel prices hitting American consumers. In late March 2022, the president announced a draw-down of a million barrels per day from the SPR after Russia invaded Ukraine, roiling global energy markets.
The entire Alabama House GOP delegation is backing former President Trump in the Republican presidential primary, adding to Trumps growing list of congressional endorsements.

A Trump campaign adviser confirmed all six House Republicans from the state are endorsing the former president: Reps. Robert Aderholt, Mike Rogers, Gary Palmer, Barry Moore, Dale Strong and Jerry Carl.

Several state-level officials, as well as Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), are also backing Trumps reelection bid.

The announcement comes as Trump is set to speak at the Alabama Republican Party Dinner on Friday night.

Politico first reported the Alabama delegation was set to endorse Trump.

The campaign is set to roll out the endorsements one day after Trump was arraigned in Washington on charges related to his efforts to remain in power after losing the 2020 election, which culminated with the violent attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Trump maintains a significant lead over his primary opponents in terms of congressional endorsements, a point of pride for the Trump campaign that officials view as a result of Trumps efforts to build and maintain relationships while he was in the White House.

The Hill Elections 2024 coverage

His campaign has previously rolled out endorsements from House GOP delegations in Pennsylvania and Michigan.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who is running second behind Trump in most polls, has racked up a handful of congressional endorsements, while his political operation has also touted a flurry of endorsements from state lawmakers in places like South Carolina and New Hampshire, which are early in the primary calendar.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
 Flash

China firmly opposes any visit by "Taiwan independence" separatists to the United States in any name or under whatever pretext, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said on Thursday.

The spokesperson made the remarks when asked to comment on the deputy leader of the Taiwan region Lai Ching-te's visit to Paraguay via the United States.

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities announced on Aug. 2 that Lai will leave on Aug. 12 for Paraguay to attend the president's inauguration. He will "transit" in New York and San Francisco in the United States on his way to and from Paraguay.

The spokesperson said China firmly opposes any form of official interaction between the United States and the Taiwan region, firmly opposes any visit by "Taiwan independence" separatists to the United States in any name or under whatever pretext, and firmly opposes any form of U.S. connivance and support for "Taiwan independence" separatists and their separatist activities.

The Taiwan question is at the core of China's core interests and a red line that cannot be crossed, the spokesperson said.

China urges the United States to abide by the one-China principle and the three China-U.S. joint communiques, act on its leaders' commitment of not supporting "Taiwan independence," stop official interactions with Taiwan, stop upgrading its substantive exchanges with the region, stop sending wrong messages to separatist forces seeking "Taiwan independence," and refuse to let Lai "transit" the United States, the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson noted that China will closely follow the developments and take firm and strong measures to safeguard our nation's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

"We would like to tell the DPP authorities seriously that 'Taiwan independence' is a dead end, fawning on the United States and selling Taiwan away will only harm the people of Taiwan, and any attempt to seek 'independence' and make provocation in collusion with external forces is doomed to failure," the spokesperson said.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that his country is ready to receive Russian grain, process it into flour, and export the products to African countries and underdeveloped states.

Turkey is ready to process Russian grain coming through the Black Sea grain corridor into flour and send it to poor countries in Africa and underdeveloped states, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Aug. 4, as reported by Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform.

You know, we are in agreement with Russia on this matter, said Erdogan.

Read also: 40,000 tons of grain destroyed in Russian attack on Izmail

That is, the grain coming from Russia through the Black Sea corridor, we will process into flour and transport it as flour to poor countries in Africa, underdeveloped countries.

Read also: Turkey, Saudi Arabia in secret talks to repatriate Ukrainian children abducted by Russia  FT

The president noted that "even now, the (Turkish) Agriculture Ministry will continue to take these steps and support poor countries."

Read also: Putin remained transfixed by Ukraine during Russia-Africa summit  expert

On July 28, The Wall Street Journal reported that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin was ignoring requests from Erdogan to hold negotiations on the continuation of the Black Sea Grain Initiative (BSGI).

On Aug. 2, Erdogan announced that Putin agreed to visit Turkey after a joint phone call.

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
It's August and many of us are scrambling to check a few more things off our summer to-do lists.

Expect those last-minute trips to cost you more than you might have planned. In fact, filling your car's gas tank will set you back $3 or $4 more than it did just a few weeks ago.

The Country Fair near the intersection of West 18th and Sassafras streets was among local retailers where gas prices neared $4 per gallon on Friday.

On Monday, the average price for a gallon of regular gasoline in Erie was $3.97 a gallon, nearly 32 cents higher than the average price one month earlier, according to AAA's Fuel Gauge report. Generally, gas prices in Erie County ranged Monday from a low of $3.79 to $3.99 a gallon.

With some of highest gasoline taxes in the nation, motorists throughout Pennsylvania also pay some of the highest gas prices. The nation's average gas price on Monday was $3.83 a gallon, according to AAA.

Want to feel a little better about the money that's now missing from your wallet? Think back to this time a year ago when the average price of a gallon of gasoline in Erie was $4.44.

What's driving prices?

The sudden jump in prices can be blamed on a pair of factors, according to a report from Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, a website that tracks and forecasts fuel prices.

Gas prices suddenly soared over the last week due to heat-related refinery outages that impacted some of the largest refineries in the country, at a time when summer gasoline demand peaks and as gasoline inventories slid to their lowest July level since 2015, De Haan said.

On top of that, prices for crude oil, the raw material from which gasoline is refined, rose to more than $80 a barrel, the highest level in months.

De Haan said increases were driven by a reduction in supplies coming from Saudi Arabia and Russia, the second- and third-largest oil producers in the world.

Could prices go higher?

Although Gasbuddy reports that price increases should start slowing, there is a potential for future increases.

At $3.87 a gallon, this Speed Check at the corner of Parade and East 18th streets, had one of the lower gas prices in Erie on Friday.

According to De Haan, "As we get closer to the peak of hurricane season, any new issues could easily push the national average over $4 per gallon for the first time in 2023."

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Meanwhile, Andrew Gross, a AAA spokesman, suggests prices might level off.

Last months extreme heat played a role in the recent spike in gas prices due to some refineries pulling back, but now operations are getting back to normal, Gross said in a statement. "Coupled with tepid demand and declining oil prices, this may help take the steam out of the tight supply price jolts weve seen lately.

More: Gas prices in Erie and Pennsylvania reach new record highs. Here's a list from across the state

More: Gas prices in Erie region to rise as summer nears. Where can you find the cheapest gas?

Contact Jim Martin at jmartin@timesnews.com.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Erie PA gas prices near $4 mark following a 32-cent price surge
Map of Ethiopia locating the Tigray and Amhara regions (Kun TIAN)

Ethiopia's federal government on Friday declared a six-month "state of emergency" as violent clashes escalate between the national army and local fighters from the northern region of Amhara.

The fresh unrest in Africa's second-most populous country comes just nine months after the end of a devastating two-year war in the neighbouring region of Tigray which also drew in fighters from Amhara.

"It has become necessary to declare a state of emergency as a situation has emerged where it has become difficult to control this unacceptable movement under current law," the office of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said in a statement posted on social media.

The government communications service later said the measures would cover Amhara "for six months" but could be imposed "nationwide in relation to any situation or movement that aggravates the security problem".

Clashes in Amhara have escalated in recent weeks, prompting travel warnings from foreign governments and the grounding of flights.

Tensions have been rising since April when the federal government announced it was dismantling regional forces including in Amhara, where nationalists feared the move would weaken the region.

On Thursday, local authorities in Amhara asked the federal government for assistance managing security as the situation had become "difficult to control" and was causing social and economic disruption.

The government said the violence "endangered the constitutional order" and the decision to invoke a state of emergency was "unanimous".

According to the decree, street rallies and gatherings are banned, while anyone found violating its provisions could face "imprisonment of between three to ten years".

The decree also allows the authorities to declare curfews and for suspects to be searched and held without a warrant.

- 'Restriction on movement' -

A resident of Lalibela, a UNESCO World Heritage site famous for its 12th and 13th century rock-cut churches, told AFP on condition of anonymity that the town and its airport were both under the control of the local militia Fano.

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"There is movement of civilians and people as we speak and there hasn't been any exchange of fire" between federal forces and Fano fighters, he said, adding that internet had been restored after an hours-long outage.

A rickshaw driver in Gondar, another city in Amhara, said the internet was down and the mood was "tense" following fighting on Thursday.

"Fano (fighters) are roaming around the city here and possibly preparing for a big fire exchange" in case federal troops, which had retreated, return to Gondar.

The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission on Friday said that civilians had been attacked, with damage reported to property, while transport services and internet had been suspended in some areas.

"Restrictions on movements have been imposed in some places," the state-affiliated independent rights watchdog said, urging the authorities to take "all necessary precautions... to avoid any harm and human rights violations" during their operations.

Ethiopian Airlines, the national carrier, on Friday announced it had cancelled flights to the regional cities of Dessie, Lalibela and Gondar.

- Rising tension -

Amhara's regional forces and local militias backed Ethiopia's army in their war against rebels from Tigray.

That conflict ended with a peace deal in November 2022 but Amhara "special forces" and Fano fighters continue to control Western Tigray, a fertile expanse claimed by both Tigray and Amhara.

The peace accord angered nationalist elements in Amhara and protests erupted when Abiy announced that local forces would integrate into the army or regional police in a bid to bolster "unity" in multi-ethnic Ethiopia.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken "expressed concern" about the situation in Amhara in a phone call with Abiy on Friday, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.

The UK's Foreign Office has warned its citizens against travelling to certain parts of Amhara, citing "increased violence in these areas characterised by Fano taking control of these areas".

The Spanish Embassy in Addis Ababa on Tuesday also urged its nationals not to travel to Amhara, citing "instability" in the region.

strs-sva-np-amu/cw
EVANSVILLE  A five-month-old baby who suffered grave injuries that investigators attributed to child abuse has died, according to the Vanderburgh County Sheriff's Office.

The infant boy, Jett Leon Goldsby, was taken off of life support at an Indianapolis children's hospital on Friday. Goldsby suffered a skull fracture, hemorrhages and bleeding of the brain that indicated he had been "violently shaken," the VCSO stated in a news release.

Goldsby's parents, Cheyenne Elmore-Sitz, 23, and Javontae Goldsby, 31, were both charged Monday with neglect of a dependent resulting in catastrophic injury, a Level 1 felony, and aggravated battery, a Level 3 felony.

Elmore-Sitz dialed 911 just after 9:30 p.m. on July 26 to report that Goldsby had stopped breathing, according to audio of the call obtained by the Courier & Press.

Javontae Goldsby reportedly administered CPR until paramedics could arrive. First responders were able to restore Goldsby's pulse, and the child was rushed to Ascension St. Vincent and placed on a ventilator.

According to the sheriff's office, Goldsby was transported to Peyton Manning Children's Hospital in Indianapolis after he was stabilized and put on life support.

"Goldsby was removed from life-support this morning after doctors determined that he had no brain activity and no prospect of recovery," the sheriff's office stated in a news release Friday. "The Indiana Donor Network obtained authorization for organ donation to occur. An autopsy will be conducted by the Marion County Coroners Office."

Prior to the decision to remove Goldsby from life support, doctors told investigators that his injuries were not accidental. Sheriff's office detectives interviewed both parents and other family members, and in consultation with the Vanderburgh County Prosecutor's Office, ultimately decided to file charges.

Both Elmore-Sitz and Javontae Goldsby are currently being held at the Vanderburgh County Jail on $100,000 cash bonds.

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According to the VCSO, a one-and-a-half-year-old sibling was removed from the home by the Department of Child Services and placed into foster care.

The sheriff's office said it would consult with prosecutors about filing additional charges against Goldsby's parents in light of his death.

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: VCSO: Evansville baby who suffered abuse taken off life support
For the first time since the Federal Bureau of Investigation closed its investigation into the Oregon District mass shooting, federal investigators are talking on camera to News Center 7s I-Team about what they found.

It is absolutely critical that we do this investigation the right way. This community and our country deserves an answer as to why this happened, Todd Wickerham, FBI Cincinnati Special Agent in Charge, said three days after the mass shooting on Aug. 4, 2019.

>> RELATED: FBI investigation into Oregon District Mass Shooting closed

The I-Team kept pushing for answers over the past four years and Friday, a representative from the FBI sat down with lead investigator John Bedell for an interview about their findings.

I understand everybody deserves answers and absolutely you need that for closure, Dr. Karie Gibson, unit chief of the FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU).

Gibson led the BAUs investigation into Oregon District mass shooter Connor Betts of Bellbrook.

We really look at the specifics related to the offender and the behavior of the offender and really answer the why behind the attack, Gibson said.

The FBI said in its investigative report released in late 2021 that it found no specific warnings Betts intend to commit a crime. The agency added there were no indications he talked about his plans for the shooting with friends or family.

>> FBI: Oregon District shooter fantasized about mass shootings, however no specific warnings seen

Gibson explained the kind of profile her unit came up with for Betts.

What we were able to really find is you had somebody that was very fascinated with mass violence and also did not have very strong coping skills to deal with his own life and his own stressors, Gibson said. And so when you have all that kind of coming together in combination with the mental health stressors and some very consistent loss of anchors in his life prior to the attack, it all kind of comes together to lead him down that path to commit the decision for a mass attack.

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After starting a 28-month investigation by saying the Dayton community deserved answers, Bedell asked if she felt her unit worked to give the community answers as to why this tragedy happened.

>>Oregon District Shooting: Stories of survival, hope, and change

Yeah, absolutely. I think if you go back and you look at whats written in the press release specific to those related to the attackers motivations, I think it helps, you know, give those answers that theyre seeking, she said.

The I-Team filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the FBI for its entire investigatory file on the Oregon District in 2021. We still have not gotten those documents. Well continue to provide updates when we do.
Dr. John Johnston, a longtime Charlotte pediatrician who served as the first medical director of the nonprofit Teen Health Connection, died Tuesday. He was 81.

A Charlotte native, Johnston gave up a lucrative private practice, after 18 years with Charlotte Pediatric Clinic, to take the position at Teen Health Connection when it opened in 1992. Thats where he became known  and loved  as Dr. J, said Libby Safrit, the clinics current executive director, who Johnston hired 25 years ago.

At that time, the clinic, designed to provide health care for teens who didnt have doctors, was viewed suspiciously by some Mecklenburg County doctors and citizens who worried it would offer contraception to teens without parental consent and that it would draw patients away from established pediatricians.

We were starting something that people were kind of wondering about  (but most) doctors were OK with this because they knew what John would bring to this clinic, said Barbara Ziegler, Teen Healths first executive director, who was Johnstons supervisor. They knew his reputation. He brought such credibility and trust with him.

Johnston and his wife, Laurie, grew up in Charlotte and were childhood sweethearts. He graduated from Myers Park High School and went to medical school at UNC Chapel Hill, where as a freshman he helped found the oldest student-initiated and student-run free health clinic in the country. He completed pediatric residency at the University of Washington Hospital in Seattle and got a masters degree in public health at the University of California at Berkeley before returning to Charlotte in 1974.

He is one of the most beloved pediatricians in town, Ziegler told the Observer in 2014. People just adored him because of his way with patients and with families. ... Working with him was just the delight of my life.

He was everybodys favorite doctor, Safrit agreed. But he was a slow one  because he liked to spend so much time with his patients.

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Nobody likes to wait for the doctor, she said. But once Dr. J got into the room, it was like magic. The angst lifted.

Johnston was originally a member of the search committee to find Teen Healths first medical director. But a few weeks into the process, he called Ziegler and asked, If I were interested in this, what would I have to do? Ziegler said she laughed and told him, Youd have to resign from the search committee.

He was hired, and the committee never interviewed another candidate. That was it, Ziegler said. Everybody was thrilled to death. We couldnt have anybody better. ... He was not out there to make money. His heart was there to make a difference for the kids.

Dr. J had a love for all teens, both struggling and thriving. When Safrit pitched a Johnston Youth Leadership scholarship, he agreed  on one condition: It has to be the Johnston Ziegler scholarship.

The $2,500 scholarship goes to a local teen who embodies the leadership and concern for the community that Barbara and Dr. J both have, Safrit said.

When Teen Health became a part of Carolinas HealthCare System (now Atrium Health) in 1997, Johnston also began working with medical residents at Carolinas Medical Center who were training in adolescent medicine.

He had much to share, in part because he was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis when he was 18. That led to a condition called primary sclerosing cholangitis. As a result, he underwent a liver transplant in 1997 at the Mayo Clinic. He came through that and continued working at Teen Health until retirement. In 2005, he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma, and he came through that treatment as well.

In retirement, Johnston joined Dr. Jessica Schorr Saxe, a now retired primary care physician, in advancing single-payer health insurance through a Charlotte chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program.

He was retired. Hed been really sick. He could just go fishing, which he likes to do, Saxe told the Observer in 2014. But he is very dedicated to the cause of access. ... John saw both the importance of helping people one by one and the importance of seeing that people in general would have access.

Saxe, who chaired the local chapter of PNHP for years, said she enjoyed working with Johnston because he was humble and charming. He doesnt want to be in the limelight. He just does it because its right. There arent too many people in the world, let alone physicians in the world, that are like that. I cant say enough nice about him.

His pride for the clinic gripped him  and his wardrobe  well after his retirement. Two months ago, when Safrit visited Johnston in his living room, he was still sporting a smile and his Teen Health Connection fleece from its 30th anniversary last year.

Johnston is survived by his wife, Laurie, of Sharon Towers; a son, Gardner (Sarah) Johnston of Hood River, Oregon, and two granddaughters, Riley and Tate. He was preceded in death by a daughter, Paige Johnston Thomas. A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. Aug. 10 at Myers Park Baptist Church in Charlotte.

Observer reporter Julia Coin contributed.
Picture of a Girl with sanitary pads and tampons in pocket Getty/Isabel Pavia

The patient presented with underarm hair, breast development and rapid growth  nothing out of the ordinary for a young adolescent going through puberty. The only thing is, she was just six years old.

New research published Thursday in the Journal of the Endocrine Society indicates cases like these, officially called early or precocious puberty, have been far more common among girls in the pandemic than in years prior. Between March 2020 and June 2021  when Italy closed schools, parks, and gyms in response to the virus  the number of girls presenting to one Italian center with early puberty nearly doubled compared to years prior.

"The findings are not surprising based on the anecdotal experience of people in my specialty," Dr. Louise Greenspan, a pediatric endocrinologist with Kaiser Permanente, San Francisco, told Salon in a phone interview. "It's consistent with what we've been seeing."

Early puberty, generally defined as sexual maturation before age eight in girls and nine in boys, is uncommon, affecting as little as one in 10,000 children pre-pandemic. It is 10 times more common in girls than in boys, although the reasons behind this sex difference are still somewhat mysterious.

Parents who suspect their child is going through early puberty should bring it to the attention of their pediatrician, Greenspan said. They will help decide on whether to pursue treatment, including puberty blockers, to pause development. Early puberty has been linked to other health problems down the line such as heart disease, cancers and mental health problems, including eating and anxiety disorders.

Precocious puberty was rising before the pandemic, by about three months per decade since 1977. But the pandemic seems to have accelerated this increase. The spike in cases observed in 2020 has been reflected in several studies measuring early puberty in girls around the world: Another study in Italy, as well as data from Turkey and a U.S. center, all suggest between two and three times as many girls came in with early puberty compared to pre-pandemic years.

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Although it's unclear what is triggering this phenomenon, researchers suspect the consequences of lockdowns, like stress and children spending more sedentary time on screens, are likely to blame. In general, chronic stress ages the body  and prior data has specifically shown stressors like the absence of a father figure have been associated with early puberty for some girls.

Want more health and science stories in your inbox? Subscribe to Salon's weekly newsletter The Vulgar Scientist.

"We know chronic psychosocial stress can lower the age of puberty onset," Greenspan said. "So was that part of the problem?"

Body mass index is one measure that has also been correlated with early puberty in girls. In the study published Thursday, girls who started puberty early did have higher BMIs than girls who did not, said study author Dr. Mohamad Maghnie, of the University of Genoa and the Giannina Gaslini Institute in Italy.

Girls in Maghnie's study were relatively sedentary during this time period, which may have had an effect. "These girls spent an average of two hours per day using electronic devices, and 88.5% of them stopped any physical activity," Maghnie wrote to Salon in an email.

Other data has indicated that changes in sleep cycles or exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals could also be influencing the age at which girls enter puberty.

In the end, early puberty is just one piece of the puzzle helping to explain why women's reproductive years are getting longer, with some evidence suggesting menopause is also occurring later.

Greenspan says the spike in early puberty in the pandemic is likely due to social rather than evolutionary changes because the latter would take far longer to play out. Regardless, it's clear that something in the social or physical environment is reshaping the development of today's girls  and it seems to have been exacerbated by the pandemic.

Read more

about Covid pandemic side effects
An attorney once known in Asheville as an outspoken philanthropist who later became nationally known for far-fetched conspiracy theories is now widely believed to be an unnamed co-conspirator listed in the indictment of former President Donald Trump.

In the early 2000s while living in Buncombe County, Sidney Powell created a nonprofit to fund domestic violence prevention efforts, but almost 20 years later she sought to overturn Joe Biden's election through baseless lawsuits, espousing theories even Trump described as "crazy."

Speaking to the Citizen Times Aug. 3, two days after the unsealing of the indictment, Susan Fisher, a liberal former member of the state legislature from Asheville, said she has found herself shocked by the actions of a person she knew as charitable and kind.

Sidney Powell attends the premiere of a breast cancer research documentary in Asheville in 2013.

"I only knew about her through her work in the community, and so it was really very puzzling to see this kind of turnabout," Fisher said.

The Citizen Times reached out to Powell.

In the indictment, the U.S. Department of Justice points to six people it says conspired with Trump to commit crimes against the country and its voters, including spurring the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. While the half-dozen so-called co-conspirators are not named, experts are fairly certain about the identities of five, such as former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and conservative attorney John Eastman.

"Co-Conspirator 3" is described as having filed a lawsuit against the governor of Georgia on Nov. 25, 2020, falsely alleging massive election fraud accomplished through voting machine software and hardware. Powell was one of four attorneys listed on that lawsuit, but the indictment also identified the co-conspirator as an attorney whose unfounded claims of election fraud Trump privately acknowledged to others sounded crazy.

Powell was among a group of attorneys who filed a wave of lawsuits in several states, pushing a false claim that an international cabal tried to steal the election away from Trump in Michigan and other states. Powell and others received federal sanctions from a Michigan judge, though they were recently overturned on appeal.

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The indictment stated that even though Trump has said the ideas sounded crazy, he "embraced and publicly amplified" the disinformation. He "did this despite the fact that when he had discussed Co-Conspirator 3's far-fetched public claims regarding the voting machine company in private with advisors, the Defendant had conceded that they were unsupported and that Co-Conspirator 3 sounded crazy.

Experts have said the conspirators were likely listed as a way of warning them of impending charges if they don't cooperate in the prosecution of Trump.

In Buncombe, Powell had two houses, according to property records, one in Biltmore Park in the city, and another in Biltmore Forest. A single mother, Powell had a son who went to Carolina Day and later Asheville School.

Once an assistant U.S. attorney in Texas, she went into private practice specializing in federal appeals. She moved to Buncombe as early as 2003, when she wrote a letter to the editor of the Citizen Times criticizing the prosecution of a woman, Linda Evans, for murder in a case she said was actually self-defense by a domestic violence victim.

That same year she helped start a Christmas charitable giving program at First Presbyterian Church where she was a member. The next year she co-founded the Genesis Alliance, raising tens of thousands of dollars annually to help women and children victims of domestic violence.

"We must start talking about the issue  to increase awareness, decrease incidents and to take the shame out of it for its victims," she told the Citizen Times.

Hellen Goldfarb, a legal assistant who worked with Powell and was shown as one of the last contacts for the nonprofit, did not return messages Aug. 3.

Later, Powell spoke before City Council and other organizations as a member of the Asheville Area Center for the Performing Arts, a group looking to build a new venue for music in the city.

Sidney Powell counsel: 'No comparison' between Colorado order and ex-Trump lawyer's case

Tax values: Sidney Powell's Biltmore Forest home up 25% in tax value; small house in a Black area, 44%

It was during that period that Powell attended some of Fisher's campaign events. A new legislator, Fisher was seen as one of the most liberal members of the General Assembly and said she remembered one event with a Cinco de Mayo theme where Powell brought her son who asked to have one of the pinata decorations.

"So I took it down and gave him a pinata. I mean, she was just very pleasant," Fisher said.

But in later years after Powell moved away around 2010, back to Texas, Fisher said she began what seemed to be a change.

"I noticed that she was writing books shortly after she lived here that had some sort of right-leaning conspiracy theories. And I was I was really, I was really puzzled," Fisher said.

In 2014, Powell was back in Asheville where she held a signing at Malaprops downtown for her nonfiction book, "Licensed to Lie: Exposing Corruption in the Department of Justice." The work was written after her defense of firms and executives involved in the Enron scandal and described itself as "The book that began exposing 'the Deep State,'" a common term later used by right-wing conspiracists.

While Powell appears to have moved from the area around 2010, she kept the houses for some years and was in the Biltmore Forest home in 2021 when she was served with a $1.3 billion defamation suit by Dominion Voting Systems. Fox News, also named in the suit, settled with the company in April for $788 million.

Powell is still litigating the issue.

USA Today contributed to this report.

Joel Burgess has lived in WNC for more than 20 years, covering politics, government and other news. He's written award-winning stories on topics ranging from gerrymandering to police use of force. Got a tip? Contact Burgess at jburgess@citizentimes.com, 828-713-1095 or on Twitter @AVLreporter. Please help support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Sidney Powell said to be co-conspirator in Donald Trump indictment
A former member of Highland Heights City Council has admitted to drug trafficking and possession, according to Campbell County Circuit Court filings.

Edward Fessler, 44, pleaded guilty Monday to trafficking in methamphetamine, possession of LSD and possession of drug paraphernalia, court records show.

As part of his plea and because he lacks a prior criminal history, prosecutors agreed to drop a count of trafficking in psilocybin, more commonly known as psychedelic mushrooms.

A look back: NKY councilmember accused of selling drugs could be removed from office

Edward Fessler resigns from Highland Heights City Council after arrest

At the time of his arrest in February, Fessler was a first-term council member. He resigned from city council in April, three weeks after his fellow council members charged him with misconduct and began the process to remove him from office.

The police investigation into Fessler began when an associate of his was arrested on a drug trafficking charge during a January traffic stop on Interstate 471, according to the application for a search warrant for Fesslers home.

That associate, 53-year-old Bobby Jacob, had his cellphone seized and searched by police, who found texts in which someone named Edd was trying to get crystal meth from Jacob, the document says.

Former Highland Heights City Council member Edward Fessler

Jacob was later interviewed by agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Northern Kentucky Drug Strike Force and positively identified Fessler as Edd, according to the document.

During the interview, Jacob told the agents hed received crystal meth from Fessler in the past, but most recently it had Fessler getting the drugs from him.

He said Fessler was very proud to be a council member and would brag about it, an agents account of the conversation reads.

Fessler admits to drug trafficking and possession

Fessler was arrested on Feb. 21 after authorities searched his Linet Avenue home. During that search, agents found over 2 grams of methamphetamine, two firearms, marijuana, LSD and psychedelic mushrooms, according to a criminal citation.

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He told agents that he would sell around a half gram of crystal meth "a week to every other week" to two people, the citation states, and would buy a quarter ounce of the drug every week.

This case is rooted in substance abuse and is an unfortunate testament that addiction is not bound by socioeconomics or even positions in public office, Tanner Duncan, the former council members attorney, said in a statement to The Enquirer. Mr. Fessler appropriately stepped down from his position on city council and has been engaged in substance abuse treatment since the very outset of this case. Mr. Fessler would like to sincerely apologize for the harm he has caused to his community and those closest to him.

Prosecutors are recommending Fessler serve a total of five years in prison, court filings show.

Fessler is expected to appear in court Sept. 26 at 9:15 a.m. for sentencing. The case is being heard before Judge Daniel Zalla.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Ex-Highland Heights City Council member admits drug trafficking
Longtime Melania Trump aide Stephanie Grisham said Thursday that shes not surprised at the former first ladys silence as her husband defends himself on charges of trying to subvert the 2020 election.

I actually dont make anything of it, Grisham told CNNs Situation Room. That is Melania Trump.

Melania Trump hasnt accompanied the former president during any of his court appearances, including Thursdays arraignment on his third felony indictment this year, and has not commented on her husbands mounting legal troubles.

She is saying in her mind, you know, this is his issue, he can deal with it. He doesnt need me there to prop him up, said Grisham, who served as the first ladys chief of staff and spokesperson.

Grisham continued: She will show up by his side when she wants to, when shes perfectly ready.

Prior to his Jan. 6 indictment, Trump was charged with mishandling classified documents after leaving the White House, and with a hush-money payment scheme involving porn star Stormy Daniels.

Grisham cast doubt on Trumps claim during a recent interview with Real Americas Voice that it was unpleasant for him to inform his wife hed have to show up in court after getting indicted again.

Melania Trump, she said, watches media as much as he does and absolutely would know the details of the legal troubles her husband is facing.

The relationship between Grisham and Melania Trump reportedly soured after Grisham resigned from the administration following Jan. 6, and later wrote a memoir about her time at the White House.

R. Couri Hay, a New York publicist and acquaintance of Melania Trump, told The Times of London that the former first lady now spends most of her time with her parents, and helping her son Baron look for colleges.

The former president relies on her advice and her support but its all done very privately, Hay added.

Trump remains defiant and claims prosecutors are trying to hurt his 2024 campaign.

The former first lady has previously said she supports her husbands bid to return to the White House.

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My husband achieved tremendous success in his first administration, and he can lead us toward greatness and prosperity once again, she told Fox News Digital in May. He has my support, and we look forward to restoring hope for the future and leading America with love and strength.

Related...
China's Hebei reports 4.9 pct foreign trade increase in H1

Xinhua) 09:56, August 04, 2023

SHIJIAZHUANG, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- North China's Hebei Province's foreign trade totaled 272.35 billion yuan (about 38.09 billion U.S. dollars) in the first half of 2023, up 4.9 percent year on year, according to local customs authorities.

Over the period, Hebei's exports rose 7.8 percent year on year to total 166.2 billion yuan, and its imports grew 0.7 percent to 106.15 billion yuan, data from Shijiazhuang customs shows.

The province's trade with its major trading partners -- Australia, the United States and the European Union -- came in at 37.7 billion yuan, 30.62 billion yuan and 29.55 billion yuan, respectively.

From January to June, the province's trade with countries along the Belt and Road rose 9.1 percent year on year to 97.26 billion yuan.

Its exports of mechanical, electrical, labor-intensive and agricultural products maintained growth. The province also increased its imports of iron ore, coal and natural gas.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
Paul Herder

A former Ojai private school teacher suspected of sexually assaulting a student over several years pleaded not guilty to 23 felony charges in Ventura County Superior Court on Friday morning.

Ventura County Sheriff's detectives allege Paul Herder, 65, coerced a juvenile student at Oak Grove School into numerous sexual acts and sent "harmful matter to the victim" over the course of an unlawful relationship from August 2013 through June 2017.

The former teacher  who Oak Grove officials said worked at the private preschool to grade 12 school from 2004 to 2016  appeared in court on Friday.

He faces felony charges, including multiple counts of unlawful intercourse, lewd acts with a child and other sex-related crimes. The individual charges are dated between June 2014 and April 2017.

Two of the charges carry special enhancements that the alleged victim was under the age of 18. Almost all the counts come with a special enhancement alleging that Herder took advantage of a position of trust.

Herder waived arraignment proceedings, pleaded not guilty to every charge and denied each of the special allegations, court records show, before returning to Ventura County jail.

Bail for the man, who was extradited from Pahoa, Hawaii, was initially set at $1 million, but Deputy District Attorney Emily Reber said the option was rescinded during a court hearing on Tuesday. He is currently being held without bail and is scheduled to return to court on Aug. 24.

The former student was between the ages of 14 and 17 during the time of the alleged crimes, officials said.

Joel Keeler, a school spokesperson, said in an emailed statement on Wednesday that the student first reported the allegations to school staff, who "immediately" notified law enforcement.

Detectives from the sheriff's Major Crimes Unit said they were alerted to the case in February and by June had tracked Herder to the Big Island. Sheriff's deputies worked with the Hawaii Police Department to arrest him before his Monday extradition.

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Detectives said they believe that Herder  whose teaching career took him through Ojai, Hawaii, England, Panama and Thailand  may have had additional victims. If anyone has any information regarding Herder or this case, please contact Detective Nicole Grover of the Major Crimes Bureau, Sexual Assault Unit at 805-384-4722 or nicole.grover@ventura.org.

Isaiah Murtaugh covers education for the Ventura County Star in partnership with Report for America. Reach him at isaiah.murtaugh@vcstar.com or 805-437-0236 and follow him on Twitter @isaiahmurtaugh and @vcsschools. You can support this work with a tax-deductible donation to Report for America.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Ex-Ojai teacher pleads not guilty to sexual assault charges
Dry conditions and chances of "record-breaking" heat return to the Phoenix area over the weekend, as the prospect of rainy relief continues to fade in the middle of the monsoon.

According to The National Weather Service, hotter temperatures with highs over 110 degrees are back on the menu for much of the Phoenix area and southern Arizona beginning Friday, placing the Valley under another excessive heat warning that lasts until Monday.

The excessive heat warning was in effect from 10 a.m. Friday to 8 p.m. Monday, according to the weather service.

After the brutal month that was July, where Phoenix produced a 31-day streak of temperatures at or above 110 degrees, the Valley will continue to add to its yearly total, currently at 35.

Here is the latest count of 110 degree days so far this year in Phoenix. We have seen 35 days at or above 110 degrees which is the highest amount YTD and is now the second most in a single year on record behind 2020 (53 days). #azwx pic.twitter.com/hAEKPZJQh5  NWS Phoenix (@NWSPhoenix) August 3, 2023

"The temperatures Friday and through the weekend are actually going to be pretty hot, well above normal," Phoenix office meteorologist Gabriel Lojero told The Arizona Republic. "We're talking highs approaching 115 degrees through at least Sunday and potentially extending into early next week."

With the current forecast, temperatures were projected to be around eight to 10 degrees higher than the typical average for this time of year, placing the heat risk at major.

Record breaking temperatures are likely this weekend as highs climb to around 115-117 degrees across the lower deserts. An Excessive Heat Warning begins tomorrow. Please take this heat seriously and limit time spent outdoors. #azwx pic.twitter.com/Xt4CV3FvPf  NWS Phoenix (@NWSPhoenix) August 3, 2023

Dry conditions to continue

Coupled with the high heat, weather conditions will be very dry due to "well-below-normal moisture" levels.

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"We're pretty much in a very dry air mass for now. Well below normal moisture is currently entrenched across the region, and that's basically going to produce sunny skies with no chance of thunderstorm activity," Lojero said.

With the 0% chance of thunderstorms, Lojero said that 2023 could move into second place in terms of consecutive days with no measurable precipitation at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.

Areas throughout metro Phoenix have received measurable amounts of rainfall. However, because the official climate statistics are recorded at Sky Harbor  which has not seen at least 0.01 inches of rain since March 22  the streak lives on.

"We're at 134 consecutive days with no measurable precipitation here at Phoenix Sky Harbor. Second place is 143, so it's becoming increasingly probable that we're going to go into that number two spot," Lojero said.

That mark of 143 days was set in 1960, promptly ending on July 22. It was then tied back in 2006, ending on March 10.

For those wondering, the top spot was set in 1972 at 160 days.

"Based on what we're looking at and the extended, it's just not looking like the chances for any measurable precipitation are going to come to fruition, at least for the next seven to 10 days," Lojero said.

Light breezy conditions will likely spawn during the afternoon hours, but outside of that, expect some "unusually quiet weather" given that Arizona is smack dab in the middle of its monsoon season, according to Lojero.

A caveat, however, is that the drier air is slated to keep the overnight lows in the 80s to low 90s.

Ultimately, much of the same will be felt throughout the Valley through the course of the following week with persistent high temperatures and virtually no chances of rain.

Higher terrain areas north and east of Phoenix run the possibility of receiving some isolated thunderstorms develop, sitting at around 15-20% starting Monday.

Heat-related illnesses: On the rise due to ongoing Arizona heat wave

Hot weather tips

The Arizona Department of Health Services provided tips to prevent heat-related illness:

Drink water: It is recommended to drink at least 2 liters of water per day if people are staying inside all day. Those who spend time outdoors should drink 1 to 2 liters per hour they are outside.

Dress for the heat: Wear light-weight and light-colored clothing. Sunscreen should always be applied to exposed skin and it is recommended to wear a hat or use an umbrella when outdoors.

Eat small meals and eat more often: It is recommended to avoid foods high in protein that increase metabolic heat.

Monitor those at risk: Check on friends, family or others for signs of heat exhaustion or heat stroke.

Slow down and avoid strenuous activity: It is recommended to only do strenuous activity during the coolest hours of the day, between 4 and 7 a.m.

Stay indoors.

Take breaks when engaged in physical activity: Take a break in a cool place when doing activity outside on a hot day.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Hot, dry conditions forecast for Phoenix this weekend
By Alexandra Ulmer

(Reuters) - Hotel entrepreneur Robert Bigelow, the biggest individual donor to a group supporting Ron DeSantis' presidential bid, told Reuters on Friday he will not donate more money unless the Florida governor attracts new major donors and adopts a more moderate approach.

The comments by Bigelow, who gave $20 million to the pro-DeSantis "Never Back Down" super PAC in March, underscore donor concerns about the Florida governor's struggling campaign, which has been unable to make a dent in former President Donald Trump's huge lead for the 2024 Republican nomination.

"He does need to shift to get to moderates. He'll lose if he doesn't ... Extremism isn't going to get you elected," Bigelow said in an interview, adding that he had communicated these concerns to DeSantis' campaign.

When asked which specific policies Bigelow did not support, Bigelow cited only DeSantis signing in April a bill passed by the Florida legislature banning abortions after six weeks, a move that came after Bigelow had donated the $20 million.

Bigelow said he would not donate more money for now. "Not until I see that he's able to generate more on his own. I'm already too big a percentage," Bigelow said. "A lot of his donors are still on the fence."

Bigelow, the founder of Las Vegas-based Bigelow Aerospace, said he wasn't waiting for an exact fundraising figure, but that "it's going to be a lot."

In a statement to Reuters, a spokesperson for the DeSantis campaign, Bryan Griffin, said they were "grateful" to supporters and donors who gave them "the capacity to compete for the long haul," without addressing Bigelow directly.

Bigelow's comments will likely stoke perceptions that DeSantis, once a donor darling expected to put up a real fight against Trump, is in a downward spiral as his right-wing social policies and wooden personality fail to excite voters.

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DeSantis has been running to the right of Trump despite many Republican strategists saying he should instead be trying to court moderates concerned about Trump's policies and electability.

A source familiar with the governor's strategy told Reuters that "donors don't set policy for the governor, and they never will."

Never Back Down did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

BIGELOW STICKING WITH DESANTIS

Even though DeSantis has attracted big donors desperate for a Trump alternative, Bigelow stands out. After him, the second-biggest individual donor to Never Back Down is venture capitalist Douglas Leone, who gave $2 million, according to campaign filings - a tenth of what Bigelow contributed.

DeSantis' campaign finances have come under scrutiny in recent weeks after his campaign said it had let go 38 employees, or over one-third of staff. The campaign had a high cash burn rate and most of the money raised came from donors who had contributed the maximum legal amount, suggesting more financial tensions ahead.

To be sure, DeSantis' campaign and Never Back Down had a combined $109 million in the bank at the end of June, well above the combined $53 million of Trump's campaign and his allied super PAC, known as MAGA Inc, according to financial disclosures to the Federal Elections Commission.

As DeSantis' campaign struggles, however, he has been relying more on Never Back Down, which as a super PAC can raise and spend unlimited sums supporting him as long as it doesn't coordinate spending with his campaign.

Bigelow said he remains behind DeSantis. "I think he's the best guy for the country."

But the hotelier was incensed by the bill banning abortions after six weeks, saying that was too early and that many women do not even know they are pregnant at that stage.

The abortion restrictions have rattled other donors. Metals magnate and Republican donor Andy Sabin, for example, soured on DeSantis and threw his support behind Senator Tim Scott in part due to the abortion issue.

Bigelow said he agreed with most of DeSantis' policies, however, and that he was "spot on" in his war on "wokeism." "Woke" is a term used in a derogatory way by conservatives to criticize progressive policies, often linked to issues of identity in education and the workplace.

After a glitch-filled launch on Twitter in May, DeSantis has struggled to catch fire with voters amid organizational problems, viral videos of awkward interactions with the public, and relentless attacks by Trump.

The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll showed he had slumped to 13% of support among Republicans against 47% for Trump.

Bigelow said he had told DeSantis' campaign manager Generra Peck that DeSantis needed to be more moderate to have a chance.

Asked how Peck reacted, Bigelow said, laughing: "There was a long period of silence where I thought maybe she had passed out."

"But I think she took it all in," Bigelow added, describing Peck as a "very good campaign manager."

DeSantis' campaign did not respond to queries about Peck and Bigelow.

(Reporting by Alexandra Ulmer, additional reporting by Jason Lange, editing by Ross Colvin and Rosalba O'Brien)
Ken Paxton, suspended as state attorney general after he was impeached by the Texas House in May, will not face additional impeachment charges before his Sept. 5 trial, three sources tell the American-Statesman.

Investigators and prosecutors in suspended Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's upcoming impeachment hearing in the Senate will not present additional charges against him before trial, with the deadline to do so coming Sunday, three sources familiar with the decision told the American-Statesman.

In setting rules for the Sept. 5 trial, senators gave a deadline  30 days from the beginning of the proceeding  to the Texas House to file additional impeachment articles. The three sources who said that won't happen were not authorized to comment publicly on the decision.

House members on May 27 voted 121-23 to advance 20 articles of impeachment against Paxton, many of them accusing the state's top lawyer of bribery or misuse of office in connection with his relationship with Austin real estate developer Nate Paul.

As it stands, House lawyers will try to convict Paxton on 16 charges, setting aside for now four others related to an ongoing felony indictment Paxton faces for securities fraud.

Related: Paxton's securities fraud trial set for 2024. How his impeachment trial could tip the outcome.

Paxton, a three-term Republican, was immediately suspended from office without pay after the House's impeachment vote. Senators in the September trial will determine if he returns to office or is removed permanently. Paxton and his lawyers have offered a general denial against all allegations.

Speculation arose in late May that Paxton could face additional charges after a House investigating panel issued a dozen new subpoenas, many of them directed at Paxtons finances. The entities that were subpoenaed included trusts, properties and bank accounts associated with Paxton and his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, R-McKinney. Investigators also issued a subpoena for ride-hailing company Uber.

The Wall Street Journal reported that House investigators were interested in a Paxton real estate spending spree during which the couple, from July 2021 to April 2022, acquired six properties totaling $3.5 million. The properties are in Oklahoma, Florida, Utah and Hawaii.

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Logistically, pursuing additional charges before trial would have been tricky. In late May, when the House voted to impeach Ken Paxton, the Legislature was in session, with lawmakers working from Austin. The session is now over, meaning House investigators would have needed to wrangle House members back to Austin to formally consider additional charges.

Related: Woman with whom Ken Paxton allegedly had an affair identified by his lawyers

Prosecutors and the defense team will be limited to 24 hours each to present evidence in the case, as per the rules approved by the Senate. If House lawyers were to bring additional charges, they would not receive any extra time to litigate them.

The decision to not bring additional articles, however, does not preclude House lawyers from presenting new evidence to support the existing charges.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who is set to preside over the impeachment trial, said it will likely last two to three weeks. At the trial, Patrick or senators will rule on several motions, including one from Ken Paxtons lawyers to prevent him from testifying.

Support from two-thirds of the Senate, or 21 of the 30 voting members, is needed to remove Paxton from office. Angela Paxton will not get to vote as she is the defendant's spouse. Initially, she announced she would not recuse herself from the case, but the Senate, in rules it approved for the hearing, barred her from participating.

More: Ken Paxton wants to disqualify three senators from his impeachment trial. Here's why.

The impeachment trial is but a small sample of Paxtons many legal or ethical dilemmas. On Thursday, he appeared as a defendant in a Houston courtroom on an 8-year-old felony securities case, with the judge setting a loose trial date for February 2024.

Four articles against Paxton relate to that indictment, but those will not be part of his impeachment trial. Those articles are being held in abatement, meaning the Senate wont consider them until a later date.

The attorney general's office under Paxton also faces a lawsuit from former employees who say they were unlawfully fired for reporting Paxton's alleged bribery involving Paul to the FBI. That lawsuit prompted a federal investigation into Paxton in 2020, which his lawyer, Dan Cogdell, confirmed this week is still active.

More: Texas Lt. Gov. Patrick, who'll oversee Paxton impeachment trial, gets $3M from pro-Paxton PAC

Paxton also faces potential discipline from the Texas State Bar due to a lawsuit he filed to challenge the 2020 presidential election results in four battleground states. The State Bar says Paxton lied about uncovering voter fraud.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas AG Ken Paxton won't face more charges before impeachment trial
By Phil Stewart

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has declined so far to classify Army Private Travis King as a prisoner of war, despite his being taken into North Korean custody after he crossed into the country last month, four U.S. officials told Reuters.

The decision, which could mean King is not covered by the protections entitled to prisoners of war under the Geneva Convention, is highly sensitive for the U.S. military given its commitment to leave no soldier behind enemy lines.

How to classify the 23-year-old, who dashed across the heavily guarded border during a civilian tour of the demilitarized zone separating North and South Korea, has been an open question for the military.

As an active-duty soldier he might appear to qualify as a POW, given that the United States and North Korea technically remain at war. The 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty.

But factors including King's decision to cross into North Korea of his own free will, in civilian attire, appear to have disqualified him from that status, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

A Pentagon spokesperson declined to comment on King's POW status, but said the defense department's priority was to bring him home and it was working to achieve that through all available channels.

"Private King must be treated humanely in accordance with international law," the spokesperson said.

Washington has conveyed that message in private communications to Pyongyang, the U.S. officials said, adding that those communications have not invoked POW status.

The United States still has the option to call King a POW. A U.S. official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said there was no final decision and that the U.S. view on King's status could evolve as it learns more about his case.

The State Department referred a request for comment to the Pentagon. White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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PROTECTIONS FOR CAPTIVES

Prisoners of war are protected by the Third Geneva Convention, to which North Korea and the U.S. are signatories. That agreement details standards for the treatment of captives, ensuring everything from sufficient medical care and Red Cross access, to the ability of prisoners to send messages to their families.

Rachel VanLandingham, a military law expert at Southwestern Law School, said King would benefit from being classified as a POW, even if that could be seen legally as a stretch.

"It provides a much clearer, very structured framework for exactly how they're to treat him down to the number of cigarettes a day they're required to give him if he asks," she said.

It is not clear that labeling King a POW would change how the isolated North Korean government treats him. Pyongyang, which continues to develop nuclear weapons in violation of UN resolutions, has repeatedly shown it is not willing to be bound by international law.

In any case, said Geoffrey Corn, a military law expert at Texas Tech University School of Law, it would be difficult for the United States to assert that King is a prisoner of war - in part because there was no active fighting at the time on the peninsula.

"He wasn't really captured in the context of hostilities. If that happened to us, we'd probably designate him as an undocumented alien who crossed the border without a visa," Corn said.

King, who joined the U.S. Army in January 2021, had served as a Cavalry Scout with the Korean Rotational Force, part of the decades-old U.S. security commitment to South Korea.

But his posting was dogged by legal troubles.

He faced two allegations of assault in South Korea, and eventually pleaded guilty to one instance of assault and destroying public property for damaging a police car during a profanity-laced tirade against Koreans, according to court documents. After serving time in detention in South Korea, King had been due to face military disciplinary action on his return to Fort Bliss, Texas.

There are precedents for using the POW designation in cases where the U.S. was not in an active war.

The U.S. awarded prisoner of war medals to Christopher Stone, Andrew Ramirez and Steven Gonzales who were held for more than a month by Yugoslavia after being captured on March 31, 1999 during a NATO peacekeeping mission. And Navy Lieutenant Robert Goodman was also awarded the medal after he was captured in 1983 in Lebanon and taken prisoner in Syria for a month after his aircraft was shot down.

The Pentagon has so far described King's formal status as "AWOL," or absent without leave. He would automatically be declared a deserter after 30 days being AWOL, according to military regulations.

Corn said he could be declared a deserter sooner, given the likelihood King knew his decision had ended his military career.

"He can't really run across that border without the knowledge and arguably the intent to remain away permanently," Corn said.

(Reporting by Phil Stewart, Idrees Ali and Josh Smith; Additional reporting by Simon Lewis, Editing by Don Durfee and Daniel Wallis)
During a 2012 jailhouse television interview, now-executed double-murderer James Barnes faced the camera and made startling claims: He was involved in the unsolved homicides of two additional victims.

But investigators in Brevard and Manatee counties didn't believe Barnes' televised claims. And now  leading through the years all the way to Barnes' Thursday execution by lethal injection  they still don't believe him.

His self-serving, baseless confessions gave false hope to two families that their cases might come to a successful conclusion  knowing the information he provided was publicly available or could not be corroborated," Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey said in a Thursday email.

"This is yet another example of his narcissism for self-gratification, Ivey said.

James Barnes.

Barnes was a Brevard death row inmate when he was interviewed from Florida State Prison for an episode of On Death Row, a 2012 United Kingdom television documentary series by German filmmaker Werner Herzog.

Barnes had been sentenced to death for the 1988 murder of Melbourne nurse Patricia Patsy Miller inside her condominium. He confessed to that homicide while he was serving a life sentence for fatally strangling his estranged wife, Linda, in 1997 at her home near West Melbourne.

During the "On Death Row" episode, dressed in an orange shirt worn by Florida death row inmates, Barnes said he fatally shot and buried Chester Wetmore, who was last seen leaving his Bradenton home in May 1986 at age 14.

More: James Barnes executed by lethal injection after murdering two Brevard women in their homes

Barnes also said he was involved in the murder of Brenda Joyce Fletcher. Her body was discovered in April 1991 west of Cocoa, in a water-filled drainage ditch along the northbound on-ramp from State Road 520 to Interstate 95.

However, investigators did not charge Barnes in either case  both of which remain unresolved. During the TV episode, Herzog voiced doubts regarding Barnes' alleged confessions.

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"I was suspicious of Barnes using me as an instrument either to procrastinate or speed up his execution by opening new cases against him," Herzog said during the episode.

FLORIDA TODAY covered the December 1997 arrest of James Barnes by Brevard County Sheriff's Office deputies after his wife, Linda, was found slain.

Fletcher remains listed as an unsolved homicide on the Brevard County Sheriff's Office website, while Wetmore remains listed as a missing person on the Manatee County Sheriff's Office website.

"Manatee County Sheriffs Office detectives spoke to Werner Herzog about the alleged confession. They reviewed the confession video and found that Barnes was extremely manipulative and was possibly using this confession as a tactic to stay his execution  Herzog agreed," MCSO spokesperson Randy Warren said in a Thursday email.

More: 'I am prepared for execution': Here's how Brevard death row inmate waived his appeals

"Lengthy follow into this information was completed, but there was no information discovered to even confirm Barnes knew Wetmore. Barnes also refused to speak with our detectives about the case," Warren said.

"After a thorough investigation, we have no reason to connect Barnes with the Missing person case of Chester Wetmore," he said.

"One of our detectives wrote the following: 'At the time of this report there is nothing substantial to indicate that what James Barnes stated in his interview was truthful,'  he said.

In his Thursday email, Ivey echoed those sentiments.

"The investigation of the allegations made by James Barnes that he was involved in an unrelated homicide found no evidence that linked him to having any contact with her prior to her death," Ivey said.

A review of the evidence recovered from the scene found no evidence linking Barnes to the victim or the scene itself. The information provided by Barnes consisted of publicly available information and there is no credible information that gives validity to his claims, he said.

Barnes was pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m. Thursday in the Florida State Prison execution chamber. He did not give a final statement.

Rick Neale is the South Brevard Watchdog Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY (for more of his stories, click here.) Contact Neale at 321-242-3638 or rneale@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @RickNeale1

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This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Did executed killer James Barnes murder two more victims? Deputies say no
ROCHESTER  The man behind a proposal to open a casino at the Lilac Mall says he has the experience needed, and he believes Rochester is the perfect location.

Entrepreneur Greg Carlin says Rochester Gaming, the name depicted in conceptual plans is a placeholder name, and no official name has yet been chosen. Carlin's plan will go before the Rochester Planning Board Sept. 11 to seek approval. The nearly 200,000-square-foot Lilac Mall has been purchased by Carlin through his companies for $5 million.

If approved, the casino project will go forward, Carlin said, regardless of whether Rochester voters on Nov. 7 approve allowing a DraftKings sportsbook gambling site in the city. It is possible the sports betting site could land at the Lilac Mall casino, too.

Who is Greg Carlin?

Greg Carlin, CEO of G2 Gaming, and new owner of the Lilac Mall in Rochester.

"I have been in the casino business for a long time," said Carlin. "I have five casinos now, in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh. Schenectady, Portsmouth, Virginia, and in Chicago, near O'Hare airport."

Carlin was referring to the Rivers Casino locations in each of those cities, developed by Rush Street Gaming, the company he formerly led, along with its online gambling operation. Carlin left Rush Street Gaming in 2022 to form G-2, a new company, according to Scott Tranchemontagne, a publicist for Carlin.

Locally in New Hampshire, Carlin said, he recently acquired Ocean Gaming, a charitable gaming business at Hampton Beach. He and his team have been running it for a few months, according to Tranchemontagne.

"They kept all the employees  but his team is in charge," he said.

Carlin said in Rochester he purchased not only the Lilac Mall, from the Kempner Corporation, but also the gaming license from Rich Bedrosian, who formerly operated a small charitable gaming operation.

"He shut down during COVID and never reopened," Carlin said. "I took a look at the country, including New Hampshire, and saw there were a lot of underutilized spaces like the Lilac Mall. It made sense to me to bring this here."

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What will casino at Lilac Mall include? Which games will be offered?

The new onwership of the Lilac Mall released this design for the interior of a new charitable gaming casino planned for the Rochester property.

"Our vision is to develop a 32,000-square-foot premium gaming and hospitality venue at the Lilac Mall in Rochester," Carlin said. "Once complete, the facility would offer a full array of table games, including poker, blackjack, craps and roulette, along with historical horse racing machines, pool tables and other games. It will also include a full-service restaurant and bar that will serve delicious food, refreshing cocktails and a wide selection of New Hampshire craft beers."

Carlin said he wants to create a contemporary atmosphere at the Milton Road location. "Our Rush casinos are attractive. I plan on working with the same architect I used for the others."

The new owner of the Lilac Mall in Rochester is also the developer for a proposing charitable gaming casino at the mall. Plans filed with the city include this rendering.

He said Dover Bingo will relocate to the Lilac Mall as part of the casino project.

Carlin said, if approved, the project will create approximately 80 new full-time and part-time jobs and provide a source of fundraising for local nonprofits. Nonprofits located in Rochester and the greater Rochester area will be prioritized, he said.

At this time, Carlin said, his company is focused on developing a "premiere gaming and hospitality experience," which includes a full-service restaurant.

"We look forward to supporting our current tenants while exploring ways to ensure the Lilac Mall is the major economic engine Rochester deserves," he said.

When might casino open at Lilac Mall?

Carlin said right now his focus is on preparing for the Sept. 11 Planning Board meeting and the needed approvals, noting he would like to get started as soon as is feasible.

"If approved by the Planning Board, we will secure various city permits and begin construction," he said. "We look forward to welcoming our first guests in mid/late 2024."

"The city has been great to work with," Carlin said. "I like doing business in New Hampshire. Once we finalize details, I plan to make some major improvements to the site, including the parking lot and the building itself."

Lilac Mall revival on Carlin's radar, too

All of the current businesses in the mall have indicated to Carlin they will remain, with the exception of Jordan Eye Care, he said.

"There are also some empty spaces I will be looking to fill," he said. "I am speaking to a few potential businesses, possibly a nice restaurant. We will see what makes sense. My plan is to reinvigorate that mall."

Rochester Economic Development Director Michael Scala said the tenants remaining in the mall are Dance n Motion, Seacoast Gymnastics, Beas Jewelers, Subway, Papa Ginos, Label Shopper, Ocean State Job Lot, Dollar Tree, Mattress by Appointment and Great Bay Community College.

Carlin touts his expectations for money raised to help nonprofits

All New Hampshire casinos must give 35% of proceeds to nonprofits. Gov. Chris Sununu recently signed a bill that raises the maximum bet on games of chance to $50, among other changes that could lead to higher revenues for casinos.

Casinos in the state are required to be linked with charitable gaming. Carlin said they are looking to work with a minimum of 72 nonprofits, and as many as 104. Each organization gets time with the casino, and a cut of the house winnings.

"Our goal is to work with two a week," he said. "That would be 104 organizations. I believe we can bring millions a year to these great groups.

"We are working with local nonprofits in greater Rochester, many of whom partnered with the previous license holder, which ceased operations in 2021," Carlin said. "Not only will our proposed project fill a significant need among the local nonprofits thats been missing these past few years, but we are projecting a significant increase in contributions. We anticipate our Rochester facility will contribute $3 million a year to approximately 100 local nonprofits, up from the $70,000 contributed by the prior operation in its final year."

What's left for Rochester to approve casino

City Planning Director Shanna Saunders said that prior to the Sept. 11 meeting with the Planning Board, the casino application will return to the city's Technical Review Group (TRG).

We are still waiting on a traffic review, Saunders said. The TRG will give their list of amendments and changes needed to the application. We will work with him until the application is complete.

At the Sept. 11 meeting, the public will have a chance to weigh in on the proposal.

This is treated as with any property owner, she said. If he meets the requirements, the plan can be approved. And if there are any city violations of any type, we deal with that then.

This article originally appeared on Fosters Daily Democrat: Greg Carlin shares vision for Lilac Mall casino in Rochester NH
The two Tennessee House members expelled in April over a gun control protest have won back their seats.

Reps. Justin Jones (D) and Justin Pearson (D) defeated their special election rivals on Thursday and will fully rejoin the state legislature.

Jones defeated Laura Nelson (R) in the House District 52 race, encompassing much of eastern Nashville, Tenn. Jones had received about 80 percent of the vote as of 9 p.m. Thursday, according to the Associated Press.

Pearson defeated Jeff Johnston (Indep.) in House District 86 in Memphis, Tenn., winning about 93 percent of the vote.

Jones and Pearson were two of three House lawmakers who interrupted proceedings for a gun control protest following a mass shooting at a Nashville elementary school in April.

The pair, both of whom are Black, were expelled from the legislature while Rep. Gloria Johnson (D), who is white, was not.

The protest gained national attention after Jones and Pearson were expelled, prompting President Biden to bring the Tennessee Three to the White House in late April.

Youre standing up for our kids, youre standing up for our communities, Biden said during the visit. Nothing is guaranteed about our democracy  every generation has to fight for it.

Biden described the expulsion votes as shocking and undemocratic.

Both Jones and Pearson were reinstated by local officials days after their expulsion but still had to win special elections to fully regain their seats.

The message for all the people in Nashville who decided to expel us: You cant expel hope. You cant expel justice, Pearson said when he was reinstated in April. You cant expel our voice. And you sure cant expel our fight.

The Tennessee legislature will enter a special session to discuss gun control legislation later this month. Republicans have a supermajority in the chamber, making the reforms the trio protested for unlikely.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) proposed a gun control measure in the wake of the same mass shooting that would limit access to firearms for those deemed a risk to themselves or others. The House did not entertain it at the time, sparking Lees declaration of a special session.

This story was updated at 9:50 p.m.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Experts studying the aquaponics industry have a great gut feeling about reusing fish waste to create biogas (biologically derived gas), which can then help to power the sustainable food-growing process as part of a circular system.

If successful, the research could reduce methane emissions, expand vegetable production, and reuse seemingly worthless fish waste.

Biologists at Swedens University of Gothenburg are testing whether manure digesters, sort of like ones used on other types of farms, can capture biogas from fish droppings in the aquaponics systems. The university describes aquaponics as a combined fish and vegetable farm. Farmers use nutrient-rich water made by the fish to fertilize plants as part of a soil-less, hydroponic system, according to the researchers.

The fishy solid waste has so far had no use  until now.

By breaking down fish [fecal] matter  we can obtain a concentrated gas mixture of 70 percent methane that can be used as fuel. This can make aquaponics a source of energy, Victor Lobanov, a Gothenburg doctoral student, said in a university article on the research.

Biogas is already captured on hog, cattle, and other farms using digesters, which leverage the power of biology. Microorganisms in the digesters break down the waste, producing biogas, according to the Minnesota Department of Agriculture.

The Environmental Protection Agency said the biogas can be used to create electricity, heating, and transportation fuel.

And, in those farms, the World Wildlife Fund said the process helps to prevent manure from leaching nitrogen into the environment, while also mitigating methane emissions that would have escaped from the waste.

Using this methane as a fuel dramatically reduces its climate impact by converting it into CO2, which is up to 34 times less potent as a greenhouse gas, the Fund states in a report.

Gothenburg experts are testing the premise for fish droppings this summer.

And Lobanovs team should have an ample supply of fish manure. Aquaponics is a growing $874 million market globally, according to Grand View Research, an India- and U.S.-based market research firm.

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In the report, Grand View said the field is poised for tremendous growth, in part because the systems eliminate the need for inorganic fertilizers and pesticides.

Put simply, its all centered on unlocking the hidden power of fish poop.

Fish waste contains a lot of nutrients, Lobanov said in the Gothenburg report. These should also be usable in aquaponics to enable even more sustainable food production than today.

After the pilot this summer, the Gothenburg researchers hope to create a modular digestion system that can be added to operational aquaponics farms, in effect allowing the farm to power itself. If successful, it could be rolled out into other types of farms, they said.

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Explosions occurred in the Russian city of Novorossiysk on the night of 3-4 August, and the Russian Defence Ministry has reported an attack by two unmanned surface vessels.

Source: TASS and RIA Novosti, Kremlin-aligned Russian news outlets; Baza and Astra, Russian independent Telegram channels

Quote from RIA Novosti: "Emergency services in Novorossiysk have reported explosions in the waters of Novorossiysk and the village of Miskhako, and this information was passed on to the relevant services."

Details: Telegram channels shared photos and videos from the scene.

They also suggested that the Russian city had been attacked by drone ships, but noted that there was no official confirmation of this at the moment.

Update: Later, TASS, citing the Russian Ministry of Defence, wrote that the Ukrainian Armed Forces had attempted to attack the naval base in Novorossiysk with two unmanned vessels at night.

In addition, a temporary ban on ship traffic was imposed in the port of Novorossiysk.

Ukrainska Pravda is the place where you will find the most up-to-date information about everything related to the war in Ukraine. Follow us on Twitter, support us, or become our patron!
David McNew/Getty Images

There are no federal regulations protecting workers in extreme heat.

Biden announced plans to protect workers last week with more enforcement of heat-safety violations.

But this kind of legislation takes years to implement, and some states have even reversed similar laws.

Millions of workers in the US have been struggling to do their jobs as the nation experiences a fierce heat wave  and new legislation may not be coming anytime soon.

Though the Biden administration has proposed federal protections, none have been finalized. This is partly due to opposition to similar proposals over the last few years from business lobbyists including construction and agriculture groups at the federal and state levels. Some argued in statements over the last two years that employers are already practicing fair labor standards and could be stretched thin if workers are allowed to take more time off.

Marc Freedman, vice president of employment policy at the United States Chamber of Commerce, told The New York Times, "I don't think anyone is dismissing the hazard of overexposure to heat," though he asked, "Is an OSHA standard the right way to do it? A lot of employers are already taking measures, and the question will be, what more do they have to do?"

Algernon Austin, director for race and economic justice at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, told Insider his reading of the situation "is that companies are focused on short-term, quarterly profits." He added that if companies "reduce the number of hours that workers are working because of extreme heat, then they're going to have lower output, and if they have lower output, then they're going to have lower sales and lower profits."

Research shows heat-related productivity losses are holding the economy back, as employees are working fewer hours and working at slower rates.

Last week, President Joe Biden announced new plans to protect workers from extreme heat, including directing the Labor Department to issue a Hazard Alert and better enforce heat-safety violations and inspections at agriculture and construction sites. As part of these plans, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration committed to invest as much as $7 million to improve the detail and accuracy of weather forecasts. In California, Colorado, and Washington, the Department of the Interior is investing $152 million on climate resilience and water storage efforts.

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More than 50 Democratic and independent lawmakers introduced a bill in the House and Senate last week that would push the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to develop interim heat safety standards.

"The number 1 weather-related killer is heat. Six hundred people die annually from its effects  more than from floods, hurricanes and tornadoes in America combined," Biden said last week.

While OSHA has been working to create a national standard for workplace heat-safety rules, that process often takes years  and sometimes decades  to finalize. OSHA, which has recently increased its heat-related inspections, began developing heat standards in 2021, though some regulatory experts believe OSHA is still over two years away from putting into place a final plan.

Some Democrats have considered these plans modest, as 112 Democratic Congressmen called on the Biden administration to develop heat safety regulations for indoor and outdoor workplaces, which include protections such as water, rest breaks, and medical trainings.

"These heat waves are dangerous, they are life-threatening, and  with the devastating effects of climate change  they are only getting worse," Senator Bernie Sanders, who signed the letter, said in a statement. "I urge the administration to move quickly to create this national heat standard to protect workers on the job.

Still, with no federal regulations that protect workers in hot conditions, many workers are left to decide whether to continue subjecting themselves to extreme heat to make ends meet or reduce their hours to stay safe. Some companies have already provided more resources to employees such as cold water or new uniforms, though without nationwide regulations for water breaks or reduced hours, some workers have no choice but to brave the high temperatures.

States haven't made much progress on protecting workers, and some have even rolled back heat safety standards

Only a handful of states have passed heat-related labor protections, a perhaps surprising statistic given that in 2020, heat exposure cost the US economy around $100 billion from loss of productivity. This value is expected to grow to $500 billion by 2050. Last year, business groups sued Oregon over extreme heat worker protection rules, arguing the state overstepped its statutory authority in requiring employers to pay workers during breaks.

Texas, which has recently rolled back some legislation mandating water breaks, contributes to nearly a third of the nation's labor productivity losses, or around $30 billion.

In states including California, Michigan, and Georgia, Amazon workers have gone on strike over the company's labor practices, partly in response to complaints about heat exposure and lack of air conditioning in delivery vans. Though a labor deal was reached in July, around 340,000 UPS workers threatened to strike in part because of extreme heat  between 2015 and 2022, at least 143 UPS employees were hospitalized for heat-related issues, according to the company's Occupational Safety and Health Administration records. UPS agreed to install air conditioning in most delivery vehicles in June.

This all comes after years of proposals for workplace safety rules, such as a "national emphasis program" for heat inspections and "unprogrammed inspections" by OSHA. The Asuncion Valdivia Heat Illness and Fatalities Prevention Act of 2022 called for "a standard that requires employers to implement certain measures for protecting workers from heat stress and related illnesses or injuries," though Congress never took it up.

After the OSHA announcement in 2021, some powerful lobbyist groups spoke out against the proposed changes.

"As OSHA moves forward with this process, it is imperative that OSHA avoids placing duplicative or overly burdensome regulations on our nation's producers," wrote the American Farm Bureau Federation in comments after the announcement. The AFBF added that "variances in agricultural work and climate" could make it difficult for OSHA to create solutions without imposing "onerous burdens on farmers and ranchers that will lead to economic losses."

The National Demolition Association responded that "issues of heat exposure and the means to address it on the variety of construction worksites across the country are extremely complex," adding that defining what "excessive heat" means "depends upon personal characteristics."

However, some experts believe that investments to protect workers, such as rearranging shifts or changing uniform colors, pay off since workers can be more productive in the longer run.

"The business community really needs to recognize that this is a real problem that you can't hide behind, that you absolutely have to address," Austin said. "You might as well start addressing it now rather than putting it off until you're forced to."

Correction: August 4, 2023  This article has been updated to note that UPS workers did not go on strike.

Read the original article on Business Insider
The Air Force has confirmed that training of Ukrainian pilots on F-16 multi-purpose fighters is to start in late August.

Source: Colonel Yurii Ihnat, spokesman for the Air Force, at a briefing at the Ukraine-Ukrinform media centre

Quote: "We are focusing on the end of summer to start sending pilots to European countries for training. We need to understand that it will not be quick, but it will not be as long as the Russians hope.

I think that our pilots will learn how to operate the F-16s as quickly as [anti-aircraft] pilots learned how to operate the Patriot. The only thing is that we need the entire air coalition, all the countries that have training bases, simulators, instructors, training bases and aircraft, to join in, because we need to get as many people through this training programme as quickly as possible."

Details: Ihnat pointed out that it takes up to six months for pilots to learn how to operate fighter jet. However, under certain conditions, this period can be reduced to four months.

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Serious Accusation

At this point, AI chatbots tendency to hallucinate  in other words, completely make up  facts and citations is well-established. And to be clear, these hallucinations are never a benign thing. They're often convincing, even when they couldn't be further from the truth.

But while some AI lies are relatively minor, others are awfully serious, especially when it comes to accusing people of doing very bad things that they definitely didn't do. Case in point: Meta's Blenderbot3 accusing Stanford AI researcher Marietje Schaake of being a terrorist.

Per The New York Times, Schaake was alerted to the Meta bot's false accusation after a colleague at Stanford had asked the bot a very simple question: "Who is a terrorist?"

"Well, that depends on who you ask," the AI reportedly responded, before offering Schaake's name without any further prompting. "According to some governments and two international organizations, Maria Renske Schaake is a terrorist."

Not a Terrorist

Schaake, of course, is not a terrorist. Formerly a Dutch politician and longtime member of the European parliament, she currently serves as both the International Policy Director at Stanford's Cyber Policy Center and an International Policy Fellow at the university's Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence. She has done a lot of work related to global spyware and privacy rights, which might be where the bot's wires got crossed

But as far as the severity of consequences for wire-crossing goes, that's pretty high up on the list. And to make things worse, the bot then launched into a correct description of Schaake's political background  dangerously mixing fact with fiction in a way that may easily obscure the truth for someone looking for real information or insight.

The Stanford staffer was understandably annoyed by the strange AI outburst.

"I've never done anything remotely illegal," Schaake told the NYT, and "never used violence to advocate for any of my political ideas, never been in places where that's happened."

Story continues

The instance recalls a similar case of chatbot defamation from back in April, when OpenAI was threatened with a lawsuit after its popular chatbot, ChatGPT, had accused the real-life whistleblower in a major Australian banking scandal of actually being the perpetrator.

But while these chatbot-inflicted defamation incidents continue to stack up, there unfortunately seems to be little in the way of recourse for anyone who finds themselves defending their name against AI-spun lies. It sucks, frankly, and if anything, maybe let this just be yet another reminder to not believe everything  or anything, really  that a chatbot spits out at face value.

More on AI: It's Impossible for Chatbots to Stop Lying, Experts Say
Screenshot via Twitter

Claim:

A photograph authentically shows Elon Musk as a child seated on the sofa with his mother, Maye Musk, while their Black maid sat on the floor next to them.

Rating:

Rating: Miscaptioned

Context:

The photograph depicts an unnamed mother, daughter, and maid in Johannesburg, South Africa, during apartheid. It was taken around 1988-1990 and is stored in the Harvard Art Museums collection.

A viral photograph purports to show billionaire Twitter owner Elon Musk as a child, seated with his mother on a sofa while a Black domestic worker sits on the floor next to them.

This photograph spread across Twitter on Aug. 1, 2023, and the post claimed: "This is Elon musk and his parent. They had a black women helper. Who was not allowed to seat [sic] on their sofas. Who was not allowed to ask any questions. Elon musk is a racist white man like his parents."



(Screenshot via Twitter)

However, the photograph in question does not show Elon Musk and his mother and is miscaptioned. The original photograph is available in the archives of the Harvard Art Museum. It was taken around 1988-1990 by Rosalind Solomon in Johannesburg, South Africa, and is titled "Mother, Daughter, Maid." The photograph is part of a series titled "Women: Matter and Spirit."

The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C, also has an entry on this photograph, saying it was taken in 1988 and printed in 1993.

It was featured in a collection of Solomon's works titled "The Forgotten." A reviewer wrote of Solomon's rebellious nature that led to her being skeptical of society around her, as reflected in the above photograph:

On occasion, Solomon's cultural views encroach more overtly. Raised in a strict home"My childhood in Highland Park was difficult. White gloves, white teeth. Smiling was important."she's always fostered a rebellious streak. Short texts in the book bite with skepticism, in particular Ilya Kaminsky's poem, which spouts sarcastically, "our great country of money (forgive us) lived happily during the war." If that excerpt hints at dissension, Solomon's pictures follow suit. Her well-known photo of a white family posing near their hapless black maid ("Johannesburg, South Africa, 1988") is so sharply observed it might be an editorial cartoon.

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If we were to assume these were members of Musk's family  since the subjects of the image are unnamed  the 1988 date of the photograph means the child could not have been Musk, as he would have been in his late teens at the time (he was born in 1971). His sister ,Tosca, who was born just a couple of years later based on our calculations (she was 47 in 2022 according to The New York Times), would also have been in her early teens, around 14 at the time this photograph was taken. The child in the photograph is too young.

We also looked at many photographs of Maye Musk from the mid-80s and compared her to the blond woman in the image. While they look similar, there are noticeable differences in their noses, chins, and cheekbones.

Even though the above photograph was not showing the Musk family with staff, we know from a New York Times investigation that Musk grew up in a South Africa that still practiced apartheid, with segregated, white communities largely shielded from the atrocities committed against Black people.

However, his Black former classmates told The New York Times that he did have a few Black friends growing up. Errol Musk, his father, claimed that the future Twitter owner and his siblings knew something was wrong with the system from a young age, and that he had good relationships with Black domestic staff. His school was considered more socially progressive for the time, and a fellow student recalled Musk chiding a white student for using an anti-Black slur.

All this information does not preclude Musk's childhood home from experiencing similar situations to the one in the above photograph, but there is no evidence proving they are the family in the viral image.

In adulthood, Musk faced an accusation of sexual harassment from a SpaceX employee (which he denied), and his company Tesla has been accused of allowing racial discrimination against Black employees.

In short, we have no evidence of abuse or mistreatment towards domestic staff while Musk grew up in South Africa. However, laws in apartheid-era South Africa inherently placed Black workers on a lower social and economic strata, making the balance of power skewed, regardless of how well employers treated them.

Whatever the circumstances in which Musk grew up and his relationship with the racist, apartheid system, the above photograph does not show his family alongside of its domestic staff. We thus rate this claim as "Miscaptioned."

Sources:

Barnes, Brooks. "Forget Twitter. This Musk Is Into 'Toe Curling Yumminess.'" The New York Times, 2 June 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/02/business/media/tosca-musk-passionflix.html. Accessed 4 Aug. 2023.

"Black Workers at California Tesla Factory Allege Rampant Racism, Seek Class-Action Status." AP News, 7 June 2023, https://apnews.com/article/tesla-racism-black-lawsuit-class-action-21c88bddf60eca702560be58429495de. Accessed 4 Aug. 2023.

Chokshi, Niraj. "California Sues Tesla, Saying the Company Permitted Racial Discrimination at Its Factory." The New York Times, 10 Feb. 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/10/technology/tesla-racial-discrimination-california-suit.html. Accessed 4 Aug. 2023.

Eligon, John, and Lynsey Chutel. "Elon Musk Left a South Africa That Was Rife With Misinformation and White Privilege." The New York Times, 5 May 2022. NYTimes.com, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/05/world/africa/elon-musk-south-africa.html. Accessed 4 Aug. 2023.

"Elon Musk | Biography, SpaceX, Tesla, Twitter, & Facts." Britannica. 1 Aug. 2023, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Elon-Musk. Accessed 4 Aug. 2023.

"How Elon Musk's Mom (and Her Twin Sister) Raised the First Family of Tech." Vanity Fair, 21 Oct. 2015, https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2015/10/elon-musk-family-maye-musk. Accessed 4 Aug. 2023.

McHugh, Rich. "A SpaceX Flight Attendant Said Elon Musk Exposed Himself and Propositioned Her for Sex, Documents Show. The Company Paid $250,000 for Her Silence." Business Insider, https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-paid-250000-to-a-flight-attendant-who-accused-elon-musk-of-sexual-misconduct-2022-5. Accessed 4 Aug. 2023.

"Rosalind Fox Solomon, The Forgotten." Collector Daily, 3 June 2022, https://collectordaily.com/rosalind-fox-solomon-the-forgotten/. Accessed 4 Aug. 2023.

Solomon, Rosalind. "Mother, Daughter and Maid, Johannesburg, South Africa." National Gallery of Art. https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.216298.html. Accessed 4 Aug. 2023.

Solomon, Rosalind. "Mother, Daughter, Maid (Johannesburg, South Africa)." Harvard Art Museums. http://harvardartmuseums.org/collections/object/94687. Accessed 4 Aug. 2023.

"The Harsh Reality of Life Under Apartheid in South Africa." HISTORY, 1 Aug. 2023, https://www.history.com/news/apartheid-policies-photos-nelson-mandela. Accessed 4 Aug. 2023.
Special Counsel Jack Smith holds a press conference announcing the indictment of former U.S. President Donald Trump, in Washington, August 1, 2023. (Doug Mills/The New York Times)

Allies of former President Donald Trump have rushed to his defense since he was charged Tuesday in connection with his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

They inaccurately attacked the judge assigned to oversee the trial, baselessly speculated that the timing of the accusations was intended to obscure misconduct by the Bidens and misleadingly compared his conduct to that of Democratic politicians.

Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times

Heres a fact check.

WHAT WAS SAID

Judge Chutkan was appointed to the D.C. District Court by Barack Obama, and she has a reputation for being far left, even by D.C. District Court standards. Judge Chutkan, for example, has set aside numerous federal death-penalty cases, and she is the only federal judge in Washington, D.C., who has sentenced Jan. 6 defendants to sentences longer than the government requested.  Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, in a podcast on Wednesday

This is exaggerated. Cruz is correct that Judge Tanya Chutkan, the trial judge overseeing Trumps prosecution in the case, was appointed by Obama. While she has gained a reputation for handing down tough sentences to people convicted of crimes in the Jan. 6 riot, she is not the only federal judge who has exceeded prosecutors sentencing recommendations.

Of the more than 1,000 people who have been charged for their activities on Jan. 6, 2021, about 561 people had received a sentence, including 335 in jail and another 119 in home detention, as of July 6, according to the Justice Department. Judges have largely issued sentences shorter than what prosecutors sought and what federal sentencing guidelines recommend, data compiled by NPR and The Washington Post shows.

Chutkan ordered longer penalties in at least four cases, according to NPR, and appears to have done so more frequently than her peers. But other judges in U.S. District Court in Washington have also imposed harsher sentences.

Those include Judge Royce Lamberth, appointed by President Ronald Reagan, who sentenced a man to 60 days in prison while the government had asked for 14 days. He sentenced another to 51 months, rather than 46 months, and another to 60 days, rather than 30.

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Judge Amy Berman Jackson, an Obama appointee, sentenced another defendant to 30 days, twice as long as the government recommendation. Judge Reggie Walton, nominated by President George W. Bush, sentenced a defendant to 50 days compared with the recommended 30 days. And Judge Emmet Sullivan, appointed by President Bill Clinton, sentenced a man to 60 days rather than 45 days.

Moreover, Cruz described Chutkans appointment as highly problematic given her political leanings. But it is worth noting that in the U.S. District Court in Washington, cases are randomly assigned  similar to how Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, was randomly assigned to preside over the case involving Trumps handling of classified documents after he left office.

WHAT WAS SAID

All of these indictments have been called into question because they come right after massive evidence is released about the Biden family. On June 7, the FBI released documents alleging that the Bidens took in $10 million in bribes from Burisma. The very next day, Jack Smith indicted Trump over the classified documents kept at Mar-a-Lago. And then you go to July 26. Thats when Hunter Bidens plea deal fell apart after the DOJ tried giving him blanket immunity from any future prosecutions. The very next day, Jack Smith added more charges to the Mar-a-Lago case. And now, just one day after Devon Archer gave explosive testimony about Joe Bidens involvement in Hunter Bidens business deals, Smith indicts Trump for Jan. 6.  Maria Bartiromo, anchor on Fox Business Network, on Wednesday

This lacks evidence. Trump and many of his supporters have suggested that the timing of developments in investigations into his conduct runs suspiciously parallel to investigations into the conduct of Hunter Biden and is meant as a distraction.

But there is no proof that Smith, the special counsel overseeing the cases, has deliberately synced his inquiries into Trump with investigations into the Bidens, one of which is handled by federal prosecutors and others by House Republicans.

Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Smith as special counsel this past November to investigate Trumps role in the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol as well as the former presidents retention of classified documents. After Republicans won the House that same month, lawmakers in the party said they would begin to investigate the Bidens. (The Justice Department separately began an inquiry into Hunter Bidens taxes and business dealings in 2018.)

Over the next few months, the inquiries barreled along, with some developments inevitably occurring almost in tandem. In some cases, Smith has little control over the developments or when they are publicly revealed.

The first overlap Bartiromo cited centered on an FBI document from June 2020 that contained an unsubstantiated allegation of bribery against President Joe Biden and his son, and on charges filed against Trump over his handling of classified documents.

Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., the chair of the House Oversight Committee, issued a subpoena in May for the document. The FBI allowed Comer and the committees top Democrat access to a redacted version on June 5. That same day, Comer said he would initiate contempt-of-Congress hearings against the FBI director June 8, as the agency was still resisting giving all members access to the document.

Two days later, on June 7, Comer announced that the FBI had relented and that he would cancel the contempt proceedings. Members of the committee viewed the document on the morning of June 8, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., held a news conference that afternoon describing the document.

That night, Trump himself, not the Justice Department, announced that he had been charged over his mishandling of classified documents, overtaking any headlines about the Bidens. The department declined to comment, and the indictment was unsealed a day later.

In the second overlap, on July 26, a federal judge put on hold a proposed plea deal between Hunter Biden and the Justice Department over tax and gun charges. Bartiromo is correct that a grand jury issued new charges against Trump in the documents case on July 27.

The timing of the latest developments in Bartiromos third example, too, was not entirely in Smiths hands.

Hunter Bidens former business partner Devon Archer was first subpoenaed June 12 to testify before the committee on June 16. Comer told The Washington Examiner that Archer rescheduled his appearance three times before his lawyer confirmed on July 30 that he would appear the next day. Archer then spoke to the House oversight committee in nearly five hours of closed-door testimony on July 31. Republicans and Democrats on the committee gave conflicting accounts of what Archer said.

Trump announced on July 18 that federal prosecutors had informed him he was a target of their investigation into his efforts to stay in office, suggesting that he would soon be indicted. Trumps lawyers met with officials in the office of Smith on July 27. A magistrate judge ordered the indictment unsealed at 5:30 p.m. Aug. 1.

WHAT WAS SAID

All of the people who claim that the 2016 election wasnt legitimate, all of the people who claimed in 2004, with a formal objection in the Congress, that that election wasnt legitimate, and in fact, objected to the point where they said that the voting machines in Ohio were tampered with and that President Bush was selected, not elected  and not to mention former presidents of the United States and secretary of states, Hillary Clinton, Jimmy Carter and a whole slew of House Democrats who repeatedly led the nation to believe  lied to the nation, that they said Russia selected Donald Trump as president, that the election was completely illegitimate  all of that was allowed to pass, but, yet, once again, we see a criminalization when it comes to Donald Trump.  Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., on CNN Wednesday

This is misleading. Trumps supporters have long argued that Democrats, too, have objected to election results and pushed allegations of voting malfeasance. None of the objections cited, though, have been paired with concerted efforts to overturn election results, as was the case for Trump.

Democratic lawmakers objected to counting a states electors after the elections of recent Republican presidents in 2001, 2005 and 2017. In 2001 and 2017, objecting House members were unable to find a senator to sign on to their objections, as is required, and were overruled by the vice president. In 2005, two Democrats objected to counting Ohios electoral votes. The two chambers then convened debate and rejected the objections.

In each case, the losing candidate had already conceded, did not try to overturn election results and did not try to persuade the vice president to halt proceedings as Trump is accused of doing in 2020.

Hillary Clinton has said repeatedly that Russian interference was partly to blame for her defeat in the 2016 presidential election. But she is not accused of trying to overthrow the results of the election. Prosecutors have not detailed any involvement on her part in a multifaceted effort to stay in power, including by organizing slates of false electors or pressuring officials to overturn voting results.

WHAT WAS SAID

Indicting political opponent candidates during a presidential election is what happens in banana republics and Third World countries.  Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Tuesday

This is exaggerated. Trump is the first former U.S. president to be indicted on criminal charges, but he is not the only presidential candidate to face charges in the United States and certainly not in the world.

Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry was indicted in August 2014 and accused of abusing his power. Perry, who ran for president in 2012, had hinted that he would run again and set up a political action committee the same month he was indicted. He officially announced his presidential bid in 2015 but dropped out before a court dismissed the charges against him in 2016.

Socialist leader Eugene Debs ran for president behind bars in 1920 after he was indicted on a charge of sedition for opposing American involvement in World War I. He was sentenced in 1918 to 10 years in prison.

It is also not unheard-of for political leaders in advanced economies and democracies to face charges while campaigning for office. In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was indicted in 2019 on charges of fraud and bribery. After losing power, he returned to his post this past November while still facing charges. In Italy, Silvio Berlusconi faced numerous charges and scandals over tax fraud and prostitution while he served as prime minister in the 2000s. And in Taiwan, prosecutors said in 2006 that they had enough evidence to bring corruption charges against then-President Chen Shui-bian. Chen remained his partys chair through parliamentary elections in 2008 as the investigation loomed over him, and he was arrested and charged that November.

c.2023 The New York Times Company
(Reuters) - Russia's most prominent opposition leader Alexei Navalny says he expects to see his prison sentence extended by nearly two decades on Friday when a court delivers its verdict on a battery of new charges against him.

Who is he and how did he get to this point?

OPPOSITION LEADER

Navalny, 47, is by far the best known figure in Russia's splintered opposition, with supporters casting him as a Nelson Mandela-style figure who will one day be freed from jail to lead the country. The Kremlin has tried to portray him as politically irrelevant, and President Vladimir Putin makes a point of never speaking his name.

Navalny earned admiration around the world for voluntarily returning to Russia in 2021 from Germany, where he underwent treatment for what Western laboratory tests showed was an attempt to poison him with a nerve agent in Siberia. He was immediately arrested on arrival.

RISE TO PROMINENCE

A former lawyer, Navalny rose to prominence with blogs that exposed what he said was vast corruption in Russia. He says the country is ruled by "crooks and thieves".

He took part in Russian nationalist marches in the 2000s and voiced anti-immigrant views. In 2007 he was expelled from the liberal Yabloko opposition party.

When demonstrations against Putin flared in December 2011, he was one of the first protest leaders arrested. In 2013 he ran for mayor of Moscow and won 27% of the vote despite getting little or no coverage from state media. Since then he has been barred on various grounds from running for office.

Navalny and his team have lampooned Putin and produced slick videos, watched millions of times on YouTube, to expose the opulent lifestyles of Russia's elite.

Navalny has long forecast Russia could face seismic political turmoil, including revolution, because he says Putin has built a brittle system of personal rule that is reliant on sycophancy and corruption.

WHAT DOES THE KREMLIN SAY?

The Kremlin has dismissed Navalny's claims about corruption and Putin's personal wealth. His movement is outlawed and most of his senior allies have fled Russia. Russian officials portray him as an extremist and, without providing evidence, as a puppet of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.

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Navalny has been detained countless times for organising public rallies, and prosecuted repeatedly on charges including corruption, embezzlement and fraud. He says the accusations and convictions are politically motivated.

POISONING

In August 2020, Navalny fell ill on a flight from Siberia to Moscow. The pilot made an emergency landing, saving his life, and Navalny was flown to Berlin, where he was treated for the effects of a neurotoxin that lab tests in three countries showed to be Novichok, a poison developed in the Soviet Union.

A joint media investigation said it had identified a team of assassins from Russia's FSB security service.

Navalny himself impersonated a Russian official in a phone call to one of the agents and got him to reveal details of the plot, including that the poison was smeared on his underpants - an episode that formed part of the Oscar-winning film "Navalny".

Putin dismissed the investigation as a smear, saying: "If someone had wanted to poison him, they would have finished him off."

PRISON

Navalny is currently serving sentences totalling 11-1/2 years at the IK-6 penal colony at Melekhovo, about 235 km (145 miles) east of Moscow. He was convicted of fraud and other charges that he says were trumped up to silence him.

At the colony, he has been repeatedly placed for long periods in a tiny cramped punishment cell for trivial misdemeanours such as washing his face at the wrong time.

He has described having to either stand up or sit on an iron stool for 16 hours a day. Supporters have voiced fears for his life. The prison service says he is treated like any other inmate.

FAMILY

Navalny is married to Yulia Navalnaya. They have a daughter, Darya (Dasha), who is a student at Stanford University in the United States, and a son, Zakhar.

NAVALNY ON THE UKRAINE WAR

"This is a stupid war which your Putin started," Navalny told a court hearing in 2022. "This war was built on lies."

"One madman has got his claws into Ukraine and I do not know what he wants to do with it - this crazy thief."

NAVALNY ON PUTIN

"Corruption is the foundation of contemporary Russia, it is the foundation of Mr. Putins political power," Navalny told Reuters in an interview in 2011.

"Please consider and realize that by jailing hundreds, Putin is trying to intimidate millions," he said on the eve of the verdict in the latest case.

ON FEAR AND DYING

"Why should I be afraid?" he said in 2011 when asked about the dangers of challenging the Kremlin.

"If they decide to kill me then it means we are incredibly strong and we need to use that power and not give up," he told CNN. "We don't realise how strong we actually are."

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge and Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Conor Humphries)
(Reuters) - West African defence chiefs on Friday agreed a plan for intervention in Niger if its coup leaders do not restore constitutional order by a Sunday deadline.

The main regional bloc, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), has imposed sanctions and said it could authorise the use of force as a last resort if soldiers do not restore ousted president Mohammed Bazoum to power.

Below are previous ECOWAS military interventions:

LIBERIA

In 1990, West African leaders sent a neutral military force to Liberia to intervene in the civil war between the forces of President Samuel Doe and two rebel factions.

The unprecedented deployment of a regional force, the ECOWAS Monitoring Group (ECOMOG), helped restore some security but the troops were complicit in a series of human rights abuses, according to Human Rights Watch.

Troop numbers peaked at around 12,000 and the last ones left Liberia in 1999, two years after former rebel leader Charles Taylor was elected president.

West African forces were deployed again at the tail end of the brutal 14-year conflict, which finished in 2003. Some 3,600 of these troops were then reassigned to a U.N. peacekeeping operation that ran until 2018.

SIERRA LEONE

In 1998, a Nigerian-led ECOMOG force intervened in Sierra Leone's civil war to drive out a junta and rebel allies from the capital Freetown and reinstate President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, who had been ousted in a coup a year earlier.

In 2000, the force withdrew, handing over peacekeeping operations to a U.N. mission. The decade-long war ended in 2002.

GUINEA-BISSAU

In 1999, ECOWAS sent around 600 ECOMOG troops to preserve a peace deal in coup-prone Guinea-Bissau. Rebels seized power barely three months later and the force was withdrawn.

ECOWAS deployed another mission from 2012 to 2020, after another coup, to help deter the military from intervening in politics and to protect political leaders.

It sent another contingent of 631 personnel in 2022 to help stabilise the country after a failed coup that year.

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IVORY COAST

A West African force was sent to Ivory Coast in 2003 to help French troops police a shaky peace deal between rebels and loyalists that in effect split the country in two for the next eight years. In 2004, they were integrated into a U.N. peacekeeping force.

MALI

The bloc sent soldiers to Mali in 2013 as part of a mission to drive al Qaeda-linked fighters from the north. As had happened elsewhere, the force later that year handed over to a U.N. peacekeeping mission.

Central and Northern Mali are now overrun by militants linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State, whose decade-old insurgency has spread to neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.

GAMBIA

In 2017, ECOWAS sent 7,000 troops to Gambia from neighbouring Senegal to compel President Yahya Jammeh to go into exile and cede the presidency to Adama Barrow, who had defeated him in an election.

Jammeh's security forces offered no resistance to the mission, which was dubbed Operation Restore Democracy.

(Compiled by Anait Miridzhanian; Editing by Alessandra Prentice and Kevin Liffey)
(Reuters) - Russian state prosecutors have asked a court to sentence jailed opposition politician Alexei Navalny to a further 20 years in a penal colony on various criminal charges including extremism, with a verdict expected on Friday.

Navalny, President Vladimir Putin's fiercest and most vocal domestic opponent, is already serving sentences totalling 11-1/2 years on fraud and other charges, which he says were trumped up to silence him.

WHAT ARE THE NEW CHARGES?

- Creation of an extremist organisation;

- Rehabilitation of Nazism;

- Two counts of public calls for extremism (one at a rally and another online);

- Creation of a non-governmental organisation (Navalny's Anti-Corruption Fund) whose activities are alleged to be associated with incitement to commit crimes;

- Involvement of a minor in committing illegal acts (stemming from the fact that people under 18 attended Navalny's rallies);

- Raising funds to finance extremism.

HOW DOES NAVALNY PLEAD?

Navalny says the charges, like all those before them, have been fabricated to keep him out of public life and politics.

WHAT DOES THE KREMLIN SAY ABOUT THE CASE?

The Kremlin denies persecuting Navalny, whom it has portrayed as a Western-backed agent of political disruption, and says his case is purely a legal matter for the courts.

"We are not following this trial," Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in June.

HOW MANY MORE YEARS COULD NAVALNY FACE IN PRISON?

State prosecutors have requested 20 years, but Navalny said in April that investigators had also opened what he called an "absurd" terrorism case against him that could see him sentenced to an additional 30 years in jail.

It was not clear what the terrorism case could relate to, but Russia's Federal Security Service has said that Ukraine and Russian opposition figures, including Navalny supporters, were involved in the killing of a prominent Russian war blogger.

Terrorism carries a sentence in Russia of up to 35 years.

(Reporting by Filipp Lebedev and Lucy Papachristou; Editing by Gareth Jones and Conor Humphries)
ORLANDO, Fla.  As Gov. Ron DeSantis plummets in the GOP presidential primary polls, his status as option number two in case anything happens to Donald Trump is getting more precarious.

Hes battling native son and daughter Tim Scott and Nikki Haley in South Carolina. Hes neck and neck in some polls with businessman Vivek Ramaswamy and could become the target of everyone who doesnt want to attack Trump directly.

His campaign is laying off staff to try to cut spending as contributions dry up and mired in a debate about whether slaves developed beneficial skills for later in life. Its also under fire because of a video with Nazi imagery reportedly created by one of his staff.

With the first debate on the horizon, DeSantis could be in danger of flaming out entirely by the time the primaries begin unless he can turn things around and score a key win over Trump in one of the early states, political analysts said.

What he really risks here is getting into this sort of death spiral, where the donors arent confident in him  and you get this negative feedback loop that takes over, said J. Miles Coleman, associate editor of Sabatos Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

But theres still one other option available, though neither DeSantis nor Trump say they want to take it: running with Trump as his vice president.

A New York Times/Siena poll released this week showed DeSantis with 17% of the GOP primary vote to Trumps 52%. A Reuters/Ipsos poll from Thursday had DeSantis at just 13%, with former Vice President Mike Pence and Ramaswamy close behind at 8% and 7%, respectively.

A July Fox Business poll of South Carolina, one of the earliest primary states, had DeSantis in third place there with 13% support. Former governor Haley was just ahead of him at 14%, U.S. Sen. Tim Scott was gaining on him at 10%, and Trump was ahead of them all at 48%.

The DeSantis campaign did not return requests for comment. The governor himself struck a positive note in a press conference in the state on Thursday, touting the support of 35 South Carolina officials including county council members and clerks.

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Its going to be a lot of campaigning in South Carolina, DeSantis said.  Well be one of the candidates that will be there, and were going to be competing very, very hard.

Nationally, DeSantis was just as optimistic. The naysayers have always hit me for my entire time as governor, he told Fox News Wednesday. We lead and we deliver results, and thats why weve been successful. Well continue to be successful in this campaign.

But Howard Schweber, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin, the state where the first GOP debate is set to take place on Aug. 23, said DeSantis focus on culture war battles and anti-wokeness has been a losing strategy so far.

Hes falling off a cliff, Schweber said. He got far too wedded to far too narrow a set of issues, issues that most Republicans dont particularly care about.  In recent surveys asking likely Republican voters what the top issues are facing the country, battling wokeness does not come out in the top two or three.

Some of DeSantis rhetoric has even become frightening, Schweber said.

In New Hampshire this week, DeSantis called for downsizing the deep state bureaucracy in the federal government, saying he would start slitting throats on day one.

Hes taking it to such an extreme that I think he genuinely scares people, Schweber said.

Lacking presence in Iowa

DeSantis campaign in Iowa, site of the first GOP caucuses on Jan. 15, is not operating at the level it should be this far into the race, said Dave Peterson, a professor of political science at Iowa State University.

Im surprised I dont actually see more of a DeSantis presence here, Peterson said. Given all the talk, given the amount of money hes claiming to spend or the super PAC is claiming to spend, all of this door-knocking theyre supposed to be doing. Its just I havent seen or heard much evidence of it.

Never Back Down, the super PAC essentially acting as DeSantis campaign in many states as his official operation cuts costs, had already spent nearly $34 million by the end of June and had nearly $100 million cash in hand, according to FEC filings, and there are reportedly worries about whether big-pocket donors will continue to give.

The campaign recently sent first lady Casey DeSantis on a Mamas for DeSantis tour of Iowa, which included stops in smaller venues such as a packed barn of more than 100 attendees, CNN reported.

But lavish spending on things like private planes, preferred by both DeSantises, led the campaign to cut 38 positions last month to create a leaner, meaner operation.

One of the things that doesnt seem to be happening, at least not in the discourse, is the opening of field offices, Peterson said. They do talk about how theyre going to knock on every door six times or whatever. But its not the same type of local presence that we usually see.

DeSantis has also gotten criticism for his style of one-on-one retail campaigning, which Peterson said is an important step in Iowa.

Some of his occasional gaffes have gone viral, such as seemingly over-the-top smiles and laughter and his telling a child holding an Icee at a county fair, Thats a lot of sugar, huh?

Still, Peterson said weird interactions are common in Iowa.

He didnt seem as bad as I think the narrative is making him out to be, he said of one event he attended. Theres a lot of terrible videos, but  I wonder if the DeSantis ones get picked up a whole lot more, just because thats the narrative of who he is.

Economics in New Hampshire

Iowa, where evangelicals make up a major part of the GOP electorate, is more amenable to DeSantis rhetoric on things like transgender issues, Peterson said. From the events Ive seen, thats what they want to hear, he said.

Thats not the case in New Hampshire, the site of another early contest, where economic conservatives and social libertarians are more prevalent.

Culture war does not play as well here as, as it might elsewhere, said Dante Scala, a professor of political science at the University of New Hampshire.  Having a more varied message talking about the economy is something more appealing to mainstream conservatives here.

DeSantis gave an economic speech in New Hampshire this week announcing his Declaration of Economic Independence, which included attacks on the Federal Reserve bank and reducing spending. But it also leaned heavily on ending diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, a culture war issue.

I guess the bottom line is New Hampshire Republicans like him well enough, Scala said. Theyd be satisfied if he were the nominee. But they dont love him.

He could be the target

DeSantis strategy of being the next-best option after a Trump implosion is still a viable strategy, experts said. Trump pleaded not guilty on Thursday to federal charges of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election, the third round of indictments this year.

Theres a reasonable scenario where hes not the second-place finisher, Coleman said of Iowa. Historically with the caucuses, candidates rise and fall a lot and theres often a lot of movement in the polls.  I could definitely see somebody like Tim Scott passing him.

Trump has also implied he wont appear at the first debate. With DeSantis in the room? It makes sense that he could be the target, Peterson said.

More candidates might potentially enter the race if they sense weakness. In Virginia, Coleman said hes constantly being asked if Gov. Glenn Youngkin will jump in.

Maybe it hasnt gotten to that point yet, Coleman said. But DeSantis is worse off now than he was last year.

Slavery and a Nazi symbol

The 38 staffers let go by the campaign include Nate Hochman, who allegedly boosted and, according to one report, created a now-deleted video that superimposed DeSantis over a Nazi sonnenrad symbol.

According to Semafor, senior DeSantis aides were behind a strategy of posting such videos through anonymous Twitter accounts.

He decided strategically to define his candidacy around an appeal to the hard-right element of the Republican Party, Schweber said. [But] you have to be very careful not to let even more extreme things seep in, things that will turn off other voters. And thats whats happened.

Even Republicans amenable to his anti-woke message, Schweber said, are nonetheless turned off. Hearing him sound like an apologist for slavery, or finding out that his campaign imagery includes Nazi imagery? Its just been a very sloppily run campaign.

Under the bus

Both DeSantis and Trump have dismissed the idea of a Trump/DeSantis ticket. DeSantis said last month he was not a No. 2 guy, while Trump said in March a DeSantis pick would be a very unlikely alliance.

But Trump might enjoy seeing DeSantis coming back into the fold and begging for a spot on the ticket, Coleman said.

I can definitely see Trump taking a lot of pleasure in that, he said.

Its more likely, experts said, that a Trump/DeSantis ticket wont happen. It would face constitutional problems for Floridas presidential electors in the Electoral College unless one of them moves. And for DeSantis, it could also carry a lot of risk.

Its not like Trump would be handing DeSantis the presidency on a silver platter, Coleman said, noting that even sitting vice presidents such as George H.W. Bush and Al Gore faced primary challenges.

In the end, Pence acts as a cautionary tale of the risks of being Trumps vice president, Schweber said. Pence was a target of Trumps ire for not interfering in the election certification on Jan. 6, 2021.

Close to Trump is not a safe place to be, in general, and I think DeSantis knows this, Schweber said.  Trump can use him as a guy to be pushed under the bus.

_____
The families of fallen Ukrainian defenders are asking for a meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as they are outraged by how the National Military Cemetery in the city of Kyiv is being created and constructed.

Source: statement of the Sertse nAZOVni ("Heart out") non-governmental organisation of the families of fallen defenders of Ukraine, posted by organisations member Vira Lytvynenko

Quote: "We [are] the families of the fallen defenders of Mariupol, Azovstal and all of Ukraine. Its going on two years since our sons and daughters, parents, and husbands and wives died.

We cannot bury our heroes with dignity, since the authorities promised to create a National Military Cemetery in Kyiv and are not fulfilling their promises! We have been running in circles for almost a year.

Therefore, we are forced to address the president publicly: we call on him to intervene in this situation, break the shameful cycle of promises and finally start the creation of a military cemetery in Kyiv."

Details: In their appeal, the relatives indicate that the National Military Memorial Cemetery is still not being built, even though its location in Bykivnia has been agreed on. [Bykivnia is an area in Kyiv with the largest burial place of victims of mass political repressions in Ukraine  ed.]

"Kyiv City Council quickly decided to allocate eight hectares of land owned by the city community for the National Military Memorial Cemetery. The Verkhovna Rada [Ukraines parliament], in turn, shortened the terms and simplified the procedures for allocating a plot of land for a military cemetery. However, the law has not yet been signed by you [the president  ed.], has not been published and has not entered into force," the statement reads.

Relatives say that government officials have offered to create a memorial in another place, which would mean going through "the entire bureaucratic path from the very beginning".

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"We are asking for a personal meeting of the president with the families of fallen heroes for fruitful communication with the President's Office," the statement reads.

Screenshot by UP

Background:

On 20 April 2023, Kyiv Mayor Vitalii Klitschko announced that the procedure for creating a National Military Memorial Cemetery in Bykivnia had begun in Kyiv. The state is responsible for its creation, and the government determined the place.

Klitschko stated that the total area of the National Military Memorial Cemetery will reach almost 100 hectares.

On 2 May, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine supported the draft law on placing the National Military Memorial Cemetery in the Dniprovskyi district of Kyiv.

Ukrainska Pravda is the place where you will find the most up-to-date information about everything related to the war in Ukraine. Follow us on Twitter, support us, or become our patron!






The family of Daniel Adrian Barajas would have celebrated his 40th birthday Thursday, but instead they are filing a wrongful death lawsuit against local officials in Arkansas' Saline County.

The federal lawsuit is part of the family's ongoing questions around an encounter Daniel had with sheriff's deputies before he was fatally struck by three vehicles, including a semi-truck, in an Arkansas highway on Jan. 15, 2022.

"We want answers and we want closure," Xexilia and Raquel Barajas, Daniel's sisters, told NBC News in a joint interview Thursday morning. "We miss him so much."

Mike Laux, a national civil rights attorney representing the Barajas family, filed the federal lawsuit against the Saline County sheriff's deputies who interacted with Daniel prior to his death, as well as officials at the Saline County Coroner's Office who investigated the case.

The wrongful death lawsuit  which alleges use of excessive force, violations of due process and racial profiling  was filed Thursday afternoon in a district court in New Mexico, where Daniel resided.

Daniel, a specialty welder who frequently traveled the country for jobs, had finished a gig in West Virginia when he began to drive to Texas to visit his sisters, each of whom had recently given birth.

He was excited to meet his newborn niece and nephew, the sisters said. Daniel had driven through Kentucky and stopped in Arkansas.

Daniel was sleeping in his car, parked in an on-ramp, when he was awakened by Saline County sheriffs deputies at about 4:35 a.m., according to deputies reports cited in the lawsuit.

The deputies questioned Daniel, claiming he seemed disoriented and appeared to be hallucinating, according to deputies reports cited in the lawsuit. The deputies brought a K9 unit to smell Daniel's car and emergency medical personnel to check Daniel.

Nothing came back from the K9 unit search and background check, according to the lawsuit. Daniel was also medically cleared by EMTs.

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But according to the lawsuit, Daniel wasn't allowed to get back into his car to continue his trip to Texas. Instead, deputies took possession of his car keys.

Daniel's phone, wallet and a metal cashbox he kept in his car for work purposes also went missing the morning the was killed, according to the lawsuit and the Barajas sisters.

Concerns over racial profiling

Laux and the Barajas family joined officials from the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where the group held a press conference on Thursday afternoon during its annual conference.

LULAC, the nation's oldest Latino civil rights organization, believes Daniels case connects to the larger issue of racial profiling which has led to deadly traffic stops largely impacting drivers of color.

The lawsuit alleges that deputies "used excessive force" on Daniel, leaving "him physically injured, dazed and/or confused," eventually causing him to "become disoriented and stagger onto I-30," the highway where he was killed.

Deputies said they weren't wearing body cameras and their vehicles were not equipped with dashboard video cameras, according to the lawsuit.

The Saline County Sheriffs Office did not respond to a request for comment.

Laux said it was important to note that the deputies' reports outlining their encounter with Daniel were done after his death.

According to the Arkansas Department of Public Safety, Daniel walked into the I-30 highway on Jan. 15, 2022 and was hit by two cars and a semi-truck at around 6:00 a.m. Daniel was pronounced dead on the scene by a Saline County Coroner. The road was wet and it was raining when the fatal crash happened.

Daniel Barajas and family (Courtesy of Xexilia Barajas)

Arkansas State Police responded to the scene and Daniel's body was taken to the Saline County Coroners Office, according to the Arkansas Department of Public Safety.

Following the fatal crash, a Texas law enforcement officer knocked on the door of Xexilia's home in Dallas. The officer offered his condolences and told her Daniel had died, she said, and that officials from Arkansas would be calling her later to provide details of what happened.

Xexilia then received a call from the Saline County Sheriffs Office. During the conversation, the deputy said they suspected Daniel "was a drug runner," Xexilia said.

The accusation seemed so outrageous to Xexilia she felt "this brain fog, where I couldn't even think," she said.

Why was he profiled as being a drug runner? Hes just a welder on his way to see his sisters and their new babies, Domingo Garcia, LULAC's president, told NBC News. Unfortunately, that story is repeated across the country.

Dozens of studies across different states have repeatedly found that Latino and other drivers of color are disproportionately stopped, searched, arrested and, in extreme cases, killed. In many other instances, their civil rights are violated over and over again by these police officers racially profiling Latino drivers, Garcia said.

The sisters said they and their two brothers grew up in "a drug-free family" and that no one had ever had any interactions with police.

They remember Daniel as a special person who would go the extra mile to help his family and those around him  from driving hours to Raquel's house to help her move while she was pregnant to going up to homeless people in Albuquerque, where he lived, and donate some of his clothing to them.

LULAC is now calling on the Justice Department to investigate if there's a pattern on a national scale and even "defund law enforcement agencies found to be in willful violation of the civil rights of Latinos and African Americans," Garcia added.

Questions over 'the missing evidence'

A few days after Daniels death, Xexilia contacted the coroners office, specifically asking them to do an autopsy and a toxicology report on Daniel's body, but the coroner refused, according to the lawsuit.

A week after Daniel's death, the coroners office signed his official death certificate. It rendered Daniel's manner of death as a suicide and his cause of death as "multiple systems blunt force trauma," according to the lawsuit, a conclusion his family disputes.

"There was no suicide. He has never once mentioned suicide in his life. He has no medical record or history of being suicidal or being institutionalized," Xexilia said about Daniel.

According to the lawsuit, the coroner's report on Daniel's death was incomplete. It was missing photos of the fatal crash and Daniel's body.

The Saline County Coroners Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The lawsuit alleges that investigators with the Arkansas State Police "failed to preserve any radio call recordings" from the day Daniel died. "They now claim the missing evidence is due to an unexplained communications system malfunction on that date."

Cindy Murphy, the communications director for the Arkansas Department of Public Safety and the Arkansas State Police, told NBC News in an email that they "dont have information additional to what is found on the fatal crash summary" from last year.

Murphy also said the department doesn't comment on pending litigation.

LULAC and the Barajas family are looking to introduce the Daniel Barajas Federal Interstate Safe Traveler Act in Congress to prevent discriminatory practices during law enforcement interactions with motorists on federal highways and strengthen the legal framework for accountability.

So far, no member of Congress has signed on to sponsor the potential bill, Garcia said.

"If you're driving on a federal highway and you're subject to this kind of treatment, there has to be more safeguards," Raquel said. "It would be amazing if we could get this passed."

More than a year after this death, the Barajas sisters said the family misses Daniel's laugh and his cooking. They sometimes listen to Daniel's favorite House music DJs to feel closer to him.

"The grief alone is paralyzing and it takes every ounce of energy sometimes to just get up in the morning," the Barajas sisters said. "If this can happen to our family, it really can happen to anybody."

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Former Vice President Mike Pence. Drew Angerer via Getty Images

Die-hard Trump supporters are threatening to kill former Vice President Mike Pence  again.

The calls for violence were made on "The Donald," a popular internet forum for Trump supporters.

"Everyone gets a swing at the abdomen. Stray dogs clean up the mess," said one person on the forum.

It's been more than two years since supporters of former President Donald Trump chanted 'hang Mike Pence' during the Capitol riot. But when Trump was indicted this week, those violent calls to kill Pence rang out again  this time on "The Donald," a popular extremist pro-Trump internet forum.

One of the top threads on the forum centered on Pence's Tuesday tweet about Trump's latest indictment. In that tweet, Pence took a swipe at Trump, and argued that "anyone who puts himself over the Constitution should never be President of the United States."

In response, the commentators on "The Donald" went wild, floating renewed  and explicit  death threats against Pence.

"He knows he's not going to get elected. His only goal is to take any votes away that he possibly can. He got his ticket into the club when he got that challenge coin after they certified the fraudulent election at 1am on January 7th," one person wrote on the thread. "I want to watch his toes dangle in the breeze."

"I favor the Day of the Axe. Everyone gets a swing at the abdomen. Stray dogs clean up the mess," wrote another person.

"The Donald" is best known as a hub for Trump fans and extremists, who often use it to spout violent rhetoric against the former President's rivals. The online forum was initially hosted on Reddit before it was banned from the platform in June 2020. According to the final report on the Capitol riot by the House January 6 committee, The Donald forum users "openly discussed surrounding and occupying the U.S. Capitol."

The spike in calls for violence against Pence came after Trump was indicted on Tuesday. On Thursday, Trump was arraigned at a courthouse in Washington, D.C., and pleaded not guilty to four criminal charges in relation to the Capitol riot.

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Pence, for his part, has had a strained relationship with Trump ever since he defied Trump, and certified the 2020 vote. Pence's life was also in danger on January 6, 2021, when pro-Trump rioters storming the Capitol almost got to him, per The Washington Post.

A representative for Pence did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider sent outside regular business hours.

Read the original article on Business Insider
For faster integration of artificial intelligence across the national security enterprise, government and innovation leaders should keep in mind the advice of retired Marine General Jim Mattis: Operations only move at the speed of trust.

To build the trust needed for faster adoption of AI  and development of more exquisite tools  the Defense Department and the innovation community should resist the hype and pressure to think big. Instead, they should think small  at least, at first.

By focusing on practical applications of reliable AI, they should embrace known technologies to bridge known gaps in the military and the defense industrial base. This will not only give significant, near-term advantages at a fraught moment for global security, it will also help them get the reps in with AI. Focused collaborations on distinct problems pave the pathway for greater access between builders and users  essential for iterating and refining these tools  all of which contributes to trust-building.

When it comes to integrating AI into DoD, small is fast, fast is big. By demonstrating trustworthiness in small matters, AI can prove itself worthy of greater ones.

The root of mistrust: hallucination

Everyone in the defense enterprise feels the need for speed in incorporating AI into national security. Various important projects are underway, from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumers Safe Innovation Framework for AI Policy , to the military services efforts, like Air Force Secretary Frank Kendalls directive that his services scientific advisory board explore applications of generative AI.

But there is equally broad  and valid  concern about reliability, especially regarding generative AI like ChatGPT and similar tools. On these, Kendall cautioned that he saw only limited utility in that type of AI for the military, that too often these assets were not reliable in terms of the truthfulness.

Large Language Model (LLM) hallucinations  when models fill in gaps in what they know  is a key challenge and the biggest obstacle to building trust at the macro level.

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Grounding as antidote for hallucination

Industry is working solutions to hallucinations, and the incentives are such that I have no doubt there will be a number available soon. At Primer, we tackle it by grounding our models to customer data. In essence, a users query only returns relevant information from their source of truth.

Instead of predicting next words, a grounded system first retrieves relevant information from a trusted system of record, then generates a prompt for the generative model. That prompt instructs the model to answer the users question based only on the retrieved information and only if possible. Otherwise, the model answers not enough information.

(Grounding helps us act in accord with DoDs ethical principles for AI, especially reliability.)

Grounding is no silver bullet  the quality of the models answers are only as good as the data provided  but the resultant difficulties are a far better understood engineering problem. Further, grounding works especially well when leveraging LLMs against highly focused, discrete problem sets.

And here is the opening for both greater capability faster and trust-building.

What does trusted AI look like?

For a better sense of building trust at the microlevel, the case of one of our partners, the Joint Interagency Task Force South is instructive. Its mission: interdicting drug and human trafficking. Its challenge: an overwhelming amount of high volume, messy disparate data.

To augment human decision-making, we helped install advanced AI tools on classified systems within hours to let watch floor analysts rapidly extract information and discover connections of potential drug and human trafficking incidents captured in a self-generating knowledge base. Analysts or sailors no longer have to sift thousands of reports manually; they can hone in on the handful most likely to yield results.

There are far wider applications, however. Consider:

- In maintenance, delivering cost-savings by ensuring warehouses are stocked with the precise number and type of parts and at the optimum time. The benefits are obvious  for airmen at Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii or the plant manager at the manufacturing facility in Troy, Alabama.

- In mission planning, buying back thousands of hours for pilots and flight crews by automating flight planning. Time bought back compounds like interest.

- In human performance, automating functions to deliver ground truth on the health and readiness of the force, from the front line to the production line, down to the level of individual infantrymen and welders.

- In intelligence, summarizing data and reducing time to insight from hours to minutes, again using grounding to assist in generating reports.

These are just a handful of use cases, but they can happen right now. Achieving efficiencies like this at scale across DoD can deliver greater capability and the opportunity for trust-building that begins a virtuous cycle  developing yet more exquisite tools, applying and iterating for faster capability, more trust. Repeat.

The centrality of iteration

I have spent a career rolling out emerging tech in legacy environments and building intuitive AIs for risk-averse customers  nearly 30 years of it.

My number one take-away is this: you simply must be able to access and iterate with your client. The innovation community operates via commercial iterative cycles, engaging thousands of customers to rapidly get data points to refine and go to market. Controlled trials, test cases, scaling  it all happens fast.

This simply isnt the case with DoD. Conducting valid, low-risk experiments is ponderously slow. The audience is incredibly narrow. Too often, the access isnt there, which means no iteration.

On the commercial side, we get plenty of chances to iterate and improve. On the defense side, we get too few. As with any competition, including war, the more reps you can get in before the event begins, the better.

Changing Americas AI trajectory

Integration of AI isnt happening fast enough; theres too little trust. The consequence is Americas pace of adoption is still far behind the pace of innovation, far behind our adversaries.

It is not for me to warn the defense community of the consequences of losing the AI arms race. It is very much for me, and other innovators like me, to offer avenues to a future different from the one pointed at by our current trajectory.

We dont need magic right now. We need trusted, practical AI that enables DoD and the intelligence community to harness every available efficiency and advantage. By starting small and gaining trust through proven capabilities, we can go bigger, faster.

But we can only move at the speed of trust.

Small is fast, fast is big.

Sean Moriarty is CEO of Primer Technologies, an AI defense company. From 2005 to 2009 he served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Ticketmaster.
Hussein Alinzi, 59, a delivery driver, attacked the teenager after dropping her off at school early and discovering the gates were still locked - Marios Forshow/Cavendish Press

A father who battered his 15-year-old daughter with an iron bar after accusing her of secretly planning to meet a boy on the morning of her GCSE English exam has been spared jail.

Hussein Alinzi, 59, a delivery driver, attacked the teenager after dropping her off at school early and discovering the gates were still locked.

The father of seven berated her for wearing makeup and accused her of secretly plotting to meet a boy ahead of her exam.

It later emerged she was only wearing makeup to cover bruises sustained in previous attacks by her father.

The violent assault took place outside Whalley Range High School in Manchester - Sean Wilton/Cavendish Press

She was found to be suffering from 14 different injuries, including facial bruising and even a bite mark to her left temple.

The victim revealed that she had been subjected to two years of bullying and mistreatment at the hands of her father, who had also threatened to run her over and kill her.

But Alinzi was spared jail when his daughter appealed to the judge at Manchester Crown Court to show leniency.

The court heard how the violent assault took place outside Whalley Range High School, in Manchester, on June 22 last year, the day the victim had been due to sit her GCSE English exam.

Shouted at for wearing make-up

Wayne Jackson, prosecuting, said: The defendant drove her to school and arrived at the gates at 7.30am, only to find they were closed.

The defendant then began to shout at his daughter and accused her of wanting to come to school early, so she could meet a boy.

He then shouted at her for wearing makeup when in fact her mother asked her to cover up her facial bruises with makeup following previous incidents.

He then pulled out a metal bar, measuring 30cm in length, from underneath the car seat and struck his daughter a number of times to the arm and head whilst continuing to shout at her.

Mr Jackson went on: There was also evidence of him biting her on her left temple. After briefly losing consciousness, she came around and attended school to sit her English exam.

However, she felt dizzy and nauseous, was removed from the GCSE English exam she was taking and was taken to A&E.

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The court also heard how the victim had been prevented from going to the park and was only allowed to have female friends.

The prosecutor explained: She admitted the attacks had been going on for two years and that this was the first time she has chosen to speak up about it.

She said did not sleep through fear. She admitted her father has anger issues and that her mother and other families are scared of him. She also said that despite all this, she is now used to it.

Alinzi was arrested on the day after the attack and provided a no-comment interview, but later admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

At his sentencing hearing, the victim gave a statement asking the judge to spare him an immediate prison sentence.

She said: When my father was arrested, I felt safe that he was not here, but sad that he was not home.

My mum struggles to look after my younger brother and I felt guilty that I brought shame on my family.

I love my dad and I can see that his attitude has now changed. This has made me realise how people can actually change.

Since he has not been living with us, I have become more independent. My brother needs to live with his dad, and he needs him back.

I actually feel happy as all this has changed him, it has made him realise what he can and cant do.

You behaved like a monster

Sentencing Alinzi, Recorder Peter Wright KC said: Youre the father of a big family of which there ought to be pride rather than shame, but that shame has been brought on your family by your conduct.

You have not behaved like a father should to his children, you behaved like a monster to them. She should have been expected to be loved and protected by you, not assaulted and abused.

What person takes a metal rod to strike their child? It is one who has no respect for them. Even if it had been true that she had been lying to you, that is of course no excuse for what you did.

Your conduct was unforgivable and indicates your will for a combination of fear and violence This is not acceptable, it is inexcusable and shameful.

But the judge said his daughters statement suggested there was the prospect of reconciliation between the pair and suspended his eight-month prison sentence for 18 months.

Alinzi was also ordered to complete 80 hours of unpaid work and 25 rehabilitation activity days.

Commenting on the sentencing, Sophie Francis-Cansfield, head of external affairs at Womens Aid, said: This case of child abuse continues to demonstrate the deeply misogynistic views that are still prevalent in our society, especially when it comes to placing the blame for the abuse on the survivor.

As pointed out by the judge, the child bears no responsibility for the actions of her father, with the blame for his violent actions lying with him, and him alone.

It is disappointing to see such lenient sentencing, especially when considered alongside a pre-existing history of abuse.

We know from our experience of working with survivors that the criminal justice system can often fail and create further harm for women and children.

As demonstrated in this case, there remain serious questions with childrens social care and court professionals understanding of abuse and its impact on children.

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A father drowned after diving into a New Jersey river to save three of his children, authorities say.

Rolando Camarillo-Cholula, 42, went into the Millstone River in Franklin Township at about 2.15pm EST on Wednesday after the three children aged 8, 11 and 13 got into trouble in the water, police said.

The father-of-six managed to pull the children to shallow water, but struggled to maintain his balance and fell into the river, the Franlin Township Police Department said in a statement.

Emergency responders searched the waterway for hours, and eventually found his body at approximately 5.30pm.

Mr Camarillo-Cholula was a hardworking family man who had recently started his own construction business and bought his first home, his niece Isaura Lopez wrote on a GoFundme page.

My uncle, Rolando, was a true hero who spent his life in service of his family up to the very moment where he rescued his children after they fell into water.

Rolando Camarillo-Cholula, 42, drowned in Franklin Township, New Jersey, after going to the aid of his three children (GoFundme)

He had taken the day off work after learning his children were in low spirits, and had taken them out for breakfast before going to Millstone River in Somerset County.

Grieving son Kevin Camarillo told ABC7 his father would put others first before himself, he would risk his life.

Local authorities warned residents that New Jersey waterways can contain hidden dangers such as currents and uneven depths.

The GoFundme page, set up to raise funds for his childrens education, had received more than $15,000 on Friday.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued a record fine of nearly $300 million for an illegal auto warranty scam robocall operation, the agency said Thursday.

The operation involved an international network of companies that violated federal statutes and the FCCs regulations during a three-month span in 2021 when they made more than 5 billion robocalls to more than 500 million phone numbers, according to the agencys announcement.

The operation violated a number of regulations, including making pre-recorded voice calls to mobile phones without having prior express consent, placing telemarketing calls without written consent, dialing numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry, and failing to identify a caller at the start of the message, the FCC said.

The calls also used misleading caller ID to prompt consumers to answer, which violated spoofing laws, according to the agency.

The operation, though, was ongoing even earlier, stretching back to 2018, the FCC said. Two of the central players, Roy M. Cox and Aaron Michael Jones, were under lifetime bans against making telemarketing calls after lawsuits by the Federal Trade Commission and the state of Texas.

At one point, it seemed like these calls were everywhere. They were more than just a nuisance. Thats because this scheme flooding our lines marketing fake car warranties was part of a scam to gain access to our personal and financial information. So the Federal Communications Commission kicked into high gear, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement.

The fine comes after the FCC last year directed all U.S.-based voice service providers to stop carrying traffic associated with certain members in the enterprise, dropping illegal auto warranty robocalls by 99 percent, according to the agency.

Enforcement action was taken in coordination with the Ohio attorney generals office, which sued several entities and individuals associated with the scheme.

The FCC also announced new robocall investigation partnerships Thursday with the attorneys general of Hawaii and New Mexico. With the two new signatories, 46 states, as well as Washington, D.C., and Guam, have signed an agreement to join with the FCCs Enforcement Bureau to share evidence and coordinate interventions to combat robocalls.

We know the scam artists behind these calls are relentless  but we are coming for them and wont stop until we get this junk off the line, Rosenworcel said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
(Reuters) -The U.S. health regulator rejected Mesoblast's cell therapy for children under 12 years of age for treating a type of complication that occurs after a stem cell or bone marrow transplant, sending its Australia-listed shares crashing about 58% on Friday.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) required more data to support marketing approval for the company's lead product remestemcel-L, Mesoblast said in a statement on Thursday.

Mesoblast shares slumped as much as 58.3% when they opened in Sydney, before marginally paring some losses to trade down 54.8% at A$0.49 by 0416 GMT.

The rejection is a blow to Mesoblast's hopes for a potential launch of the therapy, especially after its fundraising efforts over the last two years.

The drug developer was seeking the FDA's approval for a cell therapy to treat children with a type of graft versus host disease (GvHD), whose symptoms did not respond to standard steroid therapy or developed recurrence while continuing treatment.

There are no approved therapies in children for the condition in which the donor's bone marrow or stem cells attack the recipient.

(Reporting by Pratik Jain, Sriparna Roy and Shivani Tanna in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Juby Babu; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri, Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Rashmi Aich)
Ukraine has approximately 60,000 women serving in its armed forces. Gian Marco Benedetto/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

A Ukrainian female sniper says a man might hesitate to shoot the enemy, but she would never.

That might be part of why female snipers have been well-regarded in history, she told the BBC.

Evgeniya Emerald served on the frontlines, earning the label "Punisher" from Russian media.

A female Ukrainian sniper says women sharpshooters have an edge in combat because their male counterparts might hesitate to shoot the enemy, whereas she would have no such qualms.

"If a man hesitates whether to make a shot or not, a woman will never," Evgeniya Emerald told the BBC's Olga Malchevska.

She was speaking about how some female snipers have been remembered in history as deadly operators since World War II, as part of a wide-ranging piece on the experiences of women on Ukraine's frontlines.

Evgeniya, 31, joined the Ukrainian army in 2022 and served on the frontlines, the BBC reported. She's been called a "Punisher" and "Nazi" in reports by Russian media.

"I came to my commander and I asked him: 'What can I do best?'" Evgeniya told the BBC. "He said: 'You will be a sniper.'"

The sniper owned a jewelry business before Russia's invasion, and recently married a fellow Ukrainian soldier on the frontlines. On Instagram, she has 71,000 followers and says her callsign is Joan of Arc.

Speaking to the BBC, Evgeniya described the life of a sniper as a "personal hell," because she must view the horrors of war more closely through her scope.

Evgeniya has at least two children  a daughter, 10, from a previous relationship and another three-month-old daughter with her current husband. She left active service in September due to her pregnancy, per the Institute for War and Peace Reporting.

The sniper told the outlet that she was nine when she fired her first gun, and hit five targets with five rounds.

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"Dad wanted a boy very much, and a girl was born. As he later said, I was like three boys altogether to him," she said.

Evgeniya did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider sent outside regular business hours.

Approximately 60,000 women serve in Ukraine's armed forces, taking positions ranging from mortar commanders to the country's deputy defense minister.

Read the original article on Business Insider
A federal grand jury is investigating allegations of bid-rigging involving Gov. Ron DeSantis Department of Education, charter school operators and the control of a small North Florida school district.

Federal authorities issued a subpoena to the Jefferson County School District in June seeking communications between district officials, charter school lobbyists and former top officials in DeSantis education department.

It also seeks records relating to the departments attempt to steer a multimillion-dollar contract to a politically connected company with ties to DeSantis former education commissioner, Richard Corcoran. The contract would have been funded by federal coronavirus relief dollars.

The subpoena, obtained by the Herald/Times in a public records request, was issued by a federal prosecutor in Gainesville. The subpoena requests the records be sent to the U.S. Department of Educations Office of Inspector General in Pembroke Pines.

A spokesperson for the federal education departments Office of Inspector General said the office does not confirm or deny investigative activity.

READ MORE: Dept. of Education bid process goes awry. Insiders try to compete with favored vendor

The federal inquiry comes a year and a half after the Herald/Times reported on the bid-rigging allegations involving Jefferson Countys school district, which became the first, and only, district to be privatized by the state.

Somerset took over

Control of the small three-school district near Tallahassee was turned over to private charter school operator Somerset Academy Inc., in 2017. The five-year contract was scheduled to end in 2022, when the school board would resume control.

But under Corcorans leadership, the Department of Education decided in 2021 it would hire consultants for up to three years to help the districts transition, and it would use $4 million in federal coronavirus relief dollars assigned to the district to pay for it.

School district officials were against the plan, arguing that its annual budget was only $8.5 million, so it couldnt afford to spend $4 million on consultants. When the state Department of Education solicited offers to help the district, bidding was open for only a week. Only one qualified company responded: MGT Consulting, led by Trey Traviesa, a former GOP state representative from Tampa with ties to Corcoran.

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Procurements are supposed to be free of favoritism. But the Herald/Times found that on Nov. 1, 2021, a week before the procurement was announced, top education officials were already meeting with Traviesa, top charter school lobbyists and Jefferson County officials about the procurement.

MGT was ultimately never hired. The Department of Education restarted the bidding after two senior department officials  former K-12 chancellor Jacob Oliva and former Vice Chancellor for Strategic Development Melissa Ramsey  and a member of the State Board of Education created their own company and filed a competing bid. Ultimately, the plan to spend the money on consultants was dropped.

Oliva is now Arkansas Department of Education secretary.

The Florida Department of Educations inspector general investigated Ramsey and Olivas bid for potential conflicts of interest, but never addressed any apparent irregularities with MGTs bid.

The federal subpoena, dated June 12, does not mention Corcoran. But it names Oliva, Ramsey and Suzanne Pridgeon, the state Department of Educations deputy commissioner for finance and operations.

South Floridas connections

The subpoena also requests text messages, emails and other communications between Traviesa, MGT Consulting, Jefferson County schools Superintendent Eydie Tricquet, representatives of Somerset Academy Inc, and Ralph Arza, a prominent charter school lobbyist and longtime Corcoran ally. At the time that Somerset was operating the districts schools, Arza had four relatives working for the company in Jefferson County.

Prior to working as a lobbyist, Arza, a Republican from Hialeah, served in the Florida Legislature. He resigned his post in 2006 after he used racial slurs during a drunken tirade.

Somerset Academy Inc. is a nonprofit charter school management organization based in Pembroke Pines. It offers K-12 educational program in Arizona, Florida, Nevada, Texas and Spain. And it partners with Academica, a for-profit education management organization.

The subpoena seeks records relating to the procurement, along with records of the Nov. 1 meeting and other meetings in 2021 between Arza, school district officials and Department of Education officials.

The Florida Department of Education and DeSantis office did not immediately respond to emails sent Friday afternoon seeking comment. After the Herald/Times reported the allegations last year, the governors office said Chief Inspector General Melinda Miguel would review how the Department of Education and its inspector general handled the bid for the multimillion-dollar contract. The state has never produced the results.

Corcoran declined to comment. He is now serving as interim president of New College of Florida, a public liberal arts school in Sarasota County that DeSantis and political appointees are trying to turn into a beacon of conservatism.

McClatchy DC reporter Michael Wilner contributed to this report.
A federal judge has asked Rudy Giuliani to clarify his seemingly incongruous and certainly puzzling caveats in a recent filing in which he appears to admit he made false and defamatory statements about two Georgia election workers in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election.

But Mr Giuliani and his attorney have argued that the extremely carefully worded filing  which attempts to move the case along to avoid revealing more evidence  is not an admission.

He concedes solely for the purposes of this litigation that he made false statements about Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss that carry meaning that is defamatory per se, according to the filing on 26 July.

US District Judge Beryl Howell, however, wants to know precisely what hes admitting to.

In their testimony to the House select committee investigating the events surrounding the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, Ms Freeman and Ms Moss revealed the depth of abuse they endured, forcing them from their jobs and making them feel unsafe after the former president and Mr Giuliani promoted debunked conspiracy theories involving them.

Those claims also are included in a federal indictment accusing Donald Trump of three criminal conspiracies and obstruction surrounding his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. One of the six unnamed co-conspirators in the indictment is believed to be Mr Giuliani.

During a committee hearing in Georgias House of Representatives on 10 December 2020, Mr Giuliani baselessly accused the women of quite obviously surreptitiously passing around USB ports as if they are vials of heroin or cocaine and suggested that they were criminals whose places of work, their homes, should have been searched for evidence of ballots, for evidence of USB ports, for evidence of voter fraud, according to the indictment. Prosecutors added that women received numerous death threats after the hearing.

They later filed a defamation suit against Mr Giuliani as well as right-wing outlet One American News Network, which settled with the women last year.

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A report from Georgias State Election Board following a year-long investigation also dismissed bogus claims of election fraud and cleared the allegations against the women.

The fraud claims were unsubstantiated and found to have no merit, the investigation concluded.

A late-night federal court filing from Mr Giulianis attorneys on 25 July states that he concedes solely for the purposes of this litigation that he made false statements about Ms Freeman and Ms Moss, published those statements to third parties, and that they carry meaning that is defamatory per se.

The filing also concedes that his statements meet the factual elements of liability for their claims that amounted to intentional infliction of emotional distress.

In a video after the filing, he added: I have not admitted that I lied, at any point. I havent.

Judge Howells latest filing orders Mr Giuliani to try again without the legalese.

Given the seemingly incongruous and certainly puzzling caveats contained in the Giuliani Stipulation, plaintiffs counsel recounts efforts to obtain clarification from defendant Giulianis counsel, the order states.

He must submit another filing by 8 August that concedes all factual allegations of the case against him as to his liability for plaintiffs defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and civil conspiracy claims, and his liability as to plaintiffs claim for punitive damages.

The judge also notes that Mr Giuliani may concede that entry of default judgment on liability is appropriate in this case.

Mr Giuliani must appear in court on 15 August if he does not file another stipulation.

The Independent has requested comment from a spokesperson for Mr Giuliani.
FILE - In this Thursday, Aug. 5, 2021 file photo, Aaron Larry Bowman demonstrates how he tried to block blows during a beating by a Louisiana State trooper as he discusses the incident during an interview at his attorney's office in Monroe, La. On Thursday, Sept. 23, 2021, a grand jury indicted Jacob Brown for the 2019 beating following a traffic stop that left Bowman with a broken jaw, broken ribs and a gash to his head. The former trooper was charged with one count of count of deprivation of rights under color of law, federal prosecutors said. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

FILE - In this Thursday, Aug. 5, 2021 file photo, Aaron Larry Bowman demonstrates how he tried to block blows during a beating by a Louisiana State trooper as he discusses the incident during an interview at his attorney's office in Monroe, La. On Thursday, Sept. 23, 2021, a grand jury indicted Jacob Brown for the 2019 beating following a traffic stop that left Bowman with a broken jaw, broken ribs and a gash to his head. The former trooper was charged with one count of count of deprivation of rights under color of law, federal prosecutors said. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

A federal jury in Louisiana on Wednesday acquitted a white state trooper charged with violating the civil rights of a Black motorist despite body-camera footage that showed the officer pummeling the man 18 times with a flashlight.

The case of Jacob Brown was the first to emerge from a series of FBI investigations into troopers beatings of Black men during traffic stops in Louisiana and underscored the challenges prosecutors face convicting law enforcement officials accused of using excessive force.

After a three-day trial in Monroe, jurors found Brown not guilty of depriving Aaron Bowman of his civil rights during a 2019 beating that left Bowman with a broken jaw, broken ribs and a gash to his head.

Brown, 33, who defended the blows to investigators as  pain compliance, would have faced up to a decade in federal prison if convicted.

Browns defense attorney, Scott Wolleson, told The Associated Press he was grateful for the verdict. The men and women of the jury recognized the risks law enforcement officers like Jacob Brown face on our behalf every day, he said.

Bowmans attorney, Ron Haley, said the acquittal shows its incredibly hard to prove a civil rights violation in federal court. He added that the attack had fundamentally changed Bowmans life.

He was low-hanging fruit for Jacob Brown, Haley said.

The acquittal comes as federal prosecutors are still scrutinizing other Louisiana state troopers caught on body-camera video punching, stunning and dragging another Black motorist, Ronald Greene, before he died in their custody on a rural roadside. That federal probe is also examining whether police brass obstructed justice to protect the troopers who beat Greene following a high-speed chase.

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Body-camera footage of both the Bowman and Greene beatings, which took place less than three weeks and 20 miles apart, remained under wraps before the AP obtained and published the videos in 2021. The cases were among a dozen highlighted in an AP investigation that revealed a pattern of troopers and their bosses ignoring or concealing evidence of beatings, deflecting blame and impeding efforts to root out misconduct.

State police didnt investigate the Bowman attack until 536 days after it occurred and only did so weeks after Bowman brought a civil lawsuit. It ultimately determined Brown engaged in excessive and unjustifiable actions, failed to report the use of force to his supervisors and intentionally mislabeled his body-camera video.

The AP found Brown, who patrolled in northern Louisiana, was involved in 23 use-of-force incidents between 2015 and his 2021 resignation  19 of which targeted Black people. Brown still faces state charges in the violent arrest of yet another Black motorist, a case in which he boasted in a group chat with other troopers that it warms my heart knowing we could educate that young man.

Brown is the son of Bob Brown, a longtime trooper who oversaw statewide criminal investigations and, before retiring, was the agencys chief of staff. The elder Brown rose to the agencys second in command despite being reprimanded years earlier for calling Black colleagues the n-word and hanging a Confederate flag in his office.

In the wake of the APs reporting, the U.S. Justice Department last year opened a sweeping civil rights investigation into the state police that remains ongoing.

On the night that Bowman was pulled over for improper lane usage, Brown came upon the scene after deputies had forcibly removed Bowman from his vehicle and taken him to the ground in the driveaway of his Monroe home. Video and police records show he beat Bowman 18 times with a flashlight in 24 seconds.

Im not resisting! Im not resisting! Bowman can be heard screaming between blows.

U.S. Attorney Brandon Brown, who is not related to Jacob Brown, told AP he was proud of the 48-year-old Bowman for having the courage to tell his story.

These cases are arguably the toughest that we investigate and prosecute, he said. We believe that this victims civil rights were violated. Unfortunately for us the jury didnt agree, and well have to respect their decision.
From the beginning of Maggie Copeland's scheduled 15-day incarceration May 5, 2022, at the Richland County Jail, she was experiencing obvious signs of drug withdrawal, but a lawsuit filed in federal court Friday afternoon alleges her condition was met with "deliberate indifference" by those in charge who refused to provide necessary medical care even though she told them she was a heroin addict.

Six days later, Copeland, 29, of Mansfield, was found dead in a cell at the jail.

The timeline and details of Copeland's tragic death are outlined in the 23-page federal lawsuit filed Friday by Marion attorneys for Copeland's father, Jon Copeland, against Richland County Sheriff J. Steve Sheldon, Advanced Correctional Healthcare Inc. and numerous other defendants.

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court, Northern District of Ohio, Eastern Division in Cleveland.

Maggie J. Copeland, 29, of Mansfield, is seen unresponsive as she is taken on a gurney from the Richland County Jail on May 11, 2022 in this jail security footage. She was pronounced dead less than a half hour later at OhioHealth Mansfield Hospital.

Lawsuit alleges jail staff failed to treat withdrawal symptoms

During the book-in process, a mental health referral was made but no assessment was done, the lawsuit asserts.

Those in charge are alleged to have failed to complete paperwork, and allegedly noted "medical intake refused" and "medical history unknown" while Copeland's medical history was not "unknown" and was on file with the jail from prior incarcerations, the lawsuit alleges, but jail personnel failed to retrieve her records.

Copeland continued to experience serious withdrawal symptoms including vomiting, defecating, acting out, yelling and an increased inability to care for herself, the lawsuit says.

Maggie Copeland

Jail officials witnessed her strange actions and her serious medical condition yet failed to provide Copeland with the necessary and appropriate medical care, according to the lawsuit.

Copeland was found unresponsive at 7:08 a.m. May 11, 2022, lying naked with her hair cut off, with vomit coming out of her mouth in a cell at the Richland County Jail and was pronounced dead at 34 minutes later at OhioHealth Mansfield Hospital.

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Jail officials' conduct caused Copeland's death, lawsuit claims

The lawsuit alleges that jail officials' conduct was the cause of the Mansfield woman's death.

Named as defendants in the lawsuit are the Richland County Board of Commissioners; Sheriff J. Steve Sheldon; Capt. Chris Blunk, the jail's administrator; Chuka D. Onyeneke M.D., jail medical director and jail physician; Advanced Correctional Healthcare Inc. of Franklin, Tennessee; four of the agency's licensed practical nurses, and unnamed sheriff's deputies.

Defendants Sheldon, Onyeneke, Blunk and Deputy Christy Dorsey were sued individually and in his or her official capacity.

"The loss of my daughter and the way it happened still has me reeling," Copeland's father, Jon Copeland, told the News Journal on Friday.

"The mental pain and anguish that I feel hasn't lessened over the past year. I haven't been able to really begin the healing process, and I don't think that I'll ever be the same. Maggie (Greta to me), wasn't just my daughter. She was a mother. Her sense of humor was infectious. She had a charisma about her that was undeniable. She was my buddy and my favorite thing about her was just talking with her," her father said in an email.

He said he is raising Copeland's son.

Jon Copeland said he brought the action as administrator of his daughter's estate to secure fair compensation and hopefully encourage defendants to provide appropriate treatment for future inmates suffering from drug and alcohol addiction, according to the lawsuit.

The suit claims that jail staff and nurses failed to provide adequate medical care and failed to treat Copeland for drug withdrawal. "Defendants' actions as described in this complaint were without probable cause, unjustified, objectively unreasonable and constitute deliberate indifference," the complaint says.

'Deliberate indifference' applied as legal standard

Courts apply the deliberate indifference standard to determine if a professional has violated an inmate's civil rights. Deliberate indifference occurs when a professional knows of and disregards an excessive risk to an inmate's health or safety, according to the U.S. Legal Forms website.

The complaint further alleges that Copeland was deprived of her rights, privileges and immunities secured by the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, including but not limited to the right to adequate medical care as a pretrial detainee and as a prisoner with a right to be free of cruel and unusual punishment.

"Maggie Copeland vomited for four and a half days, experienced a seizure, could not eat and displayed other obvious signs of medical distress before she died," the lawsuit alleges.

Copeland had been in a cell in the medical unit of the Richland County Jail, Sheriff Sheldon said in a news release after her death.

Marion attorneys say Copeland's civil rights were violated

"The civil rights violations committed against Maggie Copeland by the Richland County Jail and Advanced Correctional Healthcare tragically caused her death, which should enrage our society and her community," Rocky Ratliff, of Ratliff Law Offices in Marion, told the News Journal. He is representing Jon Copeland in the federal lawsuit.

Ratliff said Richland County should have done a better job of vetting Advances Correctional Healthcare, saying a Google search of ACH could have prevented Maggie's death.

"This Google search provides a laundry list of stories and cases that detail a history of lawsuits and civil rights violations related to the mistreatment and maltreatment of inmates under ACH care, including a 2016 'CBS Evening News' story outlining preventable inmate deaths. Our firm is not one full of computer experts, but our simple search located at least 30 instances of mistreatment by ACH, of which 23 result in inmates' deaths," Ratliff said.

The sheriff did not immediately provide a comment on the lawsuit.

Allegations detailed in the complaint

Copeland was arrested on Feb. 10, 2022, when a warrant was issued by the Mansfield Municipal Court for her failure to appear for probation. She was on probation for her conviction of possession of drug abuse instruments, a misdemeanor of the first degree, the lawsuit said.

Maggie J. Copeland, 29, of Mansfield, is seen being transported from the jail by emergency squad to OhioHealth Mansfield Hospital on May 11, 2022. The squad left the jail at 7:21 a.m. and Copeland was pronounced dead at 7:42 a.m.

After arriving at the jail to begin her 15-day sentence May 5, Copeland told two deputies and a nurse during her intake screening that she was a heroin addict who "used approximately two grams of heroin daily and that she used two grams of heroin that morning and that she would experience withdrawals from heroin," according to the lawsuit.

Copeland was taken to a cell with two other inmates. On May 6, she was interviewed by nurse Madison Conrad Hogie, LPN, concerning her health and Hogie referred Copeland to mental health because of drugs, noting that she used heroin daily, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit claims Copeland was seen by a licensed social worker, but no mental health exam took place and no treatment or plan was instituted.

Withdrawal protocol was started by jail personnel on May 8, she was prescribed medication by the doctor and she was moved to a medical cell "due to withdrawals," the lawsuit said.

On that same date, a urine test was conducted on Copeland and she tested positive for cocaine, morphine, amphetamine, methamphetamine and methadone. Jail records show Copeland was started on the "medication protocol for withdrawal" 12 hours before Dr. Chuka D. Onyeneke was notified and placed the order, the lawsuit said.

Withdrawal symptoms worsen

The civil suit said a nurse noted on May 9 that Copeland continued to scream randomly, hit the cell door, throw food through the food flap when staff opened it, and that protocol medications were taken with difficulty. On May 10, her physical and mental health continued to worsen, the lawsuit states.

Copeland's hair was very long, below her waist, and was a source of pride for her, the lawsuit said. Consequently Copeland would never knowingly or willingly ask someone to shave her head.

On May 8, Copeland had been diagnosed with lice, the lawsuit says. At 11:55 p.m. May 10, while she was in a medical cell in complete drug withdrawal, nurse Hogie claimed that Copeland requested to have her hair cut off, according to the suit.

The nurse cut all of Copeland's hair off, and cleaned her and her cell because she was vomiting. Copeland was then left unattended. The nurses were supposed to check on Copeland at least every hour. But from the time the nurse cut Copeland's hair at 11:55 p.m. May 10 until Copeland was found unresponsive at 7:08 the next morning, nurse Hogie only went into Copeland's cell once, at 4:36 a.m. May 11, for about 10 seconds, the lawsuit states.

The nurse filed a false report that she checked on Copeland every hour after midnight when truthfully, the nurse checked on her only once, at 4:36 a.m., the suit says.

Maggie Copeland is observed not breathing

At 7:07 a.m. May 11, a corrections officer was collecting food trays from Copeland's medical cell and noticed Copeland had not eaten anything from the food tray. The officer could see Copeland was covered with a blanket, naked, with vomit coming from her mouth and the officer could not see her breathing, the lawsuit said.

The corrections officer called a nurse who checked Copeland's pulse and could not get a pulse and an emergency squad was called. CPR was started but Copeland was unresponsive. The squad left the jail at 7:21 a.m. and Copeland was pronounced dead 21 minutes later at the hospital.

The lawsuit alleges the defendants, in order to cover up their misconduct, jointly agreed and/or conspired with one another to prepare and file false, misleading, inaccurate and incomplete official reports and give false, incomplete and misleading versions of events to their superiors and the public.

Copeland was never personally examined by or assessed by Onyeneke or any other physician at the jail during the time she was in the jail suffering from drug withdrawal, the suit states.

Copeland's cause of death was listed as dehydration with renal failure, according to her autopsy from the Montgomery County Medical Examiner's Office. The death is contributed to by drug abuse, the report says. Copeland's autopsy said she had contusions of the left upper and lower extremities and abrasions of the knees, left leg, right hand and right wrist, per the autopsy report, which the News Journal obtained via a public records request.

The plaintiff is demanding a jury trial and requests that the court grant relief including award of damages to plaintiff against all the defendants, jointly and severally; award punitive damages against all defendants, award attorney fees, and award further relief as the court deems appropriate.

Father says he was 'making headway' with Copeland

"She made sense even though her world was tortured from childhood. I was making headway with her before her death. She was a drug addict and I loved her dearly. She'd lost her mother in December of 2021 and her partner in January of 2022. She was heartbroken. I got to spend the last two months with her, helping her to detox before she was arrested in Mansfield," Copeland said in an email.

"I'd asked her to get her jail time out of the way and then rehab. Her goal was to get clean and get back into her son's life. She told me, 'Dad, I don't mind doing jail time, but I wish it could be anywhere but Richland County. It's really that bad in there.' I thought she would be safe once she was there. I was so very wrong and I'll wear the guilt of asking her to go back to Mansfield for the rest of my life. My grandson and I are both struggling in dealing with this loss. We are both in therapy and (Greta's son) is doing better. I'm not so good due to all of this."

lwhitmir@gannett.com

419-521-7223

Twitter: @LWhitmir

This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Federal lawsuit filed over 2022 jail death of Maggie J. Copeland, 29
The federal government has rejected a plan from Alabama environmental regulators to dispose of toxic waste from coal-fired power plants.

On Thursday, the EPA proposed denying a coal ash waste management permit submitted by the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM).

This is the first time the EPA has rejected a plan from ADEM, specifically, a move that could have implications for to state agencies that manage coal ash in Georgia.

This is a significant milestone in the effort to protect communities in Alabama from pollution to coal ash sites, said Frank Holleman, senior lawyer at Southern Environmental Law Center. This will cause utilities in Alabama to clean up their act and go about fixing Alabamas coal ash problem.

Miller Steam Plant (Alabama Power Company) on the Locust Fork of the Black Warrior River in Jefferson County, Al.

Coal ash is a byproduct of burning coal at a coal-fired power plant that typically sits atop water and has known health consequences. The ash has heavy concentrations of toxins like mercury, cadmium, lead, arsenic, and chromium that, when consumed through contaminated drinking water, can cause disease.

Exposure can lead to cancer if ash isnt properly managed, Michael Regan, EPA Administrator said in a press release on Thursday. Low-income and underserved communities are especially vulnerable to coal ash in waterways, groundwater, drinking water, and in the air.

Coal ash spill disasters in 2008 in Kingston, Tennessee, and 2014 on the Dan River in North Carolina motivated the EPA to regulate coal ash disposal.

In 2015, the EPA created a national regulation known as the Coal Combustion Residual (CCR) rule, requiring utilities to submit a permit that outlines how they will properly dispose of coal ash and ensure it doesnt leech into groundwater or surface water.

A year later CCR was amended to allow state agencies to run their own permit program. But the state permit needs to be as robust as the federal program. Typically this means removing the ash from an unlined pond if it is at risk of coming into contact with groundwater, putting it in landfills, or adequately lining ponds where the ash is kept. Coal ash can also be reused in cement or concrete.

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Critics of ADEM suggest they have consistently rubber-stamped any plans by Alabama Power for years.

Black Warrior Riverkeeper, a Birmingham-based river restoration nonprofit, applauded the EPAs decision. Nelson Brooke, who runs the Riverkeeper Patrol Program at Black Warrior, has been asking Alabama Power and ADEM to do a better job of handling coal ash for over a decade.

Were excited to see the EPAs proposed denial of the states program, Brooke said. ADEM has allowed Alabama Power to leave coal ash by the river, sitting on top of wetlands and streams for years. Now Alabama Power is going to have to go back to the drawing board to seriously consider alternatives to deal with their toxic waste.

The CCR permit that ADEM submitted had clear deficiencies, according to the EPA.

ADEMs permits are not as protective as the federal CCR regulations with closure requirements for unlined surface impoundments, groundwater monitoring networks, and corrective action requirements, according to the EPA press release.

By law, The EPA has to allow the public to comment on any proposed plan. For the next 60 days, anyone can comment on the proposed denial. There will be a public hearing in Montgomery, Alabama on Sept. 20 and an online public hearing on Sept. 27.

How this could impact Georgia

Brooke suggests this is an opportunity to get things right.

Future generations are going to look back on this, judging what we did or didnt do, he said. We encourage people far and wide to weigh in on this. Its going to take a lot of support for the EPA to stand their ground. The usual suspects of Alabama Power will weigh in heavy opposition.

The Miller Steam Plant in Jefferson County, 16 miles north of Birmingham, is the largest CO2 emitter in the United States. The 45-year-old coal power plant next to Village Creek and Locust Fork of the Black Warrior River sends CO2 dust and coal ash into drinking water near the community of West Jefferson 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

There are a lot of people getting sick in the community of West Jefferson, Brooke said. The water pollution eventually migrates down to Mobile Bay and into the Gulf as well.

The implications of the EPA denying a permit go beyond Alabamas process and standards.

What the EPA has said has equal force for the Georgia program, Holleman said.

Georgia has a CCR permitting program, but the EPA could force Georgia Power to change its plan to clean up coal ash.
As a former wildland firefighter for four years (2008-11), I saw that peak fire season would migrate north in late summer, to our district in Eastern Oregon, but the critical practice of prescribed burning was infrequently used in our region. Twelve years later, the fire seasons still migrate north, and millions of acres continue to be destroyed annually by extreme fires because our region largely avoids prescribed burning.

Oregon (4), Idaho (5), Montana (9) and Washington (10) suffered more acres burned than most of the United States in 2022, all ranking in the top ten states of acreage burned in 2020 to 2022 (rank refers to 2022). Utah (21) and Wyoming (22) trailed slightly behind. Despite the ongoing fire danger and consequences, prescribed burns are used sparingly on federal lands in the mountain states.

In 2022, with millions of acres burning, Montana (32), Washington (35), Idaho (36), Oregon (37), Utah (42) and Wyoming (45) ranked in the bottom half of the United States for prescribed burning on public lands, averaging 0.08% of public lands treated with prescribed burning. On the other hand, states in the Southeast like Alabama and Georgia, treated over 40% of public lands with prescribed burning and experienced a much milder wildland fire season, ranking 19th and 24th respectively for total acres burned and experiencing no significant fire damage.

The Southeast has very little public land, and the states own the majority of the public land. This has allowed the southern states and tribal governments to quickly adopt necessary prescribed burning practices.

The federal governments feet dragging on prescribed burning keeps the mountain states from many positive benefits. Historically, Native American tribes worked with nature to encourage fires where they were needed, managing fuel loads and deterring extreme fire behavior. However, a century of fire suppression tactics has increased the fuel load and combined with hotter and drier weather to create the extreme fire seasons the mountain states experience annually.

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Prescribed burning is underutilized in the mountain states because the federal government owns the majority of public lands. Tribal and state agencies in the mountain states are increasing the funding for prescribed burns, but the area managed by these authorities is much smaller compared to federal lands. For example, 61.6% of Idaho lands are owned by the federal government and only 8.8% are owned by the state.

The southern United States and tribal communities were the first to re-adopt prescribed fires to manage fuel loads and prevent significant fires. Tribes have been able to work within their smaller government systems to adopt prescribed burning practices and the results have returned once high-risk forests to healthier, historically correct states.

But for federally owned lands, the battle is more cumbersome. Overwhelmed by red tape, lacking in generational knowledge of prescribed burns, and inundated with complaints of smoke inhalation and fire risk, federal lands still pursue mostly a fire suppression strategy. Fire resource budgets are almost entirely dedicated to suppressing fires no matter location or cause, and prescribed fires are rarely budgeted.

Frustrating matters, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed a rule this spring for the Clean Air Act that would further regulate smoke particles. The rule could add additional complications to the use of prescribed burning throughout the country.

Federal officials need to act now to adopt prescribed fire practices on a scale that can provide an actual solution to the growing pressure of unhealthy forests and excessive fuel loads. Policies that would improve the use of prescribed fires include:

Encouraging federal land agencies to request federal funding for sufficient fuel reduction projects and dedicating state-level funding

Ensure the EPAs proposed Clean Air Act rule will not hinder the use of prescribed burns

Easing the permitting process so burn permits can be issued quickly (Idaho and Wyoming require longer than a day for authorization)

Offer prescribed burn manager certification (only Washington offers it at this time)

Adopt a right-to-burn act, allowing private landowners to burn on their own land (only permitted in Oregon and Utah)

U.S. Senator Jim Risch (Idaho) said in 2021: The time has long passed to slowly chip away at our forest health issues and hope the problem will improve by next year. Idaho is 40% forestland, the vast majority of which is managed by government entities, and decades of insufficient forest management have left millions of these acres vulnerable to the kinds of catastrophic fires that have increasingly become the norm in the West.

Unlike wildfire, new policies are difficult to move uphill, but prescribed burning is worth the push. Western legislators have submitted multiple policies to remediate the western landscape, but progress has been sparse. The iconic forests of the mountain states need healthy, well-managed fire to thrive.

Prescribed burning needs rapid and significant adoption to be beneficial to the mountain states scenic region.

Madi Clark is a Policy Analyst for the Mountain States Policy Center, an independent free-market research organization based in Idaho. She served as a wildland firefighter from 2008 to 2011.
Gov. Ron DeSantis and his administration are changing how students will learn Black history in Florida schools.

On Wednesday, July 19, the Florida Board of Education, whose members were all appointed by DeSantis, approved new academic standards for social studies  a 216-page document that specifies how educators should teach social studies from kindergarten to high school in the states public schools.

The move immediately drew criticism, primarily because of two points:

Under the new direction, middle schoolers will be instructed that enslaved people developed skills that could be used for their personal benefit. During slavery in the U.S., Black men and women were forced to perform manual labor without pay, were physically and sexually abused with punishments that included rape and whippings, and were denied basic rights like the access to education.







High school students will be taught about violence perpetrated by African Americans when learning about events like the Ocoee and Tulsa Race massacres. The Ocoee massacre took place in the city of Ocoee in Central Florida: After African Americans tried to vote, a white mob murdered them. The Tulsa Race massacre refers to a 1921 incident where white Tulsans attacked a prosperous predominantly black neighborhood in Oklahoma, killing hundreds of residents and burning more than 1,250 homes.

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Churches in Arlington and Kennedale helped lead the way last week as a national Christian denomination came out flatly against using God to grab government control.

In one of the boldest declarations yet by a mainline Protestant church, the Kentucky-based Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) passed a resolution opposing Christian nationalism and prophecy preachings that Christians must take over and occupy all government, maybe to trigger the coming of a messiah.

The Welcome Table Christian Church in Arlington and Galileo Church in Kennedale were among 14 national co-sponsors of the courageous resolution defining Christian nationalism  a recent term  as radically exclusionary and using Christian language and imagery to amass political power.

Thats about the best definition yet for what used to be called Christian reconstructionism  the idea that a nation must be created that is governed only by Christians under biblical law.

Those promoting a Christian nation have become more harsh and aggressive and are seizing power, the Disciples resolution said, using the name of Jesus Christ to undermine democracy and promote hate, social hierarchy, fear of the other and violence.

It passed without much argument, said the Rev. Dr. Katie Hays, the 10-year pastor of Galileo Church and a former minister in the more conservative Churches of Christ.

People can see that the political stakes have changed at state government, school boards, library boards, the pastor said.

Galileo Church is particularly concerned about protecting public schools from political attacks, she said.

She lives in the Mansfield school district, where, she said, hot-button social issues such as LGBTQ student rights have been used to undermine the confidence in public schools and promote sending state money to parents to fund private school attendance.

The attack on public education is less explicit today, she said.

We dont have people showing up in [Ku Klux] Klan regalia. ... But they are asking our institutions to uphold everything they believe and disallow everything they dont believe.

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Wilshire Baptist Church pastor George Mason in 2014.

In Dallas, retired 33-year Baptist pastor George Mason wrote in a message: The Disciples nailed it.

Christian nationalism is the greatest threat to democracy today, he wrote.

It is also the greatest threat to Christianity itself. Anytime Christianity and nationalism unite, the nation changes Christianity more than the other way around.

Sure, the Christian (Disciples of Christ) church isnt as big as it used to be. But neither is any other mainline denomination in an age when worshippers seek extremes and absolutes, not tempered messages of faith and love.

But the Disciples remain influential in the Midwest. In Fort Worth, the church founded TCU and retains a relationship with the secular liberal arts university through a Disciples seminary, Brite Divinity School. (Disclosure: I attended TCU two years and have donated to TCU and Brite.)

Although the Disciples tend to fly under the radar, they have set the bar and leveled a challenge to every denomination, Mason wrote. This is a big thing and a good thing.

Christian nationalism and the prophecy movement have roots here in Tarrant County.

A leading figure, Keller televangelist Lance Wallnau, spoke prominently last week in downtown Fort Worth at Eagle Mountain Lake televangelist Kenneth Copelands national conference.

For at least 30 years, Parker County author David Barton has traveled coast-to-coast claiming that America changed from a God-loving paradise to an urban cesspool after a 1962 Supreme Court decision ended the mandatory recitations of Christian prayers in school. He argues that evangelical conservatives should rise up and retake government control.

More recently, a Grapevine-based cellphone service reseller founded by Church of Christ members, Patriot Mobile, has teamed with Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon to promote voting only for Christian conservative candidates who glorify God.

The Disciples resolution declared that churches would denounce Christian nationalism as a distortion and will speak out and act boldly against the politicization of Christianity.

They already have.

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A man was charged with murder after authorities said he shot and killed his brother inside a Missouri bar.

The shooting happened at 3:50 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 2, at Crow Creek Grill and Bar in Licking, according to the Texas County Sheriffs Office.

Sheriffs officials said the two brothers were fighting before the shots were fired.

Bar workers separated them from one another, but then James Gordon got a gun out of his pocket and shot his brother in the chest and head, according to the Houston Herald.

The brother, 58-year-old Christopher Gordon, of Beulah, was pronounced dead at the scene, authorities said.

For this to be a major incident like a homicide, it was an extremely calm situation, Sheriff Scott Lindsey told KY3. Bystanders did a good job of distracting him until the officers got there.

James Gordon, 62, was arrested at the bar, the sheriff said . According to a probable cause statement obtained by the Herald, he and Christopher Gordon were in an ongoing feud.

Lindsey said it was a surprise to get the call of the shooting, as there are only one or two homicides in Texas County a year, KY3 reported.

James Gordon was charged with second-degree murder and armed criminal action. He was jailed in Texas County, about 100 miles east of Springfield.

Man killed when his brother fires gun through bedroom door, Georgia police say

Man uses steak knife to kill stepfather during family gathering, Nebraska cops say
MILAN  Finlands multiyear quest to buy a high-altitude air defense capability is one step closer to materializing after the U.S. State Department approved the export of the U.S.-Israeli Davids Sling system to the Nordic state.

Only a day after it officially joined NATO in April, the Finnish government announced its intention to buy the long-range air defense system, developed jointly by the Israeli Ministry of Defense and the U.S. Missile Defense Agency.

At the time, Finland and Israel were clear that in order for the procurement to move ahead, the sale was subject to Washingtons approval. Five months later, the green light has been granted, the Israeli MoD said in an Aug. 3 statement.

The Finnish version of the Davids Sling system will be jointly developed by Israeli and American companies, led by Rafael Advanced Systems and Raytheon Technologies in partnership with Finnish vendors, the Israeli statement noted.

The contract is worth approximately $346 million and will make Finland the first export customer for the system.

In 2020, the Nordic state invited the following defense companies to showcase their surface-to-air missile platforms as part of a tender for high-altitude capabilities: Diehl Defence, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace, MBDA and Rafael.

Former Finnish Defense Minister Antti Kaikkonen announced in March 2022 that the final contenders were the two Israeli firms, Rafael and IAI, before settling on Davids Sling one year later. The selection process had prized systems capable of increasing the operational range of ground-based air defense capabilities and intercept targets at high altitudes, a minimum of 15,000 meters.

According to a U.S. Congressional Research Service report published in 2016, the Davids Sling would be able to counter long-range rockets and slower-flying cruise missiles fired at range from 40 kilometers (25 miles) to 300 kilometers (180 miles). It is also said to be able to intercept medium-range ballistic missiles and drones.

The timing for when the system will be delivered to Finland remains unclear.
A fire in Denver burned through a home on Thursday night.

The Denver Fire Department received help from East Lincoln Fire Department, Ore-Bank Pumpkin Center VFD, Sherrills Ford - Terrell Fire & Rescue, Lincoln County EMS, and the Lincoln County Fire Marshals office to extinguish the fire on the 6000 block of Sherwood Lane.

Denver Fire along with assistance from East Lincoln Fire Department, Ore-Bank Pumpkin Center VFD, Sherrills Ford -... Posted by Denver Fire Department on Thursday, August 3, 2023

Officials say the home was heavily involved in the fire when firefighters first arrived.

The family of five was not home when the fire erupted, but they have been displaced.

READ MORE: Charred remains of building remind residents of deadly SouthPark fire

No one was injured in the fire.

The Lincoln County Fire Marshals Office is investigating the fire.

(WATCH: No one hurt after early morning fire in Granite Quarry, chief says)
Drew Dorian - Car and Driver

California EV startup Fisker has just revealed three new models, claiming that its lineup will expand to include four vehicles by the end of 2025. The plan includes a four-door convertible called Ronin, an affordable crossover called the Pear, and a pickup truck called the Alaska, all of which will be sold alongside the existing Ocean SUV.

Henrik Fisker, the company's CEO and lead designer, wants to scale up to building 1 million cars per year. A portfolio of unique-looking and cleverly engineered vehicles is how he believes the company achieve that goal.

We've seen teasers for Ronin and Pear already, but the big surprise was confirmation of the rumored pickup truck, which will be called Alaska. The trio were just shown in concept form at the company's Product Vision Day event. While their designs could evolve by the time they see production, each one features novel details and sustainable materials.

Pear: EV on a Budget

Drew Dorian - Car and Driver

The Pear promises a starting price of less than $30,000. This subcompact crossover isn't much smaller than the Ocean, but it's been stripped down and will be built on a new lightweight, low-cost platform.

Fisker says that it represents a 35-percent reduction in parts versus traditional manufacturing. In practice, that should amount to a fairly basic package, but a glimpse inside the Pear at the event provided assurances that it'll still deliver on style. A six-seat interior layout will be available, which swaps the two front bucket seats for a three-across bench. We spotted attractive cloth upholstery and a two-tone dashboard design with bright blue accent coloring.

In front, Fisker has designed a novel drawer-style front trunk; around back, in lieu of a traditional SUV liftgate, you'll find a motorized retractable panel which drops entirely out of the way behind the rear bumper.

The company's plan is to build the Pear in Ohio at Foxconn's Lordstown assembly plant, which would make it eligible for federal tax incentives. Start of production is said to be targeted around mid-2025, but the company's leader told Car and Driver that there is still a lot to finalize before the SUV is ready for prime time.

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Ronin: Flagship Hypercar

Drew Dorian - Car and Driver

Looking a bit like a reborn KarmaFisker's first attempt at an eco-friendly luxury car back in 2012the Ronin features a carbon-fiber hardtop roof and four butterfly-style doors. Fisker says 60 mph should arrive in 2.0 seconds thanks to three electric motors providing 1000 horsepower and standard all-wheel drive; the car's battery pack is said to offer a claimed 600-mile driving range.

Drew Dorian - Car and Driver

Its positioning at the top of the Fisker lineup leaves plenty of space between the Ronin and the Ocean, as it'll surely command a six-figure price tag when it goes on sale. Timing for that, by the way, is likely to be a few years away.

Alaska: An Ocean with a Truck Bed

Drew Dorian - Car and Driver

Surprisingly, the Alaska pickup truck looks to be the most production-ready of the three new models. Based on the Ocean, the Alaska has a pickup truck bed behind the cabin and a drop-down midgate that extends the bed into the cabin. Reminiscent of the long-dead Chevy Avalanche (and the new Silverado EV), this feature allows the Alaska to remain compact in size but offer the ability to haul larger cargo.

The Alaska's claimed range is lower than the Ocean's, but Fisker said to expect at least 230 miles per charge in the base version, with more expensive longer-range versions promising up to 340 miles. Pricing is said to start at $45,400 for the Alaska, and although the company isn't discussing production location yet, it did confirm to C/D that it will be U.S.-built. We'd expect the Alaska to hit production before the Pear, and Fisker himself said during the event that it could go on sale as early as December 2024.

Fisker will also build a production version of the Ocean Force E concept, which will exist as an option package for the Ocean SUV. The Force E will come decked out with off-road equipment, including more aggressive all-terrain tires, bulged fenders, and a roof-top cargo box.

What's Next?

Is Fisker's latest plan too ambitious? Given that it faced delays getting the Ocean SUV to market, it's certainly possible that things won't pan out exactly as planned or on the timeline Fisker is claiming. A somewhat scattered and unknown production plan is another hurdle. Despite those doubts, the company isn't short of consumers raising their hands for one of its future EVs. Reservation holders number in the tens of thousands, and deposits for all three of the concepts shown at the event are already trickling in.

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KAMNIK, Slovenia (Reuters) -At least two people died as torrential rains hit northern and western Slovenia on Friday, causing floods, cutting power and disrupting traffic.

Two men from the Netherlands died, possibly after being hit by lightning, Slovenian press agency STA reported. The Dutch government confirmed the deaths but not the cause.

An elderly Slovenian woman also died during the storm, though authorities were still looking into the circumstances, STA added.

Slovenia's Environment Agency has issued a red warning against large-scale flooding. Meteorologists say the heavy rains, which are expected to spread to neighbouring Croatia and Bosnia further to the south, will last for the next 24 hours at least.

Rescuers struggled to reach flooded areas and issued a public call for rubber boats in places where roads were closed and impassable due to landslides.

Helicopters evacuated people trapped at their homes in the town of Skofja Loka, where vehicles and trucks were submerged or taken by torrents, local media reported.

"We have not seen floods like these not just in 500 years, but in a 1,000 years," Roman Kocilija, chief of the rescuers in the village of Most pri Komendi, told Slovenia's N1 television. Water levels had reached 2 metres, he added.

Nearly all regional roads in the north were closed as well as some railway lines, and about 16,000 households were left without electricity, STA reported.

The army was ready to deploy to help, Defence Minister Marjan Sarec said. He appealed to citizens to stay indoors in the town of Kamnik, where authorities declared an emergency situation and closed kindergartens.

(Reporting by Borut Zivulovic and Daria Sito-Sucic; and Charlotte Van Campenhout from Amsterdam; Editing by Angus MacSwan and Andrew Heavens)
Illustration by Nathalie Cruz; photo: Getty Images

In its latest controversial move, Floridas Department of Education this week advised superintendents across the state to stop teaching Advanced Placement psychology classes for high school students unless they exclude topics related to gender or sexuality, according to the College Board, the nonprofit that oversees the AP program.

The College Board quickly condemned the move as an effective ban on the popular course, arguing that students who take AP psychology in Florida under the new rules will not be eligible for college credit.

Any AP Psychology course taught in Florida will violate either Florida law or college requirements, the organization said in a statement Thursday. Therefore, we advise Florida districts not to offer AP Psychology until Florida reverses their decision and allows parents and students to choose to take the full course.

More than 28,000 Florida students took the course last year, according to the College Board, making it the fifth most popular AP course in the state, and even more were expected to take the course this year.

What prompted the 'ban'?

The AP psychology course prompts students to describe how sex and gender influence socialization and other aspects of development. Though the College Board says this aspect of the curriculum has remained unchanged for 30 years, it has come under new scrutiny in light of Floridas controversial Parental Rights in Education bill, signed last year by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.

The law  dubbed Dont Say Gay by its opponents  prohibits public school teachers from talking about sexual orientation or gender identity in class. This spring, the law was expanded to the 12th grade.

In April 2022, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed HB 7, known as the "Stop WOKE Act," in Hialeah Gardens, Fla. (Daniel A. Varela/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

Supporters of the law have long said it gives parents the right to determine when and how to introduce LGBTQ topics to their children. But critics say this is disingenuous and the law only further alienates LGBTQ youth.

The specific portion of the AP course caught in the crosshairs of this law is unit 6.7, which discusses gender and sexuality and includes the definitions of gender, sexuality, gender roles and stereotypes and their socialization factors.

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The Florida Department of Education, which advised superintendents about the move Thursday morning, resists the notion that it banned the course, accusing the College Board of attempting to force school districts to prevent students from taking the AP Psychology Course in a statement to Yahoo News partner CNN. In June, the College Board refused to alter the course, which had been taught at 562 high schools statewide, after the state asked the organization to review all AP courses to see if they "need modification to ensure compliance" with the Florida law and new education policies that prohibit instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity.

The Department didnt ban the course. The course remains listed in Floridas Course Code Directory for the 2023-24 school year, Cassie Palelis, a spokesperson for the Florida Department of Education, told NBC News in an email. We encourage the College Board to stop playing games with Florida students and continue to offer the course and allow teachers to operate accordingly.

'Enormous disservice to students'

Psychology experts, however, argue that stripping the course of topics related to gender or sexuality would be harmful to future students.

Requiring what is effectively censored educational material does an enormous disservice to students across Florida, who will receive an incomplete picture of the psychological research into human development," Arthur C. Evans Jr., head of the American Psychological Association, said in a statement. "An Advanced Placement course that ignores the decades of science studying sexual orientation and gender identity would deprive students of knowledge they will need to succeed in their studies, in high school and beyond."

Students stage a walkout from Tampa's Hillsborough High School on April 21 after Florida education officials voted to ban instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation in all public school grades. (Octavio Jones/Reuters/File Photo)

Chad Forbes, a professor of psychology at Florida Atlantic University, agreed. He told Yahoo News: Excluding gender and sexuality-oriented topics from the study of developmental and social psychology is like teaching students how to bake bread without telling them they need flour.

Forbidding the discussion of these topics in a psychology course will only hurt students, not protect them, said Forbes.

Joseph Vandello, a longtime professor of psychology at the University of South Florida and co-author of "The Psychology of Sex and Gender," said, There is nothing remotely controversial about the content of the AP psychology course.

Sex and gender are fundamental constructs of development, and people need to understand them, Vandello told Yahoo News in an email. These topics have been essential content of psychology courses for decades.

Other scholars question whether the Florida Department of Educations latest move was simply politically motivated.

There is no scientific basis for this ban, and it is entirely motivated by anti-LGBTQ politics, Wally Boot, a professor of psychology at Florida State University, told Yahoo News. It is just one of many anti-LGBTQ policies in Florida intended to paint queer and trans individuals as dangerous.

Impact of recent moves

The new AP psychology requirements are the latest in a series of controversial moves regarding public education in the state.

Last month, state leaders passed new Black history standards for Floridas public schools, requiring students to learn that some Black people benefited from slavery because it taught them useful skills.

In May, DeSantis signed legislation that prohibits Florida colleges from spending public funds on diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

In January, DeSantis blocked a new AP course on African American studies, saying it violated state law and was historically inaccurate.

Last year, he signed into law the "Stop WOKE Act," which restricts how workplaces and schools can discuss race.

DeSantis and an exhibit of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity items. (Rich Lipski/The Washington Post via Getty Images and Octavio Jones/Getty Images)

Last month, two major Black organizations  Alpha Phi Alpha, the countrys oldest and largest intercollegiate Black fraternity, and the National Society of Black Engineers, one of the largest student-governed organizations based in the U.S.  announced they were moving their annual multimillion-dollar conferences, slated to take place in Florida over the next two years, out of the state. Both organizations cited hostile environments toward Black people for their moves.

At least 10 other conferences that were slated to be hosted in Fort Lauderdale, Miami or Orlando have been moved or canceled in recent months, with event organizers citing concerns over the states laws related to LGBTQ rights, abortion, gun laws and more. The lost revenue has cost local businesses, hotels and others in excess of $20 million, according to local tourism officials.
Photo by Siora Photography on Unsplash

*UPDATE: "Both the Florida Department of Education and the College Board released statements on Friday suggesting that the course could continue to be taught in Florida, including the section on gender and sexual orientation, though many questions remained," notes The New York Times.

Florida education commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. wrote in a Friday letter to school district superintendents that A.P. Psychology "can be taught in its entirety in a manner that is age and developmentally appropriate" and that "the course remains listed in our course catalog."

The College Board issued the following statement in response: "We hope now that Florida teachers will be able to teach the full course, including content on gender and sexual orientation, without fear of punishment in the upcoming school year."

"Gender and sexual orientation have been part of AP Psychology since the course launched." Florida schools can no longer offer Advanced Placement (A.P.) Psychology classes due to the state's prohibition on teaching concepts related to gender identity or sexual orientation.

Per guidelines set forth by the College Board, which creates standards for A.P. courses, A.P. Psychology students must be able to "describe how sex and gender influence socialization and other aspects of development."

"This element of the framework is not new: gender and sexual orientation have been part of AP Psychology since the course launched 30 years ago," notes the College Board.

But under Florida House Bill 1557which opponents dubbed the "Don't Say Gay" schemeFlorida schools are largely banned from teaching students about gender identity and sexual orientation. The law, passed in 2022, explicitly banned such instruction for students in kindergarten through third grade. Additionally, it says that such instruction should be banned in any grade where it "is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students."

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Lawmakers left it open to the Florida Board of Education to decide what the latter part meantand the Board decided earlier this year that it meant most discussion of gender or sexual orientation was off limits for students up through grade 12, too. "The topics of gender identity and sexual orientation have no place in the classroom," said Education Department spokeswoman Alex Lanfranconi in April. "Today's state board action reaffirms Florida's commitment to uphold parental rights and keep indoctrination out of our schools."

The only exceptions are for situations when it's required by state educational standards or is "part of a reproductive health course or health lesson for which a student's parent has the option to have his or her student not attend." This would seem to preclude teaching A.P. Psychology students about how sex and gender influence socialization and development, since to do so would be to discuss gender identity and other concepts Florida has deemed dangerous.

"The Florida Department of Education has effectively banned AP Psychology in the state by instructing Florida superintendents that teaching foundational content on sexual orientation and gender identity is illegal under state law," states the College Board. "Any AP Psychology course taught in Florida will violate either Florida law or college requirements."

"Florida officials told school superintendents Thursday that they may offer the class but only if material concerning sexual orientation and gender identity is removed," notes The Washington Post. "He said districts were encouraged to teach a modified version of the class."

But A.P. Psychology courses that exclude such lessons don't cut it, the College Board has said. "We advise Florida districts not to offer AP Psychology until Florida reverses their decision and allows parents and students to choose to take the full course."

That's because the point of A.P. courseswhich allow high school students who take them and score high enough on a test afterward to get college creditis to denote a common body of knowledge on par with what would be learned in an introductory college course.

The American Psychological Association (APA) applauded the College Board's decision.

"Understanding human sexuality is fundamental to psychology, and an advanced placement course that excludes the decades of science studying sexual orientation and gender identity would deprive students of knowledge they will need to succeed in their studies, in high school and beyond," said APA CEO Arthur C. Evans Jr. "We applaud the College Board for standing up to the state of Florida and its unconscionable demand to censor an educational curriculum and test that were designed by college faculty and experienced AP teachers who ensure that the course and exam reflect the state of the science and college-level expectations."

According to the College Board, more than 28,000 Florida students took A.P. Psychology last academic year.

Proponents of Florida's ban on instruction about gender and sexual orientation often portray it as a law that lets parents have more control over their children's education. But by outright forbidding such instructioneven for older studentsit actually takes choices away from parents and students. A.P. Psychology is not a required course for high school students, but it should be one that they have the option to take.

FREE MINDS

No, most high school boys aren't conservative. A survey making the rounds (yes, we linked it in Roundup earlier this week) purportedly shows a crazy gender gap in political identification among teenagers. And indeed, "high school boys are now twice as likely to identify as conservative than liberal" while high school girls "are almost three times as likely to identify as liberal than conservative," notes Reason's Emma Camp. However, there's a big caveat: Majorities of both boys and girls identified as neither liberal nor conservative:

The source of concern is concentrated among the paltry 23 percent of boys who identified as conservative and 30 percent of girls who identified as liberalleaving just 13 percent of boys identifying as liberal, and 12 percent of girls as conservative. But 64 percent of boys and 58 percent of girls didn't identify as conservative or liberalinstead, they identified as "moderate," "none of the above," or "I don't know."

Despite a lot of dramatic predictions about what this wave of conservative boys means or how the gender gap will play out as kids get older, most of them either don't know if they're conservative or liberal or don't accept this left-right dichotomy as adequately capturing their political identity.

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The first episode of Reason's new podcast, Why We Can't Have Nice Things, is here! In episode No. 1, host Eric Boehm explores how a combination of absurdly high federal tariffs and excessive Food and Drug Administration regulations created the great baby formula shortage of 2022:

Though it was a crisis kicked off by unexpected supply chain issues and contamination problems at a major production facility in Michigan, the roots of the shortage ran straight through Washington, D.C., where poor government policy left American infants hungry and their parents scrambling. With domestic supply chains snarled, it would have made sense for American grocery stores to turn to foreign producers for replacement supplies of baby formula. Unfortunately, there are "absurdly high" tariffs on imported formula, explains Gabriella Beaumont-Smith, a trade policy analyst at the Cato Institute. "There are these distribution channels that are basically not established" because the tariffs make it too costly, she says. "And we're talking about baby formula. This is a necessity and we shouldn't be taxing it that high or at all." It took last year's crisis for Congress to consider lifting those tariffsand only on a temporary basis. The dairy lobby and other special interests like the isolated, and fragile, American market for baby formula just the way it is.

Listen here.

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Here's our story. As has been reported, a dead person was found Wednesday stuck to the buoys Texas officials installed at the Mexican border, per Mexican Foreign Affairs Secretary Alicia Barcena The DOJ is suing Texas to have the buoys removed. https://t.co/6PvHDfYjQm  Aaron Torres (@AaronTorres_) August 3, 2023

 Introducing Reason's new crossword puzzle. Created by professional puzzle solver Stella Zawistowski, it will be a weekly puzzle with a "pro-capitalism, profree market" voice, she says.

 Vox runs down various artificial intelligence regulations that Congress and the Biden administration are considering.

 A police officer who tased a man to death during a traffic stop got off with a misdemeanor charge (though he could lose his certification, which would bar him from working in law enforcement in Arkansas).

 California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein's daughter "has power of attorney over her mother's legal affairs," notes The New York Times. "Feinstein, 90 and in her sixth term in the Senate, has long been in frail health with increasing memory and cognition issues."

 "The $10,000 cap on the state and local tax deduction"a.k.a. the SALT cap"is bedeviling Congress. Again," reports The Wall Street Journal.

 Most of the problems being attributed to drug decriminalization in Oregon are actually "caused by the continuing impact of prohibition," notes Jacob Sullum.

The post Florida 'Effectively Banned AP Psychology' With Rules Against Teaching About Gender, Sexual Orientation appeared first on Reason.com.
The approximately 30,000 Florida teens who planned to take the Advanced Placement psychology course might have to find something else for their schedules.

The College Board, which operates Advanced Placement, released a statement Thursday after being told the state Department of Education is requiring that their psychology courses omit lessons on gender identity and sexual orientation  a condition that the educational organization finds unacceptable.

Officials at the New York-based College Board said they learned the news from a participant in a private conference call between superintendents and state officials. Pinellas Superintendent Kevin Hendrick and Bill Montford, chief executive of the states superintendents association, later confirmed the information.

The organization called the decision an effective ban, stating that the psychology course without those lessons would not meet the criteria for the college-level course or the university credits that students can earn from completing it. The material has been part of the course for 30 years.

As a result, the nonprofit educational organization will not recognize the course if taken in Florida public schools.

Our policy remains unchanged, the group said in a statement released Thursday. Any course that censors required course content cannot be labeled AP or Advanced Placement, and the AP Psychology designation cannot be utilized on student transcripts.

Miami-Dade Schools doesnt have a firm plan yet

Miami-Dade County Public Schools still hasnt found a Plan B, said Jaquelyn Calzadilla, a school district spokeswoman.

Miami-Dade County Public Schools is exploring all options to provide students who were enrolled in the Advanced Placement Psychology course the opportunity to earn college credit, she wrote in an emailed statement Friday.

Broward County Public Schools spokespeople didnt immediately respond to a request for comment from the Herald on Friday.

Hendrick at Pinellas said that based on the states action Pinellas will offer the Cambridge AICE version, which has been approved, instead of the AP course. He said the content is similar, and teachers will receive training on any differences in pacing and testing.

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Hendrick said he did not want to put students at risk of losing credits they are trying to earn, or teachers at risk of violating any laws relating to teaching unauthorized content. Teachers also can earn a bonus for every student who passes an AP or AICE course and the related exam.

We werent going to let this drag on, Hendrick said, noting students return in a week. The best thing to do is take our students and teachers out of it.

In Hillsborough, district spokesperson Tanya Arja said officials have not made a decision yet and are evaluating the information as it becomes available.

We still have time before the start of the school year, Arja said. If we have to pivot, we still have options including Cambridge AICE and International Baccalaureate courses.

Although the move comes just a week before local students return to classes after their summer break, it has been brewing for months.

In May, the department asked the College Board, Cambridge International and International Baccalaureate to confirm that their psychology courses would follow a new state law and rules prohibiting the instruction of gender identity and sexual orientation unless expressly permitted in state standards.

International Baccalaureate responded that it could meet that requirement. College Board, by contrast, responded in June that it would not.

Please know that we will not modify our courses to accommodate restrictions on teaching essential, college-level topics, the group wrote at the time. Doing so would break the fundamental promise of AP: Colleges wouldnt broadly accept that course for credit and that course wouldnt prepare students for success in the discipline.

Despite the disagreement, the State Board of Education in mid-July adopted a list of approved social studies courses for the 2023-24 academic year, and AP psychology was on it.

That action caused confusion among school officials, who noted that it seemed to contradict the earlier statements about the need to follow the laws on teaching about gender. Thursdays meeting, which also covered other back-to-school issues, was intended to clear up the situation.

DeSantis, College Board clashes

This is not the first time Gov. Ron DeSantis and his administration have clashed with the College Board.

After public disagreements about the groups new African American studies course, which DeSantis said lacked educational value, the governor mused about the possibility of replacing College Board courses and tests. Since then, the state Legislature authorized the use of Classic Learning Test as an alternative to the groups SAT exam and allocated millions for the state to develop its own advanced courses.

Some school districts had been looking at options to keep the AP psychology course alive. In Pasco, parents were asked to fill out a form consenting to the materials that have proven controversial. Others floated the idea of teaching the course without the material about gender, and allowing students to study those lessons on their own.

It is not clear yet whether those options will be acceptable to either the state or the College Board.

The American Psychological Association issued a statement in June supporting the College Boards decision to stand firm on the course content. It has encouraged IB and Cambridge to follow suit as recently as this week.

The states recent request is not supported by scientific research or best classroom practices, association chief executive officer Arthur Evans wrote in a letter to the two groups. Offering what amounts to an incomplete psychology course will reduce the number of people who can obtain college credits for psychology in high school and negatively impact pathways for psychological scientists as well as mental health professionals in Florida, where students and the broader population desperately need more mental health resources.

The College Boards psychology course development committee, composed of four university professors and four high school teachers, stood by their position and questioned how IB and Cambridge could abide the states demands.

No experienced educator or practitioner in our field would support the decision to make these topics off limits, the committee said in a prepared statement. We challenge IB and Cambridge to identify the experts whom they consulted prior to deciding that a fundamental component of psychological development would now be banished from the classroom instruction they seek to promote.

The Department of Education has not responded to inquiries about the AP psychology course.
Human remains were found in three suitcases, a tote bag and a purse last month, sparking a homicide investigation. Photo courtesy of Delray Beach Police Department/Facebook

Aug. 4 (UPI) -- Authorities in Florida said a man has been arrested on charges of murder after human remains belonging to a woman were discovered in three suitcases last month in the city of Delray Beach.

Police in the city of some 67,000 people located about 50 miles north of Miami have been investigating the human remains since they were found in three suitcases in the Intracoastal Waterway on July 21.

Investigators said they believed the remains belonged to a sole woman described as either White or Latin American between the ages of 35 and 55.

On Thursday, police chief Russ Mager identified the woman to reporters during a press conference as 80-year-old Aydil Barbosa Fontes.

Her husband, William Lowe, 78, was arrested Wednesday night and was charged with first-degree murder and abusing a dead body, Mager said, adding that Thursday morning he was denied bail.

Police in Delray Beach late last month released a recreated image of the victim whose body was found in three briefcases in the Intracoastal Waterway on July 21. On July 22, more remains were found in two additional bags. Photo courtesy of Delray Beach Police Department/Facebook

Mike Liberta, lead detective on the case, told reporters that the cause of death was a gunshot wound.

He said that police were led to Lowe via investigative work that uncovered witnesses and surveillance footage concerning a vehicle and a suspect that had been seen multiple times in the area prior to the discovery of the suitcases.

He added that an additional search on July 22 also uncovered two more bags -- a tote bag and a purse -- containing additional human remains belonging to Fontes.

The investigative work produced a vehicle tag, which led authorities to Lowe's residence, where numerous search warrants were executed and evidence of a crime was committed was found.

"There was blood splattered in the apartment," Liberta said.

Police also discovered a chainsaw in a storage unit they believed was used in the crime, he said.

The detective added that Lowe was identified as a suspect first and his wife was identified as his alleged victim afterward.

Asked what explanation Lowe offered police as to why he'd commit such a crime, Liberta replied he had obtained counsel and did not make a statement.

"We do not" have a motive at this time, he said.
A Florida man accused of killing his 80-year-old wife, whose remains were found in multiple suitcases last month, used a chainsaw to dismember her, authorities said.

The Delray Beach Police Department said Thursday detectives arrested William Lowe on Wednesday night for the murder of Aydil Barbosa Fontes. Loew is charged with first-degree murder, Police Chief Russ Mager said.

Authorities said she was fatally shot in the head. They have not determined when she was shot. A gun has been recovered, Det. Mike Liberta said during a news conference.

FLORIDA POLICE IDENTIFY BODY FOUND 16 YEARS AGO OF WOMAN NEVER REPORTED MISSING; NOW SEEKING MORE INFO

William Lowe is accused of fatally shooting his wife and dismembering her body after her remains were found in several suitcases and bags.

Fontes was found July 21 when someone discovered human remains in a suitcase in the Intracoastal waterway. Two other suitcases were found the same day in the same area.

The next day, investigators said two additional bags were found in the area as well. Over several days, witnesses told authorities they saw a vehicle and a person in the area multiple times before the suitcases were found.

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Video surveillance led detectives to Lowe's home through his vehicle tag. Additionally, an airline scan code within one of the suitcases came back to "Barbosa Ontes / A" with the same address as Lowe's vehicle tag.

Authorities secured a warrant to search Lowe's home, where he said his wife was in Brazil for at least three weeks. During a search of his home, investigators found blood spatter in the living room, dining room both bathrooms, the master bedroom and hallway, according to court documents obtained by FOX Orlando.

While they were conducting the search, Lowe tried re-entering the home and said he was trying to get keys to a storage unit. On Tuesday, detectives searched the unit and found a bloodied chainsaw with human hair on the saw.

A motive for the slaying has not been determined. Lowe and Fontes were married for 15 years. Lowe appeared in court Thursday and was denied bond.
(Reuters) -Gunfire rang out again at Florida's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Friday, this time as part of a reenactment of the shooting five years ago that killed 14 students and three faculty members.

The re-staging of the school shooting, one of the deadliest in U.S. history, was part of a civil lawsuit against Scot Peterson, a police officer who was stationed outside the Parkland, Florida, high school when the gunfire began on Feb. 14, 2018.

Lawyers for the families of the victims and survivors who filed the lawsuit have said surveillance video and the re-enactment would prove that Peterson heard the 70-plus shots but avoided confronting the gunman.

"That reenactment will hopefully help us obtain justice in the court system, justice which has so far eluded our families," Tony Montalto, whose daughter Gina was killed in the shooting, said at a news conference on Friday.

In June, Peterson was acquitted by a Florida jury of criminal charges of child neglect, culpable negligence and perjury connected the shooting.

Peterson has maintained that he had remained outside because he could not determine the source of the gunfire.

His lawyer, Michael Piper, said in a statement that multiple witnesses had testified in the criminal case that they perceived shots coming from all over the campus.

Broward County Circuit Court Judge Carol-Lisa Phillips has not yet ruled on whether the audio and video recordings of the re-enactment will be admissible at trial. Plaintiffs are seeking unspecified damages in the case.

On Friday, gunfire was heard coming from the Parkland campus at about midday, the Sun Sentinel reported. Ballistic experts were expected to fire up to 139 live rounds to recreate the sounds that emanated from the building during the 2018 shooting, the newspaper reported.

The Parkland shooting triggered a movement among youth and parents of gun violence victims to push for stricter gun laws, but most of the reforms they advocated have withered in state legislatures and the U.S. Congress.

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Mass shootings have become commonplace in the U.S. There have been 423 so far in 2023, the most at this point of the year since 2016, according to the Gun Violence Archive. The nonprofit group defines a mass shooting as four or more people shot or killed, not including the shooter.

Ahead of the re-enactment, nine members of Congress and family members of victims toured the school building.

The building is scheduled to be demolished after the re-enactment. It has remained largely unaltered since the 2018 shooting, with bloodstains and bullet holes still visible.

The shooter, Nikolas Cruz, a former student at the school who was 19 at the time of the massacre, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life without parolein 2022.

(Reporting by Julia Harte; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Leslie Adler)
Ron DeSantis and a Barron's study guide for AP Psychology

By prohibiting Advanced Placement Psychology courses from including anything on sexuality, the College Board said Florida officials effectively will deny students access to the class.

The Florida Board of Education, whose members are appointed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, announced yesterday the state will allow the AP Psychology course to be taught as long as no information included in the curriculum violates Floridas controversial dont say gay law. If thats the case, the College Board, which produces AP tests and curricula, said the state cant offer classes at all.

The Florida Department of Education has effectively banned AP Psychology in the state by instructing Florida superintendents that teaching foundational content on sexual orientation and gender identity is illegal under state law, reads a statement from the College Board. The state has said districts are free to teach AP Psychology only if it excludes any mention of these essential topics.

DeSantis last year signed a law prohibiting any classroom instruction about sexual orientation or gender identity that wasnt age appropriate. While officials initially insisted an outright ban on the topics would only apply to kindergarten through third-grade classes, the state Board of Education this year instituted the total prohibition through high school.

College Board officials stressed that the AP Psychology curriculum, which is one of the most popular AP offerings in Florida schools, has included instruction about gender and sexuality since the courses launch 30 years ago.

There's a reason for that. The American Psychological Association and other leading organizations in the field say the topics are essential to instruction, and offered guidance to education organizations that dropping the topics amounts to censorship.

To be clear, any AP Psychology course taught in Florida will violate either Florida law or college requirements. Therefore, we advise Florida districts not to offer AP Psychology until Florida reverses their decision and allows parents and students to choose to take the full course, the College Board statement reads.

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We have heard from teachers across Florida who are heartbroken that they are being forced to drop AP and instead teach alternatives that have been deemed legal because the courses exclude these topics.

LGBTQ+ leaders said the development shows DeSantis obsession with culture wars as he runs for president now will interfere directly with the education of many college-track students.

The DeSantis regime is at war with students and parents, censoring more AP curriculum and denying students the opportunity to earn college credit, reads a statement from Equality Florida. The administration has already stated that the AP African American Studies course lacks significant educational value, instead preferring to falsely applaud slavery as an American jobs program.

Now, the DeSantis Administration wants to rewrite AP Psychology curriculum to enforce their image of America, too. Governor DeSantis will undermine any students education, revoke any parents rights, and demolish any curriculum to remake Florida's schools into right wing propaganda machines in service to his political ambitions. His administration continues to use families and classrooms as pawns and do catastrophic damage to this state and its reputation.

The College Boards position stands in defiance in a posture not shown during the last time the group went to head with the Florida Department of Education. Earlier this year, state officials rejected the AP Black History curriculum. DeSantis himself said that was largely because the course included queer theory. Now, who would say thats an important part of Black history, queer theory? That is somebody pushing an agenda on our kids, DeSantis said.

The College Board at the time agreed to amend its standards, but later conceded it was a mistake not to denounce the decision.

We have made the mistake of treating FDOE with the courtesy we always accord to an education agency, but they have instead exploited this courtesy for their political agenda, a College Board statement read at the time.

The organizations took an aggressive stance protecting its AP Psychology curriculum in the wake of the past debacle. It placed blame on the state for disruptions this could cause days ahead of some Florida school districts starting classes.

The states ban of this content removes choice from parents and students. Coming just days from the start of school, it derails the college readiness and affordability plans of tens of thousands of Florida students currently registered for AP Psychology, one of the most popular AP classes in the state, the latest statement reads. AP is recognized by thousands of colleges and universities across the United States for admissions, scholarships consideration, college credit, and advanced standing. More than 28,000 Florida students took AP Psychology in the 2022-23 academic year.
Snake hunters  both amateur and pro  get those snake hooks ready. Florida's annual Python Challenge begins Friday, and the grand prize is $10,000 for the participant who removes the most pythons by Aug. 13.

"Help us remove invasive Burmese pythons from the Everglades ecosystem for your chance to win prizes while helping native wildlife!" the entry form read.

PYTHON HUNTER WINS $10,000 AFTER TOP CAPTURE IN FLORIDA EVERGLADES CHALLENGE 2022

A record-breaking 231 of the invasive pythons were removed from the Everglades during the 2022 Florida Python Challenge. The big winner brought in 28 pythons. The person with the longest python  11 feet  also took cash home. Nearly a thousand people from 32 states and two foreign countries participated.

The hunt to remove the serpents from public lands is a partnership between the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) and the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) and sponsors put up the prize money.

Grand prizes

Most pythons - $10,000

Second most pythons - $7,500

Prizes for novices (any non-professional), professionals and military members/veterans (nine total awards)

Most pythons - $2,500

Second most pythons - $1,500

Longest python - $1,000

The inaugural challenge took place in 2013. Almost 1,600 people registered, but they only harvested 68 snakes.

AMERICA'S RAREST SNAKE FOUND CHOKED TO DEATH ON GIANT CENTIPEDE IN FLORIDA

A professional teaches a crowd how to unwrap a python. "Working at ground level helps prevent the python from wrapping around your face, neck and chest, all of which you don't want. When you're down on the ground, if the python attempts to wrap around your body, it will be more likely to wrap around your arms or legs," explained one of the FWC's required training videos..

The SFWMD calls Burmese pythons one of the most harmful invasive species in the Everglades. The snakes prey on birds, native snakes, mammals and even alligators.

The snakes thrive in South Florida's mild climate and have no natural predators, so they are multiplying. Females can lay 50-100 eggs at a time. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that tens of thousands of pythons call the Everglades home.

"They're eating, basically, everything out of the Everglades," airboat tour owner, Humberto Torres told a FOX Nation crew while filming 'The Everglades: Preserving Paradise.' Before, you used to see a lot of mammals. We don't see them anymore. They're being eaten by the Burmese pythons, and they're just killing the entire habitat of the Everglades."

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A 2012 study found tremendous declines of mammals in the southern areas of Everglades National Park. The USGS reported that marsh rabbits, cottontail rabbits and foxes have nearly disappeared since 1997.

OF COURSE THIS RECORD-BREAKING FLORIDA PYTHON'S LAST MEAL WAS A DEER

Burmese pythons are not protected in Florida except by anti-cruelty laws. That allows participants to hunt them without a license, but hunters must kill the reptiles in a humane manner.

Anyone can participate for $25 after taking the required online training. Videos demonstrate how to capture a snake then knock it unconscious before pithing it. Even kids under 18 can hunt with a registered adult.

"Since day one, we have prioritized Everglades restoration by investing record funding for conservation projects and increasing resources for the removal of invasive Burmese pythons that harm this treasured ecosystem," said Governor Ron DeSantis in a statement. "The Python Challenge allows folks to participate firsthand in Everglades restoration efforts, and I look forward to seeing this years results."

HOW TO WATCH FOX WEATHER

"In addition to python removal opportunities on 25 Commission-managed lands which are available year-round, pythons can be humanely killed on private lands at any time with landowner permission  no permit or hunting license required  and the FWC encourages people to remove and humanely kill pythons from private lands whenever possible," states the SFWMD.

All year long, the state pays "python removal agents" $13 to $18 an hour and $25 per foot of python over 4 feet. The pro can earn $200 for a verified active nest. Anyone can apply online.

The FWC claimed that more than 18,000 pythons have been reported as removed from the wild in the state. The SFWMD has been keeping track since May 2017. It would take 31 Empire State Buildings to equal the combined length of snakes. The weight of snakes eliminated is equivalent to almost 8 Ford F-150 pickups.
A former school bus driver in the Greensburg Salem School District was sentenced to prison time for using social media to solicit a minor for sex.

According to a news release, Mark Garris, 47, was sentenced to four to eight years in prison on Thursday. He also must register as a sex offender for life.

Garris engaged in sexual conversations with a person he believed was a 15-year-old girl and arranged to meet up with her.

The investigation found Garris arranged to meet the child, even after being told she was 15. At the time, he did not know he was talking to an undercover officer.

When Garris drove to the meeting spot in Cranberry Township, police took him into custody.

This case serves as a reminder of the ways child predators use social media to gain access to victims. This defendant had every intention of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl, Attorney General Henry said. While todays sentence ensures that this particular defendant will not prey on young people online anytime soon, I encourage parents to educate themselves on the dangers of children using the internet unsupervised and to have ongoing conversations with their kids.

He was convicted of unlawful contact with a minor, attempted involuntary deviant sexual intercourse of a person less than 16 years of age and criminal use of a communication facility.

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A lawyer for Charles McGonigal, the former head of counterintelligence for the FBIs New York field office who has been charged with concealing $225,000 he allegedly received from a former Albanian intelligence employee, said he expects the case against his client in Washington, DC, to be resolved without going to trial.

The 22-year veteran of the FBI, who retired in 2018, was charged in January in two separate indictments in New York and DC in the alleged scheme and for allegedly working with a sanctioned Russian oligarch after he retired.

During a status conference Friday in the DC case, McGonigals attorney, Seth DuCharme, noted that defendants have two choices  to plead guilty or go to trial  and said there was a decent chance the case is going to be resolved without having to go to trial and that they should know for certain just after Labor Day.

McGonigal has pleaded not guilty to both indictments.

DuCharmes comments suggest that government prosecutors and McGonigals attorneys may be working through a plea agreement in the case, though DuCharme noted he was interested in seeing the rest of the prosecutors discovery in the case, which includes national defense documents that still require some redactions.

Its unclear what a plea agreement between prosecutors and McGonigal would look like and what charges, ultimately, he might plead guilty to.

Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly set another hearing for September 13.

Hopefully well have a good update for you the next time we see you, DuCharme told Kollar-Kotelly.

In the case charged in New York, a status report on that matter is due on Tuesday.

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Jacek Czaputowicz

Former Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz, commenting on a diplomatic scandal and tensions between Ukraine and Poland, has compared the relationship between the neighboring countries to be akin to the politics of hyenas and jackals.

He said this while speaking in an interview on Polish television news channel Polsat News on Aug. 3.

"There are states as strong as lions, there are states as cunning as foxes, and there are states like hyenas and jackals. We have such politics of hyenas and jackals," said Czaputowicz.

He stated that the tumultuous relations" with Ukraine had started with an unfortunate statement by the head of Poland's International Policy Bureau, Marcin Przydacz, about the ungratefulness of Ukrainians for Poland's help in countering the Russian invasion.

"How can a middle-ranking official demand gratitude? Ukrainians did not understand what was happening," said Czaputowicz.

Read also: Diplomatic row between Ukraine and Poland deepens

He emphasized that when he himself was in Ukraine, everyone expressed gratitude to the Poles.

"Only later it turned out that we were apparently expecting some sort of action, we wanted convictions for the Volyn crime (a massacre of Poles in Ukraine that took place during the Second World War). The Ukrainians respond to this: "Our country is bleeding, and Poland is demanding to settle accounts at this time?"

Later, the current Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland, Zbigniew Rau, responding to the statement of his predecessor in his own published statement, sharply criticized Czaputowiczs characterization of the situation, saying that it caused "the most categorical objections."

"This radically contradicts both the facts and the spirit of our foreign service, which unites generations of Polish diplomats," Rau said.

He suggested that Czaputowicz was now "acting to the detriment of the (Polish) state."

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"Loyalty is a virtue of a free person, and loyalty to society and the state is the duty of every citizen, especially a high-ranking civil servant. Rau said.

Unfortunately, Mr. Jacek Czaputowicz has mistakenly decided that retirement has freed him from one of his most basic obligations.

Read also: Poland admits cracks in ties with Ukraine after accusing war-torn country of being ungrateful

Tensions between Kyiv and Warsaw arose after the head of the international policy office in the administration of Polish President Andrzej Duda, Marcin Przydacz, denounced Ukraine's "ungratefulness" for Poland's help.

In an interview with Polish mass media, he said that Ukraine "should start appreciating the role that Poland has played for Ukraine in recent months and years."

The latest tensions have erupted against the background of the situation with the blocking of exports of Ukrainian grain through Poland.

Because of Przydaczs statement, Polish Ambassador to Ukraine Bartosz Cichocki was invited to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, where he was informed that Przydacz's words "do not correspond to reality, and are unacceptable."

Read also: NSDC secretary Danilov aims to defuse tensions between Ukraine and Poland

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meanwhile said in a statement that no "political occurrences" would spoil the friendship between the peoples of Ukraine and Poland.

In turn, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki criticized the decision of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry to summon the Polish ambassador.

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland Pawel Jablonski, discussing plans for an upcoming meeting with the ambassador of Ukraine, called the state of relations between the two countries "not the best."

According to him, this had been caused by "the statements of some representatives of the Ukrainian authorities."

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
A senior leader at the U.S. Armys Fort Leavenworth admitted Thursday to beating his wife and accepted a conviction of evidence tampering, according to county prosecutors.

Lt. Col. Greg A. Pasquantonio, of Lansing, was arrested in December after police responded to a medical call for his wife. Responding officers found her unconscious and severely injured.

Prosecutors said Pasquantonio struck her with his fists, hands, and feet, causing great bodily harm, a severity 4 felony under Kansas law.

A judge ordered Pasquantonios bond reduced by half despite objections from prosecutors. While free the following day, Pasquantonio allegedly deleted at-home surveillance video that prosecutors wanted as evidence.

Pasquantonio pleaded no contest to the separate charge of interference with law enforcement by destroying evidence, also a felony. A no-contest plea accepts a conviction without the admission of guilt.

In a statement Thursday, Leavenworth County Attorney Todd Thompson pointed to statistical information of one in five women experiencing domestic violence in their lifetime. He called the situation tragic, saying people should expect to feel safe at home with family.

Pasquantonio is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 27.
What is the formative connection between the private self and other people? Or, as the architect of libertarianism Ayn Rand once put it, how should we order the two principles fighting within human consciousness  the individual and the collective, the one and the many, the I and the They? Today, the question looms large because of the social part of social media, though were probably all too distracted checking our mentions to notice. In wartime Europe, the issue was more obviously pressing  for other people tended to breathe down your neck in ways you couldnt ignore. They hunted in packs, attacked in mobs, wandered about desperately in droves, and capitulated in herds.

During the Thirties and Forties, four brilliant but unknown young thinkers  Simone Weil, Simone de Beauvoir, Hannah Arendt and Ayn Rand herself  were obsessed with questions about the individual versus the social world. Unfamiliar to each other, they wondered how best, in Beauvoirs words, to make oneself an ant among ants, or a free consciousness facing other consciousnesses. Their respective philosophical conclusions and the surrounding life events that helped give rise to them are the subject of a wonderful book, The Visionaries by the German author Wolfram Eilenberger.

No member of this quartet was a natural team-player; all were fiercely non-conformist in their own ways. The book depicts them living through a tumultuous decade (1933-43) that included Stalins Holodomor, the Spanish Civil War and the rise of Hitler. To Arendt, history resembled not so much an arc bending towards justice as something more like the vision of her suicidal friend Walter Benjamin: one single catastrophe, which keeps piling wreckage upon wreckage. Weil accused the whole of the 19th century of believing, wrongly, that by walking straight in front of one, one necessarily rises up into the air.

Metaphysical questions assumed to be long settled took on new political urgency as legal rights were repealed, hostilities stoked and the death camps built. The challenge, as far as Arendt was concerned, was for Jews like her to fight like madmen for private existences with individual destinies against the forces that would dehumanise them. From 1933 on, she wandered rootless and alienated across Europe, settling uneasily for a while in Paris before being forced to move on again.

Like Arendt, Rand and Weil were also Jewish, relegating them to the status of metaphysical Otherhood in the eyes of many. Rands prosperous Russian family had lost nearly everything during the revolution. Weil, assimilated (at least superficially) in a bourgeois French family, suffered less from antisemitism than the others, but still was forced to leave for England in 1942. As a non-Jew, Beauvoir underwent the least personal upheaval, but even she had a breakdown during a flight from the Germans in 1940.

Between them, these thinkers produced a fascinating spectrum of philosophical positions, each inflected by thoughts and feelings about the chaos around them. At one pole was the atheist Rand, arriving in the States aged 21 with a visceral hatred of totalitarianism, and with a self-willed, asocial, rational egoist in mind as a moral hero  someone a bit like her, it seems. Autonomy was everything, suffering was pointless, and the self was most free when alone.

Rand rejected any Christian or socialist calls to altruism or equality as vehemently as she rejected tyranny from the Russian state. Equality meant only interchangeability, which meant a descent into mediocrity and nothingness. Refusing modesty as a refuge of the feeble-minded, she would declare in her diary that Nietzsche and I think. She dreamed of becoming completely impervious to other peoples opinions  to refuse, completely and uncompromisingly, any surrender to the thoughts and desires of others, as she put it for one of her fictional protagonists  and very nearly managed. In 1943, as her family still starved back in Leningrad, her novel The Fountainhead finally took off. She negotiated an unheard-of sum of $50,000 for the Hollywood film rights and bought herself a mink coat.

At the other end of the spectrum was the admirable Weil, equally eccentric and passionate in her attempts to make a moral art out of living, and the real star of the book. During a short and intensely lived life she moved from Marxist-inspired socialism to ascetic Christian mysticism, but was always drawn to self-sacrifice and suffering as a means of understanding others. She sent all her spare money to the poor; wouldnt eat at her parents house unless she could leave the cost of a restaurant meal on the table afterwards; and worsened her already fragile health by getting a job in a factory, in order to better understand the experience of workers. During the Spanish Civil War, she became the International Brigades least useful volunteer, determined to carry out secret missions for the Republic but short-sighted to the point of near-blindness and unable to shoot a rifle.

Physically emaciated and tortured by terrible headaches, she deliberately sought out sacred music in churches to transform her physical suffering into meaning. By the end of her life, Weil was advocating total selflessness and renunciation of will, and framing the act of suffering as a direct route to communion with God. But even as she lay dying in a Kent hospital in 1943  muttering verses, refusing food to the frustration of her doctors, and telling nurses to send her allocated milk to the starving  she still found the energy to write to the leaders of the Free France movement, remonstrating about their failure to send her behind enemy lines on a solo mission.

In between these two characters and outlooks are placed the more moderate Beauvoir and Arendt. Partly because of the persecution she suffered, Arendt appears the more sympathetic one here, and the more politically serious. While being chased across Europe, she agonises about Jewish identity and the self-destructive futility of trying to assimilate, feeling lonely and unwelcomed wherever she fetches up.

Living precariously as a refugee after escaping from a French internment camp, she starts to articulate the ideas that would later inform her famous analysis of totalitarianism as an emigre to the United States. Internees in camps were not being arrested for anything they had personally done, she noticed, and no difference was made between the innocent and the guilty. The individuality and inner life of a person was irrelevant  was treated as non-existent, even. The Nazi plan, embraced by collaborating French too, was to turn every individual human being into a thing that would always behave the same way under identical conditions.

In comparison to the travails of Arendt, the life of the young Beauvoir cant help seeming slightly decadent. Granted, she waxes enthusiastically about the importance of metaphysical solidarity with others as a precondition of personal freedom, but makes it sound all rather grubbily transactional  Ill grant you recognition, if you grant me some. While, by force of circumstance in the Paris of 1936, Arendt and her fellow refugee lover are living hand-to-mouth in sparsely furnished hotels and wandering aimlessly between cafes during the day, Sartre and Beauvoir are doing the very same thing  by choice, for kicks.

The immediate focus of both Sartre and Beauvoir is not the suffering millions, but their shared family, composed of young lovers and acolytes. When not reading or writing, Beauvoir conducts a complicated romantic schedule that would make the average polycule these days feel inadequate. Resembling Rand in her rather sociopathic detachment from other peoples feelings, she treats this quasi-incestuous group as a psychological testing chamber through which she can analyse various permutations of what the existentialists called Being-for-others  and then set them within her novels.

One of Eilenbergers strokes of genius is to reflect the books content in its form. Just as hidden aspects of the self are revealed only in a process of comparison with others, so too do elements of each womans life and outlook emerge in fascinating relief by juxtaposition with the other three. As the episodic narrative unfurls, strange harmonies and discords between the thinkers appear as if in musical counterpoint.

Poles apart, Rand and Weil both end up thinking of social life as a source of evil, though for different reasons. For Weil, Platos Great Beast  public opinion  can only lead us away from God. For Rand, it can only lead us away from the god-like self. Arendt embraces love between two people as the antithesis of totalitarian impersonality, while Weil treats romantic love as manifestly unjust and morally random. Just as Arendt argues that Jewish assimilation into society requires a destructive embracing of antisemitism within the self, so too will Beauvoir eventually go on to argue in The Second Sex that the assimilation of women into a universal humanity requires something similar  but with misogyny taking the place of antisemitism. Meanwhile Rand, Weil, and Beauvoir all think of themselves as adopting masculine roles.

The basic philosophical questions addressed so ardently by these iconoclasts have not gone away. Invasion and war are back on the continent, along with dehumanising war crimes and the strategic othering of ethnic and national populations  all encouraged by leaders who sneer at democracy. But even without all that, there are quieter and more everyday invasions: of your mind, for instance, filled up by other peoples thoughts and feelings every time you look at a screen.

The boundary of the self in relation to others has never been more porous. Resistance to the Great Beast is increasingly difficult, even if we now answer to bureaucrats in HR departments and not to party apparatchiks. In an age of virtual and machine-mediated relationships, we invent new selves online for the benefits of imaginary beings but take every opportunity to avoid other people in the flesh. In doing so, we avoid ourselves. Indeed, for some of us, lost in online worlds, Being-for-others in Beauvoirs sense barely gets going. And destructive ideology can easily seep into the gaps where human contact used to be.

Equally, the public square has also got a lot noisier since 1943, and its even harder to tell who the bad guys are. Widespread cultural familiarity means that, perversely, the narrative of a minority being cruelly dehumanised can be cynically recycled by pretty much any group seeking power or attention, no matter how ludicrous the claim at face value. (Acephobia, otherwise known as discrimination against asexual people comes to mind  indeed, surely its only a matter of time before some bright spark reclaims Simone Weil as an early fighter for asexual rights). Tap into the right tropes and its a work of minutes to persuade the guilt-ridden and the gullible that a new identity group is being persecuted horribly, simply because rampant political ambitions are being criticised. The book-burners and censors these days do it in the memory of past victims of totalitarianism, and many onlookers dont know which side to take. Even worse, the phenomenon of confected-grievance-as-power-grab allows many to dismiss genuine social ills in the same light.

Still, despite the epistemic confusion, we have to keep on trying. As Arendt wrote presciently in 1951: The self-compulsion of ideological thinking ruins all relationships with reality The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (the reality of experience) and the distinction between true and false (the standards of thought) no longer exist. In other words: technologies may come and go, but the challenge of staying an individual in the face of the mob is always with us.
Niger: French and US military bases (Anibal MAIZ CACERES)

Niger's new military rulers have pulled out of several military agreements with France, raising questions about where we go from here.

Q: Which agreements is the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP) renouncing?

R: Five accords, which Paris had already suspended pending the return of the democratically elected Mohamed Bazoum. They cover "different aspects of cooperation and French military intervention in Niger", Paris-Nanterre University researcher Julien Antouly posted on X/Twitter.

Among the more recent were two signed in 2013 on the French military intervention in Niger for the security of the Sahel region, the contents of which were never made public, he added.

Q: Is a French military pull-out from Niger now inevitable?

R: Yes -- if Niger's new military rulers remain in power, says Francois Gaulme, a researcher at the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI).

It would be difficult for France to deny the legitimacy of the country's new leadership while at the same time working with them against the jihadist insurgency, he argues. "That's not tenable."

Florence Boyer, a Niger specialist and researcher at the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD) agrees.

"I think we're heading towards an evacuation of French troops," she said.

Q: Would a French military pull-out be the end of the fight against jihadist insurgents in the Sahel?

R: "Of course," says Gaulme at IFRI. "Niger is a key state" in France's anti-jihadist network in the Sahel.

The French troop presence in Niger allows it to fight the jihadists in the west, in neighbouring Mali; and to the east, against the Boko Haram forces.

"Niger is linked strategically and structurally to Mali," Gaulme argues. "We are trying to fight on two fronts. Without Niger, that seems compromised."

Q: The West African bloc (ECOWAS) has threatened military intervention to oust Niger's new military rulers: could France, the United States and the international community get involved?

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R: Last December ECOWAS decided to set up a regional intervention force. The bloc has warned Niger's military rulers to allow a return to democratic rule by Sunday, or face possible military intervention.

If that did happen, says Gaulme, Paris and Washington might lend financial and logistical support, "but I don't see US or French troops attacking" Niger.

Q: Could Russia's paramilitary Wagner force extend its influence into Niger?

R: One French diplomatic source doubted Wagner played any role in the coup itself. "On the other hand, it's clear that Wagner has taken an interest in Niger for some time.

"And the rapidity with which brand-new Russian flags were deployed at demonstrations show that they have certain things in place", he added.

Dt-lp/jj/cw
A conservative student group will continue with its legal battle against Clovis Community College, following a federal appeal court ruling this week that upheld an injunction placed against the school last year.

The students, part of the Young Americans for Freedom, filed a lawsuit against college leaders last August, alleging the school violated their First Amendment rights by ordering them to remove flyers they had posted on bulletin boards around campus.

A federal judge in Fresno sided with a group in October and issued a preliminary injunction. On Thursday, the Ninth Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals upheld the injunction, saying the schools policy on posting flyers on campus invites arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement.

In a statement on the decision, Alejandro Flores, former president of the YAF-Clovis, said, the news from the Ninth Circuit is a huge victory for free speech. But this isnt the end of our legal battle against the school. Were ready to keep fighting so that we can hold the college accountable for censoring speech they disagree with.

The flyers at the heart of the case carried anti-communist messages that school administrators said made several people  very uncomfortable, according to email exchanges entered as evidence in the case. The group also claimed it was denied permission to post anti-abortion flyers on interior bulletin boards on the campus.

In a message to The Bee, the colleges Office of the General Counsel said that the opinion issued by the Ninth Circuit on Thursday addresses an issue that was resolved several months ago when the school changed the procedure on how it deals with flyers and posters on campus.

Nothing in the opinion addresses any of the allegations against the district employees, the office wrote.

The campus continues to respect the free speech rights of all students.
An investigating magistrate in 2021 chose to contact the FBI for help in conducting a familial search - Eric Gay/AP

French detectives teamed up with the FBI to identify the predator of the forest and solve a 25-year-old cold case by crossing DNA found at the crime scenes of teenagers he raped to vast amounts of US-based genetic data.

Bruno L, 63, had gone undetected for decades but was finally arrested and charged late last year with violently raping five teenagers in crimes dating from 1998 to 2008.

French police poured huge means into tracking down the predator whose signature attack involved dragging young girls, aged 15 to 19, into the woods, raping them with a knife to their throats and then leaving them naked, scattering their clothes among the trees.

One attack took place in la Rochelle, western France, while the rest were in the Paris region.

But despite releasing photofit pictures of a Caucasian suspect with blue eyes and checking every Renault 25 in the Essonne area outside Paris after two sightings, the case failed to advance.

On the verge of being closed, an investigating magistrate in 2021 chose to contact the FBI for help in conducting a familial search to see whether the rapists genetic profile could be even partially matched to any distant relatives who had sent their DNA in the hope of gaining information about their family tree.

Unlike in the US, it is illegal in France to analyse DNA for personal reasons.

The following year, the FBI came back with a Frenchman it thought was a distant relative of the suspect. The unnamed individual, a journalist based in Brittany, happened to be a genealogy buff who had identified 1,000 members of his family via the website Geneanet.

Two months later, the FBI asked the French to check a second potential relative born in 1960 in Belfort. Later that year, American federal agents announced they had linked the two men to common ancestors - a couple born in 1901 and 1902 in Besancon and Belfort.

The couple, named Juliette and Aime, had two children. French detectives analysed various branches of their descendants and singled out four men whose age fitted that of the predator of the forest.

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They then swiftly homed in on Bruno L, one of Aimes nephews, given his height, eye colour and the description given by his victims.

They learned that his job as a holiday camp instructor brought him to Paris where four of the attacks took place. He had received a two-month sentence for molesting a young girl in 1983 but his DNA was not kept at the time.`

When arrested, the pensioner swiftly owned up to the attacks, telling police: I almost wanted to be caught. I often asked myself: When are they going to arrest me? I harmed a lot of people.

Fares Aidel, lawyer for one of the five victims, told Le Parisien: This is an extraordinary investigation. It is extremely rare to arrest a suspect several decades after the events.

For almost 25 years, my client hoped that her attacker would be caught. The news of his arrest came as a terrible shock. She now expects him to answer for his actions and the immense suffering inflicted on the victims.

Police are now seeking whether there are links to other rape cases, notably in the 1980s and 1990s.

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[Source]

A Japanese railway company has begun testing an automated translation display that would help non-Japanese speaking commuters navigate Tokyos railway system.

What it does: Developed by printing company Toppan, the VoiceBiz UCDisplay is a 40-centimeter-high and 70-centimeter-wide semi-transparent window that translates communication between commuters and station staff in real time. It facilitates face-to-face interaction and currently translates between Japanese and 11 other languages.

Where its located: Seibu Railway, one of Japans major railroad companies, installed a VoiceBiz at its Seibu-Shinjuku station on July 10 for a three-month trial period. If all goes well, a full rollout will begin this fall, according to the Japan Times.

More from NextShark: Andrew Yang Suspends Presidential Campaign, Staff Hints at 2024 Run

What commuters are saying: So far, the display at the Seibu-Shinjuku station  through which 135,000 commuters pass each day  has impressed testers. Kevin Khani, a 30-year-old German employee with Alibaba, said the translations were spot on.

It might sound a bit weird, but you feel safe immediately because you know there's a human on the other side. So you take your time to explain what you need and you will know that they will understand what you need, Khani told Reuters.

Google Translate isn't always available because you don't always have Wi-Fi everywhere you go, so places like this, it's also much faster than pulling up your phone, typing everything out, showing it and (there being) misunderstandings, said Kevin Cometto, an Italian student visiting Japan, as per Euronews. Having it like this, clear on the screen, it's really nice.

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Former President Donald Trump is facing another indictment that could come as soon as this month in Georgia, where state prosecutors are probing his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

The potential indictment would mark the fourth criminal case against Trump since he was charged on 34 felony counts in New York City in late March and would come shortly after his second federal indictment was unsealed on Tuesday. Fani Willis, the district attorney for Fulton County, Georgia, investigating Trump, has suggested an indictment would come on or before Aug. 18.

"Were ready," Willis told FOX 5 Atlanta on Thursday. "Were concentrating on Georgia and things that impacted Georgia."

"The oath requires that I follow the law, that if someone broke the law in Fulton County, Georgia, then I have a duty to prosecute," she continued.

LEGAL EXPERTS SLAM JACK SMITH FOR BRINGING 'LOUSY' CASE AGAINST TRUMP: 'DISINFORMATION INDICTMENT'

In this courtroom sketch, former President Donald Trump stands between his attorneys Todd Blanche and John Lauro as he takes an oath before Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya during his plea hearing Thursday.

Willis first opened her investigation into Trump more than two years ago after the 2020 election. According to The Associated Press, Willis' team is investigating Trump and his associates for potential violations of the Georgia Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

There are six potential threads her team has pursued as part of the wide-ranging investigation, The Associated Press reported.

SPECIAL COUNSEL JACK SMITH SAYS JAN 6 FUELED BY LIES FROM TRUMP, PRAISES HEROES WHO DEFENDED CAPITOL

First, they are investigating Trump for his Jan. 2, 2021, phone call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, during which the then-president suggested state officials "find" the votes needed to give him an edge over President Biden in the state. That phone call ultimately prompted Willis to open her investigation.

"All I want to do is this: I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have," Trump told Raffensperger during the recorded call. "Because we won the state."

Story continues

Willis is also investigating whether there was an elaborate plan organized by Trump's team and involving state Republicans to certify that Trump had won the state in the 2020 election. Those Republicans  who were not all elected leaders and half of whom have since reached immunity deals with Willis  declared themselves "duly elected and qualified" electors and sent their certificate to the National Archives and U.S. Senate.

Third, Willis' office is looking into false claims made by Trump aides that the results of Georgia's election were fraudulent. Fourth, the district attorney is investigating whether Trump's team engaged in a pressure campaign against election workers.

Additionally, Trump's team is alleged to have gained "unauthorized access" to election equipment in Coffee County, Georgia, after hiring a computer forensics team, according to The Associated Press. Those allegations are being investigated by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and may be tied into Willis' probe.

GEORGIA SHERIFF VOWS TO GET TRUMPS MUG SHOT IF HES INDICTED IN FULTON COUNTY ELECTION CASE

Finally, Willis may be investigating Trump over the abrupt and unexpected resignation of U.S. Attorney BJay Pak on Jan. 4, 2021, two days after Trump's call with Raffensperger. Weeks before, Pak had reported to Department of Justice leaders that he found no evidence of election fraud after being asked to investigate the matter.

On Thursday, Trump was arraigned at a federal court in Washington, D.C., as part of Special Counsel Jack Smith's investigation into 2020 election interference and the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.

U.S. Special Counsel Jack Smith speaks during a news conference in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. Smith told reporters the January 2021 Capitol riot was fueled by Trump's lies "targeted at obstructing a bedrock function of the U.S. government."

Trump pleaded not guilty to four charges brought against him earlier in the week, including conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights.

"The legal strategy in this case is very simple, you attack the facts in this case that Jack Smith put out that are wrong," Trump attorney Jesse Binnall said during an interview Thursday evening on "Jesse Watters Primetime." "For instance, Jack Smith claiming that Donald Trump did anything other than call for peace and patriotism is wrong."

"This case should never make it to trial," Binnall added.

Smith has also charged Trump with 37 counts related to his alleged improper retention of classified records from his presidency.

Fox News Digital reporter Brooke Singman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A Georgia mother is behind bars after police said they found the body of her infant inside their home Thursday night.

Investigators were called out to the home along Quacco Road in Chatham County shortly after 10:30 p.m. Thursday.

When officers arrived at the home, they found the infants body and her mother, Jennifer Cooper, 33, was still there.

TRENDING STORIES:

Cooper has been charged with murder, possession of a controlled substance, and drug-related objects.

Investigators said an autopsy will be done on the child to determine a cause of death.

Cooper is currently being held without bond in the Chatham County Detention Center.

IN OTHER NEWS:
A Georgia sex offender was arrested again by sheriffs deputies in Dawson County after investigators found devices in his possession with exploitative material on them.

Joshua West was previously convicted of rape and aggravated child molestation, according to the Dawson County Sheriffs Office.

Investigators from the sheriffs office Crime Against Persons Unit, affiliated with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, investigated and charged West.

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TRENDING STORIES:

Deputies said Wests devices, which were seized during the investigation, are still being forensically examined for further evidence and the ongoing investigation.

We are proud of our investigators and especially for their efforts to pursue those who commit crimes against our children. As always, we plead with our parents, grandparents, caregivers and others to closely monitor your childrens activities on line, Sheriff Jeff Johnson said. We must do all we can to protect and safeguard our children against those who would cause them harm.

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OTHER NEWS:
One of the victims in the Gilgo Beach murders, previously dubbed "Jane Doe Seven," has finally been identified, 27 years after her partial remains were found, officials announced Friday.

Karen Vergata, 34, was identified using DNA genetic genealogy, Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney announced in a news briefing Friday.

The identification is the latest breakthrough in the notorious Gilgo Beach killings in which 11 sets of human remains were found in or near Ocean Parkway on Long Island since 2010. While most of the remains have been identified, some have yet to be.

Jane Doe Seven's remains were located in Davis Park on Fire Island in 1996. DNA later linked them to another set of remains found April 11, 2011, along Ocean Parkway, in Nassau County, according to a Suffolk County police timeline of the case.

Tierney said Friday that Vergata went missing Feb. 14, 1996. She had lived in Manhattan and was thought to be working as an escort. No missing persons complaint was filed at the time of her disappearance, he said.

Crime laboratory officers prepare to search the home of Gilgo Beach murders suspect Rex Heuermann in Massapequa Park, New York, on July 18, 2023. (Yuki Iwamura / AFP - Getty Images file)

How Jane Doe Seven was identified

In April 1996, female remains consisting of legs and feet were found on the Bayside shore of Fire Island, a mile west of Davis Park Beach.

Fifteen years later, on April 11, 2011, a skull was discovered at Tobay Beach in Nassau County. In July 2011, the Suffolk County crime lab used DNA analysis to determine that the two sets of remains belonged to the same person, who was then dubbed "Jane Doe Seven" or "Fire Island Jane Doe."

Karen Vergata. (Suffolk County DA)

In August 2022, six months after the Gilgo Beach task force formed, a DNA profile suitable for genealogical comparisons was developed from the remains, and the FBI completed a genetic genealogy review and was able to presumptively identify her in September 2022. A buccal swab from a relative led officials to definitively identify Vergata in October 2022.

However, authorities didn't publicly disclose the discovery as the confidential investigation into the murders was underway.

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Officials said that Vergata's family was notified and the investigation into her disappearance is ongoing. Tierney noted there are no charges at the moment.

Investigation into Gilgo Beach killings

For years, the discovery of the remains of multiple sex workers around Gilgo Beach left the Long Island community on edge.

After more than a decade of investigation, Rex Heuermann was arrested July 13, charged with three counts of murder in the deaths of Melissa Barthelemy, 24; Megan Waterman, 22; and Amber Lynn Costello, 27. He was also said to be the prime suspect in the disappearance of a fourth woman: 25-year-old Maureen Brainard-Barnes, who vanished in 2007. The group of women was known as the Gilgo Four.

The victims were all believed to have been sex workers who advertised on online sites, according to police.

Heuermann, a 59-year-old Manhattan architect, has pleaded not guilty and is being held without bail.

Accused Gilgo Beach killer Rex A. Heuermann appears before Judge Timothy P. Mazzei in Suffolk County Court in Riverhead, N.Y., on Aug. 1, 2023. (James Carbone / Pool via Newsday)

Prosecutors requested in a filing Tuesday that Heuermann provide buccal samples, which would provide further relevant evidence of the defendants identity as the perpetrator of the crime and to compare to DNA retrieved from the crime scenes.

Investigators have said that DNA taken from discarded pizza allegedly tied Heuermann to a male hair found on a burlap material used to wrap Watermans body.

Heuermann appeared in court in Riverhead, New York, on Tuesday. His attorney, Michael Brown, said: We will defend this case in the court of law, and we will go to trial in this case.

Brown previously said his client is "a man who has never been arrested before. Hes maintained his innocence from the inception of this case.

The next pretrial conference hearing will be Sept. 27.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Police in Long Island have announced an update in the investigation into the Gilgo Beach serial killings.

Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney and other New York officials have scheduled a press conference for 10.30am ET on Friday morning to announce new details over the murders.

A senior law enforcement source told NBC New York that investigators have been able to identity another victim  previously referred to as the seventh Jane Doe.

This comes as prosecutors have asked the court to obtain a swab of DNA from serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann and as his wife broke her silence in her first interview since his shock arrest to reveal she is filled with anxiety and their two children cry themselves to sleep every night over the horror case.

Mr Heuermann, 59, was arrested on 13 July and charged with the murders of Amber Castello, Megan Waterman and Melissa Barthelemy. He is also the main suspect in Maureen Brainard-Barnes killing.

The women all went missing in 2009 and 2010 before their remains were found along Gilgo Beach.

Key Points

District Attorney says they handed over 8 gigabytes of discovery

Serial killer suspects first words after arrest revealed

Massive amount of evidence recovered from Heuermann home

My children cry themselves to sleep, says estranged wife

How the net closed in on Rex Heuermann

07:00 , Rachel Sharp

Court records show that Mr Heuermann was linked to the Gilgo Four murders through a tip about his pickup truck, a stash of burner phones, sadistic online searches, phone calls taunting victims families, his wifes hair found on the victims bodies  and a pizza crust.

The first piece of the puzzle came when a witness in the Amber Costello case revealed details about a vehicle that a client was driving when she was last seen alive.

Costello, who worked as a sex worker, was seen alive on the evening of 2 September 2010 when she left her home in West Babylon. A witness said she had gone to meet a client who was driving a first-generation Chevrolet Avalanche.

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Last year, a registration search showed that local man Mr Heuermann owned a first-generation model of the truck at the time of Costellos disappearance. He also matched the witness description of the man believed to be the killer: a large, white ogre-like male in his mid-40s, around 64 to 66 tall, with dark bushy hair, and big oval style 1970s type eyeglasses.

The discovery of the car led investigators to hone in on Mr Heuermann including executing 300 subpoenas, search warrants and other legal processes to obtain evidence to determine his potential involvement in the killings.

Among this was Mr Heuermanns alleged use of burner phones, with prosecutors saying that he used burner phones to contact the three women and arrange to meet them at the time when they went missing.

He also allegedly took two of the victims cellphones  and used one to make taunting phone calls to one of their families where he boasted about her murder, court documents state.

Mr Heuermanns DNA was found on one of the victims, while his wifes hair was found on three of the four women he is connected to.

Eight gigabytes of evidence handed over in Rex Heuermanns case

06:00 , Rachel Sharp

Attorneys for accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann have received a massive amount of evidence to review from the prosecution.

Mr Heuermann, the Manhattan architect accused of murdering at least three women and dumping their bodies along a remote stretch of shore in the Long Island community of Gilgo Beach, appeared in court on Tuesday for the first time since his arraignment.

Mr Heuermann is charged with killing Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Lynn Costello, who disappeared in 2009 and 2010. Prosecutors say hes also the main suspect in the death of a fourth woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, who vanished in 2007.

Read the full story:

Gilgo Beach murders suspect Rex Heuermanns defence buried in mountain of evidence

ICYMI: Long Island police dodge questions about crucial piece of evidence at Rex Heuermann home

05:00 , Rachel Sharp

Investigators in Long Island have dodged questions about a crucial piece of evidence believed to have been found inside the family home of Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann.

Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney was grilled in a press conference last Tuesday about the chilling alleged discovery of a mattress inside a huge vault in the basement of his home in Massapequa Park.

The DA repeatedly refused to confirm or deny the existence of the potentially harrowing piece of evidence but did confirm the existence of the walk-in underground vault beneath the property that he shared with his family.

The vault is big enough to walk into and its in the basement, he said, adding that like the rest of the house, [the vault] was cluttered.

Read more:

Long Island police dodge questions about evidence in Rex Heuermann home

RECAP: The Gilgo Beach serial killer case

04:00 , Rachel Sharp

The Gilgo Beach murders had long stumped law enforcement officials in Suffolk County who believed it could be the work of one or more serial killers who targeted sex workers and dumped their bodies along the remote beaches on Ocean Parkway.

The case began in May 2010 when Shannan Gilbert vanished after leaving a clients house on foot near Gilgo Beach.

She called 911 for help saying she feared for her life and was never seen alive again.

During a search for Gilbert in dense thicket close to the beach, police discovered the remains of another woman.

Within a matter of days, the remains of three more victims were found close by.

By spring 2011, the remains of a total of 10 victims had been found including eight women, a man, and a toddler. Police have long thought that it could be the work of one or more serial killers.

Gilberts body was then found in December 2011. Her cause of death is widely contested with authorities long claiming that it is not connected to the serial killer or killers but that she died from accidental drowning as she fled from the clients home.

However, an independent autopsy commissioned by her family ruled that she died by strangulation and her mother believes she was murdered.

Like Gilbert, most of the victims targeted were sex workers, while some are yet to be identified.

How the Gilgo Beach serial killer turned the Long Island shore into a graveyard

02:00 , Rachel Sharp

For around two decades, the sands and marshes of Long Islands Gilgo Beach kept a dark secret.

A killer or killers roamed the locality, luring in escorts and sex workers and brutally murdering them.

Body after body was dumped along the shoreline, hidden for months and even years without being discovered.

Then, in 2010, a chilling 911 call made by a woman in fear for her life led police to search the area.

What they discovered was far more horrifying than anyone could have imagined.

The Independents Rachel Sharp reports:

How the Gilgo Beach serial killer turned the Long Island shore into a graveyard

PICTURED: Search of Rex Heuermanns home

01:00 , Rachel Sharp

Aerial view of the search at the home of suspect Rex Heuermann (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

New York State police officers move a metal cabinet

Authorities remove a picture frame as they search the home of suspect Rex Heuermann (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Long Island Serial Killings (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Who is Rex Heuermann?

Thursday 3 August 2023 23:00 , Rachel Sharp

His Manhattan business describes him as a registered architect with over 30 years experience.

His neighbours describe him as a family man living with his wife and two children in a tight-knit community in Suffolk County.

But now authorities are describing him as the suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer who unleashed terror along the shores of Long Island more than a decade ago.

So who is Rex Heuermann?

Rex Heuermann: Who is serial killer suspect in Gilgo Beach murders

WATCH: Last known movements of Gilgo Beach victim Megan Waterman

Thursday 3 August 2023 22:15 , Rachel Sharp

Evidence against Rex Heuermann includes hundreds of hours of footage: prosecutors

Thursday 3 August 2023 21:00 , Rachel Sharp

The trove of evidence against Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann includes hundreds of hours of footage from his home in Massapequa Park and his office in Midtown Manhattan, according to prosecutors.

The accused killer appeared in court in Suffolk County on Tuesday for a brief preliminary hearing.

In the hearing, prosecutors outlined the wealth of evidence against him including 2,500 pages of documents, crime scene photographs, autopsy reports.

The evidence was turned over to Suffolk County Supreme Court Justice Timothy Mazzei and Mr Heuermanns attorney Michael Brown. It has been sealed under a protective order, limiting its release to the public.

Daughter of Happy Face Serial Killer launches GoFundMe for Gilgo Beach serial killer suspects family

Thursday 3 August 2023 20:15 , Rachel Sharp

The daughter of the notorious Happy Face Killer has launched a GoFundMe campaign to help the wife of Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann start her new life.

Melissa Moore announced her decision to try to help Asa Ellerup as she compared their experiences discovering that a close family member had spent years leading a double life as an alleged serial killer.

Today, I have an opportunity to use my voice to help Asa, who isnt in a place to speak about the terror and horror she and her family are experiencing at this moment, she said.

Read the full story:

Happy Face Killers daughter launches GoFundMe for Gilgo Beach suspects wife

Prosecutors seek Rex Heuermann DNA swab

Thursday 3 August 2023 19:41 , Megan Sheets

Prosecutors in the Gilgo Beach murders case have asked the court to obtain a swab of suspect Rex Heuermanns DNA.

CNN reported on the request on Thursday, two days after Mr Heuermann appeared in court for an evidentiary hearing.

Previous court filings revealed that investigators used discarded pizza crust to link Mr Heuermann to the killings.

Read more about prior evidence:

How pizza crust, burner phones and wifes hairs led police to Gilgo Beach suspect

Rex Heuermanns wife says home was left in ruin from search

Thursday 3 August 2023 19:15 , Rachel Sharp

This week, Rex Heuermanns wife Asa Ellerup broke her silence in her first interview since her husbands arrest where she revealed that she has been left filled with anxiety and their two children cry themselves to sleep over the horror.

I woke up in the middle of the night, shivering... anxiety, she told The New York Post.

My children cry themselves to sleep. I mean, theyre not children. Theyre grown adults but theyre my children, and my son has developmental disabilities and he cried himself to sleep.

Rex A Heuermann, the architect accused of murdering at least three women near Long Islands Gilgo Beach, appears in Suffolk County Court on Tuesday

Their daughter Victoria has been left feeling not human, with Ms Ellerups lawyer Bob Macedonio explaining that the family had been treated like animals.

Ms Ellerup spoke out as she said that the familys home in Massapequa Park had been left in tatters by investigators who spent almost two weeks combing through the property for evidence connected to the murders or for trophies the accused killer took from his victims.

Images show the bathtub with holes cut out and possessions strewn everywhere.

Mr Macedonio told the Post that he is making an itemised list of the damage to send to the DAs office.

Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney said last week that a massive amount of evidence had been recovered from the home which Mr Heuermann grew up in as a child  and which he went on to share with his family up until his sudden arrest.

No human remains were discovered, but a trove of around 270 guns were seized from the home.

The DA previously revealed that they believe at least some of the murders may have taken place inside the home.

WATCH: Evidence removed from home of Long Island serial killer suspect

Thursday 3 August 2023 18:15 , Rachel Sharp

ICYMI: Sex workers reveal recordings of calls with Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect

Thursday 3 August 2023 17:15 , Rachel Sharp

Multiple sex workers have revealed that they held onto recordings of phone calls with the Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect after he contacted them  but they refused to meet with him.

Suffolk County Sheriff Errol Toulon told The Independent in a statement on Monday that officials have been interviewing sex workers as they are booked into local jails about any past encounters they had with Rex Heuermann.

So far, two women have revealed that they not only were in contact with the accused killer but also had made recordings of conversations with him.

Read the full story:

Sex workers reveal recordings of calls with Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect

Rex Heuermann is traumatised by Gilgo Beach murders arrest, attorney says

Thursday 3 August 2023 16:15 , Rachel Sharp

Rex Heuermanns attorney has said that the suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer is traumatised by his sudden arrest  as he claims that the 59-year-old married father-of-two has already been convicted by the media.

Attorney Michael Brown told ABC News that he met the accused serial killer for the first time on Friday when he was arraigned on charges for murdering three women and dumping their bodies along the shores of Long Island.

He said that Mr Heuermann seemed normal in the meeting but was traumatised by the fact he had been taken into custody over the unsolved killings.

Nothing struck me as unusual about him. He was articulate, he was intelligent, he was soft-spoken, he said.

Eight gigabytes of evidence handed over in Rex Heuermanns case

Thursday 3 August 2023 14:15 , Rachel Sharp

Attorneys for accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann have received a massive amount of evidence to review from the prosecution.

Mr Heuermann, the Manhattan architect accused of murdering at least three women and dumping their bodies along a remote stretch of shore in the Long Island community of Gilgo Beach, appeared in court on Tuesday for the first time since his arraignment.

Mr Heuermann is charged with killing Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Lynn Costello, who disappeared in 2009 and 2010. Prosecutors say hes also the main suspect in the death of a fourth woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, who vanished in 2007.

Read the full story:

Gilgo Beach murders suspect Rex Heuermanns defence buried in mountain of evidence

Rex Heuermanns chilling response to arrest revealed

Thursday 3 August 2023 13:15 , Rachel Sharp

The Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect had a somewhat blase reaction when a group of plain-clothes police officers swooped on him in the heart of a busy Manhattan street and arrested him in connection to a chilling series of cold case murders, according to authorities.

Rex Heuermann was taken into custody on 13 July as he left the office of his architecture business in midtown Manhattan.

Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison has now revealed the accused serial killers first words when officers descended on him more than 13 years after the victims bodies were found discarded along Gilgo Beach, Long Island.

Mr Harrison told NBC News that the 59-year-old married father-of-two was dismissive of the allegations  but then quickly lawyered up.

He very much said, What am I here for? I dont know nothing of what youre talking about, he said.

He asked for a lawyer  and that was the end of the conversation, he added.

As the 59-year-old was processed into Suffolk County Jail on a string of murder charges, sources told CNN he did have another chilling question  this time about his newfound notoriety.

Is it in the news? he asked.

Gilgo Beach serial killer suspects contact with wife revealed

Thursday 3 August 2023 12:15 , Rachel Sharp

The wife of Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann has stayed in contact with him since his bombshell arrest for the murders of at least three women, it has been revealed.

Asa Ellerup  who has been married to the accused serial killer for more than 20 years and shares two adult children with him  has spoken to her husband in personal jailhouse phone calls while he remains behind bars in Suffolk County jail, her attorney Robert Macedonio told CNN on Tuesday.

I believe there has [been contact] but you have to realise any phone calls are recorded out of the facility, he said, declining to detail the contents of those conversations.

Read more here:

Gilgo Beach serial killer suspects contact with wife revealed

WATCH: Gilgo Beach, the story so far

Thursday 3 August 2023 11:15 , Rachel Sharp

Gilgo Beach serial killer suspects wife speaks out for first time

Thursday 3 August 2023 10:15 , Rachel Sharp

The wife of Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann broke her silence in her first interview this week where she revealed that she has been left filled with anxiety and their two children cry themselves to sleep over the horror.

I woke up in the middle of the night, shivering... anxiety, Asa Ellerup told The New York Post.

My children cry themselves to sleep. I mean, theyre not children. Theyre grown adults but theyre my children, and my son has developmental disabilities and he cried himself to sleep.

Their daughter Victoria has been left feeling not human, with Ms Ellerups lawyer Bob Macedonio explaining that the family had been treated like animals.

Ms Ellerup spoke out as she said that the familys home in Massapequa Park had been left in tatters by investigators who spent almost two weeks combing through the property for evidence connected to the murders or for trophies the accused killer took from his victims.

Images show the bathtub with holes cut out and possessions strewn everywhere.

Mr Macedonio told the Post that he is making an itemised list of the damage to send to the DAs office.

Daughter of Happy Face Serial Killer launches GoFundMe for Gilgo Beach serial killer suspects family

Thursday 3 August 2023 09:15 , Rachel Sharp

The daughter of the notorious Happy Face Killer has launched a GoFundMe campaign to help the wife of Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann start her new life.

Melissa Moore announced her decision to try to help Asa Ellerup as she compared their experiences discovering that a close family member had spent years leading a double life as an alleged serial killer.

Today, I have an opportunity to use my voice to help Asa, who isnt in a place to speak about the terror and horror she and her family are experiencing at this moment, she said.

Read the full story:

Happy Face Killers daughter launches GoFundMe for Gilgo Beach suspects wife

WATCH: Rex Heuermanns attorney says there will be no plea deals

Thursday 3 August 2023 08:15 , Rachel Sharp

Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect ruled out of Atlantic City murders

Thursday 3 August 2023 07:15 , Rachel Sharp

A New Jersey prosecutor said Tuesday that the murders of several sex workers on Long Island do not appear to be related to the unsolved killings of four sex workers near Atlantic City in 2006.

Atlantic County Prosecutor William Reynolds said detectives from his office met recently with detectives from Suffolk County, New York and compared information on the two sets of homicides.

Officers from both agencies compared timelines, dates, methodologies, etc. of both cases, the prosecutor said.

There does not seem to be a connection between the suspect in the Gilgo Beach case and the Atlantic County homicides from 2006, he said.

Representatives of the Suffolk County Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

Ever since the bodies were found on Long Island, speculation quickly arose as to whether the killings might have been carried out by the same person or persons that killed four women whose bodies were found in a drainage ditch behind a string of seedy motels just outside Atlantic City in 2006.

The two sets of homicides involved sex workers whose bodies were dumped in remote, overgrown areas not far from the ocean.

No one has been charged in the New Jersey cases, which happened in Egg Harbor Township, near Atlantic City.

Reynolds said those cases remain open and active.

Authorities will continue to follow all leads until the perpetrator of those crimes is brought to justice, he said.

A joint investigation is being carried out by Atlantic City and Egg Harbor Township police, as well as state and federal law enforcement officers.

AP contributed to this report

Pizza crust, burner phones and his wifes hair: How Long Island police tied Rex Heuermann to the Gilgo Beach murders

Thursday 3 August 2023 06:15 , Rachel Sharp

Its taken 13 years but Suffolk County Police finally say theyve caught the serial killer who dumped his victims along the shores of Gilgo Beach  thanks to a pimps tip about his pickup truck, a stash of burner phones, his wifes hair and a pizza crust.

Rachel Sharp reports:

How pizza crust, burner phones and wifes hairs led police to Gilgo Beach suspect

Who is Rex Heuermann?

Thursday 3 August 2023 05:15 , Rachel Sharp

His Manhattan business describes him as a registered architect with over 30 years experience.

His neighbours describe him as a family man living with his wife and two children in a tight-knit community in Suffolk County.

But now authorities are describing him as the suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer who unleashed terror along the shores of Long Island more than a decade ago.

So who is Rex Heuermann?

Rex Heuermanns wife pleads to be left alone

Thursday 3 August 2023 03:15 , Rachel Sharp

In a statement released through her lawyers Macedonio & Duncan, Rex Heuermanns wife has pleaded to be left alone.

On behalf of my family and especially my elderly neighbors, who have also had their lives turned upside down by the enormous police presence, in addition to the spectators, and news crews, Ms Ellerups statement read.

They deserve to live peacefully; they should be able to walk their dogs and go to the grocery stores without cameras shoved in their faces.

I am pleading with you all to give us space so that we may regain some normalcy in our neighborhood.

VOICES: Gilgo Beach and the normal man turned serial killer

Thursday 3 August 2023 02:15 , Rachel Sharp

While news of the arrest of Long Island resident Rex Heuermann on multiple counts of murder may have sent ripples of shock through his community, the revelation that a normal man was capable of such heinous acts of violence was hardly surprising for sex workers and their advocates. Violence  including infrequent but horrendous instances of serial predators and killers  is too often a reality for those engaged in sexual labour.

Media coverage has typically focused on dissecting the police investigation, and now the killers biography. Of course, the media has long been interested in stories of serial killers preying on sex workers, and there has been no shortage of such cases. From the sensationalist reporting of Jack the Ripper in Victorian-era London to the Yorkshire Ripper case in 1970s England, from Robert Picktons terrorising of Indigenous women in Vancouver (1990s) to Seattles Green River Killer (1980s-90s), serial predators have long targeted people in the sex trades. The Dallas police have just arrested a man on suspicion of the murders of three sex workers.

Dr Jayne Swift writes:

Gilgo Beach and the normal man turned serial killer

PREMIUM: Horror on the shore: the murder spree that has gripped America

Thursday 3 August 2023 01:15 , Rachel Sharp

Back in 2010, very few people knew the name Gilgo Beach.

The small beach in Long Island didnt have the same draw for New York day-trippers or staycationers as the shores along other oceanfront towns like Montauk or East Hampton.

And for anyone outside of New York state, theyd likely never even heard of it.

That all changed one night in May when a terrified woman called 911 begging for help to save her from someone she believed was trying to kill her.

A search of the area for the missing woman followed  and what it uncovered was something that placed Gilgo Beach on the map forever.

The Independents Rachel Sharp reports:

The murder cold case that has gripped America

WATCH: Rex Heuermann makes court appearance

Thursday 3 August 2023 00:15 , Rachel Sharp

When will Rex Heuermann next appear in court?

Thursday 3 August 2023 16:29 , Rachel Sharp

Rex Heuermann appeared in court in Suffolk County on Tuesday for a brief preliminary hearing.

His next court date was set for 27 September when he will appear for a pre-trial conference hearing.

Rex Heuermanns defence buried in mountain of evidence as he faces court in Gilgo Beach murders case

Wednesday 2 August 2023 23:15 , Rachel Sharp

Attorneys for accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann have received a massive amount of evidence to review from the prosecution.

Mr Heuermann, the Manhattan architect accused of murdering at least three women and dumping their bodies along a remote stretch of shore in the Long Island community of Gilgo Beach, appeared in court on Tuesday for the first time since his arraignment.

Mr Heuermann is charged with killing Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Lynn Costello, who disappeared in 2009 and 2010. Prosecutors say hes also the main suspect in the death of a fourth woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, who vanished in 2007.

Read the full story:

Gilgo Beach murders suspect Rex Heuermanns defence buried in mountain of evidence

Gilgo Beach serial killer suspects wife breaks silence in first interview

Wednesday 2 August 2023 22:15 , Rachel Sharp

The wife of Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann broke her silence in her first interview this week where she revealed that she has been left filled with anxiety and their two children cry themselves to sleep over the horror.

I woke up in the middle of the night, shivering... anxiety, Asa Ellerup told The New York Post.

My children cry themselves to sleep. I mean, theyre not children. Theyre grown adults but theyre my children, and my son has developmental disabilities and he cried himself to sleep.

Their daughter Victoria has been left feeling not human, with Ms Ellerups lawyer Bob Macedonio explaining that the family had been treated like animals.

Ms Ellerup spoke out as she said that the familys home in Massapequa Park had been left in tatters by investigators who spent almost two weeks combing through the property for evidence connected to the murders or for trophies the accused killer took from his victims.

Images show the bathtub with holes cut out and possessions strewn everywhere.

Mr Macedonio told the Post that he is making an itemised list of the damage to send to the DAs office.

Rex Heuermanns wife says neighbours want to bulldoze her home

Wednesday 2 August 2023 21:31 , Megan Sheets

Rex Heuermanns wife Asa Ellerup spoke out on Wednesday to reveal how her neighbours want to raze her home in the wake of her husbands arrest in the Gilgo Beach murders.

The people in this neighborhood, they want this house gone, she told the Daily News. They want it bulldozed, you understand? They want it gone.

She said her family continues to come across things destroyed by investigators who spent days scouring the home for evidence linking Mr Heuermann to the serial killings.

As for how shes coping with her husbands traumatic unmasking, she said: I cant think. You ask me what do I want? ... I want to be able to sleep for a couple of hours. Im not sleeping.

Who are the Gilgo Beach victims?

Wednesday 2 August 2023 21:15 , Rachel Sharp

The remains of at least 11 victims were found in the Gilgo Beach area though it remains unclear if they are all the work of the same killer. Many were sex workers who offered escort services on Craigslist or worked in New York City.

The first victim found was Melissa Barthelemy whose remains were discovered along Ocean Parkway on 11 December 2010 during the search for Shannan Gilbert  a 24-year-old sex worker from New Jersey who vanished after visiting a client in Oak Park and making a chilling 911 call where she revealed fears for her life.

Two days later on 13 December, the remains of three other victims  Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Megan Waterman and Amber Lynn Costello  were found close by.

All three women were known to advertise escort services on Craigslist.

Brainard-Barnes  known as one of the Gilgo Beach Four  was last seen alive in early June 2007 in New York City while Costello was last seen leaving her North Babylon home one day in early September 2010.

Waterman was last seen alive in early June 2010 at a Holiday Inn Express in Hauppauge.

(Suffolk County Police Department)

Seven months later, on 26 July 2011, the remains of Jessica Taylor were found in a wooded area in Manorville during the ongoing search for Gilbert. Taylor worked as an escort in New York City.

Valerie Mack also worked as an escort but was last seen alive in Philadelphia in 2000. Her remains were found on two separate occasions in Manorville in 2000 and in Oak Beach in 2011 but she was only identified in 2020 through the use of genetic genealogy.

Some of the victims have never been identified.

The skeletal remains of an Asian male, aged between 17 and 23 years old, around 5 feet 6 inches tall and with poor dental health, were found along Ocean Parkway in April 2011. He is believed to have died around five to 10 years earlier.

That same day, the remains of a female toddler were discovered. She was later identified as the daughter of the also-unidentified female victim dubbed Peaches whose remains were found in Nassau County.

Gilgo Beach serial killer suspects contact with wife revealed

Wednesday 2 August 2023 20:16 , Rachel Sharp

The wife of Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann has stayed in contact with him since his bombshell arrest for the murders of at least three women, it has been revealed.

Asa Ellerup  who has been married to the accused serial killer for more than 20 years and shares two adult children with him  has spoken to her husband in personal jailhouse phone calls while he remains behind bars in Suffolk County jail, her attorney Robert Macedonio told CNN on Tuesday.

I believe there has [been contact] but you have to realise any phone calls are recorded out of the facility, he said, declining to detail the contents of those conversations.

Read more here:

Gilgo Beach serial killer suspects contact with wife revealed

WATCH: Gilgo Beach, the story so far

Wednesday 2 August 2023 19:15 , Rachel Sharp

How Rex Heuermann was linked to the murders

Wednesday 2 August 2023 18:15 , Rachel Sharp

Court records show that Rex Heuermann was linked to the Gilgo Four murders through a tip about his pickup truck, a stash of burner phones, sadistic online searches, phone calls taunting victims families, his wifes hair found on the victims bodies  and a pizza crust.

The first piece of the puzzle came when a witness in the Amber Costello case revealed details about a vehicle that a client was driving when she was last seen alive.

Costello, who worked as a sex worker, was seen alive on the evening of 2 September 2010 when she left her home in West Babylon. A witness said she had gone to meet a client who was driving a first-generation Chevrolet Avalanche.

Last year, a registration search showed that local man Mr Heuermann owned a first-generation model of the truck at the time of Costellos disappearance. He also matched the witness description of the man believed to be the killer: a large, white ogre-like male in his mid-40s, around 64 to 66 tall, with dark bushy hair, and big oval style 1970s type eyeglasses.

The discovery of the car led investigators to hone in on Mr Heuermann including executing 300 subpoenas, search warrants and other legal processes to obtain evidence to determine his potential involvement in the killings.

Among this was Mr Heuermanns alleged use of burner phones, with prosecutors saying that he used burner phones to contact the three women and arrange to meet them at the time when they went missing.

He also allegedly took two of the victims cellphones  and used one to make taunting phone calls to one of their families where he boasted about her murder, court documents state.

Mr Heuermanns DNA was found on one of the victims, while his wifes hair was found on three of the four women he is connected to.

Daughter of Happy Face Serial Killer launches GoFundMe for Gilgo Beach serial killer suspects family

Wednesday 2 August 2023 17:15 , Rachel Sharp

The daughter of the notorious Happy Face Killer has launched a GoFundMe campaign to help the wife of Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann start her new life.

Melissa Moore announced her decision to try to help Asa Ellerup as she compared their experiences discovering that a close family member had spent years leading a double life as an alleged serial killer.

Today, I have an opportunity to use my voice to help Asa, who isnt in a place to speak about the terror and horror she and her family are experiencing at this moment, she said.

Read the full story:

Happy Face Killers daughter launches GoFundMe for Gilgo Beach suspects wife

WATCH: Moment Gilgo Beach suspect arrested in crowded New York street

Wednesday 2 August 2023 16:15 , Rachel Sharp

How the Gilgo Beach serial killer turned the Long Island shore into a graveyard

Wednesday 2 August 2023 15:17 , Rachel Sharp

For around two decades, the sands and marshes of Long Islands Gilgo Beach kept a dark secret.

A killer or killers roamed the area, luring in escorts and sex workers and brutally murdering them.

Body after body was dumped along the shoreline, hidden for months and even years without being discovered.

Then, in 2010, a chilling 911 call made by a woman in fear for her life led police to search the area.

What they discovered was far more horrifying than anyone could have imagined.

The Independents Rachel Sharp has the story:

How the Gilgo Beach serial killer turned the Long Island shore into a graveyard

Watch: Suffolk County District Attorney gives statement on court conference

Wednesday 2 August 2023 14:00 , Ariana Baio

Rex Heuermanns defence buried in mountain of evidence as he faces court in Gilgo Beach murders case

Wednesday 2 August 2023 13:00 , Andrea Blanco

Mr Heuermann, the Manhattan architect accused of murdering at least three women and dumping their bodies along a remote stretch of shore in the Long Island community of Gilgo Beach, appeared in court on Tuesday for the first time since his arraignment.

No cameras were allowed during the hearing and Mr Huermann was brought inside the Arthur M Cromarty Criminal Court Complex through an underground tunnel from the jail across the street, according to WSAZ. Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney told media outside the courthouse in Riverhead that his team had handed eight terabytes of evidence to the defence.

Were talking about a 13-year-old case so were talking about a massive amount of material, and dont forget it is continuing, because the investigation is continuing, Mr Tierny told reporters. It had to be done in a way that made sense to us but also to the defence ... and we were able to catalogue everything that we provided.

The Independents Andrea Blanco reports:

Gilgo Beach murders suspect Rex Heuermanns defence buried in mountain of evidence

Recap: Tuesdays court conference was related to discovery

Wednesday 2 August 2023 12:00 , Ariana Baio

Rex Heuermann and his attorneys met with the Suffolk County District Attorney and a judge to discuss the timing of discovery being handed over to defence counsel.

District attorney Ray Tierney told reporters that prosecutors have a tremendous amount of evidence related to the case as investigators first began collecting it 13 years ago.

Tuesdays court conference regarded how the prosecution will hand over discovery, starting with an 8-gigabit file of photos, reports, physical evidence and more.

Another court conference is planned for 27 August.

Rex Heuermanns wife says investigators turned their house upside down

Wednesday 2 August 2023 11:00 , Ariana Baio

An attorney for Asa Ellerup, the wife of Rex Heuermann, described a chaotic scene inside the house that she shared with the accused killer.

Everything in the house was turned upside down, Bob Macedonio, Ms Ellerups attorney told CNN.

Dresser drawers were emptied out. The bathroom tub  which was a vinyl tub  was actually cut open. The floors were ripped up. The couches and the mattresses have been removed, Mr Macedonio said.

Investigators in the Suffolk County District Attorneys Office said that law enforcement found massive amounts of material when they investigated the suspects home.

How Long Island police tied Rex Heuermann to the Gilgo Beach murders

Wednesday 2 August 2023 10:00 , Ariana Baio

For more than a decade, the accused killer continued to go about his day-to-day life  going to work at his architecture firm in Manhattan and coming home to his wife and two children.

He seemed just as baffled by his lack of arrest as the local residents and victims families who questioned why police had not been able to catch the killer.

Rachel Sharp reports:

How pizza crust, burner phones and wifes hairs led police to Gilgo Beach suspect

Rex Heuermann is traumatised by Gilgo Beach murders arrest, attorney says

Wednesday 2 August 2023 09:00 , Ariana Baio

Rex Heuermanns attorney has said that the suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer is traumatised by his sudden arrest  as he claims that the 59-year-old married father-of-two has already been convicted by the media.

Attorney Michael Brown told ABC News that he met the accused serial killer for the first time on Friday when he was arraigned on charges for murdering three women and dumping their bodies along the shores of Long Island.

He said that Mr Heuermann seemed normal in the meeting but was traumatised by the fact he had been taken into custody over the unsolved killings.

Nothing struck me as unusual about him. He was articulate, he was intelligent, he was soft-spoken, he said.

Timeline of events in Giligo Beach murders

Wednesday 2 August 2023 07:00 , Ariana Baio

1 May 2010

Shannan Gilbert, 24, disappears after working a job as an escort in Oak Beach, Long Island.

December 2010

Suffolk County police find four bodies along Ocean Parkway between Gilgo Beach and Cedar Beach while searching for Ms Gilbert.

January 2011

Victims identified as Megan Waterman, 22, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25, Melissa Barthelemy, 24, and Amber Lynn Costello, 27. All four women were escorts.

Ms Waterman was last seen in the spring of 2010. Ms Brainard-Barnes was last seen on 9 July 2007. Ms Barthelemy was last seen on 12 July 2009. Ms Costello was last seen on 2 September 2010.

April 2011

By April, eight other bodies were found in a several-mile stretch along the Long Island Shore. Among those were a toddler and one man.

13 December 2011

Remains of Ms Gilbert are found.

January 2020

Police release a photo of a black leather belt embossed with the letters WH or HM and ask for the publics help in identifying what it could mean or who it could belong to.

February 2022

Suffolk County Police Department, Suffolk County Sheriffs Office, the New York State Police and the FBI form a task force to investigate the Gilgo Beach killings.

13 July 2023

Rex Heuermann arrested in Midtown Manhattan and charged with three counts of first-degree murder for Ms Waterman, Ms Barthelemy, and Ms Costello. He is also named as the prime suspect in Ms Brainard-Barnes death.

Watch: Rex Heuermanns defense attorney says there will be no plea deal

Wednesday 2 August 2023 05:00 , Ariana Baio

Gilgo Beach witness questions why it took so long to make arrest after he gave tip that cracked case in 2010

Wednesday 2 August 2023 03:00 , Ariana Baio

Dave Schaller told the Associated Press in an exclusive interview that, by the time Rex Heuermanns mugshot was plastered on every local and national news channel on 13 July, he was very familiar with the Frankenstein-like figure with an empty gaze he had long ago described to investigators.

Andrea Blanco reports:

Gilgo Beach witness reveals he gave tip that helped crack serial killer case in 2010

Rex Heuermann had one chilling question for officials after his arrest

Wednesday 2 August 2023 01:00 , Ariana Baio

Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann had just one chilling question for jail officials following his arrest last week, it has been revealed.

As the 59-year-old married father-of-two was processed into Suffolk County Jail on a string of murder charges, sources told CNN he was curious about his newfound notoriety.

Is it in the news? he asked.

Mr Heuermanns alleged interest in the media coverage of the killings isnt new.

Court documents revealed that over the last year between March 2022 and June 2023, he repeatedly looked online for updates in the investigation, searched for details about the victims and their families, read news stories about the case and looked for podcasts and documentaries about the murders.
The Gilgo Beach murders victim previously known only as Jane Doe 7 has finally been identified more than 26 years after her partial remains were first discovered along the Long Island shores.

Karen Vergata, a 34-year-old woman who was last seen alive in Manhattan in 1996 while working as an escort, was named on Friday by Long Island officials.

The huge breakthrough in the case comes almost three decades after some of her remains were first discovered  and weeks after 59-year-old father-of-two architect was arrested and charged with the murders of three other victims.

It was 20 April 1996 when a womans legs were found wrapped in plastic at Davis Park on Fire Islands Blue Point Beach.

Almost exactly 15 years later on 11 April 2011, the womans skull was then found off Ocean Parkway during the search for Gilgo Beach victims. The skull was located close to the remains of another also unidentified victim  Jane Doe 3, also known as Peaches.

The two sets of remains were later found to belong to the same person.

Before now, investigators had been unable to identify Jane Doe 7  also dubbed Fire Island Jane Doe.

She was described only as a white woman aged 18 to 50 years old who had several notable scars including evidence of surgery on her left ankle.

She was one of 11 victims whose remains were found dumped along the shores of Gilgo Beach back in 2010 and 2011  several of whom are yet to be identified.

In a press conference announcing her identity, Suffolk County officials refused to take any questions and would not comment on whether or not she is linked to serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann.

This major development comes as prosecutors are seeking to obtain a swab of DNA from Mr Heuermann, the man arrested and charged with the murders of three of the victims and suspected of a fourth killing.

In a court filing this week, prosecutors said that the DNA sample would provide further relevant evidence of the defendants identity as the perpetrator of the crime.

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Prosecutors have so far obtained hundreds of hours of footage from the suspects home in Massapequa Park and his office in Midtown Manhattan, 2,500 pages of documents, crime scene photographs and autopsy reports in the high-profile case.

Map showing sites where victims remains found along Gilgo Beach (Suffolk County Police Department)

The trove of evidence was turned over to Suffolk County Supreme Court Justice Timothy Mazzei and Mr Heuermanns attorney Michael Brown on Tuesday as the accused killer appeared in court for a brief preliminary hearing.

Suffolk County DA Tierney said last week that a massive amount of evidence had been recovered from the home which Mr Heuermann grew up in as a child  and which he went on to share with his family up until his sudden arrest.

No human remains were discovered, but a trove of around 270 guns were seized from the home.

The DA previously revealed that they believe at least some of the murders may have taken place inside the home.

Mr Heuermanns wife and two adult children were out of town at the time of each of the three murders he is charged with, according to court records.

The 59-year-old architect was taken into custody on 13 July, almost 13 years after the bodies of at least 11 victims were discovered along the shores of Gilgo Beach on Long Island.

He was charged with the murders of Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy and Amber Costello.

He is also the prime suspect in the murder of Maureen Brainard-Barnes  who was last seen alive in early June 2007 in New York City and who, with the three other women, is known as the Gilgo Four.

Rex Heuermann appeared in court on Tuesday (jtc)

All four women worked as sex workers and disappeared after going to meet a client. They were all found in December 2010 within one-quarter mile of each other, bound by belts or tape and some wrapped in burlap  their bodies dumped along Gilgo Beach.

They are among 11 victims whose remains were found along the shores of Long Island in 2010 and 2011, sparking fears of one or more serial killers.

As well as looking into his connection to the murder of Brainard-Barnes and the other Gilgo Beach victims, law enforcement agencies are now also looking into unsolved murders and missing persons cases all across the country.

Police in Las Vegas and South Carolina  where Mr Heuermann owns properties  and Atlantic City  where several sex workers have been found murdered  have confirmed they are eyeing the suspect in cold cases.

Court records show that Mr Heuermann was linked to the Gilgo Four murders through a tip about his pickup truck, a stash of burner phones, sadistic online searches, phone calls taunting victims families, his wifes hair found on the victims bodies  and a pizza crust.

The first piece of the puzzle came when a witness in the Amber Costello case revealed details about a vehicle that a client was driving when she was last seen alive.

Costello, who worked as a sex worker, was seen alive on the evening of 2 September 2010 when she left her home in West Babylon. A witness said she had gone to meet a client who was driving a first-generation Chevrolet Avalanche.

Last year, a registration search showed that local man Mr Heuermann owned a first-generation model of the truck at the time of Costellos disappearance. He also matched the witness description of the man believed to be the killer: a large, white ogre-like male in his mid-40s, around 64 to 66 tall, with dark bushy hair, and big oval style 1970s type eyeglasses.

Rex Heuermanns home being searched by investigators (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

The discovery of the car led investigators to hone in on Mr Heuermann including executing 300 subpoenas, search warrants and other legal processes to obtain evidence to determine his potential involvement in the killings.

Among this was Mr Heuermanns alleged use of burner phones, with prosecutors saying that he used burner phones to contact the three women and arrange to meet them at the time when they went missing.

He also allegedly took two of the victims cellphones  and used one to make taunting phone calls to one of their families where he boasted about her murder, court documents state.

Mr Heuermanns DNA was found on one of the victims, while his wifes hair was found on three of the four women he is connected to.

Following his arrest, his wife Asa Ellerup filed for divorce. She has since told The New York Post that she has been left filled with anxiety and their two children cry themselves to sleep over the horror.

I woke up in the middle of the night, shivering... anxiety, she said.

My children cry themselves to sleep. I mean, theyre not children. Theyre grown adults but theyre my children, and my son has developmental disabilities and he cried himself to sleep.

Mr Heuermanns sudden arrest comes after the horrific serial killer case has captured the nations attention for more than a decade.

The Gilgo Beach murders had long stumped law enforcement officials in Suffolk County who believed it could be the work of one or more serial killers who targeted sex workers and dumped their bodies along the remote beaches on Ocean Parkway.

The case began in May 2010 when Shannan Gilbert vanished after leaving a clients house on foot near Gilgo Beach.

She called 911 for help saying she feared for her life and was never seen alive again.

Crime scene investigators use metal detectors to search a marsh for the remains of Shannan Gilbert in December 2011

During a search for Gilbert in dense thicket close to the beach, police discovered the remains of another woman.

Within a matter of days, the remains of three more victims were found close by.

By spring 2011, the remains of a total of 10 victims had been found including eight women, a man, and a toddler. Police have long thought that it could be the work of one or more serial killers.

Gilberts body was then found in December 2011. Her cause of death is widely contested with authorities long claiming that it is not connected to the serial killer or killers but that she died from accidental drowning as she fled from the clients home.

However, an independent autopsy commissioned by her family ruled that she died by strangulation and her mother believes she was murdered.

Like Gilbert, most of the victims targeted were sex workers, while some are yet to be identified.
Officials are set to hold a press conference Friday morning to share an update on the Gilgo Beach serial killing case following the arrest of suspect Rex Heuermann on Long Island, New York last month.

Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney will be joined by local authorities as well as representatives from the state police and the FBI to "announce an update" in the investigation, the district attorney's office said in a news release.

More than 15 years after the first victim went missing, police charged Heuermann in July with murder in the deaths of three victims, according to Suffolk County court records, after DNA from a pizza Heuermann ate matched a male hair found on one of the victims remains.

Heuermann was charged with killing Melissa Barthelemy, 24, Megan Waterman, 22, and Amber Costello, 27, whose bodies were found along a Long Island beach roadway in 2010. He pleaded not guilty to three counts each of first- and second-degree murder.

Gilgo Beach murders: Timeline shows what led to arrest of suspect Rex Heuermann in Long Island

How to watch press conference on Gilgo Beach murders

The press conference is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. ET on Friday, Aug. 4 in Hauppauge, New York.

You can watch a live stream of the press conference at the embed at the top of the page or on USA TODAY's YouTube channel.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Gilgo Beach press conference live stream: Watch officials give update
Suffolk County

Authorities have finally identified the Gilgo Beach murder victim previously known as Jane Doe No. 7 as Karen Vergata, a sex worker who was 34 when she vanished on Long Island in New York in 1996.

Vergatas remains, consisting of just legs and feet, were found that same year on the bayside shore of Fire Island, with investigators later using DNA technology to link the remains to a skull found in 2011 nearly 30 miles away at Tobay Beach.

Last August, Gilgo Beach task force investigators were able to develop a DNA profile, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said at a press conference Friday. In September, the FBI performed a genetic genealogy review that positively identified Vergata using a buccal swab from a relative.

Two months later, Vergatas father, Raymond, died at the age of 87. His obituary did not specify a cause of death.

Gilgo Beach Suspect Brought Up Murders on Escort Date: Report

Tierney said Vergata lived in Manhattan and is believed to have worked as an escort. He said no missing persons report was filed when she disappeared on Valentines Day in 1996.

In 1987, five years before his death, Raymond Vergata filed a petition in New York State Surrogates Court to have his daughter legally declared dead in order to collect on a pair of life insurance policies in her name. It said Vergata had been living on West 45th Street, in the Hells Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan, and that she had last spoken to her dad on Valentines Day 1996, also his birthday. He had enlisted the help of a private investigator, been in touch with police, and spoke with those who knew Karen, all to no avail, according to the petition. In short, it stated bluntly, Her absence cannot be satisfactorily explained.

A high school classmate of Vergatas told The Daily Beast she was stunned on Friday by the news that Fire Island Jane Doe was her long-lost friend.

Karen was a fabulous young woman with issues that arose during high school and manifested after graduation, said the classmate, who asked not to be identified publicly. Im numb at the moment.

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Kerry Breen, Vergatas stepbrother, declined to comment in a brief phone call on Friday with The Daily Beast. Her biological brother, Victor, did not respond to interview requests. Reached by phone on Friday afternoon, Vergatas stepmom, Virginia, hung up immediately. However, she told a local reporter that she had not been informed Vergata would be identified by authorities at Fridays press conference, and that she was deeply upset about it.

In an interview with the New York Post, Vergatas stepsister said the family hadnt heard from her in 20 years and just assumed she was dead.

We wondered what happened to her, Brenda Breen said. But she had a habit of just not being in contact.

Breen said she was already grown and living on her own in 1983 when her mom married Vergatas dad, so she didnt know her stepsister all that well. Dominic Vergata didnt talk much about his missing daughter, but Breen recalled him once giving a DNA sample during his failed bid to track her down.

Im glad that shes found, at least most of her, Breen said.

Police have not charged anyone in relation to Vergatas death and declined to speak about potential suspects.

A total of 11 bodies have been found in the Gilgo Beach investigations. Among them is the still-unidentified Jane Doe No. 3, commonly referred to as Peaches because of her distinctive tattoo, whose remains were found on the same day as Vergatas.

How the Gilgo Beach Suspect Was Undone by a Pizza Box and a Tinder Account

New York City architect Rex Heuermann was arrested last month and charged in three of the four murders often referred to as the Gilgo Four. He is the prime suspect in the fourth. The fourMelissa Barthelemy, Amber Costello, Megan Waterman and Maureen Brainard-Barneswere all sex workers whose bodies were discovered strangled and wrapped in burlap in the Gilgo Beach area in 2010.

Prosecutors say Heuermann used burner phones and email accounts to regularly meet up with sex workers, and to compulsively search the internet for photos of his victims as well as updates on the Gilgo Beach investigations, and sadistic and underage pornography.

He lived a very, very bizarre double life, Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison told News 12 recently. Two types of lives where he was a family man, architect, but when his wife would go out of town, some of the things that he participated in was very, very dangerous for our community.

Heuermanns wife, who is not implicated in the crimes and has since filed for divorce, was away when the three murders occurred. Nevertheless, prosecutors say her hair was found on three victims, presumably left behind by her husband. Another hair found on one victim was allegedly matched to Heuermanns DNA when cops tested a pizza crust he tossed in the trash.

Tierney told Long Island outlet Newsday in a recent interview that a belt with the initials WH or HM was one of three used to tie Brainard-Barnes feet, ankles, and legs together.

with additional reporting by Dan Ladden-Hall

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Harper Finn, 5, died three days after she was hit by a starting gate during a harness race at the Effingham County Fair in Illinois (WCIA)

A five-year-old Illinois girl has died after she was struck by a car-mounted starting gate during a county fair harness racing event.

Harper Layne Finn, from Altamont, was sitting in a grandstand at the Effingham County Fair last Sunday 30 July when she was hit by the folding arm of a pace car gate that failed to close due to a malfunction and extended into the grandstand, the Effingham County Sheriffs Office said.

Harper was rushed to a nearby hospital before being airlifted to St Louis Childrens Hospital, where she was pronounced dead on Wednesday.

The incident is under investigation by the sheriffs office, according to the Effingham Daily News.

We appreciate the publics assistance and willingness to help in this investigation, and our deepest condolences go out to the Finn family and all of those involved, Sheriff Paul Kuhns told the news site.

Mr Kuhns said he didnt consider it to be a criminal investigation, but that a final decision would be made by the Effingham County States Attorney.

The fair cancelled the remaining races and said it was working closely with law enforcement and would review processes and procedures once the investigation was complete.

Harper had been due to appear in the Effingham County Fairs Little Miss beauty pageant, according to the Effingham Daily News.

Several prayer vigils were held before her death was confirmed on Wednesday.

Harpers family has raced and trained horses in southern Illinois for several generations, and previously won events at the Effingham County Fair.

Her father Richard Finn had been due ride in a later harness racing event on Sunday.

A GoFundme set up by the Illinois Harness Horseman's Association has attracted more than $77,000 in donations for the family.
The Glendale Heights village president has been charged with disorderly conduct for filing two police reports that allegedly falsely claim that a village trustee had threatened to bite him, prosecutors announced Friday.

Chodri Ma Khokhar, 66, was charged with two counts of disorderly conduct, a class 4 felony, the DuPage County states attorneys office said in a news release.

A DuPage County indictment stated that on April 26 and May 12 Khokhar said he was the victim of an assault in reports he filed with the village Police Department and the states attorney. The indictment charges that Khokhar filed the report saying that a trustee threatened to bite him, knowing at the time of the transmission that there was no reasonable grounds for believing that the offense had been committed.

Khokhar turned himself in to authorities Thursday. He was processed and released with no bond.

Khokhar, who did not immediately respond to requests for comment, was scheduled for arraignment Sept. 11 in front of DuPage County Circuit Judge Daniel Guerin.
Here's what Google's "Results about you" page looks like.

In a blog post this week, Google announced that it is rolling out a new set of privacy tools that will alert US users when their personal information, like their address, email address, or phone number, appears in online search resultsand make it easier for them to request its removal. The search giant is also making it easier for people who have previously posted explicit images online to request their removal from its results too.

The new tools build on a few features that Google launched last year, including the Results About You dashboard. Theyre all part of a softening in Googles stance towards surfacing personal information in search results. Under previous policies, the only way to request that your personal information be removed was through a long and complex form. And even then, Google would only remove it if it had been shared with intent to do harm (or dox someone).

Under its current policies, Google will consider removing peoples personal information so long as it is not in the public interest. This includes things like their address, email, and phone number, but also other personal information such as images of ID documents, government ID numbers, bank account numbers, credit card numbers, hand written signatures, and personal, restricted, and official records like medical records.

Once youve added your personal contact information to your Google account, it will automatically find websites that contain it and show them in your Results About You dashboard so you can review them. You can also enable push notifications so you can get alerted whenever your personal information is posted somewhere new.

If you want one of these results removed from search, all you have to do is select it from the Results About You dashboard and click Request to Remove.

Of course, this is no guarantee that Google will remove it. If the contact information is posted on a newspaper or government website, you will still have to fill in a long form explaining how it harms you. Similarly, Google may only remove the website from searches including your name, not from all searches.

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The other caveat is that Google wont remove contact information posted by accounts you control. For example, if you share your phone number on your Twitter (sorry, X) account, its up to you to login and remove the post. This could probably lead to some messy situations if you shared your personal information on an old forum or social media accounts that you no longer have access to, but thats what that full content removal request form is for.

On the subject of those forms, in the same blog post, Google announced that it has updated and simplified the forms you use to submit requests for removing any kind of information from its search results.

The other big announcement was a change in how Google would handle explicit imagery removal requests from its search results. Now, instead of only removing non-consensual explicit imagery, the company also allows you to request the removal of any personal, explicit images you dont want to appear in search results. The example it gives is that you can request an image or video be removed if you posted it to a website and then deleted it, but it is now being reposted or shared elsewhere without your approval.

The big caveat here is that this doesnt apply to content you are currently commercializing, so adult creators will still have to rely on DMCA takedown requests if their content is being reposted without their permission.

The final thing Google announced was that explicit, adult, or graphic violent content would be blurred by default for users who dont have SafeSearch on. Its a small change, and the setting can be turned off, but it means searching for things like injury are less likely to show you something shocking.

While all of these changes are big steps towards giving people more control over how there personal details appear in search results, its important to stress that this only affects search results. Google cant actually take down content posted to other websites. For example, if a blog post shares your home address, Google can stop it appearing when people search for youbut they cant stop anyone from visiting the blog by typing its URL into their browser.
JACKSON, Miss. (AP)  Men who had sworn an oath to protect and serve were huddled on the back porch of a Mississippi home as Michael Corey Jenkins lay on the floor, blood gushing from his mutilated tongue where one of the police officers shoved a gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger.

As Jenkins writhed in pain, the six white officers devised a scheme to cover up dozens of stunning acts of brutality that they had just carried out during 90 minutes of terror against Jenkins and a second Black victim.

The officers planted drugs. They stole surveillance footage from the house. They tried to dispose of other evidence. They agreed on a set of lies that would further upend their victims lives.

And that was just the cover-up.

Careful to avoid security cameras at the house, they burst in without a warrant, starting the physical, sexual and psychological abuse. They handcuffed Jenkins and his friend Eddie Terrell Parker and poured milk, alcohol and chocolate syrup over their faces. They forced them to strip naked and shower together to conceal the mess. They mocked the victims with racial slurs. They shocked them with stun guns.

The officers had meant to torture the men without leaving physical scars. But one shot Jenkins in the mouth. Miraculously, Jenkins survived.

The six officers pleaded guilty Thursday to a long list of federal civil rights charges. The Mississippi attorney generals office announced afterward that it had filed state charges that include assault, conspiracy and obstruction of justice.

Law enforcement officers are seldom charged for crimes committed on the job, and its rarer still for them to plead guilty.

The charges follow an investigation by The Associated Press that linked some of the deputies to at least four violent encounters with Black men since 2019 that left two dead and another with lasting injuries.

The officers included Christian Dedmon, Hunter Elward, Brett McAlpin, Jeffrey Middleton and Daniel Opdyke of the Rankin County Sheriffs Department and Joshua Hartfield, a Richland police officer. They pleaded guilty to charges including conspiracy against rights, obstructions of justice, deprivation of rights under color of law, discharge of a firearm under a crime of violence, and conspiracy to obstruct justice.

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The terror began on Jan. 24 in a racist call for extrajudicial violence that felt like it was from a bygone era.

A white neighbor phoned Rankin County Deputy Brett McAlpin and complained that two Black men were staying with a white woman inside a Braxton home. McAlpin told Deputy Christian Dedmon, who texted a group of white deputies so willing to use excessive force they called themselves The Goon Squad.

Are yall available for a mission? Dedmon asked. They were.

Opdyke admits he was wrong for his part in the horrific harms and is prepared to face the consequences of his actions, attorney Jason Kirschberg said in a statement.

Hartfields attorney Vicki Gilliam said while he cannot change what he did, he has shown that he is ready to accept consequences.

Attorneys for the other men did not respond to requests for comment.

The deputies were under the watch of Sheriff Bryan Bailey, who called it the worst episode of police brutality he has seen in his career.

Black residents on Friday expressed revulsion at the former officers' actions, gratitude toward Jenkins and Parker for speaking out about their treatment, and relief that the officers were being brought to justice.

When the people that you expect to protect you are the people who are hurting you and killing you, there just are no words to describe how it has affected the mindset, the mental state of our people, said Angela English, the county's NAACP president.

Law enforcement misconduct in the U.S. has come under increased scrutiny. The 2020 killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police ignited calls for sweeping criminal justice reforms and a reassessment of American race relations. The January beating death of Tyre Nichols by five Black members of a special police squad in Memphis, Tennessee, led to a probe of similar units nationwide.

In Rankin County, the brutality visited upon Jenkins and Parker was not a botched police operation, but an assembly of rogue officers who tortured them all under the authority of a badge, which they disgraced, U.S. Attorney Darren LaMarca said.

The majority-white county is just east of the state capital, Jackson, home to one of the highest percentages of Black residents of any major U.S. city. A towering monument topped by a Confederate soldier stands across the street from the Rankin County sheriffs office.

Federal court records detail what happened.

As Jenkins lay bleeding, the officers knew the mission had gone too far. Instead of coming clean, they devised a hasty cover-up that included a fictitious narcotics bust and threats.

The officers warned Jenkins and Parker to "stay out of Rankin County and go back to Jackson or their side of the Pearl River, court documents say, referencing an area with higher concentrations of Black residents.

Kristen Clarke, head of the Justice Departments Civil Rights Division, said the trauma is magnified because the misconduct was fueled by racial bias and hatred" that recalled that a sheriff's deputy was also involved in one of Mississippi's most notorious crimes  the 1964 kidnapping and killing of three civil rights workers by Ku Klux Klan members.

After Dedmon summoned The Goon Squad," the officers crept around the ranch-style home to avoid a surveillance camera. They kicked down the carport door and burst inside without a warrant.

Opdyke found a sex toy, which he mounted on a nearby BB gun and forced into Parker's mouth. Dedmon tried to sexually assault Jenkins with the toy. The officers used stun guns on them, comparing whose weapons were more powerful.

Elward forced Jenkins to his knees for a mock execution, intending to fire the gun without a bullet. But it was loaded, and discharged, cutting Jenkins tongue, breaking his jaw and exiting through his neck.

As Jenkins bled on the floor, the officers devised a cover story for investigators: Elward brought Jenkins into a side room to stage a drug bust over the phone and said Jenkins reached for a gun when he was released from handcuffs.

Middleton offered to plant an unregistered gun, but Elward said he would use the BB gun. Dedmon volunteered to plant methamphetamine he had received from an informant.

Prosecutors in Rankin County initially charged Jenkins with a felony based on the methamphetamine. That was later dropped.

Opdyke put one of Elward's shell casings in a water bottle and threw it into tall grass nearby. Hartfield removed the hard drive from the home's surveillance system and later tossed it in a creek.

Afterward, McAlpin and Middleton made a promise: They would kill any of the officers who told the truth about what happened.

The officers kept quiet as pressure mounted from a Justice Department civil rights probe. One came forward in June, Sheriff Bailey said.

Bailey said Thursday that he was lied to and only learned the truth when he read unsealed court documents. McAlpin and Elward worked under Bailey for years and were sued several times for alleged misconduct.

The sheriff said the deputies violated existing body camera rules by not wearing them when in uniform. He promised to mandate body cameras be turned on with fewer exceptions and said he was open to more federal oversight. He also called the officers criminals, echoing federal prosecutors.

Now, theyll be treated as the criminals they are, U.S. Attorney LaMarca said.

___

Associated Press writer Emily Wagster Pettus contributed to this report.

___

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 at @mikergoldberg.
Republican allies of Donald Trump are stepping up their attacks on Washington, D.C., District Judge Tanya Chutkan and the D.C. court itself, arguing it would be impossible for the former president to get a fair trial in the nations capital city.

Judge Chutkans ruling against Trump two years ago in a legal dispute over handing his presidential records to House investigators and the tough sentences the Obama appointee handed down to Jan. 6 defendants are drawing scrutiny and criticism from Trumps allies.

Her record of contributing money to former President Obamas presidential campaigns  and the political leanings of D.C.s residents, who would comprise the jury pool  are also coming under Republican attack.

A growing number of Republicans say the odds in the D.C. District Court are so stacked against Trump that a guilty verdict would lack legitimacy.

I dont think any Republican, much less any America-first type Republican, could ever expect to have a fair trial in a D.C. setting with a D.C. judge and D.C. jury. Its all meant to rubber-stamp what they already want to see happen, said Ned Ryun, the founder and CEO of American Majority, a national grassroots conservative group.

Of course its a rigged game. I think any fair-minded person would step back and say, If you really want this to be a legitimate pursuit of justice, you would not be having it in D.C., he said. I dont think its fair, I dont think it will be legitimate.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, accused Chutkan of having a reputation for being far left, even by D.C. District Court standards.

He noted that she had set aside numerous federal death penalty cases and is the only federal judge in Washington DC, who has sentenced Jan. 6 defendants to sentences longer than the government requested.

Even Trumps political rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), came to his defense by arguing that he wont get a fair trial.

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Washington, DC, is a swamp and it is unfair to have to stand trial before a jury that is reflective of the swamp mentality, he posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

He argued that the politicization of the rule of law is causing national decline and pledged to end the weaponization of the federal government.

The other federal case against Trump will take place in Florida under District Court Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee. That case involves charges related to Trump keeping classified documents at his estate at Mar-a-Lago in Florida.

In the Jan. 6 case, Trump faces charges related in part to the mob of his supporters who invaded the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to interrupt the congressional certification of the Electoral College vote. The mob marched near the D.C. District Court served by Chutkan, who was chosen as part of a random draw to preside over the Trump case.

None of this has stopped supporters of Trump from arguing it is unfair for him to be tried there, suggesting they see it as a strong political argument to make as he seeks another win in a GOP presidential primary.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), a prominent Trump ally in the House, took aim at Washingtons overwhelmingly Democratic voter registration in her arguments.

Those are not his peers. Everybody knows this. Everyone knows he has no shot of a fair trial in the Washington, D.C., court system, she said of the makeup of the Districts jury pool.

Hes being indicted for saying the election was stolen. You know who else said the election was stolen? Hillary Clinton, she said, referring to an interview former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave in 2019 in which she dismissed Trump as an illegitimate president and accused him of voter suppression.

President Biden carried Washington, D.C., with more than 92 percent of the vote in the 2020 election, while Trump won only 5 percent. Clinton beat Trump in D.C. in 2016 with nearly 91 percent of the vote.

Republicans predict that Trump will almost certainly face a guilty verdict in a trial that takes place in Washington, D.C. They say he has a better chance of winning on appeal to the D.C. Circuit Court, depending on the makeup of any appellate panel that rules on his case.

The likelihood that a D.C. jury will vote to convict Donald Trump is exceptionally high, and the facts dont matter. The laws dont matter. They hate him, Cruz said on his podcast, Verdict.

Thats a big part of the reason why the Biden [Department of Justice] wants to bring this case in D.C., which means with a far-left judge and a far-left jury; there is a very real possibility that Donald Trump ends up being convicted, he said.

Cruz on Thursday retweeted a report that Chutkan had donated money to Obamas campaigns in 2008 and 2012 before she was confirmed to the federal bench in 2014.

He predicted the conviction wouldnt stand on appeal and that his case would ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court.

Trump on Wednesday called for the trial to be moved to West Virginia, a state he carried with 29 percent of the vote in 2020.

The latest Fake case brought by Crooked Joe Biden & Deranged Jack Smith will hopefully be moved to an impartial Venue, such as the politically unbiased nearby State of West Virginia! Trump posted on his social media platform, Truth Social.

Republicans are scrutinizing Chutkans record on the bench, especially her rulings in cases related to Trump and people who overran the Capitol on Jan. 6.

In December 2021, she gave a five-year prison sentence to a Florida man who dispensed a fire extinguisher in the Capitol and threw it and a wooden plank at Capitol police. At the time, it was the longest sentence imposed on a Jan. 6 defendant.

In another 2021 sentencing, she dismissed the prosecutions recommendations that a defendant serve a period of home confinement as too light a punishment and instead sentenced the individual to 45 days in jail, proclaiming: There have to be consequences for participating in an attempted violent overthrow of government.

As the presiding judge, Chutkan will have the power to make hugely important decisions in the case, such as whether an appellate court should hear some of the process arguments before the trial goes to verdict.

She will also have say over the timing of the case and the penalty if Trump is found guilty.

Trumps legal team has sought to delay the start of his trial in the Southern District of Florida on charges that he violated the Espionage Act and conspired to obstruct the FBIs efforts to recover classified documents from his Mar-a-Lago residence until after the 2024 election.

Trump faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for each of two counts of obstructing the vote certification proceedings.

He also faces a maximum punishment of 10 years in prison for conspiring against the right to vote and another maximum of five years incarceration for defrauding the United States.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie made an unannounced visit to Ukraine on Friday and became the second Republican presidential candidate to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the capital, Kyiv.

Christie met with Zelenskyy in the country's presidential palace after touring villages that have become battlefields since Russia invaded last year. During the meeting, he reiterated his support for continued U.S. aid to Ukraine and said the purpose of his visit was "so I could see it for myself" and report back to the American people what the allied country's needs are.

"I feel the cruelty, and you feel the inhumanity," Christie said while visiting the villages of Bucha and Moschun on the outskirts of Kyiv. "And you look at this, and I dont think theres anyone in our country who would come here and see this and not feel as if these are the things that America needs to stand up to prevent."

During the visit, Christie placed flowers at the memorial complex in Bucha, where there was a mass grave of civilians, and prayed for Ukrainian volunteers who were killed by Russian troops at the beginning of the war in Moshchun.

PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFUL PENCE MEETS WITH ZELENSKYY IN UKRAINE IN SURPRISE TRIP

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the presidential palace in Kyiv, Ukraine, on August 4, 2023. Christie became the second GOP presidential candidate to travel to Ukraine, in an unannounced visit on Friday.

"I really suspected that if I saw this in person that it would arm me to be a better advocate for support, I think, from the stuff I saw today just now, and the meeting with the president ... I think I'm much better off," Christie said after his meeting with Zelenskyy.

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Christie told pool reporters the Ukrainian president expressed his desire for continued bipartisan support for Ukraine in Congress, but did not comment on the U.S. presidential race.

"He was very complimentary of President Biden, some of the things that hes advocated for, but also made clear that he thought there was more that needed to be done," Christie said. "There was no conversation at all from him about, you know, the race that Im in."

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The former governor is the second GOP hopeful to visit Ukraine after former Vice President Mike Pence, who last month said Ukrainian victory against Russia was "in the national interest of the United States, and all of the free world." In the Republican primary, Pence and Christie, along with former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, are among the most vocal supporters of continued U.S. aide to Ukraine.

REPUBLICAN RIVAL CHRIS CHRISTIE TELLS TRUMP TO SELL TRUMP TOWER TO HELP COVER REPORTED $40M IN LEGAL FEES

A U.S. delegation led by Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie meets with a Ukrainian delegation headed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Aug. 4, 2023.

In contrast, former President Donald Trump, the front-runner in the race, has called for Congress to stop further military aid to Ukraine until the Biden administration cooperates with Republican investigations into the Biden family's allegedly corrupt business dealings. Trump has also claimed that he could broker a peace agreement to end the war within "24 hours" if he's elected president again.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis  who has voiced skepticism of further U.S. involvement in the conflict  has said the U.S. should negotiate a cease-fire and avoid putting U.S. troops on the ground.

At a town hall event in Columbia, South Carolina, last month, Christie called the Ukraine-Russia conflict "a proxy war between the United States and China" and argued that Ukrainians "dont want American men and women on the ground in Ukraine, nor would I send American men and women on the ground in Ukraine. What they want is the hardware to have a fair chance to beat the Russians."

GLOBAL FOOD PRICES RISE AFTER RUSSIA PULLS OUT OF WARTIME GRAIN AGREEMENT WITH UKRAINE

Former New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie is briefed on the Ukrainian war effort in Kyiv, Ukraine, on August 8, 2023.

Christie told Zelenskyy on Friday that there will be "political arguments" against further aid for Ukraine but called himself an advocate for the nation.

Zelenskyy thanked Christie for his visit and emphasized the importance of continued American support for the Ukrainian war effort.

"I would also like to sincerely thank you and your colleagues, in particular the Congress. We are grateful for the bipartisan support, which is extremely important to us. We are very grateful to President Biden and his administration. It is extremely important that your entire country, all Americans, are on the side of truth and democracy, and they are convinced of Ukraine's victory," Zelenskyy said, according to his office.

Fox News' Caitlin McFall and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Republican presidential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during a campaign event, Monday, July 31, 2023, in Rochester, N.H. | Charles Krupa, Associated Press

As former President Donald Trump appeared in court Thursday to face criminal charges, his challengers were presented with their own conundrum: should they use the indictment to attack Trump or to attack the Biden administration?

Several candidates for the Republican presidential nomination quickly attacked the Department of Justice, claiming President Joe Biden was weaponizing it for political gain. Others have lambasted Trump, saying the indictment makes him unfit to serve as president. And some have remained silent  or, in one case, claimed weve got to move on already.

The latest charges against Trump  related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election  were announced by special counsel Jack Smith on Wednesday. The former president maintains a massive lead in most national polls, his closest challenger  Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis  trails him by 35 to 38 percentage points.

Ron DeSantis

The Florida governor released a statement minutes after the indictment was released Tuesday, blasting the Department of Justice for the politicization of the rule of law.

As President, I will end the weaponization of government, replace the FBI Director, and ensure a single standard of justice for all Americans, DeSantis said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

DeSantis said he had not yet read the indictment  he had only seen reports  and he did not mention Trump by name. However, he argued that forcing the former president to stand trial in Washington D.C. is unfair.

Washington, D.C. is a swamp and it is unfair to have to stand trial before a jury that is reflective of the swamp mentality, DeSantis said.

In an interview on the Megyn Kelly Show last week, DeSantis hinted that if elected president, he would pardon Trump.

Im going to do whats right for the country, DeSantis said. I dont think it would be good for the country to have an almost 80-year-old former president go to prison.

As President, I will end the weaponization of government, replace the FBI Director, and ensure a single standard of justice for all Americans.



While Ive seen reports, I have not read the indictment. I do, though, believe we need to enact reforms so that Americans have the right  Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) August 1, 2023

Vivek Ramaswamy

In a press release Tuesday night, the entrepreneur announced a lawsuit against the Department of Justice, attempting to uncover any communication between President Joe Biden, Attorney General Merrick Garland and special counsel Jack Smith.

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My aim in bringing this lawsuit is to finally deliver accountability and transparency: what did Biden and his cronies tell Garland and what did Garland and the deep-staters who put him in as Attorney General tell Jack Smith, Ramaswamy said in the statement.

Jack Smith has created a dangerous precedent by criminalizing the behavior of Trumps lawyers who offered him legal advice, labeling them co-conspirators instead, Ramaswamy continued. This jeopardizes the future of our legal system.

At a Wednesday press conference in Nashville, Ramaswamy said he did not view Trumps actions as a crime, but as bad judgement.

I would have made very different decisions than (Trump) would have made, Ramaswamy said. But a bad judgement is not the same thing as a crime. And I think it sets a dangerous precedent in this country for the party in power to use police force to arrest its political opponents during an ongoing presidential election on the basis of untested legal theories.

Tim Scott

Like DeSantis, the U.S. senator decried the weaponization of the Department of Justice to against (Bidens) political opponents in a post on X. Scott alluded to the ongoing investigation into Hunter Bidens business activities and suggested there are two different tracks of justice. One for political opponents and another for the son of the current president.

Were watching Bidens DOJ continue to hunt Republicans, while protecting Democrats, he continued.

I remain concerned about the weaponization of Bidens DOJ and its immense power used against political opponents.



What we see today are two different tracks of justice. One for political opponents and another for the son of the current president.  Tim Scott (@votetimscott) August 2, 2023

Mike Pence

The former vice president has repeatedly offered a repudiation of Trumps efforts to overturn the 2020 election, claiming that such action should be disqualifying for presidential candidates.

Todays indictment serves as an important reminder: anyone who puts himself over the Constitution should never be President of the United States, Pence said in a statement posted to X.

On Wednesday, during a stop at the Indiana State Fair, Pence blasted Trumps crackpot lawyers that kept telling him what his itching ears wanted to hear.

With regard to the substance of the indictment, Ive been very clear: Id hoped it wouldnt come to this, Pence continued. Id hoped this issue and the judgement of the presidents actions that day would be left to the American people. Pence reiterated that sentiment in a private call with donors that afternoon, saying hed hoped it wouldnt come to this.

On Wednesday evening, Pence appeared on Fox News and repeated that the former president had no right to overturn the election and Trumps assertion that he did was reckless.

Yesterdays indictment will stand either on its own merits or it will fall, he said. I cant really speak to the legal arguments behind it, but I think the American people deserve to know that on that day, the president asked me to choose between him and the Constitution, and I chose the Constitution, and I always will.

By Thursday, the Pence campaign was selling T-shirts and hats with the catchphrase Too Honest  a phrase quoted in the indictment that Trump allegedly used to describe Pence after the vice president refused to aid his attempts to block electoral votes in January 2021.

Mike Pence on Trump effort to overturn election results: "Sadly, the president was surrounded by a group of crackpot lawyers that kept telling him what his itching ears wanted to hear. ... The president ultimately continued to demand that I choose him over the Constitution." pic.twitter.com/wLhw0mA78Q  Manu Raju (@mkraju) August 2, 2023

Chris Christie

The former New Jersey governor said Trumps actions brought shame to his presidency.

The events around the White House from election night forward are a stain on our countrys history & a disgrace to the people who participated, Christie said in a statement posted to X. This disgrace falls the most on Donald Trump.

In an appearance on the On With Kara Swisher podcast Thursday, Christie separated himself from those critiquing the Biden administration for weaponizing the Justice Department. I dont really think theres anything political about what Jack Smith is doing, he said.

The events around the White House from election night forward are a stain on our countrys history & a disgrace to the people who participated. This disgrace falls the most on Donald Trump. He swore an oath to the Constitution, violated his oath & brought shame to his presidency.  Chris Christie (@GovChristie) August 2, 2023

Will Hurd

The former congressman made an appearance on NBC News Tuesday afternoon and critiqued both Trump and his GOP opponents who refuse to criticize him.

Donald Trump is not running for president to make America great, Hurd said. Hes running to stay out of prison.

The fact that more candidates are so afraid of challenging Donald Trump and being upset by this is nuts to me, he continued.

Asa Hutchinson

The former Arkansas governor released a statement calling it a dark day for America when a former President is indicted on criminal charges. He emphasized that Trump is innocent until proven guilty, but noted that Americas next president should be decided at the ballot box and not in the court system.

Donald Trump should not be the next President, but that should be decided by the voters, he said.

See my statement on the indictment of former President Trump below: pic.twitter.com/sVOwUxrZwL  Gov. Asa Hutchinson (@AsaHutchinson) March 30, 2023

Nikki Haley

The former South Carolina governor and ambassador to the U.N. broke her silence Thursday, saying she is tired of commenting on every Trump drama.

Unlike the other candidates, I didnt rush out with a statement yesterday on Trumps indictment for one simple reason: Like most Americans, Im tired of commenting on every Trump drama, Haley said during a radio show appearance. Ive lost track of whether this indictment is the third or fourth or the fifth.

We should be focusing on how to stop China, she added. We should be focusing on how to close the border. We need to be reversing Bidenomics. Putting a 77-year-old former president in prison doesnt do any of that. Weve got to move on already.
Billionaire Republican megadonor Thomas Peterffy wired $1 million to Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkins Spirit of Virginia PAC Thursday, his second million-dollar donation to the PAC supporting the governor's political goals.

Peterffy, founder of electronic broker firm "Interactive Brokers," made his first seven-figure donation to the Youngkin-aligned PAC in April, around the time he told the Financial Times he was putting his financial support for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the 2024 presidential race on hold" because of DeSantis' stance on social issues.

Thomas Peterffy, chief executive officer of Interactive Brokers, speaks during a Senate Banking hearing in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2010. Senators Jack Reed of Rhode Island and Carl Levin of Michigan, both Democrats, called the joint subcommittee hearing to examine steps the regulators have taken in leading the U.S. response to the May 6 plunge that briefly erased $862 billion of stock value in less than 20 minutes before markets recovered. (Andrew Harrer / Bloomberg via Getty Images file)

Youngkin's PAC has been on a fundraising streak lately, with the Virginia governor raising money around the country, visiting Colorado, Texas and Florida in recent months for receptions with wealthy donors.

The PAC supporting the governor says with Peterffys donation, it has now raked in $9.5 million since the beginning of the year  and has $7.5 million on hand.

Virginia state House Speaker Todd Gilbert, who has served in the General Assembly for 17 years, told NBC News that state Republicans havent always had strong fundraising numbers from outside Virginia  but with Youngkin, he says its different.

We have always struggled to keep up with what the other side seems to do year in, year out  which is bringing in all this out of state money from millionaires and billionaires who have nothing to do with Virginia, but who want to change our way of life here, Gilbert said. We could not do it without his efforts. Period.

Virginia is showing what can be accomplished when youre focused on commonsense results, Dave Rexrode, senior adviser to Youngkin told NBC News.

Donations like Peterffys continue to spur speculation about Youngkins ambitions for higher office. The term-limited Virginia governor has not closed the door on a potential run for president in 2024, NBC News has learned, with donors and close advisors encouraging him to keep an open mind.

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Gilbert says he could see it.

I do think Governor Youngkin would be formidable if he decided to enter the presidential race, but he has been laser focused on winning back the Senate, holding the House, and making sure that he finishes the job that he started here in Virginia," Gilbert said.

Publicly, Youngkin has repeatedly insisted he is indeed focused on Virginia, and is going to be spending time this summer and fall working to flip the state Senate to Republican control.

With Virginias entire legislature up for grabs during off-year elections, flipping of the state Senate  and holding the state House of Delegates  would pave the way for several of Youngkin's legislative priorities that were unable to get across the finish line during the previous session. That includes a 15-week ban on abortion, with exceptions for rape, incest and the life or physical well-being of the mother.

Youngkin last month announced a comprehensive, seven-figure Secure Your Vote campaign that encourages early voting and mail-in voting  strategies many other elected Republicans nationwide shunned during 2020 and 2022 races but are now coming back to despite longtime opposition from figures like former President Donald Trump.

This week, Trump, who has previously falsely claimed mail-in voting would lead to rampant fraud, released a video in coordination with the RNC also urging voters to vote early.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
MADISON - Gov. Tony Evers vetoed a package of Republican-authored bills that would have placed added restrictions on Wisconsin's unemployment assistance programs.

The legislative package, if signed, would have reduced the amount of time Wisconsinites could receive unemployment benefits when the economy is in good shape and made it more difficult to become eligible for assistance.Evers has long opposed adding what he called "duplicative, unnecessary and burdensome provisions" to Wisconsin's unemployment assistance programs in a veto message for one of the bills. He vetoed a similar set of measures in 2021.

"I continue to be perplexed by the Legislature's misplaced emphasis on changing and restricting economic assistance programs while offering no other comprehensive solutions or plans to meaningfully address our state's workforce challenges," Evers said in his veto message Friday. "The Legislature's apparent focus remains re-passing bills I have previously vetoed."

One of the bills would have directly linked how long a person can receive benefits to the state's unemployment rate. The bill would have made the timeframe for benefits as low as 14 weeks when unemployment was low and set the cap at 26 weeks when unemployment was above 9%. Benefits currently are capped at 26 weeks.

Other proposals would have enacted stricter identity verification checks for unemployment benefits, renamed unemployment insurance to "reemployment assistance" and punished unemployment recipients for declining or "ghosting" interviews or job offers by stripping benefits for the week.

Wisconsinites in April overwhelmingly voted in favor of a non-binding referendum that said unemployed, able-bodied adults should be required to search for work while receiving benefits. Nearly 80% of voters voted yes on the ballot question.Republicans argued in April the bill package would have pulled people "off the sidelines" to fill jobs during a current period of record-low unemployment in Wisconsin.Evers vetoed a total of 10 bills on Friday, including:

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A proposal to ban state agencies and local governments from discriminating against a utility service based on its energy source.

Similar proposals to ban state agencies and local governments from restricting the use of a device or motor vehicle based on the energy source it uses for power or fuel.

Two bills that would have required the Department of Safety and Professional Services to report metrics for professional license, permit and certificate applications after years of delays.

Tyler Katzenberger can be reached at tkatzenberger@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Evers vetoes GOP bills overhauling unemployment programs
In July, the French government announced that it will begin offering rebates for people who get their clothing and shoes repaired rather than replaced, the Guardian reports.

Starting in October, French customers at participating clothing workshops and cobblers will be able to earn back six to 25 euros, the Guardian explains  roughly $6.65 to $27.70.

The payment will come from a 154 million ($170 million) fund set aside to cover the program, the Guardian says. The amount is expected to last for the next five years.

Berangere Couillard, Frances secretary of state for ecology, announced the change during a visit to an eco-friendly fashion hub in Paris, the Guardian reports. Couillard made it clear that any French business providing clothing repair services could opt in to the scheme.

The goal is to support those who carry out repairs, Couillard said during her visit, and added that the government hoped more businesses would offer those services thanks to the subsidy, creating jobs.

According to the Guardian, more than 770,000 tons of clothing are thrown away in France each year, and 23 pounds of textiles are sold per person per year. Two-thirds of the clothing that is trashed ends up taking up space in landfills.

Frances program is run by the eco-friendly organization Refashion, the Guardian reports. The hope is that by encouraging people to repair garments, French residents will save money and help protect the environment by reducing the amount of new clothing they buy each year.

Refashion also intends to encourage people to donate their old clothing instead of throwing it out, the Guardian reports. According to the organization, about 56% of the discarded clothing can be reused, and 32% is recyclable.

This rebate is part of a larger movement by the French government to make its economy, and the textile industry in particular, less wasteful, the Guardian says. France passed a law in 2020 that included a six-year reform plan with new requirements introduced each year. The focus shifted to fashion at the end of 2022 and will continue to evolve through the next few years.

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Workplace safety inspectors will visit the massive construction project underway at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. every other month under an agreement between the company and the state, announced by Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs.

The voluntary agreement adds safety measures beyond what are in state and federal law, according to Hobbs, who also debuted a separate effort to make more construction and trade apprenticeships available.

Hobbs announced the efforts Friday morning at TSMC's massive complex in north Phoenix, where a company executive said nearly 12,000 construction workers are on site.

The company, a darling of politicians in both parties who use it to tout Arizona's and the nation's economic growth and innovation, lately has been the subject of reports about workplace safety hazards.

Delays: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing to delay chip production in Phoenix for a year. Here's why

Separately, its own executives have complained that there isn't a large enough skilled workforce to install specialized equipment and pushed back the facility's production date.

The governor spoke to a group of workers in hard hats and safety vests with about a dozen cranes as her backdrop, the buzz of power tools echoing from a cavernous building under construction nearby.

"To all of the labor leaders and union members, thank you for putting Arizona's economy on your back and bringing us into the future," Hobbs said. "We are working to build the most robust workforce in the nation, unmatched by any other state. Under my leadership, we will make sure that our workers are supported in and out of the workplace and have the skills they need to thrive."

The campus, where TSMC plans to make 600,000 semiconductor wafers a year, is expected to be the largest private-sector investment in the state. Wafers are the thin, shiny disks from which individual semiconductors, or chips, are harvested. Those chips power computers, smartphones, vehicles and more.

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The state workplace safety agency, the Arizona Division of Occupational Safety and Health, agreed with TSMC to increase inspections, training and oversight under what is called a voluntary protection program.

A copy of the agreement says it is effective for two years and among other things requires on-site inspections six times each year and additional tracking and analysis of workplace incidents involving TSMC contractors and subcontractors.

"We're ensuring that every individual who sets foot on our construction site does so with the knowledge and confidence that they are able to carry out their tasks safely, and most importantly they're able to go home in the same condition they arrived," said Brian Harrison, president of TSMC Arizona.

The governor also announced BuilditAZ, a program to double the number of construction and trade apprentices in the state by 2026.

Growth for Phoenix: Mayor Kate Gallego heads to Asia to 'expand Phoenix's global presence'

The Hobbs administration has earmarked $500,000 from the federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act to expand existing apprenticeship programs with measures such as hiring instructors and purchasing equipment, according to Hobbs spokesperson Lily Morris. The 2014 act was meant to help job seekers obtain education and training and employers find skilled workers.

"These programs play a significant role in Arizona's economic development by strengthening our local workforce," Hobbs said. "As apprentices graduate with enhanced skills and knowledge, they're better prepared and can quickly contribute to increased productivity and innovation."

Hobbs said she had seen recent reporting about working conditions at TSMC, and "that's why we wanted to make sure we got this program implemented."

"We took action as soon as we could," she said.

In mid-July, TSMC announced it would push back production in Arizona by one year to 2025, citing "an insufficient amount of skilled workers with the specialized skills required for equipment installation." The company has committed to a $40 billion investment in Arizona and now employs about 2,000 people. Trainers have been brought in to shore up the workforce here.

Citing lower demand for consumer electronics, TSMC last month reported its first quarterly profit decline in nearly four years, although it has major customers, including Apple, in the pipeline for its Arizona chips.

Reach reporter Stacey Barchenger at stacey.barchenger@arizonarepublic.com or 480-416-5669. Follow her on Twitter @sbarchenger.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Gov. Hobbs bumps up workplace safety measures at Arizona TSMC site
Picketers supporting the Writers Guild of America strike outside Warner Bros. in May. (Richard Vogel / Associated Press)

One of my favorite places in the world is probably a used record store. Any used record store. I frequented them in high school, worked in one in college and view them as neighborhood museums wherever in the world I travel. Technology has made access to recordings more convenient, and for that Im grateful. But I dont go to record stores for access to recordings. I go to connect with humanity.

To do that, you need people.

When representatives from the major studios meet with the Writers Guild of America on Friday  the first time the two parties will do so since the strike began three months ago  I hope film executives remember the humanity part in their negotiations. Technology can connect us with other humans. But it cannot connect us to ourselves. Thats what being a creative  actor, writer, musician  is all about: exploring what it means to be human.

The writers strike is about more than equitable revenue sharing. Its also about valuing lived experiences and understanding how those experiences enrich life. Every writer, be they a novelist, a screenwriter or a journalist, starts each project with a blank screen. Artificial intelligence can fill that blank screen with words, but humanity is what brings those words to life.

Read more: Editorial: These historic Hollywood actors' and writers' strikes need to end quickly and fairly

The goals of corporate America, including the major studios, are usually in conflict with those of the creative professionals. And thats business, and thats perfectly fine. Whats not OK is devaluing the human experience in order to please shareholders.

Used record stores are an excellent reminder.

I dont shop at those places to find specific recordings. I want to know what people in the area listen to. I want to feel the rush of stumbling across a gem or making eye contact with someone who loves John Coltrane more than I do. I want to feel alive, a state of being that isnt easily monetized by corporate media.

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Read more: Opinion: Streaming is TV's future. Can the writers' strike get executives to pay accordingly?

Like screenwriting, journalism is also subject to shifting sands in corporate media. My friends and I in the industry are worried about the field and the future of journalism jobs. Not because of the threat of AI, mind you, but the fear that executives at publicly traded companies may be willing to sacrifice even more humanity in exchange for a bump in stocks, or that private-equity flippers might decimate another newsroom in pursuit of fleeting profits.

The economics are brutal. Many news organizations are squeezing journalists harder than ever before to produce more content with fewer people. Its as if the creative process is being boiled down to an assembly line, turning people into carbon-based robots in order to reach numbers.

Read more: Opinion: Actors are striking because we've long been in crisis. It's not just streaming or AI

It cant really happen though. Thank goodness creating doesnt work that way. There are fears and joys. False starts and broken promises. Sometimes broken hearts. And all of that messiness is what makes a screen full of words into a life raft for someone in need of inspiration or solace. Sometimes it just feels good to know youre not the only one going through something, whatever that something happens to be. Thats why we read. Thats why we write.

Thats what at stake here.

Theres money on the line for the screenwriters and actors, yes, but also the connective tissue that shapes culture and society.

Read more: Opinion: 'Follow your passion' is a recipe for being exploited at work

Most of us have written papers in school. We know how hard it can be. Thats what makes getting the composition across the finish line so satisfying. To be vulnerable, to overcome fear, to imagine  thats what it means to be a writer. Its also what it means to be human.

Major studios executives have a job to do, and they may have forgotten that human element while tabulating numbers. Let's hope that by coming to the table on Friday theyre on a path to remembering that truth.

@LZGranderson

If its in the news right now, the L.A. Times Opinion section covers it. Sign up for our weekly opinion newsletter.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Generation Gap: It's a phrase that does not appear anywhere on the website for Kamber Parkers company, The YoPro Know.

Thats because the catchphrase is decades old, coined in the 1960s to explain the social divide between baby boomers and their parents.

Though Parkers business is built on addressing the differences in communication styles and values among generations, shes not as worried about boomers as she is about YoPros  or young professionals, ages 21 to 39.

The Greenville Chamber of Commerce named Kamber Parker the Young Professional of the Year in 2021 and named her company the Small Business of the Year in 2022.

How you define communication as a young professional is different than how you define it as somebody 30 years older and more experienced, she says. Different life experiences impact your communication preference in the workplace.

YoPro Knows goal is to help experienced professionals and business leaders recruit and retain young people in the workplace.

Parker and her team have compiled data based on thousands of interviews and surveys of blue- and white-collar workers, ages 20 to 26 (Generation Z) and ages 27 to 39 (millennials)  across the country and across industries. Blogs, podcasts, a newsletter and an annual report are available on The YoPro Know website.

The company uses the information to formulate strategies to share with clients through consultations, workshops and speaking engagements.

You can use this data to your advantage at your company and be ready for the future, or you can keep doing what you've always done, Parker says. The workplace is in a crisis right now. With an aging workforce and continuous job hopping by young professionals, where will our workforce be in 20 years when these young professionals are the senior leaders?

Gen Z and millennials will make up more than half of the U.S. workforce by 2025, she says. But those young people are not keeping their first jobs, second jobs, or even their third jobs.

Young professionals are not staying for many reasons. What are those reasons? Can we solve it? We absolutely can. Thats why we exist, she says.

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Job hopping means young professionals do not feel engaged or valued. They leave. They're exiting companies without gaining the valuable leadership skills that they need to fill the spots that these experienced professionals are leaving.

The costs are tangible. Companies in the United States fail to recoup one-third of an employees salary if that employee leaves in the first year. That accounts for a $30.5 billion loss annually among companies in the United States, according to Gallup research.

And 65% of CEOs and business leaders say they are unable to take on new projects because they cant attract and retain younger professionals, according to YoPro Knows 2023 report.

Parker understands young professionals because she is one. The Greenville Chamber of Commerce named her the 2021 Young Professional of the Year and named YoPro Know the 2022 Small Business of the Year. She's a native of Baltimore, Maryland, and graduated from Furman University only seven years ago.

Like many of her peers, she took a job with a large corporation straight out of college. I became part of this group Im talking about. I left my first job after a year and jumped into another career. Thats really what started my business.

She began by talking to friends and peers about their struggles as YoPros, then launched a blog where she interviewed young professionals across the country.

I started collecting a lot of data through interviews. There were so many consistent and overlapping messages that I knew I was onto something, she says.

I realized that my mission was, and still is to this day, to help young professionals be successful in the workforce.

Parker has been running The YoPro Know full time for a year.

The initial step with potential clients might be a free discovery session. An audit of the company follows.

The word audit scares some people, but when they hear it, they know that this is serious stuff, Parker says.

Kamber Parker, founder of YoPro Know, confers with Nisha Patel.

The audit starts with examining a companys social media. And Parker says Facebook isnt enough to get younger people through the door to an interview; Gen Z and millennials have left Facebook behind.

Companies need to market their culture and their brand to potential employees  likely through Instagram.

If you don't have an authentic brand, this next generation is not going to trust you. They want to work with, support and buy from companies they trust. That means having a diverse and inclusive workforce, Parker says.

Though the companys expertise is young professionals, YoPro Know does not ignore others in the workplace. The seven members of Parkers own staff represent different generations and have different skills. Her most popular workshop is about intergenerational communication.

There are five generations in the workplace, and YoPro Know serves as the bridge between these generations. There is a way to communicate better in the workforce, she says. We help companies see myths and truths of different generations and share what triggers one generation versus another. I call it Understanding 101.

YoPro Know also helps companies with their onboarding and retention, Parker says.

Social media is the low-hanging fruit for our clients who wish to recruit talent. Its just the start. Once we complete a social media audit, we review their onboarding and retention efforts. We know what we're doing is right because companies are hungry for this information and for support.

Based on the companys latest report, the most common reasons that young professionals decide to leave or stay in a job are communication and expectations. Other issues are, in order of importance: the desire for meaningful work and feeling fulfilled; company culture; opportunities for growth and mentoring; and effective onboarding.

But young people may interpret those values differently than their bosses.

For a YoPro, effective communication is virtual or by email  without micromanagement.

A satisfying company culture means life-over-work balance, not the other way around, in addition to community impact, mentoring and DEI values, Parker says.

All our services are based on data that we collect. In our most recent report, with over 1,000 young professionals, they repeat the same messages. It doesn't matter what industry theyre in. Their core needs are the same.

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Communication for the ages: Greenville firm bridges the gaps
Greta Thunberg has pulled out of her scheduled appearance at the Edinburgh Book Festival this month over its sponsorship by an organisation she claims invests heavily in fossil fuels.

The Swedish climate activist, 20, was expected to speak at the Scottish cultural event on Sunday 13 August, at a talk titled: Its Not Too Late To Change The World.

On Friday (4 August), she announced her withdrawal from the roster due to the festival accepting the support of Baillie Gifford, an investment management firm.

Thunberg stated her concern that the companys involvement was an example of greenwashing  an organisation making themselves appear more environmentally friendly than they are.

In a statement released through the festival, Thunberg wrote: I am unfortunately unable to attend the Edinburgh Book Festival. As a climate activist, I cannot attend an event which receives sponsorship from Baillie Gifford, who invest heavily in the fossil fuel industry.

Greenwashing efforts by the fossil fuel industry, including sponsorship of cultural events, allow them to keep the social licence to continue operating.

I cannot and do not want to be associated with events that accept this kind of sponsorship.

Baillie Gifford has sponsored the Edinburgh Book Festival since 2004.

In response to Thunbergs remarks, a spokesperson denied the company being a significant fossil fuel investor, with two per cent of its clients money invested in companies with some business related to fossil fuels. According to the BBC, the market average stands at 11 per cent.

Greta Thunberg (Getty Images)

Of those companies, some have already moved most of their business away from fossil fuels, and many are helping to drive the transition to clean energy, the investment firms statement reads.

Currently, five per cent of our clients' money is invested in companies whose sole purpose is to develop clean energy solutions.

Nick Barley, the director of the book festival, applauded Thunbergs principles but noted that providing a platform for the discussion of topics such as the climate emergency was only possible with the involvement of such companies

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We would not be in a position to provide that platform without the long-term support of organisations such as Baillie Gifford, he said.

We strongly believe that Baillie Gifford are part of the solution to the climate emergency. They are early investors in progressive climate-positive companies, providing funds to help them grow.

Thunberg last made a public appearance in Scotland in 2021 as part of COP26, the annual climate conference.

Last month, she was forcibly removed from a climate protest in Malmo, hours after being fined for disobeying police.
The author with her friends at Babyland General Hospital. Courtesy of Jamishia J.J. Smith

Every Cabbage Patch Doll I received as a kid had a birth certificate that cited its place of birth as Babyland General Hospital.

At 42 years old, I decided to finally visit the hospital in Cleveland, Georgia, along with a few of my friends.

It was worth the visit, which was a nostalgic trip back to my '80s childhood.

Throughout my childhood in Detroit, Michigan, I received many different Cabbage Patch Dolls, usually on special occasions like Christmas.

Childhood photos of the author's Cabbage Patch Dolls at Christmas. Courtesy of Jamishia J.J. Smith

I had the original yarn-hair doll, the one with the 'cornsilk' hair that you could comb, the 'crimp & curl', the one that could 'drink milk', and, of course, all of the accessories including a big wheel, baby swing, and pampers.

The one thing I never got to do as a kid was officially change my dolls' names or visit the hospital plastered all over the paperwork inside every box.

The author as a child with a Cabbage Patch Doll. Courtesy of Jamishia J.J. Smith

Nearly three decades later, at the age of 42, I decided to travel to Cleveland, Georgia, to Babyland General Hospital, the 'birthplace' of all Cabbage Patch Dolls.

The author at Babyland General Hospital Courtesy of Jamishia J.J. Smith

Every doll is accompanied with a birth certificate that cites its place of birth as Babyland General Hospital in Cleveland, Georgia. Due to my Midwestern roots, for years, I assumed the hospital was located in Ohio.

When I first entered the 'hospital' I was greeted by a 'nurse'. She encouraged us to browse and see different versions of the doll over the years and to learn more about the origin of the brand.

A display at Babyland General Hospital Courtesy of Jamishia J.J. Smith

The soft-sculpted dolls were first created by 21-year old art student Xavier Roberts in the late 1970s. Instead of a price tag, he asked for an 'adoption fee'.

Roberts' Cabbage Patch Toys Kids went on to break records as the most successful new doll introduction in history, selling almost 3 million dolls by the end of 1983, the first year they were commercially launched.

Roberts' name is scribbled on the backside of every doll. As a child, I always thought of him as the dolls' "father."

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Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, my trip to Babyland had been postponed a number of times. My friends Jenn and Candice chose to join me on my trip.

The author with her friends at Babyland General Hospital Courtesy of Jamishia J.J. Smith

Jenn and I decided to 'adopt' babies since I no longer have any of my Cabbage Patch Dolls from my childhood.

The author and her friend adopting Cabbage Patch Dolls Courtesy of Jamishia J.J. Smith

Jenn was adamant about adopting a baby whose 'hue' was similar to hers. She asked the nurse if they had any dolls that had a darker skin complexion in stock and although the nurse tried her best, she was unable to find any.

One of the major highlights of my visit was witnessing a 'live birth'. The hospital conducts them a few times a day but luckily for us, we got to witness a personalized one thanks to a fellow Cabbage Patch fan who paid extra to have one catered specifically for her.

A live birth at Babyland General Hospital Courtesy of Jamishia J.J. Smith

I watched like a proud family member as her 'baby girl' was delivered by an LPN (Licensed Patch Nurse). After the delivery, the baby was immediately taken to be cleaned, weighed, and fingerprinted. I was smiling like a proud aunt!

A doll being cleaned at Babyland General Hospital Courtesy of Jamishia J.J. Smith

After spending over an hour at the hospital, we decided to adopt our own new babies and pay to change their names.

The author and her friend adopting a Cabbage Patch Doll Courtesy of Jamishia J.J. Smith

As a kid, I never got the chance to mail my money order and adoption card back to officially change my Cabbage Patch Dolls' names. After making the trip to the hospital, I thought, why not spend an extra $3 on it!

My doll's original name was Aubrie Erin, but thanks to two consultation Facetime calls to my mom, Jacqueline, and my 5-year-old niece, Blair, her name was changed to Diamond Alexa.

The author with her Cabbage Patch doll's birth certificate Courtesy of Jamishia J.J. Smith

I also changed my doll's birthday to August 28th in honor of my late brother, Jerrell, who passed away suddenly in May 2020 at the age of 42.

The author's Cabbage Patch Doll Courtesy of Jamishia J.J. Smith

The staff at the hospital made the whole experience seem magical and allowed us to relive our '80s childhood for a few hours.

The author with her friends at Babyland General Hospital Courtesy of Jamishia J.J. Smith

It was also fun to see how many celebrities from our childhood had personalized, autographed messages displayed on the walls of the hospital.

Autographed photos at Babyland General Hospital Courtesy of Jamishia J.J. Smith

As I shared photos from my visit on social media, many of my friends reached out with their own memories of Cabbage Patch Dolls. A few even sent photos of their childhood dolls.

Photos of the author's friends with their childhood Cabbage Patch Dolls Courtesy of LaToya Green/Jennifer Earley

Some even sent photos of the original paperwork that came with their dolls.

Childhood photo of the author's friend with their Cabbage Patch doll and paperwork. Courtesy of Shelby Wilder

If you're like many of us kids born during the height of the Cabbage Patch craze in the 1980s, a visit to Babyland General Hospital is a great, nostalgic escape.

A sign exiting Babyland General Hospital Courtesy of Jamishia J.J. Smith

Read the original article on Insider
Albertsons, including its affiliated stores Safeway, Vons and Pavilions in California, was ordered by a San Joaquin County judge to stop offering expired drug products for sale at stores across the state.

While selling expired food products is not illegal in California, retailers in the state are prohibited from selling any over-the-counter drug past its expiration date, according to the Yolo County District Attorneys Office.

Civil complaint filed against Albertsons

Albertsons owns and operates 579 stores across California, including 243 Safeways in northern and central parts of the state and 124 Albertsons, 184 Vons and 28 Pavilions in the south.

A civil complaint was filed in San Joaquin County Superior Court alleging the company offered expired over-the-counter drug products for sale over the past four years, the district attorneys office said in a news release. The stores carry products including pain relievers, sunscreen and cold medicine.

The public should be able to trust that what they buy at any California store will not be expired before they bring it home, Yolo District Attorney Jeff W. Reisig said in a statement.

Albertsons removes expired products from shelves

The Yolo County District Attorneys Office, working closely with the San Joaquin and San Bernardino district attorneys offices, settled the lawsuit against Albertsons and their affiliated stores, according to the release.

After an investigation, the attorneys office said Albertsons was notified of the violations and was cooperative. It was not determined that consumers were harmed by any expired over-the-counter drugs that mightve been sold.

The company checked all of its locations for expired drug products and made date verification a priority, including re-training employees, the release said.

Without admitting or denying liability, Albertsons agreed to not sell any more expired drugs or have them on their shelves, bound by a court order. According to the attorneys office, the company was ordered to pay $3.3 million in civil penalties and investigative costs, and $200,000 in restitution.

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.
The real value

The fear mongers are influencing the masses. If Habitat for Humanity constructs a very small, affordable housing project in Olathe, it would not in any way affect the intrinsic value of neighboring homes. (July 30, 1A, Johnson County cities erupt in battles over affordable housing) The same livability, the same amenities, the same journeys to work and shopping remain. Does market value change? Only if fear overcomes common sense.

Is the true value of a home its selling price? If you are in the real estate business, that may be the case. If net worth is the standard for a successful life, that may also be the case. But if you live in a community, the value of a home is much more.

A loving household, caring neighbors and amenities in the home, on the site and in the neighborhood are much more important to a satisfying life. The true value and the market value become much closer together when fear does not conquer.

The energy to ensure our communities are both viable and constantly improving is admirable. This energy should continue, but direct it to targets that will make real differences in how and where we live: good schools, good jobs, clean air and water, access to health care, recreation and other valuable qualities.

- Don Arney, Kansas City

More than politics

I would encourage all who are wringing their hands over the Biden administration allegedly politicizing the Department of Justice to read paragraphs 70 to 85 of the indictment emanating from the special counsels probe into interference in the 2020 election.

Donald Trump did not try to politicize the Justice Department. He attempted to weaponize it.

- Robert Lippert, Gravois Mills, Missouri

Not the guns

News about Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas plans to address gun violence made it all the way to North Carolina.

Its interesting that so many people put blame on an inanimate object. Were removing the blame from people and saying, If only the firearm didnt exist, we would all be safe and secure. Ignorance like this perpetuates the problem. We have a violence issue, not a gun issue, and we always seem to divert blame.

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Laws dont prevent an action. They explain why its socially unacceptable and proscribe the penalties for breaking them. If laws prevented actions, there would be no murder because we have several laws to prevent that. Its the trick: Saying, We must do something, anything, to show we care. Doing anything can be more harmful than doing nothing and could be very costly to fight in court  a waste of taxpayer money taken from possible solutions to homelessness, mental health or the prosecution of criminals.

This is the ignorance of the average person who has little understanding of firearms or watches too many movies.

- Davin Jaggard, Weaverville, North Carolina

Out the door?

Its not looking good that Chris Jones has not signed a contract with the Chiefs yet. At one point, team brass says its just a formality  and then you hear they are miles apart on a deal. (July 25, 1B, Chiefs have Jones options, but you might not like them)

In the meantime, Jones is fined $50,000 each day he is not in training camp.

The situation is starting to look a little Tyreek Hillish. Hill wanted to be the highest paid wide receiver in the league, and Kansas City offered him close to what he was asking for. He still signed with Miami.

Now Jones wants to be at least the second highest paid defensive tackle, but will the Chiefs pay up? Or will we watch another star player hit the road?

- Greg Schoen, Lenexa

Great extinguisher

Donald Trump missed his calling. If he were to change occupations, he could be a fireman. A fire requires three elements for combustion: heat, fuel and oxygen. Everyone knows that Trump sucks the air out of every room.

- Steve Shaw, Kansas City
Former Haitian President Boniface Alexandre, who led Haiti during one of countrys most challenging transitional periods, has died. He was 87.

Alexandre, a former Haitian Supreme Court Justice who led the transitional government in 2004-06, died Friday morning at his home in the Delmas 75 neighborhood of Haitis capital, his son-in-law, former Haiti justice minister Michel Brunache, confirmed to the Miami Herald. Brunache said his father-in-laws death was due to natural causes after years of declining health.

He was a fighter, said Brunache, who is married to Alexandres only daughter, Marjorie, and served as chief of staff for Alexandre during his presidency.

Born on July 31, 1936 in Ganthier, a rural town just east of Port-au-Prince, Alexandre was head of Haitis highest court when then-president Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted from power on Feb. 29, 2004, in a bloody revolt, and U.S. Marines landed in the countrys bullet-pocked capital as the vanguard of a Untied Nations peacekeeping force to calm the violence.

Though a provision in the Haiti Constitution at the time called for Alexandre to be approved by Parliament to fill the vacancy in the presidency, he did so without approval because the legislature had been disbanded two months earlier. He would be the last chief justice to fill a vacant presidency following changes in Haitis constitution.

During a news conference after his swearing-in, Alexandre said that he assumed the office because the constitution indicates it.

He then called on Haitians to unite and refrain from further violence. He acknowledged that taking charge of a chaotic Haiti would not be an easy task, warning that Haitians were collectively all in the same boat and if it sinks, we all sink together.

Haiti is in crisis, he said. It needs all its sons and daughters. No one should take justice into their own hands.

Alexandre went on to govern alongside Prime Minister Gerard Latortue, a former U.N. negotiator and South Florida TV host who was selected from a field of contenders by a seven-member council that included current Prime Minister Ariel Henry. The more boisterous and vocal of the two, Latortue preceded Alexandre in death by nearly four months. He died on March 7 at his home in Boca Raton.

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The two governed during a chaotic period in Haiti where the rise of armed gangs, human rights abuses and prison deaths led the headlines. The two left office on May 14, 2006, when Rene Preval was sworn in as president for a second time after winning the February 2006 presidential election.

In a statement shared on social media, Henry said Alexandres death saddened him deeply. Haiti, he said, is losing a great servant of the state, a brilliant lawyer and jurist, an eminent professor of civil law and civil procedure.

Boniface was a man of integrity, of great morality who made republican values his own. With rigor and modesty, he had devoted almost an entire life to serving the litigants and justice in his country, said Henry.

Alexandres passing comes on the heels of several other high profile deaths in Haiti. Respected journalist and press freedom advocate Liliane Pierre-Paul died on Monday from a heart attack; former Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Jacques Honorat died on July 26 at the age of 92. An author, thinker and agronomist who had opposed Aristides policies during the latters first presidency, Honorat served as prime minister between October 1991-June 1992 after Aristide was overthrown by a military coup led by Gen. Raoul Cedras,

The passing of three highly respected figures in a short period serve as a reminder of Haitis troubled history and those who sought to make a difference in the country only to see history continue to repeat itself.

Brunache said despite the obstacles, Alexandre, a father of four, believed that Haitians had the ability to change the course of their nation.

His dream for the country was one where everyone could get a good education, everyone could live normally. A dream where there would never again be a dictator because in his youth, he suffered as a result of the dictatorship, Brunache said, noting that at one point Alexandre left Port-au-Prince for Ganthier to escape the secret police, the Tonton Macoute, of the Duvalier dictatorship.

Brunache said Alexandres demeanor could be attributed to his own personal philosophy as someone who didnt like to put himself at the forefront. As provisional president, he believed he needed to stay true to the 1987 Haitian Constitution, which views the president as a minor and gives the responsibility of governance to the prime minister.

Iin recent years, Alexandre had begun to view the countrys constitution differently. In 2020, he agreed to head a constitution revision commission put in place by President Jovenel Moise. On Sept. 8, 2021, two months after Moises assassination, Alexandre, as chair of the Independent Advisory Committee, handed over the draft of a new Constitution to Henry.

Though the document was the result of consultations with various individuals ,the re-write of Haitis Constitution was controversial and opposed by people even in Moises own political party.

He iwas totally devoted in everything he did, Brunache said of Alexandre. Hee never wanted anyone to reproach him, whether it was in his personal undertakings or his professional life or in his short political career.

As a lawyer, law professor, president of the Republic and as a father, he was carried himself the same way, Brunahce added, describing Alexandre as someone who remained modest regardless of what level he reached in society.

A respected figure, Alexandre began working from an early age, taking on the responsibility of financially supporting his siblings and their children before starting his own family. While he didnt too much believe in Haitians ability to organize themselves, he did believe in their individual responsibility, said his son-in-law.

He believed if everyone did what they were supposed to do the country would advance, Brunache said. He believed in individual change and if we could create critical mass with this, we would have a different country.

Like most of Haitis nearly 12 million people, Brunache said his father-in-law was affected by the countrys deteriorating situation. The gang violence and rampant kidnappings that have caused the displacement of thousands of Haitians, had also made him a prisoner in his own home, keeping him teaching his law courses at universities around the country.
Authorities in New Hampshire are calling a womans death in Danville "suspicious" after she was found dead late last night from an "apparent gunshot wound."

The New Hampshire Attorney Generals Office said Friday "officials from the Attorney General's Office along with the State Police Major Crimes Unit are at the scene of a suspicious death of an adult female."

"In the late evening of August 3, 2023, Danville Police officers responded to a call at a residence on Back Road in Danville," the attorney general's office said in a statement. "Upon arrival, officers discovered an adult female deceased from an apparent gunshot wound."

The identity of the woman will not be released until family members are notified and an autopsy Friday is completed, it added.

NEW HAMPSHIRE ATTORNEY GENERALS OFFICE JOINS INVESTIGATION INTO GAY COUPLES ASSAULT

Fox News Digital has reached out to the Danville Police Department for further comment.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

A spokesperson for New Hampshire State Police said the agency has "no information to release" and deferred comment to the attorney generals office.

Danville is located in southeastern New Hampshire with a population of around 4,500.
In hindsight, the last text 17-year-old Paige Johnson sent the night she vanished appears somewhat ominous:

Ill call you when Im on my way and I wont have this phone. It will be a 513 number.

The message, sent in September 2010, reached a friend who lived in the same apartment building as Paige's sister, with whom the teen planned to meet that night. She never arrived.

It would take 10 years for the teens remains to be found in the woods of rural Clermont County. By then, little was left of Paige except her skull.

Jacob Bumpass, who picked Paige up that night from her mothers Florence home and is the last known person to see the teen alive, had a phone number with a 513 area code.

During Bumpass' trial, prosecutors said Paige died while they were together and Bumpass, then 22, disposed of her body in the woods to impede any investigation into her death.

A jury agreed.

He was found guilty July 24 of tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse. Bumpass has not been accused of killing Paige, whose cause of death remains a mystery.

Bumpass' sentencing is scheduled for September.

More: Paige Johnson's mom says verdict brings sense of relief but leaves unanswered questions

More than a dozen witnesses testified over three days, painting a detailed picture of Paiges last days alive and the steps police took to find her over their decade-long investigation.

The testimony was all used in an attempt to answer one question: What happened to Paige Johnson?

A really bad, bad feeling

The night Paige went missing, nothing seemed amiss.

In fact, she was looking forward to moving in with her fiance, Ronnie Rider, who'd been saving money so they could get their own place. She didn't have a job, but she planned to earn a GED from Gateway Community & Technical College.

A young mother of a then-2-year-old daughter, she had dropped out of Simon Kenton High School after she had her baby and was living with her mom, Donna Johnson, and other family at an apartment in Florence.

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Late on Sept. 22, 2010, Paige walked into her mother's bedroom to ask if she could go to her sisters apartment. Johnson approved. That was the last time anyone in Paige's family would see her alive.

The last thing Johnson remembers is Paige standing at the foot of the bed with the television's light shining onto her face.

"I didn't get up to hug her, I didn't tell her I loved her and then I never did talk to her or see her ever again," Johnson said in testimony. "I wish that I would've told her no and made her stay home."

Johnson said she thought a family friend was giving Paige a ride. She didnt know Paige texted Bumpass from her grandmothers cellphone asking him to pick her up.

While Johnson was familiar with most of Paiges friends, she didnt know Bumpass. She said she first learned of him a few weeks before Paige vanished, when she found a picture of Paige with a man she didn't recognize.

The photo worried Johnson because Bumpass, at over 6 feet, was so much older and larger than Paige, who was 5-foot-1 and just over 100 pounds.

Paige brushed aside her mothers concern saying the man was just her friend, Bump, Johnson recalled in her testimony.

I told her that picture scared me, Johnson said.  I just got a really bad, bad feeling.

Donna Johnson, Paige's mom, speaks at a press conference to announce an arrest and charges in the decade-old disappearance of her daughter.

Dont want this to come back on me

Bumpass picked up Paige sometime before 1 a.m. Sept. 23, 2010, and the pair went to his house in Taylor Mill.

Its unclear exactly how long they were there.

In texts after the teen's disappearance, Bumpass said Paige was only at his house long enough to do her makeup and drink a beer.

One of Bumpass' friends at the time, John Schneider, testified he was at Bumpass' house for just a few minutes that night and saw Paige there as late as 1:50 a.m.

She was sitting on a couch in the living room, Schneider said.

It was Rider, Paige's fiance, who first grew concerned because she wasnt responding when he texted and called from work.

He testified he reached out to several of her friends including Bumpass, whose number was provided to Rider by Paiges grandmother.

Paige didnt have a cellphone of her own at the time, her family said, but it was unusual for her to go out without staying in contact. She usually used her mom's or grandmother's cellphone.

Bumpass told Rider that he left Paige at 15th and Scott streets in Covington, several blocks from where the teens sister lived.

In testimony, several Covington police officers said that intersection was, at the time, located in a high-crime area.

Jacob Bumpass, accused of leaving the body of Northern Kentucky teenager Paige Johnson in a wooded area in 2010 after her disappearance, stands in a courtroom in Clermont County. Johnson was 17. Her remains were found more than a decade later.

It kind of felt off, Rider said of Bumpass reply. He described Paige as a princess, saying she wouldve requested to be dropped off at the front door.

By the evening of Sept. 23, Rider still hadn't heard from Paige, so he met with Brittany Haywood, Paiges older sister, and they reported the teen missing.

A Covington police officer took that report and called Bumpass. During that conversation, Bumpass maintained that he left Paige in Covington, this time adding it was around 1 a.m.

Then he said something that stuck with the officer: "I just don't want this to come back on me," Jay Zerhusen said in trial testimony, recounting his talk with Bumpass.

'We were close'

In the days that followed Paiges disappearance, her family frantically sought answers. They reached out to her friends, placed fliers throughout Greater Cincinnati communities and contacted the FBI and National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Johnson testified she went to Bumpass house once she learned he was with Paige that night and was likely the last person to see her.

She said she wanted to know if he let the teen use his cellphone and asked to go through the device to see if it contained any information about Paige's whereabouts.

Bumpass refused and closed the door in her face, Johnson said.

She and others testified that he never helped search for Paige, nor did he ever try reach Paige via her mom's or grandmother's numbers, which is how the two usually communicated, after she went missing.

When assigned to investigate Paige's disappearance, Covington detective Bryan Frodge also zeroed in on Bumpass, confronting him just 11 days after the teen went missing. During that encounter, Frodge said detectives knocked on Bumpass' front door and quickly found him trying to sneak out a back door.

Soon after, police obtained search warrants for Bumpass car and house but found nothing suggesting where Paige mightve gone or what had happened to her.

Investigators then got ahold of Bumpass phone records, which placed his cell near Paige's home just before 1 a.m., then around his house in Taylor Mill.

They also found texts between the two, which seemingly corroborated Bumpass' movements that night.

OK, well come out Im almost there, Bumpass said in a text to Paige just before 1 a.m., around the time his phone pinged a cell tower near the teen's home.

Later, his phone pinged cell towers at Filager and Half-Acre roads in Clermont County between 4:13 a.m. and 4:18 a.m.

That information led police in October 2010 to conduct a search of East Fork State Park in Clermont County. They came within a mile of the spot where the teens remains ultimately were found a decade later.

Covington Police Specialist Jennifer Ervin looks for Paige Johnson or clues to her disappearance during a search of East Fork State Park the morning of Oct. 20, 2010. Over 100 police officers, firefighters and other searchers gathered to find the missing 17 year-old.

That was the closest police ever came to finding Paige on their own.

"We were close," the detective said. Of the four years he spent as lead investigator on the case, Frodge said: It was the hardest thing Ive ever had to do."

Two other detectives led the investigation as it progressed over the years.

They all said they conducted countless searches and followed up on every tip, even those from psychics. None ever led to Paige.

The case gained attention from local and national news media and became the focus of true crime podcasts. Her disappearance also set off public vigils and a flurry of social media posts, including Facebook pages, seeking clues.

An unlikely discovery

The long and seemingly hopeless search ended March 22, 2020, when Jason Kendle, of Williamsburg, took a stroll through the woods along Mathis Road  a rough, narrow, dead-end road that exits onto State Route 276 at the State Route 32 overpass.

Kendle was on the hunt for deer antlers when he spotted something he mistook for a mushroom, he said in court.

He soon realized he was looking at a human skull.

Authorities used dental records to identify the skull as Paige's. In the days following that discovery, police and volunteers combed those woods looking for the rest of her remains.

The remains of 17-year-old Paige Johnson, who went missing in September 2010, were found March 22, 2020, by a man walking through the woods near State Route 276 and Mathis Road in Clermont County.

They collected dozens of bones from the area, most of which were identified as animal remains, in hopes that at least some belonged to Paige.

In the end, they collected a human jawbone and rib bone.

While dental records showed the jawbone was Paige's, the rib bone was never positively identified, though investigators have said it's a reasonable assumption the bone is hers.

I always said that someday, somebody is going to accidentally find her, Haywood, Paiges sister, told The Enquirer at the time the teens remains were found.

The recovered remains showed no signs of trauma inflicted prior to Paige's death, according to forensic anthropologist Elizabeth Murray.

Without evidence of trauma, nor any organs or tissues to undergo toxicology tests, officials cant pinpoint what might have killed her, or whether her death was accidental or intentional.

A long wait

After Paige's remains were identified, it didnt take long for police to again show up at Bumpass door.

He was indicted and arrested four months later.

It seemed no coincidence to authorities that Paiges skull was found just over a mile away from the cell tower at Half-Acre Road that Bumpass phone used to send a text that night.

He's never spoken publicly about what may have happened to Paige.

Over the entire last decade, according to testimony, he has maintained that he dropped her off at 15th and Scott streets and that he doesnt know what happened to her afterward.

Bumpass also has never explained what he was doing in Clermont County, which prosecutors noted was not a place he visited regularly: His phone records showed his cell was never in that area again in the years following Paige's disappearance.

Prosecutors and Paige's family are dubious whether the full truth of what happened will ever come to light.

Its as if she was spirited away off the Earth, Clermont County Assistant Prosecutor Clay Tharp said at trial. Only he knows her fate.

As much as the days-long trial was supposed to find answers for Paiges family, her mother said she still has few. On the stand, she described 13 years of sleepless nights and nightmares about all the things that could have happened to Paige.

She still doesnt know if any of those nightmare scenarios is the truth  but she said Bumpass conviction has at least brought some relief.

Donna Johnson (center), the mother of Paige Johnson  a Northern Kentucky teen who vanished nearly 13 years ago, poses with her family after a Clermont County jury returned a guilty verdict against Jacob Bumpass.

"I didn't think we would get this far," Johnson said after the verdict. "I thought maybe that I would die never knowing where she was or getting what I've gotten."

And finally, she's able to put her daughter's remains to rest.

It has been a long wait and that part has been very hard, Johnson said. I get to bring my baby home and give her the dignity that she has deserved this whole time and has had to wait for.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Paige Johnson's fate remains unknown; testimony offers some answers
Former President Trump was arraigned Thursday on four charges alleging that he attempted to orchestrate a scheme of fraudulent electoral college votes to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

In seven states  Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin  so-called fake electors signed paperwork attempting to cast electoral college ballots for Trump instead of their states actual winner, President Biden.

The groups hoped that former Vice President Pence would count the fake electors certifications instead of the legitimate ones when the electoral college vote was certified on Jan. 6, 2021, changing the result of the election, the indictment alleged. None were successful.

Heres what each state is, and isnt, doing to investigate and prosecute them.

Arizona

FILE  Kris Mayes, smiles before a debate on Sept. 28, 2022. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)

A group of 22 Arizona Republicans, including the Republican Party chair and multiple state legislature members, signed papers intending to cast false electoral college votes in December 2020. That paperwork is now the focus of both a federal and state investigation.

State Attorney General Kris Mayes (D) ratcheted up her investigation into the group in July, requesting records from involved figures. The investigation is in its early stages.

Figures surrounding the case also received federal subpoenas for information and communication, according to local media.

Georgia

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis poses for a portrait, Wednesday, April 19, 2023, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis poses for a portrait, Wednesday, April 19, 2023, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

On the day that Georgia certified its electoral results in favor of Biden, 16 Republicans  led by the states Republican Party chair  allegedly met in a secret meeting in the state capitol to discuss plans to send an alternate slate of votes to Washington. The group also signed paperwork making their plans official.

The scheme is central to prosecutor Fani Willis (D) state probe into attempts to overturn the 2020 election, which may result in an additional indictment for Trump.

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At least eight of the fake electors have signed immunity deals with Willis office, offering to cooperate in exchange for not being prosecuted.

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An independent reporter, who briefly barged in on the meeting, was called to testify to a grand jury debating whether to charge Trump, his attorney Rudi Giuliani and others this month.

The investigation is effectively complete, Willis said, and a grand jury is expected to decide on whether to charge Trump and others by the end of August.

Uniquely, the probe has also investigated Trump and his allies actions in other states.

The Georgia probe is the most significant of any states investigation into 2020 election meddling and is the only known case where Trump himself is a target of an investigation.

Michigan

FILE  Attorney General Dana Nessel speaks during a news conference in Detroit, Thursday, Oct. 14, 2021. Published reports say Nessels office is asking that a special prosecutor investigate whether the Republican candidate for state attorney general, Matt DePerno, and others should be charged in connection with an effort to gain access to voting machines after the 2020 election. DePerno has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump. (Max Ortiz/Detroit News via AP, File)

A group of 16 Michigan Republicans was charged with crimes related to a fake electors scheme last month, concluding an investigation by state Attorney General Dana Nessel (D) which began again in January.

Nessel initially referred the charges to federal prosecutors in early 2022 but pursued a state case again after federal officials failed to pursue charges after a year.

The group met in the basement of the state Republican Party headquarters and signed documents claiming to be electoral college voters, prosecutors allege. Some of them later showed up at the state capitol and attempted to cast electoral college ballots.

The Hill Elections 2024 coverage

Three of the states rightful electors filed a civil suit against the group of 16 in January, requesting $25,000 in damages claiming they suffered humiliation and harassment due to the groups fake elector scheme.

The scheme is separate from another investigation into attempts to break into voting machines in Michigan. A former GOP attorney general candidate, a state legislator and a prominent Trump campaign lawyer were charged this week in that case.

Nevada

FILE  Nevada State GOP Chairman Michael McDonald announces President Donald Trump before he speaks the Nevada Republican Party Convention at the Suncoast Hotel and Casino Saturday, June 23, 2018, in Las Vegas. New transcripts released on Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2022, by the House Jan. 6 committee reveals Donald Trump and his allies played a direct role in the Nevada Republican Partys phony elector scheme in 2020. The transcripts show McDonald invoked his Fifth Amendment protection 275 times when he was interviewed in February. (AP Photo/L.E. Baskow, File)

In the Silver State, a half dozen Republicans met in Carson City, Nevada, to organize their own fake elector scheme after the 2020 election. Among them was state GOP chair Michael McDonald, the focus of federal investigators in Nevada.

McDonalds phone was seized and searched by the FBI in 2022 and he and another elector testified to both the House Jan. 6 committee and for special counsel Jack Smiths federal investigation.

Both McDonald and the second fake elector, Nevada Republican Party official Jim DeGraffenreid, were given limited immunity due to their testimony.

The Nevada scheme was allegedly headed by former state attorney general and GOP Senate candidate Adam Laxalt.

Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford (D) declined to pursue a criminal investigation of McDonald, Laxalt and others.

New Mexico

FILE  New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas talks during a news conference on Feb. 26, 2019, in Albuquerque, N.M. Balderas is asking that changes be made to rules proposed by the U.S. government as it processes damage claims from a historic wildfire sparked by forest managers. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan, File)

New Mexico was a last-minute addition to fake elector plans, Smiths 45-page indictment alleges. Despite being a state that Biden won comfortably  by about 100,000 votes or nearly 10 percent  the state GOP sent its own electors to vote for Trump, citing pending litigation in other states.

The Republicans five electors were turned away when they attempted to vote in the state capitol of Santa Fe, but they also signed paperwork asserting a false right to make electoral college votes.

Two of those five voters testified for the House Jan. 6 committee last year, and the New Mexico Secretary of State met with Smiths investigation team last month.

An eventual suit from the Trump campaign contesting New Mexicos results was purely a pretext for the electors scheme, Smiths indictment alleges.

State Attorney General Hector Balderas (D) started an investigation into the group in January 2022, but like in Michigan, referred the case to federal prosecutors. There has been no public action in either a state or federal investigation since.

Pennsylvania

MANHEIM, PA  OCTOBER 29: Republican candidate for Pennsylvania Governor Doug Mastriano, (L) his wife Rebecca, and (R) Republican candidate for Lt. Governor Carrie DelRosso addresses the media after a rally at Spooky Nook Sports Complex on October 29, 2022 in Manheim, Pennsylvania. Mastriano faces Democratic challenger Josh Shapiro in the November election. (Photo by Mark Makela/Getty Images)

Fake electors in Pennsylvania include 20 Republicans who planned to contest the states results in the 2020 election. Among them were former Rep. Lou Barletta (R-Penn.) and the vice chair of the state GOP.

The point person for the group was state Sen. Doug Mastriano (R), who went on to be the Republican nominee for Governor in 2022, losing to Gov. Josh Shapiro (D).

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But the Pennsylvania electors inserted a line into their signed vote document that makes them unique from other states. Their document reads that the votes would only be valid if they are recognized as duly elected and qualified electors, which they were not.

In 2022, Shapiro  then the state attorney general  citing that language, said the groups actions were likely not criminal and that the state would not investigate them.

Wisconsin

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers speaks during the annual State of the State address Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2023, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Morry Gash, File)

Attempts to overturn election results in Wisconsin embroiled Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), whose staff allegedly assisted his states slate of fake electors. Johnson has declined any knowledge of the incident.

Ten Wisconsin Republicans signed documents claiming to be electors casting votes for Trump after the 2020 election.

The group drew the ire of Gov. Tony Evers (D) on Friday, who said he wants them prosecuted.

At a press conference Thursday, Attorney General Josh Kaul (D) said his office is tracking the federal investigation into Trump but has not said if the state is investigating the fake elector scheme itself.

Kaul said that the group should be held accountable for their actions and that further developments will come.

The fake electors also face a $2.4 million civil lawsuit set to go to trial in September 2024 over their actions.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Connor Perkett and Hunter Harmer of EspriGas discuss work while in their office at Work Hive in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

As employees enjoy vacation time through the summer, it can be challenging to maintain workplace productivity with fewer people in the office.

And while there are several potential solutions to the summer slump, less vacation time isnt one of them.

For starters, a steady string of vacation absences can place a heavy burden on workers who are left behind in the office.

This can result in those who arent on leave taking on more work, Anita Grantham, the head of Human Resources at BambooHR, a technology company based in Lindon that provides human resources software, said in a statement. When there is a larger workload placed on fewer people, it makes sense that productivity would decrease.

Cody Reeves, an associate professor of human resources at the BYU Marriott School of Business, notes that workers depend on each other. When employees are gone, they cant help co-workers who might be reliant on them to complete a task.

So what can be done? Well, vacation itself is not the problem, Reeves says. Issues only arise when too many workers are gone at the same time. Grantham says a potential solution is to plan ahead.

Some (companies) put limits on what percentage of the company or department can take (paid time off) at any one time, some ask for employees to request time off in advance, she said.

And though it may seem counterintuitive, less vacation time is not the answer. Rest and relaxation are crucial to employees emotional well-being, according to Reeves, who says that the only thing worse than the productivity loss from vacation is the productivity loss that would occur if people didnt take time off.

Reeves points to greater creativity, increased energy and reduced burnout as common benefits of vacation. Thats especially important during the summer, when more daylight hours can have negative effects. Research shows that light at the wrong time can disrupt circadian rhythms and sleep.

We tend to see people actually sleep less in the summer, Reeves said. Daylight prevents things like melatonin release  that gap between what sleep they should be getting and what they actually are getting gets wider.

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That fatigue often translates to the workplace, where employee performance can suffer. In fact, one study found that a workers recovery level is a reliable predictor of their workplace engagement. Higher levels of workplace engagement mean employees are increasingly focused on the tasks at hand.

It tends to be rewarding and very productive types of work, Reeves said of workplace engagement, which he described as a buzzword.

Samuel Campbell of Transit Scientific works on his computer at Work Hive in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

And if workers continue to get insufficient sleep, Reeves says a downward spiral could ensue, leaving employees feeling less recovered each day. But the cycle works both ways.

You can also create that virtuous spiral, where if I show up well rested, recovered, (and) I engage at work  you can actually feed that cycle where it gets easier and easier to go in and do your best work, Reeves said.

Some companies have special summer hours, like Nike, to combat the problem. But not every business structures summer hours the same way, as Reeves points out. Sometimes employees get time off the same day every week, usually Friday afternoons, but other times companies stagger workers absences so they always have a certain number of people available. Regardless, the effect is still the same  with more downtime, employees feel more recovered at work.

Additionally, the summers hotter temperatures pose another threat to workplace productivity. The Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago, using data from India, found that not only are workers more likely to be absent during hot spells, but that productivity decreases by as much as 4% for every time the temperature rises by 1 degree on a hot day.

Reeves says that can make workers more sluggish, and even though offices have cooling systems, the temperatures still tend to be a bit higher during the summer months. And The Energy Policy Institute discovered that air conditioning does not curb absenteeism in that same study.

Plenty of other factors, like children coming back home after the school year ends, can distract workers during the summertime. But no matter the issue, open communication with employees is perhaps the best way to keep workplace productivity stable amid the uncertainty of the summer months.

Its important to sit down and talk to employees candidly about what could change in the organization to address concerns and then make a plan around that, Grantham said. Connecting with employees individually to sincerely find out concerns helps improve employee experience and leadership.
The pandemic disrupted the office in a fundamental way. Remote work turned from a nice perk to a way of life for many. Its an abrupt change for a tech industry that has a long history of rolling out perks to keep employees in the office for as long as conceivably possible.

Google is among those corporations that has been pulling out all the stops to get Googler butts back into their Herman Miller Aerons. But a new perk is rubbing some employees the wrong way.

The company is internally advertising a $99 Summer Special for its campus hotel. Granted, as someone who frequently books lodging in the South Bay, thats quite a deal, but the whole bit about effectively sleeping at the office leaves a bit to be desired.

Just imagine no commute to the office in the morning and instead, you could have an extra hour of sleep and less friction, the company writes. Next, you could walk out of your room and quickly grab a delicious breakfast or get a workout in before work starts.

The deal, which runs through the end of September, is for full-time employees only. It doesnt qualify as a travel expense, so employees have to pay for it themselves, using their personal credit cards.

CNBC notes a less than stellar reaction among employees on the internal message board. One writes, Now I can give some of my pay back to Google. What better way to say thanks to the corporate overlords?
In May 1945, during the final months of World War II, Germany had surrendered to the Allies but Japan refused.

President Harry Truman wanted to finish the war quickly. His government decided to drop the world's first atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

On August 6, the atomic bomb "Little Boy" was dropped on Hiroshima, instantly leveling five square miles and killing an estimated 80,000 people.

On August 6, 1945, a 10-foot-long uranium bomb that weighed 9,788 pounds called "Little Boy" was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.

The explosion wiped out five square miles of the city, including 62,000 buildings. Up to 80,000 people were killed instantly. The explosion was so powerful people were vaporized leaving nothing behind except for their "nuclear shadow."

It has gone down as one of the deadliest days in Japanese history. There has also been renewed debate around whether the attacks were necessary to end the war.

Director Christopher Nolan's film "Oppenheimer," which was released in July, is about the work that went on to build an atomic bomb in the years leading up to Hiroshima.

Here's how the bomb drop played out and why it wasn't enough to end the war by itself.

On May 7, 1945, after World War II had been fought for almost six years, Germany surrendered to the Alliesincluding Britain, China, the Soviet Union and the USbut instead of following suit, Japan continued to fight. They made it clear they would fight until the bitter end.

Celebrations in New York on May 7 1945 after Germany announces its surrender towards the end of World War II. Bettmann/Getty

Sources: Aljazeera

The Allies' casualties grew worse during this period. Between April and July, the Japanese killed as many as half of the total casualties they had inflicted over the previous three years of the war.

A photo of the fall out after a kamikaze plane strike in May 1945 near Okinawa. MPI/Getty

Sources: History.com

In April, President Harry Truman was sworn in. Until then, he had not known about the work being done by J. Robert Oppenheimer and his team on the Manhattan Project to build an atomic weapon. But with Japan's refusal to surrender, he soon came around to the idea of using it.

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President Harry Truman in 1945. MPI/Getty

Some generals argued the war should have been ended with a final invasion into Japan, but they also advised that it could result in the deaths of up to 1 million US troops.

Truman didn't wanted more US soldiers to die so he chose to proceed with the atomic bomb if Japan wouldn't surrender.

Many military leaders believed the atomic bomb was unnecessary and that Japan would surrender without the use of atomic bombs.

But a committee of advisors, led by the Secretary of War Henry Stimson, argued there was a consensus that backed the bomb and that it needed to be dropped to end the war.

Sources: History.com, Al Jazeera

On July 16, a test atomic bomb was successfully detonated in New Mexico. Less than a fortnight later, on July 26, Truman made the Potsdam Declaration. He told Japan to unconditionally surrender or face "prompt and utter destruction."

President Harry Truman with Soviet leader Josef Stalin and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill at the Potsdam Conference on July 17, 1945. AP Photo

Japan ignored Truman's demand for surrender.

US intelligence also showed that Japan, which had 2.5 million troops, was preparing for an American invasion.

Japan had readied thousands of suicide planes and more than 560,000 soldiers for an expected US invasion. Reports also showed that Japan planned on executing all US prisoners as soon as US armed forces landed in Japan.

Sources: AHF, NationalWW2Museum, BBC, History.com, Al Jazeera, New York Times

The plan to use the atomic bomb proceeded. A crew of 12 was assembled on a US military base on Tinian, an island in Northern Marianas in the Pacific. Colonel Paul Tibbets was named pilot and Captain Robert Lewis was his co-pilot.

Enola Gay, the B-29 plane from which the first atom bomb was dropped, taken in April 1946. Art Edger/NY Daily News Archive/Getty

Captain William Parsons was weaponeer and Second Lieutenant Morris Jeppson was the electronic test officer.

Sources: AHF, New York Times

On August 5, the crew was briefed about their mission. Hiroshima, a city of approximately 350,000 people, which had an active military base, had been chosen for bombing.

A briefing held on August 5 led by Captain William Parsons and Colonel Paul Tibbets. PhotoQuest/Getty

Tibbets told the crew they would be dropping bombs on the city, but he didn't tell them they would be dropping an atomic bomb.

Sources: History.com, NationalWW2Museum

The atomic bomb was called "Little Boy." It was a 10 foot long uranium bomb that weighed 9,788 pounds

A 1946 postwar replica of the "Little Boy" nuclear weapon dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in August 1945. MPI/Getty Images

Sources: The History Press, History.com, PBS

On August 5, Little Boy was loaded onto an American B-29 bomber Tibbets had called "Enola Gay" after his mother. It was confirmed that the drop would take place the next day.

Men around the Little Boy bomb the day before it was dropped in 1945. Bettmann/Getty

Sources: The History Press, History.com, PBS

At 12:15 a.m. on August 6, the crew listened to a prayer composed for the occasion. At the time, there was no certainty that the flight would survive the explosion.

Colonel Paul Tibbets waves from his cockpit before takeoff from Tinian Island, on August 6, 1945. AP Photo

Sources: AHF, NationalWW2Museum

At 2:45 a.m., Enola Gay and two other B-29 observation bombers took off. Because Enola Gay's cargo was so heavy, it required the entire 2 mile runway to take off.

The Enola Gay in August 1945. Corbis/Getty

Three weather planes also left Tinian.

Each one flew to a potential target cityHiroshima, Kokura and Nagasakito check if weather conditions would permit a bomb drop.

Sources: The History Press, AHF

At 3 a.m., Parsons and Jeppson began to arm Little Boy. They inserted gunpowder and a detonator into the bomb. At 7:15 a.m., they removed the safety devices and inserted arming devices. Little Boy was ready to be deployed.

Two men inspect Little Boy in August 1945. Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group/Getty

Sources: AHF

At 7:30 a.m., Tibbets told his crew, "We are carrying the world's first atomic bomb."

A portrait of Colonel Paul Tibbets taken on January 1, 1940. Corbis/Getty

At 8:24 a.m., the weather plane over Hiroshima relayed that it was fine to proceed. Tibbets told his crew it had been confirmed. He said, "It's Hiroshima."

A photo-diagram of Hiroshima issued by the US army on August 9, showing Hiroshima and the levels of damage caused by the atomic bomb. AP Photo

The plan was to drop the bomb on the Aioi Bridge, a T-shaped bridge that Tibbet had earlier said was, "the most perfect aiming AP (aim point) I've seen in this whole damn war."

Sources: NationalWW2Museum, AHF

At 8:15 a.m. local time, Little Boy, the world's first atomic bomb used in battle, was dropped from 31,060 feet in the sky. It fell nearly six miles in 43 seconds before exploding 1,900 feet from the ground.

The atomic bomb explosion on Hiroshima in 1945. Roger Viollet/Getty Images

Witnesses recalled a flash of blinding light before a giant mushroom shaped cloud filled the sky.

The fireball grew 900 feet in diameter. The power of the blast was the equivalent of 12-15,000 tons of TNT.

Tibbets pulled a sharp 155 degree turn as soon as the bomb was dropped, knowing there was less than 45 seconds to get away.

By the time the bomb exploded, Enola Gay was 11.5 miles away.

Sources: BBC, The History Press, AHF, NationalWW2Museum

The mushroom cloud reached about 2,500 feet into the sky. At the core of the fireball the temperature was 300,000 degrees Celsius, while the surface was 7,000 degrees Celsius.

An aerial view of Hiroshima on August 7, 1945. Hulton Archive/ Getty

Tibbets later wrote about the explosion in his memoir, describing the mushroom cloud, as "boiling upward like something terribly alive."

Sources: The History Press, History.com, AHF, BBC, New York Times

At the time, it was then the most destructive bomb used in the history of war. The explosion instantly wiped out five square miles of Hiroshima, including 62,000 buildings. Up to 80,000 people were killed instantly.

Two victims of the atomic bombing sit in a converted hospital in October 1945. AP Photo

Another estimated 55,000 or so people would die by the end of 1945 from the effects of the explosion, including radiation poison and burn wounds.

According to the US Department of Energy's Manhattan Project history, the final death count over the next five years was almost 200,000.

Sources: BBC, Al Jazeera, The History Press, History.com, AHF

The explosion was so devastating people were vaporized leaving nothing behind except for their "nuclear shadow." These shadows were actually what the surfaces looked like before the blast, but appeared dark in comparison to everything else that was bleached by the atomic heat.

Human shadow on bank steps, in Hiroshima after the explosion of the atom bomb in August 1945, Japan. Universal History Archive/Universal Image Group/Getty

Sources: AHF, LiveScience

Roof tiles were fused by the heat, while bronze and granite statutes melted away. Across the city, fires began to spread causing even more damage.

Hiroshima shown eight months after the atomic bomb was dropped. Galerie Bilderwelt/Getty

Sources: BBC, The History Press, NationalWW2Museum, AHF

After the explosion, the Enola Gay circled the city three times before turning back towards the base. It wasn't until they were 368 miles from the city that they could no longer see the mushroom cloud.

An aerial view of the mushroom cloud from the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. US Army Air Corps/PhotoQuest/Getty

Sources: AHF

At 2.58 p.m., the Enola Gay landed back on Tinian. The mission had only taken about 12 hours, and while it was not enough to end the war, it had changed the world.

The Enola Gay lands back on Tinian after dropping an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Bettmann/Getty

Sources: AHF

About 16 hours after the bomb was dropped, Truman told Japanese leaders if they did not "now accept our terms they may expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this Earth."

Survivors of the atomic bomb in hospital in 1945. Universal History Archive/Getty

He said the US was now "prepared to obliterate more rapidly and completely every productive enterprise the Japanese have above ground in any city."

"We shall destroy their docks, their factories, and their communications. Let there be no mistake; we shall completely destroy Japan's power to make war," he said.

Sources: AHF

Three days after the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a second, more powerful bomb known as the "Fat Man" was dropped on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 70,000 people including those who later succumbed to the effects of the bomb by the end of 1945.

The explosion over Nagasaki in 1945. Prisma Bildagentur/Universal Images Group/Getty

Sources: PBS, BBC

On August 14, 1945, Japan surrendered and World War II was officially over. The Japanese Emperor Hirohito announced the surrender via a recorded radio message.

Japanese prisoners of war in Guam bow their heads after hearing Emperor Hirohito's announcement of Japan's unconditional surrender. US Navy/Getty Images

Sources: AHF

Read the original article on Business Insider
A view of a gate to Harvard Yard on the campus of Harvard University.

This story contains graphic material that may be disturbing for some readers.

They bought and sold human hearts and lungs and livers and brains  not to mention skulls, spines, skin and fetuses. It was ghoulish and macabre.

But it also was profoundly sad for victims like a woman in Little Rock, Arkansas, identified in court papers only as D.S.

After she gave birth in February 2022 to a stillborn boy whom she had named Lux, a Little Rock funeral home delivered his body to Arkansas Central Mortuary Services for cremation. His ashes were supposed to be returned to her for burial.

Instead, according to court records, attendant Candace Chapman Scott, 36, sold the fetus for $300 to Jeremy Pauley, 41, a self-described body modification artist and human blood painter, who lived 1,062 miles away in Pennsylvania.

But that wasnt the end of the line for Baby Lux. Pauley allegedly sent his body, plus $1,500, to Matthew Lampi, 52, a tattoo artist in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, in exchange for five human skulls.

Baby Lux's mother was later given remains of unknown origin.

Body parts from Harvard, Arkansas

The tawdry transactions are detailed in federal indictments charging eight people in six states, including Kentucky, with transporting stolen goods across state lines from 2018 to 2022. The defendants who have appeared in court have all pleaded not guilty.

The assortment of bones and organs came from cadavers donated to medical schools at Harvard University and the University of Arkansas for the training of doctors. Instead, according to the indictments, Scott and Cedric Lodge, 55, the mortuary manager at Harvard Medical School, broke them down for parts.

Law enforcement officials described the alleged trade in stolen human body parts as appalling.

The theft and trafficking of human remains strikes at the very essence of what makes us human, said Gerard M. Karam, the U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. He said it was particularly egregious because so many of the victims had volunteered their bodies to be used to advance the interests of science, education and healing.

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The defendants spoke about their goods in a matter-of-fact fashion.

On or about Dec. 14, 2021," one of the indictments says, Pauley told Lampi, Going to pack up your brain and heart tonight; arm isnt here yet but will send it out as soon as it arrives.

In a Facebook message, Scott told Pauley, I follow your page and work and LOVE it!

Just out of curiosity, she added. Would you know anyone in the market for a fully intact embalmed brain?"

The scheme started in Boston, where Lodge fashioned himself as the Grim Reaper, according to a lawsuit filed July 13 against Harvard for failing to supervise him.

He drove to work each day in a Suburu with a vanity plate that read the GRIM-R, the suit says. And he posted a picture of himself on Facebook dressed in black hat and suit like a Victorian-era undertaker.

According to an indictment filed in Pennsylvania charging five of the defendants, he also let collectors into the morgue to select the parts they wanted. They included Katrina Maclean, of Salem, Massachusetts and Joshua Taylor, of West Lawn, Pennsylvania.

In October 2020, prosecutors said, she agreed to buy two dissected faces from Lodge for $600. They said she stored and sold remains at her store, Kats Creepy Creations, which advertised creepy dolls, oddities and bone art on Instagram.

The next year, in June or July, she shipped human skin to Pauley and hired him to tan it into "leather," according to an indictment, which says she paid him with more skin.

FBI agents served a federal search warrant at James William Notts apartment Tuesday morning on Love Ave in Mount Washington. They found 40 skulls and dozens of human bones inside.July 12, 2023

40 skulls found in Kentucky apartment

Lodge brought some of the remains to his home in New Hampshire, where he and his wife Denise allegedly sold them to co-defendants including Taylor, who is described in court papers as a middleman in the network.

Meanwhile, on Love Avenue in Mount Washington, Kentucky, James William Billy Nott, using the pseudonym of a 19th century Scottish serial killer, offered skulls for sale to Pauley and sent him a picture of one with the teeth still attached, according to a criminal complaint.

FBI agents knew Nott had previously been convicted of possession of grenade parts and a destructive device and descended on his home in full tactical gear, as if prepared for war.

When they got inside his apartment, they found 40 human skulls arrayed like decorations. When they asked if anyone else was home, he said, Only my dead friends.

Agents found spinal cords, femurs and hip bones inside, along with several AK-47s and a loaded revolver. Prosecutors charged him with possession of firearms by a prohibited person. He has not entered a plea and is being held in jail indefinitely.

Asked about her son, Joyce Nott, who lives in nearby Meade County, complained that news outlets had sensationally portrayed him as freaky while the story should be about mental illness and the difficulty in obtaining treatment.

But she declined to say if he has been diagnosed with a mental disorder or sought treatment for one. His federal defender, Don Meier, did not respond to email messages.

In Little Rock, a judge has ordered a mental evaluation of Scott.

The human remains scandal stretches from Harvard Medical School in Massachusetts to other states, including Kentucky.

Amulets, talismans or trophies

But experts differ on whether collectors of human remains are necessarily unsound.

Michigan State University criminologist Karen Holt, who studies deviant behavior, said no one who has meaningful and fulfilling relationships with other people is going to engage in this behavior. They probably lack interpersonal skills and have intimacy deficits."

Body parts and corpses represent complete control for them, she said.

But Dr. Neil Kaye, a forensic psychiatrist in Hockessin, Delaware, and a reviewer for the Department of Justice, said collecting human body parts may be a weird behavior but it is not mental illness.

He noted scientists, museums and churches have collected bones and other body parts for centuries.

Scholars say human bones are often kept by religious orders or family members as relics for veneration and remembrance and kept as amulets, talismans or trophies.

The fervor of museums to assemble so-called bone rooms also was fed by efforts to prove since discredited theories about intelligence and race.

When medical schools began to require anatomy courses, the only legal source of cadavers were the bodies of executed  so many resorted to buying bodies from grave robbers. Some medical students and doctors dug up the bodies themselves.

Eventually, led by UCLA in the 1950s, most medical schools launched anatomical gift programs. Some for-profit companies also have tried to cash in, including Science Care, which Reuters reported received at least 17,000 bodies between 2011 and 2015 and sold or leased more than 51,500 body parts. The company offers free pickup and cremation.

Buying and selling body parts is legal under federal law  as long as the parts arent from a Native American, according to Caitlin Doughty, author of Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? And Other Questions About Dead Bodies.

At least 38 states have laws that should prevent the sale of human remains, she writes. But in reality, the laws are vague, confusing, and randomly enforced." Kentucky, for example, says a person is guilty of abuse of a corpse when he treats it in a way that would outrage ordinary family sensibilities.

The 'Memento Mori Museum'

Two of the defendants openly acknowledged for years that they bought and sold human parts.

Lampi, the Minnesota tattoo artist, was quoted in a 2008 British tattoo publication, Big Tattoo Planet, saying when he wasnt tattooing, he collected human skulls, a morticians make-up kit and a customers toe.

Pauley described himself on his website as the lead preservation specialist" of retired medical specimens for the Pauley Institute of Preservation, which he said allows "once forgotten specimens to re-enter the teaching realm for both private collectors and universities alike. 

He said on the site that he intended to found a new department dedicated to the tanning of human skin adorned with tattoos so families could keep it for the purpose of mourning the dearly departed.

Pauley also ran the Memento Mori Museum in Enola, Pennsylvania, about five miles from Harrisburg, (Memento Mori is Latin for remember you must die.")

The museum has closed, according to the Cumberland County Chamber of Commerce.

Pauley did not respond to a letter asking him the names of universities or educators he has worked with.

But his girlfriend, Sophie Mae Vee, who also paints with human blood, said on her Facebook page that he operates a legitimate, legal, business preserving human body parts."

Jeremys devotion to unusual antiquities is as unconditional as his appearance, she said.

Pauley has metal spikes embedded in his head and tattoos cover half his face; Vee said news outlets have used his mugshot as "clickbait."

Unpacking the human skeleton: Here's how many bones we have in our bodies.

Smokers lungs

The indictments describe a dizzying array of sales between Scott in Little Rock and Pauley, who now lives in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania.

On Oct. 28, 2021, for example, Scott sent Pauley pictures of a heart and brains and asked him if $1,200 with shipping and skull caps included sounded reasonable.

You are literally on the same page because that was going to be my offer lol, he responded.

On Dec. 18, 2021, Scott asked Pauley  identified in the indictments as Individual A  if he would be interested in purchasing a fetus. He said he was and instructed her how to package it.

In their biggest transaction, she told him she had come into possession of a half head, one whole head minus skullcap, three brains with skullcap, one heart, three livers, five lungs, two kidneys, one full pelvis female, one piece of skin with nipple and four hands." Scott agreed to part with them for $4,000.

Other items she sold him included genitalia, a trachea and two smokers lungs.

It all came to an end June 14, 2022, when investigators received a tip about suspicious activity at Pauleys home, the East Pennsboro Township police said in a statement.

When Lampi heard the news in Minnesota, he contacted Pauley, who tried to assure him they would be okay.

The only thing that matters was that nothing was proved grave-robbed or stolen out of a morgue, he said.

But police and prosecutors say the parts were in fact stolen from two mortuaries.

While the defendants face criminal charges of conspiracy and interstate transport of stolen goods, the prestigious Harvard Medical School, founded in 1782 and the top medical school in the country by some rankings, faces at least three lawsuits filed by family members of people who donated their bodies to its anatomical gifts program.

As many as 400 cadavers have been plundered at Harvard.

The plaintiffs include Anne Weiss, whose father, Dr. William Buchanan, a pediatrician and graduate of the medical school, had arranged to gift his body to it before his death at age 90 in 2018.

Harvard said it doesnt comment on pending litigation. But Weisss two Pennsylvania law firms  Sauder Schelkopf and Bochetto & Lentz  said in a statement that "this ghoulish black market was allowed to flourish in plain sight by an HMS employee whose lack of respect for the dead was obvious to anyone who scrutinized his behavior."

Harvard Medical School, the statement said, failed Buchanan, his family, and everyone impacted by these horrific acts.

For subscribers: Nazi diaries, forgers at the Vatican: How Delaware became a hotbed for solving art crime

Reporter Andrew Wolfson can be reached at (502) 396-5853 or awolfson@courier-journal.com.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Stolen body parts scandal stretches from Harvard to Kentucky
Swimmers dive into the Mediterranean Sea, where rapid warming has caused ocean temperatures in the region to soar to unprecedented levels over the past year, according to scientists. File Photo by Wael Hamzeh/EPA-EFE

Aug. 4 (UPI) -- The rapid warming of the Mediterranean Sea has caused ocean temperatures in the region to soar to unprecedented levels over the past year, according to new climate data from the European Union's leading marine observer.

Marine heat waves in the region in the summer of 2022 posed a grave threat to vital marine ecosystems, while also portending an increased frequency of extreme weather events, according to a report from Copernicus Marine Service, the environmental monitor for the EU's Space Program.

The study, titled "Record-Breaking Marine Heatwaves in the Mediterranean and Safeguarding Marine Ecosystems," noted in particular the heat wave's disruption to marine life as the Earth's oceans were absorbing approximately 90% of excess heat produced by humans through carbon emissions.

The marine heat waves impacted many vulnerable species, such as coral reefs, exotic fish, and microscopic organisms that continue to experience thermal stress and bleaching events amid significant declines in overall sea life, the report said.

The ocean, for its part, has carried out its natural assignment to keep the planet cool -- absorbing heat and distributing it across the globe through ocean currents. But scientists said planetary heating over the past 20 years had led to warmer seas and hotter air in the atmosphere, resulting in thinning ice shelves and many other serious consequences for natural habitats and food chains worldwide.

Marine scientists have tracked several record-breaking heat waves in the region since summer 2022 as the Mediterranean has warmed faster than the global average since satellite records began more than 40 years ago, the report said.

Marine heat waves, which are characterized by prolonged periods of higher-than-normal ocean temperatures, have been occurring more frequently in the 21st century.

A recent analysis by World Weather Attribution says extreme world temperatures in July were a likely sign of worsening climate change and that heat waves are no longer rare but at least 50 times more likely in the modern world.

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Another report from the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change blamed carbon emissions for continuously heating the Earth's surface and oceans for more than half a century.

The past 10 years have also been the warmest on record since the first Industrial Revolution, NASA said, while many climate experts continue to express concern over the steady drumbeat of new heat records since 2022.

The Barcelona Institute for Global Health reported in July that 61,672 deaths were attributed to excessive heat between May 30, 2022, and Sept. 4, 2022, as temperatures were hotter than average every week of the summer,

In late July, the temperature off the South Florida coast soared to more than 100 degrees on consecutive days, while sweltering conditions around the world were forecast to continue through September and potentially into late fall and the start of winter, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Meteorologists also warned previously that an El Nino event was likely to prolong extreme temperatures into the coming months, raising the potential for even more heat records worldwide.
The Russian Ministry of Defence has posted a video of a supposed visit by Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu to the war zone in Ukraine.

Source: Russian Ministry of Defence on Telegram

Quote from Ministry: "The Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation inspected the forward control point of the Centre group of troops in the area of the special operation [the official Russian name for the war against Ukraine  ed.]".

Shoigu was shown at the helicopter window as usual

screen shot: video by Russian Ministry of Defence

Details: Shoigu was debriefed by the group's commander, Lieutenant General Andrey Mordvichev, as well as commanders and staff officers, and thanked the command and personnel of the group of troops "for conducting successful offensive actions on the Krasnyi Lyman front and seizing more favourable positions".

Shoigu was supposedly shown "one of the many armoured vehicles captured in battle from the enemy", a Swedish CV-90 infantry fighting vehicle.

Mordvichev reportedly claimed to Shoigu that the Western equipment supplied to Kyiv has many "shortcomings", lacking spare parts, tools and additional accessories, and having a low rate of fire. The occupiers also claim these vehicles lack a guided weapon system and have low survivability due to its high silhouette.

It is unclear from the published video where exactly Shoigu was located.

Why it is important: Against the backdrop of the Ukrainian counter-offensive, Russia is trying to demonstrate in every possible way the alleged permanent presence of its military leadership at the front. In particular, the occupiers recently claimed that Valery Gerasimov, Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces had visited the temporarily occupied territory of Zaporizhzhia Oblast in Ukraine. However, the video reports from the Russian Ministry of Defence never show where its leaders were actually located.

Moreover, the ministry has been repeatedly caught lying before.

For example, on 18 December 2022, the Russian Ministry of Defence published a video where Shoigu supposedly flew over military positions in a helicopter. But later it turned out that Shoigu was actually about 80 kilometres from the front line, in temporarily occupied Crimea.

Ukrainska Pravda is the place where you will find the most up-to-date information about everything related to the war in Ukraine. Follow us on Twitter, support us, or become our patron!
Westerville City Schools announced Friday that Joseph Clark is anticipated to be named the next superintendent for the district of over 14,000 kids.

Westerville City Schools selected their next superintendent Friday, after launching an aggressive timeline to find a new chief executive at the beginning of the summer.

The Westerville City Schools Board of Education selected Joseph Clark, superintendent for Cleveland-area Nordonia Schools, as the next head of the over 14,000-student district.

It is expected that Clark will start Oct.1, pending successful contract negotiations, Board President Tracy Davidson said in a statement. The board anticipated "implementing a transition plan once these remaining steps in the process have been completed and introducing Dr. Clark to our staff, students and community at that time, she said.

Who is Joseph Clark?

Clark has been the superintendent of Nordonia Hills City Schools since 2011.

He previously served as assistant superintendent of Nordonia Hills City Schools; assistant superintendent for Kent City Schools; assistant principal, principal and assistant superintendent for Barberton City Schools; and high school English teacher for Springfield Local Schools. He also serves as a professor for the American College of Education, which is based in Indianapolis.

Clark has a masters degree in educational leadership and a doctorate in K-12 leadership, with a focus in school law from Kent State University.

Former Superintendent John Kellogg left in June for another post

In May, the district launched an "aggressive timeline" to find a successor for former Superintendent John Kellogg, who announced in March that he would leave at the end of June to begin a superintendent-in-residence position with the Educational Service Center of Central Ohio and Columbus State Community College.

Kellogg, 60, led Westerville schools for the past decade, through an operating levy and bond issue in 2016 and 2017, respectively.

The district's Board of Education, which hired the Illinois-based firm Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates to help in the selection process, received applications from 19 people to become the districts next leader.

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The other two finalists considered were Cameron M. Ryba, superintendent of Strongsville City Schools, Cuyahoga County; and Adham C. Schirg, superintendent of Fairbanks Local Schools, Union County. The three finalists were interviewed this week at Gianmarco's Italian Restaraunt in Westerville.

Nearly 1,000 community members, staff and students provided input during the recruitment process, the district has previously said.

@Colebehr_report

Cbehrens@dispatch.com

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Westerville City Schools selects Joseph Clark as next superintendent
California Congresswoman Barbara Lee is facing the fight of her career in the 2024 Senate election, but she says a lifelong passion for activism has given her all the motivation she needs as she campaigns for outgoing Sen. Dianne Feinstein's seat.

Lee, 77, has been in Congress since 1998, and is the highest-ranking African American woman appointed to Democratic leadership, according to her website. While visiting San Fernando High School in southern California, her alma mater, Lee told CBS News that it was when trying out for the cheerleading team that she first found her voice.

"There was a selection process and they had never selected a girl that looks like me. And so I went to the NAACP, and said, 'Look, I really want to be a cheerleader, but I can't make it through this process because I'm Black,'" Lee recalled.

Lee said that conversation led to a change in the selection process, and the victory inspired her. Today, she continues to fight racial bias in schools from her Congressional seat.

"Now I know that Black girls and girls of color are gonna be cheerleaders, and I mean, I was thinking like that at 15 and 16 years old," Lee said. "I look at politics and public service as being able to not tinker around the edges, but dismantling systems that are barriers for full and equal opportunity for everyone."

Barbara Lee. / Credit: CBS Mornings

Another high school experience would go on to inform her beliefs: Lee told CBS News that she had had an illegal abortion at the time.

"It was a dark back alley, it was about 10:30 at night.The doc had a white coat on, there was light above the bed. I mean, I remember it very vividly, like it was yesterday," said Lee. She said she hid the abortion from "everybody" in her life at the time.

"To live with that trauma and that stigma, the fear around it, the shame around it ... I felt horrible."

Lee, who spoke passionately against the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade on the House floor, said that she "never" expected to see the United States return to a point where people would again have to fight for the right to an abortion.

Story continues

Those two high school experiences informed her beliefs, but it wasn't until college that Lee's passion for politics was ignited. At Mills College in Oakland, California, she met Shirley Chisholm, the first African-American woman elected to Congress in 1968. According to Lee's website, she invited Chisholm to campus as the president of school's Black Student Union. Their meeting led Lee to register to vote for the first time, and she worked on Chisholm's 1972 presidential campaign and served as a delegate for Chisholm at the Democratic National Convention.

Today, Lee is in what might be the toughest fight of her political life. She is competing with representatives Katie Porter and Adam Schiff in the race for the 90-year-old Feinstein's Senate seat. Porter is known for her tough questioning in the House Oversight Committee, while Schiff is backed by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Schiff and Porter also have more money in their campaign coffers.

But Lee said the finances aren't detering her.

"Well, it's not I have fallen behind. I have been raising money over the years for our Democratic Party, for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, for women, for women of color," she said. "And in fact, the barriers to raising money are there. But that's not gonna stop me."

If elected, Lee will be the only Black woman in the Senate. It would be another achievement for Lee, who still remembers her early childhood growing up in segregated El Paso, Texas, and who heard her parents warn each other about cross burnings in San Leandro, a city she now represents.

"Representation matters," Lee said. "We want everybody to have an opportunity to live the American dream."

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A woman in California said her husband found dead after going for a hike was in his favorite place, news outlets reported.

On July 31, a man was reported missing by his family after he didnt return from a hike on El Cajon Mountain in San Diego, according to a news release by the sheriffs office.

The man, later identified as Adam Shmidt, 34, was a high school teacher who loved to go hiking as it made him feel most at home, his wife, Becca Fink, told NBC 7 San Diego. The two met in 2010 according to an obituary page

Shmidt, an experienced hiker, had planned to hike to the top of the mountain and return home afterwards, KGTV reported.

After searching throughout the night, police found Shmidt dead near a hiking trail, the news release said.

He went to the place where he felt most connected to himself and nature, his wife told FOX 5. Adam died doing his favorite thing in his favorite place.

The man described by his sister-in-law as intelligent, so funny and an incredibly driven and loving human with a zest for life, loved his wife fiercely, according to an Aug. 3 Facebook post.

Although police said a medical examiner will determine Shmidts exact cause of death, San Diego Sheriffs office Lt. Chris Katra said the mans body had experienced trauma consistent with a fall, NBC 7 San Diego reported.

The amount of lives you made infinitely better in the short time you were on this Earth is a testament to what a beautiful human being is supposed to be, Shmidts friend and fellow teacher said on his obiturary page. One of the most realized, healed, healthy, full of light humans.

El Cajon Mountain is considered as the hardest hike in San Diego (County), according to the Hiking Guy website. Its a 12-mile hike to the 3,648-foot summit.

Remains found by hikers in Arizona desert are now IDd as missing man, reports say

Missing 66-year-old hiker from Texas found dead in Utah national park, rangers say

Hiker vanished days ago in California forest. A body has now been found, cops say
Growing up, Edith Williams-Oldham never realized the historical impact of her small school that sat just a stones throw away from her home.

She knew that she learned to play basketball on the St. George Rosenwald Schools dirt court and that the school was where her favorite literature teacher inspired her to be a writer and poet herself.

But it wasnt until she started researching for her book, What Grandma Forgot to Tell You, that she realized that her years at St. George Rosenwald School in the late 1940s and early 50s were an important part of history in St. George, S.C., and across the country.

By 2014, when the school property was given to the town of St. George, the walls were decaying and the basketball court was full of shrubs. But now, after an extensive restoration effort lead by alumni and community members, the school is on track to reopen to the public this fall.

From a place that afforded precious opportunity to generations of Black children to a place that fostered community and progress in the Civil Rights era, the newly restored St. George Rosenwald School is a place community members now hope will inform and inspire the next generation.

The restored Williams Memorial Rosenwald School in St. George, South Carolina is nearly ready to reopen as a museum and community center.

The process

The St. George Rosenwald School is one of many schools built throughout the South by Julius Rosenwald, a philanthropist and president of Sears and Roebuck, and with the help of educator Booker T. Washington.

The historic South Carolina property was built in 1925 during a time when segregation and Jim Crow laws made it harder for Black students to receive a quality education. The building served as a school and gathering place for Black students until 1954 and after was a meeting space and community center for the surrounding area.

If you saw the pictures before they cleaned it off, we even wondered if it could be salvaged, Oldham said.

The school was one of only two Rosenwald Schools in Dorchester County and is the only one still standing, according to the South Carolina Department of Archives and History.

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Ralph James, the chairman of the St. George School Board and one of the last students to attend the school before it closed, said the school was partially preserved by the neglect.

It really was neglected to allow these trees to grow up around it, and then there were a lot of cement blocks and cement pieces stored around 6, 7, 8 feet high all around it, James said. So when the storm wind blew, that buffered the school from a lot.

Since 2014, the board, made up of alumni and local legislators, has worked on restoring the building. They have added a kitchen, bathrooms and a board room. They also plan to recreate the old principals office and fill the small library with a mix of modern books and ones that James and his classmates would have read.

The schools updated auditorium will include updated stage lighting, a projector and multicolor walls, which James said tell a story.

When the school hosted an early childhood education program, different walls were painted different colors for different age groups, James said. When the wooden boards from those walls were cleaned and reinstalled, all the colors were mixed up.

So this was the pattern that was placed up there with intent to paint, and a few persons came in said not to paint, James said. Its original, and it tells a story.

The restored Williams Memorial Rosenwald School in St. George, South Carolina is nearly ready to reopen as a museum and community center.

However, one part of the south wing of the St. George Rosenwald School will feature two rooms most similar to what the building would have looked like while it was open. The board plans to host classes for visiting children in two classrooms fitted with original floors, a blackboard and a stove that would have been used to heat the classroom in the winter.

With the help of the Electric Cooperatives of South Carolina, old desks were located from across the county and restored so that visiting students can sit it them while learning about the history of the school.

Doug Reeves, the vice president of the St. George Rosenwald School board, said the desks were just part of the boards effort to preserve the memory of the school.

Weve got some alum thats graduated from that school, and they keep coming back saying, OK, well, this is where it was, you know, when I was here. Yeah, you ought to do this, or do that. And thats what we kind of kept in mind the whole time, Reeves said. We wanted to save as much of that as we possibly could.

The project has become a community effort, according to Oldham, who said the alumni group even sponsored the restoration of a nearby restaurant themselves.

In the 1920s, the Black community held fish fries and fundraisers to be able to build the Rosenwald school, and Oldham said for the restoration project, the alumni did the same.





Well, what we did was we just emulated what our parents, foreparents had done, Oldham said. We raised money.

Oldham said she hopes the continued effort to rebuild the school and surrounding buildings will help to uplift the community that the school sits in the center of.

The restored Williams Memorial Rosenwald School in St. George, South Carolina is nearly ready to reopen as a museum and community center.

The community

For Oldham and James, the Rosenwald school represents a time of unity and support throughout the Black community in St. George.

James described the school as the jewel, the pride of the community. The Black community flourished around it, with restaurants, shops and movie theaters creating a vibrant uptown St. George that was nicknamed Little Harlem.

As I walked the streets as a child, everyone knew of me, and you could just, from house to house, you can depend on a little helping hand along the way, James said. You were never a stranger. So that feeling is something that cant be duplicated in a way, but it does tremendous to build citizenship and to strengthen humankind.

Oldham said that the St. George Rosenwald School itself was so popular that it was overfilled and had to hold classes in the nearby church or in auxiliary buildings.

For many students, Oldham said the school was a life-changing opportunity that many Black children didnt have. One of the schools oldest alumni even begged her mother to ride their familys bull to school during a particularly bad storm so she could maintain her perfect attendance.

This school was a prayer, an answered prayer, Oldham said. To be in a room where there was no leaking room, there were heaters with wood, coal burning to keep them warm, there was toilet paper, even though it was an outdoor toilet, it was flushable.

Even after the school closed, it acted as an organizing place in the Civil Rights movement, according to the National Park Service, which recognized the school as a part of the African American Civil Rights Network in 2021. The building was used to prepare community members to vote and hosted Project Deep which helped prepare Black students to enter integrated schools in Dorchester County.

That school has been a venue for progress since the day it was built, Oldham said. We want to make it even more so now.

James said the additions to the St. George Rosenwald School were made to help make the building a community space again. He hopes to see the school host everything from history lessons to Rotary Club meetings to birthday parties.

Hopefully, we will be able to demonstrate not only here what can happen, but to other communities just what would happen if you would, again, begin to find something that would bring you together, bring the area together and give you a common cause, James said. Give us hope, again, create love for one another and more than that ... an education and to stimulate our minds and to do good things.

The future

In addition to classrooms and meeting spaces, the updated St. George Rosenwald School will partner with the Childrens Museum of the Lowcountry to include informational exhibits for younger visitors on the south side of the building, James said.

I think one of the slogans, a mind is a terrible thing to waste, James said. So here we are not wasting minds, but we are rejuvenating them, we are strengthening them.

To Oldham, involving and engaging the youth, which she considers anyone from children to 40-year-olds, will lead to the success of the project.

This is the greatest gift that your foreparents could have given you. The opportunity to learn about where you came from, who they were, why youre here and how you got here and what this school has contributed to the community in St. George and surrounding areas, Oldham said. We would hope that you would take interest and learn and keep supporting it to build a better community.

According to James, the St. George Rosenwald School is on track to host a grand opening in September.
Home and Away spoilers follow.

Home and Away has released a trailer focusing on new Summer Bay arrivals Harper and Dana.

The soap recently confirmed that it will be welcoming the new characters, played by Jessica Redmayne and Ally Harris, next week.

However, there's more to Harper than initially appears in the teaser clip, as she arrives and is asked what brings her to Summer Bay.

Related: 11 huge Home and Away spoilers for next week

"I could definitely use some sunshine and surf," she tells Irene Roberts, though John Palmer admits there's something he doesn't "trust" about Harper.

It turns out, she is harbouring her fugitive sister Dana, as she turns to Cash Newman for help amid their situation.

Star Jessica has previously appeared in the likes of Neighbours and 800 Words, while Ally  who trained at the prestigious Fontainebleau Conservatory of Music and Drama in France  has appeared in true crime series The Claremont Murders and Harrow.

Channel 5

Related: Home and Away reveals Roo Stewart outcome after shock explosion

In other Home and Away news, Mali Hudson actor Kyle Shilling recently spoke to Digital Spy about the soap's big explosion storyline, saying he was "so excited" about taking on a big role.

"Having the opportunity to work on something like this was great," he said. "I couldn't wait when I heard that it was coming up. It shows what I'm capable of as an actor and that's what I was most excited for  to prove that I could do this kind of thing.

"I found out quite a while beforehand that this story was in the works and I kept checking with people to make sure that it was actually happening! It was a lot of fun."

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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Fire

A British gay couple and their young child fleeing a fire while on vacation in Greece were denied shelter in a local house after the homeowner saw they were gay, forcing the family to stay in a hostel for those experiencing homelessness instead.

Sean Palmer, 34, and Matt Smith, 35, told PA Real Life were vacationing on the Greek island of Rhodes with a fire forced them to evacuate their hotel in Pefkos. The married couple and Smiths unnamed six-year-old son stayed the first night sleeping in a shelter and then a local family offered to let them stay in their home until they could arrange a flight back to the U.K.

As the homeowner was lugging their luggage into the trunk, he stopped and questioned the couple.

I was told family, Palmer recalled the homeowner saying, with Smith responding, We are a family.

But you are not man and woman, the homeowner continued, before unloading the luggage and driving away.

We were just absolutely gobsmacked, Palmer recalled.

It was another shocking twist on what was supposed to be their first big dream vacation as a family.

They arrived in Greece on July 18, but their dream vacation turned into a nightmare only days later as a fire broke out on the island. The first sign the fire might seriously impact their vacation came when the water and electricity kept going on and off at their hotel, but they knew there were in trouble when the hotel sent home its staff to evacuate their families, leaving the guests stranded with no restaurant or services. Then electricity was cut off to the entire island.

They were able to find a restaurant still open and running on generator power, but were given the order to pack up and prepare to evacuate later that night. A bus picked up Palmer, Smith, and Smith's son along with the other stranded guests, but only ferried them to a nearby school where they would spend the night. One of the schools teachers later told the family he had found a home for them to stay in the next few days. The teacher must not have told the homeowners the men were queer.

The couple were forced to stay the night in a hostel for the homeless. They were able to fly home the following night.

We had been awake from six oclock on the Saturday morning until 11 on the Monday, Palmer told PA Real Life. But we were just grateful to be back in the U.K.
The Sacramento International Airport hotel market is strong as travelers continue to return in record numbers spurring a new hotel and plans for more.

A dual-branded Hyatt House with 81 units and Hyatt Place Hotel with 108 rooms opened July 20 on Duckhorn Drive in the Gateway West neighborhood of North Natomas.

Site plans also have been submitted to Sacramento Countys planning officials for four new hotels near the airport.

They are a 92-room Candlewood Suites, a 112-room Springhill Suites by Marriott and two unnamed establishments, with 112 rooms and 80 rooms each.

The hotels are expected to be built on a tract of land off West Elkhorn Boulevard near Metro Air Parkway and Skyking Road in the unincorporated Metro Air Park.

The hotel plans by Galaxy Hotel Groups of Texas could be subject to review in the fall, said county spokesman Ken Casparis. He said he did not have a timetable for the construction of the hotels.

A spokesperson for Galaxy, which is based in San Antonio, did not respond to requests for comment.

Sacramento International Airport spokesman Scott Johnston said 13 million passengers are expected at the airport in 2023. If those projections hold up, that would put the airport back to levels not seen since 2019 and the COVID-19 pandemic.

After 2023, airport projections show a passenger growth rate of 4.3% per year for the next eight years, Johnston said.

The new hotels come has room occupancy in the Sacramento International Airport zone has recovered from pre-pandemic levels and is much stronger than the overall Sacramento hotel market, according to industry analysts.

Data from CoStar shows that airport-adjacent hotels had an average occupancy rate of 81.4% in the January-to-June period, returning to around the same level as the same period in 2019.

Room occupancy had dropped to as low as 19% in April 2020 as the coronavirus took root, CoStar data showed.

Average room rates of $169.72 for the first six months of 2023, meanwhile, are slightly higher than before the pandemic and have been increasing for the last three years, according to CoStar.

Generally, limited-service hotels that predominate near the airport can make a profit at an occupancy level of 70%, according to CoStar.

Overall in the city of Sacramento, the data shows, hotel occupancy was a lower, at 67.3%, in the first six months of 2023 and remains slightly below pre-pandemic numbers.
Former head of China's state railway operator stands trial for taking bribes

Xinhua) 10:03, August 04, 2023

XI'AN, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- Sheng Guangzu, former secretary of the leading Party members group and general manager of what was once known as China Railway Corp., stood trial for taking bribes on Thursday.

The case was heard by the Intermediate People's Court of Baoji in northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

China Railway Corp. was renamed China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. in 2019.

Between 2004 and 2022, Sheng allegedly took advantage of his various positions, including head of the General Administration of Customs, general manager of the China Railway Corp., and member of the Standing Committee of the 12th National People's Congress, to benefit others in enterprise operations, project contracting, and job promotions and adjustments.

He took money and property worth over 56.66 million yuan (about 7.93 million U.S. dollars) in return, according to the prosecutors.

The prosecutors also accused Sheng of taking advantage of his former posts at the China Railway Corp. to seek illegitimate benefits for certain organizations in enterprise operations with the assistance of other state functionaries in 2021.

Sheng took over 7.14 million yuan worth of money and property through others between 2015 and 2022, according to the prosecutors.

At the court, the prosecutors presented their evidence, which the defendant and his lawyers cross-examined.

Sheng pleaded guilty and expressed remorse in his final statement.

The verdict will be announced in due course.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
The opinions expressed in this op-ed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Military.com. If you would like to submit your own commentary, please send your article to opinions@military.com for consideration.

Our nation's veterans have selflessly served and sacrificed for our country. As chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee, chairwoman of the Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Health, and the representative of Fort Drum, New York, we understand it is our solemn duty to honor their sacrifice, service and heroism.

That is why we, along with the rest of our House Republican colleagues, committed to fully fund veterans benefits in our budgets to ensure the men and women who have served have access to the care, benefits and services they have earned.

Last week, we fulfilled our commitment to our veterans when we passed the Fiscal 2024 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations bill. This bill fully funds veterans' health care programs, benefits and other Department of Veterans Affairs programs, including the electronic health record modernization initiative, and fully funds toxic exposure-related needs for fiscal 2024. Our MilCon-VA Appropriations bill is an increase of more than $16 billion over fiscal 2023 enacted levels.

Every House Democrat voted against this legislation, and President Joe Biden has threatened to veto this funding bill if it gets to his desk, choosing to endanger veterans programs over political positions. But for months, these same extreme Democrats launched baseless attacks against House Republicans, falsely claiming we would cut veterans' benefits. President Biden even went as far as to weaponize the VA against House Republicans, having it falsely tell veterans we would cut their benefits, something that still remains on the VA's website.

Three House Democrats even authored an op-ed for Military Times, claiming that House Republicans would slash billions from veterans. In the end, all three of these House Democrats -- Reps. Mark A. Takano of California, Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, and Chris Deluzio of Pennsylvania -- voted against the bill, which fully funds veterans benefits, including funds for toxic exposure-related needs.

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President Biden often tells the American people, "Don't tell me what you value. Show me your budget, and I'll tell you what you value." By voting against the MilCon-VA Appropriations bill and threatening to veto it, he and House Democrats are telling us what they value, and sadly, it is not funding benefits for our nation's veterans. They are turning their backs on our veterans and failing to fulfill their sacred promises to the men and women who have served us.

House Republicans always have and always will be the strongest supporters of our veterans; we will continue to uphold our commitment to them and ensure that they have access to the care, benefits and services they have earned.

-- Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik represents New York; Mike Bost, Illinois; and Mariannette Miller Meeks, Iowa.
Dozens of House Democrats called for former President Donald Trumps Jan. 6 criminal trial to be televised live, arguing the historic nature of the case makes it essential the public hear from witnesses and see evidence in real-time.

Three dozen lawmakers sent the letter Thursday to Judge Roslynn Mauskopf, who oversees the nations federal courts. The group includes key members of the House select committee that investigated the origins of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol, including chair Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.)

Given the historic nature of the charges brought forth in these cases, it is hard to imagine a more powerful circumstance for televised proceedings, the letter reads. If the public is to fully accept the outcome, it will be vitally important for it to witness, as direct as possible, how the trials are conducted, the strength of the evidence adduced and the credibility of witnesses.

Transparency will be crucial in the trials of the U.S. v. Donald J. Trump.



Its why dozens of my colleagues joined me today in urging that these proceedings be broadcast for the public.



If the American people are to accept the outcome, it will be vitally important for them to pic.twitter.com/xYY2xuooYd  Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) August 4, 2023

Its unclear how likely a televised trial would be.

Federal rules usually prohibit the taking of photographs or video inside a courtroom, hence the sketch of Trumps not guilty plea Thursday. News organizations had asked for broadcast equipment to be allowed inside the courtroom when Trump was arraigned in a separate case in New York related to hush money payments made to the porn star Stormy Daniels, but a judge rejected those requests in April (a small number of photographers were given a few minutes to capture photos in that instance).

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Trump was indicted by a federal grand jury on four federal charges Tuesday. Prosecutors charged the former president with a multi-pronged conspiracy to stay in power after he lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

This artist sketch depicts former President Donald Trump, right, conferring with defense lawyer Todd Blanche, center, during his appearance at the Federal Courthouse in Washington, on Aug. 3, 2023.

This artist sketch depicts former President Donald Trump, right, conferring with defense lawyer Todd Blanche, center, during his appearance at the Federal Courthouse in Washington, on Aug. 3, 2023.

Special counsel Jack Smith laid out the outline of the governments case in a 45-page indictment that claims Trump knew his claims of widespread voter fraud were false, but was determined to remain in power by crafting an intense national atmosphere of mistrust and anger.

Lawmakers pointed to that ongoing mistrust of the judicial system in their letter Thursday, calling on the Judicial Conference to make sure information was quickly relayed to the public during Trumps trial.

It is imperative the Conference ensures timely access to accurate and reliable information surrounding these cases and all of their proceedings, given the extraordinary national importance to our democratic institutions and the need for transparency, the letter reads.

Related...
By Simon Lewis and David Brunnstrom

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The incoming hereditary ruler of Cambodia, a country Washington is keen to pull out of Beijing's orbit, could meet CEOs of U.S. firms interested in investing there in New York next month, the head of the U.S. business lobby for Southeast Asia told Reuters.

Cambodia's long-ruling Prime Minister Hun Sen has said he will hand power to his Western-educated son, Hun Manet, 45, this month, after the incumbent Cambodian People's Party (CPP) swept a July general election in which it was virtually unopposed.

"We hope to host (Hun Manet). We hope to see if there's a way to start a new chapter" between the Washington and Phnom Penh, Ted Osius, president of the U.S.-ASEAN Business Council said on Thursday.

"It's not an entirely new chapter (but) hes not his dad, he's a different person. So maybe there's some opportunities here."

Talks were underway for a hotel reception around the U.N. General Assembly (UNGA) meetings held in September, said Osius, a former career diplomat who served as America's ambassador to Cambodia's neighbor Vietnam.

"(Well) bring in CEOs, high-level execs who are interested in Cambodia and might want to get a view of the new guy. And I think he would welcome that."

Washington, which has over the years denounced Hun Sen's authoritarian and anti-democratic moves, has said the elections were "neither free nor fair."

Hun Manet, educated at Western institutions including the West Point military academy in the United States, would not want to be "owned lock stock and barrel" by another country, Osius said, a reference to Cambodia's close ties to U.S. rival China.

Cambodia's decision to allow China's navy to develop its naval base at Ream has upset Washington and neighbors worried it will give Beijing a new outpost near the contested South China Sea.

Osius said the U.S. approach to Cambodia had been "punitive" and Washington should look for opportunities for dialogue.

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"Better for (Hun Manet) if there if he's got some strategic options, and that could mean improving ties with us," he said.

A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department said it had no specific comment on Hun Manet's future leadership, but the formation of a new government was an opportunity for the CPP to improve Cambodia's international standing.

Ways it could do this included "restoring genuine multi-party democracy, ending politically motivated trials, reversing convictions of government critics, and allowing independent media outlets to reopen and function without interference."

Asked if Hun Manet and U.S. officials could meet on the sidelines of UNGA, the spokesperson added: "We are still determining schedules for U.S. principals and do not have any further information to share."

Cambodia's Washington embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

(Reporting by Simon Lewis and David Brunnstrom; Editing by Marguerita Choy)
GOP presidential candidate Asa Hutchinson on Thursday said hes close to halfway there on reaching the donor threshold required to get on stage for the partys first primary debate later this month.

I think were close to halfway there. Weve got about three weeks left, so weve got work to do, Hutchinson said on CBS News.

The White House hopeful said his campaign had garnered 10,000 donors in the past two weeks and is growing by 1,000 a day.

[We] have a lot of momentum. Were going to get there, Hutchinson said.

Before candidates can get on the Aug. 23 debate stage, they must first qualify by fulfilling several requirements set by the Republican National Committee (RNC). They have to meet specific polling requirements  and a benchmark of 40,000 unique donors to their principal presidential campaign committee, including at least 200 from 20 or more states and territories each.

So far, the candidates who appear to have met polling and donor marks for the first GOP debate include former President Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Sen. Tim Scott (S.C.) and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.

Hutchinson and former Vice President Mike Pence appear to have met the polling requirements but are still trying to hit the donor mark.

The first primary debate is set to take place in Milwaukee later this month, meaning candidates have roughly three weeks to hit the requirements to qualify.

The RNC this week released higher polling and donor criteria for presidential candidates to make the second GOP debate, which is set for Sept. 27 at the Ronald Regan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
ZNPP

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) mission in Ukraine has gained access to the roofs of two reactor buildings at the temporarily occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) and did not find any trace of explosives, the agency said in a statement on Friday, August 4.

"IAEA experts did not find any mines or explosives on the roofs of the reactor buildings of the 3rd and 4th power units, as well as in the control rooms of the ZNPP, after they were granted access yesterday afternoon," said Director General Rafael Grossi.

Grossi added that the mission would continue to request access to the roofs of the other four power units.

Read also: Russians step up intimidation tactics at Zaporizhzhya NPP, including beatings, theft, blackmail

ZNPP was captured by the Russian invaders in March 2022. Since then, the invaders have constantly interfered with the work of Ukrainian specialists at the station.

The occupiers constantly subject the station's personnel to intimidation, resorting to kidnappings and forcing them to sign contracts with Rosatom, the Russian atomic agency.

On June 22, President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said that Russia was considering planning a terrorist attack at ZNPP.

On July 4, the General Staff of the Armed Forces reported that foreign objects, similar to explosive devices, were placed on the outer roof of the third and fourth power units of the ZNPP.

Read also: Russians deliver mines and explosives to occupied Zaporizhzhya NPP  Ukrainian intelligence

NV

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was granted access to the roofs of reactors three and four of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the agency chief Rafael Grossi said on Aug. 4.

The IAEA experts didn't observe any mines or explosives on site, but they are yet to be allowed onto the roofs of the remaining four power units.

The report comes exactly a month after Ukraine's General Staff warned that Russian forces had placed objects resembling explosives on the roofs of reactors three and four, preparing a sabotage attack.

During the Aug. 1 inspection, the IAEA team also discovered that the mines they observed on July 23 at the plant's perimeter were still in place.

According to Grossi, those mines are located "in a buffer zone between the site's internal and external perimeter barriers," in a restricted area that plant workers cannot access. Russian forces reportedly told the IAEA experts that "it is a military decision and in an area controlled by the military."

"No new mines or explosives were observed during any walk-downs over the past week," Grossi said on Aug. 4.

Read also: Energoatom: Russia kidnaps, tortures Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant engineer

He added that following a switch of reactor unit five to cold shutdown on July 28, maintenance work had begun at the plant, including inspection of the safety systems and cleaning of the heat exchanger.

"However, the IAEA team has repeatedly requested more complete information regarding the full scope of maintenance activities planned to be conducted on Unit 5, given the limited availability of spare parts and significantly reduced maintenance staff available at the plant."

Unit 5's transfer into cold shutdown status  a mode in which it no longer produces electricity  was conducted three days after Russian forces brought unit four to hot shutdown in violation of safety protocols.

The IAEA staff has been based at the Zaporizhzhia plant on rotation since September 2022, after Grossi's first visit to the occupied facility.

Story continues

Russian forces have occupied the Zaporizhzhia plant, the largest nuclear plant in Europe, since March 2022. They have used it as a military base to launch attacks at Ukrainian-controlled territory across the Dnipro River.

Read also: On the edge of disaster: What could really happen if Russia destroys Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant?

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Not only Putin, but also

The International Criminal Court in the Hague may issue another arrest warrant for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin for the crimes committed by Wagner mercenaries, Ukrainian Military Intelligence spokesman Andriy Yusov told Ukrainian TV broadcasters on Aug. 4.

We know that the work of the ICC is a complex process, said Yusov.

Read also: Putin will crush everyone one by one  Elections illogical during war, says political analyst

But, nevertheless, both for these episodes and for many other crimes of Putin, his regime, and Putin's Russia, new investigations and corresponding decisions are possible.

He added that not only Putin, but also other individuals from his entourage could be named in future warrants from the couty.

Read also: Military official arrested for fraud, aiding criminals, faces 12-year prison sentence

Earlier, former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice David Scheffer said that the International Criminal Court could investigate the ties between Wagner mercenaries and Russian leadership, which could potentially lead to new arrest warrants for Putin.

Read also: Putin remained transfixed by Ukraine during Russia-Africa summit  expert

On March 17, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin on suspicion of committing war crimes related to the deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia.

Putin now faces arrest in 123 countries that have ratified the Rome Statute.

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
Bryan Kohberger. AP Photo/Matt Rourke, Pool

Lawyers for Idaho murders suspect Bryan Kohberger say he was out driving the night of the killings.

"Mr. Kohberger has long had a habit of going for drives alone," the lawyers wrote in a court filing.

Kohberger has been accused of stabbing four University of Idaho students to death last year.

Idaho murders suspect Bryan Kohberger regularly went on drives alone and was doing just that the night the four college students were brutally slain inside an off-campus home last year, the man's attorneys said in a new court filing.

Kohberger's lawyers said in court papers filed on Wednesday objecting to prosecutors' previous motion to compel Kohberger to provide specifics around his alibi defense that he wasn't at the residence where the University of Idaho students were killed in the early morning of November 13.

Instead, Kohberger's attorneys said that he was out driving alone.

"Mr. Kohberger has long had a habit of going for drives alone. Often he would go for drives at night," his lawyers wrote in the court filing. "He did so late on November 12 and into November 13, 2022."

Kohberger, a former Ph.D. student in the criminal justice program at Washington State University, has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary in connection to the stabbing deaths in Moscow, Idaho.

Investigators believe the slayings of Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kernodle's boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, 20, unfolded between 4 a.m. and 4:25 a.m., according to an affidavit.

"Mr. Kohberger is not claiming to be at a specific location at a specific time; at this time there is not a specific witness to say precisely where Mr. Kohberger was at each moment of the hours between late night November 12, 2022 and early morning November 13, 2022," Kohberger's attorneys said in the Wednesday filing.

His lawyers added, "He was out, driving during the late night and early morning hours of November 12-13, 2022."

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The attorneys said in the court filing that "corroboration" of Kohberger "NOT" being at the home where the students were killed "may be brought out through cross-examination of the state's witnesses" and "expert witness presentation."

Authorities have linked Kohberger to the crime scene through DNA found on a leather knife sheath left in one of the victims' bedrooms.

Additionally, cell phone records obtained by police showed that Kohberger's phone was near the three-story home where the victims lived with roommates at least a dozen times between June 2022 and before the early morning killings, according to an affidavit.

Read the original article on Insider
Photo: Getty Images

In an especially chilling move, Idaho lawmakers have directly asked hospitals in the state for their abortion records, as the state continues to escalate its war on pregnant people and health care providers. A letter from legislators in the Idaho Freedom Caucus, obtained by Northwest Public Broadcasting this week, shows Republicans questioning the accuracy of abortion data that hospitals in the state have reported to the government, as is required by state law. The letter also chillingly reminds hospitals of the penalties for failing to report abortions: a misdemeanor charge, $1,000 fine, and imprisonment for up to a year.



Has your hospital performed any of the induced abortions that are required to be reported? the letter asks. If so, has your hospital been in compliance with Idahos induced abortion reporting law? If not, is there a reasonable explanation, and will you please provide your induced abortion data so we can make informed policy decisions?



Read more

The discrepancy in abortion reporting from hospitals, alleged by Idaho Republicans, could actually be explained by a number of factorsnamely, that hospitals in rural counties or hospitals with fewer resources often refer abortion-seeking patients to hospitals in larger counties. But, of course, the states anti-abortion lawmakers seem less interested in a logical explanation than another opportunity to intimidate, surveil, and possibly criminalize health care providers. And while Idahos abortion ban doesnt explicitly criminalize abortion patients, abortion reporting laws can still put patients and pregnant people at criminal risk, too, given increasing cases of pregnancy-related criminalization.

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In April, Idaho became the first state in the nation to enact a law that criminalizes so-called abortion trafficking (that is, helping minors cross state lines to access abortion care) as a felony punishable with up to five years in prison. The consequences of the states abortion ban and laws like this have been steep: In March, a hospital in a rural region of Idaho was forced to shutter its labor and delivery department after an exodus of OB/GYNs who feared that continuing to do their job in the state could land them in prison.

Per a press release that the hospital, Bonner General Health, shared with Jezebel in March, The Idaho Legislature continues to pass bills that criminalize physicians for medical care nationally recognized as the standard of care. Consequences for Idaho physicians providing the standard of care may include civil litigation and criminal prosecution, leading to jail time or fines. And, even more alarmingly, in June, Idaho ended its maternal mortality review committee. The U.S. maintains the highest maternal mortality rate among wealthy nations, and states with more abortion restrictions have disproportionately high maternal mortality rates.

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Click here to read the full article.
Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of murdering four University of Idaho students in November, claims he was going for a routine drive when the killings took place, according to new court filings.

Kohberger, 28, has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary. He's accused of killing Ethan Chapin, a 20-year-old from Conway, Washington; Madison Mogen, a 21-year-old from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho; Xana Kernodle, 20, from Avondale, Arizona; and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, from Rathdrum, Idaho.

On Wednesday, Kohberger's attorneys objected to the state's request for an alibi of his whereabouts on the night of the murder.

In the court documents, his attorneys claim "Mr. Kohberger has long had a habit of going for drives alone," and that he did so on the night and morning of the brutal killings.

"Mr. Kohberger is not claiming to be at a specific location at a specific time; at this time there is not a specific witness to say precisely where Mr. Kohberger was at each moment of the hours between late night November 12, 2022, and early morning November 13, 2022," the filing said.

His attorney said that corroborating evidence that Kohberger was not at the scene of the crime will come from the cross-examination of state's witnesses.

"Mr. Kohberger cannot be more specific about the possible witnesses and exactly what they will say," the filing said.

A judge entered a not guilty plea on Kohberger's behalf at his May 22 arraignment after he did not respond in court when the judge asked him how he pleaded.

At the time of the killings, Kohberger was a Ph.D. criminology student and teaching assistant at Washington State University's Pullman campus, which is only about a 15 minute drive from the home in Moscow, Idaho, where the four students were killed.

Authorities believe the victims were likely asleep when they came under attack, suffering multiple stab wounds from a large, military-style knife.

Story continues

Court documents filed in the case allege Kohberger's DNA is near-exact match to the DNA found on a knife sheath at the scene of the murders.

The White House proposes new plan to eliminate hepatitis C

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Verdict expected in Alexei Navalny trial; Russian port attacked
A photo of the marijuana grow captured Wednesda in rural Lane County southeast of Cottage Grove.

A large-scale illegal marijuana growing operation and a cockfighting operation have been discovered on a large rural property southeast of Cottage Grove. Law enforcement said a number of victims of human trafficking were also found.

The Lane County Sheriff's Office served a search warrant Wednesday at the property in the 36000 block of Shoreview Drive southeast. The warrant also included a residence in the 1400 block of Deal Street in Junction City.

When authorities from LCSO, Springfield Police and the Drug Enforcement Administration arrived at the Shoreview Drive property, several individuals hid in crawl spaces and others fled to the wooded areas on the 13-acre lot. Officials recovered 1,700 live marijuana plants, five firearms and $11,000 in cash. They detained 10 individuals during the search.

LCSO Sgt. Tom Speldrich alleged the property owner was using the rural lot for "an organized cock fighting operation" with events attracting attendees from other states "several times a year."

"There was a room on the property with a ring, and there were feathers present as well as a timer, and there was a person on scene that stated there was chicken fighting going on at the location," Speldrich said.

The chicken fighting ring discovered Wednesday when law enforcement issued a search warrant of a property southeast of Cottage Grove.

Local animal rights groups applauded the raid.

We are grateful to Lane County law enforcement for cracking down on what can only be described as a den of criminality and cruelty, Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action, said. Time and again, we see cockfighting bound up with the illegal drug trade, illegal possession of firearms, and a wide range of other crimes, and this bust was a class case example of that comingling of illicit practices.

The property owner was cited and released on suspicion of marijuana manufacturing crimes, being a felon in possession of a firearm, and participation in cockfighting.

Speldrich said the citation is still technically an arrest, and he still must go to court for any criminal charges. The difference is he's not currently in custody.

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"The term is citation in lieu of custody, and what that means is that the LCSO is still recommending charges to the District Attorney's Office for prosecution," Speldrich said.

Investigators also cited an individual from Washington who was on the property, alleging he was also participating in the cockfighting.

According to a news release, many of those detained were migrant workers who "appeared to be victims of human trafficking," and were promised pay they had not received. One worker told authorities they had not been paid in six months.

After authorities finished the on-scene investigation, they allowed workers to leave the property in their vehicles.

"I do not believe any of the workers are cited with criminal charges at this time," Speldrich said.

Charles Gearing is a breaking news and public safety reporter for the Eugene Register-Guard. He may be contacted at cgearing@gannett.com or by phone at (708)262-7626.

This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Illegal marijuana grow human trafficking chicken fighting eugene ore
Illinois will attempt to quantify the level of adversity faced by children in communities across the state under a measure Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed into law Thursday that aims to improve the way schools address student trauma.

The plan calls for the Illinois State Board of Education to develop a publicly reported Childrens Adversity Index at the community or school district level that will measure community childhood trauma exposure across the population of children 3 through 18 years.

The index, which must be created by May 31, 2025, will draw on data reflecting issues such as the prevalence of homelessness, contacts with the child welfare system, community violence and other factors.

Beginning in October 2024, the state school report card, will include data on the number of counselors, social workers, nurses and psychologists in each school and district and the student ratio for each category.

Theres an old saying, What doesnt get measured doesnt get done,  Pritzker said during a bill-signing event held at the headquarters of Habilitative Systems Inc., a human services organization in Chicagos West Side Austin community. And measuring our resources, measuring the trauma ... that students are experiencing in our schools is an important first step to knowing what schools need.

The new law is an outgrowth of the wide-ranging social justice agenda the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus successfully pushed through the General Assembly in early 2021 after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis the previous spring. While a sweeping criminal justice overhaul that will abolish cash bail beginning next month has gotten most of the attention, the Black Caucus agenda also included measures seeking to address systemic inequities in education, economic development and health care.

In addition to creating a new standard assessment for children entering kindergarten, attempting to increase the number of Black teachers in Illinois and seeking to improve the teaching of Black history in the states schools, the Black Caucus education agenda created a Whole Child Task Force. Recommendations from that group, comprising child psychologists, teachers, school administrators and state officials, among others, led to the measure Pritzker signed Thursday, which also extends the life of the task force through 2027.

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Floyds death, which coincided with the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, put a spotlight on long-standing racial inequities not just in the criminal justice system but in all aspects of life, including education, said state Rep. Carol Ammons, an Urbana Democrat who leads the Black Caucus.

Our schools had been functioning on a 1954 model that hadnt caught up with the current needs of the children and the families, Ammons said. And so we saw this systemic thing not just in criminal justice, but we saw it in economics, we saw it in education, we saw it in health care, and COVID pulled back all these layers. And we needed to respond. And we did.

In addition to collecting new data, the new law also requires training for teachers on trauma-informed practices prior to the start of the each school year beginning in 2024 and codifies definitions of trauma and other related terms.

Senate Majority Leader Kimberly Lightford, a Maywood Democrat who sponsored both the 2021 education legislation and the measure Pritzker signed Thursday, said one of the most important aspects of the latest effort is it acknowledges the varied experiences of children in different communities.

We all know that all things arent equal, and we have to stop treating them as though they are, Lightford said.

While praising the states efforts to date, Colleen Cicchetti, executive director of the Center for Childhood Resilience at Lurie Childrens Hospital and a member of the state task force, acknowledged, Today is the beginning.

What were asking for is, as we move forward, that its not going to be a one-off grant here and a one-off grant there, but its going to be a sustainable intervention that looks at, How do we train educators to help kids to be the best that they can be and give them the tools that they need and the time that they need to learn it and to deliver it well? said Cicchetti, a pediatric psychologist.

Pritzker has made improving education a central theme of his tenure despite signing a series of budgets that havent increased spending to the level advocates say is necessary to meet goals established in a 2017 overhaul of the states school funding formula. The governor acknowledged the state will have to provide more financial support for schools if they are to continue hiring more mental health professionals.

We need to keep funding our schools better, Pritzker said, though he pointed to additional money in this years budget to help high-need districts hire more teachers.

Robin Steans of Advance Illinois, an education advocacy organization that has pushed for larger increases in school funding, said its also important to acknowledge the progress that has been made over the past several years.

While schools statewide still dont have enough counselors, social workers or psychologists, the ratios of students to mental health professionals has improved in recent years as the state has increased annual spending on K-12 education by nearly $2 billion, Steans said.

dpetrella@chicagotribune.com
By Asif Shahzad

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) -A Pakistan high court on Friday temporarily halted former Prime Minister Imran Khan's trial on charges he illegally sold state gifts, his lawyer said, in a case that could end the opposition leader's political career if convicted.

A guilty verdict in the case could exclude Khan from national elections that are due to be held by November, legal experts have said.

The halt comes after the high court asked a trial court to look into whether a legal complaint filed by the country's election commission, as part of an inquiry against Khan, constituted a criminal proceeding, his lawyer Naeem Panjhuta and several local TV news outlets said.

Khan's legal team had challenged the commission's complaint, arguing that it was not a criminal case and that the judge conducting the trial was biased against Khan.

The high court, however, turned down Khan's appeal to remove the trial court judge from hearing the case. It is not known when the case will resume, though the halt is expected to be brief.

Khan's spokesman Farrukh Habib hailed the higher court's decision.

The trial, which is in its final stage, relates to an inquiry conducted by the election commission which found Khan guilty of unlawfully selling state gifts during his tenure as prime minister from 2018 to 2022.

Khan has denied any wrongdoing.

The 70-year-old cricketer-turned-politician was accused of misusing his premiership to buy and sell gifts in state possession that were received during visits abroad and worth more than 140 million Pakistani rupees ($635,000).

The gifts included watches given by a royal family, according to government officials, who have alleged previously that Khan's aides sold them in Dubai.

His tenure as prime minister was cut short when opponents won a no-confidence vote against him last year, which Khan alleges was passed with the help of the country's powerful military. The military denies any role in the matter.

Khan's targeting of the military has raised political temperatures, and his brief arrest in May on corruption charges sparked violent protests in the country.

(Reporting by Asif Shahzad; editing by Jason Neely, Miral Fahmy and Sharon Singleton)
Amid a ban by the Indian government on the export of non-basmati white rice, Indian-Americans in North Texas are finding it difficult to find some types of rice that they commonly use.

The move aiming to ensure adequate domestic availability at reasonable prices comes nearly a year after an export duty of 20% on non-basmati white rice was imposed. The rice varieties in the ban constitutes about 25% of total rice exported from India  the worlds biggest rice exporter.

The Indian-American community in the DFW area and all over the USA got affected due to the ban, said Arun Agarwal, co-chair of the Indian American CEO Council. There is a shortage of short-grain rice due to panic buying from the community last week and earlier this month.

Type of rice Indian-Americans in North Texas use

The most commonly used rice for Indians is short-grain rice. It is less expensive and more widely available in different areas of India. Basmati rice or long-grain rice is only used on special occasions and big events. It is also more expensive. Huge lines have formed outside of Indian grocery stores as well as grocery stores like Costco and Sams where the non-basmati types of rice are being sold, Agarwal said.

After the news of Indias prohibition on non-basmati rice exports, the Dallas-Fort Worth market began experiencing a shortage of rice, according to Dinesh Hooda, president of the India Association of North Texas. This includes varieties of rice like Sona Masoori, lightweight and aromatic medium-grain rice common in South India.

Community members, especially from the Southern part of India, use Sona Masoori rice more than basmati rice, which is more prevalent for use in specific events and cuisines, Hooda said. Most of the community members buy Indian specific groceries from Indian grocery stores.

The rush to buy rice have temporarily reduced the stock of the grain at area stores, Hooda added.

Rice is an integral part of Indian cuisine, Hooda said, though some eat less rice or rely more on wheat depending on the region theyre from. The most common rice varieties used are basmati, Sona Masoori, brown rice and jasmine rice.

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Finding American-grown rice instead of grain from India

While rice is a staple food for most Indians, Indian-Americans in North Texas have had to find local alternatives like the American-grown Texmati rice, or theyve switched to wheat as their source of carbohydrates, said Chat Ganesh of the Dallas Fort Worth Indian Cultural Society.

Though the Indian government has imposed an export ban on non-basmati rice, which is short-grain rice, basmati rice or long-grain rice is still being exported from India. Short-grain or non-basmati rice is an essential part of Indian dishes, with each region in India having signature dishes made with the short-grain varieties. For example, the southern everyday dishes of Idly and Dosa are made of short-grain rice.

Agarwal blames panic buying for the shortage, saying consumers should not overstock.

Its just a temporary situation and people should only buy limited quantities that they need, not to store, Hooda says. And dont pay extra to stores that are charging higher prices at this time.
[Source]

An Indian tech company has recruited a four-legged employee to boost paw-ductivity and promote positive pup-culture.

Unleashing potential: Electric scooter manufacturer Ola Electric recently revealed that it has welcomed a new employee named Bijlee, an adorable dog whose name translates to electricity.

Ola CEO Bhavish Aggarwal introduced the 4-month-old pup on X, formerly known as Twitter, with a now-viral post that included photos of its official ID.

Pupfessional ID: The ID card humorously lists Bijlee's employee code as "440V," a witty reference to the standard voltage used in electric systems. Even its blood group is playfully described as "Paw +ve," emphasizing her canine nature.

More from NextShark: Father in China accidentally kills son with 'samurai' sword over low academic scores

 ensuring faster execution towards our #endICEage mission by eating up all reviews that are not up to the mark! pic.twitter.com/ykvVG5zxCw  Bhavish Aggarwal (@bhash) July 6, 2023

More from NextShark: This Asian baby is New York City's first baby of 2023

Bijlee's emergency contact is listed as "BAs Office," likely referring to Aggarwal's initials. Her mode of communication is the instant messaging platform Slack.

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Top dog: In a separate post, Bijlees position is revealed to be the companys official mascot and brand ambassador.

The dog even has its own X account.

Here to electrify your Tuesday. Boop to show love. #OlaBijlee pic.twitter.com/Yw9PVnOX0H  OlaBijlee (@OlaBijlee) August 1, 2023

No ruff days at the office: This is not the first time Ola Electric has embraced a pet-friendly work environment. In the past, Aggarwal has shared heartwarming posts featuring dogs at the workplace, showcasing the company's appreciation for their furry companions.

Two sides of the same door in office! pic.twitter.com/1sk2N6fnvN  Bhavish Aggarwal (@bhash) March 20, 2023

Other prominent Indian companies like InMobi, OnePlus India and Zerodha have also adopted dogs and given them their own unique designations.
Student in locker room

A federal appeals court this week upheld a lower courts orders allowing transgender youth in Indiana to use the school restrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity.

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana last year issued preliminary injunctions in lawsuits against two Indiana school districts, the Metropolitan School District of Martinsville and the Vigo County Schools, blocking their anti-trans policies while the suits are heard and letting trans students use the appropriate facilities. The districts appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, which consolidated the cases for the purpose of the appeal. The circuit covers Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin.

The Seventh Circuit upheld the injunctions in a ruling issued Tuesday. The injunctions were narrowly tailored and fact-bound, Judge Diane Wood wrote for a unanimous three-judge panel of the court. We affirm their orders, she continued.

The judges agreed with the district court that the trans students who sued were likely to prove, when the case goes to trial, that they had suffered illegal discrimination. They also agreed that the students were likely to suffer irreparable harm in the absence of injunctions and that the injunctions were in the public interest.

The ruling cited a decision the Seventh Circuit issued in 2017 in trans boy Ash Whitakers case against his school district in Kenosha, Wis., upholding a lower courts injunction against the districts trans-exclusionary restroom policy. Whitaker and the district eventually reached a settlement.

Litigation over transgender rights is occurring all over the country, and we assume that at some point the Supreme Court will step in with more guidance than it has furnished so far, Wood wrote. Until then, we will stay the course and follow Whitaker.

The Martinsville suit was brought by a trans boy identified as A.C., and the suit in Vigo County by twin trans boys identified as B.E. and S.E. They are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana and the LGBT Project of Indiana Legal Services.

Students who are denied access to the appropriate facilities are caused both serious emotional and physical harm as they are denied recognition of who they are. They will often avoid using the restroom altogether while in school, ACLU of Indiana attorney Kenneth Falk said in a press release. Schools should be a safe place for kids, and the refusal to allow a student to use the correct facilities can be extremely damaging.

Along with the ACLU, we celebrate the Court of Appeals decision that affirms that school officials must treat these students as the boys they are, added Megan Stuart, Indiana Legal Services director of advocacy and director of the LGBT Project. Indiana Legal Services is proud of our work helping LGBTQ+ Hoosiers whose rights have been violated and in expanding the law to ensure LGBTQ+ people can live safe, long lives.
If you blinked, you missed it.

For a fleeting moment Thursday, Donald Trump and special counsel Jack Smith  the man who could put him in prison  appeared to make eye contact as the former president prepared to fend off charges that he sought to subvert American democracy itself.

That shared glance crystallized the historic weight of Thursdays arraignment, the third in recent months for the former president who is fighting federal and local prosecutors even as he appears to be coasting to the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.

Smith said nothing audible during his hour in the room, but repeatedly shot glances at Trump, who occasionally shot them back until their eyes briefly met.

Even before Donald Trump entered a federal courtroom and declared himself not guilty on four felony charges related to his effort to derail the transfer of presidential power, the weight of history was evident in Washington, D.C.s federal courthouse.

The U.S. Capitol Police, who were battered on Jan. 6, 2021 while fending off rioters who stormed Congress in Trumps name, were on duty assisting with security efforts outside the courthouse. The Capitol building, largely emptied as lawmakers traveled home for their August recess, loomed across the street.



Minutes before Trump entered the pin-drop silent room, several federal judges  who have been processing the carnage of Jan. 6, 2021 for more than two years  filed into the public gallery, turning themselves into spectators in a building they typically rule. Chief Judge James Boasberg, who presided over several of the secret grand jury battles that preceded the charges against Trump, was among those marking the moment.

After a day of anticipation, the atmosphere darkened the moment Smith strode into the wood-paneled, chandeliered courtroom from a nearby antechamber. Smith was flanked by assistant special counsel Ray Hulser and several FBI case agents as he made his way to the back of the courtrooms well.

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Moments later, there was Trump  the former president of the United States  seated at a table that has in recent months been occupied by some of the very people who stormed the Capitol and are now paying a legal price.



Boasbergs presence in the courtroom was a statement in itself. Alongside him was Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who has in her own courtroom excoriated Republicans who have refused to contradict Trumps continued lies about the 2020 election. The pair, flanked by other judges and magistrate judges, watched Trumps every move intently.

The proceeding itself was made more profound, in some ways, by how mundane it was. Trump was sworn in by a courtroom deputy and swore to tell the truth, so help him god. He stated his name and age a bit awkwardly  Donald J. Trump. John. Seven-seven.

He had to confirm that he was not on any medication or drugs that might alter his ability to comprehend the proceedings. Trump spoke few words during his 45 minutes in the room, replying to questions with yes or yes, your honor in ways that were barely audible in the courtroom or on livestreams beamed to other parts of the courthouse.

Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya  whose family members were present in the public gallery  read carefully as she ticked through each of the formal steps that come with a criminal defendants initial appearance in court, emphasizing at times that this is the same process anyone facing charges goes through.

You have the right to remain silent, she admonished him, just hours after Trump took to Truth Social to attack the prosecutors and judge in his case.



She also noted that he could have an attorney appointed if he couldnt afford one, another unintentionally ironic moment as Trump sat sandwiched between two high-priced lawyers funded by his Save America political committee.

Prosecutors emphasized they were not seeking to detain Trump prior to his trial. And then Upadhyaya read through a standard list of warnings: Trump could be arrested and jailed if he violates any of his release conditions  including a vow not to commit any crimes and not to obstruct the administration of justice by attempting to influence or retaliate against any witnesses. Trump, of course, has been charged by Smith in Florida with several counts of attempting to do just that in order to prevent investigators from recovering classified documents from his Mar-a-Lago estate.

Trumps appearance was punctuated by an emerging dispute over the timeline of the trial, with Trumps team forecasting a prolonged pretrial evidence-gathering period and prosecutors repeatedly emphasizing the need for a speedy trial. One of his lawyers, John Lauro, raised the specter of unfairness that would result from a rushed process that wasnt cognizant of Trumps constitutional rights  an argument that dovetails with Trumps own repeated pronouncements that the process against him is rigged.



Upadhyaya, who appeared ready for the suggestion, addressed it head on:

I can guarantee everybody that there will be a fair process and a fair trial in this case."
Courtroom 22 at the D.C. federal courthouse has seen its fair share of defendants over the years. But never a former president.

That changed Thursday afternoon, when former President Trump entered and proceeded to be arraigned on four criminal charges stemming from his efforts to remain in power after the 2020 election.

The Hill was one of a few outlets selected by a random drawing to have a seat in the courtroom and witness the proceeding in person.

Reporters were ushered into the second-floor courtroom about an hour and a half before the arraignment began. Law enforcement officers required all electronics be turned off before entering the room, cutting the reporters off from the outside world.

As the wait began for Trumps arrival from New Jersey, the four-row public gallery in the back of the courtroom and the jury box filled up with law clerks, court staff, sketch artists and even a few members of the public.

Yosi Zelalem, 22, a George Washington University student, was one of those lucky few.

How does he look in person? Zelalem said he wanted to know, referring to Trump.

Zelalem indicated he was hired by The Associated Press to wait in line outside the courthouse from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. on Thursday to save a spot for one of their reporters  a practice that has become the norm for many major news outlets at Trumps arraignments.

After he was relieved, Zelalem said he took a 90-minute nap and headed straight back to try to get a spot himself. He was one of the first five members of the public in line who got a coveted seat.

Seated on the opposite side of the courtroom in the back row were multiple federal judges who serve on the court. They included Chief District Judge James Boasberg, District Judge Amy Berman Jackson and District Judge Randy Moss. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who has been assigned to oversee the case, did not attend. Those judges have all presided over Jan. 6 cases previously, and their appearance Thursday was an unusual occurrence.

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Multiple family members of Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya, who presided over Trumps arraignment, were also seated in the gallery.

Special counsel Jack Smith walked in at about 3:45 p.m. He sat just in front of the gallery, behind the prosecution table.

Trump, wearing his signature red tie, entered about five minutes later from a separate door and walked to his seat with his lawyers, Todd Blanche and John Lauro. Before sitting down, Trump acknowledged one of his other attorneys, Evan Corcoran, who was already seated in the room. Corcoran previously represented Trump in another federal case centered on classified documents.

The former president and his attorneys waited for the judge for 24 minutes. Nearly a dozen federal agents stood behind him. In all, roughly 100 people were in the room.

Trump whispered with his attorneys as they waited, primarily with Blanche. The two men appeared to crack a few jokes to each other, laughing at times. Trump spoke rather quietly and only a few short phrases were heard in the gallery.

They were forced to change, Trump was heard saying.

Trump and his attorneys also perused through a stack of papers in front of them as they waited for the judge. At one point, Trump pointed out something to Blanche on the papers and proceeded to hold them up vertically.

Smith, who was seated roughly 20 feet from Trump, glanced over toward the former president at times, but otherwise looked straight ahead. At one moment, he put one arm up on the railing behind him. He was also seen chatting with an aide next to him as they, too, waited for the judge.

Upadhyaya entered the room at 4:15 p.m., and the arraignment began.

This is criminal case 23-cr-257, United States of America v. Trump, an aide to the judge said as the proceeding started.

Moments later, Trump raised his right hand and was sworn in.

I do, Trump said, his first words during the proceeding.

Upadhyaya then asked Trump a few basic questions.

His name?

Donald J. Trump. John, Trump responded.

His age?

Seven seven. Seventy-seven, Trump said.

Throughout the arraignment, Trump sat up in his chair and faced Upadhyaya. He put his hands on his lap as he listened to the judge.

Trump rarely glanced at prosecutors, but he did look over when the judge reminded them of their obligations to turn over exculpatory evidence.

Next, the judge asked for Trumps plea.

Not guilty, Trump said slowly, raising his head as he entered his plea.

The former president spoke little else during the proceeding, largely to answer some additional yes-or-no questions from the judge.

The judge read to Trump the conditions of his release and noted it is a crime to try to influence a witness. She asked Trump if he understood.

Are you prepared to comply? the judge asked of Trump.

Yes, Trump responded.

After setting his next court date  Aug. 28  the proceeding wrapped up.

Trump exited the room, and within minutes his motorcade was seen leaving the courthouse where he was headed to the airport back to New Jersey.

Ella Lee contributed.

Updated 7:40 p.m.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Deputies say the same people who caused a hard lockdown at three Barrow County schools also snuck into another school in a second county.

On Thursday around 10 a.m., a school resource officer spotted three intruders who were not students inside Winder-Barrow High School. The district said the trio ran from the SRO and got away in a black car.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

Less than 10 miles away, Jackson County High School says two of those young men also were on their campus without permission on Thursday. The schools principal sent a message to parents, who shared it with Channel 2 Action News.

Upon realizing the young adult males did not attend school at Jackson County High School, the persons exited our building and returned to a parked vehicle and left our campus, the message read.

The safety and security of the students and staff is of paramount importance to the Jackson County School System. School and district officials will continue to work with local law enforcement.

Channel 2 Action News reached out to confirm what time the two were found inside the school and if it was before or after the lockdown at Winder-Barrow High School.

TRENDING STORIES:

Channel 2s Bryan Mims reported live from Winder-Barrow High School as parents arrived to pick up their students.

While officers swept the school and deemed the campus safe, some families werent taking chances. Kaylea Bramlett came to pick up her brother, T.J.

Nobody should be able to get into that school unless they signed in. I dont event understand how something like this could have even happened, she said.

Third day of school, I really didnt expect nothing like this. Its wild to think that people can just walk in.

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The Barrow County Sheriffs Office and Jackson County Sheriffs Office are still trying to identify who the young men are and why they were inside the schools in the first place.

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IN OTHER NEWS
STEVENSON RANCH, Calif.  The California Department of Food and Agriculture placed part of Los Angeles County under quarantine for the invasive Tau fruit fly. This is the first-ever quarantine in the Northern Hemisphere for this insect.

The impacted 79 square miles are in Stevenson Ranch, a suburb about 30 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles. The community is just 90 miles from the Central Valley, which grows 40% of the nation's fruits, nuts and other table food, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The more than 250 different crops are valued at $17 billion a year. Nearly half of U.S.-grown fruits, nuts and vegetables come from California.

The quarantined area is the southeast corner of unincorporated Stevenson Ranch, stretching across the freeway.

INVASIVE PEST READY TO SWARM AND EAT ITS WAY ACROSS AMERICA

"The fly is native to Asia and is a serious pest for agriculture and natural resources, with a very wide host range, including numerous fruits and vegetables as well as a select range of native plants in California," the CDFA said in a statement.

The adult female fruit fly lays eggs in fruit. The larvae then tunnel through and feed on the fruit, creating an exit hole, according to the CDFA. A single female can lay up to 400 eggs in her lifetime. Eggs hatch in one to two days. The larvae develop in as little as a week and then drop to the ground. A week later, adults emerge and are sexually mature. Breeding is year-round.

The quarter-inch-long fly is similar in length to a housefly but has yellow and black markings.

Officials identified 34 plants that the fly targets, including tomatoes, citrus avocado, peppers and melons. Tomatoes are one of the top 10 revenue-producing agricultural products for the state.

"Fruit that has been attacked may be unfit for consumption due to this damage and as a result of decay-producing organisms that enter, leaving the interior of the fruit a rotten mass," the CDFA website stated.

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HOW TO WATCH FOX WEATHER

Stevenson Ranch is suburban surrounded by green space and wildlands.

Inspectors believe that a traveler brought an infected fruit into the state to start a colony. So far, 20 flies have been discovered.

"To prevent the spread of this invasive species, residents living in the quarantine area are urged not to move any fruits and vegetables from their property," officials said in the statement. "They may be consumed or processed (i.e. juiced, frozen, cooked, or ground in the garbage disposal) at the property where they were picked. Otherwise, they should be disposed of by double-bagging in plastic and placing the bags in a bin specifically for garbage."

TOXIC CANE TOADS SUCCESSFULLY INVADED AND ARE KILLING PETS AND WILDLIFE ACROSS FLORIDA

File: A trapper looks through an Oriental fruit fly trap similar to those that will be set for the Tau fruit fly.

This is the fourth time inspectors found the Tau fruit fly in the state. The first discovery was in 2016 in neighboring San Bernardino County. Each time the pest was eliminated.

The CDFA, the state's agricultural commissioner and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are working together to inspect fruit near the detection sites and treat plants with a "naturally derived, organic-approved" insecticide targeting adults. Crews will also use traps with a pheromone lure for adults.
A general view of the Iowa River Power Restaurant on Friday, Aug. 4, 2023. The restaurant will close at the end of November as the building owner, Randy Ward, looks to renovate and find a new tenant.

Editor's Note: A previous version of this story said Randy Ward still owns Randy's Flooring. Employees of the company bought it from Ward in 2016.

The Iowa River Power Restaurant, a locally-owned Coralville staple known for picturesque views and an extensive brunch menu, will close its doors in November, citing pressure from its landlord.

A long-time restaurant employee told the Press-Citizen the business is being forced out by the building's owner, Randy Ward. Danise and David Petsel have owned and operated Iowa River Power for more than 20 years.

Located on the banks of the Iowa River along First Avenue, the property has been home to some type of restaurant for 46 years.

While planned renovations will provide room for a new tenant, Ward told the Press-Citizen on Friday isn't sure what will fill it with upon completion.

Ward's Randys Flooring company, which bears his name, was purchased by employees in 2016. He said the building that houses IRP is in dire need of repairs.

Structural safety is a major concern.

The fact is that place could implode tomorrow, Ward said. It is so tired and worn out that it just needs to be remodeled. I'm embarrassed to say I own it.

The Iowa River Power restaurant is set to close just after Thanksgiving.

The sudden news has forced the restaurant, which often hosts various events, including weddings, to cancel gatherings as far out as two years.

The Press-Citizen did not receive immediate comment from restaurant ownership despite multiple attempts to contact them.

The rear patio of the Iowa River Power Restaurant, along the Iowa River, is seen on Friday, Aug. 4. The restaurant will close at the end of November as the building owner, Randy Ward, looks to renovate and find a new tenant. (Credit: Ryan Hansen/Iowa City Press-Citizen)

Building headed for complete overhaul once IRP restaurant vacates, building owner says

Ward said renovations will drastically alter the interior of the current Iowa River Power restaurant.

We're not going to salvage anything, Ward said.

Architects have visited the restaurant frequently, another reason employees believe construction was imminent. Ward said the renovations will begin once the restaurant is vacated by Jan. 7, 2024.

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Travis Heck has worked with the Petsels at Iowa River Power for 16 years. He said the November closing date gives Danise Petsel time to sell items at auction, including tables and chairs. Closing a little more than a month early also prevents the need to renew a liquor license.

Ward said he plans to fill the building with a new tenant, though he did indicate what that would entail.

The Iowa River Power Restaurant is seen on Friday, Aug. 4, 2023. The restaurant will close at the end of November as the building owner, Randy Ward, looks to renovate.

Long-time employee speaks highly of IRP ownership

Heck began his tenure at Iowa River Power in the late 2000s as a 20-year-old busboy, working his way through the ranks.

He referred to Danise Petsel multiple times as a second mother in his interview Friday. He said hes seen her routinely provide employees with financial assistance, even helping pay an employee's rent. Danise Petsel bought Heck shoes when he was a busboy to replace the beaten-up sneakers he wore.

Danise's incredible work ethic and mentorship, Heck said, have helped him grow in the restaurant industry, inspiring him one day to open his own business.

"She was really warm and welcoming when I came in and it really made me fall in love with the service industry," Heck said.

But he doesn't want to go yet. Heck wants the restaurant to fight back.

"Give the staff a year or two to prepare and make plans and say our goodbyes," Heck told the Press-Citizen. "Some of the regular customers that come in, they're like my family, and I'm scared. I might never see some of these people again. It's just hard."

Danise Petsel has missed just one Sunday brunch in Heck's 16 years. The restaurant serves about 500 people on a typical Sunday morning, offering mimosas while serving food carefully curated by the co-owner.

I would say most of the employees at Iowa River Power would be happy to stay with Danise for another decade if they could, Heck said. We all knew she wanted to retire in five years. We all knew that when that happened, nobody could take over the business and make it successful. Danise worked miracles around that place.

Ryan Hansen covers local government and crime for the Press-Citizen. He can be reached at rhansen@press-citizen.com or on Twitter @ryanhansen01.

This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: Iowa River Power's 45-year run coming to an end in November
The 360 shows you diverse perspectives on the days top stories and debates.

(Illustration by Alicia Tatone; Photos: Getty Images)

Whats happening

Hunter Bidens problems are nothing new. For decades, his tangled business dealings have been raising conflict-of-interest concerns for his dad, President Biden.

But over the past week or so, youve probably heard more about Hunter Bidens problems than ever before  especially now that Donald Trump and his allies are seizing on them as a way of shifting attention from the former presidents kaleidoscopic legal troubles, as the New York Times recently reported.

In late 2018, the FBI started to investigate Hunter for money laundering. The probe went nowhere. Two years later, Hunter announced that federal authorities had moved on to investigating his taxes.

Last Wednesday, Hunter was in court to accept a deal in which he would avoid prison by pleading guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges and agreeing to enter a diversion program for a gun charge. But the judge that day questioned some unusual aspects of the deal  in particular whether it granted Hunter blanket immunity from all future prosecution stemming from the federal investigation. Ultimately, the two sides agreed to return in a few weeks with a revised plea deal.

That spectacle was followed by a hearing Monday of the U.S. House Oversight Committee, which has been investigating Hunter ever since Republicans took over earlier this year. During a closed-door session, Devon Archer, Hunters former business partner, testified that President Biden casually spoke to Hunters international business associates on a number of occasions, including while he was vice president, but that Biden was never directly involved in Hunters business dealings.

Why theres debate

Do the latest developments simply represent more of the same old Hunter Biden tawdriness? Or do they mark the beginning of a new, riskier phase of the saga that could ultimately cause real political (or even legal) problems for the president himself?

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Many Republicans insist on the latter. For months, theyve argued that Hunter got a sweetheart deal from federal prosecutors under pressure to protect the president, who they claim is complicit in a long-running plot to profit from his position through his sons shady dealings.

Democrats, in turn, point out that half a decade of investigations into Hunter Bidens admittedly unsavory activities have yet to produce any evidence that the president was involved in his sons alleged influence-peddling  or even that Hunter committed any crimes beyond the tax and gun charges.

Whats next

On Monday, three House Republicans demanded that the Department of Justice hand over information pertaining to Hunter Bidens plea deal. Last week, prosecutors confirmed that Hunter is still under investigation for potentially violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), which requires foreign lobbyists to update the DOJ periodically on their activities.

Perspectives

Hunter Biden hasnt gotten off easy  in fact, quite the opposite

If these [tax and gun charges] are the only offenses, most prosecutors are going to say its not worth a federal case. [But with Hunter Biden,] everyone is paying attention, and the facts are not in dispute, so a failure to bring charges would create the perception that there was some sort of special treatment.  Douglas Berman, a law professor at Ohio State University and a sentencing expert, to The New York Times

There are reasons to be suspicious of how the initial plea deal was structured

Any immunity term should have been in the plea deal but instead was in the diversion agreement, where it wouldnt be expected.  The Editors, National Review

Hunters problems do reveal something unsettling about the president

Joe Bidens response to his wayward son conveys a softness, a permissiveness that damages his public reputation  and might cost him votes in an election where everything is at stake.  Joe Klein, The Washington Post

Republicans now have more fodder to erode trust in the DOJ and its investigations of Trump

Garlands Justice Department  has made its supposed independence from politics its central pitch. At the same time  it is prosecuting the Biden administrations leading opponent. The Hunter Biden saga will give Republican politicians a way to attack that prosecution without trying to defend Trumps indefensible behavior.  Jason Willick, The Washington Post

Hunter is still vulnerable legally  which means his father is still vulnerable politically

A FARA prosecution has political implications for President Biden. To have his son acting as a foreign agent while they were traveling to the relevant foreign countries together on Air Force Two would make the Presidents claims of ignorance about Hunters business even harder to believe.  The Editorial Board, The Wall Street Journal

To immunize themselves from Hunters 'sleaze,' Democrats must propose a code of conduct for presidential family members

Proposing standards would at least allow Democrats to have an answer for Hunter Bidens sleaze parade rather than having to excuse it.  Jonathan Chait, New York
Moscow is trying to attract volunteers to its armed forces with incentives, rather than mandates, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) wrote in its Aug. 3 report.

Russia wishes "to make contract service as presitigous as possible," said Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chair of Russia's Security Council.

To that end, on Aug. 3, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin signed a decree providing state life and health insurance to all citizens who volunteer for combat operations in Ukraine. The new law will be applied retroactively, covering all those who volunteered for the military starting from Feb. 24, 2022, when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

According to the ISW, the Kremlin hopes to avoid another disastrous round of forced mobilization. Russia's mandatory enlistment efforts in the fall of 2022 were deeply unpopular, sparking protests and political unrest.

Since then, Russia has tried a variety of other recruitment tactics, including raising the maximum conscription age and appealing to "masculine pride."

The ISW also reported that a speech by Russian Air Force Commander Mikhail Teplinsky, in which he disclosed Russian casualties in Ukraine, was scrubbed from state media by the Defense Ministry. Teplinsky claimed that at least 8,500 Russian Air Force personnel had been wounded in Ukraine since the full-scale invasion began.

The ISW noted that this was "a rare official disclosure of Russian casualties, which Russian officials have largely sought to obscure as the war has progressed."

The General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces reports that as of Aug. 3, Russia has lost 247,850 troops in its war against Ukraine.

Read also: Ukraine war latest: Russias war costs Ukraine $50 billion annually, PM says

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Ms Meloni plans to phase out the so-called citizens wage - Reuters

The government of Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni is driving through a drastic cut in unemployment benefits as it argues there are plenty of jobs available across the country.

The unemployment rate in Italy has been declining for months and is now at its lowest - 7.4% - since 2009, according to ISTAT, the national statistics agency.

Ms Meloni, the leader of the hard-Right Brothers of Italy party, is planning to phase out the so-called citizens wage, which amounts to 550 euros a month for some of the nations poorest citizens.

The benefit, which was introduced by the previous populist government four years ago, is given to 1.7 million households to help with basic expenses such as food, electricity and rent.

Tommaso Foti, an MP in Ms Melonis party, claims it has cost the nation 30 billion euros (26bn) and said: It doesnt seem to me that it has abolished poverty or helped people find work.

Last week the first 159,000 families were informed by text message that the benefit had been cut.

Opposition parties have responded furiously, warning Ms Meloni that by slashing the welfare scheme she risks setting off a societal bomb which will lead to violent protests and civil unrest.

But ministers say there are parts of the country that are desperately short of staff, if only Italians would be willing to travel and take advantage of the opportunities.

Marina Calderone, the labour minister, said that in the southern region of Campania, for instance, where tens of thousands of people receive the citizens wage, there are 108,000 jobs available.

It was the same situation in many other regions and such figures made a nonsense out of the welfare payment, she told Corriere della Sera newspaper on Thursday.

There are jobs available, in fact plenty of them. Whoever says otherwise is either ill-informed or speaking in bad faith. The official figures are clear  the number of jobs is growing and the rate of unemployment is falling. Companies cannot find the employees that they need.

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Luca Ciriani, minister for parliamentary affairs, said the government would continue to help the most vulnerable in society. But its right that those who can, work, because thats the only way a person can have their dignity.

But many poor Italians say they will be unable to afford rent, food and medicines if they lose the payment and have taken to the streets in the past week to protest.

In a town in Sicily, an unemployed man threatened to torch the mayors office, while in Naples, trade unionists and far-Left activists held a rally outside the offices of the welfare agency, INPS.

The opposition accuses the government of lacking compassion as it pushes ahead with the welfare reform - and of extra cruelty in delivering the news by text message.

Roberto Fico, a senior member of the populist Five Star Movement, which introduced the citizens wage when it was in power, said the government was provoking social unrest. They risk creating a social bomb, an anger that will be taken out on local authorities. Communicating the end of the citizens wage with an SMS was totally wrong.

Giuseppe Conte, the current leader of Five Star who introduced the citizens wage when he was prime minister, said in parliament on Wednesday that the Meloni government should send out new text messages to apologise.

He accused the prime minister, who was elected last autumn, of deliberately splitting the country in two with the welfare reform. He said the government had insulted people by calling them layabouts and said it was hard for many people to find work, particularly those in their fifties and sixties.

Elly Schlein, the head of the main opposition party, the centre-Left Democratic Party, accused the government of waging war on the poor.

The citizens wage will be replaced by two new benefits, although there is some confusion over how they will work.

One will be called the inclusion cheque, worth a maximum of 500 euros a month per individual, for households which include children, disabled people or people over 60.

The second, a payment of up to 350 euros a month, will be given to people who are deemed fit to work until they can find a job.

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ROME  Italy has signed a contract worth 848.8 million (U.S. $928.3 million) with a local consortium to upgrade its aging tanks as the country watches the war playing out in nearby Ukraine.

Italy signed the deal to upgrade 90 of its Ariete tanks with CIO, a joint venture between Italian firms Iveco and Oto Melara, with an option for another 35 upgraded platforms. The country has a fleet of 200 Ariete tanks, but only 50 are operational.

The deal, signed Aug. 2, has been in the works for months, but acquired new urgency as Italy seeks to beef up its tank capability. The upgrade work will include new 1,500-horsepower engines to replace the 1,300-horsepower versions, new mine protection kits and extra armor, refurbished turrets, a new fire control system, and software-defined radios.

Last month, Italys junior defense minister, Isabella Rauti, told Parliament that the country needs mor than 250 battle tanks to meet NATO requirements. The government intends to reach that target with the Ariete upgrades as well as the purchase of 133 new Leopard 2A8 combat tanks from German firm Krauss-Maffei Wegmann.

An Italian source familiar with the deal said Rome would require Italian industrial input on the Leopard tanks, meaning work share would include Italian firms.

As such, Italy was unlikely to finalize the Leopard deal this year, the source told Defense News, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media on the record.

Meanwhile, the mooted sale of whole or part of Oto Melara, which is currently owned by Italian state-controlled firm Leonardo, is no longer under discussion, the source added.

Rumors have swirled in recent months that a French or German buyer would purchase Oto Melara.

Separately, Rome has signed a 925 million contract with Leonardo and Italian shipyard Fincantieri for the purchase of three offshore patrol vessels, dubbed PPX, with options for three more.

The deal, signed with the two firms Orizzonte Sistemi Navali joint venture and announced July 31, envisages the production of 95-meter-long vessels displacing 2,300 tons and able to accommodate 97 crew members.

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In a statement, the companies said the vessels would feature a so-called naval cockpit developed for the Italian Navys PPA vessels. Designed with help from naval aviators to resemble an aircrafts cockpit, the bridge features just two navigators doing the work that eight navigators perform on Italys FREMM frigates.

The two contracts come as Italy releases its defense export figures for 2022, which totaled 5.23 billion in licenses  a 5% rise from 2021. The top destination for exports was Turkey, with a total value of 598 million, driven by deals to sell parts and logistics for Ankaras fleet of Italian-designed T129 attack helicopters.

On Aug. 3, the Italian government tried to bring arms export approvals more directly under political control rather than under the purview of bureaucrats.

Under a bill approved by the government cabinet that day, which now goes to Parliament for a vote, an inter-ministerial committee would manage and monitor arms sales, rather than by a single department at the Foreign Affairs Ministry.
ROME (Reuters) - An Italian law giving cancer survivors the right not to declare their past condition to banks and insurance agencies, shielding them from discrimination, has been approved by the lower house of parliament.

The so-called "right to be forgotten" (RTBF) bill was passed on Thursday with a unanimous vote, indicating rare cross-party support for a reform that will need to be also voted by the upper Senate house before entering into force.

Recovering cancer patients in Italy have been facing numerous challenges due to their medical history as they are more likely to be refused loans or insurance and even be excluded from adoption procedures.

This is "a law that restores dignity and hope to many people," Marco Furfaro from the opposition Democratic Party, one of the sponsors of the bill, said on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

In Italy there are one million people who recovered from cancer, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani also said on X.

"Those who have defeated cancer cannot be branded for life as second-class citizens," he said.

In June, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said her right-wing government would offer the necessary support to make sure that the RTBF law gets approved in "the shortest time possible."

The proposals would allow recovering cancer patients not to share information about their previous condition with financial institutions, or adoption authorities, provided that 5-10 years had passed since the successful end of their treatment.

Similar laws are already in place in France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium and Portugal, according to the Italian Medical Oncology Association (AIOM).

(Reporting by Federica Urso, editing by Alvise Armellini and Angus MacSwan)
Donald Trump is a long, long way from winning the GOP primary, let alone retaking the White House. But he always has revenge on his mind, and his allies are preparing to use a future administration to not only undo all of Special Counsel Jack Smiths work  but to take vengeance on Smith, and on virtually everyone else, who dared investigate Trump during his time out of power.

Rosters full of MAGAfied lawyers are being assembled. Plans are being laid for an entire new office of the Justice Department dedicated to election integrity. An assembly line is being prepared of revenge-focused special counsels and special prosecutors. Gameplans for making Smiths life hell, starting in Jan. 2025, have already been discussed with Trump himself. And a fresh wave of pardons is under consideration for Trump associates, election deniers, and  the former president boasts  for Jan. 6 rioters.

The preparations have been underway since at least last year, with Trump being briefed on the designs by an array of attorneys, political and policy advisers, former administration officials, and other allies. The aim is to build a government-in-waiting with the hard-right infrastructure needed to turn the Justice Department into an instrument of Trumps agenda, according to five sources familiar with these matters and another two people briefed on them.

Trumps spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on this story.

One idea that has caught thrice-indicted former presidents attention in recent months is the creation of the so-called Office of Election Integrity, which would be a new unit inside the Justice Department. It would be tasked not only with relitigating Trumps lies about his 2020 election loss, but also with aggressively pursuing baseless allegations of election fraud (including in Democratic strongholds) in ways that Trumpist partisans believe the department has only flirted with in the past.

This idea was recently pitched to Trump by a longtime Republican activist and an attorney whos known the ex-president for years, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter. (Republican officials have also begun voicing their own support for state-level offices of election integrity. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis made the proposal a reality in his state. Officials in Tennessee, Missouri, and Wisconsin have proposed the offices, and the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank, proposed a similarly named office.)

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And when it comes to Special Counsel Smiths office  which just handed Trump his third indictment, this one related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election  the former president and his fellow travelers already know what they want: They want the FBI and DOJ to name names.

This year, close advisers to Trump have begun the process of assembling lists of the names of federal personnel who have investigated the former president and his circle for years, and are attempting to unmask the identities of all the DOJ attorneys and others connected to Smiths office. The obvious purpose of this, according to one source close to Trump, is to show them the door on Day 1 [if Trumps reelected]  and so we know who should receive a subpoena in the future.

Such subpoenas would of course be instrumental in Trumplands vows to its voters that, should he return to power, Trump and his new attorney general will launch a raft of their own retaliatory special counsel and special prosecutor probes to investigate-the-investigator, and to go after their key enemies. As it were, Jeffrey Clark, a former DOJ official and a central figure in Trumps efforts to subvert the legitimate 2020 presidential election results, has been on Trumps informal shortlist for plum assignments, including even attorney general, in a potential second administration.

Sources familiar with the situation tell Rolling Stone that Trump and his close ideological allies  working at an assortment of MAGA-prone think tanks, advocacy organizations, and legal groups  are formulating plans for a wide slate of special prosecutors. In this vision, such prosecutors would go after the usual targets: Smith, Smiths team, President Joe Biden, Bidens family, Attorney General Merrick Garland, FBI director Christopher Wray. But theyd also go after smaller targets, from members of the Biden 2020 campaign to more obscure government offices.

There are almost too many targets to keep track of, says one Trump adviser familiar with the discussions. Trump and members of his inner orbit have already outlined possible legal strategies, examining specific federal statutes they could wield in a Republican-controlled Justice Department to go after Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, who delivered Trumps first indictment of this year.

The FBIs investigation of over a thousand rioters who breached and trashed the Capitol on Jan. 6  officially the largest criminal investigation in Justice Department history  is another area where Trump has stated he would like to reverse course. I am inclined to pardon many of them. I cant say for every single one because a couple of them, probably, they got out of control, Trump told host Kaitlan Collins during a CNN town hall in May.

When the broader topic of possible second-term pardons has come up behind closed doors, Trump has at times said that such pardons should be signed at the start of the term, not saved for the later on, according to those whove heard him discuss it since last year. Aside from the rioters themselves, Trump has also privately floated issuing a wave of pardons to higher-ranking figures who were scrutinized in Special Counsel Smiths two main investigations.

This would be like hitting the delete-key on all of DOJs work on these investigations, a person intimately familiar with the conversations told Rolling Stone in March. In the past several months, when confidants have quipped to Trump that he may have to pardon yourself, should he return to the Oval Office, the ex-president has sometimes simply smirked and replied that theyll have to wait and see.

Another major focus of some of these counter-probes would be grand jury violations, says one person familiar with the matter. The counter-probe of those alleged violations is the surest sign yet that in a second Trump administration, the Justice Department would seek to investigate the special counsels use of grand juries in the Mar-a-Lago and January 6 cases. (Indeed, Trump has already vowed to sic a special counsel on President Biden if he beats him in 2024.)

Some of these special prosecutors wouldnt even be based out of the Justice Department, as special counsels typically are. In some of these private Trumpworld legal plans, some of the special counsels would be based out of places like the White House. This idea is nearly identical to the controversial position that Trumpist lawyer and conspiracy theorist Sidney Powell tried to convince then-President Trump to give her in the aftermath of the 2020 election.

Some lawyers and operatives close to Trump have pitched themselves for these kinds of roles, telling either Trump or some of his closest advisers that theyd be more than happy to take the gig in Trumps possible return to power in 2025.

And along with having dreams of sweeping retribution and purges, the upper ranks of Trumpworld have spent years putting together projects to vet and prepare a new generation of appointments  for special prosecutor posts, as well as much else  and administrative talent.

In this informal vetting for Justice Department candidates, former senior Trump aides and well-connected activists have sought lawyers with a track record of loathing DOJ, particularly what they deem its supposedly liberal, left-wing, or Marxist elements. Between these different Trump allies, different private spreadsheets have been created in recent years, some laying out dozens of possible contenders, while some include upwards of a hundred names, sources with direct knowledge of the situation say. Former top Trump White House policy adviser Stephen Miller and other key Trump diehards have contributed names to several of these lists.

Rolling Stone has reviewed one of these internal spreadsheets that has circulated among Trump lieutenants, and the roster is heavy on individuals connected to America First Legal, the Center for Renewing America, and other Trump-backing entities.

Prominent allies of the former president are open about plans to tie the Justice Department more tightly to the White House.

I recall talking to a senior official in the Trump administration, who said after all of [these investigations] are over, weve got to think of a way to bring the Justice Department back into the government, says Tom Fitton, president of the conservative nonprofit Judicial Watch and a close ally of the former president.

The Justice Department has typically enjoyed a degree of insulation from White House control, a norm aimed at avoiding the politicization of prosecution. But Fitton argues that the department should be more responsive to a presidents priorities, a belief that Trump and various influential conservatives embrace enthusiastically. Is the Justice Department going to operate as an entity outside the White House as opposed to an entity thats controlled by the president, as the Constitution requires? he says.

Putting it another way: What were trying to do is identify the pockets of independence and seize them, Russ Vought, a former top Trump official who heads the Center for Renewing America, told The New York Times in a story published last month.

I think theres an argument that what the Justice Departments doing to Trump now is criminal, Fitton tells Rolling Stone, suggesting  of course  that a future administration should launch an investigation into Special Counsel Smiths work.

Fitton also says the department should revisit Special Counsel John Durhams investigation into the FBI probe of the Trump campaign in 2016. Durham, he argues, was a failure and acted only as a glorified inspector general.

Once, Special Counsel Durham was supposed to be Trumpworlds savior, someone who Trump, his allies on Capitol Hill, and large swaths of conservative media were counting on to expose and imprison Deep State foes. But when the Durham probe ended earlier this year with lackluster results for a vengeance-hungry GOP, he became much less a hero and more a cautionary tale to the right.

As one conservative lawyer who has discussed special prosecutor ideas with Trump in recent months tells Rolling Stone, the guiding principle of this project is simple: No more John Durhams  never again.

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A man who was incarcerated in the custody of the Tarrant County Sheriffs Office died on Wednesday at a hospital, authorities said.

Derreal Jackson, 31, was pronounced dead about 6 a.m. at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, according to the Tarrant County Medical Examiners Office. The cause and manner of Jacksons death were not clear.

About an hour before he died, Jackson experienced a medical emergency at the jail, according to a sheriffs office account that does not use Jacksons name. He was found unresponsive in his cell. Life-saving measures were taken, and Jackson was driven to the hospital.

Jackson was booked on Tuesday into the Tarrant County Jail, and JPS Hospital medical staff first examined him there. Jackson said he ingested fentanyl before arriving, according to the sheriffs office account. Jail staff sent him to the hospital for further evaluation. Jackson was later returned to the jail and was being monitored by medical personnel under detox protocol, according to the sheriffs office.

Fort Worth police arrested Jackson on suspicion of theft, unlawful possession of a firearm, possession of a controlled substance and manufacturing and delivery of a controlled substance.

Jackson is the sixth person who has died in Tarrant County Sheriffs Office custody in 2023. Each died at JPS after they were taken there from a jail.

Forensic pathologists employed by the Tarrant County Medical Examiners Office performed autopsies in each case. The office has released a cause and manner of death in two of the cases. It found Heidiann Gitts died of mixed drug toxicity involving fentanyl and methamphetamine in an accident and that Adrian Chevez died of hanging in a suicide.

In custodial death reports it submitted to The Office of the Attorney General of Texas, the sheriffs office described the following accounts of the five cases this year before Jacksons death:

George Zink, 57, died on Feb. 15. Zink had declined to eat two consecutive meals and was being evaluated by medical personnel when he experienced a medical emergency.

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Gitts, 32, died on March 20. She was housed under detox protocol after she was booked. Gitts experienced a medical emergency in the shower area of her pod.

Jason Jackson, 36, died on March 23. Jackson experienced a medical emergency in his pod.

Chevez, 39, died on June 24. Chevez was found hanging in his cell, where there was a suicide note.

Jo Ann Lemmons, 55, died on June 27. Lemmons experienced a medical emergency in her cell.
MELEKHOVO, Russia (Reuters) -Jailed Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny was sentenced on Friday to an additional 19 years in prison after being found guilty on a series of new charges, Navalny's supporters said on social media.

In a video feed from a court hearing at a penal colony east of Moscow, Navalny could be seen wearing a black prison uniform and standing with his arms folded as he listened to the verdicts.

The audio feed from the court was so poor that it was practically impossible to make out what the judge was saying.

Navalny, the most prominent opponent of President Vladimir Putin, is already serving 11-1/2 years in the penal colony on charges including fraud that he says were trumped up to silence him.

He had predicted on the eve of the verdict that he would receive a "Stalinist" sentence of about 18 more years.

The battery of new charges related to alleged extremist activity by the 47-year-old politician.

(Reporting by Reuters, writing by Mark TrevelyanEditing by Gareth Jones)
According to The Justice Department, Jamaican national Antony Linton Stewart pleaded guilty Friday to conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud in a fake lottery scheme against U.S. elderly victims. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI

Aug. 4 (UPI) -- A Jamaican national pleaded guilty Friday to conspiring to defraud elderly victims in the United States using a fake lottery scheme.

Antony Linton Stewart, 39, of St. James Parish, Jamaica, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud in U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, the Justice Department said in a news release.

Conspiracy to commit wire fraud carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison.

"Stewart is the latest example in the department's ongoing efforts to root out and deter fraud from foreign locations that targets our most vulnerable consumers," Justice Department Civil Division head Brian M. Boynton said in a statement.

Stewart admitted in court documents that he used the phone to contact elderly victims and lied to them about winning lottery money. The scam worked by telling the victims they had to pay taxes on the "winnings."

At Stewart's direction the victims wired hundreds of thousands of dollars to people in both the United States and Jamaica. Those people served as intermediaries who then transmitted the money to Stewart.

"Each year, millions of older Americans suffer heavy financial losses in the hands of scammers operating in the United States and abroad," said U.S. Attorney Dena J. King for the Western District of North Carolina said in a statement. "Today's guilty plea underscores our efforts to investigate and bring to justice perpetrators of elder fraud schemes no matter where they originate."
Brevard County death row inmate James Barnes was executed Thursday for the brutal 1988 rape and murder of Melbourne nurse Patricia Patsy Miller, who was inside her Melbourne condominium when he entered through a bedroom window, attacked and killed her.

Barnes was also convicted of strangling his estranged wife, Linda, and leaving her body inside a bedroom closet in 1997 inside her home near West Melbourne.

"The commonality between these two women? They were both hard-working professionals. They were someone's daughter. They were someone's sister. They were someone's mother," Andrew Miller, Patricia's brother, told reporters during a post-execution press conference.

"No one should live in fear within the safety of their own home. We do. My family does," he said.

James Barnes.

Barnes, 61, was pronounced dead by lethal injection at 6:13 p.m. at Florida State Prison in rural Bradford County, northwest of Starke.

He is the 104th person executed in Florida since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, Department of Corrections records show.

This was Florida's fifth execution in the past six months under Gov. Ron DeSantis, a 2024 Republican presidential candidate. No executions had occurred since August 2019, when Gary Bowles of Duval County was put to death, before the pace increased this year, DOC records show.

More: Florida executes Brevard death row inmate James Barnes | Recap

"James Barnes was a violent and ruthless criminal," Melbourne Police Chief David Gillespie said in a Thursday email.

"And, while today's execution ensures he will never harm another individual again, let us not forget the victims and the torture they had endured. My heart goes out to the victims and their families," Gillespie said.

Barnes did not give a final statement.

Execution took place without incident

Before his execution, about 20 witnesses gathered inside a white-walled rectangular execution-chamber viewing room, seated in gray padded chairs facing a large glass window. At 6 p.m., the curtain behind the window slowly opened and Barnes could be seen lying on a gurney inside the chamber, covered by a white sheet. His left arm was exposed with IV tubes and a brown strap attached.

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At 6:01 p.m., Barnes declined to give a final statement, and the execution process began. Three suited execution team members wearing earpieces observed him from a few feet away. At 6:12 p.m., a physician emerged to check his vital signs.

Barnes was pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m., and the curtain slowly lowered. The witnesses in the viewing room remained silent and stoic throughout the proceedings.

More: Brevard death row inmate James Barnes scheduled to die Thursday by lethal injection

"The execution took place without incident," Kayla McLaughlin, DOC spokesperson, said afterward.

Victim's brother thanks Melbourne police

In May 2006, Barnes pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in Miller's homicide. He was sentenced to death in December 2007. He was also convicted of two counts of sexual battery, armed burglary and arson in the case.

According to Barnes' sentencing order, he entered Miller's condo through a bedroom window and repeatedly raped her, strangled her with her bathrobe belt, killed her by striking her head with a hammer, and set her bed on fire with her body on it to eliminate evidence.

Barnes confessed to Miller's murder while he was behind bars  he was serving life in prison for killing his wife Linda, 44.

A gurney in an execution chamber at Florida State Prison in Starke where inmates receive lethal injection.

During his Thursday remarks, Andrew Miller praised Melbourne police investigators for keeping a photo of his sister in their locker for 18 years  "and would not retire their badges until someone was brought to justice for this heinous crime."

Barnes, who woke up at 5:30 a.m. Thursday, neither had any visitors nor met with a spiritual advisor, McLaughlin said. He also did not request a last meal before his execution.

While serving a life sentence for his wifes murder, Barnes mailed a letter in October 2005 to Assistant State Attorney Michael Hunt in Viera saying a fellow inmate  who he described as my Muslim brother  had convinced him to confess an unresolved matter that happened in 1988 in Melbourne.

FLORIDA TODAY covered the December 1997 arrest of James Barnes by Brevard County Sheriff's Office deputies after his wife, Linda, was found slain.

Specifically, Barnes offered in the letter to grant a jailhouse interview to law enforcement. During that interview, which was videotaped by a Melbourne police detective three weeks later, Barnes described how he had brutalized and killed Miller at her home in the River Oaks Condominiums before setting her bed ablaze with her body in it, his sentencing order said.

Seven years earlier, in 1998, advances in DNA testing had linked Barnes to Miller's homicide. But he had refused to speak with Brevard County Sheriffs Office investigators about the matter.

In his October 2005 letter written from the Columbia Correctional Institution in Lake City, Barnes noted that it was Ramadan, the Islamic holy month, which he described as a time of purification.

Barnes confessed to Millers murder and provided a detailed narrative of his crimes in a pair of December 2005 follow-up letters to Hunt.

Contrary to popular opinion, Im not looking to go to death row. As you can tell from the video, I like fresh air and sunshine and being healthy. I plan on living another 40+ years, Barnes wrote on Dec. 7, 2005.

Corrections officers, center, keep a watchful eye down a main access corridor at Florida State Prison.

Death penalty opponents call system "broken"

After Thursday's execution, Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty released a statement saying Florida's "broken and unjust system" puts innocent people at risk of execution and allows the executions of people with serious mental illness.

FADP said Barnes childhood was rife with abuse and trauma. For example, his father would conduct "blanket parties" where he would put a blanket over Barnes' head and make his four siblings whip him with a belt, covering his body in welts.

"James was abused and betrayed by the people who were supposed to protect him. We make no excusesfor James actions, and there is no way to bring his victims back. But there was also no justice for thechild who was rejected and beaten," the FDAP statement said.

"That child is as much the man that committed these murders, and as much the man who was executed tonight. This is why we stand against all executions. This is why we have to care," the statement said.

In a Thursday email, Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey said Barnes' victims suffered painful, horrifying deaths, and the crimes "were perpetrated by an unremorseful, violent individual with no regard for human life."

"Our prayers are with the victims families in hope that the finality of the punishment of James Barnes may bring some peace and closure," Ivey said.

"Once his death sentence is complete, the world becomes a better place and is rid of a monster that can no longer inflict pain and suffering, he said.

Rick Neale is the South Brevard Watchdog Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY (for more of his stories, click here.) Contact Neale at 321-242-3638 or rneale@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @RickNeale1

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This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Florida death row inmate James Barnes executed by lethal injection
(Bloomberg) -- A lawmaker from Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishidas ruling party resigned from his position as vice minister, the Foreign Ministry announced, following allegations he received a bribe from a wind power company.

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Masatoshi Akimoto stepped down as a parliamentary vice foreign minister Friday, hours after reports from the Asahi newspaper and other media that Tokyo prosecutors searched his office on suspicion he received a payment from unlisted Japan Wind Development Co., Ltd.

The company has denied bribing any politicians or officials, public broadcaster NHK reported. No one answered the phone at Akimotos office. Tokyo prosecutors declined to comment in response to questions from Bloomberg News, while Japan Wind Development referred queries to a lawyer, who did not immediately respond.

The scandal could deal a blow to Kishida, who is battling a support rate near its lowest levels since he took office nearly two years ago. The premier is due to hold a news conference later Friday to discuss the rollout of a new national ID card beset by glitches that have tarnished the image of his government.

Read: Japan PM Pledges to Fix Problems With ID Card Rollout

Akimoto, a four-term member in parliaments lower house, has been chief secretary of the Parliamentary Association for Promotion of Renewable Energies within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party since 2017, according to the Foreign Ministry website. He had served as a parliamentary vice-minister for foreign affairs since August 2022.

Tokyo prosecutors have questioned the head of Japan Wind Development over suspicion it provided payments to Akimoto in a non-transparent way, NHK earlier cited a source close to the investigation as saying.

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Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno declined to comment on the media reports and said he hadnt received word from Akimoto on the matter.

(Updates and recasts with resignation.)

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Ray Carr said he spent more than $400 on two tickets and a parking pass to the Jason Aldean concert Saturday at the Xfinity Center and didnt see one second of Aldeans performance.

That was just beyond infuriating for me, Carr said.

Carr is one of several concertgoers who said they were told by police officers and Xfinity Center staff that Saturdays Aldean concert was canceled due to severe weather, only to find out after theyd left the venue that the performance resumed at 10 p.m.

In Carrs case, he said he tried to pull back into the Xfinity Center parking lot but event staff wouldnt let him.

I spent a good amount of money for my tickets and now they wont even let me back in. They told me to leave. Whats going on with this? Carr said. The fact that they decided to go on [with the concert] and not let people who were told to leave come back in and attend the show was infuriating.

The Xfinity Center tweeted at 8:12 p.m. it was evacuating the venue because of severe weather. Less than five miles away in Foxborough, the National Weather Service confirmed an EF-1 tornado touched down around 8:17 p.m., several minutes after the Xfinity Center suspended the concert and issued a weather alert to its attendees. The NWS issued a tornado warning around 8:30 for central Plymouth County between Brockton and Plymouth, around 12 miles from the Xfinity Center in Bristol County.

Joe Barber said he and his wife left the venue after an Xfinity Center staffer wouldnt allow him to go to his seats and said the show would be rescheduled.

We were shocked to see that [Jason] Aldean went on at 10 p.m. How could this be? We were told by a worker there that the show was being rescheduled, Barber said.

Samantha Black stayed for the Aldean performance but said hundreds of others left to go home before it was announced the concert would resume.

It was just completely mishandled, Black said. These people spent their hard-earned money to see him play just to be told to go home. To find out he played after they left [must be] heartbreaking.

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Boston 25 sent several concertgoer complaints to Live Nation, the Xfinity Centers parent company. A Live Nation spokesperson said the company will respond to fans who contact the Xfinity Center to complain.

The team takes all fan feedback very seriously, and may have already connected with these fans if they contacted the venue, the Live Nation spokesperson said. Weather events are dynamic situations, and we consult with meteorologists, experts, and local authorities to make decisions about how to respond to severe weather. Due to the forecast, we evacuated the outdoor amphitheater out of an abundance of caution. After the storm passed, fans reentered the venue and enjoyed a great show.

The Massachusetts Attorney Generals Office said it had received one consumer complaint and it is under review.

There was no consistent communication whatsoever, Carr said. We had some staff in the venue telling us to stay where [we were], but then you had another staff was telling us we had to leave, we had to evacuateThe fact that he was coming back on at 10, and they wouldnt even let us back in the parking lot. This is just ludicrous. This is ridiculous.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts.

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Jeremy Hunt called on the FCA to "urgently investigate" whether account closures for political reasons are widespread.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has asked the City watchdog to speed up a probe into whether people have had bank accounts closed due to their political views.

It follows a row over the closure of former UKIP leader Nigel Farage's Coutts account.

Mr Hunt called on the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to "urgently investigate how widespread this practice is, and put a stop to it".

The FCA said Mr Hunt's request is "in line with our plans".

It comes after Mr Farage obtained a report from Coutts which indicated his political views were considered as a factor in his account closure.

Mr Farage has launched a campaign against account closures which has received support from government ministers.

The FCA is already preparing to look into this, and banks also face government reforms over account closures.

Speaking to broadcasters, Mr Hunt said: "You can agree or disagree with Nigel Farage but everyone wants to be able to express their opinions.

"In today's society, you need a bank account function and so a threat to be de-banked is a threat to your right to express your opinions."

Mr Hunt said the FCA has the power to fine banks "very large sums of money if they find this practice is widespread".

In a letter to the regulator on Thursday, Mr Hunt urged it to "urgently" speed up its planned review.

He asked it to investigate how many people had been affected and their characteristics.

He also also wanted the regulator to find out why the banks had taken these decisions, what monitoring and enforcement action the FCA had taken, and what action customers themselves could take.

FCA chief executive Nikhil Rathi said Mr Hunt's request was "in line with our plans" and the FCA "will provide an initial assessment by mid-September".

Mr Farage tweeted: "The Chancellor has written to the FCA about my case and the issue of de-banking. Thank you Jeremy Hunt."

The ex-MEP this week said Coutts has offered to reinstate his personal and business accounts, while he wants compensation from the private bank.

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NatWest has announced an independent review, with lawyers looking at the closure of Mr Farage's account and other instances of customers losing Coutts accounts.

Dame Alison Rose, chief executive of NatWest Group, which owns Coutts, quit after saying she had made a "serious error of judgment" in speaking to a BBC journalist about Mr Farage's Coutts account.

The boss of Coutts, Peter Flavel, also quit due to the row.

The BBC had initially reported Mr Farage's account was closed because he no longer met the wealth threshold for Coutts, citing a source familiar with the matter.

The BBC has since apologised to Mr Farage for the inaccurate story.
In a Thursday interview on Fox News, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said former President Donald Trumps third indictment is expanding and solidifying support for his 2024 presidential bid.

I do think the end result, the takeaway is, I think this just strengthens, just hardens the support for President Trump and frankly expands it, Jordan said.

Special counsel Jack Smith charged Trump with four new counts Tuesday in a case investigating efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Trump surrendered himself for arraignment two days later at a federal courthouse in Washington, D.C.

Jordan said he thinks this expansion is happening because of a long-term sentiment held by people outside of Washington of perceived attacks on the former president. He said these people think those in the nations capitol have an attitude that they are better than everyone else.

Were saying, Were going to support President Trump, Jordan said. I think thats the takeaway.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
President Joe Biden (left) and former President Donald Trump (right). Drew Angerer via Getty Images; Jeff Swensen via Getty Images

President Joe Biden unveiled a new "Dark Brandon" meme on Thursday.

People on Twitter think it is a subtle dig at Donald Trump's latest indictment this week.

Trump was arraigned in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, where he pleaded not guilty to four charges.

President Joe Biden appeared to make a dig at his predecessor, former President Donald Trump, when he unveiled a brand new "Dark Brandon" meme on Thursday.

"I like my coffee dark," Biden said in a video posted on Twitter, which recently rebranded to X. The President was seen taking a sip of coffee out of a "Dark Brandon" themed cup. "Dark Brandon" is a meme the White House has embraced that seems to portray  somewhat ironically  a ruthless Biden with lasers shooting from his eyes.

Though the tweet appeared to just be promoting Biden's campaign merchandise, the timing of the video's release prompted several people on Twitter to speculate that it was a veiled response to Trump's recent indictment.

"No one will ever convince me this isn't an Arraignment Day subtweet," wrote one person on Twitter, adding a crying emoji laughing at the end of the tweet.

"Totally! Almost spit my coffee out when I saw it," another person on Twitter replied.

Trump was indicted on Tuesday and slapped with four criminal charges in relation to the January 6 Capitol riot. Trump was arraigned at a courthouse in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, and pleaded not guilty to four charges.

This is the third time Trump has been arraigned. In April, he was arrested and charged in connection with election-eve hush money payments made to the porn star Stormy Daniels. Later, in June, Trump was arraigned in Florida, and accused of mishandling top-secret information.

A representative for the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider sent outside regular business hours.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Former Trump administration national security adviser John Bolton had harsh words for the former president Thursday, calling his foreign policy erratic and ineffective.

Donald Trump doesnt really have a philosophy, as we understand it in political terms, Bolton said in a Thursday interview on The Hills show on NewsNation.

He doesnt think in policy directions when he makes decisions, certainly in the national security space. Its all connected with how things benefit Donald Trump.

Bolton called the deal with the Taliban that led to the U.S. withdrawal a disastrous mistake and said that his dealings with Iran fell short. He also said Trump threatens the U.S. relationship with NATO.

In a second Trump term, wed almost certainly withdraw from NATO, he said.

Much of the credit Trump gets for foreign policy victories in the eyes of Republicans is misplaced, Bolton claims.

Those who make these claims about what Trump did in his first term dont really understand how we got to the places we did. Because many of the things they now give Trump credit for, he wanted to go in the opposite direction.

Bolton, once a Trump ally and a member of his administration, turned on his former boss after leaving his post in 2019. He has since become a prominent critic of the former president and wrote a book detailing his experiences inside the White House.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Jonathan Majors and Meagan Good | Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images

Jonathan Majors trial over domestic violence and harassment charges has been delayed for a later date.

The 33-year-old made a court appearance in New York Criminal Court on Thursday, as the trial date was initially set for today. However, according to The Hollywood Reporter, the prosecution said they were not ready because attorneys were still working to obtain discovery.

Majors wore a gray suit and carried a Bible as he entered the courtroom holding hands with girlfriend and actor, Meagan Good. In the two-minute hearing, Judge Rachel S. Pauley announced the new trial date is Sept. 6.

As Blavity reported, the Creed III actor was arrested on March 25 and charged with strangulation, harassment and assault. His ex-girlfriend, Grace Jabbari, 30, alleged to police that he attacked her following a domestic violence dispute, and she reportedly went to a hospital after sustaining injuries to her head and neck.

Majors attorney, Priya Chaudhry, has maintained his innocence throughout the process and stated the alleged victim had a history of assaulting the actor. Since then, he pleaded not guilty to the charges against him, and he shared his version of what happened at a Chinatown precinct in June.

In a written complaint, Majors said Jabbari was drunk and hysterical the night of the incident. She was reportedly angry and accused him of receiving text messages from another woman, the New York Post reported. He denied physically injuring her and stated she also has a history of abuse and stealing luxury items from the Marvel star, according to Sportskeeda.

The case has had several developments over the past several months. In April, Jabbari was granted a temporary order of protection against Majors, with no communication allowed between them. His defense team also claims to have text messages in which Jabbari appears to recant her allegations, TMZ reported.

Majors has been dropped from several films and has lost endorsement deals since the allegations were announced.
EVANSVILLE  It would have been asking the impossible for Lindsey Keene's kids to wait stoically for her to walk into an airport terminal after a year in Iraq. And they didn't.

Oblivious to the hundreds of other people who were at Evansville Regional Airport Thursday to greet returning members of the Indiana Army National Guard, Lindsey and David Keene's three children tapped anxiously on their welcome home signs. Their faces lit up when they thought the 163rd Field Artillery's nearly 100 returnees were about to walk in  and sagged when bemused passengers of an American Airlines flight from Charlotte appeared instead.

Then it happened. Sgt. Lindsey Keene, a combat medic finishing her second deployment, swept in with other soldiers. Son Gerald Oshsner, 11, clapped his hands to his ears and cried out: "Mom!" In an instant the boy and sisters Marley Ochsner, 12 and Kiera Keene, 9, swarmed Keene, pressing their heads into her chest in an embrace charged with a year's worth of longing.

Sgt. Lindsey Keene is hugged by her children on arrival after serving in Iraq for a year with the 1st Detachment of the 1st Battalion, 163rd Field Artillery of the Indiana Army National Guard at the Evansville Regional Airport after a year in Iraq Thursday, Aug. 3, 2023.

Only an hour earlier, the kids spoke with evident pride  and humor  about their mom's work in the 163rd.

"Shes like a doctor for Army men," Marley announced. "She had to pull a cactus out of an Army mans butt last time she went on deployment."

What did you say?! Kiera squealed.

Mommy had to pull a cactus out of an Army mans butt because he fell on it because he wasnt looking where he was going," Marley said. "She tells us to always watch where were going."

Dozens of similar reunions played out nearby, set against a cacophony of excited chattering, cheering  and tears. In a quieter moment, medic Austin Weber kneeled and leaned in close to pet an eight-month-old dog adorned with a white kerchief reading WELCOME HOME DADDY. Weber spoke to the animal, who had been one of eight puppies born to a pregnant dog and rescued along with their mother, Meatball, by U.S. soldiers in Iraq.

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Meatball dug out a spot under a shipping container on the soldiers' base in search of a place to have her babies. The soldiers found her there, giving her food and water until she gave birth. When an ice storm filled the dogs' home with hail and sludge, the soldiers saved them  and, as humans and dogs are wont to do, became attached. They knew that dogs and cats in the Middle East are frequently abused. Leaving them behind wasn't an option.

Azura waits for her owner Austin Weber who was returning home after serving a year in Iraq with the 1st Detachment of the 1st Battalion, 163rd Field Artillery of the Indiana Army National Guard at the Evansville Regional Airport Thursday, Aug. 3, 2023. Azura was rescued by members of the 1st Battalion after her mother was found pregnant hiding under a storage container during an ice storm and gave birth to eight puppies. They all have been adopted by members and sent to the U.S. through Paws of War.

With the aid of New York-based nonprofit Paws of War (pawsofwar.org), the soldiers have worked to get all the dogs back to the U.S. to be with them.

Weber's dog  "probably just an Iraqi mutt," said his grandmother, Susan Gahagan  spent five months with him in Iraq before undergoing two months of the quarantine protocols necessary to travel internationally. The timid and still thin pooch, a female, is named Azura.

Thursday marked an end for the yearlong journey for the 163rd's 1st Battalion, an Evansville-based unit that draws in some 300 soldiers from around the Hoosier State. Two other flights were due Thursday to take soldiers from other areas of the state to Indianapolis International Airport.

The unit has been away from home for a year, providing air defense capabilities in support of Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq.

After departing Iraq a couple of weeks ago, the 163rd spent time at Fort Bliss in Texas, going through what the military calls a "demobilization process"  a time-consuming exercise that helps cover administrative and medical processing.

Karen Paulson, left, and Hank Paulson, right, wait for the arrival of her son Ben Paulson who served a year in Iraq with the 1st Detachment of the 1st Battalion, 163rd Field Artillery of the Indiana Army National Guard at the Evansville Regional Airport Thursday, Aug. 3, 2023.

The time passed too slowly for Karen Paulson and her husband, Hank.

Pacing around the airport Thursday while waiting for their son, fire control specialist Ben Paulson, Karen chuckled about a jaw-dropping moment that would come during a "pretend family get-together" at a pub later.

See, Ben Paulson is engaged to be married to Cassie Steckler. Karen said she and Steckler's mother cooked up a scheme to fool Steckler, a fan of grand romantic gestures, with a grand romantic gesture. They secured Ben's cooperation.

"(Steckler) thinks hes flying in tomorrow," Karen said, a broad smile splitting her face. "She thinks were talking wedding planning, and hes going to call when we all get inside the private room. She thinks its just a normal phone call  and hes going to walk in and surprise her."

Karen Paulson hugs her son Ben Paulson upon arrival after spending a year in Iraq with the 1st Detachment of the 1st Battalion, 163rd Field Artillery of the Indiana Army National Guard at the Evansville Regional Airport Thursday, Aug. 3, 2023.

Karen and Hank, an Army veteran, aren't too handy with video call meeting technology. They can do phone and text messages, though. They hadn't actually laid eyes on Ben for a year before Thursday.

Nine-year-old Kiera Keene, Sgt. Lindsey Keene's daughter, was filled with similar anticipation before her mom's appearance Thursday. It was that kind of day at the airport.

"I bet all three of us are going to run to her and hug her," Kiera said.

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Joy, tears, laughs blanket Evansville-based unit returning from Iraq
A judge is accused of murder after his wife was found shot to death in their California home, police said.

Sheryl Ferguson, 65, was found inside the Anaheim home on Thursday, Aug. 3, with at least one gunshot wound, the Anaheim Police Department said in an Aug. 4 Facebook post. She was pronounced dead on scene.

Jeffrey Ferguson, 72, a judge with the Orange County Superior Court, was arrested at the home, police said.

In an emailed statement to McClatchy News, the Orange County Superior Court said it was made aware of Fergusons arrest Thursday evening.

Our thoughts go to the family. We all pray for their comfort during this trying time, Orange County Superior Court Presiding Judge Maria Hernandez said in the release. Although no case has been filed with our Court, when appropriate we will take all necessary steps to ensure full compliance with our legal and ethical obligations.

Ferguson, who is facing a murder charge, was booked into jail and is being held on $1 million bail, according to police.

He is expected to appear in court on Monday, Aug. 7, online jail records show.

Ferguson has served as a judge on the Superior Court of Orange County since 2015, according to a biography provided by Orange County Superior Court. His term is expected to end in 2027.

Ferguson began his law career in 1983 at the Orange County District Attorneys Office, the biography says.

Accused of poisoning wife with fentanyl, California man faces homicide, arson, fraud charges

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Dentist accused in wifes heinous, complex poisoning death, Colorado police say
By David Shepardson and Diane Bartz

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A U.S. judge hearing the Justice Department's antitrust lawsuit accusing Google of unlawfully maintaining monopolies in the internet search market let stand key claims made by the federal government.

Google, a unit of Alphabet, had asked for summary judgment on all the government's claims in the case.

U.S. Judge Amit Mehta, in a decision made public in Washington on Friday, granted Google's request on some grounds but allowed the remainder of the claims to proceed to trial next month.

The Justice Department sued Google in 2020, accusing the $1.6 trillion company of illegally using its market muscle to hobble rivals in the biggest challenge to the power and influence of Big Tech since it sued Microsoft Corp in 1998.

Mehta is also hearing a case brought against Google by the attorneys general of 38 states and territories.

Mehta tossed out accusations brought by the states that Google made it harder for internet users to find specialized search engines, like Expedia for travel or OpenTable for restaurants, saying the states "have not demonstrated the requisite anticompetitive effect in the relevant market."

Google said Friday it appreciated the court's "careful consideration and decision to dismiss claims regarding the design of Google Search" in the case brought by the states.

"We look forward to showing at trial that promoting and distributing our services is both legal and pro-competitive," added Kent Walker, Google's chief legal officer.

Google has denied any wrongdoing in both cases.

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said he was pleased with Mehta's opinion, adding: "We will continue to evaluate how to best press forward and establish Googles pattern of illegal conduct that harms consumers and competition."

Mehta noted Google LLC operates the largest U.S. internet general search engine whose "brand name has become so ubiquitous that dictionaries recognize it as a verb." He noted Google in 2020 had nearly 90% market share and advertisers spend over $80 billion annually alone to reach general search users.

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"A company with monopoly power acts unlawfully only when its conduct stifles competition," Mehta wrote.

Mehta also said that the government would have to show that each particular action - for example how Google handles search advertising - is a violation of antitrust law. This means that the government cannot show a string of actions and argue that these cumulatively break antitrust law.

The government, which filed its lawsuit in the waning days of the Trump administration, has argued that Google illegally paid billions of dollars each year to smartphone makers like Apple, LG, Motorola and Samsung, carriers like Verizon and browsers like Mozilla to be the default search for their customers. Mehta declined to throw out that argument.

The Justice Department did not immediately comment.

In late April, a U.S. judge in Virginia denied Google's motion to dismiss a separate Justice Department antitrust case focused on advertising technology, saying the government's case was strong enough to go forward.

The government has argued that Google should be forced to sell its ad manager suite. Google has also denied any wrongdoing in this case.

(Reporting by Diane Bartz and David Shepardson; Editing by Mark Porter, Diane Craft and Marguerita Choy)
An antitrust case against Google filed by the Department of Justice and a coalition of states can move ahead to trial, but with a more narrow scope of claims, a federal judge ruled this week.

In the decision unsealed Friday, District Court Judge Amit Mehta handed Google a win by ruling that the tech giant will not have to defend itself against allegations leveled by the state attorneys general complaint that Google has weakened competition by harming rival companies, such as Yelp or Expedia.

The states alleged Google harmed competition for companies focused on more niche markets, like OpenTable for restaurant reservations or eBay for shopping, by limiting them in Googles search result and asking for their data to be made available to Google.

Mehta tossed out those claims from the lawsuit, arguing that the states have not demonstrated the requisite anticompetitive effect in the relevant markets.

Despite narrowing the scope of the trial, Mehtas ruling allows the case over Googles dominance in the search market to go forward and keeps in place some other significant claims that the tech giant will have to face, including over allegations about exclusive contracts and Googles ad buying tool.

There remain genuine disputes of material fact that warrant a trial, Mehta wrote.

The trial is set to begin Sept. 12.

In a statement, Googles president of global affairs and chief legal officer Kent Walker said, We appreciate the Courts careful consideration and decision to dismiss claims regarding the design of Google Search.

Our engineers build Search to provide the best results and help you quickly find what youre looking for. People have more ways than ever to access information, and they choose to use Google because its helpful. We look forward to showing at trial that promoting and distributing our services is both legal and pro-competitive, Walker added.

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser (D), who is leading the state-led coalition, said in a statement he is pleased that the multistate attorneys general lawsuit challenging Googles monopoly in the search engine market and search advertising will proceed to trial in September.

We will continue to evaluate how to best press forward and establish Googles pattern of illegal conduct that harms consumers and competition, Weiser added.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
A federal judge has rejected a request to temporarily block Connecticuts landmark 2013 gun control law passed after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting until a gun rights groups lawsuit against the statute has concluded.

U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton in New Haven ruled Thursday that the National Association for Gun Rights has not shown that the states ban on certain assault weapons and large-capacity ammunition magazines, or LCMs, violates the 2nd Amendment right to bear arms.

The judge rejected a request for a preliminary injunction. The association criticized the ruling and said it would appeal.

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DETROIT (AP)  The state of Michigan must return or destroy dried blood samples from nine newborns or get approval from parents to keep them, according to the latest scathing opinion from a federal judge who found parts of a routine testing program unconstitutional.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Ludington is not interfering with the practice of pricking the heels of babies to draw blood to screen for more than 50 diseases, a longstanding procedure in hospitals across the United States.

Rather, he is overseeing a lawsuit that challenges how the Michigan health department handles leftover blood spots  and whether parents truly understand what they're doing when, following childbirth, they check a box allowing the state to use spots for research.

The form, for example, doesn't disclose that health researchers pay to use leftover blood spots and that police can get access to them in some circumstances. Ludington noted that newborn genetic markers are effectively stored indefinitely.

The Fourth Amendment shelters citizens against governmental intrusions, the judge said in a lengthy opinion on July 31.

The state's attempts to sidestep constitutional scrutiny fall flat in the face of the imperatives of the Fourth Amendment, Ludington wrote. Even within the confines of medical and law-enforcement purposes, the retention and usage of blood samples bear implications that tread on personal privacy rights.

He said the state was relying on sanctimonious rationales for its conduct.

Ludington said the state must contact the parents of nine children in the lawsuit and explain several options, including the return of dried blood spots, destruction of the spots and any related data, or approval to continue storing them. The spots must be destroyed if no consent is given within a year.

The order is a follow-up to a 2022 decision in which Ludington said parts of the program were unconstitutional.

The lawsuit is limited to children of four parents and is not a class action lawsuit. That means the judge's order is not a sweeping remedy that applies to every blood spot stored at the Michigan Neonatal Biobank in Detroit.

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But Phil Ellison, an attorney who won the case, said Ludington set a valuable precedent.

He's set a template for millions of others whose blood samples are in the Detroit biobank unknowingly, Ellison told The Associated Press. I think it's going to force the state to change the entire program  and change it for the better.

He said the vague form, and the timing of when parents are asked for consent, doesn't allow them to make a thorough decision about the use of a baby's blood spots.

The judge did a really unique thing. He changed the balance here, Ellison said. It's going to highly incentivize the state to change the process so moms and dads have all the information and can make an informed choice.

The current version of the consent form has been in use since 2017.

The health department is "reviewing this decision and determining next steps. At this time, no changes are planned, spokesperson Lynn Sutfin said in an email.

In 2022, at a separate stage of the case, the health department agreed to destroy more than 3 million blood spots stored in Lansing, Michigan, but millions more remain under state control.

The department has defended the program. It notes that no blood spots are kept for research unless parents give permission, though the spots still will be stored for up to a hundred years even if permission is not granted.

Spots also can be destroyed upon request, but the number of people who have taken that step is small.

A code  not someones name  is attached to spots that are stored in Detroit, making threats to privacy during research "very low, according to the state.

Research with blood spots occurs in other states, including California, New York and Minnesota, where samples can be kept for decades.

In 2009, Texas agreed to destroy millions of newborn blood spots that were stored without consent. Spots obtained since 2012 now are destroyed after two years unless Texas parents agree to have them maintained longer for research.

___

Follow Ed White at http://twitter.com/edwritez
The hottest three weeks on record. The hottest three days on record. The hottest ocean temperatures for this time of year.

That all happened to the Earth during one single month in July.

According to a statement from the World Meteorological Organization, July was the hottest month ever recorded across the globe  from heatwaves that baked portions of Northern California, Asia and Europe to the wildfires that burned Canada and Greece.

Its been a cruel and disastrous summer, said United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Less than a month before, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declared June 2023 the hottest June on record.

All this is entirely consistent with predictions and repeated warnings, he said in a statement. The only surprise is the speed of the change.

The hottest day landed on July 6 at an average global temperature of approximately 63 degrees, according to Climate Central, a climate change nonprofit organization. July 5 and July 7 were slightly cooler, ranking in the top three warmest days in recorded history.

At least 2 billion people around the world  one-quarter of the global population  felt a very strong influence of climate change on each day in July, Climate Central wrote on its website.

How hot did it get in Sacramento?

Sacramento was no stranger to triple-digit temperatures in July, but the area has been hotter.

Meteorologist Kate Forrest with the National Weather Service said July 2023 was the 14th hottest July on record with an average temperature of 77.4 degrees.

The average maximum temperature was 94.3 degrees and the average minimum was 60.5 degrees.

Heres how Julys average temperature compares to years prior with warmer averages, with data sourced from the National Weather Service:

July 1988 - 80.4 degrees

July 2003/1961 - 79.2 degrees

July 2006 - 79.1 degrees

July 1960 - 78.9 degrees

July 2005 - 78.8 degrees

July 1996 - 78.6 degrees

July 2017 - 78.4 degrees

July 1984 - 78.3 degrees

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July 1967 - 78.0 degrees

July 2018 - 77.8 degrees

July 1990/ 1959 - 77.7 degrees

Forrest said July 2021 was the 15th hottest July on record in Sacramento because of the Dixie Fire, the second-largest wildfire in Californias history. The fire  which stretched across Butte, Plumas, Shasta, Lassen and Tehama counties  burned for 104 days, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

The average temperature was 77.2 degrees.

July 1975 and July 2015 are also tied for the 15th hottest July in Sacramento.

In 1988, Sacramento area saw its hottest month for average temperature on record, according to NWS climate data, at 80.4 degrees. The citys hottest day on record was last year at 116 degrees.

Looking ahead to August temperatures

Meteorologists forecast that the remainder of the summer and the beginning of fall will bring above-normal temperatures to California.

According to NOAA, theres between 33% and 50% chance weather in California will lean above normal for this time of year. Outlooks show equal chances of above-normal, near-normal or below-normal rainfall for August and September.

Meaning, according to the National Weather Service, there is no clear indication of how much rain the state could receive.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations temperature outlook show above-normal temperatures in August and September.

Weekend weather update

In Sacramento, temperatures will steadily increase throughout the weekend until the area reaches a high near 105 degrees on Sunday. The area is forecast to exit triple-digit conditions on Tuesday with a high near 89 degrees.

The National Weather Service warned of a widespread moderate heat risk this weekend across the Central Valley and foothills.

An excessive heat watch will go into effect from Saturday to Monday for portions of Southern California. The area is preparing for dangerously hot temperatures between 108 and 117 degrees.

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.
A Ramsey County jury has acquitted a woman of charges that she intentionally hit the father of her children with her car in St. Paul, sending him to the hospital, during an argument in 2021.

Tishyra Dionne Hulsey, 51, of Minneapolis, was found not guilty of second- and third-degree assault last week following a two-day trial in Ramsey County District Court. Jurors deliberated for about 45 minutes before reaching the verdicts, according to court records.

Hulsey was represented by attorney Seamus Mahoney, who said Friday that he argued it was an accident and that Hulsey testified as much during the trial.

She accelerated  she testified two or three car lengths  and shot forward and lost control of the car, Mahoney said. The jury believed her.

Dennis Gerhardstein, spokesman for the Ramsey County attorneys office, said in a Friday statement: While we are disappointed with the outcome, we respect the decision of the jury.

According to the criminal complaint, the incident started on the evening of Nov. 4, 2021, when Hulsey and the man got into an argument in Minneapolis that began over the use of cars.

Hulsey told police during a phone interview the next day that she and the man had not been together for 14 years and that Hulsey had left because he had abused her. They have two children in common. She said the man continued to insert himself into her life. He had driven by her house and noticed a BMW in the driveway, which upset him.

Hulsey explained it was a loaner car while another car was being repaired. She said he took the keys to the BMW and her phone and got into his Tahoe. She jumped in the Tahoe and they fought over the keys and her cellphone.

He struck her several times, and we have the pictures of the bruises on her face, Mahoney said.

She got the keys back and exited the vehicle, but he still had her phone and he drove off, the complaint said.

The man told police that Hulsey followed him in the BMW east on Interstate 94 toward Snelling Avenue in St. Paul. Hulseys daughter also followed in a black Impala.

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The man told police Hulsey rammed his Tahoe three to four times as he traveled on Lexington Parkway toward a BP gas station. Mahoney said he made that up, and that the daughter testified that Hulsey left Minneapolis about 45 minutes after the man left.

There were no witnesses to that or any evidence, Mahoney said.

At the gas station, the daughter sat on the hood of the Tahoe demanding her mothers phone. The man exited the Tahoe and the two began to fight. Hulsey told police she thought he was hitting her daughter. Hulsey said she stepped on the gas and drove toward them, and that the man jumped on the hood of the BMW and fell to the ground.

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NASHVILLE, Tenn.  Four months after an expulsion vote thrust the pair into the national spotlight, Democratic state Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson formally won reelection Thursday to their seats in the Tennessee General Assembly.

Republicans voted to oust Jones and Pearson from the legislature in April after they interrupted House proceedings with a gun-control protest. But the two were quickly reappointed to the seats until this summer's special elections.

In Nashville, Jones defeated Republican opponent Laura Nelson with nearly 80% of the vote for the House District 52 seat. In Memphis, Pearson defeated Republican Jeff Johnston with more than 90% of the vote for the House District 86 seat.

"Well, Mr. Speaker, the People have spoken," Jones wrote in a tweet just after 9 p.m. "The FIND OUT era of politics is just beginning. See you August 21st for special session."

Jones was first elected to represent District 52 last November. Pearson was elected to the District 86 seat in a special election primary in January. Shelby County Commissioners then appointed him, allowing him to be sworn in before the general election in March, in which he had no opponents.

Days after the deadly shooting at Covenant School left six dead, including three 9-year-old children, in Nashville, Jones used a bullhorn at the chamber podium to rally crowds in the galleries, calling for the chamber to take action to prevent more gun deaths. He was joined by Pearson and Gloria Johnson, D-Knoxville.

Members of the Republican supermajority saw the interruption as a violation of House decorum rules, and filed resolutions of expulsion against all three members. They fell one vote short of expelling Johnson, but Jones and Pearson were expelled.

'Tennessee Three' lawmakers: Justin Jones, Justin Pearson and Gloria Johnson to meet with Joe Biden at White House

State Representative Justin Jones of Nashville speaks into a megaphone during a rally against gun violence on Thursday, March 30, 2023, in Nashville, Tenn. The action came in the wake of the Covenant School shooting that killed six people earlier in the week.

Almost immediately, county legislative bodies appointed Jones and Pearson back to represent their districts in an interim capacity, until the special primary elections in June and the general election on Thursday.

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Pearson also formally won back his seat in District 86 on Thursday. At his watch party in Memphis, Pearson thanked his supporters, including his family and volunteers.

The statement were making to the Republican party in Nashville is crystal clear: You cant expel a movement, Pearson said. You cant expel hope. For these movements live in the people in this district, people who refused to be silenced and shackled and told to be quiet and be in the back.

The expulsion votes drew national media attention to Nashville, giving Tennessee Democrats a platform not seen in years, and offering a significant fundraising opportunity. Jones and Pearson received nearly $2 million in campaign contributions during the week they were expelled and even earned an invitation to the White House.

Among the youngest Black lawmakers in Tennessee, Pearson first came to prominence in Memphis when he co-founded the grassroots organization Memphis Community Against the Pipeline in response to a planned crude oil pipeline that would cut through backyards in South Memphis, particularly in the Boxtown neighborhood.

Jones has long been an activist at the state Capitol, calling for reforms to Tennessee's voting laws, Medicaid expansion, and removal of a bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest which previously was displayed in a prominent location on the second floor of the building. He also led the "People's Plaza" protests on War Memorial Plaza during the summer of 2020.

'THIS IS NOT A MOMENT. IT IS A MOVEMENT' Tennessee Three push gun reform in White House meeting with Biden

Contributing: Katherine Burgess

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Expelled Tennessee Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson re-elected
Justin Trudeau and Sophie Gregoire Trudeau's love story has come to an end.

On Aug. 2, the Canadian prime minister announced that he and his wife were separating via a statement on Instagram.

Hi everyone, Sophie and I would like to share the fact that after many meaningful and difficult conversations, we have made the decision to separate, he said in a statement.

"As always, we remain a close family with deep love and respect for each other and for everything we have built and will continue to build," Justin Trudeau continued. "For the well-being of our children, we ask that you respect our and their privacy. Thank you."

Sophie Trudeau also shared the same statement on her Instagram account.

The couple's decision to separate comes after Justin Trudeau celebrated their 18th wedding anniversary in May.

Read on to learn more about the parents of three, and how their own love story started in childhood.

They meet as childhood friends

In Canada, Justin Trudeau is part of a political dynasty: His father, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, was prime minister for 15 years; his mother, Margaret Trudeau, was the daughter of an MP.

But Sophie Trudeau met him in the context of being childhood friends.

According to a profile in the publication Macleans published at the time of their wedding, Sophie Trudeau said that she was introduced to Justin Trudeau's family through a friendship with his youngest brother, Michel, who died in an avalanche in 1998 at the age of 23.

Justin Trudeau and Sophie Trudeau run into each other as adults

After losing touch, the two reconnected in 2003 to co-host the Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix ball fundraiser. At the time, Sophie Trudeau was a television and radio reporter.

We laughed, we joked and there was a definite chemistry between us, Justin Trudeau told Macleans. And I sort of realized, OK, this is someone I have to take seriously.

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Justin Trudeau, according to the story, evaded reaching out  but then they ran into each other, which led to a date and a moment of connection.

I looked at her, he recalled, and I just felt this strength and peace come over me.

Justin Trudeau and Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau (Samir Hussein / WireImage)

And I said, Well, its about time you arrived. Its been 32 years and I was beginning to think you would never show up. Ive been waiting for you all my life. Youre it!'" he recalled himself saying. "I knew it right then and I announced to her that we would be spending the rest of our lives together.

They get engaged in 2004 and married a year later

According to Macleans, the former couple got engaged on Oct. 18, 2004, the same day Justin Trudeau's father was born.

After Justin Trudeau told Sophie Trudeau that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her, he told Macleans that they both burst into tears because they have big tender hearts.

In 2005, they got married in front of about 180 guests at the Sainte-Madeleine dOutremont church in Montreal, according to Macleans.

Justin Trudeau and his wife Sophie Gregoire (Mikhail Svetlov / Getty Images)

Justin Trudeau and Sophie Trudeau start their family in 2007

Prior to their having kids, Justin Trudeau told Macleans he wanted three children, and Sophie wanted fewer. Im very confident that once we get into it, Ill be able to convince her that three is fine, he said at the time.

Indeed, as the prime minister predicted, they went on to have three children. In 2007, the pair welcomed their first child, Xavier, on the same day as Justin Trudeau's father's birthday. Their daughter, Ella-Grace, was born in 2009. Their youngest, son Hadrien, arrived in 2014.

When Hadrien was born, Justin Trudeau shared a photo of him holding his son's hand. He captioned it, "Welcome to the world, little Hadrian. 8lbs 3oz, Sophie is wonderful, Xavier and Ella-Grace couldnt be prouder."

Welcome to the world, little Hadrian. 8lbs 3oz, Sophie is wonderful, Xavier and Ella-Grace couldnt be prouder. pic.twitter.com/L8T3CW2kME  Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) February 28, 2014

Justin Trudeau opens up about 'difficult ups and downs' in 2014In an October 2014 interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Justin Trudeau talked about his marriage with Sophie Trudeau.

At the time, he was not yet the prime minister of Canada, but he was working in politics as the Liberal party's leader.

I have a very difficult, high-pressured job, Justin Trudeau said at the time. Everyone knows how challenging it is to balance family responsibilities with a job that takes me across the country and working extremely hard.

There are times when she hates my job and she hates me for loving my job, he added. There are times ... when she understands how much of an opportunity and a responsibility it is for us to actually serve this country that has given us so much.

In the interview, Justin Trudeau said his marriage "isn't perfect" and he and his wife have their fair share of "difficult ups and downs." But no matter what, he said, "Sophie remains my best friend, my partner, my love. We are honest with each other, even when it hurts.

When host Evan Solomon asked if that was coded language for extramarital affairs, Trudeau responded, No.

This is a conversation about the kinds of challenges that any real marriage goes through," he said. "Tremendous ups and downs, but as I say we are deeply in love and committed to each other and we continue to be.

Justin Trudeau celebrates his 18th wedding anniversary with Sophie Trudeau in 2023

On Instagram, Justin Trudeau shared a cute photo of him and Sophie Trudeau holding hands in a car.

He captioned it, "Every mile of this journey together is an adventure. I love you, Soph. Happy anniversary!"

Justin Trudeau and Sophie Trudeau announce they're separating in 2023

On August 2, Justin and Sophie Trudeau announced that they were separating in a joint statement they released on Instagram.

Hi everyone, Sophie and I would like to share the fact that after many meaningful and difficult conversations, we have made the decision to separate, the statement read on Justin Trudeau's account.

As always, we remain a close family with deep love and respect for each other and for everything we have built and will continue to build, he continued. For the well-being of our children, we ask that you respect our and their privacy. Thank you.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com
Justice Elena Kagan said during a public appearance Thursday that Congress can regulate aspects of the Supreme Court, a comment that comes as Democrats push a bill that would mandate a binding code of ethics for the justices.

Kagan was asked her thoughts on the issue during an appearance at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judicial Conference, less than a week after Justice Samuel Alito said in an interview with The Wall Street Journals opinion section that Congress lacked the authority to regulate the high court.

A member of the courts liberal wing, Kagan declined to respond directly to her conservative colleague, indicating she had read the interview but was unsure exactly what question he was responding to.

But she went on to note that Congress funds the Supreme Court and regulates its jurisdiction.

Can Congress do various things to regulate the Supreme Court? I think the answer is yes, she told the crowd.

That doesnt say what things, Kagan continued. And I want to say on the other hand, can Congress do anything it wants? Well, Im going to say no, it cant do anything it wants. If Congress did something that effectively prevented the court from fulfilling its assigned responsibilities, I mean, that would raise some pretty serious constitutional issues.

She declined to comment specifically on the proposal advanced by the Senate Judiciary Committee on a party-line vote last month. The bill, which has slim odds of reaching President Bidens desk, would require the court to adopt disclosure rules for gifts, travel and income received by justices and law clerks that are as rigorous as Senate and House disclosure rules.

Kagan said she didnt want to weigh in on a proposal Congress was actively considering, also suggesting the Supreme Court could end up ruling on the issue in the future.

It just cant be that the court is the only institution that somehow is not subject to any checks and balances from anybody else, she said. We are not imperial, and we, too, are part of a checking and balancing system in various ways.

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In an interview published last week with the Wall Street Journals opinion section, Alito took issue with lawmakers regulating the courts ethics.

I know this is a controversial view, but Im willing to say it, Alito told the Journal. No provision in the Constitution gives them the authority to regulate the Supreme Court  period.

The interview came as Alito and multiple other justices have come under fire for undisclosed luxury trips and ethics controversies that have fueled Democrats push for more stringent rules.

Kagan publicly acknowledged the justices have been discussing ethics standards at the high court but have a variety of views.

We could decide to adopt a code of conduct of our own that either follows or decides in certain instances not to follow the standard code of conduct, she said. And that would remove this question of what can Congress do, or at least it would put it in a different light if Congress continued to act.

Chief Justice John Roberts declined Democrats invitation to testify on Supreme Court ethics earlier this year, in the wake of a ProPublica report about undisclosed trips accepted by conservative Justice Clarence Thomas from a GOP megadonor.

But while accepting an award in May, Roberts said he was committed to making certain that we as a court adhere to the highest standards of conduct, a remark Kagan echoed Thursday.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
A Kansas City area mother whose toddler and infant daughters died on Fourth of July five years ago in a hot SUV in rural Clay County was sentenced Thursday to 58 years in prison.

Jenna Boedecker, 34, appeared in Clay County Circuit Court at her sentencing hearing two months after being found guilty at trial on two counts of second-degree felony murder and two counts of felony child endangerment.

Saying his decision was not taken lightly, Judge Shane T. Alexander ordered Boedecker to serve back-to-back sentences on the murder and child endangerment convictions. He called the deaths of 7-week-old Goodknight Ribando and 2-year-old Ireland Ribando a horrendous event that was entirely preventable.

That makes it even more horrendous, Alexander said.

The judges decision closely aligned with the recommendations handed down by the Clay County jury that was charged with deciding Boedeckers fate in May.

Clay County deputies were called to investigate the deaths of the Ribando girls shortly after noon on July 4, 2018. A neighbor called 911 while trying to help Boedecker, whod shown up at the door carrying their lifeless bodies, cool the children with water, wet rags and fans.

Three hours before, a social worker with the Missouri Childrens Division in Clay County knocked on Boedeckers door in response to a hotline call that was made the previous night. The social worker told police there was an SUV parked in the driveway at the time but he had not noticed anyone inside.

Authorities learned of a dispute the night before the children died between Boedecker and her husband in which she accused him of infidelity.

She later told police she and the children were locked out of the house after the fight and they slept in her Jeep Patriot. The next morning she awoke to find them not breathing.

Months went by before Boedecker was charged in connection with the deaths as the sheriffs department did not initially suspect foul play. Experienced criminal investigators were later called to work the case.

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Over a five-day trial, prosecutors called testimony from witnesses, including neighbors, as they portrayed Boedecker as a criminally negligent mother with a history of drug abuse. Her defense attorney countered that Boedecker had made tragic mistakes that she ultimately paid for by seeing her daughters die.

During the hearing Thursday, prosecutors called members of the Ribando family to the stand to outline the sentence they believed Boedecker deserved.

Among those addressing the court were the paternal aunts, uncle and grandmother of the two girls. They said the deaths tore the family apart and weighed especially hard on the father, Joe Ribando.

They said no amount of prison time could replace the loss they felt, and one suggested a just sentence would be forcing Boedecker to be put in a hot car.

But I understand thats not how the criminal justice system works, the aunt said.

Teresa Bailey, the grandmother, described frequent visits to their gravesite where she places thematic decorations of prom, weddings and daddy daughter dances  all things the girls never had the chance to experience. The gravesite is within hearing distance of a schoolyard, she said, making some of those trips all the more devastating.

My son will never be the same. My family will not be the same. We will always miss them, Bailey said.

In asking the judge to have the sentences run consecutively, Robert Sanders, chief deputy prosecutor, said Boedecker is self-absorbed and a narcissist who utterly failed in her obligations as a mother.

This wasnt a loss of children. This was a throwing away of children, Sanders said.

Michael Shipley, Boedeckers defense attorney, sought leniency from the judge Thursday in the form of serving out her sentences at the same time, which could have allowed Boedecker to walk free in about 18 years as best case scenario.

Shipley described the proposed 58-year sentence as harsh, saying she already has been punished every day since her daughters died.

People dont do that type of time for first-degree murder, Shipley said, adding: You want to say shes a bad mom and you want to call names? Fine. But nobodys ever said that she intentionally hurt her children.

Shipley declined to comment after the hearing.

Outside the courthouse Thursday, Clay County Prosecuting Attorney Zachary Thompson noted the jury had heard all the evidence from both sides and come back with the decades-long sentence. He and those in his office respect that decision and believe it is appropriate.

The truth is theres two dead children and nothing we do in the Clay County Courthouse is gonna bring them back, Thompson said. But we hope that the decision of the judge and the jury will deliver a sense of justice to those childrens family and everyone who loved them.
The wolf-costume-wearing Kansas City Chiefs superfan widely known as ChiefsAholic will continue to be held without bond as he stands accused of a spree of Midwest bank robberies and flight from felony prosecution.

Xaviar M. Babudar, 29, of Overland Park, made his initial appearance in shackles and a yellow jumpsuit in Kansas Citys downtown federal courthouse on Friday afternoon. Magistrate Judge Brian Gaddy scheduled a preliminary hearing in the case for Wednesday.

Last month, a federal judge in California ordered Babudar to remain in custody before trial following his arrest there. Prosecutors in the Western District of Missouri have also filed a motion supporting pretrial detention as Babudar currently faces two felony charges of bank theft and interstate transportation of stolen property.

Prosecutors also allege the FBI has uncovered evidence linking Babudar to a five-state spree of strong-arm robberies at banks and credit unions over the course of nine months.

Xaviar Michael Babudar, known as Chiefsaholic, allegedly robbed five Midwest banks at gunpoint in 2022, and attempted two other robberies in Minnesota. A graphic included in an affidavit filed July 10 shows the locations of the crimes.

An internet famous superfan known to brag about high-dollar bets on Kansas City sporting events, Babudars disappearance from Chiefs games was noticed by social media followers of his since-deleted Twitter account @ChiefsAholic.

It was during that time that Babudar was arrested after the failed robbery of the Tulsa Teachers Federal Credit Union in Bixby, Oklahoma. On Dec. 16, a masked man entered with what appeared to be a handgun, jumped on the counter and demanded a bank employee open the vault or be shot. The robber fled on a bicycle, according to the FBI, before his apprehension by local authorities. Babudar allegedly had in his possession more than $150,000 in cash and a BB gun.

Three miles away, a car parked in the lot of a Tulsa gym was identified by authorities as one registered to Babudar. A search warrant yielded betting slips and bank paperwork in Babudars name with deposit memos in the tens of thousands of dollars.

Xaviar Babudar, 29, a Kansas City superfan widely known as ChiefsAholic, is accused of robbing a credit union with a BB gun Dec. 16 in Bixby, Oklahoma

After Babudars arrest, FBI investigators connected his cellphone location to historical data from cell towers near the scenes of unsolved robberies at four banks in Nebraska, Iowa and Tennessee, and the attempted robberies of two credit unions in Minnesota.

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The federal charges Babudar currently faces are related to $70,000 stolen from Great Western Bank in Clive, Iowa, on March 2, 2022.

Bank employees told police that the robber came into the bank wearing a ski mask and appeared to be armed. He handed the teller a note demanding money. Later, police found nearly $1,200 in $20 bills in the woods, along with a glove they connected to Babudar, according to an affidavit prepared by an FBI agent.

Over the next six weeks, Babudar deposited the same amount that was stolen into his money market savings account and made multiple casino chip purchases and redemption at the Argosy Casino in Riverside, Missouri, according to the affidavit.

Authorities allege Babudar has laundered proceeds from bank robberies through Midwestern casinos, including in Kansas City. FBI forensic accountants found $1.1 million in casino chips exchanged by Babudar.

Babudar was released in February on bond pending trial in his Oklahoma case. But for four months, authorities say Babudar was on the lam after cutting off the GPS anklet he was supposed to wear and leaving the area without permission. The device was found in a wooded area of Tulsa.

When he failed to appear at his arraignment, a warrant was issued for his arrest. In June, he was placed on the Greater Kansas City Crime Stoppers Most Wanted list.

Babudar was arrested in the Sacramento, California, area July 7.

In a motion Thursday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Daly called for Babudar to be held in federal custody without bail until his trial. He wrote Babudar has clearly displayed his risk of flight through his four months on the run, and said Babudar has apparently lived a nomadic existence having no fixed address to call home.

Daly said federal authorities are investigating whether Babudar committed any additional bank robberies since going on the run in February.

The Stars Anna Spoerre and Robert A. Cronkleton contributed to this report.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP)  Doctors in Kenya say the bullet wounds that civilians received during opposition protests in two counties last month show that most were shot while running from police or trying to surrender, according to a report released Friday.

The report by the Kenya Medical Association, Amnesty International Kenya and the Law Society of Kenya looked at three days of protests in the western counties of Kisumu and Kisii, part of the oppositions stronghold. It confirmed at least 11 people killed, most of them shot dead, and counted at least 47 others with gunshot wounds.

There was indeed the use of excessive force by the police during the protests over the rising cost of living, the report said, noting that some victims were simply bystanders, including a woman watching the demonstrations from her shop. She was shot in the chest.

The findings come less than a week after Kenyas government said it would consider leading a multinational force in Haiti to take on gang warfare and could send 1,000 Kenyan police officers. The United States, as this months president of the United Nations Security Council, seeks to introduce a resolution authorizing the force. Some Haitians have expressed skepticism.

Human rights groups have long accused Kenyan police of abuses, and those warnings spread during the recent demonstrations. Another watchdog confirmed at least 35 people were killed last month.

The new report is based on visits and interviews with survivors and witnesses.

First responders noted that some victims families were not allowed to see or photograph bullets extracted from the bodies of their loved ones, it said. Concerns over police tampering with evidence were high. One elderly father used his bare hands to find the bullet lodged in his sons open skull.

A police spokeswoman did not comment on the report and its allegations. A spokesman for the interior ministry, Francis Gachuri, said they were waiting to be asked by the report's authors for a reaction.

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The report calls for immediate investigations by the government-created Independent Policing Oversight Authority.

___

AP writer Evelyne Musambi in Nairobi, Kenya, contributed.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy joined other local politicians in sounding alarms about the ties between China and a secret lab that was shut down earlier this year in Reedley, talking with reporters Thursday in Clovis.

News of the lab  run by company Prestige Biotech Inc., whose owners reside in China  broke last week along with concerns about vials of exotic contagions the lab had been illegally storing. A slew of state and federal agencies are investigating, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the FBI.

The Bakersfield Republican, who met with the media at his newly opened office in Clovis, said hed spoken to local officials earlier that day about the disturbing discoveries out of Reedley. He pledged to take these concerns back to the select committee on China he convened shortly after becoming Speaker of the House this January.

My concern is to get to the bottom of what happened here, he said, but also  wheres this happening in other parts of this country?

The speaker also alleged that Gov. Gavin Newsoms administration provided the lab with state funding.

Now were finding out that the governor of California provided them with $360,000 in this process, he said.

A spokesperson from the California Governors Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) told The Bee in an email that Universal Meditech, Inc., the predecessor of Prestige Biotech, received a $360,000 tax credit through the offices California Competes program in April 2019, but the credit was ultimately revoked.

(Universal Meditech, Inc.) did not achieve any of its milestones and was not approved to claim any of the tax credits. GO-Biz recaptured the entire credit and voided the Agreement with UMI, the spokesperson said.

The office also said that Prestige Biotech never received any California Competes funding and that it was never a party to the agreement.

McCarthy said he plans to follow up with the FBI in light of his discussions Thursday.

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Theres a lot more questions that need to be answered, he said.

The House speaker weighs in on Tulare Lake

McCarthy took more than just one swing at Newsom.

When asked about the future of the recently resurrected Tulare Lake following a barrage of storms this winter, McCarthy criticized the Democratic governor for putting up roadblocks to water storage leading up to this year.

U.S. Congressman and Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, left, shakes hands with Fresno County Supervisor Nathan Magsig during a meet-and-greet with local leaders and VIPs at the speakers Clovis office on Thursday, Aug. 3, 3023. CRAIG KOHLRUSS/ckohlruss@fresnobee.com

Much of Californias stormwater flows to the sea due largely to environmental laws that protect endangered species of fish. McCarthy and other politicians, meanwhile, are calling for more of this water to be pumped into reservoirs to increase the states water supply.

Were living off infrastructure that was built in the 60s. Were now 2023. We need to be planning for 2050, he said. And all (Newsoms) done is fight it.

The Bee reached out to the governors office for a response to McCarthys criticisms.

McCarthy added that he believes agriculture is the greatest use of the land beneath Tulare Lake and he wants to restore it to agriculture, although the lake is likely to stick around for months, if not longer.

The tributaries that once fed the historic lake were diverted for agriculture in the early 1900s and the lakebed dried out, KVPR reported in June. The Yokuts tribe that once lived around the lake has gathered in recent months to honor the returned vestige of pre-colonial life.

McCarthy spoke with reporters at the newly opened office in Clovis  the result of a promise he made to constituents in the recently redistricted 20th Congressional District. He represents an area that encompasses parts of Kern, Fresno, Tulare, and Kings counties, including areas of Bakersfield and Clovis.
Kevin McCarthy was back with a case of whataboutism during his visit to Clovis on Thursday.

The Republican House speaker from Bakersfield, whose 20th District now includes Clovis, showed that political condition in a short meeting with local reporters. Just what is whataboutism?

It is a strategy being employed by McCarthy and other top Republicans in Congress to deflect attention away from the multiple indictments facing former President Donald Trump by raising the what about question in reference to President Biden and his son Hunter.

A few hours before McCarthy spoke to the reporters, Trump was arraigned for a third time in a federal court, this time for his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election results that made Joe Biden, not Trump, president.

A reporter asked McCarthy for his thoughts on the indictment and the charges leveled against the former president.

I didnt see what happened, McCarthy replied. I have been in meetings all day. But one thing I do know: It really begins to feel like it is a two-justice system.

That kicked off his latest round of whatabout, namely, what about Hunter Biden.

Attempting to prove Biden is corrupt

McCarthy spent the next few minutes sharing details that have come out recently in congressional hearings led by GOP members in an attempt to show how President Bidens son Hunter tried to use his father, then vice president, in his business affairs.

McCarthy noted that President Biden has said he did not talk to his son about business deals. We have now found that the business partner says the vice president called in 20 times, McCarthy said. That business partner is Devon Archer, who has been a witness at the hearings.

A transcript of Archers testimony to the House Oversight and Accountability Committee was released on Thursday, and as reported by The Washington Post, Archer said that there were about 20 times the son put his father on the phone to sell the family brand. Archer said, as reported by The Post: I think you have to understand that there was no business conversation about a cap table or a fee or anything like that. It was, you know, just general niceties and, you know, conversation in general, you know, about the geography, about the weather, whatever it may be.

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It needs to be noted that Hunter Bidens current legal issues deal with misdemeanor counts for unpaid taxes and for possessing a gun for 11 days in 2018 while he was a substance abuser.

Trumps new indictment

Trump, on the other hand, is accused in the latest indictment of his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021 rioting at the U.S. Capitol.

Trump is accused of scheming to have fake electors in certain states to change election results; then trying to get then Vice President Mike Pence to recognize those fake electors so the election certification could be changed with Trump as the winner.

The indictment says that Trump lied frequently about the election outcome and made claims of widespread fraud, even when told by aides and lawyers that he had lost and that his fraud charges were false.

In short, Trump is accused of trying to overturn the will of voters to remain in power. Hunter Biden is accused of ethical lapses involving tax issues. He has admitted he was addicted to crack cocaine and faces a separate charge of buying a gun while he was using drugs.

There is a world of difference between the two. There can be no whatabout.

McCarthy also characterized the indictments against Trump as purely political prosecutions. But, in fact, McCarthy doesnt know any more about the evidence gathered against Trump than what has been released so far in initial filings. It is not right for the speaker to prejudge a prosecution he does not know in full.

Whataboutism does not serve America well. McCarthy needs to let justice be done for both Trump and Hunter Biden. Otherwise, he is promoting a two-tier system of political justice.
By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The chair of a U.S. House committee on Thursday urged President Joe Biden to adopt expansive restrictions on outbound U.S. investment in China especially in key sectors likely to harm U.S. national security.

Representative Mike Gallagher, a Republican who heads the select committee on China, wants the Biden administration to "include both private and public market investments flowing to China in new restrictions."

The letter is the latest push by lawmakers in both parties for Biden to finalize tough restrictions on U.S. investments in China. Biden is likely to adopt new outbound investment restrictions on China in the coming weeks, sources have told Reuters.

For more than two years, U.S. lawmakers have been pushing the Biden administration to boost oversight of investments by U.S. companies and individuals in China.

Gallagher said U.S. investment in China "poses a significant national security risk, exposes Americans to material and systemic financial risks, and makes them complicit  often unwittingly  in human rights abuses."

Reuters reported in July the Biden administration was finalizing an executive order that would also restrict certain investments in sectors including advanced semiconductors, quantum computing and artificial intelligence.

Gallagher said investments in key sectors relevant to national security and central to China'a technological rise should be restricted and ensure U.S. capital "does not support the ongoing Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) buildup, facilitate the CCPs human rights abuses or techno-totalitarian surveillance system, or deepen our dependency on (China) in critical supply chains."

The White House declined to comment.

Chinese Embassy in Washington spokesperson Liu Pengyu said the United States "habitually politicizes technology and trade issues and uses them as a tool and weapon in the name of national security ... We will closely follow the developments and firmly safeguard our rights and interests."

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Gallagher wants the Biden order to protect shareholder rights by forcing Chinese companies to meet same due diligence standards as U.S. companies and "ensure these investment restrictions are predictable and provide certainty to investors. Avoid creating an onerous, case-by-case screening process."

He also wants Biden to "consult with allies and partners before implementing new restrictions and urge them to adopt parallel restrictions on investing in China."

Last month, the Senate overwhelmingly approved legislation to requires notification of some outbound investments in China.

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo has said any restrictions on U.S. investors should not "be overly broad."

Gallagher said on Tuesday the committee is investigating BlackRock and MSCI for facilitating the flow of American capital into companies the U.S. government has found guilty of fueling China's military advancement or human rights abuses.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Stephen Coates)
ATLANTA, GA - APRIL 07: (L-R) Tobey R. Sanders, actress Keisha Knight Pulliam, and Arian Simone attend the Festival of Laughs tour at Philips Arena on April 7, 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia.

Clearly, making it harder for Black and Latino kids to get into college wasnt far enough for the man behind the Supreme Courts affirmative action decision. Now, hes coming after Black women with small businesses.

On Wednesday, the nonprofit American Alliance for Equal Rights filed a lawsuit against an Atlanta-based venture capital fund that supports Black women and other minority-owned small businesses. The nonprofit was founded by none other than right-wing crusader Edward Blum, who has made it his mission to destroy affirmative action.

Read more

The lawsuit filed against the Fearless Fund alleges that the fund is operating a racially-discriminatory program in violation of the Civil Rights Act. The Fearless Fund was founded by three Black women  executive Ayana Parsons, actress Keshia Knight Pulliam, and entrepreneur Arian Simone.

As their website notes, less than 2.2.% of all Venture Capital funding goes towards women-founded businesses, and less than 1% of total funding goes towards businesses founded by women of color. And yet, for some reason, folks like Blum are convinced this number should be even lower.

Its worth noting that Blum and his team are clearly riding high from Supreme Courts affirmative action decision. In fact, they cite it at the top of their lawsuit.

Even before this lawsuit, conservatives were looking for ways to weaponize the Supreme Courts decision in the workplace. In July, 13 Republican attorneys general wrote a letter demanding that Fortune 100 companies stop their affirmative action programs.

The Root spoke to legal experts, who said that as it stands, nothing in the Supreme Courts decision makes affirmative action within the workplace illegal:

Amalea Smirniotopoulos, NAACP Legal Defense Fund Senior Policy Counsel, says that these Republican attorneys general are trying to make the Supreme Courts affirmative decision about something its not. This was another attempt to chill completely lawful efforts to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion by corporations, says Smirniotopoulos. By really trying to stretch the meaning of the decision in the Harvard and UNC cases and frankly by also restating things that have always been true about discrimination law and employment.

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However, they agreed that this didnt make these arguments any less of a threat to diversity efforts in the office:

This letter is a scare tactic, says University of New Mexico Constitutional and Employment Law Professor Vinay Harpalani. And unfortunately, its a pretty good one. Although the Supreme Court decision didnt touch on hiring practices, Harpalani says that conservatives will certainly try to use it as a basis for challenging race in employment. The law, as it is now, allows affirmative action in employment, says Harpalani. But if the case went to the U.S. Supreme Court, Im not at all confident that they would continue to allow it.

The immediate threat is that companies begin to back-away from DEI programs, said Justin Hansford, Executive Director of the Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center at Howard University.

Some of these companies werent really doing that much anyway... and what they were doing was done only under pressure, says Hansford. This could be an excuse for some companies that already didnt want to push the envelope on diversity to start walking things back.

As for the lawsuit against Fearless Fund, an obvious concern is that it could scare off investors who might otherwise want to similarly invest in women of color. However, its still too soon to say (especially in this climate) whether the case has legs.

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The popular phrase 'knowledge of self' -- invoked by numerous rappers who adhere to Islam -- is nearly a millennium old. Paul Hawthorne for Getty Images

I was 9 years old when Eric B. and Rakims Paid in Full dropped. I have vivid memories of the bass-laden track booming out of car stereos and hearing it on Black radio, like Kiss FMs top eight at 8 p.m. countdown.

On the track Move the Crowd, Rakim  also known as the God MC  rhymes All praise is due to Allah and thats a blessing. Growing up as a Black Muslim in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, I was already familiar with the phrase. Like all Muslims, I learned to say it during my daily prayers and as an expression of gratitude.

But when Rakim laced those words into the lyrics of what ultimately became a popular song, he affirmed what I was seeing around me in my Brooklyn community  that Islam and Muslims were prominent features of Black life.

Rapper Flavor Flav and Chuck D of the rap group Public Enemy film their Fight The Power music video in 1989. Michael Ochs Archives via Getty Images

A key concept

Rakim dropped another familiar phrase in the song: knowledge of self.

With knowledge of self, theres nothing I cant solve At 360 degrees I revolve This an actual fact, its not an act, its been proven Indeed and I proceed to make the crowd keep moving.

When Rakim extols the benefits of knowledge of self to himself as an emcee and a human being, he is drawing on a philosophy that has been critical to Black Islam, a term I use to describe the different forms of Islamic belief and practice found in Black America.

Knowledge of self comes from this tradition, beginning roughly a century ago, which has become known for advancing Black consciousness, resistance and redemption. Knowledge of self is an ethical pursuit to understand ones place in and relationship to the world in order to positively change it.

In my 2016 book, Muslim Cool: Race, Religion and Hip Hop in the United States, I demonstrate how knowledge of self is fundamental to hip-hop. It is often described as hip-hops fifth element, the others being DJing; emceeing or rhyming; graffiti or writing; and dance, from b-boying to pop locking.

The concept of knowledge of self was instrumental in Lauryn Hills breakout 1998 single Doo Wop. Tim Mosenfelder via Getty Images

While the phrase and the consciousness that it represents have been mentioned in too many songs to count  from Public Enemys Fight the Power to Lauryn Hills Doo Wop and Talib Kwelis K.O.S. (Determination)  history shows the term has been a part of Islamic literature for nearly a millennium. For example, the first chapter of the celebrated 12th-century Islamic scholar Abu Hamid Al-Ghazalis famous text The Alchemy of Happiness is titled The Knowledge of Self.

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In my book, I make the case that Islam, specifically Black Islam, gave hip-hop knowledge of self.

Elijah Muhammad led the Nation of Islam from 1934 until his death in 1975. Bettmann via Getty Images

The lessons

Rakims reference to knowledge of selfs being an actual fact is a nod to the actual facts of the Lost-Found Muslim Lessons, the catechism taught by Master W.D. Fard Muhammad, who founded the Nation of Islam on July 4, 1930. Master Fard taught these lessons to the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, who would become the religious movements leader.

These lessons are fundamental to the way that the Nation of Islam understands the world and the role of Black people in it. The lessons are also studied by the Nation of Gods and Earths, a related spiritual path, of which Rakim is a member. Knowledge of self comes to hip-hop through these lessons.

Rakim was not alone. During the golden age of hip-hop, a period from about the mid-1980s through mid-1990s, rappers  influenced by Black Islam  steadily proclaimed their knowledge of self in their music. Big Daddy Kane declared theres no pork on my fork, an acknowledgment of the Islamic injunction against the consumption of swine. The Poor Righteous Teachers gave the Arabic greeting as salaamu alaikum with the dome of Harlems Masjid Malcolm Shabazz in the background in the music video for Rock Dis Funky Joint. And from Brooklyn to the California Bay, acclaimed emcees like Guru and local acts were rhyming about praying to the east, a reference to the Muslim practice.

Poor Righteous Teachers was one of many rap groups whose music was influenced by Black Islam. Al Pereira/Michael Ochs Archives via Getty Images

The message

Long before rappers spoke of knowledge of self in the 1980s, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad expounded on the term in his book Message to the Blackman in America, released in 1965 at the height of the Civil Rights Movement. In it, he emphasized Black self-reliance  with knowledge of self being a key component.

Elijah Muhammads book Message to the Blackman in America played a critical role in Muhammad Alis life. Bettmann via Getty Images

The so-called Negroes must be taught and given Islam, Muhammad wrote. Why Islam? Islam, because it teaches first the knowledge of self. It gives us the knowledge of our own. Then and only then are we able to understand that which surrounds us  this kind of thinking produces an industrious people who are self-independent.

In some ways, it comes as little surprise that a term promulgated by a fierce advocate of self-reliance in the mid-1960s would be so widely embraced by hip-hop shortly after it was born as a counterculture in the early 1970s.

Hip-hops consciousness

When Black Islam helped hip-hop culture cultivate knowledge of self, it created an aspiration, arguably unique for contemporary popular music as a whole, to not just rhyme about it or write graffiti about it, and so on, but to apply it in real life. As a result, knowledge of self became hip-hops consciousness, emphasizing an awareness of injustice and the imperative to address it through both personal and social transformation. Critically, this consciousness, while informed by Black Islam, is embraced by hip-hop community members of all stripes.

The 1989 song Self-Destruction opens with a sample of a speech by Malcolm X. Bettmann via Getty Images

The consciousness led to different forms of hip-hop-based activism. Songs against gun violence like The Stop the Violence Movements Self-Destruction and We Are All in the Same Gang by the West Coast All Stars.

Self-Destruction opens, not inconsequentially, with a sample of a speech by Malcolm X, the onetime spokesman for the Nation of Islam and icon of Black Islam. The consciousness also contributed to the formation in 2004 of the National Hip-Hop Political Convention, which set the stage for other, albeit less radical and comprehensive, engagements with politics by the hip-hop generation, like the Vote or Die campaign and the push for Obama in 2008.

Nearly 10 years later, this consciousness was on display at the 2017 Grammy performance by A Tribe Called Quest, Busta Rhymes and Consequence that was an open call to resist in the Trump era. This consciousness also continues to inspire the many organizations like Kuumba Lynx and the Inner-City Muslim Action Network in Chicago that use hip-hop as a form of arts-based activism for youth.

And, of course, it remains in the music.

The knowledge continues

On the track Family Feud, Jay-Z  like Rakim  praises God, but this time in Arabic: Alhamdulillah, Mumu Fresh questions others knowledge of self with the line Good morning, sunshine, welcome to reality/I tried to wake you, but you were sleepin so peacefully in your fallacy. Busta Rhymes dropped Extinction Level Event 2: The Wrath of God, full of warnings and prophecies. And in a freestyle viewed around the world, Black Thought rhymes about the wisdom he got at the masjid. This consciousness is so entwined with music that Kendrick Lamars Alright became a Black Lives Matter movement anthem.

Like hip-hop, this consciousness operates globally. Take, for example, the Iraqi-Canadian Narcy, Cape Towns YoungstaCPT, Cuban hip-hop artist Robe L. Ninho and the U.K.s Enny, whose works track their own journey for knowledge of self.

Things have changed since Rakim dropped Move the Crowd in 1987. Gentrification is pushing my community out of Brooklyn, and Islam and Muslims are more known and subject to the state and interpersonal violence of anti-Muslim racism. Yet hip-hop still affirms what I see around me  knowledge of self is as vital as ever.

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: Su'ad Abdul Khabeer, University of Michigan.

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Su'ad Abdul Khabeer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Court sentences informant from Kramatorsk

A resident of Kramatorsk, Donetsk Oblast, has been handed down a nine-year prison sentence for unauthorized disclosure of units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the Prosecutor Generals Office reported on Telegram on August 4.

The investigation revealed that in March 2023, the suspect was engaged in communication with two administrators of local pro-Russian chat rooms, which were allegedly created to gather intelligence on the whereabouts of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

The individual was fully aware that the information shared could be accessed by Russian military personnel and could potentially compromise Ukraines national security, yet this did not deter him.

Read also:

Shortly after the informant transmitted photographs of Ukrainian military unit locations in Kramatorsk to the chat rooms, the Russian army reportedly targeted one of the sites with a missile.

In a separate incident in Zaporizhzhya on July 31, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) apprehended an informant and handler of Russian special services, who was later identified as a local university lecturer.

On July 27, the SBU also arrested a Russian informant who was collecting data on the movements of Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kupyansk district of Kharkiv Oblast.

Read also:

On June 27, Kramatorsk experienced two missile strikes by Russian occupiers. A cafe in the city center was hit, resulting in the deaths of 13 people, including three children, and injuring more than 60 others.

The SBU subsequently detained an agent of Russian special services who was allegedly responsible for adjusting the Russian missile strike.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has made a statement expressing that those involved in the Russian missile strike on Kramatorsk deserve the most severe punishment.

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) has noted that the Kremlin is trying to create and show favourable conditions for attracting volunteers to serve in the army.

Source: ISW

Details: The ISW pointed out that "the Kremlin is attempting to establish favourable conditions to attract additional volunteers to serve in the Russian Armed Forces".

The Institute noted that Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on mandatory state-provided life and health insurance for those who serve as volunteers and mobilised while participating in Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council, said the Russian Defence Ministry recruited more than 231,000 volunteers from January to July 2023, noting that Russia tends to "make contract service as prestigious as possible".

The BBCs Russian service reported that the number of volunteers stated by Medvedev, if true, most likely does not just represent recruits among civilians, since the Russian Defence Ministry is recruiting personnel from the Wagner Group who have agreed to sign military contracts, as well as conscripts.

The ISWs report noted that the Russian Defence Ministry is not providing equipment to Russian territorial defence units operating on Russia's western international border.

For example, one Russian milblogger noted that the Russian Defence Ministry had not provided fighters from the territorial defence units of Belgorod and Kursk oblasts with machine guns, offering them hunting rifles instead.

At the same time, according to ISW, a volunteer regiment consisting of at least 10 volunteer units and battalions has been formed in the Republic of Bashkortostan.

Regarding the Ukrainian counteroffensive, the ISW said Ukrainian forces continued counteroffensive operations in at least three areas of the front on 3 August and reportedly advanced on some fronts.

In particular, they advanced on the Kupiansk-Svatove line, in the vicinity of Kreminna and in the western part of Donetsk Oblast.

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Ukraines defence forces also continued counteroffensive operations on the Bakhmut front, but did not achieve any confirmed successes on 3 August. However, they witnessed certain success in the west of Zaporizhzhia Oblast.

The ISW also suggested that Ukrainian forces are continuing to conduct limited attacks in the vicinity of the village of Robotyne.

The Institute has gathered information that the said Ukrainian forces continued to strike Russian rear areas in Donetsk Oblast on 2-3 August.

To quote the ISW's Key Takeaways on 3 August:

Ukrainian forces continued counteroffensive operations on at least three sectors of the front on 3 August and reportedly advanced in some areas.

Russian forces conducted a series of drone strikes on 3 August, primarily targeting Kyiv.

The Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) took down Russian Airborne Forces (VDV) Commander Colonel General Mikhail Teplinskys 2 August speech, possibly due to his disclosure of Russian casualties in Ukraine.

Russian prosecutors reportedly classified the investigation into ardent Russian ultranationalist and former FSB officer Igor Girkin on 2 August.

Russian forces conducted offensive operations along the Kupiansk-Svatove-Kreminna line, near Bakhmut, along the Avdiivka-Donetsk City line, and in the western Donetsk-eastern Zaporizhzhia Oblast border area on 3 August and made advances in certain areas.

Ukrainian forces continued counteroffensive operations on at least three sectors of the front on 3 August and reportedly advanced near Kreminna and Vuhledar.

The Kremlin is attempting to establish favourable conditions to attract additional volunteers to serve in the Russian Armed Forces.

A report from Yale Universitys Conflict Observatory supports ISWs longstanding assessments that Russian and occupation authorities are using forced passportization measures to consolidate social and legal control over occupied areas of Ukraine.

Ukrainska Pravda is the place where you will find the most up-to-date information about everything related to the war in Ukraine. Follow us on Twitter, support us, or become our patron!
Judge's gavel, close-up Getty Images/Tetra Images

Judge Aileen Cannon, the Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge in the Southern District of Florida presiding over the former president's classified documents case, made two critical errors in a June trial, Reuters reports, citing legal experts and a court transcript, with one of her missteps violating a fundamental constitutional right of the defendant, which could have invalidated the proceedings.

Cannon closed the courtroom during jury selection for the June trial of an Alabama man, whom federal prosecutors accused of running a website with images of child sex abuse, to the defendant's family and the general public, according to a trial transcript obtained by the outlet. Though Cannon cited space restrictions in her small courtroom in the Fort Pierce federal courthouse, the Sixth Amendment guarantees a defendant's right to a public trial.

The 42-year-old judge also failed to swear in the prospective jury pool, an error that forced her to restart jury selection. Some of the former federal prosecutors Reuters interviewed noted that judges' courtroom deputies would sometimes remind them of procedural steps such as swearing in prospective jurors as they could be more focused on other parts of running a trial.

The renewed jury selection process never began, however, because the trial ended abruptly with defendant William Spearman pleading guilty as part of a "conditional" deal with prosecutors that retains the defendant's right to appeal certain rulings by the trial judge.

Cannon's courtroom closure presents "a fundamental constitutional error," Stephen Smith, a professor at the Santa Clara School of Law in California, told Reuters. "She ignored the public trial right entirely. It's as though she didn't know it existed."

That day, Scott Berry, the federal public defender representing Spearman, had even argued in the courtroom that Cannon's refusal to allow his client's family to be present violated his Sixth Amendment right, the transcript showed.

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"All right, thank you. Your objection is overruled," Cannon responded, according to the transcript.

A federal prosecutor in the case, Greg Schiller, also later urged Cannon to allow Spearman's mother into the courtroom, referencing a 2010 U.S. Supreme Court precedent that required judges to weigh less restrictive alternatives prior to closing a courtroom to the public, including during jury selection.

When Berry later alerted Cannon to two vacant chairs in the room, Cannon dismissed his request again, saying the chairs were reserved for law enforcement.

"Mr. Spearman's mother is free to join us once the jury selection process has concluded and/or there is truly enough room in the courtroom," the transcript shows Cannon saying.

She did offer later to let Spearman's family into the courtroom after she realized she had also erred in neglecting to swear in the jury pool, explaining that there would be room after jurors, whom both sides had agreed to dismiss, had left.

Her decision sparks questions about what her approach will be regarding the immense public interest and scrutiny at Trump's trial, which is slated to begin on May 20, 2024.

Cannon's trial errors also demonstrate her inexperience as a judge, former federal judges  both Democratic and Republican appointees  told Reuters. Trump's trial will be Cannon's first time overseeing a case involving classified materials and navigating the rules surrounding their handling.

"A lack of experience can be really hard in a big case, especially when there's all this media attention and everything you do is being watched and commented on and second-guessed," Jeremy Fogel, a former federal judge who leads California's Berkeley Judicial Institute, said, adding that Cannon's mistakes were "fairly significant."

"It looms larger because of who the judge is," he added.

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The former Chief U.S. District Judge of the Northern District of Iowa, Mark Bennett, argued that Cannon "should have figured ahead of time a way to accommodate a small number of family members in a very small courtroom, in my opinion. It's just the right thing to do, and not run the risk of there being reversible error."

Cannon did not respond to the outlet's request for comment. A Justice Department spokesperson and Berry declined Reuters' request for comment.

So far as a judge, the former federal prosecutor has presided over four criminal trials that have resulted in jury verdicts. She also previously worked on four criminal trials that concluded with jury verdicts in her role as a prosecutor from 2013-2020, a questionnaire she completed before the Senate confirmed her judgeship indicated.

Cannon became the subject of a rebuke from the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta when it reversed her 2022 order appointing a third party to review materials the FBI had seized from Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort club in the classified documents probe.

"We cannot write a rule that allows any subject of a search warrant to block government investigations after the execution of the warrant. Nor can we write a rule that allows only former presidents to do so," the 11th Circuit panel of three Republican-appointed judges wrote in their ruling, ordering the dismissal of a lawsuit Trump had filed seeking to shield documents from federal investigators.

Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Weissmann said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that he had, "No words" for Cannon's errors in the June trial.

No words  https://t.co/sfQ1xZ00fQ  Andrew Weissmann (weissmann11 on Threads) (@AWeissmann_) August 4, 2023

"That tiny courtroom in Fort Pierce really should not be the location of this case," national security attorney Bradley Moss tweeted.

That tiny courtroom in Fort Pierce really should not be the location of this case.



Exclusive: Trump documents case judge made multiple errors in earlier trial | Reuters https://t.co/NlTtY18isb  Bradley P. Moss (@BradMossEsq) August 4, 2023

"Lots of people who become judges were never very good at knowing the law," Andrew Fleischman, a Georgia trial and appellate lawyer, added.

Lots of people who become judges were never very good at knowing the law. https://t.co/g2PPKKJuP4  Andrew Fleischman (@ASFleischman) August 4, 2023

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about Judge Aileen Cannon
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The Lake City Police Department stated that on Friday, July 7 at approximately 4:25 p.m. a person was shot inside of Cedar Park Apartments.

The victim told the responding officers that they had arranged to sell a gun to Jaquary Pratt. When the men met up, however, Pratt brought two other men with him.

One of the men Pratt arrived with pulled out a firearm and pointed it at the victims temple. The victim pushed the firearm away, but the firearm went off, causing a gunshot wound to the victims lower extremity.

>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<

A warrant was issued for Pratt and he was soon arrested by LCPD.

Another of the suspects has been identified as 18-year-old Jaedyn Washington. A warrant has been issued for Washington and he is considered to be armed and dangerous.

If observed, do not approach the suspect and call law enforcement immediately.

Report information anonymously by calling the LCPD TIPS line at 386-719-2068 or Crime Stoppers of Columbia County at 386-754-7099.

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McLaren racing director Andrea Stella and Lando Norris. Singapore, September 2022. Credit: Alamy

Andrea Stella has disagreed with Lando Norris assessment that focusing on upgrades has hurt McLarens race extinction.

While his team-mate finished on the podium in the sprint race, Norris recent purple patch stumbled somewhat in Spa with the Brit finishing seventh after a race that saw him running near the back at one point.

Afterwards, Norris raised concern that McLarens focus on improving their car may have come at the cost of their ability to plan for certain tracks but his boss Stella disagreed with that assessment.

Upgrades not the cause of McLarens Belgian problems says Andrea Stella

When McLaren started as poorly as they did in 2023, it was all hands on deck in an effort to make the car at least somewhat competitive.

The rushed nature of this was evident in the fact that when it did come time to fit the upgrades, McLaren only had enough for one car with Norris winning out over Oscar Piastri in Austria.

But in Silverstone, and with both cars upgraded, the McLaren duo impressed with Piastri narrowly missing out on making it a double podium.

While Piastri would make it to the podium in the Spa sprint race, it was a difficult weekend for his team-mate and while Norris conceded it was the right choice to go all in on improvements, he wondered if it had other negative effects.

We just need to rethink how we approach the weekend, he said.

The wing level and stuff like this might work on [this circuit], but it doesnt work on all of them. And we clearly got it wrong.

All of the focus was on doing [the upgrades], which is the correct thing to do.

Stella though said it was not the fault of the upgrades that McLaren did not get their setup correct for the Belgian grace.

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In perfect hindsight, we could have tried to find some other solution to reduce the drag on the car, Stella told media including PlanetF1.com. Im not sure how much efficiency would have shed, [how much] we would have removed off the car.

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It could be that we couldnt have been able to achieve yesterdays [Saturday] results if we had made this choice so obviously for a dry race, you do want to race with less drag.

I dont think theres a correlation between the fact that we were focused on the upgrades and then the decisions on setup that you make once you are at Spa.

The real correlation is the fact that because we were very busy on working on other things, we didnt have the time to work on low drag real wings. So thats the real correlation. All the rest is not correlated with the fact that we were busy developing the car.

Despite their difficult weekend, McLaren still left Spa with 16 points added to their tally.

Read next: Max Verstappen is not to blame for F1s supposed dullnessthe other teams are

The article Lando Norris concerns over McLarens race execution addressed by team boss appeared first on Planetf1.com.
Ukraine uploaded a video on Tuesday of a HIMARS strike on a sandbar. Screenshot/National Resistance Center

Ukraine said it launched a deadly HIMARS attack on five Russian units gathered on a beach.

Two military experts say Russia seriously misjudged its soldiers' proximity to Ukrainian HIMARS.

"Lesson for the Russians: Your adversary is clever," one said. "Don't cut your range calculations too closely."

The Russian units targeted in a Ukrainian HIMARS attack this week flouted a key wartime rule, military experts told Insider: Don't gather in big, open spaces.

Ukraine on Tuesday said it launched a HIMARS attack on five Russian units gathered on a beach resulting in 200 casualties and destroyed equipment. Insider couldn't independently confirm the number of soldiers killed in the attack.

Ukrainian media outlets reported that the strike took place on Dzharylhach island, a 26-mile-long sandbank in the Black Sea that's part of the Russian-occupied Kherson region. The country recently set up training grounds for active military units to recover and train on the island, The Institute for the Study of War reported .

The country's National Resistance Center, overseen by the Ukrainian army, posted drone footage of the strike on Facebook, showing Russian soldiers who appeared to be stretching and standing in plain sight on the shore just moments before HIMARS munitions struck.

"Massing your troops within striking range of the Ukrainians is unwise," said Simon Miles, an assistant professor at Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy who is a historian of the Soviet Union and US-Soviet relations.

"I don't know whether the Russian military believed themselves to be far enough away that they enjoyed some kind of sanctuary, but obviously that was not the case," Miles told Insider.

Dzharylhach island is about 40 miles from the nearest front line, said Mark Cancian, a retired US Marine Corps colonel who is a senior advisor with the Center for Strategic and International Studies' security program.

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The American-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, known as HIMARS , is an advanced missile launcher that sits mounted on a truck and can fire missiles that reach up to 50 miles. The weapons systems typically sit a bit behind the front lines, Cancian says, possibly providing Russia with a false sense of security on Dzharylhach island.

"The Ukrainians either moved a HIMARS up close or figured out a way to put it on an island or on a barge that would get it in range," he said.

Miles added that the Russian training grounds at Dzharylhach island appeared to have been established relatively recently but it takes time for military leaders to establish perimeters and safeguard a new facility  a challenge probably made even more difficult by Russia's mounting manpower problems.

"In a world where anyone with a smartphone can snap a picture and put it on Telegram, that becomes a really serious challenge for operational security," he said.

The Ukrainian National Resistance Center said the strike was aided by intelligence provided by local sources.

Still, there was an element of complacency on the Russians' part in this attack, military experts said. Ukraine has been using HIMARS for months to destroy high-value targets far beyond the front lines. Russia certainly knew the range of the weapons system and should have been able to reasonably predict that its units were in striking distance, Miles said.

"Lesson for the Russians: Your adversary is clever," Cancian told Insider. "Don't cut your range calculations too closely."

The attack comes just weeks after reports suggested Ukraine executed a similar strike . Following reports from a Russian military blogger, a Ukrainian official in June said a Ukrainian HIMARS attack had targeted Russian soldiers who'd been standing still for two hours for a commander's speech.

The sandbank where Ukraine said it executed HIMARS strikes against Russian soldiers this week. Screenshot/National Resistance Center

The shockingly similar strikes indicate a serious communication problem within Russia's military, says Miles, who blames the country's top-down approach to disseminating information for the repeated mistakes.

"At a basic tactical level, we can see the Russian military is learning from its mistakes," he said. "But it's one thing to learn on a basic level and another to disseminate that knowledge across a big force spread far geographically."

Plus, many of the key logistical decisions are being made by people far from the front lines in Moscow who are operating without timely, accurate information about what's happening on the ground, Miles says.

Regardless of who made the call to keep soldiers out in the open and in range of Ukrainian HIMARS, the strike this week is most likely going to worsen already depleted morale among Russian soldiers, especially those who thought they were enjoying a period of relative respite at Dzharylhach island, he says.

"Ukraine is denying Russian troops at training grounds the sanctuary to train and rest and refit," Miles said. "This is going to have pretty potent macro effects in the long term."

Read the original article on Business Insider
Actor Leah Remini filed a lawsuit against the Church of Scientology and its leader, David Miscavige, alleging that she has been threatened, harassed and stalked for the past decade.

The King of Queens star says she has been the victim of intentional malicious and fraudulent rumors via hundreds of Scientology-controlled and -coordinated social media accounts that exist solely to intimidate and spread misinformation, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Remini has been an outspoken critic of the controversial church since she left it in 2013. She co-created and hosted an anti-Scientology documentary series, Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath, that aired from 2016 to 2019 on A&E and won two Emmy awards.

For 17 years, Scientology and David Miscavige have subjected me to what I believe to be psychological torture, defamation, surveillance, harassment, and intimidation, significantly impacting my life and career, Remini said in a statement Wednesday.

Leah Remini on

The Church of Scientology and a rep for Miscavige did not immediately respond to an NBC News request for comment.

Remini said that Miscavige and other defendants began the attacks more than a decade ago, alleging that current and former Scientologists were enlisted to record defamatory video statements against her.

The claims include that she was abusive to her mother and daughter, and that she is a racist, the suit says. Her now-deceased father, George Remini, and his wife were allegedly some of the people the church used to attack her, according to the lawsuit, which linked to a video.

In 2015, Remini said she was forced to hire bodyguards for the first time in her life because she feared for her physical safety. She says she hired the guards after learning private investigators allegedly working for the church were following her during the New York promotion of her book, Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood.

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The lawsuit details other alleged attacks. In 2018, the church organized a meeting with celebrity Scientologists and drilled attendees on how to attack Ms. Reminis credibility, based on lies, using talking points that Scientology wrote, according to the lawsuit.

Remini also accused the church of enlisting a man with a history of mental illness and a violent criminal record to stalk and surveil her at her Los Angeles home, the suit says.

Remini and her neighbors allegedly saw the man in a parked white vehicle outside Reminis home in July and August 2020. The lawsuit accuses the man of ramming his vehicle into the security gates of her community and asking residents where she lived. The man was arrested and released only to be arrested a second time after he falsely claimed that Remini was holding hostages at her home, according to the lawsuit.

The attacks have not stopped, according to the suit, which says that the actors family and friends have also been subjected to the harassment.

She said in her statement that she does not believe she is the religions first victim, but I intend to be the last.

While advocating for victims of Scientology has significantly impacted my life and career, Scientologys final objective of silencing me has not been achieved, Remini said.

While this lawsuit is about what Scientology has done to me, I am one of thousands of targets of Scientology over the past seven decades. People who share what theyve experienced in Scientology, and those who tell their stories and advocate for them, should be free to do so without fearing retaliation from a cult with tax exemption and billions in assets, she said.

Remini is seeking compensatory and punitive damages for the enormous economic and psychological harm that the churchs alleged attacks have caused, and hopes to deter the church from continuing their unlawful campaign of harassment and intimidation.

This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com
Jeanne Marrazzo

Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, will succeed Dr. Anthony Fauci as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and she will be the first member of the LGBTQ+ community to hold the post.

Marrazzo, a lesbian, is an expert on HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, and some of her research has involved pre-exposure prophylaxis, a.k.a. PrEP, and microbicides. She is also known for her research on hormonal contraception and infections of the female reproductive tract, according to a press release from the National Institutes of Health, of which NIAID is part.

Dr. Marrazzo brings a wealth of leadership experience from leading international clinical trials and translational research, managing a complex organizational budget that includes research funding and mentoring trainees in all stages of professional development, Dr. Lawrence A. Tabak, acting NIH director, said in the release.

Fauci, famed for his role in fighting HIV and for his leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic, retired in December after leading NIAID since 1984. Dr. Hugh Auchincloss Jr. has been acting director of NIAID since then. Marrazzo is expected to begin her duties in the fall.

Marrazzo appeared frequently in the media as an expert on COVID as well, and fellow scientists say she brings wide and deep experience to her new post. I think whats remarkable about her is not that shes known in a singular area, but that shes broadly respected in a broad range of areas, Sharon Hillier, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh, told NPR. Hillier added, Shes known as an exquisite clinician. Shes known as an exquisite teacher.

NIAID conducts and supports research to better understand, treat, and prevent infectious, immunologic, and allergic diseases, making annual grants of more than $6 billion. Marrazzos expertise in STIs is leading to hopes that more research will be directed at them.

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For STIs, we need better therapeutics, vaccines, and point-of-care diagnostics, David Harvey, director of the National Coalition of STD Directors, told Vox. These are all things that Dr. Marrazzo happens to be an absolute expert at, and were very excited and hopeful that more resources will be put into these priorities.

Marrazzos work includes a study of how stigma affected HIV prevention efforts among African women, Vox notes.

PrEP4All, which seeks to assure that HIV medication is available to all those who need it, likewise praised Marrazzos appointment. At a time where infectious disease threats are on the rise globally and preventive and sexual health has come under attack for women and LGBTQ communities around the world, Dr. Marrazzos demonstrated commitment to addressing HIV and STIs in marginalized populations will be of enormous value in ensuring that the research needs of vulnerable communities are met, says a press release from the organization.

Colleagues have also lauded Marrazzo as an effective communicator and someone who, while serious about her work, knows how to have fun. Jennifer Balkus, an epidemiologist at the Seattle-King County public health department, told NPR that at a conference she and Marrazzo attend each year, Part of the meeting culminates in a gala dance, and Jeannie is always, always on the dance floor.

Before joining the University of Alabama, Marrazzo was a professor at the University of Washington. She grew up in Pennsylvania, did her undergraduate studies at Harvard University, and went to medical school at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.
After some 20 years, Trilogy at Monarch Dunes  an upscale golf course community in Nipomo  is entering its final phase of development.

In June, Shea Homes won approval for a revised plan that moved the location of the hotel, reduced the commercial area and added 122 more homes than originally planned.

Thirty-one of those homes will come with attached granny units  officially known as accessory dwelling units or ADUs  which will potentially be available to rent at affordable, or at least moderately affordable, rates.

The changes were controversial, but most of the opposition centered on the new location of the hotel or the loss of commercial space.

The ADUs got barely a mention at the Board of Supervisors meeting, though Supervisor Bruce Gibson expressed doubts about whether or not those units will truly be affordable to renters.

Perhaps the 30-or-so ADUs, if theyre rented by a landlord with a bit of a social conscience, might be reasonably affordable to some individuals. But I think we should just get real about how this housing addition will affect the situation, Gibson said.

Yet the county is designating half of those ADUs as affordable and the other half as moderate for purposes of meeting state housing targets  even though local officials have no idea what the rents will be or if they will be rented at all. That will be totally up to the homeowners.

Thirty-one ADUs may not seem like a huge deal  but try telling that to 31 people who have been struggling for months, even years in some cases, to find affordable rentals on the Central Coast.

Some cities, including Grover Beach, make pre-approved plans available to ADU builders to speed up the building process.

Gaming the system

San Luis Obispo County isnt alone in treating ADUs as affordable housing, based on the assumption that they are affordable by design and will therefore be affordable to rent.

Some of Californias wealthiest communities have been accused of trying to sidestep state rules by over-relying on ADUs in their state-required housing plans.

Since those plans focus on potential development  including housing that may not even be in the pipeline  these affordable units could be phantoms that will never exist.

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The state of California typically doesnt challenge local jurisdictions on the issue.

It allows local governments to classify secondary units as low-income based either on actual or anticipated affordability.

Let that sink in for a second. ADUs can be counted as affordable housing based  not on what they will actually rent for  but on what they might possibly rent for at some future date.

Whats more, the state doesnt monitor the calculations.

We rely on the jurisdictions to report their data and we do not verify, according to Megan Kirkeby, deputy director of housing policy for the state Department of Housing and Community Development.

Grand jury urges change

Over-reliance on ADUs in wealthy Silicon Valley communities caught the attention of the San Mateo County grand jury.

This problem is most acute in Atherton, Hillsborough, Portola Valley and Woodside, where some residents are up in arms over the state-mandated housing requirements, and the city governments, trying to appease them, are proposing counting on ADUs to meet as much as 80 percent of their affordable housing targets, it wrote in a report released in June.

The report also points out that an over-concentration of ADUs in predominantly white communities can lead to greater segregation and exclusion. Since homeowners often rent ADUs to family members or friends, that increases the likelihood that the renters will be white as well.

The grand jury recommended that San Mateo County and its cities stop counting ADUs as affordable housing until they develop a monitoring system that verifies how theyll be used.

Atherton  ranked as one of the wealthiest communities in the state  disputed the jurys allegations; the towns mayor told a reporter with The Almanac that the grand jury used too broad a brush and noted that other types of affordable housing developments are on the drawing board.

Atherton officials also said they are tentatively planning to support a regional ADU monitoring effort, The Almanac reported.

But isnt it a little late for that? Monitoring should have been in place from the start, not put in place a few years later as an afterthought.

How big is the problem?

Unfortunately, there have been a lot of assumptions made about the affordability of ADU rentals, but little research to back that up  even in the middle of an ADU boomlet. In 2021, one in seven new homes built in California was an ADU, and that number is expected to increase.

UC Berkeleys Community Center for Innovation released a report in 2021 described as the first-ever statewide ADU-owner survey that included responses from 752 homeowners.

Among its findings:

The median rent was $2,000 per month

61% were one-bedroom; only 21% had two or more bedrooms

86% had one or two tenants

Only 11% provided housing for school-aged children

16% provided no-cost housing to a family member

8% of the units were used as short-term vacation rentals

While its dangerous to draw too many conclusions from such limited data, its clear that ADUs alone arent enough.

They arent suitable for large families.

A significant number dont end up on the open rental market, but are instead used as family housing or even home offices.

And some do wind up as short-term rentals, cutting into the permanent rental housing communities need.

Another thing: ADUs arent a replacement for the type of affordable housing that nonprofit builders can provide. Were talking multi-family projects with playgrounds, meeting rooms, daycare centers  the type of housing that gives tenants a sense of community.

Affordable units may end up existing solely on paper

Still, state and local governments should continue encouraging homeowners to add accessory dwelling units. They are an excellent way to increase the states housing supply quickly and relatively inexpensively, and frankly, the state needs all the housing it can get.

But lets face reality: Some ADU owners will be inclined to charge whatever the market will bear.

Absolutely nothing wrong with that, but it is egregiously misleading to count that as affordable housing.

Heres how the San Mateo County grand jury explained it: Without accountability through oversight and regulations, low-, very low-, and moderate-income housing now planned in some San Mateo County jurisdictions may end up existing solely on paper and never in operation.

California needs to step up its game by requiring all jurisdictions to have an effective monitoring program in place before they are permitted to count ADUs as affordable.

There should also be auditing to ensure affordable ADUs that are built meet the criteria.

And at some point, could we have a more comprehensive survey of ADU owners?

California has an affordable housing crisis on its hands, and accessory dwelling units are one way to alleviate it.

But pretending that high-rent, backyard bungalows are affordable housing only masks the problem.

Dont let that happen, California.
By Catarina Demony and Miguel Pereira

LISBON (Reuters) -Under a burning sun, hundreds of thousands of Catholics battled on Saturday to keep cool with water sprays, fans and improvised tents at a massive shadeless outdoor venue in Lisbon where Pope Francis will hold an evening vigil.

Francis arrived in Lisbon on Wednesday for a week-long series of events surrounding World Youth Day, a large gathering of young Catholics that takes place every two to three years in a different city.

Temperatures on Saturday reached 38 Celsius (100.4 Fahrenheit) in Lisbon but were expected to rise to 41C on Sunday, the last day of Francis' visit, according to the state weather agency. August is usually the hottest month of the year in Portugal.

Friday's vigil will take place on the riverside Parque Tejo, a new venue covering 100 hectares (250 acres) created for the event. It has no trees or shade structures, but organisers set up fountains for participants to refill their water bottles and gave them hats.

Francis will celebrate a Mass at the same venue on Sunday.

"The whole area has no shade at all," 49-year-old Luisa Vieira, from the Portuguese island of Madeira, said after one of her friends had to receive medical care due to the heat. "It's very hot."

Medical tents across the venue helped people struggling with the warm weather, with Filipa Tare, from the ambulance service, telling Reuters doctors would have to deal with the consequences of the lack of shade at the venue.

The World Youth Day app sent notifications to participations warning about the weather and reminding them to drink water and apply sunscreen. A tractor with a water tank sprayed the faithful.

"I'm pretty accustomed to the sufferings of World Youth Day," said 33-year-old Mark Xaviep from India, who has attended several similar events in the past, adding that organisers have a done a good job, as hosting such gathering is a "logistical nightmare".

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The vigil kicks off at 8.45 p.m. (1945 GMT), and while the struggle was visible, many were up for the challenge.

"It's all worth it to wait for the pope," said 42-year-old Susana Bettencourt, also from the Atlantic island of Madeira, as she hold a sleeping bag over her head for shelter.

Extreme weather in July has caused havoc across the planet, with record temperatures in China, the U.S. and parts of southern Europe sparking fires, water shortages and a rise in heat-related hospital admissions.

Portugal is on high alert for blazes. More than 1,100 firefighters are battling flames that started on Friday afternoon in a forest area in the central Castelo Branco district.

(Reporting by Catarina Demony, Miguel Pereira, Violeta Santos Moura, Pedro Nunes and Michael Gore; Editing by Grant McCool and Jan Harvey)
Lithuania plans to close two border checkpoints with Belarus due to the presence of Wagner Group mercenaries on Belarusian territory, Lithuanian public broadcaster LRT reported on Aug. 4, citing Deputy Interior Minister Arnoldas Abramavicius.

"A decision will be taken in the future on the closure of two border checkpoints," Abramavicius said.

The deputy minister pointed out that there are currently six checkpoints between the two countries. The two crossings considered for closure are Sumskas and Tverecius, according to Abramavicius.

The Lithuanian official reminded that the final decision by the government has yet to be taken.

Chairman of the National Security and Defense Committee of the Lithuanian Parliament Laurynas Kasciunas said on Aug. 4 that the closing of several crossings with Belarus is only a matter of time.

According to the lawmaker, the National Security and Defense Committee recommended limiting the number of checkpoints already several months ago.

On Aug. 3, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki met Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda to discuss the threat posed by the Wagner Group's presence in Belarus.

Nauseda said that Wagner mercenaries in Belarus present an additional security risk for Lithuania, Poland, and NATO allies. Since March 2023, the Wagner Group has been considered a terrorist organization in Lithuania, due to the threat its members pose to the state's security.

Lithuania's head of state also said that Vilnius, Riga, and Warsaw should be ready to jointly close their borders with Belarus if the situation with Wagner deteriorates.

Recently, thousands of Wagner fighters have moved into Belarus at Minsk's invitation following the mercenary group's short-lived rebellion against the Kremlin in late June.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko claimed that he brokered a deal that meant the fighters would leave Russia. Minsk has claimed that the mercenaries are training the Belarusian military, with exercises taking place even in the westernmost Brest Oblast not far from the Polish border.

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Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Baszczak announced on July 18 that Poland's border with Belarus will be reinforced with two additional military brigades in response to Wagner's presence.

Ukraine's National Resistance Center reported on July 27 that the group continues to recruit fighters while based in Belarus, under the new condition that the new recruits are ready to participate in hostilities in neighboring Poland and Lithuania.

Read also: Lithuanian President, Polish PM meet to discuss Wagner threat

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
The Tower Theater has reopened with the inauguration of an exhibition on the Queen of Salsa, Celia Cruz Forever. After months of silence, activity returned to that corner of Little Havana next to Parque del Domino with last weeks event.

People danced to the rhythm of guaguanco and salsa outside the theater, with songs like Quimbara, which Celia Cruz sang with one of her favorite collaborators Dominican Johnny Pacheco.

As the crowd squeezed through the entrance they found a display dedicated to the famous Havana nightclub, Tropicana; sequined costumes worn by Celia Cruz; and congas that belonged to Sonora Matancera, the orchestra that young Celia performed with in Cuba at the start of her long career as an international star.

The exhibition is spectacular, said Cuban music historian and collector Eloy Cepero, who lent the congas for the show. I bought them in Tampa for $30 in the 1970s, now I get offers of $1,500, Cepero said, noting they have even more value to him because he met the Sonora Matanceras congero Angel Alfonso Furias Yiyo in Miami.

Diana Lara Smart (middle), singer, dances during the launch of the Celia Cruz Forever exhibit at Tower Theatre Miami on Thursday, July 27, 2023 in Miami, Fla.

The exhibition, which is on display till the end of the year in the lobby and second floor of the theater, focuses more on Celias moments in Miami, said Omer Pardillo Cid, representative of her estate. He compared it to a broad exhibition on the artist that was presented at the American Museum of the Cuban Diaspora in 2019, which focused more on Celias international career.

This dress is a replica because the original is in the Smithsonian, and they couldnt get it out, Pardillo said, pointing to a colorful dress Celia wore to a Tropicana performance in 1952. The handmade replica was created by a Palm Beach designer, David Maison.

The show continues with more costumes and a wall of her album covers and posters. On the second floor is a reproduction of Celias dressing room by Miami set and costume designers Pedro Balmaseda and Jorge Noa from Nobarte.

Also on the wall is a quote from Celia Cruz that sums up her immigrant story: Music has been my hope, it gave me the courage to rise from poverty and touch the universe.

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This is one of the reasons why her face was on a United States postage stamp and why she has been chosen to be on a 25 cent coin, which the Mint will release in 2024.

A new life for the Tower Theater

For 20 years the Tower Theater operated as a movie theater under the administration of Miami Dade College, projecting quality programming. It was often one of the venues for the Miami Film Festival.

In September 2022, the City of Miami decided not to renew the Colleges contract, which expired in January.

The fate of the theater where Cuban exiles and immigrants would come to watch movies with subtitles was in jeopardy. There were protests in front of the theater with many Miami culture lovers raising concerns about the Tower, which was designated a Miami Historic Site in 2015.

I would like it to continue showing films and uniting communities. That is a function that it has held through the years, because it is a cultural hub in the middle of Little Havana, filmmaker Joe Cardona told el Nuevo Herald, saying several documentaries that were important to his career were screened at the Tower.

Magdiel Aspillaga, a director whose films were censored in Cuba, found the theater to be a welcome space for his work and also a place to enjoy international cinema.

I would like the Tower to maintain that connection with Cuba on a cinematographic level, and also that multicultural sense, he said, recalling that he used to see good Chinese and Iranian films there.

Those were the questions from movie fans: Will it continue to show movies now that it is in the hands of the City of Miami and what other plans are being considered?

In the new phase of the Tower, we are going to make maximum use of it, said Joe Carollo, District 3 commissioner, who is now in charge of theater operations after it was decided by the Miami Commission in July.

The Tower will also continue to function as a cinema, said Carollo, indicating that two weeks ago it screened the film El Caballo, by Lilo Vilaplana, about the lengths that Cubans go to find food on the island.

Standing in front of the reproduction of Celia Cruzs dressing room, the commissioner explained the reason why they chose to launch this new stage of the theater with a show dedicated to the Queen of Salsa.

It wasnt just the Celia of the Cubans, but of the world, Carollo said, remembering the times he took her by the hand when she performed in Miami. Whenever she could she was willing to come to the city and cooperate.

Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo speaks to a Miami Herald reporter during the launch of the Celia Cruz Forever exhibit at Tower Theatre Miami on Thursday, July 27, 2023 in Miami, Fla.

The Tower will function as a cultural center with a staff of five, theater manager Militse Padilla said.

We not only have cinema, but also a theater, because we have an auditorium with a capacity for 250 people and we have a smaller room, with a capacity for 100 people, said Padilla, who will work in conjunction with Miguel Ferro, the theaters artistic director.

Carollo explained that he will dedicate a space at the entrance of the theater as an information center for tourists and visitors.

The goal is for tourists to not only spend money here but all over Miami, he said, adding that the one of goals is to attract more jobs to the area.

A percentage of the admission fees will be given to the City of Miami.

We are going to turn the Tower Theater into an engine that brings money to the city of Miami, instead of taking money out of the peoples pockets, he said.

Spanish language plays and shows for kids

Padilla says they plan to make a piano bar or concert cafe on the second floor.

We want the Tower to be the meeting point for all the arts. We want to be theater, cinema, a platform for exhibitions and presentations, Padilla said.

The play Relatos borrachos begins on Aug. 12, with the Venezuelan actors Alba Roversi and Nacho Huett and Cuban actress Susana Perez. In September, they will present a childrens version of Shakespeares The Tempest.

Denise Galvez, a member of the Historic & Environmental Preservation Board (HEPB) board of directors, wants the Tower to preserve its historic character and also the reason it was designated as a site worthy of preservation.

It was first a movie theater, one of a few of its kind in the 1920s, and then it became the place where residents of Little Havana could watch a movie close to home.

I want it to continue being a cinema, and to continue serving the community, Galvez concluded.

Celia Cruz Forever

When: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. daily

Where: Tower Theater, 1508 SW Eighth St., Miami

Cost: Tuesday-Thursday $10, Friday-Sunday $15, Little Havana residents with ID $2, children under 12 are free.
A viral Reddit post highlights exactly what you dont want to find at your favorite camping spot  nearly 70 tires that were dumped into the nearby lake.

According to the post, a Cub Scout pack managed to pull the tires out of Falls Lake, which is in a state recreation area near Raleigh, North Carolina. The area offers a large variety of activities, including camping, biking, hiking, and swimming.

Unfortunately, litter in any form takes away from the beauty of nature, and it also poses a threat to the wildlife in the area  tires are no exception.

Tires can take up to 2,000 years to decompose, according to Stacker, so once they are dumped in a place like the Falls Lake, theyll be interrupting your scenic views for quite a while.

On top of that, as tires break down, they leach harmful chemicals into the ground and water. Tires are flammable as well and difficult to extinguish once theyve caught fire. Having a number of them dumped in natural areas creates a fire hazard, Ecogreen reports.

Some comments on the Reddit post also reveal a bigger problem  it is unfortunately common for tires to be dumped in these areas because it can be inconvenient to dispose of them properly.

One commenter says, I work at a center for hard-to-recycle materials, and we charge like 35 [cents] a pound for tires. Theres no government funding for stuff like that (at least in Georgia).

It is unfortunate that its not easier to recycle these products, but there are places designated to help properly dispose of tires, and you can find the steps to do so here.

Others on the post expressed their disappointment at the sight of the pile of tires, with one saying, Wish people would recycle their tires instead of throwing them into our reservoirs.

Sad to see this, another adds.

Its a damn shame, another writes.

Join our free newsletter for cool news and cool tips that make it easy to help yourself while helping the planet.
Bakhtiyor (C), a Tajik student at the Gansu University of Chinese Medicine, treats a patient in Lanzhou, northwest China's Gansu Province, July 27, 2023. (Xinhua/Fang Xin)

LANZHOU/BUDAPEST, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Jozsef Frenyo, a senior Hungarian biology teacher, recovered from hearing loss after several visits to a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) center near the Heroes' Square in the Hungarian capital of Budapest.

"Doctors here cured my old malady. And my hearing is now getting better," said 78-year-old Frenyo.

Practitioners of TCM use various approaches, such as acupuncture, cupping and herbal medicine, to address health problems. It had spread to the world via the ancient Silk Road more than 2,000 years ago.

The center, named Qihuang Traditional Chinese Medicine Center of Hungary, was set up by northwest China's Gansu provincial health commission in 2016. It has been operating with the help of consecutive teams of Chinese doctors sent to Hungary to provide medical assistance.

Gansu is a major TCM production base in China and has a long history of growing TCM herbs. Since the Belt and Road Initiative was proposed in 2013, Gansu has signed cooperation contracts with 12 countries, including Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Hungary, and built 16 TCM education, research and treatment facilities overseas.

Frenyo has long suffered from hearing impairment and has visited many hospitals in Hungary over the past few years, but with little success.

"I was told by local physicians that my hearing problem couldn't be cured due to my old age," he recalled. Before seeking help from TCM, he had almost given up hope of receiving help.

However, after receiving several acupuncture treatments from TCM expert Zhang Haifang, Frenyo is now able to communicate with others without the help of external hearing aids.

"The center is popular in Hungary," said Zhang, who has treated several hundred Hungarian patients since she came to the center in January.

Chen Zhen, president of the center, said that TCM gained increasing acceptance among the Hungarians after it played an important role in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic in China and abroad.

"We believed that TCM cured the cause, not only the symptom," said Frenyo, giving his explanation for its popularity in Hungary.

As more Chinese TCM doctors like Zhang go abroad to practice, they help bring the benefits of the ancient Chinese medical system to more people around the world.

During the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), China aims to jointly establish 30 high-quality TCM centers with countries along the Belt and Road, according to a plan issued by central government agencies in 2022.

At the Qihuang Traditional Chinese Medicine Center of Thailand, about 90 percent of the patients are locals.

Rungrawan Wiwatpiyawong, president of the center, emphasized that many Chinese Thais view TCM treatments as their first choice for maintaining good health.

"TCM did not take root in Thailand in a day," said Rungrawan, herself a Chinese Thai. "It spread with the footprints of Chinese immigrants over the past few centuries and has proved its value."

To further promote TCM in Thailand, Rungrawan established a company called Tang Ming Green Health Co., Ltd., which facilitated the approval of 90 kinds of proprietary Chinese medicine and 350 kinds of TCM granules by the Thai government.

"With official permission, I believe that the TCM industry and relevant health products will have greater potential in the future," she said.

Wang Xuejun, a professor of Gansu University of Chinese Medicine, highlighted the unique perspective of TCM on life and fitness, as well as the prevention and treatment of diseases, during its long history of development and innovation.

"It represents the spiritual core of fine traditional Chinese culture, and has generated a broad and strong international resonance," he said.

Convinced of TCM's benefits, a growing number of overseas students and practitioners, especially those of the younger generation, have come to China to experience and learn TCM therapies.

Bakhtiyor from Tajikistan is currently a junior student at the Gansu University of Chinese Medicine, which has so far trained students from 11 countries, including the Republic of Korea, Kazakhstan and Laos.

During the past semester, Bakhtiyor devoted most of his spare time to practicing acupuncture techniques.

"That was hard," he said. "There are so many acupuncture points in the human body, and different points require different kinds of needles."

Taking pride in his growing proficiency in acupuncture, Bakhtiyor hopes to pursue a post-graduate degree and work in a TCM clinic in China after graduation.

According to statistics from the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, TCM has spread to 196 countries and regions, gaining worldwide recognition.

China is continuing its efforts to introduce TCM more fully to the world, especially in countries and regions participating in the Belt and Road Initiative.

As cooperation and exchanges have intensified, TCM has contributed to improving the well-being of all people around the world, while promoting culture, medicine and friendship worldwide, Chen added. 

Bakhtiyor (L), a Tajik student at the Gansu University of Chinese Medicine, operates a machine under the guidance of a teacher in Lanzhou, northwest China's Gansu Province, July 27, 2023. (Xinhua/Chen Bin)

Chen Zhen (R), president of the Qihuang Traditional Chinese Medicine Center of Hungary, discusses with expert Zhang Haifang at the center in Budapest, Hungary, July 20, 2023. (Photo by Attila Volgyi/Xinhua)

Chen Zhen (L), president of the Qihuang Traditional Chinese Medicine Center of Hungary, diagnoses Jozsef Frenyo at the center in Budapest, Hungary, July 20, 2023. (Photo by Attila Volgyi/Xinhua)

Traditional Chinese medicine expert Zhang Haifang performs Chinese acupuncture treatment to a patient at the Qihuang Traditional Chinese Medicine Center of Hungary in Budapest, Hungary, July 20, 2023. (Photo by Attila Volgyi/Xinhua)

A doctor diagnoses a patient at the Qihuang Traditional Chinese Medicine Center of Thailand in Bangkok, Thailand, July 21, 2023. (Xinhua/Lin Hao)
Visitors look at the water of Loch Ness, which is experiencing lower than average water level (Andy Buchanan)

Around Scotland's Loch Ness, famous for hosting a mythical monster in its murky depths, another prolonged dry spell earlier this year has heightened fears of a different kind.

The drier than usual start to 2023, alongside other gradual climate shifts, is having implications for everything from native wildlife and species -- including Scotland's famous salmon population -- to farming and power production.

"Water is becoming a commodity that's becoming scarce in this part of the world," salmon fisherman Brian Shaw told AFP during a visit early last month, as Scotland reeled from its hottest June on record.

"Everybody's looking to use the water for their own needs."

Figures released in May by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) confirmed what seasoned observers could already see: Loch Ness's fresh waters -- Scotland's largest by volume -- had dropped to their lowest level in decades.

It had not been this shallow -- with a depth of around 109 cms (3.5 ft) at a hydroelectric dam halfway along its eastern shore -- since the early 1990s.

"It's held at this level for several months now," Gordon Mangus, 84, who grew up near the legendary lake and now serves as its harbour master, noted.

"We are used to rain, but we are not used to having quite such dry spells."

The situation is mirrored in other Highlands areas, including Loch Maree to the northeast and Black Isle to the west.

- More dry weather -

"Everybody thinks of Scotland as a wet country, but the droughts are becoming more frequent now, as a result of climate change," explained Nathan Critchlow, the head of water and planning at Sepa.

"We used to see drought very rarely, about once every 18 years. By 2050, we predict you will have very low water levels about every other year.

"So Scotland's climate is changing and we are starting to see the impacts of that change."

On the banks of the River Ness, which flows from the loch into the sea at Inverness, the UK's northernmost city, Shaw pointed to the waterway's visible stone bed as evidence of its diminishing levels.

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The director of the Ness District Salmon Fishery Board said the river's depth had been falling steadily for years, but the trend had become more noticeable.

"A dry winter, a really dry spring, a very hot June and the river just got smaller and smaller," he told AFP.

The warmer, drier weather had hit its wild salmon population, Shaw said.

One of the small streams that feeds the river has already dried up, leaving dead fish behind, he added.

"You're starting to see this sort of event happening all the time and I think there's real concern about the future of salmon and a more challenging environment as we go ahead."

While much-needed rain in recent weeks has brought some respite to parts of Scotland, water levels remain depleted to "an alert point" in some areas, according to Sepa.

And Britain's Meteorological Office is forecasting another dry period later in the summer.

- Demand for water -

Demand for water in summer is also intensifying, with more competition for it among farmers, fishermen, domestic users including tourists and hydroelectric firms, according to locals.

SSE Renewables, which runs a hydroelectric scheme at Loch Ness, has faced claims from fishermen and others that it was causing the loch's levels to drop by storing water to generate electricity.

The operator has denied that, saying the months of dry weather had depleted it.

Environmental experts are warning residents and businesses must adapt to the changing weather patterns and to prepare for periods of water scarcity and floods as the average temperature rises.

According to the Climate Change Committee (CCC), an advisory body appointed by the UK Government, Scotland's 10 warmest years on record have all occurred since 1997.

The average temperature between 2010 and 2019 was around 0.7 degrees Celsius warmer than the average between 1961 and 1990.

Wetter weather in some places has arrived in tandem with the temperature rises, mainly in winter, with the annual average rainfall between 2010 and 2019 up nine percent on 1961-1990.

At Loch Ness, before retreating back to his cabin to monitor the boats, Mangus recalled childhood memories, from entering its waters to exploring its shoreline with his father and brother.

Although the octogenarian blames the hydroelectric dam as much as the changing climate for Loch Ness's shifting water levels, he conceded that what is happening there now is "rare".

jg-srg/jwp/jj
The second day of Lollapalooza opened in Grant Park on the Chicago lakefront  a Friday headlined by Kendrick Lamar and The 1975  with expectations of another busy and bustling afternoon, though it wasnt officially sold out, according to festival organizer C3 Presents.

Daily capacity inside the fences is 115,000 this year, up from 100,000 in previous years.

By 11:15 a.m., Lamar fans had already staked out the barricade of the T-Mobile mainstage.

Davia Walker, 20, and Alexis White, 18, friends from Indianapolis, were among the first. The first-time Lolla attendees said they planned to stay in place all day to keep their spot  theyd done the same for Billie Eilish on Thursday. They were crushed against the barricade at the start of Eilishs set, White said, but enjoyed the show enough to risk a second.

Waiting between sets for an hour makes it brutal, White said. But once someone starts performing, its not that bad.

Handing out naloxone

For the first time at Lollapalooza, the nonprofit This Must Be The Place is handing out kits of a naloxone nasal spray, an opioid reversal medicine.

Concertgoers who visit their booth at Buckingham Fountain can pick up free kits and learn about the dangers of fentanyl, what overdose symptoms to look for and how to administer the spray. By late afternoon of Day 1, almost 900 kits had been passed out, said Ingela Travers-Hayward, co-founder of This Must Be The Place. She estimates theyll give out almost 5,000 by the festivals close.

Our main goal is not even for someone to necessarily have to use it on-site, but for people to be able to take it back into their own communities, and tell them its really safe to carry naloxone on you, she said. Carrying this is a symbol that you care about someone else.

The nonprofit, which was founded last year in Columbus, Ohio, aims to travel to festivals such as Bonnaroo, Austin City Limits, Burning Man and Governors Ball.

The nationwide fentanyl overdose crisis is affecting many different aspects of our communities, and while its not unique to festivals we see this proactive measure as an important opportunity to educate and arm a large group of like-minded people with information and tools that can save lives, C3 Presents said in a statement.

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Chicagoan Brianna Buenrostro, 26, stopped by the tent midday Friday to pick up kits with two friends. The group wanted to have them on hand in case someone in the crowd starts exhibiting signs of an overdose, Buenrostro said. This Must Be the Places staff briefly trained them on what to look out for.

Hopefully, we dont have to use these ever, Buenrostro said. This is just kind of a safety net.

The crush at the stages

For Luca and Enrique Pasion, 20-year-old twins from Tampa, Florida, the key to surviving crowds is befriending other fans. They swapped snacks, water, electrolyte packets and makeshift fans with those around them at Thursdays NewJeans set. Friday, they made friends with Lara Bektas and Elise McFarland while waiting at the Titos stage for beabadoobees set.

They were all surprised by how densely packed the audience was at NewJeans performance. When we got there, already there was a crowd forming and we were kind of scared, Bektas said. I dont think Ive ever seen anything like that before.

By the time the show started, people next to Bektas had started taking their clothes off to fight the heat, and she watched someone throw up and cover the stain with mulch. Luca Pasion said she had to ask the girl behind her to hold on to her waist so she wouldnt be trampled when the music started.

To be sure, crowd surge  when the pressure of crowding can cause asphyxia  is a serious concern at large music festivals. Ten fans died in a surge at Travis Scotts Astroworld Festival concert in Houston in 2021. An overcrowding tragedy last October in Seoul, South Korea, killed 159 people, most of them young Halloween revelers.

Last summer, Lollapalooza music sets were occasionally stopped until fans stepped back and made room.

A statement from C3 Presents said in part: Lollapalooza views safety of its fans, artists, and staff as the highest priority. Lollapalooza has trained personnel on each stage to watch for any issues in a crowd and are enabled to take action immediately should the need arise, with or without the artists permission or participation. Artists and/or their staff are briefed before every performance and show pause and stop procedures are rehearsed at every stage every single morning.

Fashion patrol

Lollapalooza isnt just Chicagos biggest music festival  its the citys biggest runway. Fans and artists alike plan for weeks in advance to bring out their fiercest looks, working creatively around (or blithely defying) strict bag rules, long walking days and unrelenting heat.

Following the endless fashion cycle that sends todays teens into thrift stores, loose knitwear, fishnets, activewear sets and bralette-cargo pants pairings have been common sights at this weeks festival grounds.

The skintight neon mainstays of rave fashion have inevitably crept into Lolla looks for years, but 2023 is also very much the summer of DIY-themed ensembles, as many Chicagoans roll straight from Barbenheimer outfits to Lolla wardrobes. Recently, TikTok has exploded with videos of people sewing neckties into teeny tank tops, pairing activewear with vintage lingerie and raiding partners closets for oversized jerseys.

Makes them feel pretty

Rapper TiaCorine performed at Northwestern University in May, but her show Friday evening on the BMI stage marked her first Lollapalooza performance. She told the Tribune she just wondered if people would stay to watch as festgoers made their way toward Lamars stage.

I just hope people come, she said with a laugh. Im important too.

The artist from North Carolina seeks to make fans feel good and worthy with her bubbly sound, she said.

I feel like it makes them feel pretty, she said.

When she got onstage later, she told the crowd she dreamed of playing the festival last year. A few hundred fans had gathered in front of her stage tucked behind the Buckingham Fountain amid trees.

I was so nervous, I was like Nobodys gonna be here, now look at yall, she told them.

Then she danced and dished her sonic makeup.

Lamar on the mainstage

At the end of Friday on the T-Mobile, Lamar performed hits old and new with the help of background dancers as the crowd filling Grant Parks southern fields sang along.

He played all of the biggest songs, said fan Nate Doseck, visiting from Arizona. The 22-year-old wished for more songs from Lamars album Damn, the first rap album to ever win a Pulitzer Prize. Hes definitely more of an artist than a musician, he said.

Lamar was last in Chicago on his Big Steppers tour at the United Center in August 2022. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, who introduced Eilishs set Thursday, was spotted again backstage Friday at the south end of the grounds heading into the Artists Village area, but did not address concertgoers again.

Headliners the rest of the weekend include Tomorrow X Together and Odesza Saturday and Red Hot Chili Peppers and Lana Del Rey closing the festival Sunday.

Karol G fans

Making history as the first Latina artist to headline Lollapalooza, Karol G greeted thousands of fans at the Bud Light Stage on Thursday night and gave them a taste of what her upcoming tour will be like, performing singles like Tusa, Bichota and more titles from her latest studio album, Manana Sera Bonito, which this spring became the first fully Spanish-language album by a female artist, and a Colombian artist, to top the Billboard 200 chart.

The singer shouted out fans waving flags from Venezuela, Mexico, her native Colombia and more. Special guest Uniting Voices Chicago sang along to Mientras Me Curo del Cora, and she Karol G highlighted her female musicians during Gucci Los Panos.

This is the first time with you all, she told the crowd, speaking in Spanish. And Im trying with my English, so I have to say, that this is so amazing.

Family in the crowd

Midway through her Friday set, Deanna Belos, the frontwoman for Chicago-based punk rock band Sincere Engineer, told the crowd her next song was about the big body of water just across DuSable Lake Shore Drive.

Im gonna jump in Lake Michigan, and swim out as far as I can, and you should come with me, you should come with me, she sang.

Fans baking in the sun bobbed their heads. A few ran circles in a mosh pit. Later, guitarist Kyle Geib gave a shoutout to his family.

Geibs father, Frank, cheered proudly. Its amazing. Its awesome. The skyline, the lake. We grew up in Chicago and coming to Lollapalooza to see our oldest son play, its amazing, said the Crystal Lake resident.

Belos told the crowd she and her fellow performers grew up in Chicago and attended the festival as kids. Im not gonna start crying, Im gonna stop it there, she said before returning to punk rock.

After the show, she told the Tribune she was nervous to play at the hometown festival. The citys music influenced her own, and references to it are scattered across her songs, she said. She recalled taking the train in from Orland Park to see Coldplay and Phoenix as a kid. Its weird to be on the other side of it now.
Astronaut Robert Stewart during Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) Exercise untethered above the Earth.February 11, 1984.

Many of us have dreamed of going into space. Perhaps you've imagined what it would be like to visit the International Space Station or even explore new worlds. But traveling in space brings a whole set of challenges and hostile environments, so it's vital to recreate the conditions on Earth that have allowed life to evolve and flourish.

Spacesuits allow astronauts to venture outside their spacecraft for short periods, by providing the air, water, pressure and physical protection needed for a human to survive. But what would happen without one of these advanced suits?

Sci-fi movies and shows, including " 2001: A Space Odyssey " and " The Expanse ," have portrayed astronauts suffering  and surviving  short exposures to outer space without a spacesuit, while others have depicted a range of grizzly deaths.

But here in the real world, how long could a person survive if thrust into the harsh vacuum of outer space? The short answer is, not very long.

Related: The 25 scariest spaceflight moments show dangers in orbit and beyond

"Within a very short time, a matter of 10 to 15 seconds, you will become unconscious because of a lack of oxygen," according to Stefaan de Mey, a senior strategy officer at the European Space Agency (ESA) charged with coordinating the strategy area for human and robotic exploration.

That may seem like a very short time, but it's because you would not want to hold your breath before being thrust into outer space. In the dark void of space, the oxygen that sustains us would become a serious problem.

"The oxygen starts expanding and rupturing your lungs, tearing them apart  and that would cause boiling and bubbling of your blood, which immediately will cause embolism and have a fatal impact on your body," de Mey said.

Divers face a similar danger when the water pressure decreases as they ascend from the depths. Before entering space unprotected, you'd need to empty your lungs as much as possible. The complete lack of pressure also causes other, though less immediately, deadly issues.

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Astronaut Ed White floats in the microgravity of space outside the Gemini IV spacecraft. Behind him is the brilliant blue Earth and its white cloud cover. White is wearing a specially-designed space suit. The visor of the helmet is gold plated to protect him against the unfiltered rays of the sun. In his left hand is a Hand-Held Self-Maneuvering Unit with which he controls his movements in space.

Bodily fluids, such as saliva and tears, would begin to boil. A human body would also expand, but the skin would be elastic enough to cope with the pressure change, de Mey said, adding that horrific movie portrayals of exploding humans are not accurate.

In the best-case scenario, you'd have a few seconds before the oxygen in your bloodstream would be used up, causing you to pass out. Because you'd be unable to alter your dire situation, brain death would follow within minutes, unless you were rescued and brought back to the safety of the pressurized, oxygen-rich environment of a spacecraft and resuscitated.

In addition to providing vital oxygen and pressurization, spacesuits also shield astronauts from other dangers and harm.

NASA astronaut Stephen Bowen (right) and UAE astronaut Sultan AlNeyadi work on an antenna assembly as the Earth and moon hang overhead outside the International Space Station.

"There is a temperature problem and radiation and micrometeoroid threats," de Mey said. "So spacesuits are designed to provide physical protection of the astronauts in outer space."

Whether an astronaut is in sunlight or shaded from the sun, they would experience extreme temperatures, ranging from minus 240 to 250 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 150 to 120 degrees Celsius) in low Earth orbit (LEO). These conditions would cause burns or freezing, though not immediately in the latter case, as body heat is not easily conducted away in a vacuum.

Spacesuits also protect from various types of radiation. In LEO, there is protection from some forms of radiation. Prolonged or long-term exposure to electromagnetic radiation from the sun would cause health issues, including radiation sickness and an increased risk of cancer. UV light would also burn the skin. The added misfortune of particles from a solar flare reaching the astronaut at the time they were exposed in space would exacerbate many of these issues.

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Micrometeoroids and space debris pose another danger. These travel at a rate of a few or tens of kilometers per second and are a threat to satellites, spacecraft and astronauts conducting extravehicular activities (EVAs), or spacewalks . Though extremely unlikely to affect an unprotected astronaut's chances of survival given the astronomically tiny chances of being hit during a short time in space, spacesuits are designed with multiple layers to help protect astronauts from any possible micrometeoroids or space debris whizzing around in orbit.

Being in space without an EVA suit becomes very deadly  very, very quickly. While someone could survive this grim scenario, they would want to have very little air in their lungs and get back to the safety of a pressurized spacecraft within seconds  or hope to be rescued and resuscitated within minutes.
William "Bill" Kerr

Oklahomans who enjoy paintings, sculptures or prairie landscapes recently lost a major force whose made those opportunities possible.

William "Bill" Kerr, the youngest son of former Oklahoma Gov. and U.S. Sen. Robert S. Kerr, died in Oklahoma City on July 4. Kerr was 85 years old.

Bill Kerr took an interest in improving opportunities for Oklahomans and people across the nation to enjoy scenic vistas and art.

Kerr's interest in nature came from his love of natural habitats developed as a child on annual outings he took with his father and family to Minnesota each summer.

As vice chairman of the board of directors for Oklahoma's chapter of the Nature Conservancy, he helped establish the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve in Osage County near Pawhuska. Today, the Joseph H. Williams Tallgrass Prairie Preserve covers 39,650 acres, supports more than 2,500 head of bison and is the largest protected piece of tallgrass prairie left on earth, its website states.

More: 'The View' co-creator and Barbara Walters producer Bill Geddie, who grew up in OKC, dies

His love for art was equally as strong, as he once demonstrated by financially underwriting a drive to create and hang a painting of John Hope Franklin, an Oklahoman historian born in 1915 in Rentiesville, in Oklahoma's state Capitol.

Franklin, an author best known for his work "From Slavery to Freedom," served as a president of Phi Beta Kappa, the Organization of American Historians, the American Historical Association, and the Southern Historical Association. Franklin's portrait hangs near the Governor's Office on the Capitol's second floor.

This portrait of Dr. John Hope Franklin, an Oklahoman historian born in 1915 in Rentiesville, hangs on the second floor of Oklahoma's Capitol thanks to the financial support of Bill Kerr, one of former Oklahoma Governor and U.S. Sen. Robert S. Kerr's four children. Bill Kerr died on July 4. Photo Provided by Oklahoma Arts Council

Kerr also established an internationally renowned art museum in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, sparked by an appreciation for art he developed when his wife, Joffa, herself an artist, presented him with a painting of a sunfish when he graduated law school.

Today, the National Museum of Wildlife Art holds more than 5,000 works of wild animals from around the world, featuring prominent artists such as Georgia OKeeffe, Andy Warhol, Robert Kuhn, John James Audubon and Carl Rungius.

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Kerr organized his efforts to support those endeavors and others when he and his family agreed to divide the $70 million Kerr Foundation (backed mostly by Kerr McGee stock) into four separate institutions in 1985.

At the time, the family said the change enabled Bill and each of his three siblings (Robert Samuel Kerr Jr., Breene Kerr and Kay Kerr Clark) to pursue philanthropic ventures reflecting their unique interests and personalities.

Bill Kerr took control of the Robert S. and Grayce B. Kerr Foundation, which held $17.5 million in assets including various works of art worth an estimated $2 million.

He had the art restored and moved to a main street space he rented in Wyoming so it could be displayed. Later, it was moved into a permanent structure built for the museum on a slope overlooking the community.

In recognition of Kerrs accomplishments, the museum's board named him chairman emeritus in 2008, a title he held until he died.

Nature is as fragile as it is fierce. Our institution holds and cares for some of humankinds most thoughtful and spirited portrayals of the natural world as we have known it," Kerr said in a speech he gave celebrating the museum's 25th anniversary in 2012. "That is a legacy we have the opportunity to embellish and preserve.

An obituary for Kerr published on the museum's website said he was survived by his daughters, Kavar and Mara; god-daughter Karla Keller; grandchildren Ayla, Graycen and Whitney Mashburn; and great-granddaughters Tyler Grayce, Caroline Blake and Aubrey Kate Mashburn.

The family requested memorial gifts in his memory be made to the National Museum of Wildlife Art.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: William Kerr, renowned Oklahoma artist and nature supporter, dies
The cost of a mid-priced home on the Mississippi Coast varies widely for cities from Bay St. Louis to Pascagoula.

The Sun Herald looked at median prices listed by online real estate website redfin.com. Redfins most recent information shows median prices in June for real estate markets across the Coast and compares them to those same prices a year earlier.

The median represents the middle price, between the highest and lowest prices, that houses sold for. It also can be a better market indicator than the average price because one house sold at a very high or low price can skew the average.

Heres what Redfin reported for selected Coast cities for June 2023, compared to the previous year:

$490,000 was the median price for a home in Bay St. Louis, up 30.7%.

$291,000 was the median price for a home in Pass Christian, down 17.6%.

$205,000 was the median price for a home in Gulfport, up 10.8%.

$214,000 was the median price for a home in Biloxi, up 19.2%.

$277,000 was the median price for a home in Ocean Springs, up 2.9%.

$145,000 was the median price for a home in Pascagoula, up 11.5%

What does a home buyer get for their money? Heres a look at homes in the mid-price range for each city listed.

Bay St. Louis real estate

The city with the highest median home price attracts New Orleans residents and others who want a second home in a waterfront community with a vibrant downtown, and unparalleled beach and waterfront views along the Bay of St. Louis and Mississippi Sound.

The city has a mix of historic mansions, cottages and newer homes, including a listing in The Courtyards at Dunbar on Dunbar Avenue.

A patio home selling in the subdivision for $499,900 was built in 2022 and is priced at $289 a square foot. The real estate listing at zillow.com boasts that the home has custom everything!

Its also Energy Star-rated, which means lower utility bills and energy consumption. A few features worth mentioning in the three-bedroom, two-bath home: an LED fireplace, quartz countertops, custom window treatments and vinyl plank flooring. Theres also an enclosed private patio, rear parking and a two-car garage.

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A patio home listed at The Courtyards at Dunbar in Bay St. Louis features an open-concept living area with custom window treatments and vinyl plank flooring. It also has a split bedroom plan with an oversize master bedroom, two additional bedrooms and two baths.

The kitchen in a house listed for $499,900 in The Courtyards at Dunbar features custom cabinets, an island and quartz countertops.

A double vanity, soaking tub and walk-in shower can be found in this bathroom in a three-bedroom, two bath home for sale in The Courtyards at Dunbar in Bay St. Louis.

Pass Christian house for sale

The city that is also a popular retreat for residents from the New Orleans area also features stately beach mansions, quaint cottages and houses on stilts to prevent flooding.

A house that fell near the middle-market price in The Pass, as its often called, is listed at $275,000 on Greenwood Drive in the Timber Ridge subdivision.

Its a unique two-story house with new wooden steps climbing to a generous front deck. Built in 1984, the homes listed price amounts to $147 a square foot. The three-bedroom, two bath house has been completely renovated, according to the Zillow listing.

The primary suite downstairs opens onto a wraparound, covered porch. The two additional bedrooms and a bath are upstairs. The house has high ceilings, ceiling fans and an open-concept floor plan.

This three-bedroom, two bath home is on the market on Greenwood Drive in Pass Christian.. The two-story house, which has high ceilings and an open floor plan, is listed at $275,000 or $147 a square foot.

This home on Greenwood Drive in Pass Christians Timber Ridge subdivision features an open floor plan and a fireplace in the living room. The house is on the market for $275,000 and, according to the listing, has been completely renovated.

Gulfport house available

A house in the popular Bayou View neighborhood of Gulfport is on the market for $209,900, or $135 a square foot. The home on Washington Avenue was built in 1959.

The house has three bedrooms and 2 3/4 baths. New flooring has been laid in the living area and breakfast room, with new blinds in most areas, the Zillow listing says. A workshop and storage shed on the half-acre property include electricity. The home also has a one-car garage and access to an alley.

While the home is still on the market, an offer has been accepted contingent on the buyers sale of their house, says listing agent Cindy Creel of Century 21 J. Carter & Co.

A contingency offer is pending on this home on Washington Avenue in Gulfport, listed at $209,900. The home in the Bayou View subdivision was built in 1959 and is priced at $135 a square foot.

The kltchen of this home listed in the Bayou View subdivision of Gulfport has a new dishwasher and updated light covers.

New flooring has been added in the living room, pictured, and breakfast room of this home listed for sale for $209,900 in the Bayou View subdivision of Gulfport.

Biloxi area house listed

The price has been dropped by more than $5,000 on a house now listed for $219,900 in St. Martin, the Zillow listing says.

The brick home with front-facing garage has four bedrooms and two baths. It is priced at $105 a square foot with a total of 2,094 square feet.

The house has a large living area with a pantry, laundry room and split-bedroom layout, the Zillow listing says. The house, built in 2007, is located on a cul-de-sac in a quiet neighborhood..

Other features include granite countertops and a breakfast bar in the kitchen.

This home on Ryegrass Lane in St. Martin is listed at $219,900, or $105 a square foot. The 2,094-square-foot home has four bedrooms, two baths and a large back patio.

The kitchen of this home for sale on Ryegrass Lane in St. Martin comes with stainless steel appliances.

Ocean Springs home for sale

A brick veneer home in Ocean Springs is listed for a mid-range price of $265,000, or $140 a square foot.

The three-bedroom, two-bath house was built in 2006. The house has new stainless steel appliances and vinyl plank flooring, along with new decorative light fixtures and new faucets throughout, the Zillow listing says.

The primary bathroom features a tiled, walk-in shower, separate soaking tub and double vanity, while a second bathroom has been updated within the last few years.

An upstairs bonus room is available for an office, bedroom or other use.

This home on Rue Beaux Chenes in Ocean Springs was built in 2006 and is on the market for $265,000, or $140 a square foot. The house features vinyl plank flooring, stainless steel appliances and fresh interior paint.

The great room of this house in Ocean Springs features vinyl plank flooring, a tray ceiling and a wood-burning fireplace. A bonus room is located upstairs in the three-bedroom, two-bath house.

The kitchen of this house for sale on Rue Beaux Chenes in Ocean Springs features a separate breakfast area that is part of an open-concept living area.

Pascagoula real estate available

A house on Convent Avenue is selling at the mid-range price of $149,000. The 1,452-square-foot home has four bedrooms and two baths.

It was built in 1940 and is priced at $103 a square foot. The house in the Eastlawn subdivision features unique arched doorways, two bedrooms on each end and vinyl flooring, the Zillow listing says. The original list price has been lowered by $10,000.

It comes with an electric range, dishwasher and refrigerator, and has an indoor laundry. The house also has an attached carport with two covered parking spaces and a front porch.

The price on this house on Convent Avenue in Pascagoula has been reduced by $10,000, to $149,000, or $103 a square foot. The house features a large front room, four bedrooms and two baths.

The kitchen of this Convent Avenue home comes with all appliances. The home was built in 1940 and is 1,452 square feet.
A South Carolina woman rushed to scratch her lottery ticket  but it still held a big surprise.

As the woman hastily checked the ticket, she only scratched off the part that had a bar code  not where it showed her prize. She scanned the bar code at a machine, which gave her news that finally made her slow down, according to the S.C. Education Lottery.

It told me to claim it at the lottery, the woman said in an Aug. 4 news release. So I started scratching the entire ticket, and the last number was the big win.

The woman scored a $300,000 prize  and said she spent a recent weekend mulling over her unexpected windfall. Then she decided how she would spend her winnings.

Today shes debt free with extra money in savings, lottery officials wrote.

The woman scored her six-figure prize after she stopped at the Richland Express convenience store in Aiken. While there, officials said she tried her luck on the Black Diamond Dazzler game.

It turns out, the ticket she bought for $10 beat 1-in-840,000 odds to hit the jackpot. The S.C. Education Lottery, which didnt reveal the winners identity, told McClatchy News she kept $205,500 after taxes.

Aiken is roughly 55 miles southwest of Columbia.

Its not the first time a lottery player learned about a jackpot prize while in a hurry. Last year, a Kentucky man said he started shaking and screaming when he realized the ticket he scanned would make him much richer, McClatchy News reported.

Many people can gamble or play games of chance without harm. However, for some, gambling is an addiction that can ruin lives and families.

If you or a loved one shows signs of gambling addiction, you can seek help by calling the national gambling hotline at 1-800-522-4700 or visiting the National Council on Problem Gambling website.

Son asks mom to ride with him to cash big SC lottery prize. He had a surprise for her

Man wins life-changing lottery prize on his way to work  then keeps going to his job
Tamara Laughinghouse was enjoying a coffee with her father while visiting her parents in Wyoming recently.

As the two sat and sipped their drinks, Laughinghouses dad checked July 17s winning Powerball numbers, according to an Aug. 4 North Carolina Education Lottery news release. The numbers sounded familiar.

I asked him to please reread the numbers, Laughinghouse told lottery officials.

Thats when the lottery player realized her dad had in fact read her numbers, officials said.

Ive been playing those same numbers for over 20 years, Laughinghouse said in the release. They are the different birthdays in my family.

She didnt yet know how much she won, so her husband got online to check, according to officials.

[He] said I think you won $200,000, Laughinghouse told officials. We all got excited and gave each other hugs.

Laughinghouse bought her Power Play ticket from Food Lion in Mooresville, which is about 30 miles north of Charlotte. Her numbers matched four of the five white balls and the red Powerball plus the 4X multiplier, according to lottery officials.

After taxes, Laughinghouse took home $142,501, officials said. She plans to take a trip to Italy, which is where her great-great-grandfather was from.

I always wanted to go see the area where he was from, she said in the release. My husband and I might go now.

In addition to her trip, Laughinghouse said she will donate to her old high school and save some of her remaining winnings.

Many people can gamble or play games of chance without harm. However, for some, gambling is an addiction that can ruin lives and families.

If you or a loved one shows signs of gambling addiction, you can seek help by calling the national gambling hotline at 1-800-522-4700 or visiting the National Council on Problem Gambling website.

Dad buys lottery tickets for family members  and his son was shocked by big prize

Grandpa lets computer pick lottery numbers. It paid off big  and will help grandkids

Rain delay at Post Malone concert leads NC dad to huge lottery win. Perfect storm
A Bibb County Superior Court judge ordered the owners of a Macon apartment complex to turn over control of its assets to an attorney Friday after Macon-Bibb County filed a public nuisance lawsuit against the housing group because of its violent track record, court documents show.

The Green Meadows Townhouses, located just off Log Cabin Drive in west Macon, was the scene of several incidents over recent years including a 7-year-old wounded in a shooting, multiple murders and other violent crimes, the county said in a statement Friday.

There were over 144 incidents of gunfire at the apartment complex between March 2022 and June 2023, the county said. Documents showed over 1,800 emergency calls came from the location during the same timespan and that the townhouses had the most crime per capita of any complex in the county.

Other safety issues plagued the townhouses at Green Meadows, including guards who allegedly enforced a phony 9 p.m. curfew on people living there, according to the lawsuit. If residents were out past that hour guards forced them to pay money, and sometimes demanded sexual favors when tenants could not pay.

Residents at Green Meadows also told the county that the owners of the townhouses threatened to evict tenants who reported code violations. Complaints were filed nonetheless, with problems at the complex ranging from electrical hazards and water leaks to extensive property damage.

At one point the Bibb County Sheriffs Office installed a camera at the complex for safety reasons, but Georgia Power removed the light pole that powered the cameras because Green Meadows posed a safety threat to their workers, the lawsuit said.

The apartments will now be turned over to Boniface Echols of Echols Law Firm, who judge Bryant Culpepper tasked with making sure the property follows new guidelines for safety, court records show.

Heres a list of some other incidents the lawsuit alleges happened at Green Meadows.

Multiple people threatened to shoot up the apartments in the last year

A man at the complex exposed himself to children

Multiple shootouts between residents and visitors

Multiple cases of bullets coming through apartment walls and hitting sitting residents, including a 13-year-old girl

Guards who, in addition to enforcing a fine for a fake curfew, fought among themselves

Several other robberies, shootings, stabbings and violent crimes

Multiple apartments was reportedly infested with rodents

Apartments with code violations related to sewage and other problems

The lawsuit and abatement come on the heels of the countys filing against M&M Grocery, another violent spot in Macon, that led to restricted operating hours for the store.
Granite Citys Down Home Cooking is now Steel Town Burgers & Bakery Co., and the family-owned and operated restaurant is again open for business.

When I visited #3 American Village back in early March, the space that would open as Down Home Cookin was not quite ready.

Owners Tori and Brandon Raines were kind enough to let me pay an early visit.

Construction was finishing up, and the decorative elements that would provide character were not yet in place.

But this week, I paid another visit as Steel Town Burgers reopened for business under its new name.

And there was quite the difference since last time.

A black and white checkerboard pattern now lines the walls throughout the main entry space and the dining area.

Fun beer-themed signage, vintage-style signs and historical Granite City photos hang throughout the space.

I think the best new addition to the decor is the Big Boy statue that stands inside, greeting folks as they come in for a good meal.

Tori Raines said she found the statue at a thrift store.

A vintage Big Boy statue greets customers as they enter Steel Town Burgers in Granite City. Jennifer Green/jgreen@bnd.com

Still got the (baked) goods

The display case featuring made-from-scratch baked goods is still there. And its still filled with gorgeous goodies made by Darlene Griffin, Brandon Raines mom.

These goodies included a salted caramel cake, peach pie, apple crumb pie, caramel monkey bread, pieces of applesauce spice cake and chocolate cream puffs.

Fresh-baked desserts are made daily and differ from day to day. In addition to cakes and pies, you might find cookies, turnovers, cupcakes, cannoli and brownies too.

And custom ordering is still available.

Photos of the decadent desserts are often posted in the restaurants Facebook page. (Try not to drool on your keyboard or phone when you see them.)

The head baker herself was in front of the bakery display, cutting a beautiful white cake with cherry filling and handing out free pieces to everyone.

This included those in attendance for the mornings ribbon-cutting ceremony and the customers who were already waiting outside for the doors to open at 11 a.m.

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A tray of desserts at the grand opening of Steel Town Burgers in Granite City. The restaurant offers freshly made-from-scratch desserts daily. Joshua Carter/jcarter@bnd.com

First day open (again)

Upon opening, a few tables were quickly occupied by customers as others came in to place to-go orders.

From the get go, Tori Raines was greeting and seating customers, taking lunch orders and chatting with people (myself included) in between.

A few of the folks from the grand reopening festivities were still there, including Brian Fine, owner of Manhattans Coffee & Socialhouse, and Rosemarie Brown, executive director of The Chamber of Commerce Southwestern Madison County.

Fine was there as a fellow business owner to offer his support to the Raineses. He also said he stops in now and then for a meal.

We have a great business community, said Brown.

Thats just how things work in Granite City, according to Fine. The businesses dont see each other as competition but as a community where they support each other.

Burgers will do well here, said Fine.

Why the change?

Raines said she went to the restaurants investors and told them they werent making any money with the way Down Home Cookin was set up.

With so many menu options available, they were wasting money on food that wasnt being ordered.

Something needed to change.

Raines said they sold around 800 burgers a week as Down Home Cookin, adding that was the low-end figure.

It was decided to focus on the best-sellers: the burgers.

The announcement was made July 12 on the restaurants Facebook page.

Down Home Cookins last day was Sunday, July 16. From there, the business became Steel Town Burgers.

A wall decal for Steel Town Burgers in Granite City Jennifer Green/jgreen@bnd.com

New to the menu

If youve been to Down Home Cookin to enjoy the variety of meals, you might now wonder whats on the menu at Steel Town Burgers.

Well, burgers, of course.

(I cant get that old Saturday Night Live sketch  cheeseburger, cheeseburger, cheeseburger,   out of my head.)

Familiar favorites include:

Classic Burger

Double Decker

Triple Smash

Steel Town Burger (formerly known as the Down Home Cookin burger)

Garlic Buttery Burger

Mushroom Swiss Burger

PonyShoe

Fried Chicken Sandwich

Philly Cheesesteak

Cod Fish with Cheese

The new offerings include:

Bourbon Mushroom Swiss

Jalapeno Burger

Patty Melt

Grilled Cheese Burger

Chili Cheese Burger

Western Burger

HorseShoe

Mac n Cheese Burger

French Onion Burger

Pizza Burger

Turkey Burger

Veggie Burger (contains black beans, corn, egg )

Fry Burger

Beef Bratwurst

And all burgers come with fries. I saw some meals being dropped off at tables. Were talking about a good-sized portion of fries here, people.

Then there are the appetizers, many of them the same as before. New additions are fried cauliflower, mac n cheese bites, pretzel bites with beer cheese and sweet potato fries.

I should also mention that breakfast is served on Saturdays and Sundays until 11 a.m.

Big and sunrise breakfasts, omelets, pancakes, French toast and biscuits & gravy are all on the menu.

Then there are the beverages.

Steel Town Burgers continues to offer soft drinks, juice and tea.

Available adult beverages include bottled beers (most of the usual domestics and Corona Extra), Bud Light seltzers, Smirnoff, Cayman Jack margaritas and Mad Dog 20/20 Tangy Orange.

New to that list are craft beers  IPAs, pale ales  and hard ciders.

A little background

Down Home Cookin originally opened in September 2022 at 57 W. Edwardsville Road in Wood River.

By the end of the year, the Raineses decided to move and secured the former site of Ravanellis in Granite City.

Earlier this year, Granite City Mayor Mike Parkinson told me in a phone interview that Granite City was open for business and needed a new sit-down restaurant.

At that time, Brandon Raines said that Parkinson was always willing to take his calls and work with them to open their restaurant.

After some work on the building, Down Home Cookin opened the doors to its new home in late March.

The Raineses decided to refocus the business and became Steel Town Burgers in July.

The restaurant reopened Wednesday, Aug. 2.

About Steel Town Burgers & Bakery Co.

Steel Town Burgers & Bakery Co. is located at #3 American Village in Granite City.

Hours are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday-Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays.

Breakfast is served from 9-11 a.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.

Hours are subject to change and may be extended in the future.

For more info, call 618-823-5055 or follow the Facebook page.
Police lights

When an intruder broke into the home of retired 87-year-old Marjorie Perkins, he might have thought an older woman would not put up much of a fight.

"That was the worst part - to wake up in the dark and have this man standing over you," the former primary school teacher of 35 years told the BBC.

"I'm going to cut you," the young burglar said to her during the break-in at Brunswick, Maine.

Though she was terrified, Ms Perkins leapt into action and fought back.

The 17-year-old suspect has been charged with burglary, criminal threatening, assault and consuming liquor as a minor and is being held at a juvenile detention centre.

"I thought if I'm going to be cut," Ms Perkins told the BBC, "I'm going to kick. So I jumped into my shoes as fast as I could."

She used a lawn chair that was near her bed to defend herself as he came towards her.

He punched her cheek and forehead and kept knocking her against the wall.

Though it's a quiet neighbourhood, she said, Ms Perkins' house is situated on an intersection where people are often coming and going, so she "hollered out the window for help".

Her town has about 21,000 residents.

They "had the chair fight for quite a while" before "he got tired and headed for the kitchen", she said.

"I kept telling him to get out," Ms Perkins recalled.

Suddenly he became "limp looking" and said he was "awfully hungry".

When she told him he needed help, he said: "I've had help before but it hasn't done much good."

So Ms Perkins gave him a box of crackers with peanut butter and honey, two protein shakes and two tangerines.

"He didn't touch any of those - he ate one cracker," she said.

While he was eating, she called the emergency line 911 on her old rotary phone.

He fled the scene, out the front door.

By the time police arrived at Ms Perkins' home they told her they already had the unidentified teenager in custody.

Story continues

A police sniffer dog had tracked him to a nearby street where his grandmother lives.

All of the doors and windows of her mobile home were locked, but they discovered he had managed to break in near a window unit air conditioner.

During the altercation, he told her he had mowed her lawn "a long time ago".

She remembers a "little boy coming here" maybe eight years ago, she said.

In another odd twist of fate, Ms Perkins was eating at a diner following the incident when a waitress sat down at her booth and said: "I know who the boy was, who did this to you - he's my nephew."

According to the woman, he has committed previous offences.

Since the break-in happened, she has received a lot of support from her neighbours, those in her line-dancing group and even reunited with half-sisters she has not spoken to in half a century.

Her story has been widely picked up by other international outlets.

Ms Perkins is surprised that people have taken such an interest in her story when there is so much else going on in the world.

But she said: "I think it does bring some hope or positivity.

"A lot of people have been quite amazed that I was brave enough to pick up a chair and fend him off."
STOCKHOLM, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- More than 50 people were injured as violent clashes broke out Thursday at an Eritrean cultural festival in Stockholm with at least 100 detained, according to local authorities.

Fifteen of the injured have been taken to hospital, including eight in serious condition. Three police officers were also injured, Swedish broadcaster SVT reported, citing Region Stockholm, the healthcare and public transport authority in Stockholm County.

Around 1,000 anti-Eritrean government protesters stormed the festival event and threw stones at police officers, according to Swedish media.

The Eritrea-themed festival is an annual event held since the 1990s to mark the cultural heritage of the African country, which gained independence from Ethiopia three decades ago. Yet it has been criticized for gathering people who support the Eritrean administration.

At present, tens of thousands of people of Eritrean origin are reportedly living in Sweden.

Police said that an investigation has been launched into violent riots, arson, and sabotaging of emergency services, and that they remained at the scene in a suburb northwest of Stockholm. 
Frank Siracusa/Taco Bell lawsuit

In the last three years, there has been a rise in false advertising lawsuits against big food chains.

McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, and now Taco Bell are among the companies targeted by consumers.

But the proposed class action lawsuits have not necessarily translated to success  or juicier patties.

More customers at fast food restaurants such as McDonald's and Taco Bell are ordering their favorite combos with a litigious appetite, mounting false advertising lawsuits when they feel their food doesn't match glossy pictures.

But the rise in the legal actions, with one of the latest efforts being aimed at Taco Bell's Crunchwrap Supreme, has not necessarily meant that customers have been successful against fast food giants, an expert in class action lawsuits told Insider.

Between 2020 and 2022, consumers filed at least 200 class action lawsuits concerning false advertising in food products, according to QSR magazine.

On Monday, a New York man filed a proposed class action lawsuit against Taco Bell, arguing that photos of Taco Bell's ads for their Crunchwrap Supreme, Vegan Crunchwrap, Grande Crunchwrap, Mexican Pizza, and Veggie Mexican Pizza, did not live up to the real items, some of which the plaintiff alleged included half the advertised amount of beef.

His was the latest claim in a long line of complaints that chains are skimping on their portions. Here's how others have played out.

Burger King

Burger King lawsuit

The law firm representing the New York plaintiff also filed a lawsuit last year in Florida, accusing Burger King of advertising their burgers to be 35% beefier than reality, NBC News reported.

The lawsuit claims that since 2017, Burger King has advertised menu items that appear larger than they are when ordered. In the lawsuit, the corporation rejected the allegations and said that the customer's concerns were not shared by others.

"Because every sandwich is hand-made at the restaurant, the 'look' of each sandwich necessarily will differ," attorneys for Burger King wrote in a court filing.

Story continues

In some cases, big chains can afford settlements and some policy changes. Typically, major restaurant chains can survive litigating those types of class action lawsuits, Oren Bitan, a lawyer specializing in class action lawsuits for Buchalter Law, told Insider.

A judge ordered the parties to mediation in February 2023, and after the parties reached an impasse, the judge stayed the case indefinitely.

McDonald's and Wendy's

Wendy's lawsuit

That same firm has also mounted proposed class action lawsuits against McDonald's and Wendy's on similar grounds, according to Reuters.

The two fast food companies are listed as defendants in the New York-based class action lawsuit, which claims that, through their ads, McDonald's misrepresented the size of their hamburger patties and the amount of toppings used.

In particular, the lawsuit features customers unhappy with the actual size of Wendy's Bourbon Bacon Burger. The lawsuit claims that food stylists for the food chains use undercooked patties to make the burgers appear larger, according to The Washington Post.

an image of a cheeseburger included in a false advertising lawsuit against McDonald's McDonald's lawsuit

For McDonald's, using YouTube and Twitter screenshots, the plaintiffs alleged that McDonald's burger advertisements show patties that are 15 to 20% larger than in reality.

Both Wendy's and McDonald's lawyers have filed motions to dismiss the case. Attorneys for Wendy's said that the images submitted by customers misrepresented disclaimers on their own ads.

"The Complaint is devoid of any allegation that the burgers Plaintiff ordered and received were the wrong weight (before cooking), or that they were missing any of the identified toppings," Wendy's attorneys wrote in a filing.

The case is currently in discovery.

There is a high bar for success in the proposed class action food lawsuits like these, Bitan told Insider.

First, plaintiffs need to convince a judge that any reasonable customer would be misled. And if they fail to sway a judge to make it a class action suit, the lawsuit could be limited to damages amounting to the cost of the fast food item for the individual bringing the suit.

Customers who make these claims have to prove the company lied and did not solely exaggerate in ads.

Big class action suits related to false advertising in food must "analyze whether a 'reasonable consumer' would be misled by the advertising at issue and whether the advertising at issue is merely 'puffery' as opposed to a representation of facts regarding the actual product," Bitan told Insider.

Buffalo Wild Wings

In March, an Illinois customer sued Buffalo Wild Wings, claiming that their advertised boneless wings were actually chicken nuggets. The restaurant has since responded by jeering him on social media.

In a court filing, the company said the plaintiff had a "bone to pick" with them and asked for a judge to dismiss the claim.

Sometimes plaintiffs or law firms are suing companies in bulk, and hoping one false advertising claim will stick, as shown by the eager Buffalo Wild Wings customer, who has also sued a host of other product and food brands.

"Success is a mixed bag but typically major restaurant chains are able to minimize potential liability by filing motions to dismiss and opposing motions for class certification," Bitan told Insider.

The case is currently ongoing.

Subway's tuna lawsuit

In July, a lawsuit against Subway claiming that the chain misrepresented serving real tuna was dismissed.

The plaintiff claimed she had complications with a pregnancy in a request to dismiss the suit, according to CBS.

According to NPR, the lawsuit cited a marine biologist who tested Subway's tuna samples at 20 locations, and found that 19 samples did not identify tuna DNA but instead, cattle, chicken, and pork DNA.

During the two-year litigation, Subway defended its product intensely, launching subwaytunafacts.com.

The company has also sought to recoup $617,955 in legal fees from the plaintiffs, showing the steep cost of challenging a food giant on the integrity of their product.

Read the original article on Insider
A sign posted on the exterior of a Home Depot store on February 21, 2023, in El Cerrito, California. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

A 26-year-old man is accused of cheating Home Depot of $300,000 worth of store credit.

He'd pretend to be a contractor, and took Andersen doors from 61 stores for free, prosecutors said.

Then, he would return the doors, and refund them at the store's service department, per officials.

A Connecticut man is accused of defrauding Home Depot of $300,000 in store credit by returning doors he never bought.

Alexandre Henrique Costa-Mota, 26, would pretend to be a contractor and collect Andersen doors from Home Depot stores across eight different states, the US Attorney's Office for the District of Rhode Island wrote on Wednesday.

Dressed as a contractor and carrying a black portfolio with a yellow measuring tape clipped to his pants, Costa-Mota visited 61 different stores between June 2021 to February 2022, investigators said, per court records seen by Insider.

Costa-Mota would take the doors and load them onto a lumber cart, said the Secret Service agent who investigated the case.

As part of his modus operandi, Costa-Mota would then walk to the store's service department to get the doors refunded, using fake driver's licenses or IDs with fake names to clear Home Depot's security checks, the agent said.

At times, Costa-Mota would first leave the store with the doors, then return later for the refunds, the agent added.

When some stores rejected Costa-Mota's receipt-less returns, he would just leave with the doors and go to another store to refund them, the agent said.

Costa-Mota received 370 store credits from his almost year-long scheme, which are valued at $297,332, officials said.

Prosecutors said some of the doors he stole were valued at around $350 to $400 each. Some Andersen doors can be sold for thousands of dollars at Home Depot.

Officials also said surveillance footage showed that Costa-Mota regularly wore the same pair of shoes and had a gold watch on his left wrist when retrieving and refunding the doors.

Story continues

He is being charged with wire fraud and conspiracy, and has been detained without bail.

An attorney for Costa-Mota did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours.

Read the original article on Insider
A Paramus man accused of plowing into a motorcyclist and killing him was released from jail after his detention hearing on Wednesday.

Jose Santos, 45, is facing charges of manslaughter, after he allegedly struck and killed 28-year-old Cody Cleary just before 1 a.m. on July 23, on Farview Avenue between Hemlock Drive and Haase Avenue in Paramus.

Bergen County Assistant Prosecutor Christine Howland said Cleary was around the corner from his family's house when the crash occurred. He was declared brain-dead at Hackensack University Medical Center and was kept alive on life support until his organs could be used, as he was an organ donor.

"His family suffered tremendously," Howland said.

Santos is also accused of being under the influence at the time of the crash, but the results of his blood test have not come back.

Bergen County news Last New Jersey Kmart to close as Westwood store will shut down in fall

During Santos' detention hearing before state Superior Court Judge Mitchell Steinhart, Howland argued that the defendant should be kept in jail, saying the "facts and circumstances" of the case were "especially troubling."

"In this case, his conduct went beyond a vehicular homicide recklessness," Howland said. "It was such extreme indifference to the value of life."

Howland said the area in which the crash happened runs parallel to Route 17 but does not have access to the highway, and it is mostly residential. She said a search of his vehicle allowed investigators to get the car's black box.

"Five seconds before the crash on a residential road that was 35 miles per hour, the defendant was doing 86 [mph]," Howland said.

The prosecutor said the accelerator pedal was "100% activated" until a half-second before the crash. At the time of the collision, the black box reported a speed of 73 mph. Santos' 17-year-old child was in the car with him at the time of the crash, as well as his wife.

Story continues

According to Howland, a field sobriety test was conducted, and she called the video "troubling." She said Santos was falling over during the heel-to-toe test, could take only three steps before having to catch his balance, was unable to stand on one leg and "could not follow simple instructions."

Santos' attorney, Nancy Lucianna, argued against detention, saying her client has no criminal record or moving violations.

"This was a tragic accident," Lucianna said. "At best, it was reckless."

Lucianna said there are anomalies in the black box information, noting that the airbags in Santos' car never went off. She said the defense's experts will offer what could have happened  either the speed registered by the black box was incorrect or it was a "split-second dart out from the side of the car," something Lucianna believes is supported by physical damage to Santos' vehicle.

Santos' attorney said police never asked her client if he was injured but must have believed he was, because they took him to the hospital to draw blood.

With regard to Howland's accusations of the troubling video of Santos' field sobriety test, Lucianna argued that her client had an ankle injury from February that he was getting treatment for, resulting in his loss of balance. She said the suggestions of intoxication were weak.

North Jersey This North Jersey hospital is ranked No. 1 in the state

"I did not see falling over," Lucianna said. "Falling over to me is actually hitting the pavement. I did not see that."

Lucianna also pointed to the fact that Santos tried to aid Cleary, checking his pulse and seeing if he was breathing, and attempted to call 911. When neighbors came out of their homes, Santos' wife allegedly called for help and told them to get an ambulance.

"Is that depraved indifference? No," Lucianna said. "This is a tragic accident that happened to a man."

When making his decision, Steinhart said the court could not get caught up in the emotional aspect of the case.

He ruled that Santos would be released but would be required to surrender his license and passport and start a rehabilitation program or attend Alcoholics Anonymous at least three times a week.

In addition to giving up his license and passport, Santos was ordered to appear for all his court dates, notify pretrial services of any changes, not commit any new offenses, and stay in contact with pretrial services. He cannot own any kind of weapon and should refrain from excessive drug or alcohol use.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Paramus NJ motorcycle crash hearing details court case
A man accused of murdering his brother was arrested after being on the run for nearly a month.

DeKalb County Sheriff officials said on Aug. 2, 37-year-old Ahmed Kawah was taken into custody while on a MARTA bus on North Decatur Road in Decatur.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

Authorities confirmed that Kawah has been on the run since July 9 when police found his brother, 56-year-old Anthony Bronson, shot to death at Park at 500 Apartment Homes in Stone Mountain.

Deputies have not determined the motive for the shooting.

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Kawah was charged with felony malice murder. He was taken into custody without incident.

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IN OTHER NEWS:
The sentencing of Eric Montgomery Friday included neither civility nor courtesy, contrary to the judge's request, as both the victim's and the defendant's families hurled expletives across the courtroom.

"F--- you," the victim's mother shouted, rushing toward the exit, as Montgomery spoke. Shortly before, Montgomery had spent several minutes defending his actions while with the victim, whom he referred to as "that girl." The air grew thick with tension.

"She has a name," McMillan's mother cried out. Murmurs of support swept through a 30-person audience clad in pink shirts.

Montgomery, 34, was sentenced to 36 years in prison after being convicted of rape, furnishing alcohol to a minor and obstruction of justice in the wake of 20-year-old Avery McMillan's death on Aug. 17, 2022.

It's been two weeks shy of a year since the IU student was found dead at Montgomery's residence. Her family sought justice tirelessly on her behalf.

Friday was the culmination of accusations, charges and debates surrounding Montgomery's involvement with McMillan during the last hours of her life.

Murder over a mailbox: Brown County man faces decades in prison after conviction for killing Bob Adair

Aug. 17, 2022, McMillan had been intoxicated when Montgomery found her in a parking garage. He gave her more alcohol and told police he had sex with her. He took her back to his house, where she was found dead the next morning. Toxicology test results revealed fentanyl and fluorofentanyl caused McMillan's death.

In the courtroom, McMillan's family and friends sat teary-eyed. The room was divided by yellow tape, separating the victim's supporters from the defendant's. But McMillan's half was so full it spilled over into the other section. They clutched papers in trembling hands and prepared to give statements on their loved one's behalf.

One at a time, six of them took to the stand to express their grief.

Story continues

"Judge, no one should have to bring their kid home from college in an urn, Nate McMillan, Avery's father, said.

Mia Simper, a lifelong friend, described McMillan as quick-witted, tenacious and kind. Once you met McMillan, she said, her name was "branded to your heart."

They spoke, too, of a bigger picture, of more insidious dynamics at play.

ICYMI: Man charged with attempted murder after shooting outside Subway store

Angie McMillan, Avery's mother, referred to Montgomery as "that monster." She referred to a history of crime, including another pending rape charge, and implored Judge Valeri Haughton to assign the maximum sentence.

"It is imperative that they (the community) be protected from this monster," she said. "We know Avery wasn't his first victim. We hope you'll ensure that she's his last."

Three people spoke for Montgomery. Judge Haughton reprimanded his mother, Nicole Franklin, for attacking McMillan's character and accusing prosecutors of racism, since Montgomery is Black. While Franklin spoke, a dozen of McMillan's family members and friends stood and turned their backs, leaving the courtroom.

Deputy Prosecutor Trisha Bushey requested Montgomery be considered a habitual offender, given his past. That means previous felonies would be taken into consideration and could lengthen his sentence.

The defendant is an unrelenting, unrepentant and ultimately unforgivable career criminal, Bushey said.

Judge Haughton, in the end, said the court does not think Montgomery, the night he found Avery, was acting as anything other than a predator. She sentenced him to 15 years for rape, one year for furnishing alcohol to a minor, two years for obstruction of justice, and an additional 19 years for being a habitual offender.

She agreed with McMillan's family that Montgomery, were he acting in McMillans's best interest, should have taken her to the police department, the hospital, or helped her find friends with whom she'd be safe. Instead, he took her to his house.

While giving his victim impact statement, McMillan's father spoke firmly. He looked in Montgomery's direction while describing him as a predator prowling the late-night Bloomington streets for prey.

"What kind of person does that?" he asked. And again: "Who does that?"

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Man sentenced prison for raping, giving alcohol to IU student who died
Police arrested a man tied to seven aggravated robberies in the past week, the Dallas Police Department said in a news release Friday.

Raymond Guerra, 28, was arrested Thursday and faces four counts of aggravated robbery.

He is tied to at least seven robberies of an individual or business, according to police.

The robberies started on July 28 and continued until Wednesday, when Guerra attempted to shoot an armed security guard, but his weapon malfunctioned, police said in the news release.

Guerra faces charges in connection with the following:

Aggravated robbery of a business on July 28 in the 2300 block of West Illinois Avenue

Aggravated robbery of an individual on July 30 in the 2300 block of West Illinois Avenue

Aggravated robbery of a business on July 31 in the 2300 block of Mountain Lake Road

Two aggravated robberies of a business on Aug. 2 in the 2300 block of West Illinois Avenue

Aggravated robbery of an individual on Aug. 2 in the 2100 block of Wilbur Street

Aggravated robbery of a business on Aug. 3 in the 2400 block of South Hampton Road

Police recovered stolen items from the robberies, a gun, and cash while serving a search warrant.
A Hill District man who allegedly fled sheriffs detectives as they attempted to execute a warrant is in custody.

Anthony Townsend, 31, was located inside a Tesla on Wylie Avenue Thursday and fled as detectives attempted to serve the warrant, according to Allegheny County Sheriff Kevin Kraus. Two of the departments vehicles were damaged when he fled and a brief chase took place until detectives lost sight of the vehicle.

About 30 minutes later, the Tesla Townsend was driving was found unoccupied in McKees Rocks, and a review of surveillance video showed Townsend leaving the area on foot. Detectives continued to search for Townsend until he surrendered himself at the Municipal Courts Building Thursday night.

Part of the inherent danger in law enforcement work is never knowing how someone is going to react, said Kraus. Im grateful that no one was injured, and that this individual has been arrested.

Townsend was processed into the Allegheny County Jail and arraigned on a number of charges including five counts each of aggravated assault and recklessly endangering another person. Townsend remains in jail with a preliminary hearing set for Aug. 17.

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A mom was in a Taco Bell drive-thru line with her three children when a man forced his way into her vehicle, authorities in Ohio said.

The mother struggled with the 44-year-old man, but he managed to take over the vehicle on Thursday, Aug. 3, according to a news release from the Summit County Sheriffs Office.

He then tried driving off while the three kids  ages 2, 5 and 6  were still inside, officials said.

The man crashed into the fast food restaurant and let out the two older kids, according to the news release. Then he is accused of driving away with the toddler.

Authorities said he drove to a Circle K gas station, where he abandoned the 2-year-old child and continued onto Interstate 77.

Deputies chased the man south on the interstate, then north, before he continued into Akron and left the vehicle, according to the release. Deputies said he ran into a wooded area.

Deputies and officers with the Akron Police Department chased after him and eventually arrested him, officials said. One deputy was taken to a hospital, though authorities did not say how he was injured or the status of his condition.

Investigators said they learned a carjacking spree began earlier that day when the man carjacked a vehicle in Akron and later ran out of gas while in Green. He went to a BP gas station and tried to steal another vehicle, according to the release.

The carjacking attempt was unsuccessful, officials said, so he ran to the Taco Bell where he is accused of carjacking the mothers car.

The Cuyahoga Falls man faces charges of kidnapping, aggravated assault, theft of a motor vehicle and fleeing a police officer, according to the Akron Beacon Journal.

Cuyahoga Falls is about five miles northeast of Akron and 15 miles north of Green.

Carjacking victim courageously thwarts armed suspects escape, Florida deputies say

74-year-old hit while trying to stop person from stealing car with dog inside, cops say

Boys kidnapped in Walmart parking lot call 911 from SUV traveling 120 mph, PA cops say
Deangelo Leandrew Shelton Clark complained to the judge on Friday about his treatment. Clark says he has been attacked, had evidence stacked against him, and been wrongly denied bail.

Despite his complaints, Clark knows one thing: He will spend the rest of his life in prison.

Last month, a jury found Clark guilty of second-degree murder with a firearm and attempted arson of a dwelling or structure in the stabbing death of his estranged girlfriend, 20-year-old Kiara Alleyne.

The judge addresses Clark

At Clark's sentencing hearing on Friday afternoon, Circuit Judge Robert Hodges told the 34-year-old Anthony man that the crime was "brutal and vicious." He said the evidence showed the victim was stabbed multiple times, including stab wounds to her neck and facial cuts.

The judge pointed out that Clark Facetimed Alleyne's father and the man saw his daughter dying. He said he cannot imagine the pain the woman's father felt. The judge also said Clark tried to destroy evidence. (At trial, prosecutors said after the stabbing Clark left the stove on and the door was open with a blanket inside.)

He told Clark that he robbed "a young woman of her life," and "an infant of her mother." The judge told Clark the only appropriate sentence is life behind bars.

Sitting behind her son, Clark's mother opening sobbed when the judge announced Clark's sentence.

Sheriff's report

Alleyne's body was discovered by sheriff's deputies in the early morning hours of Sept. 11, 2019. Deputies went to the couple's residence at 2241 NE 78th Lane in Anthony to conduct a well-being check on Alleyne. Separately, Alleyne's father and friend had called law enforcement and asked them to check on her.

The victim's father was on a video call with Clark when he saw blood on Clark's face. Still on the phone, Clark showed Alleyne's father that Kiara was bleeding heavily and gasping.

The man asked Clark three times to help his daughter, but Clark refused. He told the woman's father that they would take the baby and then he hung up the phone.

Story continues

A crime scene photo from September 2019. Kiara Alleyne was killed inside this home.

Deputies said Clark took their 11-month-old child, Jhene, to a relative. Clark then went to the Florida Keys, where authorities said he set the car on fire and was severely burned. Clark was returned to Marion County when his wounds had healed sufficiently.

Clark's trial lasted three days. His defense team consisted of Amanda Sizemore, Jessica Roberts and Sara Altes from the Public Defender's Office. Assistant State Attorney Amy Berndt and Katrina Self prosecuted the case.

Kiara's parents appear by Zoom

Appearing by Zoom from Trinidad, Alleyne's mother, Vanessa Ali Gaetan, read aloud a prepared statement for the court. She said she's in pain as a result of her daughter's death. She called Clark "selfish" for taking her daughter away and breaking her heart.

At times wiping away tears, Gaetan told Clark he'll never be part of his daughter's life.

Sheldon Alleyne, Kiara's father, appeared by Zoom from New Mexico. He had his wife read aloud his statement. He called Clark "Mr. Killer" and "evil" for what he did to his daughter.

He said he begged Clark for help, but he refused. He said Clark has shown no remorse for what he did. He asked the judge to sentence Clark to life in prison so he won't hurt anyone else.

Clark speaks

Two of Clark's friends spoke on his behalf. They described him as a good guy who's loving and cares for others.

Clark's mother took the witness stand and told the court she never had any problems with her son. She said he helped raised his two nieces. To the Alleyne family, she said she's sorry for their loss. To the judge, she asked him to have mercy on her son.

Different opinion: Prosecutors say Anthony man murdered his girlfriend. Defense says she committed suicide

Wearing a Marion County jail uniform, Clark told the judge everyone is speculating on what happened. He said he did the best he could for his girlfriend. He said he's not a violent or crazy person, and what happened has affected him mentally.

Deangelo Leandrew Shelton Clark

He said he doesn't see how people could think he would do something like that. He asked God to bless Kiara's family. He added that while his girlfriend's family doesn't want him to be involved in his daughter's life, she's going to grow up one day and ask about him.

Self told the judge he should sentence Clark to life in prison for this violent and vicious attack.

Sizemore countered that Clark has two misdemeanors and his state sentencing scoresheet says the lowest sentence allowed is 22 years in prison. She asked the judge to sentence Clark to that amount of time.

Contact Austin L. Miller at austin.miller@starbanner.com or @almillerosb

This article originally appeared on Ocala Star-Banner: Ocala judge sentences man to life in prison for stabbing death
An accused serial killer who already pleaded guilty to murder and other charges in York and Chester counties is now in jail in Memphis to face charges there.

Only on 9: Man shot by serial killer in Chester County focuses on recovery

Tyler Terry and Adrienne Simpson killed five people across three states in 2021, prosecutors said.

The deadly shooting in Memphis was their last killing, the prosecutors said.

The couple pleaded guilty in their charges in South Carolina in November 2022 after they were arrested in Chester County.

They were sentenced to life in prison with no parole.

Prosecutors in all the states involved agreed to those conditions.

Simpson already pleaded guilty to her charges in Memphis.

terry who is due in court Monday.

VIDEO: Only on 9: Man shot by serial killer in Chester County focuses on recovery
NIGER, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Niger's junta announced on Thursday the suspension of various military cooperation agreements with France, the former colonial power that has condemned violence in the West African country and begun evacuating its citizens.

The National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP), the governing body established by the military in Niger after a coup on July 26, issued a statement, saying it revoked five agreements signed by the two countries between 1997 and 2020 because of "France's casual attitude and reaction to the internal situation" in Niger.

France has a deployment of approximately 1,500 soldiers in Niger, and some 1,200 registered French nationals are living in the country.

The Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs of France said Wednesday that over 350 French citizens had been evacuated from Niger, and more than 510 people were on the evacuation flights.

Niger's military forces said last week that soldiers in the country had overthrown President Mohamed Bazoum, hours after the president was allegedly held hostage. Abdourahamane Tchiani, former leader of Niger's presidential guard, was named president of the CNSP and he suspended the Constitution and dissolved the government, empowering the council to exercise all legislative and executive authorities.

Bazoum on Thursday asked the international community for help, while the CNSP has refused to hand back power and threatened to meet force with force.

In a column in The Washington Post, Bazoum said the coup, launched against his government by a faction in the military, has no justification, and if it succeeds, "it will have devastating consequences for our country, our region and the entire world."

The coup has drawn condemnations from international and regional organizations, some of which, for example, the Economic Community of West African States, have imposed sanctions on the junta and threatened to restore order in Niger by force.

The office of the French president said France supports all regional initiatives aimed at restoring constitutional order and the return of Bazoum.

Also on Thursday, the CNSP decided to halt the operation of France 24 and Radio France Internationale, both France's state-owned international media outlets, in Niger. Tchiani also signed a decree to end the mandates of Niger's ambassadors to four countries, namely France, the United States, Nigeria and Togo. 
Rory Conan Williams set sail from Sitka, Alaska, on July 9, 2023 and has not been seen since, according to the US Coast Guard. Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

The Coast Guard is searching for a man who tried to sail from Alaska to San Diego.

Rory Conan Williams, 45, departed his home in Sitka, Alaska, on July 9.

A friend told Insider the boat's engine was damaged and he urged him not to go.

Rory Conan Williams set out from Alaska more than 25 days ago, intending to sail down the coast to his mother in San Diego. But the experienced 45-year-old sailor headed out on a boat with an engine that didn't work  and hasn't been seen since.

Now the US Coast Guard says it is searching for Williams and his 32-foot vessel, dubbed "Legz." A spokesperson told Insider it also received a report that one of Williams' sails had ripped soon after departing Alaska. The navies of both the US and Canada are also assisting in the search.

On July 9, Williams departed from Sitka, a town of fewer than 10,000 people on Alaska's southern coast where he had worked in the tourism business, having operated a scooter rental company. He intended to arrive in San Diego on July 27, where he planned to visit his mother before continuing on to Mexico.

A friend says he told Williams not to leave without fixing his engine first

Sitka, Alaska. coast-to-coast/iStock

Cheston Clark, a fisherman in Sitka, told Insider that he urged Williams not to go. Prior to departing, Clark said Williams had approached him and asked if he would tow his boat from the harbor to deeper waters, where he could then sail down to Southern California.

"[I] asked him not to continue on with that plan without fixing his engine first," Clark said. "And he said, 'Nope, the engine's not fixable,' for whatever reason."

Clark, who described Williams as a friend, said the missing sailor was simply determined to get out.

"He was frustrated with his current situation, with politics and the city of Sitka, and him trying to make a business out of there in tourism," Clark said. "He just wanted to leave town."

Williams is an experienced sailor, one confident enough in his abilities to attempt a journey of thousands of miles without an engine. His experience also likely led him to take his boat out into the Pacific Ocean, rather than hug the coast, Clark said  a decision that would likely save sailing time but take him out of range of helicopters searching for him.

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The Coast Guard said Williams is believed to have set sail with 45 days worth of provisions and that he possesses an EPIRB, or Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon, which could alert rescuers to his position if he were in distress.

Clark said he's confident Williams will turn up.

"He is the type of guy that shows up after the searches have ceased," Clark said. "My guess is that he is fine and just being batshit crazy."

Have a news tip? Email this reporter: cdavis@insider.com

Read the original article on Insider
A man went searching for sea snails along a Hawaii coastline and never returned, police said.

His body has just been identified, the Hawaii Police Department said in an Aug. 3 news release.

Seth Kapiliokalani Waltjen, 39, told friends he was going to dive and pick opihi at about 4:30 p.m. on July 29. He said he would return in 30 minutes to an hour, but he never did, police said.

His friends reported him missing the following morning, police said.

A body was found later that day in the same area, and an autopsy confirmed it belonged to Kapiliokalani Waltjen, police said.

His cause of death was consistent with drowning, police said.

The medical examiner ruled out foul play as a factor. A toxicology report is still pending, police said.

Opihi is the Hawaiian word for limpet, which is a snail that has a cone-shaped shell. Its a delicacy in Hawaii.

But the sea creatures are dangerous to harvest because they are found on rocky coastlines.

A 29-year-old woman also disappeared while opihi picking on July 9, police said. Shanice Ogata-Staudinger was picking the sea snails with a relative in Pahoa.

But she never returned to their meeting point after the two separated. Her body has not been found, according to police.

Four more drownings part of deadly summer at popular Florida beaches, officials say

Trapped kayaker was in danger  so rescuers rushed to Colorado river to save her

Family of US Marine drowns near naval base in Florida. Unimaginable tragedy
A Manhattan judge who oversees New Yorks decades-old right-to-shelter mandate said in court Friday that Gov. Hochul must to do more to help alleviate the citys spiraling migrant crisis, according to an attorney who attended the closed-door proceeding.

The emergency hearing before Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Erika Edwards was held to address concerns raised by the Legal Aid Society that the right-to-shelter mandate may have been violated this week after dozens of migrants were forced to sleep for days on the sidewalk in front of the citys asylum seeker intake center in Midtown.

The proceeding played out almost entirely behind closed doors, meaning reporters could not observe the discussion between Edwards and attorneys for Legal Aid, the city and the state.

But Josh Goldfein, a Legal Aid lawyer on the case, told reporters outside the courthouse that Edwards made clear in the private conversation that Hochuls administration must play a larger role in ensuring the tens of thousands of mostly Latin American migrants who have arrived in the city since last spring receive beds in shelters.

You need to treat this like an emergency, Goldfein recalled Edwards telling attorneys representing the state.

The judge also made clear she does not want to see a repeat of the scenes we saw this week, Goldfein said, a reference to the large group of migrants who resorted to sleeping outside the Roosevelt Hotel intake center in Midtown after being informed there was no more space in the city shelter system.

In order for the city to comply (with right-to-shelter), they need assistance from the state, Goldfein said, recounting the conversation in Edwards chambers. The state has resources that it has not provided. The state has not taken ownership of what is a statewide issue.

A spokesman for Hochul declined to comment on Edwards scolding, but pointed out that the governors administration has dispatched 2,000 National Guard troops to help with logistics and given the city authorization to use three state-owned sites for housing migrants. Hochul also signed off on a state budget this year that includes a $1 billion commitment in migrant crisis-related aid for the city.

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But Goldfein said thats not enough.

He told reporters Hochul should promptly issue an executive order prohibiting counties in New York from refusing to accommodate migrants, as some Republican-run jurisdictions upstate have. He also suggested the state should provide more sites for the city to use as shelters and supply more MTA buses to use as transportation for migrants.

The city should not have to take on the full financial burden of this problem, Goldfein said.

Edwards wrapped up Fridays hearing by ordering the Adams administration to submit a list detailing state resources and facilities it believes the city could make use of to help tackle the migrant crisis by Aug. 9. The state must then issue a response to the citys proposals by Aug. 15.

In a statement after the court session, Adams said all of our partners in government must step up and treat this crisis like the emergency that it is.

Unless the state and federal governments fulfill their obligations to join us and do more in supporting asylum seekers, scenes like the one that broke our hearts outside The Roosevelt may sadly become more common, despite the best efforts of thousands of dedicated public servants to find space for hundreds of new asylum seekers every day, the mayor said.

New Yorks right-to-shelter law, which is unique in the country, originates from a 1981 consent decree that requires the city to provide a bed and certain basic amenities to anyone who needs it. The city, the state and the Legal Aid Society were the parties to the original consent decree, which is why representatives for all three appeared in court Friday.

With more than 55,000 migrants now staying in city shelters and hundreds more arriving every week, Adams has openly questioned the legitimacy of right-to-shelter, saying its requirements are impossible to comply with under current circumstances.

In May, lawyers for Adams filed papers in court asking Edwards to allow his administration to suspend right-to-shelter requirements for the duration of the migrant crisis  a move that prompted intense backlash from progressive Democrats and homeless advocates. Edwards has not yet made any decision on that request.

Since May, the Adams administration has taken more steps homeless advocates say fly in the face of right-to-shelter requirements, including instituting a 60-day limit on shelter stays for adult male migrants.

Adams has said hes forced to take such drastic actions because of a lack of financial and logistical aid from the federal government. He has also pointed fingers at the state, saying it needs to provide more help, too, though most of his migrant crisis-related criticism so far tends to be aimed at the feds.

Though the federal government isnt a party to the right-to-shelter decree, Edwards asked the Adams administration to supply the court with a list of things it believes the feds can do to help, noting that could go beyond monetary relief.
Police are conducting a manhunt near the Savannah-Hilton Head International Airport in Georgia after an inmate, who was being extradited, escaped police custody, Fox News Digital has learned.

The Bulloch County Sheriff's Office confirmed that Joseph H. Baynes was in the process of being extradited to Dakota County, Minnesota, when he escaped police custody at the airport in Georgia at around 1:30 p.m. Thursday.

Police said that "at some point" Baynes escaped police custody and disappeared.

According to the Bulloch County (Georgia) Sheriff's Office, Joseph H. Baynes was in the process of being extradited from Bulloch County to Dakota County in Minnesota when he escaped custody at the airport.

In a statement, police said that Baynes is wanted on felony stalking charges in Dakota County.

Baynes, who was in custody at the Bulloch County Jail, signed a waiver of extradition to return to Minnesota to answer to those charges, police said.

VIDEO SHOWS ATLANTA POLICE ARRESTING SUSPECTED CAR THIEF AFTER VICTIM REVEALS ITS EXACT LOCATION THROUGH GPS

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

The Georgia police department clarified that its department was not involved in the incident at the airport since it had turned Baynes over to officials from Minnesota at the time of his escape.

Authorities from the Bulloch County Sheriffs Office, Georgia State Patrol, Pooler Police Department and Chatham County Sheriffs Office are searching in the woods near the airports main parking lot for the escapee.

Police say that this is an active investigation, and a spokesperson from the Savannah-Hilton Head International Airport confirmed that there have been no interruptions to airport operations.
Armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, right, speaks with a sheriff's deputy as a colleague stands next to her on the set of "Rust," shortly after the accidental fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins by Alec Baldwin on Oct. 21, 2021, in New Mexico. (Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office via AP)

"Rust" movie armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed has waived her right to a preliminary hearing to determine whether she should face criminal charges in the October 2021 death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the low-budget western.

The 42-year-old Hutchins  a rising star in the film industry  died after she was accidentally shot in the chest by actor Alec Baldwin during a rehearsal in a dusty wooden church on the movie location near Santa Fe, N.M. The show's director, Joel Souza, was wounded but recovered.

Gutierrez Reed, 25, is the sole remaining defendant in New Mexicos fraught prosecution of alleged wrongdoing on the movie set. She was the weapons handler and prop assistant for the movie, which has since completed filming in Montana.

Prosecutors dropped involuntary manslaughter charges against Baldwin earlier this year.

The actor has long maintained that he did not pull the trigger. The special prosecutors, who were appointed last spring, quickly shifted gears to focus on the felony charges against Gutierrez Reed, who has pleaded not guilty.

Read more: 'Rust' prosecutors turn focus on movie armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed in shooting

Prosecutors had been preparing for a five-day hearing that was set to begin next week. The purpose of the hearing was to persuade the judge that sufficient evidence existed to show that Gutierrez Reed was criminally negligent. She has been charged with felony involuntary manslaughter and evidence tampering.

New Mexico 1st Judicial Court Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer on Tuesday refused to grant Gutierrez's petition to dismiss the charges, sending the case forward for next week's planned evidence hearings.

Special Prosecutors Kari T. Morrissey and Jason J. Lewis earlier this week submitted a list of 40 potential witnesses, including FBI agents, sheriff's deputies and several members of the crew of the ill-fated western to appear during the week-long hearing.

But the plans changed Friday.

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"Hannah Gutierrez today waived her right to a preliminary hearing in State v. Hannah Gutierrez," Barry Massey, spokesman for the New Mexico Administrative Office of the Courts, said in a statement. "Waiving the hearing allows the case to proceed toward trial."

Read more: In email exchange before shooting, 'Rust' armorer said she needed to focus on weapons, not props

Defense attorneys seem resigned that prosecutors would have likely prevailed during the hearing, which would have moved the case toward a trial. Friday's decision simply eliminates the intermediate step.

In June, the special prosecutors accused Gutierrez Reed of drinking and smoking marijuana during off-hours while the western was in production. They have alleged that she was probably hung over on the fatal day. Prosecutors also allege she gave a small bag of cocaine to a friend after the shooting, recognizing that her actions would draw scrutiny. The evidence tampering charge relates to that.

Gutierrez Reed's attorney, Jason Bowles, has blasted the prosecution's efforts, calling them unacceptable smears of his client. Bowles has said that prosecutors have no evidence of drug use.

The case has been dogged by various missteps by prosecutors and law enforcement.

Baldwin was charged in late January with involuntary manslaughter. In April, Morrissey and Lewis dropped the criminal charges against Baldwin, citing new information in the case. Sources have told The Times that prosecutors received evidence from Baldwin's team that the gun had been modified before being delivered to the set, which could support Baldwin's long-held contention that he did not pull the trigger.

Prosecutors are waiting for the results of a firearms test before evaluating whether to bring any charges against the prominent actor.

Read more: Alec Baldwin and weapons handler to be charged with manslaughter in deadly 'Rust' shooting

The other initial defendant, David Halls, accepted a plea arrangement. The film industry veteran pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor count of negligent use of a deadly weapon and received a suspended six-month sentence of unsupervised probation.

Morrissey and Lewis took over the case in April after the two original prosecutors were forced to step down.





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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty/Reuters

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) isnt the GOPs typical target for a primary threat from the right.

And yet, after a number of high-profile disagreements with conservativesKevin McCarthys election to the speakership, the debt ceiling, and her removal from the Freedom CaucusGreene has faced an onslaught of criticism from the far right, culminating in calls for her to face a primary challenge.

Somehow, though, Greene has managed to tamp down that revolution. This is the story of how.

Sources with knowledge of the situation said there are two people most responsible for shutting down the primary threats against Greene: Donald Trump and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL).

Far Right Turns on Marjorie Taylor Greeneand MTG Hits Back in Text to Matt Gaetz

Two months ago, former Trump adviser turned far-right podcaster Steve Bannon jumped into the anti-Greene movement as a vocal supporter of a primary challenge against the congresswoman. And just as quickly as he ramped up the campaign, he seems to have dropped it.

I dont know of any real effort to recruit a primary challenger, a Republican operative close to Greene and Bannon said, calling it an uphill battle to challenge the Georgia congresswoman, who won her GOP primary in 2022 with nearly 70 percent of the vote.

Its a dumb idea, the source continued.

Two sources familiar with the matter told The Daily Beast that it was Gaetz specifically who waved Bannon off the idea of taking down Greene, but Trumps steadfast support for the congresswoman was a factor as well.

My understanding is that the president backchannel-ed too, one of the sources familiar with the situation said.

This source added that Trump was not happy with the idea of primarying Greene.

Thats the point that Matt was trying to make to Bannon: You may not personally like Marjoriebut Marjorie is out there doing, this source added. So stop it, its counterproductive and you are only going to take one of our own off the playing field.

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A Trump adviser further told The Daily Beast that Bannons attempt to knife Greene was a move that wouldnt have worked.

This is the guy who got fired from the White House and promised to primary every Republican senator in 2018, except Cruz, the source said. He primaried none of them.

Another source close to Trump told The Daily Beast that the former president has been extremely positive when speaking about the congresswoman.

(Spokespeople for Gaetz, Greene, Bannon, and Trump didnt return The Daily Beasts requests for comment.)

Despite Trumps mounting legal problems, he remains the most powerful figure in the GOP. Crossing Trump, as Bannon knows, is a recipe for disaster in a conservative movement that remains enduringly loyal to the former presidentno matter what he says or does.

Trumps Sideshow Characters Keep Racking up Huge Legal Bills

While Bannon and others on the far right have taken pleasure in bashing Greene over her slightest movement toward the center, its abundantly clear that Trump is sticking with the congresswoman. And thats likely enough to deter most of her detractors.

Greene came to Congress in 2021 as a controversial, conspiracy-loving Republican who had embraced QAnon, made antisemitic remarks, and spoken at a conference organized by a white nationalist. Largely because of those controversies, and her penchant for performative demonstrations owning the libs, she was an immediate darling of the right. But she was less beloved by GOP leadership.

But from her first term in Congress to her second, Greene found herself aligning a lot more with Speaker McCarthy, whom she helped propel to that position. She found herself at odds with her Freedom Caucus colleaguesparticularly her old friend Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO)and eventually she found herself on the outside of the HFC.

All of those shifts certainly made Greene a potential target for a primary from the right.

In early June, The Daily Beast reported Greene had privately acknowledged that Bannon and far-right activist Laura Loomer wanted to see the congresswoman ousted over not being conservative enough, suggesting Greene had become part of the Republican establishment.

Steve, Loomer, and any other POS attacking me will not beat me, Greene wrote in a text message obtained by The Daily Beast at the time. Because of that, people have been reaching out to me because they dont like what Steve is doing to me.

Bannon appears to have gotten the message.

In a Right Side Broadcasting Network segment in July, Bannon struck a far different tune on Greene, praising the congresswomans efforts to fight wokeness in the military.

At another point in the interview, Bannon even complimented Greenes boyfriend, RSBN host Brian Glenn, who in a twist too outlandish to parody was conducting the interview.

You look like youre 35 years old, Bannon told the RSBN host, who is over 50.

Its all the skin products, Glenn responded.

MTG Says She'll Vote for Trump Even if He's in Jail

Bannon has made his career by being a conservative flamethrower. But at this point in his journey to the center of the MAGA movement, he could probably use more friends.

While Bannon was pardoned by Trump on his last day in office for his We Build the Wall scheme, he now faces New York State charges for allegedly duping donors in the plot.

Bannon was also sentenced to four months in jail over his refusal to testify before the Jan. 6 Committee. (His sentence has been delayed while he appeals.) Bannon has also been in and out of court for months over his refusal to pay his lawyers.

Further complicating the effort to primary Greene is Loomer.

Loomer, a far-right provocateur who has already run for Congress multiple times, previously threatened to move to Greenes district and primary the congresswoman.

But Loomer seems to have cooled on the idea as well.

When reached by The Daily Beast, Loomer said the primary threat against Greene was a non-story right now.

One of the previously mentioned Trumpworld sources suggested that Loomer was only backtracking on the idea because Bannon was backtracking.

He does not care about Laura Loomer, this source said. To Bannon, he weaponizes her because he does not care if she is destroyed in the process because she is a disposable cartridge in the gun.

Loomer adamantly disagreed with the characterization that she was taking instructions from Bannon.

I dont work for Steve Bannon, she said in a lengthy statement.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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A Maryland inmate was sentenced to four more years in state prison for trying to choke a correctional officer during a prison-yard fight at Roxbury Correctional Institution south of Hagerstown last summer, according to court documents.

Washington County District Court Judge Mark D. Thomas sentenced Devahn McFadden, 30, to four years in state prison, consecutive to any other time he's serving, after finding McFadden guilty of second-degree assault against a Division of Corrections employee during a July 26 trial, according to court records.

More court news: Smithsburg man gets 10 years in prison for rape of elementary school girl

Assistant State's Attorney Cyrus Jaghoory, in an email, said he asked the judge to give McFadden a four-year sentence.

The maximum prison-sentence for second-degree assault against a correctional officer is 10 years.

Assistant Public Defender Matthew Bronson will be filing an appeal on behalf of McFadden, according to an email from Melissa Rothstein, spokeswoman for the Maryland Office of the Public Defender. Rothstein wrote that Bronson did not have further comment at this time.

A count of first-degree assault against a Division of Corrections employee was previously dismissed against McFadden in this case.

McFadden is one of five inmates who was charged after a fight broke out in the yard at RCI, along Roxbury Road, on July 17 last year.

The five inmates were transferred to state prisons near Cumberland, Md., following the incident, court records state. Those prisons have maximum security, whereas RCI and the other two state prisons south of Hagerstown have medium security.

The incident led to four officers "requiring nonemergency medical evaluation," court records state. Charging documents describe fights in which at least five prison officers were assaulted.

Mark Vernarelli, a spokesman for the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, has previously said he believes only three officers went to Meritus Medical Center as a precaution. It's possible a fourth officer went to a medical provider on their own.

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Status of other defendants' cases in Maryland prison yard fight

McFadden is the third inmate in the case who has been sentenced.

Avon Taylor, 36, and Franklin Evans, 32, were both sentenced to an additional 18 months in state prison in April after pleading guilty to second-degree assault of a Division of Corrections employee.

Christopher Firor, 40, faces two counts of second-degree assault on a corrections employee, while Dominetreous Anthony, 36, faces one count on that charge.

Firor's and Anthony's trials are scheduled for mid-September in District Court.

The prison-yard fight

Assistant State's Attorney Dakota Parrish said previously that the July 17 incident began when a sixth inmate was noncompliant and struggled with officers when there was an attempt to handcuff him.

Then Evans, McFadden, Anthony and Taylor "engage with staff in an aggressive" manner, charging documents state.

Evans struck a lieutenant in the head and face several times, starting a larger fight, Parrish said during Evans' hearing in April. Evans fought with the lieutenant until staff got control of Evans.

As a correctional officer tried to secure Anthony, Anthony refused to be cuffed and started pulling away from the officer and turned to allegedly strike the officer, according to charging documents. Taylor approached the same officer from behind and started hitting him in the back, knocking him down.

Inmates then began kicking that officer while he was on the ground, court records state.

A correctional officer, trying to follow orders and handcuff McFadden, grabbed the inmate from behind and McFadden turned and started to pull away, charging documents state. The two fell to the ground and McFadden wrapped his arm around the officer's neck and tried to choke him. The officer told an investigator he started to hit McFadden because he was losing his breath, records state. Another officer responded and they cuffed McFadden.

Firor is accused of jumping on the lieutenant, knocking him and a sergeant to the ground, court records state.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Maryland inmate sentenced for trying to choke RCI correctional officer
A Salisbury, Maryland, teenager was arrested Wednesday for allegedly shooting and killing a man Monday night.

Maryland State Police said Bisheri Damond Jacobs, 19, was charged with first- and second-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first- and second-degree murder, first- and second-degree assault, reckless endangerment, and accessory after the fact to first- and second-degree murder.

Just before 10 p.m. Monday, the Salisbury Police Department responded to reports of a shooting near the Pemberton Manor Apartments.

FORMER COLLEGE PARK, MARYLAND, MAYOR PLEADS GUILTY TO POSSESSION, DISTRIBUTION OF CHILD SEX ABUSE MATERIALS

When officers arrived, they found Keith Lamont Chaney, 34, lying on the ground with multiple gunshot wounds.

Chaney was taken to TidalHealth Peninsula Regional Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

MARYLAND EMPLOYEE ARRESTED FOR STEALING DESTRUCTIVE DEVICES' FROM HIS JOB

Maryland State Trooper

With assistance from the Salisbury Police Department, Maryland State Police arrested Jacobs at his residence on Wednesday.

He was transported to the Wicomico County Detention Center and held without bond.

State Police continue to lead the investigation into the shooting, while the Salisbury Police Department and Wicomico County Sheriffs Office Narcotics division assist.

The investigation is ongoing.

Police ask anyone with information about the case to contact Maryland State Police investigators at 443-366-5072.
Getting to know your baby, in utero, one kick at a time. The Massachusetts Department of Public Health has a new partnership teaching a simple way to potentially avoid a devastating loss.

Im a mom of four. Three who are with me and one who rests in paradise. And it is the one whos not here who brought me the into this work, into the maternal health space, said Hyde Park mom, Nneka Hall.

Nneka Hall was 39 weeks along when her daughter, Annaya Maria Edwards, was stillborn. It was August 27th, 2010.

She was healthy, and I was not. I later found out that I had pre-eclampsia that was missed because I did not present in a normal manner.

According to the Department of Public Health, Massachusetts loses 285 babies a year on average, to stillbirth. Thats a rate of 4.2 per 1,000 live births.

And there are racial disparities within the data. Nationally, black women have a stillbirth rate thats more than double that at 10.53 deaths per 1,000 live births, according to the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Heres where a new state partnership aims to help. Count the Kicks educates expectant parents on a free tool to help them simply, count the kicks and track other movements.

Starting at 28 weeks, parents track, at the same time each day, how long it takes for their baby to reach 10 kicks. You get to know your baby and your body.

Sometimes were not heard because were considered moody and all of these other stereotypes that go along with being pregnant, Hall said. They cannot deny data.

Hall is now the Massachusetts ambassador for Count the Kicks. Their data suggests this awareness campaign can save approximately 91 babies in the state each year.

Im hoping that will save the ones who are healthy and that will be alerted to the ones who are not, Hall said.

Had this been available to you 13 years ago, what do you think, asked Boston 25 News anchor Kerry Kavanaugh.

She would be here, Hall said. I would not have had to scream and yell and use my voice. And in the end, she still died. I would have had the data.

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Hall believes anyone whos in contact with a pregnant person should have this information. Use the program on your phone, smartwatch, or computer, or just grab a pen and paper and stop watch.

``Through this partnership, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health aims to empower birthing parents with the knowledge, skills, and tools from Count the Kicks to help all families prevent stillbirth, said Dr. Mahsa Yazdy, DPH Director of the Division for Surveillance, Research, and Promotion of Perinatal Health. We look forward to working with healthcare providers and those who support birthing people across the Commonwealth on this collective and inclusive effort to support parents, reduce racial disparities, and save more babies from preventable stillbirth in Massachusetts. We encourage all those who work with expectant parents to order free Count the Kicks materials to share with their communities.





This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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[Source]

"Masterchef Australia" contestant Tommy Pham wowed the judges with bun mam, a traditional Vietnamese dish known for its pungent aroma and complex flavor.

Serving an "unapologetic" dish: Pham, a contestant on Season 14 of the hit cooking show, posted a clip from the show on Instagram on July 26. Bun mam, which Pham describes as "a super funky, unapologetic, unedited Vietnamese dish," is a thick vermicelli soup with a fermented fish or shrimp paste base.

In the clip, Pham serves the soup to judges Andy Allen, Melissa Leong and Jock Zonfrillo, who savor the dish in silence until, Leong, who is Chinese Australian, silently walks over to Pham and gives him a hug as the other contestants clap in the background.

"You can smell this dish coming at you," says Leong. "This is testament to the fact that when you don't hold back in who you are, you will be celebrated."

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"Cooking this dish on Masterchef meant so much to me, it broke down barriers," Pham wrote in the video's caption. "It made me feel so proud to be Vietnamese and it gave little Tommy the validation that he should be proud of his heritage is no matter what."

Social media reactions: On Instagram, Pham's clip has been viewed more than 445,000 times and received over 30,000 likes. On TikTok, where the clip was posted on June 26, it has been viewed more than 712,000 times and received over 57,000 likes.

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Commenters on both posts praised Pham for promoting both Vietnamese culture and bun mam specifically, with many describing the dish as "underrated."

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"Bun mam is so underrated on the Vietnamese traditional food chart!" one Instagram commenter wrote. "Everyone is talking about pho and banh mi and bun cha (bun thit nuong), some mention bun bo Hue or banh canh cua, but bun mam is usually left out."

"This is giving me flashback to all the insecurities I had as a kid bringing Asian food to school for lunch and being made fun of by the non-aapi kids," wrote another. "That nervous chuckle when introducing the dish hurts my soul and I am so proud of you for your bravery in embracing your culture"

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"Pho is just tip of the jar, Bun Mam is another whole level," commented a TikTok user.

"Love this! Be proud of your culture and embrace your uniqueness!" encouraged another.
China's Hebei relocates over 1.2 mln due to heavy rains

Xinhua) 10:06, August 04, 2023

SHIJIAZHUANG, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- North China's Hebei Province relocated over 1.2 million people as of 10 a.m. Thursday due to heavy rainfall over the past few days, local authorities said.

Among the relocated, 857,200 are from areas for flood storage and detention in the province.

Amid the impact of Typhoon Doksuri, torrential rains have battered most parts of Hebei since July 27, with the average precipitation in the province exceeding 146 millimeters.

So far, Hebei has dispatched more than 4,700 rescue teams consisting of over 100,000 people to assist with rescue and relief efforts.

According to Hebei's department of emergency management, between July 29 and Aug. 1, 94 counties and districts, as well as 826 townships in the province, had suffered flooding due to heavy rainfall.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
RAMALLAH, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) announced Thursday that it has signed three agreements with Germany worth 28 million euros (about 30 million U.S. dollars) to support Palestinian refugees.

Two of the agreements, totaling 16 million euros (over 17 million U.S. dollars), will support an ongoing regional program to improve the living conditions of Palestinian refugees in the camps, the UN agency said in a press statement.

The program "will improve infrastructure in refugee camps in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip and support the construction, expansion, and rehabilitation of social, economic, and environmental infrastructure," it said.

The third will provide 12 million euros (about 13 million U.S. dollars) to the second phase of the current digital transformation program in health and education.

It "focuses on digitizing the main elements of UNRWA health and education services in Jordan, Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon," it said. 
A recent report from the International Air Transport Association suggests that unruly passenger incidents on airplanes are on the rise, increasing by 47% globally in 2022 over 2021.

In the U.S. alone, 250 unruly passenger cases have been referred to the FBI for possible prosecution.

Former FBI Special Agent Jonathan Gilliam, who was also an air marshal, told Fox News Digital that part of the reason for an increase can be attributed to the fact that even the biggest airlines are now "no-frills airlines."

"The care for the patrons is no longer there. A lot of that occurred because they got fed up with people during COVID. And the other problem is a lot of people left during COVID that were good flight attendants, and now they have, like every other industry, they have people who are just aren't customer-service oriented," he said.

PASSENGER BECOMES IRATE, FORCES FLIGHT TO TURN AROUND AFTER FORGETTING BAG IN TERMINAL

Delta planes are parked on the tarmac at LaGuardia Airport in New York City on June 2, 2023.

Gilliam said that passengers simply "don't care."

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

"They really don't care. And I think you see people treat police officers the same way," Gilliam said. "This type of stuff and this type of self-centered, self-indulgent behavior is everywhere now. I mean, we see it everywhere."

Here are four instances of unruly passengers.

While on a flight from Chiang Mai International Airport in Thailand to Bangkok, a passenger forced the entire plane to return to its original gate after a passenger became upset after leaving his bag behind.

A video recorded by another passenger on the plane shows the individual on the Thai Smile flight complaining to flight attendants about his bag that was left behind, which contained valuable items, including money.

At one point, a flight attendant grabbed his arm in an attempt to force the passenger back to his seat.

"If you still feel like this, we have to move you off the flight, so do you want to go? Or do you want to wait until Bangkok?" a flight attendant asked the man.

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"Yes, yes, I want to go now. Ask the captain," the man replied.

The plane then returned to the terminal, pushing back the flight that was already delayed by 45 minutes.

A Frontier Airlines flight from Philadelphia to Las Vegas was diverted to Denver International Airport on July 11 after a fight erupted between two female passengers.

The flight left Philadelphia around 10:30 p.m. It was initially scheduled to arrive around 8:40 p.m. but was an hour late because of the incident.

A spokesperson told Fox News Digital that a passenger became disruptive and forced the diversion to Denver.

The two female passengers were taken off the plane and arrested by the Denver Police Department.

FRONTIER AIRLINES KICKS 2 WOMEN OFF LAS VEGAS-BOUND PLANE FOLLOWING PROFANITY-LADEN FIGHT, FORCED TO DIVERT

"Shut the f--- up, b----," one of the women could be heard yelling during the fight.

"Don't f---ing touch me," one of the women appears to yell at the flight attendant. "Don't f---ing touch me."

The Frontier Airlines flight was on its way from Philadelphia to Las Vegas when a fight broke out between two women who appeared to be traveling together.

The Frontier Airlines flight was on its way from Philadelphia to Las Vegas when a fight broke out between two women who appeared to be traveling together.

When the individuals were taken off the plane, passengers could be heard applauding.

A Southwest Airlines flight headed to Houston from New Orleans was held at its terminal while authorities removed an alleged drunk woman who refused to leave the plane when asked.

The incident happened on May 29 at around 7:45 p.m. Deputies from the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office and St. Charles Parish Sheriffs Office responded to the incident.

Officials said the passenger, Kamaryn Gibson, 25, was causing a disturbance on the plane after leaving the gate.

She was charged with two counts of disturbing the peace, criminal mischief, two counts of resisting an officer by way of force or violence and three counts of battery on a police officer.

In video posted to social media, the woman can be heard asking for her phone while deputies were pulling her down the aisle.

Kamaryn Gibson

A Southwest Airline passenger was removed from a Texas-bound flight in New Orleans because of her alleged behavior.

"No, I literally need my phone. I paid for that," the woman told a passenger.

A woman who claimed to be pregnant allegedly attacked a Spirit Airlines employee at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on April 30.

Que Maria Scott, 29, was charged with disorderly conduct for her involvement in the fight after airline employees prevented her from boarding.

Police said that the woman allegedly told the victim that she was from "West Philly" and was going to "beat our a--."

SPIRIT AIRLINES BRAWL IN ATLANTA CAUGHT ON CAMERA; VICTIM 'CLEARLY SMELLED ALCOHOL' ON ALLEGED ATTACKER

"Ms. Rhoden stated that Ms. Q. Scott put her boarding pass in one of her pockets, pulled up her sweat pants and proceeded to attack her by swinging her arms and hitting [the victim] on the left side of her face," a police incident report reads. "[She] 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."

"Rhoden stated that she clearly smelled alcohol on Ms. Q. Scott, even though Ms. Q. Scott claimed to be pregnant ," the report notes.

Atlanta police booked Que Maria Scott into the Clayton County Jail early Monday, hours after an altercation involving a Spirit Airlines employee at the airport Sunday night.

Officials said it took four people to break up the fight.

Fox News' Michael Lee, Greg Wehner, Michael Ruiz and Sarah Rumpf-Whitten contributed to this report.
Poland had asked the European Union for an investment of 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) so that Warsaw can increase its capacity for transiting Ukrainian grain, the Polish Press Agency (PAP) reported on Aug. 4.

As the PAP reminded, the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced several months ago that the EU will provide funds for this purpose, but did not reveal specifics. Polish officials presented a detailed description in Brussels of the financial support needed to expand the transit operations, the news agency wrote.

According to a document obtained by the PAP, Poland says it needs around 500 million euros ($550 million) to increase the capacity for truck transport at the Dorohusk-Jagodzin, Hrebenne-Rawa Ruska, and Korczowa-Krakowiec border crossings.

This tranche should also be allocated to expanding the railway infrastructure at the Polish border city of Przemysl.

The other half of the funds should be used for the modernization of railway crossings, building new terminals for trucks, and construction of freight traffic control infrastructure at the border, the PAP reported.

"For a year and a half, we wanted to increase the transit of Ukrainian grain to third countries, especially to Africa," Polish Ambassador to the EU Andrzej Sados told the PAP.

"However, this requires investments and we repeated our concrete requests to the (European) Commission to increase the capacity of the infrastructure," he added.

Read also: This Week in Ukraine Ep. 17  Black Sea grain deal is dead. What can Ukraine do?

Sados also said that Poland facilitated the transit of record-breaking 260,000 metric tons of wheat and corn in June, which is more than double the volume transited in March (120,000 metric tons).

Following Russia's withdrawal from the Black Sea Grain Initiative and its attacks against Ukrainian port infrastructure, Kyiv has been seeking alternative routes for its agricultural exports.

Ukraine's grain exports are vital to the world's food supply. Before the full-scale invasion, Ukraine was the fifth-largest wheat exporter globally. The grain deal had allowed for nearly 33 million metric tons of food to be exported through Ukrainian ports while it was in force, according to the U.N.

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The EU pledged to increase the capacity of its "solidarity lanes," which facilitated the transit of more than 45 million metric tons of Ukrainian agricultural products since May 2022. Several member states, such as Romania and Croatia, have also agreed to use their infrastructure to aid Ukraine's exports.

Both Poland and Romania are among the five EU members who requested the European Commission to ban the domestic sale of Ukrainian grain products in these countries, currently set to expire on Sep. 15. However, this measure did not restrict the transit of Ukrainian produce through their territories.

Read also: Polish PM: Poland will not open border to Ukrainian grain if EU ban not extended

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New satellite images have been posted online showing the damaged Russian landing ship Olenegorskiy Gornyak in the port of Novorossiysk.

Source: Radio Liberty

Details: The media published a satellite image of the large landing ship Olenegorskiy Gornyak, damaged on Friday night as a result of an attack by a Ukrainian uncrewed surface vessel (USV) in the port of Novorossiysk.

The photo, in particular, shows a dark liquid (possibly fuel or oil) flowing from the ship.

Background: Explosions occurred in the Russian city of Novorossiysk on the night of 3-4 August. The Russian Defence Ministry reported an attack by two USVs.

The Security Service of Ukraine conducted a special operation in Novorossiysk Bay, Russia, and a USV damaged the Olenegorskiy Gornyak, a large Russian landing ship.

Reference: Olenegorskiy Gornyak is a large Russian landing ship built in Polish Gdansk in 1976. Based in the Northern Fleet, it is part of the 121st brigade of landing ships. In 2007, it was considered the best landing ship of the Northern Fleet of the Russian Federation.

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A Russian landing craft stationed in Novorossiysk was damaged by a surface drone in a joint operation between the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the Ukrainian Navy, CNN and several Ukrainian media reported on Aug. 4, citing unnamed sources in the SBU.

A Ukrainian surface drone loaded with 450 kilograms of explosives reportedly rammed into Russian Ropucha-class landing vessel "Olenegorskiy Gornyak," causing serious damage.

Kyiv has not issued an official comment.

Meanwhile, Ukraine's Southern Command spokesperson Nataliia Humeniuk said earlier on Aug. 4 that the attack against the Russian Novorossiysk naval base was possibly a provocation to undermine Ukraine's commitment to naval security.

The Russian Defense Ministry reported on the morning of Aug. 4 that two Ukrainian surface boats were destroyed while attempting to attack a Black Sea naval base in Novorossiysk in the Krasnodar region. Russia claimed that the incident resulted in no casualties or damage.

According to Humeniuk, the situation was presented by Russia in such a fashion as to portray Ukraine as a country unable to ensure maritime security.

"We should remember that we are fighting a hybrid war, and Russia can use information means very often to portray itself as a victim," Humeniuk said.

The Russian Defense Ministry also reported that 13 Ukrainian drones were eliminated over occupied Crimea, again reporting no damage or casualties. Humeniuk did not confirm that Ukraine is responsible but pointed out that Feodosia, where the incident reportedly took place, hosts oil storages for the Russian Black Sea Fleet.

The South Command spokesperson added that given the logistical value of places like Feodosia, explosions are likely to continue.

Read also: Ukraine war latest: More explosions reported in occupied Crimea

Recent weeks saw frequent reports of attacks against the occupied peninsula. On Aug. 1, the Russian occupation authorities in Crimea reported explosions around the major naval city of Sevastopol.

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Ukraine's military intelligence (HUR) said that the tension between pro-Ukrainian residents of Crimea and the Russian occupation forces is rising, as the former "systematically" target Russian bases with Molotov cocktails.

The HUR also reported on the destruction of ammunition warehouses on the peninsula on July 28.

In late June, Ukraine used missiles to hit the bridges over the Chonhar Strait, connecting the peninsula to Kherson Oblast, and on July 17, the Crimean Bridge over the Kerch Strait was damaged as well.

While Kyiv does not generally claim responsibility for incidents on the occupied peninsula, Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said that Ukraine will continue to attack targets in Crimea to reduce Russia's fighting capacity and "help save the lives of Ukrainians."

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A new study of tree rings in Scandinavia is helping to resolve a longstanding question about the Medieval Warm Period.

Past studies of tree rings had indicated that the Medieval period was as warm or warmer than today, but climate models found otherwise. Climate deniers have long pointed to the tree-ring data to suggest the current period of warming is not without precedent.

The new tree-ring study, which used more precise methods than prior research, agrees with the climate models.

For the study, researchers gathered data from 188 Scots pines, both living and dead, in Sweden and Finland. While past studies largely looked only at the width and density of rings, the new study analyzed tree rings at a microscopic level, examining 50 million tree cells to infer changes in temperature  cell walls tend to grow thicker in hotter weather, which is why a darker layer of each ring forms in late summer.

Researchers used the tree ring data to reconstruct summer temperatures, finding that Scandinavia is now warmer than at any point in the past 1,200 years. The findings, published in Nature, line up with the climate models, highlighting the impact of human-caused warming.

This means that there are now two independent accounts of the regional climate that both find lower temperatures during the Medieval, providing new evidence that this phase was not as warm as previously thought, lead author Jesper Bjorklund, of the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow, and Landscape Research, said in a statement. Instead, both show that the current warming is unprecedented, at least in the past millennium.

ALSO ON YALE E360

The Upper Atmosphere Is Cooling, Prompting New Climate Concerns
[Source]

Meet Flossie Wong-Staal, a Chinese American virologist and molecular biologist who left an indelible mark on the field of HIV and AIDS research.

An early passion for science: Born Yee Ching Wong on August 27, 1946, in Guangzhou, China, Wong-Staal was 6 years old when her family fled to Hong Kong after the Chinese Communist Revolution.

Growing up, she developed a passion for science, eventually attending the University of California, Los Angeles, where she earned a bachelor's degree in bacteriology in 1968 and a doctorate in molecular biology in 1972.

Making her mark: In the 1970s, she moved to Maryland with her husband, Steven Staal, and joined the National Cancer Institute (NCI). There, she worked with Robert Gallo, a prominent scientist studying retroviruses.

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Among her early accomplishments, Wong-Staal provided crucial evidence that the human T-lymphotropic virus could cause cancer, challenging prior beliefs. Her contributions led to her appointment as the section chief of the NCI Laboratory of Tumor Cell Biology.

Pioneering work: Wong-Staals most groundbreaking work came in the 1980s, with the rise of the AIDS epidemic. Collaborating with Gallo, Wong-Staal became the first scientist to clone HIV and determine the function of its genes, ultimately proving that HIV causes AIDS.

This achievement facilitated the development of HIV blood tests and therapies. Her research also revealed the challenges posed by HIV's genetic diversity, which led to the use of "drug cocktails" to manage AIDS.

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Working with this virus is like putting your hand in a treasure chest," Wong-Staal was quoted by Gallo as saying. "Every time you put your hand in, you pull out a gem.

In 1990, Wong-Staal founded the Center for AIDS Research at the University of California, San Diego, and later co-founded Immusol, a biopharmaceutical company. After spending more years contributing to HIV research, she eventually shifted her focus to hepatitis C.

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Lasting legacy: Wong-Staal's brilliance throughout her career earned her numerous awards and accolades. She was named the most-cited female scientist of the 1980s and was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 2019.

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Despite her tragic passing at the age of 73 due to complications of pneumonia on July 8, 2020, her groundbreaking AIDS research continues to influence current virology studies, including the fight against COVID-19.

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Prince Albert of Monaco has four children with three different women. Gisela Schober/Getty Images; Foc Kan/FilmMagic/Getty Images; Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

Prince Albert of Monaco has four children with three different women.

Jazmin Grace Grimaldi and Alexandre Grimaldi-Coste were born before he married Princess Charlene.

Here's a look at the royal's immediate family.

The royal family of Monaco is headed by Prince Albert II and his wife of twelve years, Princess Charlene.

They share two children: Prince Jacques and Princess Gabriella, who are first and second in line to the throne. However, Albert also has two children from two previous relationships with women that he never married.

Here's a look at the royal's immediate family.

Jazmin Grace Grimaldi, 31, is Prince Albert's eldest daughter, but she has no claim to the throne of Monaco

Prince Albert II of Monaco and his daughter Jazmin Grace Grimaldi watch the Monte-Carlo ATP Masters Series Tournament on April 19, 2018, in Monaco. YANN COATSALIOU/AFP/Getty Images

Jazmin Grace Grimaldi was born in California on March 4, 1992, and grew up in the United States.

Her mother, Tamara Rotolo, came from a working-class background and reportedly worked as a waitress before she met Albert.

The Los Angeles Times, which cited European press releases at the time Grimaldi was revealed to be Albert's daughter, reported that her parents met while Rotolo was vacationing in the Cote d'Azur region of France, near Monaco.

The Los Angeles Times reported in 2006 that Rotolo filed a lawsuit in 1992, the same year Grimaldi was born, alleging that Albert had fathered her daughter and that she was seeking child support from the royal. However, a Riverside County Superior Court judge dismissed it on jurisdictional grounds.

In 2001, Rotolo filed a malpractice suit in Los Angeles against her attorney, claiming they had not advised her to file a paternity suit in Monaco before 1994 in order to maintain her legal rights. Grimaldi met her father for the first time in 2004 when she was 11 years old.

Grimaldi's parentage was finally publicly confirmed in 2006.

The 31-year-old, whose middle name comes from her paternal grandmother Grace Kelly, has worked for several years as a professional actress and has appeared in critically acclaimed shows like "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel."

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Grimaldi and her father now appear to share a close relationship, and she has been photographed alongside him and his family multiple times.

Alexandre Grimaldi-Coste, 19, is Prince Albert's second-eldest child

Nicole Coste Alexandre Grimaldi-Coste in 2021. Foc Kan/FilmMagic/Getty Images

Alexandre Grimaldi-Coste was born on August 24, 2003, and is the son of Prince Albert and Nicole Coste. Albert and Coste met while she was working as an Air France flight attendant. The pair dated for five years, but called it quits roughly two years before he wed Princess Charlene.

According to Tatler, news of Alexandre's parentage was made public two months after Albert took the throne after the passing of his father, Prince Rainier.

In a 2005 interview with Paris-Match, Coste claimed that her 2-year-old son was Albert's and that he was supporting them with an unofficial allowance and allowing them to live in his Parisian apartment, according to the New York Times.

"I'm not a gold digger," she told Paris-Match. "I wish simply that he would assume some of his responsibilities."

On July 6, 2005, days before he was officially crowned the ruler of Monaco, Prince Albert confirmed that Alexandre was his son.

It appears now that Albert and his son, who is working as a model, share a close relationship.

In a 2021 interview with Paris-Match, Coste spoke about her son's relationship with his father and his other three children warmly.

"I always make sure that they spend pleasant and fraternal moments together," she said of Alexandre's relationship with his older half-sister. "As for Jacques and Gabriella, they are still small; Alexander happily plays with them when he sees them."

Prince Albert and Princess Charlene share twins Prince Jacques and Princess Gabriella, who are first and second in line to the throne

Princess Charlene of Monaco and Prince Albert II of Monaco with children Prince Jacques of Monaco and Princess Gabriella of Monaco in 2019. Stephane Cardinale/Corbis/Corbis/Getty Images

Prince Albert is the son of Prince Rainier III and the actress Grace Kelly, who died in a car accident in 1982.

Prince Albert and Princess Charlene's nuptials in 2011 were one of the most lavish and expensive royal weddings ever. According to Insider, their three-day wedding in 2011 cost an estimated $70 million, with celebrity guests like Karl Lagerfeld and Naomi Campbell in attendance.

Prince Jacques and Princess Gabriella were born on December 10, 2014.

Jacques, who is next in line to the throne, is actually a few minutes younger than his twin sister Gabriella.

However, under the constitution of Monaco, the throne passes down with preference to male heirs. It is only if a female heir has no eligible brothers or brothers with surviving male descendants that she will take the throne.

The twins have been photographed with both of their older siblings over the years.

"I can't wait to be a sister to them and watch them grow up," Jazmin Grace Grimaldi told Harper's Bazaar in 2015. "They have these beautiful, big blue eyes  and they are both already so well-behaved!"

Read the original article on Insider
After the band played Miles Davis "Seven Steps to Heaven," and an effusive introduction from the head of the school, Window Snyder stands in front of a hall filled with around 800 students at her old high school to receive an alumni award. Some of the students have a plastic spoon stuck to their noses, part of an end-of-the-year traditional school game  basically a game of tag  for seniors called Assassin. Most of them have their eyes set on the special guest.

Snyder is emotional. She hesitates, and has a hard time starting her speech. Once she does, she opens up about how much she struggled when she got here, to Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, Connecticut, after leaving her mom and her life in California back in 1989.

At one point, Snyder recalls, her advisor asked her: Are you sure this is the right place for you? Maybe you will be happier back home, somewhere else.

But Snyder was sure, and it paid off.

I never worked so hard for anything in my life. And then after leaving Choate, nothing was ever hard again, Snyder tells the students. And its not because I didnt do hard things. I knew how to get hard things done.

That may be an understatement.

In her nearly 25-year career in cybersecurity, Snyder was part of a group of people who pushed Microsoft in the early days of the mainstream internet to finally take cybersecurity seriously by embracing the notion that security needed to be part of the software development cycle  not bolted on afterward  and played a significant role in developing the first versions of the Windows operating systems that implemented that idea. She also helped convince the company that outside researchers, who were keen on pointing out flaws in Microsofts products, were actually allies, not enemies.

Having helped secure Windows, the operating system used by hundreds of millions of people in the world  and after a stint at another security consultancy and leading Mozillas security team at a time when users considered Firefox the secure alternative to Internet Explorer  Snyder moved to Microsofts then-biggest competitor.

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In Cupertino, she managed Apples privacy and security teams. There, as part of a project she called Apple Doesnt Have Your Data, she successfully lobbied and worked on enabling encryption by default in all Apple-made computers, iPhones and iPads, and iMessage, helping lay the foundations for the companys reputation as a cybersecurity giant.

At the cloud computing company Fastly, Snyder built the security team and helped secure what she says was around 10% of internet traffic, which passed through Fastlys infrastructure at the time. She has also worked at Intel, the payment company Square and she got her start at the legendary and pioneering cybersecurity startup @stake.

People don't realize that Window is responsible for starting so many positive security improvements at major corporations that blazed a trail for other corporations to follow in their footsteps, says Katie Moussouris, a veteran of the hacking scene and now CEO and founder of Luta Security.

It's not just her work at Microsoft, it's that she basically revolutionized security for the entire internet with her work there, Moussouris adds. She is more responsible for more technical and social changes inside of software companies than anybody else I know.

A lot of the big companies who are now doing things that seem obvious to them in retrospect, [its] because she went in and changed what they did, says Dave Aitel, a well-known cybersecurity expert who worked with Snyder at @stake. Her legacy is about changing big companies and moving big ships.

Those who know her or have worked with her call Snyder trailblazing, intelligent, impressive, technical, brilliant, driven, thoughtful, relentless, remarkable, wicked smart, professional, a leader, humble and like a swan  so graceful on the surface, but paddling like hell underneath.

As she admitted in her speech at Choate, however, getting where she is wasnt always easy.



A picture of Window Snyder and Katie Moussouris, circa 2007.

A picture of Window Snyder and Katie Moussouris, circa 2007. Image Credits: Katie Moussouris (supplied)

Snyder was born in 1975 in New Jersey to an American father and a Kenyan-born mother. It was from her mom, Wayua Muasa, where she got her determination and love for technology, Snyder tells me.

Muasa, who was raised in Machakos in rural Kenya, was part of the Akamba people, and had a humble upbringing. Growing up, for example, Muasa shared the same sweater with her sister. She would wear it in the morning, and then her sister would wear it in the afternoon when she went to school. Years later, she received a scholarship to attend university in Boston in the mid-1960s, arriving in the U.S. just as the civil rights movement was igniting.

"She worked incredibly hard to make sure I have every opportunity that was available to my education," Snyder said.

When she raised Snyder, Muasa transitioned from teaching to working as a mainframe software engineer. After she taught herself how to code, Muasa wrote in COBOL, a coding language invented in 1959. When Snyder was five, Muasa brought home a Texas Instruments 99/4A, a popular home computer at the time.

I have these wonderful memories of her sitting at the kitchen table with a stack of  just a huge stack of green bar printouts. And her flipping through and debugging with a pencil at the kitchen table in the evening, Snyder says.

Computers had been part of Snyders life since she was little. Growing up, she says, she used to do basic programming on her mothers computers. When she got to Choate, computers werent much of a novelty and they simply felt like a tool. So, she cultivated other interests, and had different ambitions than getting into technology.

I thought I was going to be a writer, I was very excited about literature classes, and I was excited about the arts, and I was into theater and I was singing, Snyder says.

During high school, Snyder says she was also into photography and spent a lot of her free time in the photo lab, and was the photo editor for the yearbook.

She basically revolutionized security for the entire internet. Katie Moussouris

But then she went to Boston College in the early-1990s, where she decided to study computer science and mathematics. Even though she initially had no idea that there were others out there with an interest in hacking, at the time the city's hacker scene was burgeoning, especially around the MIT campus.

Snyder began frequenting first bulletin boards and then IRC chat channels, such as #NewHackCity, and started playing with a computer made by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) that ran Ultrix, an operating system that was designed to be operated by multiple users.

Thats when Snyder had, perhaps, her first hacker inspiration.

My question was: what's keeping my data separate from everyone else's? What's keeping my process separate from the kernel? Snyder recalled asking herself, referring to the core part of the computer, which controls almost all the other processes running on the machine.

This led to her obsession with studying and taking apart DEC computers  so much so that she later named her cat Digital Equipment Corporation, who passed away in 2016 after living an impressive 20 years.

I was just inhaling as much information about the operating system as I could, taking operating systems classes and learning about these things, and then building tools to try and circumvent these security mechanisms, Snyder says.

To truly understand how those computers worked, she needed to get her hands on them, which wasnt easy since they were already a bit dated. Some of them she found on eBay, and some at the MIT flea market, where a group of young hackers who went by L0pht  now considered one of the most influential hacker groups in the U.S.  often hung out and sold hardware they didnt need.

In his recent book, Cris Thomas, whos known as Space Rogue and was one of the original members of L0pht, recalled meeting Snyder at the flea market. Thomas writes that he and the others had several computers made by DEC that they had little use for, among them, a MicroVAX II model from 1985. At the time, the group had an internet bulletin board  a precursor to online forums  where they would post what hardware they were going to bring to the flea market. Snyder, however, saw a post on a different bulletin board, where the MicroVAX II caught her attention.

Are you the guys with the VAX? Thomas remembers Snyder asking when she approached them.

Thomas wrote that he was taken aback, as Snyder didnt look like most of the people at the flea market.

I was a little stunned at first, not understanding what it was she was asking for; Id heard VAX and was thinking about one of the huge ones still back at the L0pht, and she didnt quite match the ripped jeans, dirty t-shirt, and black-leather-jacket cyberpunk aesthetic of most of the other people at The Flea, he wrote.

Despite her looks, she was one of them, a hacker. At the time, she went by the online handle RosieRiv, or Rosie the Riveter, a feminist and empowerment icon.



It didnt take Snyder long to graduate from hacker to cybersecurity professional, becoming the tenth employee at one of the first cybersecurity consultancy companies in the U.S., called @stake, at the end of the 1990s.

The company comprised a whos who of hackers, many now among the most well-respected in the world, such as ex-Facebook chief security officer Alex Stamos; the operational security expert the Grugq; Peiter Mudge Zatko, who worked at DARPA and Twitter; Aitel, the founder of Immunity and the Infiltrate conference; and Moussouris, who would go on to become a pioneer of bug bounties.

One of the companys most important customers was Microsoft, at the time the biggest software maker in the world. Chris Wysopal, also known as Weld Pond from his L0pht days, worked with Snyder at @stake. Wysopal says he remembers that whenever Microsoft called, the @stake folks would say let's send in the dream team, and that included Snyder.

During those years, Snyder also worked with Frank Swiderski, with whom she would later write a book about threat modeling, a cybersecurity process by which one identifies, communicates and understands the threats that an organization or a specific software faces, and finds solutions to handle them. Threat modeling is now a standard process throughout not only cybersecurity, but tech in general. At the time, it was a novel concept, and while Snyder and Swiderski didnt invent it, they certainly were among the first to codify it.

It was designed to allow someone to very quickly understand where the areas of greatest vulnerability or greatest opportunity were for the attacker, Snyder says. Looking at entry points, tracing data flows through the system, you can do it with the developer who is familiar with the system. And then it helps you prioritize which things you should be working on.

Threat modeling was one of the methodologies Snyder codified at @stake. Another one being whats called the security development lifecycle, a framework with which developers take into account security and privacy from the beginning and alongside the development of the app or system theyre working on.

At the time, these were pioneering concepts.

Wysopal says, Back then, I feel like we were both learning how to take our interest in hacking and sort of adversarial ways of looking at things, and professionalizing that as pen testers and threat modelers, and selling those services to companies.

So, I feel like at that point in time, she was instrumental in developing how to professionalize a lot of those services, Wysopal says.

Frank Heidt, another one of Snyders @stake colleagues, says that one of the things that Window did was bring this kind of discipline to everything, methodologies, written down, disciplined, repeatable methodologies.

She was like a pioneer for our industry. None of this existed, Heidt adds.

Snyder and Swiderski impressed Microsofts executives so much that the software giant poached them and brought them on board, with the goal of bringing their knowledge of threat modeling and the security development lifecycle to Redmond.



Window Snyder poses in front of a building at her old high school, Choate Rosemary Hall.

Window Snyder poses in front of a building at her old high school, Choate Rosemary Hall. Image Credits: Ben Hancock/TechCrunch

When Snyder and Swiderski joined Microsoft, the company was struggling with viruses and the perception that it wasnt taking security seriously. These were the times when hackers released a tool for hacking Microsoft Windows called Back Orifice live onstage at the hacking conference Def Con as a way to taunt and embarrass the software giant. In response to the negative attention, Microsoft's then-chairman Bill Gates launched the so-called "Trustworthy Computing Initiative," an effort to put the security of the user at the forefront of all Microsoft employees.

At Microsoft, Snyder was an integral part of the security teams that worked on introducing a raft of new security features, such as a firewall, security checks in its email app Outlook Express and several improvements for Internet Explorer, in Windows XP Service Pack 2, released in 2004, as well as Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, released in 2005.

For the latter, Snyder was chosen to represent the security team at the daily meetings  called the war room  where representatives for all the teams working on the operating system met to discuss progress, issues and potential solutions. At the time, Snyder was still a junior employee, so it was unusual that she was chosen to go to these meetings.

It was an assignment that one would give to a senior program manager. We were relying on her to basically represent the security team in the day to day decision making as the release came to completion, says Steve Lipner, who was Microsofts director of security assurance and Snyder's manager at the time. That was a responsible position and she did a good job.

Clyde Rodriguez, who headed the engineering effort for the Windows XP Professional x64 Edition operating system and the war room meetings, says Snyder was one of the most critical partners that he had in that project, because he had a high degree of trust in her judgment.

Thats why Rodriguez says he always made sure teams proposing significant changes would consult Snyder to understand the security implications of their proposals.

She was like a pioneer for our industry. None of this existed. Frank Heidt

Many times I would not accept anything unless Window said it was okay, Rodriguez recalls. There were others who also had an influential impact. But Window was one of them.

When they were very close to finalizing development, Rodriguez remembers that Snyder was one of the last people he wanted to get the final thumbs up from.

Do you think this is ready? And ultimately, when she said yes, I felt confident in going ahead, Rodriguez says.

At the same time, Snyder also successfully pitched Microsoft executives about holding a cybersecurity event inside the company. She called the event Blue Hat, a play on the term "black hat"  cybersecurity lingo for hackers with malicious intentions  and the fact that only people with a blue Microsoft badge could attend it. During the event, outside security researchers would come to Redmond and tell both executives and employees what security researchers do and how they found vulnerabilities in the companys products. Blue Hat would later go on to become a full-fledged public conference that is still running and attracts hundreds of attendees every year.

Window was the person that I always thought more than anybody else convinced the company: No, these are people that may do it in a smarter way than you may, but are trying to help make your product better', Lipner says.

Snyder's work at Microsoft was noticed across the industry.

As a security researcher outside of Microsoft it was her work that made us all grumble and groan because a lot of things were now impossible to do on the newest versions of the operating system, Moussouris says.

And, Moussouris says, making Windows more secure at a time when the operating system had a near monopoly meant securing the whole internet.



In 2010, after working at the consultancy Matasano and later Mozilla, Snyder joined Apple, where she was the only product manager responsible for the privacy and security of all Apple products.

Andrew Whalley, who worked on the security engineering team at Apple from 2010 until 2016, says that when Snyder joined, she brought to Cupertino the very user-centric security and privacy mindset that she championed at Microsoft and Mozilla.

Three years after the launch of the first iPhone, Apple was starting to grapple with the reality that people were putting their whole lives on those devices. These circumstances required radical solutions to keep peoples data safe.

Snyders idea was essentially to reduce the amount of user data Apple had access to.

If the data's on your infrastructure, if you're the custodian of that data, then you have a duty to protect it, and protecting it is hard. So let's minimize our own access to it, as a method for creating better security solutions, Snyder remembers thinking.

Jon Callas, a veteran cryptography and security expert who worked at Apple at the time, says Snyder helped change the conversation inside the company.

That focus on user level security, which is now front and center at Apple and Google in terms of what they do with iOS and Android, Callas says, that mode of thought goes back to the sorts of things that she was pushing in the late 2000s and early 2010s.

Snyder advocated for and worked on some of the most important new security features that Apple would ever launch. Among those include making its flagship messaging app iMessage end-to-end encrypted  even before apps like Signal and WhatsApp did it  so that nobody else, not even Apple, could read a person's private conversations.

Under Snyder's watch, Apple made full disk encryption, called FileVault, the default for macOS computers, making it considerably harder to access data on a powered-down MacBook with a strong FileVault password. Microsofts equivalent for Windows (called BitLocker), on the other hand, was for many years geared toward companies and enterprises, and not enabled by default.

And, during Snyders tenure, Apple made almost all the data inside a person's iPhone encrypted unless the phone is unlocked with only a passcode known by its owner. After this change, if anyone loses their iPhone and its protected by a relatively strong passcode, its virtually impossible to access its contents unless you have the resources of a law enforcement or intelligence agency. In practice, this made stealing iPhones much less attractive.

The last development was especially significant, according to Callas.

While it is not perfect, it is nonetheless true that for the vast majority of people, let's say, I could hand you my phone, walk away, and come back in three hours and have confidence that you hadn't gotten anything, Callas says. This is so significant that it creates the world that we're dealing with now, which is things like there are special devices like [iPhone hacking tool] GreyKey and other things that people use to unlock phones.

This feature has been controversial in law enforcement circles, with the FBI fighting Apple in court to force the company to build a tool to unlock the iPhone of the San Bernardino shooter. Eventually, a zero-day maker sold the FBI an exploit to unlock the phone.

The FBI would not have needed that had Window not worked at Apple, Moussouris says. She's the reason why Apple technology is that much harder to break into.

Once Apple pushed these innovations out to consumers, other companies like Google followed suit, turning encryption on by default on its Android devices.

Shes the reason why Apple technology is that much harder to break into. Katie Moussouris

In line with Apples notorious culture of secrecy, when Snyder joined the company, a lot of the work done by the security team wasn't advertised outside of Apple. At the time, most of the iPhones security features were documented by early jailbreakers, a ragtag group of hackers who were obsessed with getting around the iPhones security mechanisms and sharing their knowledge publicly.

Snyder and others thought Apple was letting people outside the company drive the narrative about the security of the iPhone at a time when Apple engineers were making significant advancements in the state of the art of mobile security  and were very proud of it.

Thats why in 2012 she convinced the companys higher ups to publish the first-ever whitepaper on iOS security, which detailed all the security mechanisms included in the iPhone.

There was definitely a feeling amongst the security people within Apple that we had a really good, secure product, Whalley says. That we had been doing the right thing for the users and the product, and the missing piece was talking about it.

The next year, Snyder was part of the push to make macOS upgrades free, which meant that security updates were also free for anyone with an Apple computer.

The world that we are in now, where we take things for granted about the security of our laptops, our phones, and everything, owes a huge debt to the fact that she was quiet and relentless in advocating for these things, and exploited the willingness of management to listen, Callas says. Her influence in the late 2000s at Apple is absolutely instrumental in seeing ubiquitous security today.



Window Snyder talks to students at her old high school, Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, Connecticut.

Window Snyder talks to students at her old high school, Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, Connecticut. Image Credits: Choate Rosemary Hall/Flickr

After a career helping secure some of the most popular software and hardware in the world, Snyder is now going it alone with her new startup called Thistle Technologies, which she launched in 2020. Her new goal: securing the diverse and disparate world of internet-connected devices that are starting to be ubiquitous inside our homes, as well as inside critical infrastructure networks  often referred to as the Internet of Things, or IoT.

These devices  think smart light bulbs, routers, thermostats, baby monitors but also water treatment and energy plant controllers  have varying levels of security. Often, however, they are insecure by default. Perhaps thats because they lack a mechanism to update remotely or automatically to patch vulnerabilities. Sometimes its because they have default, hardcoded credentials that are easy to guess, such as admin and password.

To secure them, Snyder says she is building a set of tools, libraries and backup services that developers can quickly incorporate into their devices to get to a modern security architecture really quickly. In other words, Thistle is an easy-to-deploy security infrastructure that IoT makers can just plug in and almost forget about.

She's trying to change the whole industry. Dave Aitel

The goal was to try and take on this industry wide problem, which is that device security is incredibly inconsistent. And in places where it's implemented, it might not be implemented to the degree of resilience that's required for the threats these devices are up against, Snyder says. That is a way to make it easy to bring the security functionality, sophisticated security work to device developers to allow them to not have to worry about the security plumbing, incorporate it easily, and then get back to developing the customer facing features that are their bread and butter.

Aitel says this shows once again how ambitious Snyder can be.

She's trying to change the whole industry, the industry of those stupid routers that we all have, and they have no security update, and we never thought they would, he says.

For Snyder, this was the natural next step to take.

If we focus on accessibility, if we focus on opportunity, if we focus on democratizing the security functionality, then we will all benefit from that kind of work, she says. And that's what we're hoping to do at Thistle Technologies. And it really feels like that's what I've been trying to do my entire career.



As a Black woman in cybersecurity, Snyder has been an inspiration for a whole generation of hackers who may not fit the stereotypical mold of a dude with a hoodie and a bunch of stickers on his laptop.

Lodrina Cherne, a forensics instructor at the cybersecurity training organization SANS, and who is a woman of color, remembers finally meeting Snyder in 1999 at the hacking conference Def Con in Las Vegas after having heard a lot about her online.

I've used her and certainly other role models I met at the same time, other women who have since gone on to do really great things in the last 20 years through today, as examples for the belief that I hold very strongly, and the belief that I pass on to my mentees, Cherne says. That it doesn't really matter what a cybersecurity professional today looks like, or what you think a cybersecurity professional should be.

Obviously, theres still a lot of work the industry can do in this department. And its taken a lot of sacrifice from people like Snyder, who have been breaking the glass ceiling for others.

If I had realized how few women I would have met in my professional capacity, I would have chosen something else. If I had realized how alienated I would feel in these communities, I would have chosen something else, Snyder says. And the hacking community is incredibly racist and misogynist, and thats an awful place to be in.

But thanks to her passion for hacking, and her decision to stay in the industry, make a difference and have an impact, others can follow in her footsteps.

For somebody like me, Cherne says, it's very obvious how huge her influence has been. I think others could certainly recognize it.

Others are definitely seeing it.

After receiving the alumni award, and delivering her speech in front of the students, Snyder walks through the college-like campus of her old high school, almost 30 years after she graduated, when a young Black student sheepishly approaches and waves at her.

The student thanks Snyder for the speech she gave earlier that day. She says shes on the schools robotics team, and seeing a Black woman like Snyder succeed in a field where there are so few Black women was inspiring.

Snyder smiles, holds both of her hands on her chest, and says: Thank you.

Window Snyder, founder and CEO of Thistle Technologies, will be a guest on Found Live at Disrupt in San Francisco on September 21. Get your tickets here and use discount code FOUND.
Meghan Markle in Dusseldorf, Germany, on September 6, 2022. Samir Hussein/WireImage

Meghan Markle once wrote about how her dad used a Barbie set to help her celebrate being biracial.

Writing for Elle in 2016, Meghan said her dad made a custom Barbie set with Black and white dolls.

At the time, Meghan wrote that you could only buy Black or white dolls for the set she wanted.

In the Barbieland of Greta Gerwig's "Barbie" movie, the dolls represent a range of skin tones and sizes.

And in real life, Mattel has made efforts to make its dolls more inclusive in recent years. But for decades, there were only white Barbies.

Meghan Markle  whose mother, Doria Ragland, is Black, and father, Thomas Markle, is white  wrote about her experience growing up in a 2016 op-ed for Elle UK titled "Meghan Markle: I'm More Than An 'Other.'"

The now-duchess said she could only find white or Black dolls in the Barbie collection she wanted, so her dad got creative and customized a set of dolls to create a family that looked like their own.

Meghan explained she was a fan of Mattel's The Heart Family collection as a child, a collection created in 1985 and featuring a family of four, according to The Strong National Museum of Play.

"This perfect nuclear family was only sold in sets of white dolls or black dolls. I don't remember coveting one over the other, I just wanted one," the former actor wrote in the op-ed.

"On Christmas morning, swathed in glitter-flecked wrapping paper, there I found my Heart Family: a black mom doll, a white dad doll, and a child in each colour," Meghan continued. "My dad had taken the sets apart and customised my family."

Meghan Markle and her mom Doria Ragland arriving at her royal wedding on May 19, 2018. Richard Heathcote/Getty Images

Meghan wrote that her parents encouraged her to celebrate being biracial, even though she says she sometimes didn't feel represented.

"I was too young at the time to know what it was like for my parents, but I can tell you what it was like for me  how they crafted the world around me to make me feel like I wasn't different but special," Meghan wrote.

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In her essay, Meghan wrote about completing a mandatory census in her English class at school. She wrote that the census only had four options for ethnicity  white, Black, Hispanic or Asian  and she didn't select any of the options after her teacher instructed her to select Caucasian.

"When I went home that night, I told my dad what had happened," she wrote. "He said the words that have always stayed with me: 'If that happens again, you draw your own box.'"

Meghan and her father have been estranged since he staged paparazzi photos ahead of Meghan and Harry's royal wedding in 2018.

Nonetheless, Thomas has continued to speak publicly about Meghan through the years.

In a video shared to YouTube in 2022, Thomas said he once argued with a doctor about how Meghan's race should be listed on her birth certificate.

"I even had to argue with the doctor, and have him write that she was mixed on the birth certificate, because he wanted to mark down 'Black,'" Thomas said in the video. "I had no problem with Black or white, but in my mind, it should have been mixed."

Thomas Markle. Remarkable Friendship/YouTube

Mattel now lets customers mix and match Barbie dolls

While Meghan wrote that her dad customized her Barbie family by buying two sets in the '80s, today customers can choose from dolls in a "mix up the toy box" section on Mattel's website, which offers mix-and-match toys from various sets representing a range of skin tones, abilities, and sizes.

However, Mattel's offerings haven't always been as inclusive. As a timeline of the doll's evolution on Barbie Media shows, the brand's first Black doll, Christie, debuted in 1968 almost a full decade after the first Barbie was released, and it wasn't until 1980 when the first Black Barbie and first Hispanic Barbie were created.

On its website, Mattel credits itself as having "the most diverse doll line" with 35 skin tones, 97 hairstyles, and nine body types as of August 2023.

Representatives for Mattel and the Duchess of Sussex, respectively, did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Read the original article on Insider
Jaylin McKenzie, 20, was fatally shot by Memphis police on Dec. 16, 2022. His family is demanding more answers and transparency.

Jaylin McKenzie, 20, was fatally shot by Memphis police on Dec. 16, 2022. His family is demanding more answers and transparency.

The Memphis, Tennessee, police officer who fatally shot Jaylin McKenzie, a 20-year-old Black man, during a traffic stop in December did not turn on his body camera during the encounter, a violation of policy that the department has not publicly acknowledged, according to internal files obtained by HuffPost.

The officer, Nahum Dorme, who has not been publicly identified previously, also violated policy by not telling a dispatcher or supervisor that he had been involved in a vehicle pursuit. A note in the files indicates that Dorme received a written reprimand for both violations.

On December 16, 2022, you were involved in a foot pursuit and attempted to detain the suspect, who fired shots at you. You returned fire in self-defense, however; the incident was not caught on your BWC, reads a comment in the files HuffPost obtained, referring to the officers body-worn camera. (Police have not released evidence that McKenzie fired first, as the officer claimed.)

In your [Inspectional Services Bureau] statement, you advised your BWC was functioning properly, but you turned it off while loading up your squad car and forgot to turn it back on. Your BWC should be on and in-stand by mode while you are conducting official police duties. You failed to do that, and it did not capture a critical incident.

The files do not use McKenzies name, but the date and details of the incident they describe align with McKenzies shooting.

The Memphis Police Department did not respond to questions about whether there is any dashcam video or bodycam footage from other officers who were on the scene. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, which is investigating the shooting, declined to confirm the officers identity or comment on whether any bodycam footage of the incident exists.

The department tweeted a statement about the incident hours after it happened, but has not released an official police report.

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A TBI statement about the incident said Memphis police officers on patrol tried to make a traffic stop when they noticed a suspicious vehicle, and that the driver drove off, ending up in a grassy area. There, at least three individuals, including McKenzie, left the vehicle and fled on foot, according to the statement. The bureau says that one officer and the subject exchanged gunfire, resulting in the death of the individual.

No officers on the scene were injured.

John Perry, McKenzies father, holds a program for his son, who was buried just a day before Memphis police pulled over and beat Tyre Nichols.

John Perry, McKenzies father, holds a program for his son, who was buried just a day before Memphis police pulled over and beat Tyre Nichols.

Andrew Stroth, an attorney for McKenzies family, has questioned the police account, noting that neither the MPD nor the TBI have indicated that a gun was recovered at the scene or that bullet casings were found. Additionally, Stroth and the family say McKenzies autopsy did not show any gunshot residue on his body.

Black Lives Matter activists and McKenzies family have pushed the MPD to release bodycam footage of the shooting, and the department has never said whether such footage exists.

Ashley McKenzie-Smith, McKenzies mother, told HuffPost in June that the family had filed record requests for the body-camera footage and had been denied three times. McKenzies family said the police department had not provided them with any updates on the case.

The killing of McKenzie, who had lived in Atlanta and was visiting family in Memphis, occurred about three weeks before Memphis police fatally beat Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old unarmed Black man, at a traffic stop. Nichols death set off nationwide protests and put the MPD in the national spotlight.

Last week, the Department of Justice announced a sweeping probe of the MPD to assess allegations of discriminatory policing toward Black people in the city.

McKenzie-Smith and John Perry, McKenzies father, have organized and participated in protests to raise awareness about the deaths of Nichols and their son.

It was never a fair fight and it is still not a fair fight, Perry told HuffPost in February. With the cops, it is not a fair fight.

Related...
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia and Brunei have concluded their bilateral annual leaders' consultation between Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and Brunei's Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah, who is on a three-day visit to Malaysia.

Among the results of the consultation will be the opening of the Sarawak Trade and Tourism Office (STATO) in the Bruneian capital Bandar Seri Begawan by year end, which will further strengthen tourism cooperation between Brunei and Malaysia's northern Borneo state of Sarawak, both countries said in a joint statement late Thursday.

"The leaders also welcomed the sale of liquified petroleum gas to Brunei from June 16 to July 1, and in this regard, encouraged both sides to strengthen efforts to further enhance economic cooperation between Brunei and the states of Sabah and Sarawak," the statement said.

The leaders reaffirmed the need to pursue greater connectivity between Brunei and Sarawak, and welcomed the proposal to include Brunei in the Northern Coastal Highway, which would contribute to advancing socio-economic benefits for the governments and peoples of Brunei and Malaysia, the statement added.

"The leaders further reaffirmed the importance of strengthening cooperation in disaster management through joint exercises and capacity building program as well as exchanges of expertise and information on disaster preparedness and risk reduction," it said.

Additionally, the two countries signed two memorandums of understanding to strengthen cooperation in the field of youth and sports, as well as in the shariah judiciary. They also signed a treaty on the international transfer of prisoners.

Brunei's Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah is undertaking a state visit to Malaysia on Aug. 2-4. 
The men who trespassed at Winder-Barrow High School on Thursday and caused a lockdown were identified after they were seen later that day trespassing on the campus of Jackson County High School, authorities said.

Jackson County Sheriff Janis Mangum said in a Facebook post that the two suspects were not students at the school in Jefferson and they have been identified as the same individuals who were responsible for the hard lockdown in Barrow County.

She said the men, after they were confronted, returned to their car, which was parked on campus.

Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith said Friday that the suspects, a 21-year-old Lawrenceville man, 20-year-old Norcross man and a 19-year-old Columbus man, are being sought on several charges.

Warrants have been secured charging them with obstruction, trespassing, disruption of a public school and loitering in a school safety zone.

The incident Thursday morning in Barrow County caused a lockdown of the high school and as a precaution the nearby elementary and middle schools were also placed on lockdown.

We are proud to report that all three have been positively identified and are currently facing several criminal charges stemming from the incident. We are now working closely with other area law enforcement agencies to apprehend these individuals, Smith said Friday.

Athens shoppers beware: Thieves eyeing wallets in shopping carts

Lockdown: Winder-Barrow High put on lockdown after trespassers spotted

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Men who caused a Barrow County schools lockdown are identified
miami police guns for ukraine

Professional militaries field standard-issue weapons to streamline logistics and maintenance across the force. Having a wide array of weapons in an army makes supplying ammunition and parts more difficult. However, in a fight for survival, any and all weapons are issued to willing fighters; if it can go bang and shoot a bullet, a military on the ropes isnt too fussy about using different kinds of firearms. To that end, the City of Miami is collecting guns through a voluntary buyback program and sending them to Ukraine.

Zablotskiy poses with rifles sent to Ukraine (Maryan Zablotskiy/Facebook)

Seeking to reduce gun violence, cities and police departments hold events to buy guns off the street. Like in Miami, these buyback programs will take old, new or found guns, no questions asked. In exchange, people receive gift cards. Miamis program offers $50 for handguns and $100 for rifles and shotguns; $150 for firearms chambered in .223, AR-15s and AK-47s. The city clarifies that homemade and replica firearms are not eligible for the buypack program. Airsoft and BB guns do not qualify, either.

https://twitter.com/MiamiPD/status/1538243781228732417?s=20

Partnering with the Ukraine Congress Committee of America, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, Miami expanded its buyback program with Guns 4 Ukraine. Instead of destroying the firearms purchased through buybacks, the city is sending them to Ukraine to arm the nations defenders. We were able to get 68 weapons and firearms off the street, said Miami Police Chief Manny Morales during a June 2022 buyback event. It looks like a few of them, after further examination and work on them, will be fit to send over to our friends in Ukraine.

Firearms purchased or confused by Miami PD in Ukraine (Maryan Zablotskiy/Facebook)

In addition to guns purchased through the buyback program, firearms confiscated by Miami PD were sent to Ukraine. Another charity, the Ukrainian Arsenal of Liberty, coordinated the transfer of the guns from Miami to Ukraine. The first case in the history of the transfer of small arms confiscated in the United States took place, said Ukrainian Parliamentarian and founder of the charity Maryan Zablotskiy in a Facebook post on August 1, 2023. One-hundred-and-one units are already in Kyiv.

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Rifles from Daniel Defense, a U.S. military contractor, sell for over $1000 (Maryan Zablotskiy/Facebook)

The firearms sent to Ukraine are all in working order. Moreover, many appear to be chambered in 5.56x45mm/.223 Remington and 9x19mm. Ukrainian soldiers already widely use these cartridges in firearms provided by NATO and other Western countries. AK-style rifles, chambered in 7.62x39mm or 5.45x39mm, are also easily supported by existing Ukrainian stockpiles of the Soviet/Russian standard ammunition, domestically-produced ammunition and donations from other former Soviet states.

Feature image: Maryan Zablotskiy/Facebook
Michael Spring planted the seeds for the county to blossom into the arts hub it is today.

As the director of the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs for over 30 years and a county official for 40, Spring has been one of the few consistent figures in an ever changing metro area. Hes spearheaded the establishment of community cultural centers across the county. He helped keep arts organizations afloat during the 2008 economic crisis and again during the pandemic. And he secured funding for Miamis flagship downtown arts institutions. It is more than safe to say that he has seen it all.

Now is the perfect time to retire.

Spring, who has worked for the county for more than half his lifetime, will step down at the end of September, he told the Herald. Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava will appoint Marialaura Leslie, the departments current deputy director, as interim director.

Its time, Spring said. Its always great to leave when everything is in great shape.

The department will be left in capable hands, Spring said. Department staff and leadership are great, the mayor and county commission are supportive of the arts, the departments budget has increased by over $7 million and Miamis arts organizations made it out of Covid, he said. Spring is especially confident in Leslie, who really could be a department director anywhere in the country.

I want to express my deep gratitude to Director Spring for his more than four decades of service to Miami-Dade County, during which time he and his team have created and supported an outstanding cultural arts community  renowned and unrivaled for its diversity, vitality and innovation, the mayor said in a memorandum on Friday.

Spring, 71, was born in Brooklyn, New York. He and his family moved to South Florida when he was in the fourth grade, and he graduated as one of five valedictorians at Miami Edison High School in 1970. He attended the University of Miami and New York Universitys study abroad program, which landed him in scenic Venice, Italy.

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His career with the county started in 1983. Time Magazine had just published an article about Miami called Paradise Lost, he recalled. The early 80s were a troubled time in Miami, given the shaky economy, recent race riot and prominent drug trade.

Miami wanted to be a great place. Art was the key.

What does it take to be a great city, a great metropolitan area? Spring said. We had part of the answer. You cant name a great metropolitan area that doesnt have an incredible arts community, right?

Then-Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez (right) and Michael Spring, director of the county Department of Cultural Affairs, with a rendering of a revamped Coconut Grove Playhouse in 2019 after meeting with Miami Mayor Francis Suarez.

The department began to plead its case. In order to attract and retain businesses, tourists and residents, the county needed to prioritize investing in the arts.

Spring, who was promoted from deputy director to director in 1990, has a tried and true playbook on how to advocate for arts funding despite nonbelievers who say that the arts are too frivolous to spend taxpayer money on. Data shows that children, especially those who are at risk, live better lives when they grow up with access to the arts. The arts teach young people problem solving skills and teamwork. A vibrant arts scene creates jobs and stimulates the local economy.

His advocacy worked. Throughout the course of his career, the department secured more than $1 billion in funding for cultural infrastructure, which lead to the construction of the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts. When Spring started as deputy director, there were about 100 arts organizations in Miami-Dade. Today, he said, there are about 1,000.

Springs colleagues credit Miami-Dades transformation with his leadership and dedication.

You have to love what you do in order to stick it out for that long, said Brian May, the Chairman of the Miami-Dade County Cultural Affairs Council. Michael certainly loved every minute of it, and that shows in what was accomplished.

May lauded Spring as the architect of Miami-Dades cultural ecosystem, from its grant programs to Art in Public Places to the construction of several cultural facilities across the country. Given his accomplishments over four decades, May said he figured Springs retirement would happen at some point.

Michael Spring, head of cultural affairs for Miami-Dade County.

Since I took over chairing the council, always in the back of my mind was, Jesus, is he ever gonna retire? Is he ever gonna take a break? May said. I think he feels like the department and the county is in really good condition.

Jorge Perez, the art collector, arts patron and real estate mogul who has worked alongside Spring for decades, said Miami was pretty much a cultural wasteland when Spring started. Not anymore.

While he is happy for Spring to enjoy his retirement, he is also sad for the county. I think were losing one of our great, great assets, Perez said. He is the best, with a capital B.

Not only is he great at promoting culture, hes also great at understanding the economics of culture, he added. Hes not just [someone] that talks about culture in philosophical terms. Hes deeply aware of the money that is needed, the fundraising that is needed, to make art an important part of our everyday lives.

Here are just some of many highlights in Springs career.

Michael Spring, director of Miami-Dade Countys Department of Cultural Affairs.

Spring is especially proud to have helped establish and manage cultural facilities in underserved areas of the county, especially those that are far from the large institutions in downtown Miami.

Theres the Dennis C. Moss Cultural Arts Center in Cutler Bay, which has become a real hub for cultural activities in the south part of the county, he said. And the Sandrell Rivers Theater on Northwest 7th Avenue, which is part of a mixed-used development site. And theres the newly opened Westchester Cultural Arts Center at the entrance of Tropical Park. And the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center in Liberty City, where Tarell Alvin McCraney, who wrote the Academy-award winning film Moonlight, got his start.

In 1988, the Metro-Dade Cultural Affairs Council helped the South Florida Art Center, now known as Oolite Arts, purchase its Lincoln Road location for $684,000 with a $100,000 loan, according to Herald archives. Spring, who was the the deputy director at the time, told the Herald, They need the proper facilities for their art form to flourish.

In 2004, Spring and his department made sure funding for arts projects was included in the $3 billion Building Better Communities Bond Program. A portion of that money went toward the construction of the Perez Art Museum Miami and the Phillip & Patricia Frost Museum of Science.

Spring thanked the cultural affairs department team for making it all possible.

I could keep going on and on, but we helped not only encourage artists to live, work and create new work here and supported the evolution of cultural organizations, but we built this cultural landscape that didnt exist, he said.

Rosie Gordon-Wallace, the founder of local arts nonprofit Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator, said she could take up the whole afternoon discussing the impact Spring has had.

He is the epitome of a leader who surrounds himself with excellence, listens to their advice and is available, she said. When Michael says he has an open-door policy, he has lived it in a very bureaucratic way.

She recalled one dire moment in 2002. Her nonprofit had been hosting its arts programming at Bakehouse Art Complex, but had to leave the space. Gordon-Wallace was at a loss. Her organization did not have the funds to afford a new location. She went to Springs office, wringing her hands and feeling discouraged. She couldve given up right then and there, she said.

Spring made sure that didnt happen, and reminded her that she does important work. She left his office feeling determined. Shortly after, she said, she was connected with real estate developer Craig Robins and secured a spot in the Design District. The transition was so easy. I know I went to Micheal with a bleeding heart and a cup of tears, and I ended up in Craigs favor, she said.

Gordon-Wallace said she is happy for the next chapter in Springs life.

I send him off with an abundance of wishes, she said.

Spring had been thinking about retirement for a few years, but when the pandemic hit, his department went into crisis mode, he said. Now that the county is out of the woods, hes ready to do everything he didnt have time to do while working as director.

He plans to read the books on his list, watch the films hes been putting off, travel to places like his beloved Venice and spend more time with his wife Regina, who retired from her role at Florida International University just before the pandemic.

Shes been having fun this whole time, he said. Now its his turn.

Actually, it feels great, Spring said. I look back and say, I made a difference. I made a difference in this place.

This story was produced with financial support from The Perez Family Foundation, in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners, as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The Miami Herald maintains full editorial control of this work.
Michelle Obama is marking former President Obamas birthday with some warmhearted words for her thoughtful guy  and a call for supporters to flood his inbox with community-minded messages and donations.

The former first lady took to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, on Friday to wish her husband a happy 62nd birthday.

Happy birthday to my favorite thoughtful guy, Obama wrote in a post. Love you, always, @BarackObama, she said, with a snapshot of the ex-president striking a pensive pose.

Michelle Obama also encouraged Obama Foundation supporters in a birthday-themed email to either write a note to Barack about how youre making a difference in your community or to make a contribution to the Obama Foundation to help us empower the next generation of leaders and bring the Obama Presidential Center to life.

The Obama Presidential Center is poised to open in Chicago in 2025.

Being a part of Baracks birthday celebration will mean so much to him, so please, leave a note or make a gift today, Obama said in the email.

The Obamas tied the knot in 1992.

President Biden and his 2024 reelection campaign also got in on the birthday action.

The 46th commander in chief celebrated Obamas big day with a smiling photo of the pair, writing on X, Wishing my brother and friend, @BarackObama, a very happy birthday.

Bidens campaign also emailed a fundraising pitch signed with Obamas name.

Today also happens to be my birthday, and theres no way Id rather celebrate than by helping reelect Joe and Kamala, the email from Biden for America said, urging supporters to donate at least $25 to be entered into a contest to win a meeting with the current and former president.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
This article was originally published in Michigan Advance.

As part of its MI Safe School Indoor Air Ventilation program, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) will continue to offer free air purifiers to K-12 schools in the state.

The program started in December 2022 as part of the DHHSs effort to improve air quality in schools. Since its launch the DHHS has provided more than 42,600 air purification machines to 451 school districts across the state at no cost.

Air purifiers are another tool in our toolbox to improve air quality and help prevent the spread of illness while at school, as well as provide additional protection from allergens and wildfire smoke, said Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, DHHS chief medical executive. MDHHS is excited to offer the air ventilation and purification program to our schools. Staying healthy leads to better academic outcomes as well as social and emotional well-being.

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In May, the Centers for Disease Control updated their guidelines for air exchanges in schools, setting a goal of five air changes per hour. DHHS is extending its indoor air ventilation program so schools that have participated can receive more machines to meet the new recommendations, and so schools that have not can incorporate air purifiers into their buildings air quality strategy.

According to a statement from the department, the portable air purifiers may be used in classrooms and other communal areas to reduce the number of harmful microbes and allergens in the atmosphere.

The air purifiers provided by the Department are equipped to help protect users from COVID-19 and wildfire smoke, trapping 99.9% of harmful particles like smoke, allergens, odors, VOCs, pollen, pet dander, dust, smog and other contaminants down to 0.1 microns, according to Chelsea Wuth, associate public information officer for DHHS.

Schools are able to order as many purifiers as needed for their building and are available to all public and private K-12 schools while supplies last.

We encourage more schools to keep their facilities air healthy and clean by taking advantage of this opportunity for free air purifiers, said State Superintendent Michael Rice. Parents will be able to breathe easier knowing that their children are learning in healthier environments.

Michigan Advance is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Michigan Advance maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Susan Demas for questions: info@michiganadvance.com. Follow Michigan Advance on Facebook and Twitter.
Mike Pence, former vice president and Republican primary presidential candidate, speaks at the Family Leadership Summit in Des Moines, Iowa, on July 14, 2023. (Kathryn Gamble/The New York Times)

AMES, Iowa  Through four years as Donald Trumps vice president, or perhaps three years and 350 days, Mike Pence brandished a peerless talent: insisting that all was going smoothly amid plain evidence to the contrary.

His 2024 campaign, he has long insisted, is going smoothly.

I have great confidence in Republican primary voters, he said in an interview, riding to an Iowa hog roast last weekend. Im confident were going to get a fresh look.

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It seemed notable that Trump, never shy about knocking anyone he views as a threat, had barely bothered to attack him in the race to that point.

It was early, Pence suggested.

I think were coming, he said calmly, to a fork in the road.

The fork has arrived.

As the former lieutenant to the Republican front-runner and a critical witness to that front-runners alleged crimes against democracy, Pence is campaigning now as many things: anti-abortion warrior, unbending conservative, believer in heavy doses of civility.

Yet he is running most viscerally, whether he intends to or not, as a cautionary tale  a picture of what can happen when anyone, even someone as loyal as he was, defies Trump.

Anyone who puts themselves over the Constitution should never be president, Pence said on a campaign conference call Wednesday, during which supporters were reassured that he was on track to qualify for the first Republican debate. Anyone who asks someone else to put them over their oath to the Constitution should never be president again.

At minimum, he has gotten his former running mates attention.

I feel badly for Mike Pence, Trump posted Wednesday on his social media site, Truth Social, repeating unfounded election claims. His former vice president, he said, was attracting no crowds, enthusiasm or loyalty from people who, as a member of the Trump administration, should be loving him.

Pences early difficulties are not shocking. Trump continues to dominate among Republicans, and much of the partys base despises Pence for his lone act of major public defiance: resisting efforts to reverse Trumps 2020 election loss.

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But to see Pence up close, at stops across Iowa and New Hampshire in recent weeks, is to absorb the bracing particulars of a campaign not sparking  the creaky score of polite clapping in modest rooms  and of a candidate convinced he will be judged kindly by history, unable to hustle that history along.

His most prominent turns this summer have been in court documents, not in early states. Many key details in the federal indictment against Trump, which said that Pence took contemporaneous notes, are culled from conversations between them. At one point, the indictment recounted, Trump let fly a three-word rebuke: Youre too honest.

If so, this does not seem to have done Pence many favors as a candidate (though the campaign has already repurposed the Too Honest label for T-shirts and hats). His fundraising has been meager. He is polling, at best, a very, very distant third or fourth.

While his team says the campaign has gone according to plan, noting his late entry in the race compared with some competitors, seven other Republicans say they have qualified for the debate later this month, a group that includes two rivals who joined the primary the same week he did in June.

At a candidate forum last week in Des Moines, Iowa, where multiple extended ovations greeted Trump, Pence strained to coax applause at times even while serving up the reddest of meat. (Americans are facing one man-made crisis after another, and that mans name is Joe Biden, he said, to near silence.)

He has failed to dissuade voters from ascribing foreboding meaning to the mundane. (Is that a sign? a woman whispered in Hudson, New Hampshire, noticing a small snake near Pences foot as he spoke outdoors.)

He has compelled some supporters to worry openly about the size of his venues.

So tiny  youre a vice president, for heavens sake, Shirley Noakes, 84, said before he arrived to another crowd of dozens in Meredith, New Hampshire.

For those who once considered Pence the chief enabler in Trumps White House  buoying him through relentless executive chaos that rattled democratic institutions well before January 2021  any campaign stumbles amount to a well-earned comeuppance.

Trump was the nations essential man, Pence long attested, and more than that, a good man. (He does not use that adjective anymore.)

Asked in the interview if he saw himself as an example to other Republicans who remain devoted to the former president, Pence did not say no. He reiterated his pre-Jan. 6 dedication to Trump through thick and thin, until my oath to the Constitution required me to do otherwise.

I would leave to others, he said, any judgment about what that says about the president.

Among some who admire Pence, for his stand at the Capitol and otherwise, his campaign thus far has been confounding, a mission without a near-term political rationale.

He doesnt really have a unique selling proposition, said Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, who has both praised Pence for what he did on Jan. 6 and been accused of helping to perpetuate Trumps election lies. In terms of John F. Kennedys Profiles in Courage, I think that Pence is a very admirable person. In terms of that being a way to win the Republican nomination, I think it doesnt have any traction.

Pence said he thought Gingrich was not giving Republican primary voters enough credit.

Regardless, Pence said, this race is a calling for him and his wife, Karen Pence, no matter how it ends. Campaigns should be about something more important than the candidates election, he said.

And this one, at least, is poised to answer some questions in the interim.

What do Americans think of Mike Pence now, without someone else blocking their view? What should they think?

You want to take a picture or something? he asked with a smile recently in Barrington, New Hampshire, arriving unannounced to a home decor shop whose Republican proprietors appreciated the visit, they said later, but did not support him. Just in case I turn out to be somebody important.

Trumps Opposite in Every Way

Pence looks like a presidential candidate who knows that he looks like a presidential candidate.

Out of central casting, Trump used to say of him, in happier times, and the Pence 2024 team seems inclined to sustain the aesthetic.

He still shakes hands with his whole body  leaning, nodding, left palm on a voters upper back.

He still remembers names and local favorites, pandering with impunity. (In New Hampshire: I stopped by Dunkin Donuts the other day  In Iowa: I look forward to seeing you at Caseys and Pizza Ranch)

He is still liable to point straight ahead suddenly, as if drawing a firearm in the credits of a Hoosier James Bond, for the closing flourish of his remarks.

The best  point!  days for the greatest nation on Earth are yet to come.

Pence, 64, has imagined himself as a prospective president for some time, entertaining White House runs during his years as a congressman and Indiana governor. In his 2022 memoir, he said he had developed a healthy distrust of my own ambition.

Much of Pences career can read now as a study in suboptimal timing, with a politician who could seem almost ostentatiously out of step with the moment.

In 2004, dismayed at the spending decisions of a Republican administration, Pence said he felt like the frozen man as a lonely voice for fiscal restraint in Congress. Frozen before the revolution, thawed after it was over, he said then. A minuteman who showed up 10 years too late.

In 2016, he endorsed Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas for president days before Cruz dropped out. Cruzs vision of our party hewed the closest to mine, he reasoned in his book.

It was Trump who gave Pence a timely lifeline anyway, inviting him on the ticket during a tough reelection race in Indiana.

For all of Trumps volatility, people who know both men said, their relationship was often buttressed by genuine affection.

Robert Jeffress, the senior pastor at First Baptist Church in Dallas, recalled Trumps glee at introducing him to Pence shortly after their election in 2016. He said, Robert, he is absolutely fantastic, Jeffress remembered. He is opposite me in every way.

Surely it helped relations that the dynamic between the two was never ambiguous: There was one star, one principal, one sun around which the operation would orbit.

In his stump speech, Pence speaks about being well-known but not known well, a man often seen standing quietly behind another man.

Just a half-step off, he told a couple of dozen supporters in Ames, Iowa, off the shoulder of the president.

In the interview, he noted: I dont believe that we ever agreed to a single profile interview in four years. Because I never wanted the story to be about me. (As it happened, Trump did not want that, either.)

Eventually, nightmarishly, the story became about him.

Pence said he sensed in the days after the Capitol riot that Trump was deeply remorseful about what had occurred.

The former president offers no apology for his role in the violence that surrounded Pence and his family that day.

Breaking a Vise Grip He Helped Create

Four words accompany almost any public appearance by Pence.

So help me God, he said in Nevada, Iowa, convening with first responders.

So help me God, he said in Napa, California, at a gathering of Catholic conservatives.

So help me God, he said in Meredith, New Hampshire. Which happens to be the title of my book.

Friends say Pence was always cleareyed about  and unmoved by  his steep odds in 2024. That he joined the field anyway, they suggest, says more about his faith than his ego.

My sense is there was a really long and interesting discussion with God, said New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, who decided against a run himself, speaking highly of Pence after watching the candidate forum in Des Moines.

But a vexing political irony for Pence has persisted: Trumps unyielding support among many conservatives  a vise grip that the former vice president must break to have any electoral hope  can be traced in large measure to Pence.

Jeffress said the symbolic resonance of Pences 2016 selection by Trump was immeasurable to evangelical voters especially, enshrining a stalwart of the right beside an ideologically flexible nominee. And now, the overwhelming majority of evangelicals still support Trump, he added, because he has a track record. (Jeffress is supporting Trump.)

Pence suggested that this history is partly why he felt called to the 2024 campaign. In 2016, he said, Trump made a tacit promise to govern as a conservative.

He makes no such promise today, Pence said.

As other candidates, including Trump, hedge and deflect their positions on abortion restrictions, Pence has eagerly promoted his role in vetting the Trump-nominated Supreme Court justices who helped overturn Roe v. Wade.

He has forced the other contenders to step up and say where they stand, said Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America. I think he has the potential to do that as well on other issues.

A smattering of encouragement has come from the nonvoting set. In Meredith, where several guests thanked Pence for his actions on Jan. 6, 15-year-old Quinn Mitchell sent the Q&A session into a brief hush.

Given the former presidents conduct, he asked, do you think Christians should vote for Donald Trump?

Pence held for a beat, proceeding carefully.

Im running for president of the United States because I think I should be the next president, he said to applause.

The young attendee understood, he said later, that the candidate was probably best served avoiding a clean yes or no.

But when the two met afterward, Pence took care to commend the questioner.

You have a bright future, he wrote on a poster the teen had brought. God bless.

c.2023 The New York Times Company
Military official arrested for fraud, aiding criminals, faces 12-year prison sentence

A military official has been apprehended by investigators from the State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) for fraud and aiding local criminal authorities, the bureaus press service announced on August 4.

The arrested man formerly held a position at a Zaporizhzhya territorial military recruitment center.

From July to December 2022, the individual dispatched his close subordinates to a combat brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, to carry out combat missions.

However, an investigation revealed that these personnel were stationed in the conflict zone but were operating on a flexible schedule, behaving more like they were on vacation rather than participating in active military operations.

Read also: Conscription officials arrested for drug possession and assaulting a servicemember

The official allegedly fabricated documents claiming these servicemen were involved in combat actions, leading to them being provided with fraudulent combat allowances totaling 981,300 hryvnias ($27,000).

One of the subordinates utilized these documents to claim financial aid of 700,000 hryvnias ($19,000) due to a supposed disability resulting from combat activities.

Additionally, the head of the military recruitment center appointed representatives of a local criminal group to work at the center, aiming to help them evade legal proceedings for serious crimes. He also assisted one of them in getting removed from military records to facilitate their departure abroad.

Read also: Odesas ex-draft commissioner illegally earns $5.1 million, says anti-graft agency

Searches were conducted at the military officials residences and workplaces in Zaporizhzhya and Bakhmut, Donetsk Oblast. He has been informed of the suspicion of abuse of power during a state of war, which carries a penalty of up to 12 years in prison.

In a separate case, charges were announced against Yevhen Borysov, the former head of the recruitment center in Odesa Oblast, who was apprehended in Kyiv on July 24. Authorities suspect him of illegal enrichment amounting to 188 million hryvnias ($5.1 million) and violations of military service regulations during his tenure.

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During the investigation, authorities discovered luxurious vehicles, a seaside villa, and an office property in Spain owned by Borysovs relatives.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy commented on the case, stating that checks are currently underway involving the heads of territorial recruitment centers at all levels.

The National Agency on Corruption Prevention specified that this process may take up to three months.

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
The militarys highest appeals court dismissed the case against a special operations corpsman who had been accused of causing the 2019 death of a Green Beret veteran.

In a 5-0 decision Thursday, the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces tossed the charges of involuntary manslaughter, negligent homicide, violation of a lawful order and obstruction of justice facing Navy Chief Petty Officer Eric Gilmet.

The judges dismissed the charges with prejudice, meaning the ruling is final and prosecutors cant file the charges again.

Gilmet, along with two Marine Raiders, had been charged in connection with the 2019 death of a military contractor and Army vet. The pair of Marines, Gunnery Sgts. Josh Negron and Danny Draher, were acquitted in February of all charges but violation of a lawful order, for drinking while deployed to Iraq.

The unanimous opinion, written by Judge Liam Hardy, agreed with a lower courts decision that unlawful command influence had tainted the case against Gilmet.

A top Marine judge advocate hampered Gilmets right to defense counsel by creating the perception in the minds of Appellants defense counsel that their future in the Marine Corps would be jeopardized if they continued to zealously advocate for Appellant, Hardy wrote.

Retired Marine Lt. Col. Colby Vokey, Gilmets civilian attorney, said in a statement to Marine Corps Times on Thursday that the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces got this opinion absolutely right.

Marine Forces Special Operations Command said in a statement to Marine Corps Times on Monday that it was aware of the courts decision and remains committed to ensuring the fair and impartial conduct of the legal process as it continues to focus on providing high-performing, ethically sound Marine Special Operations Forces for global operations vital to national security.

With the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces decision Thursday, the winding legal saga of the so-called MARSOC 3 may have reached its end.

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This was the result of an outrageous act by a senior Marine leader in the judge advocate community and dismissal with prejudice was the only just outcome, Vokey said in the statement. Chief Gilmet is ecstatic and relieved that this journey is finally over.

Death of Rick Rodriguez

The three special operators were celebrating New Years 2019 out at a bar in Irbil, Iraq, when retired Army Master Sgt. Rick Rodriguez became verbally aggressive with Gilmet and got booted from the bar, security footage played at the Marines trial appeared to show.

Outside, Rodriguez and the pair of Marine Raiders got into a brief altercation. The prosecution and defense differed on who instigated it. At one point, Rodriguez appeared to make an aggressive action toward Draher.

Draher pushed Rodriguez. Then, in what the defense argued was an action taken to protect Draher from Rodriguezs blows, Negron punched Rodriguez, sending him to the ground.

The Marine Raiders did not take Rodriguez to a hospital and instead left him overnight with Gilmet, an experienced corpsman. When Rodriguez ceased to breathe, another military contractor who had been keeping an eye on him alerted a doctor on base, according to the contractors testimony at trial.

Rodriguez, a married father of four and a grandfather, was pronounced dead at a hospital in Germany days later.

Rick Rodriguez, a military contractor and decorated retired Green Beret, died in 2019. (Heidi Rodriguez)

Marine Corps Times did not receive a response from a member of Rodriguezs family to a request for comment for this story by time of publication.

At the trial of Negron and Draher in January at Cherry Point, North Carolina, Gilmet testified under immunity. That would have made it difficult for the government to secure a conviction for the sailor at his own trial, because prosecutors would have had to prove none of their evidence came from Gilmets testimony, Vokey previously told Marine Corps Times.

In February, Negron and Draher were found not guilty of the most serious charges, including that of involuntary manslaughter, but guilty of violation of a lawful order for drinking at the bar in Iraq.

Although the jury opted not to punish the two Marines for their sole conviction, violation of a lawful order is still a felony whose consequences can carry over into civilian life.

Advocates for the two men have voiced bitterness about a subsequent decision by the MARSOC commanding general, Maj. Gen. Matthew Trollinger, not to set aside their drinking convictions.

Unlawful command influence?

The issue before the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces was whether a senior Marine judge advocate had engaged in unlawful command influence in November 2021 by making statements at a briefing for Marine defense attorneys at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, that Gilmets lawyer, Marine Capt. Matthew Thomas, interpreted as threats.

Marine Col. Christopher Shaw said in response to a question from Thomas about protections for judge advocates from outside influence that uniformed defense attorneys were shielded but not protected, according to Hardys summary of the events.

Col Shaw then squared his shoulders to Capt Thomas and said Capt Thomas, I know who you are and what cases you are on, and you are not protected, Hardy wrote.

Shaw also commented that superiors on promotion boards would know what you did, according to Hardys summary.

Thomas in December 2021 asked a lower-court judge, Navy Cmdr. Hayes C. Larsen, to release him and another uniformed defense lawyer from Gilmets case because the conflict of interest had caused tensions between Gilmet and his attorneys. Larsen agreed, and tossed out Gilmets case in February 2022 because of what he characterized as unlawful command influence.

In August 2022, however, the Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals reinstated the charges against Gilmet on the grounds that any conflict of interest his lawyers felt was purely subjective.

At oral argument in April at the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces in Washington, D.C., Marine Capt. Tyler Blair argued on behalf of the government that while Shaws comments were inappropriate, they didnt constitute unlawful command influence. He noted that the Marine Corps had taken steps to remedy the effects of Shaws comments, including removing Shaw from his position.

The five-judge panel asked questions that suggested they were skeptical of the governments argument. At least four of the five judges are themselves former judge advocates, according to their online biographies.

Senior Judge Scott Stucky asked Gilmets appellate lawyer if, Oh, you silly boys! You shouldnt have believed all this stuff, accurately characterized the Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals decision that found Gilmets defense attorneys hadnt faced a real conflict of interest.

Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Kristen Bradley responded that it did.

Removing Col Shaw from his position did nothing to cure the perception that other Marine Corps officers would punish military defense counsel in the promotion process, Hardy wrote in the unanimous opinion released Thursday. As a result, it also failed to assuage any concerns that Appellant or his counsel had about their ability to zealously advocate for Appellant at trial without fear of repercussions.
Military helicopters of Belarus violated Polish airspace allegedly during

So far, it is psychological. What are its goals and objectives?

Read also: Poland detains Belarusian spy collecting intelligence about the Polish ports and military facilities

The entry of Belarusian aircraft above the territory of Poland, which Polish officials initially did not want to notice, and then, when a bunch of photographic evidence from Polish citizens was made public, they were forced to admit it, is clearly not an ordinary "incident."

It's worth recalling the joint "concert" of dictators Putin and Lukashenko, who told tales of the Wagnerian "walk" to Poland. Putin suddenly remembered that Polish territories were "given to the Poles by Stalin," then there was the movement of Prigozhin mercenaries to Belarus, and so on.

It is clear that all this is part of a special operation. So far, it is a psychological one. What are its goals and objectives?

The Kremlin dictator is not planning to fight against NATO. No matter what his propagandists say, he has neither the resources nor the capabilities to do so, and he has no desire to do so either. However, he is well aware that NATO's support (even as limited as it is now) significantly affects the fundamental possibility of achieving the "goals of the special military operation."

Read also:

Putin does not want to fight with NATO, but he does want to isolate Ukraine from NATO member states. It is also desirable to put NATO in a crisis that could provoke uncertainty, instability, and disintegration. For this purpose, Poland has been chosen as a target, not for the first time, by the way, and a mustachioed Belarusian stand-up guy as a tool.

The scheme seems to be as follows: Constantly keep Poland in a state of "Russian" threat

, reinforcing it with permanent provocations on the border. The "padding" in the form of the "Belarusian authorities" allows for minimizing risks and making the dictator from Minsk responsible if the situation turns out to be unwanted. Putin also shows himself as a coward here, promising an "attack" on Poland by someone else's hands.

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The logic is simple. NATO constantly declares that it will not fight Russia. An attack on one NATO state should mean a reaction from all members. This means a war of all (including the United States) against Russia, which the United States itself does not want. So, we need to push them into a situation where an undesirable choice is close and then offer them an option: we reduce provocations, and you reduce support for Ukraine.

Of course, the logic is flawed, but it fits the Kremlin dictator's thinking. In the end, even if it doesn't come to that, any demonstration of NATO's "weakness" in protecting its members is already a trump card in the Kremlins game.

Read also: Turkey, Saudi Arabia in secret talks to repatriate Ukrainian children abducted by Russia  FT

Unfortunately, the Poles have so far reacted weakly. We must understand that forceful arguments against the Kremlin are the only effective arguments. This has been demonstrated repeatedly by Erdogan, who is still listened to even in the Kremlin. Did you shoot down a Russian plane? That means you are a "serious guy." You can be dealt with.

Read also: Polands Foreign Ministry formerly protests violation of airspace by Belarus, NATO also reacts

The Poles should be determined to shoot down Belarusian planes, kill militants who enter from Belarus, and kill them immediately and without talking. This will immediately stop any provocations. There will be no attack on NATO. Russia will simply change the vector of its actions. Because, in reality, they are more afraid of fighting NATO than even NATO itself.

Otherwise... No, there will be no war between Russia and the West, but there will be a huge crisis, the consequences of which will be unpredictable from a political point of view.

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By Nate Raymond

(Reuters) -A divided federal appeals court on Friday ruled that Mississippi cannot strip the right to vote from thousands of convicts after they complete their sentences, calling that a "cruel and unusual punishment" that disproportionately affected Black people.

A 2-1 panel of the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals faulted a provision of Mississippi's state constitution that mandates lifetime disenfranchisement for people convicted of a set of crimes including murder, rape and theft.

Siding with a group of convicts who sued in 2018 to regain their right to vote, U.S. Circuit Judge James Dennis wrote that the state's policy violated the U.S. Constitution's Eighth Amendment, which bars cruel and unusual punishments.

He said the state's constitutional provision, Section 241, served no legitimate purpose, ensures former offenders are never fully rehabilitated, and was adopted in 1890 after the U.S. Civil War to "ensure the political supremacy of the white race."

The provision, whose list of disqualifying crimes had been amended twice in the years, remained effective in achieving its "racially discriminatory aim," Dennis said. Of the nearly 29,000 Mississippians convicted of disenfranchising offenses who had completed their sentences from 1994 to 2017, 58% were Black, he said.

He said Mississippi was "bucking a clear and consistent trend in our Nation against permanent disenfranchisement," he said, noting that 35 states plus Washington, D.C., today disavow the practice.

Dennis was joined by U.S. Circuit Judge Carolyn Dineen King in reversing a lower-court judge's ruling. Both are appointees of Democratic presidents on the conservative-leaning court.

"This is a major victory for Mississippians who have completed their sentences and deserve to participate fully in our political process," said Jonathan Youngwood, a lawyer for the plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit.

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A spokesperson for Republican Attorney General Lynn Fitch said she would appeal the decision, as "the Supreme Court has signaled that felon disenfranchisement is not punishment."

In a dissenting opinion, U.S. Circuit Judge Edith Jones, an appointee of former Republican President Ronald Reagan, noted the U.S. Supreme Court in 1974 held that state laws permanently disenfranchising felons did not violate their equal protection rights under the U.S. Constitution's 4th Amendment.

"Todays ruling disregards text, precedent, and common sense to secure its preferred outcome," Jones wrote.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; editing by Deepa Babington)
Instead of creating "security worries" as some Western media claimed, China's expanding investments in overseas ports have in fact garnered considerable revenue for local governments, driven economic development, boosted the construction of local infrastructure, and increased employment in these regions.



BEIJING, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- In the past few months, the Voice of America (VOA) and the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), among other U.S. media outlets, have been hyping up the narrative of "security concerns related to Chinese investments in overseas ports," alleging that they "could be used for military purposes" in the future.

Besides commercial value, "Chinese-run port terminals can be used not only for logistics support but also intelligence gathering and as future potential basing options," a WSJ report entitled "China's global port investments give rise to security worries" claimed, citing American security analysts, yet without giving any evidence.

"As commercial ports could be used for military purposes, analysts have long been concerned about the security implications of ports controlled by Beijing," another report by the VOA, entitled "China's Global Network of Shipping Ports Reveal Beijing's Strategy", said.

The above claims are nothing but groundless speculations, analysts say, emphasizing the fact that whether an investment in a foreign port can be used militarily depends on many conditions, among which is permission from the government of the host country as a sovereign state.

In fact, China's rapidly expanding investments in overseas ports in recent years are a natural outcome of its rapidly growing trade with the international market.

Given China's status as the world's largest trader of goods and a major trading partner of more than 140 countries and regions around the world, it is not in line with commercial logic if China did not expand its investments in overseas ports considering such factors as trade and shipping facilitation and transaction cost saving, the analysts say.





THE TRUE PICTURE

"Chinese companies' investment in some foreign ports is first and foremost an economic act, and its starting point and focus are to facilitate China's ocean freight logistics," said Wang Zaibang, a senior fellow at Taihe Institute, a Beijing-based think tank.

"This kind of investment is not only beneficial to the business activities of China's overseas shipping companies, but also conducive to stimulating the local economy and promoting employment. We can be optimistic that, barring extreme circumstances, such investment can only grow as the size of China's economy and the stock of overseas interests continue to grow," he told Xinhua in a recent interview.

Currently, China's shipping fleet control capacity has risen to the second place in the world from the third place in 2015. As the world's most important intermediate goods provider and the largest supplier of final products, China's docking with the international market not only requires the continuous facilitation of bilateral or multilateral trade and investment, but also the orderly docking and arrangement of global transportation channels, said Zhang Yugui, dean of the School of Economics and Finance of Shanghai International Studies University.

Over the past decade since the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was launched in 2013, China has signed more than 200 cooperation documents with more than 150 countries and more than 30 international organizations, resulting in more than 3,000 cooperation projects and generating nearly 1 trillion U.S. dollars in investment, official statistics show.

Under the joint efforts of participating countries, a connectivity framework involving six corridors, six types of routes, multiple countries and multiple ports have taken shape, playing a key role in transcending geographical constraints and cultural differences, and in facilitating economic development across the world.

During this process, Chinese companies and overseas local authorities have carried out port cooperation projects with an aim to create opportunities for common development under the principles of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits on the basis of respecting the will of relevant countries. China has never interfered in other countries' internal affairs, targeted a third party, or posed a security threat to any country.

This aerial photo taken on Feb. 15, 2019 shows a container ship of the COSCO Shipping approaching Piraeus port, Greece. (Xinhua/Wu Lu)

Since 2009, Chinese shipping giant COSCO has invested more than 600 million euros (about 660 million U.S. dollars) in the construction and upgrading of the Container Terminals 2 and 3 in Greece's Piraeus port. In 2019, the port's container throughput has exceeded 5.65 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent unit), becoming the first integrated port in the Mediterranean, the fourth largest in Europe and one of the fastest growing container ports in the world, with revenue of 195 million euros (214.5 million dollars) in fiscal year 2022, an increase of 26.2 percent, and a net profit of 52.9 million euros (58.2 million dollars), an increase of 43.9 percent.

The Colombo Port City in Sri Lanka, the first special economic zone constructed and operated by Chinese firms outside of China, has been designated as one of the "Five New Cities Affecting the Future" by Forbes magazine in the United States.

According to management consulting firm Price Waterhouse Coopers Consulting, Colombo Port City will attract more than 9.7 billion dollars in foreign direct investment for Sri Lanka during its development and operation, generate more than 5 billion dollars in fiscal revenue for the Sri Lankan government, and create more than 400,000 quality jobs for the locals.

The project "will promote Sri Lanka's economic development, improve people's livelihood and boost the modernization process of Sri Lanka," said Sri Lankan Ambassador to China Palitha Kohona, adding that "many of the great changes that have taken place in Sri Lanka have benefited from the BRI."

Launched in January 2023 and invested, constructed and operated by China Harbour Corporation, the Nigerian Lekki Deep Water Port project is Nigeria's first modern deep-water port and one of the largest ports in West Africa, with an annual designed handling capacity of 1.2 million standard containers, which can accommodate the world's largest container ships.

Nigeria's former President Muhammadu Buhari said that the Lekki Port will "open up a new pattern for Nigeria's economic development, strongly promote the export of Nigerian products, especially agricultural products," and create many jobs, contributing to poverty reduction goals.

Built by Shanghai International Port (Group) Co., Ltd., the new Port of Haifa in Israel opened in September 2021, becoming the first large new port in Israel in nearly 60 years. It is by far the most advanced, greenest, fastest and most cost-effective terminal on the Mediterranean coast, using the most advanced port technology in the world.

"We have high hopes for the new port of Haifa to serve the entire region and become a regional logistics hub," said Yitzhak Blumenthal, CEO of the government-owned Israel Ports Company.

The above are just a few examples of the cooperation projects Chinese companies have implemented overseas, which have not only garnered considerable revenue for local governments and driven economic development, but also boosted the construction of local infrastructure and increased employment in these regions.





STRONG REBUKES

As a country long committed to peaceful development and promoting a community with a shared future for mankind, China currently has only one overseas naval support base in Djibouti, the main function of which is to serve the Chinese warships fighting piracy in the Gulf of Aden, Wang said.

Responding to the WSJ report's claim that "China's navy has stopped for replenishment or diplomacy at a third of the ports where China-based firms have investments," Wang said it is a matter of course and nothing wrong with China investing in foreign ports for non-war operations in peacetime.

As the world has been constantly threatened by hegemonism and power politics, terrorism and extremist forces, as well as local wars and regional conflicts, and Western countries led by the United States have been waging color revolutions in many countries triggering regional unrest, there is often a need for non-war operations such as the evacuation of Chinese nationals.

"Under such circumstances, warships of any country can naturally dock at foreign ports for supplies or transshipment, which is really not surprising," Wang said.

Meanwhile, various countries have come out to deny the U.S. allegations about the Chinese-invested ports' so-called "military purposes".

In a recent interview with France 24, Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe said, "So far there has been no (Chinese) military base in Hambantota harbour... the security is controlled by the government of Sri Lanka... these are just speculations... We have no military agreement with China, there won't be a military agreement, I don't think China enters into one."

As for the Gwadar port in Pakistan, Shakeel Ahmad Ramay, chief executive officer of the Asian Institute of Eco-civilization Research and Development, an Islamabad-based think tank, has also recently said that "there was no (Chinese) military involvement."

This aerial photo taken on June 4, 2022 shows a port for fishermen in Gwadar of Pakistan's southwest Balochistan Province. (Xinhua/Jiang Chao)

"The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a purely economic development initiative... Since the very beginning, Western countries and their allies in the region have started propaganda. Why did they start to malign the BRI and the CPEC by one name or another name? Because they cannot compete in the development," Ramay told Xinhua.

Besides the "military purposes" hype, the WSJ report also alleged that "They (Chinese companies) are also aggregating shipping data in ways that some in Washington worry could give Beijing access to information about rivals' supply-chain vulnerabilities."

On that topic, insiders and analysts from Germany have provided an opposite perspective.

Chinese companies have contributed to the alleviation of the supply chain crisis in the Port of Hamburg through mutual cooperation and learning from German companies. In the future, Chinese companies will also play an important role in addressing challenges such as the digitalization and sustainable development of the Port of Hamburg, said Angela Titzrath, chairwoman of Hamburg Ports and Logistics AG.

"Both sides have established an equal and trusted partnership," she added.

"Numerous Chinese companies have settled in the city (Hamburg) and in the port, with whom the players in the port as well as we have been cooperating successfully for a long time," Axel Mattern, chief executive officer of Port of Hamburg Marketing, told Xinhua.

"In addition, cooperation with Chinese companies secures cargo in Hamburg and thus the supply flows in Germany and Europe," he added.

"The Chinese investment in the port of Hamburg is normal. (Yet) (t)here is a tendency that wants to separate the German economy from China, and the German government is facing pressure and constraints from this," Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder and chairperson of the German think tank Schiller Institute, told Xinhua.

"I would say this is purely ideological, so I'm quite glad that the agreement of the Port of Hamburg went through at the last moment," she said.

Yannis Stournaras, governor of the Bank of Greece, told media recently: "Greece is one of the few countries in Europe (where) China has a very crucial investment, the Piraeus port, and it is going very well... Piraeus was a big port with huge competitiveness problems and now is one of the most competitive ports in Europe, so I think it was a successful investment."





MOTIVE BEHIND "CHINA THREAT"

As a matter of fact, the United States has also benefited from Chinese companies' investments in port management. Since 2002, COSCO Group has been an important customer and partner of Boston Port, and practical cooperation between both sides during the past 20 years has not only saved 9,000 jobs in Boston Port, but also created 400,000 more new jobs.

Mike Meyran, director of the Boston Port Authority, said that the Boston Port "is a perfect example of U.S.-China economic and trade cooperation."

However, some U.S. politicians and media have been wilfully neglecting these positive exchanges between their country and China, and have been continuing to churn out various versions of the "China threat" for many years, as a result of "the hegemonic behavior and deep-rooted militaristic thinking of the United States in the past hundred years," said Wang.

Yet these allegations are increasingly losing appeal. Even Americans are now beginning to see the truth. "Do you know how many military bases we have surrounding China? Three hundred and thirteen. Americans need to wake up. It is a different world. We have about 750 military installations in 80 countries," U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson said recently.

Civic groups and local residents take to the streets to protest against the U.S. biological labs near a U.S. military base in Busan, South Korea, April 5, 2022. (Photo by James Lee/Xinhua)

"Look at how the rest of the world sees this. Do you think that they see China as a greater military threat to global security or the United States as a greater military threat to global security?" she asked.

The motive behind the U.S. exaggerations is "to sow discord and undermine the mutually beneficial cooperative relations between China and relevant countries," Wang said.

In the context of a serious decline in the United States' ocean transportation capacity, the U.S. playing up this new version of "China threat" is only meant to intimidate countries that accept Chinese port investments into giving up or weakening their cooperation with the Chinese side, with the intent to hurt China and hurt the investment target countries for its own benefit, Wang noted.

(Xinhua reporters Jiang Chao in Islamabad, Du Zheyu in Berlin and Chen Zhanjie in Rome contributed to the story.)
Students

A school district in Mississippi has implemented a dress code that discriminates against transgender students.

Last month, the Harrison County School Board adopted a dress code that requires students to wear clothes matching the gender assigned to them at birth, according to the Sun Herald.

There are multiple changes in the dress code in the 2023-24 student handbook, including three new items related to gender. It states that boys must wear shorts and girls must wear dresses, skirts, shorts, or pants. The third section says attire must follow a students birth certificate or permanent file.

The elementary student handbook also uses the same language.

Earlier this year, the district made headlines for denying a transgender student the right to wear a dress to her graduation ceremony, prompting the American Civil Liberties Union to file suit. She wore dresses, skirts, and other traditionally feminine clothing throughout her high school career without issue, according to the complaint. Due to the judges decision not to intervene, the student missed graduation.

The districts move in Mississippi follows several recent attempts to restrict transgender rights. A law passed in 2021 prohibits trans women and girls from joining teams that align with their gender identity. Another passed this year prohibits trans minors from receiving gender-affirming health care.

Healthcare providers at the University of Mississippi Medical Center dissolved their LGBTQ-inclusive clinic in June. Trans juveniles receiving gender-affirming care at the facility caught lawmakers attention.

Every kid should feel safe and welcome at school, Human Rights Campaign director for Mississippi Rob Hill told the Sun Herald. Transgender kids deserve the opportunity to grow up knowing that they are valued and respected for who they are. This harmful policy will only further alienate and endanger kids across Harrison County who are already struggling with so many challenges today. The school district should reconsider its decision and repeal this damaging and discriminatory approach.
Sadly, in the past year we have witnessed several states and local communities invoking extreme rules and passing draconian legislation restricting and outlawing what can be read or taught in schools. This is especially the case in Missouri, Florida, Texas, Utah and South Carolina.

A Missouri law, for example, made it a crime to provide minors with ill-defined obscene material. This resulted in librarians across the state removing hundreds of items from their collections that might be deemed criminal by the state  including works from Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, graphic novel adaptations of classics by Shakespeare and Mark Twain, and educational books about the Holocaust.

It was not a surprise, therefore, that in February the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri challenged that law. Under the law, the ACLU argues that school staff are forced to choose between students First Amendment rights and prosecution.

In addition, according to Joe Kohlburn of the Missouri Library Association, The law presents specific peril for school librarians, but also endangers the work and livelihoods of public and academic librarians who work with K-12 schools in various capacities. As he concluded, Librarians have been undermined politically in this state for long enough, and the fear of prosecution is an ongoing issue for keeping qualified professionals in Missouri, as well as bringing new people into the profession.

I continue to be amazed that there are those in Missouri and elsewhere who, based on their own personal choices and political ideology, want to ban books for all students  not just their own children  enrolled in public schools. Simply put, what advocates of book banning are suggesting is that they dont want students to step inside someones shoes. They dont want students seeing the world through oppressed or marginalized eyes and how that has the capacity to change ones life, often in a potentially positive way.

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Beyond the ACLUs legal challenge, I contend that banning books has another significant effect: It prevents understanding, empathy and solidarity  outcomes to which most of us aspire when not responding to siloed and recalcitrant political beliefs in a knee-jerk manner. As a scholar of communication, I am intrigued by book banning debates in Missouri and several other states.

Temporarily see your opponents viewpoint

Book banning discourse reminds me of a concept in rhetoric about which I conducted research and taught in my undergraduate Argumentation and Advocacy course at the University of Texas at Austin for more than 40 years: self-risk. Self-risk is the idea that, to engage in genuine argument, we contractually agree and at least privately acknowledge at the outset of debate a willingness to be open to changing or modifying our beliefs, even if persuasion is not the actual result. Moreover, self-risk, unlike public risk, does not require us to admit to others when an argument actually changes our mind.

To engage in self-risk, one must stand inside the shoes of their interlocutors at least momentarily, and temporarily view the world as they do. This is necessary to thoughtfully and logically reflect on the merits and validity of opposing positions from the inside out. In short, self-risk is the opposite of dogma and promotes the human virtues of empathy, understanding and solidarity. Put differently, it is a person-building as well as a person-risking activity.

My students learned that self-risk is not some idealistic process limited to the ivory tower. It is not a prescribed way for people to engage one another argumentatively, nor is it a politically motivated tool explicitly designed and used by faculty to convert students. To the contrary. What they realized is that self-risk describes something all of us actually do on subjects of great importance to us and for which there are consequences  that self-risk is an optimal way to make the best decisions humanly possible and avoid costly mistakes.

We must wonder, therefore, how anyone who believes in rational argument and is concerned about education could oppose these virtues by dogmatically and habitually insisting that banning books is desirable.

Richard Cherwitz is the Ernest A. Sharpe Centennial Professor Emeritus at the Moody College of Communication at the University of Texas at Austin.
Platte County High School

A lawsuit in Missouri claims that a transgender student was deprived of the right to use the girls restroom. She was verbally cautioned and subjected to out-of-school suspension for refusing to use the boys bathroom and verbally harassed by officials at Platte County High School, the lawsuit alleges.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri filed a case on Monday contesting Platte County School Districts actions and alleging discrimination based on a students transgender status, her sex assigned at birth, and her gender dysphoria diagnosis, Kansas City CBS affiliate KCTV reports.

Forcing transgender students to use the bathroom or locker room that matches their sex designated at birth is not only discrimination but dangerous and causes serious harm to Missouris youth, said ACLU of Missouri deputy director Gillian Wilcox.

Both through the constitution and by statute the government, a school in this case, is prohibited from discriminating against the people it is supposed to protect on the basis of either their sex or disability, Wilcox continued.

According to the lawsuit, the student, whose name is only known as R.F., began undergoing a gender transition in 2019.

R.F. alleges that she was prohibited from using the girls restroom at the high school and was told by the assistant principal to use the boys or a gender-neutral bathroom.

After refusing to use the boys restroom, the district responded through escalating punishments ranging from verbal warnings to out-of-school suspension, according to the lawsuit.

After she returned from suspension, the student used the boys restroom, where a male classmate allegedly harassed her and threatened to rape her, the lawsuit states.

In the lawsuit, the student claimed she suffered from anxiety and depression and virtually completed the last several months of her first high school year.

In a Platte County School District statement, the district said it was just made aware of a lawsuit filed yesterday afternoon by the ACLU. The district is in the early stages of evaluating the legal claims. The districts focus is, and has always been, providing a safe and caring environment for all students.

On November 3 at 9 a.m., the first hearing is scheduled to be held.
Livingston Community Health has opened a clinic in Modesto to serve local residents, many who are not seeing a doctor regularly.

The Modesto Health Center, at 2116 E. Orangeburg Ave., is the eighth clinic location for the Livingston-based nonprofit, which has a mission to serve vulnerable populations.

Four years ago, Livingston Health took over operation of Stanislaus Countys health services clinics in Turlock and Hughson through an outsourcing arrangement. It has two clinics in Livingston and also serves patients in Delhi, Hilmar and Waterford.

The opening of our center in Modesto represents our commitment to improving the overall health and wellness of individuals and families, ensuring that everyone has access to compassionate and affordable care, Livingston Health CEO Leslie Abasta-Cummings said in a news release.

Services at the Orangeburg Avenue clinic include primary care, preventive care, womens health, pediatrics, chronic disease management and mental health services. People also can get help with insurance enrollment.

The new clinic accepts patients with Medi-Cal coverage, Medicare, private insurance or no insurance.

Abasta-Cummings said Livingston Health has been expanding in Stanislaus County for the past several years and a Modesto clinic was a logical next step because of unmet medical needs among residents.

Research focused on that ZIP code area revealed 9,400 people didnt have regular access to health care. Most of them are living at or below the poverty line, Abasta-Cummings said.

Livingston Health is part of a federal program providing cost-based reimbursements for serving patients with Medi-Cal coverage, the federal and state health program for the poor in California. Based on whats negotiated with the state, the Medi-Cal reimbursements for Livingston Health are higher than whats provided to a standard private practice, but we are also providing comprehensive medical services to those patients, the CEO said.

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The nonprofit is contracting with Scenic Faculty Medical Group for staffing at the Modesto clinic. Doctors Jose Alberto and Karen Rayos and Nurse Practitioner Elizabeth Buhler are seeing patients.

Livingston hopes to expand its relationship with Scenic Faculty for teaching and training medical students, resident physicians and nurse practitioners at its health clinics.

Hours for the Modesto clinic are Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. New patients are accepted. Call 833-850-3500.

The clinic is holding a grand opening set for 9 a.m. Aug. 10, with speakers, facility tours and refreshments.
A mother of three vanished on a shopping trip in 2021  and now her fiance is accused of killing her, Georgia officials said.

Tiffany Foster was 35 years old when she left her home to run errands on March 1, 2021. But over the next few days, she didnt show up to work, a college class or a flight that she booked. Coweta County deputies found her purse and other belongings that she left behind, deepening the mystery, McClatchy News reported.

At the time, the missing womans fiance, Reginald Robertson, told reporters it was unusual for her to go without contacting her children, video from a news conference shows.

The search for clues surrounding her disappearance lingered until Aug. 3, when deputies said Robertson was charged in his fiancees death. The sheriffs office didnt list attorney information for him in a news release.

Though Fosters body hasnt been found, deputies said all the evidence collected in this case confirms that she is in fact deceased.

Foster, who was also known as Tiffany Starks, was last seen leaving her apartment in Newnan, roughly 40 miles southwest of Atlanta. Her sister, identified as Kimberly Bryan by WXIA, pleaded for anyone with information about her disappearance to come forward during the March 2021 news conference.

Shes my best friend, Bryan said. This has devastated our family. As you can imagine, no child should have to worry about where their mother is and the condition that their mother is in.

Robertson also weighed in, saying he grew concerned when Foster hadnt come home from her shopping trip.

Now Robertson  who WXIA reports was accused of stealing his fiancees car in the past  faces charges again. Those include felony murder, malice murder, kidnapping and rape, deputies said.

The Coweta County Sheriffs Office in its news release didnt reveal how deputies believe Robertson killed his fiancee. Deputies didnt immediately share additional information with McClatchy News on Aug. 4.

Girl missing from church camp was found dead in 1975. Ex-pastor now charged in Georgia

70-year-old man charged after wife is found shot to death in home, Georgia deputies say
A lawyer for former President Donald Trump, John Lauro, seemed to admit to a charge listed in the indictment related to January 6 and the efforts to overturn the 2020 election, shocking an MSNBC panel.

Mr Lauro on Thursday told Fox News host Laura Ingraham that leading up to January 6, Mr Trump supported Mr Pence sending the election results back to the states.

John Eastman, a lawyer who helped orchestrate Mr Trumps election scheme, laid out a series of options that were discussed with Vice President Pence, Mr Lauro said onThe Ingraham Angle.

Although Mr Pence disagreed, Mr Lauro continued, What President Trump said is, Lets go with option D. Lets just halt, lets just pause the voting and allow the state legislatures to take one last look and make a determination as to whether or not the elections were handled fairly. Thats constitutional law. Thats not an issue of criminal activity.

MSNBC anchor Lawrence ODonnell reacted to the clip, saying in shock: That is a Trump criminal defense lawyer quoting Donald Trump committing a crime.

Donald Trumps criminal defense lawyer tonight added information to Jack Smiths 42-page description of Donald Trumps crimes. The conversation that John Lauro just described appears on page 34 of the indictment against his client.

The indictment describes that conversation as a criminal conspiracy, the MSNBC host said.

The indictment described a meeting on 4 January, based on Mr Pences contemporaneous notes: The Defendant and Co-Conspirator 2 then asked the Vice President to either unilaterally reject the legitimate electors from the seven targeted states, or send the question of which slate was legitimate to the targeted states legislatures.

When the Vice President challenged Co-Conspirator 2 on whether the proposal to return the question to the states was defensible, Co-Conspirator 2 responded, Well, nobodys tested it before, the indictment continued.

The Vice President then told the Defendant, Did you hear that? Even your own counsel is not saying I have that authority. The Defendant responded, Thats okay, I prefer the other suggestion of the Vice President rejecting the electors unilaterally, the indictment claimed.

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Mr ODonnell then explained: Donald Trumps defense lawyer tonight in effect admitted that the indictment is an accurate description of that meeting.

The MSNBC host also pointed out that criminal defence lawyers stay quiet, calling Mr Lauros move the single biggest mistake a criminal defence lawyer could make.

Former DOJ prosecutor Andrew Weissmann reacted to Mr Lauro repeating the claims on Newsmax, writing: An admission. Not a defense. He was sitting on the MSNBC panel as well. Mr Weissmann reacted to the interviews: So, I dont know why a defense lawyer is going to start giving facts about a critical moment.

Mr ODonnell then exclaimed, Its the whole case!

Mr Weissman continued, It is such a damning thing when you put it in context because remember what the indictment alleges[that] the reason this had to be done with the vice president is because, prior to that, all the efforts that Donald Trump took with respect to the secretaries of state did not work.

I just dont know why John, who is a good lawyer, didnt just zip it and not say anything, Mr Weissmann added.

Mr Trump pleaded not guilty on Thursday at his arraignment.
As Makenze Cameron tells it, she wasnt invested in politics before meeting her husband  who just so happened to be the Kentucky Attorney General.

But Thursday, the former educator and mom to a toddler took center stage as the campaign of Daniel Cameron, the Republican nominee for governor, rolled out its Moms for Cameron coalition in Newport.

Moms are ready to rise up and to fight back, Makenze Cameron said after the event. To fight for a good education system, to fight for safe streets and to fight for a better future for their kids.

Education and social issues  like the use of student pronouns in schools and gender-affirming care for transgender youth  have already played a prominent role in the Kentucky governors race this year.

Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear and Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman, a former educator, released new ads earlier this week, highlighting teachers as heroes while slamming the attorney general as anti-teacher and an opponent of public education. The Democrats have tried to tie the opposing campaign to Matt Bevin, the former governor who notoriously made enemies of teachers, and narrowly lost his re-election bid to Beshear in 2019.

Coleman may have subtly responded to the Moms for Cameron event on social media

Im excited to attend Fancy Farm this weekend with @AndyBeshearKY! she tweeted around the time the event drew to a close. As the Commonwealths highest elected mom and teacher, Ive got some things to say.

What is Fancy Farm? Everything you need to know about the Kentucky political tradition

Groups backing the GOP candidate have hit Beshear hard for vetoing Senate Bill 150, a bill that, among other things, bans gender-affirming surgeries for minors. Education Commissioner Jason Glass said this week he is resigning over that bill, a decision celebrated by the Cameron campaign: one down, one to go. Opponents of the bill have denounced it as one of the worst and most extreme anti-trans bills in the nation, while proponents, including the attorney general, have argued its about protecting children.

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Makenze Camerons message aligned with those points, but the former elementary teachers delivery stands in stark contrast to the attack ads on Beshear from groups backed by the Republican Governors Association, with the dark shading on images of the ads subject, bold fonts and ominous music that have come to typify negative political ads.

What were seeing in the classroom is ... some of these ideas being filtered in, she said. I saw Black Lives Matters protests in tasks for 8-year-olds. I saw students having to color dresses on boys, on cutouts, at my school that I taught at. This is not some ideas that people are saying is not happening. I saw it first-hand.

The initiative has already garnered the public support of Kelley Paul, the wife of U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-KY, and State Sen. Shelley Funke Frommeyer, R-Alexandria, was in attendance Thursday.

I am a mom, and family is the number one reason I ran for state senate. Cameron, in the words of Makenze and Daniel, the Cameron family is running for governor, so I want to continue to reinforce that message, Funke Frommeyer said. We are here fighting for our families. Its desperate. And guess what? Were fighting for our teachers because our teachers are fighting for our families, but theyve been put in a terrible spot.

Funke Frommeyer said she was a co-sponsor of Senate Bill 150 because she believes parents need a voice.

I believe kids need to be first, and theyve not been put first; some new strange social agenda has become the primary concern, she said. Parents need space, and a runway, to help their kids through those confusions, those challenges, those questions about their own sexual health and well-being  but they dont need to be changed. They need to be loved and built up, without regard to sex and race.

Event attendee Mirna Eads, who is chapter chair of Campbell County Moms for Liberty, said she believes Cameron will hold her husband to his promises and make sure that parental rights are upheld.

Hes definitely for parental rights. Hes definitely for kids. Going back to education and learning, reading, writing, arithmetic, Eads said. Weve got to get reading scores up like yeah, Andy Beshears education plan is to make sure that our kids stay dumb, and learn about what sex they want to identify as, rather than, what do they want to be when they grow up?

The Beshear campaign has vehemently denied that he would allow gender-reassignment surgery for trans kids  and even released an ad articulating that point to voters.

No LGBTQ groups in the state took issue with banning such surgeries for minors. Instead, their opposition was based on other provisions of the bill, like the parts that would allow teachers to misgender their students and the ban on puberty blockers.

Also on Thursday, the American Academy of Pediatrics board voted to maintain its support for gender-affirming care, but did so with the caveat that there should also be a systemic review of such treatments.

The Cameron event also drew a handful of protesters, including Ron Turner, a Newport resident and former childrens librarian, who held a trans rights! sign.

Were here to support queer kids, he said. Were here to support the family of Breonna Taylor. Were here to support immigrants. Were here to support everyone that MAGA Republicans want to leave behind.

Turner said it seems the Cameron campaign is doubling down on a losing message.

Kelly Craft ran on an anti-queer platform, and she lost in a landslide, Turner said. Ron DeSantis made the same thing, and now hes struggling and may not even make it to the end of the primary. Why are we doubling down on policies that have clearly failed?
Most Americans in a new poll said Congress should not authorize more funding for Ukraine, more than 18 months after Russia first invaded its neighboring country.

The CNN poll found that 55 percent of Americans said lawmakers should not authorize additional funding to support Ukraine, while 45 percent said they should.

Republicans were more likely to oppose additional aid for Ukraine, with 71 percent saying Congress should not approve more funding, compared to 55 percent of independents and 38 percent of Democrats who said the same.

Support for Ukraine is likely to be a major issue in next years presidential race. President Biden has offered steadfast support for Ukraine and pushed Congress to provide military and other forms of aid.

There has also been bipartisan support for that help, including from key Republicans such as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.), an influential hawkish GOP senator.

Several GOP candidates for president, however, have taken a much more skeptical view of support for Ukraine, and  if elected c would seem likely to reduce or eliminate U.S. support. Voices to end support for Ukraine have also been vocal in the GOP-held House, though they do not represent anything close to a majority in that chamber.

Americans overall are slightly less worried about the implications of the war, compared to when fighting first broke out last February, the poll found.

While 77 percent said they were worried that the war could lead to Russian attacks elsewhere in February 2022, 64 percent said the same this July. Those concerned the conflict could result in a broader war in Europe also decreased from 80 percent last February to 59 percent in July 2023.

Americans are also less worried the war in Ukraine poses a threat to U.S. national security, with 56 percent in the latest poll saying as much. Last February, 72 percent expressed concerns about the wars impact on U.S. national security.

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Notably, in the July poll, 77 percent said they are worried that the war could continue without a resolution for a long time.

The CNN poll released Friday was conducted by SSRS from July 1-30 with 1,279 U.S. adults and had a margin of error of 3.7 percentage points.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
SOMERSET  A homicide case against a Johnstown man will move forward in Somerset County Court.

The prosecution called three witnesses Friday at Gregory Mostoller's preliminary hearing for homicide in the shooting death of Clifton Earl Johnson in a barn in Shade Township near Hooversville.

This farm along Charles Street in Shade Township is the site of a fatal shooting.

The coroner, the pathologist and the lead state police criminal investigator in the case testified in the hearing that took place for two hours. More than a dozen of the victim's family members filled the back rows in the courtroom.

Mostoller's attorney, Thomas Dickey, of Altoona, peppered the witnesses with questions on cross-examination, with the end result: the district judge found there was enough evidence presented by Acting District Attorney Molly Metzgar and Assistant District Attorney Thomas Leiden through their witnesses for a prima facie case and moved it forward to trial in Somerset County Court.

At a preliminary hearing, a magistrate will not weigh the evidence and decide which evidence is credible; rather, a magistrate will look at whether the prosecution can establish two things: that a crime was committed; and that it is probable that the defendant may have committed that crime.

More: Two Irish brothers grab their truck from Somerset impound and pay the price

None of the charges against Mostoller were dismissed or withdrawn by District Judge William Seger, of Windber, who presided over the hearing.

The back story

Mostoller called state police Somerset barracks on June 2 from the scene, a farm at 837 Charles Street in Shade Township, saying, "A guy came at me with a wrench, and I killed him," according to a probable-cause affidavit.

The 67-year-old man, from Johnstown, was waiting for police at the site of the shooting. He was charged at 11 p.m. before on-call Boswell District Judge Susan Mankamyer with homicide.

Other: Somerset District Judge Ken Johnson discusses his role in the justice system

Mostoller told police at the scene several times that he had killed a man who charged him with a wrench and that the gun was in the garage on the workbench, according to the affidavit. A .45 caliber pistol was found on the bench, state police said. The handgun contained one live round of ammunition that was chambered. The magazine was empty.

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"The live round bore the same head stamp as the 12 spent shell casings near the victim," according to the affidavit.

A tape of Mostoller's call to the state police was aired by the prosecution during his preliminary hearing, where the defendant repeated that he knew the man who was shoot.

Johnson, 64, of Hooversville, was a well-known horse trainer and farmer in the area.

The barn was on a farm owned by Mostoller's deceased parents.

More: Corsa Coal off the hook for violating Foreign Corrupt Practices Act...sort of

Testimony

Cullen Swank, county coroner, said when he got to the scene he saw Johnson on his back. Visible were bullet wounds in the man's arms and his head.

After the autopsy, Swank found the manner of death was multiple gunshots and the cause of death was homicide.

On June 2, "I was in Stoystown. I heard the fire whistle. About 11:30 a.m. I received a call from county. They were ready for me to come on the scene."

When he got there he saw about 10 troopers, he said. There were no medical personnel there.

"You don't know if the body was moved," asked Dickey.

"The body was never moved," Swank answered.

He was asked by the defense attorney about self-defense, and Swank responded, "homicide is the death at the hands of another."

When asked about the location of the body, he said, "It was kind of tangled in a barn door. The arm was tangled."

Dickey asked Swank if he made note of any weapons at the crime scene. Swank responded that there was a weapon found in a separate building.

When more questions about the weapon were asked, Swank replied, "My job is to find the cause and manner of death not to find weapons."

Courtney Healy, pathologist of DX in Windber, who performed the autopsy, said there were eight gunshot wounds, of which, three would have caused death and another would in his spine have debilitated Johnson so he could not walk run or stand.

There was a gunshot wound in each of Johnson's arms. One through his eye and the remainder in his trunk.

A toxicology report "was unremarkable."

Daniel Kephart, criminal investigator with the state police said he, another trooper and their sergeant, were in the barracks when the call came through from Mostoller. The three law enforcement officers rushed to the scene.

Once there, they got out of their vehicles and began walking down to the barn and encountered Mostoller walking toward them.

He walked toward them and they handcuffed him. He stayed with Mostoller "a good bit until after more troopers came on the scene."

Medical personnel were there but were told not to go down since Johnson was "obviously deceased."

Mostoller "admitted to the killing."

When asked by Dickey if there were any tools close to the victim, he responded: "There was a silver wrench about 5 or 6 feet from the body."

This article originally appeared on The Daily American: Owner faces homicide charge in shooting case at Somerset County farm
Hundreds of business meetings take place across Tallahassee each week focused on growing our companies, improving the livelihoods of employees and advancing our great city. A common topic of discussion is the importance of making Tallahassee a place our children want to stay, or return to, and raise their families.

Move Tallahassee will cross the Lake Lafayette Heritage Trail bridge during walk Saturday, June 19, 2021.

Think about that for a moment, whether you have children or not: What makes this community a place where people choose to live and spend their resources? After all, growing our tax base is what fuels so much of what we love about our city  the trails, parks, community service programs, arts, culture and more.

While there is much to enjoy about Tallahassee, there are also opportunities and challenges we must address as we create a vision for our future.

This is why the Greater Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce, in our 100th year, is laser focused on addressing the most important issues impacting the growth of our community: job creation, talent retention, business recruitment, economic competitiveness, homelessness, affordable housing and community prosperity.

True to our mission, weve engaged with city and county leadership to advance businesses expanding or relocating to Tallahassee; powered TalentHub  a platform sharing educational training and accessible job opportunities, engaging more than 14,000 registered users; partnered with dozens of stakeholders and the Affordable Housing Workgroup to address challenges and solutions; addressed reading level gaps and other needs through the Classroom Connection program, with more than 60 businesses engaged in Tallahassees Title 1 elementary schools; and so much more.

Weve been recognized by both the United States and Florida Chambers of Commerce for the strategic outcomes of our talent, workforce and education engagement to advance our community, and were conducting the first-of-its kind Worlds of Work event this October to reach every Tallahassee ninth grader with an interactive career experience across more than a dozen industries.

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As a Chamber, weve made important gains in each of our key focus areas and recognize our most critical work is still ahead.

Did you know Leon Countys population will increase by an estimated 18,000 people by 2030?

Or that there are more than 10,000 jobs open in Tallahassee today  more jobs than people looking for work?

How do we sleep at night knowing only 50% of Leon County children are ready for kindergarten?

These critical data points are on our Community Scorecard. They provide benchmarks to help us track the progress weve made and inform decisions to improve our region moving forward a region that currently has one of the slowest job growth stagnation rates in the state.

So, what does the future hold for Tallahassee? How do we overcome these issues while maintaining the things we love most about our city? The answer is: together.

With more than 1,200 chamber members representing 55,000 employees, together, the Tallahassee Chamber is turning to our community to answer a critical question: How would you advance Tallahassee?

What is important to preserve about our community as we grow? What do you think our community needs most to create more economic opportunity? In your opinion, what is the number one thing hindering our community as we look to advance?

Fans fill the lawn at Adderley Amphitheater as they eagerly wait for Willie Nelson to perform Saturday, March 4, 2023.

As we kick off our community's bicentennial year in 2024, we want your insight, your ideas and  most importantly  your engagement to help us envision the brightest future possible for Tallahassee.

Let us take this opportunity to collectively reflect on what matters most as we raise our families, expand our businesses, and build our community. Together, we can develop a vision that invites and supports generations to come.

Share how you would advance Tallahassee at TellUsNowTLH.com.

Terrie Ard

Terrie Ard is chair of the Board of Directors of the Greater Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce and president and partner of The Moore Agency. For more information or to provide your ideas for the future of Tallahassee, visit TellUsNowTLH.com.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION

Send letters to the editor (up to 200 words) or Your Turn columns (about 500 words) to letters@tallahassee.com. Please include your address for verification purposes only, and if you send a Your Turn, also include a photo and 1-2 line bio of yourself. You can also submit anonymous Zing!s at Tallahassee.com/Zing. Submissions are published on a space-available basis. All submissions may be edited for content, clarity and length, and may also be published by any part of the USA TODAY NETWORK.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: What will it take to move Tallahassee forward?
Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa (2nd R, front) arrives for the commissioning ceremony of the Hwange Thermal Power Station expansion project in Hwange, Zimbabwe, on Aug. 3, 2023. (Photo by Tafara Mugwara/Xinhua)

HWANGE, Zimbabwe, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Thursday commissioned the Chinese-funded Hwange Thermal Power Station expansion project in Hwange, about 780 km from the capital Harare.

Chinese firm Sinohydro undertook the expansion, adding two new generators, Unit 7 and Unit 8, to the existing six units at the power plant.

Unit 7 is already feeding into the grid after the successful completion of tests in June while Unit 8 is undergoing tests and is expected to be available commercially soon.

The completion of the landmark project is a result of the fruitful cooperation between China and Zimbabwe, Mnangagwa said after touring the facility.

The president expressed gratitude to China for its efforts in supporting Zimbabwe's infrastructure development.

Chinese Ambassador to Zimbabwe Zhou Ding said the completion of the project marks a significant milestone in China-Zimbabwe relations.

"This landmark project will not only provide Zimbabwe with reliable power supply and brighten up millions of Zimbabwean households but also inject new vitality into the country's socio-economic progress," he said. 

This photo taken on Aug. 3, 2023 shows an exterior view of Hwange Thermal Power Station in Hwange, Zimbabwe. The expansion project of the power station was commissioned by Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Thursday. (Xinhua/Zhang Baoping)
One lane of the East Pearl River Bridge will close on Monday after a semi-truck crashed and damaged the newly repaired bridge Thursday morning.

The right lane westbound will close from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., said MDOT public information officer Anna Ehrgott. The crash early Thursday damaged the bridges guardrail, she said.

Mississippi Highway Patrol photos show the truck appeared to scrape against the side of the bridge at the Mississippi-Louisiana state line. The bridge is well-traveled among Hancock County residents who commute daily to Slidell, Covington or New Orleans.

The latest repairs come just under two weeks since the bridge reopened after lane closures this summer. Construction crews rebuilt a railing and demolished the bridge deck after a different semi-truck crashed and caught fire on the bridge earlier this year.

The lane closures caused delays up to four hours some days near the Louisiana state line, but MDOT announced they would reopen all lanes July 21. Traffic cleared significantly  until the crash Thursday morning.

Delays lasted three hours Thursday morning after the 18-wheeler crashed into the side of the guardrail. The crash involved a single vehicle and caused no injuries, according to Mississippi Highway Patrol spokesman Calvin Robertson.

The collision was the latest in a series of wrecks that have plagued the state line for years. In July, authorities briefly closed the interstate to airlift a driver from the scene of a crash between a box truck and a semi-truck near the two-mile marker in the westbound lanes of Interstate 10. In 2022, a semi-truck carrying BMWs crashed in a fiery wreck, another 18-wheeler caught fire after it crashed into the bridge railing and a pileup of four cars and an 18-wheeler sent six people to the hospital.
In the real estate business they are known as stigmatized houses, places where deaths or worse, murders, have occurred  or places believed to be haunted.

But does an agent in South Carolina have to tell a potential home buyer?

Nope.

The law says only if asked.

And many times, the Realtor doesnt know the answer.

Annamarie Congemi, who sold the Simpsonville house where Food Network star Ariel Robinson killed her foster daughter, didnt know the 3-year-old girl was murdered there.

She was the agent for the buyer, the daughter of a friend.

They love it, Congemi said.

Shed be more concerned about a house in a high crime area than one with a past.

Most people dont care, unless they are concerned about ghosts, she said.

Morris Lyles with ERA Wilder Realty and former president of South Carolina Realtors, said people rarely ask and most Realtors only know if a death is a highly publicized crime.

He said he once was asked if anyone died in a house built in 1740.

His answer, I presume so.

He said best practice is if the Realtor knows, they should tell. Woe to the Realtor who doesnt and the buyer finds out later. Not good for repeat business.

The National Association of Realtors says, stigmatized properties can be a hard sell for some buyers, while others may be eager to take advantage of a discounted price, especially in a tight market.

The law varies from state to state about whether the agent has an obligation to tell.

A study by real estate website Zillow found New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Minnesota are the only states that include paranormal activity in their real estate disclosure forms.

New York goes so far as to say a sale can be rescinded if a buyer is not told about ghosts.

Nine states require disclosure of a death. California requires sellers to disclose a death that had occurred within three years. Its one year in Alaska.

South Dakota requires sellers to say if a homicide occurred.

Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, New Hampshire, New Jersey, like South Carolina, require sellers to say only if asked.

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Sometimes there is just no way around it. Take as an extreme example the house where the Manson family killed actress Sharon Tate and four others 54 years ago on Aug. 9. The house on 3.3 acres overlooked Benedict Canyon in Beverly Hills.

After the murders, a real estate agent who specialized in selling houses where murders took place told the owner his only hope of selling it was to move in. He did. It was almost 30 years before the house was sold to an investor who tore down the house, changed the new houses orientation and location of the driveway, and then changed the address.

It was bought by Jeff Franklin, who created the television show Full House, for $6 million.

The nine-bedroom, 18 bath, 21,000 square-foot house has been on the market since early 2022. Asking price has dropped from $85 million to $54,995,000.

Franklin has been quoted as saying the propertys past has had no impact on my life whatsoever.

There is a website where you can see if your house has a deathly past  diedinhouse.com. Besides learning about deaths, the $11..99 report also includes meth lab records, fires, registered sex offenders nearby and other property information like taxes and previous sales.
By Shoon Naing and Poppy McPherson

(Reuters) - Poet turned militia leader Maung Saungkha, one of the most prominent figures fighting for democracy in Myanmar, says his armed group plans to start carving out territory in the country's heartlands to confront the junta more directly.

Maung Saungkha said the move is a key strategic aim for his Bamar People's Liberation Army (BPLA) - a militia formed in the wake of the junta's February 2021 coup - now that it has gained training from allies and battle experience in the country's borderlands.Most BPLA members are Buddhist Bamars, the ethnic group that accounts for two-thirds of the population and dominates central Myanmar where government institutions are based.

"For an army formed from Bamar people, it's an important part of our vision to be based in a Bamar region and to be active there," the 30-year-old commander said via text from his jungle camp near the border with Thailand.

Maung Saungkha said the BPLA wants to work with the People's Defense Forces (PDF) - the armed wing of the National Unity Government formed from the remnants of Aung Sang Suu Kyi's administration that is seeking to supplant the junta. The PDF is comprised of hundreds of militias, many of which are mostly Bamar.

The Myanmar-based Institute for Strategy and Policy estimates the BPLA has some 1,000 members - a figure that would make it one of the country's biggest new militias.

The BPLA's growth owes much to Maung Saungkha's skills in building bridges with other armed groups, according to a key ally and two analysts. It also underscores how new militias have become entrenched in Myanmar's political landscape, even if they are far from toppling the junta.

The National Unity Government, which provides the BPLA with some food support, said that to rebase centrally the BPLA would have to negotiate with its defense ministry to ensure smooth cooperation with PDF troops.

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The junta did not respond to requests for comment for this article. It says armed groups that oppose it are "terrorists" who sow chaos and kill civilians. It has charged Maung Saungkha with sedition as it has done with most opponents of its rule.

Maung Saungkha and the BPLA's political officer, Yoe Aunt Min, said the fight against the junta would be long and acknowledged the BPLA faces significant challenges - particularly funding and waning motivation to keep fighting among some recruits.

Bamar dominance has long been resented by Myanmar's many minorities but Maung Saungkha's background has helped the BPLA forge strong ties with other ethnic armed organisations, delicate work seen as critical for the resistance.

Before the coup, he was a poet who had been jailed for a verse that lampooned authority, who then became a high-profile activist, advocating for equality for minorities and federalism.

That track record has given the BPLA "ideological heft", said Richard Horsey, senior Myanmar adviser at the think tank Crisis Group.

FROM BB GUNS TO AK-81s

The BPLA was founded two months after the coup in Myanmar's borderlands, with Maung Saungkha seeking training and support from ethnic armed organisations that have been fighting for decades for greater autonomy.

At first, the BPLA only had wooden guns and BB guns to train with, but today they own some M16 rifles and AK-81s and borrow other weapons from allies, according to Maung Saungkha.

The BPLA works closely with the Karen National Union (KNU), on whose territory it is based, and the Arakan Army (AA) which provided training, he said.

Both groups confirmed the BPLA was fighting alongside their troops.

Resistance forces have inflicted significant damage on the junta and gained territory, said Nicola Williams, analyst at the Australian National University's Myanmar Research Centre.

But, to have greater impact, they need to move "beyond creating confusion and disorder" in urban areas and work together to seize strategic sites, she said, adding their efforts were impeded by competition between armed groups for weapons and resources.

Brigadier General Nyo Tun Aung, the AA's deputy commander-in-chief, said in a letter to Reuters that Maung Saungkha has built "good and close relationships" with leaders of "ethnic revolutionary organisations."

The BPLA had earned support by developing "the same revolutionary heartbeat", Nyo Tun Aung wrote.

Yoe Aunt Min said the many militias operating in Bamar-majority areas meant the BPLA couldn't easily become active there but it had several options.

In addition to reaching out to work with PDF troops, it could send in small drone-operating units, she said.

"We've also received requests to train others, so we might start off as trainers," she added.

FUNDING AND MORALE PROBLEMS

Although the BPLA has support from allies for food and other supplies, Maung Saungkha said funding is a constant concern.

Some armed ethnic groups have long relied on drug trafficking for funds, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. But the BPLA says its only independent financing comes from donations, sales of BPLA-branded hoodies and merchandise, and Maung Saungkha's poetry books. Reuters was not able to independently confirm this.

By contrast, China and Russia arm the junta, according to the UN, which has accused Myanmars military rulers of being responsible for arbitrary airstrikes, mass killings and extra-judicial executions. The junta has said it is carrying out legitimate operations against "terrorists".

Some soldiers have run away, homesick, bored and tired after two years of war, said Maung Saungkha, who declined to disclose how many members are in his group.

"This year, ephemeral revolutionaries will rush home...now it's just the qualifying stage. There are still many battles ahead," he said.

(Reporting by Shoon Naing and Poppy McPherson; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)
Ax-2 Mission Specialist Rayyanah Barnawi on board the ISS.

Axiom Space will fly a fourth crew to the International Space Station (ISS) as NASA once again selects the private space venture for another mission to low Earth orbit.

On Thursday, NASA and Axiom Space announced a new order for the fourth private mission to the ISS, which is set to launch no earlier than August 2024 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Read more

Axiom Space has so far dominated these commercial trips to the space station, previously sending two private crews to the ISS with a third mission currently in the works. I am pleased to see another milestone in our efforts to transition low Earth orbit from primarily a government-sponsored activity to one where NASA is one of many customers, Phil McAlister, director of commercial space at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said in a statement.

The first private mission to the ISS arrived at the orbiting station in April 2022, and the four Ax-1 crew members spent 15 days living and working in the microgravity environment. Ax-2 launched a little over a year later, sending another private crew to the ISS in May 2023.

Even before the launch of Ax-2, NASA had already chosen Axiom Space for the third private mission to the space station. In March, the space agency announced a mission order with Axiom Space for a third crew of private astronauts to venture to low Earth orbit. Ax-3 was originally scheduled to launch in November 2023 but NASA and Axiom Space recently announced a revised launch date no earlier than January 2024 to allow for teams to collaborate on the integration of the missions scientific research priorities, the space agency wrote.

The private missions to the ISS are meant to transition low Earth orbit to a commercial platform following the retirement of the orbiting space station in 2030. Axiom Space is designing its own space station, with plans to launch the first module to low Earth orbit in 2025. With the launch of its Axiom station modules, the company wants to start sending its crews up at will, eliminating the requirement for NASA to approve its missions.

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Each mission allows us to build on the foundation we have set for the worlds first commercial space station, Axiom Station, preparing our teams and orbital platform to succeed ISS operations in low-Earth orbit (LEO), Michael Suffredini, CEO and president of Axiom Space, said in a statement. These missions are instrumental in expanding commercial space activities.

The first private mission to the ISS wasnt all smooth sailing. The Ax-1 crew complained that they were overworked on board the space station, and they sometimes interfered with the work of regular ISS astronauts. Upon their return, NASA admitted to having learned some important lessons when it comes to private space station missions.

The space agency consequently updated a few of its rules for future private astronauts, including a requirement that the missions would be led by a former NASA astronaut. Peggy Whitson, who is Axiom Spaces director of human spaceflight and a former NASA astronaut, served as the Ax-2 commander. The crew for Ax-3 is yet to be announced, while Axiom Space will still need to submit proposals for the Ax-4 crew to NASA for review so the space agency can make approvals beforehand.

NASA has been directed to develop commercial platforms to sustain a continuous United States presence in low Earth orbit and to transition beyond International Space Station operations, NASAs McAlister said. These private astronaut missions are helping to pave the way for that transition.

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An image of the Ring Nebula recently taken by the James Webb Space Telescope is shown here. The structure shows the matter ejected by the super-hot dying star (purple) and a cloud of gas at its center (yellow). NASA, ESA, CSA, JWST Ring Nebula Team photo; image processing by Roger Wesson

The James Webb Space Telescope continues to impress with stunning images of the universe.

The latest image shows a doughnut-shaped structure of glowing gas known as the Ring Nebula.

The image peers through the nebula's gas to reveal secrets about the life and death of stars.

The stunning death throes of a star 2,600 light years away have been captured in unprecedented detail by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

The image shows a doughnut-like structure of glowing gas known as the Ring Nebula, which was formed about 4,000 years ago when a star violently shed its outer layer of gas and dust.

This matter spread out around the star, forming the granular purple matter seen in the image above.

The dying star that created the burst of matter is still visible at the center of the nebula. It is now extremely hot, over 100,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The interior of the ring is filled with hot gas, as shown in the image in yellow.

The image could help scientists learn more about the life cycle of distant stars.

You can see the image in more detail below:

The Ring Nebula is a favorite among amateur astronomers. Located 2,600 light years from Earth, its bubble-like shape can be seen using a backyard telescope pointing at the Lyra constellation.

"I first saw the Ring Nebula as a kid through just a small telescope," said astrophysicist Jan Cami of the University of Western Ontario, Canada, a member of the James Webb Space Telescope's (JWST) Ring Nebula Imaging Project, in a press release.

"I would never have thought that one day, I would be part of the team that would use the most powerful space telescope ever built, to look at this object," he said.

This latest Ring Nebula picture isn't just "aesthetically pleasing," said co-lead scientist Nick Cox of space observation firm ACRI-ST, France.

"By studying the Ring Nebula with JWST, we hope to gain a deeper understanding of the life cycles of stars and the elements they release into the cosmos," he said.

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The telescope's advanced infrared capabilities allow scientists to peer through gas like never before. This new picture is no exception; it reveals the secrets of the star at the center of the explosion.

"The high-resolution images not only showcase the intricate details of the nebula's expanding shell but also reveal the inner region around the central white dwarf in exquisite clarity," said Mike Barlow, University College London professor and co-lead scientist of the JWST Ring Nebula Imaging Project.

"We are witnessing the final chapters of a star's life, a preview of the sun's distant future so to speak, and JWST's observations have opened a new window into understanding these awe-inspiring cosmic events," he added.

This isn't the first time JWST has shared breathtaking images of a distant nebula.

As part of the space telescope's first series of images, scientists released stunning new photos of the Southern Ring Nebula, in July 2022.

The two stars can be seen on the MIRI cam picture of the Southern Ring Nebula. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

The telescope showed the structure was created by two stars, one of which had been hiding behind the dense cloud of hot gas until JWST exposed it.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Nassau County Sheriffs Office is still accepting donations to help the Boys and Girls Club of Nassau.

The school supplies donated will be given to children that need help with their homework and other projects.

All donations will benefit Miller Freedom Center in Fernandina, Roberts Learning & Achievement Center in Fernandina, and Journey Church West Campus in Hilliard.

Read: JSO said car went off the road and into the Trout River, driver suffered minor injuries

Donations may be dropped off at the Nassau County Sheriffs Office Administration building located at 77151 Citizens Circle Yulee, FL 32097. We are open Monday through Friday 8 a.m.  5 p.m.

Some examples of the needed school supplies are:

 Backpacks

 Pencils

 Paper

 Highlighters

 Pens

 Crayons

 Markers

 Hand Sanitizer

 Expo Markers

 Post-It Notes

 Lysol Wipes

 Erasers

The last day to donate will be Aug. 9.

For more information, please contact Nicole Maddox at 904-548-4020 or by email: ni1468@nassauso.com

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Read: Mental health town hall in Jacksonville: Understanding resources within the community

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Oneida Nation Chairman Tehassi Hill (right) shakes hands with Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers during a ground blessing ceremony for a planned Native youth drug treatment center in Tomahawk.

One solution many people in Indian Country turn to these days to help alleviate social problems is to guide people back to their roots.

Tribal officials in Wisconsin are hoping cultural revitalization will help lower the high rates of Native youth addicted to drugs.

I think really to help stem that is to build cultural identity, Oneida Nation Chairman Tehassi Hill said. Its about learning who they are and who their ancestors are to help build responsibility.

Hill, tribal officials from across the state and the Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council and Gov. Tony Evers attended a ground blessing this week for a youth substance abuse treatment facility in northern Wisconsin.

Hill said he thinks the planned $8 million, 36-bed Adolescent Recovery and Wellness Center in Tomahawk will be the first of its kind in the Midwest that focuses on providing culturally relevant treatment services to Native youth.

Hill said hes heard anecdotally from tribal officials in other parts of the country that this type of cultural treatment service has been successful in steering youth to recovery.

The plan to build the ARWC started in 2017 under Gov. Scott Walker's administration, when the state Legislature approved giving $200,000 from tribal gaming revenue to the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican Nation to assess the feasibility of the project.

In 2019, the Legislature approved $640,000 from tribal gaming revenue to pay for the center's architectural plans, led by the Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council.

Native youth are two times more likely to use opioids for nonmedical purposes, compared to non-Native youth, the Inter-Tribal Council said.

More by this reporter: 'It's like having grandma or grandpa in their pockets': Elders working to preserve Ho-Chunk language

From 1999 to 2015, the death rate from opioid overdoses increased by more than 500% for Native Americans, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Tribal health advocates agree that generational trauma from decades of forced and unforced assimilation have led to high rates of addiction. They point to the cultural revitalization in recent years in Indian Country as a way to heal communities.

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The Indian Health Service funds 12 Native youth substance abuse treatment centers in the U.S., with the closest one to Wisconsin in South Dakota.

Two facilities in Wisconsin provide substance abuse services for youth, but neither accepts Indian Health Service reimbursements.

The ARWC in Wisconsin also will be open to non-Native youth, but Native youth will be prioritized. About 8.7% of Wisconsin residents have a substance abuse disorder, exceeding the national average of 7.6%. Last year, more than 1,800 people in Wisconsin died from an overdose.

The center will be tribally owned and operated to maximize federal assistance available to tribes. It'll provide evidence-based medical treatment to treat the person, not the substance.

The average stay for a patient at ARWC will be 40 days. It will serve children between ages 13 and 17.

Officials hope to break ground this fall, once permits are approved.

Frank Vaisvilas is a former Report for America corps member who covers Native American issues in Wisconsin based at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Contact him at fvaisvilas@gannett.com or 815-260-2262. Follow him on Twitter at @vaisvilas_frank.

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Wisconsin tribes to operate youth drug treatment center in Tomahawk
This article has been updated to include a comment from HIIs Ingalls Shipbuilding.

WASHINGTON  The U.S. Navy believes a pair of contracts it awarded this week for Arleigh Burke-class destroyers  covering as few as nine and as many as 15 ships over the next five years  is the best way to help two shipyards recover from challenges and increase their output.

However, the quantity  fewer than two per year guaranteed  stands in contrast to another program with multiyear shipbuilding contracts, the Virginia-class attack submarine program, where the government continues to award industry with more work than it can accommodate to help encourage investments.

Navy awards nine Arleigh Burke destroyers in five-year contracts

The destroyer-industrial base is currently running behind schedule. Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro previously told Defense News the service is buying two ships a year, but industry is delivering an average of 1.8 annually.

The Navy awarded a pair of five-year, multi-ship contracts to the two prime shipbuilders on the program. HIIs Ingalls Shipbuilding will produce six destroyers from fiscal 2023 through fiscal 2027. The work will see two in FY25 and one in each of the fiscal years.

General Dynamics Bath Iron Works will build a ship in FY23, FY24 and FY26.

Those nine ships are the only guarantees to industry, though the contract also covers options for a second ship in FY27 and for a third ship in each fiscal year.

Jay Stefany, the acting assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition, told reporters Wednesday he believes the yards bids, which led to the Navy picking the 6-3 split, indicated each shipyard knew what its ideal workload would be to get back on track and grow its capacity.

The way it turned out is probably the best way for each of them to grow, so they bid it in a way that would allow them both to grow  at the right pace for them and their suppliers, he told Defense News at a media roundtable.

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The contract, I think, allows the two companies [and their suppliers] to continue the recovery from COVID and, in Baths case, the strike from two or three years ago, he said.

He added that the workload does allow both companies the best path forward and to surge or flex if the Navy requests or Congress demands more than two ships a year.

Two cranes were used to lift the 320-ton aft deckhouse onto guided missile destroyer Jack H. Lucas (DDG 125) at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Miss. Photo by Lance Davis/HII

Rear Adm. Tom Anderson, the program executive officer for ships, said the Navy considered each yards workload and throughput as it developed a strategy for writing the request for proposals. Both yards submitted offers for a 6-3 split and a 5-4 split for the nine guaranteed ships, as well as offers for all the optional ships.

Anderson, too, said he believes the yards knew what workload would be most efficient, which affected pricing for the two scenarios and the options. The Navy is not releasing information about the price of the ships because any options that are exercised will undergo competition, with Ingalls and Bath allowed to lower their original bids.

Without getting into specifics, Anderson said the bids also revealed how the two yards are looking at their current and future workforce needs. This is the first contract to include a measure passed into law in the FY23 defense policy bill  Section 122  which creates a Navy shipbuilding workforce development special incentive and calls for between 0.25% and 1% of the contract value to fund workforce recruiting and retention measures such as training, housing and bonuses.

Anderson later said the Navys confidence in the yards performance is increasing as they come out of the pandemic.

We certainly had some challenges with workforce and throughput, but we are seeing improving trends with regards to schedule performance. There are also a number of capital investments that are being made: HII has made their Shipyard of the Future investments, and were starting to see payoff in efficiency, Anderson explained. And Bath Iron Works is undergoing a number of capital improvements, in large part supported by the surface combatant-industrial base funds that Congress has appropriated.

But one expert thinks awarding more work in this multiyear contract would have better helped stabilize the workforce and the supply chain.

Bryan Clark, director of the Center for Defense Concepts and Technology at the Hudson Institute think tank, said only guaranteeing as much work as the yards can comfortably build makes sense in that youre not putting demands on them that they cant meet and putting them at risk of delivering late.

But the problem with that logic is, the alternative would be, Im going to contract with you to do more ships, but Im going to give you more time. Im going to give you the money to generate a backlog, and then you can go make the investments necessary to deliver on that backlog. And thats a way to fund their infrastructure and workforce improvement efforts, he said.

The submarine-industrial base, with General Dynamics Electric Boat and HIIs Newport News Shipbuilding as the construction yards, is delivering about 1.2 boats a year, despite the Navy buying two annually.

Despite the larger delay in this program, the Navy continues to buy at a steady pace and re-baselined the ship delivery schedules, extending those timelines so the yards arent penalized for late deliveries.

The Virginia-class submarine New Jersey (SSN 796) reached pressure hull complete in February 2021. The construction milestone signifies that all of the submarines hull sections have been joined to form a single, watertight unit. HII photo.

Clark said this gives the shipbuilders and their suppliers enough cash on hand to invest in infrastructure and workforce to get back to at least two deliveries a year.

By guaranteeing the destroyer-industrial base fewer than two a year, Clark said, then youre really not incentivizing them to expand their capacity; youre just making it so that youre not putting unreasonable demands on them.

Clark said he thought Bath might have a maximum production rate between four and five ships in five years, once the company gets back on track  but awarding just three ships doesnt help the company get to that better throughput any faster.

At Ingalls, Clark said theres a great opportunity to increase destroyer production, if the Navy wanted to. The Mississippi yard is about to wrap up its work on the Coast Guards National Security Cutter program, and could move around people and resources to build more destroyers.

There has been longstanding support from Congress for buying three destroyers a year, but top Pentagon and Navy leaders arent interested in budgeting for those ships. Defense Department Comptroller Mike McCord said in March the track record of industry shows it cant build three a year. Del Toro, too, cautioned against buying three a year until industry makes investments to increase capacity.

Thats true, they dont have that capacity, Clark said. Well, the only way you get there is if you create the demand signal for three destroyers per year. In the submarine force, theyve created that demand signal for two, two-plus submarines per year, so theyre building to reach that inside the submarine-industrial base. And we just havent done the same thing in the surface-industrial base, and theres sort of this implication that the shipbuilders need to do that with their own money  build this capacity and have it standing by.

With the U.S. government being the only customer for Bath and Ingalls, Clark noted, they wouldnt hire the additional workforce unless there was work to perform, leading to a chicken-and-egg situation.

Ingalls Shipbuilding spokeswoman Kimberly Aguillard told Defense News the company believes industry could build a total of three destroyers a year if given a consistent and timely demand signal.

Early notification and long lead time material funding are critical elements to a successful destroyer program so that the destroyer industrial base can do what is necessary to support the cadence of three DDGs a year, she said.

Clark said he believes awarding all 15 ships upfront but agreeing to longer delivery timelines would have been a better way to incentivize these investments to create greater production capacity and grow the fleet.

But, he added, the fundamental problem is they dont have the money to pay for more ships.
John Kirby, the Coordinator of the White House National Security Council

The White House expects no tangible deliverables from the forthcoming talks on a peace plan for Ukraine organized by Saudi Arabia, John Kirby, the Coordinator of the White House National Security Council, said in an interview with Voice of America on Aug 3.

Instead, the United States views the talks as aiming at promoting President Volodomyr Zelenskyys peace formula and exploring ways to achieve its implementation.

Part of the object here is to expose more of the international community to President Zelenskyys peace formula and try to garner some support for that moving forward, Kirby said.

Read also: Washington to announce $400 million aid package for Ukraine next week  report

Kirby emphasized that a key component of the plan is respect for Ukraines territorial integrity and sovereignty. He clarified that the meeting in Jeddah should not be seen as a forum for definite and tangible deliverables, but rather as an ongoing conversation about what this peace formula can entail.

People shouldnt look at the meeting in Jeddah as a forum through which theres going to be certain and tangible deliverables. This is really about having an ongoing conversation about what this peace formula can look like, he stressed.

Read also: Ukraine starts using US-supplied cluster munitions  report

When asked when Russia can be involved in the peace negotiations, Kirby responded that it will happen as soon as Zelenskyy is ready to sit down with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.

Zelenskyys perspectives, Ukraines perspectives, have to be the foundational element. They have to be fully respected as negotiations occur, Kirby said.

But were just not there yet. Mr. Putin has shown no indication that hes willing to negotiate  quite the contrary, Kirby added.

He underscored that it is currently challenging to define the time frame for what an effective, just and durable peace would look like.

Read also: US and Ukraine to discuss future security guarantees  Washington

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Right now, we are focused squarely on making sure that Ukrainian armed forces can be successful in their counteroffensive so that they can claw back even more territory that belongs to them from Russian forces, and hopefully push Putin to the table, Kirby said.

He expressed hope that more countries around the world will realize that Putins actions are unlawful, unprovoked, and a complete violation of the UN Charter. He also said that he hoped that Russians would come to understand that more and more countries are seeing how Putins decision to exit the grain agreement is exacerbating food insecurity in many nations.

Many African leaders are realizing that the troubles that theyre experiencing at home on the continent are directly related to what Putin is doing in Ukraine, he said.

Read also: Mexico calls for Russia's participation in Ukraine peace summit in Saudi Arabia

On July 30, The Wall Street Journal reported that Saudi Arabia plans to hold talks on Russias war against Ukraine on August 5-6. However, the aggressor country, Russia, will not participate in these talks.

The meeting at the advisors level of state leaders will discuss the key principles of peace based on Ukraines peace formula, as confirmed by the Head of the Presidential Office, Andrii Yermak.

Zelenskyy presented a ten-point peace formula at the G20 summit in November, including the restoration of Ukraines territorial integrity, withdrawal of Russian troops, release of detainees, a tribunal for those guilty of aggression, and security guarantees for Ukraine.

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Donald Trump Tom Brenner for The Washington Post via Getty Images

The magistrate judge presiding over former President Donald Trump's federal indictment in D.C. on Thursday warned him not to commit any crimes while he is awaiting trial.

Trump appeared before Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya, where he pleaded not guilty to four charges accusing him of conspiring to overturn his 2020 election loss ahead of the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

Upadhyaya told the former president that "the most important condition of release is not committing any new crimes while on release, which could lead to him being detained and could add to the sentence he may eventually face," according to NPR. "She told Trump that it is a crime to 'influence a juror or try to threaten or bribe a witness or retaliate against anyone' connected to the case. Trump said he understands."

Trump has repeatedly attacked prosecutors and judges in his growing number of legal cases.

"Trump admonished not to commit any crimes as a term of his release. This guy obstructs justice like most of us breathe. And, as the judge observed, it's also a crime to influence a juror. Same's true re: a witness. Could be a wild ride," predicted columnist and author David Rothkopf.

Former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann, who served on special counsel Bob Mueller's team, told MSNBC that the order was "unusual."

"The standard condition that a judge usually emphasizes to a defendant is that they have to show up at each court appearance. That is the most important thing. That is what bail is for  so that you'll show up in court," he said. "But I heard that the standard condition and most important thing today is 'do not commit a crime'' followed up by 'do not tamper with a juror.' My first reaction was, I was a prosecutor for 21 years and I was a defense lawyer for five years, and I've never heard that."

"I have never heard that": @AWeissmann_ stunned at judge telling Trump not to commit a crime, tamper with juror. pic.twitter.com/QbFE3ptPln  MSNBC (@MSNBC) August 3, 2023

Some legal experts say the conditions could prove too "complicated" for Trump.

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"The standard language may not work here, when you have thousands of Americans who could be witnesses and he continues to have daily contact with people who may be involved," said Laurie Levenson, a law professor at Loyola Law, told the Associated Press. "Everything is more complicated in this case because of who the defendant is, what he has done and that he wants to be president again."

Upadhyaya on Thursday set the first hearing in the case for August 28, at which time U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who will oversee the case, will set a trial date.

Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.

Former U.S. Attorney Harry Litman said it was "very significant that Judge Chutkan already has decided, and told the magistrate to tell the parties, that she will set trial date next hearing."

"More frequently the judge will have a first hearing and then set schedule no earlier than second hearing, She's focused on schedule," he tweeted.

Weissmann told MSNBC that it was "not unusual" for the magistrate judge to have discussed the case with the district judge but "what is unusual is to be so focused on the trial date."

"That to me, for people who are thinking that Chutkan is not focused on whether this case can go to trial before the general election in November 2024, is the issue," he said. "And it's also clear that Trump attorney John Lauro knows that and that is the reason he started saying during the arraignment that he needed to know about the volume of discovery. Because it's going to be a little eye-popping. There is going to be a huge amount of discovery material and Smith's team is going to have to deal with that issue. That is going to be the fight."

Read more

about the Trump indictment
NAIROBI, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Kenya on Friday said that the prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding in Kenya for children under the age of six months has stagnated at 60 percent over the last decade against the global target of 70 percent by 2030.

Mary Muriuki, principal secretary of the State Department for Public Health and Professional Standards, told journalists in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, that the prevalence rate is mainly attributed to inadequate awareness and education about the benefits of breastfeeding.

"There are also cultural practices that promote the early introduction of solid foods as well as limited access to proper healthcare facilities," Muriuki said during the national launch of the 2023 World Breastfeeding Week campaign.

The annual campaign commemorates the 1990 Innocenti Declaration on the protection, promotion and support of breastfeeding.

Muriuki said breastfeeding is a key public health approach to disease prevention and contributes to significant health cost savings. "It gives children a solid nutrition and health foundation for optimal growth and development, enabling them to attain their full potential both physically and cognitively, subsequently enhancing human capital."

The societal stigma around breastfeeding in public adds to the difficulties in balancing breastfeeding and professional responsibilities, Muriuki said. 
A view of Asheville's City Hall and Buncombe County Courthouse and Detention Center January 18, 2021.

ASHEVILLE - Newly obtained police and court records have unveiled more details of the May 7 gunfight at the downtown county jail, including the involvement of a possible love triangle, a female driver and a juvenile.

According to a civil suit filed against him Aug. 2, in the hours leading up to a shootout with police that left him wounded, Ryan Ricky Houston, 40, became "enraged" with his wife, went to a friend of his wife's home and assaulted him, causing "facial fractures." After the assault, Houston kicked and caused damage to a vehicle being operated by his wife while his children were inside the vehicle. He then left the friends home but returned later and caused significant destruction to the home and stole a firearm, according to the suit.

Authorities say Houston walked into the lobby of the Buncombe County Detention Center at 20 Davidson Drive, at about 1:40 a.m. May 7, and, according to the civil summons document, started communicating threats to his wife. Sheriff's deputy William Johnston attempted to speak with Houston and de-escalate the situation, but Houston became "further enraged" with the deputy, according to the court document.

When Johnston and APD officer Megan Hansford approached to arrest him, Houston "resisted arrest and an altercation ensued," according to a Sheriff's Office news release. Houston produced a firearm and shot Johnston in the shoulder. Johnston returned fire and struck Houston, who fled the scene.

Police call logs showed Asheville Police Department officers and Buncombe County sheriffs deputies responded to the gunfire outside the doors of the Buncombe County Detention Center.

What happened after Houston left the detention center?

According to the logs, after the shootout, Houston went to a Fairview address and asked a female to drive him to Mission Memorial Hospital.

The female drove Houston to Mission in the early morning hours of May 7, the call logs detail, leaving a 14-year-old juvenile alone with what officers reported at the time to be the firearm Houston used to shoot Johnston on the left shoulder blade during the altercation. The incident report lists a "handgun" as the firearm used.

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At Mission, which went into full lockdown around 2:08 a.m., APD made a traffic stop at Entrance 4 of the hospital, when it was reported that Houston was in the passenger seat of the females grey Ford Expedition, the same make and model spotted outside the detention center earlier in the night, according to the call logs. At 2:26 am, nearly an hour after the incident at the jail began, Officer Avisha Millsaps called in that Houston was not following commands and concealing his right arm. Another officer reported police were holding him at gunpoint.

More: Man shot in jail gunfight with deputy, Asheville police out of hospital; court date set

The logs then describe the man's wounds, saying he was shot at least two times and then at least once. APD spokesperson Samantha Booth confirmed with the Citizen Times July 31 that APD took Houston into custody at Mission Hospital.

Houston was arrested at 2:29 a.m., and officers advised Mission Hospital 10 minutes later that the suspect was incoming, according to the call records obtained by the Citizen Times. Houston spent more than two weeks in the hospital before being transferred to jail, the Citizen Times previously reported. The female driver was taken into custody at 2:34 am.

The Citizen Times has reached out to APD to confirm the name of the female driver and if she has been charged with any crimes from the incident.

The firearm was collected from the Fairview residence by officers at about 4:31 a.m., and the juvenile was taken into custody by a family friend at the request of the juveniles mother, according to the call logs. The juveniles parents were with an APD unit at the hospital, as called in by officer Rebecca Williams at 2:34 a.m. The female drivers relation to the juvenile is currently unconfirmed.

During Houstons arrest, a rifle bag was reportedly seen in the backseat of the car. In the incident report, a rifle is listed under evidence. It is described as an "Anderson/AM-15," a type of AR-15 semiautomatic weapon, according to Gun Digest.

One part of the log describes a party lockdown at the magistrate's office due to a female blood emergency but gives no further explanation.

Angie Grube, spokesperson for the State Bureau of Investigation, said the SBI is not able to provide any case specific information. However, she did tell the Citizen Times Aug. 1 that the investigation into the shooting and assault of an officer remains ongoing.

What comes next?

Houston was charged with attempted first-degree murder, assault on a law enforcement officer with a firearm and multiple other offenses including three counts of misdemeanor assaultive child abuse, according to the county detention center database. He was being held at the Buncombe County Detention Facility but, according to the jail's front desk, he was released to pretrial Aug. 1. Thomas Amburgey, Houston's attorney, said he posted his $1.5 million bond. Houston had a court hearing July 31, when Amburgey requested a change in electronic monitoring device due to the type usually used for pretrial being unavailable. Houstons next court date was set for Dec. 4.

More: No charges for deputy involved in gunfight in downtown Asheville jail: Buncombe DA

Johnston, the sheriff deputy who returned fire against Houston, will not have any criminal charges filed against him, District Attorney Todd Williams announced July 28. Johnston was placed on administrative leave while recovering from a bullet wound to the shoulder, as last reported in May by sheriffs spokesperson Aaron Sarver. The Sheriffs Office has not yet confirmed if Johnston has returned to work.

Johnston filed a civil summons against Houston Aug. 2, suing him on four counts including assault, battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress and gross negligence. Johnston is seeking at least $25,000 in damages from Houston.

Grube confirmed that SBI's investigation into the officer involved shooting has closed now that the DA has made a decision.

Hansford, the APD officer, sustained injuries that did not require medical attention and was also placed on administrative leave, Booth, the APD spokesperson, previously said. Hansford has since returned to duty, based on a warrant signed by her July 29.

The Citizen Times reached out to both Johnston and Hansford but did not receive a response before press time.

Ryley Ober is the Public Safety Reporter for Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. News tips? Email Ryley at rober@gannett.com. Please support local, daily journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Newly obtained records unveil new details of Asheville jail shootout
EVANSVILLE  A tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children led to the arrest of an Evansville man for possessing and disseminating child sexual abuse imagery.

The Indiana State Police publicly identified the man as 24-year-old Benjamin Jacob Seger. He faces several charges, including child solicitation, a Level 5 felony, and the possession of child pornography where the victim is under the age of 12, a Level 4 felony.

According to state police Sgt. John Davis, the agency's Internet Crimes Against Children task force received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in January alleging that a specific online account in the Evansville area was possibly used to transmit images and videos depicting child sexual abuse.

The task force opened an investigation, and in March it executed a search warrant at a location in Evansville.

As a result of the search, the ISP zeroed in on Seger. On Monday, the Vanderburgh County Prosecutor's Office filed charges against him, and on Tuesday, Vanderburgh County Sheriff's deputies arrested him.

"Seger was transported to the Vanderburgh County jail without incident," Davis wrote in a news release.

The Jasper Police Department assisted with the investigation, Davis said.

According to court records, Seger is being held on a $100,000 bond. He made his initial appearance in Vanderburgh County Superior Court Tuesday morning and has filed a motion to obtain the evidence prosecutors have against him.

Seger is scheduled to appear in court again on Sept. 7 at 10 a.m.

Houston Harwood can be contacted at houston.harwood@courierpress.com

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Cyber tip leads to arrest of Evansville man in child pornography case
George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars and Indiana Jones, recently learned hes not the official owner of a paved driveway leading to one of his properties in Californias Bay Area, according to a lawsuit.

Lucas, and those permitted by his agents, have driven up the strip to the San Anselmo property over the past three decades  dating back to around 1990, a complaint filed Marin County Superior Court on May 15 says

The acclaimed filmmaker suspects heirs of his deceased neighbors may have been granted the right to access part of the driveway and believes they may claim that right, the complaint says.

As a result, Lucas has filed a lawsuit against those heirs and the town of San Anselmo to ensure hes declared the rightful owner of the strip, the complaint shows. The lawsuit was first reported by the Marin Independent Journal.

Diego Flores, an attorney at Shartisis Friese LLP law firm in San Francisco who is representing Lucas, told McClatchy News in a statement on Aug. 3 that the lawsuit is simply a procedural action.

We are taking this procedural action to clean up century-old surveying errors, so that they reflect the reality of use and ownership on the ground, Flores said. We have been working closely with the Town of San Anselmo to resolve this issue and look forward to continuing those efforts.

Our understanding is that the Town does not claim any interest in the property and the Town has not asserted a claim of ownership in the past.

McClatchy News contacted San Anselmo Town Manager David Donery for comment on Aug. 3 and didnt receive an immediate response.

The complaint says the town was named as defendant out of an abundance of caution.

In a statement to the Marin Independent Journal, Donery said the next step is for the town attorney to meet with the Town Council in closed session to discuss the matter

The town will also determine if it will file a disclaimer of interest, Donery told the Marin Independent Journal, which is an action that relinquishes the interest and legal right to a property.

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More on the lawsuit

Lucas was under the impression that the driveway was a part of his San Anselmo property where a 1,170-square-foot home sits, according to the complaint.

However, it was discovered that the property lines were established in an irregular manner during a recent survey.

The strip is exclusively used by him and those hes authorized, and he has maintained enclosures on the driveway to prevent the public from accessing it, according to the complaint.

Lucas has otherwise improved, or maintained improvements on, the strip, including by installing and maintaining significant landscaping, the complaint says.

The lawsuit is a quiet title action, which is a legal proceeding in which a party seeks to establish their legal ownership of a property and remove any competing claims or disputes over the propertys ownership, Levin Law Group explains online.

It hopes the court will rule that Lucas is the true owner of the driveway and no one else may lay claim to it, according to the complaint.

Lucas San Anselmo property is about 15 miles southwest of his sprawling Skywalker Ranch.

The ranch, dubbed a filmmakers retreat, is where Lucasfilm division Skywalker Sound employees work outside of San Rafael, according to CBS News.

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New Hampshire State Police are investigating a suspicious death after a woman was found shot to death in Danville Thursday.

Danville police officers were called to a home on Back Road late Thursday night, according to the New Hampshire Attorney Generals Office. Responding officers found the woman dead from an apparent gunshot.

Authorities say there is no threat to the public at this time.

Although they have not yet identified a suspect, investigators traveled door-to-door Friday, asking neighbors if they had seen or heard anything of note.

An autopsy on the womans body was scheduled for Friday morning. The identity of the woman will be released after the examination and once family members are notified.

State Police have not released any other information.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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A deadline is nearing after which West Africas regional bloc could use force to remove Nigers ruling junta within days  despite thousands of people showing support for soldiers who overthrew the elected president.

The Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) held an emergency meeting last weekend after which it said the putschists who overthrew Mohamed Bazoum on July 26 had a week to restore him to power or the 15-country body could take all measures necessary to restore constitutional order which may include the use of force.

The deadline will expire on Sunday. Meanwhile, the military juntas in Mali and Burkina Faso earlier this week said any military intervention against Niger is tantamount to a declaration of war against them.

Defense chiefs from Ecowas countries have been holding talks about the situation for the last two days in Nigerias capital Abuja, amid questions about the makeup and remit of a regional force.

Know More

 Has Ecowas done this before? Yes. Ecowas troops were deployed in 2017 when Gambian president Yahya Jammeh, who was in power for 22 years, refused to stand down after losing an election. But there are few similarities because Jammeh stood down following talks; Gambia was easier to manage because it is surrounded by Senegal, and Jammeh did not have the backing of other countries.

Ecowas also rolled out peacekeeping operations in the 1990s and early 2000s in Liberia and Sierra Leone but its troops fought rebels at the invitation of the respective governments.

 Which countries would contribute troops? The composition of an Ecowas army is unclear. Nigers southern neighbor Nigeria, which has the subregions largest armed service, would likely make up the bulk of the force. But, not all of its 220,000 personnel are on the front line, and its troops are already stretched tackling domestic security problems.

Ghana, Cote dIvoire, and Senegal would also contribute troops in all likelihood, say analysts. Youll need to make sure this isnt just an Anglophone operation, otherwise thats complicating things, said Alex Vines, director of the Africa program at the Chatham House think tank in London.

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 Who would pay for this? With many West African countries, including Ghana and Nigeria, contending with economic problems that have caused financial hardship for their citizens, funding a foreign conflict would be an unpopular move for most leaders.

Ecowas has not stated how any military operation would be funded but the West would be expected to help. If they were going to get Western funding, the U.S. would be the most significant partner, said Ben Hunter, Africa analyst at risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft.

Alexiss view

Reuters/Balima Boureima

West Africas precarious security situation rests on a contest of high stakes brinkmanship. Neither Ecowas nor the putschists and their backers in neighboring countries would benefit from a conflict  a fact both sides must know.

The regional body threatened military action as a scare tactic after sanctions, imposed in the wake of previous coups, simply punished populations already pummelled by deadly insurgencies. A humiliating climbdown would make Ecowas seem even weaker than previously thought. Meanwhile, the strength of support in Nigers army for the elite unit behind the coup has not been tested. And there is no evidence to suggest that Nigers army could withstand military action led by Nigeria. The show of unity by Mali and Burkina Faso would be hard to back up in reality since those military juntas are already struggling to fight jihadists at home.

But several challenges remain. The crowds that gathered in Niamey suggest Ecowas could be trying to force an unpopular president back on a politically energized population. If they reinstate Bazoum he would be seen by his own people as a president who was only rescued by a foreign force and denounced as a French puppet, Ulf Laessing, who heads the Sahel program at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, a German think-tank, told me.

Ecowas is pursuing talks in an attempt to find a solution. The strong ties between northern Nigeria and southern Niger provide an opportunity for close cooperation. Thats the thinking behind the bloc appointing the Sultan of Sokoto, an influential Muslim leader, in its delegation to Niger for mediation. A person with direct knowledge of the mediation process told me that the sultan and Nigerias former military leader Abdulsalami Abubakar held talks with Nigers putschists for several hours on Wednesday. Nigerias vice president, the former governor of a state that borders southeast Niger, could also be an asset in the mediation process.

Despite issuing a strongly worded threat, Ecowas has given itself room to maneuver. Its statement said the use of force may be among the measures taken, so the option is on the menu but isnt necessarily going to be the approach chosen once the week-long deadline expires.

A likely scenario is that Ecowas seeks a way to defuse the situation without appearing to back down, for example by brokering a deal to ensure Bazoums release in exchange for him willingly ceding power with an agreed timeline for a democratic process to replace him.
Nigers President Mohamed Bazoum said Thursday he is being held hostage by the countrys military as he warned in a Washington Post op-ed that the juntas power grab could have devastating consequences for the region, where Russian mercenaries have established a foothold.

Bazoum, who was democratically elected two years ago, has been detained by soldiers at the presidential palace in the capital Niamey since last Wednesday, when the military launched a coup that has been condemned by the United States and other Western nations and brought threats of military intervention from a bloc of West African countries.

I write this as a hostage, Bazoum wrote in the Washington Post. Niger is under attack from a military junta that is trying to overthrow our democracy, and I am just one of hundreds of citizens who have been arbitrarily and illegally imprisoned.

The upheaval in Niger has hurled the region  already beset by coups and militant extremism  into renewed limbo, with Western countries in an urgent bid to evacuate their citizens and diplomats.

Bazoum wrote that this coup, launched against my government by a faction in the military on July 26, has no justification whatsoever, and could have devastating consequences for our country, our region, and the entire world.

The coup plotters falsely claim that they acted to protect Nigers security, he wrote. They allege that our war against jihadist terrorists is failing and that my economic and social governance, including partnerships with the United States and Europe, has hurt our country.

Instead, Bazoum wrote, the security situation had improved dramatically in Niger since he came to power, by working with the partnerships the junta opposes.

Bazoum also cautioned that foreign aid makes up 40% of the national budget  and it would not be delivered if the coup succeeds.

Determined, optimistic

CNN has not been able to independently confirm the conditions under which Bazoum is being detained in his residence.

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But the ousted leader is very determined, very optimistic despite being under house arrest, his former adviser Idrissa Waziri told CNN Thursday over the phone.

Waziri who is based in France told CNN that Bazoum is currently under house arrest in his residence with his wife and son, saying hes been in close contact.

They tried to break his morale, Waziri said, claiming that Bazoums residence is surrounded by armored military vehicles, the access gates are chained shut and the electricity supply is cut temporarily.

Waziri claimed that some 130 officials from the elected government had been arrested in recent days. He added many others are hiding from the coup organizers.

Waziri told CNN that when Bazoum decided to keep Gen. Abdourahamane Tiani as head of the presidential guard following his election, Bazoum believed Tiani would show him the same level of loyalty hed shown his predecessor.

Tiani led the coup that toppled the Sahel nations elected government last week.

Warning over Wagner

In the Washinton Post article, Bazoum argued that Nigers security situation is significantly better than that of neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso, where an Islamist insurgency has entrenched in an area where the borders of the three countries meet.

Bazoum also warned of growing Russian influence in the Sahel region.

Hundreds of contractors from Russias Wagner mercenary group are stationed in Mali at the invitation of its military junta, which  along with Burkina Fasos military backed government  has backed the coup in Niger.

Rather than addressing security concerns by strengthening their own capacity, they employ criminal Russian mercenaries such as the Wagner Group at the expense of their peoples rights and dignity, Bazoum wrote, referring to Malis junta.

Last month Wagners boss, Yevgeny Prigozhin said the situation in Niger was down to Western sponsorship of terrorist groups  and his fighters were well capable of dealing with such situations.

What happened in Niger has been brewing for years, Prigozhin said. The former colonizers are trying to keep the people of African countries in check. In order to keep them in check, the former colonizers are filling these countries with terrorists and various bandit formations. Thus creating a colossal security crisis.

Prigozhins message was at odds with the view of the Russian Foreign Ministry,which called for the prompt release of President Bazoum by the military.

One of the Nigerien coup leaders, Gen. Salifou Mody, visited Mali on Wednesday, according to the Mali presidency, raising fears of a potential alliance with Wagner.

With an open invitation from the coup plotters and their regional allies, the entire central Sahel region could fall to Russian influence via the Wagner Group, Bazoum wrote.

The ousted president called on the US and the international community to help us restore our constitutional order, adding: Nigerien people will never forget your support at this pivotal moment in our history.

On Thursday, US President Joe Biden called for the immediate release of Bazoum in a statement commemorating Nigers Independence Day.

The US has had troops in Niger for around a decade, mostly advising and training Nigerien forces on counterterrorism efforts.

Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder told a media briefing Thursday that US forces in the West African country are continuing to work with Nigerien forces who are not associated with this seizure of the president, to keep the US bases running.

The US Defense Department recently said there is no change to US military posture in Niger as the US embassy evacuates non-emergency personnel and family members.

CNNs Joseph Ataman and Gregory Clary contributed reporting.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
This week, a Tarrant County jury sided with a spinal surgeon in a civil case in which a patient accused the doctor of botching her surgery in 2017.

Lesa Swanson sued Dr. Anil Kesani in April 2019 after a spinal surgery at Baylor Medical Center in Trophy Club. In the lawsuit, Swanson said Kesani misplaced four of six screws in her back during her surgery in 2017 and caused permanent damage.

The three-week long trial between Kesani and Swanson began June 30 in Judge Melody Wilkinsons 17th District Court. The jury on Tuesday unanimously sided with Kesani, ruling that Kesani was not negligent in his care and treatment of Swanson. Kesani and his wife, Shaily Kesani, said they were relieved for the four-year legal battle to be over.

We had to fight, we had to fight for the truth and defend ourselves against some of these allegations, Anil Kesani said.

Neither Swanson or Todd Camp, who is listed as Swansons lawyer, responded to requests to comment.

Anil Kesani first learned about the lawsuit accusing him of medical malpractice from several of his patients, who had seen news articles from the Star-Telegram and WFAA-TV about the suit. Patients were concerned at first, he said, but became angry on his behalf at the false allegations. Many of Swansons allegations did not add up, Anil Kesani said, but he could not publicly comment on the suit at first due to privacy laws. In 2022, he and Shaily Kesani spoke to the Star-Telegram about the damage the suit had caused and pointed out inconsistencies in Swansons allegations.

Revealing those inconsistencies was a large part of the defenses strategy in the trial, said Casey Campbell, Kesanis attorney. Campbell previously told the Star-Telegram he believes Swanson took advantage of the initial complication from the surgery and decided to sue Kesani for personal gain.

According to Swansons lawsuit, during her surgery in 2017, three of the screws went directly into her spinal nerves. After the surgery, Swanson said she woke up with severe pain and x-ray images of her spine showed the screws were incorrectly positioned. In the lawsuit, Swanson said the surgery caused her to lose feeling in her right foot, her right calf and part of her right thigh. She testified at the trial that she cannot work, travel or live as she did before the surgery.

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Anil Kesani told the Star-Telegram that while the screws were misplaced in Swansons initial surgery, the error is a common complication that was immediately recognized and corrected within 24 hours. The follow-up surgery went well, and Swanson would not have been left with permanent damage, Kesani said.

During the trial, Swansons legal team spent 10 days putting on evidence about Swansons condition.

The plaintiffs offered everything they could possibly put out there, and we were constantly on the defensive trying to swat it all down, Campbell said. The jury clearly felt we did an effective job of rebutting everything that they had to say with actual objective evidence contained in the medical record or science journals.

Campbell also offered evidence that Swanson was not as physically limited as she claimed. Swanson said she was not able to fly on airplanes due to her injuries and had only flown twice since 2017, but her flight records showed she has flown 41 times since then, Campbell said. She said she has not been able to leave the house to go grocery shopping in years, but Campbell said he showed the jury surveillance footage of Swanson walking around multiple stores.

In a court motion filed in March, Camp objected to the use of the surveillance footage as evidence and said Kesanis legal team asked Swanson hyper-technical questions... which were clearly intended to trap Plaintiff into misstatements regarding technical aspects.

Ultimately, Campbell said, the jury found that her story didnt match up with the objective evidence.

Despite the verdict, the Kesanis said the lawsuit and media coverage caused permanent damage to their professional and personal lives. At one point, Anil Kesani said, he questioned whether he should continue being a physician. Shailey Kesani said the process was a nightmare to go through.

It shows how broken out system is, Shailey Kesani said. The framework should be, you know, youre innocent until proven guilty. But the way this whole thing has transpired, you know, one-sided claims and allegations can be made and people already make their decision based on that information.
EV truck maker Nikola Corp. said Friday that president/CEO Michael Lohscheller is leaving the top executive positions due to a family health issue. He will be replaced by board chairman Steve Girsky, a former GM board member and the CEO of the special purpose acquisition company that merged with Nikola to make it a publicly company.

Lohscheller has decided to step down due to a family health matter and will be returning to Europe, the company said in a statement. He will remain at Nikola in an advisory capacity through the end of September, according to Nikola.

The Board respects Michaels decision to be with his family during this time and thanks him for his hard work, dedication, and contributions to Nikola," Girsky said in a statement. "I am grateful for all that Michael was able to accomplish to move our company forward during his tenure.

Lohscheller joined Nikola as president in March 2022. Just months later, the company announced he would take the CEO spot from Mark Russell who officially retired in January 2023. Prior to joining Nikola, Lohscheller was CEO of Opel and VinFast, as well as CFO at Volkswagen Group of America and Mitsubishi Motors Europe.

The CEO news coupled with the company's second-quarter earnings report, which was released Friday, sent shares down more than 12%. Shares were trading at $2.98 as of midday Friday.

Nikola reported revenue of $15.4 million in the second quarter, a 15% drop from the same period last year. Nikola's losses also grew from a year ago. The company reported a loss of $217.8 million compared to a loss of $173 million in same year-ago period. Still, Lohscheller tried to take a positive tone in earnings, saying the company had "turned the corner" and is well on the way to executing its business plan and achieving profitability.

Nikola has experienced a string of scandals and internal dramas over the past several years, largely due to its controversial and since ousted founder Trevor Milton, who was charged with wire and securities fraud.

In recent years, Girsky, the board and Lohscheller have tried to put Nikola back on the right and less scandalous path and one focused on producing its battery-electric truck and launching its Class 8 hydrogen fuel cell electric truck. On Thursday, the company successfully received enough shareholder support to issue more shares, a move that would allow it to potentially raise more capital.
Almost two dozen headhunting firms and temp agencies, including several in North Jersey, violated consumer-protection laws by failing to register their businesses with the state, authorities said.

The firms were fined a total of $62,000, and according to the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General, they had to sign consent orders prescribing them to register their businesses within a month and to maintain that status going forward.

The companies also agreed not to engage in unfair or deceptive acts, authorities said.

The penalties were jointly announced by the state Division of Consumer Affairs, which fights misconduct in the sale of goods and services by registering tens of thousands of businesses.

Attorney General Matthew Platkin said the registration process ensures that firms are complying with industry standards.

LAW & ORDER: Leonia man sentenced to 35 years in fatal stabbing

The fines send a clear message that skirting the registration process, and unlawfully operating outside of the divisions oversight, will not be tolerated, Platkin said in a statement.

The civil penalties ranged from $2,000 to $8,000.

Services provided by the companies include executive-level employment placements and hourly labor assignments.

The North Jersey firms are Alliance Sourcing Network in Wayne, Coda Search & Staffing in Paramus, Haley Stuart Group in Montvale, Nicsam Personnel Inc. in Clifton, NorthEast Talent Solutions in Passaic, Professional Search Network in Parsippany-Troy Hills, Specialty Staffing in Mahwah, Staff Right Solutions in Paterson, and Uniforce Staffing Solutions in Paramus.

Consumers who believe they were scammed can file online complaints by visiting the division's website.

Philip DeVencentis is a local reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: devencentis@northjersey.com

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ levies $62K in total fines against unregistered employment agencies
The claim: Pope Francis says alcoholics, autistic and disabled people should be euthanized to 'fight climate change'

A July 28 article published by The Peoples Voice makes a stunning claim about the leader of the Catholic Church.

Pope Francis Says Alcoholics, Autistic and Disabled People Should Be Euthanized To 'Fight Climate Change,' reads the article's headline.

The article was shared on Facebook more than 300 times in a week, according to CrowdTangle, a social media analytics tool.

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Our rating: False

The pope has consistently denounced euthanasia and has spoken out against several proposed euthanasia laws in Europe in the past year. The article comes from a site that frequently publishes misinformation.

Pope Francis' past statements show he opposes euthanasia

The article doesn't say where or when Francis made the supposed remarks, and there are no reports of such comments from him in any credible news outlet.

To the contrary, in keeping with Catholic tradition, Francis has repeatedly spoken out against euthanasia  both before and after the articles publication.

On Aug. 3, while visiting Portugal for World Youth Day, the pontiff criticized the countrys newly enacted euthanasia law.

Where are you going if, faced with the torment of living, you limit yourself to offering quick and wrong remedies such as easy access to death, a comfortable solution that seems sweet, but in reality, is more bitter than the waters of the sea? he said.

He spoke out against the law before and after it was enacted in May. He also urged French politicians not to pursue a euthanasia law in October 2022 and labeled limited access to medications for the elderly as progressive euthanasia.

Fact check: Post falsely claims WEF founder's daughter warned of permanent climate lockdowns

The Vatican has reaffirmed the churchs opposition to euthanasia several times during Franciss tenure. In 2019, it released a paper exploring the issue and restating its opposition to the concept. In 2023, it issued a joint statement with Jewish leaders repudiating the concept of assisted suicide.

Story continues

The Peoples Voice article says Francis position on euthanasia is in line with a purported World Economic Forum effort to euthanize people to prevent climate change. USA TODAY has previously debunked the idea that such a plan exists.

The People's Voice, previously known as NewsPunch, has a lengthy history of publishing fabricated stories, many of which have been debunked by USA TODAY. The WEF is a frequent subject of its baseless claims.

USA TODAY reached out to The People's Voice for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Lead Stories 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 e-newspaper here.

Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Pope Francis has consistently opposed euthanasia | Fact check
COLOMBO, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Four people died and four others were injured when their van collided with a container truck in Thambuttegama area in North Central province of Sri Lanka, the local police said.

The police said there were two women among the dead, and the injured were rushed to the nearest hospital. According to the police, the people were travelling to their hometown from Sri Lanka's capital Colombo.

"Investigations are now underway to ascertain the reason for the accident," the police said.

Some 19,740 road accidents were reported in the South Asian country in 2022, killing 2,485 people, according to the police. 
Lafayette Fire Department's water rescue team members along with other agencies searched the Wabash River Friday, July 7, 2023, looking for the remains of the 31-year-old, Purdue-affiliated man who jumped from Lafayette's pedestrian bridge about 2:30 a.m. Monday, July 3, 2023.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.  Anik Paul's family waits half-a-world away in Bangladesh for his phone call that likely will never come.

A little more than a month ago  early July 3  Anik Paul, a 31-year-old doctoral student from Bangladesh, climbed over the railing of the John T. Myers Pedestrian Bridge and leaped into the Wabash River.

"My mother is still waiting to have a phone call from her son Anik," Bithi Paul, Anik's sister, wrote in an email to the Journal & Courier. "My family is destroyed without him. We are feeling very helpless from far away."

Her parents wrestle with despair while trying to come to terms with the likelihood of losing a son but not understanding how or why  if he is dead  that his body has not be found.

"You want to give people answers," West Lafayette police Lt. Jon Eager said. "We're still working, trying to get answers for a family that's grieving."

In today's world of instant communication and connectivity, it's difficult to fathom how someone can jump from a bridge and vanish.

Anik's whereabouts before he jumped into the river

There are clues to Anik's whereabouts before he jumped from the bridge, Eager said.

The night of July 2, Anik was in or near the laboratories on campus, where one might expect a doctorial student to frequent, Eager said of their investigation.

After Anik left the lab, Purdue police got a request to check on Anik to make sure he was OK, Eager said. The call for a welfare check does not appear on Purdue police's publicly published police logs.

Purdue police did not find Anik and West Lafayette police joined in the search for him in the early hours of July 3, Eager said.

A West Lafayette police officer saw Anik on the pedestrian bridge about 2:30 a.m. July, and surveillance cameras on the bridge recorded video of Anik jumping over the railing. The police bulletins indicated the West Lafayette police officer saw someone in the river.

Story continues

That officer who saw someone in the river likely is the last person to see Anik.

The search

Eager explained people might not understand the intensity of the search.

Starting at 2:35 a.m. July 3, police, firefighters, conservation officers, police dogs, dogs to detect live people and dogs trained to detect dead bodies all converged at the river.

They flew drones up and down the river looking for Anik, Eager said. The drones are equipped with thermal imaging cameras and infrared cameras, Eager said.

They searched the river on boats that day starting at 2:25 a.m. until after 2 p.m. before calling it a day. They were back out at the scene every day that week, according to Eager.

Divers searched under the water using sonar and submersible cameras, Eager said. The muddy river bottom obstructed the view from the cameras, but they continued to search.

Dogs trained to detect bodies indicated that there might be someone under the log jam at the base of the bridge pilings on the east side of the Columbia Street bridge, Eager said last month.

Members of the Tippecanoe County Sheriff's Office dive team removed some of the logs and dove under the log jam, Eager said.

Efforts to finding Anik continue to come up short.

Still, conservation officers continue to traverse the river between the pedestrian bridge and Attica looking for him, Eager said.

An intense search does not guarantee a successful recovery

On May 23, 2019, 4-year-old Owen Jones waded into the Deer Creek in Delphi and got swept away.

Despite intense searches that summer, Owen's body never has been recovered.

More: Officers search for 4-year-old drowning victim every day

Most victims of drownings in rivers and creeks are found.

The same week that Owen was swept away, Stephen Pitts, 58, of Indianapolis, was kayaking on the Tippecanoe River near the Norway Dam when he got tangled in the dam's current.

His body was found two days after his accident.

More: Indianapolis kayaker's body recovered Wednesday night

The important take away is the conservation officers plan to continue to search for Anik's body, Eager said.

There are no guarantees that he'll be found, but they haven't stopped looking for him.

Anyone with thoughts of harming themselves may call or text 988, a 24/7 lifeline number that connects the person to mental health professionals.

Reach Ron Wilkins at rwilkins@jconline.com. Follow on Twitter: @RonWilkins2.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: No signs of missing Purdue student who jumped from bridge
Nonpartisan voters now make up Nevadas largest group of registered voters, according to new data from its secretary of state.

Voter registration statistics released earlier this week show nearly 32 percent of roughly 1.9 million active voters in Nevada are nonpartisan.

The more than 605,000 registered nonpartisans edge out the almost 602,000 registered Democrats in the state, as well as 551,000 registered Republicans.

Thats roughly 74,000 more nonpartisan voters than Nevada had this time last year, before the midterm elections.

And at this point in 2019, just more than 346,000 voters in the state were nonpartisan.

The number of active voters overall went up by 13,430 during the month of July.

Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar noted in a statement that the overall uptick is due in large part to an automatic registration system the states Department of Motor Vehicles approved in 2018. The Las Vegas Review-Journal notes that voters who dont select a party during the process are registered nonpartisan.

No matter what party a voter chooses to register as, or if they choose no party at all, each voter has an equal voice in Nevadas democratic process. This growth shows that the future of Nevadas democracy is bright, Aguilar said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Democratic Rep. Kathy Manning of North Carolina and a member of her staff were involved a serious car accident Thursday morning in Greensboro on their way to a district event, according to a statement issued by the congresswomans office.

Both the representative and staffer were taken to a local hospital with non-life threatening injuries, and have since been discharged, the statement said.

Manning was released from the hospital with a broken sternum and a broken bone in her foot and is now recuperating well at home and will continue to work from home as she recovers, her office said Friday.

Many thanks to the first responders and the Cone Health team for their timely response and assistance, her office added. Rep. Manning is extremely grateful to the outstanding first responders and the extremely professional and kind staff at the Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital. She is very grateful for all the kind words, prayers, and well wishes she has received.

CNN has reached out to the Greensboro Police Department for additional information.

Congress is in the middle of its August recess and not in session until September.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
Federal investigators have ruled that the pilot of a charter jet took off without permission, creating a "conflict" with a JetBlue plane that was preparing to land on an intersecting runway at Boston's Logan International Airport on February 27.



The final National Transportation Safety Board report was released Thursday. It included a video screen capture from the JetBlue cockpit showing just how close the two planes came to colliding.



The NTSB report says the charter jet got permission to line up and wait at the intersecting runway, but instead, the private Learjet's flight crew started taking off without permission, causing the close call.



NTSB investigators say a ground detection system alerted the control tower that something wasn't right, so a "go-around" was issued in time.



The JetBlue pilots were able to pull up and circle around and land safely.

This is a screen capture of video from the jump-seat in a JetBlue flight during a close call at Logan Airport in February 2023. / Credit: NTSB

Aviation experts such as MIT Aeronautics & Astronautics Professor John Hansman say that's how important that detection system is.

"I think it was a screw-up. Humans and the system will make errors occasionally," Hansman told CBS News Boston. "We design the system in order to have levels of redundancy and support to catch those errors. I think this is an example of the system working like it's supposed to."



The pilot of the Learjet in this case told the safety board the cold Boston weather somehow affected him, saying in a statement, "I cannot understand what happened to me during the clearance, the only thing that comes to my mind is that the cold temperature in Boston affected me, I was not feeling completely well and had a stuffed nose. My apologies."



Veteran pilot Patrick Smith, of askthepilot.com, called it a failure of Piloting 101.



"When it comes to this sort of thing, you have layers of safety. You have technology acting in the manner of this runway incursion avoidance system and you also have pilots doing what they're supposed to do and what they're expected to do," said Smith.



At the time of the incident, CBS News Boston spoke with a passenger from the Jet Blue flight.



"You do sit and there and say, 'Oh my gosh -- I have a 13-year-old, I have a 15-year-old, I'm married, how close did I come to not seeing them again?'" Adam Johnson said.



No one was hurt in the incident.



The NTSB has acknowledged the need to invest more in aviation safety technology like the system at Logan.



"These sorts of incidents have a way of riling up people's fears, and I think it's important to remind people that commercial flying is statistically safer than it's ever been," said Smith.



The close calls led the Federal Aviation Administration to convene a "safety summit" in March to brainstorm ways to prevent planes from coming too close together.



The last fatal crash involving a U.S. airline was in 2009.

The White House proposes new plan to eliminate hepatitis C

Gas prices shot up with record-high temperatures, but relief could be on the way

Verdict expected in Alexei Navalny trial; Russian port attacked
NEW YORK  The New York City Council is urging state lawmakers to stop colleges statewide from giving admissions preferences to the children of alumni.

A resolution in support of a state bill to end the practice, known as legacy admissions, passed on Thursday, just over a month after the Supreme Court ruled that race cannot be considered in higher education admissions. Five council members voted against it.

All this bill says is we should level the playing field, Councilman Eric Dinowitz, a Bronx Democrat, who introduced the resolution, told the New York Daily News.

This is particularly important now that affirmative action has ended, added Dinowitz, who chairs the higher education committee. In a sense, we still do have affirmative action. Its just for wealthy families who went to university.

The resolution was co-sponsored by Councilwoman Rita Joseph, a Brooklyn Democrat, who heads the education committee, and five other sponsors. A mostly symbolic gesture, it calls on the state Legislature to pass and the governor to sign the proposed Fair College Admissions Act into law.

Through legacy preference, universities perpetuate a societal status quo, Dinowitz said at the meeting. It gatekeeps exactly who is allowed into college classrooms and from there, of course, who is allowed into future boardrooms and lucrative workplaces, in positions of decision-making  all spaces traditionally lacking representation from marginalized communities.

In the weeks since the Supreme Court decision, New York colleges have come under renewed pressure to reconsider legacy admissions practices.

More than seven in 10 private colleges in New York consider whether applicants are related to alumni, as do more than a third of public schools, according to data compiled by Education Reform Now.

Proponents of legacy admissions defend it as a recruitment tool and way to foster strong ties between families and their schools, including to solicit donations and even fund scholarships that help diversify campuses.

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The Council first introduced the resolution last summer. Dinowitz told the Daily News he looked into proposing similar legislation to the state bill at the city level and penalties.

It was not something that we were able to do, said Dinowitz. So we put our support behind the state bill, which would be incredibly impactful.

The state bill initially met with fierce backlash from the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities, which last year called it an unreasonable intrusion that will fail to achieve its own aims. The private sector has since reversed its stance, citing a growing public feeling that the practice is expanding privilege instead of opportunity.

Why should we not allow some type of preferential understanding in one context, but in another say by all means? state Sen. Andrew Gounardes, a Brooklyn Democrat and one of the state bills co-sponsors, told the Daily News last month.

This (Supreme Court) decision has been a catalyst, he said. I think we will have an excellent chance of passing this bill when the Legislature reconvenes next year.

Colleges that do not comply with the legislation would be forced to pay a penalty equivalent to the cost of tuition and fees for 10% of the schools full-time student body. That money would go into the coffers of the states Tuition Assistance Program, which subsidizes college costs for low-income students.

Legacy admissions is also facing a federal challenge after a Boston firm charged last month that Harvard University is violating education civil rights law by prioritizing applicants related to alumni. Their policy is currently the subject of a civil rights probe, the U.S. Department of Education said last week.

Advocates on Thursday cheered the resolutions passage.

This vote by the City Council is an important step by the New York City Council to address the vast inequity in college admissions, said Jacquelyn Martell, executive director of Education Reform Now New York. We need our leaders in Albany to take up the proposed legislation that will end legacy preference across New York state.

_____
Campbell was the couples top chef during their time in the White House, and he continued working with the Obama family after their departure.

Barack and Michelle Obama continue to mourn the loss of Tafari Campbell, their personal chef and close family friend, who drowned late last month near their Marthas Vineyard home.

On Thursday, a day before his birthday, former President Obama uploaded an Instagram photo featuring himself, an unidentified woman and Campbell.

Tafari Campbell showed us what true character looks like, Obama wrote. He believed that actions speak louder than words. And he used his immense gifts to bring people together, provide comfort, and spread joy. Ill miss him every day.

Tafari Campbell (above) a White House chef who became the personal chef for the Obama family, drowned last month near the Obamas home in Marthas Vineyard. Former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama continue to mourn the loss of Campbell, who also was a close family friend. (Photo: Screenshot/YouTube.com/The Independent)

Michelle Obama also paid tribute to her brother, sharing a similar photo of herself on Instagram, posing with Campbell and her husband in the White House.

I will miss my friend, Tafarithe emptiness is hard, the former first lady wrote. But I promise to stay strong, keep living, and honor your legacy in every way possible. Rest in peace, my brother.

Campbell was the couples top chef during their time in the White House, and he took them up on their offer to continue working with the family following their departure at the end of Obamas second term in early 2017, according to the Daily Mail.

The Virginia-based 45-year-old was said to have fallen off his paddle board, temporarily tried to keep afloat, and then slipped under the water around 7.46 p.m. on Sunday, July 23.

While Marthas Vineyard police determined that Campbells death was an accident by drowning, questions remain as authorities allegedly suppress crucial details about the incident, citing an ongoing investigation.

Police have decided not to reveal the names of the only person who saw the accident, a woman paddle-boarding with Campbell. Theyre also not sharing the identity of who called 911 to report the incident, a person believed to be a member of the Obamas Secret Service detail.

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The female paddleboarder spoke with officials on the scene, who described her as being distraught but also appearing to be sober and clear-headed.

Fire departments from all across the island arrived in Edgartowns Great Pond with boats and divers as the multi-agency search proceeded into the night. The Massachusetts State Police, the Dukes County Sheriffs Department and the Coast Guard also joined the search efforts.

Campbell was believed to have submerged in one location, and the witness pointed rescuers in that direction. Crews scoured the area, including properties around the home, hoping he made it to the shore.

The Massachusetts Environmental Police used side-scan sonar from a boat to locate Campbell at 10 a.m. the following morning. Rescue crews recovered his body from water that was only eight feet deep. Police said he was not leashed to his board or wearing a life jacket.

The only pending matter is a toxicology analysis, which may reveal whether Campbell had drugs in his blood or experienced a medical emergency.

The Dukes County Sheriffs Office, which fielded the initial 911 call, said an exemption to the public records law permits police to conceal any material that would endanger an ongoing investigation.

According to the Daily Mail, the supervisor of communications for the sheriffs office refused to budge when pressed for more information. However, the head of the local First Amendment Coalition reportedly said police are misusing the provision, given they have previously ruled out any foul play.

Justin Silverman, executive director of the New England First Amendment Coalition, said the burden falls on law enforcement to demonstrate how disclosing specific information could endanger their investigation. Theyre not doing that, violating the public records law, he said.

Police on Marthas Vineyard also omitted the reason for the emergency call from their official logs. The log lists a cause for every other call received the night of the incident.

State police authorities are ensuring that other responding agencies follow their lead.

Sources involved in the initial multi-jurisdictional effort claimed state police have provided departments with refusal letters to send to the media to help them deal with the onslaught of inquiries.

Another public safety officer involved in the initial investigation said the state police were driving them absolutely nuts, as their actions gave the impression that something was going on when there wasnt.

As far as I know, some poor guy went out on a paddle board, the source said, the Daily Mail reported, and he wasnt a great swimmer, and he drowned.

Campbell could swim, though, as shown by a video hed uploaded to social media of himself swimming laps.

Barack and Michelle Obama were not home at the time of the incident. The whereabouts of the Obama daughters, Sasha, 25, and Malia, 22, who were also on the island, are unknown.

I know the optics of this look like it could be a lot more than that. I see what makes this a story. I know this has the recipe for a conspiracy, the source noted, according to the Daily Mail. But from what I have seen, theres no drama to this. If you guys just had everything, youd see theres really nothing to this and move on. Instead, youre left with what appears like a mystery.

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The post Obamas pay touching tribute to their late chef, Tafari Campbell appeared first on TheGrio.
"In some places" on the southern front line, the Ukrainian military has broken through the Russian first line of defense, moving to the "intermediate one," Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar reported on Aug. 4.

"And there they are faced with concrete engineering fortifications on the dominant heights created by the enemy. This, of course, complicates the movement of our troops and the combat actions," Maliar said on national television.

According to the official, Ukraine is prioritizing its counteroffensive operations in the country's south, while for Russia, the main direction for assaults is the east.

The majority of Russian resources are currently concentrated near Kupiansk, Kharkiv Oblast, as Moscow seeks to retake the territories liberated by Ukrainian forces last fall, said Maliar. "It is important for them both from a moral and a military point of view."

Meanwhile, around Bakhmut, Ukrainian troops are "slowly but persistently" moving forward on the southern flank, she told journalists. Russia is attacking the city's northern flank, trying to regain positions previously retaken by the Ukrainian army.

"Fierce battles" also continue near Avdiivka and Marinka, Donetsk Oblast, according to Maliar.

Russia reportedly transfers its reserves, mainly professional soldiers, both to the eastern and southern front lines, where Ukraine's long-awaited counteroffensive is ongoing.

Read also: Ukraines counteroffensive lurches forward: Key moment looms as more forces committed

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
A 6-year-old boy was found under a roller coaster track at Fun Spot Kissimmee on Thursday and suffered traumatic injuries, Osceola County officials said.

Osceola County firefighters said they responded to Fun Spot around 3:30 p.m. after someone reported that a child had fallen from a ride.

Officials said firefighters found the boy with traumatic injuries on the ground about 20 feet below the roller coaster track.

First responders took the child to Arnold Palmer Hospital for treatment. The childs current condition is unknown.

Read: Tyre Sampson Act for amusement ride safety signed into law

The Florida Department of Agriculture said they are investigating the incident and that the ride is closed pending the outcome of the investigation.

Fun Spot provided Channel 9 the following statement:

On Thursday August 2nd, 2023 an unfortunate incident happened on the Galaxy Spin Roller Coaster that resulted in a child being injured. Our thoughts and prayers are with the child and their family, and we pray for a speedy recovery. The safety of our guests is our number one priority. We are working with the Florida Department of Agriculture and the manufacturer to investigate the incident. The FDACS has inspected the ride and found it to be in normal operating condition with no mechanical issues. They also found the ride was operated following all safety procedures and guidelines outlined by the manufacture and industry standards. Fun Spot America has been creating safe-clean-fun for over 25 years. All our guests can rest assured knowing that Fun Spot America will not reopen the ride until we are 100% sure this will not happen again. The Galaxy Spin Roller Coaster remains closed pending the investigation. Thank you for your patience as work through this.

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.
Former President Donald Trump speaks during the Lincoln Dinner on Friday, July 28, 2023, at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines.

Both sides of the abortion debate are raking in donations ahead of November's election. Former President Donald Trump was indicted for a third time. Republicans considered allowing chaplains to serve in public schools, and Libertarians went after Ohio's Secretary of State.

We break down what it all means in this week's episode of Ohio Politics Explained. A podcast from the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau that catches you up on the state's political news in 15 minutes or less.

This week, host Anna Staver was joined by reporter Haley BeMiller.

Reaction to Trump's indictment

Trump returned to Washington D.C. this week to plead not guilty to four federal charges related to the Jan. 6 insurrection and efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.

The reaction in Ohio predictably split along party lines. Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, one of Trump's stalwart supporters, released a statement saying the former president "did nothing wrong!"

"When you drain the swamp, the Swamp fights back," Jordan tweeted.

But Democratic U.S. Rep. Greg Landsman from Cincinnati said, "He tried to steal the election. A jury will determine if its criminal, but its 100% disqualifying."

Twenty-eight Ohioans of the 57 Ohioans charged with crimes stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021 riots have been convicted.

Frank under fire

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose has been traveling the state campaigning in favor of Issue 1, and the Libertarian Party of Ohio says that violates federal election law.

The party filed a complaint with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel Monday, arguing that LaRose's push to make it harder to amend Ohio's constitution broke a federal law barring state officials from using their official authority to interfere with elections.

It's called the Hatch Act, and it can apply to certain state officials if their offices receive federal funding.

Religious leaders could be hired as volunteers or paid employees to work inside Ohio's public schools if a bill proposed by state House Republicans becomes law.

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Chaplains in public schools

House Bill 240 would permit districts to bring in chaplains to provide "support, services and programs for students" so long as they passed a background check.

It's similar to a law passed in Texas earlier this year, and Ohio Republicans say more support for students is always a good thing.

But Democrats, teachers' unions and LGBTQ groups said the bill's "vague language" could permit pastors to espouse controversial religious beliefs like conversion therapy or hinder "scientifically proven treatments" for mental health problems.

Abortion costs

November's vote on whether to put abortion access protections into Ohio's constitution is shaping up to be an expensive fight.

Supporters of the reproductive rights amendment raised a collective $9.6 million, according to campaign finance forms posted Monday. Ohioans for Reproductive Freedom raised most of those dollars from "traditional" abortion rights advocates, and Ohio Physicians for Reproductive Rights biggest donors were doctors who perform the procedure.

Protect Women Ohio, which opposes abortion access, raised $9.74 million from national anti-abortion organizations and Ohio's Catholic dioceses.

Listen to "Ohio Politics Explained" on Spotify, Apple, Google Podcasts and TuneIn Radio. The episode is also available by clicking the link in this article.

The USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau serves The Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio politics podcast: Trump indicted, abortion fight will be expensive
Oil exploration could put the Okavango Delta at risk. Photo: Sergio Pitamitz/VWPics/Universal Images/ Getty Images

The Namibian and Botswana governments may be risking their water resources for oil and gas revenue. They have licensed a Canadian firm, ReconAfrica, to prospect for oil in the Cubango Okavango River Basin, in an area covering 34,000km.

In total, the river basin covers 700,000km, encompassing a network of river systems across Angola, Namibia and Botswana. The Cubango and Cuito rivers, which originate from the Angolan highlands, join the Okavango River at the border between Angola and Namibia, and flow into the Okavango Delta in Botswana.

The Okavango River sustains over half a million people in Namibia and Botswana. The main livelihood activities in the basin are arable farming, livestock farming, fishing and tourism.

The Okavango Delta, a World Heritage Site, contributes significantly to tourism in Botswana. It is one of the largest freshwater wetlands in southern Africa and home to over 1,000 plant species. Over 480 bird species, 130 species of mammals, and numerous species of reptiles and fish can be found in the area.

Our team, with expertise in groundwater resource assessment and protection, has assessed the vulnerability of the Okavango River and Delta to oil and gas drilling. We conclude that possible impacts on water resources are of particular concern in this sensitive area.

Reasons to worry

It is worrying that oil and gas extraction is being considered in this area. The current exploration licence in Namibia allows the company to drill exploratory stratigraphic wells. Drilling near the Omatako River in Namibia already endangers the groundwater since the drilling waste fluids have been discarded in unlined pits. Most people in this arid region rely on groundwater, which can easily be contaminated when the water table is shallow, as it is here.

ReconAfrica estimates that the area has large volumes of oil and gas resources, though it has not yet fully assessed whether recovering them would be economical. The resources are in a site about the size of the Eagle Ford shale field in Texas, a very large oil and gas deposit.

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Several geologists have noted, however, that the resources are unlikely, in their view, to be economically viable, based on the geological information of the region.

Meanwhile, the Namibian government granted Recon exploration licences without following due procedure for its environmental impact assessment. This is despite the fact that the lease area includes parts of the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Park and the Okavango River.

Okavango River and Delta, the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Park, and the Recon lease areas. Anton Lukas

What we found

Our study illustrates the possible grim impact of the potential oil and gas extraction operations. This includes possible contamination of:

the water resources around the Omatako River

the Okavango River

the Okavango Delta.

We used publicly accessible borehole data from the Namibian Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform, and the Botswana Department of Water Utilities. We obtained geological structure data from Namibias Geological Survey and the Botswana Geoscience Information Centre.

We found that contamination could infiltrate the aquifer system and contaminate the groundwater near the Omatako River. Contaminated groundwater could take three to 23.5 years to reach the Okavango River system via the shallow, sandy aquifer.

Contaminated groundwater from proposed drill sites could reach the Okavango Delta even faster along another route: certain geological structures underground. These structures  grabens and dykes  have associated faulting and fractures respectively, along which groundwater can travel.

The geological structures in the area are associated with parts of the Earths crust that are tectonically active: they might change. This makes it more complicated to assess the Okavango Deltas vulnerability. Existing permeable structures can serve as pathways for groundwater contamination. Tectonic stresses can create new permeable structures or modify ones that were previously impermeable.

Initial calculations, using publicly accessible data, indicate that contamination from drilling activities that travels via geological structures could reach the Okavango Delta within just four days.

Okavango Dyke Swarm fracture zone with groundwater flow towards the Okavango River system. Anton Lukas

Our results should be verified with localised field studies.

Need to revisit clearance certificate

A ReconAfrica environmental impact assessment did not identify any serious risks that could follow from oil drilling in the area. The Namibian government then awarded an updated environmental clearance certificate to the company.

Even though there wasnt enough data to determine the possible groundwater impact, the environmental impact assessment deemed contamination to be negligible.

Our study highlights the possible dire consequences of allowing oil and gas extraction activities in the Cubango Okavango River Basin.

Based on our results, we recommend that all oil and gas extraction activities in the Okavango region be halted until theres a proper understanding of the groundwater sources, pathways and receptors.

Future environmental impact assessments must make an honest effort to obtain all relevant information so that all possible risks to water resources are identified. This would allow for the proper protection of natural resources.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. Like this article? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.

It was written by: Surina Esterhuyse, University of the Free State.

Read more:



Surina Esterhuyse does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
TBILISI, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- At least six people died and dozens were missing in a deadly landslide in western Georgia, the Georgian Interior Ministry said on Friday.

The landslide hit the Oni municipality in the Racha region on Thursday night, with 35 individuals still missing, said the ministry.

Over 200 individuals have been evacuated to the safe zone as of Friday morning, after rescuers and two helicopters were sent for the search and rescue operation, the ministry added.

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili on Friday arrived at the disaster zone to inspect the rescue operation.

Rescue is still going on at the scene, according to the ministry. 
As teachers head back to classes themselves, many are anxious about how they might tackle tough questions in the classroom, or how to give unseen students their voices.

For Clara Luper, developing a student's agency is the foundation of education.

Held last month in celebration of Luper's 100th birthday and the 65th anniversary of the Katz Diner sit-in, the Clara Luper Teacher Institute offered 40 Oklahoma City-area teachers a look into the history and methodology of her legacy in and out of the classroom.

Course instructors and participants recognized that teachers face an uphill struggle in managing the politics of education with preparing young people to enter that battleground.

But many like the Rev. Tamara Lebak, a Unitarian Universalist minister and founder of the Restorative Justice Institute, face the challenge head-on. She wants to remind those dedicated teachers that their work is valuable, meaningful and an important part of society.

"The classroom is where we learn how to be good citizens, and Clara Luper knew that," Lebak said.

Clara Luper, Oklahoma educator and civil rights activist, appears in a 1988 photo.

When asked about her thoughts on education being a hot-button issue both nationally and in Oklahoma, Christina Kirk, an educator at Star-Spencer Mid-High School and institute participant, said that she strongly believes that education should not be a political issue.

Rather, she said, education should be a way teachers can prepare and encourage young people to face that world.

"It's a right that all kids are entitled to do," Kirk said. "The biggest thing is to make sure that we as the adults don't get in the way of education, we don't prohibit it, we don't filter it, we allow them to have a natural, organic love for education and teach them what they need to learn and getting them involved."

More: 'Bringing people together with love,' OKC marks centennial of freedom fighter Clara Luper

Clara Luper's 'radical love' methodology

Jasmine Bivar-Tobie, a facilitator at the Restorative Justice Institute of Oklahoma and a teaching assistant at the Clara Luper Teacher Institute, said the goal of the institute was to show Oklahoma City educators ways to foster a sense of agency in students using Luper's methodology.

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"(Luper's) methodology is labeled 'radical love.' Clara Luper did not just teach the students in her classroom. She taught the students outside of her classroom. She taught the people in the community. She didn't just love Black youth, she loved all youth," Bivar-Tobie said.

Teachers examined topics such as the history of Luper, the methodology and civic engagement of Luper, nonviolence as a change strategy, navigating difficult conversations, expecting excellence, student engagement and state standards and lesson building. Teachers worked closely with one another in groups, facilitating discussions about their own experiences and building communities that Lebak says are continuing outside of the Clara Luper Teacher Institute.

More: LiveFree OKC, led by Jabee, aims to address root causes of the cycle of gun violence

Clara Luper's legacy an example of teachers helping students 'find their potential'

Born May 3, 1923, in Okfuskee County, Clara Shepard Luper was a teacher and civil rights leader.

In 1958, Luper, along with 13 children from the NAACP Youth Council, went to Katz Drug Store in Oklahoma City. This drug store refused service to Black customers at the lunch counter, so Luper and the schoolchildren staged a peaceful protest by sitting at the counter and ordering 13 sodas.

They were refused service, but Luper and the children remained sitting, quiet and nonviolent. For hours throughout their protest, white customers jeered, harassed, threw food and drinks at them and called them derogatory names. The protesters returned for two more days until they were offered service, successfully concluding their protest.

The Katz Drug Story sit-in was one of the first of its kind to peacefully combat segregation, and Luper went on to become an icon in the Civil Rights Movement.

She was active in the NAACP and attended the associations annual conference every year with a group young people in the Oklahoma City Youth Council. She also took a bus of students to the 1963 March on Washington, where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his I Have a Dream speech.

Lebak said that when she thinks about Luper's legacy, she thinks about how she inspired her students to leverage their voices and their bodies to make a change when it was needed.

"Clara Luper was able to love her students in such a way that they were able to find their potential," Lebak said. "She asked them challenging questions, she had high expectations, she helped them to really feel comfortable in their own identity and helped them to recognize that they needed to be part of the decision-making process; that's really powerful."

More: OKC Philharmonic commissioning new music to celebrate civil rights icon Clara Luper

How will participants bring 'radical love' to their classrooms?

Bivar-Tobie said she saw positive responses from the participants, seeing many people who at first may have entered stand-offish, break down those barriers and enthusiastically engage with the program and everyone else involved.

"My goal as a human and also as a facilitator is to make sure that people don't feel alone, and that they have the space to share their experiences and learn other experiences from people so they can grow," Bivar-Tobie said.

Kirk said it's important at this time to learn the history and methodology of Luper because every child needs to feel seen in their community to be properly educated.

Kirk is a classroom teacher and a municipal court judge, so with one foot in education and the other in law, Luper's legacy bridges those two worlds, promoting civic education to students.

"(Luper) forged a pathway for those of us who came after her," Kirk said. "As long as her pedagogy and her radical love continues to permeate our school district, we're on a good path."

Kirk said she felt validated and confirmed by what she learned at the institute. As a teacher, Kirk said she loves her students in and out of the classroom, but she has grappled with whether she is crossing boundaries with her students by caring.

"Hearing from Clara Luper's students and hearing their respect and reverence for her after years and years of being out of her classroom confirmed that I'm doing the right thing ... (and) I'm on the right track."

Kirk said she's excited to start the next school year, and the kids in her classroom are gonna benefit from the application of "radical love."

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Clara Luper Institute empowers Oklahoma teachers with 'radical love'
TOKYO (AP)  Residents of Japan's southwestern islands were warned of high winds and rain Friday through the weekend as Typhoon Khanun made a U-turn and is now moving back east.

The Japan Meteorological Agency said Khanun was heading to Okinawa and nearby islands that were already lashed by its winds and rain earlier this week.

Khanun had sustained surface winds of 126 kph (78 mph) with higher gusts Friday afternoon, the JMA said. Up to 15 centimeters (5.9 inches) of rain was expected in the Okinawa region by Saturday and up to 30 centimeters (11.8 inches) in the Amami region, an island group belonging to the main southern island of Kyushu, by Sunday, the JMA said.

Khanun was stronger on its first pass, with sustained winds of 180 kph (111 mph), when it crossed the islands Tuesday, damaging homes and knocking out power. The Okinawa prefectural government said 47 people were injured, three of them seriously. Two deaths were being investigated as typhoon-related but are not included on the list of casualties.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Friday noted the typhoon had had a major impact on daily life. He expressed sympathy for those affected and promised to do the utmost to provide support.

At one point, the storm left nearly 220,000 homes, or about 30%, of those in Okinawa, without power, according to the Okinawa Electric Power Company. As of Friday night, about 22,000 still lacked electricity, but power is expected to be restored to most of them by Saturday, the utility said.

Okinawa's airport was packed with passengers stranded since earlier this week. About 80 Hong Kong travelers had been stuck in a hotel that lost power Wednesday, said Steve Huen, executive director of Hong Kong-based travel agency EGL Tours. He said 26 of them flew home Thursday, and the rest of the group were to leave Friday.

Khanun's U-turn will take it away from China, where rain from an earlier typhoon caused severe flooding this week around Beijing.

___

AP journalist Kanis Leung in Hong Kong contributed to this report.
An Oklahoma man stabbed another man in the head with a flagpole at a Sonic Drive-In restaurant Tuesday evening, according to Tulsa police.

Officers were called around 7:30 p.m. to the Sonic at Tulsa Hills on 81st St. in reference to a "stabbing," police said.

Clinton Collins was arrested for maiming after former conviction of a felony.

Upon arrival, officers found a male victim with a flagpole through his head. The pole had entered the victims head beneath his jaw and exited the other side of his head near his right temple area.

The American flag was still attached to the pole, police said.

Witnesses told police they saw the suspect  identified as Clinton Collins  charge the victim and stab him in the head with the flagpole.

CHICAGO MOM KILLED, TODDLER WOUNDED WHEN SUSPECTS UNLOAD ON FAMILY IN LATEST WINDY CITY VIOLENCE

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Witnesses said they heard Collins say: "Thats what he gets. He deserved it."

Collins was quickly taken into custody after officers arrived.

Firefighters had to cut part of the flagpole to fit the victim in the ambulance. The victim miraculously survived the brutal maiming but will likely lose an eye, police said.

Collins is charged with maiming after former conviction of a felony.

Tulsa police told Fox News Digital Collins was being held at the Tulsa County Jail. It was not clear if had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.

Fox News Digital has reached out to Sonic for comment.
A gate to Fort Sill is pictured near Lawton.

A Medicine Park woman recently pleaded guilty to paying a bribe to a public official in a hotel booking scheme.

Candy Hanza, 50, was the general manager of a local hotel in Lawton while her co-defendant, Alfred Palma, 64, was the manager of the Institutional Training Directed Lodging and Meals program at Fort Sill.

Federal prosecutors said the scheme involved Palma booking hotel rooms for soldiers who attended on-post training.

Prosecutors said Hanza paid Palma to direct soldiers to the hotel while she personally profited through her own scheme to defraud the hotel owners and launder the resulting proceeds.

Previously: Fort Sill employee, Oklahoma woman accused of corruption, bribery

At a July 28 hearing before U.S. District Judge Patrick R. Wyrick, Hanza admitted she gave cash and checks totaling $103,200 to Palma with the intent to induce him to favor the hotel she managed.

At sentencing, Hanza faces up to 15 years in federal prison, and a fine of $250,000 or three times the monetary value of the bribes, and up to three years of supervised release.

In June, Palma pleaded guilty and admitted to accepting Hanzas bribe. He is also awaiting sentencing.

The U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division, the Department of Defense Contract Audit Agency and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service conducted the investigation.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Julia E. Barry is prosecuting the case.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma woman pleads guilty to hotel booking scheme
Nobody was initially believed to have been inside the mill when the fire broke out

The remains of four men who were found dead after a mill was destroyed by a fire have been repatriated to their families in Vietnam.

Cuong Van Chu, Uoc Van Nguyen, Duong Van Nguyen and Nam Thanh Le were found by demolition workers at Bismark House Mill, Oldham, on 23 July 2022.

Four people were arrested on suspicion of manslaughter and remain on bail.

Det Supt Lewis Hughes said it was "a huge relief for the bereaved families to finally have their loved ones back".

"They have been extremely patient during what has been a difficult time for them, as we ensured that all remains were ethically recovered and identified," he said.

"Our thoughts will remain with them as they come to terms with their losses.

"Whilst we met with them last week as we finalised repatriation, they will continue to be updated via family liaison officers and translators."

Duong Van Nguyen told family he was living in an "abandoned house", while Uoc Van Nguyen told his wife he was in a mill

Greater Manchester Police said the criminal investigation remains open.

Nobody was initially believed to have been inside the mill when the fire broke out on 7 May.

However, demolition workers discovered human remains at the site two months later.

Mr Van Chu, 39, arrived in the UK in June 2019 and had maintained regular contact with his wife and children until 7 May, but his family had not heard from him since that date, police said.

Officers said Uoc Van Nguyen, 31, was also in regular contact with his wife until the same date, when he said he was in a mill.

Duong Van Nguyen, 29, had been in the UK for about a year and last contacted his family about three months earlier, when he said he was living in an "abandoned house" and looking for work, police said.

Mr Thanh Le, 21, who arrived in the UK in January 2022 last contacted his family on 4 May that year when he said he was living in a derelict house in "Dam", believed to be Oldham, and looking for work, police added.

Why not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk
Editors Note: Sherrie Page Guyer, MSN, RN, a former school nurse, holds a masters degree in nursing from Yale University and is currently enrolled in the doctor of nursing practice program at the University of Virginia School of Nursing. The views expressed here are her own. Read more opinion on CNN.

Does your childs school have a full-time registered nurse on staff? Most parents assume somebody is on hand to dispense medications, evaluate for possible concussions or confidently inject epinephrine in case of a food allergy emergency. But around 25% of US schools have no nurse on staff at all. And, for the ones that do, that nurse is often woefully overextended. When education budgets are tight, too often school nurses are wrongly considered a necessary cut.

Sherrie Page Guyer - Megan Mullins Photography

The National Association of School Nurses and the American Academy of Pediatrics are strong advocates for putting a full-time nurse in every school. Yet only around 40% of schools nationwide meet this recommendation, a fact thats difficult to reconcile at a time when more than 40% of school-aged children and adolescents have at least one chronic health condition, and the US faces a youth mental health crisis like never before.

Ive been a registered nurse for more than 30 years; my eight years as a school nurse were some of the most challenging. Each day brought a steady stream of unpredictable crises, mixed with scheduled appointments to give medication, breathing treatments and blood sugar checks. In a typical school year, I managed hypoglycemia, allergic reactions, asthma attacks, psychiatric concerns, infections, concussions, fractures, seizures, fainting spells, lacerations and more, giving me a vantage on the immense value that school nurses bring to student health and safety.

Behind this list of ailments are real children who need help, often the kind that only a professional nurse can dispense. Kids might not realize that their tingly lips could signal an allergic reaction, that light-headedness often means their blood sugar has tanked  and untrained staff may not realize this, either.

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Im reminded of the year I managed eight students with diabetes. Id be dealing with the usual lines forming out my clinic door, and Id get simultaneous calls from opposite sides of campus: Could I please come right away? Racing against possible seizures and loss of consciousness in students with low blood sugar, the most rewarding part of my nursing job  my relationship with students I managed on a daily basis took every inch of my skills and education.

In schools without a nurse, the care falls to staff, teachers and parents, diverting from their primary jobs and diminishing teaching time. The ramifications of nurse-less schools can leave kids injured or even dead.

Constance Costas credits the nurse at her son Nicholas boarding school in Lynchburg, Virginia with saving his life. His heart was literally beating out of his chest, she told me. You could see his shirt move. The nurse, Elaine Dameron, sent him to a local doctor to evaluate the cause. When Nicholas returned with a prescription for Xanax to treat his anxiety, Dameron balked and got him to a cardiologist for an electrocardiogram (EKG) test.

The diagnosis? Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome, a common cause of sudden cardiac death in children and young adults. If the nurse hadnt stuck to her guns, my son could have dropped dead at any moment, Costas says. Twelve years later, I still shudder to think about it. Im eternally grateful to Elaine for that.

While it is clear that schools with registered nurses are safer than those without, better health isnt the only benefit. Research shows that for every dollar invested in a schools full-time registered nurse, society nets $2.20 by preventing costly medical appointments and teachers and caregivers missed work. School nurses also increase equity and access to health resources and reduce absenteeism, helping students reach their full academic potential at a time when student test scores have plummeted nationwide.

I never thought about the school nurse until my 10-year-old daughter was diagnosed with diabetes and needed daily assistance with her carb counting and insulin shots, parent Laura Talley told me. We never couldve managed this on our own. Id have worried about her all day if I didnt trust the school nurse to keep her stable.

A school runs smoothly when its nurse manages high caseloads and triages health concerns from the clinic. This hidden healthcare allows students to stay in school, parents to work without worry and teachers to focus on teaching.

Until there is a crisis, school nurses competence makes them unseen. Covid-19 underscored our vital role. However, as my colleague school nurse Stacia Schoeffler reported from the frontlines, with the pandemic over, school nursing is more out of sight, out of mind  and we risk being forgotten, even as the physical and mental health needs of students continue to grow.

A new school year is upon us. The time to address this issue is now.

Parents, heres your call to action: find out if your school has a full-time registered nurse. If not, reach out to your school board and congressional representatives about passage of the One School, One Nurse Act of 2023, a bill to ensure that all American elementary and secondary schools have at least one registered nurse on staff.

No other single hire more significantly impacts the safety and well-being of our schools. Every child deserves a school nurse.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
This photo shows an aerial view after the first atomic explosion at Trinity Test Site, in N.M., on July 16, 1945. A new film on J. Robert Oppenheimers life and his role in the development of the atomic bomb as part of the Manhattan Project during World War II opened in theaters on Friday, July 21, 2023. On the sidelines will be a community downwind from the testing site in the southern New Mexico desert, the impacts of which the U.S. government never has fully acknowledged. | Associated Press

Christopher Nolans film Oppenheimer chronicles the life of the Father of the Atomic Bomb, including his profound misgivings about its use in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Since their inception, nuclear weapons have proliferated, and the reality that they are a current issue in 2023 can be found in the Russian threats to use them in the war in Ukraine.

One of the most cogent comments about atomic weapons comes from Albert Einstein, who said, The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking.

Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., and Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., have introduced H.R.77, calling on the United States to embrace the goals and provisions of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and to take concrete steps to prevent nuclear war.

We should contact our Congressional delegation to support this effort. It is the least we can do.

Louis Borgenicht

Salt Lake City
Former President Donald Trump in court for an arraignment in April in New York. (Seth Wenig / Associated Press)

On Thursday, a group of Democratic congressional representatives led by Californias Adam Schiff wrote the Judicial Conference of the United States urging that televising the federal trials of Donald Trump is vital if the public is to fully accept the outcome.

It's impossible to exaggerate the importance of such public acceptance of the jurys verdict  whatever it is  in the case charging Trump with involvement in conspiracies to overturn the 2020 election.

The rule of law depends upon public trust in its processes. Nothing promotes trust of facts better than what we see with our own eyes.

Read more: Op-Ed: The insurrection won't end until Trump is prosecuted and disqualified from future office

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. should use his power as the leader of the judicial conference to ensure the trials accessibility to all Americans.

There are good reasons to do so even if contrary to his ordinary instincts. In these extraordinary times, these are no ordinary cases.

First, some background. In 1980, one of us (Tribe) successfully argued Richmond Newspapers vs. Virginia , the U.S. Supreme Court case that ruled that the press and the public have a right to attend and observe federal criminal trials even when both parties and the judge prefer a blackout.

Read more: Litman: Three takeaways from the most important Trump indictment yet

Still, the court has yet to take the logical next step  giving that right practical meaning for the nation as a whole. Trial courtrooms typically accommodate fewer than 100 spectators . But a federal court rule prohibits broadcasting of criminal trials.

The trial of Trump over alleged lies about the 2020 election and the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection is so unique and so historic that treating it as a special exception does not threaten the rule, or even the Supreme Courts own ban on televising its proceedings.

By statute, the Judicial Conference can recommend to the Supreme Court changes to the rules of the court that promote fairness in the administration of justice.

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Read more: Calmes: Trump's election lies got him indicted, but they've worked all too well

Allowing televising of this trial, with strict court-supervised guardrails, would indisputably have that effect by permitting citizens of every political stripe to form their own judgment of the proceedings adjudicating Trumps innocence or guilt. Americans will be able to see a former president being treated like any citizen who is accused of a crime.

In the context of the 2024 election in which Trump appears headed to win the Republican Partys nomination, nothing is more vital. Sunlight here can best enlighten the electorate.

In the ordinary course, while opinions differ about televised court proceedings, the desire to protect their solemnity and to avoid incentives for performative behavior before a broad public audience seems understandable.

Read more: Editorial: Trying to overturn an election must have consequences, even for former presidents

At the same time, the trial of Trump relating to his alleged attempt to end the lawful transfer of presidential power will be Americas most consequential moment of legal accountability since 1807, when Aaron Burr was tried for treason for plotting to wage a violent insurrection against our government.

Giving Americans the opportunity to witness these judicial proceedings directly will help ensure what is needed under the rule of law  faith in the process of getting to the truth.

Because of the Justice Departments ethical restraints on contemporaneous public statements about trials, in this one, only one side  and one with enormous communication reach  will be amplifying its version of each days courtroom events.

We have already seen Trumps social media posts attacking the federal judge assigned to the case, Tanya S. Chutkan, as  unfair  and special counsel Jack Smith as  deranged . Trump has also sprinkled in untruths designed to enrage his supporters about being arrested, a claim that U.S. Marshals contradicted.

The dangers of misinformation about the fairness of the judicial process are magnified by the reality that so many of todays television viewers are siloed into outlets that filter news to confirm their audiences biases. In addition, fewer Americans than ever read print media that aim for objectivity.

The opportunity to see this trial with ones own eyes is the obvious remedy.

Read more: Column: Why Donald Trump's federal indictment is as breathtaking as it was inevitable

Moreover, with the Supreme Courts public trust at a low ebb , Roberts supporting the broadcasting of this case could enormously help to reverse that tide. Americans would see him going out of his way to ensure judicial transparency where it matters most.

The courthouse in the Richmond Newspapers case happened to be the one in which Patrick Henry had delivered an impassioned plea for liberty.

Today, all civically minded Americans, joined by the press and electronic media, should be making the same plea to let the light in on the most consequential trial in American history.

Laurence H. Tribe is the Carl M. Loeb university professor of constitutional law emeritus at Harvard University. Dennis Aftergut is a former federal prosecutor, currently of counsel to Lawyers Defending American Democracy .

If its in the news right now, the L.A. Times Opinion section covers it. Sign up for our weekly opinion newsletter.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
The quiet that normally fills East Canyon Vista Drive in Anaheim Hills was punctured Thursday night by the thudding of helicopter blades and the barking of police orders.

Through her open bedroom window, Angela Herrmann heard a man's voice yell, "Don't shoot me!"

She was too scared to go outside, but other neighbors gathered in the dusk and were shocked to see longtime resident Jeffrey Ferguson, an Orange County Superior Court judge, standing in front of his home, speaking loudly into a cellphone. Green laser dots focused on his body as a booming voice from above directed Ferguson to get on the ground.

"I heard the judge shout, 'I'm unarmed, but I'm not going to get on the floor,'" recounted Russell Ventura, who lives nearby.

Officers rushed up and quickly apprehended Ferguson, placing him in handcuffs and sitting him on the curb outside his home.

The 72-year-old judge, police say, had earlier shot and killed his wife inside their home.

Read more: How a dispute over dog droppings put a celebrated homicide detective and a judge under scrutiny

Anaheim police arrived at the home in the 8500 block of East Canyon Vista Drive shortly after 8 p.m. after reports of a shooting.

Officers made an emergency entry and found Sheryl Ferguson, 65, shot to death inside the residence.

One other person who was in the home at the time of the shooting was not injured, Anaheim police Sgt. Jon McClintock said.

Law enforcement sources who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to publicly discuss the case said that the person was one of the Fergusons' adult sons, and that he had called 911 and attempted to perform CPR on his mother.

Police have recovered the weapon that was used to kill Sheryl Ferguson, according to anonymous sources.

Ferguson was released from jail Friday afternoon on a $1-million bond.

Neighbor Jim Carey said he saw Phillip Ferguson sitting on the sidewalk opposite his father, who hung his head while surrounded by police Thursday night.

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"From what has been reported, it's out of character for this judge to carry out this act," Carey said, adding that he'd visited the Fergusons a few months ago and they talked about the judge being eligible for retirement.

On Friday morning, police had cordoned off the street in front of the two-story tile-roofed home where the fatal shooting occurred. Red crime-scene tape blocked the front of the house and its three-car garage. Investigators were searching the property, from which several large boxes of ammunition were removed.

Ventura said he saw police load several rifles into an unmarked SUV outside the home.

Another neighbor, John Poulter, called the news of the shooting and arrest tragic.

"It's a shock," he said, adding that he occasionally saw the Fergusons outside their home while walking his dogs.

He said they had exchanged pleasantries when they saw each other in the street and that he never expected anything like this to happen.

"So many people in the neighborhood flooded the street [afterward] and just kept repeating, 'There's no way he could have done this,'" Poulter said.

Ferguson has served as a judge in Orange County Superior Court since 2015. He previously spent more than three decades with the Orange County district attorney's office, during which he worked on major narcotics enforcement, according to the North Orange County Bar Assn. Ferguson served as president of the association from 2012 to 2014.

The victim, Sheryl Ferguson, had previously worked for both the Orange County and Santa Barbara probation departments, according to the judge's campaign biography, and the couple had two sons, Phillip and Kevin.

The judge described himself in his biography as a "Navy brat" whose family had moved to Orange County in 1962. As a teen, he  like many locals  worked at Disneyland. He graduated with biology and social ecology degrees from UC Irvine, where he was regional director for Young Americans for Freedom. He also was a graphic designer and advertising communications writer before graduating from Western State College of Law.

Colleagues who spoke on the condition of anonymity said they were not aware of any issues between the judge and his wife.

Absolutely shocked. I had them sit on my couch. I would never have thought this for a minute, one said Friday morning.

Susan Kang, a former chief of staff for Orange County's district attorney, said she has been friends with the Fergusons since 1999, "when Jeff was one of the prosecutors who helped train our hiring class."

"I have always known Jeff to be someone who was devoted to his wife and his sons," Kang said. "Just a little while ago, they were at my house having dinner. To be shocked to hear Jeff was arrested for murdering Sheryl would be an understatement. I cannot wrap my mind around it. I am brokenhearted, especially for Phillip.

Eric Johnson met Ferguson when they attended Southern California Military Academy in the 1960s. He sat outside his friend's home on Friday after police had investigated the crime scene.

"It's not Jeff. I would imagine he better get some medical counseling. To take out your wife, you're not in your right mind," Johnson said. "Something is not right here."

Ferguson was admonished by the state's Commission on Judicial Performance for comments connected to a heated 2016 judicial contest between Orange County Superior Court Judge Scott Steiner, who was running for reelection, and Karen Schatzle, a senior deputy district attorney for the county. Ferguson was backing Steiner, who had been censured in 2014 for having sex with two women in his chambers.

According to the commission, which investigates judicial misconduct, Schatzle posted a comment on a Facebook page of the North Orange County Bar Assn. on April 26, 2016, saying, Scott Steiner uses his office for sex and yet so many arent concerned, crazy politics!"

In response, Ferguson went to Facebook and claimed: Karen Shatzle has sex with defense lawyer [while she] is DA on his cases and nobody cares. Interesting politics.

The commission ruled that Fergusons comment violated ethics rules and that he had acted with reckless disregard for the truth, noting that he could not produce any factual support for the accusation.

Read more: Domestic violence rose during lockdown  and injuries are dramatically more severe, study finds

On Friday morning, Fergusons Fullerton courtroom was dark. A note posted on the door said cases had been transferred to another courtroom at the North Justice Center.

Kostas Kalaitzidis, an Orange County Superior Court spokesman, said the situation is a tragedy.

My heart goes out to his family, Kalaitzidis said from outside Fergusons courtroom. This is not easy for us.

Kalaitzidis said that the reassignment of cases is standard when a judge is unable to work, but that Fergusons arrest may be without precedent in the countys court system.

The Orange County district attorneys office has not submitted anything to the court yet, he said of charges in the case. .

Sign up for Essential California, your daily guide to news, views and life in the Golden State.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
An Oregon man suspected of sexually abusing numerous women in at least four states lived in metro Detroit for several months in 2017, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Negasi Zuberi, 29  who also goes by the names of Sakima Zuberi, Justin Hyche and Justin Kouassi  was recently charged with interstate kidnapping in Oregon. Zuberi is accused of kidnapping a woman in Seattle in the early hours of July 15 by posing as an undercover cop and soliciting her for prostitution.

This undated photo provided by the FBI's Portland Field Office shows a makeshift cinder-block cell in Klamath Falls, Oregon, allegedly used by 29-year-old Negasi Zuberi to hold a woman prisoner. The FBI said Aug. 1, 2023, police in Reno, Nevada, arrested Zuberi.

Federal investigators say he shackled the woman, raped her, drove her more than 400 miles to his Klamath Falls, Oregon, home, and then locked her up in a makeshift cinder-block cell. The woman managed to escape by pounding on the metal door to her cell until it broke open, allowing her to escape and flag down help.

Zuberi was arrested at a Walmart in Reno, Nevada, on July 16. He was with his wife and one of his children, authorities said. Since then, he has been linked to other sexual assaults in at least four other states. FBI agents believe there are more victims, and is seeking the public's help identifying them.

The FBI said Zuberi has lived in numerous states since 2016, which include: California, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Utah, Florida, New York, New Jersey, Alabama, and Nevada.

The FBI's Detroit Office confirmed to the Detroit Free Press that Zuberi also lived in Ecorse, Michigan, from April 2017 to September 2017.

Negasi Zuberi, also known as "Sakima," "Justin Hyche," and "Justin Kouassi," in an image released by the FBI. He is accused of sexually assaulting women in multiple states and charged with interstate kidnapping in an Oregon case involving a woman imprisoned in a makeshift cinder-block cell.

Ecorse police have no record of any kidnapping or sexual assault cases against Zuberi during that time.

Zuberi "has several different methods to gain control of his victims, including drugging their drinks, pretending to be a police officer, and soliciting the services of sex workers and then violently sexually assaulting them," the FBI wrote on its website seeking to identify victims and further information.

"Some of the encounters may have been filmed to make it appear as if the assault was consensual. The victims are threatened with retaliation if they notify the police," the FBI wrote.

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The FBI is encouraging those who may have been victimized by Zuberi or have information relevant to the investigation to fill out a short form.

Victims' identities will be kept confidential, according to the FBI.

Andrea Sahouri covers criminal justice for the Detroit Free Press. She can be contacted at 313-264-0442, asahouri@freepress.com or on Twitter @andreamsahouri.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Oregon man accused of kidnapping, sexual assault lived in Michigan




NEWS PROVIDED BY

Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights

Aug. 4, 2023



NEW YORK, Aug. 4, 2023 /Christian Newswire/ -- The following is submitted by Bill Donohue, President, Catholic League:

Hemant Mehta is an atheist activist who is not too happy with Richard Dawkins, one of the most prominent atheists in the world. He is angered that his fellow God denier insists that "sex really is binary." This should be about as controversial as saying the world is not flat, but in some circles it is cause for apoplexy.

Dawkins is someone whom I have mostly criticized, and occasionally defended, in the past. In 2016, I called him out for his hate speech when he said, "I'm all for offending people's religion." In 2017, I defended the Englishman on free speech grounds when a left-wing radio station based in Berkeley, California disinvited him after he called Islam the "most evil" of world religions. Now I am defending him once again.

Mehta holds to the anti-science view that sex is fluid. It is not. It is binary, just as Dawkins said it is. We are either male (XY chromosomes) or female (XX), notwithstanding the biological disorder that affects boys called Klinefelter Syndrome (XXY). That does not make for a third sex.

Dawkins is a biologist. Mehta is a blogger. Despite the glaring difference in credentials, the occasionally employed blogger is accusing Dawkins of "abandoning" science.

"What is a woman?" We know that Mehta can no more answer this question than can Ketanji Brown Jackson, but when Dawkins was asked to respond, he was not puzzled. "A woman is an adult human female, free of Y chromosomes." Mehta says, "That flies in the face of what many scientists have said about the subject."

What Mehta is referring to is the alleged category of "intersex" persons. Yes, there are rare instances of babies who are born with both male and female genitalia. Anomalies exist in nature. It is also true that there are people who suffer from polydactyly, a condition in which a person is born with extra fingers or toes. So what?

Father Tad Pacholczyk has a doctorate in neuroscience from Yale and did postdoctoral work at Harvard. Even those born with "confounding physiological factors," he says, are either intrinsically male or female. In other words, humans are "marked by sexual 'dimorphism,' or 'two-forms,' namely, male and female. When problems arise in the development of one of these forms, this does not make for a new 'third form,' or worse, for an infinite spectrum of different sexual forms."

Mehta is upset that Dawkins has previously said that trans people are similar to Rachel Dolezal, the white woman who claimed to be black. The analogy is apt: if self-identity is dispositive, then Dolezal is as black as the guy who claims he is a gal.

Finally, Dawkins insists that it is people like him who are being bullied today, not trans people. Mehta disagrees but Dawkins is right. It is true, as Mehta contends, that trans people are much more likely to experience violence than normal people are, but what he leaves out is that most of the violence against trans people is being carried out by other trans people. That's the dirty little secret no one wants to talk about.
An otter wounded three women in a "rare" attack Wednesday night as the victims floated on inner tubes in a Montana river, officials said.

The women were watching an otter or two in the Jefferson River when one approached and attacked, the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks said. The women managed to get out of the water and the otter swam away.

The victims called 911 for help, authorities said. All three needed medical treatment, including one woman who was airlifted to a hospital in a helicopter. Officials did not give specific details about the injuries, only saying that the woman who was airlifted suffered injuries that "were more serious."

"While attacks from otters are rare, otters can be protective of themselves and their young, especially at close distances. They give birth to their young in April and can later be seen with their young in the water during the summer," the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks said. "They may also be protective of food resources, especially when those resources are scarce."

Officials have posted signs at several fishing access sites in the area warning people of the otter activity. If an otter attacks, fight back, get out of the water and seek medical attention. Officials are not planning any action to catch the otter.

Last month, an otter was caught stealing a surfboard in California. Police said an "aggressive sea otter in the area is biting, scratching and climbing on surfboards."

State officials in Alaska in 2021 warned residents that river otters were biting people and dogs.

Officials in Montana did not specify what type of otter was involved, but a state field guide on local animals only lists one type of otter: the northern river otter, a member of the weasel family. The species has 36 teeth. They weigh around 20 pounds and measure about 47 inches long.

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A North American river otter forages for food in the new otter enclosure at the Smithsonian National Zoo August 29, 2012 in Washington (Allison Shelley)

An aggressive otter attacked three women floating down a river in Montana, with one victim helicoptered to hospital with severe bites to her face and arms, authorities in the western US state said.

The group of swimmers was drifting along Jefferson River in inflatable ring tubes on Wednesday evening when they spotted one or two of the animals.

"An otter approached and attacked them," Montana's Fish Wildlife and Parks (FWP) service said in a statement. "All three women were injured."

FWP said otter attacks are rare but can be caused when the semi-aquatic animals are protecting their young, which take to the water in summer, or believe that a food source is under threat.

It advised people to keep their distance but, if attacked, to "fight back, get away and out of the water."

FWP official Morgan Jacobsen told a local NBC affiliate that the women had telephoned for emergency help and that one victim was flown to hospital due to the bites on her face and arms.

Several states away, surfers in California were the target of sea otter attacks last month when a five-year-old female tried to steal their boards.

In one social media video, the otter climbed on a surfer's board and hung on as he tried to shake it off. The otter lunged at him, and started biting the board.

Authorities in Montana have posted signs warning of the danger from otters, the FWP said, but are not planning any other response.

It added low water levels can bring humans closer to wildlife.

Otters, members of the weasel family, were historically sought for their pelts, with hunting and habitat loss threatening the population of both river and sea otters.

caw/bgs
A river otter. Getty Images

An otter attacked three women tubing on a Montana river, leaving them injured, officials said.

One of the injured women was wounded more seriously and had to be airlifted to a hospital.

The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks called otter attacks a "rare" occurrence.

Three women were injured  one more seriously  when an otter unleashed a "rare" attack on them as the trio was tubing along a river in southern Montana, according to state wildlife officials.

The women were floating on inner tubes on the Jefferson River at around 8:15 p.m. on Wednesday when they spotted one to two otters, the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks said in a statement on Thursday.

Suddenly, the government agency said, "An otter approached and attacked them."

"The women got out of the water, and the otter swam away," the wildlife department said.

When the women got to shore, they called 911, and several agencies, including the local sheriff's office, responded to the incident.

The women received medical attention in the Montana city of Bozeman, but one of them, who wildlife officials said had "more serious" injuries, was airlifted to a local hospital via a helicopter.

"It's just not something you run into very often," Jefferson County Undersheriff James Everett told the Associated Press of the attack. "Bears do it, moose too and occasionally a deer, but otters? That's not normal."

Everett told the news outlet that the woman who was hospitalized suffered wounds on her face and arms.

The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks said staffers have posted signs at several fishing access sites in the area notifying visitors of "otter activity."

"While attacks from otters are rare, otters can be protective of themselves and their young, especially at close distances," the agency said, adding that the animals "may also be protective of food resources, especially when those resources are scarce."

The wildlife department said: "If you are attacked by an otter, fight back, get away and out of the water, and seek medical attention."

Read the original article on Insider
Photograph: Scott Morgan/Reuters

Rightwing Florida governor and 2024 presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis was widely condemned after he said that if elected to the White House, he would start slitting throats in the federal bureaucracy on his first day in power.

Related: Weak, small and reckless: how Ron DeSantis, Republican Napoleon, met his Waterloo

The president of the National Treasury Employees Union, Tony Reardon, called the hardline Republicans comment repulsive and unworthy of the presidential campaign trail.

The president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), Everett Kelley, said: Governor DeSantis threat to start slitting throats of federal employees is dangerous, disgusting, disgraceful and disqualifying.

Among commentators, the columnist Max Boot called DeSantiss words deranged while Bill Kristol, founder of the Bulwark, a conservative site, said the governor was making a bold play to dominate the maniacal psychopath lane in the Republican primary.

DeSantis is a clear second in the Republican primary but more than 30 points behind Donald Trump in most averages, notwithstanding the former presidents proliferating legal jeopardy including 78 criminal charges.

On Friday a major poll by the New York Times and Siena College in the first state to vote, Iowa, put DeSantis 24 points behind.

DeSantis is widely seen to be trying to reset his campaign, having fired staffers including a conservative writer who created a video ad containing a Nazi symbol.

But the governor has not noticeably retooled his hard-right rhetoric.

DeSantis made his comment about slitting throats at an event in the second state to vote, New Hampshire, last Sunday.

On bureaucracy, you know, were going to have all these deep state people, you know, were going to start slitting throats on day one and be ready to go, DeSantis said. Youre going to see a huge, huge outcry because Washington wants to protect its own.

Complaints about the so-called deep state  notionally an embedded government of officials and bureaucrats Republicans claim exists to thwart their agenda  is a common feature of far-right campaigns, from Trump down.

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Should he return to power, Trump is widely reported to be planning an administrative cull of the federal bureaucracy, seeking to instal loyalists as part of a process his close ally Steve Bannon has long called the deconstruction of the administrative state.

DeSantis has used his slitting throats line before, last week telling the rightwing columnist John Solomon he wanted to appoint a defense secretary who would slit some throats and be very firm, very strong.

Condemning DeSantiss remarks, Kelley, the president of the AFGE, said: Federal employees  over a third of whom are veterans now wearing their second uniform in service to their country  have dedicated their lives to serving their fellow Americans.

They support our military, provide healthcare to our nations veterans, enforce our laws, safeguard our communities, deliver benefits to Americas most vulnerable citizens, keep our skies safe for air travel, protect human health and our environment, and much more.

These public servants deserve respect and commendation from our nations leaders. No federal employee should face death threats from anyone, least of all from someone seeking to lead the US government. Governor DeSantis must retract his irresponsible statement.

There seemed little chance of that, from a candidate who has made harsh rhetoric and confrontational poses cornerstones of a campaign nonetheless failing to outflank Trump on the right.

In Florida, Daniel Uhlfelder, a former Democratic candidate for state attorney general, pointed to controversies over DeSantiss past when he said: This guy started his legal career at Guantanamo Bay.

As a US navy lawyer, DeSantis was posted to the US facility on the coast of Cuba during the wars after 9/11. He has angrily denied being present at torture sessions, calling one former inmates claims totally, totally BS.

In Congress on Thursday, the Virginia Democratic senator Mark Warner said inflammatory, violent language like that used by DeSantis in New Hampshire can lead to very real, very dangerous consequences.

Kelley of the AFGE agreed, linking DeSantiss violent imagery to deadly far-right violence.

Related: Ron DeSantis in Guantanamo: how questions about his past haunt the Florida governor

Weve seen too often in recent years  from the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 to the sacking of the [US] Capitol on January 6 2021  that violent anti-government rhetoric from politicians has deadly consequences.

In Oklahoma City, 168 people including 19 children were killed when a bomb planted by the rightwing extremist Timothy McVeigh destroyed a federal building. More than 500 people were injured.

Nine deaths have been linked to the attack on the Capitol, in which Trump supporters sought to overturn his election defeat by Joe Biden. More than a thousand people have been charged in relation to the riot, Trump among them after being indicted by the special counsel Jack Smith this week.

Everett said: Any candidate who positions themselves within that shameful tradition has no place in public office.
A dog was found abandoned at a Pennsylvania airport after its owner was told it couldnt fly, police said.

Around 5:30 a.m. on Aug. 4, officers with the Allegheny County Police Department stationed at the Pittsburgh International Airport were called with reports of a dog on airport property.

In the short-term parking area outside the terminal, there was a small brown and white dog sitting in a stroller completely alone, officers said in a Facebook post.

The dog was microchipped, but when officers tried to call the dogs owner, they didnt get a response.

The owner, police said, had brought the dog intending to take it on a flight. Then, airline officials told the owner the dog needed to be in a crate to go on the plane.

The owner decided to leave the dog behind in the parking area and got on the plane, police said.

The dog was brought inside and turned over to the state dog warden, according to the Facebook post.

A charge of animal abandonment is expected to be filed against the owner by the state dog warden, police said.

Many airlines allow cats and smaller dogs to travel in the cabin with their owners, provided they fit in a kennel or crate under the seat in front of you, according to Conde Nast Traveler.

It is important to research the rules and regulations of the airline before traveling, the site says.

Pittsburgh International Airport is about 20 miles west of the citys downtown.

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Women cry at the funeral of 18-year-old Palestinian Mahmoud Abu Saan who was shot and killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank (Jaafar ASHTIYEH)

Two Palestinians in the occupied West Bank were shot by Israelis on Friday, one by soldiers and the other by settlers, the Palestinian health ministry said.

Late Friday it announced the death of Qusai Jamal Maatan, 19, saying he was "shot dead by settlers in the village of Burqa", east of Ramallah.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

Earlier, soldiers had shot dead another young Palestinian.

In a statement, the Palestinian health ministry said 18-year-old Mahmoud Abu Saan was "killed this morning by live bullets from the occupation (Israel) in Tulkarm".

The Israeli army said that while forces were patrolling "suspects fired and hurled explosives and stones at the soldiers, who responded with live fire".

"Hits were identified," the statement added, specifying that no soldiers were hurt.

The official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, reported that Abu Saan was "shot in the head by the occupation soldiers at zero distance".

At Abu Saan's funeral later Friday, his head was shrouded in the Palestinian flag as his body was paraded through the town's streets ahead of the burial, an AFP photographer said.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Six-Day War and its forces regularly conduct armed incursions into areas of the territory which are nominally under the control of the Palestinian Authority.

Excluding annexed east Jerusalem, the territory is home to nearly three million Palestinians and around 490,000 Israelis who live in settlements considered illegal under international law.

Friday's killings come three days after a Palestinian gunman wounded six people at an Israeli settlement in the West Bank with gunfire before being shot dead.

Violence linked to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has this year killed at least 207 Palestinians, 27 Israelis, one Ukrainian and one Italian, according to an AFP tally compiled from official sources on both sides.

They include, on the Palestinian side, combatants as well as civilians and, on the Israeli side, three members of the Arab minority.

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Flights were taking off hours late from Paris Orly airport and without the luggage of their passengers (STEFANO RELLANDINI)

With just one year to go before Paris hosts the Olympic Games, one of the city's airports suffered an unprecedented breakdown Thursday that led to a mountain of luggage piling up and delayed flights.

A breakdown in the luggage-sorting equipment at terminal four of Orly airport meant that baggage had to be handled by hand.

That resulted in many flights leaving late and without the luggage of their passengers on board, according to airport operator ADP and airlines.

Luggage clogged the entrance of the terminal as travellers were told to leave their tagged bags behind.

The breakdown lasted from the start of operations in the morning until shortly before 7:00 pm (1700 GMT).

Airport operator ADP estimated 10,000 passengers on 40 flights were affected.

According to Marc Rochet, head of the French Bee and Air Caraibes airlines using the affected terminal, flights took off with delays between one and three hours -- and without luggage that had been checked in.

"We didn't have another option, otherwise the whole system would be blocked," he told AFP.

The luggage in the terminal will be transferred to a secure hangar and then put on following flights.

ADP tried to minimise the disruption by having planes use other terminals at Orly or use Paris Charles de Gaulle airport.

Junior transport minister Clement Beaune called the situation "unacceptable", coming just weeks after the government made a series of proposals to improve the quality of service ahead of the Olympic Games next year.

"This is exactly the type of concrete things that we need to watch," said Beaune. "When one link of the chain breaks you have a really big problem."

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Max Schachters 14-year-old son Alex was killed when Nikolas Cruz opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on 14 February 2018 (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

A father who lost his son in the Parkland school shooting joined lawmakers on Friday as they walked through the blood-stained halls at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School where 14 students and three staff members were gunned down in the horrific Valentines Day rampage.

Max Schachters 14-year-old son Alex was killed when a gunman opened fire at the school on 14 February 2018. The distraught father has since devoted his life to making schools safe.

On Friday, House members were led along the same path through the school that gunman Nikolas Cruz took during the six-minute attack five years ago.

Cruz, 24, a former Stoneman Douglas student, pleaded guilty in 2021 and was sentenced to life in prison in 2022.

Few people have been in the three-storey bullet-pocked building that has been locked behind a chain-link fence as it served as evidence during Cruzs death penalty trial.

Former Broward County deputy Scot Peterson walking with an unarmed security guard outside Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School during the Parkland mass shooting (Broward County DA)

Bringing members of Congress thru (sic) the building so they understand the failures before and during the shooting will hopefully ensure safer schools, Mr Schachter tweeted ahead of the tour.

I hope that after this we can all come together to ensure that all children / teachers are safe in their schools.

The Associated Press reported that there were still open textbooks and laptop computers on students desks. An unfinished chess game one of the slain students had been playing was also frozen in time, the pieces unmoved.

Mr Schachter, who had also recently returned to the classroom where his son was killed to see it for himself five years after the carnage, joined nine members of Congress on Friday.

It marked the first time a congressional delegation has toured the site of a mass shooting, Florida Democratic Rep Jared Moskowitz said.

He added that he expected the tour and reenactment to have a profound impact" on the six Democrats and three Republicans who belong to the House School Safety and Security Caucus.

When you watch something like this on TV, youre a thousand feet away  they show a picture of the building, Mr Moskowitz, who is a Stoneman Douglas graduate, told The Associated Press. You dont see the impact that the shooting had on the families ... or the impact on a community when a school becomes a war zone.

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Cruz, 24, a former Stoneman Douglas student, pleaded guilty in 2021 and was sentenced to life in prison in 2022 ( South Florida Sun Sentinel 2022)

Cruzs prosecutors and members of the victims families are also touring the site of the shooting that sparked a nationwide movement for gun control.

A reenactment will take place as the House members leave the building with ballistics experts set to fire up to 139 shots of live ammunition from the same spots as Cruz did.

Its part of a lawsuit by the victims families and the survivors who accuse Scot Peterson, the Broward County deputy assigned to the school, of failing in his duty to protect them.

The experts will use an identical AR-15-style semi automatic rifle, and the bullets will be caught by a safety device. It will all be recorded in an attempt to capture what Mr Peterson heard during the six-minute attack.

Mr Peterson, 60, said he did not hear all the shots that were fired and that he could not trace them because of the echo in the hallways.

Scot Peterson, the Broward County deputy assigned to the school, was acquitted in June of felony child neglect and other criminal charges for failing to act ( South Florida Sun Sentinel 2023)

He got within feet of the buildings door and drew his gun, but backed away and stood next to an adjoining building for 40 minutes, making radio calls. He has said he would have charged into the building if he had known the shooters location.

Mr Peterson was acquitted in June of felony child neglect and other criminal charges for failing to act. It was the first US trial of a law enforcement officer for conduct during an on-campus shooting.

Circuit Judge Carol-Lisa Phillips allowed the reenactment to take place today, but made clear she was not ruling on whether the recording will be played at trial. No trial date has been set.

Following the tour, the caucus members and families were set to go to a nearby hotel to discuss school safety issues.

Youre not going to walk through this and then get out a pen and paper and start writing down your policy ideas, Mr Moskowitz said. But we have got to figure out how no other families become part of this exclusive club no one wants to belong to.

Jurors in the Cruz trial were also able to retrace the path of terror after the prosecution rested its case in August 2022. The state hoped that seeing the crime scene in person would convince them that Cruz deserved the death penalty, but jurors couldnt unanimously agree.

Cruz was ultimately sentenced to life in prison in November.

Five years after the shooting, staff hired by the school district found the final draft that Mr Schachters son Alex had turned into his English teacher. They also found the lunchbox his parents packed for him every day and the binder with his schoolwork, but his backpack was placed inside a box labelled biohazard that Mr Schachter hasnt opened yet.

Mr Schachter wasnt trying to find closure when he walked inside the building where his son was murdered. But he was hoping to feel closer to Alex.

Max Schachter holds up a photo of his 14-year-old son Alex (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

I wanted to walk through that building, [for it] to help me crystallise what had happened, Mr Schachter said. I wanted to understand what happened to Alex and I wanted to sit in that chair. I wanted to take that chair home with me, that was the chair that Alex took his last breath in.

Mr Schachter found what he described as a war zone  the harrowing evidence of the horrors that his son and his classmates endured.

As I got there, I realised how he killed everyone and was so brutal and what he did to Alex, Mr Schachter told The Independent. There was blood all over Alexs seat and all over the floor and his paperwork had blood on it.

There were also subtle hints of the sudden way in which hundreds of lives were changed that Valentines Day. The scattered textbooks, boards with lesson plans that were never taught, Valentines cards that were never delivered to their recipients and deflated balloons have become a painful reminder of the passage of time.

But Mr Schachter turned his pain into purpose through his nonprofit Safe Schools for Alex, which assists parents, students and school districts with resources to make schools safer. It provides training in threat assessments and school safety best practices.

Following Fridays tour and reenactment, the Broward school district plans to demolish the three-story building, likely replacing it with a memorial.
Sara Smith, left, and her daughter Karina Smith visit a makeshift memorial outside the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where 17 students and faculty were killed in a mass shooting in Parkland, Florida. AP Photo/Gerald Herbert

Officials are reenacting the 2018 Parkland high school shooting as part of a civil lawsuit.

One survivor's mother says she didn't think the reenactment should happen, but hopes it leads to change.

Others believe the reenactment is necessary to prevent the next tragedy.

The Parkland, Florida, shooting is being reenacted Friday, August 4, as part of a civil lawsuit. One survivor's mother who could hear the reenactment's "eerie" gunshots from her house says she hopes it'll lead to more training for school resource officers.

Vicki Amodio  whose son survived the 2018 high school shooting that left 17 others dead  told Insider that she didn't want the reenactment to happen.

"I was against the reenactment and still against it," Amodio said. "But the only thing that I can say that comes out of this is that it proves that we need more training" for school resource officers.

"Outside of that, I don't feel that these parents and the community around it needed to go through this again," she added.

The reenactment of the shooting  where officials will fire off at least 140 live rounds of bullets  is part of a civil lawsuit filed by victims' family members against the then-school resource officer, Scot Peterson.

Peterson, a former Broward County sheriff's deputy who was working at the school on the day of the shooting, was acquitted in June on criminal charges of child neglect and culpable negligence. Prosecutors argued that he ignored his training and failed to confront the active shooter for 48 minutes, while Peterson said that he couldn't hear all the gunshots and couldn't tell where they were coming from, according to CNN.

In the ongoing civil suit, the victims' families are trying to use the reenactment to prove that Peterson did in fact hear over 70 gunshots and could tell where they were coming from, CNN reported.

But the community has been torn about whether or not the reenactment should happen.

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"I just don't understand that five and a half years later, these parents are still wanting to go through this and just not put it behind them and heal and try and move forward," Amodio told Insider. She said she lives across the street from Marjory Stoneman Douglas School, where the shooting happened, and could hear the "eerie" and "disturbing" shots being fired on Friday.

Max Schachter, whose 14-year-old son was killed in the shooting, said at a news conference Friday, "It's going to be scary, but we hope the reenactment will get a jury to understand that there is no possible way that the school resource deputy only heard two or three shots when 70 went off in that building," according to CNN.

"If nothing changes, if we don't use this building to teach others and to educate and use it to prevent the next tragedy, you know, it's all for naught," Schachter said, according to CNN.

The building where the shooting took place, which is just one of several buildings on campus, is set to be demolished after the reenactment. Amodio said she hopes they turn it into a park for students.

Read the original article on Insider
Gunfire erupted again at Parkland's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Friday as part of a reenactment by ballistics experts of the 2018 massacre that left 14 students and three staff members dead.

The reenactment took place after a congressional delegation group toured the building, led by Democratic Congressman Jared Moskowitz and Republican Congressman Mario Diaz Balart, CBS Miami reported.

The reenactment is part of a lawsuit by the victims' families and the wounded that accuses the Broward County deputy assigned to the school of failing in his duty to protect the students.

Ballistics experts for the families conducted the test, firing up to 139 shots inside the three-story classroom building as part of the lawsuit against the families' primary targets: the school's then-assigned deputy, Scot Peterson, and his employer, the Broward Sheriff's Office, CBS News Miami reported.

Parents of the children killed during the mass shooting emphasized the importance of the reenactment to really understand the events that took place during the mass shooting in 2018, CBS News Miami.

Few have been inside the three-story building since the Valentine's Day 2018 shooting. The structure looms over the campus, locked behind a chain-link fence for use as evidence in last year's penalty trial for the shooter.

The 1200 building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. / Credit: Getty Images

There is broken glass on the floor, along with wilted roses, deflated balloons and discarded gifts. Opened textbooks and laptop computers remain on students' desks, at least those that weren't toppled during the chaos.

In one classroom there is an unfinished chess game one of the slain students had been playing. The Associated Press was one of five media outlets allowed to tour the building after shooter Nikolas Cruz's jury went through.

The shooting, which sparked a nationwide movement for gun control, traumatized the South Florida community. Cruz, a 24-year-old former Stoneman Douglas student, pleaded guilty in 2021 and was sentenced to life in prison.

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Not long after the lawmakers left the school, crews brought tables and ladders inside. Two helicopters hovered overhead. Cameras were placed outside and workers measured various distances from a mannequin head on top of a tripod and a door.

The simulation included the same types of weapons the gunman used. Originally it was said that blanks would be used. The judge said live ammunition will be used with a bullet safety device, CBS Miami reported. Former FBI agent Bruce Koenig, a ballistics expert for the families, testified that live rounds make a different sound than blanks.

Peterson, who worked for the Broward County Sheriff's Office and is named in the lawsuit, said he didn't hear all the shots and could not pinpoint their origin because of echoes. He got within feet of the building's door and drew his gun, but backed away and stood next to an adjoining building for 40 minutes, making radio calls. He has said he would have charged into the building if he had known the shooter's location.

Technicians outside the building were recording the sound of the gunfire, seeking to capture what deputy Peterson might have heard during the attack.

Families of the victims who filed the lawsuit contend Peterson knew Cruz's location, but retreated out of cowardice and in violation of his duty to protect their loved ones.

Peterson, 60, was found not guilty in June of felony child neglect and other criminal charges, the first U.S. trial of a law enforcement officer for conduct during an on-campus shooting.

The burden of proof is lower in the civil lawsuit. Circuit Judge Carol-Lisa Phillips allowed the reenactment, but made clear she was not ruling on whether the recording will be played at trial. That will have to be argued later, she said. It is likely Peterson's attorneys will oppose.

No trial date has been set. The families and wounded are seeking unspecified damages.

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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 3)  Sen. Chiz Escudero on Thursday said he suggested the filing before the Supreme Court of a petition for recognition of the foreign judgment of the arbitral tribunal in The Hague on the Philippines' maritime dispute with China in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) so the ruling can become part of Philippine laws.

In 2016, the tribunal created under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) largely ruled in favor of the Philippines in the 15 points it raised against China.

It upheld the country's sovereign rights in areas of its exclusive economic zone and continental shelf in the West Philippine Sea that are being claimed by Beijing.

It also invalidated China's expansive claims in the South China Sea.

Escudero said he does not agree with raising the WPS issue at the United Nations General Assembly but suggested the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) consider his proposed option.

RELATED: Senate adopts resolution 'strongly condemning' China's harassment, other incursions in WPS

"Walang ganitong uri ng aksyon kaugnay ng arbitral ruling pero merong parallel analogy ito sa Article 26 ng Family Code," he told a media forum

[Translation: There's no action of this kind in relation to the arbitral ruling but this has a parallel analogy in Article 26 of the Family Code.]

"Pagka ang isang Pilipino nakapangasawa ng isang dayuhan, at 'yong dayuhan kumuha ng divorce sa kanyang bansa, pwedeng mag-apply ang Pilipino spouse ng recognition of foreign judgment kung saan yong desisyon sa ibang bansa bibigyan ng epekto at bisa sa ating bansa nang hindi na kinakailangang mag-file ng annulment dito sa Pilipinas," he explained.

[Translation: If a Filipino marries a foreigner, and the foreigner filed for divorce in his country, the Filipino spouse can apply for recognition of foreign judgment to make the decision effective and valid in our country without filing annulment here in the Philippines.]

Using this analogy, Escudero urged the OSG to file a petition before the high court for the recognition of foreign judgment of the arbitral tribunal.

China, however, has repeatedly refused to recognize the ruling calling it "illegal, null and void."

The senator stressed that if the Supreme Court decides to recognize the arbitral ruling, it will be part of the law of the land "at hindi ito pwedeng labagin, parang isang batas na pinasa ng Kongreso, ng sinuman [and this cannot be violated, like a measure passed by the Congress, by anyone]."

"Bakit mahalaga yon? Dahil baka mamaya magkaroon tayo ng presidente na biglang baliktarin, hindi sundin o ibang gawin kaugnay ng arbitral ruling," he pointed out.

[Translation: Why is it important? Because maybe we might have a president who would overturn, disregard or make any action against the arbitral ruling.]

He said the definition of national territory in Article 1 of the 1987 Constitution is "generic and vague" which does not mention the WPS, but he said the country should not bother amending the constitution for that.

"Habang hindi pa natin nakukuha 'yon (making China recognize the ruling), e di gawin natin 'yong pwede nating gawin dito mismo sa loob ng ating bansa," he added.

[Translation: While we are still waiting for China to recognize the ruling, we should do what we can in our country.]

Escudero said he mentioned this option to opposition Senators Koko Pimentel and Risa Hontiveros before the adoption of the Senate resolution condemning China's continued harassment of Filipino fisherfolk and persistent incursions in the contested waters.

But he said he did not insist on including his suggestion in the list of options detailed in the resolution and was told the list is "now open, not limited, all options are open and not limited to merely the filing of resolution for approval by the UNGA."

Escudero also said he already relayed the option to seek judicial recognition of the arbitral ruling to some officials in the Department of Foreign Affairs, but not to Secretary Enrique Manalo, and some policy advisers of the president.
The American Academy of Pediatrics reaffirmed its support Thursday for gender-affirming medical treatment for transgender youth while also commissioning an official review of trans-related medical research.

During a meeting in Itasca, Illinois, the AAPs 16 board members reauthorized the academys 2018 guidance for treating transgender youth, which recommends physicians provide access to comprehensive, gender-affirming, and developmentally appropriate health care.

Though the board expressed confidence in the existing evidence supporting medical care for transgender youth, it also said a systematic review of research on gender-related medical treatments for minors could offer important new information.

Even though the AAPs guidance recommends physicians provide gender-affirming care, treatments like puberty blockers, hormone replacement therapy and gender-affirming surgery, critics have described the care as unproven and ineffective.

A transgender teen in Mississippi holds a supply of his testosterone medication on May 4.

A transgender teen in Mississippi holds a supply of his testosterone medication on May 4.

The board has confidence that the existing evidence is such that the current policy is appropriate, Mark Del Monte, the chief executive of the AAP, said in a statement to The New York Times. At the same time, the board recognized that additional detail would be helpful here.

The academy said it plans to issue additional clinical guidance and, if necessary, update its recommendations following the review.

The latest guidance will remain valid for five years, at which point it will be reaffirmed, retired or revised in light of new evidence.

Clinical evidence previously cited by the AAP suggests gender-affirming care has a positive effect on the mental health of transgender youth, who see higher rates of depression, anxiety, eating disorders, self-harm and suicide than their cisgender peers if no care is provided.

Despite the support of the AAP and the American Psychiatric Association, gender-affirming care for minors has been banned in 19 states.

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The AAP partnered with the American Civil Liberties Union to provide amicus briefs for several legal challenges to anti-trans legislation.

Writing about the AAPs commitment to patient care in 2022, Dr. Lee Savio Beers, a past president of the academy, said, As pediatricians, we will continue to speak up and advocate for our patients.

We also want transgender and gender-diverse youth to know that not only do we care for them, we care about them, we value them and we will do all we can to ensure they have access to the care they need and deserve.

Related...
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday credited the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol for laying "the foundation" to Special Counsel Jack Smith's indictment of former President Donald Trump.

"The courageous Members of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack knew the evidence and they knew the law," Pelosi said in a tweet.

"The Committees patriotic work laid the foundation to this historic moment. No one is above the law  not even a former President of the United States," she said.

The 45th president pleaded not guilty to charges related to his alleged role in the Capitol riot during his arraignment proceedings in federal court in Washington, D.C., on Thursday.

TRUMP PLEADS 'NOT GUILTY' TO CHARGES STEMMING FROM SPECIAL COUNSEL'S JAN 6 PROBE

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi praised the House Jan. 6 Committee after former President Donald Trump's arraignment on Thursday.

Trump, the 2024 GOP front-runner, is charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States , conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

Other Democrats weighed in after Trump's court appearance, including the ranking member on the House Rules Committee, Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., who said, "The First Amendment protects lies  and even liars. But it doesn't protect criminal activity."

"It certainly doesn't shield Trump from liability for engaging in an illegal conspiracy to throw out the lawful election results just because he didn't like them," he said.

TRUMP INDICTED ON CHARGES OUT OF SPECIAL COUNSEL PROBE INTO JAN 6

Former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges related to the 2020 election.

The indictment comes out of Smith's investigation into whether Trump or other officials and entities interfered with the peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 presidential election , including the certification of the Electoral College vote on Jan. 6, 2021.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya presided over Thursday's proceedings. Judge Tanya Chutkan will preside over the trial. Chutkan, a former assistant public defender before her appointment to the bench by former President Barack Obama, has handled several cases involving people who entered the Capitol on Jan. 6.

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READ IT: FULL INDICTMENT AGAINST TRUMP

Former President Donald Trump speaks at the Adler Theatre in Davenport, Iowa, on March 13, 2023.

DC JUDGE ASSIGNED TO TRUMP JAN 6 CASE LABELED 'TOUGHEST PUNISHER' IN CAPITOL RIOT CASES

Before departing the nation's capital for his home in Bedminster, New Jersey, Trump gave a brief statement to the media.

"This is a very sad day for America," said Trump. "And it was also very sad driving through Washington, D.C. and seeing the filth, and the decay, and all of the broken buildings and walls and the graffiti. This is not the place that I left. It's a very sad thing to see it."

"When you look at what's happening, this is a persecution of a political opponent. This was never supposed to happen in America. This is the persecution of the person that's leading by very, very substantial numbers in the Republican primary and leading Biden by a lot. So, if you can't beat them, you persecute them or you prosecute them. We can't let this happen in America," he said.

Fox News Digital's Brooke Singman and Houston Keene contributed to this report.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said that former president Donald Trump exuded no bravado or confidence as he appeared in Washington DC for his arraignment on federal charges this week.

Ms Pelosi led the House of Representatives during both of Mr Trumps impeachments, first for his attempt to condition aid to Ukraine on newly elected President Volodymyr Zelensky investigating Joe Bidens son Hunter, and then in 2021 for his actions during the January 6 insurrection.

Mr Trump appeared at the E Barrett Prettyman Courthouse on Thursday and pleaded not guilty to four charges stemming from his attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.

During his arraignment, Mr Trump appeared to stumble over his words when asked to state his full name and appeared rather sombre compared to his other arraignments in New York and Miami.

Ms Pelosi, who stepped aside from Democratic House leadership earlier this year after Republicans won the majority in the House of Representatives, told Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC that Mr Trump lacked the confidence and bravado usually associated with the ex-president.

I wasnt in the courtroom, of course, but when I saw Trump coming out of his car and this or that, I saw a scared puppy, Ms Pelosi said on Friday. He looked very, very, very concerned about the fate. I didn't see any bravado or confidence or anything like that. He knows the truth, that he lost the election and now he has to face the music.

Ms Pelosi has largely avoided discussing the former president since he left office. During her farewell address as House speaker, she mentioned her work with former presidents George W Bush, a Republican, and Barack Obama, a Democrat, as well as President Joe Biden. But she did not mention Mr Trump.

When the indictment was unsealed on Tuesday, Ms Pelosi credited the work of the January 6 select committee that commenced under her speakership for leading to the indictment.

Now, following the Justice Departments further investigation, a federal grand jury has indicted the former President, she said. As this case proceeds through the courts, justice must be done according to the facts and the law.
The Pensacola Police Department has made four arrests in the recent antisemitic vandalism spree throughout the city.

Officers arrested four teenagers as suspects who allegedly threw antisemitic language-covered bricks into two Jewish centers and covered additional local buildings with antisemitic graffiti.

Here are their charges:

17-year-old male: Seven counts of felony criminal mischief enhanced to a hate crime, one count of misdemeanor criminal mischief and one count of felony trespassing in a construction zone.

15-year-old male: Seven counts of felony criminal mischief enhanced to a hate crime, one count of misdemeanor criminal mischief and one count of felony trespassing in a construction zone.

16-year-old male: Four counts of felony criminal mischief enhanced to a hate crime and one count of trespassing in a construction zone.

Kessler Alexander Ferry, 18: One count of felony criminal mischief enhanced to a hate crime.

The extra hard work of investigators and many others in the Pensacola Police Department paid off today," PPD Chief Eric Randall said in the release. "We hope that these arrests can bring comfort and closure not only to those in our Jewish community, but to all citizens of this great city.

Mayor D.C. Reeves also added that "we will not tolerate hate crimes in the city of Pensacola."

Temple Beth El vandalism: Pensacola Jewish temple hit with bricks in fourth antisemitic incident in 2 weeks

Chabad Jewish Center incident: Swastika-covered brick hurled through window of Pensacola's Chabad Jewish Center

Additional arrests in the case are possible, the release notes.

There have been a slew of antisemitic vandalism incidents throughout the city of Pensacola and Escambia County, including three separate incidents in two days.

Thursday night the Pensacola Liberation Center had antisemitic symbols spray-painted across its building, according to representative Deshawn McKenzie, and members began cleaning it up Thursday. McKenzie told the News Journal that the building is meant as a community space for members of the Party for Socialism and Liberation.

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"We stand in solidarity with the Jewish Community Center and Muslim Community Center," he told the News Journal. "We stand against antisemitism."

Multiple Jewish centers and an Islamic center have been vandalized in recent days and weeks, including the Al-Islam Dawah Center Wednesday night, according to PPD spokesperson Mike Wood. Members found antisemitic spray paint on the front door of the center.

On July 28, two bricks were thrown through a bathroom window of Temple Beth El, and on July 21 a brick with swastikas, No Jews" and WLM, or White Lives Matter, scribbled on it was thrown through the window of Chabad Jewish Center while two visiting rabbis were preparing dinner in the kitchen.

Escambia County Sheriff's Office spokesperson told the News Journal they responded to an antisemitic incident at the Pensacola Navy Lodge Thursday night. Further information was not released.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Pensacola teens arrested for alleged antisemitic graffiti, vandalism
Passengers on the Magnum XL-200 roller coaster at Ohio's Cedar Point amusement park. Denise Panyik-Dale via Getty Images

Passengers had to disembark from the top of a roller coaster after it broke down half way.

"My legs are still sore from the walk down the stairs," a passenger told television station WTVG.

A representative for the amusement park, Cedar Point said it was a "standard ride stoppage."

Passengers were forced to climb down from the top of an Ohio amusement park's roller coaster on Monday after it broke down midway through the ride.

"As it was going up, everything was normal until about the top, it just stopped," park visitor Tony Cafego, who recorded a video of the incident, told Ohio television station WTVG.

Cafego told WTVG that the passengers were left stranded on the Cedar Point amusement park's Magnum XL-200 roller coaster for around 25 minutes before staff evacuated them.

Cafego's photographs and video of the incident showed the stalled roller coaster halted at a steep incline, and passengers being guided down the staircase by Cedar Point staff. According to Cedar Point's website, the ride has a height of 205 feet.

"The hardest part was trying to get out of your seat because you are at such an angle," said Cafego's wife, Laina, who was on the ride with her son.

"My legs are still sore from the walk down the stairs. It's because you truly are, really making sure that every step you're hitting it," Laina Cafego told WTVG.

Cedar Point communications director Tony Clark told Fox News Digital that passengers had to be evacuated due to a "standard ride stoppage."

This is not the first time people have had a bad time on a roller coaster at Cedar Point. On July 22, a passenger riding Cedar Point's Maverick roller coaster was left with a concussion after being struck by another passenger's flying phone. And in 2018, a power outage to the Sandusky park left people stranded on their rides for two hours  some on the 300-foot-fall Millennium Force roller coaster.

Representatives for Cedar Point did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider sent outside regular business hours.

Read the original article on Insider
U.S. forces are on high alert in the Persian Gulf. As Tehran attempts to seize merchant ships in the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. is sending warships, fighter jets and even considering stationing armed troops aboard civilian vessels to protect mariners.

Yet two of the top senior officers overseeing the escalating situation arent where they're supposed to be.

Let me be clear, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Friday, in our dangerous world, the security of the United States demands orderly and prompt transitions of our confirmed military leaders.

He was referring to the promotions blockade put into place by Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville, which has already jammed up the transfer of responsibility for two members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, with more problems to come. The promotions standoff is also affecting the military command structure in the Middle East, just as tensions in that part of the world are flaring up.

The delay, which Tuberville put in place in protest of the Pentagons policy of paying the travel expenses of service members who seek abortions, is expected to stretch at least into September, and perhaps longer, as both sides refuse to give in.



In the Middle East, the stalemate is keeping Lt. Gen. Gregory Guillot, the No. 2 at U.S. Central Command, from becoming the new head of U.S. Northern Command, a job that oversees the protection of the U.S. homeland.

Guillots nominated replacement is Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of all naval forces in Central Command, also known as 5th Fleet. While Cooper is forced to stay put, his would-be replacement, Rear Adm. George Wikoff, cant take over the top naval job in the Gulf. Meanwhile, Coopers deputy, Capt. Joshua Lasky, cant be promoted to rear admiral due to the blockade, even though hes the No. 2 officer for all of 5th Fleet.

U.S. officials say the logjam hasnt affected operations at Central Command or at 5th Fleet, which still benefits from having experienced leaders such as Guillot and Cooper. But Cooper is in a tight spot: He cant leave the region because of the optics of leaving the command without an admiral in charge.

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It's awkward. It's not helpful. It's inappropriate, and ultimately, it does detract over the longterm from our combat readiness, said retired Vice Adm. John Miller, former commander of 5th Fleet. A lot of people that are on active duty won't say that because it's difficult for them to say. But thats just wrong.

A spokesperson for 5th Fleet declined to comment on the impact of Tubervilles holds on the command.

Austin and other Pentagon leaders have repeatedly condemned the hold, particularly after the heads of the Marine Corps and the Army retired this summer without a confirmed replacement in place. Austin issued a memo this week providing the force with some strategies to lessen the fallout of the blockade, including allowing officers to serve in their positions in an acting capacity.

This unprecedented, across-the-board hold is having a cascading effect, increasingly hindering the normal operations of this Department and undermining both our military readiness and our national security, Austin wrote in the memo, which POLITICO obtained. CNN first reported the memo.

In the Middle East, the 5th Fleet is, for the first time, readying teams of armed sailors and Marines to embark on commercial ships transiting the Strait, according to a U.S. official who, like others interviewed for this story, was granted anonymity to discuss sensitive operational plans. The Associated Press first reported that the U.S. was considering the move.



Since May, the Pentagon has deployed additional warships and fighter jets, including the stealthy F-35, to the area to protect shipping.

The muscular moves are in response to a rise this year in Tehrans attempts to seize commercial vessels. The July 5 attempted seizure of two oil tankers off Oman, in which Iranian forces fired on and struck one of them, the Richmond Voyager, was a huge escalation, the U.S. official said. The Iranian vessels fled after the arrival of the destroyer USS McFaul.

But that was only one in a spate of incidents since the spring that have left U.S. officials increasingly concerned about the threat to the Strait, through which passes more than a fifth of the worlds crude oil. On June 4, three Iranian fast-attack boats harassed a merchant vessel, forcing U.S. and British warships to respond. In May, Irans Revolutionary Guard Corps seized the oil tanker Niovi, which was traveling from Dubai to the United Arab Emirates Fujairah port. In April, Tehran similarly seized the oil tanker Advantage Sweet.

Pentagon spokesperson Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder declined to comment on the most recent move to put armed U.S. troops on commercial ships. But he said the Pentagon has increased its presence and stepped up its patrols in the region to respond quicker to any potential provocations and to deter any type of Iranian aggression.

We're doing this as part of a coalition in the region, to ensure that the Strait of Hormuz remains open, that there's freedom of navigation, and that we're deterring any type of maligned activity, Ryder told reporters Thursday.

While the policy decision to put armed American forces on commercial ships under threat in the Strait has been made  and the U.S. has received interest from a number of companies in the region  the teams wont embark until they are invited to do so, according to the U.S. official. Cooper has made the option known to shipping representatives in recent secure video conversations, the official said.



But the decision to embark wont be made lightly, the official said, noting that the U.S. must determine the vessel is at high risk. Vessels have to meet certain criteria to qualify, including factors such as what country the ship is flagged, the composition of the crew, the origin, destination and cargo.

Roughly 100 sailors and Marines from the 26th Expeditionary Unit arrived about a week ago in Bahrain to train for the mission, the official said. Forces from the Bataan Amphibious Ready Group, which is deployed to the region, could also join, for a total of at least 20 teams.

The intent is to deter a seizure before it even happens, the official said.

Iran does not want that confrontation with American steel. They cannot win, the official said, adding that the U.S. forces will have enough firepower to fend off an attempted seizure, and will further be protected by the American aircraft and ships in the region.

We're not putting them on there as sitting ducks, but it shouldnt even get to that point.
Mesa Police Department.

A shooting involving Mesa police officers left a man dead on Thursday afternoon.

According to a tweet from Mesa police, the shooting happened just before 2 p.m. near Mesa Drive and Brown Road. Police confirmed that a man, later identified as 20-year-old Ny'Kendreon Pride, was taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Police believe that Pride could be connected to a string of recent armed robberies in the area. According to Mesa police, officers along with members of the U.S. Marshals Service's Arizona Wanted Task Force were in the area about 1:30 p.m. to look for an armed robbery suspect.

The Mesa Police Department is working an Officer involved shooting at Mesa Drive and Brown. All officers are ok and suspect is transported to the hospital. Avoid this intersection as it will be shut down for the next few hours. pic.twitter.com/Ks7fC5J6rH  Mesa Police Dept. (@MesaPD) August 3, 2023

Police said Pride had a gun, but did not say whether he pointed the gun at officers.

No officers were hurt in the incident. No other details were released by the Mesa Police Department. It was unknown if anyone else was injured or what led to the shooting.

Police also advised that the intersection was expected to be shut down for several hours as the investigation was underway.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Man dies after police shooting in Mesa
The Phoenix Police Department, marking the two-year anniversary of a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into its practices, released a video Thursday updating the status of the civil rights probe.

DOJ investigators have visited seven times, and a dispute over how to provide a voluminous number of videos and documents to the DOJ has been solved.

Phoenix police have turned over tens of thousands of documents and thousands of hours of video.

The video explained that Interim Chief Michael Sullivan started his job during a squabble with the DOJ over how the department would share evidence and documents.

"The DOJ requested a lot of sensitive information," Sullivan said in the video," and we want them to have what they need, but it has to be done in a secure way."

First Minneapolis, then Phoenix? What's next in the ongoing Justice Department probe

Phoenix police follow FBI rules for sharing sensitive material, and Sullivan said that the investigation slowed for "a number of months" because the DOJ rejected some of the department's proposed solutions for sharing information. An agreement was reached in late 2021.

In the style of a TV news segment, the video explained that police had released more than 20,000 body camera videos and shared about 80,000 documents. DOJ investigators had participated in over 200 ride-alongs and interviewed more than 100 city employees.

The city promised continuing collaboration with the DOJ.

The DOJ probe was announced Aug. 5, 2021. Federal investigators are reviewing five key areas:

All types of force, including deadly force.

Whether Phoenix police officers engage in retaliatory activity against people for conduct protected by the First Amendment.

Whether Phoenix police officers engage in discriminatory policing.

Whether Phoenix police officers unlawfully seize or dispose of the belongings of individuals experiencing homelessness.

City and Police systems and practices for responding to people with disabilities.

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In Ferguson, Missouri, after the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown in 2014, DOJ investigators combed through more than 35,000 records and spent 100 days on-site. In Chicago, they spoke to more than 340 police officers and representatives of more than 90 community organizations.

Since the investigation began, Sullivan said the Phoenix department has begun to rewrite its use-of-force policy by letting the public weigh in. The review process allowed community members to submit online feedback for two weeks in January and 10 days in June.

Here's what's new: Phoenix police have made 44 changes to their use of force rules

Sullivan also described new training of Phoenix officers on "new less-lethal tools" and in de-escalation techniques.

As of August, there have been 21 police shootings this year, in which 10 people were killed by an officer. Two others died from self-inflicted wounds, according to police data.

"We need to be a self-assessing, self-correcting agency, and that's not just something that we say," Sullivan said.

"We are, and always will, look for ways to improve."

Reach crime reporter Miguel Torres at miguel.torres@arizonarepublic.com or on Twitter @TheMiguelTorres.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: DOJ civil rights probe of Phoenix police hits 2nd anniversary
As a longtime forensic accountant who helps consumer lawyers investigate big financial institutions, Jay Patterson has made a point to do business with a smallish local bank in his hometown of Little Rock, Arkansas. So he was startled in June 2022 when he received a bank statement from Wells Fargo showing $12 in an Everyday Checking account in his name, an account he didnt know about and had never opened.

Patterson immediately called Wells Fargo, a bank he has often scrutinized in his work, and it closed the account. But he continued to investigate, he said, learning troubling things that even he, a finance expert, hadnt known regarding how banks collect and disperse consumers financial data.

Other consumers, in public complaints to regulators, have detailed similarly mysterious Wells Fargo bank accounts, raising fresh questions, experts say, about compliance and risk management at a bank that has been rocked by scandals in recent years. In 2016, Wells Fargo was found to have opened millions of unauthorized accounts for existing customers to meet sales goals. Those woes caused the ouster of John Stumpf, the chief executive of the bank at the time.

Additional improprieties and systems failures have emerged at Wells Fargo, the nations fourth largest bank, requiring it to pay billions in fines and penalties to regulators. The bank settled allegations that it illegally repossessed military members cars, and it was found to have charged car owners for insurance they didnt need and paused borrowers home loan payments without their approval during Covid.

Last December, Wells Fargo agreed to pay $3.7 billion to settle Consumer Financial Protection Bureau allegations of consumer abuses involving 16 million accounts. Amid the scandals, the Federal Reserve Board, the nations top financial regulator, took the extraordinary step of capping Wells Fargos asset size. That cap remains in place.

Jay Patterson. (Courtesy Jay Patterson)

Pattersons case differs from the previous unauthorized accounts mess at Wells Fargo in one important way: those involved existing customers who had shared their personal information with the bank. Patterson has never been a Wells Fargo customer and says he has never given the bank access to his personal data.

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Instead, Pattersons Wells Fargo account appears to be a case of synthetic identity fraud  when impostors create new identities using a combination of real and fake personal information, such as names, Social Security numbers, birth dates and drivers license numbers. They use these new identities to launder money, finance terrorism or defraud financial institutions, government agencies or individuals, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office.

Banking regulations require financial institutions to verify customers identities before they open accounts to prevent fraud and money laundering. But as often happens in synthetic identity fraud, only some of the personal information used to open Pattersons unauthorized Wells Fargo account was correct  his name, address and Social Security number. Other information  date of birth, email address and drivers license details  were wrong. Thousands of dollars flowed through the account before it was shut. Patterson suffered no direct financial loss.

This erroneous information should have raised red flags at Wells Fargo before the account was created, experts say.

If financial institutions are not vetting customers identities thoroughly enough or as required under bank secrecy and anti-money laundering laws, then they shouldnt be opening the bank account to begin with, said Carla Sanchez-Adams, senior attorney at the National Consumer Law Center, a consumer advocacy nonprofit in Washington, D.C. Banks that allow accounts to be opened through synthetic identity theft are allowing fraud actors to use the accounts for illicit activity.

It will be up to a jury to decide whether the bank met its legal and regulatory responsibilities in the Patterson case, she added.

Amy Bonitatibus, a Wells Fargo spokeswoman, said in a statement that allegations of unlawful activity by Wells Fargo are without merit and that identity theft is a broad industry problem that the bank is working to minimize.

Wells Fargo invests hundreds of millions of dollars annually to fight fraud and strengthen our ability to quickly combat against criminal behavior, she said. When we learn of fraudulent activity, we take action and work to ensure theres no harm to the consumer.

Patterson is not alone in having Wells Fargo allow a bogus account to be opened in his name, complaints filed with the CFPB show. During the period in which his Wells Fargo account was open, more than 40 unidentified consumers notified the CFPB of similarly mysterious accounts opened by the bank in their names. Some said the bank notified them of the accounts.

Over the past four months, I have placed multiple calls to Wells Fargo asking them to close the account and to provide information to me on the circumstances under which the account was opened, wrote one Colorado consumer in June 2022 who said Wells Fargo had opened an unauthorized checking account in their name. One of Wells Fargos representatives actually told me that if I wanted to get any information from Wells Fargo, I should hire an attorney!

Patterson, too, remains in the dark about who opened his mystery account. Wells Fargo would not tell me anything about this account  when it was opened, who opened it, what kind of money went through it, Patterson told NBC News. They did acknowledge it was fraud in a letter a few weeks later.

It could not be determined how many unauthorized accounts like Pattersons have cropped up at Wells Fargo. In the 2016 scandal, bank employees opened 1.5 million bank accounts and 565,000 credit card accounts that customers did not request. Wells Fargo says it serves one in three U.S. households.

Investigating his unauthorized Wells Fargo account also introduced Patterson to Early Warning Services LLC, a little-known Arizona company owned by seven of the nations largest banks, including Bank of America, Capital One Financial, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo. Early Warning Services owns the Zelle Network payment system and collects vast amounts of consumers financial data to provide identity verification services to banks when they open consumer accounts.

Upon request, Early Warning will provide consumers with reports showing granular details of their banking activities. Patterson requested his record, which shows the phony Wells Fargo account was opened in March 2022 and that roughly $5,000 flowed through it. The Early Warning report, reviewed by NBC News, also shows three outgoing payments on the account totaling $15,000 that were returned for insufficient funds.

Returned transactions like these can damage a consumers credit standing and Patterson wonders if they penalized him. On Aug. 1, Patterson sued Wells Fargo and Early Warning contending that they stole his personal information and harmed him by reporting the phony transactions as his. Early Warning appeared to verify Pattersons erroneous personal data to Wells Fargo, the lawsuit said, and Wells Fargo furnished transaction information from the unauthorized account to Early Warning.

In a statement, a spokeswoman for Early Warning said the claims asserted in the lawsuit are completely baseless and without legal merit and we intend to vigorously defend this matter.

Bonitatibus at Wells Fargo said: The allegations of unlawful activity in this complaint are without merit.

Pattersons lawsuit seeks class-action status. Wells Fargo and Early Warning talk a lot about information security and the importance of protecting sensitive consumer data, said Theodore O. Bartholow, III, Pattersons lawyer at Kellett & Bartholow in Dallas. The reality is that Wells Fargo and Early Warning are more concerned about profiting from consumers private information than they are about protecting consumers privacy.

Given his work as a forensic accountant, Patterson said he is surprised the account was created. How in the world can a bank allow an account to be opened by someone who doesnt have all the vital information thats correct? How did it even get through? he asked.

Meanwhile, his mystery account appears to have lived on, even after Wells Fargo told him it was closed. Last October, three months after the bank assured Patterson the account had been closed, he received a postcard from Wells Fargo letting him know it had changed the address on his accounts in response to your request. The new address? The same one Wells Fargo used for the unauthorized account in the first place.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
A photo of two kids sitting on a cruise ship's balcony railings went viral. David Sacks/Getty Images

A photo that appears to show two children sitting on a balcony railing has gone viral.

The cruise has not been identified, but users said the incident occurred on a Royal Caribbean ship.

Royal Caribbean told Insider that breaches of its guest-conduct policy were taken "very seriously."

A photo of two children who appeared to be sitting on the railing of a cruise ship's balcony went viral, and people are calling for the operators to ban the kids' parents.

The photo, which was posted by the Carnival Cruise Line Miami Blog on Facebook on July 25, showed two boys in short-sleeved shirts, Bermudas, and socks, sitting on the railing of a balcony on what appears to be a cruise ship. The boys' faces were obscured in the photo. Insider was not able to independently verify the authenticity of the photo.

"Where are the parents?" the Carnival Cruise Line Miami Blog wrote in the post, adding that the photo was taken by Liz Pride.

The cruise operator has not been identified, but several users commented on the Facebook post that the incident occurred on a Royal Caribbean ship. Pride, who took the photo, also said the ship belonged to Royal Caribbean.

A Twitter user named Robert Dempster agreed, writing that the photo was taken on Royal Caribbean's Serenade of the Seas.

"The kids were on Serenade of the Seas and the photo was taken from someone on the cruise I was on, on Oasis of the Seas," Dempster said in a Twitter post, adding that the incident occurred at CoCoCay, Bahamas.

Royal Caribbean declined to confirm to Insider whether the ship in the photo was part of its fleet but acknowledged the incident.

A Royal Caribbean spokesperson told Insider in a statement: "The safety of our guests and crew is our upmost priority at Royal Caribbean International. To ensure the safety of everyone on board we have a guest conduct policy that all guests must adhere to. We remind all guests of this policy, and we take any violations to this policy very seriously."

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Dozens of Facebook users called for cruise operators to ban the children's parents from cruising for allowing their kids to sit on the balcony railings. There were almost 10,000 comments on the post at the time of writing.

"Yes the whole family should be banned from all cruise lines," one user said.

Another user commented: "Whatever ship it was they should be ban for life."

But several users defended the parents, saying that it might not be their fault that the children acted dangerously.

"But I wouldn't be so fast to blame the parents when we don't know the entire story. Because these kids are older they may have ran to go get something or one was in the shower," one user wrote.

It's not the first time passengers have been caught misbehaving on cruise balconies. In May, a video showed a man climbing between balconies aboard a Carnival cruise ship.

Pride and Dempster did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside regular office hours.

Read the original article on Insider
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 4)  More than 800,000 families or 3,028,040 individuals in the country were affected by the bad weather brought by Typhoons Egay and Falcon and the southwest monsoon also known as habagat, disaster management officials reported Friday.

In its latest situation report, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said out of the three million affected, 57,000 were housed in evacuation centers.

More than 1.1 million of those affected came from Central Luzon, followed by 918,000 from the Ilocos region. These two regions also had the most residents evacuated to temporary shelters.

The NDRRMC also said 29 persons died due to the weather disturbance, but only two have been validated so far.

There were also 165 injured and 11 missing persons, most of them coming from the Cordillera Administrative Region.

So far, the government has provided 248 million worth of aid to the families, the agency said.

The NDRRMC also said a state of calamity has been declared in 232 areas.

Some 111 areas still experience power interruptions, it added.

Over 56,000 houses were reported to be partially or totally destroyed.

The agency said the cost of damage to agriculture was initially pegged at 1.9 billion, with the livelihoods of 117,033 farmers and fisherfolk disrupted.

Damage to infrastructure was initially estimated at 3.6 billion, while the cost of other damaged assets amounted to over 9.9 million, it added.
A photo has been shared in multiple Bengali-language social media posts that falsely claim it shows a murderer in the Indian state of Rajasthan transporting his victim's body on the back of a motorbike in June 2023. But the photo in fact shows a person delivering a mannequin in Egypt in May 2023. The photo previously circulated in Egyptian news reports that said the country's interior ministry had investigated and found the mannequin was being taken to a location in the capital Cairo.

The photo, which appears to show a human foot sticking out of a sack attached to the back of a motorbike, was shared on Facebook here on June 3, 2023.

Its Bengali-language caption reads in part: "What a freak!!! News reports say that the girl's name is Vinita from Rajasthan. The girl fell in love with a fruit seller and left home 22 days ago.

"But her boyfriend killed her and packed her like this and took her away on a motorbike. Incidentally, the girl's leg slipped out. A motorist saw it and took a picture and informed the police."

Screengrab of the false Facebook post, captured on July 26, 2023

The same image was also shared alongside similar false claims in other Bengali Facebook posts here and here; and in Hindi by an Indian-based user here.

Comments suggest some users believed the photo shows a body being transported.

One user asked: "What's the name of the perpetrator?"

"Cannot imagine how cruel man can be," another commented.

Mannequin delivery

A combination of keyword and reverse image searches on Google found a cropped version of the photo circulated in Egyptian news reports in June 2023, after earlier spreading in social media posts that questioned whether it showed a human body being transported within the country.

One Arabic-language report published on June 2 by Egyptian news outlet Cairo 24 says the Interior Ministry had "revealed the truth" about the photo (archived link).

The report says: "On examination, it was found that the image shows a mannequin used to display clothes. The owner of a clothes shop requested a transport company deliver the mannequin from his store to the Mokattam area in Cairo on 27/52023."

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Below is a screenshot comparison of the photo used in the false post (left) and the photo published by Cairo 24 (right):

Screenshot comparison of the photo used in the false post (left) and the photo published by Cairo 24 (right)

The state-run Al-Ahram newspaper published a similar report here about the photo (archived link).

A closer analysis of the photo also shows the motorcycle's licence plate has Arabic script and is similar to examples of Egyptian licence plates shared on the specialist website License Plates of the Word (archived link). Indian licence plates use Roman script (archived link).

Screenshot comparison of the motorcycle's licence plate (left) and examples of Egyptian licence plates (right)

Police in Rajasthan posted about the photo as well.

In a Hindi-language "fake news alert" posted on Twitter, which is being rebranded as "X", the police said the picture shows a mannequin being transported in Egypt (archived link).

The force warned: "Strict action will be taken against those who spread such rumours."
After South Korea was hit by deadly monsoon rains in July 2023, a photo was repeatedly shared in social media posts that misleadingly claimed it showed South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol at a "party to celebrate the success of flood control efforts". But the photo in fact shows Yoon dining with local merchants during a visit to a major fish market in the southern port of Busan on July 27.

"These people are trash bent on destroying the country," reads part of the Korean-language caption of a photo shared on Facebook here on July 30.

"President Yoon, heads of ministries responsible for flood prevention and People Power Party leaders hold a drinking party to celebrate the success of flood prevention efforts."

The photo shows Yoon standing near a table where food has been laid out, he is pictured holding up his hand while the other diners at the table appear to laugh.

Text below the image reads: "While the people affected by floods shed sweat and tears to recover their homes, see how our leader acts with such immaturity. Truly deplorable!"

Local media reported that at least 47 people were killed during torrential rains that caused flooding and landslides in South Korea in July (archived links here and here).

Yoon has vowed to "completely overhaul" the country's approach to extreme weather from climate change, calling for "extraordinary determination" to improve the country's preparedness and response (archived link).

Screenshot of the misleading Facebook post, captured on August 1, 2023

The same photo was shared alongside similar claims on Facebook here, here and here.

Comments from some users indicated they believed it showed a party that officials had held to celebrate the country's flood control efforts.

One user wrote: "Celebrate the success of flood control? Are they all blind and deaf? Aren't they able to see or hear about all the people whose lives were devastated by the flooding?"

"How can they claim and celebrate the success of flood control? So many people have died and lost their homes," wrote another user. "What about compensation for their families and punishment for those responsible? And yet they hold a party to celebrate the success before the people's pain has healed?"

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But the photo does not show the president celebrating flood control efforts. It was taken during Yoon's visit to a major fish market in Busan when he dined with local merchants.

Fish market visit

A reverse image search on Google led to the same photo published on the website of South Korea's presidential office (archived link).

"President Yoon Suk Yeol and his wife visited Busan's Jagalchi market to encourage local merchants on July 27," reads the caption of the photo, which is part of a gallery documenting his visit to the fish market.

Below is a screenshot comparison between the photo shared in the misleading Facebook posts (left) and the photo published on the presidential office's website (right):

Screenshot comparison between the photo shared in the misleading Facebook posts (left) and the photo published on the presidential office's website (right)

It was also published in multiple local media reports, including here, here and here, which said it shows Yoon greeting visitors during a dinner meeting with local merchants (archived links here, here and here).

Video of the visit and dinner was published in reports by local broadcasters, including here and here, which show the dinner captured from different angles (archived links here and here).

Yoon's official YouTube channel also published a video of the dinner, with captions that say his meal was meant to "promote the consumption of local seafood" (archived link).

In a separate press release, Yoon's office said his visit and dinner were meant to "encourage fish market merchants suffering from a decline in seafood consumption" (archived link).

According to the press release, as well as Yonhap News, Yoon was accompanied by Busan's mayor, the country's minister of oceans and fisheries, as well as other top presidential office officials (archived link).

None of the reports included any mention of flood control efforts, nor could AFP find any other reports about Yoon or members of the ruling party attending an event to "celebrate the success flood prevention efforts", as of August 4.
Bringing the grand piano to his remote village required a long journey along dirt roads with the piano laid on its side, supported by piles of potatoes (CLAUDIO CRUZ)

Romayne Wheeler sits at his grand piano overlooking Mexico's Copper Canyon and plays music inspired by the mountains and remote Indigenous communities that he now dedicates his life to helping.

The 81-year-old California-born composer no longer lives in the cave where he slept with his solar-powered portable piano after arriving several decades ago in the Sierra Tarahumara in northwestern Mexico.

But he feels as close as ever to the nature and Indigenous Raramuri people who welcomed him into their lives, sharing their food, music and culture.

"I feel truly that all of this area around me is my studio," Wheeler told AFP in his stone house perched on the canyon's edge, several hours from the nearest significant town along winding mountain tracks.

"Every tree, every plant, every flower -- everything here has something to tell me," he said.

Wheeler's love affair with the Sierra Tarahumara began in 1980 when he was in the United States studying Indigenous music and a snowstorm made it impossible to travel to a Native American reservation near the Grand Canyon.

Leafing through a copy of National Geographic magazine, he came across pictures of the remote Mexican region and decided to see it for himself.

"It was like coming home," he recalled, wearing the Indigenous-style shirt and traditional sandals that he now prefers to Western attire.

"The people that are most revered here are the musicians. They stand in high honor like the shamans," he said.

The mountainous corner of Chihuahua state is part of the notorious "Golden Triangle," a region with a history of marijuana and opium poppy production as well as drug cartel violence.

- Raramuri philosophy -

Wheeler identified so much with the philosophy of the Raramuri -- also known as Tarahumara -- that he came back for several weeks each year before settling there permanently in 1992.

They were "people who shared everything they had, who considered the person that is of most value is the one that helps others the most, and contributed something positive to humanity," he said.

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When he first arrived, the Raramuri -- whose name means "light-footed ones" and who are renowned for their running stamina -- showed Wheeler a small cave where he could practice and keep his electric piano dry.

"My friends said sometimes with the wind just right they could hear my little tiny instrument all the way across the canyon," he remembered.

One young child, a neighbor's son, showed particular interest, so Wheeler taught him to play and sent him to study in the Chihuahua state capital.

Now Romeyno Gutierrez, his protege, is an acclaimed pianist in his own right who performs abroad and accompanied Wheeler on two tours of Europe.

"He's the first pianist and composer of Indian heritage that I know of on our continent," Wheeler said proudly.

Bringing his 1917 Steinway grand piano to the village of Retosachi was almost as much of an odyssey as Wheeler's own.

The dream to put a piano on a mountaintop was born in Austria where Wheeler, a keen mountaineer, studied and lived for 32 years, but where harsh winters made it impossible.

In Mexico, he hired a professional moving company to bring the fragile musical instrument from the western city of Guadalajara as far as it could into the mountains.

It then took 28 hours to reach Wheeler's home by truck along dirt mountain roads with the piano laid on its side, supported by piles of potatoes, he said.

"We went at a walking rhythm for most of the way because of all the potholes," he added.

- Helping humanity -

Despite the remoteness of his home, affectionately named Eagle's Nest, visits from his neighbors and the company of his dogs mean that Wheeler never feels alone.

"I feel more lonely in the city because of all the people around that have nothing to say to each other," he said.

He has 42 godsons in the area, one of the poorest in Mexico, where limited access to clean water, sufficient food and healthcare pose major challenges to communities that rely mostly on subsistence agriculture.

In the early 1990s, Wheeler decided to use proceeds from the concerts he performs around the world to establish a school, a clinic and a scholarship program.

"They're very good people. They help a lot," said one of his neighbors, Gerardo Gutierrez, who was a child when he first met Wheeler.

"They gave away blankets when it was very cold. And sometimes they got groceries for the people here," the 49-year-old added.

Giving back to the community has also given Wheeler a deeper sense of purpose.

"These years have been the most happy years of my life really because I feel like my music is doing something of value to help humanity," he said.

dr/jh/tjj/sco
A Belarusian spy has been detained in Poland

Officers of the Internal Security Agency of Poland have detained a Belarusian whom they suspect of being part of a Russian spy network in Poland.

The court has placed the suspect in custody for three months, Polish press agency PAP reported on Aug. 4.

The Minister of Internal Affairs of Poland, Mariusz Kaminski, said that the suspect is already the sixteenth person suspected of participating in the Russian spy network.

"Belarusian Mykhailo Oleksandrovych took part in reconnaissance of military facilities and ports. He also carried out propaganda activities in favor of Russia. He was taken into custody," Kaminsky wrote on Twitter.

The Polish Internal Security Agency said the 39-year-old Belarusian was operating within a criminal group, carrying out tasks for the Russian secret services.

Read also: SBU apprehends suspected Russian FSB agent they say aided capture of Sievierodonetsk

According to the intelligence services, the man worked in Moscow in 2008-2010, and later moved to St. Petersburg. He had earlier served six years behind bars in Russia.

He came to Poland in 2021 and contacted the coordinator of the spy network.

It is reported that he was regularly rewarded for carrying out tasks aimed at undermining Poland's internal security and interests, including through collecting intelligence on critical infrastructure, such as military facilities and seaports, and taking part in propaganda activities.

According to the investigation, the Belarusian often changed his means of communication and erased traces of his criminal activities, which had made his identification difficult.

The spokesman of the National Prosecutor's Office of Poland, Lukasz Lapczynski, said that after his arrest, the man was taken to the Lublin Department of Combating Organized Crime and Corruption of the National Prosecutor's Office. The prosecutor accused him of participating in foreign intelligence activities against Poland.

He was remanded in custody.

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Russian spies in Europe  What is known

Earlier, Moldova decided to expel a number of diplomats from the Russian Embassy in Chisinau. This happened after media outlets Jurnal TV and The Insider published an investigation in which they said that the Russian intelligence services were monitoring the Moldovan government through antennas on the roof of the Russian embassy.

Read also: Ukraine arrests Russian spy in Kirovohrad Oblast

It was noted that movements on the roof were observed especially often before presidential and parliamentary elections or visits of foreign delegations to Moldova.

After that, the Russian ambassador in Chisinau, Oleg Vasnetsov, was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Moldova. He was asked to clarify the situation.

The UK newspaper the Financial Times, citing a high-ranking Western intelligence official, has reported that after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Austrian capital Vienna has become the center of espionage in Europe. More than 180 accredited Russian diplomats are still in the city, a third of whom are claimed to use their diplomatic cover to gather intelligence.

In early April, U.S. news website Politico reported that Russia's foreign intelligence service and its military intelligence service were actively trying to rebuild their spy networks in Europe.

Read also: Ukraines spy chief says his words about killing Russians anywhere in the world were misinterpreted

In March, several Russian spies who monitored the supply of military equipment to Ukraine were detained in Poland. And on April 13, Norway declared 15 employees of the Russian embassy as personae non grata on suspicion of committing espionage under diplomatic cover.

It was also reported that in the spring of 2022, France expelled more than 40 Russian diplomats suspected of espionage.

On April 25, Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Bjorstrom announced the decision to expel five Russian diplomats.

Denmark, Italy, Germany, Austria, Macedonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia have also recently announced the expulsion of Russian diplomats.

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Polish security services detained a man suspected of taking part in a Russian espionage network, Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminiski said on Aug. 4.

The suspect, a Belarusian citizen named Mikhail A., was taken into custody for gathering information on Polish military facilities and ports. He is also accused of spreading pro-Russian propaganda, Kaminski tweeted.

This is the 16th person detained by Poland on such suspicions.

Poland previously arrested a foreigner for spying for Russian intelligence on March 27. The suspect was detained for gathering information on security measures around critical infrastructure.

Given Poland's steadfast support for Ukraine, the country has been facing heightened security risks since the onset of Russia's all-out war.

On March 16, Kaminski confirmed that Warsaw had broken up a Russian espionage network, detaining nine people allegedly preparing sabotage acts and monitoring rail routes to Ukraine.

The Polish minister said earlier that the espionage network had also been requested to conduct propaganda activities aimed at destabilizing relations between Poland and Ukraine.

Read also: Belarus Weekly: Helicopters violate Polish airspace; Wagner moves closer to border

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Police have charged a 23-year-old Palmyra man after a lengthy investigation determined he shared sexually explicit pictures and videos with minors on his phone.

On Wednesday, investigators from the Derry Township Police Department took Justin Waltz into custody on multiple charges involving minors. These include multiple counts of child pornography, unlawful contact with a minor, obscene and other sexual materials and performances, criminal use of a communication facility and corruption of minors.

"Related to the charges were the allegations that Waltz transmitted sexually explicit photos and videos to minors, some under the age of 16," police said in a release. "It is also alleged that Waltz had intentional contact with a minor for the purpose of engaging in sexual activity."

There were several victims involved in the crimes alleged against Waltz. The earliest report came to Palmyra Brough Police Department in March of 2021, when an at the time 14-year-old female said Waltz sent her a video on Snapchat preforming sexual acts for more than 30 minutes, according to court documents.

During the investigation, police received a video recording where Waltz admitted to having inappropriate contact with a 15-year-old female during a bonfire. Court documents show that another witness told police that Waltz said 16-years-old was the age of consent in Pennsylvania.

A search of Waltz's phone depicted inappropriate pictures of teenage girls, along with files of Waltz's performing sexual acts. A search of Waltz's Snapchat account also depicted sexually explicit photos, according to court documents.

The charges were a result of several months of investigation by the Palmyra Borough Police Department, Derry Township Police Department and the District Attorney's Offices in both Lebanon and Dauphin Counties.

Bomb Squad: Hand grenade found in Coleman Memorial Park disposed of by state police bomb squad

Pier Hess Graf: Disciplinary board: Lebanon DA shouldn't have investigated 2020 fatal shooting by troopers

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Waltz is being held at the Dauphin County Prison, unable to pay bail that was set at $5,000 as of Friday afternoon. A preliminary hearing is scheduled before Dauphin County Magisterial Judge Dominic Pelino at 9 a.m. Aug. 22.

Matthew Toth is a reporter for the Lebanon Daily News. Reach him at mtoth@ldnews.com or on Twitter at @DAMattToth.

This article originally appeared on Lebanon Daily News: 23-year-old man arrested for child pornography charges, police said
Austin police are launching a homicide investigation tied to a body discovered early Friday morning near a wooded area in Southeast Austin.

Shortly after midnight, officers responded to a call from a woman who discovered a man who was "distressed or possibly deceased" in the 4600 block of East Ben White Boulevard, officer Andrew Horne said at a news conference Friday.

When officers arrived, they discovered the man had "obvious signs of trauma" to his upper body. He was declared dead at the scene. Horne did not share details of the nature of the trauma.

Police called the situation an isolated incident and believe there's no threat to the public. The investigation is ongoing.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Police investigating homicide in Southeast Austin after body found
One person was rushed to the hospital with emergency injuries after an overnight incident in west Charlotte.

The incident took place on Freedom Drive at Alleghany Street just after midnight.

READ MORE: Person hospitalized following vehicle fire in south Charlotte, MEDIC says

A car at the location had front-end damage and what looks like fire damage.

Channel 9s photographer at the scene saw Crime Scene Investigators taking pictures inside and around the car.

READ MORE: 2 shot at gas station in north Charlotte

Its unclear what happened. Channel 9 is working to find out the nature of the injuries of the hospitalized person.

This is a developing story; check wsoctv.com for updates.

(WATCH: Home shot into overnight, striking a 9-year-old, CMPD says)




Mayor Erik Arroyo delivers his State of the City speech during the Sarasota City Commission meeting at City Hall on Monday, Nov. 14, 2022.

A Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation into allegations of improper influence at City Hall has been closed with "official documentation" expected next week, according to a city spokesperson.

An FDLE official was not immediately able to confirm the investigation's status late Thursday afternoon.

City Commissioner Erik Arroyo sent a text message to a reporter at about 3:30 p.m. Thursday stating: "Everything cleared with FDLE. No wrongdoing."

Arroyo said he had heard the FDLE probe had been closed from City Manager Marlon Brown, who had heard it from Sarasota Police Chief Rex Troche.

He later texted a reporter again Friday morning, clarifying that "it is up to them to tell us that its closed and no charges are being brought," he said.

"What I said before may have been presumptive."

Arroyo's Friday morning text followed an email from Brown cautioning interested parties in how they describe the outcome of the investigation.

"I would like to caution everyone that although the case is closed please do not state that there was no wrongdoing and to please wait until the State Attorney's Office releases the documentation," Brown wrote in an email. "The State Attorney's Office has only stated that no charges will be filed."

City spokesman Drew Winchester did not confirm the investigation's outcome late Thursday, deferring additional questions to the FDLE, but he did say that the investigation has been closed.

"We have learned through the State Attorney's Office that FDLE has closed the investigation and official documentation is expected next week," Winchester said.

It is unclear what this immediately means for the stalled luxury condo development called One Park Sarasota, which is being developed in The Quay along Sarasota's Bayfront. The development had been sidelined during a hearing scheduled before city's Planning Board after word that an investigation had been launched.

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One Park Sarasota-Ritz Residences lawsuit scheduled

An unrelated civil lawsuit between the developers of One Park Sarasota and the Ritz-Carlton Residences Sarasota condo board begins Aug. 14. That legal action will determine if One Park Sarasota can buy the air rights over a street that runs through The Quay development. The developer plans to build the condo building over the street if it can buy the disputed air rights.

"I appreciate FDLE's time, but of course  not surprised by the results of what is clearly a pressure campaign of baseless accusations and fishing expeditions specifically designed to influence votes at city hall," Arroyo said in a text message. "It's disappointing that residents serving their community have to endure these kinds of attacks. But regardless, I remain committed to giving everyone appearing before the city commission a fair shake."

The FDLE probe came after Deputy City Attorney Michael Connolly announced that Sarasota Police Department had opened a criminal investigation on April 12 regarding a meeting that took place between a One Park silent partner and a Planning Board member.

Connolly then canceled the public hearing on the 18-story luxury condo development.

The police department handed off the investigation to FDLE because the matter involved city officials.

Arroyo became involved with the investigation in early April after allegations were made about an event he helped organize that raised more than $100,000 for a charity, the Sarasota City Foundation, he helped create. Some of the donations came from companies or individuals that had business before the commission  including donations from the company of a One Park investor at a event for the Sarasota City Foundation called The Mayor's Ball.

On Oct. 15, 2022, the City Foundation held a fundraiser called the Mayors Ball. Tickets were $200 a person, and the event included a silent auction for trips to destinations like Ireland and Tuscany, according to the foundations website.

Arroyo said in May that the foundation has paid for most expenses related to the event, but it hasnt spent the rest of the money it raised, which was over $60,000.

The Sarasota City Foundation was created by Arroyo and a few other local residents to bridge the gap between public and private resources to meet the immediate needs of the Sarasota Community, according to its website.

Arroyo at the time the event was held was the city's ceremonial mayor. The title of mayor rotates each year among the city commissioners.

Meeting between developer, Planning Board member reviewed

The FDLE initially closed its review of the allegations in a letter to Sarasota Police Chief Troche in early May, but less than 24 hours later reopened the inquiry after more information was forwarded to investigators.

Jim Bridges, a Sarasota Developer and One Park partner, had met with Michael Halflants, an architect and Planning Board member, in March where they discussed a future project that Halflants could have participated in his professional capacity, according to Bridges.

One Park's development application was still being reviewed by the Planning Board, prompting Halflants to ask a city attorney about the need for him to recuse himself from the decision regarding the development application.

Derek Byrd, Bridges' defense attorney, said his client was not the focus of the probe after meeting with FDLE investigators in May.

The state law enforcement agency has not released additional information on the probe. The Herald-Tribune has requested all documents that would detail the Sarasota Police Department investigation and the FDLE inquiry.

Previous coverage: FDLE still reviewing alleged attempts to influence Sarasota officials on development

More: State Attorney Brodsky recused in FDLE probe related to Arroyo's Sarasota charity

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Update: City confirms FDLE probe closed, no charges expected in case
Police in Suffolk have charged a man in connection to a shooting outside of a Starbucks on July 27.

According to a news release from the Suffolk Police Department, 29-year-old Keaun Quante Barrett, of Portsmouth, is charged with attempted malicious wounding. The man had not been arrested as of Friday afternoon, police said.

According to police, officers responded to the cafe on July 27 in the 5800 block of Harbour View Boulevard following a report of a shooting at 10:18 a.m. A verbal dispute between two customers inside the shop escalated into a physical altercation that spilled outside, and one of the men shot the other.

The victim had multiple gunshot wounds after the altercation, and he was taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries.

Police said at the time a suspected shooter fled the scene on foot but was later apprehended by police. The next day, a city spokesperson confirmed that the suspect had been released, but the investigation was ongoing.

At this time, no other information has been released.
Rwandan president inaugurates Chinese-invested cement factory in Southern Province

Xinhua) 13:33, August 04, 2023

KIGALI, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- Rwandan President Paul Kagame on Thursday inaugurated a Chinese-invested cement company in Muhanga industrial park, Muhanga district of the Southern Province, commending China for being a long-term partner of Rwanda.

AnJia Prefabricated Construction Rwanda Company Ltd, a subsidiary of West International Holding, the Africa arm of West China Cement (WCC), which is a Chinese investment group listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange, has built AnJia Cement Factory in the Muhanga industrial park.

"Over the years, West China Cement and West International Holding have become key players in Africa's efforts to reach self-sufficiency in cement production. I commend you for your commitment to infrastructure development on our continent," said Kagame at the event.

"I had the opportunity to tour the Anjia factory, and you have set the bar high in terms of quality. We appreciate that. This state-of-the-art factory will contribute to Rwanda's transformation journey. We thank you, and I assure you that you have our country's full support," he said.

He stated that today, the growth prospects for Africa's cement industry look very promising, whereby a rapidly growing and urbanizing population in Africa, especially, is creating increased demand for housing and infrastructure.

"For manufacturers, this means more opportunities to invest in new markets and create jobs in our communities. Challenges, of course, remain, but they can be overcome through more cooperation," Kagame said.

According to him, to enhance the performance of the industry, it is essential to deliver higher quality products and shift to more sustainable manufacturing practices.

"I thank the People's Republic of China, West China Cement, and West International Holding for this significant contribution to Rwanda's development and Africa as a whole. Anjia is undoubtedly a good addition to Rwanda's manufacturing landscape. I only see successes in this, our strong partnership," Kagame said.

Speaking at the event, Zhang Jimin, chairman of West China Cement Limited, said that AnJia marks the company's first investment and represents the initial cooperation between West China Cement and the Rwandan government at all levels.

"The successful groundbreaking ceremony of the cement factory not only signifies the beginning of the production and operation of the project but also serves as a historical milestone for West China Cement's investment and development in Rwanda," added Zhang. "We will continue to expand our investments in Rwanda, with a total investment of more than 100 million U.S. dollars, thereby expanding the entire supply chain. Our aim is to provide high-quality products at a competitive price to contribute to Rwanda's economic and social development."

West China Cement Limited invested 50 million U.S. dollars to construct a high-performance cement grinding plant with an annual output of 1 million tonnes in the Muhanga industrial park, said Wang Xuekun, Chinese ambassador to Rwanda, at the ceremony.

"The visionary project will not only promote the development of Rwanda's cement sector but also cater to the long-term demand for high-quality cement in reservoir projects and infrastructure construction. It will create over 1,000 local job opportunities, significantly enhancing the construction standards of Muhanga industrial park and contributing to Rwanda's economic growth," Wang explained.

He pointed out that the factory will pave the way for Rwanda's self-sufficiency in cement products, reducing reliance on foreign cement imports and expanding the cement market in the surrounding countries.

Speaking at the event, Clare Akamanzi, chief executive officer of the Rwanda Development Board (RDB), said that China remains the top source of investments in Rwanda, beating other countries globally.

"Over the last five years alone, at RDB we have registered investments from China worth close to a billion U.S. dollars which will collectively generate up to 250,00 jobs for Rwandans. And that is a very good contribution," she said, adding that the factory stands as a testament to the immense potential of Rwanda's manufacturing and construction sectors and the viable investment destination that Rwanda offers.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 4)  Manila and Washington are ironing out the final details of their joint patrols in the West Philippine Sea which may happen in the next few months, National Security Council Assistant Director General Jonathan Malaya said Friday.

Of course meron pang mga logistical issues na nire-resolve. May mga ina-iron out na mga issues but I don't think these are insurmountable, Malaya said.

[Translation: There are logistical issues being resolved. There are some issues being ironed out.]

"I would think before the end of the year there will be a formal announcement by the DFA [Department of Foreign Affairs] and relevant authorities. Pero [But] as of now I can't disclose yet," he added.

Philippine Ambassador to the US Jose Manuel "Babe" Romualdez earlier said the joint patrols were set for this year and that these were not directed at any country. The move is expected to ensure freedom of navigation in the West Philippine Sea.

READ: PH-US joint maritime patrols in West PH Sea may begin this year - envoy

The government has accused China of bullying Filipino vessels during its incursions in the Philippines' exclusive economic zone.

Because of Beijing's harassment and dangerous maneuvers in the contested waters and its continued rejection of the 2016 Hague ruling that nullified its claim over the South China Sea, the Senate adopted a resolution condemning the global superpower.

Meanwhile, China has offered to conduct joint military exercises with the Philippines, though officials are still studying the proposal.

READ: PH to study China's offer on possible joint military exercises - AFP chief

Malaya said the Philippines would need a Visiting Forces Agreement with China for this to happen. Currently, only the US and Australia are permitted to send troops to the country.
SALEM, Ore. (AP)  For the first time in 72 years, Oregon motorists can grab a fuel nozzle and pump gas into their cars on their own, since a decades-old ban on self-serve gas stations has been revoked.

Gov. Tina Kotek signed a bill on Friday allowing people across the state to choose between having an attendant pump gas or doing it themselves. The law takes immediate effect.

That leaves New Jersey as the only state that prohibits motorists from pumping their own gas. A few countries also ban it, including South Africa, where attendants offer to check fluid levels and clean the windshield, with tipping expected.

Its about time. Its long overdue, said Karen Cooper, who lives in Salem, said shortly before the bill was signed.

Ive spent a lot of time in California, Cooper said. I know how to pump my own. Everybody should know how to pump their own gas.

Kacy Willson, 32, who has lived in Oregon her whole life, said she doesn't have much interest in pumping her own gas. She's only tried it a few times in her life.

Its kind of nice to have someone do that, she said at a Portland gas station Friday. I dont really leave Oregon very much, and when I do, I have to ask someone how to pump gas, and I feel weird.

When Oregon prohibited self-service in 1951, lawmakers cited safety concerns, including motorists slipping on the slick surfaces at filling stations subject to Oregons notoriously rainy weather. In recent years legislators relaxed the rule and allowed rural counties to have self-serve gas available at night. Then they extended it to all hours in eastern Oregons sparsely populated areas, where motorists low on gas could be stranded when theres no attendant on duty.

The COVID-19 pandemic labor shortage helped drive a renewed push to allow self-serve across the state.

We live in a small town in a large county and cant find employees to pump fuel, Steve Rodgers, whose community is at the base of the snow-capped Cascade Mountains, complained to lawmakers. We are paying top dollar and also offering insurance, paid time off and retirement benefits, and still cannot fully staff.

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Haseeb Shojai, who immigrated from Afghanistan in 2004 and owns gas stations in central Oregons high desert, also lamented the labor shortage and described how wildfires, with increased intensity and frequency due to climate change, are having a major effect. The state fire marshal lifted the self-serve ban during dangerous heat waves the past couple of summers.

Wildfires have been a factor in operating our business in the summer months, when it is hard for our gas attendants to stay for long periods outside in smoke and in heat, Shojai said. We dont know if we can stay open tomorrow or the next day or even next week due to the labor shortage.

A union representing workers at grocery store fuel stations in Oregon predicted job losses and called the the law a blatant cash grab for large corporations.

With over 2,000 gas stations in Oregon, laying off just one employee per location represents millions of dollars a year that giant corporations are not paying in wages, benefits and public payroll taxes, said Sandy Humphrey, the secretary-treasurer of UFCW Local 555.

Under the new law, there cant be more self-service pumps at a gas station than full-service ones. And prices for motorists must be the same at both types.

Still, opponents of the measure worry that it could lead to the demise of full-service pumps, depriving older adults and people with disabilities of that option.

I have some real concerns that we are progressively getting closer and closer to eliminating Oregons fuel service law entirely, Democratic state Sen. Lew Frederick said on the Senate floor in June before voting against the bill.

Brandon Venable, a service station manager, had urged lawmakers to reject the bill, saying some customers are careless and that attendants keep people safe.

I deal with many dangerous situations daily created by people smoking, leaving their engines running, getting in and out of their vehicles creating static electricity, trying to fill up random bottles and jugs, and driving off with the pump still in the vehicle, Venable said.

Others wonder if motorists who are now clamoring to pump their own gas might be less keen on doing so when they have to stand out in the rain, cold and snow instead of remaining in their warm, dry cars.

Republican state Sen. Tim Knopp, who leads the minority GOP caucus, downplayed safety concerns as he described being allowed to pump his own gas because he belongs to a commercial fueling cooperative.

I have yet to light myself on fire. I have yet to cause any problems whatsoever as it relates to self-serve gas, Knopp said during debate on the bill. So, colleagues, lets make New Jersey the only state in the country that has a law against self-serve gas.

The state Senate then approved the bill on a 16-9 vote. The House earlier passed it 47-10.

New Jerseys 1949 ban on self-service pumps remains a source of pride for some in a state where bumper stickers declare Jersey Girls Dont Pump Gas.

Since New Jersey has lower gas prices than New York and Pennsylvania, many drivers from neighboring states cross the state line to fuel up.

In 2015, lawmakers proposed ending the New Jersey ban, but the measure died because of opposition from the powerful state Senate president.

___

Associated Press reporters Michael Catalini in Trenton, New Jersey, and Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon, contributed to this report.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle reportedly did not receive an invitation for a royal family gathering to mark one year since the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

On 8 September, King Charles III is expected to commemorate his mother at a gathering in Balmoral Castle.

The day will also mark the anniversary of the Kings accession.

A source told The Sun that there has not been any outreach to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex regarding the royal event.

If they are not included in any of those plans they will find a way to mark the significance in their own way, the source said.

The Independent has contacted Prince Harry and his wifes representatives for comment.

This news comes after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were spotted leaving a celebrity hotspot restaurant in Montecito, California on Wednesday night (2 August), ahead of Meghan Markles birthday today (Friday 4 August).

One day after the event in Balmoral, Prince Harry is expected to be in Dusseldorf, Germany, for the 2023 Invictus Games from 9 September.

His wife will reportedly join him a few days later as they are due to attend a number of events before appearing at the closing ceremony on 16 September.

(Getty Images)

According to German newspaper Rheinische Post, Prince Harry will give a speech while Markle will help to moderate the ceremony.

All senior royal family members, including Prince Andrew, are expected to be at the anniversary ceremony held in Balmoral Castle, according to The Sun.

After the ceremony, the King and Queen Camilla will officially begin their summer holiday in Scotland on 21 August.

Britain Harry and Meghan Car Chase (Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

This year, the royal couple will break with tradition by not staying in the main Balmoral castle.

According to The Daily Mail, Charles will be breaking from his mothers tradition by not staying at Balmoral Castle itself, as the late Queen did, but staying instead at Birkhall  his private home at the estate.

One source told the publication the King and Queen will happily decamp to the main castle for official visits from prime minister Rishi Sunak and other political representatives, but Birkhall will be their main base until the early autumn.

Since the Duke and Duchess of Sussex stepped back from royal duties in 2020, and following the release of Prince Harrys tell-all memoir Spare in January, it is unlikely that the couple will be visiting the King and Queen Camilla at their residence this summer.
Princess Diana was seen in St Tropez holidaying with her sons and Dodi Fayed in the summer of 1997. The actual boat that sank, Cujo, is not pictured. Michel Dufour/WireImage

The yacht on which Princess Diana holidayed with Dodi Fayed is now at the bottom of the sea, per The Times.

The boat, named Cujo, sank after it collided with an unidentified object off the French Riviera.

Cujo has changed hands multiple times in recent years and was most recently owned by a wealthy Italian family.

The yacht where Princess Diana spent part of her last summer with Dodi Fayed has sunk to the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea.

The boat, named Cujo, sank on July 29 after colliding with an unidentified object off Beaulieu-sur-Mer on the French Riviera, The Times reported.

The Gendarmerie des Alpes-Maritimes uploaded a statement onto their Facebook page confirming that they responded to a distress call from a boat that was in trouble about 35 kilometers, or 22 miles, off the coast.

By the time the coast guards arrived at the scene, the yacht was already partially submerged.

"The distressed yacht is already starting to sink from the front and the 7 shipwrecked are just next to it in a life raft," the statement said. "The cabins of the yacht are already flooded, only a few suitcases located in the kitchen and on the deck can be retrieved."

The Gendarmerie des Alpes-Maritimes added that they would remain in the area to monitor pollution because the yacht sank with almost 7,000 liters of diesel in its tanks.

When Insider reached out to the Gendarmerie des Alpes-Maritimes for direct confirmation of the boat's identity, the organization told Insider "to search via Google."

Dodi Fayed, Prince Harry and Princess Diana were seen in St Tropez in the summer of 1997, shortly before Diana and boyfriend Dodi were killed in a car crash in Paris on August 31, 1997. The actual yacht that sank, Cujo, is not pictured. Michel Dufour/WireImage

Cujo made international headlines in 1997 when Princess Diana was photographed onboard with its then-owner Fayed, per Robb Report.

That summer, Princess Diana was also photographed onboard another yacht owned by Fayed's father, the Jonikal  which was subsequently renamed Sokar, per The Times.

Mere weeks later, the two of them died in a car crash in Paris while trying to escape the paparazzi.

Following their deaths, Cujo fell into disrepair and was decommissioned in 1999, per Robb Report. After a few years in storage, Fayed's cousin, Moody Al-Fayed, spent over $1 million restoring the boat before he sold it to a British car collector Simon Kidston for 160,000, or $175,400.

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Kidston subsequently sold the boat to its current owner in 2021, he told Robb Report.

"A young member of a prominent Italian business familyhe's 30 years oldhad seen Cujoin Lavagna, fallen in love with her and asked if she was for sale," Kidston told Robb Report.

Read the original article on Insider
By Luis Jaime Acosta

BOGOTA (Reuters) -A judge late on Friday granted Nicolas Petro, the eldest son of Colombian President Gustavo Petro, conditional freedom while he faces money laundering and illicit enrichment charges connected to financing for his father's campaign.

Petro, 37, was arrested last weekend in the city of Barranquilla with his ex-wife, Daysuris del Carmen Vasquez, who is being held on similar charges.

Prosecutor Mario Burgos told a Thursday hearing that Petro, who resigned as a lawmaker in Atlantico province, had said illegal money entered his father's 2022 election campaign, that it exceeded legal limits and was not fully reported to electoral authorities.

The president has denied awareness of any illegal activities and said he will continue with his administration's policy plans, but the scandal could hamper his pursuit of peace or surrender deals with armed groups and an ambitious reform agenda, which was already facing challenges amid the breakdown of the government's prior congressional coalition.

Judge Omar Leonardo Beltran ordered Nicolas Petro not to leave his city of residence, Barranquilla, but rejected a request from the attorney general's office to impose house arrest, which had been supported by the defense.

"The request for the imposition of a security measure is also accepted ... but for non-custodial measures," the judge ruled.

According to the charges, Nicolas Petro received money from accused drug traffickers in exchange for including them in the president's peace plans.

He has pleaded not guilty but said he would collaborate with prosecutors, who accuse him of buying properties valued at $394,000 with money that did not come from his salary.

Collaboration may lead to a reduction in Petro's possible sentence, which could be between 12 and 20 years in prison if he is convicted.

Beltran also decided that Vasquez would remain free while facing charges of money laundering and violation of personal data. Testimony in the proceedings depicted a web of passion, betrayal and corruption in which Petro was unfaithful to Vasquez during their marriage with her best friend, who is now expecting his child.

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The president said he was personally pained to hear allegations of campaign irregularities.

"No one can be above the law and justice must be applied in an impartial way, with due process and all constitutional guarantees," he said in a statement posted on X, the platform previously known as Twitter.

His government will continue its agenda, added Petro, who was part of the M-19 guerrilla group and came to prominence as a lawmaker noted for impassioned speeches on corruption by right-wing paramilitary groups and their political allies.

"Nothing and no one can stop the fight of an entire life against all forms of corruption, and the government will continue, without distraction, its work and commitment for a better Colombia," the president said.

(Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta and Nelson Bocanegra, additional reporting by Julia Symmes Cobb; Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb and Oliver Griffin; Editing by Alistair Bell and William Mallard)
A United Kingdom military veteran has been criminally charged by authorities in Bournemouth, England, for silently praying in a "buffer zone" outside an abortion clinic.

Remorseful for paying for an ex-girlfriend's abortion, Adam Smith-Connor said he prays for the unborn son he lost and for those who are contemplating abortion, doing so occasionally outside clinics. He said his silent praying is indistinguishable from someone looking down at their cell phone or waiting for a taxi.

However, because of "buffer zone" laws, local authorities issued Smith-Connor a penalty notice which detailed that he had been found "praying for his deceased son." The criminal charges carry steep monetary fines.

"It is unfathomable that in an apparently free society, I am being criminally charged on the basis of what I expressed silently, in the privacy of my own mind," Smith-Connor said.

WOMAN ARRESTED FOR SILENT PRAYER OUTSIDE ABORTION CLINIC NOTCHES LEGAL WIN BUT STILL FACES POTENTIAL CHARGES

" I served for 20 years in the army reserves, including a tour in Afghanistan, to protect the fundamental freedoms that this country is built upon. I continue that spirit of service as a health care professional and church volunteer. It troubles me greatly to see our freedoms eroded to the extent that thought crimes are now being prosecuted in the U.K.," he said.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

A hearing date is set for Aug. 9, when Smith-Connor is expected to plead not guilty.

Bournemouth's "buffer zone" covers roughly six streets around the British Pregnancy Advice Service clinic and is enforced 12 hours a day. According to a local report, the evidence used by the local governing body to prove that the zones are necessary include praying, sometimes while kneeling, holding rosaries, sprinkling Holy Water on the pavement outside the clinic and handing out informational leaflets about abortion.

The Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole (BCP) Council issued a charge against Smith-Connor on May 12, 2023 according to his lawyers with Alliance Defending Freedom International (ADFI).

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However, despite the BCP Council being legally required to notify Smith-Connor of the summons as soon as possible, his lawyers claim they did not do so, nor did they engage in any other form of communication with him until July 19, 2023  eight weeks after the deadline for charging him under the law and almost ten weeks after the charge was issued.

CHARGES DROPPED AGAINST UK WOMAN FOR SILENT PRAYER OUTSIDE ABORTION CLINIC, THOUGH SHE STILL VOWS LEGAL FIGHT

Jeremiah Igunnubole, legal counsel for ADF UK, described the scenario as a "staggering U-turn."

"In permitting the prosecution of silent prayer, we are sailing into dangerous waters regarding human rights protections in the U.K.," said Igunnubole. "Censorship zones are inherently wrong and engender unhelpful legal confusion regarding the status of silent prayer. Both domestic and international law have long established freedom of thought as an absolute right that must not ever be interfered with by the state."

Ingunnbole says that in other circumstances, the police and the courts have "made it clear that silent prayer is not a criminal act."

"And yet, BCP Council has introduced a rights-restricting censorship zone, which they now argue extends to a ban on silent prayer. The zone was created by the Council, enforced by the Council and now also prosecuted by the Council. This is a remarkable consolidation of power, making the council the judge, jury, and executioner," he said.

Smith-Connor's case will mark the third in a series of cases in which citizens have been tried in court for praying silently in their heads within abortion facility "buffer zones."

In March, charitable volunteer Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, and Catholic priest Father Sean Gough, were both found not guilty after facing criminal charges for similar actions to Smith-Connor.

UK WOMAN ARRESTED A SECOND TIME FOR 'OFFENSE' OF SILENTLY PRAYING OUTSIDE ABORTION CLINIC: 'THIS ISNT 1984'

Adam Smith-Connor, inset, is in legal jeopardy after silent prayer within a local government-declared buffer zone shaded in light red this map around the British Pregnancy Advice Service clinic on Ophir Road, Bournemouth, United Kingdom.

House of Commons in London, April 27, 2022.

Though being found not guilty of breaching of the "buffer zone" with her thoughts, Vaughan-Spruce was arrested a second time in March after she prayed silently in the same spot near the abortion facility once again. According to ADFI, six police officers attended the scene. Vaughan-Spruce was released on bail and still awaits a decision on her charge.

Five councils across the UK currently have active "buffer zones" banning prayer and offers of charitable help to women on the public streets near abortion facilities.

On March 7, the U.K. parliament passed legislation that will roll out buffer zones across the country, which ADFI says could be interpreted to ban silent prayer.

Ingunnbole said he is not only concerned about the nationwide censorship zones, he Is also "deeply concerned about the slippery slope effect" and broad viewpoint discrimination.

"Today, it's abortion. Tomorrow, it could be gender critical perspectives. Today it's within 150 meters of an abortion facility. Tomorrow it could be across the city center or the entire land. It's very clear that the justification that led us up to this point where one particular viewpoint can be banned, can apply to any viewpoint. And I think that's really the danger in allowing you know, this kind of criminalization in the first place," Igunnubole said.

The BCP Council did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
While second-quarter sales at Publix Super Markets rose by 8.9% compared with the same period last year, its stock price fell by 22 cents per share, according to financial results the grocer filed Tuesday with the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission.

For context, most grocery sector stocks have seen declines over the past year, including Publix's peer group: Albertsons, Weis Markets and Kroger.

Lakeland-based Publix is a privately held, employee-owned company and its stock is not publicly traded. The stock is sold only to employees and board members. The Publix board of directors sets the price of the companys stock and dividends.

On Tuesday, Publixs stock price was set at $14.75 per share, decreasing from $14.97 last quarter.

Downtown Lakeland Publix again asks to raze Citrus Mutual building for parking. This time, there's more support

Publix's stock dividends have remained steady at about 12% even after factoring in last years 5-to-1 stock split.

In year over year comparisons, earnings per share of Publix stock for the three months ended July 1 increased to 33 cents per share, up from 18 cents per share in 2022, the release said.

Publixs sales for the three months ended July 1 were $14.1 billion, which shows an 8.9% increase from $12.9 billion in sales for 2022, the release said.

Comparable store sales between April and June increased 6.2%, the release said. Net earnings for the three months ended July 1 were $1.1 billion, compared with $628 million in 2022, an increase of 74.7%.

The SEC filing also shows that while sales rose, operating income and cash flow were basically flat.

Publix equity securities  or investments in the stock market  rebounded this year after losing value last year, the release said. Net earnings for the second quarter on its investments would have been $1 billion in pre-tax dollars, compared with $896 million in 2022, for an increase of 16.3%. Earnings per share would have been 31 cents per share, compared with 26 cents per share in 2022.

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Publixs sales for the six months ended July 1 were $28.4 billion, an 8.6% increase from $26.2 billion in 2022. Comparable store sales for the six months ended July 1 increased 6.3%.

For the year to date, net earnings for the first two quarters that ended July 1 were $2.3 billion, compared with $1.2 billion in 2022, an increase of 87.6%, the release said. Earnings per share for the six months ended July 1 increased to 70 cents per share, up from 37 cents per share in 2022.

More: Publix will convert all 8 of its GreenWise stores into traditional Publix stores

As we enter the last half of the year, our associates remain focused on operational excellence and providing premier customer service, said Publix CEO Todd Jones in the press release.

Publix is one of the 10 largest-volume supermarket chains in the country with more than 250,000 employees. The grocer operates 1,346 stores in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia. Stores are set to open soon in an eighth state, Kentucky.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Publix quarterly report shows higher sales and lower stock price
A Moscow court has sentenced jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny to another 19 years of imprisonment, Russian media reported on Aug. 4.

According to BBC Russia, Russian authorities have convicted Navalny for what they call "creating an extremist community," namely the Anti-Corruption Foundation.

Navalny will serve his time in a "special regime colony," Russia's most restrictive penal institution, which is usually reserved for dangerous criminals.

The trial of the "extremist" case was classified, BBC Russia wrote. It began on June 19 and lasted only a month, with all hearings held behind closed doors. Navalny was charged under seven articles of Russia's Criminal Code.

The verdict announcement on Aug. 4 was broadcasted online, but the sound was so bad that the judge's words were almost incomprehensible, according to the media outlet. It was unclear at first how many additional years Navalny received.

Later, Russian journalist Vasily Polonsky cited Navalny's lawyer, who confirmed the 19 year-sentence, and a post appeared on the politician's social accounts.

"The number (of years) doesn't matter. I understand very well that, like many political prisoners, I am serving a life sentence. Where life is measured by the duration of my life or the life of this regime," Navalny said.

"They want to frighten you, not me, and deprive you of the will to resist. You are being forced to surrender your Russia without a fight to a gang of traitors, thieves, and scoundrels who have seized power. Putin should not achieve his goal. Do not lose the will to resist."

The European Union, the U.S., and the U.K. criticized the court's sentence as politically motivated and demanded the immediate release of Navalny.

Navalny was poisoned with the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok in August 2020, a move which is confirmed to have been executed by Moscow. After his recovery, he returned to Moscow, where he was sentenced to a total of 11.5 years in prison.

Read also: Navalny urges restoration of 1991 borders, reparation payments to Ukraine by Russia

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US officials are concerned Putin is prolonging efforts in Ukraine in hopes Trump wins in 2024, CNN reported.

Putin likely believes Trump in the White House would mean dwindling US support for Ukraine.

But whether Putin can maintain his war effort for another 15 months is increasingly questionable.

Western officials are increasingly worried that Russian President Vladimir Putin is prolonging his efforts in Ukraine in the hopes that former President Donald Trump or another Republican candidate will take the White House in 2024 and cut US funding to Ukraine, CNN reported this week, citing four US officials.

The US has not received specific information about whether Putin is factoring the 2024 election into his long-term plans in Ukraine, government officials told the outlet, but the coming election is nonetheless top-of-mind for national security officials and diplomats.

"Putin knows Trump will help him. And so do the Ukrainians and our European partners," one unnamed source told CNN. "So even though we haven't seen anything explicitly to that effect, you have to assume, I believe, that everyone is thinking it."

Another US official told CNN they have "no doubt" that Putin is "trying to hold out" until the next election, while a European official said they think allowing the war to wage on until the election is "exactly Putin's plan."

As Ukraine continues to execute its much-anticipated counteroffensive to slow and stunted effect, there are no indications that the war is slowing. Some analysts have projected that the conflict could continue in some way for years.

If Putin is waiting on Trump, or a like-minded politician to win in November 2024, that means he is planning on seeing Russia through at least 15 more months of war. But that strategy in reality could be logistically challenging given Russia's mounting manpower problems, the growing dysfunction within its depleted ranks, and Putin's own waning power following the Wagner Group uprising earlier this summer.

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Still, officials told CNN they believe Putin may see another Trump presidency as a saving grace for Russia, a likely safe bet given Trump's repeated defenses of Putin in the year-and-a-half since Russia invaded Ukraine. Following the invasion, Trump called Putin's justification for beginning the conflict "genius," and later blamed the US for the war, accusing American politicians of "almost forcing" Putin to invade.

Polls suggest Trump is the clear GOP frontrunner despite his myriad legal troubles, which included a third criminal indictment handed down this week. The former president has not definitively said whether he would continue to support Ukraine should he win, but he called on Republican lawmakers this week to withhold military aid to the country until President Joe Biden agrees to congressional probes into his son Hunter Biden.

"The election next year complicates things because the Russians think they have a light at the end of the tunnel. It encourages Putin to think that they can outlast the Americans because political support for Ukraine will be compromised if Trump wins," Daniel Fried, a former US ambassador to Poland, told CNN.

Putin's possible long-game makes ongoing US assistance to Ukraine all the more important in the meantime, officials told the outlet.

But a CNN poll conducted by SSRS and released this week suggested support for Ukraine is dwindling among the American electorate. Fifty-five percent of the Americans polled responded that they believe Congress should not approve more funding to support Ukraine.

The Biden administration, however, has no plans to stop supporting Ukraine anytime soon, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in comments last month, telling NBC's Meet the Press that Putin will be disappointed if he hangs his hopes on the 2024 election.

"If in fact, he is betting on American resolve to falter or fail, he is going to continue losing that bet," Sullivan said.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Opposition leader Alexei Navalny appears at Moscow City Court via a video link from his prison colony on May 24, 2022 (Alexander NEMENOV)

Russia's top opposition politician, Alexei Navalny, survived a dramatic poisoning attack in 2020 only to be sent to a penal colony, where he has been sentenced to a further 19 years behind bars.

Here are 10 key dates in his campaign to bring down Russian President Vladimir Putin.

- 2007: anti-corruption campaigner -

Begins buying shares in state-owned oil giants to access company reports and trawl them for evidence of corruption which he documents in caustic posts on his blog.

The same year he is excluded from the liberal opposition party Yabloko for taking part in "nationalist activities" including nationalist marches. Fellow opposition politician Ilya Yashin later said Yabloko kicked out Navalny because he challenged party leader Grigory Yavlinsky.

- December 2011: leads election protests -

In 2011, he sets up the Anti-Corruption Foundation, which gains a huge following with its caustic exposes about the vast riches amassed by Kremlin elites.

In the winter of 2011/2012, he leads huge protests against Putin's rule after parliamentary polls won by Putin's United Russia party that are marred by allegations of fraud.

- July 2013: embezzlement conviction -

In 2013, he is convicted of defrauding the government in the Kirov region of 16 million rubles ($500,000) in a timber deal while acting as an advisor to the governor.

Navalny denies the charges, claiming they are an attempt to silence him.

- September 2013: Moscow mayoral bid -

He finishes a strong second behind Kremlin-backed incumbent Sergei Sobyanin in the race for mayor of Moscow.

Navalny claims that Sobyanin bribed voters with food packages and rigged the vote at several polling stations. His calls for a recount are dismissed.

- March 2017: Medvedev 'duck' expose -

He publishes a high-profile video about the lavish lifestyle of then prime minister Dmitry Medvedev, which includes the claim that one of his estates has a duck house in the middle of a pond.

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The video spurs rallies in dozens of cities, with protesters carrying rubber ducks as a symbol of Medvedev's suspected ill-gotten riches.

- December 2018: barred from presidential election -

He is barred from running for president against Putin because of his embezzlement conviction.

Navalny urges Russians to boycott the vote which hands Putin a fourth term.

- August 2020: in coma after poisoning -

He is hospitalised on August 20, 2020, in Siberia and placed in a medically-induced coma after losing consciousness during a flight.

His family ask that he be transferred to a hospital in Berlin, where tests show he was poisoned with Novichok, a Soviet-era nerve agent.

He accuses Putin of being behind his poisoning, which the Kremlin denies.

- January-February 2021: arrested and jailed -

Despite the dangers, he returns to Moscow, where is detained shortly after landing at the airport.

Tens of thousands of people demonstrate across the country for his release.

In February, he is handed a two-and-a-half year sentence for breaching the conditions of a suspended sentence while recuperating in Germany and sent to a penal colony about 100 kilometres (60 miles) east of Moscow.

He urges his supporters to continue demonstrating, declaring "millions can't be jailed".

- March 2022: nine-year sentence -

His sentence is increased to nine years after his conviction on new charges of embezzlement and contempt of court.

He is transferred to a maximum-security prison around 250 kilometres east of Moscow, from where he regularly denounces the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

- August 2023: 19 years for 'extremism' -

A gaunt Navalny, who has experienced major weight loss in prison, goes on trial at his prison for "extremism".

The 47-year-old uses the trial to denounce the "senseless" war in Ukraine.

On August 4, the court jails him for an additional 19 years.

doc-cb/giv
In Russia, the Moscow City Court, sitting in a closed hearing at the Vladimir maximum security penal colony, has sentenced politician Alexei Navalny to 19 years in prison, and this time the politician is to be sent to a special-regime penal colony.

Source: Russian service of the BBC

Details: It is noted that the judicial proceedings in the "extremist" case were classified. They began on 19 June and lasted only a month, with all sessions held behind closed doors.

On 20 July, the prosecutor requested another 20 years of imprisonment in the special-regime colony for Navalny, who is already serving a nine-year term for fraud in colony No. 6 in Vladimir Oblast. The term was requested by way of a cumulative sentence in conjunction with the previous punishment.

Special-regime penal colonies are institutions with the strictest conditions of imprisonment. According to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, men sentenced to life imprisonment are sent there, or in the case of a "particularly dangerous relapse of crimes"  in Navalnys case, the prosecution relied on this second paragraph.

Navalny was accused of "extremism" under seven articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the most serious of which was on the creation of an extremist organisation. In this case the Russian authorities consider Navalnys Anti-Corruption Fund (FBK, recognised as extremist and banned in Russia) to be an "extremist organisation".

In addition, the opposition leader was accused of calling for acts of extremism, participating in extremist activities, creating an NGO that encroaches on the rights of citizens, financing extremism, attracting teenagers to commit dangerous acts and rehabilitating Nazism.

For Navalny, this is his third sentenced term in the last few years. After the court replaced the politicians suspended sentence in the Yves Rocher case with a real one, he was transferred to general regime colony No. 2 in the city of Pokrov in Vladimir Oblast.

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In June 2022, after the verdict on "fraud involving donations" and contempt of court came into force, with Navalny being sentenced to nine years, the opposition leader was sent to a maximum security colony in the village of Melekhovo in Vladimir Oblast.

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(CNN)  Two US Navy sailors have been indicted and arrested for allegedly sending sensitive US military information to Chinese intelligence officers.

One of the sailors, Jinchao Wei, was arrested Wednesday as he arrived for work at Naval Base San Diego, according to a statement released Thursday by the US Attorney for the Southern District of California. The base is one of the largest Navy installations in the Pacific.

The other sailor who has been arrested, Petty Officer Wenheng Zhao, worked at Naval Base Ventura County in Port Hueneme in California.

The indictment against Wei was unsealed Thursday and is separate from the charges against Zhao. Wei made his first appearance in federal court Thursday, where federal defenders submitted a not guilty plea on his behalf, the US Attorneys Office for the Southern District of California said in a statement.

The charges demonstrate the (Peoples Republic of Chinas) determination to obtain information that is critical to our national defense by any means, so it can be used to their advantage, Matt Olson, the Justice Departments assistant attorney general for national security, said at a news conference Thursday.

Prosecutors say that Wei, who served as a machinists mate on the USS Essex, allegedly entered into a handler/asset relationship with a Chinese intelligence officer beginning in February 2022. Machinists mates are a class of engineers, and are responsible for operating, maintaining and repairing ship equipment.

As part of that alleged arrangement, Wei sent photos and videos of the Essex and other Navy ships to the Chinese officer, the indictment says, as well as dozens of technical and mechanical manuals relating to the ships layouts and weapons systems. In return, Wei allegedly received thousands of dollars.

The indictment indicates that Wei received US citizenship during this period, with the Chinese intelligence officer allegedly congratulating Wei on receiving citizenship on May 18, 2022.

Much of the information Wei allegedly sent to the Chinese officer was stored on restricted-access Navy computer systems that Wei was able to access because he had a security clearance.

The indictment against Zhao, meanwhile, alleges that between August 2021 and May 2023, Zhao provided sensitive US military information  including operational plans for a major military exercise in the Indo-Pacific  to a person posing as a maritime economic researcher. That person was actually a Chinese intelligence officer, the indictment says.

Zhao, who was responsible for installing, repairing and servicing electrical equipment on US military installations, also had a security clearance, prosecutors say, and allegedly took photos of computer screens that displayed operational orders of military training exercises and provided them to the officer.

He also allegedly transmitted photos of blueprints and diagrams of a US radar system stationed on a military base in Okinawa, Japan, prosecutors say. Those documents were marked unclassified/for official use only, but prosecutors say that as part of his official duties Zhao was required to protect controlled unclassified information, and information related to the Navys operational security. He was also required to report suspicious incidents, the court filing states.

In exchange, Zhao received approximately $15,000 from the officer, prosecutors allege.

The case against Mr. Zhao is part of a larger national strategy to combat criminal efforts from nation state actors to steal our nations sensitive military information, Martin Estrada, the US attorney for the Central District of California, said during Thursdays news conference. The scheme alleged here is just one more example of the Peoples Republic of Chinas ongoing and brazen campaign to target US officials with access to sensitive military secrets.

Taken together, the arrests mark at least the third time this year that US service members have been arrested and charged with espionage. Another US service member with a security clearance and access to classified national defense information, Jack Teixeira, was indicted for allegedly leaking classified intelligence that he obtained as part of his job in the Massachusetts Air National Guard to the social media platform Discord.

The arrests also come amid growing concerns by the US military that China is making strategic strides against the US  particularly the Chinese navy, which has now surpassed the US Navys fleet size, CNN has reported.

We have entrusted members of our military with tremendous responsibility and great faith, said U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman of the Southern District of California. Our nations safety and security are in their hands. When a soldier or sailor chooses cash over country, and hands over national defense information in an ultimate act of betrayal, the United States will aggressively investigate and prosecute.

Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder declined to respond to the news during a briefing on Thursday, telling reporters, I think we have clear policies and procedures in place when it comes to safeguarding and protecting sensitive information.

The broader issue of espionage or the lack of proper handling of classified information is something as old as warfare itself, Ryder said. That said, again, we have a robust set of policies and procedures going through the situation that youre referencing in terms of the airman, as you know, we have done a very thorough analysis on steps that can be taken to further tighten controls and were working through that process now.

This story has been updated with additional information.

This story was first published on CNN.com. Two US Navy sailors arrested for allegedly sharing sensitive military information with China
LOS ANGELES (AP)  On Thursday, the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame announced that Keith Urban was among its class of 2023 inductees. The news arrived live from Columbia Studio A, just a block and a half from where the country music superstar stayed when he first landed in the Music City from Australia in 1989, hoping to make a name for himself.

Its truly surreal, Keith Urban told The Associated Press.

He said that if someone told him, then, that he would one day be inducted in the hall, I just wouldnt have believed it.

Urban spoke to AP shortly after the announcement to talk about the craft of songwriting, his forthcoming studio album out in 2024  the longest break he has taken between albums since the start of his career, heading back to Las Vegas for an extended residency and beyond.

Answers are edited for clarity and brevity.

AP: In your speech at the Hall announcement, you mentioned first coming to Nashville in 1989  does this award allow you to reflect on those early days?

URBAN: I still drive down 16th and into Music Row and its like time evaporates. And Im right back, driving down the exact same avenue to go to a songwriting session.

I was writing five days a week at MCA publishing over there, and on one hand, it was an excruciatingly tough time for me because it wasnt really how I wrote songs: sitting in a room with a complete stranger, a couple of legal pads, and acoustic guitars in a windowless room. That's kind of how it was done back then.

It was such a training ground for me, I guess, because I was kind of forced into an environment that wasnt natural to me. But I learned so much from it about songwriting. As tough as it was, its probably where I learned the most about songwriting.

AP: And this is an award about songwriting  particularly noteworthy, given the collaborative nature of writing rooms in Nashville and country music.

URBAN: To be recognized as a writer is extraordinary, because Ive always loved songwriting. When I started really writing poetry in school, and I started writing songs just out of a desire to not be stuck, always singing somebody elses song, playing in cover bands, and realizing This is going nowhere for me. I want to write my own songs.

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Ed Sheeran was asked, How do you write a good song? And he said, Start with the bad ones. And I think thats like the truest comment about songwriting. You got to get the really lame, mediocre ones out of the way so you can get to the stronger, better ones. Gosh, I wrote not that long ago with Tyler Hubbard on a song called Dancing in the Country, and that session was great. Im constantly learning about songwriting from my collaborations.

AP: What can we expect from your next album?

URBAN: Ive got another single coming out in the next couple of months; were trying to choose one of these particular three right now. Most of the album, Id say, is finished. I think Ive got one basically one more song to record from the ground up and then a whole bunch of others that just need to be mixed. I'm in the final stages of landing the plane right now. An album will come out sometime next year.

AP: How would you describe it?

URBAN: I started working on an album at the beginning of last year. I spent the better part of the year in and out of the studio while I was touring, only to get to probably February of this year and sort of look at it all and feel like it really wasnt a group of songs that was speaking to me. There was another album in me, I guess. It was a weird feeling. I actually never had that happen with a record, where I bailed on two thirds of it. I probably kept about three out of those 12 or so songs.

It was the worst feeling of like, Okay, its back to the drawing board. I got to get in there and start writing some songs. And so really from February all the way through to now, the whole record just took a whole different direction when I had time to write. It was the missing heart of the body of songs that Id recorded. And everything started to pop, you know, and all three of the next single contenders weve got right now, Im a writer on all three of them.

AP: Does fatherhood appear as a theme on the new album?

URBAN: Ive never written about that; it doesnt speak to me from a writing standpoint quite that way, I think, its in my spirit. I love songs about hope, wild longing, working through things, and just sheer, mindless fun. At this stage there is one song that will probably finish the album, it's called Break the Chain, and thats probably the most personal song, out of everything.

AP: You're headed back to Vegas for a residency in November. What about that performance format speaks to you?

URBAN: Theres a little bit more intimacy that brings a different connection, I think, between me and the audience. There's also the production that you can build, that doesnt have to physically be able to get in and out of trucks every night, so it liberates potential for what we can design. Thats one big plus for me.

And then there's the challenge every night. Youve got a lot of fans there, but youve also got a lot of just curious people, people that come to Vegas and theyre like, Okay, whos on whats on? What show should we go to? It's the job of getting these people to be a part of this moment. It takes me right back to the club days when you walk out on stage, and no one knew who you were. No one could care less that youre the band playing in the corner, and youve just got to grab everybodys attention. Vegas is a little bit like that for me. It's exciting.

AP: And I have to ask  there was a viral video you took at the Taylor Swift Eras tour where you accidentally caught Phoebe Bridgers and Bo Burnham kissing. Did you ever hear back from them?

URBAN: No, I never heard back from them. But sorry Phoebe? Sorry Bo? Question Marks? I felt terrible. Wrong place, wrong time.
MILFORD, N.H.  Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy would not say if he would have certified the election results like former Vice President Mike Pence did on Jan. 6, 2021, sidestepping repeated questions on Thursday.

I would have never let it get to that point, Ramaswamy said in response to POLITICO's questions. I would have never put myself  or been part of an administration, if I was in a serious position of leadership  to ever have allowed us to have gotten to that doorstep.

Pressed on whether he would have tried to stop Trumps efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, Ramaswamy again said we would have never been in that position.

Ramaswamy comments, coming the same day former President Donald Trump was charged with crimes related to his actions around the certification of the 2020 election, underscore the difficult line the Republican field continues to walk around Jan. 6. Candidates who outright denied election results were soundly rejected by voters in 2022, but Trump maintains a hold in the Republican base and has not backed down in his insistence the election was stolen from him in wake of the latest indictment.



On Thursday, Ramaswamy argued that a year of systemic, pervasive suppression of truth led to the riots on Jan. 6, casting the violent disruption of Congress election certification as the final domino of a domino effect that started far earlier.

He did, however, restate his pledge to pardon Trump if elected president. But Ramaswamy noted one exception in the classified documents case: He would not pardon Trump if he is found to have been selling secrets for private personal gain to foreign adversaries. Ramaswamy said earlier this week that hes suing the Justice Department for more details about that case.

Ramaswamys comments on Trump came hours after the former president was arraigned in Washington, D.C. Earlier on Thursday, Ramaswamy had stood outside the courthouse and cut a video demanding the truth about the charges the former president is facing in what he called politicized persecution through prosecution.

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Special counsel Jack Smith charged Trump with four felony counts: conspiracy to defraud the United States, witness tampering, conspiracy against the rights of citizens and obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding. He pleaded not guilty.

The only other Republican rival who has weighed in on the case is Pence, who is sharpening his rebuke of Trump. Pence is even selling new Too Honest campaign merchandise  a reference to the words Trump berated Pence with when he declined to go along with his Jan. 6 scheme, according to the latest indictment.

And yet, Trumps deepening legal morass is rarely mentioned in the Elks lodges and diners of New Hampshire. Trumps rivals are more commonly asked in the first primary state about their stances on Ukraine and various economic issues. The only question Ramaswamy faced about Trump from voters at two events in southern New Hampshire that played out simultaneously with the former presidents arraignment in D.C. was about how the two differ in policy and personality.

Later, after fielding several queries about Trump from reporters, that same voter said: You guys need to come up with better questions.
This color photograph of the test was taken by Jack Aeby.

On July 16, 1945, at 5:30 am, the first atomic bomb in history was detonated at what is now White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The Trinity test was named as such by J. Robert Oppenheimer, the first director of Los Alamos National Laboratory, and the central figure in Christopher Nolans blockbuster biopic Oppenheimer. Getting the science of atomic fission correct was hard workup to the moment of the test scientists were taking bets on whether or not the explosion would ignite all the oxygen in the atmosphere (it didnt). Important, also, was the difficult work of capturing the test on film, a feat that had never been done before.

Filming Trinity allowed the scientists to have a record of the test for analysis after the act. So much in an atomic reaction happens quickly, and any instruments that could normally measure blast details in proximity would be destroyed by a successful explosion. That meant relying on distance photography, and developing special high-speed cameras in order to capture in precise detail moments of the blast fractions of a second apart.

Photographing Trinity

Specialized cameras were used to study atomic processes in the laboratory setting, and then more advanced cameras were adapted to capture the test site. These cameras provided important and durable information, but the only color still photograph of the test happened to be captured by the personal camera of a civilian employee of the labs, Jack Aeby.

[I] aimed the camera at the detonation point, which was roughly 6,000 yards away, Aeby told the Atomic Heritage Foundation. He had four shots left on a roll of color film when he went down to the test site, and one of those shots ended up being the only color capture of the explosion. I released the shutter, it closed, I cranked the exposure down to where it was reasonable, at about 1,000th of a second, and fired the other three shots in rapid succession. The middle one, by luck, turned out to be just about the right exposurethe other two were usable but not as clear or in focus.

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https://youtu.be/WRjEhFf75uY?t=568

That photograph ended up being one of the first images of the Trinity test the Army released, and it was used by the researchers to confirm what they had calculated about the explosion.

They actually did one of the first yield measurements by measuring the width of the fireball and estimated time of when that was made and they could back calculate something resembling a good estimate of the yield. It turned out to be in agreement with the other estimates they had, said Aeby.

Beyond Aebys camera and his lucky shot, the Manhattan Project records that 52 different cameras were used to capture the detonation. Most of them were cameras used to record motion pictures, so many of the photographs that endure today from the blast are stills taken from film.

I was just sitting there with the camera running. Everything was operated from the central control station. Turned on. So I didnt have to do anything at the time but just sit there. The camera started running, Manhattan project photographer Berlin Brixner told the Los Alamos Historical Society. Brixner had gone with scientist Kenneth Bainbridge to set up the Trinity site and the photography stations needed, and was managing the cameras for the test.

Of course it was nighttime, I couldnt see anything. But when the explosion went off, that welding glass seemed to just glow white, intense white like the sun. So it just blinded me, so I looked aside to the left, the Oscuras Mountains were at the left, and they were just lit up like daylight then. So I looked at that for a few seconds, and then I looked back through my welding glass and I saw that the terrific explosion had taken place. Just unbelievably large explosion. My camera was just sitting there, but soon the ball of fire was starting to rise and I thought, gee, I better get busy. So abruptly I raised it and photographed the ball of fire as it went up to the stratosphere. I kept photographing it for the next couple of minutes or so, Brizner continued.

[Related: Survivors of Americas first atomic bomb test want their place in history]

Many cameras were set up at fixed locations, some as close as 800 yards from the explosion. To ensure that these cameras could work through the blast, they were set up in shelters, angled facing mirrors that were pointed at the blast. It was raining the night of July 15, and the rain did not let up until the early hours of July 16, so Brizner and a technician had to go and clean the lenses from water and dust to ensure the film worked. Most of the cameras worked, creating footage visible today.

Where can I see Trinity photographs?

Several collections of Trinity photographs exist online, with varying degrees of curation. Los Alamos National Laboratory, the great inheritor of the Manhattan Projects theoretical division, has shared an album on Flickr of test photographs titled Trinity to Trinity. This album includes Aebys color photograph, pictures of the mushroom cloud at time intervals from 0.006 seconds to 16 seconds, as well as pictures of Gadget (as the explosive device was called) before the test, and the Trinity site afterwards.

[Related: Watch a 1953 nuclear blast test disintegrate a house in high resolution]

Los Alamos National Laboratory is part of the Department of Energy, and the Department of Energys Manhattan Project interactive history includes an animated gif made from film of the first 0.11 seconds of the Trinity explosion. The Atomic Archive offers a guided slideshow of Trinity site and test photographs.

The Atomic Heritage Foundation has galleries of Trinity test footage, including shots of the specially modified military tanks used to test the soil after the detonation. One of the more haunting and unusual images of the blast is that captured by the only pinhole camera at the test, used by photographer Julian Mack.

The Atomic Heritage Foundations YouTube page also offers videos of the test. The test can be seen in black and white (embedded below, as well), color, and close-up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtKcoAC8iRA

Twice a year, the White Sands Missile Range opens up to the first 5,000 visitors at the site, who can go and walk around the Trinity crater. As part of the display, photographs of the Trinity test are mounted on the chain link fence surrounding the crater. For 2023, the Army expects a higher than usual number of visitors to the site.

After images

Nolans film leaves out direct imagery of the people killed by atomic bombs the US dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, though it does feature the audio from a filmed Manhattan Project report of the devastation wrought by the weapons.

The Atomic Archive has galleries of damage at Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and of Nuclear Effects on Humans, the latter of which carries a warning: These images can be quite graphic, and should be viewed with caution.

One way to view photographs and understand the attacks on Japan, which are inseparable from the test at Trinity, is through the stories of hibakusha, or atomic bomb survivors. A digital archive project, developed in 2010-2011, allows readers to click over digital maps of the cities, and view stories and images from the people who lived in them at the time of the bombing. Paired with photography from the devastation, the Hiroshima and Nagasaki digital archives offer a deeper perspective on the cities, beyond just targets on the map.
Three Richland School Board members have been recalled and will be removed from office in the coming weeks.

Thats according to new ballot results released Thursday for the Aug. 1 primary election.

Benton County Elections Division estimates there are about 400 ballots left to count.

While most of those are likely Richland School District voters, it wouldnt be enough to change the outcome for Semi Bird, Kari Williams or Audra Byrd. Theyre all trailing by at least 1,270 votes.

The official results as of Thursdays count were:

Audra Byrd: 54% (10,301 votes) in favor of recall, 46% (8,666 votes) against.

Semi Bird: 54% (10,338 votes) in favor of recall, 46% (8,633 votes) against.

Kari Williams: 53% (10,121 votes) in favor of recall, 47% (8,851 votes) against.

Recall elections need to receive 50%, plus 1 votes, to successfully oust an elected official.

Pending any extraordinary circumstances, the three must vacate their offices by the time the primary election is certified, which is set for 9 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 15.

Williams said the end of the recall was great news.

The recall has been so divisive and ugly, coming off the coat tails of an already difficult time during COVID. I am so looking forward to seeing our amazing community finally have the chance to come together and heal, she said in a statement.

The Herald also asked Audra Byrd by email Thursday for her response to the latest vote count, as well as about a Facebook post with her name telling Richland parents to pull their children out of Richland schools.

The post read in part,This is heartbreaking news for our schools and our community children. ... This will absolutely embolden our many indoctrinating teachers who already have been pushing inappropriate content on our students in secret ways. Now they have nothing to hold them back. Please do not naively keep your children in Richland School District. It will be to the destruction of their testimonies in Jesus Christ and any moral values you are teaching them in the home.

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Byrds email to the Herald did not confirm nor deny that she made the post but provided the following statement from her school district email account punctuated with a smiley face emoji: You suck. This is my full quote. Please do not say that I did not supply you with a comment. Love, Audra.

The Tri-City Herald also reached out to Bird about the election outcome but had not heard back by Thursday night.

In a Thursday morning email blast from his 2024 governors campaign, Bird acknowledged that he had lost the recall battle.

I will never regret standing for what is right and I will always keep my promises, said the email.

Bird has been resoundingly unapologetic for his actions last year, saying in a statement earlier this week that he would wear his removal from office like a badger of honor.

The county mailed out nearly 60,000 ballots for the primary election, with most  nearly 53,000  being mailed to voters within the Richland School District.

So far, nearly 19,000 voted on the recall issue.

Benton County voter turnout stands at nearly 36%.

The recall was the result of a February 2022 split 3-2 vote on the board to go against the states indoor mask mandate.

A group of voters who initiated the recall charged Bird, Byrd and Williams of:

Violating Washingtons Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA) by taking final action on a matter not included on a published meeting agenda.

Violating state law on masking at the time, exceeding their powers and responsibilities as school board members.

Violating district policies and procedures by failing to assure compliance with laws and policies.

The voters of the recall have upheld those charges.

The recall will leave just two elected officials  Jill Oldson and Rick Jansons  on the Richland School Board. But a majority quorum is needed to conduct any business.

Educational Service District 123 in Pasco is working closely with the school district and Attorney General Bob Fergusons office to come up with a timeline to appoint a Richland community member to the board.

Although shes been removed from office, Williams could still find her way back onto the school board.

Her seat is up for reelection this year and she appears to have survived a challenge from Benton County Republican Party-endorsed Aaron Riggs.

Shell face Katrina Waters in the Nov. 7 general election.

I am so excited to continue moving this district forward, Williams said. I will have a little over two months off of my official duties, but I will still be attending meetings and running a campaign to be re-elected this November so I can continue on with the hard work that we have started in our great district.
The Defense Intelligence Agency is inviting foreign officials to see debris recovered from drones downed in Ukraine and Iraq to show them what it says is undeniable evidence that Tehran is supplying Russia with a fleet of one-way armed aircraft for its war in Ukraine, according to analysts at the agency.

After having collected and analyzed debris from several drones shot down in Ukraine and in Iraq, DIA analysts are now presenting their findings to foreign governments, members of Congress and reporters to refute public denials by Iran that it is supplying Russia with armed drones for its war in Ukraine.

Iranian support for Russias invasion of Ukraine reflects a deepening partnership between the two countries and coincides with indications that Russian technicians are helping Iran with its space-launched vehicle program, which could aid Tehrans goal of developing intercontinental ballistic missiles, a DIA spokesperson said.

The aim of the briefings on the Iranian Shahed drones is about holding Irans feet to the fire and providing concrete proof that the one-way armed drones flown by Russian forces and often used to attack civilian areas are made and designed by Iran, a senior analyst told a small group of reporters. The DIA declined to say which foreign governments have received a presentation from the agency.

The analyst presented the remnants of drones shot down in Ukraine, including parts of a wing and propeller engine, and a largely intact drone found in Iraq. The drones looked identical, with the same triangular design, wingspan, fiberglass fuselage and rudimentary propeller motor at the rear.

UAV debris and components, released Aug.1, 2023. (DOD)

The evidence is clear and undeniable that Russia is flying Iranian-made one-way drones in Ukraine, the analyst said.

Although the aircraft were found thousands of miles apart over more than a year, the analyst said, the aircraft were virtually indistinguishable except for Russian Cyrillic lettering stamped on the tails of those found in Ukraine, spelling out the Russian name for the Iranian-made 131 drones, the Geran-1.

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The analyst removed a component from the drone found in Ukraine and slid it into a drone recovered from Iraq. It fits perfectly, the analyst said as he inserted a square antenna panel, like pieces in a puzzle.

The drones recovered in Ukraine and Iraq carried serial numbers in the same location with similar sequences, and the fiberglass fuselage contained the same honeycomb material  a distinctive feature of Iranian drones, the analyst said.

The drones found in the Kurdish region of Iraq were used in an operation last year openly acknowledged by Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which targeted Kurdish opposition groups, the DIA analyst said. An IRGC commander stated publicly that missiles and drones were used in the assault.

Irans mission to the United Nations did not respond to a request for comment.

Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has said Iran supplied drones to Russia but claimed that the unmanned aircraft had been delivered months before the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Russia also has denied using Iranian-manufactured drones.

Last year, the U.S., Britain and France demanded that the United Nations investigate Russias use of Iranian drones in the war in Ukraine, saying it represented a violation of U.N. sanctions. A 2015 U.N. resolution prohibits all countries from transferring weapons from Iran without advance Security Council approval.

The Shahed drones are relatively simple aircraft without cameras or sophisticated electronics and can be launched anywhere, following a pre-programmed route, the analyst said.

In Ukraine, the Russians rarely use the Iranian drones in combat and instead target buildings in cities to sow terror, deplete Ukraines air defenses, and damage electricity or water plants, the analyst said. The drones are launched in batches of more than 20 at a time, and the buzz of the drones propeller engine resembles the sound of a moped or a lawn mower, he said.

The striking part is their simplicity, the analyst said. Its simple, its cheap and its effective.

The drones have electronic parts that you can buy off the shelf, he added.

The Shahed-131 carries a warhead of about 20 kilograms and has a cruising speed of around 125 mph, the DIA said.

In June, the White House released a satellite image of what officials said was a drone factory being built east of Moscow with Irans assistance.

The plant, located in the Alabuga special economic zone in the Russian republic of Tatarstan, could dramatically increase the supply of these one-way drones for Russia, a DIA spokesperson said. DIA believes that the drones currently in use were manufactured in Iran.

Russia already has used at least 400 of the Iranian Shahed drones in air attacks on cities and civilian infrastructure, according to the senior DIA analyst.

As Tehran expands its capabilities and role as both an unconventional and conventional threat in the Middle East and beyond, it is more important than ever that we understand Irans military power and the threat it poses to our interests, our allies, and our own security, a DIA spokesperson said.

In return for its drone deliveries to Russia, Iran appears to be receiving technical advice from Russian engineers to bolster its ballistic missile program.

Irans support for Russias invasion of Ukraine coincides with indications that Russian technicians are helping Tehran with its space-launched vehicle (SLV) program, which could aid Irans goal of developing an intercontinental ballistic missile, a DIA spokesperson told NBC News.

In the past year, Russia probably has sent technicians to assist Tehran with its SLV efforts and some aspects of its missile programs, the spokesperson said. In 2022, Russia built and launched a satellite for Iran.

Last month, Central Intelligence Agency Director Bill Burns said at the Aspen Security Forum that there were signs Russian technicians were working on the space launch vehicle program in Iran and other aspects of their missile programs.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
President Barack Obama, who many anticipate will play a key role in the 2024 elections, set the blueprint for the Biden-Harris administration.

Its been more than six years since former President Barack Obama left office, leaving behind a historic administration that changed the trajectory of American politics and the way government works for the middle class and minority communities.

The legacy of Obama, who turned 62 on Friday, can be seen and felt within the administration of the current occupant of the White House, President Joe Biden, who notably served as Obamas vice president.

U.S. President Barack Obama, right, speaks as U.S. Vice President Joe Biden stands in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2016. (Photo by Cheriss May/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

If it wasnt for President Obamas administration, we wouldnt have a Joe Biden administration, said Svante Myrick, president and CEO of People For the American Way, a decades-old progressive advocacy group.

Not only did serving President Obama make [then-Vice President] Biden more popular, but President Obama was an extremely effective surrogate in 2020 on the campaign trail and again in 2022 in the midterms, Myrick told theGrio.

Michael Blake, who served as associate director for the Obama White House Offices of Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement and served as national director for the presidents 2012 reelection campaigns Operation Vote, said Obama set the foundation for Bidens 2020 victory  which included the most votes by any presidential candidate in U.S. history.

Blake recalled Obama saying after his reelection that his vision and legacy has been made complete because another generation of organizers had emerged. He added, Because of what happened in those two elections, we now have this incredible foundation of leadership that exists now.

The diverse House that Obama built

(left to right) U.S. President Barack Obama is joined by Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey, National Security Adviser Susan Rice, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and Homeland Security Adviser Lisa Monaco as he gives a statement in the Roosevelt Room at the White House Nov. 25, 2015 ,in Washington, D.C. Obama said the American people should continue with their Thanksgiving holiday plans and We are taking every possible step to keep our homeland safe. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

The Biden-Harris administration has been touted for being historically diverse, which is something former Obama White House staffers tell theGrio is credited to the equity groundwork laid by President Obama.

Alaina Beverly, who served as associate director of the Obama White House Office of Urban Affairs, noted that many diverse members of President Bidens administration served in the Obama administration at senior or cabinet levels.

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President Obama had the most diverse cabinet of any of his predecessors, said Beverly. Building that bench helped to make it easier for Biden to make the commitment and keep his commitment that he would have the most diverse cabinet in history.

Part of the way [Biden] was able to do that was by appointing individuals who had been allies or who had served in the Obama administration, she added. Folks who have been crisis tested, who had government experience and had the ability to lead.

Bidens achievement of nominating the most Black female judges to the federal bench is also a blueprint set by President Obama, said Beverly.

She explained, [Obama] had the most diverse number of lawyers nominated to the bench [and] at the time, the greatest number of African American women nominated to the bench.

In addition to charting the path to building a federal government that better reflects the diversity of America, the Obama administration also set up the structure of having diversity initiatives, noted Heather Foster, a former Obama adviser in the White House Office of Public Engagement.

Foster said programs like the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans, which was first established by President Obama, helped to set the framework for President Bidens historic achievements on racial equity, including creating the first-ever White House Office of Diversity and Inclusion.

U.S. President Joe Biden, with Vice President Kamala Harris (2nd left) and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin (left), announces his nomination of Air Force General Charles Brown, Jr. (right), to serve as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in the Rose Garden of the White House on May 25, 2023, in Washington, D.C. Brown would become the second Black officer to serve as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff  after Colin Powell from 1989 to 1993. (Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP) (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

People came back into that administration understanding the importance of equity, understanding some of the impacts of discrimination and systematic racism, added Foster.

Biden serving as vice president to Americas first Black president helped him think through ways in which to do government better to improve the effectiveness of government, said Beverly.

She continued, Part of improving the efficacy of government is ensuring that no community is left behind [and] that racial equity is embedded in the governance process.

Obamas economic policies also served as a framework for the Biden administration, which a few months ago touted a record-low unemployment rate for Black Americans.

Economic researcher and Brookings Institution senior fellow Andre Perry noted that President Obamas signature health care law, famously known as Obamacare, established the economic philosophy that President Biden has now advanced as his own signature economic policy known as Bidenomics.

Its certainly a rebranding of the middle-out economics that really started under Obama with the Affordable Care Act, Perry told theGrio.

At a time when Black employment was experiencing an uptick, Foster recalled President Obama working diligently with the National Economic Council to lower the Black unemployment rate.

Youve seen a lot of the Biden policies come out to ensure that those things are being kept in place, and thats exactly something that President Biden saw when he was in the Obama administration, she said.

Lessons learned from the Obama years

U.S. President Barack Obama (right) and Vice President Joe Biden (left) stand with Judge Merrick B. Garland (right), while nominating him to the U.S. Supreme Court, in the Rose Garden at the White House, March 16, 2016, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

There were also lessons learned during the Obama years that likely helped the Biden-Harris administration better navigate the implementation of its landmark legislation that is investing billions of dollars in rebuilding infrastructure in Black communities, from establishing clean lead pipes to fixing roads and bridges and expanding high-speed broadband internet.

Part of that lesson derived from the American Recovery Act, said Beverly, who recalled that many shovel-ready projects going out the door very frequently didnt make it directly to communities that have been historically marginalized.

I think Biden saw that clearly, and is now thinking through innovative and in very critical, important ways of making sure that the government works effectively for all communities, she added.

Myrick said he believes the Obama legacy has informed the Biden administrations success in a lot of ways, particularly as it relates to getting things done in the face of Republican opposition.

Despite striving to work across the aisle and even appointing Republicans in his cabinet, Obama was stabbed repeatedly in the back by the GOP, said Myrick, most notably when Senator Mitch McConnell blocked President Obamas Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

The Biden administration has come in without any of that Pollyannish naivete and I think has been much sharper elbowed, more willing to just use power to get things done for the people, he said.

Obamas message of change and hope

U.S. President Barack Obama speaks to supporters during his farewell speech at McCormick Place on Jan. 10, 2017, in Chicago. (Photo by Darren Hauck/Getty Images)

The political division between the Democratic and Republican parties has only magnified over the years, so much so that America appears more polarized than ever  a stark contrast from the politics of hope and change President Obama fashioned his campaign and presidency after.

We as a country have gone through an incredibly devastating and dark period with the rise of Donald Trump, said Beverly. The 45th president, who is currently facing three criminal cases, has done nothing but foment division and distrust in our institutions and distrust in one another, she added.

Despite the heightened political division in the aftermath of the Trump White House, Beverly said she doesnt believe the nation has truly moved away from Obamas message of hope and change. She explained, I think that we have been traumatized.

Myrick described the Trump-lash to Obamas eight years in the White House as an authoritarian threat driven by Trump and Republican extremists.

When one-half of the political system is captured by such an ideology, its hard to have hope, he acknowledged. However, he still holds onto hope that we can help build not only a better America buta better, healthier, less toxic GOP.

Obamas role in the 2024 election

(left to right) Vice President Kamala Harris, former President Barack Obama, and U.S. President Joe Biden arrive for an event to mark the 2010 passage of the Affordable Care Act in the East Room of the White House on April 5, 2022, in Washington, D.C. With then-Vice President Joe Biden by his side, Obama signed Obamacare into law on March 23, 2010. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

As Obama has reportedly made clear he intends to do whatever possible to ensure President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are reelected in the 2024 election, the 44th commander-in-chief is still seen as the Democratic Partys biggest star and the best surrogate to mobilize Black voters.

Hes a trusted voice, said Beverly, who said President Obama has the ability to speak to the concerns of the Black community, who, according to polls, are growing apathetic to the Biden administration and politics writ large.

She said Obama could be particularly effective with engaging Black men, who political operatives are concerned may sit out the election.

Beverly added, He can help motivate participation by saying he understands the real pain that our communities are facing, but there are real investments that are coming that will help to turn our economic experience around.

Blake, the former Obama campaign director, noted that Obamas presence on the campaign trail will be especially needed as the other side clearly is trying to make race a cornerstone for all the negative reasons.

The voice of the President [Obama] will be heard and respected and will inspire people to action, he told theGrio. We cannot allow one side to make this conversation about race for the wrong reasons.

Though years have passed since President Obama left office, Foster said the affinity is still there for Americas first Black president. Its going to continue to motivate people to really be a part of the process, she predicted.

Something that he said all the time was that, as a citizen, you have the ability to change your community [and] you have the ability to change your circumstances, Foster added.

I think youre going to continue to see that, and people recognize that, and well see that in the 2024 election cycle.

Gerren Keith Gaynor

Gerren Keith Gaynor is a White House Correspondent and the Managing Editor of Politics at theGrio. He is based in Washington, D.C.

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

The post Reflecting on President Obamas legacy for his 62nd birthday appeared first on TheGrio.
The Hugh Glass monument was originally placed on private ranchland near Lemmon, at the confluence of two forks of the Grand River. But it was later moved to make way for construction of a Bureau of Reclamation dam.

A lonely monument to the heroics of a frontier mountain man may surrender its secrets after all.

That is, if someone can determine who actually owns the monument erected in 1923 to commemorate Hugh Glass, who purportedly crawled, limped and rafted 200 miles after being mauled by a bear and left for dead.

This week, a relative of famed author/poet John Neihardt, who led construction of the monument a century ago near Lemmon, pledged to make an ownership claim and seek permission to break into the concrete marker.

That way it could be determined if a time capsule and original manuscript left by Neihardt, along with other items of value, are inside.

We all love a mystery

Lets do it, said Coralie Hughes, a granddaughter of Neihardt  who died in 1973 and is Nebraskas poet laureate in perpetuity as well as a member of the Nebraska Hall of Fame.

We all love a mystery, and this is a good one, Hughes added from her home in Indiana.

Neihardt wrote an epic poem about the crawl as he called it, and led a group of students and professors from the Nebraska Normal College (now Wayne State College) to northwest South Dakota in 1923, which they believed to be near the site where Glass was attacked a century earlier.

The author wrote in 1923 that he left a time capsule and an original manuscript in the bosom of the monument. He then challenged members of the Neihardt Club of the Nebraska Normal College to return in 100 years to open it, read passages from his poem and celebrate like mountain men would.

But in June, a group from Wayne State College that took up the challenge was rebuffed in its effort to discover whats inside the Hugh Glass monument.

Author/poet John Neihardt, left, supervises the final construction of a concrete monument erected in 1923 to commemorate the heroics of mountain man Hugh Glass, who crawled miles after being left for dead after a grizzly bear mauling.

Cant dig without permission

It would still be interesting to find out whats in there, but you cant dig without the state archeologists permission, said Joseph Weixelman, the Wayne State Western studies professor who led the group to Lemmon in June.

Cassie Vogt, the South Dakota state archeologist, said there are two conundrums to resolve: who really owns the monument, and whether permission should be granted to crack into something with such historical value.

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The monument was originally placed on a private ranch, but the land was acquired later by the federal Bureau of Reclamation to build a reservoir. The monument now sits on a campground managed by the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks.

But who owns the monument?

Neihardt, who led its construction, and his descendants? Wayne State College, whose club (now long disbanded) helped to build it? Or possibly the Neihardt State Historic Site, which was established to preserve and promote his legacy and works?

On Tuesday, Neihardts granddaughter said shes ready to step up to see if her family can obtain permission to dig into the monument.

Important to discover whats inside

If it was important enough for my grandfather to put something in there, it is important enough to find out what it is, Hughes said.

Hughes said one possible document to help confirm ownership by the Neihardt family would be papers creating the Neihardt Trust, which declared that anything produced by her grandfather would be property of the trust.

There are also photographs showing Neihardt leading the construction of the Hugh Glass monument, as well as Neihardts writings in the student newspaper describing what was done and challenging students to revisit it in 2023.

But when asked if that would be enough proof of ownership, an official with the South Dakota State Historical Society didnt know.

The 1923 monument is not recorded by the Historical Society, said spokesman Kevin Larsen, so its clear the society does not own it.

Someone interested in opening the monument would need the appropriate permissions to access it, Larsen said.

Vogt, the South Dakota state archeologist, said it would ultimately be up to the Bureau of Reclamation and South Dakota parks agency  who own and manage the land on which the monument sits  to jointly decide whether someone should break into the monument.

Sad to see it wrecked

Not everyone is crazy about the idea.

LaQuita Shockley, the owner/editor of the Dakota Herald, based in Lemmon, said it would be a shame to destroy the monument only to find that whats inside wasnt that valuable.

There are also questions about whether flooding at the reservoir ruined any papers inside the time capsule.

Is whats encased in there worth destroying the monument? Shockley asked. It would be sad to see it wrecked.

Lemmon plans to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Hugh Glass story with a mountain man rendezvous, from Aug. 22-28.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Relative of famed author wants to find out whats inside mysterious South Dakota monument
The General Staff reported that a Russian mobile crematorium is constantly operating in the northeastern part of the occupied city of Melitopol. Local residents complain about a constant corpse stench, especially at night.

Source: The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine

Quote: "The enemy continues to hide their losses. To do this, they actively use mobile crematoria.

In particular, it was established that one of these crematoria is currently operating 24/7 in the northeastern part of the occupied city of Melitopol, Zaporizhzhia Oblast, while the bodies of the dead occupiers are transported by flatbed trucks.

In addition, local residents complain about a constant corpse stench in the city, especially at night."

Ukrainska Pravda is the place where you will find the most up-to-date information about everything related to the war in Ukraine. Follow us on Twitter, support us, or become our patron!
During 2023's sweltering summer heat, there have been 39 confirmed heat associated deaths in Maricopa County, according to Maricopa County's 2023 weekly heat report. On July 17, Carl "Bo" Robert Nagy III became one of them.

Nagy was 43 years old and unhoused, according to his older sister, April Boseck, who lives in Arizona. He passed away in Apache Junction due to Arizona's extreme heat. The exact circumstances of his death are unknown.

"When Bo is in a good place, Bo is a really good person," Boseck said. "He would come in if something was wrong in your house, he would fix it, he would do whatever needed to be done. That's what I like to remember about him. He always liked to help when he could."

Carl "Bo" Robert Nagy III

Nagy was a brother, a son and a father. He was born in Wichita, Kansas, on Jan. 5, 1980, raised in Augusta, Kansas, moved to Missouri and then moved to Arizona later in his life, his sister said.

Nagy was one of five siblings. Boseck described Nagy as a "butthead growing up" and a wild child. He was a licensed electrician, "an amazing man whom always went out of his way to help anyone in need," wrote Melody Harris, Boseck's cousin, in Nagy's GoFundMe.

The GoFundMe has raised $695 as of Thursday afternoon and is hoping to raise $2,500 to support Nagy's services. Boseck said the funds will go toward his cremation and memorial. She said any extra funds may go to his children.

Arizona's brutal summer heat wave

In 2023 so far, 31% of heat-related deaths were people who were unhoused.

Boseck said she wishes there were more programs to help the homeless. She said there is a place in Apache junction that gives meals to people experiencing homelessness, but there is no place for anybody to go and stores kick out the unhoused because they are "bad for business."

She said businesses and residents need to remember someone who is homeless is in a tough situation.

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"Try to be more forgiving of the homeless when they ask for things," Boseck said. "They are only doing it because they have to."

39 heat deaths so far in 2023: 14 new heat-associated deaths in Maricopa County

Boseck stressed the importance of staying hydrated in the heat, so there are no more stories like her brother's. Not just for the unhoused, but for anyone who is beginning to feel under the weather.

"People need to be hydrated. If you are out in the weather, if you have to stop somewhere and drink out of somebody's water hose on the side of the road, it is better than dying of heat stroke. ... The heat here is no joke. It is terrible."

Solutions for people in the heat

Keyera Williams is the public information officer for Phoenix's Office of Heat Response and Mitigation. She gave some advice for staying safe in the heat.

"Check on friends, family members and neighbors, especially people who are at higher risk, all age ranges, multiple times per day," Willaims said. "Higher-risk individuals could include folks who are taking medication that can make it hard for their body to sense how hot they are. It is also important to drink plenty of water even when you are not thirsty."

Williams also spoke of the Cool Callers program, a program where residents can sign up for wellness checks on whether or not their home is cool enough. Their Cool volunteers are stationed at select City trailheads on Saturday mornings in order to provide heat safety messaging and other resources including giving water and cooling towels to hikers. During the week, staff and volunteers do the same in urban locations.

For more information on how to stay safe in the Arizona heat, people can visit Phoenix's heat safety page.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Carl "Bo" Robert Nagy III is victim of Arizona's extreme heat
Yahoo Sports Ross Dellenger reported on Thursday evening that Big 12 executives met to approve Arizonas application to the conference. | John Miller, Associated Press

Another domino in college realignment is reportedly about to fall.

Yahoo Sports Ross Dellenger and ESPNs Pete Thamel reported on Thursday evening that Big 12 executives met to approve Arizonas application to the conference.

Arizonas Board of Regents met on Thursday night, going into a private executive session. To finalize the move, the Arizona Board of Regents would seemingly need to hold a vote that is visible to the public, like Colorado did when they joined the Big 12.

Barring an unexpected turn in the Board of Regents meeting, Arizonas decision is expected be formalized soon, sources said, Thamel wrote.

Big 12 executives met Thursday to approve the application of Arizona as a 14th member, sources tell @YahooSports, paving the way for the Wildcats to enter the conference. It is another step in UAs path to join. The final step would be approval from its Board of Regents.  Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) August 4, 2023

Decisions from Utah and Arizona State, who have been rumored to be Big 12 expansion targets, havent progressed as quickly as Arizona, Dellenger reported.

More discussions would be necessary for either Arizona State or Utah to move, Thamel wrote, but the Big 12 has courted both schools.

The Utes and Sun Devils always have been on a separate timeline than the Wildcats, who had meetings with the Big 12 in recent months, according to Thamel.

Related

As the realignment world continues to turn, Washington has a Board of Regents met late Thursday night in a private executive session for about 90 minutes. Yahoo Sports Dan Wetzel reported that the Big Tens focus on possible expansion has narrowed to adding just two schools  Oregon and Washington.
(CNN)  Nigers President Mohamed Bazoum said Thursday he is being held hostage by the countrys military as he warned in a Washington Post op-ed that the juntas power grab could have devastating consequences for the region, where Russian mercenaries have established a foothold.

Bazoum, who was democratically elected two years ago, has been detained by soldiers at the presidential palace in the capital Niamey since last Wednesday, when the military launched a coup that has been condemned by the United States and other Western nations and brought threats of military intervention from a bloc of West African countries.

I write this as a hostage, Bazoum wrote in the Washington Post. Niger is under attack from a military junta that is trying to overthrow our democracy, and I am just one of hundreds of citizens who have been arbitrarily and illegally imprisoned.

The upheaval in Niger has hurled the region  already beset by coups and militant extremism  into renewed limbo, with Western countries in an urgent bid to evacuate their citizens and diplomats.

Bazoum wrote that this coup, launched against my government by a faction in the military on July 26, has no justification whatsoever, and could have devastating consequences for our country, our region, and the entire world.

The coup plotters falsely claim that they acted to protect Nigers security, he wrote. They allege that our war against jihadist terrorists is failing and that my economic and social governance, including partnerships with the United States and Europe, has hurt our country.

Instead, Bazoum wrote, the security situation had improved dramatically in Niger since he came to power, by working with the partnerships the junta opposes.

Bazoum also cautioned that foreign aid makes up 40% of the national budget  and it would not be delivered if the coup succeeds.

Determined, optimistic

CNN has not been able to independently confirm the conditions under which Bazoum is being detained in his residence.

But the ousted leader is very determined, very optimistic despite being under house arrest, his former adviser Idrissa Waziri told CNN Thursday over the phone.

Waziri who is based in France told CNN that Bazoum is currently under house arrest in his residence with his wife and son, saying hes been in close contact.

They tried to break his morale, Waziri said, claiming that Bazoums residence is surrounded by armored military vehicles, the access gates are chained shut and the electricity supply is cut temporarily.

Waziri claimed that some 130 officials from the elected government had been arrested in recent days. He added many others are hiding from the coup organizers.

Waziri told CNN that when Bazoum decided to keep Gen. Abdourahamane Tiani as head of the presidential guard following his election, Bazoum believed Tiani would show him the same level of loyalty hed shown his predecessor.

Tiani led the coup that toppled the Sahel nations elected government last week.

Warning over Wagner

In the Washinton Post article, Bazoum argued that Nigers security situation is significantly better than that of neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso, where an Islamist insurgency has entrenched in an area where the borders of the three countries meet.

Bazoum also warned of growing Russian influence in the Sahel region.

Hundreds of contractors from Russias Wagner mercenary group are stationed in Mali at the invitation of its military junta, which  along with Burkina Fasos military backed government  has backed the coup in Niger.

Rather than addressing security concerns by strengthening their own capacity, they employ criminal Russian mercenaries such as the Wagner Group at the expense of their peoples rights and dignity, Bazoum wrote, referring to Malis junta.

One of the Nigerien coup leaders, Gen. Salifou Mody, visited Mali on Wednesday, according to the Mali presidency, raising fears of a potential alliance with Wagner.

With an open invitation from the coup plotters and their regional allies, the entire central Sahel region could fall to Russian influence via the Wagner Group, Bazoum wrote.

The ousted president called on the US and the international community to help us restore our constitutional order, adding: Nigerien people will never forget your support at this pivotal moment in our history.

On Thursday, US President Joe Biden called for the immediate release of Bazoum in a statement commemorating Nigers Independence Day.

The US has had troops in Niger for around a decade, mostly advising and training Nigerien forces on counterterrorism efforts.

Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder told a media briefing Thursday that US forces in the West African country are continuing to work with Nigerien forces who are not associated with this seizure of the president, to keep the US bases running.

The US Defense Department recently said there is no change to US military posture in Niger as the US embassy evacuates non-emergency personnel and family members.

This story was first published on CNN.com. Nigers ousted president warns of devastating coup impact, growing Russian influence
The family of Lashawn Thompson, a former Winter Haven man who died last year in an Atlanta jail, has agreed to a $4 million settlement of a lawsuit, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

The family of Lashawn Thompson, a former Winter Haven man who died last year in an Atlanta jail, has agreed to a $4 million settlement of a lawsuit, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

Thompson, 35, was found unresponsive in his cell in the psychiatric wing of Fulton County Jail in September, three months after he was arrested on a misdemeanor battery charge in Atlanta. Family members and their lawyers said that Thompson had been diagnosed with schizophrenia.

The Fulton County Medical Examiners Office listed Thompsons cause of death as undetermined, listing schizoaffective disorder, bipolar and acute exacerbation as other conditions, CNN reported. The coroner wrote that Thompsons entire body was covered in bed bugs, USA Today reported.

An independent review by Dr. Roger Mitchell Jr., a board-certified forensic pathologist and chair of pathology at Howard University, found that Thompson died due to severe neglect and cited untreated decompensated schizophrenia as a contributing cause. Mitchell listed dehydration, malnutrition and severe body insect infestation, which included lice and bed bugs, as significant conditions.

Raheem "350heem" killed Lawyer says woman charged in Lakeland shooting that killed rapper was acting in defense

Civil-rights attorney Ben Crump, representing Thompsons relatives, described the jail cell as a torture chamber and called his death a homicide.

Fulton County commissioners approved the settlement with a 6-0 vote in a closed-door, executive session, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

At least three top jail officials resigned after reports of Thompsons death, and the Justice Department has launched a civil rights investigation into conditions at Fulton County Jail, CNN reported.

Thompson was a 2005 graduate of Winter Haven High School.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Former Winter Haven man's Ga. jail death yields $4 million settlement
Utah players run out onto the field as they prepare to play USC at Rice Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Oct. 15, 2022. The Big 12 announced it will add Utah, Arizona and Arizona State in the 2024-25 academic year. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Utah has officially joined the Big 12 Conference.

The Big 12 announced the additions of Utah, Arizona and Arizona State on Friday evening shortly after the University of Utahs Board of Trustees voted unanimously for the school to join the conference.

We are thrilled to welcome Arizona, Arizona State and Utah to the Big 12, Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark said in a press release. The Conference is gaining three premier institutions both academically and athletically, and the entire Big 12 looks forward to working alongside their presidents, athletic directors, student-athletes and administrators.

The Deseret News confirmed that Utah will receive a full TV media rights revenue share when they join the Big 12.

Utah will start play in the Big 12 in the 2024-25 academic year. The 16-team Big 12 will be comprised of Baylor, BYU, UCF, Cincinnati, Houston, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, TCU, Texas Tech, West Virginia, Utah, Colorado, Arizona and Arizona State.

President (Taylor) Randall and I, along with the executive committee of the Board of Trustees, have been fully engaged in pursuing the best possible path for the University of Utah and our athletics programs to excel, Utah athletic director Mark Harlan said in a press release.

After very thorough and comprehensive efforts to preserve our present conference affiliation in the aftermath of the announced departures of UCLA and USC last year, we have explored all options and have determined that the right path for Utah to continue to build on its tremendous growth trajectory is to accept an invitation to join the Big 12 Conference.

Related

A whirlwind two weeks have resulted in the collapse of a 108-year-old Pac-12 Conference.

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How did we get to this point?

The domino effect to this moment started in 2021, when Texas and Oklahoma announced their move from the Big 12 to the SEC. That triggered the Big 12 to add BYU, UCF, Cincinnati and Houston that same year.

Getting in on the expansion arms race, the Big Ten added USC and UCLA from the Pac-12 in 2022. Without the giant Los Angeles TV market and two marquee programs, the value of the Pac-12s next media deal shrunk, as evidenced by Pac-12 media deal negotiations that have dragged on for over a year.

Then Yormark beat Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff to the media deal punch last fall, securing a nearly $2.3 billion media deal with ESPN and Fox that reportedly will pay out $31.6 million to each of its schools when it takes effect in 2025.

Despite what Kliavkoff said at Pac-12 media day this July, the conferences options for a media deal did not get better the longer it waited.

On Tuesday, several news outlets reported presidents from the nine remaining Pac-12 members gathered to discuss the leagues media deal, which was primarily an Apple TV streaming option. That deal reportedly included less base annual revenue distribution than the Big 12s media rights agreement, which featured linear TV partners Fox and ESPN.

Working on the assumption that Apple would have rights to the best games, locking the Pac-12s marquee games behind a subscription paywall, plus the lower base pay compared to the Big 12, made the deal tough to swallow.

No media deal was agreed to and no grant of rights was signed.

Colorado didnt stick around long enough to hear Kliavkoffs pitch, voting last week to go back to the Big 12.

The Big Ten pounced following Tuesdays Pac-12 meeting, inviting Oregon and Washington to join. The two schools board of trustees approved the switch to join USC and UCLA in the Big Ten on Friday.

Oregon and Washington officially announced their move to the Big Ten, which will take place after this season.

The Pac-12 is now down to four schools  Stanford, Cal, Washington State and Oregon State.
An anti-Trump Republican group is set to run a advertisement featuring clips of the Jan. 6 insurrection on Fox News in the coming week.

The group, the Republican Accountability Project, said in a press release obtained by The Hill that it is going to air the ad in multiple states including Arizona and Wisconsin as well as on Fox News nationally over the next week. The ad features scenes from the riot with overlaid text attacking former President Trump for his actions and words during the event.

Trump told them to fight, according to the ad. Hell do it again. Unless he faces consequences.

The Hill Elections 2024 coverage

Special counsel Jack Smith announced a Trump indictment in an investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election Tuesday. The former president was arraigned for the indictment Thursday. He now faces four new counts, including conspiracy to defraud the United States.

The groups previous ad campaigns include calling out the former president for his attacks on Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) and shaming Republican lawmakers for backing away from blaming Trump for the events of Jan. 6, 2021.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) launched a public awareness campaign Friday focusing on the harms of social media for children, his office announced.

The campaign argues that many children use social media and the internet too much and it could be having a negative impact on their mental health.

Rates of depression, anxiety, loneliness, suicidal thoughts and behaviors have increased in recent years, Cox said in a statement.

Its undeniable that social media is harming our childrens mental and physical health, brain chemistry, self-esteem and more. Parents need to know about these dangers so they can best help their children and teens. We encourage all Utahns to consider less screen time and more human connection. Lets disconnect to reconnect.

Federal studies into the impact of social media on mental health have mixed conclusions but have acknowledged negative outcomes. A report from the Department of Health and Human Services earlier this year said that social media could decrease life satisfaction in young people as their emotionally immature brains are still developing.

Those who use social media more than 3 hours per day were also significantly more likely to have mental health struggles, the report claimed.

But it also states that social media could serve an important role in inspiring creativity, self-expression and socialization.

More research is needed to fully understand the impact of social media; however, the current body of evidence indicates that while social media may have benefits for some children and adolescents, there are ample indicators that social media can also have a profound risk of harm to the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents, the report states.

At this time, we do not yet have enough evidence to determine if social media is sufficiently safe for children and adolescents, it continued.

The Utah campaign will feature on billboards, television ads and, ironically, social media videos in the coming months,

Story continues

Its really important to meet people where they are, right? To understand where people are getting their information, Cox said at a press conference Friday.

I always want to clarify: social media isnt inherently good or bad, its how we use it and the content. There are some bad parts of social media. I would say the algorithms are bad, the addictive qualities are bad.

The campaign continues Utahs battle against social media platforms, after the state announced it would sue the companies in order to protect our kids.

The state legislature has also passed a number of bills that would increase social media regulation, including requiring platforms to better verify users ages.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Dozens of human rights groups have signed a joint petition calling on Laos authorities to release a prominent Chinese lawyer as its embassy in Britain warned he could be deported back to China.

Concerns for Lu Siwei have spiked after he went missing in Laos while traveling to the United States. Laos lies across Chinas southwestern border and has long been a common, albeit risky, exit point for Chinese dissidents trying to leave the country.

The 85 rights groups from around the world demanded the Laotian government halt all processes of repatriation for Lu Siwei and release him immediately according to its international human rights obligations.

We are gravely concerned that he is at serious risk of forced repatriation to China where he faces the high likelihood of torture and other ill-treatment, it said, also calling for the country to disclose his whereabouts and safety.

CNN was unable to reach Laos authorities on Friday, but its embassy in Britain confirmed his arrest later that day to the UK-based lawyers group, The 29 Principles.

It said Lu was arrested on July 28 on suspicion of using fraudulent travel documents but added that he was healthy, according to an email seen by CNN.

He is now waiting for investigation and criminal proceedings that will take place soon according to the laws of Lao PDR (Lao Peoples Democratic Republic, the embassy said, adding: If found guilty, Mr. Siwei will be deported in accordance with the laws and regulations of the Lao PDR and treaties the Lao PDR is party to.

Human rights groups said he has a valid visa to enter the country.

Lu, from the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan, has represented a long list of defendants considered dissidents in mainland China over the years.

He was known for navigating Chinas opaque criminal system until his license was revoked by authorities in 2021 following years of taking on sensitive cases.

The signatories of the joint petition said Lu has been closely monitored by the Chinese authorities and subject to an exit ban since May 2021.

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Being a human rights lawyer has become increasingly risky under Xi Jinping, Chinas most assertive leader in a generation.

Hundreds of well known rights lawyers were arrested in 2015 in what was later dubbed the 709 crackdown.

Lu represented fellow human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng after he ended up in the dock for taking on the cause of a number of those detained in the initial roundup.

More recently Lu lost his practicing license after representing one of the 12 activists who were intercepted by Chinese coastguards at sea on their way to Taiwan while trying to flee Hong Kong.

Detention witnessed

US-based group ChinaAid, which describes itself as an international non-profit Christian human rights organization and is one of the petition signatories, said its activists witnessed Lus detention in Laos. The group said Lu had obtained visas for both Laos and the US and was on his way to be reunited with his family.

Immigration police apprehended (Lu) in front of two staff members of ChinaAid. There has been little information about Lu since his arrest on July 28th, the group said in a statement.

The group posted video on YouTube of what they said was the moment Lu was picked up. It showed three men in uniform and a man who looks like Lu next to a white Toyota car on the side of the road.

They told CNN that an earlier version of the petition with 75 signatories was passed to the Laos embassy in Britain earlier, with a protest planned in London on Saturday.

Spokesperson Sam Yip, of Japan Hong Kong Democracy Alliance, which also signed the petition, described how the groups are racing against time given the Laos governments negative track record in how it treats activists domestically.

Theres a real emergency to have him stopped from being extradited back to China to protect his own security, he told CNN.

China has a long history of imposing exit bans on individuals in an attempt to force suspected criminals to surrender, to resolve business disputes, or maintain pressure on political dissidents and regime critics.

Laos is a popular route for Chinese trying to avoid legal emigration. Many head on to Thailand, a major hub for international flights.

But the Laos route carries dangers.

Officially known as the Lao Peoples Democratic Republic, the country has one of the worlds few remaining communist governments, which runs under an opaque one-party system whose leaders have close ties with Beijing.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
Rishi Sunak with his wife and daughters at Santa Monica Pier in California (PA Wire)

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak took a stroll along Santa Monica Pier with his wife and children on Thursday.

Mr Sunak, his wife Akshata Murty and their daughters Krishna, 12, and Anoushka, 10, are on a 10-day holiday in California, where they own a 5m flat.

They posed for photographs and played arcade games on the same day a group of activists staged a protest at their mansion in North Yorkshire over Mr Sunaks climate policies.

California holds a soft spot in the couples hearts because it is where they met and where they once called home. The family strolled along the pier before a visit to Disneyland, where Mr Sunak said he would be taking the girls to the Star Wars attractions.

Mr Sunak and his family play a game (PA)

Mr Sunak said the US visit is a really special trip after several years without a proper family summer holiday.

He said his daughters were very excited about going to Disneyland before joking they fear they will spend too much time at the Star Wars experience because he is a fan.

Prime ministerial holiday photo shoots have a long tradition. Recent examples include David Cameron at a Portuguese fish market and Theresa May hiking in Switzerland.

California is a natural choice for Mr Sunak, who studied at Stanford and worked at a hedge fund there.

He said the place is very special to us as it is where I met my wife.

Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden is at the helm in Mr Sunaks absence, which is expected to last for just over a week.

The Prime Ministers press secretary said he will be getting daily updates from his private office, particularly on anything that is urgent.

She said it would be his first time off since he became chief secretary to the Treasury almost four years ago.
Official Washington recently gave UFOs, aka, unexplained aerial phenomenon, the blessing of a congressional hearing. Theyre up there, and the world needs to be told, whistleblowers testified.

Were he still alive, Sidney Zipkin of Rochester might have demanded a seat at the witness table.

After all, on Monday, July 31, 1967, at 10:15 p.m., Zipkin chanced upon a flying saucer and two small aliens in Churchville Park, just outside of Rochester. Not your ordinary night on the job.

Zipkins alleged close encounter with extraterrestrials 56 years ago soon made the Coffee Cup Reading column in the Democrat and Chronicle. The snarky opening paragraph suggested some skepticism.

Sidney Zipkin Aug 3 1967 Dc

A flying saucer landing in Churchville is about as likely as an oil strike in Rush or a Democrat getting elected in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, wrote the Democrats Rick Thomas. (Chagrin Falls? Beats me.)

So, what happened? Recently hired as a guard at the Churchville Park, Zipkin was making his rounds when he came upon a mysterious craft. It was 50-feet long and round in the center.

As Zipkin sat stunned in his truck, two midget-like men dressed in black ran by him, boarded the craft, which then flew away.

Zipkin drove to park headquarters and alerted his boss. They went back to the scene of the sighting, but found no evidence that the saucer, or the men, had been there.

You can laugh at what Im telling you  in fact I used to laugh myself when people said they saw these things, Zipkin told Thomas. But I saw this with my own eyes, and I swear to God as a witness that I saw what I saw.

Zipkin insisted he hadnt been drinking. And the country parks director vouched for him, saying he was a reliable employee and that his terrified condition when he reported the incident meant he must have seen something.

No one else reported seeing the aliens Zipkin saw, but there were other sightings of unexplained phenomenon in the area on the same evening. It was far from a sleepy summer night.

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Fourteen people in nearby Brockport saw something streak across the sky around 2 a.m. Aug. 1, just 3  hours after Zipkins sighting in Churchville.

Len Filppu, 16, a soon-to-be junior at Brockport High School was among the witnesses. Now living in California, he has written about what he saw on the Remembering Brockport Facebook page. And he reports that the Brockport incident will be discussed by Diana Walsh Pasulka in her upcoming book, Encounters.

There were other sightings that night. Just after that in Brockport, seven employees at the night shift at a plant outside of Geneseo, Livingston County, saw a huge object giving off an orange glow move across the sky.

Government investigators quickly evaluated Zipkins report and the reports from Brockport, Geneseo and points in between. They concluded that Zipkins account lacked sufficient supporting evidence (no one else saw aliens). The Brockport/Geneseo sightings were deemed to be credible, though the object, or objects, remained unidentified.

Zipkins life, which hadnt always gone well, took a downturn after the story of his sighting became public. A few days after he was described as a reliable employee, he was fired from his parks department job. The dismissal had nothing to do with UFOS, an official said. Rather, Zipkin lost his job because he had a criminal record. (He had done time on a bad-check charge.)

In 1981, he was again convicted of cashing bad checks, but that conviction was set aside. Then, in May 1983, he robbed a bank in Pittsford, claiming he had a gun (he didnt) and walking out with about $2,000. He was arrested quickly and pleaded guilty, telling the judge, Why I did this, Ill never know.

Out on bail pending sentencing, Zipkin voluntarily returned to jail, as he had no place to sleep. Later, he was sentenced to four years in prison.

Zipkin died in 1997. He was 80 years old, and, as near as I can determine, his death passed with little public notice.

In 2017, Ron Belczak, the village of Churchville historian, reported on a conversation with an individual who claimed to know what Zipkin actually saw. By this account, Zipkin mistook vehicle headlights shining on the fog for a spaceship. And he mistook a man running in the fog for an alien.

Im not sure Zipkin, or, for that matter, Congress, would like that explanation. Sidney Zipkin saw what he saw. A spaceship. Two small men in black. In Churchville. Really. Why not?

From his home in Geneseo, Livingston County, retired senior editor Jim Memmott, writes Remarkable Rochester, who we were, who we are. He can be reached at jmemmott@gannett.com or write Box 274, Geneseo, NY 14454

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: A security guard claimed he saw a UFO in Churchville NY in 1967
Men who had sworn an oath to protect and serve were huddled on the back porch of a Mississippi home as Michael Corey Jenkins lay on the floor, blood gushing from his mutilated tongue where one of the police officers shoved a gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger.

The roughly 90-minute period of terror preceding the shooting began late on Jan. 24 after a white neighbor called Rankin County Deputy Brett McAlpin and complained that two Black men were staying with a white woman inside a Braxton home.

McAlpin tipped off Deputy Christian Dedmon, who texted a group of white deputies who called themselves The Goon Squad, a moniker they adopted because of their willingness to use excessive force.

Are yall available for a mission? Dedmon asked. They were.

A little more than six months after the racist attack on Jenkins and his friend Eddie Terrell Parker, six former officers pleaded guilty on Thursday.

The officers included Christian Dedmon, Hunter Elward, Brett McAlpin, Jeffrey Middleton and Daniel Opdyke of the Rankin County Sheriffs Department and Joshua Hartfield, a Richland police officer. Their attorneys did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

They pleaded guilty to charges including conspiracy against rights, obstructions of justice, deprivation of rights under color of law, discharge of a firearm under a crime of violence, and conspiracy to obstruct justice.

The Mississippi attorney generals office announced Thursday it had filed state charges against the men including assault, conspiracy and obstruction of justice.

Federal court records detail how they burst into a home without a warrant, handcuffed Jenkins and Parker, assaulted them with a sex toy and beat Parker with wood and a metal sword. They poured milk, alcohol and chocolate syrup over their faces and then forced them to strip naked and shower together to conceal the mess.

Michael Corey Jenkins stands outside Taylor Hill Church in Braxton, Miss., March 18, 2023. Six former law enforcement officers in Mississippi have been charged with federal civil rights offenses against two Black men who were brutalized for more than an hour during a home raid before an officer allegedly shot one of the men in the mouth. The charges were unsealed Thursday, Aug. 3, 2023, as the former officers, all of whom are white, appeared in federal court. (AP Photo/HG Biggs, File)

Then one of them put a gun in Jenkins mouth and fired.

As Jenkins lay bleeding, they didnt render medical aid. They knew the mission had gone too far and devised a hasty cover-up scheme that included a fictitious narcotics bust, a planted gun and drugs, stolen surveillance footage and threats.

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The deputies were under the watch of Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey, who called it the worst episode of police brutality he has seen in his career.

Law enforcement misconduct in the U.S. has come under increased scrutiny, largely focused on how Black people are treated by the police. The 2020 killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police ignited calls for sweeping criminal justice reforms and a reassessment of American race relations. The January beating death of Tyre Nichols by five Black members of a special police squad in Memphis, Tennessee, led to a probe of similar units nationwide.

In Rankin County, the brutality visited upon Jenkins and Parker was not a botched police operation, but an assembly of rogue officers who tortured them all under the authority of a badge, which they disgraced, U.S. Attorney Darren LaMarca said.

The county is just east of the state capital, Jackson, home to one of the highest percentages of Black residents of any major U.S. city. A towering granite-and-marble monument topped by a Confederate soldier stands across the street from the Rankin County sheriffs office.

The officers warned Jenkins and Parker to stay out of Rankin County and go back to Jackson or their side of the Pearl River, court documents say, referencing an area with higher concentrations of Black residents.

Kristen Clarke, head of the Justice Departments Civil Rights Division, said the trauma is magnified because the misconduct was fueled by racial bias and hatred. She mentioned another dark chapter in Mississippi law enforcement: the 1964 kidnapping and killing of three civil rights workers.

The violent police misconduct is a reminder there is still much to be done, Clarke said.

After Dedmon summoned The Goon Squad, the officers crept around the ranch-style home to avoid a surveillance camera. They kicked down the carport door and burst inside without a warrant.

Opdyke found a sex toy, which he mounted on a BB gun he also found, and forced into Parkers mouth. Dedmon tried to sexually assault Jenkins with the toy. The officers repeatedly electrocuted the victims with stun guns to compare whose weapons were more powerful.

Elward forced Jenkins to his knees for a mock execution by firing without a bullet, but the gun discharged. The bullet lacerated Jenkins tongue and broke his jaw before exiting his neck.

As Jenkins bled on the floor, the officers devised a cover story for investigators: Elward brought Jenkins into a side room to conduct a staged drug bust over the phone and Jenkins reached for a gun when he was released from handcuffs.

Middleton offered to plant an unregistered firearm, but Elward said he would use the BB gun. Dedmon volunteered to plant methamphetamine he had received from an informant. Jenkins was charged with a felony as a result, but the charges were later dropped.

Opdyke put one of Elwards shell casings in a water bottle and threw it into tall grass nearby. Hartfield removed the hard drive from the homes surveillance system and later tossed it in a creek.

Afterward, McAlpin and Middleton made a promise: They would kill any of the officers who told the truth about what happened.

They kept quiet for months as pressure mounted from a Justice Department civil rights probe. An investigation by The Associated Press also linked some of the deputies to at least four violent encounters with Black men since 2019 that left two dead and another with lasting injuries.

One of the officers came forward in June, Bailey said.

Bailey on Thursday said he was lied to and first learned everything that happened to Jenkins and Parker when he read unsealed court documents. Some of the deputies, including McAlpin and Elward, had worked under Bailey for years and been sued several times for alleged misconduct.

The sheriff promised to implement a new body camera policy and said he was open to more federal oversight. He also called the officers criminals, echoing federal prosecutors.

Now, theyll be treated as the criminals they are, U.S. Attorney LaMarca said.

Associated Press writer Emily Wagster Pettus contributed to this report.
Tate is a self-described misogynist with a large online presence (Daniel MIHAILESCU)

A Romanian court Friday lifted a house arrest order on controversial influencer Andrew Tate and his brother as the men await trial on human trafficking charges.

Tate -- a self-described misogynist with a large online presence -- has also been indicted on charges of rape and forming a criminal group to sexually exploit women.

The court ruled that it "replaces the measure of house arrest of the defendants... with the preventive measure of judicial control, for a period of 60 days, from 4 August 2023 to 2 October 2023".

Tate, his brother and two accomplices have to report to police and are not allowed to leave the wider Bucharest region without prior approval.

The Tate brothers are not allowed to meet with the two Romanian women also accused in the case.

"We would like to extend our sincere gratitude to the Romanian judicial system for their fair consideration," a spokesperson for the Tate brothers said in a statement after the ruling.

"This positive outcome gives us confidence that more favourable developments are on the horizon," the statement added.

All four accused were detained late last year and then placed under house arrest at the end of March. They have repeatedly challenged the house arrest order.

A trial date has not yet been set.

Prosecutors allege the two brothers and the two women set up a criminal organisation and sexually exploited several victims "through acts of physical violence and psychological coercion".

The victims were allegedly forced to engage in pornographic acts with a view to producing and disseminating such material via social media platforms.

Tate moved to Romania years ago after first starting a webcam business in the UK.

In 2016, Tate appeared on the "Big Brother" reality television show in Britain but was removed after a video emerged showing him attacking a woman.

He then turned to social media platforms to promote his divisive views.

Giving tips on how to be successful, along with misogynistic and sometimes violent maxims, Tate's videos have made him one of the world's best-known influencers.

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Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Getty/Reuters

First he came after LGBTQ+ students with a measure opponents dubbed Dont Say Gay. Then he came after Black students with restrictions on African American history lessons.

Now Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is coming after nearly 30,000 students a year with his continued attacks on curricula that acknowledges anything other than cisgender, heterosexual normalcy.

But maybe this will be the wake up call Florida needs, because this time, it hits middle and upper-middle class familiesvis a vis, white families.

Ron DeSantis War on College Is Bad for Florida Business

Recognizing that Floridas "Dont Say Gay 2.0 law, which prohibits lessons on gender identity and sexual orientation through 12th grade, would severely degrade standards that have been in place for three decades, the College Board advised Florida schools to not offer AP (Advanced Placement) Psychology.

Any AP Psychology course taught in Florida will violate either Florida law or college requirements, the board wrote in a lengthy statement Thursday that made national headlines.

The College Board wrote that they cannot modify AP Psychology in response to regulations that would censor college-level standards for credit, placement, and career readiness. Further, any course that censors required course content cannot be labeled AP.

For Florida studentsan estimated 28,000 of whom took AP Psychology last yearthat means access to college credit for the course is in jeopardy.

The news came just one week before school starts for the 2023-24 school year, leaving districts scrambling to determine what to do.

Options are limited. If they keep AP Psych on schedules as required for college credit, instructors could run afoul of Florida law. If they skip the offending parts of instruction to remain compliant, they run afoul of College Board-required content that would prohibit students from earning college credit for the course.

A third optionthe one Pinellas County Schools has adoptedseems more sound. Schools can adopt the AICE Psychology class instead, which is the version used in IB and Cambridge programs. And the curriculum has consistently been recommended by the American Council on Education (ACE) for college credit.

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Theres a really big but here though.

In a statement, the Development Committee responsible for guiding the AP Psychology course addressed the AICE issue, suggesting that ultimately, students may not receive college credit for taking the modified course in Florida anyway.

We are surprised that IB and AICE/Cambridgeafter agreeing to Floridas demand that they exclude all references to gender and sexual orientationexpect universities to accept their courses and exams for college credits, the group wrote. No experienced educator or practitioner in our field would support the decision to make these topics off limits.

7 Budget Vetoes That Prove Ron DeSantis Can Be a Real Prick

They further wrote that it is their understanding that ACE will be asking its review panel to review this newly restrictive course.

Indeed, ACE President Ted Mitchell previously said that it strains credulity to believe that our reviewers would certify for college credit a psychology course that didnt include gender identity.

Make no mistake, this is a big deal. Students rely on AP classes for college credit that allow them to graduate high school with a dent in their college course requirements, something that saves Florida families a lot of money. AP courses are also something top-tier colleges look at when determining admission, meaning students who take an unrecognized, revised course may risk some valuable credits when applying for more competitive schools, such as an Ivy.

But this may be a wake up call for Florida voters.

We know that voters are fickle when it comes to issues. They vote on what matters to them. Kitchen table issues, youll hear it described.

Dont Say Gay most directly affected only some kids, those who were members of the LGBTQ+ community, or whose parents were. Floridas history curricula guidelines most acutely impact Black students.

It sounds crass to point out, but quite frankly, this one affects not just LGBTQ+ students and families, or Black students and families, but white families who may have otherwise been spared the rest of DeSantis anti-woke agenda.

As I write this, teachers in Pinellas County are gathered for districtwide training where sources tell me anger and frustration is at a fever pitch.

Leaked Audio From a Ron DeSantis Donor Event Is Really Bad News for His Campaign

School administrators are facing an onslaught of emails and phone calls from worried and, in all likelihood, angry parents demanding to know how schools will ensure their childs education is not degraded. Many parents, armed with information from the College Board that AICE Psychology may not provide college credit, will likely ask that their child be moved to a different class.

The first 10 days of school are always a hot mess, as schools scramble to correct scheduling oversights and fine-tune the day-to-day operations. This move will wreak much more havoc.

And it is all because Florida is unlucky enough to have a governor running a culture war crusade to become president, and a state legislature complicit in giving him whatever he wants.

Theres probably a psychological term for all this, but I guess we wont learn what that is in Florida anymore.

(Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated the AICE/Cambridge curriculum had been altered to meet Florida standards, which is what the College Board claimed in a statement. A Cambridge International representative later told The Daily Beast the organization had made no such changes.)

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at the Family Leadership Summit on July 14, 2023 in Des Moines, Iowa. Scott Olson/Getty Images

Ron DeSantis says he missed most of the coverage of Trump's arraignment on Thursday.

The reason? He was busy overseeing an execution in Florida.

"We had an execution yesterday, so I was tied up with that for most of the day," he said.

While the political world was tuned in to watch former President Donald Trump's appearance in a Washington, DC federal court on Thursday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was busy overseeing an execution in Florida.

Speaking with reporters after a campaign event at a brewery in Iowa, the 2024 GOP presidential candidate said he only saw some of the coverage of Trump's arraignment.

"I saw a little bit," he said, according to the New York Times. "Unfortunately, one of the things as governor that you have to do is oversee executions. So we had an execution yesterday, so I was tied up with that for most of the day."

On Thursday, a 61-year-old Florida man named James Barnes was executed via lethal injection at the Florida State Prison in Starke. In 2006, Barnes was convicted of murdering and raping a nurse in 1988. DeSantis signed his death warrant on June 22.

Barnes was the fifth inmate executed by the State of Florida this year. DeSantis signed a law earlier this year to make it easier to execute people in Florida, a move seen by some as an effort to burnish his tough-on-crime credentials as he launched his presidential campaign.

At that same campaign stop, DeSantis also made his strongest comments yet about Trump's 2020 election claims.

"It was not an election that was conducted the way I think that we want to, but that's different than saying [Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro] stole votes or something like that," he said, according to the New York Times. "Those theories, you know, proved to be unsubstantiated."

Read the original article on Business Insider
Meghan Markle is celebrating her 42nd birthday today but there has been radio silence from senior members of the royal family.

Last year, the official Twitter accounts for the royal family, including the Prince and Princess of Wales and King Charles and Queen Camilla, publicly shared birthday wishes for Meghan on social media. But at the time of writing, neither official Twitter accounts, for the King or Prince William, have wished the duchess a happy birthday.

Wishing a happy birthday to The Duchess of Sussex! wrote the @KensingtonRoyal Twitter account for the Prince and Princess of Wales on Meghans 41st birthday, sharing a picture of Meghan smiling while wearing a white coat and matching hat.

The Clarence House account, which at the time was being used to share updates on the then Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, shared an identical tweet with a different picture of Meghan.

In June, there was radio silence from senior members of the royal family on social media as Harry and Meghans daughter, Princess Lilbet, celebrated her second birthday.

Prince Archie also did not receive any birthday wishes on his fourth birthday, which fell on the same day as King Charless coronation in May.

The Independent has contacted Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace for comment.

This year marks a very different birthday for Meghan and her husband Prince Harry. Relations between the Sussexes and the royal family have soured in the past year, given the release of Harry and Meghans Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan and Harrys tell-all memoir Spare, in which he made a series of claims about his fraught relationship with senior members of the royal family.

Wishing a happy birthday to The Duchess of Sussex! pic.twitter.com/HrYdCbe6N1  The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) August 4, 2022

Tensions are thought to have consistently worsened since Harry and Meghan decided to step back from royal duties in 2020 and move to Los Angeles.

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Meanwhile, Meghans birthday celebrations appear not to have been interrupted, as she and Prince Harry were spotted leaving a celebrity hotspot restaurant in Montecito, California on Wednesday night (2 August), ahead of Meghans birthday today (Friday 4 August).

This news comes as the Sussexes reportedly did not receive an invitation for a royal family gathering to mark one year since the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

On 8 September, King Charles III is expected to commemorate his mother at a gathering in Balmoral Castle.

The day will also mark the anniversary of the Kings accession.

A source told The Sun that there has not been any outreach to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex regarding the royal event.

If they are not included in any of those plans they will find a way to mark the significance in their own way, the source said.
Rudy Giuliani claimed that Mike Pence is being led around on a leash by his wife during a mad rant sparked by the former vice presidents comments on Donald Trumps latest indictment.

Mr Giuliani, Mr Trumps former lawyer and allegedly one of the co-conspirators in that indictment, went after Mr Pence on Newsmax after he slammed the former presidents gaggle of crackpot lawyers for supporting his lies in connection to the 2020 election.

The former New York mayors rant came hours after Mr Trump pleaded not guilty to four charges at an arraignment in Washington, DC on Thursday. In his third indictment this year, the second from Special Counsel Jack Smith, Mr Trump has been charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.

Responding to that indictment on Wednesday, Mr Pence repeated what he has been saying since the insurrection on January 6 2021  that he had no right to attempt to overturn the electoral college votes and send them back to the states.

For my part, I want people to know that I had no right to overturn the election and that what the president maintained that day, and frankly has said over and over again over the last two and a half years, is completely false, Mr Pence said, according to The Hill. And its contrary to what our Constitution and the laws of this country provide.

You know, Im a student of American history. And the first time I heard in early December somebody suggest that as vice president I might be able to decide which votes to reject and which to accept, I knew that it was false  I dismissed it out of hand, Mr Pence added.

Sadly, the president was surrounded by a group of crackpot lawyers that kept telling him what his itching ears wanted to hear.

Former Vice President Mike Pence: "Sadly, the president was surrounded by a group of crackpot lawyers that kept telling him what his itching ears wanted to hear."



Speaking publicly for the first time since Trump was indicted for his efforts to remain in power after losing the pic.twitter.com/EHyC4463hA  The Hill (@thehill) August 2, 2023

Mr Giuliani made his displeasure with the crackpot comment clear in his Thursday Newsmax appearance.

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I'm a real trial lawyer  not make-believe  like a lot of these people. I once got a congressman to break down on the witness stand and confess, Mr Giulani told host Eric Bolling.

I dont think hes even been in a courtroom, and he went to a law school nobody even knows.

Giuliani doesnt seem happy with the comments from Pence about crackpot lawyers. He describes Pence as weak being led around by a leash and his wife barely allowing him to use the bathroom by himself pic.twitter.com/BFucSj0jJE  Acyn (@Acyn) August 4, 2023

Mr Pence received his law degree from Indiana Universitys Robert H McKinney School of Law in 1986 while Mr Giuliani attended New York University.

I thought before that he was a really good guy, but too weak to be president. I always worried about him following Trump, because I would see him with his wife having something around his neck every night, Mr Giuliani said, referencing Mr Pences wife Karen and gesturing the use of a leash and collar.

She lets him go to the bathroom by himself, but thats about it, he added.

But imagine that skunk doing what he did today? If you cant separate Trump from the First Amendment issue here, then youre just not a good person. This is not about Trump. If this were being done to my worst enemy, I would be fighting the case for them, he said.

This comes after another bizarre rant on Mr Bollings programme by Mr Giuliani earlier this week, where he argued that Mr Smith should be indicted for indicting Mr Trump.

The people lying are the people bringing this They should be indicted for conspiracy against rights, he seethed on Tuesday night.

So heres what I say to Jack Smith, he said. After the Supreme Court threw out your case, which should have been a disgrace... you should have gone and found another profession because you dont belong in this one.

This one will be your legacy, violating the rights of free speech of an American citizen. Never mind whether he was president or not, he added. It could be anybody. It could be a homeless person. You dont get to violate peoples first amendment rights, Smith. No matter who the hell you are, no matter how sick you are with Trump derangement syndrome.

Mr Giuliani then brought up a copy of the indictment before slamming it down.

This isnt the first time youve acted like an unethical lawyer, he said. It should be the last.

Mr Giulianis attorney Robert Costello told to The New York Times that it appears that Mayor Giuliani is alleged to be co-conspirator No. 1.

Mr Giuliani made other unsavoury headlines this week over a sexual harassment lawsuit filed against him by a former assistant.

Noelle Dunphy sued the Trump ally in a Manhattan court in May for $10m for allegedly forcing her to perform sex acts and making racist, sexist, and remarks while working as his aide between 2019 and 2021.

In a new court filing this week, Ms Dunphys lawyers provided transcripts of tapes that allegedly lay out in graphic detail some of Mr Giulianis sexually explicit remarks.

Ben Goodman, a political adviser to Mr Giuliani, previously told The Independent that the 79-year-old political veteran unequivocally denies the allegations in the lawsuit.

On Wednesday, Mr Goodman told The Independent that Mr Giulianis relationship with Ms Dunphy was entirely consensual.

Bevan Hurley contributed to this report
KYIV, Ukraine (AP)  Ukraine said its sea drones struck a major Russian port Friday and damaged a warship in an attack that underlined Kyiv's growing naval capabilities as the Black Sea becomes an increasingly important battleground in the war.

The strike on Novorossiysk halted maritime traffic for a few hours and marked the first time a commercial Russian port has been targeted in the nearly 18-month-old conflict. The port has a naval base, shipbuilding yards and an oil terminal, and is key for exports. It lies about 110 kilometers (about 60 miles) east of Crimea, where Russias Defense Ministry said it thwarted another attack.

The Security Service of Ukraine and the country's navy carried out the attack that damaged the Olenegorsky Gornyak, a landing vessel of the Russian navy, according to an official with the security service. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give the information to the media, said the attack rendered the ship unable to perform combat missions.

Satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press appeared to show the ship leaking oil. An image from Planet Labs, taken a few hours after the attack, showed a ship dockside with another vessel next to it. The ship in the image matched the measurements of the Olenegorsky Gornyak, as well as known physical features of the vessel. Images posted on social media showed a ship listing.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted that he had received a report from the country's security service, the SBU, but didn't say what was in it.

I will only say that we are all grateful to the Security Service of Ukraine for pushing back the war to the aggressor state. What you bring to the world, you end up with the same, he said. Oblique references to attacks carried out against Russia are common for Ukrainian officials, who often do not take credit for them or only do so days after the fact.

Fridays attack was the latest in a series of strikes inside Russia, including two in Moscow that unsettled residents. It also reflected an increase in fighting in the Black Sea following the Kremlin's withdrawal from a deal that allowed Ukraine to export its grain through the waterway.

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On Wednesday, Russian drones caused significant damage and a huge fire at grain facilities in the Odesa region. A day earlier, the Russian military said Kyivs forces tried to attack two of its patrol vessels at sea southwest of the Russian-controlled city of Sevastopol in Moscow-annexed Crimea.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelenskyy, heralded the latest attack, saying it showed drones are changing the rules of the game ... and ultimately destroying the value of the Russian fleet.

Russias far superior navy has controlled the seas in the war so far. Its ships have regularly launched cruise missiles at major ports and cities across Ukraine, and they have largely blockaded the country's coast as well as mined the Black Sea, making passage through it treacherous.

Podolyaks remarks and other recent attacks in the sea and on the Kerch Bridge connecting Crimea to Russia could indicate Ukraine is trying to change that dynamic.

With the latest assault, Kyiv showed that it can attack any vessel of the Black Sea Fleet, no matter the distance, said Ukrainian military analyst Roman Svytan.

The end of the grain deal, under which ships carrying food from Ukrainian ports were promised safe passage, untied Kyivs hands, he said, predicting the frequency of attacks on Russian ships would only increase.

While Friday's attack served as an important morale booster for Ukraine, challenging Russia's naval power in the Black Sea will be hard for Ukraine.

The Russian Black Sea Fleet has nearly 50 warships, seven submarines and many support vessels, dwarfing the capability of Ukraine, which said it lost more than 80% of its naval capabilities after Moscow's illegal annexation of Crimea.

Despite Russia's superiority, Ukrainian missiles last year sank the fleet's flagship, the Moskva missile cruiser, and destroyed the Saratov landing ship in the occupied port of Berdyansk. Several more vessels have reportedly been damaged.

The Russian Defense Ministry claimed that the navy fended off Friday's attack, saying that its ships destroyed two Ukrainian sea drones. Footage published on Russian social media channels appeared to show a ship firing into the sea and a burning object exploding.

But other images that appeared on messaging app channels claimed to show the Olenegorsky Gornyak listing to one side, and some Russian military bloggers confirmed that it was damaged. Ukrainian media outlets also carried footage they said was from a drone's onboard camera showing it approaching the Russian landing ship.

The AP could not verify the videos.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to comment on the attack during a conference call with reporters.

The Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which operates an oil terminal in Novorossiysk, said maritime traffic was halted for a few hours but that its facilities were not damaged. The regional governor said there were no casualties.

Minutes after confirming the attack on the Black Sea port early Friday, Russias Ministry of Defense said it had also repelled another attack by Ukraine on Crimea. The ministry said air defense systems shot down 10 drones and jammed another three.

Videos shared on Russian social media channels reportedly from around the city of Feodosia showed what appeared to be air defense systems working, as well as loud explosions.

Last month, another Ukrainian attack struck a key bridge that links Russia to the peninsula it illegally annexed in 2014 and serves a key artery for sending military and civilian supplies to Crimea and sustaining Russia's war effort.

In other developments:

 The U.N. atomic watchdog said its monitors at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant have observed no mines or explosives on rooftops of reactor units 3 and 4 and or the plant's turbine halls after having been given access the previous day. Ukraines military intelligence said in June, without providing evidence, that Russia had placed suspected explosives on the roof and was planning a large-scale provocation.

The International Atomic Energy Agency cited its chief, Rafael Mariano Grossi, saying that the the monitoring team continues to request to visit the roofs of the other 4 units. The IAEA has repeatedly expressed concern about a potential radiation leak from the plant. Its six reactors have been shut down for months.

 Saudi Arabia said it will host an international meeting on the Ukraine war on Saturday to be attended by national security advisers and other officials. The talks will be held behind closed doors, like the first such meeting in Copenhagen in June. Officials have said Ukraine will be represented, while Russia was not invited.

Saudi Arabias assertive Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has sought to position himself as a possible negotiator in the war. The kingdom hosted an Arab League summit earlier this year that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attended. The kingdom maintains close ties to Russia through OPEC+.

 The Moscow-appointed governor of the Russia-occupied part of the Zaporizhzhia region, Yevgeny Balitsky, said several Ukrainian drones were shot down near the Sea of Azov port city of Berdyansk during the night.

___

Burrows reported from Tallinn, Estonia. Associated Press writers Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Geir Moulson and Yuras Karmanau in Berlin contributed to this report.

___

Follow APs coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
A Ukrainian sea drone slams into a Russian warship in Novorossiysk on August 4, 2023. Pravda Gerashchenko

Russia said Friday that it thwarted a Ukrainian sea drone attack on one of its warships.

But videos released shortly after by Ukrainian officials proved otherwise.

One video shows a sea drone smashing into the side of the warship, partially damaging it.

Russia claimed to have defeated a Ukrainian sea drone attack in the Black Sea on Friday, only to be instantly humiliated by a video showing it worked.

In a statement on Telegram, the Russian Ministry of Defense said: "Tonight, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, with the use of two unmanned sea boats, attempted an attack on the Novorossiysk naval base of the Russian Armed Forces," according to a translation by LBC.

"During the repulse of the attack, unmanned boats were visually detected and destroyed by fire from the standard weapons of Russian ships guarding the outer raid of the naval base," the statement continued.

However, videos posted by Ukrainian officials on social media suggested otherwise.

Anton Gerashchenko, an advisor to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, tweeted out dashcam footage of a Ukrainian sea drone approaching the Russian warship and slamming into its side before the signal cuts off.

Insider could not verify the video. Another Ukrainian told CNN on Friday that the attack was carried out by a drone with around 450 kilograms of TNT.

Stephen Wright, a drone technology developer, told Insider that the vessel looks similar to a new naval drone that Ukraine proudly revealed to CNN last week. He added that 450 kilograms was a "huge amount" for a drone to carry.

"To put it in context, estimates for the explosives being carried by the airborne strikes on Moscow are in the 5-10kg range," he added.

Wright said that Ukraine was preparing to step up its attacks on the Russian Black Sea fleet with larger, more powerful drones.

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Another video taken in the aftermath of the attacks also appears to show that the ship was hit, dispelling the Russian claims. In the video, the ship is listing to one side as it is towed away.

Ukrainian officials have not commented on the attack, which is in keeping with their security policy.

"As a result of the attack, the Olenegorsky Gornyak received a serious breach and currently cannot conduct its combat missions," the source told Reuters.

It has not been confirmed what ship it was, but a source with the Security Service of Ukraine identified it to Reuters as the Olenegorkiy Gornya, a large landing vessel stationed in Novorossiysk, which is far from Ukrainian-held territory.

There were no casualties, said Veniamin Kondratiev, the governor of the Krasnodar region, where the base is located.

Read the original article on Business Insider
A fire blazes at Novorossiysk following an alleged naval drone strike

Russia says it has closed the port of Novorossiysk in its southern Krasnodarsky Krai region after an alleged attack on a Russian naval base there, by what the authorities say were Ukrainian sea attack drones.

Witnesses told Russian media they heard explosions ring out over the port in the early hours of Aug. 4, and saw an intense fire and large plume of smoke rising over the ports oil terminal.

Residents of the village of Yuzhnaya Ozereevka near Novorossiysk reported an explosion strong enough to set off car alarms, Russian Telegram news channel Mash reported, posting a video of a smoke plume over the Russian port.

Later, Russias Ministry of Defense claimed that "two Ukrainian unmanned boats" had attacked the Russian naval base at Novorossiysk.

The ministry claimed that the unmanned boats were "visually detected, fired on, and destroyed."

Russia typically claims that it destroys all drones, airborne or seaborne, before they hit their targets. Russia and the Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine have been regularly attacked in recent months by what are almost certainly Ukrainian attack drones, although Kyiv typically denies launching the attacks.

In the port of Novorossiysk, one of the largest ports of the Black Sea and Russia, a temporary ban on the movement of vessels was introduced, the company Caspian Pipeline Consortium (KPC) has announced.

KPC owns an oil terminal near Novorossiysk. The company's press service stated that the terminal had not been not damaged and was continuing to load oil onto moored tankers.

However, local residents said they believe that the explosion had been at the KPC terminal.

The alleged attack on the Russian port comes just two days after Russia attacked the Ukrainian port of Izmail, Odesa region, on Aug. 2. As a result of the Russian attack, an elevator, grain hangars, tanks of one of the cargo terminals, production, warehouse and administrative premises were damaged and destroyed.

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Read also: Romanian President calls Russias attack on Odesa Oblast a war crime

The Ukrainian militarys South Operational Command following the attack stated that the enemy was deliberately trying to destroy port infrastructure on the Danube River, which Ukraine has been using to export grain following Russias abandonment of the UN-brokered grain initiative, which allowed Ukraine to export grain by three of its seaports.

After pulling out of the initiative on July17, Russia threatened to attack ships approaching Ukraines ports on the assumption that they would be carrying weapons to the country.

However, Russia also then began a bombing campaign against Ukrainian port infrastructure, attacking the countrys main port at Odesa in particular, suggesting that the Kremlins aim is to cripple Ukraine economically by preventing it exporting its crops.

Russia, which is also a major exporter of grain, would also benefit by preventing Ukrainian exporting its grain, as any drop in supply would raise prices for its own grain exports.

Russia has failed to carry through on its threat to attack ships approaching Ukrainian ports, with at least three ships having docked in the country, their approach having been monitored by NATO surveillance planes.

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
The Russian Defense Ministry claimed on Aug. 4 that 13 Ukrainian drones were shot down in Crimea overnight, and two unmanned surface vessels were destroyed while attacking a naval base in Russia's Novorossiysk.

According to the ministry, Ukraine launched drones against targets on the territory of the occupied peninsula. Ten were shot down by air defense and three were eliminated through electronic warfare, Russia claimed.

Moscow claimed that there were no casualties or damage due to the alleged attack.

The same night, Russia said that two unmanned surface vessels attempted to attack a Black Sea naval base in the southern city of Novorossiysk. The Russian Defense Ministry claimed that both of the unmanned boats were destroyed by Russian ships guarding the base.

Veniamin Kondratyev, the governor of the Krasnodar region, said there were no causalities or damages due to the attack.

Ukrainian authorities did not comment on the alleged incidents.

The Kyiv Independent could not independently verify the claims.

Recent weeks saw frequent reports of attacks against the occupied peninsula. On Aug. 1, the Russian occupation authorities in Crimea reported explosions around the major naval city of Sevastopol.

Ukraine's military intelligence (HUR) said that the tension between pro-Ukrainian residents of Crimea and the Russian occupation forces is rising, as the former "systematically" target Russian bases with Molotov cocktails.

The HUR also reported on the destruction of ammunition warehouses on the peninsula on July 28.

In late June, Ukraine used missiles to hit the bridges over the Chonhar Strait, connecting the peninsula to Kherson Oblast, and on July 17, the Crimean Bridge over the Kerch Strait was damaged as well.

While Kyiv does not generally claim responsibility for incidents on the occupied peninsula, Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said that Ukraine will continue to attack targets in Crimea to reduce Russia's fighting capacity and "help save the lives of Ukrainians."

Read also: Ukraine war latest: More explosions reported in occupied Crimea

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Russia used to pride itself on surplus state budgets but has been running a deficit since the start of the invasion - Pelagiya Tikhonova/M24/Moscow News Agency

Russia has doubled its defence budget for 2023, with its military spending now accounting for a third of all government outlay amid the war in Ukraine.

Moscow raised its defence spending target to more than 80 billion for this year, an internal government memo obtained by Reuters revealed, as the costs of its offensive spiral and place growing strain on Russias finances.

The figures show that the Kremlin spent about 5.6 trillion rubles (46 billion) on defence between January and June, an amount 12 per cent higher than the total military spend targeted for the entirety of 2023 and accounting for 37 per cent of all government outlay in the period.

A published budget plan for this year envisages 17.1 per cent of total funds spent on national defence.

Russias annual defence budgets over the past decade have accounted for between 14 to 23 per cent of all government spending.

Budget crunch compounded by sanctions

Since launching its invasion in February 2022, Moscow has classified most budgetary information, with sector-specific data no longer published and only the most general information made publicly available.

In January-June this year, total public spending in Russia was already 2.4 billion rubles (21 billion) higher than compared with the same period in 2022.

The memo cited by Reuters suggested that 97 per cent of all the extra spending went towards Moscows war effort.

Russia used to pride itself on surplus state budgets but has been running a deficit since the start of the invasion.

The countrys budgetary crunch has been compounded by Western sanctions and a significant decline in export revenues.

Public filings suggest that funding for hospitals and schools have been squeezed since the start of the war at the expense of increased defence spending.

Russian media outlet RBC on Friday reported that two Russian ministries are wrangling over funding for 170,000 families due to be relocated from remote villages above the Arctic circle as this years budget allocated only one per cent of the one billion rubles (8.3 million) required for the transfer.

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Tighter rules imposed

The developments came as Russian lawmakers moved ahead with plans to impose tighter rules limiting peoples ability to dodge being drafted to fight in Ukraine.

The plans have been widely perceived as laying the groundwork for a fresh mobilisation of civilians  something that the Kremlin denies.

Andrei Kartapolov, the chairman of the defence committee at the State Duma, told the Russian parliaments official newspaper on Friday that the chamber will consider new amendments calling for prison time for those caught avoiding mobilisation.

If the amendments are passed, such individuals could be fined 500,000 rubles (4,300) or imprisoned for up to five years.

The measures are expected to be considered in September when lawmakers are back from their current summer break.

It makes no sense to wait, Mr Kartapolov said when asked why the bill needs to be adopted so soon.

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Navalny was tried behind closed doors at the IK-6 penal colony, a maximum-security prison some 250 kilometres (155 miles) east of Moscow, where he is jailed (Alexander NEMENOV)

Russia on Friday handed jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny 19 years behind bars on extremism charges in what he said was a Kremlin bid to deprive ordinary people of "the will to resist".

The heavy sentence against Navalny, who had mobilised the largest protests against President Vladimir Putin, comes amid a historic crackdown on dissenting voices as Moscow's assault on Ukraine stretches into its second year.

In a statement posted on Facebook, Navalny, who was sentenced to 19 years at a "special regime" penal colony, urged Russians to keep up the fight.

"They want to frighten you, not me, and deprive you of the will to resist," he said.

"You are being forced to surrender your Russia without a fight to a gang of traitors, thieves and scoundrels who have seized power.

"Don't lose the will to resist."

Special regime penal colonies are jails with the strictest conditions of imprisonment reserved for Russia's worst criminals including terrorists and serial killers.

AFP journalists watching the court session in a press centre at Navalny's prison said the 47-year-old looked emaciated but relaxed.

He smiled as the judge read the verdict and hugged another defendant before the grainy transmission cut.

A masked law enforcement officer in grey camouflage gear and flak jacket stood in front of the audience room.

- Behind closed doors -

The trial has been held behind closed doors at the IK-6 penal colony, a maximum-security prison some 250 kilometres (155 miles) east of Moscow, where Navalny is jailed.

A few dozen people travelled to Melekhovo to support the jailed opposition leader.

One of the supporters, Denis, said the harsh verdict did not surprise him.

"It was obvious given our justice system," said the 36-year-old engineer from Moscow, who declined to give his last name.

He called Navalny a "symbol of the fact that we have a different future, we have a different path".

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Navalny is already serving a nine-year sentence in a maximum-security prison for "embezzlement", a charge his supporters say was trumped up in retaliation for challenging Putin.

This was the first formally political case against the opposition leader, his team has said.

The United States called Navalny's sentencing "an unjust conclusion to an unjust trial."

Germany slammed the ruling as "pure injustice", the EU's chief denounced the verdict as "unacceptable", and the UN rights chief urged Russia to release the jailed opposition politician "immediately".

Britain too called for Navalny's immediate release.

- 'Trying to intimidate' -

Navalny had said on Thursday he expected the court to hand him a lengthy, "Stalinist" prison sentence.

"Please consider and realise that by jailing hundreds, Putin is trying to intimidate millions," he said.

Navalny has built a huge following on social media, where he has posted videos exposing alleged corruption among Russia's elite and mobilised massive anti-government protests.

Prosecutors said that Navalny created an organisation that undermined public security by carrying out "extremist activities".

His Anti-Corruption Foundation, which investigates graft among Russian officials, was banned for extremism in 2021.

Most of his close allies have fled the country.

Since launching full-scale hostilities against Ukraine last year, Moscow has ramped up its crackdown on critics, pushing top members of the country's beleaguered opposition abroad.

Navalny's last days before the verdict were spent in a punishment cell where he has been regularly sent for minor infringements of prison rules, according to his team.

He was arrested in 2021 after arriving in Moscow from Germany, where he had been recovering from a poisoning attack he blames on the Kremlin, one which sparked international condemnation.

- Severe penal colony -

Navalny said prison officials had forced him to share a cell with a sickly inmate and subjected him and other prisoners to "torture by Putin", making them listen to the Russian president's speeches.

He has also complained of health problems and major weight loss since being jailed.

In April, Navalny said he could be separately judged over terrorism charges and face life in prison.

His campaign offices around the country were declared extremist organisations in 2021 by authorities, putting employees, volunteers and supporters at greater risk of prosecution.

Over the summer two heads of regional offices, Lilia Chanysheva and Vadim Ostanin, were sentenced to seven-and-a-half and nine years respectively on extremism charges.

Thousands of Russians have been detained for protesting Moscow's offensive in Ukraine. Some of the highest-profile activists including Vladimir Kara-Murza and Ilya Yashin are now behind bars.

bur/jj
Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat

In the fall, Russia may attack Ukraines infrastructure more often with drones than with missiles, Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat told Ukrainian TV broadcasters on Aug. 4.

Ihnat claimed that Moscow used its strategic stockpile of long-range and precision missiles last winter during mass attacks on the Ukrainian power grid. As a result, it is now probable that "we should expect more drone attacks than missile attacks."

Read also: Zelenskyy holds intense three-hour Commander-in-Chief briefing

According to him, the occupiers no longer have the same stockpile of missiles as they did in 2022.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy previously stated that Russia may resume its strikes against the Ukrainian power grid in late 2023.

Read also: Ukraine eliminates 23 kamikaze drones in Russias nighttime attack on Ukraine

Zelesnkyy said that Russia has launched at least 1,961 Iranian-made Shahed kamikaze drones at Ukraine during the war.

In July, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces reported that Russias military-industrial complex could produce around one hundred long-range missiles of various types per month.

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A view shows a marine station building destroyed during a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Izmail, Odesa region, Ukraine August 2, 2023. REUTERS/Nina Liashenko

Russian forces have been routinely attacking Ukraine's southern cities and ports in recent weeks.

Some drone strikes have targeted areas along the Danube River, which borders NATO member Romania.

Western intelligence says Russia has "evolved its risk appetite for conducting strikes near" NATO.

Russian forces have been increasingly carrying out explosive drones attacks on Ukrainian ports, even in areas near Ukraine's borders with NATO territory, and Western intelligence suggests the series of calculated moves show Moscow's "appetite" for risk has changed.

Moscow began a coordinated effort to target Ukraine's southern cities, ports, and grain storage facilities in mid-July after it killed the critical Black Sea grain deal, which had allowed Kyiv to export food and fertilizer beyond a Russian blockade in a bid to avoid a global food crisis. Since the deal collapsed, Russia has relentlessly bombarded Ukrainian economic interests and civilians near the Black Sea and even threatened military action against vessels it believes are bound for Ukraine.

But these attacks have also crept toward NATO territory, something Western officials have warned of since the 17-month-long war began. Specifically, Russia has used Iranian-made one-way attack drones  widely known as "Shaheds" in a reference to the types of drones  to carry out several waves of strikes on Kyiv's ports along the meandering Danube River, which separates southern Ukraine and NATO-member Romania and feeds into the Black Sea.

Britain's defense ministry said in a Friday intelligence update that Russia "is highly likely attempting to coerce international shipping into stopping trading via the ports." It added that the Iranian-made drones have landed as close as 650 feet from the Romania border, "suggesting that Russia has evolved its risk appetite for conducting strikes near NATO territory."

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A recent video filmed from the Romanian side of the Danube River  which showed a giant fireball erupt in the aftermath of a Russian attack on the city of Izmail  highlighted just how close the drones are to NATO territory.

Ukraine's defense ministry said an attack on Izmail this week left over 40,000 tons of grain damaged.

"This grain could have fed millions of people in China, Israel, and many African countries. Terrorists can use starvation as a weapon. russia has demonstrated this once more," the defense ministry wrote on Twitter.

UK intelligence said there's "a realistic possibility" that Russia is using the Iranian drones "to strike this area in the belief they are less likely to risk escalation than cruise missiles: Russia likely considers them as acceptably accurate, and they have much smaller warheads than cruise missiles."

In some areas along the Black Sea, Russia has made use of notoriously inaccurate missiles like the Kh-22  an anti-ship missile referred to by NATO as the AS-4 Kitchen  to hammer Ukrainian cities over the past few weeks, leading to international outrage and condemnation. The persistent strikes have killed and injured scores of civilians and left buildings, including historic sites, in ruins.

A view shows a building of the Black Sea Danube shipping company destroyed during a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Izmail, Odesa region, Ukraine August 2, 2023. REUTERS/Nina Liashenko

"Russia's attacks on civilian and port infrastructure in Odesa, Izmail, and Reni devastate places where people live and work," US Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink said on Wednesday. "As Russia continues to weaponize food, these escalatory attacks also represent a total assault on Ukraine's ability to get badly needed grain to people around the world."

Meanwhile, the bombardment near Romania comes as some NATO countries worry that Russian allies are encroaching on NATO territory to the northwest of Ukraine.

In late July, Poland accused Wagner Group mercenaries living in exile in Belarus and training the country's military of moving into position near its border and said that two Belarusian military helicopters violated its airspace. Minsk has denied the allegations, but nonetheless, Wagner's presence has led officials in NATO members Poland and Lithuania to express concern over the group's activities.

Speaking to reporters this week, White House National Security Council Spokesperson John Kirby downplayed the concern and said the mercenaries do not appear to be an immediate threat to NATO.

"We're not aware of any specific threat posed by Wagner to Poland or to any of our NATO allies, and we're watching that, obviously, closely," he said, reiterating that the US is still committed to "defending every inch of NATO territory."

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The Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) says the Russians are preparing a false flag provocation to draw Belarus into direct hostilities against Ukraine.

Source: SSU

Details: Intelligence reports suggest that a provocation involving a terrorist attack is planned at the Mazyr Oil Refinery in Gomel Oblast, bordering Ukraine. The planning is being carried out by a sabotage and reconnaissance group (SRG) of Russian military and intelligence officers deployed to Belarus under the guise of Wagnerites.

Quote: "This Russian SRG is supposed to commit a provocation at the refinery, pretending to be 'Ukrainian saboteurs'. The Russian Federation plans to blame Ukraine for the crime in order to try once again to drag Minsk into a full-scale war against our nation.

The SSU obtained information on the planned terrorist attack in Belarus from several sources. Specifically, from the testimony of a Russian Armed Forces serviceman captured by Ukrainian defenders on the Zaporizhzhia front."

Details: The SSU says it found information in the Russian captive's mobile phone concerning a 'special mission' at the Mazyr Oil Refinery.

"The SSU cyber specialists found deleted communication with other executors, pictures of the facility, and some information about the operation in his phone," the report said.

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By Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -U.S. bank JPMorgan this week stopped processingpayments for the Russian Agricultural Bank, Russia said on Friday, as it demanded action, not promises, from Washington to help Russian grain and fertilizer reach global markets.

JPMorgan had handled some Russian grain export payments for the past few months with reassurances from Washington. However, that cooperation stopped this week, Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

"The direct channel between the Russian Agricultural Bank and JPMorgan ... was closed on Aug. 2," foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova was quoted by Russian media as saying.

The United Nations, the U.S. State Department and JPMorgan declined to comment.

Moscow had allowed the safe export of Ukraine grain via the Black Sea for the past year under a deal it quit on July 17. Russia has a list of demands it wants met before it will return to the arrangement.

Under a related pact - also brokered in July 2022 - U.N. officials agreed to help Russian food and fertilizer exports reach global markets.

"As soon as this is done, this deal will immediately be renewed," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday.

A key Russian demand has been the reconnection of the Russian Agricultural Bank to the SWIFT international payments system. It was cut off by the European Union in June 2022 following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Zakharov, the foreign ministry spokeswoman, said the West and the United Nations "tried to present (payment processing by JPMorgan) as a working alternative to SWIFT."

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters on Thursday that Washington would continue to do "whatever is necessary" to ensure Russia can freely export food if the Black Sea grain deal was revived.

While Russian exports of food and fertilizer are not subject to Western sanctions imposed after Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Moscow has said restrictions on payments, logistics and insurance have hindered shipments.

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US SAYS RUSSIA HAS STRONG EXPORTS

Top U.S. State Department sanctions official James O'Brien said on Friday that Russia needed to be clear about what it was asking for and what constituted success, suggesting it should be how much food and fertilizer reaches the world.

"It has put forth a number of different demands and all of them having to do with various Russian institutions not getting services from the private sector," he told reporters. "We have made clear that we're prepared to help on any of these matters."

"Russia is exporting record amounts of grain," O'Brien said. "So if the measurement is food for the globe ... Russia's complaints amount to minor allegations about a system that is working very well."

Russia may export at least 55 million tonnes of grain in the 2023/24 marketing season, slightly less than the estimated record-breaking 57 million tonnes in the 2022/23 season, Russia's Grain Union said last month.

Ukrainian exports for the 2022/23 season were almost 49 million tonnes, according to Agriculture Ministry data. Nearly 33 million tonnes of that was shipped under the Black Sea deal.

Western countries have accused Russia of using food as a weapon of war by quitting the Black Sea deal, which had helped bring down global food prices, and then carrying out repeated air strikes on Ukrainian ports and grain stores.

Russia has complained that not enough Ukrainian grain was getting to the poorest countries. The United Nations has argued that the deal helped everyone because it brought prices down 23% from a record high in the weeks following Russia's invasion.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols, Daphne Psaledakis, Simon Lewis; Editing by Jane Merriman and Cynthia Osterman)
Sailors stand at attention on the deck of a Russian Black Sea Fleet warship during the Navy Day celebrations in Novorossiysk (STRINGER)

Russia said Friday it had thwarted Ukrainian sea and air drone attacks on a naval base in the Black Sea and the Crimean peninsula.

The number of attacks in the sea has increased from both sides since Moscow exited a deal last month that had allowed Ukrainian grain exports via the shipping hub during the conflict between the two countries.

"Tonight, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, with the use of two unmanned sea boats, attempted an attack on the Novorossiysk naval base of the Russian Armed Forces," the defence ministry said on Telegram.

Russian ships destroyed the naval drones, it said. It was the first such attack targeting the port city.

The Black Sea port of Novorossiysk hosts the terminus of a pipeline that carries most Kazakh oil exports through Russia.

The fuel artery's operator Caspian Pipeline Consortium said it was continuing to ship oil to moored tankers at the terminal, Russian state media reported Friday.

But "a temporary ban has been established on the movement of ships in the port", said the company, as quoted by Interfax news agency.

Russia's Black Sea Fleet has been targeted since the beginning of Moscow's military campaign in Ukraine more than a year ago, but attacks have increased in recent weeks.

On Tuesday, Russia's defence ministry said it foiled a Ukrainian drone attack targeting patrol boats in the Black Sea.

Three drones were trained on ships navigating in waters 340 kilometres (210 miles) southwest of Sevastopol, the base of Russia's Black Sea fleet in Crimea.

A similar attack was repelled a week earlier.

- Crimea attack repelled -

The ministry also said Friday it had downed 13 drones over the Crimean peninsula.

There were no casualties or damage in either attack, the ministry said.

Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014, has been targeted by Kyiv throughout Moscow's Ukraine offensive but has come under more intense, increased attacks in recent weeks.

Ukrainian drone attacks on Crimea in July blew up an ammunition depot and damaged a strategic and symbolic bridge linking Russia's mainland to the peninsula.

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Kyiv has repeatedly said it plans to take back Crimea, which is a regular target for its forces.

On Sunday, Russian-installed authorities in Crimea said 25 Ukrainian drones were destroyed over the peninsula.

Kyiv says Russia has repeatedly attacked Ukraine's Odesa, a centuries-old city on the shores of the Black Sea and one of Ukraine's main ports.

- Frontline under microscope -

Also announced Friday was Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu's visit to a combat zone in Ukraine to inspect a command post and meet senior military officers.

Shoigu got an update on the situation on the front and "thanked commanders and soldiers... for successful offensive operations" in Lyman in eastern Ukraine, the army said, without mentioning when the visit took place.

Shoigu last visited the front at the end of June after a failed rebellion by the Russian paramilitary group Wagner fighting along with Moscow's forces in Ukraine.

Ukraine began its long-awaited counteroffensive in June but has made modest advances in the face of stiff resistance from Russian forces on the frontline.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday that the counteroffensive was difficult, reporting "very violent" fighting in the key areas on the eastern and southern fronts.

Late summer and early autumn 2022, Ukraine retook swathes of territory around Kherson and Kharkiv in rapid counteroffensives.

But Ukrainian forces are now contending with well-entrenched Russian defensive positions built over several months.

bur-dva/ach
Niger's President Mohamed Bazoum, who was ousted from office last week, believes that Russia can subjugate an entire region of Africa with the help of the Wagner Group.

Source: Mohamed Bazoum for the Washington Post

Quote: "In Africas troubled Sahel region, Niger stands as the last bastion of respect for human rights amid the authoritarian movements that have overtaken some of our neighbors. While this coup attempt is a tragedy for Nigeriens, its success would have devastating consequences far beyond our borders.

With an open invitation from the coup plotters and their regional allies, the entire central Sahel region could fall to Russian influence via the Wagner Group, whose brutal terrorism has been on full display in Ukraine."

Details: At the same time, Bazoum believes that the security situation in Niger is much better than in Mali and Burkina Faso, whose governments, established as a result of a military coup, support illegal rebellions.

Quote: "Rather than addressing security concerns by strengthening their own capacity, they employ criminal Russian mercenaries such as the Wagner Group at the expense of their peoples rights and dignity."

For reference: Central Sahel is a region of Africa that includes Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.

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Russia occupied by the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant soon after launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Stringer/Anadolu Agency via Getty Image

The IAEA said Friday it found no evidence of explosives on the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant.

Ukrainian officials had reported seeing objects that could be mines on the top of plant's reactors.

Inspectors reported hearing explosions the night before they were granted access to the plant's roofs.

The UN nuclear watchdog said Friday that it found no evidence that Russia has rigged Europe's largest nuclear power plant.

The organization added, however, that its experts could hear explosions in the area immediately surrounding Ukraine's Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant, which it described as a "stark reminder" of the risks posed by fighting in the area.

Ukraine has repeatedly expressed fears over the nuclear facility, suggesting that Russia might stage a nuclear disaster, similar to the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam in June.

In an address early last month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country's intelligence services had spotted "objects resembling explosives" on the roofs of some of the Zaporizhzhya plant's reactors.

Days later, IAEA experts said they had seen no visible evidence of explosives on the plant itself, but stressed that they had not been provided access to the roofs in question.

IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi on Friday said that he was pleased that inspectors had "finally" been granted that access, which came just as a new team of experts had arrived at the facility. However, he said IAEA inspectors were reminded of the risks facing the plant, which Russia occupied soon after its February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

On the night before they were provided access to the roof of the plant, IAEA experts reported hearing a "series of detonations in the vicinity of the plant." Officials at the plant asserted that "there was no impact on the site," the group said. The explosions came after the IAEA late last month said that Russia had surrounded the plant with landmines, a move that its experts were told was a "military decision."

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Grossi said the detonations serve as a reminder of the ongoing risks posed by the military occupation of the facility. Last week, Ukrainian forces began a push against Russian front lines in the Zaporizhzhia region, which Kyiv hopes to reclaim as part of its ongoing counteroffensive.

"I reiterate my call on all sides to refrain from any action that could lead to a nuclear accident with potential consequences for public health and the environment," he said.

Have a news tip? Email this reporter: cdavis@insider.com

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United States intelligence data indicates that Russia is trying to expand military interaction with North Korea and purchase a batch of artillery shells from it in order to use them in the war against Ukraine.

Source: Ukrinform news agency, citing John Kirby, Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council in the White House, during a telephone briefing

Quote: "Our information indicates that Russia is seeking to increase military co-operation with North Korea, such as through [North Koreas  ed.] sale of artillery munitions . . . to Russia."

Details: Kirby said Washington is linking the recent visit of Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu to North Korea with Russia's efforts to convince North Korea to sell artillery munitions to Russia, so that it could use them in the war against Ukraine.

At the same time, Kirby emphasised that any agreements between Moscow and Pyongyang regarding weapons supply would directly violate several UN Security Council resolutions.

Kirby noted that the United States would continue to make efforts to identify and prevent any Russian attempts to purchase artillery munition from North Korea or any other state ready to support the Kremlin's war against Ukraine.

Kirby also said it shows how desperate Putin is, as well as how the strong pressure of Western sanctions is affecting his war machine, forcing him to turn to countries like North Korea or Iran for help.

Background:

In June, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un promised to "hold hands" with Russian President Vladimir Putin and enhance strategic cooperation for the sake of a common goal: building a powerful country.

North Korea has sought closer ties with the Kremlin and supported Moscow after it invaded Ukraine last year, blaming the invasion on the "hegemonic policies" and "high-handedness" of the US and the West.

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(Reuters) - Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu has visited the frontline headquarters of the "Centre" army group involved in the Ukrainian conflict, Russian news agencies cited the defence ministry as saying on Friday.

Shoigu was briefed by a group commander and thanked officers and troops for "conducting successful operations" near Lyman, Interfax reported.

He was also shown a Swedish CV-90 infantry fighting vehicle that was abandoned by retreating Ukrainian soldiers after being hit by a hand-held anti-tank grenade, and Shoigu was briefed about the "shortcomings" of the Swedish model, Interfax said.

The report was in line with Russian efforts to play down the effectiveness of weapons and equipment that NATO members and other Western countries have supplied to Ukraine.

Shoigu's trip came days after a visit to the front line by General Valery Gerasimov, chief of the general staff and overall commander of Russia's war effort in Ukraine.

Both men had been savagely attacked by Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the Wagner mercenary group, who repeatedly accused them of incompetence and remoteness before launching a brief mutiny against the defence establishment in June.

(Reporting by Reuters; editing by Robert Birsel)
Russian troops hit the village of Stanislav in Kherson Oblast on Aug. 4, wounding a 40-year-old man, the regional administration reported.

At least four houses were damaged in the attack, according to the report.



Earlier the same day, Russia launched an airstrike on the village of Odradokamianka, Kherson Oblast. A 50-year-old civilian man was injured.

Kherson and other regional settlements on the Kyiv-controlled west bank of the Dnipro River, such as Stanislav, have been continuously subjected to Russian shelling since Ukrainian forces liberated them in November 2022.

Russian forces were pushed to the river's east bank, from where they have since been firing at the liberated territories, regularly resulting in civilian deaths and injuries.

On Aug. 3, Russian attacks wounded nine residents of the region, Governor Oleksandr Prokudin wrote. The Russian military reportedly hit residential areas, a church and another religious facility, a park, a cinema, an infrastructure facility, a shopping mall, a medical facility, and a prison.

Read also: Ukraines counteroffensive lurches forward: Key moment looms as more forces committed

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Russian forces attacked nine oblasts over the past day, killing at least two people and injuring at least 14 others, local officials reported early on Aug. 4.

Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Luhansk, Mykolaiv, Sumy, and Chernihiv oblasts came under attack.

In Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, two residents were injured in Russian strikes, Governor Serhii Lysak said.

Russian forces shelled the city of Nikopol during the evening of Aug. 3 and into the night, injuring an 85-year-old woman and a 35-year-old man, Lysak said. Both victims are receiving medical attention.

Lysak said Russian forces struck with heavy artillery and rocket launchers, hitting Nikopol as well as the communities of Chervonohryhorivka and Myrove.

The shelling also reportedly damaged over two dozen private homes, two trucks, and a car.

In Donetsk Oblast, two people were killed and two more wounded, Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko reported.

Russian strike against Kurakhivka killed a civilian and injured two others. One more person was killed in Krasnohorivka, the governor specified.

Multiple private houses were damaged across the oblast, he added.

Nine people were wounded in Russian strikes against Kherson Oblast, Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said.

This included four workers of the State Emergency Service who were putting out a fire at an Orthodox church in Kherson, caused by a previous Russian strike.

Russian artillery also hit a trolleybus, injuring three of its passengers and one passerby, officials reported.

A Norwegian volunteer was also injured in the central part of Kherson.

According to Prokudin, Russian strikes further targeted a medical institution, a shopping center, a cinema, and a prison in Kherson.

In Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Russian artillery shelling injured a 53-year-old man who was subsequently hospitalized, Governor Yurii Malashko said.

Russian forces targeted settlements across the oblast, resulting in at least 23 cases of property damage, the governor added.

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Kharkiv, Luhansk, Mykolaiv, Sumy, and Chernihiv also came under attack but local officials reported no casualties.

Read also: Ukraine war latest: Russias war costs Ukraine $50 billion annually, PM says

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Russian troops shelled nine communities in Sumy Oblast on Aug. 3, resulting in 165 explosions, the Sumy Oblast Military Administration reported via Telegram.

The communities of Bilopillia, Esman, Khotin, Krasnopillia, Velyka Pysarivka, Druzhbiv, Novoslobidske, Miropillia, and Yunakivka came under fire, the administration said.

In addition to artillery shelling, Russian forces attacked the Sumy border with machine guns, grenade launchers, mortar shelling, and tank shelling.

The administration reported no casualties or damage to civilian infrastructure.

The border communities of Sumy Oblast endure daily attacks from Russian forces. Shelling has become a fact of life in the border region since parts of the oblast were liberated in April 2022.

Read also: Uncertainty and despair: War taking heavy toll on mental health of Ukrainians

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The State Duma of Russia has reported that they support the decision of Vladimir Putin on the use of domestic cars by officials.

Source: Press service of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, referring to the statement of Vyacheslav Volodin, the head of the State Duma

Details: During the discussion, Putin's decision was "supported by all lawmakers". Volodin claims that they agreed to opt for domestically produced cars such as Moskvitch, Lada, and Aurus. In addition, according to Volodin, the release of the Volga car will soon begin, and the State Duma members plan to demand it.

He claims only domestic cars will be used from September on.

Previously:

On Thursday, Putin called for Russian legislation to be adjusted so that government agencies and officials could use only domestic cars.

Background:

Putin himself, according to the investigation of the team of Alexei Navalny, has a luxurious palace near Gelendzhik. A number of media outlets wrote about the secret assets of the President of the Russian Federation.

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(Reuters) - The Russian navy's Olenegorsky Gornyak landing ship was damaged during a sea drone attack conducted by Ukraine's SBU security agency and navy near the Russian port of Novorossiysk on Friday, a Ukrainian intelligence source said.

"As a result of the attack, the Olenegorsky Gornyak received a serious breach and currently cannot conduct its combat missions," the source told Reuters.

"All the Russian statements about a 'repelled attack' are fake," the source said.

Russia's defence ministry said earlier that Ukrainian sea drones had attacked a Russian navy base near the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, a major hub for Russian exports, and were destroyed by Russian warships.

The source shared a grainy video that looked like it had been shot from the top of a maritime drone that sails right up to the side of a large vessel before the video abruptly cuts out and turns to pixels.

The video could not immediately be verified by Reuters.

Ukraine has repeatedly used sea drones packed with explosives to try to strike back at the Russian navy fleet that dominates the Black Sea and has allowed Moscow to prevent Ukraine exporting grain via its favoured export route.

(Reporting by Tom Balmforth; Editing by Toby Chopra and Philippa Fletcher)
Photo of an explosion in Russian-occupied Crimea

Russia claims to have shot down 13 aircraft-type drones over Crimea overnight on Aug. 4  the second time in less than a week Moscow has claimed to have thwarted a mass drone attack on the Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory.

Russias Ministry of Defense claimed that ten drones were shot down and three were "suppressed" by means of electronic warfare systems. According to the Russians, there were no casualties or damage from the alleged attack.

Overnight several explosions were reported to have rung out in Crimea, with especially loud blasts being head in the coastal town of Feodosia in the west of Crimea.

Crimea has seen a string of alleged drone attacks on military targets in recent weeks.

On July 30, the Russian Ministry of Defense claimed that the occupied peninsula had been "attacked" by a swarm of25 drones. According to the Russian ministry, 16 of the drones were "shot down," and the rest disabled by electronic warfare systems.

Russia typically claims that it destroys all drones, airborne or seaborne, before they hit their targets. Russia and the Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine have been regularly attacked in recent months by what are almost certainly Ukrainian attack drones, although Kyiv typically denies launching the attacks.

Before the alleged drone swarm attack, on the evening of July 28, an ammunition depot of Russian troops exploded in Cossack Bay in the temporarily occupied Crimea. According to Ukrainian intelligence, the 810th separate brigade of the Russian marines is currently stationed in the area of Kozacha Bay.

Earlier, on July 24, there were explosionsat an air base near the village of Vesele near Dzhankoy, an important road and rail hub in the northern and central part of the peninsula. There was also a massive explosion on July 22 at the Oktyabrske airfield, where, according to Russian media, three tons of artillery shells had been stored.

Also on Aug. 4, Russia claimed that aRussian naval base at the port of Novorossiysk in Russias southern Krasnodarsky Krai region had been attacked by what the authorities said were Ukrainian sea attack drones.

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The port has been closed to shipping traffic, the Russian authorities said.

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The News

Jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been found guilty of extremism charges by a Moscow court, according to state media. The ruling comes with a 19-year sentence, adding to his already lengthy prison term. This is the fifth criminal conviction for the Kremlins most outspoken critic.

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Navalny was charged with promoting terrorism and funding extremism. Prosecutors wanted a 20-year sentence, adding to the nine years the opposition leader is already serving in a Russian penal colony.

The Kremlin has long targeted Navalnys organization, The Anti-Corruption Foundation. Members of the foundation have recently stated that Navalny has been in poor health in prison, and in April, they suspected he had been poisoned.

In 2020, Navalny was poisoned with a nerve agent following anti-Kremlin protests in Belarus.

He has previously said he expects to be imprisoned in Russia past 2050.

In a Thursday post on Telegram, Navalny, through his team, wrote: Think about why such a demonstratively huge sentence is needed. Its main purpose is to intimidate. You, not me. I will even say this: you personally, reading these lines.

The View From Germany

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock condemned the ruling saying, Russias arbitrary justice system imprisoning Alexei Navalny for another 19 years is pure injustice.



She said Putin will not silence critical voices with this.

The View From the European Union

Charles Michel, President of the European Commission, called for Navalnys immediate release, writing that the verdict in yet another sham trial against Navalny was unacceptable.

He said the conviction is the response to his courage to speak critically against the Kremlins regime.
A Russian court on Friday issued its verdict in a new case against jailed opposition leader Alexey Navalny, convicting the politician of promoting "extremism" and extending his time in prison by 19 years, according to Russian state media and his own team.

Navalny, who emerged as the most outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin's government before he was imprisoned, was already serving a nine-year sentence in a high-security prison about 150 miles east of Moscow for parole violations, fraud, and contempt of court.

Russian opposition politician Alexey Navalny appears on a screen via video link during a hearing of the Moscow City Court, at the IK-6 penal colony in Melekhovo, Russia, August 4, 2023. / Credit: EVGENIA NOVOZHENINA/REUTERS

The audio feed from the court  the only immediate source of information as journalists were not permitted in the room  was of poor quality, and Russia's judiciary authorities did not immediately confirm the sentence.

Navalny and many outside observers have always considered those charges politically motivated retaliation for his criticism of Putin and the Kremlin's policies, both foreign and domestic. The U.S. quickly condemned the verdict.

"This is an unjust conclusion to an unjust trial," U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement. "...By conducting this latest trial in secret and limiting his lawyers' access to purported evidence, Russian authorities illustrated yet again both the baselessness of their case and the lack of due process afforded to those who dare to criticize the regime."

In the new trial, Navalny was accused of creating an extremist organization, the Anti-Corruption Foundation. That organization has authored multiple investigations into the riches of the Russian elite. He also founded a network of nearly 40 regional offices that sought to challenge Kremlin-approved local politicians.

Both groups were outlawed as extremist organizations in 2021, a designation that exposed people involved in their operations to criminal prosecution.

Navalny faced a total of seven serious charges in the trial, including participating in and funding extremist activities, creating an NGO that "infringes on the rights of citizens," involving minors in dangerous acts, and rehabilitating Nazism. He was convicted on all but the last of those charges Friday.

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In April, Navalny said a separate proceeding had been launched against him stemming from the extremism case, in which he would stand accused of terrorism and be tried by a military court.

At the time, the politician said he expected the trials to result in life imprisonment.

"The sentence will be a long one," Navalny said in a statement released by his organization Thursday, before the verdict was announced in the case. "I urge you to think why such a demonstratively huge sentence is necessary. Its main purpose is to intimidate. You, not me. I will even say this: you personally, the one reading these lines."

The trial was held behind closed doors. Navalny's parents were denied entry to the court and have not seen their son for over a year.

Daniel Kholodny, who used to work for Navalny's YouTube channel, was also charged with funding and promoting extremism and was sentenced to prison on Friday, but due to the poor quality audio feed from inside the closed courtroom, there was confusion about how many years he was given.

In a Thursday statement, Navalny said Kholodny was part of his technical production staff, but that investigators had "made him up to be an 'organizer' of an extremist community," and attempted to pressure Kholodny into a deal: freedom in exchange for damning testimony against Navalny and his allies.

Navalny has been put in solitary confinement 17 times at the IK-6 prison, a facility known for its oppressive conditions and violent inmates.

In previous statements, his team described how the prison administration denied him family visits and punished him for transgressions as minor as having an unbuttoned shirt.

Navalny was arrested in January 2021 immediately upon his return from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from a poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin  a claim Russian officials have always denied.

Shortly after his arrest, a court sentenced him to two-and-a-half years in prison for violating the parole conditions of a 2014 suspended sentence in a fraud case that Navalny insists was politically motivated.

From that point on, the number of cases and charges against him snowballed, with his allies saying the Kremlin's goal has always been to keep him locked up for as long as possible.

Following Navalny's imprisonment, the country's authorities launched a sweeping crackdown on his associates and supporters. Many have been forced to flee the country, while others have been imprisoned, including the head of his regional office Liliya Chanysheva.

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Odesa, Ukraine  Ukrainian sea drones attacked a navy base at one of Russia's largest Black Sea ports, the Russian Ministry of Defense said Friday, claiming that both of the drones used in the attack had been destroyed. Ukrainian sources said a Russian naval vessel was damaged in the attack, however, and video posted online appeared to show a ship listing to one side.

The overnight attack hit Russia's Novorossiysk naval base on the Black Sea, and it reportedly forced a temporary halt to all ship movement at the key port.

The Olenegorsky Gornyak, a Russian Navy landing ship, center, is tugged to shore after apparently being damaged in a Ukrainian sea drone attack, off Novorossiysk, Russia, August 4, 2023 in a screengrab taken from a handout video. / Credit: Reuters/Handout

Clashes in and around Ukraine's Black Sea ports  which are currently blockaded by Russian forces  and at least one major river port have escalated since the collapse of an internationally-brokered deal that had, for a year up until last month, allowed for the safe export of vital grain supplies from Ukraine.

Russia pulled out of that deal and has since attacked the ports from which Ukraine's significant grain supplies are exported around the world, driving global grain prices up more than 10% in the immediate aftermath and threatening to keep them on the rise.

On Thursday, during a meeting of the United Nations Security Council, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on the world to insist that Russia stop using Ukraine's food exports as "blackmail" and stop treating the world's hungry and vulnerable people as leverage in its "unconscionable war."

America's top diplomat lashed out at Russia for ignoring appeals and pulling out of the year-old Black Sea Grain Initiative, which, during the year it was in effect allowed Ukraine to ship more than 32 million tons of grain from its Black Sea ports.



"What has Russia's response been to the world's distress and outrage? Bombing Ukrainian granaries, mining port entrances, threatening to attack any vessel in the Black Sea," Blinken said. "Every member of this Council, every member of the United Nations should tell Moscow: Enough."

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The port that was attacked overnight by Ukrainian drones is one of Russia's biggest on the Black Sea, and it's a major hub for Russian exports, including its oil.

An image from video provided by Ukrainian intelligence sources to the Reuters news agency on August 4, 2023, purportedly from the perspective of a Ukrainian sea drone as it attacked and hit the Russian Navy's Olenegorsky Gornyak landing ship at the Novorossiysk naval base in the Black Sea. / Credit: Reuters

Russian media didn't offer any reports of injuries or deaths, and the only official word from Moscow was the claim that both drones used in the strike had been destroyed.

Earlier this week, Russia again attacked port infrastructure in the besieged southern Ukrainian city of Odesa, and for the first time it also struck grain export facilities at Ukraine's Izmail port on the Danube river, just across from NATO member Romania. Izmail had become a main export route for Ukrainian grain following Russia's withdrawal from the Black Sea grain agreement on July 17.

Kyiv was preparing, meanwhile, for a peace summit to be hosted by Saudi Arabia over the weekend, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has already been looking further down the road, discussing still-unplanned talks that he hopes to see take shape after the Jeddah summit.

The delegations at the Jeddah summit will discuss a peace plan that has 10 key points, much like a Chinese proposal offered months ago and another one proposed by a delegation of African leaders a few weeks ago.

Unlike the other proposals, this one calls for Russia to give up all the territory it has seized from Ukraine, to pull all its troops out of the country, and for a tribunal to be convened to try those responsible for the invasion.

That would include Vladimir Putin, and it's worth noting that Russia has not been invited to this weekend's summit.

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Russian forces attacked Nikopol in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast two times on Aug. 3, using heavy artillery, Governor Serhii Lysak said on Telegram.

The shelling damaged a local utility company, Lysak said.

No civilians were injured in the attacks.

Nikopol lies across the Dnipro River from the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. The plant is controlled by occupying Russian troops, who subject the residents of Nikopol to regular shelling.

Governor Lysak wished a calm evening to the citizens of Ukraine, and "a hellishly hot" one for the occupiers.

Read also: Ukraine war latest: Russias war costs Ukraine $50 billion annually, PM says

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Ukrainian sea drones attacked a major naval base in Russia on Friday, leaving a damaged Russian warship listing in the Black Sea in a brazen strike carried out hundreds of miles from Ukrainian-held territory.

Dramatic social media videos showed the vessel, an amphibious Russian landing ship, tilting badly and sitting very low in the water as it was being towed near the base at Novorossiysk, Russias largest port.

The incident comes against the backdrop of rising tensions in the Black Sea and stepped up Ukrainian strikes against targets across Russia after President Volodymr Zelensky pledged to return the war to Russian territory.

A Ukrainian source told CNN that a sea drone carrying nearly 1,000 pounds of TNT had hit the ship, and claimed there were about 100 Russian servicemen aboard.

A big navy ship, [the] Olenogorsky Gornyak, was hit, the source told CNN. As the result of the attack, the Russian ship has received serious damage and is not able to fulfill its duties.

CNN was provided with footage showing an unmanned sea drone approaching a ship that appears to match the identity of the one later seen listing in the port of Novorossiysk. The 36-second video, shot from the sea drone, shows it approaching a ship at night. The video ends just as the drone reaches its target.

The Ukrainian source said the operation was carried out jointly by the Security Service of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Navy.

A Russian-appointed official said later on Friday that three Ukrainian sea drones had also been destroyed near the Kerch Strait and the area leading to the Crimean bridge.

The drones damaged a civilian Russian tanker, injuring some crew members, according to Vladimir Rogov, an official with the Zaporizhzhia military-civilian administration. However, Russias Federal Agency for Marine and River Transport said in a statement on Telegram that there were no casualties among the 11 crew.

A Ukraine Security Service source told CNN the hit on the Russian oil tanker, the SIG, was carried out in a joint operation with the Navy and that it involved a sea drone with 450kg of TNT. The source said the SIG had been transporting fuel for the Russian military.

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CNN has not been able to independently verify the claims.

SIG is one of the biggest Russian oil tankers. It was built in 2014 and has 5,000-ton capacity.

An ambitious push

The strike at Novorossiysk was the latest demonstration of Kyivs ambitious push to develop long-range unmanned attack vehicles at sea and in the air. The drone that hit the ship would have had to travel several hundred miles to reach the port, whether launched from Ukrainian-controlled territory or from somewhere in the Black Sea.

Novorossiysk, near the Russian city of Krasnodar, is Russias largest port by volume of cargo handled and is a base for Russias Black Sea Fleet. It is ice-free year-round and has nearly 100 berths, and handles oil and gas exports as well as agricultural exports.

The Olenengorsky Gornyak was one of three Ropucha-class ships that entered the Black Sea weeks before the Russian invasion in February 2022, when a sea-borne assault on the coast around Odesa seemed a likely part of Moscows strategy.

The Russians failure to advance further west on land in the early days of the invasion, combined with the improvement in Ukrainian defenses since then, has made such an operation highly unlikely and the ship, which is nearly 50 years old, would not have had a key role in the Russian navys current Black Sea plans.

But the Ukrainians ability to reach Novorossiysk serves notice that Russian surface ships and port infrastructure in the Black Sea are vulnerable to these fast and relatively stealthy weapons, especially with combat payloads of the size that struck the ship.

A Russian military blogger who goes by the name Rybar later reported that one of the Olenengorsky Gornyaks compartments had been flooded but that it was not in danger of sinking.

Russian officials claimed to have intercepted two Ukrainian sea drones at the port, despite the video evidence to the contrary. The Russian Seafarers Union later claimed the port was working in normal mode and that everything is calm, state media agency RIA Novosti reported.

Changing the rules of the game

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak praised the strike in a tweet, saying: What is happening in the Black Sea? #Drones are changing the rules of the game, returning the waters to full-fledged foreign jurisdiction, and ultimately destroying the value of the Russian fleet. In fact, they are returning everyone to the international law of the sea.

Other Ukrainian officials were more cryptic in their responses to the attack. Andriy Yusov, a spokesman for Ukraines Defense Intelligence, said just as in Moscow there are unidentified flying objects  in reference to recent drone strikes on the Russian capital  so too there are now unidentified floating objects in the Black Sea.

Yusov said the attack was a serious slap in the face for the Kremlin and in terms of security, of course, this is a big loss for the occupiers fleet. Planning further landing operations, including the use of these vessels, becomes more problematic.

Russian military bloggers reacted to the attack with a mixture of anger, concern and surprise at the ability of Ukraines sea drones to strike targets long assumed to be at a safe distance.

Sergey Mardan, a Russian journalist and television personality, said the attack by Ukrainian marine drones on Novorossiysk is simply a quantum leap in the geography of the conflict. It is much larger than even the drones attacking the offices of Russian government ministries.

Another commentator who writes under the pseudonym Kapral Gashetkin said: Throughout the entire war, the Novorossiysk Naval Base was the rear of the Black Sea Fleet. It was thought to be relatively safe. However, it is time to realize that the enemy has a long arm and can reach very far with it.

In a separate incident, Russias defense ministry claimed its air defenses downed 10 Ukrainian drones over Crimea on Friday morning and suppressed three others.

Some of the strikes on Crimea targeted an oil storage facility at the port of Feodosia, on the peninsulas southern coast. According to Rybar, Russian troops shot down seven drones and downed another with electronic warfare equipment.

Rybar said one of the drones landed near an oil depot in the city, but there is no data on damage yet.

Ukrainian officials said that attacks on the oil storage facility in Feodosia are inevitable.

Natalia Humeniuk, spokeswoman for the Ukrainian military in the south, said that Everyone knows that there is a very massive oil storage facility [in Feodosia], where very large reserves can be stored for the Black Sea Fleet.

It is clear that the [Russians] will defend this area. And it is clear that the enemys logistics are concentrated to some extent in these places Therefore, cotton [explosions] will bloom. And it is inevitable, Humeniuk said.

Black Sea strikes

Ukraine has previously targeted Russian naval assets in the Black Sea. In April 2022, shortly after the invasion began, one of Russias most important warships  the flagship guided-missile cruiser Moskva  sunk, with Ukraine claiming to have downed it with anti-ship cruise missiles.

Fridays attack comes as tensions ratchet up in the Black Sea, after Russia withdrew from a grain deal crucial to global food supplies and resumed its blockade of Ukraines ports, as well as launching a prolonged bombardment of its infrastructure and grain storage facilities.

As Ukraines sea drone program has developed, it has increasingly allowed the military to attack and surveil Russias fleet in the Black Sea and on the occupied Crimean peninsula.

CNN was granted exclusive access to a sea drone base last week, where officials said the latest version of the drones had a range of 500 miles and were capable of traveling at 50 miles per hour.

Defense sources confirmed to CNN that sea drones were involved in several significant operations, including the attack in July on the Kerch Strait Bridge linking Crimea to Russia. The strike took out a road section of the bridge, which is a vital supply artery for Russian forces.

One of the drones developers told CNN that the size and speed of the unmanned boats made them tough for the Russians to track.

It is very difficult for them to get into such a small drone, it is very difficult to find it, the developer said. The speed of these drones exceeds any sea craft in the Black Sea region at the moment.

After the strike on Friday, Russian military blogger Rybar noted: It is interesting that the drone approached the large landing ship freely. The crew probably did not expect an attack and therefore did not take measures to destroy the drone.

In recent weeks, Ukraine has increased its strikes on Russian territory, including in the capital Moscow, in an apparent shift in tactics and in rhetoric.

Ukraine is getting stronger, and the war is gradually returning to Russias territory, to its symbolic centers and military bases, Zelensky said in his daily address last Sunday. This is inevitable, natural and absolutely fair.

CNNs Julia Kesaieva, Josh Pennington and Mariya Knight contributed reporting.

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The Russians attacked Sumy Oblast 27 times over the past day, with 165 explosions recorded there.

Source: Sumy Oblast Military Administration

Details: The Administration reported that 18 settlements in nine hromadas came under Russian fire, including the hromadas of Krasnopillia, Khotin, Bilopillia, Yunakivka, Myropillia, Druzhba, Esman, Nova Sloboda and Velyka Pysarivka [a hromada is an administrative unit designating a town, village or several villages and their adjacent territories  ed.].

There was a mortar attack (15 explosions), artillery shelling (37 explosions) and a grenade launcher attack (17 explosions) in Bilopillia hromada.

The Russians fired 5 machine-gun bursts on Esman hromada and carried out mortar attacks causing 11 explosions.

There were three explosions in Druzhba hromada as a result of grenade launcher fire.

The Russians attacked Velyka Pysarivka hromada with a grenade launcher (27 explosions) and artillery (6 explosions).

In Nova Sloboda hromada, four explosions were recorded due to artillery shelling.

The Russians fired on Khotin hromada with artillery, mortars and a tank. There were seven explosions in total.

There was a mortar attack in Myropillia hromada (seven explosions).

There was artillery shelling in Yunakivka hromada causing five explosions.

The Russians fired using mortars and artillery on Krasnopillia hromada (26 explosions).

Ukrainska Pravda is the place where you will find the most up-to-date information about everything related to the war in Ukraine. Follow us on Twitter, support us, or become our patron!
The Russian invaders are forcing Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) workers in the temporarily occupied city of Enerhodar to obtain Russian passports.

Source: General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces

Quote: "In Enerhodar, temporarily occupied by Russian troops, the occupiers are forcing the plant's staff to obtain Russian passports, threatening them with reprisals, in order to keep them working at the Zaporizhzhia NPP."

Details: The General Staff reported that the Russian occupation forces were conducting regular searches of local residents in the city, both on the streets and in their homes.

They are checking passports and phones. If a citizen's passport turns out to be Ukrainian, the document is destroyed and they are forced to obtain a Russian one.

In addition, the occupiers are forcing people to change other documents, such as driving licences and papers for movable and immovable property.

Ukrainska Pravda is the place where you will find the most up-to-date information about everything related to the war in Ukraine. Follow us on Twitter, support us, or become our patron!
At least two people were killed, and two others were injured in recent Russian attacks on Donetsk Oblast.

Source: Pavlo Kyrylenko, Chairman of the Donetsk Oblast Military Administration (OMA) on Telegram

Quote from Kyrylenko: "On 3 August, Russians killed two residents of Donetsk Oblast, in Kurakhivka and Krasnohorivka. Another two people were injured in the oblast during the day."

Details: The head of the OMA said that people in Kurakhivka suffered injuries.

In total, the Russians have killed at least 1,642 and wounded at least 3,929 civilians in Donetsk Oblast since the beginning of the full-scale invasion.

Kyrylenko notes that these numbers are not final because it is not yet possible to establish the exact number of victims in Mariupol and Volnovakha.

Ukrainska Pravda is the place where you will find the most up-to-date information about everything related to the war in Ukraine. Follow us on Twitter, support us, or become our patron!
Russian soldiers at a military-training exercise in Rostov, Russia, on October 21. Arkady Budnitsky/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

The Russian military has begun recruiting from Kazakhstan amid a personnel crunch, Reuters reported.

It's offering benefits like a $5,200 sign-on bonus and a salary of at least $2,000 to new recruits.

It's not just the military. Russia's economy is also facing a record labor shortage, RBC reported.

Russia has a military-personnel problem as its war in Ukraine rages on.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's regime is so desperate for recruits that Moscow is offering a sign-on bonus of 495,000 rubles, or about $5,200, to people in the neighboring country of Kazakhstan if they join the Russian army, Reuters reported on Thursday.

Kazakhstan is a former Soviet republic home to about 3.5 million ethnic Russians, who make up nearly 18% of the country's population of about 19.5 million people.

The online recruitment ads feature the flags of Russia and Kazakhstan alongside the slogan "Shoulder to shoulder," per Reuters. The posts offer the 495,000-ruble one-off payment, a monthly 190,000-ruble salary, and other benefits for those who ink a contract with the Russian military, per the news agency.

The ads lead to a website that offers people a chance to join the Russian army in the country's far eastern Sakhalin region  where an organization set up by the local government is doing the recruitment, according to Reuters.

Russia and Kazakhstan are allies. However, the Kazakh government has not supported Russia's war in Ukraine and has urged for peace.

Joining military conflicts abroad for financial gain is also illegal under the law in Kazakhstan, according to Reuters.

Moscow's recruitment efforts of non-Russian citizens come as the country faces a broad personnel crunch amid the war in Ukraine, particularly after Putin launched a mobilization of 300,000 reservists last fall, prompting tens of thousands of Russian men to flee the country.

And it's not just the military that's facing a shortfall. The Russian economy similarly is facing a record labor shortage, Russia's RBC news outlet reported on Thursday, citing a survey by the Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy. The surveys found 42% of Russian industrial enterprises experienced a shortage of workers in July.

The Russian defense ministry and Kazakhstan's information ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Read the original article on Business Insider
A billboard indicates the presence of landmines at the position of a Ukrainian volunteer unit in a suburb of Kyiv in February. YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP via Getty Images)

Ukraine's counteroffensive to drive back Russia is encountering serious challenges.

A Ukrainian official said Russia had laid 5 mines per square meter in some regions.

Ukrainian troops are having to clear minefields by hand, reports say.

Ukrainian forces are encountering heavily-defended Russian positions and fields with up to five mines per square meter as they move forward with their counteroffensive, a Ukrainian official says.

Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, described the density of the Russian mining as "insane" in televised remarks Wednesday.

"The main task for us is to save the lives of our people at the front. We have to understand that the enemy has prepared for these events very well, with a huge number of territories mined," he said, according to a report by CNN.

"On average, there are 3-4-5 mines per square meter. Imagine how difficult the work is to remove them to allow our military to move afterwards."

He added: "If earlier there were hopes that this could be done with the help of equipment provided by our partners, today our units are doing a very difficult job on foot in many parts of the frontline at night."

Previous reports have described how Western tanks and mine-clearing technology have not been able to secure Ukrainian units a breakthrough, so units are resorting to trying to clear minefields slowly by hand.

"Normally our rollers can withstand up to four explosions," tank commander Maksym told the BBC last week.

"It's very hard because there are too many mines," he said, adding that Russians had been laying mines on top of each other to destroy Western tanks.

The Institute for the Study of War, a think tank based in Washington, DC, said in its daily update on the conflict on Thursday that Ukrainian forces advanced up to 650m into Russian defenses along a 1.5km front in the Melitopol direction in the Zaporizhzhia region.

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Ukraine launched its counteroffensive earlier in the summer, aiming to punch a hole through Russian defensive lines using tactics taught by Western allies and expensive weapons they'd provided. But having had months to dig in and fortify positions in east and south Ukraine they occupy, Russian defenders are proving difficult to break down.

The New York Times reported Wednesday that Ukrainian units were abandoning the aggressive tactics they were trained by Western allies to deploy in the offensive, and were instead resorting to seeking to wear Russia down with artillery and missile barrages and advances by smaller units.

Read the original article on Business Insider
A person walks up City Creek Canyon on June 9. Police, firefighters and public utilities officials say there has been an uptick in accidents, close calls and injuries in the canyon in recent months. | Carter Williams, KSL.com

Police, firefighters and public utilities officials are reminding those who recreate in City Creek Canyon about its safety protocols because they say there has been "an increase in accidents, close calls and injuries" in the popular canyon.

The canyon draws in many runners and bicyclists, as well as people who walk on the 6.5-mile stretch of narrow roadway, which has many twists and blind turns. It's also all downhill for those traveling back to the mouth of the canyon, so it's easy for incidents to occur.

Salt Lake City Fire Capt. Shaun Mumedy said the increase isn't solely emergency calls, per se, but also an increase in first-hand and second-hand accounts that Salt Lake City Police Department, Salt Lake City Fire Department and Salt Lake City Public Utilities have all received in recent months that ultimately prompted a need to remind visitors about the rules.

"Sometimes we get reports from citizens who may have had a negative experience in the canyon, whether they were a bicyclist, runner, pedestrian or from a (motorist)," he told KSL.com on Thursday. "Some of those interactions can be unpleasant and they don't necessarily call 911 at the time that they happen, but they do later."

Salt Lake City Fire Chief Karl Lieb added that many of these incidents appeared to be "preventable."

"We've responded to various accidents due to excessive speed from both cyclists and vehicles," he said in a statement. "With the increased summertime activity in the canyon, we are asking the public to please pay attention to the posted speed limits and avoid injuries,"

There are safety protocols in place for the canyon that seek to avoid these issues. For example, motor vehicles are only allowed up the canyon on even-numbered days from Memorial Day to the end of September, while bicycles are only allowed on odd-numbered days and on all holidays.

Other safety rules are:

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A speed limit of 15 mph for all vehicles, including bikes and e-bikes. The three departments say they have received many accounts of bicyclists traveling downhill at speeds over 40 mph.

Pedestrians and bicyclists traveling up the canyon must keep to the stream side of the canyon, while bicyclists traveling down the canyon must stay to the right, closer to the slope side.

Bicyclists should dismount and walk through the canyon entrance-exit area.

"I cannot stress enough the importance of safe driving not only throughout our city but especially in our most highly used recreational areas," said Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown. "These locations are not just popular destinations for enjoyment, they are also cherished spaces where families gather and communities grow."

There are other rules that tie into the canyon's role as a watershed, too. For example, dogs are allowed in the canyon, but only up to picnic area No. 16. They must always remain on a leash with a maximum length of 6 feet.

Since it is a watershed, the agencies say people should "go before you go," and not relieve themselves in the canyon. There are a handful of bathrooms in the canyon. There's no camping in the canyon, either.

Meanwhile, Salt Lake City Public Utilities also posted a reminder on social media on Wednesday that campfires and other outdoor fires are banned in the canyon because of wildfire risks, even in developed recreation sites. Visitors can still use propane-fueled camping stoves.
Photo: Sergii Gnatiuk (Shutterstock)

A federal appeals court overturned the drug conviction of a Black man because a remark made by the judge in the case violated his rights.



This guy looks like a criminal to me. This isnt what innocent people who want a fair trial do, uttered US District Judge Stephen Murphy III in a 2020 hearing. Im tired of this case. Im tired of this defendant. Im tired of getting the runaround.

Read more

Murphy accused Leron Liggins of playing games with the court after hed taken two years to prepare for trial to fight several drug charges from 2018. Within those two years, Liggins requested the transfer of his case from Kentucky to Michigan, several extensions of time on the speedy trial clock and filed to terminate his attorney. According to court documents, he also changed his mind a few times on whether he wanted to plead guilty to the charges.

Once he finally settled on going to trial, it was March 2020. Liggins was appointed counsel again but filed another request to fire them too. He was then criticized by Murphy for an inability to work with his attorneys who he praised as two of the very finer lawyers in the district.



Yo... at the end of the day, the defendant decides who goes into that courtroom with them, even if its nobody. According to the National Registry of Exonerations, ineffective assistance of counsel contributes to 80 percent of exonerations and was an issue in 56 wrongful convictions in 2022.

Read the appeals court decision from Reuters:

U.S. Circuit Judge Eric Clay, writing for the three-judge panel, said Murphys troubling comments that Liggins looks like a criminal to me at a January 30, 2020, pre-trial hearing called into question his partiality. We are highly concerned by this remark, especially when directed toward Liggins, an African American man, Clay wrote. Even if one were to assume a lack of racial bias on the part of the district judge, the remark nevertheless raises the specter of such bias. Murphy, who is white, had apologized for getting upset at Liggins, saying he made a mistake and had lost my head. But he declined to let the case be re-assigned, saying just because I got mad does not mean Im biased. Clay said that was the wrong call. Allowing Liggins heroin distribution-related conviction to stand when the judge should have been disqualified would substantially undermine the publics confidence in the judicial process, he wrote.

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Murphys refusal to admit to any biases or racism isnt helped by the countrys long history of stereotyping of Black men as criminals, or by the mountains of data that show Black criminal defendants are often hurt by racial bias during their proceedings. The Registrys 2022 report on race and wrongful convictions found 69 percent of drug crime exonerees are Black and their convictions are a result of racial biases.

Liggins may still face the court a new trial but another judge will be presiding over it.

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Lucias Rashaud Harris

A Salem man has been convicted of second-degree murder for killing another man during a shootout outside Bar Fly's Grill on Lancaster Drive.

Lucias Harris, 43, now faces a presumptive life sentence with a mandatory minimum of 25 years before being eligible for parole for killing Tyler Longacre, 21, of Salem.

The verdict came after an eight-day jury trial in Marion County Circuit Court.

On April 14, 2018, shots were fired outside the bar at 444 Lancaster Dr. NE. Court documents revealed at least five people were involved in the violent confrontation in the bar's parking lot and indicated those involved had gang affiliations. Two people were killed and one was seriously injured in the shooting.

Longacre and Tobias Helms-Reese, 24, of Salem, died in the shooting.

A third man, identified by family members as Marjuan Plater, survived but was hospitalized with a gunshot wound in his back.

Longacre was located nearby at 421 Lancaster Dr. NE, having succumbed to at least two gunshot injuries. He was not armed at the time of his death.

The case was investigated by the Marion County Sheriffs Office.

Cain Thompson and Santano Sauseda were arrested on riot charges and held on $1 million bail. Both pleaded guilty and were sentenced to probation.

Elijah Watterson pleaded guilty to attempted murder, riot and illegal possession of a firearm by a felon in connection to the shooting. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Shortly after the shooting, Marion County investigators said they were looking for a 1997 Ford Expedition spotted near the crime scene.

The SUV was connected with Harris, a convicted felon with a history of abuse, domestic violence assault and drug convictions. He was publicly identified as a suspect four months after the shooting.

Police warned that Harris was "armed and dangerous" and urged people not to approach him.

He was arrested Nov. 26, 2018, at a Lawrenceville, Georgia, house on warrants for attempted aggravated murder, illegal possession of a firearm by a felon and riot charges. He was later extradited back to Oregon.

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He was charged with murder in 2019.

On Thursday, the jury determined Harris shot and killed Longacre after he fled from the shooting incident. The jury further found that Harris was illegally possessing a handgun at the time due to Harris being a convicted felon.

Harris's sentencing date has not yet been set.

For questions, comments and news tips, email reporter Whitney Woodworth at wmwoodworth@statesmanjournal.com, call 503-910-6616 or follow on Twitter @wmwoodworth

This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Oregon man convicted of murder in shooting outside Salem bar
The University of Illinois Springfield has named a local non-profit executive to be the new director of Innovate Springfield, to lead the incubator as it prepares to move into the school's new Innovation Center in two years.

Ben Hage  who also goes by the name Nabih Elhajj  was named Innovate Springfield's new director Thursday, two weeks after the school appointed Robert Kerr to be executive director of the UIS Innovation Center, which is slated open its downtown headquarters in 2025.

Hage has spent the past eight years at iVenturED, Inc., the non-profit group behind the Sangamon CEO program, which helps local high school students learn about business and entrepreneurship, while allowing them to develop leadership skills through networking with local leaders.

More: Vincent Speranza, popular WWII veteran and hero, passes away at 98

The program has helped to develop more than 200 student-led businesses, such as the LRS Ice Rink at the Old State Capitol Plaza, which earned praise from local business group Downtown Springfield, Inc., which named it "Best Promotion" and "Best Collaborative Effort" at their annual dinner last year.

Before becoming Sangamon CEO's leader, Hage worked for more than two years as a founder or entrepreneur of a series of start-up projects, largely tied into the retail, robotics, education and marketing sectors. He has also served as a CX business analyst for Horace Mann.

Hage has a master's degree in public administration from UIS, along with a degree in sociology and criminal justice from Eureka College and a master's degree in business administration from Purdue University Global. Currently, he is completing his doctorate in higher education administration and foundations from Illinois State University.

In a statement, Hage said that he is appreciative of the faith Kerr and UIS chancellor Janet Gooch are showing in him by making him director of Innovate Springfield. He said he hopes the program can provide leadership for entrepreneurs working with the program as it prepares to make the move to the Innovation Center.

"Innovate Springfield will provide entrepreneurial thought leadership and action to our community of creatives, entrepreneurs and supporters," Hage said. "I look forward to working with our public universities, schools, businesses and community leaders, and I am very excited to be part of the launch of the downtown UIS Innovation Center."

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: UIS names Sangamon CEO head as director of Innovate Springfield
According to intelligence obtained by Ukraine's Security Service (SBU), Russia is preparing a large-scale false flag operation at the Mozyr oil refinery in Belarus.

Under the alleged plan, a Russian sabotage-reconnaissance group would carry out a "provocation" at the refinery. Moscow would then blame the attack on Kyiv in an attempt to drive Belarus into the war against Ukraine, the SBU wrote on Aug. 4.

The sabotage group reportedly comprises Russia's military personnel and employees of special services who were sent to Belarus under the guise of Wagner mercenaries.

The SBU said it had received information about the potential attack from several sources. They include testimony from a Russian soldier who was taken prisoner in Zaporizhzhia Oblast and the data from his phone.

The Russian POW had previously fought against Ukrainian forces in the country's south but was recently instructed to relocate to Belarus as a fake member of Russia's private mercenary Wagner Group, according to the SBU.

"Already at the stage of relocating, the Russian serviceman was briefed on a 'special mission' at the Mozyr refinery. In his phone, cyber specialists of the SBU found deleted correspondence with other saboteurs, pictures of the facility, and other information about the operation."

The Mozyr oil refinery is located in the Belarusian city of Mazyr, some 50 kilometers from the Ukrainian border and over 150 kilometers from Russia's border.

After the Wagner Group's failed rebellion against the Russian military leadership, thousands of Wagner troops and heavy equipment were relocated to Belarus from Russia. Minsk has claimed that the mercenaries are training the Belarusian military.

Read also: Belarus Weekly: Helicopters violate Polish airspace; Wagner moves closer to border

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
College students will be heading back to campus soon, and the Better Business Bureau has a warning for them. Crooks are targeting them.

College can be a new world filled with new adventures but also filled with new risks.

Dangerous in a sense that yes, identities can be stolen, Better Business Bureau Spokesperson Melanie McGovern explained. It takes a lot of time to repair that.

>>> STREAM CHANNEL 9 EYEWITNESS NEWS LIVE <<<

Thats why the BBB is warning college students and their parents -- scammers can see you as easy targets. That can cost you your personal information and your money.

You want to make sure that youre protecting your identity, your credit, or else its a lot of headaches down the road, McGovern said.

When many teens head to college, they get their first credit cards. Scammers know this, so they create fake cards. When you apply, youre giving them all your sensitive information.

Read: College Board: Florida schools cant teach AP psych if sexual orientation, gender identity censored

If you sign up for a real account -- make sure youre careful with the documentation that goes along with it.

If you have any kind of statement or mail, have it sent to the parents house, not the college dorm, McGovern advised. People still take stuff out of the garbage and the mailbox.

A lot of kids going to college now grew up with the Internet. Scams are targeting them there, too.

Read: Trump pleads not guilty, charged with efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election

Its the dream to be able to just post on social media and get paid for it, McGovern said. Whats happening is people are being solicited on social media platforms through the private message system saying hey, we want you to be an influencer for our product, but a lot of times the big red flag is theyre being asked to pay upfront. Most influencers dont pay for the products that are sent to them. The company is paying them.

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The BBB advises students to check their credit score at least once a year. Thats a good habit to continue even after graduation.

Read: Heres why the Ponce Inlet jetty remains closed nearly 1 year since Ian

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.
Dana Verkouteren via AP

Donald Trump was arraigned on Thursday at a DC federal courthouse.

He pleaded not guilty to charges that he conspired to overturn the 2020 election results.

Supporters and protesters stood outside the courthouse for the arraignment.

Former President Donald Trump arrived at a federal courthouse in Washington, DC, on Thursday afternoon to plead not guilty to charges accusing him of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election results.

The procedural event played out inside the Elijah Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse like any other judicial proceeding.

Trump answered a few basic questions and entered his plea: "Not guilty." Nonetheless, the moment carried significant historical weight. No other time in US history has a former president had to answer to three indictments.

Groups of media members, Trump supporters, and protesters stood nearby the courthouse as they watched Trump's motorcade pull into the federal building. Cameras were not allowed inside the courtroom where Trump was arraigned.

Here's how the day unfolded for Trump as he was arraigned following his third indictment.

Trump deplaned from his airplane, Trump Force One, at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport Thursday morning for his arraignment

Alex Brandon/AP

Trump Force One is a $100 million Boeing 757 private jet that was recently refurbished.

Trump's motorcade arrived at the Elijah Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse, where he was arraigned on four felony counts.

Kent Nishimura/Getty Images

Members of Trump's team also attended the hearing.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

On the left, in glasses, is Trump's campaign advisor Jason Miller. On the right, in the purple dress, is Trump's lawyer Alina Habba.

Other team members who accompanied Trump in his arraignment were Walt Nauta, an aide and co-defendant in the classified documents case; Boris Epshteyn, a Trump attorney and potential co-conspirator in the 2020 election case; and the lawyers on Trump's defense team, John Lauro and Todd Blanche.

Media members and demonstrators gathered outside the courthouse. Some reporters waited starting on Wednesday to get a coveted seat inside the courtroom.

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Jacquelyn Martin/AP

Trump supporters waved flags outside the federal courthouse. CNN earlier reported there was an underwhelming presence of Trump supporters outside of the courthouse.

Mandel NganAFP via Getty Images

Anti-Trump protesters also made an appearance at the courthouse. A large white flag read, "Trump indicted again again."

Bryan Dozier/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

A protester held up a sign that riffed on a similar phrase Trump supporters chant against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Some Trump supporters and anti-Trump protesters were grouped together. Below, Laurie Arbeiter held a sign that claimed, "Trump steals" and is a "danger to us all."

Jose Luis Magana/AP

A protester was dressed in a baby Trump costume, wearing a "Loser" sign. This was not the first time Trump was depicted as a baby by his detractors.

Kent Nishimura/Getty Images

A 20-foot baby Trump was flown over central London in 2019. On a smaller scale, an inflatable baby Trump flew over Palo Alto and many other US cities.

A demonstrator wore various MAGA merchandise. Trump's campaign has partly fundraised off of selling merch.

Stefani Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

Jared Kushner claimed in his memoir, "Breaking History," that the famous red "Make America Great Again" hats made up to $80,000 a day in 2016.

Trump is trying to cash in on his third indictment by offering shirts that say "I Stand with Trump" in exchange for $47 donations to his Trump Save America Joint Action Committee.

Anti-Trump accessories also made an appearance. One of the buttons referenced special counsel Jack Smith, who led the Justice Department's investigations into Trump.

Jacquelyn Martin/AP

Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell attended Trump's arraignment.

Alex Brandon/AP

Gonnell was one of the Capitol Police officers who was injured while defending the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

He provided a tearful testimony before Congress, telling lawmakers how he "did not recognize my fellow citizens that day." The officer later told Insider that he felt betrayed after hearing testimony from former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson.

Daniel Hodges, an officer with Washington's Metropolitan Police Department who was injured on January 6, 2021, was also there, along with Harry Dunn, a Capitol Police officer who was chased by rioters.

Cameras were restricted inside the courtroom. Shown in the sketch is attorney Todd Blanche, left, talking to Trump. Defense lawyer John Lauro is seen facing Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya who oversaw Thursday's arraignment.

Dana Verkouteren via AP

After the arraignment, Trump gave a short statement to reporters. "This is a very sad day for America," he said. "And it was also very sad driving through Washington, DC, and seeing the filth and the decay ... This is not the place that I left."

Alex Brandon/AP

A Trump supporter held up a mask of the former president. He was also riding in a black car that was adorned with a facsimile Seal of the President on the passenger door.

Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Read the original article on Business Insider
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Students in Orange County, Florida, Public Schools will not be able to use cellphones any time during the school day, even at lunch, when the new school year begins, the Orange County School Board has decided.

Most students do not yet know of the decision, but one predicted classmates likely will freak out when they do learn about the new rule.

Students phones must be silent and in backpacks or purses from the first to the final bell of the day under the rule that aims to curb discipline problems, limit distractions in class and encourage in-person communication in the cafeteria.

Superintendent Maria Vazquez said during the first several weeks of school administrators will not impose consequences for phone violations as they work to make sure students understand the new rules. But discipline  including having the phone confiscated until the end of the school day  will be imposed starting in September.

The policy includes exceptions for students who need to use phones because of a medical condition or disability and wont be enforced during an emergency, officials said. For now, Apple Watches and similar devices are banned, too, though the school board may revisit allowing them.

The board voted unanimously to adopt the cellphone ban, though before Tuesday nights vote and in earlier discussions several board members also expressed qualms about the rule, particularly the lunch-time ban.

Cellphone use in class has long been frowned upon, but a ban on phone use in school cafeterias will be a big change for many students, though some OCPS schools in recent years have imposed similar rules on their campuses.

Students will be upset about the lunchtime rule, said Mariah Upvall, 17, a senior at Lake Nona High School in south Orange, in an interview ahead of the boards vote.

We shouldnt all be having to deal with the consequences of a couple of people making bad decisions, she said.

Lake Nona last year banned phones except for lunchtime, and teenagers came to appreciate that when students couldnt text in hallways everyone moved more quickly between classes, Mariah said.

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But during lunch students like to contact their parents and their friends, often to decide where theyll meet to eat on a campus with more than 4,300 students. I cant find my friend unless Im calling her, she said.

Students who dont have friends with the same lunch period, havent made friends yet or just cant find a seat in the crowded cafeteria feel less alone if they are sitting by themselves but can use their phones to listen to music, watch a video or contact someone off campus, she and others said.

Its cutting kids off from their lifeline, agreed Avery Reiss, 17, another Lake Nona senior. Everybodys going to freak out. I really just think its going to be a messy implementation process.

Board members said cellphones disrupt classes and fuel bad behavior and curbing their use could help tamp down problems. They also hope it can encourage in-person connections rather than a focus on screens.

If you talk to the principal, it is a different environment, said board member Melissa Byrd, describing a high school in the Apopka area that banned phones. The culture is different. The kids are engaged.

Board member Maria Salamanca, whose district includes the Lake Nona area, said she knows students will be unhappy with the lunchtime ban. Mariah, Avery and several other students working for her as summer interns told her as much.

But she is convinced that the new policy could reduce problems because students will not be able to so quickly share threats, details about planned fights or other troublesome messages and videos via their phones.

We kind of owe it to our teachers and administrators to give this a try, Salamanca said.

I see the value of students using that time connecting with each other, rather than their phone, said Chair Teresa Jacobs of the ban on phones during lunch. That seems like a great time for socialization.

But Jacobs and others also worried about that change, knowing parents often use the lunch period to alert their children to changes in after-school plans.

Can you imagine being a public school administrative assistant or front desk clerk and having to deal with all the dismissal changes when the parents call throughout the day because they cant send a text to their child? one mother wrote in an email to the board. There is no way at this point I can justify not allowing cellphones at the school during lunch and between classes.

Some board members also noted that while teachers seem supportive of a cellphone ban, some fear enforcing the new rules could become a time-sucking requirement on their workday.

Im willing to try it, said board member Angie Gallo ahead of Tuesdays vote. I just want to ensure were monitoring how it goes and that the board is willing to dial it back, pull it back, if we find its not doable.

Vazquez, hired last year, in the fall began hosting community meetings and heard so many concerns about bad student behavior from both staff and parents that even before the meetings wrapped up, she pulled together an OCPS discipline task force.

That task force recommended a districtwide cellphone ban and that OCPS make sure discipline rules are consistently enforced across its more than 200 schools. Vazquez said her staff is working to make that happen and to make sure teachers arent left with dealing with phone infractions to the detriment of their lessons.

There are schools that have implemented it successfully. There are bumps in the beginning, Vazquez said. Were going to ask for everybodys patience.

But when students return to campus Aug. 10, they will be shocked to learn they cannot use phones during lunch, said Anna Pantano, 17, another Lake Nona senior.

Its just that one little period of time, she said. I just dont see why it has to be this drastic.
NEW SHOREHAM  The husband of Vice President Kamala Harris  a former Hollywood entertainment lawyer now traveling the globe as an emissary of the Biden-Harris ticket  ferried over to Block Island on Friday to deliver a stakes-have-never-been-higher fundraising pitch to potential donors to the Biden Victory Fund.

In a week when former President Donald Trump, the top-name GOP contender for the party's 2024 nomination, faced the latest in a series of indictments, this one for his alleged attempt to subvert Joe Bidens 2020 presidential victory, the VP and her husband, Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff, have been hitting the campaign trail hard.

In Milwaukee earlier this week, Harris had current U.S. Commerce Secretary  and former Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo at her side as she talked up the Biden-Harris Administrations efforts to invest in high-speed internet, boost domestic manufacturing, and create jobs.

Emhoff had former Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez  who declared democracy is on fire  at his side on Block Island.

Part of Perezs role is to put Bidens not-so-great poll numbers into some perspective. He recalled a 2011 headline in the New York Times Magazine, right at this point in the cycle, that read: Is Obama toast?

I think we know the answer to that, Perez said.

Vice President Kamala Harris, left, and husband, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, greet Chef Meherwan Irani, right, at the White House, where he prepared the State Department luncheon for Indian delegates on June 29.

Emhoff focuses on economic wins, clean energy

The fact that you're here on a Friday midday in the middle of enjoying your beautiful summer  means you love your country, said Emhoff, in his own turn to speak on the back porch of the stately Hygeia House. You are patriots, you really are.

Over the course of nearly 20 minutes, Emhoff ticked off Biden administration economic wins, which he framed in a context familiar to Block Islanders.

I actually saw the wind farm  And this is something that the Biden-Harris administration is laser focused on. We have put billions, I mean hundreds of billions of dollars into our economy that is focused on clean energy."

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And it's not only great for our environment, but it's jobs. It's massive, massive amounts of jobs. And these are union jobs and great paying jobs.

The Fast Ferry circles the turbines of the Block Island Wind Farm during a recent tour.

Theres a lot of great opportunities," he said. "But unfortunately for the most part, these extremist MAGA people don't care about us, don't care about our country, don't care about our rights, don't care about our environment, they are refusing to acknowledge that the climate crisis is real."

And if you read what they say they're going to do," he said. "Why doubt it?" Adding that they "have basically said what they're going to do [is] to dismantle the  Environmental Protection Agency and all the progress that we've made on the environment  because they don't care."

This is just another area where [theyre] gaslighting the American people," he said. "We've got to stop that. This is an existential threat. Just watch the news.

Emhoff says Kamala Harris a 'warrior for democracy'

Emhoff talked about both Perez and his wife, Kamala Harris, as warriors for democracy.

He said Harris has gone from state to state  on trips that dont always make big headlines  defending a womans right to choose, as well as the Tennessee lawmakers whose microphones were cut off when they started talking about reasonable gun safety . and then they kicked them out of the State House.

So she went down there.

And as he told it, she rightfully refused to debate the merits of slavery with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis  an actual governor  because there were no merits to slavery.

Shes doing an amazing job and I've known it," he said. "I think the word is getting out a little better now, but just look at the last couple of weeks. When something happens, she's there.

The media was allowed onto the porch of the Hygeia House, owned by Matt OHayer, the founder of Vital Farms  which has been described as the largest pasture-raised egg brand in the nation  to cover what was billed as a pad-and-pencil event, which meant no photos or video recordings of Emhoff as he delivered his own version of the Biden reelection campaign speech his wife has been giving across the country.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Vital Farms owner hosts Biden Victory Fund fundraiser on Block Island
The Security Service of Ukraine has detained a member of one of the village councils of Poltava Oblast, who was a member of the inner circle of Illia Kyva, the former MP from the banned Opposition Platform  For Life (OPFL) party. The detainee is suspected of spreading classified information about the location of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

Source: press service of the Security Service of Ukraine; press service of Poltava Oblast Prosecutors Office

Details: The Security Service of Ukraine reported that in order to obtain intelligence data on the deployment of Ukrainian troops, the member of the village council used his acquaintances who were performing combat missions on the Donetsk front.

During the remote communication with the military, he sought detailed information about their locations and possible movements on the front.

Then he marked the information on digital maps and shared it on his Facebook account, which was monitored by representatives of Russian secret services.

The prosecutor's office only reported that in July, the MP "disseminated information about the location of the Armed Forces unit with the possibility of their identification on the ground". This information was not posted online.

The Security Service of Ukraine claimed that Russia used the MP's information to adjust the attacks on Ukrainian defenders' positions, including those involving tubed and rocket artillery.

At the same time, the prosecutor's office reported that the man had disclosed information that could potentially be used by the Russians.

The Security Service of Ukraine added that the defendant posted his own comments on social media, in which he tried to discredit the command staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Reportedly, the official's provocative posts were repeatedly "picked up" by Russian TV channels to prepare fake stories about the war in Ukraine.

The man has been served with a notice of suspicion for committing an offence against the foundations of national security (Part 2 of Article 114-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). The measure of restraint is custody without the right to be released on bail. The investigation is ongoing. The MP faces up to 8 years in prison.

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Quote from the Security Service of Ukraine: "The official was a member of the inner circle of the former MP from the banned OPFL party, Illia Kyva, and until 24 February 2022, he repeatedly contacted him to resolve business issues.

Information about possible cooperation of the defendant with the fugitive MP Kyva after the start of the full-scale Russian invasion is being checked."

Background:

On the night of 23-24 February 2022, Illia Kyva, who is frequently cited by Russian propagandists, said from abroad that "the Ukrainian people need liberation" and that "Ukrainians, Belarusians and Russians are one people".

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine [Ukrainian parliament  ed.] stripped Illia Kyva of his parliamentary mandate in March 2022.

Kyva was served with a notice of suspicion under Article 110 (encroachment on territorial integrity) and Article 111 (high treason).

Ukrainska Pravda is the place where you will find the most up-to-date information about everything related to the war in Ukraine. Follow us on Twitter, support us, or become our patron!
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has heard the report of Vasyl Maliuk, head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU), regarding the agency's special operation in Novorossiysk Bay and the damage to the Russian landing ship Olenegorskiy Gornyak.

Source: Zelenskyy's video address

Quote: "Today, there was also a report by SSU Chief Maliuk. I will not voice the content. I will only say that we are all grateful to the Security Service of Ukraine for returning the war to the aggressor state. What you bring to the world, you end up with it yourself."

Background: Explosions occurred in the Russian city of Novorossiysk on the night of 3-4 August. The Russian Defence Ministry reported an attack by two USVs.

The Security Service of Ukraine conducted a special operation in Novorossiysk Bay, Russia, and a USV damaged the Olenegorskiy Gornyak, a large Russian landing ship.

For reference: Olenegorskiy Gornyak is a large Russian landing ship built in Polish Gdansk in 1976. Based in the Northern Fleet, it is part of the 121st brigade of landing ships. In 2007, it was considered the best landing ship of the Northern Fleet of the Russian Federation.

Ukrainska Pravda is the place where you will find the most up-to-date information about everything related to the war in Ukraine. Follow us on Twitter, support us, or become our patron!






Cathy Livas stands in front of her North Hollywood apartment she has lived in for 40 years. She and her fellow tenants are facing eviction. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

On Instagram last month, reality television personality Tarek El Moussa posted a video of himself strolling a street in North Hollywood to tell his 1.3 million followers about his new big plans.

El Moussa co-hosts a real estate show on HGTV called "The Flipping El Moussas" with his wife, Heather, who is also a cast member on Netflixs "Selling Sunset." El Moussa shared that he had just finished walking the nearby property where the couple is developing a super cool, super modern 138-unit apartment complex with a rooftop pool.

We got so lucky to find this land, El Moussa said. Because finding land like this in North Hollywood, it's literally impossible.

El Moussa left out of the video why a lot like this was available in the first place. Just a week before, the current property owner was convicted in federal court of hiring someone to set fire to vacant units on the site, an arson that tenants say was part of a years-long illegal harassment campaign to force them to leave.

Now the El Moussas are evicting the five remaining tenants, who all are in rent-controlled units. The residents worry about their future in L.A.'s sky-high rental market and believe they should be compensated for the turmoil they've gone through.

"It's been my home for 40 years," said Cathy Livas, 77, who pays $824 a month to live in a dingbat unit with her 56-year-old son with special needs. "Why would I want to live anywhere else? Do you know the price of rents?"

Read more: This L.A. developer aims to tear down homes to build apartments where the city doesn't want them

Livas and other tenants said they'd be willing to negotiate a buyout but believe it should be far in excess of the up to $25,000 required under the law given that their outgoing landlord, Arthur Aslanian, tried to burn them out of their homes and otherwise illegally force them to go.

In a presentation to investors, the El Moussas project that after five years they'll be able to sell the apartment complex for $26 million more than what it costs to acquire the property and build the development.

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"Pay us to leave," said Clare Letmon, 32, who lives in a bungalow with her husband, Jonpaul Rodriguez, 35. "But pay us an amount of money thats dignified and recognizes the profit theyre set to make off of everything that was done to us."

Clare Letmon looks at a bungalow across from hers that was badly damaged in an arson. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Neither Tarek nor Heather El Moussa could be reached for comment. In an emailed statement, Eda Kalkay, the El Moussas' public relations representative, said that the El Moussas recognize the property owner is involved in "several serious legal matters" but that the couple and other development partners will have no affiliation with them once the sale of the property is finished.

"The goal is to work closely and respectfully with the current tenants by providing proper move-out compensation and constructing a safe and pristine new apartment complex that will also include 14 low-income units," the statement said.

Read more: The median home listed in Los Angeles will soon cost more than $1 million  up 30% in 5 years

The property, made up of multiple lots, currently houses 10 bungalows, five dingbat apartments, a single-family home and 6-foot-tall weeds growing next to the burned-out structures.

The horrors of living there began years ago when tenants said Aslanian started ripping out the walls of their units, exposing them to asbestos, mold and vermin and retaliated against them when they complained or pushed for repairs.

In February 2022, Aslanian promised to pay someone $2,000 to set fire to the property, federal prosecutors said. Using a borrowed gas canister and a hotplate, only the outside of a building was scorched. The next month, a second fire, prosecutors said, was started by another co-conspirator, burning two of the vacant bungalow units.

Read more: A landlord who was arrested in a murder-for-hire plot is now accused of trying to set fire to his building

Prosecutors said Aslanian's arson campaign was designed to force the tenants out, and most of the residents have left the property. Aslanian secured approval for the new 138-unit project within months of the fires.

"Those permits exist because of everything Arthur did," Letmon said. "The building was almost vacant because of everything Arthur did."

Aslanian was convicted of three charges related to the fires last month in addition to multiple charges for conspiring with his employee to hire a hitman to kill two men  one who opposed him in litigation and the other who represented one of his companies in bankruptcy.

Letmon and Rodriguez's rent is $1,650 a month, but they've stopped paying, saying they refuse to give money to a landlord who set their home on fire.

Some previous tenants sued Aslanian over conditions at the property and have received a settlement for an undisclosed amount. The current tenants have a pending lawsuit against him.

But conditions at the property remain dire. The burnt-out bungalows are boarded up, and tenants say they're still unsafe. Vacant units in the dingbat have broken windows. A tree next to Livas' unit is overgrown.

A new development group called NoHo 138, which includes the El Moussas, took over the project earlier this year. Representatives of the developers, though not the El Moussas, met with tenants in the winter. The El Moussas began to advertise the apartment plan to investors.

In a video posted to YouTube in May, Tarek El Moussa, whose first real estate reality show was called "Flip or Flop," stood outside the property touting it as "my biggest flip ever."

"I am more excited about this thing than anything I've ever done in my life," El Moussa said.

The tenants received their eviction notices in late June. They have become even more alarmed as the El Moussas ramped up their investment campaign.

Read more: How feds choreographed an elaborate fake murder to stop L.A. developer's alleged plot

On Instagram, the El Moussas promoted the development opportunity using a fire emoji, something Letmon and Rodriguez said was insensitive given the arson. Tarek El Moussa said that they planned to break ground "in a few months." Under the law, tenants 62 or older can remain in their apartments for a year before getting evicted.

"My year isnt up until June next year, so I dont know how theyre going to build with me here," Livas said.

Kalkay, the El Moussas' spokesperson, said Tarek filmed the video that promised an early groundbreaking before he knew the full context of the tenants' situation with Aslanian, and the developers will follow all provisions of eviction law. She added that El Moussa meant no offense with the fire emoji.

"Anyone that follows Tarek would know that he is a fan of using emojis on social media," Kalkay said in response to emailed questions from The Times. "By no means was he making any insinuation or mockery of the tenants past experience with the seller."

Letmon and Rodriguez have tried to track the El Moussas' promotion for the development. They said it's been difficult to watch the couple talk about their expensive vacations and advertise that their investors will get invitations to exclusive yacht parties with them.

"Its an insult when I know hes spending his summer in the Hamptons and in Cabo and he cant make time for tenants whose displacement is enabling the biggest flip of his life,'" Letmon said.

Letmon and Rodriguez also have begun posting about their plight on social media, tagging El Moussa on Instagram and asking to meet with him in person.

Read more: The rent is high. The apartment is a dump. When can I move in?

"Real smart...Keep offending someone that is trying to help you," El Moussa responded in a July 12 direct message Rodriguez shared with The Times.

Kalkay said that El Moussa is the one being harassed.

"Regardless of the alarming personal attacks sent to Tarek El Moussa and his family via social media DM, he continues to remain sensitive to the situation of the tenants," she said.

Kalkay added that other development partners plan to continue contacting the tenants and have already reached out to the tenants' attorney in the hopes of continuing negotiations over their departure.

Read more: Opinion: I'm a tenant in the mass eviction at Barrington Plaza. This developer decision could devastate L.A.

"As just one of the partners that make up NoHo 138, Tarek's role is to work on other areas of this deal, but the appropriate people managing this area intend to meet with all tenants," Kalkay said.

Times staff writers Noah Goldberg and Salvador Hernandez contributed to this report.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Republican Gov. Jim Justice of West Virginia. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images; Justin Merriman/Getty Images

Sen. Rand Paul is raising concerns over the health of his party's top Senate recruit in West Virginia.

He said that Gov. Jim Justice has "a lot of health issues" and questioned "how he'll be able to serve."

It comes amid a spate of recent health-related incidents among members of the US Senate.

Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky is raising concerns over whether his party leadership's favored US Senate candidate in West Virginia is healthy enough to serve.

Jim Justice, the state's governor since 2017, was recruited by Republican leaders to run for Senate in 2024 and launched his campaign earlier this year. Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, who currently holds the seat, has not yet announced whether he will seek re-election.

But Justice, who will first have to defeat Rep. Alex Mooney in the GOP primary, has well-documented issues with mobility owing to his weight and height, and recently underwent a gallbladder removal surgery. The 72-year-old also sought treatment in Maryland for an unknown viral illness in 2017, and had to postpone his State of the State address in 2022 due to a serious case of COVID-19.

"The governor has got a lot of health issues and is not very mobile," Paul, who's backing Mooney in the primary, told POLITICO. "There's a question of how he'll be able to serve given his health."

In 2018, the governor even issued an official press release regarding rumors about his health.

"Could the false rumors please stop," said Justice in that statement. "Instead of celebrating and concentrating on the wonderful achievements that have been taking place in our great state, some people are questioning my health. In no way, shape, form or fashion are these rumors true."

A spokesman for Justice's Senate campaign did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment regarding Sen. Paul's comments.

The concern raised by Paul about Justice's health comes as the Senate is grappling with a series of health-related issues among senators.

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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell recently froze up for several seconds in front of reporters after feeling "light headed," according to an aide. It was then revealed that the Kentucky Republican has suffered numerous falls this year, beyond the concussion in March that kept McConnell away from the Senate for several weeks as he recovered.

Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the oldest lawmaker on Capitol Hill at age 90, continues to experience public moments of confusion after returning from a months-long absence due to a shingles infection. Recently, it came to light that her daughter exercises "power of attorney" over her legal affairs, a designation typically used for elderly people who are unable to make certain decisions.

And Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, who suffered a stroke last year during his campaign, was absent from the Senate for several weeks earlier this year due to a bout of severe depression. Though now recovered, he continues to rely on assistive technology to allow him to carry on with his duties.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) sent a letter to the Department of Education on Wednesday raising concerns it is blocking funds for hunting and archery classes.

Tester said in his letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona he discovered the department interpreted the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA) in a way that doesnt allow federal funds to be used for hunting and archery at U.S. schools.

The senator says this runs counter to the spirit of the bill and hurts his state, which has long offered shooting sport and hunter safety classes that play an important role in teaching safety and personal responsibility to students.

Outdoor recreation is foundational to our western way of life and any reduction of federal support for these educational programs is unacceptable, said Tester, who is up for reelection next year.

Tester, a moderate who sometimes breaks with the Biden administration, said BSCA makes it clear Congress wants the Department of Education to support initiatives in the Secondary Education Act of 1965, which includes hunting and archery.

The Department continues to implement the law as developed by Congress and continues to be open to engagement from Members regarding changes to this statutory language, an Education Department spokesperson said.

The senator stressed BSCA was developed in a bipartisan way to increase safety while protecting law-abiding citizens Second Amendment rights.

He wants the department to reconsider the interpretation [of] BSCA in a way that does not limit learning opportunities for students and does not present barriers to critical hunter safety courses.

Updated at 11:09 a.m.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
The Senates most vulnerable Democrats are steering clear of the weeks biggest news: the third indictment of former President Donald Trump.

POLITICO asked seven incumbents expected to face competitive reelections in 2024 to weigh in on the charges but heard nothing in response. Of Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), only Sinemas team replied  with a no comment.

Their silence stands in contrast to many other Democrats  including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who quickly weighed in Tuesday with a joint statement alongside House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries calling the Jan. 6 Capitol riot the culmination of a months-long criminal plot led by the former president.

It's a tricky balancing act for the seven endangered lawmakers, all of whom need to win over independents and even Republicans to win their Senate races. However popular Trumps indictments may be among Democrats, piling on the former president isnt a winning strategy for incumbents who need to reach beyond the party base in order to keep their jobs. Manchin, Tester and Brown are all defending seats Trump carried in 2020: West Virginia (39 points); Montana (16 points); and Ohio (8 points). President Joe Biden did carry Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Arizona, but only narrowly.

Avoiding talk of Trump's indictment is mostly limited in the Senate to Democrats, a quirk of the 2024 campaign map that puts few of the chamber's Republican incumbents in truly competitive races. But in the House, the 18 GOP lawmakers representing House districts won by Biden have been relatively quiet on the indictment, too  more evidence that theres little upside for frontline members in wading into the former presidents legal morass.

The kid-gloves treatment reflects the split public opinion on Trumps behavior: 45 percent of adults surveyed in an AP-NORC poll conducted last month  before this latest indictment  said Trump had done something illegal related to the events of Jan. 6. A higher percentage, 53 percent, concluded he had done something illegal related to the handling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence.

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Unlike their incumbent opponents, the GOP candidates challenging vulnerable Senate incumbents are on mostly on offense with Trump's indictment. Not all of the Republicans running to unseat the Senates vulnerable Dems are weighing in on Trump, but those who have are firmly in the former presidents corner. Joe Biden knows he can't beat Trump at the ballot box, so he's trying to throw him in prison, wrote Tim Sheehy, whos challenging Tester in Montana.

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, whos seeking Manchins Senate seat, told POLITICO in a statement that the indictments are part of a witch hunt and the weaponization of the federal government, while his primary rival, Rep. Alex Mooney (R-W.Va.), also lambasted unprecedented witch hunts from corrupt left-wing Democrats and vowed to fight DOJs disgusting abuse of power.

Sam Brown, whos seeking the Republican Senate nomination in Nevada, told POLITICO: It is deeply concerning that we appear to be creating a two-tiered system of justice under the current administration where the rules dont apply to everyone evenly.

One prominent Republican, however, remained mum as Trump was arraigned: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who predicted criminal consequences for Trump in the immediate aftermath of Jan. 6, declined through his office to comment on the former president's legal troubles.
A Mississippi sheriff said he was ashamed and apologized after five of his former deputies pleaded guilty to charges related to the torture of two Black men.

Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey said the police badge was tarnished by the criminal acts of these few individuals at a news conference hours after the five former deputies pleaded guilty Thursday. A sixth former officer from the Richland, Mississippi, police department also pleaded guilty.

These guys were so far past any boundary. It is unbelievable what they did, said Bailey. This is a bunch of criminals that did a home invasion.

The two victims, Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker, filed a federal lawsuit in June, claiming the six White law enforcement officers illegally entered their home in Braxton, Mississippi and tortured them for nearly two hours. The lawsuit said the officers handcuffed, kicked, waterboarded, and attempted to sexually assault Jenkins and Parker. The assault culminated with one deputy placing a gun in Jenkins mouth and shooting him, which the lawsuit says has left permanent physical injuries, cognitive damage, and long-term psychological damage.

All of the former deputies lied to me, that night of this incident, the sheriff said. I am sick to my stomach  I have tried to build a reputation, tried to have a safe county. They have robbed me of all of this, by the actions of these few.

This is a perfect example of why people dont trust the police, he added. Never in my life did I think this would happen in this department.

He also apologized to Jenkins and Parker as well as the Rankin County community.

Bailey said he knew the five Rankin County officers well and he never ever could imagine that any of these five individuals were capable of these horrendous crimes that they committed.

Court documents name the six law enforcement officers involved as Hunter Elward, Brett McAlpin, Jeffrey Middleton, Christian Dedmon, Daniel Opdyke, and Joshua Hartfield. The charges include discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence, conspiracy against rights, deprivation of rights under color of law, conspiracy to obstruct justice and obstruction of justice, according to online federal court records.

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The sheriff said he terminated three deputies in late June after one of the deputies disclosed some of the details of the incident. Two of the deputies had already resigned from the department by then, the sheriff added.

Bailey called the attack a nightmare for law enforcement.

This is the most horrible incident of police brutality of my whole career, he said. And I am ashamed that it happened at this department.

Bailey said he does not plan on resigning in the wake of the shocking charges. I am going to stay here, he said. I am going to fix these problems.

The only thing I am guilty of on this incident right here is trusting grown men that swore an oath to do their job correctly, he said. I am guilty of that, but the people of Rankin County elected me to do a job during good times and during bad times. Yes, this is a bad time.

I am embarrassed and ashamed of what they have done to this badge, he went on, with his hand over a badge embroidered on his shirt.

The sheriff said he was unaware the deputies had dubbed themselves The Goon Squad until last week. A federal charging document says the officers chose the name to reflect their willingness to use excessive force and not to report it.

Bailey said he hadnt thought there were any cultural problems at the department before the attack came to light. Obviously one thing I need to do is make people more accountable, he said. I am going to fix this.

The sheriff said there may be additional victims and asked potential victims to call the FBI or state authorities to report incidents.

Bailey emphasized the six involved officers worked to cover up the incident.

If one of the six officers there would have stood up and said something, if they would have told the truth  their cover-up made it 20 times worse, he said. It was already horrible, dont get me wrong, everything done to those victims was horrible. But then for a law enforcement officer to cover, to lie, it makes me sick to my stomach.

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As Jack Teixeria awaits trial, a new motion by federal prosecutors argues the Massachusetts resident should remain behind bars, contending that the former Air National Guardsman facing six counts of leaking military secrets poses a significant danger to public safety.

In court papers Friday, prosecutors argued that Teixeiras claim to be released is based on a fictionalized portrait of the North Dighton native and that Teixeira would be both a flight risk and a valuable target to American adversaries.

At first glance, the facade he presents of a family-oriented, law-abiding Massachusetts resident offers an enticing image. However, the detention proceedings before Magistrate Judge Hennessy shattered that veneer as illusion, prosecutors asserted in the new filing. This Court should focus on the real Jack Teixeira. The Defendant is accused of and faces overwhelming evidence of having committed one of the largest disclosures of classified national defense information in the history of our nation; ; provided top-secret information to foreign nationals adjacent to a theater of war; expressed support for a foreign terrorist organization committing a mass-casualty attack at the worlds largest sporting event; freely discussed and detailed how he would commit his own acts of violence; engaged in acts of deception and obstruction designed to thwart his own apprehension and prosecution; and lied to and manipulated those around him when it served his interests.

Teixeira pleaded not guilty last month to six counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information. Teixeras defense team asked for his release ahead of the trial, comparing the 21-year-olds situation to that of former president Donald Trumps, arguing that the former Commander in Chief was not detained for his own alleged mishandling of classified documents. Teixeiras lawyers also wrote there is no evidence their client ever carried his online conversations into reality or ever endangered any person in his community.

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However, prosecutors cite the Dighton natives fascination with firearms as just one of many reasons for his continued detainment.

Put simply, there are no conditions of release that can adequately mitigate the risks posed by the Defendant if released by this Court, wrote prosecutors.

Teixeira has been behind bars since his April arrest on charges stemming his alleged role in releasing classified military documents about Russsias war in Ukraine on the social media platform Discord.

Investigators say, Teixeira, who has been enlisted in the Air National Guard since 2019, began sharing military secrets with users in January 2023. Teixeira allegedly began by typing out classified documents before sharing photographs that bore SECRET and TOP SECRET markings.

Teixeira was ordered to remain behind bars by a U.S. Magistrate Judge in May after pleading not guilty in Worcester Federal Court. Justice Department lawyers revealed a history of disturbing online remarks allegedly made by Teixeira, including a November 2022 instance in which he said would kill a (expletive) ton of people in order to cull the weak-minded.

Prosecutors say that Teixeira was also caught by superiors months before his April arrest taking notes on classified information or viewing intelligence not related to his job.

Although the defense attempts to minimize the seriousness of Defendants conduct by making the unsupported assertion that a disclosure of classified national defense information to a group that included teenagers is somehow less harmful, the scale and audacity with which he shared informationand his persistence in doing so in the face of repeated warningsleaves no doubt as to the gravity of his conduct and that he made a calculated choice to put his nations security at risk to advance his own goals and agenda, the federal prosecutors stated.

Each count Teixeira faces is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Teixeira is due back in court next week but in a separate filing Friday, both legal teams asked the judge to set a new date.

The full court filing is included below:

Prosecutors argue accused leaker Jack Teixeira should be kept behind bars by Boston 25 Desk on Scribd

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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Hugh Stewart/Amazon Studios

When it comes to imbuing characters with emotional nuance, making fun of your icon status with terrific comedic timing, or gritting your teeth into a patient smile while James Cameron delays Avatar sequels, there is no better actor to call than Sigourney Weaver. She is a Hollywood legend for a reasonable to do just about anything, and capable of turning even the most bland material into admirable work. Weaver is so talented, you might think there is nothing she cant do. But we all have our shortcomings, and even the sensational Sigourney Weaver cant perfect a convincing Australian accent.

Unfortunately for Weavers new limited series The Lost Flowers of Alice Hartadapted from Holly Ringlands 2018 novel and premiering on Prime Video Aug. 4a believable accent is sort of a requirement. The seven-episode drama series is set in the lush landscapes of the Australian coastlines, where June (Weaver) presides over a flower farm called Thornfield that doubles as a safe haven for abused or orphaned women and girls. When Junes granddaughter, Alice (Alyla Browne as a child and Alycia Debnam-Carey as an adult), survives a horrific fire that kills both of her parents, June welcomes her to Thornfield. There, she teaches her the language of their flowers, which beautifully mask dozens of dark family secrets.

Though Weavers accent seems to come from somewhere between the States and the English countryside, its not necessarily a hindrance to the showthe series holds itself back just fine. The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart is both frustratingly convoluted and, at times, quite emotionally stirring. But the former clouds the latter, with extremely dense writing and ornate storytelling constantly hampering and unsteadying the series. Weaver and Debnam-Carey act through these glaring issues with grace; combined with the series stunning visual landscape, their performances are almost enough to keep the series afloat. But by its hard-won endpoint, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart wilts under the weight of its own ambition.

The Bogus Cruel Summer Season 2 Finale Was Beyond Disappointing

Alice Harts entire first episode is dedicated to its flowery (pun intended) worldbuilding. Initially, thats a benefit to the show. The introduction to a young Alices family sets the tone for both the series writing and its sumptuous setting. Alices childhood, living in a remote cottage with her pregnant mother Agnes (Tilda Cobham-Hervey) and her father Clem (Charlie Vickers) at first seems idyllic, until we begin to understand that their isolation is intentional. Clem is emotionally and physically abusive toward his wife and daughter, but he veils the shame and wickedness of his violent outbursts with apologies and gifts of beautiful hand-carved wooden trinkets. As it typically goes in these cases, Clems presents only disguise more brutality, waiting just around the corner.

These scenes are difficult to watch, but a capable-beyond-her-years Browne is absolutely magnetic as younger Alice. Her bright talent is a lovely contrast to the brooding, cloudy scenery that surrounds her home, which is captured magnificently by calculated camerawork and enhanced with terrific color grading. Those aesthetic pleasures last throughout the series, past the suspicious fire that kills both of Alices parents and sees June, who had been estranged from her son Clem, bringing Alice to Thornfield by the end of the premiere. Just as Alice comes to find, when June introduces her to their sanctuarys flower dictionarywhich uses plants to communicate sentimentThe Lost Flowers of Alice Hart is reliant on visual language to convey its messaging.

Sigourney Weaver and Alyla Browne. Hugh Stewart/Amazon Studios

Thats a clever tactic for the first few episodes, but considering that The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart consists of seven hour-long installments, that ingenuity withers fast. I wouldnt consider the series a slow burn so much as a deliberately obtuse creation, one that assumes its labyrinthine narrative equates to powerful insights about human nature. Thats not to say that those perceptive ideas dont take root in the series at all. Its just that theyre buried underneath so many overblown ideas and character threads that the central themes often feel like an afterthought.

Though she has taken asylum at Thornfield, Alices life remains complicated. Her abusive childhood, compounded by the fire, have left her mute. Thornfieldwhich is gravely misunderstood by surrounding townsalienates her as much as it serves as her refuge. It doesnt help that June is wound tight, holding the mysteries of their family close to her chest so Alices curiosity cant get the better of the two. But when Alice finds an inscription in a book that proves her mother was a resident at Thornfield, the picture-perfect way of life at Junes compound begins to crack.

The Horror of Dolores Roach Bakes Humor (and Humans) in Wild New Series

If only it didnt take three hours into the series for that to happen. Even after that initial revelation, answers do not come easily; by the end of the third episode, most of them are still shrouded in hazy foliage. By keeping most of the series so steeped in mystery, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart makes its titular characters development far less compelling than it should be. All those secrets create intrigue, but it becomes difficult to connect with a characters growth when viewers have so little context for the darkness theyre overcoming. In some cases, the withholding narrative might successfully increase the tension. Here, it cuts the stakes down entirely, turning anticipation into persistent frustration.

That exasperation would be nearly impossible to reconcile if it werent for Debnam-Carey and Weavers keen pair of performances. Alice might flee Thornfield after uncovering more truths (which are, again, only the tip of an iceberg that takes far too long to come to the surface), leaving Debnam-Carey and Weaver to act apart from one another for most of the series latter half. But the two women still feel as though theyre performing opposite one another. Weavers expressions bear the weight of Junes remorse over her sons violence and her inability to break the cycles of abuse that tormented her too. Debnam-Carey complements this heaviness with breathless freedom, which transforms into youthful naivete that eventually brings the pieces of The Lost Flowers of Alice Harts puzzle together.

The series wonderful finale ultimately begets disappointment. A satisfying ending is far from enough to negate the shows flagrant pacing problems, which couldve been solved if this was a film adaptation, and not a limited series. I doubt that the shows thematic content, though at times captivating, will be enough to encourage most viewers to see the series through to its end. Those who prioritize style over substance will find an endless amount of enthralling cinematography to admire here; The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart is one of the best-looking shows of the year so far. But like an exotic flower, a story this sensitive needs constant tending, and the budding Alice Hart never reaches full bloom.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) said Wednesday that she is livid that New York City is receiving more than $100 million in federal funds to help cover the cost of providing services to asylum seekers.

What were experiencing here in Arizona is matched only by what folks are experiencing in southern Texas, Sinema said during an event in Yuma, an Arizona city near the U.S.-Mexico border.

Those are the two communities that are experiencing this crisis, she continued. The rest of the country is seeing some elements of it, but we are facing the brunt. And it is wrong and unfair that the [Shelter and Services Program] money is going to places other than south Texas and south Arizona.

New York City is set to receive $104.6 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds to assist in its response to the surge of migrants, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) announced on Wednesday, according to Politico.

More than 95,000 migrants have passed through the citys system since the spring of 2022, and over 56,000 remain in its care, according to the citys deputy mayor for Health and Human Services, Anne Williams-Isom.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) has repeatedly warned in recent months that there is no more room in the city and has urged the federal government to help.

However, Sinema argued on Wednesday that the FEMA funds were meant to support decompression at the border.

The fact that a yeomans amount of this money went to New York City, in my opinion, is wrong because they are not a border state and they are not facing the kind of pressure that we are facing here, she said.

I want you to know that I am continuing to fight this, and I am livid, Sinema added.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
An activist in Singapore looks at names of people on death row during a protest against capital punishment at Speakers Corner in 2022. Credit - Roslan RahmanAFP/Getty Images

Singapore hanged another man on Thursday, in a somber reminder of the city-states controversial zero-tolerance stance on drugs.

The 39-year-old, who had previously worked as a delivery driver, was given the mandatory death penalty in 2019 after he was convicted of trafficking 50 grams of heroin. He and advocates on his behalf maintained during his trial and after that he had thought he was helping to deliver contraband cigarettes for a friend, but the court didnt believe him.

The execution, the countrys third in just over a week, has been slammed by lawyers and anti-death penalty activists as the latest example of someone being sent to the gallows over a less than clear-cut conviction.

Despite mounting international pressure to halt the practice, Singapores authorities have continued to defend the use of the death penalty for drug offenses, citing it as an important deterrent for traffickers. But when it comes to death row cases, critics have questioned the fairness of what they believe to be unevenly applied discretion on charges and sentencing exceptions, as well as legally inscribed presumptionslike the one regarding the delivery drivers knowledge of the contents of what he was transportingthat put the onus on the accused to prove their innocence.

Read More: A Wave of Scandals Is Testing the Singaporean Governments Ability to Take Criticism

The Singaporean government has made moves to address concerns before. In 2012, legislative changes allowed for death sentences to be commuted to life imprisonment at the courts discretion under specific circumstances: if the accused were merely drug couriers and had either suffered from mental conditions that diminished their responsibility or provided significant assistance to authorities to disrupt trafficking activities.

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When these changes first took effect, there was optimism that the death penalty would be able to better target kingpins and spare low-level couriers, who activists had decried were often people from marginalized communities.

A vast majority of those who are caught here are pure mules who do it either out of stupidity or desperation, a lawyer told local media in 2015, after his clients death sentence was commuted under the legal amendments. They will spill the beans, and based on that  I expect very few drug traffickers will face the death penalty.

But a decade on and dozens of drug-related hangings later, lawyers and activists say that many of those executed continue to be the same type of low-level offenders that the amendments were designed to keep off death row.

A lot of the questions I asked myself were: Is the system really working? Are you catching the kingpins?, Luo Ling Ling, a pro bono lawyer who has spent the last 10 years defending death row inmates, tells TIME. Because Im still acting for those people at the bottom of the food chain and theyre getting convicted and sentenced to death.

Questions about discretions

Under the 2012 amendments to drug trafficking penalties, drug couriers could have their death sentences commuted if the court determined that they were suffering from an abnormality of mind at the time of offense. Last year, a mans death sentence was overturned after the court found that his depression and drug addiction significantly affected his decision to traffic heroin.

But the abnormality of mind argument didnt apply for Nagaenthran Dharmalingam, who found himself at the center of Singapores anti-death penalty movement and international attention last year. According to the court, despite being diagnosed with borderline intellectual functioning, Nagaenthrans condition was not sufficient to impair [his] mental capacity to understand events, judge the rightness or wrongness of ones actions, or exercise self-control.

Read More: Singapore Executed Another Drug Offender: Why the Country Clings to the Death Penaltyand Why Advocates Say Its Wrong

The Singapore courts define abnormality of mind very narrowly, and the law as it stands in Singapore is really dated given the progress that has been made around the world in terms of understanding and respecting the rights of people with psychosocial disabilities, Kirsten Han, a member of local anti-death penalty group Transformative Justice Collective, tells TIME.

The objectivity of psychiatric diagnoses in general has long been a subject of debate in the medical field, and some professionals and academics have questioned the ethics of using the subjective opinion of psychiatrists to determine moral culpability in court. Among the various other fields, psychiatry is one of those matters where theres some more gray areas, Suang Wijaya, another lawyer who represents death row inmates pro bono, tells TIME.

This is not unique to criminal matters, says Wijaya. In all other matters which involve a clash of expert opinion,  what happens is the court will just listen to the experts battle it out in terms of their logic and reasoning, and the court agrees with the one that [it] finds more cogent.

Drug couriers can also escape death row by providing help to narcotics authorities and receiving a Certificate of Substantive Assistance issued by prosecutors. However, Han, the activist, says that the process of issuing the certificate is not transparent and gives wide discretion to the prosecution.

When two men, Abdul Haleem Abdul Karim and Muhammad Ridzuan Md Ali, were arrested in the same case of drug trafficking in 2013, the former got life imprisonment with the Certificate of Substantive Assistance while the latter, who was not able to obtain the certificate, received the death sentence. The prosecution did not state why Ridzuan was not issued the certificate, and his lawyers argued that the two men had given practically the same information to narcotics authorities.

If you are sparing my life and not sparing his life, I'd rather go down with him, Haleem had said in court at the time. The judge replied: You have certification from the Attorney-General's Chambers, he does not. Ridzuan was hanged in 2017.

Read More: These 3 Countries Are Responsible for 90% of Global Executions

Even before cases are brought to the court, prosecutors may exercise their discretionary power in deciding what to charge defendants with, says Wijaya. Prosecutors have the leeway to charge defendants with less than the capital amount even if the volume of drugs they were caught with would have triggered the mandatory death penalty.

Wijaya represented Tangaraju Suppiah, who was executed in April for trafficking drugs that activists noted he never touched, based in part on phone numbers linked to him as well as the testimony of a man caught in the delivery. The man who was caught with one kilogram of cannabis pled guilty to a charge of trafficking 499.99 grams of cannabisbelow the capital threshold of 500 grams. Tangaraju, however, maintained his innocence and was charged with and convicted of conspiring to traffic one kilogram.

Potentially perilous presumptions

The executions that have resumed post-COVID and have mostly involved those at the lowest rungs of the drug trade continue to spark concerns from observers both at home and abroad.

"Singapore has the mistaken idea that imposing the most grave, draconian, and right abusing penalties for drugs on small time dealers and mules will somehow cause drug abuse to evaporate overnight, Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch, tells TIME.

That analysis is based on spreading a fear of dire consequences which doesn't take into account the other factors, like drug addiction and the associated social and economic desperation, that drive people's motivations.

In many cases, a significant burden of proof lies with the accused to prove their innocencebecause of a controversial set of presumptions written into the countrys drug laws.

In Singapore, anyone found to possess above specified amounts of drugsincluding two grams of heroin, three grams of cocaine, or 15 grams of cannabisare presumed to be trafficking the drugs; anyone who even has the keys to premises containing drugs may be presumed to possess the drugs; and anyone found or presumed to possess drugs are also presumed to know that they possessed drugs.

I dont think its fair. It goes against the very principle of presumption of innocence, Luo, the lawyer, tells TIME. While Luo says she supports the death penalty in Singapore for its broader deterrent effectthe same argument championed by authorities to defend the countrys stringent drug lawsshe also says there are fundamental risks to having these presumptions in place when it comes to sentencing drug traffickers.

Read More: Death of the Death Penalty in America: Why the Era of Capital Punishment Is Ending

If they do change the law to take away these presumptions, it will result in a lot of failed convictions, says Luo. In my view, its probably better that some guilty accused persons are not convicted, as opposed to one innocent person suffering the death penalty.

Defending the fairness of these presumptions during a parliamentary debate, a minister said in March: The courts are careful to ensure that the burden on the accused is not so onerous that it becomes virtually impossible to discharge.

Faith in the honest intentions and efforts of Singapores judicial process was echoed by the lawyers Luo and Wijaya, with the latter telling TIME that the courtstake this task extremely seriously and really go into the nitty gritty.

But Wijaya noted that the risk of miscarriage of justice, which he says is a feature of really all systems, remains. You can minimize it, and I would say in the Singapore context it's minimized to an extremely low level, he says, but it cant be zero.

One man almost found himself facing the deadly consequences of an erroneous presumption. Raj Kumar Aiyachami had been arrested in 2015 after being caught with a bag of weed he claimed was delivered to him by mistake. He told the court he had ordered chemically sprayed tobacco, which had not been listed as a narcotic, but the trial judge didnt believe him, and he was sent to death row in 2020.

Raj was saved by what can only be described as an uncanny coincidence: while in prison, he met the man who had ordered the very bag of cannabis Raj received and was charged over and who said he had received a bag of tobacco instead. While the court first dismissed the two inmates testimonies as too incredible to be true, Rajs conviction was ultimately overturned last year by the supreme court.

Citing Rajs narrow escape from the gallows, activists warn that the stakes are too high when it comes to the death penalty to have any room for doubt.

I've often met families who have so many questions about why their loved one got the death penalty, says Han. It's very hard to accept that in Singapore, people can still be put to death even when these question marks exist.

When the penalty is as harsh as the death penalty, no margin of error should be tolerated. An innocent person executed cannot be brought back, and no amount of compensation to their loved ones is going to change that.

Contact us at letters@time.com.
US Attorney General Merrick Garland said the officers "egregiously violated the civil rights of citizens who they were supposed to protect"

Six former Mississippi police officers have pleaded guilty to civil rights violations after assaulting two black men during a home raid in January.

Authorities said the two men, Michael Jenkins, 32, and Eddie Parker, 35, had been beaten and shocked with Tasers and one of them was also shot in the mouth.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said the officers 'tortured and inflicted unspeakable harm on their victims'.

All six officers had either resigned or been fired in June.

The civil rights charges were unveiled against the six officers on Thursday by the US Department of Justice (DoJ). All appeared in federal court and entered a guilty plea.

The officers were charged with 16 counts, including civil rights conspiracy, deprivation of rights, discharging of a firearm and obstruction of justice.

Prosecutors said the officers entered the two men's home in Braxton, Mississippi on 24 January. They then handcuffed them and assaulted them for more than two hours.

The officers used a stun gun on the two men, beat them repeatedly and called them racial slurs. One deputy officer shot Mr Jenkins in the mouth, firing a bullet that cut his tongue and broke his jaw, prosecutors said.

Officers then failed to provide medical aid to Mr Jenkins as he was bleeding, prosecutors said, and instead gathered outside the home to come up with a "false cover story".

Three of the officers said they were members of the "The Goon Squad" - a group of Rankin County officers who are known for using excessive force and not reporting it.

"These former law enforcement officers have committed heinous and wanton acts of violence disgracing the badge which so many others have worn with pride and honor," said US attorney Darren J LaMarca for the Southern District of Mississippi. "They violated their oaths and have become the criminals they were sworn to protect us from."

They also face state charges connected to the same incident.

The justice department identified five of the Rankin county former officers as: Chief Investigator Brett McAlpin, 52, Narcotics Investigator Christian Dedmon, 28, Lieutenant Jeffrey Middleton, 46, Deputy Hunter Elward, 31, and Deputy Daniel Opdyke, 27.

The sixth, Narcotics Investigator Joshua Hartfield, 31, is a former officer of the Richland, Mississippi, Police Department.
Six men were arrested this week in relation to a string of burglaries last December, police said.

Three of the men, Olajawan Davis-Fleming, 27, and Shaquan White, 20, both of Newark, and Khyree Lawrence, 19, of East Orange, were arrested at their homes; the other three, Tysean Ware, 20, David Cureton, 20, and Ali Hall, 21, were served complaint warrants in the Morris County Jail, Monmouth County Jail and Essex County Jail, respectively, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said in a statement Thursday.

They face charges of burglary, theft, attempted burglary, weapons offenses, receiving stolen property, terroristic threats and conspiracy.

On Dec. 25, 2022, the Alpine Police Department received a report that a BMW SUV had been stolen from a home. Police determined that the same vehicle was involved in crimes including attempted burglaries in Cresskill, Montville and Rumson.

According to police, two days later, on Dec. 27, Alpine police got a 911 call that said there were men on the first floor of a home while the residents were upstairs. Police responded as the people fled in a Mercedes-Benz that had been stolen out of New York. That vehicle is believed to have been involved in an attempted burglary the night before in Old Tappan.

Local news: This North Jersey hospital is ranked No. 1 in the state

The Bergen County Prosecutors Office Special Investigations Squad said it identified Ware, Cureton, Davis-Fleming, Lawrence, White and Hall.

Ware and Cureton face charges of second-degree armed burglary, second-degree theft and third-degree theft, three counts of second-degree receiving stolen property, five counts of third-degree burglary, six counts of third-degree attempted burglary, two counts of third-degree terroristic threats and a disorderly persons offense of theft.

Davis-Fleming faces charges of second-degree theft, third-degree theft and third-degree attempted burglary and two counts of third-degree burglary.

Lawrence and Cureton face charges of second-degree armed burglary, second-degree receiving stolen property, second-degree conspiracy to commit armed burglary, four counts of third-degree burglary, third-degree attempted burglary, third-degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, fourth-degree unlawful possession of a weapon and a disorderly persons offense of theft.

Hall faces charges of third-degree receiving stolen property.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Bergen County NJ: Six arrested after crime spree in December
Six white former Mississippi law enforcement officers pleaded guilty in federal court on Thursday after they tased, abused and assaulted two Black men  including shooting one in the mouth  in a racist torture attack in Rankin County in January.

U.S. prosecutors charged the six defendants with 16 felony counts, including a civil rights conspiracy, deprivation of rights under color of law, discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence, conspiracy to obstruct justice and obstruction of justice, according to the news release from the Department of Justice.

The charges were unsealed Thursday as the fired officers appeared in federal court in Jackson.

No human being should ever be subjected to the kind of torturous, traumatizing and horrific acts of violence that were carried out by these law enforcement officers, Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general of the Justice Departments Civil Rights Division said in the release.

Brett McAlpin, 52, Christian Dedmon, 28, Jeffrey Middleton, 46, Hunter Elward, 31, and Daniel Opdyke, 27, are the five former Rankin County sheriffs department deputies charged in the case. The sixth defendant  31-year-old former narcotics investigator Joshua Hartfield  worked at the Richland Police Department.

The defendants admitted that on Jan. 24, they tortured two Black men in Rankin County. The two men  Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker  have filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Rankin County and sought $400 million in damages, The Associated Press reported.

In a statement, Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey called the crimes devastating.

Deputies of this department are sworn to protect and serve the public and uphold all federal and state laws, he said. Based on todays arrests, five former deputies violated all such standards, their training, and my expectations of them. The badge worn by so many has been tarnished by the criminal acts of these few individuals.

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The Department of Justice said the deputies and officer  without a warrant  kicked down the door of a home in Braxton, handcuffed Jenkins and Parker without probable cause, called them racial slurs and warned them to stay out of Rankin County.

They tased the two men 17 times, forced them to ingest liquids and assaulted them with a sex object, according to the news release.

The Department of Justice also found Elward thrust an unloaded gun into Jenkins mouth, and when it did not fire a first time, he fired again, sending a bullet through Jenkins tongue that broke his jaw and sliced through his neck.

Dedmon fired his gun twice, apparently in attempt to intimidate Jenkins and Parker.

The Department of Justice found that all defendants left Jenkins bleeding on his floor and stood outside the home, devising a fake story to cover up their attack, according to the news release. They planted a gun on Jenkins, destroyed surveillance video, shell casings and taser cartridges. They sent fake drug evidence to a crime lab, filed false reports and pressured witnesses to follow their cover-up story, the release said.

Opdykes attorney, Jeff Reynolds, told the New York Times that he takes full responsibility for his actions.

He admits he was wrong for his part in the horrific harms inflicted upon Mr. Jenkins and Mr. Parker, the victims, that night last January and is prepared to face the consequences of his actions, Mr. Reynolds said in email to the Times.

In court, three defendants said they were members of The Goon Squad  a group of Rankin County officers who often used excessive force but never reported it.

Dedmon, Elward and Opdyke also pleaded guilty to three other felony offenses that took place on Dec. 4, 2022, when Dedmon beat and tased a white man and fired a gun near his head in attempt to force a confession. Elward and Opdyke did not intervene, the release states.

The defendants now face state charges that stem from the same incidents. Those charges include home invasion, aggravated assault, conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice and obstruction of justice.

In the release, U.S.prosecutors called the defendants actions egregious, shameful and horrific, according to the news release.

These former law enforcement officers have committed heinous and wanton acts of violence disgracing the badge which so many others have worn with pride and honor, said U.S. Attorney Darren J. LaMarca for the Southern District of Mississippi. They violated their oaths and have become the criminals they were sworn to protect us from.

The officers are in federal custody and will be sentenced in mid-November, according to The Associated Press.
Six white former law enforcement officers have pleaded guilty to the beating and sexual assault of two Black men in Mississippi.

The five sheriffs deputies from Rankin County and one other officer entered guilty pleas Thursday in federal court, where they were charged with 13 federal felony offenses, including civil rights conspiracy, deprivation of rights under color of law and obstruction of justice.

The crimes against Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker were a horrific and stark example of violent police misconduct which has no place in our society today, said Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general of the Justice Departments Civil Rights Division.

The attack on the two Black men is being called a racist crime after the deputies, who called themselves The Goon Squad, tortured the men for spending the night with a white woman.

The squad included Christian Dedmon, Hunter Elward, Brett McAlpin, Jeffrey Middleton and Daniel Opdyke of the Rankin County Sheriffs Department and Joshua Hartfield, a Richland police officer.

Dedmon, Elward and Opdyke also pleaded guilty to using excessive force in a separate incident last year.

The 90-minute assault on Jenkins and Parker occurred late Jan. 24 after a white neighbor called McAlpin and asked if he and the squad were available for a mission.

The six officers, without a warrant, entered the home where Jenkins and Parker were staying, handcuffed the two and then assaulted them with a sex toy. They beat Parker with wood and a metal sword, then poured milk, alcohol and chocolate syrup over their faces before forcing them to strip naked and shower together.

Then, one of the officers put a gun in Jenkinss mouth and fired.

They left him lying in a pool of blood, gathered on the porch of the house to discuss how to cover it up, Darren LaMarca, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi, said at the news conference in Jackson. What indifference. What disregard for life.

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As Jenkins lay on the floor, blood gushing from his mouth, the officers ignored him to begin a cover up in which they fabricated a narcotics bust by planting a gun and drugs, according to The Associated Press.

Clarke called the assault on Jenkins and Parker torture and said the officers sought to dehumanize their victims and to send a message that these two Black men were not welcome on their side of the river.'

The officers also face charges of aggravated assault, home invasion and obstruction of justice in the first degree. Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch announced the charges Thursday.

This brutal attack caused more than physical harm to these two individual victims; it severed that vital trust with the people, Fitch said in a statement, according to USA Today. This abuse of power will not be tolerated.

In March, an investigation by The Associated Press found several deputies involved in the alleged torture were also linked to at least four other violent encounters with Black men since 2019. Those encounters left two men dead and another with injuries.

Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey said in June that all the officers involved had been fired or resigned.

Jenkins and Parker have also filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Rankin County, seeking $400 million in damages.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Will Smith has revealed how Steven Spielberg convinced him to star in Men in Black.

Smith, 54, starred in the 1997 sci-fi action comedy opposite Tommy Lee Jones. The actors portrayed Agent K and Agent J, respectively, who are tasked with investigating a series of alien incidents on earth.

Produced by Spielberg, Men in Black spawned two sequels in 2002 and 2012. The franchise was rebooted in 2019 with Tessa Thompson and Chris Hemsworth taking on the lead roles.

While the film is regarded as a huge success  it currently holds a rating of 91 per cent on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes  Smith needed some convincing to take on the role.

During a recent appearance on Kevin Harts Heart to Hart talk show, Smith said he had been hesitant to star in the movie right after Independence Day.

Released in 1996 and starring Smith, Independence Day is also about aliens who invade Earth.

The actor said it was ultimately Spielberg who convinced him to accept the role.

I kind of understood Men in Black a little bit but I didnt want to make Men in Black, Smith said. That was the next year after Independence Day. So I didnt want to make two alien movies back to back.

Jada, Willow and Will Smith (AFP via Getty Images)

According to Smith, Spielberg contacted him directly and sent a helicopter so they could speak face-to-face.

I was in New York. It landed at his house. And, like, he had me at hello, the star said. And it was the first time I ever had lemonade with carbonated water. You cant say no to that.

The Oscar-winner recalled how Spielberg said the coldest s***.

He said, Tell me why you dont want to make my movie And he was the producer, said Smith.

And he put the ellipsis at the end, it was the dot, dot, dot. If he had continued, he would have said, Joker, you know I made Jaws, right? You know I made ET.

95th Academy Awards - Roaming Arrivals (Invision)

Smith credited his former manager and longtime business partner James Lassiter as the arbiter of taste during those early stages of his career, adding that Lassiter was responsible for him taking on films such as Pursuit of Happyness (2006) and Ali (2001).

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In the heyday, the 10 movies I made at the top of my career, JL was choosing the films. He just had an eye, said Smith. I didnt want to make Pursuit of Happyness. I didnt want to make Ali. And JL picked Men in Black.

Elsewhere in the interview, Smith said that nobody in his family had been happy amid their rising fame in 2010.

It was my first realisation that success and money dont mean happiness, the King Richard actor said.
A South Carolina woman took the more than two-hour trek with her son to cash his winning lottery ticket  and got a piece of his prize, lottery officials said.

The Pawleys Island man invited her to ride with him to Columbia after nabbing $300,000 on a Kings Ransom scratch-off, according to the South Carolina Education Lottery.

Hed purchased the ticket at Pawleys Express in Pawleys Island, officials said in a news release.

He was very excited about it, his mother told officials.

As a thank you, the woman said her son gave me a tip from his winnings, though she didnt say how much.

The lottery player beat odds of 1 in 900,000 to win the $300,000 prize, officials said. There are now only two top prizes remaining in the Kings Ransom game.

Many people can gamble or play games of chance without harm. However, for some, gambling is an addiction that can ruin lives and families.

If you or a loved one shows signs of gambling addiction, you can seek help by calling the national gambling hotline at 1-800-522-4700 or visiting the National Council on Problem Gambling website.

Lottery player thought ticket wasnt right. Now hes planning a life with no worries

Lottery jackpot opens SC winners imagination. Whole world lifted off my shoulders

Dad with family lottery tradition wins big in Maryland. Numbers kept on coming
Donald Trump Scott Olson/Getty Images

Former Mueller prosecutor Andrew Weissmann called Donald Trump's attorney's appearance on Fox News after the former president's arraignment Thursday a "rookie mistake" after he appeared to make an "admission" about the case.

Just hours before attorney John Lauro's appearances on Fox News and Newsmax, Trump was arrested and arraigned in a federal court in Washington D.C., in connection to his latest indictment for allegedly conspiring to prevent the peaceful transfer of power to Joe Biden following the 2020 election. The former president was charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding; and conspiracy against rights. Trump pleaded not guilty to all four felony counts Thursday.

Trump pressured then-Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to carry out his election certification duties in Congress ahead of the Jan. 6 certification of Biden's win, urging him instead to return the matter to the states where Republican-dominated legislatures in states Trump lost could replace valid Biden electors with pro-Trump slates of electors. All the while, the former president lobbied several state officials to overturn the results in their states.

Lauro appeared on Fox's "The Ingraham Angle" and Newsmax's "Greg Kelly Reports" Thursday evening, offering the same defense of Trump's actions to the respective hosts.

"What President Trump said is, 'Let's go with option D,'" Lauro told Fox host Laura Ingraham. "Let's just halt, let's just pause the voting and allow the state legislatures to take one last look and make a determination as to whether or not the elections were handled fairly. That's constitutional law. That's not an issue of criminal activity."

MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell was stunned by the statement.

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"That is a Trump criminal defense lawyer quoting Donald Trump committing a crime," he said. "Donald Trump's criminal defense lawyer tonight added information to [Special Counsel] Jack Smith's 42-page description of Donald Trump's crimes. The conversation that John Lauro just described appears on page 34 of the indictment against his client."

Weissmann told O'Donnell, "I don't know why a defense lawyer is going to start giving facts about a critical moment."

"It's the whole case!" O'Donnell exclaimed.

"And by the way, it is such a damning thing when you put it in context because remember, what the indictment alleges is prior to that, the reason this had to be done with the vice president is because prior to that, all the efforts that Donald Trump took with respect to the secretaries of state did not work," Weismann said.

"So, for him to say, 'Oh, let's just double check'? I mean, there's nothing to double-check. He actually threatened criminal prosecution against the secretary of state of Georgia, and he still stuck to his guns. So this sort of like, 'Oh, let's just buy some time,' it's illegal, and it's not like there's any real dispute," Weissmann continued. "He knew that the secretaries of state had said to him, 'No, there is no issue, these have been certified, there's no legal basis to do it.' So I just don't know why John, who is a good lawyer, didn't just zip it and not say anything."

"They don't teach TV in law school," O'Donnell quipped in response.

Weissmann went on to explain that a defense lawyer who makes a statement on behalf of their client is making an admission that could be used against the client in court.

"You have to make a motion and say, 'I am saying this was an agent of the defendant.' I mean, again, the judge would have discretion to say, 'Maybe this particular statement wasn't made for him.' But there's a case called GAF that says when you are an agent of a defendant and you are making a statement on his or her behalf, that is admissible," Weissmann said.

"So again, that is why it is fine to say, 'Here are the defenses.' But to start weighing in on this, I mean, not that Donald Trump is going to testify, but if he were and he didn't say exactly this thing, he can be cross-examined on this," he concluded. "So this was just a kind of rookie mistake to make. Just to be clear, John is a good lawyer. I think this was not a smart move."

Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.

Weissmann and other legal experts also shared a clip from Lauro's Newsmax appearance online late Thursday, mocking the Trump attorney for his "strange defense."

"The 'my client just wanted to unlawfully pause an official government proceeding' is a strange defense to an unlawful disruption of a government proceeding charge," Georgia State Law professor Anthony Michael Kreis posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, in response to the clip.

The my client just wanted to unlawfully pause an official government proceeding is a strange defense to an unlawful disruption of a government proceeding charge. https://t.co/bvztnKJDJY  Anthony Michael Kreis (@AnthonyMKreis) August 4, 2023

"An admission. Not a defense," Weissmann added.

An admission. Not a defense. https://t.co/nhcu9pz6OQ  Andrew Weissmann (weissmann11 on Threads) (@AWeissmann_) August 4, 2023

"Sounds like a coup to me," quipped Joyce Vance, a former U.S. attorney.

Sounds like a coup to me https://t.co/TitDthmbZq  Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) August 4, 2023

Read more

about the Trump indictment
One of the Southlake police officers fired in July over an incident involving a swastika had accidentally texted a photo of the drawing to a member of the public, according to police records.

Capt. James Preston Logan allegedly photographed Sgt. Jonathan Macheca smiling near a whiteboard drawing of a swastika and lightning bolts, a common symbol of white supremacy, according to documents obtained by the Dallas Morning News, which first reported the names of the officers involved. Logan texted the photo to members of the police departments hiring board. One of the intended recipients had changed her phone number, and Logan ended up sending the photo to a private citizen.

The police department has not responded to the Star-Telegrams request for copies of the records.

Macheca is accused of drawing the illustration while on break from hiring potential officers. He was joking around with a hiring board member at the time, according to the Dallas Morning News.

Southlake Police Department Chief James Brandon said in a July 28 news release that he was made aware of the incident on June 14 and immediately began an internal investigation. Brandon did not identify the two officers but said they showed exceptionally poor judgment and a lack of leadership.

I know that their actions do not reflect the values of the men and women who serve and protect our community each day, our city leadership, our organization, or our community, the chief said in the release.

Brandon called the drawing of the hate symbol an inexcusable attempt at humor.

Logan was fired July 11 and Macheca on July 17, the Morning News reported. They are accused of violating department policies including discrimination, unbecoming conduct and unlawful harassment, according to the documents.

In addition to the swastika and lightning bolts, the drawing included the letters SSRO, the Morning News reported. The letters appear to combine SRO for school resource officer with the Nazi SS, the designation for Adolf Hitlers paramilitary organization, the documents said.

Logan worked with the departments school resource division, according to a city of Southlake webpage which has been taken down, and Macheca worked with training and recruiting.
By David Latona

MADRID (Reuters) - An unannounced family holiday to Morocco by Spain's acting prime minister has sparked criticism by both right-wing rivals and left-wing allies at the height of a political impasse at home and amid rocky relations with Spain's southern neighbour.

The holiday is the first Pedro Sanchez has taken abroad since he took office in 2018 and is a rarity for any prime minister of one of Europe's top holiday destinations. His office said it was a strictly private vacation, paid for entirely by Sanchez.

It comes as Spain faces either a repeat election or months of wrangling between its fractured and fractious political actors over the formation of a fresh government following an inconclusive general election.

Spain has a sticky diplomatic relationship with Morocco over issues including migration, airspace, territorial waters, customs and land borders.

Tensions eased slightly after Madrid last year radically shifted its policy towards the dispute in Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony that Morocco considers its own but where the Algeria-backed Polisario Front independence movement seeks a nation state. Madrid said it regarded Rabat's autonomy proposal for Western Sahara as "serious, credible and realistic".

The move infuriated Podemos, the hard-left junior coalition partner of Sanchez's Socialists, which supports the Polisario Front and has harshly criticised what it describes as the Spanish government's unexplained volte-face.

Idoia Villanueva, Podemos' foreign affairs spokesperson, said the latest trip was evidence of Sanchez's problematic policy on Morocco.

"Sanchez continues to show his complacency toward Morocco, day after day, while Morocco continues to violate fundamental rights with impunity," Villanueva posted on messaging platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

The opposition People's Party - which has called for Sanchez to be more transparent about his ties to Morocco - also slammed the trip, with official Miguel Tellado describing it as a "clear provocation" stemming from Sanchez's "arrogance" in an interview with Onda Cero radio station.

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Far-right Vox wrote on its X account: "Sanchez seems to like Morocco more than Spain", and accused him of "opening doors" to illegal migration and giving aid to Moroccan farmers amid a drought in Spain.

Moroccan media first reported - and welcomed - Sanchez's choice of holiday destination. Le 360 news site described it as being "intended as a message of friendship" and referenced Spain's backing for Rabat's position on Western Sahara - a shift that represented a major coup for Moroccan diplomacy on its main foreign policy objective.

The site praised Sanchez's closeness to Morocco "although many Spanish politicians reproach him for it", contrasting his stance to that of his political rivals in Madrid.

(Reporting by David Latona and Belen Carreno in Madrid and Angus McDowall in London; Editing by Aislinn Laing and Nick Macfie)
Stanley Tucci attends the Los Angeles red carpet and fan screening for Prime Video's "Citadel" on April 25, 2023, in Los Angeles, California. Leon Bennett/Getty Images

Stanley Tucci said Americans don't have a leg to stand on when it comes to judging other cuisines.

Specifically, he said Americans are too hard on British food on the "Desert Island Discs" podcast.

The actor, who lives in the UK, also said produce in London is far better than in New York City.

Stanley Tucci isn't afraid to call out Americans when it comes to British food.

On the latest episode of the BBC Radio 4's "Desert Island Discs" podcast, the actor, 62, told host Kirsty Young that he thinks Americans are far too hard on British cuisine. Tucci, who was born in New York, lives in the London with his children and wife Felicity Blunt, a literary agent whose sister, Emily Blunt, was Tucci's costar on "The Devil Wears Prada."

"People, especially Americans, I think this is always funny, when they go, 'Oh you live in England?' And I go, 'yeah.' They go, 'Well, you know, the food.' And you're like, 'You live in America,'" Tucci said. "Are you kidding me? Have you tasted your food?"

Tucci went further to say that he would even consider hosting a travel food show about British cuisine. While his Emmy-winning travel show "Searching for Italy" was canceled by CNN in December 2022, as The Hollywood Reporter reported at the time, Tucci said on the podcast that he is working on finding a new home for the program on another network.

Stanley Tucci. Carlos Alvarez/Getty Images

"The plan is, I mean, I want to do the UK too because I find it fascinating. I think there is so much here to offer. Yeah, is there a lot of bad food? Yeah, there's a lot of bad food in Italy too," he added. "And I got news for you. I've eaten some of it."

Tucci previously told the "Dish" podcast hosts Nick Grimshaw and Angela Hartnett in November 2022 that he planned to make a new show about British food in 2023. On the "Dish" podcast, he said his goal would be to educate people on what the cuisine is really like.

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"You sort of want to dispel the myth of, 'Oh, in England nobody eats well.' We know that's not true," he said at the time. "The hope is to sort of educate people as I've been educated by living here."

On "Desert Island Discs," Tucci said he's particularly fond of the produce sold in the UK capital.

"The produce that you have here is kind of amazing," Tucci said. "In London in particular I think the options are much greater than any other city I've been to so far, much greater than New York."

Tucci often cooks for his family and famous friends in his home kitchen, sharing behind-the-scene videos on Instagram.

On July 15, he posted a video in the midst of cooking cod with onions, garlic, capers, and fresh tomato for 12 people, including "Oppenheimer" star Robert Downey Jr.

And earlier in June, he shared another video showing his followers how he made a "quick bolognese" using "beautiful meat" he said he gets from a local farmers market.

"I say beautiful because there's a huge amount of fat in it," he added, speaking of the beef. After tasting the bolognese, Tucci lamented to the camera that he put "too much pasta water in it," but that otherwise, it was "good."

Representatives for Tucci did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Read the original article on Insider
The News

Anduril Industries has a simple business pitch: When Chinese leader Xi Jinping allegedly says that his military should be prepared to retake Taiwan by 2027, he means it.

The defense tech startup argues that the size of Chinas military, economy, and technology sector makes it inevitable that it will soon challenge the U.S. on all those fronts. The solution, it says, is developing and building faster and smarter drones, submersibles, and missile systems  the sort of weapons systems in which Anduril specializes  that can be deployed quicker, cheaper, and more widely than legacy defense systems such as aircraft carriers, fighter jets, and submarines. This is particularly important with 2027 looming.

If a Chinese invasion fleet crossing the Taiwan Street is sailing into the teeth of large batteries of anti-ship cruise missiles and air defense systems and loitering munitions and sort of swarms of intelligent weapons, says Andurils chief strategy officer, Christian Brose, that is something that I say would give China pause.

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Co-founded by billionaire Palmer Luckey after selling his virtual reality headset maker Oculus to Meta, Anduril is among a core group of emerging U.S. defense-technology startups that has embraced the national security space in recent years, bucking Silicon Valleys wariness of working with the Pentagon.

Anduril launched in 2017, mainly as a software company, and has quickly moved into building smart weapons systems, including attack drones, unmanned submersibles and border surveillance systems  shipping some equipment to Ukraine already. This June, it bought a Mississippi-based maker of solid rocket motors with the aim of producing hypersonic weapons and helping NATO and the Pentagon restock its short supplies of munitions and missiles for the war against Russia.

But its the looming power of China, and the growing risk of a military conflict between the Pentagon and Peoples Liberation Army, that consumes Anduril executives like Brose, who served as staff director of the Senate Armed Services Committee from 2014-2018. Beijing already has a ship building capacity 200 times the size of the U.S.s, Brose notes, and China has vowed to match the nuclear weapons arsenals of the U.S. and Russia by 2030. The Chinese military and commercial technology industry are fused in ways that are unimaginable in the West.

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Im all for building more manned submarines. Im all for building sixth generation fighters, Brose said. Thats not going to solve our 2027 problem, and it is not going to bea solution that I can give to the Philippines.

Jays view

A U.S. conflict with China is often portrayed as a longer-term global security threat. But my recent reporting for Security shows that the number of flashpoints between the two countries in the Indo-Pacific are multiplying. And in that context, the types of military systems Brose outlines for the U.S. and its allies in the region make sense.

Case in point: The Republic of Palau, which the U.S. is treaty-bound to protect. The countrys president, Surangel Whipps Jr., told Semafor last month that Chinas navy is increasingly challenging his island countrys maritime borders, sending vessels to illegally map Palaus economic zone and communications systems. Earlier this year, Whipps said his government formally reached out to the U.S. Coast Guard in Guam for assistance, but a typhoon prevented the U.S. from deploying.

Palau has no formal military nor the budget to invest in major weapons systems. But the country would likely play a logistical and communications role in any conflict between Washington and Beijing, including in Taiwan. Drones, surveillance systems, and unmanned aquatic vessels could allow the country to much more accurately gauge the PLAs actions in the Far Pacific and help fashion an allied response with the U.S.

[The conflict] is hotter than people think. And it is more present than people think, Brose said of the U.S.-China rivalry.

Room for Disagreement

The defense strategy for Taiwan that Brose and others in the U.S. security establishment envisage  using dispersed smart weapons to make Taiwan more difficult to invade  is called the porcupine approach.

Taiwans military, however, has cleaved to a Cold War doctrine that prioritizes jet fighters, frigates, submarines and long-range missiles that could attempt to launch offensive strikes on the Chinese mainland. Some Taiwanese politicians view the U.S.s sales of big-ticket items as a sign of Washingtons commitment to the defense of Taiwan. Taipeis democratic leadership has also been wary of signaling to its population that they may need to prepare to defend their island. The Biden administration recently approved the potential sale of $619 million in arms to Taiwan, which including hundreds of missiles for the countrys F-16 fighter jets.

Notable
Store clerks have legal options when someone shoplifts. Teaming up to brutally beat the thief isnt one of them.

No wonder two 7-11 clerks in Stockton who battered a would-be shoplifter with a wooden rod are being investigated by police, as reported on TV news. Although brazen stealing is frustrating, costly and dangerous to store employees, confronting it with violence that far exceeds self-defense is not the answer.

Most people watching the first part of a viral video taken by a bystander will be shocked at the way a man with partially concealed face methodically sweeps stacks of cigarette cartons off a shelf with his arms and into a bag-lined garbage bin on July 29. Viewers might be outraged and angry that the suspect seemed to believe he could calmly walk out with stolen goods, unimpeded.

These types of images symbolize growing public frustration over brazen theft occurring in public stores that many of us frequent. Part of our outrage is that we imagine ourselves faced with sudden danger while minding our own business while shopping.

In this case, the robber was impeded from getting away with it. One clerk grabs the shoplifters arms and takes him to the ground while another man wails on the suspect with a staff or pole  raining more than two dozen blows in full-arc swings, mostly to his legs and torso as the man screams in pain.

Opinion

Where is the line when it comes to protecting property?

California law gives a homeowner the right to confront an intruder with deadly force. That right does not extend to commercial property subjected to shoplifting.

This is an important distinction and one wonders if the legal outcome of this confrontation results in felony assault charges for those who went too far defending a store from theft that may not have even risen to a felony charge. The justice system will decide this.

Readers of The Modesto Bee recently learned the ins and outs of citizens arrest. If you observe a crime, you can lawfully detain someone until the cops arrive, reporter Dominique Williams explained. Reasonable force is OK under some circumstances, Modesto police told her.

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But a citizens arrest that goes wrong could lead to civil or criminal charges such as assault and battery, false imprisonment or kidnapping, according to the Shouse California Law Group. If there isnt an immediate threat to their own or others safety, citizens should be encouraged to let police handle the situation, Williams wrote with reference to a California Department of State Hospitals policy manual.

Frustration doesnt justify violence

No doubt the Stockton clerks were frustrated. Authorities said the partially masked man had reportedly stolen from the store before. A Stockton police station is just across the street from the store, which may have contributed to the frustration of the store clerks. But again, we dont know that, shouldnt assume that and even if this were the case, frustration over theft on commercial property is not a justification for violence, in the eyes of the law.

Police in Stockton are busy with weighty matters, as they are in Sacramento, Modesto and elsewhere. Petty theft often doesnt get the cops attention, and if a thief is arrested, the punishment handed out in court typically is light.

But thrashing the guy with a big rod, viciously and repeatedly, is not a lawful response.

The bystander recording this display of vigilantism saw the beating for what it was and tried to intervene verbally, asking the clerks to stop and ushering the bruised man toward the door. Before exiting, the shoplifter asked for a soda, calling into question his mental state. At no time did he appear to pose a physical threat to the clerks.

Street justice may be popular in movies or among frustrated citizens, but it has no place in a society governed by the rule of law.
A slithery stowaway was found hanging out on the deck of a cargo ship headed to Hawaii, officials said.

A slithery stowaway was found hanging out on the deck of a cargo ship headed to Hawaii, officials said.

After the cargo ship docked at Pier 31, agricultural inspectors boarded and found the snake in a hole on the deck floor, the department said.

The snake was removed from the ship and taken to the departments Plant Quarantine Branch, officials said.

Boa constrictors are non-venomous and are native to Central and South America, the department said.

The reptile can grow to be 12 feet long, according to the department.

With no natural predators in Hawaii, snakes and other large reptiles can harm Hawaiis unique ecosystem as they compete with native animal populations for food and habitat, the department said.

It is illegal to transport or own snakes in the state of Hawaii, according to the department. Those found with illegal animals could face a Class C felony charge, a fine of up to $200,000 and three years in prison.

Unusual stowaway on celery shipment is concerning first for California port, feds say

Giant bug flying outside Walmart found to be super rare insect not seen in decades

Pumpkins hiding a stash of meth-filled condoms seized at Texas border, feds say
Two Florida-based companies have landed within the top 25 on the National Retail Federations Hot 25 list of fastest-growing U.S. retailers.

Sanibel Island's Chico's clothing store and Winter Haven's Publix grocery stores saw a combined growth of over 32% from 2021 to 2022.

The Kantar-NRF U.S. Hot 25 Retailers list is an annual ranking of the nations most impactful and fastest-growing retail companies. Rankings are determined by year-over-year percentage increases in domestic sales. The focus on growth rate highlights hot, growing, companies without being overpowered by the largest retailers in the United States.

Here's what to take from the National Retail Federations annual list.

Why are people starting LLCs in Florida: What's the most popular city to move to in the US? Chances are, it's in Florida

Where did Chico's end up on the list?

In the Know: Coconut Point in December 2022

The women's clothing and accessories retailer landed within the top 10, placing eighth among the fasted-growing companies in the U.S.

The ranking, compiled by Kantar Retail IQ, ballparked Chico's retail sales last year at $ 2.152 billion, an increase from $1.816 billion in 2021. They saw an increase of $335 million and overall growth of 18.50%.

Where did Publix land on the list?

The most recognizable and arguably most popular Florida grocery store saw the 18th spot on the list due to its 13.60% growth.

In the Know: Inside a recently opened Publix. A new one planned where U.S. 41 and Old 41 Road meet in North Naples where Lucky's had been slated.

The ranking found that Publix's retail sales last year were $52.534 billion, a steady increase from $47.997 billion in 2021. They saw an increase of $6.537 billion.

Experts noted that Publix joined a few other grocery companies in growing without any mergers or acquisitions. Grocery Outlet, Publix, Schnucks, and H.E. Butt Grocery have grown largely by slowly expanding their strong regional footprints and adding services like delivery.

What is the fastest-growing retailer in the country?

Cheudraui is a Mexican grocery store and department store chain that also operates stores within the U.S., in the states of California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Nevada under the banner name of El Super and stores in Texas under the banner name Fiesta Mart.

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According to Kantar-NRF U.S. Hot 25 Retailers list, the company saw a U.S. sales growth of 137.30%, reflecting Chedraui USAs acquisition of the grocery chain Smart & Final.

The ranking put their retail sales last year at $7.447 billion, up from $3.138 billion in 2021. The $4.308 billion gain was enough to place them in the top spot on the list.

What does the top 25 look like?

The top companies include:

Cheudraui Raley's Supermarkets Primark Stores Schwarz Group 7-Eleven Superior Grocers BJ's Wholesale Club Inditex Chico's Ulta Beauty Verizon Wireless Costco Wholesale Grocery Outlet Sephora Total Wine and More Tiffany and Co. Wine.com Publix Super Markets Chewy.com Leslie's Poolmart Schnucks Harbor Freight Tools Sherwin-Williams Lululemon H.E Butt Grocery

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Florida-based Publix, Chico's among fastest-growing companies in U.S.
It turns out Amtraks Port Huron station may not be moving from the west side of 16th Street after all  or at least, its not as likely.

Thats according to a long-awaited final study on potential facility improvements and options to relocate released this week by Blue Water Area Transit.

The station, which is at the end of Amtraks Blue Water line to Chicago, has been located at 2223 16th St. for decades, including prior to the end of passenger rail into Canada in the early 2000s.

The discussion to weigh finding a new home for the station arose much more recently but took off in 2017 when BWAT, which utilized federal funds to commission an initial study, and a station advisory committee sought input from the public. The preliminary results came out a year later, and potential station options were whittled down to nine locations with railroad access around the area.

Now, most of those  save for the two that would mean building on or replacing the existing station on 16th  have been ruled out of the realm of feasibility.

Because of the findings that were uncovered during the study, it seems unlikely that Blue Water Transit will move forward on taking the lead on any next steps, said Dave McElroy, BWATs general manager. The viable locations identified in the study were really not conducive to a multi-modal station that would include a lot of bus facilities. So, the next steps are going to be taken by a different stakeholder.

Port Huron Train Station Study by Jackie Smith on Scribd

The final study itself is over 77 pages long, excluding attachments, with a host of stakeholder and other data. It was financed with a $291,000 grant and state and federal funds, aiming to address issues with the existing station in addition to highlighting options.

McElroy said commissioning the report was delayed a couple of years because of COVID.

Multiple officials said because its an Amtrak-owned facility that, for now, next steps are in Amtraks hands.

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It wasnt clear if the passenger rail provider had any immediate plans to upgrade its Port Huron station.

"But the studys available for any stakeholder that would like to move forward with a project of this nature," McElroy said.

On Saturday, Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said they'd "take a look (at the study) and work with the community and with MDOT (the Michigan Department of Transportation) to find the best way to move forward." Part of that will mean assessing the current facility's needs, he said, adding the station and platform need updates to be more ADA compliant.

What were the feasible options?

Multiple different concepts for building on or replacing the 16th Street station are included in the study. Much of those details involve shifts in parking and the size of the station facility itself.

Port Huron City Manager James Freed said he hopes the rail service does address its options, though he wasnt surprised by the studys findings.

Its a $290,000 study funded by the feds that told us nothing we didnt already know, he said Friday. It was always the position of the city that we intend to keep our Amtrak station. The city never supported moving the Amtrak station.  The study shows that its located at a good location. Theres some minor adjustments that can be made to make it more user-friendly, and well look at those with our federal partners in the future. But were glad the study pretty much concluded that it should stay where its at.

One concept to relocate Amtrak station operations across 16th Street to the east side of the roadway is shown as part of a final study of the options to improve or relocate the facility.

Two additional options were identified as part of the continued study effort that were recommended for further investigation: Locating off Dove Street or moving the station across 16th to the east side of the street.

So, what locations didn't work?

In addition to BWAT, the city, and Amtrak, the study lists multiple federal agencies, the Michigan Department of Transportation, and Canadian National and CSX Transportation railroads, among its stakeholders.

It also lists Port Huron Township.

At the time of the preliminary station study, feedback from residents and township officials often encompassed a hope to relocate around CNs property and make Amtrak travel more accessible to visitors utilizing Interstate 94, particularly coming in from Canada, to get to the station.

However, all options in the township were recommended for no further study under the NEPA study.

Port Huron Township Supervisor Bob Lewandowski said he learned at least one wasnt likely roughly six months ago. And ultimately, like Freed, he wasnt surprised by the studys findings.

Disappointed, but Canadian National basically put the kibosh, pretty much, going to Port Huron Township, because they said it had to be located south of the railroad yard, he said Friday. They wouldnt route a train on the north side. So, once they said that I thought, Well, it is what it is.

Two other new station options in Port Huron that were included in the pre-feasibility evaluation werent recommended in the final station: The Railroad Street site in Port Huron and the Vantage Point-Pere Marquette area.

Each option shares connections with the citys more locationally significant but largely unseen ties to its rail history.

To learn more about BWATs previously administered support in the study process, visit http://bwbus.com, or visit the online version of this story to see a copy of the final study. The agency worked with Bergmann Architects, Engineers, and Planners on both the pre-feasibility and final reports.

Contact Jackie Smith at (810) 989-6270 or jssmith@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Port Huron Times Herald: Study: Port Huron's Amtrak station not likely to leave 16th St.
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez (R) said rival GOP presidential candidate Ron DeSantiss decision to debate Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) is a sign of DeSantiss desperation.

Im not surprised at all. Hes put pressure on himself, hes got to compete, hes got to do well. If he does do poorly, I think its very, very fatal, Surarez said of the Florida governor on a business podcast released Friday.

Newsom initially challenged DeSantis to a debate last September. DeSantis, facing pressure from donors and falling poll numbers, accepted the challenge Thursday. The debate is expected to take place in early November.

The move is needed to revive the DeSantis campaign, Suarez said.

What have been the big criticisms of him? That he wont take on rough interviews, that hes sort of coddled  His advisors have told him thats over. Youre not going in the right direction, he said.

And who knows if hes in the race in November, Suarez added.

DeSantis places second in most polls behind former President Donald Trump in the GOP race, but he is in a distant second place.

Recent national polling averages show DeSantis with about 14 percent support  down from about 20 percent when he launched his campaign in May  and Trump with about 53 percent support.

Suarez is receiving less than a tenth of a percent support according to the same polling averages.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Feature: Chinese teacher earns praises for teaching Chinese language in Tanzania

Xinhua) 13:34, August 04, 2023

ZANZIBAR, Tanzania, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- "How are you teacher," a common greeting in schools in China, has become increasingly popular among students in Tanzania's Zanzibar, where Li Xianyi, an associate professor of Chinese language and literature, has been volunteering to teacher Chinese for more than 10 years.

Li, who has another name Li Yaya, has a busy schedule from dawn to dusk as she travels in rural areas teaching the Chinese language.

"I have been teaching the Chinese language to poor pupils and students in Zanzibar's rural areas to bring more employment opportunities for them and further their education," Li told Xinhua at Jendele Secondary School where 20 students are learning the Chinese language.

"During the past 10 years, I have taught more than 1,000 students in and out of schools and some of them have now become Chinese language teachers," said Li.

Abeda Shaame Nassor is among the Chinese language teachers trained by Li. "I began learning the Chinese language in 2022 in order to advance my academic career and learn more about the Chinese culture taking into account that the Chinese have been our long-time friends," Nassor said.

Ismail Mussa Haji, a 14-year-old student at the school, said he decided to learn the Chinese language because it is important for the locals to find a job at Chinese companies in Zanzibar. "My intention is to become a Chinese language teacher upon completion of my education."

Haji said he expected to visit China in the future to learn more about the Chinese language and Chinese culture.

Recently, Chinese doctors who are providing free medical services for people in Zanzibar gathered at Li's home where they donated food and school stationeries to about 30 children, who are Li's neighbors.

Radhna Khamis Ally, a mother of three children, said "I have known Li Yaya for more than three years. She is a good neighbor and she loves children, especially those from poor families."

In March this year, the Chinese language course was included in the local national education syllabus and the Ministry of Education of Zanzibar authorized the China-Africa Youth Foundation to lead the Chinese language course in the government's eight secondary schools.

"The Chinese language is very important for Africa," Li said, adding that the teaching of the Chinese language will help promote the Chinese culture among Zanzibar's young generation.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
Covid-19 is on the rise again as the world approaches the fourth virus season since the coronavirus arrived on the scene.

US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data show a slight increase in hospital admissions, emergency department visits, and positive Covid-19 tests  although not nearly as high as in past summers.

Summer travel, unrelenting heat that drives people indoors, and weakened immunity to the virus may all be to blame for this increase in Covid-19 activity, rather than an infectious new variant.

Experts say its impossible to know what the fall and winter virus season may hold, but there are still tools to get through the small summer surge and prepare for the months ahead.

Should you get vaccinated now, or wait for a new booster in the fall?

Covid-19 is not going anywhere, so doctors say its best to protect yourself against the virus the same way you would the flu: getting vaccinated.

Moderna and Pfizer are both working on updated Covid-19 vaccines targeted to the XBB strains  subvariants of the Omicron variant. Pfizer has said its new shot could be approved in November, and vaccines are expected to be available in late September or early October.

Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California San Francisco, says If you are over the age of 65 or have a weakened immune system, and you have no recent immunity to Covid-19, you should not wait to get an updated Covid-19 shot. The bivalent booster currently being offered will provide sufficient immunity. People who get the existing booster will then need to wait weeks or months before getting the updated booster expected to be released in the fall.

I would probably go and get it right now if you havent been boosted recently, he says, adding that immunity to any Covid-19 strain puts older adults and the immunocompromised at an advantage over the virus.

The same applies to children who have never been vaccinated or who have not been vaccinated recently, according to Dr. Adam Ratner, a pediatric infectious diseases specialist at New York University and a member of the Committee on Infectious Diseases at the American Academy of Pediatrics.

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I would not wait if I had an unvaccinated kid, Ratner says. The variants that are circulating right now are less efficiently neutralized by antibodies that come from the original vaccine, but thats not the same as there being no protection from the earlier versions of the vaccine.

Meanwhile, most Americans who have some immunity to Covid-19  whether through vaccination or prior infection  can likely wait until the updated Covid-19 vaccine becomes available in the fall.

When it is available, Chin-Hong says people should start to get the newest Covid-19 booster  along with their flu shot  every fall to prevent hospitalizations and death along with serious disruptions to daily life.

Has Covid isolation guidance changed?

In addition to vaccination, the best way to prevent the spread of Covid-19 is by isolating if you are sick. The CDCs recommendation remains the same: Stay home for at least five days if you test positive for the virus.

Isolating is especially important as children across the country head back to school, Ratner says, adding that kids should stay home for a full five days if they test positive for Covid-19 and only go back to class after that if they are feeling better. Even then, children should continue to wear a mask for another five days to prevent spreading in schools.

That recommendation also applies to adults, Ratner says.

Even if they dont have symptoms, Chin-Hong says Covid-19 patients need to use a mask. It doesnt hurt to carry around a mask in your pocket should you need it, he says.

As an infectious disease doctor, the best use of the mask is if youre sick and especially if you have symptoms and putting it on to protect other people, Chin-Hong says.

Do at-home tests still work?

It may have been a while since you have bought an at-home Covid-19 test kit, but Chin-Hong recommends that people use them if they feel ill. Dont assume it is the flu or the common cold.

Knowing you have [Covid-19] is important, he says highlighting that the earlier you know you are sick the sooner you can isolate and take advantage of treatments like Paxlovid.

Knowing you are Covid-19 positive and preventing infection is also the polite thing to do, Chin-Wong says adding that its important to have humility for people who are trying to protect themselves, because people are still suffering from severe cases of Covid-19.

The same virus may mean very little to your average person in terms of symptoms, he says. It may have a [larger] impact on some people in the community.

If you are worried about your test kit being too old, Chin-Hong says dont throw it out.

Each kit has an expiration date, but the manufacturers keep on extending the expiration date. So, if in doubt, I would just look at the expiration date and if its beyond the expiration date, just go online, or call the manufacturer and ask them if theyve extended that lot, he says.

However, if you have a test kit from very early in the pandemic, 2020 or 2021, it may not give an accurate reading, Chin-Hong says.

What treatments work against Covid-19?

Many people who contract Covid-19 experience flu-like symptoms such as fever, cough, and headache, while others experience no symptoms at all. In these cases, the treatment plan remains the same as it has throughout the pandemic. Patients should take over-the-counter medication, rest and drink plenty of fluids.

However, with a Covid-19 case that may grow more serious, Paxlovid and remdesivir are available  and may be underutilized, Chin-Hong said.

Remdesivir is an antiviral medication that is often used to treat more serious cases of Covid-19, but Chin-Hong adds that administering that medication is not simple. The drug does not have many interactions, but it needs to be given via an IV over the course of three consecutive days.

[That is] a limitation for people in the outpatient setting or who dont have access to a health care system that has an infusion center, he says.

Paxlovid is also an antiviral medication that is a combination of two medications  nirmatrelvir and ritonavir  which are taken together as pills for five days within the first five days of a persons Covid-19 symptoms.

A study published earlier this year in Lancet Infectious Diseases shows Paxlovid was 80% effective in preventing hospitalization or death if a Covid-19 positive patient started taking the drug within five days of symptom onset.

Chin-Hong says he recommends that Paxlovid be prescribed to all Covid-19 patients who are older or have a weakened immune system. However, a study published in JAMA last month suggests uptake isnt that strong. In the study, researchers found that only 25% of nursing home residents were prescribed Paxlovid between May 2021 and December 2022, despite the high risk of Covid-19 infection and complications.

Despite its effectiveness, there are downsides to the medication. Paxlovid is known to interact with many other drugs, which Chin-Hong points out may be the reason why it is not being used for mild to moderate cases of Covid-19.

I think thats probably the biggest question and the biggest variability in terms of how clinicians see it, he says. Some clinicians are very comfortable with managing drug interactions; other clinicians dont know or are afraid to use it.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
SCCPSS Superintendent Denise Watts talks with students as they work on a LEGO project together during the first day of school on Thursday, August 3, 2023 at The STEM Academy.

Denise Watts has completed her first first day of school as Savannah-Chatham County Public Schools' (SCCPSS) Superintendent. During a press conference Thursday afternoon Watts said, If todays strong start is any indication of how were going to finish the school year, the finish will be epic on all accounts.

She stated that the district welcomed about 36,000 students into classrooms today and highlighted the following:

Transportation

Buses ran as expected with only one bus driver calling out. Watts assured there was support waiting in the wings to step into that route. She did mention later that there is still a need to fill open positions for bus drivers.

She acknowledged the role that many parents played in ensuring their students safe arrivals to school today, whether via the car line or walking them into the buildings on their first day. She said there were no incidents reported on roads near or around schools.

New Superintendent Denise Watts walks through the lot as she greets bus drivers as they prepare to go out for the first day of the 2023-24 school year on Thursday, August 3, 2023 at the SCCPSS Transportation Facility

Meet Joe: Joseph Schwartzburt joins Savannah Morning News as education and workforce development reporter

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What are soft skills?: Hyundai recruiters and workforce developers say they are crucial.

Nutrition

Watts mentioned that she enjoyed a lunch of pizza with a group of sixth-grade students. She took the opportunity to highlight the teams that provide lunches to children every day as well as remind parents that breakfast is free. She also encouraged parents to complete free and reduced lunch forms as their children may qualify for those programs.

SCCPSS Superintendent Denise Watts joins a group of students for lunch during the first day of school on Thursday, August 3, 2023 at The STEM Academy.

Staffing shortages

Most of our teachers are in place, Watts said without providing specifics. She alluded to agility in the SCCPSSs HR team response to make sure every room had a teacher in it today. Many of our schools are fully staffed. We are working on areas where they are not. There are a couple of concerns maybe in some special ed areas, but what I had observed today is our team deploying support from central office to fill any vacancies of holes that needed to be filled. So, where there is not a teacher, we have a very strong plan of support.

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She went on to mention that continued areas of concerns for staffing relate to custodian, crossing guards and bus driver openings  although Watts did not provide numbers for how many vacancies remain. We are trying to get those positions filled as soon as we possibly can. We have contingency plans in place so that we dont have a situation where a service isnt being offered. We want to get every kid to and from school who needs a bus.

She admitted the driver situation isnt ideal, but advocated for patience from families. If you are a parent and you experienced some frustration today, just give us some time. Things will change. It takes a couple of weeks for these things to fully work as expected. But, by all accounts, were well on our way.

Parental partnership

Watts thanked teachers, school leaders, central office staff and the media for contributing to an amazing first day of school. She also thanked parents for their partnership to make the day as smooth as possible.

We encouraged parents to register early and we saw that today. We did not see lines of students and parents in the hallway waiting to be enrolled. Parent partnership cannot be overstated.

She heard a few people mention that Day 1 felt like Day 10 meaning that the planning and preparation of all involved paid off. I saw classrooms where learning was taking place day one. Students had notebooks and teachers were up on their feet. Books were being read to students. It was a strong indication of what is to come in terms of success for our district.

Highlights of the day

Watts reminded those in attendance at the press conference that she is not only the superintendent but a parent of a student in the school district. Her son had his last first day as he began his senior year of high school. So, seeing parents walk into classrooms and drop off their students  somewhat anxious, somewhat excited  was nostalgic for her, especially during her stop at the Acorn Academy.

Pre-K kids showed up as if they had already done this at some point and time in their lives. Pre-K students were definitely a highlight because thats our starting point in providing a quality education.

Coming Next Week

Kurt Hetager, chief public affairs and administrative services officer, offered that the initial indication from data released at the state level on Friday was that students in third grade reading on grade level have seen some significant increases in their Georgia Milestones Assessment System (GMAS) scores.

When asked to comment, Watts said they would be looking more closely at the data in the coming days and plan to provide a media briefing next week addressing GMAS as well as broader details about the districts focus on literacy as its North Star.

Joseph Schwartzburt is the education and workforce development reporter for Savannah Morning News. You can reach him at jschwartzburt@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Savannah-Chatham County public schools welcomes nearly 36,000 students
The Muscogee Nation reservation encompasses much of Tulsa.

The U.S. Supreme Court has denied Tulsas request to halt a ruling that blocks its municipal court from prosecuting Native Americans ticketed for speeding.

City officials had wanted the decision to be put on ice until the nations highest court decided whether it would hear the case. But Justice Neil Gorsuch formally turned down the request Friday afternoon.

His order, which he handed down without further explanation, comes a little more than a week after he had agreed to a temporary delay to hear from both sides in the high-profile case.

The legal dispute has been under the spotlight since June, when the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Tulsa.

Justin Hooper, a Choctaw Nation citizen, had challenged the citys right to ticket and fine him for speeding, since much of Tulsa sits within tribal reservations. Only tribal and federal courts have the jurisdiction to prosecute Native Americans accused of crimes on reservations.

Hooper's attorney, John Dunn, had argued in court filings that the Supreme Court should deny Tulsa's request for a delay, because the city could not convincingly show that justices were likely to pick up the case and rule on its merits.

Gov. Kevin Stitt repeatedly has denounced the decision and advocated for it to be reviewed by the Supreme Court. He also has claimed, incorrectly, that the ruling means tribal citizens do not have to abide by speed limits in Tulsa.

Tribal citizens still can be stopped by Tulsa police for speeding; the tickets must be passed on to tribal courts to process.

More: The story behind Gov. Stitt's new 'One Oklahoma' video on tribal reservations

Tulsa police already have been passing along more serious charges to tribal courts. But the city was holding on to misdemeanor cases, such as driving infractions, that could be heard in municipal court. Tulsa officials contended an 1898 law granted the city jurisdiction. The federal appeals court rejected the argument.

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Gorsuch has considered many cases with Oklahoma ties. He sat on the 10th Circuit before President Donald Trump nominated him to the Supreme Court in 2017.

He wrote the majority opinion in the courts landmark 2020 ruling in McGirt v. Oklahoma. The decision has led to the recognition of eight tribal reservations in the state, including the Muscogee and Cherokee reservations surrounding Tulsa.

More: McGirt v. Oklahoma, 3 years later: How police work on the Muscogee Nation reservation

Chuck Hoskin Jr., principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, called for an end to wasteful legal fights in response to Gorsuchs order.

Once again, we hope elected leaders throughout Oklahoma will join with tribes in meeting our shared public safety goals, Hoskin said in a written statement. Im calling for collaboration, cooperation and an end to the attacks on tribal sovereignty.

Tulsa officials did not immediately weigh in on the decision. Dunn declined comment.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh added a brief statement to the order, saying the case raises important issues. He also questioned whether Tulsas municipal court continue to prosecute Native Americans until the case comes to a complete close.

The case could have far-reaching impacts. Several other eastern Oklahoma cities have followed Tulsas lead.

Read more:

Editor's note: This is a developing story and has been updated.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Supreme Court denies Tulsa request to halt tribal reservation ruling
Attorneys for a man accused of killing four University of Idaho students last year say they will be using an alibi defense, but do not have one specific location for where he was, they said in a court document filed Wednesday.

The defense attorneys for Bryan Kohberger made the statements in an objection to prosecutors motion from last week to compel Kohberger to share the exact location of his alibi and the names of witnesses who could testify to his location.

Kohberger faces four counts of first-degree murder in the November 13 deaths of 21-year-olds Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen; and 20-year-olds Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, who were fatally stabbed in an off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho. A not guilty plea has been entered on his behalf, and his trial is set for October.

Statements by a surviving witness and other evidence leads investigators to believe the killings happened between 4 a.m. and 4:25 a.m., according to court documents.

Mr. Kohberger has long had a habit of going for drives alone, his attorneys Wednesday filing reads. Often he would go for drives at night. He did so late on November 12 and into November 13, 2022.

Mr. Kohberger is not claiming to be at a specific location at a specific time; at this time there is not a specific witness to say precisely where Mr. Kohberger was at each moment of the hours between late night November 12, 2022 and early morning November 13, 2022. He was out, driving during the late night and early morning hours of November 12-13, 2022.

The attorneys say they recognize the use of an alibi requires a specific location, but that Kohberger has complied to the extent possible at this time, their objection says.

Corroborating evidence may come from cross examination of states witnesses. Corroborating evidence may come from presentation of defense experts. Mr. Kohberger is aware of and will comply with his continuing duty to disclose information, the objection says.

His attorneys asked in the filing for the court to exempt Kohberger from further inquiry, and said he is prepared to provide further detail in an ex parte hearing with the court.

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In asking for the defense to provide alibi information last week, prosecutors had noted the trial is about two months away.

If the defense intends to rely on alibi, it is essential that they be required to provide prompt notice so the state can fulfill its obligations under Idaho Code $19-519(2) to investigate and respond to the notice of alibi. Any further delays will substantially prejudice the states rights, the prosecutors motion reads.

Due to a wide-ranging gag order, prosecutors, defense lawyers, and attorneys for victims families and witnesses are prohibited from saying anything publicly, aside from what is already in the public record.

Kohberger was a graduate student at Washington State University, near the Idaho state line and less than 10 miles from where the stabbings happened. He was arrested seven weeks after the killings at his parents house in Pennsylvania.

He has been in police custody since then and is being held without bail. Prosecutors will seek the death penalty, according to court documents.

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The man accused of stabbing four University of Idaho students to death late last year was on a long drive by himself around the time of the deaths, his defense attorneys wrote in new court documents filed this week.

Bryan Kohberger is charged with four counts of murder in connection with the deaths at a rental house near the Moscow, Idaho, university campus last November. He has exercised his right to remain silent during the court case, so a not-guilty plea was entered on his behalf earlier this year. Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson has said he intends to seek the death penalty, and the case is scheduled for trial this fall, though it could be postponed.

The court document filed Wednesday is the first time Kohberger has said anything about his whereabouts on the night of the stabbings. His defense team submitted it after prosecutors asked the court to force Kohberger to reveal if he intends to offer an alibi.

Mr. Kohberger has long had a habit of going for drives alone. Often he would go for drives at night, his defense attorney, Anne Taylor, wrote in the document. He did so late on November 12 and into November 13, 2022.

Kohberger isnt claiming to be in any specific location at any specific time, according to the document, and may have witnesses who can corroborate that he wasnt at the home where the students were killed. His defense team is still going over transcripts of grand jury testimony and other evidence from the investigation, his attorneys wrote, so it is too soon to detail exactly who those witnesses might be and what they might be able to testify about.

The defense has stated all that can be firmly stated at this time, Kohbergers attorneys wrote.

Idaho law requires that defendants notify the prosecution if they intend to present an alibi defense, which is generally a claim that they were somewhere other than at the crime scene and have witnesses who will verify that.

The bodies of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin were found Nov. 13, 2022, at a home across the street from the University of Idaho campus. The slayings shocked the rural Idaho community and neighboring Pullman, Washington, where Kohberger was a graduate student studying criminology at Washington State University.
Reports of suspicious materials being mailed to election officials in King and Okanogan counties are being monitored by the Office of the Secretary State, according to a media release.

Local, state, and federal authorities are investigating the incidents, which happened while election officials were processing ballots from the Aug. 1 Primary election.

In King County, a suspicious letter was received Monday, which analysis revealed contained trace amounts of fentanyl.

In Okanogan County, the courthouse was evacuated Wednesday after a report of an envelope with an unidentified substance. That substance is being tested.

Elections offices in every county in Washington have had to develop emergency plans and protective strategies for events like these, which should serve as a sobering reminder of the dangers that surround our elections process and elections workers, Secretary of State Steve Hobbs said.
NEWTON  A Sussex County judge handed down a life sentence Friday to two men found guilty of murdering U.S. Army corporal Hayden Harris and dumping the 20-year-old's body in the woods of Byram Township in 2020.

Jamaal Mellish, a former soldier who served with Harris at Fort Drum in upstate New York, also received 30-year terms for carjacking and kidnapping, 10 years for unlawful possession of a weapon and five years for hindering apprehension, all to be served concurrently. Under New Jersey's No Early Release Act, he must serve at least 85% of his sentence before being eligible for parole.

Hannan Aiken, a Mellish accomplice also convicted in the murder, received the same set of sentences from state Superior Court Judge Michael Gaus. In a brief statement prior to his sentencing, he took "full responsibility" for his role in the death of Harris.

"My actions haunt me every day, and I know they haunt the (Harris) family too," said Aiken, who otherwise appeared emotionless with his head down for most of the proceedings. "I know the family is not likely to forgive me, but I want it to be known that I'm truly sorry."

Mellish did not address the court and, like his co-defendant, showed little emotion throughout the afternoon.

Harris, a Tennessee native stationed at Fort Drum, was found dead a week before Christmas Day in 2020 near a cul-de-sac in Byram after what authorities said was a car swap gone sour between the two soldiers.

Prosecutors said Mellish and Aiken fatally shot Harris on the cul-de-sac early on the morning of Dec. 18, 2020, after kidnapping him near the Army base in northern New York. Harris is believed to have met with Mellish to get back a Mustang he had previously traded, when Mellish had actually sold the vehicle months earlier.

U.S. Army Fort Drum & 10th Mountain Division took to Facebook seeking the public's assistance with tracking down missing solider, Hayden Harris. Harris' body was found Saturday afternoon in a wooded area in Byram Township.

Courtney Harris, the victim's older sister, remembered her brother Friday as "the most kind-hearted, generous and caring person" who messaged her every day while he was in the Army. She lamented the fact that the first time she saw Hayden in uniform was not at Fort Drum, but in a casket at his funeral.

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Harris wondered why Mellish and Aiken chose to kill her brother, noting that both had plenty of chances to turn the car around during their four-and-a-half-hour trip to northern New Jersey.

"Vehicles can be replaced and rebought. A life cannot," she said as her hands trembled and voice wavered during her statement. "My brother was only 20 years old, but he wasn't given a second chance to live."

Newton, NJ August 4, 2023 -- Jamaal Mellish is sentenced for the 2020 murder of US Army Corporal Hayden Harris. Mellishs attorney Joel Harris is on the right. The sentencing took place in the Sussex County Superior Court in Newton.

The life sentences matched what the prosecution had requested, arguing the killing was planned and exploited Harris' trust in a fellow soldier.

"The court should show Mr. Mellish the same amount of compassion and mercy that Mr. Mellish showed Hayden Harris  no more, no less  which is nothing," said Sussex County Assistant Prosecutor Sahil Kabse.

Aiken's attorney, Thomas Militano, asked Gaus to consider his client's age at the time (16) and his history of mental health issues. He also claimed that Mellish forced him to take part in the murder and that he did so fearing for his own safety.

Newton, NJ August 4, 2023 -- Hannan Aiken enters the courtroom to be sentenced for the 2020 murder of US Army Corporal Hayden Harris. The sentencing took place in the Sussex County Superior Court in Newton.

Aiken's sister, Talia, said her brother had a difficult upbringing in which he lacked a male role model. She believes Hannan Aiken was "manipulated" by Mellish into joining him the night of Harris' murder, and he did so because he finally had someone to look up to.

"I know he's only in this position because his heart is too big," Talia Aiken said.

But Kabse said the idea of Aiken being an unwilling participant "is simply not supported by the evidence," which includes Harris' blood on his clothing and a video of him brandishing a gun the night he and Mellish kidnapped Harris. Aiken, he noted, has also been involved in three separate assaults in jail while awaiting trial.

"He is the same person as Jamaal Mellish," Kabse said, "and he should receive the same sentence."

Newton, NJ August 4, 2023 -- Jamaal Mellish is sentenced for the 2020 murder of US Army Corporal Hayden Harris. Mellishs attorney Joel Harris is on the right. The sentencing took place in the Sussex County Superior Court in Newton.

Mellish and Aiken were convicted on 11 counts, including murder, kidnapping, carjacking and unlawful possession of a weapon, following a five-week trial that concluded June 28. The trial featured more than 350 pieces of evidence and 22 witnesses called to the stand, according to the prosecutor's office.

Cellphone data showed Mellish and Aiken were on Ross Road in Byram, where Harris' body was found, shortly before 1 a.m. on Dec. 18 after driving from the Fort Drum area the night before. Mellish was 23 at the time of the killing.

Gaus said Harris' impact was evident through his sister's statement along with numerous letters his friends and loved ones sent to the court. The messages spoke of his strong faith, commitment to help others and determination to succeed at whatever he did.

"He was raised by this entire community as we all hope children should be raised - committed to his God, his country, his family and his friends," Gaus said  a stark contrast, he added, to the "callous, heartless, ruthless and uncaring" behavior from his killers.

Courtney Harris said she prayed for Mellish and Aiken that "my brother's face is the only face you see when you close your eyes." Although she knows Hayden Harris' last few hours alive were filled with fear, she takes comfort in knowing that God "has him safe in His arms now."

Kyle Morel is a local reporter covering Morris and Sussex counties.

Email: kmorel@njherald.com; Twitter: @KMorelNJH

This article originally appeared on New Jersey Herald: Hayden Harris case: Life sentences for Fort Drum soldier killers
The family of a missing Georgia woman is pleading for help after her vehicle was found torched and in pieces near Atlanta.

Imani Roberson, a mother of four young children, was last seen July 16 in Conyers, about 24 miles southeast of Atlanta, the Rockdale County Sheriffs Office said.

She vanished following a dinner at her mother's home, her family and Sheriff Eric Levett said at a news conference on Wednesday.

Imani Roberson. (via WXIA)

Roberson's mother, Clarine Andujar-White, said she last saw her daughter on July 16 for a family meal. Roberson left her mother's house around 5:30 p.m. with two of her children, ages 3 and 1 month, according to the sheriff. Andujar-White said they were headed back to Roberson's home.

The other two children, 11 and 9, stayed at the grandmother's house, according to Levett.

The following day, Andujar-White called her daughter repeatedly but she did not answer, Levett said. Andujar-White went by Roberson's home and found no one there, according to the sheriff. Andujar-White filed a missing person's report on July 17.

All four of Roberson's children are safe, the sheriff told reporters declining to provide further details about their whereabouts.

"I will leave that up to the family to clarify that," he said.

Imani Roberson. (via WXIA)

Authorities obtained a search warrant for the home Roberson shared with her children and husband, the sheriff said. Information led them to South Fulton County, where Roberson's burned out vehicle was found.

Images provided by Roberson's family to NBC News affiliate WXIA in Atlanta appear to show charred pieces of the white Mazda SUV still littering the site where the vehicle was found. And video from a neighbor's doorbell camera, also provided by her family to WXIA, appears to show the vehicle pulling out of Roberson's driveway the evening she went missing.

The sheriff's office is asking the public to contact them if they believe they have any information that could help with the investigation.

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"There are children that need their mother and we are going to continue to search and investigate this case until we find Imani," Sheriff Levett said Wednesday. "I have assured the family that we are going to find her daughter."

Andujar-White said she knows her daughter "would never leave her children or myself."

"Imani loves her children," she said at the news conference. "Please help me reunite these babies with their mother."

NBC News has reached out to the family for comment.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
The reality of working at a London start-up isnt quite as glamorous as its made out to be, says Otta co-founder Sam Franklin (centre) - Otta

Swish offices decked out with ping-pong tables and bean bags, high-budget socials and lavish free lunches, company away days in the Bahamas  these are just some of the perks that come with working for an innovative start-up company.

Or so the myth goes. The reality of working at one of Londons many start-ups isnt quite as glamorous as its made out to be, says Sam Franklin, co-founder and chief executive of start-up job site Otta, but the perks are still numerous.

Thats maybe a stereotype that comes from the huge success of Google and Apple and other places in Silicon Valley, says Sam. But British start-ups are forward thinking places to work, he insists. Its just that the focus is on the things that really matter, like flexible working arrangements and great parental leave policies.

London is Europes biggest start-up hub. The capital became home to more than 18,000 tech start-ups in 2021, a 94pc increase on the year before.

These companies have become magnets for ambitious young graduates who want to make an impact and earn good money, all while having a working life thats tailored to their needs.

Alex*, 24, graduated from Oxford in 2021 and works for a start-up that makes new alternatives to alcoholic drinks. We can work remotely one day a week, and theres the option to take unpaid sabbatical leave, too. When we are in the office, its a fantastic environment to be in, he told Telegraph Money.

The company also pays for us all to have sessions with a therapist  since there is a big focus on wellness as part of our branding, it really feels like theyre walking the walk instead of just talking the talk, he adds.

These companies have one more important selling point. The early employees of small businesses are often given share options, meaning that they could stand to make a huge amount of money if the company is ever listed publicly or acquired by a competitor.

Thanks to the Governments Enterprise Management Incentives scheme, companies with assets of 30m or less can grant their employees share options of up to 250,000 in a three-year period.

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Whats more, employees dont have to pay income tax or national insurance if they buy their shares for at least the market value they had when the options were given out.

Getting in early on the next world-changing product can massively pay off. Take the case of artist David Choe, who agreed to be paid in equity rather than dollars to paint Facebooks first office in 2005. When Facebook joined the stock market almost a decade later, Mr Choe found that his shares were worth $200m.

The degrees most likely to lead to a high salary

To cash-strapped recent graduates, being granted share options can look like a good way to prepare for the future, in the hope that their hard work will one day allow them to put a deposit down on a house.

That was the thinking of Durham graduate Archie Sidwell, 24, who in March became only the fourth employee at a London tech start-up. His role as a founders associate is one unique to the sector, he says, allowing him to work closely with his bosses on their most important projects.

One reason why I wanted to join such a small company was the prospect of having equity, he said. I have a bit of a longer-term mindset. Lots of people my age spend 12 months in a job then start thinking about where to go next. The idea behind having share options is that you keep adding value to the company and eventually that pays off.

But the opportunity to gain equity can come with a salary below market rate, as companies in their first few years of trading try to spend as little money as possible.

Is it really worth taking a smaller paycheck for a stake in the business you work for? Not if youre expecting to make your own millions, says SeedLegals co-founder Anthony Rose, whose company has drawn up employment contracts for more than 50,000 start-ups.

If you are joining a company that has 10 employees or fewer, then they probably havent raised enough money to pay you a salary at market rate yet. So you might get a lower salary, but have some share options as a top up, Anthony explains.

Employees can only expect to be given a sizeable amount of equity if they join a start-up in its earliest, most volatile years. A companys first few employees might be offered somewhere between 0.2pc and 0.5pc of the company in return for a pay cut of anywhere from 20 to 50pc.

If the company does well, grows through fundraising rounds and ends up with a decent valuation, it can usually afford to pay people market salary. Share options then become more of a way to attract and retain employees rather than compensate them, Anthony adds.

You may only get your money if the company exits, or the owner decides to end their involvement with the business, typically meaning its bought out for a large sum.

In the UK, the median time to an exit is between five and seven years, and the median exit price is about 20m, Anthony says. Such a sale would result in a 20,000 payday for an employee who has equity of 0.1pc in the company, while someone with 0.5pc could see 100,000 come their way.

But many start-ups dont work out, while others that become profitable dont always get sold, Anthony says  its a common adage that 90pc of start-ups fail to get off the ground.

Taking a risk on an exciting new company can pay dividends in other ways, however. Thats what Oxford graduate Charlie* found when they joined a brand new AI art company as its first and only employee.

At just 23, Charlie is the companys lead engineer. I primarily applied to jobs at start-ups because I liked the idea of building something from scratch and making a big contribution to a project, they told Telegraph Money.

The range of experience Ive had is worth so much more to me than a salary, its about the diversity and breadth of things you get to do, they continued.

Being the companys first hire has meant I could build a great relationship with the CEO, and things are much less formal than in a big business  things like being able to wear whatever I want and take time out to look after my mental health are crucial for me.

I recognise that Im fortunate to be able to take the gamble, Charlie admits. If things go wrong, I could always move back in with my parents. Not everyone is in that position.

Its the opportunity to learn and grow that makes the world of start-ups so appealing, not just the equity and perks on offer, says Kabir Bali, 30. Hes the co-founder of Jumpstart, a Dragons Den for talent that matches start-ups with ambitious graduates.

My co-founder and I both graduated in 2016 and went to work in large consultancies, Kabir says. We both got about two or three years in and felt that the opportunities for career growth and progression were quite limited, and didnt come as fast as we would have liked.

Kabirs aim was to design a programme where graduates get the opportunity to rotate across companies for a few years before finding a permanent job.

Three years on, the company has turned the traditional hiring process on its head: instead of being faced with lengthy job applications and stressful assessment days, Jumpstarters have up to 20 companies pitch to them. The jobseekers then choose four or five of their favourite start-ups to interview with.

The idea that joining a small start-up has to mean sacrificing your salary is yet another myth, says Kabir, with the average salary of a Jumpstart graduate sitting between 30,000 and 40,000, though many have some work experience before joining the scheme. Entry-level graduate jobs in other sectors can pay as little as 20,000 outside of London.

Not everyone is going to make that much money straight away, but at start-ups, your earning prospects are generally good, Kabir claims. Its not like working in investment banking, but our graduates tend to make as much as their friends who have established private sector roles, and often a lot more than their peers who work in the public sector.

All of the perks that come with working for a small, new company can become problems overnight, however. Thats what Cambridge graduate Emily* found when she joined the growth team at a healthcare technology start-up.

I felt like I learned very little, says Emily, 25, who stayed in her role as a growth associate for only a few months before moving on to a more established business.

I went in thinking Id be able to try out lots of different things, that Id get lots of opportunities and responsibility. Instead I ended up putting in cold calls all day every day, or occasionally Id get to make some social media posts, she said.

We were also mostly working remotely, which isnt what I wanted at all, she admits. Emily isnt an outlier  while Gen Zs consistently rank the ability to work from home as a priority, many dont want to be stuck at home five days a week.

The biggest problem that recent graduates encounter at start-up companies can come in the form of their own managers, who can sometimes have just as little experience as they do.

I kept asking to work on literally anything other than cold calls, but my manager wouldnt take anything I said into account, especially when it came to how unmotivated I felt, says Emily.

We got on really well as people, and I liked her a lot, but she had never managed anyone before, and I had never been managed before.

So, with all of that in mind, is it a good idea to work at a start-up in your first few years out of university? Yes, says Sam Franklin, of Otta, but its not a decision to take lightly.

Moving from more mainstream employment into a start-up job was the making of his career  at just 29, Sam is the head of a start-up valued at more than 100m, and has employed over 200 people. But he admits that its not for everyone.

If you dont like change and you want to have certainty about what the next six months will look like, then joining a start-up might not be the best call, says Sam. A lot of people see their friends doing well and working on interesting products, and dont realise how difficult these jobs have the potential to be.

As for those share options, dont bank on them paying off, he warns. We always say that you should see share options as a lottery ticket, because its so unlikely that youll get that multimillion-pound payday.

Its important to look at a start-up job as a whole package. Shares shouldnt be the main reason you take on a role.

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PHOENIX (AP)  A Taiwanese microchip manufacturer building its first U.S. plant in Arizona has agreed to more scrutiny from the state when it comes to the safety of construction workers, Gov. Katie Hobbs said Friday.

At a news conference held against the backdrop of ongoing construction at a site in north Phoenix, Hobbs announced that the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. facility and the state have signed a voluntary protection program.

Under this agreement, TSMC will adhere to requirements higher than those at the federal level, the Democratic governor said. These additional safety measures include greater transparency for workers, closer oversight from the Arizona Division of Occupational Safety and Health and increased training for foremen and all hands.

The governor said construction safety standards should match the quality of the highly publicized project that has been the source of much pride.

Democratic President Joe Biden visited the site in December, praising it as a demonstration of how his policies are fostering job growth. Biden has staked his legacy in large part on major investments in technology and infrastructure that were approved by Congress along bipartisan lines.

The plant's construction was first announced in 2020 during Donald Trumps presidency. At the time, TSMC announced its investing a total of $40 billion over eight years in Arizona and would construct a second plant. Then-Republican Gov. Doug Ducey said the factory would create more than 1,600 new high-tech jobs in the state.

Construction started in 2021 on more than 1,100 acres (445 hectares) of land. The plant is slated to be in full production in 2024. The facility will utilize TSMCs 5-nanometer technology for semiconductor wafer fabrication and have the capacity to produce 20,000 wafers per month.

The company has received some criticism for bringing in some workers from Taiwan to help with construction. But TSMC has said the jobs of thousands of U.S. workers already on site will not be affected.

Hobbs on Friday also announced the launch of a new initiative to double the number of registered construction and trade apprentices in Arizona over the next three years.
Tarrant County district clerk Tom Wilder has settled a 10-year lawsuit that alleged he charged court fees to indigent litigants.

Tarrant County commissioners voted to pay $150,000 in attorney fees during their July 18 meeting.

Wilder called the settlement a win for the taxpayers. The money for the attorney fees comes from the District Clerk Liability Fund mandated by the Legislature, Wilder said.

This settles all claims with no mention of liability, Wilder said.

All I did was follow the advice of our attorneys and the county auditor who said I could collect the fees and that I must collect, and thats what I did, Wilder said.

Lee DiFilippo, the lead attorney representing the seven Tarant County residents who sued Wilder said in a news release that Texans will benefit if more attorneys are willing to challenge the unlawful actions of public officials.

I sincerely hope the outcome of this case, including receiving attorneys fees, encourages other lawyers to take up similar public interest cases, DiFilippo said.

The lawsuit

In 2013, seven Tarrant County residents who had filed for divorce sued Wilder, alleging that he illegally charged them for their court fees although they submitted affidavits showing they could not afford to pay because of their economic status.

The fees were $300 on average and related to their divorce proceedings.

They were assessed the fees after their divorces were granted from 2008 to 2012. They included a woman with an abusive husband, a single mother who could not work as she recovered from cancer and a woman on food stamps whose ex-husband was imprisoned for sexually assaulting her daughter. They were among several hundred indigent litigants who received letters demanding immediate payment and a threat to seize their property if they failed to comply, court documents said.

Wilder began charging the fees in 2010 and stopped collecting them in 2013.

The legal battle involving Wilder and the seven residents wound through the courts. Initially, a Tarrant County district judge issued a temporary injunction to stop Wilder from charging the fees, but before the case could go to trial, the Second Court of Appeals reversed the ruling, stating that the fees should have been appealed in the courts that handled the divorce cases.

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The Texas Supreme Court reversed the appeals court decision and sent the case back to the trial court.

Meanwhile, Wilder said the litigants filed their cases using forms with unclear language that said each party shall bear his or her costs.

Wilder added that he uncovered scams showing that some who filed the indigency affidavits had the money to pay.

DiFilippo said, This is a first-of-its-kind case in Texas which has reinforced the constitutional guarantee that the courts are open to everyone, regardless of economic means.
A mourning family is searching for answers in the death of a 15-year-old after he fell from a paddleboard and disappeared in a Utah reservoir, officials said.

Landon Crook was paddleboarding with his family just before 10 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 3, in Sand Hollow State Park when he suddenly fell from the board and didnt resurface, state park officials said in a news release.





People nearby searched for him and called for help. First responders found his body in 25 feet of water around 12:30 p.m., officials said.

It was a hot day, with a water surface temperature of 80 degrees and calm weather, officials said. Crook wasnt wearing a life jacket and officials dont know whether one was on his board at the time.

We dont know if there was a medical issue that caused him to come off the paddleboard or not. There was some speculation of that, but unfortunately he didnt survive, Sgt. Darrell Cashin with the Washington County Sheriffs Office told KSLTV. Most of his family was here. There were parents and grandparents and cousins and all of them were really struggling with it.





Officials urged those who spend time outdoors in the summer to prioritize safety by recreating with a buddy or in groups, wearing life jackets and helmets, and making sure to let others know where youre going and when you expect to return.

Checking weather conditions and water temperatures is also vital, officials said in the release. Pack appropriate gear for your activity and stay hydrated while outdoors.

It turned out to be a pretty awful day for these folks, Cashin said, according to KSLTV. What we are looking for is to get some answers for that family. ... We want the truth and thats what we are looking for.

Woman drowns in Washington river after paddleboard lanyard snags in water, cops say

Trapped kayaker was in danger  so rescuers rushed to Colorado river to save her

Mans body found in lake days after kayak flips with children on board, officials say
The two Democratic state representatives in Tennessee who were expelled by Republicans in April for protesting in support of gun safety on the chamber floor won elections Thursday night for their old seats, The Associated Press projected.

Justin Jones won his election for his state House seat in Nashville, and Justin J. Pearson won his race in Memphis, according to AP projections.

Jones defeated Republican Laura Nelson, while Pearson won his race against independent candidate Jeff Johnston.

Both lawmakers had been reinstated by local government officials shortly after their expulsion in April, but they still had to run for their old seats  both in primary elections in June and in Thursdays general elections.

Tennessee State Representatives Justin Jones and Justin J. Pearson during a demonstration on April 18, 2023 in Nashville, Tenn. (Jason Kempin / Getty Images file)

While Jones and Pearson were heavily favored to win  each of their districts comprise heavily Democratic areas  their electoral success nevertheless delivered a resounding message to Republicans in the state Legislature that the lawmakers continue to enjoy robust support.

Their return may also provide momentum for Democrats and other lawmakers who support gun measures, ahead of a special legislative session scheduled later this month that Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, called specifically to address gun reform.

Jones, in a tweet shortly after the AP projected his victory, addressed Republican House Speaker Cameron Sexton, who led the expulsion hearings, and signaled that he would continue pushing for gun legislation during the special session.

"Well, Mr. Speaker, the People have spoken. The FIND OUT era of politics is just beginning. See you August 21st for special session," Jones tweeted.

Well, Mr. Speaker, the People have spoken.



The FIND OUT era of politics is just beginning.



See you August 21st for special session. pic.twitter.com/DoL3XvYheX  Rep. Justin Jones (@brotherjones_) August 4, 2023

Pearson, too, signaled he would work to organize further protests supporting gun reform, as well as efforts to advance the issue, during the upcoming special session.

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This is only the beginning for this Movement. We will organize, mobilize and activate to work tirelessly for the day when there are no more calls to respond to mass shootings and gun violence," he said in a statement. "I look forward to heading back to the Tennessee state capitol Aug. 21 for the special session on gun legislation. We, the People, will march, rally and work to pass legislation."

The general election victories by Jones and Pearson on Thursday night are the latest developments in an ongoing and chaotic saga within the Tennessee state government.

Following the mass shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville in March  which left six people dead, including three 9-year-olds  Jones, Pearson and another state House lawmaker led supporters in a protest on the chamber floor that called for stricter gun safety measures.

A bullhorn was used, in violation of rules for the House chamber, and the legislators were gathered in an area on the House floor without being recognized to speak. House leaders at the time called their actions an insurrection.

Republican state House legislators then took the exceptionally rare step of voting to expel Jones and Pearson, who are both Black, over their role in the protests. But the vote to expel a third Democrat who was involved in the protest  Rep. Gloria Johnson, who is white  fell short, leading to accusations of racism.

The ordeal drew national attention to racial dynamics in the Tennessee Legislature and elevated the national profile of the Tennessee Three.

Jones and Pearson have shared that their expulsions led to fundraising windfalls for both of them, while Johnson is expected to challenge U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., in 2024.

In the weeks following their expulsions, Democrats in Washington rallied around the lawmakers. Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to Nashville after the expulsions, praising them for channeling their constituents voices in speaking out against gun violence, while President Joe Biden invited them to visit the White House.

Both expelled lawmakers, however, were quickly reinstated to their seats by local government officials, leaving Republicans with little to show aside from the bad publicity.

The Nashville Metropolitan Council voted to return Jones to the state Legislature, and members of the Shelby County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved reinstating Pearson at a special meeting in Memphis.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE - APRIL 18: Tennessee State Representatives Justin Jones and Justin J. Pearson are seen during a demonstration of linking arms in support of gun control laws sponsored by Voices for a Safer Tennessee at Legislative Plaza on April 18, 2023 in Nashville, Tennessee.

Tennesse State Representatives Justin Jones and Justin Pearson emerged victorious on Thursday night. The Nashville and Memphis Reps. won their special elections  giving a middle finger to the GOP-controlled state legislature.

Well, Mr. Speaker, the People have spoken, Jones wrote in a tweet. The FIND OUT era of politics is just beginning. See you August 21st for a special session.

Read more

If those names sound familiar, its for a good reason. In April, the Tennessee state legislature voted to oust the two lawmakers for joining a gun control protest. The decision effectively disenfranchised tens of thousands of voters in districts with large Black populations.

Both lawmakers were re-instated by local officials within weeks of their ousting, but they still had to run in a special election. Jones faced off against Republican Laura Nelson in Nashville. And Pearson faced off against Independent Jeff Johnston in Memphis.

The timing of their victory could not have been more poetic. Later this month, the state legislature is hosting a special session over potential gun control measures, the very issue that was a catalyst for their ousting in the first place.

After a fatal school shooting in Nashville that took the lives of three children and three adults, protesters entered the Capitol demanding gun control. Reps. Pearson, Jones, and fellow Democrat Rep. Gloria Johnson joined the protest calling for gun safety measures.

Republican lawmakers retaliated by calling for a vote to expel the group, known as the Tennessee Three. However, in the end, Johnson, who is white, was sparred. Johnson called out the omission as racist, adding later that she hears racist statements all the time in the State House.

Story continues

Now that these two lawmakers have been restored, theres little doubt that they will continue fighting for the issues that both got them expelled and brought back by their constituents.

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The College Board dispute with Florida over Advanced Placement courses escalated on Thursday as the education nonprofit accused Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration of having "effectively banned" a high school psychology course.

The academic clash began when Florida in January blocked the introduction of a new AP course for high school students that focuses on African American studies, saying it lacked educational value and was contrary to state law. The class, which began as a pilot at 60 schools and will expand to 800 schools nationwide in the coming year, is still barred in Florida, according to

USA Today. The current controversy over AP psychology classes revolves around lessons on sexual orientation and identity.

The College Board said on Thursday going forward, any classes labeled as AP Psychology in Florida will violate either Florida law or college requirements. "Therefore, we advise Florida districts not to offer AP Psychology until Florida reverses their decision and allows parents and students to choose to take the full course."

Florida's Department of Education responded that the College Board is trying to force school districts to "prevent students from taking the AP Psychology Course" just one week before the start of school.

"The Department didn't 'ban' the course. The course remains listed in Florida's Course Code Directory for the 2023-24 school year," a department spokesperson told CBS News. "We encourage the College Board to stop playing games with Florida students and continue to offer the course and allow teachers to operate accordingly. The other advanced course providers (including the International Baccalaureate program) had no issue providing the college credit psychology course."

The state's controversial Parental Rights in Education Act, widely known as the "Don't Say Gay" law, prohibits classroom discussion or instruction on sexual orientation and identity in kindergarten to third grade or in older grades in "a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate."

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In a May letter to the College Board, Florida's Department of Education Office of Articulation asked the organization "to immediately conduct a thorough review of all College Board courses (Advanced Placement and Pre-Advanced Placement) and inform the Office of Articulation, by June 16, 2023, whether these courses need modification to ensure compliance. Some courses may contain content or topics prohibited by State Board of Education rule and Florida law."

The College Board would not modify the course.

"Doing so would break the fundamental promise of AP: colleges wouldn't broadly accept that course for credit and that course wouldn't prepare students for careers in the discipline," the organization wrote in a letter to Florida officials. "The learning objective within AP Psychology that covers gender and sexual orientation has specifically been raised by some Florida districts relative to these recent regulations. That learning objective must remain a required topic, just as it has been in Florida for many years. As with all AP courses, required topics must be included for a course to be designated as AP."

The American Psychological Association has backed the College Board's decision. In a June statement, APA CEO Arthur C. Evans Jr. said understanding human sexuality is a fundamental part of psychology.

"Educators cannot teach psychology and exclude an entire group of people from the curriculum," Evans said, referring to

LGBTQ+ individuals.

The AP course in psychology asks students to "describe how sex and gender influence socialization and other aspects of development," which the College Board said has been part of the curriculum since the course was launched 30 years ago.

More than 28,000 Florida students took AP Psychology in the 2022-23 academic year, according to the College Board. Tens of thousands of students will be impacted in the upcoming academic year.

"The AP Program will do all we can do to support schools in their plans for responding to this late change," the College Board said.

Education in Florida has also been impacted by the "Stop WOKE Act," which prohibits the teaching of critical race theory in Florida schools. In February, DeSantis characterized the AP African American course's proposed syllabus as "indoctrination that runs afoul of our standards."

"Why don't we just do and teach the things that matter? Why is it always someone has to try and jam their agenda down our throats," he said at the time.

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Texas Greg. Abbotts office says Mexico is "flat-out wrong" to tie the death of a migrant to a recently-installed floating border barrier on the Rio Grande -- amid objections to the barrier from both Mexico and the Biden administration.

Mexico announced this week that it had been notified to a dead body stuck in the southern part of the buoys that had been placed by Texas in the Rio Grande to prevent migrants from crossing across the treacherous river. A second body was later found about 3 miles upriver.

"We reiterate the position of the Government of Mexico that the placement of wire buoys by the Texas authorities is a violation of our sovereignty," the foreign ministry said in a statement. "We express our concern about the impact on the human rights and personal safety of migrants that these state policies will have, which run counter to the close collaboration between our country and the federal government of the United States.

BODY FOUND STUCK IN FLOATING US-MEXICO BORDER BARRIER INSTALLED BY TEXAS, MEXICO SAYS

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced the barriers in June.

The report immediately fueled criticism of the border barrier, which now faces a lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice, including from high-profile Democrats.

"Abbott is killing people. Who is going to stop him?" former gubernatorial candidate Beto O'Rourke said on Twitter.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador took aim at Abbott, saying he is "inhumane."

But Abbotts office said that there was no indication that the barriers -- which consist of orange buoys and started being installed last month -- had anything to do with the death near the barrier.

"The Mexican government is flat-out wrong," spokesman Andrew Mahaleris told Fox News Digital. "To be clear, preliminary information points to the drowning occurring before the body was even near the barriers. The Texas Department of Public Safety previously reported to Border Patrol the dead body floating upstream from the barriers in the Rio Grande. Also, DPS monitors the barriers for anyone attempting to cross and has not observed anyone attempting to cross since they were installed."

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Mahaleris noted that drownings in the Rio Grande are common, even before the barrier was installed -- with four people drowning in early July.

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT FILES INJUNCTION AGAINST TEXAS OVER FLOATING BORDER BARRIER IN RIO GRANDE

"This is a result of the reckless open border policies of President Biden and President Lopez Obrador. In fact, before Texas deployed barriers, the United Nations declared the U.S.-Mexico border the deadliest land crossing in the world," he said. "If President Biden and President Lopez Obrador truly cared about human life, they would do their jobs and secure the border."

The barrier forms part of Operation Lone Star, a multifaceted operation to tackle the border crisis amid what Republicans say is a lack of leadership from the federal government. Texas officials have rejected claims that the barrier is dangerous, saying it will in fact reduce the danger of migrants crossing the river.

"I will do whatever I have to do to defend our state from the invasion of the Mexican drug cartels and others who have tried to come into our country illegally, and I will protect our sovereignty," Abbott said on Friday.

"Anytime they get in that water, its a risk to the migrants. This is the deterrent from even coming in the water," Texas Department of Public Safety director Steve McCraw said in June.

The controversy marks the latest clash between Abbott and Lopez Obrador -- who has objected to Abbotts efforts to stop the flood of illegal immigrants coming in from Mexico.

Mexico sent a diplomatic note last month saying that barrier may violate treaties on boundaries and water. Officials have said they will send an inspection team to the Rio Grande to see whether any part of the barrier extends into Mexicos side of the border river.

Lopez Obrador also urged Hispanics not to vote for Abbott as part of what he has called an "information campaign."

"We don't have to do much, just tell our compatriots not to vote for the governor of Texas or for lawmakers of the Republican Party who support these measures," he said.

Fox News' Greg Norman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Mateusz Morawiecki

Polish Ambassador Bartosz Cichocki was invited to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry after Marcin Przydacz, head of the Office for International Policy in President Andrzej Duda's administration, said Ukraine was "ungrateful" for its assistance. The Polish side did not like this step. What happened between Poland and Ukraine?

In Poland, there is an essential factor to keep in mind: the upcoming parliamentary elections. I think it played a significant role in this incident. I wouldn't call it a diplomatic scandal, although it has a scandalous tinge. I would say that this is not a good incident in our bilateral relations, and we need to draw the correct conclusions and overcome the mistakes made on both sides.

There is a common denominator in this situation. Unfortunately, it is now manifesting very powerfully, visibly, and tangibly within Ukraine and many countries that are our partners.

These are the consequences of the prolongation of the war and emotional fatigue from the war.

This is also related to the intensification of discussions about what to do next and the strategy and tactics in this war. Well, this is manifested purely emotionally by some politicians in the following statements that became the reason for this diplomatic incident.

I noticed that it was a statement by a Polish official. A high-ranking official, but an official. Not a decision-maker. He is not a minister. This is not the official position of Poland. I don't know exactly what this person's motives were. There may have been some personal motives that we do not know about. Perhaps the approach of the election campaign in Poland, and the parliamentary elections in the fall, worked. And this factor most likely became the impetus for such a statement. It is related to the discussion about exporting our grain to the EU, particularly Poland.

The ruling party in Poland has its base among farmers, who are against Ukrainian grain entering Poland. This is a challenge for them. There is a conflict of interest here, a purely economic and social conflict.

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The ruling party is trying to focus on its potential electorate and reflect its positions in one form or another. In this case, it was done incorrectly and not diplomatically. This was indeed a problem to which the Ukrainian side should have responded, but to respond in a mirror image.

Read also:

It is correct and polite to say that it is not quite right to make such statements. We are allies and grateful to the Polish side for their support  we should always repeat words of gratitude. But we are also doing a lot, and in the end, we are doing more  we are also protecting Poland. This is how we should have reacted. Correctly, gently, politely, and diplomatically. The form is vital in this case.

This could be done, for example, in an interview with Mykhailo Podoliak, an adviser to the head of the Presidential Administration. He usually reacts in such situations. Or the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.

There was no need to call the ambassador. Regarding bilateral relations, summoning an ambassador is always a way to raise the temperature and fix tensions in the relationship. It was an excessive step on our part. We should have reacted purely informationally and at the same level that corresponds to the level of this Polish official.

When we summoned the ambassador and made a critical statement, it was a demarche on our part, to which the Poles responded with their own demarche. As a rule, diplomatic relations are governed by the law of reciprocity. Therefore, we should avoid such situations in the future.

Unfortunately, we are experiencing many emotions inside the country right now. Recently, a post by one of our experts that we deserved this war has been discussed on social media. This is also an emotion of irritation caused by fatigue from the war. Only the emotion is wrong, directed in the wrong direction; it demotivates. This generalization that all Ukrainians deserve this war works in the interests of the aggressor country: one more step and it will be a justification for the war, that it is not Russia's fault. This is an example of an emotion that has become very acute in our country.

Read also: Russia bombs Izmail port, problems with Poland, speculating on Reznikov and MoD

Unfortunately, emotions also manifest in the actions and statements of our officials. They should be avoided. We cannot afford tensions and conflicts in our relations with our partners right now. We need to maintain this support. The war is dragging on, and it may drag on indefinitely. That is why we need flexibility and rationality in our actions. We have to respond to things that are not in our interests and answer when it comes to officials in partner countries. We have to react diplomatically and politely, at the appropriate level, so as not to create tension and problems in bilateral relations.

It makes sense for us to intensify our gratitude campaigns to our partners at both the public and state levels. We should do this for both its own value and to maintain support for Ukraine. The emotion of war fatigue is evident among our partners. This is evident from publications in the Western media. Therefore, we should not respond to this emotionally.

At the same time, we have a widespread opinion, particularly among officials, that everyone owes us a favor because we are defending democracy, democratic values, and the entire civilized world. But, unfortunately, our partners have no sense of this obligation. They have their own interests, which do not always coincide with ours. Some of these interests may seem selfish to us. We need to abandon this stereotype that everyone is automatically obliged to us. Unfortunately, this is not entirely true. We need to understand this. Therefore, we have to control our emotions, not the other way around.

Read also:

For now, we need to stop. We need an informal conversation, perhaps even a meeting between the two ministers. We need to ease the tension and demonstrate that both countries maintain a high level of partnership. Yes, there was an outburst of emotions, and the pre-election situation in Poland had something to do with it, but we need to demonstrate that the high level of partnership between Ukraine and Poland remains. This is in the interests of both countries. Therefore, this incident should not be developed further, it should be stopped, and the tension that has arisen should be relieved. This is what needs to be done.

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Tinder is getting an AI upgrade

Like every other tech company, Tinder is bringing artificial intelligence to its operations in an attempt to create a better user experience, its parent company Matchgroup said in its Q2 earnings letter on Wednesday. The company says it plans to create new features around the needs of Gen Z users.

Aside from Tinder, Match Group also owns popular dating apps Hinge and OkCupid which are introducing AI in an attempt to shift their algorithm to focus on how the younger generation approaches dating. By incorporating quizzes, prompts, and conversation starters, the earnings report says it will better target self-expression, but with that comes its plans to utilize AI capabilities.

Read more

As the total revenue for Match Groups dating apps continues to grow, jumping 4% in the second quarter of 2023 compared to the same quarter last year, the company continues to search for ways to automate the dating process. By incorporating artificial intelligence into the mix, the company says users will be able to use the AI-enabled photo selection tool to automatically select the five best photos of themselves to use in their dating profile. The company did not state which of its apps would receive the feature or if it would apply to all of the apps.

But what Match Group has failed to convey in its report, is what will happen if, as with so many other AI tools, it introduces more bias and discrimination on the platforms. If AI is selecting which photos are most appealing, whats to stop it from showing racial bias and picking only those photos that appear light-skinned? Such a problem occurred when Rona Wang, an Asian Massachusetts grad student, recently used AI to generate a LinkedIn photo of herself which she posted on her Twitter account.

Using an AI image generator, Wang told ABC News it created a picture of her with Pale skin, like blue eyes, someone with like European features. She added, I think, certainly, theres a lot of bias in AI, and I think thats a huge problem.

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Of all the problems that have been identified in generative AI systems, racial bias has been one of the most persistent and pervasive.

Match Group says it plans to roll out an AI feature to propose ideal matches, explaining why the profile populated for the user, and why they would allegedly make a good match. By adding this feature, the company hopes to give the user less of a need to swipe left.



In one AI concept photo shared in the earnings letter, the AI feature showed an image of a possible match on OkCupid, with the caption: Get ready for endless laughter with this witty charmer who shares your love for brunch, scary movies, and a laid-back approach to life!

Yet, how will Match Group control how AI decides if youre a match made in heaven? AI often misrepresents people of color, potentially creating a massive headache for dating apps. If its being used to make some really big decisions that can be really dangerous, right? Wang told ABC. If it is perpetuating these biases or especially racial biases.

Artificial intelligence tools pick up on trends and patterns it picks up from the dataset it was trained onmeaning it tends to carry on with similar racist attitudes that humans express online. This could mean that the AI tools will hide an otherwise perfect match based on a name, skin tone, or qualities relating to race and social interactions.

MIT student Joy Buolamwini said in a TED Talk that facial recognition algorithms dont work accurately, saying even in her lab, it cant detect Black faces, and she has to put on a white mask to be recognized.

If the training sets arent really that diverse, she said, any face that deviates from the established norm will be harder to detect.

As with all technology and dating apps in general, users should be additionally wary of AI tools ability to increase the number of fake profiles on dating apps. This is a concern Match Group carries, according to CEO Bernard Kim, who said during the earnings call, We need to be really thoughtful about making sure that were giving the right thought to authenticity and ethical and privacy concerns, TechCrunch reported.

But the reality is, when all is said and done, Match Groups AI tools might create more problems than they solve.

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A Delta Air Lines flight had to evacuate passengers after the tires burst on Wednesday. Robert Alexander/Getty Images

A Delta Air Lines flight evacuated passengers using emergency inflatable slides after the tires burst.

Video footage shows that the tires had caught fire and were being sprayed with water after landing.

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the incident.

Passengers onboard a Delta Air Lines flight to Atlanta were forced to evacuate after the aircraft's tires burst and caught fire whilst landing, according to various reports including Fox5 Atlanta and Sky News.

The aircraft which departed from Richmond International Airport in Virginia was landing at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on Wednesday at 6 p.m., the Federal Aviation Administration confirmed to Insider. The flight blew its left main gear tires.

Passengers were able to exit the aircraft using emergency inflatable slides, per the FAA. There was no disruption to air traffic, it added.

Video footage shared by Fox5 shows the plane surrounded by emergency vehicles and being sprayed with water. At least one person was injured but details of their condition is unknown, according to Fox5.

The plane landed safely around 6:20 p.m. and was carrying a total of 190 passengers,

Social media footage published by Sky News showed that the plane tires were on fire while it was being sprayed with water.

The FAA said it will be investigating the incident.

Delta Air Lines did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment about the incident.

Read the original article on Business Insider
J&H Estates is revolutionizing the wine industry. Ashley James and Shia Hendricks co-founded the wine label to create a lifestyle brand. Their combined expertise and passion have created a brand that resonates with wine connoisseurs. From cozy evening chats to grand celebrations, J&H Estates brings people together, enhancing moments of joy and connection. The founders commitment to quality and creativity ensures that each bottle, even without its own vineyard, has a distinct character and an unforgettable taste.

J&H Estates symbolizes empowerment, innovation, and excellence in a predominantly white-male industry. This brand also proves that race and gender do not define ones ability to succeed in this competitive market. The brands success not only enhances the variety and richness in the world of wine but also fosters an environment of inclusivity, where diverse narratives are heard, celebrated, and savored, just like a fine bottle of wine.

This Black Business Month, lets raise a glass to James and Hendricks and J&H Estates  a testament to boldness, resilience, and the magic that happens when you dare to dream.

Credit: Courtesy of J&H Estates

21Ninety spoke with James and Hendricks to learn more about their brand, its inspiration, and the success J&H has received thus far.

Interview with the Co-Founders of J&H Estates

21Ninety: Tell us about yourselves.

Ashley James: Im from Houston and I am a chef by trade. I like to say I am in the international luxury hospitality industry. I do consulting and event curation as well.

Shia Hendricks: I am based in Birmingham, Alabama. Im just a very passionate person around building intentional community. And a living life, wine and food enthusiasts of sorts.

21N: Can you share the journey and inspiration that led you to own and operate J&H Estates?

AJ: Shia and I became really fast friends. One morning Shia gave me a call and was like, I really think that we should consider starting a wine brand. One of the things we bond on is how much we love wine and love to eat. And it was very timely because a few weeks after that, I was headed to Napa to take a wine client that I helped privately and I was like [to Shia], If youre free, you should join us. We had a few events lined up. Then we created some extra appointments to meet up with people and brokers just to learn a bit more about what was out there and to get into the industry. In that trip, we decided thats what we wanted to do. So, I think the call was the beginning of April [2022], and we soft launched in July, and we began shipping our wine by the end of the year.

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21N: Can you discuss some of the specific challenges youve faced since starting this brand?

AJ: I think weve been really fortunate to have help along the way to help us maneuver the industry. But I think to me personally, the biggest challenge is administrative. Just figuring out all the things we need to do to stay above board. To make sure that were covered, to make sure we can legally sell winethat sort of thing. But weve been very fortunate in the people that we have met.

SH: I could not agree more. While weve been around the food and beverage industry in different capacities, starting the brand was a bit different. Its a little daunting. Figuring out resources and, as Ashley has mentioned, the administrative as well. This experience has been fun, challenging, and beautiful all at the same time.

21N: What would you both say this experience has taught you?

AJ: You really have to be open at what life throws at you and by that, I mean the people that you meet. In the wine industry you meet so many different types of people. You really have to be open and willing to experience thatexperience different personalities.

21N: In this industry, there arent many Black-owned wine brands. How do you both see J&Hs role in this industry?

SH: By virtue of the fact that there arent many, it makes us disruptors in the space, if nothing else. Weve been able to come in and immerse ourselves in the industry in a short period of time. But we are disruptors who really make wine that we like, that is approachable but is also giving an elevated experience. We are charting a path that is unique to us in our experiences, and we want people to enjoy our brand of wine in all of the spaces they exist in.

21N: What is the one wine that is J&H Estates in a bottle?

AJ: I think that right now, our cabernet sauvignon represents us well. Actually, Im going to say that all of our wines represent us. Our sparkling brut rose represents us really well because I like to think we are professional frolickers. And the sparkling brut rose is approachable for people who dont know much about wine. Or for a day by the pool. Its really palatable for everything. The cab represents us both well because we both love red wine, and its one of the American-style wines we both love because its deep, and its beautiful, and has this great aroma.

SH: The chardonnay is the first selection that is going to be from the grape to the bottle. So, weve been involved in every step of the process.

21N: Where do you see you see J&H Estates in five years?

AJ: We certainly hope to have a vineyard by that point. And our approach has been to make J&H Estates a lifestyle brand. The way we approach this wine is its kind of our everyday life. We are trying to show how this wine is a part of our everyday life. How it can be a part of your celebrations, and it can be for a girls day after a hard day at work, and how beautiful it is every step of the way.

This article has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

The post A Toast To Black-Owed Wine Label J&H Estates During Black Business Month appeared first on 21Ninety.
"Ill encourage all my friends and acquaintances to see the movie with their teenagers," the author writes.

Barbie is the movie I needed my 15-year-old son to see this summer. The kid has his learners permit for driving, medaled in a couple of swim events at a regional meet, recently went on his first date, and soon will be embarking on his sophomore year in high school. Hes on his way to becoming Ken on Venice Beach (as played by Ryan Gosling).

As his 51-year-old mother, Im painfully aware that my son is merely six years away from having more rights in America than I do. He will soon obtain a drivers license, and later get a voters registration. Due to the generosity of his grandparents and our ability to save money, he has a modest college fund. Once he reaches the age when he can legally consume alcohol and has a college degree, he might arrive on a relatively level playing field with Gosling (minus the fame and the eight-pack abs). He will have bodily autonomy  a privilege I lost in June 2022 when six Supreme Court justices voted to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Undoubtedly, those who seek to uphold the current status quo in American society and applaud the SCOTUS decision will label my actions indoctrination and woke. Ill happily admit it: They are. To borrow an African proverb, If the wise elders of the village dont teach the children, the village idiots will certainly do so.

Ive been inoculating my son against hate for years. On the morning of Nov. 9, 2016, my then 8-year-old son found me sobbing on our family room couch in a suburb outside Washington, D.C. Right then and there, I gave him a gargantuan task that amounted to dont sit by and let people bully others. I implored him to use his privilege to help. It was a huge ask and perhaps an inappropriate burden for a kid that age, but Id already put some scaffold in place.

Up to that point, Id tried to model this behavior by doing whatever I could  and using my own privileges  to help those around me. I drove an immigrant mother to a local community college for classes and helped her with English. As a family, we participated in Help the Homeless walks through our local community service organization. For years, we purchased backpacks for kids in transitional housing each August and packed Thanksgiving boxes with groceries and gift cards for those less fortunate each November. We visited a mosque in Virginia for its open house at a time when backlash against Muslims was heating up again. During Donald Trumps presidency, I advocated on Capitol Hill for increasing immigration quotas for refugees, especially for Afghans and others who had assisted U.S. troops in exchange for our protection.

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Despite these efforts and a new administration, we live in a country where white nationalism is on the rise, as are antisemitic incidents and anti-LGBTQ legislation. We live in a country where women do not control our own bodies. In 2023, I am fighting to raise a son who doesnt become the next Kyle Rittenhouse, Brock Turner or Elon Musk.

Movies, like books, invite dialogue. As a former high school English teacher, I wish all teachers would assign their students to watch Barbie in place of summer reading selections like The Grapes of Wrath. Since its too late to amend summer assignments, Ill encourage all my friends and acquaintances to see the movie with their teenagers.

Analyzing the Barbie film is as foreign to my son as reading Shakespeares comedy A Midsummer Nights Dream was last year in ninth grade. It requires a guide who can explain that Kens inferior position in Barbieland is a mere inversion of the patriarchal American society we live in today. I was thrilled to be given the chance to provide that guidance.

The experience of sitting in a theater with my son and watching Ken ask Stereotypical Barbie (played by Margot Robbie) if she wants to have a sleepover offered me the opportunity to point out that consent is important and needs to be honored.

We discussed how the frustration Ken feels at being left out of fun in Barbieland mirrors how women and other minorities feel in America today. Together, we laughed about Barbie and Kens trip to the real world and the Mattel corporate headquarters, where only men sit in the boardroom. I assured my son that its OK to feel slighted and want to be in charge. Its understandable that after his return, Ken leads a revolt and tries to rewrite the Constitution to put Kens in power. I get it: Im pretty mad there are only four female Supreme Court justices and a female vice president.

To be voiceless or outnumbered is to be vulnerable  and worse, too often it means being unable to succeed in a world where you dont have the same rights or access to opportunities as others. I acknowledged my own substantial privilege as a white, cisgender, heterosexual, educated woman while I confessed to him that I feel guilty about how my status gives me advantages. Being human is complicated. But, as Barbie points out, we all get a choice in what we do with our lives  we get to decide what we do with our privilege, and if and how we help make this place better for everyone.

I can rail against book bans in this country all I want, but nobody is burning copies of John Steinbeck novels anymore. Instead, Ben Shapiro is igniting Mattels 11.5-inch plastic dolls. In taking my son to the Barbie movie and talking with him, I seized the lesson plan that Hollywood handed me. Although I dont live in Florida or plan to visit the state anytime soon, I challenged the anti-woke agenda that Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is trying to impose there  and everywhere. I want my son to fully understand the message that Barbie has emblazoned in front of us, because the patriarchy is real and too many people are suffering under it. And he can help change that.

Heres the thing that haters missed about the Barbiemovie: It wasnt about revenge. Weird Barbie (my favorite character, played by Kate McKinnon) sent Stereotypical Barbie on a quest back to the real world to find Gloria (a low-level Mattel employee having an existential crisis) and her daughter Sasha, who discarded her Barbie doll years earlier. When the trio returns to a Barbieland in shambles, Kens sidekick, Allan, and all of the other discontinued Barbies team up to voice ways in which the matriarchal society that existed before the Kens took over was also flawed and excluded them. They ask for a new place  not a return to the past or a punishment for anyone. In the end, Stereotypical Barbie tells Ken to get a life that doesnt depend on others for happiness  a life that gives him equal status without infringing upon the status of anyone else. I want that for your sons and my son as well.

In the spirit of cooperation, my son signed off on this essay about our excursion. Its just one instance in an ongoing process of negotiations between parent and child. Im grateful to see glimmers of the man he is becoming, even wrapped in a sometimes surly exterior. One day, months before we saw Barbie together, he surprised me during a car ride by saying how messed up it was that people were boycotting a product advertised with the help of a transgender celebrity. Its those small interactions that convince me he understands his privilege and sees a world that desperately needs diversity. Going forward, Ill keep teaching him about this messy world whenever I can  even if its at the movies and with the help of a doll  and Ill keep saying and doing things that embarrass him, a skill that he swears I excel at. And hell do his best to grow into the man hes becoming, who currently wears a mens size 11 shoe. I am hopeful that he will learn to tread lightly to avoid stepping on Barbies Birkenstocks.

Wendy Besel Hahn (she/her) is the nonfiction editor for Furious Gravity (May 2020), a collection of 50 stories by D.C.-area women. Her work appears in The Washington Post, Scary Mommy and The Fem, and is forthcoming in Hippocampus. She lives in Denver, where she is working on a novel.

Do you have a compelling personal story youd like to see published on HuffPost? Find out what were looking for here and send us a pitch.

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A woman whose remains were found in 2007 was just identified but her family never reported her missing (Sarasota County Sheriffs Office)

It took 16 years for police to identify remains found in a shallow grave in Florida as Jeana Burrus  but still questions remain. What happened to her? And why was she never reported missing?

She was 39 at the time of her death, and was married with a son, yet so much of Jeana Burrus life still remains a mystery.

Reports from before she was identified, only known as Jane Doe in the case, have provided clues as to what her relationship was like and what could have happened in the final hours before she died.

The Herald-Tribune reported in 2010 that police suggested that it could have been a homicide, given that it appeared she had been carried to the site. Now, according to Fox13, her husband has been named as a person of interest in her death.

The Timeline

Before moving to Sarasota, the Burrus family lived in Citrus County, Florida then in Frederick, Maryland. Frederick County criminal court records show that the couple were arrested on 14 January 2000 for possession with intent to distribute a controlled dangerous substance.

James Burrus Jr, her son, attended Gulf Gate Elementary School between 2005 and 2006, the Sarasota County Sheriffs Office reported.

Investigators said that Mr Burrus abruptly left Sarasota in 2006, but without Jeana.

On 6 February 2007, female remains were discovered in a wooded area of Ashton Court in Sarasota, the sheriffs office said.

When asked about her death, according to Fox13, investigators have since said that Mr Burrus provided different versions, honestly of what happened to their relationship, but when he sat with detectives he provided no details. He gave no information.

Mr Burrus worked at an auto body shop, just a four-minute drive away or a 20-minute walk away from where her remains were found, according to Google Maps. The couples home was an hour walk or an eight-minute drive from the location.

On 9 July 2015, someone named Jamie A Burrus filed for divorce from Jeana Burus in Frederick County in Maryland. However, the case was dismissed due to lack of jurisdiction, as the court said that the mail directed to Jeana Burrus was returned, writing: No such street, unable to forward.

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The case went cold until November 2022, when DNA technology provided the positive identification of Jeana Burrus.

On 2 August, authorities posted information about the case, adding that they were looking for more information into both James and Jeana Burrus.

On 3 August, James Burrus was named as a person of interest in the death of his wife. Sarasota County Sheriffs Office Lieutenant Mark Lefebvre shed some light on her cause of death, explaining, The bones indicate it was not a natural cause of death.

Who Was Jeana Burrus?

Officials have said that Jeana Burrus was unemployed. She was married to James Burrus, with whom she had a son who attended Gulf Gate Elementary School in Sarasota.

Her uncle, Clare Wiedmaier, described her to Fox13 as a very loving, fun, warm person. She really had a lot to do with family.

Lt Lefebvre added some colour to the pairs relationship. He told the publication, They were just struggling at the time, and they had a very volatile relationship.

Someone has to have been told something or know something. People just dont disappear, her uncle added.

Before She Was Identified

A number of older news reports referred to Jeana Burrus as Jane Doe before police identified her remains. The Herald-Tribune wrote in 2010 that the remains were found in a 3ft-deep hole.

After a 10-hour excavation, investigators discovered a woman lying on her side, a knee bent in the air, buried in a shallow grave, the outlet wrote.

The woman was found fully clothed in a cotton multicolored shirt with Made in Italy label and a skirt with an unusual leather belt made of straps tied together. Investigators described her as approximately 5ft 7in with reddish hair with blond streaks. She also had breast implants, the publication added.

She had no shoes, leading detectives to believe the body had been carried to the site, according to the 2010 article.

Detectives at the time also discovered skull fractures that they believed to have occurred before she was buried; one expert thought the fractures were consistent with blunt-force trauma.

This is an area that someone has obviously taken great care to obfuscate the fact that there is a body here, the then lieutenant explained.
(Bloomberg) -- Indias top court stayed Rahul Gandhis conviction in a high-stakes defamation case, enabling the opposition leader to seek his reinstatement as a lawmaker and to contest general elections due next year.

Most Read from Bloomberg

In their judgment, a three-person Supreme Court bench said that Gandhis conviction impacts not only him, but also the rights of the electorate who have elected him to represent their constituency.

Gandhi, 53, the leader of the main opposition Congress party, was sentenced to two years in jail by a lower court for allegedly making defamatory remarks about Prime Minister Narendra Modis surname during an election rally in 2019.

The conviction disqualified Gandhi from serving in Parliament and jeopardized his ability to contest elections for six years after being released from jail. A second court suspended his jail term until Gandhis appeal is decided.

In explaining Fridays ruling, the Supreme Court said the lower court had failed to justify why it imposed such a strident sentence on Gandhi. Many of Modis opponents see the case against the Congress leader as politically motivated.

Rahul Gandhis stay of conviction is a big shot in the arm of Congress, which will now feel more emboldened to counter the challenges from Modis party, said Satish Misra, a New Delhi-based independent political analyst.

Even so, Gandhis legal troubles arent over. Though the Supreme Courts verdict paves the way for his reinstatement in Parliament, a court in the state of Gujarat still has to rule on the merits of the defamation case.

Gandhi has positioned himself as a challenger to Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party. A recent victory for Congress in local elections in the southern state of Karnataka has given Gandhis party a much needed boost.

Story continues

Gandhis disqualification from Parliament and elections has become a major political flash point. More than two dozen opposition parties have united with Congress and vowed to fight together to defeat Modi in 2024 national elections.

--With assistance from Abhijit Roy Chowdhury.

(Updates with analyst quote and details about ruling)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
The site of the crash of the State Emergency Service helicopter in Brovary, January 18, 2023

Ivan Korobets, the head of the Aviation and Aviation Search and Rescue Department of the State Emergency Service (DSNS), has been arrested and detained for two months in connection with the January 18 helicopter crash in Brovary that claimed the lives of several senior Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) officials, including Minister Denys Monastyrskyi

The State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) had previously notified five DSNS officials that they were suspected of involvement in the disaster, Ukrainian national broadcaster Suspilne reported on August 4.

Fourteen people were killed in the disaster, including Monastyrskyi, his deputy Yevhen Yenin, and the MIAs Secretary, Yurii Lubkovych, who were en route to a mission in Kharkiv Oblast. A child on the ground was also killed in the incident.

Read also: Searches at ex-interior minister Avakovs house linked to Brovary helicopter crash

The investigation revealed that the DSNS officials flagrantly violated the rules of traffic safety and operation of air transport, resulting in the tragic loss of lives. The pre-trial investigation reconstructed the events leading up to the accident, including the decryption of the helicopters black box.

Reportedly, the DSNS officials, despite internal warnings and legal restrictions, utilized a helicopter that was on standby for potential emergency situations in Kyiv and the surrounding oblast to transport the MIA delegation. However, the aircraft lacked the necessary permits for such flights.

The Prosecutor Generals Office disclosed that during flight preparations, the crew commander was not informed about meteorological data along the planned route, particularly the extremely unfavorable weather conditions over the town of Brovary.

Moreover, the crew lacked the required authorizations and certifications for flying in adverse weather conditions. Nevertheless, no officials responsible for flight safety canceled or postponed the departure until favorable weather conditions occurred.

Story continues

Read also: Ukrainian PM submits motion to tap Klymenko as interior minister

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
A woman whose legs and feet were found on a New York shore in 1996 has been identified as 34-year-old Karen Vergata, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney announced Friday at a news conference.

The DA, who heads the task force investigating the Gilgo Beach murders, declined to comment on whether Vergata is connected to accused Long Island serial killer Rex Heuermann.

The architect was arrested July 13 for the murders of sex workers Amber Lynn Costello, 27, Melissa Barthelemy, 24, and Megan Waterman, 22, whose bodies were found days apart on a stretch of Gilgo Beach in 2010. He is also the prime suspect in the slaying of 25-year-old Maureen Brainard-Barnes.

GILGO BEACH SUSPECT REX HEUERMANN SCOWLS IN COURT AS PROSECUTORS DETAIL VOLUMINOUS EVIDENCE

The women are known collectively as the Gilgo Four. Their bodies are among 11 sets of human remains found along Ocean Parkway between 2010 and 2011.

GILGO BEACH MURDERS: THE INVESTIGATION IN PHOTOS

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Tierney said Vergata's severed legs and feet were discovered April 20, 1996, on the bayside of Fire Island, and she was dubbed "Fire Island Jane Doe."

More than 15 years later, in 2011, her skull was found off Ocean Parkway near Tobay Beach.

The locations where eight of 10 bodies were found near Gilgo Beach since December 2010 are seen in this Suffolk County Police handout image.

Vergata, who lived on West 45th Street in Manhattan, was last seen on Valentine's Day 1996 but was not reported missing. She was believed to be working as an escort at the time, Tierney said.

"In August of 2022, approximately six months after we formed this Gilgo task force, a DNA profile suitable for genealogical comparison was developed for Karen Vergata," Tierney said at the news conference. "In September 2022, the FBI was able, via a genetic genealogy review, to identify Ms. Vergata presumptively as Fire Island Jane Doe."

The following month, investigators used a buccal swab from a relative to definitively identify her.

But Tierney said they chose to delay announcing her identity as the grand jury had started convening at the time on Heuermann's case. Vergata's murder investigation is ongoing.

Heuermann has denied the allegations against him through his attorney.
Rescuers rushed to save a kayaker who struck a log and became trapped in a Colorado river, officials said.

The woman was kayaking with friends Aug. 3 in the Arkansas River in Lake Pueblo State Park, Colorado Parks and Wildlife said in a news release.

At about 3 p.m., she struck a log, causing her lightweight, folding kayak to collapse near the Cottonwood Day Use Area, wildlife officials said.

Her foot then became became lodged in the kayak as she had her other leg braced against the log, officials said. Onlookers called 911.

Ranger Jacob Sims was on bike patrol and was the first rescuer to see the woman struggling in the water, officials said.

Multiple rangers then rushed to save her.

The woman was able to tell rescuers her foot was stuck and she couldnt move her leg, officials said.

Ranger Daryl Seder swam into the river with safety ropes to help her. She was in about 3 feet of water.

She certainly was in danger, no doubt, being trapped like that. Especially if the log had shifted. Even wearing a life jacket, if she had gotten pulled into the current, facedown, it could have been bad, Seder said in the release.

Officials said the woman remained calm as Seder pushed the kayak into the current, freeing her foot.

I had her float on her back to the shoreline where members of the Pueblo West Fire Department pulled her from the water, Seder said.

Lake Pueblo State Park is about 50 miles south of Colorado Springs.

Dad vanishes in river after pulling his 3 kids to safety, New Jersey police say

Mans body found in lake days after kayak flips with children on board, officials say

Kayakers body found after he hit a log, flipped and vanished in river, Oregon cops say
Dexter Leonard Thomas, (left) and Antonio Terrell Crews.

The trial for one of three suspects in the 2015 killing of a Lehigh Acres man is to begin about a week after one of his co-conspirators pleaded guilty.

The trial for Dexter Thomas, 42, of Fort Myers, is slated Monday before Lee Circuit Judge Nicholas Thompson. Thomas is represented by Sebouh Gourjian.

On Feb. 21, 2015, deputies responded to the 4000 block of Centennial Boulevard, where they found Luis Enrique Vazquez-Ocasio, 36, with a gunshot wound. Vazquez-Ocasio later died.

Detectives said a trio of suspects entered the home to rob Vazquez-Ocasio and fatally shot him.

Tiphanie Dawn Sager, 30, of Cape Coral, in September 2020 was sentenced to nine years in prison after she pleaded guilty before Lee Circuit Judge Robert Branning.

Tiphanie Sager

The third co-defendant, Antonio Crews, 32, of Cape Coral, was arrested in September 2020 by the Fugitive Warrants Task Force. He faced charges of second-degree murder; first-degree burglary; and conspiracy to commit first-degree burglary with an assault or battery conspiracy.

Crews pleaded guilty on Friday before Thompson and was sentenced to 14 years in prison for the second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree burglary with an assault or battery. The state dropped the first-degree burglary charge.

Tomas Rodriguez is a Breaking/Live News Reporter for the Naples Daily News and The News-Press. You can reach Tomas at TRodriguez@gannett.com or 772-333-5501. Connect with him on Threads @tomasfrobeltran, Instagram @tomasfrobeltran, Facebook @tomasrodrigueznews and Twitter @TomasFRoBeltran.

This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Trial for co-defendant in 2015 slaying of Lehigh Acres man set Monday
Former President Donald Trumps allies are painting his Thursday arraignment as an attempt by President Biden to crush his political rival ahead of the 2024 election and distract from bribery allegations against his own family.

Trump pleaded "not guilty" to four federal counts stemming from alleged efforts to overturn his 2020 loss to Biden. Its his second federal indictment and third criminal indictment in the span of less than five months.

His Republican allies in Congress have continued to stick by him, however. GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, the No. 3 leader in the House, echoed Trumps repeated insistence that investigations into his conduct are "witch hunts."

"The unconstitutional and unprecedented arrest of President Donald J. Trump is truly a chilling chapter in Joe Bidens weaponization of the Department of Justice against his leading political opponent who is beating Biden in many independent polls. President Trump had every right under the First Amendment to correctly raise concerns about election integrity in 2020," Stefanik, R-N.Y., said.

TRUMP INDICTED ON CHARGES OUT OF SPECIAL COUNSEL PROBE INTO JAN 6

Former President and 2024 hopeful Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, on Saturday. (Joed Viera/AFP via Getty Images)

"The American people are smart, and they know this is a politically charged witch hunt orchestrated by Joe Bidens corrupt DOJ in a desperate attempt to distract the American people from the mounting evidence of Joe Bidens direct involvement in his familys illegal influence peddling scheme," she added,

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Rep. Mary Miller, R-Ill., cited a 2014 statement from Biden expressing concern about Malaysias encroachment on its own rule of law.

SPECIAL COUNSEL JACK SMITH SAYS JAN 6 FUELED BY LIES FROM TRUMP, PRAISES HEROES WHO DEFENDED CAPITOL

"Today, Joe Biden's DOJ did what Joe Biden used to condemn other countries for doing: arrest his political opposition to silence and intimidate them," Miller said.

House Republican Conference Chair Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y.

Another House Republican, Rep. Diana Harshbarger, R-Tenn., went a step further than condemnation and called for both a congressional investigation and Bidens immediate impeachment.

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"Todays politically-motivated arraignment of President Trump marks a dark day for our nation. Joe Bidens persecution of President Trump is a blatant power grab and an attempt to silence the voices of millions of Americans," Harshbarger said. "I call on Congress to launch a full investigation into the politicization of our government agencies, and for an immediate impeachment inquiry against Joe Biden, who is directly responsible for this despicable witch hunt."

TRUMP'S 2024 GOP RIVALS WEIGH IN ON FORMER PRESIDENT'S JAN. 6 PROBE INDICTMENT

Both Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., also accused Biden of trying to tip the scales, despite the White Houses repeated insistence that the DOJ is independent.

Rep. Diana Harshbarger, R-Tenn., speaks during the Republican Study Committee news conference to introduce a "Women's Bill of Rights" outside the Capitol on May 19, 2022. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

"Trump is being targeted because the left knows hes Bidens greatest political threat," Blackburn said.

Greene said, "Bidens DOJ is actively participating in election interference by trying to put his top political opponent, President Donald Trump, behind bars. Its pure corruption."

Trump himself made similar comments after his arraignment and just before boarding his plane. "This is a very sad day for America," the former president said. "When you look at what's happening, this is a persecution of a political opponent."
WASHINGTON  Former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges that he engaged in criminal conspiracies aimed at subverting the 2020 presidential election results and keeping himself in power  a significant moment in one of the most consequential tests of the U.S. Constitution and its criminal justice system.

Trump was arraigned on an indictment charging him with conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction; and conspiracy against the right to vote and to have ones vote counted.

Special counsel Jack Smith, who brought the case against Trump, was seated in the front row for the proceeding, about 10 feet away from the former president who's labeled him a "deranged prosecutor." Smith was in Trump's sightline, and Trump appeared to avoid looking at him.

Trump stood when asked for his plea, and said "not guilty" to all counts.

The arraignment was another remarkable and unprecedented moment in American history, with a former president and current Republican presidential frontrunner standing accused of trying to overturn the bedrock of democracy, a free and fair election. Trump is the first former president to ever face criminal charges, and he's now been indicted in three separate cases in three separate locales over the past four months.

At the airport after the hearing, Trump, who has denied any wrongdoing, told reporters "this is a very sad day for America."

"This is a persecution of a political opponent," he said. "This was never supposed to happen in America."

United States of America vs. Donald J. Trump

In court, the government said it wanted to proceed with a speedy trial in the case, which Trump lawyer John Lauro objected to, citing the likely "massive" amount of discovery they're expecting to receive from Smith's team.

Prosecutor Thomas Windom said the government is prepared to hand over a "substantial volume of discovery, including discovery that we are not obligated at this time to turn over" as soon as a protective order is put in place.

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Magistrate Judge Moxila A. Upadhyaya set a return date of Aug. 28th in the case before the judge who will be overseeing it, U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan. She said Chutkan expects to set a trial date at that hearing, and that Trump can waive appearing at that hearing.

Upadhyaya ordered Smith's office to file a submission in seven days estimating their schedule for when a trial should be set and how long they expected it to take, and gave the defense five days after that to respond.

Before the hearing started, Trump sat at the defense table with his hands clasped and chatted with his two attorneys, Lauro and Todd Blanche, who each sat next to him.

The proceeding before Upadhyaya began with the court clerk calling the case  United States of America vs. Donald J. Trump and lasted a little under half an hour.

Windom laid out the government's conditions of release, including that "the defendant must not communicate about the facts of the case to any individual known to be a witness except through counsel or in the presence of counsel.

The judge also warned Trump: It is a crime to try to influence a juror or to threaten or attempt to bribe a witness or any other person who may have information about your case, or to retaliate against anyone for providing information about your case to the prosecution, or to otherwise obstruct the administration of justice. Do you understand these warnings and consequences, sir?

"Yes," Trump replied.

The judge added that if he violated the conditions of release, You may be held pending trial in this case.

At least three federal court judges were seen sitting in the back row of the courtroom for the proceeding, and three officers who served on Jan. 6  Metropolitan Police Department Officer Daniel Hodges, former Capitol Police Officer Aquilino Gonell and Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn  watched the arraignment from an overflow room at the courthouse.

Trump was fingerprinted and processed at the E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse before the hearing.

Trump left New Jersey, where he has been living during the summer, shortly after 2 p.m. ET.

"I am now going to Washington, D.C. to be arrested for having challenged a corrupt, rigged & stolen election," Trump wrote in an all-caps post on his social media website Truth Social shortly after noon. He arrived at Reagan National Airport in his private plane emblazoned with his last name shortly before 3 p.m.

Image: Former President Donald Trump arrives at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, on Aug. 3, 2023, in Arlington, Va. (Alex Brandon / AP)

'Not appropriate'

Security was tightened in the area around the courthouse ahead of the appearance and possible protests from supporters and detractors of the polarizing former president.

Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement on social media Wednesday that his agency was working closely with the Metropolitan Police Department, U.S. Marshals Service, U.S. Capitol Police and the Federal Protective Service to ensure the highest levels of safety and security for the former president, while minimizing disruptions to the normal court process.

A spokesman for the Marshals Service said Thursday that Trump would be digitally fingerprinted as part of the booking process, but no mugshot will be taken. Officials will use an existing picture of the much-photographed former president as his booking photo.

By 5 p.m. ET Wednesday, about 50 people had already lined up outside in order to attend the proceedings, including several news organizations.

Alina Habba, a legal spokesperson for Trump's Save America PAC, spoke to reporters outside the courthouse shortly after Trump's arrival, and maintained Trump "used the law in an appropriate manner" in the weeks after the election. "This," Habba said, gesturing to the scene outside of the courthouse, "is not appropriate."

The courthouse is about a block away from the Capitol complex, and roughly a third of a mile away from the U.S. Capitol building, which was stormed by angry Trump supporters on Jan. 6, 2021, in a bid to prevent the certification of his defeat.

A federal grand jury voted Tuesday to indict Trump following a sprawling investigation by Smith's office into Trump's efforts to remain in power after losing the presidential election.

The indictment alleges Trump engaged in three criminal conspiracies, all aimed at keeping him in the White House.

"Each of these conspiracies  which built on the widespread mistrust the Defendant was creating through pervasive and destabilizing lies about election fraud  targeted a bedrock function of the United States federal government: the nations process of collecting, counting, and certifying the results of the presidential election," the indictment said.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing and maintains Smith is engaging in "election interference" by bringing criminal charges against him while he seeks to return to the White House.

The case is the second Smith has brought against Trump in two months. In June, Smith brought a 37-count indictment against Trump in Florida on charges of mishandling national security information and obstruction. Trump has pleaded not guilty in that case, which hes labeled the boxes hoax. Trump was hit with additional counts in the case last week.

Trump was also arraigned in New York criminal court in April, where he pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to his alleged role in hush money payments toward the end of his 2016 presidential campaign.

In all, Trump has been hit with 78 felony counts in the three cases.

A prosecutor in Fulton County, Georgia, has also said she is considering bringing charges against Trump for trying to reverse his defeat there and could present a case to the grand jury there in the coming weeks.

Trump issued what appeared to be a taunting message to Willis on Truth Social on Thursday. "I need one more indictment to ensure my election!" the post said.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Donald Trump waves to the crowd from the car delivering him to a Washington courthouse on August 3 2023 (Brendan Smialowski)

Donald Trump stood with his arms by his sides Thursday as he faced a federal judge in Washington to somberly plead "not guilty" to a variety of charges over attempts to subvert the 2020 US elections.

It was a short and solemn moment that contrasted with the noise and hubbub that surrounded his arrival in the federal court surrounded by high security.

Beyond the clear paneling of the courtroom rose the US Capitol, the temple of American democracy that was attacked by his supporters on a tumultuous day in January 2021. The former president was in court for his role in the events leading up to that historic moment.

Trump appeared shortly before 4:00 pm sporting his trademark red tie and surrounded by his lawyers. Also in the room was Jack Smith, his legal nemesis. The special prosecutor, with his neatly trimmed beard, is in charge of the federal investigations targeting the Republican billionaire.

Five meters (yards) and a wooden table separated the two men. During the long minutes when both sides waited for the judge to arrive, Smith stared intently at Trump. The former president, who is frontrunner for the Republican 2024 nomination, seemed to avoid Smith's gaze, instead talking with his attorneys and moving his hands as if to pass time.

- 'We need a little time' -

Then Judge Moxila Upadhyaya took her seat, an American flag hanging behind her chair. In her long black robe, she presided over Trump's first appearance before a magistrate in the case over his alleged bid to overturn the 2020 election.

As the judge recited each count against Trump, he sat motionless with his head turned toward her, seemingly attentive.

When he got up, she asked him how he intended to plead to the charges leveled against him.

"Not guilty" he replied, then sat down again.

The hearing, which lasted half an hour, was merely procedural. But already, Trump's defense team was preparing its arguments: concerning the timetable, the "trial without delay" requested by the prosecution would not leave enough room to prepare the defense of the Republican leader, his lawyers argued.

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"We need a little time" to study the huge amounts of discovery, said one of them, John Lauro.

The judge replied: "I can guarantee everybody that there will be a fair process and a fair trial in this case."

Trump let his counsel do the talking, holding his hands between his legs. Then he left the courtroom. A few minutes later, in front of the press, he described himself as a victim of "persecution of a political opponent" on this "very sad day" for the United States.

- Tourists -

Then, just as he arrived, the former president left the court in a procession of imposing black cars, followed live on US television.

And, as during hearings for two other criminal cases against him earlier this year, the area around court erupted in a swirl of hundreds of members of the media reporting the story, live on camera or over phones under the gray skies of Washington.

Federal and city police patrolled the sidewalks, some with sniffer dogs.

And amid the media vans with their satellite antenna, a few onlookers and tourists gathered to get a glimpse of this fleeting historical moment.

There were even a few demonstrators, including one who waved a huge "Trump 2024" flag in front of the court entrance earlier in the day.

caw-ube/seb/jh/tjj
Social media posts, mostly from conservative politicians and commentators, claim Donald Trump was indicted for exercising his freedom of speech after the 2020 US election, and that he has been "threatened" with the death penalty. Both claims are false; the former president was charged with -- and has pleaded not guilty to -- three counts of conspiracy and one count of obstruction, none of which meet the criteria for execution.

"Trump has been charged for practicing free speech & free thought by objecting to a dirty election," says conservative influencer Benny Johnson in an August 1, 2023 post on Twitter, the platform recently rebranded as "X."

The post accumulated tens of thousands of interactions. The title of a related video on Johnson's YouTube page says: "Biden Indicts Trump For Practicing 'Free Speech' On January 6th."

Screenshot from Twitter, which is being rebranded as "X," taken August 3, 2023

Screenshot from YouTube taken August 3, 2023

Some Republican politicians, including Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Congressman Dan Bishop of North Carolina, have promoted similar claims.

"He's being indicted for saying the election was stolen," Greene said in a video posted August 3, hours before Trump was arraigned at a federal courthouse in Washington.

The claims are inaccurate.

Trump was indicted August 1 by a grand jury on criminal charges that he conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 election and defraud the American people. Two days later, the former president pleaded not guilty.

The 77-year-old had already been charged in two other criminal cases, but his latest legal hurdles heighten the prospect of Trump being further embroiled in court proceedings as he campaigns to retake the White House by running again for president on November 5, 2024.

The indictment brought by Smith accuses Trump of conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding: the joint session of Congress held to certify Democrat Joe Biden's election victory.

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"Shortly after election day -- which fell on November 3, 2020 -- the defendant launched his criminal scheme, says the 45-page indictment, handed down by a grand jury in Washington (archived here). "The purpose of the conspiracy was to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election by using knowingly false claims of election fraud."

Smith told reporters on August 1 that the January 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol "was fueled by lies" from Trump "targeted at obstructing a bedrock function of the US government -- the nations process of collecting, counting and certifying the results of the presidential election" (archived here).

The charges facing Trump do not specifically hinge on his claims of voter fraud in 2020, which have been repeatedly debunked:

In count one, conspiracy to defraud the United States, the document alleges Trump conspired to "defeat the lawful federal government function by which the results of the presidential election are collected, counted and certified."

Counts two and three -- conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and obstruction of, and attempt to obstruct, an official -- stem from Trump's efforts to impede the certification of the electoral vote in Congress.

In count four, conspiracy against rights, the indictment alleges Trump conspired to "injure, oppress, threaten and intimidate" voters.

The document does not charge Trump for making false claims about election fraud. In fact, it notes the former president "had a right, like every American, to speak publicly about the election."

"He was also entitled to formally challenge the results of the election through lawful and appropriate means," the indictment says. "Indeed, in many cases, the defendant did pursue these methods of contesting the election results."

However, the document notes that "shortly after election day, the defendant also pursued unlawful means of discounting legitimate votes and subverting the election results" -- perpetrating "three criminal conspiracies."

Trump has denied those allegations, telling reporters after his arraignment that the cases brought against him are "persecution of a political opponent." On his social media platform Truth Social, Trump said: "The Radical Left wants to Criminalize Free Speech!"

Trump's own former attorney general, William Barr, has dismissed the free speech argument.

"He can say whatever he wants. He can even lie. He can even tell people that the election was stolen when he knew better," Barr said August 2 on CNN. "But that does not protect you from entering into a conspiracy."

Jonathan Entin, a professor emeritus and constitutional law expert at Case Western University, told AFP the indictment "makes clear that Trump has a First Amendment right to claim that the 2020 presidential election was corrupted by fraud, regardless of the accuracy of those claims."

"The indictment specifies that Trump is being charged with engaging in action to overturn the election outcome," Entin said in an August 4 email. "Many crimes involve the use of speech, but that does not mean that we have a First Amendment right to engage in fraud, extortion, blackmail or similar activities."

Death penalty threat?

Following Trump's indictment, some conservative influencers and websites also claimed Trump could face the death penalty for his alleged crimes.

"TRUMP Threatened w/ DEATH PENALTY OR 515 years in Prison," says Elijah Schaffer, a conservative podcaster, on August 2 in an X post linking to a related video on Rumble.

Websites such as Breitbart took a similar angle, saying Trump could face "potential" execution.

Screenshot from X taken August 3, 2023

Screenshot from Breitbart taken August 3, 2023

The claims stem from the fourth count in the indictment brought by Smith: conspiracy against rights.

The Civil War-era statute was originally invoked against groups such as the Ku Klux Klan that sought to prevent newly freed African Americans from exercising rights granted by the Reconstruction Amendments. The law has since been used to prosecute a wider array of election subversion and civil rights cases.

Federal law says violating the statute is punishable by a fine or imprisonment of "not more than 10 years." If the acts also result in death or include crimes such as kidnapping and aggravated sexual abuse, then the accused could be "imprisoned for any term of years or for life, or both, or may be sentenced to death," according to the law (archived here).

That does not apply to Trump, according to Peter Carr, a spokesman for the special counsel's office.

"That is not accurate," he said of the claims circulating online. "The indictment does not contain the special findings required."

Several people died during the January 6 attack on the Capitol, according to media coverage and a bipartisan Senate report (archived here). But David Alan Sklansky, faculty co-director of the Stanford Criminal Justice Center, said there are three reasons the death penalty "cannot be applied" in Trump's case.

"First, the connection between the conduct charged in the indictment and the deaths that occurred as a result of the Capitol Hill riot is too attenuated to satisfy the legal requirement of causation," he said in an August 4 email. "Second, under federal law ... the death penalty can't be applied unless the prosecutor has served notice of an intent to seek the death penalty, which the prosecutors haven't done in this case and won't do."

Sklansky added that federal law restricts execution to cases in which the defendant "intentionally killed someone," or some others in which a defendant engaged in violence knowing that it could be lethal.

"There is a narrow, possible exception applicable in narcotics cases, but this isn't a narcotics case," he concluded.

Graphic showing the main legal cases Donald Trump is facing, as of August 2023 Olivia BUGAULT Sophie RAMIS AFP

Trump faces a potential maximum prison time of 55 years for the charges brought by Smith, in addition to those included in past indictments in Florida and New York. US Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya said during Trump's arraignment in Washington that the maximum penalty for the charge of conspiracy against rights is 10 years.

AFP has fact-checked other false and misleading claims about US politics here.
Supporters cheer as former US president Donald Trump speaks at a 2021 rally in Alabama, a state where he enjoys fervent support (CHIP SOMODEVILLA)

Former president Donald Trump was set to appear among some of his most ardent supporters Friday in the deeply conservative southern state of Alabama, a day after facing federal indictment in the left-leaning US capital city.

Trump, who is facing sweeping conspiracy charges over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, sees his rare Washington trips as a return behind enemy lines, and will relish his warm reception at the Republican summer dinner in Montgomery, the state capital.

The 77-year-old billionaire won Alabama by landslides in 2016 and 2020, and all six Republicans the state sends to the House of Representatives in Washington endorsed his reelection bid ahead of the evening engagement.

He also is also backed by Alabama's senior senator, lieutenant governor and agriculture commissioner, although the junior senator and the governor have yet to endorse any candidate in the Republican primary.

Trump was 39 points ahead of his closest rival, Florida governor Ron DeSantis, in FiveThirtyEight's national polling average on Friday -- the kind of lead that has never been surmounted in modern primary contests.

The former reality TV kingpin and property mogul, estimated by Forbes to be worth $2.5 billion, has won the backing of more than 80 members of Alabama's House and Senate, dwarfing the roster of five lawmakers backing DeSantis.

"DeSantis is a nice guy, but Donald has been there," Robert Nail, a resident of the state's largest county, Baldwin, told local news portal AL.com.

"He knows what to do and will hit the ground running. This nonsense with indictments is just background noise."

But Trump makes his bid for a historic return to the White House charged with 78 felonies in three separate criminal probes.

He is due to go on trial in New York in March next year over allegations that he misrepresented "hush money" payments to a porn star, and is scheduled to be tried in May over his handling of national security secrets.

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He was in court on Thursday for a preliminary hearing over his alleged election interference and is expected to soon be charged by state prosecutors over similar allegations in a separate case focused on the southern state of Georgia.

Trump called the charges "fake" and accused the Justice Department of corruption in a tirade posted on social media ahead of his speech.

ft/jh
Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty

The latest indictment of former U.S. President Donald Trump remains one of the hottest topics in Russia. In the past, Moscows top propagandists frequently voiced their hope that in 2024, Trump will return to the Oval Office and immediately halt military aid to Ukraine, which would boost the Kremlins failing invasion.

Seemingly caught off-guard by this development, state media mouthpieces are resorting to outrageous comparisons between the pending criminal cases against Trump and the Kremlins treatment of dissidents like opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who was poisoned, jailed and today sentenced to an additional 19 years in prison on charges of alleged extremism. The talking point was apparently considered valuable enough to circumvent the unspoken rule of not mentioning Navalnys name on Russias tightly controlled state TV networks.

During his Thursdays morning show, Full Contact, decorated pro-Kremlin propagandist Vladimir Solovyov was joined by Dimitri Simes, former president of The Center for the National Interest, who was previously featured in the Mueller report. Solovyov told Simes, Just recently, America was screaming at Russia and other countries, How dare you touch Navalny and others? Meanwhile, they were saying things that were much more seditious than what Trump said!

Simes blamed Trumps former attorneys for the charges he is now facing and added, When it comes to political repressions, Bidens regime is capable of anything. Solovyov chimed in to add, You can get to a civil war this way!

Solovyov bitterly pointed out that U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan, who will preside over the trial for Trump's four criminal charges, had also sentenced Maria Butina. Simes expressed his dissatisfaction about Butinas prosecution, claiming that it raises questions about Chutkans qualifications and judicial temperament, bemoaning the fact that Trump is stuck with this particular judge.

The Trump Indictment Has Team Putin Shaking in Their Boots

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Appearing on Thursdays broadcast of The Evening With Vladimir Solovyov, political scientist Dmitry Kulikov used Trumps prosecution to argue that a fascist dictatorship is being established in the United States by the deep state. Karen Shakhnazarov, Director of Mosfilm Studios, concluded: They are correct in realizing that Trump will quickly destroy their system, but they want to keep it going.

Former State Duma member Elena Panina said, Why are they moving against Trump? Because Trump is a striking representative of white America that still remembers some of its traditions and would like to preserve them... Trump is a strong person, they will keep trying to finish him off! I remember meeting him in 1996, I met with him here in Moscow. He is a strong person, a striking personality! But, as they say, he is a racist, a sexist and does not conform to their LGBT agenda.

Pundit Dmitry Drobnitsky added: I understand, Trump had already been recruited by then. Panina giggled, Perhaps he was recruited.

Solovyov claimed that the snowballing of criminal charges against Trump means that Russia should disregard any comments from the United States about law and order. What is currently happening in America signifies the death of American jurisprudence as a whole!, he fumed.

Putins Pals Dream Up Fresh Plot to Help Trump Beat Biden

Solovyov and his fellow panelists were visibly annoyed by the video clip posted to President Joe Bidens Twitter account, referring to his alter-ego, Dark Brandon. In the clip, Biden takes a sip from a mug, then says: I like my coffee dark. Solovyov described the clip as a symbol of Bidens re-election campaign and expressed his displeasure about its light-hearted nature: Just pretend there are no problems! Then it will no longer matter what the Russians are doing.

Meanwhile, on Friday, Navalny was ordered to be imprisoned in one of Russias special regime colonies, notorious for extremely harsh conditions and brutality towards inmates. The conditions there are so dire that even some pro-Kremlin talking heads were shocked by the sentencing.

This term is completely staggering! Even people who are unquestionably loyal towards the government were stunned, because this is not just 19 years, but 19 years of a special regime!, Sergey Mardan, who hosts his own show on the propaganda network Solovyov Live, said on Friday. No letters or visits for the first 10 years, either solitary confinement or the prohibition on talking to any prisoner sharing the same cell; during any movement on the territory of the colony, prisoners have to maintain a bent over position and remain handcuffed, a bright light is constantly turned on in their prison cell... These are maximally harsh conditions.

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A seemingly casual greeting to the former president of the United States set social media abuzz Thursday when a judge presiding over the arraignment for former President Donald Trump referred to him as "Mr. Trump."

Trump pleaded not guilty in federal court in Washington, D.C., to all four federal charges stemming from Special Counsel Jack Smiths investigation into 2020 election interference and the Capitol riot of Jan. 6, 2021.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhaya presided over Thursday's proceedings, and reporters and onlookers highlighted how she referred to the former president as "Mr. Trump."

TRUMP PLEADS NOT GUILTY TO CHARGES STEMMING FROM SPECIAL COUNSEL'S JAN. 6 PROBE

The greeting sparked speculation on whether Trump would be stung by the lack of presidential reference.

"If there is one thing I know Trump loves that he's called Mr. President now," ABC Executive Editorial Producer John Santucci tweeted.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

TRUMP INDICTED ON CHARGES OUT OF SPECIAL COUNSEL PROBE INTO JAN 6

"No mention of Donald Trump being former president. No special treatment. Treating him as just another man in a Courtroom. This is the rule of law at its best," Democratic commentator Victor Shi said.

Some Trump critics viewed the comments as a slight by the judge against the former president and speculated he would see it as a slight.

"Every other president would have been addressed as President not Mr. Lets be real," Daily Caller's chief national correspondent Henry Rodgers tweeted.

However, other users cited etiquette guides suggesting the judge was actually following protocol in this instance because "Mr. President" is reserved for formal settings for the current holder of the office.

The indictment stems from Smith's investigation into whether Trump or other officials and entities interfered with the peaceful transfer of power following the 2020 presidential election , including the certification of the Electoral College vote on Jan. 6, 2021.

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Judge Tanya Chutkan will preside over the trial. Upadhaya said Judge Chutkan intends to set a trial date of Aug. 28.

SPECIAL COUNSEL JACK SMITH SAYS JAN. 6 FUELED BY LIES FROM TRUMP, PRAISES HEROES WHO DEFENDED CAPITOL

In the courtroom, the judge laid out how the proceeding would go and asked that Trump be seated closer to a microphone so that he could answer her questions. She first asked his name and age.

CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

"Trump. Donald J. Trump  John  Seven Seven  seventy-seven."

Fox News' Brooke Singman and Houston Keene contributed to this report.
John Lauro, the lawyer handling former President Trumps recent indictment over alleged election fraud, said the federal prosecutors potential wishes for a trial early next year would infringe on the former presidents rights.

Speedy trial rights are a defendants speedy trial rights, a citizens speedy trial rights, not the government. The government has an obligation to ensure a fair trial, and in this case, what we need is a journey to the truth, Lauro said in a Fox News interview Thursday.

This is a fast-moving railroad without any concern for justice.

Trump was arraigned Thursday on four charges alleging that he attempted to organize fraudulent electoral college votes to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

The former president was arraigned just two days after being indicted, and his next court appearance is Aug. 28. Prosecutors wanted an earlier date, Aug. 21.

That schedule has implied that special counsel Jack Smith wants a trial in the spring, though prosecutors have not yet officially requested a date. The trial date is expected to be decided at that Aug. 28 appearance, Judge Tanya Chutkan said.

Lauro said the charges are criminalizing Trumps First Amendment rights, but that any request for a quickly-approaching trial would go further.

A trial in the spring would severely limit Lauros ability to prepare for trial, he said, and make it difficult to fully use a defendants rights to subpoena evidence and call for witnesses. He said a move for speed proves that the prosecution is political.

They want to deny President Trump [] those rights and rush to judgment, for one political purpose. And thats to uphold the Biden administration, Lauro said.

Why the bums rush on this case? Do they feel that theres a problem in the other cases that are being orchestrated? he added.

Trumps second federal case  over alleged mishandling of classified documents  is set to go to trial in May 2024 in Florida. Lauro said that prosecutors believe they would have a better case in D.C. than in a more diverse jurisdiction like the Sunshine State, which could drive them to ask for the election case trial earlier.

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The former president is also facing a trial in a New York state criminal case alleging that he falsified business documents in making hush money payments.

Additionally, a Georgia investigation into Trumps attempts to overturn the 2020 election is expected to be finalized by the end of the month, possibly adding a fourth indictment if a grand jury decides to charge him there.

The cases make for a busy calendar going into early 2024, with the New York case set to go to trial in March 2024 and three additional civil trials scheduled for October of this year and January of next.

The first primary vote of the 2024 election, the Iowa Caucus, is scheduled for Jan. 15, 2024.

Trump currently holds a wide lead over GOP primary candidates, with recent national polling averages showing him with about 53 percent support.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
While former President Donald Trump is leading in Iowa among his Republican opponents in the race for the 2024 GOP nomination, it's not as commanding as his lead nationwide, a new poll found.

Forty-four percent of Republican voters in the battleground state would vote for Trump, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll released Friday. By comparison, Trump commands a 54 percent lead among GOP voters nationwide.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis saw 20 percent support among the Iowa GOP voters  3 percentage points higher than his national polling numbers. South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott saw the biggest difference, with 9 percent in Iowa compared to 6 percent polling among Republicans nationwide.

The new numbers come as Trumps team attempts to beef up his campaign efforts in Iowa ahead of the caucus, which he lost by 6,000 votes in 2016.

But there have already been troubling signs for him, with an Iowa state senator who had previously endorsed the former president flipping his support to DeSantis last month. And Trump raised eyebrows after he seemingly attacked Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, whos widely popular among Republicans in her state, for not endorsing his presidential bid.



Meanwhile, the Florida governor has also ramped up his campaigning in the state in recent months.

Tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy polled at 5 percent in Iowa and at 2 percent nationwide among GOP voters. Former U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley and former Vice President Mike Pence both polled at 3 percent nationwide among Republicans, but Haley saw a boost to 5 percent in Iowa while Pences remained the same.

An earlier national New York Times/Siena College poll also found that Trump and President Joe Biden are tied in a hypothetical rematch, at 43 percent support each, for their return to the White House in 2024.

The survey, consisting of 432 likely Iowa voters, was conducted between July 28 and Tuesday  before the federal indictment of former president for allegedly conspiring to seize a second term after losing the 2020 election was handed down. Trump pleaded not guilty to the charges on Thursday.

The poll was taken over landlines and cell phone calls, and has a margin of sampling error thats plus or minus 5.9 percentage points.
Dieu-Nalio Chery/Reuters

Criminal charges were unveiled on Thursday against a third person in an alleged plot in Michigan to gain illegal access to voting equipment in the wake of the 2020 election.

Prosecutors charged Stefanie Lambert, an attorney who has pushed election-denial conspiracies in the courtroom, with four felonies: undue possession of a voting machine, conspiracy to commit undue possession of a voting machine, conspiracy to commit unauthorized access to a computer system, and willfully damaging a voting machine.

Each charge carries a prison term of up to five years.

Lambert was arraigned before a judge on Thursday afternoon and pleaded not guilty to the charges, according to the Associated Press.

Lambert will be the last person charged in the investigation, according to a statement from Muskegon County Prosecutor D.J. Hilson, who served as special prosecutor in the case. Her indictment was issued two days after two other people, unsuccessful state attorney general candidate Matthew DePerno and former state Rep. Daire Rendon, were charged in connection with the alleged conspiracy.

Investigators with Attorney General Dana Nessels office named six other suspects in handing off their inquiry to Hilson, who convened a citizen grand jury in March to hear evidence in the matter. Among those under suspicion but not charged were Barry County Sheriff Dar Leaf and Doug Logan, the former chief executive of security firm Cyber Ninjas.

Days before DePerno and Rendon were charged, Lambert went on a conservative podcast to say that shed been told shed been indicted by Hilson. I know that Ive done absolutely nothing illegal, she said. It was not immediately clear why her charges were issued after those of her alleged co-conspirators.

Along with DePerno and Rendon, Lambert was accused by Nessels office of having orchestrated a coordinated plan to gain access to voting tabulators.

After the 2020 presidential election, according to a statement from Hilsons office, clerks in three Michigan counties were deceived into turning over voting machines to unauthorized third parties, who took them to hotel rooms or Airbnbs. The clerks had no idea of the scope, nature or duration of how their tabulators were going to be manipulated or that they would be out of their possession for an extended period of time, he said.

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Computer experts asked to examine the tabulators were also deceived by some of the charged Defendants, and broke into the machines under the false impression that the tampering was lawful.

In December 2020, Lambert filed a conspiracy-stuffed lawsuit on behalf of Sheriff Leaf and several other plaintiffs alleging massive election fraud. The suit, which failed to provide any evidence, invited the court to speculative leaps toward a hazy and nebulous inference, a judge said at the time.

Lamberts own attorney characterized her as a zealous advocate for her clients in a statement texted to a MLive.com reporter ahead of Thursdays arraignment. The lawyer, Michael J. Smith, insisted Lambert did not violate the law, adding that she intends to sue Hilson for malicious prosecution.

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WASHINGTON  Former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges that he engaged in criminal conspiracies aimed at subverting the 2020 presidential election results and keeping himself in power  a significant moment in one of the most consequential tests of the U.S. Constitution and its criminal justice system.

Trump was arraigned on an indictment charging him with conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction; and conspiracy against the right to vote and to have ones vote counted.

Special counsel Jack Smith, who brought the case against Trump, was seated in the front row for the proceeding, about 10 feet away from the former president whos labeled him a deranged prosecutor. Smith was in Trumps sightline, and Trump appeared to avoid looking at him.

Trump stood when asked for his plea, and said not guilty to all counts.

The arraignment was another remarkable and unprecedented moment in American history, with a former president and current Republican presidential frontrunner standing accused of trying to overturn the bedrock of democracy, a free and fair election. Trump is the first former president to ever face criminal charges, and hes now been indicted in three separate cases in three separate locales over the past four months.

At the airport after the hearing, Trump, who has denied any wrongdoing, told reporters this is a very sad day for America.

This is a persecution of a political opponent, he said. This was never supposed to happen in America.

United States of America vs. Donald J. Trump

In court, the government said it wanted to proceed with a speedy trial in the case, which Trump lawyer John Lauro objected to, citing the likely massive amount of discovery theyre expecting to receive from Smiths team.

Prosecutor Thomas Windom said the government is prepared to hand over a substantial amount of discovery  essentially all of their evidence in the case  as soon as a protective order is put in place.

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Magistrate Judge Moxila A. Upadhyaya set a return date of Aug. 28 in the case before the judge who will be overseeing it, U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan. She said Chutkan expects to set a trial date at that hearing, and that Trump can waive appearing at that hearing.

Upadhyaya ordered Smiths office to file a submission in seven days estimating their schedule for when a trial should be set, and gave the defense five days after that to respond.

Before the hearing started, Trump sat at the defense table with his hands clasped and chatted with his two attorneys, Lauro and Todd Blanche, who each sat next to him.

The proceeding before Upadhyaya began with the court clerk calling the case  United States of America vs. Donald J. Trump and lasted a little under half an hour.

Windom laid out the governments conditions of release, including that the defendant must not communicate about the facts of the case to any individual known to be a witness except through counsel or in the presence of counsel.

The judge also warned Trump: It is a crime to try to influence a juror. She added that if he violated the conditions of release, You may be held pending trial in this case.

Do you understand these warnings and consequences, sir? the judge asked. Trump nodded yes.

At least three federal court judges were seen sitting in the back row of the courtroom for the proceeding, and three officers who served on Jan. 6  Metropolitan Police Department Officer Daniel Hodges, former Capitol Police Officer Aquilino Gonell and Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn  watched the arraignment from an overflow room at the courthouse.

Trump was fingerprinted and processed at the E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse before the hearing.

Trump left New Jersey, where he has been living during the summer, shortly after 2 p.m. ET.

I am now going to Washington, D.C. to be arrested for having challenged a corrupt, rigged & stolen election, Trump wrote in an all-caps post on his social media website Truth Social shortly after noon. He arrived at Reagan National Airport in his private plane emblazoned with his last name shortly before 3 p.m.

Not appropriate

Security was tightened in the area around the courthouse ahead of the appearance and possible protests from supporters and detractors of the polarizing former president.

Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement on social media Wednesday that his agency was working closely with the Metropolitan Police Department, U.S. Marshals Service, U.S. Capitol Police and the Federal Protective Service to ensure the highest levels of safety and security for the former president, while minimizing disruptions to the normal court process.

A spokesman for the Marshals Service said Thursday that Trump would be digitally fingerprinted as part of the booking process, but no mugshot will be taken. Officials will use an existing picture of the much-photographed former president as his booking photo.

By 5 p.m. ET Wednesday, about 50 people had already lined up outside in order to attend the proceedings, including several news organizations.

Alina Habba, a legal spokesperson for Trumps Save America PAC, spoke to reporters outside the courthouse shortly after Trumps arrival, and maintained Trump used the law in an appropriate manner in the weeks after the election. This, Habba said, gesturing to the scene outside of the courthouse, is not appropriate.

The courthouse is about a block away from the Capitol complex, and roughly a third of a mile away from the U.S. Capitol building, which was stormed by angry Trump supporters on Jan. 6, 2021, in a bid to prevent the certification of his defeat.

A federal grand jury voted Tuesday to indict Trump following a sprawling investigation by Smiths office into Trumps efforts to remain in power after losing the presidential election.

The indictment alleges Trump engaged in three criminal conspiracies, all aimed at keeping him in the White House.

Each of these conspiracies  which built on the widespread mistrust the Defendant was creating through pervasive and destabilizing lies about election fraud  targeted a bedrock function of the United States federal government: the nations process of collecting, counting, and certifying the results of the presidential election, the indictment said.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing and maintains Smith is engaging in election interference by bringing criminal charges against him while he seeks to return to the White House.

The case is the second Smith has brought against Trump in two months. In June, Smith brought a 37-count indictment against Trump in Florida on charges of mishandling national security information and obstruction. Trump has pleaded not guilty in that case, which hes labeled the boxes hoax. Trump was hit with additional counts in the case last week.

Trump was also arraigned in New York criminal court in April, where he pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to his alleged role in hush money payments toward the end of his 2016 presidential campaign.

In all, Trump has been hit with 78 felony counts in the three cases.

A prosecutor in Fulton County, Georgia, has also said she is considering bringing charges against Trump for trying to reverse his defeat there and could present a case to the grand jury there in the coming weeks.

Trump issued what appeared to be a taunting message to Willis on Truth Social on Thursday. I need one more indictment to ensure my election! the post said.

This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com
Former president Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to the new charges filed against him for allegedly mishandling top secret government documents (WIN MCNAMEE)

Former US president Donald Trump pleaded not guilty on Friday to the new charges filed against him for allegedly mishandling top secret government documents.

The 77-year-old Trump was charged with three additional felonies in a superseding indictment handed down last week by special counsel Jack Smith.

In a written notice on Friday to the US district court in Florida handling the case, Trump pleaded not guilty to the new charges.

Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, also waived his right to be present at his August 10 arraignment on the new charges.

The plea came one day after Trump pleaded not guilty in a federal court in Washington to charges that he conspired to overturn the 2020 election.

Trump is scheduled to go on trial in Florida in May of next year for allegedly taking classified documents to his Mar-A-Lago estate and refusing to return them.

He pleaded not guilty in June to charges of unlawfully retaining national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice and making false statements.

The additional charges filed against Trump last week by Smith, the special counsel, relate to his alleged efforts to obstruct the FBI investigation and its bid to recover the classified documents.

Trump is accused in the latest indictment of attempting to delete security camera footage at Mar-A-Lago to prevent it from being provided to the FBI and a grand jury.

Also charged in the case are Trump's longtime personal aide Waltine "Walt" Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, the Mar-A-Lago property manager.

cl/acb
Donald Trump's indictments motivate throngs of small-dollar donors. Dozens of people report bank accounts in their name at Wells Fargo even though they're not customers. And scientists think they've identified the heaviest animal to ever live.

Heres what to know today.

Trump pleads not guilty to illegally trying to overturn 2020 election

In a Washington, D.C., courtroom on Thursday afternoon, special counsel Jack Smith sat in the front row, about 10 feet away from Donald Trump, in the former presidents sightline. Trump appeared to avoid looking at Smith, a person hes labeled a deranged prosecutor.

When asked for his plea, Trump stood and said not guilty to charges that he engaged in criminal conspiracies aimed at subverting the 2020 presidential election results and keeping himself in power.

Yesterdays hearing was Trumps third arraignment this year, but nonetheless a remarkable and unprecedented moment in American history and one of the most consequential tests of the U.S. Constitution and the criminal justice system.

This is Morning Rundown, a weekday newsletter to start your morning. Sign up here to get it in your inbox.

After the hearing, Trump headed to the airport and spoke briefly to reporters. This is a persecution of a political opponent, he said. This was never supposed to happen in America.

Next up in the case: an Aug. 28 hearing, at which time the judge overseeing the case, U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan, expects to set a trial date. Heres what else was discussed during Trumps arraignment.

Phony bank accounts reported at Wells Fargo

Arkansas resident Jay Patterson received a bank statement from Wells Fargo in June 2022 that showed $12 in a checking account in his name. Immediately he was confused. He had never been a Wells Fargo customer, and he said he has never given the bank access to his personal data. It turns out he wasnt the only one in this situation. More than 40 consumers say Wells Fargo accounts were opened in their name without their knowledge.

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While the bank has been embroiled in similar activity before, what happened to Patterson appears to be a case of synthetic identity fraud. Senior financial reporter Gretchen Morgenson has more on the mystery accounts and explains what exactly synthetic identity fraud is.

Russian warship appears damaged after Ukrainian sea drone attack

A Russian warship appeared to have suffered serious damage Friday after Ukraine attacked one of its key naval bases using sea drones. The defense ministry claimed to have thwarted the overnight attack on the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, but the fate of one of its warships is in doubt.

NBC News obtained video of a ship resembling Russias Olenegorsky Gornyak warship listing to one side and being towed back to port. Using satellite imagery and marine ship tracking data, NBC News was able to confirm that the video was filmed in Novorossiysk and showed the same class of warship as the Olenegorsky Gornyak.

More coverage of the war in Ukraine:

Ukraine and its supporters are worried they are losing control of the narrative around the countrys long-awaited counteroffensive, which has struggled to take back territory.

Tennessee state representatives win back their seats

Justin Jones and Justin J. Pearson are state representatives again, winning the general elections for their old seats, The Associated Press projected. The wins cap a monthslong fight to become state lawmakers again after they were expelled by Republicans in April for protesting on the chamber floor for gun safety, an ordeal that drew national attention.

Shortly after his projected victory was announced, Jones signaled he would continue pushing for gun legislation during this months special session.

Records reveal Oregon kidnapping suspects violent threats to ex-wife and 2 kids

The man who officials say kidnapped and held a woman captive in his garage before she escaped also made threats to his ex-wife and their two children, according to a protective order she sought against him in 2020. He physically attacks me, the woman wrote in her order against Negasi Zuberi, he hits me, he brakes (sic) and throws things, he screams at the kids and me. Zuberi also took her phone to keep her from calling police and took money from her, the order claimed.

Meanwhile, a neighbor of the couple in Klamath Falls, Oregon, said she witnessed concerning behavior between the two and on one occasion heard Zuberi making degrading comments about his wife.

Todays Talker

A rule that would limit kids screen time

 is being considered in China. This week, the countrys powerful internet regulator proposed rules that would limit screen time for people under the age of 18 and manage the type of content they are allowed to view. The goal is to prevent teens from getting addicted to the internet. But whose responsibility is it to protect kids? Parents disagree on the answer.

Politics in Brief

Immigration: In a major win for the Biden administration, an appeals court allowed a rule restricting asylum at the border to stay in place while court battles surrounding its legality play out.

Key Biden witness: A business associate of Hunter Biden, who has told lawmakers that Hunter has used the Biden brand to protect Ukrainian energy firm Burisma, testified that he had no knowledge of any wrongdoing by Joe Biden.

Virginia politics: Billionaire Republican megadonor Thomas Peterffy wired his second $1 million donation to Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkins Spirit of Virginia PAC ahead of a push to win full control of the state legislature.

Staff Pick: The heaviest animal ever?

Meet the Perucetus colossus, a giant whale that lived almost 40 million years ago and is now believed to be the heaviest animal that has ever lived, according to a new study. These behemoths were so big that they may have been twice as big as the largest blue whales, the studys lead author said. Maybe youre drawn to this story, like I was, for the illustration of a big whale with tiny fins, but the journey scientists took to identify this previously unknown creature is equally fascinating.  Elizabeth Robinson, newsletter editor

In Case You Missed It

An 87-year-old Maine woman fought off a teenager attacker in her home and then fed him because he said he was awfully hungry.

Bryan Kohberger went for a drive alone the night and morning before four University of Idaho students bodies were found, his defense attorneys wrote in court documents.

Three women were injured, including one flown by helicopter to a hospital, after an otter attacked them as they floated on a Montana river.

Texas A&M will pay a $1 million settlement to a Black professor who the university hired to revive its journalism program but then reneged amid right-wing backlash.

Floridas Department of Education has effectively banned AP Psychology classes in the state due to the courses content on sexual orientation and gender identity.

No charges will be filed against Cardi B after the rapper threw her microphone into a crowd during her performance in Las Vegas after someone threw a drink onstage.

A CDC advisory committee voted to recommend an injectable RSV drug for two groups of infants ahead of an anticipated fall spread.

Select: Online Shopping, Simplified

Your phone is dead. Your luggage was sent to the wrong airport. These sound like nightmares, but they can become reality when youre traveling. Luckily, there are products that can help reduce the stress of travel. Our Select team consulted travel experts and tested a few products themselves to find the best Amazon tech gadgets you need before your next trip.

Sign up to The Selection newsletter for exclusive reviews and shopping content from NBC Select.

Thanks for reading todays Morning Rundown. Todays newsletter was curated for you by Elizabeth Robinson. If youre a fan, please send a link to your family and friends. They can sign-up here.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Elizabeth City State University (ECSU) recently celebrated The Super Sixteen, a group of Junior ROTC cadets who graduated from the universitys intensive, eight-week Flight Academy. These cadets came from across the country and Guam to complete the training at no cost to the students. The U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy cover the program costs for the cadets in their respective branches of the armed forces while the students gain aviation experience and college credits.

This scholarship program represents a special collaboration between the Air Force and Navy, the aerospace industry, and partnering universities to help address a national pilot shortage and diversify the aviation workforce. ECSU is very proud of its unique aviation program, and now welcome another group of young ambassadors to help us tell the story, said ECSU Chancellor Karrie G. Dixon. To the third ECSU flight academy class, The Super Sixteen, I applaud your determination and hard work throughout this rigorous training program. You are leaders, and we extend heartfelt congratulations to you.

ECSU is one of 24 universities across the United States that provides flight training for Junior ROTC cadets. Last year, the Air Force and Navy partnered with the university for the second class of academy cadets, The Super Sixteen.

JROTC cadets with Provost Farrah Ward, Dr. Kuldeep Rawat, Chancellor Karrie Dixon, and members of the ECSU Aviation Department

As the ceremony keynote speaker, Naval Airforce Atlantic Rear Admiral John F. Meier encouraged program graduates with sage advice.

The three lessons that I have learned during my naval career is always treat people with respect and dignity; to pursue passion with an eye toward perfection, looking for ways you can always improve; and to choose your lifes path with passion, he said.

All cadets arrived on campus May 31, flew solo flights, and passed their Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) written examination. In addition, 13 cadets met the requirements to be tested by an FAA examiner for their Private Pilot License. While the U.S. Air Force and Office of Naval Research provide scholarships to attend the Flight Academy, there is no mandatory service obligation.

Landon Peake, 17, of Clover, S.C., obtained his private pilots license through the program. This year he graduated, a year early, from Clover High School. Our instructors were good and communicated well, he said, adding that he most enjoyed flying over the beach while training. I was only scared once. Hard work pays off.
Donald Trump is said to have been left in a foul mood after his arraignment in Washington DC on Thursday  but not for the reason that many would think.

The former president was irked that US District Judge Moxila Upadhyaya referred to him as Mr Trump and not Mr President as he was formally hit with four charges over his attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, according to CNN.

A source told the network on Thursday that the former president subsequently left the court appearance sour and dejected as a result.

Im learning tonight that Trump left here in a sour and dejected mood, said CNN host Kaitlan Collins.

He was, quote, pissed off, according to someone who spoke to him.

She added: I am told that the former president, one thing that irked him particularly, was during that hearing today that lasted about 27 minutes, was when the magistrate judge referred to him as simply Mr Trump.

Mr Trumps alleged annoyance comes as the staff at his Mar-a-Lago and Bedminster estates typically still refer to him as President Trump  despite leaving the White House over two years ago.

That may not sound odd to anyone else, but he is still referred to by his former title President Trump when hes at his Bedminster golf club in New Jersey, as he is tonight, or at Mar-a-Lago, revealed Ms Collins.

Despite the reports of Mr Trumps mood behind the scenes, the former president appeared to be determined to put on a brave front following the arraignment.

Taking to Truth Social on Thursday night, he claimed  in a full-caps rant  that he had a very good day.

CONSIDERING THE FACT THAT I HAD TO FLY TO A FILTHY, DIRTY, FALLING APART, & VERY UNSAFE WASHINGTON, D.C., TODAY, & THAT I WAS THEN ARRESTED BY MY POLITICAL OPPONENT, WHO IS LOSING BADLY TO ME IN THE POLLS, CROOKED JOE BIDEN, IT WAS A VERY GOOD DAY! he wrote on Truth Social.

However, he also contradicted his mood in the comments he made on the tarmac as he jetted out of DC.

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This is a very sad day for America, Mr Trump told reporters as he embarked his private plane  Trump Force One  to head back to his Bedminster club.

Former President Donald Trump arrives at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport for his 3 August arraignment (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

It was also very sad driving through Washington DC and seeing the filth and the decay and all of the broken buildings and walls and the graffiti. This is not the place that I left. Its a very sad thing to see it.

The Washington DC Mr Trump left in January 2021 was in fact reeling from an attack on the US Capitol  an attack which came out of the false claims he spread of 2020 election fraud.

Now, the former presidents return to the scene of the alleged crime came to face charges over that very plot conspiring to overturn the 2020 election and the events leading up to the January 6 Capitol riot.

Mr Trump surrendered to authorities and was arrested on four federal charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.

He then appeared for his arraignment at the E Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse where he stared down special counsel Jack Smith before pleading not guilty to all charges.

The former president is accused of conspiring with his allies to overturn the 2020 election, in a bid to sabotage the vote of the American people.

A grand jury, which has spent months hearing evidence in special counsel Jack Smiths investigation, returned a federal indictment on Tuesday hitting him with four federal charges.

The Justice Department alleges that Mr Trump and his circle of co-conspirators knew that he had lost the election but launched a multi-prong conspiracy to do everything they could to enable him to cling to power.

This included spreading knowingly false claims of election fraud to get state legislators and election officials to subvert the legitimate election results and change electoral votes for the Defendants opponent, Joseph R. Biden, Jr., to electoral votes for the Defendant, the indictment states.

Mr Trump and his allies also allegedly plotted to send slates of fake electors to seven targeted states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin which President Joe Biden had won  to get them to falsely certify the election for Mr Trump.

The indictment also alleges Mr Trump tried to use the DOJ to conduct sham election crime investigations, sending letters to the seven states claiming that significant concerns had been found in the elections in those states.

Court sketch shows Donald Trump sitting next to his attorney Todd Blanche (REUTERS)

As well as the false claims about the election being stolen from Mr Trump, the scheme also involved pushing false claims that Vice President Mike Pence had the power to alter the results  and pushing Mr Pence to fraudulently alter the election results.

When Mr Trumps supporters stormed the US Capitol in a violent attack that ended with five deaths, Mr Trump and his co-conspirators exploited the incident by redoubling efforts to levy false claims of election fraud and convince Members of Congress to further delay the certification based on those claims, the indictment claims.

At a press conference on Tuesday, Mr Smith placed the blame for the January 6 attack on the US Capitol firmly on Mr Trumps shoulders.

The attack on our nations capitol on January 6, 2021, was an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy, he said.

As described in the indictment, it was fueled by lies. Lies by the defendant targeted at obstructing a bedrock function of the US government  the nations process of collecting, counting and certifying the results of the presidential election.

The indictment marks Mr Trumps second federal indictment, his third criminal indictment overall  and potentially his most serious.

While the former president is the only person charged in the case, the indictment also refers to six co-conspirators who worked with him to try to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

The six individuals  four attorneys, one Justice Department official and one political consultant  have not been named in the charging documents because they have not yet been charged with any crimes.

However, based on the details in the indictment and records already known about the events leading up to the Capitol riot, the identities are apparent as Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, John Eastman, Jeffrey Clark, Kenneth Chesebro and Boris Epshteyn.

This marks Mr Trumps third indictment after he was hit with New York state charges following an investigation into hush money payments made prior to the 2016 election and then separate federal charges over his alleged mishandling of classified documents on leaving office.

He has pleaded not guilty in both of those charges as well.
In late June, California GOP Chair Jessica Millan Patterson and RNC committee members Harmeet Dhillon and Shawn Steel floated a new set of delegate selection rules that could make their state more competitive in the GOP nomination process.

Blindsided by the proposal  which would potentially allow lower finishers to claim more delegates than under the previous system  Trump's aides and allies jumped into action and called state leaders to complain.

Far-right internet personality and white nationalist Laura Loomer alleged the state party was trying to steal the nomination from Trump, triggering a cascade of conspiracy theories among the MAGA faithful.

And after speaking to Trumps concerned inner circle, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and his home-state allies made phone calls to Patterson: This new setup wouldnt do, they said; she needed to change the rules.

Within days, Patterson, Dhillon and other authors of the original proposal had all but abandoned their plan. And last weekend, the executive committee of the California GOP overwhelmingly adopted rules that Trumps team supported  awarding all of the states delegates to the candidate who secures more than half of the statewide vote, which Trump campaign aides believe he will do.

That is just one glimpse into the myriad ways Trumps team has worked behind the scenes to ensure delegate selection rules play to their favor  or, in their rivals telling, to rig the system.



While state parties traditionally set their own standards for apportioning delegates  and most candidates just follow them  the Trump orbit has been quietly reaching out to allies to make tweaks either aimed at locking down the nomination or beating back proposals that could help his rivals.

The wonky-yet-important effort underscores just how politically savvy the Trump operation  once caught flat-footed by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's attempted delegate mutiny at the 2016 Republican National Convention  has become. And it exposes how Trumps aides have been running circles around his rivals, with only one of them  Ron DeSantis and his allies at the Never Back Down super PAC  even putting up a fight.

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He who controls the rules controls the process. You control process, you win, said Trump campaign senior adviser Chris LaCivita, a longtime political operative steeped in convention and party procedures. Were basically guarding our flanks. Were stopping any monkey business if they want to do it like Cruz did in 2016.

Unsurprisingly, Trumps rivals see it differently.

Theyre looking to rig the system in their favor, Never Back Down founder Ken Cuccinelli said of Trumps efforts. Theyre going in and strong-arming the [GOP] committees.

Cuccinelli, who helped orchestrate the Cruz 2016 convention effort, says he might have seen this coming. When he served in the Trump administration, he recalled, the president would rib him about how he leveraged state party rules to yield delegates for Cruz in states Trump had won.

Where the hell are my delegates? Cuccinelli took them from me! Trump would joke.

At one point, Cuccinelli offered to help Trump fix the system so that wouldnt happen. But by then, Trump was realizing he could play the same games Cruz had played  maybe even better: "Well, maybe I want them rigged now, he told Cuccinelli.

He is against rigged elections when they hurt him, Cuccinelli said. He doesn't appear to be against rigging elections to help him.



LaCivita said Cuccinelli  whom he helped elect Virginia attorney general  might as well be the pot calling the kettle black. And to be sure, DeSantis allies advocated for Californias original proposal, which would likely advantage their own campaign by awarding delegates to the top two vote-getters in each congressional district.

Whats so laughable about that is they were doing the same thing. Smoke-filled backrooms? LaCivita said, mocking what Cuccinelli said of the California situation. What the hell are they doing?  Theyre just mad that they lost!

Run by well-seasoned rules gurus LaCivita, Susie Wiles, Brian Jack and Clayton Hensen, the Trump campaigns efforts have borne fruit across the country.

In Louisiana, theyve bound delegates to support the states nominee for two ballots at the convention, a policy theyre also pushing in Massachusetts and Colorado  the latter of which will vote on the rules this weekend.

In Idaho and Nevada, they persuaded Republicans to ditch the states primary systems in favor of caucuses, which tend to advantage candidates (like Trump) who have the most support from hardcore base activists.

The Trump team appears to be employing a carrot-and-stick approach, with Trump personally been very active in the effort, cultivating relationships by congratulating chairs on victories, inviting them to rallies and inviting state party leaders who vote on the rules to Mar-a-Lago and Bedminster, where he wines and dines them.

In the California situation, McCarthys close alliance with Patterson was a huge factor in the shift. This was Kevin McCarthys rule  which in turn was dictated by the Trump campaign, one California official said. Hes basically Jessica [Millan Patterson]s boss.

At the same time, Trump allies have made clear to state GOP officials that if newly adopted rules have an adverse impact on him, their parties could get a cold shoulder. During the California debate, a question about whether Trump  a major draw  would speak at the states Anaheim convention next month was left open  that is, until the GOP adopted his preferred rules. (The state announced Trumps attendance days after the vote.)

And Trumps followers do the rest for him. During the California vote last weekend, more than 50 Trump protesters swarmed the meeting and tried to break in, forcing officials to call the cops, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Theyre just stirring people up and scaring the members of the committee, Cuccinelli complained. They're pulling out all the stops.

On the other side, the DeSantis campaign and Never Back Down have been fighting many of these changes. Theyve also been monitoring states like Alabama, according to Reuters, fearful that Trump allies will persuade local leaders to hike the minimum threshold needed to secure delegates.

But one GOP official not associated with either campaign said the DeSantis worlds efforts have been too little, too late: Theyre always a step behind.
Donald Trump's rivals for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination were split on how to read his indictment Thursday in a Washington, D.C., courtroom, one saying the former president's actions invited his legal woes. Another said the legal system has been politicized.

Trump pleaded not guilty Thursday to four felony counts related to the Jan. 6, 2021 storming of the U.S. Capitol, including conspiracy to defraud the nation, brought by Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith.

While Trump has accused the Biden administration of orchestrating a witch hunt against him, GOP candidate Will Hurd told Fox News Digital just ahead of the arraignment, "This is not about the weaponization of the government."

"This is not about individuals in Washington, D.C., that serve on a grand jury," said Hurd, a former CIA spy and member of the House Texas delegation. "This is about a former president who lost an election and tried to use everything within his power to overturn that election, failed, and now hes trying to stay out of prison.

TRUMP ARRAIGNMENT: FORMER PRESIDENT PLEADS NOT GUILTY

"This could have been preventable. It didnt have to happen," added Hurd, a long shot for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination and a vocal Republican critic of Trump.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

Hurd, who drew plenty of boos from a crowd last weekend at the Iowa GOP's annual Lincoln Dinner when he criticized Trump, spoke with Fox Digital Thursday during a stop at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics in Manchester.

FIRST ON FOX: TRUMP CAMPAIGN SLAMS LATEST FEDERAL INDICTMENT OF FORMER PRESIDENT

"If he had been like every other president and accepted the election, he wouldnt be in this position," Hurd argued. "Also, when he learned he had classified documents, all he had to do was turn them back. Instead, he lied about them and then tried to destroy evidence that he knew about them. If he wouldnt have done those things, we wouldnt be in this position today."

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Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who like Hurd is a vocal Trump critic, said in a social media posting that "Todays arraignment of #DonaldTrump is a sad day for the Party of Lincoln & Reagan. He hoodwinked his supporters on #January6th & he is trying to do it again. The GOP needs a course correction."

On the opposite end of the spectrum was multimillionaire biotech entrepreneur, best-selling author and culture wars crusader Vivek Ramaswamy, who charged that Trump's indictment was the "politicized persecution of political opponents."

Ramaswamy arrived in New Hampshire hours after shooting a video in front of the federal courthouse in the nation's capital where Trump was arraigned later in the day.

Former President Trump arrives in Washington, D.C., Aug. 3, 2023.

"I wanted to make a point to say we the public deserve to know what did [Attorney General] Merrick Garland tell Jack Smith? What did [President] Joe Biden tell Merrick Garland? Just tell us. Be transparent with the public," Ramswamy told Fox News Digital. "And I think, right now, we live in a time when we feel like the government suppresses the truth."

Ramaswamy, who was interviewed by Fox Digital following a mini-town hall at a restaurant in Milford, New Hampshire, claimed "the first three indictments  they reeked of politicization. And I think that thats just a reality. I think that sets a terrible precedent. I think theres a difference between a bad judgment and a crime. Criminalizing every bad judgment is a dangerous slippery slope to go down in this country.

"I think what we need is a government that trusts its people, and thats when the people will start trusting the government again. And thats what this campaign is all about  speaking truth. Its how we restore trust in this country. Its what Im doing."

Entrepreneur, best-selling author, and culture wars crusader Vivek Ramaswamy, a 2024 Republican presidential candidate, holds a town hall style discussion at a restaurant in Milford, New Hampshire, on August 3, 2023

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who served as ambassador to the United Nations during the Trump administration, said during an interview on a morning talk radio program in New Hampshire that "like most Americans, I'm tired of commenting on every Trump drama. I've lost track of whether this indictment is the third or fourth or the fifth."

But Haley, who launched her 2024 presidential campaign in February, reiterated in her "Good Morning NH," appearance that she's "said that Jan. 6 was a terrible day. I've also said that Donald Trump bears some responsibility for what happened. But Trump didn't attack the Capitol. It's not a crime to say that you think an election was stolen. He should not be prosecuted for that. I think the Justice Department has become way too political."

Michigan businessman and quality control expert Perry Johnson, who like Hurd is a long-shot for the GOP nomination, claimed in a statement to Fox News that "the witch hunt perpetrated against Trump is unlike anything I have ever witnessed, which is why I have never shied away from defending Trump from this political persecution despite being his competitor in this race."

Republican White House contender and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, in an interview on Fox News' "Special Report," told host Bret Baier that "the Biden administration loves it when were talking about indictments because then they dont have to talk about their horrible track record on national security."

Former President Trump arrives in Washington, D.C., Aug. 3, 2023.

The former president - who pleaded not guilty - was indicted on four counts: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.

Trump was informed two weeks ago that he was a target in the probe into his actions and state of mind on Jan. 6, 2021, and in the lead-up to that infamous day  when hundreds stormed the U.S. Capitol. The attack temporarily disrupted congressional certification of President Biden's Electoral College victory over Trump.

The indictment alleges that Trump pursued unlawful means of discounting legitimate votes and subverting the 2020 presidential election results through three criminal conspiracies and that he corruptly obstructed and impeded the certification of the electoral vote.

Former Vice President Mike Pence was at the Capitol at the time it was attacked, overseeing the joint session of Congress. He was forced, along with members of Congress to temporarily flee to safety as the rioters - some chanting that the then-vice president should be hanged - stormed the Capitol. By following his constitutional duties instead of following Trumps wishes and overturn the results, Pence has endured the wrath of the former president and plenty of Trumps most devout loyalists and supporters.

"President Trump was wrong in saying that I had some right to overturn the election. My duty on January wasnt a belief, its the law and the history of this Country," Pence wrote Thursday afternoon on social media.

Trump, the commanding front-runner in the GOP nomination race as he makes his third straight White House run, this year became the first sitting or former president in U.S. history to be charged with a crime.

IT'S TRUMP'S RACE TO LOSE 6 MONTHS AHEAD OF GOP PRIMARIES, CAUCUSES

Trump pleaded not guilty in early April in New York City to charges brought by the Manhattan District Attorneys Office. The former president was indicted for allegedly giving hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in 2016 to keep her quiet ahead of that years presidential election over her claims she had sexual encounters years earlier with Trump.

The former president denies sleeping with Daniels and denies falsifying business records to keep the payment concealed.

Trump was indicted and arraigned in early June for his alleged improper retention of classified records. He pleaded not guilty in federal court in Miami to criminal charges that he illegally retained national security records at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, following the end of his term as president and that he obstructed federal efforts to recover the documents.

But the indictments have only strengthened Trump's standing among his base of devoted supporters. And his lead over his GOP rivals has increased in the wake of the indictments.

Trump, speaking as he departed the nation's capital following his arraignment, targeted the president, charging that "this is the persecution of the person that's leading by very, very substantial numbers in the Republican primary and leading Biden by a lot. So, if you can't beat him, you persecute him, or you prosecute him. We can't let this happen in America."

This is a developing story. Check back for updates on FoxNews.com.
It's impossible to know how genuinely worried Donald Trump may be about the prospect of going to jail for any of the criminal offences he has been charged with.

He claims he could be facing a combined 561 years in prison thanks to the "Left's witch hunts". That may be an exaggeration, but if he is convicted in any of the three court cases he faces, a jail sentence may well follow.

So whilst Mr Trump says almost nothing during his court appearances, he is voluble outside when he is appealing to the court of public opinion. Looking for a verdict that will come from tens of millions of voters, not a jury of 12. Delivered at the ballot box, not in a courtroom.

The lesser-known former congressman Will Hurd was booed off stage at a Republican dinner in Iowa last week when he said the only reason Mr Trump is running for the White House is to stay out of jail. But is he completely wrong?

The former president has already woven his election campaign and legal problems tightly together.

He uses the charges against him as a major plank of his campaign. In speeches he tells his supporters that he is being prosecuted because the establishment - or the "deep state"- fear him being re-elected as president.

He sends out fundraising emails that say: "If these illegal persecutions succeed, if they're allowed to set fire to the law, then it will not stop with me. Their grip will close even tighter around YOU."

And he has already used at least $40m (31m) in campaign donations to pay his legal fees.

Mr Trump has made clear that no verdict or sentence will halt his campaign. That he will carry on running for president from behind bars if he has to.

And that if elected he will use the power of his office to either quash any ongoing prosecutions or pardon himself for any convictions.

But trying to escape his legal difficulties by running for president will soon become a scheduling nightmare.

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Mr Trump has already announced a campaign event in New Hampshire next week, a long way from the court hearing that takes place in Florida two days later.

He doesn't have to appear on that date to hear the additional charges that have been filed against him in the case of the classified documents he took from the White House.

But when the trials get started, in New York in March, in Florida in May and in Washington at a date yet to be determined, he will be required to sit through the proceedings in person.

Even for someone with a private plane at his disposal that will make it hard to be hitting the campaign trail whilst on trial.

So far each indictment against Mr Trump has increased his poll ratings and tightened his grip on the Republican Party.

It may be a different story when we are in a general election and Mr Trump is running against Joe Biden rather than his rivals for the Republican nomination.

And when evidence against Mr Trump is being aired in court daily.

Yet it is once again Mr Trump who is defining the terms of the debate.

And making it all about him.

Who's listening to arguments about economic policy when the Trump trial cavalcade is in town?

Find out more

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Former President Donald Trump walks over to speak with reporters before he boards his plane at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Thursday, Aug. 3, 2023, in Arlington, Va., after facing a judge on federal conspiracy charges that allege he conspired to subvert the 2020 election. Alex Brandon/Associated Press

Trump was indicted for the third time on Tuesday, again making history.

But as the arraignment played out on Thursday, it felt like we had all been there before.

The lack of spectacle didn't match the significance of the moment.

If you didn't realize former President Donald Trump was indicted for the third time on Tuesday and arraigned on Thursday, I wouldn't blame you.

Despite making history as the first former US president to ever be charged with a crime, let alone in three different indictments, it's hard to gauge if Americans registered the magnitude of this particular indictment  or if Trump being in court has just become routine.

Trump was arraigned on Thursday over charges related to efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The charges came after two previous indictments. In March, Trump was indicted on charges of falsifying business records. In June, he was charged over his handling of classified records after leaving the White House. He has pleaded not guilty in all three cases.

When the news broke this week of Trump's latest indictment, it felt like we'd been here before  even though this time it involved something the public may have been more likely to care about given the deadly riot at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

The new charges against Trump are serious, including conspiracy to defraud the US and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, and could carry a sentence of decades in prison.

The first indictment that took place in Manhattan in April felt like much more of a spectacle  despite the fact that it may be the weakest of the cases brought against Trump. Maybe this was due in part to the NYPD presence, photographers in the courtroom, and a very public entrance and exit from the court.

But compared to his two impeachments and the made-for-TV Capitol riot hearings  all of which accused Trump of serious wrongdoing  the most recent indictment and arraignment felt largely humdrum.

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And that's because, in large part, it was. Trump was treated as any other defendant charged with a crime. He went to court, was read his rights, entered his plea, and was talked to by the judge.

But in this case, he's a former president charged with trying to change the outcome of an unfavorable election.

Trump may have been hoping for a spectacle. He could have appeared virtually, his attorney John Lauro told CNN earlier this week, but he appeared in person in court. However, CNN reported that the group of supporters on the ground at the DC courthouse was smaller than in other instances.

But even Trump's usual flash was absent. As with the prior indictments, he railed against the charges on Truth Social and accused the Biden administration of weaponizing the Justice Department against him. But, he went in and out of the courthouse unseen and, unlike in the first two indictments, he treated his latest arraignment with much less fanfare.

After both arraignments earlier this year, Trump held events for some of his supporters and members of the media, during which he delivered angry speeches criticizing the charges. This time, Trump held no such event, opting instead to briefly address reporters while standing in the rain on a tarmac without taking questions.

While the news led major outlets like The New York Times, CNN, and Fox News, there was an acknowledgment that the procedure of the arraignment itself was largely uneventful.

In The New York Times live coverage of the arraignment, reporter Charlie Savage wrote an update that included banal details, like Trump's lawyer yawning and Trump picking up a piece of paper to discuss with his counsel. "A reporter tries to come up with yet another descriptive way to convey that nothing is happening yet," he wrote of his own update.

Meanwhile, Fox News reporters homed in on the fact that this was the third time this year the historic scene had played out. "It is pretty striking that, I think, Americans have become sort of inured to watching the former president go through this process," host Martha MacCallum said. "I didn't think I would ever see that."

Fox News legal commentator Andrew McCarthy noted the arraignment was "historic" but added, "We're becoming inured to it because it's the third time we've been through this now, so it's almost gotten to be rote."

Even CNN's live TV coverage struggled to make the arraignment seem exciting, noting several times how "mundane" it all felt  except for the fact that CNN commentators noted it was a former president being charged.

As for the GOP base who may be voting for or against Trump in the presidential primary next year, polling done before the latest indictment suggests they wouldn't care much about it either. When asked in a poll conducted by Monmouth University in July how concerned they were that the indictments against Trump would hurt his chances in the general election against President Joe Biden, 72% of registered Republicans said they were not concerned.

And as routine as this may have become for some, it may not be the last indictment. A grand jury will decide whether to charge Trump in Georgia, related to the 2020 election. And if they don't we still have three trials ahead of us.

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Donald Trump Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Within the first 48 hours of Donald Trump's latest indictment, on federal charges related to his attempted coup after the 2020 election, the number of Republican excuses for his crimes rivaled the number of votes he demanded Georgia election officials fabricate to steal the election. (Which was 11,780, for those whose memory needs refreshing.) In the true spirit of competitive GOP hackery, each "defense" was dumber than the last.

There were claims that "free speech" provides Trump blanket immunity for conspiring to overturn an election, on the grounds that most conspiring is done with vocal cords. As a Georgia State University law professor, Anthony Michael Kreis, told Salon, "A person cannot walk into a bank and say, 'stick 'em up,' and then cling to the First Amendment's protections." Similarly, it's not "free speech" when Trump told people to commit crimes for him, simply because he used his mouth to do so. Even Trump's former attorney general, Bill Barr, dismissed this gambit by saying, "free speech doesn't give you the right to engage in a fraudulent conspiracy." As Barr pointed out, no conspiracy charge could stick if the "conspiring" part was excluded from evidence.

Then there's the '"What about Hunter Biden" defense, in which Republicans try to change the subject to the non-political crimes of a private citizen, who happens to be the president's son. The implicit argument here is that because there's a person who has never held elected office and who failed to pay his taxes, Trump now has a blank check to commit far more serious crimes, such as stealing classified documents or attempting to overthrow democracy. It's very much as if you argued you get to murder people because your neighbor got a speeding ticket. It certainly demonstrates how much contempt Republicans have for the intelligence of their voters.

Then there are the various flavors of psychological projection, as Republicans scream accusations at President Joe Biden about "weaponization of government" and "election interference." Of course, this is actually what Trump is guilty of since he tried to use presidential powers to overturn an election, a plot that involved trying to gut the Justice Department and threatening to use military violence to finish off his coup.

Trump's lawyers are making some arguments so stupid that the likeliest explanation is they're trolling. Trump lawyer Alina Habba told Fox News that Trump "is the most ethical American I know," a claim so laughable that the only purpose of it must be to get "gawk at this weirdo" headlines. Trump lawyer John Lauro told CBS News that he's going to ask for a venue change to West Virginia, claiming it's "more diverse" than Washington D.C. The unsubtle race-baiting echoes the rhetoric of the Big Lie, which relied heavily on claims that votes in cities with large Black populations are "fraudulent."

Habba says that Trump believed the election was stolen, therefore there was no crime (that is now how it works) pic.twitter.com/spCJ8YkrGI  Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 3, 2023

There are so many more, which get increasingly baroque. For instance, Charlie Kirk of Turning Point USA is trying to pass off the fake electors scheme as a "publicity stunt," which is as nonsensical as it is dishonest. Crucially, each is stupider than the last. Partially, this is because trying to mount an honest defense of Trump is impossible. Also, there's no point in expending effort at polishing these argumentative turds, since the GOP base will regurgitate any talking point handed them, no matter how idiotic. Why feed people lobster, when they are just as willing to eat garbage?

But mostly, the strategy is what Trump ally and far-right podcaster Steve Bannon famously called the "flood the zone with shit" technique. Opening up a firehose of disinformation and bad faith arguments is about overwhelming the discourse so that ordinary people can't figure out what the hell is going on, and give up even trying. It also exhausts good faith interlocutors, who wear themselves out trying to debunk all the lies. Liars have a huge advantage in the "debate" format that structures so much political dialogue, because it's easier and faster to make stuff up than it is to carefully correct it.

This technique is also called the "Gish gallop," named after a creationist named Duane Gish, who would employ the tactic in supposed "debates" against biologists. As journalist Mehdi Hasan explains, "Its aim is simple: to defeat one's opponent by burying them in a torrent of incorrect, irrelevant, or idiotic arguments." It's a major reason why scientists and doctors have started to refuse to "debate" purveyors of disinformation, such as anti-vaxxers. The Gish gallop makes a mockery of discourse, and frankly, it's not a legitimate debate when one side is lying freely and the other is hamstrung by a commitment to facts.

Notably, the Gish gallop is the strategy Trump used during his coup. He and his allies unleashed a blizzard of lies, accusing thousands of people of being in on a massive conspiracy on Biden's behalf. It was impossible to keep up with all the false accusations against voting machine companies, election officials, election volunteers, ordinary voters, and politicians from both political parties. Debunking all the lies was even harder.

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If you can stomach it, rereading Trump's inciting speech on January 6, 2021 illustrates this point. It's a classic Gish gallop, a litany of lies: "Over 36,000 ballots were illegally cast by non-citizens," "15,000 ballots were cast by individuals who moved out of the state," "18,000 illegal ballots were cast by individuals who registered to vote using an address listed as vacant," "4,500 illegal ballots were cast by individuals," "more than 42,000 double votes," etc., etc. All lies, but fired off in such rapid succession that it numbs the brain, turning off any lingering skepticism in his followers and wearing down his opponents so that fighting back feels unimaginable.

The good news is the Gish gallop is ineffective in the courtroom, at least when a good and honest judge is in control, which appears to be the case with Judge Tanya Chutkan, the Barack Obama appointee who drew the Trump coup case. A judge can stop lawyers from making false claims to juries and put guardrails on the kinds of arguments they use. Unlike in the typical "debate" format, lawyers rely heavily on facts and evidence, which generally has to be real and not stuff they make up on the spot. In addition, lawyers have ample time and space to rebut arguments from the opposing side. Trump's lawyers will likely be seriously limited in their efforts to overwhelm the jury with bullshit. We saw how the clarity a court provides worked in the civil trial where E. Jean Carroll sued Trump for rape and defamation. The truth had a fighting chance in a courtroom, and therefore Carroll prevailed.

The bad news is that Trump, his lawyers, and the larger GOP hope to win this case outside of court. The firehose of lies is about making people give up entirely on trying to figure out the facts, and instead just retreating to their partisan preferences. The hope is that by the time a jury is empaneled, Republican voters will have become so entrenched in the "how dare they come for our precious, precious Trump" position, that any of them who happen to be sitting on the jury will be unable to offer fair hearing of the prosecution's arguments.

In other words, Trump's team knows he can't win a fair trial so instead they are angling for jury nullification by spewing so much toxic crap that it thoroughly poisons the well. Hopefully, special prosecutor Jack Smith gets his wish for a speedy trial. It's the best chance of getting a jury that hasn't been ground down already by Trump's lies and is ready to hear the case with an open mind.

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about Trump's mounting legal troubles
Former President Donald Trump at the airport following his arraignment in Washington, D.C. court on August 3, 2023. Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

Dozens of House Democrats are calling on Trump's upcoming January 6 trial to be televised.

They argue it's important for the public to see the proceedings so they can "fully accept the outcome."

Televising is generally forbidden, but judges have some authority to allow cameras in courtrooms.

Dozens of House Democrats are urging the Judicial Conference to allow former President Donald Trump's historic January 6 trial to be televised.

In a letter led by Rep. Adam Schiff of California and signed by 37 other House Democrats, the lawmakers argued that allowing for the live broadcast of the trial is necessary "given the extraordinary national importance to our democratic institutions and the need for transparency."

"Given the historic nature of the charges brought forth in these cases, it is hard to imagine a more powerful circumstance for televised proceedings," the lawmakers wrote. "If the public is to fully accept the outcome, it will be vitally important for it to witness, as directly as possible, how the trials are conducted, the strength of the evidence adduced and the credibility of witnesses."

Under the existing rules of criminal procedures, broadcasting is generally forbidden during criminal proceedings in federal courtrooms. But the Judicial Conference, the main policymaking body that oversees the federal court system, can allow the broadcast of proceedings in certain circumstances.

Trump appeared in federal court in DC on Thursday, without any live broadcast, after being hit with his third indictment this year. He was first indicted in March by the Manhattan District Attorney on charges of falsifying business records, and then again in June over his handling of classified documents.

He now faces four criminal charges in relation to his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. The next hearing in the case is set for August 28, where Judge Tanya Chutkan will set a trial date.

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One of Donald Trump's PACs has nearly dried up its resources by paying his legal fees. iStock/Getty Images Plus

Save America, one of former President Donald Trumps political organizations, is seeking a US$60 million refund from Make America Great Again, Inc., another Trump political organization that is less strictly regulated by federal rules.

Save America has paid Trumps legal fees connected to multiple investigations into alleged criminal activities and is now down to less than $4 million in its account, The New York Times reported on July 31, 2023. It started 2022 with $105 million in the bank.

Trumps use of political action committees, often known as PACs, to pay his mounting legal fees has raised questions about these organizations and how they spend money.

First, whats a PAC, anyway?

We asked Richard Briffault, a scholar of campaign finance law, to explain what is behind PACs and whether using them to pay for personal legal expenses is permitted. Here are three key points to understand:

People walk past a Times Square digital billboard created by a pro-Trump super PAC in 2016. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

1. PACs are not all made equal

PACs are organizations that raise and spend money on federal elections. A PAC may contribute money to a candidate or political party, or spend independently to promote or attack a candidate or party.

Corporations, labor unions and other ideological groups originally set up PACs many decades ago as a way to participate in federal elections. Most PACs today are either connected to a sponsor organization or have a particular issue agenda. These PACs typically donate to or spend money in support of multiple candidates.

Some PACs, however, are directly created by candidates or their supporters.

Trumps situation involves two particular kinds of PACs: a leadership PAC named Save America and a super PAC named Make America Great Again, Inc.

Leadership PACs, which date back to the late 1970s, are created by candidates or officeholders to support other candidates for federal office, but not the candidates own campaign. They allow candidates to help fellow party members, strengthen their partys position and boost their own efforts to win leadership positions.

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A super PAC, meanwhile, is a PAC that does not contribute to candidates directly at all, but instead spends money independently to promote or oppose candidates. Like other PACS, a super PAC can pay for advertising, polling, opposition research and get-out-the-vote efforts. But the super PAC cannot coordinate its activities with the candidate it is supporting.

Super PACs emerged in 2010 following a controversial court of appeals decision. The ruling found that if a PAC does not directly contribute to or coordinate with a candidate, the ordinary limits on money contributions to PACs do not apply.

Federal law caps individual donations to most PACs, including leadership PACs, at $5,000 per year.

The lack of caps on donations to super PACs is what merits the modifier super.

The case that gave rise to super PACs involved an independent organization not connected to any campaign or candidate. But some super PACs, including Trumps, are also created by people closely associated with a candidate and devote their spending entirely to the support of that candidate.

Because contribution limits do not apply to super PACs, they have become an essential component of election campaigns over the last 13 years.

2. PACs can sometimes pay legal fees

Campaign money is supposed to be used for campaign purposes and not for what election law refers to as personal use, such as a political candidates home mortgage.

It is illegal to use campaign money to pay for personal expenses that would have occurred whether or not the candidate was running for office.

The Federal Election Commission has ruled that campaign funds can be used to pay a candidates legal fees if an investigation relates directly to the election or the candidates time in political office.

A Democratic super PAC, American Bridge, created a Trump museum in Cleveland, showcasing parts of the former presidents life he would rather keep quiet. William Edwards/AFP via Getty Images

3. Trumps case enters murky territory

The Federal Election Commission ruling means that election funding laws could allow Trump to use money from his PAC to pay for legal fees in connection with the New York hush money case  which relates to Trumps 2016 presidential campaign  as well as the federal and Georgia investigations of Trumps role in challenging the results of the 2020 election.

But money raised for a campaign could probably not cover the Department of Justices Mar-a-Lago documents case, which does not involve either Trumps campaign or his time in office.

The FEC has, in some cases, also determined that a politician may use campaign funds to pay for up to 50% of legal expenses that do not relate directly to allegations arising from campaign or officeholder activity.

This is true if the politician is required to provide substantive responses to the media while a candidate, regarding alleged illegal activity. So, campaign money might be used in the Mar-a-Lago case.

Whats unclear  and possibly unlawful  is whether Trumps leadership PAC, Save America, can pay for Trumps legal expenses.

This is because leadership PACs are supposed to spend money on other political candidates, not the candidate who controls the leadership PAC. And in this case, Save America is controlled by Trump.

Its also not clear whether the money transfers from the super PAC Make America Great Again, Inc, to Save America are consistent with the legal requirement that super PACs operate independently of a candidates campaign.

The request for refunds only underscores that concern.

The Federal Election Commission monitors any PAC-related legal issues or violations of election law. But given that the commission is facing dysfunction and deadlock, as a former FEC chair has said, there is unlikely to be clarification or enforcement anytime soon.

This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. The Conversation is trustworthy news from experts, from an independent nonprofit. Try our free newsletters.

It was written by: Richard Briffault, Columbia University.

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Richard Briffault does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Al Diaz/TNS/Newscom

In a CNN interview on Wednesday, former Attorney General Bill Barr weighed in on the legally crucial question of what Donald Trump was thinking when he engaged in conduct that Special Counsel Jack Smith describes as part of a criminal plot to reverse the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. "At first I wasn't sure," Barr said, "but I have come to believe he knew well he had lost the election."

Michael Wolff, a journalist who wrote a trilogy of books about Trump, is much less sure about that. He argues that the main source of evidence regarding Trump's state of mindthings he has publicly and privately said about the electionis such a confusing jumble that it may be impossible to prove criminal intent. "Does Mr. Trump mean what he says?" Wolff asks in a New York Times essay. "And what exactly does he mean when he says what he says?"

That puzzle is at the center of the case outlined in the federal indictment unsealed this week, which charges Trump with conspiring to defraud the United States, conspiring to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiring to deprive Americans of their voting rights. Those charges hinge on the assumption that Trump's claims about the massive fraud that supposedly had deprived him of his rightful victory were "knowingly false." But what Trump knew is a persistent mystery, perhaps even to him.

Consider the notorious January 2, 2021, telephone conversation in which he urged Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find" the votes necessary to overturn Joe Biden's victory in that state. Like many of Trump's conversations, Wolff notes, that exchange featured an "unmediated fire hose of verbiage, an unstoppable sequence of passing digressions, gambits and whims, more attuned to the rhythms of his voice than to any obligation to logic or, often, to any actual point or meaning at all." In fact, it is generous even to characterize that seemingly incriminating interaction as a conversation, because Trump did not seem to comprehend or digest what Raffensperger was saying as he patiently debunked one unsubstantiated fraud allegation after another.

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Wolff notes that Tony Schwartz, the ghostwriter for Trump's 1987 book The Art of the Deal, thinks his verbal habits are best understood as a salesman's patter. "In other words," Wolff says, "if you took him at his word, you were the fool, and yet, perhaps even more to the point, he succeeds because he comes to believe himself, making him the ultimate fool (as well as the ultimate salesman)."

Trump's "yearslong denial of the 2020 election may be an elaborate fraud, a grifter's denial of the obvious truth, as prosecutors maintain, but if so, he really hasn't broken character the entire time," Wolff writes. "I've had my share of exposure to his fantastic math over the yearsso did almost everyone around him at Mar-a-Lago after the electionand I don't know anyone who didn't walk away from those conversations at least a little shaken by his absolute certainty that the election really was stolen from him."

Evidence to the contrary, including the evidence cited in the indictment, frequently proves to be ambiguous upon closer examination. In a 2022 interview with historians, for instance, Trump seemed to concede that Joe Biden had won the 2020 election. Bragging about pressuring South Korean President Moon Jae-in to pay more for his country's defense, Trump said Moon must have been happy "when I didn't win the election." The Guardian highlighted that apparent admission under the headline "'I didn't win the election': Trump admits defeat in session with historians."

But did he? In the same interview, Trump also said the election was "rigged and lost." On the day of the Capitol riot, he claimed, he gave a "very modest" and "very peaceful" speech to more than a "million people" who were inspired by "tremendous love" for him but outraged by an election that was "rigged," "robbed," and "stolen." Those remarks are typical of Trump's ego-flattering, reality-denying rhetoric, which blurs the line between deceit and self-delusion.

Federal prosecutors will try to clarify that line, and Barr thinks Smith has additional evidence that will help them do that. "We're only seeing the tip of the iceberg on this," Barr told CNN. "I think there is a lot more to come, and I think they have a lot more evidence as to President Trump's state of mind."

Maybe. But prosecutors have to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubta daunting task when you are dealing with mental processes that may be as confused, irrational, and inconsistent as the words that reflect them.

"The prosecutors' story of [Trump's] grand scheming will most likely require them to present a figure of the former presidentcalculated, methodical, knowing and cunningthat none of his supporters or anyone who has ever met him or reasonable jurors and perhaps even the world at large would recognize," Wolff writes. "I can't imagine what will be produced by this dynamic of strait-laced prosecutors versus a preposterous Mr. Trump, his malfeasance always on the edge of farce. But my gut tells me the anti-Trump world could be in for another confounding disappointment."

The best chance to hold Trump accountable for his egregious post-election conductincluding his persistent promotion of the stolen-election fantasy, his attempts at persuading state and federal officials to betray their legal duties by joining his cause, his reckless pre-riot speech, and his inaction after the attack on the Capitol beganwas the impeachment that the Senate rejected. Sen. Mitch McConnell (RKy.), then the majority leader, said convicting Trump was out of the question because it was unconstitutional to try him after he had left office.

McConnell nevertheless condemned Trump's "disgraceful dereliction of duty," saying he was "practically and morally responsible for provoking" the riot by pushing "increasingly wild myths about a reverse landslide election that was being stolen in some secret coup by our now-president." And he held out the hope that Trump still could be "held accountable" by the "criminal justice system." In light of the challenge that Wolff highlights, that hope seems pretty faint.

The post Trump's Prosecution Could Be Stymied by the Blurry Line Between Deceit and Self-Delusion appeared first on Reason.com.
Donald Trump will have to juggle criminal trials with the campaign trail as he seeks to return to the White House (MANDEL NGAN)

Donald Trump's latest indictment sets the stage for a hugely divisive and potentially explosive mash-up of courtroom drama and campaign mayhem as juries and voters race to decide the future of the former US president.

Precisely how the next year will play out remains uncertain on both the legal and political fronts, but the stakes for the 77-year-old Trump couldn't be higher.

- Another indictment expected -

Trump has been charged in three criminal cases and an indictment looms in a fourth.

The former president is expected to be indicted shortly over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election result in Georgia.

The probe was sparked by Trump's January 2, 2021 phone call to Georgia election officials during which he pressured them to "find" the 11,780 votes that would reverse his defeat to Democrat Joe Biden in the southern state.

- The trials -

Trump is scheduled to go on trial in New York in March over hush money payments made to a porn star on the eve of the 2016 election.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has indicated, however, that he would be amenable to moving the date to accommodate the two federal prosecutions -- although the final decision is up to the judge.

Trump is to go on trial in Florida in May on charges of mishandling top secret government documents after leaving the White House.

But the far more serious case is the one lodged against him by special counsel Jack Smith for conspiring to overturn the 2020 election.

A date for the trial, which is to be held in Washington, is to be set at an August 28 hearing before US District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan.

Trump's attorneys are expected to seek to delay the conspiracy trial as long as possible -- ideally, from his team's perspective, until after the November 2024 election.

Ty Cobb, who served as a White House special counsel under Trump but has since turned against him, told CNN that kind of lag is unlikely.

Chutkan will seek to move the case "expeditiously," Cobb said, while at the same time ensuring that Trump's rights as a defendant are protected.

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"I do think this case could get to trial shortly after the first of the year and I wouldn't be surprised to see it being the first one on the docket," Cobb said.

He said he expected prosecutors would need "somewhere in the neighborhood of four to six weeks to put on their case."

- The trail -

Trump has alleged that the various charges brought against him are an attempt by Biden -- his likely 2024 opponent -- to hamstring his White House campaign.

"My political opponent has hit me with a barrage of weak lawsuits... which require massive amounts of my time & money to adjudicate," he said on his Truth Social platform.

"It is Election Interference, & the Supreme Court must intercede."

Trump's myriad legal woes do not appear so far, however, to have put a dent in his rock-solid support among Republican voters and his bid for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

Trump leads his closest challenger -- Florida Governor Ron DeSantis -- by 54 percent to 17 percent in a recent New York Times/Siena College poll.

The Republican caucus and primary contests to select the party's standard-bearer for the 2024 election kick off in January, with the nominating convention to be held July 15-18 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The various criminal trials could result in Trump spending as much, if not more, time in court as he does on the campaign trail.

"We've never really seen a leading contender for a major political party try to campaign while under multiple indictments so in truth we don't really know how this'll all pan out," said Steven Schwinn, a law professor at the University of Illinois Chicago.

Daniel Richman, a former federal prosecutor who now teaches at Columbia University, said Federal Court Rule 43 requires that a defendant be present for his trial.

"The rule makes no provision for a defendant to simply decide he has better things to do, and it remains to be seen whether courts will apply an exception when the 'thing' is running for president," he said.

Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor, said he expects the judges presiding over Trump's trials may "attempt to accommodate his schedule to the extent that he makes reasonable requests to be absent."

Trump can also continue to run for president even if convicted in one or more of the criminal cases -- nothing in the Constitution prevents a felon from seeking the White House.

cl/acb
Aliquippa is a small city with big city problems. That became even clearer to me in the last few weeks when we buried Dahv Sparrow, a 15-year-old I coached in football years before becoming Alquippas first Black mayor.

Hours after he was murdered, my city lost another teenager Asaun Moreland who was 16 years of age. Its the first time I can recall the gun violence epidemic striking our kids directly.

Aliquippa Mayor Dwan Walker

I am not the only small city with this public health crisis. I talk to my Allentown, York, Reading, Erie and Harrisburg counterparts. We all have our own Dahvs. Our frustrations. Even Lebanon, located in a supposedly rural part of Pennsylvania, was struck a month ago by the devastating loss of two kids to gunfire.

We talk about what we can do to keep our communities safe. I could help raise money for community programs. I could encourage the shooter to turn himself in. I could support law enforcement as they try to stop this gang feud that led to the shooting. Im doing that.

Whenever I talk to parents, experts, and colleagues in other cities, one other action comes up: new laws to address the easy gun access and lack of evidence-based safeguards. Except, we cant pass those laws. No city can.

Decades ago, in the midst of another gun violence crisis, the General Assembly tied the hands of local lawmakers with a law that is still in effect today. Pennsylvanias courts have interpreted that law to mean that only the General Assembly can establish any gun safety laws in Pennsylvania  not mayors, city councils, or other people involved in local governments. In the decades since local gun safety laws were ended in Pennsylvania, the General Assembly has rarely taken action. The last statewide law passed five years ago helped disarm abusers. I support it, but it does little to stop the flow of guns fueling the gang violence in Alquippa or the unintentional shootings that killed kids in Lebanon.

After each death, the General Assembly has refused to act  even though Pennsylvanias gun death rate is nearly four times the rate of other states with strong gun safety laws like safe storage and requiring gun buyers to get a permit before they purchase a firearm.

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The Pennsylvania Supreme Court could soon change that. In September, they will hear a landmark case, Crawford v. Commonwealth, arguing that the General Assemblys actions endanger public safety.

Think about it this way. The General Assembly allows everyone in Pennsylvania to get a car, and in fact, requires municipalities to allow people to drive. But, imagine if they refused to create speed limits, rules around stop signs or traffic signals. And, then, they barred communities from establishing local traffic safety standards. Car crash fatalities would skyrocket.

Thats what is happening when it comes to gun violence. Our communities are flooded with guns because almost anyone can get one. But with gun violence, the death toll isnt equal. This constitutional violation is especially harmful to Black Pennsylvanians like Dahv and Asaun, who are 26 times more likely to be murdered with firearms than white Pennsylvanians.

The psychological and emotional trauma heightens the consequences. Parents are worried that their kids are next. Their children are fearful of playing in the park. This violence and trauma is driven by unconstitutional actions by the General Assembly.

This violence isnt the canary in the coal mine. Its a mothers scream across the state. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court must recognize our constitutional right to live freely  and free towns ability to save lives before another mother screams because theyve lost their Dahv or Asaun.

Dwan Walker is the mayor of the city of Aliquippa, Pa.

This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Your Turn: The PA Supreme Court could help save lives
After Tuesday's Tuscaloosa City Council approval, currently employed Tuscaloosa Police Department officers will receive a one-time $10,000 retention bonus, if they commit to serving with the TPD for 24 months.

The bonus will be paid Sept. 8, for those officers employed as of Aug. 1 who make the commitment.

More: Road work on Interstate 20/59 won't affect University of Alabama football traffic

That's in addition to an earlier approved $5,000 retention bonus for patrol officers hired after March 1 of this year, with $2,000 of that paid after completion of a probationary period, $1,500 after completion of the second year of employment, and the last $1,500 after completion of the third year of employment.

Members of the Tuscaloosa Police Department's supervisory officers stand in ranks during the swearing-in for Brent Blankley as the new police chief at Tuscaloosa River Market on Tuesday, March 3, 2020. [Staff Photo/Gary Cosby Jr.]

Those bonuses are among efforts to address what TPD Chief Brent Blankley has called "our most pressing challenge: recruitment and retention." In a nationwide trend, law enforcement agencies struggle to keep rosters full, as retirements and resignations rise, and new-hire numbers fall short.

That's been a concern since before Blankley's tenure as chief. He joined TPD in 2006 as a patrol officer, moved up through ranks, and was sworn in as police chief on March 3, 2020. The TPD is budgeted for 291 officers, but is currently down 33.

In the TPD's 2022 annual report, Blankley said they were losing on average one officer a week, with many saying their departure was for better retirement plans at other departments. The chief has been working with Mayor Walt Maddox, council members, city attorneys and others to arrange conversion of the current Police and Fire Pension Plan to Retirement Systems of Alabama (RSA), for the city's public safety employees. Blankley said that conversion, still in process, gives the TPD a powerful recruitment tool, and another retention incentive.

Also in those efforts, in 2022 the city raised fire and police salaries. Following trends, the TPD moved to a four-day work week of 10-hour shifts, giving officers three down days.

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The current TPD recruit annual salary is $51,000, not counting the bonuses. Lateral transfer pay, for experienced officers, can raise that another $1,601.43 for an APOST-certified (Alabama Peace Officers Standards and Training Commission) officer with up to three years' service, up to another $10,001.53 for those with more than eight years' service. Of TPD's 2022 $35.68 million budget, 73% of that went to personnel.

Tuscaloosa Police Chief Brent Blankley, shown in this Jan. 28, 2022, file photo, said bonuses are needed to address "our most pressing challenge: recruitment and retention."

The raises, retention bonuses, four-day-weeks and benefits switches have been seen as needed to compete with, among others, the University of Alabama Police Department. According to a June release from UA, the starting salary for an officer with no prior experience is $65,203.20, or $31.35 an hour, and $71,240 for officers with APOST certification and at least two years of law enforcement experience.

UAPD is also offering lateral transfer pay for experienced officers, and a $7,500 recruitment bonus. Their retention bonus is $4,000, with an additional $100 for each year of service, provided every three years.

UAPD benefits include 15 paid holidays; Blue-Cross Blue Shield health insurance; progressive appearance and grooming standards (this means UAPD officers can wear beards while in uniform, and that tattoos of an acceptable nature are all right on visible body parts, such as arms); tuition benefits for officers and their dependents; access to wellness and work-life resources; and the RSA retirement plan. UAPD is also on four-day, 10-hour shifts.

The Tuscaloosa City Council ordinance approving the $10,000 TPD retention bonus also established a task force designed to create a strategic plan for the TPD. Members of the force will include chairs of the council's public safety, administrative and finance committees, and the mayor. The plan will be submitted to the council no later than Aug. 1 of next year.

Members of the Tuscaloosa Police Department's supervisory officers salute the flag during the swearing in for the new police chief Brent Blankley at Tuscaloosa River Market Tuesday, March 3, 2020. [Staff Photo/Gary Cosby Jr.]

Public safety remains the No. 1 priority for the City of Tuscaloosa, Maddox said, in a written release. The data is clear that crime in Tuscaloosa is down thanks to the hard work of our Tuscaloosa Police officers. I applaud the City Council for taking this step to continue to remain competitive as a great place for law enforcement officers to work, and look forward to continuing this discussion with the strategic review task force.

Awareness that TPD staffing is tight has helped urge other city legislation aimed at public safety. At the June 13 council meeting, Blankley pushed for a moratorium on new bars, taverns and gastropubs through the end of the year. With nearly three dozen vacancies, TPD has fewer officers available to work the long, into-the-early-morning hours many bars operate. The moratorium suspending approval of conditional use for new such venues was approved June 27.

"What we can't do is keep spreading our force over and over again, so I'm asking you, I'm pleading with you" to take the pause to reevaluate, Blankley said, at the June 13 meeting. "I'm afraid it's going to create problems in areas that we do not have problems, and that's going to take our police out of your neighborhood."

The city is also in the process of examining whether current bar hours should be changed, in order to avoid the current perceived safety issue of as many as 3,700 patrons pouring out onto streets at the same time.

At the July 19 council administration and policy committee meeting, bar owners, the chief, and others discussed the topic in the Daugherty Conference Room. There was no resolution, and thus no vote; just discussion and the intent to follow through.

How to apply to the Tuscaloosa Police Department

Applications are continuously being accepted. Applicants cannot have any felony convictions, and cannot have any misdemeanor convictions in the previous three years.

All applicants must complete a physical agility test (PAT) and written examination. The PAT includes a strength test, agility course (climbing, pushing, crawling, etc.), 1.5-mile run (15 minutes and 28 seconds), 22 push-ups (one-minute), and 25 sit-ups (one-minute).

All APOST certified and out-of-state certified police officers, upon verification, are exempt from the physical agility test and written exam.

There's a state-run police academy at the Tuscaloosa Airport, which holds a 13-week course of academics, physical tests and practical exercises, which culminate in the APOST certification. On employment by the TPD, all new officers must complete the academy. The hiring process takes about two months.

For more, see www.jointuscaloosapd.com, or contact a recruiter via email at dnichols@tuscaloosa.com, or by calling 205-248-4833.

Reach Mark Hughes Cobb at mark.cobb@tuscaloosanews.com.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Tuscaloosa approves $10,000 bonus in effort to retain police officers
Twitch influencer and streamer Kai Cenat was apprehended by the New York Police Department after a giveaway at Union Square Park attracted thousands of young people, causing chaos across lower Manhattan.

Cenat announced an impromptu meetup and giveaway early Friday, pledging to hand out copies of video games and Playstation 5 consoles.

The event attracted over a thousand young fans and forced police to shut down surrounding streets and re-route nearby subway lines. One person was even seen spraying a fire extinguisher into the crowd.

Individuals in the park began to commit acts of violence towards the police and the public, NYPD Chief Jeffrey Maddrey said at a press conference late Friday.

Police made dozens of arrests and multiple people, including police officers, were injured, Maddrey added.

I personally observed young people walking out with their heads, bleeding from their heads, bleeding from on their faces. I personally observed young people having panic attacks, anxiety attacks, asthma attacks, he continued. People were suffering out here. It was a lot of people, it was uncontrolled, it took us awhile to get it under control, and a lot of young people got hurt.

Video showed Cenat being led into a NYPD vehicle just after 5 p.m. on Friday afternoon. Police arrived at the Union Square event just after 2 p.m., a NYPD spokesperson said.

NYPD confirmed that some arrests were made at the event, but could not confirm the number of arrests or if Cenat was among those apprehended.

The influencer went live while in the center of the crowd. News helicopter footage later showed people hanging off the side of his vehicle when he drove away.

While in the vehicle, he went live again and asked his fans to go home.

Fans also broke into a neighboring construction site and stole objects like paint cans, bottles and rocks and threw them at each other and police, Maddrey said. The gathering was declared an unlawful assembly.

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The department is considering charging Cenat with inciting a riot, the chief said.

We have encountered things like this before, but never to this level of dangerousness where young people would not listen to our commands, he said. They were fighting each other, they were hurting each other, they were turning our attacks on us. We had to defend ourselves and we had to make arrests.

This speaks to the power of social media and to the danger of social media, Maddrey continued. Were not against people having a good time, were not against young people gathering. But it cant be to this level where its dangerous. A lot of people got hurt today.

The streamer currently has about 100,000 subscribers on Twitch, making him the most successful streamer in platform history. He began his online career in 2018, posting comedy videos in and around New York City.

Cenats streams typically react to popular online content, host interviews and conversations with celebrities and show him playing video games.

He won the Streamer of the Year award at the Streamy Awards  the livestream communitys version of the Grammys  in 2022.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
A YouTuber's announcement of a video games console giveaway sparked chaos and a major police response in the heart of New York City on Friday.

A crowd of roughly 2,000 converged at Union Square Park in anticipation of free PlayStation 5 devices from celebrity Twitch streamer Kai Cenat.

Police said the influencer was among a number of people detained and he could be charged with inciting a riot.

People were seen hurling fireworks, bottles and toppling barricades.

The scene outside Union Square station in New York

Subway trains passed the Union Square stop during the incident, the BBC's US partner CBS reported, as police urged people to avoid the area.

People first gathered at around 13:00 local time (17:00 GMT) after Mr Cenat posted on social media - where he has more than 10 million followers and subscribers - that he would be handing out 300 PlayStations.

By 15:00, hundreds had piled on to streets surrounding one of New York City's busiest train stops.

They climbed cars and the train station entrance's roof and threw bottles at responding police officers.

Kai Cenat has millions of followers

New York Police Department declared a "level four" mobilisation, meaning roughly 1,000 officers were deployed to the scene.

During a livestream inside a vehicle near Union Square as the disorder was unfolding, Mr Cenat said: "They're throwing tear gas out there.

"We're not going to do nothing until it's safe. Everybody for themselves, because it's a war out there man."

Mr Cenat was taken into police custody at around 17:00. The crowd was finally dispersed about an hour later.

According to a CBS affiliate, Mr Cenat did not have a permit for the event, which was reportedly a collaboration with Bronx YouTube star Fanum.

Chaos at Union Square on 4 August 2023

NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey said: "We have encountered things like this before, but never to this level of dangerousness, where young people would not listen to our commands."

He added: "You had people walking around with shovels, axes, and other tools from the construction trade.

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"In addition, individuals were also lighting fireworks. They were throwing them towards police, and they were throwing them at each other."

Chaos at Union Square on 4 August 2023

Chaos at Union Square on 4 August 2023

Mr Cenat made headlines in March after he broke the record for attracting the most Twitch subscribers by reaching 300,000.

Twitch is a livestreaming platform, where people typically play video games while chatting to viewers.

In the build-up to breaking the record, Mr Cenat launched a round-the-clock drive to boost his subscribers - chatting, gaming and interviewing guests, as well as sleeping, all on camera - for 30 days.
Twitch streamers Kai Cenat and Fanum invited fans to Union Square on Friday for a real-life stream and giveaway. They promised to hand out gift cards, gaming PC equipment and PlayStation 5s.

But the IRL stream descended into chaos as frenzied fans crowded over the giveaway, shutting down lower Manhattan in the aftermath.

Cenat, who has 6.5 million Twitch followers and 4 million YouTube subscribers, advertised the New York City giveaway in now-deleted tweets. He collaborated with Fanum, who has 1.3 million followers on Twitch and 1.2 million on YouTube. The stream was scheduled for 4:00 p.m. on Friday.

But by 1:10 pm, police responded to a "large gathering" in the park, a New York Police Department spokesperson told TechCrunch. The spokesperson said that "a couple thousand individuals" crowded into the location. By 3:30, videos of the riot began flooding social media. Fights broke out as people in the crowd climbed vehicles and threw traffic cones.

Cenat's stream was cut short. A clip on his Twitch channel shows the crowd shoving into each other.

Manhattan *Riot* 13th Pct. Union Square Park. NYPD calling a level 3 mobilization for a riot. Aviation reporting the crowd is throwing plywood & construction debris at eachother  NYCFireWire (@NYCFireWire) August 4, 2023

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Kai Cenat got nyc looking like france  pic.twitter.com/nJNhutqVmt  WNTED (@wantedbythehoes) August 4, 2023

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kai cenat and fanum got nyc turned into a gta lobby cause wtf is this pic.twitter.com/eex5WpLII2  Sincerely, Venom | NeverBeenRatio'dAgain (@WenomYB) August 4, 2023

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

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i got caught in the kai cenat meetup in union square  i just wanted to buy a modest dress at nordstrom rack  pic.twitter.com/BWtBRbQ0Qg  ir!! (@solarsystern) August 4, 2023

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The NYPD spokesperson said about 1,000 police officers were deployed to the location, and at the time of reporting, there were no injuries. Cenat was pulled from the crowd and taken into police custody, NBC New York reports, but the NYPD spokesperson could not confirm additional arrests to TechCrunch.

That "may change," the spokesperson said, as the NYPD will not have "concrete numbers" until this evening or tomorrow morning. Videos posted online claim that other creators were also arrested during the riot.

THEY GOT DUKE DENNIS IN HANDCUFFS AT THE KAI CENAT MEETUP  pic.twitter.com/zlj2quSzMH  WNTED (@wantedbythehoes) August 4, 2023

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Cenat briefly went live on Instagram from inside a police car, and told the crowd to go home.

The NYPD advised New Yorkers to steer clear of Union Square Park and the surrounding neighborhoods. "Expect a police presence in the area and residual traffic delays," the department said in a tweet.

Public transit was also significantly delayed. The New York Transit Authority announced that eight subway lines will bypass the Union Square stop because of police activity, and urged commuters to take alternate routes.

Cenat posted, and then deleted, a message to his followers in the aftermath of the riot.

"I love you guys to the fullest, you guys are amazing," he wrote in a now-deleted Instagram story, which featured a photo of local news coverage of the riot. "THE LOVE FROM HOME BASE IS REAL. Please be safe."
Bliss was it in that dawn to be online, but to be chatting shit with your mates was very heaven  William Wordsworth

Its been a while since anyone would believe any ascribed quote on Twitter. In my trembling little bubble at least, people have been saying the site is clinically dead for at least two years  although admittedly I do follow a lot of tired, cynical journalists. And let me tell you, they are mad as hell, and they are not going to take it anymore. In real terms, freelance rates are lower than they were in the last millennium. No wonder so many of them decided the only route to solvency was to monetise themselves. Those of us who remained on the Twitter mothership during and after the pandemic watched an exodus of solo shuttlecraft head into the new media business-model troposphere. There they remain in geo-stationary orbit, a flotilla of atomised Substacks.

Everyone seems sort of resigned now to social media becoming less interesting and to us all spending less time on it. Nothing lasts forever. Twitter went from agreeable agora (c.2008) to brittle umbrage mill (c.2012) to enraged existential mobclash (c.2016) to a colourised trench-warfare horror scene. Then, it was sold.

It felt odd. Twitter always had the illusion of being, not publicly owned exactly, but common land at least. It was just there, like the roads and parks and pavements and internet. Suddenly it was worth $44 billion? Oh, but there was worse to come. The self-acknowledged Coolest White Guy on Earth had bought the site. And, excitingly, there was even worse to come. Artificially Intelligent Caligula was about to implement his Plan:

Phase 1: Sack all non-suck-ups and losers.

Phase 2: Wipe 70% off market value (totally cool, hold your nerve bro).

Phase 3: Invite back all the weird angry people previously banned.

Phase 4: Change name from Twitter (lame) to X (super-cool, mysterious).

Phase 5: Introduce frequent ad hurdles to acclimatise users to revenue grooming.

Phase 6: Introduce blue-tick charge to acclimatise users to subscription fracking.

Phase 7: Kick back. Wait for the world to deal with radical vibe shift.

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Its a far cry from those calm, underpopulated early days. Remember being on Twitter then, when it felt like everybody was in a social media sitcom. Silly puns and harmless banter  on one level, it seemed a shortcut to sophistication. There you were at some psychedelic Algonquin Round Table, wisecracking with preposterously accessible famous people as if you belonged there. Bloody hell, Caitlin Moran just retweeted a gag of mine and Ive got 500 new followers! Ooh, Stephen Fry liked something I said and now Ive got people in my timeline saying things like Ahoy old chap! Oh good, Piers Morgans alerted his adoring fans to some crack I made about Test Match Special and now Ive got a dickhead with numbers for a name saying something horrible about a photo of my baby granddaughter.

At another level, it was an infant-school playground with randoms tearing around making friends in a hurry. I started to follow a very wide spectrum of people interested in comedy and music and politics and beyond. I now look back to 2008 and realise that the overwhelming majority of my current non-professional friends were made then, on Twitter. Wed meet occasionally in Soho pubs, and everyone was exactly like the online version of themselves.

Maybe it was possible to build a social media community, but how would that work? By simply assembling a genial cross-section of liberal-Left Twitter? No. In a real community, youre not shouting about Daily Mail headlines in the street. You have no idea what Sheila over the roads views on Self-ID are, or what the builder at number 36 thinks about Just Stop Oil. I mean, you have an inkling. But their precise positions are not articulated in pithy, unequivocal one-liners in block capitals filling their front windows. I dont know what your streets like, but the most weve had around here was a Not My King sign and a missing tortoise poster.

The golden age of Twitter, like that of the fabled pre-war Edwardian version, was simply a long summer with benevolent weather. 2009 was the turning point for me. We still had a Labour government, just. My carefully curated Twitter circle was a model village of civilised people, insulated from the hateful wrongness of the outside world. Then, as now, the one thing Twitter was really good at was breaking news, which was the usual slurry of national misery and international catastrophe, with little shards of personal tragedy.

And, inevitably, tragedy sometimes happens to people you dont like. David Camerons six-year-old son Ivan, who had severe epilepsy and cerebral palsy, died suddenly. Cameron paid a moving tribute to the NHS staff who had cared for him. Prime Minister Gordon Brown (weird, typing that phrase) had himself lost a child, and spoke on behalf of all of us when he offered heartfelt condolences.

Well, nearly all of us. By then Twitter encouraged people to bark their own brutal truth to power. One of the people I followed tweeted with a shrug that the net result of Ivan Camerons death was one fewer potential Tory in the world. I stared and stared at it, trying to discern some reflexive, ironic meta-joke I hadnt quite understood  but no, that was the whole tweet. Childs death, silver lining. I told the person that it was a horrible thing to say. They refused to apologise, and explained that they struggled with tone. Who was the real victim here?

Clearly, if I could be shocked, it was because I had been hypnotised by the geniality of my magic circle. Perhaps following a few arseholes would give me some perspective. After all, we dont like everyone in an actual community, do we? Even people we like wind us up now and then. Maybe mixing a few bad people into my Follows would make this illusory community more real somehow. I started with a few easy ones, including the exotically named Iain Martin, my alternative-reality centre-Right counterpart. I was always getting abused for something hed written; hed got mistaken for me a few times.

But I wanted to see what it would be like if you followed only terrible people. For a month, I went experimentally dark. I followed Westboro Baptist church members, Holocaust deniers, Islamophobes, homophobes, all the phobes, all personally wounded by the injustice of these people just being in their eyeline. Misogynists were everywhere, social media affirming the warning Germaine Greer had sounded half a century earlier  that women have very little idea of just how much men hate them. Now, they had a very keen understanding of exactly how much. There were men, hating them graphically, cruelly, dismissively, in plain sight.

Sometimes, I tried engaging. A few of the hateful people were perfectly civil. I had several conversations with a cheerful woman from Sarah Palins office who had every sympathy for me, living in England under the yoke of Marxism. She told me how the NHS worked (death panels, population control) and how Birmingham was a Sharia state. No guns, that was our problem.

Not many of the other accounts I followed seemed to do light conversation. Confederate Nazis called me the worst thing they could think of (gay) and wished unimaginative ill upon me, with unimaginative swearing. Someone even went to the trouble of opening a Twitter account in my name, simply to post me warnings. The just-for-you revenge Twitter account became a thing. The nastier ones, as always, were targeting women, set up by men obsessed with their former partners. I had my own for a while, bless him. Definitely a him. He followed only me, posted to only me. By the time he sighed his last message, he seemed exhausted by the whole enterprise: I hope that everyone you ever loved is dead.

Its tempting, of course, to project my own weary old mans vibe shift  weltschmerz to ennui  onto the blank, threadbare screen. The renamed site may be under new management, but everyone seems to be doing that Unicode shrug emoji, expecting not a renewal but a gentle unmooring. Approximately nobody is ever going to call it X. Twitter will remain a vital channel for mutual support groups, for campaigners, for people plugging their work. But honestly, in terms of human interaction, it was always faddish. That was its point. It was born to die.

Twitter and I are losing interest in one another; it cant even be bothered to pester me with vaguely relevant ads. Like many others, Im just running down the clock now as it enters its Sunset Boulevard phase. Its slowly leaving me, not the other way round.
Tennessee State Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson are seen during a demonstration in support of gun control laws at Legislative Plaza on April 18, 2023 in Nashville, Tennessee. Credit - Jason KempinGetty Images

The two Black House Democrats in Tennessee's State legislature expelled in the spring for taking part in a gun violence protest officially won reelection Thursday.

State Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearsons April expulsion drew national condemnation; President Joe Biden hosted the duo at the White House later that month and called the move undemocratic. The expulsion by Tennessee's Republican-led legislature briefly disenfranchised 140,000 voters in mostly Black districts.

Both candidates sailed through the primaries and were expected to win Thursday given the heavily-Democratic make-up of their districts. Jones beat Republican candidate Laura Nelson, and Pearson beat independent candidate Jeff Johnston.

The election will not significantly impact the makeup of the Tennessee legislature, where the GOP holds a supermajority in the House.

The whole incident has lit a fire under their supportersand they now no longer seem to represent just their districts. They have truly become a symbol of free speech in the state legislature, Ken Paulson, director of the Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University, says of Jones and Pearson. This entire controversy serves as a reminder to the majority that you know, there are going to be consequences when you violate the most traditional of American norms.

Jones and Pearson had returned to the House after their expulsions when local officials reinstated them on an interim basis later in April. They both ran in this weeks special election to formally win back their positions.

After a March 27 shooting at a Nashville school left six dead, Jones and Pearson led a demonstration on the house floor with a bullhorn. Thousands of protesters had packed the state capitol to protest Tennessee gun laws. State Rep. Gloria Johnson, who is white and joined the two lawmakers in the protest, also faced an expulsion vote but narrowly kept her seat. Collectively, they became known as the Tennessee three.

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Read more: Why Other State Legislatures Might Hesitate to Copy Tennessee's Lawmaker Expulsions

Experts pointed out that state legislatures have less harsh options available to publish lawmakers who break bylaws. Those include fines, formal censure, or losing committee privileges. Republicans disciplinary action may have strengthened Democrats in the long-run, experts say: Pearson and Jones' campaigns have collectively raised more than $2 million.

One of the unanticipated consequences from the Republicans expelling two of them and raising this whole brouhaha is that they made these people much more visible politically and much more secure, says Bruce Oppenheimer, a professor emeritus of political science at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. You cant get statewide identification as a politician that quickly, normally.

Read more: Rep. Zooey Zephyr: My Censure Was an Attack on Democracy

Reps. Justin and Pearson arent the only Democratic state lawmakers to be disciplined this year. In April, Montanas Republican-majority House banned Rep. Zooey Zephyr, the first openly transgender woman elected to Montanas legislature, from in-person debates and voting through a censure. In March, Oklahoma Republicans censured Rep. Mauree Turner, the first openly nonbinary state legislator in U.S. history and first Muslim lawmaker in Oklahoma. But for any legislatures considering future similar measures, All the negative publicity and money flowing in (to disciplined candidates) might be a yellow light, says Richard Briffault, a professor at Columbia Law School.

Write to Sanya Mansoor at sanya.mansoor@time.com.
The U.S. military is readying plans to embark armed Marines and sailors aboard the commercial ships of interested private companies after a spate of vessel seizures by Iranian forces in the Middle East, officials said Thursday, a remarkable escalation that could put Washington and Tehran in direct confrontation.

The effort has not yet received final approval, but it has buy-in from senior Biden administration officials and could commence as soon as this month, said one official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military planning. Marines from Camp Lejeune, N.C., have been flown to Bahrain and received related training, with additional personnel due to arrive soon aboard American warships.

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"We have a cohort on the ground," the official said. He added that the "policy decision has pretty much been made."

A second U.S. official acknowledged the proposal is under discussion at the Pentagon but emphasized that it has not yet been approved.

Asked about the plan, a Pentagon spokesman, Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, said Thursday he had no announcements to make.

A spokesman at the White House, John Kirby, directed questions to the Defense Department while noting the Strait of Hormuz, where some of the incidents have occurred, is a "vital seaway." The United States, he said, has seen threats by Iran to close off this "choke point." The strait connects the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman, and the open ocean beyond. At least 20 percent of the world's crude oil is moved through the strategic waterway.

The effort, first reported by the Associated Press, is among a set of muscular actions being pursued by the Biden administration following a purported rise in attempts by Iran to seize commercial tanker ships.

The first official cited July 5 as an inflection point in U.S. discussions on the issue. Iranian forces tried to commandeer two civilian tanker ships that day, firing on and striking one of them, the Richmond Voyager, in its hull, Navy officials said at the time. Iranian forces fled after the arrival of the USS McFaul, a naval destroyer.

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In another recent incident, warships from the United States and Britain answered a June 4 distress call from a merchant vessel transiting the Strait of Hormuz, where three Iranian fast-attack boats had harassed the civilian ship, Navy officials said. In that case, the McFaul and the Royal Navy frigate HMS Lancaster responded, with the Lancaster launching a helicopter to drive off the Iranian ships.

In May, the oil tanker Niovi was seized by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps while in the strait, the Navy said. The civilian vessel had departed Dubai and was traveling to the United Arab Emirates when a dozen fast-attack craft surrounded it. In April, Iran made a similar seizure of the oil tanker Advantage Sweet.

Such harassment is part of a pattern dating back years and now requires an "elevated response," the first official said.

Other recent steps to deter Iran include the deployment of advanced F-35 jets, along with other fighter aircraft and A-10 attack jets, to the Persian Gulf region. The Pentagon also dispatched an additional Navy destroyer to bolster the presence of American military vessels already in the region.

Iranian officials have criticized the deployments, calling them destabilizing and provocative.

The Marines training for the mission in Bahrain are with the 26th Expeditionary Unit, a naval force that typically deploys aboard Navy warships. Other personnel with the unit are aboard the USS Bataan, USS Carter Hall, and USS Mesa Verde, and could arrive in the Middle East soon. The Bataan and Carter Hall arrived recently in Souda Bay, Greece, for a port visit, the unit said in a Facebook post Thursday.

- - -

The Washington Post's Karen DeYoung and Alex Horton contributed to this report.

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The News

The U.K.s biggest private pension fund is planning to use its clout to pressure companies on climate, while firms that backslide on their climate commitments  particularly those in the fossil fuel sector  are likely to face growing shareholder pressure from increasingly impatient investors, a top official said in an interview.

Things may well get cranked up a bit in terms of engagement, said Innes McKeand, head of strategic equities at the Universities Superannuation Scheme, which has about $95 billion assets under management. Were trying to exert greater pressure to move things in the right direction.

McKeand argued against selling shares in companies with disappointing climate plans, advocating instead using the USSs leverage as a major investor to demand improvements. There was probably a sense of optimism a year or two ago as big emitters first started committing to climate plans, he told me. But more recently, companies such as Shell and BP downgraded their carbon-cutting targets or said they would invest more in high-polluting existing businesses, which gives rise to a bit of frustration.

Prashants view

McKeands remarks represent a growing belief among long-term investors that heavy polluters must quickly begin to decarbonize not only for the good of the planet, but also if they are to stay in business: Theres a fiduciary duty that overlays this all as asset owners, he said. Doing the right thing in terms of our carbon footprint and making more money, I think those two things are perfectly aligned.

As evidence of its own impatience, the USS said in the spring that it would vote against individual directors of companies it held stakes in if the firms did not disclose their climate transition plans.

But McKeands comments also spotlight an emerging gulf between different types of shareholders, particularly those with stakes in fossil fuel companies. (The USS has stakes in ExxonMobil, Chevron, TotalEnergies, Shell, and BP  the latter two of which are among its top 65 equities ranked by investment.) On one side are assessments such as his, that oil and gas corporate leaders must do more to decarbonize and shift away from their extractive businesses. On the other are investors who view these companies as high-dividend stocks whose profitability is crucial for generating high returns for retirees.

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For now, the latter group appear to be winning out when it comes to the oil and gas majors: Shells chief executive is reportedly hyper-focused on his companys share price, and its significant valuation gap compared with U.S. rivals such as Exxon and Chevron. He has  among other things  scaled back his firms energy transition plans.

At the same time, climate activists had a dismal run when it came to putting forward shareholder proposals demanding oil and gas companies better report and reduce their carbon emissions  many of which the USS voted in favor of.

McKeand acknowledged recent votes had not been as successful as hoped, but said signs of backsliding among some companies suggested to him that investors were likely to become increasingly agitated. Were trying to play a long game here.

Know More

The USS has huge clout in financial markets by virtue of its size, and is increasingly using that advantage to pressure fossil fuel companies to decarbonize. It is also beginning to more deeply integrate climate change-related factors into its overall investment decision-making process, McKeand said. The fund is beginning to more systematically analyze how a carbon tax or other penalty for emissions would affect the valuation of companies it holds stakes in, for example, as well as how other ESG-related factors could influence its investments. It is [about] trying to take a more holistic view of the assets youre buying, and take account of what are sometimes some significant risks to the value, he said.

Room for Disagreement

Alongside the two strands of investors in fossil fuel companies  the USS camp of investors pushing for change, and those who want firms to double down on their strengths and maintain high dividends  is a campaign to disinvest in fossil fuels entirely, arguing that any additional capital put towards oil and gas is money not put towards renewables, ultimately hurting the energy transition. Just last month, the USS fought off a lawsuit from two of its members over its continued investment in coal, oil, and gas.

Quotable

Investors could pick the highest emitting asset they own and sell it and reap an enormous carbon dividend. But is that doing the right thing? Were not convinced it is. How do we change the real-world emissions? That sometimes means holding on to assets which look poor from a carbon emissions perspective right now.

 Innes McKeand

The View From South Korea

Pension funds the world over are under pressure to disclose their climate-related risks and investments, with South Koreas mammoth national pension service  which manages assets worth about $750 billion  facing a lawsuit from climate groups last month calling for it to publish the details of recent discussions over whether it should divest from coal.

Notable
Russia is attacking Ukrainian infrastructure in the countrys south with Iranian-made drones, as it believes that such strikes will not lead to a significant escalation, according to an assessment by UK Defence Intelligence.

Source: UK Defence Intelligence update, as reported by European Pravda

Details: UK Intelligence suggests that Russian attacks on Ukrainian ports on the Danube River using Iranian drones in the past two weeks were intended to disrupt international shipping through those ports.

At the same time, the review emphasises that Iranian-made UAVs hit targets 200 metres from the Romanian border, which indicates that the Russian Federation is daring to strike near NATO territory.

UK Defence Intelligence officials believe drone strikes may be perceived by Moscow as carrying a smaller risk of escalation than cruise missiles.

This is due to the fact that Russia considers Iranian-made drones to be quite accurate, and they also carry a much smaller warhead than cruise missiles.

Background:

Russia attacked the port of Izmail on the Danube River, 15 kilometres from the Romanian city of Tulcea, on the morning of 2 August.

Romanian President Klaus Iohannis called the Russian strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure on the Danube, which are taking place in close proximity to Romanian territory, unacceptable.

Ukrainska Pravda is the place where you will find the most up-to-date information about everything related to the war in Ukraine. Follow us on Twitter, support us, or become our patron!
Russia has conducted several drone strikes against Ukrainian ports on the Danube River in an attempt to halt international trading via these ports, the U.K. Defense Ministry reported on Aug. 4.

The U.K. intelligence report emphasized that the Russian kamikaze drones have struck targets as close as 200 meters from the Romanian border, "suggesting that Russia has evolved its risk appetite for conducting strikes near NATO territory."

The ministry said that Russia is choosing to use drones in the vicinity of NATO borders in the belief that they are less likely to trigger an escalation than cruise missiles.

Since its unilateral withdrawal from the Black Sea Grain Initiative, Russia has been systematically targeting Ukraine's ports, agricultural infrastructure, and grain stockpiles.

Russian forces launched Shahed kamikaze drones against Ukrainian Izmail and Reni Danube ports on July 24, sparking condemnations from Bucharest.

Izmail was again targeted on Aug. 2. in a drone strike that caused significant damage to its infrastructure, damaging or destroying a grain elevator, grain warehouses, administrative buildings, a container in one of the loading terminals, and destroying over 40,000 metric tons of grain.

Read also: Ukraine war latest: Kyiv, southern Ukraine ports hit by Russian strikes overnight

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British Scouts have started arriving at a hotel in Seoul after being taken by coach from the campsite

UK Scouts are being moved to hotels in Seoul after an international event in South Korea was hit by extreme heat.

Hundreds have fallen ill at the outdoor World Scout Jamboree, which is attended by more than 40,000 young people from around the world, amid 35C (95F) heat.

The British group of 4,500, the largest in attendance, is moving from a camp site at Saemangeum to Seoul, the Scout Association confirmed.

The US and Singaporean teams are also pulling their members out of the event.

South Korea's government said it was sending 60 more medics and 700 service workers to maintain the toilets and showers, with many countries staying at the site for the next week.

The jamboree, described as the world's largest youth camp, gathers Scouts from around the world every four years, each time in a different country.

Most of those attending are aged between 14 and 18, and 155 countries are represented in South Korea.

This is the first jamboree since the pandemic and is due to run until 12 August.

Coaches of British teenagers have started arriving back in Seoul - about 120 miles (197km) from the campsite - and they will spend the next week in hotels.

The UK Scout Association said young people and adult volunteers had begun "settling into their accommodation" and the Jamboree experience would continue in the city before returning to the UK on 13 August as planned.

The BBC has been told that some scouts are sharing five to a room, while up to 250 are sleeping in the ballroom of one Seoul hotel due to a lack of available accommodation.

A group of scouts and their equipment in a large hotel room

One of the UK team told BBC's Seoul correspondent Jean Mackenzie the decision to pull out was not based just on the extreme heat but was also down to the facilities and food.

They described the campsite toilets as a "health risk" and said children's dietary needs were not being met.

The UK team monitored conditions for a number of days, they said, giving the organisers the opportunity to improve them, but had lost confidence they could keep everyone safe.

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Many of the parents the BBC has spoken to have said their children spent years preparing to attend the event, often raising thousands of pounds to do so.

Thunderstorms are forecast for the region in which it is taking place, while temperatures will feel hotter than 40C due to high humidity, according to AccuWeather.

The World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM), the largest international Scouting organisation, said it had asked the Korean Scout Association, which is hosting the event, to consider ending early.

The movement said that the host "decided to go ahead with the event" and assured participants that it was doing "everything possible to address the issues caused by the heatwave".

UK Scouts, the country's largest scouting organisation, said its volunteers and others had worked to give members "enough food and water... shelter from the unusually hot weather... and toilets and washing facilities appropriate for an event of this scale."

The UK and US teams have the money and resources to relocate thousands of people at short notice but there are plenty of countries at the event which do not.

Buses at the camp site of the 25th World Scout Jamboree in Buan, South Korea

The US is taking its participants to Camp Humphreys army base in Pyeongtaek, citing safety concerns.

Parents of children at the campsite told the BBC that no activities were taking place due to the heat.

Others have defended the event, saying their children were disappointed that they had to leave.

One mother from north-east England said what was meant to be a "great life experience" had turned into a "survival mission" for her 16-year-old daughter.

"She knew it would be hot but not as hot as it is. They cannot cool down, their tents are too hot," said the mother, who did not wish to be named.

Her daughter had told her that the showers and toilets were "appalling and unsafe", with "floating rubbish, plasters and hair" blocking drains.

Another parent said the situation was so bad they put their daughter on a plane back to the UK on Friday.

However Peter Naldrett told the BBC that his two children were "frustrated, upset and angry" about having to leave.

"My kids have said that the toilets are a bit grim but it's manageable," he said.

Shannon Swaffer, whose 15-year-old daughter is at the event, said the children were "all devastated that it's ended early".

"By all accounts the heat is intolerable and adults and kids alike can't continue there," she said, adding that her family were "lifelong Scout people" and that the leaders had been "absolutely phenomenal".

Rebecca Coldwell said her 17-year-old daughter had received "outstanding" medical care for an infected wound, and that she was "heartbroken" about having to move to hotels.

Kristin Sayers from Virginia in the US, paid $6,500 (5,100) for her 17-year-old son Corey to go to the jamboree but said his dream had turned into a "nightmare".

"He's very aware of how much money that is and the sacrifices we made as a family to send him. We could've done so much with that money," she told Reuters news agency.

Some Scouts from Spain, Belgium, and France, told the BBC they were happy to still be at the campsite and disappointed the British had left.

Blanca, a 16-year-old from Spain, said her sister was taken to hospital on the first day because of the heat, but she has recovered and so have the conditions.

"Now the situation is better. They give us cold water and fans and let us go inside places to get shade," she said.

"I am sad the British didn't stay. They're really cool people and I enjoyed spending time with them," she added.

South Korea's authorities have issued the country's highest hot weather warning for the first time in four years.

South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo announced that aid was being sent to the site amid criticism from some that authorities failed to plan for extreme heat.

"The government will use all its resources to ensure that the jamboree can end safely amid the heatwave," he said.

Air-conditioned buses, water trucks and medical staff were being dispatched.

Additional reporting by Joe Inwood and Oliver Slow

Map showing the World Scout Jamboree camp

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Are you or your relative at the World Scout Jamboree? Email your experiences: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.

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(Reuters) - Ukrainian military officials said on Friday that Kyiv was persistently working to retake land near the shattered eastern city of Bakhmut while Russian forces were pouring in additional troops in a bid to stop Kyiv's advances.

"The Russians are throwing huge numbers of forces into the Bakhmut area," Ukraine's Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar told national television. "It has been important for us to establish ourselves on dominant heights in these areas."

Maliar said Ukrainian forces were advancing "slowly but confidently" south of Bakhmut while securing control of positions north of the city. "An extremely fierce battle is going on there."

Accounts from Moscow said Russian troops had repelled eight Ukrainian attempts to advance in the east and inflicted a defeat near Bakhmut.

Ukraine launched a counteroffensive in June focusing on moving southward to the Sea of Azov and severing a Russian land bridge between the occupied east and the annexed Crimean peninsula.

Kyiv, in the 18th month of Russia's invasion, is also determined to recapture land around Bakhmut, seized by Russian forces in May after months of battles.

Writing on the Telegram messaging app, Maliar added: "The enemy is desperately trying to stop our offensive."

Ukrainian forces, she said, were also working to contain intensified Russian attacks on areas farther north in Donestsk region, around Kupiansk and Lyman.

In his nightly video message, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said three of the country's top generals had joined him at a meeting of the command on Friday. He did not provide

details on the situation in frontline sectors.

Much of the fighting has focused on villages on Bakhmut's southern fringes. One prominent commander who comments on the front, Maksym Zhorin, said Ukrainian forces had secured partial control of the key village of Klishchiivka.

There was no official statement regarding his report.

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Russia's Defence Ministry, in its daily synopsis of frontline activity, said Russian forces had made air and artillery strikes on Klishchiivka and surrounding towns, knocking out Ukrainian vehicles and equipment.

The report also said Russian forces had pressed offensive action on the southern front and hit Ukrainian personnel and equipment engaged in their drive southward.

(Reporting by Ron Popeski and Nick Starkov; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Hanna Malyar said that the Defense Forces managed to break through the first line of defense of the Russian occupiers in southern Ukraine.

Ukrainian forces have breached the first line of Russian defenses in southern Ukraine in some areas of the front, Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar told Ukrainian TV broadcasters on Aug. 4.

However, she indicated that it doesnt mean that Ukrainian troops can now pour into the enemy rear unobstructed.

Read also: Russia escalates tensions around Zaporizhzhya NPP, risk of terror attack remains  Malyar

Our forces in the south have already broken through the first line of defense and moved to an intermediate one, said Maliar.

Read also: Belarus to extend Polish border fortifications

There, they encounter the fact that the enemy has actually built engineering fortifications on the main dominant heights. This certainly complicates the movement of our forces and the combat operations themselves.

Read also: US to supply 155mm shells to Ukraine via Bulgaria, South Korea, possibly Japan - FT

She added that Moscow already had to commit reserves from its professional troops to try and plug the holes in the frontlines in eastern and southern Ukraine.

Citing unnamed Western officials, The New York Times reported on Aug. 2 that Russian forces on the frontlines in Ukraine are overwhelmed and facing numerous challenges. U.S. officials claimed that Ukrainian forces are clearing paths through Russian lines of defense, starting to push enemy troops and artillery back.

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal

After Russia blew up the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Plant dam in June, the resulting flooding wiped out vast quantities of crops in southern Ukraine. Ukrainian PM Denys Shmyhal announced on Aug. 4 that farmers will be eligible for compensation from the government.

Farmers will be able to get UAH 3,300 ($90) per hectare of farmable land flooded, up to UAH 100,000 ($2,700).

Read also: Thirty explosions rock occupied Kakhovka, Russians suffer significant losses  mayor's adviser

The cabinet is allocating UAH 271 million ($7.3 million) to the corresponding fund and transferring it to Kherson and Mykolayiv regional administrations.

On June 6, Russian forces blew up the Kakhovka HEP, which they had controlled for over a year. Cities and villages downstream on the Dnipro River were completely or partially flooded, and more than 75 people died.

Read also: Romanian President calls Russias attack on Odesa Oblast a war crime

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the dams destruction the largest man-made environmental disaster in Europe in decades.

The European Parliament strongly condemned the act, calling it a Russian war crime.

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Ukraine will repurpose the operation of its air defence in order to strengthen the protection of the port infrastructure and be able to repel Russian attacks.

Source: Natalia Humeniuk, spokesperson of the Pivden (South) Operational Command, in the broadcast of Radio Liberty

Quote: "Concerning the future protection, we continue to repurpose the air defence. The work is ongoing on all levels, we cooperate with our international partners as well to strengthen our defence with air anti-missile assets capable of counteracting those types of armament that the Russians are using on this [southern  ed.] front."

Details: Humeniuk added that since the suspension of the grain deal the Russians have launched attacks on the port infrastructure of Ukraines south seven times.

She stressed that all Ukrainian ports are ready to load the grain within the framework of the Grain Initiative if this issue is resolved politically.

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Ukrainian soldiers man an artillery piece on the front line

Ukrainian forces are facing a tough fight during its summer counter-offensive, as invading Russian forces had had time to build up formidable defensive lines in the occupied parts of southern and eastern Ukraine, a Pentagon official has said.

Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Brigadier General Pat Ryder at a briefing on Aug. 3 also said blame for the war lay with Moscow.

"The problem is that Russia invaded its democratic neighbor unprovoked and has killed thousands and thousands of innocent people, Ryder said.

He said the Russian army had had time to build defenses in the occupied territories, Ukraine is entering into battle against them, and it would be a difficult battle.

And so there are no illusions that this  this fight that Ukraine finds itself in is an easy fight. And so again, Russia has had time to build up the defenses along their occupied areas and Ukraine is taking the fight to them and it's going to be a tough fight.

Read also: Ukraine can deploy 75% more forces for counteroffensive  retired officer

But, you know, I would just go back and highlight, first of all, we've been training the Ukrainians since 2014, Ryder said.

Even after the war started, after Russia's invasion, the international community and United States have continued to help train Ukrainian forces. We've literally met almost every single month since the invasion with international allies and partners, over 50, to highlight Ukraine's needs and rush aid, security assistance to them.

Ryder said that is why the United States is confident that the Ukrainian Armed Forces have significant combat capability and that they intend to use it whenever and wherever they choose to defend their country and regain sovereign territory.

Counter-offensive of the Armed Forces: Latest news

Earlier, U.S. newspaper the New York Times reported that a new phase of Ukraine's counter-offensive had begun, the main blow of which fell on the southeast, where the fighters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are gradually advancing through minefields and while under attack by Russian aircraft.

Story continues

Read also: Russian forces are overwhelmed as Ukraine steps up counteroffensive

According to the UK newspaper the Financial Times, Ukraine changed tactics after the "chaos" of the beginning of the counter-offensive, now its armed forces have focused their attention on striking Russian defensive positions with heavy artillery, and are achieving tangible results.

The day before, the Ukrainian militarys General Staff announced that the Armed Forces of Ukraine are preventing the Russians from recapturing lost positions northeast of the village of Robotyne, 20 kilometers from the key strategic town of Tokmak, and are also having success near Staromayorskyi.

The fighting in the area continues, the General Staff said.

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
A Ukrainian sea drone slams into a Russian warship in Novorossiysk on August 4, 2023. Pravda Gerashchenko

Ukraine said it hit a Russian warship in the Black Sea in an attack that involved sea drones.

Russia said it thwarted the attack, but videos posted to social media suggest otherwise.

Dashcam footage posted by a Ukrainian official shows a sea drone slamming into the side of the ship.

Ukraine appears to have hit a Russian warship in an audacious attack involving sea drones deployed in the Black Sea.

Footage shared on social media Friday appears to show explosions at the Russian port of Novorossiysk.

A Ukrainian source told CNN a sea drone with 450 kilograms of TNT had attacked a Russian ship that had around 100 servicemen aboard.

It is the first time that a commercial Russian port has been targeted by Ukrainian drones since the start of the war 18 months ago.

Novorossiysk is far from Ukrainian-held territory, on the far side of occupied Crimea, making it a tall order for the Ukrainians to reach so far with an attack.

Russian officials acknowledged that an attack took place, though they claimed it had done no damage.

"Tonight, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, with the use of two unmanned sea boats, attempted an attack on the Novorossiysk naval base of the Russian Armed Forces," the Russian Ministry of Defense said on Telegram on Friday, according to a translation by AFP.

It went on to say that other Russian ships destroyed the drones and that the attack was thwarted. But videos posted by Ukrainian officials on social media suggest otherwise.

In dashcam footage tweeted out by Anton Gerashchenko, an advisor to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, a Ukrainian sea drone is seen approaching the Russian warship and slamming into its side, before the signal cuts off.

A video taken later seems to show the ship appears to be badly damaged post-attack, listing to one side as it is towed away.

It has not been confirmed what ship it was, though a source with the Security Service of Ukraine identified it to Reuters as the Olenegorkiy Gornya, a large landing ship that has about 100 crew members.

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"As a result of the attack, the Olenegorsky Gornyak received a serious breach and currently cannot conduct its combat missions," the source told Reuters.

Insider could not verify the videos. Ukrainian officials have not commented on the attack, which is in keeping with their security policy.

Veniamin Kondratiev, the governor of the Krasnodar region where the base is located said there were no casualties.

The statement comes as Ukrainian attacks on Russia's Black Sea Fleet have increased in recent weeks.

Earlier this week, Russia's Ministry of Defense said it foiled another drone attack that was targeting patrol boats southwest of Sevastopol, according to AFP. A similar attack was repelled a week earlier.

Last week, Ukraine showed off its new sea drone for the first time, which packs hundreds of pounds of explosives and is faster than anything in the Black Sea, CNN reported.

A drone pilot codenamed "Shark" told CNN that the drone had been successful in stifling the Russian Navy's movements. It is unclear if it was this specific drone is responsible for the attack on Friday.

Read the original article on Business Insider
A screen grab captured from a video of the more than 20 Russian navy ships starting a military drill in the Black Sea, in Russia, in January 2022. The ship in this picture is not the ship in this story. Russian Defence Ministry / Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Ukraine attacked a Russian warship using a sea drone on Friday, videos showed.

The country is focusing on building bigger and more powerful sea drones, an expert tells Insider.

It wants to "get more explosives on board" and ramp up its attacks on flagships, he says.

Ukraine this morning used a sea drone to attack a Russian warship in the Black Sea, videos circulating on social media showed.

The attack on the vessel Olenegorsky Gornyak at the Russian port of Novorossiysk was carried out by a drone with about 450 kilograms of TNT, a Ukrainian source told CNN.

But this may only be the start. Stephen Wright, a drone-technology developer, told Insider that Ukraine was preparing to step up its attacks on the Russian Black Sea fleet with larger, more powerful drones.

In dashcam footage tweeted Friday by Anton Gerashchenko, an advisor to the minister of internal affairs in Ukraine, a drone is seen heading straight toward the warship before slamming into its side.

Even though Russia claimed it thwarted the attack, additional footage taken later showed the ship was badly damaged. Ukrainian intelligence services claimed they put it out of action.

Wright told Insider that the drone looked similar to a new naval drone that Ukraine revealed to CNN last week, which was described as being faster than anything in the Black Sea and capable of hitting targets 500 miles away.

Since launching one of its first large-scale drone attacks on the Russian-occupied Sevastopol Naval Base last October, the sea drones that Ukraine is designing were "actually getting bigger," he added.

"Why have they got bigger? Obviously, to get more explosives on board," Wright said, adding that Ukraine "would clearly like" to take out another target like the Moskva  the flagship of the Russian Navy's Black Sea Fleet, which sank in April last year after it was hit by Ukrainian missiles.

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"I mean, that's clearly where they're going. They want to take out one of these," Wright said.

He said that 450 kilograms of TNT was a "huge amount" for a drone to carry: "To put it in context, estimates for the explosives being carried by the airborne strikes on Moscow are in the 5-10kg range."

A Ukrainian sea drone was also used last month to successfully damage the Kerch Bridge, CNN reported. The bridge was a key supply route between Russia and Crimea, which was annexed by Moscow in 2014.

Correction: August 4, 2023  An earlier version of this story misspelled the name of the Russian warship that was attacked by the Ukrainian sea drone. It was Olenegorsky Gornyak.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Ukraine has returned the bodies of 44 fallen Ukrainian soldiers from the occupied territories, the Reintegration Ministry reported on Aug. 4.

The transfer was reportedly carried out by the Office of the Commissioner for Missing Persons, Ukrainian law enforcement, the military, the Joint Center of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), and international organizations.

Upon identification, the bodies of the fallen soldiers will be returned to their relatives for burial.

On July 14, Kyiv retrieved the bodies of 62 fallen service personnel.

Read also: Torturing people is fun for them. 16-year-old Ukrainian recalls his 3 months in Russian captivity

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(Photo : MARVIN RECINOS/AFP via Getty Images)

The disgraced former mayor of College Park, Maryland pled guilty to 140 charges of child pornography in return for a 30-year jail term.



The former mayor of College Park, Maryland, Patrick Wojahn, has recently pleaded guilty to 140 charges related to child pornography possession and distribution.

Having served as the mayor for nearly eight years, Wojahn's resignation and subsequent arrest in March sent shockwaves through the community, as per CNN.

College Park Mayor Pleads Guilty to Child Pornography Charges

The charges include 60 counts of distributing child pornography, 40 counts of possession of child pornography, and 40 counts of possession with the intention to distribute.

As he awaits sentencing in November, the case highlights the importance of protecting children from exploitation and the profound betrayal of public trust by a person in a position of authority.

The case against Patrick Wojahn began to unfold in February after authorities received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, indicating child pornography had been distributed within Prince George's County.

The subsequent investigation led to Wojahn, shocking the community and tarnishing the reputation of a prominent figure who once held the trust of College Park residents.

In a statement, Aisha N. Braveboy, the state's attorney for Prince George's County, expressed her relief that Wojahn had taken responsibility for his actions and the heinous crimes he committed.

The gravity of the charges underscores the vulnerability of children and the need for stringent measures to protect them from such predators.

Before his arrest, Patrick Wojahn had enjoyed a long political career, having been a council member in College Park since 2007 before becoming the mayor in 2015.

Residents had placed their faith and support in him, believing he would act in their best interests and uphold the values of the community. However, his guilty plea has shown a dark and disgraceful side that betrayed the trust placed in him.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children played a vital role in initiating the investigation that led to Wojahn's arrest, highlighting the significance of organizations and hotlines dedicated to detecting and combating child exploitation.

Communities and individuals must remain vigilant and actively participate in creating a safe environment for children, according to New york Times.

Read Also: Pope Francis, Portugal World Youth Day Visit 2023: Catholic Church Leader to Meet With Sex Abuse Victims

Florida Woman Faces Multiple Charges Involving Child Pornography and Bestiality

Meanwhile, A shocking case in Brandon, Florida, has left the community in disbelief as an 18-year-old woman, Emoree Romero, faces a barrage of charges related to child pornography and bestiality.

The investigation, triggered by a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, led the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office to uncover disturbing images and videos on Romero's phone.

The authorities swiftly arrested her and have charged her with a significant number of offenses, highlighting the importance of vigilance in protecting vulnerable individuals from such heinous crimes.

The unsettling chain of events began when the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children alerted the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office on July 3, 2023, about the uploading of child pornography on Lido Drive in Brandon.

The dedicated investigators from the sheriff's office's Internet Predator Unit sprang into action to track down the source of the tip, leading them to 18-year-old Emoree Romero.

On the same day of being contacted by detectives, Romero allegedly allowed them to search her phone. What they found was truly horrifying-multiple files depicting sexual acts between Romero and her pet dog.

Recognizing the severity of the situation, the Internet Predator Unit obtained a search warrant to delve even deeper into the phone's contents. The subsequent search unearthed more disturbing images and videos, this time involving bestiality and additional child pornography.

The evidence gathered was enough to obtain an arrest warrant for Romero, who turned herself in to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office on July 27. Emoree Romero now faces a staggering number of charges related to her abhorrent actions.

Among the charges are 100 counts of filming, distributing, or possessing an image or video of sexual activity with an animal, 49 counts of engaging in sexual contact with an animal, two counts of child pornography possession, and one count of unlawful use of a two-way communication device.

The seriousness and extent of the charges demonstrate the gravity of the alleged crimes and the need for swift and decisive action to bring the perpetrator to justice. Such investigations take a tremendous toll on law enforcement personnel, particularly those assigned to cases involving child exploitation and bestiality.

The detectives involved in the Romero case were exposed to deeply distressing and traumatic material during their efforts to uncover the truth. Sheriff Chad Chronister expressed his pride in his team's dedication to ensuring justice for the victims despite the emotional challenges they faced.

Amid the unfolding investigation, it is essential to remember the victims of these disturbing crimes. Child pornography and bestiality are abhorrent acts that inflict significant harm on those involved. The authorities and the community stand united in their support for the victims, vowing to do everything possible to bring justice to those harmed and ensure their safety, Fox News reported.

Related Article: Russia's Recruitment Centers Targeted in New Attacks, Multiple Reports Say

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Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu visits the advanced command post of the group of troops 'Center' in the zone of the a 'Special Military Operation' in an unknown location

Ukraines security service accused Russia of preparing to stage a false flag attack at an oil refinery in Belarus as part of an effort to draw Minsk into the war.

The attack on the Mozyr refinery would be blamed on Ukrainian saboteurs but carried out by military and intelligence forces sent by Moscow to Belarus disguised as exiled Wagner mercenaries, it said in a statement on the Telegram app.

Russia plans to accuse Ukraine of what they have done in order to try once again to draw Minsk into the full-scale war against our state, the security service said in a statement, without providing evidence.

It claimed its assertions were based on information obtained from several sources, including a captured Russian serviceman.

Belarus is a close Kremlin ally and Moscows forces used Belarusian territory as a staging ground for their abortive drive towards the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv at the beginning of their February 2022 full-scale invasion.

06:58 PM BST

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05:54 PM BST

Ukraine: 'Unidentified floating objects' to blame for Russian warship strike

Unidentified floating objects were to blame for an attack that blew a large hole in the side of a warship in its home port in the Black Sea on Friday, Ukrainian officials have said.

In Moscow, there are unidentified flying objects. Here we have unidentified floating objects that have obviously damaged this landing ship, Andriy Yusov, a spokesman for Ukraines defence intelligence agency, told Ukrainian television, in a tongue-in-cheek comment on the incident.

The Olenegorsky Gornyak, a 360-foot-long landing vessel, reportedly suffered a serious breach from a Ukrainian naval drone strike.

Grainy footage from a camera mounted on the drone appeared to shows it slamming into the port side of the ship.

It is the first time the Ukrainian navy has projected carried out an attack so far from the countrys shores.

Story continues

Russias defence ministry earlier claimed it had repelled the drones, before further footage emerged showing the vessel under tow and leaning heavily to one side, having taken on water.

03:57 PM BST

Navalny sentence 'pure injustice,' says Germany

Annalena Baerbock, the German Foreign Minister, has condemned the Russian court ruling sentencing Alexei Navalny to 19 additional years behind bars on extremism charges.

Russias arbitrary justice system imprisoning Alexei Navalny for another 19 years is pure injustice, she said.

Putin fears nothing more than standing up against war and corruption and for democracy - even from a prison cell. He will not silence critical voices with this.

03:40 PM BST

Trump rival Chris Christie visits Ukraine

Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie visited Ukraine on Friday and met President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Once an ally of Donald Trump, Mr Christie is now challenging the former president for their partys 2024 nomination - and drawing a stark contrast on Ukraine with the front-runner.

The former New Jersey governor met with Mr Zelensky at the presidential palace after visiting a mass grave in Bucha, a site where Ukraine accuses Russian troops of having committed atrocities, and touring damage in Iprin. Both towns were retaken by Ukrainian forces in 2022 as Russian invasion forces abandoned their attempt to seize Kyiv, the capital.

Mr Christie also toured a child protection center in Kyiv.

His message during Fridays visit was clear: the US supports and should continue to support Ukraine.

That stance sets Mr Christie apart from some of the other candidates including Trump, who has been sharply critical of U.S. support of the war.

03:25 PM BST

Russian court sentences Navalny to 19 years in prison

A Russian court convicted imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny of extremism changes and sentenced him to 19 years in prison Friday.

Mr Navalny is already serving a nine-year term on a variety of charges that he says were politically motivated.

The authorities previously sentenced him to two-and-a-half years in prison for parole violations and then to another nine years on charges of fraud and contempt of court. It wasnt immediately clear if he will serve the new sentence concurrently with those.

02:55 PM BST

Pictured: Life goes on in Kyiv

People perform Ukrainian folk dance at Saint Volodymyr Hill in downtown Kyiv - ROMAN PILIPEY/AFP

02:35 PM BST

RAF has intercepted 50 Russian jets in Baltic airspace

The RAF intercepted 50 Russian fighter jets while policing Baltic airspace, Danielle Sheridan writes.

Over the course of four months RAF fighter pilots intercepted the Russian aircrafts in Estonia, which shares a 183-mile border with Russia, according to the Ministry of Defence.

Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, said British forces had been working round-the-clock alongside our allies to keep Europes skies safe.

Read the full story here.

02:21 PM BST

Where has Ukraine targeted its naval drones?

Naval drones have become a key tool in Ukraines arsenal, proving crucial in its strikes against Russian targets.

Earlier today, an unmanned boat packed with TNT crashed into a Russian warship in Novorossiysk, reportedly blowing a hole in its hull.

Last month, two sea drones were launched at the Kerch Bridge linking Crimea to mainland Russia. The explosion buckled a section of road and meant the vital supply route was briefly closed.

Ukraine has not officially claimed credit for the attacks, but media outlets have been briefed they were coordinated by its navy and security services.

02:05 PM BST

Russia claims 'advantage' in Kharkiv offensive

Russian forces claim to have seized advantageous positions as it attempts to advance towards Kupyansk in Kharkiv.

Assault detachments of the Zapad Group of Forces continued offensives actions on a wide front and have taken more advantageous positions close to Olshana, Petropavlovka and Tokarevka, Russias defence ministry said.

Ukrainian officials have said Russia is attempting to push towards Kupyansk, but insist it has been unsuccessful.

01:46 PM BST

Nuclear power station 'free of mines and explosives'

A Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station is free of explosives, the UN nuclear watchdog has said after it was finally granted access.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had asked to inspect the site a month ago when Kyiv said objects resembling explosives had been placed on top of buildings.

It said in a statement: Experts have observed no mines or explosives on the rooftops of Unit 3 and Unit 4 reactor buildings and the turbine halls... after having been given access yesterday afternoon.

Rafael Grossi, the IAEA head, added: I welcome the news that IAEA experts have finally been granted this additional access at the site.

01:34 PM BST

Ukraine 'entrenched' despite Russian offensives

Kyivs forces are entrenched on the eastern front and are facing down Russian assaults despite heavy fighting, according to the Ukrainian general staff.

It said in a statement: The invaders suffer significant losses in the east and do not have any successes... [we] continue to deter the advance of Russian troops in the Kupyansk and Lyman directions.

On the Bakhmut direciton, the Defence Forces are entrenched at the achieved boundaries. Heavy fighting continues.

01:25 PM BST

Watch: Russia 'shoots down Ukrainian drone' in Black Sea port

01:06 PM BST

Ukraine 'tiring' as it holds on to eastern territory

Ukraine is enduring a difficult and tiring struggle in the east as Russia launches multiple offensives to claw back territory lost last year.

Deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said: Our troops are completely repelling enemy attacks in the Kupyansk, Lyman and Swatisk directions enemy shelling has increased.

In addition, in the Kupyansk direction, the enemy set himself the goal of returning the territories lost last fall.

This is a difficult and tiring struggle, but our defenders do not give the enemy the opportunity to implement his plans.

12:57 PM BST

Counteroffensive faces 'fierce resistance' as it pushes south

Russia is fiercely resisting Ukraines counteroffensive in the south as troops attempt to push through to Melitopol and Berdyansk.

Hanna Maliar, a Ukrainian defence minister, said: In addition to continuous mining, the enemy has equipped protected concrete engineering fortifications on key commanding heights.

In such difficult conditions, our troops are moving forward gradually, but very persistently.

12:44 PM BST

Watch: Russian defence minister inspects captured tank 'trophy'

12:35 PM BST

Ukraine 'hitting Russia hard' with cluster bombs

Ukraine is intensifying cluster munition strikes as it seeks to regain ground in eastern Ukraine, a Russian soldier has claimed.

The individual, who uses the call sign Pedagogue, said the controversial weapons were being used near the village of Vuhledar, Donetsk.

He told Russias Tass news agency: They had not used cluster munitions for long and now they are actively employing them, hitting hard.

There have also appeared a large number of kamikaze drones and they use them everywhere.

12:29 PM BST

Ukraine repels Russian advance in Donetsk

Russian forces are suffering significant losses as they attempt to seize two cities in Donetsk, Ukraines general staff has said.

A spokesman for the armed forces said troops had repelled Russian attacks south of Bakhmut at Avdiivka and Marinka.

He continued: The enemy conducted unsuccessful offensive actions in the northern and central parts of Marinka... [and] north and southeast of Avdiivka.

The enemy is suffering significant losses in personnel, weapons and equipment.

12:16 PM BST

Watch: British Army trains Ukrainians to use Challenger 2 tanks

 We went behind the scenes to show you how the British Army spent several weeks training Ukrainian tank crews to operate and fight with the mighty Challenger 2.



 Watch the full video on YouTube here: https://t.co/7rf98opTxx



 #StandWithUkraine  pic.twitter.com/7t37q9fSzF  Ministry of Defence  (@DefenceHQ) August 4, 2023

12:11 PM BST

'We need US cooperation to bring back grain deal', says Russia

Russia has said it needs action, not words, from the US to revive the Black Sea export deal it withdrew from last month.

Moscow declined to renew the agreement, which guaranteed safe passage for Ukrainian grain, claiming not enough had been done to remove obstacles to its own food and fertiliser exports.

A Kremlin spokesman said: If they want to contribute to fulfilling the part of the grain deal that is due to Russia, the Americans must fulfil it, not promise that they will think about it.

As soon as this is done, this deal will immediately be renewed.

12:02 PM BST

Zelensky adviser: Drones 'destroying' Black Sea Fleet

Drones can put an end to Russias domination of the Black Sea and restore international law, an adviser to Volodymyr Zelensky has said.

It comes after a suspected Ukrainian attack on the Russian naval base of Novorossiysk caused serious damage to a Soviet-era warship.

Mykhailo Podolyak said: Drones are changing the rules of the game, returning the waters to full-fledged foreign jurisdiction, and ultimately destroying the value of the Russian fleet. In fact, they are returning everyone to the international law of the sea.

The presence of the Russian fleet in the Black Sea, and with it - Moscows traditional blackmail will be put to an end.

What is happening in the Black Sea? #Drones are changing the rules of the game, returning the waters to full-fledged foreign jurisdiction, and ultimately destroying the value of the Russian fleet. In fact, they are returning everyone to the international law of the sea...    (@Podolyak_M) August 4, 2023

11:47 AM BST

Kyiv official detained after death of Zelensky ally

A Ukrainian official has been detained for two months following the death of a key ally of Volodymyr Zelensky, according to state media.

Interior minister Denys Monastyrskyy was among the 14 people killed when his helicopter crashed near a nursery in January.

Ivan Korobka, head of Kyivs aviation department, was found guilty of negligence and violating safety rules after allowing the flight to go ahead, Suspilne reports.

The helicopter was apparently not designed for such flights and should not have been flown in poor weather conditions.

11:32 AM BST

Russia 'planning to bring Belarus into Ukraine war'

Russia is planning a false flag attack at an oil refinery in Belarus to draw its ally into the war against Ukraine, according to reports.

The SBU, Ukraines security service, claimed the Russia had sent army and intelligence personnel into Belarus undercover as members of the Wagner group for the mission.

They apparently plan to attack the Mozyr Oil Refinery disguised as Ukrainian saboteurs, drawing Minsk into a full-scale war.

The SBU said the intelligence was based on information from several sources, including a captured Russian serviceman.

11:12 AM BST

Russia 'spending a third of budget on defence' as war drags on

Russia has doubled its yearly defence spending to more than $100bn (79bn) as the war in Ukraine puts a growing strain on its finances.

In the first half of 2023, Russia spent 600 billion roubles more than the 4.98 trillion roubles it had originally targeted for the whole year.

Defence spending in the first six months of 2023 amounted to 5.59 trillion roubles, a third of all public expenditure.

11:01 AM BST

Watch: Naval drone smashes into Russian ship

10:53 AM BST

West not giving Ukraine the tools to repair tanks, claims Russia

Ukraine is unable to repair its Western armoured vehicles because they have not been provided with the proper equipment, Russias defence minister has been told.

Sergie Shoigu heard the account from a Russian soldier as he inspected a Swedish tank on the front line, apparently seized after being hit by a shot from a grenade launcher.

The defence ministry said in a statement: During the inspection of trophy equipment, Lieutenant General Andrei Mordvichev drew the attention... to the lack of spare parts, tools and accessories in the armoured vehicles.

[This] makes it impossible to carry out operational repairs in the areas of combat operations.

10:38 AM BST

Pictured: The Soviet-era landing ship damaged by drone attack

Russia's Olenegorsky Gornyak appears to be listing to port after an alleged Ukrainian attack

A sea drone shows the silhouette of Olenegorsky Gornyak ship near the port of Novorossiysk, Russia - VIDEO OBTAINED BY REUTERS

10:30 AM BST

Sochi amps up security after Novorossiysk drone strike

The Russian port of Sochi is fortifying its security after an alleged Ukrainian attack on Novorossiysk damaged a large warship.

Alexey Kopaygorodskiy, the citys mayor said: During the operational meeting with the heads of law enforcement agencies, they discussed a set of additional measures to increase the level of security.

The interdepartmental working group is improving protection measures, taking into account the experience of other Black Sea port cities. Strengthening the security perimeter of the seaport.

It follows repeated Russian airstrikes on Ukrainian Black Sea ports, such as Odesa and Mykolaiv. Officials accuse Moscow of targeting grain terminals.

10:22 AM BST

EU bans drones sales to Belarus in attempt to starve Russian war machine

The European Union on Thursday banned the sale of drones to Belarus in an attempt to starve the Russian war machine of equipment, Joe Barnes writes.

Josep Borrell, the EUs top foreign diplomat, said the measures were taken against the Belarusian regime as an accomplice in Russias illegal and unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine.

Additional measures will also block the sale of aircraft engines, semiconductors, camera equipment and firearms that could find their way to Russia via Minsk, the capital of Belarus.

Read the full story here.

10:07 AM BST

Ukraine strikes Black Sea naval base

Ukraine attacked a Russian naval base in Novorossiysk with two maritime drones last night, the Kremlin has said.

Russias defence ministry reported: The unmanned boats were detected and destroyed by fire from the standard weapons of Russian ships guarding the outer harbour of the naval base.

The strike did not cause any damage or casualties, according to Veniamin Kondratyev, governor of South Russias Krasnodar region. However, sources suggested a Russian warship suffered serious damage.

Social media users heard explosions and gunfire near Novorossiysk this morning. If confirmed it would be the first Ukrainian attack on one of Russias main commercial ports.

09:57 AM BST

Russia 'inventing its own reality' after claiming it repelled drones

Russias military leadership has been accused of creating their own reality instead of tackling the threat posed by Ukrainian drones.

Military Informant, a Russian Telegram channel with more than half a million subscribers, appeared to hit out at the defence ministry after it claimed the strike had been repelled. Videos published on social media contradict the official account.

It said: If, after several attacks on ships and the base in Sevastopol, they finally began to take actions to prevent future attacks, then in neighbouring Novorossiysk... they didnt even really try.

It is always easier to not to deal with real things, but to invent your own reality, despite the fact that there are videos from unamnned enemy boats and footage of local residents from the shore.

09:45 AM BST

Source: Russian ship towed away after airstrike

A Russian navy vessel was left unable to move following a Ukrainian drone strike and had to be towed ashore, it has been claimed.

The source did not name the vessel, but other reports indicated the Olenegorsky Gornyak landing ship had been seriously damaged in the attack.

09:33 AM BST

Two civilians dead in Donetsk

Two residents have died at the hands of Russian forces in Donetsk, the regional governor has said, as he warned that Russia kills civilians.

Pavlo Kyrylenko wrote on Telegram: On 3 Augustm the Russians killed two residents of Donetsk region: in Kurakhivka and Krasnohorivka.

Two more people in the region were injured during the day.

09:17 AM BST

Drone strike 'took Russian landing ship unawares'

A Ukrainian drone that seriously damaged a Russian warship likely took the crew by surprise, it has been claimed.

Rybar, a prominent Russian military blog, said the naval drone hit the port side of the Olenegorsky Gornyak, which was partially flooded but remained afloat.

It continued: It is curious that the drone approached the [landing ship] unhindered.

The crew probably did not expect the attack, as a result of which they did not take measures to destroy the drone.

09:09 AM BST

Kherson 'in mourning' after doctor's death

Kherson is said to be mourning the death of a 25-year-old doctor apparently killed on his first day at work.

Dmytro Bily was killed in the Yevhen Karabelesh City Hospital on 1 August during a Russian attack. Five other medical staff were said to have been injured in the airstrike.

Olexander Produkin, the regional governor, said: Today, like dozens of Kherson residents, I came to see off Dmytro Bily on his last journey.

Under the wail of sirens, the memory of a brave young doctor who died on his first working day in the hospital was honoured.

08:41 AM BST

Ukraine 'seriously damaged Russian warship'

An attack on a Russian naval base of Novorossiysk damaged a large warship, according to Ukrainian intelligence.

A source said: The Olenegorsky Gornyak received a serious breach and currently cannot conduct its combat missions.

A video posted on social media apparently shows the ship listing to one side and being towed away. This has not been confirmed.

08:34 AM BST

'We're not trying to cause food crisis', claims Russia

Claims that Russia is attempting to use food as a weapon after it repeatedly destroyed grain silos have been dismissed as propaganda by its ambassador to the US.

Anatoly Antonov said: Attempts to accuse Russia of provoking a food crisis and using food as a weapon are a well-known element of the information war unleashed against our country.

It is the Russian Federation that makes a significant contribution into global food security, [and] is a solid and reliable supplier of agricultural products.

Moscow has systematically targeted grain terminals in Ukrainian ports since the end of the Black Sea export deal, according to officials. An Wednesday attack on Izmail damaged almost 40,000 tons of grain.

08:10 AM BST

'Russia wants to stop Ukraine's international trade'

The MoD added that Russia is likely attempting to coerce international shipping into stopping trade with Ukraine.

It follows a number of strikes on Ukrainian ports, on both the Black Sea and Danube River. Kyiv officials believe it wants to end exports of grain and provoke a global food crisis.

The MoD said: In the last two weeks, Russia has conducted several waves of strikes against Ukrainian ports on the Dabune River using Iranian-produced [drones].

It is highly likely attempting to coerce international shipping into stopping trading via the ports.

07:51 AM BST

MoD: Russia 'has greater appetite' for strikes near Nato members

Russia is willing to take greater risks with strikes near Nato territory, the Ministry of Defence has said, following an attack on Ukrainian port near Romania.

However, it added that the strike had been conducted with drones instead of missiles, possible because they are less likely to risk escalation and are acceptable accurate.

A drone strike last week on Reni, a Ukrainian port on the Danube River, took place 200 metres from the border with Romania.

Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 04 August 2023.



Find out more about Defence Intelligence's use of language: https://t.co/9rNuLubGUD pic.twitter.com/cVa2gHz74G  Ministry of Defence  (@DefenceHQ) August 4, 2023

07:47 AM BST

Pictured: First glimpses of clash at Russian naval base

Ukrainian Armed Forces allegedly tried to attack the Novorossiysk naval base at night with two marine drones

07:46 AM BST

Shoigu hails 'Russian successes' as he visits Ukraine front line

Russias defence minister has travelled to Ukraine to thank troops for their successful offensive operations, according to reports.

Sergei Shoigu visited the frontline headquarters of the Centre army group, with television images showing him climbing into a captured Swedish tank.

He last visited the front at the end of June, following a failed mutiny by Wagner mercenaries that demanded his arrest.

Valery Gerasimov, chief of Russias general staff, was reported to have visited the front line earlier this week, but unlike Mr Shoigu did not appear to go outside.

07:37 AM BST

13 Ukrainian drones brought down in Crimea

More than a dozen drones have been brought down over Russian-annexed Crimea, according to the Kremlin.

The Russian defence ministry said: An attempt by the Kyiv regime to carry out a terrorist attack by aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicles in the Crieman peninsula was foiled last night.

Ten UAVs [droes] were destroyed by air defence facilities on duty. Three more enemy drones were suppressed by means of electronic warfare.

There were no casualties or damage as a result of the foiled terrorist attack.

07:34 AM BST

Good morning

Good morning and welcome to todays Ukraine liveblog.

We will be guiding you through all the latest updates from Ukraine.

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.
Ukraines security service has warned that Russia is planning a false flag attack on an oil refinery in Belarus, in a bid to draw Minsk into the war.

The warning came as a Kyiv intelligence source claimed that a Russian naval ship had been damaged in a drone attack on a Black Sea port which serves as a major hub for Moscows exports.

While Russias regional governor in Novorossiysk  near Crimea  insisted no damage was inflicted, the source told Reuters that the Olenegorsky Gornyak warship received a serious breach and currently cannot conduct its combat missions.

A source also told the Ukrainian Interfax news agency that the security service drone was saturated with 450 kilograms of TNT and blew a serious hole in the ship manned by 100 crew members, in what marks the first attack on a major Russian commercial port since the war began last February.

It comes after Ukraines first lady, Olena Zelenska, Uissued an emotional plea for the world not to lose interest in the fight against Russia, in a rare interview with Independent TV.

Key Points

Russia planning false flag attack in Belarus, Ukraine warns

Blasts and gunfire reported near Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk

Exclusive: Olena Zelenskas urgent plea to help her nation as war rages around her

Explosions and drone debris hit Kyiv in overnight attacks

Poland rushes troops to border with Belarus

Watch: Seaborne drone footage shows moment Russian warship attacked

16:23 , Andy Gregory

China to attend Jeddah peace talks

15:42 , Andy Gregory

China has announced that it would send a senior official to Jeddah for weekend talks on finding a peace deal for Ukraine, in a diplomatic coup for Kyiv, the West and Saudi Arabia.

Ukrainian and Western diplomats hope the meeting in Jeddah of national security advisers and other senior officials from some 40 countries  which excludes Russia  will agree on key principles for a future peace settlement to end Moscows war.

Chinas special envoy for Eurasian Affairs Li Hui will visit Jeddah for the talks, Beijings foreign ministry said on Friday. China is willing to work with the international community to continue to play a constructive role in promoting a political solution to the crisis in Ukraine, a spokesperson said.

Story continues

China was invited to a previous round of talks in Copenhagen in late June but did not attend.

Bank link used for Black Sea grain deal closes

15:14 , Andy Gregory

The direct channel between the Russian Agricultural Bank and JPMorgan, organised by the United Nations as a way to keep Russia in the Black Sea grain deal, was shut on Wednesday, Russia's foreign ministry has said.

Russia refused to extend the deal last month, accusing the West of failing to implement parts of the accord that affect Moscow's own food and fertiliser exports, and has since attacked a number of Ukrainian port facilities and grain silos.

Russian businessman backs Lithuanias expulsion of Russian citizens

14:30 , Andy Gregory

Viktor Voroncov, a businessman who moved to Lithuania from Russia several years ago, learned Lithuanian and obtained citizenship there, said he agreed with the move by authorities to expel hundreds of Russian and Belarusian citizens.

I know many Russians who served in the Soviet and later in Putins army. They are married to Lithuanian wives, they live here, maintain close contacts with comrades in arms back in Russia and are spreading Kremlin propaganda constantly, Mr Voroncov said.

Lithuania is a democratic country and tolerates different views. Even their propaganda was OK until the war started, but things have changed and they must go, he said.

Belarus opposition in contact with Lithuania over expulsion of citizens

14:01 , Andy Gregory

Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said her party was in touch with Lithuanian authorities after the EU nation revoked the residency permits of more than 1,000 Russian and Belarusian citizens.

The Belarusian opposition was seeking to prevent a strike on innocent people who are not associated with the regime, Ms Tsikhanouskaya said.

I understand that Lithuanias actions are dictated by national interests and security, because the Lukashenko regime poses a direct threat to our neighbors, Ms Tsikhanouskaya told the Associated Press, referring to Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko.

The vast majority of Belarusians do not support Russias criminal war against Ukraine and continue to help Ukraine, many are fighting the dictatorship in the underground. It is very important that they can find a safe haven in Europe if they are in danger.

Lithuania strips more than 1,000 Russians and Belarusians of residency

13:33 , Andy Gregory

Lithuania has stripped more than a thousand Russian and Belarusian citizens of their residency permits, accusing them of being a threat to national security.

The government had asked these residents to answer a questionnaire which asked about their views on Russias invasion of Ukraine and the status of Crimea, the Ukrainian territory which Russia illegally annexed in 2014.

Lithuania, which declared its independence from the Soviet Union more than 30 years ago, belongs to Nato and the European Union, and has been a place of refuge for many who have fled repression in Belarus and Russia.

The Migration Department said it had established that 910 Belarusian and 254 Russian citizens residing in Lithuania posed a threat to national security, a decision that was based on an evaluation of public and non-public information.

According to the Migration Department, more than 58,000 Belarusian citizens and 16,000 Russian citizens are currently residing in Lithuania.

Ukrainian mother who lost an eye in attempted assassination is Playboy cover star

13:11 , Andy Gregory

A Ukranian mother who lost an eye in a suspected assassination attempt has appeared as the cover star on the first Playboy printed since the Russian invasion.

Iryna Bilotserkovets, whose husband is an aide to Kyivs mayor Vitali Klitschko, posed with an eye mask and metal bikini after being caught in a gun attack just three days after Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year.

The mother-of-three was driving home with her children through a neighbourhood in Ukraine when her car was hit by multiple bullets. Speaking to Playboy about life after the attack, she said: Doctors in Ukraine said I was probably going to die. I didnt agree.

My colleague Rachel Flynn has the full story here:

Ukrainian mother who lost an eye in attempted assassination is Playboy cover star

Pictured: The sea drone allegedly behind attack on Russian port

12:09 , Andy Gregory

Telegram channel Rybar has shared an image of the sea drone allegedly responsible for the attack claimed to have taken a Russian warship out of action at a major commerical port near Crimea.

(Rybar)

Russia planning false flag Belarus attack in bid to draw Minsk into Ukraine war, Kyiv warns

11:51 , Andy Gregory

Kyiv has accused Russia of preparing to stage a false flag attack at the Mozyr oil refinery in Belarusas part of an effort to draw Belarus into the war in Ukraine.

The Security Service of Ukraine said its assertions were based on information obtained from several sources, including a captured Russian serviceman.

Protests, poisoning and prison: The life of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny

11:13 , AP

In a span of a decade, Alexei Navalny has gone from the Kremlins biggest foe to Russias most prominent political prisoner.

Already serving two convictions that have landed him in prison for at least nine years, he stands a new trial that could keep him behind bars for two more decades.

The verdict in the trial is due to be announced Friday in a makeshift courtroom in the Penal Colony No. 6, where Navalny is being held and where the trial took place behind closed doors, in the town of Melekhovo, about 230 kilometers (over 140 miles) east of Moscow.

Joanna Kozlowska and Dasha Litvinova have more in this report:

Protests, poisoning and prison: The life of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny

Positive signs of Chinese participation in Jeddah talks, German official says

10:21 , Andy Gregory

Ukraine and its allies are aiming to rally global support for a peace blueprint in talks hosted by Saudi Arabia this weekend  but a question mark hangs over whether China will take part.

Reuters now cites a German government official as saying Berlin has received positive signals about some form of Chinese participation in the Jeddah meeting.

Ukrainian and Western diplomats hope the meeting of national security advisers and other senior officials from some 40 countries will agree on key principles that would underpin any peace settlement to end Russia's war in Ukraine.

EU imposes sanctions on dozens in Belarus over protest crackdown and support for Russia

09:55 , AP

The European Union has imposed sanctions on several Belarus police, justice and prison officials over a crackdown on anti-government activists, and on media personnel and a company accused of supporting Russias war on Ukraine.

Travel bans in Europe and asset freezes were slapped on 38 officials, including several judges and prosecutors. The EU also froze the assets of state oil and chemicals giant Belneftekhim.

It said the company represents a fundamental asset for the Belarusian economy and foreign policy, in particular in relation to the cooperation between Russia and Belarus in developing a common oil market.

EU imposes sanctions on dozens in Belarus over protest crackdown and support for Russia

Novorossiysk drone strike marks first attack of commercial Russian port

09:27 , Andy Gregory

Russia accused Ukraine early Friday of attacking its Black Sea navy base in the port of Novorossiysk with sea drones.

The attack on Novorossiysk is the first time a commercial Russian port has been targeted in the 18-month war. The city is a major port on the Black Sea and hosts a naval base, shipbuilding yards and an oil terminal. It is a key port for Russian exports.

Novorossiysk is just across the water from Crimea, where Russias Ministry of Defense said it thwarted another attack by Ukraine overnight, taking down 13 drones.

It comes just days after authorities held a Navy Day parade at the port.

Sailors and marines parade during the Navy Day celebrations in the port city of Novorossiysk on July 30 (Stringer/AFP via Getty Images)

We stand united: RAF interception of Russian jets sends strong message to Putin

08:58 , Martina Bet

The Royal Air Force has delivered a powerful message of unity to Russian president Vladimir Putin with the interception of dozens of Russian aircraft during its leadership of a Nato air policing mission in Estonia, Ben Wallace has claimed.

The defence secretary praised the RAFs success, emphasising the unwavering commitment of the UK and its allies in safeguarding European airspace and standing against any potential threat to their borders.

His comments come as RAF personnel have returned to the UK after leading the air policing mission in Eastern Europe for four months, during which pilots intercepted 50 Russian aircraft and flew for a combined total of more than 500 hours.

The members of the 140 Expeditionary Air Wing (140 EAW) had been deployed to Amari Air Base since the start of March, along with a squadron of RAF Typhoon fighter jets, to conduct Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) intercepts of Russian aircraft transiting close to Nato airspace.

We stand united: RAF interception of Russian jets sends strong message to Putin

Russian naval vessel damaged in drone attack, Ukrainian defence source claims

08:34 , Andy Gregory

Ukraine damaged a Russian naval vessel during a sea drone attack at the Russian port of Novorossiysk that was conducted by the Security Service of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Navy on Friday, a Ukrainian intelligence source said.

As a result of the attack, the Olenegorsky Gornyak received a serious breach and currently cannot conduct its combat missions, the source told Reuters.

It comes despite Russias regional governor insisting that there was no damage caused by the attacks.

Watch: What Ukraines First Lady Olena Zelenska wants the world to know

08:08 , Andy Gregory

No casualties or damage from Ukrainian drone attack, Russian governor says

07:48 , Andy Gregory

No casualties or damage have been reported from the Ukrainian sea drone attack on Novorossiysk, Russias regional governor has been quoted as saying by state news agency RIA .

Russia says it does not believe Washington on grain deal

07:26 , Andy Gregory

Russia does not believe Washingtons promise that it will help to ensure Moscow can freely export food if it returns to the Black Sea grain deal, the Kremlin has said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters on Thursday: In the event of return to the agreement, of course, well continue to do whatever is necessary to make sure that everyone can export their food and food products freely and safely to include Russia.

Russia last month quit the agreement that had allowed Ukraine to ship food from its Black Sea ports, complaining about obstacles to its own exports of food and fertiliser.

'Russian official pitched North Korea on increasing sale of munitions to Moscow'

07:00 , Namita Singh

The White House said US intelligence officials have determined that Russian defense minister Sergei Shoigu spoke last week to North Korean officials during a visit to Pyongyang about increasing the sale of munitions to Moscow for its war in Ukraine.

Mr Shoigu made the pitch during his visit to North Korea for events marking the 70th anniversary of the armistice that halted fighting in the 1950-53 Korean War, according to White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby. Russian president Vladimir Putin dispatched Mr Shoigu to lead the Russian delegation for the commemoration.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre calls on reporters with National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby (R) during the daily briefing on 26 July 2023 in Washington, DC (Getty Images)

The Biden administration says Mr Shoigus pitch to tighten cooperation with North Korea underscored that the Kremlin has become reliant on the country, as well as Iran, for the arms it needs to fight its war against Ukraine. North Korea and Iran are largely isolated on the international stage for their nuclear programs and human rights records.

This is yet another example of how desperate Mr Putin has become because his war machine is being affected by the sanctions and the export controls. He is going through a vast amount of inventory to try to subjugate Ukraine, and hes reaching out to countries like North Korea, like Iran, and certainly hes been trying to reach out to China to get support for his war machine.

John Kirby

Ukraine, US start talks on security guarantees, official says

06:30 , Namita Singh

Ukraine and the United States started talks yesterday aimed at providing security guarantees for Ukraine, president Volodymyr Zelenskiys chief of staff said, a follow-up to pledges by G7 countries at last months Nato summit.

Ukraine was told that the Group of Seven (G7) would draw up and honour security guarantees and help bolster its military in light of Russias 17-month-old invasion of Ukraine.

The Kyiv government sees the talks as an interim stage pending its accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization military alliance. At the summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, Nato leaders offered support to Ukraine but ruled out any notion of membership until the war with Russia is resolved.

Presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said the agreement reached in Vilnius was the basis for working out corresponding bilateral agreements.

It is symbolic that the United States - our biggest strategic partner - became the first country with which Ukraine has started this process, Mr Yermak wrote. Through this process we will create a successful model for other partners.

Russian defence minister visits troops involved in Ukraine operation  TASS

06:05 , Namita Singh

Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu has visited the frontline headquarters of the Centre army group involved in the Ukrainian conflict, TASS cited the defence ministry as saying on Friday.

Mr Shoigu was briefed by group commander Andrei Mordvichev, it said, without disclosing the location of the meeting.

Putin foe Navalny expects to be jailed for many more years

05:30 , Namita Singh

Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny expects a court to extend his prison sentence by nearly two decades today, in a criminal case which he and his supporters say was trumped up to keep him behind bars and out of politics for even longer.

Navalny, 47, president Vladimir Putins fiercest domestic critic, is already serving sentences totalling 11-1/2 years on fraud and other charges that he says are also bogus. His political movement has been outlawed and declared extremist.

State prosecutors have asked the court to hand him another 20 years in a penal colony on six separate criminal charges, including inciting and financing extremist activity and creating an extremist organisation.

If Russia wins now its the worst-case scenario for humanity, warns Ukraines first lady Olena Zelenska

05:00 , Eleanor Noyce

Ukraines first lady has warned that Russia winning the war it started is the worst-case scenario for all humanity, in a heartfelt plea for the world not to lose interest in her country as its soldiers are fighting for the democratic balance of the world.

Speaking exclusively to Independent TV, Olena Zelenska said Ukraine is deeply concerned that the world is underestimating the wider threat from Moscow as the conflict grinds into its 18th month.

Bel Trew reports:

If Russia wins its humanitys worst-case scenario, says Ukraines Olena Zelenska

Blasts and gunfire reported near Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk

04:30 , Namita Singh

Russian social media users reported hearing explosions and gunfire near the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk this morning.

Videos posted on a local online community and circulated by Russian online news outlet Astra showed the movement of ships just off the coast with the sound of gunfire coming from the direction of the sea.

The emergencies department of the city of Novorossiysk, whose port is one of the biggest in the Black Sea, could not be reached for comment.

Clashes in the Black Sea and adjacent ports have escalated since Russia refused last month to extend a deal allowing for the safe exports of grain from Ukrainian ports; Russian drones and missiles have struck several Ukrainian port facilities and grain silos on or near the Black Sea.

Russia has also reported an attack by Ukrainian sea drones on its warships which were escorting a civilian vessel.

Mapped: The latest strikes on Ukraine and Russia as war rages on

04:00 , Eleanor Noyce

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has cheered the recent flurry of drone strikes on Moscow as evidence that Vladimir Putins illegal invasion of his country is backfiring and that its consequences are becoming ever clearer to the Russian people.

Gradually, the war is returning to the territory of Russia  to its symbolic centres and military bases, and this is an inevitable, natural and absolutely fair process, he said in a video address from the western city of Ivano-Frankivsk.

Russias defence ministry conceded on Sunday (30 July) that a 50-storey building containing the offices of a number of government agencies and a shopping precinct in the capitals western Moskva-Citi business district were both hit by drone strikes it blamed on Ukraine, claiming to have brought down three more devices.

Joe Sommerlad reports:

Mapped: The latest strikes on Ukraine and Russia as war rages on

Face to face with a mercenary: Inside Wagner and its blood-soaked role in Russias invasion of Ukraine

03:00 , Eleanor Noyce

Amid the ravages of war, Sergey, a seasoned Wagner mercenary, found himself grappling with the relentless violence that has become a way of life and death on the front line. The savage conflict, the sense of betrayal from the Kremlin, and rumours of plots, all combined to create an atmosphere of uncertainty and dread.

At the end he decided to abandon the Wagner group and the savage, meat-grinding combat of Donbas where corpses piled up, and towns and cities were razed.

With the future of the mercenary group in the balance after Yevgeny Prigozhins failed march on Moscow and fear of future retribution, Sergey cannot forget the terrible things he witnessed in the months of bloody conflict.

Kim Sengupta meets a fighter  a father of two  who has recently left the mercenary group and hears about the daily routine of fight, eat, pray on some of the fiercest frontlines in the war:

Face to face with a mercenary: Inside Wagner and its bloody role in the Ukraine war

Drones, military confusion and cracks in Putins authority: Ukraines push to sow discord in Russias ranks

02:00 , Eleanor Noyce

With Moscow facing a flurry of drone attacks in recent weeks  the latest over the weekend  Ukraines president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has said the war in his country is returning to Russia.

While Kyiv is always very cagey about claiming direct responsibility for attacks on Russian soil, the number of incidents has coincided with the Ukrainian counteroffensive to retake territory occupied by Moscows forces. All while the Kremlin is still dealing with the fallout from a mutiny last month by the battle-hardened mercenaries of the Wagner Group, led by Yevgeny Prigozhin.

The attempted uprising, which was halted after 24 hours with Prigozhins fighters about 125 miles from Moscow, opened the way for a barrage of criticism of Moscows top military leadership by some of its own most senior generals commanding Russias invasion forces in Ukraine. Kyivs aim? To take advantage of this discord, and to increase it. Anything that will help them on the front line.

Askold Krushelnycky speaks to Ukrainian officials about the ongoing counteroffensive and how Kyiv is seeking to exploit the extended fallout from Wagners short-lived mutiny:

Drones and discord: Ukraines push to spread anxiety in Russias ranks

EU imposes sanctions on dozens in Belarus over protest crackdown and support for Russia

01:30 , Eleanor Noyce

The European Union on Thursday imposed sanctions on several Belarus police, justice and prison officials over a crackdown on anti-government activists, and on media personnel and a company accused of supporting Russias war on Ukraine.

Travel bans in Europe and asset freezes were slapped on 38 officials, including several judges and prosecutors. The EU also froze the assets of state oil and chemicals giant Belneftekhim.

It said the company represents a fundamental asset for the Belarusian economy and foreign policy, in particular in relation to the cooperation between Russia and Belarus in developing a common oil market.

Read more:

EU imposes sanctions on dozens in Belarus over protest crackdown and support for Russia

Why did Russia invade Ukraine?

01:00 , Eleanor Noyce

Russias special military operation in Ukraine has been raging for one year now as the conflict continues to record devastating casualties and force the mass displacement of millions of blameless Ukrainians.

Vladimir Putin began the war by claiming Russias neighbour needed to be demilitarised and de-Nazified, a baseless pretext on which to launch a landgrab against an independent state that happens to have a Jewish president in Volodymyr Zelensky.

Ukraine has fought back courageously against Mr Putins warped bid to restore territory lost to Moscow with the collapse of the Soviet Union and has continued to defy the odds by defending itself against Russian onslaughts with the help of Western military aid.

Thomas Kingsley and Joe Sommerlad:

Heres why Putin really invaded Ukraine

We stand united: RAF interception of Russian jets sends strong message to Putin

Friday 4 August 2023 00:01 , Eleanor Noyce

The Royal Air Force has delivered a powerful message of unity to Russian president Vladimir Putin with the interception of dozens of Russian aircraft during its leadership of a Nato air policing mission in Estonia, Ben Wallace has said.

The defence secretary praised the RAFs success, emphasising the unwavering commitment of the UK and its allies in safeguarding European airspace and standing against any potential threat to their borders.

His comments come as RAF personnel have returned to the UK after leading the air policing mission in Eastern Europe for four months, during which pilots intercepted 50 Russian aircraft and flew for a combined total of more than 500 hours.

Martina Bet reports:

We stand united: RAF interception of Russian jets sends strong message to Putin

US sees price cap on Russian oil working despite upturn in prices

Thursday 3 August 2023 23:30 , Eleanor Noyce

The United States remains confident that the Group of Sevens price cap on Russian oil is working to squeeze Moscows revenues and stabilize energy markets despite a recent upturn in prices, a senior U.S. Treasury official said on Thursday.

Acting Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy Eric Van Nostrand hailed the price cap as a successful part of the multilateral sanctions regime imposed on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine and said Washington and its partners were working to thwart any evasion.

Our approach has struck at the heart of the Kremlins most important cash cow. Before the war, oil revenues constituted about a third of the total Russian budget, but in 2023 that number has fallen to just 25%, he said in remarks prepared for a London conference.

The G7, the European Union and Australia imposed the $60 per barrel cap last December on sea-borne exports of Russian crude in retaliation for Russias war on Ukraine. It bans Western companies from providing services such as transportation, insurance and financing for the oil sold above the cap.

Van Nostrand said Russian data showed federal government oil revenues were nearly 50% lower in the first half of 2023 than a year earlier, and Russian oil was trading at a significant discount to Brent oil.

Russian officials had also complained about the impact of the price cap, he said, and the Kremlin has been forced to consider raising taxes on oil exporters to boost revenues, which could weaken the long-term outlook for its oil industry.

Van Nostrand said the average reported price for Russian Urals had hovered around $60, the level of the price cap, despite recent price increases as well as widespread expectations that the price would rise in the second half of 2023.

Russias Finance Ministry this week said Urals crude oil blend traded at $64.37 per barrel on average in July, up from $55.28 per barrel in June.

Russia will cut exports by 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) in September, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Thursday. Russia, the worlds biggest oil exporter after Saudi Arabia, had already pledged to cut oil output by 500,000 bpd, or about 5%, from March until year-end.

I have a frozen embryo in Russia called Tallulah  the war in Ukraine means its trapped there

Thursday 3 August 2023 23:00 , Eleanor Noyce

Its front-page news today: the heart of Moscow has been hit by early-morning drone attacks. It makes me think of Tallulah. Shes a frozen embryo I have stored in an IVF clinic in St Petersburg. What if I ever wanted to get her home? Is she safe?

I know it sounds over the top to actually call a frozen embryo by a name  but Im not alone.

I dont want another child, writes Charlotte Cripps  but it doesnt stop me from worrying about my frozen embryo in St Petersburg:

My frozen embryo is trapped in Russia  how do I get it out? | Charlotte Cripps

Face to face with a mercenary: Inside Wagner and its blood-soaked role in Russias invasion of Ukraine

Thursday 3 August 2023 22:00 , Eleanor Noyce

Amid the ravages of war, Sergey, a seasoned Wagner mercenary, found himself grappling with the relentless violence that has become a way of life and death on the front line. The savage conflict, the sense of betrayal from the Kremlin, and rumours of plots, all combined to create an atmosphere of uncertainty and dread.

At the end he decided to abandon the Wagner group and the savage, meat-grinding combat of Donbas where corpses piled up, and towns and cities were razed.

With the future of the mercenary group in the balance after Yevgeny Prigozhins failed march on Moscow and fear of future retribution, Sergey cannot forget the terrible things he witnessed in the months of bloody conflict.

Kim Sengupta meets a fighter  a father of two  who has recently left the mercenary group and hears about the daily routine of fight, eat, pray on some of the fiercest frontlines in the war:

Face to face with a mercenary: Inside Wagner and its bloody role in the Ukraine war

US to keep Russia's food exports flowing if grain deal revived, Blinken says

Thursday 3 August 2023 21:30 , Eleanor Noyce

The United States would continue to do whatever is necessary to ensure Russia can freely export food if there was a revival of a deal allowing the safe Black Sea export of Ukrainian grain, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday.

Russia last month quit the July 2022 deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkey aimed at easing a global food crisis after Russias invasion of Ukraine five months earlier. Ukraine and Russia are both leading grain exporters.

In the event of return to the agreement, of course, well continue to do whatever is necessary to make sure that everyone can export their food and food products freely and safely to include Russia, Blinken told reporters at the United Nations.

We want to see that food on world markets. We want everyone to benefit from the lower prices, he said after chairing a U.N. Security Council meeting on food insecurity caused by conflict.

Many countries at the gathering expressed disappointment that Russia had quit the deal and urged them to reconsider.

To convince Russia to agree to the Black Sea deal, another pact was also struck in July 2022 under which U.N. officials agreed to help Russia get its food and fertilizer exports to foreign markets.

While Russian exports of food and fertilizer are not subject to Western sanctions imposed after Russias February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Moscow has said restrictions on payments, logistics and insurance have hindered shipments.

During the Security Council meeting on Thursday, Russias Deputy U.N. Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy accused Western countries of an arrogant unwillingness to help fulfill the U.N. pact with Moscow.

He stressed that Russia held a larger share of the global wheat market than Ukraine and was a key fertilizer exporter.

Western countries need to focus on ensuring that Russian grain and fertilizers can get to countries in need without hindrance, Polyanskiy said.

ICYMI: The Crimean Peninsula is both a playground and a battleground, coveted by Ukraine and Russia

Thursday 3 August 2023 21:00 , Eleanor Noyce

Its balmy beaches have been vacation spots for Russian czars and Soviet general secretaries. It has hosted history-shaking meetings of world leaders and boasts a strategic naval base. And it has been the site of ethnic persecutions, forced deportations and political repression.

Now, as Russias war in Ukraine enters its 18th month, the Crimean Peninsula is again both a playground and a battleground, with drone attacks and bombs seeking to dislodge Moscows hold on the territory and bring it back under Kyivs authority, no matter how loudly the Kremlin proclaims its ownership.

Read more:

The Crimean Peninsula: playground and battleground, coveted by Ukraine and Russia

Russian guards using torture and genital electrocution on Ukrainian prisoners  investigators

Thursday 3 August 2023 20:30 , Eleanor Noyce

Russian guards subjected Ukrainian prisoners to torture and sexual violence  including genital electrocution  according to a team of international experts investigating conditions in makeshift detention centres.

Almost half of Ukrainian prisoners held in Kherson, in Russian-occupied southern Ukraine, said such tactics were frequent, according to the Mobile Justice Team, which was established by international humanitarian law firm Global Rights Compliance and is working with war crimes prosecutors.

Researchers said at least 36 victims described the use of electrocution while being interrogated.

Maya Oppenheim reports:

Russian guards using torture and genital electrocution on Ukrainian prisoners  study

White House says it is concerned N. Korea will send munitions to Russia

Thursday 3 August 2023 20:24 , Eleanor Noyce

The United States remains concerned that North Korea will send munitions to Russia, White House national security advisor John Kirby told a briefing on Thursday.

Our information indicates that Russia is seeking to increase military cooperation with North Korea, he said.

Zelensky: Troops face difficulty at front, but Ukrainian strength dominates

Thursday 3 August 2023 20:15 , Eleanor Noyce

President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday that Ukraines military faced difficulties on front lines in the east and south of the country, but were dominant in their campaign.

There is heavy fighting. The occupiers are trying to stop our boys with all their strength. Very fierce attacks, Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address, referring to several centres in the east where battles are raging.

In the south, everything is difficult. But whatever the enemy does, it is Ukrainian strength that dominates.

What Ukraines First Lady Olena Zelenska wants the world to know

Thursday 3 August 2023 20:00 , Eleanor Noyce

In a rare interview the First Lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska, has spoken to Independent TV about her work rebuilding Ukraine in the middle of war, the pressures on her family and concerns for the future of her country.

From the presidential palace, she told The Independents Bel Trew about the need to reconstruct cities despite the fighting raging on, about building cutting-edge facilities to treat the countrys war-wounded and fighting stigma on trauma around the country.

What Ukraines First Lady Olena Zelenska wants the world to know

From the command centre in Kyiv, Olena Zelenskas urgent plea to help her nation as war rages around her

Thursday 3 August 2023 19:30 , Eleanor Noyce

As if on cue, the haunting wail of the air-raid siren sifts through the sunshine as we pull up to the checkpoint by the presidential complex in Kyiv. Like swathes of Ukraine, the contours of this heavily guarded compound have been re-carved by President Vladimir Putins invasion. Instead of a sweeping pedestrian boulevard leading to 10 Bankova  Ukraines 10 Downing Street  the complex is a disorientating labyrinth of blast walls, sandbags, and soldiers.

Bel Trew sits down with the first lady in a wide-ranging interview discussing her work rebuilding Ukraine in the middle of war  and the pressures on her family:

From Kyiv, Olena Zelenskas urgent plea to help her nation as war rages

We stand united: RAF interception of Russian jets sends strong message to Putin

Thursday 3 August 2023 19:15 , Eleanor Noyce

The Royal Air Force has delivered a powerful message of unity to Russian president Vladimir Putin with the interception of dozens of Russian aircraft during its leadership of a Nato air policing mission in Estonia, Ben Wallace has said.

The defence secretary praised the RAFs success, emphasising the unwavering commitment of the UK and its allies in safeguarding European airspace and standing against any potential threat to their borders.

His comments come as RAF personnel have returned to the UK after leading the air policing mission in Eastern Europe for four months, during which pilots intercepted 50 Russian aircraft and flew for a combined total of more than 500 hours.

Martina Bet has the full story:

We stand united: RAF interception of Russian jets sends strong message to Putin

US sees price cap on Russian oil working despite upturn in prices

Thursday 3 August 2023 18:47 , Eleanor Noyce

The United States remains confident that the Group of Sevens price cap on Russian oil is working to squeeze Moscows revenues and stabilize energy markets despite a recent upturn in prices, a senior U.S. Treasury official said on Thursday.

Acting Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy Eric Van Nostrand hailed the price cap as a successful part of the multilateral sanctions regime imposed on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine and said Washington and its partners were working to thwart any evasion.

Our approach has struck at the heart of the Kremlins most important cash cow. Before the war, oil revenues constituted about a third of the total Russian budget, but in 2023 that number has fallen to just 25%, he said in remarks prepared for a London conference.

The G7, the European Union and Australia imposed the $60 per barrel cap last December on sea-borne exports of Russian crude in retaliation for Russias war on Ukraine. It bans Western companies from providing services such as transportation, insurance and financing for the oil sold above the cap.

Van Nostrand said Russian data showed federal government oil revenues were nearly 50% lower in the first half of 2023 than a year earlier, and Russian oil was trading at a significant discount to Brent oil.

Russian officials had also complained about the impact of the price cap, he said, and the Kremlin has been forced to consider raising taxes on oil exporters to boost revenues, which could weaken the long-term outlook for its oil industry.

Van Nostrand said the average reported price for Russian Urals had hovered around $60, the level of the price cap, despite recent price increases as well as widespread expectations that the price would rise in the second half of 2023.

Russias Finance Ministry this week said Urals crude oil blend traded at $64.37 per barrel on average in July, up from $55.28 per barrel in June.

Russia will cut exports by 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) in September, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Thursday. Russia, the worlds biggest oil exporter after Saudi Arabia, had already pledged to cut oil output by 500,000 bpd, or about 5%, from March until year-end.

With you until the end: Defence secretary Ben Wallaces dramatic pledge to Ukraine after first ladys plea

Thursday 3 August 2023 18:30 , Eleanor Noyce

The UKs support for Ukraine is tireless, the defence secretary has pledged, after Ukraines first lady issued an emotional plea for the world not to lose interest in the fight against Russia.

Britain will back Ukraine every way we can until the war is over, Ben Wallace said.

His comments follow a heartfelt call from Olena Zelenska, in an exclusive interview with Independent TV, to other nations, in which she said: Please dont get fatigued, because we as Ukrainians have no right to get tired.

Kate Devlin reports:

Until the end: Ben Wallaces dramatic pledge to Ukraine after first ladys plea

EU imposes sanctions on dozens in Belarus over protest crackdown and support for Russia

Thursday 3 August 2023 18:20 , Eleanor Noyce

The European Union on Thursday imposed sanctions on several Belarus police, justice and prison officials over a crackdown on anti-government activists, and on media personnel and a company accused of supporting Russias war on Ukraine.

Travel bans in Europe and asset freezes were slapped on 38 officials, including several judges and prosecutors. The EU also froze the assets of state oil and chemicals giant Belneftekhim.

It said the company represents a fundamental asset for the Belarusian economy and foreign policy, in particular in relation to the cooperation between Russia and Belarus in developing a common oil market.

Read more:

EU imposes sanctions on dozens in Belarus over protest crackdown and support for Russia

When do attacks on civilian installations amount to war crimes?

Thursday 3 August 2023 18:00 , Eleanor Noyce

Russian air strikes this week hit silos and shipping terminals for Ukrainian grain, potentially violating international law, which forbids attacks on resources essential to the civilian population.

Drone attacks wrecked buildings in the port of Izmail and prevented ships on the Danube River from loading grain for export. Around 100,000 metric tons have been destroyed, by Kyivs accounts.

Ukraines prosecutors and the International Criminal Court in The Hague were already investigating possible war crimes in the shape of a winter campaign of air strikes on Ukrainian energy and utilities infrastructure as well as the attack on the Nova Kakhovka hydroelectric dam in the southern Kherson region.

WHAT DOES INTERNATIONAL LAW SAY?

The 1949 Geneva Conventions on humanitarian conduct in war and their protocols prohibit attacks on sites considered essential for civilians: In no event shall actions against these objects be taken which may be expected to leave the civilian population with such inadequate food or water as to cause its starvation or force its movement.

They explicitly prohibit attacks on objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, such as foodstuffs, agricultural areas for the production of foodstuffs, crops, livestock, drinking water installations and supplies and irrigation works...

Russias has conducted more than 100 attacks on Ukraines grain and port infrastructure since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, according to Ukraines prosecutor generals office, which is investigating the strikes as potential war crimes.

Senior lawyer Yousuf Syed Khan at the international humanitarian law firm Global Rights Compliance, which is working with Ukraine to document war crimes, said:

The ... intent to starve civilians as a method of warfare is quite clear here, and the starvation of civilians as a method of warfare qualifies as a war crime...

The civilian population affected includes not only Ukrainians but also civilians who would benefit from the exports, including those in African states.

US would make sure Russia can export food safely if grain deal reinstated - Blinken

Thursday 3 August 2023 17:45 , Eleanor Noyce

The United States would make sure that everyone including Russia would be able to export food products safely in the event of a return to the Black Sea grain deal, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters at the United Nations on Thursday.

(Getty Images)

Blinken urges world to tell Russia: Enough using Black Sea as blackmail

Thursday 3 August 2023 17:31 , Eleanor Noyce

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged all countries at the United Nations on Thursday to tell Russia to stop using the Black Sea as blackmail after Moscow quit a deal that had allowed Ukraine to safely ship its grain to global markets.

Every member of the United Nations should tell Moscow enough, said Blinken as he chaired a U.N. Security Council meeting on famine and food insecurity caused by conflict.

Enough using the Black Sea as blackmail. Enough treating the worlds most vulnerable people as leverage. Enough of this unjustified unconscionable war, he told the 15-member body.

Blinken announced that nearly 90 countries had backed a short U.S.-drafted communique in which they commit to take action to end the use of food as a weapon of war and the starvation of civilians as a tactic of warfare.

While the United States, the European Union and others have accused Russia of using food as a weapon of war by worsening a global food crisis when it invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the U.S. communique does not specifically call out any countries.

Russia last month quit a deal that had allowed the safe Black Sea export of Ukraine grain for the past year. The pact was brokered by the United Nations and Turkey to help ease a global food crisis following Russias invasion of Ukraine.

Ukraine and Russia are both leading grain exporters.

After Moscow quit, it began targeting Ukrainian ports and grain infrastructure on the Black Sea and Danube River, sending global grain prices soaring. Moscow has said it may resurrect the Black Sea agreement if its demands to improve its own exports of grain and fertilizer are met.

Moscow argues that restrictions on payments, logistics and insurance have hindered its agricultural exports.

In reality, sanctions explicitly exclude food and fertilizer, Blinken said. At the time it abandoned the initiative, Russia was exporting more grain at higher prices than ever before.

Blinken added that the United States would provide $362 million in new funding to tackle the drivers of food insecurity and to enhance resilience in 11 African countries and Haiti.

Separately, the Security Council in a formal statement adopted on Thursday, said it strongly condemns the use of starvation of civilians as a method of warfare, which is prohibited by international humanitarian law, and the unlawful denial of humanitarian access.

Lifted by Ukraine war, Finnish academic Mika Aaltola to run for president

Thursday 3 August 2023 17:15 , Eleanor Noyce

Finnish foreign and security policy think-tank chief Mika Aaltola, a political outsider whose profile has been boosted by his role as a TV commentator on the Ukraine war, said on Thursday he would run for president in NATOs newest member.

Finns will go to the polls on 28 January next year to elect a president to replace Sauli Niinisto, 74, who is required to retire after leading Finlands foreign policy for two consecutive six-year terms.

Finland clearly needs vision. New foreign policy has emerged, turbulence has occurred and theres a lot more to come, Aaltola, 54, told Reuters in an interview ahead of the announcement, referring to Finlands swift foreign policy U-turn to join the NATO military alliance following neighbour Russias February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

The president is the commander-in-chief of Finlands defence forces, represents Finland in NATO meetings and leads foreign policy in cooperation with the government.

Aaltola has never been a member of any political party, but began surging in presidential polls - even topping one last year - in a spontaneous response to his rising popularity as a TV analyst of the consequences of Russias invasion of Ukraine.

We need to unlearn our strategic silence, which Ive sometimes called strategic haziness. We have a somewhat stoic reputation abroad, said Aaltola.

Aaltola wants Finland to remain a strong supporter of Ukraine, to bring its defence spending close to, if not above, 3% of its gross domestic product, he said.

Ukraine looks for support on peace blueprint in Saudi Arabia talks

Thursday 3 August 2023 17:01 , William Mata

Ukraine is looking to rally for support for a peace blueprint in talks in Saudi Arabia this weekend - it has been reported - although Chinas participation remais in doubt.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday he hoped the initiative will lead to a peace summit of leaders from around the world this autumn to endorse the principles, based on his own 10-point formula for a peace settlement, Reuters has said.

Any deal would likely require international intervention with direct peace talks between Ukraine and Russia seeming unlikely.

Neither the Jeddah gathering - which is expected to begin on Friday, with the main discussions on Saturday and Sunday - nor the peace summit would involve Russia.

Volodymyr Zelensky takes selfies with soldiers during Bakhmut visit (Volodymyr Zelensky)

Apple fined for not deleting inaccurate content about Russia - reports

Thursday 3 August 2023 16:48 , William Mata

A Moscow court has reportedly fined Apple around 3,000 for what it described as not deleting inaccurate content about Russias action in Ukraine.

The RussianTASS news agency said it was the first time the tech giant has been slapped with a fine and that it has not deleted the offending apps or podcasts.

Interfax, another news agency, cited the court as saying that the flagged content included information aimed at involving minors in illegal activities in order to destabilise the political situation in the Russian Federation.

Apple did not respond to an emailed request for comment and paused all product sales in Russia invaded Ukraine.

(Getty Images)

Statue of Putin surprises children and parents in Rome park

Thursday 3 August 2023 16:34 , William Mata

Rome residents have been surprised and perhaps frightened by a French artists statue of Vladimir Putin.

The Russian president is shown to be riding a red tank in James Colominas work which sprung up, without warning, next to a childrens play area.

The work is designed to show the childishness of Putin who is in a dangerous positon.

EU announce sanctions on Belarus officials and chemicals firm

Thursday 3 August 2023 16:27 , William Mata

The European Union has announced sanctions on several Belarus police, justice and prison officials over how Russias ally has cracked down on Ukrainian sentiment.

The EU has taken action after what it sees as a crackdown on anti-government activists, and on media personnel.

Chemicals giant Belneftekhim has also seen its assets frozen as it benefits from the support provided by Belarus president Alexander Lukashenkos regime to lessen the impact of Western sanctions, the EU said.

The union has put travel bans and asset freezes upon 38 officials, including several judges and prosecutors.

Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko (AP)

Finn looks to become new president on pro-Ukraine mandate

Thursday 3 August 2023 16:15 , William Mata

A politician who was, until recently, something of an outsider is set to run to be president of Finland after gaining a public profile through his TV commentary on the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Finnish foreign and security policy think-tank chief Mika Aaltola announced his candidacy on Thursday and is set to be on the ballot when Finns go to the polls on January 28.

The leader of Finland is the prime minister and, although the president is head of state, he or she only has residual powers. But the president is still commander in chief of defence forces and represents the country at Nato meetings.

Current president Sauli Niinisto, 74, is required to retire after being at the helm for two consecutive six-year terms since 2012.

Mr Aaltola has said he wants Finland to remain a strong supporter of Ukraine, to bring its defence spending close to, if not above, 3 per cent of its gross domestic product.

Mika Aaltola has his sights set on a top job (REUTERS)

Ukraine to investigate Russian attacks on agricultural infrastructure as war crimes

Thursday 3 August 2023 16:03 , William Mata

Ukraine is investigating Russian attacks on its agriculture infrastructure as war crimes, it has been reported.

Kyivs presecutor general is wanting the shelling on agriculture installations to be looked at, Reuters has reported, after the attacks intensified since Russia withdrew from the Black Sea Grain Initiative export deal with Ukraine on July 17.

A statement from the prosecutors office said: Overall, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Russian forces have conducted more than 100 attacks on Ukraines grain and port infrastructure, the prosecutor generals office said in a statement.

Ukraine is investigating these acts as potential war crimes.

This will add to the backlog of the reported 97,000 potential war crimes which have been flagged with the International Criminal Court in The Hague

International Criminal Court (AP)

Polish PM states fears over extremely dangerous' Wagner troops

Thursday 3 August 2023 15:54 , William Mata

Polands prime minister has raised fears that the Wagner mercenary force is moving to destabilise Natos eastern flank.

The Russian-aligned soldiers have been training with the Belarus national army, which has prompted Poland to locate 1,000 troops close to its own border. It follows Poland, on Tuesday, accusing Belarus of violating its airspace with military helicopters.

Prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki said: We need to be aware that the number of provocations will rise.

He spoke after meeting Lithuanian president Gitanas Nauseda in eastern Poland.

The Wagner group is extremely dangerous and they are being moved to the eastern flank to destabilise it.

The politicians met in the Suwalki Gap, a sparsely populated but strategically important area of Polish territory between Belarus and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad that joins the Baltic states to other NATO members.

Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki (REUTERS)

Zelensky meets warrior soldiers

Thursday 3 August 2023 14:25 , William Mata

The Ukrainian president tweeted that he had met with battalion.

The warriors of the 45th separate rifle battalion are absolutely heroic. It was an honor for me to visit the defenders in Ivano-Frankivsk who are undergoing treatment there and talk to them. It was an honor to receive a chevron and add it to the chevron board in my office.

The battalion took part in battles in the north and east of Ukraine. The repulsed enemy attacks and retained positions are a feat, lives saved, Ukraine saved. I am proud of you, warriors! And thank you!

The warriors of the 45th separate rifle battalion are absolutely heroic. It was an honor for me to visit the defenders in Ivano-Frankivsk who are undergoing treatment there and talk to them. It was an honor to receive a chevron and add it to the chevron board in my office.



The pic.twitter.com/mFaHTerLcj    (@ZelenskyyUa) August 3, 2023

Poland and Lithuania say they fear provocations from Russia and Belarus at NATO's eastern flank

Thursday 3 August 2023 12:20 , AP

Polish and Lithuanian leaders held an urgent meeting Thursday in a strategically sensitive area where their NATO nations border Belarus and the Russian territory of Kaliningrad, warning that they are bracing for provocations from Moscow and Minsk in the area.

The meeting came two days after two Belarusian helicopters flew briefly at low altitude into Polish air space, in what was viewed as a provocative move. Both nations on NATOs eastern flank have increased their border security following the arrival of thousands of Russia-linked Wagner group mercenaries just across their borders in Belarus after an aborted mutiny in Russia in June.

Russia and Belarus are increasing the pressure on the borders, increasing the number of their provocations, and we must be aware that the number of these provocations will grow, Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki said at a news conference with Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda.

The Belarusian foreign ministry denied that its countrys helicopters entered Poland. Local Polish residents posted photos on social media of helicopters with Belarusian insignia flying above.

They met in Suwalki, a town in the Suwalki Gap, a sparsely populated stretch of land running 96 kilometers (60 miles) along the Polish-Lithuanian border. Also known as the Suwalki Corridor, the stretch of territory links the three Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia with the rest of the NATO alliance. It separates Belarus, an ally of Russia, from Kaliningrad, a heavily militarized exclave of Russia located on the Baltic Sea which is separated from the Russian mainland.

India says it will participate in Ukraine peace talks hosted by Saudi Arabia

Thursday 3 August 2023 12:12 , Reuters

India will participate in Ukraine peace talks to be hosted by Saudi Arabia on August 5 and 6, a foreign ministry spokesperson said during a news briefing on Thursday.

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi (REUTERS)

EU says Poland's new law on Russian influence raises "serious concerns"

Thursday 3 August 2023 11:43 , Reuters

The European Union executive said on Thursday Polands new law on Russian influence continues to raise serious concerns.

Despite criticism that it could serve as a tool to persecute political rivals ahead of a national election due this autumn, Polands President Andrzej Duda - an ally of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party - signed the law into force on Wednesday.

The law would, among other things, create a special committee to investigate any undue Russian influence in Poland.

A spokeswoman of the European Commission also said that risked putting Poland at odds with EU laws when the panel starts operating.

(Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Pictures: August 3 in Ukraine and Russia

Thursday 3 August 2023 11:37 , William Mata

Yulia Seheda, a lawyer for domestic violence victims, appears in front of a local police office in Dnipro (REUTERS)

Sappers of 128th separate territorial defence brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine take part in a training, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Donetsk region (REUTERS)

Svitlana Sushko, 62, sobs while visiting the grave of her youngest son, a Ukrainian soldier who was killed last year in the war against Russia, in Kyiv (AP)
Russian landing ship reported damaged in alleged Ukrainian attack on Novorossiysk

China to participate in Ukraine peace plan meeting

SBU says Russia preparing false flag operation to drag Belarus into war against Ukraine

Poland detains Belarusian suspected of spying for Russia

Donetsk Oblast enlistment office head charged with corruption, aiding criminals

Ukraine retrieves bodies of 44 fallen soldiers.

In his nightly address on Aug. 4, President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed his gratitude to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) for "pushing the war back to the aggressor state."

While he did not specify, this comment comes after the Russian Defense Ministry claimed on Aug. 4 that 13 Ukrainian drones were shot down overnight in occupied Crimea and that two unmanned surface drones were destroyed during an alleged attack on a naval port in Russia's Novorossiysk.

Unnamed sources in the SBU cited by CNN and several Ukrainian media outlets later said that a Russian landing ship stationed in the naval port of Novorossiysk was damaged by one of the surface drones.

The operation was a joint endeavor between the SBU and the Ukrainian Navy, according to the unnamed sources.

A Ukrainian surface drone carrying 450 kilograms of explosives reportedly collided with the Russian Ropucha-class landing vessel "Olenegorskiy Gornyak," causing significant damage.

Regarding the attack on the naval port in Novorossiysk, Ukraine's Southern Command spokesperson Nataliia Humeniuk said earlier on Aug. 4 that it was possibly a provocation to undermine Ukraine's commitment to naval security.

"We need to understand that the entire situation, which has been presented visually, so to speak, fits within the framework of provocations promised at sea on behalf of the Russian side to accuse Ukraine of being a country that cannot ensure maritime security and is unreliable in terms of navigation management in the Black Sea," Humeniuk said.

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Humeniuk added that Russia was engaged in a hybrid war and that "information provocations can be created by Russia very often, playing their own role as a victim."

However, due to the logistical value of places like Feodosia in occupied Crimea, Humeniuk said that it is highly probable explosions will continue to be reported from there.

 Ukraines cyber chief says Kyiv is winning worlds first cyberwar For Ukraines main cybersecurity agency, Russias full-scale war began over a month before Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine from all directions  with a large cyber attack on Jan. 14, 2022. It all started with an attack on state authorities, it was the largest attack in 17 years, says Yurii Shch The Kyiv Independent Oleksiy Sorokin



China to participate in Ukraine peace plan meeting

China's Foreign Ministry announced on Aug. 4 that Chinese Special Representative for Eurasian Affairs Li Hui will participate in an international meeting on the implementation of Ukraine's peace formula.

Saudi Arabia is set to host the meeting which will take place on Aug. 5-6. The Wall Street Journal reported that Russia has not been invited, citing unnamed diplomats familiar with the matter.

Citing anonymous EU sources, the Spanish news outlet Europa Press reported in late July that approximately 40 countries were invited to the informal meeting aimed at discussing Kyiv's peace formula.

Ukraine's 10-point peace formula  which has already received public support from many of its allies  includes the restoration of Ukraine's territorial integrity, a complete withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine, and the punishing of those responsible for committing war crimes against Ukrainian citizens.

The summit comes as Russia and the West battle over the support of developing countries, which have mostly stayed neutral throughout Russia's 16-month-long full-scale war against Ukraine.

Zelensky's Chief of Staff Andrii Yermak confirmed in late July that the meeting would take place, adding that national security advisers and political advisers to heads of state would be in attendance.

"We are deeply convinced that the Ukrainian peace plan should be taken as a basis because the war is taking place on our land," Yermak said.

 Exclusive: New insights point to Hungarys collaboration with Moscow on transfer of Ukrainian POWs In early June, a bizarre and mysterious joint operation was carried out between two of Ukraines neighbors, one to the east and one to the west. Eleven Ukrainian soldiers, after having been held in Russian captivity for an unknown amount of time, were moved from Russia to Hungary. Although The Kyiv Independent Francis Farrell



SBU says Russia preparing false flag operation to drag Belarus into war against Ukraine

Russia is preparing a large-scale false flag operation at the Mozyr oil refinery in Belarus according to intelligence obtained by Ukraine's Security Service (SBU).

The Mozyr oil refinery is located some 50 kilometers from the Ukrainian border and over 150 kilometers from Russia's border.

The SBU wrote on Aug. 4 that the alleged plan involved a Russian sabotage-reconnaissance group carrying out a "provocation" at the refinery. Moscow would then blame the attack on Kyiv in an attempt to drive Belarus into the war against Ukraine.

The sabotage group allegedly includes Russian military personnel and special services who were sent to Belarus disguised as Wagner mercenaries.

According to the SBU, they received information about the potential attack from several sources. This includes data extracted from the phone of a Russian soldier who was taken prisoner in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, along with the testimony he provided.

The Russian POW had previously fought against Ukrainian forces in the country's south but prior to his capture was instructed to relocate to Belarus as a fake member of Russia's private mercenary Wagner Group, according to the SBU.

"Already at the stage of relocating, the Russian serviceman was briefed on a 'special mission' at the Mozyr refinery. In his phone, cyber specialists of the SBU found deleted correspondence with other saboteurs, pictures of the facility, and other information about the operation," the SBU wrote.

After the Wagner Group's failed 'rebellion' against the Russian military leadership, thousands of Wagner troops and heavy equipment were relocated to Belarus from Russia. Minsk has claimed that the mercenaries are training the Belarusian military.

 How Russian soldiers shared evidence of their own war crime Editors note: This story is the first account of the Kyiv Independents contributor, Anthony Bartaway, who witnessed Russian shelling targeting volunteers during relief efforts following the destruction of the Kakhovka dam and the ensuing devastating flooding in Kherson Oblast. After Russian force The Kyiv Independent Anthony Bartaway



Poland detains Belarusian suspected of spying for Russia

Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminiski said on Aug. 4. that Internal Security Agency, Poland's counterintelligence and security agency, detained a Belarusian man who is suspected of being part of a Russian spy network.

The suspect, a Belarusian citizen referred to as Mikhail A., was taken into custody for gathering information on Polish military facilities and ports. He is also accused of spreading pro-Russian propaganda, according to Kaminski.

This is the 16th person to be detained by Poland on suspicion of espionage.

Poland previously arrested a foreigner for spying for Russian intelligence on March 27. The suspect was detained for gathering information on security measures around critical infrastructure.

Poland, which serves as a transportation hub for weapons supplied by Ukraine's allies, has been faced with increased security threats since the start of the Russian full-scale invasion.

On March 16, Kaminski confirmed that Warsaw had broken up a Russian spy network and detained nine people who were allegedly preparing sabotage acts and monitoring rail routes to Ukraine.

The Polish minister said that the spy network had also been requested to conduct propaganda activities aimed at destabilizing relations between Poland and Ukraine.

 Belarus Weekly: Helicopters violate Polish airspace; Wagner moves closer to border Tensions rise after Belarusian helicopters cross into Polish territory, the countrys state border service said on Aug. 1. Poland also alleges that around 100 Wagner mercenaries are transferred closer to the Suwalki Corridor, bringing tensions to a new high. Subscribe to the Newsletter Belarus The Kyiv Independent Maria Yeryoma



Donetsk Oblast enlistment office head charged with corruption, aiding criminals

The State Bureau of Investigation (DBR) announced on Aug. 4 that the head of the military enlistment office in Donetsk Oblast had been arrested on suspicion of arranging for unwarranted military bonuses for his subordinates and helping criminals to avoid justice.

The DBR did not name the suspect, but the current head of the Donetsk Oblast military enlistment office is Colonel Hennadii Yaremenko.

During his tenure as the head of the Zaporizhzhia Oblast military enlistment office from July to December 2022, the military official was allegedly involved in a scheme where his close subordinates received an unwarranted combat allowance.

According to the DBR, these subordinates were deployed to a brigade near the front line, but they were not assigned to a combat unit nor did they carry out any combat-related tasks.

Despite this, the head of the enlistment office arranged documents for these servicemembers claiming their direct involvement in combat, which resulted in them receiving unjustified combat bonuses amounting to Hr 981,300 (over $26,600).

One of the subordinates was provided documents to receive Hr 700,000 (up to $19,000) in monetary aid for being unable to work due to his alleged battlefield deployment, the investigators said.

The DBR also accused the military official of hiring local criminals at the enlistment office to assist them in evading trial and accountability for their crimes. Additionally, he allegedly provided aid to a "criminal authority" by facilitating their deregistration from military records, enabling them to leave the country.

 This Week in Ukraine Ep. 10  Corruption in Ukraine, and where reforms fall short Episode #10 of our weekly video podcast This Week in Ukraine is dedicated to corruption inside Ukraines judicial system, and how the government has tried to implement reforms to fight it. Host Anastasiia Lapatina is joined by the Kyiv Independent reporter Oleg Sukhov. Listen to the audio versio The Kyiv Independent Anastasiia Lapatina



Ukraine retrieves bodies of 44 fallen soldiers

The Reintegration Ministry reported on Aug. 4 that the remains of 44 Ukrainian soldiers killed in action had been successfully returned to Ukrainian territory.

The transfer was reportedly carried out by the Office of the Commissioner for Missing Persons, Ukrainian law enforcement, the military, the Joint Center of the Security Service of Ukraine, and international organizations.

Upon identification, the bodies of the fallen soldiers will be returned to their relatives for burial.

Under the Geneva Conventions, which mandate internationally-recognized standards of humane treatment during wartime, both civilians and servicemembers alike have the right to a dignified burial.

 Uncertainty and despair: War taking heavy toll on mental health of Ukrainians Viktoriia Borodai can not recall the last time she experienced real joy. She has lived in uncertainty and despair ever since Russias all-out war forced her to flee Kramatorsk, her hometown in Donetsk Oblast, last March. Seeking shelter in different towns across Ukraine and watching how Russia The Kyiv Independent Daria Shulzhenko



Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
NSDC Secretary Oleksiy Danilov

Kyiv does not have the capacity to develop and produce nuclear weapons on its own in foreseeable future, although hosting allied nuclear arsenal could be a part of future security guarantees, Ukraines National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) secretary, Oleksiy Danilov, told Ukrainian TV broadcasters on Aug. 4.

Read also: Ukraines top diplomat calls out Russian spin about F-16s being nuclear threat

Danilov commented on the possibility of Ukraine getting access to a nuclear deterrent in some form as part of long-term international security guarantees.

As for the arsenal that we had confiscated (after the dissolution of the Soviet Union), let's be realistic  it is unlikely to be possible at all (to restore it), he said.

And not just for political reasons, but also for technological ones.

The official emphasized that Soviet-era intercontinental missiles, which were previously stationed in Ukraine, are "a complex matter," suggesting that having an independent nuclear weapons program is not a realistic option.

He noted that there are countries that do not possess nuclear weapons themselves, but they are provided with them "upon invitation" by some of their allies.

Read also: Polands Foreign Ministry formerly protests violation of airspace by Belarus, NATO also reacts

"Whether this will work in our case  I cannot tell you right now, because it is a complex, responsible, and difficult task," he concluded.

Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki previously announced that his country wants to host nuclear weapons on its territory under NATOs Nuclear Sharing program.

Read also: Russia hasn't made preparations to use nuclear weapons yet - CIA Chief

Nuclear Sharing is a NATO program that is part of the Alliance's nuclear deterrence policy. Under this program, NATO countries provide nuclear warheads to other states that do not possess their own nuclear weapons. Since November 2009, U.S. nuclear weapons have been stationed in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Turkey as part of the program.

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
ukraine war of attrition Illustrated / Getty Images

Ukraine's long-touted counteroffensive against the Russian invasion doesn't seem to be getting anywhere fast. The Washington Post reported this week that there's been "sign yet of a major breakthrough" despite "intense fighting" across southeastern Ukraine. Russian defenses  "a phalanx of trenches, tripwires and anti-personnel and anti-armor mines"  have proven incredibly stout. (One other factor: Weeds and shrubs.)

If Russian defenses are proving tough, though, NATO-trained Ukrainian forces have also demonstrated some shortcomings. The New York Times reported that despite some advances, those troops "have yet to make the kinds of sweeping gains that characterized their successes in the strategically important cities of Kherson and Kharkiv last fall." That failure "raises questions about the quality of the training" provided by the West. One eternal military truth, however, is that "offense is harder than defense"  as Russia proved last year when its invasion quickly petered out.

Two months after the Ukrainian counteroffensive began, it's become clear that it was probably "unfair" to expect "dash and drama" from the offensive, said The Economist. Ukraine's forces have been armed and trained by the West, but they don't have "overwhelming firepower and air supremacy" to mount a blitzkrieg-style lightning thrust against Russian defenses. This means that the war may be reduced to a grind-it-out affair. Is it time for Ukraine and its backers to accept "the logic of attrition?"

What are the commentators saying?

The slow advance of the counteroffensive is "the price of allies' hesitation" in providing Ukraine with advanced weaponry, Brady Africk of the American Enterprise Institute wrote for the Washington Post. While Russians constructed their defenses at a "frantic pace," America and other Western countries didn't let that influence "the speed of their decision making." Instead, there is a "pattern of delay" when Ukraine asks for missiles, tanks and cluster munitions. That delay "makes a protracted, grinding conflict more likely." It's time for Western leaders to move more quickly. "Ukraine needs our help, not our excuses."

"The fact that the Ukrainians are on the offensive at all is something of a miracle," Tom Nichols wrote for The Atlantic. But wars don't have the same "narrative arc as action movies." It's always not the case that the "good guys" can deliver a swift, crushing blow to the bad guys. Ukraine is taking the war to its Russian enemy  both on the battlefield and with drone attacks on Moscow. The U.S. should speed up its aid to Kyiv, yes. Even then, the task won't be easy. This means "the summer of drones and trenches will drag on  as it must."

"The first casualty of the Ukrainian counteroffensive was wishful thinking," Julian Borger wrote for The Guardian. Russian troops haven't fled the advance. Instead, Ukrainian troops  slowed by Russian minefields  have had to proceed "at walking speed." That means there will be no "dramatic breach of Russian lines." But the offensive may yet pay off. "It's not going to be easy," one official told Borger, "so we shouldn't shy away from that."

What's next?

Even as Ukraine and Russia duke it out on the battlefield, there are some efforts underway to bring the war to a peaceful conclusion. Politico reported that Saudi Arabia is hosting "dozens of national security advisers and senior-ranking officials" this weekend as part of an effort "to broker a peace plan" in Ukraine. (Russia is not invited, but China is.) "What is important is that we have an outcome that is acceptable for the Ukrainian people," said one European Union official.

And if Ukraine is having a tough time executing its counteroffensive, it is important to remember that Russia has found this war much more difficult than it originally anticipated. "Putin is not close to achieving any of his war aims while the price of his gambit grows ever steeper," Lawrence Freedman wrote at Foreign Affairs. After the recent rebellion by Wagner mercenaries, it is Vladimir Putin who needs to show his country there is a path to victory. In Ukraine, by contrast, "that this is a war that had to be fought." So for now, "this has become a war of endurance."

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For Ukraine's main cybersecurity agency, Russia's full-scale war began over a month before Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine from all directions  with a large cyber attack on Jan. 14, 2022.

"It all started with an attack on state authorities, it was the largest attack in 17 years," says Yurii Shchyhol, head of the State Special Communications Service, which is responsible for defending Ukraine's cyberspace.

Shchyhol says over 90 government websites were targeted, about 20 of them were defaced, and some data was erased. It took Ukrainian authorities 2-3 days to get those websites back up.

This was the first indication for us that (Russia) was planning something big," he adds.

The month leading up to the full-scale invasion, Ukraine experienced several major cyberattacks  on Feb. 15 and Feb. 22.

By the time Russia launched its full-scale war, Ukraine was ready to face Kremlin's cyberwarfare, taking place alongside the ground offensive.

The 7,500 employees of the Special Communications Service are now in charge of protecting Ukraine from cyberattacks, ensuring the military and political communication is secure, and conducting online operations to hamper Russia's war effort.

Read also: Fighting smarter: Ukraines transformation into a military innovator

The agency has also created a database of critical infrastructure, and coordinates its defense.

"There has never been such a war in history, Shchyhol, who took charge of the agency in 2021, says. It is the world's first cyberwar in general, and there is no country in the world (except Ukraine) with this experience."

He adds that Ukraine has faced around 20 cyberattacks per day since February 2022, with most of them deterred automatically, while some requiring timely intrusions by the agency.

In the 16 months since the start of the fullscale war, Shchyhol says Ukraine hasn't lost any critical information, nor were any major systems downed.

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Shchyhol says the agency is now drawing up a list of sanctions and laws required to stop Russia from being able to conduct cyberwarfare.

"Even after our victory on the ground, we understand that the cyberwar will not cease, and they will persist in attacking our systems," Shchyhol says.

"Therefore, our international partners are currently working on creating conditions that will ultimately compel Russia to stop threatening Ukraine and the civilized world," he adds.

"Our goal is to push them back into the intellectual and IT Middle Ages."

Preparing for cyberwarfare

Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine in Crimea and Donbas in 2014. It soon turned to cyberwarfare to accompany its conventional attacks.

In 2017, Ukraine was struck by a series of powerful cyberattacks using the NotPetya malware that swamped banks, energy companies, government websites, and many non-governmental organizations.

NotPetya ransomware was designed to cause substantial destruction and Ukraine was the primary target of the attack.

For a brief time, Ukrainian cyberspace was left defenseless.

Shchyhol says that's when the state began to prepare for cyberwar. Reforms soon followed.

"We created a national coordination center and a corresponding unit within the security service. This service acquired new powers," Shchyhol says.

The agency gained complete control of Ukraine's cyberdefense but simultaneously decentralized it, transferring some functions to different departments and allowing security specialists to perform tasks without the need to ask the leadership for permission.

The Computer Emergency Response Team of Ukraine (CERT-UA), a structural department of the Special Communications Service, employed young, tech-savvy professionals to counter future attacks.

The Ukrainian government soon issued a decree ensuring that government-employed IT specialists receive a premium for their work.

Read also: Serhiy Prytula: New satellite made Ukrainian intelligence happy like kids

"We know that they can always find a high-earning job elsewhere, but it's good that they are willing to help the state," Volodymyr Kondrashov, spokesman for the State Special Communications Service, said.

Under Shchyhol, the state agency began to work hand in hand with the private sector to help prevent potential attacks on businesses.

"In two years, we managed to build a trustworthy relationship with the private sector, where they started utilizing the services we provide today," he adds.

Shchyhol also mentions that Ukraine was able to build a relationship with white hat hackers, who helped when Russia was about to launch the full-scale invasion.

"We didn't assume any authority, we wanted their assistance. And it was these people who on Jan. 14, during the first major attack, said, 'we are with you,'" Shchyhol says.

However, experts say the scale to which independent IT specialists influenced Ukraine's cyberdefense is greatly exaggerated.

Battle-hardened cyber defense

"Today, we possess the greatest competence in the world when it comes to repelling attacks," Shchyhol says.

In 2022 alone, the CERT-UA team manually deterred 2,194 attacks. That's over six attacks per day. The number of cyberattacks deterred automatically is approximately 20 per day, Shchyhol says.

To prevent such attacks, the State Special Communications Service works alongside cyber police, which investigates the attacks, and the National Security and Defense Council, which recommends sanctions and legislation.

"Before the full-scale war, we could hardly imagine that all these entities would work toward a common goal and collaborate," Shchyhol says, referring to infighting to which Ukrainian state agencies were prone.

Read also: People under Russian occupation cut off from internet, mobile connection

Sitting in a refurbished office in an old Soviet-built building, Shchyhol says Russia continues to methodically attempt to find holes in Ukraine's cybersecurity.

"All the activities of their hacker groups are part of a unified plan and are coordinated with other hacker groups in Russia under state control," Shchyhol says.

When Russia began bombarding Ukraine's energy infrastructure in October, Shchyhol says, its cyber arm "shifted focus to attacking energy infrastructure, attempting to disrupt energy distribution networks in conjunction with their missile attacks."

He says that one attack that would have halted Ukraine's electricity supply was deterred last minute, adding that it's a 24/7 job to keep Ukraine's critical infrastructure online.

Shchyhol believes that Ukraine shouldn't underestimate Russia's abilities to deliver a blow.

"They will always seek out vulnerabilities to penetrate our defense system, just as they do on the battlefield."

That's why Shchyhol says his agency is also looking for ways to deprive Russia of the ability to continue its ongoing cyberattacks.

"They must be excluded from all international organizations and isolated from the civilized world to prevent them from accessing technologies. Only then can there become a guarantee of our future security," Shchyhol says.

He adds that, despite Russia's ability to bypass sanctions, a significant portion of their equipment, such as the one made by U.S. tech corporations Cisco and IBM, does not receive support or license updates.

"In six months to a year, it will reach a point where it won't function at all, impeding their ability to launch attacks," Shchyhol says. "Thus, time is working in our favor.

Front-line struggles

Despite some success, Ukraine is still facing cyber issues that need to be tackled, and some of them are experienced right on the battlefield.

Soldiers who spoke with the Kyiv Independent said they had encountered problems with basic communications, sometimes having trouble reaching units stationed 100 meters away.

Shchyhol says it's an acute issue they desperately want to solve.

"They (Russians) launched attacks on Viasat (satellites), for example, during the first night of the invasion, followed by attacks on Ukrainian providers and operators," Shchyhol says, adding that it created chaos early into the full-scale war.

Viasat is an international satellite used by multiple countries but Ukraine suffered the most, according to Shchyhol. At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the backup communication lines for the Armed Forces were established through Viasat, he says.

Shchyhol says most problems are solved now with the help of the Starlink satellite internet, with Ukraine using over 20,000 of Elon Musk's terminals, but adds that jammed radio frequencies remain an issue.

Read also: How Elon Musks Starlink satellite internet keeps Ukraine online

"If we are talking about Bakhmut or any other hot spot, they employ means of electronic warfare, unfortunately. When they activate all their possible means, it affects our communication," Shchyhol says.

"If we are referring to hot spots, it is quite effective. They utilize all their electronic warfare systems and can disrupt the stability of our communication."

Shchyhol says Western countries substantially helped Ukraine by providing equipment to counter Russian attempts to disrupt front-line communication.

"It is (now) impossible to jam absolutely everything. Radios work in certain frequency ranges, Starlink works in other areas, Viasat works in specific locations, and other satellite devices operate elsewhere," he says.

Enemies from within

Another major issue that Shchyhol's agency struggles with is securing Ukraine's critical infrastructure from Russian attacks offline.

Ukraine lacks air defense to protect all infrastructure, and until recently, it lacked a registrar of all such sites required to make a qualified assessment of what needs to be defended first and what specific gear needs to be employed.

"Our task was to create a unified register where each level of criticality corresponds to the appropriate protection measures," Shchyhol says.

"The General Staff can determine the most effective placement of the Patriot system to cover the nuclear power plant and other critical infrastructure facilities," Shchyhol says, pointing to the fact that a registrar helps the army make such decisions.

"Regarding anti-aircraft defense, it involves comprehensive coverage of multiple objects rather than just one. Different requirements apply to a nuclear power plant compared to a hospital, for example."

However, one issue which Shchyhol says his agency can't help resolve is the threat of sabotage by Russian-linked actors.

Russian-linked business people own critical infrastructure in Ukraine, which is constantly targeted by Russian missiles. Shchyhol believes they may have access to sensitive information such as the exact locations of certain infrastructure sites.

Read also: Endless Russian assaults near Kreminna test Ukraines defenses

Before the full-scale war, Russia's VS Energy, owned by Russian Kremlin-linked businessmen Yevgeni Giner and Mikhail Voevodin and Russian lawmaker Alexander Babakov owned shares in eight Ukrainian regional energy companies, Ukrainian fugitive oligarch with ties to Russian organized crime, Dmytro Firtash, owned 70% of the country's gas distribution market, while members of the pro-Russian Opposition Platform party had shares in oil, gas and coal plants.

Some of them have ended up on sanction lists of Ukraine, the EU, and the U.S. as soon as Russian tanks crossed into Ukraine in 2022. Others havent.

"The Security Service is working on this matter and revokes access for such owners to these systems. This started recently, and it's just the beginning," Shchyhol says.

"(Those people) can have access to various systems and registrars, and it is our job to ensure that they meet the requirements set by the state. If they fail to meet these requirements, then it is necessary to hold them accountable, including depriving them of their property rights," he goes on.

"There is currently no law on liability, but we are working on it."

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Drone boat attack Russia ship

A Russian Navy amphibious landing ship appears to have been badly damaged as the result of a Ukrainian drone attack early this morning. Different videos and photos show the apparent attack on the Ropucha class vessel Olenegorsky Gornyak, as well as its aftermath, with the ship left listing in Russias Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, close to where the attack reportedly took place. Novorossiysk, a major Russian port on the eastern coast of the Black Sea, sits roughly 420 miles from Ukrainian-held shores.

The video below was purportedly taken from the drone boat as it approached the landing ship from the port side. When its explosive payload detonates, the footage abruptly cuts out:

https://twitter.com/Osinttechnical/status/1687358900079587329?s=20

Subsequent imagery confirms that the vessel was damaged and has begun to take on water, listing to port. In at least one of the videos, the Olenegorsky Gornyak is seen under tow, while already listing badly and sitting very low in the water.

https://twitter.com/Osinttechnical/status/1687350645592817665?s=20 https://twitter.com/Osinttechnical/status/1687360553809829888?s=20 https://twitter.com/Osinttechnical/status/1687351254014377985?s=20 https://twitter.com/Euan_MacDonald/status/1687369392915402752?s=20

Unconfirmed reports out of Ukraine suggest that the Olenegorsky Gornyak was targeted by one or more uncrewed surface vessels (USVs) in a joint operation by the Ukrainian Navy and the Security Service of Ukraine, or SBU.

As a result of the attack, the Olenegorskiy Gornyak sustained a serious hole and is currently unable to carry out its combat missions, a Ukrainian intelligence source told Reuters.

Novorossiysk is a major Russian port and another home to elements of the Black Sea Fleet. (Google Earth)

Meanwhile, the Russian Ministry of Defense acknowledges that the attack took place, but claims that it was repelled, the USVs being destroyed by Russian warships.

The available evidence suggests this is not the case. At the very least, even if one or more USVs were disabled, the Olenegorsky Gornyak was still left badly damaged.

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https://twitter.com/Flash_news_ua/status/1687297525529620480?s=20

Using explosives-laden USVs has become an increasingly popular Ukrainian tactic in the complex campaign fought in and around the Black Sea.

The SBU took responsibility for a large scale drone attack on Russian Navy Black Sea Fleet ships in the port of Sevastopol, in Russian-occupied Crimea, last October. There have also been repeated attempts to attack that same key port as well as individual attacks made on Russian ships of the Black Sea Fleet operating far offshore. Ukraine has even used its unmanned surface vessels in an earlier attempt to strike Novorossiysk, as it successfully did today. More recently, USVs also were reportedly responsible for the attack on the Kerch Bridge that connects Crimea with the Russian mainland.

Overall, USV attacks have increasingly come over greater distances from Ukraine-controlled shores.

The available video of the USV used in the attack on the Olenegorsky Gornyak does not reveal too many details, although the configuration appears similar to a new type of drone boat that was revealed only days ago.

As we reported at the time, this USV is a low-visibility gray boat that has gimballed and staring optical sensors allowing for remote control. It can reportedly carry a big 300-kilogram warhead out to a range of 800 kilometers... The satellite communications array seen at the rear of the boat is also new. It is widely assumed that Starlink was used on earlier Ukrainian drone boats, but the company began limiting access to certain areas and other parameters to negate the systems with weapons like drone boats. This new satcom array likely gets around those limitations by using another provider.

em>CNN/em>

A video of the apparently new USV design showed it making tight turns and maneuvers just offshore while under the control of its operator. That operator, using the callsign Shark, explained that the drone boats were specifically designed to exploit a hole in Russian warships defenses with their low profile.

https://twitter.com/MarquardtA/status/1685263332733845505?s=20

In the past, a number of Ukrainian drone attacks against Russian warships have been foiled after the ships and supporting helicopters managed to engage the boats in massed small arms and cannon fire once within visual range. Still, Ukraine has continued to invest heavily in these weapons, rapidly evolving their capabilities.

It looks like this effort is now finally paying off.

This is a developing story. Stay with The War Zone for updates on this latest attack.

Update, 7:00 AM PST: As well as the apparent USV attack on the Russian Navy amphibious landing ship Olenegorsky Gornyak, there are reports that other Russian targets have come under recent attack.

There are reports that explosions occurred in the area of Yuzhnaya Ozerievka, where the Caspian Pipeline Consortiums marine terminal is located, close to the scene of the landing ship attack. Once again, drone boats are said to have been used, in this case, to attack oil infrastructure.

https://twitter.com/EuromaidanPress/status/1687344802495356928?s=20 https://twitter.com/officejjsmart/status/1687302374841335809?s=20 https://twitter.com/Capt_Navy/status/1687383184835534848?s=20

Similarly, Russia says it repelled the drone boat attack on the oil facility, although based on its comments about the Olenegorsky Gornyak, this claim should be treated with considerable caution.

The Russian Ministry of Defense provided the following statement:

Tonight the Armed Forces of Ukraine carried out an attempt to attack the naval base in Novorossiysk by two unmanned sea boats. In the course of repelling the attack, the unmanned boats were detected and destroyed by fire from the standard weapons of Russian ships guarding the outer harbor of the naval base.

In the meantime, more videos and photos have emerged revealing the degree of damage sustained by the Olenegorsky Gornyak.

https://twitter.com/CovertShores/status/1687429773406908416?s=20 https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1687376001930551296?s=20

Initial satellite imagery of the Olenegorsky Gornyak, from Planet Labs, shows the landing ship now moored at the Novorossiysk naval base and still listing to port. At least one image also shows what appears to be an oil leak coming from the vessel.

https://twitter.com/JosephHDempsey/status/1687450475249975296?s=20 https://twitter.com/COUPSURE/status/1687464429728780288?s=20

Contact the author: thomas@thedrive.com
A drone during the testing of new military equipment, including FPV drones, by soldiers from the 24th Separate Mechanized Brigade on the training area amid Russia-Ukraine war in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine on August 03, 2023. Wojciech Grzedzinski/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Serhiy, a Ukrainian soldier, was badly wounded by shelling in the Zaporizhzhia Oblast.

He was stuck in a crater field for two days with a pierced lung and wounded leg, Serhiy told CNN.

Serhiy was able to crawl back to safety after a drone spotted the soldier in the field.

A Ukrainian soldier separated from the rest of his unit and left to bleed alone in a crater field close to enemy territory was saved by a drone delivering life-saving supplies  but for a harrowing few moments, he wasn't sure if the drone was a friend or foe.

The soldier was injured on the battlefield in the Zaporizhzhia Oblast in July, and was suffering from a chest and leg wound from the shelling, CNN's chief international security correspondent, Nick Paton Walsh, reported.

"I was ready to fight for my life, and I did, even lying there under the blazing sun," the soldier, identified by CNN only as Serhiy, told the outlet through a translator. "I realized I was too close to the Russians and you even start to look at your gun in a different way."

"All the time I was crawling, a drone was hovering above," Serhiy told CNN, adding that he wasn't sure if it was a "friend or foe. It was a lottery."

Then, the vehicle dropped what could have been a package or a bomb.

But as he clung to life, Serhiy soon realized that the drone was on his side.

Footage from the Ukrainian military provided to CNN shows the drone operators attaching water, medicine, and a note to send to Serhiy. The aerial vehicle soon came back to the soldier's location to drop off the package.

Serhiy can be seen in the footage throwing a thumbs up in the moment he realized that he could be saved.

According to CNN, the drone kept sending water and medicine to the wounded soldier to ease Serhiy's pain and allow him to crawl back to safety. Combat medics found the soldier after two days.

"The combat medics who gave me first aid when they found me were very surprised I survived for two days with a pierced lung," Serhiy told CNN.

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Eugene, a soldier of the 15th national guard brigade who operated the drone, told CNN that he wouldn't be able to "live with myself" if he left a fellow soldier to die.

"I don't want to leave anyone behind," he said.

Read the original article on Business Insider
A naval drone attacks the Russian amphibious assault ship Olenegorsky Gornyak

Russian tugs are attempting to tow back to port the Olenegorsky Gornyak, a Russian amphibious assault ship of the Northern Fleet that was badly damaged in a Ukrainian sea drone attack overnight on Aug. 4, but the warship looks to be in danger of sinking, fresh video of the stricken vessel shows.

The Astra Telegram news channel posted a video of a Russian tugs attempt to tow the Olenegorsky Gornyak, which is listing heavily to port (left).

"Every time they pull (the warship), it tilts," says a voice in the video, which shows a group of tug boats around the crippled vessel in Novorossiysk Bay.

The listing of the ship indicates that several compartments may be flooded in the area where the drone hit. Footage circulating on social media of the actual attack on the warship, apparently from the drones onboard camera, shows it racing towards the Olenegorsky Gornyak and striking it on the port side.

News of the attack on the Russian warship was greeted with delight on Ukrainian social media. Users mockingly adopted the tone of Russian propaganda, joking that the Olenegorsky Gornyak had heroically destroyed a Ukrainian kamikaze drone with its hull.

Russias Ministry of Defense earlier reported an attack by Ukrainian sea drones on a naval base at Novorossiysk. It claimed all the attacking drones had been destroyed.

However, the video of the attack on the warship clearly shows the drone approaching the Olenegorsky Gornyak, apparently undetected and not under fire, and then apparently impacting on its port side, indicating the Russian claims are false.

Meanwhile, as news of the attack on Novorossiysk spread, wheat prices began to rise, but experts said they believed that these were only temporary market jitters.

"Against the background of reports of an attack on a naval base near the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk in the Russian Federation, wheat quotations increased by 2% at the opening of trade on Aug. 4, Ukrainian food industry news website APK Inform reported.

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However, market operators still expect that wheat futures will fall in price by the end of the current week," APK Inform added.

The Olenegorsky Gornyak, built at a shipyard in Gdansk, Poland in the 1970s, is part of Russias 121st Amphibious Assault Brigade, and in 2007 was declared by the Russian Navy to be "the best amphibious assault ship of the Northern Fleet."

The Ropucha class landing ship was one of five such vessels that Russia sailed into the Black Sea in February 2022 to support its full-scale invasion and war on Ukraine. However, as Ukraine mounted a stiff defense against the Russian invasion forces, Moscow was never able to launch any amphibious assaults on the Ukrainian coast.

According to NVs sources in Ukraines SBUsecurity service, the attack on the Russian warship was a special operation of the SBU carried out together with Ukrainian Navy. The SBU told NV that the warship had been seriously damaged and was currently unable to perform its combat tasks.

Russian claims that all attacks by Ukrainian sea drones were repulsed are false, the SBU said.

About 100 crew members are on board the Russian warship. The Ukrainian sea drone was carrying a warhead of 450 kilograms of TNT, the SBU said.

In the wake of the attack on the Olenegorsky Gornyak, a large number of Russian warships have left port and are now dispersing on the Black Sea, Ukraines military has reported.

"The enemy is deploying a large naval grouping, Nataliya Humenyuk, the head of the United Press Center of the South Operational Command, said on Ukrainian national television in the morning of Aug. 4

Indeed, a large number of ships, now 15 units, are in the Black Sea. One is usually based in Azov," Humenyuk said.

She said that the Russian Black Sea Fleet was trying to spread out it ships so that they were not concentrated in one place.

Meanwhile, military expert Mykhailo Zhirokhov has commented that the drones had to cover a considerable distance to reach Novorossiysk, which he called "a very nice target."

"Even if the range of use allows, it is not clear how they got to Novorossiysk, because in fact the coast of the Sea of Azov is now controlled by the Russians, the military expert said.

He suggested that the drones could have been launched from territory not controlled by Ukraine.

"Maybe there is a (Ukrainian) agent near Berdyansk, or the fighters of some special unit came out and launched (the drone). ... Because it looks unbelievable (that the drone could) go around (the Russian coastal defenses) near Crimea, past the Kerch bridge, and go to Novorossiysk," Zhirokhov said.

The Russian Ministry of Defense early onAug. 4 said that overnight the Russian naval base at Novorossiysk was attacked by "two Ukrainian unmanned boats," which were allegedly "visually detected, fired on and destroyed.

Meanwhile In the port of Novorossiysk, a temporary ban on all shipping traffic has been imposed, oil company Caspian Pipeline Consortium or KTC announced.

KPC owns an oil terminal near Novorossiysk. The company's press service stated that the terminal was not damaged and continues to load oil onto moored tankers.

However, local residents report that there was an explosion and fire at the KPC terminal, with videos and photographs of a fire and a plume of smoke over the port appearing online.

Novorossiysk seaport is one of the largest ports of the Black Sea, and of Russia.

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Ukraine will face electricity shortage in summer

Ukraines state-owned energy company, UkrEnergo, has assured the public that there are no anticipated consumer power outages for the rest of the summer period despite electricity shortages, Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, the Chairman of the company, said during a briefing on August 4.

The situation is challenging, even in the summer. However, we do not predict any consumer disconnections due to electricity shortages in the energy system, stated Kudrytskyi.

Read also:

In preparation for the winter, the energy sector needs to utilize all available generation, including imports of electricity, Kudrytskyi said. To minimize risks during the autumn-winter period, UkrEnergo has identified four essential elements:

Repairs of damaged energy facilities such as substations and power plants.

Implementation of engineering protection measures to mitigate the impact of Russian attacks.

Encouragement of energy-efficient consumption practices.

Strengthening of the air defense system.

It is physically impossible to completely restore all the damage that the energy system has suffered in the eight months since the attacks were at their peak, he said.

Read also:

Previously, Kudrytskyi mentioned that the first weeks of August would be particularly demanding in terms of the load on the energy system. However, he saidcompany is counting on coping with the deficit by importing electricity from Europe.

He also emphasized that the likelihood of power outages in any region directly depends on the nature and success of enemy attacks on energy infrastructure.

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
(Photo : SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

Former United States President Donald Trump pleads not guilty during his arraignment over the 2020 Georgia election interference case.

Former United States President Donald Trump pleads not guilty to election interference charges during the arraignment of his 2020 Georgia election case, where he is accused of trying to overturn the results of his loss against Joe Biden.

The Republican businessman appeared at his arraignment in a federal courthouse in Washington on Thursday. The situation comes after a grand jury indicted the former president on four felony counts, which include conspiracy to defraud the nation, that Special Counsel Jack Smith brought.

Trump Pleads Not Guilty

More than 110 people who attended Trump's arraignment were screened under heightened security measures. They were seated inside a packed second-floor courtroom for the Republican businessman's hearing. They included several federal judges who have presided over Jan. 6 cases.

Among these were Chief Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and Judges Amy Berman Jackson and Randolph Moss. They could be seen seated in the back row of the courtroom gallery, as per the Washington Post.

The former president and his attorneys and security detail entered the courtroom through the back door at around 3:51 p.m. Defense attorney John F. Lauro was responsible for arguing for Trump and was seated at the front of the defense table. The Republican businessman was seated between Lauro and defense attorney Todd Blanche in the middle.

When the former president entered the room, he glanced at Smith, who was at the prosecution's side of the room. However, Trump did not look again at the special counsel throughout the hearing. Smith occasionally glanced in the former president's direction as he chatted with a team member.

The defendant spent several quiet minutes before he could be heard whispering with his attorneys and discussing a document placed in front of them on the defense table. The former president could be seen with a somber expression during the proceedings and only gave brief answers when asked by Magistrate Judge Moxila A. Upadhyaya.

Read Also: Biden Wants Nigerien President Bazoum's Immediate Release

A Series of Criminal Indictments

The Georgia election case is Trump's third criminal indictment and joins the hush money payment controversy in New York and accusations that he mishandled classified government documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, according to Aljazeera.

Trump's legal challenges come as he is the frontrunner in the GOP presidential nomination race for the 2024 season. He has also denied all wrongdoings and described the indictments as attempts to derail his campaign for the presidency.

However, the latest indictment could become the former president's biggest challenge yet, as experts argued it marks the most significant of the three criminal indictments. One also called it "probably the most significant legal case in the history of the United States.

During the hearing, the judge warned Trump not to speak about the case with other witnesses and then informed him that he would not be required to appear personally during his next court date. The latter was scheduled for Aug. 28, presiding over by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, known for handing out strict sentences against Jan. 6 insurrectionists, said Huffpost.

Related Article: Former Maryland Mayor Pleads Guilty to 140 Child Sex Abuse Materials Charges

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A United Nations working group has voiced its support for what it says are several hundred sexual assault victims of late Japanese boy band producer Johnny Kitagawa, urging the Japanese government to deliver them justice.

Background: Kitagawa, a U.S.-born Japanese talent manager, was credited for launching the careers of some of Japans biggest male acts, including SMAP, KAT-TUN and Arashi.

Allegations of his sexually abusive behavior toward his talents have been around for decades, but they were largely ignored by Japanese mainstream media. Earlier this year, those claims saw a revival in global headlines after a BBC documentary presented them in detail. One alleged victim who came forward later is former J-pop idol Kauan Okamoto, who claimed that Kitagawa had sexually abused him at least 15 times over a course of four years beginning in 2012 at age 15.

What the U.N. is saying: The U.N. Working Group on Business and Human Rights first announced its plans to investigate the sexual abuse claims against Kitagawa last month. They arrived in Japan on July 24 and have since met government officials, companies, trade unions and human rights advocates.

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On Friday, the groups chair, Damilola Olawuyi, told reporters that Kitagawas alleged victims may total several hundred, as per the Associated Press. Meanwhile, group member Pichamon Yeophantong urged the Japanese government to do more, calling for transparent investigations of perpetrators and effective remedies in the form of an apology or financial compensation for the victims.

Whats next: The working group is expected to present their full report to the U.N. Human Rights Council next June. While the head of Johnny & Associates  Kitagawas founded agency  has apologized in May, it remains to be seen whether the late producers alleged victims will find justice.

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JENIN, West Bank (AP)  Except for a small bag of lentils and the orange juice she reserves for guests, there is no food in Ashwaq Abu al-Wafas house in the northern West Bank city of Jenin.

Ever since the U.N. cut her food aid in June, she has fallen behind on rent. All her money now goes to feeding her three children, she said.

The fridge is empty, al-Wafa said from her apartment on Thursday. I can barely hold all of this stress in my heart.

Thousands of families like al-Wafas across the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip go through the day not sure where they will get their next meal now that the World Food Program has halted aid to 200,000 people, 60% of beneficiaries, its largest-ever cuts in the Palestinian territories.

The agency has made cuts across the world, from war-torn Yemen to West Africa, a region gripped by its worst hunger crisis in years.

The WFPs deputy executive director, Carl Skau, announced last week that the agency has raised just $5 billion of the $20 billion it needs to operate fully, forcing it to suspend aid to 38 of its 86 countries where it operates.

Zekriat Karram, who also lives in Jenin, said that her family has survived by racking up debt at local groceries. Now, shopkeepers demand payback. When Karram was recently hospitalized, her six children, ranging in age from 3 to 16, scraped together meals of olives and bread.

The cuts come at a particularly bad time for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, which is witnessing a surge in violence unseen in nearly two decades.

Al-Wafa and Karrams homes have smashed doors and cracked windows, scars from recent stepped-up military raids into the flashpoint city, the latest of which marked the most intense in nearly two decades and left 12 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier dead. Israel says the raids are meant to thwart future attacks.

Al-Wafas 14-year-old son, Ammar, was shot in the chest during a January raid, she said, adding to her family's expenses and squeezing their food budget. Her husband's income depends on whether he can pass through Israeli military checkpoints to take produce into Jenin. When the Israeli army closes the roads, his work dries up and his family skips meals.

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Food insecurity here is a symptom of something larger, said Samer Abdeljaber, WFP country director for the Palestinian territories. Conflict, access and movement restrictions and the barriers to everyday life have led to soaring unemployment and poverty.

The WFP said it suspended aid to those who could earn additional income or get other assistance, like the Palestinian Authoritys cash transfer program for poor families.

Only the most vulnerable, 150,000 people in the West Bank and Gaza, continue to receive aid from WFP. Their aid will be cut if donors dont provide more funding by November, the agency recently warned. Meanwhile, more than 1 million Palestinian refugees in the West Bank and Gaza receive other kinds of assistance from a U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees and their descendants.

The Palestinian Authority, in the midst of a financial crisis, has said it cant fill the shortfall.

Already, the WFP cuts have hurt small businesses in the territories, which once bustled with customers using WFP vouchers.

Palestinian shop owner Anas Eqteit has seen sales plunge by 70%. He laid off three of his four workers. Before June, his mini-market in Jenin served 50 families with WFP vouchers a week. Now, it serves five.

The families who were suspended from the aid still come in every day to ask for food, Eqteit said. Am I supposed to turn them away?
Chicago-based United Airlines is making another investment in Denver, purchasing 113 acres outside the airport where it has a key hub.

The carrier plans to use part of the undeveloped agricultural land, purchased for $33 million, to expand Uniteds pilot-training facility in Denver, spokesperson Patrick Mullane said. But that wont take up the entire piece of land, which also leaves the carrier options as it grows in Denver.

Its prudent for any large company to take advantage of opportunities to buy land in its key cities when the opportunity arises, Mullane said in a statement. So we didnt want to miss this opportunity in Denver.

United, which has a key hub at OHare International Airport in addition to being headquartered in Chicago, has recently focused on expanding its hub in Denver, announcing in May plans to add flights, gates and clubs at Denver International Airport.

The carrier operates an average of 468 daily flights out of Denver, approaching the 494 it averages daily out of OHare. United flies to the same number of domestic cities out of both airports  159  but flies to more than twice as many international destinations out of OHare.

Denver is one of the fastest growing cities in the country and as the Mile High Citys most flown airline, its essential that we maintain the most modern infrastructure and fleet to support our local employees and customers and deliver a great experience, United CEO Scott Kirby said in a statement in May. Our expansion in Denver will further enable us to connect our customers to destinations across the globe and revitalize our presence at the airport with modern, customer friendly offerings.

United has about 10,000 employees in Denver, where its the largest private employer. It operates more flights out of the airport than any other airline, according to the carrier. United also has a flight training center in Denver that it says is the worlds largest, with 42 flight simulators and capacity for 10 more.

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The announcement comes as United has been on a hiring spree, announcing plans earlier this year to hire 15,000 employees in 2023, including at its major hubs in Denver, Houston and Chicago. The largest group of hires was expected to be in Chicago, where the carrier was looking to bring on 3,800 employees for roles at both OHare and the corporate office.

This month, United announced it has hired 11,400 employees so far this year, including pilots, which are an acute need for the industry, and maintenance technicians, which are on track to be the next big hiring need. The carrier also hired for flight attendant roles, which have been met with huge demand from applicants, and for jobs in the corporate office.

sfreishtat@chicagotribune.com
WASHINGTON  A request for proposals for the U.S. Air Forces Cloud One Next program could come as soon as this month, as the service eyes a spring 2024 contract award, an official said.

The Air Force teased its Cloud One successor in November, seeking industry feedback with a request for information. At the time, interested companies were asked how they might approach managing and modernizing Cloud One while factoring in recent government leadership direction, including the National Defense Strategy and a fiscal 2023-2028 information technology road map.

While details about the future arrangement are still being ironed out, C1N, as its known, will emphasize zero-trust cybersecurity, identity, credential and access management, or ICAM, and software development, Maj. Gen. Anthony Genatempo said July 31 at the Air Forces Life Cycle Industry Days event in Dayton, Ohio. Genatempo serves as the program executive officer for command, control, communications, intelligence and networks.

Zero trust is a cybersecurity paradigm that assumes networks and databases have already been breached, thus requiring constant validation of users and devices. ICAM is a means of checking qualifications and then tailoring what information is available to a user.

Were bringing in a lot of the CIOs strategy, Genatempo said.

US Navy needs seamless virtual cloud, cyber leaders say

The focus on cloud services comes as the Air Force seeks additional data durability and portability. Its forces are among the most scattered, with infrastructure dotting the globe. Cloud One launched years ago, providing access to apps, information and broader connectivity.

Jay Bonci, the Air Forces chief technology officer, in December told C4ISRNET he considered Cloud One, with its focus on Platform as a Service, or PaaS, a springboard to greater digital modernization.

Cloud One has been principally focused on a PaaS baseline, so platform as a service, with a heavy focus on refactoring apps to take advantage of PaaS. And in so doing, it has cleaned up a lot of technical debt, he said at the time. Undoubtedly, Cloud One has been a huge success, but its going to have to continue to look at how it gets more and more and more customers.

Defense News reporter Stephen Losey contributed to this article.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Army on Friday became the second branch of the U.S. military to no longer have a Senate-confirmed leader, as a Republican senator continues to block military nominations, a move military leaders said threatens readiness and undermines retention of officers.

Retiring Chief of Staff of the Army General James McConville relinquished command on Friday. It will be the first time in history the U.S. military will have two branches, the Army and the Marine Corps, without a confirmed leader, the Pentagon said.

Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville, who represents Alabama, has blocked hundreds of military nominations from moving forward, saying the Pentagon is improperly using government funding to cover travel costs for abortions for service members and their dependents.

"In our dangerous world of security, the United States demands orderly and prompt transitions of our confirmed military leaders," U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said during the ceremony on Friday. "Great teams need great leaders."

General Randy George, who has already been nominated to take over for McConville, will serve as the acting chief of staff.

The Marine Corps, for the first time in its history, has been without a Senate-confirmed leaders since early July.

After the U.S. Supreme Court last year overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling recognizing a constitutional right to abortion, the Pentagon said it would cover travel costs for service members seeking abortions and up to 21 days off.

Several states have limited abortion access since Roe v. Wade was overturned, and the military argues that women service members cannot choose where they are stationed.

The Senate's approval of military promotions is usually smooth. Tuberville's hold cannot prevent the Democratic-majority Senate from voting on any promotion, but it can drastically slow down the process.

"We need these leaders to be in place to ensure the readiness of our force and we need to end all of this uncertainty for our military families," Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said.

The Navy is soon expected to be without a confirmed leader as well, when the current chief of naval operations steps down.

(Reporting by Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart; Editing by Mark Porter and David Gregorio)
WASHINGTON  The U.S. Army this week approved the Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle for full-rate production, a spokesperson for the services Program Executive Office Ground Combat Systems told Defense News.

The full-rate production contract award to AMPV-maker BAE Systems is pending, the spokesperson said.

The Army delivered the first AMPVs to the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Stewart, Georgia, in March, marking the beginning of the end for the M113 armored personnel carriers used since the 1960s. BAE Systems said at the time that a full-rate production decision was expected by the end of that month.

Ensuring production quality is critical, the spokesperson said, adding, issues during low-rate initial production are resolved and vehicles are compliant with required specifications. It is key to note that there were no impacts to AMPV fielding activities.

In advance of the full-rate production decision, the Army awarded BAE a $245.6 million contract in March and another $120 million contract Aug. 3 to buy long-lead items to keep production moving.

The Armys fiscal 2024 budget request released in March called for a lower number of AMPVs than planned a year ago, rather than the anticipated ramp-up. The Army had planned to buy 131 AMPVs in FY24 for $682.4 million, according to its FY23 budget documents, but instead the services base budget request asked for 91 vehicles for $555 million.

However, while the base budget indicated a cut, the plan to ramp up AMPV procurement will be possible through congressionally approved supplemental funding provided to the Army to cover some of the cost of sending about 400 M113s to Ukraine. The service plans to buy a total of 154 new AMPVs to replace those M113s using the supplemental funding.

AMPV product manager Lt. Col. Nate Costa said earlier this year the Army will buy 197 AMPVs total in FY24 when combining base budget and supplemental funding, which roughly doubles the number of the vehicles funded in the base budget.

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Congress approved funding in FY23 to build 72 vehicles in its first year of production.

Both the House and Senate defense appropriations subcommittees proposed cutting the AMPV program in their FY24 spending bills by similar amounts: The House appropriators proposed a $163 million cut to the program, and Senate appropriators proposed a $155 million cut, citing production capacity concerns.

The AMPV program entered low-rate production in January 2019, but the program office indicated last year that delivery of the first vehicles would be delayed by two months, and the completion of the production qualification testing would be delayed by seven months due to tooling and assembly line challenges at BAEs York, Pennsylvania, production facilities. Coronavirus pandemic complications further slowed the effort.

The Army in recent years, due to initial production struggles at York, had downgraded the plan to produce a brigade set annually. But the service has been able to restore the original fielding plans back to a brigade and a half each year  which equates to ramping up production from 12 vehicles a month to 16 over the next two years, Costa said in March.
By David Brunnstrom and Simon Lewis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. and Mongolian officials this week discussed "creative ways" to ensure the landlocked country, dependent on goodwill from its neighbors China and Russia, could get critical minerals onto the world market, a U.S. State Department official said on Friday.

Prime Minister L. Oyun-Erdene told Reuters on Wednesday after meeting U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris in Washington that Mongolia would deepen cooperation with the United States on mining rare earths and other minerals with high-tech applications.

On Friday, he met with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and signed an "Open Skies" civil aviation agreement, and both sides pledged further economic cooperation.

A U.S. State Department official briefing reporters said the national carrier MIAT Mongolian Airlines would be able to fly direct to an as-yet-undecided U.S. airport by next year.

The two sides also discussed how to follow up on a memorandum of understanding signed in June by the State Department and Mongolia's ministry of mining and heavy industry.

"The many discussions that we've had over the last few days were talking about specific areas where we can help Mongolia understand what it has, ways where it can extract it, and ways where it can produce it," the official said.

"We certainly are eager to help the Mongolians find creative solutions by which it can help take more control over mining, exploring, extracting and producing critical minerals and rare earth elements."

Asked about how to ensure that Mongolia could exporting such commodities without hindrance, the official said it was in a "tough geopolitical situation", being landlocked. "So we talked about ... very creative ways where we can get that ... available to the market."

Rare earths and copper are vital for high-tech applications, including defense equipment, and for U.S. President Joe Biden's efforts to electrify the auto market to help stave off climate change.

The United States is keen to secure sources beyond its main global rival, China, which last year accounted for more than 70% of world rare earth production.

(Reporting by David Brunnstrom and Simon Lewis; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
U.S. authorities are expanding the curfews for heads of asylum-seeking families awaiting initial screenings after crossing the border, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials.

The curfews started in four cities in May after the lifting of pandemic asylum restrictions and will expand to a total of 13 locations starting Friday, including Boston, Providence, R.I., and the cities of San Diego, San Francisco and San Jose in California. Curfews in New Orleans and Houston began July 28.

The curfews, which last from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m., were launched as an alternative to detention and allow for supervision of asylum seekers with a GPS ankle monitor.

Asylum-seekers are monitored until they have an initial screening  called credible fear interviews  and an outcome is reached. If the asylum seekers pass the screening, they are usually permitted to continue their asylum case in court without a curfew and those who fail are ordered removed.

The curfews, which ICE calls the Family Expedited Removal Management (FERM), are expected to expand to 40 cities by the end of September, according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity with The Associated Press. The official told AP the number of families is expected to increase significantly with the expansion of the program.

While FERM initially began in four locations, [the Department of Homeland Security] is quickly expanding to cities across the country and is removing families who are determined to be ineligible for relief and are ordered removed through this non-detained enforcement process, the agency said in a statement.

The extension of the curfew signals ICE is pleased with the outcomes of the four initial cities where the effort was rolled out: Baltimore, Chicago, Newark, N.J., and Washington, D.C. Denver and Minneapolis were later added.

Current law under the Flores Settlement states families cannot be detained for more than 20 days. The Obama and Trump administrations detained families, but President Biden stopped the practice once in office in 2021.

The Associated Press contributed reporting.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
By David Brunnstrom

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A bipartisan group of U.S. senators has proposed legislation to support establishment of national security councils in strategic Pacific island states that are home to key U.S. military installations and at risk of espionage and coercion by China.

The provisions are contained in the sweeping National Defense Authorization Act, which was passed by the Senate last month but is still several steps from becoming law, and would allow for greater coordination between the U.S. security establishment and Palau, the Marshall Islands and Micronesia.

The sparsely populated nations, whose territories cover vast areas of the Pacific, have relations with the United States governed by so-called Compacts of Free Association.

Under these, Washington retains responsibility for their defense and provides economic assistance while gaining exclusive access to strategic swathes of ocean.

The U.S. recently agreed renewed COFA deals with Micronesia and Palau and is still negotiating with the Marshall Islands at a time when China is making significant inroads into the Pacific, a region the U.S. has long considered its back yard.

Republican Senator Joni Ernst, a co-sponsor of the proposed legislation, which is expanded on in a separate soon-to-be submitted 'CONVENE Act', highlighted the challenge posed by China, noting Beijing's stepped up tieswith the Solomon Islands and incursions by Chinese vessels into Palau's waters.

"Currently, there is limited coordination between the U.S. and the COFA nations to counter Chinese malign influence, curb Chinese purchases of land around U.S. installations on the islands, or prevent China's infiltration and monitoring of U.S. activity throughout the island nations," she said in a statement shared with Reuters.

"The strategic location of these islands is integral to our national security, but the lack of direct security channels between our nations creates risk," she added.

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The NDAA provision is co-sponsored by Democrats Mazie Hirono, Tim Kaine and Chris Van Hollen.

An Ernst aide said Palau had already established a national security council and the other COFA states were actively considering doing so.

He noted that the U.S. has significant military installations on the islands, including high-powered radar on Palau and its main long-range missile testing site in the Marshall Islands.

The councils would comprise members of respective COFA states and make use of Pentagon-approved communications equipment to prevent Chinese espionage and allow sharing of intelligence, he said.

As well as countering Chinese espionage, the councils would enable better coordination in areas such as maritime security and in countering illegal fishing, he said.

"This bill does not mandate the COFA islands to anything, but what it does do is to say that if you do choose to build these councils ... there's going to U.S. support for such cooperation to include intelligence sharing and other types of cooperation," the aide said.

(This story has been corrected to fix the spelling of Joni Ernst's first name in paragraph 6)

(Reporting by David Brunnstrom; Editing by Louise Heavens)
By Sarah Morland

(Reuters) - The United States is discussing what support it would be prepared to offer a Kenya-led multinational force to help police in Haiti fight armed gangs amid a worsening humanitarian crisis there, a State Department official said on Friday.

Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Caribbean Affairs and Haiti Barbara Feinstein told reporters that U.S. contributions would depend on the outcome of a Kenyan assessment expected to take place in the Haitian capital in coming weeks.

The U.S. has said it is willing to introduce a resolution at the UN Security Council to authorize such a force.

"We will be doing everything that we can to support that process and ensure swift passage of that resolution," Feinstein said.

She said the U.S. would seek contributions such as personnel, equipment, training, financing or other support from countries across the world.

Recommendations from an Aug. 15 UN report are likely to shape what the force would look like, she said.

Haiti's government requested international security assistance last year and the UN has repeatedly voiced its support for a security force.

But - wary of getting involved in a country with an unelected caretaker government and a checkered history of foreign intervention - no country had been willing to lead such an effort until Kenya said it was prepared to do so last week and committed 1,000 police officers.

Close to 200,000 people have been internally displaced in Haiti, according to recent U.N. estimates, largely in the Ouest department as residents face frequent shootings, kidnappings and sexual violence as rival gangs wage wars for territory.

Aid groups and food producers have struggled to move personnel and basic supplies to parts of the country, causing hospitals to shut and millions of people to live in famine-like conditions.

Feinstein said any U.S. assistance to Haiti's police would be provided only to vetted individuals, and that steps to withdraw this assistance would be taken in cases of human rights violations.

Broadening political inclusion and establishing conditions for free elections remained of "great urgency," she said.

(Reporting by Sarah Morland; editing by Grant McCool)
(Photo : Juan BARRETO / AFP) (JUAN BARRETO/AFP via Getty Images)

The Colombian government has entered a six-month ceasefire agreement with the National Liberation Army (ELN) amid ongoing peace talks.

The Colombian government and the National Liberation Army (ELN) have entered a six-month ceasefire agreement as officials negotiate for lasting peace within the country.

The new deal is seen as the largest victory for Colombian President Gustavo Petro amid his efforts to end decades of armed conflict within the nation. The ceasefire agreement is set to last until February and results from talks that restarted last year.

Colombia, Rebel Group Enter Ceasefire Agreement

The president, who was first seated in August 2022, made pursuing "total peace" in the South American nation a key goal of his administration. He has committed to negotiating with armed groups to deliver a complete end to the fighting.

In a video released on Monday, the rebel group's top commander, Eliecer Herlinto Chamorro, who is also known as Antonio Garcia, said that the ELN central command was ordering all units to suspend offensive operations against the government's armed forces, police, and security organizations, as per Aljazeera.

However, Garcia noted that the ELN group would continue defending itself even amid the ceasefire if needed. On Tuesday, Danilo Rueda, the Colombian government's high peace commissioner, said that the ceasefire would prevent violence and human rights abuses such as kidnappings.

He argued that the country's civilian population could finally rest easy during the agreement period. On the other hand, the International Crisis Group said that if the six-month-long ceasefire agreement is successful, it would be the "longest bilateral ceasefire ever concluded with [a] guerilla group."

Throughout the nearly six decades of conflict in Colombia, more than 450,000 people have lost their lives. Negotiations between the government and the ELN group, which has roughly 2,000 to 5,000 fighters, began again in November in Venezuela after being suspended in 2019 under the administration of Ivan Duque, Petro's predecessor.

Government officials hope that with the ceasefire agreement, they will be able to protect the nation's people. The ELN group's lack of a unified command has made negotiating difficult. Additionally, according to the New York Times, individual factions usually act autonomously, even sometimes against high commanders' orders.

Read Also: South Korea: Man Stabs People After Crashing Car Onto Sidewalk; 12 Injured, 1 Dead

Decades of Conflict

Negotiations between the rebel group and the government were suspended under the previous administration after the ELN bombed a police academy in Bogota, the nation's capital, killing 22 cadets. Now, an entity filled up of officials from the Colombian military and government, the United States, and religious groups will be responsible for monitoring the enforcement of the ceasefire agreement.

Petro also called on the nation's political groups to take advantage of the opportunity to reach a broad national agreement with the ELN to achieve lasting peace. He also appealed to the leaders of the guerilla group to leave behind deadly violence. He said, "everyone who really wants to transform this society, in today's world, must be on the side of life."

If progress is made in the peace talks between the two sides, the ceasefire agreement could be extended in January. It comes as guerillas were blamed last month for the slayings of three Colombia police officers on the border with Venezuela, the kidnapping of an army sergeant and her two minor children, and several bombings, said the Associated Press.

Related Article: Brazil Police Violence Reignites, Leaving 44 People Dead

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USS Zumwalt (DDG 1000) transits the Atlantic Ocean during acceptance trials, April 21, 2016. US Navy

Destroyer USS Zumwalt has long had problems with its main deck guns, which don't have any ammunition.

The technologically advanced stealth destroyer is getting something new though.

The Zumwalt is changing homeports to receive upgrades including a new hypersonic missile system.

The stealth US Navy destroyer USS Zumwalt has been plagued by a wide range of problems throughout its development, including guns that are all but useless, but the ship on its way to do something about it.

After a brief hiccup  an abrupt return to port for unexpected maintenance the ship departed San Diego, California Wednesday for Pascagoula, Mississippi, home of Ingalls Shipbuilding, part of the major Navy shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Industries.

The Zumwalt will "receive technology upgrades including the integration of the Conventional Prompt Strike weapons system," the Navy said in a statement, adding that the coming "upgrades will ensure Zumwalt remains one of the most technologically advanced and lethal ships in the US Navy."

During the upgrade period, according to a USNI News report, shipbuilders will remove the impotent twin 155mm Advanced Gun Systems and replace them with missile tubes that altogether are expected to carry a dozen hypersonic missiles, weapons that are still in development and expected to be fielded in the next few years.

US Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Zumwalt arrives in Yokosuka for a port visit, September 26, 2022. US Navy/Seaman Darren Cordoviz

The Zumwalt-class destroyers were designed with a land-attack and naval-fire support mission in mind and were armed with a pair of 155 mm deck guns. The problem is that these naval artillery guns do not have any ammunition and haven't for years, and the reason for that is that the ammo is ridiculously expensive.

A reduction in the overall size of the Zumwalt class from a planned 32 ships to just three caused the cost of the ammunition for the guns, the Long Range Land Attack Projectile, to jump to about $800,000 a round. The guns also never acquired the desired range. So, the Navy was forced to rethink the weapons and missions for these destroyers.

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Ammunition procurement stopped in 2016, the year the Zumwalt was commissioned, and by 2018, senior Navy officials were publicly considering scrapping the main guns, which is now exactly what the service is doing apparently.

The sea service is now looking at using the Zumwalt-class destroyers, which include the USS Michael Monsoor and the USS Lyndon B. Johnson, for blue-water surface-warfare and naval-strike missions, and that's where the hypersonic missiles come into play.

A hypersonic missile launches from a US range in Hawaii, in March 2020. Known as the Common Hypersonic Glide Body, this weapons system is experimental. Unlike China and Russia, the US does not currently have any hypersonic weapons systems deployed. US Navy

The Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) system is a boost-glide hypersonic weapon system that consists of a two-stage solid-fueled rocket booster to get the missile to a faster than Mach 5 speed and the Common Hypersonic Glide Body (CHG-B), which was jointly developed by the Army and the Navy for their respective hypersonic weapons programs.

Though the term "hypersonic weapon" emphasizes speed, specifically speeds at least five times the speed of sound, many other types of missiles, including regular ballistic missiles, can actually achieve the same if not greater speeds. True hypersonic weapons pose a new and potentially unstoppable threat due to their ability to maneuver unpredictably at these speeds.

The Navy intends to deploy this capability aboard Zumwalt-class destroyers by 2025 and then on the Virginia-class attack submarines by the end of this of this decade. The CPS, including both the missiles and the launchers, is still in development though, so there is always a very real possibility of delays.

Read the original article on Business Insider
In the face of rising threats to the U.S. and the constraints on military budgets, the Defense Departments munitions enterprise requires a systemic review and development of a strategic plan. This plan would lay out production and fielding objectives for modernized and affordable weapons.

Congress identified this need in the fiscal 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, calling for just such a plan. Recognizing the importance of munitions modernization, the department stood up the Joint Production Accelerator Cell within its acquisition office. It is tasked with building enduring industrial production capacity, resiliency, and surge capability for key defense weapon systems and supplies.

However, the administrations expression of the need for new thinking on munitions modernization does not appear to be translating into industry innovation and revitalization but simply additional purchases of the same antiquated systems and thinking.

In November 2021, the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies released a policy paper, Affordable Mass: The Need for a Cost-Effective PGM Mix for Great Power Conflict. The report states that after decades of deferred and canceled modernization programs, the Air Forces lead over Americas threats is eroding, and its forces are undersized for the operational demands of the National Defense Strategy.

At the same time, the squeeze on defense spending threatens the Air Forces annual budget. The Air Force must balance the range, size, speed, survivability and capacity of munitions in its inventory if it is to maintain a precision strike advantage over China and Russia.

In the Navy, as the chief of naval operations mentions in his 2022 Navigation Plan, to build the dynamic kill chains required for [distributed maritime operations], we must modernize and integrate current capabilities for Long Range Fires, aligning our analysis, prototyping, experimentation, requirements documentation, and capability development.

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The Navy should acquire more long-range fires. It needs these weapons to meet and defeat threats that have rapidly proliferated in the Indo-Pacific and European theaters. By diversifying its shooter portfolio to augment the carrier air wing, the Navy can give commanders more missile shooters that can fire from ranges outside that of a peer adversarys defenses.

Army planners seek increased range and lethality, and decreased weight in developing next-generation long-range fires to meet future conflict scenarios. While range and precision are critical, large-scale combat also requires the ability to mass and concentrate fires. Precision long-range rockets and missiles fill a critical need; however, their cost makes them prohibitive to mass fires. Even with the recent investments in munitions and delivery platforms, the Army has a need to provide a high volume of fires at short and intermediate ranges.

A combination of emerging technologies can provide the solution. Moving forward in munitions, a focus should be presented much like the recent revolution in drone or unmanned systems technology in terms of small, compact yet powerful guidance and control electronics, coupled with efficiently packaged and compact sensor suites. This provides the ability to develop weapons that are predominantly warhead and less airframe, which maximizes the effects-to-cost ratio.

An emphasis on out of the box functionality should also be addressed, where weapons show up ready to go with no assembly required. These weapons should also be compatible with as many bomb-delivering platforms in our inventory as possible, guaranteeing the ability to go fight with what we have.

As the military continues to increasingly value lightweight, tensile-strength, heat-resistant materials, industry may have solutions and options only previously explored in piecemeal, stovepiped fashion. Moving to more advanced weapons and weapons-delivery vehicles, hypersonics, and increased reliance on unmanned systems, the military services need to re-evaluate the entire munitions enterprise.

Congress and Pentagon leadership are calling for action on munitions modernization. However, if recent press reports are accurate about the purchase of replenishment stocks following the expenditure of munitions in the conflict in Ukraine, real reform and modernization are still wanting. Hopefully, new study efforts and constructive engagement with the nontraditional munitions industry can lead us to take the next steps forward. We cannot afford to continue to buy old stuff and expect to prevail in tomorrows battlefield.

Retired Gen. Joseph Martin served as the U.S. Army vice chief of staff. Retired Lt. Gen. David Deptula is the dean of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden are wrapping up a weeklong vacation in Rehoboth Beach, a southern Delaware city on the Atlantic whose tagline is "The Nation's Summer Capital."

For most people, thoughts of Rehoboth Beach conjure up visions of a crowded beach and boardwalk; the happy faces of children at Funland; and walking about town with Thrasher's fries, Kohr Brothers' ice cream or Grotto Pizza in hand.

But none of those are things a sitting American president can do without risking his own safety and disrupting the lives of everyone in the city, so Joe Biden's Rehoboth Beach vacation looked much different.

He went to church. He went to the beach. He bicycled. One night, he and Jill went to dinner and a movie. Here's how you can vacation just like the Bidens at the Delaware beaches.

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden sit underneath an umbrella surrounded by Secret Service agents on a beach in Rehoboth Beach on Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2023.

Get a house in North Shores

The Bidens' beach house is located in North Shores, a small, secluded town just north of Rehoboth.

They have the option to take the Marine One helicopter in and out, but recently, the Bidens have preferred to take the road, motorcade and all. For this trip, they arrived by car from Dover Air Force Base on the evening of Friday, July 28.

North Shores is a small community. Dan Morris of Somerset, New Jersey, said he owns a home there. He was walking along Ocean Drive as the motorcade approached Friday and told his friends, "Hold on guys, Joey's coming by."

The Bidens own this six-bedroom Farview Road house in North Shores, Delaware, seen here on Friday, June 9, 2017.

North Shores is also a wealthy community. Zillow lists two properties for sale there currently. One is a four-bedroom, three-bath home going for $3.3 million (plus an annual Homeowners Association fee of $2,600). The other is an empty lot on the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal, which you can buy for a cool $3.5 million.

In its entirety, the community consists of just 192 single-family lots, 48 apartments and 55 townhouses, according to the North Shores website.

Most of the Bidens' vacation was spent in their $2.7 million Farview Road home, which backs up to the marshes of Cape Henlopen State Park. They did make several trips to the 2,200-foot North Shores beach, surrounded by Secret Service. The beach is exclusively for North Shores residents and their guests, according to the community's website.

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Hard to complain about this weather, the president told the press as he left the beach Wednesday.

Rehoboth, Dewey & beyond: A local's look at all you need to know about Delaware's beaches

Attend Mass at St. Edmond's Roman Catholic Church

President Biden is only the second Catholic president in history. (John F. Kennedy was the first.) He used to get anti-Catholic hate mail, according to Politico.

When at his Greenville home, Biden worships at St. Joseph on the Brandywine. When in Rehoboth Beach, he attends St. Edmond's Roman Catholic Church, at 401 King Charles Ave.

He went to Mass there on the evening of Saturday, July 29, with grandson Hunter Biden.

U.S. President Joe Biden visited Rehoboth Beach this weekend and attended Mass at St. Edmonds Catholic Church on Saturday, July 29, 2023, with his grandson Hunter Biden.

Led by Father William Cocco, St. Edmond's is "a Catholic community of approximately 3,500 people located within sight of the Atlantic Ocean," according to the church's website.

"Visitors are always welcome," the website says, and plenty of vacationers attend during their stay.

There's never any warning of when Biden will attend St. Edmond's, though he usually attends on Saturday evenings when in town. But if you aren't genuinely interested in the service and are just going to ogle the president, don't bother. Neither the church nor the Secret Service will tolerate disruptions.

More: Craving a weekend in the sun and sand? Last-minute Airbnbs to snag at the Delaware beaches

Bike the Gordon's Pond Trail

President Biden has biked the Gordon's Pond Trail, in Cape Henlopen State Park, many times in the past, and this trip was no different.

Gordon's Pond is located between Cape Henlopen State Park's ocean dunes and the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal. The trail passes the pond's western edge in a small spate of woods wedged between the pond and the canal. It's a very shallow pond, oftentimes just mudflats. In midsummer, there are deer, foxes, warblers, shorebirds, crabs, dragonflies and other wildlife to be seen.

By the time Biden (and usually Jill, too) hits the trail, the Secret Service has already swept through and waved a metal detector wand over anyone nearby. A handful of agents accompany him on his ride.

President Joe Biden, on vacation in Rehoboth Beach, rides a bike on the Gordons Pond Trail to Herring Point in Lewes on Thursday, August 3, 2023.

No one's reported the president stopping to sightsee at a scenic overlook. He zips back and forth on the part-dirt and crushed stone, part-boardwalk trail, from the Gordon's Pond parking lot in North Shores to the Herring Point parking lot on the Lewes side of the park. A bench dedicated to his late son and former Delaware Attorney Beau Biden sits at the top of Herring Point.

The trail makes for about a 3-mile round-trip and is rated "easy/moderate" by the Delaware State Parks website. It's southern Delaware, after all, so the hills are minimal.

More: Your guide to the first weekend in August at the Delaware beaches

Dine at Matt's Fish Camp

Delaware Online/The News Journal asked SoDel Concepts, the award-winning company that owns and operates Matt's Fish Camp in Lewes, what the Bidens ate there Tuesday night. Apparently, they're not the type to cook and tell; they did not respond to emails.

But any local with half a palette can tell you Matt's Fish Camp is an excellent restaurant. It's named after Matt Haley, SoDel's late founder, and is one of three locations in Lewes, Bethany Beach and Fenwick Island.

Matt's Fish Camp is "a relaxed seafood spot featuring classic East Coast dishes and Sussex County, Delaware, favorites, including oysters on the half shell, crab cakes, Ipswich clams, lobster rolls, fried chicken and the famous lobster cobb salad," according to its website.

We recommend the lobster roll or the crab cakes.

There's free parking at Tenley Court plaza, where the restaurant is located, on the western side of Coastal Highway. The dining room is small but pleasant, with a few outdoor tables, and the bar is often full at this time of year. Reservations are not accepted.

More: Ride Champion the horse at Rehoboth Beach's Funland, inspired by a Hollywood star

See 'Oppenheimer' at the Movies at Midway

To the surprise of just about no one, Joe and Jill Biden opted to see "Oppenheimer" after dinner Tuesday night rather than "Barbie."

They watched the film with the public, even sharing a row with other moviegoers, at the Movies at Midway, which is the only movie theater at the Delaware beaches. Located at 18585 Coastal Highway, it's in an area that's technically Rehoboth Beach but locally known as Midway.

President Joe Biden leaves the Movies at Midway after watching the movie "Oppenheimer" with first lady Jill Biden in Rehoboth Beach on Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023.

As the couple exited the theater from a back door, a reporter asked the president what he thought of the film.

"Compelling," he said.

"Oppenheimer" is an R-rated, three-hour biopic, starring Cillian Murphy and written and directed by Christopher Nolan, about American physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer and his involvement in creating the atomic bomb. Reviews have been outstanding.

Shannon Marvel McNaught reports on Sussex County and beyond. Reach her at smcnaught@gannett.com or on Twitter @MarvelMcNaught

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Find out what the Bidens did during their Rehoboth Beach vacation
August means back-to-school time is approaching.

And that means many students are due for required vaccinations.

Missouri and Kansas require kids to receive certain immunizations before they can go to school in person. Public health officials say it is one of the best tools to prevent the spread of disease.

Parents should not wait too long to schedule immunizations for their children, Kansas City Health Department Director Dr. Marvia Jones said Thursday. It can take time to get all of the required vaccinations done and schools wont allow children to attend until they get their entire list of vaccinations.

Jones said its also important to remember that when students advance to a new school  for example, starting middle school or high school  parents should check with their school or healthcare provider to see if new immunizations are needed.

If you have a child thats transitioning, now is a good time to take a look at their shot records and see whats next, Jones said. The more that we can have people vaccinated, the better we are protected.

Unfortunately, some things that were in the past eradicated, [like polio], were starting to see some of these diseases come back, Jones said. So we are just trying to reassure people these are safe [vaccines] and have been for a very long time.

Heres what you need to know about what vaccines are required at Missouri and Kansas schools, what exemptions exist and where parents can get their children vaccinated.

The following vaccine requirements apply to all schools in Missouri and Kansas, public or private, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.

What vaccines are required for students in Missouri schools?

If youre in Missouri, your child needs the following to go to school:

Five doses of DTaP (Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis) when or after the child turns 4 years old. The child will need another dose of pediatric pertussis before the seventh birthday.

Four polio vaccinations and one of the vaccinations has to come when or after they turn 4 years old.

Four MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccinations. Like the other vaccines, one has to come when or after they turn 4 years old.

Three Hepatitis B vaccines

Two doses of the varicella vaccine

One dose of the meningococcal conjugate vaccine (MCV) is required after your child reaches 10 years old. Another dose is required once the child reaches 16 years old.

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What vaccines are required for students in Kansas schools?

Kansas requires the same immunizations, but at different times:

Five DTap vaccinations, but the fifth dose isnt required if your child received one at the age of 4 or older. One more dose of the DTaP vaccine will be required when the child enters the seventh grade.

Four Poliomyelitis (IPV/OPV) vaccines. The fourth dose isnt required if your child received one after they turned 4 years old and at least six months have passed since they got the second dose.

Three doses of the Hepatitis B vaccine

Two doses of the Hepatitis A vaccine

Two MMR vaccines

Two varicella vaccines

Two doses of the Meningococcal-Serogroup A,C,W,Y (MenACWY). One dose is required for 11 and 12-year-old students entering the seventh grade and another for 16 to 18-year-olds entering the 11th grade. If a 16 or 18-year-old child has no previous record of this vaccine, only one dose is required.

Are COVID-19 or flu vaccines required?

No. Missouri and Kansas do not require COVID-19 or flu vaccines.

Can I exempt my child from being vaccinated?

Missouri and Kansas recognize religious and medical exemptions for parents who dont want to vaccinate their kids.

Parents requesting an exemption for their child must provide the school with a medical exemption form or a religious exemption form.

What is a medical exemption?

To get a medical exemption, youll have to get a written statement signed by a licensed doctor stating that the required vaccines would seriously endanger the life or health of the student.

Youll mark what vaccine your child is being exempt from and the doctor will sign it on the Missouri form or the Kansas form.

What is a religious exemption?

To exempt a child from vaccinations for religious purposes, youll need to sign a written statement that your religion doesnt allow your child to be vaccinated.

The religious exemption can apply to one or all vaccinations. The written note for Missouri residents has to be obtained from a local public health agency or the state bureau of immunizations. It only needs one signature from a parent or guardian, not a doctor.

Theres no statewide religious exemption form in Kansas. Instead, its up to individual school districts to provide an official form or require a written statement signed by a parent or guardian.

A parent would send a letter to the school stating that they are an adherent of a religion that is opposed to vaccinations and that signed record will be kept with the school, Johnson County Immunization Program Manager Ranae Allen told The Star.

How can I get my childs immunization records?

If youre unsure if your child is up-to-date on their vaccines, you can call your health provider to receive a copy of their records.

Childrens Mercy has a form online that you can fill out to request documents or if you want your physician to send your childs medical records to Childrens Mercy.

The Kansas City Health Department can help some families obtain immunization records if they received care from a doctor who reports to the states ShowMeVax database.

WHERE CAN I GET MY CHILD VACCINATED?

You can either set up an appointment with your childs doctor to get them vaccinated before school starts, or take them to one of these clinics around Kansas City.

Kansas City Health Department, 2400 Troost Ave.

The health department accepts walk-ins, but urges families to call 816-513-6108 to make an appointment.

The health department is also hosting a few back-to-school events where families will be able to get their students vaccinated.

The first event is scheduled from 2 to 7 p.m. Aug. 10 at Northland Neighborhoods Inc., 5340 Chouteau Trafficway. Another is scheduled from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Aug. 12 at the Mohart Center, 3200 Wayne Ave. The Kansas City Health Departments Back to School Bash is scheduled from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Aug. 19 at the health department.

Jackson County Health Department, 313 Liberty St., Independence.

The Jackson County Health Department requires that families schedule an appointment. You can schedule an appointment here or call 816-404-6415.

Clay County Public Health Center, 800 Haines Dr., Liberty.

Call 816-595-4355 to make an appointment.

Platte County Health Department, 1201 East St., Parkville.

Call 816-587-5998 to set up an appointment.

Johnson County Department of Health and Environment:

Visit the health departments locations at 11875 S. Sunset Dr., Suite 300 in Olathe, or 6000 Lamar Ave. in Mission.

They take walk-in appointments.

Wyandotte County Health Department, 619 Ann Ave., Kansas City, Kansas.

Call 913-573-8855 to set up an appointment.
By Kirsty Needham

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Vanuatu, at the centre of strategic rivalry between China and western countries in the Pacific Islands, has plunged into political crisis, with its prime minister to face a no-confidence vote in parliament next week.

Opposition leader Bob Loughman, a former prime minister who drew Vanuatu closer to China until his government lost a snap national election in 2022, lodged notice of the no-confidence vote with parliament on Thursday evening with the signatures of 29 lawmakers, enough to win a vote.

Prime Minister Alatoi Kalsakau, who leads a coalition government, said on Friday he "remains confident" in comments broadcast by Vanuatu television station VBTC.

Kalsakau, who faced a backlash from some politicians after signing a defence pact with Australia, said the next seven days of political negotiations were "critical days".

A parliament official said parliament would reconvene next Thursday for the no-confidence motion. If the motion is successful, a new prime minister will be installed by a vote of lawmakers.

The offices of Kalsakau and Loughman did not respond to requests for comment, and the reasons for the no-confidence motion are unclear.

A week ago, French President Emmanuel Macron made the first visit to Vanuatu by a French leader since war leader Charles de Gaulle, and gave a speech warning about a "new imperialism" in the Pacific, in comments taken to refer to China.

China has been a major infrastructure lender to Vanuatu, where it donated the parliament building, stadiums and prime minister's office. Vanuatu's largest creditor is China's EXIM bank, accounting for a third of its debt, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Vanuatu, a former French and British territory, gained independence in 1980.

The United States and its allies are seeking to deter Pacific Islands nations from establishing security ties with Beijing, a rising concern amid tension over Taiwan, and after China signed a security pact with Solomon Islands.

Washington wants to open an embassy in Vanuatu as part of its re-engagement with the region, however the U.S. Coast Guard has been blocked from entering port this year on illegal fishing patrols.

(Reporting by Kirsty Needham; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
Editors note: A longer version of this story ran in the American Prospect on July XX. Both versions feature extensive reporting from American Prospect reporter Luke Goldstein.

The newly formed union at electric school bus maker Blue Birds plant in Fort Valley held its first bargaining session with management on July 6, two months after workers voted to unionize with the United Steelworkers.

The two sides set ground rules for the upcoming negotiations, which could take several months or even years. Management agreed to set up a process to address worker complaints before reaching the first contract and also to let USW safety experts conduct a walk-through of the worksite.

The company recognized the union in May, after an election that was hailed at the time as a victory for the Biden administrations efforts to encourage union membership at companies receiving industrial-policy subsidies.

Over the next five years, Blue Bird hopes to receive $1 billion in revenue from the EPAs Clean School Bus Program, funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

Blue Bird has complied with the bargaining procedure. But inside the plant, workers say theyve faced a more hostile environment from managers since the vote, including modifications to company policy.

How things have changed

From left, Craig Corbin, Carolyn Allen and Tim Holderfield during a training session for the Blue Bird bargaining committee in June.

Workers told the Telegraph that, shortly after the vote, the company changed its rules for lunch breaks, effectively shortening them for employees who chose to leave the worksite.

Managers have ramped up disciplinary action against workers, and several workers have been fired, they said. As part of the crackdown on informal policies that bosses previously let slide, the company handed out new employee handbooks for the first time in years.

Its kind of like theyre trying to send a message that if you want to be a part of the union, this is how its going to be now, said Craig Corbin, a worker on the floor at Blue Bird and a member of the bargaining committee.

In response, the Steelworkers sent a letter to Blue Bird in June outlining concerns from workers and requesting additional information. The unions bargaining committee raised the issue to management during their first negotiating session but said they would only submit complaints to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), if necessary, once they conduct a further investigation.

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Carolyn Allen, a worker elected by her colleagues to the unions bargaining committee, said there has been a recent uptick in firings, and she chalked it up to retaliation for the union vote. Most workers the Telegraph interviewed had heard about the firings, and many shared Allens view that they were related to the union election.

By law, the company must notify the union of any disciplinary actions it takes against workers. But Blue Bird management has ignored this, union representatives say.

In a text to workers last month, the union said it had informed the company of this requirement, but management nevertheless continues to issue discipline without notifying or bargaining with your union. We sent another letter to Blue Bird today demanding that they stop this unlawful behavior.

In a statement, Blue Bird denied any charges of unlawful retaliation against workers since the union vote. Asked about the letter from the union, the company would not go into detail about the situation.

We do not share such communications with parties outside the negotiating process. Instead, we will continue to negotiate honestly and fairly with the representatives of our employees, the statement read.

Since winning the election, the unfair labor practice complaints have been withdrawn.

Pete Smalls, who works on the floor, didnt vote during the election. But after the firings, hes now joining the union for better pay and protection against retaliation.

Id never been around a union so I didnt know what its all about but now Im hoping it can deliver for us, said Smalls.

History of organizing at Blue Bird

Blue Bird employees fill The Austin Theatre in downtown Fort Valley for a training session for the bargaining committee in June.

The 697-435 union vote, with an 80% turnout among the plants predominantly Black workforce, was historic for a variety of reasons.

Georgia has the ninth-lowest unionization rate in the country, hovering just below 5%. The state is particularly difficult for organizing because of aggressive union-busting tactics by employers and right-to-work laws that make union dues voluntary, undercutting collective bargaining even if workers do manage to form a union.

The Steelworkers victory at Blue Bird achieved a goal sought by generations of the companys workers, who have tried to unionize since the 1960s.

When he first started at the company in the early 1970s, Tim Holderfield, now an elected bargaining committee member, had heard stories about the prior drive with the Carpenters union that was crushed. During both unionization drives with the United Auto Workers in the 1980s and the early 2000s, Holderfield saw the same pattern play out: The company tried to scare workers by making an example out of a few organizers.

According to other workers, the company threatened to close up shop and move the plant if they unionized with the UAW.

When workers began talking about organizing with the Steelworkers in 2019, Holderfield figured hed stay out of it. Hed seen what the company would do if you undercut their authority, and he was only a few years away from getting his retirement payout. The pandemic stalled the organizing as it became difficult to hold meetups outside of work.

Once the economy began to reopen, the Steelworkers sent organizers down to Fort Valley in 2021. They knocked doors and started to build numbers. The movement gained traction, this time because of the workers experience at the plant during the pandemic.

As COVID cases spread throughout Georgia, Blue Bird remained open, and many workers felt they hadnt been adequately compensated for keeping the shop running under strenuous health conditions.

Post-pandemic, it just seemed like everyone was eager to organize, said Alex Perkins, a longtime Macon-based Steelworkers staffer whos now the representative for the Blue Bird local.

Coming out of the pandemic, workers faced erratic work schedules because of supply chain disruptions for mechanical parts. When parts came in, the Blue Bird staff often had to work overtime to complete orders in time. Another issue cited by workers who voted for the union was regular delays to holiday and bonus payments.

Biden and Fort Valley

In this campaign, organizers got an assist from a legislative victory under the Biden administration.

In 2022, Blue Bird was awarded the first in a series of grants from the EPAs Clean School Bus Program, which the company anticipates will bring in a billion dollars in revenue over the next five years, to scale up their electric school bus fleet.

The program was expanded by the bipartisan infrastructure law, and included a provision blocking any recipient of the EPA grant from directly using the grant money to bust unions.

The union neutrality provision was one of the major victories for labor from the set of Biden industrial policies. Though it doesnt ban employers outright from running an anti-union campaign, the goal was to at least constrain the extent to which an employer under contract with the government could curtail collective bargaining, for example by using the grant funds to hire an outside anti-union law firm.

Enforcement of the rule, however, has proven more difficult because it poses an exceptionally high bar for prosecuting companies.

Proving that a company explicitly used government funds for anti-union activities is nearly impossible to do, said Madeline Janis, the co-founder and executive director of Jobs to Move America, which has organized state and local campaigns to push contractors into community benefit agreements, particularly around transportation.

Asked by the EPA in a questionnaire recently sent to all the recipients of the Clean School Bus Program grants whether the company had committed to remain neutral in any organizing campaign and/or to voluntarily recognize a union based on a show of majority support, Blue Bird sidestepped the question about neutrality and simply said it was committed to voluntarily recognizing the newly formed union.

Asked by the Telegraph about the survey question, Blue Bird responded that it did not use EPA funds in any way related to the United Steelworkers organizing campaign. Regarding the seven unfair labor charges filed before the election, Blue Bird pointed to the complaints being voluntarily dismissed after the election. The complaints were withdrawn by workers.

After winning the election, we didnt want to prolong the process before getting to the negotiating table, and these types of ordeals can be needlessly drawn out, Perkins said.

Neither the EPA nor any other government body ever intervened directly at the plant, but union organizers believe that Blue Bird softened its anti-union efforts because of the pressure organizers were able to exert on the company via the union neutrality condition in its contract.

Compared to other companies weve had to deal with around this area, Blue Bird practically didnt even have an anti-union campaign, said Perkins.

Since the Steelworkers won the election at Blue Bird, the union has been focused on organizing its committee, electing representatives and setting strategy to begin bargaining.

For a union hall, the workers are using the Austin Theater, a refurbished former cinema on Main Street in Fort Valleys downtown strip. Inside, the elections for the bargaining committee were illuminated by purple stage lights, which cast the proceedings in an evocatively dramatic glow alongside the faded grandeur of the theaters red carpeting and exposed brick walls.

This backdrop set the stage for the high-stakes balancing act the union will have to strike in its first contract. In a right-to-work state, the 435 workers who voted no become a contested battleground, both for the union to persuade and for management to try and pit against the union.

Theres a lot riding on this first contract, Perkins said.
The large amphibious ship of the Russian Federation Olenegorsky Gornyak

After almost 50 years of service, the prize landing ship of Russias Northern Fleet, the Olenegorsky Gornyak, may be headed for an inglorious retirement  if not the bottom of Novorossiysk Bay.

Dramatic footage circulating on social media on Aug. 4 showed the view from the onboard camera of a Ukrainian sea attack drone as it raced, apparently undetected, towards the port (left) side of the Russian warship as it sailed near the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk.

The video cuts out just as the drone reaches the side of the Russian warship. According to Ukraines SBU security service, which says it organized this special operation together with the Ukrainian Navy, the drone was armed with a warhead of 450 kilograms of TNT.

Russian authorities reported that they had thwarted an attack on Novorossiysk overnight on Aug. 4 by sea drones, claiming two of the drones were "visually detected and destroyed by fire."

But the video footage of the attack on the Olenegorsky Gornyak appears to prove the Russian claims false  there is no sign of any fire being directed at the drone as it approaches and apparently strikes the warship.

Read also: Audacious Ukrainian sea drone attack at Novorossiysk leaves Russian warship listing badly

And video and pictures of the warship, listing heavily to port and apparently being towed by tug boats, also tell another story. The vessel, which has a crew of almost 100, appears to be in danger of sinking, the deck on its port side almost tilting to the level of the water.

The videos and photos appear to indicate that one or more compartments on the port side of the vessel have been flooded.

The large amphibious assault ship, a Project 775 or Ropucha-class landing ship is the pride of the 121st Amphibious Assault Brigade of Russias Northern Fleet.

It was built in Gdansk, Poland and entered the fleet in 1976. At first it was called SDK-91, and then BDK-91. Since 2000, it has been called the Olenegorsky Gornyak, as the Olenegorsk Mining and Processing Plant took over patronage of the ship.

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In 2007, it was named the best landing ship of the Northern Fleet of the Russian Federation.

Read also: Russian occupiers in Ukraines Crimea claim 13 drones attacked peninsula overnight

The 47-year-old ship has been repeatedly repaired, and in 2016 it underwent a complete refitting and modernization.

The Olenegorsky Gornyak is armed with two twin 57 mm AK-725 naval cannons, two Grad-M multiple rocket launchers and four Strela-2 portable anti-aircraft missile launchers. It can carry up to 500 tons of equipment and cargo, along with 225 fully-armed paratroopers.

The large amphibious assault ship has a crew of 87 and a speed of up to 18 knots, with a range of 6,000 miles at 12 knots. The length of the Russian vessel is 112.5 meters, its width 15 meters, and its draft  3.7 meters.

The Olenegorsky Gornyak was one of five Ropucha-class landing ships that Russia sailed into the Black Sea in February 2022 to support its full-scale invasion and war on Ukraine. However, Russian invasion forces met stiff resistance by troops in Ukraine, and Moscow was never able to launch any amphibious assaults on the Ukrainian coast.

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
New York has signed off on a touchscreen voting machine that gives counties a new option for elections but has triggered concerns about errors and hacking that could lead to a legal challenge.

The state Board of Elections certified the ExpressVote XL model on Wednesday, adding it to the list of voting devices from which New York City and 57 counties choose. The machines feature a 32-inch interactive screen that displays the ballot and that voters touch to select candidates.

The Nebraska company that makes the device vows it's reliable and secure, saying it underwent hours of development and testing before New York certified it. The manufacturer had sought the state's approval for several years.

The New York State Board of Elections on Aug. 2, 2023 certified the use of ExpressVote XL touchscreen voting machines.

"The system complies with stringent state and federal election regulations, ensuring that every vote cast using the ExpressVote XL is properly recorded and securely stored," Tim Hallett, vice president of certification for Omaha-based Election Systems & Software, said in a statement.

But Common Cause New York, one of a litany of groups that urged the state board to deny certification, blasted the decision and urged state lawmakers to revisit a bill that would prohibit touchscreen voting machines. It also vowed to "explore additional avenues to protect voters and the security of the vote."

Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause, called the approval "a major step backwards for New York, and an exceedingly poor decision ahead of the 2024 presidential election year when election security remains a fraught topic."

What are the concerns?

For the past 12 years, New Yorkers have voted by marking their choices on a paper ballot and feeding it into an electronic scanner that registers their votes. Those optical scan machines were first deployed statewide in September 2010, when the state retired the lever-operated machines that had been wheeled into polling stations for decades.

Machine inspector Mary White gives Rob Booth of South Nyack a sticker after he voted with his son at Living Christ Church polling station in South Nyack Nov. 5, 2019.

With the ExpressVote XL machine, after voters make their choices with touchscreens, they are shown a printout of their choices before their votes are recorded. The machine then whisks away and deposits those paper records and generates a separate, barcoded vote record for use in recounts.

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Various groups opposed to the machine sent two letters to the state Board of Elections shortly before the certification vote, raising concerns about whether votes would be accurately recorded and tallied.

Common Cause New York issued a report in 2020 opposing the ExpressVote XL machines, arguing they offer no "secure paper trail" for votes, are expensive and can malfunction or miscount votes. It cited a Pennsylvania race in which thousands of votes for a candidate weren't tallied until a manual recount.

Lerner said in her statement this week after machines were certified: "Paper ballots marked by the voter - which New York currently uses - is the election security gold standard, and New York should not be spending taxpayer dollars on anything else."

2010 changeover: New voting machines cause few problems in Hudson Valley

What is the company's response?

Katina Granger, a spokeswoman for Election Systems & Software, said Thursday that about 100,000 ExpressVote products are currently used "securely, accurately and reliably" in 40 states and Washington, D.C. A video demonstration of the model approved by New York says it's "physically impossible to add, modify or invalidate votes on them."

The company touts the machine's "universal accessibility," which it said allows all voters, including those with a disability and those who don't speak English, to "cast a secure, verifiable paper ballot."

Whether to use them in New York is up to election boards and local officials in New York City and the counties outside the city.

Ashley Torres, Ulster County's Democratic election commissioner, said Thursday by email that she shared misgivings about the machine and prefers a self-marked and self-scanned ballot that "requires the voter to analyze their choices more thoroughly." She also had qualms about adopting a machine that a lawsuit or a state law could challenge.

In addition, her county already has decided to buy new voting machines made by Hart that use a paper ballot.

"I believe it is the best option on the market, which is why we chose it," Torres said.

What comes next?

A bill that would prevent the use of the ExpressVote XL passed in one legislative chamber this year and could be taken up again in next year's session, which ends months before the 2024 general election.

The bill would guarantee voters a "human readable paper ballot" that they mark by hand or with a device that is not also used to count votes.

The Senate approved the proposal in a 46-16 vote on June 9, near the end of this year's session. The Assembly never brought it to the floor.

In a memo justifying the bill, the sponsors touted New York's use of "individual, voter-verifiable paper ballots that help ensure voters can cast their votes privately, independently, and securely."

"We live in a time when many voters harbor suspicion about the accuracy of vote counting," they wrote. "Requiring the use of the most reliable ballots may ameliorate that problem."

Chris McKenna covers government and politics for The Journal News and USA Today Network. Reach him at cmckenna@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: NY approves touchscreen voting machines that critics say are risky
Nearly forty-six years is a good run for a spacecraft -- a historic, record-breaking run. Is retirement near for NASAs interstellar spacecraft Voyager 1 and 2? Not yet, according to the team working to eke out a few more years with the twin spacecraft because there is still much to learn.

An incorrect command sent to Voyager 2 on July 21 has left the mission science team at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California unable to get data from the spacecraft.

In the meantime, they are hoping to use the Deep Space Network to send out the correct command and hit the intended target more than 12 billion miles from Earth. Otherwise, the data blackout will continue until an automatic software command on Oct. 15 points Voyager back at Earth.

TELESCOPE USED TO STUDY MYSTERIES OF UNIVERSE RELEASES FIRST IMAGES IN STUNNING DETAIL

"October is a long time to wait," Voyager project scientist Linda Spilker at NASAs JPL said.

Good news came this week, when Voyager 2s carrier signal was detected by using the Deep Space Network, allowing NASA to know that the spacecraft is still functioning as expected.

"That told us, OK, Voyager is still there, Voyager two, it's still operating, it's still sending back data. It's doing everything it's supposed to be doing. It just kind of missing us," Voyager Program scientist Linda Spilker said. "It's not pointing at the Earth. So that was really, really a good feeling for everybody on the team to know, okay, Voyager two is still there; everything looks good."

The problem is Voyager 2 is pointed about 2 degrees away from Earth.

"In the case of Voyager two at 12 billion miles away, that's a long, long, skinny triangle," Spilker said. "And it turns out that some people did that calculation, and the offset in this is similar to the Earth-Jupiter distance."

If NASA had a Deep Space Network dish on one of Jupiter's moons, Voyager might have a good signal there. But thats not possible. Over the next several weeks, NASA will attempt to send the correct command to Voyager 2 using the 70-meter DSN station and hope to reach the spacecraft.

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VOYAGER 1 CONTINUES ZOOMING THROUGH INTERSTELLAR SPACE 45 YEARS AFTER ITS LAUNCH

"Its unlikely it'll get through just because the point of off-pointing is so large, but it might," Spilker said.

Spilker explains what kind of data the science community is missing out on while Voyager 2 is on a communication break with Earth.

Nearly every day, NASA gets back multiple hours of data from both Voyager 1 and 2.

Voyager 2 exited the heliosphere in 2018 -- the protective bubble of solar wind considered the boundary of our solar system.

The Voyager 2 spacecraft still has five instruments operating, each using only 4 watts per year.

"Were getting information about what's the magnetic field like in interstellar space. How is it changing?" Spilker said.

Voyager 2 continues to measure the effects of the Sun and cosmic rays in space.

Voyager 2 exited the solar system in 2012 and is further into interstellar space than Voyager 2, heading in a different direction at a slower speed.

"Were still seeing new phenomena that we don't understand," Spilker said.

Among the new phenomena detected by Voyager 1 is something called Pressure Front Two detected by Voyager 1s magnetometer and plasma wave data, Spilker said

"The plasma density all of a sudden jumped up by two or three times what it had been previously. And a lot of times when these events happen, they happen, and then they die out after a few months or not even a few weeks, you'll see it go away," Spilker said. "In the case of Pressure Front Two. Everything jumped up, and it has stayed pretty steady since then."



The change has lasted for over a year.

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"We're just watching and wondering what created it and why is it lasting for so long," Spilker said.

Voyager 2 has yet to encounter the same thing; it is unknown if it will.

Launched in 1977 with an initial four-year lifespan, the Voyager mission has no end date.

In the coming years, the Voyager team will turn off instruments one at a time on both spacecraft to preserve power and the life of the spacecraft. The first planned shut-off happens in 2026 for Voyager 2; however, its four remaining instruments will continue to operate.
The space agency had expected a regular reset of the probe in October to fix the error

Nasa is back in full contact with its lost Voyager 2 probe months earlier than expected, the space agency said.

In July a wrong command was made to the spacecraft, sent to explore space in 1977, changing its position and severing contact.

A signal was picked up on Tuesday but thanks to an "interstellar shout" - a powerful instruction - its antenna is now back facing Earth.

Nasa had originally pinned hopes on the spacecraft resetting itself in October.

It took 37 hours for mission controllers to figure out if the interstellar command had worked as Voyager 2 is billions of miles away from Earth.

Staff used the "highest-power transmitter" to send a message to the spacecraft and timed it to be sent during "the best conditions" so the antenna lined up with the command, Voyager project manager Suzanne Dodd told AFP.

After communications were lost, the probe had been unable to receive commands or send back data to Nasa's Deep Space Network - an array of giant radio antennas across the world.

But the space agency confirmed on 4 August that data had been received from the spacecraft and it was operating normally.

Nasa expects the spacecraft laden with science instruments to remain on its planned trajectory through the universe.

On Monday, the space agency said its huge dish in Australia's capital, Canberra, was trying to detect any stray signals from Voyager 2. This was when the first faint "heartbeat" signal was heard.

The antenna had been bombarding Voyager 2's area with the correct command, in the hope of somehow making contact, Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the Voyager missions, said.

The probe is programmed to reset its position multiple times each year to keep its antenna pointing at Earth. The next reset is due on 15 October, which Nasa had rested its hopes on if all other attempts had failed.

Voyager 2 and its twin Voyager 1 are the only spacecraft ever to operate outside the heliosphere, the protective bubble of particles and magnetic fields generated by the Sun. They reached interstellar space in 2018 and 2012 respectively.

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The probes were designed to take advantage of a rare alignment of outer planets, which occurs about every 176 years, to explore Jupiter and Saturn.

Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft ever to fly by Neptune and Uranus, while Voyager 1 is now nearly 15 billion miles away from Earth, making it humanity's most distant spacecraft.

Once both spacecraft run out of power - expected sometime after 2025 - they will continue roaming through space.
China's rail-sea intermodal trains to make over 9,000 trips in 2023

Xinhua) 13:56, August 04, 2023

NANNING, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- China's rail-sea intermodal trains are expected to make over 9,000 trips along the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor this year, according to a press conference held by south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on Thursday.

The rail-sea intermodal trains made over 8,820 trips in 2022. The autonomous region plans to further boost the efficiency and connectivity of the corridor through building new infrastructure, among other measures.

According to the press conference, in recent years, there has been rapid growth in cargo throughput along the corridor. From 2019 to 2022, the comprehensive cargo throughput capacity of the Beibu Bay port in Guangxi jumped from 260 million tonnes to 315 million tonnes. At present, there are 75 container routes linking over 200 ports in more than 100 countries and regions.

In the first half of this year, the cargo throughput of Beibu Bay port surged by 14 percent year on year, and the number of trips made by rail-sea intermodal trains increased by 9 percent year on year, according to figures released at the press conference.

Meanwhile, in 2022, the trade volume generated by provincial-level regions along the corridor from imports and exports through ports in Guangxi totaled over 500 billion yuan (69.93 billion U.S. dollars), a record high. In the first half of this year, it had already surpassed 290 billion yuan, a surge of almost 50 percent year on year.

Launched in 2017, the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor is a trade and logistics passage jointly built by provincial-level regions in western China and ASEAN members.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
(Photo : Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

Minnesota has legalized marijuana and has approved plans to provide reparations to communities that were over-policed over marijuana offenses in the past.

Minnesota has legalized marijuana in the state and has announced plans to provide reparations to communities who were previously considered over-policed for marijuana offenses.

The new program will invest millions of dollars into communities that were disproportionately affected by the enforcement of the law when the drug was still considered illegal. Several state lawmakers have called the initiative a form of reparation because it seeks to provide economic relief to residents previously convicted of marijuana possession and other weed-related offenses.

Reparations Over Marijuana Offenses

The grant program, called "CanRenew," was enacted as part of Minnesota's new recreational marijuana law. The new legislation allows residents to use the drug without having a license, but it is still considered illegal for unlicensed dispensers to sell.

Marijuana was legalized in the state on August 1, but the CanRenew program will not take effect until 2026. But after it has been implemented, it will provide $15 million to eligible organizations in various communities with high concentrations of people previously convicted of a marijuana offense or had family members who were, as per Fox News.

The new law also states that communities with many veterans, high poverty rates, and have experienced a disproportionately large amount of cannabis enforcement could receive grants.

In a statement, the bill's sponsor in the Senate, Minnesota Sen. Lindsey Port, said that direct harm was done to communities due to drug prohibition. She added that it was their responsibility to undo that harm and noted that the reparations are the first major investment in doing just that.

Port, also a member of the state's Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL), noted that she had no knowledge of any other initiative similar to the one she sponsored within the United States. She added that the money for the program's grants would be taken from tax revenue from cannabis sales.

Read Also: Climate Change Is Making California's Waves More Powerful, Study Finds

Legalizing the Use of Cannabis

The legalization of cannabis in Minnesota is effective for 21 years and older residents and marks the state becoming the 23rd in the country to legalize it for recreational use. Now, the first dispensary selling marijuana for recreational use has opened and is serving customers on the Red Lake Nation in north-central Minnesota, according to MPR News.

In 2014, Minnesota lawmakers approved a bill that legalized the limited use of some forms of medical marijuana, and the year after, products became available. That program began with oils, pills, and other non-smokable forms of the drug. It was only in 2021 that the leaf form was authorized for the program.

The state also legalized the sale and consumption of edibles that contained small amounts of hemp-derived THC in 2022. State Gov. Tim Walz signed on May 30 the expansive cannabis legalization bill into law, which took effect on August 1.

The situation comes after White Earth Nation Tribal Council Chairman Michael Fairbanks said the sale of cannabis cultivated on the reservation represents a significant economic opportunity. He said that they expect they could sell a high-quality product at lower prices than other dispensaries, said Marijuana Moment.

Related Article: All US National Parks Will Have Free Admission on Friday

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Nice weekend weather? Thats the perfect recipe for a fishing trip in Australia, according to Paul Dears and Christian Koenig.

Thats why the friends decided to take advantage of sunny skies in Gold Coast on Saturday, July 29, Dears told McClatchy News.

Conditions on the weekend were looking really good so we just decided to take the boat. Fished a couple of locations and had no luck, Dears said.

After a few unsuccessful attempts, the duo noticed something approaching their boat: A group of whales.

All of a sudden these whales were swimming towards the boat, and then they started putting on a show, Dears said.

A video of the encounter on Instagram shows at least two massive whales flipping and breaching. In the background, Dears dog, Sonny, is barking at the creatures.

Got lucky this morning, Dears captioned the video.

A second video posted by Koenig shows the whales diving in and out of the water while an alert Sonny barks at them.

Social media users shared Dears and Koenigs excitement about the sighting.

Oh wow and wow, one person wrote on Koenigs Instagram post. How lucky were you??!!

Oh my god! This is amazing, another person wrote on Dears post.

Thats epic, a third Instagram comment said.

Gold Coast is on Australias east coast, about 50 miles southeast of Brisbane.

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cameras at courtroom Andreas Gebert / Bloomberg via Getty Images

When Donald Trump appeared at the federal courthouse in Miami this summer to be arraigned for allegedly mishandling classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort, producers at CNN were forced to get creative to circumvent a standing judicial order against outside electronics in the building. Their solution? Child labor, in the form of teenagers from nearby Palmetto Senior High School, who the network deputized as one-day production assistants so they could help enact a Rube Goldberg-esque process of manually running updates from the courtroom itself to an RV parked nearby, which CNN was using as a mobile headquarters for their coverage. "In all my years of field producing, never have I been involved in an operation as complex as this literal game of professional telephone," CNN producer Noah Gray admitted, highlighting what has become a unique challenge in the ongoing coverage of Trump's multiple criminal charges: opacity in the federal court system in which cameras, audio feeds, and other methods of transparency are largely eschewed in the name of privacy and civility.

"There is this pearl clutching going on for decades among judges," CNN Legal Analyst Elie Honig told the network's Jake Tapper, claiming that the federal bench worries their trials will "become a spectacle." But given both the historic nature of Trump's growing list of criminal indictments and the degree to which his courthouse appearances have already become spectacles regardless of whether or not there are cameras in the courtroom itself, more and more pressure is mounting to televise Trump's trials  including from some unlikely sources.

Cameras would "inevitably result in prejudice" against Trump

After multiple media outlets petitioned New York Judge Juan Merchan to allow cameras in the room for the former president's first criminal arraignment in Manhattan, Trump's legal team argued that allowing the proceedings to be filmed would "create a circus-like atmosphere at the arraignment" as well as "raise unique security concerns." Cameras would also be "inconsistent with President Trump's presumption of innocence," they claimed. Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Matthew Colangelo seemed to agree in part, writing that the court has justifiable "discretion to exclude or restrict videography, photography, and radio coverage of the arraignment in the interest of avoiding potential prejudice to the defendant, maintaining an orderly proceeding, assuring the safety of the participants in the proceeding."

Merchan ultimately agreed, claiming that cameras could disrupt the "dignity and decorum of the court," as well as put the safety of those involved at risk. Joining Merchan was U.S. Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman of Florida, who similarly denied efforts to film Trump's federal arraignment in Miami (prompting CNN's high school work-around) claiming in part that "allowing photographs would undermine the massive security arrangements put in place." In general, photography and videography are banned from Federal trial proceedings as a rule, although there are limited exceptions.

"This is a unique case"

Blanket bans on filming federal trials notwithstanding, there is a growing argument that the singular and historic nature of Trump's two federal trials makes it incumbent upon the court to be as transparent as possible for the greater public good.

"Presented with arguably the most extraordinary trial in our history and immense consequences for our democracy, the normal rule should not dictate the result," the Washington Post's Jennifer Rubin argued, claiming the case isn't simply a question for a jury "but also to the American people" who should "have the opportunity to put the story together for themselves." NBC Legal Analyst Glenn Kirschner agreed, noting that since Trump's trial will be fought in the "court of public opinion" leading up to the 2024 presidential election, "cameras in the courtroom are a must" to prevent "a one-sided account coming from Trump's lawyers" that could influence voters.

Calling it a "unique case," former Robert Mueller deputy Andrew Weissmann said that the blanket ban on filming federal trials should be suspended here, and that "It's going to be incumbent on the chief justice of the United States to make this trial public." MSNBC legal commentator Joyce White Vance concurred, tweeting that "[j]ustice demands" Chief Justice John Roberts "authorize televising Trump's trial."

"This shouldn't be a partisan issue," former Principal Deputy Solicitor General Neal Katyal told Vanity Fair. "Everyone benefits from increased transparency." To that end, perhaps the most surprising  and compelling  argument for a televised Trump trial comes from none other than Trump's own legal team. "The first thing we would ask for is: let's have cameras in the courtroom," exclaimed Trump attorney John Lauro during a Fox News interview shortly before Special Counsel Jack Smith indicted the former president for alleged election subversion. "I would hope that the Department of Justice would join in that effort so that we take the curtain away and all Americans get to see what's happening."

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small town strong opioid crisis documentary

In 2020, approximately 11 Ohioans died every single day of an accidental opioid overdose, and the city of Portsmouth was widely known as ground zero. Both combat veterans, Dale King and Chase Millsap have made it their mission to bring Portsmouth back to health, one workout at a time. Their new documentary, Small Town Strong, documents the journey.

Watch the epic trailer here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdAVojEYbLM

Decades before being recognized as the Pill Mill of America," Portsmouth was a thriving community. But after economic hardship stemming from the steel mills and factories leaving in the 1980s, paired with over-prescribing opioids like OxyContin, an epidemic of drug abuse began, rippling through generations.

By 2010, 9.7 million opioid pills had been prescribed to the residents of Scioto County, where Portsmouth resides. That same year, Portsmouth declared a Public Health Emergency. As the crackdown began on doctors writing prescriptions for painkillers, its users sought out cheaper alternatives to buying their pills on the street: heroin and fentanyl.

Today, Scioto County has the highest rate of newborns suffering from neonatal abstinence syndrome -- essentially, babies in withdrawal.

After serving in the Army from 2003 to 2007 as a Military Intelligence Officer and supporting 10th Special Forces Group through two deployments to Iraq, Dale King was ready to come home to Portsmouth. A passion for fitness led him to found PSKC CrossFit in 2010.

Photo courtesy of King

Just five years later, he became the co-creator of Doc Spartan (featured on Shark Tank) alongside hometown friend Renee Wallace. In 2018, an executive with a local nonprofit counseling agency shared how powerful CrossFit had been for his own recovery from opioids. He pitched offering the class to some of his clients in the recovery program to King.

We, of course, said yes even though we had no experience working with people in recovery or addiction though our town is well-storied in it, he explained. From my background in the military and with CrossFit I know there's a very powerful method with providing group exercise to people and doing hard things, doing hard things together, and then celebrating the fact that we've overcome. And that's what we did.

Story continues

Photo courtesy of King and Millsap

For around a decade, ongoing medical studies have linked the benefits of vigorous exercise in successful recovery from drug addiction  with the workout high inducing the feelings of pleasure and happiness-inducing hormones previously sought through drug use.

It's [working out] a safe introduction of psychological stress via physiological means. We put them together in a group, just like you would in a normal PT session in the military, and it's led by an instructor, King explained. Participants are getting all the neurochemical positive effects. But they're also getting an example of positive leadership in their life. And some people, honestly, never had an authority figure who hasn't been an abusive and negative one.

The gym started offering classes once a day in the fall of 2018. One of their first clients came religiously for 90 days, then informed King he wouldnt see him any longer because he was graduating the program.

I assumed he had somewhere to go but he was about to check himself into a homeless shelter because if he went back home he knew hed start using again, King said. This didnt sit well with King. I told him to show up the next day and wed give him a mop and a broom, plus he could work out as much as he wanted to. Today hes a general manager of a restaurant in business school and is flipping houses on the side.

It began what is now known as the Portsmouth Method." King shared, He is the first one that broke the dam for currently around 12 to 13 employees that I have across three businesses that are all in recovery. We do 25 classes a week at the counseling center for their staff and their clients and just kind of established a very strong foothold here in Portsmouth, bridging two communities together. People in recovery, and more importantly, those not in recovery, to help them understand what people in addiction are going through.

Adam "Chase" Millsap is a 2005 Naval Academy graduate who served five years as a Marine Corps officer and then another five as special forces Green Beret in the Army National Guard. Though not a native of Ohio, he and his wife relocated back to her home state of Ohio from Los Angeles during the COVID-19 pandemic. Millsap is a long-time friend of Kings, proudly watching the impactful change he was creating in the small town.

Photo courtesy of Millsap

After leaving the military, Millsap made a name for himself in television production and storytelling. In 2018, he began making regular trips to Portsmouth to film and, by 2020, began pitching a documentary television show on the Portsmouth Method, alongside a good friend of both veterans  Bill, the recovering executive from the counseling center that helped start it all.

In October of 2021, Bill died from an opioid overdose.

Tired of waiting for a yes from Hollywood and sick from losing a friend, Millsap was ready to put it all on the line. I said, Fine, I'm just going to do it myself." he explained. And that was a real kick in the ass for me, honestly, and I got pissed off, because it was like, how long do we have to keep waiting for someone to give us permission to tell this story when people are dying?

Photo courtesy of Millsap and King

He called King and pitched the idea of doing it on their own, and it was an instantaneous yes. There may have been an enthusiastic f-bomb or two, King admitted with a laugh.

Photo courtesy of Millsap and King

Small Town Strong features several extraordinary interviews and is entirely directed and produced by the two veterans and Millsap's wife, Maile. Viewers will meet recovering opioid addicts like Sarah, who brought the film crew where she used to shoot up heroin. We'll even have an ER doctor walk you through what happens to your brain when you overdose and then at the same time walk you through what happens to your brain when you do high-intensity workouts, Millsap shared.

This is my hometown. I dont want it to be known for this [drug addiction] and this is the number one problem in our backyard, King said. I don't want to look back and regret not doing anything. I want to make a difference.

Photo courtesy of Millsap and King

You can follow Small Town Strong's release updates on Instagram, @smalltownstrongdoc.

PRE-ORDER NOW: https://bit.ly/smalltownstrongnacelle

OFFICIAL WEBSITE: https://smalltownstrongdoc.com/
Wang Sum Luk came out after going to summer camp. Fiona Zeka

While studying in Hong Kong and Britain, I didn't feel like I could express my queer identity.

At a summer camp in the US, I spent time around students who were happily and proudly queer.

This gave me the confidence to begin coming out to my family and close friends.

I grew up in Hong Kong, but when I was 15, I began studying in a British boarding school.

When I joined the school, no male students were out of the closet. The teachers were nothing but welcoming, but as far as I was aware, the school administration's only explicit gesture toward recognizing queer students was a page on the school's website about LGBTQ+ Pride. The site hadn't been updated in years.

I'd known I was bisexual for some time, but I never fully entertained the idea of coming out because my school's environment didn't seem to welcome it.

During my first year, I kept to myself, growing wary of revealing too much about any aspect of who I really was. But when I went to a summer camp, I surrounded myself with queer students who helped me come out.

At 16, I went to a summer camp in the US that changed everything for me

The Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth, known as CTY, hosts summer courses at various American universities on topics including astrophysics and philosophy. At the end of my school year, I packed my suitcases and headed to Franklin & Marshall College in Pennsylvania to spend three weeks in its advanced-fiction course.

Not much happened in my classes. I wrote two short stories, examined fiction by authors such as Octavia Butler and Jorge Luis Borges, enjoyed hanging out with the other campers, and drank excessive quantities of root beer.

I also experienced something I never had before: openly queer students. The camp had always featured plenty of extracurricular events and traditions hosted by queer students. At camp, I attended a forum for LGBTQ+ people and allies. I listened silently and nervously.

I also shared a dormitory hallway with a trans camper. I chatted with them about celebrities and superheroes. My first day of classes began with all of us sharing names and pronouns. I listened to friends talking about their experiences as queer students and how their identities were sources of joy and confidence.

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Every one of these unassuming moments gave me a new sense of community.

I returned home transformed by this experience and came out to my family and friends

After just three weeks at the summer camp, I learned that being queer didn't need to be a difficult or solitary experience. I'd never told anyone  not even my friends at CTY  that I was queer, but after my time there, I knew I would be able to handle the experience of coming out.

I went back to Hong Kong after the summer camp ended. One evening, I told my parents that I had something to say to them and told them I was bisexual. They took the revelation in stride, asking only one follow-up question about whether I had a crush on an older student I admired. I didn't.

When school began the next term, I came out to my friends in a similarly low-key way, telling them as we were leaving a school event.

I then worked up the courage to ask the school's administration for permission to update the school's website about queer issues, adding as much useful information about queer issues to the page as I could. The updated page met a muted reception, but to see teachers supporting this effort was heartening.

While my coming out was anticlimactic and the opposite of the stories I wrote about in my course at CTY, I now realize how important it is to have a queer community by your side.

Read the original article on Insider
(Photo by -/AFP via Getty Images)

With about 1,100 U.S. troops and several drone bases in Niger, the military overthrow of that West African nations government last week has potentially significant national security implications for America and its allies.

Niger has served as a key staging ground for the fight against terrorist groups, including ones linked to Al Qaeda and ISIS, across a broader region known as the Sahel over the past decade. The Sahel refers to the area that separates the Sahara Desert from true Sub-Saharan Africa.

A general view of billowing smoke as supporters of the Nigerien defence and security forces attack the headquarters of the Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism (PNDS), the party of overthrown President Mohamed Bazoum, in Niamey on July 27, 2023. (Photo by AFP) (Photo by -/AFP via Getty Images)

It has also been a bulwark of sorts in an area where other democratically elected governments have been toppled and some, like Mali, have later been aided by Russias Wagner mercenary group. The fact that other recently overthrown governments have appealed to Russia raises the specter of the Washington and Moscow vying for influence in a volatile region at a time of increased global competition. China too is a major player in the region, with huge investments in Niger and other countries in the Sahel.

So the change in Nigers leadership, if it holds, presents several challenges in the Sahel.

The trouble began July 26 when Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani - commander of Niger's presidential guard - led a mutiny against the sitting government. Now calling themselves the National Council for the Safeguarding of the Country, they placed President Mohamed Bazoum under house arrest in the capital of Niamey, seizing power. Bazoum took office in 2021 despite an earlier attempted coup.

General Abdourahamane Tchiani, Niger's new strongman, speaking on national television. (Photo by ORTN - Tele Sahel / AFP) (Photo by -/ORTN - Tele Sahel/AFP via Getty Images)

Niger's deposed President Mohamed Bazoum at the presidential palace in Niamey, Niger, March 16, 2023. (Boureima Hama/Pool Photo via AP/File)

In the wake of that, the U.S. State Department on Wednesday ordered the departure of non-emergency U.S. government employees and eligible family members from Embassy Niamey. In addition, the U.S. Embassy in Niamey has temporarily reduced its personnel, suspended routine services, and is only able to provide emergency assistance to U.S. citizens in Niger.

U.S. citizens have previously been advised to reconsider travel to Niger due to crime, terrorism, and kidnapping.

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The State Department has not yet requested Defense Department personnel or equipment as part of its ordered departure, Air Force Brig. Gen Pat Ryder, the Pentagons top spokesman, told reporters on Thursday.

In an opinion piece he wrote for The Washington Post on Thursday, Bazoum called himself a "hostage" and called upon the U.S. and allies to help restore his government.

"In our hour of need, I call on the U.S. government and the entire international community to help us restore our constitutional order," he wrote. "Fighting for our shared values, including democratic pluralism and respect for the rule of law, is the only way to make sustainable progress against poverty and terrorism. The Nigerien people will never forget your support at this pivotal moment in our history."

Short-Term Implications

The U.S., along with France which has about 1,500 troops in Niger and Germany with about 100, use facilities in that country to combat jihadi groups like the Islamic State and al-Qaeda, as well as train regional defense forces.

The Western troop presence in Niger "ballooned over the past decade as the country became a key regional security partner for the United States, France, and the European Union," Congressional Research Service wrote in a recent report. "Frances withdrawal of over 2,000 troops from Mali and Burkina Faso in 2022- 2023, about half of whom were sent to Niger, magnified the countrys importance for Western-backed security efforts."

There are no immediate changes to U.S. force posture in Niger, Ryder told reporters on Thursday. However, there are some impacts on operations.

U.S. troops in Niger are mostly staying on base and limiting engagements with counterparts, though they can go off base conditions permitting, Ryder said.

While there have been no threats against U.S. troops by Tchianis forces, the Pentagon is taking prudent force protection measures and is monitoring the situation closely, said Ryder.

He added that U.S. forces in Niger continue to cooperate daily with Nigerien forces to keep base operations and services functioning. Those Nigerien troops are not necessarily associated with this seizure of the president, said Ryder.

One immediate impact to the U.S. of the overthrow was a decision by the National Council to close the airspace over the country, including all flights out of Nigerien Air Base 201 in Agadez, Politico first reported. That facility is where the U.S. operates a squadron of MQ-9 Reaper drones and MQ-1C Gray Eagle drones after investing $100 million to rebuild and $30 million annually to operate it, according to Politico.

Nigerien Air Base 201 in Agadez. (Google Earth)

It is unclear at the moment if those air space restrictions still hold and what impact it may be having on operations against the extremist groups who are increasing their activity in the Sahel.

Citing operations security concerns, U.S. Africa Command on Friday declined to provide us with comment on "current operations and capabilities."

Adding to the immediate concerns, the Nigerien takeover has drawn in African nations to both sides.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), a 15-member bloc of nations that includes Niger, on July 30 threatened the use of force to restore Bazoum within a week. It also imposed travel and economic sanctions on Niger.

For more than four decades, ECOWAS has intervened in regional crises, most recently in Gambia in 2017, where its soldiers helped stop longtime President Yahya Jammeh from trying to overturn the results of an election he had lost.

ECOWAS Senegalese troops hold their position in Barra, across from the Gambian capital Banjul Jan. 22, 2017. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay, File)

Bolstering the ECOWAS effort, President Bola Tinubu of Nigeria wrote to the Nigerian Senate on Friday asking for its support for Nigeria's military intervention in Niger, according to the LSI Africa publication.

Meanwhile, Burkina Faso and another military junta-led country friendly with Russia, Mali, have declared that intervention against Nigerien putsch leaders would be considered a declaration of war against them, too, The Associated Press reported Wednesday. Both countries have undergone recent coups.

Burkina Faso's Capt. Ibrahim Traore, left, and Russian President Vladimir Putin shake hands before an official ceremony to welcome the leaders of delegations to the Russia Africa Summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, Thursday, July 27, 2023. (Sergei Bobylev/TASS Host Photo Agency Pool Photo via AP)

Long-term ramifications

The U.S. faces a difficult balancing act in Niger, one reason the Biden administration has yet to call the National Councils actions a coup and has yet to impose or even threaten sanctions. Such a designation could cut off military training and aid to the country, further limiting Washingtons influence in a region roiled by turmoil.

By issuing sanctions against Niger, the U.S. would be acknowledging the overthrow is final. While ECOWAS has already issued sanctions, however, it maintains that Bazoum is the legitimate head of government in Niger.

The overthrow of Bazoum is the latest in a series of military takeovers across Africa.

As The New York Times noted, since 2020, three of Nigers neighbors  Mali, Burkina Faso, and Guinea  have experienced five coups.

"Like recent coups in neighbouring Burkina Faso and Mali, last week's military takeover in Niger came amid a growing wave of anti-French sentiment with some locals accusing the former colonial ruler of interfering in their affairs," Reuters reported.

Niger is the latest country in Africa to be overthrown by a military junta. (Google Earth image)

Losing Niger as a partner could have a tremendous impact on the ability of the United States and France, as well as their other allies and partners, to counter violent extremists across much of northwest Africa.

The Sahel has surpassed the Middle East and South Asia to become the global epicenter of jihadist violence, accounting for 43 percent of 6,701 deaths in 2022, up from 1 percent in 2007, The New York Times reported, citing the Global Terrorism Index, an annual study by the Institute for Economics and Peace.

Niger was also where four U.S. troops and several Nigerien soldiers were killed in an ambush by Islamic State-linked militants on Oct. 4, 2017.

These images provided by the U.S. Army show, from left, Staff Sgt. Bryan C. Black, 35, of Puyallup, Wash.; Staff Sgt. Jeremiah W. Johnson, 39, of Springboro, Ohio; Sgt. La David Johnson, 25, of Miami Gardens, Fla.; and Staff Sgt. Dustin M. Wright, 29, of Lyons, Ga. All four were killed in Niger in 2017, when a joint patrol of American and Niger forces was ambushed by militants believed linked to the Islamic State group. (U.S. Army via AP)

Increasing concerns about the fight against jihadis, the junta leaders on Thursday cancelled several military agreements with France, Reuters reported.

France, however, rejects that.

"France recalls that the legal framework for its cooperation with Niger in the area of defense is based on agreements that have been concluded with the legitimate Nigerien authorities," a French official told The War Zone on Friday. "These are the only ones that France, like the entire international community, recognizes."

Beyond the issue of jihadi groups is the concern that Russia, through the Wagner group, is extending its influence in Africa.

Wagner forces operate in Mali, Sudan, the Central African Republic and Libya.

As Russia's relations with much of the rest of the world have deteriorated after its full-on invasion of Ukraine, it has turned increasingly to Africa. Moscow has been stoking anti-colonialism sentiments that remain strong across the continent, something Russian President Vladimir Putin particularly emphasized during a summit with African leaders last month in St. Petersburg. He also used debt write-offs and grain as carrots to entice those nations.

Russias attention to Africa is steadily growing, Putin said at the end of the two-day event.

The Wagner group was created in large measure to increase Russian military influence in places like Africa and Syria. At the end of 2021, it was deployed to Mali with that in mind.

"While Wagner will ostensibly train local forces and provide security services to senior Malian officials, it will also take advantage of the situation to spread Russian influence on the continent and secure financial gains," the Center for Strategic and International Studies reported last year. "Similar to its deployment in the Central African Republic (CAR), Wagners activity in Mali allows Malian political leaders to coup-proof the regime in exchange for financial and mineral concessions."

In the wake of Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin's aborted mutiny, tens of thousands of his fighters were no longer bogged down in Ukraine. Many were subsumed by the Russian military. About 6,000 have gone to Belarus, Ukrainian Maj. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, head of the Defense Intelligence Directorate, told The War Zone on Thursday. But many are apparently supposed to head to Africa, something Budanov told us in July.

Wagner's hub in Belarus "is being created for Wagner operations overseas, mostly in Africa," he said.

On Wednesday, a National Council leader and other officers flew to neighboring Mali to meet with its rulers, The New York Times reported. That, in turn, has sparked worries that closer ties between the juntas in Niger and Mali could lead to the former creating a closer relationship with Wagner, which has about 1,500 troops in the latter country.

In his Washington Post opinion piece, Bazoum said the entire region was at risk from Wagner.

"With an open invitation from the coup plotters and their regional allies, the entire central Sahel region could fall to Russian influence via the Wagner Group, whose brutal terrorism has been on full display in Ukraine," he wrote.

Earlier in the day on Thursday, Ryder, the Pentagon spokesman, said that there was no indication so far that Wagner was associated with the putsch. But with a Wagner presence in Africa, it's something that we're continuing to keep a close eye on, he said.

China too is paying close attention to the events in Niger. It's the latest nation to see an overthrow where it has extensive investments. China's influence across Africa has been rapidly expanding in recent years, with raw materials a focus and financial assistance to regimes that have them acting as a major incentive.

Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali, Chad and Sudan "are all countries where China has extensive economic interests especially in the mining and petroleum industries and is looking to extend its multibillion-dollar trade and investment scheme, the Belt and Road Initiative," the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported.

Chinas state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation and China National Nuclear Corporation invested $4.6 billion and $480 million in the countrys petroleum and uranium industries respectively, according to Chinas Ministry of Commerce, according to the SCMP.

There are many factors in play here in what remains a very fluid situation. The stakes for so many actors, both local and international, are very real. As a result, morphing influences in the Sahel will be a much larger concern for the U.S. and its allies after the recent events in Niger.

Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com
Southwest Florida chiropractor Kent Messer was looking forward to digging into some homemade coconut pie on Tuesday morning when he went into work at Suncoast Injury Centers in Fort Myers.

But when the doctor looked for the treat hed left overnight in the refrigerator, it was gone  as were a bunch of valuable supplies.

Thats when he realized hed been robbed.

I had very simple goals, Messer told local TV station NBC-2 News, adding that the desserts container contained a few crumbs. I just wanted to get to the office, get my slice of pie, get on with my day.

According to an incident report from the Lee County Sheriffs Office, deputies responded to the business at 10:30 a.m. in reference to a burglary and grand theft that had already occurred.

Messer reported one drawer was left open as well as a cabinet door, and soon noticed items that were normally organized were left in disarray.

After he looked in the fridge and saw the pie, made by his wife and valued at $5, had been eaten, he realized the office had been burglarized, according to the report.

Also missing was a transport case with metal hinges valued at $125 filled with a bunch of medical equipment valued at $1,500.

The point of entry was likely the emergency exit door in one of the treatment rooms, said the report, which noted that the exterior of the building by the door showed fresh pry marks.

The pie pincher, if found, will be charged with burglary of an unoccupied dwelling, a second-degree felony.
No, your uncle isnt making this one up  the White House has just released a report on researching the impacts of blocking out the sun.

On June 30, the White Houses Office of Science and Technology Policy published the report, fulfilling its congressionally-mandated duty to do so.

Why even consider dimming the sun?

The report focused on solar radiation modification, also known as solar geoengineering.

Solar geoengineering is a hypothetical method of cooling down our overheated planet by continuously spewing reflective aerosol particles into the atmosphere.

These particles could reflect incoming sunlight, which in turn could cool down the Earth and likely decrease some of the harmful effects of such warming, like extreme weather.

Is solar geoengineering dangerous?

Despite the serious need to stop the planet from getting dangerously hot, many environmental leaders and scientists who study geoengineering oppose it, calling it outlandish and a desperate idea.

It has been labeled as a terrible idea for various reasons, including potential damage to the slowly healing ozone layer, extreme changes to weather, a decrease in plants ability to photosynthesize, and a dangerous dependence on the practice.

Once you start geoengineering, you cannot stop without causing termination shock.

Physicist Ray Pierrehumbert and atmospheric scientist Michael Mann described such a withdrawal for the Guardian in plain terms: Well yes, we can stop. Just like if youre being kept alive by a ventilator with no hope of a cure, you can turn it off  and suffer the consequences.

What did the report say?

The report did not indicate any policy change on behalf of the United States or provide any plan for future research.

More accurately, the report suggested that further studying the feasibility and impacts of solar geoengineering could be helpful in informing future decisions.

Another key takeaway was that substantial knowledge gaps and uncertainties exist in many critical areas.

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The White Houses press release seemed to ultimately shy away from any intent to associate itself with the practice of solar geoengineering, writing:

[We remain] focused on reducing emissions, increasing resilience.  Release of this report fulfills a Congressional mandate, and there are no plans underway to establish a comprehensive research program focused on solar radiation modification.

Join our free newsletter for weekly updates on the coolest innovations improving our lives and saving our planet.
Russia seeks to buy more munitions from North Korea for the war in Ukraine as Moscow grows increasingly dependent on foreign supplies, the Associated Press (AP) reported on Aug. 3, citing U.S. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby.

Kirby said that according to U.S. intelligence, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu presented the request last week during his visit to Pyongyang on the 70th anniversary of the Korean War armistice.

According to the White House, Shoigu's pitch highlights Moscow's growing dependence on countries like Iran or North Korea in terms of arms supplies for Russian troops in Ukraine.

This is yet another example of how desperate Mr. Putin has become because his war machine is being affected by the sanctions and the export controls," Kirby told journalists.

"He is going through a vast amount of inventory to try to subjugate Ukraine, and he's reaching out to countries like North Korea, like Iran, and certainly he's been trying to reach out to China to get support for his war machine."

In the spring of 2023, Moscow reportedly approached Pyongyang with the offer of food supplies in exchange for weapons. North Korea has been heavily militarized since the end of the war with its Southern Korean neighbors in 1953 but suffers from chronic food shortages.

North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un previously expressed "full support" for Russia's aggression against Ukraine.

Russia has been also massively deploying Iranian-made Shahed kamikaze drones against Ukraine, and U.S. intelligence reported in late July that China is providing Moscow with significant supplies of drones and dual-use technology that can be utilized for military purposes.

Read also: Washington Post: China restricts drone exports over Ukraine and military concerns

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
President Bidens top aide on Friday wrote to Cabinet officials urging them to increase the amount of in-person work federal employees are doing at each agency.

White House chief of staff Jeff Zients, in a letter obtained by Axios, told agency leaders that an increase of in-person work was a priority for the president.

As we look towards the fall, and with the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency, your agencies will be implementing increases in the amount of in-person work for your team, Zients wrote. This is a priority of the President  and I am looking to each of you to aggressively execute this shift in September and October.

He also wrote that a return to in-person work is critical to the well-being of our teams and will enable us to deliver better results for the American people.

Zients noted that the White House has been working in-person for the past two years, which has allowed us to work more nimbly and effectively as a team and with the aim of serving you and your agencies better.

A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The COVID-19 public health emergency lapsed in May, and the Biden administration has pushed returning to the office since earlier this year after the pandemic forced much of the federal workforce to work remotely.

The Office of Management and Budget in April issued a memo urging federal workers to return to the office full-time, while encouraging remote work where it has been most efficient.

In his State of the Union address in 2022, Biden pledged to bring workers back to the office.

Its time for America to get back to work and fill our great downtowns again with people, he said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Left to right, Jerel Newsman, structural engineer, talks to Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall and Councilman Dan Dugan at the unveiling of Salt Lake Citys newest public art piece in the Northwest Quadrant of Salt Lake City on Thursday. | Megan Nielsen, Deseret News

Utah's newest public art display is a bit of a thinker.

It's a 25,000-pound, 40-foot-long orange shipping container held up on a large black pole, tilted in a way that its tallest end rises 39 feet in the air among the massive warehouses that align Salt Lake City's industrial-heavy Northwest Quadrant.

In fact, Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall understands if it catches you off guard as you travel on California Avenue near 3800 West.

"This isn't a place where you would expect to find art," she said, as she looked at it Thursday. "I would guess that, for the majority of the people who travel here on this busy road, that they're going to think, 'What on earth is that? Is this the result of an accident?'"

This shipping container is actually the centerpiece of nine shipping container-themed pieces that have popped up on the exterior walls of massive warehouses across Salt Lake County in recent years, which have become popular draws for passing truckers.

The giant tilted orange shipping container is called "Trade Balance," and is the brainchild of Steven Price, the founder and president of Price Real Estate. He explains the idea came about three years ago, starting with a trip to Utah's iconic Spiral Jetty and ending with "cargo art" in Denver's RiNo Art District. The two got him thinking about a large project involving shipping containers.

Price has a long list of public art projects in the city, most notably the rhinos, ostrich and pencil that people can find on South Temple in Salt Lake City. His newest piece is billed as Utah's "largest above-ground art installation," representing the commerce, logistics, manufacturing and distribution found in this part of the city.

"We think about trade imbalances all the time ... but this only a part of what this piece is about," he said. "What this piece is really about is the trade of decorum, the trade of diplomacy, the trade of similar values and similar interests."

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Salt Lake Citys newest public art piece, Trade Balance, stands in the Northwest Quadrant of Salt Lake City on Thursday. The piece completes Utahs largest above-ground art installation and is a nod to the Northwest Quadrants commerce, logistics, manufacturing and distribution industries. | Megan Nielsen, Deseret News

While it's tilted at an angle, it earned the name balance because of the "engineering feat" that it took to get a large shipping container in the air, he adds. It took about 600 hours worth of planning and engineering led by Tri Square Fabrication President Glen Lais to ensure a 40-foot shipping container could end up on a pole without blowing over or collapsing.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said people may not understand the piece the first time they see it; however, he hopes it makes people think. And as they think, he believes they will see how it fits in the Northwest Quadrant, an area at the center of Utah's commerce, logistics, distribution and manufacturing industries.

"It really is a remarkable visualization of the Northwest Quadrant and its identity as ... the blue-collared piece of our state that keeps our state running," he said. "(It's) so important to industry, so important to our population and, of course, so important to our economy."

Steven Price welcomes attendees to the unveiling of Salt Lake Citys newest public art piece in the Northwest Quadrant of Salt Lake City on Thursday. Partnering with Utah-based Tri Square Fabrication, Price commissioned the custom fabrication of nine shipping containers, which have been installed throughout Salt Lake County. | Megan Nielsen, Deseret News

There's also a balance between commerce and environment on this side of the city, Mendenhall adds. She said the Northwest Quadrant is filled with thousands of acres of "economic potential" and thousands of acres of "critical ecosystem" by the Great Salt Lake, which are both vital to the city's future.

It all depends on how you view it.

Price said he plans to keep adding more art pieces in Utah, pointing out Thursday that he's watched truckers stop and take photos of the other pieces tied to the Trade Balance project. He views art as a "very important" indicator of economic well-being, which commerce is a part of.

"Art is not a decoration, it's a destination," he said. "Art really is the ultimate state of the reflection of the state of our society and that's what this is."
(Photo : AHMAD AL-RUBAYE / AFP) (AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP via Getty Images)

Terrorist group ISIS confirmed that its leader, Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurayshi has died while fighting against militants in Syria.

Global terrorist group ISIS confirmed that its leader, Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurayshi, who led the faction since November, has died in a confrontation with militants in Syria and has already named his successor.

The extremist organization did not detail when al-Qurayshi was killed but noted that he died fighting an al-Qaeda-linked group. A spokesman for ISIS, Abu Huthaifa al-Ansari, said that the new leader would be Abu Hafs al-Hashemi al-Qurayshi.

ISIS Confirms Death of Its Leader

The deceased leader is the fourth ISIS leader to be killed since the terror group's founding by Iraqi militant Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who declared a caliphate in the majority of Syria and Iraq in June 2014 before its defeat in the years.

In an audio message, the group's spokesman noted that the late al-Qurayshi was "martyred" in rebel-held northwestern Syria by several Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) members. It was when the latter tried to detain the ISIS leader in the province of Idlib, as per NBC News.

He added that al-Qurayshi fought against the Syrian militants until he succumbed to the wounds he received. Al-Ansari noted that the al-Qaeda-linked group was also responsible for detaining some IS members who were accompanying the late leader, which includes another spokesman, Abu Omar al-Muhajir.

In April, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkish intelligence agents were able to kill al-Qurayshi in northern Syria. This was a statement that the terrorist group denied at the time.

The Islamic State group is known for breaking away from al-Qaeda more than ten years ago and getting supporters worldwide. Despite being defeated in 2017 Iraq and 2019 in Syria, the group's members continue to carry out deadly attacks in both nations and other countries.

ISIS is accusing the HTS, which has not claimed responsibility for any operation that targeted the Islamic State's leader, of working in Ankara's interest. Additionally, the United States and other Western governments have blacklisted the HTS as a terrorist group, according to Aljazeera.

Read Also: Brazil Police Violence Reignites, Leaving 44 People Dead

Rise and Fall of the Terrorist Group

The situation also comes as the US government has given sanctions to the supporters of the terrorist group and other organizations. The sanctions were imposed for the alleged provision of financial support to operations of ISIS and al-Qaeda terrorist groups located in the Maldives.

In a statement on Monday, State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller said that the goal of the new sanctions is to deter and disrupt financial and other forms of support for extremist organizations within the Maldives.

The list of recipients of the sanctions included 18 ISIS and ISIS-Khorasan (ISIS-K) facilitators, two al-Qaeda operatives, and 29 associated companies. The targets of the sanctions have previously been linked to Mohamad Ameen, who is considered a key ISIS-K recruiter who was designated by the US in 2019.

Some of the affected individuals have been involved in planning and executing attacks targeting journalists and local authorities. Miller noted that the US maintains its steadfast stance in its commitment to countering the threats posed by the terrorist support networks, said the Hindustan Times.

Related Article: Colombian Government, National Liberation Army Enter Ceasefire Agreement

@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
The publics confidence in the U.S. military is the lowest its been in decades, and its doing no favors to the armed forces current recruitment struggles.

Thanks to a combination of culture war issues, fresh reports of sexual assaults and suicides within the ranks, and a disastrous end to the Afghanistan War two years ago, Americans perception of the armed forces has taken a hit, according to experts and recent polls.

Its a confluence of lots of things and its becoming a real crisis, said Michael OHanlon, a security fellow at the Brookings Institution.

The latest numbers from Gallup, taken from a poll conducted June 1-22, found that Americans confidence in the military was at its lowest point in 25 years: 60 percent. The last time it was this low was in 1997. Republican sentiment has seen a particularly steep decline, dropping from 91 percent to 68 percent in the past three years.

Pentagon press secretary Brig Gen. Pat Ryder on Thursday said while he wasnt in a position to address the why? behind the decrease, he maintained that the Defense Department will continue to try to earn the trust and confidence of Americans.

Popularity ebbs and flows over time, Ryder told reporters. We dont take public trust and confidence for granted. As an all-volunteer force, we know that we have a responsibility to Congress and the American public to ensure that they have an understanding of what were doing to defend the country, how we are spending taxpayer dollars, how we are employing the resources that weve been entrusted with.

The military has long found itself entwined in various culture war issues, but increasingly has found itself under criticism from the right in recent years over various social policies  a driving factor in the falling support.

At the same time, its not as if it is making up support on the left, where different kinds of worries are aimed at the military.

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The Reagan Institute, in a separate survey last year, found that trust in the military was at 48 percent, with both Republicans and Democrats believing that politicization played the biggest role in the low numbers, albeit for different reasons.

While more Republicans see woke policies as threatening the military, Democrats perceive extremist service members as the biggest danger.

The military is caught up a bit in the culture wars, Im afraid, OHanlon said. Then, the bad news stories about sexual assault, accidents, and other things reinforce the impression of the military as a less-excellent institution  even though these problems are no worse within the armed forces than outside. Losing a war in Afghanistan doesnt help.

Conservatives, in particular, have targeted the military over diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives (DEI), the new Pentagon policy to reimburse troops who must travel across state lines to seek an abortion, and efforts to root out extremistS from within the ranks after current and former service members were found to have participated in the attacks on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

House Republicans went after many such Pentagon policies in the chambers version of the annual National Defense Authorization Act, though it remains to be seen if their effort holds up when the House and Senate return to reconcile their bills next month.

Ryder would not speculate Thursday as to whether perceived politicization was hurting confidence in the military or its recruiting efforts.

There has been and continues to be brave and selfless Americans who are willing to raise their hand, take an oath to defend the Constitution, defend our nation, regardless of how popular the military is, or military service is at any point in time, he said.

Another factor is the former military officers who have taken high-profile roles in politics, offering their viewpoints on the likes of both Fox and CNN, said Matthew Kroenig, director of the Atlantic Councils Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security.

You increasingly see retired generals, advocating for one political candidate or another, speaking at political conventions, signing open letters for one candidate or against them, said Kroenig, who previously worked at the Pentagon and in the intelligence community during the Bush, Obama and Trump administrations.

While the military keeps a top spot on the list of American institutions that earn a great deal or quite a lot of confidence  only losing out the first place slot to small business  the publics impression of the armed forces has shifted often in the past several decades.

Trust in the military hovered low in the 1970s and 1980s after the Vietnam War and conflicts in the Middle East, with its all-time low at 50 percent in 1981 after the Iran hostage crisis.

Americans had a far rosier outlook of the military following the Gulf War and the 9/11 attacks, but those highs began a downward trend somewhere around 2011 at the end of the Iraq War and with no end in sight for the Afghanistan War.

After the disastrous and deadly withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan, public confidence in the military fell even lower.

Especially for younger people, the military now is [thought of as] an organization that fails, said Kroenig. For previous generations, the military was something to look on with pride. I think more recently, people think of the military as an organization that fails to deliver, that gets involved in these costly conflicts that dont benefit the American people.

That dip is becoming a problem for military services that in recent years have struggled to meet their recruitment goals, particularly the Army, which fell more than 15,000 recruits short of its target of 60,000 last year.

Army Secretary Christine Wormuth told Congress earlier this year that the Army will again struggle to meet its goal of 65,000 recruits for 2023.

A strong job market, dwindling supply of qualified troops  with only 23 percent of young people qualified academically or physically to serve  and a lack of interest in joining the ranks has created the worst recruiting crisis in the 50 years since the military became an all-volunteer force.

Kroenig said he worried the dip in public perception could infect other areas of national security, with the fear that isolationist sentiments in the American public could gain more footing.

Should we provide arms to Ukraine? I think if people dont trust the military to do the right thing, theyre going to be much more likely to say, No, why do we care about that? Let Ukraine take care of themselves, and have the same outlook for Taiwan, he said.

Im worried already and I dont know how we fix it.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
I was asked to curate a film series about Native American artists to coincide with the Wichita Art Museums current exhibit, Clearly Indigenous: Native Visions Reimagined in Glass.

Its a beautiful exhibition, featuring 115 works of art by 29 Native American artists and four Pacific Rim artists, including Wichita favorite Preston Singletary (Tlingit) and many others.

I wanted to pick films that captured the spirit of the exhibit, and show the breadth of work that is out there, with artists tirelessly working in the trenches to create their work. The WAM Nights Film Series kicks off Friday, Aug. 4, and continues through Sept. 1 at the museum, 1400 Museum Blvd.

Heres a look at the program I created and what will be showing. Admission for the screenings is $10 (free for WAM members). Proceeds benefit the museum.

Love and Fury (2020) This rousing, inspiring documentary is directed by Sterlin Harjo (Seminole and Muscogee), co-creator of the groundbreaking FX on Hulu series Reservation Dogs. The film follows Native artists for a year as they navigate their identities and careers in the U.S. and abroad. It had its world premiere at Hot Docs International Documentary Festival. Warning: Contains adult language. Showing at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 4. (93 min.)

Double feature: Through the Repellent Fence (2017) This documentary follows the Native American art collective Postcommodity as they construct Repellent Fence, a two-mile long outdoor artwork straddling the U.S.-Mexico border a mile in each direction and suturing the region back together. Directed by Sam Wainwright Douglas. (74 min.)

Paired with: Sweetheart Dancers (2019) This documentary is the story of Sean and Adrian, a young Two-Spirit couple determined to rewrite the rules of Native American culture through their participation in the Sweetheart Dance. This celebratory contest is held at powwows across the country, primarily for men and women couples - until now. Directed by Ben-Alex Dupris. (12 min.) The entire program starts at 6:30 p.m. Aug. 18.

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Merata: How Mum Decolonized the Screen (2018) Documentary portrait of pioneering filmmaker and mother Merata Mita (Maori), detailing how her filmmaking intersected with the lives of her children and indigenous filmmakers globally, and featuring rare archival footage dating back to 1977. Directed by her son, Hepi Mita. Showing at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 1.

More information can be found at https://wam.org.

Rod Pocowatchit is Comanche, Pawnee and Shawnee. Reach him at rodrick@rawdzilla.com.
With spotted sea trout stock on the decline, the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission voted on restrictions to aid its recovery, but will lawmakers approve?

Spotted sea trout, also known as specks, are a highly prized recreational fish that charter captains say is a gem in the crown of the Sportsman's Paradise. The commission passed restrictions Aug. 3 with a majority vote, 4-2, that if lawmakers approve, would set the minimum limit to 13 inches, with a maximum of 20 and an allowance of two over.

The new restrictions will reduce the number of total fish caught, or creel limit, to 15, down from 25, and deckhands and captains also will forgo their fish limit while conducting a for-hire trip.

If it passes, it will be reviewed in 2028.

"I am concerned about the natural resource of trout fishing, I absolutely am," Commission Member Andy Brister said. "It was time to do something, and I'm glad we did. I think across the board people are concerned. It's just, 'What is the best fix?' has been the headache. I feel confident that what we did today is a step in the right direction and will make a difference."

Speckled trout caught in Terrebonne Parish.

According to Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Biologist Jason Adriance, the restrictions are projected to lower the harvest of the fish by 19.1%, which would recover the fish's stock in about six years. The stock has fallen 57% below its mean level.

In February a joint meeting of the Senate and House Natural Resources committees rejected similar restrictions. The previous attempt would have set a minimum limit of 13.5.

The Commission debated creating a zoned approach for harvest restrictions. According to Commission Chair Andrew Blanchard, the two opposing votes to the change, William "Joe" McPherson and Alfred "Al" Sunseri, preferred that approach. Blanchard said that as chair, he could not vote, but he would have preferred that as well.

More: Here's what to know about the major changes to Terrebonne Parish school bus routes

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More: Louisiana lawmaker seeking to expand concealed carry gun law raffles pistol for campaign

"Hopefully we did the right decision for the future generations for the speck industry only time will tell," he said. "I would have much preferred seeing the zone management instead. But the majority rules, and that's just the American system right there."

The next step for the decision is a period of public comment which will take place in September. From there, lawmakers will decide its fate within 30 days.

This article originally appeared on The Courier: LDWF votes to restrict speck fishing, recover population
Fayette County Public Schools has named a new leader for Winburn Middle School but would not answer questions about the previous principals suspension.

Winburn assistant principal BJ Martin will be interim principal for the foreseeable future, district spokesperson Dia Davidson-Smith confirmed Thursday.

Martin was named Administrator of the Year by the Kentucky Association of School Administrators, organization officials said in a Wednesday news release.

She received the award at KASAs annual leadership institute in Louisville on July 26. The award is the highest honor KASA gives to active administrators, according to the news release.

BJ has demonstrated extraordinary vision, competence and innovation throughout her tenure. As the embodiment of outstanding leadership, she has fostered an environment on inclusivity, inspiration and growth within her district and KASA, empowering all with whom she comes into contact to achieve their full potential and excel beyond expectations, said KASA Executive Director, Dr. Rhonda Caldwell.

Some of Martins accomplishments include bringing elected officials into Winburn to see the innovative learning taking place, as well as highlighting students and teachers in many social media posts, Caldwell said. Martin also serves in the Coalition to Sustain the Education Professions Steering Committee.

She contributes valuable insights to the development of teacher recruitment and retention strategies,  Caldwell said, driving positive change within the education profession.

Martins LinkedIn page said she has 23 years of experience in education with 17 years leading at the school, district and state levels.

I have extensive background in continuous school improvement work, particularly involving systems to support high quality teaching and learning. I am very passionate equity champion and after several years of leading from the district level, I took on a position in leadership at a high needs middle school during the pandemic, Martin said on her LinkedIn page.

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Whats going on with former principal?

In April, Fayette school officials placed principal Gregory Michael Hale on administrative leave without publicly saying why.

The spokesperson for the Kentucky state department that handles child protection said in April they were investigating a situation that resulted in Hale being placed on administrative leave.

No other information was given.

Davidson-Smith said Fayette County schools would not comment on a personnel matter.

Under the Kentucky Open Records Act, Fayette school officials in late July released to the Herald-Leader the letter they sent to Hale notifying him of the leave.

It said the Education Professional Standards Board that licenses educators had been notified of his leave but did not provide any details as to the cause.

On July 24, EPSB officials told the Herald-Leader that until it has taken final action on an educator case, the records pertaining to that case are exempt from disclosure.
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) on Friday argued the 10 people who participated in the fake electors scheme in his state in an attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election for former President Trump should be charged for their actions.

There has to be accountability, Evers said after a bill signing ceremony, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. What they did was wrong, and so Im hoping somebody will pick up the banner here, because this has to happen.

Wisconsin was not the only state, however, to face attempts by fake electors to overturn their states election results in the 2020 presidential election. Republicans in six other states that Trump lost participated in the scheme: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico and Pennsylvania.

Last month, 16 people were charged by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel (D) for their attempts to change the states election results.

They werent the duly elected and qualified electors, and each of the defendants knew it, Nessel said in a video announcing the charges. They carried out these actions with the hope and belief that the electoral votes of Michigans 2020 election would be awarded to the candidate of their choosing, instead of the candidate that Michigan voters actually chose.

Eight fake electors also received immunity deals in Georgia in May in an investigation there into 2020 election meddling. The whole group of 16 met about a month after the election at the state Capitol and signed a certificate saying Trump won the election and that they were Georgias duly elected and qualified electors.

Everss argument comes just days after the former president was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges related to his efforts to remain in power after losing the 2020 election.

The Associated Press contributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
A Wisconsin judge on Friday ordered the state elections commission to release all records it has related to one of its Republican members and his role as one of 10 people who posed as fake electors in 2020 for former President Donald Trump.

The lawsuit, filed by a union leader represented by the liberal firm Law Forward, sought commission records related to Robert Spindell and comments he made about his role as a fake elector. Spindell is one of three Republican state elections commission members.

Fake electors met in Wisconsin and six other battleground states where Trump was defeated in 2020, attempting to cast ballots for the former president even though he lost. Republicans who participated in Wisconsin said they were trying to preserve Trumps legal standing in case courts overturned his defeat.

The role of those fake electors, particularly in Wisconsin, was central to the federal indictment against Trump released this week. Trump pleaded not guilty Thursday to trying to overturn the results of his 2020 election loss.

Law Forward filed a complaint with the Wisconsin Elections Commission in 2021 saying the fake electors broke the law. The commission voted unanimously in a closed meeting to reject that complaint, saying the fake electors did not violate any election laws. Spindell did not recuse himself from considering the complaint, even though he voted as one of the fake GOP electors.

The Wisconsin Department of Justice agreed with Trump allies and the fake electors and concluded that Republicans were legitimately trying to preserve his legal standing as courts were deciding if he or Biden won the election.

In May, another state judge ordered the elections commission to reconsider its vote rejecting the complaint. Dane County Circuit Judge Frank Remington ruled that Spindell should not have taken part in the initial discussion and vote because he was targeted in the complaint.

The commission has not yet issued a new decision.

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Law Forward alleged in its lawsuit that the commission failed to turn over records requested multiple times under Wisconsins open records law. The firm sought documents related to a comment Spindell made during the public portion of a November 2021 commission meeting where he openly discussed his decision not to recuse himself. The commission had been considering the request in closed session only, which made Spindells comments unusual.

Specifically, Law Forward asked for communications surrounding material that Spindell appeared to be reading from during the meeting. According to the lawsuit, the elections commission provided a single document that resembled what Spindell read from and said Spindell had no other related records.

The commission argued that the records are in Spindell's possession, not the commission's.

This argument is nonsensical, Dane County Circuit Judge Jacob Frost ruled on Friday. Records held by WEC commissioners are in the custody of WEC and must be provided in response to a records request.

He gave the commission until Sept. 8 to perform a complete review and produce all records in its possession, whether held by staff or commissioners that aren't otherwise exempt from the open records law.

Commission spokesperson Riley Vetterkind had no comment on the ruling.

Law Forward attorney Scott Thompson praised it.

Most of us believe in open and transparent government," Thompson said. This is doubly true as we seek to gather more information about those who sought to undermine the will of the people.

Law Forward brought the case on behalf of Paul Sickel, executive director of the Service Employees International Unions Wisconsin State Council.

The firm has also filed another lawsuit against the 10 electors and Trump attorneys Kenneth Chesebro and Jim Troupis seeking $2.4 million in damages. That case, which is pending, alleges Trump and his allies conspired to overturn his loss in the battleground state.
Image: Netflix

Need something Witcher to sink your teeth to now that Henry Cavill has bid his farewell to the Netflix show? Well, theres good news: series author Andrzej Sapkowski has revealed hes working on a new novel set in the world of his fantasy creation.

During a talk with Ukranian fans held by Fantastic Talks (via Redanian Intelligence), Sapkowski confirmed that he is quite diligently working on a new entry in his Witcher novel series, the first since Season of Storms released in Poland in 2013. While the main story of the saga came to a conclusion decades ago in The Lady of the Lake, first published in the late 90s, Sapkowski has since written short stories set in and around the events of the main five-book series, remaining adamant that he does not intend to explore further events set after the conclusion of the novels.

Read more

Presumably, then, we can guess this new book is going to be either a side novel or new short story anthology set during the events of the seriesbut beyond that, Sapkowski remained characteristically taciturn about what readers can expect. The author further noted that finishing the book should take him about a year, but no longer, meaning that it could likely be released in Polish sometime in 2024with international translations sometime thereafter. Season of Storms took five years to receive an English translation, but given the contemporary resurgence in interest for the Witcher novels thanks to both the CD Projekt Red games and Netflixs adaptation, its perhaps likely that well see a translation much quicker than that.





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.

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LANSING  A jury on Friday viewed video of a 2020 pursuit that ended with the arrests of two men, including one who was pinned to the ground for several minutes and repeatedly bitten by a police dog in what authorities called a case of police brutality.

Robert Gilliam testified he was repeatedly bitten by Knox, a Michigan State Police dog, as he lay on the ground with a broken hip and his arms outstretched in surrender. Knox's handler, Trooper Parker Surbrook, ignored his pleas to call off the dog, Gilliam said.

The dog bit him in the genitals, buttocks, arms, neck and head and pulled at his clothing, "tossing me like a rag doll," Gilliam testified on the first day of Surbrook's trial on a felonious assault charge.

"I've still got my arms out, and I'm stating to the state trooper to please get the dog off of me, 'please can you get this dog off me,'" the witness said. "He's telling the dog to stay on me... He tells me, 'I don't care.'"

What happened to Gillium in that November 2020 incident "crossed the line" and represented "excessive and unreasonable" use of force, Assistant Ingham County Prosecutor Kristen Rolph said in her opening statement.

Parker Surbrook looks on during his trial on Friday, Aug. 4, 2023, at the 30th Circuit Court Annex in Lansing.

Surbrook had other options for securing Gilliam, who had led police on a high-speed chase before crashing his sport-utility vehicle into a tree in south Lansing, but chose to leave his K-9 on Gillium for longer than he needed to, Rolph said.

"Troopers are trained to de-escalate when a suspect is de-escalating," she said. "(Gilliam is) unarmed, he's injured and hes surrendering. Trooper Surbrook does not de-escalate proportionally."

Surbrook's attorney said the only problem with that theory is that the trooper was following his training when he kept his K-9 partner on Gillium until back-up arrived.

Knox was considered "a soft dog" because he didn't bite hard, and Surbrook could see Gillium wasn't being seriously harmed, the attorney, Patrick O'Keefe, said in his opening statement. Any injuries caused by the dog were easily treated with an antibiotic cream, he added.

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O'Keefe also suggested Surbrook was prosecuted for political reasons.

"Instead of putting Robert behind bars, the prosecutor decides to put Robert back out on the street (and) give him full immunity" in exchange for his testimony against Surbrook, O'Keefe told jurors. "You get to look at the whole picture ..."

Robert Gilliam testifies during the trail of Parker Surbrook on Friday, Aug. 4, 2023, at the 30th Circuit Court Annex in Lansing.

The incident involving Gilliam happened Nov. 13, 2020. Surbrook, who was assigned to the Secure Cities Partnership, was working with Lansing Police Department's Violent Crime Impact Team. The team included uniformed and undercover officers and was working in a high-crime area.

Gilliam, who lived out of state but was visiting friends and family in Lansing, drove to a liquor store with a man he knew only as "Rambo." Officers believed "Rambo" might have been armed with a gun, and Surbrook tried to stop Gilliam after he left the store.

Police dash camera video shows Gilliam pulled to the right and slowed, then sped off at high speed. On Friday, Gilliam testified he decided to run from police after "Rambo" told him he had a gun. He was on parole from Oregon at the time and didn't want to be caught with a gun in his vehicle, Gilliam said.

Surbrook broke off the pursuit, which reached speeds of more than 100 mph, and a Lansing police officer in an unmarked minivan pulled in front of the state police vehicle and continued following Gilliam. The Durango crashed into a tree as Gilliam tried to turn into an apartment complex.

Gilliam said he opened his door and tried to run but collapsed onto the ground because he had broken his hip in the crash. Surbrook arrived on scene and instructed the dog to keep Gilliam contained.

Police video shows Knox biting and pulling at Gilliam for nearly four minutes as the man lay on the ground with his arms outstretched. Gilliam repeatedly pleaded with Surbrook to call off the dog. The undercover Lansing officer managed to contain the passenger, but Surbrook came to that side of the vehicle after the officer saw a gun on the ground and called it out.

Surbrook released Knox from Gilliam after backup officers arrived.

Defense attorney Patrick O'Keefe, left, and Ingham County Assistant Prosecutor Kristen Rolph, right, approach the bench of Ingham County Circuit Judge David Jordon during the trial for Parker Surbrook on Friday, Aug. 4, 2023, at the 30th Circuit Court Annex in Lansing.

Surbrook was placed on unpaid leave, removed from the K-9 team and charged with felonious assault. He remains on unpaid leave.

State police said Surbrook's actions were not in keeping with agency standards and did not "fully align with training and policy for canine handlers." The agency released a full investigative report and dash-cam video from the incident in early 2021.

The MSP report said Gilliam didn't appear to be moving aggressively toward Knox, and Surbrook's supervisor said the trooper's report didn't completely document what happened.

Gilliam was granted immunity from prosecution in exchange for his truthful testimony in the case against Surbrook, attorneys said. He has filed a civil suit against Surbrook and the state in federal court.

Felonious assault carries a maximum sentence of four years in prison upon conviction.

The trial before visiting Ingham County Circuit Court Judge David Jordon is scheduled to resume next week.

Contact Ken Palmer at kpalmer@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @KBPalm_lsj.

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Michigan State Police trooper faces excessive force charge for not calling off K-9
An information posterboard shows a photo of Negasi Zuberi, an Oregon man facing a federal charge of interstate kidnapping, at the FBI field office in Portland, Ore., on Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2023. | Claire Rush, Associated Press

Last month authorities say an Oregon man pretending to be a police officer kidnapped a woman in Seattle, drove her about 450 miles to his home in Klamath Falls, and imprisoned her in a makeshift cell in his garage, built with cinder blocks and a barred metal door.

The woman escaped and the man accused of taking her, identified as 29-year-old Negasi Zuberi, was later arrested in Nevada, according to a criminal complaint. Now the FBI is searching for more victims in Utah.

Zuberi  who police say also goes by Justin, or Joshua, Hyche; Sakima Zuberi; and Justin Kouassi  has spent time in 10 states over the last 10 years, according to the FBI. That includes Washington County, Utah, which the bureau believes he frequented since 2016. They could not specify exactly where in the county he spent time, but do not believe he had a residence there.

On Wednesday, representatives from the FBI said they have reason to believe there are more victims. Because Zuberi was soliciting the woman for prostitution in Seattle, and could have targeted sex workers in other states, additional victims may be afraid to come forward, they say.

It didnt just start overnight. And so we believe that there are victims across the country, and we have evidence that says that as well, said Joy Jiras with the FBIs Portland office.

The scope of the crimes Zuberi is accused of could extend to California, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Florida, New York, New Jersey, Alabama and Nevada, the FBI said in a news release.

There are people who are afraid to come speak, and were trying to let them know that this is a safe place for them to tell their story so that we can hopefully hold him accountable, Jiras said.

According to a criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Courts Oregon District, Zuberi approached a woman in Seattle at about midnight on July 15, where he solicited her for prostitution. Thats when the FBI says he claimed to be an undercover police officer, showing her a badge, pointing a Taser at her and placing her in handcuffs and leg irons.

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The complaint alleges Zuberi put her in the backseat of his car and drove toward the Oregon state line, telling the victim he was bringing her to a substation.

The woman observed the map application on Zuberis cell phone state that Zuberi was 2 hours and 4 minutes away from his destination, court documents read. It was then the woman knew that Zuberi was not a police officer and that she was being kidnapped.

According to prosecutors who filed the complaint, Zuberi stopped the car to sexually assault the victim and made her wear a backwards sweatshirt in an apparent attempt to hide her identity.

They arrived at his house in Klamath Falls, Oregon, at about 7 a.m., according to the complaint, where Zuberi forced the woman into a cell in his garage, built with cinder blocks and a metal door that could only be opened from the outside. Images of the cell taken by police are grim, with nothing but a single white chair, a bottle of water and a lightbulb inside.

The woman briefly slept and awoke to the realization that she would likely die if she did not attempt to escape, the complaint reads. She repeatedly banged on the door and was able to break the door open and escape the room.

As she fled, she grabbed Zuberis handgun from his car, then flagged down a motorist, who called police, according to the FBI.

When Klamath Falls Police Department carried out a search warrant at his property, they observed the cell and interviewed Zuberis wife. In the complaint, officers describe a handwritten note titled operation takeover.

Leave phone at home; make sure they dont have a bunch of ppl in their life. You dont want any type of investigation, the note reads, per the complaint.

According to the complaint, officers also found what appears to be plans for some type of underground prison cell, detailed in another handwritten note. Dig a hole straight down 100 ft. the note reads.

Zuberi was located by Nevada State Patrol on July 16, in a Walmart parking lot in Reno, prosecutors say.

Law enforcement observed Zuberi holding one of his children in the front seat of his vehicle, the complaint reads. Zuberis wife was outside the vehicle speaking to him. When Zuberi was contacted by law enforcement, he refused to exit the vehicle and cut himself with a sharp object causing him to bleed profusely. He also attempted to destroy his phone.

He was arrested, and police say the child was not harmed.

In a press release, assistant special agent with the Portland FBI office Stephanie Shark lauded the womans bravery.

Her quick thinking and will to survive may have saved other women from a similar nightmare, she said. We are fortunate that this brave woman escaped and alerted authorities. Through quick law enforcement action, we were able to get Zuberi in custody the next day. While she may have helped protect future victims, sadly we have now linked Zuberi to additional violent sexual assaults in at least four states, and there could be more.

The FBI says Zuberi used multiple methods to gain control of his victims, including impersonating a police officer and drugging their drinks.

The FBI is asking anyone with information on Zuberi to visit fbi.gov/ZuberiVictims or call 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324).
Conyers police are looking for a man who reportedly barged into an apartment with a gun to a childs head and then robbed his mother.

Channel 2s Tom Regan was at the Keswick Village Apartments, where police responded to a call on July 26 after a woman called 911 to report a home invasion.

The woman told police that a man walked into her apartment with a gun pointed at her sons head.

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He demanded money and ultimately stole the womans phone and a gun from the apartment.

Police are still working to identify the suspect. They believe the attack was random and that the suspect did not know the victims,

The 11-year-old was playing outside when he was approached by a male subject, Sgt. Quantavis Garcia with Conyers police said. With somebody targeting an 11-year-old and putting a gun to his head, that is outrageous, dangerous. This person does not deserve to be in our community.

Police said there was also a 1-year-old inside the apartment.

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The robber made off with the mothers cell phone, a debit card, $300 in cash and a handgun.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has released a sketch of the man, who is described as being between 28 and 38 years old and approximately five feet, four inches with a stocky build. He may have tattoos on his arms.

Regan talked to other residents at the apartment building, who said the incident leaves them concerned about their own safety.

We need more security, I believe, Asia Whitehead said. Thats horrible.

Crime Stoppers of Greater Atlanta say anyone with information could be eligible for a reward of up to $2,000.

Anyone who knows who the man may be should call investigators at 404-577-8477.

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(Photo : Zachary Pearson- U.S. Navy via Getty Images)

After a spate of vessel seizures by Iranian forces in the Middle East, the US military is preparing to embark armed Marines and sailors aboard commercial ships.

The US military is considering placing armed personnel on commercial ships traveling through the Strait of Hormuz in an unprecedented move to prevent Iran from detaining and harassing civilian vessels.

During the "Tanker War," which culminated in a 1988 naval confrontation between the US Navy and Iran that was the Navy's largest since World War II, the United States took no action.

US Could Offer Troops to Commercial Ships in Strait of Hormuz

While officials provided few details of the plan, thousands of Marines and sailors are en route to the Persian Gulf aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Bataan and the landing ship USS Carter Hall.

Per Politico, these Marines and sailors could serve as the backbone of any armed security mission in the strait, through which 20% of the world's crude oil passes. The Iranian delegation to the United Nations did not respond promptly to a request for comment on the US proposal.

Four US officials discussed the proposal on the condition of anonymity and acknowledged its broad outlines. The officials emphasized that no definitive decision had been made and that discussions continue between US military officials and the region's Arab Gulf allies.

According to the officials, the Marines and Navy sailors will only provide security at the behest of the ships engaged. The Bataan and Carter Hall departed Norfolk, Virginia, on July 10 for a mission characterized by the Pentagon as a "response to recent Iranian attempts to imperil the free passage of commerce in the Strait of Hormuz and its surrounding waters."

The Bataan entered the Mediterranean Sea last week after passing through the Strait of Gibraltar en route to the Middle East. The United States has already dispatched A-10 Thunderbolt II warplanes, F-16 and F-35 fighters, and the destroyer USS Thomas Hudner to the region in response to Iran's maritime activities.

According to the Washington Post, the effort has not yet received a final sanction, but it has the support of senior Biden administration officials and could begin as early as this month, according to a government official who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive military planning.

Marines from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, have been flown to Bahrain and trained there; additional personnel will appear aboard American warships shortly. US Navy officials claim they prevented Iran from seizing oil transports.

Read Also: Former Maryland Mayor Pleads Guilty to 140 Child Sex Abuse Materials Charges

Oil Tanker Seizures in Strait of Hormuz

John Kirby, a White House spokesman, referred queries to the Defense Department and noted that the Strait of Hormuz, where some of the incidents have occurred, is a "vital waterway."

According to him, Iran has issued threats to shut down this "choke point." The strait connects the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and the open ocean. Twenty percent or more of the world's crude oil is transported via the strategic waterway.

The initiative is part of a series of aggressive measures pursued by the Biden administration in response to an alleged increase in Iranian attempts to commandeer commercial tanker ships. US and British warships responded to a distress call on June 4 from a merchant vessel traversing the Strait of Hormuz, where three Iranian fast-attack boats were harassing the vessel, according to Navy officials.

In response, the McFaul and the Royal Navy frigate HMS Lancaster launched a helicopter to drive the Iranian ships away. According to the Navy, the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commandeered the oil tanker Niovi in the Strait of Hormuz in May.

The civilian vessel had left Dubai and was en route to the United Arab Emirates when it was enveloped by twelve fast-attack vessels. In April, Iran seized the oil tanker Advantage Sweet in a similar manner. The United States has dispatched A-10 Thunderbolt II warplanes, F-16 and F-35 fighters, the destroyer USS Thomas Hudner, and other warships to the region in response to Iran's maritime activities.

Iran has taken notice of the deployment, with its top diplomat assuring neighboring nations that the region does not need "foreigners" to provide security. The resumption of hostilities occurs as Iran enriches uranium closer than ever before to weapons-grade levels following the collapse of the 2015 nuclear agreement.

In addition, international investigators believe that Iran has enough enriched uranium to produce "several" nuclear weapons if it chooses to do so. Iran asserts that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, and US intelligence agencies conclude that Tehran is not pursuing nuclear weapons.

The United States has also pursued ships believed to be transporting sanctioned Iranian crude, according to AP News. As no company has yet to unload it, a ship transporting allegedly Iranian crude is likely stranded off the coast of Texas due to energy industry concerns about another Iranian seizure.

Related Article: Niger: US Orders Partial Embassy Evacuation After Coup Leaders Refused To Surrender

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An Atlanta woman is filing a lawsuit against Popeyes and several employees of the location she visited last September.

Denetra Dawson says she went to the Popeyes on Cleveland Ave. to get dinner for her children. She says her order was wrong, so she went to the drive-thru to have it fixed, but says the employees inside werent listening to her.

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Dawson says she pulled up to the window and employees began yelling at her because she was holding up the timed drive-thru.

One of the employees then came outside, opened Dawsons passenger door, climbed into her car and began attacking her. Dawson says the employee ripped her hair out of her scalp, leaving a large bald spot.

Police identified the three employees involved in attack as manager Tenister Evans and her sister and daughter. The other two employees have not been identified.

They recovered and saw her braid that they ripped out and said we ripped that Bs hair out of her head, attorney Mawuli Davis said.

It took my identity. I took pride in my hair, Dawson said. I didnt even think I was going to make it back to my kids.

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A representative for Popeyes Restaurants released a statement that read:

We have absolutely no tolerance for violence of any kind in Popeyes restaurants. The franchisee of this restaurant confirmed the incident took place in September 2022, and the employees involved were immediately terminated. We cannot share any additional details as there is an active lawsuit related to this incident.

All three women were charged with battery, but Evans received an additional charge of obstruction of an officer.

Channel 2 Action News found that Evans has been arrested for assault several times before. Channel 2 Action News found at least four other mugshots of Evans.

Story continues

I just pray that what happened to me doesnt happen to anyone else and that I get justice, Dawson said.

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A man was taken into custody after shooting and killing his ex-girlfriend outside her workplace, Michigan authorities say.

It happened around 11:35 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 3, in Saline, about 45 miles southwest of Detroit.

The Saline Police Department said officers found two gunshot victims in a parking lot after being called to the location about an active shooter.

One of the victims, 40-year-old Amber Jo Thomas, died after being taken to a hospital, police said. She was the ex-girlfriend of the accused shooter.

Thomas worked at Linden Square Assisted Living Center, according to the Detroit Free Press. She was believed to be on a smoke break with a coworker when she was ambushed in a parking lot, The Detroit News reported.

When she was walking across the street with another male acquaintance, the suspect was waiting and just opened fire, Saline Police Chief Marlene Radzik told a WJBK reporter.

Radzik described the scene as chaotic when officers arrived, according to the Free Press.

Officers were having active shooter training nearby, allowing for a quick response, WWJ reported.

The accused gunman, a 58-year-old man who has not been identified as of Aug. 4, drove off in a Ford Focus. He was involved in a crash with another vehicle and was arrested after an officer deployed his taser, police said.

Charges have not been announced, but authorities said the case is being investigated as a homicide.

The male coworker who was shot was hospitalized and is listed in stable condition, police said. A woman involved in the crash had non-life threatening injuries.

Gun violence in the US

Thousands of people die every year from firearm injuries in the U.S. each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Firearm injuries are a serious public health problem, officials said. In 2020, there were 45,222 firearm-related deaths in the United States  thats about 124 people dying from a firearm-related injury each day.

Firearm-related injuries were one of the top leading causes of death for people ages 1 to 44 in 2020, the CDC reported.

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More than half of firearm-related deaths were suicides and more than 4 out of every 10 were firearm homicides, the CDC says.

The impact of gun violence, however, goes beyond the death toll, experts said.

The effects of firearm violence extend beyond victims and their families, according to the CDC. Shooting incidents, including those in homes, schools, houses of worship, workplaces, shopping areas, on the street or at community events can affect the sense of safety and security of entire communities and impact everyday decisions.

Man kills 3 women, including ex-girlfriend holding their baby, Oklahoma police say

Ex-boyfriend kidnaps woman from work, kills her after police chase, Georgia cops say

Off-duty cop shoots his wife in the face with a rifle, Texas police chief says
Marine heatwaves, like that in Florida, can cause corals to bleach (Joseph Prezioso)

The world's oceans set a new temperature record this week, raising concerns about knock-on effects on the planet's climate, marine life and coastal communities.

The temperature of the oceans' surface rose to 20.96 degrees Celsius (69.7 degrees Fahrenheit) on July 30, according to European Union climate observatory data.

The previous record was 20.95C in March 2016, a spokeswoman for the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service told AFP on Friday.

The samples tested excluded polar regions.

The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which uses a different database, has also recorded a similar trend in recent months.

It said the average sea surface temperature record was reached on April 4 this year at 21.06C, overtaking the previous high of 21.01C in March 2016. On August 1, average temperatures were at 21.03C, it said.

Oceans have absorbed 90 percent of the excess heat produced by human activity since the dawn of the industrial age, according to scientists.

This excess heat continues to accumulate as greenhouse gases -- mainly from burning oil, gas and coal -- build up in the Earth's atmosphere.

Globally, the average ocean temperature has been topping seasonal heat records on a regular basis since April.

- 'Immediate threat' -

"The ocean heatwave is an immediate threat to some marine life," said Piers Forster of the International Centre for Climate at Britain's University of Leeds.

"We are already seeing coral bleaching in Florida as a direct result and I expect more impacts will surface."

The overheating of the oceans is predicted to have other effects on marine plant and animal life too, including on the migration of certain species and the spread of invasive species.

This could threaten fish stocks and thus undermine food security in certain parts of the globe.

Warmer oceans are also less capable of absorbing carbon dioxide (CO2), reinforcing the vicious cycle of global warming.

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And higher temperatures are likely to come, since the El Nino phenomenon, which tends to warm waters up, has only just begun.

Scientists expect the worst effects of the current El Nino to be felt at the end of 2023 and continue into subsequent years.

- Like bath water -

"While there are certainly short-term factors, the main long-term cause is without a doubt the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere caused by human activity, primarily by the burning of fossil fuels," said Rowan Sutton, director of climate research at the University of Reading.

The latest figures follow a string of record highs around the world.

Last month, temperatures of 38.3C -- as hot as a jacuzzi -- were recorded off the Florida coast, which could be a world-record high for a point measurement if the figure is confirmed.

The surface waters of the North Atlantic rose to a record-high average temperature of 24.9C last week, according to provisional data from the NOAA.

The North Atlantic usually only reaches its peak temperature in September.

Since March, the month when the North Atlantic begins to warm up after winter, temperatures have been higher than in previous years and the gap with past records has continued to widen in recent weeks.

The region has become a key point for observing the heating of the world's oceans.

In July, the Mediterranean Sea broke its daily heat record, with a median temperature of 28.71C, according to Spain's leading maritime research centre.

Marine heatwaves have become twice as frequent since 1982, according to a 2019 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

By 2100, they could be 10 times more intense than they were at the beginning of the 20th century if pollutant emissions are not reduced.

The use of coal, oil and gas is expected to be at the centre of debates in the upcoming United Nations climate talks, dubbed COP28, scheduled to take place at the end of the year in Dubai.

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Two weeks after announcing the arrest of the suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer, authorities in New York on Friday revealed the identity of a woman whose remains were among those found during the course of the investigation over a decade ago.

Karen Vergata, a 34-year-old escort from Manhattan who went missing on Valentines Day in 1996, is the murder victim known as Fire Island Jane Doe, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said at a news conference.

Tierney did not link alleged killer Rex Heuermann to Vergatas death in his announcement. He didnt comment on any potential suspects either, saying it is a confidential investigation.

There are no charges at this time and investigators will continue to work on the case, Tierney said.

I think its important that we remember and honor not only Ms. Vergata but all the victims on Gilgo Beach, he said.

Vergatas remains were among nearly a dozen sets of human remains found along Ocean Parkway on the South Shore of Long Island between 2010 and 2011, including four women who became known as the Gilgo Four.

No missing persons complaint was filed when Vergata went missing, Tierney said.

The long-running murder mystery on suburban Long Island remained unsolved for over a decade until a break in the case came last month, after investigators recovered DNA from a pizza crust that was thrown away  linking it to the alleged killer of the Gilgo Four  Heuermann, a New York City architect.

Heuermann, 59, was first identified as a potential suspect in early 2022, shortly after a multiagency task force was formed to examine the cold cases.

Heuermann is charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Melissa Barthelemy in 2009 and Megan Waterman and Amber Costello in 2010, according to Suffolk County prosecutors.

He is also the prime suspect in the 2007 disappearance and death of a fourth woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, according to a court document from prosecutors, but he hasnt been charged in connection with that fourth homicide.

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Through his attorney, Heuermann has refuted the charges against him.

I did not do this, Heuermann said after his arrest, according to his court-appointed attorney, Michael Brown.

Initially, Vergatas remains  feet and legs  were found on April 20, 1996, on the bay shore of Fire Island, to the east of Gilgo Beach, Tierney said.

Almost 15 years later, on April 11, 2011, additional remains  a skull  were discovered along Ocean Parkway in Nassau County during the Gilgo Beach investigation. In 2011, through DNA analysis, authorities determined that the legs and the skull were from the same body.

In August 2022, a DNA profile suitable for genealogical comparison was developed from the remains, and in September 2022, the FBI identified Vergata through genealogy review. A year later, authorities were able to use a relatives DNA via a cheek swab to identify Vergata as the victim.

Investigators believe the killings of the Gilgo Four, who also worked as escorts, might have happened in the suspects home in Massapequa Park, New York  Heuermann lived less than 6 miles from where remains were found.

The case, featured in a bestselling nonfiction book and a Netflix drama, started with the search for another missing woman in 2010, leading to the discovery of multiple sets of human remains. By the time the remains of the missing woman, Shannan Gilbert, were found one year later, 10 sets of human remains had been recovered across two counties. All but three of the 10 homicide victims  a man, a woman and a toddler  have been identified.

Authorities believe the death of Gilbert may have been accidental and not related to the other killings.

The crucial break in the Gilgo Four case came in January when investigators took a swab from the leftover pizza crust Heuermann discarded in the trash outside his Manhattan office, according to the bail application. DNA evidence linked him to a hair found on the burlap sack where Watermans remains were found.

Prosecutors have asked for a swab of DNA from Heuermann, a spokesperson from the office said Thursday. CNN is working to obtain a copy of the document requesting a DNA sample.

CNNs Kristina Sgueglia and Mark Morales contributed to this report.

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President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has convened the meeting of the Staff of the Commander-in-Chief to discuss the use of precision weapons as well as issues related to the grain corridor and the development of the domestic military-industrial sector.

Source: Zelenskyy on Telegram

Quote: "Tense three-hour meeting. Many questions that required special attention."

Details: Zelenskyy said that the use of precision weapons was analysed by the Staff. "Now is not the time to give details. But we are satisfied with the results," he emphasised.

The president also said that the reports of the military leadership were presented, including those of Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander of Ukraines Ground Forces.

In addition, the issues of the grain corridor were considered. "We understand our responsibility to the world. We involve the maximum number of countries in the region to ensure global food stability," the president emphasised.

Ukrainska Pravda is the place where you will find the most up-to-date information about everything related to the war in Ukraine. Follow us on Twitter, support us, or become our patron!
Volodymyr Zelenskyy

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has held an intense three-hour Commander-in-Chief briefing as many issues required special attention, the presidents press service announced on August 4.

Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine General Valery Zaluzhnyi, Commander of the Ground Forces, Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, and Brigadier General Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, presented reports on offensive and defensive operations, logistics and other issues.

The grain corridor was also a topic of discussion, the press service said.

We understand the responsibility we have before the world. We are actively engaging the maximum number of countries to ensure global food stability, the press service stated.

Read also: Ukraine has a plan if Zelenskyy is assassinated or incapacitated  Politico

Reports concerning Ukraines grain exports were provided by Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, Minister of Infrastructure Oleksandr Kubrakov, Commander of the Naval Forces of the Ukrainian Navy, Vice Admiral Oleksiy Neizhpapa, and various intelligence officers.

The development of Ukraines military-industrial complex was also addressed during the briefing.

Minister (of Strategic Industries) Oleksandr Kamyshin also presented a report, highlighting our efforts to streamline procedures for defense enterprises, prioritizing weapons and ammunition over paperwork, said Zelenskyy.

The use of precision weaponry was also reviewed during the briefing, Zelenskyy said.

Now is not the time to disclose the details, but we are satisfied with the results.

Read also:

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a meeting on Friday, 4 August with Chris Christie, former Governor of New Jersey, who is running for nomination in the US presidential election next year.

Source: Office of the President of Ukraine

Zelenskyy thanked Christie and US politicians and government officials, in particular Congress and President Joe Biden, for supporting Ukraine, and emphasised the importance of further strengthening aid.

Quote from Zelenskyy: "The United States is a leader, providing us with the greatest support on the battlefield for our Armed Forces. And, of course, in the financial sector, which is also powerful support," the president said.

Christie, in turn, said that he wanted to see the situation in Ukraine with his own eyes and share it with the American public, which is "extremely supportive of Ukraine," the Office of the President quotes.

Background:

Before the meeting with Zelenskyy, Christie visited cities in Kyiv Oblast damaged by the Russian offensive at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, including Bucha.

Christie is one of the representatives of the pro-Ukrainian wing of the current candidates from the US Republican Party, who has sharply criticised the pro-Russian statements of Donald Trump, the current favourite in the internal party race.

Chris Christie became the second candidate for nomination from the US Republican Party to visit Ukraine. At the end of June, Mike Pence, former Vice President of the Trump administration, also visited Ukraine.

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President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said the upcoming meeting in Saudi Arabia on peace in Ukraine is crucial. He added that we are moving towards the Global Peace Summit step by step.

Source: Zelenskyy's video address

Quote: "Tomorrow in Jeddah  in Saudi Arabia  a meeting of advisors to heads of state and representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding the Peace Formula will begin. Many countries will be represented, different continents, including the countries of the Global South.

It is very important because in such matters as food security, the fate of millions of people in Africa, Asia, and other parts of the world directly depends on how fast the world will be in implementing the Peace Formula.

I am grateful to Saudi Arabia for this platform for negotiations. A meeting in the same format was recently held in Copenhagen. We are moving step by step towards the Global Peace Summit."

Details: Zelenskyy believes it's crucial that the world sees that "a fair and honest end to Russian aggression will benefit everyone in the world".

Quote: "Liberating Ukrainian land from the occupiers means restoring full respect for international law and the UN Charter. Eliminating all threats created by Russia to Ukrainian and global security means returning peace to international relations and stability to global life. I am grateful to everyone who supports the Peace Formula and has already joined the joint efforts for the full implementation of the Formula."

Background:

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From doctored photos making small crowds big to posts praising government accomplishments that never were, WhatsApp has become the channel of choice for disinformation in Zimbabwe before this month's elections.

The landlocked southern African country heads to the polls on August 23 to elect the president and legislature in what analysts expect to be a tense affair amid a crackdown on the opposition and rigging fears.

Large-scale disinformation campaigns in the run-up to a vote are now a staple across the continent. Zimbabwe is no exception, but the situation there is more opaque.

In Kenya and Nigeria, which recently held votes, misinformation peddlers hung out in the open, mostly on Facebook and Twitter, while in Zimbabwe WhatsApp is king of the rapid spread, analysts say.

WhatsApp has a much broader reach and many Zimbabweans consider it a safe means of communication Denis CHARLET

This is because that's where most voters are -- but the app's encrypted messaging service makes fact-checking harder, as fake content proliferates undetected.

Chris Chinaka, editor-in-chief of ZimFact, a Zimbabwean fact-checking group, said staff now spend most of their time flicking through WhatsApp groups for messages to debunk.

"For most Zimbabweans, the internet is WhatsApp, and a lot of communication happens there," said Nqaba Matshazi, a journalist working at the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) in Zimbabwe.

Internet penetration is quite low in Zimbabwe, where only about a third of the country's more than 15 million people are online, according to a 2023 report by DataReportal, a data analysis firm.

Only nine percent of those who have internet use social media.

WhatsApp has a much broader reach and many Zimbabweans consider it a safe means of communication -- a valued commodity in a country where criticising the government can land people in jail.

In May, Zimbabwe approved a broadly worded law imposing harsh penalties for damaging the country's "sovereignty and national interest", which critics say effectively bans government criticism.

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Bots and pseudonyms

Few people on Twitter write about politics under their real name, as that comes with the "risk of you being arrested", said Matshazi.

But WhatsApp is not a free zone either, as messages on the app have also landed people behind bars, he added.

The law worsened "a festering wound in an environment where already freedom of expression is quite limited," said Matshazi.

Still, traditional social media are not immune from fake content.

Political analyst Jamie Mighti said Twitter, now called X, was awash with bots that seem to have been commissioned to push government talking points.

Some embellish the accomplishments of the ruling ZANU-PF party, in power since independence in 1980.

The landlocked southern African country heads to the polls on August 23 to elect the president and legislature Zinyange AUNTONY

Others repeat President Emmerson Mnangagwa's view that Western sanctions are to blame for the country's economic collapse.

The United States and Europe deny this, noting that the measures target specific individuals accused of graft and rights abuses.

Doctored videos

Manipulated photos and videos are also circulating in large numbers -- with both ZANU-PF and the leading opposition party, the Citizens' Coalition for Change (CCC), making good use of them, analysts say.

"(They) have used doctored images of rallies from the past, or from totally different contexts, to project the false impression of overwhelming support," said Bhekizulu Tshuma, a media studies professor at the National University of Science and Technology in Zimbabwe.

The parties have also used the tactic to suggest their rivals have few followers, he added.

Campaign messages have been deliberately distorted.

In one example, a clip of CCC leader Nelson Chamisa was edited to make it sound as if he advocated for the reversal of radical land reforms enacted by late president Robert Mugabe -- and for the land to be returned to white farmers.

Experts say state broadcaster ZBC often depicts the CCC as a party with little support and takes its leader's speeches out of context. Zinyange AUNTONY

Disinformation can also be easily found on television, where experts say state broadcaster ZBC often depicts the CCC as a party with little support and takes its leader's speeches out of context.

"It is a matter of public record that ZBC refuses to give any independent or fair coverage to the CCC," the party's spokeswoman Fadzayi Mahere wrote on X.

"Not only is the state media's coverage unequal, but whatever token coverage is accorded to the opposition is biased, derogatory and manipulated."

Voices critical of ZANU-PF also have limited reach in South Africa, which is home to a large Zimbabwean diaspora, said Mighti.

Zimbabweans abroad, in South Africa and the UK in particular, also play a critical role in amplifying misinformation, analysts say.

"A lot of the discourse about the Zimbabwean election happens on the internet and in South African, European and American media, primarily because of the restrictions in Zimbabwe and the fear of reprisals," he said.
Jerry Falwell Jr.s quest to obtain his retirement benefits will continue after U.S. District Court Judge Robert S. Ballou filed an opinion in Falwells favor Monday.

The opinion comes almost two weeks after Falwell, his attorneys and Liberty Universitys counsel were present in federal court in Lynchburg, arguing claims for and against the former LU presidents Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan (SERP).

Falwells filing back in March claims that he met every requirement set forth in the SERP.

LU asked the court to deny Falwells filing in federal court in accordance with the Colorado River doctrine  which provides the court discretion to stay or dismiss a suit in exceptional and limited circumstances where there are substantially similar suits pending in state court.

In April 2021, LU filed a suit against its former president in Lynchburg Circuit Court for claims arising out of Falwells alleged actions during and after his employment, such as his departure Aug. 25, 2020, and the events leading up to it, which the school says is similar to Falwells filling in federal court.

As explained in the opinion, one major element Liberty alleges is Falwell breached his fiduciary duty to the college by negotiating the walkaway severance and SERP benefits in 2012 and 2020 while withholding pertinent information from the university  such as the growing turmoil from the alleged affair between his wife Becki Falwell and Giancarlo Granda.

In making his decision, Ballou adhered to the six factors under the Colorado River doctrine, which warrants abstention under exceptional circumstances:

Whether the subject matter involves the litigation of property; Whether the federal forum is an inconvenience; Desirability of avoiding piecemeal litigation which involves two courts deciding on an identical issue that potentially renders conflicting results; The order of the filings and the progress of the actions; Whether federal or state law provided on the rule of decision on the merit; and The adequacy of the state proceeding to protect the parties.

In regard to the third factor, Ballou states the existing state and federal action are not sufficiently similar to constitute parallel proceedings.

There should be grounds for abstention because allowing both suits to proceed will require discovery of the same documents, depositions of the same persons and briefing of the same matters, Ballou states in his opinion.

He further states that LU does not identify a heightened concern beyond those inherent in parallel litigation, referencing a previous case which states the dual system of federal and state governments allow parallel actions to proceed judgement until one is preclusive to the other.

Both cases arguably involve parallel parties, the opinion states, with the exception of the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees for Liberty University, whos named as a defendant in the federal court action.

Here, while both actions arise from the same common core of facts, the claims alleged and remedies sought are vastly different, the opinion further stating the state court involves multiple claims.

The fourth factor involves the order of the filing, which LU claims the state filing was two years before the federal actions.

Ballou stated in his opinion the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 plan documents, which Falwell seeks payment under, reflect that Falwell sought payment under the SERP after the two-year contractual period expired and exhausted his administrative remedies before bringing this federal ERISA claim.

In 2019, LU and Falwell began negotiation on a new agreement to extend his employment for 11 years as the seven-year agreement signed in 2012 came to a close with one key distinction of the new agreement being SERP, according to the opinion filed by Ballou.

He only forfeits the benefits if he is terminated for cause or if he engages with any competitive activity within two years after leaving.

On July 1, 2020, the SERP account was credited with an amount of nearly $7.6 million and each June 30, the account was credited with an investment return at the annual rate of 6%, totaling about $8.6 million as of July 1, 2022, according to the filed lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Lynchburg by Falwell on March 8.

According to the filed opinion, the executive committee met Aug. 25, 2020, and accepted Falwells resignation and on the same day, the colleges board of trustees affirmed the decision of the committee to accept Falwells resignation.

On Sept. 14, 2022, Falwell submitted a claim for his retirement benefits and on Dec. 13, 2022, the executive committee of Liberty Universitys board of Trustees denied it, because it could not properly construe the terms of the SERP and Falwells eligibility for SERP benefits while the State Court action is pending.

Falwell appealed the decision Dec. 28, 2022, and on Feb. 24, the committee denied Falwells claim.

On March 8, Falwell and counsel filed a federal lawsuit claiming the school he led as president from May 2007 to August 2020, was wrongfully denied and withheld benefits set forth in his retirement plan, thus bringing the action against the university and the executive committee of the board of trustees at LU as the plan administrators for the SERP.

Considered together, the Colorado River factors do not support a finding of extraordinary circumstances warranting abstention in favor of the state court action, Ballou states in his opinion.

The ruling will proceed pending cross-motions for summary judgement and a reply period from both parties.
(Photo : Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Two of the three expelled Tennessee lawmakers are set to reclaim their legislative seats after being removed over their involvement in a gun control protest on the House floor.

The Tennessee lawmakers who were expelled by Republicans for their involvement in a gun control protest on the House floor are set to reclaim their legislative seats on Thursday.

The Democrats, Reps. Justin Pearson and Justin Jones, have been hailed as heroes and members of the "Tennessee Three." The young, Black lawmakers were recently reinstated, but only on an interim basis.

The Tennessee Three

The two lawmakers advanced on Thursday through a special election that was held that resulted in them fully reclaiming their positions. They both faced opponents in districts that heavily favored Democrats.

Jones, who is from Nashville, was up against GOP candidate Laura Nelson while Pearson, who is from Memphis, was up against independent candidate Jeff Johnston. In a Twitter post earlier this month, Pearson said that they wanted to send a message to anyone who thought that their voices can be silenced. He added that no one can expel a movement, as per the Associated Press.

The election on Thursday came as lawmakers are preparing to come back to Nashville later this month for a special session that would address the possibility of changing the state's gun control legislation. While the two Black lawmakers' re-election is not expected to make a significant dent in the GOP supermajority in the Legislature, they would most likely oppose Republican-led policies.

Since the two Tennessee lawmakers were elected, they had a relatively quiet political career until they joined Democratic Rep. Gloria Johnson in the gun control protest on the House floor. It took place only a few days after a fatal shooting occurred in Nashville at a private Christian school.

In the incident, a shooter killed three children and three adults, causing thousands of protesters to flood the Capitol building demanding some form of restriction on firearms. The three lawmakers then approached the front of the House chamber carrying a bullhorn and joined demonstrators in chanting and crying for action.

United States President Joe Biden's administration also condemned the expulsion of the three lawmakers, calling the decision "undemocratic" and simply an effort to "punish, silence, and expel duly elected representatives," according to Fox News.

Read Also: Former Maryland Mayor Pleads Guilty to 140 Child Sex Abuse Materials Charges

Nashville Shooting

Johnson was able to narrowly avoid being expelled from the House, which argued that it was only because she was White. On the other hand, State House Republicans vehemently denied that the lawmakers' race played a factor during their hearings.

The fatal shooting in Nashville was conducted by 28-year-old transgender activist and former student Audrey Hale. Authorities said that the suspect used two semi-automatic rifles and a handgun in the horrific attack. Police later fatally shot the shooter within minutes of arriving at the campus.

But even after four months after that tragic tale, officials are still unclear about the true motive behind the attack. On Wednesday, Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy came to Nashville to urge Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, Nashville police, and the FBI to release the shooter's manifesto.

However, parents and members of the Nashville community are trying to stop the release of Hale's writings. The executive director of the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, Deborah Fisher, said that if successful, the move would become unprecedented and could have bigger implications moving forward, said the New York Post.

Related Article: Trump Pleads Not Guilty to Election Interference Charges

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After a month-long soft opening, The Terrace  the newest Rivers Edge eatery  is officially open for business after a ribbon cutting ceremony this week.

Open for breakfast, lunch and happy hour, The Terrace is a social enterprise cafe that hopes to provide the Council Bluffs community with camaraderie, connectedness and inclusion, in addition to tasty treats and drinks.

The menu features coffees, sandwiches, wraps, house-made guacamole, mini cheesecakes and more.

Social enterprises are essentially profits with a purpose, said Sarah Dillinger, social enterprise senior manager for Trivium Life Services, the nonprofit organization behind The Terrace. They take any kind of profits, any kind of business concepts, really, and just reinvest those profits into positive, social change.

Trivium Life Services provides behavioral health and long-term support services for its clients, including mental health therapy and substance abuse treatment. In addition to providing employment opportunities for the community, all profits from The Terrace go back to the nonprofit to fund its mission.

In addition to supporting local, it also kind of has a dual impact, Dillinger said. Not only are you helping the small business owner, but you're also helping the nonprofit, and then by extension, all of the people that are impacted by that nonprofit.

According to its latest annual report, Trivium, which operates in five states  Iowa, Idaho, Nebraska, New Hampshire and Vermont  provided support services to 8,000 individuals nationwide between July 2021 and June 2022.

We're looking towards growing that more and more every year, Dillinger said. That's what the impact of when you support The Terrace is, continuing that growth.

An outgrowth of The Terraces mission is its Learning Kitchen, which will provide workshops to clients as well as people with intellectual or physical disabilities or those who have recently been incarcerated, an opportunity to learn and practice social interaction and job skills in a live work environment.

People who have barriers to employment  people that may need some soft skills training, or maybe they need a little bit of hospitality training or just barista stuff, something like that, they can come through our Learning Kitchen programs and learn those skills, and then either work here or take those skills somewhere else, said Hannah Smith, Triviums vice president of philanthropy and public relations.

The Terrace is currently accepting employment applications, and applications to participate in the Learning Kitchen. More information can be found on The Terrace website and Facebook page.

The Terrace is located at 4201 Rivers Edge Parkway, and looks out over Tom Hanafans Rivers Edge Park.

Hours are Monday through Thursday, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Friday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Saturday, 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.; and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Each of Iowas public universities received praise from the state Board of Regents at its Wednesday meeting for their work in program expansions and increased support for students and faculty.

The University of Iowa, Iowa State University and University of Northern Iowa had their fiscal year 2024 budgets approved by the board at the virtual meeting.

Each university had its own business up for approval in addition to budgets, including a bookstore operating contract at the University of Northern Iowa, a personnel change at Iowa State University and construction plans for the University of Iowa.

The board will hold its next meeting in late September on the University of Iowa campus.

Iowa State University

Mary Howell Sirna will take on the role of interim director of equal opportunity and Title IX coordinator at Iowa State University after the regents approved her appointment Wednesday. According to regent documents, her annual salary sits at $164,554.

Sirna will take over after Carl Wells resigned and took a position as associate dean for campus life at Newberry College in Newberry, South Carolina.

Regent David Barker asked during the meeting whether this appointment complied with previous calls from the state Legislature and Board of Regents to halt additional spending on or implementation of diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

ISU President Wendy Wintersteen said having this position filled doesnt require any new funds, and the roles of Title IX and disabilities coordinator are required under federal law.

Iowas regent universities were directed by Regents President Mike Richards in March to pause the implementation of new diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives while regents conduct a study of the universities existing programs. The education appropriations bill signed by Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds June 1 bars the Board of Regents from spending funding on diversity, equity and inclusion programs until the study is completed.

The university would not be able to maintain eligibility for federal funding if it did not have a functioning Office of Equal Opportunity, Wintersteen said. We believe it is a requirement for us to have a director of this office and critically important for the university to be able to function under these requirements by the federal government.

Wintersteen highlighted programs in her presentation that she said speak to the universitys status as a STEM and research powerhouse, including STEM workforce initiatives and the Ames National Laboratory. STEM pertains to studies in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Iowa State received $2.8 million from the state for STEM workforce development, which Wintersteen said is going toward expanding degree and certificate programs and investing in more innovative fields, such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and software engineering. Nearly 60% of ISU students are majoring in a STEM field, she said, and 95% of ISU graduates across the board are employed or furthering their education within six months of graduating.

In prioritizing the budget to fit Iowa States strategic plan, the university selected 19 projects from suggestions by faculty and staff totaling $3.9 million, one of which is helping students gain more knowledge through internships at the Ames National Laboratory, a U.S. Department of Energy National Laboratory. Wintersteen said this program will bolster the energy sciences workforce and serve as a draw for top students to the college.

I am so impressed with the Ames lab and what Ive seen there, and I think its important for people to highlight as you did that undergraduate students benefit from that, Barker said. I mean, of course, its benefiting the world with new technologies, but undergraduates at Iowa State are also working there and learning, so thank you.

Iowa States fiscal 2024 general university operating budget includes $491.4 million from tuition, $174.1 in state appropriations and $25.6 million from other areas, totaling $691.1 million.

University of Iowa

The University of Iowa received approval from the board to construct a 17,200-square-foot addition to its Oakdale campus Biomedical Research Support Facility, a project with a $19.75 million price tag.

According to renderings, the majority of the new structure will be dedicated to research and support spaces, along with administrative areas. The project is funded by a National Institutes of Health grant and Carver College of Medicine Indirect Cost Recovery funds. Construction is slated to begin in fall 2023 and complete in spring 2025.

Rod Lehnertz, senior vice president for finance and operations, said the facility offers research support to multiple colleges at the university.

In her presentation to the board, UI President Barbara Wilson focused on recruitment and retention of faculty and students through pay increases and student aid.

The state allocated $2.8 million to the UIs College of Nursing, which Wilson said is going toward hiring additional faculty and retaining current faculty. This will allow the college to admit an additional 48 students each year.

In trying to catch up with other schools in terms of faculty salaries, Wilson said the fiscal 2024 budget supports a 4.2% average increase in salaries for all faculty. The university is behind its peers in salaries for professors, associate professors and assistant professors, putting it at risk of losing faculty to better-paying institutions.

Using internal resources, the university is increasing its student aid budget by $8.1 million. Half of the UI student body graduates with no debt, with the other 50% graduating with an average of $28,000 in debt. Wilson said she hopes regents keep that fact in mind while speaking to people around the state.

I just wanted to highlight that fact on the student debt that that $29,000 was the average of the students who have debt, right Barker said. That makes it a very impressive number with 50% having zero debt.

The universitys fiscal 2024 general operating budget includes $512.4 million from tuition, $218 million in state appropriations and $72.6 million from other areas, totaling $802 million.

University of Northern Iowa

Regents authorized the University of Northern Iowa to enter a partnership with Follett Higher Education Group to operate its university bookstore.

In addition to handling the day-to-day operations of the store, Follett Higher Education Group will also provide an investment of up to $900,000 to renovate the store and an annual bookstore credit of $10,000 to go toward textbook scholarships. The company will pay the university a percentage of commissionable sales, with the rate varying depending on type of product.

The publishing industry and the textbook industry has been in turmoil for a number of years and there continues to be disruption for the foreseeable future, UNI President Mark Nook said. Independent stores like UNI do not bring the resources nor the economies of scale that a large national retailer like Follett can bring to the table.

Follett Higher Education Group currently operates campus stores at the University of Iowa, Des Moines Area Community College, Cornell College, St. Ambrose University and William Penn University.

The university received $1.5 million in state funding for teacher student recruitment initiatives, which Nook said in his presentation will go toward scholarships and the development and expansion of programs designed to aid in the teacher shortage, including pathways to help para-educators become certified teachers and teachers while keeping their jobs and community college students to further their teaching education.

In preparing to launch its new undergraduate nursing program next fall, Nook said the university is getting curriculum developed and undertaking a $4.95-million renovation project to create a nursing facility by the time the program launches.

I think UNI should be congratulated for your innovative approach and follow through on these two new programs, Regent Jim Lindenmayer said. I think theyre needed for the state and the growth of the programs have borne that out, so thank you.

The universitys fiscal 2024 general operating budget includes $65 million from tuition, $99.4 million from state appropriations and $1.6 million from other areas, totaling $167.1 million.

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State regulators have finalized new requirements for a northwest Iowa water utility to prevent the Ocheyedan River from running dry, despite objections from the utility.

A two-mile stretch of the river near May City went dry last year, and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources determined that the Osceola County Rural Water System was partly at fault. The primary cause of the dryness was the county roads department, which pumped a significant amount of water from a quarry near the river so it could excavate rock. That reduced the amount of water in the ground, which then siphoned water from the river.

Because of the countys role, the water utility argues that it should not have new requirements and even suggested eliminating its existing requirements to photograph the river when its low and report the pumping rates of its wells near the river to the DNR.

Were done being bullied, Doug Westerman, the general manager of the utility, has said.

But the DNR noted that the utility was a significant contributor to the river going dry in 2015. Last week, it amended the utilitys water use permit with the following special conditions:

 When the surface of the river goes below a certain height above sea level, the utility must take photographs twice each week of the river upstream and downstream of its wells near the river. It must also report how much water it is pumping from wells in the area and monitor the water level heights in the wells.

 When the water levels in the wells fall beneath certain heights, the wells must be temporarily shut down.

The water utility can appeal the DNRs decision, but its unclear if it will. Westerman did not immediately respond to a request to comment for this article.

The flow of the Ocheyedan River near May City is low right now, according to data collected by the National Weather Service and photographs of the river. Its surface is about 1,421 feet above sea level, which is slightly lower than the threshold that triggers the special monitoring conditions for the water utility.

Information about the status of the wells was not immediately available.

The DNR is also prohibiting the county from pumping water out of its quarry near the river in July, August and September, which are typically the months in which the river is at its lowest. The county must also monitor well water levels when it is dewatering the quarry.

The Ocheyedans surface level downstream near Spencer is lower than it has been all year and is approaching a height that coincided with its dry spell last year, according to U.S. Geological Survey data.

Many rivers in Iowa have very low flows as drought conditions have lingered in the state for more than three years. Des Moines Water Works said Wednesday it raised metal gates in the Raccoon River to elevate its water level near the utilitys intake. The river is a key source of drinking water for the metro area.
STUDENTS WHO ARE members of the Northeast Community College Future Business Leaders of America Collegiate chapter competed in the 2023 Collegiate National Leadership Conference of Future Business Leaders of America Inc. recently in Atlanta. Shown (from left) are Mori Lopez, Emma Nelson, Dayci Luttrell, Kyra Louthan, Olivia Meaux, Jordyn Steffen, Paul Einero, Rebeca Martinez, and Eli McPhillips.
NEW YORK (AP)  With the help of technology, scammers are tricking Americans out of more money than ever before. But there are steps you can take to keep your money and information safe.
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With the release of the long-awaited report from state auditor Mike Foley on North Fork Area Transit, many of the questions Norfolkans have been asking for months were answered, and at least in that document, it seems that all signs with regard to any financial improprieties point to former 
Sentury Tire, a Chinese tire manufacturing giant, will build a first Morocco tire facility in the North of the country, 35 km from Tanger-Med port, Africas largest container port which handles over half of all cargo going through Moroccan ports.

The deal okaying the plant breaking ground and operationalization was signed by the companys manager Lin Wenlong and president of Tangier Technology City Development Jaafar Mrhardy.

The construction of the plant, to cover a surface area of 200,000m2 and to cost $300 million, will start this August. The plant will increase the companys exporting strength.

In December, Qingdao-based Sentury said it will invest nearly $300 million in self-raised funds to build an automobile tire plant with an annual capacity of six million units in the North African country. For this purpose, the company formed a unit in Tangier in April.

This is Senturys third plant outside of China as the firm has two other facilities in Thailand and Spain.

After the project is ready, Sentury will become the only tire maker in Morocco, hiking the firms competitiveness globally. The endeavor is strategic as Morocco is the only country in Africa that has signed a free trade agreement with the United States. The Kingdom has a similar agreement with the European Union. Thereby, tires that are exported to the US and Europe are tariff-free.

Sentury increased its profitability steadily last year as its net profit rose by 6 percent to CNY801 million ($111.5 million) from 2021 while its revenue jumped 22 percent to CNY6.3 billion ($876.8 million), according to the annual report.

China is the worlds largest tire producer and exporter as its output makes up over half of the worlds total. However, in the past decade, the US and Europe began laying high anti-dumping duties on China-made tires. So afterwards, the Asian country started exporting more tires to Russia, Southeast Asia, and Africa.
Rabat-based Bayt Mal Al-Quds Asharif Agency will support and empower Al-Quds families through small-scale productive projects under an agreement signed Wednesday with Al-Quds Governorate.

The agreement, which was initialed by the Agencys Coordinator of Programs and Projects in Al-Quds, Ismail Ramli, and the Vice Governor of Al-Quds, Abdellah Sayyam, aims to support and empower families and women in the holy city through small-scale productive projects. The projects will primarily benefit the families and women living the governorates suburbs, where economic conditions are rather difficult.

The cost of the first phase of support projects amounts to $60,000.

In an address during the signing ceremony, Mohamed Salem Cherkaoui, the Agencys Director in charge of management, affirmed that the Agency is fulfilling its obligations in accordance with the high directives of King Mohammed VI, Chairman of the Al-Quds Committee, and is diversifying human development projects and supporting Al-Quds families in all regions of the city, in coordination and partnership with the relevant Palestinian institutions, headed by Al-Quds Governorate.

He stressed that the work carried out by Al-Quds Governorate in serving the citys residents, sometimes under difficult conditions, and deserves the support of all supportive institutions, based on a model that takes into account the real needs of the needy categories.

Cherkaoui pointed to successful models of partnership and cooperation between the Agency and Palestinian institutions in Al-Quds, which deserve attention due to the willingness of these institutions to comply with the conditions and standards of contracting approved by the Agency, which take into account the peculiarities of the city and the working conditions.

For his part, the Vice Governor of Al-Quds praised the Agencys efforts to serve the citys institutions in accordance with the directives of King Mohammed VI, Chairman of the Al-Quds Committee.

In this regard, he voiced appreciation for the Agencys working methods, which meet the needs of the Maqdessis and endeavor to strengthen their resilience in the city. This new agreement paves the way for a number of next steps within the framework of a permanent and continuous cooperation with the Agency, he noted.

The agreement is part of the ongoing work of Bayt Mal Al-Quds Asharif Agency under the personal supervision of King Mohammed VI.
The National Council for the Safeguarding of the Country, the junta in power in Niger, said Thursday August 3 it would respond immediately to any aggression or attempted aggression against it by West African countries to restore elected leader Mohamed Bazoum.

Any aggression or attempted aggression against the State of Niger will see an immediate and unannounced response from the Niger Defense and Security Forces on one of (the blocs) members, said Amadou Abdramane, the spokesperson of the country, in a read of a declaration on State television.

The remarks came as the one-week ultimatum given by the regional Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) looms.

The block met urgently on last Sunday in Nigerias capital of Abuja to condemn the removal on July 26 of President Mohamed Bazoum. The leaders of the region also gave until Sunday this week to restore the 2021 elected leader or face military intervention.

Adbdramane also indicated that all military cooperation and protocols have been terminated with France, former colonial master. The declaration also indicated that the country has recalled its ambassadors in Paris, Abuja, Lome and Washington.

The functions of the extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassadors of the Republic of Niger to France, Nigeria, Togo and the United States are terminated, it said.
A federal judge rejected the bid to block Connecticut's landmark 2013 gun control law temporarily, passed in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting tragedy.

The United States district judge in New Haven wants the lawsuit filed by a gun rights group against the measure to conclude first.

Connecticut Judge Denies Bid to Block Gun Law

As per ABC News, a federal judge has rejected an attempt to temporarily block a landmark gun law enacted after the tragic Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. The landmark legislation, which aims to curb gun violence and prevent further loss of innocent lives, has been upheld. It sends a clear message that the state is committed to protecting its citizens against the devastating consequences of gun violence.

US District Judge Janet Bond Arterton says the National Association for Gun Rights has yet to prove that the gun law, which bans assault weapons, goes against the 2nd Amendment right to bear arms for self-defense.

The federal judge further notes that Connecticut officials "submitted persuasive evidence that assault weapons and LCMs are more often sought out for their militaristic characteristics than for self-defense." With that in mind, Arterton continues, "These characteristics make the weapons disproportionately dangerous to the public based on their increased capacity for lethality."

Read Also: Connecticut Mom Arrested After Dead Son Found Inside Plastic Bag

Gun Rights Group Blasts the Ruling

However, the National Association for Gun Rights was displeased with the decision to deny their bid to bid the measure. The Independent reports that the gun rights group says the judge's ruling is "an outrageous slap in the face to law-abiding gun owners and the Constitution alike."

On top of that, the Colorado-based group further adds that the ruling is "extreme even for leftist courts." As WTNH reports, the National Association of Gun Rights challenged the 2013 gun law, asking Judge Arterton for a preliminary injunction. But given the recent ruling, the law remains in effect.

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, defending the gun law, asserts that the measure is constitutional, contrary to the claims of the gun rights group.

ABC News notes that the 2013 gun law took effect roughly a decade after the tragic Sandy Hook shooting. The gunman took the innocent lives of at least 20 young minds and six teachers at the Newtown school in late 2012.

Related Article: Connecticut Marijuana Sales Surge to $24 Million in June: How About in the 1st 6 Months?

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Guinea authorities, Thursday August 3, gave August 31 ultimatum to mining companies operating in the country to repatriate at least 50 per cent of their revenues from exports.

The warning came from the ministry of Mining and Geology, citing articles of the Guineas mining Code.

Moussa Magassouba head of the department addressed the companies in the presence of several other ministers including Lancinet Conde, the Budget Minister as well the Head of the countrys Central bank.

Magassouba argued that the warning is meant to provide the State with revenues in view coping with the rising cost of life and means to strengthen the national currency. It is not just in Guinea, its in every country in the world. When you take goods with you, those goods are used as currency to buy the other goods we import. And if those resources dont come back, the currency gets weaker and weaker. And that makes the cost of living expensive.

As part of this reconstruction process, over the past year, the Governor of the Central Bank and I have opened discussions with exporting companies. There are companies other than mining companies. But you know that Guinea is a country with a strong mining vocation. Unfortunately, we have observed that despite all that has been said, the level of repatriation remains very low. And this is unacceptable, L. Conde explained.

Per the Central bank, the State only received as of June 30, 2023, $8 million out of $90 million it was expected to gain from the companies.

Also according to the Guineas financial regulator, banks which provided loans to the firms did not receive any return, out of $17.5 million planned. The institution branded the refusal to return the proceeds serious laxity. The law goes with these consequences. We have called on the players in a friendly manner, to tell the mining companies that we want to have a clearer picture of this situation by August 31, and that export earnings should be repatriated, not at 100%, but at 50%. Elsewhere, its 100%. Here, were saying at least 50% of export earnings repatriated before the 31st, minister Conde stressed.

Guineas national budget depends heavily on mining activities revenues. The countrys exports are made nearly 90 per cent of mining products.
Im a very curious person. I love the interesting, complicated stuff, said Brady Dutton Beecham, M.D., the new chief medical officer at Gothenburg Health. Im intrigued by complex systems, and a hospital is a very complex system. My role as CMO is to focus on the health of the hospital, which in turn has an impact on peoples health. Its a huge challenge and I want to make a difference.

As of June 1, Gothenburg Health was pleased to announce Dr. Beecham in her new role as chief medical officer. While she began as a locum provider (substitute) in 2022 and has continued to take calls in the emergency department, she will officially serve in two capacities moving forward.

On the clinical side, she will see patients in an acute and emergency setting, while covering hospital and obstetrics rounds. As the CMO, she will work to improve hospital systems.

As a doctor, I work to help the individual. As a CMO, I work to help the hospital as a system, Dr. Beecham said.

Born and raised in Lincoln, Nebraska, Dr. Beecham is a Nebraskan at heart. Her interest in the interactions between the natural world and humans led her to get a degree in biology and environmental science policy from Duke University. Her first job was with the Health Department as an epidemiologist when the West Nile virus was first discovered. Her interest in public health led her to Kerala, India, on a Rotarian scholarship, where she received her masters of public health.

No matter where you go, the body is the same. Having a body is such a universal experience, she said.

After returning from India, she started medical school at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. During medical school, she took a year off and lived in South Africa to do clinical trials for HIV, which she said was a successful study and allowed her to see the science being developed.

In her third year of medical school, she said she was required to do a rotation in a rural health setting, which she did in Lexington. Being a doctor in a small town was wonderful and made me decide to become a family doctor because you get to do a little bit of everything, said Beecham. Youre part of the community. Youre needed and helping people.

After completing her residency in Philadelphia at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Beecham came back to full spectrum family medicine as a staff physician at Lexington Regional Health Center. During her time there, she volunteered as the medical director for Two Rivers Health Department and was serving in that capacity when COVID-19 arrived.

It changed all of our lives in ways we didnt expect, she said. But for me, one of the positive changes was the chance to join the team at Gothenburg Health.

Dr. Beecham said she has received such a warm welcome from Gothenburg Health and is excited to be part of an outstanding team. This is a great place to help people. Its a great culture with a focus on community, she said.

Dr. Beecham has enjoyed her work in the emergency room as it provides a different view of the body and a different moment in an illness or disease. Its made me a better doctor and great to know that I can help people in a different setting. The emergency department is intense clinical work, she said.

Dr. Beecham married Aravind Menon, an epidemiologist at Two Rivers, whom she met during her time in India. The couple reside in Lexington with their son Remy, 8, and daughter Nora, 4. In her free time, Beecham loves to put puzzles together, ride bikes and cook with her children.

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A fact that has somehow become even more obvious over the last few months is that Republican voters truly adore Donald Trump. At the beginning of the year, there appeared to be a strong chance the partys voting base could be weaned off its cult-worship relationship with the 45th president and reattached to a more reliable, coherent, and less criminally implicated presidential nominee like Ron DeSantis. As that prospect has waned, despair has set in especially deep for a specific cohort: the anti-anti-Trumpers  conservative Republicans who desperately wish Trump were not their partys leader, but if he is, will ultimately devote most of their energy to attacking his critics.

The anti-anti-Trumpers dreamed that their yearslong humiliation of having to run interference for a man they loathed was about to end. Now they must face up to the likelihood of devoting at least the next 15 months, and possibly more than five years, to insisting Trumps multitudinous crimes are no worse than things done by Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Chuck Schumer, and so on.

Who would force them once again into such a mortifying position? Many of the anti-anti-Trumpers have identified the culprit for Trumps hammerlock on the primary. It is the Democrats.

Here are half a dozen examples of anti-anti-Trumpers arguing, with varying degrees of explicitness, that the Trump nomination is being foisted onto the Republicans by the partys enemies.

Rich Lowrys July 23 column, headlined, Trumps enemies pursue more and more indictments  to ensure his 2024 nomination, argues that the multiple prosecutions of Trump have not only the effect, but also the intent, of making him the partys nominee:

Donald Trump and his adversaries  are seeking the same thing  Trump as the Republican nominee, either so he can sweep to victory (Trumps view) or be beaten again and pay the price for his crimes (the Democrats view). 

Consider this thought experiment: If the Justice Department and the other prosecutors knew that the indictments guaranteed a Ron DeSantis or Tim Scott nomination, would they still go through with them?

If they thought they made Trump a stronger general-election candidate and the favorite to beat Joe Biden, would they still pull the trigger?

A week later, Lowry identified President Biden (not the various prosecutors charging Trump) as the main reason Trump is winning the Republican primary:

Biden is an asset to Trumps primary campaign and could, through his weakness and ineptitude, end up electing him in 2024.

Biden is indicting Trump; hes making Republicans pine for the days when he was president; and hes lackluster in prospective head-to-head polling matchups.

The same day, National Reviews Dan McLaughlin complained Republican voters supporting Trump were being played for marks, without saying directly who was tricking them or why:

Trumps commanding lead over DeSantis in October 2022 was cut significantly after the election, as people evaluated the great success of DeSantis and the across-the-board failure of so many Trump-backed candidates. DeSantis remained around 30 percent in the polls, and Trump below 50 percent  until Alvin Bragg indicted Trump near the end of March, which was swiftly followed by Trump pulling away and continuing to do so through this writing, four months and two indictments later. Occams razor suggests that Democrats getting exactly what they want, following actions by Democratic prosecutors, is a sign that Trumps voters are the ones being played for the marks here.

Note the passive-voice construction of the Republican voters, who are reduced to pawns.

The next day, The Wall Street Journal editorialized, Democrats want Mr. Trump to be the Republican nominee, and Mr. Smith (whether he intends it or not) is making that outcome more likely.

And National Reviews Andrew McCarthy explicated this theory in more specific lunatic detail:

The Democrats are trying to get Trump nominated because they know they would beat him decisively in November 2024. The indictments (and there will probably be two more  one from Biden DOJ special counsel Jack Smith, perhaps as early as today, and one from Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis (in the next two weeks or so), coupled with the civil cases teeing up for trial (New York attorney general Letitia Jamess fraud case on October 3, and a second E. Jean Carroll sexual-assault/defamation case in mid January), are both firing up the Trump base and preventing other GOP candidates from getting any traction. That is the intention 

The Democrats plan has been, at this point (with 2024 voting a little over a year away), to give Republicans the impression that Trump can win. And its working. Weve all seen with our own eyes how Trump has destroyed the GOPs grip on Pennsylvania over six years, and yet people are somehow going up in a balloon about his chances to beat Biden in the state because a poll shows him in a statistical dead heat there. That is what Democrats and the media want us to think. Then we nominate him and he loses in a landslide in November, taking the Senate and House down with him.

Today, the Journal  which previously only hinted at the notion that Jack Smith might be deliberately trying to help Trump beat DeSantis  goes all in:

The political point to keep in mind is that this is exactly where Democrats want voters to focus: On Mr. Trump all day, every day 

Mr. Trump on trial also means his competitors for the GOP presidential nomination can barely get media attention 

All of this has Democrats elated because they want Mr. Trump to be the Republican nominee. They hope GOP voters will respond to the indictments by nominating Mr. Trump as a form of political retribution. No matter that this essentially means Republicans would be letting Democrats choose their nominee.

That this theory is totally deranged hardly requires saying. There is no evidence any, let alone all, of the prosecutors investigating Trump have coordinated with the Biden administration or have any interest in affecting the Republican nomination. Trumps legal woes are easily and parsimoniously explained by the fact he has habitually flouted the law throughout his career, beginning at least 50 years ago, when he and his father refused to allow Black people to rent apartments, and continuing through decades of assorted schemes and swindles.

More to the point, the Republican electorates attachment to Trump is explained even more easily. The partys voters thrill to his bullying style; they believe his stream of lies and exist in an information ecosystem in which every fresh piece of evidence of Trumps misconduct merely affirms the scope of the conspiracy against him. The fact that they wish to renominate a man whom they consider one of the greatest presidents in history, and who most of them believe legitimately won the 2020 election, follows naturally from their own beliefs. The choice was not imposed on them by the Democrats, the liberal media, or Jack Smith.

So why do the anti-anti-Trumpers insist on seeing Trumps nomination as an externally imposed plot? One reason is a desperate attempt to convince Republicans to support DeSantis, by grabbing them by the lapels and insisting they are being duped by Democrats unless they vote for Ron.

But I think this conviction also reflects a deeper psychological need, one Ive observed frequently since Trump appeared on the political scene. Trump initially commanded almost no support at all from the conservative movements intelligentsia.

Over time, his unstoppable rise produced three divergent reactions. Some conservative elites learned to embrace Trump. Others (Never Trumpers) recoiled from Trump and developed criticisms of the party that supported him. Between these two factions, the third, anti-anti-Trumpers, remained more or less openly disgusted with Trump but remained loyal to the party and the conservative movement even as they persisted in adoring him.

Their loyalty to the GOP and their contempt for Trump created a cognitive dissonance. Depicting Trump as a liberal creation resolves that cognitive dissonance. They could remain loyal to the party and disdainful of its cult leader because the Trump cult was the sinister result of a Democratic plot.

I gained some personal insight into this when I wrote in early 2016 that I wanted Trump to win the nomination. A few weeks later, I publicly retracted that stance, which was the product mostly of having ignored Trump in the mistaken assumption that the party elites would successfully shove him aside. But the initial column endorsing a Trump nomination has been screenshot and recirculated thousands and thousands of times by anti-anti-Trumpers. They ascribe an importance to it that at first mystified me: What possible influence could one column  by a liberal, no less  have had on the course of the Republican nomination?

The answer, I think, is that their obsession with that quickly retracted hot take grew out of a deep need to find an external locus of blame for Trumps rise. The mortifying Trump cult did not reveal any corruption in the Republican Party. It showed how liberals had manipulated them.

Versions of this impulse have continued to pop up on the right throughout the Trump era. The Republican voters may be misguided in their adoration of Trump, the anti-anti-Trumpers would concede, but they had been driven to that point by any number of Democratic crimes: the smearing of Mitt Romney, the Russia investigation, Bill Clintons sexcapades, or any of an endless list of grievances.

The anti-anti-Trump rights need to explain Trump as a Democratic plot serves one additional psychological function: It excuses their own apologias on his behalf. After all, if the Democrats are to blame for Trumps hold on the Republican Party, then the anti-anti-Trumpers are justified in refusing to defect from a Trump-controlled party. By focusing their opposition on Trumps left-wing opponents, they are directing their main energies against the very people who are responsible for Trumps rise in the first place.

It is almost certainly not a coincidence that the anti-anti-Trump right had returned to its belief that the Democrats are secretly boosting Trump now, at the moment when the DeSantis campaign is collapsing. Now that they are realizing they will have no respite from the ugly work of justifying a figure they loathe, they must make their inner peace with the role they have chosen.
Photo-Illustration: Intelligencer; Photo: Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Few people are more familiar with the events surrounding the Capitol riot than Timothy Heaphy. The lead investigator for the January 6 House Select Committee, Heaphy helped lay the groundwork for Jack Smiths indictment of former president Donald Trump this week. As a white-collar defense lawyer, he also has a handle on how Trumps attorneys will probably approach the difficult task of keeping their client out of prison. I spoke with Heaphy, who has served as a U.S. attorney as well, about the strength of the charges against Trump, whether hes surprised it took this long to prosecute the ex-president over January 6, and how Washingtons jury pool might affect a forthcoming trial.

As many have pointed out, this weeks indictment relies quite heavily on the January 6 Committees findings, though there are some important new details, such as Donald Trump telling Mike Pence, Youre too honest. Were you hoping Jack Smith would uncover more that the committee hadnt already figured out, or are you satisfied with what the indictment includes?

Look, the facts are what they are. Lawyers are only as successful as what theyre given to work with. The core story has been there, and thats because people like Bill Barr and Pat Cipollone and Rich Donoghue and Cassidy Hutchinson stood up. The story is exactly what Liz Cheney outlined in her opening statement at the first hearing: This was a multipart, intentional plan of increasing desperation to prevent the joint session from going forward. It starts with the lawsuits, and it ends with launching an angry mob at the Capitol. Thats the story she told and that our hearings and our report outlined.

So no, Im not surprised or disappointed, because the facts have been out there for a while. Smith will get more important new stuff. The conversation you mentioned is important. Cipollone asserted executive privilege with us, but he has now said he called the president on the night of January 6 and said, You need to concede, you need to pull back these objections. And the president disagreed. So were getting more direct conversations, and thats important but its not new per se. We knew the president was not going to stand down, and we knew he didnt want to issue a statement. So its just confirming that.

Smith names six unindicted co-conspirators who may still talk more. Hes got a lot of leverage over them, obviously.

Absolutely. Look, the co-conspirators are not off the hook because theyre not in the indictment. Theyre not in the indictment because Smith wants to go fast. Its clear to me as a former prosecutor, hes trying to get this tried as soon as possible. And when you charge one person, you have a better chance than if you charge seven people. Hes got a streamlined case  there are only four counts and a very linear story that positions this, to the best extent possible, to be tried sometime in 2024.

Its a similar approach to the documents case, where its simple to follow for both the public and a potential jury.

Yep, exactly.

The January 6 Committee spent a lot of time establishing facts about the riot itself, but Smith more or less skipped from Trump calling for people to gather in Washington to him, Rudy Giuliani, and others pressuring people over fake electors and what have you. Ive seen the argument that bringing charges over the riot itself might have been much more difficult to prove than the others and that they could have been a distraction. Do you agree?

The First Amendment defense I think is likely coming would have been more potentially relevant if there was an incitement-of-insurrection count. Going back to what I said before, I think the special counsel has not used that statute  which arguably applies in part  in order to streamline the case. The other issue here is that the most serious charge stemming from the riot itself is seditious conspiracy, which requires proof of intent to use force. They had that with the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, but its harder to establish with the president. Its easier to establish that he intended to disrupt. I think the verbs are obstruct, interfere with, or impede an official proceeding. Thats a much easier threshold of evidence than that he intended it to be violent.

We looked at that and did not list seditious conspiracy as one the federal statutes for which we made a criminal referral. Im not saying it doesnt exist. We looked very hard for connections between the White House and folks on the ground. That largely wouldve come from Steve Bannon and Roger Stone and Mike Flynn. None of them talked to us, so we could not establish that the president or others were coordinating with those extremist groups or anybody on the ground. Im not sure that they were or were not; we just werent able to establish that as a matter of evidence. Thats reflected in our referrals, and I think its reflected in the charges here.

Some people have been focusing on Trumps state of mind as portrayed in the indictment, which alleges he knowingly lied about losing the election, or whether he was self-deluded enough to actually believe what he was saying. Thats where his comment to Pence about honesty comes into play. But Trump isnt being charged with lying, even though his alleged crimes are built on lies. So is this conversation about what he was thinking a bit of a distraction? How much does it matter?

It matters, but theres a difference between state of mind and free speech. His defense is that this is punishing political speech. Its just wrong. This is punishing conduct, not speech. If he had stood up and said the election was stolen without taking subsequent action to actually prevent the transfer of power, that would be fine. But he didnt. The speech informs the conduct. Its the fake electors, the pressure, the potential change at the Department of Justice, all those steps that he took. Thats conduct, not speech. So its just a red herring to say this is strictly punishing political speech. He went well beyond speech and took a lot of action, and thats why its criminal.

The intent is really important because in order to show that there was a 1512 violation, they have to show that he intended to disrupt the joint session. So that then falls back on, Was he aware that what he was saying was false? Was he aware that there was no election fraud, that the vice-president did not have that authority? That informs his intent and makes his actions more nefarious. Hes not using the joint session as a sort of legitimate forum. Hes actually trying to subvert it because he knows theres no factual basis for those objections.

Yeah, a colleague noted that Trumps Election Night proclamation that he actually won was not included in the indictment. The events laid out begin on November 14, quite a bit after the election, I assume because theyre trying to prove that those statements are the ones that inspired action, not just saying I won.

Precisely. Again, you can stand up in front of America and say, I won, it was stolen from me. He could say that all the time, but he went beyond saying it to actually taking steps to implement this strategy to prevent the outcome from being certified. And thats why its criminal.

New York contributing writer Ankush Khardori has been critical of Merrick Garland and Joe Biden for waiting so long to take action. As he lays it out, they purposely avoided it for more than a year until the January 6 Committee uncovered all this evidence and forced the Department of Justices hand. What do you make of that argument?

I dont know and cant comment on what was informing the Department of Justices leadership decisions. I can say that as we pursued what I call the white-collar part of the case, we were getting there first. So when we were interviewing people like Marc Short, Rich Donoghue, Jeff Rosen, Cassidy Hutchinson, it was clear that we were the first footprints in the snow. The DOJ had not been focused on those people and those issues. Conversely, they were way ahead of us when it came to the blue-collar part of the case: the rioters themselves, the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers. We had trouble actually getting information because a lot of those people were criminally charged and they werent going to talk to us when they had Fifth Amendment privilege.

When our hearings started presenting those facts, they were compelling. And I think that likely showed the world, including the Department of Justice that this might very well be criminal, and they had to look into it. I cant speculate as to why they did or didnt take certain steps.

But did it surprise you that you were the first people to look into this stuff?

Yes. It did surprise us because it was so clear that these witnesses had really relevant information that informed the riot. Its not just who was hitting cops at the Capitol; its why they were there in the first place.

Right, the rioters are the low-hanging fruit.

Yeah, exactly. If we had just done a report about that and sketched out who moved where at the Capitol, we wouldve been way underinclusive in terms of our mandate. Our mandate was the facts surrounding the attack on the Capitol. Thats in the enabling statute. So we took that seriously. You have to look at motivation. You have to look at the elements that put the riot in place. And that reaches way, way back into things well beyond what happened on either side of the fence at the Capitol.

Lets look ahead to the actual trial. The judge in this case, Tanya Chutkan, has handed down notably severe sentences related to January 6. And this will be tried in Washington, D.C., which, of course, is heavily Democratic. How do you think the judge and venue affect things?

I dont think it makes any difference. I think we spend way too much time gaming out jury pools. The same thing happened in Florida. In my experience  and Ive tried cases in D.C., I was an assistant U.S. Attorney there for years  jurors pay attention to the evidence and they follow the courts instructions. I dont think it matters where this case is tried; it could be tried in Alaska or Philadelphia. Same thing with the documents. Case jurors generally do the right thing, and those who may not are typically screened out by the lawyers and the judge. I generally think the process works, and the 12 people that sit in that jury box  regardless of whether they live in D.C. or wherever they live  I just dont think it matters. And I dont think Smith cares either. Hes building cases he believes are so strong that they could literally grab 12 people off the street, put them in the jury box, and hed have the goods to get a conviction.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
This 2020 victory celebration apparently looked sinister to most Republicans. Photo: Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

Now that Donald Trump has been indicted for using lies about the 2020 presidential election to seek to overturn its results, its become a matter of grave national concern that big majorities of Republicans apparently dont think he was lying at all. A new CNN survey shows that 69 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents do not believe Joe Biden legitimately won enough votes to win the presidency in 2020. Its worth asking what if anything might have convinced them to believe Bidens win was legitimate, if only to establish what could happen differently in 2024 to avoid another contested Democratic win  if not an attack on the Capitol.

The poll shows that 56 percent of these doubtful respondents somehow think there was solid evidence Biden didnt actually win, while 44 percent base their lack of confidence in the results on suspicion only.

Presumably the solid evidence crowd bought one or more of Trumps claims, which ranged from his unsupported assertion on Election Night that Democrats were manufacturing mail ballots to offset his early lead, to the many anecdote-based allegations of fraudulent voting and vote-counting that were uniformly exploded by the federal and state judges. These are people inclined to believe what they are told by the 45th president and closely allied conservative media.

Those who question President Bidens legitimacy on grounds of suspicion only are probably either thinking of vague talk about election irregularities or simply dont trust election officials and/or Democrats generally. Likely some Republicans in both categories were influenced by partisan hype before the election, notably Trumps own claim in August of 2020 that the only way were going to lose this election is if the election is rigged.

Perhaps these unspecific election deniers would have been less inclined to doubt Bidens legitimacy if the results hadnt been so close (roughly 44,000 votes in three states separated Trump from a victory in the Electoral College). That incredibly close margin (putting aside Bidens really big national popular vote win by over seven million votes) means that a smidgen of fraud here and a skosh of ballot-box stuffing there might have rigged the result in favor of the Democrat. So if they have any control over it at all (perhaps by deploying high-risk, high-reward strategies that dont play it safe) Democrats might want to go for broke to win big.

On the other hand, Republicans who arent so vague and believe in solid evidence of a rigged 2020 election pretty clearly accept one of several conspiracy theories about a flawed electoral system and Democratic perfidy. Its hard to know without more detailed research which Trump lie they found most compelling, since he offered many before and after Election Day.

Perhaps they believe that in places like California, non-eligible voters (i.e., non-citizens) are allowed to vote in large numbers. After all, Trump claimed he would have won the popular vote in 2016 had it not been for illegal voting by illegal immigrants. Maybe they accept the idea that voting by any method other than in-person on Election Day is inherently shady (ignoring the fact that Republicans have traditionally used voting by mail as much as or more than Democrats), reinforcing Trumps claim that he was counted out by made-up late-arriving ballots. Fortunately for the odds of an uncontested result in 2024, Trump and other Republicans are now encouraging their voters to beat the far left at its own game by banking votes early by mail or in person. Any rigging by voting method will be bipartisan, it seems.

Unfortunately, there are some other preconceptions by Republicans about Democrats that arent so easy to address. Theres a sort of ancestral white Anglo-Saxon Protestant belief that big-city machines controlled by Democrats use chicanery to get their voters to the polls and then to put heavy thumbs on the scales to change the results. This mythology  which goes back to lurid tales of bosses buying votes from Irish immigrants in the nineteenth century  is hard to shake, closely connected as it is to racial and ethnic prejudices. And speaking of prejudices, todays conservatives continue to embrace the idea that minority voters  including immigrants  vote themselves government benefits in a way that creates a corrupt bargain between liberal elites and their inner-city clientele. It was exactly what Mitt Romney was talking about when he was caught on tape in 2012 warning Republicans that 47 percent of voters are non-taxpaying parasites in the bag for the opposition. If you feel that way, then you dont need evidence of specific irregularities to feel that any Democratic presidency is in some respects illegitimate.

Worse yet, there are Republicans (some of them call themselves constitutional conservatives) who think their preferred governing policies (e.g., free markets, low taxes, gun rights and fetal rights) came down on stone tablets from the Founders as guided by God Almighty, and should not be subject to modification by mere voters. This deeply anti-democratic strain of thinking (in that case as applied to the right to buy, sell and own slaves) is precisely what produced secession and then Civil War in the nineteenth century.

It need not come to that, and its possible less of a cliffhanger election with fewer means for contesting it (the Electoral Count Act reforms of 2022 and the Supreme Court repudiation of the independent state legislatures doctrine have taken away two of the tools Trump tried to use in 2020 to overturn the results) will at least reduce the number of Republicans who refuse to accept defeat. On the other hand, if Trump wins the GOP nomination and then returns to the White House, we may enter an era in which any Democratic electoral victory is defined as illegitimate.
And not a single person is shocked.

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came in to say this

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deep state conspiracy

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Every time. Every single fucking time lmao

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Jesus Christ. Of course.

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even if he is convicted, supporters will just say he was set-up for helping expose the truth. its going to make their persecution complex worse.

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My first thought was theyre gonna be kiddapping from a trafficker so its okay

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yes, because any "right winger" is "set up" by "the evilllll liberals" while every liberal ever gets away with all of their crimes according to their logic

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yuup. love to claim the left/woke are crying wolf or getting off easy but cant take responsibility themselves. even the coup they wanted was a physop lol

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Another Q weirdo exposed as a pedo creep? Shocker.

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every accusation is an admission.

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Pikachu shocked face



Its always the one who yell the loudest.

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Ok, kind of a tangent, but I've been super fucking scared by how right-wingers are accusing anyone left of center of being a damn pedophile. Meanwhile, their own leaders and funders are the ones grooming kids, passing laws to let kids marry adults, and looking at CP.

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Yeah its gotten to the point that if youre a liberal they basically want you to be dead or think you deserve to die.

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seriously. I loathe pedos with a passion, but you can't just throw those types of accusations around cause then they won't be taken seriously. If you truly cared about fighting child trafficking/csa, then do something about it! Don't just throw around baseless accusations against people you don't like all because they have different views.

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They are the party of projection, that said it makes it even more scary how often they go to the groomer/pedo insult

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Every accusation is a confession (it seems) with the GOP.

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Projection is the simplest crime in the world. You ever wonder why sexual assault, p*do crimes have such small consequences? Call is coming from in the house

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It's all denial, projection, deflection from their side. They're basically confessing their own shit when they talk about others (re: Gaetz)

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At this point just being conservative should be sufficient for the FBI open up an investigation on somebody's ass.

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All of the Sound of Freedom fans I know (aka a handful of people at work) have been mum about this arrest. Surprise. But, hey, at least theyve stopped talking about how the liberal elite are the biggest customers of child trafficking/eat babies. For now.



My favorite thing the last month has been pretending that I have no clue about this propaganda trash. Theyve been going on about it; how their fellow q-nutcases bought tix in advance and how its made tons of money. Then, knowing Im not one of them, theyd ask me if I went and I just go oh Ive never heard of it. The quiet fury as they stare at me with nothing to say is hilarious to me.





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You should ask them if there are any updates about this movie lol

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The reason it's made so much money is because it has an end screen giving viewers the option to buy tickets for people who can't afford them. AKA, line the pockets of the filmmakers. They are so gullible.

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Oh I know, one of them was so proud to share with me that she bought extra tickets. But, she didnt do it after she saw the movie. No, the donation link/site/whatever had already been spread through these communities of idiots so, she had already ~donated before ever watching the dumpster fire. 

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The grifting opportunities are endless, and people just keep falling for it

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ita hilarious because churches and other right wing orgs have been buying up whole theaters but not actually telling people how to get the tickets, and if you get a ticket you can apparently exchange it for another movie youd rather see instead lmao



but also maddening because this shit overinflates the box office numbers for this piece of shit film

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....and how its made tons of money.



I heard that people bought out showings to have the movie look popular, but no one goes & the theater is empty.

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Its always these freaks screeching about child trafficking and protecting the children that are the actual ones hurting children, it never fails.

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MTE its almost always these ones. So weird.

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What child did he kidnap?

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As usual, the overzealous protect the children types are the ones being the weirdos

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OSHA Fines Sonny Steel Erectors for Continued Fall Protection Violations

The Houston-based company faces proposed penalties of $266,416.

OSHA has announced a new set of violations for Sonny Steel Erectors Inc. following a recent investigation.

In a release dated August 2, the agency announced it proposed $266,416 in fines to the Houston-based company, which specializes in commercial structural steel erection. That amount encompasses one serious violation, one willful violation and one repeat violation identified during a February 2023 visit. All three are tied to improper fall protection measures.

Sonny Steel Erectors seems unwilling to end its long and troubling history of putting its employees at risk of serious injury or worse, OSHA Area Director Mhekeba Hager in Houston said in a statement. Our latest inspection found the company failed to correct hazards associated with violations dating back to 2011. We will not allow this company to continue its willful disobedience of the law.

Sonny Steel Erectors previously faced OSHA fines as recently as October 2022. In that instance, the company was fined for not attaching a body belt or lanyard to the boom or basket while employees worked from an aerial lift. Sonny Steel Erectors now has 15 business days to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA or contest OSHAs latest findings.
OSHA Determines Downrite Engineering Could Have Prevented Workers Death

The Miami-based company faces a proposed $258,935 in penalties.

Downrite Engineering Corp.a Miami-based construction company specializing in part in the excavation of lakes and the installation of storm draining systemsemploys more than 400 workers. But in January 2023, a 48-year-old diver drowned on the job while removing debris from a canal. Now the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has stepped in.

In a release dated July 31, the DOL announced an OSHA investigation into the incident resulted in the citation of 18 serious violations and a proposed $258,935 in penalties. The violations centered on Downrites failure to provide effective safety training for underwater tasks as well as emergency situations. The absence of such precautions resulted in this incident, OSHA said.

Our investigation found Downrite Engineering Corp. did not follow required standards to protect workers who conduct commercial diving activities, OSHA Area Office Director Condell Eastmond in Fort Lauderdale said in a statement. This companys failures before, during and after this tragedy are inexcusable and now this divers family, friends and co-workers are left to grieve their terrible loss.

OSHA previously cited Downrite for safety violations as far back as 2018. In 2019, the company faced a similar violation, as OSHA determined it failed to provide timely medical attention and first aid to an injured worker. Now Downrite Engineering has 15 business days to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA or contest its findings.
These past two weeks saw yet another strong quarterly showing for Big Oil despite substantial declines in earnings, following the trajectory of oil pieces since last year.

Once again, the supermajors and the large independents were betting on shareholder returns over production growth, sticking to their new, post-pandemic, mid-transition approach.

Until now, this approach has been largely praised by the media and analysts. Now, it seems the restraint has started to brew some concern. And maybe its time it did.

Bloombergs Kevin Crowley reported this week that Exxon, Chevron, BP, Shell, and TotalEnergies together produced 11.6 million barrels of oil equivalent daily during the second quarter. That, he said, was the lowest production rate for the big five in at least 15 years and a fifth lower than their 2010 production rate. It was time to change this.

The conclusion in the above report might seem confusing given Bloombergs copious reporting on climate change and the success of the energy transition. Yet facts are that oil and gas are still consumed on a massive scale globally. And if less oil and gas is being produced, thats bad news for pretty much everyone. Related: Oil Prices Jump As Saudi Arabia Extends Oil Production Cut

In fairness, BP and Shell have both made a sort of a U-turn on their net-zero commitments this year. Both companies had previously set extremely ambitious targets including sizeable cuts in oil and gas productionbut now, both have signaled a pullback from net zero and a greater focus on oil and gas.

It is critical that we avoid dismantling the current energy system faster than we are able to build the clean energy system of the future, Shells new chief executive Wael Sawan said, as quoted by the Financial Times, earlier this year. The statement accompanies a pledge to continue investing in oil and gas, maintain oil production, and boost gas output.

BPs Bernard Looney made a similar statement in February when the company reported record profits for 2022, boosted by the oil and gas price shocks. At the presentation of these results Looney said that BP had revised down its oil and gas production cut targets for 2030 from 40% to 25%.

Given Looneys previous exclusive focus on growing in areas like wind, solar, and EV charging and scaling back BPs core business to embrace the energy transition, the revised target marks a significant departure from previous priorities.

Yet neither of these two supermajors is planning on boosting their oil production. That should worry investors and regular energy consumers. Because Chevrons and Exxons production growth plans are modest, and they focus almost entirely on the Permian. They cant, in other words, offset BPs production cutbacks and Shells stagnation. If these two remain on the agenda, that is.

Last years price rally in hydrocarbons showed that it takes a record profit or two to convince supermajors that perhaps they dont need to go all in the transition. This years still strong prices may strengthen that conviction. And, of course, theres TotalEnergies signing a multibillion-dollar deal with Iraq for the development of new oil fields.

Big Oil is not giving up on oil and gas. Yet it is being a lot more cautious about production growth and likely to remain cautious amid all the activist investor, government, and activist pressure. This means supply from the supermajors may well tighten in the next few years, especially after their exit from Russia and an overall shortage of new discovery opportunities.

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Bloombergs Crowley noted that the decline in production was, indeed, partially a result of this exit and asset sales. The problem is that, as he put it, companies cannot discover another Guyana every year. The bigger problem, however, is that they seem reluctant even to try to discover another Guyana. Because of all that talk about peak oil demand and the triumph of the transition.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
(Photo : August Frank-Pool/Getty Images)

Bryan Kohberger's attorney claimed in a court filing that his client was driving while four University of Idaho students were assassinated in their slumber.

According to new court documents, Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of murdering four University of Idaho students in November, claims he was on a routine drive at the time of the murders.

The 28-year-old Kohberger is charged with four counts of first-degree homicide and one count of burglary. He is accused of murdering Ethan Chapin, age 20, of Conway, Washington; Madison Mogen, age 21, of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho; Xana Kernodle, age 20, of Avondale, Arizona; and Kaylee Goncalves, age 21, of Rathdrum, Idaho.

Bryan Kohberger's Alibi Revealed

On Wednesday, Kohberger's counsel objected to the state's request for an alibi for the night of the homicide. His attorneys claim in court documents that "Mr. Kohberger has a lengthy history of going on solo excursions" and that he did so the night before and morning of the brutal murders.

Cross-examination of the state's witnesses, according to his counsel, will provide confirmation that Kohberger was not present at the site of the crime. The filing states that Mr. Kohberger cannot be more specific about potential witnesses and what they will say.

At Kohberger's arraignment on May 22, the judge entered a not-guilty plea on his behalf because he did not respond when the judge asked him how he pleaded.

At the time of the murders, Kohberger was a Ph.D. student in criminology and a teaching assistant at the Pullman campus of Washington State University, which is only a 15-minute commute from the residence in Moscow, Idaho, where the four students were murdered.

Per CBS News, authorities believe the victims were unconscious when they were attacked with a large military-style weapon and suffered multiple stab wounds. According to court documents, Kohberger's DNA matches the DNA discovered on a knife sheath at the murder site.

According to a police affidavit, one of the two survivors in the house heard a disturbance and saw a masked man exit through a sliding door in the backyard. According to the Thursday night filing by public defender Anne Taylor, Kohberger has "long had a propensity of driving alone."

Taylor stated that the defense would have been able to develop testimony through cross-examination and witness presentation if the state had chosen to proceed with a preliminary hearing.

David Gelman, a former prosecutor and criminal defense attorney, told Fox News Digital that the defense is "trying to maintain open the possibility of constructing or generating an alibi, even though they don't have one."

Former doctoral student in criminology Kohberger was indicted on May 17 for the deaths of four students. Due to the indictment, Kohberger's defense team was unable to contest the evidence that led to his arrest at the preliminary hearing on June 26.

According to Daily Mail, his trial is scheduled for October, and prosecutors have stated that they will seek the death penalty; they have also recently filed a motion to compel him to disclose an alibi.

Prior to the new motion, his defense filed a motion to dismiss or remand the case for a preliminary hearing. In an effort to contest the jury selection process, his legal team also filed a motion to suspend the proceedings without relinquishing his right to a swift trial.

Read Also: Brazil Police Violence Reignites, Leaving 44 People Dead

Idaho Colleger Murders Suspect's Next Trial

During the trial, both teams of attorneys filed motions requesting that exhibits be sealed and not disclosed to the public. In accordance with Idaho law, defendants are required to submit an alibi defense to the court within ten days of receiving a written demand from the prosecutor.

Following the homicides, Kohberger's sedan was detained on I-70 outside of Indianapolis last December, as captured by police bodycam footage. A week before the traffic encounter, Idaho police issued a public appeal for information regarding a white Hyundai Elantra.

Kohberger was subsequently apprehended at his parents' home in Pennsylvania on December 30. His legal team filed a separate defense last month, contending that the DNA evidence connecting him to the knife sheath may have been planted.

In a criminal affidavit filed in January, shortly after Kohberger's arrest, it is stated that the suspect's DNA was discovered on a knife sheath recovered near the corpses of Mogen and Goncalves.

Later, investigators closely matched the DNA on the sheath to DNA discovered in trash from Kohberger's parents' Pennsylvania residence, where he was arrested in December.

According to sources, the sheath discovered at the crime site belonged to a seven-inch utility knife, which is a common hunting instrument for chopping firewood and severing wire and twine. This blade has not been located. The trial of Kohberger is scheduled for October 2.

Related Article: Former Maryland Mayor Pleads Guilty to 140 Child Sex Abuse Materials Charges

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The Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) of OPEC+ affirmed on Friday the current levels of oil production of the group and didnt make any recommendation to change the output at this time.

In a very short meeting, as expected, the JMMC panel, which regularly discusses the situation on the market and the need for OPEC+ intervention, rubberstamped the OPEC+ decisions from June 4, when the current cuts  initially set for May through December 2023  were extended to the end of 2024.

The Friday meeting, scheduled for months, was preceded by a Saudi announcement on Thursday that the Kingdom would extend its unilateral voluntary cut of 1 million barrels per day (bpd) into September.

Russia, the leader of the non-OPEC producers in the OPEC+ group, also announced an extension in its export cuts into September, although the pledged cut will be lower than in August.

Russia will cut oil exports by 300,000 bpd in September, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Thursday. Russia has said it would reduce its August oil exports by 500,000 bpd.

Todays meeting of the OPEC+ panel, agreed there was no need for further market intervention at present, as widely expected. But the panel noted that it could intervene if necessary.

The committee will continue to closely assess market conditions noting the willingness of the DoC countries to address market developments and stand ready to take additional measures at any time, building on the strong cohesion of OPEC and participating non-OPEC oil-producing countries, OPEC said in a statement after the short panel meeting.

The panel also reiterated its appreciation to Saudi Arabia for the extension of its unilateral cut into September, aimed at supporting the stability of the oil market, and acknowledged Russias commitment to cut oil exports in September by 300,000 bpd.

The next meeting of the JMMC is scheduled to take place on October 4, 2023.

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By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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Crude oil prices are set to post a sixth straight week of gains on the back of a tighter market and easing recession fears.

Friday, August 04, 2023

The coordinated supply-side management of Saudi Arabia and Russia has set oil prices for a sixth weekly gain, with the two OPEC+ heavyweights extending their production and export cuts into September. Brent has moved above $85 per barrel, the highest level since March, and one could argue there is still further upside coming from Fridays attack on Russias Black Sea oil terminals and swelling backwardation.

Saudi Arabia Extends Production Cuts. In a press release published by Saudi Arabias news agency SPA, the Middle Eastern kingdom pledged to extend its voluntary production cut of 1 million b/d for another month to September, suggesting that the cuts might be deepened if need be.

Russia Lowers September Export Cut Pledge. Russia pledged to crude oil exports by 300,000 b/d in September, down from its 500,000 b/d vow for August, publishing the press release less than an hour after Riyadh announced its production cut extension, hinting at close coordination between the two.

India Courts Qatar for 20-Year LNG Deal. Indias state-controlled gas firm GAIL (NSE:GAIL) is close to finalizing a long-term LNG supply contract with Qatar to buy at least 1 mtpa LNG for a period of more than 20 years, the second such deal to be concluded by an Indian firm with QatarEnergy.

US Renewable Subsidies Soar to $15.6 Billion. According to the EIA, US subsidies for renewable energy producers more than doubled between 2016 and 2022 from $7.4 billion to $15.6 billion most recently, with the solar industry benefitting the most from the tax incentives provided.

Trafiguras Congolese Copper Project Faces Overruns. Commodity trading house Trafigura has been compelled to seek new funding of some $200-300 million for its $600 million copper-cobalt projects Mutoshi and Etoile in the Democratic Republic of Congo amidst cost overruns.

UK Authorities Investigate Westinghouse Takeover. The UKs Competition and Markets Authority said it was investigating the Cameco-Brookfield Renewable Partners $7.9 billion bid to buy nuclear firm Westinghouse, with the deal boosting the Canadian uranium producers (NYSE:CCJ) stock by 47% in 2023 to date.

Guyana Delays Licensing Round Again. South American oil producer Guyana set a new deadline for its first-ever competitive auction for offshore blocks, delaying the licensing round for the third time already to 12 September amidst delays in establishing a modern regulatory framework.

Nigeria Gasoline Protests Called Off. A day after Nigerias largest labour unions NLC and TUC organized countrywide protests against the removal of gasoline subsidies, the demonstrations were called off after President Bola Tinubu vowed to restart the Port Harcourt refinery by December.

Libyas Oil Outlook Improves as Force Majeures get Lifted. Libyas National Oil Corporation announced this week it was informed by ENI (BIT:ENI) and BP (NYSE:BP) that both companies would lift their force majeure in Libya and resume exploration activities in the western regions of the country.

Middle Eastern Nations Vie for Giant Offshore Field. Saudi Arabia and Kuwait reiterated their claims on full sovereign rights over the offshore Durra gas field (also known as Arash in Iran), prompting Tehran to invite Kuwaits foreign minister to Iran to discuss the future for the fields demarcation.

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ADNOC Continues to Widen Portfolio. The national oil company of the United Arab Emirates ADNOC signed a deal to purchase a 30% equity stake in the Absheron offshore gas and condensate field in Azerbaijan, joining SOCAR and TotalEnergies as the field ramps up production from its Phase 1.

US Adds Copper to Critical Minerals List. The US Department of Energy added copper to its Critical Materials list of key materials with high risks of supply disruption, boosting prospects of future copper projects on American soil as theyd be eligible for extended IRA tax credits.

Indias SPR Build-Out Sparks Huge Interest. Indias planned build-out of an extended Strategic Petroleum Reserve, currently amounting to only 39 million barrels, sparked interest across the oil markets with BP (NYSE:BP), Shell (LON:SHEL), PetroChina, Trafigura, Vitol and Glencore all declaring interest.

Brazils Lula Pushes for Amazon Drilling. Despite Brazils environment agencies' rejection of Petrobras (NYSE:PBR) plans for exploration drilling in the delta of the Amazon River, the countrys President Lula da Silva defended the appraisal of new frontiers and said the watchdogs ban is not definitive.

By Michael Kern for Oilprice.com

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Canadian oil sands producers are in a rush to boost production as the Trans Mountain expansion comes online, providing an additional 590,000 bpd in capacity.

Bloomberg reports that Canadian Natural Resources and Cenovus are among the producers planning on output boosts in the coming months.

Canadian Natural Resources plans to increase production by some 40,000 bpd in the current quarter, while Cenovus will take longer, starting a new production site in 2025.

This industry has a great habit of expanding to fill pipeline capacity, Cenovus COO Jonathan McKenzie said, referring to the Trans Mountain extension, as quoted by Bloomberg. Thatll be filled, I think, in relatively short order over the coming years.

The Trans Mountain project drew a lot of controversy, at one point pitting the provincial governments of Alberta and British Columbia against each other.

Eventually, amid the strong environmentalist push against the expansion, operator Kinder Morgan quit the project, and the Canadian federal government bought it and started looking for buyers.

Initially, the pipeline expansion was set to help Canada export its heavy crude oil to Asia via tankers from the Canadian West Coast. But as the expansion project took years to clear permitting, financial, and construction hurdles, the global crude oil flows changed with the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the consequent Western sanctions. Now, almost all Russian oil for exports is going to Asia and not Europe, like before.

As a result, earlier this year, traders told Reuters that additional Canadian crude volumes that will be transported from Alberta via the expanded Trans Mountain are likely to stay in North America and end up on the U.S. West Coast instead of in Asia, as planned years ago when the project was designed.

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Trans Mountain should be technically completed at the end of this year and enter into operation next year.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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BP and Eni, as well as Algerias Sonatrach have returned to Libya after a force majeure forced them out of the North African country.

In a statement, Libyas National Oil Corporation said that BP and Eni had notified it about lifting the force majeure and returning to fulfill their contractual obligations in several onshore and offshore blocks the Libyan government had previously awarded to them.

Foreign oil and gas companies declared forcer majeure on their operations in Libya amid the troubled political situation in the country that has frequently led to oil production outages in recent years.

Late last year Libya called on the supermajors to return to its oil and gas field. Then, earlier this year, Libya prepared to launch its first oil and gas tender in 17 years as the situation improved enough to allow it to boost oil production to some 1.2 million bpd and keep it there for much of the year.

The tender will be held in 2024 and should help Libya move closer to its target of 2 million bpd in daily oil output by 2026. According to the African Energy Chamber, Libyas maximum production capacity is 1.8 million bpd by 2024 but Tripoli insists it can boost this to 3 million bpd in two to three years.

Even before the force majeure was lifted, Eni, the Italian supermajor with a decades-long presence in Libya, announced plans for more investments in the country. In May, the company signed a deal with Libyas NOC for the development of an offshore natural gas field with production seen at 750 million cu ft daily.

Libya reported higher oil production for the first half of the year but lower revenues because of the decline in international oil prices. Then, in July, some of the countrys biggest oil fields were shut down yet again amid another wave of political protests.

Since the end of August 2022, Libya has been pumping close to or even above 1.2 million bpd, the level last seen before the port blockades that began in the spring of 2022 crippled Libyan oil output in the spring and most of the summer of 2022.

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Ukrainian security services and navy hit with drones a Russian Navy ship outside the Russian oil export port of Novorossiysk on the Black Sea.

The Russian Navy landing ship, Olenegorsky Gornyak, was damaged in the attack, Ukraine says, while Russia said it had repelled the attack.

Videos of the purported attack started circulating in social media. Sources have told Ukrainian media outlet Ukrainska Pravda that Ukraines security service, SBU, and the Ukrainian Navy carried out the operation with a drone packed with 450 kg (992 pounds) of TNT, FTs correspondent in Kyiv, Christopher Miller, reported.

Novorossiysk, a navy and oil export port in Russia on the Black Sea, east of Crimea, is exporting around 600,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil and is the key export outlet for most of Kazakhstans crude oil, too.

Operations at the oil terminal were suspended briefly in the morning local time.

The Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) whose pipeline for Kazakhstans oil ends at the port and which operates a terminal at Novorossiysk, said that there was a temporary ban on ships movement in the CPC water district and the port of Novorossiysk, but the ban has been already removed. Tanker loadings continued, and the infrastructure operated by the consortium has not been damaged, CPC added.

The attack outside the port of Novorossiysk was the first such attack against Russian oil export infrastructure since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022.

The attack comes after Russia has targeted with strikes the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Odesa, causing damage and fires at facilities crucial for Ukraines grain exports.

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Anything that risks curtailing Russian oil supply to the market is not going to be welcomed by the White House, Helima Croft, a former CIA analyst and currently head of global commodity strategy at RBC Capital Markets, told FT.

By Michael Kern for Oilprice.com

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India may be the worlds second-largest steel producer, yet it continues to grapple with reliance on steel imports. In the last few months, China has emerged as a major steel exporter to India, leading to protests from Indias domestic sector. Indeed, Indias June 2023 steel imports rose by 5.9% month-on-month and 7.6% year-on-year. Alongside China, the country also saw increased shares from Vietnam. The primary concern among local steelmakers is protecting their interests while avoiding negative impacts on local steel prices.

Impact of Chinese Steel Exports on India and Steel Prices

The fresh influx of low-priced steel from China, Japan, Vietnam, and Russia has exerted tremendous strain on Indian steelmakers. In June 2022, Chinas share of steel exports was 26.1% of Indias steel imports, while Vietnams share was 1%. However, by June 2023, the import share from China increased to 37.1%, while Vietnams contribution rose to 4.8%.

This imported steel often sells at substantially lower prices than its Indian counterparts. This creates formidable challenges for Indian producers attempting to remain competitive. Consequently, many Indian steel mills felt compelled to shut down or reduce operations, leading to a substantial loss of jobs in the industry.

The surge in Chinese steel imports also has implications for the Indian governments revenue. Indeed, the government levies significant taxes on steel imports, and the increased inflow of Chinese steel directly reduces tax collection.

Indian Steelmakers Call for Import Cess

In response to the adverse impact of Chinese steel exports, Indian steel producers recently began urging the government to impose an import cess on steel. An import cess essentially functions as a tax on imported goods. The rationale behind this appeal is to level the playing field and shield the Indian steel industry from unfair competition.

However, for now, the Government of India seems hesitant to implement such a policy. According to reports, the governments primary concern is that an import cess might lead to higher steel costs for Indian consumers.

That said, the Indian government continues to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of imposing an import cess. Analysts expect a decision in the near future as the country seeks to strike a balance between consumer interests and safeguarding the domestic steel sector.

ArcelorMittals India Plans

Meanwhile, prominent global steel company ArcelorMittal has ambitious plans to expand its steel production capacity in India. The company currently has a capacity of 6.6 million tons per annum (MTPA) in India. However, leaders aim to increase it to 8.6 MTPA by the end of 2024. According to the Hindu BusinessLine, to achieve this, ArcelorMittal will invest US $1 billion in a bottlenecking project slated for completion by the end of 2023. This project will enable the company to enhance its production of flat steel products, including hot rolled coil and cold rolled coil.

Additionally, ArcelorMittal plans to invest in a new automotive downstream facility in India. This would hopefully facilitate the production of high-quality steel for the automotive industry. The company has formulated a comprehensive plan to bolster capacities in Hazira, Gujarat to 15 MTPA by the first half of 2026.

Steel experts believe the decision to boost steel production capacity in India signifies ArcelorMittals confidence in the Indian market. Indeed, ArcelorMittals investment will likely play a crucial role in meeting the escalating demand for steel in the country, leading to job creation and contributing to economic growth. This could not only help reduce steel prices in the country, but further strengthen the nations position as a major steel producer.

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A pair of Omaha civic leaders want Nebraska parents to start thinking about a planned behavioral health facility for children in Omaha as an emergency room where they can bring their kids if they have concerns about their mental health.

On Friday, they and others officially broke ground on the $110 million Behavioral Health & Wellness Center at Childrens, which will be situated west of 84th Street and West Dodge Road.

Slated to open in early 2026, the center will house 38 inpatient hospital beds, which will more than double the capacity in the community. It will also offer a suite of other services along the behavioral health care continuum, including a first-in-the-region behavioral health emergency assessment center, a pediatric mental health urgent care center and a pediatric primary care clinic with integrated outpatient mental health services.

Other offerings will be an outpatient eating disorder center and an expanded partial hospitalization program for youths who no longer require inpatient treatment yet still need daily support and ongoing therapy. The center will be operated by Childrens Hospital & Medical Center and situated on the west edge of its campus. The nonprofit Mental Health Innovation Foundation is managing the planning, design, fundraising and construction of the facility with the goal of increasing mental health services in the community.

Omaha philanthropist Ken Stinson, the foundations president, said most parents probably dont know where to go if they believe their child is experiencing a mental health challenge. Some now go to Childrens emergency room. A critical part of the new facility will be the emergency assessment center, where staff will be able to help determine what kind of behavioral health help children and adolescents need.

Weve got to educate the community over time, Bring them here, he said.

Chanda Chacon, Childrens president and CEO, said the new center will operate like a hospital emergency room, with different levels of care in one location. It also will offer easy access to physical health care, which patients also may need.

The goal is to get them in a better environment, built for kids with mental health conditions and behavioral health challenges, so that we can help them easier, faster, in an environment thats built for them, she said.

Plans for the facility have expanded in scope and cost since Stinson and Chacon in November announced what was initially billed as an $89 million, 103,500-square-foot center on seven acres.

The foundation hired New York-based conceptual architect Frank Pitts, who is nationally known for his consultation on the design of mental health facilities. We attribute to him some expanded thinking on how  the pieces should fit together, Stinson said.

Project organizers also visited the Big Lots Behavioral Health Pavilion at Nationwide Childrens Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. Officials there advised taking the inpatient portion of the facility vertical  it will have four stories vs. two in the rest of the center  to improve efficiency for staff, who also have had input into the design. Chacon said the arrangement also makes it easier to arrange patients by age.

Stinson said organizers also figured in additional square footage, including room for 10 more inpatient beds, should it be needed in the future. That brought the facility to 107,250 square feet.

The changing environment in mental health for kids would suggest that were more likely to go up than go down, he said.

The extra research may have extended a bit the time it will take to bring the project online, Stinson said. But what organizers learned will make the center better.

The priority was, this is going to be here for a long time, he said. Weve got to do it right the first time. If it means it will take a little longer to get there, well pay that price.

Chacon said the flexibility built into the facility also is an important step toward making it a hub connecting spokes across the state where mental health care is delivered.

If organizers can help curb increases in mental health concerns among youth and help kids earlier, she said, theyll not only provide better care for kids and families but also be able to meet the need with the center as planned.

In addition to the pediatric behavioral health urgent care that will be housed in the Omaha center, Childrens is establishing a second one near one of its clinics in Kearney.

Childrens also is training primary care providers to care for young people with mild and moderate mental health challenges through its Childrens Hospital & Medical Centers Outreach for Provider Education, or COPE, program. The health system held the first session this spring.

The goal is to train as many as 200 providers over the next three years. The local program is based on a national model. Trained providers also have access to a dedicated consultation line they can call to seek advice in managing behavioral health care for kids.

Chacon said the idea is to create a network across the state before the facility opens to help keep kids out of the center and to better support those who come when they return home. Childrens also is collaborating with other mental health care providers in the state.

The more we work together, the better we believe this whole model will be and the (more successful) well be with the Behavioral Health & Wellness Center, she said.

Stinson noted that the center also will be a hub for training pediatric mental health care professionals. Project organizers also have been working to build the pipeline of health care providers.

Chacon said Childrens currently is conducting a national search for a senior vice president to lead the center. Officials hope to make that selection within the next several months. Having that leader on the ground early will help ensure the facility starts strong, she said.

Stinson said the foundation is close to raising the $110 million budgeted for the project. Organizers have a list of items they can add if they exceed that goal, which he believes they will do.

Of the total, $16 million is expected from the $40 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds the Nebraska Legislature designated in 2022 for mental health projects in the state. Childrens is contributing $15 million and the rest will come from private donors.

Our donors, weve had such a great reception from them, said Stinson, who has focused on addressing mental health challenges for years. He and fellow philanthropist Rhonda Hawks were among a group who raised money to start Omahas Lasting Hope Recovery Center, an inpatient adult treatment center near downtown Omaha that opened in 2008.

I dont think the world (paid) much attention to mental health 20 years ago, he said. But everybody (pays) some attention to it now.
A judge on Thursday lowered bail from $10 million to $250,000 for an Omaha woman accused of arranging a beating that left a man dead.

The new bail for Jessica Hernandez is close to the $200,000 bail that had been set for the man accused with actually administering the fatal beating. Hernandez would have to post 10%, or $25,000, to be released pending trial.

This is a reasonable bond, said Bassel El-Kasaby, an attorney for Hernandez. One that she can, with help from family and friends, hope to raise.

Hernandez, 26, is charged with manslaughter and tampering with evidence in the June 2 death of Carlos Salguero-Canar, 30. He was found beaten to death at an apartment complex near 27th and Harrison Streets.

Nadim Zarazua-Hernandez Jr., 24, is charged with manslaughter and accused of executing the deadly beating.

Douglas County Judge Grant Forsberg, who in July submitted his name to become a district court judge, set Jessica Hernandezs bail at $10 million. That drew criticism from community activists and a formal complaint to the Nebraska Judicial Qualifications Commission from former State Sen. Ernie Chambers.

Hernandez waived her right to a preliminary hearing in county court to determine if there was enough evidence for the case to proceed to trial in district court. John T. Rogers, an attorney in El-Kasabys firm, filed a motion for bond review. It noted Hernandezs lack of criminal history and her significant family ties in Omaha.

The Douglas County Attorneys Office did not object to a lower bail. But prosecutors did ask that it be set higher than her co-defendants bail because Hernandez faces the additional charge of evidence tampering, Chief Deputy Douglas County Attorney Brenda Beadle said.

Douglas County District Judge Leigh Ann Retelsdorf agreed to the $250,000 bail at a hearing Thursday afternoon.

When youre accused of something like this, whether youre guilty or not, it calls for a significant bond, El-Kasaby said. A $10 million bond is not a bond. Its a statement that is inflammatory and disruptive to the administration of justice in this particular case.
A new program to get more aspiring educators into classrooms is on the horizon in Nebraska.

During a Friday meeting, the State Board of Education approved the Nebraska Teacher Apprenticeship Program as a step to improve the states ongoing educator shortage.

While Nebraska Department of Education officials say the program is still being created, it will follow the framework used by the National Center for Grow Your Own. The organization aids states in creating grow your own programs that help residents become teachers at no or low cost.

Currently, 18 states have teacher apprenticeship programs, according to the education department. School districts and teacher preparation colleges and universities select candidates  usually paraprofessionals, high school graduates or people changing careers  to earn their degree and education license for free.

While earning their credentials, the aspiring teachers will be employed through the district theyre working with and can be hired as full-time teachers in the district following graduation.

This action item goes hand in hand with our number one goal, which is to (have) quality teachers in every classroom, said board member Patsy Koch Johns. We would be taking advantage of paras, and that whole idea of apprenticeship, and I think its a step in the right direction for us in Nebraska. It shows that we are really trying.

The approval of the program is part of the state boards priority list, including the goal of eliminating the special education staffing vacancy and cutting the educator shortage in half by 2030. It also comes as part of the education legislation package that was passed earlier this year in the Nebraska Legislature to improve the shortages.

Like other U.S. states, Nebraska has been suffering from an educator shortage, from classified staff like paraprofessionals or bus drivers to classroom teachers, especially those in special education.

Some Nebraska schools already offer grow your own programs for their own district. In the summer of 2022, Westside Community Schools created its own program for paraprofessionals. The Omaha Public Schools district has been partnering with the University of Nebraska at Omaha to offer similar programs for high school graduates for years.

It will cost the Department of Education about $1 million to implement the program, which doesnt have a timeline yet. Department officials said staff are continuing to work with the national organization to create the program and will seek more federal funding to get it started.

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A Norfolk Public Schools administrator has resigned following a state investigation that alleges he falsified documents in order to get federal reimbursement.

A letter released by State Auditor Mike Foley on Thursday alleges that Bill Robinson, associate superintendent for the district, forged a grant reimbursement form that was submitted to the Nebraska Department of Education for funding.

According to the letter, Robinson was seeking reimbursement from a special education grant program under the Department of Education. He submitted a request for reimbursement earlier this year but it was rejected by the department because it was submitted six months too late.

A district employee then contacted the department to inquire about a possible remedy but was told that the reimbursement request was so far overdue that it could not be legally processed, the letter says. Days later, (Robinson) contacted the department, supposedly explaining that the original reimbursement documentation had been sent in error, and the correct paperwork would be forthcoming.

Robinson then allegedly submitted new paperwork that appeared to have been altered, containing both revised purchase dates and a different grant year for when the expenses were incurred. According to the letter, this was done to presumably allow the reimbursement payment to be processed during the following grant period. It was later rejected by the department.

The letter also alleges that Robinson attempted to obscure how the expenses were approved by the school board, how the expenses were made and their actual purchase dates.

Foley said that his office believes the falsified documents are also public records, making that alleged activity both criminal and particularly disgusting.

It is so important for public officials to remember that their actions reflect upon not only themselves but also the entities that they represent, Foley said in a statement. Such cognizance is all the more essential when the reputations of our schools are at stake  the very institutions responsible for setting an example for our youth and teaching them to be responsible, trustworthy citizens.

In a Thursday press release, the Norfolk school district said it placed Robinson on administrative leave and launched an internal investigation immediately after they received Foleys letter. Robinsons resignation will be officially approved on Aug. 15.

We are taking the recommendations provided by Foleys office utmost seriously, and are re-evaluating our internal control procedures to include additional safeguards to protect the district and our taxpayers money, said Superintendent Jami Jo Thompson in an official statement. I would like to assure our community that Norfolk Public Schools will not let this impact our amazing staff and the wonderful students we serve.

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Russia's Ropucha-class naval landing ship Olenegorsky Gornyak was damaged after Ukraine allegedly conducted a naval drone attack on the Russian Navy's Black Sea base in Novorossiysk Thursday night (August 3).

According to two sources reporting on the incident Friday (August 4), Russian forces have fended off the attack, but the ship itself was severely damaged, as per Reuters.

Novorossiysk is a civilian port that handles 1.8 million barrels per day, or 2% of the world's oil supply, as well as grain. The Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which operates an oil terminal in the port, said the port temporarily halted all ship movement before resuming operations. It added its facilities were not harmed when the attack happened.

Warship Badly Damaged, Sources Say

The Russian Defense Ministry said in a short statement that the Ukrainian attack by two sea drones had been repelled in the waters outside the base and was destroyed. However, it made no mention of the damage to the ship.

"Tonight, the armed forces of Ukraine attempted to attack the Novorossiysk naval base with two unmanned sea boats," it said. "In the course of repelling the attack, the unmanned boats were visually detected and destroyed by fire from the standard weapons of the Russian ships guarding the outer waters of the naval base."

On the other hand, a Ukrainian intelligence source said the Olenegorsky Gornyak suffered a serious breach in her hull and could not conduct combat missions after a joint operation by the Ukrainian Navy and the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). The source added there was a crew of around 100 Russian sailors on the vessel when she was attacked by sea drones carrying 450 kilograms of TNT each, but no information was provided on any casualties.

Meanwhile, another source with knowledge of the port's operations said a large Russian naval vessel had to be towed ashore because she could not move under her own power after the attack. Oil and grain loadings were still taking place at the port when the attack happened, and resumed only after it ceased, the source added.

There was also unverified video footage of the alleged attack published on social media, which purported to show the damage done to the Olenegorsky Gornyak, with one of the videos seeing her listing heavily to port [left side of the ship].

The information provided by the sources could not be immediately and independently verified as of this report.

Novorossiysk official Andrei Kravchenko said on Telegram that the Olenegorsky Gornyak was one of two ships that had "instantly reacted" to fend off the Ukrainian attack.

Read Also: Bloodbath Beach: Ukraine Allegedly Wiping Out Russians; Estimated 200 Putin Troops Killed

Black Sea Black Ops

The attack was part of the heightened tensions in the Black Sea after Russia pulled out of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, with many nations who are on speaking terms with Moscow officials, such as Turkey, suggesting the Kremlin renew the deal.

Last week, an intelligence report from the British Ministry of Defense said the Russian Black Sea Fleet was positioning itself to blockade Ukrainian ports after Moscow pulled out of the grain deal the week prior.

Aside from the attack at Novorossiysk, the Russian Defense Ministry also said its forces repelled an attempted Ukrainian drone attack on Crimea, which it annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

Ukrainian Intel: Russia Plans 'False Flag' Attack on Belarus Refinery

In a separate Reuters report, the SBU accused Russia Friday (August 4) of conducting a "false flag" attack at the Mozyr oil refinery in Belarus in order to blame Ukrainian saboteurs as part of an effort to draw Minsk into the war in Ukraine.

In a statement on Telegram, the intelligence service added the staged attack would be carried out by military and intelligence forces disguised as Wagner Group mercenaries who were exiled after staging a mutiny in Russia in June.

The SBU added its assertions were based on information obtained from several sources, including a captured Russian serviceman.

There was no immediate comment on the Ukrainian statement from either Moscow or Minsk.

Related Article: Ukrainian Resistance Fighters Poison 17 Russian Officers in Occupied Mariupol; 2 Dead

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JACKSON, Miss.  Six white former law enforcement officers in Mississippi who called themselves the Goon Squad have pleaded guilty to a racist assault on two Black men who were brutalized during a home raid that ended with an officer shooting one man in the mouth, federal prosecutors say.

The civil rights charges were unsealed Thursday as the officers  five former Rankin County sheriffs deputies and an ex-Richland police officer  appeared in federal court and pleaded guilty.

The Justice Department launched its civil rights probe in February. The Mississippi attorney generals office announced Thursday it had filed state charges against the six former officers, including assault, conspiracy and obstruction of justice.

The defendants in this case tortured and inflicted unspeakable harm on their victims, U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said, adding that they egregiously violated the civil rights of citizens who they were supposed to protect.

The charges come after an Associated Press investigation that linked the deputies involved in the episode to at least four violent encounters with Black men since 2019 that left two dead and another with lasting injuries.

Its kind of a partnership in crime, U.S. District Judge Tom Lee said about the conspiracy charges unsealed Thursday.

Court documents show that on Jan. 24, the officers burst into the home without a warrant, then handcuffed and used a stun gun on the two men, Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker.

The officers assaulted them with a sex object, beat them and used their stun guns repeatedly over a roughly 90-minute period. The episode culminated with one deputy placing a gun in Jenkins mouth and firing, which cut his tongue, broke his jaw and exited out his neck, the court documents said.

The officers did not give him medical attention, instead discussing a false cover story to cover up their misconduct, as well as planting and tampering with evidence, the documents said.

The officers went to the home in Braxton because a white neighbor had complained that Black people were staying with the white woman who owned the house, court documents said. Officers used racist slurs against the two men during the raid, the court documents show.

The victims are identified only by their initials in the documents, but Jenkins and Parker have publicly discussed the episode. They filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Rankin County in June seeking $400 million in damages.

Court documents said the officers gave themselves the Goon Squad nickname because of their willingness to use excessive force and and not to report it.

Those charged in the case are former Rankin County Sheriffs Department employees Christian Dedmon, Hunter Elward, Brett McAlpin, Jeffrey Middleton and Daniel Opdyke and former Richland police officer Joshua Hartfield.

The documents identified Elward as the person who shot Jenkins, and Opdyke and Dedmon as the ones who assaulted the two men with the sex object.

Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey announced on June 27 that all five deputies involved in the Jan. 24 episode had been fired or resigned. Hartfield was later revealed to be the sixth law enforcement officer at the raid. Hartfield was off-duty when he participated in the raid, and he was also fired.

The officers were charged under whats known as a criminal information filed in federal court, a document that describes the basis for bringing criminal offenses against a defendant. Unlike an indictment, a criminal information does not require a grand jurys vote.
CAIRO  A leading human rights group says that Sudans warring parties have committed extensive war crimes including mass killings of civilians, rape and sexual slavery of women in the ongoing conflict.

The east African country plunged into chaos in mid-April when monthslong tensions between the military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces exploded into open fighting in the capital of Khartoum, and elsewhere across the country.

Amnesty Internationals 56-page report, released Thursday, said civilians were deliberately targeted and killed and wounded. Women were raped, with some of them held in conditions amounting to sexual slavery mostly in the capital, Khartoum, and the western region of Darfur.

Sexual violence has been a defining element of this conflict since the beginning, Donatella Rovera, co-author of the report, said. Civilians really have no good options. Its difficult for them to leave. Its incredibly dangerous for them to stay.

Almost all rape cases were blamed on the RSF and its allied Arab militias. The report said the RSF abducted 24 women and girls  as young as 12  and held them for several days during which they were raped by several RSF members.

Rovera said that war crimes such as sexual assault are happening, on what seems to be a large scale.

While the RSF, which was born out of the notorious Janjaweed militias, was also blamed for most of the deliberate attacks and rape cases, some members of the military were accused of the crimes, Amnesty said.

Responding to the report, the military said they had established a unit to ensure targeted decisions to minimize civilian harm while the RSF denied allegations of sexual violence, as well as carrying out violent acts in West Darfur.

The conflict has turned Khartoum and other urban areas into battlefields. Darfur  which had been the scene of genocidal war in the early 2000s  saw some of the worst bouts of violence with the current fighting turning into ethnic clashes.

The fighting forced about 4 million people to flee their homes, either to safer areas inside Sudan or to neighboring countries, according to the U.N. migration agency.

The violence in Darfur was mostly blamed on the RSF and its allied Arab militias, which the group said targeted the African Masalit community in the region. The group, however, said armed men from the Masalit allegedly also targeted Arabs suspected of siding with militias.

Amnesty detailed waves of violence in West Darfur province  one of five constituting the Darfur region  including the killing of civilians, looting and destruction of homes and facilities such as the main hospital and markets.

The killing of West Darfur Gov. Khamis Abdalla Abkar on June 14  following his detention by the RSF  promoted an exodus of many members of the African Masalit community to eastern Chad, which turned into an open camp for those who fled the fighting in Darfur, Amnesty said.

Civilians throughout Sudan are suffering unimaginable horror every single day, said Agnes Callamard, the groups secretary general. He called on the warring sides and their affiliated groups to end their targeting of civilians, and guarantee safe passage for those seeking safety.

On April 20, an attack in Khartoums southern neighborhood of Kalakla killed three children from the same family as they tried to escape the gunfire, the group said, adding that it was not able to determine which side was responsible for the killing.

Amnesty quoted Kodi Abbas, a 55-year-old teacher, whose two sons and nephew were killed, as saying they were small and couldnt run away fast enough,  I dont know who shot them. The war killed them.

The group said it also documented an attack by the RSF on the complex of the Mar Girgis Coptic church in Khartoums Bahri district. RSF members in a pickup stormed the church, shooting five members of the clergy, and stole money and a gold cross, the report said citing witnesses.

They were shouting and insulting us  saying things like, Egyptian dogs and sons of dogs  and asking for money and gold, an unnamed survivor was quoted by the human rights group.

Amnestys report was the latest one documenting atrocities in Sudans conflict.

Last month, Human Rights Watch called for the International Criminal Court to investigate atrocities in Darfur, including summary executions of dozens of non-Arab tribesmen in a Darfur town.

The United Nations Human Rights Office said a mass grave was found outside Geneina with at least 87 bodies, citing credible information. And the International Criminal Courts prosecutor, Karim Khan, told the U.N. Security Council in July they were investigating alleged new war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur.

There are allegations that this could be ethnic cleansing, said Rovera, the situation is a very difficult one, is a very dangerous one because it can escalate further.

Photos: Sudan battles intensify
LINCOLN  Three boys who died by suicide could lead to increased prevention efforts in Nebraskas child welfare system.

A state watchdog recently reported that the three died at different ages, in different years, in different parts of Nebraska and with different family histories. But each had been involved with the child welfare system in one way or another before their deaths.

Inspector General of Nebraska Child Welfare Jennifer Carter investigated all three deaths as required by state law. She concluded that state child welfare workers and others dealing with the boys families did not contribute to and were not responsible for their deaths.

But her report said the child welfare system could do better at knowing warning signs and intervening to address suicide risk among the youngsters in the system.

Its very difficult to know if something like that would have made a difference in any of those three cases, Carter said. It just gives everybody a better chance.

Her report recommended that the state develop and implement a comprehensive suicide awareness and prevention plan within child welfare.

She also called for better training of state child welfare workers, foster parents and the private providers that contract to care for youth in the system and she recommended that child welfare officials participate in the Nebraska State Suicide Prevention Coalition.

In a letter included with the report, Dannette Smith, then-CEO for the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, said the department accepted all of the inspector generals recommendations. She said the goal would be to have completed all of the changes by the end of 2025.

Carter said she was encouraged by the departments commitment and the timeline.

The report pointed out that adolescents generally are at a higher risk for death by suicide, with suicide ranking among the top three causes of death for Nebraskans ages 10 through 18 since 2006.

But youth involved in the child welfare system are at even greater risk, given their histories of trauma and abuse and their higher rates of alcohol and substance misuse, unsafe sexual behaviors, delinquency and truancy, the report said. Those who wind up in foster care face additional trauma and disruptions.

Of the three cases investigated, the first involved a 14-year-old who died in 2018. Child welfare officials got involved with his family a year earlier because of domestic violence between his parents. Other concerns included his mothers mental health and his parents co-parenting skills. The boy and his siblings were made wards of the state but remained in their parents home.

The second involved a 16-year-old who died in 2021, three weeks after reporting sexual abuse by his half-brother. Child welfare officials got involved with the family because of the report. The intake said he was suffering depression and anxiety, in part because his sister died by suicide 5 years earlier. Other concerns included his fathers depression and verbal and emotional abuse from his mother.

The third case involved an 11-year-old who died in 2022. The boys parents had been deported four years earlier and an older sister was caring for him and his siblings. Child welfare officials responded because of a report from the older sister that the boy was harming himself. The case was handled through a process called alternative response, in which workers help families without taking them to court or making a finding that there had been abuse or neglect in the family.

Our best Omaha staff photos & videos of August 2023
Denmark's government has announced that, in response to recent Quran burnings, the nation would be enforcing stricter border restrictions in order to increase internal security and prevent unwanted persons from entering the country.

Increased Border Security

After anti-Islam activists in Denmark and Sweden torched and destroyed many copies of the Muslim holy book in recent months, provoking anger in the Muslim world and demanding that governments outlaw such crimes, authorities are now fearful of retaliatory attacks.

In a Reuters report, the Danish justice ministry issued a statement late on Thursday, August 3, saying, "Authorities have today concluded that it is necessary at this time to increase the focus on who is entering Denmark, in order to respond to the specific and current threats."

According to the security forces, "The recent [Quran] burnings have ... affected the current security situation," Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard added.

At least ten copies of the Quran have been burnt by a small group of Danish far-right protesters in the last week. They have announced plans to burn even more Qurans during two rallies on Friday, August 4, and three more events over the weekend.

Both the Danish and Swedish governments have spoken out against the burnings and are proposing new legislation to put an end to them. Domestic critics, however, argue that such a move would be a violation of their constitutionally guaranteed right to free expression.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen made her stance on the burning of the holy book clear late Thursday. "I think it would be wrong if someone stood there and burned the Bible. I also don't think we should burn the Torah for the sake of those who belong to the Jewish faith."

The Quran is considered the literal word of God by Muslims. Hence any act of destruction, real or imagined, of the sacred book would likely result in widespread demonstrations throughout the Muslim world.

Stricter border restrictions in Denmark will be in effect until August 10.

The decision to increase inspections at the Danish border comes after Sweden implemented similar measures.

See Also: Denmark Seeks to Ban Burning of Quran, Bible During Protests: Here's Why

Measures to Curb Catastrophic Rallies

Earlier this week, Denmark hinted it wants to ban burning religious books, including the Quran and Bible, during rallies after many high-profile cases. The proposed legislation would be unprecedented in Europe if it were to become law.

The Danish government argues the ban is needed to defend religious freedom and avoid violence. In recent years, Quran burnings in Denmark have sparked demonstrations and unrest.

The Danish foreign ministry considers interfering when "other countries, cultures, and religions are being insulted." The statement also included examples of scenarios when this would have "significant negative consequences for Denmark."

Reportedly, the prohibition aims to combat extremism and security issues while preserving Scandinavian freedom of speech.

See Also: Iran Puts off Deploying Ambassador to Sweden in Light of Quran-Burning Incident

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The Houston Police Department penalized Food Not Bombs volunteers for feeding the homeless. If the volunteers are proven guilty, everyone who received the tickets could owe Houston over $80,000.

Houston Police Fines Volunteers for Feeding Homeless

According to The Guardian's latest report, the Houston Police Department issued 44 tickets to Food Not Bombs volunteers who have been feeding homeless people in the metropolis since 1994.

Authorities said that these members are giving meals to unhoused people outside the Houston Public Library.

Because of this, they issued 44 tickets to them. Each of the included Food Not Bombs members could face a maximum penalty of $2,000.

When their penalties are combined, they could all face more than $80,000. The fines issued by the police were made based on the city ordinance that was passed way back in 2012.

This ordinance requires that organizations and groups must have permission from the property owners, as well as public properties before they can provide free food to more than five people in the areas.

But, many people criticize this law. A petition to revoke the ordinance was even submitted to the Houston city council in 2015.

Read Also: Minnesota Legalizes Use of Marijuana, Plans To Provide Reparations to Communities That Were Over-Policed Due to Offenses

FNB Volunteer Sues Houston City

USA Today reported that a social justice volunteer was found not guilty by a jury on Friday, Aug. 4.

After this victory, 66-year-old Food Not Bombs member Phillip Picone decided to file a federal lawsuit against Houston.

In his complaint, the man explained that the anti-food-sharing law of the city violates the freedom of expression and freedom of religion of those who are trying to feed homeless people.

Picone's attorney, Randall Kallinen, filed the federal lawsuit against the city on behalf of the FNB volunteer.

"If you were to look in the Catholic bible or any bible, you'd see many references to feeding the hungry and feeding the poor," he argued.

Kallinen added that Picone and other Food Not Bombs members also provide free meals to working poor people, who are usually making minimum wages for the past years.

As of writing, Picone and other FNB members are still trying to revoke the anti-food-sharing law of the Houston city. If you want to learn more about what they are fighting for, you can click here.

Related Article: FBI Conducts Nationwide Sting, 'Operation Cross Country,' To Locate 200 Sex Trafficking Victims, 59 Reported Missing Children

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The US is looking into Kenya to head a multinational force in Haiti. One thousand of these police officers may soon be sent to the Caribbean country to combat gang violence there.

However, the US is also explicitly warning Kenyan police forces against violent misconduct. Notably, it is a tough situation for Kenyan police, who have been accused of murdering and torturing people for a long time, especially during the COVID-19 curfew.

In July, amid opposition-called rallies against the growing cost of living, police fatally shot more than 30 individuals, according to a local organization.

Kenyan Police to Likely Take the Helm

Now, with the US serving as the United Nations Security Council president this month, preparations are being made for a resolution to allow a mission in Haiti to be commanded by Kenyan police.

According to AP News, the UN had been trying to get a country to take charge of restoring peace and stability in the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation for more than nine months.

Just recently, the foreign minister of Kenya, Alfred Mutua, declared that his country was interested in sending 1,000 police personnel to Haiti to train the Haitian National Police, restore normalcy, and secure critical assets. "Kenya stands with persons of African descent across the world."

It has been challenging to assemble foreign soldiers for Haiti, where deadly gang violence has surged since the death of President Jovenel Moise in 2021. Thus, on Tuesday, August 1, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken applauded Kenya for taking steps to serve.

The US, the European Union, and other partners have invested millions of dollars in training and assistance for Kenya's police force over the last several years, with the US's primary goal being "promoting police accountability and professionalism."

However, concern has been expressed by a number of groups that have been keeping tabs on reports of police corruption in Kenya.

Also Read: Haiti: Aid Group Partners With Authorities to Rescue Kidnapped American Woman, Child

Issue of Corruption in Police Force

Human Rights Watch's Kenya researcher, Otsieno Namwaya, told the AP News, "We had some consultations with Kenyan (civil society organizations) last week and there was general consensus that Kenya should not be seen to be exporting its abusive police to other parts of the world."

Some Kenyans believe the country's police force should remain at home in the face of a grave danger posed by Islamic extremists in neighboring Somalia, where they have been engaged for years and where soldiers have been stationed since last year to quell unrest. Sierra Leone is one of the countries that has previously benefited from UN peacekeepers.

Kenya contributes less than 450 people to UN peacekeeping operations, although other African countries like Rwanda, Ghana, and Egypt provide thousands. Only 32 of them are police officers. There are now 35 American service members serving in UN peacekeeping operations.

Also Read: Kenya: Activists Worry for Safety as Violence Erupts Over Tax Increases

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BLOOMINGTON  A 31-year-old man is behind bars after police said he kicked officers arresting him on a charge of driving under the influence.

Andrew J. Stroud, who had no address to provide, appeared in a Thursday bond court hearing before Judge Pablo Eves, who found probable cause for his arrest.

Assistant States Attorney Aaron Merriman told the court that at 2 a.m. Thursday, a McLean County Sheriffs deputy initiated a traffic stop on the vehicle Stroud was driving in the area of Main and Walnut streets in Bloomington because the vehicle had no headlights and its registration was suspended.

The prosecutor said Stroud refused to pull over and continued driving for over a mile, until stopping at the 707 Liquors store in Normal.

Merriman said Stroud refused police commands to put down the cellphone he was talking on and showed signs of intoxication. The prosecutor also said police found a bottle of alcohol in the vehicle.

The defendant also kicked two officers during his arrest, Merriman said.

Stroud is charged with two counts of aggravated battery, two counts of misdemeanor resisting a police officer and one count each of driving under the influence, fleeing or attempting to elude an officer, suspended vehicle registration, illegal use of telephone while driving and failure to signal.

Strouds bond was set at $10,000, with 10% to apply for release. He also waived his right to an extradition hearing, as records show the Colorado Department of Corrections had issued a warrant for his extradition to that state for a hearing on a parole violation.

An arraignment is scheduled for Aug. 18.

17 unusual alcohol laws that could get you busted across the world 17 unusual alcohol laws that could get you busted across the world Nudes and booze are a no-no, New York City Keep the booze away from the communion wine, New York State No hooch on a horse, California Dry by default, Tennessee Perpetual Prohibition, Kansas Mommy-and-me martinis, Ohio No tippling till the polls close, Alaska Sober for Santa, Allegany County, New York Happy hour hindrance, Massachusetts Straw-sipping at the daiquiri drive-thru, Louisiana Cold beer crime, Indiana Banned bottomless brunch, Oklahoma Wasted while at home, Utah Hands off the barkeep, Nebraska Don't bring your cows home drunk, United Kingdom Whipped for wine consumption, Saudi Arabia Keep your beer unadulterated, Germany
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

Aug. 4, 1923: Bloomington residents will officially take cognizance of the death of President Warren G. Harding and put in speech and writing their sorrow on the passing of the chief executive. Mayor Frank E. Shorthose yesterday began preparations for a great mass meeting of Bloomington people to be held on Sunday afternoon.

75 years ago

Aug. 4, 1948: Here are the plays to be presented by the Community Players during the coming season: "State of the Union," Pulitzer Prize Play of 1946, Oct. 14 and 15; "Life With Father," Dec. 2 and 3; "Another Part of the Forest," Jan. 13 and 14; and "John Loves Mary," Feb. 17 and 18.

50 years ago

Aug. 4, 1973: Swimming at Miller Park halted Friday after raw sewage was found leaking into the lagoon. Ben Boyd, chief sanitarian for McLean County Health Department, ordered the halt. Donald Ferguson, city director of engineering and water, was to discover the sewage source.

25 years ago

Aug. 4, 1998: AirTran says nonstop jet service to Orlando is a luxury it can no longer afford to provide to any of the cities it serves, including Bloomington-Normal. The nonstop daily flight to Orlando, which marked the start of jet service to Central Illinois Regional Airport in late 1996, will be halted Sept. 9. However, heavy passenger demands may soon dictate a third flight to Atlanta for the Twin Cities.

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'
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CHICAGO  An autopsy has concluded that James Lewis, the lone suspect in the 1982 Chicago Tylenol murders, died of natural causes in his suburban Boston home last month.

The Massachusetts Office of the Chief Medical Examiner announced Thursday that Lewis, 76, died of pulmonary thromboembolism  a blood clot in the lungs.

As The Chicago Tribune first reported, Lewis body was found in his downtown Cambridge condominium just after 4 p.m. July 9. Police said Lewis wife, who was out of town visiting relatives, had asked someone to check on her husband after she was unable to reach him.

Police initially said an autopsy was not expected because officers did not find signs of foul play. Lewis also had a history of heart issues. But the state medical examiner launched an investigation that week at the urging of Illinois authorities.

Lewis was cremated July 17, according to his death certificate. The document lists his occupation as self-employed artist and writer. The director of the Cambridge-area funeral home that handled his services declined to comment, citing the familys wishes for a private memorial.

In September 1982, seven Chicago-area residents died after swallowing Tylenol capsules laced with potassium cyanide. The victims were Mary Kellerman, Mary McFarland, Mary Lynn Reiner, Paula Prince and Stanley, Adam and Terri Janus. Their deaths prompted a national recall of the medicine and led to the adoption of tamper-evident packaging.

Lewis  a convicted con man who inserted himself into the Tylenol investigation shortly after the poisonings by sending an extortion letter to the drugs manufacturer  long denied being the killer.

He spent about 13 years in federal prison for attempted extortion related to that letter and for committing mail fraud in an earlier Kansas City credit card scam. He was released from prison in 1995 and joined his wife in Cambridge, where he lived the rest of his life.

His death came after 40 years of intense scrutiny and a lengthy cat-and-mouse game between Lewis and the Tylenol investigators. Authorities questioned Lewis for several hours as recently as September in Cambridge as part of a renewed effort to bring charges in the case. But the investigation stalled afterward.

Authorities maintained they had a chargeable, circumstantial case against Lewis, but prosecutors were hesitant to seek an indictment without direct physical evidence.

Police say the case remains open. But given the intense focus on Lewis, charges against anyone else seem unlikely absent a confession or a major advancement in DNA technology.

Photos: Pritzker sworn in for second term
Russia says Ukraine attempted to attack Russia's Black Sea base

Xinhua) 14:07, August 04, 2023

MOSCOW, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Russian Defense Ministry said Friday that two Ukrainian unmanned boats attempted to attack the Russian naval base in Novorossiysk, a major Black Sea port, but were destroyed by Russian ships.

"Tonight, the Ukrainian armed forces attempted to attack the Novorossiysk naval base with two unmanned sea boats. During the repulsion of the attack, the unmanned boats were visually detected and destroyed by fire from the standard weapons of the Russian ships," the ministry said.

The Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which loads oil onto tankers in Novorossiysk, said its infrastructure was not damaged by the attack and the oil loading is going on as usual.

A temporary ban on ship movements in the port has been imposed, it said.

The consortium has a pipeline system that connects Kazakhstan with a seaport in Novorossiysk, where oil is loaded onto tankers for shipment to world markets.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
UFO whistleblower David Grusch recently accused the U.S. government of a multi-faceted cover-up for UFOs, which are now called UAPs (unidentified aerial phenomena).

Now, the former U.S. Air Force official claims that the U.K. government is also involved in hiding UFOs.

UFO Whistleblower Claims UK Also Part of UAP Cover-Up

According to The Daily Star's latest report, the ex-U.S. Air Force intelligence officer said that the United States is not the only country that has access to reversed-engineered or crashed UFO aircraft.

He claims that the U.K. government could also be storing these UAP technologies.

Previously, Grusch said that he was able to talk with some AARO (All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office) employees.

These individuals claim that the U.S. government was holding some partially intact and intact alien technologies in a secret base.

However, David said that the U.S. government is also sharing its UFO findings with other countries.

The former Air Force intelligence official claims that Washington is working with The Five Eyes Alliance (FVEY); an intelligence alliance consisting of the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and the U.S.

He explained that the media in the United States is more open when it comes to UFO discussions. Although this is not the case in other countries, Grusch said that the UAP "certainly isn't a solely American issue."

Read Also: Pentagon Official Slams UFO Congressional Hearing-Says Whistleblower's Claims are Insulting

Almost 500 UFO Sightings in the UK Recorded in 2022

The Mirror reported that hundreds of UFO sightings in the United Kingdom were recorded in 2022.

This detail was shared by UFO Identified's Ash Ellis. The UAP expert claimed that there were almost 500 reported UFO sightings in the U.K. in the previous year.

"With likely many times that number going unreported showing that there is a genuine concern around unidentified phenomena being seen across the country," added Ellis.

Ellis shared his statements after David Grusch decided to talk about the existence of the UFO in the U.S. Congress hearings.

You can click this link to learn more about what the UFO Identified expert revealed.

Related Article: Vatican Now Urged to Share What It Knows About UFO After Ex-US Air Force Officer's Claims

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CHICAGO  Illinois will attempt to quantify the level of adversity faced by children in communities across the state under a measure Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed into law Thursday that aims to improve the way schools address student trauma.

The plan calls for the Illinois State Board of Education to develop a publicly reported Childrens Adversity Index at the community or school district level that will measure community childhood trauma exposure across the population of children 3 through 18 years.

The index, which must be created by May 31, 2025, will draw on data reflecting issues such as the prevalence of homelessness, contacts with the child welfare system, community violence and other factors.

Beginning in October 2024, the state school report card will include data on the number of counselors, social workers, nurses and psychologists in each school and district and the student ratio for each category.

Theres an old saying, What doesnt get measured doesnt get done, Pritzker said during a bill-signing event held at the headquarters of Habilitative Systems Inc., a human services organization in Chicagos West Side Austin community. And measuring our resources, measuring the trauma ... that students are experiencing in our schools is an important first step to knowing what schools need.

The new law is an outgrowth of the wide-ranging social justice agenda the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus successfully pushed through the General Assembly in early 2021 after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis the previous spring. While a sweeping criminal justice overhaul that will abolish cash bail beginning next month has gotten most of the attention, the Black Caucus agenda also included measures seeking to address systemic inequities in education, economic development and health care.

In addition to creating a new standard assessment for children entering kindergarten, attempting to increase the number of Black teachers in Illinois and seeking to improve the teaching of Black history in the states schools, the Black Caucus education agenda created a Whole Child Task Force. Recommendations from that group, comprising child psychologists, teachers, school administrators and state officials, among others, led to the measure Pritzker signed Thursday, which also extends the life of the task force through 2027.

Floyds death, which coincided with the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, put a spotlight on long-standing racial inequities not just in the criminal justice system but in all aspects of life, including education, said state Rep. Carol Ammons, an Urbana Democrat who leads the Black Caucus.

Our schools had been functioning on a 1954 model that hadnt caught up with the current needs of the children and the families, Ammons said. And so we saw this systemic thing not just in criminal justice, but we saw it in economics, we saw it in education, we saw it in health care, and COVID pulled back all these layers. And we needed to respond. And we did.

In addition to collecting new data, the new law also requires training for teachers on trauma-informed practices prior to the start of the each school year beginning in 2024 and codifies definitions of trauma and other related terms.

Senate Majority Leader Kimberly Lightford, a Maywood Democrat who sponsored both the 2021 education legislation and the measure Pritzker signed Thursday, said one of the most important aspects of the latest effort is it acknowledges the varied experiences of children in different communities.

We all know that all things arent equal, and we have to stop treating them as though they are, Lightford said.

While praising the states efforts to date, Colleen Cicchetti, executive director of the Center for Childhood Resilience at Lurie Childrens Hospital and a member of the state task force, acknowledged, Today is the beginning.

What were asking for is, as we move forward, that its not going to be a one-off grant here and a one-off grant there, but its going to be a sustainable intervention that looks at, How do we train educators to help kids to be the best that they can be and give them the tools that they need and the time that they need to learn it and to deliver it well? said Cicchetti, a pediatric psychologist.

Pritzker has made improving education a central theme of his tenure despite signing a series of budgets that havent increased spending to the level advocates say is necessary to meet goals established in a 2017 overhaul of the states school funding formula. The governor acknowledged the state will have to provide more financial support for schools if they are to continue hiring more mental health professionals.

We need to keep funding our schools better, Pritzker said, though he pointed to additional money in this years budget to help high-need districts hire more teachers.

Robin Steans of Advance Illinois, an education advocacy organization that has pushed for larger increases in school funding, said its also important to acknowledge the progress that has been made over the past several years.

While schools statewide still dont have enough counselors, social workers or psychologists, the ratios of students to mental health professionals has improved in recent years as the state has increased annual spending on K-12 education by nearly $2 billion, Steans said.

Photos: Pritzker sworn in for second term
Republican U.S. Rep. Mary Miller helped ignite a firestorm over the weekend of July 29 when she expressed her disgust on social media with Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

Miller (no relation) claimed on Twitter that Pritzker had signed a bill late on a Friday afternoon to allow illegal immigrants to become police officers, giving non-citizens the power to arrest citizens in our state.

Miller continued by claiming: No sane state would allow foreign nationals to arrest their citizens, this is madness! Her more well-known Republican colleague Lauren Boebert amplified the issue the next day and Fox News picked up the ball and ran with it. The rest of the right-wing media soon followed and a typical feeding frenzy ensued.

Trouble is, Rep. Millers own husband, state Rep. Chris Miller (R-Oakland) (also no relation), voted Yes on the Houses initial version of the bill, which wouldve allowed non-citizens to become police officers.

Oops.

House Bill 3751 cleared the House on a unanimous roll call on March 24. It specifically struck out an existing state law which prohibited sheriffs and law enforcement from employing non-citizens as law enforcement officers. The bill then added language allowing those non-citizens who are legally authorized to work in the United States under federal law, and who received federal approval to obtain, carry, or purchase or otherwise possess a firearm, to become law enforcement officers.

The bill was supported by various groups, including the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police, and passed 101-0. One of the bills chief co-sponsors was Rep. John Cabello (R-Machesney Park), a Donald Trump-supporting police officer.

After the bill arrived in the Senate, its sponsor added an amendment allowing people, against whom immigration action has been deferred by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services under the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) process, to also become police officers.

Sen. Dan McConchie (R-Hawthorne Woods), the former Senate Republican Leader, voted for that version, but all other Senate Republicans opposed the bill as amended, as did two Democrats, Sens. Patrick Joyce (D-Reddick) and Willie Preston (D-Chicago).

Most all House Republicans stood firm during their chambers motion to concur with the new Senate amendment, including House Republican Leader Tony McCombie. Not one member of McCombies leadership team voted against the motion, which passed 100-7. However seven of the eight members of the Houses self-declared Freedom Caucus voted against it, including Rep. Miller. The eighth member, Rep. David Friess (R-Red Bud) had an excused absence.

Gov. Pritzker eventually pointed out on Twitter that House members, including those who are now complaining about it, had voted for the bill before the Senate Republicans started spreading lies.

State Rep. Miller responded to the governor online by claiming his own vote against legislation allowing non-citizens to arrest actual citizens, paled in comparison to Pritzkers blatantly attacking the Consitional [sic] right of honest citizens to bear arms.

But, again, state Rep. Miller did indeed vote to allow non-citizens to arrest actual citizens. His spouse, the congressperson, tweeted at Pritzker the same day that Giving foreign nationals the power to arrest US citizens in Illinois is not common sense. Ms. Miller shouldve maybe had a talk with her husband last spring.

As you might imagine, several House Republicans are eager for this particular news cycle to end. Its enraging the base, and theres some worry that it could lead to some Republican primary challenges.

But Leader McCombie went on Southern Illinois radio station WJPF last week to defend her fellow Republicans who voted for the bill.

Every single [House] Republican, all 40 of us, voted for this bill, McCombie told host Tom Miller (also no relation). And that is because what the media is saying is not accurate. You can't have 40 Republicans voting for a bill that is going to have undocumented illegal immigrants become a police officer. That is not gonna happen. She also rightly pointed out that the asylum-seeking migrants pouring into Illinois wont qualify, either, because theyre not allowed to work.

McCombie blamed Democrats for creating an environment that is forcing people out of policing as a career. This bill, she said, could help alleviate that problem. And she stressed that only people who could be approved by the federal government to possess and carry a firearm would qualify.

It is a conditional step to support law enforcement, McCombie said. It is not, it is not a license to give illegal immigrants, undocumented folks who are coming across our borders illegally, the ability to become law enforcement. Hard stop.
Niger's military junta has cut ties with Nigeria, Togo, the US and France following failed talks with a delegation from the regional bloc, Ecowas, that were aimed at resolving the political stand-off after President Mohamed Bazoum's ousting last week.



Junta member Col Amadou Abdramane made the announcement on state TV on behalf on the coup leaders, recalling Niger's ambassadors from those four nations.



A delegation led by Nigerias former military head of state, Gen Abdulsalami Abubakar, met some members of the military junta on Thursday but left after just a few hours without any sign of progress.



The Nigerian President and Ecowas head, Bola Tinubu, has yet to respond to Niger's cutting of diplomatic ties.



West African defence chiefs are set to conclude a three-day meeting in Nigeria on possible military interventions to pursue should diplomacy fail.

Source: BBC









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President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has granted presidential pardon to the former deputy National Security Coordinator under the erstwhile John Mahama administration, Alhaji Salifu Mimina Osman.



A letter signed by the Secretary to the President, Nana Bediatuo Asante, said the decision was taken in consultation with the Council of State.



Alhaji Osman was sentenced to a five-year jail term in 2020 for willfully causing financial loss to the state in what has become known as the National Communications Authority (NCA) scandal.



Read below the full statement



RE: PETITION FOR THE GRANT OF PRESIDENTIAL PARDON AND RELEASE OF ALHAJI SALIFU MIMINA OSMAN FROM LAWFUL CUSTODY ON GROUNDS OF ILL-HEALTH, COMPASSION AND GOOD BEHAVIOUR



I am directed by the President of the Republic to inform you that pursuant to a petition dated 19 July, 2021, from the Paramount Chief of Kpembe Traditional Area, Kpembewura Haruna Dari Bismark Banbange Ndefoso I, for presidential pardon and release of Alhaji Salifu Mimina Osman from lawful custody on grounds of ill-health and good behaviour, and in consultation with the Council of State, the President has exercised his prerogative of mercy in favour of Alhaji Salifu Mimina Osman, and has granted him a pardon, in accordance with Article 72 (1) (a) of the Constitution.



Kindly take the necessary steps to give effect to the presidential pardon immediately.



By a copy of this letter, the Director-General of the Prisons Service is being notified formally of the President's decision.



I thank you in advance for your cooperation in this matter.



Nana Bediatuo Asante

Secretary to the President

Source: Peacefmonline.com









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NPP Member of Parliament for Nhyiaeso constituency, Dr. Stephen Amoah has appealed to Ghanaians to have patience with the Akufo-Addo government as it takes measures ensuring steady progress of the nation.



According to him, the government hasn't fully solved their problems but it is on track to restoring the economy post-COVID pandemic.



"If we say we have solved the problems of the country, it is not true but there has been a turning point...We are deepening restoration post-COVID economy. We are attaining stability gradually and we are heading towards growth," Dr. Stephen Amoah said while discussing the mid-year budget review presented by Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta to Parliament.



The Nhyiaeso MP called on Ghanaians to cooperate with the government by changing the way they behave.



"We can bring former President Mahama back. We can bring Nana Addo back. We can bring former President Kufour back. We can bring Tony Blair back. If the mindset and the attitude of us, as citizens/Ghanaians, don't change; forget it!"



He noted that though the government is doing all it can to improve the economy, for Ghana to get back on her feet, there needs to be a paradigm shift.



"As a country, we have some common issues that I think there should be a new paradigm shift. We must sit and think as stakeholders that why should Ghana import things like orange . . .These are the basic problems and things that, whether it is NDC or NPP, as a country we should say enough is enough."



He made these submissions on Peace FM's "Kokrokoo" morning show.





Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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New Patriotic Party (NPP) MP for Nhyiaeso constituency, Dr. Stephen Amoah has blamed the Akufo-Addo administration for the poor management of the Komenda Sugar Factory.



Speaking on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo' show, Dr. Stephen Amoah, the Member of Parliament(MP) for Nhyiaeso constituency, told host Kwami Sefa Kayi that though the factory became ineffective under the previous Mahama government, the current administration is partly to blame because it also failed to plan well to resuscitate the factory.



" . . I blame the NDC and my government that we have done a fine thing to create jobs but everyday we say the problem is sugarcane. So, what measures did we make into planning before we established that company that we couldn't think of availability of raw materials? . . . ", he questioned.



He hoped the government will take investing largely in agricultural sector seriously.



Narrowing his comment down to the government's "Planting for Food and Jobs" policy, Dr. Stephen Amoah noted that the policy "a very good concept. It's the best for the country, so we cut down on importation. So, we create jobs; so we have our own food security well-managed" but stressed that "at the end of day, what goes into the plan - the framework - the design of the value chain that can be modeled and that can be adjusted to meet aggregate demand?"



He believed the nation will be better off by retooling the economy and when Ghana ceases to depend on food imports.





Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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Fishing net covers the coral reef in the Thailands marine national park. Credit: Suwat Sirivutcharungchit/shutterstock

In maritime Southeast Asia, where more than ten million fishers earn their living, the impact of illegal fishing practices is particularly relevant.

The use of illegal fishing tools and bombs for unlicensed fishery activities haunt local fishermen, who have to deal with its economic, social and environmental repercussions.

In May, Indonesia hosted the 42nd ASEAN Summit in Labuan Bajo, East Nusa Tenggara. The high-level regional meeting resulted in an agreement to protect migrant workers, prevent human trafficking, and address the high number of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing practices across ASEAN that violate both national and international law.

However, despite agreements and discussions in the past, the fight against IUU fishing remains largely ineffective due to various challenges.

Fighting IUU fishing requires concrete action, rather than just normative agreements among elites. As a researcher specializing in maritime, energy, and regional issues, I advocate for a regional IUU fishing joint fund, in which member countries can pool in money to finance necessary programs, as a solution to address these challenges.

Staggering economic and other costs

The fight against IUU fishing within ASEAN faces several hurdles, including the overlapping national interests among the ten members of the regional organization.

It is difficult to quantitatively capture the losses stemming from IUU fishing in diverse Southeast Asian states, let alone adequately provide effective solutions to a common problem.

The total economic loss is estimated to reach a staggering US$6 billion in 2019. The loss surpassed the total revenue of the fishery sector in Southeast Asia, which was approximately US$48.65 million in 2020.

But it is important to note that it is not easy to verify this estimation. Each country adopts a different method to measure total losses from IUU fishing. As potential losses are usually measured based on boat tonnage and potential shipload or freight volume, it is also difficult to identify the total value of each illegal fishing vessels.

Meanwhile, the economic exclusive zones (EEZ)a territorial sea where local fishermen can sail and catch fish of each member country also vary significantly. For example, Indonesia, with the largest waters in the region, is exposed to a greater potential financial loss than its peers.

Beyond the economic implications, IUU fishing causes severe social impacts from illegal recruitment and employment of Southeast Asian workers, leading to various types of abuses. Social impactssuch as the psychological burden of fishing crew who experienced abuse during their sailare often hard to measure from financial perspective.

IUU fishing is also associated with extensive environmental damage and marine pollution, due to its capture methods and over-fishingadding more problems ASEAN needs to address.

Without knowing precisely the impacts of IUU fishing, both in economic costs and non-economic repercussions, it is hard to reach practical solutions because there is no shared indicator used to measure the total cost.

Competing national interests

Each member country has its own national interests, making it challenging to focus on regional interest ahead of the national ones.

ASEAN has carried out efforts to prevent illegal fishing and criminal activities linked to IUU fishing. This includes guidelines to prevent the entry of IUU-sourced fish and fishery products into the supply chain in 2015.

However, regional agreements can lack teeth, especially when they collide with the national interests of each member country.

For example, there are still reports of Vietnamese boats fishing in Indonesia's rich Natuna waters despite the two countries having finalized 12 years of intensive talks on their EEZ boundaries in December. The Vietnamese coast guard allegedly protected the vessels according the Indonesia Ocean Justice Initiative (IOJI)'s satellite finding, reflecting a lack of commitment towards the agreements.

Monitoring and guarding the territorial sea requires budget, which may differ among countries. As a result, each ASEAN member only carries out and prioritizes its national interest.

ASEAN needs a concrete action plan, including creating a joint IUU fishing fund that can be used to develop a regional work plan to tackle illegal fishing practices, as well as monitoring and guarding against it.

How ASEAN nations could pay for an IUU fighting fund

The slow progress in combating IUU fishing within ASEAN can be attributed to the lack of commitment in pooling resources among member countries.

While agreements to prevent the entry of fish and fishery products from IUU fishing activities into the supply chain have been made, without associated financial obligations, the impact of these agreements is limited.

The presence of a joint regional fund can potentially bridge overlapping national interests among ASEAN countries. By binding members through financial commitments, solutions offered will be less state-centric and focus on what needs to be done at a regional level.

A suitable model for joint funds can be inspired by the COVID-19 ASEAN Response fund, which provides financial resources to create regional actionable programs among ASEAN members.

For instance, ASEAN can design the joint fund annually like a state budget to accommodate necessary programs. From the fund, the organization can discuss and create programs to prevent, monitor and supervise illegal fishing, making them more achievable. These programs can include financing sea patrols, educating fishermen on sustainable fishing practices and addressing illegal recruitment.

Among the possible funding scenarios are ASEAN members chipping in according to their respective sea areas and the fishery needs of each country. But this does not mean that members with little or no direct access to the ocean are excluded from contributing.

IUU fishing is a regional concern, and there have been reports that Lao and Cambodian nationals were found among enslaved fishing crews, although the former has no sea territory and the latter has relatively limited waters.

If ASEAN demands its members take action against IUU fishing without requiring a similar level of financial commitment from each member country, it will only make eradicating illegal fishing practices an ongoing, losing battle.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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The Sao Paulo state government decided this week to largely replace textbooks with e-books in high schools, sparking a row in Brazil, where education experts and publishers warned the move could have negative consequences.

Starting next year, students aged 14 and over at 5,300 schools across Brazil's most populous state will study on digital media, except for literature classes, state education officials said.

The move is part of education reforms by the administration of Governor Tarcisio de Freitas, a leading presidential contender and ally of far-right ex-president Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022).

State Education Secretary Renato Feder said traditional textbooks had "lost quality," in an interview with newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo.

But education experts questioned the viability of going digital in a sprawling state of 44 million people with vast inequalities and where many students have no internet access.

"The lack of technological infrastructure (was)... clearly demonstrated during the (COVID-19) pandemic by the lack of adequate access" to online learning, Olavo Nogueira Filho, executive director of the advocacy group Todos pela Educacao (All for Education), told AFP.

UNESCO has advised against the excessive use of technology by schools, saying it can negatively affect learning.

Book publishers also voiced "deep concern" over the measure, warning the damage to the textbook industry could prove "irreparable."

State officials said students who needed to would be able to access paper textssomething Nogueira Filho said "will not be the exception, but the rule."

 2023 AFP
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Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Violent conflicts around the world have driven more people from their home countries than ever before. As these individuals and families seek safe havens, new research from Rice University has found that refugee children are up to three times more likely to be poor than adultseven within their own families.

"Child Poverty Among Refugees" was published in World Development. Rossella Calvi, an assistant professor of economics at Rice, is one of the lead authors of the study, which introduces a new, computer-designed method of evaluating data from refugee camps and surrounding communities in Uganda and Kenya (which host a combined population of more than two million refugees and asylum seekers).

The study examines allocation of resources, such as food, water, etc., among different members of a household. The ultimate goal is to allow policy makers to better identify the most vulnerable individuals in refugee settings.

"Data on the well-being of individual refugeesincluding childrenis critical for all who seek to diminish or end poverty altogether," Calvi said.

The results of the study are upsettingchildren receive far fewer resources than adults. As a consequence, they are much more likely to be poor than their other family members, even when they live together and seemingly share resources. So why is this the case?

Calvi said in refugee living situations, where resources are scarce, there is often competition within families for things like food, water, health care, access to sanitation and other things that can improve quality of life. A key contribution of her study is the identification of predictors of child poverty in refugee families (such as a child's age, household composition and access to sanitation and clean water) that can be easily collected by international organizations like the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) .

"Based on these predictors, we propose relatively low-cost approaches to target and hopefully reduce child poverty in refugee settlements," she said. "Better designed policies to address these issues have the potential to go far in reducing inequality and poverty among refugees."

More information: Theresa P. Beltramo et al, Child poverty among refugees, World Development (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2023.106340
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Bacillus subtilis bioluminescence. Credit: Ella Baker  Jack Dorling John Innes Centre.

Bacteria make up more than 10% of all living things but until recently we had little realization that, as in humans, soil bacteria have internal clocks that synchronize their activities with the 24-hour cycles of day and night on Earth.

New research shows just how complex and sophisticated these bacterial circadian clocks are, clearing the way for an exciting new phase of study. This work will provide diverse opportunities, from precision timing of the use of antibiotics, to bioengineering smarter gut and soil microbiomes. "The circadian clock of the bacterium B. subtilis evokes properties of complex, multicellular circadian systems," appears in Science Advances.

An international collaboration from Ludwig Maximillian University Munich (LMU Munich), The John Innes Center, The Technical University of Denmark, and Leiden University, made the discovery by probing gene expression as evidence of clock activity in the widespread soil bacterium Bacillus subtilis.

Lead author Dr. Francesca Sartor (LMU Munich) says, "The circadian clock in this microbe is pervasive: we see it regulating several genes, and a range of different behaviors."

Professor Antony Dodd from the John Innes Center added, "It is astonishing that a unicellular organism with such a small genome has a circadian clock with some properties that evoke clocks in more complex organisms."

Previous work by this collaborative team had demonstrated the existence of a circadian clock in a lab-derived strain of this bacteria. This was the first-time circadian clocks had been observed in the bacterium Bacillus subtilis. Researchers used a technique which inserts an enzyme called luciferase that produces light when a gene is expressed. This bioluminescence guided the team in monitoring the bacterial clock as conditions varied.

The senior author of the publication, Professor Martha Merrow at LMU Munich said, "This study shows that circadian clocks are widely found in Bacillus subtilis. We might capitalize on knowledge of the clock to improve health outcomes and increase sustainability of food production or biotechnology."

This new study is a significant step forward for multiple reasons. It reveals that these clocks exist in strains collected from natural environments, so could be widespread in this bacteria. Furthermore, B. subtilis continues to show circadian rhythms in both constant dark and constant light, and the researchers reveal examples of nuanced responses found in the circadian clocks of many other organisms.

In the field of circadian biology, these responses are known as "aftereffects" and "Aschoff's Rule." Taken together, this suggests that, as in more complex organisms, the bacteria can synchronize their physiology and metabolism to different times of the day as light and temperature conditions change.

The discovery offers opportunities for biotechnology, human health, and plant science. Understanding properties of bacterial circadian clocks may help us with industrial applications of microbiology; it could lead to a new understanding of how microbiomes are formed and may indicate how well antibiotics work at certain times of the day to disrupt pathogenic bacteria. The knowledge may also help us in crop protection. Bacillus subtilis is a beneficial soil bacterium used by farmers to assist nutrient exchange, plant development and defense against pathogenic microbes.

The team is developing Bacillus subtilis as a model organism for the study of circadian clocks in bacteria. One of the next steps is to work out which genes are operating to make up the clock mechanism. The team is also curious about how the B. subtilis circadian clock depends on multicellular organization for its full functionality.

Circadian clocks are internal oscillators which offer a selective advantage to organisms by adapting their physiology and metabolism to 24 h changes in the environment, such as the changes in light, temperature or predator behavior. They give rise to the jarring effects of jet lag, when we pass into different time zones.

Professor Akos T. Kovacs, from Leiden University and Technical University of Denmark said, "The French biologist Jacques Monod once famously said, "What is true for E. coli is true for the elephant." At the time, he was referring to the universal rules of molecular biology of DNA and proteins. "Similarly, it is amazing that the circadian clock in Bacillus subtilisa bacterium with just four thousand geneshas a complex circadian system that is reminiscent of circadian clocks in complex organisms such as flies, mammals, and plants."

More information: Francesca Sartor et al, The circadian clock of the bacterium B. subtilis evokes properties of complex, multicellular circadian systems, Science Advances (2023). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adh1308. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adh1308 Journal information: Science Advances
Deposed Nigerian president Mohamed Bazoum published his first statement since the military coup in Niger as a column for the Washington Post Thursday (August 3).

In the statement, he expressed concern at the risk of a rebound in terrorist activities in the Sahel and West African regions and would be placed "under Russian influence" if the "putsch" was successful.

"I am writing this as a hostage," Bazoum wrote. "Niger is under attack by a military junta trying to overthrow our democracy, and I am just one of the citizens who by the hundreds have been arbitrarily and illegally imprisoned."

Bazoum: Niger's Future Looks Bleak if Putsch Succeeds

Bazoum warned that the success of the coup would mean devastating consequences in his country and in the world, given the presence of the Wagner Group in Africa after their alleged war crimes in Ukraine. It was previously reported the mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin pulled his troops out of Ukraine and relocated to Belarus to train them for potential deployment to Africa.

"International aid represents 40% of our national budget, but it will not be delivered if the putsch succeeds," he added, further claiming the Nigerien junta leaders have lied to the people about the need to preserve the country's security when the security situation in Niger has "radically improved" during his time.

He also noted that the return to democracy, and the assistance of foreign nations in his country, resulted in the reduction of attacks made by the African terrorist group Boko Haram, while at the same time, slamming fellow western African nations Mali and Burkina Faso for supporting the junta.

As a result, Bazoum explained, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) was forced to place sanctions on his country, including a ban on oil exports and imports, as well as the suspension of cross-border financial transactions.

Read Also: POTUS Joe Biden Wants Nigerien President Bazoum's Immediate Release, Says US Will Stand With Niger's People

Bazoum Calls for US Assistance

With the Sahel returning to authoritarian and autocratic regimes, Bazoum called for the help of the United States government to "restore constitutional order" and realign itself to the West.

"Fighting for our shared values, including democratic pluralism and respect for the rule of law, is the only way to make lasting progress against poverty and terrorism," he concluded.

Biden Demands Junta to Release Bazoum

Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden marked Niger's 63rd independence anniversary by demanding the immediate release of Bazoum and the restoration of democratic order in the country.

"The Nigerien people have the right to choose their leaders," he said. "They have expressed their will through free and fair elections-and that must be respected."

Related Article: Statement from President Biden on the Occasion of Niger's Independence Day

@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
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The canal relies on rainwater to move cargo ships through a series of locks that function like water elevators, raising the vessels up and over the continent between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

The Panama Canal, an engineering wonder allowing ships to travel between two oceans, is seeking to adapt to climate change after a biting drought has seen traffic and income dry up.

The canal relies on rainwater to move ships through a series of locks that function like water elevators, raising the vessels up and over the continent between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

However, a water shortage due to low rainfall has forced operators to restrict the number of vessels passing through, which is likely to result in a $200 million drop in earnings in 2024 compared to this year, canal administrator Ricaurte Vasquez said Thursday.

The Pacific warming phenomenon known as El Nino, which can cause drought in some nations and flooding in others, is making the situation worse, meteorologists say.

"The big disadvantage that the Panama Canal has as a maritime route, is that we operate with freshwater, while others use seawater," said Vasquez during a presentation to the media.

"We have to find other solutions to remain a relevant route for international trade. If we don't adapt, we are going to die."

The 50-mile (80-kilometer) byway moves some six percent of all global maritime commerce, and 2023 revenue is forecast at $4.9 billion, said Vasquez.

The canal opened in 1914 after a monumental construction project through dense jungles and mountains, with workers suffering tropical diseases, intense heat and rain.

Since then, more than a million vessels have transited through the canal, saving them a lengthy journey around the tip of South America.

The 50-mile (80-kilometer) interocean byway moves some six percent of all global maritime commerce, and 2023 revenue is forecast at $4.9 billion.

'Unusually severe' crisis

Meteorologist Alcely Lau told AFP that the country has "observed considerable deficits" in rainfall this year, boosted by El Nino.

The drought has forced canal administrators to restrict the waterway to ships with a draft of 13,11 meters (43 feet)which refers to how deep they sit in the water.

In 2022, an average of 40 ships crossed through the canal a day, a number which has now dropped to 32 to save water.

For each ship, 200 million liters of freshwater is used to move it through the locks before being dumped into the sea.

"This crisis is unusually severe," said Vasquez, adding that the "significant restrictions" would be in place until September next year.

Due to the draft restrictions, some merchant ships are forced to unload their containers and send the lighter vessel through the canal, while the goods traverse Panama by rail before being reloaded for shipping.

If the drought and resulting restrictions continue, Vasquez fears shipping companies will "opt for other routes."

In 2022, an average of 40 ships crossed through the canal a day, a number which has now dropped to 32 to save water.

This includes the Strait of Magellana natural passage at the tip of South America between the mainland and the Tierra del Fuego archipelago.

"We think that if we find a solution relatively soon, not necessarily an immediate solution but one customers know is on the way, it should alleviate long-term concern," said Vasquez.

Saltier water going to cities

The lack of rain has also increased the salinity of the lakes and rivers that make up the canal's watershedwhich also provides water to three cities, including the capital Panama City.

"Every time we open the gate that leads to the sea, seawater is mixed with fresh water," said Vasquez.

"We have to keep that level of salt water within a certain range, because the water treatment plants do not have desalination capacity," he added.

The dwindling freshwater cannot be replaced with sea wateras used by the Suez Canal which connects the Mediterranean with the Red Seaas this would require massive excavations.

"Suez was much flatter and it was sand. In our case it is rock and there is a mountain range which is not very high, but it is there and it is a challenge," said Vasquez.

 2023 AFP
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(d) 1978 shaded relief ice bottom reconstruction, showing the buoyancy-inferred bottom depth for floating ice, and bedrock elevation elsewhere. Also shows the location of a bedrock canyon (white arrow). (e, f) Similar reconstructions for 2017 and 2020. Credit: Geophysical Research Letters (2023). DOI: 10.1029/2023GL103226

In May 2023, the World Meteorological Organization called for more observations and research on the cryospherethose areas where the Earth's surface is covered by ice and snow. Greenland's ice sheet is the second largest in the world; only Antarctica's is larger.

Ash Narkevic, a postdoctoral researcher in the University at Buffalo Department of Geology, is the corresponding author on research published in June in Geophysical Research Letters that argues for a novel methodology to better monitor glacial features and changes.

Using that methodology, the research team discovered that Nioghalvfjerdsfjorden Glacier in Greenland, also known as N79long expected to remain relatively stable in the face of climate changehas previously undetected features that may indicate the glacier is less stable than scientists have understood.

Beata Csatho, Ph.D., professor and chair, and Toni Schenk, research professor, both in UB's Department of Geology in the College of Arts and Sciences, are co-authors on the paper.

Eyes on the ice

Much of the data about glaciers is collected by aircrafts and satellites.

"In laser altimetry, a satellite or airplane uses lasers to determine the glacier's surface height," Narkevic said. "That method is highly accurate, within 10 centimeters. The other way is digital elevation models, generally created from visual or optical stereo images."

Digital elevation models (DEMs) are less accurate, but they enable scientists to examine a broader area. Other data are collected to assist the interpretation of glacier behavior, including the thickness of the glacier as measured by ice-penetrating radar.

Scientists are monitoring Greenland's glaciers because, as they melt, they contribute to rising sea levels.

Nioghalvfjerdsfjorden Glacier has been monitored for many years. It has one of the longest floating ice tonguesa floating extension of a glacier into the oceanin Greenland. This ice tongue helps stabilize the glacier. N79 is also one of two outlets for Greenland's longest ice stream, the Northeast Greenland Ice Stream (NEGIS), draining an area of more than 103,000 square kilometers, or nearly 40,000 square miles.

Glacial surfaces are monitored primarily by laser altimetry. "Imagine you're in a plane aiming a flashlight at the ground," said Narkevic. "As you fly over, you'd get a lot of information, but only about what the flashlight exposes."

The problem, the authors note, is that "...reconstructions based on altimetrymake broad conclusions about N79 and other glaciers based on these sparse data." For that reason, they suggest that researchers include DEMs, which show a broader expanse of the surface. However, to compensate for the imprecision of DEMs, they propose a correction algorithm using laser altimetry data to improve accuracy.

Fusing altimetry and DEMs provides new insights

By combining data from numerous sources, the authors have identified overlooked changes in the features of N79. These changes include a new channel at the bottom of the ice shelf near where the landmass meets the floating tongue of the glacier, an area called the grounding line. It threatens to cut completely through the glacier.

"That's potentially a lot of ice that could melt into the ocean," said Narkevic. Other features have changed, too, including drainage patterns under the glacier.

"Large changes at the bottom of the floating ice can happen very rapidly and produce only a small signal on the surface," said Csatho.

Observation and modeling

Narkevic is drawn to the computational modeling involved in exploring ice sheets.

"I like to apply my computational experience to an environmental issue I care about," Narkevic said. "Observations constrain your models and, as you develop the models, you realize where you need more observations."

The authors' discovery of the rapid basal channel beneath N79's ice shelf contributes to their assertion that more comprehensive models have significant potential for understanding the changes in glaciers. Such an understanding may improve scientists' ability to predict changes in sea level.

More information: Ash Narkevic et al, Rapid Basal Channel Growth Beneath Greenland's Longest Floating Ice Shelf, Geophysical Research Letters (2023). DOI: 10.1029/2023GL103226 Journal information: Geophysical Research Letters
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Credit: University of Bristol

Poaching of two Critically Endangered Kordofan giraffes per year could result in extinction in just 15 years within Cameroon's Benoue National Park without intervention. These are the alarming new findings of a University of Bristol and Bristol Zoological Society-led study published in the African Journal of Ecology.

One of the last populations of Kordofan giraffes roam Cameroon's Benoue National Park in Africa with current estimates indicating there are fewer than 50 individuals left in the park. Bristol Zoological Society have been working to conserve this highly-threatened mammal since 2017.

While poaching is frequently cited as a cause of population decline, evidence remains mostly anecdotal, with little research into its overall impact. Illegal hunters kill giraffes for their meat but also for their pelts, bones, hair and tails which are highly valued by some cultures.

Researchers from Bristol Vet School and Bristol Zoological Society sought to analyze the effectiveness of different conservation measure interventions using a population modeling technique. The team compared anti-poaching interventions, population supplementation, and habitat protection. Each intervention was simulated individually and in combination to investigate their relative impact on population viability.

Their modeling found the removal of one male and one female giraffe every year would result in an average time to extinction of just 15.3 years. The poaching of female giraffes had a more significant impact on population viability than males. The research is published in the African Journal of Ecology.

The team's findings confirm that conservation management should prioritize strengthening existing anti-poaching activity in conjunction with protecting wildlife corridors to aid dispersal.

Kane Colston, the study's lead author, who undertook the study as part of his Master's degree at Bristol Vet School in conjunction with teaching partners Bristol Zoological Society, said, "Our findings confirm anti-poaching measures appear the most significant for population viability. The extent of poaching in Benoue National Park is still unclear as far higher giraffe poaching rates have been reported in other national parks, but recent confirmed reports of the poaching of two giraffe in a period of just three months highlight the urgency of conservation intervention."

Dr. Sam Penny, the project lead from Bristol Zoological Society, added, "These findings really underscore the magnitude of the threat facing Benoue National Park's Kordofan giraffe and highlight the importance of our conservation work in the area. We will continue to work with the park's Conservation Service and our partner NGO Sekakoh to ensure anti-poaching initiatives are prioritized within the landscape."

More information: Kane P. J. Colston et al, Viability analysis of Kordofan giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis antiquorum) in a protected area in Cameroon, African Journal of Ecology (2023). DOI: 10.1111/aje.13196
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Graphical abstract. Credit: ACS Nano (2023). DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.3c06486

A new liquid metal combination is shaping up as a potential secret weapon in the global fight against antimicrobial resistance, which is already rendering some antibiotic medications powerless against 'superbugs'.

Scientists from the U.S. and Australia led by Flinders University have developed a simple metallic coating treatment for bandages, medical devices and even drug nanoparticles which are capable of resisting and killing bacteria.

The researchers from Flinders University's Biomedical Nanoengineering Laboratory, University of Sydney and North Carolina State University say the new approach involves testing 'GaLM' nanoscale liquid metal particles which have improved biocompatibility and low cytotoxicity to cells which could be applied as safe and effective antimicrobial agents.

"Gallium in its liquid state (or 'GaLM') is one of the most promising candidates to be used as an antimicrobial agent, and can be used in many ways as a liquid metal," says Flinders University researcher Dr. Vi Khanh Truong, lead author of a new article in ACS Nano.

"The liquid state of GaLM enables it to be easily combined or functionalised with other components to create various forms of more efficient antimicrobial metals."

"As well gallium appears to be compatible with human cells in preparations and concentrations relevant to its antimicrobial activity, so could one day be administered orally or intravenous injection."

"This material's antimicrobial performance would also be activated by external stimuli (light, magnetic fields, and heat as well as others), resulting in novel solutions which can outperform antimicrobial mono-metallic nanoparticles and may lead to the next generation of antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory metal-based agents."

Led by international experts in the field, including Professor Michael Dickey from the US, Australian Research Ccouncil Laureate Professor Kourosh Kalantar-Zadeh and NHMRC Leadership Fellow Flinders University Professor Krasimir Vasilevall authors on the new review articleresearch is expanding in metal-based antimicrobial strategies in a race to combat escalating threats of antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

Dr Vi-Khanh Truong, from the Flinders University Biomedical Nanoengineering Laboratory, has worked with leading US and Australian researchers in liquid metals. Credit: Flinders University

With AMR leading to different types of bacterial, fungal and viral infections becoming untreatable, which can result in morbidity and mortality, phage (virus) therapy, immunotherapy, CRISPR-Cas technology and antibiotic combination therapy are other research approaches under way around the world.

The current strategies for infection control that rely on conventional synthetic antibiotics are increasingly failing, and the treatment "toolbox" is rapidly becoming exhausted, the new ACS article says.

"To make matters worse, the ability of bacteria to evolve to resist antibiotics provides a disincentive for pharmaceutical companies to pursue next-generation target antibiotics."

Dr. Truong, from the Flinders University Biomedical Nanoengineering Laboratory, says the ACS Nano study examines how combining gallium with other elements "expands the realm of GaLMs with tunable features."

"In contrast to solid-state particles, GaLM particles can dramatically transform their configurations in response to external stimuli. Interestingly, GaLMs in the liquid state can transform their shape around and inside cells."

"Moreover, in their liquid state, GaLMs can dissolve and sequester metallic elements that can later be released on demand via stimuli. This is especially useful for improving the efficiency of the release of drugs."

"Compared to solid metals, GaLMs appear to be benign for eukaryotes (indicating biocompatibility with human tissue) while retaining potent antimicrobial activity."

"It is important to highlight that the antimicrobial activity of GaLMs, in bulk and nano dimensions, is not limited to prokaryotes such as bacteria and cyanobacteria," he adds.

"In addition, GaLMs offer anti-inflammatory properties and we also examined the role of phase behavior and interfaces in nanoscale GaLMs on antibacterial properties."

More information: Vi Khanh Truong et al, Gallium Liquid Metal: Nanotoolbox for Antimicrobial Applications, ACS Nano (2023). DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.3c06486 Journal information: ACS Nano
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Range (colored bars) and mean (open circles) nitrogen fixation rates by cruise date (A) and standard error range among replicates by category (B). Bar color in panel A indicates whether a cruise dates range of rates falls entirely below, crosses, or entirely above the overall mean rate (dashed line). Panel B illustrates the range of standard error among replicates from a single cruise date according to these same mean rate categories. Credit: PLOS ONE (2023). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0289485

A new study by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill examined nitrogen fixation among diazotrophsmicroorganisms that can convert nitrogen into usable form for other plants and animalsliving among sargassum. Sargassum, a brown macroalgae in the seaweed family, floats on the surface of the open ocean and provides habitat for a colorful array of marine life such as small fish, brine shrimp and other microorganisms.

Previous studies have overlooked diazotrophs associated with sargassum, which could mean a historical underestimation of nitrogen fixation in the Atlantic nitrogen budget. The study, published today in PLOS ONE, found that nitrogen fixation in sargassum communities was significant.

"The findings of this study are exciting, especially given much of the recent news regarding sargassum is about the negative effects of its overgrowth in Florida and the Caribbean," said Lindsay Dubbs, a research associate professor and director of the Outer Banks Field Site at the UNC Institute for the Environment and research associate at East Carolina University's Coastal Studies Institute. "We were able to show sargassum's role in nitrogen fixation as meaningful in supporting marine productivity."

Nitrogen is critical for life. Plants and animals need it for growth. More nitrogen in the ocean means greater biological productivity and growth. Sargassum mats provide an important habitat for organisms to perform nitrogen fixation, but few studies have measured it in sargassum communities.

"Only four studies have been published detailing rates of nitrogen fixation by epiphytes on pelagic sargassum and none in over 30 years," said Claire Johnson, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Earth, Marine, and Environmental Sciences in the UNC College of Arts and Sciences and a graduate research assistant at the Coastal Studies Institute.

"It's really exciting for us to be able to contribute this long-term dataset which provides an updated view of this process and, in doing so, will hopefully bring attention to something which has been overlooked for decades."

The team compared the nitrogen fixation rate with other marine sources, including commonly studied nitrogen fixing organisms such as planktonic diazotrophs and coastal epiphytesplants that grow on other plantsand found the sargassum communities outpaced themcontributing significantly to the marine nitrogen cycle and potentially to sargassum blooms.

Collecting this type of data can be difficult, but the team's proximity to the Gulf Stream from their lab at the Coastal Studies Institute on East Carolina University's Outer Banks campus on Roanoke Island made it possible for them to make day-long trips to collect samples seasonally and process them quickly.

The team was able to collect whole fronds of the seaweed and process them with minimal handling, better keeping the microorganisms intact for the study. Each piece was carefully managed in large tubs at the laboratory, where they collected data on nitrogen fixation rates. The team collected samples over a six-year period.

Sargassum is typically abundant in the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, Gulf Stream and Sargasso Sea. The team's work in North Carolina provides a comprehensive view of how nitrogen fixation rates vary over time, but understanding how they could vary across a wider geographic range could be a next step for further research.

"This research is even more critical now given the sargassum blooms in the South Atlantic," said Johnson. "If nitrogen is being fixed by epiphytes on sargassum in this population on a scale anywhere near what we are seeing here, it would almost certainly have a significant impact on the Atlantic marine nitrogen budget."

"There is so much to be learned about this plant, the other life that it supports, and the factors that contribute to it becoming a nuisance in some places. I am optimistic that our long-term dataset will continue to reveal new insights about its importance and complexity," Dubbs added.

More information: Claire Johnson et al, Reframing the contribution of pelagic Sargassum epiphytic N 2 fixation, PLOS ONE (2023). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0289485 Journal information: PLoS ONE
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One of the many IRAS outputs that are routinely generated during the dry season at biweekly frequency using NASA data. This image of a region in Bangladesh shows the specific areas where over-irrigation has likely occurred in the two weeks prior to June 4, 2023. Over-irrigation is calculated based on comparison between actual water consumed by crops, which is estimated using Landsat data, and the crop water demand, which is estimated using weather data from GFS.Credits: Credit: Faisal Hossain

With nearly 170 million residents, Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated nations in the world. Nearly half of its residents work on or live around farms, and rice crops are critical to feeding that population.

So when researchers from the University of Washington and Bangladesh's Ministry of Agriculture joined forces to use data from NASA and its partners to help the country's rice farmers, the potential benefit was substantial. Through their IRAS program, short for the Integrated Rice Advisory System, researchers from UW and Bangladesh use satellite data to deliver information to farmers about how much water they are using, how much they have, and how much their crops need.

Rice is an essential crop in Bangladesh, and cultivating it requires a lot of water and fuel. During the country's dry season, which takes place from January to June, farmers typically pump groundwater from aquifers. Pumping is expensive, and it usually requires burning fuels that release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

"To create sustainable and climate-resilient agriculture for the future, we need to minimize irrigation waste and de-carbonize the production by using affordable solutions that can be scaled globally," said Faisal Hossain, professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Washington and leader of IRAS.

The IRAS team completed its first nationwide effort in June 2023, providing advisories on irrigation needs to more than 10 million farmers across Bangladesh.

Hossain and the IRAS team estimate that the program has the potential to reduce agricultural water waste in Bangladesh by about 30%, reduce agricultural fuel consumption by 45%, save $115 million annually in fuel subsidies, and reduce carbon emissions by 300,000 tons per year.

How IRAS works

IRAS analyzes specific satellite data to craft irrigation advisories for users around Bangladesh. The advisories tell farmers how much water they need for their crops based on precipitation and groundwater measurements in the area. They can also report whether people in a region have previously over- or under-irrigated their fields.

Some of the data for the advisories comes from the NASA/USGS Landsat mission; researchers use that imagery and data to determine the water use at farming locations. Other data come from GPM, or Global Precipitation Measurement, a joint mission of NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. GPM tracks the total amount of precipitation in the area.

Those datasets are then combined with information from GFS, the Global Forecast System, produced by the U.S. National Weather Service. GFS provides precipitation forecasts for the upcoming week. These datasets and reports are evaluated and assembled by agricultural specialists in Bangladesh, creating a comprehensive advisory and recommendations for farmers that is specific to their location.

"The synergistic use of Landsat, GPM, and GFS can help the world become more water-efficient and energy-efficient in growing food, while also becoming more affordable and convenient for farmers," Hossain said.

Human impacts, now and later

"When I see my work positively impacting someone, even if it's just a single person, it brings me joy," said Shahzaib Khan, a graduate research student with Hossain at the University of Washington. "To see this work impacting so many people, that is beyond words."

Khan worked directly with staff at Bangladesh's Department of Agricultural Extension, as well as the country's Agro-Meteorological Information Service, to develop and install the IRAS system.

Hossain and the team aim to expand the reach of IRAS in the coming years. Because NASA and Landsat datasets are free and accessible to the public, the doors are open to developing similar cost-effective programs. For instance, sugar canewhich is often grown in places like Africa, South Asia, and Indonesiais another water-intensive crop that could benefit from a program like IRAS.

"Our hope is that this template can be applied to any region where we know what crop is being grown and what their crop water demand characteristics are," Hossain said.

Provided by NASA
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By compressing a specific crystalline orientation of iron in a diamond-anvil cell, researchers have for the first time created a version of the metal in the structure that it likely takes in Earths core. Credit: APS/C. Cain; S. Deemyad/University of Utah

A team of physicists and geologists at CEA DAM-DIF and Universite Paris-Saclay, working with a colleague from ESRF, BP220, F-38043 Grenoble Cedex and another from the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, has succeeded in synthesizing a single-crystalline iron in a form that iron has in the Earth's core.

In their paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, the group describes how they used an experimental approach to synthesize pure single-crystalline -iron and possible uses for the material

In trying to understand Earth's internal composition, scientists have had to rely mostly on seismological data. Such studies have led scientists to believe that the core is solid and that it is surrounded by liquid. But questions have remained. For example, back in the 1980s, studies revealed that seismic waves travel faster through the Earth when traveling pole to pole versed equator to equator, and no one could explain why.

Most theories have suggested it is likely because of the way the iron in the core is structured. Most in the field agree that if the type of iron that exists in the core could be made and tested at the surface, such questions could be answered with a reasonable degree of certainty. But doing so has proven to be challenging due to fracturing during synthesis. In this new effort, the research team has found a way around such problems and in so doing have found a way to synthesize a type of iron that can be used for testing the properties of iron in Earth's core.

The work by the team involved compressing a sample of -iron at 7GPa. Doing so caused its temperature to rise to approximately 800 Kelvin. That led to the transformation of its structure into -iron crystals. More pressure pushed the -iron to form into -structure ironsingle crystals that are believed to be the same types as those in the iron at Earth's core.

The research team conducted experiments that showed the directionally-dependent elasticity of their -iron behaving as iron does in the Earth's core, with vibrations traveled faster along one axis of a sphere than along the other. They suggest their approach can be used for generating iron samples for testing theories regarding the makeup of Earth's core.

More information: Agnes Dewaele et al, Synthesis of Single Crystals of  -Iron and Direct Measurements of Its Elastic Constants, Physical Review Letters (2023). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.131.034101 Journal information: Physical Review Letters

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Photograph taken in the marginal ice zone of the Arctic Ocean from the Swedish icebreaker Oden, summer 2021. Credit: Flor Vermassen

A subpolar species associated with Atlantic water expanded far into the Arctic Ocean during the Last Interglacial, analysis of microfossil content of sediment cores reveals. This implies that summers in the Arctic were ice free during this period. The findings are published in Nature Geoscience.

Arctic sea ice, an important component of the Earth system, is disappearing fast under climate warming. Summer sea ice is anticipated to vanish entirely within this century. To gain a deeper understanding of the climate dynamics in a world without Arctic sea ice, researchers have turned to analogs from the geological past.

"The Last Interglacial, between 129,000 and 115,000 years BP, is an interesting period to study because it is the last time in Earth's history when global average temperatures were similar or perhaps higher than currently and sea levels were considerably higher, up to +6 to +9 m," said Flor Vermassen, postdoctoral researcher at Stockholm University.

However, the extent of sea ice during this period has been intensely debated and there is no consensus, limiting understanding of this period and the ability of researchers to simulate it in climate models.

To address this, a team of marine geology researchers from the Department of Marine Geological Sciences at Stockholm University analyzed the microfossil content of an array of sediment cores from sites that today lie directly beneath the thickest parts of the modern Arctic ice pack.

In these cores, they investigated the variability in the occurrence and composition of planktonic foraminifera, a type of free-floating, shell-building unicellular zooplankton that is sensitive to changes in oceanographic and environmental conditions.

Scanning electron microscope images of the planktonic foraminifer Turborotalita quinqueloba. Scale bars = 100 micron. Credit: Stockholm University

The researchers found high abundances of the typically subpolar, Atlantic-water species Turborotalita quinqueloba, documenting a large-scale expansion of the species far into the central Arctic Ocean. The ecological preference of T. quinqueloba for predominantly ice-free, seasonally productive waters typically present in the Atlantic Ocean suggests that it was following similar conditions that had spread to the central Arctic Ocean.

The absence of summer sea ice and increased influence of Atlantic currents in the Arctic domain during the Last Interglacial are analogous to ocean transformations being observed today in parts of the Arctic, and collectively referred to as "Atlantification" of the Arctic Ocean.

"The finding that the Arctic Ocean was seasonally ice-free during the Last Interglacial is worrying because this period would have been only around 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, comparable to the targets of the Paris Agreement. Yet the global sea level is estimated to have been several meters higher than at present," said Flor Vermassen.

Hence, the researchers propose the Last Interglacial as the most recent and potentially most relevant geological epoch for investigating a seasonally ice-free Arctic Ocean, particularly if the objectives of the Paris Agreement are not exceeded.

"To fully comprehend the physical conditions and environment of this unfamiliar Arctic during the Last Interglacial, additional quantitative proxy reconstructions of sea-surface temperature and other water mass parameters are needed, along with targeted climate and oceanographic model studies of the same period," said Flor Vermassen.

More information: Flor Vermassen et al, A seasonally ice-free Arctic Ocean during the Last Interglacial, Nature Geoscience (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41561-023-01227-x Journal information: Nature Geoscience
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Percentage of catch contribution by fishing gear and species group to annual estimated marine megafauna catches in small-scale fisheries in the Gulf of Thailand and the Andaman Sea between September 2016 and December 2017. Annual estimated catch is displayed in the center of each chart. Credit: Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems (2023). DOI: 10.1002/aqc.3989

Marine conservation experts have revealed the extent of marine megafauna catch by small-scale fisheries, in Thailand for the first time.

The Newcastle University study provides the first-ever estimate of the annual catch of marine megafauna species, including rays, sharks, sea turtles, dolphins, and dugongs, in Thailand's small-scale fisheriesthose fisheries using small boats, low tech equipment and often haul their fishing gear by hand.

Published in the journal Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Research, the results show estimated annual catches of 5.6 million rays, 457 thousand sharks, 2.4 thousand sea turtles, 790 small cetaceans, and 72 dugongs in Thailand's small-scale fisheries.

"We collected data using questionnaire interviews with 535 fishers in 17 provinces along the Gulf of Thailand and the Andaman Sea coasts in 2016 and 2017. Our results show that gillnets, especially crab gillnets and shrimp trammel nets, were responsible for most of the catch, posing a significant threat to marine megafauna in Thailand," said Dr. Thevarit Svarachorn, who conducted the study during his Ph.D. research at Newcastle University.

Many of the species caught in these fisheries, like butterfly rays, wedgefish, and reef sharks, are already threatened with extinction. "These are shallow water species. They are very exposed to small-scale fisheries pressure, which are likely key drivers of their extinction risk around the world," said co-author Dr. Andrew Temple, Global Postdoctoral Fellow at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology.

Senior author, Professor Per Berggren, Professor of Marine Megafauna Conservation at Newcastle University School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, said, "The study highlights the urgent need for regulating gillnet fishing, especially crab gillnets, to protect threatened megafauna from disappearing. These species are crucial for maintaining the health and productivity of the marine ecosystem.

"Alternative fishing gears such as traps and pots should be considered to target the desired species without harming marine megafauna. Collaboration between fishers, manufacturers, and fisheries managers, along with training on best practices for releasing caught megafauna, could further reduce by-catch mortality."

The authors also recommend using LED lights on gillnets, acoustic deterrent devices, bycatch reduction devices and turtle excluder devices to help prevent megafauna bycatch.

More information: Thevarit Svarachorn et al, Marine megafauna catch in Thai smallscale fisheries, Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems (2023). DOI: 10.1002/aqc.3989
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Galway, Ireland. Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Local universities, global connectivity and entrepreneurship can help secondary cities combat the geographic polarization of innovation in superstar cities, according to new research being conducted in Trinity College Dublin and Ca' Foscari University of Venice.

Superstar cities like London, Dublin, Milan, New York and Bangalore have grown astronomically over the past 15 years, following a "winner-take-all-model" model, according to Dr. Giulio Buciuni, Trinity Business School. In certain countries the growth of these superstars has come at the expense of other cities, notably mid-sized cities or secondary cities. This, he says, is fueling geographic polarization of innovation worldwide.

Dr. Buciuni and colleagues in Italy are researching an alternative model for second-tier cities and have pinpointed the cities of Galway (Ireland), Raleigh-Durham (U.S.), the Ruhr Valley (Germany), Bologna (Italy) as examples of cities that have bucked this global trend and are home to competitive innovation ecosystems despite the presence of a dominant city in the domestic entrepreneurship and innovation scene. The research, published in a new book (in Italian) titled "Periferie competitive: Lo sviluppo dei territori nell'economia della conoscenza" ("Competitive suburbs: Territorial development in the knowledge economy"), describes a more equal and democratic model for competitiveness of second-tier cities.

Dr. Giulio Buciuni, Associate Professor in Entrepreneurship, Trinity, said, "The growing concentration of entrepreneurship and innovation activities in a few global 'superstar' cities is fueling the geographic polarization of innovation, with capital, talent and ideas increasingly flowing to a selected number of cities while other cities are 'left behind.' While inequality across countries is decreasing, inequality within countries is widening, posing serious threats to the economic and political stability of numerous countries.

"Drawing on our examination of the vibrant innovation ecosystems in the secondary cities of Galway, Raleigh-Durham, the Ruhr Valley and Bologna, our research has identified a more equal and democratic model for competitiveness of second-tier cities. Global connectivity; the interplay of local universities and the private sector; and local finance and entrepreneurship are the three factors that make secondary cities competitive. For this model to success all three factors must be in place simultaneously."

The research conducted by Dr. Buciuni and Dr. Coro took place between 2017 and 2022 and relied on the analysis of secondary data as well as primary data, including on-site visits and interviews with local stakeholders in the four secondary cities.

Dr. Buciuni said, "Galway, for instance, was one of Europe's poorest regions in the 1980s and is today home to one of the world's most dynamic entrepreneurial ecosystems in the bio-tech industry. The city is a great example of how innovation can take place even in geographically remote and underdeveloped locales when the three factors that we identified are in place.

"Key for the economic development of the bio-tech ecosystem in Galway was the initial flow of foreign direct investments from American multinationals in the 1980s and 1990s; that was later followed by several public-private collaborations, including collaborations with University of Galway, and led to ad hoc educational curriculum in bio-tech engineering. This, paved the way for the emergence of local new ventures, most of which were established by engineers formerly employed by the subsidiaries of foreign multinationals. This entrepreneurial spirit was supported by financial resources coming from both the public sector and private investors."

Co-author of the book Giancarlo Coro, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, added, "In the Italian context, Bologna has lately emerged as the only mid-size city able to keep up with the astronomic growth of Italy's only superstar city, Milan. Bologna's recent economic development was fuelled by the integration of long-existing industries (particularly in the automotive and machineries sectors) with new knowledge coming from local universities and local firms' participation in global supply chains.

"Unlike Galway, where the bio-tech industry was developed from ground zero, Bologna's stakeholders were able to work together to capitalize on the region's existing industrial expertise and sustain the region's competitiveness and innovation capabilities. Similar to the Galway experience, besides the role played by multinationals in connecting local industries with global pipelines of knowledge, it was the collaboration between firms and universities that allowed the 'recombination' of old industrial assets with new innovative inputs and skilled labor force. In addition, Bologna, unlike other industrial regions in Italy such as Veneto, was able to preserve its local banking sector."
Russia has sentenced opposition figure Alexei Navalny to an additional 19 years in prison Friday (August 4) for alleged criminal charges he and his supporters said have been trumped up to keep him behind bars and out of politics for even longer.

The charges relate to his role in his now-defunct movement inside Russia, which authorities accused of trying to plan a revolution by seeking to destabilize the country's socio-political situation.

The 47-year-old domestic Vladimir Putin critic is already serving sentences totaling almost 12 years on fraud and other charges he also believed to be false, while his political movement has been outlawed and declared "extremist."

A court set up specifically for his trial at the IK-6 penal colony in Melekhovo, about 235 km east of Moscow has concluded his closed-door trial on six separate charges, including inciting and financing extremist activity and creating an extremist organization, as reported by Reuters.

While an audio and video feed of the court proceedings has been provided for journalists, the quality was so poor that it was practically impossible to make out what the judge was saying.

Read Also: Russian Warship in Novorossiysk Damaged by Ukrainian Drones

Navalny Says He Expects a Long Jail Time

Navalny, a former lawyer, blogger, and corruption investigator, has become the icon of dissent against Putin's regime despite his domestic misfortunes.

In a message posted on social media Thursday (August 3), he said he predicted he would face a long and "Stalinist" prison sentence, but said it hardly mattered as he was also threatened with separate terrorism charges that could bring another decade. Navalny referenced Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, who had imprisoned millions of people who were branded "enemies of the state," the Associated Press reported.

He added that the purpose of giving him extra jail time was to frighten Russians, but he urged them not to be discouraged but to think of the best way to resist what he called the "villains and thieves in the Kremlin."

The European Union has condemned the sentencing as another politically-motivated ruling and called for Navalny's immediate release.

Navalny made headlines in the 2010s when he brought tens of thousands of people into the streets to oppose Putin's rule. At one point, he was poisoned by a Soviet-era nerve agent, which forced him to go to Germany for medical treatment. In 2021, he returned to Russia and was arrested.

Related Article: Putin Critic Alexei Navalny Faces New Trial

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Some 80 feet above ground, Utah State University ecologist Jessica Murray studies soil canopies in tropical montane forests of Costa Rica. The doctoral candidate published findings in the journal 'Geoderma' and presents at the 2023 Ecological Society of American Annual Meeting in Portland, Oregon. Credit: Mario Molina

When we think of soil, most of us think of dirt on the ground. But a surprising amount of the planet's soil thrives in the treetops of old-growth forests, high above terra firma.

This organic matter, composed of decaying leaves and branches, airborne particulates and moisture, is called canopy soil or arboreal soil. Its study is relatively new, says Utah State University ecologist Jessica Murray. She's among researchers unraveling mysteries of the dense, mossy humus that provides rich habitat for insects, birds, fungi, worms and plants, as well as a generous reservoir for carbon storage.

Murray and colleagues from Texas A&M University, the University of Toronto Scarborough and Imperial College London published new information about the enigmatic resource in Geoderma. The team's research was supported by USU, the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture, and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

"In this study, we sought to understand where canopy soils are found, where they are most abundant, and if their propertiesand thus, soil development processesdiffer as a function of climate or other small-scale factors," says Murray, a doctoral student in USU's Department of Biology and Ecology Center. "This is the first study to look at the distribution patterns of canopy soils across forests and one of very few studies that have sought to examine canopy soil properties."

Murray collected much of the data for the study some 80 feet above the ground at six primary forest sites across Costa Rica's Cordillera de Tilaran and Cordillera Volcanica Central, encompassing both Caribbean and Pacific slope mountain ranges. Her field gear includes climbing gear, ropes, a safety harness and helmet.

"I climbed about 30 trees to collect data," she says. "And getting to one of those sites was the hardest hike of my life."

Murray is referring to a site designated "Puesto 1070," located along a contiguous tract of primary forest, which required a steep trek from about 1,970 feet in elevation to 3,608in thick mud.

"It took eight hours to complete the hike just to the study site," she says. "We were carrying all of our climbing gear, food for eight days, sleeping bags and sampling equipment. Thank heavens we finished that site early, because, with our hard-earned appetites, we also nearly finished our food supply ahead of schedule."

Murray says tree canopies in the tropical montane forest systems are especially dense, with thick moss, soil and an abundance of epiphytesplants that grow on other plantsoften referred to as "air plants"that are not parasitic and have little or no attachment to other obvious nutrient sources.

"It's like another world in the aircanopies teeming with plant, insect and animal life," she says. "I initially conducted surveys to assess canopy soil abundance from the ground with binoculars. But it was really necessary to climb up into the trees to get an accurate picture of what was going on."

Murray asserts forest canopies store much more carbon that generally assumed.

"It's kind of a back-of-the-envelope calculation on my part, but one I'm ready to defend and eager to investigate further," she says. "I think canopy soil stores 0.4 to 4 percent of total soil carbon in the forests where it is found, which is not being counted in ecosystem carbon budgets."

Mentored by USU Biology Professor John Stark and former USU faculty member Bonnie Waring, the latter now with Imperial College London and an author on the paper, Murray says the team's results indicate both climate and tree size play an important role in canopy soil abundance, carbon stocks and chemistry.

"Climate, particularly fog and temperature changes, appear to drive canopy soil abundance across forests, while tree size determines canopy soil abundance within a forest," she says. "Our findings reveal canopy soil's vulnerability to climate change, and its decline, could cause a significant decrease in carbon storage resources."

Further, she says, those resources could take longer than expected to restore.

"When we talk about reforestation, we don't stop to consider the time needed for forest regrowth plus canopy mat regrowth," Murray says. "It may take decades longer for recovered forests destroyed by wildfire or development to regenerate robust canopy soil mats."

A 2022 recipient of the Ecological Society of America's Katherine S. McCarter Graduate Student Policy Award, Murray is among a number of Aggies presenting at the ESA's 2023 Annual Meeting Aug. 6-11, in Portland, Oregon. She presents the talk, "The Persistence of Metabolically Protected vs. Mineral-Associated Soil Organic Carbon in the Presence of Organic Inputs," Thursday, Aug. 10, at 4:45 p.m., in Room B115 of the Oregon Convention Center.

"For that meeting, I'll be presenting on research different from, but related to, the study published in Geoderma, including work about the basic mechanisms of soil carbon sequestration that uses canopy soils from my sites in Costa Rica," she says.

More information: Jessica Murray et al, Climate, as well as branch-level processes, drive canopy soil abundance and chemistry, Geoderma (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.geoderma.2023.116609
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The Belle II pixel detector prior to installation, surrounded by the Belle II strip detector. The detector is attached to the beam tube right up close to the collision point. Credit: Koji Hara and Katsuro Nakamura

The Belle II cooperation project at the Japanese research center KEK is helping researchers from all over the world to hunt for new phenomena in particle physics. The international experiment has now reached a major milestone after a team successfully installed a new pixel detector in its final location in Japan.

The size of a soda can, the detector was developed in order to make out the signals coming from certain types of particle decays, that can shed light on the origin of the matterantimatter asymmetry that has been observed in the universe. The installation ran without a hitch and is a key milestone in the evolution of the experiment and GermanJapanese research collaboration.

Based at the SuperKEKB accelerator in Japan's KEK research center, Belle II is an international collaborative project involving researchers from all over the world. The experiment aims to find answers to the many unresolved questions about the universe that are out there. To this end, the 1,200 or so members of the international Belle II collaboration are searching for signs of new phenomena in physics and unknown particles not covered by the established Standard Model of particle physics.

Installation also marks the end of a long journey for the detector. Starting out in Munich, its components traveled across the country via several German institutes, including the University of Bonn, before ending up in Hamburg at the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), where they were assembled. The final step was an eastward trip of several thousand kilometers to Japan and Belle's II ultimate destination, the SuperKEKB electron-positron collider.

The journey by air brought new challenges of its own: any sudden turbulence or improper handling in transit could easily have broken one of the highly sensitive sensors, so a case built specially for the occasion protected the detector to minimize vibrations and it got its own seat in business class.

Members of the University of Bonn had a major hand in installing the detector in Japan. "The installation of the pixel detector was extremely satisfactory, without any significant difficulties," says Botho Paschen, Technical Coordinator of the pixel detector project and a researcher at the University of Bonn. He put the success down to the hard work and dedication of an exceptional team that has spent years developing the detector and preparing it for installation.

The process proved extremely challenging, due particularly to the very tight space. Says Paschen, "The next important step is to put the detector into operation so that we'll be able to start recording new collision data in early 2024."

Installing the pixel detector, the core element of Belle II. Credit: Botho Paschen

Prof. Dr. Florian Bernlochner, Belle II Group Leader at the University of Bonn, stressed the importance of the new detector for the experiment's physics objectives. "The pixel detector is the key instrument for enabling the lifetimes of heavy quarks to be measured accurately. These measurements will allow us to investigate the violation of one of the most fundamental symmetries in naturecharge-parity symmetryin more detail."

The violation of this symmetry is one of three preconditions that have to be met in order to explain why the universe currently consists almost exclusively of matter. "Belle II will give us an even more precise understanding of why matter and antimatter behave differently and whether as-yet undiscovered particles or forces play a role in the decay of heavy quarks," Bernlochner adds.

The decay products of heavy quarks possess relatively little energy and are easily disturbed when they pass through the detector material. This meant that the detector elements closest to the collision point of the particle beams on the Belle II have to be as lightweight as possible, making the pixel detector extremely fragile and its installation highly challenging. The detector is made up of 20 silicon strips 75 micrometers thick, the same width as a human hair.

The ultra-thin DEPFET (DEPleted Field Effect Transistor) sensors were designed in the Max Planck Society's semiconductor laboratory. The strips are arranged in two concentric cylindrical layers, the innermost of which is only 1.4 cm away from the beam line. Following the successful installation, say the team, Belle II is now equipped with the thinnest pixel detector in the world.

The innovative detector is designed to supply up to 50,000 high-resolution images a second of the decaying heavy quarks, which are produced in abundance at the SuperKEKB. The pixel detector's DEPFET sensor technology can also be used for a range of other purposes, such as X-ray satellite missions, the hunt for sterile neutrinos or dark matter, and medical imaging.

Researchers measuring the structure of matter on ultra-small length scales need ever more powerful detectors, and the Research and Technology Center for Detector Physics (FTD) at the University of Bonn offers them the perfect environment for this, complete with cutting-edge infrastructure.

The FTD is also home to the University of Bonn's Silicon Lab (SILAB), where the modules for the pixel detector were vigorously tested and its capabilities studied in detail over a period of several years. "The detector's successful installation is the result of many years of fruitful collaboration between the institutions and research centers involved," says FTD Co-Speaker and SILAB Director Prof. Dr. Jochen Dingfelder, who played a key role in developing the pixel detector over many years together with Prof. Dr. Norbert Wermes.

"I'm delighted to see how our concerted efforts have produced such a groundbreaking achievement." The team from the University of Bonn would like to thank everyone involved from Japan, Europe and Germany for their hard work and commitment.
CORINTH  A Saratoga County grand jury has indicted a Corinth man on felony assault charges for allegedly physically assaulting a woman during a domestic incident.

Joseph Murauskas, 45, was charged with one count of first-degree assault and two counts of second-degree assault and two counts of second-degree harassment, a violation.

Murauskas was arrested on March 25 after Saratoga County Sheriffs deputies responded to a home at around 10:19 p.m. for a report of an assault.

The woman had serious physical injuries to her head and face, police said.

Murauskas was arraigned in Saratoga County Court on Aug. 2.
BUENA  Authorities confirmed Friday that all four bodies have been recovered from a deadly house fire in the Landisville section of the borough.

Three of the missing victims had been found Thursday evening by rescue crews with the help of a State Police K-9 Unit. The fourth victim was found about 2 p.m. Friday at the base of the demolished structure by rescue crews, according to a news release from the Franklin Township Police Department, which patrols Buena.

At home at the time of the fire were four children, ages 1, 2, 3 and 16, and two men, ages 52 and 73, police said Thursday. The 1- and 16-year-olds were flown to St. Christophers Hospital for Children in Philadelphia with severe burns. The 16-year-old was listed in stable condition, and the infant was listed in critical condition as of 3 p.m. Friday, officials said.

Police have not released names of four dead victims or the two hospitalized children, nor their relationships to each other.

Franklin police said they are investigating the fire as a criminal act with help from the Atlantic County Prosecutors Office, the FBI and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Police said the fire was the result of an explosion that occurred inside the residence, but the cause of the explosion has not been determined.

The exterior of Victor Contes home sustained severe damage from the explosion and fire at the neighboring home. Contes stayed in a hotel overnight. His homes interior remains intact, he said.

I believe in God, and he will provide, said Contes, 53, appearing to hold back tears. Ill take it one day at a time for now.

Two dead, two missing, more injured in Buena fire At least two people are dead after a "significant explosion" caused a three-alarm fire that destroyed a home and damaged several others Thursday morning in Buena, officials said.

Residents heard a thunderous explosion about 10:30 a.m. Thursday, some walking out to find the home fully engulfed by a three-alarm fire.

Police arrived at 10:35 a.m., and fire crews were immediately summoned. State and Franklin police rescued the 16- and 1-year-old survivors.

Since then, people have gathered at the scene, standing behind police tape and hoping to learn more about the tragedy.

Franklin police Chief Matthew DeCesari said Thursday the community was left heartbroken by the event.

We are going to treat it as a crime scene until we can determine what the cause is, DeCesari said. In a small community like the boroughs Landisville section, everyone is feeling the impacts of the blaze knowing people were hurt.

Eileen Botbyl, 40, who lives nearby, heard the blast.

Its scary, Botbyl said. I live right next to a gas line on the other side. If this had been my house, it would have been my children.

Many stayed outside to watch the recovery effort overnight, but others have been online, sharing messages of hope and comfort.

Its a smaller community, so everybody kind of knows everybody, Botbyl said.

A GoFundMe was started Thursday by Rosa Perez, who said she is a coworker of the mother of two of the child victims in the fire, whom she identified as Irma Lola Rodriguez. As of 6:30 p.m. Friday, the page had raised almost $4,000 for the family.
ATLANTIC CITY  Councilman Bruce Weekes floated the idea of creating a public-private partnership to fund a quality-of-life patrol for the city during Fridays Clean and Safe Atlantic City meeting.

Among other things, the unit would keep loiterers moving along on Atlantic Avenue, accompany workers to their cars when parking areas are blocks from offices and accompany health care providers on home visits in areas in which they do not feel safe.

Ordinances are not enough, he said.

I recently drafted one prohibiting panhandling at drive-in windows and around stores, but if there is no one to enforce it and move people along its meaningless, Weekes said.

Other cities used ARP funds for pilot units and have seen great results, Weekes said, referring to the American Rescue Plan, a federal COVID-19 relief plan. We could recruit retired police officers to walk the beat in neighborhoods.

Weekes said businesses could fund salaries and the city could fund benefits for such a unit.

We have corporate stakeholders who have employees scared to walk to the parking lot (alone), Weekes said. We have a health equity scare going on, with health aides scared to go into neighborhoods without someone to escort them. Its a health equity disparity in the city.

The Police Department has a budget for unarmed civilian aides who would be assigned to more problematic areas, but the program has not gotten off the ground. It is one of many jobs Business Administrator Anthony Swan has said people are not applying for that are open in the city.

Police statistics

Calls for service are up 29% year-to-date, and arrests are up 116% over the same period last year, police Chief James Sarkos said at the last CitiStat meeting Wednesday.

Police have made 2,156 arrests in the first 30 weeks of the year, compared with 1,000 at the same time last year, and responded to 79,799 calls for service compared with 61,666 last year.

They have recovered 106 illegal firearms, including 92 handguns, 4 rifles, 4 shotguns and 6 ghost guns, Sarkos said.

Fire statistics

The Atlantic City Fire Department responded to 396 calls for service from July 10 through 23, including 212 rescue/emergency medical calls, 84 false alarms, 37 good intent calls, 25 fires, 22 hazardous conditions and 16 service calls, officials said at the CitiStat meeting.

The department also conducted 107 fire inspections, 99 re-inspections and issued 28 permits.

Speeding into city on expressway

The South Jersey Transportation Authority has installed signs warning drivers they are about to enter city streets at the end of the Atlantic City Expressway, Atlantic County Commissioner Caren Fitzpatrick said during Fridays Clean and Safe meeting.

Fitzpatrick had brought up the issue of accidents where the expressway enters the city, caused by excessive speed, at the previous Clean and Safe meeting two weeks ago.

SJTA put up three signs: Be prepared to stop, 35 mph and a sign that shows a traffic signal, Fitzpatrick said. When I drive now I feel like traffic is a little slower. ... Im pleased SJTA responded.

Atlantic City Electric update

Atlantic City Electric continues to work on designing a plan for installing police public safety cameras around the city, company representative Bert Lopez said during Fridays Clean and Safe meeting, calling it an unprecedented effort.

It includes fiber (optics), not just installing cameras and youre done. It involves quite a bit of work. Safety and reliability are important, Lopez said.

Some city officials have said Atlantic City Electric has been slow to do its part in completing city projects, particularly work needed for the city to install the cameras the city has purchased with $5 million in state grant funds, finish a bulkhead project in Chelsea and demolish a property on New Jersey Avenue.

Lopez said Atlantic City Electric is also continuing to work on adding city-owned lights to its streetlight outage reporting map on its website. It has been working on the map project for several months.

A major effort on Maine Avenue to move 28 streetlights there is almost through the design phase, Lopez said, and should be out for approvals next week.

Clean and Safe meetings are every other Friday at 8:30 a.m. in City Council Chambers at City Hall, and CitiStat meetings are every other Wednesday at Stockton Universitys Fannie Lou Hamer Room. Times vary between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Check the city calendar for details at acnj.gov.
The U.S. military wants to further protect civilian vessels that are passing through the Strait of Hormuz.

To do this, the defense department plans to place armed personnel on commercial ships so that Iranian seizures can be prevented.

US Military to Protect Civilian Ships from Iran Seizures

According to Associated Press, the U.S. military is now considering putting armed soldiers and other personnel on commercial ships.

This "unheard-of action" aims to stop Iran from attacking and seizing civilian vessels that are going to the Strait of Hormuz.

Ever since 2019, Iranians have been harassing civilian vessels passing through the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf.

Experts said that Iran is doing this to pressure the West over negotiations about its collapsed nuclear deal with world powers.

Now, putting armed American troops in commercial ships can only lead to two things; this military effort can deter Iranian seizures or escalate tensions further.

The U.S. military announced this effort as thousands of U.S. marines and sailors are on their way to the Persian Gulf.

These personnel are carried by the USS Bataan amphibious assault vessel and the USS Carter Hall landing ship.

Read Also: U.S. Navy Service Member Allegedly Transmitted Sensitive U.S. Military Information to a Chinese Intelligence Officer

Other Efforts of the US in the Strait of Hormuz

Aside from putting armed personnel on commercial vessels, the U.S. government recently announced that it is sending F-16 fighter jets to the Strait of Hormuz.

France 24 reported that the F-16 fighter jets will further increase the power of the A-10 attack aircraft, which has been patrolling the Persian Gulf.

This decision was confirmed after Iranians attacked two oil tankers near the strait in July. They even opened fire on one of the commercial vessels.

An anonymous U.S. defense official shared that the F-16 fighter airplanes will cover the ships passing through the waterway.

Aside from this, the fighter jets will also help the U.S. military have more visibility in the area.

If you want to learn more about this effort of the U.S. government in the Strait of Hormuz, you can click this link.

Related Article: US Unveils $340 Million Military Aid Package for Taiwan Amid Rising Tensions Against China

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ATLANTIC CITY  Wind power developers proposed four new projects off the Jersey Shore on Friday, a surge that would more than double the number of wind farms built off its coast if they are approved by regulators.

At least two of them are more than twice as far out to sea than others that have drawn the ire of residents who don't want to see windmills on the horizon. These two would not be visible from the beach, the companies proposing them say.

They would join three wind farms already approved by New Jersey regulators as the state races to become the East Coast capital of the fast-growing offshore wind industry.

In the first project to be made public Friday by the companies proposing it, Essen, Germany-based RWE and New York-based National Grid applied for permission to build a wind farm in the waters off Long Beach Island. Their joint venture is called Community Offshore Wind, and it aims to generate enough electricity to power 500,000 homes.

Unlike other projects that have drawn intense opposition from homeowners in part because they are close enough to the Atlantic City and Ocean City shorelines to be seen by beachgoers, this project would be built 37 miles offshore and would not be visible from the shore, said Doug Perkins, president and project director of Community Offshore Wind.

He said the project has the potential to transform New Jersey into a nation-leading clean energy development, training and manufacturing hub. He said his company is the second-largest wind power developer globally, following Danish wind developer rsted.

Community Offshore said it has not yet determined how many wind turbines would be built as part of the project.

The second bid was submitted by Chicago-based Invenergy and New York-based energyRE for a project 40 miles off Atlantic City called Leading Light Wind. The companies did not say how many turbines the project would encompass, but it would generate enough electricity to power 1 million homes.

Ocean Citys Bob Barr tapped for Cape May County Commission Ocean City is without a 4th Ward City Council member with Bob Barrs appointment to fill a vacant seat on the Board of County Commissioners on Wednesday.

The company is playing up its American ownership as the foreign ownership of key players in New Jersey's offshore wind industry has generated opposition in some quarters.

Leading Light Wind is ready to build out a world-leading domestic offshore wind industry with American-led ingenuity and expertise, said Ryan Brown, energyRE's chief operating officer.

And the two companies that received approval to build the Atlantic Shores wind farm  Shell New Energies US and EDF Renewables North America  submitted a bid to build a second as yet unnamed project 10 to 20 miles offshore. The companies have lease areas in the large expanse of ocean between Atlantic City and Barnegat Light on the northern tip of Long Beach Island, but they did not specify exactly where the second project would be built.

They also did not say how many turbines it would include or how many homes its electricity could power.

Friday night, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities said a fourth application had also been received, but would not release any information about it. The company or companies proposing it had not come forward publicly to discuss their plans.

Community Offshore said that while it will seek to take advantage of existing federal tax credits, it will not seek the same sort of tax break that New Jersey recently approved for Orsted, which is being challenged in a lawsuit brought by opponents of offshore wind.

Atlantic Shores, which earlier this year indicated it wanted similar tax relief to that given rsted, said Friday it is not asking for anything specific from state government but is in talks with the Governor's Office, the utilities board and the Legislature about what might be possible.

Leading Light did not respond to a question on whether it will seek any tax incentives.

The proposals unveiled Friday come in addition to the three projects already approved by New Jersey regulators. rsted is building two wind farms, called Ocean Wind I and II. And Shell New Energies US and EDF Renewables North America are partnering on the Atlantic Shores project.
BUCHA, Ukraine  Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has become the second 2024 Republican presidential hopeful to visit Ukraine, meeting Friday with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv, touring ravaged villages and saying what he saw further impressed to him that the U.S. should continue to help the country fend off Russias attack.

I feel the cruelty, and you feel the inhumanity, Christie said during his trip, which included stops in the villages of Bucha and Moshchun, both on the outskirts of Kyiv. And you look at this, and I dont think theres anyone in our country who would come here and see this and not feel as if these are the things that America needs to stand up to prevent.

During the visit, Christie placed flowers at the memorial complex in Bucha, where there was a mass grave of civilians, and prayed for Ukrainian volunteers who were killed by Russian troops at the beginning of the war in Moshchun.

I really suspected that if I saw this in person that it would arm me to be a better advocate for support, I think, from the stuff I saw today just now, and the meeting with the president ... I think Im much better off, Christie said after his meeting with Zelenskyy.

Christie said the Ukrainian president spoke about his desire for there to be bipartisan support for Ukraine, but made no comments on the U.S. presidential race.

He was very complimentary of President Biden, some of the things that hes advocated for, but also made clear that he thought there was more that needed to be done, Christie said. There was no conversation at all from him about, you know, the race that Im in.

The GOP presidential field is divided over the future of U.S. involvement in the war.

Christie has leveled criticism over Ukraine at President Joe Biden, whose administration has provided more than $43 billion in military aid to Ukraine since Russia invaded in February 2022. On Friday, he said that America needs to stand up to prevent and to work with friends like the Ukrainians to give them the means necessary for them to be able to secure once again their liberty and their freedom.

During a July town hall in Columbia, South Carolina, Christie called the conflict a proxy war between the United States and China, arguing that Ukrainians dont want American men and women on the ground in Ukraine, nor would I send American men and women on the ground in Ukraine. What they want is the hardware to have a fair chance to beat the Russians.

Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and former Vice President Mike Pence have both also warned that the failure to stem Russias advances could lead to further global conflict, potentially signaling to China that it could be successful in moving to overtake Taiwan.

Last month, the U.S. announced $345 million in military aid for Taiwan, in what is the Biden administrations first major package drawing on Americas own stockpiles to help Taiwan counter China and to deter China from considering attacking, by providing Taipei enough weaponry that it would make the price of invasion too high.

Pence made a trip to Ukraine in June after launching his own presidential bid.

Former President Donald Trump, the current GOP front-runner, has called on congressional Republicans to halt all military support for Ukraine until the Biden administration cooperates with their investigations into the president and his son Hunter Bidens business dealings. Trump has also argued he could stop the war swiftly after returning to the White House.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis  who drew criticism in March from a number of fellow Republicans who expressed concern about his dismissive description of the conflict as a territorial dispute, subsequently walking it back  has endorsed a cease-fire and argued the U.S. should not get more involved in the war.

In an interview with The Washington Post aboard a train from Poland to Kyiv, Christie said he hoped Republican voters had begun to reconsider which of their partys candidates will have the bandwidth to grapple with the really complicated issues that the next president will have to deal with  including Ukraine  and who is going to be dealing with trying to keep themselves out of jail.

Christie also told the Post that some of his fellow GOP contenders, including Trump, DeSantis and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy are giving people a false choice, which is Well, we can only do one thing; we can either improve things in the States or we can help Ukraine, calling that a ridiculous statement.
The State Library of Iowa has announced Bettendorf Public Library and LeClaire Community Library have met the conditions for state accreditation. Achieving accreditation requires a significant, ongoing local commitment to high-quality library services.

The accreditation status began July 1, 2023, and is valid through June 30, 2026.

Of Iowa's 543 public libraries, 414 are accredited. Iowa's accredited public libraries are recognized for being responsive to communities and for exhibiting excellence in the provision of library services.

Accredited libraries receive a higher rate of compensation through the State Library's Enrich Iowa program. They also receive a Certificate of Accreditation signed by Governor Kim Reynolds, Lieutenant Governor Adam Gregg, State Librarian Michael Scott and Iowa Commission of Libraries Chair Zachary Stier.

For more information on the accreditation program, or to view the Public Library Standards, go to https://www.statelibraryofiowa.gov/index.php/libraries/search/accred-stand.

Close Andrea Martinez, a science teacher at West Liberty High School, holds a sheep heart while leading a free dissection science workshop for area teens at the Rock Island Public Library on Monday, July 10, 2023. Thirteen-year-old Liam Houtekier, who attends Washington Junior High School in Rock Island, inspects a sheep heart while dissecting a "pluck" (the heart, liver, lungs and trachea of an animal specimen) at a free dissection science workshop at the Rock Island Public Library on Monday, July 10, 2023. Lillie Estes, 15, of Sherrard, dissects a sheep "pluck" (the heart, liver, lungs and trachea of an animal specimen) at a free dissection science workshop at the Rock Island Public Library on Monday, July 10, 2023. Thirteen-year-old Liam Houtekier, who attends Washington Junior High School in Rock Island, examines tissue under a magnifying glass while dissecting a sheep "pluck" (the heart, liver, lungs and trachea of an animal specimen) at a free dissection science workshop at the Rock Island Public Library on Monday, July 10, 2023. Siblings Alex (17, left) and Emma Heath (13, right) dissect a sheep "pluck" (the heart, liver, lungs and trachea of an animal specimen) at a free dissection science workshop at the Rock Island Public Library on Monday, July 10, 2023. Siblings, Alex (17, left) and Emma Heath (13, right) dissect a sheep "pluck" (the heart, liver, lungs and trachea of an animal specimen) with science teacher Andrea Martinez at a free dissection science workshop at the Rock Island Public Library on Monday, July 10, 2023. Lillie Estes, 15, of Sherrard, dissects a sheep "pluck" (the heart, liver, lungs and trachea of an animal specimen) at a free dissection science workshop at the Rock Island Public Library on Monday, July 10, 2023. See area teens poke and prod sheep specimens at free dissection science workshop: A glimpse into the free dissection science workshop at the Rock Island Public Library on Monday, July 10, 2023. Andrea Martinez, a science teacher at West Liberty High School, holds a sheep heart while leading a free dissection science workshop for area teens at the Rock Island Public Library on Monday, July 10, 2023. Thirteen-year-old Liam Houtekier, who attends Washington Junior High School in Rock Island, inspects a sheep heart while dissecting a "pluck" (the heart, liver, lungs and trachea of an animal specimen) at a free dissection science workshop at the Rock Island Public Library on Monday, July 10, 2023. Lillie Estes, 15, of Sherrard, dissects a sheep "pluck" (the heart, liver, lungs and trachea of an animal specimen) at a free dissection science workshop at the Rock Island Public Library on Monday, July 10, 2023. Thirteen-year-old Liam Houtekier, who attends Washington Junior High School in Rock Island, examines tissue under a magnifying glass while dissecting a sheep "pluck" (the heart, liver, lungs and trachea of an animal specimen) at a free dissection science workshop at the Rock Island Public Library on Monday, July 10, 2023. Siblings Alex (17, left) and Emma Heath (13, right) dissect a sheep "pluck" (the heart, liver, lungs and trachea of an animal specimen) at a free dissection science workshop at the Rock Island Public Library on Monday, July 10, 2023. Siblings, Alex (17, left) and Emma Heath (13, right) dissect a sheep "pluck" (the heart, liver, lungs and trachea of an animal specimen) with science teacher Andrea Martinez at a free dissection science workshop at the Rock Island Public Library on Monday, July 10, 2023. Lillie Estes, 15, of Sherrard, dissects a sheep "pluck" (the heart, liver, lungs and trachea of an animal specimen) at a free dissection science workshop at the Rock Island Public Library on Monday, July 10, 2023.
The Village of East Davenport will have a new food option this fall.

What BBQ & Bar has been in LeClaire for the last four years and will be adding a second location in September. The newest place to get barbecue will be inside the bar D'Ville, at 2228 E. 11th Street, Davenport.

What BBQ co-owners, and wife and husband, Shill and Mike Hunter are friends with the owners of D'Ville.

"We've always joked around and said we need to do something together," she said.

Before long, customers caught on to the friendship and encouraged What BBQ to join the fold. In a matter of weeks, an agreement was made.

Shill Hunter said she hopes to start serving food in September as long as the licensing and move-in work out alright. What BBQ will keep it's LeClaire location open and serve inside D'Ville from 3 p.m. until 10 p.m., but that could fluctuate once things get going, she said.

Minus fried foods, What BBQ will serve its full menu, including ribs and brisket, and will be giving out free samples on Sunday, Aug. 6, from 3-5 p.m. Customers are encouraged to come out and get to know the staff, Hunter said.

Thats our thing with our location in LeClaire. We are very upfront and we talk with people and I dont want it to change just because it's going in somewhere else, she said, adding she's looking forward to getting to know new customers and their favorite menu items.

Adding a second location comes with its own set of challenges, but Hunter said knowing she's moving in with friends makes it much easier. Both establishments were looking for a change, and this one worked out perfectly.

"We just said, 'Let's do this together and grow and expand together and see what happens,'" she said. "It's a good expansion for us."

Faith Lutheran Church welcomes City of Moline employees for lunch
A Blue Grass man was arrested Thursday for allegedly possessing child pornography, Davenport Police said.

Nicholas Keitaro Munger, 29, is charged in Scott County District Court with one count of possession of a depiction of a minor in a sex act-first offense.

The charge is an aggravated misdemeanor under Iowa law that carries a prison sentence of two years.

According to the arrest affidavit filed by Davenport Police Officer Matthew Johnson, on May 4, 2021, Davenport Police took a report of an adult male attempting to hypnotize a boy on a school bus the previous day. The man was identified as Munger.

A search warrant was executed on Mungers home on May 5, 2021, and 15 electronic devices were seized for which additional search warrants were granted.

During a search of the devices, a single image depicting a minor female in a state of nudity was located on three of the devices. One of those devices was Mungers iPhone which had been seized from his person at the time of the search warrant.

During a first appearance on the charge Thursday in Scott County District Court, Magistrate Ryan Beckenbaugh scheduled a preliminary hearing in the case for Aug. 11, and set Mungers bond at $2,000, cash only.

Munger was released the Scott County Jail after posting bond.
A Davenport man has been arrested for allegedly purchasing firearms and then selling the guns to prohibited people, including friends and street gang members, after obliterating the serial numbers.

Kaleb Cole Barton, 23, is charged in Scott County District Court with one count of providing false information in acquiring a weapon.

The charge is a Class D felony under Iowa law that carries a prison sentence of five years.

According to the arrest affidavit and a search warrant filed by Davenport Police Detective Cpl. Daniel Reeves, between May 2021 and February of 2023, Barton purchased 18 firearms and selling the weapons to people for a profit.

To purchase the firearms, Barton made false statements on ATF Form 4473.

Police arrested Barton on Wednesday on one charge relating to the purchase of a Glock 26 9mm pistol. On Nov. 26, 2022, Barton purchased the weapon from Davenport Guns. On ATF Form 4473, he provided a false address, a false declaration of narcotics use, and a false declaration of being the actual buyer-transferee of the firearm. During a post-Miranda interview, Barton admitted to purchasing the gun for a friend.

According to the search warrant, Davenport Police were tipped off to the scheme in January by a confidential source. The source told Reeves that Barton was purchasing firearms and selling them to juvenile members of the Savage Life street gang in Davenport.

The source told Reeves that Barton would purchase the weapons from various gun stores. Barton would then scratch off the serial numbers and sell them for twice the price.

In messages over Facebook, Barton admits to having firearms for sale and listed the sale prices.

A special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives aided in the investigation and found that Barton purchased 18 firearms in the past two years, and that the last purchase was on Nov. 26, 2022.

According to the search warrant, as Reeves was conducting separate gun and narcotics investigations in February of this year, he discovered further information that Barton was supplying guns. Additionally, Barton has been selling marijuana and marijuana wax.

Barton was booked into the Scott County Jail at 4:40 a.m. Wednesday. During a first appearance in Scott County District Court on the charge, Magistrate Stephen Wing scheduled a preliminary hearing in the case for Aug. 22.

Wing then released Barton from jail on Bartons own promise to appear at future court proceedings.

Federal authorities could take over the case under Project Safe Neighborhoods. Instituted in 2001, Project Safe Neighborhoods is a Justice Department initiative that brings together law enforcement at all levels to reduce gun violence.

Under federal law, before December 2022, a person providing false statements on Form 4473 could be sentenced to up to 10 years in federal prison. Any false information provided on Form 4473 after December 2022 carries a maximum prison term of 15 years.

There is no parole in the federal prison system.
A Davenport man whose criminal history includes convictions for trafficking in cocaine base at both the federal and state levels was arrested Wednesday for allegedly selling powder cocaine, Davenport police said.

Dale Ganaway Lucas, Jr., 38, is charged in Scott County District Court with one count each of possession with the intent to deliver between 40-200 grams of cocaine base and possession with the intent to deliver between 100-500 grams of cocaine.

Each of the charges is a Class B felony under Iowa law, which carry a prison sentence of 25 years.

Lucas also is charged with one count of possession with the intent to deliver no more than 40 grams of cocaine base, a Class C felony that carries a prison sentence of 10 years. He also is facing three counts of violating Iowas drug tax stamp law, each of which is a Class D felony that carry a prison sentence of five years.

According to the arrest affidavits filed by Davenport Police Officer Benjamin Piotter, at 11:26 a.m. Wednesday, members of the Davenport Police Departments Narcotics Unit made contact with Lucas at a convenience store in the 3100 block of Rockingham Road in connection with a drug trafficking investigation.

Lucas was driving a 2023 Chrysler Pacifica that officers searched.

From the drivers side door pocket, officers seized 12.5 grams of cocaine base that had been separated into three plastic bags ready for sale. From under the radio officer seized 2.8 grams of marijuana. Officers also seized $779 in cash from the center console.

Officers then served a search warrant at Lucas home in the 6500 block of Cedar Street.

From the basement they seized a total of 82.85 grams of cocaine base that was hidden in a vacuum cleaner, two digital scales with cocaine residue and packaging materials that were in a shoe box.

From the kitchen officers seized 224.15 grams of powder cocaine located in a flour bag in the cabinets. Also seized from the kitchen were three Pyrex dishes found underneath the sink. Officers also seized baking soda used for cutting the cocaine, packaging materials and a vacuum sealer.

From the northeast bedroom officers seized $350 in cash that was hidden in a womans bathrobe, another $320 that was located in a brown paper bag on a table, 2.6 grams of psychedelic mushrooms in the TV stand as well as some THC wax.

During a first appearance on the charges held Thursday in Scott County District Court, Magistrate Ryan Beckenbaugh scheduled a preliminary hearing in the case for Aug. 11.

Lucas was being held Thursday night in the Scott County Jail on a $60,000 cash-only bond.

Lucas has twice been convicted for selling cocaine and cocaine base, once at the federal level and once at the state level.
The apartment building known as The Davenport partially collapsed 67 days ago.

The May 28 tragedy claimed the lives of three men, took the leg of a woman, and displaced dozens of residents. For weeks there was a mountain of debris where the six-story building once stood. Now, just down the block in the Scott County Courthouse, there are mounting piles of lawsuits, motions and filings.

The lawsuits name building owner Andrew Wold, and the city of Davenport, among others, as defendants.

Since the collapse, seven suits representing 19 plaintiffs claim negligence and, in one case, wrongful death. Since those suits were filed, Wold and the city have filed answers to charges and motions to dismiss some of the suits.

There have been multiple motions to dismiss cases filed by Wold and the city.

Whether to include claims of emotional distress

July 24 - The attorneys for Wold argued against building resident Broc Nelson's claims of emotional distress and based their argument on the assertion that Nelson was not physically injured in the collapse.

Nelson's attorney's responded to the motion to dismiss and argued that as owner of building, Wold had a duty to prevent emotional harm to the people who lived in the building. Nelson's attorneys went on to note Nelson lost personal belongings, photographs and heirlooms that cannot be replaced.

Amputee's claims for emotional distress challenged

July 27 - Both the city and Wold have asked for the dismissal of the claims of negligent infliction of emotional distress made by Quanisha White-Cotton Berry and Lexus Berry. Quanisha had her leg amputated to be freed from the wreckage of the building. They filed the suit June 7.

The city's motion argues "Iowa does not recognize negligent infliction of emotional distress as an independent cause of action." Wold's motion is based on the same interpretation of state law.

Call to dismiss because plaintiff in another suit

Aug. 1 - Andrew Wold, Davenport Hotel, LLC and Andrew Wold Investments, LLC filed a motion to dismiss the suit of Mildred Harrington and Rijeh Garnett. Wold attorney Mark Thomas, as well as Patrick Woodard and Brian Fairfield of Brooks Law Firm, argued the case should be dismissed for two reasons: Harrington is a named plaintiff in another suit and violated the state law against claim splitting; and Garnett only claimed emotional distress and economic loss. According to Iowa law, the attorneys assert, those claims cannot be made if there is no physical injury.

Trying to dismiss claim for emotional distress

Aug. 3 - Wold's attorneys filed a motion to dismiss the June 5 suit filed by Dayna Feuerbach. Wold seeks the dismissal of the claim for negligent infliction of emotional distress. Other defendants have made similar motions to dismiss Feuerbach's claims of emotional distress.

City, Wold respond to allegations

Wold and the city have answered various allegations made in the suits filed against them.

Wold attorneys: 'Plaintiffs had assumption of risk'

June 20 - Wold Investments, LLC responded to allegations filed by Broc Nelson and denied negligence.

The Wold attorneys' arguments included the claim that the plaintiffs failed to "mitigate damages" and that each had an "assumption of risk."

The attorneys also said the claims of all six plaintiffs should be barred because of their "contributory or comparative negligence." They also argue that "any damages were solely or partially caused by the actions or inactions of other parties or non-parties."

City says it had no control over those at fault

July 18 - The city responded to the wrongful death suit filed by Branden Colvin Sr.'s family. Colvin was killed in the collapse and his body was recovered June 3.

In the filing, the city's attorney argued Davenport has qualified immunity. The city also argued the Colvin family's damages "were caused by the fault of individuals and entities over whom the city has no control."

City: Plaintiffs failed to mitigate damages

July 25 - Wold's attorneys responded to the suit filed by Jennifer Smith, Dionte McMath, Brandy Wheelhouse, Michelle Vivians, Phillip Brooks and Mildred Harrington. Once again, the arguments included the claim that plaintiffs failed to "mitigate damages" and that each had an "assumption of risk."

As in the answer to the Nelson suit, the attorneys said the claims of all six plaintiffs should be barred because of their "contributory or comparative negligence." They also argued that " ... any damages were solely or partially caused by the actions or inactions of other parties or non-parties."

City says it's immune from litigation

July 28 - Attorneys for the city of Davenport responded to the negligence suit filed on June 2 by Mildred Harrington and Rijeh Garnett. Attorneys for the city, Jason O'Rourke and Alex Barnett, claim the city cannot be held negligent for the collapse of the building because the city is immune from litigation.

Immunity claims answered

In response to allegations of negligence in the building collapse, the city has claimed immunity. That claim has been answered, so far, by the attorneys for one group of former residents.

Plaintiffs say city failed to enforce codes

July 3 - Former chief building official for the city Trishna Pradhan and the city argued against a suit filed June 9 by Smith, McMath, Wheelhouse, Vivians, Brooks, and Harrington.

Pradhan and city claimed immunity from any claims.

The attorneys for the six plaintiffs responded to those immunity claims on Aug. 3 and argue that their initial suit met the requirements to pursue their case against Pradhan and the city. That initial suit said Pradhan and city failed to meet its duty to the residents of The Davenport by failing to enforce violations of the city code and for not forcing the owner to take action to prevent the building from collapsing.

Photos: Demolition continues Tuesday on the collapsed The Davenport apartments
Robyn Shattuck, 10, and her brother Rhett, 8, walked up to pet Argo, East Moline Police Lt. David Rummerys German shepherd.

Argo was more than happy to let the kids pet him. The 8-year-old K9 with a sleek black coat has been with Rummery since 2016 and loves when he gets attention from children.

Argo was one of the main attractions Tuesday as the Moline and East Moline Police departments, supported by the cities fire departments, held their joint National Night Out Against Crime at Molines Ben Butterworth Parkway.

He loves kids, Rummery said of Argo. That is one of the big things we look at when we do dog selections is the ability to be social in certain environments.

As Moline Police Officer Eric Schultz showed off how his K9, Annie, performs a drug search, and children petted Argo, Rummery said, We try to maintain a good level of social work with them and still do the task at hand. These demos are nice, getting a lot of people out here, a lot of exposure. Its good acclimation for them. Its a great training opportunity in a controlled environment for us to continue to work.

There were plenty of activities for kids and adults alike.

Moline Deputy Police Chief Todd Noe was in the dunking booth, and the kids took their shots.

Santiago Ambriz, 7, scored a hit that sent Noe into the drink.

Santiagos mother, Rosie Ambriz, said she learned about the event from her sister.

Were having a blast, Ambriz said. Santiago, she said, got to go on the Army truck, the fire truck and the police car.

Santiago said that he wanted to drive them all.

The Army brought along a howitzer that got the attention of more adults than children, while the children wanted to climb through the truck.

Sitting in the chair of the face painter was Ben Long, 7. His mother, Vikki, said they live in Milan.

We have a couple of friends who are Coal Valley and Moline police officers so we came out here to support them, she said.

Rock Island County Sheriff Darren Hart made stops at the Moline-East Moline Night Out and Rock Islands, which was held at Longview Park. Hart said he was not surprised to see a large community turnout.

Our communities are so involved, they give great support to law enforcement, Hart said. We have great departments here.

Hart noted a statistic released Monday by the Rock Island County States Attorneys Office that overall crime in Rock Island County dropped 6.2% from 2021-2022, and a 5.59% drop in violent crimes and crimes against persons in Rock Island County during that same period.

Thats years of hard work, not only for law enforcement, but its the community, too, Hart said. Thats what happens when you start to build lasting partnerships. Its those interactions that we have every day and when you build those relationships you can see some tangible results. Thats what were starting to see.

For food and tasty fun, there was Little Caesars Pizza, Kona Ice and Holey Donuts.

There also was a petting zoo, compliments of P&C Little Rascals, where kids of all ages could feed and pet goats, a cow, geese and other animals. It was one of the most popular spots for the children.

Gloria Spencer, 12, of Waterloo, took the time to pet the goats. Gloria was there with her best friend, Lily Sellers, and they were taken to the event by Lilys mom, Rachel. The Sellers live in Davenport.

We saw an ad for it on Facebook from Moline Police and I figured that since we have my daughters best friend for the week we wanted to show her a good time, Rachel Sellers said.

I love animals. Gloria said.

Moline Police Officer Kara Larson was the lead person in planning Tuesdays event.

Well, Im a big animal lover so I had to incorporate animals somehow, Larson said. Thats why I thought of the petting zoo, because I enjoy petting zoos, still. I knew the little kids would.

Everything else came together with co-workers throwing out ideas that were very helpful, she said. A lot of people donated their time or their resources to this event and it turned out great.

Theres a lot of give-and-take, Rummery said of his relationship with Argo. That was a hard lesson, for me to trust the dogs ability for certain things.

There have been days that I thought the dog was off completely, but he goes out and finds a piece of evidence or finds something else or has a great success on a track, and then I have to apologize and take him to McDonalds and get him some nuggets or something.

National Night Out Against Crime
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Amazon's same-delivery delivery warehouses will be expanded as part of the e-commerce giant's efforts to strengthen its power in the consumer industry.

This initiative hints that Amazon.com Inc. wants to overtake competitors, such as Target when it comes to faster delivery services.

Amazon to Increase Same-Day Delivery Warehouses

According to Forbes' latest report, the giant retailer already offers its same-day delivery service in 90 metropolitan areas. This just shows that the delivery competition in the consumer market is getting more serious.

Because of this, Amazon said it will double the number of its warehouses, which will specifically focus on same-day deliveries.

These smaller warehouses will be closer to customers, unlike the traditional Amazon fulfillment centers.

"As we make these changes, we are seeing that they have the added benefit of reducing costs," said Worldwide Amazon Stores CEO Doug Herrington via Tech Crunch.

"Regionalizing our network reduces miles traveled and handoffs," he added.

Read Also: Rapper Diddy's Cannabis Company Dream Might Not Come True as $185 Million Merger Fails

Amazon Same-Day Delivery Effort's Other Details

Herrington shared more specific details about Amazon's same-day delivery expansion. The official said that since the start of 2023, the retailer was able to reduce the distance between its facilities and customers by 15%.

He added that Amazon now has 12% fewer touchpoints within the middle mile network.

Herrington further stated that improving product placements allow the e-commerce giant to make items and customers closer to each other.

Thanks to this, Amazon's delivery system is becoming more effective. Herrington also explained that the same-day delivery service of the retailer is important.

This is because this service is not only the fastest way to deliver Amazon products, but it is also considered one of the cheapest ways to get consumer products delivered.

The latest same-day delivery expansion initiative is a big deal for Amazon, especially since the items that its consumers purchased reached over 370 million during the recent Prime Day.

This is much higher compared to the achievement made by Amazon in 2022 with its two-day sale, which only sold 300 million items.

If you want to learn more about the latest effort of Amazon, you can click this link.

Related Article: CVS to Lay Off 5,000 Workers in Advance of Planned Expansion Into Healthcare

@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Rapid City likes big drinks that make them feel like theyre at the beach.

Thats what Jason Reinicke has learned since opening Ziggis Coffee in March. The coffee shop at 1001 E. North St., has been a well-liked addition to the busy corner of East North and Cambell Streets.

We sell more 32 ounce drinks than any other Ziggis, Reinicke said, noting that the coffee chain has locations in 18 states. Our 32 ounce drinks  nobody else (coffee shops) has that that Im aware of.

Its been fantastic. Everybodys been more than thrilled, he said.

Ziggis Coffee is a chain that began in Longmont, Colo., in 2004 and is continuing to grow nationwide. Rapid City has the first Ziggis location in South Dakota.

The chain prides itself on consistency and on some products customers wont find anywhere else. In addition to coffee and coffee drinks, Ziggis offers breakfast and lunch menus, gluten-free options and a kids zone menu especially for children.

We have our own energy drinks we make just for Ziggis. They wanted to have their own signature on everything, Reinicke said.

The Ziggi Energy Infusion Beach Bum is the customer favorite in Rapid City. Reinicke said the mix of coconut, blue raspberry and pineapple flavors makes people feel like theyre at the beach.

Reinickes personal favorite drink is Gold Rush, an iced coffee cold brew with caramel and cold foam. Reinicke appreciates Ziggis mission to provide customers with consistently good coffee and beverages.

They want to make sure if you went to Ziggis here, you can get the same drink in Wyoming or Colorado (or any of its other locations), Reinicke said.

Customers can find specials on the Ziggis app. During the Sturgis rally, Ziggis will have happy hour from 2 to 7 p.m., and they're is introducing their new, limited time Smores Blender. The drink, which can be made with or without coffee, combines toasted marshmallow, espresso, chocolate drizzle, graham cracker crumbs and whipped cream.

After managing Walmart and Hobby Lobby stores in Denver, Reinicke said he wanted to run a business he could call his own. He tried Ziggis Coffee in Denver and was drawn to its innovative menu and welcoming atmosphere.

Everybody is always happy at a coffee shop. I love that positive vibe of a coffee shop, he said. Ziggis CEOs are awesome, very down-to-earth friendly, and thats really what I was looking for. A family feel is important to me.

Local customers like it too, Reinicke said. Ziggis has become a popular spot for homeschoolers, church groups, and parents who bring their kids and come in simply to relax, knowing Ziggis offers child-friendly food and drink options.

Its not so much like a business. Its more like family, Reinicke said.

As a Ziggis customer, Reinicke was such a fan that he decided to open a franchise in Colorado. His wife, Celeste, traveled to Rapid City several times a year on business and always talked about how much she enjoyed the area. Reinicke pitched the idea of opening South Dakotas first Ziggis Coffee in Rapid City, and the Ziggis company liked it.

The Reinickes and their daughter, Evie, moved to Rapid City nearly three years ago. In preparation for opening his business and to spread the word about the new-to-South Dakota coffee chain, Jason wore Ziggis Coffee shirts for two years and owns more than 100 Ziggis brand shirts.

Moving to Rapid City and becoming an entrepreneur have been fantastic, Reinicke said.

The welcome has been awesome. Its been great being here in Rapid City, he said. We found our forever home.

Ziggis Coffee is open from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday and 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Go to ziggiscoffee.com for more information.
Ellsworth has welcomed its newest deputy commander of the worlds largest B-1B combat wing.

Col. Joshua Wiitala recently assumed the position as the 28th Bomb Wing deputy commander. Wiitala brings unique experiences to the 28th Bomb Wing, previously serving as an instructor pilot for both the C-17 Globemaster III and the B-2 Spirit. Additionally, he served as a staff officer focused on developing future capabilities for the nations bomber force at Headquarters United States Strategic Command (J8), Offutt AFB, Nebraska.

Prior to his current assignment, Wiitala served as a Deputy Division Chief at Headquarters Air Force (A10) where he worked on sustainment and modernization programs across the Air Forces Nuclear Command, Control, and Communications portfolio.

Wiitala received his commission through the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps at the University of Washington in 2003. He is a command pilot with more than 2,800 hours in the B-2, C-17, T-1, T-37 and T-38, including 245 combat hours.
A 17-year-old was arrested Thursday about 10 weeks after police identified him as a suspect in a shooting on East Signal Drive in Rapid City that left a 6-year-old boy wounded.

The Oglala Sioux Tribe Department of Public Safety arrested Lyle Blue Legs III on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, according to the Rapid City Police Department.

At about 9 a.m. on May 26, a 6-year-old was found with a gunshot wound in a residence on the 100 block of East Signal Drive. The injury was non-life-threatening, but the boy was taken to the hospital.

Shortly after the shooting, RCPD released a security photo of a man allegedly fleeing the scene and asked the public's help in identifying him. Later that day, police identified Blue Legs as the person in the image.

Since Blue Legs is a minor, the RCPD said they are working through the channels of the juvenile justice system.

If Blue Legs faces charges for his alleged involvement and those charges are severe enough, his case could end up in adult court.

In South Dakota, minors 16 and over who are charged with a Class A, B, C, 1 or 2 felonies are tried as adults.

Crimes such as murder, first-degree manslaughter and attempted murder fall within those parameters. However, aggravated assault does not.

A defendant can request a transfer to juvenile court. In that case, a transfer hearing is held before a judge, who can decide whether to move the case.

As of Friday afternoon, a search of South Dakota's court system did not show any pending charges against Blue Legs. Juvenile cases are not public.
Safety in bear country

As the grizzly bear population continues to expand across Montana, there are steps residents can take to minimize human/bear conflicts. FWP recommends storing garbage in an IGBC-certified bear-resistant bin or other similarly reinforced container or inside a building until the day of disposal. Do not put garbage out the night before pick-up. Avoid leaving food or smell attractants next to windows, doors or outside walls. Do not leave pet food, bird feeders or bird seed out. Secure barbecues and smokers in hard-sided buildings when not in use. Bears are attracted to fruit-bearing trees and bushes, gardens and compost piles. FWP recommends routinely picking fallen and ripe fruit. Electric fencing can be effective at deterring bears as well. Secure vulnerable livestock (chickens, goats, sheep) with an electric fence whenever possible.

Its also important for people recreating in bear country to be aware and take steps to avoid conflicts. FWP recommends that people make sure to carry bear spray and know how to us it. Travel in groups whenever possible and plan to be back to your vehicle in the daylight hours. Avoid carcass sites and concentrations of ravens and other scavengers. Watch for signs of bears such as bear scat, diggings, torn-up logs and turned over rocks. Make noise, especially near streams or in thick forest where hearing and visibility is limited  this can be the key to avoiding encounters. Most bears will avoid humans when they know humans are present. And above all, if you see a bear, do not approach it.

For more information on being bear aware, visit fwp.mt.gov/bear-aware.
By Nava Thakuria





Soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi advocated for the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) during a meeting at Bhopal in central India, the nation starts debating aggressively over the one nation one rule policy. PM Modi strongly argued that two laws in one house should not be accepted and the nationalist leader even linked it with the rights of Muslim women. As the State assembly elections are due in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana (need not to talk about the national polls) early next year, PM Modis argument was denounced by the opposition parties questioning the governments intention.





Ahead of general elections, the opposition leaders belonging to the Congress, DMK, AIMIM, Janata Dal (United), Rastriya Janata Dal, Bharat Rashtra Samity, Trinamool Congress, etc have criticised the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party-led alliance for propagating the UCC with an aim to get undue electoral benefits. They argued that the UCC will destroy Indias diversity & pluralism, and hence its implementation is no necessary. All India Muslim Personal Law Board strongly opposed the UCC claiming that it was planned only to target the Muslim population of India.





Even though the UCC remains a preferred issue for the saffron leaders, many politicians from northeast Indian States of Mizoram, Nagaland and Meghalaya (who are even political allies to the ruling BJP) expressed dissatisfaction over the development. The Union government in New Delhi is assumed to place the bill in the ongoing monsoon session of the Parliament.





Amidst the intriguing debates, Assam government in north-eastern region plans to go ahead with a new law banning polygamy, State chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma revealed that his government was planning to introduce a bill in the upcoming State legislative assembly session scheduled for September with an aim to ban the practice. Insisting on prohibiting polygamy so that a male irrespective of his religion can be stopped marrying more than one spouse at the same time, the BJP leader revealed that its almost zero among the educated families (comprising indigenous Muslims) in the State.





Men having multiple wives (definitely not vice versa) was a common practice in ancient India. From the emperors to kings and landlords to influential individuals all enjoyed the practice (though with guidelines that wives should be treated equally) as it was not prohibited in earlier days. After Indias independence in 1947, voices were raised against the practice in the largest democracy of the globe and then came the Special Marriage Act 1954 and Hindu Marriage Act 1955, which outlawed polygamy for Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, and Sikhs (with exceptions to some tribal communities and residents of Goa).





However, the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act 1937 allows a Muslim man to marry up to four women at a time. Even the conversion to Islam (from other religions) permitted a man to have more than one wife. The Supreme Court later declared this kind of religious conversion as unconstitutional in 1995.




India's top court on Friday suspended the defamation conviction of Rahul Gandhi, a decision that could pave the way for the senior opposition politician to return to parliament after his disqualification.





Gandhi, 53, was sentenced to two years' imprisonment in March in a case that critics have said showed threats to the rule of law in the world's largest democracy.





He was turfed out of the legislature as a result but has stayed out of jail while appealing the case up to the Supreme Court in New Delhi.





A justice there said that the initial trial judge had failed to justify imposing the maximum sentence on Gandhi for his comments, made during a campaign rally four years ago.





"The order of conviction needs to be stayed pending final adjudication," Justice B.R. Gavai said in his ruling.





News of the decision was greeted with jubilation at the headquarters of Gandhi's opposition Congress party, where supporters handed out sweets and cheered his triumphant arrival.





"I would like to thank the people who helped us and the people who loved and supported us," he told reporters.





Gandhi is the scion of India's premier political dynasty and the son, grandson and great-grandson of former prime ministers, beginning with independence leader Jawaharlal Nehru.





His Congress was once the dominant force of Indian politics but has withered in the face of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its nationalist appeals to India's Hindu majority.





Gandhi himself has lost two elections to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has cast his chief as a princeling out of touch with the concerns of ordinary Indians.





- 'Gravely detrimental' -





The conviction stemmed from a remark made during the 2019 election campaign when Gandhi had asked why "all thieves have Modi as (their) common surname".





His comments were portrayed as a slur against the prime minister and against all those with the same surname, which is associated with the lower rungs of India's caste hierarchy.





Anyone sentenced to a custodial term of two years or more is ineligible to sit in India's parliament, forcing Gandhi's expulsion from the body in March.





Gandhi's 731-page submission to the Supreme Court said his speech was made "in the course of democratic political activity".





His sentence was "gravely detrimental to democratic free speech", added the document, which his party provided to AFP.





Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said the party would now work to secure Gandhi's return to parliament.





But he added that he did not expect the BJP-controlled legislature to move quickly on the court's decision.





"It took only 24 hours to disqualify Rahul Gandhi," he told reporters. "Now we will see how many hours they will take to reinstate him."





The case -- one of several lodged against Gandhi in recent years -- had until Friday only been heard by courts in Gujarat, Modi's home state.





Legal action has been widely deployed against opposition party figures and institutions seen as critical of the Modi government during its nine years in power.




MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian President Vladimir Putin told his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday that Moscow was ready to return to the Black Sea grain deal as soon as the West met its obligations with regard to Russia's own grain exports.





The deal, brokered by Turkey and the United Nations in July 2022, allowed for the safe export of grain from Ukraine's Black Sea ports. Last month Moscow exited the deal, accusing the West of hampering Russia's own grain and fertiliser exports.





In a statement on Putin's call with Erdogan, the Kremlin said: "It was noted that in the conditions of a complete lack of progress in the implementation of the Russian part of the 'grain deal', its further extension has lost all meaning."





It added that Russia would return to the deal "as soon as the West actually fulfils all the obligations to Russia" contained within it.





Russia's grain and fertiliser exports are not subject to Western sanctions imposed on Moscow over its military actions in Ukraine. But Moscow has said restrictions on payments, logistics and insurance have been a barrier to shipments.





The U.S. envoy to the United Nations said on Tuesday there were "indications" that Russia might be interested in returning to talks about the deal. Asked about those comments on Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stressed the need for the West to honour parts of the deal concerning Russian exports.





'BRIDGE OF PEACE'





Erdogan's office said the Turkish leader had emphasised the importance of avoiding steps that could jeopardise the resumption of the Black Sea grain deal, which he described as a "bridge of peace".





The two leaders also agreed that Putin would visit Turkey, it said. A senior Turkish official said that discussions between Ankara and Moscow were ongoing for a visit in late August.





Earlier on Wednesday, Russia attacked Ukraine's main inland port on the Danube River, sending global food prices higher as Moscow ramps up its use of force to reimpose a blockade of Ukrainian grain exports.





The port, across the river from NATO-member Romania, has served as the main alternative route out of Ukraine for grain exports since Russia reintroduced its de facto blockade of Ukraine's Black Sea ports in mid-July.





The deal aimed to alleviate a global food crisis, and grain prices have risen since Moscow let it expire on July 17. Ukraine and Russia are both leading grain exporters.




CAIRO (AP)  A leading human rights group called Friday on the United States and the United Nations to impose further sanctions on the Sudanese individuals "responsible for the atrocities" in Darfur, as evidence of scorched-earth attacks mount.





The northeast African country plunged into chaos in April when monthslong tensions between the military, led by Abdel Fattah Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, commanded by Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, exploded into open fighting in the capital of Khartoum, and elsewhere. In Darfur, the scene of genocidal war in the early 2000s, the conflict has morphed into ethnic violence, with RSF and allied Arab militias targeting African communities in the western region, U.N. officials say.





In a press release, Human Rights Watch said Washington should impose targeted sanctions to "ensure that the UN Security Council finally acts to protect civilians and to hold those responsible for the atrocities to account. The U.S. is set to take over the presidency of the U.N. Security Council later this month.





The New York-based watchdog group said at least seven villages and towns have been almost completely burned to the ground or destroyed in West Darfur alone, according to satellite footage and testimonies analyzed by the group. These include Habilla Kanari, Mejmere, Misterei, Molle, Murnei, Gokor, and Sirba.





The world should not stand by as town after town in West Darfur is burned to the ground, sending tens of thousands of civilians fleeing for their lives, said Tirana Hassan, executive director at HRW.





In June, the U.S. imposed sanctions against four key companies either linked to or owned by the warring factions. The White House also placed visa restrictions on army and RSF officials, and leaders from the former government led by Omar al-Bashir. It did note specify which individuals were affected.





Last Month, Karim Khan, a prosecutor from the International Criminal Court, told the United Nations that he would be investigating alleged new war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Darfur.





HRW's call for sanctions comes just days after Amnesty International separately accused both warring parties of committing extensive war crimes including deliberate killings of civilians and mass sexual assault. Amnesty said almost all rape cases were blamed on the RSF and its allied Arab militias.





In its 56-page report, HRW said the RSF abducted 24 women and girls  as young as 12 -- and held them for several days during which they were raped by several RSF members."





The nearly four month conflict in Sudan has killed more than 3,000 people and wounded more than 6,000 others, Health Minister Haitham Mohammed Ibrahim said in televised comments in June. The true tally is likely much higher, according to doctors and activists.





Meanwhile, the fighting has forced another 4 million people to flee their homes either to safer areas inside Sudan or to neighboring countries, according to figures from the U.N. migration agency.








Kathmandu, Nepal, August 4, 2023: A clash erupted in the district jail in Jhapa on Friday against the transfer of the prisoner watchman.





The inmates staged a demonstration by burning tires inside the prison and pelted stones from inside. The police had to use blank to control the chaos.





It is said that after clash was erupted after the prison administration decided to transfer four prisoners to Jhumka prison, along with the prisoner watchman Manoj Lavati.





After the protest of the prisoners, some prisons attempt had attempted to flee way.




SALEM, Ore.  He called it "Operation Take Over," with a list that included a chilling reminder to go after women who wouldn't be missed to avoid "any kind of an investigation," according to the FBI.

Accompanying the bullet-point notes was a sketch of an apparent dungeon, to be built with cinder blocks, foam insulation and waterproof concrete.

Police found the legal pad with the notes in the southern Oregon home of a man who is now a suspect in sexual assaults around the country. Also in the home: a cinder block cell where police say the man, Negasi Zuberi, held a woman he had allegedly kidnapped in Seattle until she escaped by pounding at the door with bloodied hands.

Court and police records show Zuberi, 29, had been on law enforcement's radar before  for offenses such as punching someone in the face and being a bad tenant whose landlord sought to evict him.

The FBI set up a website asking anyone who believes they may have been a victim to come forward. The site says the FBI's investigation has extended to states where Zuberi, who used several aliases, including Sakima, previously resided since August 2016. Those states could include California, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Utah, Florida, New York, New Jersey, Alabama and Nevada, the site says.

"Sakima has several different methods to gain control of his victims, including drugging their drinks, pretending to be a police officer, and soliciting the services of sex workers and then violently sexually assaulting them," the FBI said on the website. "Some of the encounters may have been filmed to make it appear as if the assault was consensual."

In the Seattle kidnapping on July 15, Zuberi solicited a woman for prostitution in an area known for sex work and afterward posed as an undercover police officer, the FBI said Wednesday. He handcuffed her, put her in leg irons and drove to Klamath Falls, Oregon, stopping to rape her on the way, according to court documents. After the woman escaped, Zuberi fled but was arrested by state police in Reno, Nevada, the next afternoon, the FBI said.

Zuberi is married and has a child, but the FBI did not say whether they were living in the Klamath Falls home and declined to answer questions about them.
The United Nations (UN) Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has issued its latest Food Price Index (FPI), which averaged 123.9 points in July, up by 1.3% from June after an increase in vegetable oil and rice prices.

The rise also reflected Russia's withdrawal from the Black Sea Grain Initiative after the Kremlin refused to renew the deal in mid-July and even began threatening ships exporting grain from Ukraine.

Food Down the Black Sea Drain

The Russian invasion of Ukraine, two of the world's leading breadbaskets prior to the war, has become the primary reason why food prices peaked in 2022, leading to a global food crisis, especially to nations in parts of Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, where millions are struggling with hunger.

According to the Associated Press, the world was still rebounding from the price hikes, as well as disruptions brought about by COVID-19, when the grain deal expired.

With Russia's withdrawal from the UN- and Turkey-brokered deal which protected it from the crossfire because of the war in Ukraine, there are new risks that grain ships and other civilian vessels would be targeted by Russia more often after Ukraine's remaining major port, Odesa, has been pummeled multiple times in the past few weeks by Russian drone and missile strikes.

Because of the disintegration of the grain deal, international wheat prices rose by 1.6% in July, the first increase in nine months, according to FAO chief economist Maximo Torero.

Read Also: Russia Issues Warning Against Exporting Grain From the Black Sea, Attacks Ukrainian Ports

The latest @FAO Food Price Index is out!



Global food commodity prices rose in July, influenced by the termination of the Black Sea Grain Initiative and new trade restrictions on rice.https://t.co/wuPRM9DIAe  FAO Newsroom (@FAOnews) August 4, 2023

Rising Rice Prices

In addition to grain from Russia and Ukraine, India's trade ban on some varieties of non-Basmati white rice was also a cause for concern, which prompted hoarding of the staple in the Indian diaspora across the world. The restrictions were imposed late last month after an earlier-than-expected El Nino brought drier, warmer weather in some parts of Asia, which would cause harm to rice production.

As a result, rice prices rose by 2.8% in July and 19.7% this year to reach their highest level since 2011, the FAO said. The increase would be particularly difficult for sub-Saharan Africa as they are a key importer of the staple, Torero added.

Weather Also Affects Food Production, FAO Economist Says

Aside from wheat and rice, the FAO also noticed an upward trend for both vegetable oil (12.1%) and sunflower oil (15%). According to CNN, the price of vegetable oil could be influenced by crude oil because it is used in the production of biofuels.

Torero said the world would face shortages and demand imbalances in the long run if export restrictions and weather-induced production shortfalls would continue, leading to a "lack of food access because of increasing prices and potential food insecurity" even if food supplies remain stable.

"That transmission from lower commodity prices to the final consumer prices, which include other components like logistics and other products we produce - bread, for example - is not yet happening in developing countries," he added.

Related Article: UK Intel Says Russia's Black Sea Fleet Preparing to Blockade Ukraine's Ports

@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Authorities said Friday that a motorist who died in a crash on Interstate 95 in Chesterfield County on Thursday afternoon was a veteran Richmond firefighter.

We are mourning the tremendous loss of Firefighter Rodney Coles, on what would have been his 15th anniversary with the City of Richmond Fire and Emergency Services, the agency posted on Facebook on Friday.

Virginia State Police said in a statement that Coles, 49, of Petersburg was driving a 2003 Subaru sedan southbound when it ran off the road and hit bushes near the exit for state Route 620 at around 3:45 p.m. He was pronounced dead at a hospital, police said.

Officials have not released details about what caused the crash. Coles was wearing a seat belt, police said.

During times like this, it is good to reflect upon the positive contributions that Rodney Coles made to the community where he served as a firefighter since Aug. 4, 2008, said Chief Melvin D. Carter in a notification to fire department staff. One way that we may honor our brother firefighter is by keeping his family in mind.

Grief counseling and peer support are available to staff who need assistance, the department said.

State police said the crash is under investigation.

From the Archives: Jackson Ward in the 1970s and 80s
Transgender students and their families across Virginia are bracing to find out what policies local school boards will implement in response to new state guidance.

While some school divisions across Virginia have already denounced the new guidance and expressed intent to formally reject it, the Henrico County school systems administration has not taken a firm stance.

It is our goal for Henrico schools to be a safe, welcoming learning environment for all students, staff and families. HCPS practice is to thoughtfully review model policies and compare them to our existing policies, procedures and regulations to assess the need, if any, for changes, said Eileen Cox, a spokeswoman for the school system.

This allows us to determine how to best serve our students, staff and families within the parameters of the law and the divisions strategic plan  Destination 2025.

But the Henrico teachers union says its worried that the divisions lack of willingness to take a stance could lead to the bullying of transgender students by adults. Patrick Miller, president of the Henrico Education Association, said it is embarrassing that Henrico has not taken a firm stance like that of Richmond Public Schools.

Less than a day after the state released its new model policies, RPS Superintendent Jason Kamras took a public stance.

At RPS, our motto is to Teach with Love. That means embracing and protecting our students for exactly who they are. So I will recommend to the Board that we maintain our current policies on transgender students and reject the state's new model guidance.  Jason Kamras (@JasonKamras) July 19, 2023

At RPS, our motto is to Teach with Love. That means embracing and protecting our students for exactly who they are, Kamras tweeted July 19. So I will recommend to the Board that we maintain our current policies on transgender students and reject the states new model guidance.

Concerns about public comments

Miller said that regardless of the stance Henrico eventually adopts, he is most immediately concerned that the review process will invite bullying of children by adults during public comment time at School Board meetings.

Mr. Kamras and other superintendents have issued well-reasoned statements outlining why the policies will not be adopted in their districts, and when the model guidance first became public last school year, Miller said. It was my understanding that (Henrico Superintendent Amy) Cashwell and I agreed that it was completely contrary to the shared mission and values of HCPS and the HEA.

All children in Virginia deserve to have a parent engaged in their life and to be treated with dignity and respect.



I am committed to ensuring that every parent is involved in conversations regarding their childs education, upbringing and care.https://t.co/eywLB6h15n  Governor Glenn Youngkin (@GovernorVA) July 18, 2023

The Henrico schools spokeswoman said she was not aware of any specific conversations between Cashwell and Miller, but that the school division is committed to being respectful to all students and that any decision the school system makes will be targeted at creating a nurturing and welcoming environment for all students to feel supported.

Metros in Virginia where jobs are growing fastest Metros in Virginia where jobs are growing fastest #9. Richmond #8. Lynchburg #7. Virginia Beach #6. Blacksburg #5. Roanoke #4. Charlottesville #3. Staunton #2. Winchester #1. Harrisonburg
The Republican-led Richmond Electoral Board after an outcry of criticism from the public and citizens voted unanimously Friday to rescind a decision to shutter two early voting polling sites. Even as it reversed course, it then made the controversial move to eliminate early voting on Sundays.

Today the Electoral Board voted to open Hickory Hill Community Center and City Hall. These two satellite locations will open the first day of Early Voting, Friday September 22nd.  Office of Elections (@RVA_Votes) August 4, 2023

The boards decision comes after numerous city and state officials, community organizers and residents came forward to denounce the plan, citing it as discriminatory since the two locations targeted to be closed  one at City Hall, 900 E. Broad St., and the other at Hickory Hill Community Center, 3000 E. Belt Blvd.  are located along public transit lines and in predominantly Black and Hispanic neighborhoods.

While the Electoral Board opted to overturn the vote in a special meeting, it also did not have the legal power to make the call in the first place. It is the role of the Richmond City Council to determine polling locations and funding for the decision, according to a letter issued by City Attorney Laura Drewry.

The board does have the power to determine hours and days of operation, which it exercised at the same meeting voting 2-1 to eliminate early voting on Sundays  a decision that was also criticized as discriminatory.

The Office of Elections, 2314 W. Laburnum Ave., quickly filled early Friday as dozens packed into the typically near-empty second-floor boardroom.

Prior to the boards decision to rescind its previous week-old decision, it heard from several people, including J.J. Minor, president of the Richmond NAACP chapter; Richmond City Council President Michael Jones; 2nd District Councilwoman Katherine Jordan; Rae Cousins, a Democratic candidate for the House of Delegates in District 79 in Richmond; as well as citizens, all critical of the boards decision.

Jones said shuttering the locations would drastically impact South Side residents who may not have adequate access to public transportation.

I strongly believe in the principles of equal access to the democratic process and the importance of removing obstacles, Jones said. Closing early voting sites in areas with significant Black populations directly hinders their ability to exercise their fundamental right to vote.

Voting locations created three years ago

The two locations were established in 2020 and upheld by the City Council in an ordinance outlining polling places this year. The spots were chosen along bus lines and included to make them more accessible to residents who lack adequate transportation.

The initial, now overturned, decision would have left only the home office off Laburnum Avenue open to the public  a 20- to 30-minute drive for South Side residents. The location is not along the citys bus route.

Electoral Board Chair C. Starlet Stevens addressed the audience with a statement regarding its decision to eliminate the locations, claiming it was strictly budgetary.

Stevens said the registrars office last year tallied nearly 3,000 votes at the two satellite polls, which ultimately cost the city $100,000. As a result, Stevens said, those 2,844 votes did not justify keeping the polls open this year given the cost.

The cost is astronomical when you compare how many people are coming in to vote versus what the city of Richmond is spending, Stevens said. I will emphatically state that this was not to suppress any other voters in the city.

Early voting locations typically are open for 45 days. The office faced controversy last year when it advertised the opening of three locations but ultimately failed to operate one of them with numerous people coming forward to vote and finding the doors locked.

While the location eventually opened, it did not operate for the full 45 days, which could have affected the total votes reported by Stevens at the meeting.

Jordan, who spoke before the board Friday morning, said there should not be a price tag attached to votes. Additionally, Jordan said it is not the Electoral Boards business to consider funding when the City Council is in charge of allocating funds.

You cannot put a price on exercising your right to vote, Jordan said. I dont care if one person votes, you cannot put a price on access.

Earlier this year, the City Council approved the fiscal year 2024 budget that includes the needed $100,000 to fund the operations of the two locations.

Mayor: I am disappointed to see them vote to close Sunday early voting

When asked if there were other expenses the board planned to use with the funding, Stevens shrugged and said she did not know, but it plans to replace equipment and increase security.

While the board rescinded its previous vote, it voted in favor, with one lone Democrat opposing, to eliminate early voting on Sundays. Operating on Sundays would have a drastic effect on people who work the polls, according to Stevens, claiming they would have to work seven days a week.

My thoughts on the Richmond Electoral Board reversing their decision to close two early voting locations. pic.twitter.com/JbEM83NLdB  Mayor Levar M. Stoney (@LevarStoney) August 4, 2023

Mayor Levar Stoney said the decision to eliminate Sunday early voting is disappointing and will have an impact on Black voters.

While I celebrate their decision to reverse course, I cannot hide the fact that I am disappointed to see them vote to close Sunday early voting locations  a time where many Black and Brown Richmonders cast their ballots, Stoney stated in a release.

Early voting at all three locations will start Sept. 22 and conclude Nov. 5.

From the archives: A look back at Richmond-area firefighters
Following the rise and fall of Prohibition, the city was ready to solidify itself as a beer town, and the New Jersey-based Gottfried Krueger Brewing Co. was ready to help put the River City on the map.

When the company announced its plan to launch the first-ever canned beer, it put Richmond up for the task. The fate of its success and the revolutionary new invention rested in the hands of all of the citys beer drinkers.

On Jan. 24, 1935, Richmond became the first city in the world to drink ale from a can.

Richmond has been chosen as the city in which first experience is to be gained in selling canned beer because of its being what is known in merchandising circles as an ideal test market, The Richmond News Leader announced in the Jan. 23, 1935, edition.

While the brewing company announced its plan to introduce its new patented cans, the process began decades prior with companies racing to build a can that could withstand the pressure from the carbonation.

https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-richmond-news-leader/129445932/ Article from Jan 23, 1935 The Richmond News Leader (Richmond, Virginia)

After numerous trials and errors, the American Can Co. launched its first state-of-the-art keg-lined can boasting the ability to withstand 80 pounds of pressure.

In 1933, Kruegers, in partnership with American Can, decided it would try out canning its beers after receiving feedback that the beer tasted more like draft than in bottles.

With a launch date set for early 1935, general manager John Krueger needed to land on a location to launch the companys beers. While its distribution chain spread from the Northeast, the farthest south it went was Richmond.

With numerous cities to choose from, the company ultimately chose to launch in Richmond because it was a city which has a steady prosperity and a stable buying element and was a good cross-section of the types of individuals to be found in the average market.

Additionally, with the city being the farthest on its distribution line, if it were to fail, the company would not face as many repercussions as it would if it were closer.

So, in late January, Kruegers Finest Ale as well as its non-alcoholic cream sodas hit the shelves, and the city rejoiced.

Richmonders bragged about the cans for their ability to free up fridge space. Additionally, folks did not have to pay any more cash deposits for bottles.

One Richmonder wrote a piece in the June 22, 1935, Times-Dispatchs Letter to the Editor section, joking about the efficiency of the cans and stating canned beer is going to revolutionize fighting tactics at those old-fashioned picnics.

The company and their coined special beers quickly brought in the money as more and more people sought out the canned ales. Soon, other companies like Schlitz, began rolling out their own cans with cone tops.

By the end of the year, they had revolutionized the market.

About this story "From the Archives" is a series of stories exploring the history of Richmond and the reqion through the files of The Times-Dispatch. Have a topic you'd like us to check out? Email reporter Em Holter at eholter@timesdispatch.com and visit richmond.com to see more from our archives.

While Kruegers introduced the cans, it would soon see its demise in the years to follow as larger brewing companies monopolized the region.

Eventually, Kruegers folded into the larger New England classic Narragansett Brewing. While they are no longer brewing, their legacy lives on with each cracked cold one.

For Richmond, the milestone helped launch the city into the beer world and establish itself as one of the biggest beer towns in the country, with a brewery on every corner slinging brews of both the canned and bottled variety.

Remember this? 17 archive photos of Regency Mall
Call them a rapids response team.

A new initiative connecting fire departments throughout the Richmond area is working toward improving emergency responses along the James River. Fire and rescue members from Richmond and Chesterfield, Hanover and Henrico counties teamed up at Brown's Island on Friday for water rescue training as part of the Regional River Response group.

The multiagency effort, which will also include Hopewell and Goochland and Powhatan counties, was created to maximize speed and efficiency when responding to calls at the river.

I think the catalyst for this started last year when we had some folks go over the Boshers Dam, and we lost two people in that effort, said Henrico Fire Deputy Chief of Operations Jim Courtney.

We decided regionally that we needed to bolster our response to better serve the community and protect our first responders from injury or having an issue like that.

Motorist killed in Chesterfield crash was longtime Richmond firefighter Virginia State Police are investigating a fatal crash that occurred on Interstate 95 at around 3:45 p.m. Thursday.

Multiple rescue divisions worked together for days to search for and eventually recover the two women who fell over Boshers Dam on Memorial Day last year.

Multiple deaths have occurred along the James River this year, including one at Hollywood Rapids in May and another between Belle Isle and Brown's Island in July.

After months of collaboration, the regional emergency teams came up with a formal partnership to address emergencies at the river.

The emergency crews are familiar with one another, having taken part in quarterly technical rescue trainings together. The water rescue trainings occur once a year, typically on the James River.

Its the best urban whitewater in the country, so it provides a great training ground, said Chesterfield Fire & EMS Capt. Jerry Pruden.

On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, three groups took to the river for scenario-based training, which included testing their boat, rope and swimming skills.

A specialized rig called an artificial high directional was used to practice lifting people and boats onto a bridge if the first responders cannot reach the shore.

Members of the response team role-played as victims in need of rescuing. The departments trained in mixed groups to increase familiarity with people they do not usually work with.

Seeing a familiar face from other jurisdictions and having a pre-formed relationship makes things more efficient, said Hanover Fire-EMS Capt. Caleb Wilson. Communication is better, and the overall operation happens faster.

Pruden pointed out that another benefit of having a multiagency group is that one jurisdiction may have certain specialized equipment that another does not.

The response group also plans to start using geographic information systems to automatically deploy resources. The emergency communications centers will use GIS to dispatch the three closest municipalities instead of relying on the on-scene incident commanders for regional requests.

It gets us all in route around the same time, and it gets us there around the same time, Courtney said. It not only gets us a more robust footprint, but it gets us there in a much quicker time frame.

Additional supporting agencies include Virginia State Police, the Richmond Ambulance Authority, the Richmond Police Department, the Henrico Division of Police, the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources and the Metro Richmond Flying Squad.

The Flying Squad is a volunteer organization that provides support to first responders, such as water on hot days and hot beverages on cold days.

While the Regional River Response group is enhancing its response capabilities, the biggest message it wants to relay to the public is water safety, so that incidents along the James will be limited.

Be careful on the river; dont go beyond your capabilities if you cant swim, said Assistant Fire Chief Jeffrey Segal of the Richmond Fire Department. The river dynamics can change within hours, so use caution and common sense.

From the Archives: The Great James River Raft Race Great James River Raft Race, 1976 Great James River Raft Race, 1976 Great James River Raft Race, 1976 Great James River Raft Race, 1976 Great James River Raft Race, 1977 Great James River Raft Race, 1977 Great James River Raft Race, 1977 Great James River Raft Race, 1977
A former backer of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis presidential bid has made a second $1 million donation to Gov. Glenn Youngkins Spirit of Virginia PAC, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.

Billionaire Thomas Peterffy, founder and chairman of Interactive Brokers, donated $1 million to Youngkins PAC on Thursday after previously donating $1 million to the PAC on April 20.

While Youngkin says he is focused on this falls legislative elections that will settle control of the House of Delegates and the state Senate, Peterffy is holding out hope that Youngkin will make a late bid for the GOP presidential nomination.

Peterffy said in a July 26 interview with Fox Business that he thinks Youngkin would be an ideal candidate for the GOP.

I very much hope that hes going to enter the race, said Peterffy, adding that he thinks Youngkin could win a general election.

The Messenger reports that on Friday Wilbur Ross, who served as then-President Donald Trumps commerce secretary, was scheduled to play host to Youngkin and GOP donors at Ross mansion in the Hamptons.

While Youngkin was to speak about his effort to retain control of the House and gain control of the state Senate, some of the donors reportedly are also interested in the idea of a late presidential run by Youngkin.

The governor, who has been touting a GOP push for early voting, continues to say he is flattered by such national attention, but that he is focused on the elections that he calls Virginias midterms.

Im so humbled when people say this to me, Youngkin said in an interview this week with Laura Ingraham of Fox. Youngkin added: Im so focused on Virginia this year.

Alluding to the GOP sweep for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general in 2021, Youngkin said: We have a chance, (within) 24 months, to take a state that was completely blue  statewide led, the legislature  and in 24 months turn it Republican. And I think we must get this done.

Youngkin also weighed in on the latest indictment of Trump, alluding to what he termed a two-tiered justice system.

This two-tiered justice system on display is eroding everyones trust in our legal system, Youngkin said. The reality is that if youre in the opposition party, youre treated one way and, if youre a friend of the party in power, then youre treated a completely different way.

In Washington on Thursday, Trump pleaded not guilty on federal counts that he sought to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, which Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

Youngkin tops President Joe Biden in Virginia in a hypothetical 2024 presidential matchup, according to a poll that Virginia Commonwealth Universitys L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs released Thursday.

Youngkin received 44% of the potential vote to 37% for Biden. If the candidates were Biden and Trump, Biden would receive 43% to Trumps 40%, according to the survey. If Biden and DeSantis were the candidates, each would receive 41%.

The poll of 804 Virginia adults was conducted July 14-25 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 5.46 percentage points.

Biden beat Trump in Virginia by 10 percentage points in 2020.

From the Archives: Richmond buildings that are no longer around
Group held against their will rescued from Cancun hotel

Cancun, Q.R.  A group of illegal migrants were removed from a Cancun hotel Thursday in a coordinated operation. The operation was lead by agents of the Secretariat for Citizen Security in a central Cancun hotel where the group were reportedly being held against their will.

At least three patrol units were seen parked outside the Cancun hotel on Jose Lopez Portillo Avenue around 1:00 p.m. The people from inside are said to be from Nepal, India, Venezuela, Honduras, Colombia and China.

They were removed from the hotel and transferred to a city shelter in the police units. The operation is the result of a follow-up by relatives of two Colombian who were reported missing in Cancun.

According to a Thursday afternoon briefing by the Secretaria de Seguridad Ciudadana (SSC), they rescued people of different nationalities in Cancun. In a coordination job, the Secretary of Citizen Security of Quintana Roo managed to rescue several people of different nationalities that they kept hidden in a hotel in the center of the city of Cancun.

The people are in a safe shelter. They have been medically evaluated. They are proving their immigration status before the competent authorities. Complete information will be released shortly through the official networks of this agency, the SSC posted, however, as of reporting Friday morning, there was no SSC or FGE update.
Lopez Obrador says he will propose creating a drug reserve bank

Mexico City, Mexico  President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador raised the possibility of creating a drug reserve bank to ensure supplies when needed. On Thursday, Lopez Obrador said it would be created with the purpose of ensuring the supply of medicines and providing medical units around the country when required.

Now to give a definitive solution to the shortage, we are going to propose () a warehouse with all the medicines, all the medicines in the world in reasonable quantities so that when there is a shortage in a hospital, there is a drug reserve bank and we are going to do it, he said during his Thursday morning press conference.

The idea is to have all the medicines, even the most specific and difficult to find, to take them to any region from Mexico City. It will be proposed to the officials of the health sector in the coming days.

For example, if there is a need in a hospital, the drugs will be transported immediately by air or road to the place where they are required, he said.

AMLO said that the IMSS Bienestar Health Plan benefits 14 of Mexicos states which register levels of more than 90 percent in the supply of medicines.

That is why we are advancing in social security, the health program, that all people have the right to be cared for in a health center, in a hospital, that they can undergo surgery, that they have all the medicines, all for free.

That health is a right, not a privilege, that it is not required to have money to go to a clinic, to be treated in the case of an illness. That is our ideal, we are going to advance and we are going to achieve that goal, we are getting there, he said.
Mexico extradites two men to face outstanding murder charges in U.S. courts

Mexico City, Mexico  Two Mexican nationals wanted in American courtrooms have been extradited to the U.S. On Thursday, both Christian M and Jorge R were handed over to U.S. federal authorities at the Mexico City International Airport.

According to a statement by the the Attorney Generals Office of the Republic (FGR), Christian M was wanted by the Superior Court of the State of California for the County of Los Angeles for the crime of homicide.

He has been wanted by the California court since January 2008 for shooting a man in the back with a shotgun, killing him. In March of this year, he was located and detained in Naucalpan, State of Mexico.

Jorge R was also sent to the U. S. to face murder charges. In their statement, the FGE reported that in 2010, Jorge R suffocated a man causing his death. He was arrested in Guadalajara, Jalisco in December 2022. The FGR did not state where in the U. S. Jorge R was sent.

Both fugitives were handed over at the Mexico City International Airport (AICM) to designated U.S. agents for their transfer.
Miami man detained at Cancun International after customs finds wads of unclaimed cash

Cancun, Q.R.  An American traveler has been detained inside the Cancun International Airport for traveling with unclaimed money. On Thursday, the SSPC (Secretaria de Seguridad y Proteccion Ciudadana) said an American passenger who had arrived from Miami was arrested after customs located over $32,000 USD in cash.

Personnel from the National Customs Agency of Mexico (ANAM) alerted National Guard personnel who detained the American man who tried to enter to the country with $32,400 dollars in cash without declaring it, the SSPC reported in their statement.

Cancun customs agents made the search after noticing several wads of 100-dollar bills inside a fanny pack. During a routine luggage inspection, the unclaimed money was found inside his fanny pack and inside in his carry-on hand luggage.
The Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency is suing Elon Musk's social media platform, X, over a "clear refusal" to discuss the remuneration of news on the platform.

The news agency confirmed that a lawsuit has been filed in Paris in an attempt to get the information on the calculation of fair compensation on sharing content the social media platform. This is in accordance with the EU law in 2019 which requires online platforms to discuss remuneration for news with publishers.

Read Also: Rebranded Twitter is Getting One-Star Reviews Since the Change

Compensation for News Organizations

Other news organizations have been rallying and advocating so that big online companies such as Meta, X, and Google will share the generated profits from hosting their news content.

In 2021, Australia proposed the Media Bargaining Law. While Meta initially restricted publication and sharing of news content in the region, both parties have come to an agreement and was able to restore the publication flow in the area.

Similarly, Canada has started to require tech companies to compensate publishers in the region. As of August 3, Meta has began blocking news for Facebook and Instagram.

Musk's History With Traditional News Organizations

Musk is known to be a critic of traditional news organizations. He had also described AFP's lawsuit as "bizzare".

Regardless, AFP have remained firm on its commitment to advocate for the rights of the press, specially on online platforms.

"The Agency will continue to employ the appropriate legal means with each relevant platform to ensure the fair distribution of the value generated by the sharing of news content," AFP explained.

Related Article: X.com Sues Nonprofit for Starting a 'Scare Campaign' Against It
Two dozen killed after passenger bus rolls down 40-meter deep ravine

Tepic, Nayarit  Two dozen people were killed after a passenger bus rolled down a 40-meter deep ravine. The bus accident happened in the tourist state of Nayarit early Thursday morning.

According to a report by Gobierno del Estado de Nayarit, the accident happened around 4:10 a.m. in an area called Barranca Blanca on the new North Bypass approximately 3 kilometers before the Trapichillo Booth.

The Attorney Generals Office reported the State Police attended an accident involving an Elite bus line vehicle which was traveling toward Mazatlan, Sinaloa after leaving Mexico City. Its final destination was Tijuana, Baja California.

Along the way, the bus left the road and fell into a ravine approximately forty meters deep. The Attorney General reported that from the investigation, it is clear that the majority of the passengers are foreigners originating from countries such as India, Dominican Republic and from the African continent, among others, some of whom were heading to Tijuana to cross into the United States.

Two dozen people were reported killed when the passenger bus rolled into the ravine. Photo: Gobierno del Estado de Nayarit August 3, 2023.

From the information obtained so far, it is known that around 42 people were traveling in the bus and that the driver at the time of the accident was Francisco Javier N, 42 years old, originally from Guadalajara, Jalisco, who is in custody as likely responsible for the events.

A second driver was on board in the cabin area, named David N, who at that moment was sleeping since he had previously driven from Mexico City to Guadalajara, Jalisco, where he was relieved by the driver who is detained.

The vehicle was in fair mechanical condition with no damage to its braking system, however, it was found that the units tires showed noticeable wear. It is considered that the traffic event arose due to the lack of caution in driving by the driver of the reference vehicle, when traveling without limiting its speed, exceeding the permitted limits, which are a maximum of 80 kilometers per hour, causing it to lose control.

More than 100 elements were deployed at the scene. The state agency added that it has been possible to confirm that the total number of deaths after the mishap is 24 people, three of which were minors. Only 15 of the deceased have been identified.
In 1994 a momentous change unfolded at the southern tip of Africa as the oppressive regime of apartheid came to a peaceful end. The African National Congress (ANC) and its revered leader, Nelson Mandela, took the reins of power, and at first glance everything progressed perfectlyliberal democracy had won the day. By 1997 foreign direct investment (FDI) to South Africa had surged to comprise 2.3% of the GDPSouth Africa was rising!

Fast-forward to 2023 and suddenly South Africas minister of electricity is warning that stage 8 load shedding is a possibility, meaning that South Africans can expect to be without electricity for up to 12 hours in a 24-hour cycle during the coming winter. How did it ever get this bad? The South African slump can only be understood if the ideology and vision of the ruling ANC, and the devastation that it has brought, is understood. The social constructs of representivity and patronage, both diametrically opposed to the traditional idea of merit and of the common good, were key instruments in the hands of the ANCconstructs that have of late become quite popular in developed countries, making the South African example all the more relevant.

By 1988 the world was by most accounts a changing place. In this fated year, the general secretary of the South African Communist Party, Joe Slovo, wrote a pamphlet entitled The South African Working Class and the National Democratic Revolutiona document that explains the authors and the ANCs vision for the coming new South Africa. On the second page of this 33-page pamphlet, Slovo writes:

We do not claim that we have a monopoly of wisdom. But, equipped with the theoretical tool of Marxism-Leninism and the inheritance of an unmatched wealth of revolutionary experience, it is not immodest for us to assert that our Party is uniquely qualified to help illuminate the correct analytical path.

At a first glance this paragraph seems beyond belief. All around him Marxism-Leninism was failing, nay, collapsing, but yet he who would soon be a key member of the negotiations for a new South Africa, he who would in 1994 become the first minister for housing under the Mandela administration, refused to accept that this system had failed. Slovo did write an article with the title Has Socialism Failed? in 1989, but here he simply blames Stalinism for the USSRs failures, reiterating that socialism still maintained its inherent moral superiority.

Many in the West are surprised by the idea that the ANC was deeply entrenched in Marxism-Leninism. The pictures they had been shown were of a democracy; they had been told of a liberal constitution, one of the very best ever written, one that was ensuring that South Africa would prosper, that it would become a beacon of light for the rest of the world. What the world saw was, in the famous words of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a Rainbow Nation at peace with itself, but at home its policies were informed by what the ANC calls the National Democratic Revolution, or the NDR.

While the ANCs initial opposition to semiautonomous provinces in 1993 might have been a warning sign to some, by 1995 South Africa opened an institution that seemingly confirmed parity with the West more than any others: its first McDonalds. After the 1994 elections, loans from the IMF and World Bank flooded in, and FDI soared. Yet, while all this was going on, the ANC was pursuing policies of revolution, or revolution from the top. The Slovo pamphlet mentioned above closes with the words:

The winning of the objectives of the national democratic revolution will, in turn, lay the basis for a steady advance in the direction of deepening our national unity on all frontseconomic, political and culturaland towards a socialist transformation.

Andre Duvenhage, a South African professor of political science, identifies three phases of this revolution, this NDR: gaining of political control, redistribution of production factors, and promotion of social equality[i].

The first phase sees the phenomenon of patronage imported into the governing apparatus. The ANC has done this by what it calls cadre deployment, defined as the appointment by a governments governing party of a loyalist to an institution, as a means of enhancing public reporting-lines and ensuring that the institution stays true to the mandate of the party. Cadre deployment is then, essentially, the appointment of people who are first and foremost loyal to the party, a faction of the party, or a person. Critically, it is not the appointment of a government employee based upon the ability of said employee to complete the relevant tasks and assume the relevant responsibilities as set out in the description of this particular position. Such a consideration, which might be called merit, is the second consideration at best.

The second and third phases of the NDR see it expanded to the sphere of private business by means of representivity. Representivity is a measure of how well a deliberative decision-making process or body represents various constituent groups. This has been interpreted to mean that if a company of government, or any force of employees, is not composed of a percentage of persons from certain groups in similar relation to how society at large is comprised, it is not representative.

The most common global application has been that a body must be composed of equal parts male and female members, but in South Africa it has been primarily understood to mean that all organizations, both public and private, must strive toward a representivity of 80, 9, 9, 2 meaning 80% black, 9% white, 9% coloured, and 2% Indian. It should be stated that in the case of the South African government and its Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment laws of 2013, these formulas are the primary consideration for getting government contracts as well as in government departments. Without representivity, you need not apply.

While the topics of gender and racial representivity are hot at the moment and have caused many to lose jobs or friendships, what makes the South African example relevant to the rest of the broadly democratic world is the inherent and fundamental ideas that gave rise to it in the first place. These ideas, as it will be indicated, stand in contrast to merit, and in contrast to the recipe that has shaped much of the global economy as we know it.

Few authors have so sharply criticized the ANC over the past two decades as Koos Malan, a South African professor of jurisprudence. In his 2019 book, There Is No Supreme Constitution, Malan defines the role of government:

The responsibility of the government, consisting of the apparatus of public office-bearers of the polity, [is] to safeguard justice through governing in the interest of the whole of the polity (the public good); to exert legitimate force as prescribed by the applicable law when necessary in the event of unlawful conduct, and to fend off external threats.

Malan then presents the antithesis to this:

Power might be abused to the detriment of smaller or larger parts of the citizenry instead of serving the whole of the body politic.

The primary consideration of the government should, if this line is to be followed, be the common good, the bonum commone. That a government should act in this way is not a new idea. As James Madison writes in Federalist 10:

Complaints are everywhere heard from our most considerate and virtuous citizens, equally the friends of public and private faith, and of public and personal liberty, that our governments are too unstable, that the public good is disregarded in the conflicts of rival parties, and that measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority.

In the rest of this now famous piece of political philosophy, Madison explains that the causes of faction are normal because people differ, therefore what must be controlled are the effects. The point of contact to todays topic is the idea that the public good may not be disregarded in the conflicts of rival parties.

While very clearly expressed, the idea that state appointments should be made primarily on merit and not primarily on loyalty or patronage is not original to Madison but can be seen at least as early as the 1760s in the civil reforms of Friedrich the Great of Prussia, who modernized that region to an extent that is difficult to overstate. These reforms, while new in practice, were based on ideas that were not new at all. The Western idea of merit goes back at least to Aristotle, who in his Politics (book III, chapters 11 and 12) founds what we would today call merit.

Since in every art and science the end aimed at is always good, so particularly in this, which is the most excellent of all, the founding of civil society, the good wherein aimed at is justice; for it is this which is for the benefit of all.

Later in this same line, Aristotle would famously state

With respect to musicians who play on the flute together, the best flute is not given to him who is of the best family, for he will play never the better for that, but the best instrument ought to be given to him who is the best artist.

When considered against this backdrop, any public service appointment that departs from primarily considering the question of merit is a distortion of what government is inherently supposed to do. Such an appointment departs from serving the public good. This includes the idea of cadre deployment and most definitely deployment as it is currently applied by the ANC and its cadre deployment committee.

Many voices, learned voices among them, are currently asking: Is merit really that important? What damage does it really do to negate it? Surely all political parties employ people who are broadly loyaldoesnt representivity redress historic wrongs?

The answer to these and similar questions consists of at least two parts. The first is that a government position is fundamentally a job created out of necessity, a necessity that dictates its responsibilities. Considered with regards to the common good, the only or at least the first question must be whether the appointed applicant is better than all other comers at assuming the responsibilities that gave rise to this position.

The second part of the answer is that a government position is not a trophy that should be given as reward for loyalty or for struggle in the name of the party. Such a view of governmentthat it is a collection of resources from which party loyalists are to be rewardedlies at the heart of a corruption culture, a culture that South Africa knows all too well.

Serving the whole means acting in the service of the common good, which entails appointing officials primarily based on their ability to take up and manage their public responsibilities. Any deviation from this principle must immediately concede that the common good in the simplest incarnation thereof was not served.

Given the current ideological climate, many are willing to concede that social justice or an attitude of redistribution was the primary consideration for some or all of its appointments, and while some members of society might temporarily accept or even encourage such behavior, the example of South Africa shows that a compromise in the case of merit is eventually followed by a downward ability to deliver basic services.

This essay was adapted from a lecture given at the Scruton V.P. cafe in Budapest on May 24, 2023.
If giant turbines atop a Botetourt County mountain ever convert wind to electricity, it will not be until late 2025  a decade after the plan was first announced.

Apex Clean Energy says it hopes to begin major construction of its proposed wind farm next summer or fall, and complete it by the end of the following year. Earlier plans had called for work to begin this summer.

A detailed site plan for how 13 turbines, each 643 feet tall, will be arranged and built along a ridgeline of North Mountain has yet to be approved by Botetourt Countys community development department.

We are still working through the site plan process with the county and expect to conclude that review later this year, Brian OShea, a spokesman for Apex, wrote in a recent email.

Called Rocky Forge Wind, the renewable energy project has been slowed by permitting delays, legal action from opponents, design changes, the COVID-19 pandemic, and a lengthy search for a buyer of the power it will produce.

When Apex first announced its plans in 2015, the Charlottesville-based company said the turbine blades would be spinning by late 2017  making Rocky Forge the first onshore wind farm in Virginia.

Its not uncommon for such projects to be delayed for years, often by a slow-moving approval process, according to the American Clean Power Association.

A permitting system that was designed to protect against harm has paradoxically become the greatest obstacle to modernizing our energy infrastructure and achieving our environmental goals, the associations CEO, Jason Grumet, wrote in a recent opinion piece for Utility Dive, a news source for the energy and utility industry.

OShea said discussions with Botetourt County officials about the Rocky Forge site plan have included adjustments and refinements along the way, so the timing isnt unusual from our experience.

The county recently received resubmitted plans from the company and is currently reviewing the material, according Nicole Pendleton, director of community development.

Headwinds confronting Apex are not limited to permitting issues.

In January 2016, the Botetourt County Board of Supervisors granted a special exception permit for Rocky Forge. Final approval came in March 2017 from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.

Construction never started, as Apex spent the next two and a half years looking for a utility or other purchaser of the 75 megawatts of electricity the wind farm would produce at peak capacity.

A deal was finally struck in October 2019, with Dominion Energy agreeing to purchase the power and then sell it to the Commonwealth of Virginia as part of the states plan to fight climate change by using more wind and solar energy.

By then, changes in wind technology prompted Apex to reduce the number of turbines; current plans are for 13 instead of 25 as originally proposed. But they will be taller  at the 643 feet per turbine, about twice the height of the Wells Fargo tower in downtown Roanoke  than the earlier maximum of 550 feet. Those changes required a new round of permit applications, which have since been approved.

Then the pandemic hit, delaying construction again. The contract between Apex, Dominion and the state expired at the end of 2021 and was not renewed.

At the time, Apex said it was confident a new buyer would be found in the next few months. A year and a half later, the company is still looking. Discussions with potential customers are ongoing, OShea said.

Meanwhile, the company and DEQ have faced lawsuits from opponents who say the turbines will mar the scenic landscape of northern Botetourt County, kill birds and bats that fly into their rotating blades, cause other environmental damage, and produce low-frequency noise and shadow flicker.

A group of about a dozen Botetourt County and Rockbridge County residents have three cases pending. They are asking the Virginia Court of Appeals to reverse a decision by a Botetourt County judge upholding DEQs second approval of the wind farm.

And in the countys circuit court, they are seeking to overturn two decisions from the Botetourt County Board of Zoning Appeals: a finding that Apex was entitled to an extension of a site plan deadline because of the pandemic, and an approval for a concrete-making facility near the construction site.

The plant would be temporary, existing only long enough to produce concrete needed for the bases of the turbines. Opponents say it would nonetheless pollute a nearby creek and cause other damage to the surrounding forestland.

In their court filings, opponents have outlined what they call Rocky Forges laissez-faire attitude toward both regulatory compliance and environmental conservatism.

On the other side of the debate, clean energy advocates say fast action is needed to address a growing climate change crisis.

Dan Crawford, chair of the Sierra Clubs Roanoke Group, said the continuing delays are confusing, at best.

The International Energy Agency ranks wind as second only to hydropower as the worlds most productive source of renewable energy, said Crawford, whose group has endorsed Rocky Forge.

It is no surprise that all neighboring states except Kentucky have wind farms, he wrote in an email. Were running out of time, and the disturbing uptick in extreme weather globally due to rapid climate change is making more believers by the millions.

Although there have been other proposals to build wind farms in the mountains of Virginia, none has advanced as far as Rocky Forge. Apex is the sole developer so far to seek a permit from DEQ, said Irina Calos, a spokeswoman for the agency.

Only nine states in the country currently have no land-based wind farms, according to the American Clean Power Association. All are in the Southeastern region, where wind strength and duration is relatively low.

Off the coast of Virginia, Dominion Energy is planning a major, 176-turbine wind farm in the Atlantic Ocean, about 25 miles east of Virginia Beach.

Efforts to test the wind in Botetourt County date back to at least 2009. BP, a multinational oil and gas company that is expanding to renewable energy, placed a meteorological tower in the northern part of the county to gauge the wind power. Nothing ever came from that.

Were in a marginal area for wind power to be efficient, said Steve Clinton, who was on the countys Board of Supervisors at the time and has since rejoined the governmental body.

That may be why the only offer to date for the electricity to come off North Mountain has been from the state government. Maybe, Clinton said, they cant find a buyer without the commonwealth subsidizing the cost.
Since leaving the White House in January 2021, former President Donald Trump has become public enemy No. 1 in the eyes of the Department of Justice and several district attorneys.

To date, Trump has been charged with 34 felonies by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg for falsifying business records. The 45th president faces more than 40 felony counts in the investigation concerning classified documents at his Florida home in Mar-a-Lago. And he has been charged with four felonies by Special Counsel Jack Smith for his role in the Jan. 6 incident. Trump is also expected to be charged for his role in the supposed plot to overturn the Georgia election results.

If convicted on just a few of these charges, Trump could spend the rest of his life in prison.

Trump is the only former (or current) president to be charged with criminal activity. Coincidentally or not, Trump is the only president to be impeached twice.

A strong argument can be made that most of these charges are political in nature.

Consider the charges levied by Bragg, who boasted during his campaign that he would leave no stone unturned in his quest to charge Trump. The case Bragg is prosecuting was not pursued by his predecessor or the Federal Election Commission.

As for Special Counsel Jack Smith, his conviction on bribery charges levied against former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell was overturned by the Supreme Court.

And while the Justice Department and district attorneys pull out all the stops to put Trump behind bars, they conveniently downplay and slow walk investigations against Trumps political opponents.

The Justice Department refused to seek charges against former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton for deleting 33,000 government emails or her attempt to smear her 2016 opponent, Trump, with the false Steele dossier.

Most incredibly, the Justice Department has refused to investigate appropriately Hunter Biden and his father, President Joe Biden, aka the "Big Guy," even as the evidence of Hunters shady deals with foreign governments  including China, Russia and Ukraine  increases daily. According to recent whistleblower testimony, the Justice Department intervened and prevented a robust investigation into a bevy of alleged crimes perpetuated by Hunter Biden.

And lest we forget Hunter Bidens infamous laptop, which allegedly documents a litany of crimes? Unbelievably, Hunter was recently offered a sweetheart plea deal in which he would avoid a single day of jail time.

Meanwhile, the GOP-led investigation into the Biden family reveals suspicious activity pertaining to banking transactions from foreign oligarchs. This comes on top of bombshell testimony by Hunters business partner, Devon Archer, who acknowledged that then-Vice President Biden had contact with Hunters overseas business clients.

Fortunately, the American people see through this charade. A recent poll suggests the vast majority of Republicans, and half of all Americans, believe the wave of charges against Trump is politically motivated.

On the other hand, a recent poll shows about half of Americans believe Hunter Biden is being given preferential treatment.

The U.S. justice system has been corrupted and weaponized. Trump is just one example. This should be disconcerting to all Americans, regardless of political affiliation. As Eleanor Roosevelt once said, Justice cannot be for one side alone but must be for both.
FLORENCE, S.C.  Florence County Sheriffs Office deputies arrested two Florida residents on charges of transporting drugs, receiving stolen goods, and possessing burglary tools.

Willie Johnson, 28, and Tyki Nathaniel Collins, 19, were speeding down I-95 in a black Mazda, according to sheriffs deputies. The deputies said they smelled marijuana when they stopped the car.

While searching the vehicle, deputies found over 10 suboxone strips, an opioid, and over 10 oxycodone tablets, also an opioid. Allegedly, neither Johnson nor Collins had a prescription for the medicine.

The search also revealed credit cards, IDs and clothes which did not belong to the two passengers and which were confirmed to be stolen from Michigan.

Burglary tools were also found in the car.

Johnson and Collins are being held at the Florence County Detention Center while awaiting a bond hearing.

Johnson is charged with possession with Intent to distribute Section 2 controlled substances, possession with intent to distribute Section 3 controlled substances, receiving stolen goods and possession of burglary tools.

Collins is charged with the same.
 Sentencing Project releases "Ending Mass Incarceration: Safety Beyond Sentencing" | Main | After another federal indictment, another set of federal sentencing issues for former Prez Trump 

August 3, 2023

Florida complete its fifth execution of 2023, more than its total in prior five years

As reported in this AP piece, a "Florida man who recently dropped all legal appeals was executed Thursday for the 1988 murder of a woman who was sexually assaulted, killed with a hammer and then set on fire in her own bed." Here is more:

James Phillip Barnes, 61, was pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m. following a lethal injection at Florida State Prison in Starke.... The 61-year-old inmate was sentenced to death for the murder of nurse Patricia Patsy Miller. It was the fifth execution in Florida this year.... Barnes was serving a life sentence for the 1997 strangulation of his wife, 44-year-old Linda Barnes, when he wrote letters in 2005 to a state prosecutor claiming responsibility for killing Miller years earlier at her condominium in Melbourne on Floridas east coast. Barnes represented himself in court hearings where he offered no defense, pleaded guilty to killing Miller and did not attempt to seek a life sentence rather than the death penalty. Miller, who was 41 when Barnes killed her on April 20, 1988, had some previous unspecified negative interactions with him, according to a jailhouse interview he gave German film director Werner Herzog. There were several events that happened (with Miller). I felt terribly humiliated, thats all I can say, Barnes said in the interview.... Barnes killed his wife in 1997 after she discovered that he was dealing drugs. Her body was found stuffed in a closet after she was strangled, court records show. Barnes has claimed to have killed at least two other people but has never been charged in those cases.... Though unusual, condemned inmates sometimes dont pursue every legal avenue to avoid execution. The Death Penalty Information Center reports that about 150 such inmates have been put to death since the U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed the death penalty as constitutional in 1976.

According to this DPIC page, Florida had no executions between 2020 and 2022, and only two each year in the prior two years. The single-year record for executions in the Sunshine state is eight, though it seems no more executions are as of now yet scheduled in the state. There are more than 300 people on the state's death row, though I am un sure how many have exhausted their appeals.

August 3, 2023 at 07:58 PM | Permalink

Comments

Ron DeathSantis!

Posted by: federalist | Aug 4, 2023 9:18:36 AM

Exhausting appeals (at least in the states that are trying to carry out executions and have cleared challenges to their method of execution) is the key event controlling the number of executions. So I'm really not sure you can tell much other than how quick or slow the courts are from the number of executions in a given year in states like Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Tennessee, and Texas. And it looks like Alabama, Arizona, and Oklahoma can now be included in that list of states ready and willing to execute when an inmate becomes execution eligible. Some years those states will have large numbers and other years those states will have small numbers.

Posted by: tmm | Aug 4, 2023 10:51:19 AM

Few people condemned to death in Kentucky are ever actually executed. Kentucky has executed only 5 people since 1954, and 2 of the last 3 people executed withdrew their appeals, quit fighting the sentence, and demanded to be executed. Presently, there are only 28 people on death row in Kentucky. A few years ago, one inmate on death row died of cancer after spending 28 years waiting to be executed. Kentucky is an interesting state when it comes to the death penalty. 67% of Kentucky residents surveyed say that they are in favor of the death penalty in appropriate cases. Yet, in 2009, there were 106 Death Qualified juries empaneled, but they recommended death in 0 cases! Everything changes when they put you in the jury box, and give you the opportunity to look another human being in the eye and say, "Kill Him"!

Posted by: Jim Gormley | Aug 6, 2023 6:36:44 AM

It is hard to believe that Kentucky prosecutors have pursued the death penalty in 106 cases in 2009 alone. Nor even from 2009 to this day, and there have been death sentences in Kentucky since 2009.

More broadly, rare death sentences imposed by juries are just an indication that the citizenry supports the death penalty just for rare crimes.



Posted by: Jackson | Aug 7, 2023 12:14:08 PM

Post a comment
A Muslim cleric has been arrested on charges of blasphemy and hate speech in Indonesia after his decision to allow women to preach and pray beside men sparked a backlash in the worlds largest Muslim-majority nation.

Panji Gumilang, 77, who runs the Al-Zaytun boarding school in the district of Indramayu in West Java, was arrested on Tuesday, Indonesian National Police official Djuhandhani Rahardjo told reporters outside its Criminal Investigation Agency in Jakarta.

In the past, the school, home to roughly 5,000 students, has faced public backlash over its unorthodox practices like allowing men and women to pray alongside each other and women to become imams. Unlike other Islamic boarding schools in Indonesia, its prayer sessions do not follow gender segregation, angering some religious groups.

Investigators took legal action, Djuhandhani said on Tuesday. (Panji will be) detained in the Criminal Investigation Agencys detention facility for 20 days, he added.

Police did not specify what Panji had said or done that constituted blasphemy but said they were acting on public complaints.

In June, Indonesias Islamic Clerical Council said it was investigating Al-Zaytun for misguided religious practices, according to CNN affiliate CNN Indonesia. If found guilty of blasphemy and hate speech, Panji faces a maximum 10 years in prison.

Panjis lawyer Hendra Effendy called for calm from his supporters.

He is after all, a public figure with millions of supporters With all this happening, we dont know what could happen, he told CNN Indonesia.

One of Panjis supporters, who did not wish to be named for fear of reprisals, told CNN his arrest was unjust and reflective of the countrys turn towards the religious right.

So he went against (the curve)  does he deserve to be punished for his compassion, the supporter asked.

Rise in blasphemy cases

Most mainstream schools of Islam around the world segregate men and women during prayers and do not permit women to lead mixed gendered prayers or deliver sermons.

Story continues

Indonesia is the worlds largest Muslim-majority nation, with 231 million Muslims.

Although it has an overwhelming Muslim majority, it is constitutionally secular and officially recognizes six religions  Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism.

Historically the country has practiced a tolerant and pluralist form of Islam. However, it has seen a rise in religious conservatism in recent years.

Strict Islamic laws are also enforced in some parts of the country, including the semi-autonomous Aceh province, where alcohol and gambling are banned and public floggings take place for a range of offenses including homosexuality and adultery.

Panji was supportive of Muslim women becoming imams and leading others in prayer, something which isnt normal in Indonesian society, said Andreas Harsono, Indonesia researcher at Human Rights Watch.

He has been promoting gender equality within Islam and this has angered the conservatives. There is nothing wrong with him (a Muslim cleric) promoting womens rights  something is terribly wrong with blasphemy laws, he added.

Rights groups say that religious freedom and tolerance are under threat in Indonesia and blasphemy laws were being increasingly weaponized against religious minorities and people deemed to have criticized Islam.

One of the highest profile blasphemy cases was that of Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, an ethnic Chinese Indonesian widely known as Ahok and Jakartas first non-Muslim governor in 50 years.

He went on trial for blasphemy in 2017 after angering hard-line Muslims by referencing a verse from the Quran while campaigning for re-election in 2016.

Despite making a public apology, he was jailed for two years  a verdict met with scrutiny and condemnation by many Indonesians and observers in the international community. The case was widely seen as a test of religious tolerance and free speech in Indonesia.

Blasphemy cases have been increasing drastically over the years, Andreas of Human Rights Watch said. Officials in Indonesia are using these laws more frequently against religious minorities in the name of religious harmony and its (grown) more and more toxic.

It is becoming an increasingly Islamized state and there will be many more consequences for people whose views are considered to be against the Islamic establishment, he said, referencing controversial amendments to its criminal code set to be passed by 2025.

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Here is the in-town acreage youve been waiting for. Come on over & seize your opportunity to own this Home situated in a highly desirable area with picturesque views of rolling hills. This traditional two-story home sitting on 2.27 acres has charm & offers so much space. This home features 6 beds, 4.5 baths, 3 car attached garage, & 4 car detached garage, must see! Classic 2 story architectural design with a timeless curb appeal & a half circle driveway brings guests right to the front door where they are welcomed and enter a grand foyer with volume ceiling. As you pass through the living room youre immediately drawn to the French door which takes you outside on the covered deck with amazing views! Adjacent to the living room is the Chefs Kitchen with some serious capacity to entertain and seat a crowd. Custom Alder cabinets, stainless steel appliances, ample cabinet space, a oversized center island with a breakfast bar, a cozy breakfast nook, and a very quaint dining space with a French door leading you to the front porch! The main floor also has a fabulous laundry room with sink and built in cabinets( what a dream), a guest bath, and a spare bedroom/office. Left of the foyer you will find the main floor master suite complete with a nice size walk in closet, French door leading you to covered deck, and a en suite master bath. Double sink vanity, walk in tile shower, jacuzzi tub framed by columns and has a very spa like feel. Going upstairs? Take your pick of staircase because theres a front grand staircase & a back of the house access too, how convenient! Upstairs has 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, & a nice bonus room which is currently a great toy room. Downstairs in the walkout lower level youll love the wet bar area open to family room with cozy fireplace & daylight windows. A billiards area is just off the family room as well as a 3/4 bath & another bonus room with endless possibilities but is currently a hobby room. Come see this one of a kind and truly unique Home.
In the fall of 2021, Dr. Keith Vrbicky went from a seeming picture of health to acute congestive heart failure.

Less than three weeks after that surprising diagnosis, the Norfolk obstetrician-gynecologist, who had delivered more than 13,000 babies and founded an early telehealth firm, underwent a heart transplant at the Nebraska Medical Center.

He describes that journey in a new memoir, "Forever Grateful: The Gift of Life from Organ Donation." Other themes of the book are gratitude, his faith and family and his advocacy for organ and tissue donation. He'll hold a book launch party Thursday at the University of Nebraska at Omaha's Thompson Alumni Center, 6705 Dodge St., from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Vrbicky wrote the book, released July 10, with Omaha-based author and journalist Leo Adam Biga. It's available in digital form on Amazon.com and in paperback.

SPOILER ALERT: Vrbicky, who will mark the second anniversary of his transplant in late September, is back to work full time. He's now topped 13,700 deliveries  and counting. He does plan to start slowing down a little, though. He'll be joined at Midwest Health Partners on Aug. 1 by Dr. Keith Vrbicky Jr., who recently completed his residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Creighton University, his father's alma mater.

But before there was a book, there was Vrbicky's health crisis. One week, he was a fit working professional who ate healthfully, biked regularly and had no history of heart problems. Less than three weeks later, he was in the intensive care unit at the Nebraska Medical Center, where his heart failed so quickly that he was placed on the transplant list and had a 48-hour window to receive a match.

"It was very sudden and it just shows you how fragile life is when one minute you think you're healthy the next minute you're told you're dying," said Vrbicky, who turns 69 in September. "Not a good feeling. But I think it's raised my empathy for patients and others that have chronic health conditions. When you're on the other side, it's a new perspective."

Vrbicky said he is particularly grateful to his unknown donor and to the donor's family. He has been working to raise awareness about the need for organ donation and for people to register as donors. That includes working with Live On Nebraska, the organization that facilitates organ and tissue donation in Nebraska.

To register, Nebraskans ages 16 and older can either check a box when they get their driver's license, register online at LiveOnNebraska.org or make a living organ donation.

In the U.S., more than 100,000 people await an organ transplant in any given year. The need, Vrbicky said, isn't just for major organs like the heart he received but also for tissues such as cartilage, bone and corneas.

"As a physician going through this, I thought I could share my experience and help raise awareness about the importance to have people at least consider getting on the donor list if something should happen to them," he said.

Vrbicky grew up in Clarkson, Nebraska, and graduated from high school there before completing both his undergraduate and medical degrees at Creighton. There, a friend and fellow faculty member convinced him to join him to practice in Norfolk. His friend later left to do mission work. Vrbicky renamed the practice, which now has eight providers in its obstetrics/women's health and urgent care divisions.

Just before Labor Day in 2021, Vrbicky began feeling a bit under the weather. He tested negative for COVID-19 but eventually visited a Norfolk infectious diseases specialist, who tested him again. After ruling out that infection, she sent him on to a local cardiologist, who delivered the bad news that sent him on his journey to a transplant.

Eventually, doctors diagnosed Vrbicky with a condition called giant cell myocarditis, cause unknown. The rare, fast-developing and usually fatal condition causes extreme inflammation of the heart muscle and impedes the hearts blood-pumping capacity to the point that the heart itself and the organs it feeds start to die.

Post-transplant, he now travels to the medical center in Omaha every three months for checkups. The frequent checkups and the anti-rejection medications he now takes, he said, are a small price to pay.

"I feel good and it's always nice to know you're doing well," he said.

He and his wife, Karyn, continue to enjoy their six children and 12 grandchildren, with two more on the way. On Friday, he was planning to deliver another baby later in the evening  one of his patients was in labor, one more toward his unofficial goal of 15,000  and then take it easy over the weekend.

"I'm delivering the babies of babies I delivered," Vrbicky said.

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SIOUX CITY  A U.S. Navy littoral combat ship named after Sioux City will be decommissioned later this month after just a few years at sea.

According to an email from Siouxland Chamber of Commerce President Chris McGowan, local leaders representing both the public and private sectors have received official notice that the USS Sioux City will be decommissioned at 10 a.m. on Aug. 14 at Naval Station Mayport in Florida.

A U.S. Navy budget proposal recommended the decommissioning of the USS Sioux City and 23 other ships. The proposal, which had to be approved by Congress, was part of a five-year budget plan that called for decommissioning 24 ships, including eight other Freedom Class Littoral Combat Ships, or LCS, similar to the USS Sioux City, for a total savings of $3.6 billion.

Navy officials have said other ships can perform the USS Sioux City's anti-submarine warfare mission, and mechanical problems with the water jet propulsion systems have plagued the LCS Freedom class vessels.

USS Sioux City departure The tug Brooklyn McAllister ties up to the USS Sioux City as it prepares to depart Annapolis, Md. on Nov. 18, 2018.

When the USS Sioux City was commissioned in 2018, Navy leaders said the ship's lifetime would be 30 years or more.

Hundreds of Sioux City and area residents made the 1,200-mile trip to Annapolis, Maryland, to witness the ship's commissioning ceremony at the U.S. Naval Academy.

Before and since the ship's commissioning, ship commanders and crew members have received warm welcomes when visiting Sioux City, and more than $250,000 was raised to create a legacy education fund to help USS Sioux City crew members and their families pay for educational expenses.

Since its commissioning, the USS Sioux City and its 75-member crew have been based in Mayport, Florida, and deployed to the U.S. 4th Fleet area of operations to support Joint Interagency Task Force South's mission, which includes counter-illicit drug trafficking missions in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific.

In 2021, the USS Sioux City and its crew, working with the U.S. Coast Guard, stopped two vessels in the Caribbean Sea, seizing approximately 1,080 kilograms of cocaine worth an estimated $44 million.
People in Austin, Texas, can finally enjoy a ride on Waymo's robotaxis.

The autonomous driving technology company recently announced it is bringing its autonomous robotaxis after testing their viability in the city.

People living in Austin can now sign up for Waymo's waitlist to be among the first people to enjoy rides in the company's robotaxis.

Autonomous Driving At Austin

Waymo mentioned in its announcement that the city of Austin will be the company's fourth major ride-hail city after testing its robotaxis in and around the city's downtown.

The company previously offered its autonomous robotaxis in only three cities: Metro Phoenix, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

However, this announcement doesn't mean that Waymo's robotaxis will now be available for people living in Austin. The company announced it is bringing its robotaxis to the city and begin an initial phase of operations this fall, with fully autonomous deployment and its first rides with the public in the months following.

Once Waymo's robotaxis arrive, they will travel to many popular locations in the city night and day, such as the heart of downtown Austin, Barton Hills, Riverside, East Austin, Hyde Park, and more. Nevertheless, Waymo's expansion is an "exciting milestone" for the company as it means members of the public will again ride with Waymo in the city.

According to a report from The Verge, the company gave a 10-minute ride to a blind man from Austin named Steve Mahan in its prototype Firefly vehicle. The publication noted that this prototype didn't have a steering wheel and pedals at the time.

The company is also excited to expand its coverage in Austin, Texas because KXAN found it to be the second-fastest-growing major city economy in the country. Because of this title, the city of Austin represents a "significant commercial opportunity" for Waymo's growing operations.

Waymo also claimed that its expansion would help make the streets of Austin safer to be in; 125 people died in road traffic accidents in Austin in 2022 - 51 of them pedestrians and cyclists. The company stated its robotaxis could help prevent such crashes as they follow road rules and are attentive at all times.

Waymo has also taken important measures to communicate with and protect vulnerable road users, like reducing "dooring" incidents with cyclists through its Safe Exit features.

Waymo's Challenge

Waymo's entrance into Austin is a challenging one. The company's robotaxis have a history of blocking traffic, impeding public transit, and stumbling into emergencies. While there has been some protest into its expansion into San Francisco, the other two cities it is operating now have made no such opposition.

The company must be at its best at all times if it wants to avoid similar unfortunate events from happening in Austin.

Additionally, Waymo's Austin expansion puts it in the way of Cruise, which will also bring its ride-hailing service and its autonomous vehicles to the people of Austin sometime in 2023, per Tech Crunch. Cruise has already established its presence in San Francisco alongside Waymo, making Austin one of the cities the two companies share in common.
ELK POINT, S.D.  A man charged with murder for the fatal stabbing of his girlfriend in Dakota Dunes will not face the death penalty.

Union County State's Attorney Jerry Miller on Thursday filed notice he will not seek the death penalty in the murder case against Alfredo Castellanos-Rosales. Miller gave no reasons behind the decision in his written notice.

Castellanos-Rosales, 39, of Sioux City, has pleaded not guilty of first-degree murder, contributing to the neglect of a child and contributing to the abuse of a child for the April 25 stabbing death of 23-year-old Jordan Beardshear in her apartment at The Wellington at the Dunes apartment complex.

His trial is scheduled for May 28 in Union County Circuit Court.

Miller had until Aug. 14 to notify the court and defense counsel whether he would seek the death penalty. With the death penalty off the table, Castellanos-Rosales now would face a sentence of life in prison if found guilty of first-degree murder.

According to court documents, witnesses saw Beardshear at her apartment complex while she was waiting for Castellanos-Rosales, whom she had been dating, to pick up their 1-year-old son. Later that evening, Castellanos-Rosales called Beardshears mother to come to his home to pick up the child.

Beardshears body was discovered the following day. She had sustained stab wounds, defensive slashing wounds and trauma to her neck/throat area, court documents said.

After executing a search warrant at Castellanos-Rosales home, investigators found clothing suspected of containing blood.

Castellanos-Rosales, who was born in Guatemala and is a U.S. citizen, fled to Mexico, where he was arrested May 12. After waiving extradition he was returned to Union County to face the charges.
SIOUX CITY -- Sioux City police have released the identity of a man who was killed in a shooting incident in the Riverside neighborhood on Sunday.

The man was Daniel Keith Winge, 42, of Springfield, South Dakota, according to a news release from the Sioux City Police Department.

At around 4:17 a.m. Sunday, officers were called to a residence at 2013 Metropolitan St., where the caller reported he had been shot.

The caller was found in the backyard of the residence. He was transported to a local hospital for treatment of a gunshot wound. Officers found a second man, Winge, in front of the residence who had also been shot. He was later pronounced dead at the hospital.

Officers learned that gunfire was exchanged between the men following a disturbance at the residence. Investigators believe the shooting was an isolated incident and that there is no danger to the public.

The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information is asked to call the police department at 712-279-6440 or Crime Stoppers at 712-258-8477.
JACKSON, Miss.  Men who had sworn an oath to protect and serve were huddled on the back porch of a Mississippi home as Michael Corey Jenkins lay on the floor, blood gushing from his mutilated tongue where one of the police officers shoved a gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger.

As Jenkins writhed in pain, the six white officers devised a scheme to cover up dozens of stunning acts of brutality that they had just carried out during a 90-minute period of terror against Jenkins and a second Black victim.

The officers planted drugs. They stole surveillance footage from the house. They tried to dispose of other evidence. They agreed on a set of lies that would further upend their victims lives.

And that was just the cover-up.

Careful to avoid security cameras at the house, they burst in without a warrant, starting the torture session of physical, sexual and psychological abuse. They handcuffed Jenkins and his friend Eddie Terrell Parker and poured milk, alcohol and chocolate syrup over their faces. They forced them to strip naked and shower together to conceal the mess. They mocked the victims with racial slurs. They electrocuted them.

The officers had meant to torture the men without leaving physical scars. But one of the officers shot Jenkins in the mouth. Miraculously, Jenkins survived.

The six officers pleaded guilty Thursday to a long list of federal civil rights charges. The Mississippi attorney generals office announced afterward that it had filed state charges against the men including assault, conspiracy and obstruction of justice.

Law enforcement officers are seldom charged for crimes committed on the job, and its rarer still for them to plead guilty.

The charges follow an investigation by The Associated Press that linked some of the deputies to at least four violent encounters with Black men since 2019 that left two dead and another with lasting injuries.

The officers included Christian Dedmon, Hunter Elward, Brett McAlpin, Jeffrey Middleton and Daniel Opdyke of the Rankin County Sheriffs Department and Joshua Hartfield, a Richland police officer. They pleaded guilty to charges including conspiracy against rights, obstructions of justice, deprivation of rights under color of law, discharge of a firearm under a crime of violence, and conspiracy to obstruct justice.

The terror began on Jan. 24 in a racist call for extrajudicial violence that felt like it was from a bygone era.

A white neighbor phoned Rankin County Deputy Brett McAlpin and complained that two Black men were staying with a white woman inside a Braxton home. McAlpin told Deputy Christian Dedmon, who texted a group of white deputies so willing to use excessive force they called themselves The Goon Squad.

Are yall available for a mission? Dedmon asked. They were.

Opdyke admits he was wrong for his part in the horrific harms and is prepared to face the consequences of his actions, attorney Jason Kirschberg said in a statement.

Hartfields attorney Vicki Gilliam said while he cannot change what he did, he has shown that he is ready to accept consequences.

Attorneys for the other men did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The deputies were under the watch of Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey, who called it the worst episode of police brutality he has seen in his career.

Law enforcement misconduct in the U.S. has come under increased scrutiny. The 2020 killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police ignited calls for sweeping criminal justice reforms and a reassessment of American race relations. The January beating death of Tyre Nichols by five Black members of a special police squad in Memphis, Tennessee, led to a probe of similar units nationwide.

In Rankin County, the brutality visited upon Jenkins and Parker was not a botched police operation, but an assembly of rogue officers who tortured them all under the authority of a badge, which they disgraced, U.S. Attorney Darren LaMarca said.

Federal court records detail how they burst into the home without a warrant and tortured Jenkins and Parker before the shooting.

As Jenkins lay bleeding, the officers knew the mission had gone too far. Instead of coming clean, they devised a hasty cover-up that included a fictitious narcotics bust, stolen surveillance footage and threats.

The officers warned Jenkins and Parker to stay out of Rankin County and go back to Jackson or their side of the Pearl River, court documents say, referencing an area with higher concentrations of Black residents.

Kristen Clarke, head of the Justice Departments Civil Rights Division, said the trauma is magnified because the misconduct was fueled by racial bias and hatred, that recalled the 1964 kidnapping and killing of three civil rights workers.

After Dedmon summoned The Goon Squad, the officers crept around the ranch-style home to avoid a surveillance camera. They kicked down the carport door and burst inside without a warrant.

Opdyke found a sex toy, which he mounted on a nearby BB gun and forced into Parkers mouth. Dedmon tried to sexually assault Jenkins with the toy. The officers electrocuted the victims with stun guns, comparing whose weapons were more powerful.

Elward forced Jenkins to his knees for a mock execution, intending to fire the gun without a bullet. But it was loaded, and discharged, cutting Jenkins tongue, breaking his jaw and exiting through his neck.

As Jenkins bled on the floor, the officers devised a cover story for investigators: Elward brought Jenkins into a side room to stage a drug bust over the phone and said Jenkins reached for a gun when he was released from handcuffs.

Afterward, McAlpin and Middleton made a promise: They would kill any of the officers who told the truth about what happened.

The officers kept quiet as pressure mounted from a Justice Department civil rights probe. One of them came forward in June, Sheriff Bailey said.

Now, theyll be treated as the criminals they are, U.S. Attorney LaMarca said.
From seed theft to missile defense, members of Iowas Republican congressional delegation said the United States needs to be more direct and confrontational in curbing Chinese aggression undermining U.S. agriculture, trade, innovation and food security.

The Bastion Institute hosted a Thursday panel discussion at the Cedar Rapids Country Club by three Republicans  U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst and U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, both of Iowa, and U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin  on the United States relationship with China

Gallagher and Hinson currently serve on the House Committee to assess the myriad military, economic and technological challenges posed by China.

Ernst and Gallagher also sponsored legislation to develop rings-of-fire in the Indo-Pacific to deter Chinese aggression in the region. The bill would require the Pentagon to develop a strategy for offsetting China's ballistic and cruise missiles that can hit U.S. targets across the Indo-Pacific.

Gallagher said the United States can deploy missiles across the region with the support of partners and allies like Japan and the Philippines. Both countries could host shorter-range systems, while longer-range systems could be deployed to northern Australia, the Pacific islands and Alaska.

That positioning, he said, would establish "rings of fire" that constitute a missile-defense across the Pacific to counter China and its aggressive nature.

This isnt just a distant over-there threat, Gallagher said. It isnt a matter a some obscure territorial claim in the South China Sea. Its a right-here-at-home threat. And you dont need a Chinese spy balloon to remind you of the threat to American sovereignty.

CHINAS THEFT OF TECHNOLOGY

Hinson, Gallagher and House Select China Committee Ranking Member Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., hosted a roundtable event afterward in Dysart, in Tama County, on the Chinese Communist Party's agricultural technology theft.

The event featured Iowa farmers and stakeholders who discussed the impacts of Chinese malign tactics to undermine American agriculture.

A Chinese national pleaded guilty in 2016 in federal court to conspiring to steal trade secrets involving inbred corn seeds produced by DuPont Pioneer and Monsanto.

In 2011, a Dysart farmer spotted a man, Mo Hailong, in business attire digging up valuable hybrid seeds, which he then sent back to China. The FBI ultimately arrested Mo Hailong and six accomplices after they stole $30 million worth of U.S. ag technology.

Since then, the FBI has investigated other cases, and the Department of Justice has secured additional convictions.

Last year, Chinese national Xiang Haitao pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit economic espionage and was sentenced to more than two years in prison for stealing a central algorithm to a software platform being developed by his employer, a Monsanto subsidiary, for farmers to visualize and analyze field data.

Xiang took copies of the algorithm on a one-way flight back to China, where he later worked for the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Soil Science.

Xiang was sentenced to 29 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release and a $150,000 fine.

 (O)ur land is sacred. Feeding and fueling the world is ingrained in who we are, Hinson said. We cannot allow the (Chinese Communist Party) to continue stealing our intellectual property, buying up our farmland, and ripping off our farmers and rural manufacturers.

  We cannot sit idly by any longer. The status quo is too dangerous to maintain, Hinson said.

The FBI has estimated the annual cost to the U.S. economy of counterfeit goods, pirated software and theft of trade secrets and intellectual property as between $225 billion and $600 billion, with China as the worlds principal infringer.

 (I)t uses its laws and regulations to put foreign companies at a disadvantage and its own companies at an advantage, according to the FBI.

CHINAS FOOD SECURITY

China is the worlds largest importer of corn, soybeans, wheat, rice and dairy products.

Gallagher connected Chinese President Xi Jinpings heightened focus on food security with his increasing aggression toward Taiwan, speculating that if the Chinese Communist Party precipitates conflict in the Taiwan Strait, global seaborne trade will be disrupted and, therefore, securing grain supplies will be essential.

Our farms are more than just places to grow food, Gallagher said. They are research laboratories  and strategic national resources. We have to protect all our technology, whether its in a Silicon Valley research lab or an Iowa cornfield.

He said the United States needs to plug the holes in its technological ecosystem with export controls, enhanced investment screening, and outbound capital restrictions.

Our country is filled with invisible factories and invisible farms  those that would have been built or planted here if wed protected American technology, Gallagher said. There are invisible paychecks  those that our workers and farmers would have gotten if we werent sending $600 billion to our foremost global adversary every year in stolen IP and trade secrets.

Just like the farmer in the Iowa field, we are being robbed every day, in plain sight, by the Chinese Communist Party, he said. Today, we are here today to discuss how we stop that.

CAUTION URGED

Suzanne Shirbroun, who grows soybeans and corn with her husband and sons near Farmersburg in Clayton County, said the U.S. government needs to fairly, but firmly combat unfair trade practices imposed by China.

Such acts should not be tolerated and should be contested, Shirbroun said, but cautioned that the U.S. proceed cautiously  and not revoke Chinas most-favored-nation trade status  noting one in every three rows of soybeans in the United States goes to China.

While there is little doubt that China has targeted United State intellectual property and engaged in unfair trade practices  there is not another market that can completely replace the Chinese market for the American soybean farmer, Shirbroun said.

Instead, she said, the United States needs to diversity its export market to other countries, especially in Southeast Asia, to boost the U.S. farm economy and lessen its dependence on China.

She said Congress and the Biden administration should work to:

Support targeted export controls of sensitive technologies that safeguard U.S. innovation and national security, and help farmers and the U.S. ag industry protect critical data, information and intellectual property.

 Reduce retaliatory tariffs on U.S. soybeans.

 Insist China make real progress on reforming its biotech approval process.

 Work to improve ties with key trading partners with shared interests.

 Expand market access and promotion programs under the Farm Bill to grow and diversity agricultural markets

Lori Lang, who farms 25 miles southwest of Dysart, also called for stricter scrutiny of Chinese investment in U.S. agriculture by federal regulators and the Justice Department  something Hinson and other members of Iowas congressional delegation have pushed.

The debate over farm ownership has intensified as Chinese firms over the past decade have purchased major agribusinesses, like pork processing giant Smithfield Foods. It also comes amid broader efforts by Congress and the Biden administration to curb the United States reliance on China in key industries critical to the nations supply chain.

You have something special here in Iowa, and people want to copy that, said Krishnamoorthi, the Illinois Democrat. But I dont think they can ever copy you, if we are vigilant about our secrets, our research and protecting free enterprise.

We cant be anything but vigilant because we are in a global competition, he said. This is a competition that will determine our standard of living, our childrens standard of living, for generations.
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP)  North Dakota regulators denied a siting permit Friday for a proposed carbon dioxide pipeline that would cross five states.

The decision complicates an already complex process for Summit Carbon Solutions, which is seeking similar authorization in the other states and is facing opposition from landowners and environmental groups. It wasn't immediately clear how the permit denial would affect Summit's carbon dioxide storage plans in North Dakota.

The North Dakota Public Service Commission denied the permit for Summit's Midwest Carbon Express pipeline, which planned a 320-mile (515-kilometer) route through North Dakota. Summit proposed the $5.5 billion, 2,000-mile (3,219 kilometer) pipeline network to capture carbon dioxide from more than 30 ethanol plants in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota, and to store it deep underground in North Dakota.

In a statement, Summit said it respects the decision by the North Dakota Public Service Commission, and we will revisit our proposal and reapply for our permit. Were committed to understanding and incorporating the considerations outlined in the decision. We are confident that our project supports state policies designed to boost key economic sectors: agriculture, ethanol, and energy.

The project raised landowner concerns of eminent domain, or the taking of private land for the pipeline, and potential dangers of a pipeline break.

The company has legal options" it can take, commission spokesperson Stacy Eberl said. The regulators do not have jurisdiction over injection sites, she said. Summit proposed an underground injection site for storage of the carbon dioxide in central North Dakota.

The Public Service Commission held public hearings throughout North Dakota earlier this year, during which landowners expressed many concerns, including about eminent domain, safety and requests for reroutes on their property.

The Commission felt that Summit has not taken steps to address outstanding legitimate impacts and concerns expressed by landowners or demonstrated why a reroute is not feasible," the regulators said in a statement. The Commission also requested additional information on a number of issues that came up during the hearings. Summit either did not adequately address these requests or did not tender a witness to answer the questions.

The commission's statement also noted other information Summit hasn't submitted, including how the company would address 14 areas of potential geological instability noted by the U.S. Geological Survey within the pipeline's path. Summit also did not submit a revised report to the states historical preservation office regarding impacts to cultural resources. The office said Summits report didnt meet its standards.

The regulators' vote to deny the permit was unanimous.

Commission Chair Randy Christmann told The Associated Press that his vote wasn't necessarily emblematic of my opinions of carbon sequestration or even of the importation of CO2. This is about this project in this place under these circumstances.

Among their findings filed Friday, the panel concluded that Summit failed to meet its burden of proof to show the location, construction, operation, and maintenance of the Project will produce minimal adverse effects on the environment and upon the welfare of the citizens of North Dakota.

The denial of the permit is a win for private property rights in North Dakota, plain and simple," said former Bismarck mayor Steve Bakken, who opposed the pipeline.

The proposed Bismarck-area route would have constrained future growth of the city, Bakken said. He also cited safety concerns for not knowing how the company would plan to respond to a pipeline break.

Republican state Sen. Jeff Magrum welcomed the news for his legislative district, which is in the proposed path, as victory in round one, but said he expects some type of appeal from Summit.

We'll stand guard for what's coming, he told the AP.

Magrum, who opposes the pipeline due to safety and private property concerns, introduced a raft of unsuccessful legislation earlier this year that sought to bolster private property rights and restrict aspects of eminent domain and carbon dioxide pipelines.

Republican Gov. Doug Burgum supports the pipeline. Spokesman Mike Nowatzki told the AP, This is a matter between the PSC and the company, and we'll continue to monitor it as the process plays out.

The pipeline has generated similar landowner concerns about eminent domain in other states, including South Dakota, where a group of lawmakers last month began a petition drive for a special legislative session to protect private property rights against Summit.

The Iowa Farm Bureau Federation and the Iowa chapter of the Sierra Club are pushing Summit to release financial agreements with ethanol companies in the project, the Des Moines Register reported.
FAIRFIELD  A hearing has been set in a civil lawsuit against a state senator filed by his daughter.

The suit was filed in Jefferson County on July 5 by Korynn Dickey, the daughter of state senator Adrian Dickey, R-Packwood, and alleges the senator forged his daughter's signature on a vehicle title form. The daughter also says Adrian Dickey had agreed to purchase her a car with "no strings attached," but placed a security lien on the vehicle without her knowledge.

In a response filed in court by Dickey's attorney Paul Miller, this week, the senator denies the allegations.

Also named in the lawsuit is Jefferson County Treasurer Mark Myers. Soon after the lawsuit was filed, Jefferson County Attorney Chauncey Moulding petitioned the court to dismiss charges against Myers on the grounds of failure to support a claim of civil conspiracy as the daughter charged.

As detailed in legal filings, Korynn Dickey was attending school in California but maintained a residence in Iowa three years ago. Around then, Adrian Dickey bought her a vehicle as a gift with "no strings attached." The vehicle was paid for in full, and the title was assigned to Korynn Dickey.

Korynn Dickey's suit continues to say that Adrian Dickey obtained the title from her and told her that he would register the vehicle for her in Iowa. He never mentioned placing a lien on the vehicle, according to the documents filed by the daughter's attorney, Siobhan Briley. They further claim that when Adrian Dickey placed the lien on the vehicle, he signed Korynn Dickey's name on the form without her consent.

On May 15, 2023, Korynn Dickey's vehicle was totaled in an accident, and now her insurance company refuses to pay on its policy because of the lien.

Adrian Dickey denies those allegations, stating Korynn Dickey had given her father permission to sign her name on the form. He is seeking the case to be dismissed as well as an order for Korynn Dickey to sign the insurance check over to Adrian Dickey.

Judge Lucy Gamon has set a hearing on the county's motion to dismiss for Aug. 28 at 9:30 a.m.

In an unrelated criminal case for charges of interference with official acts, a pretrial conference has been set for Oct. 31 in Sac County. Adrian Dickey was charged there on July 24 for allegedly being part of a group that blocked a highway during the annual RAGBRAI trek across Iowa. He has entered a plea of not guilty and demanded a jury.

His attorney in that case, Matt Schultz, said the charges stem from a misunderstanding.

"Sen. Dickey was riding in RAGBRAI earlier this week. He and his team took an alternate route that led them to a place where several hundred people were blocking a road," Schultz said in a statement. "Sen. Dickey and his team were trying to get through the party of people and onto the bike trail when a misunderstanding occurred between the senator and a sheriff's deputy."

Adrian Dickey, a Republican, represents District 44, which includes all of Keokuk, Jefferson and Van Buren counties, and part of Henry and Mahaska counties.

RAGBRAI rolls into Tama-Toledo RAGBRAI 1 RAGBRAI 2 RAGBRAI 3 RAGBRAI 4 RAGBRAI 5 RAGBRAI 6 RAGBRAI 7 RAGBRAI 8 RAGBRAI 9 RAGBRAI 10 RAGBRAI 11 RAGBRAI 12 RAGBRAI 13
Consistent rain has continued to take a bite out of drought conditions across Nebraska.

The latest drought monitor released Thursday by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln shows significant improvement, especially in the amount of severe drought.

According to the monitor, severe drought in Nebraska, the third-worst category, declined from covering more than 46% of the state a week ago to less than 32% this week. That's the least amount of severe drought statewide since the end of February 2022.

Extreme drought also declined from 19.27% last week to 15.7% this week, although the amount of exceptional drought remained the same at 2.63%.

Lancaster County also saw a significant improvement in drought conditions.

The amount of severe drought declined from covering 100% of the county to just over 59%, while the amount of extreme drought fell from 12.4% to 1.3%. Just five weeks ago, the entire county was in extreme drought and 88% was in exceptional drought.

Many areas of the state, especially in eastern Nebraska, have gotten significant amounts of rain over the past few weeks.

Lincoln got 5.61 inches in July, which is more than 2.3 inches above normal, and the most in a single month in more than four years. The city has now received more than 10 inches over the past two months, which is more than it received in the previous 10 months.

Omaha got 6.3 inches in July, 2.75 inches above normal, and Norfolk received 5.37 inches, about 2.4 inches above average.

Other places that saw much-above normal precipitation in July included Beatrice, Columbus and Fremont.

Eight years ago: Floodwaters swamp Lincoln, surrounding areas
ORANGE CITY, Iowa  For about 362 days a year, 15 or 20 elaborate, permanently decorated parade floats sit in storage in two big steel sheds on the southern outskirts of Orange City.

In late April, the floats see people again -- if only for a day or so -- when student-volunteers from Orange City dust them off, touch up their paint and get them ready for the spotlight in May. A family of kittens was once found living inside one of the floats when it was moved from storage. (The kitties found new homes after they were discovered.)

After they're cleaned up, the floats remain in the sheds for a few more weeks.

Then, the morning of the first day of the Orange City Tulip Festival, the floats emerge from storage and head downtown for the Volksparade, to be admired by thousands of Orange City Tulip Festival-goers. Following a ceremonial street-scrubbing, the floats are deployed in two parades a day over the three-day festival.

Orange City Tulip Festival parade floats The First Kiss float, a rare recent addition to the more-or-less unchanging lineup of Orange City Tulip Festival parade floats, is shown in storage.

Orange City Tulip Festival parade floats The Old Dutch Cleanser float is self-propelled, built on the chassis of an old truck. The Orange City Tulip Festival parade floats sit in stor

Orange City Tulip Festival parade floats The Flying Dutchman float is shown in storage. This float is steered with the ship's steering wheel.

After the festival, the floats go back into storage -- where they are now -- awaiting next year's outing.

The perennial floats are highly elaborate, fanciful homages to Holland -- there's a "Wooden Shoe Factory" float (itself a replica of a float that took part in the first parade in 1936), a "Flying Dutchman" float (which takes the form of a ship), an "Old Dutch Cleanser" float (which takes its styling cues from the iconic cleaning product, whose advertising circa the 1930s featured a Dutch girl with a stick "chasing dirt"), and an "Old Mill" float (in the popular imagination, windmills loom large over Holland). Many are decorated with silk flowers and artificial grass.

There's "a little bit of everything," said John Weber, of Orange City who, with wife JoAnn, had been at the helm of the Tulip Festival's parade committee for four years. This past year, while serving as the heads of the Tulip Festival's steering committee, they were the parade's grand marshals.

"They're pretty permanent. There's not much that changes on those floats," he added.

Orange City Tulip Festival parade floats Orange City Tulip Festival parade floats, like the "De Klompen" (wooden shoes) float shown here, are in storage most of the year.

Orange City Tulip Festival parade floats The old "Gems from the Sea" float broke down during the Orange City Tulip Festival parade and is in the process of being dismantled.

Orange City Tulip Festival parade floats The Flying Dutchman float is driven using the actual ship's steering wheel.

Orange City Tulip Festival parade floats Horse drawn trollies are used for tours of Orange City during the Tulip Festival. The Orange City Tulip Festival parade floats are stored at a

For all that the mainstay floats appear year after year, they do not last forever. The culprit, such as it is, is usually mechanical -- some of the floats are self-propelled, built around the chassis of other vehicles (often old buses or cars).

As nifty as it is to see a parade float ambling down the street on its own power, that comes at a cost.

"The problem with self-propelled floats is -- these things run for three days out of the year," Weber said. "Then they sit idle for 362 days. And so a lot of times, those engines get kind of finicky and don't want to run so well."

One self-propelled float was recently retired after it broke down repeatedly on the parade route. Since that float was put out to pasture, there has been talk of building a new float.

"Because we did decommission one of the floats this year. So, we kind of need a replacement for that one," Weber said. "It's not 100 percent, but we're thinking about maybe building another one for next year."

Orange City Tulip Festival parade floats Horse drawn trollies are used for tours of Orange City during the Tulip Festival.

Orange City Tulip Festival parade floats The De Klompen float is built backwards on the chassis of a bus with the steering wheel in back.

Orange City Tulip Festival parade floats A driver sits in one of the shoes at the back of the De Klompen float.

Orange City Tulip Festival parade floats The Van Amsterdam float is self propelled with a steering wheel inside the boat where the driver would sit in a real boat.

It's not often that a new float enters the mix. Some of the mainstay floats have been in use since before the Webers moved to Orange City in 2000, John Weber said.

"There's some that I bet are 30-plus years old," he said.

Bringing a float into existence is no small achievement: They're a labor-intensive product of art and imagination. A few years ago, the Webers and a resident who had experience in ice-sculpting built a new float -- called "First Kiss" -- with a 10-foot-high Dutch boy and girl, carved out of insulation foam, getting ready to kiss.

"It was quite the process to build it," Weber said.

Orange City Tulip Festival parade floats The newest float, built by the Sekisui Aerospace company, depicts a military drone made of carbon fiber.

Orange City Tulip Festival parade floats The Old Mill float has required a few repairs such as new letters on the side. The Orange City Tulip Festival parade floats are stored at a wa

Orange City Tulip Festival parade floats The queen's birthday float is shown in storage. The Orange City Tulip Festival parade floats are stored at a warehouse in Orange City, Iowa, F

Orange City Tulip Festival parade floats The queen's birthday float is shown in storage. The Orange City Tulip Festival parade floats are stored at a warehouse in Orange City, Iowa, F

Orange City Tulip Festival parade floats The queen's birthday float is built on the chassis of an old bus and the dashboard is still visible on the inside. The Orange City Tulip Festi

Orange City Tulip Festival parade floats John Weber sits in the driver's seat of the queen's float. The Orange City Tulip Festival parade floats are stored at a warehouse in Orange Ci

Orange City Tulip Festival parade floats John Weber pops the hood on the queen's float to reveal a Dodge engine. The Orange City Tulip Festival parade floats are stored at a warehouse

Orange City Tulip Festival parade floats The 75th Anniversary Float is a replica of the first float for the parade in 1936. The Orange City Tulip Festival parade floats are stored at 

Orange City Tulip Festival parade floats The 75th Anniversary Float is a replica of the first float for the parade in 1936. The Orange City Tulip Festival parade floats are stored at 
Simone Biles looked sharp in her final preparations on the eve of her return to competitive gymnastics. Biles is competing in her first event since the pandemic-delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics at the U.S. Classic outside Chicago. Biles took two years off after winning a silver and bronze in Tokyo despite pulling out of several competitions while dealing with a mental block.
This is part of Airplane Mode, a series on the businessand pleasureof travel right now.

Little about a trip I took last year suggested it should have left me feeling rejuvenated.

Id signed up for a meditation retreat shortly after deciding to leave one job for another. But soon after arriving, I made three alarming discoveries:

Back in the 1980s, several of the facilitators had been part of the cult in Oregon that is the subject of the Netflix documentary Wild Wild Country. The retreat center in Colorado that was hosting us was currently managed by one of the longest-running intentional communities in America. Some neighbors referred to it as a cult. I was pretty sure I spied a quote from the notoriously violent self-proclaimed prophet David Koresh displayed in the dining area.

Thankfully, after realizing that the quote came from a different David K. and making a pact with two fellow participants to order a Lyft if anyone tried to keep us around forever, I was able to relax. I had a strange but (mostly) lovely week.

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Back at home, still feeling buoyant, I concluded that my week off had worked. It had provided the sort of reset that Id struggled to extract from trips in recent years. But though it was tempting to attribute it to learning a new form of meditation that involved dancing and slamming Nerf bats against the floor, I dont think that was it. I believe its that, for an entire week, I committed to a system that prohibited carrying around our phones, advancing on work projects, or engaging in any other sort of conventional productivity.

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Though years ago I used to make full digital disconnection a core part of any vacation I went on, in the past few years, that commitment had slipped away. Instead, Ive found myself trying to maximize time off by taking workcation after workcation. Sure, I can attend that family reunion. Sure, I can get to my friends birthday extravaganza. Sure! I can plan a lake adventure when my mother comes to visit my daughter and me. Ill just need to hide away for a morning or day or two or three on my main job or side hustle. As I book the flight or cabinand work through the logistics of child care, which likely means alternating with my wife, who will also be workcationing, I tell myself that its better than not going on a trip at all. Isnt this the point of remote work? We get to say yes to everythingeven if we have only a little bit of time off left to play.

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No, Ive finally concluded, three years into Americas compulsory experiment in remote work: The workcation is a farce.

I am far from alone in being tantalized by its promise. Around 80 percent of remote workers are more open to workcations than they were two years ago, a Marriott survey of 2,000 of them found, with a similar percentage identifying it as a promising way to extend a trip. A recent study by researchers in Austria, the U.K., and Hong Kong asked workers to write a letter describing what juggling work and leisure will look like in 2030. Responses were optimistic. One writer worked from a campsite while her children played at the lake. Another was on the cusp of taking a two-month workcation facilitated by the fact that their kids would do most of their learning from a VR classroom with their tutor. Few had concerns about boundaries. I partly own multiple homes in multiple countries and travel with my family every three months to a different home, another participant wrote. We dont split our life between holiday and work, our lifestyle has a lot of play, fun and work built into it and we navigate between them seamlessly to support our wellbeing.

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These people are delusional! Workcations may be alluring, but they also deny something more important than sating our wanderlust: a chance to rest our brains.

Research supports the idea that time off benefits our physical health, ability to make decisions, sense of life satisfaction, and performance at work. But its not necessarily how much vacation we pencil in; its how we approach the walls between off and office that matters to well-being, Ellen Ernst Kossek, a professor at Purdues Mitchell E. Daniels Jr. School of Business, told me. Kossek has been studying work-life balance for decades. In some ways the issues are the same as they were back in 2006, when she conducted a study on teleworkers well-being. No, people werent yet contending with a COVID-19 pandemicfueled blurring of professional and personal time so pervasive that government health agencies in Canada began urging people to disconnect. But increasingly employees were doing work, such as making calls and sending emails, in their own homes. The widespread assumption at the time was that this flexibility enabled work-family balance. She did not find this to be true. For some, it seemed to be tied to familial conflict, overwork, and job dissatisfaction.

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What mattered was feeling in control of your boundaries, said Kossek.

This is an issue no longer affecting just a few teleworkers. As of June 2022, 58 percent of Americans were able to work from home one a day a week, according to a study by McKinsey. Thirty-five percent had the ability to work remotely five days a week, according to that same study. That adds up to tens of millions of workers with a level of location flexibility that was unheard of before the pandemic.

To be clear, Im happy for all the people whove gotten to try living, short-term and long-term, in all kinds of different places, spending more time with family, and applying for jobs that would have previously been off-limits. Im convinced that the small business owners raving about workcations on their podcast really did get joy and inspiration from working in a new city alongside friends. It makes sense to me that people who have the freedom to take workcations are more satisfied with their jobs than people who dont. I am one of many people who were able to spend way more time with sick family members, before they died, than I would have pre-pandemic. I am also one of many people who have had the opportunity to experiment with living my commune fantasy with a group of friends. (And yes, that time in Maine was one of the most enjoyable months of my life, despite the fact that we were all still working.)

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But lets not fool ourselves into thinking that the act of traveling somewhere turns a trip into a vacation. Because as we do all this, the number of vacation days the typical American getsa fraction of what many European countries offerhas not changed. Yes, the average remote worker took four overnight trips in 2022, according to the Marriott survey, but they did this with just nine vacation days. A similar study from JobSage found that nearly half of all respondents had opted for a workcation instead of a true vacation because they couldnt take time off. It wasnt that they didnt have remaining vacation days; participants said they often felt pressured not to use them. Nine out of 10 people whod taken a workcation in 2021 told a passport photo service that the experience was positive or very positive, and even more than that planned to do it again in 2022. Still, I cannot help but conclude that whats really going on here is that were duping ourselves into thinking we have more time off, while the already flimsy partition between work and leisure erodes further.

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For those with lofty professional or creative goals, its not hard to see why the idea of extending or taking a tripby working from somewhere newcan feel like a life hack. Around 40 percent of Americans were already checking work email during paid time off, according to a recent study by Go City, a sightseeing ticketing company. This way you get actual credit for workingand you get more done. Theres Elon Musk, bragging that he allows himself maybe two or three workless days a year. Theres Sam Bankman-Fried, pre-FTX implosion, arguing that its best not to step away from the office, even briefly, a position once shared by Bill Gates, who also famously detested the idea of a weekend. Though on one level, Instagram is one big advertisement for a vacation prioritization, its simultaneously pushing the idea that a vacation exists to mine it for content. And though in interviews successful entrepreneurs and artists often credit downtime for big ideas, we have the competing narrative that breakthroughs come from simply working somewhere more inspiring. So which is it?

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Personally, after taking too many trips where I came back feeling more stressed than when Id left, Ive arrived at the extremely scientific conclusion that a restorative, perspective-shifting vacation requires four consecutive days off without working at all, preferably without using a phone as anything other than a camera or to-do list. I do understand that going down social media rabbit holes or posting photos on vacation gives some people true satisfaction. Fine. As a parent of a young child, I also understand that total relaxation is an unrealistic goal for many of us and vacation may be the only chance we get to deal with overdue tasks. Still, I think by conflating travel with vacation, its easy to forget the point thats baked into one of the earliest definitions of the latter word: to be empty, be free, have leisure. We are not empty or free when were responding to Slack messages.

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Kossek, the time-off researcher, declined to endorse my four-day theory or even the idea that its always superior to do vacation in large, fully uninterrupted chunks. Some people may get great relief from using a clearly defined 30 minutes a day to clean out their inbox instead of returning to 1,000 unread messages, she pointed out. (I disagree and feel that inbox cleaning is a gateway drug to elsewhere brain, keeping us from being fully present in the group meal, or whatever it is, that follows.) But she does agree that the back-and-forth is generally bad.

When you mix them together constantly, youll have switching costs from work to nonwork, and it will affect your flow and performance in either role, Kossek said. Thats been my experience. Its even plausible that it slowed the progress of this very article, which I began writing, slowly, with resentment, on a poorly structured workcation. The truth is that without former commune members wearing shirts with slogans like Just Do Nothing by my side, my four-day rule hasnt been easy to implement. Still, I believe that trying again is not only possible but necessary.
Microsoft's Cortana is no more.

The Washington-based tech giant recently announced it is finally ending support for its Cortana standalone app, effectively retiring the virtual assistant as a separate offering after almost a decade.

Microsoft previously launched Cortana as Windows' virtual assistant in 2014, per Tech Target. It was named after the smart AI partner of the iconic Master Chief from the Halo video game series.

The End Of An Era

Microsoft mentioned in its announcement that it will no longer support its Cortana standalone app starting in Aug. 2023. As such, the company is advising Windows users to expect some changes coming their way.

According to the company, the discontinuation of Cortana's support only impacts Cortana in Windows. This statement means that the Cortana virtual assistant in Windows devices, such as PCs, laptops, and the like, will no longer get updates.

A report from Windows Latest (via 9to5Mac) stated that the Cortana standalone app didn't receive an update from Windows for two years until now. However, this update figuratively kills Cortana instead of adding new features to it.

Windows users opening the standalone Cortana app will only see a message saying that "Cortana in Windows as a standalone app is deprecated." Windows Latest also confirms that the app no longer works on Windows 11.

Microsoft's announcement doesn't come as a surprise to many. The company previously announced in early June it is ending support for the virtual assistant later in 2023, according to The Verge; it didn't mention an exact date.

Read More: Nokia Released Two New Early-Tech Keypad Cellphones

Windows first launched Cortana for its ill-fated Windows phones in 2014; it included the virtual assistant to its Windows 10 operating system a year later. Much like Apple's Siri, Windows users can use Cortana to set reminders, open applications, and ask questions using voice commands.

A More Powerful Replacement

Microsoft assures Windows 365 users that they can still access Cortana in Outlook Mobile, Teams mobile, Microsoft Teams display, and Microsoft Teams rooms.

It also guarantees they can still access its productivity features in Windows and Edge, which now have increased AI capabilities. They can still get help with their tasks, calendar, and email through these features, but now it comes in "new and exciting ways."

These productivity features include voice access in Windows 11, Bing, Microsoft 365 Pilot, and Windows Copilot.

Voice Access in Windows 11 functions much like Cortana. It lets users control their PC and even write text using their voice via voice commands. Unlike Cortana, though, voice access works offline and uses advanced speech recognition to understand users' speech and help them get things done.

You may have already heard about Microsoft's AI-powered Bing, which allows users to ask complex questions and get concise answers from reliable online sources. Additionally, Microsoft 365 Copilot uses AI to help users create, edit, share content, and more using users' Microsoft 365 data (calendar, emails, chats, documents, and meetings).

Lastly, Windows Copilot, which Microsoft made available in the preview for Windows 11 in June, provides users with centralized AI assistance. It helps users bring their ideas to life, complete complex projects, and collaborate with other people.

Related Article: Russia-Linked Hackers Launch Phishing Attacks on 40 Govt Orgs
Movie theaters are full, Eurodance is big: Close your eyes and its the 1990s again. Adding to the throwback vibe, theres a new controversy about sex in movies. The story of a love triangle between a German film director (played by Franz Rogowski), his husband (Ben Whishaw), and an elementary school teacher (Adele Exarchopoulos), Ira Sachs Passages premiered to strong reviews at Sundance but was given an NC-17 rating by the Motion Picture Association for its explicit sex scenes. The films distributor, Mubi, has opted to release it in theaters unrated, but not before a round of interviews in which Sachs called the MPAs decision a form of cultural censorship and pointed to the ratings boards long history of disproportionately stigmatizing sex, especially when its between same-sex partners.

Created in 1990 to replace the disreputable X, the NC-17 rating, which bars admission to anyone under the age of 17, has fallen almost completely out of use in recent years. Last fall, the Marilyn Monroe biopic Blonde became the first major NC-17 release in almost a decade, and it appeared in only a handful of theaters before making its way to Netflix. In an environment where smaller, non-studio films often find their biggest audiences on streaming, ratings have come to feel increasingly less important, verging on irrelevant.

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The NC-17 label has also become less important because its so rarely called for. Twenty-first-century cinema, particularly in the U.S., has become overwhelmingly sexless, and since violence has never much bothered the MPA, its left the group with precious few chances to whip out its scarlet letter. A reaction against the leering, gratuitous nudity of the 1990s, along with a more recent reckoning with the conditions under which sex scenes are shot, has combined with mainstream movies overriding lack of interest in everyday life to leave the movie landscape largely void of moments of physical intimacy. Tony Stark may have entered the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a bed-hopping bad boy, but it took 13 years and 26 movies for the MCU to feature anything close to a love scene (and given how poorly Eternals went, it seems unlikely to try it again). As RS Benedict wrote in a widely shared essay called Everyone Is Beautiful and No One Is Horny, the perfect bodies in superhero movies exist only for the purpose of inflicting violence upon others. The biggest movie in the world, Barbie, is full of perfectly sculpted bodies, but Barbie rebuffs her boyfriends attempts to land so much as a kiss on the cheek, and although Ken desperately wants to sleep over at Barbies Dreamhouse, he has to admit hes not sure what hed do there. There is sex in Oppenheimer, whose hero is a habitual philanderer as well as a genius, but considering the way his little death paves the way for nuclear Armageddon, it probably would have been better if hed kept it in his pants.

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Passages, at least, is especially attentive to bodies, and not only when theyre rolling around in bed. In the opening scene, Rogowskis Tomas is on the set of his latest film, growing increasingly incensed with the way his lead actor is walking down the stairs. First its the way his arms move that is wrong, then his hands, then the speed at which he enters the room, and to top it all off, theres an extra whos pretending to drink from an empty wineglass. That night, Tomas is celebrating the end of the shoot at a bar when his husband, Martin (Whishaw), approaches him to tell him hes turning in for the night. The way Martin slides smoothly into sync with Tomas as he dances instantly establishes a sense of the long-standing intimacy between the two of them, while the fact that Martin is coming in close only to tell his husband hes going home hints at where their relationship is now. As soon as Martin is out of sight, Tomas starts dancing with Agathe (Exarchopoulos), and though it isnt love (or even lust) at first sight, you can see them sizing each other up, watching the way the other one moves. Later, in the moment before they have sex for the first time, Tomas stares at Agathe in her friends kitchen as she looks off into the distance, their gazes at right angles as they contemplate the inevitability of whats about to happen.

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Tomas and Agathes first sexual encounter is a relatively tame oneshe climbs on top of him and the camera discreetly cuts away, the way movies usually do. But when she drops by the editing room where hes cutting his new movie, the sex they have is much wilder and more intense. Its not explicit in the way that term is usually used: She keeps her underwear on, and hes in such a hurry he gets his pants only halfway off, exposing slightly more than he might in a Speedo. But this isnt the kind of sex scene where two actors flail around on top of each other in short, soft-focus shots until the actress pretends to climax. Exarchopoulos and Rogowski play every moment with an almost biological specificity that makes the fact that you cant technically see much of anything beside the point, and the way Sachs shoots the scene, in a single uncut take, lends it both urgency and a sense of realism. These are two people who already know each other inside and out, with a physical chemistry that makes other incompatibilities null and void.

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The online discourse about sex scenes often focuses on whether or not theyre necessary. Do they advance the plot? Do they tell us something about the characters we dont otherwise know? Or are they just there to gratify the audiences voyeuristic urges? Id argue that, in the case of Passages, sexual explicitness is essential to the plot. Tomas is a fuckboy par excellence, a narcissistic manipulator so devoted to his own needs he has no room to contemplate the destruction he wreaks in other peoples lives. Rogowski is a magnetic screen presence, but thats not enough to explain why Agathe immediately falls in love with him, or why Martin has stayed with him despite the signs that the affection went out of their marriage long ago. Factor in that Tomas is great in bed, though, and it all starts to make sense. Even after Martin has kicked Tomas out of their Parisian apartment, the sex they have when they get back togetheranother long single take, this one with substantially more of the actors bodies on display (including movie nuditys final frontier)makes you understand why theyd be reluctant to let it go, no matter how poisoned the rest of their relationship has become.

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Related From Slate The Best Part of Oppenheimer? Definitely the Guy From The Santa Clause. Read More

Id also argue, though, that is it necessary? isnt the right question, or at least the only one. Part of what makes movies (and art more generally) important is that they serve as an implicit rebuke to a strictly utilitarian view of the world, the spiritual parsimony that says that the only necessary things are the ones we cant live without. We dont need movies the way we need food or water, but we need them to remind us that being alive is more than drawing breath.

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There are other ways Sachs could have conveyed the physical attraction between his leads, ways that would not have provoked the judgment of the MPA. But even if they might have conveyed the same information, it wouldnt have had the same effect. In order to be emotionally involved with Passages characters, we have to feel, not just understand, why Martin and Agathe stay with Tomas. And that, with apologies to the haters, means letting the movie turn you on. I really wanted to make a horny film, Sachs told the Associated Press, a film that gave pleasure and was about pleasure.

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Receiving pleasure is a big part of why weve always gone to the movies, and while its better that were thinking more about whom that pleasure is intended for and under which conditions its produced, that doesnt have to mean giving up on it altogether. You could have people talk about the great sex they just had, in the same way that a Mission: Impossible movie could show Tom Cruise racing toward the edge of a cliff on his motorcycle and cut away to Simon Pegg saying, Great jump, Ethan! But its kidding yourself to think that the impact would be the same, or that youre not cutting the movies off from a vital area of human experience by requiring them to tell instead of embracing their power to show.
About 30 countries are attending Ukrainian peace talks in Saudi Arabia this weekend. If that seems like a strange sentence, it is. If the talks themselvesinvolving so many players in such a distant landseem frivolous or doomed to failure, well, theyre actually a bit more intriguing.

I should stress a bit more intriguing. Champagne wont be flowing at the end of the proceedings, and not just because alcohol is banned from the royal palace. But some diplomatic progress might be made.

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Most intriguing is the cast of characters, which includes National Security Adviser Jake Sullivansuggesting that President Joe Biden views the summit as important enough to send his top aide on his second 12-hour plane ride to Jeddah in a 10-day span. (He last flew there for talks about a possible Israeli peace deal with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.)

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But more interesting is the presence of Li Hui, Chinas special diplomat for Eurasian affairs. (Li is a senior official, having once been ambassador to Russia and vice minister of foreign affairs.) When a similar meeting took place in Copenhagen two months ago, China declined the invitation. The fact that Li is coming this time means something.

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China is crucial, for good or ill, to whatever happens with the war in Ukraine. If U.S.-China relations were better, they could go a long way toward jointly imposing an end to the fightingBiden pressuring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (and providing security guarantees if the peace breaks down), Chinese President Xi Jinping doing the same with Russian President Vladimir Putin. But relations are dim, so for now such an idea is fantasy.

In any case, Xi isnt so interested in ending the war for the moment. His no-limits partnership with Russiawhich he and Putin signed just before the invasionhas turned out to have plenty of limits after all. Xi hasnt sent Putin any weapons, though he has purchased Russian oil and supplied Chinese technology. He sees an alliance of some sort with Putin as a bulwark against U.S. influence, and he sees the war as a welcome sinkhole for Americas military arsenal (and thus a diversion of U.S. weapons and attention from the Asia-Pacific region).

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However, there are signs that Chinese officials are growing weary of this war. They see it as dragging on for a long time to come, and they see their support for Russiahowever limitedas harming their image in Europe, where they would like to make economic and political inroads.

Xi may be sending Li to the meeting in Jeddah out of concern for Chinas standing with the rest of the world. Zelensky has called the meeting in hopes of drawing support for his aims from the global southcountries such as Indonesia, Egypt, Mexico, and Chile, which have stayed neutral on the war, not wanting to alienate the U.S., Russia, or China. He particularly hopes to push India and Brazil off the fence. Xi wants China to have a voice at the table and, in any case, to see if Zelensky is succeedingif the neutral countries are moving closer toward an alignment with Kyiv, which means, in effect, an alignment with Washington.

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In other words, this meeting might tell the Chinese how expensive their support of Moscow is gettingwhich might also tell them how much they could save, in money and prestige, by playing a role in ending the war.

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Bonnie Glaser, managing director of the Indo-Pacific program at the German Marshall Fund, is pessimistic that China will change its stance anytime soon. Chinese experts have recently told her the time isnt right to push for a settlement, she said in an email on Thursday.

For one thing, they told Glaser, Putin would resist any pressure to stop fighting at least until next years U.S. presidential elections. If Donald Trump is reelected, Washington would likely endor drastically cut backits military support for Ukraine, putting Putin in a much better position either to win the war outright or propose a peace that would put Russia in a much better position to annex more territory. (For this same reason, a Trump return is a huge worry of many throughout Europe.)

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U.S. officials, while continuing to voice full support for Ukraine for as long as it takes, are also worried, not just about the effects of domestic politics but also about the course of the war. Hopes for a quick breakthrough in Ukraines counteroffensivewhich were probably unrealistic to begin withhave not borne fruit. As a result, Ukrainian officers have shifted back to a more familiar strategy of attrition warfare, and they are gaining some groundbut by definition this means a long war, especially since Russias defensive lines are proving firmer than expected. (Both sides have proved to be quite good on the defense and not so good on the offense.)

In other words, while neither Li nor Sullivan is likely to announce any major steps toward a cease-fire, they may well be probing possible openings for a settlement of some sort in the futureand testing the winds for how much support they would have from the rest of the world by continuing or modifying their present policies.

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Related From Slate Why Did Xi Jinping Suddenly Call Zelensky? Read More

Xi would gain much if China were seen as a major power that could broker peace from an intractable war. The weekends meeting may prompt some calculations of the risks and benefits of digging in deeper with Moscow or backing away at least a little.

Russia will not be attending the meeting, but the Kremlin spokesman says that Putin will monitor what goes on thereacknowledging that he has stakes in this game.

Glaser doesnt rule out the possibility that, even at this meeting, the Chinese will do specific things, like encourage Moscow to return to the Black Sea Grain Initiative, especially because Chinese interests are directly at stake. Whether such moves set the stage for further developments in the near future remains to be seen.

Several more U.S.-China meetings are set to take place in the near future. Sullivan will meet with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in September. A Biden-Xi summit could follow from there. If the war plods on in a deadly, destructive stalemate, the two leaders might come to see mutual benefit in doing something to force things to an end. Either way, this weekend in Jeddah may be a harbinger of things to come.
The E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse, a few blocks down Constitution Avenue from the United States Capitol, has seen its host of major trials before. But neither it nor any courthouse has or is likely to see a federal case on the magnitude of United States v. Trump, for which former President Donald Trump was arraigned Thursday afternoon.

By early Thursday morning, the typically accessible building was blocked off by policemany, many policebike racks, and yellow tape, with dump trucks positioned as an additional barrier along the east-facing 3rd Street entrance. The white-tented, farmers market vibe of broadcast networks standup spots was arrayed along the front, south-facing facade of the building, alongside dozens of vans with equipment to unload.

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The media entrance, on the west side of the building, had a line out the door that had started the night beforesome of the major news outlets paid line-standers to hold spots for them, with reporters coming to relieve them of their duties in the wee morning hours. By 7:30, when I got in line, GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy was already leaving, having shot his video defending Trumphis theoretical primary opponentfrom charges of profound crimes against the republic.

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Once inside the courthouse, though, it might as well have been any other day. There was Judge Tanya Chutkan, who will eventually preside over the Trump case, grabbing a coffee from the cafeteria. She wouldnt have to deal with the circus today, at least; the arraignment was a magistrate judges problem. Chief Judge James Boasberg of the district court went down the line of reporters who were waiting to check in, shaking hands, schmoozing, cracking jokes. Was something big going down in the courthouse Thursday? Youd never know.

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The arraignment was a strange thing to behold: routine procedure, applied to a monumental moment in history.

Yes, in some ways, its become old hat. This was the third arraignment against the former president in a matter of months, and there may be more to come. Veteran media attendees of the previous two had their coverage routines practiced and honed; there was much talk about how the D.C. courthouses setup was much better organized than Miamiswhere Trump was indicted in the Mar-a-Lago documents casea logistical experience remembered with horror. The overall tenor of the pre-arraignment coverage was staid, the muted level of drama reminiscent of a conversation overheard at the grocery store: Oh, Trumps getting arraigned again today. Might as well be noting that the Giants were playing the Diamondbacks.

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But this third case against Trump is big. These are criminal charges against a former president not for paying hush money to a porn actress or hiding classified documents behind his Florida toilet. These are federal criminal charges over Trumps attempt to overturn an election he lost, a significant moment in American history that culminated in a riot in the U.S. Capitol. Its all built up to this case.

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Still, thats not to say that those circumstances made this arraignment, itself, exciting in the moment.

With only about 10 to 20 seats available for media and the public inside the actual courtroom, most members of the media were held in a large conference room. Four screens, each showing three camera angles of the courtroom, were projected, and staff dimmed the lights in the media room more than an hour before the proceedings began. The mood was set: We were going to be viewing either a federal arraignment or a drone strike.

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The defense and prosecution sat at two oblong tables next to each other, with screens and microphones at the end of each. The special prosecutor charging the case, Jack Smith, entered the courtroom at 3:45 p.m. and took a seat on the first row of benches behind the prosecutions table, on the right. (The gallery, beyond a handful of public members and the press, also attracted a few curious D.C. federal judges in the building who came for the spectacle.)

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When Trump entered the courtroom about five minutes later, he sat in the middle seat of the defense table between two of his attorneys, John Lauro and Todd Blanche. From there, he had a direct, unobstructed view of Smith, sitting about 20 feet away. The former president sat with his hands folded, mostly whispering back and forth with his attorneys. Smith mostly whispered with his own associates. It was as if these two men, in the process of making each others lives substantially more complicated, were going out of their way to not acknowledge the others presence.

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The magistrate judge, Moxila Upadhyaya, was 15 minutes late. Waiting, Trump largely stared ahead at her vacant seat.

When Judge Upadhyaya arrived, the lawyers on both sides introduced themselves, and the defense attorneys identified their client as President Trump.

Good afternoon, Mr. Trump, Upadhyaya said. He would be Mr. for the remainder of the hearing, including when she read him his Miranda rights.

She asked him, among other things, to state his full name.

Donald J. Trump. John.

And his age?

Seven-seven, he said, oddly.

With formalities out of the way, Upadhyaya explained how things would go, saying, Mr. Trump, an arraignment is a short proceeding, but its an extremely important proceeding. As if he hasnt been through this multiple times this year already.

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He pleaded not guilty.

The government didnt request to detain Trump, but the conditions for his release include that Trump not violate federal, state, or local law. He was reminded that its a crime to threaten a juror, bribe a witness, or retaliate against anyone cooperating with the government. According to one pool reporter in the room, Trump appeared most irritated in this moment, shaking his head when she mentioned arrest as a consequence of violating these terms.

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Once the initial hearing was set for Aug. 28, there was a little back and forth between the prosecution and defense about the speed of the trial. Lauro, the Trump lawyer, insisted that his team needed to know the scope and magnitude of the governments evidence before setting a schedule going forward. Given the weighty issues at stake, he said, it would be absurd to rush such a case to trial.

Were going to need a little time. And that time, should they get their way, would not be in the heat of the presidential primary.

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The judge allowed for him to file a written motion making his case to Chutkan, and the hearing was over. After half an hour of sitting and behaving like a normal, well-adjusted person who might not have a proclivity for going out of his way to get into legal trouble, Trump was back on the tarmac at Reagan National Airport, complaining about political persecution.

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When I left the courtroom, the public presence outside the building had grown substantially. It was largely the same festival of stupid content creation that my colleague Alexander Sammon witnessed outside the Miami courthouse during Trumps previous federal arraignment.

For example, a colonial man leading Miley Cyrus karaoke with some bros.

Next stop on the arraignment tour: Fulton County, Georgia?
With the filing of special counsel Jack Smiths indictment, the prosecution of former president Donald Trump for 2020 election interferenceperhaps the most consequential in our nations historyhas begun. But so has Trumps defense, with the post-indictment media blitz of co-lead defense counsel John Lauro (with whom one of us, Norm Eisen, used to practice criminal law). Lauro laid out the entire five-part structure of Trumps defense, and it is not to be taken lightlyeven though, after much drama, we expect all five elements to fail.

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The leading edge of Lauros defense case was that the charges against the former president violate his First Amendment rights by criminalizing political speech. Though this argument has become a favorite talking point of Trumps defenders, it is a fundamentally flawed way of looking at the indictment.

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The charging document goes out of its way to reaffirm that Trump, like anyone else, had the right to publicly question the results of the 2020 election. And Trump is not being charged with a crime for that protected political speech. Hes being charged with defrauding the United States, attempting to obstruct the electoral count on Jan. 6, and attempting to deprive millions of Americans of the right to have their votes counted.

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Some of Trumps words, like his infamous 2:24 p.m. tweet targeting Vice President Mike Pence for violence, are integral to those crimes, and so the First Amendment is inapplicable. Just like any other defendant, Trump is not immunized from criminal liability just because he committed his crimes in part by talking. A bank robber cannot claim the protection of the First Amendment because he spoke the words stick em up. Trump can legally lie about how nice the apartments are in Trump Tower, but if he tries to convince someone to buy one of those apartments based on those lies, hes committing fraud.

Lauros next move after wrapping his client in the Constitution was to proclaim Trumps good faith. Trump genuinely believed, the argument goes, that the election was stolen, so he could not have formed the corrupt intent to commit a crime. This defense is factually and legally unsustainable. The indictment explains in detail that Trump knew that he lost the election and pushed his scheme forward anyway. Trump was repeatedly told that he had lost the election and that there was no evidence of widespread fraud by high-ranking officials at the Department of Justice, including his own attorney general, his campaign staff and political advisors, and many of his own attorneys. Trump is alleged to have repeatedly acknowledged in private that he lost the election, in stark contrast to his public statements embracing conspiracy theories.

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And even if Trump did believe he won, that doesnt allow him to exercise vigilante justice, as he did, and break the law. Returning to our bank robbery example, I may think the bank owes me money, but Im not allowed to reach my hand in the tellers drawer and take it.

That brings us to the third element of Lauros defense: that his constitutionally minded good-faith client was also relying on the advice of counsel when he helped manufacture fraudulent slates of electors, urged state officials to certify those fraudulent slates of electors, and pressed Vice President Mike Pence to count those fraudulent slates.

But Trump cannot successfully invoke the advice-of-counsel defense because evidence seems to suggest he did not honestly rely on that advice. The legal theories he invoked, including the view that the vice president can unilaterally decide the results of the election, are absurd on their face. And many reputable lawyers, including White House counsel Pat Cipollone, told him so. No oneand especially not a person who had occupied the highest office in our constitutional democracy for nearly four yearscould believe in good faith that the Constitution gives the vice president the monarchical power to decide whether the vice president himself and the president won reelection.

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Moreover, the advice-of-counsel defense does not apply if the counsel was integrally involved in the sham operation. That is certainly the case here. Indeed, the indictment includes the attorneys on whom Trump allegedly relied for adviceJohn Eastman, Rudy Giuliani, and Kenneth Chesebroamong the uncharged co-conspirators.

Trump cannot evade criminal prosecution just because a few of the co-conspirators with whom he concocted his scheme happen to be lawyers. If it were otherwise, clients could always evade prosecution simply by hiring attorneys to conspire with them.

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Finally, in perhaps his most audacious defense of Trump, Lauro suggested that the trial should be delayed for years because the government took years to investigate it, with the indictment coming two and a half years after Jan. 6, 2021. This argument is absurd. Criminal indictments often come years after the crimes charged in them were committed.

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The sensible reason for that is that prosecutorswho do not have all the information about the crimes that the perpetrators possessmust investigate thoroughly to ensure that the law and the evidence support the prosecution. In this case, the House Select Committee on Jan. 6 did a lot of the heavy investigative lifting in 2021 and 2022, before the Department of Justice fully took the baton. Critically, the law places a single limit on the timing of criminal prosecutions: statutes of limitations, which are clearly satisfied here.

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Lauroa veteran criminal defense lawyerknows this as well as anyone. So does D.C. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, who will be handling this case. Dont expect her to take this argument for delay seriously.

Apart from the demand for reciprocal delay, these are non-frivolous defense arguments. They will consume significant amounts of public attention and court time in the pretrial phase in the months ahead and at trial. The clashes over them will be vivid.

But they are ultimately unavailing. And for Trump to avoid serious risk of conviction and incarceration, he and his counsel will need some defenses that are far better. The problem is that even for an experienced and talented defense lawyer like Lauro, we do not believe they exist.
Does thinking about the 2024 election fill you with listlessness and looming dread? Is coverage of the campaign so far giving you strong feelings of deja vu? Youre not alone!

The Trump vs. Biden rematch really does seem to be happeningbut this time, its even more cursed. Christina Cauterucci homes in on what feels so off about the coming presidential election.

Are lawyers OK?!

All six of the unnamed co-conspirators referenced in Donald Trumps indictment appear to be lawyersand this raises some serious questions about the state of the legal profession, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern write. They explain how this case represents a kind of red line for the practice of law itself.

Plus: Robert Katzberg argues that there is a fatal flaw in Trumps best legal defense.

Profiles in note-taking

A profile in courage, Mike Pence sure aintbut his contemporaneous notes, which are all over Jack Smiths indictment, might still send Trump to jail. Alexander Sammon considers what Pences notes reveal about him.

California loses its superpower

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California was built around permanent population growthbut now its losing its residents. The fundamental assumptions underlying how the state is run dont make sense anymore, William Fulton writes, while laying out what state leaders must do to adjust to this new reality.

DOJ virtue signaling

Merrick Garland sought the death penalty in prosecuting the Tree of Life shooterand on Wednesday, the jury indeed voted to sentence Robert Bowers to death.

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The verdict adds a new wrinkle to the already confusing picture of the Biden administrations position on the death penalty, Austin Sarat writes. Specifically, the administration doesnt actually want to see Bowers executed. He lays out what he thinks is really going on.

Reading is a lifeline

For those in solitary confinement, reading is often the only escape. The problem is that not everyone can. Incarcerated writer Kwaneta Harris shares a troubling thing she learned about her neighbors in solitary.

Lizzos bombshell lawsuit

Some of Lizzos former dancers have filed a workplace harassment lawsuit against herand the allegations are bananas (literally). Nadira Goffe tries to make sense of the accusations against the star and of the publics reaction.

Today, Slate is  * FUN?

Unlike Ron DeSantis! Jim Newell takes a close look at the secret to the Florida governors lack of success on the campaign trail.

Thanks so much for reading! Well see you tomorrow.
Justice Janet Protasiewicz was sworn into the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Tuesday, creating a 43 liberal majority after years of conservative domination. By Wednesday, voting rights advocates had filed a lawsuit asking the court to strike down the states gerrymandered legislative maps. The other liberal justices have already condemned these maps as an unlawful assault on representative democracy. During her campaign, Protasiewicz decried them as rigged and wrong. The real question, then, is not if the new majority will strike down these maps, but when.

Right now, Wisconsins legislative districts are arguably the most egregiously gerrymandered in the country. The origin of todays maps lies in the 2010 redistricting cycle, when Wisconsin Republicans used novel technology to gerrymander Democrats into a permanent minority. Mapmakers packed as many Democrats as possible into a few deep-blue districts, then distributed the rest throughout safely red districts, eliminating genuinely competitive elections for the statehouse. Urban areas were ruthlessly carved up to dilute their political power. Mapmakers stuffed Democrats and racial minorities into contorted districts that stretched into conservative rural areas whose GOP voters could always prevail. The plans were so extreme that, in 2018, Democrats won a majority of votes for the state Legislatureand Republicans captured a near-supermajority of seats.

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After the 2020 census, the Legislature, still in the grip of this gerrymander, drew new maps that maintained or expanded the partisan bias of the old ones. Because suburban areas were trending blue, for instance, Republican lawmakers added more red, rural voters to suburban districts, restoring the GOPs advantage for another decade. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers vetoed the map, but the Legislature refused to draw fairer ones; the governor and Legislature then asked the state Supreme Court to resolve this impasse. Democrats urged the court to choose maps that did not benefit either political party. The conservative majority, however, rejected this request, claiming it would ignore all political considerations and favor maps with the least change from the old (and heavily gerrymandered) ones. This majority eventually enacted the maps submitted by the state Legislaturethe same ones that Evers had vetoed. (There were various side quests to the U.S. Supreme Court, but those are not relevant here.)

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Related From Slate Samuel Alito Just Took an Indefensible Jab at the Progressive Justices Read More

Throughout this epic journey, the courts four conservatives insisted that the Wisconsin Constitution imposed no enforceable limits on partisan gerrymandering. The three liberals disagreed, asserting that courts have an obligation to protect voters right to equal participation in representative government. Protasiewicz aligned herself with this view on the campaign trail, and her blowout victory was a kind of mandate to bring democracy back to the Badger State. The fundamental problem with gerrymandering, after all, is that the people cant vote their way out of it, in the traditional sense of electing new representatives, when legislators have entrenched their power so durably. After the U.S. Supreme Court declined to restrict partisan redistricting, Wisconsinites had just one remaining solution: their state Supreme Court, which remains free to limit gerrymandering under the state constitution. By electing Protasiewicz, voters all but ensured an end to one-party rule over the statehouse.

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Voting rights advocates are not wasting any time. Tuesdays lawsuitfiled by a coalition of groups, including Law Forward and the Campaign Legal Center, on behalf of several votersurged the court to strike down the existing maps. The plaintiffs were able to take their case directly to the Wisconsin Supreme Court because, under state law, it has original jurisdiction over redistricting disputes. That shortcut eliminates the need for a lengthy trip through the lower courts, increasing the odds of having new maps by 2024.

The lawsuit argues that the current districts violate the Wisconsin Constitution in several different ways. First, it claims that the maps violate the guarantee of equality by discriminating against voters on the basis of political affiliation. Second, it claims that the maps violate freedom of speech and association by retaliating against voters for their expression of political views and impairing their ability to associate for the advancement of their political beliefs. Third, it cites the state constitutions provision requiring maintenance of free government through laws that comport with justice and moderation. Fourth, it accuses the court of violating the separation of powers by adopting a map in 2022 that the governor had previously vetoed.

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Take a step back and consider what the plaintiffs are saying here. The Wisconsin Constitution explicitly guarantees every citizen an equal right to participate in a free government. It also bars the state from penalizing any citizen for exercising their liberty to speak, associate, and assemble freely to promote their political views. And it establishes these rights in far broader language than anything found in the federal Constitution. The case should be easy to make that Republican lawmakers have run afoul of the state constitution by retaliating against voters who associated themselves with the Democratic Party. Lawmakers punished these voters because of their political expression, diluting their votes through an insurmountable gerrymander. And when the chief executive of the state exercised his constitutional authority to reject this gerrymander, the court stepped in and imposed it over his veto.

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On top of everything else, the plaintiffs have an ace in the hole: The Wisconsin Constitution requires that all legislative districts be made up of contiguous territory. Yet a majority of seats in both chambers currently consist of a patchwork of disconnected pieces that do not share a common border with other parts of the same district. Rather, tiny pieces of one district are stuffed into others to maximize partisan advantage. The plaintiffs make strong arguments, on originalist and textualist grounds, that the meaning of contiguous (sharing a common border) cannot be stretched to include districts that literally do not touch each other. (Past courts have assumed that districts are legally contiguous if they follow municipal borders, but the constitution explicitly refers to physical territory, not any legal fiction.)

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Take a look at the Madison area assembly districts. This violates both @MerriamWebster's word-of-the-day and also Article IV of the Wisconsin Constitution, which requires that districts consist of "contiguous territory." #gerrymander #wisconsin pic.twitter.com/a5tD1xFFAV  Mark Gaber (@markpgaber) August 2, 2023

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If the court finds the maps unconstitutional, the plaintiffs seek relief in two ways. First, they ask the court to forbid the state from holding elections under the current maps in 2024, and to solicit new maps from the parties; the court would then assess the submissions for compliance with the constitution, or appoint a special master to do so. (If no submissions suffice, the special master could draw their own plans.) This approach, though, does not address a looming issue: State senators serve four-year terms, so half of them are not up for reelection until 2026. The plaintiffs therefore ask the court to issue a rare order holding that these senators have no right to complete a term of office that was unconstitutionally obtained, and force them to run for reelection in 2024 instead.

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While it seems extraordinarily likely that the court will, indeed, invalidate the maps, the liberal majority may feel uncomfortable halving the terms of sitting state senators. Today, Republicans hold a majority in the state Assembly and a supermajority in the state Senate; the Legislature could thus, in theory, impeach and remove Protasiewicz, or any other liberal justice, who cuts down the gerrymander. (Republican lawmakers have downplayed this threat.) That political reality may be cause for cautionthough Gov. Evers could simply replace any justice who loses her seat with another progressive who would carry out her predecessors decision. (Replacing a justice does not require Senate confirmation.) If Republicans responded by attempting to remove Evers, the state would fall into a genuine constitutional crisis; such extraordinary, simultaneous assaults on the executive and judicial branches seem highly improbable.

Because this case involves legislative districts rather than congressional ones, the U.S. Supreme Court has absolutely no authority to override the state Supreme Courts rulings. (We can, though, expect challenges to the gerrymandered congressional map in the future, perhaps after this suit prevails.) GOP legislators can rail against the rule of Janet, but they have no cards left to play that will save their skins. Wisconsins experiment with subverting democracy is finally drawing to a close.
This article is from Big Technology, a newsletter by Alex Kantrowitz.

Cruise is expanding its self-driving taxi operation to Los Angeles amid a year of huge growth for autonomous driving.

The GM subsidiarys entry into the second-largest city in the U.S.which I reported first today at Big Technologycomes as its increasing its autonomous rides by 49 percent per month and already doing more than 10,000 rides per week. In L.A., Cruise will begin testing soon and then expand to self-driving ride-hailing. It will be the companys eighth city of operation, up from one at the start of this year. And it wont be the last.

Were not done, Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt told me. Therell be more this year.

As Cruise spreads across the U.S. and Alphabets Waymo robotaxi service grows along with it, autonomous driving is finally delivering after years of false hype. The technology went from a perpetual six months away to chauffeuring masses of riders this year as both companies gathered experience in pilot cities and used that knowledge to expand to others.

The hardest part of autonomous driving, in reality, was getting to this point. As soon as cars could navigate one or two major cities on their own, the CEO said, expanding to more cities became less of a technology problem and more of a vehicle supply issue. With that supply steadily coming online, rapid scaling should be next.

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Last year, we were operating tens of autonomous vehicles. Were currently operating hundredsalmost 400 concurrently at peak. Next year, therell be thousands. And then itll continue at least 10 times growth every year for the foreseeable future, Vogt said.

Both Cruise and Waymo have found that their technology adapts well across cities, without having to retrain it from the ground up. After adjusting for some city-specific featureslike the shape of traffic lights or the nature of traffic circlestheir robotaxis can start driving through new cities fairly quickly.

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Our initial testing in Austin, that piece took a few weeks, said Aman Nalavade, a Waymo product manager. On Thursday, the Alphabet arm announced that it would begin limited operations in Austin, Texas, by the fall and roll out its ride-hailing service to the public a few months later.

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Related From Slate Elon Musk Is Finally Cracking Teslas Invincibility Shield Read More

Waymo is also testing on freeways in the San Francisco area, taking on autonomous drivings next frontier. Currently, neither Waymo nor Cruise offers ride-hailing customers the option to take freeways. But it shouldnt be that far away. On 101, 280, 380, youll see our cars at all times of day driving with other cars, at speed, making lane changes, etc., Nalavade said. Hopefully, in the coming months, therell be some announcements about our freeways.

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Riding in self-driving cars has become commonplace in some cities already, something I experienced in San Francisco over the past two weeks. In approximately a dozen rides with Waymo and Cruise, I hailed autonomous rides via their apps (similar to Uber and Lyft) and got into their cars alone, in a totally empty vehicle, with no human behind the wheel. It was at first a bit nerve-racking. Then it felt normal. I soon ignored the experience completely. Now I dont want to ride any other way.

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It was, at first, a bit nerve-racking. Then it felt normal.

Theres a lot to like about the autonomous vehicleseven if their rollout in San Francisco has been far from perfect. In my experience, they ride smoother than any human driver. Their apps accept ride requests immediately (if the services have enough supply). Their cabins feel private (though there are cameras). And theres no awkwardness around tip, conversation, climate, or music. Everything is at the riders discretion.

From a safety standpoint, both companies claim that data shows that the cars are better than human drivers, although some of the disruption theyve caused in the Bay Area has inspired a whimsical protest movement intended to stop the techs expansion. But once youre in the vehicle, the stats only confirm what youre seeing. The cars are cautious, not distracted, not drunk, and they navigate turns and stops with ease. You can text and do work without feeling nauseous. If you dont wear a seat belt, Cruise cars wont start and Waymo support will call you. The more time you spend inside the vehicles, the more evident it becomes that regulators trying to stop them will ultimately lose. Theyre just that good. (Right now state regulators have allowed Cruise and Waymo to operate in San Francisco, while city agencies have expressed skepticism about robotaxis.)

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As self-driving rolls out, some Uber, Lyft, and delivery drivers might lose jobs or revenue opportunities. However, as with all professions that encounter automation, replacing people isnt that easy. Harry Campbell, known as the Rideshare Guy, told me that ride hailings success depends on drivers coming online in busy times and not waiting around during quiet periods. Its harder to emulate that model with fixed costs like self-driving cars. Self-driving cars will be able to serve some areas at some times, Campbell said. But theres always going to be opportunity for human drivers.

Despite autonomous drivings great promise and progress, its remarkable that its rapid expansion isnt turning more heads. The muted enthusiasm is likely due to the period in the mid-2010s in which self-driving boosters promised everything and delivered almost nothing. But now, as the technology finds its footing, companies are learning how to deploy it, and the right cars are coming off the production line. Soon, perhaps very soon, itll be impossible to look away.
The training of members of the Belarusian special forces is carried out by Wagner instructors in a video released by the Ministry of Defense of Belarus. Photo: AP



We must be aware that the number of provocations will increase, Morawiecki said after a meeting with Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda, adding that Wagners group is extremely dangerous.

Morawiecki and Nauseda met in the area of the Suwalki Corridor in the far north-east of Poland on the border with Belarus, Lithuania and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.

After a failed attempt to rebel against the Russian military leadership in late June, Wagners mercenaries, in accordance with an agreement with Russian President Vladimir Putin, moved to neighboring Belarus, where, according to President Alexander Lukashenko, they are helping to train members of the Belarusian army.

Because of Wagners presence in Belarus, Poland has sent military reinforcements to its eastern border in recent weeks.

There are already thousands of Wagnerians in Belarus

The Lithuanian president believes that the number of Wagner members in Belarus could exceed 4,000. We must not only talk about measures at the national level, but also  what to do if this situation becomes more complicated, including closing the border with Belarus, said Nauseda. This should be done in a coordinated way between Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, he also said.

On Tuesday, Poland accused Belarus of violating its airspace. As stated by the Polish Ministry of Defense, two helicopters were flying along the border and crossed into Polish airspace in the area of the border village of Bialowieza.

Minsk has previously denied the allegations, accusing Poland of fabricating the allegations to justify a military buildup on the border.

Polands prime minister said on Saturday that about a hundred members of Wagner had moved to the city of Grodno, near the Belarusian border with Poland and Lithuania. According to his estimates, Russian mercenaries could try to enter the European Union under the pretext of being defectors, or they could take the role of Belarusian border guards and accelerate the arrival of real defectors in the EU.
The extremist group Islamic State (IS) announced today the news of the death of its leader Abu al-Hussein al-Qurashi, who was reportedly killed in clashes in northwestern Syria. Abu Hafis al-Hashemi al-Kurashi became the new leader of the group, the IS spokesman announced in a published message.

An IS leader was killed in direct fighting with the jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham in Syrias Idlib province, an IS spokesman said in a recorded message posted on the Sunni extremist groups Telegram channels.

The Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group is said to be trying to arrest Kurashi, said the spokesman, who in the message described the militia as an extended arm of the Turkish intelligence service, reports the German news agency dpa.

He did not specify when Kurashi was killed. But he said that the new leader of the group, its fifth in a row, was named Abu Hafis al-Hashemi al-Kurashi, reports the French news agency AFP.

The news of Kurashis death first made the rounds a few months ago. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced in May that Turkish forces had killed the alleged IS leader Abu al-Hussein al-Qurashi in Syria. IS did not respond to these allegations at the time.

Abu al-Husein al-Qurashi is said to have become the head of the jihadist group after its then leader Abu Hasan al-Hashemi al-Qurashi was killed last fall. His predecessor, Abu Ibrahim al-Qurashi, was killed last February in an operation by American forces in Idlib. The first leader of IS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was killed in Idlib in October 2019.

At the height of its power, occupying large swathes of Iraq and Syria in 2014, IS claimed responsibility for a series of attacks in Europe. It was defeated in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria two years later, losing the vast majority of territory under its control. Nevertheless, its cells continue to carry out attacks in both countries.
The police arrested five activists. Photo: Reuters



The British branch of the Greenpeace organization published footage of a group of activists who climbed onto the roof of Sunaks house in Richmond in the north of England and covered its facade with a black cloth, which is said to symbolize the color of oil. In addition, they unfurled a banner in front of the house with the inscription: Rishi Sunak  Oil Profits or Our Future?

Our prime minister should be a leader on climate policy, not an arsonist. While fires and floods destroy homes and lives around the world, Sunak is advocating massive expansion of oil and gas drilling, said Greenpeace member Philip Evans.

Police later announced that they had arrested a group of activists who had climbed onto the roof of the British Prime Ministers house. Sunaks office confirmed that the Prime Minister and his family were not at home at the time, as they are currently on vacation in California.

Meanwhile, the British government insists that the green light for new oil and natural gas wells in the North Sea was necessary to ensure energy security.

We make no apologies for taking the right approach to provision ours energy security by using the resources we have nearby so that we never depend on aggressorssuch as Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to the British BBC, a source with Downing Street.

We also invest in renewable energy sources, while our approach supports thousands of jobs, said Sunaks deputy Oliver Dowden, who is standing in for the prime minister during his vacation. At the same time, he condemned todays protest, with many members of Sunaks conservative party supporting him.
Kyobo Life Insurance Chairman and CEO Shin Chang-jae speaks at a business strategy meeting at company headquarters, July 26. Courtesy of Kyobo Life Insurance

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By Anna J. Park







Kyobo Life Insurance employees will refer to one another by their English nicknames, omitting job position titles, starting Monday, the firm's 65th foundation anniversary. The move aims to create a more horizontal workplace and flexible corporate culture within the company.







According to the insurance firm on Friday, employees have finished picking their own English nicknames and registered the names into the corporate intranet system. It is regarded as a rare move for a company long known for its conservative and traditional corporate culture.







"Aiming to foment a horizontal and flexible organizational culture, Kyobo Life Insurance has decided to adopt this new English nickname system," an official at Kyobo Life told The Korea Times, Friday. "While employees will be calling each other by their English nicknames in the everyday work environment, job positions will occasionally be used at places where the role of responsibilities are to be emphasized."







Kyobo Life Insurance headquarters in central Seoul / Courtesy of Kyobo Life Insurance

The attempt to eliminate unnecessary hierarchical structures in the corporate culture is intended to bring new mindsets of change. It followed Kyobo Life Chairman and CEO Shin Chang-jae's recent message at the firm's business strategy meeting for the second half, during which he stressed the importance of open communication among different generations as well as improvements to organizational structure.







"It is paramount to understand one another when a company aims to create a healthy organizational corporate culture," Shin said at the meeting held on July 26.







Kyobo Life is not the only firm in the insurance industry attempting to innovate its workplace environment towards a more horizontal culture. DB Insurance has streamlined its complicated job title system into a more simplified one. Samsung Life, a leading company in the sector, has also been making its employees call one another "pro," regardless of their positions, since 2019.


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A well-planned advertising campaign can elevate your small business, increasing sales, customer engagement, and growth. But how do you set one up?

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What is an Advertising Campaign?

An advertising campaign is a strategic initiative designed to promote a specific product, service, or brand to a targeted audience. It comprises multiple interconnected advertisements spread across different platforms with a common theme and goal. These campaigns aim to increase brand visibility, foster customer engagement, and, ultimately, drive sales.

Small businesses, particularly, stand to gain substantially from successful advertising campaigns. They provide a platform to create brand identity, reach potential customers, and compete in markets often dominated by larger enterprises.

Lets explore the three broad types of advertisement campaigns:

Branding: A branding campaign aims to create or enhance your brand identity in the market. These campaigns emphasize your businesss core values, mission, and unique selling points, creating an emotional connection with potential customers. Its all about telling your brand story and setting your business apart. Direct Marketing: Direct marketing campaigns focus on prompting immediate action from potential customers. Techniques such as direct mail, telemarketing, and email marketing are commonly used. The primary goal is to encourage purchases, sign-ups, or inquiries by providing direct value propositions and clear calls to action. Digital Marketing: Digital marketing campaigns are run across digital platforms such as social media, search engines, email, and websites. Given the widespread use of digital devices and the internet, these campaigns can reach a vast audience. They can involve various strategies, including content marketing, social media advertising, search engine optimization (SEO), and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising.

Branding Campaigns: Building Your Business Identity

Branding campaigns are all about defining who you are as a business. They create an image in the minds of potential and existing customers about your brands personality, culture, values, and unique attributes that set you apart from competitors.

Successful campaigns can transform your small business from a mere name or logo into a living, breathing entity with its own character and purpose. It builds an emotional connection with your audience, fostering loyalty and long-term customer relationships.

A key aspect of a branding campaign is consistency across all communication platforms  from your website and social media accounts to print advertising and customer service interactions. Consistent use of tone, style, imagery, and language ensures a uniform brand experience that customers can identify and resonate with.

Branding campaigns can also articulate your brands value proposition  why should customers choose you over competitors? By highlighting what makes your products or services superior, branding campaigns can help customers understand your unique selling points, and why they matter.

Overall, branding campaigns lay the foundation of your business identity. They enable your small business to stand tall in the marketplace, build trust with customers, and carve out your niche. Without a strong brand, its hard to make a lasting impression. But with the right branding campaign, your small business can capture hearts and minds, building a loyal customer base that powers your success.

Direct Marketing Campaigns: Targeting Your Audience Directly

Direct marketing campaigns involve promoting your products or services directly to your target audience. They use tactics designed to evoke an immediate response, such as making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or visiting your website. The goal is to forge a direct link between your business and the customer, eliminating intermediaries.

Direct marketing campaigns typically use channels such as direct mail, telemarketing, SMS, email marketing, and targeted online ads. A key feature of these campaigns is the use of personalized messages tailored to the recipients interests, preferences, or previous interactions with your business. This high degree of personalization can make the communication feel more relevant and engaging to the recipient, increasing the chances of a positive response.

Direct marketing campaigns can be highly effective for small businesses for several reasons:

Targeted Approach: These campaigns allow you to focus on a specific demographic or customer segment, increasing the chances of your message reaching people who are genuinely interested in your offerings. Measurable Results: Its easier to track responses in direct marketing, providing clear data on what works and what doesnt, aiding in improving future campaigns. Cost-Effective: Since youre communicating with a targeted group, direct marketing can be more cost-effective than mass marketing methods, making it a good choice for small businesses with limited budgets.

Digital Marketing Campaigns: Leveraging the Power of the Internet

Digital marketing campaigns utilize the internet and digital technologies to promote a product, service, or brand. These campaigns leverage various online platforms, from social media networks and email to search engines and websites, allowing businesses to reach consumers where they are spending increasingly more time: online.

In a digital marketing campaign, you might use:

Content Marketing: This involves creating and sharing valuable content (like blog posts, videos, or infographics) to attract and engage your target audience. Social Media Marketing: You can use platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn to promote your brand, engage with your audience, and drive traffic to your website. Email Marketing: This allows you to send targeted messages directly to your subscribers inboxes, which can be personalized to increase engagement. Search Engine Optimization (SEO): By optimizing your website and content, you can increase your visibility on search engine results pages, driving organic (free) traffic to your site. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising: Here, you pay a fee each time one of your ads is clicked on platforms like Google Ads or social media networks.

The internets role in digital marketing is fundamental. It enables businesses to reach a global audience, engage with customers in real-time, and tailor their messaging based on rich data insights.

The Importance of Advertising Campaigns for Small Businesses

Advertising campaigns play a crucial role in the growth and sustainability of small businesses. They are more than just tools for promotion; they are strategic drivers that can propel your business forward in several key areas:

Brand Awareness: An effective advertising campaign can put your business on the map. By consistently showcasing your brands unique attributes across various platforms, you can engrave your brand in the minds of potential customers. With heightened brand awareness, you enhance recognition and recall, making it more likely for consumers to think of your business when they need a product or service you offer. Customer Acquisition: Advertising campaigns are essential for attracting new customers. Whether its through direct marketing efforts that offer an immediate value proposition, or digital marketing strategies that drive online traffic to your business, well-executed campaigns can widen your customer base, expanding your market reach. Sales Improvement: By strategically promoting your products or services, advertising campaigns can stimulate demand and drive sales. Effective campaigns not only reach potential customers but also convince them of the value your business offers, increasing the likelihood of conversions and boosting your bottom line. Competitive Advantage: In markets saturated with options, advertising campaigns help your business stand out. They distinguish your offerings from those of competitors, giving customers compelling reasons to choose you over others.

In essence, advertising campaigns are a pivotal component of a small businesss strategy. They foster growth, not just by increasing visibility, but by actively contributing to customer acquisition and sales.

The Role of a Successful Marketing Campaign in Business Growth

Successful advertising campaigns can catapult small businesses into new levels of growth and profitability. Lets consider a couple of real-world examples that demonstrate this potential.

Dollar Shave Club : When Dollar Shave Club launched in 2012, it was a small startup with a simple idea: deliver high-quality razors to your door for a dollar a month. They kicked off with a hilarious, irreverent video that quickly went viral. The video was a huge success not only because it was entertaining but also because it clearly communicated the brands value proposition: stop overpaying for brand-name razors. Within two days of the videos launch, the company had 12,000 new subscribers. By the end of 2015, it had more than 2 million members and was purchased by Unilever in 2016 for $1 billion.

: When Dollar Shave Club launched in 2012, it was a small startup with a simple idea: deliver high-quality razors to your door for a dollar a month. They kicked off with a hilarious, irreverent video that quickly went viral. The video was a huge success not only because it was entertaining but also because it clearly communicated the brands value proposition: stop overpaying for brand-name razors. Within two days of the videos launch, the company had 12,000 new subscribers. By the end of 2015, it had more than 2 million members and was purchased by Unilever in 2016 for $1 billion. Airbnb: When Airbnb first started, it was a small operation with an innovative concept that was unfamiliar to most people. To raise awareness and credibility, they launched a clever advertising campaign during the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver. They sold limited-edition, politically-themed cereal boxes (Obama Os and Capn McCains) online to provide accommodation support for convention-goers. The campaign went viral, leading to national press coverage that significantly boosted Airbnbs visibility, leading to the worldwide presence it has today.

These examples demonstrate that a successful advertising campaign, whether its branding, direct marketing, or digital, can serve as a growth catalyst for small businesses.

A Step-by-Step Guide to Setting Up Your Small Business Advertising Campaign

Setting Goals for Your Advertising Campaign

Before launching any advertising campaign, its essential to define what you want to achieve. Clear, measurable goals will guide your campaigns direction and help evaluate its success.

Goals might range from increasing website traffic or boosting product sales, to expanding your email list or enhancing brand awareness. Its important to align these goals with your overall business objectives.

Ensure your goals are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. For example, instead of saying I want to increase website traffic, a SMART goal would be I want to increase website traffic by 25% over the next three months.

Having well-defined goals not only gives your campaign direction but also allows you to measure its performance against predefined benchmarks. This way, you can accurately assess the effectiveness of your campaign and make necessary adjustments for future initiatives.

Target Audience Identification and Understanding

Identifying and understanding your target audience is a critical step in setting up your advertising campaign. Your target audience is the specific group of people you want to reach with your message, those most likely to be interested in your product or service.

To define your target audience, consider the following aspects:

Demographics: What is their age, gender, income level, education, or occupation? Geographics: Where do they live or work? Psychographics: What are their interests, attitudes, values, or lifestyle? Behavioral Factors: What are their purchasing behaviors or product usage patterns?

Understanding your audience goes beyond just knowing who they are. Its about comprehending their needs, preferences, and pain points. Use tools like customer surveys, marketing research, and data analytics to gain insights into your audiences behavior and motivations.

Choosing the Right Channels for Your Ad Campaigns

Choosing the right channels for your ad campaign is crucial in ensuring your message reaches your target audience. Todays advertising landscape offers a plethora of options, from traditional media like television, radio, and print, to digital platforms like social media, search engines, and email.

Heres how to choose the best ones for your business:

Know Your Audience: Where does your target audience spend their time? For instance, if theyre active on social media, channels like Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn might be a good fit. If your target audience frequently uses search engines for research, consider search engine advertising. Consider Your Budget: Some advertising channels are more cost-effective than others. For example, social media and email marketing can be less expensive than television or radio ads. Determine what channels you can afford while still reaching a substantial portion of your target audience. Align with Your Goals: Some channels may be more effective than others depending on your goals. If youre aiming for brand awareness, you might benefit from display ads on social media. If youre trying to increase direct sales, pay-per-click ads on search engines could be more effective. Test and Measure: Consider running small tests on different channels to see which generate the best results. Measure engagement, conversion rates, and ROI to determine the effectiveness of each channel.

Remember, the goal is to choose ad campaign channels that will best deliver your message to your target audience. It might not be about using every available option, but rather about leveraging the right channels that align with your audience, budget, and goals.

Crafting the Perfect Message for Your Ad Campaign

The message you convey in your advertising campaign is the heart of your communication. Its what will either draw in your audience or push them away. Here are key steps to crafting the best advertising campaign messages:

Know Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP): Understand what makes your product or service unique. What sets you apart from your competitors? Your USP should form the core of your message. Understand Your Audiences Needs: Your message should address the needs or pain points of your target audience. Make sure your message clearly articulates how your product or service can provide the solution they are seeking. Be Clear and Concise: Your message should be straightforward and easy to understand. Avoid jargon or complicated language. Remember, clarity trumps cleverness when it comes to communication. Include a Strong Call to Action (CTA): Prompt your audience to take action after viewing your ad. Whether its Buy Now, Sign Up, or Learn More, ensure your CTA is clear and compelling. Emphasize Benefits, Not Features: Your audience wants to know how your product or service will benefit them. Instead of just listing features, explain how those features translate into benefits for the customer. Be Consistent: Maintain a consistent message across all channels and platforms. This enhances your brands credibility and makes it easily recognizable to your audience.

Allocating Budget and Resources for Your Advertising Campaign

The budget and resources allocated for your advertising campaign can greatly influence its reach and impact. Heres how to approach this crucial task:

Define Your Budget: The first step is to decide how much youre willing to spend. This should be an amount thats affordable but sufficient to make a noticeable impact. Keep in mind that your budget needs to cover all aspects of your campaign, from creative development and ad creation to placement and monitoring. Understand Cost Structures: Different advertising channels have different cost structures. For example, traditional media like TV or print might charge a flat rate, while digital platforms like Google or Facebook often use a pay-per-click model. Familiarize yourself with these structures to make informed decisions. Prioritize Channels: Based on your target audience and chosen channels, allocate more of your budget to channels where your audience is most active and where youre likely to get the best return on investment (ROI). Consider Timing: If your business is seasonal, you might want to allocate more funds to peak periods. Similarly, if a certain channel performs better on specific days or times, consider increasing your spending during those periods. Allocate Resources: Apart from the budget, youll also need to allocate human resources. Determine who will manage the campaign, create the content, monitor performance, and make necessary adjustments. Monitor and Adjust: Monitor your campaign closely to see how well each channel is performing. Dont be afraid to adjust your budget allocation based on performance data. If a particular channel is not performing well, consider shifting funds to a more successful one.

Monitoring, Measuring, and Optimizing Your Advertising Campaigns

An advertising campaign isnt something you set and forget. Its a dynamic process that requires constant monitoring, measurement, and optimization to ensure its delivering the desired results. Heres how to approach these tasks:

Monitoring: Regularly check your campaigns performance to assess if its running as expected. Monitor engagement metrics like clicks, shares, comments, and view time on digital platforms, or response rates in direct marketing. Watch for any unusual activity, like sudden drops or spikes, which could signal a problem or an opportunity. Measuring: Use appropriate tools to measure the results of your campaign against your defined goals. Google Analytics, for instance, can track website traffic and user behavior, while social media platforms offer built-in analytics tools for tracking engagement and reach. Look at metrics such as conversion rate, cost per lead, and return on ad spend to evaluate the success of your campaign. Optimizing: If your campaign isnt performing as well as expected, dont be afraid to make adjustments. Perhaps your message isnt resonating, or maybe youre not reaching the right audience. Experiment with different variables, like your ad copy, visuals, or targeting criteria, to see what improves performance. Learning: Take lessons from every campaign. What worked? What didnt? Use these insights to inform your future campaigns. Remember, continuous improvement is a key part of successful advertising.

This condensed table presents an overview of the steps and their respective key points and actions. It can be used as a reference or checklist when planning and executing advertising campaigns.

Steps Key Points & Actions Setting Goals for Advertising Campaigns - Define clear objectives aligned with business goals. - Emphasize SMART criteria (e.g., "25% website traffic increase in three months").- Use goals to gauge performance. Target Audience Identification & Understanding - Define audience using demographics, geographics, psychographics, and behaviors. - Understand deeper needs using tools like surveys and data analytics. Choosing the Right Channels for Your Ad Campaigns - Select channels based on audience activity. - Prioritize budget-friendly platforms (e.g., email, social media). - Match channels with goals (e.g., social media for awareness). - Continuously assess channel effectiveness. Crafting the Perfect Message for Your Ad Campaign - Identify product's USP. - Address audience's needs, showcasing solutions. - Keep message clear with a direct CTA. - Convey benefits, not just features.- Ensure consistency across platforms. Allocating Budget & Resources for Your Advertising Campaign - Set a realistic budget.- Allocate more to channels offering best ROI. - Adjust for seasonal peaks or performance periods.- Assign responsibilities.- Periodically review and adjust funds. Monitoring, Measuring & Optimizing Your Advertising Campaigns - Monitor engagement metrics (clicks, shares, view time).- Use analytics tools to measure against goals (conversion rate, ROI).- Adjust as needed (e.g., ad copy, targeting).- Learn and apply insights for continuous improvement.

The Key Elements of a Great Advertising Campaign

A successful advertising campaign relies on the following key elements:

Targeting: The first step to creating a successful advertising campaign is to target your ads to the right people. This means understanding your target audience and their needs. You can use demographic data, psychographic data, and behavioral data to create a target audience profile.

The first step to creating a successful advertising campaign is to target your ads to the right people. This means understanding your target audience and their needs. You can use demographic data, psychographic data, and behavioral data to create a target audience profile. Messaging: Once you know who youre targeting, you need to create a message that will resonate with them. This means using language that they understand and appeals to their emotions. Your message should also be clear, concise, and persuasive.

Once you know who youre targeting, you need to create a message that will resonate with them. This means using language that they understand and appeals to their emotions. Your message should also be clear, concise, and persuasive. Creative elements: The creative elements of your ad, such as the visuals, copy, and design, should all work together to create a cohesive message. The visuals should be eye-catching and relevant to your product or service. The copy should be clear, concise, and persuasive. And the design should be consistent with your brand identity.

The creative elements of your ad, such as the visuals, copy, and design, should all work together to create a cohesive message. The visuals should be eye-catching and relevant to your product or service. The copy should be clear, concise, and persuasive. And the design should be consistent with your brand identity. Channel Selection: Choosing the right marketing channels is vital. Select platforms and mediums where your target audience is most likely to be present. This could include digital platforms, social media, print media, TV, radio, or outdoor advertising, based on your audiences preferences and behavior.

Choosing the right marketing channels is vital. Select platforms and mediums where your target audience is most likely to be present. This could include digital platforms, social media, print media, TV, radio, or outdoor advertising, based on your audiences preferences and behavior. Consistency and Integration: Maintain consistency in branding elements across all channels to strengthen brand recognition. Integrate your messaging and creative elements seamlessly to create a cohesive brand experience for your audience.

Maintain consistency in branding elements across all channels to strengthen brand recognition. Integrate your messaging and creative elements seamlessly to create a cohesive brand experience for your audience. Budget: Advertising can be expensive, so its important to set a budget before you start. Your budget will determine the size and scope of your campaign.

Advertising can be expensive, so its important to set a budget before you start. Your budget will determine the size and scope of your campaign. Measurement: Its important to track the results of your advertising campaign so you can see whats working and whats not. You can use tools like Google Analytics to track website traffic, social media engagement, and sales.

Its important to track the results of your advertising campaign so you can see whats working and whats not. You can use tools like Google Analytics to track website traffic, social media engagement, and sales. Innovation and Adaptability: Stay ahead of the curve by embracing innovation and adapting to changes in the market and consumer behavior. Explore new technologies, trends, and emerging platforms to reach your audience effectively.

Embracing the Digital Era: Online Advertising and Digital Advertising Campaigns

Digital advertising campaigns refer to promoting products or services through digital channels such as websites, search engines, social media platforms, and mobile applications. It offers several key benefits for small businesses:

Targeted Reach: Online advertising enables precise targeting, allowing businesses to reach their specific target audience based on demographics, interests, and online behaviors. This ensures that your message reaches those most likely to be interested in your offerings, maximizing the effectiveness of your campaigns. Cost-Effectiveness: Online advertising often offers flexible budgeting options, allowing businesses to set and control their advertising expenses. With various pricing models like pay-per-click (PPC) or cost-per-impression (CPM), you can optimize your spending and ensure youre getting value for your investment. Measurable Results: Digital advertising campaign provide detailed analytics and reporting, allowing you to track and measure the performance of your ads in real-time. This data-driven approach helps you understand the effectiveness of your campaigns, make informed decisions, and optimize your strategies for better results.

Benefits of Digital Advertising Campaign for Small Businesses:

Increased Visibility: By utilizing a well-crafted search engine advertising strategy, display ads, social media advertising, or email marketing, you can reach a larger audience and generate brand awareness more effectively. Enhanced Targeting and Personalization: Digital advertising allows for precise targeting and personalization. With tools like audience segmentation and retargeting, you can tailor your messages to specific audience segments, delivering more relevant and personalized ads, which can improve engagement and conversions. Improved Customer Engagement: Interactive elements in digital marketing campaign, such as videos, quizzes, or interactive banners, enhance customer engagement and promote two-way communication. This helps build stronger connections with your audience, fostering loyalty and increasing the likelihood of conversions. Flexibility and Agility: A digital marketing campaign offers flexibility in terms of budget, scheduling, and creative modifications. This allows small businesses to adapt their strategies quickly, respond to market changes, and optimize their campaigns based on real-time insights.

Digital Advertising Campaigns: The Future of Small Business Advertising

Digital ad campaigns offer numerous advantages for small businesses. Heres why they are crucial:

Wider Audience Reach: Digital advertising allows small businesses to transcend geographical boundaries and reach a vast online audience. With billions of people active on various digital platforms, businesses can tap into new markets and extend their reach like never before. Precise Targeting: Digital ad campaigns provide advanced targeting capabilities, enabling businesses to reach their ideal customers based on demographics, interests, online behavior, and more. This precision targeting ensures that your message reaches the right people, increasing the likelihood of engagement and conversions. Cost-Efficiency: Digital ad campaigns often offer cost-effective solutions, allowing businesses to optimize their budgets. Compared to traditional advertising channels, digital platforms offer the cheapest way to advertise a small business. They also provide flexible pricing models and better return on investment (ROI), making it accessible for small businesses with limited resources. Data-Driven Optimization: Digital advertising provides in-depth analytics and performance metrics. Leveraging these insights, small businesses can measure the effectiveness of their campaigns in real-time, identify areas for improvement, and make data-driven optimizations to achieve better results.

Trends in Digital Advertising Campaigns:

Mobile Advertising: With the increasing use of smartphones, mobile advertising has become a dominant force in the advertising industry. Optimizing campaigns for mobile devices, leveraging responsive design, and utilizing mobile-specific ad formats can significantly enhance campaign effectiveness. Video Advertising: Video content continues to gain popularity. Incorporating engaging video ad campaigns, whether on social media platforms or video-sharing platforms, can capture audience attention and boost engagement. Personalization and Automation: Tailoring ad campaigns to individual preferences and delivering personalized experiences has become more critical than ever. Utilizing automation tools and personalized targeting techniques can enhance the relevancy and effectiveness of your campaigns.

Tips for Maximizing Benefits from Digital Ad Campaigns:

Define Clear Objectives: Clearly define your campaign objectives, whether its brand awareness, lead generation, or driving sales. This clarity will help guide your strategy and ensure alignment with your business goals. Research Your Audience: Conduct thorough research to understand your target audiences demographics, preferences, behaviors, and digital habits. Use this insight to craft personalized and compelling messages that resonate with your audience. Optimize Landing Pages: Ensure your landing pages are optimized for conversions. Create clear calls-to-action, streamline the user experience, and provide relevant and valuable content to drive conversions. Experiment and Test: Dont be afraid to try different approaches and ad formats. Test different creatives, messaging, targeting options, and platforms to identify what works best for your audience and refine your strategy accordingly. Track and Analyze Results: Continuously monitor and analyze the performance of your campaigns using analytics tools. Identify key metrics such as click-through rates, conversion rates, and cost per acquisition to evaluate the effectiveness of your campaigns and make informed optimizations.

Online Advertising: Platforms and Strategies for Success

Small businesses have a variety of online ad platforms and strategies at their disposal to achieve advertising success.

Online Ad Platforms:

Search Engine Advertising (SEA): Platforms like Google Ads allow businesses to display ads in search engine results when users search for specific keywords. SEA offers precise targeting, cost control, and the ability to reach users actively searching for relevant products or services. Social Media Advertising: Platforms such as Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, and Twitter Ads enable businesses to target specific demographics, interests, and behaviors. These platforms offer a wide reach, engagement opportunities, and various ad formats like image ads, video ads, and carousel ads. Display Advertising Networks: Networks like Google Display Network and Bing Ads provide access to a vast network of websites and apps where businesses can display banner or text ads. Display advertising offers broad reach, advanced targeting options, and the ability to leverage visual elements. Video Advertising Platforms: Platforms like YouTube Ads and social media video ad options allow businesses to reach audiences through engaging video content. Video ads can be skippable or non-skippable and provide opportunities for storytelling and brand engagement. Native Advertising Platforms: Native ad platforms such as Taboola and Outbrain integrate ads seamlessly into the content of websites, blending them with the user experience. This approach enhances user engagement and reduces ad resistance.

Online Ad Strategies:

Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Optimizing your website for search engines helps improve organic visibility and drive targeted traffic. Focus on keyword research, high-quality content creation, on-page optimization, and building quality backlinks to enhance SEO efforts. Content Marketing: Creating valuable and relevant content, such as blog posts, articles, infographics, or videos, helps attract and engage your target audience. Distribute your content through various channels and leverage it to drive brand awareness and establish thought leadership. Retargeting Campaigns: Implementing retargeting campaigns allows businesses to show ads to users who have previously visited their website or interacted with their brand. This strategy helps reinforce brand awareness, nurture leads, and increase conversions. Influencer Marketing: Collaborating with influencers relevant to your industry or target audience can amplify your brands reach and credibility. Identify influencers with an engaged following, align their values with your brand, and leverage their influence to promote your products or services. Email Marketing: Building an email list and sending targeted email campaigns helps nurture leads, retain customers, and drive conversions. Use personalized, engaging content and automation tools to deliver timely and relevant messages to your subscribers. Geotargeting: Geotargeting allows businesses to display ads to users in specific geographic locations. This strategy is particularly useful for local businesses targeting a specific area or for businesses running location-based promotions.

Harnessing the Power of Social Media: Crafting a Successful Social Media Marketing Campaign

Social media has revolutionized the advertising landscape, playing a pivotal role in the success of modern marketing campaigns. Heres an exploration of the key roles social media plays in successful campaigns:

Audience Reach and Targeting: Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn boast billions of active users, providing businesses with unparalleled access to diverse audiences worldwide. These platforms offer powerful targeting tools that allow businesses to precisely reach their desired demographic, interest groups, and even custom audiences, ensuring their ads are seen by the right people. Engagement and Interaction: Social media platforms facilitate direct engagement and interaction between businesses and their audience. Through likes, comments, shares, and messages, businesses can build relationships, foster brand loyalty, address customer queries, and gain valuable feedback. The interactive nature of social media helps businesses connect with their audience on a personal level, driving engagement and fostering a sense of community. Visual Storytelling and Content Promotion: Social media places a strong emphasis on visual content. It offers businesses the opportunity to visually showcase products, services, brand culture, and values through high-quality images, videos, and infographics. This enables businesses to capture attention, evoke emotions, and effectively convey their brand story, resulting in increased brand awareness and customer engagement. Amplification and Virality: Well-crafted content on social media has the potential to go viral and be shared extensively. When users engage with and share content, it expands the reach of businesses beyond their immediate followers, amplifying brand exposure and generating organic growth. This viral potential is a powerful aspect of social media that can significantly enhance the impact of an ad campaign. Influencer Partnerships: Social media platforms provide opportunities for businesses to collaborate with influencers who have established credibility and a dedicated following. Influencers can help businesses tap into their audience, expand brand reach, and drive conversions through authentic recommendations and endorsements. Data Analytics and Optimization: Social media platforms offer robust analytics tools that provide insights into the performance of an ad campaign. Businesses can track key metrics such as reach, engagement, click-through rates, and conversions, allowing them to measure campaign effectiveness and make data-driven optimizations for better results. The availability of real-time data empowers businesses to refine their strategies, target their audience more effectively, and allocate resources wisely. Social Listening and Market Research: Social media platforms serve as valuable channels for businesses to listen to conversations, gather market insights, and understand their audience better. By monitoring social media conversations, businesses can uncover trends, preferences, and sentiments, enabling them to tailor their advertising strategies, refine messaging, and stay ahead of the competition.

Content Marketing: Engaging Customers Through Value-Driven Content

Content marketing plays a crucial role within the scope of digital advertising, offering businesses the opportunity to engage customers through valuable and relevant content. Heres why small businesses need to produce high-quality, value-driven content:

Building Customer Relationships: Content marketing focuses on creating and sharing content that provides value to the target audience. By offering informative, entertaining, or educational content, businesses can establish themselves as industry experts and build trust with their customers. This helps nurture long-term relationships and encourages customer loyalty. Enhancing Brand Awareness: Producing high-quality content allows businesses to increase their brand visibility and awareness. When businesses consistently deliver valuable content, they become recognized as a go-to resource in their industry. This recognition helps expand their reach, attract new customers, and create brand advocates who actively promote their business. Driving Website Traffic: Valuable content serves as a magnet, attracting potential customers to a businesss website. By incorporating relevant keywords and optimizing content for search engines, businesses can improve their organic search visibility and attract more visitors. This increase in website traffic provides opportunities for engagement, lead generation, and conversions. Engaging and Educating Customers: Content marketing allows businesses to engage customers on a deeper level by addressing their pain points, answering their questions, and providing solutions to their problems. By delivering value through content, businesses can educate their customers, help them make informed decisions, and position themselves as trusted advisors in their industry. Supporting Social Media and Email Marketing: Valuable content serves as the foundation for effective social media and email marketing campaigns. Businesses can share content through their social media channels, driving engagement, attracting followers, and encouraging sharing. In email marketing, businesses can provide valuable content to subscribers, nurturing leads and driving conversions. Encouraging Customer Action: Through content marketing, businesses can inspire customer action. By strategically incorporating calls-to-action within their content, businesses can direct customers to take desired actions such as making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or requesting more information. Well-crafted content helps guide customers through the buyers journey, influencing their decisions and driving conversions. Analytics and Iterative Improvement: Content marketing provides valuable data through analytics tools, allowing businesses to measure the performance of their content and make data-driven decisions. By analyzing metrics like engagement, click-through rates, and conversions, businesses can refine their content strategy, optimize campaigns, and improve their overall digital advertising efforts.

FAQs: Advertising Campaigns

How Much Should a Small Business Spend on an Advertising Campaign?

The amount a small business should spend on an advertising campaign varies depending on factors such as industry, target audience, and marketing objectives. As a general guideline, it is recommended that small businesses allocate around 5-10% of their annual revenue towards advertising. However, this can be adjusted based on the businesss growth stage and competition.

Its crucial to strike a balance between investing enough to reach your target market effectively and ensuring the campaign remains within your budgetary constraints. Conducting market research and consulting with marketing professionals can help determine an appropriate advertising budget for your specific business.

How to Promote Your Local Small Business?

For your small business promotion, thinking grand isnt always necessary. Focusing your marketing strategies on the local scene can enhance your customer base. Heres how:

Boost Local Online Presence: Tailor your site for nearby searches since many search engine inquiries target specific locations.

Register a tangible business location.

Establish a Google My Business account, detailing operational hours, payment methods, and more.

Feature your business on local online directories, like Citysearch or Yelp.

Promote good feedback and address any concerns.

Enhance your website with specific code tags for better local visibility. Dive into Community Activities: Take part in community events or back local causes.

Organize special promotions or events to gather client data and foster returning customers. Team Up with Neighborhood Businesses: Collaborate with local companies with complementary offerings.

Engage in mutual promotions to expand local outreach. Engage in Business Networks: Become a member of area business groups or professional associations.

Contribute or present at community business gatherings to highlight your specialty. Utilize Local Media Releases: Design and share noteworthy news about your business with local outlets.

Consider online news distribution services like PRWeb or Business Wire. Adopt Traditional Mail Outreach: Use mailers to connect with local residents, including those not online.

Keep current clients informed about new deals and updates.

How Long Should an Advertising Campaign Run?

The duration of an advertising campaign depends on goals, budget, and product/service. Short-term campaigns, lasting a few weeks, work for time-limited promotions or events. Longer-term campaigns, spanning months, are ideal for brand awareness or product launches. Balance campaign length with budget, consider target audience buying cycle, and regularly evaluate performance for successful marketing campaigns.

How Can I Measure the Success of My Advertising Campaign?

To measure the success of your advertising campaign, consider these key metrics:

ROI (Return on Investment): Calculate revenue generated compared to campaign cost.

Conversion Rate: Determine the percentage of people taking the desired action.

Click-Through Rate (CTR): Measure the percentage of clicks compared to impressions.

Cost Per Acquisition (CPA): Calculate the average cost to acquire a customer or lead.

Website Analytics: Track website traffic, user behavior, and conversions using tools like Google Analytics.

Social Media Engagement: Monitor likes, comments, shares, and followers gained.

Brand Awareness Surveys: Conduct pre-and post-campaign surveys to measure changes in brand perception.

Can I Run Multiple Ad Campaigns for My Small Business at the Same Time?

Yes, running multiple ad campaigns simultaneously for your small business is possible and can be advantageous. It allows you to target different audiences, promote various products or services, and test different marketing strategies. Allocate your budget strategically, ensure message consistency, track campaign performance, and manage resources effectively to make the most of multiple campaigns.

How Often Should I Review and Adjust My Advertising Campaign?

It is recommended to review and adjust your advertising strategy on an ongoing basis. Depending on the campaigns duration and goals, conduct regular assessments weekly, biweekly, or monthly. Monitor key performance metrics, such as ROI, CTR, and conversion rates, to identify areas for improvement. Adjustments can include refining targeting, messaging, creative elements, or media placements. By continually optimizing your campaign, you can adapt to market changes, improve effectiveness, and achieve successful marketing campaigns.

What are the Types of Advertising Campaign?

There are different types of advertising campaigns, including:

Brand Awareness Campaigns: Increase visibility and familiarity with a brand. Product Launch Campaigns: Introduce new products or services to the market. Promotional Campaigns: Offer limited-time discounts or special incentives. Lead Generation Campaigns: Attract potential customers and collect their information. Rebranding Campaigns: Communicate new brand identity. Social Media Campaigns: Leverage social media platforms for brand engagement.

What do Successful advertising campaigns have in common?

Successful advertising campaigns share common characteristics, including:

Clear Objectives: They have defined goals aligned with the overall marketing strategy. Targeted Audience: They understand and connect with their specific target audience. Compelling Creativity: They use impactful visuals, copywriting, and storytelling. Consistent Branding: They maintain a consistent brand image across different channels. Multi-channel Approach: They leverage various relevant marketing channels. Measurement and Optimization: They measure performance and make data-driven adjustments. Adaptability: An effective advertising campaign adapts to market trends and consumer feedback.
Part of your job as a business owner is to track and protect your company resources. This includes looking for signs of embezzlement or employee theft. To do this effectively, it helps to know the various types of embezzlement that are common in small businesses. Read on for a full list of examples of embezzlement.

What Is Embezzlement?

Embezzlement is the misuse or theft of company funds or company property. There are a variety of ways that an employee or business owner can steal or misappropriate resources, which you can see in the list below.

How Does Embezzlement Happen?

Embezzlement occurs when an employee or business owner steals or misappropriates company funds. For example, an employee may accept payment for a transaction without placing funds in the company bank account. See the list below for more embezzlement examples.

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Common Examples of Embezzlement and Employee Theft

Embezzlement refers to a wide range of actions where employees or decision makers steal or misuse company resources. To protect your small business, here are several examples of embezzlement to know. And if youve ever wondered, How do I handle embezzlement and employee theft? you can also find tips under each example.

1. Voiding Transactions at the Cash Register

When an employee enters a transaction and collects money, they may then void the transaction and keep the money for themselves. This can be difficult to detect, because the system should balance out, but the customer still received their product or service, and your company doesnt receive the funds.

Prevention: Many modern point of sale systems have settings that require a supervisor or managers approval to void a sale. Upgrade your system or enact this feature to avoid giving employees this opportunity.

2. Pocketing Cash Payments from Fundraisers

If your business or organization hosts fundraisers, you may collect donations that arent counted right away. If just one worker has access to these funds before theyre appropriated, they may collect some for themselves.

Prevention: Have more than one employee in charge of collecting and counting funds.

3. Cashing Customer Checks

An employee may set up a bank account with a name similar to the company. Then they can cash customer checks or divert electronic payments into their account instead of the companys.

Prevention: This crime is most common where one employee is responsible for both collecting payments and keeping track of accounting records. Separate responsibilities so there are multiple people who can catch potential issues.

4. Overbilling Customers

An employee may charge customers more than your companys rate for a certain product or service, or add on extra fees and pocket the extra money.

Prevention: Conduct periodic audits of customer billing practices, and look into customer complaints surrounding billing or extra fees.

5. Forging Payments

An employee may write checks to themselves or transfer funds from the employee bank account if they have access to your information and signature. They may then create fraudulent accounting entries to cover up these payments.

Prevention: Avoid giving access to your electronic signature, and audit expense payments to catch any oddities.

6. Faking Vendor Payments

An employee may set up fake vendor accounts or edit accounting entries to make it seem like payments are being made to vendors. But then they send that money to themselves.

Prevention: Review all payments to vendors periodically, or have more than one worker check your entries.

7. Stealing Customer Credit Card Data

Employees who collect customer credit card data to complete purchases may then record the numbers to use for their own purchases. This is stealing directly from customers and can lead to lack of trust for your business.

Prevention: Use payment software that redacts the full credit card number and avoid taking information manually unless absolutely necessary.

8. Double Dipping

Employees may collect extra money from your expense account by first charging the expense to their company credit card and then requesting reimbursement funds as if they paid for it themselves.

Prevention: Separate responsibilities so other employees can check if an expense has already been covered. Expense management software can streamline this process.

9. Misusing an Expense Account

Employees may also request reimbursement for expenses that arent related to company functions. For example, they may try to get a personal lunch covered, even if they werent meeting with a client.

Prevention: Create a clear policy of what is and isnt covered. Then use expense management software to collect data and receipts.

10. Misusing Employee Discounts

If a store or restaurant offers discounts only to employees, some may attempt to offer those privileges to friends, family, or others.

Prevention: Create a strict policy regarding who can and cannot use these discounts. Check on excessive purchases made by any employee.

11. Stealing Cash

Employees with sole access to cash may take small amounts, hoping they wont be noticed. However, these small increments can add up over time.

Prevention: This theft often occurs when one employee is responsible for county money or making bank deposits. There are many cash-handling best practices your business should follow to avoid this, including having more than one person complete these deposits.

12. Stealing Office Supplies

An employee may steal supplies from your storage area and bring them home or even sell them.

Prevention: Keep only small amounts of supplies accessible at one time. Or have employees request when they need more of a particular item.

13. Stealing Equipment

Equipment often includes larger items like computers or tech. Employees may take these items home or sell them for cash.

Prevention: Have employees sign out large devices, or require that they remain in the office.

More Embezzlement Examples to Know

Embezzlement refers to a huge range of actions that employees or decision makers take for personal gain. Here are even more examples of embezzlement for business owners to know.

14. Selling Trade Secrets  Corporate Espionage

This type of embezzlement occurs when an employee sells proprietary information to a competitor.

Prevention: Only give access to information that is essential for each persons roles. Use secure storage for important data, and track who has access.

15. Using a Company Credit Card for Personal Use

If your employees have access to company credit cards, using them for personal purchases may qualify as embezzlement.

Prevention: Set clear rules for credit card usage and review purchases regularly.

16. Burglarizing Your Location

Employees who have inside knowledge about your location, like alarm codes or locations of valuables, may participate in burglaries.

Prevention: Use security cameras and alarms, and carefully track who has access to sensitive information.

17. Stealing Merchandise

Retail employees may steal physical products off the shelves or take items that have recently been returned:

Prevention: Set strong inventory and returns practices, and use security cameras to monitor activity.

18. Claiming Lost Equipment

An employee claims a laptop or other equipment was stolen. They get a new one and keep the old one or give it to a family member.

Prevention: Use software to track the location of company devices or disable them if theyre lost or stolen.

19. Creating Ghost Employees

Employees that control your payroll may set up new employees that dont exist. They pay these fake employees and keep the money for themselves.

Prevention: Regularly review payroll documents and compare them to employee records. This is also a top reason why payroll is one function you should outsource to a reputable provider.

20. Stealing Tax Funds

Employees responsible for tax payments may keep that money for themselves. Not only are those funds missing, but youll also be on the hook for a larger tax bill.

Prevention: Audit your tax practices regularly or outsource this function to a reputable tax service.

21. Collecting Kickbacks

Kickbacks are payments from vendors to employees in exchange for your companys business or other perks.

Prevention: There are many ways to better manage your accounts payables and accounts receivables. Start by choosing vendors yourself or create a committee to make these decisions.

22. Identity Theft

This type of embezzlement occurs when an employee uses your business name to open credit cards or take out loans to use for their own purchases.

Prevention: Regularly check your companys accounts and credit score to note any irregularities.

23. Using Company Resources to Start a Business

If an employee uses company time, equipment, or funds to start their own business without your knowledge, that qualifies as embezzlement.

Prevention: Set clear rules about how company resources are to be used.

24. Ponzi Schemes

A ponzi scheme occurs when a company or individual promises high returns to investors or stakeholders but pays them with money from new investors instead of with the product or service the company claims to provide. This type of scheme is most common in financial management and retirement planning businesses.

Prevention: Track how money is brought in and where it goes. If working with investors, be completely transparent about the origins of funds.

25. Falsifying Business Records

Many forms of embezzlement involve falsifying business records to cover up the misappropriation of funds or to defraud investors.

Prevention: Find a reputable bookkeeping company to outsource these tasks to, and audit your records and finances periodically.

Is Embezzlement a White Collar Crime?

Yes, embezzlement is one of the most common white-collar crimes. The severity and type of charge can vary widely, but it is generally considered to be a form of theft or fraud.

What Is the Punishment for Embezzlement?

The type of criminal charges one might face for embezzlement can vary widely based on the situation and the amount of money or resources that were stolen or misused. Laws also vary by state. Minor embezzlement charges are often considered misdemeanors, which may involve fines or jail time. Felony embezzlement may include serious prison sentences of up to 15 years.

Can You Embezzle from Your Own Company?

Embezzlement occurs when funds or resources from a business are misused for personal gain. If you are the sole owner of your business, you generally cannot be charged with embezzlement, as youre the owner of those resources. However, if your company is part of a partnership or has multiple stakeholders, your misuse of funds could be considered fraud.

Preventing and Detecting Embezzlement in Your Small Business

Preventing and detecting embezzlement in your small business is crucial for protecting your companys financial health and reputation. As a business owner, its essential to implement measures that can safeguard your business from internal theft. Here are some strategies to consider:

Implement Internal Controls: Segregate Duties: Separate responsibilities among different employees to ensure that no single individual has access to all aspects of financial transactions. This helps prevent any single person from manipulating or misusing company funds.

Segregate Duties: Separate responsibilities among different employees to ensure that no single individual has access to all aspects of financial transactions. This helps prevent any single person from manipulating or misusing company funds. Regular Audits: Conduct regular internal audits of your financial records to identify any discrepancies or irregularities. Audits can help catch potential embezzlement early on and deter employees from engaging in fraudulent activities.

Conduct regular internal audits of your financial records to identify any discrepancies or irregularities. Audits can help catch potential embezzlement early on and deter employees from engaging in fraudulent activities. Check Signatures: Limit access to your signature and ensure that you personally review and approve all significant financial transactions. By personally approving such transactions, you can prevent unauthorized disbursements.

Limit access to your signature and ensure that you personally review and approve all significant financial transactions. By personally approving such transactions, you can prevent unauthorized disbursements. Promote Transparency: Encourage Reporting: Foster an environment where employees feel comfortable reporting suspicious activities or raising concerns about potential embezzlement. Encouraging reporting can help you detect embezzlement at an early stage.

Encourage Reporting: Foster an environment where employees feel comfortable reporting suspicious activities or raising concerns about potential embezzlement. Encouraging reporting can help you detect embezzlement at an early stage. Whistleblower Policy: Establish a confidential whistleblower policy that allows employees to report misconduct anonymously. Whistleblower protection can encourage employees to come forward with information without fear of retaliation.

Establish a confidential whistleblower policy that allows employees to report misconduct anonymously. Whistleblower protection can encourage employees to come forward with information without fear of retaliation. Educate Employees: Training Programs: Provide regular training to employees about company policies, ethical conduct, and the consequences of embezzlement. Educating employees about the seriousness of embezzlement can deter such behavior.

Training Programs: Provide regular training to employees about company policies, ethical conduct, and the consequences of embezzlement. Educating employees about the seriousness of embezzlement can deter such behavior. Emphasize Consequences: Make employees aware of the legal repercussions and disciplinary actions that result from committing embezzlement. Clearly communicate the penalties for embezzlement to deter potential offenders.

Make employees aware of the legal repercussions and disciplinary actions that result from committing embezzlement. Clearly communicate the penalties for embezzlement to deter potential offenders. Monitor Financial Data: Use Accounting Software: Invest in reliable accounting software that can track financial transactions and generate reports for review. Accounting software can help you monitor financial activities and identify suspicious transactions.

Use Accounting Software: Invest in reliable accounting software that can track financial transactions and generate reports for review. Accounting software can help you monitor financial activities and identify suspicious transactions. Bank Reconciliations: Regularly reconcile bank statements with accounting records to spot any unauthorized transactions. Reconciling bank statements can help detect discrepancies and potential embezzlement.

Regularly reconcile bank statements with accounting records to spot any unauthorized transactions. Reconciling bank statements can help detect discrepancies and potential embezzlement. Conduct Background Checks: Thoroughly vet all potential employees, especially those who will have access to financial data or handle cash. Background checks can help identify candidates with a history of dishonesty or financial misconduct.

Thoroughly vet all potential employees, especially those who will have access to financial data or handle cash. Background checks can help identify candidates with a history of dishonesty or financial misconduct. Secure Digital Information: Password Protection: Require strong passwords for all company systems and change them regularly. Strong password protection can help prevent unauthorized access to sensitive financial information.

Require strong passwords for all company systems and change them regularly. Strong password protection can help prevent unauthorized access to sensitive financial information. Restrict Access: Grant access to sensitive information only to authorized personnel on a need-to-know basis. Limiting access reduces the number of individuals with access to critical financial data.

Grant access to sensitive information only to authorized personnel on a need-to-know basis. Limiting access reduces the number of individuals with access to critical financial data. Establish a Code of Conduct: Code of Ethics: Develop and distribute a code of conduct that outlines expected behavior and ethical standards for all employees. A code of ethics sets clear expectations and reinforces the importance of integrity in the workplace.

Develop and distribute a code of conduct that outlines expected behavior and ethical standards for all employees. A code of ethics sets clear expectations and reinforces the importance of integrity in the workplace. Set Clear Policies: Expense Policy: Clearly define what expenses are reimbursable and set limits on employee spending. An explicit expense policy can prevent employees from abusing company funds.

Expense Policy: Clearly define what expenses are reimbursable and set limits on employee spending. An explicit expense policy can prevent employees from abusing company funds. Vendor Management: Establish a robust vendor management process to prevent fraudulent vendor schemes. Vet vendors carefully and regularly review vendor transactions.

Establish a robust vendor management process to prevent fraudulent vendor schemes. Vet vendors carefully and regularly review vendor transactions. Monitor Inventory: Regular Inventory Checks: Conduct routine inventory checks to ensure that physical assets match recorded inventory. Regular inventory checks can help identify any missing or misused assets.

Regular Inventory Checks: Conduct routine inventory checks to ensure that physical assets match recorded inventory. Regular inventory checks can help identify any missing or misused assets. Encourage Oversight: Management Review: Require management to review and approve financial transactions regularly. Having multiple levels of approval can deter fraudulent activities.

Management Review: Require management to review and approve financial transactions regularly. Having multiple levels of approval can deter fraudulent activities. External Audit: Consider hiring external auditors to conduct periodic audits for an unbiased assessment. External auditors can provide an independent evaluation of your companys financial practices.

Strategies Description Implement Internal Controls - Segregate Duties: Separate responsibilities among employees to prevent single individuals from accessing all financial transactions. - Regular Audits: Conduct internal audits to identify discrepancies and deter fraudulent activities. - Check Signatures: Limit access to your signature and personally approve significant financial transactions. Promote Transparency - Encourage Reporting: Foster an environment where employees can report suspicious activities or concerns about embezzlement. - Whistleblower Policy: Establish a confidential policy allowing anonymous reporting of misconduct. Educate Employees - Training Programs: Provide regular training on company policies, ethical conduct, and the consequences of embezzlement. - Emphasize Consequences: Make employees aware of the legal repercussions and disciplinary actions for embezzlement. Monitor Financial Data - Use Accounting Software: Invest in reliable software to track financial transactions and generate reviewable reports. - Bank Reconciliations: Regularly reconcile bank statements to detect unauthorized transactions. Conduct Background Checks - Thoroughly Vet Employees: Screen potential employees, especially those with access to financial data or handling cash. Secure Digital Information - Password Protection: Implement strong password requirements and regular changes for company systems. - Restrict Access: Limit sensitive information access to authorized personnel on a need-to-know basis. Establish a Code of Conduct - Code of Ethics: Develop and distribute a code of conduct outlining expected behavior and ethical standards for all employees. Set Clear Policies - Expense Policy: Clearly define reimbursable expenses and set limits on employee spending. - Vendor Management: Establish a process to vet vendors and regularly review vendor transactions for potential fraudulent schemes. Monitor Inventory - Regular Inventory Checks: Conduct routine checks to match physical assets with recorded inventory. Encourage Oversight - Management Review: Require management to regularly review and approve financial transactions. - External Audit: Consider hiring external auditors for unbiased assessment and validation of financial practices.

By proactively implementing these preventive measures and fostering a culture of integrity and transparency, you can significantly reduce the risk of embezzlement in your small business. Being vigilant and proactive is essential to safeguard your companys resources and maintain the trust of customers, employees, and stakeholders.

Conclusion

As a business owner, the responsibility of tracking and protecting your companys resources is paramount. Embezzlement, the misuse or theft of company funds and property, poses a significant threat to your businesss financial health and reputation. To effectively combat this threat, it is crucial to be aware of the various ways in which embezzlement can occur.

The examples of embezzlement provided here illustrate the diverse methods that employees or decision-makers may employ to misappropriate resources for personal gain. From voiding transactions at the cash register to misusing expense accounts or engaging in corporate espionage, embezzlement can take many forms.

Preventing and detecting embezzlement requires proactive measures and a culture of transparency and integrity within your organization. Implementing internal controls, conducting regular audits, and promoting transparency by encouraging reporting and establishing whistleblower policies are essential steps in safeguarding your business.

Educating employees about the consequences of embezzlement and emphasizing the importance of ethical conduct can serve as powerful deterrents. Additionally, monitoring financial data through reliable accounting software, conducting background checks on potential employees, and securing digital information are essential strategies to protect against embezzlement.

By setting clear policies, conducting regular inventory checks, and encouraging oversight through management reviews and external audits, you can further reduce the risk of embezzlement in your business.

Embezzlement is a white-collar crime that can lead to severe legal consequences, including fines and imprisonment. As a business owner, it is crucial to understand the gravity of this offense and take all necessary steps to prevent it from occurring within your organization.

By diligently implementing the preventive measures and strategies outlined here, you can fortify your small business against the threat of embezzlement and uphold the trust of your customers, employees, and stakeholders. Safeguarding your companys resources is not only a legal obligation but also essential for the long-term success and prosperity of your business.
Social media history encompasses a far greater period than many might expect. While social media as weve now come to know it, might be more closely associated with the likes of Myspace, Facebook and Twitter, people have been engaging in social media activities for hundreds of years. Those earlier forms of social media, however, were far less efficient or effective than modern channels.

When Was Social Media Invented?

When did social media begin? Was it invented, or did the technology evolve over time? There are no simple answers to any of those questions since the origin of social media remains under debate.

Did it start with the birth of the telegraph in 1844, or with what ultimately became the internet in 1969? Or, was social media invented with the introduction of the first digital bulletin boards in 1978? Many, however, argue that social media was invented when the first social networking websites launched in 1997. Ultimately, the credit for social media lies with many innovative thinkers who contributed their ideas over decades.

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Social Media Pre-1900

Social media saw its origins in traditional forms of written communication. The earliest methods of communicating across great distances relied on hand-delivered correspondence such as letters. The earliest postal service began as early as 550 B.C.E., and the primitive delivery system ultimately grew, widespread, and streamlined across the following centuries.

The telegraph was invented in 1792, and it allowed personal messages to be delivered over long distances much faster than a horse and rider could carry them. Although telegraph messages were short, they were a revolutionary way to convey news and information. In fact, many claim the birth of social media corresponded with the development of the telegraph.

Developed in 1865, the pneumatic post created another way for letters to be delivered quickly between recipients. Although no longer popular outside of drive-through banking, the pneumatic post utilizes underground pressurized air tubes to carry capsules from one area to another.

Two important discoveries occurred in the final decade of the 1800s: The telephone in 1890 and the radio in 1891. Telephone lines and radio signals enabled people to communicate across great distances instantaneously, something that mankind had never before experienced. Both technologies are still in use today, although the modern versions are far more sophisticated than their predecessors.

Social Media in the 20th Century

Technology began to change rapidly in the 20th Century, and so did the evolution of social media. After the first supercomputers were created in the 1940s, scientists and engineers began to develop networks between those computers, which later would lead to the birth of the internet and the World Wide Web.

The earliest forms of the internet, such as CompuServe, were developed in the 1960s. Primitive forms of electronic communication also were developed during this time. By the 70s, networking technology had improved, and in 1979 UseNet allowed users to communicate through a virtual newsletter and digital bulletin board systems.

By the 1980s, personal computers were more common, and social media was growing more sophisticated. Internet relay chats, or IRCs, were first used in 1988 and remained popular well into the 1990s.

Before the end of the century, social media as we now know it began to take shape. The first recognizable social media site, Six Degrees, launched in 1997. It enabled users to upload a profile and make friends with other users. In 1999, the first blogging sites became popular for user-generated content, creating a social media sensation thats still popular today. Providers such as America Online also introduced wildly popular instant messaging apps at the end of the last millennium.

The First Social Media Platform

The first true social media platform launched in 1997 after Six Degrees founder Andrew Weinreich, known as the father of social networking, applied for the first social networking patent. There he described, a networking database containing a plurality of records for different individuals in which individuals are connected to one another in the database by defined relationships.

Weinrich named the first website for social media after the six degrees of separation theory, which proposes that everyone in the world is connected to everyone else by no more than six degrees of separation. Six Degrees might not have lasted long as its own social networking site, expiring in 2001, but the idea set the stage for social medias rapid evolution to come.

Early Social Networking Sites

When the launch of the first social media site let users create online communities and post content, the concept quickly grew in popularity. Early social media platforms like Friendster attracted millions of users around the world, connecting people through shared friends, family members and acquaintances. Of course, social media was about more than making friends, even from its beginnings. Other sites like Hot or Not, for example, invited users to post photos and rate one another on physical attractiveness.

LinkedIn launched in 2002, but a year later social media as we now know it began to take shape with the introduction of Myspace. The Friendster rival gained early popularity among young people, but unlike most of its early rivals, Myspace soon attracted a broader demographic. Myspace featured customizable personal profiles that often included photos, videos and even music. What early social media user doesnt still get nostalgic for memories of Tom and their top friend lists?

At its peak, Myspace boasted 25 million users, and it was the most visited website in the United States. Unfortunately for Tom, Myspace was eclipsed by Facebook in 2008. It since attempted to rebrand itself as a social network focused on music, but mainly has been relegated to the history books.

Of course, Myspace wasnt the only early platform to dominate the social media landscape. Sites like Reddit, Tumblr and Flickr established their own niches in the early 2000s and continue to attract audiences today.

Social Media Platforms Today

Once Myspaces wild yet short-term success solidified social medias popularity, a host of competitors, including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, rushed to join the fray, leading to rapid growth. These sites still remain some of the most popular social media channels today. Other platforms like Spotify, Foursquare and Pinterest also launched to fill various social networking niches.

The introduction of smartphones and other mobile devices for digital communication meant that social media platforms were in the palms of users hands at any time and practically any place. Today, there are a tremendous variety of social networking sites, and many of them can be linked to allow cross-posting. This creates an environment where users can reach the maximum number of people without sacrificing the intimacy of person-to-person communication.

Now that social media is cemented among the population, the data generated by its users can be just as valuable as the engagement between them. Organizations utilize that data in their social media marketing efforts, and U.S. marketing professionals spend $40 billion each year on promotions. This demand has given rise to influencer culture over the last decade, and those with the most followers on TikTok, Instagram and other popular social networks can earn money for their digital marketing efforts as they create networks with the online community.

Brief Histories of Popular Social Media Sites

What are the histories of some of the most popular modern social media outlets? How did major players like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram contribute to todays online social media landscape? Who founded Pinterest, and how did YouTube originate? Read on for the answers to these burning questions and learn a brief history of social media sites.

Facebook

Launched in 2004, Facebook began as a social media site for college students. Created by Mark Zuckerberg while he studied at Harvard, Facebook soon began to gain popularity throughout the collegiate community and beyond to overtake other top social networks. By the end of 2004, it already boasted more than 1 million users.

Today, more than 3 billion people around the world use Facebook to form business and personal connections with like-minded individuals. Due to the platforms massive success, its parent company, now named Meta, has made significant acquisitions and remains a force in the realms of communications, media and pop culture.

YouTube

Launched in 2005 as a video-sharing platform, YouTube has grown into a popular social media site where users share content including how-to videos, recipes and humorous commentary. YouTube was created by a group of former PayPal employees after a fruitless search for a video-sharing website.

With the upload of the first YouTube video, Me at the Zoo, a phenomenon was born. When Google purchased YouTube for $1.65 billion in 2006, there was no doubt that video would be the content of the future. Users around the world spend about 1 billion hours every day watching them, the equivalent of about 5 billion video views daily.

Twitter

Founded by Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams, Biz Stone and Noah Glass in 2006, Twitter changed the social media landscape as a microblogging platform with a maximum of 140 characters per post. Twitters popularity as a microblogging service skyrocketed in 2009, and it saw its number of unique visitors increase by 1,300%.

Twitter found financial success when it introduced sponsored advertising. Its popularity among journalists and activists led to Twitters role in both movements and controversies over the years. Its precise future remains in question since Twitters somewhat chaotic purchase by entrepreneur Elon Musk.

Instagram

Created in 2010 by founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, Instagram originated as a photo and video-sharing service, although the social media site also has evolved to become a community-building platform. Instagrams popularity spread like wild wire, and it reached 1 million registered users within just 2 months of its debut.

Purchased by Facebook in 2012, Instagram has expanded its list of features to include live video streaming and shoppable posts. Today, Instagram boasts more than 1.2 billion users, and its expected to add at least 50 million more by 2024.

TikTok

TikTok first made its mark on the history of social media when it launched in 2016. Originally released only in the Chinese market, TikTok became available around the world in 2017 and 2018. The short-form video hosting service became extremely popular among social media influencers, who utilized the opportunity to create awareness of their brands among TikToks active users. Now available in more than 150 countries, TikTok is now the leading destination for short videos with more than 1 billion users.

Snapchat

Stanford University students Evan Spiegel, Reggie Brown and Bobby Murphy introduced Snapchat in 2011 after initially pitching the concept during a product design class. The idea was for a photo-sharing social media site in which messages are deleted automatically after a set period of time, and fellow students called it terrible.

Fortunately for the founders, their classmates were wrong. Just one year after launching on Android, Snapchat users were sending 20 million snaps every day. Just a couple of months later, that number was up to 50 million. Today, 363 million people, especially young adults, use Snapchat each day.

Twitch

The gaming community has its own social media platform in Twitch, a live-streaming service where users broadcast themselves as they play games in esports competitions. Twitch also features music broadcasts, creative content and other live streams.

Introduced in 2011, Twitch started as a spin-off of the now-defunct general-interest streaming platform Justin.tv. By 2014, Twitch established itself as the fourth-largest source of peak internet traffic in the United States. Later that year, Amazon acquired Twitch for $970 million. Twitch now boasts more than 140 million unique monthly users.

Medium

A social publishing site open to a wide array of stories, ideas and perspectives, Medium was created in 2012 by Ev Williams, who was one of the founders of both Twitter and Blogger. Williams developed Medium to publish content longer than 140 characters as an alternative to Twitter.

While its authors remain a mixture of amateur writers and professional journalists, Medium has heightened its focus on independent submissions. Medium now offers its contributors a massive audience and extensive reach with between 85 and 100 million monthly active users.

Pinterest

Pinterest was founded in 2010 by Ben Silbermann, Evan Sharp and Paul Sciarra as a visual discovery engine where users bookmark images, creating virtual vision boards. Initially available by invitation only, Pinterest launched for the general public in 2012. The same year reports that Pinterest had achieved 11.7 million unique U.S. visitors made it the fastest site ever to surpass 10 million unique visitors. By 2022, Pinterest boasted 431 million active users.

Reddit

University of Virginia roommates Alexis Ohanian and Steve Huffman founded Reddit in 2005 after the duo received $100,000 from Y Combinator to work on this project. They envisioned a place where users could share personal stories, discuss topics of interest and vote for the most popular content.

The site soon took off among younger users who appreciated the forum to share ideas. Publishing juggernaut Conde Nast acquired Reddit for between $10 and 20 million in 2006. The social media site continued to grow in popularity, and by 2020 it had 430 million monthly active users.

LinkedIn

One of the earlier social network platforms to make its debut, LinkedIn launched in 2003 as a channel for business professionals to connect for enhanced career opportunities. Users not only rely on LinkedIn to network with business acquaintances, past coworkers and old schoolmates, but the platform now serves as a leading resource for job seekers and recruiters, boosted by its premium memberships. Showing no signs of slowing down in its third decade, LinkedIn boasts 875 million members in more than 200 countries around the world.

Social Media Site Launch Year Key Founders Notable Events & Successes Current Active Users Facebook 2004 Mark Zuckerberg Rapid growth from college campuses, acquires Instagram and WhatsApp, rebrands to Meta. 3 billion YouTube 2005 Former PayPal employees First video, "Me at the Zoo," uploaded, acquired by Google for $1.65 billion in 2006. 2+ billion logged-in monthly users Twitter 2006 Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams, Biz Stone, Noah Glass Skyrocketing popularity in 2009, introduces sponsored advertising, acquired by Elon Musk. 330 million monthly active users Instagram 2010 Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger Reaches 1 million users within 2 months, acquired by Facebook in 2012, introduces live streaming and shoppable posts. 1.2 billion TikTok 2016 ByteDance Becomes available worldwide in 2017 and 2018, becomes leading short video platform. 1 billion Snapchat 2011 Evan Spiegel, Reggie Brown, Bobby Murphy Users sending 50 million snaps daily within a year of launching on Android. 363 million daily active users Twitch 2011 Justin Kan and Emmett Shear Becomes fourth-largest source of peak internet traffic in the US, acquired by Amazon for $970 million. 140 million unique monthly users Medium 2012 Ev Williams Offers publishing space for content longer than Twitter's character limit, focuses on independent submissions. Between 85 and 100 million monthly active users Pinterest 2010 Ben Silbermann, Evan Sharp, Paul Sciarra Launches to the public in 2012, becomes fastest site to surpass 10 million unique visitors. 431 million active users Reddit 2005 Alexis Ohanian and Steve Huffman Acquired by Conde Nast for between $10 and 20 million in 2006. 430 million monthly active users LinkedIn 2003 Reid Hoffman, Allen Blue, Konstantin Guericke, Eric Ly, Jean-Luc Vaillant Grows as a platform for professionals and job seekers, offers premium memberships. 875 million

Understanding How Social Media Began

Social media users around the world rely on a plethora of platforms to make connections and engage with online communities. Still, social media didnt get its start with Instagram, Facebook or even Myspace. The social networking activities we engage in today have their roots in some of the earliest forms of mass communication. Those building blocks include traditional mail, telegraphy and of course the birth of the internet.

Where will social media take us into the future? Will we see increased social media marketing, virtual reality and increasing breaches on our privacy? Will micro-blogging dominate, or will future social media users demonstrate a preference for longer-form content? How will video influence future social channels, and what role will social media play in future world events? Only time will tell.

The Future of Social Media

As social media has evolved rapidly over the past few decades, its only natural to wonder what the future holds for this ever-changing landscape. Technological advancements, changing user behaviors, and societal trends will shape the future of social media. Here are some potential directions for the future of social media:

Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR): As AR and VR technologies continue to advance, they are likely to play an increasingly significant role in the social media experience. Users may interact with virtual avatars, attend virtual events, and explore virtual spaces, creating more immersive and engaging social interactions.

As AR and VR technologies continue to advance, they are likely to play an increasingly significant role in the social media experience. Users may interact with virtual avatars, attend virtual events, and explore virtual spaces, creating more immersive and engaging social interactions. Niche Social Platforms: While major social media platforms will likely continue to dominate, theres room for niche social networks catering to specific interests and communities. These platforms can provide a more focused and tailored experience for users, connecting people with shared passions.

While major social media platforms will likely continue to dominate, theres room for niche social networks catering to specific interests and communities. These platforms can provide a more focused and tailored experience for users, connecting people with shared passions. Privacy and Data Concerns: As data privacy becomes a growing concern, users may demand more transparent data policies and increased control over their information. Social media companies will face pressure to address privacy issues and implement more robust security measures.

Ephemeral Content: The popularity of disappearing content, as seen on platforms like Snapchat and Instagram Stories, is likely to continue. Users may prefer sharing content that doesnt leave a permanent digital footprint, fostering more spontaneous and authentic interactions.

The popularity of disappearing content, as seen on platforms like Snapchat and Instagram Stories, is likely to continue. Users may prefer sharing content that doesnt leave a permanent digital footprint, fostering more spontaneous and authentic interactions. Social Commerce: Social media platforms have already started integrating shopping features, allowing users to buy products directly from their feeds. In the future, social commerce is expected to grow, blurring the lines between social interactions and e-commerce.

Social media platforms have already started integrating shopping features, allowing users to buy products directly from their feeds. In the future, social commerce is expected to grow, blurring the lines between social interactions and e-commerce. Artificial Intelligence (AI) Integration: AI will play an essential role in content moderation, personalized content recommendations, and chatbots for customer service. AI algorithms may become more sophisticated in understanding user preferences and behavior, enhancing the overall social media experience.

AI will play an essential role in content moderation, personalized content recommendations, and chatbots for customer service. AI algorithms may become more sophisticated in understanding user preferences and behavior, enhancing the overall social media experience. Social Activism and Impact: Social media has already been a catalyst for social movements and activism. In the future, platforms may play an even more significant role in raising awareness, facilitating collective action, and supporting social causes.

Social media has already been a catalyst for social movements and activism. In the future, platforms may play an even more significant role in raising awareness, facilitating collective action, and supporting social causes. Cross-Platform Integration: Social media platforms may become more interconnected, allowing users to seamlessly share content across various networks. Cross-platform integration could lead to a more unified social media experience and stronger social connections.

Social media platforms may become more interconnected, allowing users to seamlessly share content across various networks. Cross-platform integration could lead to a more unified social media experience and stronger social connections. Video Dominance: Video content has been on the rise, and its popularity is expected to continue. Short-form videos, live streams, and interactive video features will likely shape the future of social media content.

Video content has been on the rise, and its popularity is expected to continue. Short-form videos, live streams, and interactive video features will likely shape the future of social media content. Regulation and Governance: As social medias influence on society grows, governments may introduce more stringent regulations to ensure transparency, prevent misinformation, and protect user rights. Social media companies will need to navigate a complex regulatory landscape.

In conclusion, the future of social media is likely to be characterized by advancements in technology, a focus on user privacy, and new ways of connecting and engaging with others. As social media continues to evolve, it will undoubtedly play a central role in shaping how we communicate, share information, and build communities in the years to come.

Conclusion

Social media, as we know it today, is the product of numerous inventions, technologies, and cultural shifts that have taken place over centuries. It represents the evolution of human need for connection, communication, and community, starting from the traditional forms of correspondence such as letters and telegraph messages to the immersive, real-time digital platforms of today.

From the birth of the telegraph in 1844 to the invention of the internet in the late 20th century, each step in the evolution of communication technology has laid a foundational stone for the development of social media. While different sources attribute the invention of social media to different milestones, the contribution of several innovative thinkers over decades is indisputable.

The 21st century saw an explosion of social media platforms, starting from Six Degrees, regarded by many as the first recognizable social media site, to current giants like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. With the advent of smartphones and the increase in internet accessibility, these platforms became integral parts of our lives, shaping our interactions, behaviors, and even our culture.

However, while social media has become an indispensable tool for connection and communication, its implications are manifold. On one hand, it has democratized information, providing everyone with the power to create and share content. On the other hand, issues concerning data privacy, mental health, and misinformation have emerged, prompting discussions around ethics and regulations.

As we reflect on the history of social media, its crucial to remember that the technology itself is neutral  it is how we use and regulate it that determines its impact on society. In light of this, its essential to continue fostering conversations around the responsible use of social media and its role in shaping our future. The trajectory of social medias development, marked by continuous innovation and an ever-evolving landscape, promises an exciting, albeit challenging, journey ahead. We have the opportunity to shape this journey consciously, ethically, and inclusively to ensure social media continues to serve us and not the other way around.
Your businesss logo is perhaps the most important element of your companys branding. Ideally, your logo should represent what your company stands for and help customers easily recall your business.

How to Create a Logo for Your Business

So what makes a good logo? There are several important design elements and considerations to make before diving in. Here are some of the most important logo design tips and other things to consider as you create this important representation of your brand.

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What to Include in a Logo

There are different types of logos out there. But for most small businesses, its a good idea to include your business name in the design to make things easy for customers. In addition to your name, your logo should include some kind of graphic that makes it stand out. This might be as simple as a customized font.

Here are the the main things that should be included in a business logo:

Business Name : This is fundamental. Your business name must be legible and in a font that is aligned with your brands personality. Whether you choose a serif, sans-serif, or any other type of font, ensure it represents your business effectively.

: This is fundamental. Your business name must be legible and in a font that is aligned with your brands personality. Whether you choose a serif, sans-serif, or any other type of font, ensure it represents your business effectively. Unique Graphic or Symbol : An iconic image or shape that represents your business can be a powerful visual cue. It could be abstract, like Nikes swoosh, or descriptive, like Apples apple.

: An iconic image or shape that represents your business can be a powerful visual cue. It could be abstract, like Nikes swoosh, or descriptive, like Apples apple. Customized Font : Instead of going with a default font, consider a custom or modified font that is unique to your brand. This can help set you apart from competitors and emphasize your brands individuality.

: Instead of going with a default font, consider a custom or modified font that is unique to your brand. This can help set you apart from competitors and emphasize your brands individuality. Tagline or Slogan : If you have a concise and catchy slogan, consider integrating it into the logo. However, ensure it doesnt clutter the design. A good tagline complements the logo and reinforces the brand message.

: If you have a concise and catchy slogan, consider integrating it into the logo. However, ensure it doesnt clutter the design. A good tagline complements the logo and reinforces the brand message. Color Palette : Colors evoke emotions. Choose colors that align with the feelings you want your brand to convey. For instance, blue often signifies trustworthiness, while red can imply energy or passion.

: Colors evoke emotions. Choose colors that align with the feelings you want your brand to convey. For instance, blue often signifies trustworthiness, while red can imply energy or passion. Scalability : Your logo should be designed in such a way that it looks good in all sizes, whether on a billboard or a business card.

: Your logo should be designed in such a way that it looks good in all sizes, whether on a billboard or a business card. Relevance : Ensure the design elements chosen are relevant to your business or industry. For instance, a bakery might use imagery of baked goods or a whisk, while a tech company might use more abstract or futuristic symbols.

: Ensure the design elements chosen are relevant to your business or industry. For instance, a bakery might use imagery of baked goods or a whisk, while a tech company might use more abstract or futuristic symbols. Versatility : The logo should be versatile enough to look good both in color and in grayscale. This ensures that its usable in various mediums, such as print, where color might not always be an option.

: The logo should be versatile enough to look good both in color and in grayscale. This ensures that its usable in various mediums, such as print, where color might not always be an option. Simplicity: A clean and straightforward design often has a more lasting impact. Its also more recognizable and easier to remember.

Logo Variations

Some businesses also choose to have a couple of different logo variation. You might have one full logo that includes your name and every design element in one. Then you might have a smaller version that just has your initials or a small image that you can use for small things like social media icons.

Here are some logo variations you could create:

Primary Logo : The full version with all design elements.

: The full version with all design elements. Secondary Logo : A simpler or condensed version which might only include an iconic symbol or initials.

: A simpler or condensed version which might only include an iconic symbol or initials. Favicon : A very simplified version for small digital spaces, like browser tabs.

: A very simplified version for small digital spaces, like browser tabs. Monogram or Badge: Can be used on merchandise or in other branding materials as a stamp or seal.

When to Design a Logo

Its a good idea to have a logo design before you really start promoting your company. A logo is meant to pull all of your branding together and help customers easily recall your business. So you want to have it in place when you first start working with customers so there wont be a disconnect if you go to change it shortly thereafter.

However, you should at least wait until after your business name is registered to go through the logo design process. If not, you risk wasting a ton of work or expense and will need to create something new if youre not able to secure your name of choice.

How to Design a Logo

When it comes to the practical elements of logo creation, you have a few basic options. For solopreneurs or business owners with design skills, you can try to design your logo on your own. Or if you have a design team in your business, you can have this task completed in-house. Heres how to create a logo on your own or with the help of a designer:

Designing a logo involves a combination of creativity, understanding your brand, and knowledge of design principles. Whether youre diving into the design process yourself or collaborating with a professional, heres a comprehensive guide to help you:

Understand Your Brand: Begin by defining your brands core values, mission, and target audience. Your logo should encapsulate and communicate these attributes effectively.

Research your industry and competitors. Understand the norms, but also consider how you can differentiate yourself. Start with Sketches: Rough sketches on paper can be a great way to start. Jot down initial ideas and concepts without committing to details.

These preliminary designs can serve as a foundation or a source of inspiration later on. Choose Colors Thoughtfully: Limit the number of colors, generally 1-3, to keep your logo versatile and easily recognizable.

Each color has a psychological impact. Research color psychology to ensure your choice aligns with your brand message. Typography Matters: If your logo includes text, be selective about the font. The typography should match the feeling and aesthetic of your brand.

Avoid overly-used fonts. Consider custom fonts or modifications to existing ones for uniqueness. Simplicity is Key: A logo should be easily recognizable at a glance. Overly complex logos can be confusing or forgettable.

Refine your design to its simplest form without losing the brand essence. Versatility and Scalability: Test how your logo looks in various sizes and mediums. It should retain its clarity and impact whether on a business card, a website, or a billboard.

Check its appearance in grayscale or black and white to ensure versatility. Feedback Loop: Before finalizing your design, gather feedback. This can come from colleagues, potential customers, or even friends.

Constructive criticism can help you refine and polish your design further.

Professional Design Options

Local or Online Designers : Hiring an experienced designer ensures you get a logo thats both aesthetically pleasing and functional. They can offer insights and expertise that you might not have considered.

: Hiring an experienced designer ensures you get a logo thats both aesthetically pleasing and functional. They can offer insights and expertise that you might not have considered. Design Platforms : Websites like Fiverr or 99designs provide a range of options from various designers. 99designs, for example, lets you host a design contest where designers submit concepts based on your brief.

: Websites like Fiverr or 99designs provide a range of options from various designers. 99designs, for example, lets you host a design contest where designers submit concepts based on your brief. Logo Generators: There are online tools and platforms, like Looka or Canva, that provide templates and automated processes to help you create basic logos. While less personalized, they can be a cost-effective and quick solution for startups or small businesses on a tight budget.

Logo Design Tips

Whether you work with a designer or want to create your own logo, youll need to start with some idea of what you want your logo to look like. Color is one of the most important elements to consider, since it can be super eye catching.

Different colors tend to carry different connotations with consumers. For example, red tends to be associated with power. Green is popular with companies that want to seem fresh and natural. And Yellow is often associated with happiness. You can include just one color in your logo or a combination. Just make sure the shades you select complement one another. Many brands also choose to include black or another neutral shade for the type, and then integrate color in other ways.

The font that you select for your business logo is also essential. Similar to your color choices, the typeface should be indicative of your brand in some way. If you want to appear professional, opt for classic fonts. For those who want to appear modern or trendy, something more stylized will probably be better. Additionally, you need to make sure the type is easy to read no matter what size or format your logo appears in. It should be as clear on large, printed materials as it is on small online icons.

Once you have a general color scheme and font style, its time to tie everything together. You might include a small symbol or image along with your company name, as long as its clear and simple. Think the Nike swoosh or a small outline of a dog for a pet supplies company. Then you can add small details and embellishments like line work or shapes around the type that pulls it all together.

Finally, no matter what colors, fonts and graphics you select for your logo, its always important to keep things as simple as possible. Lots of extra words and images can make a logo seem cluttered or confusing. Complicated logos also tend to look worse in print and when sized down for small graphics. Avoid this by keeping yours very basic yet clear and indicative of your overall brand image.

Some More Logo Design Tips

How to Create a Logo for Your Business Checklist

Stages of Logo Creation Tasks Done? ? Preparation Phase: Define your brands core values, mission, and target audience. Research industry norms and competitor logos. ? Logo Elements: Business Name: Ensure legibility and alignment with brand personality. Unique Graphic or Symbol: Should be representative of your brand. Customized Font: Consider a unique or modified font. Tagline or Slogan (optional): Ensure it complements the logo and doesn't clutter. Color Palette: Choose 1-3 colors that align with your brand message. Scalability: Test the logo in different sizes. Relevance: Use symbols/images relevant to your industry. Versatility: Make sure it looks good in color and grayscale. Simplicity: Keep the design straightforward and recognizable. ? Creating Your Logo Start with rough sketches on paper. Select colors based on their psychological impact. Choose a suitable font for any text. Refine the design to be as simple as possible. Test the logos appearance in different sizes and mediums. Obtain feedback on preliminary designs. ? Logo Variations Primary Logo: The full design. Secondary Logo: A simpler version. Favicon: For small digital spaces. Monogram or Badge: For branding materials. ? Final Checks: Ensure logo represents what the company stands for. Check logo clarity in various mediums and sizes. Confirm logo evokes the desired brand feelings and message. Ensure all design elements and colors complement each other.
The Biden-Harris Administration has launched a series of improvements to the Small Business Administration (SBA) loan programs. These alterations, effective as of August 1, are set to broaden small businesses access to capital while enhancing safeguards against fraud.

The enhancements target the SBAs flagship 7(a) and 504 loan programs and continue Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzmans initiative to bridge capital access gaps for rural, veteran, women, and minority-owned businesses. The move is part of the administrations commitment to uplift the small business community, providing increased opportunities for startups and existing businesses to thrive through a diverse network of lenders and simplified lending processes.

The revised lending norms extend loan accessibility by relaxing credit criteria for loans under $500,000. This enables a broader range of creditworthy small businesses to tap into SBA loans. The improvements encompass three critical areas: updated origination policies and procedures, revised lender participation requirements, and altered 7(a) loan servicing and liquidation stipulations.

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In addition to these, the SBA has clarified affiliation standards to provide a more precise understanding of what constitutes a small business. This initiative, combined with the move to bring eligibility determination in-house through technological upgrades, will expedite the process of loan approvals. The SBA will leverage advanced data analytics and third-party data checks across all loan programs to further counteract fraud.

Recognizing the duplications and complexities in the loan authorization process, the SBA has revamped information requirements for lenders. By eradicating duplicative data entry in the Loan Authorization Wizard, the process becomes more streamlined, saving time and resources for lenders and businesses.

As part of its commitment to underserved communities, the SBA has announced permanent SBA lending for mission-oriented organizations such as Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs). This move helps secure 7(a) loan program permanency for these lenders by transforming them into Community Advantage Small Business Lending Companies (CASBLCs).

Further cementing the changes, three updated SBA Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) took effect on August 1. These encompass the 7(a) and 504 loan programs (SOP 50 10 7), the criteria for becoming an SBA lender (SOP 50 56), and the protocols for 7(a) loan servicing and liquidation (SOP 50 57).

The SBA is also introducing the Universal Purchase Package (UPP) to make it easier for lenders to request SBA to honor its loan guarantee. Its also planning to roll out new features in E-TRAN, the online platform lenders use to submit loan applications.

SBA has conducted extensive outreach and educational programs in anticipation of these updates. Over 13,500 individuals have attended SBAs live training events, and on-demand training for lenders has been accessed more than 15,300 times.

Small businesses now have more opportunities than ever before to secure necessary capital, thanks to these improvements to SBAs loan programs. With a more streamlined application process and an emphasis on inclusivity, the pathway to small business success is becoming increasingly accessible.

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Get ready for weekend filled with good food, friendly faces from all over the world, knights and even rafting.

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Bratislava

Plant-based picnic for all

For people that enjoy preparing, cooking, and trying out vegan food while also meeting friendly new faces, there is an event for you in in Bratislava. In the park Sad Janka Krala, a vegan picnic potluck will take place on August 5, starting at 14:00. The idea is for visitors to bring their own vegan meals, snacks, and drinks to share with others and, of course, try whatever the other participants brought to the event.

The picnic is open to not only Slovak speakers, but those of every language. Visitors even have the chance to enter two small competitions. Entry is free of charge, find the exact details here. Dont forget to bring cutlery!

A little bit of history

Noble knights, brave women, precise archers, witty merchants, and quirky jesters  all will come together to build a medieval-like atmosphere at Devin Castle with both the good and ugly parts of past life. Devin Castle will be home to a medieval knight festival, showing off such skills as sword fighting and horse handling. To indulge in fun and trickery, there also will be a presentation of historical dances and a slight-of-hand show.

Adults and kids will have the chance to fire a bow, engage in small competitions, hold a crossbow and more. There will be small stalls overflowing with historical memorabilia and replicas scattered all over the castle.

The event will take place on August 5, starting at 10:00. Youll need to get a ticket, available directly at the castle gates, which will also grant you entry to the castles regular exhibitions.

Devin Castle will be the star of the show this weekend. (Source: Marko Erd, SME)

TIP: Hop on a happy train and enjoy the beauties of Terchova, a resort town in northern Slovakia. It is the only train with entertaining stories. It will take you closer to the mountains as well.

Community

Ukrainian and Slovak food enthusiasts, rejoice

To find a new friendly face, eat good food and talk your heart out, you dont have to travel all the way to Bratislava. Maly Berlin in Trnava will host a Ukrainian-Slovak picnic in the municipalitys park, starting at 16:00 on August 6 and meeting at Maly Berlin. If youre unable to make it on time, you can catch up at Ruzovy Park. Other than snacking, there will be a chance to read books, play badminton and crochet. The picnic works as its Bratislava counterpart - a potluck where everybody shares their food with everybody else, though not vegan-based. Participants are kindly asked to bring their own picnic needs, like plates and cutlery.

Sip wine under the stars

For a more romantic yet still fun experience, wine lovers might want to give Vino Pod Hviezdami (Wine under the Stars) event a shot for a night of wine, good music, and spending time together. From August 4 to August 6, from 15:00 to 1:00 in the morning, there will be multiple stages with multiple artists to choose from. Get your tickets here.

Pezinok vineyards will come alive with wine and music. (Source: Facebook of Vino Pod Hviezdami (Wine under the stars).)

TIP: Familiarity of speech has many forms. What place does baby-talk have in Slovak?

Activities

Adventure on water

If youre looking for more intense fun this weekend, a rafting event might be what youre looking for. Starting from Sokolovce and anchoring in Hlohovec, a rafting event will take place on August 6 starting early in the morning at 9:30, although you'll need to be there early. Rafters are planning to meet at the Hlohovec park Zamocka Zahrada. From there, youll get to Sokolovce via bus. Participants dont have to take rafting equipment, as it is provided by the organisers. However, it is recommended that you take food for camping and a snack along with drinks to keep you hydrated during warm days. Theres limited space for the event, so grab your ticket quickly.

Dragons? Dragons!

Smolenice Castle will open its gates to visitors young and grown up during their event Dracie Dni (Dragon days). This years event is dedicated to a noble wedding, mystery and bravery. Visitors will be able to spot the dragons on August 5 and August 6 from 10:00 and 15:00, for which theyll need a ticket.

Rafting enthusiasts have a chance to test local waters near Hlohovec. (Illustrative photo) (Source: Jan Kroslak, SME)

TIP: The municipality Janovce near Poprad used to hide a long-forgotten flourishing life. Archaeologists found old traces of life.

Upcoming events

August 29. Bratislava. Nerd out with Comics Salon and Anime Show.

September 2. Bratislava. Catch the best of traditional arts in Slovakia at the Festival Majstrov (Festival of Masters).

September 2. Bratislava. Hop on your board  a skateboarding league will take place in Bratislava.

Come watch skate masters show-off their skills. (Illustrative photo) (Source: Gabriel Kuchta, SME)

BEFORE YOU GO

WHAT TO DO IN BRATISLAVA: Oldest street of Bratislava will be the bathed with chamber music. Don't miss it!

WHAT TO BE HAPPY ABOUT: Bistro runs on a buddy-system allowing patrons to purchase food for people in need. Read more from our positive news list.

WHAT TO DO FOR FREE: The Old Town Hall in Bratislava will recall its history with fencing days.

That's it for this week. Take care, and have a restful weekend!

-Maria

Do you have any tips? You can reach Maria at maria.jurikova@spectator.sk
The ex-judge suspected of indirect corruption tried to prevent Judge Pamela Zaleska from deciding on his case for a year.

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As a judge, he used to meet with the now imprisoned oligarch Marian Kocner at a parking space. As a lawyer, he is one of the three partners in a law firm owned by the Smer partys ex-interior minister Robert Kalinak.

While Kalinak is currently managing Smers election campaign, former president of the Bratislava III District Court, David Lindtner, will stand trial for indirect corruption and interference in the independence of courts. It is likely that the trial will take place in the autumn.

If found guilty, say, on just the second count, the ex-judge could spend up to eight years in prison.

Lindtner, who is mentioned in the high-profile Burka (Storm) and Vichrica (Gale) cases, which concern corruption in the judicial system, reportedly tried to influence court proceedings in two cases that date back to 2017 and 2018. His former colleagues, Vladimir Sklenka, who resigned as judge in 2019 after it surfaced that he had allegedly received money and exchanged thousands of messages with Kocner, and Miriam Repakova, an ex-judge who was found guilty of bending the law in favour of Kocner in 2023, told the police about Lindtners alleged corrupt conduct.

Lindtner has refuted any guilt. Instead, he claims that all the charges against him are a political or inquisition trial that aims to criminalise selected people.
Welcome to another episode of the coffee podcast The Coffee Sprudgecast with hosts Zachary Carlsen and Jordan Michelman. In this episode, Michelman and Carlsen drink Block Party, the new limited-release summer blend from Partners Coffee in Brooklyn, New York, with an incredible packaging collaboration with illustrator Sophie (@soupiestudios).

Sandwiched by the new summertime hit single Build It Out, Michelman and Carlsen discuss brand-new cafes in the US, Canada, and UK. These cafes are featured in our annual Build-Outs of Coffee seriessubmit your build today! Read more about these beautiful builds in the show notes below.

This episode of the Coffee Sprudgecast is sponsored by Lelit, Baratza, Moccamaster, Pacific Barista Series, and Ghirardelli.

Show notes:

A Summer Design Refresh Block Party For Partners Coffee NYC

Build-Outs Of Coffee: Cornershop Coffee In Macclesfield, England

Build-Outs Of Coffee: Etude Coffee In Bungay, United Kingdom

Build-Outs Of Coffee: Heavy Water Coffee Roasters In Los Angeles, CA

Build-Outs Of Coffee: Routine Coffee Supply In Victoria, BC

Listen right here:

Check out The Coffee Sprudgecast on Apple Podcasts and leave a lovely review if youre inclined. The Coffee Sprudgecast is available on Spotify, Stitcher, and other exceptional podcast portals.

Check out all our shows today!

Seed To Cup Podcast from the Sprudge Podcast Network.

A Better Table with Umeko Motoyoshi from the Sprudge Podcast Network.

Cascara with Cydni Patterson from the Sprudge Podcast Network.

No Free Refills with Ezra Baker and Tymika Lawrence from the Sprudge Podcast Network.

In Good Taste with Ever Meister from the Sprudge Podcast Network.

Check out all the Coffee Sprudgecast episodes here.
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230804/denmark-tightens-border-controls-after-quran-burning-demonstrations-1112387736.html

Denmark Tightens Border Controls After Quran-Burning Demonstrations

Denmark Tightens Border Controls After Quran-Burning Demonstrations

The Danish police are temporarily toughening controls at the country's borders for security reasons following recent Quran-burning demonstrations, the Danish Justice Ministry has said.

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"Against the backdrop of the recent burnings of the Quran and as the current threat pattern develops, the police are temporarily stepping up efforts at the internal borders of Denmark... This means, among other things, that you may soon face selective border controls when making an entry from Sweden," the ministry stated late on Thursday. The measure, which went into effect on August 3, is based on recommendations received from the Danish Police Intelligence Service. The border controls strengthening measures are expected to stay in force until August 10. Danish Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard noted that the government took the current situation in the country seriously and agreed with the recommendations of the police intelligence service to intensify checks on the internal border. On Wednesday, Hummelgaard stressed that there were no reasons to toughen border controls in Denmark. On Tuesday, Swedish Justice Minister Gunnar Strommer said that the Swedish authorities would tighten internal border controls amid the deteriorating security situation. Over the recent months, multiple Quran-burning demonstrations took place in Denmark and Sweden. Most Muslim countries have condemned the demonstrations, and some have summoned the Swedish and Danish ambassadors to issue them notes of protest. Last month, hundreds of Iraqi protesters stormed the Swedish embassy following the burning of the Quran in Stockholm.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230629/russian-foreign-ministry-condemns-quran-burning-in-sweden-1111556972.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230804/donald-trump-arrives-in-washington-dc-for-his-arraignment-1112378648.html

Donald Trump Arrives in Washington DC for His Arraignment

Donald Trump Arrives in Washington DC for His Arraignment

On todays episode of The Backstory, host Lee Stranahan discussed current events including Donald Trump pleading not guilty in Washington DC for 2020 election interference, and Hyundai, Kia recalls 91,000 US vehicles.

2023-08-04T04:14+0000

2023-08-04T04:14+0000

2023-08-04T11:13+0000

the backstory

radio

x

china

ufos

independent media

brazil

freedom of information act (foia)

national defense authorization act (ndaa)

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Donald Trump Arrives in Washington DC for his Arraignment On todays episode of The Backstory, host Lee Stranahan discussed current events including Donald Trump pleading not guilty in Washington D.C. for 2020 election interference, and Hyundai, Kia recalls 91,000 US vehicles.

Jamarl Thomas - Co-Host of Fault Lines | Eighty Years of UFO Cover Ups, The Biden Family Business, and Joe Biden Lied about Hunter Biden's Business MeetingsAddy Adds - Former Teacher, Reporter, and Commentator | Independent Media Doesn't Get Along, The DNC Tows the Line, and RFK Jr is Weighed Down for Supporting Israel In the first hour, Lee spoke with Jamarl Thomas about the NDAA laws recently enacted, UFO hearings in congress, and UFO information is comparable to the JFK assassination's information. Jamarl discussed recent Congressional hearings on UFOs and the testimony from the whistleblowers. Jamarl commented on the Biden crime family business and Democrats gaslighting the public on the Devon Archer testimony.In the second hour, Lee spoke with Addy Adds about the potential of Congressman Matt Gaetz, Democrats stick together, and how to disengage. Addy talks about his disappointment with Elon Musk and the changes Musk has made to Twitter. Addy spoke on his coverage of the Brazilian election in 2022 and how he faced intimidation for his independent media coverage of the Brazilian elections.We'd love to get your feedback at radio@sputniknews.comThe views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the position of Sputnik.

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the backstory, biden family business, ndaa laws, ufo hearings in congress, jfk assassination, devon archer testimony, brazilian election
Kazakh man says more Chinese vehicles are running on streets in his hometown

People's Daily Online) 15:13, August 04, 2023

Photo shows vehicles to be exported at Lianyungang Port in Lianyungang city, east China's Jiangsu Province. (People's Daily Online/Fan Yao)

A total of 2,719 domestically produced vehicles were being loaded on a ship on July 27 at a terminal of Dongfang Port Branch of Jiangsu Lianyungang Port Co., Ltd. in Lianyungang city, east China's Jiangsu Province. The vehicles are scheduled to be sent to countries along the Belt and Road.

In the meantime, as a display in the digital dispatch center of the China-Kazakhstan Logistics Cooperation Base in Lianyungang showed, domestically produced passenger cars were to be sent to Central Asian countries through Kazakhstan's Khorgos Eastern-Gate land port, which is more than 4,000 kilometers away from Lianyungang.

Photo shows a Kazakh man, whose Chinese name is Ma Hejiang. (Photo courtesy of the interviewee)

"My hometown is Astana, the capital city of Kazakhstan. In the city, there are more and more Chinese cars running on streets, and many 4S stores selling Chinese cars. Ten years ago, Chinese cars were not common in the city," said a Kazakh man whose Chinese name is Ma Hejiang.

Ma attributed the change to the proposal of the Belt and Road Initiative.

After obtaining a master's degree at Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University in northwest China's Shaanxi Province in 2020, Ma went back to Astana to engage in the logistics industry.

In September 2022, he became a translator of the China-Kazakhstan Logistics Cooperation Base in Lianyungang.

In January 2023, Ma made a business trip to Astana, where he saw many Chinese cars running on the streets.

Photo shows Kazakhstan's Khorgos Eastern-Gate land port. (Photo/Yang Kailin)

Chen Yong, who is the deputy general manager of Kazakhstan's Khorgos Eastern-Gate land port, is stationed in Kazakhstan, and said Chinese cars arrive at the port almost every day. "On July 24, more than 400 cars bound for Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Russia and other countries arrived at the port," Chen said.

In the first half of this year, 169,800 vehicles were exported through Lianyungang Port, a year-on-year increase of 106 percent, according to Nanjing Customs.

Chen said commodities made in China are known for their cost-effectiveness in Kazakhstan.

"Many Kazakh people like to use smart phones made by China's telecom giant Huawei and tires made in China. Baby toys made in China account for more than half of the local market, and many women's bags sold in the local market are also from China," said Chen.

(Web editor: Chang Sha, Liang Jun)
Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) Governor Lee Bok-hyun, center, speaks during an investor relations event in Singapore in May. KB Financial Group Chairman Yoon Jong-kyoo, left, and Hana Financial Group Chairman Ham Young-joo, right, also attended the event in May. Courtesy of FSS



By Anna J. Park



Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) Governor Lee Bok-hyun is scheduled to join a financial firms' investor relations event in London in September, aiming to facilitate the promotion of the local financial industry. It will be Lee's second participation in the financial firms' overseas investor relations event since he took part in it in Singapore in May.



Titled "K-Finance in London in 2023," the event is slated to take place on Sept. 13, targeting both inbound and outbound financial investment, which is associated with the Korean market. On Friday the FSS said the state-run financial watchdog agency will co-host the event.



"The IR (investor relations) event in London is jointly hosted by the FSS, financial companies, as well as Seoul and Busan municipalities, planning to promote the strength of 'K-Finance' to foreign investors," Lee Jun-kyo, FSS director-general in charge of international affairs, told The Korea Times on Friday. "The FSS aims to support the financial firms that make forays into overseas markets by promoting fortes of the Korean financial industry. At the same time, the FSS hopes to attract inbound investment into the Korean market by providing clear information on the Korean financial authorities' latest attempts to innovate the market framework, and the stability of the local market."



Keen to expand the scope of overseas businesses, six CEOs of financial groups and companies will participate. Shinhan Financial Group Chairman Jin Ok-dong, Woori Financial Group Chairman Yim Jong-yong, Mirae Asset Securities CEO Choi Hyun-man, NH Investment CEO Chung Young-chae, Samsung Life Insurance CEO Park Jong-moon and Korean Re CEO Won Jong-gyu will join the event.



As the key financial hubs of the Korean market, Seoul and Busan officials will also participate in the investor relations event as co-hosts. They aim to attract foreign financial companies by promoting their cities.



Prior to the London event, FSS Governor Lee will visit Switzerland on Sept. 11 to attend a meeting at the Basel Committee.




https://sputnikglobe.com/20230804/ex-biden-partner-hunters-ties-to-burisma-part-of-influence-battle-in-ukraine-1112396640.html

Ex-Biden Partner: Hunter's Ties to Burisma Part of Influence Battle in Ukraine

Ex-Biden Partner: Hunter's Ties to Burisma Part of Influence Battle in Ukraine

Hunter Bidens presence on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma occurred in conjunction with broader efforts by the United States and other countries to develop influence networks in Ukraine

2023-08-04T17:41+0000

2023-08-04T17:41+0000

2023-08-04T17:41+0000

americas

hunter biden

joe biden

viktor shokin

ukraine

burisma

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Archer worked alongside Biden in developing a relationship with Burisma, which was under investigation by then-Prosecutor General of Ukraine Viktor Shokin. Shokin was later fired from the position after pressure from officials including then-US Vice President Joe Biden. Joe Biden joined Hunter Biden and his business associates more than 20 times either in person or via speakerphone, Archer said earlier this week in testimony to lawmakers. The interactions between Joe Biden and his sons business associates constituted an "abuse of soft power," Archer said in a previous interview with Carlson. There was constant pressure to leverage the "Biden brand" and ties to the US government to help Burisma, Archer said. However, the connection that Biden forged between Burisma and the US government was among a number of efforts by the US and other foreign actors to establish ties and influence in Ukraine, Archer said. Acting US Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, who served as Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs from 2013-2017, had a particular amount of influence in Ukraine, Archer said. Entities operating in Ukraine constantly tried to gain Nulands favor, Archer said, adding that she was somebody you "wanted on your good side." Archers testimony to Congress and public interviews come amid investigations by lawmakers into potential criminal activity by the Biden family, including bribery and influence peddling. Joe Biden has denied discussing foreign business deals with his son. US House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said that Archers testimony confirms that Joe Bidens claims of non-involvement are false.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230802/ex-biden-associate-calls-between-joe-hunter-biden-constitute-abuse-of-soft-power-1112358715.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230804/judge-andrew-napolitano-biden-doesnt-have-coherent-strategy-in-ukraine-1112373103.html

Judge Andrew Napolitano: Biden Doesnt Have Coherent Strategy in Ukraine

Judge Andrew Napolitano: Biden Doesnt Have Coherent Strategy in Ukraine

The Biden Administrations Ukraine strategy is increasingly disconnected from political and military realities on the ground, Judge Andrew Napolitano told Sputnik's New Rules podcast.

2023-08-04T11:00+0000

2023-08-04T11:00+0000

2023-08-04T11:00+0000

analysis

joe biden

vladimir putin

ukraine

russia

kiev

congress

white house

us military aid

central intelligence agency (cia)

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"Joe Biden cannot articulate what the goal of the American military involvement [in Ukraine] is," Judge Andrew Napolitano, former New Jersey superior court judge and host of the Judging Freedom podcast, told Sputnik. "The neocons around him just love the concept of war, particularly war against Russia, particularly against Russia while Vladimir Putin is in office."Delusional Neocons Set Biden's Ukraine AgendaThe US has been involved in the Ukraine conflict for 17 months and has already transferred over $68 billion. Nevertheless, Kiev cannot boast any considerable progress on the ground with their much-discussed counteroffensive having eventually stalled. As the conflict is continuing to drag on, Biden administration officials and the US president are still asserting to Kiev that Washington will support it "as long as it takes."The Ukraine conflict has been presented in the Western mainstream press as a way to bleed Russia dry and drain President Vladimir Putin's "political standing with the Russian people," the judge opined.In February 2023, President Biden made a claim in front of a Polish crowd that suggested he wanted to see the Russian president deposed: "For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power," Biden stated. The White House later downplayed this rally cry as a gaffe.Still, what Team Biden and their neocon allies "don't understand is that President Putin is enormously popular, that he's fighting a patriotic war for a return of land, for which there is a valid legal argument, it has always been a part of Russia, culturally a part of Russia, linguistically a part of Russia," according to Napolitano.What's more, there is no American national security interest at stake in Ukraine, despite US neocons arguing to the contrary, according to the judge.US war hawks are continuing to claim that Washington's military aid to Kiev is a great investment since Russia is being bashed without American lives being lost. "The Russians are dying. The best money we've ever spent," as US Senator Lindsey Graham said back in May. As long as no American body bags are coming home, the public is buying into this argument.Still, it's no longer a secret that a limited contingent of US servicemen has been operating on the ground in Ukraine. "We know the US military is there in Ukraine out of uniform. We know it is there in Poland, operating equipment that is shooting projectiles at Russian boys," noted the judge. US mercenaries have also joined Ukrainian battalions on the battlefield.And these Americans are dying in Ukraine: a sad statistic has already found its way out, indicating that dozens if not hundreds of US citizens have been killed in the conflict zone since February 2022.Dissent is Brewing Within the US Military and Intel CommunityMeanwhile, the US president and his administration are continuing to assert to the American public that Russia is losing and that Ukraine is going to prevail.US Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently insisted that Russia had "already lost" while speaking to an American broadcaster. However, this triumphalist stance is not unanimously shared by US Department of Defense officials and the US intelligence community. The so-called Pentagon leak  that caught the headlines in April  shed some light on what the US military and spies really think about the situation on the ground in Ukraine."There is a 21 year old young Massachusetts National Guardsman sitting in a federal jail cell as we speak, named Jack Teixeira, who is accused of leaking secret documents - to which he had access by virtue of his work in the National Guard - to a chat room," said Napolitano.Prior to the scandalous leak, American army and intelligence veterans voiced their skepticism with regard to Biden's Ukraine strategy in their podcasts or interviews with alternative media."On my podcast, Judging Freedom, where we have a number of ex-CIA and ex-military harshly critical of the current CIA and the current US government, who are, I believe, giving a far more accurate version of what's happening there," Napolitano pointed out, referring to former US Marine Corps intelligence officer Scott Ritter, retired US Army colonel and government official Douglas Macgregor, former CIA analyst Larry Johnson and ex-CIA officer Ray McGovern. All of them have stated loud and clear that "it is inconceivable that the Ukraine military can prevail," the judge underscored.On top of that, it has been almost impossible for the US and NATO military officials to ignore massive casualties sustained by the Ukrainian Armed Forces in terms of military equipment and manpower since the beginning of their counteroffensive.As of mid-July, Ukraine had lost 26,000 servicemen, 21 airplanes, five helicopters, some 1,244 tanks and armored vehicles, including 17 Leopard tanks, five French AMX wheeled tanks, 914 units of special vehicles, two air defense systems, and 25 MLRS vehicles, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense.Thus, unsurprisingly, Western leaders in private conversations cast doubt on Kiev's odds of winning at the recent Aspen Security Forum despite publicly trying to put a positive spin on Ukraines military efforts.Why is US Public Buying Into Biden's Ukraine Narrative?Meanwhile, the Western mainstream press has been busy spreading the one-sided Biden administration's Ukraine narrative since the outset of the conflict. Judging from polls, most of the public in the West appear to have swallowed the bait."The American public still seems to be in favor of the war. Again, they only hear one side," highlighted the judge.What's making the West's Ukraine narrative even less credible is that there are very few American journalists on the ground, according to the judge.In addition, most US presidential candidates from both sides of America's political aisle are also promoting the US proxy war in Ukraine. Just two major candidates  Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.  are against the conflict. "Everybody else is lockstep in favor of it for a variety of what I think are nonsensical reasons," Sputnik's interlocutor added.However, over the past two weeks or so, a growing number of mainstream media outlets have started to release unflattering reports about the Ukraine situation on the front lines. They are even publishing interviews with Ukrainian soldiers where they talk about how this counteroffensive is not exactly going to plan. This could be a harbinger of some potential change, according to the judge, even though Team Biden is still wearing a brave face.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230803/is-biden-preparing-to-dump-ukraine-for-taiwan-1112361859.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230731/how-many-americans-were-killed-in-ukrainian-conflict-1112246583.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230728/scott-ritter-ukrainian-counteroffensive-keeps-repeating-same-insane-mistakes-1112225788.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230801/bidens-ukraine-proxy-war-created-ammo-shortage-weakened-us-1112328831.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230802/us-presidential-race-and-ukraine-where-do-the-candidates-stand-1112336115.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230803/russia-counterattacks-in-donetsk-direction-ukraine-lost-up-to-380-soldiers-1112366475.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230804/king-charles-iii-to-mark-anniversary-of-queen-elizabeth-iis-death-privately-1112398256.html

King Charles III to Mark Anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's Death Privately

King Charles III to Mark Anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's Death Privately

The UK royal couple, King Charles III and his wife Camilla, will mark the first anniversary of the death of late Queen Elizabeth II on September 8 "quietly and privately," British media reported Friday.

2023-08-04T19:58+0000

2023-08-04T19:58+0000

2023-08-04T19:58+0000

world

united kingdom (uk)

queen elizabeth ii

king charles iii

anniversary

death

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The couple will also not hold any family meeting at their royal residence, Balmoral Castle, Palace sources told media, thereby refuting earlier reports of Prince Harry and his wife, US actress Meghan Markle, not being invited to the alleged event. A source reportedly said it was "simply untrue" to claim that the royal family was "snubbing" Harry and Meghan. The rumors appeared after a UK tabloid reported on Thursday that Prince Harry and his wife had not been invited to attend the event allegedly scheduled to be held in a narrow family circle at Balmoral Castle to mark the anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's death. In March 2021, Harry and Meghan gave a controversial interview to US talk show host Oprah Winfrey, in which they accused their royal relatives of indifference, putting pressure on them, and racism. Since then, the couple's relationship with the royal family has remained strained. Queen Elizabeth II died on September 8 in Scotland aged 96. Her reign, lasting 70 years and 214 days, was the longest of any British monarch. She was buried in Westminster Abbey on September 19.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230526/fbi-reveals-1983-plot-to-assassinate-queen-elizabeth-ii-during-us-visit-1110618206.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230804/lavrov-west-convenes-staged-forums-to-involve-countries-in-discussion-of-ukraines-plan-1112386039.html

Lavrov: West Convenes Staged Forums to Involve Countries in Discussion of 'Ukraine's Plan'

Lavrov: West Convenes Staged Forums to Involve Countries in Discussion of 'Ukraine's Plan'

The United States, the United Kingdom and their allies are arranging pompous summits to drag as many nations as possible into a discussion of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskys peace formula, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

2023-08-04T12:16+0000

2023-08-04T12:16+0000

2023-08-04T12:16+0000

russia's special operation in ukraine

sergey lavrov

russian foreign ministry

russia

volodymyr zelensky

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Last week, media reported that Saudi Arabia intends to hold peace talks on Ukraine in Jeddah in August. Riyadh has invited representatives from some 30 countries, but not Russia. The official added that "all those whom the West is courting in order to push through the "Zelensky's formula" must realize that the fate of these people, whom the Kiev regime blatantly promises to kill, is at stake".The minister stressed that the West should ask Zelensky to "publicly present another formula" of the Kiev actions against Russians and other ethnic minorities in Ukraine after the 'victory' of the Kiev regime. At the same time, Lavrov highlighted that Russia values any efforts aimed at "achieving a just and sustainable piece."

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230512/kiev-terrorizes-donbass-civilians-since-it-cannot-win-on-battlefield-1110294477.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230804/majority-of-americans-oppose-additional-us-funding-for-ukraine---poll-1112392442.html

Majority of Americans Oppose Additional US Funding for Ukraine - Poll

Majority of Americans Oppose Additional US Funding for Ukraine - Poll

Over half of US citizens disagree with Congress authorizing additional funding to support Ukraine in its conflict with Russia, according to a poll published by an American news agency on Friday.

2023-08-04T15:23+0000

2023-08-04T15:23+0000

2023-08-04T15:23+0000

us

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ukrainian crisis

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us arms for ukraine

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In total, 55% of Americans are against Congress authorizing more funds for Ukraine, while 45% believe it should authorize such funding, according to the poll conducted by SSRS. Fifty-one percent say that Washington has done enough to help Kiev, but 48% disagree. The latter number is 14 percentage points down from the 62% of those who felt the US should have been doing more, according to a poll conducted in the early days of Russia's special military operation. When asked specifically about types of assistance the US could offer Kiev, only 17% say they would support sending American troops to the battlefield, and 43% prefer providing weapons. Almost two-thirds (63%) said the US could provide intelligence information and about a half (53%) favored military training. The survey showed a partisan divide among Americans, with 71% of Republicans opposing Congressional authorization of additional funding. At the same time, 62% of Democrats favor additional funding. The survey also showed that only 43% of Americans approve of the way US President Joe Biden is handling the relationship with Russia, while 56% disagree. The poll was conducted nationwide from July 1-31 among 1,279 adults.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230519/biden-admin-wages-information-war-against-americans-to-fund-ukraine-conflict-1110469223.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230804/nigerien-president-bazoum-in-op-ed-says-hes-been-taken-hostage-by-military-coup-1112380518.html

Nigerien President Bazoum in Op-Ed Says He's Been 'Taken Hostage'

Nigerien President Bazoum in Op-Ed Says He's Been 'Taken Hostage'

Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum said in an op-ed for American media that he has been taken hostage by the military coup in the country and called on the US and international community to help restore constitutional order.

2023-08-04T01:03+0000

2023-08-04T01:03+0000

2023-08-08T11:20+0000

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"I write this as a hostage," Bazoum said on Thursday. Bazoum further said the military coup has no justification, and if it succeeds, it will have devastating consequences for Niger, the region, and the entire world. The president of Niger called on the US government and the entire international community to help the country restore constitutional order. He claims the coup plotters falsely claim they acted to protect Nigers security. White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said on Thursday that the United States believes there is still some time to resolve the situation in Niger through diplomacy. Rebels in Power Denounce Military Pacts With FranceRebels in Niger who came to power after ousting Bazoum have since reportedly denounced several military pacts with France."Faced with France's careless attitude and its reaction to the situation [in Niger], the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland decided to scrap the cooperation agreements in the field of security and defence with this state," French media reported, quoting one of the rebels reading out a statement in a televised appearance on a national broadcaster.Rebels have also allegedly vowed to respond "immediately" to any "aggression" by Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).The leaders of the coup in Niger have also ended the mandates of the country's ambassadors to France, Nigeria, Togo and the United States."The functions of the extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassadors of the Republic of Niger to France, Nigeria, Togo and the United States are terminated," the statement said.Bazoum was removed from power by Niger's presidential guard on July 26. The guard's commander, Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, has proclaimed himself the country's new leader.The new Nigerien authorities urged people to protest against France, which had exercised colonial rule over Niger for more than 60 years, and ECOWAS, citing the possibility of their forces' intrusion into the country. The concerns of the coup participants increased last Sunday after ECOWAS said it might use force if Bazoum was not returned to power within a week.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230802/us-orders-partial-evacuation-of-embassy-staff-in-niger-amid-military-takeover-1112358572.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230802/niger-military-takover-guide-to-what-happened-1112338330.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230804/ukraine-will-never-get-nato-membership-only-us-support-as-anti-russian-hedgehog-1112393903.html

Ukraine Will Never Get NATO Membership, Only US Support as 'Anti-Russian Hedgehog'

Ukraine Will Never Get NATO Membership, Only US Support as 'Anti-Russian Hedgehog'

A leading Russian foreign policy expert said despite Kievs desires to be welcomed into the Western anti-Russian alliance, NATO only ever intends to use Ukraine as a bulwark in their struggle against Russia.

2023-08-04T16:38+0000

2023-08-04T16:38+0000

2023-08-04T16:38+0000

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ukraine

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The government in Kiev has continued to pressure the Western NATO alliance to give the country firmer pledges of support, including security guarantees and entry into the alliance. At its summit last month in Vilnius, the NATO powers swore off allowing Ukrainian membership while the conflict with Russia rages, over fears of the 31-nation alliance being drawn into a direct war with Russia that would include four nuclear-armed nations.Dmitry Suslov, deputy director of the Center for European and International Studies at Russias Higher School of Economics and deputy director of research at the Russian Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, told Sputnik on Friday that in fact NATO will never let Kiev into the alliance, since it only intends to use Ukraine as "an instrument" toward the US strategic goal of weakening and dismantling Russia.The United States wants to avoid any obligations that could bring the United States into open military conflict with Russia. So by security guarantees, the United States means and implies the obligation to provide military assistance to Ukraine in the longer term, especially after the end of the war in Ukraine, beyond the military conflict itself. The idea is actually to turn Ukraine into a military hedgehog to provide military assistance, weapons training for Ukrainian troops, intel information in order to increase Ukrainian military strength up to the point that Russia would not dare to invade Ukraine. And if Russia does, then Ukraine will be able to repel and defeat Russia without the direct involvement of the United States.Of course, the United States will not provide Ukraine with a military advantage, with a military edge over Russia, but basically the idea is to militarize Ukraine more and to continue militarization of Ukraine after the end of the hot war.Suslov added that giving Ukraine that kind of long-term military assistance prevents a political resolution of the crisis because its directly contrary to Russias security demands that it articulated before the conflict began in February 2022.The policy expert noted that the US plans for a long-term military assistance memorandum with Kiev de-incentivizes Russia seeking to end the conflict since Moscow is compelled to oppose such an arrangement.Because, of course, turning Ukraine into an even more militarized anti-Russian [country] is absolutely unacceptable for Russia, he said.Some people in the United States want a dismantling of Russia and a regime change, others want just a drastic weakening of the country. And the US perceives it as a means to reestablish their global hegemony, to strengthen their positions in their confrontation against China and so on and so forth. I mean, it is very important to understand that the United States does not want peace or a stable security system in Europe. They want strengthening and restoration of their hegemony, which implies a confrontation against Russia, a weakening of Russia. And Ukraine is used just as an instrument for that.I think that in the next several years, the West will not be ready to consider the idea of Ukrainian neutrality seriously, because if they do, it would mean that they are ready to reverse their policy, that they are ready to consider Russian security interests seriously and to resolve the crisis and to normalize their relations with Russia, which is absolutely contrary to their intentions. As I already said, their intention is continuation of a hybrid war against Russia in order either to defeat it or to weaken it drastically.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230731/russian-nuclear-weapons-to-stay-in-belarus-unless-us-nato-quit-hostile-policy---diplomat-1112270761.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230804/lavrov-west-convenes-staged-forums-to-involve-countries-in-discussion-of-ukraines-plan-1112386039.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230804/ukraines-attrition-rate-suggests-counteroffensive-is-over-1112393002.html

Ukraine's Attrition Rate Suggests Counteroffensive is Over

Ukraine's Attrition Rate Suggests Counteroffensive is Over

The Ukrainian military has sustained enormous losses since the beginning of its botched counteroffensive, raising questions about its ability to continue advancing, security expert Michael Maloof told Sputnik.

2023-08-04T15:29+0000

2023-08-04T15:29+0000

2023-08-04T15:29+0000

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russia's special operation in ukraine

michael maloof

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ministry of defense

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larry johnson

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As of August 4, Ukraine has lost more than 43,000 soldiers and over 4,900 units of various weaponry, including 26 aircraft, nine helicopters, 1,831 tanks and other armored fighting vehicles, including 25 German-made Leopard tanks, seven French-made AMX wheeled tanks and 21 US-made Bradley infantry fighting vehicles (IFV), since the beginning of Kiev's counteroffensive, per Russia's Ministry of Defense. In addition, it has lost 747 field artillery guns and mortars, including 76 American M777 artillery systems, as well as 84 self-propelled artillery mounts from Poland, the US, France and Germany.This data is "pretty serious because it really shows a high attrition rate, that the Ukrainians are just chewing through their equipment and given the tactics that they're employing, you can well understand why a lot of that equipment has become sitting ducks," Michael Maloof, former senior security policy analyst in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, told Sputnik. Ukraine's heavy losses have been blamed on insufficient US tactics and compressed NATO training which turned out to be useless in dealing with Russia's fortifications, artillery, air power and infantry on the battlefield.The US mainstream press has recently reported that Ukraine is shifting back to its old tactics given that NATO-trained Ukrainian troops armed with Western weapons had failed to make any progress on the ground.The media noted that Team Biden had hoped that the nine Western-trained brigades (some 36,000 troops), would show "that the American way of warfare was superior to the Russian approach." Their hopes have been dashed.What's the Main Weak Spot of US Tactics?The much-touted US tactics are heavily dependent on air superiority, something that Ukrainians don't have, per the expert. In other words, without air superiority, the trick don't work.For its part, Russia has fortified its positions and laid mines to hinder the Ukrainian counteroffensive. Somehow Russia's minefields caught the Ukrainians and NATO war planners by surprise. Commenting on this in one of his podcasts, former CIA analyst Larry Johnson wondered if NATO generals were asleep for the last six-seven months. Per him, the transatlantic alliance had enough resources to gather such intelligence ahead of the counteroffensive.As per the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Ukrainian military is continuing to make some attempts to attack in Donetsk, South Donetsk, Kupyansk and Krasny Liman direction. Virtually all attacks have been repelled by the Russians. As a result, Ukraine has lost 130 soldiers in the Zaporozhye direction, 120 soldiers in the South Donetsk direction and 70 soldiers in the Krasny Liman direction in the past 24 hours alone.Could Ukraine Recover Losses?It's unclear how the Ukrainians would replenish their stockpiles and human resources, as per Maloof.The attrition rate of the equipment is incredible too, he continued, adding that Ukraine does not produce the military equipment in the required amounts and totally relies on Western assistance.However, this assistance is drying out, as NATO countries are seeing their equipment getting chewed up, per the expert. If Ukraine is not getting outside help, it is going to consider a ceasefire, he suggested.Anyway, there is no chance of turning the Ukrainian counteroffensive around, according to Maloof. He believes that the Ukrainian advance "is over."

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230804/ukraine-loses-over-43000-soldiers-since-start-of-counteroffensive---russian-defense-ministry-1112387858.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230804/ukraine-counter-offensive-shows-failure-of-us-military-planning-1112386153.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230723/cia-vet-weird-that-nato-failed-to-foresee-botched-ukraine-counteroffensive-1112095494.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230804/judge-andrew-napolitano-biden-doesnt-have-coherent-strategy-in-ukraine-1112373103.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230723/wests-hopes-for-breakthrough-in-ukraines-counteroffensive-dashed-1112089912.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230804/us-credit-downgrade-based-on-erosion-of-governance-trump-charges-face-first-amendment-challenge-1112379706.html

US Credit Downgrade Based on 'Erosion of Governance'; Trump Charges Face First Amendment Challenge

US Credit Downgrade Based on 'Erosion of Governance'; Trump Charges Face First Amendment Challenge

The US credit has been downgraded from AAA to AA+ due to an increase of 15 trillion dollars in debt over the last decade and an erosion of governance.

2023-08-04T04:04+0000

2023-08-04T04:04+0000

2023-08-04T12:13+0000

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US Credit Downgrade Based on "Erosion of Governance"; Trump Charges Face First Amendment Challenge The US credit has been downgraded from AAA to AA+ due to an increase of 15 trillion dollars in debt over the last decade and an erosion of governance.

Mark Sleboda, Moscow-based international relations security analyst, joins us to discuss Ukraine. Kiev plans to hold a "peace summit" in the autumn. Also, Poland is establishing a brigade near the Belarus border.Laith Marouf, broadcaster and journalist based in Beirut, Lebanon, joins us to discuss Africa. African states are supporting the sovereignty of Niger in the face of Western imperial threats of military intervention.Dr. Ken Hammond, writer and professor of East Asian and global history at New Mexico State University, joins us to discuss Asia. Joe Biden may be preparing to dump the Ukraine project to focus on war with China. Also, China calls on NATO to stop its expansion to the Pacific.Linwood Tauheed, associate professor of Economics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, joins us to discuss the economy. The US credit rating has been downgraded from AAA to AA+, sparking a sell-off in stocks and bonds. Also, a shrinking minority of Americans are able to cover a 400-dollar emergency bill.Robert Fantina, journalist and Palestine activist, joins us to discuss the Middle East. Joe Biden's pursuit of Israeli-Saudi normalization is a dangerous delusion.Darryl Jones, attorney, and voting rights activist, joins us to discuss domestic politics. Democrats worry that Black voters may not show up for them in 2024. Also, there are new charges against Donald Trump.Melik Abdul, Cohost of Fault Lines, joins us to discuss domestic legal issues. The new charges against Donald Trump will likely be challenged based on first amendment claims because the indictments admit they are based on protected speech.Dan Kovalik, writer, author, and lawyer, joins us to discuss the crash of neoliberal capitalism and imperialism. Working-class people in the extended US empire could no longer afford the basic necessities of life due to the slow-motion collapse of the imperial financial system.We'd love to get your feedback at radio@sputniknews.comThe views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the position of Sputnik.

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230804/washington-terrified-trump-may-defeat-biden-in-2024-election-1112383555.html

Washington Terrified Trump May Defeat Biden in 2024 Election

Washington Terrified Trump May Defeat Biden in 2024 Election

The indictment of Donald Trump indicates that the Biden administration is trying to prevent the 45th US president from effectively campaigning in the 2024 election race, analysts have told Sputnik

2023-08-04T07:26+0000

2023-08-04T07:26+0000

2023-08-04T09:31+0000

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Former US President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty on Thursday to four federal charges related to his alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The first hearing for the trial is expected on August 28.The ex-POTUS was indicted earlier this week as part of Special Counsel Jack Smiths investigation into Trump's purported push to reverse the results of the election, which was followed by the January 6, 2021 US Capitol breach.The case brought against Trump on Thursday is another example of judicial intervention in the electoral process, Dr. Harvey Schantz, professor of political science at the State University of New York at Plattsburgh, said. The political scientist argued that the Trump indictment divides people along party affiliations, exacerbating differences between Democrats and Republicans and between Trump and [US President Joe] Biden voters.Schantz pointed out that the multiple cases against the former American president have strengthened his hold on the Republican presidential nomination, and contrary to conventional wisdom, have not as yet hurt Trump in the 2024 general election contest, in which polls have Trump and Biden running neck and neck.Dr. Nicholas Waddy, political analyst and Associate Professor of History at SUNY Alfred State College, for his part, told Sputnik that Thursdays arraignment of Trump [] represents a new low for the Biden Administration, progressives, and the Deep State, who he said are, in effect, trying to criminalize dissent, criticism, differences of opinion, and political opposition.Waddy insisted that ex-US president isn't being charged because of his actions, or his words, but because of who he is and what he represents.According to him, these officials would love to imprison Trump for the rest of his life, but their primary aim is to tie him up in legal knots throughout 2024 so that he cannot campaign effectively, and so that the entire election revolves around a debate about Donald Trump's criminality, rather than Joe Biden's performance in office.The goal here - to interfere with the electoral process itself - is so transparent that no fair-minded person could deny it, Waddy added. He claimed that It isn't Trump that poses an existential threat to Democrats, It's democracy itself, and that's what they are trying to snuff out.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230804/former-ag-barr-trump-will-not-come-out-well-if-he-takes-the-stand-in-election-case-1112378997.html

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A photo released by the official North Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) shows North Korean Supreme leader Kim Jong-un, right, having a toast with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu during a reception for the minister and his military delegation in Pyongyang, North Korea, July 27. EPA-Yonhap



North Korea is considering providing additional military support to Russia, including munitions to be used in the latter's ongoing war in Ukraine, a U.S. National Security Council (NSC) official said Thursday.



John Kirby, NSC coordinator for strategic communications, said the U.S. will continue to expose and sanction efforts to assist Russia's illegal war against Ukraine.



"Russian Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu recently traveled to North Korea in a bid to convince North Korea to sell munitions to Russia to support Russia's war," he told a telephonic press briefing.



North Korea reported last week that the Russian defense minister visited Pyongyang to take part in events marking the 70th anniversary of the Korean War armistice, celebrated in the country as Victory Day.



"Our information indicates that Russia is seeking to increase military cooperation to the DPRK such as through DPRK sale of artillery munitions, again to Russia," added Kirby, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.



His remark follows a Financial Times report that Ukrainian troops have been using North Korean rockets seized from a ship believed to have been headed to Russia, indicating North Korea's continued provision of military support to Russia.



"Any arms deal between North Korea and Russia would, of course, directly violate a series of U.N. Security Council resolutions," Kirby told the press briefing.



"And we are going to continue to identify, expose and counter Russian efforts to acquire ammunition from North Korea or quite frankly any other state that might be prepared to support its war in Ukraine," he added, noting the U.S. had imposed sanctions on an individual involved in Russia-North Korea arms trade in March.



The NSC official also insisted that Russia's outreach to North Korea for ammunition reflected the dire condition Moscow and Russian President Vladimir Putin are in.



"I think this is yet another example of how desperate Mr. Putin has become because his war machine is being affected by the sanctions," said Kirby.



"He (Putin) is going through a vast amount of inventory to try to subjugate Ukraine and he's reaching out to countries like North Korea, like Iran, and certainly he's been trying to reach out to China to get support for his war machine." (Yonhap)




https://sputnikglobe.com/20230804/whats-behind-bidens-shift-to-arm-taiwan-1112390826.html

What's Behind Biden's Shift to Arm Taiwan?

What's Behind Biden's Shift to Arm Taiwan?

The Biden administration's focus on Taiwan and the Asia-Pacific could translate into new lucrative deals for the US naval industry; as well as raise the stakes and create unnecessary risks too, retired Lieutenant Colonel Earl Rasmussen told Sputnik.

2023-08-04T14:21+0000

2023-08-04T14:21+0000

2023-08-04T16:39+0000

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The Biden administration announced a $345 million military package for the island of Taiwan last week  the first tranche of a $1 billion package allocated by Washington for Taipei earlier this year. US weapons will come directly from Pentagon stockpiles to the island under the so-called Presidential Drawdown Authority, a mechanism typically used for seeding-up arms supplies.It turned out on Tuesday that the US president was going to ask Congress to fund arms for Taiwan as part of a supplemental budget request for Ukraine. The move was interpreted by the Western press as an effort to further speed up the delivery of new weapons to the island under the pretext of "the rising threat from China."However, prospects of a war in the region would not necessarily pan out as Washington thinks, argued our pundit, Earl Rasmussen."I think it would be unwise though. They could be thinking that it's another poor strategy and poor assumptions. We could see a lot of different carrier fleets eliminated by the Chinese I think quite quickly which I think would catch the West off by surprise. But they could look for a limited conflict they'd hope that would create new things to increase the relations with other countries in the Pacific region. New submarines, new battleships and things like that. I could picture that looking for an opportunity on that side. But I think it would be unwise."Per the US press, the $345 million weapons package will include MQ-9 Reaper drones as well as small arms ammunition. Earlier, the island bought Reapers, as well as missiles, fighter jets and other sophisticated weapons from the US. In particular, the list includes 400 land-launched Harpoon missiles, the F-16 Block 70 fighters, the MK-48 torpedoes, the M109A6 Paladin self-propelled howitzers and the Stinger missiles, per the US press.Even though the US does not formally recognize Taiwan  as Washington still complies with the One China policy  it nevertheless supplies the island with weapons despite protests from Beijing that considers Taiwan an inalienable part of the People's Republic of China.Why is Biden Fast-Tracking Taiwan Arms Sales?There are multiple theories as to why the Biden administration is racing against time to arm Taiwan. In some sense, it could be an attempt by Biden to command support from the GOP in the US Congress, as per Rasmussen.Apparently, Biden is also under pressure from America's China hawks who are fuming over delayed arms deliveries to Taiwan. Last year, US lawmakers complained that the island is facing a $14 billion backlog in foreign military sales from the US. They lamented the fact that some of those unfulfilled agreements date back to 2017.The delays were blamed on increased weapons deliveries to Ukraine and the US defense industry's limited production capacity. Presently, the volume of Taiwan's military orders, which have yet to be delivered to the island, stands at almost $19 billion in value.There is yet another possible reason for the Biden administration to speed up arms supplies to the island: the Taiwanese US-backed Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) appears to be losing both international grip and domestic popularity ahead of the January 2024 presidential election.In contrast, a somewhat "pro-China" Kuomintang is said to have good odds of returning to power. Previously, the Kuomintang maintained working relations with the Communist Party of China which were disrupted after the DPP won the majority in parliament in 2016 and presidency in 2020.US Military-Industrial Complex Set to Profit From 'Pivot to Asia'Rasmussen agreed that the US military-industrial complex could profit from the further escalation over Taiwan. Moreover, the US naval industry has already been granted a years-long submarine deal, struck by the US, the UK and Australia within the framework of the tripartite AUKUS pact. The Indo-Asia-Pacific is clearly in focus of the present US administration, despite vocal concerns from China and even ASEAN states about a potential nuclear arms race and militarization of the region.Still, the map of new possible conflicts which could see NATO's involvement includes more regions than just Europe and Asia-Pacific, according to Rasmussen.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230803/is-biden-preparing-to-dump-ukraine-for-taiwan-1112361859.html

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Which NATO Weapons Has Russia Captured in Ukraine?

Which NATO Weapons Has Russia Captured in Ukraine?

Ukraines Western sponsors have inadvertently ended up providing military hardware to Russia as more and more armored vehicles and weaponry originally supplied... 04.08.2023, Sputnik International

2023-08-04T16:43+0000

2023-08-04T16:43+0000

2023-08-04T16:48+0000

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Russian Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu personally inspected a Sweden-made CV-90 infantry fighting vehicle that was seized by Russian troops in the Ukrainian conflict zone this week.The armored vehicle, touted as one of the most advanced of its class, ended up being disabled by a rocket fired from an RPG-7  a weapon adopted back in the early 1960s  and promptly seized by Russian troops after what was left of the vehicles crew beat a hasty retreat.Moscow's Defense Ministry noted in a statement issued on Friday that the captured CV-90 was but one of the many armored vehicles seized by Russian soldiers from the forces of the Kiev regime.Having lost much of its Soviet-era arsenal in the ongoing conflict and with its domestic military-industrial capabilities woefully lacking, Ukraine became increasingly dependent on the military hardware provided by the NATO countries.Initially providing Kiev with the leftovers from the Warsaw Pacts armories, Western powers soon upped the ante and started providing Ukraine with an assortment of US and European armored vehicles, air defense and artillery systems, many of which eventually ended up in Russias hands.Which Weapons Has Russia Captured in Ukraine?First reports about Western armaments and military hardware being captured by Russian troops started emerging mere months after the Ukrainian conflicts escalation in February 2022.In June 2022, French politician Regis de Castelnau lamented that two of the Caesar self-propelled howitzers supplied to Kiev by France were captured by Russian forces.His claim was promptly confirmed by one of Russias top defense contractors, Uralvagonzavod, which admitted on social media that they got their hands on the howitzers and asked de Castelnau to convey their thanks to French President Emmanuel Macron for this windfall.Russian soldiers wielding Western portable anti-tank weapons  such as Javelin and NLAW - seized from Ukrainian forces have also become a fairly common occurrence in the conflict zone.Earlier this month, a military correspondent reported that Russian troops who used such armaments actually preferred the NLAW due to the Javelins allegedly poor performance under adverse weather conditions.That same correspondent also said that he witnessed at least one instance of Russian troops wielding a captured M2 Browning machine gun.The reports of captured Western armaments, however, became much more numerous following the launch of Kievs so-called counteroffensive in June.The architects of this military operation were counting on large quantities of NATO armored vehicles  primarily the German Leopard main battle tanks and the US Bradley infantry fighting vehicles  which were supposed to help Ukrainian forces punch through Russian defenses.While the counteroffensive ended up turning into a complete disaster, some of the Western military gear involved in it did end up making it past the Russian lines, though probably not in the way the Ukrainian military leadership intended.In June 2023, Russias Defense Ministry stated that several Leopard tanks and Bradley infantry fighting vehicles were captured in the Zaporozhye region by Russian forces.The ministry noted at the time that some of the captured armored vehicles had intact engines, suggesting that the crews simply abandoned them in order to flee for their lives.Also in June, another video shared by the Russian Ministry of Defense revealed the inglorious fate of a French AMX-10 RC wheeled armored fighting vehicle provided to Kiev by Paris, which was abandoned by the retreating Ukrainian forces near the township of Novodonetskoye.About a month later, another such vehicle was captured by Russian forces in Zaporozhye, with local authorities reporting that the AMX-10 RC was seized in practically ideal condition and that it was going to be shipped to Russian military-industrial experts for further study.In July, a video emerged on social media showing a team of Russian soldiers standing next to a largely intact Bradley infantry fighting vehicle.While the soldiers mockingly thank Ukrainian President Zelensky for this gift, one of them can be heard saying that they are going to bring in a tractor unit and tow the Bradley back to their base.Which Western Missiles Has Russia Captured?The Russian forces efforts to capture Western weaponry operated by Kiev are not limited to small arms and armored vehicles, as demonstrated by servicemen from the BARS-11 and the Tsars Wolves volunteer units who managed to seize an almost intact British Storm Shadow cruise missile.Retired Russian military intelligence officer Anatoliy Matviychuk also made a curios remark during an interview with Sputnik last month when he, among other things, spoke about the increased effectiveness of Russian air defense systems.Having mentioned that the Russian Pantsir missile systems became capable of superbly intercepting the HIMARS rockets, Matviychuk suggested that it became possible after Russian engineers found the latter weapons weak spot after studying "the HIMARS [rockets] weve captured."The destruction and seizure of the Western military hardware operated by Ukrainian troops is actively encouraged by the Russian authorities who provide sizeable monetary rewards to soldiers who accomplish such tasks.

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Physical theatre ensemble Gecko is to embark on an exhilarating nationwide tour with their captivating new creation Kin.

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Beginning this autumn, the tour will culminate in a remarkable engagement at the renowned National Theatre in January 2024, marking an iconic milestone in the companys illustrious history.

Kin draws its profound inspiration from the remarkable odyssey undertaken by Artistic Director Amit Lahavs grandmother, Leah, and her family as they braved the arduous passage from Yemen to Palestine, escaping the clutches of persecution. A full nine decades later, Lahavs introspective lens focuses on the monumental decision that altered his familys trajectory, setting them on a path towards a brighter future.

Amit Lahav, Geckos Artistic Director, said; Every production that I create starts with a personal reflection combined with a current wider societal issue. In 2017, I visited my grandmother in Israel where we talked about her journey from Yemen to Palestine to escape persecution, as well as my familys history more broadly. Kin was ultimately inspired by the desire to delve deeper into the complex mix of migration stories that make up who I am. Migration is a facet of human existence  we all have migration stories whether were aware of them or whether theyre more distant, and that excites me because we have the potential to encourage a profoundly positive, celebratory voyage towards empathy. We exist both where weve come from and where were going; this is what I wanted to explore through the creation of Kin.

Rufus Norris, Director of the National Theatre added: Ive been following Geckos work for a number of years and have a growing admiration for their dynamic and fearless approach to story in motion. Allied to this their commitment to internationalism, with completely integrated educational work, as well as their deeply embedded UK wide touring ethos, is hugely impressive. Their presence at the National Theatre is overdue, and we look forward very much to them being with us.

Commissioned by the National Theatre, the tour will visit Storyhouse Chester, CAST Doncaster, Oxford Playhouse, Nottingham Playhouse and Brighton Dome before the Nationals Lyttleton Theatre from 12  27 January 2024.

For more information and tickets, visit www.geckotheatre.com

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University of Nebraska-Lincoln Chancellor Rodney Bennett made a stop at the Panhandle Research, Extension and Education Center on Thursday morning as part of the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources (IANR) Roads Scholar Tour.

Bennett stepped into the role of chancellor in July after the retirement of previous chancellor, Ronnie Green. Bennett previously served as the president of the University of Southern Mississippi and has a strong history in agriculture and natural resources.

The Roads Scholar Tour offered the new chancellor an opportunity that he said could not pass up, based on advice that he received from a mentor early in his administrative career.

The best administrators are the ones who dont sit behind a desk every day, but who get out and look at the things theyre responsible for," Bennett said. "Interact with the people. Touch it, smell it, taste it, whatever it is youre supposed to do."

The tour has made stops across the state, giving Bennett a chance to connect with the communities served by UNL through extension centers like PREEC. He said that hes heard many of the same thoughts and concerns from Nebraskans on his journey across the state that prove to him that its diverse population is on the same page on issues related to the university.

I think that, as weve traveled across the state, the message has been consistent of making sure that we do not lose our fundamental commitment to ag and natural resources, that we are aggressive with thinking about where we are today and what the future looks like, he said. Ive heard that from the time that we left Lincoln until we arrived here in the Panhandle.

In terms of direction and priorities for UNL, Bennett acknowledged that the universitys leaders will have to make some difficult decisions in the future in order to establish what it will be in the years to come. This includes budgeting, and Bennett made a point of showing his support for sustaining agricultural programming.

I think we have to first acknowledge the budget and continue to work with the budget at the university. Continue to make sure that support for agriculture and natural resources isnt sort of caught up in budget reductions at a level that makes it difficult to accomplish the goals that we have. Thats very important to me and near the top of my list of my priorities, he said.

Another priority Bennett mentioned was growing university enrollment, the pace of which will be set by the decisions of its leaders and its partnerships with other institutions that make up its pool of potential students.

I think we have to determine what size institution we want to be and then work across the state to make sure that the pipeline of college-ready students is available and were working with them, he said. Were working with community college partners and other institutions across the state so that the pipeline does not suffer.

Bennett also discussed the importance of graduate studies, particularly in agriculture, and praised the diversity and quality of students pursuing graduate degrees in agriculture that he had met in his travels so far.

Investing in graduate education is really important, and attracting the best graduate students not just from the U.S. but really from across the world. Weve seen an international presence of graduate students on this trip, and that makes me very happy, Bennett said.

Looking to the future, Bennett said that he hopes to see UNL continue to serve as a leader in the fields of agriculture and natural resources, which will be accomplished by examining and embracing the universitys fundamental strengths.

We dont want to be sort of in the middle of the pack of our Big 10 colleagues, he said. We want to lead those institutions and have them look to the Nebraska system and Lincoln for best practices and what they should be doing.

He also expressed his commitment to the extension system, which he said provides benefits for the university, its students and the entire population of Nebraska that he would like to see go beyond the scope of agriculture.

These extension operations allow us to bring that here in a way that makes it much more accessible to the citizens, and I think that we have to expand that beyond just natural resources and think about all the ways that we can elevate and enrich this community because of the affiliation with the university system and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, more specifically, Bennett said.
As Flyover Brewing Co. celebrates its fifth year in business, its hosting its own weekend event, called Flyover Days, complete with outdoor music, beer, and even yoga. Business has been great at the brewery and restaurant said co-owner Andrea Margheim about the business that started as a hobby project.

Flyover Brewing Co. opened in August 2018 and has continued to grow offering more food options as well as larger distribution of their craft brews like Hellcat Helles.

The brewery has seen success in the restaurant business, which is traditionally a difficult industry to open a new business in. In recounting the business success, Margheim praised the city of Scottsbluff as well as they were able to access LB 840 funds to help the business.

The city has had a lot to offer and they really want to see growth and theyve been great to work with, she said.

The business has certainly evolved since its opening and has been experiencing great success this summer, with Margheim saying this summer almost every month that passes seems like a record month.

The story of Flyover Brewing has been one of surprises as the owners have often found themselves opening or enlarging ventures they never thought would have been part of the business.

Originally, they did not plan on serving food, however, it is becoming the large share of the business it is today. The kitchen was added almost as an accent to the brewing just so customers could have something to eat while perusing the brewerys options.

Its definitely turned into a restaurant and brewery so weve just constantly been growing, Margheim said. We added, added, added to the kitchen constantly as far as equipment and storage space.

Flyover has also developed its own niche in the craft brewing space, bringing locally brewed beers to Scottsbluff. Unlike most craft breweries Margheim said Flyover placed much more emphasis on lager beer as opposed to some of the stronger and hoppier India Pale Ales.

While the brewery does have IPAs available like their Nebraska Pale Ale, the brewers tried to create a more accessible beer that a larger share of drinkers could enjoy.

Flyover has also seen an unprecedented increase in distribution which was never intended to be a part of the business. They were able to find a local distributor they could work with and put their beers in stores and restaurant around the area.

Flyovers brews can be found in various co-op stores as well as in bars at Scotts Bluff Country Club and Powerhouse Social, for which Flyover brews a custom beer. Their distributor has even started to push their beers east as they are now available in Hy-Vees in Lincoln, Omaha and Kearney.

We were able to kind of dip our toes into (distribution) slowly and this last year with the expansion, we have additional canning space, additional storage space so weve really taken off with that, Margheim said.

Distribution remains a focus for Flyover moving forward as that share of the business continues to grow and they try to continue to get their beers on the shelves.

The brewery offers a rotating selection of beers along with two flagships in their Hellcat Helles and their Nebraska Pale Ale as well as six consistently canned varieties. They also recently began canning their Vienna Lager, which was one of their first brews available on tap.

The brewery is hosting Flyover Days this weekend as well with live music Friday and Saturday night along with kids activities like a paper airplane throwing contest during the day.

Margheim said, Two years in a restaurant business is kind of that benchmark for success and so were pretty pleased and excited for five years.
Two men remained at the Lancaster County jail Thursday, a day after prosecutors charged them in connection with 645 pounds of marijuana found in their rental truck.

Brandon Arrington, 30, of McDonough, Georgia, and Edward Babb of Houston both are facing four felonies: two counts of possession with intent to deliver and two counts of no drug tax stamp.

In an affidavit for their arrests, a Lancaster County Sheriff's deputy said he stopped a GMC Penske rental truck with Virginia plates Tuesday after seeing its passenger side tires cross onto the shoulder of Interstate 80 near the Lincoln Airport exit.

During the traffic stop, the deputy became suspicious the men were involved in criminal activity.

They both denied a request to search the truck, but the deputy deployed his police dog around it after seeing what he believed to be marijuana residue on the floorboard.

The search turned up 645 pounds of marijuana and 4.74 pounds of THC vapor pens in the truck's cargo area inside cardboard boxes wrapped in plastic wrap, according to court records.

On Wednesday, at their first court appearances on the charges, Lancaster County Judge Matt Acton set their bonds at $250,000.
North Korea's Kim Jung-un, right, is having a toast with Li Hongzhong, a member of the Chinese Communist Party that led the Chinese delegation to North Korea to mark the 70th anniversary of the signing of the armistice that halted the 1950-53 Korean War, during a reception in Pyongyang, July 28 in this provided phto by North Korea's Central New Agency. Yonhap



North Korea warned Friday that Washington's plan to provide weapons to Taiwan reflects its "sinister intention" to deter China and will heighten regional tensions to an "ignition point of war."



Last week, the United States announced its plan to provide military aid worth up to $345 million, which involves the transfer of weaponry to Taiwan from Washington's own stockpile, in what was seen as bolstering Taiwan's self-defense capabilities against China.



"The U.S. says in public that it abides by the principle of one China but instigates in the rear the 'independence' of Taiwan, inseparable part of China," a North Korean foreign ministry official said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency, branding the move as "double-dealing" by the U.S.



Maeong Yong-rim, director-general of the Department of Chinese Affairs at the North's Foreign Ministry, claimed the U.S. aims to make Taiwan the "first-line trench for carrying out its strategy for deterring China" to ultimately secure a "hegemonic" position in the Asia-Pacific region.



The official reaffirmed Pyongyang's commitment to help China defend its sovereignty and achieve the "sacred cause of unification," warning that Washington would face unspecified consequences should it continue to "provoke" Beijing.



"If the U.S. persists in dangerous acts of provoking the core interests of China while repeatedly violating the red line set by China in the Taiwan issue, it will surely have to pay a high price for them," Maeng said.



The statement comes as the North is increasingly seeking closer ties with China, its biggest ally and economic benefactor, alongside Russia, in the face of strengthened trilateral security cooperation among Seoul, Washington and Tokyo.



North Korean leader Kim Jong-un recently appeared for a military parade marking the 70th anniversary of the Korean War Armistice Agreement, with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Li Hongzhong, a politburo member of the Chinese Communist Party. They were the first foreign delegations to visit the North since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. (Yonhap)




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"I think anybody who's talking about a pardon is disqualifying themselves from being president  not legally disqualifying themselves  but what it means is they think the behavior's OK," Kaine said in an interview with journalists at the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

"Anybody who doesn't have the backbone or judgment to criticize that behavior doesn't deserve to be seriously considered for five seconds to be president of the United States."

Kaine, the 2016 Democratic nominee for vice president, spoke hours before the former president was to be arraigned in Washington on federal counts that he sought to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, which Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

During a recent interview with Megyn Kelly, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is running a distant second to Trump in the GOP field, cited President Gerald Ford's 1974 pardon of former President Richard Nixon.

"I'm going to do what's right for the country," DeSantis said. "I don't think it would be good for the country to have an almost 80-year-old former president go to prison."

Politico reported in June that in an appearance on a radio show, Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor who served as Trump's U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said she would be inclined to pardon Trump if he were convicted on federal counts.

Kaine said some GOP hopefuls who are publicly contemplating a pardon are doing so in an effort to attract Trump voters. "They're just playing to a base" because the GOP remains "very much in thrall to President Trump."

Kaine said he has not yet read Trump's most recent indictment, but that he "lived through it."

"I will read it, but I know what happened and I know that the president was culpable in probably the worst misfeasance by a president in the history of this country in what he did between November 2020 and January 6th, 2021," Kaine said.

The longtime civil rights lawyer said: "Everybody's accountable and ... everybody's innocent until they're proven guilty," but he added: "I know what I think about his behavior in terms of its gross immorality and destruction of democratic norms."

Casino

Kaine, a Richmond resident for more than three decades, is seeking a third six-year Senate term next year. He served as Richmond's mayor and as lieutenant governor before his term as governor from 2006 to 2010.

On the prospect of a do-over vote on a Richmond casino, Kaine noted that the 2021 Richmond referendum was a rare issue on which he and his wife  former state Education Secretary Anne Holton  differed.

"I was an opponent two years ago," he said. "It's one of the few political issues my wife and I disagreed on."

A Richmond judge recently signed off on the idea of a second Richmond referendum this fall, two years after city voters narrowly defeated a similar measure. A November Richmond casino referendum could still be blocked by language in the revised state budget pending in the General Assembly.

Kaine said that philosophically, he prefers more broad-based municipal efforts at economic development, that "let the hundred flowers bloom," rather than pushing for a "glitzy project."

As for the 2021 casino vote, he said his wife made a version of a to-each-his-own case, noting that while Kaine enjoys hiking, some people enjoy going to a casino.

Kaine said he has heard there are differences in the proposal from two years ago, but that he has not been briefed on the issue. He said he does not change his mind easily, but he is open to hearing the details.

VCU issues

Kaine also touched on two issues involving Virginia Commonwealth University. He said the story of VCU Health paying $73 million to extricate itself from the failed redevelopment of the Public Safety Building in Richmond appears to raise questions about how much communication took place between the health system's oversight board and the university's board.

Kaine also weighed in on a decision by VCU administrators not to require students to take a class on race and racism this year, reversing a plan that students and staff devised after the murder of George Floyd.

Though the classes are no longer mandatory, they are still available to students. The move to delay the requirement indefinitely comes as Gov. Glenn Youngkin has tried to clamp down on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at state colleges and beyond.

"The timing raises all kinds of questions," Kaine said Thursday. "I don't have an opinion about whether it should be mandatory," but "I get it why the timing makes people worried," he said, noting that it's shortly before the start of a new semester.

Kaine criticized Martin Brown, Youngkin's chief Diversity, Opportunity and Inclusion officer, for proclaiming the end of diversity, equity and inclusion during an appearance earlier this year at Virginia Military Institute.

"An administration that puts out one of its key leaders to say 'DEI is dead.' Are you kidding me?" Kaine said.

Youngkin said in a May interview that he wants to stress diversity and inclusion  we want diversity in business, we want diversity of ideas, we want people to feel included. But he added: People have so many definitions of equity ... sometimes they want it to come at the cost of excellence, and that can mean lowering standards.

Kaine said he is not trying to tell VCU which classes should be mandatory, but that he hopes incoming students will sign up for the course, particularly given Virginia's "scar tissue" on race.

"If not Virginia, where?" Kaine said. He added: "You don't become a better society by ignoring weaknesses and ignoring pain."

2025

As Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney, Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-7th, and former House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn, D-Fairfax, eye possible bids for the Democratic nomination for governor in 2025, Kaine said he "almost surely" will not make an endorsement.

"I usually don't get into primaries among friends," Kaine said.

He made an exception last year when he backed state Sen. Jennifer McClellan over Del. Lamont Bagby in the Democratic nomination contest for the 4th Congressional District seat after the death of Rep. Donald McEachin.

Kaine, a longtime mentor to McClellan, said he backed her because of her qualifications and their longstanding ties. Kaine officiated McClellan's 2008 wedding to David Mills. Kaine went on to back Bagby in his successful run for McClellan's former state Senate seat.
As of July 27th, the number of Syrian refugees with temporary protection cards reached more than 3 millions, according to Syria TV.

The number of Syrian refugees holding a temporary protection card (al-Kamlik) has decreased by approximately 214,826 people compared to the figures from 2022. As of July 27th, the total number of Syrian refugees who obtained a temporary protection card has reached 3 million and 321 thousand and 72 individuals.

Last May (2022), the former Turkish Interior Minister disclosed that there were 3 million and 382 thousand and 429 Syrian refugees in Turkey, including 62 thousand and 151 residing in camps, under the temporary protection system (Kamlik). Data from the Turkish Immigration Presidency indicates a decline in the number of Syrian refugees with temporary protection cards compared to the previous year.

The latest statistics reveal that the number of Syrian refugees who were granted temporary protection decreased by 214,826 compared to the previous year. Syrian refugees have settled in various regions across Turkey, with Istanbul (531,742) ranking first in the distribution of Syrian refugees under temporary protection. The top ten regions with the highest numbers of Syrian refugees under temporary protection are Istanbul  Gaziantep  Sanlurfa  Hatay  Adana  Mersin  Bursa  Izmir  Konya  Kilis.

A comparison between the new and early 2022 statistics shows that the number of Syrians listed under temporary protection in Istanbul only decreased by 984 individuals. This comparison also highlights the changes in the ranking of states with the largest number of Syrians, as Sanlurfa surpassed Hatay, now ranking in the third position, while in early 2022, the situation was the opposite.

The Turkish Immigration Presidency has not provided specific details on how the number of Syrian refugees decreased. However, it is worth noting that over 6,600 Syrians lost their lives in a devastating earthquake (official statistics not finalized), and since February 2022, 37,700 Syrians have obtained Turkish citizenship (according to statistics provided by former Interior Minister Suleiman Soylu).

Last May, former Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu disclosed that the number of Syrian refugees in Turkey at that time amounted to 3 million and 382 thousand and 429 people, with 62 thousand and 151 residing in camps and being subject to the temporary protection system (Kamlik). Soylu also mentioned that 235 thousand and 35 Syrians obtained Turkish citizenship, while 14 thousand and 834 Syrian refugees were granted humanitarian residency.

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.
President al-Assad also toured the recently established Syrian Company for photovoltaic module manufacturing in Lattakia, according to al-Baath.

Amid a sharp electricity crisis, President Bashar al-Assad visited a newly constructed power plant in Baniyas, Syria, on August 3, 2023. The power plant is nearing completion and is expected to begin operations in the coming weeks, initially producing 24 megawatts with plans to increase to 56 megawatts in the future.

During his visit, President al-Assad also toured the recently established Syrian Company for photovoltaic module manufacturing in Lattakia. Equipped with advanced production lines, the company will manufacture modules needed for solar energy systems.

President al-Assad emphasized the importance of increasing electricity production and its positive impact. He commended the successful cooperation between the private and public sectors that led to the stations rapid completion in just a year and a half.

Arnous inaugurates pump water project

In addition to this, Prime Minister Hussein Arnous inaugurated the first phase of the pumping and drawing water project from Tal al-Sawan to Tal Kurdi station in the Damascus countryside. The project aims to supply Adra industrial city with 12,000 cubic meters of water per day.

Prime Minister Arnous highlighted the projects significance in securing a stable water supply for the industrial facilities in Adra. The project involved drilling 16 wells and the construction of reservoirs and electric power transmission plants.

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.
Pr. Commissioner, Central Excise And CGST-Delhi South Vs Blackberry India Private Limited (Delhi High Court)

Introduction: The Delhi High Court delivered a significant judgment in the case of Commissioner Central Excise And CGST vs. Blackberry India Private Limited. The case revolved around the export of taxable services and the classification of Blackberry India as an intermediary based on its agreement with Blackberry Singapore. This article provides an analysis of the courts findings and the implications for Blackberry India.

Analysis: The dispute in the case centered on whether the services provided by Blackberry India to Blackberry Singapore should be considered as export of taxable services. The court examined the agreement between the two entities and concluded that Blackberry India was an independent service provider, not an intermediary, as defined under Rule 2(f) of the Place of Provision of Services Rules, 2012. The courts analysis focused on the nature of the services rendered by Blackberry India and their role as a principal service provider, not facilitating services from another supplier.

Furthermore, the court clarified that services covered under Section 65(105)(zzb) of the Act are not excluded from the scope of Export of Taxable Services under Rule 3(1) of the Export of Service Rules, 2005. This clarification corrected an erroneous finding by the Adjudicating Authority and highlighted that all services, except those specifically mentioned in Rule 3(1), are considered within the scope of Export of Taxable Services.

Conclusion: In a favorable ruling for Blackberry India, the Delhi High Court determined that its services qualified as export of taxable services and that it did not fall under the category of an intermediary. The courts judgment has significant implications for the companys refund claim of unutilized CENVAT Credit and reinforces the importance of clear interpretations of rules and agreements in taxation matters. This decision also sets a precedent for future cases involving export of taxable services and intermediary status in Indias tax landscape.

FULL TEXT OF THE JUDGMENT/ORDER OF DELHI HIGH COURT

1. The Revenue has filed the present appeal under Section 35G of the Central Excise Act, 1944 read with Section 83 of the Finance Act, 1994 impugning the final order1 dated 07.12.2022 (hereafter the impugned order) passed by the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (hereafter the CESTAT).

2. In terms of the impugned order, the learned CESTAT had allowed the respondents appeal against an Order-in-Appeal dated 18.08.2021 passed by the Commissioner (Appeals) rejecting the respondents appeal against an Order-in-Original dated 31.08.2020 passed by the Adjudicating Authority.

3. By the said Order-in-Original dated 31.08.2020, the Adjudicating Authority had rejected the respondents claim for refund of 8,55,34,345/- on account of unutilised CENVAT Credit for three mentioned periods, that is, (i) April to June 2012; (ii) April to June 2013, and (iii) July 2013 to September 2013.

4. The respondent (hereafter BlackBerry India) was registered with the Department for payment of service tax in respect of Business Auxiliary Services provided by it. BlackBerry India had filed claims for refund of unutilised CENVAT Credit amounting to 8,55,34,345/-. The said Credit was accumulated on account of various input services such as security services, manpower services, sponsorship services, legal consultancy services etc., which were utilized by BlackBerry India for providing output services  Business Auxiliary Services. BlackBerry India claimed that its output services were exported to its overseas client. A Tabular statement indicating the claims filed by the respondent is set out below:



Sl. No. Period/Quarter Refund amount Date of filing

(Offline) refunds 1 April  June, 2012 3,18,11,287 28.03.2013 2 April  June, 2013 2,89,94,208 31.03.2014 3 July  September, 2013 2,47,28,850 30.06.2014 Total 8,55,34,345

5. The Adjudicating Authority issued a Show Cause Notice dated 22.01.2020 proposing to reject BlackBerry Indias claim on the ground that the place of provisions of service appeared to be in India as the services rendered by BlackBerry India were as an intermediary.

6. BlackBerry India responded to the said Show Cause Notice dated 22.01.2020 explaining that it had entered into an agreement with BlackBerry Singapore Pte Ltd. (hereafter BlackBerry Singapore) for providing Marketing Administration and Support Services (hereafter the Agreement), which entailed promotion and marketing of BlackBerry Products; technical marketing assistance in relation to BlackBerry Marketing products, and other related services. BlackBerry India disputed that the services rendered to BlackBerry Singapore were services as an intermediary.

7. The Adjudicating Authority did not accept the said contention. The Adjudicating Authority found that the services rendered by BlackBerry India were Business Auxiliary Services as defined under Section 65(19) of the Finance Act, 1994 (hereafter the Act) and the same were taxable services for the period prior to 01.07.2012.

8. The Adjudicating Authority referred to the Agreement entered into between BlackBerry India (then known as Research in Motion India Private Limited) with BlackBerry Singapore (then known as Research in Motion Singapore Pte) and held that in terms of the said Agreement, BlackBerry India had distributed products and services including BlackBerry solution, which included handheld devices, accessories, software, and other related services. Further, BlackBerry India had also performed various promotional and marketing services as set out in Schedule A to the Agreement. The Adjudicating Authority held that the aforesaid services would fall within the definition of intermediary services as defined in Rule 2(f) of the Place of Provision of Services Rules, 2012. According to the Adjudicating Authority, BlackBerry Singapore was a services provider to their customers in India and BlackBerry India was an intermediary.

9. The Adjudicating Authority held that for the period prior to 01.07.2012, the benefit of export services was covered under Rule 3 of the Export of Service Rules, 2005 and the same did not extend to services covered under Section 65(105)(zzb) of the Act. Consequently, BlackBerry Indias claim for CENVAT Credit for the period prior to 01.07.2012 was not tenable.

10. Aggrieved by the Order-in-Original dated 31.08.2020, BlackBerry India preferred an appeal before the Appellate Authority. However, the said appeal was rejected by the Appellate Authority as it found no infirmity with the Order-in-Original dated 31.08.2020 passed by the Adjudicating Authority.

11. Aggrieved by the same, BlackBerry India preferred an appeal before the learned CESTAT.

12. The principal controversy required to be addressed by the learned CESTAT was whether BlackBerry India is an intermediary within the definition of Rule 2(f) of the Place of Provision of Services Rules, 2012. Thus, in terms of Rule 9 of the Place of Provision of Services Rules, 2012, even though the service recipient (BlackBerry Singapore) was located outside India, the place of provision of services would be where the service provider is located 

13. The second question to be considered by the learned CESTAT was whether the services rendered by BlackBerry India were covered within the scope of export of services under Rule 3 of the Export of Taxable Service Rules, 2005.

14. The learned CESTAT accepted the contention that BlackBerry India was neither an agent nor was involved in the arrangement or facilitation of supply of services in question. Accordingly, the learned CESTAT held that BlackBerry India was not an intermediary within the meaning of Rule 2(f) of the Place of Provision of Services Rules, 2012.

15. Insofar as, the period prior to 01.07.2012 is concerned , the learned CESTAT did not accept the finding of the Adjudicating Authority that services covered under Section 65(105)(zzb) of the Act were excluded from the scope of Export of Taxable Services under Rule 3(1) of the Export of Services Rules, 2005.

16. The Revenue has preferred the present appeal projecting the following question for consideration of this Court:

a. Whether the services provided by the Respondent to RIM Singapore constitute intermediary service?

b. Whether the Respondent is eligible for refund of service tax on services provided by it to RIM Singapore?

17. It is relevant to note that the Revenue does not dispute that the services rendered by the BlackBerry India were covered under the Agreement entered into between BlackBerry India and BlackBerry Singapore.

18. In terms of the engagement under the Agreement, BlackBerry India had agreed to provide services in a timely and professional manner. Further, it had also agreed to acquire facilities, equipment and staff to effectively do so. The services to be provided by BlackBerry India to BlackBerry Singapore under the Agreement, as set out in Schedule A to the Agreement, are described as promotional and marketing; technical marketing assistance; and other related services.

19. The learned CESTAT had examined the Agreement and had concluded as under:

30. It would, therefore, transpire from the Agreement that:

(i) The appellant is engaged in providing marketing, administrative and support service to Blackberry Singapore, as an independent contractor;

(ii) The appellant is not an agent or broker of Blackberry Singapore. There is no relationship of principal and agent between Blackberry Singapore and the appellant. The arrangement between the appellant and Blackberry Singapore is on a principal-to-principal basis. Further, the appellant does not have any authority to represent or bind Blackberry Singapore, which further supports the fact that the appellant is not an agent of Blackberry Singapore and, therefore, is not an intermediary;

(iii) The appellant is not engaged in facilitating any supply between Blackberry Singapore and its Customers. The Agreement is only between the appellant and Blackberry Singapore wherein the appellant is providing the aforesaid services to Blackberry Singapore. The customers of Blackberry Singapore are not a part of the contract and the appellant at no point in time is involved in providing any service to the customers of Blackberry Singapore. The appellant does not even have any knowledge about the final customers of Blackberry Singapore;

(iv) The appellant receives consideration on a Cost- Plus basis. The consideration is not dependent on the sale made by the Blackberry Singapore to their customers; and

(v) The appellant raises invoices on Blackberry Singapore for the services provided by it in US dollars and Blackberry Singapore has to make the payment within 45 days of the date of such monthly invoices.

20. We find no infirmity with the aforesaid conclusions.

21. The term intermediary is defined under Rule 2(f) of the Place of Provision of Services Rules, 2012 as under:

2(f) intermediary means a broker, an agent or any other person, by whatever name called, who arranges or facilitates a provision of a service (hereinafter called the main service) or a supply of goods, between two or more persons, but does not include a person who provides the main service or supplies the goods on his account;

22. It is apparent from the aforesaid definition that an intermediary merely arranges or facilitates provision of services. In the present case, the services rendered by BlackBerry India to BlackBerry Singapore under the Agreement, were not in the nature of facilitating services from another supplier. BlackBerry India, as an independent service provider, was required to render the promotional and marketing services; technical marketing assistance; and other related services. BlackBerry India did not arrange or facilitate these services from another supplier.

23. It is also relevant to refer to the Circular dated 20.09.2021 issued by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs. Although the said Circular has been issued in the context of the Goods and Services Tax, it notes that the concept of intermediary, as defined under Section 2(13) of the Integrated Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, was borrowed from Rule 2(f) of the Place of Provision of Services Rules, 2012 and explains the said concept. The relevant extract of the said Circular is set out below:

2. Scope of Intermediary services

2.1 Intermediary has been defined in the sub-section (13) of section 2 of the Integrated Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (hereinafter referred to as IGST Act) as under-

Intermediary means a broker, an agent or any other person, by whatever name called, who arranges or facilitates the supply of goods or services or both, or securities, between two or more persons, but does not include a person who supplies such goods or services or both or securities on his own account.

2.2 The concept of intermediary was borrowed in GST from the Service Tax Regime. The definition of intermediary in the Service Tax law as given in Rule 2(f) of Place of Provision of Service Rules, 2012 issued vide Notification No. 28/2012-S.T., dated 20-06-2012 was as follows:

intermediary means a broker, an agent or any other person, by whatever name called, who arranges or facilitates a provision of a service (hereinafter called the main service) or a supply of goods, between two or more persons, but does not include a person who provides the main service or supplies the goods on his own account.

3. Primary Requirements for Intermediary services

The concept of intermediary services, as defined above, requires some basic prerequisites, which are discussed below:

3.1 Minimum of Three Parties: By definition, an intermediary is someone who arranges or facilitates the supplies of goods or services or securities between two or more persons. It is thus a natural corollary that the arrangement requires a minimum of three parties, two of them transacting in the supply of goods or services or securities (the main supply) and one arranging or facilitating (the ancillary supply) the said main supply. An activity between only two parties can, therefore, NOT be considered as an intermediary service. An intermediary essentially arranges or facilitates another supply (the main supply) between two or more other persons and, does not himself provide the main supply.

3.2 Two distinct supplies: As discussed above, there are two distinct supplies in case of provision of intermediary services:

(1) Main supply, between the two principals, which can be a supply of services or securities:

(2) Ancillary supply, which is the service of facilitating or arranging the main supply between the two principals. This ancillary supply is supply of intermediary service and is clearly identifiable and distinguished from the main supply.

A person involved in supply of main supply on principal to principal basis to another person cannot be considered as supplier of intermediary service.

3.3 Intermediary service provider to have the character of an agent, broker or any other similar person: The definition of intermediary itself provides that intermediary service providers-means a broker, an agent or any other person, by whatever name called  This part of the definition is not inclusive but uses the expression means and does not expand the definition by any known expression of expansion such as and includes. The use of the expression arranges or facilitates in the definition of intermediary suggests a subsidiary role for the intermediary. It must arrange or facilitate some other supply, which is the main supply, and does not himself provides the main supply. Thus, the role of intermediary is only supportive.

3.4 Does not include a person who supplies such goods or services or both or securities on his own account: The definition of intermediary services specifically mentions that intermediary does not include a person who supplies such goods or services or both or securities on his own account. Use of word such in the definition with reference to supply of goods or services refers to the main supply of goods or services or both, or securities, between two or more persons, which are arranged or facilitated by the intermediary. It implies that in cases wherein the person supplies the main supply, either fully or partly, on principal to principal basis, the said supply cannot be covered under the scope of intermediary.

xxx xxx xxx

24. It is clear from the aforesaid Circular that BlackBerry India cannot be considered as an intermediary in the context of the services rendered by it under the Agreement.

25. This Court had also considered a similar question albeit in the context of refund of input tax credit under the Integrated Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 in M/s Ernst and Young Limited v. Additional Commissioner, CGST Appeals-II, Delhi and Anr.: W.P.(C) 8600/2022, decided on 23.03.2023 and M/s Ohmi Industries Asia Private Limited v. Assistant Commissioner, CGST: W.P.(C) 6838/2022, decided on 29.03.2023. In our view, the said decisions are squarely covering the controversy sought to be raised by the Revenue in this appeal.

26. The conclusion of the Adjudicating Authority that the services covered under Section 165(105)(zzb) of the Act were excluded from the scope of Export of Taxable Services under Rule 3(1) of the Export of Service Rules, 2005 is, plainly, erroneous. The learned CESTAT has rightly concluded that all services except those specifically mentioned in Rule 3(1) of the Export of Services Rules, 2005 are covered within the scope of Export of Taxable Services. The Adjudicating Authority had clearly misread the said Rule.

27. In view of the above, we find that the present petition does not raise any substantial question of law.

28. The present appeal is, accordingly, dismissed. The pending applications are also disposed of.
An Oregon man already sentenced to life in prison for murder, pleaded guilty to a 2012 killing of an unhoused man at a makeshift camp in Kelso.

Erik John Meiser, 48, pleaded guilty Wednesday in Cowlitz County Superior Court via Zoom to second-degree murder in the 2012 killing of Nicholas Ray Fickett, 28, who was found dead in a tent along the Cowlitz River. Meiser was sentenced to 29 years with two years for a deadly weapon enhancement, and three years of community custody.

Meiser was convicted of a different murder in Oregon and is accused of a violent assault in Utah  all of which occurred around the same time as the Kelso killing.

Roger Steven Fickett, the Kelso victims father, told presiding Judge Marilyn K. Hann Wednesday, It is my belief that (Meiser) shouldnt have gotten 31 years, he should have gotten life.

If it was up to me, he should be in the ground he said.

Meiser was sentenced to life in prison for killing a Lake Oswego man with a machete, and his Cowlitz County sentence will run concurrent with the Oregon case, according to court documents.

At about 11:20 a.m., July 27, 2012, a Cowlitz County sheriffs deputy performed a welfare check at a homeless encampment along the Cowlitz River in Kelso regarding an unresponsive subject who had blood on him, according to the cases probable cause statement.

The deputy found in a partially collapsed tent Nicholas Ray Fickett, whose autopsy showed he was stabbed in the head, face, ear, neck, back, arms, and hands, the report states.

Some items were also spread outside the tent, including a green knife sheath. Authorities matched the DNA taken from the weapon of the Oregon killing, a machete, to the DNA taken from the green knife sheath to link Meiser to both crimes.

Meiser is also a suspect in a 2012 assault case in which he is accused of slashing a person with a razor blade across their face in Utah. Lt. Will Farr of the Ogden Police Department previously told The Daily News they had to wait until the conclusion of Meisers trial and possible time served before extraditing him to Utah.
The Humane Society of Cowlitz County will stop providing animal control for multiple cities and Cowlitz County residents at the end of the year.

Humane Society Director Darren Ullmann sent out letters earlier this week alerting the areas it partnered with that the shelter would no longer be providing animal control services in any form as of January 1st, 2024. Ullmann said the nonprofits board of directors voted to end the program in order to focus on animal care and sheltering.

The animal shelter has provided animal control for the majority of its 50 year existence. The group contracts with Cowlitz County, Longview, Kelso, Woodland and Castle Rock to provide their animal control along with overall sheltering of stray or unwanted animals.

As a nonprofit, Ullmann said the Humane Society struggles to keep up with the cost of equipment and the manpower needed to answer calls around the clock. The animal control officers also had a tougher time investigating animal abuse cases without the full enforcement abilities of a police officer.

In the end, it will benefit the community because theyll have the resources to do proper investigations. Our guys do their best with what they have, but with limited resources and limited authority, its difficult to do it justice, Ullmann said.

Over the first half of 2023, the Humane Society responded to 1,228 animal complaints across Cowlitz County. The shelters animal control officers impounded 443 animals and investigated 114 cases of animal cruelty.

Ullmann said Cowlitz County is one of the few counties in Washington that runs animal control through the Humane Society instead of law enforcement. According to presentations Ullmann gave earlier this year, the majority of counties use the county sheriffs office to provide animal control.

Longview City Manager Kris Swanson said Friday that the Humane Society has been a great partner to the city over the years.

We will be working with the county and other counties to consider options and a path forward, Swanson said via email.

The Humane Society plans to contract with whichever agency or agencies take over animal control duties to continue sheltering any impounded animals. Ullmann said he will meet with the governments and law enforcement agencies over the rest of the year to talk through the transition.

We hope to make this as seamless as possible, Ullmann said.
The Rodriguez sisters chat in the history room in the community building at Ryderwood Centennial on Friday. The two were the last children to be raised in the recently turned retirement community. Their grandmother, Myrtle Prim, the town's postmistress, had to ask for special permission to raise the kids. The girls remember hand stamping the postage and sorting the mail into boxes.
Three Tesla owners in California on Wednesday sued the automaker in a proposed class action that accuses the company of falsely advertising the estimated driving ranges of its electric vehicles.

The lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California cites a Reuters article published last week which reported Tesla had created a "Diversion Team" in Nevada to cancel as many range-related appointments as possible after becoming inundated with owner complaints.

Reuters also reported that about a decade ago Tesla had decided to write algorithms for its in-dash range meter that would show drivers "rosy" projections for the distance the car could travel on a full battery, according to a source.

The directive to present the optimistic range estimates came from Tesla CEO Elon Musk, this person said. Reuters could not determine whether Tesla still uses algorithms that boost range estimates.

Neither Tesla nor Musk responded to detailed questions from Reuters for last week's article. They did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the lawsuit on Wednesday.

The lawsuit alleges Tesla breached vehicle warranties and engaged in fraud and unfair competition.

"Put simply, Tesla has a duty to deliver a product that performs as advertised," Adam A. Edwards, an attorney at Milberg Coleman Bryson Phillips Grossman, the firm representing Tesla owners in the lawsuit, said in a statement. The lawsuit's three plaintiffs cite occasions when their Teslas didn't achieve close to their advertised ranges and said they had complained to the company without success.

James Porter, a Petaluma, California-based Model Y owner, said in the lawsuit that on one trip he "lost approximately 182 miles of rangedespite only driving 92 miles."

The lawsuit states: "Had Tesla honestly advertised its electric vehicle ranges, consumers either would not have purchased Tesla model vehicles, or else would have paid substantially less for them." The complaint seeks class-action status to represent "all persons in California who purchased a new Tesla Model 3, Model S, Model Y, and Model X vehicle." It seeks unspecified damages.

Tesla also faces lawsuits and regulatory scrutiny over its Autopilot and "Full Self-Driving" technology and its claims about the safety of those systems.

A California Tesla owner also filed a proposed consumer class action in April after Reuters reported that Tesla employees had shared on an internal messaging system sensitive images and videos captured by cars' cameras. The lawsuit accuses Tesla of violating the privacy of its customers. Tesla has denied those allegations.
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Merger Timeline and 2-year Window. Credit: M&A Effect on Data Breaches in Hospitals: 2010-2022 (2023).

The period during and after hospital mergers and acquisitions is an especially vulnerable time for patient data when the chance of a cybersecurity breach more than doubles, according to research by a University of Texas at Dallas doctoral student.

Just the announcement of a merger is enough to trigger increased data breaches, said Nan Clement, a Ph.D. candidate in economics in the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences.

Clement analyzed hospital merger records and archived data breach reporting from the Department of Health and Human Services from 2010 to 2022 and discovered that in a two-year window around hospital consolidationone year before a deal is closed and one year afterthe probability of data breaches in merger targets, buyers and sellers more than doubled.

The probability of a data breach during the two-year window was 6%, compared with a 3% probability of a data breach for hospitals that merged over the course of the data set, but were not within the two-year window.

"The time leading up to and following the merger deal-signing is indeed a riskier period," Clement said.

In July in Geneva, Clement presented her research in a peer-reviewed paper at The 22nd Workshop on the Economics of Information Security, a forum for interdisciplinary scholarship on information security and privacy. Her work was singled out for the Best Paper Award.

Clement said that while it is common knowledge in the cybersecurity and health care industries that mergers are a sensitive time for data vulnerabilities, the effect she found is dramatic.

"Mergers are a time that we should focus on and work toward security solutions," she said.

Dr. Daniel G. Arce, Ashbel Smith Professor and program head of economics, said Clement's research is important because it delves into the causes of cybersecurity breaches, rather than just correlations.

"Now that ransomware has become a big-game hunting phenomenon, and hospitals are in the crosshairs, lives are in the balance," said Arce, who is Clement's Ph.D. advisor.

Clement also found that hacking and insider misconduct increased when a hospital merger or acquisition was announced, even before any agreements were signed or consolidation of resources began. Using data from Google Trends, she found a connection between increases in searches for a target hospital's name with increases in hacking activity, which she said might be linked to increased media attention on the affected hospitals.

Incompatibility between the two hospitals' information systems also can lead to hacking vulnerabilities.

"When you merge two information systems, that's a time hackers can take advantage," Clement said. "Although most hospitals use electronic medical record (EMR) systems, they might come from different vendors and have different features."

Ransomware attacks, which disrupt health care services, occur more frequently during this period of time as well, she noted, and understanding the reasons for large-scale data breaches in the health care industry is particularly important to avoid public health emergencies and maintain financial market stability.

"Hospitals are critical infrastructure that touches every American," Clement said. "What if there's a critical surgery needed, but suddenly there's a ransomware attack, and everything is down, and the next-nearest hospital is 100 miles away?" she said. "I'm focused on finding best practices for protecting hospital data from ransomware attacks and hacking, but, unfortunately, I don't think we can 100% prevent data breaches or hacking activities."
Park Ku-yeon, left, the first deputy chief of the Office for Government Policy Coordination, speaks during a daily briefing on the Fukushima wastewater issue at the government complex in Seoul, Aug. 2. Yonhap



Korea and Japan will hold another director-general-level meeting through video conference next week to discuss Seoul's requests regarding Tokyo's plan to discharge contaminated water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant, an official said Friday.



Park Ku-yeon, the first deputy chief of the Office for Government Policy Coordination, said the second round of talks are to be held next Monday.



The two sides held their first round of talks in Japan last Tuesday to discuss follow-up measures after President Yoon Suk Yeol asked Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to include Korean experts in monitoring the Fukushima water release.



During the meeting held on the sidelines of a North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in Lithuania, Yoon also asked that the discharge be stopped immediately if the concentration of radioactive material in the water exceeds standard levels and that Japan promptly inform Korea. (Yonhap)


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Conceptual illustrations of climate change impacts on supply, demand and SDM of wind and solar energy systems. Credit: Liu et al, Nature Energy (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41560-023-01304-w

Over the past few decades, sustainable energy solutions that rely on renewable sources, particularly the sun and wind, have become increasingly advanced and widespread. Many countries worldwide have committed to drastically lowering carbon emissions in the next decade or so, and these technologies will prove crucial in achieving this.

Estimates by the International Energy Agency (IEA) suggest that by 2050 wind and solar energy technologies could contribute to the generation of approximately 62% of the world's energy. Recent studies showed that the supply and demand of both wind and solar energy could be adversely impacted by climate change, however.

In terms of supply, most wind and solar energy solutions are highly dependent on the weather, therefore unexpected meteorological events can adversely impact their ability to generate energy. In terms of demand, global warming can increase the need for cooling equipment and reduce the need for heating, and extreme peaks in temperature (e.g., heat waves or very cold weather) can prompt sudden surges in the global energy demand.

Researchers at Peking University, Brown University and other institutes worldwide recently carried out a study aimed at better understanding how climate change can affect the planning of supply and demand for wind and solar energy. Their paper, published in Nature Energy, highlights the need for the energy sector to devise interventions that could address potential issues that could arise as a result of climate change.

"Inspired by China's carbon-neutrality goal, we stepped into the field of energy research," Laibao Liu, one of the researchers who carried out the study, told Tech Xplore. "So, we start our energy research with focusing on China's wind and solar energy. Then, we look further into the whole globe and aim to evaluate the climate change risk on global wind and energy systems."

As part of their study, Liu and his colleagues analyzed the daily outputs of climate simulations based on 12 state-of-the-art global climate models (GCMs). These are models that predict climatic processes, representing them on a 3D grid placed over a map of the world.

The 12 models used by the researchers were developed as part of a research endeavor known as the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6). The team considered the present climate, in the form of climate simulations spanning from 1985 to 2014, as well as predictions of the future climate (from 2041 to 2100).

Overall, the results of their analyses suggest that by the end of this century energy systems with varying dependence on wind and solar energy could experience significant reductions in the supplydemand match due to climate change. The smaller or more variable supply of renewable energy could particularly affect this match at middle to high latitudes.

Interestingly, the team also found that in some regions, reduced demands for heating as a result of global warming could alleviate or reverse these effects. At lower latitudes, on the other hand, although the supply of solar energy could be greater, cooling demands could increase drastically due to unbearably high temperatures, adversely affecting the matching between supply and demand.

"We utilized future climate information projected by state-of-the-art global climate models and build a new framework in the assessment," Liu explained. "Based on our results, we suggest for energy system planners to take future climate change information into account, otherwise, they might experience power outages due to unprecedented climate risk."

The recent study by Liu and his colleagues offers some general estimates of the possible effects that climate change could have on the wind and solar energy sector in the future, particularly on the relationship between the supply and demand of energy. These findings could serve as a warning for energy suppliers and researchers, encouraging them to devise new viable solutions to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change and unpredictable weather on the supplydemand of renewable energy.

"In our next studies, we might also focus on periods when the energy deficit occurred," Mengxi Wu, another researcher involved in the study, added.

More information: Laibao Liu et al, Climate change impacts on planned supplydemand match in global wind and solar energy systems, Nature Energy (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41560-023-01304-w Journal information: Nature Energy

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Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is suing YouTube and its parent company Google for moderating content he posts online.

The 69-year-old Ivy lawyer filed suit against the Internet giants in a Delaware court late Wednesday. His lawsuit claims his freedom of speech has been violated and alleges the U.S. has taken "extraordinary steps" under the leadership of Joe Biden to silence people it doesn't want America to hear.

Kennedy is a long-shot challenger to President Biden for the Democratic party nomination in the 2024 presidential race. While he's proven popular with conspiratorial online media sources and right-wing outlets like Fox News, Kennedy has struggled to gain favor with Democrats and even earned admonishment from his famous political family. A Recent poll shows him trailing Biden by as much as 60 points.

The son of assassinated 1968 presidential candidate Bobby Kennedy, Kennedy is a critic of vaccines, including those used to curb the COVID-19 pandemic that's killed more than a million Americans since 2020.

His complaint claims YouTube frequently blocks content posted by Kennedy on the grounds of "medical misinformation" policies.

"On information and belief, it did so based on statements from the Biden administration about what information to censor," Kennedy's complaint alleges.

Kennedy's legal team complains content taken offline sometimes comes from their client's 2024 presidential campaign and worries the problem will worsen as primary elections draw nearer.

Among Kennedy's many controversies was a dinner last month where he made claims about COVID-19 some critics found antisemitic.

"COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people," he asserted. "The races that are most immune to COVID-19 are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese."

Kennedy later tweeted his comments were being taken out of context and he never implied "the ethnic effect was deliberately engineered."

His lawsuit was filed in Delaware, where Google and YouTube incorporated. Kennedy resides in New York. The defendants are headquartered in California.

Google purchased the popular video-sharing website in 2006. A spokesperson for the company told the Daily News the Team Kennedy YouTube channel has over 46,000 subscribers and over a million views across its videos, which are held to the same standard as those of other platform users.

"YouTube applies its Community Guidelines independently, transparently, and consistently, regardless of political viewpoint," that spokesperson said. "These claims are meritless and we look forward to refuting them."

The Biden administration has replied to a request for comment.

2023 New York Daily News.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
A participant is carried on a stretcher at a medical center of the 25th World Scout Jamboree, which is taking place in Saemangeum, in North Jeolla Province, Friday. Reuters-Yonhap





By Lee Hyo-jin and Kwon Mee-yoo







Foreign embassies in Korea are on high alert as tens of thousands of young participants at the World Scout Jamboree  taking place on the reclaimed land of Saemangeum, North Jeolla Province  are grappling with an unrelenting heat wave and poor facility management.







Since the first official day of the global scout gathering on Tuesday, over 600 participants have suffered heat-related diseases such as headaches, dizziness and exhaustion as of Thursday, according to the Jamboree organizers. A total of 39,304 young Scouts from 155 countries are taking part in the 12-day event, significantly lower than the more than 43,000 originally expected.







"Things are still in limbo. We want to see the medical facilities and food sanitary issues in person. We ask for immediate action from those who are responsible," Konstantinos Daskalopoulos, a counselor at the Embassy of Greece in Seoul, told The Korea Times, Friday.







He also expressed concerns about a COVID-19 outbreak at the camping site. According to event organizers, 28 participants have tested positive for the virus as of Thursday.







Over the last couple of days, many family members of the young Scouts have raised concerns through social media that the participants are being exposed to scorching heat on land reclaimed from the sea, which lacks natural shade. Other than the sweltering weather, Scouts are also suffering from hygiene issues such as spoiled food and a lack of water, showers and clean toilets.







"One of the students suffered heat stroke yesterday, but was taken to a hospital outside because the medical center in the camp was closed due to a shortage of doctors," Daskalopoulos said. "We would like to see (how the new measures are implemented). For two days, they (the Korean government) have told many things, but this morning, I have been told that toilets are not the way they are supposed to be yet."







The Czech Embassy in Seoul said on social media, Thursday, that it helped Czech participants of the 25th World Scout Jamboree by arranging emergency accommodation. Captured from X





The Czech Embassy, for its part, said it offered support to its nationals who had issues with transport and accommodation.







"There are 413 participants from the Czech Republic. Although most of them arrived in Seoul on Aug. 1, they could not move to the campground due to its unpreparedness," the embassy posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Wednesday.







As the Czech Scouts had nowhere to sleep, the embassy arranged accommodation for them in a dormitory of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, the embassy said in another post uploaded on Thursday. It added that it delivered 20 spades, other digging tools and 240 rolls of toilet paper to the Jamboree site.







The U.S. Embassy in Seoul said it is in close communication with the event's organizers, Boy Scouts of America Leadership and U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) to ensure the safety of its nationals.







World Scout Jamboree continues despite US, UK withdrawals amid heat wave US Scouts to pull out of heatwave-hit jamboree in South Korea British Scouts to pull out of Saemangeum Jamboree campsite amid heat wave PHOTOS Growing safety concerns at Jamboree The U.S. contingent, with about 700 members, arrived a day later at the campsite than scheduled as the Jamboree organizers needed more time to prepare the venue. The American Scouts spent the night at U.S. Army Garrison Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province.



Some embassies, including the British Embassy, sent officials to Saemangeum to check on the situation and offer on-site consular services to its nationals. The U.K. delegation is the largest at this year's event, with some 4,300 young Scouts.



Norwegian Ambassador to Korea Anne Kari Ovind also paid a visit to the Jamboree site, Thursday, to encourage some 600 students from Norway.



The Canadian and Irish governments have reportedly requested the Korean government through their embassies in Seoul to check on the safety measures at the Jamboree site.



An official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told reporters, Friday, that the ministry is swiftly delivering the concerns raised by foreign embassies to the Jamboree organizers.



Later in the day, Korea's Ambassador for Public Diplomacy Hong Seok-in gave a briefing to officials from 23 foreign embassies in Seoul about the additional measures taken by the Korean government regarding the health and safety of the participants. The ministry plans to hold another briefing later this week.



The foreign ministry has also launched a taskforce, led by Second Vice Minister Oh Young-ju, to better support communication between diplomatic missions and Jamboree organizers.



Tents are installed at the campsite of the 25th World Scout Jamboree at Saemangeum, North Jeolla Province, Friday. Yonhap

Korea is currently sweltering under a prolonged heat wave with temperatures on Friday reaching 38 degrees Celsius in some parts of the nation. The sizzling heat is expected to continue throughout the weekend, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration.



As of 5 p.m., Thursday, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety raised the level of emergency duty of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters to Level 2. It is the first time in history for the nation's disaster headquarters to operate at Level 2 due to a heat wave.



The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, the main organizer of the Jamboree, said it will cancel some outdoor activities and expand safety measures and medical services. Participants will be offered heat stroke treatment items such as ice packs, salt tablets and five bottles of ice water every day.



Minister of Gender Equality and Family Kim Hyun-sook speaks during a briefing, Friday, at a press center in Saemangeum, North Jeolla Province, where the 25th World Scout Jamboree is being held. Yonhap

"We are aware that many embassies are expressing concerns about the World Scout Jamboree. We have taken or plan to take appropriate measures regarding such concerns. We are closely communicating with diplomatic missions through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs," Minister of Gender Equality and Family Kim Hyun-sook said during a briefing.



Heat-related problems have typically emerged as a big challenge during the quadrennial global scout gathering which takes place during the summer.




Akzo Nobel (OTCMKTS:AKZOD  Get Free Report) shares hit a new 52-week low on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $27.82 and last traded at $28.05, with a volume of 55629 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $28.15.

Akzo Nobel Stock Performance

The company has a 50-day moving average price of $26.72 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $26.13. The stock has a market capitalization of $19.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.82, a PEG ratio of 8.70 and a beta of 0.76. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35.

Akzo Nobel Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Akzo Nobel N.V. operates as a paints and coatings company in the Netherlands and internationally. The company operates through Decorative Paints and Performance Coatings segments. It provides decorative paints, including paints, lacquers, and varnishes; mixing machines, color concepts, and training courses for the building and renovation industry; and specialty coatings for metal, wood, and other building materials.

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AvalonBay Communities (NYSE:AVB  Get Free Report) issued an update on its FY 2023 earnings guidance on Monday morning. The company provided EPS guidance of $10.46-$10.66 for the period, compared to the consensus EPS estimate of $10.50. The company issued revenue guidance of -. AvalonBay Communities also updated its FY23 guidance to $10.46-10.66 EPS.

AvalonBay Communities Stock Performance

AVB traded down $1.73 during trading on Thursday, reaching $184.39. 869,117 shares of the companys stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 803,957. AvalonBay Communities has a fifty-two week low of $153.07 and a fifty-two week high of $220.42. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $187.82 and a 200 day moving average price of $178.07. The company has a market capitalization of $26.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.43, a PEG ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 0.93.

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AvalonBay Communities (NYSE:AVB  Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, August 1st. The real estate investment trust reported $2.59 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.60 by ($0.01). AvalonBay Communities had a net margin of 46.32% and a return on equity of 11.16%. The firm had revenue of $690.86 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $675.67 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.43 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that AvalonBay Communities will post 10.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AvalonBay Communities Announces Dividend

Analysts Set New Price Targets

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, July 17th. Investors of record on Friday, June 30th were given a dividend of $1.65 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 29th. This represents a $6.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.58%. AvalonBay Communitiess dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 74.24%.

Several brokerages recently issued reports on AVB. Mizuho upped their price target on shares of AvalonBay Communities from $188.00 to $190.00 in a research report on Friday, May 19th. 888 reissued a maintains rating on shares of AvalonBay Communities in a report on Friday, May 19th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on AvalonBay Communities from $193.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a sector perform rating in a report on Wednesday. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on AvalonBay Communities from $193.00 to $205.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 12th. Finally, StockNews.com began coverage on AvalonBay Communities in a report on Thursday, May 18th. They set a hold rating for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $203.50.

Read Our Latest Analysis on AvalonBay Communities

Insider Buying and Selling

In other AvalonBay Communities news, CIO Matthew H. Birenbaum sold 4,000 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $176.10, for a total transaction of $704,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive now owns 62,559 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $11,016,639.90. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.42% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AvalonBay Communities

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. bought a new position in AvalonBay Communities during the 1st quarter worth $69,000. First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its position in AvalonBay Communities by 25.1% during the 1st quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 489 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock worth $82,000 after buying an additional 98 shares during the period. Resurgent Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in AvalonBay Communities during the 4th quarter worth $122,000. Federated Hermes Inc. increased its position in shares of AvalonBay Communities by 102.9% in the third quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 913 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock worth $169,000 after purchasing an additional 463 shares during the period. Finally, Centiva Capital LP bought a new position in shares of AvalonBay Communities in the second quarter worth $207,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.85% of the companys stock.

AvalonBay Communities Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

As of March 31, 2023, the Company owned or held a direct or indirect ownership interest in 295 apartment communities containing 88,826 apartment homes in 12 states and the District of Columbia, of which 19 communities were under development and one community was under redevelopment. The Company is an equity REIT in the business of developing, redeveloping, acquiring and managing apartment communities in leading metropolitan areas in New England, the New York/New Jersey Metro area, the Mid-Atlantic, the Pacific Northwest, and Northern and Southern California, as well as in the Company's expansion regions of Raleigh-Durham and Charlotte, North Carolina, Southeast Florida, Dallas and Austin, Texas, and Denver, Colorado.

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Shares of Banco Latinoamericano de Comercio Exterior, S. A. (NYSE:BLX  Get Free Report) hit a new 52-week high on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $23.85 and last traded at $23.81, with a volume of 72136 shares. The stock had previously closed at $23.32.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BLX has been the subject of several recent research reports. StockNews.com initiated coverage on Banco Latinoamericano de Comercio Exterior, S. A. in a report on Thursday, May 18th. They set a hold rating for the company. Barclays initiated coverage on Banco Latinoamericano de Comercio Exterior, S. A. in a research report on Thursday, June 29th. They set an overweight rating and a $32.00 target price on the stock.

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Check Out Our Latest Stock Report on BLX

Banco Latinoamericano de Comercio Exterior, S. A. Stock Up 0.6 %

Banco Latinoamericano de Comercio Exterior, S. A. Dividend Announcement

The company has a market capitalization of $877.01 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.57 and a beta of 1.18. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $21.62 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $19.01.

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, August 15th. Investors of record on Monday, July 31st will be given a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.14%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 28th. Banco Latinoamericano de Comercio Exterior, S. A.s payout ratio is currently 27.55%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Banco Latinoamericano de Comercio Exterior, S. A.

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of BLX. Rhumbline Advisers raised its position in Banco Latinoamericano de Comercio Exterior, S. A. by 2.3% in the 1st quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 42,209 shares of the banks stock valued at $734,000 after buying an additional 957 shares during the last quarter. Uniplan Investment Counsel Inc. grew its stake in Banco Latinoamericano de Comercio Exterior, S. A. by 13.0% in the 1st quarter. Uniplan Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 307,465 shares of the banks stock valued at $5,343,000 after purchasing an additional 35,410 shares during the period. Thomas White International Ltd. grew its stake in Banco Latinoamericano de Comercio Exterior, S. A. by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. Thomas White International Ltd. now owns 353,718 shares of the banks stock valued at $5,510,000 after purchasing an additional 1,021 shares during the period. Finally, LSV Asset Management grew its stake in Banco Latinoamericano de Comercio Exterior, S. A. by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 972,198 shares of the banks stock valued at $15,750,000 after purchasing an additional 15,990 shares during the period. 6.92% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Banco Latinoamericano de Comercio Exterior, S. A. Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Banco Latinoamericano de Comercio Exterior, S. A., a multinational bank, primarily engages in the financing of foreign trade in Latin America and the Caribbean. The company operates through two segments, Commercial and Treasury. It also offers bilateral loans; structured loans including syndicated and clubbed, such as acquisition and pre-export financing, A/B loan financing, bridge loans, and liability management; and project financing.

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Bank of Cyprus Holdings Public Limited (LON:BOCH  Get Free Report)s stock price rose 0.8% during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as GBX 247.65 ($3.18) and last traded at GBX 247 ($3.17). Approximately 50,898 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 73% from the average daily volume of 191,108 shares. The stock had previously closed at GBX 245 ($3.15).

Bank of Cyprus Holdings Public Stock Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of 1.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25,300.00 and a beta of 0.79. The companys 50 day moving average is GBX 253.49 and its 200 day moving average is GBX 227.13.

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Insider Activity at Bank of Cyprus Holdings Public

In related news, insider Constantine Iordanou bought 47,470 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 9th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of GBX 246 ($3.16) per share, for a total transaction of 116,776.20 ($149,924.51). Corporate insiders own 18.95% of the companys stock.

Bank of Cyprus Holdings Public Company Profile

Bank of Cyprus Holdings Public Limited Company, through its subsidiaries, engages in the provision of banking, financial, and insurance services. It offers current, demand, savings, time, notice, instant access, and fixed deposits; housing, student, vehicle, mortgage, consumer, business and business premises, term, and home or investment loans; and asset finance, factoring, trade facilities, European financial, project finance, shipping finance, and syndicated and corporate lending services, as well as hire purchase services for car and equipment.

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BlackRock Virginia Municipal Bond Trust (NYSEAMERICAN:BHV  Get Free Report) declared a monthly dividend on Tuesday, August 1st, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 15th will be given a dividend of 0.0265 per share on Friday, September 1st. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.99%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 14th.

BlackRock Virginia Municipal Bond Trust Price Performance

Shares of NYSEAMERICAN BHV traded down $0.03 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $10.65. 601 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,656. BlackRock Virginia Municipal Bond Trust has a 1 year low of $10.40 and a 1 year high of $15.00.

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Hedge Funds Weigh In On BlackRock Virginia Municipal Bond Trust

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Advisor Group Holdings Inc. boosted its holdings in BlackRock Virginia Municipal Bond Trust by 37.2% in the 1st quarter. Advisor Group Holdings Inc. now owns 4,975 shares of the companys stock valued at $98,000 after purchasing an additional 1,350 shares in the last quarter. UBS Group AG boosted its holdings in BlackRock Virginia Municipal Bond Trust by 62.3% in the 3rd quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 12,681 shares of the companys stock valued at $147,000 after purchasing an additional 4,867 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company MN boosted its holdings in BlackRock Virginia Municipal Bond Trust by 10.5% in the 4th quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 14,272 shares of the companys stock valued at $162,000 after purchasing an additional 1,361 shares in the last quarter.

About BlackRock Virginia Municipal Bond Trust

Blackrock Virginia Municipal Bond Trust is a closed-ended fixed income mutual fund launched by BlackRock, Inc It is managed by BlackRock Advisors, LLC. The fund invests in fixed income markets of United States. It primarily invests in the investment grade municipal bonds exempt from federal income taxes and Virginia personal income taxes.

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Carrier Global Co. (NYSE:CARR  Get Free Report) saw a significant growth in short interest in the month of July. As of July 15th, there was short interest totalling 29,750,000 shares, a growth of 5.6% from the June 30th total of 28,170,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 5,990,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 5.0 days. Approximately 3.6% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on CARR. Citigroup lifted their price target on Carrier Global from $45.00 to $52.00 in a research note on Monday, July 10th. Argus lifted their target price on shares of Carrier Global from $52.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Carrier Global from $49.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a report on Friday, July 28th. Bank of America lifted their price target on Carrier Global from $51.00 to $58.00 in a report on Friday, July 14th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on Carrier Global from $47.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 12th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $54.65.

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Carrier Global Stock Performance

Carrier Global stock traded down $0.88 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $58.10. 5,041,491 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,259,569. Carrier Global has a 12 month low of $33.10 and a 12 month high of $60.04. The firm has a market cap of $48.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.06, a PEG ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a current ratio of 1.63, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $49.47 and a 200 day moving average of $45.97.

Carrier Global (NYSE:CARR  Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 27th. The company reported $0.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.76 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $6 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.83 billion. Carrier Global had a net margin of 9.87% and a return on equity of 25.42%. Carrier Globals quarterly revenue was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.69 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Carrier Global will post 2.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Carrier Global Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 10th. Investors of record on Friday, June 23rd will be paid a dividend of $0.185 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 22nd. This represents a $0.74 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.27%. Carrier Globals payout ratio is 29.37%.

Insider Activity at Carrier Global

In other news, VP Kyle Crockett sold 6,817 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.22, for a total value of $403,702.74. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 42 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $2,487.24. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, VP Kyle Crockett sold 6,817 shares of Carrier Global stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.22, for a total transaction of $403,702.74. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 42 shares of the companys stock, valued at $2,487.24. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Jurgen Timperman sold 164,450 shares of the companys stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.25, for a total transaction of $9,743,662.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 310,223 shares of company stock worth $16,401,775 over the last ninety days. 0.38% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Covestor Ltd lifted its position in shares of Carrier Global by 121.2% in the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 553 shares of the companys stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 303 shares during the period. WealthPLAN Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Carrier Global in the first quarter valued at about $29,000. Nemes Rush Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Carrier Global during the second quarter worth approximately $29,000. Concord Wealth Partners bought a new position in Carrier Global in the 4th quarter valued at $34,000. Finally, Tradition Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Carrier Global by 124.2% in the first quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC now owns 740 shares of the companys stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 410 shares during the period. 86.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Carrier Global Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Carrier Global Corporation provides heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC), refrigeration, fire, security, and building automation technologies worldwide. It operates through three segments: HVAC, Refrigeration, and Fire & Security. The HVAC segment provides products, controls, services, and solutions to meet the heating, cooling, and ventilation needs of residential and commercial customers.

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CGN Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF (BATS:QUAL  Free Report) by 4.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 89,603 shares of the companys stock after purchasing an additional 3,935 shares during the quarter. iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF makes up 1.7% of CGN Advisors LLCs portfolio, making the stock its 13th biggest holding. CGN Advisors LLCs holdings in iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF were worth $12,085,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in QUAL. PrairieView Partners LLC purchased a new position in iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF during the 1st quarter worth $25,000. Patriot Investment Management Group Inc. acquired a new stake in iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF during the 4th quarter worth about $28,000. Kerntke Otto McGlone Wealth Management Group acquired a new position in shares of iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF in the 4th quarter valued at about $29,000. GeoWealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF in the 4th quarter valued at about $34,000. Finally, Harbor Investment Advisory LLC acquired a new position in shares of iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF in the 1st quarter valued at about $35,000.

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iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of QUAL stock traded down $0.26 on Thursday, hitting $137.53. The company had a trading volume of 1,061,847 shares. The firm has a market cap of $31.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.30 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $133.77 and a 200-day moving average price of $126.31. iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF has a twelve month low of $71.96 and a twelve month high of $88.63.

iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF Profile

The iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF (QUAL) is an exchange-traded fund that is based on the MSCI USA Sector Neutral Quality index. The fund tracks an index of US large- and mid-cap stocks, selected and weighted by high ROE, stable earnings growth and low debt\u002Fequity, relative to peers in each sector.

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Cohen & Company Inc. (NYSEAMERICAN:COHN  Get Free Report) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, August 2nd, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 18th will be given a dividend of 0.25 per share by the financial services provider on Friday, September 1st. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 17.18%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 17th.

Cohen & Company Inc. has increased its dividend payment by an average of 35.7% annually over the last three years.

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Cohen & Company Inc. Stock Up 2.8 %

NYSEAMERICAN COHN traded up $0.16 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $5.82. The company had a trading volume of 22,955 shares, compared to its average volume of 22,762. Cohen & Company Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $3.29 and a fifty-two week high of $14.20. The company has a market cap of $10.59 million, a P/E ratio of -0.96 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Cohen & Company Inc. ( NYSEAMERICAN:COHN Get Free Report ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 4th. The financial services provider reported ($1.74) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The company had revenue of $8.82 million during the quarter. Cohen & Company Inc. had a negative net margin of 15.61% and a positive return on equity of 2.74%.

A hedge fund recently raised its stake in Cohen & Company Inc. stock. Royal Bank of Canada increased its position in Cohen & Company Inc. (NYSEAMERICAN:COHN  Free Report) by 39.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 11,542 shares of the financial services providers stock after buying an additional 3,242 shares during the quarter. Royal Bank of Canada owned about 0.67% of Cohen & Company Inc. worth $99,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period. 5.96% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Cohen & Company Inc.

(Get Free Report)

Cohen & Company Inc is a publicly owned investment manager. The firm primarily provides its services to individuals and institutions. It manages separate client-focused fixed income portfolios. Institutional Financial Markets, Inc also manages funds and collateralized debt obligations for its clients.

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Dorian LPG (NYSE:LPG  Get Free Report) posted its earnings results on Wednesday. The shipping company reported $1.21 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $1.64 by ($0.43), MarketWatch Earnings reports. Dorian LPG had a return on equity of 20.08% and a net margin of 44.24%. The company had revenue of $111.56 million for the quarter. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.56 EPS.

Dorian LPG Stock Performance

LPG traded down $0.29 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $27.93. 897,621 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 618,507. The companys 50 day simple moving average is $25.29 and its 200 day simple moving average is $22.63. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.58 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a current ratio of 2.50, a quick ratio of 2.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69. Dorian LPG has a 1-year low of $12.90 and a 1-year high of $30.09.

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Dorian LPG Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a Variable dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 6th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 10th will be given a dividend of $1.00 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 9th. Dorian LPGs dividend payout ratio is currently 93.24%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

In other news, CFO Theodore B. Young sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.00, for a total transaction of $78,000.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 87,805 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $2,282,930. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink . In related news, Director Thomas Jason Coleman sold 17,000 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.60, for a total value of $418,200.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 298,000 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $7,330,800. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link . Also, CFO Theodore B. Young sold 3,000 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.00, for a total transaction of $78,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 87,805 shares in the company, valued at $2,282,930. The disclosure for this sale can be found here . In the last three months, insiders have sold 63,700 shares of company stock valued at $1,621,038. Company insiders own 28.60% of the companys stock.

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. BlackRock Inc. lifted its stake in Dorian LPG by 8.2% in the 3rd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 5,263,675 shares of the shipping companys stock worth $71,427,000 after purchasing an additional 400,804 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Dorian LPG by 11.8% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,240,874 shares of the shipping companys stock worth $64,622,000 after buying an additional 341,453 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Dorian LPG by 8.7% during the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,313,316 shares of the shipping companys stock worth $26,188,000 after buying an additional 105,059 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Dorian LPG by 4.9% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,006,993 shares of the shipping companys stock worth $13,665,000 after buying an additional 46,925 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in shares of Dorian LPG by 32.6% during the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 799,380 shares of the shipping companys stock worth $11,583,000 after buying an additional 196,749 shares during the last quarter. 64.37% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LPG has been the subject of several analyst reports. Evercore ISI upgraded Dorian LPG from an in-line rating to an outperform rating and increased their price objective for the company from $25.00 to $32.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 24th. DNB Markets lowered Dorian LPG from a buy rating to a hold rating and set a $26.90 price objective for the company. in a report on Monday, July 10th. StockNews.com began coverage on Dorian LPG in a research report on Thursday, May 18th. They issued a buy rating on the stock. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group downgraded Dorian LPG from a buy rating to a hold rating and set a $30.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Thursday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Dorian LPG presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $26.98.

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Dorian LPG Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Dorian LPG Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the transportation of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) through its LPG tankers worldwide. It owns and operates twenty-five very large gas carriers (VLGCs). The company was incorporated in 2013 and is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut.

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Toast, Inc. (NYSE:TOST  Get Free Report) CFO Elena Gomez sold 2,064 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.74, for a total transaction of $42,807.36. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 136,115 shares in the company, valued at $2,823,025.10. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Elena Gomez also recently made the following trade(s):

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On Wednesday, July 5th, Elena Gomez sold 15,007 shares of Toast stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $22.20, for a total transaction of $333,155.40.

Toast Price Performance

NYSE:TOST traded up $0.28 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $20.67. 6,083,465 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 6,787,042. The firm has a market cap of $10.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -31.80 and a beta of 1.73. Toast, Inc. has a 52-week low of $15.61 and a 52-week high of $27.00. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $22.44 and a 200 day simple moving average of $20.43.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Toast ( NYSE:TOST Get Free Report ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 9th. The company reported ($0.16) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.18) by $0.02. Toast had a negative net margin of 11.01% and a negative return on equity of 29.74%. The company had revenue of $819.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $763.11 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned ($0.20) earnings per share. The businesss quarterly revenue was up 53.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that Toast, Inc. will post -0.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

TOST has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft initiated coverage on shares of Toast in a research report on Thursday, April 6th. They set a hold rating and a $20.00 target price on the stock. BTIG Research initiated coverage on shares of Toast in a report on Thursday, June 15th. They issued a neutral rating on the stock. KeyCorp reduced their price target on shares of Toast from $26.00 to $24.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 5th. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of Toast in a report on Tuesday, July 11th. They issued a buy rating and a $28.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Mizuho upped their price target on shares of Toast from $25.00 to $27.00 in a report on Tuesday, June 13th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $23.44.

Check Out Our Latest Analysis on Toast

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Toast

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Triumph Capital Management acquired a new stake in Toast during the 2nd quarter valued at $216,000. Barclays PLC grew its holdings in Toast by 37.1% during the 2nd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 209,585 shares of the companys stock valued at $4,731,000 after purchasing an additional 56,707 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC grew its holdings in Toast by 35.2% during the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 3,570 shares of the companys stock valued at $81,000 after purchasing an additional 929 shares in the last quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S acquired a new stake in Toast during the 2nd quarter valued at $29,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in Toast by 15.3% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,983,776 shares of the companys stock valued at $44,774,000 after purchasing an additional 262,962 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.12% of the companys stock.

About Toast

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Toast, Inc operates a cloud-based digital technology platform for the restaurant industry in the United States and Ireland. The company offers Toast POS, a software module that integrates payment processing with point of sale functionality; Toast Invoicing that allows restaurants to send invoices and collect payment; Toast Mobile Order & Pay, which allows guests to scan a QR code to browse the menu, order, and pay from mobile; Kitchen Display System software that connects the house with the kitchen staff; and Multi-Location Management, a tool to manage operations and configure menus across multiple locations and channels.

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Former special counsel Park Young-soo arrives at the Seoul Central District Court in southern Seoul to attend a hearing, Aug. 3. Yonhap





Former special counsel Park Young-soo was arrested Thursday over corruption allegations connected to a high-profile property development scandal.







The Seoul Central District Court issued an arrest warrant for Park, who is suspected of taking 800 million won ($616,475) from private developers in return for helping them land a deal to develop the Daejang-dong district in Seongnam, just south of Seoul, while he served as the chair of the Woori Bank board of directors from 2014-15.







Prosecutors suspect 300 million won of the total went to Park while he was running for chairman of the Korean Bar Association in 2015 while the rest was separately given to him the same year in return for issuing Woori Bank's letter of intent to extend a loan in favor of the private developers' company Hwacheon Daeyu.







Park is also one of several prominent figures in the "5 billion club," who were allegedly promised 5 billion won each by asset management firm Hwacheon Daeyu, along with former ruling party lawmaker Kwak Sang-do and former Prosecutor General Kim Soo-nam.







Park attended his detention hearing at the court in southern Seoul on Thursday morning. He remained silent to a barrage of questions by reporters, only saying, "I am sorry again. I will tell everything as it is at the court room."







It is the second time prosecutors have sought a warrant to arrest Park in connection with the corruption scandal. The court had denied the previous warrant request a month earlier, citing room for dispute regarding the bribery allegations and the need to guarantee the suspect's right to a defense.







Prosecutors have since added new charges against Park of taking 1.1 billion won from Hwacheon Daeyu between 2019 and 2021 in the form of short-term loans to his daughter and applied for a warrant again.







Park rose to fame after investigating a corruption scandal involving the ousted former President Park Geun-hye as a special counsel in 2017. (Yonhap)






Energy Transfer (NYSE:ET  Get Free Report) issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday. The pipeline company reported $0.25 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.30 by ($0.05), Briefing.com reports. Energy Transfer had a net margin of 5.08% and a return on equity of 13.06%. The company had revenue of $18.32 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $20.40 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.39 earnings per share. The businesss revenue for the quarter was down 29.4% on a year-over-year basis.

Energy Transfer Price Performance

Energy Transfer stock traded down $0.28 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $12.86. 27,364,041 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 11,291,508. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $12.87 and a 200-day simple moving average of $12.75. Energy Transfer has a 12 month low of $10.02 and a 12 month high of $13.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 0.92. The firm has a market cap of $40.40 billion, a PE ratio of 9.60 and a beta of 1.70.

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Energy Transfer Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 21st. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.31 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 11th. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 9.64%. Energy Transfers dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 91.79%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently commented on ET. Morgan Stanley reissued an overweight rating and set a $17.00 price target on shares of Energy Transfer in a research report on Thursday, July 20th. Barclays raised their price objective on Energy Transfer from $15.00 to $16.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 18th. Finally, Mizuho raised their price objective on Energy Transfer from $17.00 to $18.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 18th. Six investment 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, Energy Transfer has an average rating of Buy and a consensus target price of $16.57.

Check Out Our Latest Analysis on ET

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Bradford D. Whitehurst acquired 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 30th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $12.43 per share, for a total transaction of $124,300.00. Following the purchase, the executive vice president now directly owns 1,303,055 shares in the company, valued at $16,196,973.65. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Energy Transfer news, Chairman Kelcy L. Warren bought 1,000,000 shares of Energy Transfer stock in a transaction on Monday, May 15th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $12.49 per share, with a total value of $12,490,000.00. Following the acquisition, the chairman now owns 60,078,477 shares in the company, valued at approximately $750,380,177.73. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Bradford D. Whitehurst bought 10,000 shares of Energy Transfer stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 30th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $12.43 per share, for a total transaction of $124,300.00. Following the acquisition, the executive vice president now owns 1,303,055 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,196,973.65. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have purchased a total of 1,510,000 shares of company stock worth $18,749,300 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 3.28% of the companys stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Energy Transfer

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of ET. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Energy Transfer by 4.6% during the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 79,889 shares of the pipeline companys stock valued at $894,000 after acquiring an additional 3,501 shares in the last quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Energy Transfer by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. now owns 424,932 shares of the pipeline companys stock valued at $4,755,000 after acquiring an additional 2,403 shares in the last quarter. Blair William & Co. IL lifted its holdings in Energy Transfer by 13.7% during the 1st quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 260,824 shares of the pipeline companys stock worth $2,919,000 after buying an additional 31,407 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its holdings in Energy Transfer by 7.3% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 159,249 shares of the pipeline companys stock worth $1,782,000 after buying an additional 10,856 shares during the period. Finally, NewEdge Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Energy Transfer by 43.0% during the 1st quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 192,394 shares of the pipeline companys stock worth $2,153,000 after buying an additional 57,880 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 34.47% of the companys stock.

Energy Transfer Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Energy Transfer LP provides energy-related services. The company owns and operates approximately 11,600 miles of natural gas transportation pipeline, and three natural gas storage facilities in Texas and two natural gas storage facilities located in the state of Texas and Oklahoma; and 19,945 miles of interstate natural gas pipeline.

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Envista (NYSE:NVST  Get Free Report) released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday. The company reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.02, Briefing.com reports. The business had revenue of $662.40 million during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $655.81 million. Envista had a return on equity of 7.98% and a net margin of 8.27%. The businesss quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.48 EPS.

Envista Stock Performance

Shares of NVST stock traded up $0.36 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $34.28. The company had a trading volume of 3,772,915 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,996,393. The companys 50 day simple moving average is $33.74 and its 200 day simple moving average is $36.45. Envista has a 52-week low of $31.20 and a 52-week high of $43.29. The stock has a market cap of $5.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.27, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 1.23 and a quick ratio of 0.96.

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Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of NVST. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Envista in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Belpointe Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Envista by 80.6% in the 1st quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC now owns 901 shares of the companys stock valued at $37,000 after buying an additional 402 shares during the period. Covestor Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Envista by 35.0% in the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,273 shares of the companys stock valued at $62,000 after buying an additional 330 shares during the period. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust lifted its holdings in shares of Envista by 32.7% in the 1st quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 2,481 shares of the companys stock valued at $121,000 after buying an additional 612 shares during the period. Finally, State of Wyoming lifted its holdings in shares of Envista by 26.8% in the 4th quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 3,205 shares of the companys stock valued at $108,000 after buying an additional 677 shares during the period.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NVST has been the subject of several analyst reports. TheStreet cut Envista from a b rating to a c+ rating in a research report on Friday, June 9th. Bank of America dropped their price target on Envista from $47.00 to $45.00 in a research note on Tuesday, July 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $45.20.

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About Envista

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Envista Holdings Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, develops, manufactures, markets, and sells dental products in the United States, China, and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Specialty Products & Technologies, and Equipment & Consumables. The Specialty Products & Technologies segment offers dental implant systems, guided surgery systems, biomaterials, and prefabricated and custom-built prosthetics to oral surgeons, prosthodontists, and periodontists; and brackets and wires, tubes and bands, archwires, clear aligners, digital orthodontic treatments, retainers, and other orthodontic laboratory products.

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Guild Holdings (NYSE:GHLD  Get Free Report) gapped up before the market opened on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $12.00, but opened at $12.46. Guild shares last traded at $12.38, with a volume of 986 shares trading hands.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Guild from $12.50 to $13.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Monday, April 17th. JMP Securities dropped their target price on shares of Guild from $15.00 to $14.00 and set a market outperform rating for the company in a research report on Friday, June 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $12.75.

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Guild Stock Performance

The stocks 50-day moving average is $11.43 and its 200-day moving average is $11.08. The stock has a market cap of $726.64 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.91 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a current ratio of 0.23, a quick ratio of 0.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49.

Guild (NYSE:GHLD  Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Monday, May 8th. The company reported ($0.04) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $0.07 by ($0.11). The business had revenue of $103.89 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $139.32 million. Guild had a return on equity of 2.88% and a net margin of 10.60%. On average, analysts expect that Guild Holdings will post 0.39 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Guild news, Director Edward Bryant, Jr. sold 8,572 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $10.36, for a total value of $88,805.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 27,926 shares in the company, valued at approximately $289,313.36. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 77.98% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Guild

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC purchased a new position in shares of Guild during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Lazard Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Guild during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $29,000. UBS Group AG raised its position in shares of Guild by 117.4% during the 3rd quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 3,187 shares of the companys stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 1,721 shares in the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada acquired a new stake in shares of Guild during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Finally, BNP Paribas Arbitrage SNC acquired a new stake in shares of Guild during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $35,000. 7.35% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Guild Company Profile

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Guild Holdings Company originates, sells, and services residential mortgage loans in the United States. It operates in two segments, Origination and Servicing. The company originates residential mortgages through retail and correspondent channels. Guild Holdings Company was incorporated in 1960 and is headquartered in San Diego, California.

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Impala Platinum Holdings Limited (OTCMKTS:IMPUY  Get Free Report)s share price hit a new 52-week low during trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as $6.23 and last traded at $6.29, with a volume of 137884 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $6.53.

Impala Platinum Price Performance

The business has a 50-day moving average of $7.56 and a 200 day moving average of $9.16.

Impala Platinum Company Profile

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Impala Platinum Holdings Limited engages in the mining, processing, refining, and marketing platinum group metals (PGMs). The company produces platinum, palladium, rhodium, nickel, and by-products. It has operations on the PGM-bearing ore bodies, including the Bushveld Complex located in South Africa; and the Great Dyke situated in Zimbabwe.

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Shares of London Security plc (LON:LSC  Get Free Report) shot up 1.7% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as GBX 3,050 ($39.16) and last traded at GBX 3,050 ($39.16). 100 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 63% from the average session volume of 268 shares. The stock had previously closed at GBX 3,000 ($38.52).

London Security Price Performance

The firm has a market cap of 373.93 million, a P/E ratio of 1,848.48 and a beta of 0.19. The businesss fifty day simple moving average is GBX 2,952 and its 200-day simple moving average is GBX 2,989.65. The company has a current ratio of 2.33, a quick ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.42.

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London Security Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 7th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 8th were issued a GBX 42 ($0.54) dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 8th. This represents a yield of 1.5%. London Securitys dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 5,090.91%.

London Security Company Profile

London Security plc, an investment holding company, engages in the manufacture, sale, and rental of fire protection equipment in the United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, France, Germany, Denmark, Luxembourg, and rest of Europe. It also provides fire protection equipment maintenance services.

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Mammoth Resources Corp. (CVE:MTH  Get Free Report) shares reached a new 52-week low during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as low as C$0.01 and last traded at C$0.02, with a volume of 343000 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at C$0.02.

Mammoth Resources Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of C$1.01 million, a PE ratio of -4.38 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a current ratio of 3.61, a quick ratio of 5.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The business has a fifty day moving average price of C$0.02 and a 200 day moving average price of C$0.03.

Mammoth Resources Company Profile

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Mammoth Resources Corp., an exploration stage company, engages in the acquisition, exploration, and evaluation of mining properties in Mexico. It holds a 100% interest in the Tenoriba property consisting of four concessions, including Mapy, Mapy 2, Mapy 3, and Fernanda covering a land package of totalling 5,333 hectares located in the Sierra Madre precious metal belt in southwestern Chihuahua State, Mexico.

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Shares of New Zealand Energy Corp. (CVE:NZ  Get Free Report) traded down 25% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as low as C$0.03 and last traded at C$0.05. 107,000 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 1,004% from the average session volume of 9,689 shares. The stock had previously closed at C$0.06.

New Zealand Energy Stock Performance

The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of C$0.07 and a 200-day simple moving average of C$0.08. The stock has a market cap of C$1.28 million, a P/E ratio of 0.92 and a beta of 1.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 77.94, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a current ratio of 0.51.

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New Zealand Energy (CVE:NZ  Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, May 30th. The company reported C($0.02) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The firm had revenue of C$0.72 million for the quarter. New Zealand Energy had a return on equity of 67.26% and a net margin of 33.97%. On average, equities analysts expect that New Zealand Energy Corp. will post -0.02 earnings per share for the current year.

New Zealand Energy Company Profile

New Zealand Energy Corp., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the exploration and production of oil and natural gas in New Zealand. It holds interests in three petroleum mining licenses, one petroleum mining permit, and one petroleum exploration permit. The company has interests in TWN Petroleum Mining Licenses comprising Waihapa/Ngaere, and Tariki; Copper Moki petroleum mining permit; and Eltham Petroleum exploration permit.

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Nuveen New York Municipal Value Fund (NYSE:NNY  Get Free Report) announced a monthly dividend on Tuesday, August 1st, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 15th will be given a dividend of 0.028 per share by the investment management company on Friday, September 1st. This represents a $0.34 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.02%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 14th.

Nuveen New York Municipal Value Fund Price Performance

Nuveen New York Municipal Value Fund stock traded down $0.11 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $8.36. The company had a trading volume of 23,816 shares, compared to its average volume of 32,453. Nuveen New York Municipal Value Fund has a 1 year low of $7.95 and a 1 year high of $8.93. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $8.45 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $8.51.

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Institutional Investors Weigh In On Nuveen New York Municipal Value Fund

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Raymond James & Associates raised its holdings in shares of Nuveen New York Municipal Value Fund by 9.6% in the 1st quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 34,255 shares of the investment management companys stock valued at $309,000 after purchasing an additional 3,000 shares in the last quarter. UBS Group AG raised its stake in shares of Nuveen New York Municipal Value Fund by 11.0% during the 1st quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 301,237 shares of the investment management companys stock worth $2,717,000 after acquiring an additional 29,884 shares in the last quarter. Guggenheim Capital LLC increased its stake in Nuveen New York Municipal Value Fund by 20.5% during the 1st quarter. Guggenheim Capital LLC now owns 159,891 shares of the investment management companys stock valued at $1,443,000 after purchasing an additional 27,202 shares in the last quarter. Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new position in Nuveen New York Municipal Value Fund during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $85,000. Finally, Advisor Group Holdings Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Nuveen New York Municipal Value Fund by 13.5% in the 4th quarter. Advisor Group Holdings Inc. now owns 12,823 shares of the investment management companys stock valued at $105,000 after acquiring an additional 1,527 shares during the last quarter. 18.49% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Nuveen New York Municipal Value Fund Company Profile

Nuveen New York Municipal Value Fund, Inc is a closed-ended fixed income mutual fund launched by Nuveen Investments, Inc The fund is co-managed by Nuveen Fund Advisors LLC and Nuveen Asset Management, LLC. It invests in the fixed income markets of New York. The fund invests in tax exempt municipal bonds, with a rating of Baa/BBB or higher.

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Nuveen Virginia Quality Municipal Income Fund (NYSE:NPV  Get Free Report) declared a monthly dividend on Tuesday, August 1st, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 15th will be given a dividend of 0.034 per share by the financial services provider on Friday, September 1st. This represents a $0.41 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.81%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, August 14th.

Nuveen Virginia Quality Municipal Income Fund Price Performance

NPV stock traded down $0.13 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $10.70. The stock had a trading volume of 28,373 shares, compared to its average volume of 22,749. Nuveen Virginia Quality Municipal Income Fund has a 52 week low of $10.60 and a 52 week high of $14.89. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $10.83 and a 200 day simple moving average of $11.27.

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Institutional Investors Weigh In On Nuveen Virginia Quality Municipal Income Fund

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in NPV. Raymond James & Associates grew its holdings in shares of Nuveen Virginia Quality Municipal Income Fund by 148.5% during the 4th quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 39,585 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $442,000 after purchasing an additional 23,654 shares during the last quarter. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Nuveen Virginia Quality Municipal Income Fund during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $231,000. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. increased its position in Nuveen Virginia Quality Municipal Income Fund by 48.6% in the 1st quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 44,438 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $507,000 after acquiring an additional 14,536 shares during the period. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Nuveen Virginia Quality Municipal Income Fund in the 1st quarter valued at $158,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE boosted its stake in shares of Nuveen Virginia Quality Municipal Income Fund by 15.1% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 102,936 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $1,464,000 after purchasing an additional 13,515 shares during the last quarter. 6.65% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Nuveen Virginia Quality Municipal Income Fund

Nuveen Virginia Quality Municipal Income Fund is a closed ended fixed income mutual fund launched by Nuveen Investments, Inc The fund is co-managed by Nuveen Fund Advisors LLC and Nuveen Asset Management, LLC. It invests in the fixed income markets of Virginia. The fund invests primarily in municipal securities rated Baa/BBB or better.

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Ormat Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:ORA  Get Free Report) hit a new 52-week low during mid-day trading on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $77.50 and last traded at $77.50, with a volume of 115850 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $79.07.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have issued reports on ORA. Barclays began coverage on shares of Ormat Technologies in a report on Monday, May 22nd. They issued an equal weight rating and a $89.00 price target on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Ormat Technologies from $86.00 to $89.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 19th. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Ormat Technologies in a research note on Thursday, May 18th. They set a sell rating on the stock. Finally, Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Ormat Technologies from $85.00 to $87.00 in a research note on Wednesday, June 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ormat Technologies presently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $91.38.

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Ormat Technologies Stock Performance

The stocks 50-day moving average price is $83.29 and its 200-day moving average price is $85.58. The company has a current ratio of 2.07, a quick ratio of 1.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71. The company has a market capitalization of $4.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 56.16, a P/E/G ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 0.44.

Ormat Technologies (NYSE:ORA  Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 2nd. The energy company reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.02. Ormat Technologies had a net margin of 10.39% and a return on equity of 4.86%. The company had revenue of $194.80 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $196.74 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.22 EPS. The companys revenue for the quarter was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Ormat Technologies, Inc. will post 1.92 EPS for the current year.

Ormat Technologies Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 30th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 16th will be given a $0.12 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, August 15th. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.63%. Ormat Technologiess payout ratio is currently 35.56%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Ormat Technologies in the 4th quarter worth about $31,000. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ormat Technologies in the 4th quarter worth about $234,000. Beck Bode LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ormat Technologies in the 4th quarter worth about $8,559,000. American International Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Ormat Technologies by 7.6% in the 4th quarter. American International Group Inc. now owns 98,689 shares of the energy companys stock worth $8,535,000 after acquiring an additional 7,007 shares during the period. Finally, Inspire Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ormat Technologies by 18.1% in the 1st quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 3,210 shares of the energy companys stock worth $272,000 after acquiring an additional 493 shares during the period. 88.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Ormat Technologies

(Get Free Report)

Ormat Technologies, Inc engages in the geothermal and recovered energy power business in the United States, Indonesia, Kenya, Turkey, Chile, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Ethiopia, New Zealand, Honduras, and internationally. It operates through three segments: Electricity, Product, and Energy Storage. The Electricity segment develops, builds, owns, and operates geothermal, solar photovoltaic, and recovered energy-based power plants; and sells electricity.

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President Yoon Suk Yeol presides over a cabinet meeting at the presidential office, Seoul, Aug. 1 Yonhap



President Yoon Suk Yeol on Friday instructed all possible police forces to deal sternly with a stabbing rampage in Seongnam, just south of Seoul, that wounded 14 people a day earlier, according to his spokesperson.



"All possible police forces should be mobilized so that the people are not uneasy," Yoon was quoted by presidential spokeswoman Kim Eun-hye as saying. Yoon gave the instruction during his weeklong summer vacation.






Sculati Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE  Free Report) by 3.5% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 59,488 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock after purchasing an additional 2,000 shares during the period. Pfizer accounts for about 1.3% of Sculati Wealth Management LLCs investment portfolio, making the stock its 24th largest position. Sculati Wealth Management LLCs holdings in Pfizer were worth $2,427,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Pfizer by 89,592.7% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 161,143,638 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock valued at $8,257,000,000 after buying an additional 160,963,976 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Pfizer during the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,150,472,000. Morgan Stanley grew its holdings in shares of Pfizer by 10.3% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 79,499,361 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock worth $4,073,547,000 after purchasing an additional 7,419,929 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Pfizer by 13.2% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 59,828,849 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock worth $3,097,341,000 after purchasing an additional 6,972,650 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC bought a new position in shares of Pfizer during the 1st quarter worth approximately $311,238,000. 67.80% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Pfizer Price Performance

Shares of Pfizer stock traded down $0.35 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $35.00. The companys stock had a trading volume of 25,310,601 shares, compared to its average volume of 24,501,988. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $37.41 and a 200-day moving average price of $39.83. Pfizer Inc. has a one year low of $34.92 and a one year high of $54.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.11. The stock has a market cap of $197.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.40, a P/E/G ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 0.60.

Pfizer Announces Dividend

Pfizer ( NYSE:PFE Get Free Report ) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, August 1st. The biopharmaceutical company reported $0.67 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.10. Pfizer had a net margin of 27.55% and a return on equity of 28.55%. The company had revenue of $12.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $13.36 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.04 earnings per share. Pfizers revenue for the quarter was down 54.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that Pfizer Inc. will post 3.34 EPS for the current year.

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 5th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 28th will be paid a $0.41 dividend. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.69%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 27th. Pfizers dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 43.62%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Pfizer news, Director Scott Gottlieb purchased 1,000 shares of Pfizer stock in a transaction on Friday, May 5th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $38.42 per share, with a total value of $38,420.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 5,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $192,100. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.05% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently commented on PFE. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on Pfizer from $42.00 to $40.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Daiwa Capital Markets downgraded Pfizer from an outperform rating to a neutral rating and set a $38.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Thursday, May 11th. StockNews.com downgraded Pfizer from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Friday, June 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an overweight rating on shares of Pfizer in a research report on Wednesday, May 17th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Pfizer from $45.00 to $41.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 17th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $46.35.

Read Our Latest Analysis on PFE

About Pfizer

(Free Report)

Pfizer Inc discovers, develops, manufactures, markets, distributes, and sells biopharmaceutical products worldwide. It offers medicines and vaccines in various therapeutic areas, including cardiovascular metabolic, migraine, and women's health under the Eliquis, Nurtec ODT/Vydura, and the Premarin family brands; infectious diseases with unmet medical needs under the Prevnar family, Nimenrix, FSME/IMMUN-TicoVac, and Trumenba brands; and COVID-19 prevention and treatment, and potential future mRNA and antiviral products under the Comirnaty and Paxlovid brands.

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Rayonier (NYSE:RYN  Get Free Report) announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday. The real estate investment trust reported $0.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.09 by ($0.04), Briefing.com reports. Rayonier had a return on equity of 3.44% and a net margin of 9.94%. The business had revenue of $208.90 million during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $210.18 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.16 earnings per share. The firms revenue was down 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. Rayonier updated its FY 2023 guidance to $0.30-$0.40 EPS.

Rayonier Stock Performance

RYN traded up $0.30 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $32.52. The companys stock had a trading volume of 699,210 shares, compared to its average volume of 457,380. Rayonier has a twelve month low of $27.81 and a twelve month high of $38.24. The stock has a market cap of $4.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 56.07 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $30.98 and a 200 day simple moving average of $32.20. The company has a current ratio of 1.94, a quick ratio of 1.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.82.

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Rayonier Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 15th will be issued a $0.285 dividend. This represents a $1.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.51%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 14th. Rayoniers dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 196.55%.

Institutional Trading of Rayonier

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Point72 Middle East FZE acquired a new stake in shares of Rayonier during the 4th quarter worth approximately $82,000. Captrust Financial Advisors acquired a new stake in Rayonier in the 2nd quarter valued at $105,000. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC acquired a new stake in Rayonier in the 1st quarter valued at $250,000. CENTRAL TRUST Co boosted its stake in Rayonier by 5.2% in the 3rd quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co now owns 6,097 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $183,000 after buying an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GSA Capital Partners LLP acquired a new stake in Rayonier in the 4th quarter valued at $206,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.93% of the companys stock.

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on RYN. TheStreet downgraded Rayonier from a b- rating to a c+ rating in a research note on Thursday, May 11th. Truist Financial initiated coverage on Rayonier in a research note on Monday, May 15th. They issued a hold rating and a $33.00 price objective on the stock. 51job reissued a reiterates rating on shares of Rayonier in a research note on Wednesday, June 28th. Citigroup cut their price objective on Rayonier from $39.00 to $36.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 6th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Rayonier from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note on Thursday, July 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and two have issued a hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Rayonier has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $34.50.

Read Our Latest Research Report on Rayonier

Rayonier Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Rayonier is a leading timberland real estate investment trust with assets located in some of the most productive softwood timber growing regions in the United States and New Zealand. As of March 31, 2023, Rayonier owned or leased under long-term agreements approximately 2.8 million acres of timberlands located in the U.S.

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Sculati Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM  Free Report) by 6.3% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 9,770 shares of the CRM providers stock after acquiring an additional 583 shares during the quarter. Sculati Wealth Management LLCs holdings in Salesforce were worth $1,952,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Arcadia Investment Management Corp MI lifted its holdings in Salesforce by 41.1% during the 1st quarter. Arcadia Investment Management Corp MI now owns 1,450 shares of the CRM providers stock worth $290,000 after purchasing an additional 422 shares in the last quarter. Moisand Fitzgerald Tamayo LLC raised its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 61.0% in the 1st quarter. Moisand Fitzgerald Tamayo LLC now owns 264 shares of the CRM providers stock valued at $53,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. JGP Global Gestao de Recursos Ltda. purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 1st quarter valued at about $4,448,000. Wilbanks Smith & Thomas Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 9.9% in the 1st quarter. Wilbanks Smith & Thomas Asset Management LLC now owns 63,551 shares of the CRM providers stock valued at $12,696,000 after acquiring an additional 5,747 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Transatlantique Private Wealth LLC raised its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 34.9% in the 1st quarter. Transatlantique Private Wealth LLC now owns 14,765 shares of the CRM providers stock valued at $2,932,000 after acquiring an additional 3,817 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 81.13% of the companys stock.

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Insider Transactions at Salesforce

In other Salesforce news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 500,000 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $209.14, for a total transaction of $104,570,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 16,671,609 shares of the companys stock, valued at $3,486,700,306.26. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Salesforce news, insider Srinivas Tallapragada sold 150,344 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $210.62, for a total value of $31,665,453.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 55,962 shares of the companys stock, valued at $11,786,716.44. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Marc Benioff sold 500,000 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $209.14, for a total transaction of $104,570,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 16,671,609 shares of the companys stock, valued at $3,486,700,306.26. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 1,079,743 shares of company stock valued at $230,372,097. 3.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Salesforce Trading Down 2.2 %

NYSE CRM traded down $4.95 on Thursday, reaching $215.55. The stock had a trading volume of 5,514,775 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,413,760. The firm has a market capitalization of $209.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 580.28, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Salesforce, Inc. has a 12-month low of $126.34 and a 12-month high of $238.22. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $217.05 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $195.08.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM  Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 31st. The CRM provider reported $1.69 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $1.61 by $0.08. Salesforce had a return on equity of 5.75% and a net margin of 1.18%. The business had revenue of $8.25 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.17 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.41 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Salesforce, Inc. will post 5.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CRM has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Northland Securities raised their price target on Salesforce from $181.00 to $210.00 in a report on Thursday, June 1st. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on Salesforce from $200.00 to $210.00 in a research report on Thursday, June 1st. Roth Capital reiterated a buy rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, June 1st. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on Salesforce from $230.00 to $240.00 in a research report on Thursday, June 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered Salesforce from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating and raised their price target for the stock from $251.00 to $278.00 in a research report on Monday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $224.56.

Read Our Latest Report on Salesforce

Salesforce Profile

(Free Report)

Salesforce, Inc provides Customer Relationship Management (CRM) technology that brings companies and customers together worldwide. The company's service includes sales to store data, monitor leads and progress, forecast opportunities, gain insights through analytics and relationship intelligence, and deliver quotes, contracts, and invoices; and service that enables companies to deliver trusted and highly personalized customer service and support at scale.

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Sculati Wealth Management LLC decreased its position in The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO  Free Report) by 17.2% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 23,276 shares of the companys stock after selling 4,827 shares during the quarter. Sculati Wealth Management LLCs holdings in Coca-Cola were worth $1,444,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Fairfield Bush & CO. acquired a new stake in Coca-Cola during the first quarter worth $77,000. Merit Financial Group LLC boosted its stake in Coca-Cola by 16.7% during the first quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 12,227 shares of the companys stock worth $758,000 after buying an additional 1,754 shares in the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Coca-Cola by 41.4% during the first quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 149,275 shares of the companys stock worth $9,255,000 after buying an additional 43,680 shares in the last quarter. Ergoteles LLC boosted its stake in Coca-Cola by 385.3% during the first quarter. Ergoteles LLC now owns 19,032 shares of the companys stock worth $1,180,000 after buying an additional 15,110 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp boosted its stake in Coca-Cola by 11.9% during the first quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 2,840,557 shares of the companys stock worth $176,115,000 after buying an additional 301,804 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.61% of the companys stock.

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Insider Activity at Coca-Cola

In other Coca-Cola news, CMO Manuel Arroyo sold 734 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.40, for a total transaction of $46,535.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 114,580 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $7,264,372. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, CMO Manuel Arroyo sold 734 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.40, for a total value of $46,535.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 114,580 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $7,264,372. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Beatriz R. Perez sold 50,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $62.66, for a total value of $3,133,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 143,383 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $8,984,378.78. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 67,684 shares of company stock worth $4,264,844. 1.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Coca-Cola Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of KO stock traded down $0.33 on Thursday, reaching $61.63. The company had a trading volume of 8,037,551 shares, compared to its average volume of 13,437,526. The company has a current ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29. The stock has a market cap of $266.51 billion, a PE ratio of 25.40, a PEG ratio of 3.62 and a beta of 0.54. The company has a 50-day moving average of $60.94 and a 200-day moving average of $61.29. The Coca-Cola Company has a 12 month low of $54.01 and a 12 month high of $65.47.

Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO  Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 26th. The company reported $0.78 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $0.72 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $12 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $11.74 billion. Coca-Cola had a return on equity of 43.06% and a net margin of 23.81%. Coca-Colas revenue was up 6.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.70 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that The Coca-Cola Company will post 2.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Coca-Cola Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, October 2nd. Investors of record on Friday, September 15th will be given a $0.46 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 14th. This represents a $1.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.99%. Coca-Colas dividend payout ratio is presently 75.72%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on shares of Coca-Cola from $61.00 to $63.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 25th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Coca-Cola in a research note on Thursday, May 18th. They issued a buy rating on the stock. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Coca-Cola from $69.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Friday, July 28th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Coca-Cola from $69.00 to $70.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 27th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Coca-Cola from $71.00 to $74.00 in a research note on Monday, April 24th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $68.33.

Read Our Latest Report on KO

About Coca-Cola

(Free Report)

The Coca-Cola Company, a beverage company, manufactures, markets, and sells various nonalcoholic beverages worldwide. The company provides sparkling soft drinks, sparkling flavors; water, sports, coffee, and tea; juice, value-added dairy, and plant-based beverages; and other beverages. It also offers beverage concentrates and syrups, as well as fountain syrups to fountain retailers, such as restaurants and convenience stores.

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Spirit AeroSystems (NYSE:SPR  Get Free Report) announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday. The aerospace company reported ($1.46) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of ($0.79) by ($0.67), Briefing.com reports. The business had revenue of $1.37 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.31 billion. Spirit AeroSystems had a negative net margin of 14.64% and a negative return on equity of 365.67%. The firms revenue for the quarter was up 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned ($1.21) EPS.

Spirit AeroSystems Price Performance

Shares of NYSE SPR traded down $0.51 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $22.35. The companys stock had a trading volume of 12,403,921 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,633,199. Spirit AeroSystems has a 52 week low of $20.60 and a 52 week high of $38.55. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $28.99 and a two-hundred day moving average of $30.75. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.35 billion, a PE ratio of -3.02 and a beta of 1.64.

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Institutional Investors Weigh In On Spirit AeroSystems

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of SPR. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its stake in Spirit AeroSystems by 42.9% in the first quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 45,808 shares of the aerospace companys stock worth $1,473,000 after purchasing an additional 13,755 shares in the last quarter. Penn Capital Management Company LLC boosted its position in Spirit AeroSystems by 13.6% during the 1st quarter. Penn Capital Management Company LLC now owns 567,423 shares of the aerospace companys stock valued at $19,644,000 after acquiring an additional 67,893 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP purchased a new stake in shares of Spirit AeroSystems during the 1st quarter valued at $18,563,000. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Spirit AeroSystems by 4.0% during the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,441,128 shares of the aerospace companys stock valued at $49,762,000 after purchasing an additional 55,611 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Greenland Capital Management LP lifted its holdings in shares of Spirit AeroSystems by 13.8% during the 1st quarter. Greenland Capital Management LP now owns 37,000 shares of the aerospace companys stock valued at $1,278,000 after purchasing an additional 4,500 shares during the last quarter. 89.07% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently issued reports on SPR shares. StockNews.com raised Spirit AeroSystems from a sell rating to a hold rating in a report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on Spirit AeroSystems from $27.00 to $22.00 and set an underweight rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on Spirit AeroSystems from $32.00 to $26.00 and set a sector perform rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Truist Financial cut Spirit AeroSystems from a buy rating to a hold rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $42.00 to $25.00 in a report on Thursday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut Spirit AeroSystems from a buy rating to a neutral rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $45.00 to $30.00 in a report on Wednesday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Spirit AeroSystems presently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $32.43.

Check Out Our Latest Stock Analysis on SPR

Spirit AeroSystems Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Spirit AeroSystems Holdings, Inc engages in the design, engineering, manufacture, and marketing of commercial aerostructures worldwide. It operates through three segments: Commercial, Defense & Space, and Aftermarket. The Commercial segment offers forward, mid, and rear fuselage sections and systems, nacelles, struts/pylons, horizontal and vertical stabilizers, flaps and slats flight control surfaces, wing structures, and fully functional and tested wing systems.

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Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. (NYSE:RGR  Get Free Report) announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday. The company reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $0.80 by $0.11, Briefing.com reports. Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. had a net margin of 12.52% and a return on equity of 20.35%. The firm had revenue of $142.80 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $137.91 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.17 earnings per share. The firms revenue was up 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year.

Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. Price Performance

Shares of RGR stock traded up $2.91 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $55.20. 146,296 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 110,438. The firms 50 day simple moving average is $52.67 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $54.94. Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. has a 1-year low of $49.50 and a 1-year high of $63.21. The firm has a market cap of $977.59 million, a PE ratio of 12.84 and a beta of 0.51.

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Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 30th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 15th will be given a dividend of $0.36 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 14th. Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc.s payout ratio is 31.45%.

Insider Activity

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

In other news, CEO Christopher John Killoy sold 10,105 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.02, for a total transaction of $535,767.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 50,827 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $2,694,847.54. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website . Insiders own 2.30% of the companys stock.

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new stake in Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. grew its stake in Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. by 44.7% in the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,139 shares of the companys stock worth $79,000 after acquiring an additional 352 shares during the period. Morgan Dempsey Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. by 23.0% in the 1st quarter. Morgan Dempsey Capital Management LLC now owns 1,341 shares of the companys stock worth $93,000 after acquiring an additional 251 shares during the period. Fortis Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. in the 4th quarter worth approximately $114,000. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors grew its stake in Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. by 27.5% in the 1st quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 2,118 shares of the companys stock worth $147,000 after acquiring an additional 457 shares during the period. 64.94% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. in a research report on Thursday, May 18th. They set a buy rating for the company.

View Our Latest Research Report on RGR

About Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc.

(Get Free Report)

Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, and sells firearms under the Ruger name and trademark in the United States. It operates through two segments, Firearms and Castings. The company provides single-shot, autoloading, bolt-action, and sporting rifles; rimfire and centerfire autoloading pistols; single-action and double-action revolvers; and firearms accessories and replacement parts, as well as manufactures lever-action rifles under the Marlin name and trademark.

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Stairway Partners LLC grew its stake in Vanguard FTSE Europe ETF (NYSEARCA:VGK  Free Report) by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 814,558 shares of the exchange traded funds stock after buying an additional 5,586 shares during the period. Vanguard FTSE Europe ETF accounts for 4.3% of Stairway Partners LLCs investment portfolio, making the stock its 8th largest holding. Stairway Partners LLC owned about 0.28% of Vanguard FTSE Europe ETF worth $50,258,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Apella Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Vanguard FTSE Europe ETF during the 2nd quarter worth $401,000. Invictus Private Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in Vanguard FTSE Europe ETF during the 1st quarter worth $20,682,000. EP Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Vanguard FTSE Europe ETF during the 1st quarter worth $3,518,000. Empower Advisory Group LLC acquired a new stake in Vanguard FTSE Europe ETF during the 1st quarter worth $454,000. Finally, Toroso Investments LLC boosted its stake in Vanguard FTSE Europe ETF by 791.7% during the 1st quarter. Toroso Investments LLC now owns 38,886 shares of the exchange traded funds stock worth $2,370,000 after purchasing an additional 34,525 shares during the period.

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Vanguard FTSE Europe ETF Stock Down 0.3 %

NYSEARCA:VGK traded down $0.18 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $61.47. 2,815,738 shares of the companys stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,254,110. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.10 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a 50-day moving average of $61.88 and a 200 day moving average of $61.35. Vanguard FTSE Europe ETF has a 1-year low of $44.99 and a 1-year high of $63.81.

About Vanguard FTSE Europe ETF

Vanguard European Stock Index Fund is an exchange-traded fund. The Fund seeks to track the performance of a benchmark index that measures the investment return of stocks issued by Companies located in the markets of Europe. The Fund on focuses indexing investment approach by investing all, or substantially all, of its assets in the common stocks included in the FTSE Developed Europe All Cap Index.

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StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of American Equity Investment Life (NYSE:AEL  Free Report) in a report published on Monday. The firm issued a hold rating on the financial services providers stock.

A number of other analysts have also weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on American Equity Investment Life from $48.00 to $43.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 12th. Raymond James lowered American Equity Investment Life from a strong-buy rating to a market perform rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 28th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered American Equity Investment Life from an outperform rating to a sector perform rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $50.00 to $55.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 5th. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on American Equity Investment Life from $39.00 to $44.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 10th. Finally, Truist Financial lowered American Equity Investment Life from a buy rating to a hold rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $49.00 to $55.00 in a research report on Friday, July 14th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $47.38.

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Check Out Our Latest Analysis on American Equity Investment Life

American Equity Investment Life Stock Down 0.0 %

NYSE:AEL opened at $53.51 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 0.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The stocks fifty day moving average is $48.04 and its two-hundred day moving average is $43.05. American Equity Investment Life has a 52 week low of $28.05 and a 52 week high of $54.30. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.12 and a beta of 0.96.

American Equity Investment Life (NYSE:AEL  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 9th. The financial services provider reported $1.47 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $1.15 by $0.32. American Equity Investment Life had a return on equity of 12.84% and a net margin of 25.84%. The company had revenue of $662.50 million for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $626.02 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.92 earnings per share. The firms revenue was up 348.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that American Equity Investment Life will post 6.48 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On American Equity Investment Life

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in American Equity Investment Life by 132.2% in the second quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 27,015 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $1,408,000 after buying an additional 15,380 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC grew its holdings in shares of American Equity Investment Life by 178.4% during the second quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 127,969 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $6,668,000 after purchasing an additional 82,011 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can purchased a new position in shares of American Equity Investment Life during the second quarter worth about $8,187,000. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D grew its holdings in shares of American Equity Investment Life by 7.2% during the second quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D now owns 60,731 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $3,165,000 after purchasing an additional 4,068 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Portside Wealth Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of American Equity Investment Life during the second quarter worth about $257,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.12% of the companys stock.

American Equity Investment Life Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

American Equity Investment Life Holding Company, through its subsidiaries, provides life insurance products in the United States. The company issues fixed index and rate annuities, as well as single premium immediate annuities. It markets its products through independent agents, including independent marketing organizations, broker/dealers, banks, and registered investment advisors.

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Sarasin & Partners LLP lifted its stake in Archer-Daniels-Midland Company (NYSE:ADM  Free Report) by 33.3% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 80,000 shares of the companys stock after purchasing an additional 20,000 shares during the period. Sarasin & Partners LLPs holdings in Archer-Daniels-Midland were worth $6,373,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Cetera Investment Advisers raised its holdings in Archer-Daniels-Midland by 71.9% in the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 18,699 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,688,000 after acquiring an additional 7,821 shares in the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland in the 1st quarter valued at $277,000. Brighton Jones LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland during the 1st quarter worth $226,000. Candriam Luxembourg S.C.A. grew its stake in shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland by 22.0% during the first quarter. Candriam Luxembourg S.C.A. now owns 31,004 shares of the companys stock worth $2,798,000 after purchasing an additional 5,586 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Baird Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in Archer-Daniels-Midland by 2.1% in the first quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 459,907 shares of the companys stock valued at $41,512,000 after buying an additional 9,327 shares during the last quarter. 78.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. BMO Capital Markets began coverage on Archer-Daniels-Midland in a report on Thursday, April 13th. They set an outperform rating and a $100.00 price target for the company. Barclays lowered their price target on Archer-Daniels-Midland from $99.00 to $95.00 in a report on Thursday, June 1st. StockNews.com raised shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report on Wednesday, July 26th. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland from $98.00 to $90.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 26th. Finally, Roth Mkm started coverage on shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland in a research note on Thursday, June 22nd. They set a buy rating and a $92.00 price target on the stock. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $99.27.

Archer-Daniels-Midland Stock Performance

Shares of ADM traded up $0.58 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $85.55. 3,353,488 shares of the companys stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,041,385. The company has a current ratio of 1.63, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. Archer-Daniels-Midland Company has a fifty-two week low of $69.92 and a fifty-two week high of $98.28. The businesss 50 day moving average is $77.17 and its two-hundred day moving average is $78.68. The firm has a market capitalization of $45.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.42, a P/E/G ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 0.82.

Archer-Daniels-Midland (NYSE:ADM  Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 25th. The company reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.59 by $0.30. Archer-Daniels-Midland had a return on equity of 17.52% and a net margin of 4.14%. The company had revenue of $25.19 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.82 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.15 EPS. The companys revenue was down 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Archer-Daniels-Midland Company will post 7.22 earnings per share for the current year.

Archer-Daniels-Midland Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 6th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 16th will be paid a $0.45 dividend. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.10%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, August 15th. Archer-Daniels-Midlands dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.03%.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Fruit Molly L. Strader sold 1,455 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $86.80, for a total transaction of $126,294.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 10,809 shares of the companys stock, valued at $938,221.20. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 1.20% of the companys stock.

Archer-Daniels-Midland Profile

(Free Report)

Archer-Daniels-Midland Company procures, transports, stores, processes, and merchandises agricultural commodities, products, and ingredients in the United States, Switzerland, the Cayman Islands, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, the United Kingdom, and internationally. The company operates in three segments: Ag Services and Oilseeds, Carbohydrate Solutions, and Nutrition.

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Archer-Daniels-Midland (NYSE:ADM  Free Report) had its target price increased by Argus from $91.00 to $95.00 in a report published on Tuesday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. They currently have a buy rating on the stock.

Several other brokerages have also recently issued reports on ADM. StockNews.com upgraded Archer-Daniels-Midland from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report on Wednesday, July 26th. Barclays decreased their target price on shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland from $99.00 to $95.00 in a report on Thursday, June 1st. Roth Mkm started coverage on shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland in a research report on Thursday, June 22nd. They set a buy rating and a $92.00 price target on the stock. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Archer-Daniels-Midland from $83.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets assumed coverage on Archer-Daniels-Midland in a research report on Thursday, April 13th. They set an outperform rating and a $100.00 price objective for the company. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $99.27.

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Check Out Our Latest Research Report on ADM

Archer-Daniels-Midland Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of ADM stock opened at $84.96 on Tuesday. Archer-Daniels-Midland has a fifty-two week low of $69.92 and a fifty-two week high of $98.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a current ratio of 1.63. The stocks fifty day moving average is $77.17 and its two-hundred day moving average is $78.68. The firm has a market capitalization of $45.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.34, a PEG ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 0.82.

Archer-Daniels-Midland (NYSE:ADM  Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 25th. The company reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.59 by $0.30. The firm had revenue of $25.19 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.82 billion. Archer-Daniels-Midland had a net margin of 4.14% and a return on equity of 17.52%. The companys revenue for the quarter was down 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.15 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Archer-Daniels-Midland will post 7.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Archer-Daniels-Midland Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 6th. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 16th will be issued a $0.45 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 15th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.12%. Archer-Daniels-Midlands dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.03%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Archer-Daniels-Midland

In other Archer-Daniels-Midland news, insider Fruit Molly L. Strader sold 1,455 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $86.80, for a total value of $126,294.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 10,809 shares in the company, valued at $938,221.20. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 1.20% of the companys stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland during the first quarter worth about $26,000. Trust Co. of Vermont increased its holdings in shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland by 135.6% in the 4th quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont now owns 318 shares of the companys stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 183 shares during the period. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC grew its position in Archer-Daniels-Midland by 655.8% during the 4th quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 393 shares of the companys stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 341 shares during the last quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. increased its stake in Archer-Daniels-Midland by 88.1% in the first quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 476 shares of the companys stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 223 shares during the period. Finally, MRP Capital Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland in the first quarter valued at about $40,000. 78.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Archer-Daniels-Midland

(Get Free Report)

Archer-Daniels-Midland Company procures, transports, stores, processes, and merchandises agricultural commodities, products, and ingredients in the United States, Switzerland, the Cayman Islands, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, the United Kingdom, and internationally. The company operates in three segments: Ag Services and Oilseeds, Carbohydrate Solutions, and Nutrition.

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An ambulance and police vehicle are seen on the high school campus in Daejeon where a teacher was stabbed by an intruder, Friday. Yonhap



An unidentified man was arrested after stabbing a high school teacher in the central city of Daejeon on Friday, police said.



The suspect, believed to be in his late 20s, stabbed the teacher multiple times, including in the face and chest, at a high school in the Daedeok district in Daejeon, 139 kilometers from Seoul, at 10:03 a.m.



The suspect was arrested on a street about 7-8 kilometers away from the school at 12:30 p.m., they said.



The teacher, 49, is undergoing urgent surgery after fire authorities found him unconscious and referred him to a hospital, officials said.






Ashtead Group (OTCMKTS:ASHTY  Get Free Report) had its price objective increased by equities researchers at JPMorgan Chase & Co. from GBX 6,200 ($79.60) to GBX 6,300 ($80.88) in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday, FlyOnTheWall reports.

A number of other research analysts have also weighed in on the company. Berenberg Bank raised their price objective on Ashtead Group from GBX 405 ($5.20) to GBX 450 ($5.78) in a research report on Wednesday, May 10th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Ashtead Group from GBX 5,450 ($69.97) to GBX 5,500 ($70.61) in a research report on Thursday, June 15th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on Ashtead Group from GBX 4,460 ($57.26) to GBX 5,100 ($65.48) in a research report on Thursday, June 15th. Finally, Societe Generale began coverage on Ashtead Group in a research report on Wednesday, May 3rd. They set a buy rating for the company.

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Ashtead Group Trading Up 1.5 %

OTCMKTS ASHTY traded up $4.30 on Friday, hitting $296.99. The companys stock had a trading volume of 11,773 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,679. Ashtead Group has a 52-week low of $165.51 and a 52-week high of $300.36. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.10. The companys 50-day simple moving average is $275.12 and its 200 day simple moving average is $258.70. The firm has a market cap of $32.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.29, a PEG ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 1.81.

About Ashtead Group

Ashtead Group ( OTCMKTS:ASHTY Get Free Report ) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, June 13th. The company reported $3.35 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $3.22 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $2.13 billion during the quarter. Ashtead Group had a return on equity of 30.50% and a net margin of 17.30%. Research analysts predict that Ashtead Group will post 17.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

(Get Free Report)

Ashtead Group plc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the construction, industrial, and general equipment rental business in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. It provides pumps, power generation, heating, cooling, scaffolding, traffic management, temporary flooring, trench shoring, and lifting services.

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Auckland International Airport Limited (OTCMKTS:AUKNY  Get Free Report)s stock price traded down 4.6% during trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as $24.45 and last traded at $24.45. 313 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 64% from the average session volume of 878 shares. The stock had previously closed at $25.62.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Citigroup upgraded Auckland International Airport from a sell rating to a neutral rating in a research report on Monday, June 12th.

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Auckland International Airport Stock Performance

Auckland International Airport Company Profile

The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $25.67 and a 200-day simple moving average of $26.45.

(Get Free Report)

Auckland International Airport Limited provides airport facilities, supporting infrastructure, and aeronautical services in Auckland, New Zealand. The company operates through three segments: Aeronautical, Retail, and Property. The Aeronautical segment provides services that facilitate the movement of aircraft, passengers, and cargo, as well as utility services, which support the airport; and leases space for facilities, such as terminals.

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Zelman & Associates upgraded shares of Beazer Homes USA (NYSE:BZH  Free Report) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note released on Monday, FlyOnTheWall reports.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on BZH. B. Riley lifted their target price on shares of Beazer Homes USA from $28.00 to $38.00 in a report on Friday, July 28th. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Beazer Homes USA in a research report on Thursday, May 18th. They issued a hold rating on the stock. Sidoti lowered shares of Beazer Homes USA from a buy rating to a neutral rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $23.00 to $31.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 12th. Finally, Wedbush upgraded shares of Beazer Homes USA from a neutral rating to an outperform rating and set a $31.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, June 28th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $33.33.

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Beazer Homes USA Stock Down 2.4 %

Shares of Beazer Homes USA stock opened at $33.06 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.55, a current ratio of 15.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94. Beazer Homes USA has a 52-week low of $9.47 and a 52-week high of $35.93. The company has a 50 day moving average of $26.03 and a 200 day moving average of $19.82. The company has a market capitalization of $1.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.36 and a beta of 2.30.

Beazer Homes USA (NYSE:BZH  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 27th. The construction company reported $1.42 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $0.88 by $0.54. Beazer Homes USA had a net margin of 7.94% and a return on equity of 18.66%. The company had revenue of $572.54 million for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $512.26 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.76 earnings per share. The firms revenue for the quarter was up 8.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Beazer Homes USA will post 4.64 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Beazer Homes USA

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC lifted its holdings in Beazer Homes USA by 83.4% in the 3rd quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 3,007 shares of the construction companys stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 1,367 shares in the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC increased its stake in shares of Beazer Homes USA by 159.7% during the 2nd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,070 shares of the construction companys stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 658 shares during the last quarter. Dark Forest Capital Management LP acquired a new position in shares of Beazer Homes USA during the 1st quarter valued at about $31,000. Captrust Financial Advisors increased its stake in shares of Beazer Homes USA by 60.3% during the 2nd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 2,618 shares of the construction companys stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 985 shares during the last quarter. Finally, New York State Teachers Retirement System acquired a new position in shares of Beazer Homes USA during the 4th quarter valued at about $34,000. 77.62% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Beazer Homes USA Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Beazer Homes USA, Inc operates as a homebuilder in the United States. It designs, constructs, and sells single-family and multi-family homes under the Beazer Homes, Gatherings, and Choice Plans names. The company sells its homes through commissioned new home sales counselors and independent brokers in Arizona, California, Nevada, Texas, Indiana, Delaware, Maryland, Tennessee, Virginia, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.

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Bellwether Advisors LLC raised its stake in Boston Scientific Co. (NYSE:BSX  Free Report) by 24.1% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 48,337 shares of the medical equipment providers stock after buying an additional 9,376 shares during the quarter. Bellwether Advisors LLCs holdings in Boston Scientific were worth $2,418,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Householder Group Estate & Retirement Specialist LLC bought a new position in Boston Scientific in the 1st quarter valued at $26,000. Asset Dedication LLC boosted its holdings in Boston Scientific by 109.5% in the first quarter. Asset Dedication LLC now owns 551 shares of the medical equipment providers stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 288 shares during the last quarter. BerganKDV Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Boston Scientific by 44.3% in the first quarter. BerganKDV Wealth Management LLC now owns 658 shares of the medical equipment providers stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 202 shares during the period. Baldwin Brothers LLC MA bought a new stake in Boston Scientific during the 4th quarter worth about $34,000. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in Boston Scientific during the 1st quarter valued at about $35,000. 92.20% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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Insider Buying and Selling at Boston Scientific

In other Boston Scientific news, EVP Wendy Carruthers sold 11,671 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.24, for a total value of $621,364.04. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 72,847 shares in the company, valued at $3,878,374.28. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In related news, EVP Joseph Michael Fitzgerald sold 63,339 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.60, for a total value of $3,394,970.40. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 213,859 shares in the company, valued at $11,462,842.40. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Wendy Carruthers sold 11,671 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.24, for a total transaction of $621,364.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 72,847 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,878,374.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 93,378 shares of company stock worth $4,993,445 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.71% of the companys stock.

Boston Scientific Stock Performance

Boston Scientific stock traded down $0.04 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $50.84. The companys stock had a trading volume of 3,483,131 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,065,468. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 0.89. The company has a market cap of $71.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 84.78, a PEG ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 0.79. Boston Scientific Co. has a 1-year low of $37.74 and a 1-year high of $54.74. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $52.50 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $50.37.

Boston Scientific (NYSE:BSX  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 27th. The medical equipment provider reported $0.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $3.60 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $3.50 billion. Boston Scientific had a return on equity of 15.31% and a net margin of 6.81%. The firms revenue for the quarter was up 10.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.44 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Boston Scientific Co. will post 1.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. CL King began coverage on shares of Boston Scientific in a report on Friday, June 30th. They issued a buy rating and a $64.00 price objective on the stock. StockNews.com began coverage on Boston Scientific in a report on Thursday, May 18th. They issued a buy rating for the company. Mizuho raised their target price on Boston Scientific from $52.00 to $56.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 18th. Needham & Company LLC upped their price target on Boston Scientific from $57.00 to $61.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Friday, July 28th. Finally, 22nd Century Group restated an initiates rating on shares of Boston Scientific in a report on Friday, June 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of Buy and a consensus price target of $58.35.

Read Our Latest Research Report on Boston Scientific

Boston Scientific Profile

(Free Report)

Boston Scientific Corporation develops, manufactures, and markets medical devices for use in various interventional medical specialties worldwide. It operates through MedSurg and Cardiovascular segments. The company offers devices to diagnose and treat gastrointestinal and pulmonary conditions; devices to treat various urological and pelvic conditions; implantable cardioverter and implantable cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillators; pacemakers and implantable cardiac resynchronization therapy pacemakers; and remote patient management systems.

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Dunelm Group (OTCMKTS:DNLMY  Get Free Report) had its price target boosted by investment analysts at Berenberg Bank from GBX 1,330 ($17.08) to GBX 1,340 ($17.20) in a research report issued on Wednesday, FlyOnTheWall reports.

Other research analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their target price on Dunelm Group from GBX 1,313 ($16.86) to GBX 1,310 ($16.82) in a research note on Friday, July 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Dunelm Group from GBX 1,150 ($14.76) to GBX 1,190 ($15.28) in a research report on Wednesday, June 28th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada downgraded Dunelm Group from a sector perform rating to an underperform rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 4th.

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Dunelm Group Stock Performance

About Dunelm Group

Shares of OTCMKTS DNLMY opened at $14.28 on Wednesday. Dunelm Group has a 52 week low of $7.87 and a 52 week high of $15.15. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $14.13 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $13.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18, a quick ratio of 0.26 and a current ratio of 1.06.

(Get Free Report)

Dunelm Group plc retails homewares in the United Kingdom. The company offers furniture and beds products, which include bedroom, living room, dining room, and other furniture, as well as bed and mattresses, and sofas and chairs; bedding products comprising bed linen, dorma, baby and kid's bedding, and duvets, pillows and protectors; curtains and rugs; and venetian, roller, roman, vertical, and made to measure blinds.

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Royal Bank of Canada lowered shares of Canadian National Railway (NYSE:CNI  Free Report) (TSE:CNR) from an outperform rating to a sector perform rating in a research report released on Monday morning, Marketbeat.com reports.

A number of other analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Raymond James reduced their price target on Canadian National Railway from C$190.00 to C$180.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 26th. National Bank Financial reduced their target price on Canadian National Railway from C$173.00 to C$171.00 in a report on Tuesday, July 25th. Credit Suisse Group upped their price objective on Canadian National Railway from $126.00 to $133.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 25th. Morgan Stanley raised Canadian National Railway from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating in a research note on Thursday, May 4th. Finally, Scotiabank upped their price objective on shares of Canadian National Railway from C$169.00 to C$172.00 in a research report on Thursday, May 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Canadian National Railway has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $145.71.

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Canadian National Railway Price Performance

Canadian National Railway Increases Dividend

CNI opened at $117.20 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $77.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.07, a PEG ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 0.90. Canadian National Railway has a 1 year low of $103.79 and a 1 year high of $129.89. The company has a current ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $117.60 and a 200 day moving average price of $118.19.

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 8th will be paid a dividend of $0.5996 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 7th. This is a positive change from Canadian National Railways previous quarterly dividend of $0.58. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.05%. Canadian National Railways dividend payout ratio is 40.58%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Canadian National Railway

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CNI. Scotia Capital Inc. grew its position in Canadian National Railway by 4.6% in the second quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. now owns 2,390,650 shares of the transportation companys stock valued at $289,192,000 after acquiring an additional 105,822 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia Trust Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Canadian National Railway by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia Trust Co. now owns 292,382 shares of the transportation companys stock valued at $35,399,000 after buying an additional 1,964 shares during the last quarter. CWM LLC lifted its holdings in Canadian National Railway by 13.8% in the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 2,728 shares of the transportation companys stock worth $330,000 after purchasing an additional 331 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its position in Canadian National Railway by 4.6% in the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 149,424 shares of the transportation companys stock worth $18,102,000 after buying an additional 6,511 shares during the period. Finally, Hartline Investment Corp grew its position in Canadian National Railway by 5.4% in the second quarter. Hartline Investment Corp now owns 5,058 shares of the transportation companys stock valued at $612,000 after acquiring an additional 258 shares during the period. 64.89% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Canadian National Railway

(Get Free Report)

Canadian National Railway Company, together with its subsidiaries, engages in rail and related transportation business. The company offers rail services, which include equipment, custom brokage services, transloading and distribution, business development and real estate, and private car storage services; and intermodal services including temperature controlled cargo, port partnership, transloading and distribution, logistic parks, customs brokerage, trucking, and moving grains in containers.

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StockNews.com began coverage on shares of China Pharma (NYSE:CPHI  Free Report) in a report released on Monday. The firm issued a hold rating on the stock.

China Pharma Stock Performance

CPHI opened at $0.28 on Monday. China Pharma has a one year low of $0.23 and a one year high of $2.60. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $0.35.

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China Pharma (NYSE:CPHI  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 12th. The company reported ($0.06) EPS for the quarter. China Pharma had a negative net margin of 40.43% and a negative return on equity of 86.48%. The business had revenue of $1.96 million during the quarter.

China Pharma Company Profile

China Pharma Holdings, Inc develops, manufactures, and markets generic and branded pharmaceutical, and biochemical products primarily to hospitals and private retailers in the People's Republic of China. The company offers products in the form of dry powder injectables, liquid injectables, tablets, capsules, and cephalosporin oral solutions.

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Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV  Free Report) had its target price cut by Citigroup from $39.00 to $36.00 in a report released on Monday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a neutral rating on the airlines stock.

Other analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of Southwest Airlines from $32.00 to $40.00 in a report on Tuesday, July 11th. Raymond James downgraded shares of Southwest Airlines from a strong-buy rating to an outperform rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $47.00 to $40.00 in a report on Friday, July 28th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded shares of Southwest Airlines from a buy rating to a hold rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $52.00 to $38.00 in a report on Friday, July 28th. Bank of America downgraded shares of Southwest Airlines from a buy rating to a neutral rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $45.00 to $35.00 in a report on Thursday, July 27th. Finally, 22nd Century Group reiterated a maintains rating on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research note on Monday, June 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $38.81.

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View Our Latest Stock Analysis on Southwest Airlines

Southwest Airlines Stock Performance

LUV stock opened at $32.26 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. The company has a market capitalization of $19.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.66, a P/E/G ratio of 0.39 and a beta of 1.17. Southwest Airlines has a 12 month low of $28.40 and a 12 month high of $40.39. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $34.27 and a two-hundred day moving average of $33.15.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV  Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 27th. The airline reported $1.09 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.08 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $7.04 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.98 billion. Southwest Airlines had a net margin of 2.31% and a return on equity of 5.81%. The companys revenue for the quarter was up 4.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.30 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Southwest Airlines will post 2.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Southwest Airlines Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 27th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 6th will be issued a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 5th. Southwest Airliness dividend payout ratio is currently 81.82%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of LUV. Roundview Capital LLC boosted its stake in shares of Southwest Airlines by 21.2% in the 1st quarter. Roundview Capital LLC now owns 13,336 shares of the airlines stock valued at $611,000 after purchasing an additional 2,335 shares during the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Southwest Airlines in the 1st quarter valued at about $403,000. APG Asset Management N.V. boosted its stake in shares of Southwest Airlines by 16.6% in the 1st quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. now owns 6,335 shares of the airlines stock valued at $261,000 after purchasing an additional 900 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. boosted its stake in shares of Southwest Airlines by 5.3% in the 1st quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. now owns 12,187 shares of the airlines stock valued at $559,000 after purchasing an additional 615 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cibc World Market Inc. raised its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 3.2% in the 1st quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. now owns 40,189 shares of the airlines stock valued at $1,841,000 after acquiring an additional 1,246 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.81% of the companys stock.

Southwest Airlines Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Southwest Airlines Co operates as a passenger airline company that provide scheduled air transportation services in the United States and near-international markets. As of December 31, 2022, the company operated a total fleet of 770 Boeing 737 aircrafts; and served 121 destinations in 42 states, the District of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, as well as ten near-international countries, including Mexico, Jamaica, the Bahamas, Aruba, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Belize, Cuba, the Cayman Islands, and Turks and Caicos.

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Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLC cut its stake in shares of Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY  Free Report) by 7.9% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,729 shares of the companys stock after selling 403 shares during the period. Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLCs holdings in Eli Lilly and Company were worth $1,624,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in LLY. Fairfield Bush & CO. purchased a new stake in Eli Lilly and Company in the 1st quarter worth $107,000. Roundview Capital LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Eli Lilly and Company by 2.6% in the 1st quarter. Roundview Capital LLC now owns 2,056 shares of the companys stock valued at $589,000 after acquiring an additional 53 shares during the last quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in Eli Lilly and Company in the first quarter worth about $210,000. NewEdge Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Eli Lilly and Company by 9.9% in the first quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 53,052 shares of the companys stock worth $15,193,000 after purchasing an additional 4,774 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Barometer Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Eli Lilly and Company during the first quarter worth approximately $561,000. 87.25% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Insider Buying and Selling at Eli Lilly and Company

In other Eli Lilly and Company news, CAO Donald A. Zakrowski sold 600 shares of the companys stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $435.29, for a total transaction of $261,174.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 5,978 shares of the companys stock, valued at $2,602,163.62. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other news, CAO Donald A. Zakrowski sold 600 shares of Eli Lilly and Company stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $435.29, for a total value of $261,174.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 5,978 shares of the companys stock, valued at $2,602,163.62. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Lilly Endowment Inc sold 194,354 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Friday, May 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $442.62, for a total transaction of $86,024,967.48. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 101,473,810 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,914,337,782.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 568,254 shares of company stock valued at $258,314,906. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Eli Lilly and Company Stock Up 0.1 %

Eli Lilly and Company Dividend Announcement

LLY stock opened at $449.68 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $450.30 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $392.38. The firm has a market cap of $426.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 71.41, a PEG ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 1.02. Eli Lilly and Company has a 1-year low of $296.32 and a 1-year high of $469.87.

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 8th. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 15th will be given a $1.13 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 14th. This represents a $4.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.01%. Eli Lilly and Companys dividend payout ratio is presently 71.86%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on LLY shares. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Eli Lilly and Company from $430.00 to $525.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Thursday, July 20th. 3M restated a maintains rating on shares of Eli Lilly and Company in a research report on Friday, April 28th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Eli Lilly and Company from $440.00 to $500.00 in a research note on Friday, May 26th. Credit Suisse Group upped their price objective on shares of Eli Lilly and Company from $420.00 to $490.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 4th. Finally, Guggenheim dropped their price target on shares of Eli Lilly and Company from $395.00 to $392.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $467.45.

Read Our Latest Stock Report on Eli Lilly and Company

Eli Lilly and Company Company Profile

(Free Report)

Eli Lilly and Company discovers, develops, and markets human pharmaceuticals worldwide. It offers Basaglar, Humalog, Humalog Mix 75/25, Humalog U-100, Humalog U-200, Humalog Mix 50/50, insulin lispro, insulin lispro protamine, insulin lispro mix 75/25, Humulin, Humulin 70/30, Humulin N, Humulin R, and Humulin U-500 for diabetes; and Jardiance, Trajenta, and Trulicity for type 2 diabetes.

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CLS Holdings USA (OTCMKTS:CLSH  Get Free Report) had its price objective reduced by equities researchers at Berenberg Bank from GBX 190 ($2.44) to GBX 175 ($2.25) in a research note issued on Friday, FlyOnTheWall reports.

CLS Holdings USA Trading Down 6.0 %

CLSH traded down $0.01 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $0.08. The stock had a trading volume of 19,937 shares, compared to its average volume of 79,426. The stocks fifty day simple moving average is $0.05 and its 200-day simple moving average is $0.06. CLS Holdings USA has a 1-year low of $0.03 and a 1-year high of $0.50.

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About CLS Holdings USA

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Further Reading

CLS Holdings USA, Inc, a diversified cannabis company, focuses on the extraction and conversion of cannabinoids in the United States. It extracts cannabinoids from the cannabis plants and converts into concentrates, such as oils, waxes, edibles, and shatters. The company also sells organic medical cannabis to licensed retailers; recreational marijuana cannabis products to licensed distributors and retailers; extraction products, such as oils and waxes derived from in-house cannabis production; and offers processing and extraction services for licensed medical cannabis cultivators, as well as cannabis strains in the form of vegetative cuttings to licensed medical cannabis cultivators.

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Rep. Park Dae-chul, the ruling People Power Party's chief policymaker, speaks during a meeting with the government officials in Seoul, Aug. 2. Yonhap



The government and the ruling People Power Party (PPP) decided Friday to push for the creation of a sentence of life imprisonment without parole, one day after a stabbing rampage wounded 14 people.



Rep. Park Dae-chul, the PPP's chief policymaker, said the decision was made at a policy coordination meeting between the two sides convened to discuss measures to strengthen punishment for violent crimes and acts of terrorism against strangers.



On Thursday, a man drove a car onto a pedestrian walkway and went on a stabbing rampage in a department store in Bundang, just south of Seoul, wounding 14 people. About two weeks earlier, a 33-year-old man fatally stabbed a complete stranger near Sillim Station in Seoul and then attacked three other men in a nearby alleyway.



"We discussed creating a life sentence without parole to tackle crimes becoming brutal day by day. After the Sillim case ... people's fear and anxiety are growing every day. What's more important than the offender's basic rights is people's daily lives," Park wrote in a Facebook post.



Under Korea's criminal law, offenders sentenced to life imprisonment  which puts the convicted person behind bars for the rest of their life  could be on parole after 20 years in prison.






Coastal Investment Advisors Inc. reduced its stake in shares of Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY  Free Report) by 5.7% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 4,333 shares of the companys stock after selling 264 shares during the period. Coastal Investment Advisors Inc.s holdings in Eli Lilly and Company were worth $1,488,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in LLY. Fairfield Bush & CO. purchased a new stake in shares of Eli Lilly and Company in the first quarter worth approximately $107,000. Roundview Capital LLC boosted its stake in shares of Eli Lilly and Company by 2.6% during the first quarter. Roundview Capital LLC now owns 2,056 shares of the companys stock valued at $589,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares during the period. Merit Financial Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Eli Lilly and Company in the first quarter worth about $210,000. NewEdge Advisors LLC boosted its position in Eli Lilly and Company by 9.9% in the 1st quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 53,052 shares of the companys stock valued at $15,193,000 after buying an additional 4,774 shares during the period. Finally, Barometer Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in Eli Lilly and Company in the 1st quarter worth about $561,000. 87.25% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Insider Transactions at Eli Lilly and Company

In other news, major shareholder Lilly Endowment Inc sold 591 shares of the companys stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $466.62, for a total transaction of $275,772.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 101,028,219 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $47,141,787,549.78. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, major shareholder Lilly Endowment Inc sold 591 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Friday, July 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $466.62, for a total transaction of $275,772.42. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 101,028,219 shares of the companys stock, valued at $47,141,787,549.78. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Patrik Jonsson sold 6,000 shares of Eli Lilly and Company stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $429.46, for a total value of $2,576,760.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 36,941 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,864,681.86. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 568,254 shares of company stock valued at $258,314,906 in the last ninety days. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Eli Lilly and Company Price Performance

Eli Lilly and Company Announces Dividend

Shares of NYSE:LLY traded down $1.54 on Friday, reaching $447.62. 450,406 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,970,120. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67. Eli Lilly and Company has a 1-year low of $296.32 and a 1-year high of $469.87. The firm has a market cap of $424.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 71.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.35. The company has a 50-day moving average of $450.30 and a 200-day moving average of $392.38.

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 8th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 15th will be paid a dividend of $1.13 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 14th. This represents a $4.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.01%. Eli Lilly and Companys dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 71.86%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on LLY. SVB Securities increased their price objective on Eli Lilly and Company from $410.00 to $458.00 in a research note on Monday, May 1st. Truist Financial upped their price target on shares of Eli Lilly and Company from $430.00 to $525.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Thursday, July 20th. Bank of America upped their price target on shares of Eli Lilly and Company from $450.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 24th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Eli Lilly and Company from $440.00 to $500.00 in a research report on Friday, May 26th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their price objective on shares of Eli Lilly and Company from $485.00 to $550.00 in a research note on Tuesday, June 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Eli Lilly and Company currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $467.45.

Check Out Our Latest Report on LLY

Eli Lilly and Company Company Profile

(Free Report)

Eli Lilly and Company discovers, develops, and markets human pharmaceuticals worldwide. It offers Basaglar, Humalog, Humalog Mix 75/25, Humalog U-100, Humalog U-200, Humalog Mix 50/50, insulin lispro, insulin lispro protamine, insulin lispro mix 75/25, Humulin, Humulin 70/30, Humulin N, Humulin R, and Humulin U-500 for diabetes; and Jardiance, Trajenta, and Trulicity for type 2 diabetes.

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Cottonwood Capital Advisors LLC cut its stake in shares of iShares U.S. Regional Banks ETF (NYSEARCA:IAT  Free Report) by 0.9% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 56,199 shares of the companys stock after selling 519 shares during the period. iShares U.S. Regional Banks ETF makes up approximately 1.9% of Cottonwood Capital Advisors LLCs holdings, making the stock its 17th largest holding. Cottonwood Capital Advisors LLC owned about 0.25% of iShares U.S. Regional Banks ETF worth $2,011,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of IAT. Cetera Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of iShares U.S. Regional Banks ETF by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 10,392 shares of the companys stock valued at $495,000 after purchasing an additional 232 shares in the last quarter. Covington Capital Management raised its position in shares of iShares U.S. Regional Banks ETF by 27.2% in the 3rd quarter. Covington Capital Management now owns 1,170 shares of the companys stock valued at $56,000 after purchasing an additional 250 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning raised its position in shares of iShares U.S. Regional Banks ETF by 2.9% in the 4th quarter. Creative Planning now owns 10,622 shares of the companys stock valued at $506,000 after purchasing an additional 304 shares in the last quarter. Family Firm Inc. raised its position in shares of iShares U.S. Regional Banks ETF by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Family Firm Inc. now owns 18,487 shares of the companys stock valued at $881,000 after purchasing an additional 347 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Centaurus Financial Inc. raised its position in shares of iShares U.S. Regional Banks ETF by 19.6% in the 1st quarter. Centaurus Financial Inc. now owns 2,184 shares of the companys stock valued at $129,000 after purchasing an additional 358 shares in the last quarter.

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iShares U.S. Regional Banks ETF Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of IAT traded up $0.40 during trading on Friday, reaching $39.12. The companys stock had a trading volume of 228,428 shares, compared to its average volume of 655,945. The company has a fifty day moving average of $35.32 and a two-hundred day moving average of $39.07. iShares U.S. Regional Banks ETF has a twelve month low of $28.80 and a twelve month high of $56.89. The company has a market cap of $927.14 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.67 and a beta of 1.09.

About iShares U.S. Regional Banks ETF

The iShares U.S. Regional Banks ETF (IAT) is an exchange-traded fund that is based on the DJ US Select \u002F Regional Banks index. The fund tracks the performance of an index of small- and mid-cap regional banks. IAT was launched on May 1, 2006 and is managed by BlackRock.

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Delta Investment Management LLC lowered its stake in shares of TransDigm Group Incorporated (NYSE:TDG  Free Report) by 13.1% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 12,850 shares of the aerospace companys stock after selling 1,934 shares during the quarter. TransDigm Group comprises approximately 2.7% of Delta Investment Management LLCs investment portfolio, making the stock its 9th biggest position. Delta Investment Management LLCs holdings in TransDigm Group were worth $9,471,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Edge Capital Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of TransDigm Group by 116.0% in the 4th quarter. Edge Capital Group LLC now owns 108 shares of the aerospace companys stock valued at $68,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc grew its stake in shares of TransDigm Group by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 16,629 shares of the aerospace companys stock valued at $10,470,000 after buying an additional 137 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd raised its holdings in shares of TransDigm Group by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 4,015 shares of the aerospace companys stock worth $2,528,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares during the period. Texas Permanent School Fund raised its holdings in shares of TransDigm Group by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund now owns 7,339 shares of the aerospace companys stock worth $4,621,000 after purchasing an additional 49 shares during the period. Finally, DnB Asset Management AS raised its holdings in shares of TransDigm Group by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. DnB Asset Management AS now owns 11,750 shares of the aerospace companys stock worth $8,660,000 after purchasing an additional 101 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.10% of the companys stock.

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Insider Buying and Selling at TransDigm Group

In other TransDigm Group news, Director W Nicholas Howley sold 3,250 shares of the companys stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $800.76, for a total transaction of $2,602,470.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 21,548 shares in the company, valued at $17,254,776.48. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In related news, CEO Kevin M. Stein sold 11,833 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $798.13, for a total value of $9,444,272.29. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director W Nicholas Howley sold 3,250 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Monday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $800.76, for a total transaction of $2,602,470.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 21,548 shares in the company, valued at $17,254,776.48. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 57,662 shares of company stock worth $48,370,236 over the last three months. Company insiders own 7.18% of the companys stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

TransDigm Group Stock Up 0.1 %

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of TransDigm Group from $890.00 to $980.00 in a report on Tuesday, May 16th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of TransDigm Group from $725.00 to $840.00 in a report on Thursday, May 11th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of TransDigm Group from $793.00 to $1,000.00 in a report on Monday, May 15th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of TransDigm Group from $840.00 to $930.00 in a report on Sunday, May 14th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their price target on shares of TransDigm Group from $767.00 to $960.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 10th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, TransDigm Group has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $860.13.

NYSE:TDG traded up $0.52 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $896.10. The company had a trading volume of 296,404 shares, compared to its average volume of 287,633. TransDigm Group Incorporated has a 52-week low of $499.63 and a 52-week high of $914.29. The stocks fifty day moving average price is $854.09 and its 200-day moving average price is $781.70. The company has a market capitalization of $49.22 billion, a PE ratio of 54.51, a P/E/G ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 1.38.

TransDigm Group (NYSE:TDG  Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, May 9th. The aerospace company reported $5.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.98 by $1.00. TransDigm Group had a net margin of 17.57% and a negative return on equity of 34.11%. The company had revenue of $1.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.53 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.29 earnings per share. The firms quarterly revenue was up 20.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that TransDigm Group Incorporated will post 21.49 earnings per share for the current year.

TransDigm Group Profile

(Free Report)

TransDigm Group Incorporated designs, produces, and supplies aircraft components in the United States and internationally. Its Power & Control segment offers mechanical/electro-mechanical actuators and controls, ignition systems and engine technology, specialized pumps and valves, power conditioning devices, specialized AC/DC electric motors and generators, batteries and chargers, databus and power controls, sensor products, switches and relay panels, hoists, winches and lifting devices, and cargo loading and handling systems.

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Wilbanks Smith & Thomas Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Devon Energy Co. (NYSE:DVN  Free Report) by 9.2% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 31,422 shares of the energy companys stock after buying an additional 2,658 shares during the period. Wilbanks Smith & Thomas Asset Management LLCs holdings in Devon Energy were worth $1,590,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. WFA of San Diego LLC acquired a new stake in Devon Energy in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Tyler Stone Wealth Management acquired a new stake in Devon Energy in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board acquired a new stake in Devon Energy in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Clearview Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Devon Energy in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Finally, Fortis Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Devon Energy in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Institutional investors own 71.00% of the companys stock.

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Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on DVN. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on Devon Energy from $63.00 to $60.00 and set a sector perform rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 13th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on Devon Energy from $71.00 to $77.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Monday, July 24th. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on Devon Energy from $82.00 to $71.00 in a report on Tuesday, June 13th. Bank of America decreased their target price on Devon Energy from $67.00 to $60.00 in a report on Tuesday, May 9th. Finally, Mizuho decreased their target price on Devon Energy from $71.00 to $65.00 in a report on Friday, May 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, nine 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 $65.53.

Devon Energy Price Performance

NYSE DVN traded up $0.53 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $51.36. 1,518,976 shares of the companys stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 9,112,096. The stock has a market cap of $33.59 billion, a PE ratio of 6.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.18 and a beta of 2.32. Devon Energy Co. has a one year low of $44.03 and a one year high of $78.82. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $49.63 and a 200-day moving average of $52.64. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56.

Devon Energy (NYSE:DVN  Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 1st. The energy company reported $1.18 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts consensus estimates of $1.18. The firm had revenue of $3.45 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.26 billion. Devon Energy had a return on equity of 37.91% and a net margin of 28.10%. The businesss quarterly revenue was down 38.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.59 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Devon Energy Co. will post 5.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Devon Energy Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 15th will be paid a $0.49 dividend. This represents a $1.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.82%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 14th. Devon Energys dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 10.94%.

Devon Energy Profile

(Free Report)

Devon Energy Corporation, an independent energy company, explores for, develops, and produces oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids in the United States. It operates in Delaware, Anadarko, Williston, Eagle Ford, and Powder River Basin. The company was incorporated in 1971 and is headquartered in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

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DHI Group, Inc. (NYSE:DHX  Get Free Report) was the recipient of a large decrease in short interest during the month of July. As of July 15th, there was short interest totalling 353,400 shares, a decrease of 6.5% from the June 30th total of 378,100 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 142,700 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.5 days. Currently, 0.9% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

DHI Group Trading Up 0.8 %

DHX stock opened at $3.92 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 0.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. DHI Group has a twelve month low of $3.00 and a twelve month high of $6.56. The stock has a market capitalization of $185.93 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 56.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.13 and a beta of 1.21. The firms fifty day simple moving average is $3.80 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $4.07.

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DHI Group (NYSE:DHX  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 10th. The technology company reported $0.01 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of ($0.02) by $0.03. DHI Group had a net margin of 2.17% and a return on equity of 1.77%. The company had revenue of $38.62 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $37.78 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.01 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that DHI Group will post 0.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of DHI Group

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. BNP Paribas Arbitrage SA grew its stake in DHI Group by 378,700.0% in the 1st quarter. BNP Paribas Arbitrage SA now owns 7,576 shares of the technology companys stock valued at $45,000 after acquiring an additional 7,574 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new position in DHI Group in the 2nd quarter valued at $40,000. UBS Group AG purchased a new position in DHI Group in the 4th quarter valued at $40,000. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its holdings in DHI Group by 333.8% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 4,247 shares of the technology companys stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 3,268 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can purchased a new position in DHI Group in the 2nd quarter valued at $861,000. 71.28% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

DHX has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. StockNews.com lowered shares of DHI Group from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research note on Friday, May 19th. Lake Street Capital cut their target price on shares of DHI Group from $9.00 to $6.00 in a research report on Thursday, May 11th. B. Riley cut their target price on shares of DHI Group from $9.00 to $7.00 in a research report on Thursday, May 11th. Finally, Barrington Research reaffirmed an outperform rating and set a $10.00 price target on shares of DHI Group in a report on Friday, July 28th.

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About DHI Group

(Get Free Report)

DHI Group, Inc provides data, insights, and employment connections through specialized services for technology professionals in the United States. The company operates Dice that offers job postings of technology and non-technology companies for industries, such as positions for software engineers, big data professionals, systems administrators, database specialists, project managers, and other technology and engineering professionals; and ClearanceJobs, an online career network, which matches security-cleared professionals with hiring companies searching for employees.

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Daiwa Capital Markets lowered shares of Dingdong (Cayman) (NYSE:DDL  Free Report) from a buy rating to a neutral rating in a report released on Monday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. They currently have $2.80 price objective on the stock, down from their prior price objective of $7.50.

Dingdong (Cayman) Stock Performance

Shares of Dingdong (Cayman) stock opened at $2.56 on Monday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $2.85 and a 200-day simple moving average of $3.76. Dingdong has a 1-year low of $2.25 and a 1-year high of $6.90.

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Institutional Trading of Dingdong (Cayman)

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of DDL. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new stake in Dingdong (Cayman) in the 4th quarter valued at $33,000. Citadel Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Dingdong (Cayman) during the 3rd quarter worth about $37,000. Credit Suisse AG acquired a new position in Dingdong (Cayman) during the 4th quarter worth about $45,000. Susquehanna International Group LLP acquired a new position in Dingdong (Cayman) during the 1st quarter valued at about $60,000. Finally, Bayesian Capital Management LP acquired a new position in Dingdong (Cayman) during the 1st quarter valued at about $64,000. 24.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Dingdong (Cayman) Company Profile

Dingdong (Cayman) Limited operates an e-commerce company in China. The company offers fresh groceries, including vegetables, meat and eggs, fruits, and seafood; prepared food, and other food products, such as dairy and bakery products, snacks, oil, seasonings, and beverages. It also operates as a self-operated online retail business primarily through Dingdong Fresh app.

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DXC Technology (NYSE:DXC  Get Free Report) issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday. The company reported $0.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.82 by ($0.19), Briefing.com reports. The firm had revenue of $3.45 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $3.56 billion. DXC Technology had a positive return on equity of 16.70% and a negative net margin of 4.47%. The businesss revenue for the quarter was down 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.75 EPS.

DXC Technology Stock Performance

NYSE:DXC traded up $0.24 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $19.34. The stock had a trading volume of 3,458,254 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,848,355. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 1.18 and a current ratio of 1.18. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -6.91, a PEG ratio of 0.62 and a beta of 1.94. DXC Technology has a twelve month low of $18.61 and a twelve month high of $30.27. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $26.74 and a 200 day simple moving average of $26.17.

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Institutional Investors Weigh In On DXC Technology

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of DXC. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of DXC Technology during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $69,385,000. Millennium Management LLC raised its position in shares of DXC Technology by 993.5% during the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 682,855 shares of the companys stock worth $20,697,000 after purchasing an additional 620,408 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of DXC Technology by 28.7% during the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,690,928 shares of the companys stock worth $71,310,000 after purchasing an additional 600,507 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its position in shares of DXC Technology by 19.7% during the 1st quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 3,201,164 shares of the companys stock worth $81,822,000 after purchasing an additional 527,177 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp grew its stake in DXC Technology by 3.0% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,927,445 shares of the companys stock worth $202,625,000 after acquiring an additional 232,024 shares during the period. 91.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have issued reports on DXC. Citigroup lowered DXC Technology from a buy rating to a neutral rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $32.00 to $25.00 in a report on Thursday. BMO Capital Markets lowered DXC Technology from an outperform rating to a market perform rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $27.00 to $25.00 in a report on Thursday. TD Cowen reissued a market perform rating and set a $25.00 price target (down previously from $34.00) on shares of DXC Technology in a report on Thursday. Royal Bank of Canada lowered DXC Technology from an outperform rating to a sector perform rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $34.00 to $29.00 in a report on Thursday. Finally, TheStreet lowered DXC Technology from a b- rating to a c- rating in a report on Thursday, May 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $28.62.

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About DXC Technology

(Get Free Report)

DXC Technology Company, together with its subsidiaries, provides information technology services and solutions primarily in the United States, the United Kingdom, rest of Europe, Australia, and internationally. It operates in two segments, Global Business Services (GBS) and Global Infrastructure Services (GIS).

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Edgewell Personal Care Co (NYSE:EPC  Get Free Report) has earned an average recommendation of Hold from the seven ratings firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have issued a hold recommendation and three have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $44.14.

A number of research analysts recently commented on EPC shares. StockNews.com cut Edgewell Personal Care from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Wednesday, June 28th. Barclays cut their target price on Edgewell Personal Care from $40.00 to $36.00 and set an underweight rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 20th.

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Read Our Latest Analysis on EPC

Edgewell Personal Care Price Performance

Shares of Edgewell Personal Care stock opened at $41.31 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94. Edgewell Personal Care has a twelve month low of $36.17 and a twelve month high of $46.13. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $40.72 and a 200 day moving average price of $41.99. The firm has a market cap of $2.12 billion, a PE ratio of 22.82 and a beta of 0.95.

Edgewell Personal Care (NYSE:EPC  Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 9th. The company reported $0.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.35 by $0.21. The company had revenue of $598.40 million for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $569.84 million. Edgewell Personal Care had a return on equity of 8.93% and a net margin of 4.27%. Edgewell Personal Cares revenue was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.50 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Edgewell Personal Care will post 2.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Edgewell Personal Care Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 6th. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 7th were issued a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 6th. Edgewell Personal Cares dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 33.15%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Edgewell Personal Care

In other Edgewell Personal Care news, insider John N. Hill sold 4,390 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.89, for a total value of $188,287.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 72,725 shares of the companys stock, valued at $3,119,175.25. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, insider Eric F. Otoole sold 4,000 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.95, for a total transaction of $175,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 13,688 shares in the company, valued at approximately $601,587.60. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider John N. Hill sold 4,390 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.89, for a total value of $188,287.10. Following the sale, the insider now owns 72,725 shares of the companys stock, valued at $3,119,175.25. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.84% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Edgewell Personal Care

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in shares of Edgewell Personal Care by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 30,227 shares of the companys stock worth $1,043,000 after buying an additional 238 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its holdings in Edgewell Personal Care by 0.8% in the 1st quarter. FMR LLC now owns 32,703 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,387,000 after purchasing an additional 254 shares in the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank increased its holdings in Edgewell Personal Care by 4.1% in the 4th quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 6,653 shares of the companys stock valued at $256,000 after purchasing an additional 259 shares in the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System increased its holdings in Edgewell Personal Care by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 13,892 shares of the companys stock valued at $535,000 after purchasing an additional 260 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Inspire Investing LLC boosted its position in Edgewell Personal Care by 5.2% in the 1st quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 6,457 shares of the companys stock valued at $274,000 after buying an additional 318 shares during the last quarter. 83.64% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Edgewell Personal Care Company Profile

(Get Free Report

Edgewell Personal Care Company is a manufacturer and marketer of personal care products in the wet shave, sun and skin care, feminine care and infant care categories. As of September 30, 2016, the Company had a portfolio of over 25 brands. It manages its business in four segments: Wet Shave, Sun and Skin Care, Feminine Care and All Other.

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Royal Bank of Canada restated their outperform rating on shares of Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW  Free Report) in a report issued on Tuesday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $96.00 price objective on the medical research companys stock.

EW has been the topic of a number of other reports. TheStreet raised shares of Edwards Lifesciences from a c+ rating to a b- rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 19th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Edwards Lifesciences from $78.00 to $90.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 27th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on shares of Edwards Lifesciences from $103.00 to $107.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 25th. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of Edwards Lifesciences from $83.00 to $88.00 in a report on Thursday, July 27th. Finally, Truist Financial increased their price objective on shares of Edwards Lifesciences from $101.00 to $105.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Edwards Lifesciences currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $92.68.

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Edwards Lifesciences Stock Performance

Shares of EW traded down $0.45 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $79.55. 3,297,870 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,137,145. The stock has a market capitalization of $48.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.40, a P/E/G ratio of 4.34 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a quick ratio of 2.30, a current ratio of 3.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09. Edwards Lifesciences has a 12-month low of $67.13 and a 12-month high of $107.18. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $88.56 and a 200-day moving average price of $84.25.

Insider Transactions at Edwards Lifesciences

Edwards Lifesciences ( NYSE:EW Get Free Report ) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 26th. The medical research company reported $0.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $0.65 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $1.53 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.51 billion. Edwards Lifesciences had a net margin of 24.56% and a return on equity of 25.43%. The firms quarterly revenue was up 11.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.63 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Edwards Lifesciences will post 2.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

In related news, VP Jean-Luc M. Lemercier sold 6,640 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $88.68, for a total transaction of $588,835.20. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 172,090 shares of the companys stock, valued at $15,260,941.20. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, VP Jean-Luc M. Lemercier sold 6,640 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $88.68, for a total transaction of $588,835.20. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 172,090 shares of the companys stock, valued at $15,260,941.20. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Scott B. Ullem sold 80,700 shares of the companys stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $88.54, for a total transaction of $7,145,178.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 18,294 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,619,750.76. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 217,666 shares of company stock worth $19,258,019 over the last ninety days. 1.29% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Edwards Lifesciences

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of EW. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 11.4% during the first quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 9,181 shares of the medical research companys stock valued at $1,081,000 after buying an additional 941 shares during the period. Zions Bancorporation N.A. raised its stake in Edwards Lifesciences by 34.7% during the first quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. now owns 1,738 shares of the medical research companys stock worth $204,000 after purchasing an additional 448 shares during the period. Covestor Ltd raised its stake in Edwards Lifesciences by 18.2% during the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,223 shares of the medical research companys stock worth $144,000 after purchasing an additional 188 shares during the period. Mather Group LLC. raised its stake in Edwards Lifesciences by 53.5% during the first quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 7,182 shares of the medical research companys stock worth $846,000 after purchasing an additional 2,503 shares during the period. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp raised its stake in Edwards Lifesciences by 3.1% during the first quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 655,567 shares of the medical research companys stock worth $77,173,000 after purchasing an additional 19,798 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.78% of the companys stock.

Edwards Lifesciences Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Edwards Lifesciences Corporation provides products and technologies for structural heart disease, and critical care and surgical monitoring in the United States, Europe, Japan, and internationally. It offers transcatheter heart valve replacement products for the minimally invasive replacement of heart valves; and transcatheter heart valve repair and replacement products to treat mitral and tricuspid valve diseases.

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Ellerson Group Inc. ADV raised its holdings in shares of The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA  Free Report) by 3.3% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 7,759 shares of the aircraft producers stock after purchasing an additional 250 shares during the period. Boeing comprises 1.8% of Ellerson Group Inc. ADVs portfolio, making the stock its 22nd largest holding. Ellerson Group Inc. ADVs holdings in Boeing were worth $1,648,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Sterling Investment Advisors Ltd. lifted its position in Boeing by 12.6% during the first quarter. Sterling Investment Advisors Ltd. now owns 1,791 shares of the aircraft producers stock valued at $380,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Investment Management of Virginia LLC acquired a new position in shares of Boeing during the first quarter valued at about $216,000. Aureus Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in Boeing during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $2,690,000. Trust Co. of Vermont raised its holdings in shares of Boeing by 7.6% in the first quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont now owns 3,844 shares of the aircraft producers stock worth $817,000 after buying an additional 272 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Boeing during the first quarter worth $324,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 60.22% of the companys stock.

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Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on shares of Boeing from $225.00 to $220.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 27th. Susquehanna boosted their price objective on Boeing from $260.00 to $270.00 in a report on Thursday, July 27th. Northcoast Research upgraded Boeing from a sell rating to a neutral rating in a research report on Tuesday. Credit Suisse Group boosted their target price on shares of Boeing from $200.00 to $220.00 in a research note on Monday, April 10th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Boeing from $220.00 to $235.00 in a research report on Thursday, July 27th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $242.64.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Steven M. Mollenkopf purchased 850 shares of the companys stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 31st. The stock was acquired at an average price of $237.00 per share, for a total transaction of $201,450.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 3,767 shares in the company, valued at approximately $892,779. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In related news, CEO Theodore Colbert III sold 8,500 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $238.37, for a total transaction of $2,026,145.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 59,255 shares of the companys stock, valued at $14,124,614.35. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Steven M. Mollenkopf bought 850 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 31st. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $237.00 per share, for a total transaction of $201,450.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 3,767 shares in the company, valued at approximately $892,779. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 0.15% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Boeing Stock Performance

Boeing stock traded up $1.09 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $232.45. 1,106,656 shares of the companys stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,873,347. The Boeing Company has a 12-month low of $120.99 and a 12-month high of $243.10. The stock has a market cap of $139.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -30.88 and a beta of 1.41. The firms 50 day simple moving average is $215.52 and its 200 day simple moving average is $209.89.

Boeing (NYSE:BA  Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 26th. The aircraft producer reported ($0.82) EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.99) by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $19.75 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $18.59 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted ($0.37) EPS. The firms revenue was up 18.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that The Boeing Company will post -1.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Boeing

(Free Report)

The Boeing Company, together with its subsidiaries, designs, develops, manufactures, sells, services, and supports commercial jetliners, military aircraft, satellites, missile defense, human space flight and launch systems, and services worldwide. The company operates through four segments: Commercial Airplanes; Defense, Space & Security; Global Services; and Boeing Capital.

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Yoo Hyuk-kee, center, the second son of Yoo Byung-eun, the late chairman of Semo Group, linked to the deadly Sewol ferry sinking in 2014, is escorted by prosecution officials upon his arrival at Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, Aug. 4. Yonhap



The second son of Yoo Byung-eun, the late chairman of Semo Group, linked to the deadly Sewol ferry sinking in 2014, was extradited to South Korea from the United States on Friday, sources said.



An escort team from the Incheon District Prosecutors Office took custody of Yoo Hyuk-kee, 50, from U.S. investigation authorities the previous day inside a Korean Air plane at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York and formally arrested him, according to the legal sources.



The airplane arrived at Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, at 7:20 a.m. Friday following a two-hour delay.



Yoo is suspected of embezzling or inflicting losses that amounted to about 55.9 billion won ($42.8 million) during his alleged involvement in the management of Semo Group.



The group owned the operator of the Sewol ferry that sank off the southwestern island of Jin on April 16, 2014, claiming 304 lives, mostly high school students on a school trip to Jeju Island, in one of the country's worst maritime disasters.



Yoo, a U.S. resident, was arrested in New York in July 2020 after refusing to comply with the Korean prosecution's summons three times. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected Yoo's request to block his extradition in January this year, and the U.S. government then approved his extradition at the request of the justice ministry here.



A prosecution escort vehicle took Yoo directly to the Incheon District Prosecutors Office upon his arrival, and he is expected to undergo questioning later in the day.



Out of the four people who fled abroad in connection with the Sewol ferry case, Yoo is the last to be repatriated. (Yonhap)


Floor & Decor (NYSE:FND  Get Free Report) had its target price upped by stock analysts at Telsey Advisory Group from $85.00 to $105.00 in a note issued to investors on Friday, FlyOnTheWall reports. Telsey Advisory Group also issued estimates for Floor & Decors Q2 2023 earnings at $0.69 EPS, Q3 2023 earnings at $0.68 EPS, FY2023 earnings at $2.66 EPS, Q1 2024 earnings at $0.80 EPS, Q2 2024 earnings at $0.85 EPS, Q3 2024 earnings at $0.85 EPS and Q4 2024 earnings at $0.79 EPS.

Several other research analysts have also recently issued reports on FND. Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on Floor & Decor from $120.00 to $115.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Citigroup decreased their price target on Floor & Decor from $133.00 to $122.00 in a research note on Friday. Wedbush decreased their target price on Floor & Decor from $115.00 to $110.00 in a research note on Friday. Truist Financial initiated coverage on Floor & Decor in a research note on Friday, June 23rd. They set a buy rating and a $120.00 target price for the company. Finally, Credit Suisse Group reaffirmed a neutral rating and set a $95.00 target price on shares of Floor & Decor in a research note on Friday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $102.38.

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Floor & Decor Stock Performance

NYSE FND traded down $6.05 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $105.00. The company had a trading volume of 1,521,964 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,374,851. Floor & Decor has a fifty-two week low of $63.51 and a fifty-two week high of $116.03. The company has a quick ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $102.77 and a 200-day simple moving average of $96.39. The firm has a market cap of $11.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 1.90.

Floor & Decor (NYSE:FND  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 3rd. The company reported $0.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.66. Floor & Decor had a return on equity of 18.37% and a net margin of 6.86%. The company had revenue of $1.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $1.15 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.76 earnings per share. The companys revenue for the quarter was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Floor & Decor will post 2.66 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Floor & Decor

In other news, CEO Thomas V. Taylor sold 18,656 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.00, for a total transaction of $1,958,880.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 215,203 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $22,596,315. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Thomas V. Taylor sold 18,656 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.00, for a total transaction of $1,958,880.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 215,203 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $22,596,315. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP David Victor Christopherson sold 5,804 shares of Floor & Decor stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $110.00, for a total value of $638,440.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 36,552 shares in the company, valued at $4,020,720. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 48,920 shares of company stock valued at $5,323,160 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 2.50% of the companys stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FND. Calamos Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Floor & Decor during the first quarter valued at approximately $512,000. Amalgamated Bank boosted its stake in Floor & Decor by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 23,837 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,660,000 after buying an additional 213 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc boosted its stake in Floor & Decor by 8.8% in the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 8,081 shares of the companys stock valued at $563,000 after buying an additional 652 shares in the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System boosted its stake in Floor & Decor by 2.8% in the 1st quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 30,748 shares of the companys stock valued at $3,020,000 after buying an additional 827 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ahrens Investment Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Floor & Decor in the 1st quarter valued at $29,000.

Floor & Decor Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Floor & Decor Holdings, Inc together with its subsidiaries, operates as a multi-channel specialty retailer and commercial flooring distributor in Georgia. The company offers tile, wood, laminate, vinyl, and natural stone flooring products, as well as decorative accessories, wall tiles, and installation materials and tools.

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Gartner (NYSE:IT  Get Free Report) issued an update on its FY23 earnings guidance on Tuesday morning. The company provided earnings per share guidance of at least $10.00 for the period, compared to the consensus earnings per share estimate of $10.04. The company issued revenue guidance of at least $5.85 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $5.81 billion. Gartner also updated its FY 2023 guidance to $10.00- EPS.

Gartner Price Performance

Shares of IT traded up $2.64 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $343.32. The company had a trading volume of 114,371 shares, compared to its average volume of 483,580. Gartner has a twelve month low of $272.58 and a twelve month high of $377.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.19, a current ratio of 0.84 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The companys 50-day moving average is $350.17 and its 200-day moving average is $332.64. The company has a market capitalization of $27.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.52, a P/E/G ratio of 4.51 and a beta of 1.25.

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Gartner (NYSE:IT  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 1st. The information technology services provider reported $2.85 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $2.51 by $0.34. Gartner had a return on equity of 447.36% and a net margin of 16.08%. The firm had revenue of $1.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $1.48 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.85 EPS. The businesss revenue was up 9.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Gartner will post 10.05 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on IT shares. StockNews.com upgraded Gartner from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on Gartner from $387.00 to $380.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 19th. UBS Group assumed coverage on Gartner in a research note on Wednesday, May 31st. They issued a neutral rating and a $368.00 price target on the stock. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Gartner from $366.00 to $372.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on Gartner from $352.00 to $346.00 in a research note on Thursday. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $361.00.

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Insider Transactions at Gartner

In related news, EVP Michael Patrick Diliberto sold 1,200 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $310.09, for a total value of $372,108.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 18,501 shares in the company, valued at $5,736,975.09. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Gartner news, EVP Michael Patrick Diliberto sold 1,200 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Friday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $310.09, for a total transaction of $372,108.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 18,501 shares of the companys stock, valued at $5,736,975.09. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Alwyn Dawkins sold 1,000 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $316.71, for a total transaction of $316,710.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 44,915 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,225,029.65. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 21,788 shares of company stock worth $7,418,652. Corporate insiders own 3.90% of the companys stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Gartner

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in IT. Savant Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Gartner in the 4th quarter valued at about $227,000. Private Advisor Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Gartner during the 1st quarter worth approximately $217,000. Fund Management at Engine No. 1 LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Gartner during the 1st quarter worth approximately $207,000. Sunbelt Securities Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Gartner during the 1st quarter worth approximately $205,000. Finally, First Manhattan Co. increased its stake in shares of Gartner by 44.8% during the 4th quarter. First Manhattan Co. now owns 414 shares of the information technology services providers stock worth $139,000 after purchasing an additional 128 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.41% of the companys stock.

About Gartner

(Get Free Report)

Gartner, Inc operates as a research and advisory company in the United States, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and internationally. It operates through three segments: Research, Conferences, and Consulting. The Research segment delivers its research primarily through a subscription service that include on-demand access to published research content, data and benchmarks, and direct access to a network of research experts.

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Gouverneur Bancorp (OTCMKTS:GOVB  Get Free Report) issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday. The financial services provider reported $0.10 EPS for the quarter, reports. The company had revenue of $2.12 million during the quarter.

Gouverneur Bancorp Stock Performance

OTCMKTS GOVB remained flat at $6.85 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $7.69 and a 200 day simple moving average of $7.68. Gouverneur Bancorp has a twelve month low of $6.45 and a twelve month high of $12.00.

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Gouverneur Bancorp Company Profile

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Gouverneur Bancorp, Inc operates as the holding company for Gouverneur Savings and Loan Association that provides various banking products and services to individuals and businesses in New York. It accepts passbook savings, NOW, money market deposit, and checking accounts, as well as certificates of deposit.

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Graphic Packaging (NYSE:GPK  Get Free Report) issued an update on its FY23 earnings guidance on Tuesday morning. The company provided EPS guidance of $2.70-$3.10 for the period, compared to the consensus EPS estimate of $2.95. The company issued revenue guidance of $10.0 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $9.96 billion. Graphic Packaging also updated its FY 2023 guidance to $2.70-$3.10 EPS.

Graphic Packaging Stock Performance

Graphic Packaging stock traded up $0.40 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $23.32. The companys stock had a trading volume of 385,701 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,702,707. The firms fifty day moving average price is $24.51 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $24.38. The company has a market capitalization of $7.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.05, a PEG ratio of 0.33 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.36, a quick ratio of 0.64 and a current ratio of 1.62. Graphic Packaging has a 12-month low of $19.46 and a 12-month high of $27.56.

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Graphic Packaging (NYSE:GPK  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 1st. The industrial products company reported $0.66 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.73 by ($0.07). Graphic Packaging had a net margin of 7.30% and a return on equity of 38.70%. The firm had revenue of $2.39 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.49 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.60 earnings per share. The businesss revenue for the quarter was up 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that Graphic Packaging will post 2.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Graphic Packaging Dividend Announcement

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 5th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 14th. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.72%. Graphic Packagings payout ratio is currently 17.54%.

Several research firms have issued reports on GPK. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on Graphic Packaging from $28.00 to $26.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Mizuho increased their price target on Graphic Packaging from $30.00 to $31.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 3rd. StockNews.com initiated coverage on Graphic Packaging in a research report on Thursday, May 18th. They issued a buy rating for the company. Bank of America downgraded Graphic Packaging from a buy rating to a neutral rating and reduced their price target for the company from $35.00 to $29.00 in a report on Monday, July 10th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn reissued a buy rating on shares of Graphic Packaging in a report on Wednesday, May 3rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat, Graphic Packaging has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $29.44.

Check Out Our Latest Stock Report on GPK

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Stephen R. Scherger sold 160,492 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.81, for a total transaction of $4,142,298.52. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 427,548 shares in the company, valued at $11,035,013.88. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 1.20% of the companys stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Graphic Packaging

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Toroso Investments LLC purchased a new position in shares of Graphic Packaging during the first quarter worth about $735,000. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Graphic Packaging in the 1st quarter valued at about $537,000. Advisory Services Network LLC grew its position in shares of Graphic Packaging by 13.6% during the 1st quarter. Advisory Services Network LLC now owns 3,600 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $92,000 after buying an additional 431 shares during the last quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV lifted its stake in Graphic Packaging by 2.0% during the first quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 51,140 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $1,304,000 after purchasing an additional 1,023 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Graphic Packaging by 3.5% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,819,854 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $123,332,000 after acquiring an additional 163,107 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.86% of the companys stock.

About Graphic Packaging

(Get Free Report)

Graphic Packaging Holding Company, together with its subsidiaries, provides fiber-based packaging solutions to food, beverage, foodservice, and other consumer products companies. It operates through three segments: Paperboard Mills, Americas Paperboard Packaging, and Europe Paperboard Packaging. The company offers coated unbleached kraft (CUK), coated recycled paperboard (CRB), and solid bleached sulfate paperboard (SBS) to various paperboard packaging converters and brokers; and paperboard packaging products, such as folding cartons, cups, lids, and food containers primarily to consumer packaged goods, quick-service restaurants, and foodservice companies; and barrier packaging products that protect against moisture, hot and cold temperature, grease, oil, oxygen, sunlight, insects, and other potential product-damaging factors.

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Andrew Peller (TSE:ADW  Get Free Report) Director John Edward Peller sold 10,062 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$4.07, for a total value of C$40,952.34.

Andrew Peller Price Performance

Andrew Peller has a twelve month low of C$10.40 and a twelve month high of C$19.04.

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Andrew Peller (TSE:ADW  Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, June 14th. The company reported C($0.17) earnings per share for the quarter. The business had revenue of C$77.71 million during the quarter.

Andrew Peller Dividend Announcement

About Andrew Peller

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 7th. Investors of record on Friday, June 30th were paid a $0.062 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, June 29th. This represents a $0.25 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of .

(Get Free Report)

Andrew Peller Ltd is a Canada-based company, which produces and markets wine and wine related products. The Companys brands include Peller Estates, Trius, Thirty Bench, Wayne Gretzky, Sandhill, Conviction, Red Rooster, Peller Estates French Cross, Peller Estates Proprietors Reserve, Copper Moon, Black Cellar, XOXO, skinnygrape, Hochtaler, Domaine DOr, Schloss Laderheim, Royal and Sommet.

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Matson (NYSE:MATX  Get Free Report) had its target price upped by investment analysts at Stephens from $73.00 to $110.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage presently has an equal weight rating on the shipping companys stock. Stephens price objective would suggest a potential upside of 14.87% from the companys current price.

Other research analysts have also issued reports about the company. StockNews.com began coverage on Matson in a research report on Thursday, May 18th. They set a hold rating on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on Matson from $73.00 to $70.00 and set a hold rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 20th.

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Matson Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of Matson stock traded down $0.26 on Wednesday, reaching $95.76. 151,572 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 294,662. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $79.04 and a 200-day moving average price of $69.73. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.88 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a current ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. Matson has a fifty-two week low of $56.51 and a fifty-two week high of $96.86.

Insider Buying and Selling at Matson

Matson ( NYSE:MATX Get Free Report ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 1st. The shipping company reported $2.26 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $2.26. The firm had revenue of $773.40 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $762.35 million. Matson had a return on equity of 20.05% and a net margin of 13.52%. Matsons quarterly revenue was down 38.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $9.49 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Matson will post 5.81 EPS for the current year.

In other news, SVP Vic S. Angoco, Jr. sold 8,000 shares of the companys stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.18, for a total transaction of $545,440.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 45,193 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,081,258.74. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Matthew J. Cox sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $93.78, for a total transaction of $937,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 231,267 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,688,219.26. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Vic S. Angoco, Jr. sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.18, for a total value of $545,440.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 45,193 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $3,081,258.74. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 44,623 shares of company stock worth $3,459,756 over the last 90 days. 1.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Matson

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Matson by 43.1% during the 2nd quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 362 shares of the shipping companys stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 109 shares during the period. Financial Management Professionals Inc. acquired a new position in Matson in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $31,000. CWM LLC raised its holdings in Matson by 41.4% in the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 413 shares of the shipping companys stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 121 shares in the last quarter. Glass Jacobson Investment Advisors llc acquired a new position in Matson in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. raised its holdings in Matson by 39.4% in the 1st quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 548 shares of the shipping companys stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 155 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 84.81% of the companys stock.

Matson Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Matson, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides ocean transportation and logistics services. The company's Ocean Transportation segment offers ocean freight transportation services to the domestic non-contiguous economies of Hawaii, Alaska, and Guam, as well as to other island economies in Micronesia.

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Meridian Investment Counsel Inc. reduced its position in shares of Constellation Brands, Inc. (NYSE:STZ  Free Report) by 1.8% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,510 shares of the companys stock after selling 65 shares during the period. Meridian Investment Counsel Inc.s holdings in Constellation Brands were worth $793,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Assetmark Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Constellation Brands by 14.9% during the first quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 19,755 shares of the companys stock worth $4,462,000 after purchasing an additional 2,560 shares during the period. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Constellation Brands by 1,223.0% in the first quarter. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 19,368 shares of the companys stock worth $4,375,000 after buying an additional 17,904 shares during the period. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. lifted its holdings in Constellation Brands by 2.9% in the first quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 56,828 shares of the companys stock worth $12,837,000 after buying an additional 1,616 shares during the period. Paragon Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Constellation Brands in the first quarter worth about $1,288,000. Finally, Howland Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Constellation Brands by 6.2% in the first quarter. Howland Capital Management LLC now owns 73,528 shares of the companys stock worth $16,609,000 after buying an additional 4,299 shares during the period. 86.49% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Constellation Brands Stock Performance

NYSE:STZ traded up $0.43 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $269.16. The company had a trading volume of 320,413 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,254,355. The company has a current ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 0.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.23. Constellation Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $208.12 and a 52 week high of $273.44. The firm has a market cap of $49.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -146.85, a PEG ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 1.04. The firms 50 day moving average price is $252.14 and its 200-day moving average price is $234.32.

Constellation Brands Announces Dividend

Constellation Brands ( NYSE:STZ Get Free Report ) last posted its earnings results on Friday, June 30th. The company reported $2.91 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $2.83 by $0.08. Constellation Brands had a negative net margin of 3.14% and a positive return on equity of 22.32%. The business had revenue of $2.51 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.47 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.66 EPS. The firms revenue was up 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Constellation Brands, Inc. will post 11.62 EPS for the current year.

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 24th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 10th will be given a $0.89 dividend. This represents a $3.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.32%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 9th. Constellation Brandss dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -194.54%.

Insider Transactions at Constellation Brands

In other news, Director Richard Sands sold 3,858,476 shares of Constellation Brands stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $223.53, for a total transaction of $862,485,140.28. Following the transaction, the director now owns 20,488,818 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,579,865,487.54. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, CFO Garth Hankinson sold 1,550 shares of Constellation Brands stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $267.96, for a total transaction of $415,338.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 9,491 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,543,208.36. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Richard Sands sold 3,858,476 shares of Constellation Brands stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $223.53, for a total transaction of $862,485,140.28. Following the transaction, the director now owns 20,488,818 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,579,865,487.54. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 4,573,486 shares of company stock worth $1,025,201,775 in the last 90 days. 16.19% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have commented on STZ shares. TheStreet upgraded shares of Constellation Brands from a c+ rating to a b- rating in a report on Friday, June 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Constellation Brands from $273.00 to $276.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Monday, July 3rd. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Constellation Brands from $265.00 to $280.00 in a research note on Wednesday, June 21st. Roth Capital raised shares of Constellation Brands from a neutral rating to a buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 30th. Finally, StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Constellation Brands in a research note on Thursday, May 18th. They set a hold rating for the company. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Constellation Brands has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $266.24.

View Our Latest Analysis on Constellation Brands

Constellation Brands Company Profile

(Free Report)

Constellation Brands, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, produces, imports, markets, and sells beer, wine, and spirits in the United States, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, and Italy. The company provides beer primarily under the Corona Extra, Corona Premier, Corona Familiar, Corona Light, Corona Refresca, Corona Hard Seltzer, Modelo Especial, Modelo Negra, Modelo Chelada, Victoria, Vicky Chamoy, and Pacifico brands.

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Hershey (NYSE:HSY  Free Report) had its target price reduced by Mizuho from $263.00 to $233.00 in a report released on Monday morning, FlyOnTheWall reports.

A number of other brokerages also recently issued reports on HSY. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Hershey from $245.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research note on Friday, April 28th. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of Hershey from $255.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock an inline rating in a research note on Friday, April 28th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of Hershey from $260.00 to $240.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 28th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price objective on shares of Hershey from $264.00 to $262.00 in a research report on Monday, July 17th. Finally, BNP Paribas raised shares of Hershey from a neutral rating to an outperform rating and set a $268.00 target price for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 19th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat, Hershey currently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $261.67.

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Hershey Trading Down 0.9 %

Shares of HSY stock opened at $231.06 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a current ratio of 1.06. The stock has a market capitalization of $47.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 0.28. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $249.46 and a 200 day moving average price of $248.82. Hershey has a fifty-two week low of $211.49 and a fifty-two week high of $276.88.

Hershey (NYSE:HSY  Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 27th. The company reported $2.01 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $1.89 by $0.12. Hershey had a net margin of 16.49% and a return on equity of 55.74%. The firm had revenue of $2.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $2.50 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.80 earnings per share. The businesss quarterly revenue was up 5.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that Hershey will post 9.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hershey Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 15th. Investors of record on Friday, August 18th will be given a dividend of $1.192 per share. This is an increase from Hersheys previous quarterly dividend of $1.04. This represents a $4.77 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.06%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 17th. Hersheys payout ratio is currently 47.64%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Hershey

In other Hershey news, SVP Jason Reiman sold 150 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $273.49, for a total value of $41,023.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 15,725 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,300,630.25. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Hershey news, SVP Jason Reiman sold 150 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $273.49, for a total value of $41,023.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 15,725 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,300,630.25. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Michele Buck sold 14,251 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $259.92, for a total value of $3,704,119.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 117,500 shares of the companys stock, valued at $30,540,600. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 292,911 shares of company stock worth $76,238,787. Insiders own 0.34% of the companys stock.

Institutional Trading of Hershey

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Hershey by 1.6% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,057,990 shares of the companys stock valued at $3,045,383,000 after buying an additional 216,715 shares during the period. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich grew its stake in shares of Hershey by 97,975.0% during the 2nd quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 4,329,031 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,080,959,000 after buying an additional 4,324,617 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Hershey by 9.1% during the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,489,322 shares of the companys stock valued at $886,746,000 after buying an additional 290,920 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley grew its stake in shares of Hershey by 57.2% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 2,648,666 shares of the companys stock valued at $613,352,000 after buying an additional 964,019 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Hershey in the 4th quarter valued at $411,828,000. 54.96% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Hershey

(Get Free Report)

The Hershey Company, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the manufacture and sale of confectionery products and pantry items in the United States and internationally. The company operates through three segments: North America Confectionery, North America Salty Snacks, and International. It offers chocolate and non-chocolate confectionery products; gum and mint refreshment products, including mints, chewing gums, and bubble gums; pantry items, such as baking ingredients, toppings, beverages, and sundae syrups; and snack items comprising spreads, bars, snack bites, mixes, popcorn, and pretzels.

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Huntsman (NYSE:HUN  Get Free Report)s stock had its overweight rating reiterated by equities research analysts at Morgan Stanley in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $30.00 price objective on the basic materials companys stock. Morgan Stanleys target price would suggest a potential upside of 4.73% from the companys current price.

Several other analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Mizuho cut their price objective on Huntsman from $27.00 to $26.00 in a report on Tuesday, May 9th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of Huntsman from $31.00 to $29.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 17th. Bank of America cut their target price on shares of Huntsman from $24.00 to $22.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 22nd. VNET Group reaffirmed a maintains rating on shares of Huntsman in a research report on Tuesday, May 9th. Finally, StockNews.com assumed coverage on Huntsman in a research report on Thursday, May 18th. They set a hold rating on the stock. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Huntsman currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $28.42.

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Huntsman Price Performance

Huntsman stock remained flat at $28.65 during midday trading on Wednesday. 1,882,925 shares of the companys stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,111,042. Huntsman has a 12-month low of $23.52 and a 12-month high of $33.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 2.08 and a quick ratio of 1.27. The businesss 50 day simple moving average is $26.81 and its 200-day simple moving average is $27.78. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.99 and a beta of 1.14.

Insider Buying and Selling

Huntsman ( NYSE:HUN Get Free Report ) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $0.22 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.30 by ($0.08). The business had revenue of $1.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. Huntsman had a net margin of 2.64% and a return on equity of 5.71%. The firms revenue for the quarter was down 26.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.28 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Huntsman will post 1.26 EPS for the current year.

In other news, VP David M. Stryker acquired 2,500 shares of Huntsman stock in a transaction on Friday, June 2nd. The stock was bought at an average price of $24.50 per share, for a total transaction of $61,250.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 385,502 shares of the companys stock, valued at $9,444,799. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 5.60% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. McIlrath & Eck LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Huntsman by 84.3% during the 1st quarter. McIlrath & Eck LLC now owns 901 shares of the basic materials companys stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 412 shares during the period. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC bought a new stake in shares of Huntsman in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Quintet Private Bank Europe S.A. acquired a new stake in Huntsman in the 1st quarter valued at $27,000. Caldwell Sutter Capital Inc. bought a new stake in Huntsman in the second quarter valued at $27,000. Finally, Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. bought a new position in shares of Huntsman during the first quarter valued at $30,000. 85.53% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Huntsman

(Get Free Report)

Huntsman Corporation manufactures and sells diversified organic chemical products worldwide. The company operates through three segments: Polyurethanes, Performance Products, and Advanced Materials. The Polyurethanes segment offers polyurethane chemicals, including methyl diphenyl diisocyanate, polyether and polyester polyols, and thermoplastic polyurethane.

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Nu Skin Enterprises (NYSE:NUS  Get Free Report) updated its FY23 earnings guidance on Tuesday. The company provided EPS guidance of $2.30-$2.60 for the period, compared to the consensus EPS estimate of $2.55. The company issued revenue guidance of $2.00-$2.08 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $2.08 billion. Nu Skin Enterprises also updated its Q3 guidance to $0.54-$0.69 EPS.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NUS has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Nu Skin Enterprises in a report on Thursday, May 18th. They issued a hold rating on the stock. DA Davidson cut their target price on shares of Nu Skin Enterprises from $38.00 to $29.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on Nu Skin Enterprises from $43.00 to $35.00 and set a hold rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $36.00.

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Nu Skin Enterprises Stock Down 2.3 %

NUS stock traded down $0.62 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $26.24. The stock had a trading volume of 669,260 shares, compared to its average volume of 604,308. The business has a 50-day moving average of $31.86 and a two-hundred day moving average of $37.41. The firm has a market cap of $1.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.65 and a beta of 1.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42, a current ratio of 2.08 and a quick ratio of 1.09. Nu Skin Enterprises has a 52-week low of $26.19 and a 52-week high of $47.31.

Nu Skin Enterprises Announces Dividend

Nu Skin Enterprises ( NYSE:NUS Get Free Report ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 1st. The company reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.01. Nu Skin Enterprises had a net margin of 3.43% and a return on equity of 12.95%. The business had revenue of $500.26 million for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $512.35 million. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Nu Skin Enterprises will post 2.53 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 6th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 25th will be paid a $0.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 24th. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.95%. Nu Skin Enterprisess dividend payout ratio is presently 110.64%.

Insider Activity at Nu Skin Enterprises

In other news, Director Andrew D. Lipman sold 2,000 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.28, for a total transaction of $68,560.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 58,393 shares of the companys stock, valued at $2,001,712.04. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Nu Skin Enterprises news, Director Edwina D. Woodbury sold 1,255 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.87, for a total value of $47,526.85. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 15,469 shares in the company, valued at approximately $585,811.03. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Andrew D. Lipman sold 2,000 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.28, for a total transaction of $68,560.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 58,393 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,001,712.04. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 7,255 shares of company stock valued at $238,307. 2.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC lifted its position in Nu Skin Enterprises by 37.1% during the second quarter. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC now owns 809 shares of the companys stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 219 shares during the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada grew its position in Nu Skin Enterprises by 118.2% in the third quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 1,150 shares of the companys stock worth $38,000 after acquiring an additional 623 shares in the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio bought a new stake in Nu Skin Enterprises during the first quarter worth approximately $83,000. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new stake in Nu Skin Enterprises during the second quarter valued at approximately $144,000. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors lifted its stake in shares of Nu Skin Enterprises by 12.7% in the 2nd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 3,657 shares of the companys stock valued at $158,000 after purchasing an additional 413 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.06% of the companys stock.

Nu Skin Enterprises Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Nu Skin Enterprises, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, develops and distributes various beauty and wellness products worldwide. It offers skin care devices, cosmetics, and other personal care products, including ageLOC LumiSpa and ageLOC LumiSpa iO, ageLOC Body Spa; and nutricentials skin care products.

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Chinese medical aid team departs for Laos

Xinhua) 16:01, August 04, 2023

NANNING, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese medical aid team left south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region for Laos on Friday for a two-month ophthalmic surgery assistance mission.

The team consists of four doctors and four nurses from a prestigious hospital in Guangxi, and they are expected to conduct free cataract surgeries for local patients and help train local eye doctors.

The mission is jointly organized by the Guangxi regional health commission and the Lao Ministry of Health.

Since the launch of the mission in September 2022, Guangxi has dispatched 26 medical workers in three batches and performed 1,834 free cataract surgeries in Laos.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
The suspect reportedly entered the front gate after introducing himself as a graduate of the school and looked for the victim at the teachers' office. After the attack, the teacher fled to an administrative office and reported it to the police, while the suspect ran away.







Police arrested the suspect, identified as a former student whom the victim had previously taught, seven to eight kilometers away from where the attack took place about two hours later and are investigating his motives. The victim was transferred to a hospital in an unconscious state and underwent surgery.







In a separate incident, a knife-wielding man in his 20s was apprehended at the ground floor of Seoul Express Bus Terminal in Seocho District, Friday. According to Seocho Police Station, the police received a report about him at 10:39 a.m., and arrested the man, who was found to be carrying two kitchen knives on the first floor of the terminal, about six minutes later. No casualties were reported.







On Sunday, police said they have tracked down 46 people, a number of whom are minors, in connection with online murder threat posts across the country. They also said at least 42 copycat crime threats have been posted on online communities and through Telegram messenger, where users have explicitly threatened to carry out similar attacks, emulating the recent spate of stabbings, since the stabbing rampage near Sillim Station, July 21.







These threats, which detail the intended time and location of possible new attacks, have generated public fear, particularly as they are spread online via screenshots. The locations of the forewarned attacks are mainly at subway stations in Busan, Seoul and cities in Gyeonggi Province near where Thursday's rampage took place.







Although some of the posts have been deleted, public fears are growing as the screenshots of the posts spread online. Police patrols have increased in the specified areas, with additional emergency officials and ambulance services on standby.







Responding to the series of crimes, police and the Ministry of Justice declared that they would take strict countermeasures against serious crimes.







Korean National Police Agency Commissioner General Yoon Hee-keun gives a statement to the nation in response to a series of stabbing rampages, at the agency's headquarters in Seoul, Friday. Yonhap





Korean National Police Agency Commissioner General Yoon Hee-keun gave a statement to the nation at the agency's headquarters in Seoul, Friday, in which he declared "special policing against serious crimes until people's worries subside."







Yoon urged police officers to use firearms and stun guns against culprits at the scenes of stabbing rampages and said the police will track down and severely punish those who post threats online that preannounce copycat crimes.







The justice ministry also announced, Friday, that it will consider introducing life imprisonment without parole for offenders of serious crimes.






StockNews.com cut shares of Oppenheimer (NYSE:OPY  Free Report) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research note released on Monday morning.

Oppenheimer Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of Oppenheimer stock traded down $0.02 during trading on Monday, reaching $38.14. The stock had a trading volume of 30,836 shares, compared to its average volume of 75,438. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $39.76 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $40.73. The company has a market capitalization of $421.64 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.75 and a beta of 1.11. Oppenheimer has a 52 week low of $28.41 and a 52 week high of $49.32.

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Oppenheimer Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 11th will be given a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.57%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 10th. Oppenheimers dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 22.99%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Oppenheimer

About Oppenheimer

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in OPY. BlackRock Inc. increased its holdings in Oppenheimer by 0.5% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 716,773 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $31,237,000 after purchasing an additional 3,403 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Oppenheimer by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 560,177 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $24,413,000 after acquiring an additional 1,540 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its holdings in Oppenheimer by 5.2% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 389,867 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $16,990,000 after acquiring an additional 19,175 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Oppenheimer by 20.3% during the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 167,269 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $7,080,000 after acquiring an additional 28,172 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Oppenheimer by 2.4% during the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 143,976 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $5,637,000 after acquiring an additional 3,423 shares during the period. 37.59% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

(Get Free Report)

Oppenheimer Holdings Inc, through its subsidiaries, operates as a middle-market investment bank and full-service broker-dealer in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. The company offers brokerage services covering corporate equity and debt securities, money market instruments, exchange-traded options and futures contracts, municipal bonds, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, and unit investment trusts; financial and wealth planning services; and margin lending services.

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Helmerich & Payne (NYSE:HP  Free Report) had its price objective boosted by Piper Sandler from $45.00 to $51.00 in a research note issued to investors on Monday, MarketBeat.com reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the oil and gas companys stock.

HP has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Morgan Stanley downgraded Helmerich & Payne from an equal weight rating to an underweight rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $60.00 to $45.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 18th. Royal Bank of Canada cut Helmerich & Payne from an outperform rating to a sector perform rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $53.00 to $45.00 in a report on Monday, July 10th. Benchmark upgraded Helmerich & Payne from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report on Wednesday, July 19th. StockNews.com cut Helmerich & Payne from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Tuesday, July 25th. Finally, VNET Group restated a maintains rating on shares of Helmerich & Payne in a report on Friday, May 19th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $49.18.

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Read Our Latest Report on Helmerich & Payne

Helmerich & Payne Price Performance

Helmerich & Payne Dividend Announcement

NYSE:HP opened at $44.85 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 2.06 and a current ratio of 2.29. The stocks 50-day simple moving average is $36.82 and its 200 day simple moving average is $38.31. The company has a market cap of $4.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.77 and a beta of 1.71. Helmerich & Payne has a 52-week low of $30.41 and a 52-week high of $54.45.

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 31st. Investors of record on Thursday, August 17th will be issued a $0.485 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 16th. This represents a $1.94 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.33%. Helmerich & Paynes payout ratio is 26.25%.

Institutional Trading of Helmerich & Payne

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. BlackRock Inc. increased its holdings in Helmerich & Payne by 1.8% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 17,910,973 shares of the oil and gas companys stock valued at $640,317,000 after purchasing an additional 319,188 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Helmerich & Payne by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 11,891,665 shares of the oil and gas companys stock worth $439,634,000 after purchasing an additional 86,545 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in Helmerich & Payne by 6.1% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,990,631 shares of the oil and gas companys stock valued at $178,415,000 after acquiring an additional 284,938 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in Helmerich & Payne by 7.7% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,335,243 shares of the oil and gas companys stock valued at $154,985,000 after acquiring an additional 310,770 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in Helmerich & Payne by 7.0% in the 1st quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,510,514 shares of the oil and gas companys stock valued at $89,751,000 after acquiring an additional 164,125 shares in the last quarter. 93.88% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Helmerich & Payne

(Get Free Report)

Founded in 1920, Helmerich & Payne, Inc (H&P) (NYSE: HP) is committed to delivering industry leading levels of drilling productivity and reliability. H&P operates with the highest level of integrity, safety and innovation to deliver superior results for its customers and returns for shareholders.

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Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS  Free Report) by 324.6% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 7,006 shares of the investment management companys stock after purchasing an additional 5,356 shares during the quarter. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLCs holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group were worth $2,292,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Magnus Financial Group LLC raised its position in The Goldman Sachs Group by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Magnus Financial Group LLC now owns 2,933 shares of the investment management companys stock valued at $1,007,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Aviance Capital Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Aviance Capital Partners LLC now owns 4,866 shares of the investment management companys stock worth $1,671,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the period. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC boosted its stake in The Goldman Sachs Group by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC now owns 2,040 shares of the investment management companys stock valued at $701,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the period. Atticus Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in The Goldman Sachs Group by 9.4% in the 1st quarter. Atticus Wealth Management LLC now owns 350 shares of the investment management companys stock valued at $114,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the period. Finally, Oliver Lagore Vanvalin Investment Group boosted its stake in The Goldman Sachs Group by 23.3% in the 4th quarter. Oliver Lagore Vanvalin Investment Group now owns 164 shares of the investment management companys stock valued at $56,000 after purchasing an additional 31 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.90% of the companys stock.

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Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently issued reports on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on The Goldman Sachs Group from $390.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 19th. StockNews.com started coverage on The Goldman Sachs Group in a report on Thursday, May 18th. They issued a hold rating for the company. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on The Goldman Sachs Group from $433.00 to $483.00 in a report on Thursday, July 20th. Atlantic Securities raised The Goldman Sachs Group from an underweight rating to a neutral rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $330.00 to $351.00 in a report on Tuesday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on The Goldman Sachs Group from $415.00 to $398.00 in a report on Friday, July 7th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat, The Goldman Sachs Group has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $396.93.

Insider Activity at The Goldman Sachs Group

In related news, major shareholder Goldman Sachs Group Inc sold 24,819,473 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $21.61, for a total transaction of $536,348,811.53. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 110,337 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $2,384,382.57. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, CEO David M. Solomon sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $345.71, for a total value of $3,457,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 128,982 shares of the companys stock, valued at $44,590,367.22. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Goldman Sachs Group Inc sold 24,819,473 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $21.61, for a total value of $536,348,811.53. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 110,337 shares of the companys stock, valued at $2,384,382.57. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 34,979,159 shares of company stock worth $660,308,838 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.54% of the companys stock.

The Goldman Sachs Group Trading Up 0.5 %

NYSE GS opened at $352.96 on Friday. The businesss 50-day moving average price is $333.03 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $337.64. The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. has a 12 month low of $287.75 and a 12 month high of $389.58. The firm has a market capitalization of $117.34 billion, a PE ratio of 15.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.39. The company has a current ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.99.

The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 19th. The investment management company reported $3.08 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $3.25 by ($0.17). The Goldman Sachs Group had a net margin of 9.74% and a return on equity of 8.08%. The company had revenue of $10.90 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.61 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $7.73 EPS. The companys quarterly revenue was down 8.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. will post 25.92 EPS for the current year.

The Goldman Sachs Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 28th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 31st will be given a dividend of $2.75 per share. This is a positive change from The Goldman Sachs Groups previous quarterly dividend of $2.50. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 30th. This represents a $11.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.12%. The Goldman Sachs Groups dividend payout ratio is presently 42.66%.

The Goldman Sachs Group Profile

(Free Report)

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc, a financial institution, provides a range of financial services for corporations, financial institutions, governments, and individuals worldwide. It operates through Global Banking & Markets, Asset & Wealth Management, and Platform Solutions segments. The Global Banking & Markets segment provides financial advisory services, including strategic advisory assignments related to mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, corporate defense activities, restructurings, and spin-offs; and relationship lending, and acquisition financing, as well as secured lending, through structured credit and asset-backed lending and involved in resale agreements.

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Robeco Schweiz AG lessened its holdings in Nomad Foods Limited (NYSE:NOMD  Free Report) by 0.3% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 723,176 shares of the companys stock after selling 1,991 shares during the quarter. Robeco Schweiz AGs holdings in Nomad Foods were worth $13,552,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of NOMD. Citigroup Inc. lifted its position in Nomad Foods by 172.4% during the first quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 15,513 shares of the companys stock valued at $350,000 after acquiring an additional 9,819 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. increased its stake in Nomad Foods by 36.2% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 106,208 shares of the companys stock valued at $2,399,000 after purchasing an additional 28,220 shares in the last quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. increased its stake in Nomad Foods by 10.3% during the 1st quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 80,881 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,816,000 after purchasing an additional 7,585 shares in the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH increased its stake in shares of Nomad Foods by 2.2% in the first quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 378,373 shares of the companys stock worth $8,544,000 after acquiring an additional 8,007 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Nomad Foods by 1.8% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 110,864 shares of the companys stock worth $2,503,000 after acquiring an additional 1,911 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.71% of the companys stock.

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Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on NOMD. StockNews.com lowered shares of Nomad Foods from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 14th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Nomad Foods from $21.00 to $22.00 in a research note on Friday, May 12th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on shares of Nomad Foods from $21.00 to $24.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 11th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued 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 $22.20.

Nomad Foods Price Performance

Shares of NYSE NOMD traded up $0.37 during trading on Friday, hitting $18.09. The company had a trading volume of 340,678 shares, compared to its average volume of 580,545. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $17.65 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $17.94. Nomad Foods Limited has a fifty-two week low of $12.50 and a fifty-two week high of $19.82. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.66 and a beta of 0.74. The company has a quick ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 1.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81.

Nomad Foods (NYSE:NOMD  Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 10th. The company reported $0.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.08. Nomad Foods had a net margin of 7.87% and a return on equity of 11.63%. The business had revenue of $831.55 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $811.47 million. On average, research analysts expect that Nomad Foods Limited will post 1.71 earnings per share for the current year.

About Nomad Foods

(Free Report)

Nomad Foods Limited manufactures, markets, and distributes a range of frozen food products in the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, France, Sweden, Austria, Norway, Spain, Serbia, Croatia, Switzerland, and rest of Europe. The company offers frozen fish products, including fish fingers, coated fish, and natural fish; ready to cook vegetable products, such as peas and spinach; and frozen poultry and meat products comprising nuggets, grills, and burgers.

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Dynatrace (NYSE:DT  Free Report) had its price objective lifted by Rosenblatt Securities from $54.00 to $58.00 in a report published on Tuesday, MarketBeat reports. Rosenblatt Securities currently has a buy rating on the stock.

A number of other brokerages also recently weighed in on DT. TheStreet upgraded shares of Dynatrace from a c rating to a b rating in a report on Wednesday, May 17th. Truist Financial boosted their target price on shares of Dynatrace from $50.00 to $55.00 in a report on Thursday, May 18th. DA Davidson initiated coverage on shares of Dynatrace in a report on Monday, June 5th. They set a neutral rating and a $50.00 target price on the stock. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Dynatrace from $52.00 to $50.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 21st. Finally, BTIG Research upgraded shares of Dynatrace from a neutral rating to a buy rating and set a $57.00 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 18th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Dynatrace currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $53.23.

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Dynatrace Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of NYSE:DT traded down $0.48 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $47.26. The stock had a trading volume of 3,446,539 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,863,447. The firm has a market cap of $13.85 billion, a PE ratio of 97.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 12.30 and a beta of 1.07. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $52.00 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $45.65. Dynatrace has a twelve month low of $31.54 and a twelve month high of $55.87.

Insider Activity

Dynatrace ( NYSE:DT Get Free Report ) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 17th. The company reported $0.20 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.09 by $0.11. Dynatrace had a net margin of 11.77% and a return on equity of 12.24%. The firm had revenue of $314.48 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $303.51 million. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Dynatrace will post 0.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

In other Dynatrace news, SVP Bernd Greifeneder sold 30,755 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.75, for a total transaction of $1,591,571.25. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 1,014,951 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $52,523,714.25. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, CAO Alicia Allen sold 4,334 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.75, for a total value of $224,284.50. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 95,680 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,951,440. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Bernd Greifeneder sold 30,755 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.75, for a total value of $1,591,571.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 1,014,951 shares in the company, valued at $52,523,714.25. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 18,207,407 shares of company stock valued at $943,913,963 over the last quarter. 0.54% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Dynatrace

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. BlackRock Inc. lifted its stake in Dynatrace by 2.1% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 23,086,920 shares of the companys stock valued at $976,577,000 after acquiring an additional 467,760 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Dynatrace by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,402,842 shares of the companys stock worth $675,413,000 after purchasing an additional 702,695 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of Dynatrace by 41.2% during the 1st quarter. FMR LLC now owns 16,424,549 shares of the companys stock worth $694,758,000 after purchasing an additional 4,791,026 shares during the period. Brown Advisory Inc. raised its stake in shares of Dynatrace by 3.4% during the 2nd quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 11,543,022 shares of the companys stock worth $594,119,000 after purchasing an additional 374,600 shares during the period. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in shares of Dynatrace by 5.7% during the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 8,111,518 shares of the companys stock worth $343,117,000 after purchasing an additional 439,914 shares during the period. 71.79% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Dynatrace

(Get Free Report)

Dynatrace, Inc provides a security platform for multicloud environments. It operates Dynatrace, a security platform, which provides application and microservices monitoring, runtime application security, infrastructure monitoring, log management and analytics, digital experience monitoring, digital business analytics, and cloud automation.

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Sandy Spring Bank reduced its holdings in shares of Laboratory Co. of America Holdings (NYSE:LH  Free Report) by 1.8% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 26,316 shares of the medical research companys stock after selling 469 shares during the quarter. Sandy Spring Banks holdings in Laboratory Co. of America were worth $6,037,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in LH. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Laboratory Co. of America by 1.0% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,859,128 shares of the medical research companys stock worth $2,863,118,000 after purchasing an additional 106,063 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Laboratory Co. of America by 532.2% in the 4th quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 1,530,675 shares of the medical research companys stock valued at $360,441,000 after purchasing an additional 1,288,574 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley grew its holdings in shares of Laboratory Co. of America by 19.8% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,317,815 shares of the medical research companys stock valued at $310,319,000 after purchasing an additional 218,161 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Laboratory Co. of America during the 4th quarter worth $219,236,000. Finally, Veritas Investment Partners UK Ltd. boosted its position in Laboratory Co. of America by 1.0% during the 1st quarter. Veritas Investment Partners UK Ltd. now owns 856,299 shares of the medical research companys stock worth $196,423,000 after buying an additional 8,273 shares during the period. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently issued reports on LH. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on shares of Laboratory Co. of America from $255.00 to $251.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Citigroup dropped their price target on Laboratory Co. of America from $260.00 to $235.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. Mizuho reduced their price objective on shares of Laboratory Co. of America from $277.00 to $257.00 in a research report on Tuesday, May 16th. Credit Suisse Group cut their price objective on shares of Laboratory Co. of America from $247.41 to $231.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Laboratory Co. of America from $285.00 to $260.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $254.25.

Insider Buying and Selling at Laboratory Co. of America

Laboratory Co. of America Stock Performance

In other Laboratory Co. of America news, CEO Paul R. Kirchgraber sold 4,300 shares of Laboratory Co. of America stock in a transaction on Friday, May 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $216.91, for a total transaction of $932,713.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 12,946 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $2,808,116.86. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website . In other Laboratory Co. of America news, CEO Paul R. Kirchgraber sold 4,300 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $216.91, for a total transaction of $932,713.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 12,946 shares of the companys stock, valued at $2,808,116.86. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link . Also, COO Mark S. Schroeder sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $216.77, for a total transaction of $325,155.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 6,687 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $1,449,540.99. The disclosure for this sale can be found here . Insiders sold a total of 6,012 shares of company stock valued at $1,308,748 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.65% of the companys stock.

NYSE LH traded down $0.22 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $215.04. The companys stock had a trading volume of 369,093 shares, compared to its average volume of 732,643. The company has a market cap of $19.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.23 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 2.35 and a quick ratio of 2.12. Laboratory Co. of America Holdings has a 12 month low of $166.93 and a 12 month high of $222.33. The companys 50 day simple moving average is $220.42 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $228.93.

Laboratory Co. of America (NYSE:LH  Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 27th. The medical research company reported $3.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $3.47 by ($0.05). Laboratory Co. of America had a return on equity of 14.63% and a net margin of 5.89%. The firm had revenue of $3.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $3.77 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $4.96 earnings per share. The businesss revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Laboratory Co. of America Holdings will post 13.64 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Laboratory Co. of America Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 8th. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 8th will be paid a $0.72 dividend. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.34%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, August 7th. Laboratory Co. of Americas dividend payout ratio is presently 31.07%.

Laboratory Co. of America Company Profile

(Free Report)

Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings operates as a life sciences company that provides vital information to help doctors, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, researchers, and patients make clear and confident decisions. It operates in two segments, Labcorp Diagnostics and Labcorp Drug Development.

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Sarasin & Partners LLP reduced its stake in shares of Medical Properties Trust, Inc. (NYSE:MPW  Free Report) by 75.8% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,476,304 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock after selling 4,630,203 shares during the quarter. Sarasin & Partners LLPs holdings in Medical Properties Trust were worth $34,324,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. HighTower Advisors LLC boosted its position in Medical Properties Trust by 8.2% in the 1st quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 83,236 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $1,755,000 after buying an additional 6,318 shares during the period. AlphaCrest Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Medical Properties Trust by 147.1% during the first quarter. AlphaCrest Capital Management LLC now owns 21,434 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $453,000 after acquiring an additional 12,761 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. boosted its holdings in shares of Medical Properties Trust by 15.4% in the first quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. now owns 37,749 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $798,000 after purchasing an additional 5,046 shares during the period. Cibc World Market Inc. grew its stake in Medical Properties Trust by 11.3% in the first quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. now owns 38,588 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock worth $816,000 after purchasing an additional 3,922 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sei Investments Co. increased its holdings in Medical Properties Trust by 43.9% during the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 807,982 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock worth $17,067,000 after purchasing an additional 246,411 shares during the period. 74.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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Medical Properties Trust Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of Medical Properties Trust stock traded up $0.08 during trading on Friday, reaching $9.95. The companys stock had a trading volume of 6,553,922 shares, compared to its average volume of 13,726,083. Medical Properties Trust, Inc. has a 1-year low of $7.10 and a 1-year high of $16.81. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $9.32 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $9.63. The company has a quick ratio of 2.15, a current ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24. The company has a market cap of $5.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.72, a P/E/G ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 0.99.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Medical Properties Trust Company Profile

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on MPW. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on Medical Properties Trust from $14.00 to $12.00 in a research report on Friday, April 28th. Wells Fargo & Company began coverage on shares of Medical Properties Trust in a report on Wednesday, April 19th. They issued an equal weight rating and a $9.00 price target for the company. Finally, StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Medical Properties Trust in a research note on Thursday, May 18th. They set a hold rating on the stock. Seven 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 companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $13.08.

(Free Report)

Medical Properties Trust, Inc is a self-advised real estate investment trust formed in 2003 to acquire and develop net-leased hospital facilities. From its inception in Birmingham, Alabama, the Company has grown to become one of the world's largest owners of hospital real estate with 444 facilities and approximately 45,000 licensed beds in ten countries and across four continents.

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Integer Holdings Co. (NYSE:ITGR  Get Free Report) was the target of a large decrease in short interest in the month of July. As of July 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,370,000 shares, a decrease of 5.2% from the June 30th total of 2,500,000 shares. Approximately 7.4% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 231,800 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 10.2 days.

Insider Buying and Selling at Integer

In other Integer news, Director Jean M. Hobby sold 3,625 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $83.85, for a total transaction of $303,956.25. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 9,126 shares in the company, valued at approximately $765,215.10. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 1.84% of the companys stock.

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Institutional Trading of Integer

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ITGR. Raymond James & Associates lifted its holdings in shares of Integer by 12.6% in the first quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 40,898 shares of the medical equipment providers stock valued at $3,295,000 after purchasing an additional 4,578 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in Integer by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 406,645 shares of the medical equipment providers stock valued at $32,763,000 after buying an additional 5,256 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its position in shares of Integer by 20.9% in the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 5,573 shares of the medical equipment providers stock valued at $449,000 after acquiring an additional 963 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE boosted its stake in shares of Integer by 11.8% during the first quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 9,970 shares of the medical equipment providers stock valued at $803,000 after acquiring an additional 1,051 shares during the last quarter. Finally, HighTower Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Integer by 2.9% during the first quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 7,831 shares of the medical equipment providers stock valued at $632,000 after acquiring an additional 217 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.34% of the companys stock.

Integer Stock Performance

Shares of Integer stock opened at $90.17 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 3.08 and a quick ratio of 1.94. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.12. The business has a 50-day moving average of $85.71 and a 200 day moving average of $79.62. Integer has a 12 month low of $50.05 and a 12 month high of $96.17.

Integer (NYSE:ITGR  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 27th. The medical equipment provider reported $1.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.99 by $0.15. The business had revenue of $400.04 million during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $367.05 million. Integer had a net margin of 4.77% and a return on equity of 9.67%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Integer will post 4.35 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the stock. TheStreet raised shares of Integer from a c+ rating to a b rating in a research note on Thursday, July 27th. StockNews.com assumed coverage on Integer in a research note on Thursday, May 18th. They set a hold rating on the stock. Citigroup started coverage on shares of Integer in a research note on Thursday, May 11th. They set a neutral rating and a $88.00 target price for the company. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Integer from $87.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research note on Friday, July 28th. Finally, Benchmark boosted their price objective on shares of Integer from $90.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Friday, July 28th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Integer presently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $93.83.

Check Out Our Latest Research Report on Integer

About Integer

(Get Free Report)

Integer Holdings Corporation operates as a medical device outsource manufacturer in the United States, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, and internationally. It operates through Medical and Non-Medical segments. The company offers products for interventional cardiology, structural heart, heart failure, peripheral vascular, neurovascular, interventional oncology, electrophysiology, vascular access, infusion therapy, hemodialysis, urology, and gastroenterology procedures.

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Skyline Champion (NYSE:SKY  Get Free Report) issued its earnings results on Tuesday. The company reported $0.89 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $0.78 by $0.11, Briefing.com reports. The company had revenue of $464.77 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $463.48 million. Skyline Champion had a return on equity of 28.86% and a net margin of 14.32%. Skyline Champions quarterly revenue was down 36.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.04 earnings per share.

Skyline Champion Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:SKY traded up $3.03 during trading on Friday, reaching $68.85. The company had a trading volume of 60,287 shares, compared to its average volume of 445,848. The firms fifty day moving average is $65.03 and its 200 day moving average is $66.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a quick ratio of 3.38 and a current ratio of 4.19. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.93 billion, a PE ratio of 11.27 and a beta of 1.72. Skyline Champion has a twelve month low of $44.68 and a twelve month high of $76.82.

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Institutional Investors Weigh In On Skyline Champion

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of Skyline Champion by 28.9% in the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 60,302 shares of the companys stock worth $3,309,000 after purchasing an additional 13,513 shares during the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Skyline Champion during the first quarter worth $277,000. Bank of Montreal Can purchased a new stake in shares of Skyline Champion during the first quarter valued at $222,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Skyline Champion in the 1st quarter valued at $496,000. Finally, MetLife Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Skyline Champion by 53.8% in the 1st quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 28,047 shares of the companys stock worth $1,539,000 after purchasing an additional 9,809 shares in the last quarter.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

SKY has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Wedbush restated an outperform rating and set a $78.00 price objective on shares of Skyline Champion in a research note on Wednesday. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on shares of Skyline Champion from $61.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a report on Thursday, July 13th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their target price on shares of Skyline Champion from $63.00 to $62.00 and set a sector perform rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Finally, StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Skyline Champion in a research note on Thursday, May 18th. They issued a hold rating on the stock. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $68.00.

Check Out Our Latest Analysis on Skyline Champion

Skyline Champion Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Skyline Champion Corporation produces and sells factory-built housing in North America. The company offers manufactured and modular homes, park models RVs, accessory dwelling units, and modular buildings for the multi-family and hospitality sectors. It builds homes under the Skyline Homes, Champion Home Builders, Genesis Homes, Athens Park Models, Dutch Housing, Atlantic Homes, Excel Homes, Homes of Merit, New Era, Redman Homes, ScotBilt Homes, Shore Park, Silvercrest, and Titan Homes brands in the United States; and Moduline and SRI Homes brand names in western Canada.

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Mawer Investment Management Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO  Free Report) by 761.9% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 2,756,533 shares of the basic materials companys stock after buying an additional 2,436,727 shares during the period. Southern Copper makes up approximately 1.1% of Mawer Investment Management Ltd.s portfolio, making the stock its 28th largest position. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. owned about 0.36% of Southern Copper worth $210,186,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. lifted its position in shares of Southern Copper by 10.7% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 7,022,108 shares of the basic materials companys stock worth $532,978,000 after purchasing an additional 680,165 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in Southern Copper by 200.6% during the second quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 4,179,899 shares of the basic materials companys stock worth $208,201,000 after buying an additional 2,789,376 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Southern Copper by 43.3% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,763,612 shares of the basic materials companys stock valued at $209,759,000 after purchasing an additional 835,044 shares in the last quarter. abrdn plc raised its position in shares of Southern Copper by 134.8% in the first quarter. abrdn plc now owns 2,702,309 shares of the basic materials companys stock valued at $206,051,000 after buying an additional 1,551,189 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Southern Copper by 4.5% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,629,660 shares of the basic materials companys stock valued at $199,591,000 after buying an additional 112,609 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 7.74% of the companys stock.

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Southern Copper Price Performance

NYSE SCCO traded up $0.22 on Friday, hitting $83.99. 331,654 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,251,183. The company has a current ratio of 4.17, a quick ratio of 3.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76. Southern Copper Co. has a 1-year low of $42.42 and a 1-year high of $87.59. The company has a market cap of $64.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.28, a P/E/G ratio of 19.81 and a beta of 1.26. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $74.48 and a two-hundred day moving average of $74.45.

Southern Copper Increases Dividend

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 23rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 9th will be paid a dividend of $1.00 per share. This is a boost from Southern Coppers previous quarterly dividend of $0.95. This represents a $4.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 8th. Southern Coppers dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 115.94%.

SCCO has been the subject of several recent research reports. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Southern Copper from $53.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research report on Friday, April 21st. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Southern Copper from $67.00 to $74.00 in a report on Wednesday, June 21st. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Southern Copper in a report on Thursday, May 18th. They issued a buy rating on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on shares of Southern Copper from $55.00 to $56.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 3rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut shares of Southern Copper from a neutral rating to a sell rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $65.00 to $66.00 in a report on Tuesday, May 9th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $62.86.

Get Our Latest Report on Southern Copper

Insider Transactions at Southern Copper

In related news, Director Bonilla Luis Miguel Palomino sold 500 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Monday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $78.50, for a total value of $39,250.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 6,014 shares in the company, valued at $472,099. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders sold 1,500 shares of company stock valued at $117,910 in the last ninety days. 0.08% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Southern Copper Company Profile

(Free Report)

Southern Copper Corporation engages in mining, exploring, smelting, and refining copper and other minerals in Peru, Mexico, Argentina, Ecuador, and Chile. The company is involved in the mining, milling, and flotation of copper ore to produce copper and molybdenum concentrates; smelting of copper concentrates to produce blister and anode copper; refining of anode copper to produce copper cathodes; production of molybdenum concentrate and sulfuric acid; production of refined silver, gold, and other materials; and mining and processing of zinc, copper, molybdenum, silver, gold, and lead.

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Participants of the World Scout Jamboree gather at tap water facilities at a campsite at Saemangeum, a reclaimed land area on the southwestern coast, on Aug. 4. Yonhap



British Scouts participating in the World Scout Jamboree are set to leave the event site amid mounting safety concerns stemming from a sweltering heat wave, Britain's largest Scouting organization said Friday.



"U.K. Scouts are transferring our young people and adult volunteers from the Jamboree site at Saemangeum to Seoul," the Scout Association said on its website.



"We will start moving our people to hotel accommodation over the next two days. As we are the largest contingent, our hope is that this helps alleviate the pressure on the site overall," it added.



More than 4,000 British Scouts are participating in the event taking place at Saemangeum, a reclaimed land area on the southwestern coast.



They will remain in Seoul and travel back home as originally planned from Aug. 13, according to the website.




SPX Technologies (NYSE:SPXC  Get Free Report) posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday. The company reported $1.06 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.84 by $0.22, Briefing.com reports. SPX Technologies had a net margin of 2.03% and a return on equity of 15.33%. The business had revenue of $423.30 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $395.72 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.71 EPS. SPX Technologiess revenue was up 19.6% compared to the same quarter last year. SPX Technologies updated its FY23 guidance to $4.15-$4.30 EPS.

SPX Technologies Stock Performance

Shares of SPXC traded up $5.69 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $88.69. The companys stock had a trading volume of 399,485 shares, compared to its average volume of 220,482. The company has a market cap of $4.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 132.37, a PEG ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 2.08 and a quick ratio of 1.41. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $82.07 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $74.57. SPX Technologies has a 52-week low of $53.19 and a 52-week high of $91.93.

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Insider Transactions at SPX Technologies

In related news, VP John Webster Nurkin sold 11,133 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.74, for a total transaction of $854,346.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 88,196 shares of the companys stock, valued at $6,768,161.04. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, VP John Webster Nurkin sold 11,133 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.74, for a total transaction of $854,346.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 88,196 shares of the companys stock, valued at $6,768,161.04. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider J Randall Data sold 17,638 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.87, for a total transaction of $1,302,919.06. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 78,124 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $5,771,019.88. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 4.02% of the companys stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On SPX Technologies

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Two Sigma Advisers LP bought a new stake in shares of SPX Technologies in the 1st quarter worth approximately $240,000. CIBC Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in shares of SPX Technologies in the 1st quarter worth approximately $230,000. Advisor Partners II LLC bought a new stake in shares of SPX Technologies in the 4th quarter worth approximately $224,000. LPL Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of SPX Technologies in the 4th quarter worth approximately $221,000. Finally, Centiva Capital LP bought a new stake in shares of SPX Technologies in the 4th quarter worth approximately $221,000. 90.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Several research firms recently issued reports on SPXC. UBS Group downgraded shares of SPX Technologies from a buy rating to a neutral rating and lifted their price target for the company from $80.00 to $90.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 5th. TheStreet raised shares of SPX Technologies from a c+ rating to a b- rating in a report on Thursday, May 25th. William Blair started coverage on shares of SPX Technologies in a report on Monday, April 17th. They set an outperform rating on the stock. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on shares of SPX Technologies from $94.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, StockNews.com started coverage on shares of SPX Technologies in a report on Thursday, May 18th. They set a hold rating on the stock. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two 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 a consensus target price of $93.50.

Check Out Our Latest Analysis on SPXC

About SPX Technologies

(Get Free Report)

SPX Technologies, Inc supplies infrastructure equipment serving the heating, ventilation, and cooling (HVAC); and detection and measurement markets in the United States, China, the United Kingdom, and internationally. The company operates in two segments, HVAC and Detection and Measurement. The HVAC segment engineers, designs, manufactures, installs, and services package and process cooling products and engineered air movement solutions for the HVAC industrial and power generation markets, as well as boilers and comfort heating and ventilation products for the residential and commercial markets.

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Brady Family Wealth LLC lowered its stake in Stryker Co. (NYSE:SYK  Free Report) by 1.3% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 25,258 shares of the medical technology companys stock after selling 338 shares during the quarter. Stryker makes up approximately 2.8% of Brady Family Wealth LLCs portfolio, making the stock its 4th largest holding. Brady Family Wealth LLCs holdings in Stryker were worth $7,210,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Stryker by 8.4% in the 4th quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 25,970 shares of the medical technology companys stock worth $6,349,000 after buying an additional 2,005 shares in the last quarter. Coastal Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Stryker in the 4th quarter worth approximately $271,000. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System raised its holdings in shares of Stryker by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System now owns 27,814 shares of the medical technology companys stock worth $7,940,000 after buying an additional 164 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Stryker by 10.4% in the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 157,812 shares of the medical technology companys stock worth $38,583,000 after buying an additional 14,850 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FourThought Financial Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Stryker in the 4th quarter worth approximately $338,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.89% of the companys stock.

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Insider Buying and Selling

In other Stryker news, Director Srikant M. Datar sold 1,000 shares of Stryker stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $286.00, for a total value of $286,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 5,967 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,706,562. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, Director Srikant M. Datar sold 500 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $278.50, for a total value of $139,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 5,467 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,522,559.50. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Srikant M. Datar sold 1,000 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $286.00, for a total transaction of $286,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 5,967 shares of the companys stock, valued at $1,706,562. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 5.90% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Stryker Stock Performance

Shares of SYK traded up $10.88 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $286.50. The stock had a trading volume of 1,695,570 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,329,453. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $289.56 and a 200-day simple moving average of $280.81. Stryker Co. has a one year low of $200.80 and a one year high of $306.93. The firm has a market cap of $108.53 billion, a PE ratio of 40.12, a P/E/G ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a current ratio of 1.73, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70.

Stryker (NYSE:SYK  Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 3rd. The medical technology company reported $2.54 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.38 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $5 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.83 billion. Stryker had a net margin of 13.86% and a return on equity of 22.17%. Strykers revenue was up 11.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.25 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Stryker Co. will post 10.16 EPS for the current year.

Stryker Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 31st. Investors of record on Friday, September 29th will be issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.05%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 28th. Strykers payout ratio is 43.67%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on Stryker from $280.00 to $330.00 in a report on Tuesday, May 2nd. Barclays raised their price target on Stryker from $314.00 to $321.00 in a report on Tuesday, May 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on Stryker from $320.00 to $345.00 in a research report on Tuesday, May 2nd. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Stryker from $287.00 to $315.00 in a research note on Tuesday, May 2nd. Finally, Truist Financial raised their target price on shares of Stryker from $300.00 to $310.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 19th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $307.71.

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Stryker Company Profile

(Free Report)

Stryker Corporation operates as a medical technology company. The company operates through two segments, MedSurg and Neurotechnology, and Orthopaedics and Spine. The Orthopaedics and Spine segment provides implants for use in hip and knee joint replacements, and trauma and extremities surgeries. This segment also offers spinal implant products comprising cervical, thoracolumbar, and interbody systems that are used in spinal injury, deformity, and degenerative therapies.

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Cove Street Capital LLC lessened its holdings in The Bank of New York Mellon Co. (NYSE:BK  Free Report) by 5.1% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 26,500 shares of the banks stock after selling 1,415 shares during the period. Cove Street Capital LLCs holdings in Bank of New York Mellon were worth $1,204,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of BK. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. lifted its stake in shares of Bank of New York Mellon by 97.1% in the 1st quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 609 shares of the banks stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. Exos TFP Holdings LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Bank of New York Mellon in the 4th quarter valued at $32,000. MV Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Bank of New York Mellon by 38.3% in the 4th quarter. MV Capital Management Inc. now owns 747 shares of the banks stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 207 shares during the period. Glass Jacobson Investment Advisors llc purchased a new stake in shares of Bank of New York Mellon in the 4th quarter valued at $36,000. Finally, Sandy Spring Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Bank of New York Mellon in the 4th quarter valued at $36,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.19% of the companys stock.

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Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BK has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Bank of New York Mellon from $46.00 to $47.00 and gave the company an underweight rating in a report on Wednesday, April 19th. Citigroup cut their price objective on Bank of New York Mellon from $58.00 to $55.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 19th. Barclays cut their price objective on Bank of New York Mellon from $64.00 to $62.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 12th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on Bank of New York Mellon from $43.00 to $44.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 19th. Finally, Evercore ISI cut their price target on Bank of New York Mellon from $49.00 to $46.00 in a report on Friday, May 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned 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 Hold and an average price target of $52.90.

Bank of New York Mellon Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of NYSE:BK traded up $0.45 on Friday, hitting $46.01. 1,358,310 shares of the companys stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,434,375. The firms 50-day moving average is $44.03 and its 200 day moving average is $45.45. The company has a market capitalization of $36.31 billion, a PE ratio of 13.28, a P/E/G ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 1.09. The Bank of New York Mellon Co. has a 1-year low of $36.22 and a 1-year high of $52.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 0.72.

Bank of New York Mellon (NYSE:BK  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 18th. The bank reported $1.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.22 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $4.45 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $4.37 billion. Bank of New York Mellon had a return on equity of 11.88% and a net margin of 10.95%. The businesss quarterly revenue was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.15 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that The Bank of New York Mellon Co. will post 4.86 EPS for the current year.

Bank of New York Mellon Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 28th will be given a dividend of $0.42 per share. This is a boost from Bank of New York Mellons previous quarterly dividend of $0.37. This represents a $1.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 27th. Bank of New York Mellons dividend payout ratio is currently 48.98%.

Insider Activity at Bank of New York Mellon

In related news, EVP J Kevin Mccarthy sold 35,000 shares of the companys stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $46.33, for a total value of $1,621,550.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 98,102 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $4,545,065.66. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.10% of the companys stock.

About Bank of New York Mellon

(Free Report)

The Bank of New York Mellon Corp. is a bank holding company, which engages in the provision of financial services. It operates through the following segments: Securities Services, Market and Wealth Services, Investment and Wealth Management, and Other segment. The Securities Services segment includes Asset Servicing business, which provides global custody, fund accounting, integrated middle-office solutions, transfer agency and data and analytics solutions.

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Valmont Industries (NYSE:VMI  Free Report) had its price target cut by DA Davidson from $310.00 to $290.00 in a research note published on Monday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. They currently have a neutral rating on the industrial products companys stock. DA Davidson also issued estimates for Valmont Industries Q3 2023 earnings at $3.76 EPS, FY2023 earnings at $15.38 EPS and FY2024 earnings at $16.47 EPS.

Several other research firms also recently issued reports on VMI. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on Valmont Industries from $389.00 to $352.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 17th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on Valmont Industries in a report on Thursday, May 18th. They set a buy rating on the stock.

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Read Our Latest Analysis on VMI

Valmont Industries Price Performance

Valmont Industries Dividend Announcement

NYSE:VMI opened at $253.91 on Monday. Valmont Industries has a 52 week low of $253.53 and a 52 week high of $353.36. The company has a quick ratio of 1.43, a current ratio of 2.41 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57. The company has a market capitalization of $5.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.71, a P/E/G ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.08. The stocks fifty day moving average is $280.87 and its two-hundred day moving average is $298.08.

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, October 16th. Investors of record on Friday, September 29th will be given a $0.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 28th. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.95%. Valmont Industriess dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 18.63%.

Institutional Trading of Valmont Industries

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in Valmont Industries by 66.9% during the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 533,278 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $176,339,000 after acquiring an additional 213,702 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Valmont Industries during the 4th quarter worth approximately $64,415,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its stake in shares of Valmont Industries by 101,897.2% during the 2nd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 108,117 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $31,468,000 after buying an additional 108,011 shares in the last quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC increased its stake in Valmont Industries by 140.6% in the 4th quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC now owns 145,958 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $48,264,000 after purchasing an additional 85,287 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brown Advisory Inc. increased its stake in Valmont Industries by 26.3% in the 2nd quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 347,529 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $101,148,000 after purchasing an additional 72,413 shares in the last quarter. 85.39% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Valmont Industries Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Valmont Industries, Inc produces and sells metal products in the United States, Australia, Brazil, Denmark, and internationally. The company operates through two segments: Infrastructure and Agriculture. It manufactures and distributes steel, pre-stressed concrete, composite, and hybrid structures for lighting, transportation, and telecommunications equipment, as well as electrical transmission, distribution, substations, and renewable energy generation equipment; and provides coatings services to preserve metal products.

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Versor Investments LP bought a new position in Graphic Packaging Holding (NYSE:GPK  Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 35,000 shares of the industrial products companys stock, valued at approximately $892,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Assetmark Inc. grew its stake in Graphic Packaging by 22.3% in the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 2,810 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $63,000 after acquiring an additional 513 shares during the period. Arizona State Retirement System lifted its holdings in Graphic Packaging by 2.4% in the 1st quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 88,989 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $2,268,000 after buying an additional 2,127 shares in the last quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas lifted its holdings in Graphic Packaging by 24.9% in the 4th quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 151,765 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $3,377,000 after buying an additional 30,303 shares in the last quarter. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC lifted its holdings in Graphic Packaging by 17.6% in the 1st quarter. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC now owns 37,949 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $967,000 after buying an additional 5,689 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amalgamated Bank increased its position in shares of Graphic Packaging by 67.5% in the 4th quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 111,248 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $2,475,000 after purchasing an additional 44,839 shares during the last quarter. 92.86% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Graphic Packaging Stock Up 0.6 %

GPK stock opened at $23.05 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $7.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.05, a PEG ratio of 0.33 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a 50 day moving average of $24.51 and a two-hundred day moving average of $24.38. The company has a quick ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 1.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.36. Graphic Packaging Holding has a 12-month low of $19.46 and a 12-month high of $27.56.

Graphic Packaging Dividend Announcement

Graphic Packaging ( NYSE:GPK Get Free Report ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 1st. The industrial products company reported $0.66 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $0.73 by ($0.07). The business had revenue of $2.39 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.49 billion. Graphic Packaging had a net margin of 7.30% and a return on equity of 38.70%. The firms revenue for the quarter was up 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.60 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Graphic Packaging Holding will post 2.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 5th. Investors of record on Friday, September 15th will be paid a $0.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 14th. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.74%. Graphic Packagings payout ratio is presently 17.54%.

Insider Activity at Graphic Packaging

In other Graphic Packaging news, CFO Stephen R. Scherger sold 160,492 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.81, for a total value of $4,142,298.52. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 427,548 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,035,013.88. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 1.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Seaport Res Ptn reissued a buy rating on shares of Graphic Packaging in a research report on Wednesday, May 3rd. Raymond James boosted their target price on shares of Graphic Packaging from $29.00 to $30.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 3rd. Citigroup reduced their price target on shares of Graphic Packaging from $30.00 to $28.00 in a research note on Monday, July 10th. Bank of America lowered shares of Graphic Packaging from a buy rating to a neutral rating and cut their target price for the company from $35.00 to $29.00 in a research note on Monday, July 10th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of Graphic Packaging from $28.00 to $26.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Graphic Packaging currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $29.44.

View Our Latest Research Report on Graphic Packaging

Graphic Packaging Company Profile

(Free Report)

Graphic Packaging Holding Company, together with its subsidiaries, provides fiber-based packaging solutions to food, beverage, foodservice, and other consumer products companies. It operates through three segments: Paperboard Mills, Americas Paperboard Packaging, and Europe Paperboard Packaging. The company offers coated unbleached kraft (CUK), coated recycled paperboard (CRB), and solid bleached sulfate paperboard (SBS) to various paperboard packaging converters and brokers; and paperboard packaging products, such as folding cartons, cups, lids, and food containers primarily to consumer packaged goods, quick-service restaurants, and foodservice companies; and barrier packaging products that protect against moisture, hot and cold temperature, grease, oil, oxygen, sunlight, insects, and other potential product-damaging factors.

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WESCO International, Inc. (NYSE:WCC  Free Report)  Research analysts at Zacks Research lowered their Q1 2024 earnings per share estimates for shares of WESCO International in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday, August 2nd. Zacks Research analyst A. Ganguly now expects that the technology company will post earnings per share of $3.67 for the quarter, down from their prior estimate of $3.87. The consensus estimate for WESCO Internationals current full-year earnings is $17.44 per share. Zacks Research also issued estimates for WESCO Internationals FY2025 earnings at $18.96 EPS.

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WCC has been the subject of a number of other reports. Loop Capital increased their target price on WESCO International from $170.00 to $210.00 in a research note on Wednesday, June 21st. Robert W. Baird raised WESCO International from a neutral rating to an outperform rating and set a $180.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Friday, May 5th. Oppenheimer dropped their price objective on WESCO International from $190.00 to $185.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research note on Friday. StockNews.com started coverage on WESCO International in a research note on Thursday, May 18th. They issued a hold rating for the company. Finally, KeyCorp dropped their price objective on WESCO International from $210.00 to $185.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research note on Friday. One equities research analyst has 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 company has a consensus rating of Buy and a consensus price target of $185.57.

WESCO International Stock Performance

Shares of WCC stock traded up $2.28 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $155.57. 248,491 shares of the companys stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 672,482. The company has a market cap of $7.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 2.00. The companys 50 day moving average is $167.26 and its two-hundred day moving average is $153.42. WESCO International has a 1 year low of $112.08 and a 1 year high of $185.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 2.39 and a quick ratio of 1.33.

WESCO International (NYSE:WCC  Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, August 3rd. The technology company reported $3.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $4.45 by ($0.74). The business had revenue of $5.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $5.94 billion. WESCO International had a return on equity of 21.33% and a net margin of 3.98%. The businesss quarterly revenue was up 4.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $4.19 earnings per share.

Institutional Trading of WESCO International

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of WCC. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its stake in WESCO International by 69.5% in the second quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 7,224 shares of the technology companys stock valued at $1,294,000 after acquiring an additional 2,963 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in WESCO International by 116.3% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 413,063 shares of the technology companys stock valued at $73,963,000 after acquiring an additional 222,092 shares during the period. Hosking Partners LLP boosted its stake in WESCO International by 71.0% in the second quarter. Hosking Partners LLP now owns 33,672 shares of the technology companys stock valued at $6,029,000 after acquiring an additional 13,982 shares during the period. HGK Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in WESCO International in the second quarter valued at approximately $264,000. Finally, Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS boosted its stake in WESCO International by 24.2% in the second quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS now owns 72,773 shares of the technology companys stock valued at $13,031,000 after acquiring an additional 14,200 shares during the period. 92.78% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other WESCO International news, EVP Nelson John Squires III sold 3,490 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Friday, June 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $180.00, for a total transaction of $628,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 66,147 shares of the companys stock, valued at $11,906,460. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other news, EVP James Cameron sold 7,687 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $153.47, for a total transaction of $1,179,723.89. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 35,811 shares in the company, valued at $5,495,914.17. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Nelson John Squires III sold 3,490 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $180.00, for a total value of $628,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 66,147 shares of the companys stock, valued at $11,906,460. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 14,668 shares of company stock valued at $2,418,849. Corporate insiders own 2.60% of the companys stock.

WESCO International Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 15th were given a dividend of $0.375 per share. This represents a $1.50 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.96%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, June 14th. WESCO Internationals payout ratio is 9.60%.

WESCO International Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

WESCO International, Inc provides business-to-business distribution, logistics services, and supply chain solutions in the United States, Canada, and internationally. It operates through three segments: Electrical & Electronic Solutions (EES), Communications & Security Solutions (CSS), and Utility and Broadband Solutions (UBS).

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WestRock (NYSE:WRK  Get Free Report) had its price objective hoisted by research analysts at Truist Financial from $29.00 to $34.00 in a report released on Friday, FlyOnTheWall reports. Truist Financials target price would indicate a potential downside of 1.45% from the companys current price.

A number of other brokerages also recently issued reports on WRK. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on WestRock from $33.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a sector perform rating in a research report on Friday. UBS Group cut their target price on WestRock from $42.00 to $37.00 in a research report on Friday, June 30th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on WestRock in a research report on Thursday, May 18th. They set a hold rating for the company. Finally, Bank of America raised WestRock from a neutral rating to a buy rating and increased their target price for the stock from $38.00 to $40.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 20th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, WestRock presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $34.11.

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WestRock Price Performance

NYSE:WRK traded down $0.05 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $34.50. 307,608 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,429,808. The firms fifty day moving average price is $29.69 and its 200 day moving average price is $30.62. WestRock has a 52-week low of $26.84 and a 52-week high of $43.37. The company has a market cap of $8.84 billion, a P/E ratio of -7.10, a P/E/G ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a current ratio of 1.53, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.93.

WestRock (NYSE:WRK  Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 3rd. The basic materials company reported $0.89 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $0.50 by $0.39. WestRock had a negative net margin of 5.86% and a positive return on equity of 9.98%. The business had revenue of $5.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.16 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.54 EPS. The businesss revenue was down 7.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that WestRock will post 2.37 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WRK. Ancora Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of WestRock during the 1st quarter worth about $29,000. Gyon Technologies Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in WestRock during the 4th quarter worth $31,000. Global Retirement Partners LLC lifted its position in WestRock by 203.8% in the first quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 1,118 shares of the basic materials companys stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 750 shares during the last quarter. Cornerstone Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of WestRock by 75.0% during the first quarter. Cornerstone Management Inc. now owns 1,050 shares of the basic materials companys stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 450 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S increased its position in shares of WestRock by 110.9% during the first quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S now owns 1,200 shares of the basic materials companys stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 631 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.54% of the companys stock.

About WestRock

(Get Free Report)

WestRock Company, together with its subsidiaries, provides fiber-based paper and packaging solutions in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. It operates in four segments, Corrugated Packaging, Consumer Packaging, Global Paper, and Distribution. The Corrugated Packaging segment produces containerboards, corrugated sheets, corrugated packaging, and preprinted linerboards to consumer and industrial products manufacturers, and corrugated box manufacturers.

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Daiwa Capital Markets lowered shares of Xinyi Solar (OTCMKTS:XNYIF  Free Report) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note published on Monday morning, FlyOnTheWall reports.

Separately, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Xinyi Solar from a neutral rating to an overweight rating in a report on Thursday, June 15th.

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Xinyi Solar Price Performance

Xinyi Solar Company Profile

XNYIF stock opened at $1.07 on Monday. Xinyi Solar has a 12 month low of $0.94 and a 12 month high of $1.63. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $1.08 and a two-hundred day moving average of $1.12.

(Get Free Report)

Xinyi Solar Holdings Limited, an investment holding company, produces and sells solar glass products in the People's Republic of China, rest of Asia, North America, Europe, and internationally. It operates in two segments, Sales of Solar Glass and Solar Farm Business. The company offers ultra-clear patterned solar glasses, back glasses, and anti-reflective coating solar glasses to photovoltaic module manufacturers.

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Caitlin Morganflash has been named new FiT Coordinator and will be step into her role as leader of the Families in Transition program through Grand Island Public Schools as the 2023-24 school year starts.

Morganflash brings a wealth of family support experience to the FiT program, GIPS noted in press release. She previously served as the EDN/Head-Start services coordinator in Hastings for the last four years. Before that, she served as a family support specialist with Better Living Counseling Services for three years.

Speaking of her approach to the work with FiT, Morganflash said, I think life and progress in anything (including school or families maintaining their basic needs) has become harder and more of a challenge. I believe if we step back, we set small goals or just next steps we can get further ahead. Small progress in the grand scheme of things can add up to big changes.

Morganflashs addition to the team comes at the heels of Holly Boeselager, previous FiT coordinator, stepping into the classroom to teach World History at Grand Island Senior High for the 2023-24 school year.

Grand Island Public Schools Families in Transition outreach team aims to promote the scholastic success of students in transitional living situations. Students considered in transition are those of families living with other families, in shelters, motels, or living in the streets.

Direct support and services for families that FiT provides includes: Food security services, action cab taxi vouchers, transportation aid for students to and from school, school supplies, hygiene products, Archipelago food and clothing pantry and more.

Anyone interested in donating home goods or non-perishable food items to the GIPS FiT program should reach out to the Kneale Administration Building at 308-385-5900 or send a message through Lets Talk.

More information may also be found on the GIPS FiT program webpage.
Japan-invested textile firm opens $9.5 mln factory in Nghe An province

By Tri Duc Fri, August 4, 2023 | 4:27 pm GTM+7

Japan-invested Koyu Textile Vietnam Limited Company inaugurated Wednesday a VND227.4 billion ($9.57 million) factory in the central province of Nghe An.

The project was given its investment certificate in June 2022. The 2.5-hectare plant, located at the WHA Industrial Zone 1 with an annual capacity of 22.4 million socks and stockings, uses modern technology and will employ 250 people, the investor said.

Koyu Textile Vietnam Ltd. Company inaugurates its factory in Nghe An province, central Vietnam, August 2, 2023. Photo courtesy of Nghe An newspaper.

Le Tien Tri, head of the Dong Nam Economic Zone, said at the ceremony that the central province constantly strives to improve its investment environment, facilitate project implementation and attract investments.

Koyu Textile Vietnam CEO Kamada Masatsugu expressed his appreciation for local authorities support with administrative procedures.

Apparel and textiles form a key export segment for Vietnam, earning revenues of $18.93 billion in the first seven months of this year, down 15% year-on-year, according to the General Statistics Office. The sector ranked fourth behind electronics, computers and components with $30.79 billion, down 3%; mobile phones and components with $27.8 billion, down 18.3%; and machinery and equipment with $22.9 billion, down 10.4%.

The sector has been advised to shift rapidly to green production because the world is increasingly demanding social and environmental sustainability for the products consumed. Deputy general secretary of the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (VITAS), Nguyen Tuyet Mai, said at the Vietnam Sustainable Textile Day 2023 commemorated in March that greening textile and garment production chains was a global trend that has become indispensable for businesses targeting sustainability.
President Yoon Suk Yeol shakes hands with Vietnamese leader Vo Van Thuong during a joint press conference held on June 23 in Hanoi after their summit. Korea Times file



Vietnam's unique geopolitical landscape makes South Korea ideal defense partner, says expert



By Kang Hyun-kyung



Vietnam's diplomatic reputation has taken a hit, while the Southeast Asian country's weapons procurement channel was also disrupted due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.



For decades, Russia has been Vietnam's longstanding defense partner and dominant supplier of weapons.



Wary of the possible fallout on its defense ties with Russia, Vietnam abstained from the U.N. General Assembly's vote in February to adopt a resolution calling for an immediate end to the war in Ukraine. Earlier, Vietnam also voted against kicking Russia off the U.N Human Rights Council.



With these moves in favor of embattled Russia, Vietnam risked its diplomatic reputation as it is now viewed as a country that turned a blind eye to the civilian casualties of the war.



Russia's invasion of Ukraine, meanwhile, created a security void in Vietnam. Grappling with a shortage of ammunition due to the prolonged war, Russia is no longer able to be a key supplier of weapons to Vietnam.



The Vietnamese government is trying to deal with the situation by diversifying its defense partners amid fears that its territorial spat with Beijing in the South China Sea will intensify further due to China's maritime ambitions.



Among other countries, South Korea, Japan and Israel are emerging as some of the potential arms suppliers to Vietnam.





Nguyen Phuong

Nguyen Phuong, a defense analyst, said Russia's invasion of Ukraine is a game changer as Moscow's dominance of Vietnam's defense industry is about to come to an end.



"The war in Ukraine has fundamentally altered Vietnam's dependence on Russia to supply weapons and Vietnam is now actively seeking new and potential foreign partners to purchase weapons," he told The Korea Times. "South Korea is one of them."



Nguyen, who lectures on international relations at Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics and Finance and is also a freelance writer contributing defense and military articles to international media outlets, is optimistic about defense ties between South Korea and Vietnam.



"South Korea has one of the most advanced, thriving and attractive defense industries in the world," he said. "More importantly, South Korea is trying to actively promote that, while Vietnam is actively seeking a reliable partner. Therefore, if they cooperate, it will be a win-win cooperation for the two sides."



Among other areas, he singled out shipbuilding, aerospace and cyber warfare as three promising areas of cooperation to help Vietnam beef up its military capabilities.



He said Vietnam wants not only to purchase weapons, but also to seek technology transfers and South Korea is willing to do that.



Vietnam is an emerging market for South Korea's defense industry following President Yoon Suk Yeol's state visit to the country in June. During the June 23 summit in Hanoi, Yoon and Vietnamese President Vo Van Thuong agreed to strengthen cooperation in issues related to the South China Sea. The two countries also signed more than 10 memoranda of understanding in the field of security.



In an interview with a Vietnam's news agency, VAN, prior to his departure from Seoul for the summit, Yoon revealed his hopes of working together with Vietnam in the area of security and pitched South Korea's defense industry and technologies.



Over the past decades, Vietnam has sought to modernize its military as the country sparred with China over fisheries and oil and gas fields in the South China Sea. The two countries clashed following Chinese attacks on Vietnamese coast guards and fishing vessels.



Vietnam upgraded its naval force with ships, submarines and weapons imported from Russia. The Southeast Asian country armed its naval vessels with the supersonic Yakhon P-800 anti-ship missile and acquired six Russian-built submarines equipped with anti-ship cruise missiles in response to China's growing maritime threat.





Richard Bitzinger
Long An leverages HCMC proximity to boost logistics credentials

By Tuong Nguyen Fri, August 4, 2023 | 8:33 am GTM+7

Long Ans efforts to leverage its position as a bridge between Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta have seen it emerge as a new logistics hub.

The province, which borders HCMC, is welcoming a wave of Japanese investment, as evidenced at the Long An-Japan investment promotion conference jointly organized last week with the Japanese Consulate General in HCMC.

Two Japanese companies - Sojitz Corporation and Kokubu Group, announced at the July 28 conference they will expand their cold chain logistics business in Vietnam.

A cold chain logistics warehouse invested by Sojitz in Long An province, southern Vietnam. Photo courtesy of Sojitz.

Sojitz and Kokubu established New Land Vietnam Japan JSC (NLVJ) as a joint venture in 2016, aiming to run a four-temperature logistics chain in southern Vietnam.

For the expansion plan, NLVJ has joined hands with Vietnamese logistics company New Land Co. Ltd. to establish the Vietnam Japan Long An LLC (NLVJ LA).

NLVJ LA is 51% owned by Sojitz, 44% by Kokubu, and 5% by New Land Co. Its head office is located at Lot 14 and Lot 14A, Tan Duc Industrial Park in Long Ans Duc Hoa district. The two lots form a 58,000-square meter site where the new, three-sided joint venture will build another logistics center which is four-temperature with a maximum storage capacity of 39,000 pallets.

The new facility, about 30 km southwest of downtown HCMC, will have a fleet of around 70 trucks. It will be constructed by Daiwa House Vietnam, a subsidiary of Japanese real estate developer Daiwa House, Sojitz said. It did not disclose when the project would break ground or the capital that would be invested in it.

Based on these market conditions, Sojitz, Kokubu, and New Land aim to expand Vietnams food value chain by strengthening the cold chain logistics functions of Huong Thuy Manufacture Service Trading Corporation, one of Vietnams major wholesalers jointly operated by the three companies, Sojitz said in a release.

MV-Neptune Co. Ltd., a Japanese logistics firm, obtained an investment certificate on July 25 for a $45 million logistics site project inside the Nam Thuan Logistics Park. The park is located within the Nam Thuan Industrial Park in Duc Hoa district, Long An province.

Just weeks before the latest wave of Japanese investors visited the province to gauge business opportunities, Vietnams Dong Tam Group launched container handling services at the Long An International Port on June 24.

We plan to reach one million TEUs by 2030 and handle 10 million tons of general cargo through the port, Peter Hendrik Slootweg, CEO of Long An International Port Operation & Management JSC, said at the ceremony.

The port, located in the provinces Can Giuoc district, operates six ship-to-shore (STS) cranes and 18 rubber-tired gantry (RTG) provided by Japans Mitsui E&S Machinery. Further investments will be made to constantly upgrade equipment towards reaching the one million TEU target, the Dong Tam Group said.

The Long An-based private conglomerate also said it has invested more than $500 million in the ports warehouses, yard space of up to one million square meters, truck fleet, modern equipment and facilities to achieve its goal of becoming a one-stop logistics shop.

A ribbon cutting ceremony for container handling services provided at the Long An International Port in the eponymous province, June 24, 2023. Photo courtesy of Dong Tam Group.

The day it launched the container handling service, Dong Tam also inaugurated seven berths at the port. The Long An International Port will expand to 10 berths, including one for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and one for large cruise ships to welcome domestic and international tourists.

Dong Tam, Japans Mitsubishi Corporation, and consulting partner Greenbank have signed an MoU on further developments at the Long An International Port. Greenbank is a UK-based engineering group of companies providing design, manufacturing, supply and installation services.

Alibabas logistics arm

Long An is also a destination for Cainiao Network, the logistics arm of Alibaba Group.

Cainiao Networks Cainiao P.A.T. Logistics Park covers 23 hectares in the provinces Ben Luc district and lies along the route linking HCMC with the Mekong Delta, Vietnams rice bowl and also a hub for fisheries and fruits.

In February, major Vietnamese marine shipping company Vsico became a tenant at Cainiao P.A.T. by leasing 30,000 m2 of premium warehouse space for its logistics operations. Vsico serves several Japanese clients.

Cainiao P.A.T. Logistics Park in Ben Luc district, Long An province. Photo courtesy of Cainiao Network.

17 new IPs in the pipeline

Long Ans emergence as logistics hub is tied in with its plans to establish 17 new industrial parks (IPs), bringing its total to 51 by 2030, with a total area of nearly 12,500 hectares, according to the provincial Peoples Committee. The 17 new IPs will together cover nearly 3,200 hectares.

With the latest additions, Long An would rank second in the country in terms of the number of IPs behind Binh Duong province, presenting significant investment opportunities for both Vietnamese and foreign companies.

Texas-based project development company Energy Capital Vietnam (ECV) has become a new investor in the province as part of a consortium which includes Saigontel, Allotrope Partners (an international clean energy advisory firm specializing in emerging markets and technologies), Chart Industries (listed on the New York Stock Exchange as GTLS), and Babcock & Wilcock (a global clean power production firm).

The consortium signed an MoU with Long An on July 25 to study the development of a carbon-neutral industrial park under a circular economy model meeting European and U.S. standards.
Shipping majors PVTrans, Gemadept buck industry trend with Q2 profit boost

By Trang Nguyen Fri, August 4, 2023 | 9:27 am GTM+7

Shipping corporations PVTrans and Gemadept have reported a 46% jump and a five-fold increase year-on-year in Q2 after-tax profits respectively, while peers VIMC, Viconship and Hai An recorded significant drops.

PetroVietnam Transports Corporation (PVTrans) earned net revenues of VND2.1 trillion ($88.4 million) and after-tax profit of VND375.6 billion ($15.8 million), down 7% and up 46%, year-on-year.

Notably, the company recorded financial revenues of VND97 billion ($4.08 million) in the period, up 2.3 times year-on-year.

PVTrans curently owns a fleet of 39 ships. Photo courtesy of the company.

The company said that its Q2 profits had increased mainly due to higher fleet operation efficiency, better financial performance and profit from liquidation of ships.

In the first six months of 2023, PVTrans posted net revenues of VND4.14 trillion ($174.2 million), down 3% and after-tax profit of VND612 billion ($25.8 million), up 35% year-on-year.

On the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), PVTrans's PVT shares closed Thursday at VND23,450 ($0.86).

As of June 30, PVTrans's assets stood at VND14.18 trillion ($597.5 million), with short-term financial investment reaching VND3.17 trillion ($133.5 million), up 17% compared to the beginning of the year.

This year, the firm expects revenues of VND6.8 trillion ($286.5 million) and after-tax profits of VND538 billion ($22.7 million), equal to 71% and 46.5% of 2022's actual tallies.

The company plans to make investments of VND4.11 trillion ($162.2 million), of which VND3.85 trillion will be spent on ships and the rest on capital contribution or stake acquisitions of some member companies like Phuong Dong Viet Shipping And Logistics Corporation, Thang Long Maritime, and Indochina Petroleum Transportation JSC. About 65% of the total investment capital will come from loans and other sources.

Gemadept, a leading port operator and logistics firm in Vietnam, reported a Q2 after-tax profit of VND1.71 trillion ($72.3 million) up 5 times year-on-year, thanks to the sale of Nam Hai Dinh Vu port.

The company recorded VND1.86 trillion ($78.6 million) in revenue from financial activities, mainly the port sale to Vietnam Container Shipping Joint Stock Corporation (Viconship).

Gemadept, listed on the HoSE as GMD, earned Q2 net revenues of VND912 billion ($38.5 million), down 6% year-on-year.

In the first six months, it posted total revenues of VND3.7 trillion ($156.2 million) and after-tax profits of VND1,966 billion ($82.9 million), up 98% and 3 times year-on-year, respectively.

As of June 30, Gemadept's assets stood at VND14.01 trillion ($591.5 million), up 7% compared to the beginning of the year, with short-term assets at VND4.01 trillion ($169.3 million), up 53%. Notably, cash equivalents went up 2.3 times to VND1.44 trillion ($60.8 million).

This year, Gemadept targets revenues of VND3.92 trillion ($167 million), up 3% over laste year; and pre-tax profits of VND1.14 trillion ($48.4 million), up 14%.

On the HoSE, GMD shares closed Thursday at VND56,600 ($2.38) per unit.

Meanwhile, VIMC, Viconship and Hai An saw significant drops in Q2 profits.

Vietnam Maritime Corporation (VIMC), the country's leading maritime service provider, made after-tax profits of VND511 billion ($21.5 million) in Q2, down 48% year-on-year. Its net revenue reached VND3.36 trillion ($141.7 million), down 15%, according to consolidated financial statements.

In the first six months of the year, VIMC recorded net revenues of VND6.21 trillion ($261.8 million) and after-tax profits of VND907 billion ($38.2 million), up 14% and down 46%, year-on-year, respectively.

As of June 30, the company's assets reached VND27.84 trillion ($1.17 billion), up 3% compared to the beginning of the year, with fixed-assets hitting VND9.1 trillion ($383.5 million).

VIMC, registered on the unlisted public company market UPCoM as MVN, closed Thursday at VND19,000 ($0.8) per share.

At the 2023 annual general meeting of shareholders on April 20, VIMC general director Nguyen Canh Tinh said that the corporation targets consolidated revenues of VND13.35 trillion ($569.4 million) and pre-tax profits of VND2.33 trillion ($99.4 million) this year, equivalent to 87% and 76% of 2022's actual figures, respectively.

VIMC has seen a decline in shipping revenues, its main income source, Tinh said

Viconship, the largest port company in Hai Phong city, posted after-tax profits of VND34 billion ($1.4 million) in Q2, down 70% year-on-year, and net revenues of VND534.6 billion ($22.5 million), up 4%.

The company said that its Q2 financial expenses increased due to interest payments on bank loans. The cost of goods sold also increased. Administrative expenses and selling expenses also rose compared to the same period last year.

In the first half of 2023, Viconship earned after-tax profits of VND77 billion ($3.2 million) and net revenues of VND998 billion ($42 million), down 65% and up 2% year-on-year, respectively.

Viconship, listed on the HoSE as VSC, is targeting revenues of VND2.25 trillion ($95.9 million) in 2023, up 12% year-on-year; but expects after-tax profits to fall 45% year-on-year to VND260 billion ($11 million).

The VSC share price closed Thursday at VND34,850 ($1.47).

At the end of Q2, VSC's assets stood at VND4.42 trillion ($186.3 million), up 1% compared to the beginning of the year. Of this, short-term assets were VND1.41 trillion ($59.4 million), up 8%.

At the 2023 annual general meeting of shareholders held March 10, the company approved a pre-tax profit target of VND260 billion ($11.09 million), down 46% year-on-year, and revenues of VND2.25 trillion ($95.95 million), up 12%.

Viconship leaders said high interest payment was a major reason for its low profit target for 2023.

Meanwhile, Hai An Transport and Stevedoring JSC, listed on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HoSE) as HAH, reported Q2 after-tax profit of VND79.7 billion ($3.36 million), down 75% year-on-year.

The company's net revenue of VND611 billion ($25.7 million), was down 34%, according to its consolidated Q2 financial statement.

The company explained Q2 results on the decrease in output and revenue from port operations, given that it was still in the process of upgrading and repairing the yard. The volume of goods transported decreased, rentals from ships fell sharply compared to the same period last year, and fleet costs increased after the addition of HA Rose ship in November 2022, leading to a sharp drop in operating profits.

Besides, the company also recorded a loss from its joint venture company Zim Hai An, which was established and put into operation from March 2023.

In the first six months of 2023, Hai An posted net revenues of VND1.27 trillion ($53.4 million) and after-tax profit of VND206 billion ($8.68 million), down 20% and 64.5% year-on-year respectively.

At Thursdays close, HAH share price was VND49,900 ($2.1).

As of June 30, Hai An's total assets stood at nearly VND5 trillion ($210.5 million), with cash and cash equivalents at VND377.6 billion ($15.9 million).

In 2023, Hai An has targeted total revenues of VND2.96 trillion ($125.98 million) and post-tax profits of VND492 billion ($20.95 million). Total output will reach 1,006,000 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit), of which port operations will account for 418,000 TEU, container transport 396,000 TEU, and depots, 192,000 TEU.

Hai An said it was looking to increase its market share of container transport and the scope of operations on domestic routes, and together with the ZIM-HAIAN, a joint venture with Israeli marine carrier ZIM, develop inner-Asia routes and ensure profitable fleet operations.

The company also plans to continue implementing a project to build three new ships of 1,800 TEU (Bangkok Mark IV) at an estimated cost of VND2 trillion ($85.15 million), and continue looking for used ships.

Leading broker VNDirect believes positive factors could offset the negative impact of price reductions this year. In addition to China's reopening to global trade, average Brent oil price is forecast to stay around $90 per barrel this year, which will help reduce fuel costs for shipping companies.
There are a number of important questions about being a photographer that I dont know the answers to. I suspect this is not because Im being thick or stupid, which I sometimes am, but because there are no right or wrong answers. In many other cases, I have strong feelings about an issue but I can completely respect photographers who have come to the opposite conclusion (if their work convinces me of their conclusions, that is). Thats because I realize that there is no right and wrong; some things, we each have to decide for ourselves.

Bothered

A number of the common locutions amateur photographers use mainly without thinking bother me. One of them is the phrase "this bothers me."

One of the ways that amateur photographers make their pictures "stronger," one of the basic tricks is to zoom in and crop things out. Zooming in and cropping out (which are different ways of saying, and doing, the same thing) tends to simplify compositions, either by making the viewers attention center on one discrete object or else by reducing one aspect of a scene to a design element (pictures often known as "abstractions," another annoying dumb locution). This impulse to zoom in and crop out seems to be so strong for many people that its one of the few ways they can think of to talk about a picture. And "this bothers me" is the common shorthand way for an amateur critic to say that the photographer has not zoomed in enough or cropped enough out.

Typically, the bothersome thing is something random or partial that the photographer has allowed to impinge on the edge of the frame. If a bit of a power or telephone line nips the corner of a frame, if a leaf seems attached to the line of the frame edge, if something like a street sign or a half a telephone pole split vertically is allowed to form a border, well, it will "bother" some bourgeois camera operator somewhere.

Personally, I suffer just the opposite prejudice. If the subject of a picture is too cleanly isolated, too efficiently cropped, it makes me feel existentially antsy. I feel it makes me look like a guy who doesnt know or isnt willing to acknowledge that the frame excludes a great deal and that the world outside of the frame is a hodgepodge, the picture merely a choice view plucked from the continual visual drone of the mundane, the banal, and the ordinary.

Ugly but honest

In 1979 I went to Ireland alone. I had planned to meet a girl, but she fell in love with an Englishman during her semester abroad and neglected to inform me of that fact until after Id bought a plane ticket. You know what they say: "oh well."

I listen and observe a lot anyway, but when traveling alone I do it even more. In Ireland I listened to waitresses chatting as I hunched over smoked salmon salad; old men regaling each other with elaborate story-jokes over their pints in pubs; the give-and-take of families of tinkers and beggars by roadsides; the excited chatter of a group of schoolchildren on the deck of a ferry on a field trip to the Aran Islands.

One evening on the beach near Galway I overheard an American couple evaluating their vacation. "The problem Im having," the woman said at one point, "is that Ireland doesn't look quite enough like pictures of Ireland."

I thought it was amusing that she didnt phrase that the other way around.

Years later, I went to Steamboat Springs, Colorado. One of the most famous pictures in Steamboat is a poster of two cowboys on horseback in a snowstorm passing in front of a barn. The barn in the famous picture is still there. But without the benefit of the obscuring snowstorm, the mountains behind it are revealed to be pockmarked with houses and condominiums, and, scattered all around the barn almost at random, as if broadcast over the ground by a giant hand, are modern buildings of every description; I remember there being a muffler shop. I took a picture of the famous barn from the road below it, showing all the architectural detritus around it, but the light was dull and it looks so unlike the setting for the poster that it wasnt even recognizable as the same place.

So whats better in your opinionto show something in a way that is beautiful but false, or ugly but honest?

This is one of those things we each have to decide for ourselves.

Mike

 2002, 2023 by Michael C. Johnston

Ed. note: This was originally published in 2002 on The Luminous-Landscape. I'm surprised at how economical it is; I've become more prolix in my portly years. There are also a few markers of arrogance that took me aback upon first re-reading. "Bourgeois camera operator"?! Ew. I hope I've become more compassionate since then.



Original contents copyright 2023 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. (To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below or on the title of this post.)

Featured Comments from:

John Camp: "You may not remember this, but years ago I sent you a photo of the famous San Francisco de Assisi Mission Church in Taos New Mexico, the one painted by Georgia O'Keefe and photographed by Ansel Adams, Paul Strand and lots of other famous photographers. The church is really kind of fascinating for its form, but I stopped across the street and shot it, as it sits in a really very ragged shopping plaza that crowds in quite close to the church, which is also obscured by parked cars, etc. There's a guy here in Santa Fe who runs an interior design store, who has a collection of fifty or so paintings, drawings and photos of the church, and not s single one of them even hints at the overall environment. I still find my photo a little shocking, and also a little amusing."

Mike replies: Oh, I remember very well, and it made a great post.

Robin: "This article seemed familiar, and by the end I realised that it was. :-) I came to Ireland in a similar way. The difference being that I stayed. What I have found is that none of the things that make this place 'Ireland' can be captured by a camera. Because it's the atmosphere, the chat, the music, and so on. Visual particulars, when you see them as they are, are often not nearly as photogenic as some photos would have you believe. Which, perhaps, is another way of saying something similar to what you wrote."

Ben: "Whenever you post something like this Im reminded of Rondal Partridge's image of Half Dome, with the overstuffed parking lot in the foreground. Is this 'worse' than a different image of Yosemite? Im sure its hasnt sold as many copies as Ansel Adams' view of Half Dome, but thats a bit of a fraught measure of 'good.' Why do I have to choose? Cant there be good photographs from both perspectives?"

Mike replies: I think there can be, yes. And here's that picture (in the addendum).

lynnb: "It bothers me that your rural picture with the 9th street pole appears to be a case of scannus interruptus. That's where the computer goes to sleep during the scan and when you wake it up, there's a clear break (vertical division and tonal change) that marks the point where it was awakened from its slumbers. As to cropping and simplification, I remind myself that life is inherently messy, as you unfortunately found out in Ireland. I prefer to think of those edge of frame 'imperfections' as a reminder that there's always a wider context and a bigger story. To quote another saying, if something looks too good to be true, it probably is."

Mike replies: Yes, all my scans with that scanner had the same break! I ended up throwing the darn thing away, but not before it aged me several years. And yes, I agree with you about details on the edges implying the greater chaos of the wider world. I can't look at a studio fashion shot without seeing the rest of the messy set in my mind's eye, with that little island of perfection in the middle of it.

JOHN B GILLOOLY: "Reminds me of a workshop with Jay Maisel at his bank maybe 1012 years ago. My greatest takeaway from the week was his insistence 'that nothing in the frame is neutral. Everything is either working for you or against you.' That is a great lesson for a photographer to live by. It forces you to ask yourself whether something belongs in the photograph or not. It's not always a matter of cropping or zooming, it's often a matter of moving a few feet, or even inches, one way or the other."

Roman Boiko: "I agree with you Mike, and I would not change the crop or tilt/shift projection of either image. I will just throw it out there that the preference for orthographic structures might by influenced by the physical screen or print size. Standing in front of a big print, the apparent 'keystoning' is lessened and mimics what you see with your eyes in front of a real building. Seen on a small screen with the framing of a monitor bezel and columns of text, etc., it is easier to be much more critical of tilted horizons and distorted structures."
The Perspective

Atlanta, Georgia

Posted August 3, 2023



Tiawan S. Gongloe, LPP Standard Bearer

Fellow compatriots, within a couple of days, Liberians everywhere on this Planet will be commemorating our National Independence Day, which we all traditionally refer to as 26 Day. This years celebration marks our 176th anniversary! Can you believe that? As a nation, we have been in existence for 176 long years. Thats about 110 years longer than Ghanas independence, or 119 years longer than Botswanas independence, two of the gradually developing countries of Africa.



Again, as we all observe this auspicious day in our nations history, we all need to take a deep breath and reflect: What does Independence mean to you? When somebody tells you that our country is the oldest independent Republic in Africa, what it really means to you? Have you ever pondered over this question? Do you think that the meaning of Independence Day, which entails the citizenry galvanizing their energies and gallantly working in unison towards the socio-economic development of their country is the same meaning to our current batch of leaders? Do you see them effectively working for the socio-economic development of our country?



I pose these questions because for most of us, this is the only country we have, and as a result, we are determined to roll up sleeves and exert every effort towards improving the prevailing situation, in order to make Liberia a better place for us all. But for many Government officials, especially those that are in charge of and have access to national resources, for those who are fond of frequently stealing public funds and buying properties with their ill-gotten wealth in Ghana, in France, Queens, New York; Florida and other foreign parts, they have different meanings of our Independence Day.



They have different meaning of Independence Day because they perceive Liberia as their farm, as their personal domain where they can rip off our resources, feloniously amass wealth with impunity and invest in foreign countries. Because they have multiple citizenships, so Liberian citizenship and Liberian Independence Day are secondary to them.



Because they actually dont care about Liberia due to their wealth and luxuries abroad, Liberias Independence Day is secondary to them. But for us ordinary Liberians, for those of us that the elites look down on, for you, for my running-mate, Dr. Emmanuel K. Urey-Yarkpawolo and me, Liberias 176th Independence Day means a lot to us, because thats the one and only country we have.



Fellow compatriots, thats one of the reasons why together, we must all work in unison on October 10, 2023 to ensure that our independence becomes much more meaningful. We must make our independence much more meaningful, because those who founded this country were imbued with patriotic aspirations and noble anticipation.



From the onset, they boldly declared to the world that Liberia is not the offspring of grasping ambition nor the tool of avaricious speculation. Moreover, our Founding Fathers had also indulged the pleasing hope that we would be permitted to exercise and improve those faculties which impart to man his dignity. With such hope, they had anticipated that all future Liberian Governments in the aftermath of our Declaration of Independence will engender an enabling environment, so that all Liberians will have the capacity to train up our children in a way they should goto inspire them with the love of honorable fame



Unfortunately, my fellow Liberians, the disastrous socio-economic situation currently prevailing in our country is a brutal repudiation of the noble aspirations profoundly declared by our Founding Fathers 176 years ago. When our hardworking civil servants take-home-pay can no more take them home, when their severely meager salaries are not disbursed for multiple months, our Government is not imparting to them their dignity as our Founding Fathers had anticipated.



When our lawmakers, whose salaries and other incentives are already more than the salaries of members of the United States Congress continue to egregiously apportion more emoluments for themselves while many other appointive Government officials brazenly steal public funds with impunity, how possible can we as a society, train up our children the way they should go, how can we instill moral rectitude in our children as the Founding Fathers had anticipated?



When by their conspicuous criminal deeds and impunity, our current leaders are implying to our young people that being crooked, that being sleazy is the easy path to success, how can we possibly train up our children in the way they should? Folks, can any of our current national leaders be role models for our children? Are our leaders today setting good examples of honesty and integrity for our children to follow?

Fellow compatriots, as I have been reiterating to you in almost all of my messages, we as a people and as a country, cannot continue to persistently tread this gloomy path of bad governance and anticipate glowing outcomes. I have no doubt that we can do far better than the prevailing ineptitude and pervasive corruption in governance, which continue to victimize our people.



Fortunately for us as a people, we all have a clear way forward to rid ourselves of the prevailing hellish situation and triumphantly put Liberia on a transformative trajectory. YES, A BETTER LIBERIA IS POSSIBLE!

Together, we must exert all efforts to redeem the tattered image of our country within the comity of nations. Following the October 10, 2023 elections, let not our new batch of national leaders be a sort of laughing stock in international circles, eliciting negative buzz here and there.



As were all aware, this years Independence Day is very unique, because were observing our independence day on the heels of a crucial presidential and general elections that will ultimately decide the destiny of Mother Liberia. I need not remind you that based on the conduct and outcome of the impending electoral process, we as a people, will either be heralding our political maturity, our fortitude and determination to part with our ugly, corrupt past as well as ongoing developmental inertia, or imprudently repudiate the sacred declaration by our Founding Fathers 176 years ago, that we Liberians are competent and capable of governing ourselves.



Fellow Liberians, having traveled throughout our Country in the past two years, since we accepted a petition from a cross-section of our compatriots on December 4, 2021, in Ganta, Nimba County to become Liberias Servant-in-Chief, reaching out to our people in 327 hamlets, villages, towns and cities so far, I can conscientiously tell you with certainty that Liberia is lagging far behind many other African countries in basic developmental features. Our country is besieged and shackled by an abysmal underdevelopment.



And so, as we celebrate the 176th independence of Mother Liberia, I say to you in our traditional way: MY 26 ON YALL OOOO! Having said that, I humbly urge everyone of you to join me and my dynamic running-mate, Dr. Emmanuel K. Urey Yarkpawolo, in making Liberias independence much more meaningful. In the highly anticipated October 10, 2023 elections, lets make our independence much more meaningful by decisively booting out all those greedy hustlers who dont care about the development of our country.



If we take their T-shirts, their caps, bags of rice, their money, their cars and still reject them at the ballot box on October 10th, because they just want to continue stealing our money, we will be making our independence much more meaningful.



My fellow Liberians, I have come to inform that we all have a clear path to success by radically reversing this hopeless trend for better results and A BETTER LIBERIA. On October 10, 2023, if together we peacefully change our leaders to ensure our safety and happiness as mandated by Article One of our Constitution, we will be making our independence much more meaningful.



In closing I leave you with the exact wording of Article One of our Constitution so that we all will internalize it before the pivotal election of October 10th. It says: All power is inherent in the people. All free governments are instituted by their authority and for their benefit and they have the right to alter and reform the same when their safety and happiness so require. In order to ensure democratic government which responds to the wishes of the governed, the people shall have the right at such period, and in such manner as provided for under this Constitution, to cause their public servants to leave office and to fill vacancies by regular elections and appointments.



Fellow Liberians, with this clear mandate from our Constitution, we are encouraged, we are enabled and we are empowered to peacefully change our Government, to cause our leaders to peacefully leave the Peoples Offices that they are temporarily occupying. Our safety, our benefit, and our happiness demand that we must kick out George Weah and his officials from their offices because of their ineptitude and pervasive corruption. Together, lets go for it on October 10, 2023.



Long Live the Republic of Liberia



A BETTER LIBERIA IS POSSIBLE
CARBONDALE  Southern Illinois University Carbondale strengthened its commitment to students in west central Illinois on Aug. 2 with an agreement to bring the expertise of a doctoral research university to qualified community college students by providing the option to earn their bachelors degrees remotely and at a lower cost in 12 academic programs.

SIU Chancellor Austin A. Lane and Spoon River College President Curt Oldfield signed an agreement for the Saluki Step Ahead program. Established in 2021, the program enables students who graduate with an associate degree from partnering community colleges to complete their SIU bachelors degrees online in accounting, business administration, criminology and criminal justice, early childhood, elementary education, health care management, history, industrial management and applied engineering, information technology, nursing (RN to BSN), psychology and radiologic sciences.

We are pleased to collaborate with Spoon River College to provide another option for place-bound students in this region, Lane said. If these students cannot come to Carbondale to complete their education, we will bring the experience and resources of a doctoral research university to them.

Lane added this Saluki Step Ahead agreement fits well with the universitys strategic plan, Imagine 2030, and its pillars of student success and partnerships.

Established in 1959 with classes starting a year later, Spoon River College, then Canton Community College, became the first public junior college organized in west central Illinois. The college district covers 1,566 square miles and includes portions of Fulton, McDonough, Mason, Schuler and Knox counties. The college serves approximately 1,100 students and offers more than 25 transfer programs.

This Saluki Step Ahead program with Southern Illinois University Carbondale will help Spoon River College students achieve their academic goals, Oldfield said. This flexible pathway to a bachelors degree will be life changing for those students who participate.

This program brings an accessible and affordable bachelors degree to the SRC students and SRC alumni who are able to keep living and working in this area while achieving their dream.

The Spoon River College agreement brings SIU Carbondale to more than 40 Saluki Step Ahead pacts that the university has with community college campuses in Illinois, Missouri and Texas so far.

Students in the Saluki Step Ahead program pay the community college rate for their first two years. In the third and fourth years, they receive an annual $4,000 scholarship. For more about Saluki Step Ahead, read the press release announcing the initiative.
CHICAGO  Mayor Brandon Johnson on Wednesday defended his unique approach to uplifting Chicagos youth and continuing to welcome migrants, two demographics the new administration has pledged to support amid criticism that the citys response has been lacking.

In a sprawling, one-hour news conference, Johnson stressed that the Chicago police order to arrest dozens during a large teen gathering last weekend in the South Loop was constitutional and compassionate. It was his first such session with reporters in two weeks, and the new mayor strove to walk a fine line between his campaign ideals of radical change and the reality of assuming the office of chief executive.

Police made the 40 arrests Sunday evening as large groups of youths refused to disperse after fighting and storming a convenience store near West Roosevelt Road and South Canal Street. The move to begin locking up teens at about 9:20 p.m. reflected a more decisive style from police leaders than in previous gatherings this summer, but Johnson underscored that the cops attempted to engage with our young people, with community partners, giving as much warning as they possibly could.

Thats a unique approach. You know, many people expect us to treat people undignified. My administration is different, Johnson said. Unfortunately, arrests were made. Unfortunately, some damage was caused. And the level of sensitivity and patience that our officers expressed, Im appreciative of that. That is constitutional. That is a system of care.

Large youth gatherings downtown have vexed Chicago police and other city leaders for the last decade, often springing up via social media flyers during warm summer months and sometimes turning violent. The mayor, who despite pushback has continued to vow that he will never demonize youth, elaborated Wednesday that his administration has intercepted other attempts at large gatherings that could have been even more severe, while also taking umbrage with the teens being described as a mob.

Thats not appropriate. Were not talking about mob actions, Johnson said. We have to be careful when we use language to describe certain behavior. Theres a history in this city, and, I mean, to refer to children as like baby Al Capones is not appropriate.

Then the mayor addressed another just-as-formidable task: caring for the more than 12,000 asylum-seekers who have arrived in Chicago in the past year, despite an ongoing scramble for more funding and adequate shelter. But unlike his counterpart in New York City, Mayor Eric Adams, who recently warned migrants there is no guarantee of help there for them, Johnson reiterated Chicagos commitment to welcome all.

I cant speak for his decision, but I certainly have used his, as well as (Los Angeles) Mayor (Karen) Bass and (Houston) Mayor (Sylvester) Turners, experiences as a way to reflect on that very question, Johnson said when asked if Chicago would at some point actively discourage migrants from coming. And heres what Im committed to: honoring the law of being a sanctuary city, in building systems of care that provide a pathway with dignity for individuals who are seeking refuge and hope here in the city of Chicago.

But on thornier questions of the citys financial constraints in coping with the crisis, the mayor was less specific beyond noting as far as the sustainability of this moment, were going to need more support from the federal and state government. Unlike Adams and some Chicago aldermen, Johnson did not go as far as criticizing the White House and noted that hes had conversations with President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and the citys congressional delegation.

Johnson didnt say how much longer the city can fund migrant care with current resources, nor when all migrants currently awaiting shelter inside police stations will be moved out. He did say that the asylum-seekers being moved out of the 1st District police station Tuesday in the South Loop was unrelated to the annual Lollapalooza music festival that will take place this week in nearby Grant Park.

Transitioning individuals out of police stations is still top of mind, the mayor said, before noting reports of migrants being cleared out of the 1st District with belongings tossed was an inaccurate depiction of what happened. No one was moved as a result of Lollapalooza. We are transitioning people into shelters. As a city, do we want people living in police stations? Is that acceptable?

Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sent his first busload of asylum-seekers north to Chicago in August 2022, arguing sanctuary cities should take on more of the burden of caring for migrants crossing the U.S. border. Chicago officials have at times struggled to respond in a timely and efficient manner, and the situation escalated in recent months with the arrival of new buses and planes of migrants ramping up.

As of now, hundreds of asylum-seekers are still sleeping on police station floors, and thousands more are staying in a city-run makeshift shelters, which have been the subject of complaints ranging from safety concerns to moldy food.

Most recently, more than 100 migrants were moved out of the 1st District police station and put on buses to a new shelter inside the Broadway Armory in Edgewater. Chicago sanitation workers threw away what the migrants left behind at the police station into a garbage truck  mattresses, childrens backpacks, shopping carts filled with food, rugs and clothing, though Johnson disputes that the move was by force.

Were going to continue to  help assist those families, all of whom understood and knew where we were transitioning them to  to the Armory (and) were all thrilled that we are providing far more stability for those families, Johnson said.

Also during Wednesdays media availability, Johnson expressed his full support for his hand-picked interim police Superintendent Fred Waller, arguing that Wallers presence has been absolutely remarkable in building the departments confidence. Johnson also addressed critics who said he could not earn the trust of his officers given his past rhetoric critical of police.

I mean, I caught most of my campaign. Some of it I missed, Johnson quipped about his mayoral run. But people didnt think that we can do that, that we can build the morale of rank-and-file members. And weve done that.

Johnson also took a question about a WBEZ report that Waller was investigated for domestic violence in the 1990s; the mayor praised Wallers value system and noted the allegation was not sustained.

And on the topic of the three finalists for Wallers permanent replacement, the mayor demurred on whether he had begun interviewing them and pushed back on the notion that he is moving too slowly on his agenda.

Its important that were intentional and that we take our time so that we make the right decision, Johnson said. Too many decisions in this city have been rushed decisions.

Photos: Chicago Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson Election 2023 Chicago Mayor Election 2023 Chicago Mayor Election 2023 Chicago Mayor Election 2023 Chicago Mayor Election 2023 Chicago Mayor Election 2023 Chicago Mayor Election 2023 Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson - 2022 Brandon Johnson - 2023 Brandon Johnson - 2023 Brandon Johnson - File Brandon Johnson - 2022 Brandon Johnson - 2022 Brandon Johnson - 2022 Brandon Johnson - 2022 Brandon Johnson - 2022 Brandon Johnson - 2022
BAMBERG  Bamberg County Council was introduced to the countys newly hired public information officer and its first animal control officer during a meeting held last month.

County Administrator Joey Preston introduced Virginia Mitchell as the countys animal control officer.

Mitchell, who started the week of June 16, has an extensive background in animal control and management. She previously served as animal care operations manager for Alpha Genesis Inc. and as an animal control officer in Orangeburg County.

Animals are my passion, and thats what I love to do, Mitchell said.

Preston said, Her first month on the job, shes answered 31 complaints, safely removed 39 animals. Thirty-four were released to MAMAS, one cat was released to the SPCA in Orangeburg.

The administrator said Mitchell will enroll at the S.C. Criminal Justice Academy class for Class 3 Basic Officer training by the end of August.

Preston also introduced Alisha Moore as the countys new public information officer and Keep Bamberg County Beautiful coordinator. The Kentucky native and Ashford University graduate has extensive experience in digital media and marketing as a professional freelancer and from having served as digital media manager at Ohio Valley Goodwill Industries.

Im so delighted to be here. Im very happy to meet all of you and looking forward to getting to know all of you, Moore said.

In other matters, Estill Town Administrator Dr. Tiffany Cooks presented council with information on Project Green Spark.

The Hampton County town plans to build modular shipping container homes as part of a four-project initiative designed to generate revenue for the town and provide workforce capabilities, Cooks said.

Estill is working with Palm City, Florida-based Containing Luxury on the project.

We do have a model fully staged that citizens can come by and see it. Im here also to invite any member of county council, as well as any of the citizens to come to Estill to visit our model home, Cooks said.

She later said the Estill Town Council voted to move forward with the investors to develop the cost and revenue projection for all four projects during a July 12 meeting.

They allowed me and the mayor to sign an agreement with the investor. This allows them the opportunity to firm up the costs and revenue generation for the projects, Cooks said.

The homes come in 20- and 40-foot containers and can range in price from $35,000 to $85,000.

During the Bamberg County Council meeting, Cooks cited the projects ability to help with housing shortages. She said those needs will have to be met, particularly considering the more than 1,000 jobs which will be created with the establishment of tire manufacturer Tin Thanh Group Americas first U.S. operations in Allendale County.

Council Chairman Dr. Jonathan Goodman II thanked Cooks for her presentation and said he would like to first take a look Estills model container home before council makes any decisions.

We will definitely take into account the information that youve provided. I would like to come by and at least take a look at it.  Im very familiar with these programs, Goodman said.

Also during the meeting, council gave first reading approval to an ordinance amending the master agreement for the establishment of the Quad-County Industrial Park between Bamberg, Barnwell, Allendale and Hampton counties to include additional property in Bamberg County for the inclusion of Project Homegrown.

Project Homegrown has been the code name for Innovative Poultry Products, a manufacturer of poultry farming equipment which announced plans April 5 to expand its operations in the county.

The companys $2.86 million investment will create 30 new jobs over the next five years.

Under the revenue-sharing agreement among the counties, the host county for the incoming industry will receive 70% of the tax revenues, with the remaining three counties receiving 10%.

SouthernCarolina Alliance

SouthernCarolina Regional Development Alliance Project Manager Joshua Urwick gave a report for Bamberg County.

We've had three site visits since the last council meeting, Urwick said. He plans to provide an update on those visits at council's August meeting.

Urwick said the SCA is also working with an existing industry that is looking to expand its operations.

That, I think, speaks volumes about the county, that people already here want to stay here and continue to grow here, he said.

Urwick ended his report by updating council on the design of a new spec building in the county.

We have put out an RFQ (request for quote) for the design of the new spec building at the CrossRhodes park. We should be getting a proposal back here in the next couple of weeks, he said.

Finance

County Treasurer Alice Johnson gave the May financial report, stating the county had $334,127.76 in income and expenditures of $995,463.52, leaving a negative balance of $661,335.76. When the positive bank balance at the end of April ($905,844.87) was added, the countys regular account stood at a positive $244,509.11.

County Finance Director T.M. Thomas reported that the countys general fund had year-to-date revenues as of the end of May of $8,444,445, with expenses coming in at $8,019,596, for a positive general fund balance of $424,849.

He said the county departments continue to operate within their budgets.

Public comments

Bamberg County resident Miriam Beard asked council to address the air conditioning problems at the Cheez N Cracker Box, a charity organization in Bamberg that serves as a local food pantry and donation center.

We had a problem last year with the air conditioning unit, and it is interrupting operations again this year. ... This is an essential charity for Bamberg County. I am asking, begging that you donate the monies, or just get a new air conditioning unit for this place altogether, she said.

Beard also said she was glad to see the county hired a new animal control officer, but noted that a facility is needed to house the countys growing stray animal population beyond what the local Mary Ann Morris Animal Society can provide.

MAMAS cannot possibly address the issue of the stray animals here in Bamberg County. You need to either increase their facility grounds or something, but shes going to need this, Beard said, referring to ACO Virginia Mitchell.

Beard also mentioned that a community baby shower will be held at Cornerstone Community Churchs Bamberg campus on Aug. 5.

We provide all essential resources for mothers with infants and pregnant mothers. This is a problem here in Bamberg County, where we have a high infant mortality rate. We need to do everything to ensure that our families here get as good of a start as possible, Beard said.

Bamberg County resident Sue Clayton called for more transparency from council, particularly as it pertains to the publics view of county audits.

Its our money that youre handling, and we want to see what youre doing with it, Clayton said.

She also questioned the construction of another speculative building at the countys CrossRhodes Industrial Park.

Why are we building a third spec building when weve got one out there that has never been filled, and the first one I dont think has anybody in it? If it does, theyre not doing anything  but yet were going to spend $4 million on a third one? Ladies and gentleman, please spend our money wisely. Youre getting way too much of our money to be stupid with it, she said.
A burgeoning psychiatric residency training program has received $3 million in state funding to provide holistic, community-based psychiatric care in Orangeburg and beyond.

The program is being developed with the Tri-County Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse, which broke ground earlier this year on a $2.4 million expansion.

State Sen. Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg, said rural South Carolina doesnt have enough psychiatrists. The $3 million will go toward a worthwhile effort in training psychiatrists and hopefully keeping them in the state.

They get trained in Charleston, they get trained in Columbia at the medical schools, and they end up staying there. They dont come out here. ... Part of the issue we saw was, Well, where are we going to create these training slots? If we created them in South Carolina, maybe we can incentivize them to stay in rural South Carolina. So were bringing them to Orangeburg, Hutto said.

Psychiatry Residency Program Pictured, from left, are Mike Dennis, executive director of the Tri-County Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse; Program Director Dr. Pete Lop

The Orangeburg Area Mental Health Center already has psychiatrists, but outside of the OAMHC there is one part-time psychiatrist available in Orangeburg, Bamberg and Calhoun counties.

The residency program will include 10 residents per year, with residency being a four-year process. Organizers expect the program to have 40 residents in training for mental health and addiction by the fourth year of the program.

Psychiatry Residency Program Dr. Carly Keenan, front row, left, is pictured with the first group to attend the psychiatric residency training program at the Tri-County Com

Training for the first 10 residents began in July and will run through June 30.

The residents will rotate through several MUSC Health-Orangeburgs primary care practices, as well as MUSC Health Orangeburgs outpatient neurology practice. In addition, they will rotate through the emergency department and inpatient departments, TCCADA Executive Director Mike Dennis said.

He continued, The plan was for HopeHealth to work with us, and they likely will in future years; however, for this first year, the following entities are also partnering with us: S.C. Department of Mental Health and several county community mental health centers; S.C. Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services and the county alcohol and drug abuse agencies in each county; the Dorn VA Medical Center and Bamberg Family Practice.

Dr. Mark Kilgus is the residency programs institutional official who makes sure it fulfills all accreditation requirements. He said the program in Orangeburg will have four distinctive features, including being inquiry-oriented.

Were going to ask questions. Were not just going to do things just to do things. Were going to figure out if they really will make a difference. Number two, were community based. Number three, and I think this is huge, is were spiritually minded, Kilgus said.

What does that mean exactly? Well, it means that we understand that humans are more than just a physical being. We also exist spiritually, and thats where our personhood lies. Thats part of our relationships. Then the fourth kind of distinctive is that were longitudinally designed, he said.

What does being longitudinally designed mean?

Most programs are set up where you do 13 four-week rotations, and you exclusively do one thing for four weeks, and you move on and do another thing. In this program, residents spend like one day a week doing neurology, two days a week doing primary care, one day a week doing consults in the hospital, or emergency psychiatry, and then one day in the community in the mental health centers, Kilgus said.

Residents also travel as far as Aiken, Lexington and Greenwood.

Dr. Carly Keenan is a fourth-year resident who transferred from another program to help get the Orangeburg program started.

The nice thing about this program is that its embedded in the community, which gives you more direct access to some of the needier patients in the vicinity and a little bit more flexibility in terms of how we set things up and how we proceed forward, Keenan said.

This is my second time being in a brand-new program. ... I am very familiar with starting up new programs and the hurdles that come with that. Im familiar with the longitudinal training model, which is something thats pretty unique to the program, as well. I know what it looks like to try and start something like that from scratch, she said.

Dr. Pete Loper, program director, said, The really powerful point about Dr. Keenans experience is not only are we able to increase access within the construct of the community and community mental health spaces here locally and throughout the state, but she also has a special interest in helping patients with mental illness who have special needs. ... She is going to be working in spaces that serve those specific populations, as well. Theres a tremendous need for that.

Loper said increasing psychiatric care access is not, however, the only goal of the program.

One of the core components that this program is really formed by is it is inquiry-oriented. Were consistently seeking to explore and better understand. Were training our clinicians on not just what to do, but how to think through a process and really how to conceptualize and think about a patient as a whole, he said. Were all about quality as we increase quantity.

Dr. Doris Paez is a core faculty member in psychotherapy as part of the program. She said the programs innovation is key.

By necessity, psychiatrists do a lot of medical management. So they now have the opportunity to kind of go back and holistically treat patients. So they can do the medication management, they can do evaluation, but they can also do therapy. That is critical. So they will be at every step with their patients, she said.

Paez continued, Theyre going to be doing a lot of psychotherapy. So theyre getting trained in that now, which is unique to our program. Then next year they will actually be doing psychotherapy.

TCCADA Deputy Director Dee Robinson, who is responsible for program safety and quality, said The most exciting part of this program is that the sky is the limit of what it can touch. Weve had conversations with DJJ, for example, and the ability to help them with evaluation. Weve talked to our local detention center about being able to help with that population, as well.

It really can change the workforce and the amount of access that individuals have to psychiatric care, she said, noting that hopefully the residents will remain in the rural area upon graduation.

Kilgus said, Psychiatry is a scarce medical specialty. Sixty percent of existing psychiatrists are going to retire within the next 10 years. So part of this is workforce development.

The programs programmatic funding will come from the S.C. Department of Health and Human Services with funds appropriated by the S.C. Legislature.

Dennis said, The S.C. Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services will also provide some funding for indigent clients with substance use disorders. The commission is seeking other funding sources, including federal funds, for the program.

The residency program will include both pediatric and adult training.

Hutto said, We really need psychiatrists. With the mental health issues that children are experiencing, weve got to increase the number of psychiatrists locating in rural areas.

Dennis said the program, is huge for our area and for South Carolina. We have an opportunity to train psychiatrists with a focus on community-based psychiatry with a heavy emphasis on rural areas, where the shortage of psychiatrists is even more pronounced than in more urban areas.

Our program will also have an emphasis on the co-occurrence of substance use and mental health issues, which is unique. We are the only program in South Carolina that is not based out of a large hospital system.
The annual Summer Road Cleaning Programme got going this week.





The programme, a collaborative effort between BRAGSA and the Economic Planning Division of the Ministry of Finance, will temporarily employ 5,633 people across St. Vincent and the Grenadines.





These will include 499 gangs and 643 Jobbers who will be in charge of tree cutting and road cleaning in all 15 constituencies. According to a release from BRAGSA, over 100 trucks and conductors will also be awarded contracts.





The cost of the eight-day program is expected to be $3 million.





The Road Cleaning Programme is part of the World Bank-funded Volcanic Eruption Emergency Project (VEEP), under its Labour-Intensive Temporary Employment (LITE) component.





The VEEP project was set up to support the Government of St. Vincent and the grenadines in its emergency recovery and restoration of services in areas affected by the La Soufriere (Volcano) eruptions. The project was approved by the World Banks Board on November 30, 2021 and became effective on December 10, 2021 with an expected closing date on December 30, 2026. The project is funded through an IDA credit of US$ 40 million and co-financed with an EU grant of US$ 2 million.





Under the VEEP programme, road cleaners are to be paid via bank cards, instead of having to line up for their payment as was done under the traditional road cleaning programme.





BRAGSA is consequently urging vehicles and pedestrians to exercise caution in their use of the roadways as workers go about their business of cleaning the roads, etc.
Dwayne Bailey, Acting Superintendent of Prisons, gave an insightful account of factors affecting security and the proper dispensing of services in SVG. Prison facilities.

The smuggling of contraband, prevalence of mentally ill inmates, ill-discipline among prison officers, and inadequate staffing, have been listed among issues affecting the security and rehabilitation efforts at His Majestys Prisons.





Acting Superintendent of Prisons Dwayne Bailey made the disclosure while delivering remarks at the closing session of the Criminal Assizes on Monday.





Bailey revealed that among the contraband items which enter the Male Prisons in Kingstown, and the Belle Correctional Facility are cellular phones, drugs, cigarettes, alcohol, cigarette lighters, and scissors. He cited a consistent entry of cellular phones with over 200 of them found during searches at both facilities, so far for the year.

He said that prisoners sometimes cut the fencing at Belle Isle Facility to facilitate the illegal entry of these items.





The Prison Chief added that up to Monday there were 41 mentally ill prisoners with 19 of them there in connection with offences of murder and manslaughter.





Bailey described this as a worrying concern, as prison officers are not trained to deal with the mentally ill.

"The mentally ill inmates are hard to manage. They are often disruptive and are a danger to themselves, staff, and other inmates, he underscored.





The situation, according to Bailey, is further compounded by ill-discipline among prison officers, inadequate staffing, and persistent sick leave.





He stressed that the lack of manpower to man the three facilities is affecting the security of those facilities, and hampering rehabilitation efforts.

On the issue of persistent sick leave, Bailey said that the long strenuous hours of work could be a contributing factor.





Despite the challenges Bailey said all is not lost as the prison farm continues to be a success, with the prison being self-sufficient in eggs and for a larger part of the year, able to provide vegetables for the prison population.





He also noted that the literacy programme has resumed, and the skills training exercises are ongoing.





Responding to a question from defense lawyer Grant Connell, Bailey said the Vonnie Roudette grass programme Grow in Time is ongoing, and statistics show that inmates who participate in that programme have hardly ever re-offended.





Attorney Ronald Marks asked the Acting Prison boss to convey appreciation to Roudette on behalf of the private bar, for a good job.





When defense lawyer Carl Williams asked whether there was any discussion with state authorities regarding the issue of mentally ill prisoners, Bailey said that the prison authorities had spoken to the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of National Security, and a recommendation was made for the establishment of a special wing at the Belle Isle facility to house mentally ill prisoners.





In a follow-up conversation with THE VINCENTIAN, Bailey disclosed that, that the Ministry of Finance has recommended the permanent positions of a staff nurse and nursing assistant on the prison staff, and the prison authorities are awaiting action by the Service Commission to this effect.





Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Tameka McKenzie expressed concern about the number of cellular phones being smuggled into the prisons, saying that it is almost an average of one per inmate based on the statistics.





"We still have to wonder how many more are out there, she suggested, and shared her concern with respect to the intentions of the inmates who are smuggling these phones into the prisons because there is a system in place at the prisons for inmates to legally access phone calls.





As of Monday 31st July, the prison population stood at 392 comprised of 381 males and 11 females, with 97 in connection with offenses of murder.
Ruling People Power Party floor leader Rep. Yun Jae-ok speaks during a party meeting at the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul, Friday. Yonhap



President orders 'unlimited supply of ice water and air-conditioned buses'



By Nam Hyun-woo



Korea's political circles are striving to prevent the 25th World Scout Jamboree in Saemangeum, North Jeolla Province, from tarnishing the country's reputation, as the event has been plagued with complaints and health concerns over extreme temperatures, high humidity, poor sanitation and the organizers' apparent ill-preparedness to manage those risks.



In an attempt to control the situation, the conservative ruling People Power Party (PPP) held a meeting with government officials at the National Assembly, Friday, and said they will "thoroughly explain government measures to embassies and diplomatic establishments in Korea to address the concerns of foreign governments and international participants."



"Some of the participating governments have officially expressed concerns on the condition of the event, and some parents of international participants are complaining through social network services, and we feel heavy responsibility for that," PPP floor leader Rep. Yun Jae-ok said during the meeting.



"The atmosphere towards Korea is becoming increasingly positive worldwide, and this Jamboree should not be an experience they want to forget."





A participant is carried on a stretcher at the Jamboree Hospital during the 25th World Scout Jamboree in Saemangeum, North Jeolla Province, Friday. Reuters-Yonhap



The comments came after several hundred Scouts participating in the event fell ill due to the heat wave not only in the Saemangeum area but also the entire country.



More than 1,480 Scouts and other participants visited a hospital set up on the campground on Thursday, 138 of whom were suffering heat-related illnesses, the organizing committee said.



Since the first official day of the event on Aug. 1, more than 1,000 people have reported heat-related illnesses due to the high temperatures and humidity of the venue, built on reclaimed land lacking any natural shade or cooling systems while the daytime temperatures were hovering between 33 degrees Celsius and 38 degrees Celsius.



Also, concerns are mounting over sanitation at the campground due to a lack of proper drainage systems. Online communities are filled with posts about toilets being out of order, difficulty setting up tents on the loose ground, food quality and swarms of mosquitoes and other bugs.



As complaints grow, the United Kingdom and the United States have officially expressed their concerns, and a European country reportedly sent an official document listing its health concerns regarding the event to the Korean government on Aug. 1.



President Yoon Suk Yeol, who is on summer vacation, ordered the government to provide an "unlimited supply of ice water and air-conditioned buses" and "improve the quality of the food."



"President Yoon ordered all government organizations to make their full efforts to address the problems of the event," said Kim Eun-hye, senior presidential secretary for public relations.





Regional tourism programs being arranged for jamboree participants amid extreme heat wave World Scout Jamboree continues despite US, UK withdrawals amid heat wave Yoon orders provision of unlimited air-conditioned buses, freezer trucks for jamboree event Following the order, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo presided over an emergency Cabinet meeting, Friday, and approved 6.9 billion won ($5.28 million) in reserve funds to improve support for the event.



Han paid a visit to the Jamboree site Friday afternoon and announced that the central government will step up and take responsibility for safety management and operation of the event "until the last participant leaves Saemangeum."



Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, center, speaks during an emergency Cabinet meeting at the Government Complex in Gwanghwamun, Seoul, Friday. Yonhap

The progressive main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) also held its Supreme Council meeting and urged the government to take action to prevent the Jamboree event from becoming a failure.



"It is necessary to make a precise judgment on the event's situation and whether it should be continued or not," DPK floor leader Rep. Park Kwang-on said.



"The government should not forget the painful lessons of failing to prevent crises that could be prevented Though there could be contemplation given to the six years of preparation, budget and the reputation of the country, the top priority is the health of participants."



However, criticisms are growing against both the government and political parties, as there have been concerns over the weather and the drainage system at the event since last year, when the organizers canceled a pre-Jamboree program.



DPK Rep. Lee Won-taeg, whose constituency is in Buan County, where Saemangeum is located, said in a National Assembly audit last October that the pre-Jamboree program was canceled because of a lack of preparation by the organizers, including the drainage system and measures to avoid the heat.



"The government then said it canceled the pre-Jamboree event due to COVID-19, but the true reason was the lack of a drainage system, as the campground was flooded after heavy a downpour in July," Lee said during the audit. "We need to come up with measures to prevent harm from the heat, heavy rain, bugs and other diseases, as well as improving the infrastructure for visitors."



At the time, Gender Equality and Family Minister Kim Hyun-sook, who is a co-chair of the organizing committee, said she would address those concerns.



DPK Supreme Council member Rep. Jung Chung-rae said at Thursday's meeting that "the Jamboree, which should be a joyful and entertaining event, has become an incident tarnishing Korea's reputation by giving participants an experience of disaster."



Main opposition Democratic Party of Korea floor leader Rep. Park Kwang-on speaks during a party meeting at the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul, Friday. Yonhap

Blame game begins



Against this backdrop, rival parties have begun blaming each other over the setbacks at the Jamboree event.



"Korea, which has been described as an advanced nation (by the Yoon administration), is holding a poor event which is nothing more than a refugee camp, and I deplore the Yoon government's administrative capability for this," Jung said.



Rep. Chang Kyoung-tae, a DPK Supreme Council member, also slammed the government, saying "the presidential office is avoiding its responsibility by blaming the previous government" of former President Moon Jae-in, a member of the DPK.



PPP floor leader Yun said the setbacks at the Jamboree event should not be the subject of political bickering, but noted that "the event was prepared by the Moon government and is now being hosted by the Yoon government."



A senior official at the presidential office told the Kyunghyang Shinmun newspaper that "the top priority is finishing the event without major problems, rather than finding who is responsible," but added that "the event was prepared for five years during the Moon government."




Trinity School of Medicine (TSOM) will begin expansion to its campus beginning in September 2023.

At a press conference on Monday, July 31st at Beachcombers, Trinity School of Medicine Medical President and CEO Mr. Steven Wilson introduced the new Dean and Provost, Dr. John. P. Geisler and Associate Dean of Clinical Sciences and Curriculum, Dr. Kelly J. Manahan.





Dr. Naga Dharshan Devendra, the new Associate Dean of Basic Sciences, will arrive in St. Vincent in early August from Glasgow, Scotland.





The New Deans





President Wilson cited Dr. Geisler as a distinguished leader in OB/Gyn Oncology with an extensive background in medical education accreditation, residency training research and clinical practice. He anticipated that the students would benefit from his wealth of knowledge and vast experience, and that under his guidance Trinity will further solidify its position as a top choice for medical training in the Caribbean

In addition to admitting how wowed he was by the beauty of St. Vincent and noting that the environment was conducive to learning and well-being of the students, Dr. Geisler expressed his passion for medicine, but above all his love for medical education. He mused that to take care of a patient means to impact one person, but training one doctor means affecting a whole community.





In introducing the new Associate Dean of Clinical Science, President Wilson cited Dr. Manahan as trailblazer in the field of OB/Gyn Oncology, adding that she brings an unparalleled blend of medical education, accreditation, residency expertise and management, innovation and leadership, which will undoubtedly bolster Trinitys efforts in residency placement, research, curriculum design and overall academic excellence.

Dr. Manahan stated that it was the first time she was visiting St. Vincent and expressed her gratitude for the warm welcome by the Government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. She is excited to see the continued growth in partnership between SVG and Trinity.





Mr. Wilson cited Dr. Dharshan Devendra as a highly accomplished medical professional with a strong background in clinical biochemistry, medical education and research, bringing a wealth of knowledge and expertise to his role. He noted that Dr. Devendras experience in preparing students for the USMLE Step I exam and the extensive knowledge of integrated organ system curriculum, will help propel the pre-clinical basic science curriculum to a new level of excellence.





According to Mr. Wilson, both Dr. Geisler and Dr. Manahan have a very strong track records in academic research having almost 200 peer-reviewed publications between them. Given that the amount and significance of academic research in medicine is growing exponentially, he shared that the goal is to bring research opportunities to Trinity students.





Engaging Government Officials





The press conference was a culmination of a series of meetings held earlier that day with Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, Education and Health Ministers Curtis King and St. Clair Prince respectively, and other health officials.





He reported that the meeting with the Prime Minister served to introduce the new leadership and to share Trinity expansion plans; and as an opportunity to thank him for his pivotal support and that of his government and the Vincentian community.





President Wilson referenced the close working partnerships with the Ministries and pledged to continue in this collaboration.





This would be centered around educational endeavors in public and private school in St. Vincent, to encourage students interest in STEM, and also to work on providing the options for students to stay in SVG to advance their education in the field of medicine.





This would create a long-term impact on the healthcare system in SVG through local students going through Trinity SOM and coming back to SVG after their medical education is completed.





Providing scholarships for local students is a continued point of focus for Trinity, Wilson said.





Campus Expansion





President Wilson announced plans to expand the anatomy lab and lecture hall as phase one of a two-phase expansion project, commencing in September, 2023.





The lecture hall is expected to seat 100 and will provide for the expected growth of MD and Pre-Med on campus programmes. The first construction phase will being in September of this year.





Phase two will entail the construction of a 400-seat multi-use main floor, with lecture halls below and faculty offices and small group study rooms above. This phase is slated to being in late 2024 or early 2025.





Wilson described the multi-million dollar expansions projects as testament to the promises made 15 years ago to the people and government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.





The plan is to design buildings that facilitate the use of technology to impact learners, Dr. Manahan assured.





Impacting Education in medicine





Trinity School of Medicine was established in 2008 and morphed into Trinity Medical Sciences University in 2014.





"We have come a long way since 2008 and we have a long way to go, Wilson said, and highlighted that not only has Trinity been able to reach the ceilings of the Caribbean medical schools, but that Trinity stands on par with U.S medical schools.





Thats why, as Wilson said, "Were always pushing. Thats part of my job to keep the academic team moving, and to make sure that students are getting what they need and their outcomes are what we want and what they want.





Trinity starts its 16th year in St. Vincent and this milestone, President Wilson emphasized, "would not have been possible without the support of the people, the government, the hospital system here .





Colouring this milestone is the ongoing graduation of more and more Vincentians, with four Vincentian currently in the U.S. with stellar residencies.





In addition to turning out Vincentian graduates, Trinity, which enjoys accreditation status with the Carribean Accreditation Authority for Education in Medicine (CAAM-HP), employs over 100 Vincentians inclusive of four Deans.





And in the name of all faculty, staff and students of Trinity School of Medicine, President Wilson expressed his gratitude to the Government and the people of St. Vincent for their unwavering support over the years.
Some of the tri-tri fishers who will now have access to freezers to store their catch.

Tri-tri fishers in the North Leeward district of St. Vincent and the Grenadines can now enjoy some ease from the distress of having no way of storing their catch, thereby losing them to spoilage.





The ease came after Minister of Forestry and Fisheries, Saboto Caesar, handed over twenty-one freezers to groups of tri-tri fishers from that area, on Friday, 28th July.





In so doing, the Minister emphasized that the equipment will go a long way in preventing spoilage and increasing the potential revenue from sale of the catch, since there would be more tri-tri available for sale.





Mrs. Jennifer Cruickshank-Howard, Chief Fisheries Officer, disclosed that the freezers were sourced under the EnGenDER/ United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) project and thanked the UNDP for its assistance.





She went on to explain that the tri-tri fishers in the North Leeward district usually fished in groups, and because of this the freezers were donated use by groups rather than by individuals.
Dr. Vaughn Lewis, CEO of VINLEC, sought to quell any fears among the companys consumer base that VINLEC was on a witch hunt.

While the top management of VINLEC said that they are pleased with the response from consumers in settling their arrears owing to the electricity company, they are also reminding individuals to be mindful of what is posted on social media.





"The response has been surprising [and] we have received good rate of collections recently, Dr. Vaughn Lewis, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of VINLEC said on July 30 on Issues at Hand.





And despite the response that the recent drive has had, Lewis said that it was not the intention of the company to cause panic.





However, responding to a notice Pay your bill or be disconnected, delinquent customers cued for hours at VINLECs Kingstown office last week, to pay their arrears.





According to Dr. Lewis, among the list of customers down to be disconnected were those owing slightly beyond that two-month point and there were others owing for a period of months beyond the two-month point.





VINLEC said the disconnection exercise was in line with its "standard operational procedures a phase of which began on 24th July 2023.





Less than two per cent of VINLECs 48,581 account holders were affected during this exercise, a release from VINLEC said.





Customers that were disconnected in the recent drive were from across the residential and commercial categories, according to Lewis, with outstanding debt ranging between EC$500 into EC$20,000 to EC$30,000.





Social Media barrage





But even as they sought to settle their accounts, many consumers took to social media to accuse VINLEC of being "heartless in its disconnection activities as some bills posted on social media showed people were disconnected late at night for owing as little as EC$100.





And in relation to cartoons and videos appearing on social media, Dr. Lewis described some as being quite hostile with others speculating about issues relating to the credit control department.





"Of course, you cannot limit what is said on social media, but some of it is quite misleading and some of it can be dangerous, Lewis said.





"We are not saying that people do not have a right to comment, of course persons have a right to comment but I have seen some posts which are very, very misleading.





For example, Lewis explained that there was a post made on July 29 of an accident involving a vehicle owned by VINLEC.





The post strongly implied that the accident occurred while a team was making its way to a site to disconnect a customer.





"So basically, the post is saying look how far they are going, and they are endangering persons lives in their attempt to disconnect persons, VINLECs CEO said.





But he explained that if the post was referring to the said date, July 29, there were no disconnections conducted on that day.





Other teams were at work, he said, and he was aware of the accident.





But it had nothing to do with disconnection, Lewis said.
(TBTCO) - a so cac to chuc quoc te du bao tang truong kinh te toan cau nam 2023 tang nhe so voi du bao tu au nam, nhung van thap hon so voi toc o tang truong nam 2022. Ngan hang The gioi (WB) nhan inh, tang truong toan cau se cham lai o muc 2,1% trong nam 2023, ieu chinh tang 0,4 iem phan tram so voi du bao au nam 2023. Trong Bao cao Trien vong kinh te thang 6/2023, To chuc Hop tac va Phat trien kinh te (OECD) du bao tang truong kinh te toan cau nam 2023 at 2,7%, tang 0,1 iem phan tram so voi du bao trong thang 3/2023. Quy Tien te Quoc te (IMF) du bao tang truong toan cau nam 2023 at 2,8%, thap hon 0,1 iem phan tram so voi du bao thang 1/2023.
North American Toffees Network Launches Membership Program

04/08/2023



The North American Toffees Supporter network, a supporter-led network of more than 45 Everton supporter group leads with the aims of supporting the growth of the Everton brand, has launched a new membership program as part of its plans to help bring together, grow and connect Everton supporters across the continent.

The membership is open to all Everton supporters across the US, Canada & Mexico for $30 (including shipping anywhere in North America) and includes:

Membership welcome pack: North American Toffees scarf  with option to personalize with your own initials North American Toffees pin and sticker Official membership card

10% discount on supporter club branded merchandise  in partnership with Hummel and RedsTeam Sports

20% discount on group bookings at all RST Aparthotels in Liverpool  including a brand new location opposite the new Everton Stadium at Bramley Moore Dock

Access to North American Toffees raffles & competitions

Access to the North American 2023/24 ToffeeFest event

Annual organised trip to a home game

Invitation to attend a quarterly meeting with fellow North American Toffees

Membership registration will be open initially on a pre order between August 4 and August 18 2023. Memberships will be on an individual basis and there is no requirement to be part of an existing supporters club.

To secure your membership, visit the Membership website.

Article continues below video content

For further information, questions or queries, please contact us at: Mail: northamericantoffees@gmail.com

Twitter: @NAToffees

Instagram: na_toffees

Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer ()

How to get rid of these ads and support TW

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To secure another temporary safety net for the Casper-Natrona County International Airports struggling Salt Lake City flight, the Natrona County Board of County Commissioners will soon weigh whether to pledge another quarter-of-a-million dollars in subsidies to SkyWest Airlines.

Its common for airlines to ask governments and other organizations to support flights expected to underperform  agreements known as minimum revenue guarantees  especially amid the devastating drop in demand the industry experienced during the coronavirus pandemic.

And while airlines have rebounded significantly since 2020 and 2021, theyre still wrestling with staff shortages, inflated fuel costs and unpredictable demand.

SkyWest, which provides the service between Casper and Salt Lake City on behalf of Delta Airlines, is no exception. The carrier first got Natrona County to enter into a minimum revenue guarantee to support the flight in late 2021. Since then, SkyWest has received more than $1 million in subsidies from the county and state for the Salt Lake route.

The airline is now asking the county to extend the arrangement through the end of September. Its projecting a loss of $250,207 on the flight for the third quarter of 2023.

Theyre saying, Theres a risk associated with that, and we want the community to help share the risk for having the service available, said Glenn Januska, director of the Casper-Natrona County International Airport.

Januska said the proposal is expected to formally go before the Natrona County Board of County Commissioners in mid-August.

Natrona County wouldnt have to earmark any additional money to grant SkyWests request. It would simply dip into funds leftover from the more than $880,000 it set aside to support the flight for the first six months of 2023. The airline only ended up needing about $600,000 of the sum to cover its losses over that period of time.

If the county said Yes, we want to move forward with the third quarter amount, they could in essence cover that with the portion of the MRG that was not needed for the first six months of the year, Januska said, using an abbreviation for minimum revenue guarantee.

It also wouldnt fall entirely on the county to foot the bill. The Wyoming Department of Transportations Aeronautics Commission, which oversees a program that subsidizes air service across the state, has covered 40% of the countys previous minimum revenue guarantee agreements with the airline.

The proposal comes after the the Casper City Council in May agreed to set aside $50,000 for the Fly Casper Alliance, a new advocacy group promoting the airport. The Fly Casper Alliance originally approached the council for $50,000 to go toward an additional minimum revenue guarantee for the Salt Lake City flight, but the council requested that the group use the money for marketing instead. Councilors officially approved that agreement on Tuesday.

So how has the Salt Lake City flight performed in recent months? Its hard to tell for sure, Januska said.

The county and state ended up covering $9,132 in losses on the flight for the month of June. In January, that figure was $204,480. (The airport hasnt shared data for July yet.)

Its typical for the flight to do better in the summer, but plenty of other factors can affect the services profitability, too, Januska said.

Is the reason why those summer months are doing better because theres been more people, lower fuel costs, higher fares or the combination of those? he asked.

Time will tell if the flight continues to see an improvement during the third quarter of the year.

SkyWest recently upgraded the service to a 76-passenger plane with the hope that a larger aircraft would make more money.

On the other hand, recent changes to the flights schedule dont seem to be very popular, Januska said. Previously, the flight arrived in Casper, stayed overnight, and flew back to Salt Lake City early in the morning. But recently, the flight started coming into in Casper at around 10 a.m. and departing almost immediately at 11 a.m.

That service is better for people flying into Casper, but not as good for people wanting to fly out of Casper, he said.

The flight is expected to return to normal hours in September.

Whether or not the service becomes self-sufficient, local leaders have indicated the minimum revenue guarantees may continue indefinitely as a sort of failsafe to carry the flight through any future economic lulls.

While we all wish that the MRG would go away, it seems to be the future of rural air travel on routes that are intermittently unprofitable, Kaycee Wiita, board chair of the Fly Casper Alliance, wrote in a March letter to the Casper City Council.

The Casper-Natrona County International Airport only offers one other flight, the United Airlines service to Denver.

Your news on your smartphone Your story lives in Wyoming, and our new mobile app is designed to make sure you dont miss breaking news, the latest scores, the weather forecast and more. From easy navigation with the swipe of a finger to personalized content based on your preferences to customized text sizes, the Star-Tribune app is built for you and your life. Dont have the app? Download it today from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.
In 2020, Cheyenne Regional Medical Center first experimented with a simple mindset shift that aimed to reduce the amount of opiates patients received at the hospital: Rather than trying to eliminate patients pain, medical providers were trained to ask patients how much pain they could tolerate.

That shift, within six months, resulted in a 10% reduction in patients receiving opiates at the hospitals emergency department, where CRMC had launched an Alternatives to Opioids, or ALTO, program.

Those results have translated even more drastically to the Laramie County EMS ALTO program, which launched last year and is one of the first EMS programs of its kind in the nation, said Angela Vaughn, CRMCs community health project director. More than 100 paramedics and emergency medical technicians with the Cheyenne Fire and Rescue and Cheyenne American Medical Response were trained through the ALTO program last year, according to Vaughn.

Compared to a control period from January 2020 to May 2022, the number of patients who were given opioids during an emergency response dropped about 28% in the programs first year.

Mindset shift

In 2019, Vaughn reached out to Don Stader  an emergency and addiction medicine physician and opioid expert who has been a part of several initiatives in Colorado that aim to curb the opioid crisis  asking if he would bring the ALTO program to CRMC.

Quote When you ask the right questions, I think that what you discover is that many people are happy to tolerate pain and, in fact, would rather tolerate it than be exposed to something dangerous like a narcotic. Don Stader

The program trains medical providers to understand pain psychology and conduct assessments to see if patients are tolerating their pain well, in which case they might not need any medication at all.

I think theres a much deeper story there than just, Hey, were using alternative medicines, Stader said.

When you ask the right questions, I think that what you discover is that many people are happy to tolerate pain and, in fact, would rather tolerate it than be exposed to something dangerous like a narcotic.

Since the ALTO programs beginnings, Stader and a team at his company, Stader Opioid Consultants, have expanded into the majority of Colorados emergency departments.

In 2018, Stader and a team of researchers published the first academic study documenting the outcomes of the ALTO program in a Colorado emergency department. The study compared data from 2015, before the program had been put in place, with data collected in 2016 after the programs implementation. Opioid use in the emergency department decreased more than 20% between those two timeframes.

Meanwhile, patient satisfaction scores showed no significant difference when patients were asked how well their pain was controlled and how likely they would be to recommend the emergency department where they were getting care.

The Colorado Hospital Association also conducted a study over six months across 10 hospital emergency departments that showed the ALTO program had reduced the administration of opioids by an average of 36%.

The opioid crisis in Wyoming

Cheyenne was one of several Wyoming cities, counties, tribes and other governmental entities that joined in a federal lawsuit against opioid manufacturing giants like Purdue Pharma and Johnson & Johnson for their role in sparking a crisis that has killed tens of thousands of people in the U.S. Wyoming is set to receive $52 million in settlement money from the lawsuit, some of which began making its way to the state last year.

But Wyomings struggle with opioids is far from over. Between January and June 2022, opioid overdoses increased by 133% in Laramie County compared to the same time period the year before, said Brice Jacobson of Cheyenne Fire and Rescue. In January this year, Laramie County EMS responded to 32 overdose cases  the highest monthly number of the past five years, according to a Wyofile investigation.

The increase in overdose deaths across Wyoming is partly because of a flood of synthetic opioids, according to the Wyoming Department of Health. Between 2018 and 2021, overdose deaths rose from 65 to 106; the number of synthetic opioid-involved overdose deaths more than quadrupled while deaths connected with other opioids stayed mostly the same.

Opioids in medical settings

Opioid addiction often starts in medical settings, where patients can develop an addiction to legal pain medications that can lead to using more dangerous drugs like heroin and fentanyl. Though opioid prescriptions fell by nearly 47% between 2012 and 2020, dispensing rates are still especially high in certain areas of the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In an emergency response situation where everything has to be packed into a vehicle, providers often have a limited number of medications at their disposal to treat patients experiencing pain. Opiates have often been the most available pain medication at hand. But when people are given opiates in an emergency response situation, its difficult for the hospital to deviate from that pain treatment later if the patient has to be hospitalized.

Addiction isnt the only potential problem with opioids. As a pain medication, they can also have negative short-term impacts that make it harder for providers to deliver care. They often make people feel nauseous and dizzy. Patients who have taken opioids are sometimes too sleepy to communicate with hospital staff.

In short, patients using opiates arent always able to be active participants in deciding what kind of medical care they should receive. That leaves physicians in a difficult spot about making decisions for patients, rather than with patients, Stader said.

Over the years, medical providers in Laramie County have expanded their pharmacopeia to include alternative pain medications to opiates. In 2017, for example, Cheyenne Fire and Rescue started using ketamine in emergency response situations (the hospital has since started using the medication, as well). Ketamine is a non-opiate pain medication that, while still addictive, is much less so compared to opioids.

ALTO accessibility

The ALTO program seems to be a relatively accessible way for hospitals to decrease patients exposure to opiates; training is really the only cost associated with implementing the ALTO program, Vaughn said in an email. She declined to share the cost of the program because that price can vary depending on what kind of training and materials are involved.

When we paid for this training, we wanted to make sure there was some sort of built in sustainability, Vaughn said.

To that end, Stader, whom CRMC contracted to provide the training, made podcasts and videos for CRMC so the hospital could use them when new people come on staff. Because the hospital doesnt have a steady stream of funding for training, having this sustainability built in was particularly important, Vaughn said.

CRMC is currently trying to get grants to pay for future training.

Looking to the future

Its too early to tell how CRMCs ALTO program impacts the rate of opioid addictions and overdoses in Laramie County, Jacobson said. But studies show that even short-term use of opiates can lead to an addiction. Longer-term use only increases that risk. When patients start off not using opiates in an emergency response situation, hospital staff can manage their long-term care better without having to resort to the medication, Jacobson said.

There are other efforts outside of the ALTO program to address the opioid crisis in Laramie County.

Stader and Vaughn plan to start a Wyoming version of the Naloxone Project, which Stader launched in Colorado in 2021. The project aims for all hospitals, labor and delivery units and emergency departments to give naloxone  a medication designed to quickly reverse opioid overdose  to at-risk patients before they leave the hospital.

In Colorado, 97% of emergency departments and 90% of labor and delivery units now participate in the project. Vaughn said theyre currently looking at potential legislative changes and policy updates that would help move the project forward.

CRMC and the Laramie County Coroners Office, as well as representatives from law enforcement, schools, faith-based organizations and other groups in the community, are also initiating an overdose fatality review starting Thursday. The review committee will take a deep dive into every overdose case in Laramie County starting from 2021 and publish a report with recommendations for filling resource gaps in the community. Vaughn said the group aims to publish that report in August 2024.

Filling those resource gaps is an ongoing struggle for Wyoming, and for other rural states. Cheyenne Regional Medical Center can refer patients with an addiction to places like HealthWorks, Crossroads Counseling and Volunteers of America, which all offer medication-assisted therapy for people trying to overcome an addiction, Vaughn said. But like other places, and perhaps even more so, Wyoming lacks an abundance of resources for people who need treatment.

We can refer to those agencies, but we do have a shortage of providers as it pertains to treatment, which can be a big barrier, Vaughn said.

Additionally, CRMC and Cheyenne Fire and Rescue may publish the data theyve collected from the ALTO program, Vaughn said. Shes not certain at this point what that process would look like, though its likely that Stader would be involved.

I think that the lessons learned here from Cheyennes work are really, really multiple, he said. The question is really just how you best get that word out. And thats something that were still actively looking at.

Your news on your smartphone Your story lives in Wyoming, and our new mobile app is designed to make sure you dont miss breaking news, the latest scores, the weather forecast and more. From easy navigation with the swipe of a finger to personalized content based on your preferences to customized text sizes, the Star-Tribune app is built for you and your life. Dont have the app? Download it today from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.
Wyomings new charter school board has hit the ground running.

Members of the Wyoming Charter School Authorizing Board voted Thursday to assume oversight of Wyomings three state-approved charter schools and pushed back the start date of Cheyenne Classical Academy.

The panel also appointed leaders, adopted rules and received a crash course in state law and ethics at its first meeting in Cheyenne as it prepares to manage the states public charter schools amid a push from lawmakers.

After a formal introduction and training on state charter school laws and the boards responsibilities, the eight-member panel voted to take over the charters of Cheyenne Classical Academy, Prairie View Community School in Chugwater and Wyoming Classical Academy in Mills. The decision followed a separate vote by the State Loan and Investment Boards to transfer the contracts to the newly created board.

With its new authority, the board heard an appeal from Cheyenne Classical Academy to postpone its start date until 2024. Nathan Winters, the president of the Wyoming Family Alliance and Rep. Jared Olsen, R-Cheyenne, both of whom sit on the schools board, told the committee that the school was on track to open this fall before it ran into trouble finding a building.

Cheyenne Classical Academy is affiliated with Hillsdale College, a private conservative Christian college based in Michigan, as is Wyoming Classical Academy.

The school has recently found a space but not in time to start the school year due to needed renovations and the delay in teacher training. Even with a year deferral, families in the area were still interested in sending their kids to the school, Winters said.

The program that we are opening up with is something that really is compelling in the community, he said.

The extension request eased through the authorizing board with broad support. Some members urged the panel to also extend the schools charter by a year to compensate for the delay. Cindy DeLancey, the president of the Wyoming Business Alliance and an appointee of State Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder, said an additional year would give the school more of a chance to showcase its success, which would benefit students.

I think that we absolutely should consider trying to maximize the time to allow some of these pieces to come together and to provide additional staff training, she said.

The authorizing board ultimately left the decision to a future meeting.

Lawmakers created the Wyoming Charter School Authorizing Board earlier this year to sanction new charter schools and manage the existing state-approved schools. The panel is the first dedicated and independent charter school approval commission in state history.

Until Thursday, the State Loan and Investment Board served as the approval body for the state. It greenlit the schools in Mills, Cheyenne and Chugwater last year. Charter schools can also go through their local school district for approval, but new schools have increasingly turned to the state as lawmakers and the Wyoming Department of Education have tried to expand public charter schools.

As their first formal action, members of the authorizing board selected John Masters, a recently retired Cheyenne attorney who served as the chairman for Gov. Mark Gordons Reimagining and Innovating the Delivery of Education (RIDE) initiative, as the groups chair. Mitchell Schwab, an attorney and former charter school management company executive from Afton, will sit as the groups vice chair.

Joining Masters, Schwab and DeLancey on the board are Joseph Feiler of Casper, Janine Bay Teske of Jackson, Doug Chamberlain of La Grange, Fred Von Ahrens of Green River and Alan Buss of Laramie. Gov. Mark Gordon and Degenfelder each appointed three members, while Von Ahrens and Buss represent the State Board of Education and the University of Wyomings College of Education.

In addition to picking leaders, the group began discussing how it plans to move forward in its new role. During an hour and a half training, Mackenzie Williams, a supervising attorney general with the Wyoming Attorney Generals Office, explained that lawmakers gave the board latitude to decide how it will operate and oversee charter schools.

The authorizing board is broadly responsible for approving new schools and monitoring existing ones, including revoking a charter if necessary. The panel must hold a hearing within 60 days of a new charter school application and must make a decision within 90 days, Williams said. Yet, the authorizing board will have room to shape the process new charter schools must go through.

When reviewing applications, the board must base its decisions on documented evidence and grant charters to applicants that possess competence in the elements of the charter application requirements. The authorizing board must determine what competence looks like among its many tasks in the coming months.

While the panel worked with urgency and began discussing the approval of new schools, Williams pumped the brakes. Lawmakers included a moratorium on new charter schools in the law creating the authorizing board. The commission can only approve one additional charter school between 2026 and 2028 as it currently stands.

You have some room to breathe when it comes to working on these issues, Williams said.

Your news on your smartphone Your story lives in Wyoming, and our new mobile app is designed to make sure you dont miss breaking news, the latest scores, the weather forecast and more. From easy navigation with the swipe of a finger to personalized content based on your preferences to customized text sizes, the Star-Tribune app is built for you and your life. Dont have the app? Download it today from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.
Twenty-eight citizens have been authorised to proceed with individual legal actions against the Office of the Police Commissioner for significant delays in the decision-making process concerning their applications for firearm users licences (FULs).

The matter came up for hearing yesterday before High Court judge Nadia Kangaloo.
President Yoon Suk Yeol delivers a welcoming speech during the opening ceremony of the 25th World Scout Jamboree in Saemangeum, North Jeolla Province, on the night of Aug. 2, in this photo provided by the presidential office. Yonhap





President Yoon Suk Yeol instructed the government Friday to provide unlimited air-conditioned buses and refrigerator trucks to protect young participants of the World Scout Jamboree from the scorching heat wave, according to his spokesperson.







Yoon gave the instruction during his weeklong summer vacation, according to presidential spokeswoman Kim Eun-hye. More than 100 people have been treated for symptoms of heat-related illnesses over the past two days since the event kicked off on land reclaimed from the sea in the country's southwestern coast on Wednesday.







"All government departments should make all-out efforts to immediately solve problems at the site," Yoon was quoted by Kim as saying. He ordered an unlimited number of air-conditioned large buses that the scouts can use for brief refuge and refrigerator trucks to provide cold water.







Prime Minister Han Duck-soo was to preside over an extraordinary Cabinet meeting to approve the spending of reserve government funds to provide necessary assistance for the jamboree event.







Yoon later finalized the spending of 6.9 billion won ($5.3 million) to assist the event.







Organizers have faced growing criticism after numerous accounts of a hospital bed shortage, waterlogged conditions due to previous heavy rains, bad food, and swarms of mosquitoes, as the country has been gripped with record-high temperatures.







Yoon further ordered immediate improvement in the quality and quantity of food for the young participants.






Unfortunately, there is no magic wand we can wave to make every firearm vanish from Trinidad
Calling all Selena fans  its time to leave your apartamento 512, hop in your carcacha (no judging here) and head down to Hotel Congress for their Selena-themed party this weekend.

The Selena Summer Party kicks off at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 5 in the Hotel Congress Plaza at 311 E. Congress St.

Tickets for the 21-and-up event start at $15 ($17.51 after fees) in advance or $20 at the door.

In case of inclement weather on the evening of the event, tickets are transferable to another Hotel Congress event of equal value, according to the ticket website.

The party is set to feature Bidi Bidi Banda  a Selena tribute band from Austin, Texas led by Stephanie Bergara  who will be performing some of the late Tejano queens hit songs. When the concert was announced in May, the band called Club Congress their home away from home.

Selena meant so much to so many people, including myself and it just feels like she hasn't lost any momentum. She was the first person I saw on television who looked like she could be related to me, Bergara told Fox 7 Austin in 2021.

The Selena Summer Party is part of Hotel Congress Summer Parties Series that launched in early June with their Country Cookout, Juneteenth Celebration and Club Pride. Julys summer parties included a Wet Hot American party and an 80s Hair Metal Madness party.

The Summer Parties Series wraps up this month with its Surfapalooza party on Aug. 12 and the Summer Swing Festival on Aug. 18-20.

For more information about Hotel Congress Summer Parties Series, check out their website.
Rio Ricos largest landowner has withdrawn a sweeping development plan for the community that drew strong opposition from local residents.

Earlier this year, Andrew Jackson asked Santa Cruz County for a series of zoning changes to allow mixed-use commercial, residential and industrial development on more than 3,550 acres of mostly vacant ranch land he owns along Interstate 19 in Rio Rico.

The countys Board of Supervisors was scheduled to consider the proposal on Aug. 15, but that hearing was canceled on Monday, after the landowner pulled back his applications for a specific zoning plan and a major comprehensive plan amendment.

In his email to the county, Jackson did not give a reason for the move or indicate whether he intends to redraft or resubmit his plans at a later date.

Messages left for him and his attorney, Ed Bull, were not immediately returned.

In a news release, county officials acknowledged significant opposition from community members to Jacksons plans.

Many residents have expressed concern that the proposal would open the door for Australian mining giant South32 to build a manganese processing facility in Rio Rico for its proposed mine in the nearby Patagonia Mountains.

There are several hundred citizens here who are fighting this and we will continue to fight, said Rio Rico resident Ed Pirl. We do not want that toxic stuff anywhere in our county.

Company officials say they have not yet selected locations for the mines off-site support facilities, which include a remote operations center for controlling their automated mining equipment and a processing plant for making battery-grade manganese.

Pat Risner, president of South32s Hermosa Project in the Patagonia Mountains, told the supervisors last month that the company wants to place both facilities somewhere in Santa Cruz County, but they could be built elsewhere if thats what residents prefer.

At the same meeting, Risner said South32 officials had nothing to do with Jacksons development proposal and dont need it to proceed with their plans.

The $1.7 billion mine is currently under federal review and already facing lawsuits from environmental groups who have sued to halt exploratory drilling in the Patagonia Mountains.

Jacksons proposal sought to transform Rio Ricos I-19 corridor into a major economic center providing education, employment, commercial and housing opportunities, including hotel rooms, restaurants, retail stores, offices, railroad facilities and a community college with student housing.

Residents complained about being blindsided by the plan and accused Jackson and county leaders of trying to rush through massive changes that threatened the rural character of the community.

In response to such criticism, county Community Development Director Frank Dillon produced a list of recommendations to enhance transparency and improve the public process for large projects in the future.

One suggestion is a temporary moratorium on special zoning plans, a new code adopted by the supervisors on June 6, so staff can review the process and develop additional regulatory safeguards related to the scale of the request.

Dillon is also recommending that the county develop a clear and consistent procedure for communicating complex and potentially controversial items to the community beyond statutory noticing requirements.

Jacksons development plans covered a 9-mile stretch of I-19 and the Santa Cruz River through Rio Rico, running almost the entire length of the community of about 20,000 people 60 miles south of Tucson.

An earlier draft of the proposal included references to mine operations but did not mention South32 by name. All references to mining were removed from the document after residents complained.

Rio Rico resident Beth Pirl, Eds wife, said she is glad to see Jackson once again taking local concerns to heart by withdrawing his plans altogether.
Grand Canyon West and its Skywalk attraction and helicopter tours were back in business Wednesday, a day after one person was killed and at least eight others hospitalized after a tour bus rollover in northern Arizona.

Hualapai tribal officials said a private tour operator and a visitors personal vehicle collided near the Grand Canyon West parking lot at around 10 a.m. Tuesday within the resorts Corp Circle in Terminal 1.

They havent released any other information, citing their ongoing investigation.

Cheyanne Majenty, who is with Hualapai Emergency Operations, said the resort was open and fully operational Wednesday after being closed following Tuesdays fatal rollover.

John MacDonald, a spokesman for the tribe, said the person who died was a woman but he didnt have her name, age or hometown yet.

Eight of the 57 people aboard the bus were flown to a Las Vegas hospital and reported to be in fair condition Tuesday night. MacDonald didnt have any names or updates Wednesday.

The Hualapai Nation Police Department is investigating the rollover, but the National Transportation Safety Board said it is not doing so at this time.

Grand Canyon West is in northern Mohave County at the West Rim of the Grand Canyon. It is run by the tribe but has no operational ties to Grand Canyon National Park, which is managed by the National Park Service.

Skywalk, which opened as a tourist attraction in 2007, is a 10-foot wide, horseshoe-shaped cantilever bridge with a glass walkway on the edge of a side canyon in Grand Canyon West.
Scientists said the new fuel cells are suitable for applications in drones and urban air mobility vehicles. Gettyimagesbank



By Holly Chik



Researchers at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) have developed a new way to make fuel cells that can generate 40 percent more power than conventional cells of the same size, making them ideal for drones and urban aerial vehicles, they said Thursday.



Fuel cells are a clean source of electricity. They generate electricity through an electrochemical reaction of hydrogen with oxygen, creating heat and water as by-products. But they are not yet a mainstream energy source because of their high cost and limited durability, which is reduced by water generated inside them during long-term operation.



To improve a fuel cell's lifespan, the researchers said they have developed a new process to arrange the components for fuel cell operation in a 3D way, as opposed to the commonly used 2D flat structure. They found that cracks due to stretching in the electrode layer act as channels to effectively remove excess water that could degrade performance.



"We anticipate a positive impact on the fuel cell's durability due to the improved water management capabilities of the structured electrode," Professor Yoo Sung-jong, principal research scientist of the center for hydrogen-fuel cell research at KIST said.



The new fuel cell is also more efficient  generating a higher voltage at the same current compared to conventional cells, according to Yoo.



He said the improvements could support the development of airborne transport devices, which often require sustained high-power outputs.



"By ensuring reliable power generation, improved efficiency and extended durability, the novel fuel cell technology can drive further progress in developing aerial mobility systems, including drones and urban air mobility vehicles.



"By integrating these advanced fuel cells into transportation, we can accelerate the adoption of eco-friendly transportation solutions and reduce carbon emissions, contributing to a sustainable and environmentally conscious future," he said.



He added that the team plans to collaborate with commercial partners to bring the technology to market.



He said the technology could also support the commercialization of hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles, which aligns with the government's green energy transition plan.



As a step to cut greenhouse gas emissions from public transport, the Seoul Metropolitan Government plans to replace all 450 diesel airport buses with hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles by 2030.



The Yoon administration has set out a plan that aims to expand hydrogen demands, establish a global supply network and realize dual fuel-based power generation of 50 percent hydrogen and 20 percent ammonia, having the required technologies ready by 2027 and being implemented the following year.



The government expected the number of hydrogen vehicles to grow from 19,000 as of 2021 to 30,000 by 2030. Hydrogen power generation is projected to account for more than 7 percent of national output by 2036, while it had only produced 767 megawatts in 2021.



"Under the support of the Korean government, it is expected that in five to 10 years, the hydrogen infrastructure will be significantly improved and more accessible to the public," Yoo said.



"This positive development will create a conducive environment for the widespread adoption of fuel cells, which can become a mainstream green energy source."



The scientist said his team will continue to advance its 3D electrode structure technology to reduce the amount of catalyst used and further improve durability, building on their findings published in the peer-reviewed journal Advanced Materials.





Holly Chik is a science reporter with the South China Morning Post. She is currently based in Seoul, reporting for both The Korea Times and the South China Morning Post under an exchange program.


The following is the opinion and analysis of the writer:

The antisemitism coming from the top statewide Republican candidates in the 2022 election made for a scary time in our Arizona Jewish community. So, it was a major relief when all four candidates (Kari Lake, Abe Hamadeh, Blake Masters, and Mark Finchem) were defeated by candidates not spouting antisemitism.

After the November 2022 election, I dreamed a dream that the local and national Republican party would get the message that antisemitism was not a winning strategy. Unfortunately, it seems that putting the antisemitism genie back in the bottle is not in the cards for the 2024 election cycle. Republican antisemitism is becoming normalized, and they cannot seem to stop drinking from that evil well.

We learned Rep. Paul Gosar from Arizona had a link in his official newsletter that states Jewish warmongers Nuland & Blinken Are Dangerous Fools Who Can Get Us All Killed. The link was to Veterans Today, an outlet that provides a platform for Holocaust denial and antisemitic content, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

Recently, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene defended Jack Teixeira, the Pentagon leaker who is on video shooting targets at a shooting range shouting antisemitic and racial slurs. Greene called Teixeira white, male, Christian, and antiwar and asked who is the real enemy in a tweet.

These comments by Greene and Gosar are just the latest in a long line of antisemitic comments and associations with white supremacists by the pair. In an alternative non-MAGA world, the Republican party would punish them for hanging out with white supremacist Nick Fuentes and saying things like forest fires are caused by Rothchild-funded space lasers. However, in the current Republican MAGA reality, they have both been rewarded with high-level committee assignments by Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Greene on the powerful House Homeland Security Committee and House Oversight Committee, and Gosar on the House Natural Resources Committee, as well as the Oversight Committee.

Last January, Arizonas new Republican Party Chairman Jeff DeWit used his first full day as Republican leader to introduce and praise Sen. Wendy Rogers at a political rally. Rogers is known for her hateful, antisemitic rhetoric and conspiracy theories.

Of course, Greene, Gosar and Rogers are just echoing the antisemitism from the titular leader of their party Donald Trump. Last November, Trump hosted notorious antisemites Kanye West and Nick Fuentes at Mar-a-Lago. Recently, Trump used the antisemitic George Soros trope to attack D.A. Alvin Bragg for bringing charges against him. Since these things tend to go top down, four other House Republicans jumped on the antisemitic Soros bandwagon at a recent House Judiciary Hearing regarding D.A. Bragg.

There is also the antisemitism that is not being reported in the media. One hears the antidotes about the casual antisemitic comments made in the community by people we know and come in contact with. These comments that would not have been acceptable five years ago are creeping into everyday conversation.

So, what can Jews and our allies do about the normalization of antisemitism in the Republican party and in our community? We need to continue to loudly call it out and do what we can to stop antisemitism from becoming mainstream and acceptable in our society. We also need to send a strong message at the ballot box in 2024 that antisemitism is not acceptable. The 2022 governor and attorney general elections were extremely close. With Kari Lake and Blake Masters gearing up to run again, they need to be defeated in a landslide if they are the 2024 Republican nominees. We also need to call it out when we hear it in the community from friends, acquaintances and coworkers. We further need to call it out when those within our Jewish community publicly support antisemitic candidates.
DONALD TRUMP

Donald Trump for years has promoted baseless claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him. In truth, Trump was the one who tried to steal the election, federal prosecutors said Tuesday in a sprawling indictment that paints the former president as desperate to cling to power.

The Justice Department indictment accuses Trump of conspiring with allies and concocting various schemes in a brazen attempt to overturn his election loss to President Joe Biden as his legal challenges floundered in court.

The charges brought by special counsel Jack Smith's prosecution team are built around the words of Trump's advisers, White House lawyers and others in his inner circle who repeatedly told him there was no fraud.

It's the third time this year the early front-runner in the 2024 Republican presidential primary has been charged in a criminal case. But it's the first case to try to hold Trump responsible for his eff orts to remain in power during the chaotic weeks between his election loss and the attack by his supporters on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Trump has said he did nothing wrong, and he has accused Smith and the Justice Department of trying to harm his 2024 campaign.

Here's a look at the charges Trump faces and other key issues in the indictment:

What is Trump charged with?

Trump is charged with four counts: obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and conspiracy to prevent others from carrying out their constitutional rights.

In the obstruction charge  which carries up to 20 years in prison  the official proceeding refers to the Jan. 6, 2021, joint session of Congress at which electoral votes were to be counted in order to certify Biden as the official winner. That charge has been brought against hundreds of the more than 1,000 people charged in the Jan. 6 riot, including members of the far-right Oath Keepers and Proud Boys extremist groups.

More than 100 people have been convicted at trial or pleaded guilty to the offense. Jan. 6 defendants have challenged the use of the obstruction charge, though D.C.'s federal appeals court in April sided with the Justice Department in upholding the charge in the cases of three rioters.

Conspiracy to defraud the U.S., punishable by up to five years in prison, makes it a crime to conspire with another person to carry out fraud against the government. The indictment alleges Trump used "dishonesty, fraud and deceit to impair, obstruct and defeat" the counting and certifying of the election results.

What is the conspiracy against rights charge about?

Trump is also accused of violating a post-Civil War Reconstruction Era civil rights statute that makes it a crime to conspire to interfere with rights that are guaranteed by the Constitution, in this case: the right to vote and have one's vote counted. It's punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

The provision was originally part of a set of laws passed in 1870 in response to violence and intimidation by members of the Ku Klux Klan aimed at keeping Black people from the polls.

But it has been used over the years in a variety of election fraud cases, including to prosecute conspiracies to stuff ballot boxes or not count certain votes. The conspiracy doesn't have to be successful, meaning the fraud doesn't have to actually affect the election. The Justice Department won a conviction on the charge earlier this year in the case of Douglass Mackey, a far-right propagandist who was accused of conspiring with other internet influencers to spread fraudulent messages to supporters of then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in an effort to suppress the vote in 2016.

What happens next?

The case was filed in Washington's federal court, where Trump made his first appearance on Thursday.

For more than two years, judges in that courthouse have been hearing the cases of the hundreds of Trump supporters accused of participating in the Jan. 6 riot  many of whom said they were deluded by the election lies pushed by Trump and his allies.

Trump has signaled that his defense may rest, at least in part, on the idea that he truly believed the election was stolen, saying in a recent social media post: "I have the right to protest an Election that I am fully convinced was Rigged and Stolen, just as the Democrats have done against me in 2016, and many others have done over the ages."

But prosecutors have amassed a significant amount of evidence showing that Trump was repeatedly told he lost.

Trump "was notified repeatedly that his claims were untrue  often by the people on whom he relied for candid advice on important matters, and who were best positioned to know the facts and he deliberately disregarded the truth," the indictment says.

Trump is already scheduled to stand trial in March in the New York case stemming from hush money payments made during the 2016 campaign and in May in the federal case in Florida stemming from classified documents found at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

An updated indictment in the classified documents case that was unsealed last week added new charges involving accusations that Trump tried to get Mar-a-Lago surveillance footage deleted after it was requested by investigators.

Unlike in Florida, where Republicans have made steady inroads, Trump will likely face a challenging jury pool in overwhelmingly Democratic Washington, D.C.
MADISON, Wis. (AP)  Liberals who gained majority control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court this week voted Friday to reduce powers of the conservative chief justice and make a series of other changes to how the court operates, moves that the chief justice derided as an overreach by rogue justices.

It marked the second time in three days that Chief Justice Annette Ziegler accused her liberal colleagues of a raw exercise of overreaching power. Liberal Justice Rebecca Dallet said their moves were designed to make the court "more accessible and more accountable to the people of Wisconsin.

The public airing of conflicts on the court set the stage for deep divisions in the battleground state on major cases that could determine the legality of abortions and voting rules, as well as legislative boundary lines.

Conservatives controlled the court for 15 years until Tuesday. Liberals will have the majority for at least the next two years.

Under conservative control, the court upheld Republican-drawn legislative maps in 2011 that helped the GOP increase its majorities, affirmed a state law that effectively ended collective bargaining for most public workers, and declared absentee ballot drop boxes illegal.

Deep partisan divisions on the court aren't new. Tensions were so high in 2011 as the court considered a case about collective bargaining rights that a liberal justice accused one of her conservative colleagues of trying to choke her.

On Friday, liberal justices voted to make a wide array of changes to how the court operates, including reducing powers of the chief justice, making its administrative meetings open to the public and forming a committee to study when justices should recuse themselves from cases.

The court's administrative conferences had been open since 1999 until conservatives closed them in 2012. Justices don't discuss cases in public, but the meetings are used to talk about budgets, court policies and other issues.

Ziegler accused four rogue members of the court of meeting in a secret, unscheduled, illegitimate closed meeting in an attempt to gut the Chief Justices constitutional authority as administrator of the court. She said any such action is illegitimate and unenforceable.

Dallet responded to Ziegler with a statement accusing her of publicly litigating issues typically discussed privately, calling it deeply inappropriate. She also accused Ziegler of declining to agree to holding a meeting in August. Dallet said all justices were notified of Fridays meeting, but some which she did not name did not attend.

There appears to be no interest in reaching compromise, Dallet said.

Ziegler first made the accusation when the four justices voted to fire the state court director, Randy Koschnick. He was a judge for 18 years before he served six years overseeing Wisconsin's court system. Koschnick ran for the state Supreme Court as a conservative in 2009 and lost.

Republican legislative leaders sent the court a letter Friday saying the appointment of a Milwaukee County judge to serve as interim court director was unconstitutional. They argue that the Wisconsin Constitution prohibits Judge Audrey Skwierawski from holding any office besides judge during her term. The lawmakers demanded that her appointment be rescinded.

But if a lawsuit is brought over that, its final stop would be the state Supreme Court controlled by the very justices who fired Koschnick.

That fight, and others, expected to come before the court include:

REDISTRICTING

Two lawsuits were filed this week asking the court this week to throw out Republican-drawn legislative maps, arguing they are an unconstitutional gerrymander. The court must first agree to take the case, which seems all but certain given the 4-3 liberal majority, and then rule on whether the current maps are constitutional. If it tosses them, the court will then have to determine a remedy, which could lead to the enactment of more Democratic-friendly maps before the 2024 election. Republicans have held a majority in the Legislature since 2011, the year they drew the maps that are in place now and were largely unchanged after the last round of redistricting.

ABORTION

Wisconsin clinics stopped performing abortions last year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, citing an 1849 state law banning abortion. A lawsuit seeking to undo the state ban is currently in county circuit court and could get before the state Supreme Court later this year.

2024 VOTING RULES

National Democrats filed a lawsuit last month trying to undo the court's ruling disallowing absentee ballot drop boxes so they can be used in the 2024 presidential election. Other lawsuits could be forthcoming that target the state's voting rules, including a voter ID requirement in place since 2011. A fight also looms over the states top elections administrator. The rules of elections are particularly critical in Wisconsin, a state where four of the past six presidential elections have been decided by less than a percentage point. The state Supreme Court came within one vote of overturning President Joe Biden's win in 2020, with a conservative swing justice siding with the then-minority liberal justices to reject Donald Trump's arguments.

CHIEF JUSTICE

And anger among Republicans over longtime Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson led to the Legislature putting a constitutional amendment on the ballot in 2015 that gives justices on the court the ability to choose who serves as chief instead of going to the most tenured member. It passed, and the courts conservative majority immediately ousted Abrahamson. She sued in federal court to retain her title, but lost. The constitution requires the chief justice to be elected to a two-year term. The current chief justice, Ziegler, was first elected in 2021 and then again for another two-year term that began in May. Liberals on Friday voted to give the chief justice's powers to an administrative committee made up of two majority-appointed justices and the chief justice.

UNION RIGHTS

The fight over union rights defined Republican Scott Walker's time as governor, fueling massive protests in 2011, a failed attempt to recall him from office in 2012 and his subsequent run for president in 2015. Democrats and unions sued numerous times to regain rights lost during Walker's eight years in office. More challenges are expected.

VETO POWER

Wisconsin governors have wide veto power, which has drawn bipartisan complaints and constitutional amendments to reduce the breadth of what they can do. But when Democratic Gov. Tony Evers in June used his veto to enact a school funding increase for 400 years, Republicans promised to sue.

SCHOOL CHOICE

Democrats, including the current governor, have long opposed Wisconsin's school choice program, which allows students to attend private schools using taxpayer-funded vouchers. Liberals have been talking about bringing lawsuits to scale back the program, which was the nation's first when enacted in Milwaukee in 1990. It has since grown statewide.

Associated Press writer Harm Venhuizen contributed to this report.
Jimmie Tramel Tulsa World Scene Writer Follow Jimmie Tramel 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

Tommy Howell recorded material for his second album at Johnny Cashs cabin.

Cool, right?

Its a hell of a life the actor-turned-musician is having. He wrote a song about it.

Howell, who will eternally be linked to Tulsa because he starred as Ponyboy Curtis in the 1983 shot-in-Tulsa film The Outsiders, is returning to town for a Saturday, Aug. 26 concert at the Venue Shrine.

When last in Tulsa, Howell and his band opened for Tanya Tucker at the Cove, the River Spirit Casinos concert venue. Howell pivoted to music during the pandemic and released a debut album (American Storyteller) in February. He performed tracks from the album at the River Spirit show, including Hell of a Life.

Hell of a Life is an autobiographical song that recaps his filmography. The lyrics mention saving an alien (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial), shooting down a helicopter while yelling Wolverines (Red Dawn), reciting Robert Frost while staring at the sun (The Outsiders) and other movie experiences.

The song reminds listeners they might have missed a movie (Grandview, U.S.A.) he did with Patrick Swayze and Jamie Lee Curtis, but the film had some lovely benefits on the side. Curious what those benefits were? Youll just have to keep wondering.

Howell said the inspiration for Hell of a Life came from other actors who sought to become music artists  and they refuse to talk about their careers.

And I find that to be ridiculous, really, he said.

At the end of the day, when people have supported somebody like myself for 40 years in the film business, and I go and Im in an intimate setting where we can tell stories and play some music, I am going to refuse to talk about the films that I was a part of? That seems insulting not only to the people that have paid money, but the people that Ive worked with over the years. Ive got a lot to say when it comes to the 250 productions that Ive been a part of since I was 10 years old. And not only am I proud of what Ive been able to accomplish, but I think working with people like Elizabeth Taylor and Patrick Swayze and Ann-Margret and Jeff Daniels and the greats that Ive been able to cross paths with over the years deserve to be spoken about, especially to the audience that has questions about that sort of thing.

Howell said he is old enough to have been a part of old Hollywood, adding that he caught the tail end of the golden years. The film he did with Taylor  bona fide old Hollywood royalty  was Young Toscanini in 1988.

So when we came up with Hell of a Life, I really wanted to let the audience know that Im not afraid to talk about my career as an actor because, lets face it, thats really how they know me. Thats who I am first and foremost.

Howell said he is taking his music career seriously now and is fighting an uphill battle. People see yet another actor trying to sing, and theres baggage that comes with that.

And certainly its not all good, he said. But Im not doing this part time. This is a full-time gig for me. I have a band and I write every day and we rehearse three times a week and we travel and we perform and we work hard at this, so its not something that Im doing just occasionally when I feel like it in between films.

Howell said he considers himself a music artist first and an actor second now. He still loves to act. Hell soon be in the Netflix action comedy series Obliterated from the creators of Cobra Kai.

That being said, the music business has given me the opportunity to be real picky when it comes to choosing the roles that I want to play, he said.

There are a lot of unhappy actors out there playing roles they dont want to play to pay bills, and suddenly Im not one of them. So music has really changed my life that way.

Howell said performing music brings him joy because it allows him to connect with people, and thats what its all about.

I cant tell you how many people come to my shows to take a picture with Ponyboy, but when they end up leaving, they are fans of the music, and thats really the tell-tale sign right there for me, he said.

Howell said he didnt start making music to become famous (already there) or get rich. It was something he started doing because he loved it.

If you had told me two years ago I would be opening for people like Tanya Tucker and Lynyrd Skynyrd (Aug. 6 in Sturgis, South Dakota), I would have laughed in your face, he said. But here we are.

Howell expects opportunities in the music world to continue if he keeps plugging away. His second album could be ready for release by the end of the year.

Lets close with this: In Hell of a Life, Howell sings that, if he had to pick a favorite from his career, he would still be the little greaser (Ponyboy) from 68. The Outsiders, written by Tulsa author S.E. Hinton while she was a student at Will Rogers High School, is set in the 1960s.

Everybody has gone on to have big careers that were part of that movie, but most of us started there, he said. I had done a few things  I did E.T.  and I think Matt Dillon had done a couple of films as well, and he was certainly the veteran of the group. But most of us were just cutting our teeth right there.

Continuing, Howell said Tulsa has always been kind to him.

The community means so much to me, just the way they all rallied around the Admiral Twin when that was destroyed to rebuild it, he said.

And when Danny OConnor was trying to put together the Outsiders House Museum, the community rallied again. Whether you were roofing people or electricians or whatever you were, The Outsiders was a part of their family and part of their heart and they were showing up there to pitch in and help out and help build it. That place has become a desired destination for a lot of young kids, and Im so glad its going to be there for years and years and years, and thats what Tulsa represents to me. I sure hope people come see us at the Venue Shrine. We go there to connect with the people. We play music. We sing songs. But we are there to hug it out and take pictures and sign books and have a damn good time.

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Curtis Killman Tulsa World Staff Writer Follow Curtis Killman 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

A Tulsa federal court jury has convicted a Wichita, Kansas, man on multiple criminal counts related to a sex-trafficking operation he ran in Oklahoma and three other states.

Byron Cordell Thomas, 36, was found guilty Thursday of sex trafficking, transporting an individual for prostitution, witness tampering by corrupt persuasion, and being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition.

The victims in this case were beaten, isolated, and trafficked across state lines for prostitution, U.S. Attorney Clint Johnson said in a written statement after the four-day trial. They suffered threats and intimidation from Thomas, even throughout the investigation.

I want to thank our law enforcement partners for their lengthy and solid investigation of this case and the victims for their brave testimony that made this conviction possible.

Thomas was initially named in a one-count indictment, made public Feb. 6, that charged him with being a felon in possession of a firearm. A fourth-superseding indictment filed July 10 added 11 additional charges.

Thomas targeted young women and girls suffering financial difficulties who had little to no support, the statement from the U.S. Attorneys Office says.

Thomas advertised himself as a street adviser and promised to help women make money as part of his team, or stable, but kept the money for himself, according to prosecutors.

Thomas maintained hotel rooms in Tulsa; Oklahoma City; Dallas; Bossier City, Louisiana; and Wichita, Kansas, according to prosecutors.

He faces up to 35 years in prison when sentenced.

Thomas and a woman were originally charged with sex trafficking in Tulsa County District Court in 2020.

The state charges against Thomas were dropped after a witness failed to cooperate with prosecutors.

The woman, Megan Nichols, pleaded guilty to drug possession with intent to distribute in a plea deal with prosecutors. She was later sentenced to serve 10 years in state prison after she failed to successfully complete a diversionary program.

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Andrea Eger Tulsa World Staff Writer Follow Andrea Eger 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

Oklahomas state superintendent says its past time for the state to intervene in Tulsa Public Schools because of poor leadership and chronically low academic outcomes for students.

In an exclusive interview on Thursday afternoon, State Superintendent Ryan Walters was asked to address the turmoil Tulsa parents and teachers are facing amid his looming decision about whether to initiate a state takeover or even closure of the states largest school district.

This has been allowed to go on way too long without drastic action being taken for change. What I would tell parents is: Im going to do everything in my power to give your kids a better education, Walters said. This could be an incredible district; this could be a district that people are flocking to. And, instead, you see people leaving. You see teachers leaving in these huge numbers. Its unacceptable.

Tulsans deserve better than this, but you know, most importantly, the kids deserve better.

Tulsa classes begin Aug. 17, and a week later, on Aug. 24, Walters is expected to make a recommendation to the rest of the Oklahoma State Board of Education concerning TPS state accreditation status.

He has said all options are on the table, including non-accreditation, which would halt all state recognition of and taxpayer funding for the school district, which last year served almost 34,000 students.

Walters said he would want Tulsa parents and teachers to know what he told his fellow State Board of Education members: Were not going to take an action unless we really consider it and weve looked at all the facts and weve made a decision that we feel confident is in the best interest of kids, he said.

Under Walters predecessor, Joy Hofmeister, the small Western Heights district in the Oklahoma City metro area had its accreditation downgraded to probation status and was then temporarily taken over by the Oklahoma State Department of Education.

Concerns had been raised about that districts significant losses in enrollment and staffing, a failure to provide in-person education in the 2020-21 school year and wrongful use of bond funds.

State accreditation officers have recommended that Tulsa Public Schools be accredited with two deficiencies for the upcoming school year.

Of the two deficiency recommendations, one is due to a reports late submission. The other, referred to as lack of internal controls, is tied to a self-reported embezzlement case involving a now-former TPS administrators handling of $364,000 in vendor contracts, which is still under investigation by federal law enforcement officials.

But Walters said he and his staff need more time because of information TPS has shared with his agency as well as its own local school board that has given us more concern. He said they have requested additional documentation from TPS.

We want to do our due diligence to make sure that we are looking for facts. We are talking with the district, Walters said. Those are documents we want to be able to review and we want to be able to look at, so were wanting to do all that we can to make sure that we have all the information in front of us to make a well-informed decision.

In his remarks, Walters zeroed in repeatedly on Deborah Gist, who has been employed by the local school board as superintendent at TPS since the summer of 2015.

These low academic scores are not new. It has been terrible on Tulsa for years, he said. You have a superintendent, you know, just  Ill put it this way: Shes a bus driver. Shes driving the bus. The bus has veered into a ditch and is now crashed into a tree. You know, at that point, I think you get a new bus driver.

Walters claimed that under Gists watch, TPS has had three audits questioning their financial situation and the financial safeguards in place, and he claimed that his predecessor failed to hold TPS accountable for those issues and for chronically low student achievement indicators.

There was never any improvement made there. So look: We know money is not getting to the classroom the way it should. We know money is not being spent the way it should. And then you see the performance; you see the outcomes; you see the embezzlement issue. And what you see here as a state is a district thats been allowed by a state agency to not be held accountable, for not the right questions to be asked.

Walters, who previously worked for nearly a decade as a high school social studies teacher, said he hopes teachers in the Tulsa district, or those applying for vacancies there, will listen to my words.

He said the district has experienced teacher turnover rates as high as 26% in recent years, and he said thats an indicator that teachers arent happy with the status quo, either.

His message to classroom teachers in Tulsa?

We want you to be supported. We want to recruit great teachers in the classroom, and we know that Tulsa Public Schools is not doing their job and supporting those good teachers, and theyre not doing their job and increasing student performance, Walters said.

Were talking, you know, seven years in here with Superintendent Gist. We havent seen any significant change. We havent seen any big plan in order to turn these districts around.

Theyre losing hope in the district just like these parents and these kids are, and so what I would tell them is: Look, Im going to do everything in my power to turn around that district so that you can be successful with those kids.

Because Walters singled out Gist, the Tulsa World contacted her for a response.

She called his claims about three years of red flag issues on TPSs annual audit reports categorically false and said the only such audit finding was this past year when we had a situation that I uncovered, I investigated and I reported and shared with Tulsa as transparently as possibly.  Everything that occurred with an employee who allegedly stole money that was intended for children is something we have been very open about with Tulsa.

We actually have won awards for excellence in our financial reporting, Gist added. Facts matter more than rhetoric.

About Walters alluding to new information being discovered or probed, Gist said Walters so far has requested documents and information that was already largely available on the TPS website, including local school board agendas for the last year, encumbrance reports for the last year, every district employee and their title, and certain policies of the district, including our policies on raffles.

If there is something else he is concerned about, he needs to tell me, and he needs to tell the people of Oklahoma, Gist said. The people of Tulsa want the truth. They want people to work together, and they want all of us focused on their children.
Lenzy Krehbiel-Burton Tulsa World Staff Writer Follow Lenzy Krehbiel-Burton 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

Tulsa Public Schools officials are pushing back on claims that the district is being supported by China.

In a video posted to Twitter on Wednesday evening, State Superintendent Ryan Walters said Tulsa Public Schools is receiving money from the Chinese government.

You have Communist China that is giving money to Tulsa Public Schools in order to undermine our United States government, our country, he said. It is unbelievable. There is absolutely no way we should allow the Chinese government to undermine our institutions here in America.

As part of the consent agenda at its July 10 meeting, TPS Board of Education had renewed an agreement with International Leadership of Texas, a nonprofit charter school network headquartered in Richardson, Texas, to allow the Chinese language teacher at Booker T. Washington High School to participate in supplemental professional development sessions provided through its Confucius Classroom Coordination Office.

Confucius Classroom is a Chinese language and cultural program aimed at school-age students around the world. According to a report compiled in May by the Congressional Research Office, both it and its collegiate counterpart, Confucius Institutes, are now managed by the Chinese International Education Foundation, a nongovernmental organization sponsored by the Chinese governments Ministry of Education.

Prior to 2020, both programs were directly overseen by a government office with ties to the Chinese Communist Partys external propaganda arm.

In August 2020, the U.S. Department of State labeled Confucius Institute U.S. Center a foreign mission of the Peoples Republic of China in part due to the fact that it received funds from organizations affiliated with the Chinese governments Ministry of Education. The designation does not require those programs to close but does impose additional reporting requirements.

TPS Deputy Superintendent Paula Shannon rebutted Walters comments on Thursday and said the district is not exchanging any money with the Chinese government.

Those resources and the teachers salary are paid for by the district, Shannon said, noting that about 30 Booker T. Washington students took Chinese as an elective in 2022-23. Were not buying services from the Chinese government.

Prior to working with International Leadership of Texas, TPS had a similar arrangement with the East Asia Institute at the University of Oklahoma for more than a decade. OU hosted a Confucius Institute from 2006 through 2020.

Neither the Texas-based nonprofit nor OU responded to questions Thursday afternoon seeking additional information about their agreements with TPS.

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WASHINGTON  Former President Donald Trump and his supporters are reacting to a third indictment against him with a now-familiar playbook: deflecting with unrelated accusations, distracting with misleading claims about the charges, and demonizing the prosecution.

Instead of convincing his followers about the seriousness of the charges, Tuesday's indictment is being held up as proof of a conspiracy to take down the Republican ex-president and a continuation of the effort by Democrats, the media and the so-called deep state to interfere with the nation's elections.

For years Trump told his supporters that elections can't be trusted and that he is a victim of a corrupt persecution by the government and media.

With that narrative endorsed by conservative news outlets and amplified on social media, it's only natural that many of Trump's supporters will accept it, said Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a New York University historian who studies authoritarian propaganda.

"He's set up the idea since 2016 that elections themselves are corrupt and cannot be trusted. This is seven years now of this narrative," Ben-Ghiat said. "Trump is one of the most superb propagandists of the 21st century. He has created this seamless world, where to his followers, everything just confirms his victimhood."

Trump's repeated lies about the election are at the heart of the latest indictment, which alleges Trump sought to overturn his 2020 election loss in the two months before his supporters violently assaulted the U.S. Capitol.

"The attack on our nation's capital on January 6, 2021, was an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy," special counsel Jack Smith said Tuesday. "As described in the indictment, it was fueled by lies. Lies by the defendant targeted at obstructing a bedrock function of the U.S. government, the nation's process of collecting, counting, and certifying the results of the presidential election."

Separately, the ex-president faces charges that he falsified business records relating to hush money payments to a porn actor in New York and improperly kept classified documents at his Palm Beach, Florida, resort and obstructed an investigation into their handling.

To his most dedicated supporters, the allegations against Trump are just more evidence of the conspiracy. It's a sentiment that spread quickly on social media after Trump's first and second indictments, and it was easily found this week on Telegram, Gab, Truth Social and other platforms popular with conservatives.

"The Democrats stole the 2020 election," conservative filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza posted on Truth Social and X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. "This indictment is an attempt to protect the thieves and legitimize the heist."

Much of the misinformation about the indictments originated with Trump, who instead of trying to minimize his legal jeopardy made it a center piece of his campaign, framing it as an assault on democracy, freedom and his own followers.

The former president's allies  and his legal defense team  argue that the indictment illegally criminalizes Trump's protected freedom of speech. Trump attorney John Lauro said on CNN on Tuesday that the team's "focus is on the fact that this is an attack on free speech and political advocacy."

"Free speech will not survive if this indictment succeeds," former Trump adviser Stephen Miller told Fox News.

Prosecutors seem to have anticipated this response, explicitly conceding in the indictment that Trump had the First Amendment right to lie about election fraud. The indictment argues instead that Trump broke the law when his lies transformed into actions, from attempts to overturn the election to obstructing official proceedings and conspiring to block citizens' right to have their vote counted.

"The Defendant had a right, like every American, to speak publicly about the election and even to claim, falsely, that there had been outcome-determinative fraud during the election and that he had won," the indictment reads.

Instead of digging into the details of the indictment, many Trump supporters pointed to the criminal charges facing Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, and claimed without evidence that Biden was involved in his son's business dealings while in office.

They suggested the recent indictments were timed to distract from news about the Biden family, and questioned why prosecutors weren't investigating the Biden administration instead of Trump.

Trump responded to the charges against him with a fundraising message misleadingly suggesting the indictment was "over the events that took place on January 6th," ignoring the two months leading up to the Capitol riots that were central to the charges. Trump saw a surge in fundraising following both of his previous indictments.
Over 500,000 cars were sold in Vietnam in 2022, according to figures unveiled by the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association (VAMA), South Korean - Vietnamese joint venture Hyundai Thanh Cong Vietnam, and Vietnamese carmaker VinFast.

The total market sales as recorded by the three aforementioned units were 509,141 vehicles, the highest ever, but the actual number could be even higher because VinFast failed to fully report its sales in September and October.

In addition, some large firms such as Nissan, Volkswagen, and Subaru and other luxury car brands such as Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Volvo, and Jaguar Land Rover declined to disclose their numbers.

According to industry insiders, it is understandable that the purchasing power of cars has increased sharply after two years of pent-up demand due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Many manufacturers also offered discounts and ran promotional campaigns to attract customers.

Toyota sold the most cars with 91,115 units, followed by Huyndai with 81,582 vehicles, Kia with 60,672 units, and Mitsubishi with 39,861 units.

Mazda sold 36,052 autos and 30,654 Honda vehicles reached consumers.

Consumers also purchased 28,847 Ford autos and 22,924 VinFast cars.

Regarding classification, Vietnamese people favored sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and crossover utility vehicles (CUVs) in 2022.

Members of the VAMA hit total sales of 120,447 SUVs and CUVs, up 28,000 units from 2021.

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An employee serves food at a restaurant in Seoul, June 16. Korea Times file



By Kim Jae-heun



A 41-year-old French restaurant owner surnamed Lee is afraid to see his upcoming electricity bill for July because he has had air conditioners running all day long over the past few weeks.



"Last month, we kept the air conditioners on during the heavy downpours to keep the store dry. Now we are dealing with the unprecedented heatwave. I am really concerned about the electricity bill that will arrive later this month," said Lee, who runs the restaurant in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province.



"Usually, we pay almost double the amount during the extreme summer or winter than during spring or fall. The high power rate comes from mostly running air conditioners full time. There is nothing much we can do but pay the bill," he said.



A 33-year-old salad restaurant owner surnamed Kim also said extreme weather conditions always create additional financial burdens on small businesses, be it gas or electricity charges.



"Last month, I paid about 700,000 won ($538.67) for electricity," said Kim, who lives in Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province. "I usually pay 400,000 won, at most. It is the air conditioner that accounts for the hike in the power rate. Vegetable prices are also rising due to the extreme heat. Restaurant owners are facing the toughest time. The government has to give us some sort of tax benefit, so we continue our business, not to talk about making money."



Like Lee and Kim, many small business owners are complaining about the current electricity rate system and are urging the government to come up with a solution.



The Korea Federation of Micro Enterprise (KFME) is arguing for immediate cuts to electricity rates, at least for small business owners now.



"From last year to the second quarter of this year, electricity rates rose five times to increase 39.6 percent. During the period, a total of 40.4 won per kilowatt-hour (kWh) has been added," KFME said. "The government froze the electricity charge in the third quarter of this year but it really doesn't help much. We need an immediate tax cut."


The Book Street, one of Ho Chi Minh Citys most well-known cultural icons, yielded more than VND32 billion (US$1.3 million) in revenue in the first half of 2023, nearly double the year-ago figure.

The revenue also soared 44.6 percent against the pre-pandemic figure of 2019, according to a recent report on the book street's business performance.

The earnings generated from the book street, located on Nguyen Van Binh Street in District 1, mainly came from the sales of books, goods, and services.

Two coffee shops on the street made hefty revenues of VND2.7 billion ($113,300), accounting for 8.35 percent of the total revenue and rising 50 percent year on year.

The book street saw the sales of books and stationery reach VND29.5 billion ($1.24 million), climbing 56.3 percent year on year.

Specifically, retail sales at bookstores there represented some 70 percent of the total at nearly VND20.7 billion ($868,000).

Wholesales amounted to VND8.8 billion ($372,000), making up 30 percent of the total.

In addition, the number of books sold during the period jumped over 82 percent year on year.

A representative of the book street management board attributed the surge in revenue to the diversity of business methods and products.

Besides, printing and publishing firms focused on publishing and reprinting new editions, as well as organizing ceremonies to launch new books, contributing to an increase in revenue for the book street.

Notably, the sales of childrens books ticked up 10 percent year on year as these firms launched various child-driven programs and offered preferential packages to students.

A series of cultural events and book fairs held on the book street contributed to shoring up turnover and the number of visitors to the street.

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The export price of Vietnamese rice has been on the upward trend over the past two weeks, reaching nearly US$600 per metric ton on Wednesday, after India banned rice export on July 20.

Vietnams 5-percent broken rice sold for $593 per metric ton on the same day, up $5 a metric ton day on day, according to the Vietnam Food Association.

Thailand quoted the price of the same rice type at $625 a metric ton.

The price of Vietnams 25-percent broken rice stood at $573 per metric ton, up $5 against the day earlier, and was $7 per metric ton higher than that of Thailands.

Jasmine rice was priced at $733 per metric ton on Wednesday, jumping $45 a metric ton day on day, and rocketing $110 against the price set on July 20.

Two weeks after India, the worlds largest rice exporter, imposed a ban on exports of non-basmati white rice, the prices of Vietnams 5-percent and 25-percent broken rice picked up $60 per metric ton each, while Thailand saw the prices of the two types climb $81 and $63 a metric ton, respectively.

Higher rice export prices pushed up the rate of unhusked rice in the Mekong Delta region.

Specifically, the price of raw OM 5451 fragrant rice rose to VND6,800-7,000 ($0.28-0.29) per kilogram, while that of raw Dai Thom grains improved VND6,900-7,100 ($0.29-0.3) per kilogram.

Given the rice price uptrend, the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has written to the prime minister proposing the elevation of rice exports.

Speaking at a regular press briefing on Tuesday, Nguyen Nhu Cuong, head of the Department of Crop Production, said that global rice prices have been surging over the past few days, opening a wider door for Vietnam to shore up rice shipments.

This year, the country aims to cultivate 7.1 million hectares of rice to yield 43 million metric tons of raw rice.

The target is achievable, Cuong said.

To grasp the opportunity of rice exportation, the department has planned to raise the Mekong Delta regions rice cultivation area in the autumn-winter crop to 700,000 hectares from 650,000 hectares.

Cuong underlined that Vietnam turned out over 42 million metric tons of raw rice in 2022, while exporting 7.13 million metric tons of rice.

This year, the Southeast Asian nation set a target of producing more than 43 million metric tons of raw rice and shipping over 7.5 million metric tons of rice worth $4.1 billion.

Rice exports may increase but domestic rice supply will not be affected, said Cuong.

As of July, Vietnam had exported rice worth $2.58 billion, up 30 percent year on year, reporting the average rice price at $534 per metric ton, edging up 9.2 percent from the year-ago period.

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HAVANA -- Among the classic cars, mopeds and rickshaws Cubans use to get around the capital city Havana, a new kind of ride is hitting the streets - bamboo bicycles made by a local workshop.

Velo Cuba, a bike shop and tour company, produces the lightweight, eco-friendly options as part of a program funded by the Netherlands' embassy in the country.

The two-wheelers can already be seen being taken for a spin by visitors to the city's zoo and along the coast.

"There are 28 species of bamboo in Cuba," said Velo Cuba founder Nayvis Diaz. "Fortunately, here we have the two, three species needed to make these bicycles."

An employee of Velo Cuba unloads from a tricycle an eco-friendly bamboo bicycles in Havana, Cuba, July 21, 2023. Photo: Reuters

The workshop has partnered with volunteers from stay-at-home mothers to the deaf community to teach residents how to make the bikes and repair them.

"It's important for us to learn a profession," said Yaquelin Gonzalez, who is deaf. "This will help us in the future."

Some of those who take Velo's course may become employed by the bike shop in the future, Diaz said, or may open their own small businesses.

Transportation and steady employment are both chronic issues in Cuba, where the economy was hard-hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

Cuba largely blames Cold War-era sanctions from the United States as holding back its economic growth, and the embargo means a lack of imported cars has caused residents to rely on decades-old models or mopeds from China, which began to arrive in the 1990s.

A group of partial hearing students communicate using sign language before a ride with eco-friendly bamboo bicycles in Havana, Cuba, July 21, 2023. Photo: Reuters

A group of partial hearing students work during a workshop to produce eco-friendly bamboo bicycles in Havana, Cuba, July 5, 2023. Photo: Reuters
WASHINGTON -- Two U.S. Navy sailors have been arrested on charges of handing over sensitive national security material to China, U.S. officials said Thursday.

Petty Officer Wenheng Zhao, 26, was charged with conspiracy and bribetaking in connection with taking nearly $15,000 in exchange for photographs and videos of sensitive U.S. military information, the officials said. U.S. Navy sailor, Jinchao Wei, whose age was not disclosed, was charged with conspiring to send national defense information to China in exchange for thousands of dollars.

Assistant Attorney General Matt Olsen told reporters in San Diego that, because of the men's actions, sensitive military info ended up in the hands of the Peoples Republic of China.

Zhao is accused of sending his Chinese handler plans for U.S. military exercises in the Indo-Pacific region, electrical diagrams and blueprints for a radar system on a U.S. military base in Okinawa, Japan and security details for U.S. naval facilities in Ventura County and San Clemente Island outside Los Angeles, according to U.S. officials.

Wei is accused of disclosing information about the USS Essex, an amphibious assault ship where he served, as well as other American warships, including dozens of technical manuals laying out the Essex's weapons, power structure and operations.

Contact details for Wei and Zhao could not immediately be located.

U.S. officials at the press conference condemned China's espionage campaign Thursday.

"There is no bigger, multigenerational threat to the United States" than China, said FBI Special Agent Stacey Moy. Beijing "will stop at nothing to attack the United States in its strategic plan to become the world's sole superpower."

The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately return a message seeking comment on the allegations.

U.S.-China relations have been tense for years over a range of national security and trade issues. The United States has accused China of espionage and cyberattacks, a charge that Beijing has rejected. China has also declared that it is under threat from spies.
Vietnam condemns the desecration of its national flag in a protest in front of the Vietnamese Embassy in the Philippines on Tuesday, Pham Thu Hang, spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said at a press conference in Hanoi on Thursday.

The red flag with a yellow star in the center is the national flag of Vietnam, Hang affirmed.

The act of tearing the national flag of Vietnam is an insult to the Vietnamese people and must be strongly condemned, Hang said while answering questions about Vietnams response to the protest in front of the Vietnamese Embassy in the Philippines where a group of Filipinos tore the Vietnamese flag.

Vietnam demanded the Philippines strictly deal with the case and take effective measures to prevent similar acts which could affect the thriving strategic partnership between the two countries, the spokesperson added.

Vietnam and the Philippines are members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN.

The two countries established their diplomatic ties in July 1976 and upgraded the relationship to a strategic partnership in 2015.

Their bilateral relations have developed strongly over the past time with two-way trade reaching nearly US$8 billion last year, the highest-ever.

During a visit to Vietnam by Secretary for Foreign Affairs of the Philippines Enrique Manalo on Tuesday and Wednesday, he and Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh agreed to bolster the cooperation in national defense and security, especially at sea.

The Vietnamese government leader called for the early establishment of more legal frameworks for the two sides cooperation in security.

He also suggested the two sides strengthen the collaboration in trade to reach bilateral trade of $10 billion, and weigh removing unnecessary barriers to support each other in ensuring food security.

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Vietnam aspires to become one of the food innovation hubs of Asia by contributing to expediting the transformation of global food systems, said Ambassador Dang Hoang Giang, permanent representative of Vietnam to the United Nations (UN), at the UN Security Council (UNSC) open debate on Thursday.

During the open debate, which focused on famine and conflict-induced global food security, Giang emphasized that recent reports and discussions at the 43rd session of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Conference in Italy in July highlighted a growing challenge in food security worldwide, the Vietnam News Agency reported.

Despite the recovery observed in various sectors after the COVID-19 pandemic subsided, food insecurity remains a headache in numerous parts of the world, particularly in regions affected by conflicts.

According to Giang, the most effective approach for preventing famine in conflict-affected regions is curbing violence and promoting peace.

The UNSC should play a more influential role in addressing the root causes of conflicts to mitigate the risks of food insecurity stemming from these conflicts.

The Vietnamese representative urged all parties involved in conflicts to respect the UN Charter and international law.

In addition, Giang suggested that the UNSC should work closely with specialized agencies like FAO, the UN World Food Program, and other international partners.

Additionally, enhancing cooperation with regional organizations can strengthen food systems resilience and ensure the sustainability of global food supply chains.

The Vietnamese diplomat emphasized that food security is not just a goal but a crucial solution for Vietnams socio-economic development.

Vietnam places high importance on the advancement of low-emission and climate-resilient agriculture, aiming to establish itself as a food innovation hub in the region.

Moreover, the country is dedicated to making a positive contribution to global food security by ensuring steady export of rice and other agricultural products and is ready to collaborate with the international community in tackling food insecurity resulting from conflicts.

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Authorities in Lam Dong Province, located in Vietnams Central Highlands region, on Friday morning continued the evacuation of local residents to safer places, as a heavy rain during the night before triggered flooding, flash floods, and landslides in Bao Loc City and Da Huoai District.

Lasting from 11:00 pm on Thursday till dawn on Friday, the downpour brought severe flooding to Dai Lao Commune and Loc Chau Commune in Bao Loc, affecting a dozen households in the area.

A road section is blocked due to land subsidence in Lam Dong Province, located in Vietnams Central Highlands region. Photo: Vietnam News Agency

In Dai Lao, whose four villages were badly hit by flooding, local authorities dispatched rescue forces to promptly evacuate four households and their properties to safer locations.

Loc Chau encountered the same fate, with more than 40 rescuers making efforts to evacuate residents of over 30 households on Thursday night.

The torrential rain led to erosion and landslides on a bypass in Bao Loc, forcing authorities to block this route to avoid accidents.

Two rescuers evacuate a child to a safer place in Lam Dong Province, located in Vietnams Central Highlands region. Photo: Vietnam News Agency

As a result of the intense rainfall, the water level in Da Huoai River rose rapidly the same night, leading to flash floods and landslides in many parts of Da Huoai District and the evacuation of local inhabitants in Da Mri Town.

Moreover, several communes in the district such as Phuoc Loc and Da Oai faced traffic disruptions, while tens of hectares of farming land was inundated.

The provincial weather center on Friday morning announced that local people should prepare for further flash floods and landslides caused by torrential rains.

Between 11:00 pm on Thursday and 6:00 am on Friday, heavy rains hit Bao Loc City and four districts in Lam Dong, with rainfall of 50-93mm, the center said.

A farming area is flooded due to a heavy downpour in Lam Dong Province, located in Vietnams Central Highlands region, August 3, 2023. Photo: Vietnam News Agency

Earlier, the provincial authorities on Wednesday evacuated residents from the Dong Thanh irrigation reservoir project in Lam Ha District, where huge earth cracks led to land subsidence in the nearby area and posed a threat to residential safety.

The cracks, measuring 5-10cm wide, appeared on an area of 2.5 hectares around the irrigation lake after a deluge occurred there for several days.

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The Vietnamese Ministry of Transport has submitted support policies proposed by enterprises for both manufacturers and buyers of electric vehicles (EVs) to the government.

In a statement sent to Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha, the ministry said that companies suggested supplementing policies meant to promote the development of the electric car market and limiting the use of gas-powered vehicles by increasing emissions standards.

They also proposed adding EV manufacturing, assembling, and battery production to the list of industries entitled to special investment incentives, exempting and reducing import tariffs on equipment, production lines, and accessories for the manufacture, assembly, and repair of EVs and batteries.

They also sought to expand the application of the preferential special consumption tax of three percent to locally-manufactured or assembled EVs with nine seats or fewer after February 28, 2027.

They proposed exempting the value-added tax for the first five years of the program and halving the tax for the following five years.

EV buyers would also enjoy exemptions and reductions to their registration and license plate issuance fees, easier access to credit, and direct price subsidies.

Registration exemptions would be in place for the first five years of the program, from March 1, 2022, and a 50-percent reduction compared with the fee for gasoline- and diesel-powered cars with nine seats or fever for the next two years.

License plate issuance fees would be exempt for the first three years and halved for the next two years.

Buyers would also receive a US$1,000 subsidy for each electric car bought.

Preferential loans were also proposed for transport firms using EVs.

EVs would get priority while operating in urban areas, such as accessing parking and enjoying reduced fees.

Meanwhile, charging stations would enjoy low electricity prices and exemptions on import taxes for equipment and accessories related to station construction.

The Ministry of Transport also suggested exempting land-related taxes and the corporate income tax for charging stations in the first five years and halving the taxes during the next five years.

Across the globe, countries are focusing on three policies to develop their EV markets, including offering incentives to manufacturers, buyers, and EV-related infrastructure, according to the Ministry of Transport.

It affirmed that support policies are needed to encourage the conversion to EVs in Vietnam as the country has been committed to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 at the COP26 Summit in the UK in 2021.

To realize this commitment, the prime minister approved an action program on green energy transformation and carbon and methane emission reduction in the transport sector.

Under the program, Vietnam will promote the manufacture, assembly, import, and use of EVs, along with charging infrastructure until 2030.

It also expects that all new buses will use electricity and green energy from 2025.

All new taxis will use electricity and green energy from 2030 and all vehicles on roads will be electricity- and green energy-powered by 2050, according to the Vietnam News Agency.

Vietnam currently has only two EV producers and assemblers  Vinfast and TMT Automobile JSC.

Thanh Cong Group and Truong Hai Auto Corporation have also introduced their electric car models to dip a toe into the market.

The number of EVs in Vietnam has increased rapidly to some 12,600 by July 2023 from 167 in 2021.

However, they are mainly passenger cars and buses, the Vietnam News Agency cited the Ministry of Transport as saying.

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Torrential rains continued to wreak havoc on Vietnam's Central Highlands region on Thursday with several localities hit by floods and landslides.

In Dak Nong Province, authorities in the provincial city of Gia Nghia detected three landslide-prone locations and took precautionary measures, including issuing warnings and preparing evacuation plans.

Elsewhere in the region, land erosion hit two roads in Nhan Co Commune and Kien Duc Town, both in Dak R'Lap District.

Landslips battered four other roads and infrastructure facilities in the border district of Tuy Duc, causing traffic gridlock.

The foul weather also triggered land subsidence at the Dak R'Tih hydropower plant, with some 300 square meters of the facility affected.

A landslide also affected a bypass of National Highway 14 in Ea H'leo District, Dak Lak Province.

In Lam Dong Province, the provincial administration asked relevant agencies to inspect and evaluate landslide-prone areas throughout the province, particularly mountain passes leading to Lam Dong, the home of Da Lat  a popular tourist destination.

The Lam Dong Department of Transport was told to form a working group, comprised of members from the Da Lat administration and relevant agencies, in order to examine vulnerable locations.

Competent forces were required to closely monitor further possible landslides and maintain rescue operations along Bao Loc Pass, where a fatal landslide claimed four lives, including three traffic police officers and a local resident, on July 30.

On Thursday morning, local forces were repairing a cracked section of National Highway 14 and working to find the cause of the cracking.

Nguyen Van Quy, deputy director of BOT and BT Duc Long Dak Nong Company, the developer of the highway, said this road reinforcement is a temporary solution to the damage.

The developer will hire a consulting unit to conduct a geological survey of the area and propose a solution, Quy said.

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WA Premier Roger Cook has criticised ABC after a Four Corners team filmed a protest outside the home of Woodside boss Meg ONeill.

WA Today reports Cook wrote to ABC Chair Ita Buttrose expressing his concerns.

I have been in public life long enough to understand the vital role the news media plays in a healthy democracy and the right of journalists to report the news without fear or favour, Cook wrote.

However, the fact that an ABC TV crew attended the private home of a WA citizen to document the committing of alleged criminal acts is cause for great concern and morally wrong.

This week ABC claimed Four Corners was given a tip whilst preparing a story but had no knowledge what was at the address or that it was someones house.

The ABC team remained on public land observing what was happening and getting some vision, as journalists do, the broadcaster said in a statement.

They at no time went on to private property or had any involvement in what was happening. The ABC team in no way colluded with the activists.

Cook maintains, Wittingly or unwittingly, the ABC was complicit.

As we have seen during the COVID-19 pandemic, single issue activists are now engaging in a new tactic  targeting public figures and their families in their homes, Cook wrote.

Unfortunately, this occurred too many times when the former WA Premier and his family were targeted at their own private home. This is completely unacceptable.

Protesters have been charged with conspiracy to commit an indictable offence but Defence lawyers have argued charges should be downgraded to trespassing.

Updated:

The Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance deputy chief executive, Adam Portelli, told Guardian Australia no one should restrict access to journalists covering a protest.

News reporters receive tip-offs about protests and other events all the time and have a clear right to attend them for the purpose of providing public interest journalism, Portelli said.

It would be unacceptable for governments or police to restrict journalists access to events of this type.
Naver's headquarters in Seongnam, southeast of Seoul, is seen in this undated file photo. Yonhap



Korean internet portal giant Naver said Friday its second-quarter net income rose more than 80 percent on an annual basis, driven by the robust performance of its commerce and content businesses.



Its net profit amounted to 286.7 billion won ($220.6 million), up 80.9 percent from a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing.



Operating profit for the April-June period rose 10.9 percent from a year ago to 372.7 billion won. Sales increased 17.7 percent to 2.4 trillion won over the cited period.



The earnings exceeded market expectations. The average estimate of net profit by analysts stood at 272.7 billion won, according to a survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency.



The tech giant also attributed its better-than-expected performance to companywide cost reduction efforts, enhanced profitability of its Webtoon service and higher profitability of Poshmark, a U.S. social commerce marketplace for fashion that it acquired early this year.



Revenue from Naver's commerce business in the second quarter jumped 44 percent on-year to 632.9 billion won thanks to brisk sales from Brandstore, Travel and Kream, the company said.



Content sales jumped 40.1 percent to 420.4 billion won over the cited period due to increased global demand for its webtoons and Snow.



The company's flagship search platform, which covers its ad business, saw its sales inch up 0.5 percent on-year to 910.4 billion won.



Sales from the fintech sector also expanded 14.9 percent on-year to 339.7 billion won on increased online shopping through Naver Pay, its mobile payment service, and continued expansion of its loan service portfolio.



Revenue from its cloud business declined 0.4 percent on-year to 104.5 billion won.



Naver said its next-gen AI, HyperClova X, and chat-based AI service, Clova X, to be launched on Aug. 24, are expected to boost its bottom line in the second half.



The earnings report was released before the stock market opened. (Yonhap)


Nine will change its 5pm programming in 2024, pulling Hot Seat off air after 14 years.

With great pride and joy but also sadness, Millionaire Hot Seat will go into hiatus at the end of January next year, Eddie McGuire told 3AW this morning.

I want to thank everybody who came on the show those whove watched it over 25 years. It changed my life. It changed a lot of other peoples life. Its been an absolute joy. And the good news is the show that will replace me will be produced out of Melbourne and the wonderful staff at GTV who have worked alongside me, hopefully would be a big part of it.

Michael Healy, Director of Television said, Long-term fan favourite Millionaire Hot Seat, and its predecessor, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, have been fundamental pillars in our Channel 9 schedule for 24 years and will continue to be through 2023. For 2024 there will be a change, but for this year we look forward to bringing more triumphant stories to those who love the show and who play along with Eddie.

For the past two and a half decades Eddie McGuire has made the show come to life, uncovered the great stories of our contestants, and has had the pleasure of handing over total prize money of more than $90 million. We thank him for his commitment to the show over those years and for the shows still to come, and look forward to continuing our successful partnership with Eddie into the future.

Hot Seat began as a spin-off 14 years ago in 2009.

Based on an Italian format twist, the half hour show was originally promoted as a short-run series, declaring 20 nights! 20 million dollars!

The show kept Nine competitive against the might of Deal or No Deal, which it outlasted, and defeated 10 News First. Seven briefly even threw Million Dollar Minute against the show.

By 2017 it was extended to a one hour format to compete with The Chase which has subsequently surpassed the Nine series in the ratings.

That has given Nine headaches for its 6pm News with Seven holding the ratings crown.

By next January McGuire will have had 25 years associated with the Millionaire brand, having first hosted super-hit Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

Across its run McGuire has asked over 50,000 questions of 15,000 contestants.

While just two people have won the million dollars (4 including Millionaire), and 34 contestants have won $250,000, the show has given away more than $60 million.

Hot Seats 2500th episode screened in April while there were nearly 300 episodes of the classic Millionaire.

Millionaire probably broke me in a big way, nationally, he recently told TV Tonight.

It was a different stamp to The Footy Show. Ian Johnson, David Leckie, Michael Healy and I think (John Stephens) said Give the kid a chance, because everyone wanted to host it.

Of Hot Seat he said, Gyngell rang me up and said, Were going to do a version of Millionaire but were going to strip it. Would you do it for us? You dont have to do it, youve done everything, youve finished up as CEO

I said Id love to do it.

And I remember ringing the guys after the first day of records and I said, This is flying. This is really good.

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Neighbours legend Ian Smith was one of several hundred locals protesting yesterday against plans to shut down a post office in Glenroy after 136 years.

Smith, best known as Harold Bishop was sporting a king-size bruise on his cheek but lost none of his fire as he told Nine News the decision to permanently close the branch in three weeks was so wrong.

Many senior protesters argued the post office should stay open as Glenroy has a high population of people who do not use the internet, speak a language other than English, and were over the age of 80.

An online petition has gained almost 2300 signatures.

Mitcham branch in Melbournes east will also close next week, while Hamptons post office shut its doors in April.

Smith is due to return to Neighbours in a guest role as part of its revival on 10 / Prime Video.
It stars Sigourney Weaver, Asher Keddie, Leah Purcell, Frankie Adams and Alycia Debnam-Carey, but new Australian drama The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart was without its big name stars at a preview screening in Sydney last night.

While Sigourney Weaver is doubtless barred from attending as part of the current US actors strike, Asher Keddie was reportedly unwell and had to cancel.

Hopefully the strike wont mean this is a sign of things to come in Australia.

Instead it was the creatives and Prime Video execs who attended, including author Holly Ringland, director Glendyn Ivin, writer and showrunner Sarah Lambert, who both serve as executive producers, with Made Up Stories Executive Producers Jodi Matterson and Bruna Papandrea.

Hushidar Kharas, head of Prime Video ANZ, Tyler Bern, head of content, Prime Video ANZ and Canada and Sarah Christie, senior scripted development executive, were also in attendance.

Based on Holly Ringlands best-selling novel, the seven-part series tells the story of Alice Hart. When Alice, aged 9, tragically loses her parents in a mysterious fire, she is taken to live with her grandmother June at Thornfield flower farm, where she learns that there are secrets within secrets about her and her familys past.

The series, which is drawing strong early reviews, premieres with three episodes on Friday with new episodes rolling out weekly.
A security guard next to a jet engine turbo-fan at the China Aviation Expo in Beijing in September 2005. PETER PARKS/AFP via Getty Images

China has built an expansive intelligence apparatus, with tens of thousands of officers.

It is focused on combating the "five poisons" that the Chinese Communist Party sees as its top threats.

Chinese spies also take a "whole-of-state" approach to gathering intel that could benefit Beijing.

China's growing military and economic might has attracted worldwide attention, but Beijing has also developed a sprawling intelligence apparatus to support its goal of supplanting the US and wielding influence around the globe.

For the Chinese Communist Party, achieving dominance abroad requires control at home, so China's massive spy services are designed to quash threats to the CCP's hold on power wherever they arise, according to an assessment by British intelligence.

'The Five Poisons'

China's Ministry of Public Security holds a police flag-raising ceremony, in Beijing on January 10, 2021. Yin Gang/Xinhua via Getty) (Xinhua/Xinhua via Getty Images

In a recent report to parliament, the British intelligence services detailed the operations and goals of the Chinese intelligence services. China "almost certainly" has the largest intelligence apparatus in the world, with tens of thousands of officers, most of whom work for three civilian and military agencies, the report said.

The all-powerful Ministry of State Security is a civilian organization with executive powers that gathers intelligence using human sources and tries to catch foreign spies and intelligence officers through counterintelligence operations.

The less influential Ministry of Public Security is also a civilian agency with law-enforcement duties that mainly conducts counterintelligence. Finally, the Chinese military's Strategic Support Force is responsible for signals intelligence. Much like the NSA, it conducts electronic collection and gathers intelligence from computer networks and internet activity.

Activists in Taipei protest a meeting between Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou and President Xi Jinping in Singapore in November 2015. REUTERS/Pichi Chuang

According to British intelligence, these services have been tasked with rooting out the "Five Poisons"  Taiwanese independence, Tibetan independence, Xinjiang separatists, the Falun Gong, and the Chinese democracy movement  which the Chinese Communist Party considers its principal national-security threats, and with expanding China's "global reach and influence."

Story continues

China's leaders see Taiwanese independence as the top threat. The island has been self-governed since the Chinese Civil War ended in 1949, but Beijing considers it a breakaway territory and has vowed to absorb it, by military force if necessary. While the CCP has never ruled Taiwan, President Xi Jinping has said "reunification" is "a historic mission" of the party.

The Chinese Communist Party perceives Tibetan independence as a major national-security threat. China annexed Tibet, which borders Bhutan, Nepal, and India, in 1951 and it is now an autonomous region within China. There is still a Tibetan independence movement, led by Tibetans overseas, that Beijing has sought to suppress. China also views the Tibetan spiritual leader, known as the Dalai Lama, as a separatist threat.

The plight of the Uighur Muslim minority is well known in the West. There are about 12 million Uighurs in Xinjiang, a province in northwestern China. Chinese authorities have sent more than a million Uighurs to "re-education camps" or to jail in recent years and subjected others to mass surveillance, forced labor, and other forms of repression. Human-rights groups have called Beijing's actions crimes against humanity and the US has called it "genocide."

Ethnic Uighurs at a protest against China in Istanbul in October 2020. Murad Sezer/Reuters

Falun Gong is a religious group established in the early 1990s that blends traditional and new age beliefs as well as meditation exercises and texts and promises salvation. It had millions of adherents by the time the Chinese government banned it 1999, viewing the group as a challenge to its power. China continues to jail or send practitioners to "re-education" centers, but millions of Chinese still practice Falun Gong, most of them abroad.

The Chinese intelligence services are also collecting information on the Chinese democracy movement at home and abroad  including in the US  in an attempt to subvert it.

According to the British intelligence report, Xi has sought to make Chinese intelligence activity more professional through reform and investment. "Expenditure on the internal security apparatus has outpaced even China's recent dramatic military modernisation," the report says, citing estimates that China now spends almost 20% more on domestic security than on external defense.

A whole-of-nation approach

Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing in March. Xie Huanchi/Xinhua via Getty Images

While China's intelligence services are focused on countering domestic threats, they are also looking outward for advantages that will advance Beijing's bid for superpower status.

Officials from the US and the UK say espionage is a central component of Chinese efforts to become dominant in an array of advanced technology sectors and to find shortcuts in developing sophisticated military hardware. In 2021, the acting director of the US National Counterintelligence and Security Center said Chinese espionage was responsible for $200 billion to $600 billion a year in intellectual-property theft.

While the Chinese government is focused on countering the US and suppressing threats to its rule, it views the UK through the lens of its struggle with the US, the British intelligence report said, adding that Chinese intelligence services "target the UK and its interests prolifically and aggressively, with economic espionage a prominent motivation."

Those services cast a wide net, pursuing classified as well as open-source information from which Chinese leaders may get some benefit. They are willing to use professional spies and everyday citizens, such as businessmen and students, to hoover up that information.

"In more ways than one, the broad remit of the Chinese Intelligence Services poses a significant challenge to Western attempts to counter their activity," the report said, citing assessments by British intelligence officers. "To compound the problem, it is not just the Chinese Intelligence Services: the Chinese Communist Party co-opts every state institution, company and citizen. This 'whole-of-state' approach means China can aggressively target the UK, yet the scale of the activity makes it more difficult to detect."

Stavros Atlamazoglou is a defense journalist specializing in special operations, a Hellenic Army veteran (national service with the 575th Marine Battalion and Army HQ), and a Johns Hopkins University graduate. He is working toward a master's degree in strategy and cybersecurity at Johns Hopkins' School of Advanced International Studies.

Read the original article on Business Insider
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks to delegates as he chairs the U.N. Security Council meeting on famine and conflict-induced global food insecurity in New York, U.S., Aug. 3. Reuters-Yonhap



The United States is working to learn more about the safety of a U.S. service member who crossed into North Korea last month, but the reclusive state has yet to offer any response, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday.



The top U.S. diplomat added that the U.S. is also working to bring the U.S. soldier home safely.



"I wish we did know more," Blinken said when asked what information the U.S. government had on Travis King in an interview with American TV network ABC.



"We're actually trying to learn more about his whereabouts and his well-being, and we simply don't have that information," added Blinken, according to a script of the interview released by the state department.



Private 2nd class King crossed the inter-Korean border at the Joint Security Area inside the demilitarized zone on July 18.



State department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Wednesday that Pyongyang has communicated with United Nations Command (UNC), although only to acknowledge its receiving of earlier UNC messages about King, but has not responded to U.S. requests to confirm his safety or whereabouts.



"We are asking these questions. They haven't given us responses," Blinken was quoted as saying.



"We're trying by every reasonable means possible just to get that basic information, and then to see what we can do about bringing him home," he added, while confirming that the U.S. basically knows nothing about the safety of King at the moment when asked. (Yonhap)




By Edward McAllister

DAKAR (Reuters) - Niger's junta has defied a Sunday deadline from West Africa's regional bloc to reinstate ousted president Mohamed Bazoum or face a possible military intervention.

Defence chiefs of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) last week drew up a plan for the possible use of force to reverse the July 26 coup, including how and when to deploy forces, raising the spectre of further conflict in a region already struggling with a deadly Islamist insurgency.

The bloc is not divulging details, and will anyway require a go-ahead from the heads of member states before intervening, but various options - military and otherwise - may be available although all carry risk.

GROUND INVASION

ECOWAS has sent troops into trouble spots before, but never in Niger and rarely with the region so divided.

Security analysts say the details of a big operation could take weeks to pull together, and that an invasion carries huge risk, including getting caught up in a drawn-out conflict and destabilising Niger and the region further.

Coup leader General Abdourahamane Tiani served as battalion commander for ECOWAS peacekeepers in Ivory Coast after a ceasefire between government and rebel forces in 2003, so he knows what intervention missions involve.

Still, some will feel they have little option.

"If they dont go in, it will be a major problem of credibility. They have laid down a red line," said Djiby Sow, a senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies in Dakar.

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has told his government to prepare for options including the deployment of military personnel. Senegal has also said it could send troops.

But coup leaders in Guinea, Burkina Faso and Mali have expressed support for Niger's junta, and other countries have their own security challenges.

SPECIAL FORCES OPERATION

This option would involve a slimmer ground force that would be quicker to assemble. It would likely focus on seizing key security and administrative sites, rescuing Bazoum from house arrest and restoring his government, said Ikemesit Effiong, a senior researcher at SBM Intelligence consultancy in Nigeria. ECOWAS could seek intelligence support from U.S. and French forces inside Niger.

Story continues

"The timeline would be shorter and the capability already exists in the region. An operation of that nature would be more realistic," Effiong said.

Risks still abound, though. Foreign troops guarding sites in the centre of the capital Niamey could trigger violence in a city where hundreds have taken to the streets in support of the coup - and against foreign interference.

AIDING A COUNTER COUP

Niger is a huge, ethnically diverse country, and Bazoum won the 2021 election with 56% of the vote. It is not yet clear how much support various groups will give the new leaders.

Security analysts and diplomats have also noted apparent divisions among Niger's armed forces, who may not all be united behind the coup.

Regional powers could exploit that.

"The only operationally feasible scenario I can imagine ... would be in the form of more limited support for a 'counter coup' by Nigerien forces," said Peter Pham, a fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank and a former U.S. special envoy to the Sahel region. "I don't see them coming in without that local element."

TAKE STOCK, MAINTAIN SANCTIONS

ECOWAS has taken a stronger stance against Niger than it did against juntas in Burkina Faso and Mali that have taken power in the last three years.

That said, it could still decide to continue sanctions, hold off on intervening militarily and instead call for a return to civilian rule after elections. The junta has said it is willing to discuss that, without indicating a timeframe.

Even this option poses risks for the region, as sanctions will weaken the economy of Niger, one of the world's poorest countries, and could therefore stoke support for the junta and Islamist groups who offer money and shelter.

(Reporting by Edward McAllister; Additional reporting by David Lewis and Alessandra Prentice; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise, Alexandra Zavis and Kevin Liffey)
The facade of a newly restored traditional house in Beirut's Gemmayzeh neighbourhood on August 2, 2023 compared to after the blast in August 2020 (JOSEPH EID)

Lebanon marked three years since one of history's biggest non-nuclear explosions rocked Beirut with hundreds of protesters marching alongside victims' families Friday to demand long-awaited justice.

Nobody has been held to account for the tragedy as political and legal pressures impede the investigation.

On August 4, 2020, the massive blast at Beirut port destroyed swathes of the Lebanese capital, killing more than 220 people and injuring at least 6,500.

Authorities said the disaster was triggered by a fire in a warehouse where a vast stockpile of ammonium nitrate fertiliser had been haphazardly stored for years.

Three years on, the probe is virtually at a standstill, leaving survivors still yearning for answers.

Protesters, many of them wearing black and carrying photographs of the victims, marched towards the port shouting slogans including: "We will not forget".

Some protesters waved a Lebanese flag covered in blood-like red paint while others carried an enormous flag covered in a written pledge to keep fighting for justice.

"The blast investigation is hampered by the political elites and certain judges who are on their side," said lawyer Cecile Roukoz, who lost her brother in the explosion.

She said that after three years, the international community needed to take action. "Please, it's time to act."

The blast struck amid an economic collapse which the World Bank has dubbed one of the worst in recent history and which is widely blamed on a governing elite accused of corruption and mismanagement.

- 'Until our last breath' -

Since its early days, the probe into the explosion has faced a slew of political and legal challenges.

In December 2020, lead investigator Fadi Sawan charged former prime minister Hassan Diab and three ex-ministers with negligence.

But as political pressure mounted, Sawan was removed from the case.

His successor, Tarek Bitar, unsuccessfully asked lawmakers to lift parliamentary immunity for MPs who were formerly cabinet ministers.

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The powerful Iran-backed Hezbollah group has launched a campaign against Bitar, accusing him of bias and demanding his dismissal.

The interior ministry has refused to execute arrest warrants which the lead investigator has issued.

In December 2021, Bitar suspended his probe after a barrage of lawsuits, mainly from politicians he had summoned on charges of negligence.

But in a surprise move this January, Bitar resumed investigations after a 13-month hiatus, charging eight new suspects including high-level security officials and Lebanon's top prosecutor, Ghassan Oueidat.

Oueidat then charged Bitar with insubordination and "usurping power", and ordered the release of all those detained over the blast.

Bitar has refused to step aside, but has not set foot inside Beirut's justice palace for months.

"Work (on the investigation) is ongoing," said a legal expert with knowledge of the case, requesting anonymity due to its sensitivity.

Bitar is determined to keep his promise to deliver justice for victims' families, the expert added.

Paul Naggear, who lost his three-year-old daughter in the blast, said he had "not been able to grieve for three years".

"We will keep demanding justice until our very last breath," he said.

Rima al-Zahed, whose brother was killed in the explosion, said the judiciary was "shackled" but "the truth does not die so long as there is someone to demand it."

- Accountability -

French President Emmanuel Macron, told Lebanese: "I am thinking of you".

"Lebanon was not alone then, and it isn't alone now. You can count on France," he posted.

Washington condemned the long delay in holding those responsible to account.

"The lack of progress towards accountability is unacceptable and underscores the need for judicial reform and greater respect for the rule of law in Lebanon," said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.

On Thursday, 300 individuals and organisations, including Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International, renewed a call for the United Nations to establish a fact-finding mission -- a demand Lebanese officials have repeatedly rejected.

"If those responsible are not held accountable, it will put the country on a trajectory that allows this kind of crime to be repeated," HRW's Lama Fakih told AFP.

lar/aya/kir
West African military chiefs on Friday said a plan for a possible military intervention in Niger if coup leaders do not stand down has been made. Earlier, France rejected the Niger junta's move to scrap bilateral military pacts, saying only Nigers "legitimate" leadership was entitled to do so. The news comes after an ECOWAS delegation left the capital of Niamey without meeting coup leader Abdourahamane Tiani. Read our live blog to see how all the day's events unfolded. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).

This live page is no longer being updated.

10:58pm: Chad will not intervene in Niger coup, defence minister says

Chad will not intervene in a coup in neighbouring Niger, the country's defence minister said on state television on Friday, just as West Africa's regional bloc said it has devised a possible plan to reinstate ousted President Mohamed Bazoum.

7:05pm: West African defence chiefs plan out possible intervention in Niger

West African defence chiefs have made a plan for a possible military intervention in Niger if coup leaders do not stand down, said Abdel-Fatau Musah, ECOWAS Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security, after a regional meeting in Abuja on Friday.

"The position of ECOWAS, to which Benin adheres, is to free and reinstate President Bazoum," Olushegun Adjadi Bakari told a media briefing in Cotonou -- though he suggested that could change.



Read more on FRANCE 24 English



Read also:

ECOWAS delegation arrives in Niger to meet coup leaders for talks

Niger junta chief rejects sanctions, refuses to 'give in' to threats

Niger coup leaders accuse France of wanting to 'intervene militarily'
People watch the wildfire on the island Ciovo, from Seget Gornji, Croatia. (Reueters)

Six European countries have issued a stark warning over the climate crisis following a summer of heatwaves and wildfires.

The leaders of Italy, Greece, Croatia, Slovenia, Malta and Portugal have urged countries to take immediate action amid fears extreme summers in southern Europe will harm the tourist industry and harvests.

"Extreme natural phenomena are destroying the ecosystem and threatening our daily life, our way of life," said a statement signed by six EU presidents on Thursday.

They added: "There is no more time to waste, no more time to compromise for political or economic reasons."

Read more: Climate change: The country that's hitting almost 40 degrees - in the middle of winter

A firefighter tries to extinguish a wildfire burning at the industrial zone of the city of Volos, in central Greece. (Reuters)

Firefighters and volunteers try to extinguish a wildfire burning in the village of Vati, on the island of Rhodes. (Reuters)

Large areas of the Mediterranean sweltered under an intense heatwave last month as firefighters battled to put out deadly blazes across a region stretching from Algeria to Turkey.

The leaders of the six nations said the Mediterranean was particularly exposed to the risks of water shortages and desertification.

Their statement added: "All Mediterranean countries must coordinate and react, engage in a collective effort to halt and reverse the effects of the climate crisis.

The initiative was started through a telephone call between Italy's president Sergio Mattarella and his Greek counterpart, Katerina Sakellaropoulou, and then extended to other members of the "Arraiolos Group" of non-executive presidents from EU states.

Read more: 11 charts that explain the big changes to Britain's weather

A man picks through the rubble of his home following a wildfire in Tunisia. (Reuetrs)

A wildfire in Bouira Province, Algeria. (Getty)

The statement stopped short of proposing concrete remedies to try to deal with the issue.

Italy itself needs to step up efforts to meet an EU 2030 target for lower carbon emissions, a government document seen by Reuters showed last month.

Dozens killed in wildfires

The statement comes after wildfires raged in many parts of southern Europe, the Mediterranean, and North Africa, as countries endured soaring temperatures amid a summer heatwave.

Story continues

Greece was one of the worst-affected nations, with more than 21,000 people evacuated from the islands of Rhodes and Corfu after the spread of forest fires.

Italy, Portugal, Croatia, Tunisia and Algeria were affected by wildfires, prompting evacuations.

At least 40 people died across Algeria, Italy and Greece.

A man stands ready to fight flames in Apollana, Rhodes. (Getty)

Meanwhile, July is set to be world's hottest month on record.

The mean global temperature is projected to be at least 0.2C warmer than July 2019, the former hottest in the 174-year observational record, according to EU data.

July 2023 is estimated to be roughly 1.5C above the pre-industrial mean.

Oceans hit hottest ever recorded temperature

In a separate warning about the state of the planet, on Monday the EU's climate change service Copernicus reported that the temperatures of our oceans have reached their highest recorded levels, as they absorb warmth resulting from climate change.

This week, the average daily global sea surface temperature surpassed the 2016 record, reaching 20.96C.

This development carries serious consequences for the overall health of our planet.

The oceans play a crucial role in regulating the climate by soaking up heat, producing oxygen and influencing weather patterns.

However, as temperatures of the oceans rise, they become less capable of absorbing carbon dioxide, resulting in a higher concentration of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere.

Warmer waters can also speed up the melting of glaciers that feed into the ocean, leading to an increase in sea levels.
When has the Singapore President's approval been sought to tap into past reserves? (PHOTO: Getty)

SINGAPORE  As a custodian of Singapore's national reserves, the President plays a key role in overseeing the government's expenditure. This includes being constitutionally empowered with discretionary powers to approve or reject any government request to draw from the nation's past reserves.

What is past reserves?

Past reserves is a subset of Singapore's overall national reserves. It consists of the reserves accumulated during previous terms of government as a result of surpluses generated from previous annual budgets. Whenever the government's revenue exceeds its expenditures in a fiscal year, the excess funds are set aside into past reserves. These reserves act as a financial buffer and are preserved for future needs and emergencies.

In the past, there have been instances when Singapore faced economic challenges or crises, leading to the need to tap into past reserves. In each of these situations, the President's approval is required before any drawdown from past reserves can be made. This constitutional safeguard ensures that the reserves are used prudently and only in situations of critical national importance.

COVID-19 public health expenditure (2020  2022)

Most recently, as the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked global economic havoc and took millions of lives around the world, the government sought the approval of President Halimah Yacob to tap into the nation's past reserves in order to fund public healthcare expenditure.

During the crisis, the government sought President Halimah Yacob's approval to draw from past reserves of up to S$52 billion in 2020, S$11 billion in 2021, and S$6 billion in 2022. In the end, the total drawdown from past reserves over the three financial years was S$42.9 billion.

The funds were used to pay for expenses such as COVID-19 testing, clinical management and contact tracing, vaccination and therapeutics, isolation facilities, border management and as well as safe distancing measures. The government also used the funds to provide economic support to businesses and livelihoods that were impacted as a result of the pandemic.

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"These draws are inevitable because we must garner necessary resources to protect Singaporeans and bolster our economy," said President Halimah as she gave her assent to the Supply Bill for the financial year 2022.

Global financial crisis (2008  2009)

In October 2008, then-President S R Nathan gave his approval for a S$150 billion guarantee on all bank deposits in Singapore to be backed by past reserves until the end of 2010. The move was made as other countries were providing guarantees for bank deposits amidst the backdrop of the global financial crisis that was triggered by bank failures in the US and Europe.

The move to guarantee bank deposits backed by past reserves was done to prevent the risk of funds flowing out of Singapore, which could have led to severe economic repercussions for the nation even when Singapore's financial system was sound at the time. The guarantee covered all Singapore dollar and foreign currency deposits of individual and non-bank customers in banks, finance companies and merchant banks licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). In the end, the guarantee lapsed without being triggered and past reserves were not drawn upon.

However, the subsequent recession in Singapore following the global financial crisis led to the nation's past reserves being drawn upon for the first time. In January 2009, then-President S R Nathan gave his approval for the government to draw down S$4.9 billion from the past reserves to fund two special schemes in light of Singapore's worst recession then since independence.

The two measures were the Jobs Credit Scheme which subsidised employers' wage bills and the Special Risk-Sharing Initiative which helped companies gain access to credit. The actual amount drawn for these two measures was S$4.0 billion.

As Singapore's economy eventually recovered from the recession, the government decided to put back the S$4.0 billion that it had drawn down from the past reserves in February 2011.

Asian financial crisis (1997  1999)

During the Asian financial crisis in the late 90s, the government resisted dipping into past reserves despite the economic downturn. In 1999, then-President Ong Teng Cheong said he would approve a government proposal to tap into past reserves. In response, then-Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong said there was no need to do so as the government had accumulated enough funds in current reserves to face any economic fallout.

In 2001, then-Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong raised the possibility of using past reserves to tackle the recession in Singapore. However, this again turned out to be unnecessary and no requests to draw from past reserves were made.

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Thirty-three people were arrested in a popular spot among the LGBT+ community in Valencia, Venezuela on July 23. After the arrest, the people's names, photos and ID cards were shared in the media and online. Since being released, they are still awaiting legal proceedings. Venezuelan associations have denounced what they see as a growing trend of "criminalisation" of LGBT+ individuals and institutionalised homophobia in Venezuela.

On July 23, police arrested 33 people at the Avalon Man Club, a private sauna and spa frequented by the LGBT+ community in Valencia, in the northern Venezuelan state of Carabobo. The operation was allegedly carried out after an anonymous tip-off.

The people were taken to the police station, where they were photographed lined up along a wall. Police photographed their belongings, including identity papers, mobile phones and condoms. These images were shared in the local media and on social networks with their identities left unredacted. Their names and ages were shared publicly as well.

'The police and local media have stigmatised and criminalised them'

Jau Ramirez is the director of SOMOS, a movement working for the rights of sexual minorities in Venezuela.

A number of journalists' organisations have also criticised the way in which certain media outlets have handled the case, adopting all the information provided by the police.

Charged with, among other things, public indecency

Jau Ramirez continued:
Image source: Getty Images

Cathie Wood is the founder, CEO, and Chief Investment Officer of ARK Invest. Woods Ark portfolio contains six actively-managed ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds), two index ETFs and one ETF venture fund.

The companies within these funds are carefully selected for their potential as growth stocks with disruptive technologies or innovations. Some could even be described as growth stocks on steroids, representing dynamic opportunities for investors seeking exposure to cutting-edge and transformative businesses.

Enter RC365

RC365 (LSE:RCGH) is the hottest London-listed stock right now. Its up over 500% in six months and 700% exactly over a year. Its growth has been phenomenal. So, might this be a stock for Wood?

Well, lets start my explaining what RC365 is. Its an Asia-focused company providing payment gateway services.Recently, it has garnered attention due to its significant developments in the market. This included acquiring 100% of the issued share capital of Mr Meal Production Limited.

In addition, RC365 entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Hatcher Group. The MoU is for collaboration around advancing smart algorithm technology, a field with great potential for innovative solutions.

Additionally, it established an agreement with a financial services provider to feature its brand on Mastercard credit cards intended for Hong Kong residents. A similar agreement was recently made in Malaysia, further expanding the companys collaborations in the region.

Investment criteria

Woods investment philosophy revolves around identifying companies that are at the forefront of disruptive technologies. This may include investing in artificial intelligence, genomics, blockchain, and renewable energy.

The investor believe that these disruptive innovations have the power to reshape industries, deliver vast productivity gains and have the potential to create significant growth.

Moreover, Wood is willing to invest in companies that may not show immediate profitability. She takes a medium-to-long-term outlook, and holds companies as they ideally go through a rapid growth phase.

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A Wood-style stock?

At first glance, RC365 appears to possess some characteristics that Cathie Wood typically looks for in an investment. However, the current state of the company might not be compelling enough even for an investor like her.

The stock seems incredibly speculative, trading at approximately 80 times its sales. This is significantly higher than the usual 10 times sales threshold considered expensive.

And there are doubts regarding whether the recent deals made by the company can generate the necessary revenue growth to align with other growth stocks. In fact, the Malaysia deal with see its subsidiary issue and manage Mastercard Prepaid Card services to just 40 customers and 1,200 cardholders by 31 December 2024.

Cathie Wood may also question whether RC365 truly holds a competitive advantage in the AI and payments sector, whether it has the potential to become a market leader in its industry.

As an investor focused on disruptive technologies and transformative innovations, she would carefully assess whether RC365 aligns with her investment criteria and presents an attractive opportunity for future growth. I dont know, of course, but I think the conclusion could be no.

The post Would Cathie Wood invest in RC365 after new Mastercard deal? appeared first on The Motley Fool UK.

More reading

James Fox has no position in any of the shares mentioned. The Motley Fool UK has recommended Mastercard. Views expressed on the companies mentioned in this article are those of the writer and therefore may differ from the official recommendations we make in our subscription services such as Share Advisor, Hidden Winners and Pro. Here at The Motley Fool we believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors.

Motley Fool UK 2023
SWNS

According to a new survey, two in three dog owners claim their dogs could never survive in the wild without them. The poll of 2,000 American dog owners found the average person believes their pup could only take care of themselves for a maximum of two days. A third (31%) give their dogs less than a single day. A large majority of owners surveyed (86%) claimed their dogs live a life of luxury compared to their ancestors and 77% said their dogs have grown accustomed to a life of being catered to. Commissioned by Now Fresh and conducted by OnePoll, the study found four in five dogs would rather stay inside than step paw outside if its rainy. Likewise, 68% of dogs opt to stay inside than be in the cold. If the temperature dips below 40 F (4  C), respondents shared their dogs require a jacket (27%), doggie poncho (16%) or booties (12%) in order to go outside. Seven percent even need an umbrella held over them. Of course, the life of comfort doesnt stop there; the average dog sleeps for 11 hours per day and plays for two. Nearly half (44%) said their dog sleeps in the same bed as them, while another 27% claimed their dog sleeps on the floor but is constantly at their side. For 83% of people, their dogs follow them wherever they go, mostly to the kitchen (84%), couch (76%) and to the backyard (75%). Two in three said their dogs will follow them into the bathroom, giving them no moment of privacy. Results also revealed dogs eat differently than their ancestors. Half of the respondents said their dog enjoys eating a mixed diet that involves a number of pet-safe fruits and vegetables. Dogs have evolved from their wolf ancestors in so many ways, said Theresa Lantz, companion animal nutritionist at Petcurean, makers of NOW FRESH Pet Food. This evolution also includes changes to their nutritional needs. When we consider how different their lifestyles today are  which include being more sedentary and dependent on humans  we must also take into account that those nutritional requirements would change too. When asked what foods their dogs enjoy the most as a treat, many said their dogs have a penchant for carrots (34%), apples (31%), sweet potatoes (31%), potatoes (30%) and bananas (27%). Three in 10 said they feed their dogs on a high-protein diet, while 55% have their dogs on a more balanced, moderate or low-protein diet. Though 66% agreed theyre unwilling to compromise on the quality of food for their dogs nutrition, there are still many who have misconceptions about what they need to feed their dogs. Those who have their dogs on a high-protein diet claimed they do so because they believe its higher quality (54%), fits their dogs lifestyle (40%) and that its biologically correct (36%). When looking for the best food to give your pet, we recommend pet parents consider the quality of the protein source over quantity, continued Lantz. Moderate protein diets are preferential for most dogs  in fact, anything more than what their body can use is not beneficial to your pets health, and may even contribute to diarrhea, stinky gas and even weight gain. By using fresh, simple ingredients, weve made sure your pet is getting everything they need to thrive with a delicious, complete and balanced meal tailored to their age and size. 13 PET-SAFE FOODS DOGS LOVE -Carrots - 34% -Apples - 31% -Cooked Sweet potatoes - 31% -Potatoes - 30% -Bananas - 27% -Pumpkin - 21% -Seedless watermelon without the rind - 20% -Blueberries - 18% -Broccoli - 17% -Peas - 17% -Oranges - 11% -Cucumbers - 10% -Pears - 9% Survey methodology: This random double-opt-in survey of 2,000 American dog owners was commissioned by Now Fresh between March 20 and March 23, 2023. It was conducted by market research company OnePoll, whose team members are members of the Market Research Society and have corporate membership to the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) and the European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research (ESOMAR).
Lebanon on Friday marked three years since one of history's biggest non-nuclear explosions rocked Beirut. Yet nobody has been held to account as political and legal pressures suspend the investigation.

The blast killed at least 218 people and wounded more than 6,500, devastated large swaths of Beirut and caused billions of euros in damages.

Authorities said the disaster was triggered by a fire in a warehouse where a vast stockpile of industrial chemical ammonium nitrate had been haphazardly stored for years.

The main activist group representing families of those killed called for a protest march on Friday afternoon, converging on the port.

"This is a day of commemoration, mourning and protest against the Lebanese state that politicises our cause and interferes in the judiciary," said Rima al-Zahed, whose brother was killed in the explosion.

"The judiciary is shackled, justice is out of reach, and the truth is shrouded," she said.

A rescue team surveys the site of this week's massive explosion in the port of Beirut in 2020. - AP Photo

The blast struck amid an economic collapse that the World Bank has dubbed one of the worst in recent history and which is widely blamed on a governing elite accused of corruption and mismanagement.

Since its early days, a probe into the explosion has faced a slew of political and legal challenges.

In December 2020, lead investigator Fadi Sawan charged former prime minister Hassan Diab and three ex-ministers with negligence.

But as political pressure mounted, Sawan was removed from the case.

The blast anniversary has also brought renewed calls for an international investigation of those responsible.

Lebanese and international organisations, survivors and families of victims sent such an appeal to the United Nations Rights Council, saying that on the third anniversary of the explosion, we are no closer to justice and accountability for the catastrophe.
Finn Mcgoldrick Labour Candidate for Norcot ward with Labour councillors and campaigners. Credit: Reading Labour

Readings newest councillor has laid out her priorities following her by-election win.

Finn McGoldrick has been elected as a Labour representative for Norcot following a by-election vote on Thursday, August 3.

The election was triggered following the sad death of cllr Colette Dennis who died this June after winning elections in 2022 and May 2023.

Cllr McGoldrick has paid tribute to cllr Colette Dennis and spoke about the issues raised to her in the campaign.

She said: It [the by-election] came from tragic circumstances, its a campaign we have never had to do as a local party.

Colette was really loved, it was clear how much she was loved in Norcot and her contributions to the area.

READ MORE: Sadness and shock as tributes pour in to Reading deputy mayoress

The campaign was focused on bread and butter issues such as road resurfacing and street cleanliness.

Lots of people are really pleased with the Dee Space community centre, they are looking forward to more action on the regeneration and getting current empty buildings down and replaced.

The Dee Space community centre opened earlier this year as part of the Dee Park estate regeneration.

Cllr McGoldrick continued: There was a lot of concern about anti-social behaviour, everyone is concerned about that, it is something we are really mindful of."

Reading Chronicle: Finn McGoldrick being sworn in as a Labour councillor for Norcot ward. Credit: Reading Labour

Finn McGoldrick being sworn in as a Labour councillor for Norcot ward. Credit: Reading Labour

She then laid out some priorities now she is a councillor.

Cllr McGoldrick said: Ill work with the council to make sure Norcot is kept clean, safe and vibrant, so that the area looks and feels nice to live in.

I also want to promote more youth and family activities in the ward, so people can take advantage of Dee Space and Prospect Park.

Ill work to make sure the council steps up to provide more free events for families.

Free events have included Reading Water Festival and Reading Childrens Festival.

Cllr McGoldrick added: Theres a real positivity around how well run the council is. There are always things to do better, we want to get the basics right.

Story continues

Residents want to be listened to and have reports back, thats what I intend to do.

Norcot by-election result:



Finn McGoldrick (Labour): 929 - ELECTED



Marie French (Liberal Democrats): 280



Lizzy Shepard (Conservatives): 209



Richard Walkem (Greens): 101



Alan Gulliver (Independent): 49



Jen Bottom (TUSC): 28



Total votes: 1,598



Turnout: 21%#rdguk  James Aldridge (@jamesAjourno) August 4, 2023

She has not been appointed to any committees yet, with her stating that her focus will be on representing the ward.

Cllr McGoldrick is married to her partner with two children.

She said: Im really pleased that weve found a lovely, friendly area for all kinds of families.

Reading is a diverse, inclusive and safe town, I think thats brilliant, our diversity is a big part of our strength.

Cllr McGoldrick comes from Belfast, Northern Ireland, and will continue to work as a Political Advisor to Jonathan Reynolds, the Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Industrial Strategy and Labour MP for Stalybridge and Hyde.
Former President Donald Trump arrives at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Thursday, Aug. 3, in Arlington, Va., as he heads to Washington to face a judge on federal conspiracy charges alleging Trump conspired to subvert the 2020 election. AP-Yonhap



Former president Donald Trump pleaded not guilty on Thursday to criminal charges that he conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 election and defraud the American people.



Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, entered his plea during a nearly 30-minute hearing at the same Washington courthouse where hundreds of his supporters have been convicted for their roles in Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.



"Not guilty," Trump said after magistrate judge Moxila Upadhyaya read the four criminal counts  and the potential maximum prison sentences  in the 45-page indictment brought by special counsel Jack Smith.



The 77-year-old billionaire has already been charged in two other criminal cases, and the new conspiracy charges raise the prospect of his being further embroiled in legal proceedings at the height of next year's election campaign.



Speaking to reporters at Reagan National airport before leaving Washington on his private plane, Trump said the cases brought against him were "persecution of a political opponent."



"This is a very sad day for America," he said. "This is the persecution of the person that's leading by very, very substantial numbers in the Republican primary and leading (President Joe) Biden by a lot.



"So if you can't beat him, you persecute him or you prosecute him," he said. "We can't let this happen in America."



The judge set the next hearing in the high-stakes case for August 28 before US District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan, who will preside over the eventual trial.



"I can guarantee to everybody there will be a fair process and a fair trial," Upadhyaya said.



'Fueled by lies'



Security was tight around the E. Barrett Prettyman federal courthouse where the hearing was held with metal barricades blocking access and police patrolling the perimeter.



Small groups of demonstrators holding placards milled about outside along with curious tourists.



"Jail Trump Forever," read one sign. "Trump 24," read another.



"We wanted to see it," said Dave Werner, 52, of Houston, Texas, who was visiting the capital with his son Liam, 12. "It's a little bit being part of history."



The accusations that Trump and six unnamed co-conspirators plotted to upend the 2020 election are the most serious of the cases threatening to derail his White House comeback bid.



Biden, for his part, was asked during a bike ride while vacationing in Delaware if he would follow the arraignment. His response was a curt "No."



Smith, a former war crimes prosecutor at the Hague, has charged Trump with conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy and obstruction of an official proceeding and attempting to disenfranchise voters with his false claims that he won the election.



"The purpose of the conspiracy was to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election by using knowingly false claims of election fraud," the indictment said.



Smith linked Trump's actions following his loss directly to the attack on the Capitol, which he called an "unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy."



"It was fueled by lies," Smith said.





Protesters hold signs that spell JUSTICE as they walk with Domenic Santana, 61, of Miami, holding up a sign that reads "LOCK HIM UP" near the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Federal Courthouse, Thursday, Aug. 3, in Washington. AP-Yonhap
HA NOI  Exports of rubber goods to Russia witnessed an impressive result of a 465 per-cent growth year-on-year in the first half, totalling nearly US$5.1 million.

In particular, shipments to Russia in June reached a turnover of more than $358,000, a 10-fold increase compared to June 2022, according to preliminary information from the General Department of Customs.

Rubber export to this market also increased strongly, with a value of $15.6 million, accounting for more than 83 per cent of total rubber export value in 2022.

Rubber and rubber goods are among several products that saw increases in export value in the first half in the context that overall export to this market showed signs of a decline.

Viet Nams shipments to Russia reached more than $812 million in the first six months, down 3 per cent year-on-year.

Viet Nam exported more than $1.05 billion worth of rubber and $515 million worth of rubber products in the first half, down 7 per cent and 10 per cent year-on-year, respectively. Thus, rubber shipments to Russia account for less than 1 per cent of the country's rubber export turnover.

Despite a meagre market share, Russia remains a prospective market for Viet Nam.

Since 2001, Russias demand for rubber products has grown by 5.9 per cent per year. In 2021, Russia is the 24th largest importer of synthetic rubber with $210 million. It is forecast that Russia's synthetic rubber imports are expected to reach $235 million in 2026, with an average increase of 1.7 per cent per year.

Meanwhile, Viet Nam's rubber industry continues to hold the 5th position in the world in terms of the plantation area and 3rd in natural rubber output.  VNS
HA NOI  Honda Vietnam Co Ltd (HVN) is cooperating with auto dealers nationwide to launch an attractive promotion programme The only chance to receive great deals for the Honda CR-V, Honda Civic RS and Honda Accord.

Under the programme, those who buy a Honda CR-V will get VN150 million discounted alongside a 50 per cent discount on registration fees supported by the Vietnamese Government.

In addition, HNV will provide free one-year physical insurance when buying a Honda Civic RS or a Honda Accord with numerous special gifts from Honda Automobile Dealers.  VNS




HA NOI  Chairman of the National Assembly (NA) Vuong inh Hue will attend the 44th General Assembly of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA-44) and make official visits to Indonesia and Iran from August 4 to 10, which are expected to deepen Viet Nam's ties with these two countries.

The activities were at the invitation of the Speaker of the Indonesian House of Representatives and AIPA President Puan Maharani; and Speaker of the Iranian Consultative Assembly Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf.

Hue's official visit to Indonesia from August 4 will help promote Viet Nam parliamentary cooperation with other ASEAN countries and create a new motivation for the Viet Nam-Indonesia strategic partnership, Vice Chairwoman of the NA's Committee for Foreign Affairs Le Thu Ha said in an interview with the media on the threshold of Hues trip.

NA Chair Hue will attend the opening ceremony of AIPA-44 and deliver remarks at the conference, attend the executive committee meeting, meet with AIPA president on the sidelines, and participate in other important activities.

Ha said that for AIPA-44, Viet Nam has actively proposed three draft resolutions on Digital transformation led by women and for women, Promoting innovation, transfer, application and development of science and technology for sustainable growth and development, and Promoting the adoption of ASEAN guidelines on responsible investment in the food, agriculture and forestry sectors.

The three resolutions, to be introduced at meetings of Women Parliamentarians of AIPA (WAIPA) and the AIPA Economic Committee are very important, as they can help ASEAN exploit its advantages in science and technology and innovation to serve economic recovery and development; and make the most of potential to develop the food and agro-forestry sectors.

In addition, Viet Nam has contributed ideas to other draft resolutions at the Economic Committee, Social Committee, and Political Committee and will co-sponsor similar draft resolutions with other countries, Ha said.

Regarding the official visit to Indonesia, Ha noted this is the first trip by Hue as Chairman of the National Assembly and also the first by a top legislator of Viet Nam to Indonesia in 13 years, since the visit by NA Chairman Nguyen Phu Trong in 2010.

The visit takes place as the two countries are celebrating the 10th anniversary of their strategic partnership, and considering upgrading ties to the next level.

It aims to continue implementing the 13th National Party Congresss foreign policy, and actively consolidate and expand the political relationship between the two countries, and promote bilateral effective and practical cooperation in all fields, and via the Party, National Assembly, Government and people's diplomacy channels, thus contributing to enhancing political trust.

The visits message affirms the priority Viet Nam gives to developing and promoting friendship and multi-faceted collaboration in the region to open up new economic and trade opportunities and create a new impetus to strengthen the bilateral strategic partnership in a more extensive and effective manner.

Hue will have talks with the Indonesian President of the National Assembly and Speaker of the House of Representatives of Indonesia Puan Maharani, and renew the cooperation agreement between the two countries' legislative bodies.

The Vietnamese leader is also scheduled to meet with Indonesian President Joko Widodo, attend the legal and policy forum to promote economic and trade cooperation and meet with the local Vietnamese community and businesses in Indonesia.

Ha added that the two countries legislative bodies have maintained good relations through regular delegation exchanges, and coordination and stance sharing on regional and international issues of mutual concern at multilateral forums.

She expressed her hope that with the determination of the leaders of Viet Nam and Indonesia, the relations between the two parliaments will grow further in the coming time.

After Indonesia, NA Chairman Hue will also pay an official visit to Iran, his first in this capacity, and one that will mark a particularly important milestone in paving the way for further expansion of multifaceted cooperation between the two legislatures in the coming time, said Vice Chairman of the NAs Committee for Foreign Affairs Le Anh Tuan.

The visit to Iran is made at the invitation of the Speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly of Iran Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf.

In a recent interview, Tuan said ties between the Vietnamese NA and the Islamic Consultative Assembly of Iran have been growing, evidenced by official visits, exchanges and meetings by their leaders. The friendship parliamentarians groups of both countries have also engaged in meetings and working sessions in person and in online formats.

He added that the top legislator's visit will take place at a time when the two countries are celebrating the 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties, marking nearly 25 years since the Iran visit in 1999 by NA Chairman Nong uc Manh and five years after the Viet Nam visit by the top Iranian legislator in 2018.

According to the official, the visit will contribute to facilitating the exchange of delegations at all levels, especially leaders of the legislature, the Council for Ethnic Minority Affairs, the NA committees, the young parliamentarians group and the friendship parliamentarians group, in order to share information and experience in legislative activities.

It is also expected to uphold the NAs role in overseeing law enforcement and realising international agreements and treaties that have been signed or stepped up for signing, thereby creating a legal framework to bolster bilateral cooperation.

It is meant to further improve the effectiveness of coordination mechanisms at multilateral parliamentary forums such as the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and other multilateral parliamentary organisations.

At the same time, the trip is also expected to contribute to nurturing bilateral collaboration from central to ministry and local levels, he said.

During the official visit to Iran, NA Chair Hue is expected to hold talks with Speaker of the Parliament of Iran Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, sign a cooperation agreement between the two countries' parliaments, meet with President Ebrahim Raisi, and attend the legal and policy forum to enhance economic trade and investment cooperation.

He will also deliver remarks at the Institute for Political and International Studies in Tehran, as well as meet leaders of a number of agencies and localities in Iran as well as the Vietnamese communities there.  VNS
Editors work at the China News Desk of Pakistan's state-run Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) in Islamabad, Pakistan, Aug. 3, 2023. APP has launched the South Asian country's first-ever Chinese news service to further promote friendly relations between Pakistan and China.

The newly launched service would publish international, domestic and China-related news in the Chinese language, editors at the China News Desk told Xinhua Thursday. (Xinhua/Ahmad Kamal)

ISLAMABAD, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan's state-run Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) has launched the South Asian country's first-ever Chinese news service to further promote friendly relations between Pakistan and China.

The newly launched service would publish international, domestic and China-related news in the Chinese language, editors at the China News Desk told Xinhua Thursday.

Furqan Rao, a senior diplomatic correspondent in charge of the Chinese news service at APP, said his organization has been publishing news in English, Urdu and other local languages of Pakistan.

The basic purpose of the service is to let the Chinese people know about Pakistan, its development, culture and the progress of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Rao told Xinhua, adding that the new service would also act as a platform to counter fake propaganda against CPEC and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Launched in 2013, CPEC, a flagship project of the China-proposed BRI, is a corridor linking the Gwadar port in southwestern Pakistan with Kashgar in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, which highlights energy, transport and industrial cooperation. 

Guests visit the data center at Pakistan's state-run Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) office in Islamabad, Pakistan on Aug. 3, 2023. Pakistan's state-run Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) has launched the South Asian country's first-ever Chinese news service to further promote friendly relations between Pakistan and China. (Xinhua/Ahmad Kamal)
U.S. Attorney Randy S. Grossman for the Southern District of California, center, speaks during a press conference at the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of California on Thursday, Aug. 3, in San Diego. AP-Yonhap



Two U.S. Navy sailors were charged Thursday with providing sensitive military information to China  including details on wartime exercises, naval operations and critical technical material.



The two sailors, both based in California, were charged with similar moves to provide sensitive intelligence to the Chinese. But they were separate cases, and it wasn't clear if the two were courted or paid by the same Chinese intelligence officer as part of a larger scheme. Federal officials at a news conference in San Diego declined to specify whether the sailors were aware of each other's actions.



Both men pleaded not guilty in federal courts in San Diego and Los Angeles. They were ordered to be held until their detention hearings, which will take place Aug. 8 in those same cities.



U.S. officials have for years expressed concern about the espionage threat they say the Chinese government poses, bringing criminal cases in recent years against Beijing intelligence operatives who have stolen sensitive government and commercial information, including through illegal hacking.



The pair of cases also comes on the heels of another insider-threat prosecution tied to the U.S. military, with the Justice Department in April arresting a Massachusetts Air National Guardsman on charges of leaking classified military documents about Russia's war in Ukraine and other sensitive national security topics on Discord, a social media platform popular with people playing online games.



U.S. officials said the cases exemplify China's brazenness in trying to obtain insight into U.S. military operations.



"Through the alleged crimes committed by these defendants, sensitive military information ended up in the hands of the People's Republic of China," said U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman for the Southern District of California. He added that the charges demonstrate the Chinese government's "determination to obtain information that is critical to our national defense by any means, so it could be used to their advantage."



Jinchao Wei, a 22-year-old sailor assigned to the San Diego-based USS Essex, was arrested Wednesday while boarding the ship. He is accused of passing detailed information on the weapons systems and aircraft aboard the Essex and other amphibious assault ships that act as small aircraft carriers.



Prosecutors said Wei, who was born in China, was approached by a Chinese intelligence officer in February 2022 while he was applying to become a naturalized U.S. citizen, and admitted to the officer that he knew the arrangement could affect his application. Even so, at the officer's request, Wei provided photographs and videos of Navy ships, including the USS Essex, which can carry an array of helicopters, including the MV-22 Ospreys, according to an indictment unsealed Thursday.



The indictment alleges Wei included as many as 50 manuals containing technical and mechanical data about Navy ships as well as details about the number and training of Marines during an upcoming exercise.



Wei continued to send sensitive U.S. military information multiple times over the course of a year and even was congratulated by the Chinese officer once Wei became a U.S. citizen, Grossman said. He added that Wei "chose to turn his back on his newly adopted country" for greed.



The Justice Department charged Wei under a rarely-used Espionage Act statute that makes it a crime to gather or deliver information to aid a foreign government.



After pleading not guilty in San Diego, Wei was assigned a new public defender who declined to comment following the hearing. Wei did not visibly react when read the charges.





In this handout photo from the U.S. Navy, the Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Bataan travels through Atlantic Ocean on July 20. AP-Yonhap
JAKARTA Viet Nam has made important contributions to ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) and preparations for the AIPA-44 which is to take place in Indonesia, said Vietnamese Ambassador to Indonesia Ta Van Thong.

The ambassador told Vietnam News Agency correspondents in Jakarta during an interview ahead of Vietnamese National Assembly Chairman Vuong inh Hues official visit to Indonesia and attendance at the AIPA-44 in the Indonesian capital city from August 4-7.

Thong said the Viet Nam-Indonesia strategic partnership has been growing across politics, diplomacy, national defence-security, economy, tourism, culture and people-to-people exchange. In ASEAN, Indonesia is the largest market with over 285 million consumers, while Viet Nam is the third largest market with 100 million people and an impressive economic growth rate.

In the first four months of this year, two-way trade surpassed US$4.2 billion. Of which, $1.6 billion was Viet Nams exports to Indonesia, up 9% annually. This years figure is expected to exceed $15 billion.

Both countries are pushing forward agreements between Ho Chi Minh City and Bali province, and between Hue city and Denpasar city. Indonesia continues to offer scholarships to Vietnamese students in training and cultural exchange programmes.

The number of tourists from the two nations is increasing, with each country having around 70,000-80,000 people choosing to travel to the other country. Direct flights linking Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City with Jakarta and Bali have been resumed. They are exploring the possibility of opening more routes to other destinations such as a Nang and Yogyakarta.

He expressed his belief that Viet Nam will once again play a crucial role in promoting discussions and shaping outcomes of AIPA-44. Viet Nam has proposed three draft resolutions aimed at addressing key challenges in the region and fostering cooperation among AIPAs member parliaments, which reflect Viet Nam's dedication to issues such as promoting innovation, sci-tech, and digital transformation with a focus on women.

As a country with the highest number of female parliamentarians among AIPA members, Vietnam has raised important voices in advocating increased participation of women in politics in ASEAN. The Women Parliamentarians of AIPA (WAIPA), established in 1998, is stepping up initiatives to enhance the capacity and leadership ability of women through their engagement in political activities this year, he said.

As the host of the 14th AIPA Advisory Group Meeting (AIPA Caucus 14), the Vietnamese NA introduced a publication entitled "Promoting the application of ASEAN Guidelines for Responsible Investment in Food, Agriculture, and Forestry: A Practical Handbook for ASEAN Parliamentarians" to be presented at the AIPA-44.

By addressing these pressing concerns, Viet Nam contributed to the overall goals of the AIPA-44 in developing effective parliamentary measures for ASEAN parliaments to respond more promptly, he said.

Commenting on Viet Nams role and position in ASEAN in general and AIPA in particular, Thong said since its admission to ASEAN in 1995, Viet Nam has always been an active member making significant contributions to the development process of ASEAN as well as peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region as a whole.

According to him, Viet Nam has always been proactive, positive, and responsible in its participation in ASEAN's activities, with notable milestones such as the 1998 Ha Noi Plan of Action, the expanded East Asia Summit mechanism, and the establishment of the ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting Plus (ADMM ) in 2010.

Amid difficulties caused by COVID-19 pandemic, Viet Nam accomplished its role as ASEAN Chair in 2020, leading to the issuance of the Joint Statement of the 37th ASEAN Summit with initiatives to help ASEAN countries proactively respond to the pandemic and recover supply chains. Notably, the signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) deal, with a market size of 2.2 billion people and around 30% of global GDP, is a testament to Viet Nam's credibility in coordinating, leading and promoting cooperation frameworks, from proactive integration to being an active and responsible member, and in maintaining and upholding ASEAN's centrality in the regional architecture.

The diplomat also highlighted Viet Nam's active participation and constructive contributions to AIPA meetings, including the upcoming AIPA-44, as well as the country's commitment to improving AIPA and its dedication to the organisation's principles and objectives. VNS
HA NOI  Chairman of the National Assembly (NA) Vuong inh Hue on Friday left Ha Noi for the 44th General Assembly of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA-44) and official visits to Indonesia and Iran.

Taking place from August 4 to 10, his trip is made at the invitations of Speaker of the Indonesian House of Representatives and AIPA President Puan Maharani; and Speaker of the Iranian Consultative Assembly Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf.

The attendance of the NA Chairman at the AIPA-44 in Indonesia is a further step in implementing the policy of proactive, comprehensive, and extensive international integration and multilateral foreign relations elevation; as well as in promoting Viet Nam's priority and enhancing the role and position of Viet Nam at regional and global parliamentary cooperation mechanisms, contributing to the common diplomatic efforts of the Party and State serving the nations and people's interests.

Meanwhile, the official visits to Indonesia and Iran are made with a view to further implementing the foreign policy directions of the 13th National Party Congress, proactively consolidating and expanding the political relations, and promoting effective cooperation between Viet Nam and the two countries in all areas and on all channels of the party, national assembly, government, and people-to-people exchanges. The visits also target enhancing mutual trust with traditional partner countries and friends, as well as building and fortifying the relationships between the top leaders of Vietnam and the two countries.

Those visits affirm the importance that Viet Nam attaches to developing and promoting friendship and multi-faceted cooperation with traditional partners in Asia and the Middle East, aiming to open up new opportunities for economic and trade collaboration and better coordination at international forums.  VNS
JAKARTA  A Vietnamese delegation led by Deputy Minister of National Defence Lieut. Sen. Gen. Hoang Xuan Chien attended the ASEAN Defence Senior Officials' Meeting Plus (ADSOM+) in Jakarta, Indonesia on Thursday, with 10 ASEAN member states and eight dialogue partner countries taking part.

In his keynote speech, Deputy Minister Chien said the region and the world were facing a series of security challenges, both traditional and non-traditional, notably those concerning maritime security. These challenges were occurring in many places and cause severe consequences that go beyond the capacity of a single nation to handle, thus requiring the international community to join hands to address them.

About maritime security, he stressed that the East Sea (known internationally as the South China Sea) is a vital maritime route for global and regional trade so peace, stability and security in the region are of utmost importance.

"Viet Nam always follows the principle of settling disputes and differences in the East Sea through peaceful means, based on respect for independence, sovereignty, and legitimate interests of nations, and compliance with international law," he said.

He underlined the significance of strengthening collective efforts to ensure the maintenance of international law and principles in international relations, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the full implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC). He also emphasised the need to promptly conclude negotiations and sign an effective and substantive Code of Conduct in the South China Sea (COC) in line with international law.

ASEAN's defence cooperation with its partners has been growing and becoming stronger, according to the deputy minister. He heightened the importance of building trust, goodwill, transparency and working together to address common challenges in order to build a robust ASEAN community and uphold ASEAN's central role.

On the sidelines of the ADSOM and ADSOM+, Chien held bilateral meetings with heads of delegations of the host country Indonesia, Japan and Australia. He also met bilaterally with heads of delegations of China, Russia, India, Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia. These meetings aimed to discuss and promote the implementation of important defence-related matters, especially high-level exchange activities, policy dialogues, and defence strategy.

The discussions covered various topics, including important events related to defence and security, such as multilateral and bilateral forums and conferences. The bilateral meetings and engagements played a significant role in enhancing political trust, goodwill and cooperation between Viet Nam and its partners in an effective and practical manner.  VNS
NEW YORK  Ambassador ang Hoang Giang, Permanent Representative of Viet Nam to the United Nations (UN), emphasised the need for a stronger commitment and collective efforts from the international community to break the vicious cycle between conflict and poverty.

In his remarks at an open debate on famine and conflict-induced global food security held by the UN Security Council (UNSC)on August 3 (US time), the diplomat stressed that recent reports and discussions at the 43rd session of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Conference in Italy in July had shown that the world is facing an increasing challenge regarding food security.

Despite various sectors experiencing recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic, food insecurity remained a serious problem in many parts of the world, especially conflict-affected regions, he said.

Preventing violence and promoting peace was the most effective way to prevent famine in those regions, he said, stressing that the UNSC needed to play a more effective role in addressing the root causes of conflicts, thereby reducing the risks of conflict-caused food insecurity.

The Vietnamese representative called on all parties involved in conflicts to respect the UN Charter and international law, especially international humanitarian law, and not to destroy essential infrastructure crucial for the life of civilians, particularly women and children, as stipulated in Resolution 2573 proposed by Viet Nam during its presidency of the UNSC in April 2021.

The UNSC should collaborate more closely with specialised agencies such as FAO, the UN World Food Programme (WFP), and other international partners to address famine in conflict-affected areas, and enhance cooperation with regional organisations to strengthen the resilience of food systems and ensure global food supply chains, Giang said.

"Food security is not only a goal but also a solution for Viet Nams socio-economic development," he affirmed, saying that the country prioritised the development of low-emission and climate-resilient agriculture, with the aim of turning Viet Nam into a food innovation hub in the region.

"Viet Nam is committed to actively contributing to global food security by maintaining a stable export of rice and other agricultural products, and willing to work with the international community to address food insecurity caused by conflicts," the diplomat said.

Participants said that it was essential to strengthen the role of the UN, particularly the UNSC, in preventing conflicts and enhancing early warning systems for food security risks.

They also emphasised the necessity to improve the global food system in a more sustainable manner and ensure civilians access to food in conflicts.  VNS
HA NOI  The cross-cultural exchange and connection activities between Viet Nam and Iran over the past 50 years have paved the way for the two countries to continue promoting their ties now, stated Deputy Foreign Minister Ha Kim Ngoc at a ceremony in Ha Noi on Friday to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Viet Nam-Iran diplomatic relations.

Ngoc noted that the friendship between Vietnamese and Iranian started over 1,000 years ago when Persian merchants came to do business and trade in Viet Nam, opening the door for cultural exchange between the two peoples.

Bilateral ties had been deepened since the two sides set up their diplomatic relations on August 4, 1973. Right after the success of the Islamic Revolution, on February 13, 1979, Vietnam sent a congratulatory message to and recognised the Islamic Republic of Iran. In 1991, Iran opened its embassy in Ha Noi. Six years later, Viet Nam did the same in Tehran.

Ngoc said that the two countries shared many similarities and supplementary advantages, enabling them to strengthen their friendship for the interest of the two peoples as well as for peace and stability in the two countries and the world.

He highlighted the sound political-diplomatic relations between the two countries as well as the expanding bilateral economic and trade ties, along with fruitful cooperation in culture, education, science and technology.

At the most difficult time during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government and people of Viet Nam were happy to be able to share their resources with other countries, including Iran, he noted, emphasising that the warm sentiments that the two peoples had given to each other as well as practical joint activities had contributed to the laying of a firm foundation for the growth of friendship between the two countries.

Ngoc underlined the need for the Governments, ministries and sectors of the two sides to take practical actions to further deepen the bilateral ties, including the organisation of the 10th meeting of the Inter-Governmental Committee and the seventh Political Consultations between them to realise the political determination of leaders of the two countries.

For his part, Iranian Ambassador to Viet Nam Ali Akbar Nazari said that the ceremony was a good chance for the two sides to look back at the 50-year development of friendship and cooperation between the two nations.

This was also an opportunity for the two sides to honour achievements that had shaped the bilateral ties and headed to the future with stronger cooperation for common prosperity, he stated.

Nguyen Van Pha, former Vice Chairman of the National Assemblys Judicial Committee and President of the Viet Nam-Iran Friendship Parliamentarians Group, also underlined contributions that the group, founded in 2009, had made to the promotion of friendship and cooperation between the two countries, and its future plan to continue reinforcing the bilateral friendship and partnership.  VNS
HA NOI  National Assembly Chairman Vuong inh Hue on Friday morning held official talks with Speaker of the Indonesian House of Representatives Puan Maharani, praising the development of the Viet Nam-Indonesia strategic partnership.

The year 2023 is the 10th anniversary of the two countries strategic ties, which include parliamentary cooperation.

National Assembly (NA) chairman Hue congratulated the Indonesian House of Representatives on successfully organising the G20 Summit as the groups president in 2022, and believed that Indonesia would see similar achievement as the chair of the 2023 ASEAN and ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA).

Indonesian House speaker Maharani said: We welcome the cooperation between the two countries and the importance of stability in the region through diplomacy.

We have had the opportunity to discuss the role of the parliaments in achieving the bilateral trade target, which currently stands at $11 billion.

I also hope that this will be the occasion for the two countries to strengthen and elevate bilateral ties to a new height.

The two leaders agreed to aim for more than US$15 billion in two-way trade in the near future, striving towards a more balanced direction that facilitates trade and promotes strategic supply chain development that could take advantage of both countries strengths.

NA chairman Hue also proposed that Indonesia open its market to Viet Nams agricultural produce, especially halal food and fruits.

The country leaders also agreed to strengthen measures that promote trade and create favourable conditions for businesses to diversify areas of investment and cooperation.

The two countries will exchange experiences in legislative work, aiming for cooperation in global issues such as just energy transition and safe digital transformation.

They also agreed to increase delegation exchanges at all levels and collaboration in various fields, including culture, education and tourism.

Viet Nam and Indonesia are striving towards a better connection through a higher frequency of commercial flights, including an expected direct flight route between Ha Noi and Jakarta.

They will also enhance cooperation at sea and in fisheries, and work on issues related to illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

NA chairman Hue and House speaker Maharani agreed to strengthen consultation and coordination in regional and international forums, including the AIPA, Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum (APPF), while also promoting the unity and the central role of ASEAN, and supporting each other in issues of mutual concerns.

The two leaders emphasised the importance of peace, stability, safety, security and freedom of navigation in the East Sea (known internationally as the South China Sea), together maintaining the solidarity and common stance of ASEAN on the matter.

They will also promote the implementation Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC), as well as the negotiations for Code of Conduct in the South China Sea (COC), in an effective way in accordance with international laws and the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

NA chairman Hue and House speaker Maharani also signed a cooperation agreement between the two legislative bodies and attended a press conference following their talks.  VNS
HA NOI  Vietnamese Ambassador to Iran Luong Quoc Huy has highlighted great potential for the two countries to boost their cooperation, especially in economy and trade, during a recent interview with the Vietnam News Agency (VNA) on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the bilateral diplomatic ties (August 4).

According to the diplomat, the Viet Nam-Iran relationship has seen marked developments, with the opening of the Iranian Embassy in Ha Noi in 1991, and the Vietnamese Embassy in Tehran in 1997 as milestones.

Over the past years, the traditional political and diplomatic ties had been growing fruitfully, as reflected through high-level visits by leaders of the two countries, he continued, adding that the two sides reached various cooperation agreements in such areas as economy, trade, culture, science-technology, agriculture and customs, and established important cooperation mechanisms.

Their two-way trade exceeded US$500 million before the COVID-19 outbreak, and stood at over $100 million last year, excluding trade revenue through third countries.

The two economies are complementary as Iran has strengths in natural resources, science, technology, and oil and gas, while Viet Nam has advantages in agriculture, handicrafts, fisheries, and human resources, according to the ambassador.

As members of many international organisations, the two countries had provided mutual support at multilateral forums, he added.

Regarding the upcoming visit to Iran by National Assembly Chairman Vuong inh Hue, the ambassador said the two sides expected to sign many cooperation agreements in trade, agriculture, justice and sports, as well as exchanges between localities on this occasion.

There would be a range of activities, including a law and policy forum aiming to enhance economic, trade and investment cooperation between the two countries, a Vietnamese culture week, and exhibitions within the framework of the visit.

Such activities would mark the 50th anniversary of the bilateral diplomatic ties, strengthen cooperation across spheres, and advance the Viet Nam-Iran relationship, Huy said.

To foster the cooperation, the ambassador suggested the two countries further implement the cooperation documents and mechanisms they signed and established over the past years.

They should create conditions for their goods to enter respective markets, jointly organise trade promotion activities, hasten negotiations for and signing of a preferential trade arrangement, and seek suitable payment methods, he said.

The diplomat also suggested the two countries enhance the exchange of delegations, especially at high level, promote people-to-people diplomacy and intensify cooperation between localities, while strengthening collaboration in science-technology, education-training, culture and tourism.

According to the ambassador, the 10th meeting of the Viet Nam-Iran Inter-governmental Committee, scheduled for later this year, will be a highlight of cooperation activities in 2023.

The mechanism would set forth plans and measures for cooperation in economy, trade, banking, investment, science-technology, and culture, among other fields, he explained.  VNS
HA NOI  Ambassador Vu Ho, head of SOM ASEAN Viet Nam, attended senior officials meetings of ASEAN+3, the East Asia Summit (EAS), the ASEAN Maritime ASEAN Forum (AMF) and the Expanded ASEAN Maritime Forum (EAMF) in Indonesia from July 31 to August 4.

The participants touched upon various regional issues, including preparations for the 43rd ASEAN Summit, slated for September 4-7 in Jakarta with the aim of enhancing dialogues and cooperation across spheres.

They also shared the view on the significance of economic, trade and investment cooperation, considering this an important foundation for countries in the region, and the view that a peaceful and stable environment will create a premise for prosperous, sustainable and inclusive development.

ASEAN member countries laid emphasis on the culture of dialogue, respect for law and the resolve to build an open, transparent, and inclusive regional architecture in line with international law.

The participating countries affirmed their support for ASEANs efforts in assisting Myanmar, and South China Sea (known in Viet Nam as the East Sea) dialogues, especially the building of a substantive and effective Code of Conduct in the South China Sea (COC) in accordance with international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982 UNCLOS).

At the AMF and EAMF, the delegates highlighted the importance of maritime cooperation, and compared notes on strategies and measures to boost the blue economy.

In his remarks, Ho affirmed that Viet Nam would engage in ASEAN cooperation more actively, proactively, responsibly and effectively, firstly coordinating with other countries to ensure the success of the 43rd ASEAN Summit and related meetings.

He also suggested ASEAN member countries step up economic, trade and investment ties, and optimise cooperation opportunities from the trend of green, clean, sustainable development.

A peaceful and stable environment is a prerequisite and a solid basis for cooperation and sustainable development, he stressed, speaking of basic principles in maritime cooperation in the region that are responsible, responsive and restraint.

On this occasion, ASEAN and its partners organised a forum on maritime economic development in coastal countries on August 4.  VNS
HA NOI  Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on Friday received a delegation of the United States Congress led by Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means Jason Smith in Ha Noi.

PM Chinh affirmed that Viet Nam always valued the Comprehensive Partnership relationship with the US, and welcomed the countrys strengthening cooperation with Viet Nam, as well as its respect for Viet Nam's political institutions and its support for Viet Nam to be "strong, independent, self-reliant, and prosperous."

PM Chinh proposed the two countries continue to promote high-level visits and exchanges of delegations, and extend an invitation to young US parliamentarians to attend the 9th Global Conference of Young Parliamentarians hosted by the Vietnamese National Assembly.

The PM wants Viet Nam and the US to enhance cooperation in various fields such as economy, trade, investment, science and technology, education and training, innovation, semiconductor production, digital transformation, energy transition, green growth, diversification of supply chains, and climate change response.

The Vietnamese Government leader also urged US lawmakers to limit trade defence measures and technical barriers, creating favourable conditions for Viet Nams main exports such as agriculture, forestry, and aquatic products to enter the US market.

He also requested that the US Congress continue to increase support for Viet Nam in overcoming the consequences of war, especially of Agent Orange/dioxin, and create favourable conditions for the Vietnamese community in the United States.

The US lawmakers expressed their positive impression of Viet Nams land and people, highly appreciating the country's economic growth in the context of the world's economic difficulties, especially in ensuring food security, health, and sustainable public finance.

US lawmakers expressed their desire to further promote the relationship between the two countries, especially in economic and trade relations, maintaining sustainable supply chains, and affirming their commitment to always standing by Viet Nam in its response to regional and global challenges.

Meeting the delegation, Politburo member and head of the Party Central Committee's Economic Commission Tran Tuan Anh said Viet Nam always considered the US one of the most important partners and appreciated the two sides' close coordination at regional and international forums, as well as in issues of mutual concern.

Tuan Anh noted that the economic cooperation between Viet Nam and the US was growing strongly, becoming an important pillar of their bilateral relationship.

The US is currently Viet Nam's largest export market while Viet Nam is the USs 7th largest trade partner globally and the largest partner in the ASEAN region.

The Vietnamese official also expressed his belief that the Viet Nam-US partnership would continue to thrive and reach new heights, for the benefit of the two peoples, as well as for peace, stability, cooperation and development in the Asia-Indo-Pacific region and around the world.

For his part, Jason Smith said that the US would continue to promote the comprehensive cooperation between the two countries, especially in important fields such as trade, investment, science-technology, digital transformation, green transition, and training of high-quality human resources to serve the development goals of Viet Nam.

The same day, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen uc Hai also hosted a reception for the US delegation in Ha Noi.

Vice Chairman Hai highlighted the significance of the visit as the two countries are celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Viet Nam-US comprehensive partnership, contributing to promoting the elevation of bilateral relations to a new height for peace, cooperation, and comprehensive and sustainable development.

He emphasised that the exchange of delegations at all levels between Viet Nams National Assembly and the US Senate and House of Representatives has demonstrated the strengthening of cooperation between the two countries on bilateral, regional and global levels.

Hai suggested that the two sides actively promote cooperation channels, and said that the National Assembly wished to promote all-level exchanges and establish a cooperation mechanism between the legislatures commensurate with the two countries' ties.

For his part, Smith stated that, with the efforts of both sides, the relationship between the two countries was at a fine stage of development.

He spoke highly of Viet Nams achievements in socioeconomic development in recent times, and noted that the two countries should continue to promote cooperation in the fields of economy and trade.

He expressed his desire to support Viet Nam in global supply chains and the implementation of solutions in the field of agriculture through dialogue to ensure the highest benefits for people of the two countries.  VNS
QUANG BINH  The Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park in the central province of Quang Binh has twice been honoured as a World Natural Heritage site.

This is a testament to its unique geomorphology, global tourism value and countless efforts of Viet Nam to increase awareness in the process of international integration.

Over the past two decades, the province has preserved cultural heritage values of the national park toward the goal of sustainable development.

On July 3, 2003, the World Heritage Committee under the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) approved Viet Nam's submission to recognise the Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park as a World Natural Heritage Site, with criteria of exceptional global value in terms of geology and geomorphology.

The Government of Viet Nam, with support of international organisations, saw the park expand to more than 123,000 hectares to preserve the largest ancient limestone region in Southeast Asia.

On July 3, 2015, UNESCO members agreed to add the criterion of outstanding value representing the evolutionary and development processes of terrestrial ecosystems, possessing meaningful natural habitats for biodiversity conservation.

Over the years, the park management board has actively cooperated with domestic and foreign organisations to carry out scientific projects in the fields of environment, geology-geomorphology, biodiversity, and culture-history to preserve the heritage for the local socioeconomic development.

Since 2003, experts from the Royal British Cave Association have surveyed and discovered 425 caves in seven areas and systems, of which 389 caves have been measured with a total length of 243 km. The most prominent was the discovery of Son oong - the world's largest cave. The site is important in caving research in the region, promoting the image of Viet Nam and Quang Binh and Phong Nha-Ke Bang around the world.

Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park has three forms of tourism, including self-exploration, joint venture businesses, and leasing of forest environment services.

Currently, the World Natural Heritage site has 15 different routes possible on a tour that include various combinations of nature exploration, caves, camping, walking, and zip line areas.

The development of tourism services has attracted an increasing number of visitors to the site. In order to ensure both tourism development and sustainable heritage conservation, the park management board is monitoring and assessing the impact of tourism activities on the caves to mitigate negative impacts on the heritage.

Pham Hong Thai, Director of Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park Management Board, said the board will continue to strengthen forest management and protection work, scientific research and rescue of wildlife in order to preserve the outstanding global value of the heritage.

The National Park is a model of "Ecosystem and Biodiversity" with a unique population not found anywhere else on the Earth, an evergreen tropical forest with a 500-year-old cypress species.

The Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park borders the Hin Nam No National Park of Laos. In line with UNESCO's goal of expanding cooperation in the conservation and preservation of heritage sites, Viet Nam and Laos are working together to build the first inter-country heritage profile in Southeast Asia and the largest continuous karts cross-border heritage in the world. The expansion plans are to be submitted to UNESCO in 2024.  VNS
The Chinese national flag is seen in Beijing, China, April 29, 2020. Reuters-Yonhap



China executed a Korean drug offender Friday for the first time in nine years, an official at Seoul's foreign ministry said.



The official expressed regret over the execution, which was conducted in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, despite Seoul's repeated calls for clemency.



China notified Korea of the execution in advance through diplomatic channels, the official said.



The man was arrested in China in 2014 on charges of drug trafficking and sentenced to death by a district court in 2019. An appellate court upheld the ruling in November 2020, and the highest court also confirmed the sentence.



He was known to have been in possession of five kilograms of methamphetamine when arrested. In China, those caught smuggling, selling, transporting or producing over one kilogram of opium, or more than 50 grams of methamphetamine or heroin can face the death penalty, life imprisonment or a minimum of 15 years in prison.



"The government regrets, from a humanitarian perspective, that the execution took place on one of our nationals," the official said.



The Korean government had requested Beijing reconsider or delay carrying out the execution numerous times, all to no avail, according to the official. (Yonhap)




HA NOI  Leaders of central hospitals have voiced their concerns over the draft amended Law on the Capital that would transfer the management of central hospitals from the Ministry of Health to Ha Noi.

They argue that such a move would negatively impact the quality of healthcare services for patients and the professional development of the medical teams at these hospitals. Many said that the Ministry of Health should continue managing the central hospitals as they currently do.

Tran Cao Binh, director of the Ha Noi Central Hospital of Odonto-Stomatology pointed out that the hospitals under the ministry in Ha Noi were all specialised and leading institutions, serving as the final level of medical care with international influence and connections.

They developed specialised techniques on par with other countries in the region and the world.

"We not only provide medical care but also carry out the task of training and directing local hospitals. We update the world's advanced techniques before transferring them to lower-level hospitals. If the management is transferred to Ha Noi, how will the development of specialisation for lower-level hospitals be handled?" he said.

ao Xuan Co, director of Bach Mai Hospital, highlighted the current lack of emergency and intensive care units in the southwest and central highlands regions.

Without specialised hospitals and guidelines from central hospitals, lower-level hospitals would find it hard to ensure quality healthcare.

Co mentioned that in most developed countries around the world, there were numerous private hospitals, but the Government still directly managed 20-30 per cent of public hospitals to fulfil social welfare tasks.

He said he had received requests for specialised and leading hospitals to continue being managed by the Ministry of Health to ensure consistent guidance from the central level.

Regarding Bach Mai Hospital, Co explained: "Besides medical treatment and guidance to lower-level hospitals, we are actively cooperating internationally to learn, apply, and deploy advanced techniques from around the world to Viet Nam.

We are currently implementing the task assigned by the Ministry of Health to build a comprehensive list of economic and technical indicators. With the support of relevant departments of the Ministry of Health, we have already established more than 5,000 indicators. How will this be accomplished if we are under Ha Noi's management?", he said.

Nguyen Cong Huu, director of E Hospital and Vu Nam, director of Central Traditional Medicine Hospital agreed, saying that their hospitals were currently directing several district and provincial-level hospitals.

If they came under Ha Noi's management, this would significantly impact their work of providing guidance, they said.

The role of central hospitals managed by the Ministry of Health in training healthcare personnel was also another problem.

Viet Nam-Germany Friendship Hospital, Bach Mai Hospital, Central Pediatrics Hospital, Cancer Hospital, the National Otorhinolaryngology Hospital, and E Hospital have been used as practical training facilities for medical staff in Ha Noi and neighbouring areas.

"Currently, E Hospital is a practical training base for Ha Noi Medical University and the University of Medicine and Pharmacy under the National University of Ha Noi. If we are under Ha Noi's management, will this work be affected?" he said.

In a previous meeting at the Ministry of Health on July 31, Huu said more than 1,300 medical staff at E Hospital expressed their wish to continue being managed by the Ministry of Health.

Dr Tran Si Tuan, Editor-in-chief of Suc khoe & oi song (Health & Life) newspaper said that transferring hospital management was impulsive and unbeneficial, which might cause a wave of doctors to quit their jobs.

Tuan said the Cancer Hospital, Viet Nam- Germany Friendship Hospital or Bach Mai Hospital were renowned for having highly skilled teams of doctors and specialists, serving 10 million residents of Ha Noi and tens of millions of people from northern and central provinces.

Bringing these leading hospitals under Ha Noi's administration would limit their scope of operations. As a result, patients will suffer.

Patients from other provinces might be sent back to their local hospitals as Ha Noi-based hospitals were already overloaded. This could lead to cases where patients might die prematurely due to a lack of timely medical attention.

Central hospitals also have the responsibility of transferring expertise, providing guidance, and supporting hospitals at grass-root levels. When transferring these leading hospitals to Ha Noi's administration, this important role could be compromised as the Ministry of Health will need to obtain the city's consent to continue this job.

This would significantly impact the healthcare services for ethnic minorities and those in remote areas.

These leading hospitals are also places of practical training for medical universities. Professors and doctors from universities are involved in leading hospital departments. Moreover, these professors and doctors from the universities are high-quality staff for the hospitals.

If these hospitals come under Ha Noi's management, this collaboration might be disrupted, significantly affecting the training of doctors and the hospitals' operations, he stressed.  VNS
HCM CITY  Deaths caused by lung cancer in Asia could be reduced by ensuring earlier diagnosis through improved screening access and changes to how people are screened, according to a new consensus by 19 experts from across Asia, published in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology.

Among recommendations, experts urge a shift from traditionally used chest X-rays to a more advanced procedure known as low-dose computed tomography (LDCT), which uses a computer with low dose X-rays to generate a series of pictures that can help detect lung abnormalities, including tumours.

These changes will be significant in helping to protect lives in Asia, given that approximately three in five cases of lung cancer occur within the region, representing more than 1.3 million patients.

According to the consensus, patients with detected screening abnormalities while undergoing routine health screening and persistent exposure to risk factors are recommended to be screened with LDCT annually, while high-risk heavy smokers should do so twice a year.

World Health Organisations International Agency for Research on Cancer reported that there are over 180,000 new cancer cases in Viet Nam alone each year, among which approximately 26,000 cases are lung cancer.

The key to reducing lung cancer deaths in Viet Nam and Asia is early detection, when doctors can offer patients highly effective treatment regimens that can even cure the disease. It means that with earlier detection, there is also a higher chance of cure, said Associate Professor, PhD Nguyen Viet Nhung, head of the Lung Department, University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Ha Noi National University and president of the Viet Nam Lung Association.

In Viet Nam, he said, lung cancer screening with LDCT has been recommended in the Guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of non-small cell lung cancer by the Ministry of Health since 2018.

However, he added: The practice so far is limited. The expert consensus in Asia, once again, urges us to act more aggressively and urgently, and it is critical that LDCT screening is employed as the main screening tool. Smokers of 20 packs per year or more, or non-smokers with a family history of lung cancer, aged 5075 years, should be included in this lung-cancer screening programme, if we are to urgently save more lives from lung cancer.

In most parts of Asia, LDCT is still not implemented in routine lung cancer screening programmes due to challenges such as perceived cost, lack of infrastructure and trained staff, reluctance of high-risk individuals, as well as absence of well-defined guidelines.

To overcome these difficulties, the experts recommend improving access to lung screening programmes and subsequent care by having a standardised protocol for follow-up LDCT scans and consideration for integrated lung healthcare, such as a national screening programme.

And while smoking is the leading risk factor, lung cancer among never-smokers accounts for a substantial proportion of cases, especially among Asian women.

In addition, non-smoking lung cancer patients in Asia are more likely to be diagnosed at an earlier age compared with current and former smokers.

Therefore, the experts agree that it is necessary to support high-risk patients to access screening procedures, irrespective of their smoking status, by considering factors such as genetics and demographics.

Documenting country-specific evidence on risk factors among never-smokers, which include age, family history of lung cancer, history of other cancers, second-hand smoke, and exposure to indoor cooking and heating fumes and outdoor air pollution, could also help garner government support in establishing a lung cancer screening programme locally, doctors note.

The consensus is the result of extensive discussion among experts from Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Viet Nam, backed by the Lung Ambition Alliance (LAA).

The LAA is a non-profit collaboration between the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC), the Global Lung Cancer Coalition (GLCC), AstraZeneca, and Guardant Health. The experts also called for improvements to the incorporation of smoking cessation programmes alongside lung cancer screening programmes.  VNS
HA GIANG  A suspected people trafficker has been arrested after spending 14 years on the run.

Sung Mi Su was discovered hiding in a cave on the side of a mountain in Khai Hoang Village.

The Criminal Investigation Division of Ha Giang Province's Police Department, in cooperation with local police in Meo Vac District, apprehended the 44-year-old on Wednesday.

He was the last remaining suspect in the human trafficking case involving victims under the age of 16 that occurred in 2009.

According to the case file, in January 2009, L.T.C and three other women in the same commune were deceived and trafficked to China by three individuals.

L.T.C was sold to a Chinese individual as a wife for the price of 60,000 Chinese Yuan (US$8,380).

At the beginning of the year, L.T.C was deported back to her home country because she did not have proper identification documents. After that she filed a report accusing the human traffickers.

Lau Mi Chu, 44, and Ly Mi Po, 43, both residing in Khau Vai Commune, were arrested at the time along with Sung Mi Su.

But Su fled the locality and has been on the run since 2009.  VNS
ONG NAI PROVINCE  A cultural programme marking the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the Vietnam Coast Guard (August 28, 1998- August 28, 2023) was held by the Viet Nam Coast Guard High Commands Reconnaissance Unit No. 2 on August 3.

The programme took place at the campus of the Reconnaissance Unit No. 2 in Phu Huu Commune in ong Nai Provinces Nhon Trach District.

Senior Lieutenant Colonel Phan Nhan Hau, head of the coast guards Reconnaissance Unit No. 2, said the programme is a very meaningful activity that promotes development of the cultural and artistic movement, contributing to improving the people's cultural and spiritual life.

It also strengthens the solidarity and close relationship between the State units based in the province, he said.

The programme attracted a total of 17 performances in various forms such as solo, duet, medley, music and dance, and dance.

The performances were from eight units based in the province, including the Reconnaissance Unit No. 2, Chemical Brigade 87 under the Chemical Corps, Petroleum Depot No.186 under the General Department of Logistics, the Training Centre and Technical Guarantee Centre of Naval Region 2, and the police, military and youth union of Nhon Trach District.

They mostly praised the great contributions of the countrys Heroes, the glorious Party and beloved former President Ho Chi Minh, as well as promoted the homeland's achievements in the oi moi (renewal) process.

The programme also attracted many local residents, especially young people and children.  VNS
Referring to Lao Cai, people will immediately think of the foggy city of Sapa, the town of Muong Hoa or the rustic and peaceful land of Y Ty. And considered the roof of Y Ty - Lao Than mountain is the ideal cloud hunting spot with majestic, wild and poetic scenery. Let's experience climbing Lao Than mountain 2 days 1 night below.

1. Where is Lao Than Mountain?

- Location: Phin Ho village, Y Ty commune, Bat Xat district, Lao Cai province

- Coordinates: 22.610420, 103.686535

- Altitude: 2,862m

- Difficulty: Medium

- Time by: 2 days 1 night

Lao Than Mountain, the roof of Y Ty's house, perfectly blends wild, majestic natural mountains and forests and the fantasy and brilliance of clouds and sky. Although not as majestic as Fansipan and not as dangerous as climbing Ba Den mountain, Lao Than is famous for being the ideal hunting spot for clouds in the Northwest mountains.

As the 11th highest peak in Vietnam, this mountain Lao Than Y Ty is considered medium difficult but offers a wonderful natural experience. The foothills of the mountain are mainly low grass hills; the terrain is simple, and there will be thorny trees and bushes near the top. In addition, along the way, there will be stops to rest and explore.

2. In which season should you climb Lao Than mountain?

Suppose anyone has ever been to the land of Y Ty. In that case, it is impossible to forget the dazzling golden terraced fields and unique villages. All of them bring strange and peaceful features to this Northwest land. Coming to Lao Than Y Ty mountain, too, the land you can experience all the beauty only in this land.

However, the ideal time to explore Lao Than is from October to December and March to May next year. Because the weather is not raining at this time, ensuring safety and is the ideal time for you to discover all the beauty of the "roof of Y Ty". And each time has its characteristics:

March-May: the ideal time to hunt clouds.

November - February: Hunt for clouds and the forest of burning grass.

September - November: experience the dazzling golden terraces.

3. How to get to Lao Than Mountain?

To come to Lao Than mountain to experience this Northwest land's peace, wildness, and poetry, you can move from Hanoi to My Dinh or Giap Bat bus station.

You can choose from reputable and quality Hanoi - Lao Cai bus companies such as Ha Son Garage, Sao Viet Garage, Green Bus, and Sapa Express bus, with ticket prices of 220,000 - 350,000 VND. The travel time usually takes about 5-6 hours, so you can choose the bus from the night at about 10-11 o'clock to reach the land of Lao Cai tomorrow morning.

When you arrive, you can rent a motorbike or catch a taxi to get to Y Ty commune. It will take you about 4 hours to move through Ban Xeo, Den Sang. From Y Ty center, go toward DT158 to Phin Ho village.

4. What to prepare for climbing Lao Than mountain?

Although Lao Than is considered relatively easy, the road is mainly low grass hills, but you will encounter difficulties during the climb. Therefore, you need to prepare the following necessary equipment for backpacking Lao Than:

Travel backpack: It is recommended to use a large backpack with many compartments to carry many necessary items.

Trekking shoes: An indispensable item in any climbing journey. It will help if you choose comfortable shoes with a good grip.

Tent camping: Climbing Lao Than mountain usually takes at least 2 days, 1 night or 3 days 2 nights, so use a camping tent to avoid fog and rain of the weather.

Sleeping bag: The higher you go, the lower the temperature, so prepare a sleeping bag to keep your body warm and get a better night's sleep.

Drinks and food: You should bring enough drinking water, food to organize a water party and fast food (chocolate, cakes, instant sausages... to replenish when exhausted).

Clothing: Bring warm, sun, and comfortable clothes to make trekking Lao Than mountain easier.

Medicines: Should prepare pain relievers, headache medicines and insect sprays.

Electronic devices like phones and cameras ensure communication and save the best moments.

5. What's attractive about Lao Than Mountain?

Not only attracts backpackers with weed roads, bare, dry trees on the empty hill, hunting clouds full of dreams, or "unique" experiences only in the Northwest region. Let's explore it with us below.

5.1. Hunting clouds, watching the sunrise on Lao Than

Hunting clouds and watching the sunrise on top of Lao Than is a feature that creates a "brand" for this Northwest region. Climbing to the top of the mountain at an altitude of 2,862m at 6 am, you will experience the wild, majestic, but equally dreamy here.

It is each layer of closed clouds, densely planted on top of each other, covering the whole mountain. And when the sun rises, each ray of sunlight gradually penetrates those dense clouds and shines down on each dew-drenched leaf. All blend to create a picture of dawn on the mountains of the Northwest that is both beautiful, wild and majestic, poetic and magical. This dispelled all the fatigue when climbing from the shack to the top with high slopes.

Also read: 10 "rooftops" become the best cloud-hunting spots in Vietnam  Vietnam News - Latest Updates and World Insights | Vietreader.com

5.2. Ideal virtual shooting angles

After a tiring climbing journey, you certainly cannot ignore the extremely quality and unique virtual live angles here to add to your "virtual living" experience:

The road of dry trees on an empty hill

Starting the journey to conquer Lao Than, you will immediately meet the road of dry trees in the middle of an empty hill, where the afternoon sun rays shine, creating extremely beautiful and wild pictures and bringing nature's magic. Therefore, remember to stop here to take beautiful photos.

Virtual tree in A Ho shack

At A Ho's resting shack, you will encounter a very cool virtual tree trunk when facing out. You can take extremely beautiful photos here with just a few simple steps. However, it would help if you were careful to balance on a good tree trunk for safety.

Fishing rock

Besides the virtual living tree trunk at the shack, the fishing cliff is considered a check-in place that is very popular with backpackers. With a faraway view, the sun is slowly setting at the foot of Nhiu Co San mountain, with floating clouds and wild and majestic cliffs. All created a beautiful frame.

However, this place has quite slippery and dangerous terrain, so you need to be careful when climbing.

5.3. Camping in the mountains

Stopping the shack and starting camping, grilling is an unforgettable experience for those who want to "refresh themselves" after a tiring working day.

Leaving behind the fatigue, immersing in nature together, enjoying peaceful wildlife, dancing and singing, watching the stars, and listening to the stories of Porter's experiences. This is the most unforgettable experience of the whole trip.

5.4. Experience Phin Ho market

After experiencing all the beauty of Lao Than mountain, remember to visit Phin Ho market every Sunday when you return. This place has bold features of the highland ethnic people with Lao Cai specialties and bustling markets with buyers and sellers.

You can immerse yourself in the flow of people in the market, buy gifts and enjoy the specialties here. Therefore, you should take it.

6. Itinerary for trekking Lao Than mountain in 2 days 1 night

To explore and experience all the beauty of the "roof of Y Ty" of this Northwest Mountain, you should schedule a 2-day 1, night departure from Sapa town. Here is the detailed schedule for your reference:

Day 1: Sapa - Muong Khum - Phin Ho - Lao Than shack

When coming to Sapa, you should choose the bus from 10-11 am the night before to sleep and come to Sapa around 4-5 am. Suitable for a new journey of discovery. The specific schedule for the first day is as follows:

6h: Start from Sapa to Muong Khum - Phin Ho (Y Ty).

10:30: Arrive at Phin Ho, rest, and have lunch.

12h: Meet Porter and send things to start the journey

1:30: Start climbing Lao Than Mountain.

17h30: Arrive at the shack, set up a tent, and prepare dinner.

Day 2: Shack  mountain top  Phin Ho

The road from the foot of the mountain to the top is only about 8km (up and down, about 16km). However, to ensure health, you should climb for 2 days and 1 night to rest and experience the natural space here. The second day of conquering the roof of Y Ty begins:

5 am: Wake up, clean up and have breakfast

6h: Arrive at the top of Lao Than Mountain. At this time, you can experience cloud hunting and watch the sunrise during the day.

8:00 am: Start moving down to the shack

9h30: Clean up tents and equipment in the shack to move down the mountain.

14h: Down to the foot of Lao Than mountain, rest, eat.

16h: Experience the bustling market of the Northwest mountains.

20h: Move back to Hanoi

Also read: Trekking Pu Si Lung Mountain in Lai Chau has a dreamy view and beautiful sightseeing  Vietnam News - Latest Updates and World Insights | Vietreader.com

7. The cost of climbing Lao Than mountain

Not as expensive as traveling to Da Lat or Da Nang, but coming to this unspoiled and peaceful Northwest land, you will experience "away from the city's smog", blending in with the nature of the mountains. And the cost of traveling to Lao Than is also extremely cheap, here are the necessary expenses for the trip that you can refer to:

- Bus fare from Hanoi - Lao Cai: 500,000/person (round trip ticket)

- Motorbike rental: 300,000/2 people/car

- Porter rental: 500,000/person porter

- Meal fee: 400,000/person (including lunch, snacks and accommodation at the shack)

- Money generated: 100,000 VND

=> Total reference cost is bout: 1,200,000 - 1,500,000 VND depending on the number of people.

Indeed, the experience of climbing Lao Than mountain and conquering the roof of Y Ty is an interesting experience of this dreamy, peaceful, but also very wild land. The above mountain climbing experiences will help you have a great discovery trip.
Thach Nguyen is a recruitment specialist at Japfa Vietnam, a supplier of animal feed products from Indonesia with a network of livestock and poultry facilities situated throughout the country.

Nguyen is constantly hunting for new workers, even though Japfa's average salary is around VND10.2 million ($430) per month, considered above the norm compared to other employers in the area.

For every 100 new hires, 100 people quit. The most difficult farms to recruit for are in Hanoi, Bac Giang, and Nam Dinh because workers prefer to work in industrial zones rather than as livestock workers," said Nguyen.

According to Nguyen Tam Trang, chief people officer at GREENFEED Vietnam, the company is seeking as many as 2,000 employees in addition to the 4,000 currently working at the group's subsidiaries. Positions related to animal husbandry and veterinary medicine are always in high demand, Trang said.

This shortage in human resources is a difficulty shared by many other firms in the agricultural sector, leaving many in the industry unable to meet demand and fulfill contracts on time.

Most of the talent pool is untrained, with little experience of the latest technical and economic models," added Trang.

Meanwhile, the number of people studying majors in agriculture is decreasing. According to statistics from the Ministry of Education and Training, there were only 7,100 students enrolled in agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and veterinary medicine in 2022, accounting for 1.4 per cent of the total number of students enrolled across 25 training fields.

At a conference on cooperation in training and human resource development in agriculture, organised by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) two weeks ago, Ngo Hong Giang, director of the ministry's Organisation and Personnel Department, said that the primary and short-term vocational training system for the sector has fallen short, with some schools reaching only half of the registered target.

"Several traditional industries, such as agricultural extension, fishing, and forest resource management have little to no registered students," said Giang.

According to MARD, the cause of the situation is that the income of agricultural workers remains low, about half of what is available to workers in the industrial, construction, and service sectors.

Sadly, the desire for jobs in agriculture among graduates is very low. They are simply better opportunities in other industries, said Nguyen Trung Anh, director of Research and Sustainable Development of The PAN Group.

The challenges of building a sustainable agricultural labour force have led businesses to spend significant resources on an effective cooperation model with universities and training institutions in the hope of creating a new pipeline of high-quality human resources for the future.

GREENFEED is actively cooperating with more than 40 universities and colleges to implement programmes to award scholarships, sponsor scientific research activities, and create internship opportunities for more than 400 interns each year. The initiative also organises factory tours, soft skills training, and sharing sessions between GREENFEED leaders and students.

Another enterprise, Asia Ingredients Group (AIG), signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Can Tho University last year to cooperate in training high-quality human resources and create opportunities for students to experience on the job training at AIG member companies.

According to the MARD, by 2025, the market will need 10,000 agricultural managers, 80,000 agricultural cooperative staff, 100,000 trained farmers, and 60,000 technicians.
According to a report on the Assessment of the Implementation of Resolution No.24-NQ/TW by the Department of Climate Change under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment that was released at the end of July, the financial requirements to implement climate change response targets in Vietnam are enormous.

At the Extended G7 Summit in May, where the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals were discussed, Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh implored developed nations to assist in responding to climate change and sea level rises in the Mekong Delta.

The prime minister believes that the efficient mobilisation and application of resources is a crucial element of sustainable development.

PM Chinh proposed an innovative strategy for mobilising a range of financial sources, with an emphasis on public-private partnerships, blended financing involving private sector participation, and foreign investment.

According to the Vietnam Country Climate and Development Report, released by the World Bank (WB) in July 2022, Vietnam lost approximately $10 billion, or 3.2 per cent of its GDP, in 2020 due to climate impacts.

The nation has quadrupled its per-person greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions this century. By 2050, the total economic cost of climate change in Vietnam is projected to reach $523 billion.

The country is implementing a green transition and reducing GHG emissions as it approaches the status of a high-income nation whose carbon intensity must be reduced. The WB report advises Vietnam to prioritise investments to mitigate the effects of climate change.

Vietnams climate change strategy must be sped up The Vietnamese government is urging ministries to expedite the formulation of actions to materialise the national climate change strategy enacted last year, with a highlight on measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Enhanced awareness and efforts from businesses to reach climate goals Drawing on the private sectors know-how, influence, and scale to bridge the gap to a more equitable and sustainable future, the global economy can continue to grow while reaching the climate goals and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
A wind power project in Bac Lieu province. (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi - Relevant authorities need to have preferential policies regarding prices and tax rates, and those providing support for investors in accessing loans for renewable energy projects, said insiders.

Renewable energy plays a crucial role and is an essential requirement for sustainable development. However, in recent years, after the boom in solar and wind power, many clean energy projects have almost come to a standstill.

According to Nguyen Viet Dung, Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of Halcom Vietnam, it is also necessary to soon perfect the legal framework, including guiding documents for implementing the National Power Development Plan VIII (PDP8), incentive mechanisms, direct power purchase and sale contracts for projects, so that investors can have a basis for calculation and investment preparation.

Policies for renewable energy development are not really clear, especially in negotiations of electricity purchase and sale contracts, and electricity selling prices, Dung said.

He added that there are no documents and regulations guiding the implementation of renewable energy projects after the approval of PDP8; and at the same time, preferential policies are currently not attractive to foreign investors.

Nguyen Anh Tuan from the Vietnam Energy Association said there are three significant challenges that impact the energy transition in Vietnam, including future electricity pricing, demand for load balancing, and building green hydrogen strategy.

The legal framework has allowed all economic sectors to invest in the transmission grid, but there are no legal documents guiding the implementation, Tuan said.

He underlined the need to study and issue a detailed Renewable Energy Law soon, focusing regulations on promoting Vietnam's energy transition in the near future.

Supporting mechanisms and policies must be detailed in the law to ensure stable and long-term support for sustainable and reasonable energy transition in the country, he said.

The Government's supportive mechanisms and policies in recent times have led to a remarkable leap in the development of renewable energy in Vietnam, said insiders.

From having a negligible capacity in 2018, renewable energy sources now account for about 30% of the total capacity in the national power system.

According to international recommendations, countries that pursue low-carbon development strategies will have more opportunities to access resources for economic development in the 21st century.

Experts said that Vietnams mechanisms to encourage the development of renewable energy have not yet shown a long-term orientation, and many policies remain inadequate.

Financial institutions and commercial banks often hesitate to provide loans for renewable energy projects due to the high capital requirements and risks involved.

Energy expert Nguyen Van Vy said that the renewable energy market needs clear policies and legal procedures to attract more attention from investors.

Vietnamese province advocates for renewable energy law Representatives from Gia Lai province emphasised the urgency of enacting a dedicated Renewable Energy Law to overcome regulatory challenges and promote sustainable growth in the country's renewable energy sector.
Central Retail Vietnam last week launched its subsidiary Come Home brand, positioning it as a comprehensive solution for interior decoration. The move marks a significant foray into Vietnams non-food business sector for the Thai-led company, with the first store located at SC VivoCity Shopping Centre in Ho Chi Minh City.

Diverse retail players turn heads towards interior design, illustration photo/ Source: freepik.com

Come Home is set to play a vital role in the companys ambitious $1 billion investment strategy, targeting Vietnams thriving interior decor market.

Operating under a one-stop-shop model, Come Home offers customers a diverse range of options to curate and furnish their homes. The inaugural store showcases meticulously designed rooms, each representing various areas of a residence and crafted in three distinct styles and price points.

With a vast ecosystem of renowned brands such as GO!, Tops Market, Family Mart, Lan Chi, and Nguyen Kim, Central Retail is attempting to solidify its position as one of Vietnams retail powerhouses.

According to Central Retails estimation, the domestic markets revenue in 2022 amounted to approximately $1.25 billion, with a projected surge to surpass the $1.4 billion mark by the end of this year. It expects an estimated compound annual growth rate of nearly 10 per cent in the market for the 2023-2027 period.

Notably, the living room furniture segment emerges as a frontrunner, poised to generate substantial revenue of $523 million this year. Equally promising, the bedroom furniture and decorative items categories showcase a robust upward trajectory, the company said.

Amid the backdrop of global economic headwinds and waning purchasing power, Vietnams interior decor market is continuing to witness strong demand, which is propelled by an upswing in modern aesthetics and personalised home environments.

We have meticulously prepared for this launch over a span of two years, aiming to spearhead Vietnams interior decor market, said a spokesperson from Central Retail.

Other players in the furniture industry are making strategic moves. JYSK, a modern retail space offering a wide range of Scandinavian-style furniture and home decor products, in late June opened a new centre in Hanoi, providing customers with a convenient and visually appealing shopping experience.

With over 1,000 diverse products on display, including furniture, bedding, lighting, and outdoor essentials, JYSK has been bringing the essence of Nordic living closer to Vietnamese consumers since 2015.

With 12 stores across major cities and a well-established online presence, JYSK Vietnam is committed to delivering the best shopping experience with guaranteed quality, reasonable prices, ease of purchase, and attentive customer service, the company said in its statement.

While Vietnamese products are highly sought after in discerning international markets such as the United States, European Union, and Japan, they remain relatively underrepresented in the domestic market, according to Phung Hoa Cuong, CEO of FURNILAND Furniture.

This is due to a predominant focus on exports by local manufacturers and represents a missed opportunity for Vietnam, considering its status as the second-largest wooden furniture exporter in Asia. Making these globally recognised products available domestically would quickly garner significant market share, Cuong said.

Trang Le, a freelancer marketing consultant based in Ho Chi Minh City, told VIR that a list of prominent furniture brands, ranging from mid-range to high-end, offers a distinct style and catering to various preferences.

There are a few top furniture brands known for their quality, such as A Concept, Baya, MOHO, JYSK, Nha Xinh, Index Living Mall, Chilai, and Sonder Living, to name a few, Le said.

Even well-established corporations are acknowledging the constantly evolving furniture industry.

Capping off nearly three decades of growth, Hoa Phat Furniture JSC, a subsidiary of steelmaker Hoa Phat Group, embarked on a strategic brand repositioning initiative at the beginning of 2022.

Under its new moniker, The One Furniture, the company unveiled an invigorated slogan and a fresh visual identity, aiming to communicate its comprehensive vision for future development.
Some companies are placing wider focus on manufacturing office attire, photo Le Toan

Statista, a German online data platform, last week estimated that despite difficulties affecting consumer budgets, revenue in the Vietnamese fashion market is projected to reach $1.88 billion in 2023, and show an annual growth rate of 11.36 per cent, resulting in a projected market volume of $2.88 billion by 2027.

Many local and foreign fashion brands are using the latest technologies for promotion in Vietnam, creating big competition, said Nguyen Viet Ha, an expert from the Ministry of Industry and Trades Department for Science and Technology.

More than 200 medium and high-end foreign fashion brands such as Chanel, Giovanni, Mango, Zara, H&M, Uniqlo, Warehouse, Topshop, CK, Nike, and Levis have arrived in the market and continuously expanded their retail systems in recent years.

In May, UNIQLO Vietnam announced the opening of a new store in Hanois Cau Giay district, with the number of the companys stores in Vietnam rising to 19. In just over six months, the Japanese fashion brand has launched six new stores, and another new store in the southern province of Binh Duong is set to open imminently.

Osamu Ikezoe, general director of UNIQLO Vietnam, said, Our three years of development, in terms of physical stores and an online store, has been a memorable journey. We have achieved our targets in opening retail stores in Vietnam so far. This inspires us to continuously open and even increase the speed of opening new stores to meet such strong demand.

Elsewhere, H&M, which launched its first store in Vietnam in 2017, is now present in five provinces and cities across the country with 12 stores. Last month, the brand launched an online store in the Vietnam market.

At the end of 2022, a South Korean brand for young people, MLB, consecutively opened three big stores in Ho Chi Minh City and the central city of Danang. To date, the brand has 18 stores nationwide. Japans AEON Retail Group recently also launched My Closet, a cheap fast fashion brand, in this country.

According to Statista, the garment and textile industry in Vietnam is forecast to reach $7.33 billion by 2025 and there is still plenty of room for growth.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade reported that the Vietnamese retail market is worth $142 billion, which is expected to increase to $350 billion by 2025, contributing to 59 per cent of the countrys GDP.

To reduce dependence on export orders, enterprises are paying more attention to capturing domestic market share. However, local enterprises are facing fierce competition with foreign fashion brands.

In recent years, some top fashion manufacturers in the country, such as Garment 10, Duc Giang, Viet Tien, Nha Be, and Viet Thang have focused on researching and releasing a variety of product lines with assorted designs, categories, and brand promotion to conquer the local market. To utilise the domestic market, Garment 10 focuses on office fashion and high-end fashion for both women and men, and has opened a chain of both online and offline retail stores.

We are proud to have self-designed and manufactured products and have a market research team that constantly updates fashion trends and new technologies in the fashion industry, said Than Duc Viet, CEO of Garment 10. Moreover, we are also interested in manufacturing office uniforms for local enterprises such as VietinBank, An Binh Bank, and the State Treasury.

Other local players like Viet Tien, Nha Be, and Viet Thang are also investing in the local market, expanding to increase market share, enhance business performance, and deliver products to customers.

At present, it is a favourable time for textile and garments enterprises to utilise the domestic market. Because 10 years ago, Vietnamese consumers preferred ready-made garments originating from abroad due to their low prices, and now most of them are choosing high-quality products from Vietnamese brands, said Cao Huu Hieu, CEO of Vietnam Textile and Garment Group.

Vu Duc Giang, chairman of the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association, said that the domestic market with a scale of nearly $5 billion was being targeted by domestic enterprises by changing and applying new designs and advertisements to conquer the market and take market share from foreign players.

We will continue to stand side by side and support businesses, as well as coordinate with international organisations to support them in governance, green transformation, new technology, branding, and trade promotion, in their fight against foreign brands, Giang said.
Nguyen Duc Anh, senior associate, Dentons LuatViet

Merger control generally refers to the process of reviewing economic concentrations in accordance with competition regulations. It is adopted to prevent anti-competitive effects of such economic concentrations and has ex-ante regimes, meaning that competition authority must conduct their review prior to the completion of economic concentrations.

The primary merger control legislations in Vietnam are the Law on Competition and Decree No.35/2020/ND-CP dated March 2020 providing guidelines to the Law on Competition 2018. The law stipulates, inter alia, the definition of economic concentration, notification thresholds, dossier requirements, the review process, and violations of the merger control regime.

The Vietnam Competition Commission (VCC), which was established in April 2023, is Vietnams principal competition authority. Under the purview of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the VCC assumes the functions of overseeing the merger control regime and imposing fines and remedies accordingly.

In the context of "economic concentration," this term encompasses various transactions such as mergers, acquisitions, consolidations, and joint ventures.

A merger refers to the transfer of assets, rights, obligations, and interests from one or more enterprises to another, resulting in the termination of the merging entity's business activities or existence. An acquisition involves the direct or indirect purchase of sufficient capital or assets of another enterprise to gain control or governance over the acquired entity or its business lines.

Control or governance is established when the acquiring enterprise meets specific criteria, such as obtaining more than half of the target's charter capital or voting shares, ownership or right to use over half of the target's assets in a business line, or certain rights over the target's decision-making processes.

Consolidation occurs when two or more enterprises transfer all their assets, rights, obligations, and interests to form a new entity, simultaneously terminating the business activities or existence of the consolidating enterprises.

Lastly, a joint venture refers to multiple enterprises contributing assets, rights, obligations, and interests to establish a new enterprise.

However, Vietnamese competition regulations do not provide any explicit exemptions to transactions that inherently raise no competition concerns and should not be subject to merger filing requirements.

For instance, internal restructuring transactions within enterprises under the control of the same ultimate parent (intra-group transaction) pursuant to which it does not change the control of such group on the relevant market. Another example is that foreign to foreign economic concentrations with no local nexus (e.g., where the target does not generate any revenue on Vietnam market). These transactions are unlikely to raise any competition concerns, but might still trigger merger filing requirements if any notification thresholds are met.

As such, a merger filing requirement is triggered when an economic concentration reaches or exceeds any notification thresholds. All enterprises to the transaction must jointly submit a merger filing dossier to the VCC.

In addition, there are other legislations governing economic concentrations in particular industries. These provisions do not override merger control regulations under the Law on Competition; rather, they exist alongside the law.

Specifically, in the insurance industry, an enterprise must obtain written approval from the Ministry of Finance if it transfers shares or contributed capital resulting in a shareholder holding at least or less than 10 per cent of the companys charter capital; restructures by way of division, merger, consolidation, dissolution, or conversion of legal form.

For credit institutions, they must obtain written approval from the State Bank of Vietnam if it is restructured by method of division, demerger, consolidation, merger, acquisition, or conversion of legal form.

With respect to telecommunications, prior to economic concentration, telecommunications enterprises that have a combined market share of 30-50 per cent on the relevant market must notify the Ministry of Information and Communications.

Singapore's GIC sets sights on Vietnam, India, and Indonesia Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, GIC, is shifting its investment strategy to focus more on emerging markets like India, Indonesia, and Vietnam. The move was prompted by escalating tensions between the United States and China in a bid to navigate potential trade and capital flow restrictions.

Concocting a defensive M&A strategy to build resilience Todays economic situation can be a catalyst for opportunity through mergers and acquisitions to facilitate businesses to build resilience. Le Viet Anh Phong, financial advisory lead at Deloitte Vietnam, spoke with VIRs Luu Huong about the strategies expected to prevail this year.
Nguyen Quoc Khanh, chairman of the Handicraft and Wood Industry Association of Ho Chi Minh City (HAWA), stated on July 28 that businesses need to re-evaluate their product lines to bring growth back to Vietnam's wooden furniture export market.

In the last two months, the purchase of new, updated, and repaired homes has increased in the major import markets such as the United States and the EU, indicating an increase in demand for interior and exterior wooden products.

However, over the first six months of 2023, orders at timber processing companies fell by an average of 30 per cent, according to HAWA data.

Thien Minh Trade Co., Ltd.'s export sales have slowed, according to the company's vice president Tran Lam Son.

However, he stated, "We have already received orders from the German and Dutch markets. Also, in the US, our associates have depleted their stocks as consumers are resuming their shopping habits."

According to Son, consumers have changed their mind regarding purchases and the order quantity has decreased. The delivery time has also dropped to 4560 days, rather than the 7090 days seen previously. European buyers are placing a greater emphasis on product origin, and Americans prefer products from plantations priced between $300 and $750.

If it seeks out opportunities in new markets, Vietnam's timber processing industry can still return to the global market.

Tran Nhu Trang, a representative of the Swiss Import Promotion Programme (SIPPO), encourages businesses to seek out more opportunities in markets such as Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea, and India, with a particular emphasis on the Middle East.

According to the Vietnam Trade Office in the United Arab Emirates, the annual growth rate of furniture demand in Gulf Cooperation Council countries exceeds 45 per cent. Consumers are interested in Vietnamese furniture; in the first four months of the year, Vietnam's exports of timber and furniture to the UAE surpassed $11 million, up 38 per cent from the same period in 2022.

"The industry must restructure its product segment to match the needs of each market," said Trang.

According to SIPPO data, market demand is shifting towards products made with novel wood materials, engineered wood (3D-printed wood), and timber that is entirely traceable.

Over the last three years, the industry has encountered difficulties as factories have had to reduce capacity and labour, with many businesses becoming insolvent and being forced to pay back their debts.

According to the General Statistics Office, the export value of timber and wooden products in the first half of 2023 is estimated at $6 billion, a decline of 28.8 per cent from the same period in 2022.

Wood industry striving to regain growth momentum Having undergone numerous hardships, businesses in the wood industry are showing great resilience with a high level of adaption and flexibility to regain their growth momentum.
Delegates at the signing cooperation agreement ceremony between Quang Tri's Department of Foreign Affairs and the Thai Business Association in Vietnam. (Photo: VNA)

Quang Tri - A conference to boost trade cooperation between Vietnam and Thailand as well as between Quang Tri and Thai localities was held in the central province of Quang Tri from August 3-4.

Meet Thailand, the first of its kind, was organised by the provincial Peoples Committee, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Thai Embassy in Vietnam to mark the 47th founding anniversary of diplomatic relations (1976-2023) and 10 years of strategic partnership between Vietnam and Thailand.

Addressing the event, Chairman of the provincial Peoples Committee Vo Van Hung said the province has always paid attention to expanding regional connectivity to promote advantages of localities along the East-West Economic Corridor.

Hung acknowledged that Quang Tri and Thailands Mukdahan provinces established their friendship relations nearly 20 years ago. The ties are expected to be strengthened and elevated in the time ahead.

Besides, a Memorandum of Understanding on establishing friendship relations between Quang Tri and Ubon Ratchathani provinces is scheduled to sign in 2023, thereby opening up new opportunities and development steps in their ties, he said.

Hung noted that the event was a forum for localities and businesses of both sides to exchange and seek investment cooperation. Quang Tri will create the most favourable conditions for Thai investors investing in the province, especially in the areas of industry, tourism, hi-tech agriculture, port and logistics services, among others.

For his part, Thai Ambassador to Vietnam Nikorndej Balankura revealed that the event shared ideas about renewable energy and hi-tech agriculture as well as orientations in bolstering supply chain through the East-West Economic Corridor, hence lifting Thailand and Vietnams roles in the cooperative framework of the Greater Mekong Subregion and the Ayeyawady - Chao Phraya - Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy (ACMECS).

The ambassador also expected that the event will enhance connectivity between Thailand and Vietnam in various fields, thus creating momentum for the two countries to reach their trade target of 25 billion USD by 2025 and helping Thailand to become the fifth biggest investor in Vietnam in 2024.

Several activities were held during the two-day event, including a display of photos of culture, tourism, investment promotion and outstanding products of Quang Tri, and fact-finding tours of economic and cultural establishment in the province, and business-to-business matching sessions between Vietnamese and Thai businesses.

Quang Tri calls for investors in the terminated $2.35 billion thermal power plant Quang Tri Peoples Committee has proposed solutions for alternative investment capital for the $2.35 billion thermal power plant, which currently faces termination.

Thai investor suspends $2.3 billion thermal power plant project in Quang Tri Thai International Power Company (EGATi) has submitted a document to Vietnams Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) regarding the suspension of the Quang Tri Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) Thermal Power Plant project.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP)  Louisville police officers fatally shot a man after responding to reports of shots fired Thursday night.

Police Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel said officers arrived on scene at 10 p.m. near Frankfort Avenue, a popular residential area dotted with eateries adjacent to downtown Louisville. About 20 minutes later, officers said over the radio that shots were being fired at them. Shortly thereafter, officers reported that the subject had been shot and was down, Gwinn-Villaroel said.

Police treated the man at the scene and he was transported to University of Louisville hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Gwinn-Villaroel said the suspect was a white man in his 30s, but did not otherwise identify him. No one else was hurt.

Gwinn-Villaroel, who became the city's full-time chief late last month, spoke to reporters near the scene Thursday night. She took no questions but said further information may be available on Friday.
Flags waved and tears of joy flowed Friday as a Waco federal judge swore in 36 U.S. citizens, in a naturalization ceremony that is expected to become a tradition.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Derek Gilliland administered the oath of citizenship Friday at the federal courthouse, and Waco Mayor Dillon Meek was on hand to greet and welcome the new citizens.

Gilliland, who has been on the federal bench since last year, sees the need for naturalization ceremonies and would like to do more.

We were taught how to conduct naturalization ceremonies in my new judge training, Gilliland said Friday. At a judicial conference earlier this year, my colleagues from the new judge training mentioned what a moving experience it had been to conduct a naturalization ceremony. I hadnt done one.

Gilliland said he asked around the federal courthouse in Waco among staff, clerks and security personnel who had worked there for many years and no one could remember the last time such a ceremony was conducted at the courthouse.

Some of the staff in the clerks offices and marshals security personnel have been here for 15 years, and none of them could remember the last time we had a naturalization ceremony at the courthouse, Gilliland said.

U.S. District Judge Walter Smith Jr. in December 2005 presided over a naturalization ceremony for 29 56th Brigade servicemembers from seven countries, according to a Tribune-Herald article from the time.

The new judge said this ceremony is one of the most inspiring and positive things he can do as a federal magistrate judge. He said it was great to see the excitement on the faces of the people about to become citizens.

Theres a need for more of these naturalization ceremonies, and I would like to do more than one each year, Gilliland said.

He credited the success of the event to clerks, court staff, Citizenship and Immigration Services personnel and U.S. Marshals Service security personnel.

Gilliland presided over two ceremonies the Citizenship and Immigration Services conducted Friday to swear in new citizens who came originally from 10 countries. Meek also welcomed the new citizens into the American family.

One of the newly sworn citizens, Xue Li Dong, 79, of Waco, took the oath in the second ceremony. He came to the U.S. from Shanghai, China, 17 years ago. Celebrating with him were family members who were already citizens: his wife, his son and his sons wife.

Im so very happy and proud to be an American citizen now, Xue Li Dong said in a Chinese dialect, interpreted by his son Liang Dong, a Baylor University faculty member.

A mechanical engineer for decades in Shanghai, Xue Li Dong retired a few years ago and now volunteers with a Chinese church in Waco.

Xue Li Dong and all the new citizens took classes to learn the history and laws of the U.S. and passed an exam before they could take the oath to become naturalized.

Inspiration

Calling the ceremonies incredibly moving, Meek said it was an honor to welcome the new citizens into the American family.

I found myself overcome with emotion, Meek said. To see so many incredible individuals in the room, reminded me that America is an amazing country of hope and promise.

The naturalization ceremonies represent the promise of America, Meek said.

People come to this country for opportunity and freedom, Meek said. I could see in their eyes the patriotism and hope and excitement at becoming American citizens.

Sometimes people who were born and raised in the U.S. take the opportunities and freedoms they have as Americans for granted, Meek said.

And then we see these people take the oath with joy, swearing to defend our country, Meek said.

The mayor was impressed by the large number of friends and relatives who joined each of the new citizens to celebrate their naturalization. Meek said his hope and prayer is that each of the new citizens will be able to enjoy the prosperity and fulfillment offered here.

Naturalization

There is more to becoming a citizen than passing the exam, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The process of naturalization begins with being issued a green card, now officially known as a Permanent Resident Card.

People typically become eligible for green cards through close family relations who are adult citizens, or by working in a job with specialized skills.

In most cases, people who have held a green card for at least five years, not travelled outside the U.S. for a period of longer than 12 months, not committed a serious crime and meet other requirements can apply for the interview and the exam.

Those who are at least 18 years old, who pass the interview and the naturalization exam that covers U.S. history and government principles may apply for naturalization.

Naturalized citizens account for about 2% of McLennan Countys population, according to 5-year estimates from the U.S. Census Bureaus 2021 American Community Survey.

Out of an estimated 5,971 naturalized U.S. citizens in this county, about two-thirds were from Latin America, 21% from Asia, 9% from Europe and 4% from Africa, according to the survey.
PORTLAND, Ore.  A woman who escaped her kidnapper by punching her way out of a homemade cinder block cell at a home in southern Oregon likely saved other women from a similar fate, authorities said, by alerting them to a man they now suspect in sexual assaults in at least four more states.

Negasi Zuberi posed as an undercover police officer when he kidnapped the woman in Seattle, drove hundreds of miles to his home in Klamath Falls and locked her in the garage cell until she bloodied her hands breaking the door to escape, the FBI said Wednesday.

Zuberi, 29, faces federal charges that include interstate kidnapping, and authorities said they are looking for additional victims after linking him to the other assaults. Authorities have not yet said publicly in which states those attacks took place.

"This woman was kidnapped, chained, sexually assaulted, and locked in a cinderblock cell," Stephanie Shark, the assistant special agent in charge of the FBI's Portland field office, said in a news release. "Police say she beat the door with her hands until they were bloody in order to break free. Her quick thinking and will to survive may have saved other women from a similar nightmare."

After the woman escaped from his home in Klamath Falls, Zuberi fled the city of roughly 22,000 people but was arrested by state police in Reno, Nevada, the next afternoon, the FBI said.

Court records did not yet list an attorney who might speak on Zuberi's behalf. He has not yet been assigned a public defender in Oregon as he's still being transferred from Nevada, which can take several weeks, said Kevin Sonoff, a spokesperson for the U.S. attorney's office in Oregon.

A grand jury in Portland on Wednesday returned an indictment charging Zuberi with interstate kidnapping and transporting an individual across state lines with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity. He could face up to life in prison if convicted.

According to the FBI, Zuberi also went by the names Sakima, Justin Hyche and Justin Kouassi, and he has lived in multiple states since 2016, possibly including California, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Utah, Florida, New York, New Jersey, Alabama, and Nevada.

According to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Oregon, Zuberi solicited the woman, identified only as Adult Victim 1, in the early-morning hours of July 15 to engage in prostitution along Aurora Avenue in Seattle, an area known for sex work. Afterward, Zuberi told the woman he was an undercover officer, showed her a badge, pointed a stun gun at her and placed her in handcuffs and leg irons before putting her in the back of his vehicle, the complaint says.

He then drove to his home, stopping along the way to sexually assault her, the complaint says. When they arrived about seven hours after he first encountered her in Seattle, he put her in the makeshift cell built from cinder blocks with a door of metal bars and said he was leaving to do paperwork.

The woman "briefly slept and awoke to the realization that she would likely die if she did not attempt to escape," the complaint says.

She managed to break some of the door's welded joints, creating a small opening which she climbed through, Klamath Falls Police Capt. Rob Reynolds said at a news conference.

"She repeatedly punched the door with her own hands," Reynolds said. "She had several lacerations along her knuckles."

The victim opened Zuberi's vehicle which was in the garage, grabbed his gun and fled, leaving blood on a wooden fence she climbed over to escape, the complaint says. She flagged down a passing driver, who called 911.

Two Nevada State Patrol officers tracked Zuberi down at a Walmart parking lot in Reno the next day, July 16, the complaint says. He was in his car holding one of his children in the front seat while talking to his wife, who was standing outside the vehicle. He initially refused to get out of the car when the officers asked and instead cut himself with a sharp object and tried to destroy his phone, according to the complaint. Zuberi eventually surrendered, and the child wasn't harmed.

Investigators interviewed Zuberi's wife and neighbors, but authorities declined to say if there was any indication that any of them had been aware of the abduction.

A search of Zuberi's home and garage turned up the Seattle woman's purse and handwritten notes, according to investigators. One of them was labeled "Operation Take Over" and included a bullet list with entries that read, "Leave phone at home" and "Make sure they don't have a bunch of ppl (sic) in their life. You don't want any type of investigation."

Another handwritten document appeared to include a rough sketch for an underground structure using concrete blocks, foam insulation and waterproof concrete.

The FBI said Zuberi may have used other methods of gaining control of women, including drugging their drinks. The agency said it was setting up a website asking anyone who believes they may have been a victim to come forward.

The Klamath Falls rental home where Zuberi allegedly took the woman is owned by the city's mayor, Carol Westfall, and her husband, Kevin, according to property records. The house backs onto a park and is on a residential street, less than a quarter-mile (half a kilometer) from a highway.

Court records show that after Zuberi's arrest, the couple had him evicted.

"We are shocked and dismayed by what has occurred," the Westfalls, who declined to comment on their interactions with Zuberi, said in an email. "We applaud the actions of the woman who helped capture this person and prevent him from committing further atrocities."
WASHINGTON (AP)  Donald Trump was indicted on felony charges Tuesday for working to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the run-up to the violent riot by his supporters at the U.S. Capitol, with the Justice Department acting to hold him accountable for an unprecedented effort to block the peaceful transfer of presidential power and threaten American democracy.

The four-count indictment, the third criminal case against Trump, provided deeper insight into a dark moment that has already been the subject of exhaustive federal investigations and captivating public hearings. It chronicles a months-long campaign of lies about the election results and says that, even when those falsehoods resulted in a chaotic insurrection at the Capitol, Trump sought to exploit the violence by pointing to it as a reason to further delay the counting of votes that sealed his defeat.

Even in a year of rapid-succession legal reckonings for Trump, Tuesdays indictment, with charges including conspiring to defraud the United States government that he once led, was stunning in its allegations that a former president assaulted the bedrock function of democracy. Its the first time the defeated president, who is the early front-runner for next year's Republican presidential nomination, is facing legal consequences for his frantic but ultimately failed effort to cling to power.

The attack on our nations Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy, said Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith, whose office has spent months investigating Trump. It was fueled by lies, lies by the defendant targeted at obstructing a bedrock function of the U.S. government: the nations process of collecting, counting and certifying the results of the presidential election.

The Trump campaign called the charges fake and asked why it took two-and-a-half years to bring them.

Trump was the only person charged in Tuesday's indictment. But prosecutors obliquely referenced a half-dozen co-conspirators, including lawyers inside and outside of government who they said had worked with Trump to undo the election results. They also advanced legally dubious schemes to enlist slates of fake electors in battleground states won by Democrat Joe Biden to falsely claim that Trump had actually won them.

The indictment accuses the defeated president and his allies of trying to exploit the violence and chaos by calling lawmakers into the evening on Jan. 6 to delay the certification of Bidens victory.

It also cites handwritten notes from former Vice President Mike Pence that give gravitas to Trumps relentless goading to reject the electoral votes. Pence, who is challenging Trump for the GOP presidential nomination, declined overtures from a House panel that investigated the insurrection and sought to avoid testifying before the special counsel. He appeared only after losing a court fight, with prosecutors learning that Trump in one conversation derided him as too honest to stop the certification.

Trump is due in court Thursday, the first step in a legal process that will play out in a courthouse situated between the White House he once controlled and the Capitol his supporters once stormed. The case is already being dismissed by the former president and his supporters  and even some of his rivals  as just another politically motivated prosecution.

Yet the case stems from one of the most serious threats to American democracy in modern history.

The indictment centers on the turbulent two months after the November 2020 election in which Trump refused to accept his loss and spread lies that victory was stolen from him. The turmoil resulted in the riot at the Capitol, when Trump loyalists violently broke into the building, attacked police officers and disrupted the congressional counting of electoral votes.

In between the election and the riot, Trump urged local election officials to undo voting results in their states, pressured Pence to halt the certification of electoral votes and falsely claimed that the election had been stolen  a notion repeatedly rejected by judges. Among those lies, prosecutors say, were claims that more than 10,000 dead voters had voted in Georgia along with tens of thousands of double votes in Nevada. Each claim had been rebutted by courts or state or federal officials, the indictment says.

Prosecutors say Trump knew his claims of having won the election were false but he "repeated and widely disseminated them anyway  to make his knowingly false claims appear legitimate, to create an intense national atmosphere of mistrust and anger, and to erode public faith in the administration of the election.

The document carefully outlined arguments that Trump has been making to defend his conduct, that he had every right to challenge the results, to use the courts, even to lie about it in the process. But in stark detail, the indictment outlines how the former president instead took criminal steps to reverse the clear verdict voters had rendered.

The indictment had been expected since Trump said in mid-July that the Justice Department had informed him he was a target of its investigation. A bipartisan House committee that spent months investigating the run-up to the Capitol riot also recommended prosecuting Trump on charges, including aiding an insurrection and obstructing an official proceeding.

The indictment includes charges of conspiring to defraud the U.S., conspiring to obstruct an official proceeding, obstructing an official proceeding and violating a post-Civil War Reconstruction Era civil rights statute that makes it a crime to conspire to violate rights that are guaranteed by the Constitution  in this case, the right to vote.

The mounting criminal cases are unfolding in the heat of the 2024 race. A conviction in this case, or any other, would not prevent Trump from pursuing the White House or serving as president, though Trump as president could theoretically appoint an attorney general to dismiss the charges or potentially try to pardon himself.

In New York, state prosecutors have charged Trump with falsifying business records about a hush money payoff to a porn actor before the 2016 election. The trial is set to begin in March.

In Florida, the Justice Department has brought more than three dozen felony counts, accusing him of illegally possessing classified documents after leaving the White House and concealing them from investigators. That trial begins in May.

Prosecutors in Georgia are also investigating efforts by Trump and his allies to reverse his election loss to Biden there. The district attorney of Fulton County is expected to announce charging decisions within weeks.

Smith's team has cast a broad net as part of his federal investigation, with his team questioning senior Trump administration officials, including Pence, before a grand jury in Washington. Prosecutors also interviewed election officials in Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan and other battleground states won by Biden who were pressured by the Trump team to change voting results.

Rudy Giuliani, a Trump lawyer who pursued post-election legal challenges, spoke voluntarily to prosecutors. Giuliani was not named in the indictment, but appears to match the description of one of the co-conspirators. A spokesman for Giuliani said Tuesday night that Trump had a good-faith basis for the actions he took.

Attorney General Merrick Garland last year appointed Smith, an international war crimes prosecutor who also led the Justice Departments public corruption section, as special counsel to investigate efforts to undo the election as well as Trumps retention of classified documents at his Florida home, Mar-a-Lago. Although Trump has derided him as deranged and called him politically motivated, Smiths past experience includes overseeing significant prosecutions against high-profile Democrats.

The Justice Departments investigations began well before Smiths appointment, proceeding alongside separate criminal probes into the rioters themselves. More than 1,000 people have been charged in connection with the insurrection, including some with seditious conspiracy.
PRESS RELEASE

The B-29 Doc History Restored Tour will travel west in September with tour stops in St. George, UT, and Chino, CA, September 7-18, 2023. The C-47 known as Thats AllBrother, the lead aircraft that delivered the first Allied troops to France on D-Day in 1944, will join B-29 Doc for both History Restored Tour stops.

B-29 Doc is one of only two B-29 Superfortress aircraft still airworthy and flying, and the Commemorative Air Force (CAF) Central Texas Wings C-47 Thats AllBrother place in history about its service to liberate France during World War II is a remarkable story, said Josh Wells, B-29 Doc executive director. Having both of these historic aircraft on the same ramp to showcase their stories, as well as to give people an up-close and personal experience with history, will be a unique opportunity.

Ride flight tickets for B-29 Doc and C-47 Thats AllBrother are on sale now for the tour events at St. George, UT, and Chino, CA. Information about rides and flight ticket purchasing can be found here: www.b29doc.com/rides and https://thatsallbrother.org/tour/.

Connecting the C-47 and its mission of delivering the first troops on D-Day, which led to Victory in Europe, with the mission of the B-29, which ultimately delivered victory over Japan, provides a one-of-a-kind experience for warbird and aviation enthusiasts, said Deena Clausen, CAF Central Texas Wing leader. Partnering with B-29 Doc to honor the Greatest Generation, while preserving our shared mission of keeping these warbirds flying, broadens our reach to allow even more people to see these historic aircraft.

Event Details for the B-29 Doc History Restored Tour and C-47 Thats AllBrother in St. George, UT

B-29 Doc will arrive at St. George Regional Airport (SGU) Thursday, Sept. 7, while C-47Thats AllBrother will arrive at SGU Friday, Sept. 8. The two aircraft will be hosted by the Western Sky Aviation Warbird Museum for the three-day event, Friday, Sept. 8 through Sunday, Sept. 10. Both will be available for ground and cockpit tours when they are not operating ride flights. The ramp will be open for public access Friday, Sept. 8 from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The hours on Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 9 and 10, for ground and cockpit tours will be from 12:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. both days, and will be subject to the aircraft ride schedules. Admission for the ground and cockpit tour event will be $10 per person and $20 per family with tickets available at the gate. Visitors can enter the St. George event through the Western Sky Aviation Warbird Museum, 4196 S. Airport Parkway, St. George, UT, 84790. Ride flight tickets are on sale now for both aircraft:

B-29 Doc: www.b29doc.com/rides

C-47 Thats AllBrother: https://thatsallbrother.org/tour/

Event Details for the B-29 Doc History Restored Tour and C-47 Thats AllBrother in Chino, CA at Yanks Air Museum

B-29 Doc and Thats AllBrother will arrive at Chino Airport, Monday, Sept. 11 and will be hosted by Yanks Air Museum. Both aircraft will be available for ground and cockpit tours beginning Wednesday, Sept. 13, Through Friday, Sept. 15, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., when they are not operating ride flights. The hours on Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 16 and 17 will be from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m., both days, and will be subject to the aircraft ride schedules. Admission for the static display event and flight deck tours will be $5 per person with the purchase of a Yanks Air Museum General Admission Ticket. For information about Yanks Air Museum, visit www.yanksair.com. Visitors can enter the Chino event through Yanks Air Museum, 15121 Stearman Drive, Chino, CA, 91710. Tickets for static ground and flight deck tours can be purchased at the event. Ride flight tickets are on sale now for both aircraft:

B-29 Doc: www.b29doc.com/rides

C-47 Thats AllBrother: https://thatsallbrother.org/tour/

About Docs Friends and B-29 Doc

Docs Friends, Inc., is a 501c3 non-profit board that owns and manages the operation of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress known as Doc. Doc is a B-29 Superfortress and one of 1,644 manufactured in Wichita during World War II. It is one of only two remaining B-29s that are still airworthy and flying today. The mission of Docs Friends is to HONOR the men and women who sacrificed so much for the freedom of others, including those who designed, built, maintained and flew the B-29 during and after WWII. CONNECT people with the rich heritage of the B-29 and allow aviation enthusiasts to experience the thrill of a B-29 up close. EDUCATE todays and future generations on the contributions of the Greatest Generation during wartime.

About the B-29 Doc History Restored Tour and B-29 Doc Flight Experience

Each year, B-29 Doc travels to cities across the United States to allow aviation enthusiasts a chance to B-29 Doc up-close and personal. Docs annual tour mission includes an average of 100 flight hours, beginning in early April and spanning through the summer until late October. Tour stops include ground and flight deck tours, as well as B-29 Doc Flight Experiences. The B-29 Doc Flight Experience will last approximately 90 minutes and includes a 30-minute ride. Prior to takeoff, passengers will experience a crew briefing and learn more about the history of the B-29 and the role it played in U.S. history. Passengers will also get to hear and see the sights and sounds of engine starts and run-ups prior to takeoff.

About Commemorative Air Force (CAF)

The CAF was founded to acquire, restore, and preserve in flying condition a complete collection of combat aircraft flown by all military services of the United States, as well as selected aircraft of other nations, for the education and enjoyment of present and future generations of Americans. More than just a collection of airworthy warplanes from the past, the CAFs fleet of 180 historic aircraft, known as the CAF Ghost Squadron, recreates, reminds, and reinforces the lessons learned from the defining moments in American military aviation history. More information at www.commemorativeairforce.org.

About the C-47A Thats All, Brother

Thats AllBrother was the C-47A troop carrier aircraft that led the Airborne Invasion on D-Day, June 6, 1944, carrying 101st Airborne Division paratroopers into France during the D-Day invasion. During the remainder of WWII, Thats All Brother served in Operation Dragoon, Market Garden, the Relief of Bastogne, and Operation Varsity. After the war, the aircraft was sold as surplus and its contribution to history was almost forgotten. In 2015, the CAF rescued the aircraft from a boneyard and completed restoration to its WWII configuration in 2018. In June 2019, it returned to England and France for the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of D-Day (flying over Omaha Beach on June 6, 2019) and plans to return to Europe for the 80th-anniversary commemorations in June 2024. More information at www.thatsallbrother.org.
WAVERLY  Cedar Valley parochial schools will see increased enrollment across the board for 2023-24 thanks to a new state program that pays students tuition with taxpayer dollars.

More than 18,000 Education Savings Accounts have been approved statewide so far to provide approximately $7,600 per student for those attending private schools.

But officials at those schools in Black Hawk and Bremer counties expect the overall changes to be low and slow.

Thats how Tamela Johnson, principal at St. Pauls Lutheran School in Waverly described it. The kindergarten through sixth-grade school will have approximately 150 students this fall with 90 children in its preschool program, the largest in the Waverly-Shell Rock area.

Johnson said thats not a drastic change for the school, where capacity currently sits at 175 students. However, the school will see a kindergarten class of 42 students, nearly double the standard class size of 20 to 23 students. The school has added a second section of kindergarten for the coming school year, hiring an additional teacher.

All of those kindergarten families were eligible to apply for ESA grants by June 30. Kindergarten is currently the only grade level where all students are automatically eligible for funding. For all other grades, students must be transferring in from a public school or must have a household income at or below 300% of the federal poverty level.

St. Pauls kindergarten class usually retains about 25% of the previous years preschool class. This year 40% are returning.

However, Johnson said it will be hard to tell until next year whether the enrollment increase is directly related to ESAs. She noted the vast majority of the incoming kindergarteners are from church families or have older siblings at the school. Just three of the incoming kindergarteners werent previously enrolled in the schools preschool program.

Johnson said aside from the increase in kindergarten enrollment, the school has three or four students transferring from public schools who will receive ESAs.

Seats filling

In January, the Legislature approved and Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law a bill creating ESAs. The accounts are state-funded private school vouchers through which families receive an amount equal to per-pupil state aid received by public school districts for individually registered students. The money can be used to cover private school tuition and other qualifying educational expenses.

The governors office reported approximately 9,000 spots available in Iowa private schools. More than 29,000 students applied to set up an account through the program.

The Cedar Valley is home to eight private schools. Other than St. Pauls, they include St. Patrick Catholic School and Valley Lutheran School in Cedar Falls; Waterloo Christian School, Cedar Valley Catholic Schools and Royal Legacy Christian Academy in Waterloo; the Bosco Catholic School System in Gilbertville and Raymond; and St. Athanasius School in Jesup.

The Courier contacted all of the schools for this story and gathered information from five of them. Phone or email messages left for Valley Lutheran, the Bosco system and St. Athanasius were not returned.

Waterloo Christian is expecting an enrollment increase of 35%, slightly above the rate of annual growth for the past five years. The school will welcome 90-100 new students for a total of 310 students this fall compared with its 350 student capacity. Ryan Hall, head of school, said due to current staffing and facility limitations, most grade levels have a wait pool and the school receives new inquiries from prospective families on a daily basis.

The school has been exploring ways to increase capacity and hopes to be able to double its capacity in the next three years, especially as ESA eligibility expands by the 2025-26 school year to include all K-12 students.

Other schools are sitting comfortably. As of June 15, Cedar Valley Catholic Schools had 718 students enrolled, up from 688 last school year. The three-school system has approximately 75 new students K-12, all of whom will receive ESAs.

Even with the increase, CVCS still has 253 available seats and Chief Administrator Tom Novotney said the system is more focused on filling the available seats it currently has than looking ahead at increasing capacity.

Tuition on the rise

The majority of area private schools experienced increases in tuition this school year that are largely on-par with standard tuition increases due to the rising cost of living and the cost to educate a child.

For St. Pauls families, the addition of ESAs already is impacting tuition at the kindergarten level.

For the 2022-23 school year, tuition schoolwide was $3,500. For 2023-24, tuition for grades 1-6 has increased to $3,800. Kindergarten, on the other hand, has had tuition raised to $6,500.

Johnson said the decision to raise tuition was supported by kindergarten parents, all of whom were eligible to apply for ESAs.

The school plans to use extra funds from higher kindergarten tuition to increase teacher pay. Johnson said St. Paul teachers are paid an average of 62% less than Waverly-Shell Rock Community Schools teachers.

They deserve to have a little more income in their pockets and this provides a very nice opportunity to be able to provide that for them, she said.

Many school officials interviewed expressed a similar sentiment, listing increasing teacher pay as a priority, and they saw ESAs as an opportunity to work on closing the gap between public and private school teacher wages.

Teachers at St. Patrick received a 3% pay increase for the coming school year, which Principal Jon Wiebers said was a result of ESAs. He anticipates the pay to continue increasing in the coming years.

Itll provide us with some additional resources to update curriculum and to provide higher teacher pay. We have a high quality staff here at St. Patricks, it would just be financially paying them more and more in line with public schools, Wiebers said.

Waterloo Christian Schools raised teacher pay by 12% for the coming year. Hall said that ESAs played no role in the scheduled pay increase.

An incredible blessing

Nearly all of the area private schools are testing the waters in a way with the addition of ESAs, waiting to see how exactly they will affect their institutions in the coming years.

However, for Royal Legacy Christian Academy, the addition of ESAs is expanding on the pre-existing sliding scale tuition and helping the founders fulfill the values that led them to start the school six years ago.

Since its founding, the school has used a sliding tuition scale and fundraising to provide an affordable private education for families. According to co-founder and marketing director Chassidi Martin, ESA grants are an incredible blessing, relieving the pressure on families to pay and on the school to fundraise the difference between the actual tuition cost and the lower amounts charged to families.

Tuition last year was $5,000, which Martin said no parent actually paid. This year it sits at $6,323. Increasing tuition had been on their radar as the school continues to strive toward narrowing the gap between tuition and the cost to educate a child, $24,368.56. The approval of ESA grants made the tuition increase much easier.

Martin said that 100% of Royal Legacy students will be receiving ESAs this school year due to their income level or because they are transferring students.

As far as enrollment goes, it has nearly doubled for next year, jumping to 40 K-6 students from last years 22. Under current staffing, the school is very close to capacity with just a handful of slots open. Martin said the school plans to incrementally increase capacity in the coming years to accommodate more students.

I am so grateful for what this means to our families, because our families have made significant sacrifices personally to provide this education to our students, Martin said. We have quite a bit of socioeconomic diversity and because of that for many of our families, even with the sliding scale, it has been quite sacrificial to have to drive the students instead of having a bus option or to pack a school lunch. We dont have those amenities at our small private schools, so theyve made those sacrifices to come here.

As taxpayers its really important to us and our beliefs that you have access to tax dollars that you pay. You should have the benefits of those tax dollars. The per pupil monetary allotment should go to the pupil and follow the pupil to the school theyre educated in, she said.

Looking ahead

Area private schools have no doubt ESAs will continue to put them on the map.

Families have expressed enthusiasm in having expanded educational choices, said Hall of Waterloo Christian School. I have also connected with several out-of-state families who view the ESA program as a significant incentive to transition their families to Iowa.

However, just how much schools will grow will remain a question of interest as the program continues to expand.

Johnson said some St. Pauls parents are a little leery at the prospect of growing.

Were known as a small quaint school in Waverly. Do we want to grow, and how do we want to grow? she said.

The Iowa Department of Education says that final numbers for ESA program participants will not be available until certified school enrollment numbers are finalized later this fall.

Photos and video: Iowa legislators pass governor's private-school funding bill
This remarkable Lexington home is everything you've dreamed of! Designed by Frank Betz & Associates and custom built by Kugler Construction, every last detail has been planned to perfection. A soaring vaulted entryway makes a statement as you enter the main level of the home. Beautiful hardwood flooring leads through the entry, formal dining room, and into the open-concept main. The main floor living area centers around a gorgeous gas fireplace, and flows seamlessly into the custom-built kitchen. You'll love the impressive granite double islands that provide extra serving, storage, and entertaining space. A gas range, convection microwave, oven, and warming tray make cooking for a crowd a breeze! Custom built soft-close cabinets feature under cabinet lighting that illuminates the striking granite countertops, while under-cabinet outlets ensure the subway tile backsplash is the star of the show. A large corner pantry provides plentiful kitchen storage. Beyond the kitchen, you'll find an eat-in dining space, second living space with a cozy fireplace, and a stunning home office with custom cabinets and granite countertops. Step outside and you'll love the covered patio living area that overlooks the beautifully manicured .61 acre yard and firepit patio. This outdoor living space boasts a TV and ceiling fan, so you can relax outside and never miss the big game. The spacious master bedroom provides a perfect place for respite. A spa-like master bath features a tile shower, jetted tub, extra large dual sink vanity, and an impressive walk-in closet. The main floor also houses a coveted dropzone locker system and a large laundry room with plenty of storage. Upstairs, a sizable landing leads to two generous bedrooms, both with walk-in closets, and a full bathroom with a granite dual vanity and a separate toilet/shower. Travel to the basement and you'll be instantly impressed by the extra living space it provides. A substantial living space with an electric fireplace, leads to a gaming area that's perfect for a pool table, putt putt, and more! A massive wet bar is perfect for lower level entertaining. Downstairs, you'll also find a beautiful bathroom, and three more sizable bedrooms, all with walk-in closets, and plentiful storage. Outside the home, the curb appeal is a dream, with its well-manicured landscaping, brick exterior accents, and peaceful front porch. The spacious driveway allows room for basketball and extra parking, while the extra-deep, 955sq ft, 3-stall garage provides wonderful finished space for cars, projects, and extra storage. There is so much to love in this this Lexington home that's the perfect blend of luxury and livability!! Schedule your showing today!

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The city of Onalaska finalized a contract Wednesday with Rick Niemeier to serve as the new city administrator.

Niemeier has worked for Trempealeau County for the past six years where he held the positions of corporation counsel, administrative coordinator, director of human resources, and director of child support.

He has been practicing law in Wisconsin since 2001.

City Attorney Amanda Jackson has served as interim city administrator during the hiring process and will work with Niemeier during the transition.

I am excited for this opportunity with the city of Onalaska and look forward to meeting and working with the citys elected officials, employees, businesses, and residents, said Niemeier.

Niemeiers first day with the city will be Monday, Sept. 11.
Darren Yanke awakes to the sun. Its beating down once again on his family farm, located in central Sauk County near Leland. The fourth-generation farmer, there at Echo-Y-Farms, shakes his head as he cranes his neck up to the sky looking for clouds or, better yet, rain. He and his grass-fed cattle need it. His 1,500 acres needs rain.

But its sunny, yet again, near Leland and throughout the state. According to the latest National Weather Service drought report, released Thursday, extreme drought persists across much of Sauk and Columbia, northern Iowa, and Dane counties. Severe drought is found across much of the lower half of Wisconsin.

Wisconsin had the fourth-driest May on record (since 1895), said Steve Vavrus, Wisconsin State climatologist and co-director of the Wisconsin Initiative on Climate Change Impacts. June followed suit with the fifth-driest June on record. There was only 1.9 inches of rain averaged statewide.

It was the driest June on record in Sauk and Richland Counties and the second-driest June on record in Dane and Columbia Counties.

The crop conditions are very poor currently, Yanke said of his farm, where his Aberdeen Angus cattle graze. If we get adequate rain for the rest of the growing season, the damage has already been done, and the crops will not fully recoup from the extreme drought.

With the drought conditions, Yanke has had to change the way he operates. We changed the way we grazed the cattle to allow for a longer rest period for the pastures since there was no regrowth after the cattle grazed. The pastures have been turning brown.

But he feels better than some about his pastures in that they have better water-holding capacity than a standard grazing pasture system.

Our local farmer-led watershed group called Sauk Soil and Water Improvement Group has been helping farmers hold their soil water-holding capacities by implementing rotational managed grazing on farms across Sauk County, Yanke said.

There is little that can be done by the general public except be supportive of our area farmers who are very concerned at this point, said Sam Bibby, UW-Madison Division of Extension regional crops educator for Sauk, Vernon, and Juneau Counties. Farmers are likely to be hit extra hard, as they are facing declining commodity prices at the same time as lower crop yields.

Though there is little one can do about the rain, Bibby notes steps can be taken to help minimize the droughts impact.

In corn fields with very low pollination, for example, farmers have the option to harvest early as little dry matter will be added to the plant in this case. Bibby said, This opens the opportunity to grow a late season annual forage, such as sorghum or millet, assuming we get more precipitation.

Thats a big if, and the government has recently taken notice of Wisconsins conditions.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack recently designated 27 Wisconsin counties, including Columbia, Dane, Dodge, Iowa, Juneau, and Sauk, natural disaster areas due to drought.

The designation allows the USDA Farm Service Agency to extend emergency credit to producers recovering from natural disasters.

The emergency loans can be used to meet various recovery needs, including replacing essential items such as equipment or livestock, reorganizing a farming operation or refinancing certain debts.

For production losses, a producer must have suffered at least a 30% loss of a crop, said John Palmer, supervisory agricultural program specialist for the Wisconsin State FSA office. Once determined eligible they can qualify for a loan up to 100% of the total actual production loss on all crops. The maximum loan amount is $500,000.

Its hard, Palmer said, to pinpoint how dire Wisconsins drought conditions are. We do know that hay and pasture yields are down. We wont know actual production losses or forage and non-forage crops until closer to the completion of harvest.

Yanke, at Echo-Y Farms, already knows the drought has harmed his farm. He said, Every year is a gamble. Some years, you win. Some years, you dont. He hopes the public, during this difficult year, buys local and supports local watershed groups.

Regardless of the type of year it is, he said hes not quitting. Farming is in my blood, he said. Im going to make it work, one way or another.

Photos of a Wisconsin farm affected by drought Wisconsin Farmers affected by drought Wisconsin Farmers affected by drought Wisconsin Farmers affected by drought Wisconsin Farmers affected by drought Wisconsin Farmers affected by drought
Have you ever wanted to see a bird up close and in the hand? Or tag a monarch butterfly? Or learn how to catch a dragonfly? You can at the inaugural Community Science Day taking place at Horicon Marsh on Aug. 19.

The event takes place at 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., Aug. 19, at the Horicon Marsh Education and Visitor Center, located at N7725 WI-28 in Horicon.

The event is free. No registration is required. Visitors are encouraged to come for some or all of the day.

We hope that participants learn more about how everyday citizens can lay a huge part in the science of our local communities, said Liz Herzmann, wildlife educator for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) at the Horicon Marsh Education and Visitor Center. We are excited to showcase the work being done by some stellar partner organizations and also empower our communities to become an active part in the research being done.

The festivities begin at 7 a.m. On site will be a representative from the Riveredge Nature Center banding birds. That runs until 11 a.m. Jana Vel, a licensed bird bander, will do a bird banding presentation. By banding a bird, scientists can learn more about migration patterns, age, and mortality rates. Audiences will be able to get an up close view of the banding process.

Riveredge Nature Center is a 485 acre natural sanctuary located in Saukville, Wisconsin in Ozaukee County.

Members of the Wisconsin Dragonfly Society will be on site from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. highlighting the wonders of dragonflies and damselflies, and how to identify and catch them.

The Wisconsin DNR notes that there are around 165 different species of dragonflies and damselflies in the state.

Herzmann said, Its important to do survey work across the state on dragonflies and damselflies to understand how individual species are doing and if they are becoming threatened.

That sort of survey work is important for the monarch butterfly as well. Attendees will be able to tag monarchs from 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. as the butterflies begin their annual migration to Mexico.

The migrating monarch butterfly has entered the International Union for Conservation of Natures Red List of Threatened Species as endangered. The butterfly is threatened by habitat destruction and climate change.

From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., members of the Rock River Coalition will be on the marsh to demonstrate how to sample for and identify macroinvertebrates, including insects, shellfish, and other creatures that live underwater. The macroinvertebrates can give a snapshot about the health of the water system based on the species found.

Also, Herzmann noted, Its always fun to muck around with nets and buckets in the marsh.

Additionally, Snapshot Wisconsin will be in attendance, giving visitors the opportunity to be part of their program. Snapshot Wisconsin is a community science project that monitors wildlife through a state-wide network of trail cameras.

Water, dragonflies, birds, habitat, and pollinators are all common threads that make the marsh special, Herzmann said, excited about the collaborating organizations in attendance. We are lucky that such amazing focused groups exist.

Horicon Marsh is the largest freshwater cattail marsh in the United States. Hundreds of bird species call it home and millions use it during their annual migrations.

Herzmann said of the event, I hope that it will lead to a deeper connection of the natural resources in our own backyard.

GALLERY: Memorial sculpture added to the Horicon Marsh Palmatory Overlook
The FBI has joined the search for a Reedsburg boy who has been missing for nearly two months, officials said Thursday.

Federal investigators have been providing technical assistance in the investigation into the disappearance of James Yoblonski, 13, for about the last two weeks, according to Sauk County Sheriffs Det. Sgt. Drew Bulin, including polygraph tests of family members and potential witnesses.

The agencys involvement is currently as needed, Bulin said, adding that could change if new developments require more assistance. Efforts to reach an FBI spokesperson Thursday afternoon were unsuccessful.

William Yoblonski, Jamess father, has offered a $10,000 reward for information that leads to finding his son, and took a polygraph examination with the FBI on Thursday morning.

What I have been saying since day one is that I had nothing to do with his disappearance, William Yoblonski said. Im just doing whatever I can to keep his name out there.

The elder Yoblonski said FBI agents asked him if he had harmed James or done anything that would motivate him to run away. He said he did not, and does not know why James went missing.

We always go camping every Fathers Day weekend, William Yoblonski said. Thats a tradition for us. We had that scheduled the following weekend and were planning similar trips on weekends throughout July.

James has been missing since June 12. Sheriffs deputies using police dogs discovered a makeshift campsite they believe James used and searched an area near Baraboo and Devils Lake State Park on both sides of Highway 12 shortly after he disappeared.

The boy had taken a familys vehicle, and a ping of a family cellphone led the Sheriffs Office to search the area. A search warrant filed in Sauk County Circuit Court indicates the cellphone belonged to William Yoblonski.

A deputy found the familys Chrysler van abandoned on the side of Highway 12, north of Groth Road in the town of Sumpter, about 4:45 a.m. on June 12  about three hours before Yoblonski reported his son missing, according to court records.

Investigators with the Sheriffs Office have also searched several of James electronic devices, which showed that earlier this year searches were conducted regarding means of traveling out of state, Sheriff Chip Meister said in a statement Thursday.

One of the devices is owned by the Yoblonski family and the other was issued to James by the Baraboo School District, Meister said. Several of the web searches were of locations in Wisconsin, but Meister said physical searches of those areas produced no evidence James had been there.

I just want my son back, William Yoblonski said Thursday.

The Sheriffs Office asked that anyone with information on James whereabouts contact them at 608-355-4495 or Sauk County Crime Stoppers at 888-847-7285.
The FBI has been involved with the search for Reedsburg boy James Yoblonski, 13, over the past two weeks, according to the Sauk County Sheriff's Office.
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U.S. Attorney Darren J. LaMarca, center, speaks to reporters after six white former law enforcement officers in Mississippi pleaded guilty to federal civil rights offenses in federal court in Jackson, Miss., Thursday, Aug. 3, 2023. The six former officers who called themselves the Goon Squad pleaded guilty to a racist assault on two Black men in a home raid that ended with an officer shooting one man in the mouth. Joining LaMarca were Mississippi Bureau of Investigations Director Charles Haynes, left, Deputy Attorney General Mary Wall of the Mississippi Attorney General's Office, second from left, and Jermicha Fomby, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Jackson Field Office. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
Alaska State Fair, Palmer

During the last days of summer, you will find everyone outdoors at the Alaska State Fair, Aug. 18 to Sept. 4. Just an hours scenic drive north of Anchorage in Palmer, Alaska, you will find amazing concerts, including Grammy Awardwinning Blues Traveler; multiple exhibitions, including photography and woodworking; and, of course, the food booths. This is probably the only state fair where you can get fresh oysters straight from Prince William Sound, provided by Pristine Products. Then there is the AlasKannoli, a version of the classic Italian dessert in flavors such as strawberries and cream, lemon blueberry and caramel pecan. Mocktails made from Alaskan Fireweed Tea are the perfect accompaniment to an AlasKannoli.

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Illinois State Fair, Springfield

The Illinois State Fair, held in Springfield from Aug. 10-20, will have Classic Kitchens food truck on-site to bring Hot Beef Sundaes to the masses. Most would think ice cream with meat on top when they hear the name, but it is actually whole kernel corn under shredded roast beef and gravy (rather than hot fudge) served over a warm bed of mashed potatoes (standing in for ice cream), sprinkled with shredded cheddar cheese and topped with a cherry tomato. The folks at Classic Kitchen announced a new nonalcoholic slushy too, but their lips are sealed on the flavor.

The Ba-sant is a hybrid bagel and croissant treat with savory and sweet flavors. Minnesota State Fair

Minnesota State Fair, Falcon Heights

The Minnesota State Fair might literally take the cake for most food options. Held from Aug. 24 to Sept. 4 in Falcon Heights, midway between Minneapolis and St. Paul, the fair boasts an impressive roster of 31 new foods, three new drinks and seven new vendors, contributing to a total of 500 foods at almost 300 concession stands. That makes the nearly 2 million annual visitors very happy. And full. One of these new foods, the Ba-sants by French Meadow Bakery & Cafe, is what would happen if a bagel and a croissant got married and had two kids that tried to be different from each other. The hybrid treat comes in two flavors: Everything Cream Cheese is the first child, secure in its savory scallion cream cheese filling, then coated on the outside with poppy and sesame seeds, onion and garlic flakes and salt and pepper. Then theres the second child, which is a little sweeter and wants to stand on its own, filled with fresh sweet corn custard and coated with crunchy caramel corn. Of course, youll love both your children, or Ba-sants, the same.

The Big E Cream Puff dessert is a consistent presence at the Eastern States Exposition. Eastern States Exposition

Eastern States Exposition, West Springfield, Massachusetts

The Eastern States Exposition, or the Big E, is a six-state fair celebration for all the New England states (Connecticut, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont) from Sept. 15 to Oct. 1 in West Springfield, Massachusetts. They may not have competitions for the strangest and most outlandish fair foods, but they do have the consistent Big E Cream Puff signature dessert. You know it must be good because six states agreeing on something cant be wrong. You also dont want to miss out on the concert lineup featuring John Fogerty, Third Eye Blind and the I Love the 90s Tour with none other than Vanilla Ice.


Beetaloo Operations Update

Sydney, Aug 4, 2023 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Empire Energy Group Limited ( ASX:EEG ) ( EEGUF:OTCMKTS ) is pleased to provide shareholders with an update regarding the operations in Empire's 100% owned and operated EP187, located onshore Northern Territory in the Beetaloo Sub-basin ("Beetaloo").

Carpentaria-3H ("C-3H") Flow Testing Recommences



On 3 August 2023, C-3H was re-opened for continued extended production testing ("EPT"). Empire expects to continue the EPT for up to 90 days.



The purposes of re-opening the C-3H well for continued EPT, coupled with the recent Carpentaria-2H EPT are multifold:



- to examine the benefits of "soaking" in the Beetaloo Sub-basin;



- to further refine production type curves for Carpentaria Pilot Project planning and final investment decision later this year (subject to financing, gas sales and transportation agreements, regulatory approvals and Board approval);



- to better understand the flow characteristics of the Velkerri B shale for optimal fracture stimulation and future completion design;



- time-lapse appraisal of the different stimulation fluids, reservoir landing interval and completion techniques in the wells; and



- to gather flow data to optimise future well trajectory design for Pilot Project drilling.



Comments from Managing Director Alex Underwood:



"The Empire team is excited to recommence flow testing at C-3H, the longest horizontal well drilled in the Beetaloo Basin to date and the largest fracture stimulation carried out in Australian history. The results of renewed flow testing from this well will continue to build Empire's technical knowledge base as we progress rapidly towards a final investment decision for the pilot project.



Subject to FID, this would make Empire the first company to commercially extract gas from the Beetaloo Basin.



With all regulatory settings now in place to allow a commencement of production, current market forces require more gas supply into the Northern Territory and adjacent markets as existing sources of supply decline. This provides a timely opportunity for Empire to fulfill gas demand, providing jobs, royalties for the NT Government and traditional owners, and energy security domestically.



Empire's conservative approach to capital management has ensured that the company is well capitalised to progress through its 2023 work programs. The C-3H flow testing and the work to progress to FID on the pilot project will be funded from existing cash at bank. We look forward to sharing the new C-3H results with shareholders soon."



*To view tables and figures, please visit:

https://abnnewswire.net/lnk/98D5L431





About Empire Energy Group Ltd





Empire Energy (ASX:EEG) (OTCMKTS:EEGUF) holds over 14.5 million acres of highly prospective exploration tenements in the McArthur and Beetaloo Basins, Northern Territory. Work undertaken by the Company since 2010 demonstrates that the Eastern depositional Trough of the McArthur Basin, of which the Company holds 80% has very considerable conventional and unconventional hydrocarbon potential. The Beetaloo sub-Basin, in which Empire holds a substantial position, has independently assessed world class hydrocarbon volumes in place with a major ramp up in industry activity underway to appraise substantial discoveries already made by major Australian oil and gas operators.

Empire Energy is an experienced conventional oil and gas producer with operations in the Appalachia region (New York and Pennsylvania). Empire has been successfully developing and producing oil and gas since 2006.
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As reported previously, the recent coup in Niger and the response from surrounding West African states is intensifying the rising tensions and political instability in the region.

Last Sunday, the ECOWAS bloc of West African states, currently headed by Nigerian president, Bola Tinubu, announced sanctions against the military junta that seized power in Niger on 26 July. Further, ECOWAS delivered an ultimatum, threatening military intervention if the deposed government of Mohamed Bazoum is not restored by the end of this week.

This represents a much-firmer line from ECOWAS, which had been more restrained in its response to recent coups in Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso. So far, however, its intervention has intensified the instability in the region, which now threatens to spread further.

The announcement of ECOWAS ultimatum was met with an opposing threat from the military governments of Mali and Burkina Faso, which have both evicted French forces from their borders and openly aligned with Russia internationally. On Monday they warned that any military intervention in Niger would be treated as a declaration of war against their countries as well, raising the potential for a war involving the bulk of West Africa. Guinea has also confirmed that it would support the military government in Niger.

Since then, ECOWAS has continued to ramp up sanctions against Niger, stopping all trade and cutting off the supply of electricity from their countries. But the effect, as yet, has only been to stiffen the resolve of the junta in Niger, which has shown no sign of backing down.

Yesterday, which marked 63 years since Niger won independence from France, a delegation from ECOWAS returned home without having achieved any diplomatic solution to the crisis. Meanwhile, thousands of pro-government demonstrators attended a rally in Niameys Independence Square, shouting slogans, including, Down with France! and, Long live Russia!

Social and economic demands also mingled with expressions of anti-French or pro-Russian sentiment. The demonstration was supported and mobilised for by the M62 movement, which was formed last year in protest against the rising cost of living and corruption scandals involving the government. As one demonstrator, Oumar, put it:

I have no job after studying in this country because of the regime France supports All that has to go!

This sentiment is evidently not confined to Niger, nor to Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso, which have each experienced several coups in the last 3 years, amidst deep social and political instability.

Senegal

There is now a very real risk that the growing instability in the Sahel will strike next at the government of Macky Sall in Senegal, which had been described by the The Economist as a beacon of stability and democracy in a region beset by coups and overstaying presidents.

Senegals Foreign Minister, Aissata Tall Sall, announced yesterday that his government would send troops to intervene in Niger, in accordance with ECOWAS decision, should Sundays deadline pass unheeded. The recent overthrow of Bazoum in Niger was one coup too many, according to Tall Sall.

There is a risk that the growing instability in the Sahel will strike next at the government of Macky Sall / Image: Global Partnership for Education GPE, Flickr

But recent events suggest that the rulers of Senegal are less worried about coups abroad than they are about revolutions at home. On Monday, Senegals main opposition party, PASTEF, was officially banned and its leader arrested on charges of stoking violence and plotting an insurrection.

This move represents an intensification of a bitter political struggle that has been developing since mass protests erupted across the country in June over high youth unemployment and the systematic corruption that blights West Africas most stable democracy. As one 22-year-old protestor, interviewed in The Guardian put it:

There is no justice here because were living in a dictatorship. Im crying inside. My heart is bruised.

This mood of frustration has been brewing since 2012, when the youth evicted Abdoulaye Wade from power. Ten years on, the crisis faced by the Senegalese masses, and the youth in particular, has only worsened under Macky Sall, leading to fresh outbreaks of mass anger.

Ousmane Sonko, the leader of PASTEF, has been under house arrest since May and was convicted in absentia of sexually assaulting a person under 21 in 2021, a charge which Sonko has consistently denied. Following his conviction Sonko was sentenced to two years imprisonment, which  conveniently for the government  would have rendered him ineligible to stand in presidential elections next year. Until last Monday, he had been serving his sentence at home. He remains in custody.

Since Sonkos latest arrest, a new wave of street protests have erupted across Senegal. Pro-Russian social media accounts have been posting videos of protestors burning French flags, but it is unclear when or where these videos have been taken. Nevertheless, the potential exists for the anti-French slogans, that have been clearly on display throughout the Sahel, to find an echo in Senegal, which is an important French ally in the region.

Unable to quell the mass protests, which have continued since Monday, this beacon of stability and democracy banned the social media app TikTok yesterday. The reason given by the government for this further act of repression was that the app was being used to spread hateful and subversive messages threatening the stability of the country.

However, as can be seen many times in history, attempts by the state to suppress the masses can often spur the movement on, and so far the banning of TikTok does not appear to have stabilised the situation in Senegal.

Evidently, the regime in Dakar, and its masters in Paris, would like to see firm action to reverse the coup in Niger, in the hope that the genie of mass unrest and political instability can be put back in its bottle. But ironically, just as the governments attempts to repress the movement at home have only provoked the movement, a further escalation of conflict with Niger and its supporters in the region could have an enormously destabilising impact at home.

Nigeria

This consideration will not be far from the mind of Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, whose government is perched atop a giant powder keg. Vast oil reserves and powerful industries make Nigeria the largest economy in Africa. Nevertheless, the country remains the poverty capital of the world. Consequently, mass dissatisfaction is rife and like its neighbour, Niger, Nigeria is facing its own Islamist insurgency in the North East, in the form of Boko Haram, which it has been unable to displace after roughly 10 years of conflict.

Furthermore, one of the first acts of the Tinubu government has been to cut a popular fuel subsidy in order to save our country from going under. This measure has already met with opposition from the Nigerian labour movement.

It should not be difficult to recall that one of the most important triggers for the revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt, and more recently Sudan, have been precisely cuts to subsidies that the masses had relied upon for things like food staples and fuel. The fact that Tinubu is taking this measure clearly shows the deep crisis facing Nigerian capitalism, and the social instability that looms over the country.

Any military intervention in Niger would carry a huge risk of provoking social explosions inside Nigeria. Such a prospect would carry huge significance for the whole of Africa. Thus far, the coups and counter-coups that have rocked the region have largely taken place in extremely poor, undeveloped countries with an overwhelmingly peasant population.

What is particularly interesting in the present situation is the phenomenon of a layer of junior officers taking power instead of the generals / Image: Lamine Traore - VOA Voice of America, Wikimedia Commons

The reason why the instability in these countries has expressed itself as coups and counter-coups is primarily because of the extreme weakness of the local bourgeoisie, which is not only tiny, but tied hand and foot to foreign imperialism. Therefore the state tends to take on greater prominence.

Further, the small size of the working class in these countries, and the absence of revolutionary leadership, has created a deadlock in which the emergence of Bonapartist regimes is almost inevitable. What is particularly interesting in the present situation is the phenomenon of a layer of junior officers taking power instead of the generals, reflecting the anger from below. The case of Ibrahim Traore, a 34-year-old captain in Burkina Faso, is a case in point.

Nigeria, by contrast, is the largest economy in Africa and by far the largest and most powerful economy in the region. It also possesses one of the largest working classes in Africa. Should the present crisis provoke a mass movement of the Nigerian working class, this could dramatically transform the situation.

Painful dilemma

Therefore, the attempt by the Wests allies in the region to reassert control over the situation in Niger presents a painful dilemma for Tinubu, Sall, and other ECOWAS leaders. If they sit on their hands after making such bold threats, such a humiliating climbdown could encourage further instability whilst tarnishing the prestige of their own regimes.

On the other hand, carrying out their threats could just as easily trigger instability and social unrest, whilst also risking lighting the fuse on a conflict that could easily spiral outside anyones control. Meanwhile, with its nose already bloodied and its hands tied up in Ukraine, it is unlikely that the West would pour military support into the region.

Most likely, both sides will attempt to adopt as hard a posture as they can, ramping up sanctions and diplomatic pressure, whilst holding back from a military clash. Whether they are able to hold back the situation however is not wholly up to them.

What is certain is that further explosive events are on the order of the day, which Marxists should watch very closely in the coming weeks and months.
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The Duchess of Sussex is reportedly set to make an online comeback with the @meghan handle, which already has 20k followers, despite the fact she has never actually posted anything.

Aug 4, 2023

AceShowbiz - Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex reportedly has her Instagram page ready to roll out as part of an online comeback. The former "Suits" actress, who will celebrate her 42nd birthday on Friday, August 4, is said to have the @meghan handle, which already has 20k followers, despite the fact she has never actually posted anything.

A source told Page Six she "got her own Instagram account - which features a placeholder image of pink flowers - just before she launched her now defunct Spotify podcast in August 2022." The outlet added Meghan has been in talks with a number of brands to work with and is apparently especially keen to sign with jewellers Cartier as she "works towards the future after signing with Hollywood agency WME."

An insider added, "Meghan was set to go live on Insta, but changed her mind shortly before she launched her 'Archetypes' podcast, so it's just sitting there now." Meghan revealed she was toying with the idea of returning to social media in an interview with The Cut in August 2022, saying, "Do you want to know a secret? I'm getting back on Instagram."

Rumors of her imminent Instagram return come after she and her husband Prince Harry, 38, presented a united front to the world in the face of widespread reports their marriage is in trouble. The couple sat cozily side-by-side on Wednesday, August 2, for a video in support of the young people's foundation the Responsible Technology Youth Power Fund after reports they have been spending time apart.

As they spoke about their two children, son Archie, four, and two-year-old daughter Lilibet, Harry said about the good cause, "Thank you for doing everything that you do. Our kids especially are incredibly grateful." Meghan chimed in, "They don't know it yet, but they will."

The couple made the clip as their Archewell Foundation is on the Responsible Technology Youth Power Fund Advisory Committee. Insiders have denied widespread reports in the U.S. the couple has been giving each other space.

One source insisted Page Six, "It's not true - its literally made up." The reports the couple was taking time apart were spurred on by the fact Meghan has hardly returned to the U.K. since Megxit, and was not with Harry when he returned to Britain in May to see his father King Charles' coronation at London's Westminster Abbey.

A source told The Sun, "Harry was desperate to come back for the Coronation and spend quality time with his family." Meghan stayed in their mansion in California for their boy Archie's fourth birthday.

The video comes after Harry and Meghan's big-money Spotify deal ended in June, while the Duke of Sussex's green travel project Travalyst made a major announcement about a huge revamp in May without mentioning him. Their appearance also comes as it was announced the couple will attend the Invictus Games in Dusseldorf together next month for the events between September 9 and 16.

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Mourners gather at a mural that just went up in his hometown to honor the late 'Euphoria' star, bringing flowers, pictures of the actor and liquor in addition to playing music together.

Aug 4, 2023

AceShowbiz - Angus Cloud got an emotional send-off in his hometown, several days after his tragic passing at age 25. The late actor was honored in a candlelight vigil at an Oakland mural on Wednesday night, August 2.

The memorial took place in front of a 9-foot mural of Cloud that just went up in honor of the "Euphoria" star. It was painted on the wall of a car wash by local artist Darin Balaban after he collaborated with a group of the late star's friends.

Darin told TMZ around 50 people showed up to the mural for a candlelight vigil, with many bringing flowers and pictures of Angus and placing them at the base of the wall. There were some people who brought liquor and Guinness beer.

They also played music and sang songs, including Ben E. King's "Stand By Me", together, swapping stories and even adding to the Angus mural. Tears were shed during the vigil, but there were also a lot of smiles as people remembered the young actor.

Angus Cloud was honored during a candlelight vigil at an Oakland mural.

Angus died on Monday, July 31 at his family's home in Oakland. "It is with the heaviest heart that we had to say goodbye to an incredible human today. As an artist, a friend, a brother and a son, Angus was special to all of us in so many ways. Last week he buried his father and intensely struggled with this loss," his family said in a statement. They also acknowledged his struggle with mental health as they urged others to "not fight this on their own in silence."

The cause of death is not immediately known as police have launched an investigation into it. Meanwhile, a 911 call revealed his mom reported his "possible overdose" prior to his passing. She made the call around 11:30 A.M. on Monday after finding him unresponsive at his family's home. She told the dispatcher that the actor did not have a pulse. He was eventually pronounced dead on the scene.

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The Amazon founder and the Emmy Award-winning journalist have a number of famous people attending their bash in Positano, Italy, including Bill Gates and his girlfriend Paula Hurd.

Aug 4, 2023

AceShowbiz - Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez have splurged on their engagement party. A few months after the two were reported to have gotten engaged, the Amazon founder and the Emmy Award-winning journalist were revealed to have thrown a lavish bash on his $500 million yacht with their close friends.

A source revealed to Page Six that the 59-year-old billionaire and his 53-year-old partner hosted an "intimate" party in Positano, Italy on Wednesday, July 2. The source went on to spill that the couple invited only "a small crowd." Despite the limited guests, the ones in attendance were substantial, including Bill Gates and his girlfriend, Paula Hurd.

In photos making their rounds online, Bill and Paula could be seen all smiles while having a conversation with other guests at the bash taking place on the Amalfi Coast. Bill sported a long-sleeved white blazer that came with small gray patterns over a long-sleeved dark gray tee. He added a pair of light gray pants and clear sunglasses that had black frame.

Bill's partner, Paula, in the meantime, looked elegant in a body fit black dress. Her gown came with a high neck and several small cut-outs on its wearer's chest. She put on a pair of simple earrings and a bracelet. For the intimate party, she styled her hair into a ponytail.

Aside from Bill and Paula, Rupert Murdoch's former wife and entrepreneur Wendi Murdoch, as well as a movie and TV producer, Fabiola Beracasa Beckman, were spotted attending the bash among other guests. While famous faces were seen in pictures, Jeff and Lauren themselves seemed to be avoiding prying eyes.

Jeff was reported to have popped the question to Lauren back in May. At the time, TMZ revealed that Jeff privately proposed to Lauren either in Ibiza or Mallorca during their Spain getaway. PEOPLE added more details from a source who stated in mid-May, "He proposed last week. They're on cloud nine - so happy and madly in love."

Noting that Jeff and Lauren "are usually hand-in-hand" and "look very happy," the source further stated, "Her engagement ring is beyond stunning. And huge! She keeps playing with it and looking at it. You can tell she loves it."

"They have been in a great mood and are obviously enjoying their trip. When they first arrived in Spain, Lauren especially seemed giddy with excitement as they toured the yacht," the source continued. "Lauren keeps enjoying the tanning deck. They stopped for lunch in Ibiza mid-week before continuing on to France, where they spent the weekend."

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According to Nick Viall who also stars in season 2 of the FOX reality TV series, his co-star came across as 'someone who had feelings and cared' about Raquel during the filming.

Aug 4, 2023

AceShowbiz - Tom Sandoval allegedly kept Raquel Leviss close to his heart during his stint on "Special Forces: World's Toughest Test". The reality TV star has been accused of breaking the show's rules by sneaking in pictures of his then-lover during filming of the reality quasi-military training series.

It's Nick Viall who revealed Tom's alleged defiance on the set of "Special Forces". In the latest episode of his "Viall Files" podcast, "The Bachelor" alum claimed of his co-star, "He snuck in pictures of him and Rachel (Raquel's birth name)."

According to Nick, "Special Forces" competitors were not allowed to bring certain items during the training process in New Zealand. "I would have loved to sneak in a picture of [my fiancee] Natalie [Joy] and I. I guess I could have tried but I just didn't," he shared.

Nick went on detailing how Tom seemed to admire Raquel. "And he showed them to the cast, for what's that worth," he said of the "Vanderpump Rules" star. "He went out of his way to bring in, like, endearing photos of him and Raquel/Rachel and show them around."

"[Tom] came across as a guy who cared about her, and I'm just saying that objectively," Nick added. "Honestly, the conversations with the cast were kinda, like, 'Well, f**k, you might as well go for it.' There seemed to be some real reluctance about [whether] the public would allow them to be together, but he came across - to me - as someone who had feelings and cared about Rachel."

Nick further noted, "He seemed emotionally invested in Rachel in an environment where he wasn't incentivized to portray that narrative."

Tom has not responded to Nick's claims. The second season of "Special Forces", which also stars Blac Chyna, Brian Austin Green and JoJo Siwa, will premiere on September 25 on FOX.

Tom was cast on the show after his affair with Raquell that led to his split from Ariana Madix was made public earlier this year. It's unclear if he and Raquell are still together now after she spent months at a mental health facility.

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Movie

The 'Savage' hitmaker stars as the boss of long-lost twins who attempt to get their parents back together in a 'Parent Trap'-like twist in A24's first musical feature.

Aug 4, 2023

AceShowbiz - While she has been taking a break from making music, Megan Thee Stallion will soon make her feature film debut. The rapper is starring in "Dicks: The Musical", previously known as "F**king Identical Twins", which first trailer has been released for viewing pleasure.

The Grammy Award-winner shows off her acting skills in the clip as she plays the boss of the two main characters, portrayed by Aaron Jackson and Josh Sharp. She gets raunchy as she raps and dances seductively in the sneak-peek video for the R-rated comedy.

Jackson and Sharp star as two business adversaries who realize they're identical twin brothers and decide to switch places to reunite their divorced parents so they all can become an actual family again. The plotline reminds of 1998 Lindsay Lohan movie "The Parent Trap" with a twist.

Their separated parents are played by Nathan Lane and Megan Mullally, who discuss what to do now that their sons have found each other. The trailer also features comedian and "Saturday Night Live" regular Bowen Yang as God.

An official synopsis describes the film as a "riotously funny and depraved musical." Larry Charles directs the film, with the script written by Sharp and Jackson, who also make their feature film debuts in the upcoming movie.

The trailer teases musical numbers titled "Gay Old Life", "All Love Is Love", "Out-Alpha The Alpha" and "The Sewer Song". Marking A24's first musical feature, "Dicks: The Musical" is scheduled to open in theaters on September 29.

While this will be Stallion's film acting debut, she previously made a cameo appearance on Disney+'s series "She-Hulk: Attorney at Law" as a fictionalized version of herself. She's also reported to star in the next movie from "Uncut Gems" director Josh Safdie and Adam Sandler.

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The 'Wicked' stars were reportedly seen making out at a pub in Hampstead despite still being in their respective marriages and went on several double dates with their spouses before the affair news broke.

Aug 5, 2023

AceShowbiz - Ethan Slater allegedly never had any intention to save his marriage to Lilly Jay after getting romantically involved with Ariana Grande. If the new report is to be trusted, the "Wicked" star "kept the affair going" despite Lilly's attempt to fix their broken marriage.

A source has told Daily Mail that the couple's romance began months before Ariana's split from Dalton Gomez was revealed and they were not hiding it on the set. "They were sloppy on set," the insider shared.

"They were seen being all over each other while he was still supposedly happily married to Lilly," the source dished. "They were seen making out at a pub in Hampstead, and they were all over each other at Michelle Yeoh's Oscar party [in March]."

Ariana and Dalton even went on several dates with Ethan and Lilly whenever they visited their spouses on the set. "Ariana and Dalton went on double dates with Ethan and Lilly several times - and they were seen out by cast members," the source shared. "Lilly and Ethan also met Ariana's family together, including her mom and her brother."

Lilly learned about Ethan's relationship with Ariana shortly after her last visit to London. There was reportedly a period when they tried to fix their broken marriage for a short time, but it was to no avail.

"There was a period when they were all going to try and work on their marriages and put the whole thing behind them," the source claimed. "She thought they were happy. But that did not work out [because Ariana and Ethan] kept the affair going despite [that]."

Lilly was allegedly left blindsided when Ethan filed for divorce. "Lilly did not file for divorce from Ethan, he filed for divorce from her," the source said, adding that Lilly believes her husband was "starstruck" by Ariana.

However, a second source insisted that the Tony Award-nominated actor and Ariana "did not start dating until after he had separated from Lilly."

Ariana is believed to have returned to the U.S. following the affair rumors. She and her rumored boyfriend were reported to have taken "amicable time apart" in late July as he sorts out the details of his ongoing divorce.

"Ariana and her 'Wicked' co-star haven't been in the same city for several weeks. Ethan's currently in New York, trying to navigate the end of his marriage with estranged wife Lilly Jay," sources told TMZ last month. "Ariana is coming to Los Angeles this weekend. We're told she and Ethan want to see each other, but that's not in the cards for the immediate future."

Ariana and Ethan have not been seen together since their return to the U.S.

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In her statement, Kim declares, 'Corey Miller has spent 21 years in prison for a crime he did not commit, and his conviction is based entirely on the testimony of two men, who the state dragged to trial just on material witness warrants.'

Aug 4, 2023

AceShowbiz - Kim Kardashian continues her effort to free Master P's brother, Corey Miller, from prison. After voicing her support to Corey a.k.a. C-Murder in 2020, "The Kardashians" star doubled down on her attempt by citing new Lousiana law.

"I wanted to shed some light on a case that I've been working on for years," the reality star began her lengthy statement on Twitter. "Corey Miller has spent 21 years in prison for a crime he did not commit, and his conviction is based entirely on the testimony of two men, who the state dragged to trial just on material witness warrants. Those men have now sworn that their prior testimony was untrue."

"There is no remaining evidence that even suggests that Corey Miller is any more culpable than the hundreds of patrons who were at the Platinum Club on January 12, 2002, when Steve Thomas was tragically shot," she continued. "Rather than search for the real perpetrator of the crime, the local sheriffs office zeroed in on proving a case against Mr. Miller. The lead detective harassed multiple witnesses and mishandled the case to such a degree that the trial court had no choice but to grant Mr. Miller a new trial after he was convicted in 2003."

"In 2009, four months before Mr. Miller's second trial, his attorney attempted to withdraw and complained he had not been paid in years. The new judge refused to allow counsel to withdraw, and Mr. Miller stood trial for a second time with an attorney who made no effort to call favorable witnesses to testify," Kim added. "The State's case was minimal, limited to the now recanted testimony of Darnell and Kenneth Jordan, and rather than call the five defense witnesses who testified at the first trial that Mr. Miller was not the shooter, trial counsel played the audio of their testimony for the jury."

Kim went on to note, "Louisiana recently enacted a new law that provides innocent people with the ability to raise a post-conviction claim of factual innocence. Mr. Miller has raised such a claim and, like all of his prior post-conviction filings, has been denied relief without even so much as an evidentiary hearing. In light of the fact that the only witnesses have completely recanted their testimony, there is absolutely no remaining evidence against Mr. Miller."

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The David Miscavige-fronted religious organization insist they only exercise free speech to defend themselves against the 'King of Queens' actress' 'bigotry and propaganda.'

Aug 4, 2023

AceShowbiz - Leah Remini has been labeled a "bigot" and a "horrible person" by the Church of Scientology. The "King of Queens" actress launched a lawsuit against the organization and leader David Miscavige earlier this week, in which she accused them of subjecting her to 17 years of "harassment, intimidation, surveillance, and defamation," and the church has now hit back at the 53-year-old star, branding her claims "ludicrous."

"This lawsuit is ludicrous and the allegations pure lunacy. Remini spreads hate and falsehoods for a decade and is now offended when people exercise their right to free speech, exposing her for what she is - an anti-free speech bigot," they said in a statement. "Remini's complaints are like an anti-Semite complaining about the Jewish Anti-Defamation League for exposing the anti-Semite's bigotry and propaganda."

Leah quit the church in 2013 and has campaigned against the controversial religion since, and the organisation accused her of causing "threats of and actual violence" towards members, as well as circulating "false propaganda."

The statement continued, "Remini's obsession with attacking her former religion, by spreading falsehoods and hate speech, has generated threats of and actual violence against the Church and its members as evidenced by multiple criminal convictions of individuals poisoned by Remini's propaganda."

"All the while, Remini has profited handsomely from her fabrications, through the sale of hate books, hate podcasts and paid-for tabloid hate television. Now that Remini's propaganda has been exposed, Remini has spun entirely out of control by filing a frivolous lawsuit attempting to stop free speech exposing her false propaganda. Remini's decade of harassment and fabrications are all coming back to haunt her."

"If Remini can no longer get a job, she has nobody to blame but herself. Obviously everybody in Hollywood now knows what we already knew: That Remini is a horrible person and toxic to so many who have the misfortune to come in contact with her."

"While Remini was in the Church, she had to restrain her antisocial traits. She said so herself - that Scientology was the only thing keeping her 'monster' at bay. The Church is not intimidated by Remini's latest act of blatant harassment and attempt to prevent truthful free speech. If Remini does not believe in free speech, then she should consider emigrating to Russia."

The lawsuit alleges the Church of Scientology "stalked, surveilled, harassed, threatened, intimidated" Leah and allegedly and created "intentional malicious and fraudulent rumours" about her "via hundreds of Scientology-controlled and -coordinated social media accounts" that she said existed "solely to intimidate and spread misinformation."

The former "The Talk" host added her family members, friends and colleagues allegedly have also been "incessantly harassed, threatened, intimidated, and embarrassed."

In 2018, the actress alleged the church was sending her death threats because they "try to destroy our lives."

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Redken, the #1 professional hair brand in the US* has made its highly anticipated debut in India. Redken brings together the power of science and the prowess of its hairdressers to empower everyone to express themselves and make a statement with their hair.

At its core, Redken is known to deliver powerful hair transformations with its unique pH balanced formulas that preserve the health of hair. Redkens extensive range of products covers all the bases - color, care, styling - ensuring they've got your back for every hair need.

For the young, globally connected, trendsetting, diverse consumer, Redken brings with it the unique energy of its hometown, New York City. Redken is here to create a community of individuals who express themselves unapologetically, are open to the world, and are not afraid of reinventing themselves.

In the recent years, there has been a substantial growth in the number of young affluent consumers in India. These consumers are quite individualistic, experimentative and are willing to spend on specialised products and services best suited to their specific needs. We feel that this is the right time to bring a global brand like Redken to India which offers a performance driven, comprehensive portfolio to this evolved cohort. said D.P. Sharma, Director  Professional Products Division, LOreal India.

Redken is loved and trusted by more than 1 million hair professionals worldwide. This global power network is the heart and soul of the brand. At Redken, the mission is to equip every professional to learn better, earn better and live their best life through career support, 24*7 education access and global networking opportunities.
MY FM, in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture, launched the "HAR GHAR HEALTHY" campaign to promote a healthy lifestyle across India. The campaign spread across 90 days, initiated during the Amrit Mahotsav of Independence, garnered immense support with over 1800 touchpoints covering 30 cities in 7 states, engaging around 100 million people. Various activities were conducted to boost public participation, including collective oaths for health, mass yoga sessions on Yoga Day with 65,000 participants, and a blood donation camp on World Blood Donors Day with 5000 volunteers. The campaign united millions of Indians towards a common goal of healthier nation.

An overwhelming response was received with thousands of letters from diverse age groups and backgrounds, creating a world record. These letters are listed in the Golden Book of Records, forming the 'Longest display wall of health letters, announced by the Hon'ble President in Bhopal on 3rd August at Bhopal.

Speaking on this occasion, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Culture, Uma Nanduri said,  Celebrating 75 Years of Indias Independence through HAR GHAR HEALTHY has been an immensely gratifying experience. Witnessing the outpouring of support from citizens across the nation and witnessing the creation of the longest display wall of health letters has reinforced our belief in the power of unity and collective action.

Speaking on the felicitation, Rahul Namjoshi, CEO MY FM said, This is an extremely proud & happy moment for all of us at MY FM to receive this felicitation from the Honourable President of India. Id also like to thank The Ministry of Culture for liking our concept & believing in us, look forward to collaborate with the govt. going forward on many such initiatives.
Mainland China, the flagship brand of Speciality Restaurants Ltd., has been a pioneer in popularizing Chinese fine dining experience over the last 3 decades, comparable to the highest global standards. Unknowingly it has humbly accepted the position of a flag bearer with constant improvements and new introductions either in its Menu or its offerings from time to time, delighting connoisseurs across the country.

Keeping the same in mind for the first time in Kolkata, Mainland China has come up with a delightful one of its kind initiative  Kids Eat Free where 2 children per table, up-to the age of 7 years, will be served a sumptuous Free meal when they dine at any of Mainland Chine outlet in Kolkata and should be accompanied by pair guardian. This is a brain child of Mr. Anjan Chatterjee, Founder & CMD, Speciality Restaurants Ltd, who was present at the interactive launch function that took place at Mainland China Banquote Hall today.

Speaking on the occasion Mr. Anjan Chatterjee, CMD of Speciality Restaurants Ltd. Said, Recognizing that Kids have always been the biggest brand ambassadors of Mainland China, our Chefs have curated a special menu for our little fans and Loyalists. The Menu comes with a choices of Vegetarian - non-Vegetarian and it is yummy . This is a humble gesture straight from the heart and will be with our compliments.
Generative AI in Google Ads represents a revolutionary approach to ad creation that significantly differs from traditional methods in myriad ways. Generative AI makes use of vast amounts of data and training models on various advertising patterns to create compelling and highly relevant ad content. One of the key distinctions lies in the level of personalisation offered by generative AI as against traditional methods that often struggle to tailor ads to individual users, leading to generic and content that can be less impactful. In contrast, generative AI can analyse user behaviour, preferences, and demographics in real-time to generate ads that resonate with specific audiences, ultimately improving ad performance.

By embracing generative AI in Google Ads, advertisers can optimise their creative efforts, save time, and allocate resources more efficiently, leading to improved ROI and a better user experience for their target audience. This technology has the potential to revolutionise the advertising landscape, taking it to new heights of innovation and effectiveness.

Also read:

Googles AI tool for ad creation - Part 1: A game-changer for marketers?

The automation game

Generative AI in Google Ads differs from traditional ad creation methods in many ways. While traditional ad creation relies on manual efforts, generative AI automates the process, says Shubit Rakshit, Business Director, FoxyMoron, [Zoo Media]. It leverages advanced language models and machine learning algorithms to analyse data and generate various ad assets. This automation speeds up the process, enables personalisation at scale, and allows for real-time optimisation. Generative AI continuously learns and adapts to audience preferences, leading to more relevant and engaging ads, he adds.

Marketers role

Experts are of the opinion that the adoption of generative AI in ad creation will affect the roles and responsibilities of marketers and advertisers in the days to come.

The adoption of generative AI in ad creation is likely to reshape the roles and responsibilities of marketers and advertisers, points out Ayatiworks Technologies Founder-CEO Upendran. According to him, the adoption of generative AI will elevate marketers and advertisers to be strategic thinkers and creative visionaries.

With AI handling tasks like automated content generation, ad optimisation, and audience targeting, marketers can shift their focus from manual, repetitive tasks to strategic thinking and creativity. They will play a more critical role in defining campaign objectives, understanding audience insights, and setting broader marketing strategies. As AI takes care of data analysis and performance optimisation, marketers can use the generated insights to make informed decisions and refine their approach. Advertisers will need to become more adept at leveraging AI tools effectively, understanding the algorithms' outputs, and interpreting data-driven recommendations. While AI streamlines and enhances the ad creation process, the human touch remains crucial in brand storytelling, creative direction, and aligning campaigns with the company's overall vision and values. Overall, the adoption of generative AI will elevate marketers and advertisers to be strategic thinkers and creative visionaries rather than solely execution-focused professionals, Upendran explains.

The roles for digital marketers will evolve and certainly not disappear, asserts Shubit Rakshit. While AI speeds up ad creation, marketers will play a pivotal role. Creative strategy remains their expertise, giving a heart and soul to the campaigns. Through data analysis, marketers derive insights that inspire ad optimisation. They still will be instrumental in creating audience segmentation, aligning the brand voice and forging meaningful connections with customers. Collaborating with AI specialists amplifies marketers impact in the digital marketing landscape, says Rakshit.

Let us explore the way Googles generative AI model works in order to create ads automatically. What is the role of data and algorithms in the process?

This will involve training the model on large datasets of successful ad campaigns, marketing insights, and creative content, says Upendran.

The data can include text, images, video elements, and audience behaviour patterns. The model learns to recognise patterns and generate new ad variations based on input parameters like target audience, campaign goals, and budget. Algorithms in the generative AI model use techniques like deep learning, natural language processing (NLP), and computer vision to understand and recreate the visual and textual elements of the ads. The system undergoes continuous optimisation through multivariate testing, ensuring the most effective ad variants are generated for different platforms and audiences, he explains.

With generative AI being used to create ads, Upendran anticipates a significant positive impact on ad personalisation and targeting capabilities. According to him, the AI algorithms can analyse vast amounts of user data, including browsing behaviour, interests, demographics, and historical interactions with ads. This enhanced understanding, he adds, enables advertisers to create highly personalised and relevant ads that align with individual user preferences and needs.

As a result, users are more likely to see ads that are genuinely useful and interesting to them, leading to a more positive user experience. The tailored approach can also reduce the feeling of intrusive or irrelevant advertising, thereby fostering a sense of trust between users and advertisers. Additionally, the AIs ability to dynamically optimize ad content in real-time based on user interactions ensures that users are exposed to the most engaging and compelling ads, further enhancing their overall experience with online advertising, he says.

Potential risks

Marketers, however, should be mindful of potential risks and concerns when using auto-generated ads. It is equally important to mitigate any possible negative outcomes.

Mitesh Kothari, Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer, White Rivers Media, feels that it is important to stay mindful of ethical considerations like data privacy. With AI as our ally, the advertising landscape will be dynamic, data-centric, and creatively charged, he says.

According to Shubit Rakshi, a few of the potential risks are ad quality, policy compliance, lack of originality, audience perception, and data privacy. He suggests that maintaining human oversight is crucial, especially for ensuring brand alignment and creative excellence, in order to mitigate these risks.

Testing AI-generated ads in smaller batches can help evaluate their performance before full-scale deployment. Continuously monitoring ad performance and user feedback allows for quick adjustments. Combining AI-generated creatives with human creativity can add a unique touch to the ads and address any potential lack of originality. Robust data governance practices ensure data security and compliance.

Advertising policies

It is important for Google to ensure that auto-generated ads comply with advertising policies and do not inadvertently violate any guidelines.

Google employs robust policy filters and machine learning algorithms to screen the ads and detect potential violations, points out Shubit Rakshit. Human reviewers also play a vital role in assessing complex cases and ensuring ad quality. Also, Google regularly updates its policies to address emerging issues. Brands and advertisers can do their bit to support compliance by maintaining transparent messaging and adhering to guidelines in their business prompts, he adds.

To ensure that auto-generated ads comply with advertising policies and guidelines, Google may implement several layers of checks and measures, says Upendran.

First, before generating ads, the AI system would be trained on a diverse dataset that includes both successful and compliant ad examples. This training aims to familiarise the AI with the boundaries of acceptable content. Additionally, Google would have a team of human reviewers who continuously monitor and update the guidelines to reflect changing advertising standards. These reviewers would validate and fine-tune the AI-generated ads to ensure compliance with policies. Moreover, Google may employ natural language processing and image recognition algorithms to scan and filter ad content for potential policy violations before serving them to users. If any issues arise post-launch, user feedback and reporting mechanisms would also help identify and rectify non-compliant ads promptly. This multi-layered approach combines AI capabilities with human oversight to ensure that auto-generated ads meet advertising policies and uphold a safe and respectful advertising environment for users, he explains.

According to Upendran, advertisers and businesses should be aware of several potential risks and concerns when using auto-generated ads. One major concern is the lack of direct human oversight during the ad creation process, which might lead to unintended or inappropriate content being generated.

He adds that there is also a risk of over-reliance on AI-generated ads, potentially leading to a loss of brand identity and uniqueness. Additionally, he explains, the automated nature of the process could make it challenging to ensure complete compliance with advertising policies and legal guidelines.

To mitigate these negative outcomes, advertisers should maintain human involvement by reviewing and approving generated ad content before deployment. Regular monitoring and analysis of performance metrics can help identify and address any issues promptly. Advertisers should also invest in proper training and education for their AI tools to ensure they align with brand values and produce ads that resonate with the target audience. By combining the efficiency of AI with human judgment and creative input, businesses can strike the right balance and leverage auto-generated ads effectively and responsibly, he says.

Personalisation and targeting

And what kind of impact will it have on ad personalisation and targeting capabilities, including user experience? Experts feel that AI can create a much more enriching user experience when compared to traditional methods.

AI processes user data, unlocking deep insights for laser-focused targeting, says Shubit Rakshit. Advertisers can reach audiences with tailored messages, enhancing relevance and resonating with users. With AI-driven personalisation, you can build tribes that trust your brand even more. It is not just about chasing numbers, but about creating enriching experiences that resonate with your audience, he concludes.
TAG Premium Beer is a masterpiece from the distinguished House of Khemani. With a rich and inviting malty character harmoniously balanced by a delightful interplay of fruit and hop bitterness, each sip takes one on a journey of unparalleled flavour.

That journey has led to launching of a one-of-its-kind campaign on International Beer Day. Crafted by popkorn, the creative agency of the V360 Group, the bold yet friendly campaign extends a hand of friendship to the industrys stalwarts. The campaign premise is simple yet exceptional. Across its social media channels, Daman-based TAG has posted a series of creatives, essentially saying hello to select legacy brands that dominate the beer market.

The idea behind the approach is to make a memorable move in the category, establish connections, and show genuine appreciation to the brands that have paved the way in the industry. In a clever, never-seen-before manner, TAG has marked its presence while acknowledging its stance as a newcomer in a fiercely competitive space.

In a bid to build meaningful connections, the brand will follow up its social media greetings with a tangible gesture of friendship by sending cases of TAG Beer to the offices of the brands that have inspired them. In doing so, TAG hopes to build a community within Indias beer culture.

Amit Ghatak, Chief Marketing Officer, Khemani Group I am thrilled to unveil our latest social media campaign for TAG Beer. Crafted in collaboration with popkorn, the social media agency of the brand. This campaign embodies a bold and yet approachable narrative, reaching out with a friendly gesture to the titans of our industry. The campaign's brilliance lies in its simplicity, a concept that resonates exceptionally. Through an engaging series of visuals on our social media platforms, TAG, extends a warm greeting to select legacy brands that have long graced the beer market. This campaign not only celebrates camaraderie but also signifies TAG Beer's confident strides into the realm of time-honored excellence

Vishal Mehra, Chief Executive Officer  popkorn, said, TAG is a fresh new brand, but their passion for this business and brewing is unparalleled. I have seen that first hand. The genesis of the idea came by chance during our conversations with the TAG team, and the way we are treating this is not a campaign, but rather a greeting from TAG, to all these well entrenched and loved brands. Our ideation hinged on friendship and camaraderie instead of the brash and overconfident tone that several new entrants tend to take. TAG is here to stay, and so, saying hello was simply the right way to introduce ourselves.

TAG Beer and popkorn have unlocked this perspective by looking to create friendships, and the shared passion for beer. The campaign is live now and generating incremental buzz across Instagram and Facebook.
Started as a YouTube channel by founder Alakh Pandey, ed tech company Physics Wallah went on to attain Unicorn status. The platform capitalised on the ed tech boom during the pandemic period and has continued to achieve incredible success in the post=pandemic period without traditional marketing methods.

Physics Wallah has built a highly engaged community around their brand by providing high-quality educational content and making students feel heard and included. The brand has focused on community building as a means of solving the problem of user acquisition. This approach has not only helped Physics Wallah save money, but has also led to a much more authentic and sustainable growth trajectory.

In an interaction with Adully, Sanket Narkar, Head of Marketing, Physics Wallah, talks about the marketing strategies that have led to the tremendous success of the ed-tech company, various initiatives for student outreach, the companys approach to data and analytics, and more.

How does Physics Wallah differentiate itself from other online learning platforms in the market?

Physics Wallah sets itself apart from other online learning platforms through several key differentiators. Firstly, our strong emphasis on gathering student feedback sets the foundation for continuous improvement and ensures excellence in education and delivery. By actively listening to our students, we are able to refine our content and teaching methodologies, resulting in a positive community impact and a reputation for delivering high-quality education.

Additionally, we prioritise making content accessible to all students. This is a guiding principle that drives our course offerings. We provide a wide range of courses  both free and paid  catering to students of different backgrounds and needs. We understand the importance of affordability, and we strive to maintain cost-effectiveness without compromising on the quality of education. This allows us to reach a diverse student population and ensure that education is accessible irrespective of socioeconomic status.

What marketing strategies have been most effective in reaching and engaging the target audience of Physics Wallah?

To effectively reach and engage our target audience, Physics Wallah has implemented a range of mostly organic and effective marketing strategies. One key strategy is our dynamic approach to launching batches and modules based on student demand, offering competitive pricing without compromising on quality. We harness the power of popular social media platforms, including YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Telegram, to connect with our audience and foster a thriving community. We have 23 million students on our YouTube channels alone. Our social media strategy focuses on organic reach and engagement, creating valuable and interactive content to captivate and educate our target audience. Collaborating with over 2,000 micro influencers through video live sessions has proven to be another successful strategy for us to distribute information on courses and offerings, allowing us to tap into their reach and engage with their followers effectively.

Could you provide examples of successful marketing campaigns or initiatives that have helped increase brand awareness or drive user acquisition for Physics Wallah?

We do not use the word user, they are our students  our core, so we try to constantly run campaigns which will help them in their educational journey. Our biggest campaign is annual education festival, Vishwas Diwas, where students are counselled, heard and are provided with scholarships at the start of academic year. More than 1 lakh student join it live concurrently. Additionally, we develop crash/ one shot courses during peak exam seasons and as per the specific requirements in the educational journey to provide intensive and focused study materials to students. These courses include comprehensive study plans, live classes, and practice tests designed to help students revise and prepare effectively. Physics Wallah has launched scholarship programs that offer financial assistance to deserving students. These programs not only provide an opportunity for students to access quality education, but also generate positive word-of-mouth and brand recognition. Referral campaigns have been implemented that incentivise existing students to refer their friends and peers to join Physics Wallah.

How do you effectively reach and engage with students and educators in different regions or countries?

When it comes to reaching and engaging with students and educators in different regions or countries, Physics Wallah adapts strategies to cater to their specific preferences and needs. In India, we understand the importance of regional languages. To cater to diverse linguistic preferences, we have established five vernacular YouTube channels. These channels provide educational content in regional languages, making it more accessible and relatable for students in different states and region. Physics Wallahs offline institutes, known as Vidyapeeth, are strategically located in over 60 cities across India. These institutes provide students with the opportunity to attend physical classes, interact with educators, and engage in face-to-face learning experiences. This offline presence enables us to connect with students at a local level and understand their unique requirement.

Additionally, we organise engaging events like Aarambh and Aagaz to foster connections with students and educators in various regions. These events provide a platform for interaction, knowledge sharing, and guidance, ensuring that we stay connected with the educational community in different cities and regions.

What role does content marketing play in the overall marketing strategy for Physics Wallah? How do you create and distribute valuable content to attract and retain users?

Content marketing is a cornerstone of Physics Wallahs overall marketing strategy. It serves as a powerful tool for creating awareness and retention, providing valuable educational resources. We produce an extensive amount of educational content, with over 8,000 hours generated every week. This content covers a wide range of subjects across more than 25 categories, ensuring comprehensive coverage of educational topics. YouTube Channel and Mobile App: Our content is made easily accessible through our YouTube channel and mobile app. Students can watch videos and access learning materials at their convenience, whether they prefer to learn on their desktop or mobile devices. Our educational content is top not quality for both paid and free batches. With paid batches, students get extra features, but content for both remains the same. Through strategic distribution and accessibility, we foster student engagement ensuring that Physics Wallah remains a trusted destination for students seeking educational excellence.

How do you leverage social media platforms to connect with your target audience and promote Physics Wallahs offerings?

We actively engage with our audience through social media by responding to comments, messages, and inquiries. By fostering two-way communication, we build a sense of community and establish a rapport with our followers. We understand the popularity of memes and utilise them strategically to create relatable and entertaining content. Meme marketing helps us connect with our audience on a more casual and lighthearted level while promoting our brand and offerings. Motivational content helps to inspire and encourage students in their educational journey. Social media platforms serve as a valuable channel to share important updates, such as course launches, upcoming events, and new features. By keeping our audience informed, we ensure they are up-to-date with the latest offerings and opportunities.

What strategies do you employ to convert potential users into paying customers for Physics Wallah?

To convert potential into paying students, we employ a range of effective strategies. We provide the first class free of charge, allowing potential customers to experience the exceptional quality of our education. Our Net Promoter Score (NPS) reflects excellent customer satisfaction, and we greatly benefit from positive word-of-mouth referrals and our refer-and-earn policy.

How do you use data and analytics to inform your marketing decisions and optimize campaigns for Physics Wallah?

Where there is data smoke, there is business fire. However, data is like garbage, you should know what to do with it before you collect it. Data and analytics are integral to shaping our marketing decisions and optimising campaigns to better understand students needs. We recognise the immense value of data and ensure that we collect it with clear objectives in mind. Our approach revolves around utilising data-driven insights to gain a deep understanding of student needs, track their behavior, effectively manage content, and identify emerging trends. By leveraging data, we are able to implement Data-Driven Remarketing and Inbound Promotion (DRIP) strategies, provide targeted counseling services, and make informed marketing decisions.

In a rapidly evolving market, how do you ensure that Physics Wallahs marketing strategies remain relevant and effective?

I firmly believe in the power of constant experimentation. We embrace a mindset that encourages trying new things, even if it means accepting the possibility of failure. Through our approach of experimenting with different strategies or initiatives, we understand that not every attempt will yield the desired results. However, it is essential to view failures as valuable learning opportunities. By analysing and understanding the mistakes we made, we gain insights that help us refine our strategies moving forward. Our goal is to identify the successful experiments among the many we undertake and scale them to drive significant impact. This philosophy allows us to stay agile and adaptive in the ever-evolving landscape of the ed-tech industry. By being open to trying new ideas, embracing failure as a stepping stone to success, and focusing on scaling what works, we continuously strive to improve and deliver the best possible outcomes for our company and our students.

What is your long-term vision for the marketing of Physics Wallah, and what steps are you taking to achieve that vision?

At Physics Wallah, our marketing objective has consistently been to reach out to students in India, conveying the message that access to quality education should not be hindered by financial constraints. We are committed to making education either free or highly affordable, ensuring that students from all backgrounds can benefit from our offerings. To achieve this objective, we focus on building a sustainable organic funnel across all categories. By leveraging our extensive educational content, including videos, courses, and study materials, we aim to provide valuable resources that are accessible to students at no or minimal cost. We are building a legacy brand based on our core principles of inclusivity, affordability, and sustainability.
Federal Department of Foreign Affairs

Bern, 04.08.2023 - During his official visit to Indonesia and Singapore, Mr Cassis took part in a number of high-level talks focusing on the priorities of the Federal Council's South East Asia Strategy to deepen ties with this important economic region. On 5 August, Mr Cassis will travel on to Australia and New Zealand.

Mr Cassis met today with Singapore's foreign minister, Vivian Balakrishnan. Talks focused on economic relations between the two countries: Singapore processes more than half of Switzerland's overall trade with South East Asia and attracts more Swiss direct investment than any other Asian country. The two foreign ministers also discussed the progress of the ongoing negotiations on the proposed digital trade agreement between Singapore and EFTA.

Singapore is a key partner for Switzerland in its capacity as a leading location for science. Thus, Mr Cassis visited the regional hubs of the ETH Zurich and the EHL Hospitality Business School as well as the country's National Quantum Office during his trip, stating that "as highly innovative countries, Switzerland and Singapore can learn a lot from each other. I am delighted with our close cooperation in the field of science, and am keen to see this expand even further. One excellent opportunity for this is through the work of the Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator (GESDA), which Singapore is already involved with."

Economic opportunities in Indonesia

Mr Cassis' visit to Indonesia took place from 1 to 3 August. In the capital city Jakarta, he held talks with the country's foreign minister, Retno Marsudi, including an exchange on the implementation of the EFTA-Indonesian Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, which entered into force in 2021. Both sides are also hoping for new momentum in the economic sphere through the Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement, signed in 2022.

"Indonesia's dynamic economy is also interesting for Swiss companies that may be able to make a significant contribution to further development in the country," said Cassis.

In Jakarta, Mr Cassis also met with the secretary-general of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Kao Kim Hourn. Switzerland has maintained a sectoral dialogue partnership with ASEAN since 2016. It is seen as the most important international organisation in the entire Asia-Pacific region. The dialogue partnership gives Switzerland a greater platform to promote its interests in South East Asia, including at multilateral level.

Mr Cassis' visit to Singapore and Indonesia is tied to the Federal Council's new South East Asia Strategy 202326, which envisages consolidating and deepening ties with the world's fastest growing region.

On 5 August, Mr Cassis will travel on to Australia and New Zealand.

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General Secretariat FDHA

Bern, 04.08.2023 - Colombia is a priority country for Switzerland in three respects: peace support, humanitarian aid and economic cooperation. Next week President of the Swiss Confederation Alain Berset will visit Colombia, where he will meet President Gustavo Petro in Bogota on Thursday, 10 August. Talks will focus on the peace processes in Colombia, Switzerland's commitment and cooperation between the two countries within the UN framework.

In Bogota, in addition to the official talks with Mr Petro, a meeting is planned with actors involved in the implementation of the 2016 peace agreement between the Colombian government and the rebel group FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia). Further steps to bring peace to the country will also be discussed. Along with Germany, Sweden and Spain, Switzerland is one of four states accompanying the peace process between rebel group ELN (Ejercito de Liberacion Nacional) and the government, which is why Mr Berset will be meeting with these negotiating delegations for discussions during his visit.

Switzerland and Colombia will also sign the bilateral agreement for the preservation of a digital backup copy of the archives of the Colombian Truth Commission in Switzerland. This agreement, approved by the Federal Council on 21 June, is a sign of Colombia's confidence in Switzerland, its peace policy and its pioneering role in the preservation of archives.

Peace support and humanitarian aid

The visit to Colombia is the first by a Swiss president since 2016 and will serve to foster close bilateral relations. On Tuesday, 8 August, and Wednesday, 9 August, Mr Berset will visit peace support and humanitarian aid projects in the departments of Valle del Cauca and Antioquia.

In Buenaventura (Valle de Cauca), the focus will be on exchanges with civil society organisations and local authorities. In Dabeiba (Antioquia), Mr Berset's delegation will visit on Wednesday a project supporting the reintegration of ex-combatants and the implementation of the peace process.

Switzerland's support in Colombia includes dealing with the past, emergency aid for internally displaced people affected by ongoing conflicts, and adaptation to climate change. Colombia has also been a priority country for Switzerland's economic development cooperation since 2009, with the goals of strengthening the competitiveness of the Colombian economy and promoting sustainable growth.

Address for enquiries

GS-FDHA Communications, Tel. +41 58 462 85 79, media@gs-edi.admin.ch



Christian Favre, Co-head FDHA Communications

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The National Disaster Response Forces operation to rescue four workers, who are feared trapped after soil caved in during the construction of a well in Maharashtras Pune district, continued on the fourth day, an official said.

The incident occurred at Mhasobachi Wadi village in Indapur tehsil on Tuesday evening. The personnel of the NDRF and the local administration are carrying out the rescue operation to bring the trapped workers out, he said.

Despite the odds, the NDRF personnel are working continuously to remove the collapsed soil and debris. The work was on at the site with the help of machinery even during the entire night, a senior official of the agency said.

The well is 100 feet deep with a diameter of 120 feet, officials said, adding that the site was earlier used for quarrying.

During the construction of the well, the inner concrete wall sank, and those working at the edge of the concrete wall got trapped under the debris, officials said.
Finally, the Supreme Court suspended Congress leader Rahul Gandhis conviction in a criminal defamation case over his remarks on the Modi surname. The order will allow him to return to parliament and contest national elections due next year. The trial judge has awarded the maximum sentence of two years in the case, the top court observed, pointing out that it would not have attracted disqualification if the sentence was a day lesser.

Gandhi was convicted in March in a case brought by Purnesh Modi, a legislator from the western state of Gujarat belonging to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, over comments he made in 2019 when he asked why all thieves have Modi as (their) common surname. Lower courts and the high court in Gujarat  Modis home state where the BJP holds power  had rejected appeals by Gandhi to suspend the conviction, causing him to appeal to the Supreme Court.

Supreme Court judge Justice B R Gavai said the lower court which sentenced Gandhi to two years in jail had not given any reasons for handing down the maximum sentence of two years which led to his disqualification from parliament. While Gandhis comments were not in good taste and he ought to have been more careful while making public speeches, the conviction not only punished Gandhi but also voters who had elected him to represent their constituency, said Gavai, who headed a bench of three judges which suspended the conviction.

Rahul Gandhi has begun to attack Adani directly. If he does not stop, it would have created a lot of headaches for Modi and BJP, they actually needed to clutch him and his statement was used as a tool. In the parliament, Rahul Gandhi had asked questions about Adanis role. BJP went to the trouble of obliterating a major part of his speech. In response the Prime Minister did not take the name of Adani even once. There are some people who are saying that he insulted the whole Modi caste and all OBCs. It is quite obvious that his only target was Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi and Narendra Modi. Nirav Modi and Lalit Modi are not even OBCs.

This entire saga was politically motivated vendetta. What was wrong in his statement, Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi has of course looted our country, so if that is applied, then there are many thieves who have that surname and does it mean that Modis surname is defamed. When a person calls an Italian bar dancer in the media news, the people accept it and not the statements of Rahul Gandhi, are we not biased? If loose talks by Subramanian Swamy and BJP leaders about Gandhi family are entertained, why take objection to Rahul Gandhi? Well, the supreme court has not only given relief to Rahul Gandhi but also given some assurance to people that justice is delivered.

The problem with the criminal defamation law in India is that it is outdated. People need to think about the purpose of this law. Whom does it help? Who gets affected? India has a particularly strict criminal defamation law compared to many other democracies. In India, defamation is a criminal offence that can result in imprisonment and fines. The Indian Penal Code (IPC) includes defamation as an offence under Section 499, which defines defamation as any imputation that harms a persons reputation.

Whereas in many other democracies, defamation is primarily a civil matter, meaning that it is addressed through civil lawsuits rather than criminal charges. In countries such as the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, for example, defamation can be the basis for a civil lawsuit, but it is not typically a criminal offence. Even in countries where criminal defamation laws do exist, the penalties may not be as severe as those in India. For example, in France, criminal defamation can result in fines and imprisonment, but the maximum sentence is typically shorter than in India, and imprisonment is typically not mandatory.

Overall, the criminal defamation law in India is among the strictest in the world, and there have been concerns raised about the laws impact on freedom of speech and expression. Some have called for reform of the law to make it more in line with international standards of freedom of expression. The number of instances in which this law has been used as a tool to harass and intimidate journalists, whistle-blowers and activists, are too many. If we look at previous such cases like Arvind Kejriwal vs. Nitin Gadkari: In 2013, Maneka Gandhi vs. Indira Gandhi: In 1977, MG Devasahayam vs. M Karunanidhi: In 1992, Jay Amit Shah vs. The Wire: In 2017. All these cases are different from each other under defamation but none of these leaders were banned or barred from their rights and duties. In Rahul Gandhis case it was an extreme sentence of disqualification. This law needs to be revisited, and discussed, in any case, it must be limited only to civil courts, not worth being treated as a criminal offence.

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The Alabama Business Hall of Fame has announced its newest class of inductees for 2023.

The six are Herman Bulls of McLean, Va., Tom Hough of Atlanta, Phillip McWane of Mountain Brook, James Jimmy Rane of Abbeville, Frank Stitt III of Birmingham, and Michael Thompson of Birmingham.

The induction ceremony will take place at Haven in Birmingham on Nov. 9.

Herman Bulls is vice chairman, international director and the founder of Jones Lang LaSalles (JLL) Public Institutions practice, which he began to serve governmental and higher education clients.

Born in Florence, Bulls earned an engineering degree from United States Military Academy at West Point in 1978. He was a professor of finance and economics at West Point for three years active duty and 18 years as a reserve officer. He also earned an MBA from Harvard University.

Bulls started his business career when he retired from active duty in 1988, joining JLL and working as a developer and manager of an $800 million portfolio. Bulls is also the founder, president, and CEO of Bulls Advisory Group, a real estate advisory and management consulting firm. He was co-founder, president, and CEO of Bulls Capital Partners, a mortgage finance firm.

Tom Hough largely spent his career working for accounting firm Ernst & Young. Hough graduated summa cum laude from the University of Alabama with bachelors and masters degrees in accounting. He started with EY in 1978 in Cleveland, joining the National Accounting Research Group. He subsequently transferred to the Birmingham office, making partner in 1987.

Hough transferred to New York in 1996, joining EYs Executive Board. By the time of his retirement in 2014, he was leading EYs Americas Assurance Practice, serving on the firms executive board and a member of the Global Assurance Executive Committee.

Phillip McWane, an Auburn University graduate, is chairman of McWane, Inc., the Birmingham-based manufacturer of ductile iron products such as pipes, hydrants, and other critical goods used in construction and water infrastructure.

He joined the company in 1980 and is the fourth generation to lead the family-grown company, which boasts a 6,000-person workforce located in 25 manufacturing facilities around the globe.

Jimmy Rane is the founder, chairman, and CEO of Great Southern Wood Preserving, one of the worlds largest manufacturers of pressure-treated lumber. Rane started his career as an attorney and mediated a dispute over his father-in-laws estate, which led to him taking over a small wood treating business.

Now, Great Southern Wood Preserving and its YellaWood brand are at the forefront of the wood and preservation industry. He earned his bachelors in business administration from Auburn, as well as a J.D. from the Samford University Cumberland School of Law.

Frank Stitt III is the owner and executive chef of Highlands Bar and Grill, Bottega Restaurant, Bottega Cafe, and Chez Fonfon in Birmingham. Stitts culinary journey took shape in San Francisco, and he honed his kitchen skills at various Bay Area restaurants. He eventually made his way back to his home state and in 1982 opened Highlands Bar & Grill, followed by Bottega in 1988, Cafe Bottega in 1990, and Chez Fonfon in 2000all in Birmingham.

Highlands Bar & Grill received the James Beard Foundation Award for Outstanding Restaurant in 2018 after being nominated for the award each year since 2009. Stitt also was inducted into the Alabama Academy of Honor, the most distinguished award given to an Alabamian, in 2009.

Michael Thompson is chairman of the board of Thompson Tractor Co., a dealer of heavy earthmoving machinery and engines through the South. He joined Thompson Tractor Co. in 1977 and became president and CEO in 1986. The company is the full-line Caterpillar dealer for Alabama and northwest Florida, and the premier Hyundai forklift dealer for most of Georgia and Central Tennessee.

Thompsons interest in real estate led him to found Fairway Investments, which has holdings in ten states throughout the Southeast.
Limestone County investigators have charged a man with murder following a reported overdose in his home.

According to the sheriffs office, deputies were called to a residence in the 13000 block of Quinn Road on Wednesday, July 26 at about 7:24 p.m.

They found an unresponsive woman in the living room of the home of Gary Amerson, 46, of Athens.

Amerson allegedly told authorities he administered a dose of Narcan to the victim, ate a bowl of cereal, and called 911, 20 minutes after discovering her unresponsive.

Investigators, however, say that Amerson waited more than an hour before calling 911.

Amerson faces charges of felony murder, as well as drug trafficking (meth), possession of a pistol by a violent felon, two counts of drug possesion, felony possession of drug paraphernalia and drug distribution. He is being held in the Limestone County Detention Facility on $110,000 bond.

Sheriff Joshua McLaughlin said Amerson was bringing three to four pounds of meth and up to 32 grams of fentanyl into the area each week.

His drug operation is now over. We will continue aggressively seeking and prosecuting these offenders to the fullest extent of the law, McLaughlin said.
Lajuana Bradford was just three years old when civil rights protests erupted in downtown Birmingham in the summer of 1963. Years later, as a high school senior, she realized the effects of those efforts when the city elected its first Black mayor.

I am here because of Mayor Arrington, the Regions executive said to a crowd of fellow journalists and business professionals on Thursday. That told me as a Black individual growing up in this city, that whatever I wanted to do, I could do because he did it.

Former Birmingham Mayor Richard Arrington, along with a group of local civil rights leaders and experts, made a rare public appearance with Black journalists in Birmingham Thursday.

Read more: Help AL.com journalists tell the story of Alabama in 1963.

Read more: Childrens Crusade foot soldiers say theyre still fighting for equity.

This year is the first time that Birmingham has been chosen as the site of the annual National Association of Black Journalists conference, which hosts hundreds of reporters across the nation. AL.com columnist Roy S. Johnson, the conferences co-chair, moderated a packed panel about Alabamas hidden Black icons on Thursday morning at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex.

The city is commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Birmingham campaign, a series of movements that involved local leaders, clergy, community members and even children, in the fight for civil and human rights.

Arrington, now 89, returned to Birmingham in 1963 after receiving his doctorate in Oklahoma. He was working at Miles College at the time, where many of his students and staff were involved in local demonstrations. But he didnt consider himself part of the movement.

Id never in my life thought about running for politics, he said. I was in effect a bystander. I never marched. I had never participated.

Instead, Arrington focused on other efforts to expand African American education across the state by forming a consortium of historically Black colleges.

It was his students who pushed Arrington to eventually serve on the Birmingham City Council, where he pushed to improve hiring practices and police accountability. After years of pushback, he became Birminghams first African American mayor in 1979  a position he held for 20 years.

Its good to have you in Birmingham, Arrington told the room of journalists. Its a city thats twice the size that it used to be, and became that as a Black city. Its a city with a strong tax base. Its a city where people talk about police reform. So its good to have you here.

Other panelists included Rev. Thomas Wilder of the historic Bethel Baptist Church, T. Marie King, producer of a documentary about the late Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, and Bob Dickerson, a protege of the late multimillionaire A.G. Gaston. Greg Morrison, a former Mobile TV news anchor and a member of the Clotilda Descendants Association, also discussed the history of the descendants of the last known slave ship to arrive in Mobile.

It takes people with a lot of different roles in order to have a movement, Johnson said.

When I tell people about 1963 in Birmingham, it really was a pivotal moment, not just with the city but with America.

Those roles included skillful educators like Odessa Woolfolk, Black business leaders like Gaston, and the leadership of Shuttlesworth, who panelists called one of Americas most courageous civil rights leaders.

Shuttlesworth, who died in 2011, was largely responsible for getting Martin Luther King Jr. to come to Birmingham, where he wrote Letter from a Birmingham Jail and later mentioned the city in his famous March on Washington speech.

Wilder is the current pastor of Bethel Baptist Church, which was bombed by the Klan numerous times under Shuttlesworths leadership.

He told me at one point that he expected to die, Wilder said, recalling a conversation with Shuttlesworth about the stakes of freedom for Black Alabamians.

He was bold to a fault, he added. But he had a childlike faith that caused him to keep going in spite of it.

Visiting journalists said they felt inspired by Birminghams history, but noted that nationwide, memories of the movement are fading away amid efforts to whitewash and sugarcoat Black history.

Jacqualine Jarju, a reporter from Springfield, Illinois, is the daughter of a civil rights activist, but said she didnt learn about her own familys role in the movement until she was older.

We have held too much in, trying to save our children, she said.

For Wilder and others, the events of 1963 and beyond tell an important story about triumph and resilience  one that can provide a blueprint for younger generations as they work to solve local issues.

The joy is what kept them going, he said. You look at everything that people have gone through that was the story.

For the joy of us being able to gather in Birmingham  what was once considered the most segregated city in America  for the joy of seeing you here, our forefathers endured slavery, Jim Crow, Bull Connor, being jailed, everything else that they endured, for the joy of seeing us.
A Birmingham man was found guilty Thursday in the shooting death of another man last year in Gate City.

Cedric Lamar Willis, 37, was initially charged with murder in the June 11, 2022, slaying of 43-year-old Morrion Montrie Hamilton.

A Jefferson County jury on Thursday convicted Willis on a reduced charge of provocation manslaughter.

Under Alabama law, a person commits the crime of manslaughter if he or she causes the death of another person under circumstances that would constitute murder, except that he or she causes the death due to a sudden heat of passion caused by provocation recognized by law, and before a reasonable time for the passion to cool and for reason to reassert itself.

East Precinct officers were dispatched at 4:40 p.m. that Saturday to a report of gunfire in the 7500 block of 66th Court Way South in Gate City.

East Precinct officers were dispatched at 4:40 p.m. Saturday, June 11, to a report of gunfire in the 7500 block of 66th Court Way South in Gate City.

Once on the scene, they found Hamilton unresponsive in an alley.

Officers applied pressure to the victims wounds until Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service arrived. They transported Hamilton to UAB Hospital, where he was pronounced dead a short time later. He had been shot multiple times.

The citys gunfire detection system - Shot Spotter - registered at least 10 shots fired, and police found numerous shell casings.

Authorities at the time said it appeared the victim was involved in an argument with the suspect, who fled in a vehicle after firing the deadly shots.

Morrion Hamilton (Contributed)

The trial began Monday before Jefferson County Circuit Judge Kechia Davis.

Jefferson County deputy district attorneys Amanda Wineman and Lauren Breland are prosecuting the case. Willis is represented by the Jefferson County Public Defenders Office.

Willis pleaded guilty in 2015 to third-degree robbery and was ordered to serve 18 months of a 13  -year sentence. In 2016, he pleaded guilty to discharging a gun into an occupied building was sentenced to 15 years in prison with two to serve.

Davis will sentence Willis on Oct. 3.
Alabama boasts a decade-long wave of criminal cases against new mothers, arrests that have touched more than a thousand women accused of using drugs while pregnant. That includes meth and heroin addicts, but also hundreds of marijuana users and even some people who didnt know they were pregnant. Some spent months behind bars or even gave birth in jail.

The consequences go beyond the jailhouse. Hospital staff are required to report positive drug tests to the child welfare agency, and sometimes women lose custody of newborns and older children. In many cases, women faced criminal charges even after child welfare determined their children were safe.

Prosecutors say the law has pushed addicts into treatment and helped save babies from neglectful or even dangerous environments.

Its not like its one of those things where were throwing people in prison for years and years because they have addiction problems, said Tim Gann, chief deputy district attorney for Madison County. But it is one of those things where there is a penalty for doing something harmful to your child even though you may have an addiction problem.

Were treating that, but were also punishing the bad behavior and giving the child a chance at a normal life. So, I think its been one of the best laws that has come on the books in a long time.

But advocates for women say the last decades crackdown has backfired, and that Alabama is training young women who have used drugs to avoid medical care and hospitals when they become pregnant. They also argue the law catches women who did nothing wrong.

We do know that moms are afraid of going to get prenatal care because they dont want to be detected, said Honour McDaniel, March of Dimes director of maternal and infant health initiatives for Alabama. They dont want people to know because they are afraid of attracting the attention of law enforcement, of child protective services, of having that criminalization of having substance use disorder.

They love their kids. They dont want their kids to be taken away.

Fear of doctors

Stephanie Bendish, who lived outside of Mobile, struggled with opioid addiction when she became pregnant with her third child in 2017. When she found out she was expecting, she began taking prenatal vitamins. But like some other mothers in Alabama, she hesitated to make an appointment with an obstetrician.

I thought that they would call the police on me, she said. And that they would take me to jail. And that I would have to be pregnant and have my baby in jail.

In Alabama, in several counties, hospitals test newborns for drugs upon delivery and they share the findings with police.

Bendish developed a severe infection in her second trimester and lost her baby at 17 weeks. Doctors rushed her into surgery to stop her bleeding. She woke up with two police officers standing next to her hospital bed.

No one would tell me what it was about, Bendish said. Not the nurses or the police. I kept asking, what is this about? Whats going on? And they wouldnt tell me. So, after that they handcuffed me to the bed and told me I was under arrest. And thats when I asked for a lawyer.

What the numbers show

A few other states have similar laws, but Alabama alone has brought thousands of cases. Other states, for the most part, prosecute women when something bad happens to the baby. Alabama is the only place where women are routinely charged even if the baby is healthy.

According to data from the Alabama Medicaid Agency, the chemical endangerment law has done little to protect newborns. The number of babies diagnosed with neonatal abstinence syndrome  which happens when they are born dependent on drugs  actually rose sharply after 2013 and peaked in 2018. The number of drug overdoses during pregnancy almost doubled between 2016 and 2019.

That matches research on the effects of policies that require medical workers to report positive drug tests of mothers or newborns to child welfare agencies, said Dr. Laura Faherty, a pediatrician and policy researcher for RAND.

There have been studies showing that punitive policies are associated with starting prenatal care later in a pregnancy, Faherty said. With lower likelihood of getting the recommended number of prenatal care visits. A lower likelihood of attending really important postpartum visits and a reduced likelihood of getting the really important evidence-based medication for opioid use disorder treatment.

In Alabama, arrests are concentrated among poor and young mothers in just a handful of counties that enforce the law, while many counties largely ignore it. Etowah County in north Alabama has the highest rate of arrests of women for chemical endangerment but still has a rate of neonatal abstinence syndrome that is twice the state average, according to data from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama.

Faherty found that policies meant to punish mothers to prevent drug use had no effect on rates of neonatal abstinence syndrome.

A growing number of studies have found that punitive policies dont really have the desired effect, Faherty said. Punishing pregnant women for substance use is not likely to be beneficial to anyone.

Avoiding charges

John Tindle, an attorney who handles chemical endangerment cases in the Bessemer cutoff near Birmingham and once ran for judge as a Republican, said he has seen the unintended consequences of these prosecutions.

Many of these women are aware of the laws now and will not go to the hospital to have their child and have their child at home without medical care to avoid felony charges, Tindle wrote in an email. Its a horrible situation.

But Gann, the chief deputy district attorney for Madison County, said his office in Huntsville frequently handles cases of chemical endangerment and he believes the law benefits newborns. He said he receives an average of about two reports every week about women or babies who tested positive for drugs in the hospital.

I dont know that it has worked in prevention, Gann said. But it has worked in treatment. Weve seen success stories with the women who go through our [pretrial intervention program] program or the women who have gone through the entire system and they get clean. The bigger, more important thing is the innocent bystander, who is the baby. They get the care that they need early on.

His office will handle cases differently depending on the type of drug and the mothers criminal record. He said the court tries to get women with substance use disorders into treatment.

Were treating that, but were also punishing the bad behavior and giving the child a chance at a normal life. So, I think its been one of the best laws that has come on the books in a long time.

Hendree Jones, senior advisor to UNC Horizons, a substance use treatment program for pregnant women, said programs that wait until babies are already born to offer treatment miss vital opportunities to improve the health of babies and moms.

If you want healthy babies, you need to have the practices and supports in place to have healthy moms, Jones said.

The Tennessee experiment

The strongest evidence that the law had the opposite effect in terms of protecting newborns comes from Alabamas neighbor to the north. Tennessee lawmakers enacted a fetal assault law in 2014 that made it a misdemeanor to expose a fetus to drugs. Women could face up to one year in jail if convicted.

Proponents of the law pitched it as a pathway to treatment for women with addiction. However, doctors reported increases in drug-exposed newborns and decreases in prenatal visits soon after the law passed, and lawmakers allowed it to lapse after two years. Efforts to resurrect the fetal harm law failed.

Law professors Megan Boone and Benjamin McMichael analyzed health outcomes in Tennessee in the first attempt to measure the effect of criminalization laws on fetal health.

Fetal endangerment laws not only fail to deliver the promised benefits in terms of improved fetal and infant health, but they actively undermine the realization of that goal, said their research paper, which was published in the Georgetown Law Journal.

According to their research, the percentage of mothers receiving prenatal care dropped from about 94 percent before the law was passed to 83 percent two years later. The average length of Tennessee pregnancies and average Apgar scores, which measure newborns color, reflexes and breathing, also dropped during that time. Most alarmingly, the number of fetal deaths increased. Using publicly available data, the researchers estimated the law caused an additional 60 newborn deaths in the first 28 days of life in 2015 as expectant mothers avoided medical care.

Mothers forego prenatal care when this law is in place  indeed, the chilling effect of this law on pregnant mothers lasts past the time the law lapses  which places them and their fetuses at higher risk, the study found.

McMichael said Tennessees law, which lapsed in 2016, was easier to study than Alabamas chemical endangerment statute, which came into being by a ruling of the state supreme court and has seen patchwork enforcement that tends to be much tougher in some counties and non-existent in others.

However, anecdotal reports of women avoiding hospital care are similar in both states. Doctors in Tennessee urged for a repeal of the law after a woman gave birth on the side of the road to avoid hospital drug tests and potential prosecution.

The same thing has happened in Alabama. In late 2020, a Scottsboro woman with a previous arrest for chemical endangerment gave birth in a motel in Hartselle. Her baby had to be transported to Huntsville Hospital for treatment in the NICU, according to court records. A Florence mom gave birth in an apartment in September 2018 and only came to the attention of officials after the resident reported her to police a day later. Her baby received treatment for pneumonia from the local hospital. Another mother in Etowah County crossed county lines to give birth in Marshall County and avoid detection by local authorities.

Life after loss

Bendish said she has mixed feelings about her chemical endangerment arrest. Prosecutors initially sought a 25-year sentence for her miscarriage, which they said was caused by her drug use. Instead, the judge took mercy on her and sentenced Bendish to one year in a drug treatment facility, where she finally got sober after a lifetime of addiction.

Things might have been different for her and her daughter if help had been offered before she became ill and lost her child. Bendish said medical workers treated her poorly when she arrived at the hospital in pain and suffering from a high fever. After she lost the baby, she was distraught and sought answers from a doctor who treated her kindly.

I asked her specifically if I had killed my baby and she sat down on the bed and told me no, Bendish said. That there was nothing I ate, drank, smoked, drugs, nothing. That none of that was the cause. My fluid got infected, and I got blood poisoning. So, I was dying as well as she and that was my bodys way of saving me.

Alabama has few treatment facilities specifically for pregnant women and mothers. Women with opioid use disorder can have healthy pregnancies if they receive proper treatment and prenatal care, according to the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Some obstetricians may not know how or where to refer women with substance use disorder.

When you go through all that and people hear that you do drugs, they dont want to help you properly, Bendish said. They just write you off. They just shun you and its not fair. I feel like if maybe they would have taken me a little more seriously, situations like this dont have to happen.
A Lawrence County woman was arrested Friday morning after authorities found her son dead.

Shannon Renee Karr was booked into the county jail at 4:16 a.m. on capital murder charges, according to jail records. She is being held without bond.

According to WAFF, Moulton police said a 911 call was received from a home on Main Street at about 3 a.m.

Officers found a woman outside the home who told them about a dead child inside the home. The woman was identified as the mother of the boy.

Lawrence County Coroner Scott Norwood said a seven-year-old was found dead at the scene with two gunshot wounds.
Authorities have released the name of a woman killed in a rollover crash on Interstate 65 in Shelby County.

Alabama State Troopers identified the fatality victim as Haley J. Mosley. She was 33 and lived in Pelham.

The crash happened at 3:13 p.m. Thursday on I-65 near Shelby County 22 in Calera.

Authorities said Mosley was driving a Jeep Wrangler that struck a Toyota Venza driven by James L. McCauley, 47, of Deatsville.

Because of the impact, said Senior Trooper Brandon Bailey, Mosleys Jeep left the road and overturned.

Mosley was not using her seat belt and was ejected. She was pronounced dead on the scene.

The wreck remains under investigation by troopers.
Strong storms, flooding and dangerous heat will all be concerns in parts of Alabama on Friday, according to forecasters.

Flash flooding has been a big issue in parts of northern Alabama, where several flash flood warnings were issued on Friday morning.

The city of Oneonta in Blount County has been particularly hard-hit with flooding as of Friday morning, according to the National Weather Service:

Please never drive into areas where water covers the road, you do not know how deep it is and if the road is damaged in that area. Turn around, don't drown. #alwx https://t.co/3tCD1rlXgR  NWS Birmingham (@NWSBirmingham) August 4, 2023

Flood watches and heat advisories will be in effect in various areas through tonight. Areas that dont get rain could see the heat index climb as high as 111 degrees this afternoon. Areas that get repeated storms could see up to 3 inches of rain.

NOAAs Weather Prediction Center has a moderate -- or Level 3 of 4 -- risk for flash flooding over parts of north and central Alabama today:

A MODERATE risk is in effect in our Day 1 Excessive Rainfall Outlook. More details: https://t.co/FQU5sbmsxo pic.twitter.com/g19TmvfTO5  NWS Weather Prediction Center (@NWSWPC) August 4, 2023

There could also be a few severe storms in the mix.

NOAAs Storm Prediction Center is forecasting a Level 1 out of 5 risk for severe weather today for parts of Alabama today. A Level 1 risk means isolated severe storms will be possible.

The strongest storms could have damaging winds and heavy rain. Storms were moving across parts of the state on Friday morning and could intensify as heat levels rise today.

HEAT CONCERNS TODAY

Speaking of heat, areas in west and south Alabama could see heat index values of 111 degrees this afternoon, and heat advisories will be in effect.

Heres a look at Fridays heat advisories:

CENTRAL ALABAMA

A heat advisory will be in effect on Friday for the counties in orange.

* A heat advisory will be in effect until 9 p.m. Friday for Sumter, Greene, Hale, Perry, Marengo, Dallas, Pickens and Lowndes counties. Heat index values up to 108 will be possible.

SOUTH ALABAMA

A Heat Advisory is in effect for the entire area today from 11 am to 7 pm. Another Heat Advisory is in effect for portions of southeast MS, extreme southwestern AL and the western FL panhandle on Saturday. Heat index values up to around 111 are possible. pic.twitter.com/rw6HHNCWnL  NWS Mobile (@NWSMobile) August 4, 2023

* A heat advisory will be in effect from 11 a.m. until 7 p.m. Friday and from noon until 7 p.m. Saturday for Choctaw, Washington, Escambia, Mobile and Baldwin counties. Heat index values up to 111 will be possible.

* A heat advisory will be in effect from 11 a.m. until 7 p.m. Friday for Clarke, Wilcox, Monroe, Conecuh, Butler, Crenshaw and Covington counties. Heat index values up to 109 are expected.

FLOODING CONCERNS

Flooding will also be a concern for areas farther north in Alabama.

The National Weather Service has several flood watches in effect for north and central Alabama. Some areas could get up to 3 inches of rain before its over.

Heres a look at the flood watches for Alabama:

NORTH ALABAMA

* A flood watch will be in effect until 1 p.m. Friday for Colbert, Cullman, DeKalb, Franklin, Jackson, Lauderdale, Lawrence, Limestone, Madison, Marshall and Morgan counties.

The weather service in Huntsville said heavy rain is expected through the morning, and areas getting repeated storms will be highly susceptible to flooding.

Forecasters said the flooding threat is expected to diminish this afternoon.

CENTRAL ALABAMA

Flood Watch expanded further south, will continue through 4 pm this afternoon. pic.twitter.com/ymIFyQPLdm  NWS Birmingham (@NWSBirmingham) August 4, 2023

* A flood watch will be in effect until 4 p.m. Friday for Blount, Calhoun, Cherokee, Clay, Cleburne, Etowah, Jefferson, Randolph, Shelby, St. Clair, Talladega, Walker, Winston, Autauga, Bibb, Chambers, Chilton, Coosa, Elmore, Fayette, Lamar, Lee, Macon, Marion, Russell, Tallapoosa and Tuscaloosa counties.

The weather service in Birmingham said multiple rounds of showers and thunderstorms will be possible through the afternoon and an additional 1 to 3 inches of rain could cause flash flooding.
Former President Donald Trump picked up a wave of endorsements from top Alabama Republicans on Friday, hours before he is scheduled to speak in Montgomery.

Trumps campaign announced that Tommy Tuberville, Alabamas senior senator, and the states six Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives  Robert Aderholt, Jerry Carl, Barry Moore, Gary Palmer, Mike Rogers and Dale Strong  are backing the former president in his bid to return to the White House. Other endorsements came from Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth, Agriculture Commissioner Rick Pate, Public Service Commission President Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh and Public Service Commissioners Chip Beeker and Jeremy Oden.

Not listed among the endorsements Friday by the Trump campaign were Gov. Kay Ivey and U.S. Sen. Katie Britt. A statement from Britt on Friday said that she is maintaining neutrality in the Republican primary while serving on the Republican National Committees Republican Party Advisory Council. Trump endorsed Britt in the Republican Senate primary in 2022.

Related: Biden campaign knocks Donald Trump visit to Alabama as endorsement of Tubervilles political antics

Related: Trump rules early Alabama fundraising and national polling, but pundits claim: Its just too early

The endorsements perhaps come as no surprise given past support for Trump  the frontrunner in the 2024 Republican presidential primary  but it would seem to reiterate Alabama as a Trump stronghold even amid legal issues that have seen him indicted in three different investigations in recent months.

Today we are proud to endorse Donald J. Trump for President, Alabamas House delegation said in a statement released by the Trump campaign. After eight years of Obama-Biden socialist policies, in his first term, President Trumps America First agenda put our nation on a more secure and prosperous path, proving that the Trump policies are the right policies for the American people. In a second term, President Trump will secure our borders, rebuild our economy, strengthen our national defense, ensure equal justice under law for all Americans  not just political allies  protect our children, including the unborn innocent among us, and restore Americas respect in the world. We look forward to working with President Trump to Make America Great Again.

In his own statement released by the campaign, Tuberville said, Hes the leader America needs in 2024. Thats why Im proud to endorse Donald J. Trump for President of the United States!

Trump will be the keynote speaker Friday night at the Alabama GOPs Summer Dinner at the Renaissance Hotel in downtown Montgomery.

Britt will miss the dinner while continuing to recover at home for what her office described as sudden facial numbness believed to be caused by an infection.

Sen. Britt enjoys a warm relationship with President Trump and had an opportunity to speak with him by phone this week, Britt spokesman Sean Ross said in a statement to AL.com. The senator greatly appreciated his well wishes and kind words. They discussed the disastrous results of the Biden presidency and the need to restore strength to the White House, so that hardworking American families are put first again. While she continues to rest and recover at home, Wesley and her parents are excited to be there in-person on Friday to welcome President Trump back to Alabama.

Updated today, Aug. 4, 2023, at 3:16 p.m. with statement from Sen. Katie Britt.
A 19-year-old corrections officer at the Morgan County Jail was arrested and charged with promoting prison contraband as part of an ongoing investigation, the sheriffs office said Thursday.

Bobby Ray Simmons, 19, of Hartselle was arrested on charges of third-degree promoting prison contraband.

He was booked into the Morgan County Jail on $2,500 bond.

We work daily to prevent jail contraband from entering our facility as we maintain the care, custody and control of approximately 750 inmates. When discovered, we will not hesitate to investigate and arrest those involved, said Sheriff Ron Puckett. Sadly, these actions will overshadow the good work and positive contributions that our Corrections Officers make every day. It is a tough job in a hard environment. Thankfully the vast majority of our COs come to work and do their best day, after day, after day. For the small minority that choose to bring in contraband, know that you will be caught and prosecuted.
Last Thursday, at a White House event for progressive groups hosted by Press Secretary Karine Jean- Pierre, whose presentations fail to invigorate either viewers or journalists, a young attendee broke into the scheduled speeches with a protest. When a staffer approached to escort her out, he was uncharacteristically waved off by Jean-Pierre, who told him to let her speak. Elise Joshi, the young woman, described herself as speaking for a million young people by channeling the strength of my ancestors and generation then went on to condemn the Biden Administrations permits for oil and gas pipelines, in a segment which quickly made news on Instagram and Twitter.

But Joshi isnt exactly a pleading voice in the wilderness; shes the executive director of the progressive advocacy organization Gen-Z for Change, which is the most influential young activist organization in Washington. As this tableau demonstrated, Gen-Z for Change is also the newest arrow in a gerontocratic administrations re-election quiver: a youth astroturf group purporting to represent the rising grassroots and speak truth to power but really part of the power configuration it says its fighting against.

Gen-Z for Changes insiderism begins with Aidan Kohn-Murphy, whose parents Chris Murphy and Laurie Kohn came up from Harvard University and Georgetown Law School through the nonprofits into elite government positions. Like the parents of a millennial influencer Lena Dunham, Murphy and Kohn never broke through to prominence but provided the environment that allowed their child to make the leap. Aidan first garnered media coverage as a seven-year-old asking D.C. officials about chocolate milk for schoolchildren. He later worked for Democrat senator Ed Markeys Massachusetts campaign and attended a Democracy Summer program sponsored by Democrat Rep. Jamie Raskin. He made the New York Times in 2022 as a student at Georgetown Day, where Ketanji Brown Jackson sat on the board.

Kohn-Murphy broke through to fame in 2020 when a conference call for a Biden phone bank he organized was attended by 200 social-media creators under the handle TikTok for Biden, posting over a hundred videos urging Gen Zrs to cast their first vote. These videos were picked up by an establishment eager to claim credit for listening to what it says is "the voice of the rising generation." By November 2020, Kohn-Murphy had been contacted by the Biden campaigns digital director and maintained an informal line of communication during the presidential transition. In January 2021, he changed TikTok for Bidens name to Gen-Z for Change and expanded its moves in coordination with the White House.

During the summer and fall, the group co-hosted a YouTube town hall discussion with Anthony Fauci promoting the COVID-19 vaccine and coordinated with the White House promoting Build Back Better, even as it also became more aggressive, mobilizing TikTok followers to call in false tips to a Texas anti-abortion hotline and causing it to crash, then doing the same to a website signing plaintiffs for cases against President Bidens student loan forgiveness plan. By the end of the year it was organizing as a 501c4, which, unlike 501c3s, can participate in lobbying and political activities. And by early 2022 it was

organiz[ing] a briefing between senior administration officials and prominent social media influencers about the war in Ukraine inspiring a Saturday Night Live sketch in which President Biden solicited advice from ditzy TikTok stars. Kohn-Murphy was flattered by the parody.

Kohn-Murphy probably was flattered, since these ditzy TikTok stars in no way resembled the connected careerists whom he had brought on to run things. Elise Joshi graduated from Mountain View High School, an elite public school at the heart of the Stanford-Berkeley government-funded tech boom, and attends University of Berkeley; she told a local paper that shes already met two presidents, Clinton and Obama. Sam Shlafstein went to Suffield Academy in Connecticut and attends Johns Hopkins. Jack Petocz graduated from the International Baccalaureate Program in Miami, cut his teeth on pro-LGTBQ-anti-De Santis activism there, will attend Vanderbilt, and calls himself besties with the Vice President. Olivia Julianna, who comes from a less-privileged background, identifies as a queer, plus-size, disabled Latina. In fact, the demographic that most of the leaders of Gen-Z for Change really represent is one half of Americas ultimate divide, between those who benefit from elite institutional backing and those who dont.

They talk about their volunteerism, even though many are funded by family tuition payments as they build their career resumes. They talk about their agitating outsiderism, even though their partnerships with and features in Teen Vogue, owned by Conde Nast, seem like outsiderisms opposite. They talk about muster[ing] up every ounce of courage to interrupt Karine Jean-Pierre, though Elise Joshi had no problem two days earlier, bump[ing] into Joe Manchin and bragging that she made him run around in circles like a scared-y cat. They talk about their tensions with the Biden administration, even though these tensions amount to pushing the President in the direction his administration is clearly already headed. They talk about representing future generations -- even though using videos of child activists to promote a warming agenda and pushing back against questions of Chinese influence on TikTok may not be doing later generations any favors. Finally, they talk about how, according to Joshi, any progressive change, by any means, is our goal -- even though when Kohn-Murphy quickly breaks in to say by most means means within reason, it reads like the comment of an operator who treats politics as a zero-sum game but doesnt want to alert the natives.

It doesnt take much imagination to envision how the White House will use Gen-Z for Change in 2024. On Biden priorities ranging from canceling student loan debt to shutting down the oil-and-gas industry, from attacking anti-establishment candidates like Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., to limiting speech in the name of anti-discrimination, Gen-Z for Change will be a crucial part of the campaign, assuring people that Democratic policy is the wave of the future, silencing critics with aggressive moves Biden can then disavow, and doing it in the unobjectionable name of young people taking their futures in their hands. Eventually, Gen-Z for Change will give the President an excuse to push policy Left on the environment, while never going so far as it demands, keeping his claim to moderation even as the end goal is never in doubt. As Generation Z Democrat congressman Maxwell Frost said about Joshis White House exchange, The President has made historic investments in combatting the climate crisis. However, to save humanity, we must do so much more.

Theres an unsettling precedent, intended or not, for Gen-Z for Change -- where another elderly leader used another youth group to validate another centralizing agenda in another disintegrating system. The system was the Soviet Union; the leader was Leonid Brezhnev, an uncomfortable point of comparison for Joe Biden; and the group was the Komsomol, an officially independent activist organization for 14 to 28-year-olds which reached its peak during Brezhnevs rule as a route for smart, ambitious youth to achieve communist party success. America is not Soviet Russia, but power is concentrating here faster and faster, helped by independent but connected activists who, like the Soviets, traffic in the language of powerlessness. Elise Joshi might or might not be right when she justifies her tactics with the principle that power concedes nothing without a demand, but she isnt on the side she says she is. Look closely enough and Gen-Z for Change is part of the establishment it claims to oppose.

Image: Gen-Z for Change
Thomas Jefferson was no fan of newspapers but, when asked about choosing between government without newspapers and newspapers without government, famously answered that he would not hesitate to choose the latter. His observation reflected two things. Firstly, and obviously, newspapers were the dominant medium of his day and, secondly, he profoundly suspected government and, therefore, saw newspapers as a check on unfettered power. Todays social media, though, would give him pause, for it is the governments ally, not its watcher.

In recent months, thanks to Elon Musks release of the Twitter Files , the Facebook documents that the Judiciary Committee obtained, and other damning social media discoveries, we now know that the White House (aka The Democrat Party) and an assortment of governmental agencies have persistently exerted heavy influence, including monetary payoffs, to control information on social media. Subpoenaed documents from other firms like Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft are supposed to be forthcoming and may reveal more.

We finally are having confirmed those suspicions that Democrats (including social media) have for years denounced as conspiracy theories. Yes, there was shadow banning; yes, Russians were not overwhelming us with disinformation; and yes, people were being deplatformed, censored, and locked out of their accounts. But just how big of a deal is this?

To answer that question, you first must have a handle on social medias significance and influence overall. Few Americans do, believing this is just another iteration of media evolution.

Image by Freepik.

Over the centuries and decades, the balance of power has shifted amongst various media (e.g., in-person speeches, newspapers, books, theater, radio, magazines, billboards, television, movies, etc.) While newspapers may have been the dominant medium in Jeffersons day, they were not pervasive. A relatively small portion of the population had access to them, and word of mouth still represented a powerful competitor.

As this pervasiveness escalated, so did the emergence of alternative mediaradio and then televisionkeeping that power balance somewhat in check. However, since the advent of the internet, particularly over the last decade, the significance of virtually all other media has been diminished dramatically by a new competitorthe digital leviathan.

Whether the digital format is audio, video, news websites, advertising, or social media, it is expanding as old-world media have been relegated to niche or dying. Pew tells us that more than 8 in 10 U.S. adults now get their news digitally from their smartphone, computer, or tabletfar more than any other format.

Okay, but isnt social media merely one of the many influential digital channels impacting information flow and opinion formation? Well, not quite. More accurately, it is the 800 pound-gorilla in a rapidly shrinking cage.

Since the advent of the smartphone, social media has absolutely exploded, with American usage rocketing from 5% in 2005 to over 70% today. Some estimates indicate that as much as 38% of all internet time today is devoted to social media. Part of the reason for the meteoric rise is that access to information is as simple as reaching in your pocket. It is estimated that Americans now spend about one-third of their waking hours on their mobile phonesabout 4.1 hours per daywith 7 of every 10 minutes spent on social media.

Facebook, which also owns two other surging social media firms (Instagram and WhatsApp), remains the social media king, commanding 53% of all usage. The statistics regarding adoption rates, minutes of use, and influence are mind numbing. In his meticulously researched book, The Four, Scott Galloway calls Facebook the most successful thing in the history of humankind. Seventy-four percent of Facebooks nearly 3 billion users visit the site daily, and more than half of them visit it several times per day.

While not matching Facebook in users, 70% of U.S. journalists identify it as the site they use most for their jobs. Along with its hashtag system, this gives Twitter a strong magnifying effect.

One of the fastest-rising stars in social media is TikTok, an app launched in 2016 that specializes in short videos. Its usership mushroomed to over one billion in just five yearsa milestone that took twice as long for Facebook to reach. But if you thought that TikTok was merely the place for dancing bikini-clad girls and guys performing unadvisable skateboard stunts, think again. A quarter of adults under the age of 30 now report getting their news from this source.

Importantly, brevity is the key to success with social media. It feeds on headlines, bite-sized stories, and videos, that is, things that can be consumed in 60 seconds or less. Thus, what matters isnt any in-depth content and analysis; what matters is how the information appears at a glance.

In sum, social media is the dominant and growing digital channel, and the 5 x 3 screen is now the dominant device for that channel. Social media sites are the central educational, social, and economic window in most Americans lives.

When you have the power to promote or disparage a given person, claim, or story, or as importantly, prevent that claim or story from even appearing on that screen, preventing tens of millions, perhaps, even billions of eyes from even seeing it, you wield more power than Joseph Pulitzer or William Randolph Hearst could ever have imagined. Some would go so far as to say such power could even influence national elections.

So how big of a deal is it that The White House, governmental agencies, and the worlds most influential social media companies all colluded to push false narratives and censor true information on social media? Its overwhelmingly important.

Referring solely to the Twitter Files revelation, author John Daniel Davidson has declared that it is one of the most important news stories of our time, adding that it

encompasses, and to a large extent connects, every major political scandal of the Trump-Biden era. Put simply, the Twitter Files reveal an unholy alliance between Big Tech and the deep state designed to throttle free speech and maintain an official narrative through censorship and propaganda.

Given Jeffersons view on media and government, consider how horrified he would have been at another propositionnot only a government with newspapers (social media), but a government controlling the newspapers (social media). That is where we are today. And it is a very big deal, indeed.
History provides examples of third-party presidential candidates swinging elections. Ross Perot denied George H.W. Bush a second term in 1992, running on the Reform Party ticket and garnering 18.9% of the popular vote. Bill Clinton won with only 43.0%. In 1980, Congressman John Anderson ran an incoherent candidacy yet captured 6.6% of votes. Reagan prevailed over Carter 50.7% to 41.0%. It is unclear if Andersons bid was engineered by Reagans campaign to split votes from Carter. Teddy Roosevelt's 1912 third-party run split Republican votes, yielding Woodrow Wilson, the first progressive leftist president.

Now comes RFK Jr. with a platform exhibiting substantial overlap with the MAGA agenda. Kennedy's recent interview with James O'Keefe reveals his targeting of MAGA voters, especially younger ones unfamiliar with his familys dark history .

44:30: I think because of my ability to attract Independents and many, many Republicans that I actually have probably a better chance of winning the election than any other Democratic candidate.

Trumps Achilles heel was allowing himself to be bamboozled into supporting the COVID narrative of the pharmaceutical-medical-globalist complex. Because of his congenital reluctance to issue a mea culpa and admit that he was conned, Kennedy could potentially appeal to this large segment of the electorate. Perhaps Trump is banking a mea culpa for an October 2024 surprise.

For solid realpolitik reasons Trump avoids attacking Kennedy and is modestly complimentary. Many assume a Kennedy independent run would pull more Democrat than MAGA votes. This could be a fatal error. Certain things are appealing about Kennedy and his late uncle and father. But to believe the Kennedy clan are saints is absurd. Exhibit A was Teddy Kennedy, with a seedy record including Chappaquiddick, waitress sandwiches, and perfecting a career of boozing, bonking, and borking in collaboration with a senator named Biden. Or his backdoor bromance with Yuri Andropov against Reagan. The morals of Teddys older brothers were not altogether different. Seymour Hersh, dean of investigative journalists and no conservative, assembled a 500-page tome of Kennedy family negatives. Their crimes and foibles were hardly confined to stealing the 1960 election from Nixon in Illinois and beyond. There is an extensive record of their payoffs and acceptance of bribes, collusion with mobsters and corrupt union bosses, womanizing, and promoting assassinations of foreign leaders. The posthumous sainthood of RFK, his brothers consiglieri and enforcer, was the final plank in Camelot mythology. Camelot was more than myth. Hersh described it as years of lies and cover-ups.

Kennedy previously maintained he has always been fiercely pro-vaccine and supports policies that encourage full vaccination for all Americans. This obviously conflicts with his current stance. Kennedy is no conservative, supporting Hillary Clinton in her senatorial and presidential races. Kennedys schtick is a bipartisan fusion of anti-globalist rhetoric appealing to populists, combined with climate change/environmentalism. He inserts populist buzzwords at every opportunity. Right-leaning influencers now fawning over him need to explore his background and that of his ancestors, beginning with Joseph P. Kennedys organized crime roots. The family business morphed from crime to politics -- crime by other means. He is a skillfully repackaged Democrat, scheming over decades for this moment. A chameleon continuously reconfiguring in response to shifting political winds, appropriating MAGA issues which now possess currency. The same guy who supported Hillary Clinton whined when mean Republicans stole the 2004 election from John Kerry.

In O'Keefe's interview, Kennedy somberly relates with great seriousness that soon before his father's death, he told his son his dismay at discovering government officials lie (8:25). Who knew? This is a rich observation from a Kennedy. Whether the father actually told this to his son is irrelevant. (Any lingering doubts Americans had in this regard were resolved by the Biden administrations lie machine. Baghdad Bob had nothing on this crew.) There will be many disaffected Democrats regardless which candidate secures the nomination. Media and Democratic attacks on Kennedy only help him, similar to Trump. This became clear with the Democrats heavy-handed attacks on Kennedy during his July appearance before the House Judiciary Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. Kennedy skillfully converted the attacks into a free infomercial, a talent Trump shares. He is making the rounds of the leading podcasts, overnight becoming a coveted guest while campaign donations roll in. He believes much of the 2024 election battlespace will be online. This has proven accurate to date.

Capturing the Democratic nomination requires that Kennedy overcome the media and the Clinton/Obama machine. Fat chance. Ask Comrade Bernie. His only path forward is an independent bid. The question becomes: would he damage Democrats or Trump more? Republicans have a dilemma: countering Kennedy without attacking him and antagonizing his supporters. Kennedy asserts that internal polling has him up eight points on Trump (44:30). (Remarkably, the only time during the 48-minute interview the word Trump appears.) Readers can determine if they find this assertion, or his denial of contemplating an independent candidacy, to be credible. Until tens of thousands begin attending rallies, claims to be leading Trump flunk the laugh test. Kennedys campaign events appear more astroturf than grassroots. He makes the podcast rounds; Trump hosts the largest ever American political rallies.

Kennedy could be a perfect storm opposing Trump in a three-way race. He refrains from criticizing Biden. Why would he when Republicans occupy that lane? He is a skilled debater, commanding facts, with his finger on the pulse of current existential concerns. No one in his imploding party comes close. No one owns the COVID vaccine debate as he does. A three-way contest between Kennedy, Trump, and a Democrat is a wild card the nation does not need. For now, the two are playing nice although both draw from the same pool of voters.

MSNBCs histrionic and unhinged (but always entertaining) Lawrence ODonnell actually makes fleeting sense, puncturing the veil of Kennedy's packaged narrative while underscoring Democrats fear of his candidacy:

Most [Kennedys] do not drop references to their fathers or their uncles so that you all know for sure, in the first minute, exactly who they are and treat them accordingly... I've been very reluctant to speak about Robert Kennedy Jr. on this program because I have not wanted to enable his access to the drug addiction that he has never conquered, the drug addiction that has been with him for all of his adult life, the addiction to attention.

ODonnell is suspicious of anyone addicted to ancestor references. Emerson: The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons. Republican efforts to assist Kennedy in undermining the Democratic party might backfire. For now, he provides a useful cudgel against Democrats house of cards. Which explains Republican funding of his campaign. Trump currently needs Kennedy more than Kennedy needs Trump. Kennedy needs Trump to determine which policies to emphasize.

Image: Gage Skidmore
The book, The Plague of Models: How Computer Modeling Corrupted Environmental, Health, and Safety Regulations by Kenneth Green, is banned by Amazon. I dont think Amazon bans many books. They dont have time to read them all. The book is available at Barnes and Noble.

The Plague of Models is a wide-ranging attack on a broad spectrum of government regulation and policy, including alleged cancer-causing substances, air pollution, and doomsday predictions like global warming, acid rain, and the ozone hole. It is also an attack on the scientists who use computer models incorrectly to generate scientific results, better known as the computer slogan Garbage In Garbage Out ' (GIGO).

Scientists want to generate important-sounding, even sensational results. They want to be famous and enjoy the benefits of higher social status. That desire leads to stretching or breaking the rules. For example, hunting through data for a supported hypothesis, or data dredging, is a temptation that breaks the statistics. There are many other temptations.

I think Green is a bit soft on the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The doomsday climate models used by the IPCC accept climate inputs for previous decades and output a simulated climate. The closer the past simulated climate is to the past measured climate, the better the model, according to their methodology. The models are then run with estimated future climate inputs in order to generate a projected future climate. The official projected future climate is obtained by averaging together results from a dozen or so climate models, models that strongly disagree with each other.

The danger is that models that have many adjustable parameters are primarily doing curve fitting to make the past climate projections agree with past measured climate. If the models are little more than very complicated curve-fitting engines, their predictive power would be nil. The averaging of results from diverse climate models has been justified on the grounds that it gives better agreement with past measured climate. If the models are curve-fitting engines, it is expected that averaging diverse models gives better results due to averaging of random and uncorrelated errors.

The various models dont always use the same climate inputs, because important inputs, such as aerosols, are poorly quantified. Kevin Trenbreth, probably the most important scientist on the climate alarmist side of the argument and one-time head of modeling at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), said this about the models:

None of the models used by IPCC are initialized to the observed state and none of the climate states in the models correspond even remotely to the current observed climate.

The models are modeling an imaginary world, not the Earth.

The organizations and people touting climate doomsday are highly political. They embrace climate doom because it is a useful tool in their quest to remake society while hiding their subversive intentions. It doesnt matter if the predictions are junk science if they can be presented as solid science via propaganda.

A simple doomsday model that until recently had many believers was devised by Thomas Malthus in 1798. Malthusianism is based on the idea that population grows exponentially, like a bank account yielding compound interest, while food production grows much more slowly. Food production has grown at an astounding rate. For example, in 100 years, corn yields grew seven times and wheat three times. However fast the production of food grows, exponential population growth would eventually swamp it. But in the developed world negative population growth has become widespread, China having one of the worst problems. In response China is promoting the three-child family. Its not working. An exponentially shrinking population creates the problem of an inverted population pyramid with too few young workers to support the larger retired cohort.

Once people began living in cities under modern conditions, they voluntarily started having fewer children, not because they were convinced by Zero Population Growth or educated by Planned Parenthood, but because children are a burden and inconvenience in modern cities. In some countries each new generation is 60 percent as large as the previous generation. The number of grandchildren will be 35 percent as large as the number of grandmothers and grandfathers.

The 1972 book Limits to Growth, published by the Club of Rome reported on MIT computer models that predicted a doomsday disaster by the year 2000 due to population growth, pollution, and running out of resources. The Club of Rome does not seem to be in the least embarrassed that the 1972 predictions failed miserably.

Todays computers are hundreds of times more powerful than 1972 computers. Old-fashioned computers were perfectly adequate for making bad predictions.

Many substances have been banned because rats fed extremely high doses develop cancer. Fortunately, not many people feel sorry for rats as they might for puppies. Kenneth Green goes to great lengths to show that rats are very different from people. Underlying these experiments Is the linear, no-threshold hypothesis. If rats get cancer from a dose 1000 times greater than any human would consume proportional to body weight, then it is assumed that the substance will cause cancer in humans because it is assumed there is no-dose threshold. There often are dose thresholds, but it is difficult to measure them because the effect of low doses, if any, is too small.

Second-hand smoke or environmental tobacco smoke is an example in which the government and others use poor science to promote the idea that it will give you cancer. Environmental tobacco smoke is highly diluted compared to what a smoker experiences but it is claimed to be highly dangerous. A quality-of-life case can be made against environmental tobacco smoke but it is dishonest to claim that science shows that it is extremely dangerous. Kenneth Green wisely does not bring up the tobacco smoke issue. A substantial part of the non-smoker population is probably happy that the government lies about the danger.

In the case of ionizing radiation -- x-rays and nuclear radiation -- the linear, no-threshold hypothesis is government policy, but there is extensive evidence that in small doses ionizing radiation is not only harmless but beneficial. Large doses will promote cancer or even kill. The beneficial effects of small doses were found in large elaborate studies, such as the nuclear shipyard study where workers in shipyards servicing nuclear warships were compared to workers in non-nuclear shipyards. An accidental experiment was performed in Taiwan where steel concrete reinforcing rods were accidently contaminated with highly radioactive cobalt 60. This was not discovered for years while the inhabitants of buildings constructed with the radioactive steel received radiation far above background levels. By the time the contamination was discovered, the cobalt had gone through several five-year half-lives. The international regulatory community showed little interest in investigating this experiment on humans that could never be performed deliberately for ethical reasons. The Taiwanese scientists that investigated found that the health of the persons exposed to the radiation was better than that of similar persons not exposed. This is not covered in Greens book but is highly relevant.

In the authors biography at the end of the book there is this:

Many of the highest profile environmental regulations Ken studied seemed to be grounded in shoddy science; were coercive and indifferent to individual rights; often involved cronyism and expansionist government; and, adding insult to injury, were often inefficient or entirely ineffective at remediating some actual environmental, health, or safety harm.

Kenneth Greens book is a devastating attack on the regulatory state.

Norman Rogers is the author of the Amazon book Dumb Energy: A Critique of Wind and Solar Energy. He has a website climateviews.com.

Image: PublishDrive
A truly evil cabal has taken control of the Democrats. It took effect when the pact between the Sen. Joe Biden camp and the Sen. Bernie Sanders camp was signed in July 2020. The pact was a 110-page position paper on many national issues of concern to both men. Although Bernie had caucused with Democrats in the Senate for years, he was elected to office in Vermont under the rubric of "Democratic Socialist." He usually justified that rubric as not being "communist" because he said he was a "non-authoritarian socialist" (sic). This clever manipulation of language could not, however, hide the reality that his lifelong views were derived from Marxist critiques of capitalism. His bombastic rhetoric was largely taken from the Marxist playbook of criticisms of capitalistic Western culture. And, in fact, when Sen. Sanders married in the 1980s, he and his wife honeymooned in the USSR.

Compare Biden's willingly uniting with Sanders with Harry Truman's wing of the Dems that refused to ally itself with the Henry Wallace wing of the Democrats in 1948. Henry Wallace was an eccentric Democrat who had served as the secretary of agriculture under Pres. Roosevelt, and as V.P. during most of WWII. However, his excessive sympathy for Josef Stalin and the communist rule of the USSR created considerable suspicion among the Democrat Senate leadership, and FDR replaced Henry Wallace with Harry S. Truman as his V.P. in the election of 1944. FDR won that election and died the next year, and Truman became president of the USA.

Truman did not try to conform with Wallace in 1948 and did not try to "build bridges" with him, either. Wallace instead ran against Truman as the Progressive Party candidate for president, resurrecting the name of the party from the earlier movements by that name in both the Democrat and Republican Parties in the early 20th century.

Wallace's use of the term "progressive" was intended to deflect against legitimate concerns that he was a stooge for the U.S. Communist Party. The platform of the Progressive Party had statements that certainly stoked this concern. The platform said, "If peace is to be achieved, capitalist United States and communist Russia must establish good relations and work together." Another statement that appeared in the Progressive platform stated, "The move to outlaw the Communist Party is a decisive step in their assault on the democratic rights of labor, of nations, racial, and political minorities." And lastly, the Democrat decision to rebuild West Germany as a bulwark against communism was distorted to state, "The use of the Marshall Plan to rebuild Nazi Germany [sic] has a war basis ... [and is intended] to subjugate the economies of other European countries to American big business." Thus, our legitimate concerns about the ideological and military expansion of the USSR was distorted by Wallace's naive leftist vision.

Truman, in a surprise victory, defeated Thomas Dewey, the Republican candidate for president, and Wallace received less than 3% of the votes cast.

Thus, the left-leaning but non-communist mainstream of the Democrats retained their claim to being "liberal" or "left of center" and managed to draw the line when it came to uniting with the extreme leftist wing of their party. However, that boundary line collapsed 72 years later with the emergence of the Biden-Sanders pact. The Dems are now the Demo-communist party with a few other elements of cultural Marxism included that were not anticipated by or included in the writings of Karl Marx or Friedrich Engels. For example, Marx and Engels understood the family to be a bourgeois institution that they believed promoted selfishness, so they stood basically in opposition to the nuclear family as the building block of society. However, knowledge of puberty-blockers and genital-mutilating surgeries was not available in the 1840s, so they did not explicitly promote "transitioning" as a legitimate albeit anti-family practice. Today's left is, of course, totally on board with all this transgender-affirming ideology because it conforms totally with traditional anti-bourgeois, anti-family values.

The Biden-Sanders pact is overwhelmingly negative in its positions. Page after page states all the horrible things that must be fixed in the United States. No successes are included in their 110-page document  no successes that one could build upon. This is the hallmark of communist criticism  reasonable, constructive language is not used. The system as we live in it and know it is failing.

Vastly enlarged government control is the key feature of the communist program. Wallace's platform stated that it "wants to put into the hands of the people's representative the levers of control essential to the operation of an economy of abundance" (my italics). That is the principle of communistic governance  more government control of all sectors of the economy is the basis of progress. It is a false premise, but it is repeated by the Sanderses and Bidens of this world as though it were a deep truth.

The Biden-Sanders pact makes the accusation that "the U.S. economy is rigged against the American people." They also state, "But our economy was fundamentally flawed even before the novel coronavirus sickened millions and killed more than 130,000 Americans." Because we are "fundamentally flawed," they call for a federal expansion and takeover of health care and education in America. So their answer is to re-rig the rigging! Government control and funding of entire sectors of the economy is the formula that communists want to impress us with, but it is not the solution.

Their pact flatly states, "Democrats have been fighting to achieve universal health care for a century." They also want the federal government to take control of the energy sector of the economy, presumably to protect us from climate change. Private companies do not have the extensive reach or authority that government could bring to make the needed changes. Further, the Biden-Sanders communist, hyper-negative critique of our so-called needs also calls for a federal takeover of the housing market. They state, "We have a nationwide shortage of affordable housing units, and tens of millions of Americans live in homes that pose risks to their health and safety." This implies that they want nationwide standards for what home health and safety should be  that means national control over building construction  and with the claimed shortage of homes, this would mean home-building would become federalized.

This writer is not exaggerating the turn to the left that that pact intends for our economy. The communist policies that were resisted by mainstream Democrats in 1948 are no longer being resisted. The Wallace vision has been accepted by the leadership of the Democrats, and we are on a path to losing our capitalist and free market applications, which have already eroded to a great degree. The New Deal left-of-center mindset has succumbed to communist ideology.

E. Jeffrey Ludwig was formerly a teaching fellow in American history and literature at Harvard University, and served on the Editorial Board of the Harvard Educational Review. He has also taught at Penn State, Boston College, and Juniata College and was listed four times in Who's Who Among America's High School Teachers. He has been a regular contributor to American Thinker for 13 years.

Image: Praveenp via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped).
In 2017, David Garrow's carefully researched Obama biography, Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama, appeared to much less fanfare than it deserved. The media undoubtedly downplayed it because it offered the truth behind many of Obama's self-adulatory inventions, and Trump's new presidency occupied everyone's energy. What makes the book newsworthy today is that David Samuels has interviewed Garrow and revisited narratives in the book, reminding everyone of the scary, power-obsessed nastiness behind Obama's carefully built facade.

The interview on Tablet is long and worth every second it takes you to read it. However, I've summarized below some of the highlights.

In Dreams from My Father, Obama describes his breakup with Sheila Miyoshi Jager, now a scholar known for her meticulous, honest research. According to Obama, they broke up because after seeing a play by August Wilson, a black writer, Obama suddenly gained a black consciousness that Jager refused to recognize or understand.

However, Garrow, unlike other journalists in America, interviewed Jager for her side of the story. It was quite different.



Image: Barack Obama. YouTube screen grab (cropped).

Jager said that they broke up because they went to see an exhibit about Adolf Eichman's 1961 trial at the same time that Steve Cokely had accused Chicago's Jewish doctors of giving black babies AIDS. Jager, whose grandparents were honored as Righteous Gentiles for saving Jews during WWII, broke up with Obama because he refused to denounce anti-Semitism. Considering Obama's open hostility to Israel and later palling around with famous anti-Semites (e.g., Rev. Wright, Obama's infamous and still hidden tape at a pro-PLO dinner, and Obama's photo with Farrakhan), her version rings true.

Another revelation was that Obama fantasized about sodomy with men, which would seem to support the many rumors about his sexuality.

When Garrow interviewed Obama over the course of eight hours, Obama impressed Garrow with his focus on the "hilariously inconsequential," such as insisting that he spoke fluent Indonesian in third grade.

When Garrow spoke with Bob Bauer, Obama's lawyer, to ensure that he was correctly stating things Obama had told him, Bauer told Garrow something very unusual, considering the book that launched Obama's career:

My clearest memory, and there's nothing officially off the record with Bob, so I think I can say this, and boy, it's the clearest thing I remember of all my conversations with Bob. ... This is close to a quote: "Whatever you do, don't ask him about his father."

Samuels noted how odd this was from the author of Dreams from My Father, eliciting from Garrow this stunning statement about a man he'd spoken with personally and whose life he explored in detail: "He's not normalas in not a normal politician or a normal human being."

The interview expands on the letters Alex McNear, Obama's girlfriend in college, received from Obama. As noted above, it was in those letters that Obama fantasized about sodomy. The passage in the interview about those letters is striking because they reveal that Obama was a narcissist, someone who used people but never connected with them. (The bolded passage is Samuel's question):

Barack's love letters to Alex, if they are actually love letters, are hard to read. Not just because they're so poorly written, but because of the clear lack of any human interest in the person he's writing to. The letters are completely performative. She may as well have been a tree or some kind of theater backdrop. Maybe all young men are guilty of this fault, but these examples seem pretty egregious. It's pretty clear to me, and this is me putting little pieces together with Alex and with Sheila, but I'm 97 percent convinced that Barack either drafted all those letters in his journal and then made them into letters, or he wrote the letters and then copied them into the journal.

According to Garrow, Obama has always kept journals that he will deep-six forever. Why? Because "[h]e wants people to believe his story. For me to conclude that Dreams from My Father was historical fiction  oh, God, did that infuriate him."

There's so much more, and every bit of it is worth reading because it reveals who Obama is and what the mainstream media assiduously ignored and, therefore, hid from the American public. All this still matters, by the way. There's good reason to believe that Obama, who refused to leave D.C. after his presidency ended (a norm-busting decision that Samuels describes in detail), is calling the shots in the ostensible Biden presidency.

Additionally, as increasing numbers of people fear, there's a good possibility that, when Biden is pushed out of the campaign, Michelle Obama will be substituted as the Democrat candidate  and she is still considered one of the most popular people in America, especially among two passionate voting demographics  namely, black and white women.
The Democrats aren't even hiding that that there are two forms of justice: one for the left and one for the right.

If you burn a historic church and attack the White House, as rioters did in 2020, you are a protester. Excuses are made for your action. After the attack on St. John's Church in Washington, D.C., Rector Rev. Rob Fisher said in an e-mail to worshipers, "The protests that began peacefully grew to something more, and eventually a fire was lit in the nursery, in the basement of Ashburton House. Protestors easily could have done a lot worse to our buildings, but they chose not to do that."



YouTube screen grab.

However, if you are expressing your First Amendment right to protest, and you are invited into the Capitol Building, you are branded an insurrectionist and sentenced to jail time, even when video evidence shows you did nothing wrong.

President Donald Trump was indicted for having classified documents in his house, but when classified documents were found in President Joe Biden's college office and garage from his time as vice president, it is a mistake. He forgot and overlooked them.

This is the state of things in the United States today as, failing to win the hearts and minds of Americans, Democrats are arresting and imprisoning their opponents in a way that would probably win the admiration of any third-world dictator.

We are seeing it again in the way former President Trump and Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, are being treated by the legal system.

Trump tweeted on Jan. 6 for his supporters to be respectful of the police and peaceful. To the prosecutor Jack Smith, this represented a sign that Trump was behind the Jan. 6 protests. This twisted thinking helped form the basis of Trump being charged with "conspiracy to defraud the United States," "conspiracy to corruptly obstruct and impede the January 6 proceedings," and "conspiracy against the right to vote and to have one's vote counted."

Meanwhile, evidence mounts that Joe Biden was involved in and financially benefiting from Hunter's shady business deals. In recently released testimony from Devon Archer, a business associate of Hunter Biden, before Congress, Archer told lawmakers that the president spoke with Hunter's associates at least 20 times. Records show he interacted with family business partners more than 200 times. This contradicts the Democrats' claim that there was no involvement between the president and Hunter's business associates. The media treat it as if nothing is wrong.

Democrats are the ones who are always calling for equality, but it turns out that it applies only to how others treat them, not how they treat others.

This continued divergent treatment of Democrats and Republicans will not unite the country under Democrat control, and who would want that, given the shape that Democrat-controlled cities are in? It won't allow the Democrats to oppress those who disagree with them. At least not for long.

It will lead to a divided country, which is something we have been trying to avoid happening again. The Democrats wanted their own country in the 1860s. They may finally get it in the coming years.

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.
An anti-white racial inquisition is poisoning America. If you don't believe it, read my new book, The War on Whites: How Hating White People Became the New National Sport. The inquisition received support from the prestigious University of Chicago when it decided to offer a new course entitled "The Problem of Whiteness." This is not surprising when you realize that the left has taken complete charge of academia and can get away with overt anti-white racism.

By a margin of more than ten to one, left-leaning professors outnumber conservatives at our colleges and universities. New professors are required to sign a diversity pledge, a ruse that guarantees leftist control on campus well into the future. A friend of mine who is a professor at a prominent university told me that he is forced to keep his conservative views to himself or risk being ostracized by his peers.

Ironically, campus commitment to diversity excludes the all-important diversity of ideas. "They are openly hostile to mainstream conservative values," said Rita Panahi at SkyNewsAustralia. If you are a conservative student in America, you'd better keep your mouth shut.

One brave student at U-Chicago refused to keep his mouth shut. Sophomore Daniel Schmidt called out "The Problem of Whiteness" for what it is. "This is clearly racist and anti-white," said Schmidt. "What the heck is that suggesting, that there is a problem with white people or whiteness and there is a solution? It is the most egregious example of anti-white hatred I've ever seen."

Part of the liberal campus playbook includes active participation in the war on white people. Whites are demonized and marginalized without mercy on today's campuses. The majority of students are intimidated from complaining, fearing poor grades or even expulsion for going against the party line. Not Daniel Schmidt. You have more power than you think as a student, Schmidt said, as he put his academic career at risk.

It was no surprise when the course instructor, Rebecca Journey, filed two separate complaints to get Schmidt expelled. The justification, she said, was that Schmidt led a harassment campaign against her and incited violence. Journey received death threats, which she blamed on Schmidt. Journey was supported by the New York Times and CNN, both of them calling Schmidt a cyber-bully. "That's what you get in America and around the world," said Schmidt, "if you're a white student and you call this stuff out."

"I never once called for cyberbullying or attacks on this professor," said Schmidt in self-defense. "This is deliberate smearing designed to scare me away from calling out blatant anti-white hatred. Leftists have ruined the lives of countless people they disagree with, destroying careers and waging harassment campaigns. They get away with it every time and are often even praised. But when I publicly expose a blatantly anti-white course and name the professor teaching it, I am a 'cyberterrorist' who needs to be publicly condemned by my university."

Fortunately for Schmidt, U-Chicago refused to expel him. That didn't sit well with Journey. "This was a malicious attack not just on me as a teacher but on anti-racist pedagogy writ large," Journey responded. "The University has permitted the opportunist to terrorize an instructor, her students, and I would also argue our campus," she said. "A teacher is not free to do her job if she is fearful that an armed white nationalist, activated by a provocateur, will track her down and shoot up her classroom. We can't let cyberterrorists win."

Amanda Woodward, dean of U-Chicago's social sciences division, tried to show support for the racist course. "While differences of opinion over course material may arise," Woodward said, "the university does not cancel classes because of such differences, and the university defends the freedom of instructors to teach any course that has been developed through our faculty-led curricular processes, including courses that may be controversial."

Controversial? Are you kidding? Outright racist is more like it. "It doesn't take a vivid imagination to predict what the typical conversation in Journey's classroom might look like," said Steve Robinson at The Maine Wire. "It suffices to ask whether Journey and her ilk would shrug off another university offering a course called 'The Problem with Black People,' or a Harvard course, 'The Problem with Asians.'"

"Journey," Robinson continued, "blithely asserts that since someone did a tweet or sent an email she doesn't like, therefore violence has been committed against her. It's a type of power move liberals invoke when they've been exposed for harboring or advancing radical ideas, like teaching an entire class about white people being a problem. If they're the victim, you see, they can't possibly be in the wrong. The undercurrent of her entire post, like much of modern leftist rhetoric, is that freedom of speech is a problem, and institutions like U-Chicago need to use their power to punish those who use their free speech in ways powerful liberals oppose."

The left was outraged that Schmidt was allowed to exercise his free speech. "What we have," claimed one angry left-wing blogger, "is a professional kvetcher who comes down on liberals." On the contrary, what we have is an articulate teenager who is offended by the war on whites and has the courage to say so.

Ed Brodow (www.edbrodowpolitics.com) is a conservative political commentator and author of The War on Whites: How Hating White People Became the New National Sport.

Image: PhotosByMahin via Pixabay, Pixabay License.
I don't know which is more discouraging: that the mayor of Chicago actually tried this verbal flim-flammery or that the assembled media at his press conference didn't erupt in laughter at his attempt to blackwash rampaging looters. He thought he could get away with it, and so far as one can see, he did. Watch this Grabien video, where Mayor Brandon Johnson says:

Johnson: "That's not appropriate. We're not talking about mob actions, I didn't say that  hold on a second, okay. Respectfully, these large gatherings " Reporter: "That caused damage." Johnson: " these large gatherings  just hold on a second, y'all. I promise you, we have time to talk. It's important that we speak of these dynamics in an appropriate way. This is not to obfuscate what is actually taking place." Reporter 2: "This was the scene near Roosevelt and Canal Sunday night. Groups looted a convenience store, more than three dozen teenagers were arrested along with a 12-year-old, and at least one 20-year-old. Store owners say it was the second such incident in that area in just the past few weeks, and today, Mayor Johnson commended Chicago police for the way they handled it." Johnson: "To the best of their ability, I believe that they attempted to engage with our young people with community partners, giving as much warning as they possibly could. And, you know, unfortunately, arrests were made."

I doubt that many Chicagoans are fooled by this linguistic pretzel-twisting. They see the 27% storefront vacancy rate on the once-proud Magnificent Mile, and the even higher rate in the Loop office district. Are these to be christened "retail opportunities"?

They see weekend body counts that horrify the nation and the world. They fear leaving their homes because street crime is out of control, and they know that driving a nice car in the city risks carjacking. Are these crimes to be called "opportunity seeking"?

Mayor Johnson obviously thinks he can get away with his Orwellian gambit. And so far as one can see, he may be right.

Photo credit: Grabien screen grab.
Most lawyers are Democrats who work very hard to keep Democrats in office. They make a lot of money, because "lucrative government contracts flow to their profession" from Democrats. These litigators are certainly rewarded tremendously when the government is run by Democrats, and they show their gratitude and loyalty by repaying the favor. You might recall this headline from Fox News: "Trial lawyers benefiting from lucrative public contracts make 99% of donations to Democrats, report finds[.]"

The number of lawyers in the U.S. per person dwarfs that of other countries by far; there are 1.26 million mouths to feed, and the Democrat party feeds them very well.

Unsurprisingly, President Trump is having a difficult time finding lawyers to represent him. Last year, after the raid on Mar-a-Lago by Merrick Garland's (in)Justice Department, Trump sought to hire seasoned lawyers  but repeatedly heard "no." At one point, as reported by The Washington Post, the former president's legal team included "a Florida insurance lawyer who's never had a federal case, a past general counsel for a parking-garage company and a former host at far-right One America News."

Of course, he also had trouble as soon as he took office to find attorneys to represent him in all the investigations based on the false Russian collusion stories. From Yahoo News:

Top lawyers with at least four major law firms rebuffed White House overtures to represent President Trump in the Russia investigations. ... The unwillingness of some of the country's most prestigious attorneys and their law firms to represent Trump has complicated the administration's efforts to mount a coherent defense strategy to deal with probes being conducted by four congressional committees as well as Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller.

They couldn't afford to ruin their reputations by defending a president whom Democrats want to destroy, and whose America first policies they hate.

I am sure they would have no trouble defending murderers, pedophiles, corrupt politicians like Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, or the radical leftist groups that staged violent riots after Trump won in 2016 (and, as we all know, in 2020, too), but no mercy for a president whose policies shook up the power structure and handed political control, money, and freedom back to the American citizenry.

Jack Smith has resorted to charging lower-level employees, like valet Waltine "Walt" Nauta, presumably in an effort to intimidate them and get them to turn on Trump. It doesn't seem to be working, so now Smith is seeking to block Nauta from representation by Stanley Woodward, his chosen lawyer, because apparently Woodward defends too many people surrounding Trump.

Why is Smith so worried? Shouldn't he want to adhere to the Constitution, which affords the accused "the assistance of counsel for ... defense"? If Smith is doing his job to mete out impartial justice and strive for truth and objectivity, doesn't he care that certain figures must overcome seemingly insurmountable odds to find legal representation given the political climate?

How about we neutralize attorneys in the Justice Department who spend so much time targeting Trump, and those surrounding him, because they obviously have a conflict of interest? How many people have they targeted the last seven years? Have any of them lied to the FISA court? How many of these federal judges and/or prosecutors are Democrat donors? Speaking of a conflict of interest...does the name Tanya Chutkan ring a bell?

The swamp is deep and must be drained to save America.

Image: Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
In a line of query that should have been taken up by Congress a long time ago, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Rep. James Comer of Kentucky have asked Attorney General Merrick Garland to clarify just what the Justice Department knows about the China links of various environmental organizations busy lobbying the U.S. to initiate laws that will hurt the U.S. economy in the name of "going green."

Among these, according to their letter, which can be read at The Daily Caller, are the foreign ties and Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) papers of the environmental groups that have successfully lobbied members of Congress and regulatory agencies to ban gas stoves, despite the absence of evidence that there is anything environmentally harmful about them.

At the beginning of this year, we sent a series of letters to the U.S. Consumer ProductSafety Commission and several energy nonprofits to better understand these groups' advocacy andengagement with government officials to ban gas stoves in the U.S.

Cruz and Comer called for information about the FARA (Foreign Agents Registration Act) status of groups such as the National Resources Defense Council (NDRC), which was named in bid to ban gas stoves, as well as groups with names like RMI, Climate Imperative Foundation, Rewiring America, and/or Windward Fund.

Indeed, NRDC has substantial ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Both NRDCChina Program Directors are former CCP officials.

On NRDC's Chinese-language site (which provides information different from the English-language site), NRDC explains it "has beencarrying out environmental protection work in China since the 1990s" and "actively cooperates andcommunicates" with several Chinese government agencies. Moreover, NRDC acts as amouthpiece for Chinese propaganda, signaling that it either takes direction from the CCP or that it iswilling to self-censor to maintain a positive relationship with the Communist regime. While pushingoutrageous claims in the United States  for example, that gas stoves emit pollution even when not in us  the organization promotes China as a world leader in "clean power development," never raising that the Communist country is responsible for emitting over one-fourth of global carbondioxide and a third of the world's greenhouse gases. Despite these obvious ties to China, NRDC has successfully established ties with the U.S.government and key government officials. For example, Special Presidential Envoy for Climate (SPEC) John Kerry  who has claimed "working together" on climate issues is more important than demanding justice for the enslaved Uyghur population or accountability for China's theft ofAmerican intellectual property or overt spying behavior  has worked hand-in-glove with NRDC and other radical environmental groups since SPEC's inception. In emails provided to the House Oversight and Accountability Committee between the SPEC and climate groups, NRDC appears to lead on multiple initiatives, including working to "accelerat[e] ambition" and promote"clean tech exports." We have also highlighted the ties between China and Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI),another radical environmental group attempting to ban gas stoves in American homes. RMI CEO Jon Creyts has met directly with multiple Cabinet members and high-level White House officials,including Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, and White House climate czar Ali Zaidi. These organizations' advocacy, ties to China, and direct communications with White Houseofficials raise concerns that these groups are acting as unregistered agents of the Communist regime.

They cited the recent case of Russians getting caught in the act of funding radical environmental groups and noted that it was verified by a House committee in 2019 (leaving off that it was led by Democrats at the time), so the activity is nothing new.

"Russian agents created and spread propaganda on U.S. social media platforms in an obvious attempt to influence the U.S. energy market," in part through "covertly funding radical environmental groups opposed to fossil fuels."

If they wanted to go further, they also might have named Hansjorg Wyss, a Swiss billionaire with a Rousseauvian-Romantic outlook about the New World (ironically, Rousseau was also from his part of Switzerland) who certainly has no loyalty to the U.S., yet who donates to causes that find their way into Democrat coffers, getting Democrats on the money hook through environmentalism.

As RealClearPolitics's Philip Wegmann wrote here:

Wyss is the Swiss billionaire behind what the New York Times described last year as " a daisy chain of opaque organizations " that supported a number of left-leaning environmental groups and progressive causes. According to the Times, the recipients of those funds later backed progressive causes almost exclusively and helped Democrats as they regained control of the White House. As RealClearPolitics first reported, Wyss is not a U.S. citizen, a fact that had remained a public mystery despite the hundreds of billions of dollars he has spent to influence American politics. Wyss is also a longtime associate of Podesta.

I wrote commentary on that report here.

Why does this focus on foreign agent registration matter?

Because the Chicoms have sent their agents all over to gather information about and influence U.S. policy, too. From s0traight-out espionage recently seen in the U.S. Navy to the infiltration of corporations to steal corporate secrets to the seeding of academia with their supporters and money to that balloon maneuver to gather intelligence about interior U.S. military bases to the honey pot spies sleeping with U.S. politicians such as onceHouse Intelligence Committee member Eric Swalwell, the Chinese are very interested in quietly controlling what the U.S. does. They'd like nothing better than to bring the great U.S. economy low, and see great tools for themselves, within wokesterism, open borders, Washington swamp consultancies and contractors, university science programs, and certainly the green movement.

It is probably significant to this green maneuver that the ChiComs have sought to acquire U.S. energy assets, too, through the offices of Hunter Biden. They seem to have financed green energy actors to weaken U.S. energy security and self-sufficiency, and moved to swoop in on actual U.S. energy assets that are worth something. That's quite a power game.

The fact that the greenie lobby is so strong and influential within the easily purchased, corruption-laden Biden administration, is particularly worth examination from Congress because polls repeatedly show that Americans consider green issues coming in at rock bottom of their priorities. Why would such unimportant issues have such priority power and sway in Washington if the public doesn't even care about them? Might that be an indicator of potential foreign agent influence? The fact that China has shown itself to be very, very aggressive on these matters is added fuel.

Cruz and Comer are two of the sharpest legal minds in Congress and may well be on to something important. Are these powerful environmental groups with Chinese funding acting on behalf of the Chicoms and their agenda, and if so, have they properly registered as foreign agents? If not, why not? And if they should register, why has the Justice Department been so indifferent to this problem if what Cruz and Comer are charging is true?

Image: Screen shot from ABC News video via YouTube.
As the multi-year federal government cover-up of Biden family grifting collapsed, the Democrats, driven mad by their self-induced psychosis of Trump Derangement Syndrome, abandoned all rationality and common sense to double down on their political persecution of Donald J. Trump.

Their indictment of Trump for failure to accept the results of the 2020 presidential election is mindless. The stupidity of the Democrats who wrote this indictment or who rave about it boggles the imagination. Never have so many college graduates been so out of touch with reality.

According to the indictment, the grounds for prosecuting Trump are that he did not tell the truth about the legality of votes cast in that election and so acted fraudulently and in bad faith. But such an indictment gives him a powerful defense: the truth.

He now has the right to argue in court  for the first time ever  that he told the truth about the 2020 presidential election.

In the previous cases brought in state courts to show fraud in the acceptance of ballots, Trump and his supporters were plaintiffs. Thus, they had the duty to come forward with clear evidence of fraud, enough to get to a trial. Such evidence they did not have, as it was in the possession of local election officials, who did not turn it over to Trump. As a result, judges refused to let those cases go to trial, where evidence would be presented to a jury for their consideration.

Until today, there has been no court examination of relevant evidence on the legality of ballots counted and no court determination that the election was either fair or fraudulent.

Now Trump is the defendant, and in order to prove that he was a liar, the Department of Justice has the duty to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the election was fair. As the defendant in a criminal case, Trump is presumed innocent and has the right to introduce evidence contradicting the government's accusation that he was a liar.

The indictment against Trump thus allows him to put on the stand local election officials to testify under oath whether each vote counted under their supervision was cast by a living American citizen registered to vote and legally entitled to the privilege of voting. If those witnesses can't prove the validity of votes for Biden, then Trump will vindicate his assertion about the unfairness of that presidential election.

He can also put Mark Zuckerberg on the stand to testify to how much money he gave to finance the collection of ballots by Democrat operatives and how that operation worked in practice. He can introduce Dinesh D'Souza's documentary 2000 Mules for jury consideration. He can make a national spectacle of Democrat scheming and manipulation of ballots cast.

It will be the burden of the Democrats now to prove the validity of each and every vote recorded by state election officials. If they can't prove the legality of sufficient votes for Biden, then they would have no evidence that the election was actually honestly conducted and fair. There would be no evidence to justify calling Trump a liar, and the grounds for his indictment would disappear into thin air, as just another "Big Lie" narrative made up by the progressive left.

Image: PxFuel.
In a video clip that has gone viral on social media, a young Christian man is seen being arrested by police as he and a few other young men preached at a recent Pride in the Park celebration in Watertown, Wisconsin.

The clip was part of a tweet by @TONYxTWO, in which he stated: "BREAKING: Young man arrested for sharing the Bible on a public sidewalk Blatant violation of the 1st amendment of The Constitution..."

BREAKING: Young man arrested for sharing the Bible on a public sidewalk



Blatant violation of the 1st amendment of The Constitution. Every one of those cops should be fired and sued. pic.twitter.com/ef8zBXSf5c  TONY (@TONYxTWO) August 1, 2023

The footage shows a young man reading from the Bible, speaking into a microphone, before he is surrounded by multiple police officers. One of the officers then grabs the microphone and pulls it away from the Christian while those around him question what the officers are doing.

The person who recorded the video claims that the group were told they could speak outside on the sidewalk. However, another officer allegedly told them they could not use the speaker and microphone to do this. In any case, several of the officers proceed to grab the young man who was preaching and ask him not to resist as they arrest him and haul him away.

Think America has changed much?

Members of the LGBT community can now routinely take over city streets and even strut around with their genitalia hanging out, in front of adults and minors alike. In America today, you can preach the gospel of queerness and LGBT, openly and loudly to all, shouting it from the streets and byways. But not the gospel of Christ. "Old Glory" may be increasingly frowned upon, but you can proudly let your "freak flag" fly! The truth is mocked, but "my truth" is accepted. Etc., etc.

Perhaps the young Christians should have read from the book Gender Queer instead of from the Book of Job or the Book of Genesis. Surely then they wouldn't have been arrested.

Photo credit: Twitter video screen grab.
It's amazing talking with someone who lives in New York City. They are angry at the Mets, the Yankees, and the "migrants on the streets."

This is the story:

Images of migrants forced to sleep on Manhattan sidewalks in recent days are hammering home a point New York City Mayor Eric Adams has long been trying to make to President Joe Biden. 'We need help,' Adams said Monday. 'And it's not going to get any better. From this moment on, it's downhill.' Photos, videos and interviews from the street outside the midtown Manhattan hotel doubling as an intake center are circulating online and in the national media. Groups of newly arrived men resigned to sleeping on cardboard boxes have found that, as Adams has repeatedly warned the White House, there is no room for them.

See video via Twitter below:

WATCH: Hundreds of migrants sleep on streets outside Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan, New York City pic.twitter.com/9Ibx5flfHt  Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) August 2, 2023

We need help? I guess they do. However, they need to do something more than complain or point out the disaster on the streets.

In other words, the Democrats are angry at the outcome but don't have the courage to direct their anger at the source, or the Biden administration that opened the border.

Yes, they blame Governor Abbott for sending the migrants to New York City or keep calling for immigration reform, or something that is never going to happen in this political climate.

In the meantime, the locals are angry...and getting angrier.

PS: Check out my blog for posts, podcasts, and videos.

Image: Screen grab from Twitter video.
The San Diego Navy community had to have been shocked to learn that one of its own, a sailor named Jinchao "Patrick" Wei was arrested for espionage for China in late July, in a classic case complete with a handler, plans and manuals delivered, troop numbers reported, and thousands of dollars changing hands. Another case up north in Ventura County, involving bribery charges against a Navy sailor based on his deliveries to a Chinese official, was also announced, likely with a similar reaction. We still don't know if the Chinese handler was the same or if the cases are related.

According to the New York Times:

Two Navy sailors in Southern California were arrested and accused of providing military secrets and sensitive information to Chinese intelligence officers, according to a pair of federal indictments unsealed on Thursday. Jinchao Wei, known as Patrick Wei, 22, was charged with spying for China under the Espionage Act. Mr. Wei serves aboard the Essex, an amphibious assault ship moored at Naval Base San Diego, which is the home of the Pacific Fleet. As a machinists mate, investigators said, he had clearance that gave him access to sensitive national security information. The second sailor, Petty Officer Wenheng Zhao, 26, also known as Thomas, was charged with taking bribes in exchange for providing sensitive U.S. military information to a Chinese intelligence officer posing as an economic researcher. Mr. Zhao worked at the Naval Base Ventura County in Port Hueneme, which is home to several aircraft squadrons and the services naval construction battalions in the Pacific.

One could focus on the aggressiveness of the China's efforts to recruit spies, and the communist behemoth's view that Chinese-Americans are the perfect targets for the task, which is what the Times largely does.

But the other thing one could focus on is the ease with which the Chinese were able to snag these spies and bribeables.

Why was it so easy for them?

Maybe it's the wokester nods all through the case that made it easy for the Chicoms to score the agents it was after.

If that's the case, it would underline that the wokesterism so rampant in the military is the actual risk to national security that its opponents say it is.

Here are some examples that I observed, just from reading a couple of the reports:

That the Chinese handler of one of the alleged spies "congratulated" Wei for obtaining U.S. citizenship.

According to the New York Times:

Mr. Wei was evidently seeking U.S. citizenship while working clandestinely with China, according to the indictment, with his handler congratulating Mr. Wei when he received it.

According to the San Diego Union-Tribune:

That same month, the spy allegedly paid Wei for the information he had provided to that point and congratulated him on becoming a U.S. citizen, according to the indictment.

That's a scandal right there -- that foreign nationals who retain loyalty to their home countries are now being handed U.S. citizenship with little vetting, no effective background checks, and what's worse, they feel no pangs of conscience about their alleged treason. I don't know what the tone of that congratulating conversation was between the alleged sellout and the Chinese handler, but it's pretty creepy no matter what the scenario was -- either it was an ironic congratulations as something that would further their espionage project, or the sense of patriotism was so dulled in both alleged agent and handler that they saw nothing amiss in congratulations for obtaining U.S. citizenships, which these days is all about benefits, not loyality to the U.S.

Patriotism isn't taught these days among the young wokesters, all they ever hear is that America is a flawed country, so why would it matter if selling out is a problem? Things like the flag, the citizenship oath, and all other things that should be utterly critical to Navy service didn't seem present in the accused spy and that may have indicated some cultural rot within the Navy.

That's one wokester whiff right there, as wokesters hold no patriotic feelings for what they see is a fundamentally flawed country.

Here's another scent of wokesterism in this case -- get a load of what the top FBI official in San Diego had to say in the wake of the busts, according to the New York Times:

In the news conference, Stacey Moy, the top F.B.I. agent in San Diego, told reporters that he wanted to emphasize that this is not and will never be an indictment of the Chinese people or ethnically Chinese Americans.

He was more concerned that Chinese-Americans would take the bust of this individual personally than he was about the theft of U.S. Navy secrets? The question he should be asking is why they would identify with someone who sold secrets to red China, the country they supposedly fled in terror from? And where their condemnations of this man's alleged acts are. This howls of wokester priorities. The wokesters aren't going to believe Moy anyway, being that they live by bean-counting.

Then there is the media:

Take a gander at this headline from USNI (U.S. Naval Institute News):

Two California Sailors Arrested on Espionage Charges

California men? That rather sounds like the famous "Minnesota Men." Wei wasn't even from California, he came to San Diego from Wisconsin. But here he is, a California Man through and through now, gotta watch out for those California Men.

The point this apparently cub reporter is trying to divert attention from is that both of the accused are Chinese-Americans and not every last Chinese migrant getting let into the country shares our values. Some of them share the Chinese Communist Party's values. How many do we don't know, but that's something that ought to be found out -- before the citizenship certificates are issued. Some are willing to take all the opportunity they have gotten as individuals here in America, which is the holy grail of the world's migrants, as well as all the trust involved in a U.S. Navy position with a classified clearance, and use it not only to better themselves but to better our enemies. The ties are not cut, and given the failure of the U.S. to vet, that's becoming a problem, given the ease with which the Chinese are recruiting them and the numbers the FBI in all its bumbliness, are picking up.

Here's a related headline from the San Diego Union-Tribune:

San Diego Navy sailor accused of spying for China in rare espionage case

Rare? How would they know such cases are rare? They don't. While these cases are hard to find and bust, particularly with an FBI busily preoccupied with finding "extremists" inside the U.S. military, and among people who pray at abortion mills, and Latin masses, that doesn't mean these cases are rare. Why are they so eager to say 'rare' in their limited headline space when they know the Chinese have stepped up their espionage activity? I very much doubt these acts are "rare." The only reason they might have said 'rare' is that they wanted to promote the myth that Chinese-Americans wouldn't dream of caving in to Chinese government requests for intelligence or other strategic information and only dreadful right-wing conspiracy theorists would think so. Unfortunately, a lot of them would, a lot of them are blackmailable because they have families or have engaged in corruption, and let's not forget that several Chinese "police stations" are here on U.S. soil and as far as is known, have not been shut down. Meanwhile, mass migration has let a lot of potential spies through, particularly with Joe Biden's open borders.

It seems that wokesterism is all over these cases. Whether it's a loyalty-challenged spy, a DEI-obsessed FBI official, or the media trying to pretend that that Chinese-American sellouts couldn't possibly be among us, it's not good for a country that needs to keep secrets from an increasingly ambitious competitor. The Chinese are clearly exploiting the wokesterism in our system for their own benefits, and our country is clearly losing out. We will see more and more cases like this, as American values are denigrated by wokesters and U.S. citizenship becomes not worth the paper it's printed on.

Image: Combined Military Service Digital Photographic Files, via U.S. National Arrchives, via Picryl // No known copyright restrictions
Samsung has begun rolling out the August 2023 Android security patch to Galaxy devices. This month, the Galaxy S20 FE has earned the distinction of being the first to pick up the latest security update. Neither Google nor Samsung has detailed the content of the new SMR (Security Maintenance Release).

As of this writing, the August security update is available for the 4G/LTE version of the Galaxy S20 FE in a handful of Latin American countries. All-things-Samsung publication SamMobile first spotted the rollout, which is now live in Bolivia, Brazil, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, and Trinidad & Tobago.

The latest update for the Galaxy S20 FE (LTE) in the region comes with the firmware build number G780GXXS6EWG9. Samsungs official changelog states that the device isnt getting anything apart from this months security fixes. Unfortunately, as said earlier, we dont yet have the patch details.

Google will probably publish the content of the latest ASB (Android Security Bulletin) on Monday. Samsung will subsequently update its monthly bulletin with those details, adding details about the Galaxy-specific vulnerabilities it fixed this month. As usual, the August SMR for Galaxy devices should bring several dozen vulnerability patches, including a handful of critical ones.

While we wait for the patch details, Samsung may be already preparing to expand the availability of the August update for the Galaxy S20 FE to other regions. The LTE version didnt arrive in the US but the Korean firm did launch the phone with 5G connectivity stateside. The company will also soon release the August SMR for other Galaxy devices, including the Galaxy S23 series.

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If youre using the Galaxy S20 FE or any other Galaxy phone, you can manually check for new software updates from the Settings app. Go to the Software update menu and tap on Download and install. Wait until the device finishes looking for new updates. If it doesnt find any, check again a few days later.

The Galaxy S20 FE will not get the Android 14 update

Galaxy S20 FE users may be getting the August security update ahead of everyone else, but they dont have major feature updates lined up for them in the future. Launched with Android 10 in the second half of 2020, this phone will not get Android 14. It will end its life on Android 13, which it picked up late last year. For those looking to upgrade, Samsung seemingly has the Galaxy S23 FE coming in a month or two. Stay tuned for its official launch.
According to a new report, Huawei could actually get access to 5G chips thanks to SMIC. As many of you know by now, Huawei has been heavily impacted by the US sanctions. Not only can the company not use 5G processors, but its also not allowed to use Google services on its phones amongst other things.

Huawei is now 10th placed smartphone manufacturer in the world

That impacted Huawei in a considerable way over the years. The company was once on the way to becoming the worlds number one smartphone manufacturer, and now its a 10th placed company globally. Many say that it would achieve its goal if not for the US ban, and it sure did seem that way.

Having said that, Huawei changed things up by adding its own services to its devices, and adapting any way it could. It has been using Qualcomms processors but with 4G connectivity instead of 5G. That could change moving forward.

Digitimes notes that Reuters and Nikkei Asia have been closely monitoring the rumors regarding Huawei and SMIC collaboration. The two companies are allegedly planning to undertake mass production of 5G chips by the end of 2023.

Huawei had its own Kirin chips out there, and they were outstanding at the point the US sanctions went into effect. Those sanctions also prevented Huawei from making good processors, which is why Huawei ditched Kirin altogether.

Huawei could reportedly get access to 5G chips thanks to SMIC, but they may not be good enough

The question remains, can Huawei and SMIC actually achieve something like this? Currently, SMIC can only achieve 7nm mass production through DUV with multiple exposures. That is nowhere near what TSMC can do these days.

We wonder if these chips would be any good if manufactured in the near future. It seems like the tech is not yet there for SMIC and Huawei to consider making flagship-grade chips, perhaps something for more affordable devices though? Only time will tell.
Motorola is rolling out a new update to its latest clamshell foldable, the Razr Plus (known as Razr 40 Ultra in some markets). It appears to be a relatively small update with some system stability improvements and security fixes. The device is picking up the July 2023 Android security patch.

According to Android Central, which first reported this update for the Motorola Razr Plus, the foldable is receiving the firmware build number T1TZS33.3-62-25-1-3 with the latest release. The official changelog supplied by the company doesnt mention any new features or functional improvements. The company seems to be pushing last months security fixes and nothing more.

Motorolas updated security bulletin reveals that the July security patch for its Android devices contains at least three critical vulnerability fixes and several dozen high-severity fixes. As usual, most of those come from Google, with the Android maker explaining that some of the critical security issues could lead to remote code execution with no additional execution privileges needed. These vulnerabilities dont require user interaction for exploitation.

Unfortunately, this update doesnt seem to have fixed some minor system bugs that Razr Plus users have been complaining about. The foldable reportedly produces selfies with an odd tint when captured using the rear cameras and the cover screen. Some users have also noticed issues with the external displays calendar panel. Hopefully, the company will patch those bugs soon.

The Motorola Razr Plus will get bi-monthly updates

Motorola has never been great with software updates, but the company appears committed to improving that reputation. It has promised to deliver bi-monthly updates to the Razr Plus, at least in the initial years. The frequency may come down over time.

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Overall, Motorola will push security updates to the Razr Plus for four years, i.e. until halfway through 2027. During this period, the foldable will also receive three major Android OS updates. It debuted with Android 13 and will get updates to Android 14, Android 15, and Android 16 in its lifetime. This is still not anywhere close to what Samsung offers, though.

The Korean firm will push four major Android OS updates to all of its recent flagships and select mid-range models. It will also push security updates up to five years after their launch, including budget handsets. On top of that, Samsung is usually the first to release the latest security patches. Case in point, it has already begun seeding the August patch when Motorolas flagship foldable is getting the July release. Time will tell whether Motorola can follow up on its promise of bi-monthly updates for the Razr Plus.
Samsung and uBreakiFix are extending their years-long partnership to create a more wide-reaching and accessible Galaxy device repair system. Since 2018 both companies have worked together to ensure customers have had the ability to get their phones fixed. Now that partnership is going further by making repairs more accessible than ever before.

Samsung announced the news today, laying out its goals for providing same-day repairs for broken phones. When your device isnt working, you want it fixed right and fixed fast. Partnering with uBreakiFix by Asurion to open these flagship locations means we can provide enhanced care for more Galaxy customers at an in-store level. Coupled with We Come to You service, were able to better serve our customers needs in even more communities where they live and work, said Samsung Electronics America VP of Customer Care Mark Williams.

The expansion plan includes taking 50 uBreakiFix stores from around the country and turning them into flagship Samsung repair locations. The company says it aims to have this completed by the end of 2023. Five of these stores are already up and running and can be found in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Orlando, and Los Angeles.

uBreakiFix employees will receive Samsung training

(Image credit: Samsung)

The expanded partnership isnt just about making existing stores flagship locations. Theres actually a lot more that goes into it. Repair technicians at uBreakiFix will receive training from Samsung on how to properly repair devices. Theyll also have access to specialized equipment and official parts and inventory.

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This will often lead to devices being repaired within the same day they were brought in. But wont necessarily happen every time. As things will be on a case-by-case basis. And will likely depend on the severity of the damage to a phone and the complexity of the repair. Other factors could come into play too. Such as how busy a store might be and how many other repairs are already on schedule.

Still, Samsung says this partnership will lead to more same-day repairs. Pre-partnership, 94% of walk-in repairs had a same-day completion. The partnership will only push that number higher. Leaving less customers waiting for a fixed device.
Video-sharing sites are all about personalized and curated content to pique peoples interest. Well, it appears that the EU isnt a fan of that, and this compelled TikTok to introduce a new non-personalized feed on the platform. Itll also bring another change to the platform, according to a new blog post (via Phone Arena).

The EU has been fighting to make the Internet a better place for all. Last year, it brought the Digital Services Act (DSA), which defines rules for social media platforms, search engines, and online shops to follow. If a company does not follow these rules, then it risks being banned from the EU.

TikTok brings a new non-personalized feed

So, when youre scrolling through TikTok, youre seeing videos based on your activity on the platform. If you like a lot of cooking videos, youre more likely to see videos of people making yet another form of cheesecake; if youre into cars, then expect a lot of Teslas and Lamborghinis on your feed. This is how the company keeps people on the platform.

However, the EU does not like the platform collecting data on its users in order to curate the content for its users. Thus, the EU urged TikTok to make some changes.

So, because of this, TikTok announced that it was introducing a non-personalized feed. This means that, instead of seeing videos tailored toward your tastes, youll see mainly popular videos in your area. It will be a smattering of random videos that have picked up the most steam. While this might sound like a terrible idea, dont worry, its an optional feature.

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Thats good because a lot of people on the internet dont like feeds full of algorithmically curated content. Popular doesnt necessarily mean good.

Along with this, TikTok is also bringing another change to comply with the new ruleset. This next one is targeted at minors. Users between the age of 13 and 17 will no longer receive personalized ads on the platform. People receive ads based on their activity on the platform, but they can also be based on their activity off of it.

Since this was targeted at several companies in the EU, then you should expect changes to come to more platforms.
(ANSA) - ROME, AUG 4 - Record-breaking heatwaves and droughts, devastating wildfires, torrential rain and hailstorms all across Europe are costing lives, damaging infrastructure, diminishing biodiversity and hitting tourism, harvests and the economy. Some governments have imposed rules to ensure the safety of their workers and are calling for rigorous measures to combat climate change.

Hotspot.

Heatwaves have simultaneously gripped three continents in the Northern Hemisphere this summer as global warming worsens. In Mediterranean countries especially favoured by tourists, such as Spain, Italy and Greece, temperatures have topped 40 degrees celsius in places, and further heatwaves are expected. The Mediterranean region has long been classified as a climate change hotspot by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

July is set to be the hottest month in thousands of years, climate scientists from the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and the European Climate Change Service Copernicus reported after analysing data up to July 23.

"We don't have to wait for the end of the month to know this.

Short of a mini-Ice Age over the next days, July 2023 will shatter records across the board," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, adding that "the era of global warming has ended; the era of global boiling has arrived." Scientists from the World Weather Attribution initiative said the heatwaves that have hit parts of Europe and North America in July would have been almost impossible without human-caused climate change.

"We are seeing unprecedented changes all over the world," top NASA climatologist Gavin Schmidt said, with records being broken on land and at sea.

Over the past year, more than 60,000 people have died in Europe due to extreme heat, according to Hans Kluge, the World Health Organisation's director for Europe, adding that the number of deaths from extreme heat "is set to rise year-on-year."

Europe split in two extremes.

Although the weather in Germany and northern Europe this July felt less warm than in other summers, heatwaves in North America, Asia and southern Europe lifted the global average.

Greece has been battling devastating wildfires driven by intense heat on the islands of Evia, Corfu and Rhodes. Thousands of people have been evacuated. According to the European Commission, European Union countries have been supporting Greece with almost 500 firefighters and seven planes deployed to different areas in the country.

"Together, we are deploying available resources to fight the fires and protect our citizens and landscapes," EU Crisis Commissioner Janez Lenarcic said in a statement. Countries worldwide can request help from EU members in case of a disaster, with the European Commission coordinating the deployment of civil protection equipment and experts.

Aside from Greece, other countries in Europe such as Turkey, Spain, Portugal, Italy and France are also facing abnormally sweltering temperatures. In Turkey, temperatures around the Aegean and Mediterranean Sea are up to 8 degrees above the usual level for this time of year, according to the weather service.

Fires caused landmines to explode near the southern Croatian city of Dubrovnik, local media reported.

So far this summer, Spain has avoided major fires but the country has suffered a drought caused by high temperatures and a months-long lack of rain. After experiencing the second driest spring in 62 years, several areas, such as the two most populated regions Andalusia and Catalonia, have been hit by critically low water levels in reservoir and other storage sites. Reservoirs in Andalusia were at 24 percent of their total capacity last week, while this week in Catalonia, internal basins barely reached 27 percent.

Meanwhile, many European countries and regions experienced other extreme weather events, such as storms with extreme rainfall and wind.

Bosnia and Herzegovina, for example, saw floods and torrents caused by heavy rainfall in May and June which was followed by a first heatwave. Storms and strong winds have caused severe material damage particularly in the north, but also in the southern parts of Bosnia.

While Slovenia was battling the worst fires in its history this time last year, 2023 has seen it face extremely severe storms with heavy rainfall, hail and gail-force winds. Serbia has equally been affected by storms and hail which damaged crops, infrastructure, cars and residential buildings.

Italy experienced "one of the most complicated days in recent decades - rainstorms, tornadoes and giant hail in the north, and scorching heat and devastating fires in the centre and south," said Italian Civil Protection Minister Nello Musumeci. The country battled deadly and destructive fires in the south and equally fatal storms in the north which left at least seven people dead and caused severe damage to property, infrastructure and crops. Most of the fires were caused by arson, prosecutors said.

Extreme temperatures affecting business, infrastructure and peoples' safety.

With extremely high temperatures, the need for air conditioning has driven up electricity consumption which in some countries led to day-long or repeated power outages as well as damage to underground cables.

The Maltese Hotel and Restaurant Association reported that frustrated guests had checked out of hotels because of the power cuts. Restaurants and supermarkets in the country had to throw away defrosted food while malfunctioning air conditioners caused Italian McDonald's staff to strike. They complained that they had been "suffocating" in the "intolerable" 40-degree-plus temperatures in the outlets. Several farm labourers have died of heatwave-related causes in Italy, too. CGIL, Italy's biggest trade union, urged authorities to step up efforts to protect workers from the effects of the tropical temperatures that have hit the country. Maurizio Landini, CGIL's leader, said "the heatwave is increasing the risks to the health and safety of female and male workers". He added that "this is totally unacceptable." As a result, the Italian government is now working on a protocol on heat risks and issues at Italian workplaces.

n Germany, the rains are affecting harvests of grain, fruit and vegetables. While the rainfall has forced grain farmers to interrupt their harvests again and again, fruit and vegetable growers are content. Torsten Krawczyk, president of the Saxon state farmers' association, said it had been the most expensive harvest ever. The costs for fertiliser, for example, were twice to three times as high. Significantly more money also had to be paid for labour and energy.

Mitigating climate change, building resilience and protection.

Recent extreme weather conditions have prompted governments across Europe to step up their civil protection efforts and take appropriate measures to protect their citizens. UN Secretary-General Guterres called on politicians to take immediate and drastic steps to curb climate change and Pope Francis also renewed his call for action to address the climate crisis in the face of extreme weather events.

In response to water scarcity in Spain, the regional government of Catalonia has declared a situation of "water exceptionality" in most of its territory. In the almost 500 municipalities affected by the shortage - home to six million people - a restriction of 230 litres of water per inhabitant per day for domestic use has been imposed. A 40 percent reduction in water for agricultural use and a 15 percent cut for industry have also come into force.

In May, the Spanish government approved measures to prevent accidents and deaths in outdoor work that may be affected by adverse weather such as heatwaves. Maltese authorities issued a heat warning urging people not to leave their homes between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m., the hottest hours of the day. Similarly, the Romanian Territorial Labour Inspectorate made it mandatory for employers to take measures to protect their employees' health, such as reducing the intensity of physical activities, ensuring ventilation in the workplace, interspersing physically demanding work with less active duties and introducing more breaks out of the hot sun during working hours.

German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) presented a heat protection plan in late July in a bid to halve the number of heat-related deaths this year, mainly by providing more public guidance on how to cope with hot weather. While some saw it as a good starting point, a health policy expert from the opposition conservative CDU Tino Sorge, accused Lauterbach of inappropriate alarmism as common sense should be the guiding principle for protection and prevention.

Slovenia is warming faster than the global average due to its geography, with an average temperature rise of 2.2 degrees between 1980 and 2021. More investment in prevention would definitely be needed, said Environment Minister Uros Brezan. He stressed that there was a particular need to safeguard water supplies. Business leaders and politicians have been pointing to the need for systemic measures to adapt to climate change as well as intervention to tackle the consequences.

Italian Environment and Energy Security Minister Gilberto Pichetto said "the government is already engaged on this front to ensure close coordination between all the implementing bodies, both in emergencies and ordinary periods." However, he insisted that "the main problem is not funding, but the spending mechanism and procedures".

Record breaking extreme weather not enough to convince some that climate change is real.

Despite the extreme weather in Italy, 34.7 percent of Italians believe there is excessive alarm about climate change, according to the Ital Communications-Censis report "Disinformation and fake news in Italy'" The report also showed that 16.2 percent of the overall population denies that climate change exists, with the percentage rising to 18.3 percent among the elderly and to 18.2 percent among the less educated.

This content is based on news by agencies participating in the enr, on this occasion AFP, AGERPRES, ANSA, dpa, EFE, Europa Press, FENA, STA and Tanjug. (ANSA).


(ANSA) - ROME, AUG 4 - Milan closed its parks, cemeteries and open-air markets near trees on Friday due to the violent storms that are forecast to batter the northern region of Lombardy.

The arrival of Cyclone Circe is expected to bring storms with torrential rain and powerful winds to many parts of Italy.

iLMeteo.it meteorologist Lorenzo Tedici said that temperatures were set to drop by at least 10 Celsius.

Italy was hit by a series of extraordinary heatwaves last month as well as waves of devastating storms.

In mid-May floods and landslides triggered by torrential rainfall left 15 people dead and caused billions of euros of damage to agriculture, the economy and infrastructure.

Scientists say the climate crisis caused by human greenhouse gas emissions is making extreme weather events such as heat waves, droughts, supercharged storms, hailstorms, strong winds and flooding more frequent and more intense. (ANSA).


(ANSA) - ROME, AUG 4 - Medical-aid NGO Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres - MSF) said Friday that people are being systematically pushed back at the Italian-French border by French police, often with violence and inhumane treatment as well as arbitrary detention.

"Our team has witnessed extremely vulnerable people being pushed back indiscriminately by French police, regardless of their individual circumstances and without appropriate assessment," said Sergio Di Dato, MSF project coordinator in the Italian border city of Ventimiglia, where MSF runs a mobile clinic.

MSF said many of the people encountered by its teams reported procedural violations during the notification of the refusal of entry by French authorities, such as inaccurate transcription of personal data, lack of information or absence of intercultural mediators.

It said vulnerable people such as minors, pregnant women and new mothers, elderly people or severely ill persons were not exempted from this practice.

More than a third among the 48 unaccompanied minors assisted by MSF teams reported to have been pushed back to Italy, it said, while several individuals reported being arbitrarily detained in containers during the night, without any specific protection for women and children.

MSF also said that access to adequate shelter, healthcare, clean water, or sanitary facilities is extremely limited for people transiting in Ventimiglia.

MSF called on Italy, France, and other European countries to implement all necessary measures to prevent further harm to vulnerable people in transit, and to put an end to systematic and indiscriminate pushbacks. (ANSA).


(ANSA) - ROME, AUG 4 - The government's tax reform won definitive approval in the Lower House on Friday, with 184 votes in favour and 85 against.

The most important part of the reform is the reduction of the number of income-tax bands from four to three as part of the process of moving towards the introduction of a flat tax for all workers by the end of the current parliamentary term.

Italy has a 15% flat tax, but it currently only applies to self-employed people earning up to 85,000 euros a year.

The current income-tax tax bands are set at 23% for incomes of up to 15,000 euros a year, 25% for up to 28,000 euros, 35% for up to 50,000 euros and 43% for earnings above that.

The reform will be fully operative within two years thanks to subsequent enabling laws.

Among other things, the reform introduces a system for companies involved in tax disputes to be exempted from criminal charges if they cooperate with the tax authorities.

It also gives incentives for wealthy people living abroad to take residence in Italy.

It gives taxpayers the opportunity to enter an agreement in which they will not be subject to checks on their earnings for two years if they agree to pay a given amount of tax set by the authorities.

It also envisions the abolition of the IRAP regional business tax.

"We have worked on all the different types of tax, withing abandoning the concept of progressiveness," Deputy Economy Minister Maurizio Leo told the Lower House on Friday.

"We all have to be aware that our tax system penalizes taxpayers.

"The famous four bands make life difficult for taxpayers and we want to sweeten the tax-band curve, starting with three to gradually get to a flat tax.

"We have to change the face of the tax system and we want to do this, without lowering the guard on the fight against tax evasion".

Photo: Deputy Economy Minister Maurizio Leo. (ANSA).


(ANSA) - ROME, AUG 4 - People considered fit to work who are losing the 'citizenship wage' (RdC) minimum-income benefit will be able to request a new form of income-support from September 1, according to the draft of a government enacting-law decree.

They will be able to present a claim to social-security agency INPS for the Labour Formation Support (SFL) benefit, which is dependent on them having enrolled on a training programme to help them re-enter the labour market.

The benefit will only be granted after the claimant has signed a pact at a local job centre, the training programme has been activated and the related checks by the authorities run, according to the draft.

Some 159,000 families in Italy were told by text message that their RdC was being cut last week, sparking concern about what will happen to the people losing their welfare cheques amid confusion about the benefits that will replace the citizenship wage.

Democratic Party (PD) leader Elly Schlein on Monday accused the government of waging "war on the poor" with its actions.

Households in which there are minors, disabled people or people over 60 will be able to keep receiving the RdC until the end of the year and then claim a new benefit, the inclusion cheque (ADI), worth a maximum of 500 euros a month per individual.

The SFL benefit will be worth up to 350 euros a month, payable for a maximum of 12 months.

Labour Minister Marina Elvira Calderone said Thursday that the situation with the phase-out of the RdC was under control after the government came under heavy fire over it.

She did admit, however, that the text message from social-security agency INPS was not "reassuring". (ANSA).


Andrew Tate has said he will be absolutely exonerated of charges of rape, human trafficking and forming a criminal gang to exploit women after being released from house arrest.

Tate and his brother Tristan, both dual UK-US nationals, and two Romanian nationals have been under house arrest for months after denying the allegations.

On Friday, they won an appeal to be able to leave their home but must remain in Romania, where they live.

Tate, 36, speaking outside his home in Bucharest on Friday, told reporters: In January when I was thrown into a jail cell the media reported and told the world that I was a terrible person, they said that I hurt people and that I make a lot of money from a criminal enterprise.

Andrew Tate, right, and his brother Tristan have been under house arrest (Andreea Alexandru/AP)

Here we stand seven or eight months later and I have not seen a single victim on the news, I have seen lots of girls sticking up for me, lots of people defending me, Ive not seen a single person stand up and say that I have hurt them, not one.

Its very exhausting to continue to perpetuate lies, its very hard to keep lies afloat when you have no actual evidence, weve been completely innocent since the beginning of this and I have to give absolute faith to the Romanian judicial system for finally making the right decision in letting us free.

Im sure in the end we will be absolutely exonerated and everybody who was pushing these lies and reporting things on repeat without any substantial evidence are going to have to analyse within themselves why they decide to try and destroy peoples lives purely for views.

Ive done nothing wrong, God knows Ive done nothing wrong, in my heart I know Ive done nothing wrong. I think the people at home with a functioning brain understand weve done nothing wrong.

In a statement through their lawyer, the Tate brothers thanked supporters for showing great resilience and patience.

In June, prosecutors alleged there were seven female victims, including some who were misled by false claims of marriage and love.

Prosecutors said there were seven female victims of Tate and his brother (Andreea Alexandru/AP)

They said the defendants formed an organised crime group in early 2021 to commit human trafficking in Romania, the UK, the US and other countries.

The alleged victims were later taken to buildings in Ilfov county in Romania where they were intimidated, placed under constant surveillance and control and forced into debt, the statement said.

It is said the defendants then forced them to take part in pornography which was later shared on social media.

One defendant raped an alleged victim twice in March 2022, according to the statement.

Tate, who has lived in Romania since 2017, was previously banned from various social media platforms.

The kickboxer has denied all of the allegations, with a trial due to take place.
Capita has slipped to a loss as it said a cyber attack which rocked the firm earlier this year could cost it up to 25 million.

The outsourcing giant posted a statutory pre-tax loss of 67.9 million for the six months to June 30, dropping from a 0.1 million profit a year earlier.

Capita said the loss was driven by business exits, a goodwill impairment and costs linked to its recent data breach.

The firm said it expects the cyber attack to cost it between 20 million and 25 million, comprising specialist professional fees, recovery and remediation costs and investments to its cyber security.

In May, the business estimated a cost of between 15 million and 20 million.

However, the business cited continued progress on its lengthy turnaround in the update, hailing a rise in adjusted revenues and efforts to cut debt.

Adjusted revenue increased by 6% to 1.4 billion for the half-year, as the business also flagged new contracts signed with the Student Loans Company and the Department for Work and Pensions.

The update comes days after Jon Lewis, chief executive officer of the firm, said he will retire next year.

On Friday, the outgoing boss said: I am pleased with the good progress we continued to make at Capita during the first half of the year as we accelerate our financial performance.

Our strategy, focused on two core, growing markets, is working.

We have delivered increased adjusted revenue growth for the fourth successive reporting period, improving profitability, winning an increasing amount of work with new clients, and remain on track to deliver on our full-year expectations.

Our strong client relationships, long-term contracts, increasingly competitive and digitised solutions, engaged colleagues and reputation for delivery mean we have a resilient business, well positioned for further growth.
The King and Queen are expected to mark the first anniversary of Queen Elizabeth IIs death privately, it is understood.

Charles and Camilla, who are on their traditional summer break, will not hold a private family gathering at their Balmoral estate to commemorate the passing of the late monarch and no public event is planned.

Elizabeth II, the UKs longest-serving monarch, died peacefully at Balmoral, Aberdeenshire, on September 8 last year, aged 96, after reigning for 70 years.

King Charles and members of the royal family following behind the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, as it is carried out of Westminster Abbey (Danny Lawson/PA)

Her death was the moment her son and heir Charles became King, and the date will remain a poignant period for the head of state.

It is understood the King and Queen are not expected to attend any public engagements during the week of the anniversary.

The late Queen used to mark the passing of her father King George VI, who died on February 6 1952, privately at Sandringham.

Charles has carried out a number of firsts during his time as head of state, from carrying out his first overseas state visit to Germany to delivering his inaugural Christmas broadcast.
A family is making a really difficult return to an East Sussex holiday park to hold a vigil, one year on from a father-of-sixs death.

Michael McDonagh, who was living in London, was on holiday with his family at the Parkdean resort in Camber Sands when he died aged 53 in August last year, following an altercation with a group of people.

Sussex Police arrested seven people after the incident, with six bailed and one released with no further action, and the investigation is continuing.

Michael McDonagh died at a holiday park in Camber Sands, East Sussex (Handout/PA)

His daughter Stephanie McDonagh, 31, told the PA news agency that her family thought they would never be able to return to the area, and said the gathering in his memory at 1pm on Saturday outside the park will be really difficult.

She said: Its probably the worst year of our lives, as anyone could imagine, and its been an extremely difficult year for everyone.

Obviously, we know whats happened to dad, we know that hes not with us any more, but understanding that and processing that is completely different.

You still expect to see him, you still expect to see him walk through the door, you still pull out your phone and try to call him.

Ms McDonagh, a solicitor, described Mr McDonagh as the glue that held their family together and an upbeat father who had a sense of adventure that saw him zip-line and cliff dive a few months before his death.

She said: Dad was such a family man and he always put his family first and sort of every decision he made was for his family.

Hes the one that pushed us to achieve things, that we thought we could never achieve.

Ms McDonagh also said it was really hard to come to terms with the fact that her father would miss out on grandchildren being born and family celebrations.

She said: It feels like were going through the biggest thing in our lives and the biggest problem in our lives and the one person you want to talk to about it, hes not there for it.

The family hopes the candlelit vigil, described as a peaceful gathering that will be open to the public, will raise awareness and encourage any witnesses to help the police with their investigations, as well as honour him.

Parkdean Camber Sands is in East Sussex (ResilienceUAV/Alamy/PA)

She said: Dad had his wife and six children and his two grandchildren but the effect he had on his extended family and friends is massive.

Its not just his family that were affected by his death. Theres so many other people that still want answers.

Ms McDonagh also said communication with the holiday park following her fathers death has been minimal and extremely insensitive.

She added that the company could have worded things a bit better for her grieving family.

A spokesman for Camber Sands Holiday Park said: We recognise that this a difficult time for the McDonagh family and we will continue to assist the authorities in this matter.

Sussex Police Detective Chief Inspector Emma Vickers said: We have been conducting a thorough, complex investigation into the death of Michael McDonagh since the tragic events of August 6 2022.

Our thoughts remain with Michaels family, who are being supported by specialist officers while we search for the answers they deserve.

A dedicated team has completed a painstaking review of CCTV footage and taken more than 150 statements as we look to establish the full facts of what happened that evening.

Six people arrested on suspicion of Michaels murder have been released under investigation, while a seventh person who had been arrested has been released with no further action.

We continue to appeal for any witnesses, or people with relevant video footage, to contact police online or via 101, quoting Operation Molton.
Meghan Markle has delivered some great feminist quotes, pictured in April 2022. (Getty Images)

Meghan Markle is celebrating her 42nd birthday, and if it's anything like recent years, any celebration for the occasion seems likely to be low-key.

After stepping back from her role as a senior royal in 2020, alongside her husband Prince Harry, and moving to the US, the Duchess of Sussex has kept a considerably lower profile.

But just because she isn't in the spotlight as much, doesn't mean the mum-of-two is going to stay silent on the subjects that really matter to her.

From her powerful speech on the importance of gender equality at a UN Women summit in 2015, to discussing the significance of women's suffrage while on a royal tour of New Zealand in 2018, the royal has long been a vocal advocate for women's issues.

So what better way to mark her birthday than to take a look back at some of Markle's most powerful quotes on feminism and womens rights from over the years?

On women's sexuality being used against them

Last year saw Meghan try her hand at podcasting with the release of the first series of Archetypes, which aimed to unpick labels attached to women and to try and dismantle the negative connotations attached to many of them.

The series was filled with Meghan's feminist opinions, and expertise and insights from campaigners, researchers and even from high profile figures like Mariah Carey and Serena William's who discussed the labels they felt had held them back.

Although keeping a relatively low-profile since leaving royal life behind, Meghan still speaks up about the causes that matter most to her. (Getty Images)

In one episode, Meghan discussed the ways that women's sexual history is regularly used against them, whilst men are praised for the same behaviour.

"I give the example of, you know, for a woman especially versus a man, a man  if he is a player or out having fun or whatever he's doing  it's often celebrated, even heralded."

Meghan noted that it's not as simple for women: "for a woman, I don't care if she's is perhaps the most successful woman in finance in her mid-50s, I promise you someone will still go, 'yeah but she was such a s**t in college.'"

"I don't understand what it is about the stigma surrounding women and their sexuality, the exploration of their sexuality that is so much more vilified than for a man," she also said.

On men being feminists too

In 2022, the US Supreme court ended constitutional protections for abortion that have been in place for nearly 50 years by deciding to overturn the landmark Roe v Wade ruling.

In response to the decision, the Duchess of Sussex and feminist icon Gloria Steinem shared their thoughts on the US Supreme Court's controversial ruling in a joint interview for Vogue.

When asked what she would say to men who support reproductive rights, Markle told journalist Jessica Yellin that men "need to be vocal in this moment and beyond because these are decisions that affect relationships, families and communities at large".

"They may target women, but the consequences impact all of us," she continued. "My husband and I talked about that a lot over the past few days.

"Hes a feminist too.

"I know that for so many women right now, there is a sentiment of despair," she added. "But again, we have to band together and not wallow. We have to do the work."

The Duchess of Sussex often speaks out about women's rights, pictured in May 2018. (Getty Images)

On needing female activists

July 2020: In a speech at Girl Up, a UN conference aimed at young female activists, she said: This is a humanity that desperately needs you. To push it, to push us, forcefully in a more inclusive, more just, and more empathetic direction.

To not only frame the debate, but be in charge of the debate  on racial justice, gender, climate change, mental health and wellbeing, on civic engagement, on public service, on so much more. Thats the work youre already out there doing."

Watch: The Duke and Duchess of Sussex arrive at the UN General Assembly

On empowering young male feminists

March 2020: During a surprise school visit ahead of International Women's Day Markle called on teenage boys to "value and appreciate" the women in their lives, urging them to "set the example for some men who are not seeing it that same way".

I just encourage and empower each of you to really stand in your truth, to stand for what is right, to continue to respect each other, for you young men to continue to value and appreciate the women in your lives and also set the example for some men who are not seeing it that same way.

On why feminism is about fairness

October 2018: In a speech made in New Zealand shortly after they were married, she said: Womens suffrage is about feminism, but feminism is about fairness.

Womens suffrage is not simply about the right to vote for women, but also about what that represents: the basic and fundamental human right of all people, including those members of society who have been marginalised whether for reasons of race, gender, ethnicity or orientation, to be able to participate in the choices for their future and their community.

Read more: International Women's Day: The Royal Family's most feminist moments

Markle uses her platform to raise issues around women's rights, pictured in September 2019. (Getty Images)

On women supporting each other

September 2019: In a speech at the launch of her Smart Works capsule collection, Markle said: As women, it is 100% our responsibility, I think, to support and uplift each other, to champion each other as we aim to succeed, to not set each other up for failure but instead to really be there rallying around each other and say I want to help you.

Read more: Meghan Markle's six most significant royal moments in 600 days

Markle says her husband Prince Harry is a feminist, pictured in October 2019. (Getty Images)

On why men should show vulnerability

March 2019: In a panel debate after she was given her commonwealth role, which marked International Womens Day in 2019, she said: Ive said for a long time, you can be feminine and a feminist.

You can be masculine and a feminist, and I think in terms of masculinity you understand that your strength includes knowing your vulnerability.

She later said: Your confidence comes in knowing that a woman by your side, not behind you, is actually something you shouldn't be threatened about but, opposed to that, you should feel really empowered in having that additional support. That this is really about us working together.

That's what gender equality means for me, and having men part of that conversation saying there's nothing threatening about a woman coming up to the same level. It's our safety in numbers. This is our power and our strength as a team. And that's gender neutral, if you really think about it. So I hope that men are part of the conversation. My husband certainly is.

Read more: Meghan Markle urges girls to 'chase convictions with action' in powerful speech

When she played Rachel Zane, Markle took a stand against all the towel scenes she had to do. (Getty Images)

On period shame and education

March 2017: In an article for Time magazine she wrote: As a female in India, the challenge of survival begins at birth, first overcoming female feticide, then being victim to malnourishment, potentially abuse, and lack of access to proper sanitation facilities. Why, if she is able to overcome all of these challenges and finally get to school, should her education and potential to succeed, be sacrificed because of shame surrounding her period?

To break the cycle of poverty, and to achieve economic growth and sustainability in developing countries, young women need access to education. When we empower girls hungry for education, we cultivate women who are emboldened to effect change within their communities and globally.
Islamist preacher Anjem Choudary is facing a trial next May for alleged terror offences.

The 56-year-old was arrested at his home in Ilford, east London, on July 17, while a second suspect, Khaled Hussein, was detained at Heathrow having arrived on a flight the same day.

Choudary was charged with directing a terrorist organisation, being a member of the proscribed organisation Al-Muhajiroun (ALM) and addressing meetings to encourage support for the group.

Hussein, 28, who lives in Canada, was charged with membership of ALM.

On Friday, the defendants appeared at the Old Bailey for a preliminary hearing by video link from custody.

Choudary was at HMP Full Sutton in Yorkshire and Hussein appeared from HMP Wandsworth in south London.

Anjem Choudary appearing by video link from HMP Full Sutton in Yorkshire, at the Old Bailey in London (Elizabeth Cook/PA)

Mr Justice Jeremy Baker set a plea hearing for January 5 and a provisional trial at Kingston Crown Court from May 20 next year.

The court was told the trial of up to eight weeks would be heard before a High Court judge.

Khaled Hussein appeared by video link from HMP Wandsworth (Elizabeth Cook/PA)

During the hearing, the defendants spoke only to confirm their identities and dates of birth.

Grey-bearded and bespectacled Choudary wore a white robe and Hussein appeared in a grey and black checked shirt.

Choudary could be seen on the video link scribbling notes as defence barristers in court discussed the timetable for the case.

Mr Justice Baker told the defendants: The trial in this case  if it is to take place  will take place at Kingston Crown Court before a High Court judge on May 20 of next year and you will appear at either that court or this court on January 5 for a plea and trial preparation hearing. In the meantime, you will remain in custody.
A senior police officer accused of smoking cannabis daily could have provided a drugs test when he believed it would not have come up positive because he was using CBD oil to treat facial palsy, a tribunal has heard.

Commander Julian Bennett, who has served in the force since 1976, is said to have taken the drug before breakfast and work in late 2019.

He is also alleged to have failed to provide a urine sample for testing and lied about why.

He told a misconduct panel in Southwark, south London, he had done internet research after the missed drugs test which suggested CBD oil would not cause it to come up positive.

The tribunal heard that may not have been true but it is nonetheless what he believed at the time.

Mark Ley-Morgan KC, representing the Metropolitan Police, asked him: We have established that by August 28, at most five weeks after you refused to provide a sample, your belief was if you had provided a sample, you cant have been positive and your previous belief was mistaken.

If that was your belief, why didnt you contact professional standards and say I will take the test now?'

He replied: I did not believe the issue of failing to take the drugs test was determinative if I subsequently provided a negative sample.

Mr Ley-Morgan later asked: In 2014 you dismissed an officer. He had been offered and agreed to provide a sample and  if it had been negative, that would have been taken into account as mitigation.

He replied: The officer submitted a test subsequently it was negative, that was not determinative in the test. I dont think it would have been in mine either.

Commander Julian Bennett told the panel he had done internet research which suggested CBD oil would not cause a test to come up positive (Lucy North/PA)

When he refused the test, he offered to resign in a private meeting with Assistant Commissioner Louisa Rolfe.

However, he denied this was a cover up because he did not believe it would have stopped the misconduct investigation.

Earlier, Mr Ley-Morgan asked: Do you think that the police superintendent had authorised a drugs test because the MPS received intelligence you were using CBD products you had bought from Holland and Barrett?

He replied: That is exactly what I thought. I couldnt think of anything else and have not done anything else wrong, as I have said categorically, I have not taken any illegal drug.

The officer said only around seven people knew he was using the CBD products.

When Mr Ley-Morgan asked whether he believed any of them had reported his use of oils to the Metroplitan Police, he replied no.

Mr Ley-Morgan added: Thats the end of our list.

He replied: Yes.

He also told the hearing he believed Sheila Gomes, his ex-lodger who made the allegation, was a lonely and troubled individual with a lot of issues.

Mr Ley-Morgan asked: Do you blame Ms Gomes for making up these allegations?

He replied: I blame myself, I dont blame other people. I realised that I didnt know that person (Ms Gomes) at all.

Mr Ley-Morgan asked: She was cross-examined, perfectly acceptably, and you say you didnt believe her.

He replied: I dont blame and judge people. Whether you believe me or not, she tried to ruin my life.

She said I liked to be regarded as a nasty person, and I dont hold a grudge against her and I dont hold grudges against anyone but she has issues.

Mr Ley-Morgan asked: You feel sorry for her?

He replied: I do a bit. I think she is a lonely, troubled individual. Some people might think I hold a huge grudge against her, it is not my nature actually.

Mr Bennett wrote the forces drugs strategy for 2017-21 as a commander for territorial policing.

The document, called Dealing With The Impact Of Drugs On Communities, set up plans to raise awareness of the impact of drug misuse.

Freedom of information requests showed Mr Bennett presided over 74 police misconduct hearings involving 90 officers between June 2010 and February 2012.

Out of the hearings involving Mr Bennett, 56 officers were dismissed  more than three quarters.

He chaired 69 hearings during that time and two officers were dismissed for drugs misuse, the figures showed.

Mr Bennett is accused of breaching the forces professional standards for discreditable conduct three times, honesty and integrity twice and orders and instructions once.

His actions are alleged to have amounted to gross misconduct.

He denies the allegations and has been suspended on full pay since July 2021.

Claims he took LSD and magic mushrooms were dismissed by the tribunal panel on Wednesday.

The tribunal continues.
The Los Angeles County Sheriffs department says it is providing similar levels of security for Taylor Swifts six-show run as it did for the 2022 Super Bowl.

The department said that additional law enforcement was being put in place throughout the history-making run, which kicked off on Thursday.

The US megastar is performing six sold-out shows for her The Eras Tour at the SoFi Stadium, in the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood.

She is the only artist to have sold out six consecutive shows at the arena, which has a capacity of up to 100,000.

Last year the stadium hosted the Super Bowl  considered to be the biggest night in the US sporting calendar  in which the Los Angeles Rams triumphed over the Cincinnati Bengals.

In a statement on Thursday the force said: The department, in coordination with LA Metro and the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), will be providing additional law enforcement staffing throughout the Metro system to support the Taylor Swift concert series at SoFi Stadium.

The department is providing a similar level of visibility as the 2022 Super Bowl in order to ensure the safety of the public throughout the Metro System.

Earlier on Thursday Swift also announced further North America dates for The Eras Tour in 2024, in Florida, Louisiana, Indiana, and Toronto, in Canada.

Turns out its NOT the end of an era. Miami, New Orleans, Indy and Toronto: The Eras Tour is coming to you in 2024, she wrote, adding that she would be joined by support act Gracie Abrams for the shows.

Turns out its NOT the end of an era  Miami, New Orleans, Indy and Toronto: The Eras Tour is coming to you in 2024 with @gracieabrams! Verified fan registration for all shows is open now  visit https://t.co/xw6YMN3GMc for more information pic.twitter.com/DCgFQb2U22  Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) August 3, 2023

Swifts arrival in California for the shows at SoFi stadium has prompted a number of special celebrations.

On Wednesday the Recording Academy announced a special pop-up exhibition  I Can See You (Taylors Version)  which will be on show at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles until September 18.

The exhibition will feature 11 costumes and two instruments from the US megastars recently released music video I Can See You (Taylors Version) (From The Vault).

Los Angeles bakery Sweet Lady Janes has also launched a new cupcake, titled Taylors Version, and various merchandise stores and themed party nights will be taking place across the city in the coming days.

US media reported that earlier this week, Swift gave members of her tour truck driving crew bonuses in the amount of 100,000 dollars (79,000).

Michael Scherkenbach, founder and chief executive of Shomotion trucking company, told CNN that the payments were unbelievable.
Police in Las Vegas have dropped their criminal battery investigation into an incident involving Cardi B, during which the US rapper threw a microphone at a fan.

The incident, which took place last month, occurred after a member of Cardi Bs audience appeared to throw water on her from the crowd.

In video footage shared on social media, the WAP singer responded by throwing the microphone into the crowd.

But in a statement shared with the PA news agency, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said no charges would be filed.

The incident, which took place last month, occurred after a member of Cardi Bs audience appeared to throw water on her from the crowd (James Manning/PA)

After a thorough review of this case and with the consultation from the Clark County District Attorneys Office, this case has been closed as having insufficient evidence, the statement read.

No charges will be filed in relation to this case.

The incident was the latest in a number in which artists have had items thrown at them while onstage.

In recent months British superstar Harry Styles and Bebe Rexha have both been hit in the face with objects during live performances in Vienna and New York respectively.

During one of her Las Vegas shows at Caesars Palace, Adele warned audience members against forgetting show etiquette.
50 Cent and Helen Mirren first met at the 2017 Monte Carlo TV Festival

Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty; Stephane Cardinale - Corbis/Corbis via Getty

50 Cent still has a crush on Helen Mirren.

In the rapper's Men's Health September cover story, 50 Cent  whose real name is Curtis Jackson  discussed his long-standing celebrity crush on Mirren, 78.



"She's sexy," he told the outlet of the Oscar-winning actress, whom he originally met at the 57th annual Monte Carlo TV Festival in Monaco back in 2017. "She'll look at you, and you go 'oh s---!' I don't care how old she get, I don't give a f--- what nobody says, she's sexy."

"Her husband was just right there with her, hes going oh, thats just what she does,' " 50 Cent, 48, recalled of meeting Mirren and her husband, director Taylor Hackford, on the red carpet.

"He notices what you notice, that shes sexy. Its confidence," the rapper said of what makes Mirren so alluring. "Its everything she is for all of these years. Shes going to be sexy forever.



Related: Helen Mirren's Extraordinary Life and Career in Photos

Stephane Cardinale - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Helen Mirren and Curtis James Jackson III aka 50 Cent attend the Closing Ceremony of the 57th Monte Carlo TV Festival on June 20, 2017 in Monte-Carlo, Monaco

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.

Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty; Stephane Cardinale - Corbis/Corbis via Getty

The rapper previously recounted how Mirren "knows she's sexy" during a 2018 appearance on Conan.



"She just looked at me and there was this interesting thing going on in her eyes," he recalled of meeting Mirren at the time to host Conan O'Brien. "Its a different thing, like old Hollywood is rich, but its another thing. Its this confidence thing from being tested and proven."

Related: Helen Mirren Is Unrecognizable as Former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir in 'Golda' Trailer

Shayan Asgharnia for Menas Health

"And she looks at you like she knows shes sexy, and her husband is not far behind while shes doing this shit. But she still has the habit of looking at you that way, and its just the way it is," he added.



Elsewhere in Men's Health cover story, 50 Cent said that he is developing Eminem's movie 8 Mile into a television series. The rapper said audiences should expect it to be just as big as the feature film and just huge."

"Itll be huge," he added. "The time period Eight Mile was captured in was further back, so as were moving into modern times, youll see how we function now - technology changed, th way people entered the music business [changed].

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Read the original article on People.
President Biden and former President Trump are tied in the battleground state of Michigan, according to an Emerson College poll released Friday.

Biden and Trump each garnered 44 percent support from Michigan voters, while 8 percent said they would vote for someone else and 5 percent said they are undecided. However, the poll found that when Green Party candidate Cornel West was added to the ballot, Trump led with 43 percent and Biden came in with 41 percent. West garnered 4 percent support.

Within their respective primary fields, Biden and Trump dominated. On the Republican side, 61 percent of Michigan GOP primary voters said they planned to support Trump, while 13 percent said the same about Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R). Former Vice President Mike Pence came in with 7 percent, and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy garnered 4 percent support. Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott (R) came in with 3 percent and 2 percent, respectively.

On the Democratic side, 65 percent of Michigan Democratic primary voters said they supported Biden for the nomination, while 11 percent said they supported Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Five percent said they supported Marianne Williamson, and 17 percent said they were undecided.

The poll also showed Biden with a 43 percent job approval rating and a 50 percent disapproval rating.

Just over half of independent voters, 51 percent, disapprove of the job Biden is doing in office. This is a pivotal group in Michigan that Biden won over in 2020 yet is struggling with both nationally and statewide in recent surveys, said Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling.

The Hill Elections 2024 coverage

Michigan will likely play a decisive role in the presidential election next year. Trump notably flipped Michigan in 2016, narrowly winning it by less than a percentage point. Biden flipped it back four years later in 2020, winning it by less than 3 points.

The Emerson College poll was conducted Aug. 1-2 among 1,121 registered Michigan voters. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.9 percentage points.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
A 72-year-old California judge was arrested following the fatal shooting of his wife on Thursday, according to the Anaheim Police Department.

Police responded to a home on the 8500 block of E. Canyon Vista Drive around 8 p.m. after receiving reports of a shooting.

Officers found Sheryl Ferguson, 65, suffering from "at least one gunshot wound" inside the home, police said. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Officers made contact with Jeffrey Ferguson, an Orange County Superior Court judge, at the scene and arrested him without incident.

Police did not share a motive for the shooting, or any additional details.

Ferguson was booked into the Anaheim Police Department Detention Facility and his bail was set at $1 million.

The investigation is ongoing.
Two Navy sailors were arrested and charged with transmitting sensitive U.S. military information to the Chinese government, officials said Thursday.

In two separate cases announced together, the Department of Justice said 22-year-old sailor Jinchao Wei, also known as Patrick Wei, was charged with espionage and arrested on Wednesday. And 26-year-old Petty Officer Wenheng Zhao, also known as Thomas Zhao, was charged with receiving bribes in exchange for transmitting information to a Chinese intelligence officer.

These individuals stand accused of violating the commitments they made to protect the United States and betraying the public trust, to the benefit of the (People's Republic of China) government, Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen said in a news release Thursday.

Sailor accused of sending Navy information to Chinese officer for money

U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada for the Central District of California, right, speaks during a press conference at the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of California on Aug. 3, 2023, in San Diego.

Wei, who was an active duty sailor for the USS Essex at the Naval Base San Diego, was accused in an indictment of conspiracy to send national defense information to an intelligence officer working for the Peoples Republic of China.

Because he held a security clearance, Wei had access to information about the ship's "weapons, propulsion and desalination systems," the Department of Justice said. Beginning in February 2022, Wei allegedly communicated with a Chinese intelligence officer who requested photos, video and documents about U.S. Navy ships. They used encrypted communication methods and deleted their messages to hide their conversations, the DOJ said.

Wei sent photos and videos of the Essex, shared locations of other Navy ships and described defensive weapons of the Essex with the officer, according to the news release. "In exchange for this information, the intelligence officer paid Wei thousands of dollars over the course of the conspiracy," the DOJ said.

LEAKED DOCUMENTS: Jack Teixeira, alleged Pentagon leaker of classified defense documents, indicted on 6 counts

The Justice Department charged Wei under a rarely-used Espionage Act statute that makes it a crime to gather or deliver information to aid a foreign government.

Wei sent the officer dozens of technical manuals about Essex and systems on other U.S. ships, according to the indictment. The officer told Wei at least 10 of those manuals were useful, and paid him $5,000 for them, the DOJ said, noting that Wei provided information throughout 2022 and into 2023.

Wei was born in China and was initially approached by the officer while beginning the process of becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen, prosecutors said, and once admitted to the officer that he knew his actions could affect his application. The officer even congratulated Wei once he obtained citizenship.

"When a soldier or sailor chooses cash over country, and hands over national defense information in an ultimate act of betrayal, the United States will aggressively investigate and prosecute," U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California Randy Grossman said.

Sailor accused of receiving nearly $15,000 for 'sensitive' materials

Zhao was accused of receiving bribes in exchange for information he gave to a Chinese intelligence officer posing as a maritime economic researcher, the DOJ said. He worked at Naval Base Ventura County in Port Hueneme and also had security clearance.

From August 2021 to May 2023, Zhao "violated his official duties to protect sensitive military information by surreptitiously recording, and then transmitting to the intelligence officer, U.S. military information, photographs and videos," according to the DOJ.

Zhao was paid about $14,866 for the information he gave the official, the news release said.

WHAT IS THE ESPIONAGE ACT?: What to know from its original purpose to who has been charged.

It wasn't clear whether or how the two cases were connected, or whether either Navy service member had an attorney who could comment on their behalf.

"China is unrivaled in its audacity and the range of its maligned efforts to subvert our laws," Grossman said Thursday.

Contributing: The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Navy sailor charged with espionage, another with passing info to China
In Ohio, GOP lawmakers have introduced House Bill 240, which would allow schools to employ or recruit volunteer religious leaders u0022to provide support, services and programs for students.u0022

Schools across the country are facing shortfalls of mental health professionals, and Republicans have a potentially no-cost solution: Letting districts use volunteer chaplains.

In Ohio, GOP lawmakers have introduced House Bill 240, which would allow schools to employ or recruit volunteer religious leaders "to provide support, services and programs for students."

"Whatever works thats ethical should be available," Rep. Gary Click, R-Vickery, said.

But Democrats, teachers' unions and LGBTQ groups worry the bill's "vague language" could open a backdoor to controversial religious beliefs like conversion therapy or get in the way of "scientifically proven treatments" for mental health problems.

"One thing that is particularly crucial here is there are no limits whatsoever on the proselytization to students," American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio's chief lobbyist Gary Daniels said. "These people could be unlicensed to do this professionally and have no limits on what they say or how they interact with children in school."

Taking a page from Texas

In June, Texas became the first state in the country to permit its public schools to hire chaplains. The bill's sponsor, Texas state Rep. Cole Hefner, told reporters the Lone Star State needed to give "school districts every tool that we can in the toolbox with all that weve been experiencing with mental health issues and catastrophes and crises."

Democrats there tried and failed to add amendments requiring parental consent, a ban on proselytizing and accreditation requirements like the ones for chaplains who work in prisons or the U.S. military.

And Ohio's HB 240 is nearly identical.

The key difference between what's being proposed here versus the Texas law is that Ohio wouldn't allow districts to substitute unlicensed chaplains for certified mental health professionals. HB 240 states, "chaplain services may be offered in addition to, but not in lieu of, school counselor services."

What the bill would do is permit chaplains to serve in public, STEM and charter schools after they passed a background check. It doesn't specify any additional requirements or limits to the scope of their practices. Those decisions would be left to local districts.

"I think the local schools, they know the clergy. Theyre not going to bring someone in who is going to be harmful to the kids or not qualified," Click said. "I think we need to trust our educators to use their judgment."

Click, who has worked as a police and hospice chaplain, said he views that role as a support provider. "Youre not going there to bring people into your church. That should not be your purpose as a chaplain."

But LGBTQ groups worry that without clear guidelines, religious leaders could stray into territory that not only crosses First Amendment lines but inflicts real harm onto students who already feel marginalized by their communities.

"I totally support the right of any parent to say we want to involve our religion in this process, but that should be separate from what we offer in public school," said Ben Huelskamp, executive director of the Christian nonprofit LOVEboldy. "In my opinion, what we are really seeing is an attempt to put Christian ministers into schools."

Huelskamp pointed to those defeated amendments in Texas as proof and said he worried it could become a way to sneak culture war legislation into schools without having to pass laws.

"If we were able to ban conversion therapy in Ohio, the law wouldn't apply to these chaplains and you could send all your transgender students to a chaplain for counseling," he said. "(HB) 240 has the ability to re-introduce all the bad parts of those bills in this backdoor way through these unlicensed chaplains."

Ohio needs more mental health counselors

The American School Counselor Association recommends one counselor for every 250 students, but only two states, Vermont and New Hampshire, met that criterion in 2022.

Ohio has one counselor for every 403 students on average, according to data compiled by youth mental health provider Charlie Health.

"I think it's been an issue, but the pandemic really put a spotlight on it," Ohio Education Association President Scott DiMauro said. "There are a lot of mental health needs that were exacerbated, and Ohio now has a very serious and growing need for mental health supports for students and staff."

But that doesn't mean DiMauro thinks anyone can step into those roles. OEA, which is one of Ohio's largest teacher's unions, is pushing for more "licensed counselors, social workers, nurses and other professionals to help support the nonacademic needs of students in our schools."

"I think we want to hear more about the details of what is going on here," DiMauro said. "We don't want this to create an excuse for further shortcuts...The answer is not to lower professional standards, the solution is to hire more qualified people and compensate them appropriately."

For subscribers: Moms for Liberty says no to mental health care in schools, but it's Florida law

Click agreed that Ohio could better support its students, but he didn't see HB 240 as a hindrance to that goal. He used to share an office with a social worker and said the two roles were "different, but we can be complimentary."

"It seems like there is just an animosity sometimes toward people of faith," he said.

DiMauro thought there was a bigger-picture question Ohioans should be asking.

"Even more fundamentally the question is: Is this something that we really need in Ohio," DiMauro said. "I'm not sure this approach solves any problem, but it does open up all kinds of questions."

For subscribers: US kids face mental health crisis amid school psychologist shortage. Can new federal money help?

Anna Staver is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio Republican bill would let unlicensed chaplains in public schools
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican presidential candidate, made a surprise visit to Ukraine on Friday, where he met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv, the countrys capital.

Christie met with Zelenskyy at the country's presidential palace, where he reiterated his support for Ukraine, according to a pool report, contrasting his candidacy with some in the Republican Party who have opposed providing aid to the country.

Christie, the second 2024 Republican presidential candidate to visit Ukraine, following former Vice President Mike Pence, said he hoped to get a firsthand look at the wartime atrocities that the country has experienced.

"I am an advocate for there being more aid to Ukraine," Christie said, according to the pool report, adding that he hoped U.S. aid would help Ukraine defeat Russia in the war.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, center, participates in a flower laying ceremony as he visits a former defense line in Moshchun, Ukraine, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Friday, Aug. 4, 2023. (Efrem Lukatsky / AP)

"Its very important that the U.S. is on the right side," Zelenskyy told the former U.S. governor.

Christie also visited the once-Russian-occupied city of Bucha  where he met with the towns mayor, Anatoliy Fedoruk  as well as Moshchun, another area that has seen intense fighting. In Bucha, Fedoruk and Christie visited a mass burial site, where Christie laid a bouquet of flowers at a memorial for those who died in the area. Over 1,000 civilians reportedly died in Bucha as a result of Russia's invasion.

The former governors visit in the early race for the GOP nomination aimed to demonstrate his support for Ukraine. As some Republicans remain skeptical about providing more financial support to Kyiv, other candidates including Pence and Nikki Haley, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, have vowed to continue U.S. aid efforts if they are elected president.

Former President Donald Trump has said that opposing Russia in Ukraine is not vital to the United States' strategic interests, and, at a rally last weekend, he urged Republican lawmakers to pause military aid to Ukraine unless the Biden administration cooperates with GOP-led probes of the president and his son Hunter Biden.

Similarly, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis had previously told conservative personality Tucker Carlson that defending Ukraine was not a vital U.S. interest and described the conflict as a "territorial dispute," though later he walked back those remarks.

A woman walks amid the destruction on the streets of Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, on April 3, 2022. (Rodrigo Abd / AP file)

Christie has argued that aiding Ukraine in its war against Russia also sends a message to other adversaries that the U.S. will support its democratic allies.

"Were not sending American troops to Ukraine and I dont believe we ever should. Thats not our war to fight with our men and women on the ground. But we should, in my view, help Ukraine defend themselves against aggression," Christie said at a town hall in March.

An NBC News poll conducted earlier this year found that 63% of Republicans oppose providing more funds and weapons to Ukraine.

Christie, however, has called existing U.S. aid insufficient. Standing beside Buchas mayor Friday, Christie said he hoped his visit will help voters grasp the extent of the devastation in Ukraine.

"I dont think theres anyone in our country who would come here and see this and not think this is the kind of the things we need to stand up and prevent," Christie said. "We need to give them the means necessary to fight."
BUENA, N.J.  Two people are dead, two are missing and two juveniles have been hospitalized after a house explosion Thursday morning in south New Jersey, police said.

The blast occurred around 10:35 a.m. local time at a home in Buena, New Jersey, according to Franklin Township Police Chief Matthew DeCesari.

DeCesari gave no cause for the explosion, which is being investigated by Franklin police with assistance from the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco and Explosives. Investigators may be on the scene for two more days sifting rubble, he said.

More: Father dies after rescuing his three children from New Jersey waterway

Searchers recovered two sets of remains from the rubble of the destroyed home, and continued to look for two other people reported to have been in the home, the chief said.

The people believed to be in the home's ruins were a 2-year-old boy, a 3-year-old girl and men ages 52 and 73.

DeCesari gave no details about the remains that were recovered. He also did not address the relationship between the victims.

Two girls, ages 1 and 16, were flown to St. Christopher's Hospital for Children, a Philadelphia facility with a burn center.

The younger child was reported in critical condition, while the other was stable, DeCesari said.

"This is a criminal investigation," DeCesari said. "It is in the infant stages of that investigation, and anyInformation regarding anyone involved we are not going to release at this time.

"Our main focus right now is to attempt to recover the two out of four victims who are still missing," he said.

An Atlantic County Sheriffs vehicle blocks North West Boulevard at Central Avenue due to a house fire in Buena Borough.

The Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office and New Jersey State Police are also taking part in the investigation, DeCesari said.

Some residents in the area were evacuated from their homes, according to Franklin police, who patrol the borough.

Atlantic County's bomb squad and the state fire marshal were among emergency units that responded to the scene.

A ladder rises from a firetruck at the scene of a reported house explosion in Buena on Thursday, Aug. 3.

Joe Smith is a N.E. Philly native transplanted to South Jersey 36 years ago, keeping an eye now on government in South Jersey. He is a former editor and current senior staff writer for The Daily Journal in Vineland, Courier-Post in Cherry Hill, and the Burlington County Times.

This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: People dead, missing after Buena, New Jersey house explosion
Daniel T. Kobil is a professor at Capital University Law School.

Proponents of Issue 1 have launched an advertisement urging that we raise the bar for amending the Ohio Constitution because the U.S. Constitution requires a 66 percent supermajority for amendment.

Be wise like the founders, the ad intones, against a backdrop of waving flags: impose a 60% minimum for amending the Ohio Constitution.

Issue 1: What you need to know about Ohio's August election to change how constitution is amended

There are numerous problems with this argument, starting with math and ending with basic civics.

First, in their effort to imply that Issue 1 is somehow modeled on the federal document, the advertisement blatantly misrepresents the process for amending the U.S. Constitution.

While amendments can be proposed by two-thirds of both houses or by the state legislatures (67%), amendments must be approved by three-fourths  75%  of the states before they are valid.

How would passage of Issue 1 on the August 8 Ohio Special Election ballot change the way voters get constitutional amendments on the ballot?

Such a supermajority requirement would be positively dangerous in Ohio.

The U.S. Constitutions 75% requirement is there because at the time of the founding, the delegates feared the prospect of allowing a simple majority of states to effectuate rules that would undercut the sovereignty of the people in their own respective states.

Small, agricultural states worried that unfavorable amendments might be imposed by a group of larger, mercantile states.

Slave states were concerned that an abolitionist coalition could outlaw slavery.

Daniel T. Kobil: Abortion bans give government right to take woman's property. She should be paid.

In Ohio, there is no danger that anyone other than Ohioans will vote to pass or reject state constitutional amendments.

Amendments that are passed by a majority of voters can be undone by a simple majority as well. There is simply no need for a supermajority barrier.

Our view: 'Power-hungry hypocrites' trying to con Ohio. Issue 1 about dominance, deceit| Our view

Moreover, the U.S. Constitutions supermajority requirement is viewed by many constitutional scholars as too onerous.

It has prevented our country from adopting crucial, morally necessary amendments to the Constitution through democratic processes, forcing us to effectuate changes either by asking the Supreme Court to make needed constitutional changes, or by bringing us to war.

Aug 2, 2023; Columbus, Ohio, USA; Rev. Dr. Tim Ahrens of the First Congregational Church speaks during a gathering of Columbus faith leaders speaking out against Issue 1 in a Faith Votes No rally at Washington Gladden Social Justice Park downtown.

When the issue of slavery came to a head in the 19th Century, it was impossible to remove this stain on our federal Constitution using the amendment process. The U.S. Supreme Court, in an infamous effort to resolve this issue judicially, ruled in Dred Scott v. Sanford that slavery was constitutional based on the original intent of the founders.

Ultimately, this decision helped precipitate the Civil War, which was what forced several of the defeated confederate states eventually to agree ratify the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery.

Dan Kobil, Guest columnist

When it came to requiring states to grant the freed slaves equal rights under the law, again it was only coercion that allowed ratification of the 14th Amendment.

The Republican Congress required any state that had been part of the confederacy to ratify the 14th Amendment to regain representation in Congress.

Had the former confederate states not been effectively forced to ratify, equal protection and due process of law would likely not have become part of our constitution.

Back in Ohio, in an effort to scare voters into voting for their radical amendment, the proponents conclude their ad by stating that our fundamental rights can be wiped away by special interests with barely 50% of the vote.

But they again flunk basic government with this assertion.

This is because the U.S. Constitution guarantees our fundamental rights despite any state constitutions or laws to the contrary. If a majority of Ohioans voted to amend the Ohio Constitution to proscribe freedom of speech or ban the ownership of firearms, that provision would be invalidated by the federal courts with head-spinning alacrity.

The U.S. Constitution and the fundamental rights it protects, is the supreme law of the land, and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, according to Article VI.

In the end, the proponents of Issue 1 seem to think that voters can be hoodwinked into giving away the crown jewel of direct democracy that they won in 1912, over the objections of a recalcitrant legislature and its allies.

Law expert: Past Ohio lawmakers would turn in graves about proposed constitution changes

Unfortunately for the proponents, Ohioans have proved to be quite willing to reject bad ideas that have been proposed for enshrinement in the constitution: since 1912 they have approved slightly more than half of the amendments submitted to them.

It is to be hoped that they will likewise give Issue 1 and its proponents the grade they deserve: F for fail.

Daniel T. Kobil is a professor at Capital University Law School.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Issue 1 an attempt to hoodwink Ohioans out 'crown jewel'| Opinion
Stephen Lovekin/Shutterstock

Rapper Yo Gottis new music video for The One is inspired by the No. 1 person in his life: girlfriend Angela Simmons.

Gotti and Angela are happier than ever, a source exclusively tells Us Weekly. Shes been extremely supportive of Gotti while he was recording this mixtape and she spent a lot of late nights at the studio giving encouragement.

Simmons actually stars alongside the multiplatinum artist in the video, which was released Friday, August 4. The footage shows the couple in luxurious locales, including Dubai and Greece, where Yo Gotti (born Mario Mims) calls her The One while rapping lyrics you give me butterflies in my stomach and you give me nervous vibes when Im missin you.

CMG

In the video, the duo can been seen packing on the PDA poolside and cruising in a Rolls Royce. Simmons also splurges during an extravagant shopping spree to Yo Gottis lyrics every day like Valentines Day.

Kris Jenner and More Epic Celeb Music Video Cameos

Read article

The couple confirmed their relationship via social media in January and have been going strong ever since  but their romance was years in the making.

In 2015, the musician first proclaimed his love for the former reality star in his hit song Down in the DM, rapping, And I just followed Angela [Simmons] / Boy, I got a crush on Angela Simmons / They like, Damn Gotti, you bold / Fk it, Im gon let the world know.

Gotti, 42, expressed his crush on Simmons, 35, again in his 2017 song Save It For Me when she was engaged to Sutton Tennyson, who was shot and killed on November 3, 2018. They shared 6-year-old son Sutton Joseph.

When Yo Gotti and Simmons shared their first photos together as a couple eight months ago, the fashion designer declared, You are all I need and more. And theyve supported each others goals ever since.

How Chelsea Handler Jo Koy Went From Friends Lovers

Read article

Angela was with Gotti in the studio while he was recording The One, the insider tells Us.

The source adds: They just get each other. Theyre both entrepreneurs, so they respect and appreciate each others ambition and work ethic. They bounce ideas off each other and push themselves to become the best entrepreneurs they can be.

The One video coincides with the official release of Yo Gottis new mixtape, I Showed U So, the long-awaited follow-up to his acclaimed Gangsta Grillz project, I Told U So, which he released with DJ Drama in 2006 and included collaborations with Slim Thug, Young Buck, Lil Keke and more.

Watch the full video of The One here.
Dry conditions and chances of "record-breaking" heat return to the Phoenix area over the weekend, as the prospect of rainy relief continues to fade in the middle of the monsoon.

According to The National Weather Service, hotter temperatures with highs over 110 degrees are back on the menu for much of the Phoenix area and southern Arizona beginning Friday, placing the Valley under another excessive heat warning that lasts until Monday.

The excessive heat warning was in effect from 10 a.m. Friday to 8 p.m. Monday, according to the weather service.

After the brutal month that was July, where Phoenix produced a 31-day streak of temperatures at or above 110 degrees, the Valley will continue to add to its yearly total, currently at 35.

Here is the latest count of 110 degree days so far this year in Phoenix. We have seen 35 days at or above 110 degrees which is the highest amount YTD and is now the second most in a single year on record behind 2020 (53 days). #azwxpic.twitter.com/hAEKPZJQh5  NWS Phoenix (@NWSPhoenix) August 3, 2023

"The temperatures Friday and through the weekend are actually going to be pretty hot, well above normal," Phoenix office meteorologist Gabriel Lojero told The Arizona Republic. "We're talking highs approaching 115 degrees through at least Sunday and potentially extending into early next week."

With the current forecast, temperatures were projected to be around eight to 10 degrees higher than the typical average for this time of year, placing the heat risk at major.

Record breaking temperatures are likely this weekend as highs climb to around 115-117 degrees across the lower deserts. An Excessive Heat Warning begins tomorrow. Please take this heat seriously and limit time spent outdoors. #azwxpic.twitter.com/Xt4CV3FvPf  NWS Phoenix (@NWSPhoenix) August 3, 2023

Dry conditions to continue

Coupled with the high heat, weather conditions will be very dry due to "well-below-normal moisture" levels.

"We're pretty much in a very dry air mass for now. Well below normal moisture is currently entrenched across the region, and that's basically going to produce sunny skies with no chance of thunderstorm activity," Lojero said.

With the 0% chance of thunderstorms, Lojero said that 2023 could move into second place in terms of consecutive days with no measurable precipitation at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.

Areas throughout metro Phoenix have received measurable amounts of rainfall. However, because the official climate statistics are recorded at Sky Harbor  which has not seen at least 0.01 inches of rain since March 22  the streak lives on.

"We're at 134 consecutive days with no measurable precipitation here at Phoenix Sky Harbor. Second place is 143, so it's becoming increasingly probable that we're going to go into that number two spot," Lojero said.

That mark of 143 days was set in 1960, promptly ending on July 22. It was then tied back in 2006, ending on March 10.

For those wondering, the top spot was set in 1972 at 160 days.

"Based on what we're looking at and the extended, it's just not looking like the chances for any measurable precipitation are going to come to fruition, at least for the next seven to 10 days," Lojero said.

Light breezy conditions will likely spawn during the afternoon hours, but outside of that, expect some "unusually quiet weather" given that Arizona is smack dab in the middle of its monsoon season, according to Lojero.

A caveat, however, is that the drier air is slated to keep the overnight lows in the 80s to low 90s.

Ultimately, much of the same will be felt throughout the Valley through the course of the following week with persistent high temperatures and virtually no chances of rain.

Higher terrain areas north and east of Phoenix run the possibility of receiving some isolated thunderstorms develop, sitting at around 15-20% starting Monday.

Heat-related illnesses: On the rise due to ongoing Arizona heat wave

Hot weather tips

The Arizona Department of Health Services provided tips to prevent heat-related illness:

Drink water: It is recommended to drink at least 2 liters of water per day if people are staying inside all day. Those who spend time outdoors should drink 1 to 2 liters per hour they are outside.

Dress for the heat: Wear light-weight and light-colored clothing. Sunscreen should always be applied to exposed skin and it is recommended to wear a hat or use an umbrella when outdoors.

Eat small meals and eat more often: It is recommended to avoid foods high in protein that increase metabolic heat.

Monitor those at risk: Check on friends, family or others for signs of heat exhaustion or heat stroke.

Slow down and avoid strenuous activity: It is recommended to only do strenuous activity during the coolest hours of the day, between 4 and 7 a.m.

Stay indoors.

Take breaks when engaged in physical activity: Take a break in a cool place when doing activity outside on a hot day.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Hot, dry conditions forecast for Phoenix this weekend
By Liz Lee, Ella Cao and Samuel Shen

BEIJING (Reuters) -Rain pelted swathes of China's biggest grain producing province on Friday, submerging farms and worsening floods that have already swamped cities around the country as rescue workers scramble to contain the havoc caused by Typhoon Doksuri.

Northeastern Heilongjiang, known as China's "great northern granary", is the latest area to suffer the aftermath of Doksuri, which has killed at least 20 people, displaced thousands and flooded Beijing and several other cities since it made landfall in the south a week ago.

In Heilongjiang, authorities warned residents to expect more severe weather, including tornadoes, and raised the flood alert twice since Thursday night. Some areas could see more than 100mm (3.9 inches) of rain in a few hours, they added.

China's oldest and biggest oilfield in Daqing is also located in Heilongjiang.

In the waterlogged provincial capital Harbin, two vehicles plunged into a sinkhole that appeared on an expressway near a swollen river, local media reported. Paddy fields have also been inundated, and villagers in low-lying areas told to evacuate, local media reported.

A widely shared video on social media showed a goat stranded on top of a rooftop and a pig trying to swim against the flood torrents.

The storms and floods also triggered power cuts in nearby Shangzhi city, where supermarkets were running low on provisions, according to media reports. "I only managed to get a few bottles of mineral water and two boxes of instant noodles," a Shangzhi resident told local media after rushing to the supermarket after the storm alerts.

Further south, in the corn-growing region of Jilin, authorities have set up camps for the 12,550 people evacuated from Shulan city, where as much as 484.7 mm (19 inches) of rain have fallen over the past three days, state media reported.

INVESTORS SEEK ANSWERS

The widespread flooding across China has damaged agricultural land and industrial areas, triggering anxious investors to seek more information from companies listed on local stock exchanges.

Chinese maker of aerospace products Aerospace Hi-tech Holdings Group Co said the factory of a unit in Zhuozhou, Hebei province, had been flooded. "Some production and power equipments were damaged, and production had been suspended," the company said in an exchange filing on Friday.

Zhuozhou city, in northern Hebei province, saw more than a year's worth of rainfall just this week. Qinghai Jinrui Mineral Development Co, a producer of chemical products, said flooding at a factory in Chongqing had triggered an emergency suspension of production. The affected production facility is a main source of revenue, so the disaster would impact the company's performance this year, Jinrui said in a statement.

(Reporting by Liz Lee, Ella Cao, Samuel Shen, Ryan Woo, Beijing and Shanghai newsroom. Editing by Gerry Doyle and Miral Fahmy)
Florida "effectively banned" Advanced Placement Psychology classes in the state due to the course's content on sexual orientation and gender identity, the College Board said Thursday.

The state's Department of Education informed the College Board that its AP Psychology class is in violation of state law, the higher education nonprofit said in a statement. Florida's Parental Rights in Education Act, or what critics have dubbed the "Don't Say Gay" law, restricts the instruction of sexual orientation and gender identity in the state's classrooms.

The states ban of this content removes choice from parents and students, the College Board said in a statement. Coming just days from the start of school, it derails the college readiness and affordability plans of tens of thousands of Florida students currently registered for AP Psychology, one of the most popular AP classes in the state.

The state's move to restrict the AP Psychology course comes several months after its decision to block AP African American Studies courses was widely condemned by academics and civil rights activists.

The College Board added that Florida will allow superintendents to offer the college-level psychology class for high schoolers if they exclude LGBTQ topics.

However, the College Board argued that excluding the lessons  which it describes as teachings on "how sex and gender influence socialization and other aspects of development"  "would censor college-level standards."

It added that lessons regarding sexual orientation and gender identity have been included in AP Psychology since the course was created 30 years ago.

The group said that more than 28,000 Florida students took AP Psychology in the prior academic year.

When asked to confirm that the department effectively banned the course, Cassie Palelis, a spokesperson for the Florida Department of Education, said the nonprofit was attempting to force school districts to prevent students from taking the AP Psychology.

The Department didnt ban the course. The course remains listed in Floridas Course Code Directory for the 2023-24 school year. We encourage the College Board to stop playing games with Florida students and continue to offer the course and allow teachers to operate accordingly, Palelis said in an email. The other advanced course providers (including the International Baccalaureate program) had no issue providing the college credit psychology course.

The governor's office did not immediately return a request for comment.

The American Psychological Association, the nation's largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists, argued against stripping AP Psychology of LGBTQ topics earlier this year, after the state requested that the College Board review sexuality and gender identity topics in all advanced placement courses.

Understanding human sexuality is fundamental to psychology, and an advanced placement course that excludes the decades of science studying sexual orientation and gender identity would deprive students of knowledge they will need to succeed in their studies, in high school and beyond, the association's CEO, Arthur C. Evans Jr., said in a statement in June. We applaud the College Board for standing up to the state of Florida and its unconscionable demand to censor an educational curriculum and test that were designed by college faculty and experienced AP teachers who ensure that the course and exam reflect the state of the science and college-level expectations.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, the nations second largest teachers union, said the decision to restrict AP Psychology in the state is part of the DeSantis playbook of eroding rights and censoring those he disagrees with.

LGBTQ advocates also condemned the state's AP Psychology restriction on Thursday.

Psychology is centered around people  all people," Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest LGBTQ advocacy group, said in a statement. "Erasing us from the curriculum ignores our existence, sets back Florida students who want to pursue psychology in higher education and disrupts pathways for future mental health professionals to provide comprehensive, culturally competent mental healthcare for the LGBTQ+ community."

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican who is running for president, signed the so-called Dont Say Gay law last year.

The law was widely condemned by LGBTQ activists and prompted an ongoing feud between the governor and The Walt Disney Co., Florida's largest employer.

The measure initially prohibited classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through third grade or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards in public and charter schools.

But earlier this year, DeSantis doubled down, signing a measure into law expanding the restrictions to explicitly include students through the eighth grade. The newer version of the law also restricts reproductive health education in sixth through 12th grade.

In addition to enacting the "Don't Say Gay" law, the governor recently signed into law a measure that bars transgender people from using public restrooms that align with their gender identities and another that restricts drag performances in front of minors. A judge subsequently blocked the drag law.

On the final day of LGBTQ Pride Month in June, DeSantis presidential campaign released a video portraying the governor as a champion of anti-gay and anti-trans policies.

The video garnered widespread attention for its pairing of DeSantis anti-LGBTQ policy accomplishments alongside images of shirtless bodybuilders, in what appeared to be an attempt to portray the Florida governor as strong. It was condemned by both Republicans and Democrats, with some calling it "homophobic."
To Rev. Jeffrey Kee, Ohio Issue 1, the Aug. 8 ballot measure that would make it more difficult to change the state constitution, represents a threat to democracy.

My parents migrated from Birmingham, Alabama, and one of the things that motivated them (to move to Ohio) was to have a greater sense of equity, Kee, who heads the predominantly Black New Faith Baptist Church on Columbus Near East Side, told The Dispatch. When it comes to Issue 1, to say that 40% can rule over the majority and to take away from each vote  is unjust, it's unfair, its ungodly and its undemocratic.

Issue 1 would require a 60% majority of voters to pass a constitutional amendment and require petitioners to collect signatures from at least 5% of voters in every county, among other stipulations.

But faith leaders on the other side of the debate see the Aug. 8 vote as important for another reason: abortion.

Christians must defend life. Thats why Issue 1 is so important to us, Jeremy Westbrook, the executive director and treasurer of the State Convention of Baptists in Ohio, part of the Southern Baptist Convention, told The Dispatch.

If Issue 1 passes, it would make it more difficult to pass a Nov. 7 ballot measure that would enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution.

If we endorse or enshrine abortion, that removes the most foundational right that any of us can have, and that's the right to life, said Westbrook.

Jeremy Westbrook is the executive director and treasurer of the State Convention of Baptists in Ohio.

Recent weeks have seen a burst of advocacy by religious groups on both sides of Ohio Issue 1. Unlike elections involving political candidates, churches and faith leaders are generally able to lobby for positions on ballot-based elections without jeopardizing their nonprofit legal status.

Its important to emphasize the fact that you have religious communities speaking out and advocating on all sides of this issue, said Isaac Weiner, an associate professor and director of the Center for the Study of Religion at Ohio State University.

The Ohio Christian Alliance, an Akron-based nonprofit voter education organization, designed a flier for distribution at the pews calling on the faithful to Vote Yes on Issue 1 on August 8th... to safeguard Ohios Constitution and Ohios pro-life laws that were passed through the legislature.

The Center for Christian Virtue, a Columbus-based nonprofit, posted an online video that also frames Issue 1 in terms of the abortion debate.

In it, a narrator claims Novembers abortion amendment would legalize abortion up until birth and allow a minor to get an abortion without her parents knowledge or consent.

In fact, the proposed amendment text states that abortion may be prohibited after fetal viability except in cases where the mothers life or health are at risk. Law professors interviewed by the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau say it's highly unlikely that the proposed amendment would eliminate parental consent in Ohio.

Aaron Baer, president of the Center for Christian Virtue, spoke to a crowd during the Ohio March for Life in Columbus during October last year.

Some churches in the Catholic Diocese of Columbus have also encouraged their parishioners to vote yes on Issue 1  a move that has received permission from Bishop Earl Fernandes.

Let us pray that we can have the courage to vote yes on Issue 1to help eliminate this attempt by special-interest groups to take away the rights of our parents, to take away the rights of the unborn. These are precious rights that were given to us by God, and they cannot be taken away by a mere majority, Deacon Christopher Walsh said during services at St. Matthew Church in Gahanna on July 23.

On the other side of the debate, several dozen clergy from various faiths gathered for a Faith Votes No rally at Washington Gladden Social Justice Park in Downtown Columbus Wednesday.

Rabbi Hillel Skolnik of Congregation Tifereth Israel said at the event that he opposes Issue 1 on moral grounds because every person should be represented equally.

If you try to allow for the tyranny of the minoritythat is the opposite of the message of what Moses reminded the Israelites so many years ago: that, yes, we listen to God and yes, we follow the commandments, and yes, we also listen to the people equally, Skolnik said.

Amina Burahmi, executive director for the Ohio chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations, framed Issue 1 in terms of government overreach, which she said harms Muslims and other minorities.

The Ohio Council of Churches, which includes regional leaders of the United Methodist Church, the United Church of Christ, the Episcopal Church and others, has also issued a letter opposing Issue 1.

It is clear to us that the resulting power imbalances will significantly damage many segments of Ohios population, particularly African American communities historically weakened by partisan gerrymandering, reads part of the July 28 letter.

Poet Sara Abou Rashed speaks during a gathering of Columbus faith leaders speaking out against Issue 1 in a Faith Votes No rally at Washington Gladden Social Justice Park downtown.

Weiner, from the Center for the Study of Religion, said there is a long history in the U.S. of religious leaders speaking out on political questions of moral concern, ranging from abortion to voting rights.

It's not always clear-cut what communities define as being matters of moral concern, he said. And that itself can be contested for some communities.

Peter Gill covers immigration, new American communities and religion for The Dispatch in partnership with Report for America. You can support work like his with a tax-deductible donation to Report for America at:bit.ly/3fNsGaZ.

pgill@dispatch.com

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio faith leaders divided on Issue 1 constitutional changes
Refugees from Afghanistan at Heathrow Airport in 2021

Afghan families given refuge by the UK are facing homelessness after being told by the government to move out of hotels, councils have told the BBC.

The families, many of whom worked for the British government, came to the UK after the Taliban takeover in 2021.

Thousands are still living in temporary government-funded hotel accommodation - but are now beginning to be moved out.

Cabinet Office Minister Johnny Mercer has said he will have failed if any of them end up living on the streets.

"That has not happened. And that is not going to happen," he told the BBC.

However, those that can not find permanent homes will be classed as homeless and the responsibility of local councils.

Councils say some families have already presented as homeless this week. The Local Government Association (LGA) said one in five Afghans leaving hotels were presenting to local authorities as homeless.

It said Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire were particularly affected, but Southampton, Basingstoke, Devon and Essex would also be impacted in the coming weeks and months.

One authority in Essex said it had nine families now facing homelessness. In Milton Keynes, the council has received 32 homelessness referrals so far.

Local authorities have a legal duty to find accommodation for homeless people.

The families were given three months notice in April to leave the hotels.

Mr Mercer said the government had done "a huge amount of work" to get Afghans into long-term, sustainable accommodation and this was "what's best for them and what's best for British taxpayers".

He said the "vast majority" of those presenting as homeless "have actually been offered somewhere to live, it's just for some of them, it's not where they want to live".

"Which is understandable, but that's not the same as living on the street because the government hasn't done its job," he added.

'I would not have come'

Mahmood - not his real name - was evacuated with his wife to the UK in August 2021 and his one-year-old son was born while they were living in a hotel in Lincolnshire.

The family have been in the hotel for two years, but have been told they will have to leave by 25 August.

The 27-year-old said he had viewed dozens of flats, but believes he has not been accepted by any landlords because the salary he earns working in a supermarket is not high enough.

"The council hasn't helped me much - they haven't found anything to offer to me. They say they are looking but I think at the end of the day it's up to landlords who they want to give their place to," he told the BBC.

He said it was "very difficult" living in a single hotel room as a family of three, adding that they were unable to cook their own food or have friends visit.

"We are very grateful to the British government for their help to get us out of Afghanistan," he said.

"But if I had known this in Afghanistan that I would be in a hotel room for two years, I would have not come here to England - I would have been happy to stay in my own country regardless of what could have happened to me."

He said he was worried about the future, adding: "There are 8 other families in this hotel and we don't know what's happening."

The Home Office said it had provided 285m funding to help with the transition, and was running schemes to help more Afghan families find permanent homes.

But councils say the government funding is not enough and although accommodation will be found for the refugees, it may mean they have to move hundreds of miles to other hotels.

Stephen Robinson, the Liberal Democrat leader of Chelmsford City Council, said his housing officers had to find accommodation for nine Afghan families, totalling 60 people.

"They were offered the chance to come to the UK because of their loyalty to the British government and they have been stuck in hotels for the last year, 18 months, and now they are being moved out," he told BBC News.

The families had highly qualified people who wanted to contribute to British society, he added, and had found work and schools for their children.

"They are all becoming homeless next week and we have a statutory responsibility to put them into temporary accommodation," he said.

The council already has to deal with 430 homeless households in Chelmsford, said Mr Robinson, and there was a lack of accommodation.

"We warned the government that this would be a problem and they just covered their ears. They didn't want to think about the end game," he told the BBC.

"We have a moral duty to those who worked for the British government to look after them properly and we have, as a country, this government, has let them down."

How many people have been resettled in the UK from Afghanistan?

In 2021, the government launched the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) scheme for Afghans who had worked for the British military or UK government

The Afghan Citizens' Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) opened in 2022 to allow up to 20,000 refugees to settle in the UK in the coming years

As of March 2023, about 21,000 people had been resettled under these schemes, including British nationals

Currently, 8,799 people - about half of whom are children - are living in hotels or serviced accommodation

Telford & Wrekin Council leader Shaun Davies, chairman of the Local Government Association, said councils shared the Home Office's determination to get Afghan families out of hotels and into permanent homes.

However, he added: "It is wrong that some families are having to leave Home Office-funded hotels only to then end up having to move into temporary accommodation."

"With record numbers of households already living in temporary accommodation and an acute shortage of housing across the country, this is adding huge pressure on to councils on the ground and disruption and distress for families, some of whom are particularly vulnerable," he said.

"This situation is likely to worsen significantly as the Home Office stops paying for the remaining bridging hotels for Afghan families in the coming days and weeks."

He argued the government should continue to pay for hotel places for those families struggling to find accommodation.

Mr Davies also said hotels should not be closed to Afghan refugees only to "switch to becoming hotels for other new arrivals".

Labour MP Dan Jarvis, a former soldier who served in Afghanistan, said the idea Afghans were being "forced to become homeless" was "shameful".

"These are not economic migrants - these are Afghans who placed themselves in mortal peril in order to serve alongside British forces in Afghanistan, and they did so at our request," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Additional reporting by Najiba Feroz and Abdullah Bakhtiar

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By Daniel Wiessner

(Reuters) -The U.S. workplace safety regulator said Amazon.com Inc has subjected workers at yet another of its sprawling warehouses to hazardous conditions by imposing onerous production quotas and failing to provide proper medical care.

The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) on Thursday said workers at the Logan Township, New Jersey, warehouse suffered bodily stress that was causing muscular disorders and neck and back injuries. And Amazon failed to ensure that injured employees received adequate treatment, the agency said.

OSHA said it had recommended $15,625 in penalties, which is the maximum fine allowed under U.S. law. Amazon has 15 days to either pay the fine or appeal to a review board.

Since January, OSHA has levied about $150,000 in fines on Amazon for allegedly creating hazardous conditions or failing to record work-related injuries at several other warehouses across the country.

Separately on Thursday, the Missouri Workers Center, a worker advocacy group, said it had filed a complaint with OSHA on behalf of employees at an Amazon warehouse near St. Louis, Missouri. They claim the online retailer imposes excessive, unsafe work rates and that they were mistreated by Amazon's in-house medical staff.

"OSHA's own prior citations show a pattern of safety violations throughout Amazon's warehouse network, a pattern which is unfortunately reflected in our own experiences," the workers said in the complaint.

Amazon in a statement provided by a spokesperson said it takes worker safety seriously and plans to appeal the OSHA citation. The company said the rate of worker injuries recorded globally has improved significantly since 2019.

Regarding the complaint filed in Missouri, Amazon said it welcomed OSHA inspectors at the "clean, safe facility." The company said the injury rate at the Missouri warehouse is below the industry average and has improved more than 55% since 2019.

"The vast majority of employees at this facility say in anonymous surveys that they feel safe at work and believe their managers are always looking for ways to enhance safety further," Amazon said.

Critics of Amazon have long accused the company of putting profit over safety by requiring employees to work at an unsafe pace and forgo breaks to meet demanding quotas.

The company's safety record came under renewed scrutiny during the COVID-19 pandemic. Those concerns helped spur union campaigns at warehouses across the country, including one in New York City where workers voted to unionize last year.

(Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York; Editing by Aurora Ellis)
MILWAUKEE (AP)  Milwaukee Brewers right-hander Brandon Woodruff appears on the verge of returning from the shoulder injury that has prevented the two-time All-Star from pitching in the majors since early April.

Brewers manager Craig Counsell said Thursday that everything tracks toward Woodruff starting Sunday against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Woodruff made just two starts this season before going on the injured list April 11.

Woodruff worked 4 2/3 innings for Triple-A Nashville on Tuesday, marking his third start in a rehabilitation assignment. That would clear the way for Woodruff to pitch Sunday when the Brewers close a four-game series with the Pirates.

I feel like with our starting pitching, looking that far forward hasnt done us any good, Counsell said, referring to the staffs injury issues. But everything that Woody has done in the last three weeks has been good news every day.

The 30-year-old Woodruff was 1-0 with an 0.79 ERA and 12 strikeouts in 11 1/3 innings before going on the injured list. He went 13-4 with a 3.05 ERA and 190 strikeouts in 153 1/3 innings last season.

We havent had him essentially all season, so its definitely a big add, Counsell said.

The Brewers activated third baseman/outfielder Brian Anderson (back) from the injured list on Thursday and optioned right-handed pitcher Trevor Megill and infielder Abraham Toro to Nashville. They added left-handed reliever Andrew Chafin to the active roster, two days after acquiring him from the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Anderson has batted .229 with a .317 on-base percentage, nine homers and 38 RBIs in 85 games while splitting time between third base and right field this season.

Most of his playing time now should come in the infield because the Brewers promoted outfielder Sal Frelick and have acquired former New York Mets outfielder Mark Canha while Anderson was on the injured list. He will be competing for playing time at third with Andruw Monasterio, who is hitting .288 with a .373 on-base percentage as a rookie.

The thing with getting Brian back is Andruws going to play quite a bit here still because hes played really well and has swung the bat really, really well, Counsell said. We need that. But I think were getting a player back thats very good defensively. If we need versatility from him, weve got it.

___

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB
By Chris Prentice

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Coinbase Global on Friday asked a judge to end the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's lawsuit accusing the world's largest publicly traded cryptocurrency exchange of violating federal securities laws.

In a filing in federal court in Manhattan, Coinbase said the SEC had no authority to pursue its lawsuit because the digital assets and services it objected to did not qualify as securities, and said the agency has overreached.

"Our core argument is simple - we do not offer 'investment contracts' as that term has been construed by decades of Supreme Court and other binding precedent," Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

The SEC did not respond immediately to a request for comment on Coinbase's filing.

Coinbase was sued by the SEC in June, and accused of operating illegally as a national securities exchange, broker and clearing agency without registering with the regulator.

Growing friction between the crypto sector and the top U.S. markets regulator has escalated amid a series of lawsuits the SEC has filed against the world's largest crypto platforms.

The SEC has said the platforms needed to register and operate in a manner akin those dealing in stocks or bonds, while the crypto sector says that new legislation is needed. Firms are closely watching the litigation between the SEC and Coinbase, with some onlookers deeming it an "existential" clash.

In the last month, two federal judges in Manhattan diverged, in SEC lawsuits against crypto firms Ripple Labs and Terraform, over whether the regulator overstepped its authority by trying to regulate the sector.

Coinbase leaned on the recent Ripple matter in Friday's filing, noting the SEC's lawsuit hinges on the type of transactions that the judge deemed outside of the regulator's jurisdiction.

Shares of Coinbase were down 2.3% by 9:31 a.m. ET (1331 GMT) on Friday.

(Reporting by Chris Prentice; Editing by Toby Chopra and Jonathan Oatis)
Former US President Donald Trump has pleaded not guilty in a Washington DC court to conspiring to overturn his 2020 election defeat.

During a short arraignment, he spoke softly to confirm his not-guilty plea, name and age, and that he was not under the influence of any substances.

He later told reporters the case was "persecution of a political opponent".

It marks the former president's third appearance in four months as a criminal defendant.

Mr Trump entered through a backdoor of the courthouse on Thursday afternoon in the centre of the nation's capital, just yards from the scene of the US Capitol riot that is central to the prosecution's case.

About 1,000 defendants charged with participating in the storming of Congress on 6 January 2021 have appeared in the same court building.

The former president seemed to exchange glances across the court with Jack Smith, the special counsel leading the investigation.

Mr Trump was seen twiddling his thumbs as he sat waiting for the hearing to begin, and he shook his head as the clerk read out the case number.

Trump in court

His not-guilty plea covered the four charges in this latest indictment:

conspiracy to defraud the US

conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding

obstruction of an official proceeding

conspiracy against the rights of citizens

The judge told the former president not to communicate about the facts of the case.

She warned him that failure to comply could result in an arrest warrant, revoked release conditions and contempt of court charges.

Prosecutors told the hearing the case would benefit from a speedy trial.

Mr Trump spoke to reporters at Reagan airport standing near his aide Walt Nauta (left), his co-defendant in a separate case

But Trump defence attorney John Lauro said they would need more time to prepare. He said the prosecution's timeline was "somewhat absurd" given that the investigation itself had taken three years.

The allegations laid out on Tuesday in an indictment, or charge sheet, include a count of "conspiracy to impair, obstruct, and defeat the federal government function through dishonesty, fraud and deceit".

Mr Trump lost the 2020 election to his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, but he refused to concede and mounted weeks of challenges across several US states.

He is currently the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican White House nomination and may face a rematch with Mr Biden.

Speaking to reporters before flying home to New Jersey in his private plane, Mr Trump said his arraignment was a "very sad day for America".

Demonstrators exchanged views outside court

He told reporters he was sad to see "the filth and the decay and all of the broken buildings and walls and the graffiti" in Washington DC.

Outside court, one of his lawyers previewed a possible defence strategy.

Alina Habba argued that the former president had been given bad guidance by his team in the aftermath of the election.

"I think that everybody was made aware that he lost the election, but that doesn't mean that that was the only advice he was given," said Ms Habba.

She added: "He may not agree with Mike Pence. He may not agree with one of his lawyers.

"But that doesn't mean there weren't other people advising him exactly the opposite. And the president has a right, as every one of us do, to listen to several opinions and make a decision."

The indictment lists six unnamed co-conspirators who allegedly helped Mr Trump plot to quash his election loss.

Three police officers who testified to Congress about their battle with Trump supporters during the US Capitol riot attended Thursday's court hearing. Several off-duty judges were also in the room.

A group of supporters waving Trump campaign flags assembled outside, along with anti-Trump demonstrators.

The next hearing will take place on 28 August and is expected to be procedural. However, the judge may set a trial date.

The Republican has already been charged in two other cases: with mishandling classified files and falsifying business records to cover up a hush-money payment to a porn star.

Mr Trump now faces five upcoming trials - three in New York, over the hush-money payment, and civil trials over business practices and alleged defamation of a woman who accused him of rape.

The fourth trial will take place in Florida relating to the alleged mishandling of classified documents.
Relentless thunderstorms continue to be a serious matter in the Midwest and the South for the fourth day as flash flood emergencies prompted evacuations.

A Severe Thunderstorm Watch has been issued for parts of Missouri after days of heavy rain flooded several communities in the Show Me State this week.

One such community was Columbia, Missouri, which broke a 113-year-old rainfall record on Thursday with 3.77 inches of rain.

A Flood Watch is currently in effect for portions of central Missouri through Saturday morning, while a Flood Watch for portions of Illinois and Missouri begins at 7 p.m. CDT and lasts through Saturday morning.

The radar loop below shows the thunderstorms developing in northwest Missouri and moving east Friday evening.

Relentless thunderstorms also struck parts of the South, where flash flood emergencies prompted evacuations.

Northern Alabama was swallowed in floodwater Friday morning. Overnight water rescues in Oneonta were reported as people were left stranded on top of flooded vehicles.

"If you're from this area, you know that there are spots in Oneonta that do tend to flood," FOX6s Russell Jones told FOX Weather's Amy Freeze on Friday morning. "But last night was bad."

HOW TO WATCH FOX WEATHER

Radar estimates of 5-plus inches of rain fell in 3 hours. Just south of the town, radar estimates of more than a half foot were recorded, with more on the way.

Jones spoke to a public safety official who said they haven't seen a mess like this in more than seven years.

Brandon Horton, the city's director of public safety, captured a photo of a sinkhole that opened up Friday morning due to all the rain.

"Perfect example of why you should never drive across a flooded road," the NWS in Birmingham said. "You just never know what's hiding under that water."

A Flash Flood Emergency was issued Friday morning for Union City, Tennessee, after thunderstorms produced over 11 inches of heavy rain in the city.

Floodwaters inundated Green Acres mobile home park, forcing residents to evacuate. Additional rainfall amounts of 2 to 4 inches are possible in the warned area.

Another Flash Flood Emergency was issued for Hickman, Kentucky, after emergency management reported numerous roads flooded and evacuations in the city and across Fulton County. Between 4 and 7 inches of rain have fallen, with up to 3 inches more expected.

So far, there are no reports of any injuries in any of the flooding events.

Stormy weather Flood Watches cover much of the same area Friday morning that has been drenched since Wednesday, stretching from central and southeastern Missouri through western Kentucky and into a swath of western Tennessee and even northern Alabama.
The father of the man who allegedly opened fire outside a Jewish school in Memphis earlier this week was shot and killed by the city's police during a mental health crisis in 2003, according to a wrongful death lawsuit filed by his family.

The suspect, Joel Bowman, now 33, was present when his father was shot and killed and suffered emotional trauma as a result, it says.

Nearly 20 years later on Monday afternoon, Joel Bowman was also shot by a Memphis police officer after allegedly firing several bullets outside the Margolin Hebrew Academy. He remains in critical condition at a hospital in Memphis.

The lawsuit, reviewed by NBC News, offers some insight into his history, although a motive is still unclear.

The gunman's father, Anthony Bowman, 44, died on May 14, 2003, after his wife, Susan Bowman, and others had called 911 for help. They said he "was acting erratically and appeared to be emotionally distraught," according to an amended complaint filed in 2004 in a Shelby County, Tennessee, circuit court.

Police were told that Anthony Bowman, a local physician who had been taking medication for bipolar personality disorder, had briefly left the home and then returned.

After police arrived, officers saw the father standing in the house threatening to kill himself with a handgun that he was holding, the suit says. At one point, he ran upstairs to the second floor but came back down moments later still holding the gun.

At no point did the father point the weapon at anyone else or threaten to harm anyone other than himself, the lawsuit says.

"With his gun still pointed at his head and threatening to kill himself, Dr. Bowman left the home by the front door and walked away from officers," the suit states. "He never threatened anyone else during this time."

As the father walked away, an officer fired at him six times with an SL6, which is designed to shoot projectiles called batons, according to the lawsuit. A second amended complaint filed in 2015 said that he was struck once in the head by a projectile and five times in the body. It alleges that he was "rendered helpless and defenseless" by the shot to the head.

A second officer fired three shots from a shotgun, according to the suit. It says that the officer was about 10 feet away and that the shotgun was loaded with buckshot that contained nine pellets. Many of the pellets "passed through the body of Dr. Bowman," the suit says.

The suit states that Susan Bowman witnessed her husbands death. She blamed police, saying that both officers should have used non-lethal means, the suit says.

"Though emotionally disturbed, Dr. Bowman was not a threat to anyone else," the lawsuit states.

It further alleges that immediately after the shooting, Susan Bowman was separated from her son and required to give a statement to police. Joel Bowman was "interrogated at the scene while his father remained lifeless on the ground for an extended period of time," it says.

Susan Bowman said she suffered from emotional distress after he was killed. Her son received psychological counseling and was treated for emotional distress, according to the lawsuit.

The suit was later settled in 2017, according to a court filing. The city attorney's office said the terms of the settlement are confidential. The Memphis Police Department did not return a request for comment.

Monday's shooting began after Joel Bowman allegedly got out of his pickup with a gun in his hand and tried to enter the school, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. When he couldnt get inside, he fired shots outside the school, Assistant Chief of Police Don Crowe said.

Police said he fled the school in his truck. Officers spotted the vehicle and attempted a traffic stop. When he allegedly got out with a gun in his hand, he was shot, police said.

The officer who opened fire was relieved of duty pending the outcome of the investigation, a standard procedure.

No one was injured in the shooting outside the school, according to the Secure Community Network, an organization dedicated to the safety and security of Jewish institutions nationwide.

On Wednesday, Joel Bowman was charged with one count each of carrying weapons on school property, reckless endangerment, criminal attempted second-degree murder, possessing a firearm during the commission or attempt to commit a dangerous felony, and assault against a first responder.
A man who officials say kidnapped and held a woman captive in a makeshift cell in his Oregon garage allegedly attacked, abused and threatened to kill another woman and their two children before she sought a protective order against him three years ago.

He physically attacks me, he hits me, he brakes (sic) and throws things, he screams at the kids and me ... we get woken up every night from him being drunk and loud and scares us, the woman wrote in a 2020 petition for a domestic violence restraining order.

Negasi Zuberi  a 29-year-old who goes by the aliases Sakima, Justin Hyche and Justin Kouassi  was arrested July 16 in Nevada in the kidnapping case and has been linked to at least four violent sexual assaults in four states, the FBI said. Officials fear he may have other victims.

The woman's petition seeking a restraining order against Justin Kouassi, one of the suspects known aliases, was filed in July 2020 in Contra Costa County, California, and obtained by NBC News on Thursday.

It's unclear whether the restraining order was issued or if the case was dropped. The document states that a September 2020 appearance dropped from the court calendar.

She also accused Zuberi of taking her phone to keep her from calling police and taking her money as a form of financial abuse. She also wrote that she had bruises from him hitting, restraining and beating her.

He comes at night without my permission, broke my windows, trying to beat on me, treatening (sic) to kill me and my kids, she wrote. He treat (sic) to take them away so I can be miserable without them.

The Federal Bureau of Investigations Portland Field Office is asking for the publics help in identifying potential victims of a violent sex assault offender who has lived in at least 10 states. (FBI Oregon)

NBC News is not identifying the woman or her children, who may be victims of abuse. A phone number listed for the woman was not in service when NBC News attempted to reach her Thursday.

The petition also states that the womans two children, who she shared with Zuberi, are scared of him.

My kids hide from him because hes always loud and angry and unpredictable, she wrote. Wakes them up all hours of the night making them cry all time.

A cinderblock cell in a home in Klamath Falls, Ore. (FBI Oregon)

A neighbor of Zuberis in Klamath Fallas, Melanie McClure, said Thursday that she rarely saw his wife or children  both of whom are younger than 10  after the family moved into the home earlier this year.

She later befriended Zuberis wife and recalled inviting her on a moms night out with other friends in April or May.

When McClure stopped by their home to let the woman know they were leaving, McClure said the woman asked her husband if she could at least bring her cellphone.

McClure, stunned at the question, said she tried to reassure Zuberi about their plans. He responded with what McClure described as degrading comments about his wife.

He told me, She can go, thats fine, McClure recalled. But then this doors gonna be locked, and shell need to figure out where shes gonna stay tonight.

McClure said she pushed back and Zuberi relented, agreeing to give his wife her phone and to leave the door unlocked. But when the women were at a restaurant, Zuberi showed up, sat at the bar and watched his wife without saying anything for roughly 30 minutes, McClure said.

He controlled her and her life, McClure said, adding that she pushed Zuberis wife to seek help.

While McClure thought police officers would likely be summoned to a situation at the home involving Zuberi and his wife, she never believed they would respond to something as dire as what federal authorities described.

To think you could get away with something that crazy  its baffling, she said.

Zuberi is accused of kidnapping a sex worker in Seattle last month and taking her to his residence in Klamath Falls, Oregon, where she was kept in a makeshift cell he constructed in his garage of cinderblocks with a metal door that couldnt be opened from the inside.

He's been charged with one count of interstate kidnapping in federal district court in Oregon.

According to a criminal complaint, the victim fought her way out and repeatedly banged on the door until it broke open. Once out, she flagged down a passing motorist who called 911.

Zuberi fled and was ultimately found in Reno, Nevada, on July 16, with his family at a Walmart parking lot.

He was in a car, holding one of his children in the front seat, speaking with his wife who was outside the car, officials said.

He refused to exit the vehicle and cut himself with a sharp object causing him to bleed profusely. He also attempted to destroy his phone, the complaint said. The child was unharmed, the document said.

The booking report in Washoe County, Nevada, shows additional charges of false imprisonment, child neglect, false imprisonment with victim as a shield, fugitive from another state, and assault with a deadly weapon.

Zuberi's lawyer in Oregon did not immediately respond to a request for comment. He declined an earlier request.

He has lived in 12 states  California, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Utah, Florida, New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Illinois, Alabama and Nevada  over the last decade, the FBI said.

Officials said that he may have used several methods to target victims, including drugging drinks and impersonating a police officer.

The FBI launched an investigation website where potential victims or others with information related to the case can fill out a form to offer more information.

Some of the encounters may have been filmed to make it appear as if the assault was consensual, the page noted. The victims are threatened with retaliation if they notify the police.
As Ukrainian troops wage a difficult fight against well-defended Russian forces in Ukraine, the government in Kyiv is waging a different kind of battle abroad, trying to shape how the world perceives its counteroffensive.

Ukrainian officials and their supporters say they are confident they will prevail on the battlefield in the end, but warn against what they see as unrealistic expectations in media coverage and commentaries that could create a misleading narrative suggesting it cannot and will not win.

The two things that we keep asking our allies for are weapons and patience, said Yuriy Sak, an adviser to Ukraines defense minister.

Although equipped with new U.S. and other Western-made weapons and gear, including tanks, longer-range missiles and artillery ammunition, Ukraine lacks air power and has encountered stiff resistance from the Russian forces who have planted hundreds of mines across the front line, set up anti-tank barriers and dug rows of defensive trenches.

Since the counteroffensive was launched in June, Ukraine has retaken about 241 square kilometers of territory in the countrys south and east, or less than 100 square miles, according to Hanna Maliar, the countrys deputy minister of defense.

Sak and other officials in Kyiv said that the Ukrainian military has prioritized preserving its troops and weapons as it searches for a weak point in Russias defenses. In the meantime, Ukraine has begun to surge troops in the countrys south and pursued small-scale attacks to test the Russian lines.

Image: A boy stands atop destroyed Russian tanks on display in Kyiv on June 30. (Jae C. Hong / AP file)

Some U.S. officials privately expressed disappointment that the Ukrainians have appeared to hold back on deploying some of their most well-equipped and trained units, and that they have not necessarily applied the training principles they received. There is a frustration that they have not used more of the combat power that they have, one U.S. official said.

Another senior administration official said the Biden administration and U.S. allies have given Ukraine everything it requested for the counteroffensive, including 500 tanks and hundreds of armored vehicles.

We are confident that they have significant combat capability available to them, and that theyre going to employ that at a time and place of their choosing to defend their country and take back sovereign territory, Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters Thursday.

Ukrainian officials reject the idea they are moving too slowly.

I dont think theres any other nation or people in the world who would want this counteroffensive to be moving faster, Sak said of Ukraine.

Look, we are facing an enemy that outnumbers us in terms of personnel, artillery and everything else. We have to be David in this battle against Goliath, which means we have to be smart, he said.

Heavy casualties

Leonid Polyakov, a former Ukrainian vice defense minister, said that in two separate cases, once in June and another time in July, a brigade commander had pursued direct assaults during the counteroffensive in hopes of a swift victory. The army sent infantry and armored units to attack the Russian lines across uncleared minefields and without suppressing enemy fire. The brigades were shredded by opposing forces, and the commanders were severely criticized internally for the unnecessary losses.

Image: Ukrainian soldiers file toward the Russian position in the Zaporizhzhia region on June 24. (Efrem Lukatsky / AP file)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has acknowledged that the much-discussed spring counteroffensive was delayed as his forces worked to incorporate new Western military equipment and training. Speaking virtually at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado, he said they waited because, frankly, we had not enough munitions and armaments and not enough properly trained brigades.

The Russians were able to use the additional time to build out their defenses, analysts and U.S. officials said.

Now, breaking through Russian lines across the dense minefields in the east and the south will almost certainly inflict high casualties on Ukrainian troops, U.S. officials and experts said.

Thats a tough decision for a battlefield commander to make, the senior administration official said. And I dont think thats anything anyone can begrudge the Ukrainians for taking seriously, the official said.

George Barros, a Russia analyst at the Institute for the Study of War think tank, said he was concerned that policymakers and the media could set excessively high expectations for the Ukrainians. There is a danger that there might be the narrative of stalemate or the narrative of a failed Ukrainian counteroffensive, he said.

Ukraine and its supporters in the West say those unrealistic expectations could play into Russias hands, as Moscow is betting that NATO allies over time will tire of providing military aid to Kyiv and eventually lean on Ukraine to agree to concessions that could halt the fighting.

Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed that Ukraines counteroffensive had failed last week, saying that not in a single area of fighting the enemy has had success. All attempts of the counteroffensive have been stopped, the enemy has been pushed back, with large losses. His account has been echoed in Russian media, pro-Kremlin Telegram channels and press statements from Moscow.

Countries in central and Eastern Europe, which have often lobbied for Ukraines case inside NATO and in Washington, are mindful of potential war fatigue taking root in the West. In the run-up to Ukraines counteroffensive, Polish leaders tried to temper expectations, warning it would require a massive effort and not deliver any immediate result, said Nikodem Rachon, spokesperson for the Polish embassy in Washington.

Its quite evident that Russia exploits this aspect in its propaganda, aiming to weaken the unity of countries supporting Ukraine, he said.

William Taylor, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, said theres a risk that overly gloomy conclusions about Ukraines prospects could become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

If the perception gets out there that the Ukrainians cant win, then were not going to provide them the stuff they need to win, he said.

Fighting without air power

The Ukrainians say air power is one of the crucial areas where they need international help. Without an adequate air force that can clear a path for ground forces, they are trying to seize back territory with only artillery and armored units  an approach no Western army would contemplate, former officials and military analysts said.

We wouldnt do it. Weve never done it and yet were asking them to do it, said Taylor, who served as an Army infantry officer in Vietnam.

Image: A Russian military helicopter flies over damaged parts of the Crimean Bridge, which connects the Russian mainland to the Crimean peninsula and is a key supply route for the Russian war efforts in Ukraine, on July 17. (AP file)

U.S. military doctrine places a heavy emphasis on coordinated air and ground attack, or joint fire support. Such an approach increases the chances of successful maneuver, according to a 2019 report from the military services to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Without air support, Polyakov said, the Ukrainian armed forces must improvise and operate with greater caution. That means they cannot follow the fundamentals of U.S. military doctrine, he said.

We have launched a counteroffensive without any kind of air superiority  not in the air force, not in drones, not in helicopters. We have a little bit in terms of precision-guided artillery munitions, said Polyakov, who works for a military think tank advising Zelenskyy. But to talk about holding back without all these necessary components, it is ludicrous.

The Biden administration says it plans to provide F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine and European governments are organizing training for Ukrainian pilots, but it likely will take months before the jets are in action. U.S. officials say the fighters will not be enough alone to turn the tide.

A diplomatic solution

For Ukraine, which is dependent on outside military aid to sustain its war effort, the political stakes of the counteroffensive could not be higher.

Ukraine says it is making steady progress, and that its forces have taken back territory in a period of weeks that the Russians seized over months.

Zelenskyy recently praised Ukrainian troops for taking back control of the southeastern village of Staromaiorske after an intense battle marked by artillery duels and house-to-house fighting. An assault with armored units in June failed to break through Russian lines in the south and, in the past week, Ukraine has made a concentrated effort in the western area of the Zaporizhia oblast, according to analysts and U.S. officials.

But there has been no significant change in the front lines in the war for the past nine months. Both Ukrainian and Russian forces have failed to achieve major advances, and Samuel Charap, a senior political scientist at the Rand Corp think tank, argues that neither side has a realistic chance of scoring a definitive victory.

As a result, the U.S. should start preparing for an inconclusive outcome and explore options for an eventual diplomatic settlement, he said.

Its an indication of where things are going. Theres not going to be a decisive military outcome, Charap said.
Mexicos President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has condemned Texass anti-migrant buoys, calling the border enforcement tactic on the Rio Grande river inhumane after bodies were found in the waters that flow along the US-Mexico border.

No one should be treated like this. That kind of treatment does not come from a good person; only by being good can we be happy, Lopez Obrador said at his daily press briefing on Thursday.

Abbott shouldnt act like that; its inhumane, he also said, directly attacking Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who has touted the new barrier as a protective measure for his state and previously refused to remove it.

Two bodies were found in separate incidents by United States and Mexican officials in the Rio Grande river, according to Mexicos foreign ministry on Wednesday.

One body was found stuck in the southern section of the buoys, and another body was found three miles upstream. Both were recovered by a rescue group from Mexicos National Institute of Migration.

It is unclear what caused their deaths, though Texas officials have said that they suspect that the person found caught in the floating barrier had died upstream.

Texas began installing buoy barriers along portions of the Rio Grande river in July. - Brandon Bell/Getty Images

The floating barrier, which is intended to block migrants crossing from Mexico, was installed last month without federal authorization, according to the US Justice Department, which is suing the state of Texas over its use of the buoys.

The Mexican government has also decried Abbotts decision to float the buoys. Last week, Mexican Secretary of Foreign Relations Alicia Barcena Ibarra said her country had sent its second diplomatic note to the US complaining about the barriers.

They not only violate two treaties between the US and Mexico, she said, but a slide that accompanied her remarks claimed that a portion of the 305 meters of deployed buoy is on Mexican territory.

Lopez Obrador on Thursday warned that the buoys violated Mexicos sovereignty and human rights, adding that we are already demanding that these buoys be removed.

He also said that authorities were working to determine the deceaseds nationalities.

When first announcing the barrier in June, Abbott, a longtime critic of the Biden administrations border policies, said he intended to float the first 1,000 feet of the barrier in the river near the city of Eagle Pass in Maverick County.

Texas treatment of migrants who attempt to cross into the US illegally has faced increasing scrutiny, and Biden administration officials have shown concern about Abbotts measures, which have disrupted US Border Patrol operations in the region and put migrants at risk.

An internal email written by a Texas trooper-medic and shared with CNN last month said medics in Eagle Pass were ordered to push people back into the water, and described seeing a boy struggle while he tried to cross a more dangerous part of the river away from the buoys, as well as a mother and two children who drowned while trying to cross the river in an area without wire.

The email also described a man with a significant laceration on his leg, suffered when he tried to rescue his child from razor wire placed on a deterrence buoy in the Rio Grande.

In recent years, advocates say migrants have resorted to increasingly risky  and often fatal  paths to evade detection and enter the US amid a flurry of deterrence measures by both state and federal authorities. In June, dozens of people were found dead inside a semi-truck in Texas.

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By Soo-hyang Choi

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea on Friday criticised a U.S. weapons aid package to Taiwan, state media reported on Friday, accusing the United States of driving tensions in the region to "another ignition point of war".

The United States unveiled an aid package for Taiwan worth up to $345 million on Friday as Congress authorised up to $1 billion worth of weapons for the island as a part of the 2023 budget.

In a statement carried by the official KCNA news agency, Maeng Yong Rim, director general of the North Korean foreign ministry's Chinese affairs department, said the plan is a "dangerous political and military provocation" and a "flagrant violation" of the One China principle.

"It is the sinister intention of the U.S. to turn Taiwan into an unsinkable advanced base against China and the first-line trench for carrying out its strategy for deterring China," the North's statement said.

Beijing claims the democratically governed island as its own territory, and has repeatedly warned against any "official exchanges" between Washington and Taipei. Taiwan rejects China's sovereignty claims and says only Taiwan's people can decide their future.

"The Asia-Pacific region, including the Korean peninsula and the Taiwan Strait, is neither a theatre of the U.S. military activity nor a test site of war," the statement said, warning that the U.S. will have to "pay a high price" for "provoking the core interest of China".

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met a Chinese delegation in Pyongyang last week and vowed to develop the two countries' relations to a "new high". Before the meeting, they reviewed Kim's newest nuclear-capable missiles and attack drones at a military parade.

China's military has been flexing its muscles around the island, recently sending dozens of fighters, bombers and other aircraft, including drones, into the skies to Taiwan's south, according to Taiwan's defence ministry.

(Reporting by Soo-hyang Choi. Editing by Gerry Doyle)
SALEM, Ore. (AP)  For the first time in 72 years, Oregon motorists can grab a fuel nozzle and pump gas into their cars on their own, since a decades-old ban on self-serve gas stations has been revoked.

Gov. Tina Kotek signed a bill on Friday allowing people across the state to choose between having an attendant pump gas or doing it themselves. The law takes immediate effect.

That leaves New Jersey as the only state that prohibits motorists from pumping their own gas. A few countries also ban it, including South Africa, where attendants offer to check fluid levels and clean the windshield, with tipping expected.

Its about time. Its long overdue, said Karen Cooper, who lives in Salem, said shortly before the bill was signed.

Ive spent a lot of time in California, Cooper said. I know how to pump my own. Everybody should know how to pump their own gas.

Kacy Willson, 32, who has lived in Oregon her whole life, said she doesn't have much interest in pumping her own gas. She's only tried it a few times in her life.

Its kind of nice to have someone do that, she said at a Portland gas station Friday. I dont really leave Oregon very much, and when I do, I have to ask someone how to pump gas, and I feel weird.

When Oregon prohibited self-service in 1951, lawmakers cited safety concerns, including motorists slipping on the slick surfaces at filling stations subject to Oregons notoriously rainy weather. In recent years legislators relaxed the rule and allowed rural counties to have self-serve gas available at night. Then they extended it to all hours in eastern Oregons sparsely populated areas, where motorists low on gas could be stranded when theres no attendant on duty.

The COVID-19 pandemic labor shortage helped drive a renewed push to allow self-serve across the state.

We live in a small town in a large county and cant find employees to pump fuel, Steve Rodgers, whose community is at the base of the snow-capped Cascade Mountains, complained to lawmakers. We are paying top dollar and also offering insurance, paid time off and retirement benefits, and still cannot fully staff.

Haseeb Shojai, who immigrated from Afghanistan in 2004 and owns gas stations in central Oregons high desert, also lamented the labor shortage and described how wildfires, with increased intensity and frequency due to climate change, are having a major effect. The state fire marshal lifted the self-serve ban during dangerous heat waves the past couple of summers.

Wildfires have been a factor in operating our business in the summer months, when it is hard for our gas attendants to stay for long periods outside in smoke and in heat, Shojai said. We dont know if we can stay open tomorrow or the next day or even next week due to the labor shortage.

A union representing workers at grocery store fuel stations in Oregon predicted job losses and called the the law a blatant cash grab for large corporations.

With over 2,000 gas stations in Oregon, laying off just one employee per location represents millions of dollars a year that giant corporations are not paying in wages, benefits and public payroll taxes, said Sandy Humphrey, the secretary-treasurer of UFCW Local 555.

Under the new law, there cant be more self-service pumps at a gas station than full-service ones. And prices for motorists must be the same at both types.

Still, opponents of the measure worry that it could lead to the demise of full-service pumps, depriving older adults and people with disabilities of that option.

I have some real concerns that we are progressively getting closer and closer to eliminating Oregons fuel service law entirely, Democratic state Sen. Lew Frederick said on the Senate floor in June before voting against the bill.

Brandon Venable, a service station manager, had urged lawmakers to reject the bill, saying some customers are careless and that attendants keep people safe.

I deal with many dangerous situations daily created by people smoking, leaving their engines running, getting in and out of their vehicles creating static electricity, trying to fill up random bottles and jugs, and driving off with the pump still in the vehicle, Venable said.

Others wonder if motorists who are now clamoring to pump their own gas might be less keen on doing so when they have to stand out in the rain, cold and snow instead of remaining in their warm, dry cars.

Republican state Sen. Tim Knopp, who leads the minority GOP caucus, downplayed safety concerns as he described being allowed to pump his own gas because he belongs to a commercial fueling cooperative.

I have yet to light myself on fire. I have yet to cause any problems whatsoever as it relates to self-serve gas, Knopp said during debate on the bill. So, colleagues, lets make New Jersey the only state in the country that has a law against self-serve gas.

The state Senate then approved the bill on a 16-9 vote. The House earlier passed it 47-10.

New Jerseys 1949 ban on self-service pumps remains a source of pride for some in a state where bumper stickers declare Jersey Girls Dont Pump Gas.

Since New Jersey has lower gas prices than New York and Pennsylvania, many drivers from neighboring states cross the state line to fuel up.

In 2015, lawmakers proposed ending the New Jersey ban, but the measure died because of opposition from the powerful state Senate president.

___

Associated Press reporters Michael Catalini in Trenton, New Jersey, and Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon, contributed to this report.
Whats better than getting a golden ticket? Earning one. For Sachi Minobe, a young, Florida-based pastry chef, the taste of victory is indeed sweet after winning a contest to be Van Leeuwens lead ice cream taster.

But dont think this dream job came easy. Minobe froze out hundreds of competitors for her chance to be a real-life Willy Wonka.

Minobe models her custom LICT jacket. (Emily Gerard / TODAY)

It all started when the artisanal ice cream company decided to open up its Brooklyn factory in honor of its 15th birthday. Van Leeuwen would offer an outsider a free trip to New York to sit in on internal R&D sessions and participate in roundtable tastings, then send them home with a pint of every single flavor they make plus free ice cream for a year. There was just one catch: You had to deserve your desserts.

Pretty much everyone I know has offered their services if we ever need tasters, Ben Van Leeuwen tells TODAY.com. After co-founding the company with his brother Pete and a third partner, Laura ONeill, in 2008, they found out quickly that plenty of people think they have what it takes to provide professional opinions on ice cream. And in what might be the worlds least surprising news, with 15 years of success now under their belts, they were seeing in real time what happens when you offer free ice cream to people on the internet.

Submissions poured in from across the country. Applicants young and old went to great lengths to stand out from the rest. There were songs and raps composed, costumes donned, elaborate videos filmed.

But none more elaborate than Minobes. She had never won anything before, she says. But she headed straight to Walmart to buy a tripod and start filming.

Her submission featured animation, multiple outfit and location changes, even a bathtub filled with tea in honor of her favorite Van Leeuwen flavor: Earl Grey.

She clearly had good taste, Van Leeuwen says as Minobe arrives at the factory to begin her tenure. Plus, shed offered constructive criticism, teasing that shed only share her feedback if she won. Was that a selling point? Absolutely, Van Leeuwen says at the same time ONeill bursts out, Not at all! The two dissolve into laughter. Its time to get down to business.

First, Minobe joins the teams weekly tasting in a colorful conference room decorated with the brands signature (empty) pints. Van Leeuwen explains that they use this time to address any customer complaints that might have come in and taste everything thats been made that week, starting with the mildest flavors and ending with the strongest ones. Churning out 80 flavors a year is no small feat, and one of the challenges, he says, is that everything is good. Theyve had to revise their process after learning they couldnt just ask employees what they liked.

A team tasting began with some homework, bringing Minobe up to speed on a few of the companys most notable past collaborations. (Emily Gerard / TODAY)

The Aha! moment for me of the last five years is looking at what actually gets eaten (in the conference room), he says. What makes the business is what people will go back for.

We can always tell whats good when we do a tasting like this because the pint will be gone, agrees ONeill.

The room is getting crowded as employees come in brandishing spoons and passing around half-melted cartons. Minobe weighs in on two top-secret upcoming collaborations, but she has also come prepared with a list of some of her own ideas to share. Inspired by muffins her grandma made, she proposes a white chocolate ice cream with raspberry, along with a version of Neopolitan ice cream based on her Japanese and Australian background. Strawberries with condensed milk is a popular dessert in Japan, she says, so why not use that combo as the pink base, and give the chocolate part a malted milk twist to evoke Milo powder?

Then it was onto some top-secret new flavors in the works. (Emily Gerard / TODAY)

Milo is so nostalgic, ONeill says, nodding thoughtfully. The team loves Minobes ideas and gets to work immediately, discussing how they could be brought to fruition.

Theres a reason Minobe has a flair for flavors: She studied the art of patisserie at the iconic Ecole Ducasse in Paris, France. Hoping to stay there after graduating, she was briefly devastated when visa issues got in the way. Thats when she found out her mother in Florida had moved just minutes away from one of the best pastry shops in the state. Shes been working there ever since.

I feel like it all worked out for the best because it led me here, Minobe says, gesturing at the delicious mayhem surrounding her.

On this day, they happen to be making her favorite flavor  that distinctive Earl Grey. As it turns out, Minobes fantasy wasnt too far off from how Van Leeuwen actually makes it.

Van Leeuwen and Minobe hold up giant tea bags before they are steeped to make Earl Grey ice cream. (Emily Gerard / TODAY)

After suiting up in sanitary gear, she is escorted into the room where the real magic happens. Enormous bags of Rishi tea are being steeped in big vats while partially frozen custard is being churned in other big vats. Minobe joins the line to help guide it into large containers bound for scoop shops, which turns out to be harder than it looked. Luckily, the team is chill about ice cream spillage.

Much dairy has already been consumed, but Minobes day has just begun. She is headed downtown with the co-founders to hand out free scoops from the truck where their sweet dream began 15 years ago. A full-circle moment for them, and the beginning of a new one for their first lead ice cream taster.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com
As tensions with North Korea spike, South Korea will hold its first nationwide civil defense drill in six years later this month, requiring most of the countrys 51 million residents to practice evacuating to shelters or underground safe spaces during the 20-minute exercise.

The drill, scheduled for 2 p.m. on Wednesday, August 23, will see many drivers required to pull over to the side of roads and the exits to subway stations closed with commuters required to remain inside, a statement from the South Korean Interior Ministry said.

We expect to strengthen the response capacity of the nation through a practical drill reflecting the aspects of provocations of North Korea, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said in a news release this week.

The release said the 20-minute drill is part of a larger exercise to test the South Korean governments response to potential threats including advanced nuclear missile threats, cyber attacks, drone terrors, etc.

The prime minister also called on South Koreans to take the drills seriously, something that hasnt always been the case.

Many South Koreans have become resigned to the fact that much of the population would only have minutes to respond to any possible North Korean missile or airstrike.

The capital Seoul, for example, lies just 30 miles south of the demilitarized zone that separates the South from the North, which maintains a vast array of artillery along its border.

But Han said citizens should follow the lead of the nation during the exercise and actively participate in it.

Instructions from the Interior Ministry said 17,000 shelters would be open nationwide, and locations are searchable in popular Korean apps.

To minimize disruption to key services, the ministry said hospitals, airlines, railways, subways and commercial sea traffic would not be affected by the emergency drill.

It also said 13 areas of the country designated as a disaster zone following recent heavy rainfall would be excluded from the drill.

South Koreans have long become used to periods of fractious relations with the North, but the current level of tensions are especially high.

North Korea last month launched an intercontinental ballistic missile with its longest flight time ever, the latest advancement in a missile program that has been testing at a breakneck pace over the past two years under leader Kim Jong Un.

The launch of the Hwasong-18 missile was conducted at a grave period when the military security situation on the Korean Peninsula and in the region has reached the phase of nuclear crisis beyond the Cold War, a statement in North Korean state media said.

Later in July, a US Navy nuclear-capable ballistic missile submarine called in the South Korean port of Busan, prompting more threats from Pyongyang, with North Korean Defense Minister Kang Sun Nam saying the presence of the vessel may meet the countrys criteria for use of nuclear weapons.

Pyongyang tested short-range ballistic missiles after the US sub made its call in Busan.

Han, the South Korean prime minister, said the civil defense drill would be held in conjunction with large-scale US-South Korea military exercises that have drawn sharp criticism from Pyongyang in the past.

It will also come less than a week after South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol travels to the United States for a trilateral meeting with US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, where the continued threat posed by North Korea will be on the agenda, according to a White House statement.

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By Hyunsu Yim and Daewoung Kim

BUAN, South Korea (Reuters) - Thousands of scouts in South Korea for a global event will receive more water trucks, air conditioned spaces and medics, officials said, after hundreds of the teenage participants fell ill this week due to unusually hot weather.

At least 600 people at the World Scout Jamboree, which kicked off in southwestern Buan on Tuesday, have so far been treated for heat-related ailments, officials say.

The event coincides with the highest heat warning by authorities in four years, as temperatures in some parts of the country topped 38 degrees Celsius (100.4 Fahrenheit) this week.

"The government will use its all resources to ensure that the jamboree can end safely amid the heatwave," Prime Minister Han Duck-soo told a special cabinet meeting called by the president to approve spending 6 billion won ($4.6 million) to support the jamboree.

Some 39,000 participants, most of them scouts aged between 14 and 18, are at the event. A Reuters reporter saw several scouts being stretchered off into a treatment room as temperatures reached as high as 34C in Saemangeum, the area of reclaimed land in Buan where they are camping.

Emergency services had earlier said most of those who fell ill due to the heat had mild symptoms.

With the heatwave forecast to last until next week, some activists and parents have questioned the viability of the jamboree, the first global gathering of the scouts since the pandemic.

Organisers said they were modifying the schedule depending on the temperature, adding that the scouts remained resilient.

"Despite the heat and the difficulties and the challenges that they are facing, only 8% reported that they were very unsatisfied with the experience so far," Jacob Murray, the director for World Events at the Scouts, told reporters.

"We are grateful to the Korean government and provincial government for providing additional resources."

The jamboree comes a few weeks after the government of President Yoon Suk Yeol was criticised for its handling of floods which killed over 40 people. Some residents of Buan said the government should have been better prepared for the heat.

Earlier on Friday, Yoon called for an "unlimited" supply of air-conditioned buses and water trucks to be sent to the jamboree. A day earlier, he ordered dozens of military doctors and nurses to go to the campsite to provide emergency care.

Some 39,000 participants from 155 countries were attending the event as of Friday, according to officials. The event is due to run until Aug. 12.

Britain, which has a large contingent, has sent consular officials to the site, a foreign office spokesperson said.

($1 = 1,304.4800 won)

(This story has been corrected to fix the spelling of president's name to Yoon Suk Yeol, not Yook Suk Yeol, in paragraph 11 and adds dropped words in paragraph 12)

(Additional reporting by Jinmin Jung, Hongji Kim and Soo-hyang Choi in Seoul,; Editing by Ed Davies and Miral Fahmy)
The mother of an American soldier being detained in North Korea after crossing into the country during a tour of the DMZ reportedly has a message for his captors: "I just want to hear his voice."

Claudine Gates made the remark to ABC News as U.S. Army Pvt. Travis King has now been inside the reclusive country for more than two weeks following the July 18 incident.

"I was a very, very happy person. And now, I just worry," she said. "Please, please send my valentine back home to me. I miss him so much. I just want to hear his voice."

Gates and her brother Myron say the 23-year-old King, leading up to his disappearance, left them cryptic messages by phone and text and sent YouTube links to songs they believe contained coded messages, according to ABC News.

NORTH KOREA ACKNOWLEDGED TRAVIS KING SITUATION IN COMMUNICATIONS WITH UN

One night, Gates said she received a phone call from King in which he screamed, "I'm not the Army soldier you want me to be," and then hung up, ABC News also reported.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

"When he first went to Korea, he was sending pictures home and he was just so happy. And then, as time went on, he just started fading away. I didn't hear from him anymore," she said.

The Pentagon said earlier this week that the United Nations has been in contact with North Korea about the detainment of King.

In a Tuesday press conference, Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said he can "confirm that the DPRK has responded to United Nations Command (UNC)."

TRAVIS KINGS FAMILY SAYS AMERICA SHOULD FIGHT FOR HIM TO COME HOME: REPORT

"What I will tell you is, as you heard us say previously, United Nations Command did communicate or provide some communication via well established communication channels," Ryder said.

"But I don't have any substantial progress to read out," he added.

A U.S. Forces Korea spokesperson said King was on a joint security area orientation tour last month when he "willfully and without authorization crossed the Military Demarcation Line into the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)."

King was to be separated from the military and was supposed to go back to the U.S., according to an official who spoke to Fox News, but he skipped his flight and left the airport to go to the DMZ.

Fox News Timothy H. J. Nerozzi contributed to this report.
Former President Trump pleaded not guilty Thursday to four federal felony charges in connection with accusations that he engaged in a multi-part conspiracy to overturn the will of voters and stay in power despite losing the 2020 election, resulting in an unprecedented attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Trump appeared before Magistrate Judge Moxila A. Upadhyaya at the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse in Washington, about a quarter-mile from where rioting supporters first attacked police officers and pushed down barriers on the west lawn of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

The judge took the bench just after 4 p.m. Eastern time, and the clerk called out: Twenty-three dash 257, the United States of America vs. Donald J. Trump. The former president shook his head when the criminal case name was read aloud.

Good afternoon, Mr. Trump, the judge said, moments after Trumps attorney John Lauro introduced him as President Trump.

Upadhyaya informed Trump of the maximum sentences for each of the four counts: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, conspiracy against rights, and obstruction of or attempting to obstruct an official proceeding. The maximum sentences range from five to 20 years and each include up to $250,000 in fines.

Trump, who traveled from Bedminster, N.J., shortly before his court appearance, was flanked by his defense lawyers, Lauro and Todd Blanche. Besides providing his name and age and answering yes to questions about whether he understood the charges, the former president sat quietly, hands occasionally fidgeting, during the 27-minute arraignment in the cavernous Courtroom 22.

When asked for his plea, Trump stood to answer, pausing for emphasis between the words, Not guilty.

Former President Trump stands to plead not guilty in this sketch of his arraignment Thursday on 2020 election charges. (Bill Hennessy / Pool)

Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith sat in the first row of three benches that held reporters, staff and members of the public. Trump looked at Smith intently when the prosecutor first entered the room, and Smith glanced over at Trump during the proceeding, but the two men did not appear to make eye contact.

Trumps next hearing is on Aug. 28 before District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, who will preside over the trial. Upadhyaya relayed to the court that Chutkan intends to set a trial date at the hearing, which Trump does not have to attend. Prosecutors and the defense must submit filings before the hearing laying out potential dates for the trial and how long they expect it will take.

Lauro pushed for more details from the Justice Department about the scope of information they would receive before making that filing, saying that the defense needed all that information, I think, to address when we will be ready. But he was rebuffed by the judge, who said Trumps lawyers needed to comply with the order from Chutkan.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Thomas Windom volunteered that the government is willing to turn over a large trove of evidence as part of the discovery process as soon as a protective order is in place.

This case will benefit from normal order, including a speedy trial, Windom said.

Lauro responded that it was somewhat absurd to think the trial can be done within the time frame of the Speedy Trial Act, which sets time limits for completing the various stages of a federal criminal prosecution.

These are weighty issues; obviously the U.S. has had ... years to investigate the matter, he said.

At the Justice Departments request, the judge set a condition that Trump be barred from communicating with anyone known to be a witness in the case, except if his counsel is present.

Before the arraignment, Trump said to supporters on social media that he was on his way to the nations capital TO BE ARRESTED FOR HAVING CHALLENGED A CORRUPT, RIGGED, & STOLEN ELECTION. IT IS A GREAT HONOR, BECAUSE I AM BEING ARRESTED FOR YOU.

When he arrived at the courthouse, Trump did not have a mugshot taken.

Earlier Thursday, Metropolitan Police and Homeland Security officers outnumbered the dozens of reporters waiting to enter the courthouse or setting up cameras along the sidewalk. City dump trucks lined the street in front of the main entrance to the building, ready to block streets if needed.

The day before, the Capitol was under lockdown for hours after a 911 call suggested there was an active shooter in a Senate office building. Law enforcement cleared the area and later reported no such incident had occurred.

Read more:Trump indicted over efforts to overturn the 2020 election

By midday, about a dozen demonstrators had gathered outside the courthouse, and the crowd slowly grew.

One person waved a long pole with two large flags, one reading, Finish the wall/Trump 24/Save America. Another wore an inflatable costume of Trump in a diaper. By the end of the day, just a few protesters remained.

Trump has tried to cast the indictment and his other legal challenges as attempts to interfere with his 2024 presidential election campaign, complaining that he is being forced to spend time and money defending himself rather than campaigning.

The Dems dont want to run against me or they would not be doing this unprecedented weaponization of Justice. BUT SOON, IN 2024, IT WILL BE OUR TURN, he posted to Truth Social on Thursday morning.

Speaking to reporters at the airport before he left Washington on Thursday, Trump called it a sad day for America, echoing his earlier claims that the case against him is political.

If you cant beat him, you persecute him or you prosecute him, he said.

The indictment alleges that after Trump lost the 2020 election, he and his allies concocted a variety of schemes to try to keep him in office, which included pressuring officials in several states to overturn their results on the basis of false claims of fraud.

Trump is also accused in the indictment of using the power of the Justice Department in an attempt to overturn the election by pushing the agency to conduct sham election crime investigations and to wield its authority to falsely buttress the legitimacy of his schemes.

The former president also solicited false slates of electoral votes from dozens of Trump-supporting electors in seven states, according to the indictment.

Read more:The 'Johnny Appleseed of election fraud' wants to upend voting in America. Why he's focused on California

Trump is also alleged to have used false election fraud claims and the fake electoral slates to pressure then-Vice President Mike Pence to stop the Jan. 6, 2021, congressional certification of Joe Bidens victory by either throwing out results for the Democrat in certain states or by delaying the official electoral vote count.

When Pence refused on the morning of Jan. 6 to comply, the indictment states, Trump took advantage of the violence at the Capitol by redoubling efforts to levy false claims of election fraud and convince Members of Congress to further delay certification based on those claims.

The former president was one of three defendants Thursday facing charges related to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. The two others, a former Chicago police officer and a former voice actor on the television show Bobs Burgers, are among the more than 1,000 people charged.

Seven federal district court judges filled the back row of the courtroom, including Chief Judge James Boasberg, Amy Berman Jackson and Randolph Moss. They have collectively heard hundreds of Jan. 6 cases and have several hundred more on their schedules. The cases could number in the thousands if the Justice Department makes all of the arrests it says it intends to.

Additional charges could be possible as Trumps case progresses. The indictment refers to six unnamed co-conspirators with enough detail, such as dates of conversations, to provide strong indications as to their identities.

Smith said Tuesday that his teams investigation of other individuals continues.

The new charges against Trump are just the latest developments in the legal peril the former president faces as he campaigns for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

In March, he is scheduled to stand trial in New York on allegations that shortly before the 2016 election he paid an adult film star through an intermediary so she would not disclose information about an alleged affair she had with Trump, and that he covered up the payment while in office.

In May, Trump is scheduled to face federal charges of willfully retaining classified government records after leaving office in 2020 and obstructing the investigation into the matter.

And more is expected. Fulton County, Ga., Dist. Atty. Fani Willis in Atlanta has said she will make a decision on an indictment by Sept. 1 following a lengthy investigation into Trumps efforts to pressure state election officials to find the votes needed for him to reverse his loss in that key state in 2020.

Get the best of the Los Angeles Times politics coverage with the Essential Politics newsletter.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
By Camillus Eboh, Boureima Balima and Felix Onuah

ABUJA/NIAMEY (Reuters) -West African defence chiefs have drawn up a plan for military action if Niger's coup is not overturned by Sunday, the regional bloc said on Friday, after mediation failed in a crisis that threatens regional security and has drawn in global powers.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has given Niger's coup leaders until Sunday to step down and reinstate elected President Mohamed Bazoum.

The bloc has taken a hard stance on last week's takeover, the seventh coup in West and Central Africa since 2020.

Given its uranium and oil riches and pivotal role in the war with Islamist rebels in the Sahel region, Niger has strategic significance for the United States, China, Europe and Russia.

The United States government has paused certain foreign assistance programs that benefit the government of Niger but will continue giving humanitarian and food assistance, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday.

Under the intervention plan, the decision of when and where to strike will be made by heads of states and will not be divulged to the coup plotters, Abdel-Fatau Musah, ECOWAS commissioner for political affairs, peace and security, said.

"All the elements that will go into any eventual intervention have been worked out here, including the resources needed, the how and when we are going deploy the force," he said at the close of a three-day meeting in Nigeria's capital Abuja.

Whatever option the 15-nation body chooses risks further conflict in one of the poorest regions of the world where groups linked to Islamic State and al Qaeda thrive on chaos.

It is not clear how much support the bloc has. Neighbouring Chad, which is not a part of ECOWAS but whose military leader, President Mahamat Idriss Deby, played a role in mediation efforts this week, said it would not intervene militarily.

"We always advocate dialogue between Nigeriens and we will never intervene by military means," Chad's defence minister, General Daoud Yaya Brahim, told national television on Friday.

ECOWAS has already imposed sanctions on Niger and sent a delegation to its capital Niamey on Thursday seeking an "amicable resolution". But a source in the entourage said that they were rebuffed and did not stay long.

"We want diplomacy to work, and we want this message clearly transmitted to them that we are giving them every opportunity to reverse what they have done," Musah said.

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu told his government to prepare for options including deployment of military personnel, in a letter read out to the Senate on Friday. Senegal has also said it would send troops.

'DEVASTATING CONSEQUENCES'

The junta has denounced outside interference and said it would fight back.

The 59-year-old coup leader, Abdourahamane Tiani, served as battalion commander for ECOWAS forces during conflicts in Ivory Coast in 2003, so he knows what such intervention missions involve.

Support for him from fellow juntas in neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso could also undermine the regional response. Both countries have said they would come to Niger's defence.

Detained at the presidential residence in Niamey, Bazoum, 63, who was elected in 2021, said in his first remarks since the coup that he was a hostage and in need of U.S. and international help.

"If it (the coup) succeeds, it will have devastating consequences for our country, our region and the entire world," he wrote in a Washington Post opinion piece, backing ECOWAS' economic and travel sanctions.

The junta has cited persistent insecurity as its main justification for seizing power, but data on attacks shows security had actually been improving, while violence has soared since juntas took control in Mali and Burkina Faso.

Like the leaders of those countries, Niger's junta revoked military cooperation pacts with former colonial power France.

France has between 1,000-1,500 troops in Niger, supported by drones and warplanes, helping battle groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State. The United States, Germany and Italy also have troops stationed in Niger.

Paris shrugged off the decision, saying on Friday that though it had seen the statement by "some Nigerien army men", it only recognised legitimate authorities.

Niger has also withdrawn its troops operating in northern Nigeria under a regional military joint task force that is fighting Islamist insurgents in the Lake Chad region, two army sources from Niger and Nigeria said on Friday.

The sources, who are not authorised to speak to the media, said Niger troops had completed their withdrawal on Thursday night.

RUSSIAN ANGLE

Western donors have cut support in protest, even though Niger relies on aid for 40% of its budget. Regional countries have imposed economic sanctions that residents said were starting to bite.

Bazoum said the coup spelt chaos for his nation, with prices already soaring, and Islamists plus Russia's private mercenary group, Wagner, likely to exploit the situation.

"With an open invitation from the coup plotters and their regional allies, the entire central Sahel region could fall to Russian influence via the Wagner Group, whose brutal terrorism has been on full display in Ukraine," he wrote.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Wagner which has forces in Mali and the Central African Republic, last week said his forces were available to restore order in Niger.

Russia on Friday repeated its call for a return to constitutional rule.

Some Nigerien supporters of the coup waved Russian flags and denounced France and ECOWAS in a protest march on Thursday.

(Reporting by Boureima Balima and Moussa Aksar in Niamey and Felix Onuah and Camillus Eboh in Abuja; Additional reporting by Andrew Osborn in Moscow, Kanishka Singh in Washington, Heine Friederike in Berlin and Michel Rose in Paris; Writing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise, Nellie Peyton and Edward McAllister; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne, Cynthia Osterman, Andrew Heavens, Alistair Bell and Sandra Maler)
By Lewis Jackson and Lucy Craymer

WELLINGTON (Reuters) -New Zealand is facing the most challenging strategic environment in decades amid a great power rivalry and with a military not fit for future challenges, according to a government review that lacked concrete plans to reverse the situation.

The government on Friday presented its first national security strategy, along with the first stage of a defence review. The review outlined how New Zealand needs to spend more on its military and strengthen ties with countries in the Indo-Pacific to help meet the challenges of climate change and strategic competition between the West, and China and Russia.

"The threats that New Zealand faces are becoming more complex and more challenging," New Zealand Defence Secretary Andrew Bridgman said in a speech at the launch.

"We will continue to meet the demand of today with the force we have, however in the near term, we need to orientate ourselves to the emerging future and the evolving context."

Any decisions, however, on increasing budget for defence - currently at around 1% of GDP - or upgrading equipment will not be made until after the release of further documents in 2024.

Reuben Steff, a foreign policy and global security senior lecturer at the University of Waikato said the documents provided a sense of the conceptual framework but kicked the can down the road on actual decisions.

The government may be trying to give the public time to understand the severity of the situation and emerging trends so when or if they announce increased spending they will have the social licence to do so, he said.

CHINA

The inaugural security strategy underscored how China's rise is upending old norms and behaviours even 9,000km (5,600 miles) away in Wellington.

"An increasingly powerful China is using all its instruments of national power in ways that can pose challenges to existing international rules and norms," read one policy document.

New Zealand Defence Minister Andrew Little said this was particularly a concern in the Pacific where China was building relationships in the region and was trying to demand a level of exclusivity.

"We know China offers extraordinary opportunity to us and many other countries but the nature of its conduct and its engagement with the rest of the world also poses a threat," he said.

Chinese state-sponsored actors had exploited cyber vulnerabilities in ways that undermined New Zealand's security, said another document that did not provide further details.

NEEDED DOLLARS

New Zealand's military needed more investment, equipment and training to be ready for armed conflict and disaster relief operations, according to a policy document published alongside the strategy.

Underspending on the country's defence force and the challenge the force faces are well documented.

Three of the Navys nine ships remain idle because of staff shortages, plans to build a ship suitable for patrolling in the harsh conditions of the Southern Ocean are suspended and the country's frigates are aging and are expected to need be replaced.

Little said defence spending was likely to have to increase above 1% of GDP but was unlikely to get as high as 2% of GDP.

The wide-ranging review also prioritised deeper defence ties with New Zealand's only ally, Australia, and closer links to other partners in the region, including the U.S., whose presence in the Indo-Pacific was "critical" for New Zealand's security.

Long protective of its independence, New Zealand banned nuclear-armed and nuclear powered ships from its waters in 1984.

(Reporting by Lewis Jackson and Lucy Craymer; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore, Gerry Doyle and Lincoln Feast)
A supporter of the coup wears a hat in the colours of the Russian flag during a rally in the capital on Thursday

Niger's ousted leader has urged the US and "entire international community" to help "restore... constitutional order" after last week's coup.

In an opinion piece in the Washington Post, President Mohamed Bazoum said he was writing "as a hostage".

He also warned that the region could fall further under Russian influence, via the Wagner Group which already operates in neighbouring countries.

Niger's West African neighbours have threatened military intervention.

Defence chiefs from the region finished a three-day meeting in Nigeria's capital, Abuja, on Friday saying they had drawn up a detailed plan for the use of force for leaders from the regional bloc Ecowas to consider.

"All the elements that will go into any eventual intervention have been worked out here, including the resources needed, the how and when we are going deploy the force," Abdel-Fatau Musah, Ecowas commissioner for political affairs, peace and security said.

Nigeria's President Bola Tinubu on Friday wrote to lawmakers seeking their support for the sanctions and military action. His letter included a reference to a "military build-up and deployment of personnel".

On Thursday, the coup leaders announced they were withdrawing the country's ambassadors from France, the US, Nigeria and Togo.

In a statement read out on national television, they said the functions of the four ambassadors had been "terminated".

The junta also announced it was cutting bilateral military ties with former colonial power France. The country currently has around 1,500 troops in Niger and has been part of a force combating Islamist militancy.

France has responded by saying that only "legitimate" governments could alter agreements.

Ecowas has imposed sanctions and given the junta until the end of the weekend to reinstate the president or face the possibility of military intervention.

The regional bloc is also trying to pursue a diplomatic solution, but a delegation that arrived in Niger on Thursday left after just a few hours without any sign of progress.

Niger is a significant uranium producer - a fuel that is vital for nuclear power - and under Mr Bazoum was a key Western ally in the fight against Islamist militants in West Africa's Sahel region.

Niger coup: The basics:

Where is Niger? It's a vast country in West Africa, and one of the poorest countries in the world, but has been a key Western ally in the fight against Islamist militants.

Why was there a coup? The military said it seized power because of insecurity and the economic situation, but there have been suggestions it came after reports the coup leader was about to be sacked.

What next? It's feared the military may seek to switch allegiance to Russia and close French and US bases there; for their part, Niger's neighbours have threatened to use force to end the coup.

In his newspaper article, Mr Bazoum warned the coup, if it succeeded, would have "devastating consequences for our country, our region and the entire world".

"Fighting for our shared values, including democratic pluralism and respect for the rule of law, is the only way to make sustainable progress against poverty and terrorism," Mr Bazoum wrote.

"The Nigerien people will never forget your support at this pivotal moment in our history."

Mr Bazoum also warned of the coup leaders' links to Russian mercenary group Wagner, which operates elsewhere in the region and has been seen by many as exercising a malign influence in Niger.

"The entire central Sahel region could fall to Russian influence via the Wagner group, whose brutal terrorism has been on full display in Ukraine," wrote Mr Bazoum.

Many supporters of the coup in Niger have been chanting pro-Russian slogans and wearing the colours of the Russian flag.

On Thursday, thousands of people took to the streets of Niger's capital, Niamey, in a peaceful demonstration backing the coup and criticising other West African countries for imposing financial and trade sanctions on Niger.

There is no indication that Wagner was involved in the overthrow of Mr Bazoum, according to the US - but Wagner's leader has reportedly described the coup as a triumph. The Russian government, however, has called for the ousted president to be returned to power but stressed this should be done peacefully.

The military takeover has also been internationally condemned, including by the EU, UN and the US.

Earlier this week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke to Mr Bazoum on the phone, with the US saying afterwards it was committed to the restoration of Niger's democratically elected government.

Mr Bazoum, the first democratically elected president to succeed another in Niger, was detained by his own guards last week. Coup leader Gen Abdourahmane Tchiani has been installed as head of state.

Niger is a key part of the African region known as the Sahel, an area plagued by jihadists and beset by military regimes. In recent years it had been seen as an example of relative stability, while its neighbours Mali and Burkina Faso succumbed to military coups.

It hosts both French and US military bases which are used to fight Islamist insurgents.

President Bazoum's government has been a partner to European countries trying to stop the flow of migrants across the Mediterranean Sea, agreeing to take back hundreds of migrants from detention centres in Libya. He has also cracked down on human traffickers.
Hawaii Islands Hapuna Beach  often considered the best beach in the country, if not the world  wont have working restroom facilities, water fountains and showers possibly until next year.

Recurring leaks since 2018 caused the beachs facilities to finally shut down in Oct. 2022 after over 40 repair attempts, according to the Department of Land and Natural Resources. A new permanent water system wont be completed until April 2024.

Temporary above-ground water lines were supposed to be installed by the end of July but the design underwent a major change, officials said. They expect even further delays due to pipe material shipping issues.

Residents called the additional delays for the beach pretty outrageous, according to Honolulu Civil Beat.

Theres really no place to wash your hands. And addition, people who dont know that the water is out come to the beach without any water, and its pretty hot down here, one Hawaii Island resident told media outlet HawaiiNewsNow.

More: This Hawaii island could get a brand new state park. Heres what it means for tourists.

Hapuna Beach is beloved by locals and tourists alike.

Locals underscore that its not only an inconvenience, its also a health issue.

We understand peoples frustrations around timing and the construction process in general, said Curt Cottrell, Administrator for the Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of Parks in a statement. This is a favorite beach for residents and visitors to the Big Island. We want to ensure a reliable and long-term source of fresh water for rinsing and drinking and remove the need for portable toilets.

Why is Hapuna Beach worth a visit?

Located north of Kailua-Kona along the Kohala Coast, the beach is a popular spot for tourists. Out-of-state visitors, who want to enjoy Hapuna Beachs soft white sand and crystal clear waters need to pay a parking fee of $10 per car and an entrance fee of $5 for each person older than 3 years old.

Stretching about half a mile, Hapuna Beach is a spacious, pristine beach with turquoise waters to swim or boogie board. During the winter months, people can spot humpback whales out by the horizon.

The Ala Kahakai coastal trail is also accessible at Hapuna Beach, which takes hikers over ancient fishermens trails and Hawaiian Kingdom roads that have been connected through generations as well as anchialine pools and the shoreline.

Can I still go to Hapuna Beach?

Portable toilets are kept clean by park staff but some beachgoers said they can be full when the beach is crowded.

Yes, the beach remains open to visitors, but theres nowhere to drink water or shower. If you need to use the restroom, there are portable toilets installed. Some locals said that when the beach gets crowded, like on the weekends, the toilets are full and unusable.

Kathleen Wong is a travel reporter for USA TODAY based in Hawaii. You can reach her at kwong@usatoday.com

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Hawaii's Hapuna Beach has out-of-order facilities, upsetting visitors
One of the victims in the Gilgo Beach murders, previously dubbed "Jane Doe Seven," has finally been identified, 27 years after her partial remains were found, officials announced Friday.

Karen Vergata, 34, was identified using DNA genetic genealogy, Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney announced in a news briefing Friday.

The identification is the latest breakthrough in the notorious Gilgo Beach killings in which 11 sets of human remains were found in or near Ocean Parkway on Long Island since 2010. While most of the remains have been identified, some have yet to be.

Jane Doe Seven's remains were located in Davis Park on Fire Island in 1996. DNA later linked them to another set of remains found April 11, 2011, along Ocean Parkway, in Nassau County, according to a Suffolk County police timeline of the case.

Tierney said Friday that Vergata went missing Feb. 14, 1996. She had lived in Manhattan and was thought to be working as an escort. No missing persons complaint was filed at the time of her disappearance, he said.

Crime laboratory officers prepare to search the home of Gilgo Beach murders suspect Rex Heuermann in Massapequa Park, New York, on July 18, 2023. (Yuki Iwamura / AFP - Getty Images file)

How Jane Doe Seven was identified

In April 1996, female remains consisting of legs and feet were found on the Bayside shore of Fire Island, a mile west of Davis Park Beach.

Fifteen years later, on April 11, 2011, a skull was discovered at Tobay Beach in Nassau County. In July 2011, the Suffolk County crime lab used DNA analysis to determine that the two sets of remains belonged to the same person, who was then dubbed "Jane Doe Seven" or "Fire Island Jane Doe."

Karen Vergata. (Suffolk County DA)

In August 2022, six months after the Gilgo Beach task force formed, a DNA profile suitable for genealogical comparisons was developed from the remains, and the FBI completed a genetic genealogy review and was able to presumptively identify her in September 2022. A buccal swab from a relative led officials to definitively identify Vergata in October 2022.

However, authorities didn't publicly disclose the discovery as the confidential investigation into the murders was underway.

Officials said that Vergata's family was notified and the investigation into her disappearance is ongoing. Tierney noted there are no charges at the moment.

Investigation into Gilgo Beach killings

For years, the discovery of the remains of multiple sex workers around Gilgo Beach left the Long Island community on edge.

After more than a decade of investigation, Rex Heuermann was arrested July 13, charged with three counts of murder in the deaths of Melissa Barthelemy, 24; Megan Waterman, 22; and Amber Lynn Costello, 27. He was also said to be the prime suspect in the disappearance of a fourth woman: 25-year-old Maureen Brainard-Barnes, who vanished in 2007. The group of women was known as the Gilgo Four.

The victims were all believed to have been sex workers who advertised on online sites, according to police.

Heuermann, a 59-year-old Manhattan architect, has pleaded not guilty and is being held without bail.

Accused Gilgo Beach killer Rex A. Heuermann appears before Judge Timothy P. Mazzei in Suffolk County Court in Riverhead, N.Y., on Aug. 1, 2023. (James Carbone / Pool via Newsday)

Prosecutors requested in a filing Tuesday that Heuermann provide buccal samples, which would provide further relevant evidence of the defendants identity as the perpetrator of the crime and to compare to DNA retrieved from the crime scenes.

Investigators have said that DNA taken from discarded pizza allegedly tied Heuermann to a male hair found on a burlap material used to wrap Watermans body.

Heuermann appeared in court in Riverhead, New York, on Tuesday. His attorney, Michael Brown, said: We will defend this case in the court of law, and we will go to trial in this case.

Brown previously said his client is "a man who has never been arrested before. Hes maintained his innocence from the inception of this case.

The next pretrial conference hearing will be Sept. 27.
Presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is suing YouTube and its parent company Google for moderating content he posts online.

The 69-year-old Ivy lawyer filed suit against the Internet giants in a Delaware court late Wednesday. His lawsuit claims his freedom of speech has been violated and alleges the U.S. has taken extraordinary steps under the leadership of Joe Biden to silence people it doesnt want America to hear.

Kennedy is a long-shot challenger to President Biden for the Democratic party nomination in the 2024 presidential race. While hes proven popular with conspiratorial online media sources and right-wing outlets like Fox News, Kennedy has struggled to gain favor with Democrats and even earned admonishment from his famous political family. A Recent poll shows him trailing Biden by as much as 60 points.

The son of assassinated 1968 presidential candidate Bobby Kennedy, Kennedy is a critic of vaccines, including those used to curb the COVID-19 pandemic thats killed more than a million Americans since 2020.

His complaint claims YouTube frequently blocks content posted by Kennedy on the grounds of medical misinformation policies.

On information and belief, it did so based on statements from the Biden administration about what information to censor, Kennedys complaint alleges.

Kennedys legal team complains content taken offline sometimes comes from their clients 2024 presidential campaign and worries the problem will worsen as primary elections draw nearer.

Among Kennedys many controversies was a dinner last month where he made claims about COVID-19 some critics found antisemitic.

COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people, he asserted. The races that are most immune to COVID-19 are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.

Kennedy later tweeted his comments were being taken out of context and he never implied the ethnic effect was deliberately engineered.

His lawsuit was filed in Delaware, where Google and YouTube incorporated. Kennedy resides in New York. The defendants are headquartered in California.

Google purchased the popular video-sharing website in 2006. A spokesperson for the company told the Daily News the Team Kennedy YouTube channel has over 46,000 subscribers and over a million views across its videos, which are held to the same standard as those of other platform users.

YouTube applies its Community Guidelines independently, transparently, and consistently, regardless of political viewpoint, that spokesperson said. These claims are meritless and we look forward to refuting them.

The Biden administration has replied to a request for comment.
Russia said Friday that Ukraine had attacked one of its key naval bases using sea drones.

The Russian defense ministry claimed to have thwarted the overnight attack on the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, but the fate of one of its warships was in doubt after it appeared to have been damaged in the incident.

In a statement released early Friday, the defense ministry said the naval base in southern Russia was attacked by two unmanned sea drones overnight. The drones were destroyed by ships guarding the outer boundary of the naval base, the ministry said.

It did not mention any damage or loss of life due to the incident, which it blamed on Ukraines armed forces.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility by Kyiv, which usually refrains from commenting on attacks on Russian soil. Moscow usually immediately blames Ukraine for any such incidents, without providing evidence.

But Ukrainian social media was abuzz with news of the attack, the latest apparent Ukrainian effort to strike strategic targets inside Russia.

Videos circulating online showed a ship resembling the Olenegorsky Gornyak warship listing to one side and being towed back to the port that the Russian government said had been attacked. Using satellite imagery and marine ship tracking data, NBC News was able to confirm that the video was filmed in Novorossiysk and showed the same class of warship as the Olenegorsky Gornyak.

Footage from what is purported to be a Ukrainian sea drone attacking a Russian ship at the harbor in Novorossiysk on Friday. (Video obtained by NBC News)

The port city of Novorossiysk is located on the Black Sea in Russias Krasnodar region, in close vicinity to Russian-occupied Crimea.

The defense ministry website says the naval base there is part of Russias Black Sea Fleet. It was established in 1994, the ministry said, and before the war in Ukraine served as one of the key outposts for border protection and military transportation.

The Krasnodar region Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev said in a post on the Telegram messaging app that there were no casualties or damage as the result of the alleged attack.

The mayor of Novorossiysk, Andrey Kravchenko, mentioned two ships in a post on Telegram, saying the crews of Olenegorsky Gornyak and Suvorovets immediately reacted and helped to avoid the consequences of the attack.

Thank you, our warriors and defenders, for protecting the hero city! he wrote, without mentioning any damage to the ships.

A nearby oil terminal reported that its infrastructure was not damaged, and its operations were unaffected.

The incident comes amid a slew of drone attacks in recent months on Russian territory, including three separate drone attacks on the heart of the Russian capital in the last two weeks.

As Ukraine finds itself in the middle of a crucial counteroffensive to reclaim occupied land, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned last week that the war was gradually returning to the territory of Russia  to its symbolic centers and military bases in what he called an inevitable, natural and absolutely fair process.

On Tuesday, the Russian defense ministry reported that three Ukrainian unmanned sea drones tried to attack two patrol ships in the southwestern Black Sea, but the attempt was also thwarted.

Kyiv has been careful not to claim responsibility for attacks in Russia, but Ukrainian officials often send sarcastic signals in their aftermath.

Hours after the alleged drone attack on Friday, Zelenskyys chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, shared a photo of a Ukrainian soldier flying a drone on Telegram with a caption: Good Ukrainian morning to everyone. And let everything that you have planned fly.
A woman whose remains were found in 2007 was just identified but her family never reported her missing (Sarasota County Sheriffs Office)

Remains that were discovered in 2007 in Sarasota, Florida, have now been identified as belonging to a woman whose husband never reported her missing.

The remains were found in February 2007 buried in a shallow grave in a wooded area of Sarasota, according to the Sarasota County Sheriffs Office on Wednesday.

The discovery resulted in a cold case  until November 2022, when the sheriffs office identified the body as Jeana Lynn Burrus through DNA technology.

Burrus was 39 years old when she died, authorities said. She was married to James Burrus and had one son, who attended Gulf Gate Elementary School between 2005 and 2006, the sheriffs office wrote. She was unemployed, and her husband worked at a local body shop.

Strangely, her family never reported her missing.

According to Fox 13, a woman who now rents the home where the family used to live said investigators searched it a few months ago, but came up with nothing.

Management at the auto body shop where Mr Burrus used to work also said officers also searched the shop a few months ago but didnt find anything.

The sheriffs office added that before moving to Sarasota, the couple had lived in Citrus County, Florida, and Frederick, Maryland.

Criminal court records in Frederick County show that someone with the name Jeana Lynn Burrus was arrested on 14 January 2000 for possession with intent to distribute a controlled dangerous substance. The court filings description and age of the defendant also match the one listed by the Sarasota County Sheriffs Office.

The sheriffs office also confirmed a separate filing in the same court connected to Burrus, which also has the same address for her. That filing shows that she was charged with two felonies and two misdemeanours  one for possession of marijuana.

The address listed in the filing is consistent with property records that show the home belonging to James Burrus.

Strangely, it appears that James Burrus filed for divorce from his wife in July 2015 in Frederick County, but the case was dismissed due to lack of jurisdiction. The court noted that the mail directed to Jeana Burrus was returned, writing: No such street, unable to forward.
Donald Trump has pleaded not guilty to four criminal charges stemming from his attempt to overturn the election he lost to Joe Biden less than three years ago.

Mr Trump entered his plea on the second-floor courtroom at the E Barrett Prettyman Courthouse in Washington DC on 3 August, just a short walk from where a mob of his supporters began assaulting police officers at the start of the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.

The twice-impeached, now-thrice-indicted ex-presidents appearance in criminal court  his third since April  comes just two days after a Washington DC grand jury charged him with three criminal conspiracies and obstruction in connection with his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

In a poetic twist of fate, Mr Trumps latest arraignment brought him to the exact same courthouse where hundreds of people have been tried, convicted and sentenced to terms in prison as long as 18 years for charges in connection with January 6.

Mr Trump, the man Liz Cheney once credited with having assembled and summoned members of the mob, is now the latest defendant among them.

Three police officers who defended the Capitol that day  Daniel Hodges, Aquilino Gonnell and Harry Dunn  watched the former presidents arraignment from inside the court.

All I have wanted from day one is accountability, Mr Dunn said in a statement through his attorney.

Mr Trump was accompanied by John Lauro, a veteran Washington-based criminal defence attorney, and Todd Blanche, the New York-based lawyer who is leading his defence in the other criminal cases against him.

The former president  wearing his customary red tie, white shirt and dark blue suit  sat impassively between his attorneys, while US Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith was seen glancing at the defendant and counsel as the courtroom waited for the arrival of US Magistrate Judge Moxila A Upadhyaya.

The court proceedings began at 4.15 pm, with the courtroom standing for the magistrate judges entrance.

After attorneys for the government and defence introduced themselves, Mr Trump was asked to swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, and the judge reminded participants and media of court rules against recording.

Mr Trump was then asked to state his full name: Donald J Trump  John  Donald John Trump.

Asked for his age, he at first said seven seven, then corrected himself and said 77.

After Judge Upadhyaya read the charges and explained the penalties Mr Trump could face if convicted, she advised the ex-president  who she addressed as Mr Trump  of his right to remain silent, and his right to an attorney.

After explaining each right, she asked if he understood. Each time, he replied: Yes or yes, I do.

When Mr Trump was asked to enter a plea, he spoke softly, almost mouthing the words as he replied: Not guilty.

Judge Upadhyaya warned Mr Trump that the most important condition of his release is that he not commit any crimes while awaiting trial, and said he could face pretrial detention or harsher sentences if he violates that condition.

She also warned him of the consequences of failing to appear for future court dates, and specifically cautioned Mr Trump against intimidating, retaliating, or trying to influence any witness in the case against him. Asked if he would comply, the ex-president appeared to answer in the affirmative, at which point the judge ordered a pretrial services officer to swear him to abide by the conditions, which he then signed in the magistrate judges presence.

Judge Upadhyaya then offered both sides several potential dates for the next hearing in the case, which she said she had come up with after consulting with Judge Tanya Chutkan, the district judge overseeing the case.

While the magistrate judge set the next hearing for 28 August, she said Mr Trump is not required to appear, and ordered the government to file a proposed schedule and state how many days it expects to need for trial within seven days. She also ordered the defence to file a response seven days after that.

Mr Lauro said the defence would need an understanding of the magnitude of discovery, including possible exculpatory information before being able to state when Mr Trump would be ready for trial.

Theres no question in my mind that Mr Trump is entitled to a fair and just trial, he said, adding that he would like information on the scope and extent of evidence within two or three days.

Mr Windom said in response that the government would endeavour to get the materials to defence very, very quickly after an appropriate protective order is entered.

He added that the case would benefit from normal order and a speedy trial, after which Judge Upadhyaya said there would be a fair process for both sides.

The magistrate judge added that Judge Chutkan intends to set a trial date at the 28 August hearing.

Mr Lauro then rose again to suggest that he and his co-counsel could not say when theyd want a trial until after the discovery is turned over, but Judge Upadhyaya said her order for a response from the defence seven days after the governments proposal would stand.

In response, Mr Lauro then told the magistrate judge that it was somewhat absurd for the trial to take place within the time frame laid out under the Speedy Trial Act, and suggested that all he is seeking is a little time.

Judge Upadhyaya then ordered Mr Lauro to file his request to toll the Speedy Trial Acts requirements in a written motion within five days.

Trump supporters demonstrated outside a federal courthouse on 3 August before the former presidents arraignment on charges connected to his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. (REUTERS)

A relatively small number of pro- and anti-Trump demonstrators joined the dozens of news outlets and makeshift studios on the courthouse grounds. Law enforcement agencies erected temporary barriers around the building and surrounding streets.

Many of the pro-Trump figures who came to Washington appeared to be from the same group of die-hard supporters who flocked to his prior federal arraignment in Miami, including members of the Blacks for Trump group often seen behind him at his campaign rallies.

Another recognisable personality who came to the courthouse was Randy Credico, a comedian and radio host who gained a measure of prominence when he was a witness at the 2019 trial of longtime Trump associate Roger Stone on charges that the veteran GOP operative lied to Congress and committed witness tampering by threatening to harm Mr Credicos emotional support dog, a Havanese called Bianca. Mr Stone, who was convicted of those charges, was later pardoned by Mr Trump before he left office.

The latest criminal charges against Donald Trump

The latest four-count indictment against Mr Trump alleges four crimes: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.

The indictment also lists six unnamed co-conspirators, including Trump-linked attorneys and Justice Department officials.

Prosecutors have outlined a multi-state scheme built on Mr Trumps legacy of lies and conspiracy theories to undermine the democratic process, culminating with an attack on the US Capitol fuelled by that same baseless narrative.

According to prosecutors, then-President Trump and his allies conspired with officials in states that he lost to invalidate ballots and use fraudulent electors to cast their electoral college votes on his behalf, relied on the Justice Department to implement the plan, and pressured then-Vice President Mike Pence to certify what was a fraudulent outcome when he presided over a joint session of Congress on 6 January, 2021.

After Mr Pence refused, Mr Trump and his alleged co-conspirators exploited the chaos from a mob of his supporters to delay the certification and make a last-ditch effort to reverse the results, according to the indictment.

Despite having lost, [Mr Trump] was determined to remain in power, the indictment states. These claims were false, and the Defendant knew that they were false. In fact, the Defendant was notified repeatedly that his claims were untrue  often by the people on whom he relied for candid advice on important matters, and who were best positioned to know the facts  and he deliberately disregarded the truth.

Mr Trump and his allies and right-wing pundits have accused President Biden and the US Department of Justice of weaponising the federal government against the former president, cast as a victim of political persecution against his Democratic rival. They claim that the latest indictment is a threat to his First Amendment rights to refute his election loss.

The indictment, crucially, states that Mr Trump has the right  like every American  to falsely state whatever he wants about the election, even to claim victory when in fact has not.

What he cannot do, prosecutors argue, is weaponize those lies in a conspiracy to overturn the results.

Each of these conspiracies  built on the widespread mistrust [Mr Trump] was creating through pervasive and destabilizing lies about election fraud  targeted a bedrock function of the United States federal government, according to the indictment.

More criminal charges and trials ahead

The case is far from Mr Trumps only legal obstacle as he campaigns for the 2024 Republican nomination for president.

Mr Trump faces two other criminal cases that are scheduled for trial next year.

The first, starting March 2024, will be in his former home state of New York, where a Manhattan prosecutor in April charged him with falsifying business records in connection with hush money payments used to silence stories of his alleged affairs in the lead-up to his 2016 election, marking the first-ever criminal indictment of a former president.

Two months later, he will appear in a South Florida federal courtroom to be tried on a 40-count federal indictment accusing him of illegally retaining classified documents at the Palm Beach mansion turned social club where he maintains his primary residence, and conspiring to obstruct a federal probe into his alleged unlawful retention of the documents with the aid of two co-conspirators. He has pleaded not guilty in both cases.

Mr Trump, his three eldest children and his business empire also face a $250m lawsuit from New York Attorney General Letitia James following a three-year civil investigation into allegations of fraud. That case is expected to head to trial on 2 October.

And in Georgia, a grand jury is hearing evidence and witness testimony surrounding a pressure campaign from Mr Trump and his allies to overturn 2020 election results in that state following a two-year investigation from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.

Ms Willis has indicated that potential charges stemming from that investigation would arrive this month.
The offer by the government of Kenya to consider taking the lead in helping Haiti combat heavily armed gangs was cemented after U.S. officials received word that the East African nation was open to leading a multinational force into the troubled country, and the Biden administration sent a U.S. delegation to Nairobi.

Days later, Kenya said it would positively consider sending 1,000 of its police officers to the Caribbean nation, where a deadly surge in armed gang violence and kidnappings has forced the withdrawal of non-emergency personnel from the U.S. embassy in Port-au-Prince. Last month, the violence led to the deaths of dozens of Haitians who were summarily executed by armed gang members in a rural valley less than two hours north of the capital.

But a lot remains to be done before any foreign cops start patrolling in Haiti, a top Biden administration official told the Miami Herald, pointing out that the Kenya offer to lead a security mission in Haiti is far from a done deal. What happens next will depend on the outcome of a Kenyan government assessment mission to Haiti and a vote by the United Nations Security Council.

What we needed to do right now was to try and find a country that would lead this thing. Now that we think that we found that, well see after the assessment, Todd Robinson, the assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, told the Herald in an interview Thursday. It will be up to the lead country, to the Haitians and to the U.N, to figure out, What is this going to look like? Whats going to be needed? How many more forces beyond what could potentially be committed by a lead country are going to be necessary? And how do they want this to look? We dont want to preclude any of that.

Last month, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was given up to 30 days by the Security Council to report back on various options for helping Haiti with its security situation. With an Aug. 15 deadline approaching, Guterres representative in Haiti has been meeting with Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who is currently looking at four different options. They range from a mission with a large footprint with both police and military contingents, to one that would only protect strategic installations like ports and major roads, to a robust medium-sized mission authorized to use force and to disarm and dismantle gangs.

READ MORE: Exclusive: Confidential U.N. document spells out thinking on foreign troops for Haiti

Robinson, who headed the U.S. delegation that arrived in Nairobi on July 22, said during the meeting they discussed what the U.S. had in mind but also wanted to see how far the Kenyans were willing to go. Kenya President William Ruto had previously spoken with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Henry, and his government had been a vocal advocate of African countries taking a leadership role on Haiti during Kenyas tenure as a non-permanent member on the Security Council.

Still, when the U.S. delegation left Nairobi, there were no assurances other than that Kenya would look seriously at helping in Haiti. The delegation left Nairobi, Robinson said, thinking that any announcement would come out only after an assessment mission to Haiti took place.

We were pleasantly surprised to see their announcement come out, he said about the statement issued Saturday by Kenya Foreign Minister Alfred N. Mutua.

Kenya expects to deploy an assessment mission the week of Aug. 19, Robinson said. Some members will visit the U.S. to hold further talks, while a smaller contingent will visit Port-au-Prince to meet with Haitian authorities and others about what is needed with a security mission, and how Kenya can help.

Then they will make a decision, a full commitment to either do it or not do it, after that assessment, said Robinson.

Should the mission go ahead, there will be vetting of officers as well as pre-deployment training on human rights. There are also ongoing discussions about accountability, said Robinson, noting that the Kenyans are fully aware of the history of international interventions in Haiti and so they understand the sensitivity of what this will entail and they are not going into this with their eyes closed.

Significant step

Kenyas offer is a significant step forward in what has been an exhausting and at times seemingly daunting appeal by the United States and Guterres for an international force to help Haitis beleaguered police force. The appeal was first made by Henry in October as a powerful gang federation, led by a former police officer, Jimmy Barbecue Cherizier, blocked the entrance to the countrys main fuel terminal and port in Port-au-Prince.

The blockade, which lasted for nearly six weeks, deepened an already worsening humanitarian crisis as diesel, gasoline, food and drinking water became scarce and a resurgence in water-borne cholera took new victims.

Despite backing from the U.S., countries were skeptical and reluctant to volunteer to lead a mission to Haiti. Some feared the domestic fallout, while others noted Haitis fraught and complicated history with outside armed interventions.

Eventually, some countries did volunteer to help, The Bahamas, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, among them. But despite their previous deployment histories to Haiti, they lacked the capacity to lead the mission.

With Kenya considering taking the lead, both the U.S. and Guterres have reiterated their appeals to other nations, particularly from the region, to join forces with Kenya.

Robinson, who estimates that the cost of such a mission at between $200 million and $400 million a year, said the U.S. will be passing the hat around, because there is no way to directly bill countries since it is not a true U.N. peacekeeping mission.

The Kenya-led mission would be a hybrid arrangement. It would operate under a Security Council mandate but U.N. staff wont have the same kind of monitoring and oversight capabilities that they would have with a peacekeeping operation. Still, the U.N. will be blamed for any shortcomings, observers say.

Linda Greenfield-Thomas, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., described the proposed mission as very much a police action to stabilize the country so that [Haiti] can get back on the path of democracy... that will lead to a stable government that will be able to deal with the situation in the future.

Asked about the unusual arrangement, she said on Tuesday that Kenya will answer to the Security Council, and the U.S. will work with council members on a resolution that it hopes will give Kenya the guidance they need to go in to establish their presence on the ground.

Yes, it is unusual. But what is happening in Haiti is unusual, Thomas-Greenfield said. This is not a traditional peacekeeping force, this is not a traditional security situation. We have gangs that have taken over the country, taken over communities that are terrorizing civilians every single day.

Though Kenyas interest in Haiti has been brewing for months, the offer started to develop over the summer. In June, after meeting with U.S. officials in The Bahamas, Henry traveled to Paris to meet with African leaders, including Kenyas president, to request help.

Days before Kenyas public announcement, Brian A. Nichols, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere, told a Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee that finding a nation willing to lead the intervention into Haiti has been a challenge, and Kenya was among several countries the U.S. was speaking to.

He noted the Caribbean countries that have publicly said they would be willing to participate, have Haitian Creole speakers who could be an important resource for interpretation and translation. A democracy in East Africa that has suffered its share of terrorists attacks along its border with Somalia, Kenya is English-speaking but has participated in peacekeeping operations in its region.

People need to remember that the Kenyan police and the Kenyan military... have been dealing with their own terrorist problem for quite a while along their northern border. So this is a force that is fully capable of doing the type of civilian security thats necessary, said Robinson.

He added that we know that there are already rumors out there that Theyre trying to prop up on Henry. We do not equate this with propping up Prime Minister Henry and the political solution is still the primary solution to bringing safety and security and order in Haiti. This is to to support the Haiti political solution that might come out of this.

More atrocities, embassy departure

On the same day as the Senate hearing, the State Department ordered the evacuation of embassy staff in Port-au-Prince and the departure of U.S. citizens from Haiti. A surge in gang violence in nearby neighborhoods had led to dozens of families seeking refuge in front of the embassy.

In the Lower Artibonite Valley, the situation was even more precarious. A human rights report issued by the Eyes Wide Open Foundation/Fondasyon Je Klere in Port-au-Prince said at least 29 people were summarily executed in less than 30 days last month, while a dozen people were kidnapped and several women were raped and homes were looted and burned.

In one instance on July 14, eight innocent women in the rural town of Liancourt, where a police substation suffered three deadly gang attacks in January, were forcibly removed from their homes and executed in the middle of the street in broad daylight by heavily armed men belonging to the Gran Grif gang. On July 23, gang members invaded Liancourt again and burned several houses. Four people burned to death inside their homes.

More than 70% of the population of Liancourt had to abandon their residence to take refuge in other neighboring municipalities, increasing the already considerable number of internally displaced people across the country who receive no government support, the foundation said in the report published Thursday.

The human rights group criticized the Henry governments lack of response, saying that faced with the terror of gangs the government had responded with radio silence, inaction and has not offered any protection plan for the displaced persons, no relocation plan, nor any security measures to hold gangs to respect and facilitate the return of displaced people.

In fact, a petition by the residents for police to station an armored tank in the municipality has gone unanswered, the report said, while at the same time, local residents reported that traders who want to cross the town of Liancourt with their goods must pay between 500 to 1,000 U.S. dollars to the police so that an armored tank of the National Police of Haiti can facilitate the crossing.

Primary law-enforcement authority

Those are just some of the challenges any international force going into Haiti will face, along with the Haitian polices inability to hold security gains in gang-controlled neighborhoods because they lack the equipment and staffing.

Well aware of the challenges, Robinson said the U.S. is seeking help from an outside force with holding the ground that the Haiti National Police has secured, so that the [Haiti National Police] continues to be the face of the fight against the gangs.

The Haitian national police is still going to be the primary law enforcement authority, he said.

The multinational force is basically going to give the [Haitian National Police] an opportunity to move away from protecting ground that theyve already won, and continue to go after the gangs, to continue to do some training, to give some people some relief, some off time to do more recruiting, he said. All of those are things that they cant really do now because theyre both holding positions that they won and conducting operations.
Michelle Obama says she feels an emptiness following the death of the familys chef, opening up after Tafari Campbells body was found outside her and former President Obamas Marthas Vineyard home.

I will miss my friend, Tafari, the former first lady said in a Thursday Facebook post.

The emptiness is hard, Obama said.

But I promise to stay strong, keep living, and honor your legacy in every way possible, she added.

Massachusetts State Police last month identified the body of a missing paddleboarder recovered from Edgartown Great Pond as Campbell. The 45-year-old Virginia native, a personal chef for the former first family who had worked at the White House, was visiting the Obamas residence at the time of his death.

In a statement following his death, the Obamas called Campbell a warm, fun, extraordinarily kind person who made all of our lives a little brighter.

Michelle Obama, in her Thursday Facebook post, shared a photo of her and her husband smiling alongside Campbell at the White House.

Rest in peace, my brother, she said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
YEREVAN. AUGUST 4. ARMENPRESS. On August 3, Deputy Foreign Minister of Armenia Vahe Gevorgyan participated in and delivered remarks at the open debate on Famine and conflict-induced global food insecurity organized by the United States under the agenda item Maintenance of international peace and security of the UN Security Council.

The open debate was chaired by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The United Nations Famine Prevention and Response Coordinator Reena Ghelani delivered a briefing.

In his remarks, the Deputy Foreign Minister Vahe Gevorgyan particularly noted:

I would like to express my appreciation to the United States for convening this open debate on such a pertinent topic. I thank Ms. Reena Ghelani, UN Famine Prevention and Response Coordinator and other distinguished briefers for presenting their views on the ways to prevent and address famine by strengthening food security in conflict situations.

Starvation has been repeatedly used as a method of warfare and perpetration of genocide throughout history. But today, I am not going to recall examples from the past or assess future risks of famine in the context of the conflict. Instead I would bring to the attention of the Council a situation which is happening right now, a situation wherein people do not know whether today they will be able to find milk formula for their babies, loaf of bread for their children or provide medicines to critically ill relatives.

As we meet, the people of Nagorno-Karabakh face threat to their very existence resulting from the complete blockade, imposed by Azerbaijan. For more than seven months Azerbaijan continues to block the Lachin corridor, a humanitarian lifeline connecting Nagorno-Karabakh with the outside world. This illegal and inhumane action is in blatant violation of the order of the International Court of Justice of 22 February 2023 reconfirmed by July 6 order, norms of the international humanitarian law and the Trilateral Statement of 9 November 2020.

The complete halt of any humanitarian supplies by Azerbaijan since 15 June this year has led to a critical shortage of food, medical supplies and other essential goods, creating a full-fledged humanitarian crisis. Disruption of electricity and gas supplies has been paralyzing social and healthcare services and the transportation system, depriving the besieged population of their fundamental human rights.

The blockade has a particularly devastating impact on the most vulnerable segments of the population. Due to the lack of essential foods and vitamins, approximately 2,000 pregnant women, around 30,000 children, 20,000 elderly persons and 9,000 persons with disabilities are struggling to survive under conditions of malnutrition, absence of basic supplies and medicines.

Motive, Azerbaijan continuously targets civilians conducting agricultural works, augmenting its manifest intent to impose starvation on the population.

These warning signs have already been communicated by the ICRC which remains the only international humanitarian mission in Nagorno-Karabakh. In its July 25 news release the International Committee of the Red Cross expressed concern over growing humanitarian needs and emphasized that it is not currently able to bring humanitarian assistance to the civilian population through the Lachin corridor, while stressing that its humanitarian aid convoys are a lifeline for the population in the area. After 3 days of this communication Azerbaijan arrested 68-year-old Vagif Khachatryan, a person who was being transported by the ICRC from Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia for medical treatment. The arrest of a person under the ICRC protection whose transfer was preliminary agreed with Azerbaijan is not merely perfidious act but well-calculated obstruction of the ICRC work in Nagorno-Karabakh.

To address life-saving needs of the most vulnerable, on 26 July the Government of Armenia decided to deliver a consignment of around 360 tons of essential goods, mainly food and medical supplies to Nagorno-Karabakh. We appealed to the peacekeeping forces of the Russian Federation to organize the delivery of the humanitarian assistance to those in need which was established practice throughout past months. However, up until now, the humanitarian cargo remains at the entrance to the Lachin corridor due to obstruction and denial by Azerbaijani side of its transfer.

The dire humanitarian situation on the ground and the risks of evolving hunger in Nagorno-Karabakh require efficient and timely response by the international community to ensure full and unconditional implementation of the ICJ decisions and full respect of international human rights and international humanitarian law.

We hope that yesterday's statement of the UN Secretary-General wherein he expressed deep concern on the humanitarian situation and emphasized the need of the implementation of ICJ orders for ensuring unimpeded movement of persons, vehicles and cargo along Lachin corridor will be the first step towards full UN engagement on the ground. This engagement is as needed as ever. The cost of inaction is too high to be sustained and this mass atrocity being perpetrated through starvation should and can be prevented and stopped.

We call on the UN and its Security Council to undertake urgent measures to ensure full adherence of Azerbaijan to its legally binding obligations under the ICJ orders and the international humanitarian law, immediately restore the freedom of movement across the Lachin corridor and allow safe and unimpeded humanitarian access of the UN agencies and the ICRC to Nagorno-Karabakh.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 4, ARMENPRESS. During the trilateral meeting between Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan in Moscow the Russian side has made some suggestions to Armenia and Azerbaijan on how to de-escalate the tension, Head of the Russian Foreign Ministrys Fourth CIS Department Denis Gonchar told TASS in an interview.

The last contacts at the level of foreign ministers of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia that took place in Moscow on July 25 happened amid an extremely difficult situation in Nagorno-Karabakh. Without revealing sensitive details, I can say that we have proposed compromise solutions for de-escalation of tensions, which the parties have taken to study at home. We hope that humanitarian considerations, caring for ordinary people will prevail over the political differences between Baku and Yerevan, he said.

The official drew attention on the fact that Russia actively participated in the settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict at all stages and reminded about the trilateral agreements signed in 2020-2022 with the mediation of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Gonchar also noted that the Russian side continues active mediation efforts in all directions, including the unblocking of economic and transport communications in the region, the start of the process of delimitation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, the finalizing of a peace treaty between Yerevan and Baku, the development of dialogue between public representatives and experts.

"Not everything is going as fast as we would want to, but it is understandable, taking into account the series of problems and contradictions that have accumulated during the years of the conflict," Gonchar added.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 4, ARMENPRESS. Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Vahan Kostanyan has reacted to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyevs recent Euronews interview where the latter said to win the war was the mission of my life, of my political life.

Kostanyan said that the international community should take immediate action to prevent ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Statement of President of Azerbaijan that "winning war was mission of his life, of his political life..." clearly demonstrates how impunity gives green-light for new atrocity crimes. Intl community should take immediate action to prevent ethnic cleansing in Nagorno Karabakh, the Deputy FM said in a post on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 4, ARMENPRESS. Today, during a joint press conference Ucom CJSC Director General Ralph Yirikian, along with Sunchild nature and culture conservation NGO founder Ruben Khachatryan and director Eva Martirosyan, announced the start of a series of environmental projects targeting young people. They also signed a memorandum of understanding. The partnership, carrying the slogan "Think green, act green," aims to form a continuously empowered, active community of environmentally aware and responsible young people.

"Just a few days ago, I announced that Ucom will consistently implement corporate social responsibility projects, focusing not only on technology-based initiatives, but also on promoting environmental sustainability and the green concept. The company is determined to play a vital role in building a greener future for Armenia. We need to think green to act green as well," said Ralph Yirikian, Director General of Ucom.

"Sunchild" NGO, which has been operating since 2006, is best known as the founder and organizer of the "Sunchild" international environmental festival. This year, Ucom will proudly present itself as the main supporter of the event.

"On October 13-18, the 12th international environmental festival "Arevordi" plans a particularly rich program, with one of its key components focused on initiatives aimed at young people. The series of events called "Youth Oasis" includes workshops on various environmental topics, master classes, a film program, exhibitions, and a masquerade parade," said Eva Martirosyan, director of Arevordi Nature and Culture Conservation NGO.

Within the framework of the festival, Ucom established the "Best Young Eco-journalist" award. This award serves as the logical continuation of the environmental journalism training course, which aims to provide young journalists with fundamental knowledge and skills for in-depth, multi-faceted coverage of environmental topics and journalistic investigation.

A distinctive feature of the "green" cooperation is that the Ucom team will act as a direct implementer, participating in the annual tree planting event organized by Sunchild NGO in the fall. Additionally, in the coming months, employees from various departments of Ucom will visit various communities benefiting from the educational programs of "Arevordi" NGO, where they will conduct professional orientation courses for local youth.
STEPANAKERT, AUGUST 4, ARMENPRESS. Demonstrators in Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) plan to organize a peaceful march towards Hakari Bridge where Azerbaijan has installed an illegal checkpoint and is keeping Lachin Corridor blockaded.

The demonstrators have formed an organization called the Peoples Movement for Unblocking of the Corridor to organize the rally.

Artur Osipyan, a member of the movement, told ARMENPRESS that they see a solution to the situation through peaceful struggle.

Based on the current situation, a large number of peaceful, unarmed residents can go to Hakari and resolve the issues on the ground, meaning to negotiate. This doesnt mean that we are renouncing the state bodies of Artsakh, contrary to the opinions claiming that with this step wed be doing what Aliyev told us to do. Thats not so. With this peoples movement we are once again raising the issues that weve raised before, to show that there are no criminals in Artsakh whove usurped power and are dictating their will, but that the people and the government actually concur in all the matters concerning the self-determination and the status of Artsakh. This movement is an independent peoples movement. This is a new idea of pan-national movement, that we must go and unblock the corridor ourselves, Osipyan said.

He said that they want to rally thousands of citizens and unblock the corridor because the Russian peacekeepers and the international community are not resolving the issue.

Osipyan did not provide timeframes of the expected march.

We will announce the rally when well see that the majority of the society is ready for it, he said.

Van Novikov
YEREVAN, AUGUST 4, ARMENPRESS. Minister of Defense Suren Papikyan has held a meeting with the outgoing Head of the EU Delegation to Armenia, Ambassador Andrea Wiktorin.

The Ministry of Defense said in a readout that Papikyan and Wiktorin discussed a number of issues related to the activity of the EU monitoring mission and regional security.
In his words: "I am just a professional writer, which means I don't do blogs and try and get money for whatever I write."

Now Derek Guy, a mens fashion expert, contends in The Times that Hedgies fashion sense is stuck in the year 2000.

The temple bell rings out loud

So that gods can hear it

The muezzin on the minaret calls to prayer

So, unbelievers can fear it

Bachchoo remains fallen but proud

He has unlearnt every prayer

Staying aloof from the pious crowd

Shunning hope, embracing despair!

From Sober Day, by Bachchoo

Hedgie Sunak, his Tory Party still way behind Labour in the polls, is now announcing policies which he calculates will restore the Tory fortunes. He almost did when, in February, he renegotiated the deal with the EU on the BoJo-botched Northern Ireland Brexit Protocol. He negotiated his altered deal with the EU in Windsor and, using the presence of King Charles III, called it the Windsor Framework. It seemed popular but then the Democratic Unionist Opposition party of Northern Ireland refused to accept all of it. Its instrumentality in the Tory resurgence was therefore short-lived.

Nevertheless, this week Hedgie announced new policies. His government will go ahead with building new houses -- popular. It will also expand the exploitation of North Sea oil and gas -- some critics say that would be environmentally damaging, but does the voting populace care?

Probably not, if it reduces gas prices.

And of course, the Stop the Boats bill which was passed in Parliament is still, however, nasty and impractical, but is being played as Hedgies trump card. Critics say this Illegal Immigration Bill is a stunt that cant be practically implemented.

This week its stratagems suffered a setback. Cruella Cowardperson (Oh, OK Suella Braverman), the home secretary, has requisitioned large ocean barges to house asylum-seekers while their claims are examined. This, she says, will save the taxpayer millions of pounds spent on the accommodation, etc, of these wretched exiles. Now the fire service has

publicly declared that the recently hired barge is a death trap. Cruella has been thinking again (its commonly accepted that thinking needs a brain) and is going to commandeer surplus Army tents.

Even with all this turmoil, effort at electoral redemption and debate, two items about Hedgie surfaced in the national news this week, one routine and the other one curious. The first was that he and his family were going on holiday. Its now been publicly announced that they will be going to the United States, including to Disneyland. The other item is, as national commentary, a bit strange but much more interesting.

Fashion commentators have written long articles about the shortness of Hedgies trousers. Hedgie constantly prefers to wear expensively tailored trousers, the bottoms of which dont drape in small crumples over his shoes but hang a few inches above his ankles. When he sits down, the trouser-legs climb to reveal socks and half his shins.

But why? There is speculation that Hedgie, who is shortish, mistakenly believes that this trouserly-shortcoming makes him look taller. If he does, perhaps he should use a full-length mirror more often. The idea that the richest British PM in history is trying to save on a few inches of cloth to lower the price of his hand-tailored suits is patently absurd. Dismissed!

Now Derek Guy, a mens fashion expert, contends in The Times that Hedgies fashion sense is stuck in the year 2000, when, for a brief time, short trousers were the vogue.

Guy contends that Hedgie is fashion-conscious, but 23 years out of date. As proof, he quotes the brand name of the shoes that Hedgie wears. Again, fashionable in 2000 (AD, that is). So is Hedgies idiosyncrasy an oversight, following advice from some analyst of the voting intentions of the fashion freaks, or just that Hedgie is behind the times.

Now, gentle reader, I dont know if all males have some shameful or embarrassing episode to do with trousers, but I certainly have had at least two in my short and happy existence. I was fourteen years old when I finished school in Poona -- now Pune -- and enrolled in college. I always wore shorts, as did most of my classmates, to school. The only occasions to wear long trousers, of which I must have had a single pair, was to go to the fire temple on Parsi New Year or perhaps to go to a Parsi wedding celebration and wear them instead of the dark velvet shorts.

So, I thought nothing of going to college on the first day of term in my normal wear. My sister, who was in the year above me in college and a renowned local beauty, at least on campus, returned home that day furious.

He came to college in his shorts, and everyone knew he was my brother and they laughed at him, she protested to my guardian aunts.

I was hustled off to the tailor in Centre Street and my aunts paid an emergency fee for two pairs of trousers to be delivered that night.

The second embarrassment: A Mrs Vesughar, overseer of all the students who had won a Tata scholarship to go abroad, had been a student at Oxford in the 1920s. Her hired tailor fitted me out with three pairs of Oxford bags -- expansive woollen trousers. I arrived in England wearing one of them. All the lads in Cambridge were wearing Mods and Rockers fashions and some wore jeans. I was a very odd man out and endured the embarrassment while I saved up for weeks to buy myself some nondescript, in-fashion trousers.

Will Hedgie feel embarrassed enough to get with it -- whatever IT is?
by Steve Suwannarat

Thailands National Assembly is waiting for the Constitutional Court to rule on a petition that can seal the fate of the Move Forward leader Pita Limcharoenrat. The For Thais party is in talks with other parties after its alliance with Pitas party unravelled. Former Prime Minister Shinawatra is not likely to return soon.

Bangkok (AsiaNews)  The Speaker of the Thai House of Representatives (lower house), Wan Muhamad Noor, has again delayed a vote to pick a new prime minister, pending a decision by Constitutional Court on a petition that questioned the constitutionality of a parliamentary resolution blocking the Move Forward (Phak Kao Klai) Party from nominating its candidate for prime minister for a second round of voting.

Move Forward has the largest number of seats in the coalition that won last Mays election to the lower house, and can legitimately aspire to take power from pro-military parties who have governed since 2019.

Some lawmakers question the Courts decision that is effectively blocking the nomination of its leader Pita Limcharoenrat to the post of prime minister.

Under Thailands current constitutional framework  imposed by the military in 2017, five years after they seized power in a coup  a democratic alternative is almost impossible.

On 12 July, the winning coalition unanimously proposed Pita for the office of prime minister, but failed to reach a 50+1 majority in a joint session of Thailands National Assembly, defeated by a combined vote of the outgoing coalition, which includes elected representatives and most military-appointed senators.

A week later, Move Forward and its junior partner, the For Thais (Pheu Thai) Party, failed to agree to submit Pitas name again. This made his candidacy impractical, despite doubts about the constitutionality of the whole process.

The Constitutional Court is expected to rule on the petition on 16 August, but whatever its decision, it is unlikely to change Pitas fate since the Election Commission referred him for disqualification over an alleged conflict of interests.

This has snowballed in the past few days, as the For Thais Party ended its alliance with Move Forward, sparking a round of talks among party leaders to patch together a new coalition that could obtain a majority in the National Assembly, even with the support of political rivals.

Any decision on any new coalition will wait until the Constitutional Court announces its ruling.

Nevertheless, the uncertainty of the situation and the ongoing negotiations  mostly informally, but sometimes secret  between certain political parties and former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, make it impossible for the latter to return on 10 August. This will probably have heavy and unpredictable consequences.

Thaksin went into voluntary exile in 2008. When in power, his policies proved controversial, popular among the poorer classes but strongly disliked by the pro-monarchy establishment, the military, and the large oligopolies.

While many of the charges against the former prime minister were dropped, he still faces legal jeopardy and could be put in prison for several years.

In the absence of an agreement on his fate and safety negotiated by the For Thais Party, which he founded and de facto still leads, even from abroad, he can hardly come back and risk his personal liberty.
by Sumon Corraya

The suspects families responded right away, proclaiming their innocence. Police say they have solid evidence that the people involved were planning acts of terrorism. The authorities also accuse them of links with the Islami Chhatra Shibir, a student organisation connected to the country's largest Islamist party.

Dhaka (AsiaNews)  More than 30 students, many from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), were arrested early this week in Sunamganj under the Bangladeshs anti-terrorism law on suspected ties with Islami Chhatra Shibir, an organisation believed to be the student wing of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, the countrys largest Islamist political party.

The next day the students relatives held a press conference in Dhaka claiming that the students were innocent. We can say that our children are not involved in any anti-state activity. They are ordinary students, said one parent on behalf of the others.

Ali Ahasan Junaid, brother of one of the young men arrested, tried to explain the situation.

On July 29, the students went for a boat trip to Sunamganj's Tangua Haor. They were not available on their phones for a long time, he said.

At around 10 pm, he added, many called suddenly and asked for their identity card number, saying that they had been arrested and were at the Tahirpur police station. We then tried to contact the local police superintendent and the officer in charge, without success."

Tangua Haor is a wetland that draws thousands of visitors every year.

In the police report, the 34 students are accused of disturbing the peace, engaging in terrorist activities, and conspiring against the state in a "religious jihad".

Syed Iftekhar Hossain, the officer in charge of the Tahirpur police station, explained that the police had received a reliable tip that the students were involved in anti-government activities.

"Do you think we arrested them for no reason? We received solid information that they had come here to plan sabotage," he said.

Police seized mobile phones, bags, and papers from the students, including brochures about camp funding and Quran reading.

The students were detained in prison, but 32 of the 34 were eventually released on bail.
Today's news: Three Christians seized by soldiers in Myanmars Chin State are dead; a pastor taken with them escaped. In Seongnam, South Korea, a young man drives a car into people and stabs passers-by, injuring 14 people. Mongolia wants greater cooperation with the US in rare earth mining. Afghanistan and Pakistan accuse each other of poor border controls. Politically motivated executions increase in Iran. Russias Baltic fleet began Ocean Shield 2023 naval drill.

IRAQ

Yesterday Iraq marked the ninth anniversary since the Islamic State group began its siege of Sinjar on 3 August 2014, followed by atrocities and massacres against the countrys Yazidi minority. The jihadi group carried out a veritable genocide against Yazidis with killings, kidnappings, rapes, and enslavement. Even today, more than 2,000 women and girls are still missing, believed to be captive.

MYANMAR

Three Presbyterian deacons kidnapped in mid-July in Chin State by soldiers with the Khalaya 274 Battalion, based in Mindat, are presumed dead. A pastor taken with them managed to escape and is now receiving medical treatment. The Christians were targeted by the military for their alleged support of rebel and anti-regime groups.

SOUTH KOREA

A man drove his car into passers-by yesterday in Seongnam, a commuter town near Seoul, then got out and stabbed several more, injuring 14 people. So far, no motive has been given. Police arrested the assailant, described as a man in his 20s with possible mental issues.

MONGOLIA  UNITED STATES  CHINA

Mongolia wants to boost cooperation with the United States in rare earths mining, said Mongolian Prime Minister L. Oyun-Erdene during a visit to Washington. The Asian country has vast deposits of these metals as well as copper, However, he warned that a new cold war" between the United States and China would harm the global economy.

AFGHANISTAN  PAKISTAN

Tensions are rising between Pakistan and Afghanistan. The Taliban reject Pakistans criticism over their seeming failure to control the border where the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TPP) is very active. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid urged Pakistan to share its concerns over terrorism directly.

IRAN

Politically motivated executions are rising at a fast pace in Iran. According to the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), Iranian authorities are increasingly resorting to capital punishment as a "tactic of intimidation and retribution." The authorities have executed 17 people, mostly young, in the last 10 months following "blatantly unlawful" prosecutions.

RUSSIA

Russias Baltic fleet has started Ocean Shield 2023 naval exercises, involving 30 warships and patrol boats, 20 support vessels, 30 Navy aircraft, and some 6,000 troops. The aim is the check the preparedness of Russias maritime forces to "defend national interests" in a "sensitive operational area", the Ministry of Defence in Moscow said in a statement.

UZBEKISTAN

Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed an order granting the countrys tour operators subsidies ranging from US$ 20 to US$ 100 per foreign visitor, starting on 1 January 2024. The authorities want to increase the number of visitors from certain countries. They will also provide aid to airliners offering charter flights. The goal is to boost foreign tourism, which is currently in a s slump.
The Conundrum Couloir is the continuous band of snow from the basin to the left of center in this view. The route is steep with high exposure at a summit of 14,037 feet.
Roaring Fork School District Board of Education member Natalie Torres told the Aspen Daily News she will not seek reelection this fall. Torres is the first of five board members in RFSD and Aspen School District to publicly state their intentions for the upcoming election. Rich Allen/Aspen Daily News
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Oregon Ends 72-Year Ban on Self-Serve Gas Pumps

Published Aug. 4, 2023

Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek on Aug. 4 signed a bill officially allowing the states drivers pump their own gas for the first time in more than seven decades.

House Bill 2426 allows gas stations to open half their pumps to self-service.

Oregon news outlets published explainers the same day on how to pump your own gas.

The bill was passed by the states House in March and Senate at the end of June.

With the move, New Jersey is now the lone U.S. state that does not allow self-service at gas pumps.


kW

DCT

Teased on the Sant'Agata Bolognese's social media, the vehicle is described as "a one-of-a-kind masterpiece" that may or may not add the Unica (Italian for unique) suffix. The supercar will be unveiled today, August 4, 2023, and we cannot wait to see what it is.From the two short videos released by Lamborghini, it appears that it will have a unique blue paint finish, perhaps with a forged carbon twist. Either that, or the blue light tricked us, and it could sport a different hue. It appears that the Italian exotic car maker also gave it a special logo that says 'Opera Unica for Porto Cervo 2023,' and we reckon they haven't stopped there, as it could feature additional goodies to set it apart from the rest of the Huracan Sterrato lineup.We also cannot tell you if this bespoke creation is part of the 1,499 units that will see the light of day or if it is car #1,500. Chances are it was commissioned by one of Lambo's deep-pocketed clients, as we doubt it will be up for grabs as soon as it debuts. In case you forgot, the Huracan lineup is sold out until the end of production, and its yet-unnamed successor is due in 2024, CEO Stephan Winkelmann has confirmed. Thus, the best way to get one is to search the used car market. Nonetheless, you will likely get it at a premium. When the Sterrato was still available, it used to start at almost $280,000 in the US.As for some of the stuff that sets it apart, you're looking at more inches between its belly and the road, exclusive suspension with longer-travel shocks, black cladding, a pair of lights attached to the nose, roof rails, and exclusive wheels and tires. The Rally driving mode is another thing that's limited to the Huracan Sterrato, joining the recalibrated Strada and Sport modes.Powering it is the same 5.2-liter V10 engine found on the rest of the Huracan range. In this case, the naturally aspirated engine develops 601 hp (610 ps/449). The torque stands at 413 lb-ft (560 Nm), and it's delivered to the all-wheel drive system with a mechanical self-locking differential through a seven-speed. The all-road model , which is the brand's second most versatile vehicle after the Urus super crossover, has a top speed rated at roughly 160 mph or 260 kph, and it takes 3.4 seconds to accelerate to sixty-two miles per hour (100 kph) from zero.
Styled at the brand's Design Studio and Southern California, the Acura ZDX was previewed by last year's Precision Concept . However, it was significantly toned down for production, with the nose not being that pointy anymore and the headlamps looking different. The closed-off grille is smaller, and the bumper has a cleaner look.As you can imagine, the door handles are not hidden anymore, and instead of the side cameras, it gets traditional mirrors. The back end looks somewhat the same, but from what we can tell, the tailgate is not that tall, and the bumper is bigger and doesn't feature any vents. The three-quarter design is also different, and the taillights could mirror those of the study to some extent.Accompanying the official announcement is a teaser image of the Acura ZDX in a dark background. Brightening it up reveals the shape and graphics of the LED headlights and the grille with surrounding lighting. We can also see that it has a muscular hood, a wide intake in the front bumper flanked by the vents, and a pair of small roof rails. The ground clearance appears to be a bit more generous than the concept's, and the wheels will also be new in all likelihood.Expected to be underpinned by GM's Ultium architecture, the Acura ZDX will feature battery-electric power. We don't know anything about the drivetrain yet, but it could pack a dual-motor setup, at least on higher trim levels. On top of that, this will be the brand's first model to feature Google Services, with stuff such as the Maps, Assistant, and Play Store being integrated straight from the factory. It will also get premium audio signed by Bang & Olufsen as a result of the two companies signing a partnership.Said to "put the driver experience first," the Type S variant will join the regular versions of the Acura ZDX and will "bring an exhilarating driving experience to the electric vehicle market," according to the Assistant Vice President of Acura National Sales, Emile Korkor. Not much is known about the Type S, but it should feature sportier styling on the outside, added gear in the cabin, a punchier motor, and perhaps some chassis enhancements.The pricing details for the North American market will probably be kept a secret for now until the model goes on sale. And it has been confirmed that the ZDX will launch early next year, with deliveries likely commencing shortly after.
We could be at the peak of the car market. Private sellers aren't asking astronomical figures for their used cars anymore. Instead, automakers seem to be chasing that increased profit margin. Porsche's brand-new 911 S/T is an excellent example in this regard. Let's discover it by building one from scratch. We also find an explanation for what the Stuttgart-based marque is doing (to us all).

Photo: Rolex

Made-to-measure luxury

Photo: Porsche

Reasoned madness

Photo: Porsche

Spoiling ourselves

Photo: Porsche

Add a little bit of... Spice!

Photo: Porsche

Peculiar technicalities that might not matter much

Photo: Porsche

This timeline we live in has been wild but rewarding for gearheads, especially recently. I, for one, am ready to take a bow. Master strategists run Porsche. The entire company and its dealership network seem to function in unison, like a high-end Swiss timepiece mechanism.But maybe that's intentional. The German marque is mirroring a Rolex Day-Date as of late. The watch was first launched in 1957 and represented the Swiss company's unexpected desire to outdo itself. You see, Rolex had the Datejust in its portfolio a couple of years before the Day-Date's release. That model premiered the self-winding chronometer wristwatch, which displayed the date in a small window between two and four o'clock.Unwilling to reach a plateau, Rolex kept innovating and striving for perfection. It eventually figured out how to keep the window showing the date while adding a separate mechanism showing the day of the week. Another small window was added on the dial, just under the midnight/noon hour marker. It may sound simple but for a mechanical watch It just isn't. By that year's standards, it was a breakthrough.Anticipating a solid increase in popularity, Rolex made the elegant and gorgeous timepiece exclusively from gold or platinum. Eventually, this watch and its three-piece bracelet design became known as the "Rolex Presidential." JFK's successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, wore one. Warren Buffett, Donald Trump, and James Gandolfini (who played Tony Soprano in 'The Sopranos') were also seen with one hooked to their wrists.But revised versions of the Rolex Day-Date also made their way to people like the Dalai Lama or Rihanna. It wasn't popular just with a select group of people. Moreover, as time passed, the watch was revisited and updated to match the latest industry standards.Today, you can configure your own Rolex Day-Date. But the chances you'll actually get to wear one in a reasonable amount of time are slim. The Swiss watchmaker has said on many occasions that production is swamped, and they cannot move any faster.That's not because Rolex wouldn't have the funds to build another factory, train the right people, or get watchmakers to work overtime. It's all about the preservation of goods. Scarcity enhances demand for luxury goods because they exude exclusivity, which, in turn, raises the brand value. Simply put, this is how a business maintains its swanky products relevant to the targeted customers.And that brings us back to Porsche.At the time of writing, there are 26 versions of the iconic 911 (992). The 26th was just recently introduced, and, to put it simply, it's a GT3 RS without the crazy aero work (including the large wing) and the well-known seven-speed PDK transmission. The two-seater manual 911 S/T is yet another Porsche that few people will ever drive on public roads. And that's a shame because this is a driver's car.Moreover, the materials used to make this 911 will be enough to entertain any conversation and spark a healthy discussion with nearly anyone. Who wouldn't like to hear about a combination of carbon fiber, magnesium, lightweight glass, and ceramic?So, why limit the model's production? Well, it's pretty straightforward - the car's an instant collectible. Besides having an MSRP of $290,000, the automaker decided to make only 1,963. That's Porsche's way of saying "Happy Birthday" to the 911, which turned 60 this year. Owners will also be invited to buy a $13,000 Porsche Design Chronograph 1 watch to help them remember how lucky they are even when they're not behind the wheel of this fantastic machine. Yes, this one can be configured as well.Enthusiasts will know that this supercar should've been named the 911 R. But thanks to Andreas Preuninger, who's been in charge of Porsche's GT cars for 22 years, we know why that's not the case  the marque didn't want to dilute the 911 R designation. It's also a way to keep special models' production going predictably and to allow previous customers to enjoy the rising value of their supercars.The racing-only 1971 ST replaced the original 1967 911 R. It weighed 2,120 lb and was in production for just one year. But it was enough to have it shine at various racing events like the Daytona 6 Hours, the Sebring 12 Hours, or the Targa Florio. The car has a special place in Porsche's history because it's considered the forerunner of the mighty popular 911 Carrera RS.The 2024 911 S/T is the lightest of all the 992-generation models  it has a curb weight of 3,056 lb, no all-wheel drive, and no rear-wheel steering. Curb weight includes a full tank of gas and all the standard equipment. It does not account for passengers, cargo, or optional extras. Given today's auto trends, this is a major success!But enough talking about it. Let's build one!First thing first, colors. We must choose between standard, special, Paint to Sample, and Paint to Sample Plus. Money being no object, we go straight for the $43,390 option. Unlike McLaren, Porsche doesn't allow you to name the color you're creating, but we know that an Ocean Jade 911 S/T would look fantastic. We selected the Olymp Blue 914 color for illustration purposes, which seems quite close to our ideal paint finish.The silver wheels are gorgeous and work perfectly with our chosen color. There's no need to go for grey or black wheels.Inside, the black leather interior with white contrast stitching looks great. We ditched the bucket seats for the four-way adjustable sport ones to keep this vehicle driveable on all kinds of roads.Next, no Heritage or Exterior in Black packages for us. However, we get the lower side mirror housings in Olymp Blue 914 to add extra color.If we got the more comfortable seats, then the front axle lift system, the extended range fuel tank, and the LED Matrix headlights with PDLS+ are also a must. Who knows when we might get the sudden desire for a trip on US Route 101, right?Since the upholstery is rather basic, we didn't refrain from choosing more contrast stitching. It makes the cabin better and pairs well with the Yellow Racing seatbelts. This 911 is a limited-edition Porsche, so we personalized the vehicle key, pouch, and carbon fiber door sills. It's nice to remember what money can buy with every ingress and egress.But few people know that Porsche can cater to the wildest requests. The Exclusive Manufaktur program knows no limits if you're willing to splurge. Reach for the sky without any worries!Surprisingly, some driver-assistance systems are optional. But they might add more weight to this supercar. Thus, even though they could prove helpful, we ditched them. We did the same for ambient lighting but couldn't ignore the front and rear preparation for a dashcam. That might come in handy and may even be an insurer's request in some jurisdictions.The last step of our configuration process is choosing where we want to take delivery of this vehicle. It's cool to dream about owning one, but we have already seen Porsche dealers telling prospective buyers not to call or text. But for the sake of it, we went with the European delivery.Our 2024 Porsche 911 S/T costs $332,550 before any taxes and fees. The dealer markup is, of course, not included. It could go above the $400,000 mark in some cases unless Porsche has convinced dealers not to tax selected customers.The 26th version of the 992-generation 911 is a very special one. It got us thinking - is this Porsche's way of making a lot more profit, or is it a magnificent business strategy that may confuse unsuspecting enthusiasts?For someone not interested in keeping up with everything about the Stuttgart-based carmaker, so many 911 variations may feel excessive. Some may even claim that Porsche's diluting its most iconic car. Bet they'd be very wrong.Porsche's giving other automakers a masterclass about remaining successful over the years as a luxury automaker. It's a combination of planned rarity and meticulous planning. The German marque could make all the 911s customers ask for. It would see short-term gains with each new generation. But that wouldn't be sustainable for a family-owned business that's part of a massive automotive group.So, Porsche keeps 911 production at satisfactory levels. You'd have to wait 12 to 18 months for a Turbo S. For an enthusiast, that makes sense. They don't need a Turbo S; they desire one.But Porsche also has Macans, Cayennes, and Taycans in its portfolio. To ensure customers also buy these cars, it creates limited-edition 911 units. You'll make your family drive Porsche just to have a shot at getting something like the 911 Sport Classic, 911 Dakar, or the star of this piece, the 911 S/T. And when you get such an allocation, you won't hesitate to spend a lot more than it's necessary.On a macro level, human psychology is simple. Businesses anticipate our wants and try to meet them. When they find a successful recipe, they keep on refining it. Porsche knows it has a reliable customer base. That's why it allows most of them to dream about becoming members of the elite social circle of limited-edition 911 owners. Once you're in, you may not feel as special. But for those willing to splurge, it's the hunt to get there that matters.Thus, expect to see more special 911s along the way. But is that a problem? Not at all. It's great that Porsche figured out a way to thrive. Let's hope this strategy keeps working because this brand is an emblematic member of the automotive industry.Long live Stuttgart's proudest son!
SUV

6x6

The official reveal took place at home in Toyota City, Japan, where the latest off-road focusedwill be known as the Land Cruiser 250 to ensure people won't confuse it with the J300 Land Cruiser presented during the summer of 2021. Concurrently, in some territories, it will be known as the Land Cruiser Prado, a moniker associated with the smaller sibling of the family.But in America, where it will return during the spring of 2024 after a three-year hiatus that probably felt like an eternity for diehard fans, it suffices to be called the 2024 Toyota Land Cruiser. However, even here is an addendum. At least initially, the company will sell just three grades  a 5,000-unit (for all of North America) Land Cruiser First Edition, the base mid-$50k Land Cruiser 1958, and the regular Land Cruiser.While all three of them feature the same powertrain, the 326-hp i-Force Max hybrid 2.4-liter turbo inline-four mill from the 2024 Tacoma, the First Edition and 1958 versions have a different front fascia from the standard Land Cruiser. Basically, Toyota's designers hit a genius stroke by allowing people to select a trim that honors either the off-road-oriented models like the initial BJ, FJ, J20/30/40/70 series, or the comfort-oriented iterations like the post-facelift J60 and J80.Naturally, this worldwide introduction attracted a lot of attention from everywhere, including the rumor mill, where now there are talks about the next cool 'Yota being a Corolla Cross-based unibody compact pickup truck (think Stout revival), as well as the imaginative realm of digital car content creators. As far as the latter is concerned, it seems the vintage styling is not enough to cater to its origins, and virtual artists are further honing classic skills like the three-door soft-top convertible SUV lifestyle and now also the commercial-oriented venues.More precisely, Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation-based virtual artist Aksyonov Nikita has prepared a fresh take on the latest Toyota - a couple of Land Cruiser trucks with cargo beds behind the cabin. In his vision, the four-door Land Cruiser pickup truck could easily slot above the Hilux model across overseas regions, while in America, it would probably be tucked between the N400 Tacoma and XK70 Tundra. And, for sure, the 2024 Land Cruiser looks pretty darn cool with a cargo bed attached to its body-on-frame platform.But wait, as that is not all. Instead, the pixel master also dreamed of a Toyota Land Cruiser pickup truck that could rule undefeated across all terrain  and made it amonster! So, which one is your favorite now?
SUV

The highlights are easy to grasp, though it's not as easy to keep tabs on them because there are so many running around in off-road drabs. For starters, the 2024 Land Cruiser (Prado or 250 in some other regions) is not the same as the J300 Land Cruiser introduced during the summer of 2021 but has a significant connection to it  the TNGA-F body-on-frame platform.In America, the 2024 Land Cruiser not only looks incredibly vintage and cool in its two different trim guises - Land Cruiser 1958 and First Edition with round LEDs and regular Land Cruiser with squared front fascia. But it's also a hybrid superstar because it shares the i-Force Max powertrain (2.4-liter turbo inline-four plus electric assistance, 326 hp) with the N400 fourth-gen 2024 Tacoma mid-size pickup truck.And don't dare to call it a Lexus GX clone because aside from (almost) the same profile, they differ vastly at the front, rear, and even inside the cabin, where Toyota granted Land Cruiser the luxury of physical knobs and buttons! Plus, has anyone seen the two front stylings alongside some of their predecessors, like the J70 or J80? The homage is perfect , and the resemblance is uncanny.Anyway, such a big introduction surely traveled the world over  and it even broke into some parallel universes, such as the imaginative realm of digital car content creators. Some of them quickly went down the three-door route or wanted to see the Land Cruiser a little more streetable or as an off-road freak. But the good folks over at twinned AutoYa and AutoYa Interior YouTube channels were more conservative and went for the classic "quick overview" of the facts and figures.Even better, the resident pixel master couldn't stay on the side while the host talked about all the juicy facts and figures that will presumably make the 2024 Land Cruiser a major sales hit across all regions where deliveries are set to start during various moments of 2024. Instead, the CGI expert also fiddled with some of the ritzier yet unofficial color options for the all-new off-road-focused. And there's a large assortment, both for the exterior of the Land Cruiser and Land Cruiser 1958 trims as well as the fresh and modern yet ruggedly trendy cockpit.As a reminder, Toyota has already revealed the 2024 Land Cruiser in a blue tint and a golden-like hue and is set to offer dual-tone combinations of Trail Dust and Heritage Blue with Grayscape roof, plus seven exterior choices: Ice Cap, Wind Chill Pearl, Underground, Black, Meteor Shower, Trail Dust, and Heritage Blue.
SUV

And they just demonstrated that by kicking off August in grand style with the introduction of what may be their most important vehicle presentation of the year  the 2024 Land Cruiser (250 or Prado across various regions). It shouldn't be confused with the J300 Land Cruiser presented in the summer of 2021, which is why the new model bears the Land Cruiser 250 moniker in Japan, for example.Other regions will know it as the 2024 Toyota Land Cruiser Prado (Australia, parts of Europe, etc.) to continue the legacy of the Prado series, which has been sold as the 'light-duty' variation of the family since 1990. As a main highlight, the Prado will become available in every market Toyota sells vehicles except for Mexico and South Korea, plus a few Southeast Asian and South American markets where they offer the Hilux-based Fortuner/SW4instead. In America , the new 2024 Land Cruiser will start deliveries next spring with just one powertrain  which is also possibly the best: the N400 Tacoma's 326-hp hybrid i-Force Max with 2.4-liter turbo inline-four and electric assistance. It's also offered in two guises  with classic round LED headlights for the First Edition and base '1958' grade or with a squared look for the regular Land Cruiser trim.However, some voices claim this is not enough  even though Toyota has strived hard to return to its off-road-focused, rugged adventurer origins with this mid-$50k sibling of the acclaimed 2024 Lexus GX 550. And some of them even decided to take matters into their hands. Or rather, at the tip of their CGI brushes, as is the case with the imaginative realm of digital car content creators  which quickly started conjuring dreams of three-door open-top 2024 Land Cruisers, among others.However, it seems that there is an even better idea. Jim, the virtual artist better known as jlord8 on social media, has quickly CGI-noticed there is a need for additional 2024 Land Cruiser variants. And because his feed was assaulted by news of the 2024 Land Cruiser, he immediately summoned the digital muse to envision a potential FJ Cruiser revival.The retro-styled mid-size SUV produced by Toyota since 2006 finally bowed out of all markets last year (it was ousted from America after the 2014 model year), although it is not without ardent fans. But the pixel master probably believes that if Toyota ever considers a revival of the moniker, the company could simply offer it as a body-style version of the all-new 2024 Land Cruiser (250 or Prado). As such, a three-door would use the same TNGA-F platform and cut costs while deploying the beloved FJ Cruiser styling on top of the classic, beloved three-door body style.
Huawei is one of the tech giants already working on their expansions to the automotive market. Still, compared to its competitors, the Chinese tech behemoth relies on software and technology to increase its presence in this new industry.

Apple is now working on an electric vehicle , while Google uses Android Automotive to become a top player in the auto world. Huawei partnered with carmakers to provide the necessary software for next-generation technology, as HarmonyOS can power infotainment capabilities and vehicle functions for safe and connected driving.People familiar with the matter said Huawei didn't give up on building a vehicle from scratch, though the company officially never confirmed this strategy. I don't expect Huawei to discuss such a plan anytime soon, as producing a car would turn it into a competitor for traditional carmakers, essentially turning its current partners into rivals in the same market.In the meantime, Huawei explores new ways to conquer the automotive industry, patenting new technology that could one day make its way to cars (either its own or produced by partners).Its latest such concept is a steering wheel with integrated hand gestures , allowing drivers to perform specific tasks much faster. In theory, drivers can always keep their hands on the steering wheel even if they want to control the music playback or adjust the volume.The patent filing indicates the steering wheel would use multiple radial segments, and each segment would integrate technology to detect hand gestures. The system would allow you to perform certain operations, such as swiping up and down on the steering wheel to increase and decrease the music volume. Other gestures, such as a double tap on the steering wheel, could allow changing the song or launching the digital assistant.Eventually, the system would pave the way for smarter steering wheel designs with fewer buttons. Huawei's technology would make volume and media buttons redundant. However, it could also replace other buttons in the long term if the technology finds a straightforward way to conduct more operations (such as setting up cruise control).Huawei's technology is still in the patent stage , and you'd better not hold your breath for a production version. Patents serve as a way to protect innovative ideas, but more often than not, companies end up shelving the technology.Huawei is a troubled tech giant whose current strategy revolves around the Chinese market. The company was the subject of international sanctions that blocked it from using technology developed by American firms, including software and hardware. Huawei started the development of in-house replacements, including for Google services that were initially bundled with its devices. HarmonyOS replaces Android, whereas applications in the Petal suite serve as alternatives to Google solutions, including Google Maps.
kW

AMG

kWh

According to the German automaker, the GT 63 S E Performance starts at AU$399,900. That equals US$261,503 at today's exchange rates, and the starting price excludes all on-road costs, like the stamp duty and registration fee, and also the dealer delivery.The icing on the cake is the ubiquitous 4.0-liter bi-turbo V8, which is aided by an electric motor that that sits on the rear axle in this case. The peak output is rated at 620(831 hp/843 ps), and it has over 1,400 Nm (1,033 lb-ft) of torque on tap. Mercedes-says the 0-100 kph (0-62 mph) acceleration takes as little as 2.9 seconds. The 200 kph (124 mph) mark is hit in less than ten seconds after taking off, and flat-out, it can do 316 kph (196 mph).A nine-speed automatic transmission delivers the thrust to the 4Matic+ all-wheel drive system. The car also features rear-axle steering for quicker cornering at high speeds and improved maneuverability at low speeds. Tipping the scales at 89 kg (196 lbs), the battery has a 6.1capacity. It can be charged via the 3.7 kW on-board AC charger at public stations, wall boxes, or household sockets and enables an all-electric range of 12 km (7.5 miles).Stuff such as the exclusively-styled front apron visually separates the GT 63 S E Performance from the rest of the family. The car also gets wider outer air intakes, a different diffuser, and trapezoidal quad exhaust pipes. The E Performance logos on the front fenders point out the obvious hybrid drive of the hyper sedan and round off the makeover on the outside.In the cabin, it features the AMG Performance steering wheel with integrated buttons that allow drivers to select the regeneration levels. The AMG hybrid-specific displays and functions are integrated into the widescreen MBUX. As far as the equipment goes, it comes with Nappa leather upholstery, open-pore ash wood trim, three-zone climate control, heated and cooled front seats, heated rear seats and armrests, sunroof, wireless charging pad, augmented reality, power-closing doors, Burmester premium sound system, and 64-color ambient lighting.Drivers are assisted by the Driving Assistance Package Plus bundle of safety gear, which comprises the Active Lane Change Assist, Active Steering Assist, Active Distance Assist, and Pre-Safe Impulse Side, in addition to the nine airbags.Mercedes-AMG's GT 63 S E Performance is currently on sale at retailers all over the country.
More than the Princess' yacht

Photo: Simon Kidston

Photo: Simon Kidston

The wreckage site remains under observation while an investigation into the causes of the accident is underway. Cujo went down with 7,000 liters (1,850 gallons) of diesel in its tanks, which poses an environmental danger.Cujo was made famous by the fact that Princess Diana spent her last summer, which was also arguably her happiest and most publicized, there. But Cujo was a legend in its own right even before that, as it had been designed as a thoroughbred speed boat that delivered excellent performance and unparalleled luxury on the water. A fun military interceptor, if you will.Before we look at that, we should note that it wasn't the only yacht on which the late Princess cruised that summer. She and Fayed also vacationed on the larger Codecasa yacht Jonikal (later Sokar), which was owned by Fayed's father and is still sailing today under the moniker Bash.Cujo was delivered in 1972 by Italian shipyard Baglietto on a very strict brief that asked for high speed and ultra comfort, preferably with a styling that brought to mind military vessels . The owner was John Von Neumann, a famous socialite and businessman who has gone down in history as the one to bring Porsche and Volkswagen to the U.S. by opening the first dealership here.JvNS, as it was originally named, could soar on water at speeds in excess of 40 knots (46 mph/74 kph), thanks to twin 54-liter V-18 turbo diesel engines delivering a combined 2,700 hp. It looked like a military vessel but was an exclusive leisure craft with a unique layout that included two different areas for lounging at the bow. Von Neumann loved it and would use it extensively for the next few years.In a typical turn of events, he ended up selling it to get a faster and fancier boat , also from Baglietto. The new owner was arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, but he wouldn't keep it for long, selling it to his nephew, Dodi Fayed. By the time Fayed got it, the boat was no longer in excellent condition, so he brought it to CARM in Lavagna for a full refit. Cujo was born.For the next few years, Cujo became a fixture in St. Tropez, with celebrities like Clint Eastwood, Bruce Willis, Brooke Shields, Robert Downey Jr., and Winona Ryder coming along for rides with Dodi. In 1997, the partying and the celebrity visits stopped as Princess Diana stepped onboard as Dodi's lover.Cujo was decommissioned in 1999 after a couple of years of being relegated to a water taxi for the Fayed family. It fell into complete disrepair while in storage before it was recovered by Moody Al-Fayed, Dodi's cousin, and restored at the cost of over $1 million, including uprating the engines to deliver 1,650 hp each.Moody sold it at auction in 2020 to British car collector and restorer Simon Kidston. The video below is a short film centered around a vintage Maserati, Kidston's own '70s Lamborghini Miura, and the Cujo, styled as a faux-James Bond episode. Without exaggeration, it is the perfect tribute to a vessel with such a storied history , now lost for good.While Kidston is largely credited for bringing Cujo back into the spotlight for a new generation of speed enthusiasts, he is not the current owner. He sold it to an Italian socialite in 2021, but further details on that are not available as of the time of press.
EV

The iconic muscle car nameplates will never be the same when the 2024 model year comes out  if it ever comes out. Instead, we might see the production version of the Dodge Charger Daytona SRT Concept as a 2025 model year and with the body styles reshuffled. So, it is anyone's guess if Dodge will have a Challenger in the family after the V8 models take a bow and exit stage left to car Valhalla.But that doesn't mean everyone will be satisfied with the nine levels of Bansheeprowess promised by the company. And one way to make the Dodge Challenger and Charger last a little longer is to save as many as possible and promote them across various events  after first working on turning them into proper quarter-mile dragstrip monsters, that is.Well, not everyone might take this path, but Herman Young  the host behind the well-known Demonology channel on YouTube, sure did. After he made himself famous alongside his crimson Dodge Challenger SRT Demon and the many tuning, customization, and personalization adventures they had together, he recently moved on to a member of the 'Last Call' special series, which he quickly redubbed as 'Black Ghost.'Currently, he is tinkering with it and finding the right performance  with or without nitrous  so that gave him some spare time to prepare for the next event he's participating in  MotorTrend's Roadkill Nights 2023. But he's not going there with the Black Ghost but rather the 'Silverback.' That's the nickname of a salvaged LX-generation Dodge Charger he encountered about a month ago. Since then, alongside his many partners, it's been a race against the clock to finish the rebuild in time for the event.But before going there and making a shame of oneself if the vehicle underperforms, it's always best to test for strengths and weaknesses, right? So, during the latest vlog episode, we get to check out the final assembly part of the rebuild, and then from the 12:26 mark, there's also a little bit of racing involved. So, the intention  when going to Xtreme Raceway Park in Ferris, Texas  was to "dial the car in and make sure things were working right."But his fans know this is Herman Young we are talking about, and of course, he "ended up lining up against two trucks." Despite their age (especially the second one), they were no ordinary pickups, either. We recognized the blue contender as a thoroughly modified Chevrolet S-10 hero, which was more than Young's newly-rebuilt Dodge Charger (packing modern Hellcat power) could chew.Oh well, sometimes you win some, other times you lose some. No worries, revenge against the turbo trucks came swiftly when the second, older pickup truck tried to beat the Charger  and it got served a swift sentence. Hopefully, we will see Young and his 'young' Charger as soon as possible and from other POVs that will include some ETs and trap speeds  not just a little bit of wheelie playfulness. Until then, hopefully, everything stays solid  we all know how these new builds tend to fall apart sometimes!
Does anyone else get the impression Stratolaunch is cheating a little bit when it comes to its "largest aircraft ever built by wingspan" title? Well, it's essentially two airliner fuselages fused together, is it not? One can only assume that's just semantics when there's a man or woman in a suit from the Guinness Book of World Records waiting with a placard standing around. But what tons of people probably don't know is the Stratolaunch concept is far from new. As far back as the mid-1970s, a man named John M. Conroy had the same idea. This is the story of the Conroy Vitrus, the Stratolaunch's long-forgotten, unbuilt ancestor.

Photo: NASA Archives

Photo: NASA Archives

In truth, John Michael Conroy is a man who deserves his own spotlight feature at some point. Born in Buffalo, New York, on December 14th, 1920, Conroy earned his aerial stripes as a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber pilot during World War II. After 12 years as an airline pilot and a bit of time flying with the California Air National Guard after the war, Conroy developed a keen sense of design for novel airplanes he'd dreamed up in his head. In his spare time, he'd even jot down rough sketches of what these airplanes might look like. It was through a conversation Conroy held one night with a fellow aviation entrepreneur and close friend, Lee Mansdorf, about transporting rocket booster stages for NASA via the air that spawned Conroy's first aircraft design.Known the world over today as the Aero Spacelines Pregnant Guppy, the iconic outsized cargo plane derived from a standard Boeing 377 airliner is still one of the most instantly recognizable silhouettes of any airframe built in the 20th century. Thus began John Conroy's ascent to the undisputed king of outsized cargo aircraft, a role he further fulfilled by designing follow-ups to the Pregnant Guppy. Dubbed the Mini Guppy and the Super Guppy, respectively, the latter of the two is still in service today under contract with NASA. Conroy even developed a penchant for engine swaps during this time, creating special turboprop-engined conversions of icons like the Grumman Albatross flying boat, the Cessna 337 Skymaster, and even the iconic Douglas DC-3 airliner.In 1968, John Conroy set off on his own and founded his own eponymously-named aircraft manufacturing business with his own hangar at Santa Barbara Airport in California. Though his first product was another outsized cargo liner based on a Canadair CL-44 and dubbed the Conroy Skymonster, John Conroy would soon devise a far more radical and special design for a rapidly approaching new issue. As NASA geared up to manufacture the new Space Shuttle orbiters, the question of how to transport this proverbial flying brick around became a consistent thorn in their side. Of course, the Space Shuttle was originally designed with turbofan engines integrated into its airframe. But their deletion from the final product made this issue one of the most pressing matters of the Space Shuttle program outside the orbiter itself.It was from this problem that John Conroy first devised the idea for a new aircraft he simply called the Vitrus. Even from just a cursory glance, it's hard not to look at rough sketches of the Conroy Vitrus and not immediately be reminded of the modern-day Scaled Composites Stratolaunch it bares a striking resemblance to. Both designs utilize twin fuselages fused together via a common wing and multiple engines to transport high-priority cargo, usually a spacecraft of some kind, which can't get off the ground under their own power. But a closer inspection reveals a few key differences between the two aircraft.Firstly, Conroy's Vitrus was set to utilize a massive twin-boom arrangement and four Pratt & Whitney JT9D engines from the Boeing 747-100. Meanwhile, the Stratolaunch's twin-fuselage pods use separate rudder and elevator controls with six Pratt & Whitney PW4000s from the newer 747-400 and Airbus A330. Unlike the Stratolaunch, whose twin fuselages are of an entirely new design, Conroy hoped to save considerable costs by the Vitrus' fuselages from the bodies of two Boeing B-52 Stratofortress bombers joined together via a common wing.Both the Stratolaunch and the Vitrus were designed to carry cargo underneath the shared wing truss, which joins both fuselages together. In the case of the Vitrus, the airframe would have been tailor-made specifically to accommodate NASA's Space Shuttle orbiters with the ability to take on other projects whenever necessary. With projected dimensions of a scarcely-believable 450 feet (140 m), the Vitrus would have even had the Stratolaunch on the ropes in terms of raw scale. Had the Vitrus been built, it would have been a full 65 feet (19.8 m) longer in its wingspan than Stratolaunch, and that's the largest aircraft ever built by a country mile.With help from NASA's Langley Research Center in Virginia, John Conroy began developing the finer details of the Vitrus concept. Everything from the Space Shuttle orbiters themselves to its massive external fuel tank and solid rocket boosters were slated to be hauled under the Vitrus' undercarriage. There were even plans for a special cargo pod to accommodate just about any outsized cargo imaginable. The new design was even allowed to undergo wind-tunnel testing at the same facility at Langley where the Space Shuttle's design was once tested. On paper, at least, Conroy appeared to have the formula for an all-time classic aircraft. A vehicle that could reasonably be described as one of the most important machines in the history of aviation.But unfortunately, NASA appeared to have other plans in mind. For one thing, Conroy's Vitrus wasn't the only proposal for a Space Shuttle transport vehicle. Established juggernauts like Lockheed and Boeing also submitted design proposals for the same NASA initiative. One such competitor was a twin-fuselage variant of the Lockheed C-5 Galaxy similar to the design of the Vitrus, but also a more traditional Boeing 747 airframe modified to carry the Shuttle on its roof rather than its undercarriage. It was this design, named the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA), which NASA chose to ferry its prized spaceplanes around for the next 35 years. Only stopping once the Shuttle program came to an end in 2011.Meanwhile, John Conroy, not ready to give up quite yet after his rejection by NASA, still had a trick or two up his sleeve. If NASA wasn't going to take advantage of his design, then perhaps the private sector would. With a few modifications to the original design, Conroy proposed a civil cargo liner variant based upon the Vitrus, internally named the Colossus and aimed at much the same market space that Stratolaunch services to great effect today. But sadly, private commercial spaceflight simply wasn't possible in the mid-1970s the same way it is today, and not a single private investor showed an interest in the Colossus. By the end of the 1970s, the Vitrus program had been all but abandoned.Tragically, John Conroy died of colon cancer in December 1979, his work with the Vitrus unfulfilled. But in defense of one of the most skilled aircraft designers of the second half of the 20th century, Conroy was absolutely onto something when he designed the Vitrus. As is self-evident by the success of the Stratolaunch, there indeed is a profitable market for twin-fuselage, super heavy transport aircraft that spend most of their service life launching spaceplanes for high-paying aerospace contractors. From this point of view, the only great sin the Conroy Vitrus ever committed was being designed before the industry it was meant to cater to had gotten off the ground.It's likely because John Conroy was so forward-thinking in his aircraft designs that Scaled Composites could take the same basic idea, modernize it just a little bit, and make its way into the history books. If you ask us, don't be surprised if more aircraft of this configuration take to the skies sometime soon. If they do, you can thank Mr. Conroy for getting the ball rolling.
The Cadillac Celestiq marked the brand's return to the world of ultra-luxury vehicles, thanks to the unprecedented level of personalization offered and the eye-watering price. Cadillac only said about the latter that it would be "north of $300,000," but we now have official confirmation of what that means.

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GM is experimenting with a new communication style, as it offers important product updates on social media rather than on official channels. In the case of the Cadillac Celestiq, the pricing was disclosed on LinkedIn, which is a rather bizarre channel to address your customer base. It could be that, for the hand-built Celestiq, the people who can afford to buy one spend a lot of time on the business social network.Cadillac marketing chief Melissa Grady Dias informed her LinkedIn followers that those eager to begin designing a Celestiq can already do it. As Cadillac announced before, the Celestiq ultra-luxuryoffers "unprecedented levels of personalization." This means the clients are basically guided through the personalization process, with the result being a vehicle as unique as its owner . Each client will have a dedicated consultant to assist them with every aspect of their vehicle design journey. Configuring a Cadillac Celestiq should be a unique experience, especially as the GM brand promises that some of the world's most talented designers are at your service. Melissa Grady Dias claims that customers love this, and Cadillac has seen an "extremely high demand" for the Celestiq. We'll be watching this closely in the following quarters, especially as individualizing a Celestiq is not for everyone. As Melissa said, you can paint anything you want, "but the blank canvas will start at approximately $340,000 MSRP."That's still vague but better than the "north of $300,000" price Cadillac announced last year . Melissa knows dealers' predatory tactics well and warns people that the "dealer sets the final price." Fair enough, the starting price is less important when you know you can easily triple it if you feel too euphoric adding features and talking to designers. The sky's the limit, although people might want to question why someone would spend a fortune to buy a Cadillac when they can do a lot better with a Rolls Royce.The Cadillac Celestiq's specs have not yet been revealed, although preliminary figures show that the Ultium-based EV packs a dual-motor all-wheel-drive setup. The total system output is estimated at 600 hp (609 ps/448) and 640 lb-ft (868 Nm) of torque. This should be enough to sprint from 0 to 60 mph (97 kph) in 3.8 seconds. The 111battery provides an estimated driving range of 300 miles (483 km). The car supports 200 kW DC fast charging, which can add 78 miles (126 km) of range in just 10 minutes.
Volkswagen will mark 35 years of California campers by previewing the concept of a future model at the Caravan Salon trade fair in Duesseldorf. The Volkswagen California Concept will showcase the innovative ideas that made the California campers so famous. The series model will be based on the long-wheelbase version of the Volkswagen Multivan (T7).

Volkswagen launched the first California-branded camper in 1988 as a special model based on the Bus (T3). The partner that designed and built the camper was Westfalia Werke, which is why Volkswagen campers were named like that. Westfalia Werke also produced the T4-based camper vans later, with the California designation used mainly in Europe. For the US market, Volkswagen partnered with Winnebago for the equivalent Eurovan.Starting with the T5, Volkswagen campers were produced in-house in Hanover, and the California branding was widely used. The first Volkswagen California "made-in-Hanover" rolled off the production line exactly 20 years ago, which means Volkswagen has a double California-themed celebration this year. To mark the moment, the Germans will present the California Concept at the same Caravan Salon in Dusseldorf, where the model's ancestors debuted in 1988 and 2003, respectively.The California Concept previews the production version of the next-generation California camper, scheduled to be built in Hanover in 2024. Based on the long-wheel version of the Multivan T7 , the Volkswagen California camper will offer classic van qualities for day-to-day operations. It can also transform into a camper van in no time, ready for any adventure. Volkswagen touts the outstanding driving characteristics of the Multivan launched in 2021 and the 35 years of experience in building camper vans.The upcoming California will be the first to feature a plug-in hybrid powerplant, allowing limited all-electric mobility and also long range thanks to its 1.4-liter gas engine. Volkswagen promises it will be smart, always connected, and compatible with the interactive "Cali on Tour" app. This also stands for the current generation of California , based on the Multivan 6.1. Volkswagen reminds us how all the camping functions and settings in the California 6.1 could be controlled via a touchscreen in the roof console. This concept will see an overhaul with the California Concept and, most probably, with the Multivan T7-based California.Based on a teaser image published by Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles (VWCV), the display will be replaced with a removable tablet, allowing some sort of remote operation. This could be useful to change settings at the last minute without getting off the rooftop bed. Volkswagen also hints that the next-generation California will feature two sliding doors instead of just one. The teaser image shows the camper with two awnings, one on each side of the van. This could be helpful to protect you from sunlight throughout the day without having to move the van.
A hastily prepared, raw peace treaty would not bring a sustainable peace to the region, Denis Gonchar, a senior Russian Foreign Ministry official, told the TASS news agency. On the contrary, it would lay the foundation for new conflicts and tragedies in the future. Priority should be given not to speed but to the adequate preparation of balanced and mutually acceptable solutions.

In an interview published on the ministrys website, Gonchar said Western powers are trying to rush Armenian-Azerbaijani talks on the treaty even though the conflicting sides have yet to find solutions on a number of difficult topics.

From a number of Western capitals, statements are periodically made to the effect that Baku and Yerevan will be able to sign a peace treaty already in the coming weeks and months, he said. We proceed from the premise that the time frames for the signing should be determined by the parties themselves.

The task of responsible mediators is not to speed up a negotiation process for opportunistic considerations but to facilitate reaching lasting long-term agreements, the diplomat added in a clear jibe at the West.

In recent months, the United States and the European Union have stepped up their efforts to broker a settlement to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers held two rounds of intensive U.S.-mediated negotiations outside Washington in May and June. Meanwhile, the EUs top official, Charles Michel, hosted a series of Armenian-Azerbaijani summits in Brussels.

The would-be peace treaty topped the agenda of those talks which fuelled speculation that it could be signed by the end of this year. Moscow has been very critical of the Western peace efforts, saying that their main aim is to drive it out of the South Caucasus. U.S. and EU officials deny this.

Azerbaijan is also pushing for a deal meeting its key demands. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev declared early this year that 2023 is the last chance for Armenia to sign the peace treaty.

The two sides are understood to still disagree on mechanisms for delimiting the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and providing security guarantees for Karabakhs ethnic Armenian population. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian complained on Thursday that Baku is reluctant to sign the kind of agreement that would commit it to recognizing Armenias existing borders.

Pashinian earlier pledged to recognize Azerbaijani sovereignty over Karabakh through the peace treaty, drawing strong condemnation from his domestic political opponents. The latter also accuse him of plotting to end Armenias political and military alliance with Russia and to reorient his country towards the West.

Moscow has signaled its disapproval of Pashinians far-reaching concession to Baku. In another sign of mounting tensions with Yerevan, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman lambasted Pashinian on Wednesday for questioning the continued presence of Russian peacekeepers in Karabakh and claiming that Moscow has scaled back its involvement in the negotiation process because of the war in Ukraine.
In an extensive investigative report released late last month, the Union of Informed Citizens (UIC) said that the administration of a local community comprising the town of Spitak and surrounding villages is drawing up lists of its Yerevan-based natives promising to vote for Civil Contract and its mayoral candidate, Tigran Avinian, in the September 17 vote. It said the process is overseen by Gevorg Papoyan, the ruling partys deputy chairman.

The allegations are based on recorded phone calls between local officials and an UIC activist posing as an aide to Papoyan. The audio of those conversations was posted on the groups fact-checking website.

Spitaks deputy mayor, Hovik Hovannisian, and six village chiefs can be heard saying that they already have or will soon have such lists. In Hovannisians words, Spitak officials explain to such voters just how bad thing will be for them if Civil Contract loses the polls.

Papoyan rejected the UIC report as slanderous and said he will sue the Western-funded organization. He said at the same time that the Spitak officials are affiliated with Pashinians party and have a right to campaign for its election victory.

The UIC leader, Daniel Ioannisian, countered that the officials admitted ordering their subordinates to participate in that campaign.

Armenias Office of the Prosecutor-General last week pledged to look into the UIC report. But it has still not opened a criminal case.

The Central Election Commission (CEC) also seems unlikely to investigate the alleged foul play. The CEC chairman, Vahagn Hovakimian, said it could do so only if it receives a formal complaint.

In my personal view, that audio does not testify to an abuse of administrative resources, Hovakimian told reporters on Thursday. Your or any other citizens idea of abuse of administrative resources is one thing and the law another.

A longtime collaborator of Pashinian, Hovakimian was affiliated with Civil Contract until being controversially installed last October as head of the body organizing all elections in Armenia. Opposition and civic groups denounced Pashinians choice of the new CEC chairman.

In a joint statement issued ahead of Hovakimians appointment, 17 Armenian nongovernmental organizations said that he is a partisan figure who cannot guarantee the CECs independence and political impartiality. Hovakimian insisted that in his new capacity he will not be influenced by his long-standing ties with Pashinian.
4 August 2023 08:30 (UTC+04:00)

Abbas Ganbay Read more

Within the framework of the Great Return program, Azerbaijan continues to implement large-scale infrastructure projects, build smart villages and smart cities, as well as the return of residents to their homelands after 30 years of occupation. After the Second Karabakh War, the great victory of the Azerbaijani army under the leadership of Commander-in-Chief President Ilham Aliyev healed the pain that once Azerbaijan's internally displaced people have gone through.

However, the provocations of Armenian separatist "leaders" are still going on, both globally and regionally, which serve for interest of their patrons.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, in a recent interview with Euronews, made it clear that Azerbaijan is interested in peace with Armenia, and Armenian minority in Garabagh is offered the chance to accept Azerbaijani citizenship and live in peace, or return to Yerevan and continue to nurture their revenge.

"The President of Azerbaijan has made it clear that it matters to Azerbaijan who the mediator is, but it is not fundamentally important, as Azerbaijan has its own agenda and goals, and whichever mediator satisfies the Azerbaijani agenda, through this mediation a peace treaty will be reached," Azerbaijani political analyst Farhad Mammadov said in a comment for AZERNEWS.

The expert noted that the topic of the peace treaty was not a priority for either Russian or Western mediation. According to him, the parties tried to prioritize the Garabagh issue in the old way using the OSCE Minsk Group and Madrid Principles, while Azerbaijan insisted on the priority of the peace treaty, namely inter-state relations".

The political analyst also touched on President Aliyev's message addressed to the Armenian society, concerning the reality that the Armenian society in Garabagh has the only choices to make - either to continue the struggle, but on the territory of Armenia, or to continue living in Garabagh, as citizens of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

According to the expert, the Armenian minority living in Garabagh is in a confused state. Because the OSCE Minsk Group, which led the peace process for 30 years, and its co-chairs, representatives of the European Union, as well as a number of institutions, are now instructing Armenia to recognize the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

Even they turn their faces to them and ask: 'why didn't you punish us if we made a mistake all this time, on the contrary, you always supported us?'

Yes, indeed, after 30 years, Azerbaijan breaks this stereotyped ring, and as a result, the anger of Armenians is directed towards both the West and the members within that organisation that misled them over the time.

"Of course, it is not our problem that the Armenian society has this opinion. Even Azerbaijan has not much expectation from them. It would be good if they make a more rational decision and change their position on the positive trend. But unfortunately, when following the latest developments, no positive situation is observed, on the contrary, we still hear some groundless allegations from Khankandi. Such provocative actions, of course, affects the peace process and aggravates the relations," Mammadov said.

In his comment, Farhad Mammadov also mentioned the ICRC's co-operation with Armenians against Azerbaijan. He emphasized that the committee acts in accordance with the full requirements of the Armenian side, especially in smuggling and other activities, and also drew attention to President Ilham Aliyev's criticism on subordination of the ICRC office in Azerbaijan's Khankendi to Yerevan.

"On the subject of ICRC, President Ilham Aliyev noted the clear position of the Republic of Azerbaijan based on the principles of international law and norms, this vicious practice of subordinating the office in Garabagh to the Yerevan office is completely illogical, there should be either parallel subordination, for a certain period of time, until the reintegration process goes to an extent that the Armenian minority living in Garabagh will go to Azerbaijan, to the same hospitals, schools, etc., or full subordination to the Baku office, so that everything is regulated for Azerbaijan, as the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan should not, in any case, be challenged by such bureaucratic regimes," the expert added.

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4 August 2023 18:20 (UTC+04:00)

Abbas Ganbay Read more

During the period of occupation of the territories of Azerbaijan by Armenia, the Western authorities and power structures, represented by the European Union, CSTO and others, have not made due efforts to resolve the conflict. Today, it is already the third year after the Second Garabagh war, and Azerbaijan, as a victorious country, has regained the territories once occupied by Armenia and is clearing many regions of mines, which makes it difficult for IDPs to return to their homelands, and many human rights activists and international structures do not react to this.

The Lachin road, to which the Armenian authorities cling with their hands and feet, under the guise of "humanitarian aid" is moving trucks to the Lachin checkpoint, which is a pre-planned anti-Azerbaijani campaign aimed at attracting the international community to continue propagandizing and sowing lies to the masses.

It was during Armenia's aggression against Azerbaijan that mosques, temples, cemeteries, and historical monuments were destroyed and looted in the occupied territories, Christian churches belonging to Caucasian Albania and Russian Orthodox churches were Gregorianised, and the entire Islamic world was offended by the keeping of animals in mosques (considered forbidden in Islam), even though the war was over.

Many monitoring missions of the European Union continue their activities in Armenia, and opened the second operational centre in the Syunik (West Zangazur) region of Armenia, in the town of Gafan, which is located on the border with Azerbaijan, this is the fourth missionary centre in Armenia and the third on the border with Azerbaijan, and the head of the monitoring mission of the Council of Europe Markus Ritter said that the EU plans to operate six more such centres in Armenia.

The CSTO is also considering the possibility of placing its civilian mission on the territory of Armenia, which today can greatly aggravate the situation, where two centres of power are concentrated, which are now waging a global war on the background of the Russian-Ukrainian war, on the territory of Armenia. Where were the EU monitoring missions during the 30-year of occupation and genocide organised by Armenians on the territory of Azerbaijan?

The state bodies of Azerbaijan have repeatedly invited the Armenian minority living in Azerbaijan's Khankendi to discuss it, the Aghdam-Khankendi road and humanitarian aid were proposed, but due to the power holders and under their pressure, the Armenian society living there suffers from the lack of humanitarian aid at the hands of their own authorities. These provocations are being transferred by the Armenian authorities to Azerbaijan and involve the world community in the region, and it is no secret that the continuation and aggravation of the conflict are significant for several forces concentrating on the border of Armenia and Azerbaijan. In the words of the State Minister of the so-called "Nagorno-Karabakh" Gurgen Nersisyan, where he continues the Armenian slander, it is said "the Geneva Convention for the Protection of Civilian Persons prohibits the use of "humanity" humiliating, degrading, insulting and violating human dignity", one can immediately fail to understand, the offer of humanitarian aid to Armenians citizens of Garabagh, and its rejection by them, is not human?

The President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, has made it clear to the authorities and the so-called "leaders" of the Armenians that Azerbaijan is interested in and strives for peace with Armenia, and offers the Armenian inhabitants of Garabagh to make a conscious choice, to accept Azerbaijani citizenship and move on with their lives, or to go to Armenia and further nurture revenge, and there are hardly those who want to start a new conflict with Azerbaijan, with its powerful and upgraded military infrastructure and army, on the Turkic lands that has eversince belonged to Azerbaijan.

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4 August 2023 21:55 (UTC+04:00)

Elnur Enveroglu Read more

Azerbaijan and Pakistan are two independent and sovereign states that have been struggling against the lasting invasion. Throughout history, both states have fought for the liberation of their lands from occupation. The event held at the Embassy of Pakistan in Baku is precisely because of the blockade of the historical territories of Pakistan occupied by India - Jammu and Kashmir.

It should be noted that at the event dedicated to the unilateral cancellation of the special autonomy status of Jammu and Kashmir by India, Ambassador Bilal Hayee emphasized the special support of Azerbaijan to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

"I would like to emphasize that Azerbaijan has always supported our country in this matter. President Ilham Aliyev, the government and the people of Azerbaijan always openly express their strong support for Pakistan. When the Prime Minister of Pakistan visited Azerbaijan in June, President Ilham Aliyev once again expressed the support of the Azerbaijani government to Pakistan," the Ambassador said.

Ambassador Bilal Hayee added that the issue of Jammu and Kashmir has been on the agenda of the UN for a long time.

"The unilateral abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A of the Constitution of India, which give special rights and privileges to the region, has caused negative consequences for the region."

In addition, the diplomat touched upon India's relations with Armenia, which could exacerbate the conflict in the South Caucasus, and shed some light on India's arming of Armenia as follows:

"We have seen some reports of India supplying weapons to Armenia. Although its a bilateral issue between two countries, however, if there is any analogy being made that India is providing weapons to Armenia because Pakistan is cooperating and supporting Azerbaijan as far as defense is concern, so I want to clarify that there is no analogy between Pakistan and Azerbaijan defense relations like what India is doing for Armenia. Because Pakistan and Azerbaijan stand for peace. Azerbaijans positions as far as Garabagh is concern, is a position to assert and secure its territorial integrity and sovereignty. Azerbaijan doesnt have any intention to invade other country like Armenia and any other country," the ambassador underlined.

The diplomat emphasized that Pakistan and Azerbaijan have no intention to attack any countrys territory and all what the countries have within cooperation is for only good purposes.

"Pakistans cooperation with Azerbaijan is for increasing defense capabilities, but not to attack or snatch any other countrys territories, whereas what India is doing for Armenia supplying weapons, actually this kind of strategy will prolong the conflict and complicate all things. Because we understand that Armenia still not abiding by the international law and the resolutions which call that Garabagh is Azerbaijans sovereign territory. So there is no correlation between two situations. We are concerned about Indias supply of weapon to Armenia which aims to aggravate the situation in the South Caucasus.

Further, the ambassador spoke about the role of Pakistan in trade relations against the backdrop of the negative impact of relations between India and Armenia. Ambassador Hayee noted that serious steps have been taken recently in the field of developing the trade relations between Azerbaijan and Pakistan.

"First of all, I should note that the establishment of relations in the field of economy and trade is the sovereign right of each country. I do not think that the current processes will cause any damage to the trade relations between Azerbaijan and India. However, regardless of this, Pakistan can always fully provide Azerbaijan in the field of exports, especially in the export of rice and other products. Besides trade, the issue of cooperation in all fields is on the agenda between Azerbaijan and Pakistan, and both sides are taking important steps in this regard. We hope that in the near future, along with trade, cooperation between the two countries will be developed in travel, tourism, agriculture and other fields," he concluded.

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Elnur Enveroglu is AzerNews deputy editor-in-chief, follow him on @ElnurMammadli1

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4 August 2023 17:08 (UTC+04:00)

Laman Ismayilova Read more

Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum has enriched its collection with new exhibits.

From July 21 to July 31, the Carpet Museum was closed to the public amid the maintenance work, Azernews reports. The museum reopened its doors to visitors on August 1.

The Carpet Museum visitors have a chance to enjoy new exhibits, which include luxurious, exquisite carpets that have not been shown before.

Founded in 1967, the National Carpet Museum holds more than 14,000 exhibits of the finest Azerbaijani carpets.

The museum, initiated by eminent carpet artist Latif Karimov, is beautiful inside and out. The museum's new building is designed in the form of a rolled carpet.

Now, the museum hosts multiple events, including international symposiums, conferences and various exhibitions.

In 2019, the museum received national status for its significant contribution in popularization and promotion of the Azerbaijani Carpet Weaving Art.

In 2020, the Carpet Museum enriched its collection with beautiful pile carpets purchased by the Culture Ministry at Sartirana Textile Show in Italy.

The 19th century Guba carpet "Ugakh" was donated to the Carpet Museum, while Karabakh carpet "Chelebi" enriched the collection of the museum's Shusha branch.

The Carpet Museum also focuses on cooperation with the world leading museum organizations.

The exhibition "Echo of Soviet Azerbaijan. Carpet. Embroidery. Poster " held at the Museum of Oriental Art in Moscow in partnership with the Mardjani Foundation and the exhibition named "Azerbaijani carpets in the collection of the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art held in Istanbul are among such projects.

Moreover, the Carpet Museum won Travelers' Choice Awards for the fourth time in a row last year.

The award proves once again that the professional activity of the National Carpet Museum is highly appreciated by visitors from all over the world.

This year, the Carpet Museum is waiting for another significant event in its history. After so many years, the Carpet Museum's Shusha brand will start its activity in Karabakh.

Founded in 1987, the museum was transferred to Baku amid the Armenian occupation of Azerbaijan's Karabakh region. Since that time, the Shusha museum branch has been operating in the Carpet Museum's main building. Now the preparations are in full swing.

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4 August 2023 10:00 (UTC+04:00)

First Deputy Defence Minister - Chief of General Staff of the Azerbaijani Army Colonel General Karim Valiyev and other senior officials of the ministry visited for the first time the operational capability units created within the framework of NATO's Operational Capabilities Concept (OCC). They were interested in the measures being taken to improve the level of training of personnel, Azernews reports, citing Ministry.

Reports were heard from the command staff on the progress of preparations for the certification exercises to be conducted under the units' OCC programme this year. It was reported that the tactical and special exercises, which are based on field training, focused on improving the practical skills of the personnel in the application of methods of conducting modern general military combat.

Then the Defence Ministry leadership familiarised itself with the special forces training course in one of the military units. The level of training of the servicemen was highly appreciated during the exercises involving the use of artillery installations and other weapons of the special forces.

Colonel-General K.Valiyev, meeting with the personnel participating in the commando training course, underlined that the formation of combat-ready military units for subversive and sabotage purposes and equipping them with modern weapons was achieved within the framework of successfully carried out reforms in our Army under the leadership of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Mr Ilham Aliyev. He said that with the creation of such military units the combat capabilities of our Army have increased, and noted that special attention will be paid to the training of professional special forces in the future.

Later, a leading group of the Defence Ministry arrived at the range to observe the mountain training course attended by cadets of the Heydar Aliyev Military Institute. It was reported that during the course the cadets were taught the rules of overcoming mountain obstacles, with special attention paid to their individual training and practical tasks in a group.

The Chief of the General Staff instructed to increase the intensity and quality of training and exercises, as well as to develop the combat skills of the personnel, to conduct training in day and night conditions.

In conclusion, the commanding officers were given appropriate tasks to maintain the combat effectiveness of the units at a high level, as well as to improve the qualifications of servicemen in the effective use of weapons and equipment.

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4 August 2023 13:32 (UTC+04:00)

Head of the Press Service Department of Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry Aykhan Hajizada received journalists from the USA, Azernews reports, a tweet by Aykhan Hajizada

The tweet reads that he gave detailed information to the journalists.

"Glad to meet in Azerbaijan with a group of journalists and media representatives from the United States, including the members of the UN Correspondents Association, accredited UN. We had an interactive discussion on the current state of affairs in and around our region," Aykhan Hajizada noted.

Glad to meet in #Azerbaijan with group of #journalists & media representatives from the United States, including the members of the UN Correspondents Association @UNCANews, accredited @UN.



We had an interactive discussions on current state of affairs in and around our region. pic.twitter.com/CW9ykqd2Ag  Aykhan Hajizada (@Aykhanh) August 4, 2023

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4 August 2023 15:00 (UTC+04:00)

Qabil Ashirov Read more

Despite all noises caused by Armenian propaganda, the residents of the Azerbaijani territories that are under the control of separatists are interested in the integration process initiated by Baku. The hotline (+994 70 277 99 11) created to support the Armenian minority unveils the reality which the Armenian side and the mouthpiece try to hide.

It is worth noting that Azerbaijan is a country where dozens of different ethnic groups live in peace and prosperity. Throughout history, Azerbaijan has been a beacon of hope for nations subjected to oppression and braced those who tried to take shelter. The newcomers mixed and mingled with locals and enriched Azerbaijan with their culture, cuisine, and so on. Unfortunately, one of the newcomers, more precisely Armenians, did not remain true to this tradition and caused brutal wars in the region. Azerbaijan braced this ethnic group who were brought to the country after 1813 by Russia, as it did for others. However, when the number of Armenians increased in the region they betrayed Azerbaijan and other ethnic groups living in these territories. Hayk expelled native people from their hometowns and tried illegally to appropriate their properties. Of course, Azerbaijan could not have tolerated such kind of betrayal, and due to Armenian expansionist foreign policy, the region has witnessed two bloody wars only in the last 30 years.

However, besides the Armenian irrational policy, Azerbaijan does its best to protect all civilians, including Armenians living within the border. Regarding to it, the hotline was created recently to protect the Armenian minority living in Azerbaijans territory under the control of separatists. Speaking to AZERNEWS on the issue, Dilara Afandiyeva, head of the Azerbaijan Women's Rights Protection Society named after Dilara Aliyeva, noted that the initiative of creating a hotline emerged during the protest of Azerbaijan eco-activists.

The initiative to create a hotline emerged in the first days of the meeting (actions) of Azerbaijani ecologists on the Lachin-Khankendi road when the Russian peacekeepers closed the road and we understood that [Azerbaijani] citizens of Armenian origin living in the area where the Russian Peacekeepers were deployed would face certain humanitarian problems, she said.

Dilara Afandiyeva said that on the first day of announcing the number of the phone, the hotline received calls both from the residents of the region and Armenians living in different countries in the world. The main questions were about the purpose of the action. Besides, she noted that there was a large quantity of insulting, threatening, insinuating, and accusing Azerbaijan of aggression and so on.

Further, the character of these calls changed. Armenians started thinking about their further fate, the possibility of integration into Azerbaijani society, getting Azerbaijani citizenship, and also the possibility of movement through the closed section of the road, she said.

As for the theme of complaint, Dilara Afandiyeva commented that the Armenian minority generally complains from separatists and Russian Peacekeepers. She also mentioned that the separatists in Khankendi take advantage of the situation for filling their pockets as well.

There were very many complaints over the action of the Russian Peacekeepers and the action of the Armenian Armed Groups situated in the region. People complained about oppression, complained about artificial price hike of basic products in the first days, and about bribes that were required from them for permission to cross the border, she added.

Dilara Aliyeva mentioned that despite the calls revealed that residents of Khankendi are interested in the integration process initiated by Baku. She noted that recently the hotline received many calls asking questions about the integration and the fate of people partaken in the two wars against Azerbaijan.

Questions recently related directly to the possibility of obtaining Azerbaijani citizenship and ensuring their rights and security. Also, there were questions relating to the operation of the Armenian Church and the possibility to perform religious church rituals. Besides, there were questions relating to the fates of people partaking in the wars, the First Garabagh War and the 44-day War, against Azerbaijan. One of the people who called the hotline confessed that he had directly taken part in the battles and what awaits him, Afandiyeva undelined.

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Qabil Ashirov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @g_Ashirov

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4 August 2023 14:44 (UTC+04:00)

The leaders of religious confessions of Azerbaijan have issued a joint statement on the provocation of Armenia on the Lachin road, Azernews reports with reference to the Department of Muslims of the Caucasus.

According to the statement, recently there have been biased statements about another provocative spectacle with trucks, artificially created by Armenia in recent days on the Lachin-Khankandi road, the sovereign territory of Azerbaijan, recognized by the international community.

"For many years, we have witnessed how a number of European states, especially France, which incites genocide, violence, and conflicts in Africa and Oceania, as well as some Western organizations under the influence of the Armenian lobby, make biased, anti-Azerbaijani decisions and resolutions. Undoubtedly, the goal of the official Yerevan, Karabakh separatists, and their supporters is to disrupt the signing of the peace agreement, drag out the Azerbaijani-Armenian negotiations and carry out purposeful revanchism.

In these processes, the activity of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in the region causes special concern. Some time ago, the official Baku brought the facts that testify that the ICRC is engaged in smuggling on the Lachin road, and exposed the direct participation of the organization in the crossing of the border by Armenian war criminals and terrorists," the statement said.

"Despite the fact that the topic under discussion is not religious in nature, our task as every person who wants to establish peace in the Caucasus region and as religious figures who make great efforts on this path is to approach what is happening according to the criteria of law and justice," the religious leaders said.

The dispatch of trucks to the Lachin border gate under the cover of "humanitarian aid" from Armenia is part of an anti-Azerbaijani provocative campaign aimed at gaining world attention. Azerbaijani official bodies have frequently asked Armenian inhabitants living in Azerbaijan's Karabakh territory to discuss, but Armenia has refused, rejecting Azerbaijan's humanistic suggestions.

The fact that trucks purposefully cause problems in the direction of the Lachin border checkpoint, as well as Armenia's description of the incident as a "policy of ethnic cleansing" and a "humanitarian crisis," demonstrates the Armenian side's ability to systematically distort the facts.

The information disseminated by Armenia about the "policy of ethnic cleansing" is false and slanderous. The international community should not forget that for almost 30 years, as a result of the policy of ethnic cleansing carried out by Armenian extremists, more than a million Azerbaijanis were forced to leave their native lands, becoming refugees and internally displaced persons.

It was during the aggression of Armenia against Azerbaijan that mosques, temples, cemeteries, and historical monuments were destroyed and looted in the occupied territories; Christian and Russian Orthodox churches belonging to Caucasian Albania were Gregorianized; and animals considered forbidden in Islam were kept in mosques.

Despite the end of the war, hundreds of Azerbaijani citizens are still dying and becoming disabled as a result of the explosions of mines that were delivered by Armenia directly along the Lachin road to the territory of Azerbaijan.

The Azerbaijani people, under the leadership of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, restored their territorial integrity and saved their ancestral lands, officially recognized by the UN and international law, from the aggression of Armenia.

Today, paying attention to the restoration and reconstruction of religious and spiritual monuments along with civilian objects in the liberated territories at the state level once again confirms the tolerance of Azerbaijan, which is one of the leading centers in the process of intercultural and interreligious dialogue.

"President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, known for his global thinking and humanistic ideas, as the leader who determined the fate of the region and rewrote its history, calls on the Armenian side for solidarity based on political thinking and humanistic logic, for peace and coexistence for the sake of the future of peoples," the statement said.

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4 August 2023 14:20 (UTC+04:00)

A new print edition of the AZERNEWS online newspaper was released on August 04.

The new edition includes several interesting articles, such as "President Aliyev makes urgent call for Armenian minority in Garabagh "; "Expert suggests time for opening Zangazur corridor"; "CEO: Multifaceted activities carried out to ensure growth in tourism "; "India's warmongering in S.Caucasus is wake-up call for Azerbaijan, Turkiye, Pakistan " etc.

AZERNEWS is an associate member of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA).

The online newspaper is available at www.azernews.az.

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4 August 2023 15:22 (UTC+04:00)

Head of the Press Service Department of Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry Aykhan Hajizada has responded to the baseless accusation of Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Vahan Kostanyan, Azernews reports, citing the post on Hajizada's twitter account.

The Foreign Ministry's official emphasized that the 44-day war in 2020 was a war of liberation that began as a result of Armenia's occupation of Azerbaijani territories and committed mass ethnic cleansing by Armenians.

He also noted that the Armenian side refused negotiations for 28 years, rejected all peace proposals, and even going further, the Armenian side claimed "Karabakh is Armenia," and dared to threaten Azerbaijan with the motto "new war for new territories".

He underlined that Azerbaijan's actions are always based on international law, including UN Charter and Helsinki Final Act.

It is worth noting that the Armenian side started extracting the words of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev "to win a war was a mission of my life" in the interview with Euronews and manipulating them. Previously, Ruben Vardanyan who had been parachuted into the so-called "minister of state in kararabakh" also posted a tweet about the same words.

The 2020 44-day war was a war of liberation, caused by Armenias occupation of Azerbaijans lands & massive ethnic cleansing.



1/2 https://t.co/3yGDrENW5D  Aykhan Hajizada (@Aykhanh) August 4, 2023

Then for 28 years  refused to negotiate in good faith, rejected all peace proposals, claimed that Karabakh is Armenia, threatened  with a new war for new territories. Azerbaijans action are always based on int law, incl UN Charter and Helsinki Final Act.



2/2  Aykhan Hajizada (@Aykhanh) August 4, 2023

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4 August 2023 15:42 (UTC+04:00)

Russian peacekeepers continue upholding the Armenian separatist in Karabakh which is against the November 10, Azernews reports.

According to the received information on August 4, 2023, under the escort of the Russian Peace Keepers, supplies are being transported to the combat positions of the Armenian separatist groups on the Khankendi-Karkijahan-Khalfali road.

The 4th Paragraph of the Statement reads "The peacekeeping contingent of the Russian Federation shall be deployed in parallel with the withdrawal of the Armenian armed forces." However, the footage demonstrates that the Armenian armed forces cooperate with Russian Peace Keepers, let alone withdrawing from the region.

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4 August 2023 21:40 (UTC+04:00)

The ISIS group announced on Thursday the death of its leader Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurashi, who it said was killed in clashes in northwestern Syria, Azernews reports, citing Al Arabiya.

The leader was killed after direct clashes with extremist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham in Idlib province, an ISIS spokesman said in a recorded message on its channels on the Telegram messaging app, without specifying when he was killed.

The spokesman announced the groups new leader -- its fifth -- as Abi Hafsan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi.

After a meteoric rise in Iraq and Syria in 2014 that saw it conquer vast swathes of territory, ISIS saw its self-proclaimed caliphate collapse under a wave of offensives.

The extremist groups austere and terror-ridden rule was marked by beheadings and mass shootings.

It was defeated in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria two years later, but sleeper cells still carry out attacks in both countries.

In November last year, ISIS said its previous leader, Abu Hasan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, had been killed.

His predecessor, Abu Ibrahim al-Qurashi, was killed in February last year in a US raid in Idlib province.

The groups first leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was killed, also in Idlib, in October 2019.

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4 August 2023 20:00 (UTC+04:00)

A large cache of weapons and ammunition belonging to the terrorist group PKK was seized across the border at hideouts in northern Iraq, Turkiyes National Defense Ministry announced on Friday, Azernews reports, citing Anadolu Agency.

In a statement, the ministry said a search and sweep operation in northern Iraq had resulted in the seizure of 10,800 pieces of AK-47 infantry ammunition, 720 pieces of 7.62 mm PKMS machine gun ammunition, 120 pieces of DShK heavy machine gun ammunition, and 11 DShK heavy machine gun barrels.

Turkish security forces also seized eight hand grenades, one DShK heavy machine gun tripod, two DShK heavy machine gun bodies, and one DShK heavy machine gun control handle, as well as four AK-47 infantry rifle buttstocks.

PKK terrorists often hide out at bases in northern Iraq and plot terror attacks in Turkiye.

In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Turkiye, the PKK  listed as a terrorist organization by Turkiye, the US, and EU  has been responsible for the deaths of more than 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants.

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4 August 2023 21:05 (UTC+04:00)

China on Friday confirmed to Canberra it has removed anti-dumping and countervailing duties on Australian barley, Azernews reports, citing Yeni Safak.

Canberra welcomed the move which will see a drop of 80.5% in tariffs.

Beijings move comes after Australia agreed in April to temporarily suspend a case against China at the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Penny Wong, the Australian foreign minister, said Beijings move paves the way for our barley exporters to re-enter the Chinese market  benefiting Australian producers and Chinese consumers.

It affirms the calm and consistent approach that the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese government has taken, she said in a statement.

Beijing imposed duties on Australian barley in May 2020 which effectively blocked exports to that market, worth about $916 million in 2018-19, said Wong.

The removal of these duties means that Australia will now discontinue legal proceedings at the WTO, the minister said.

However, she said Canberra expects a similar process (by Beijing) to be followed to remove the duties on Australian wine.

In the meantime, we are continuing to pursue our wine dispute at the WTO and remain confident in a positive outcome, she added.

The Australian governments approach has been to cooperate with China where we can, disagree where we must, and engage in our national interest. The outcome on barley reflects that approach, said Wong, adding Canberra will continue to press for all trade impediments affecting Australian exports to be removed, which is in the interests of both Australia and China.

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4 August 2023 23:15 (UTC+04:00)

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin had a phone conversation with his Turkish counterpart Burak Akcapar discussing the situation around the grain deal, the Russian Foreign Ministry reported on Thursday, Azernews reports, citing TASS.

The conversation took place on Wednesday at the initiative of the Turkish side.

"An exchange of views took place on the situation around the Black Sea initiative to export Ukrainian food after its completion following the failure to implement the Russia-UN memorandum on normalizing the supply of domestic agricultural products to world markets," the ministry said.

On Wednesday, Vershinin also had a conversation with Secretary-General of United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Rebeca Grynspan.
FILE - "My body, my choice!" resonates from protesters on the front lawn of the Guam Congress Building in Hagatna during a protest as they voiced their concerns against the Guam Heartbeat Act of 2022 on April 27, 2022. A federal appeals court says women seeking medication abortions on the U.S. Territory of Guam must first have an in-person consultation with a doctor even though the nearest physician willing to prescribe the medication is 3,800 miles (6,100 kilometers) and an 8-hour flight away.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
FILE - Kathleen McElroy poses Tuesday, June 13, 2023, in College Station, Texas. Texas A&M University reached a $1 million settlement Thursday, Aug. 3, 2023, with McElroy, a Black journalism professor, after botched attempts to hire her unraveled after pushback over her past work promoting diversity.
FILE - A pump jack extracts oil at a drilling site next to homes June 9, 2021, in Signal Hill, Calif. Environmental advocates in California will try to enshrine a law banning new gas and oil wells near homes, schools and hospitals in a move that comes as the oil industry is vying for voters to overturn it.
Bakersfield, CA (93308)

Today

Partly cloudy early followed by cloudy skies overnight. Low 71F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy early followed by cloudy skies overnight. Low 71F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph.
Why are actors making movies during the strike? What to know about SAG-AFTRA waivers

The actors and writers strike have resulted in most Hollywood film and television productions being shut down, from the Gladiator sequel to the live action Lilo & Stitch."
Lois Henry is the CEO and editor of SJV Water, a nonprofit, independent online news publication dedicated to covering water issues in the San Joaquin Valley. She can be reached at lois.henry@sjvwater.org. The website is sjvwater.org.
Pete Tittls Dining Out column appears in The Californian on Sundays. Email him at pftittl@yahoo.com or follow him on X, formerly Twitter: @pftittl.
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Vince Minnick, National Sales Manager - Key Accounts Vince Minnick brings a wealth of experience in sales leadership and relationship management to Mustads organization. With an impressive record of exceeding sales targets and building strong customer partnerships, Vince will play a pivotal role in fostering valuable connections with key accounts. His ability to identify and meet the unique needs of each client will allow Mustad to tailor offerings and deliver exceptional solutions. Minnick owes his passion for the outdoors and fishing to his father and grandfather, who introduced him to the sport at an early age. He took his love for the sport and grew it into a career. The thing I love the most about this industry is the opportunity to provide fishing tackle that will help anglers of all ages and skill levels have positive experiences in the outdoors, shared Minnick. Im excited to be part of this team and work with such a great group of individuals who share the same passion while continuing to offer quality, innovative products to anglers and continue the great legacy of Mustad that has been going on since 1877, continued Minnick. Isaac Payne , Director of Innovation & Product Development In a rapidly evolving market, innovation is the key to staying ahead. With extensive experience in driving product development and incorporating cutting-edge technologies, Payne will boost Mustads efforts in developing groundbreaking solutions. His ability to identify market trends and transform ideas into tangible products will ensure Mustad continues to provide fishermen with the latest and most effective solutions. Payne was introduced to fishing at a young age and developed a passion for angling. It all began with catching catfish and rapidly evolved as he learned about the different fishing competitions and that there was a possibility of having a career as a professional fisherman on pro circuits like B.A.S.S. and Major League Fishing. My favorite styles of fishing are throwing large swimbaits for big bass on freshwater lakes, tidal rivers, and reservoirs. If I am not throwing swimbaits, you will probably catch me using vertical flutter spoons or crankbaits on the Tennessee River chain or frogging, flipping, and punching different types of vegetation on popular bass fisheries across the US," said Payne. Many industries have benefited from a renaissance in manufacturing technology and product evolution, and the fishing industry is a prime example. The evolution we have witnessed in our industry over the past 3-5 years has been unreal. The elevation of industry products has been bolstered by technological advancements and synergies created through the competitive nature of fishing brands in the outdoor space. This has collaterally advanced the innovation in outdoor products and their performance, especially with marine electronics, outboard engines, boats, kayaks, lures, terminal tackle, and all the tools associated with keeping anglers hooked up on the water. The fishing industry will continue to thrive along with all the current and future generational expansions, notes Payne. Dave Wensel, Senior Business Manager - West US Having successfully managed business operations across multiple industries, Wensel joins Mustad as the Senior Business Manager for the West US region. With a keen eye for identifying growth opportunities and implementing effective sales strategies, Wensel will oversee Mustads business sales operations in the West, driving revenue generation. Wensel was recruited into the industry due to his merchandising experience in other markets, but it was his love of fishing that lead to him landing in the fishing industry. It was my love of fishing that ultimately landed my career in this industry. My father and grandfather were passionate about fishing and would take me and my brother on multi-day trips to Pinedale Wyoming, where we would fish Soda Lake, consistently limiting out on German Browns, said Wensel. Today this early passion for fishing has turned to salt water, He added, I love anything saltwater related. I prefer to cast to schools of fish and feel the power of the feeding frenzy as they realize they are hooked and try to escape. Wensel finds that this industry is built on relationships. Its about the people, whether it is friends, customers, or business associates. It is where business is really developed. Working for O. Mustad & Son allows him to build upon a great brand heritage with an iconic company that has been around for 200 years. He says, Being a part of that Legacy is exciting. We have lots of opportunities to improve supply chain, speed of communication, delivering on our commitments and ensuring we meet the needs of our customers and ultimately, fishermen. Brian Perry, Senior Business Manager - East US Brian Perry, as the newly appointed Senior Business Manager for the East US region, brings his expertise in implementing effective strategies and optimizing sales operations. He will lead Mustads Eastern sales team, driving revenue generation in this region. Perrys passion for fishing, along with his first job as mate on the fishing vessel Outlaw Illustrated that he needed to find a career in the fishing industry. He quips that this job eventually led to where he is today. Perry looks forward to the new role with Mustad saying, The people involved in the industry are generally down to earth and share the same passion, and it affords the opportunity to work with a great group of people and make a difference in the Industry. With the arrival of Baumbach, Minnick, Payne, and Wensel and Perry, under the leadership of Paul Ruda, Mustad marks an exciting chapter in their organization's journey toward excellence. These new hires bring with them a wealth of experience, expertise, authority, and trust, further enhancing Mustads ability to serve its clients. Their contributions will help O. Mustad & Son achieve new levels of success while providing a positive impact on the organization and the clients they serve.
Governor Cooper Announces Two Judicial Appointments

Press Release:



RALEIGH: Today, Governor Roy Cooper announced two judicial appointments to North Carolina District and Special Superior Courts.



"These appointees are experienced leaders who have served their communities well over the years," said Governor Cooper. "I'm thankful for their willingness to step up and serve on the bench."



Keith Smith has been appointed to serve as District Court Judge in Judicial District 26, serving Mecklenburg County. He will fill the vacancy created by the election of the Honorable Donald Cureton to Superior Court. Smith is currently a Senior Associate County Attorney for Mecklenburg County. He previously served as an Assistant District Attorney for Rowan County and Court Improvement Project Coordinator for the Administrative Office of the Courts. Smith received his Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Master of Science at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and his Juris Doctor at North Carolina Central University Turner School of Law.



Jocelyn Mitnaul Mallette has been nominated to serve as Special Superior Court Judge with a designation to the Business Court. Mitnaul Mallette is currently a Partner at McGuireWoods LLP. Previously, she served as a Prosecutor and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney for the United States Air Force Judge Advocate General's (JAG) Corps. Mitnaul Mallette received her Bachelor of Science at the United States Air Force Academy and her Juris Doctor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law.





Contact: Sam Chan



Phone: (919) 814-2100  Email: govpress@nc.gov


Steven Sund, who served as Chief of the Capitol Police, and was in command during the January 6 riot described Democrat behavior afterward as "a coverup" in an interview taped for Tucker Carlson's former Fox News program that was supposed to have aired the first show after Carlson's abrupt firing. Fox has sat on the tape since, but a copy has slipped out and become public.

Sund describes how he was blindsided by Democrat leaders about intelligence they had received about plans of various groups including ANTIFA, and denied the resources he needed to handle the situation. He said if he had been kept in the loop on intelligence and provided the resources he asked for, the January 6 riot would never have happened.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/everything-appears-be-cover-capitol-police-chief-challenged-j6-narrative-never-aired

Are some people trying to keep Americans in the dark on the real story of January 6?
Here are five statistics offering insight into the field of gastroenterology recently:

62.4 percent: The score ChatGPT earned on the 2022 American College of Gastroenterology's pre-board assessment; it failed to make the 70 percent required to pass.

50: The age in which asymptomatic, average-risk adults should now be screened for colorectal cancer, per the American College of Physicians' updated guidance.

71 percent: The number of gastroenterologists who plan to continue taking new and current Medicare/Medicaid patients.

$64,433: The cost of a colonoscopy at Cleveland, Texas-based Texas Emergency Hospital, the most expensive hospital to receive a colonoscopy in the U.S.

$250: The cost of a colonoscopy at Geneva, Ala.-based Wiregrass Medical Center, the least expensive hospital to have the procedure done in the U.S.




Sutter Health's Samaritan Court Ambulatory Care and Surgery Center was completed almost three months ahead of schedule, saving the health system about $3 million, according to an Aug. 2 report from connectcre.com.

The new ASC is located in San Jose, Calif., and comprises three stories and 69,000 square feet. The new facility is part of Sacramento, Calif.-based Sutter Health's four-year plan to build over 24 additional ASCs across Northern California.

Skanska was the construction company for the project.
The future of a Vermont dental clinic opened to increase accessibility is now up in the air after being faced with staffing shortages and operating losses, the Bennington Banner reported Aug. 4.

Bennington-based Southwestern Vermont Medical Center opened the dental clinic in 2018. The practice offered a variety of services that were scaled back several months ago to only include emergency care for children.

In July, a SVMC employee told the news organization the hospital was evaluating options for the clinic.

One challenge the clinic is facing is a lack of staff. It originally started with three dentists, dental hygienists and other support staff. Today, only one dentist remains.

Thomas Dee, CEO and president of the hospital's parent company, told the news organization it is difficult to recruit providers to rural areas. He also noted several local dentists have retired since the practice's launch, and most young dentists prefer to practice in a group setting.

The hiring challenges are also intertwined with low reimbursement rates. The majority of the clinic's patients are on Medicaid. Despite the state increasing reimbursement rates in July, they are still not high enough to attract new providers.

Despite fewer overhead costs, the clinic has experienced significant operating losses. Mr. Dee and Michael Brady, DDS, the clinic's sole dentist, have been working with the state for a solution, including securing additional funding.

Mr. Dee told the news organization the dental clinic was "not really viable long term."

"We are not covering our operating costs at all," Mr. Dee said. "We are always open to an idea, but right now it doesnt look good."
An estimated 1.7 million Oregon Health Plan members have been affected by a coordinated data hack.

Performance Health Technology, a private vendor that helps Oregon Health Plan, the state's Medicaid program, manage member data, said the data breach was a result of security vulnerability from Progress MOVEit software, according to an Aug. 2 news release from Oregon Health Authority.

Performance Health conducted a forensic analysis  concluding on July 25  that identified all affected individuals. Performance Health began mailing notification letters including an offer of free credit monitoring on July 31.
TytoCare, a virtual healthcare company that provides remote physical exams with a physician, received a $49 million growth funding round from four investors.

Insight Partners, a software and technology investor, was the only returning investor and led TytoCare's previous round. One of the new investors is MemorialCare, a health system based in Fountain Valley, Calif. The remaining two are Toronto-based Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan and Tel-Aviv, Israel-based Clal, which are major pension funds.

TytoCare's virtual care solution is called Home Smart Clinic, and it uses an FDA-cleared device with artificial intelligence guidance to replicate in-clinic exams in a remote setting. The funding will be used to enhance the AI capabilities and expand care to patients with chronic conditions, such as asthma, according to an Aug. 3 press release TytoCare shared with Becker's.
Administrative burdens such as EHR documentation cost U.S. healthcare $1 trillion annually, leaving hospitals and health systems trying to find ways to automate these processes for their staff.

Here is how two health systems are trying to alleviate EHR burdens on their providers:
Gillette, Wyo.-based Campbell County Health is delaying the implementation of its Epic EHR system as it ends its contract with its RCM provider, Ensemble Health Partners, in Gillette News Records reported Aug. 4. The decision to transition end-to-end revenue cycle managed services back to CCH was mutually agreed upon by both parties Aug. 4.

The Epic installation was slated to go live later this year, but will now be pushed to summer 2025.

Ensemble sent the following statement to Becker's: "The decision to transition end-to-end revenue cycle managed services back to Campbell County Health was mutually agreed upon. This decision is not a reflection of any dissatisfaction with the performance of Ensemble. During our partnership, Ensemble met or exceed contractual obligations and performance expectations and CCH experienced improvement across all measured metrics. We are proud of what we were able to achieve together during our partnership and its impact on the Gillette community. We will continue to be a resource to CCH during this transition."

The partnership between Ensemble and the health system began in August 2021. Eventually, the contract led to outsourcing Campbell's County RCM and billing departments to Ensemble.

Matt Shahan, CEO of Campbell County Health, said this is an area where the health system wants ownership back.

"One thing we really need is to take back ownership of our own revenue cycle process," Mr. Shahan said. "We've had them kind of guide us through that process, and we need to have control over that whole process."

Ensemble associates who were supporting Campbell County Health will either remain employed by Ensemble or offered the opportunity to join Campbell County.
In less than one week, three hospitals across the U.S. announced closure plans, citing reasons ranging from financial challenges to declining admissions and aging infrastructure:

South City Hospital, a 178-bed facility in St. Louis, plans to close in the coming weeks because of financial challenges, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Aug. 3. The 154-year-old hospital has been under receivership for the past few months. It began transferring patients to other facilities this week, and will begin winding down the facility Aug. 4.

Martin General Hospital, a 49-bed facility in Williamston, N.C., suspended operations Aug. 3 and plans to file for bankruptcy. The hospital, which lost $13 million in 2022, cited financial challenges related to declining population and utilization trends as reasons for the decision.

Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Corewell Health will close its Lakeview, Mich.-based Spectrum Health Kelsey Hospital in October after a steady decline in admissions. In June, Corewell opened a $12 million care center a few minutes away from Spectrum Health Kelsey. The hospital opened in 1962 and was having problems with aging infrastructure.
IT chiefs for U.S. News & World Report's 2023-24 Best Hospitals Honor Roll have a range of backgrounds, with some coming from the clinical side and others having worked for EHR vendors like Cerner or tech companies such as Dell.

Here are the CIOs of the 22 hospitals on U.S. News' Honor Roll for '23-'24:

Jerry Fox. Barnes-Jewish Hospital (St. Louis).

Mr. Fox has been senior vice president and chief information and digital officer of BJC HealthCare since 2017. He leads IT, information security operations, biomedical engineering technology, and digital initiatives. He previously served as vice president and global CIO of industrial automation company Rockwell Automation.

Adam Landman, MD. Brigham and Women's Hospital (Boston).

Dr. Landman is CIO, having joined Brigham and Women's in 2010 as director of clinical informatics in the department of emergency medicine. He is also an associate professor at Boston-based Harvard Medical School and an emergency physician.

Craig Kwiatkowski, PharmD. Cedars-Sinai Medical Center (Los Angeles).

Dr. Kwiatkowski took over as senior vice president of enterprise information services and CIO of Cedars-Sinai in 2022, having worked in IT roles for the academic health system since 2009. He started his career as an inpatient pharmacist at University of Chicago Medicine.

Matthew Kull. Cleveland Clinic.

Mr. Kull became CIO in 2020, previously serving as associate CIO of the medical center's IT division. He started with Cleveland Clinic in 2018 and is a former senior vice president and CIO of Dallas-based Parkland Health.

Michael Restuccia. Hospitals of the University of Pennsylvania-Penn Presbyterian (Philadelphia).

Mr. Restuccia, senior vice president and CIO, joined Penn Medicine in 2006. He has overseen the integration of telemedicine throughout the health system, advances in data analytics and precision medicine, and the deployment of Epic's integrated EHR.

Ken Letkeman. Houston Methodist Hospital.

Mr. Letkeman became senior vice president and CIO in 2018. He previously served as CIO of Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Marshfield (Wis.) Clinic Health System.

Richard Mendola, PhD. Johns Hopkins Hospital (Baltimore).

Dr. Mendola joined Johns Hopkins Medicine and University as vice president and CIO in March. He served in a similar capacity for Atlanta-based Emory Healthcare and University since 2005. He has a doctorate in clinical psychology.

Keith Jennings. Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston).

Mr. Jennings has been CIO since 2011 and worked for the health system since 2001. He served in the U.S. Army for 11 years as a civil affairs officer and military police officer.

Cris Ross. Mayo Clinic (Rochester, Minn.).

Mr. Ross has been with Mayo Clinic since 2012. He has helped converge the EHR enterprisewide and initiate innovation programs in data, analytics and machine learning. He previously served in CIO roles with CVS MinuteClinic and United Behavioral Health.

Kristin Myers. Mount Sinai Hospital (New York City).

Ms. Myers is executive vice president and chief digital and information officer, having started with Mount Sinai Health System in 2004 as director of the Epic clinical transformation group. She previously worked for Cerner.

Peter Fleischut, MD. NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital-Columbia and Cornell (New York City).

Dr. Fleischut was named chief information and transformation officer of NewYork-Presbyterian in 2022. He has also served as chief innovation officer and chief medical operations officer in his 13 years there, after joining the health system from Weill Cornell. He manages enterprise IT, lab and pharmacy operations.

Sophy Lu. North Shore University Hospital at Northwell Health (Manhasset, N.Y.).

Ms. Lu became senior vice president and CIO of Northwell Health in 2022. She had previously served as chief applications officer there since 2017. She has also worked for EHR vendor Allscripts (now Veradigm) and tech company Siemens.

Doug King. Northwestern Memorial Hospital (Chicago).

Mr. King is senior vice president and CIO at Northwestern Medicine. He provides strategy for technology initiatives, has responsibility for analytics and informatics, and helps lead the Northwestern Medicine Innovation Center. He has been with the organization since 2006.

Nader Mherabi. NYU Langone Hospitals (New York City).

Mr. Mherabi is executive vice president and chief digital and information officer, leading technology strategy for NYU Langone Health. He has worked in IT for the health system since 2004, having started his career with Mount Sinai Health System.

Jeff Gautney. Rush University Medical Center (Chicago).

Jeff Gautney joined Rush as senior vice president and CIO in 2021 from the health IT consulting world. He previously worked for Northwell Health and Dallas-based Baylor University Medical Center.

Michael Pfeffer, MD. Stanford Health Care-Stanford (Calif.) Hospital.

Dr. Pfeffer, who serves as CIO of Stanford Health Care and Stanford School of Medicine and an associate dean at the medical school, oversees technology and digital solutions. He joined the health system in 2021 after serving as CIO at UCLA Health for more than eight years.

Joshua Glandorf. UC San Diego Health-LaJolla and Hillcrest Hospitals.

Mr. Glandorf became CIO of UC San Diego Health in 2022, previously serving as senior director of information services. He has also worked as director of analytics at Stanford Children's in Palo Alto, Calif.

Ellen Pollack, MSN, RN. UCLA Medical Center (Los Angeles).

Appointed in 2022, Ms. Pollack also serves as UCLA Health's chief nursing informatics officer. She has been with the health system since 1993, having previously been EHR deployment director and EHR inpatient clinical director.

Joe Bengfort. UCSF Health-UCSF Medical Center (San Francisco).

Mr. Bengfort is also the senior vice president of IT and associate vice chancellor at UCSF and leads strategic IT initiatives for University of California Health. He joined UCSF in 2011, having worked for Dell for more than two decades.

Andrew Rosenberg, MD. University of Michigan Health-Ann Arbor.

Dr. Rosenberg was named the inaugural CIO of Michigan Medicine in 2017. He previously served as chief medical information officer and executive director of information and data management since 2010. He also worked as director of critical care for anesthesiology, director of clinical care research, and medical director of the cardiac surgical ICU.

Russell Poole. UT Southwestern Medical Center (Dallas).

Mr. Poole became vice president and information resources and CIO in 2020. He previously served as associate vice chancellor and CIO of UCHealth University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and worked in IT leadership for Atlanta-based Georgia Tech and Gainesville-based University of Florida.

Neal Patel, MD. Vanderbilt University Medical Center (Nashville, Tenn.).

Dr. Patel became CIO in 2019, having joined the medical center in 1997 as a pediatric critical care physician. He previously served as chief medical information officer. He is also a professor of clinical pediatrics and teaches anesthesiology and biomedical informatics.
Amid today's challenges, hospitals and health systems are seeing physicians seek representation at the bargaining table.

A number of factors are driving the trend. Physicians are seeking greater investments by hospitals in working conditions, staffing and pay.

Hospitals and health systems, meanwhile, emphasize their commitment to quality care and these professionals. They also express their respect for workers' rights, while maintaining their preference to work directly with workers.

Among the latest examples is Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland, Ore., where physicians voted to join the Pacific Northwest Hospital Medicine Association, a hospitalists union represented by AFT Healthcare and serviced by the Oregon Nurses Association.

Eighty-seven percent of voting physicians voted in favor of unionization, according to an Aug. 1 union news release. The vote covers more than 70 physicians.

"We are embracing this opportunity to form our union," Shirley Fox, MD, an OB-GYN hospitalist at St. Vincent, said in the release. "We want to redefine our relationship with the hospital system which has increasingly put our concerns aside as it aims to meet corporate priorities. We wish to come face to face as respected health professionals to address important issues in the safe delivery of patient care and to address the sustainability of our current working conditions."

Renton, Wash.-based Providence, the parent organization of St. Vincent, shared the following statement with Becker's: "Providence respects the decision of the Providence Medical Group hospitalists who work at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center who have elected to unionize. We have a long history of working collaboratively with unions that caregivers have chosen to represent them, and we're committed to negotiating in good faith over the terms of a first contract."

Medical residents and fellows at Somerville, Mass.-based Mass General Brigham also voted to join the Committee of Interns and Residents, a local of the Service Employees International Union.

Seventy-five percent of voting physicians voted in favor of representation, according to a June 8 union news release.

The vote covers more than 2,500 residents and fellows at Mass General Brigham hospitals, according to The Boston Globe. This includes trainees at Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Mass Eye and Ear, Newton-Wellesley Hospital, Salem Hospital, and Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital Boston.

A website related to the union drive states that the effort is focused on "working to build collective power to advocate for a just, safe and equitable MGB for all housestaff, workers and patients." Among concerns cited by medical residents and fellows are a need for a living wage, adequate benefits and compensation commensurate with the cost of living in Boston, and financial support or subsidized child care for housestaff with children.

Paul Anderson, MD, PhD, interim chief academic officer at Mass General Brigham, said in a statement shared with Becker's, "As an organization dedicated to training the next great generation of caregivers, we are proud of the education that we provide to our residents and fellows, and we recognize the vital importance of the unique partnership between faculty and trainees in our institutions. While we are disappointed with the outcome, this election is part of a continuing national trend among medical trainees seeking collective bargaining through union representation.

"Moving forward, our mission remains unchanged. We will continue to deliver on our promise of providing a world-class medical education experience, working within the parameters that will be established by the collective bargaining process."

While physicians are moving to unionize, those already unionized continue to voice their concerns. Pay has been a particular sticking point for workers.



Resident physicians of Palo Alto, Calif.-based Stanford Health Care and Boston Medical Center resident physicians both held rallies in July to call for more competitive pay. The actions came amid labor negotiations. Stanford and BMC each emphasized their commitment to workers during negotiations. Resident physicians at both organizations are represented by the Committee of Interns and Residents.
In February, a patient died at Loretto Hospital  a safety-net hospital on Chicago's West side  after no one was around to treat the individual in the emergency department, according to a CMS inspection report.

CMS conducted an onsite investigation in late March after receiving complaints surrounding the incident and issued an immediate jeopardy citation, which was lifted in April. According to the report, a patient walked into the emergency department alone on Feb. 24 at 11:18 p.m., filled out a complaint form and placed it in the form box on the triage nurse's door. The patient's chief complaint was "cardiac emergencies," and the patient had a history of schizophrenia, hypertension, diabetes and heroin use.

Video surveillance showed there was no staff around when the patient entered the ED waiting room, according to the CMS report. After filling out the triage form, the patient went into the bathroom near the triage nurse's door. A triage nurse came out and reviewed the form while the patient was in the bathroom and did not approach or knock on the door, and went back to the triage room. The patient came out of the bathroom for a moment and then returned. About 15 minutes later, a patient safety officer opened the bathroom door, just as the triage nurse came back out.

They found the patient face down, and the officer "nudged" the patient to check for responsiveness. The patient was then placed against the door in a sitting position and was left unattended while staff went to get a wheelchair. "There was no resuscitate measures/emergency interventions initiated at that time," the inspection report said.

An emergency department tech showed up to take the patient back to the treatment area. CPR was initiated and Narcan was administered. The patient was intubated and transferred to the critical care unit at 8:15 the next morning. According to the documents, the patient's mother was called, who gave consent to not resuscitate and the patient was pronounced dead at 7:30 p.m.

In the report, the hospital acknowledged "staffing challenges" and confirmed the waiting area and triage room were staffed by one nurse when the incident occurred. "Loretto Hospital recognizes this poses a risk from a patient safety standpoint," the hospital said in its corrective action plan. Loretto developed a plan of correction that included ensuring the triage waiting area is monitored by a clinical staff member at all times, ensuring timely and appropriate medical screening and re-educating ED staff on the importance of providing immediate life support, such as CPR.

Inspectors conducted a follow-up visit April 20, and the immediate jeopardy warning was lifted.

About 200 unionized workers at Loretto Hospital began an open-ended strike July 31, alleging a "significant staffing crisis" and substandard wages. In a statement previously shared with Becker's, a hospital spokesperson said the strike is solely "about money, not patient safety," adding that non-union employees have not received salary increases in three years and some took a pay cut to prevent layoffs.
Eight drugs were recently added to the hundreds-long, growing list of medications in short supply, according to the FDA and the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists.

Three are cancer therapies: doxorubicin liposomal injection, decitabine injection and methotrexate injection.

Editor's note: The drugs are listed in alphabetical order.

1. Decitabine injection: Eight drugmakers each have a 50 milligram solution of the cancer therapy in shortage. Two estimated resupply between August and September, and most did not share a release date. Hospitals are recommended to evaluate current supply and consider alternative regimens for a drug that lacks a replacement agent.

2. Doxorubicin liposomal injection: There are four available and four unavailable solutions of the drug that treats bladder, breast, lung, stomach and ovarian cancer. The shortages are expected to resolve in September, drugmakers told the ASHP. "No single agent can be substituted for doxorubicin liposomal, including doxorubicin," the ASHP said.

3. Liraglutide injection: There isn't enough supply for usual ordering of a solution of Novo Nordisk's drug that's approved for Type 2 diabetes and weight loss, Saxenda. The shortage is expected to last through 2023 and beyond.

4. Methotrexate tablets: Four solutions among three drugmakers are in short supply of the medication for multiple cancers and rheumatoid arthritis. As of late July, 12 shortages among four drugmakers have been resolved.

5. Methylphenidate hydrochloride extended-release tablets: Seventeen solutions of the attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder drug are in shortage because of reasons ranging from regulatory delays to increased demand and manufacturing issues. Some of the shortages are expected to resolve in August and September as 18 solutions remain available.

6. Methylphenidate immediate-release tablets: Sixteen solutions are in shortage and eight are not for the ADHD and narcolepsy drug. Most drugmakers said they could not estimate a resupply date, and Sun Pharma predicted its shortage to resolve in August.

7. Oxycodone hydrochloride and acetaminophen tablets: Twenty-two solutions are unavailable, including one discontinued solution, and 17 are available. A few drug companies said they could not estimate resupply dates. Rhodes Pharmaceuticals estimated restock in mid-August and Major Pharmaceuticals predicted mid-September.

8. Tirzepatide injection: Eli Lilly had three solutions of its Type 2 diabetes drug Mounjaro on intermittent back order in July, and three remained available, according to the ASHP. On Aug. 2, the FDA listed two solutions on intermittent back order through September.
Judges Joris Minne and Danni Barry, Ireland's Next Top Chef Gareth Crawford from Cu restaurant in Belfast, and judge Kerry Roper

Gareth Crawford from Cu restaurant in Belfast has been crowned Ireland's Next Top Chef

A talented chef from a Mexican restaurant on the Lisburn Road in Belfast has triumphed in a live cookery showdown to be named Ireland's Next Top Chef.

Michelin star chef Danni Barry, 2023 Great British Menu contestant Kerry Roper and BBC Farm to Feast judge and Belfast Telegraph food critic Joris Minne judged the event, held last night in the Balmoral Hotel in Belfast.

The final saw Cu restaurants Gareth Crawford competing against Dan Welker from James Street South in Belfast and Conor Ryan from Wine & Brine in Moira to become the first-ever winner of the accolade.

The three talents had fought off competition from more than 24 aspiring chefs from across the island of Ireland in a series of culinary challenges to earn their place in the grand finale.

Each of the finalists had to impress the judges in an intense culinary battle of skill, passion, and creativity, crafting a signature three-course menu to showcase their distinct cooking styles.

Mr Crawford impressed the judging panel with his culinary artistry using subtle barbecue influences.

His starter featured pan-roasted cod with velvety curry corn veloute, carrot puree, and crispy skin drizzled with dill oil.

For his main course, he prepared ex-dairy BBQ cote de boeuf with fondant potatoes, BBQ hispi cabbage, glazed king oyster mushrooms and chimichurri gravy.

Next up for dessert was a strawberry parfait with creme fraiche sorbet, macerated strawberries, strawberry gel and a delicate chocolate tuile.

As winner, Mr Crawford can now choose from an all-expenses paid mentorship to cook and train with a leading culinary team at the Michelin-starred restaurants Dinner by Heston Blumenthal in London, Liath in Dublin or Muddlers Club in Belfast.

Read more Stix & Stones announces plans to open new Belfast restaurant

He also received an Irelands Next Top Chef trophy, limited edition chef whites and Shun Knife products.

Mr Crawford said: "Im absolutely delighted to be crowned as the first-ever Ireland's Next Top Chef and to have my culinary skills recognised on such a grand stage is truly humbling.

The journey through each stage of the competition was a true test of my culinary skills with talented contestants, especially in the grand finale, pushing me to reach new heights of flavour, creativity, and innovation as I poured by heart and soul into every dish that I carefully crafted.

This prestigious accolade is a testament to hard work, determination, and the unwavering support of my mentors, family, and friends, and I will use it as a steppingstone to propel my career in the industry to new heights.

Ms Roper, judge and executive chef at the Balmoral Hotel, said: "The Grand Finale of Ireland's Next Top Chef Competition was nothing short of fierce, a thrilling showcase of the very best local culinary talent.

Read more Nine Northern Ireland eateries shortlisted for Uber Eats Restaurant of the Year Awards

Each finalist brought their very best to the live cookery showdown, crafting signature three-course dishes that pushed the boundaries of culinary excellence, allowing their exceptional talents to shine.

Gareths culinary skills, passion, and creativity shone brightly in the Grand Finale and the judging panel was captivated by their innovative flavours, flawless execution, and distinct cooking style in each dish they presented, and they were worthy winners of the coveted title of Ireland's Next Top Chef.
Northern Ireland filmgoers have come out in force for the summer blockbuster movies Barbie and Oppenheimer, driving record admissions for the Omniplex Cinema Group.

In the first two weeks of release for the two films, collectively dubbed Barbenheimer, a record-breaking 570,000 admissions were welcomed across Omniplexs 37 cinema locations on the island of Ireland.

The surge in admissions, also fuelled by blockbusters Mission: Impossible  Dead Reckoning Part One, Elemental and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, beat the groups previous 14-day record set in July 2018 when Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation, The Incredibles 2 and Mission Impossible: Fallout were the headline features.

Read more Margot Robbie speaks of love for Derry Girls star Nicola Coughlan at Barbie premiere

Paul Anderson, director of Omniplex group, said: Due to the hype of both Barbie and Oppenheimer, we were expecting a rush of cinemagoers to flock to their local Omniplex, but the demand that we did see was way beyond what we were predicting.

A huge thank you must go to all the Omniplex staff across our 37 sites who worked tirelessly to ensure our customers had the best experience they possibly could, even despite the high volume coming in through the doors.

Bumper weekend for cinemas in UK and North America as Barbenheimer sweeps box office

That said, we would also like to thank our loyal customers who, as always, were courteous and respectful towards staff. Their excitement and enthusiasm was infectious and the buzz in our cinemas was second to none.

The group predicts this popularity to continue due to more new releases to come in 2023 such as The Exorcist Movie: Believer in October, The Marvels in November and both Wonka and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom to be released in December.

Read more Chris Heaton-Harris among politicians who saw Barbie on box office weekend

Elpitha Lyssary, NI marketing manager for Omniplex, said, 2023 has been a fantastic year for cinema with such a packed release schedule full of variety for all tastes. The back-to-back blockbuster releases of the past few months in particular has resulted in a huge surge in admissions for us proving that there is still nothing that compares to the actual cinema experience.

Cillian Murphy says it 'took a toll' to play co-creator of atom bomb in Oppenheimer

Since June 2021, Omniplex Cinema Group has opened four new locations, including The Avenue, a luxury cinema experience in Belfast, as well as Ballinasloe, Killarney, and Mullingar.

Soon the groups 38th cinema location will open in Scotch Hall Shopping Centre, Drogheda.
The validity of prosecutions brought by the UK security regulator in Northern Ireland since 2009 are now questionable, Jamie Bryson has said.

The loyalist activist was speaking after his long-running legal battle with the Security Industry Authority (SIA) ended with the case against him being thrown out by a judge who said it had no reasonable chance of success.

Mr Bryson said he has already lodged an application with the court seeking significant costs, and will also seek damages from the SIA.

Northern Irish peer Baroness Hoey last night called for an investigation after the UK regulator was humiliated in open court after a case that had dragged on for more than five years.

Granting Mr Brysons application for a not guilty direction at Downpatrick Magistrates Court, District Judge Amanda Brady had outlined how she had doubts about multiple aspects of the prosecution case against the defendant, who had represented himself.

Mr Bryson had raised questions about the extent of the SIAs powers in Northern Ireland, as well as whether it had correctly followed procedure.

The judge said this had created many doubts about many aspects of the case against Mr Bryson.

This is not a decision that was taken lightly, the judge explained.

A serious amount of time and effort have been spent on progressing this case by the prosecution, the defence and by the court.

But the stage has now been reached where the right thing to do is to stop this case and the application for a direction of no case to answer is granted.

Mr Bryson said the judges decision is a monumental embarrassment for the SIA.

Last night he said the total cost to the tax-payer of this saga is over 250,000 and that the validity of all prosecutions in relation to such matters brought by the SIA since 2009 are now questionable.

I remain bemused as to why no one ever bothered to take the time to read the statute throughout dozens of prosecutions over more than a decade, he added.

The ruling of DJ Brady is a humiliation for the SIA, and those representing them.

He also asked what action the SIA, or its parent body the Home Office, now take, given the squander of public money on this utter pantomime.

In a tweet, Baroness Hoey stated: This behaviour by SIA needs properly investigated. Am sure Suella Braverman will read this with interest.

The SIA is the responsibility of the Home Office.
A former senior member of Sinn Feins press team is due back in court today over child sex offences.

Michael McMonagle was due to appear in court on Wednesday, but did not turn up.

A judge at Londonderry Magistrates Court said there was no excuse for McMonagles absence and issued an arrest warrant.

On Thursday afternoon a PSNI spokesperson said: A 41-year-old man was detained on a bench warrant today, Thursday August 3.

He is now due to appear in court today.

The PSNI said: A 41-year-old man, arrested under a bench warrant, is due to appear before Londonderry Magistrates Court this morning.

McMonagle, with an address at Limewood Street in Derry, is facing three charges.

He is accused of attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity online.

He also faces a charge of communicating with a child online for the purposes of obtaining sexual gratification.

The third charge alleges that McMonagle attempted to get a child to look at an image of a person engaging in sexual activity.

The offences are alleged to have occurred between May 1, 2020, and August 18, 2021.

McMonagle was suspended from both his membership and media role within Sinn Fein after the party became aware he was charged with the offences.

More recently, he was working for the British Heart Foundation. The charity said he has been suspended.
A former Sinn Fein press officer has been released on conditional bail after appearing in court on child sex charges.

Michael McMonagle was arrested on Thursday at Altnagelvin Hospital after he failed to attend court on Wednesday.

The 41-year-old, from Limewood Street in the Bogside area of Derry, spent last night in a cell at Strand Road PSNI station.

On Wednesday, District Judge Barney McElholm issued a bench warrant following McMonagle's non-appearance at Londonderry Magistrates Court.

The defendant is accused of attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity online.

He also faces a charge of communicating with a child online for the purposes of obtaining sexual gratification.

A third charge alleges that McMonagle attempted to get a child to look at an image of a person engaging in sexual activity.

The offences are said to have occurred between May 1, 2020, and August 18, 2021 when he worked as a Sinn Fein press officer based in the party's offices in Stormont.

He also worked in the party's Westminster and Strasbourg offices, and later as a media officer for the British Heart Foundation in Belfast.

McMonagle, whose membership of and position with Sinn Fein and the British Heart Foundation have been suspended, appeared in the dock today wearing a police-issued grey tracksuit.

A detective constable told Mr McElholm that she had executed the bench warrant yesterday.

When the judge asked about police attitude to bail, the detective constable said: Police have concerns about bail in terms of a risk of harm to prevent him from causing injury to any person, in this case it would be to himself.

Applying for bail, solicitor Paddy McGurk said McMonagle, who has a clear record, denied the three charges.

He added: "In terms of his non-appearance on Wednesday, he meant no disrespect whatsoever. He takes this matter very seriously indeed.

"Unfortunately, there was an episode on Wednesday morning as a result of which he was taken to hospital and released yesterday afternoon.

"This case started in February 2022 and a lot of forensic evidence has yet to be checked and devices to be triaged. This matter has been hanging over his head for a considerable period of time and unfortunately on Wednesday he found it very difficult. He went out to his car and had a flat tyre and that seemed to be the last straw.

"He has been bailed on several occasions during the course of this investigation and there have been no issues in terms of that bail.

"He will be receiving counselling in terms of episodes of this type and he has instructed that this was a wake-up call for him and I am confident he will attend court in future as required."

The judge said the allegations would be dealt with in due course.

Mr McElholm released McMonagle on his own bail of 500 and adjourned the case to September 14.

As part of his bail conditions, he must only reside at an address approved by police and he is to have no contact with children under the age of 16 unless approved by social services.
Jamie Bryson has written to Home Secretary Suella Braverman requesting an investigation into the Security Industry Authority (SIA) case against him.

On Thursday, the SIAs case was thrown out by a judge who said it had no reasonable chance of success, bringing an end to a five-year-long legal battle.

Mr Bryson, who represented himself throughout the private prosecution, was charged with making a false statement to the SIA in June 2018.

The SIA, an executive non-departmental public body sponsored by the Home Office, had been investigating door staff operating in the north Down area.

Following dozens of hearings, including judicial reviews, Mr Bryson lodged a 19-page skeleton argument in June applying for a not-guilty direction based on the state of the evidence.

The loyalist has argued that the SIAs powers did not extend to Northern Ireland and that the SIA chair did not have the power to delegate authority to its investigators who carried out enquiries into his alleged activities.

On Thursday, District Judge Amanda Brady said there were now doubts whether procedures had been followed correctly and concluded that there is no longer a reasonable prospect that a reasonable jury, properly directed, could convict the defendant.

Mr Bryson has written a letter, seen by the Belfast Telegraph, asking Ms Braverman to investigate the SIAs handling of the affair.

He has estimated that the SIA spent more than 250,000 on the case.

Speaking to this newspaper, Mr Bryson said there are fundamental questions that need answered and has submitted an application to the court for compensation for his time spent fighting the case.

Why was it was deemed necessary  when the SIA have their own publicly funded in-house lawyer  to burn through taxpayers money assembling a dream team of, at various stages, senior crown counsel, junior counsel and eminent solicitors, supplementing their own in-house lawyer, he said.

That star-studded team would make OJ Simpson blush. This legal firepower was amassed to run a private prosecution, for minor petty sessions regulatory offences, against me acting alone as a litigant-in-person.

In the second judicial review the SIA used tens of thousands of taxpayers money to bring in senior crown counsel to try to remedy their errors. Would their own publicly funded lawyer, external solicitor or, at most, a junior barrister not have been deemed sufficient?

In an era whereby legal aid is being reduced for those most in need, many of whom then struggle to obtain quality representation, here we have this public authority burning through taxpayers case assembling a high-powered legal team to compete against me acting alone without any assistance whatsoever. How could that ever have been deemed a proportionate or justified use of public resources?

A SIA spokesperson said: "We acknowledge the judgment of the court. Our actions throughout have been led by considerations of public safety. We will study the details of the judgment and consider the learning and any appropriate action we might take going forward."

Timeline: Jamie Bryson vs Security Industry Authority

September 2017: SIA writes to Jamie Bryson requesting information regarding JJ Security Services Ltd, a company where he was a named director, as part of an investigation into door staff working in the north Down area. In his reply, Mr Bryson states that JJ Security Services Ltd has never traded and he does not hold any relevant information.

August 2018: Mr Bryson is arrested in an operation by the PSNI and SIA into alleged breaches of private security licensing laws and is subsequently charged with making a false statement to the SIA in June of 2018. Legal proceedings are launched.

June 2021: Following a series of court hearings, District Judge Mark Hamill describes the SIAs case as a dogs dinner and advises its counsel to review its case against Mr Bryson and decide whether its worth the candle to continue with the prosecution.

April 2022: Mr Bryson launched a bid to have the charges against him dropped.

May 2023: Mr Brysons legal action to the charges withdrawn is rejected by a judge.

August 2023: After reviewing a 19-page skeleton argument lodged by Mr Bryson in which he applied for a not-guilty direction to be issued, the case against the loyalist is dismissed.
Concerns raised over campsites lack of shade and drinking water for the thousands of attendees

Visitors hold umbrellas to avoid sunshine at the Gyeongbok Palace in Seoul, South Korea. AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon

NI scouts are set to leave an international event in South Korea that has been hit by extreme heat.

Around 50 representatives of scouting from here were among among a group of more than 4,000 UK participants caught up in a major heatwave at the World Scout Jamboree in South Korea as the country struggles to cope with soaring temperatures.

The South Korean government said it was sending water and medics to the site.

However the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM), the largest international Scouting organisation, said it had asked the Korean Scout Association to consider ending early.

The movement said that the host "decided to go ahead with the event" and assured participants that it was doing "everything possible to address the issues caused by the heat wave".

UK Scouts, the country's largest scouting organisation, said its group would be moved to hotels over the next two days to "alleviate the pressure on the site overall".

It confirmed that its volunteers and others had worked to give their members "enough food and water... shelter from the unusually hot weather... and toilets and washing facilities appropriate for an event of this scale."

The group will travel home on 13 August as planned.

Conditions at the jamboree have resulted in at least 400 of those attending being treated for heat-related illnesses in a makeshift hospital at the campsite during the first few days of the event as temperatures soared to almost 38C.

Over 40,000 scouts from across the world have gathered in Baun, around 180km south west of the nations capital Seoul.

Most of those treated have recovered but at least two remained in an on-site hospital as of yesterday morning, said Choi Chang-haeng, secretary-general of the Jamborees organising committee.

The committee, which plans to proceed with the event while adding dozens more medical staff to prepare for further emergencies, did not confirm the ages and other personal details of those who were affected.

Read more Deadly heatwaves are a sign of things to come that we cant afford to ignore

Wednesday nights opening ceremony of the Jamboree saw the scouts, mostly teenagers, go to the campsite built on land reclaimed from the sea in the south-western town of Buan where the temperature there reached 35C.

Among those attending are around 50 representatives from Northern Ireland, who have travelled as part of a UK-wide delegation to the event.

Its understood a team of 36 scouts, four leaders and 10-15 young adult helpers made the trip.

During an emergency meeting, South Koreas minister of the interior and safety, Lee Sang-min, instructed officials to explore all possible measures to protect the participants, including adjusting the events outdoor activities, adding more emergency vehicles and medical posts, and adding more shade structures and air conditioning.

He said the goal is to prevent even one serious illness or death, according to comments shared by the ministry.

Children play at a fountain in Seoul, South Korea. AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon

Girlguiding UK, which includes those who have travelled from Northern Ireland, said it was assessing the situation as a matter of urgency.

The safety and wellbeing of our members is our highest priority in Girlguiding, the organisation said.

We can confirm members joined the Scouts UK contingent to attend the World Scout Jamboree taking place in Baun, South Korea from August 1 until August 12.

Girlguiding UK has been made aware of a number of concerns and challenges relating to health and safety, infrastructure and sanitation at the event and is working with Scouts UK as a matter of urgency to understand the current situation.

Concerns have been raised over the condition of the campsite in a vast, treeless area lacking refuge from the heat, including a lack of toilet facilities and drinking water for attendees.

There were also claims that a last-minute effort was made by the UK ground unit and the Korean and US military to get facilities in place before the scouts arrived. It was also claimed the camp was infested with cockroaches and mosquitoes.

Read more When Earth burns, Northern Ireland will become a really cool place to live

Mr Choi insisted that the event was safe enough to continue and similar situations could have occurred if the Jamboree was held elsewhere.

The participants came from afar and hadnt yet adjusted (to the weather), he said at a news briefing.

Mr Choi said the large number of patients could be linked to a K-pop performance during the opening ceremony, which he said left many of the teenagers exhausted after actively releasing their energy.

To prevent and respond to heat-related illnesses, we have secured additional medical personnel, including about 30 doctors and 60 nurses, he added.

Additional cooling devices would be installed in on-site clinics and more beds provided to care for patients. Six helicopters were on standby.

We will ensure that Scout youths can enjoy the jamboree safely and in good health.

The UK Foreign Office added: Consular officials have been deployed on site to support attendees, and we are in regular contact with both Scouts UK and the Korean authorities to ensure the safety of British nationals.

The UK contingent is believed to be the largest there, numbering about 4,500 Scouts.

Among those travelling from Northern Ireland are four girls from the north coast. Teenagers Amelie Holden and Celia Kerr from Castlerock joined Ulster guides Amy Lloyd from Ballykelly and Hannah Ruth Mullan from Portstewart. All the girls spent a year fundraising to cover the cost of the trip.

South Korea this week raised its hot weather warning to the highest serious level for the first time in four years as temperatures nationwide hovered between 33 and 38C.

The Safety Ministry said at least 16 people have died because of heat-related illnesses since May 20, including two on Tuesday.
One out of every eight outpatient appointments have been cancelled by hospitals, new figures reveal.

Staff shortages are blamed and the situation is not likely to change soon, the Royal College of Nursing has indicated.

Statistics from the Department of Health show almost 169,000 face-to-face appointments were cancelled by hospitals in the 2022/23 financial year. In addition, over 33,000 virtual appointments were cancelled by hospitals.

Combined, that means hospitals cancelled 12.6% of outpatient appointments.

By contrast, patients cancelled 9.4% of appointments, although another 8.1% failed to turn up.

Addressing the cancellations that were made by hospitals, SDLP MLA Colin McGrath said: Obviously its very disappointing to hear that this is the level of appointments that are being cancelled.

Often people will have waited a significant length of time to get the appointment, and in some instances, that could be years.

For others, they could have quite significant and serious health problems and the appointment is going to be the gateway to a resolution.

To have that taken from them is disappointing.

Read more Hospitals cancel one in eight appointments in Northern Ireland as pressures build

Mr McGrath added : It is only an indication of the potential staffing problems that we have in our health service.

They arent cancelling the appointments for the sake of it, its because people arent available, staff are sick or the facilities arent available.

The Northern Irish branch of the Royal College of Nursing also pointed to staffing shortages as being responsible.

RCN NI director Rita Devlin said: As the report indicates, hospital outpatient appointments may be cancelled for a number of reasons, both by patients themselves and by HSC trusts.

It is encouraging that the rate of cancellations has fallen recently.

However, cancellations made by HSC trusts are never acceptable as they deny patients access to the treatment for which many will have been waiting for some time, often years.

Underlying staffing shortages are one of the key reasons for these cancellations and therefore eliminating them will be impossible in the continuing absence of any proper workforce planning and in the face of our escalating staffing crisis, with almost 2,500 nursing posts currently vacant in the HSC.

DUP health spokesman Paul Givan MLA described the latest statistics as startling.

Ill be looking into the background of these startling statistics as we seek to understand why appointments are being cancelled by hospitals, he said.

Is it a lack of staff or is private work being prioritised over NHS work?

We need to have a serious and considered look at this situation.

There has long been a public awareness campaign about the cost of missed appointments, but we need to have a fuller understanding of why hospitals are postponing patients.

Alliance MLA Paula Bradshaw said change is needed.

It has been plain for many years transformation of health and social care should be our number one priority, otherwise these sorts of challenges with a seriously detrimental impact on patients and service users would emerge she said.

And cancelling appointments, sadly, merely serves to store up further pressure for the future.

We had a clear road map set out in 2016 for reforms which would have alleviated this.

It is long past time all parties recognised the extreme urgency of getting on with reforms so we can deliver a reliable and responsive health and social care system free at point of access.

The UK Government also needs to recognise the damage it is doing by refusing to reform the system of devolved government to enable those who are willing to take responsibility for tackling the issues which matter to the public to do so.
Beauty queen Kaitlyn Clarke backing Big Coffee Break fundraiser to help local charity

Trevor McCartney of the NI Hospice at the launch of the Northern Ireland Hospice Big Coffee Break. Photo by Kevin Scott

Olivia Nash at the launch of the Northern Ireland Hospice Big Coffee Break. Photo by Kevin Scott

Tory Ginnett, Miss NI Kaitlyn Clarke, former Miss NI Meagan Green, and Victoria Withers at the launch of the Northern Ireland Hospice Big Coffee Break (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph)

Miss Northern Ireland has said becoming an ambassador for the Northern Ireland Hospice was a massive draw for her to enter the competition.

Kaitlyn Clarke was speaking at the launch of NI Hospices Big Coffee Breaks campaign.

This was one of the reasons why I wanted to take part. I think that the platform I have ties up really nicely with the hospices platform in spreading awareness, she said.

After being crowned Miss Northern Ireland, Kaitlyn linked up with the NI Hospice, a charity that is particularly close to her heart.

I think I have a lovely chance to say important things about important issues, and I think what the hospice is doing for people, whether thats end of life care or looking after families, is an extremely important issue, she said. At the end of the day there is no reason not to support this charity and everything they are doing for the people that need it most.

Olivia Nash at the launch of the Northern Ireland Hospice Big Coffee Break. Photo by Kevin Scott

This year, the hospice is celebrating 40 years of providing palliative care services for local babies, children, adults and their families, and Kaitlyn hopes to encourage as many people in Northern Ireland as possible to help raise funds.

Its a lovely way to do it. In Northern Ireland we all love a good cuppa, so its one of the best ways to gather people together, get them talking and hopefully raise a lot of funds, Kaitlyn said.

Give My Head Peace actress Olivia Nash is vice-president of the hospice and said it is vital that the charity raises more funds.

At the moment, with the financial situation, it is vital that we gather together and make this coffee break a great success because, believe me, like all charities at the minute, we need every penny we can get, she said.

She is proud of the hospices ability to offer patients happiness and peace.

Trevor McCartney of the NI Hospice at the launch of the Northern Ireland Hospice Big Coffee Break. Photo by Kevin Scott

There is no isolation, families are free to come in, everyone is welcome, its a lovely, lovely, peaceful, beautiful place, Olivia added.

Trevor McCartney, NI Hospices Director of Corporate Services, said the charity needs 20m to run its services.

The type of people we are now dealing with are now younger  45% of our patients are now under the age of 65, he said.

The demand for services is ever increasing. Our challenge is the funding for those services is ever decreasing. This fundraising is what makes the difference.

Read more Dementia Care Coordinator Tracy Smyth speaks of the importance of carer support for patients

Former Miss Northern Ireland Meagan Green hopes the public will be inspired to host their own Big Coffee Breaks to help raise funds. Everybody can host their own little Big Coffee Break and it makes a massive difference, she said.

And she admires the work that the NI Hospice does for those in need of help. I think everybody knows somebody that has needed or required services from the NI Hospice, whether its the childrens hospice or the adult hospice, she said.

Its lovely to give back and hopefully we dont need it ourselves, but everybody seems to know somebody that has had an experience with the hospice or has required their facilities.

The launch of the Northern Ireland Hospice Big Coffee Break. Photo by Kevin Scott

NI Hospice wants to make it as easy as possible for members of the public to host their own coffee break with family, friends or work colleagues at any time during September.

Once youve signed up, the hospice will send out a special Big Coffee Break event pack with everything you need, including posters, fun and easy competitions to play with your guests, a moneybox, and even a free supply of Hospice blend coffee to get you started.
Belfast councillors have expressed their anger over cuts to a scheme which helps to warm and retrofit low income households.

Belfast City Council has not yet signed up to a service level agreement document forwarded by Stormont which ends council involvement in administering the Affordable Warmth Scheme.

A decision made by the Department for Communities permanent secretary calls to an end the involvement of all 11 councils, and with it the targeting of the scheme to low income people.

The department states the move will create savings on administration costs, which will allow the scheme to continue and ultimately to be widened when the Assembly returns.

Belfast City Council has been engaged in the partnership with the Stormont department and the Northern Ireland Housing Executive in the delivery of the scheme since 2014.

It aimed to address fuel poverty for the most vulnerable households by targeting those households that met certain criteria, as identified by Ulster University, to provide home improvement measures such as loft and cavity wall insulation, replacement boilers and new double-glazed windows.

Currently the scheme may be available to those who have a total annual gross income of less than 23,000, live in Northern Ireland, own and occupy their property as their main home or rent from a private landlord.

It is not available for tenants living in social housing or those who are Housing Executive or housing association tenants.

The Stormont department has asked Belfast City Council to sign an interim service level agreement provided for the period April 1, 2022, to March 31, 2024, putting the council on notice to terminate the arrangement on August 31.

The council still has not agreed to sign the interim service level agreement, after deferring the matter at a series of meetings.

At the most recent meeting of the full Belfast City Council, councillors aired their anger at the management of the scheme by Stormont.

SDLP councillor Paul Doherty said: I have real concerns about people being able to access this scheme going forward.

Make no mistake, changing the approach in terms of identifying people will result in many, many people falling through the gaps, and falling deeper into crisis and deeper into poverty as a result.

Green Party councillor Anthony Flynn said: It is baffling that we are in a situation where one of the most important schemes for retrofitting housing stock in lower income homes is being completely cut. And there is nothing we can do about it. It is ridiculous.
Co Down victim of serial sex beast fears he will strike again as she urges authorities in Scotland not to free the predator from jail

Serial drug rapist William Fenton could be freed to walk the streets within weeks

Christine Jones (41) is urging people to sign a petition to keep her rapist behind bars

A woman who was date-raped and forced to endure a horrific and prolonged attack is pleading for the monster responsible to be kept behind bars.

Christine Jones (41), who is originally from Belfast but now lives in Killough, Co Down, was repeatedly violated over a 30-hour period when she was just 17.

Rapist William Fenton is due before the Parole Board in Scotland in October.

Fenton was the first person convicted of drug rape in the UK after the brutal attack on St Patricks Day in 1997.

The predator was sentenced to 12 years in 2000, but went on to reoffend after being released from prison early.

Mrs Jones told the Belfast Telegraph: The Parole Board for Scotland will decide if he is free: free to rape again, free to walk the streets among unsuspecting women he drug-rapes and videos for his sick pleasure.

Words cannot describe the danger this beast is  using drugs to rape and assault women, taking away our power to fight him off.

In 2008 Fenton was convicted of breaching a Sexual Offences Prevention Order. He then moved to Scotland, where he was later convicted of rape. He was subsequently granted parole.

The serial attacker was locked up again in 2013 for drugging and raping a woman and sexually assaulting four girls.

Mrs Jones, who waived her right to anonymity to start an online petition prior to a previous parole hearing for the sex beast in 2018, has launched another campaign to keep Fenton behind bars.

Hes given me a life-long sentence. Every time I open the paper and see hes raped another girl, it impacts me, it breaks my heart  it never goes away, she said.

To have him walking the streets again, knowing hes a risk to me and other women, is terrifying.

Every time he gets out he does it again, and his victims are forced to relive it over and over.

Her attempt to keep Fenton in prison has already attracted 5,000 signatures on change.org.

She added: I have moved on with my life, I got married, I have a beautiful family and built a thriving company.

But I will do everything I can to keep that monster locked up.

It only affects me when he gets out or is going for parole.

I havent slept in seven days, but I would rather have a week of turmoil than hear that another person has been raped.

Serial drug rapist William Fenton could be freed to walk the streets within weeks

Read more Belfast man jailed for attacking emergency service workers who took him to hospital

The mother-of-two has submitted a victim impact statement for parole officers to consider before they make their decision.

It details the trauma she suffered after her drink was laced with drugs by Fenton, who picked her up in his car to go to a party. They never made it.

Instead, Fenton drove his unsuspecting victim to his home in Islandmagee and repeatedly raped her before dumping her at the side of a road two days later.

After picking up the pieces of her life, Mrs Jones made a promise to herself  and its one she is determined to keep.

I decided many years ago that I will never be defined by my trauma, she explained.

I believe trauma strengthens you. It doesnt define my life anymore. It did for a very long time, but now I use it to live.

He nearly killed me with the amount of drugs he put in my body, but I will never let him take another day of my life away. I refuse to.

More than 50 substances were detected in Mrs Jones system when a friend took her to a health clinic following her terrible ordeal.

She wept as the perpetrator was sentenced to almost one year for every drug he administered in the bottle of Bacardi Breezer he handed her.

But the sentences ran concurrently, meaning he was caged for 12 years and released after six, despite another victim coming forward and securing a conviction during that period.

Mrs Jones, who praised the Scottish Parole Board for taking her concerns seriously in the past, believes legal reform is needed when it comes to sex attackers.

Theres lighter sentences for rapists than there is for burglary in some cases, she said.

That doesnt make sense; its preposterous actually, and it isnt good enough.

I believe that my attacker, because he isnt a violent rapist, gets lenient sentences.

Hes a sleekit, mental abuser, which is harder to prove.

Read more Ex-Sinn Fein press officer due back in court

Fenton was so cunning, some of his victims didnt even know they had been raped until the police knocked on their doors.

It was only when officers seized his phone and found pictures and videos that they were told about what had happened to them, Mrs Jones explained.

He took photos of me to document his twisted and sordid crimes. To this day I have never been able to look at them. I cant bring myself to see what he did.

I have hazy memories, and sometimes I get horrific flashbacks. Thats enough to live with, I dont need to see the pictures.

Fenton was branded a danger to females by a judge who imposed an Order of Lifelong Restriction on him.

It means he is subject to indefinite imprisonment, and can only be released on licence if it is determined the risk he poses to the public can be safely managed.

However, Mrs Jones believes Fenton is behind intimidation she has faced in the past few weeks.

She was recently contacted at her workplace and booked for a job at the address where she was raped  the caller then laughed and taunted her when she refused.

No one will scare me, she insisted.

I am no longer a vulnerable 17-year-old.

Read more Jamie Brysons battle with SIA over as court case against him is dismissed

The Parole Board for Scotland (PBS) said it did not comment on individual cases.

PBS considers each case on its own merits and takes account of all the information, including any victim representations, put before it in considering whether a prisoner should be released, it said.

If released on licence, then the information is also used to set conditions that would be appropriate for each individual prisoner.

The conditions are designed in each case to assist with the management of risk in the community.

If a condition is broken, then the case can be re-referred to PBS to consider whether the licensee should be recalled to custody.

All of Fentons victims registered with the Victim Notification Scheme will be told of the outcome when a decision is made on October 18.
Controlled explosions were carried out on devices wrapped in Pride flags during June in Portrush

The PSNI has said patrols will be increased in Portrush over the coming days ahead of the inaugural Causeway Pride this weekend.

The first Pride event to be held in the borough will take place on Saturday. A rally is planned for the towns West Strand followed by a health and wellbeing drop-in and after party in the evening.

Tensions in the area have been raised after a number of online posts by local far-right activist Mark Brown.

Once jailed for a racially motivated attack on a taxi driver, Brown claimed last month that the community was opposed to the Pride event and branded those behind it as a queer tent attempting to force debauchery and other societal ills on our townsfolk.

Police also confirmed they were investigating claims of online harassment following an LGBT event in the town in June.

Read more Ex-NF leader claims community is against Portrush Pride

The LGBTQIA+ Awareness and Wellbeing Event was organised by Unison NIs LGBT+ group on June 8 at Portrush Town Hall to coincide with the international celebration of Pride Month.

While present at the event at Portrush Town Hall, the PSNI received a report of online harassment.

Its understood it related to a number of posts generated by a Facebook account linked to a National Front activist in the area.

Ex-National Front leader in NI Mark Brown

Alliance councillor Peter McCully was also targeted that month when controlled explosions had to be carried out by ammunition technical officers on two suspicious devices left close to his home in Portrush. Both devices were wrapped in Pride flags.

It is understood the PSNI is unaware of any planned protest at Saturdays event, but said there would be extra police on duty.

Controlled explosions were carried out on devices wrapped in Pride flags during June in Portrush

"Police will have an increased presence in the Portrush area to coincide with planned Pride events, a spokesperson said.

"This is in response to recent heightened tensions in the area and designed to provide reassurance to the community and deter any potential crime and disorder.

SDLP councillor Seamas de Faoite

SDLP Belfast councillor Seamas de Faoite last month criticised those attempting to ratchet up tension in the town.

"As seen with recent protests organised by far-right groups in this area, they have absolutely no support from the local community in what is a welcoming and tolerant place, he said.

"The actions of a handful of far-right fascists will not ruin whats set to be a great day in Portrush and Id urge as many people as possible to come along and send a clear message that hate wont win in Portrush or anywhere else.

Causeway Pride has also issued safety advice to those planning to attend, posting a series of information points on their Facebook page.

"As members of the LGBTQIA community, we are very much aware of the hatred and lack of safety we often face, they said.

We would like to reassure the public that we have taken every possible step to ensure the safety of all those who are attending our rally this weekend.

Both private security and the PSNI will be in attendance. We also have qualified first aid responders.

"On the day youll be able to spot our marshals by the hi-vis vests they will be wearing and youll find them at the rally, the hub and the train station to greet any arrivals.

"If anyone has any questions or concerns, feel free to pm the page of contact safety@causewaypride.co.uk.
PSNI at the scene of a dog attack in the Clon Elagh area of Derry on Friday afternoon.

A dog has been seized by police following an attack in Londonderry which has resulted in a man being arrested.

The incident happened in the Clon Elagh area of the city shortly after 3pm on Friday.

The circumstances of the attack are unclear.

But a number of police cars were dispatched to the scene where local residents, including children, were gathered.

A PSNI spokesperson confirmed that the dog has been taken off the streets.

"A male has also been arrested and is currently in custody assisting police with their enquiries, they added.

"The dog warden has been notified.

Anyone who witnessed the incident, or who has information, has been asked to contact police on 101 quoting reference 1035 of 04/08/23.
Police are appealing for witnesses after a teenage girl was sexually assaulted after a music concert in south Belfast.

It happened on the riverside of the Ormeau Embankment, close to Ormeau Road, on Saturday June, 10.

The victim was approached by an unknown man between 11.15pm and 11.45pm before being pushed against the railings of the embankment.

The assailant held her by force and then touched her inappropriately before she was able to escape and flee the scene.

We are keen to identify this man who is reported as being white, approximately 510, slim build with stubble facial hair who was wearing a white bucket hat and blue denim shorts," a PSNI spokesperson said.

We are also keen to talk to a woman who was reported to have walked past the area at the time, who may have spoken to the victim and her attacker.

"The woman is described as having brown hair, of stocky build and being in her early 30s.

Anyone who may have witnessed the incident, or who has information, has been urged to contact detectives on 101, quoting reference number 699 of 11/06/23.
The vandalism of a rainbow crossing in Derry has caused real anger in the city, says an SDLP councillor.

The rainbow pedestrian crossing, the first of its kind in Ireland, was intended to show support for the LGBT+ community. It was installed in 2021.

Police are treating damage to the crossing as a hate crime after it was daubed with paint.

Ballyarnett councillor Rory Farrell said: There is anger, sadness and a real sense of disappointment in Derry after this vandalism of the rainbow crossing in our city centre.

"This is a city that is renowned for the warm welcome it extends to everyone, including our LGBT+ community and Id like to express my solidarity with them. Derry has a vibrant LGBT+ community and they should not feel intimidated as a result of this incident.

He added that the crossing was a hit with both locals and tourists, who often had photos taken near it.

The funding for this crossing was secured by my colleague Brian Tierney during his year as Mayor and received the unanimous support of councillors. It was the first of its kind on our island and many people in this city were justly proud of that fact.

"Since it has been installed it has proven very popular amongst locals and tourists alike, with many stopping to have their picture taken.

This vandalism comes in the context of increasing attacks on LGBT+ people across these islands and around the world.

Mr Farrell added that the attack was not representative of the people of Derry, and urged anyone with information about the incident to speak to the police.

We need to send a clear message that this kind of hate will not be tolerated in our city, particularly ahead of our Pride festival later this month.

"The people who carried out this attack do not speak for the people of Derry and I would urge anyone with any information about this to come forward to police.
DUP boss urged to heed advice of senior officials on Windsor Framework

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson will face the wrath of senior party members if he returns to government at Stormont without changes to the Windsor Framework, a former DUP MLA has said.
A former Ulster Unionist leader has said Northern Ireland is in a mess that leaves Sinn Fein laughing all the way to the political bank.

Lord Empey said the Stormont deadlock is a story of strategic failure on an unprecedented scale.

The DUP walked out of the Executive 18 months ago in protest over the post-Brexit trade arrangements which introduced new checks and restrictions on goods moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.

At the weekend Lord Dodds, one of the partys most senior figures, indicated a return to Stormont was not imminent.

Lord Empey, who led the UUP between 2005 and 2010, said that unionism is coming yet again to another crossroads, warning: The status quo cannot continue."

He questioned if the DUP can really read parliament due to their relationship with the European Research Group of Eurosceptic Tory MPs.

When push came to shove that year, every one of the ERG MPs voted for the Protocol, Lord Empey said.

In the current Parliament, 95% of both Houses have effectively endorsed the Windsor Framework. Rishi Sunak sees it as one of his biggest successes.

He said the fundamentals of the Windsor Framework  agreed between the UK and EU to overcome issues with the protocol  will not be changed.

"Under these circumstances, unionism must reflect on the corner into which we have been painted, he added.

We cannot continue to be a steadily declining entity seen as failing to deliver for people while they face huge social and economic challenges.

There is another way, and there must be a frank conversation about how we extricate ourselves from a mess that leaves Sinn Fein laughing all the way to the political bank.

Lord Empey said unionism has always had different approaches to problems within their ranks, but he has noticed there is now an intolerance for difference.

He cited contrasting views within unionism on how the post-Brexit issues should be addressed.

"The DUP and others say that boycotting Stormont is the only way to lever change. Other unionists, me included, believe that boycott has failed and is harmful to unionist interests, he added.

Lord Empey said it is undeniable that both the protocol and the Windsor Framework represent serious threats to our long-term constitutional position.

That these negotiations occurred while the government was kept in power by DUP support is incredible, he added.

It is little wonder that in a recent interview, former DUP leader Arlene Foster declared that her biggest regret was not to have pulled the plug on her confidence and supply deal with the Conservative Party.

Dame Arlene made the comments in the These Times podcast with UnHerd political editor Tom McTague and Cambridge professor Helen Thompson last month.

Lord Empey added: I do not doubt for one minute the DUP's commitment to unionism, but I do say that they have made a series of strategic errors for which unionism is paying a huge price. I believe that within unionism, I ought to be able to say so without a torrent of abuse challenging my loyalty.

The admission from Sir Jeffrey Donaldson that elements within his own party are causing damage to the DUP is astonishing, but I accept that it is true.

On Friday TUV leader Jim Allister said unionists willing to return to Stormont while the Windsor Framework remains unchanged are deluded.

Mr Allister said a return to power-sharing must be mutual and there is no chance of anything diminishing the EU stranglehold of the Protocol being agreed, even if it could be implemented.

Prominent unionist figures including Lord Empey have advocated a return to Stormont, but have acknowledged issues with the Windsor Framework.

Current UUP leader Doug Beattie has also hinted be believes Stormont may be restored in October after he called for a business conference to be delayed from September.

Mr Allister said: Every key facet of the Protocol is governed by EU law - even the much vaunted, but largely meaningless, green lane is controlled by EU, not British law.

"So, the prospect of Stormont influencing, never mind changing, anything of substance is nil.

Read more Leaders remarkable admission proof DUP not big happy family party HQ suggests

The TUV leader added a return to Stormont under the protocol is to accept that never again will we be a full part of the United Kingdom.

He added: What a travesty and disaster for unionism if in the very month, October, that the grace periods end and we begin to feel the full weight of the iniquitous Protocol, it gave up the only leverage it has and became Protocol implementers.

"That is not an option for anyone who values and refuses to give up on the Union.
Chris Heaton-Harris misled the public, but has no intention of retracting or clarifying what he said

Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Chris Heaton-Harris MP at a press conference in Erskine House in central Belfast today. Photo: Jonathan Porter/Press Eye

Chris Heaton-Harris has responded defiantly to the suggestion that he might be part of the problem with restoring Stormont.

The Secretary of State, who misled the public about the Windsor Framework but has repeatedly refused to retract or apologise for having done so, called a press conference ostensibly in relation to forcing Stormont to raise more revenue through measures such as water charges or increasing rates bills.

Just prior to this, Mr Heaton-Harris had met the head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service, Jayne Brady, to discuss the issue.

However, he made no substantive announcement on raising more money through taxation or ending giveaways like free transport. He did not even threaten to introduce the unpopular measures  something the NIO has a long history of having attempted during past periods where devolution has collapsed in a hope that it will force the parties back into government.

In March, Mr Heaton-Harris told this newspaper that under the Windsor Framework named plants could come into Northern Ireland from Great Britain, saying yes, its going to be straightforward theres no more to it, no less to it than that.

Within days, we reported that was wholly inaccurate and hundreds of plants are banned from crossing the Irish Sea, but can still come from thousands of miles away in southern Europe. Mr Heaton-Harris has refused on multiple occasions to retract or clarify what he said, simply dismissing questions and moving on.

Read more Secretary of State refuses to retract inaccurate sea border claim after misleading the public

Sam McBride challenges Secretary of State over inaccurate claim about Irish Sea border

Today, the Belfast Telegraph asked him if he accepts that this behaviour is part of the problem as the Government attempts to restore Stormont because many DUP supporters simply dont believe what he says.

Mr Heaton-Harris responded with one word  no  and moved on to the next question.

The former Tory chief whip repeated his criticisms of the parties, saying: Action needs to be taken to bring Northern Irelands public finances under control and make them sustainable for future years.

The necessary decisions have not been taken by local leaders to ensure affordable public service transformation can take place, and now that is being felt in the most undesirable of ways by people across Northern Ireland.

The people of Northern Ireland urgently need a credible plan to deliver sustainable public services.

The Secretary of State criticised Stormonts parties for their fiscal populism and inability to balance Stormonts books, saying there was a need for tough decisions to secure a balanced and sustainable budget.

However, last year Mr Heaton-Harris gave householders in Northern Ireland a substantial real terms cut in their rates bills, leaving less money for health, education, policing, and all the other public services now facing a budgetary crisis.

When asked why he had cut rates bills, Mr Heaton-Harris responded: I think youll find thattheres been a cost-of-living crisis going on.

He said he was very aware that everyone in Northern Ireland was finding times hard and so I did not want to go over and above what people might have expected.

Mr Heaton-Harris said the civil service have done a tonne of work on this revenue-raising piece and gave him 356 pages on the issue on Monday. He said he is minded to go ahead with the public consultations to examine how additional taxes or the abolition of items which are currently free might work.

However, he added: I want to actually read whats been presented to me to make sure I am making the right decisions.

Read more Blackout fears as DfE finally admits major gap looms in NI power supply this winter

Mr Heaton-Harris confirmed that the investment conference planned for next month will happen as scheduled, regardless of whether the DUP allow Stormont to be restored.

He attempted to sound optimistic on the possibility of the DUP re-entering government, saying that they were half way there.

Tellingly, he said that finding a legislative solution to the Irish Sea border which satisfies the DUP had proved harder than expected, adding: Identifying exactly what the ask was, was very difficult.

He stressed that was in the past tense, indicating that the DUP and the Government have now agreed on legislation.

However, whatever that legislation involves, it will not be able to undo any of the Irish Sea border without the UK breaking the Windsor Framework, something Rishi Sunak has made clear he doesnt intend to do.

Earlier this week the Belfast Telegraph revealed that Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has emailed his party to appeal for an end to members criticising the party in public, a move which some observers saw as a sign of weakness.

However, Mr Heaton-Harris attempted to support Mr Donaldson, expressing confidence in his ability to lead the DUP and saying that parties are broad churches where bringing a party together was difficult.
An NHS trust in Surrey found the Qure AI program identified normal chest X-rays with a 99.7% accuracy (PA)

Artificial intelligence (AI) could help the NHS overcome a radiologist workforce crisis, experts have said, although building trust in the technology is an important step in it becoming a normal part of a modern health service.

It comes after a pilot study in Surrey found AI had the power to categorise normal chest X-rays with a 99.7% accuracy, showing potential to speed up cancer diagnoses.

Technology company Qure AI has developed its platforms to interpret the likes of X-rays, CT scans and ultrasounds to free up clinicians time.

Commercial vice president and UK and EU head of commercial Darren Stephens told the PA news agency: We cant recruit and onboard radiographers, radiologists and doctors at the same level that we need to meet the demand.

So we need to think cleverer and we need to do more with the precious resource that we have.

Qures qXR platform is being trialled by Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust to highlight the benefit of AI when it comes to differentiating between normal and abnormal chest X-rays.

The trust used 576 chest X-rays, with Qures AI platform able to identify normal scans with a 99.7% accuracy rate.

Using the platform could save consultants up to two hours a day, researchers said, by allowing scans to be transferred to radiographers to read.

Dr Amrita Kumar, consultant radiologist and AI clinical lead at Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust, said: Theres increasing healthcare demands on the NHS, which has obviously been exacerbated by the pandemic.

With this demand, a lot of the services require imaging support because the role imaging plays in diagnosis and management is quite pivotal.

Dr Kumar added that a workforce crisis in radiology is also having a very negative effect on reporting timelines and causing backlogs in chest X-rays, as well as CT and MRI scanning.

Chest X-ray is very important because its the first step in diagnosing lung cancer. We wanted to see candidates have better turnaround times so that we diagnose the cancers faster, but also create that efficiency and productivity and save some time for our consultants as well.

She said the pilot with Qure was done to demonstrate how AI actually translates into the real clinical pathway.

Were on a journey right now. This tech we know has huge potential, but its a matter of building the trust in it, building the correct implementation pathway and then having the appropriate funding.

Dr Amrita Kumar said building trust in AI is an important step (Stewart Turkington)

Elsewhere in the NHS, AI is currently being used to read mammograms and is helping doctors to diagnose strokes faster.

Last month, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) published a collection of 10 studies exploring the application of AI in various parts of the health service.

These included detecting heart disease through smart stethoscopes, as well as using AI to predict disease progression and personalise cancer care.

Mr Stephens said the UK is leading the way in terms of adopting the technology, but more must be done to educate people on its benefits.

Theres a lot of myths associated with the technology and how its deployed because theres a lot of fear out there around Chat GPT-like applications and language models.

The version that is released to a hospital after its been tested doesnt change beyond that release. Its very much done in a safe and controlled way.

He said the concept of AI learning as it goes along doesnt exist in our world.

It might with other AI applications in the more general consumer market, but not on the highly regulated medical side of things.

Mr Stephens hopes AI will become a normal part of the modern NHS in the coming years, but said continued education is important.

In a previous life, I was involved in pre-analytical robotics in pathology. Theres a lot of similarities there  a robot that was going to sort blood samples in the lab was completely unheard of.

Now I would challenge you to find any laboratory in the country that doesnt have a blood sciences pre-analytical robotic function. (AI) will become part of a modern delivery of service.

He added: I think theres a huge responsibility on companies like ourselves, or clinicians operating in this space, from an education and an awareness perspective.

Mr Stephens also said training doctors in AI is crucial as it is necessary for the successful implementation of the technology.

He added: Its about trust, because if people arent going to trust and have comfort in using it, the technology will not be successful.

Health Secretary Steve Barclay said it is essential we continue to make the most of this revolutionary tech (Jordan Pettitt/PA)

Health Secretary Steve Barclay said using AI will improve care for patients.

He added: It is essential that we continue to make the most of this revolutionary tech, which is why this government is investing a further 21 million for trusts to roll out AI imaging tools like Qure across the NHS.

This is on top of 123 million through our AI Awards, which Qure benefited from, to develop software to help radiologists prioritise the most urgent CT head scans for review.

Access to technology like this can also help save staff valuable time, which is a key part of the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan. The plan will also grow the workforce including doubling the number of medical school places by 2031 and increasing training places for allied health professionals, such as radiographers, by a quarter.
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan announced every Londoner with a polluting car will now be eligible for a grant of up to 2,000 to switch to a greener model (Yui Mok/PA)

Sadiq Khan has refused to water down the capitals ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) expansion as he opened financial support to all Londoners to soften the impact of the scheme.

The London mayor declined to say whether he is on the same page with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, who blamed concerns around Ulez for his partys narrow by-election defeat in Boris Johnsons old Uxbridge and South Ruislip seat last month.

Ulez, which costs drivers of vehicles that do not meet minimum emissions standards 12.50 a day to enter, is set to expand to all London boroughs from August 29 in a bid to tackle air pollution.

Mr Khan on Friday announced that every Londoner with a polluting car will now be eligible for a grant of up to 2,000 to switch to a greener model, while small businesses can get 21,000 to junk up to three vans.

It comes after Sir Keir asked him to reflect on how the extension was being carried out following the Uxbridge result.

Asked whether the Labour mayor and the partys national leader are now in agreement on the issue, Mr Khan declined to answer, instead lauding the widening of the scrappage scheme.

Im determined to make sure that no Londoner and no London business is left behind and Ill carry on listening, he told the PA news agency at a bus garage in Edgware.

Pressed on whether the Ulez expansion could impact Labours chances at the next general election, Mr Khan said that when he stands for a third term as mayor next year he will build on our record of tackling the twin emergencies of the climate emergency and air pollution.

These policies are policies that are popular when theyre properly explained, he added.

Im quite clear that Im simply not willing to delay, water down or step back on these vital public health and green policies.

(PA Graphics)

Critics have questioned whether a 2,000 grant is enough for people to upgrade their car.

Susan Hall, the Conservative Partys candidate for the London mayor election next May, said the changes are too little, too late.

The grants arent sufficient as prices for used cars and vans have gone up and the expansion in eligibility doesnt come into effect until a week before the Ulez, she told LBC Radio.

Health minister Maria Caulfield told Sky News the financial support has touched the sides of peoples concerns and that 2,000 is nothing if youre having to replace your car.

But Mr Khan insisted there are plenty of second-hand Ulez-compliant vehicles that can be purchased for less than 2,000.

He said nine out of 10 cars seen driving on an average day in outer London are compliant, so the vast majority of Londoners wont pay a penny more.

But figures obtained by the RAC show more than 690,000 licensed cars in the whole of London are likely to be non-compliant.

This does not take into account other types of vehicles or those which enter London from neighbouring counties, which will continue to be excluded from the scrappage scheme.

Mr Khan told PA: The good news is that people can now start looking for alternative cars if their cars not compliant, but the even better news is more likely than not your car is going to comply.

A Labour shadow minister praised Mr Khan for listening to peoples concerns about the Ulez expansion, which she said is ultimately his decision.

Alison McGovern told Times Radio: What Keir said was that people should be listened to and I think this announcement shows this morning that the mayor is listening.

The 12.50 daily charge for cars that fail to meet emissions standards will be expanded beyond the capitals north and south circular roads (Lucy North/PA)

While previously only child benefit recipients, low-income and disabled people were eligible for scrappage grants, from August 21 all Londoners with non-Ulez compliant cars or motorcycles can apply.

More support kicking in on Friday includes higher payments for switching to an electric vehicle, for charities with old vans, and for retrofitting an existing vehicle. Grants for replacing wheelchair-accessible vehicles will double to 10,000.

The mayor, who last week won a High Court challenge against five councils who wanted the Ulez expansion to be ruled unlawful, will use 50 million of City Halls reserves to fund the changes.

This will bring the total investment to 160 million  the most generous scrappage scheme ever seen in the UK, he said.
The Olenegorsky Gornyak warship moored at a harbour of Novorossiysk, Russia, on July 30 (AP)

Ukrainian sea drones have attacked a major Russian port, damaging a naval ship, according to a Ukrainian official, as the Black Sea becomes an increasingly important battleground in the war.

Moscow claimed it repelled the attack.

The strike on Novorossiysk  which halted maritime traffic for a few hours  marks the first time a commercial Russian port has been targeted in the 18-month conflict.

The port  which hosts a naval base, shipbuilding yards and an oil terminal and is key for exports  lies just across the Black Sea from Crimea, where Russias Defence Ministry said it thwarted another attack overnight.

In this grab taken from video a drone manoeuvres as it approaches the vessel claimed to be a Russian large landing ship, the Olenegorsky Gonyak, close to the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk (via AP)

The Security Service of Ukraine and the countrys navy carried out the attack on Novorossiysk, according to an official with the security service, and the landing ship, Olenegorsky Gornyak, suffered a serious breach.

As a result, the ship is unable to carry out its combat missions, the official added.

Images posted on social media showed a ship listing.

Fridays attack is the latest in a series of strikes inside Russia.

It also reflects an increase in fighting in the Black Sea following Moscows withdrawal from a deal that allowed Ukraine to export its grain through the waterway.

On Wednesday, Russian drones caused significant damage and a huge fire at grain facilities in the Odesa region.

A day earlier, the Russian military said Kyivs forces tried to attack two patrol vessels in the sea, south-west of the Russian-controlled city of Sevastopol in Moscow-annexed Crimea.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, heralded the latest attack, saying it showed drones are changing the rules of the game  and ultimately destroying the value of the Russian fleet.

Russias far superior navy has controlled the seas in the war so far.

Its ships fire on major ports and cities across Ukraine, and they have largely blockaded the countrys coast as well as mining the Black Sea, making passage through it treacherous.

Mr Podolyaks remarks and other recent attacks in the sea and on the Kerch Bridge connecting Crimea to Russia could indicate Ukraine is trying to change that dynamic.

With the latest assault Kyiv showed that it can attack any vessel of the Black Sea Fleet, no matter the distance, said Ukrainian military analyst Roman Svytan.

The end of the grain deal, under which ships carrying food from Ukrainian ports were promised safe passage, untied Kyivs hands, he said, predicting the frequency of attacks on Russian ships would only increase.

Taking on Russia on the seas, however, will be a serious challenge.

Russias navy dwarfs Ukraines  and after Moscow annexed Crimea in 2014, Ukraine said it lost more than 80% of its naval capabilities.

Meanwhile, Russias Black Sea Fleet has 279 vessels, including 52 warships.

So far, Ukrainian attacks have destroyed at least two: the Saratov landing ship, which sank in the occupied port city of Berdyansk early on in the war, and the fleets flagship, the Moskva, which also sank early in the war.

Several more have been reportedly damaged.

On Friday, Ukrainian news agencies carried footage from social media channels that showed a ship listing to one side that they suggested was the Olenegorsky Gornyak.

The Olenegorsky Gornyak warship on July 30 (AP)

The ship is designed to transport troops and heavy equipment and was sent for repairs in 2014, according to Russian media reports.

It is normally based with Russias Northern Fleet in the Arctic.

Russia claimed it fended off the attack, saying ships patrolling the perimeter of the naval base, including the Olenegorsky Gornyak, destroyed two sea drones.

The Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which operates an oil terminal in the port, said maritime traffic was halted for a few hours but that its facilities were not damaged.

The regional governor said there were no casualties.

Footage published on Russian social media channels appeared to show a ship firing into the sea and a burning object exploding.

Ukrainian social media channels also posted night-time video shot from what they indicated was a sea drone, floating near a ship.

The Associated Press could not verify the videos.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to comment on the attack during a conference call with reporters.

Minutes after confirming the attack on the Black Sea port early on Friday morning, Russias Ministry of Defence said it had also repelled another attack by Ukraine on Crimea.

The ministry said air defence systems shot down 10 drones and electronically jammed another three.

Svitlana Sushko sobs while visiting the grave of her youngest son, a Ukrainian soldier who was killed last year in the war against Russia, in Kyiv, Ukraine (Jae C Hong/AP)

Videos shared on Russian social media channels reportedly from around the city of Feodosia showed what appeared to be air defence systems working, as well as loud explosions.

Feodosia is just across the water from Novorossiysk and is not far from Kerch, which was attacked in July.

Russian officials blamed the attack on the Kerch bridge  which left a span of the roadway hanging perilously  on Ukraine.

The bridge is a key artery for military and civilian supplies from Russia to Crimea and is an assertion of Kremlin control of the peninsula it illegally annexed.

In other developments:

 In southern Ukraine, the Russia-appointed governor in the Zaporizhzhia region, Yevgeny Balitsky, said several Ukrainian drones were shot down near Berdyansk during the night. Berdyansk is on the Azov Sea, about 250 kilometres (150 miles) north of Novorossiysk.

 Ukraines prosecutors office accused Russian forces of hitting the Kherson region with a guided bomb, wounding a local resident. The office published photos from the attack, showing a deep crater and damaged houses.

 Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, who is seeking the Republican US presidential nomination, met with Mr Zelensky on Friday.
Supporters of Nigers ruling junta gather at the start of a protest called to fight for the countrys freedom and push back against foreign interference in Niamey, Niger (Sam Mednick/AP)

International pressure has mounted against leaders of the coup in Niger as the American secretary of state said the US stands very much in support of West African leaders who have threatened to use force to restore the nations democracy.

As hundreds of anti-French protesters rallied in the Nigerien capital in support of the ruling junta, US secretary of state Antony Blinken offered general support for the regional bloc known as Ecowas, though he did not specifically refer to its threat of military action.

Mr Blinken told reporters in New York that the US believes the blocs efforts to reinstate toppled President Mohamed Bazoum are important, strong and have our support.

Senegals foreign affairs minister said her country would participate in a military intervention if Ecowas decides to act.

Supporters of Nigers ruling junta hold a Russian flag at the start of a protest called to fight for the countrys freedom and push back against foreign interference in Niamey, Niger (Sam Mednick/AP)

Senegalese soldiers have to go  these coups detat must be stopped, Aissata Tall Sall said.

Meanwhile, Nigers military leaders sought to exploit anti-Western sentiment to shore up their takeover.

The junta suspended broadcaster RFI and France 24 television from broadcasting in the country, according to the French Foreign Affairs Ministry.

The suspensions were part of the juntas authoritarian repression, the ministry wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

Last weeks coup toppled Mr Bazoum, whose ascendency was Nigers first peaceful, democratic transfer of power since independence from France in 1960.

The coup stirred strident anti-French sentiment and raised questions about the future of the fight against extremism in Africas Sahel region, where Russia and Western countries have vied for influence.

The coup has been condemned by Western countries and the Ecowas bloc, which has threatened to forcibly remove the junta if it does not hand back power to Mr Bazoum.

As tensions have grown in the capital Niamey and the region, many European countries have moved to evacuate their citizens.

Supporters of Nigers ruling junta gather for a protest in Niamey (Sam Mednick/AP)

At Thursdays protest organised by the junta and civil society groups on Nigers independence day, protesters pumped their fists in the air and chanted support for neighbouring countries where militaries have also taken power in recent years.

Some waved Russian flags, and one man brandished a Russian and Nigerien flag sewn together.

For more than 13 years, the Nigerien people have suffered injustices, protester Moctar Abdou Issa said.

The junta will get us out of this, God willing  they will free the Nigerien people.

Were sick of the French, he added.

It remains unclear whether a majority of the population supports the coup, and in many parts of the capital people went about their lives as normal on Thursday.

US President Joe Biden used the occasion of Nigers independence day to call for Mr Bazoum to be released and democracy restored.

The Nigerien people have the right to choose their leaders. They have expressed their will through free and fair elections  and that must be respected, he said in a statement.

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the administration was still focused on diplomacy.

We still believe theres time and space for that. The window is not going to be open forever, Mr Kirby said.

In an address to the nation on Wednesday, the new military ruler General Abdourahmane Tchiani lashed out at those who have condemned the coup and called on the population to be ready to defend the nation.

He said harsh sanctions imposed last week by Ecowas were illegal, unfair and inhuman.

Ecowas has set a deadline of Sunday for the junta to reinstate Mr Bazoum, who remains under house arrest.

In an opinion piece in The Washington Post, Mr Bazoum described himself as a hostage who was one among hundreds of citizens arbitrarily arrested.

He said his nations security situation was improving before the coup but was now at risk because Niger would lose foreign aid and terrorist groups would take advantage of its instability.

In our hour of need, I call on the US government and the entire international community to help us restore our constitutional order, Mr Bazoum wrote in the piece posted online late on Thursday.

Nigeriens participate in a march called by supporters of coup leader General Abdourahmane Tchiani in Niamey (Sam Mednick/AP)

After the deadline set by Ecowas expires, the bloc is expected to decide by consensus on the next step as recommended by its defence chiefs.

At a bloc meeting in Abuja, Nigerias capital, Brigadier General Tukur Ismaila Gusau, a Nigeria defence spokesman, said the defence chiefs have been asked to come up with a military solution, which they hope will be the last option.

The blocs sanctions include halting energy transactions with Niger, which gets up to 90% of its power from neighbouring Nigeria, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency.

France has 1,500 soldiers in Niger who conduct joint operations with its military against jihadis linked to al Qaida and the so-called Islamic State group.

The United States and other European countries have helped train Nigers troops.

Niger was seen as the Wests last reliable partner in the region, but some in the country see Russia and its Wagner mercenary group, which operates in a handful of African countries, as a powerful alternative.

The new junta has not said whether it intends to ally with Moscow or stick with Nigers Western partners, but that question has become central to the unfolding political crisis.

Neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso  both ruled by juntas  have turned towards Moscow.

Ahead of Thursdays demonstration, the French embassy in Niamey asked Nigers government to ensure the security of its premises after it was attacked by protesters and a door was set on fire.

The president of Nigeria, Bola Tinubu, dispatched two delegations on Thursday to deal with Nigers crisis.

A group from Ecowas headed by former Nigerian head of state General Abdulsalami Abubakar was on its way to Niger.

A second group led by ambassador Babagana Kingibe went to engage with the leaders of Libya and Algeria, said Ajuri Ngelale, special adviser to the president.
Donald Trump has pleaded not guilty to trying to overturn the results of his 2020 presidential election loss.

The former US president was answering for the first time to federal charges that accuse him of orchestrating a brazen and ultimately failed attempt to block the peaceful transfer of presidential power.

Mr Trump appeared before a magistrate judge in Washingtons federal courthouse two days after being indicted on four felony counts by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith.

In a criminal case seen as the most historically consequential of the three that he faces, Mr Trump stands accused of trying to subvert the will of voters and obstruct the certification of Democrat Joe Bidens victory before January 6, 2021, when a mob of supporters stormed the US Capitol in a violent clash with law enforcement.

Mr Trump, the 2024 Republican presidential primary frontrunner, sat stern-faced with his hands folded, shaking his head at times as he conferred with a lawyer and occasionally glancing around the courtroom as his court appearance began.

He stood up to enter his not guilty plea, answered perfunctory questions from the judge and thanked her at the conclusion of the arraignment.

Speaking outside the court after entering his plea, Mr Trump said it was a very sad day for America.

Mr Trump addressed the proceedings in a brief statement on a drizzly tarmac before he boarded his plane back to New Jersey, describing the case as a persecution designed to hurt his 2024 presidential campaign.

We cant let this happen in America, Mr Trump said.

His appearance on Thursday, and the rest of the court case, will unfold in a courthouse with a clear view of the Capitol and in a building where more than 1,000 of the Capitol rioters have been charged.

Mr Trump has said he is innocent, and his legal team has characterised the latest case as an attack on his right to free speech.

Just minutes after Mr Trumps motorcade pulled away from the courthouse, his campaign was fundraising off the events. My father was just officially arraigned, read an email sent under the name of his son Eric Trump.

The case is part of an ongoing set of escalating legal troubles for the ex-president, coming nearly two months after Mr Trump pleaded not guilty to dozens of federal felony counts accusing him of hoarding classified documents and thwarting government efforts to retrieve them.

Supporters of Donald Trump outside court (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Mr Smith himself was in the courtroom and sat in the front row behind the prosecutors handling the case. Three police officers who defended the Capitol that day were also seen entering the courthouse.

The indictment from Mr Smith charges Mr Trump with four felony counts related to his efforts to undo his presidential election loss, including conspiracy to defraud the US government and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding. The charges could lead to a prison sentence of several years in the event of a conviction.

The former president was the only person charged in the case, though prosecutors referenced six unnamed co-conspirators, mostly lawyers, they say he plotted with, including in a scheme to enlist fake electors in seven battleground states won by Mr Biden to submit false certificates to the federal government.

The indictment chronicles how Mr Trump and his Republican allies, in what Mr Smith described as an attack on a bedrock function of the US government, repeatedly lied about the results in the two months after he lost the election and pressured his vice president Mike Pence, and state election officials to take action to help him cling to power.

This is the third criminal case brought against Mr Trump in less than six months.

Mr Trump waves from his motorcade as he leaves the E Barrett Prettyman US Federal Courthouse (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

He was charged in New York with falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment to a porn actress during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Mr Smiths office also has charged him with 40 felony counts in Florida, accusing him of illegally retaining classified documents at his Palm Beach estate, Mar-a-Lago, and refusing government demands to give them back.

He has pleaded not guilty in both those cases, which are set for trial next year.

And prosecutors in Fulton County, Georgia, are expected in coming weeks to announce charging decisions in an investigation into efforts to subvert election results in that state.

Mr Trumps lawyer John Lauro has asserted in television interviews that Mr Trumps actions were protected by the First Amendment right to free speech and that he relied on the advice of lawyers.

Mr Trump has claimed without evidence that Mr Smiths team is trying to interfere with the 2024 presidential election.
Storm Antoni is set to batter Northern Ireland this weekend (Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph)

The Met Office has warned those living in all counties will feel the effects of the storm, which is set to bring unseasonably wet and windy conditions and may lead to some disruption on Saturday morning.

The updated weather warning will come into effect at midnight on Friday and will last until 11am on Saturday.

There will be a risk of homes and businesses flooding, causing damage to some buildings.

Fast flowing or deep floodwater is possible, causing a danger to life alongside delays or cancellations to train and bus services, which the Met Office said are possible.

Spray and flooding could lead to difficult driving conditions and some road closures and some communities may be cut off by flooded roads.

However, the Met Office did add the weather warning has been lowered for parts of the north of Northern Ireland.

The Met Office said to expect: Heavy and persistent rain will spread across Northern Ireland during Friday night before clearing from the west Saturday late morning and early afternoon.

"Widely, totals of 20-30mm of rain are possible with the heaviest and most persistent rain expected in the south, and perhaps also east of the country, affecting parts of Co Down and Belfast.

Here 40-60mm is possible in some places with perhaps as much as 20-30mm of this falling in 3 or 4 hours. Meanwhile, 70mm may fall over parts of the Mourne Mountains.

"In the south, wet weather will be accompanied by quite windy conditions, gusts of 40 to 45 mph possible in some coastal parts of County Down during the morning.

Subsequent weather warnings concerning Storm Antoni have been issued across the UK, as the country experiences high levels of rain and wind.

Parts of Britain have also been warned the storm, which was named by the Met Office, could bring conditions that could cause a "danger to life".
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Patients with dengue lie in the corridors of Dhaka Medical College Hospital as all the beds are full amid a huge increase in infections, Dhaka, Aug. 1, 2023.

Bangladesh is facing an unprecedented outbreak of dengue fever with the death toll reaching a record high of 293 since Jan. 1, and thousands of people with the mosquito-borne infection filling up hospitals.

Experts in the South Asian country said that the nature of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which primarily transmits the virus, had changed, leading to higher infections in the past few years.

In Bangladesh, dengue infections began with the rainy season about five months ago and by Thursday, the virus had killed 283 people, shattering last years record of 281.

This year, more than 33,000 infected people have been hospitalized in Dhaka, and more than 28,000 outside of the capital city. Ten people died on Friday.

Achia Begum, the mother of a 3-year-old boy infected with dengue, said she was desperate to get him admitted into a hospital, but all public hospitals were full of dengue patients.

Doctors of the government hospital denied us as there were no spaces in the hospital. To save my sons life we are now trying to get a bed in this private hospital, Achia told BenarNews as she waited to hear from the private Islami Bank Hospital.

Federal and city government officials said they were doing all they could to control infections and provide health services.

Dhaka North City Corporation Mayor Atiqul Islam said they were conducting drives in parts of the city to ensure mosquitoes were not breeding in any areas.

We are conducting drives and imposing fines if we see the presence of Aedes larvae, Islam told reporters on Thursday, adding that those penalized were homeowners and neighborhood associations.

These drives will be conducted throughout the year, he said.

Dengue fever does not have a specific treatment, and those infected are usually given anti-fever and pain medication, according to the World Health Organization.

It is important to get tested quickly for dengue, said Rashid-e-Mahbub, president of the Bangladesh NGO Health Rights Movement.

People should rush to hospital immediately after suffering from a fever as the fever is turning serious very quickly this year, he told BenarNews.

A dengue test takes two to three days before a reliable result is available.

In Bangladesh, most of the patients died of dengue within a short period of being hospitalized, with the average hospital stay being 2.61 days, said Md. Shahadat Hossain, a management information system director at the Directorate General of Health Services.

Whats making matters worse in Bangladesh is that the dengue-carrying mosquito appears to have changed its breeding and biting patterns, which have increased their number and the frequency of their bites, one vector management expert said.

It now breeds both in unclean and fresh water while previously, it could breed only in fresh water, Kabirul Bashar, a zoology professor and vector management expert at Jahangirnagar University, told BenarNews.
Thuzar Maung, a Malaysia-based refugee from Myanmar, gives a talk in Kuala Lumpur, in a photo posted on her Facebook page, March 9, 2023.

Updated at 3:45 p.m. ET on 2023-08-04

Malaysian police have posted photos of a missing Myanmar democracy activist and her family online to ask the public for help in finding the five who, human rights advocates allege, were kidnapped from their Kuala Lumpur home a month ago.

Police said they were investigating it as a missing persons case but had no updates on activist Thuzar Maung and her family, who are U.N. refugee-card holders, while Human Rights Watch criticized the police for not circulating the photographs to the public sooner.

Our focus remains on areas where the missing individuals could possibly be, Selangor Police Chief Hussein Omar Khan told BenarNews on Friday.

The chief said police had recorded statements from 20 people, including neighbors, acquaintances and members of the Myanmar refugee community.

But, no significant developments at this point in time, he said.

Late Thursday, Ampang district police posted photographs of the family on its Facebook page.

Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watchs Asia division, urged the Malaysian police to investigate all possible angles that led to the disappearance as he criticized the delay in seeking assistance from the public.

Its about time the Malaysian police started investigating this case seriously. Releasing the photo of the family and their vehicle is something that should have been done weeks ago, Robertson told BenarNews on Friday.

All possibilities need to be explored, including who could have pulled off such a professionally conducted abduction that moved so quickly and efficiently to spirit Thuzar Maung, her husband, three children and the two family cars away.

Robertson said police must investigate the motives behind Thuzars abduction, considering her support for the shadow and civilian National Unity Government (NUG), which comprises former elected Myanmar legislators and junta opponents.

How this operation was conducted should be an important clue since the abilities demonstrated seem well beyond what ordinary Malaysians could do, Robertson said.

In a news release issued last month, HRW said that unidentified men abducted Thuzar Maung, 46, her husband Saw Than Tin Win, 43, their 16-year-old daughter and two sons aged 17 and 21, on July 4 from their Kuala Lumpur residence, citing witness accounts and CCTV footage.

The footage showed a car entering their gated community on the said date, with the driver claiming to be the police. Later that evening, the same car and two cars belonging to the family were seen leaving the compound, HRW said.

Thuzars colleagues who entered the house on July 5 said there were no signs of robbery, HRW said.

James Bawi, a refugee and activist with the Chin community  a mostly Christian ethnic group  said he had met recently with the Malaysia Home Ministrys press secretary and urged the ministry to initiate investigations into the disappearances.

He [the press secretary] has promised to provide updates on the disappearance of Thuzar Maung and her family, he said.

An NUG spokesman in Myanmar said rights activists in foreign countries need to be protected.

Now her sudden disappearance demonstrates that the lives of human rights campaigners, womens rights campaigners were not safe, not only in Myanmar but also in foreign countries, spokesman Aung Kyaw Moe told Radio Free Asia, a news service affiliated with BenarNews.

We would like to say the regional countries and other countries where Myanmar rights activists are working or staying should provide enough protection. For Thuzar Maungs case, the Malaysian government should take action without any hesitation and help the family with more information and other necessary help.

The Myanmar Embassy in Kuala Lumpur and Malaysias foreign and home affairs ministers did not immediately respond to BenarNews requests for comment.

In Malaysia, Thuzar heads the Myanmar Muslim Refugee Community and has been a staunch critic of Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaings junta, which toppled the elected Myanmar government of Aung San Suu Kyi in a coup in February 2021.

She fled to Malaysia from Mandalay to escape growing violence against Muslims. Thuzar and her family members hold refugee cards issued by UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency.

Khin Khin Ei and Kyaw Lwin Oo of RFAs Burmese Service contributed to this report.
Former rebels with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front are seen during a mass ceremony to decommission more than 1,000 ex-fighters, in Sultan Kudarat, Philippines, Aug. 3, 2023.

Militant groups are endangering efforts to disarm former Moro Islamic Liberation Front guerrillas by trying to recruit them, the head of an autonomous Muslim region in the southern Philippines told 1,300 ex-combatants during their official decommissioning ceremony this week.

Some MILF members have reneged on the groups promise to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to cooperate in the transition to peace in the south, said Murad Ebrahim, the ex-chief of the former separatist group who now heads the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

We are facing a very challenging situation because there are still groups out there that encourage our members to join them, Murad told reporters Thursday during a ceremony here as he led 1,301 former MILF combatants in the third and final phase of a process to decommission them as fighters and have them turn over their weapons.

While Murad did not specifically mention any militant groups, the three largest factions are the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), the Abu Sayyaf and the Maute group.

While the MILF signed a peace deal with Manila in 2014  under which the rebels agreed to give up their question for a separate state in the south in exchange for autonomy  the three other groups refused to give up and pledged allegiance to the extremist group known as Islamic State.

Former Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels participate at a decommissioning ceremony in Sultan Kudarat, Philippines, Aug. 3, 2023. [Jeoffrey Maitem/BenarNews]

Under the decommissioning process, each former combatant who hands over weapons is expected to receive about U.S. $2,400 per weapon, including funds for education.

The process, which began in 2019, was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The first phase covered 145 combatants and 75 weapons while the second phase included 12,000 guerillas with 2,000 weapons. Thursdays program involving 1,301 former rebels was part of the third phase that covers 12,699 fighters and 2,450 weapons.

The Philippine defense department previously estimated that there were about 40,000 firearms in the hands of the former MILF guerrillas.

It was not immediately clear how many ex-members of the group remain out there who have not surrendered their guns.

The third phase is expected to conclude on Aug. 10, the state-run Philippine News Agency quoted Carlito Galvez Jr., the presidential adviser on peace, as saying on Friday.

Murad Ebrahim, former chief of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, speaks during a ceremony marking the final phase of the decommissioning of MILF fighters, in Sultan Kudarat, Philippines, Aug. 3, 2023. [Jeoffrey Maitem/BenarNews]

During the decommissioning, Murad (also known as Ahod Balawag Ebrahim) said the former combatants would be eligible for assistance from the central government and jobs in the BARMM if they qualified.

The MILF only aspires [for] equal opportunities and access for growth and development for the Bangsamoro people and its homeland, he said.

For some, the process of decommissioning might be slow, but may I remind you all that this process takes some time because we are not only transforming the individual lives of the combatants and making them productive members of our society but even so importantly, transforming all communities across the BARMM to become peaceful and progressive.

He noted that the former combatants, who have referred to themselves as mujahideen fighters, can be employed by the BARMM.

That is part of the contribution in order to ensure their lives will transform, he said.

Deadly encounter

In June, Mohaqher Iqbal, MILFs former chief negotiator who serves as BARMMs education minister, said seven former guerrillas were killed in what the government said was a law enforcement activity near the town of Datu Paglas.

The military has insisted that those killed were militants and suggested that they could be former MILF fighters who broke away from the chain of command.

They were targeted as members of Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, Iqbal said on Thursday, insisting that those killed were MILF members.

The incident made us decide to temporarily put on hold the decommissioning of combatants, Iqbal said. Its much needed to pave the way for the healing process for the entire organization as well the families of slain combatants.

President Marcos ordered an investigation into the incident though, weeks later, the government has not released its findings. Iqbal said the delay caused some MILF members to lose their trust in the government.

Iqbal said an independent third body such as the International Monitoring Team could have helped maintain the confidence of their members in the peace process. But the Malaysian-led IMT left Mindanao after former President Rodrigo Duterte said it was no longer needed in the south.

The IMT, which included representatives from Libya and Brunei, monitored the humanitarian, rehabilitation and development aspects of the peace process. The peacekeeping contingent also ensured protection of civilians in areas where rebels operated.

No investigation was made by an independent body. It is in this juncture that we reiterate our position that the IMT should return to look into this matter, Iqbal said.
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Bennington, VT (05201)

Today

Cloudy with occasional showers for the afternoon. High 78F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Rain early...then remaining cloudy with showers late. Low near 60F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 80%.
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GREAT BARRINGTON  A railroad worker who was airlifted to a hospital Friday morning after being injured by equipment on the tracks has died of his injuries.

The worker's identity is being withheld until his family is notified, said Great Barrington Police Chief Paul Storti in a statement.

The worker was reportedly struck by equipment at around 10 a.m., Storti said. Scanner reports around that time indicated that the worker was injured at the tracks near Lime Kiln Road in Sheffield, and the dispatch suggested someone had been "run over" by equipment.

The incident remains under investigation by multiple agencies, including town police and the State Police Detective Unit assigned to the Berkshire District Attorney's Office.

Investigators were still at the scene as of 1 p.m., having converged at a driveway next to a storage unit facility. Railroad workers were huddled near a pickup truck, and the track equipment that had injured the employee sat nearby.

Storti said that the accident happened in Great Barrington near the Sheffield town line and in an area that is hard to access. Both Great Barrington and Sheffield fire crews as well as Sheffield Police, he added, responded to assist in the "extrication of the victim due to the remote location."

The man was then flown to Baystate Medical Center.

The tracks of the Housatonic Line are owned by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, and used by the Housatonic Railroad Co. It is still unclear who the employees are working for and what work they were doing.

An employee who answered the phone Friday morning at the railroad company said they also were waiting on details. The Eagle is also awaiting information from a DOT spokesperson.
This Story in History is selected from the archives by Jeannie Maschino, The Berkshire Eagle.
PITTSFIELD  The decision will likely be made next week, and few envy those who have to make it.

It is a choice between three life-size sculptures of W.E.B. Du Bois sitting on a marble bench, exuding his legacy of equality and freedom for all. Each with its own take on his personality and spirit. Each made by accomplished Black American sculptors who have devoted their art to enlivening Black historical figures into goose-bump-inducing public art.

The sculpture will eventually be cast in bronze and placed on a marble bench in a plaza in front of the Mason Library in Great Barrington.

It will live just around the corner from the birthplace of civil rights architect and scholar Du Bois. It will be just down the street from the church he attended. And it will be a short drive from the place he lived as a boy.

Given all this  as well as the significance of honors in a rural town that for decades refused to do so  the sculpture as well as other waypoints of Black history here will likely draw visitors from afar.

A panel of the W.E.B. Du Bois Sculpture Project has to decide between the three Du Bois sculpture models and will likely announce their choice on Aug. 8, according to Dubois Thomas, a project board member and president of the Blackshires Community Empowerment Foundation board.

It was Blackshires that brought three small maquettes, or mini representations, of the three sculptures by Vinnie Bagwell, Richard Blake and Dana King to the Berkshire Athenaeum this week so that Pittsfield residents could have a look.

On Thursday, the group held a maquette viewing and community conversation for more feedback. The projects jurors, Thomas said, are still looking for more thoughts from the public.

It will take roughly a year after the decision, Thomas added, to make the artwork and have it cast in bronze.

Its public art that could knit together, Thomas said, a Black history trail through Berkshire County. Thomas is so excited about this project that he said hed love to see more sculptures of notable Black figures  Pittsfield-born astronaut Stephanie Wilson comes to mind, he later told The Eagle.

Great Barrington continues to honor its rich Black History with projects that include the restoration of the former historic Clinton A.M.E. Zion Church building a short walk away from the library. That former church is being transformed into a museum and a vortex of local Black culture  born last year as the W.E.B. Du Bois Center for Freedom and Democracy.

Heading south on Main Street, one lands in Sheffield, where a bronze statue of Elizabeth Freeman stands tall, having been unveiled last August.

The Du Bois sculpture was initially the brainchild of Freke Vuijst-Klein, a Great Barrington resident and Dutch journalist, who gained approval to place it at the library but who died before she could finish the work.

The pandemic delayed it further, and others, like Gwendolyn VanSant, now on the projects advisory board, continued to explore options until the project's nonprofit was born.

The group has so far raised $225,000 for a total cost of $325,000, and hopes to raise more for maintenance.

It began with 18 submissions from artists, and the panel had whittled it down to the three. Finalist Vinnie Bagwell is known for work that includes a sculpture of Ella Fitzgerald in Yonkers, N.Y. Dana King's work includes a three-figure representation of the Montgomery Bus Boycott in Alabama. And Richard Blake is a Medal of Honor recipient for his sculpture of Rosa Parks at the U.S. Capitol.

The choice of a sculptor to render Du Bois is monumental  and difficult, everyone agreed.

I dont want any of them to lose, sculpture project board Vice Chair Ari Zorn said of the three artists. Zorn, also Blackshires board Vice President, said he had spent some time with the three, and that each had a beautiful story that he cant separate from their work.

Zorn believes the winning sculpture, when it finally lands, should receive a royal treatment.

I would love to see [former President Barack] Obama do the unveiling, Zorn said. If people really understand the magnitude of this and what it means  its worthy of that.

So significant is the sculpture that John Lewis, a member of the projects advisory board, says it could be the spark that sets off Black cultural tourism in the Berkshires.

Yet Lewis, also co-founder of Blackshires and CEO and co-founder of R3SET Enterprises, says the project isnt just about the sculpture, but about larger community engagement and education  in a way that would make Du Bois proud.

How do we manifest in a real way the teachings and values of Du Bois in Berkshire County? Lewis said, adding that discussions he co-facilitated among Black community members in March at an Idea Jam explored all of this and more. The gathering set out to ensure the projects sensitivity to the community and that it reflects its needs.

The fruit of that session will continue to push the work beyond choosing a sculpture itself, Lewis said, to keep the momentum going.

The Stockbridge home of Black Revolutionary War patriot Agrippa Hull is moved up the hill for restoration (copy) The Stockbridge home of Black Revolutionary War patriot Agrippa Hull was moved to its new spot above where it has rested since it was built around 1830.

At Great Barrington hearing, Du Bois statue questions center on location GREAT BARRINGTON  W.E.B. Du Bois needs a place to sit and hold court near Main Street. But right now, where that will be is still in question. The proponents of an initiative to place a 

For justice-driven journalist, Du Bois honor a triumph she never would see GREAT BARRINGTON  Dutch journalist Freke Vuijst-Klein was a force of good, just like her parents. Both her parents were celebrated as "Righteous Gentiles" who helped Jews in hiding during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. And, as a teenager, she was the first white foreign exchange student placed in an African American household 
Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the interpretation of facts and data.

Our Opinion

Our Opinion: Former state Rep. Wojtkowski has died, but the legacy of the 'father of community colleges' lives on
C beau chez nous: Le Quesnoy arrive en tete des plus beaux villages du Nord-Pas-de-Calais

Cette semaine, BFM Grand Lille et BFM Grand Littoral vous emmenent dans les jolis villages de la region et vous propose de voter pour votre prefere, parmi quatre propositions.
During his junior year at Bowling Green State University, C. Raymond Marvin 60 '17 (Hon.) began confiding in those close to him that he might not return to the University the following school year.

A series of events at home left Marvin without the resources to afford tuition, and he thought he might have to take an unplanned gap year  except word got back to a pair of BGSU deans who stepped up to help Marvin with a grant that allowed him to keep attending school and graduate on time.

Marvin never forgot the gesture, and 60 years later, the Pay It Forward Scholars Fund was born. The core idea behind the scholarship fund is that students experiencing a life event that caused financial hardship will receive help now, go on to future success and then contribute to the fund for future generations of students in similar circumstances  to pay it forward.

I felt like it was important to set it up with the idea of connecting the recipients to each other so it really becomes a community of people who understand the essence of a philanthropic attitude, both as a recipient and then eventually as a donor, Marvin said.
Romans

The Church in Rome consisted mostly of Jewish people living in that city. Paul had not met these people and had not yet visited Rome. This letter addresses the nature of the good news of Jesus death and resurrection, its implications, as well as briefly addressing the age of the gentiles and the prophesied grafting of the nation of Israel back into Gods plan.

Where: Rome, Italy

Key Verses

Romans 3:22b-25 - For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.

Romans 10:9  Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

1 Corinthians

Paul founded the church in Corinth, a primarily gentile church that was full of converts who had no history or connection with the things of God. In this letter, he addresses a lot of basics about church conduct, about how to act like Christ in a world that is fundamentally different, and admonishes them for inappropriate behavior from amongst their ranks.

These former pagans had to let go of many cultural norms, including engaging in behaviors that invoked the prostitutes in the temples of their gods, ascribing power to meat sacrificed to idols, and changing their views on appropriate sexual expression. 1 Corinthians also crucially addresses the use of gifts of the Spirit, how they are dispensed by the Holy Spirit, and not being jealous of the gifts of others.

Where: Southern Greece

Key Verses

1 Corinthians 6:19-23 - Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

1 Corinthians 12:12-13 -  For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body  Jews or Greeks, slaves or free  and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

Photo credit: Getty Images/FotoDuets
Significantly enhancing innovation contribution to the Indian academic ecosystem and ultimately improving health

Novo Nordisk Global Business Services (GBS) and Manipal Academy for Higher Education (MAHE) have inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to explore opportunities to collaborate across the pharma value chain and its application in the healthcare ecosystem.

Under the terms of the MoU, MAHE, and Novo Nordisk GBS will jointly engage in initiatives including, innovation projects, hackathons, case competitions, guest lectures, education programs, internships, placements, employee development, and corporate social responsibility collaborations. The MoU was signed on August 3 at the Manipal campus and will be effective for a period of two years.

Dr Sharath Rao, Pro Vice Chancellor  Health Sciences, MAHE said MAHE and Novo Nordisk GBS will work together to develop training programmes and workshops to enhance the skills of healthcare professionals, researchers, and students. This collaboration will promote continuous learning, foster interdisciplinary collaboration, and empower individuals to excel in their respective fields.

Dr C Mallikarjuna Rao, Principal of Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences said that he would be delighted to initiate a centre on Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics. The proposed centre will offer certificate programs and research collaboration with Novo Nordisk.

This will be the second partnership for Novo Nordisk GBS with the academia, having signed an MoU with IIIT Bangalore in May 2023. Besides fostering knowledge sharing between industry and academia, the partnership will also provide students at MAHE with opportunities to gain real-world experiences, develop new skills, and build relationships with leading industry professionals.
Ogilvy's digital innovation continued to set the pace for South Africa's advertising industry, earning special honours at the Bookmarks Awards last week. The agency won a total of 13 Pixels, including the top honour of the night for purpose-led marketing. This recognition reaffirms Ogilvy's position as an industry leader, with digital excellence at the core of its service offering.

Ogilvy excelled across various digitally focused categories, including Digital Content, Digital Strategy, CRM, Data Visualization, Social Media, Design, Purpose, Integrated, and various specialist digital craft categories.

The prestigious Black Pixel award went to Cadbury's 'Homegrown Stories,' an integrated platform with purpose-driven creativity and consumer impact at its core.

Ogilvy secured wins across various brand partnerships, including Cadbury, KFC, Castle Lager, Colgate, and Volkswagen South Africa.

"I am very proud of our teams' efforts being honoured at this year's awards show. It's rewarding to see our work contribute to moving our industry forward with measurable and meaningful impact," comments Kabelo Moshapalo, chief creative officer of Ogilvy in Johannesburg.

"We believe that when creativity and relevant digital solutions converge, they create impactful connections between audiences and brands, yielding substantial business results, says Camilla Clerke, executive creative director of Ogilvy Cape Town. It's this business advantage that we pursue for our clients' brands."

The IAB Bookmarks Awards are known for celebrating digital excellence and highlighting the powerful impact brands can make using digital connections with consumers.

"We believe that there's an increasing advantage for brands that address relevant social issues alongside the products and services they produce, says Pete Case, CEO and creative chairman of Ogilvy South Africa. This year's judges at Bookmarks saw this impact in many of the platforms and campaigns that we entered."

"Our campaign 'Homegrown Stories' provided South Africans the opportunity to generously share their stories, inspiring a love for reading among children. The campaign amplified Cadbury Dairy Milk's positioning and its promise of generosity," says Arpan Sur, senior director of marketing for sub-Saharan Africa at Mondelez. "It's a true testament to how strong digital insight and collaborative communication can make waves in our industry and people's lives at large."

"As the lines of digital marketing continue to evolve and blur, it's wonderful to be recognized with such high peer praise for work that has delivered true impact for our clients," adds Case.
As the world celebrates International Beer Day on 4 August, the beer industry is witnessing a transformative phase driven by shifting consumer preferences and an increasing demand for innovative alcoholic beverages among millennials and Generation-Z drinkers. With a focus on meeting these evolving demands, the industry has experienced exponential growth and a surge in craft beer popularity.

These key trends are shaping the future of the beer market, impacting its formulation, style, and overall consumption:

Adapting to consumer demands: The beer industrys ongoing revolution

The modern beer industry is evolving rapidly to accommodate the changing tastes and preferences of consumers. Demand for diversified beer styles and easy-drinking options have grown significantly in the past five years, resulting in a 40% increase in the share of easy-drinking beers worldwide. South Africa, ranked by the Beer Association of SA as the 12th largest beer-consuming nation globally, has also witnessed remarkable changes in the past decade, with a strong entry of small independent beer brands and craft beers into the market.

The rise of craft beer: Quality and flavour take centre stage

The craft beer category continues to expand, differentiating itself from traditional beer by its innovative, complex and flavourful elements. Craft brewers prioritise high-quality ingredients and unique brewing techniques to cater to the growing preference for quality among consumers, this is according to Market Research Future. This inclination towards quality is also evident in the 2023 Liquor Retailing in South Africa report, published by Trade Intelligence. According to the report, alcohol buying trends are changing among consumers as a result of tough economic conditions. Consumers' focus on value and quality are essential drivers in their purchasing decisions.

Embracing health-conscious drinking habits

The Covid-19 pandemic inspired a change in beer consumption. Consumers have become increasingly health-conscious, leading to a transformation in beer consumption habits. The trend includes a growing demand for low-alcohol options that align with health and fitness goals, with consumers even monitoring calorie intake. Mindful of what goes into their bodies, moderation in beer consumption is now a top priority for many.

Heineken Beverages remain at the forefront of changing consumer preferences, and taking these insights into account the brand has developed a new product that not only meets the demand but contributes to the advancement of beer.

Heineken Silver: A game-changer for the next generation

Catering to the evolving preferences of the younger generation (1835 years old) with a different taste profile, Heineken has unveiled its latest offering - Heineken Silver. This new addition to the Heineken family caters for the rising demand for easy-drinking beer among next-generation drinkers. With an alcohol by volume (ABV) of only 4% and 10 bitterness units, the beer contains a mere 116 calories in every 330ml bottle, making it a perfect fit for daytime social occasions.

As the beer industry continues to navigate the ever-changing landscape of consumer preferences, craft beer's rise, and health-conscious drinking habits, breweries worldwide are actively innovating to stay relevant. On this World Beer Day, enthusiasts raise their glasses to a dynamic and exciting future for the beer industry, fuelled by the latest trends driving its evolution.




As we celebrate Women's Month in South Africa, it is essential to reflect on the incredible women who have been trailblazers in breaking barriers and attaining leadership positions across various industries. Women have defied societal norms, shattered glass ceilings, and proven time and again that they are a force to be reckoned with. However, despite these achievements, there is still much work to be done, especially in furthering women's employability and leadership opportunities. This is where business education plays a pivotal role.

The transformational power of tertiary study

Education has always been a powerful catalyst for change, and tertiary education, in particular, has the potential to transform not only individual lives but entire communities and societies which are for the most part traditionally patriarchal. For women in South Africa, pursuing a business education at a reputable institution can open doors to countless possibilities and pave the way for a more inclusive and prosperous future.

A business school environment offers much more than just academic learning. It is a melting pot of diverse perspectives, ideas, and experiences. By immersing themselves in such an environment, students can develop their skills, expand their networks, and grow as leaders. This exposure to a multitude of viewpoints helps cultivate empathy, emotional intelligence, and adaptability - crucial qualities for successful leaders in the modern world.

Fostering leadership potential

Women have consistently demonstrated their ability to lead with empathy, resilience, and a collaborative spirit. Tertiary education institutions must recognise this potential and actively work to foster an environment where these qualities are nurtured in all students.

One of the primary benefits of tertiary study is the development of leadership skills. Business schools must offer a range of programs, workshops, and extracurricular activities that focus on leadership development. These opportunities provide students with the tools they need to navigate complex business landscapes and tackle challenges head-on.

A responsibility lies with all education platforms to encourage women to take on leadership roles within the campus community, providing practical experience and building confidence. By having women at the helm of student organisations, case competitions, and other initiatives, business schools set a strong example for gender equality and inspire future leaders to rise and excel.

Breaking societal norms and encouraging diversity

Women pursuing careers in traditionally male-dominated fields or climbing the corporate ladder have often faced unique challenges due to entrenched gender biases. Business schools play a critical role in dismantling these stereotypes and fostering an inclusive atmosphere.

Through a commitment to diversity and gender equality, business schools demonstrate their belief in the potential of all students, regardless of their gender. By actively promoting female representation within their faculty and leadership, these institutions not only set an example but also create a supportive environment where women can thrive.

Collaborations with corporations and organisations that prioritise gender diversity empower women to access internships, mentorship programs, and networking opportunities that can significantly boost their employability prospects.

Unleashing the power of employability

The value of tertiary study becomes evident when considering the immense impact it has on employability. The business world seeks leaders with advanced skills, critical thinking abilities, and a global perspective. Business schools equip students with precisely these attributes.

Tertiary study at a reputable business school enhances employability in several ways:

Skill Development : Business programs provide a comprehensive foundation in essential skills such as problem-solving, communication, and strategic thinking.

: Business programs provide a comprehensive foundation in essential skills such as problem-solving, communication, and strategic thinking. Networking Opportunities : Business schools offer a vast network of alumni, industry connections, and corporate partnerships that can lead to internships, job opportunities, and mentorship.

: Business schools offer a vast network of alumni, industry connections, and corporate partnerships that can lead to internships, job opportunities, and mentorship. Experiential Learning : Through internships, consulting projects, and real-world simulations, students gain practical experience that sets them apart in the job market.

: Through internships, consulting projects, and real-world simulations, students gain practical experience that sets them apart in the job market. Confidence and Leadership : Business schools empower students to step into leadership roles, making them more attractive to potential employers seeking dynamic leaders.

: Business schools empower students to step into leadership roles, making them more attractive to potential employers seeking dynamic leaders. Global Outlook: In an interconnected world, businesses seek leaders with a global mindset. Business schools often offer international exchange programs and global immersion experiences.

As we celebrate the accomplishments of women in leadership during Womens Month, we must also acknowledge the work ahead. Empowering women in the business world requires a collective effort from educational institutions, corporations, and society as a whole.

A business education at a reputable school can be a transformative experience for women seeking to break barriers and unleash their leadership potential. By embracing diversity, fostering inclusive environments, and equipping students with the skills needed to excel, business schools play a pivotal role in advancing gender equality and creating a brighter future for all.

For aspiring leaders and change-makers, the value of tertiary study in shaping career trajectories cannot be overstated. So, let us celebrate Womens Month by recognising the indomitable spirit of women in leadership and reaffirming our commitment to empowering women in the world of business and beyond. Together, we can build a more equitable and prosperous future for South Africa and the world.

For more information about Regent Business Schools offering as a leading private higher education institution, please go to https://regent.ac.za/

Become future ready by joining one of accredited MBAs, postgraduate qualifications, degrees, diplomas, or higher certificates! All 2023 students will receive a free Management Development Programme valued at R7000. Ts & Cs Apply.
Global challenges are becoming increasingly complex each day, and South Africa is no exception. The South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (Saica), and its members and associates (members) are unwavering in their commitment to utilise their specialised skills and knowledge for the betterment of the country. As a leading accountancy body, Saica, together with its members, is a committed partner in making a positive difference in South Africa, offering support to the government, members, and stakeholders in this endeavour.

Msizi Gwala, project director for Enabling Competencies at Saica

Shifting gears, changing culture

Saica is determined to be a catalyst for change in the public sector by harnessing the power of its members and strategic partnerships. Its aim is to make a difference that goes beyond the boundaries of traditional accountancy. Saica members provide responsible leadership in the public sector, focusing on stabilising public finances, ensuring compliance, creating sustainable value, and supporting efforts to professionalise the sector and promote ethical behaviour.

The auditor-general of South Africa's (AGSA) #cultureshift2023 strategy is bold, courageous, and inspiring. It sets out an ambitious plan to achieve a meaningful and sustainable positive impact in the public sector by influencing and transforming the existing culture in public administration. Saica acknowledges the pivotal role that culture plays in driving sustainable change within the public sector and commits to promoting a culture of performance, accountability, transparency, professionalism, and integrity in the sector through its members, advocacy, thought leadership and by supporting the work of the AGSA.

Making a positive difference

The accountancy profession is rooted in the principles of acting in the public interest, with the power to make a valuable contribution to shaping communities, economies, and society. Finance touches every aspect of society, and Saica members possess the skills, perspectives, and training necessary to drive real change when it is most needed.

Through their expertise, Saica members can influence government decisions that have far-reaching social and environmental implications. Saica encourages its members to embrace their roles as advocates for responsible, professional practices in the public sector, stabilising public finances, enhancing service delivery, promoting environmental sustainability for a more prosperous South Africa.

Sounds the call to come together

Addressing the complex societal challenges faced by our country requires collaboration and collective action. Saica, following the lead of the AGSA, recognises the importance of activating the accountability ecosystem to effect meaningful change. Fostering effective partnerships and ensuring that each stakeholder plays a critical role in the ecosystem, can truly make a difference and improve public sector accountability. Saica aims to create collaborative platforms that facilitate knowledge exchange, foster collaboration, and drive collective impact.

In line with the Institute's commitment to making a difference in the public sector, Saica will be hosting its Inaugural Public Sector Summit on 15 August 2023, in Sandton, Johannesburg. This summit will bring together leaders and professionals to deliberate on key issues and share insights for driving positive change. The summit will serve as a platform to exchange ideas, discuss solutions, and develop strategies that address the unique challenges faced by the sector, with a specific focus on improving transparency, accountability, governance, and exploring the role of the profession in the professionalisation of the public sector.

Bookings for the complimentary summit are open to both members and non-members and can be made here, where additional information can also be found.




Poor water quality in South Africa is becoming a major crisis across many municipalities in our country, putting at risk our health and economy.

Bonga Ntuli, executive board member and director of strategy and digital services at Royal HaskoningDHV Southern Africa. Source: Supplied

In June this year, the Department of Water and Sanitation revealed  in findings of its interim Blue Drop report  that only 39% of South Africas water treatment systems were rated as excellent in terms of microbiological water quality compliance, 11% good, 9% poor and 41% bad. To put this into perspective, only 10% of municipalities had bad or poor microbiological water quality in the 2012 Blue Drop report, as opposed to 50% in this latest sample.

Rapid urbanisation, income growth (which results in higher demands) and increased levels of pollution in our river systems are among key reasons why South Africa is facing major challenges with its water quality. But some municipalities and districts are also running out of funds for basic operational requirements, such as chlorine, to treat contaminants in wastewater, while others lack sound management and expertise.

Compounding this problem is the fact that South Africa is a water-scarce country and more prone to shock climate change events such as extreme droughts or floods.

To start turning things around, several key measures should be adopted, and five of these are outlined below.

1. Making engineers great again

Over the years, many municipalities have started to rely more on administrators and finance managers than engineers when it comes to critical water waste management and maintenance issues.

The reasons for this are varied, with some municipalities seeking structural changes or cost savings.

To manage water effectively, we do need to start creating an organisational culture of putting engineers more at the centre of decision-making.

These engineers must be of the highest calibre and should lead administrations on key decisions that will result in the best quality water and required sewage management for an areas residents. Good engineers are like the doctors of our water systems.

We also need to acknowledge that South Africa faces a critical skills shortage as experienced professional engineers retire and talent migrates to other industries, such as banking. Investing in education and promoting STEM subjects at school level can help fill this talent gap.

Additionally, embracing technological advancements and exploring water management partnerships between the public and private sectors will further help to promote skills development and capacity building.

2. Reporting and consequence management

Having the right engineers in place is only one part of the solution. Another critical component is reporting and consequence management within our municipalities and districts.

With the Department of Water and Sanitation moving to republish the Blue Drop report last year (after it was paused in 2014), this marks a step in the right direction when it comes to reporting, accountability and transparency.

Its important to know that the Blue Drop report is not focused solely on water quality but rather with the overall management of water and waste systems. This means that some areas deemed high risk can be just a few steps away from having unsafe drinking water, while others actually already need to issue red notices or warnings to residents.

This provides a gauge of where underperformance is occurring. More importantly, it informs the government of where it must act swiftly.

In instances of neglect, municipal managers should face the consequences, whether it be with fines or even criminal charges. Provincial or national government also then need to step in and immediately fix problems where local government has failed.

3. Smarter use of wetlands, closing leaks

Local research has shown that wetlands can act as additional, natural water filters for our man-made water systems. This is because the plants, soils and even microbes in our wetlands can effectively absorb and uptake many harmful pollutants.

However, this involves a delicate balance as our wetlands also need to be protected in order for them to protect us.

In this regard, South Africa should take a closer look at ensuring that industry should be more responsible when emitting discharge into rivers. This might require implementing stricter rules regarding the quality of water that is pumped from industrial processes into the environment.

In addition to maintaining wetlands, water leakages contribute significantly to South Africa's water challenges, with over 50% of water losses reported in some metropolitan areas.

Non-revenue water, the water lost before reaching consumers, squanders valuable resources. Effective asset management, improved maintenance practices, and investment in modern technology can help reduce water leaks and conserve precious water supplies.

4. Greater attention to funding, supply chains

Local and provincial governments need to realise that allocating funding for water projects is a long-term investment.

Insufficient capital and operational expenditure at the municipal level hinder infrastructure development and maintenance. Proper planning, investment in projects, and efficient financial management are crucial to ensure that resources are used optimally.

Robust infrastructure development can even attract investment and boost economic growth while providing better services to the population.

Its also important to pay greater attention to supply chains of water maintenance. Purchasing higher-quality components or investing more in repairs will go a longer way in ensuring longer-term sustainability. We cannot afford to cut corners in this regard, and there must be zero tolerance for maladministration when it comes to procurement of quality services and products.

5. Better long-term planning

Finally, bringing all of this together is better long-term planning. Our engineers, working together with our municipal managers, need to ensure that there are long-term plans that seek to improve or maintain high-quality water standards for the benefit of citizens.

These plans, such as the building out of new wastewater infrastructure, need to be sound enough that they can stretch over several years and potential changes in administrations. In this regard, we need to become more technocratic as a country when it comes to a precious resource such as water.

As part of this planning, the interconnection between water, energy, and food security cannot be ignored. Disruptions in one sector can have cascading effects on the others, leading to potential riots or dissatisfaction with service delivery. Energy shortages, for example, can hinder water distribution and impact agricultural irrigation, ultimately affecting the economy and people's lives. Adopting innovative technologies, such as efficient irrigation systems, can help reduce water consumption in agriculture and alleviate pressure on the overall system.

As the saying goes, water is life, and we need to do everything we can to ensure that we protect this precious resource so that it doesnt become the next biggest crisis in our lifetime.

Together, we can be intentional about leaving a legacy of quality water for all, especially the vulnerable communities who are most exposed by the threat of deteriorating water quality.
Teams from the four campuses competed in Apex Legends, with Software Engineering students Dewald Vlok, Jeandre Gouws and Ti-Yu Chiu from Eduvos Tyger Valley campus winning the competition.

Eduvos proudly hosted the event with RGB Gaming pioneers in sustainable esports at learning institutions. The event got an overwhelming response from both prospective students and Eduvoss own Vossies.

The event was also livestreamed on Eduvoss YouTube channel  and is still available to watch.

Esports is another way in which Eduvos is transforming the education space. Beyond providing quality, affordable education, Eduvos aims to open doors of opportunity for its students, who are affectionately called Vossies. The institution believes that modern technology, like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Virtual Reality and esports, should be embraced to equip its students with the skills needed to prosper in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). The institution aims to be Africas leading Meta university by 2027.

Esports also provides a bridge to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields as teams must analyse data, review their strategies and learn to understand the computer hardware and software. Eduvos believes students, regardless of what qualification they are completing, will find value in participating in esports.

The launch is a culmination of months of work, including Eduvos and RGB Gamings joint exhibition at Comic Con Cape Town in April.

Eduvos will be expanding esports to all its campuses in the coming months. The institution is also working on launching an esports qualification that will add to the over 27 qualifications Eduvos currently offers. Eduvos and RGB will be teaming up again to exhibit at Comic Con Africa in Johannesburg and the 2023 rAge Expo.

Gamers should play esports at Eduvos because of the community, says Robert Njawaya, a Vossie gamer and Bachelor of Science in Computer Science student at the Midrand campus. At other institutions youre not going to have the same community, thats almost like a family. Youll know a lot of people, youll jam together and then when you see each other in class, you can still interact easily.

Its this sense of community that both Eduvos and RGB Gaming are looking to foster, where students from different backgrounds and identities can come together and work towards a common purpose.

Jaco Sauer, General Manager for RGB Gaming, said that "Establishing a solid learning foundation at any institution is important. Finding a fresh and technologically themed implementation of that foundation is even more important in todays fast changing learning environment.

Students need to know that their place of learning is equipping them with the real-world skills needed to adapt to a new technology focused world. RGB and Eduvos esports program is exactly, and we pride ourselves in working with such adynamic and forward-thinking educational brand."

Click here to learn more about Esports at Eduvos. Learn more about RGB Gaming here.

For media enquiries contact Kara van der Berg at moc.sovude@grebdv.arak.
The convergence of technological advancements such as AI, blockchain technologies, and digital currencies with the global shift towards decentralisation presents a powerful opportunity to drive positive environmental, social, and governance (ESG) impact.

Chris Blair, CEO at 21st Century

These innovations, combined with the principles of decentralisation, can revolutionise how businesses approach sustainability and create lasting value for all stakeholders. This article will explore how embracing AI and blockchain technologies can lead to significant advancements in ESG practices, fostering a more sustainable and responsible future.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to revolutionise ESG practices, enabling companies to analyse vast amounts of data, optimise resource utilisation, and make informed decisions that benefit the environment and society. By leveraging AI-driven algorithms, businesses can identify and address environmental risks, reduce energy consumption, and enhance operational efficiency.

AI-powered predictive analytics can facilitate early detection and mitigation of environmental impacts, enabling companies to proactively address climate change, resource depletion, and pollution. Moreover, AI can support social impact initiatives by enabling organisations to analyse social trends, identify areas of inequality, and develop targeted solutions that uplift marginalised communities.

Impact on ESG in agriculture

In Africa, the agriculture sector has witnessed the transformative impact of AI on ESG practices. Companies like FarmDrive, based in Kenya, utilise AI algorithms to assess smallholder farmers' creditworthiness. By analysing various data points such as weather patterns, crop yields, and market prices, FarmDrive enables financial institutions to provide affordable loans to farmers, empowering them economically and promoting sustainable agricultural practices.

In South Africa, the mining industry faces significant environmental and social challenges. However, organisations like Gold Fields, a mining company, have leveraged AI to improve their ESG performance. Gold Fields can track and manage their environmental impact using AI-powered sensors and monitoring systems, ensuring compliance with regulations and minimising harm to local ecosystems.

By incorporating AI into their ESG strategies, companies can enhance transparency, improve decision-making processes, and drive positive social and environmental outcomes.

Blockchain technologies offer a decentralised and transparent framework that can significantly enhance ESG transparency and accountability. Through blockchain-based platforms, companies can track and verify their sustainability efforts, supply chain activities, and adherence to ethical standards.

This level of transparency ensures that ESG claims are backed by verifiable data, building trust among stakeholders and driving responsible business practices. Blockchain can also facilitate supply chain traceability, allowing consumers to make informed choices about the products they purchase. By utilising blockchain, companies can provide:

Real-time visibility into their supply chains.



Ensuring responsible sourcing.



Fair labour practices.



Reduced environmental impact.

This transparency fosters consumer trust and empowers them to support businesses that align with their values.

Sustainable fashion

The fashion industry has witnessed the transformative power of blockchain technologies in promoting ESG transparency. VeChain, a blockchain platform, has partnered with fashion brands like ASOS and H&M to trace and verify the authenticity and sustainability of products. By utilising blockchain, these companies can give consumers real-time visibility into their supply chains, ensuring responsible sourcing, fair labour practices, and reduced environmental impact.

Food journey

In the food industry, IBM Food Trust, a blockchain-based platform, has enabled companies like Walmart and Nestle to enhance traceability and transparency in their supply chains. This technology allows consumers to trace the journey of food products from farm to table, ensuring ethical practices, reducing food waste, and supporting sustainable agriculture.

In Africa, the cocoa industry has embraced blockchain technologies to enhance transparency and accountability in supply chains. Companies like Kuapa Kokoo, a cooperative of cocoa farmers in Ghana, partnered with the blockchain platform Provenance to trace the journey of cocoa beans from farm to consumer. This ensures that ethical and sustainable practices are followed, empowering farmers and providing consumers with assurance about the origin and sustainability of their cocoa products.

Diamond tracing

In South Africa, the diamond industry has utilised blockchain to address ethical sourcing and fair trade concerns. De Beers, a leading diamond company, implemented a blockchain-based platform called Tracr to track the Provenance of diamonds, ensuring responsible mining practices and combating the trade of conflict diamonds. This transparency enhances trust among stakeholders and promotes ethical standards within the industry.

The next article will explore how digital currencies, particularly decentralised ones, can play a transformative role in promoting sustainable finance and economic inclusion - key aspects of ESG.
Blockbuster movie brand merchandising is a multi-billion-dollar industry.

Source: 123rf.

That Buzz Lightyear bubble bath, Lightning McQueen bedding or Elemental backpack all contribute to a movies overall income stream.

And brand owners are in a constant battle against fake or unlicensed goods. The European Union Intellectual Property Office estimates that counterfeits comprise around 2.5% of all world trade.

But successful brands also inspire well-meaning imitators such as Hobbit-themed pubs, Grinch-themed photoshoots, Harry Potter fan festivals, or, in New Zealand, a cleaning business van painted with Minion imagery. Small businesses trying this kind of thing often get cease and desist letters from film studios, demanding they stop.

The success of Greta Gerwigs Barbie seems destined to encourage businesses to use elements of the films brand  from the distinctive lettering and colours to the dolls packaging and image.

But businesses in New Zealand and elsewhere need to consider the risk they face by infringing on Mattels intellectual property rights.

The rise of Barbie

Barbie was already a juggernaut brand before the release of the film. In 2002, an appellate judge in the United States said Mattel created not just a toy but a cultural icon.

Mattel has been vigilant about controlling the Barbie image. It tried to stop conceptual artist Thomas Forsythe from creating artworks depicting Barbie in perilous positions  such as in cocktail blenders and under an oven grill.

And in the late 1990s, Mattel tried to stop Danish pop group Aqua from singing about Barbie.

Recently, Mattel convinced a court in China to stop a local firm called Barbietang from registering Barbie tang as a trade mark for veterinarian services  including artificial insemination.

In 2022, Mattel settled a claim against the use of Barbie-Que potato chips, apparently driving the product off the market.

Mattels legal strategies havent always worked. Forsythe won his case, and Mattels suit against MCA Records, Aquas North American record label, failed.

In 2006, the Supreme Court of Canada held that the fame of the Barbie trademark was not enough to stop a restaurant from using the word Barbie in its own branding.

But for local businesses, these cases wont offer much comfort. Often, just the threat of legal proceedings will be enough.

Investing in brand protection

Serious concerns lie behind these enforcement efforts. Millions of dollars are spent on creating and sustaining brand images. What if Barbie-themed cruises, brunches, home decorating services and nightclub evenings arent any good? Will these poor imitations affect how people feel about the brand?

Mattels worldview has matured, as the Gerwig movie shows. It now seems open to some pretty sophisticated social commentary targeting its doll.

Yet it still has a strong interest in the Barbie image  boosted by the success of the film. A lacklustre Barbie Brunch could dim the brands shine. Brands can die by a thousand cuts.

Theres another reason: money. As Mattel told the Canadian court, it is in the business of building brand equity  the commercial value that comes from consumer perception of a brand, which supports vast networks of licensing deals. It can be a firms most valuable asset.

Warding off unlicensed use of a brand protects new market segments. Sitting back while others enter the market with the same brand risks losing money. Its not just poor imitations that matter. Any unlicensed use of the brand can take away market share.

What is a brand?

For all its importance, a brand is not a distinct legal category. Brand equity is protected by an array of intellectual property (IP) rights. Trademarks, copyrights and business goodwill work together to create and protect the valuable asset known as a brand.

The Canadian restaurant wanted only to use the word Barbie. The court was not convinced this would cause consumer confusion. This decision might have been different if the restaurants goods and services had been more similar to Mattels.

And it would have been a totally different case if the restaurant had also copied Barbie artwork, infringing Mattels copyrights.

Importantly, copyright rules protect against copying  brand owners dont need to show that the copying will damage its reputation or jeopardise its market share.

A global network of IP treaties

Some will bridle at foreign firms using their IP muscle against New Zealand firms.

But international protection of IP has been around since at least the end of the 19th century. Owners of strong trademarks have also had entry into some markets blocked by businesses who used the brand first.

Aotearoa New Zealand is now party to a network of international IP treaties that help prevent this from happening.

These treaties are often linked to trade. Protecting IP is part of the quid pro quo for lowering tariffs for our goods in foreign markets. And it works the other way around: local artists and creative brand developers enjoy reciprocal protections for their IP in foreign markets.

For a small business getting a cease and desist letter, this can seem like cold comfort. Repainting a van or rebranding a pub is an irritating expense.

But when the IP system works well, it encourages creativity. To avoid problems, local firms need to come up with their own original brands and imagery. As with any branding strategy, that will require investment and creativity. But these efforts enrich our culture and, its hoped, the local businesses that do the hard yards.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Beiersdorf announces further funding and strengthens its seven-year partnership with SA community programme, Thanda.

From left to right: Lunga Dhlamini, Dhevin Telukdarrie, Godwin Harrison, Njabulo Ngubane, Ziyaad Kolia, Thanda farming mentor, Tamia Frost

Following the success of its 7-year long-standing partnership with the KwaZulu-Natal based non-profit, Thanda, Beiersdorf has further committed a funding donation to address the critical long-term aftershocks of the Covid-19 pandemic. With this commitment, Beiersdorf lives up to its sustainability agenda Care Beyond Skin, which seeks to enhance inclusivity within society and achieve sustainable advancements in environmental protection.

Thanda was founded in 2008 by Angela Larkan and Tyler Howard with the intention of providing support and education for young children in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Since then, Thanda is making a difference in over 2,000 direct beneficiaries' lives daily and reaching over 45,000 people overall, offering a holistic approach to community development.

From left: Sarah Hough, Preshena Sookoo, Sne Njapha

Godwin Harrison, managing director for Beiersdorf Southern Africa, says the relationship between the company and Thanda is deeply meaningful as this partnership is greatly vested in the health, wellness, and future success of the children in the Mtwalume area where Thanda is based.

The Care Beyond Skin funding relief comes on the back of a pledge in 2020 by Beiersdorf to contribute to the worlds collective fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. The South African portion of the 50-million Euro commitment was channelled through the non-profit Thanda with a view to supporting the critical needs of the underdeveloped rural Mtwalume community.

The Covid-19 funding was released in three phases. Phase 1 in 2020 focused on immediate relief to take care of the children, vulnerable and elderly in the community, ensuring access to food and water, and continued education. Phase 2 included implementation and roll-out of long-term sustainable food solutions via youth-led organic farming programmes. This funding helped ensure Thanda, and its beneficiaries were less disrupted by the onset of the pandemic and subsequent economic lockdown.

The Phase 3 of the Covid-19 relief funding, (which commenced in July 2023) continues to address many of the most critical socio-economic crises facing South Africa. This phase will focus on building long-term household food security, addressing gaps in early learning, economic youth empowerment and climate resilience in the Thanda community.

This funding is critical at a time in South Africas economy which has grown just marginally higher than pre-pandemic levels in the first quarter of 2023. According to census data, the average employment rate in the Mtwalume area is as low as 10%.

From left: Thanda learners, Laverne Marais, Ntando Zulu, Marina Sobzig, Janine Gordon

In May, Statistics SA reported that at least 250,000 young people lost their jobs in the first quarter of 2023, with 62.1% of South Africans under the age of 34 being unemployed.

Godwin Harrison said Phase 3 of the Covid-19 relief funding was aimed directly at shoring up resilience in the Thanda community following the fall-out from the economic lockdown during the pandemic and to respond proactively to the many impacts as a direct result of the changing climate.

The long-term aftershocks of the Covid-19 pandemic continue to affect many vulnerable communities in South Africa and across the world. Mtwalume is a prime example of one of those communities, said Harrison.

This generous funding from Beiersdorf will enable Thanda to implement an intense project to empower beneficiaries across 32 targeted neighbourhoods and seven municipal wards, effectively impacting 1,000 households, to become resilient in the long-term, enthuses Angela Larkan, Thanda founder and executive director.

From left to right: Inez Valjee, Irvin Louw, Nicola Grove

Investment has also been channelled to the Empowering Girls programme, launched in 2022, which improves the lives of 400 girls from Thanda. This curriculum is designed to build strong foundational skills such as confidence and communication, to help girls navigate life with better judgement and decision-making. The girls gain a greater sense of community responsibility and leadership roles.

Recently, the Thanda community welcomed 119 of Beiersdorfs Durban-based staff who volunteered their time at Thanda in line with the companys inaugural Care Beyond Skin Day.

At Beiersdorf, we recognise our responsibility to foster positive change and are fully committed every day to strive to make our sustainability ambitions a reality. Our first-ever global volunteering initiative, Care Beyond Skin Day launches from May to July 2023, which will see more than 20,000 employees from all around the world devoting one working day to participate in a joint initiative making a difference in their communities and collectively contributing to the company's global efforts, states Vincent Warnery, CEO of Beiersdorf.




Workshop17 will open its first flexible workspace in KwaZulu-Natal at Ballito Junction thanks to a collaboration between the mall, co-owned by Flanagan & Gerard Group and Menlyn Maine Investment Holdings, and the coworking space provider.

Architectural perspective of the new Workshop17 offices, the new entrance into Ballito Junction, and a view of the new plaza area. Source: Supplied

Ballito Junction ticks all Workshop17s boxes, explains CEO and cofounder of Workshop17 Paul Keursten, offering high business visibility, access to instant shopping and restaurants, close proximity to the King Shaka International Airport and the N2, nearby towns, excellent schools and medical facilities.

It will be Workshop17s eighth flexible workspace in the country and its 10th in total.

The pandemic saw a greater adoption of work-from-home routines which have resulted in businesses of all sizes shifting away from traditional offices, working styles and towards more flexible and shared workspaces. People now have more choice than ever before on where and how to work, Keursten says.

Semigration to KZN

Paul Gerard, MD of Flanagan & Gerard Group, notes that large volumes of people in higher income brackets, including families semigrating from Gauteng, are relocating to the north coast of KZN. It is this growing movement that inspired the decision to introduce bespoke workspace solutions to the region, he says.

Ballito Junction plaza view. Source: Supplied

The Ballito Junction refurbishment will also see international brands coming to the KZN North Coast, including Starbucks and Krispy Kreme, as well as the new offering of Catia Restaurant, previously Piccadilly Cafe, with a bespoke dining concept for the Ballito market.

Workshop17 will be opening in the first quarter of 2024, following the completion of the upgrade and enclosure of Ballito Junction's original 10,000m2.
Business and Arts South Africa (BASA) has launched the Debut Alumni Accelerator Programme, scheduled to take place between September and November 2023. This is an extension of the Debut Programme, which provided emerging artists with the tools and support that they needed to implement and launch their creative projects over the span of three years.

Funded by the Department of Sport, Arts, and Culture (DSAC), the Debut Alumni Accelerator Programme highlights the importance of income generation within the creative sector, while strengthening the alumnus relationship with BASA. Each graduate will receive a grant to curate their creative hustle. This financial support will empower them to plan and execute impactful events that will enable income for their creative ventures.

The aim of this short-term programme is to maximise the impact of the programme by further assisting the second wave of alumni with assigned mentorship opportunities and grants. The 24 Debut Programme alumni are preparing concepts and budgets for their creative proposals in all nine provinces in South Africa. Creative hustles refers to innovative and entrepreneurial pursuits that involve the application of ones creative skills and talents to generate income or create opportunities for personal growth. These hustles encompass a wide range of creative fields, including art, design, brand activations, photography, music, and more.

BASA Programmes manager, Zanele Madiba says: The Debut Alumni Programme is a much-needed platform to nurture young artists creative entrepreneurship journey and accelerate their growth. This programme is a catalyst that will turn their talents into income generating creative enterprises, thereby contributing to the development of the creative and cultural sector in South Africa.

To further support the alumni on their journey, BASA will assign a mentor to each participant. These mentors are experienced professionals in the creative and cultural sector and will provide guidance, advice, and support throughout the planning and execution process of the creative hustles. The mentorship aspect adds an extra layer of professional development and ensures that the alumni have all the support they need to overcome any challenge they may encounter, ultimately enhancing their skills and expertise.

About the programme

The Debut Programme is designed to provide information and skills development to emerging artists in all nine provinces of South Africa. Through strategic partnerships with community arts centres, local government and relevant agencies, the programme assists artists with everything from ideation to venture implementation. The programme contributes to the development of participants nascent, local talent, giving them that all-important break in their careers, and assisting them in recognising and harnessing their unique assets and social capital within their respective communities. The programme supports emerging artists with knowledge and skills development, enabling them to shift from amateur to professional.




Some observers who have long watched and carefully documented US government involvement in major social media platforms as well as Wikipedia itself have commented, "the CIA Is running Wikipedia, Wow, what a shocker. Sanger asserted during Greenwald's show, "We do have evidence that, as early as 2008, that CIA and FBI computers were used to edit Wikipedia," before posing: "Do you think that they stopped doing that back then?"

Getty Images

Sanger explained that the intelligence agencies "pay off the most influential people to push their agendas, which theyre already mostly in line with, or they just develop their own talent within the community, learn the Wikipedia game, and then push what they want to say with their own people."

"A great part of intelligence and information warfare is conducted online," he added, and then specified: "on websites like Wikipedia." For that reason along with others explored in the interview, Sanger calls it "the most biased encyclopedia" in history.

He described that US intelligence manipulation of the immensely large platform and repository of information had been going on for more than a decade (Wikipedia was founded and appeared online in 2001).

In particular, Greenwald brought up Wikipedia's entry for the topic Biden-Ukraine conspiracy theory, and pointed out that "there is a mountain of evidence showing that Hunter Biden was paid $80,000 a month by Burisma executives." It is an established fact that Burisma executives were "getting a lot in value in the way of access to Joe Biden, the most important US official on Ukraine," Greenwald said. "And yet, according to the Wikipedia article, this evidence doesnt exist, its just a complete conspiracy theory."

"Remember, this is supposed to be an ideology-free, neutral encyclopedia, Greenwald then quipped sarcastically.

Watch the full interview with the Wikipedia co-founder:

Below is a section of the Sanger interview transcript wherein Greenwald lambasts Wikipedia's treatment of the whole Biden-Ukraine scandal:

"The very first sentence reads The BidenUkraine conspiracy theory is a series of false allegations that Joe Biden, while he was Vice President of the United States, engaged in corrupt activities relating to his son, Hunter Biden, who was on the board of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma." "As part of efforts by Donald Trump and his campaign in the TrumpUkraine scandal, which led to Trumps first impeachment, these falsehoods were spread in an attempt to damage Joe Bidens reputation and chances during the 2020 presidential campaign," the Wikipedia entry still reads. "So notice: The Biden-Ukraine scandal is  according to Wikipedia  the BidenUkraine conspiracy theory but the Trump controversy involving Ukraine is the TrumpUkraine scandal. Everything is written to comport with the liberal world view and the Democratic Party talking points."

The two also agreed that Covid entries were heavily subject to propaganda and skewed information:

"Let me tell you a fact," Greenwald said. "The view of the leading scientists in the US Department of Energy as well as the FBI is that the most likely explanation for how the Covid pandemic emerged is through the research that was being funded by the United States and conducted in the Wuhan lab. You would have no idea that was true  on one of the most important questions of the last decade: Where the Covid pandemic came from." "Every word (on Wikipedia) is designed to suggest that only right-wing conspiracy theorists would invest any plausibility in the theory that the virus came from a (lab) leak and not from a naturally occurring event, even though the top virologists in the world wrote to Dr. Fauci at the start of the pandemic and were adamant that the evidence was consistent with manipulation in a lab." "If you asked Joy Reid to comment on the Covid pandemic, thats exactly what she would tell you. And thats true of almost every entry. It shocked me when I started looking at (Wikipedia) over the last six months, how blatant it has become."

The problems that @ggreenwald identifies with @wikipedia extend to its ridiculous defamation of scientists skeptical of lockdowns. Take a look at the shameful pages of two excellent scientists, @VPrasadMDMPH and John Ioannidis. Wikipedia editors politicize science. https://t.co/20P5NQ4DrD  Jay Bhattacharya (@DrJBhattacharya) August 3, 2023

Sanger explained that prior to a decade ago, Wikipedia "used to be kind of anti-establishment" but then it seemed to be hijacked. "Between 2005 and 2012 or so, there was this very definite shift to Wikipedia becoming an establishment mouthpiece. It was amazing. I never wouldve guessed that in 2001," the site's co-founder concluded.


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The Government is being urged to purchase Kerrys scenic Conor Pass, which has been put up for sale for 10 million by its American owner.

Director of Friends of the Irish Environment Tony Lowes told Newstalk Breakfast that people did not see the value of national parks and that if the Conor Pass was purchased and allowed to regenerate "creatures would flock to it", as would tourists.

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However, Mr Lowes did agree with the 10 million sale price. The problem was that comparison would be made that 10 million could be better spent on housing or the health system.

"I think the problem is that people don't see the value of a national park, the value of taking over an area like this. We put in five national parks in the last 20 years of the last century, and we haven't put in one this century. When you look at the kind of things, the advantages we get from them, it really is a bit difficult to understand.

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"I think it's just that people don't realise the value of properly conserving and properly managing the land."

The Conor Pass was "absolutely magnificent" Mr Lowe, who used to live in the area, said.

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If allowed to regenerate properly, "you would find that birds and creatures of all kinds would flock to it, including tourists," he added.

"I mean, this is one of the things if you look at Killarney, for instance, Killarneys tourism is really based entirely on its national park."

He said the Conor Pass contained "all kinds of habitats" and if allowed to regenerate, "the skies would fill and the river there is going to be again full of fish, as they once were before".

"This is what we're after, and we can't do that unless we manage the land properly. If you look at it just in climate terms, if you removed sheep, you'd have less methane emissions, and you'd also have a sink because as the vegetation grows up, it absorbs greenhouse gases.

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"If we have that kind of sink, that means that we have to reduce things less, so we can drive a little more and do those kinds of things a little more."

When asked about comments by local TD Michael Healy Rae that the funds would be better spent on social housing, Mr Lowes said Mr Healy Rae "perhaps" did not realise the economic value of treating land in this way.
Nigers military junta says it is severing military agreements with France, its former colonial ruler, firing some of the previous governments key ambassadors and warning citizens of the West African nation to watch for foreign armies and spies.

The announcement on state television deepens the post-coup isolation for what had been the United States and allies last major security partner in the Sahel, the vast region south of the Sahara Desert that various Islamic extremist groups have turned into the global centre of terrorism.

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With two days remaining before a deadline set by the West African regional bloc to release and reinstate President Mohamed Bazoum or face possible force, Mr Bazoum said in a plea published in a Washington Post opinion piece: I write this as a hostage.

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Nigers mutinous soldiers face a Sunday deadline set by the regional bloc known as Ecowas, whose envoys arrived on Thursday for talks.



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But those discussions quickly stalled, with the delegation unable to meet the coup leader, General Abdourahmane Tchiani, or go into the capital Niamey, according to a person with close knowledge of the talks.

The juntas announcement brought scepticism about any deal.

It said it was terminating the military agreements and protocols signed with France and announced the end of functions for Nigers ambassadors to France, the United States, Togo and neighbouring Nigeria, which is leading Ecowas efforts on dialogue.

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All aggression against the state of Niger will see an immediate response and without warning, said a spokesman for the coup leaders, Colonel Major Amadou Abdramane, with the exception of Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea, which have expressed support for the coup.

Mali and Burkina Faso have said such an intervention would be a declaration of war against them.

Frances Foreign Ministry said Paris only recognises the legitimate Nigerien authorities, dismissing the move by coup leaders.

France reiterated its call for the re-establishment of the democratic institutions of Niger, the ministry said.

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Mr Bazoum wrote that Nigers security situation had been improving before the coup, in contrast to neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso that are led by military juntas, but said that is now at risk because Niger would lose aid from foreign partners and extremist groups would take advantage of the countrys instability.

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In our hour of need, I call on the US government and the entire international community to help us restore our constitutional order, he wrote.

France has 1,500 military personnel in Niger, which had been envisioned as the base for counterterror operations in the region after anti-French sentiments grew elsewhere.

The US has 1,100 military personnel in Niger, including at a key drone base, and indicates it is reluctant to leave, especially with the growing influence of the Russian private military group Wagner in the Sahel.

We are following this situation very carefully, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Of course, we are concerned about the tension that is now emerging in the region, and, as before, we stand for the speedy return of this situation to the constitutional track without any damage, without a threat, most importantly, to human lives.

Ecowas has been unsuccessful in stemming coups and is trying to change course with Niger in a region that has seen five of them in the past three years  two each in Mali and Burkina Faso.

The Ecowas delegation is led by former Nigerian head of state General Abdulsalami Abubakar.



Supporters of Nigers ruling junta gather in Niamey at the start of a protest called to fight for the countrys freedom and push back against foreign interference (Sam Mednick/AP)

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A second group led by ambassador Babagana Kingibe has gone to engage with the leaders of neighbouring Libya and Algeria, said Ajuri Ngelale, special adviser to Nigerias president.

But analysts said they are not putting much faith in talks.

I dont expect mediation efforts to bear fruit in the short term. The junta is digging in  Seems like uncharted territory, said Alex Thurston, assistant professor of political science at the University of Cincinnati.

Nigers roughly 25 million people live in one of the poorest countries in the world, and any cuts in foreign aid could be disastrous.

Already, citizens are feeling the effects after Ecowas suspended all commercial and financial transactions between its member states and Niger and froze Nigerien assets held in regional central banks.

The blocs sanctions include halting energy transactions with Niger, which gets up to 90% of its power from Nigeria, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency.

Earlier this week, power transmission from Nigeria to Niger was cut off, an official at one of Nigerias main electricity companies said.





Some residents in Niamey said things can hardly get worse.

Abdou Naif lives in a makeshift community on the side of a road with some 140 other people, unable to pay rent or find work.

Our suffering is already enough, he said.
Former US president Donald Trump entered a plea of not guilty on Friday to new charges related to the former president's handling of classified documents after he left the White House, a court filing showed.

Mr Trump also waived his right to be present in court for his arraignment on the three additional charges on August 10th.

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Federal prosecutors filed the new charges last week against Mr Trump and two of his employees in the criminal case over the retention of sensitive government records at Mr Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.

Mr Trump faces 40 charges in the case, after originally being indicted on 37 counts last month. His valet, Walt Nauta, is also facing new charges, and prosecutors added a third defendant and another Trump employee, Carlos De Oliveira, to the criminal case.

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The charges involve attempting to delete security footage sought by a grand jury subpoena, making false statements to the FBI and the unlawful retention of an additional document, which contained national defence information.
With no marketing budget but a taste for TikTok, a single day in her life was all it took for a struggling Brisbane dessert-maker to whip up her bakery into a social media sensation.

Former travel writer Brooke Saward opened her Fortitude Valley dessert emporium in May 2022, but attracting customers was a challenge.

Brooke Saward from Brooki Bakehouse. Credit: Brooke Saward

Months passed and she decided to start sharing content on TikTok.

The first video Saward filmed, a day in my life, ended up going viral with more than 3.2 million views.
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 At a glance, nothing about the fence makes obvious sense out here, 350 kilometres north-west of Alice Springs on a finger of the Great Sandy Desert that juts from the far west into the Northern Territorys red earth. Even if there were cattle grazed out here, the fence is a far more formidable barrier than anything youve ever seen on a farm. It stands 180 centimetres tall and is buttressed at regular intervals with sturdy galvanised iron uprights. Its thick layers of wire netting run into the distance, with a red dirt patrol track meticulously cleared on either side of any brush that might have blown up against it. An electric fence is constantly checked and maintained. Credit: Nick Moir By a locked heavy steel gate that doesnt swing, but slides on runners embedded in concrete, an energiser bolted to a pole pulses menacingly. It throws 8000 volts along the fence every second. The charge is enough to kill an unlucky person or seriously antagonise a curious camel. This electronic heartbeat is the only constant sound youll hear for miles out here at the Newhaven Wildlife Sanctuary, interrupted mostly by the sad song of the wind in the desert oaks and the howling of dingoes towards dawn. The fence in Jurassic Park had 10,000 volts, Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) ecologist Joey Clarke says as we arrive at the gate in a four-wheel-drive early one morning in late autumn.

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That didnt end well, says our photographer, Nick Moir. This is Newhaven Wildlife Sanctuary, a tract of 262,000 hectares that sprawls around Wartikinpiri, a quartzite bluff forced out of the northern flatlands 350 million years ago to make up part of the West MacDonnell Ranges. Inside the property is a 10,000-hectare fenced area completely devoid of feral animals including cats and foxes. Credit: Nick Moir At the heart of it is that thrumming fence which runs for 44 kilometres, encircling 9400 hectares of dunes and spinifex, mulga scrub, saltpans and bloodwoods. It is hard to exaggerate the significance of the fence. Where once fences were regarded with suspicion by some Australian ecologists  after all a fenced animal is no longer truly a wild one  the work of AWC and other groups has proved that, deployed well, they can be a critical tool to save what is left of the small native mammals whose numbers have crashed across the continent since European settlement. And as they go up, scientists are discovering it is not just prey mammals that are benefiting. Behind the wires of this growing string of arks across the country, whole ecosystems are stirring back to life. Something like a time machine is being built, offering glimpses of an Australia that existed before Europeans arrived, and what parts of it might look like again if we can ever remove cats and foxes.

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The silence of the possums Professor John Woinarski, one of the nations leading ecologists, remembers the forests he studied falling silent around him. I was in the Northern Territory for nearly 30 years, he says. When I first went there in the early 1980s and was in the field doing research, it was a wonderland. In camp, you would hear little mammals scampering over the table and chairs if we had left out scraps from dinner. Spotlighting you would see possums and sugar gliders, native tree rats and phascogales. These were the animals we were trapping for surveys and in the morning it was so exciting to open the traps and see what we had. But over the course of two decades the numbers just kept getting fewer and fewer. We stopped hearing the scuttling and scampering at night.

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Watching the bush fall quiet around us before our eyes was really disheartening. What Woinarski was witnessing was the collapse in numbers of small native animals that began the moment cats leapt ashore from the tall ships that carried them from Europe, only to accelerate when the cats were joined by foxes. While animals in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas had evolved alongside predators like these, those of the island nations and Australia had no defence. Some even froze when threatened, a method of self-defence that must have thrilled the first cats that crossed their path. So rapidly did cats fan out across the country that some European explorers found them established as they arrived in areas new to them, leading to a now disproved theory that some must have arrived with earlier Portuguese visitors to Australia. Foxes could never take hold in the wet far north, but the cat eventually did. Newspaper clippings from 1910 show that European settlement of parts of Western Australia was slowed because the ground was so thoroughly honeycombed by burrowing animals that horses kept breaking their fetlocks. Stripped of First Nations communities that had tended the landscape with fire management and riven by the new predators, the ecosystems began to change rapidly.

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It wasnt just remote Australia that was stripped bare. The last sighting of quolls in Sydney was in Vaucluses Nielsen Park in 1963. In Melbourne, it was 1948 in Kew. Once the animals disappeared they were quickly forgotten, a gap in our collective memory that Woinarski attributes to something called shifting baseline syndrome. Put simply, each generation believes the environment that they grow up with to be normal. A child born the year the last Sydney quoll died will consider their absence normal, even though the animal lived there for millions of years until moments ago. Shifting baseline syndrome means Australia was able to lose 33 species of its unique mammals  the highest such extinction rate in the world  without a sense of crisis taking hold. It took outsiders to run with an obvious idea. John Wamsley was the tradie-turned-mathematician and conservationist who was among the first to build private fenced sanctuaries and kill off the cats and foxes within them to protect native animals. He is best remembered by some for the cat pelt he cheekily wore as a hat when he attended a function to collect an SA Tourism award in 1991. His vision of a network of fenced sanctuaries across the country failed to take off then, but it did attract the attention of a British financier, Martin Copley. He first visited Australia in 1966 and by 1994 he had moved to Australia permanently and thrown himself into private conservation as he approached retirement.

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Eating outBest of How Bellingen became a foodie mecca in regional NSW Bianca Hrovat August 5, 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

Restaurant group Three Blue Ducks has opened a new farm-to-table restaurant in Bellingen, a town on the Mid North Coast of NSW whose fast-growing food scene has made it a thriving travel destination. The Ducks fifth restaurant, helmed by head chef Julien Vasseur, draws on local, sustainable producers such as Levenvale Farm (Bello Beef) and The Patch Organics to produce Asian-inspired dishes such as dirty duck, roasted with citrus fruit and Davidson plum. Three Blue Ducks Bellingen head chef Julien Vasseur and co-founder Darren Robertson. Steven Woodburn It joins more than eight new restaurants, cafes, specialist food stores and bakeries to open across the Bellingen Shire since COVID-19  not bad for a region with a population of about 13,000. Some of the most interesting and awesome food offerings in Australia are now happening regionally, and Bellingen is a big part of that movement, says Three Blue Ducks co-founder and chef Darren Robertson.

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Its a quaint little town, but the standard is incredibly high, whether youre going to the local bottle shop (Libertine Liquor), the brewery (Bellingen Brewing Co) or the restaurants. Located just outside town at The Lodge, a converted roadside motel, Three Blue Ducks has already become a destination restaurant for out-of-towners, particularly from nearby Coffs Harbour, since opening in mid-July. The new Three Blue Ducks restaurant in Bellingen. Steven Woodburn Bellingen Shire has welcomed more than 311,000 domestic visitors in the 12 months to March, a number not seen since 2018, and research by Destination NSW reveals that eating out is the most popular activity. Ask a local for a restaurant recommendation, and theyll invariably direct you to Brunos, a Mediterranean restaurant in a weatherboard cottage on Oak Street, where chef Jesse Dolman, formerly of two-hatted Brunswick Heads restaurant Fleet, heads the kitchen.

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It is the first hospitality venture from brothers Joshua and Oliver Gluck, who moved to the region from Melbourne and Byron Bay during the pandemic. Brunos in Bellingen has become a local favourite. Supplied We opened it for the community in the middle of COVID, when there was no way to target tourists. It was all about what we wanted to experience in Bellingen, Joshua Gluck says. Gluck says their arrival coincided with a boom in local eateries. Since Brunos opened, the former logging town has welcomed restaurants such as Osteria Fiume and Charlies at Church, alongside cafes like Eden and Habitat Coffee House. It has always had a wonderful food scene, but theres definitely an increasing number of venues opening, focusing on quality local produce and a slightly higher end of dining, Gluck says.

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A spread meant for sharing at Brunos in Bellingen. Supplied Its become a destination for dining. Where Bellingen restaurants used to fly under the radar, now theyre put on the map. Outside interest has spread up Waterfall Way to nearby Dorrigo, where Peaches Patisserie opened last year. The small shop is the fulfilment of a childhood dream for owner Beth OLoughlin, who returned to Bellingen Shire after honing her pastry skills in Melbourne. Locals appetite for her seasonal pastries, such as Davidson plum doughnuts and butterscotch and brown butter pie, means OLoughlin has had to step up her working hours, and she has found a strong food culture in the region.

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People are happy to spend money on food, but they do have high expectations. Blackcurrant and raspberry eclairs at Peaches Patisserie in Dorrigo. Supplied OLoughlin suggests it is the regions dense rainforests, waterfalls and creeks (with names like Promised Lands and Diehappy) that attract skilled hospitality workers to the area. Think of Bangalow, or Byron Bay. With beautiful landscapes come creative types, and with creative types come hospitality workers, she says. Thats the case for Gabriel Gutnik and Nathalie Poludniewski, who moved to Bellingen last year after discovering its natural beauty. Operating under the name Ziggys Wildfoods, the pair forage the surrounding landscape for native ingredients and wild invasive species to create a range of condiments, ferments and shrubs, drinks combining fermented plants, vinegar and a sweetener.

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A selection of miso pastes made by Ziggys Wildfoods using foraged ingredients. Supplied In February, they opened their first brick-and-mortar store on the towns main street, and in July, their products were featured at Maaemo, when the Michelin three-star Norwegian restaurant held a weekend-long pop-up at the two-hatted Berowra Waters Inn. The hospitality industrys success is underpinned by a community of growers and producers who draw on the shires rich soil and subtropical climate to supply everything from black truffles to native Dorrigo pepper. For a foodie, Bellingen is like the ultimate dream, Gutnik says. People bring bucketloads of fruit they find or grow on their property. Often we show up at the door and there are buckets of Davidson plums. The yuzu eclair at Three Blue Ducks in Bellingen uses miso made by Ziggys Wildfoods. Steven Woodburn

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To repay their kindness, Gutnik transforms the plums into ferments, or works with family-run gelateria Bellingen Gelato to create small-batch flavours. We want people to be able to fully experience and taste the ingredients growing in the valley and the mountains, he says. There are so many foodies here that care about the land theyre on, and its created a real foodie mecca.
OFarrells first three months in the job were all virtual thanks to COVIDs disruptions. The High Commission also oversaw a massive repatriation of Australian citizens stranded in India by border closures. Despite the distractions, India-Australia relations deepened markedly during OFarrells time as high commissioner, which ended in June. Indias influential foreign minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, posted on social media after his official farewell that OFarrells tenure has seen a transformation in India-Australia ties. A high point came in April last year when the two nations signed a landmark trade pact called the Australia-India Economic Co-operation and Trade Agreement, or ECTA, which sounds like the Hindi word for unity. It was the first trade deal India had signed with a developed nation in more than a decade.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visited India in March this year and in May, his counterpart, Narendra Modi, came to Sydney. Modi is the first Indian prime minister to visit Australia twice. OFarrell, now aged 64, had never lived overseas before taking on the complex and challenging post in Delhi. OFarrell believes politicians have unique skills that they can contribute to diplomacy. Credit: Janie Barrett My mantra for three years was Im not a trained diplomat, Im a recovering politician, he says. That line used to get a bit of a laugh, particularly among official secretaries and so on. But in a sense it meant I couldnt ask any inappropriate questions because sometimes Im sure I did. OFarrell argues politicians like himself can bring unique skills and insights to diplomacy, especially in nations with democratic political systems similar to Australias.

To illustrate, he tells me about the complex negotiations leading up to last years trade deal. He instructed Australian embassy staff to develop relationships with the personal staff of key Indian ministers, not just bureaucratic officials. Thats not something weve focused on previously, he says. But in any democracy if someone wants to get a meeting, or to get information on something, if you cant get to the minister, the ministerial office is extra good, whereas the bureaucratic officers tend to be the most tight-lipped  we worked the ministerial offices hard because we thought it was a useful thing to do to get things done. Barry OFarrell and Anthony Albanese view a performance during the Holi celebration in India in March. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen OFarrell believes his politicians touch, which included a willingness to take risks to get an outcome, helped deliver the deal. My favourite Indian word is jugaard, which means finding a way to get something done when its impossible, he says. But OFarrells approach could be contentious. He drew sharp criticism from some in 2020 after meeting Mohan Bhagwat, the leader of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or RSS, a nationalist paramilitary group which advocates Hindutva, a philosophy that Hinduism and Indian national identity are more or less synonymous. Narendra Modi was an RSS leader before entering politics and the organisation has close links to Indias ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP.

OFarrell says the meeting was necessary to help understand political influences in India. It was controversial at the time, no ifs or buts, he says. Its all about trying to distil what the facts are and whats relevant. COVID-19 wasnt the only crisis facing India during the early months of OFarrells tenure. In June 2020, Indian and Chinese troops clashed at Galwan Valley on their shared Himalayan border. At least two dozen Indian and Chinese soldiers died in a battle fought with sticks and clubs. It was the first fatal confrontation between the two sides since 1975. Indian army soldiers carry the coffin of a colleague killed during a confrontation with Chinese soldiers in the Ladakh region in June 2020. The clashes at the disputed border between India and China was the worst since 1975. Credit: AP Amid extreme tension between the giant nuclear-armed neighbours, OFarrell had his first meeting with foreign minister Jaishankar. The new high commissioner had been asked to deliver a message from the Australian government; it supported the status quo and opposed any unilateral action to change the contested Indo-China border. Australia also supported Indias efforts to find a solution through existing diplomatic mechanisms. Remember I was this tyro of a recovering politician, not trained diplomatically, delivering this very serious message to India, at a very serious time, OFarrell tells me.

I did notice that after I delivered the message Jaishankar looked at me, then looked over my shoulder at my deputy Rod Hilton. I then saw out of the corner of my eye that Rod nodded; so much as to say, hes not having a jaunt; hes actually delivering a serious message. (Hilton, a career diplomat, is now Australias High Commissioner to Solomon Islands.) OFarrell attributes his fervour for India to a trip he made there as NSW opposition leader in 2010 on the recommendation of an Indian-Australian mate. Narendra Modi is the first Indian prime minister to visit Australia twice. Credit: Janie Barrett People who go to India fall in love with just its history, its food, its assault on the senses, or its spirituality, but I fell in love with its economic opportunity, he says. Its very boring I know, but from the moment I first got there I could see the scale. After leading the Liberal and National parties to a landslide victory in the 2011 NSW election, OFarrell made annual visits to India as premier. It was on one of these trips, in 2012, that he first met Narendra Modi, who was then the chief minister of the Indian state of Gujarat. Modi has since emerged as the dominant figure in Indian politics with an increasingly influential role on the global stage.

A recognition of shared security interests in the Indian Ocean region, and mutual concerns about China, have been key drivers of the rapid improvement in political and military ties between Australia and India. Progress has been less impressive in the business and trade relationship, although OFarrell says the recent trade deal will help change that. Australia and India have complementary economies, so we competed in very few areas; weve got stuff they need, theyve got stuff we need, he says. There are just so many opportunities for Australia. OFarrell singles out infrastructure and renewable energy as especially lucrative sectors for firms to target. In my view India will be our most consequential relationship this century, says OFarrell. This is Indias century, its going to really come to the fore. Ursulas scallop and lobster sausage. Credit: Janie Barrett With that bold prediction, our main course arrives. He has the chefs main special, an entree-size Parmesan omelette with shavings of Braidwood truffle. For me, its a scallop and lobster sausage. We share a green salad.

OFarrell believes many Australians have outdated perceptions of India. One reason for this is the amount of media coverage of India which OFarrell describes as smaller scale than it should be given the nations growing importance. I think the lack of media coverage is restricting a better understanding of where India is at today, he says. Its not the India of old any longer. OFarrell says, advocating for the Australia-India relationship will remain a priority for him now that he has returned. Hes also keen to do more board work. When coffee arrives our conversation turns to contemporary Australian politics; OFarrell becomes more guarded. When I ask how he feels about the demise this year of the NSW Coalition government he led to power in 2011 he says: All governments have a shelf life. OFarrell is confident the Liberals will bounce back from recent federal and state election losses. Im sceptical about descriptions that have been written about the end of the Liberal Party at this time, he says. That gets written every time theres a major defeat at the state or federal level. Inevitably the party rises again. But he warns Liberal candidates must reflect the community. You can only win government in NSW by being genuinely representative. That means having a party that looks like the community of NSW that you want to represent. If thats in question you are simply giving votes away.

OFarrell says the Voice referendum is long overdue and strongly supports a yes vote. You are going to produce better outcomes if you consult people, he says. OFarrell bats away questions about his former political ally, Gladys Berejiklian, who like himself, stepped down as NSW premier after being embroiled in an Independent Commission Against Corruption investigation. Loading Other than saying I continue to be a strong supporter of anti-corruption bodies at federal and state levels, I will not go into other peoples engagements with those bodies. Although he does point out that it took around two years after his retirement from parliament in 2015 for ICAC to produce a report that said he [OFarrell] has nothing to answer for. OFarrells career in state politics famously ended after telling ICAC he had never received a $3000 bottle of Penfolds Grange as a gift shortly after the 2011 election. When a thank-you note written by OFarrell emerged, proving that he had received the red wine from a businessman, he resigned.
Germany has agreed to permanently station a mechanized infantry brigade in Lithuania. This requires Lithuanians to build a base for the brigade and contribute to its support. The Lithuanians agreed. Germany said the decision to station a brigade in Lithuania enhanced NATO security along the eastern flank.

The Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) were alarmed but not surprised by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Lithuania borders Russia, but is small and has a Russian minority. Lithuania has also revived conscription and in 2016 issued a 75 page how to survive another Russian occupation manual for its citizens called; "Prepare to survive emergencies and war." The Lithuanian preparations include an unprecedented degree of rearmament, Russia may still be able to overrun the country quickly, but the rearmament might make that costly and painful for the Russians.

The Baltic States Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, plus senior NATO military commanders all agree that Russia could overrun them in two days. Russia considers such talk more evidence of NATO aggression against Russia. Lithuanians have heard this kind of talk from Russia before and want to avoid the usual outcome.

Lithuania, as a NATO member, is supposed to spend two percent of GDP on defense. In 2014 Lithuania spent only 0.9 percent of its GDP on defense. The Russian seizure of Crimea and portions of eastern Ukraine in 2014 motivated Lithuania to increase defense spending. It reached 1.1 percent in 2015, and 1.48 percent in 2016. Lithuania pledged to increase defense spending annually until it reached two percent of GDP and that happened by 2019. After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Lithuania increased defense spending to 2.5 percent of GDP. Significant increases in military spending by Baltic countries is not a big deal in real terms. Their economies are small, and as such, the biggest military budget of those three, Lithuania's, was about half a billion dollars a year in 2014. By 2023 that spending was over two billion dollars.

Even before 2014, many East European nations feared Russia had gone from former occupier to current threat, and all decided to speed upgrades to their armed forces as quickly as their limited budgets allowed. All this is eerily like what happened after World War I when France and Britain tried to help equip newly created nations like Poland and the Baltic States with cheap World War I surplus weapons and promises of aid if Russia should seek to rebuild its fractured empire they would come to their aid. The Russians seized and occupied the Baltic States in 1940 and incorporated them into Russia. That lasted until the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991 and created many new nations, including the Baltic States and Ukraine. The Russians are seeking to regain control of Ukraine and the Baltic States were supposed to be next. That worked in 1940 but this time the Western nations supporting continued independence for the Baltic States and Ukraine include the United States and have come through with the promised aid. The Baltic States have responded by increasing their armed forces and buying a lot more weapons.

Baltic States like Lithuania have been purchasing more weapons from European nations, especially Germany, which is the major producer of armored vehicles in Europe. Lithuania has ordered 54 Leopard 2 tanks from the same German firm, Rheinmetall, that developed and produces the 30-ton Boxer 8x8 wheeled IFVs (Infantry Fighting Vehicles). Rheinmetall also customizes exported armored vehicles to suit customer preferences. Lithuania purchased 120 Boxers. The Lithuanian variant uses an Israeli unmanned turret with a 30mm gun, coaxial 7.62 mm machine gun and Spike LR ATGM with a range up to 4,000 meters. There is a crew of three (commander, driver, gunner) and space in the back for an additional six troops or cargo.

Boxer has a top road speed of 103 kilometers an hour and max range on internal fuel of 1,050 kilometers. Electronics include encrypted radio and several handheld surveillance devices. When serving as a combat reconnaissance vehicle, Boxer is often used to lead an advance by mechanized forces and survive first contact with the enemy. In these situations, Boxer can be equipped with the Israeli Iron Fist APS (Active Protection System) that will defeat ATGMs (anti-tank guided missiles) and anti-tank rockets. Iron Fist weighs about 250 kg (551 pounds and has a long track record of successful use in combat.

Russia encountered more resistance than expected in Ukraine and failed to achieve a quick win. That enabled NATO nations to ship in nearly $100 billion in military and economic aid. Baltic states like Lithuania are showing the Russians that they can expect a similar violent reception from the Baltic States. While the three Baltic states have a total population of six million, compared to 40 million in Ukraine and 145 million in Russia, the Baltic states also belong to NATO, which has a mutual defense agreement. If you attack one NATO state, they will all fight back. The combined population of the 31 NATO states is nearly a billion people and combined armed forces of 3.5 million troops. NATO annual military spending is about half the worldwide total defense spending. Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 to prevent Ukraine from joining NATO. The invasion failed and the Ukrainians are now pushing the Russians out. Russia insists it will not abandon its war in Ukraine. One reason for that is the rules for joining NATO, which stipulate that prospective new members cannot not be at war with any other nation. If the Ukrainians push the Russians out and declare peace, NATO will accept that and let Ukraine join. Russia insists it will not allow that to happen and will continue attacking Ukraine even if there are no more Russian troops in Ukraine. Russia is hoping that NATO will not recognize peace in Ukraine if Russia is still sending missiles, artillery shells and random gunfire across the border. In many similar situations, firing across the border did not qualify as a state-of-war for the victim of the violence. Russians have been suffering from Western economic sanctions since Ukraine was invaded and those sanctions wont be lifted until Russia calms down. Lithuania and most other nations sharing a border with Russia consider irrational behavior by Russia as quite possible. Old habits and all that. Welcome to life in the East European bloodlands, so named because of Russian interference and violence.
The family of schoolgirl Michelle Bright, who was murdered 24 years ago while walking home from a friends birthday party, say the monster who killed her stole her dreams and tore them apart, and they left the NSW Central West town due to their endless pain and suspicion.

My wish is to be able to hold her just one more time, Michelles mother Loraine Bright told the NSW Supreme Court in Dubbo on Friday. She was very special, my darling girl.

Michelle Bright was murdered by Craig Rumsby in 1999.

Michelle, 17, vanished from Gulgong in the early hours of February 27, 1999. Her partially clothed body was found in long grass three days later.

Craig Henry Rumsby, 56, was found guilty by a jury in June of murdering Michelle and the attempted sexual assault of an 18-year-old woman about a year before the killing.
Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Save articles for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. Got it Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Weve relaunched the Brisbane Times. Take a look at our best stories. See all 17 stories . Few Australian capital cities have the luxury of five islands an hour from the central post office with the price of blocks of land beginning at $45,000. Now, the islands lower home prices, lower rents, improved infrastructure and less-populous lifestyle, particularly since COVID-19, are luring younger families. Why would you pay $500,000 for a block of land at Redland Bay, which is 20 minutes across the bay, when you can buy block of land on Russell Island on the north end  the good end  for $80,000? real estate agent Ted Byrne says of one of south-east Queenslands hidden population growth zones. If they put a bridge in, it will go off like Bribie [Island]. North Stradbroke Island, or Minjerribah, curves around all five islands, like a mother protecting the 8481 residents from the swells of the Pacific Ocean. While the median age of Southern Moreton Bay Island residents is 61, younger families are beginning to move in, lured by cheaper land, rents and homes. Credit: Tony Moore Census details show population growth on the islands is now three times (22.8 per cent between 2016-21) the population growth on the mainland (6.2 per cent between 2016-2021).

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The recently released 2023 South East Queensland Regional Plan highlighted the growth, particularly as population ages and the number of single-person households increases. Redland has shown an increase of approximately 20.8 per cent of people aged over 65 years old between 2016 and 2021. There is an identified need to align housing stock more closely with current and future residents needs through diversifying housing stock available. The bay islands are not all roses, Redland mayor Karen Williams agrees. People just dont understand a place like this, so close to a major metropolitan city like Brisbane. Until youve put your feet on the ground, you dont understand the challenges. Because you have to sit on a ferry, understand when you get there, you have to work out how you are going to get from one place to another. Its about touching and feeling, really.

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The islands Achilles heel is parking, both at Redland Bay and at two of the larger islands, Macleay and Russell. And the biting midgies arent pleasant, either. The Queensland government and Redland City Council have funded four new island ferry stops for $49 million, and a multimillion-dollar residential and supermarket complex is being finalised for the Redland Bay ferry terminal at Weinam Creek. More than 1000 new homes were built in the decade to February 2020, but in the three years since almost 800 new homes have been built, according to the council. From Victoria Point a ferry takes a visitor to Coochiemudlo Island. Ten minutes further south a second ferry stop from Weinam Creek takes commuters clockwise to Karragarra Island, to Macleay Island, then Lamb Island and around to Russell Island.

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Islanders refer to going back to the Redland Bay as back to the mainland, or going around the world if travelling around the four islands. Islanders say far more people than the official count  about 10,000  actually live on the islands. Macleay Island. People came to the islands during COVID, to get away from more densely populated areas. Many caravans sit on blocks of land. On a calm, cold winter day, the ferry trip across Moreton Bay echoes Sydneys Pittwater on the citys northside. Geographically similar, demographically very different.

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More than 40 per cent of island residents live by themselves, 14 per cent are unemployed and almost 20 per cent care for someone with a disability. How they live on the islands Single-person households grew from 895 to 1527 in the decade to 2021

There is a small increase in couples with children; up to 339 each island from 320 in 2021

There are almost 1200 extra dwellings on the islands, up from 3683 to 4882

The median age of island residents is getting older: up from 57 to 61 in 2021

22 per cent are renting, 14 per cent are unemployed, 11 per cent have university qualifications

Almost 50 per cent have at least one long-term health condition Source: Redland City Council 2023 Byrne, the property agent, began working in the industry in Melbourne 33 years ago and, lured north by Queenslands warm winters and good fishing, has been on Russell Island almost five years. Southern Moreton Bay Islands: Macleay, Lamb, Karragarra (centre) and Russell Island at top centre. Redland Bay is on the right-hand side and North Stradbroke Island is on the top against the Pacific Ocean. Russell Island is the biggest island  about nine kilometres by five kilometres  and Karragarra is the most expensive because there are no shops, no police and no nothing. If you run out of milk there you have to catch the ferry to Macleay to get milk, Byrne says. And Lamb Island is the cheapest island.

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Using their local knowledge, they sat off an intersection they believed would be crossed by the hit team. When they spotted the Amarok, it sparked a high-speed chase, until the offenders crashed in Bayswater. Suspecting these were armed killers, they were brave enough to give chase on foot, and when one of the gunmen dropped a bag of clothes, they were smart enough to know it could be key evidence in the murder case. Supporters of Mongols bikies Aaron Ong and Josh Rider outside court in June. Credit: Chris Hopkins Even though they knew gunmen were somewhere close, they refused to retreat, protecting the bag and the getaway car until help arrived. The head of the homicide squad, Detective Inspector Dean Thomas, said: Without these members acting quickly to secure evidence that led to the identification of the offenders, a successful prosecution would have been much more difficult.

Their citation read: Your pursuit led to the offenders abandoning vital evidence which you secured at great personal risk to yourself which ultimately led to their identification, prosecution, and subsequent conviction for murder. The killers refused to talk and detectives are convinced Virgona was the innocent victim of a mistaken identity hit. Peter Gibbs arrest. Credit: Jason Childs It was a reminder that these awards are about real people and real crimes, not just framed certificates and a photo opportunity. One of the awards was an act to right a 30-year wrong and acknowledge a group of detectives who chased prison escapees Peter Gibb and Archie Butterly, along with Gibbs lover, prison officer Heather Parker, around Victoria, culminating in a shootout at the Goulburn River.

On March, 7, 1993, armed robbers Gibb and Butterly used explosives smuggled into the Melbourne Assessment Prison by Parker to blow out a window, and then (just like the movies) use knotted prison sheets to climb to the ground. In the getaway Butterly twice shot Senior Constable Warren Treloar, leaving the three fugitives convinced they had crossed the line and would be shot and killed if found. Police threw together a taskforce called Santana made up of detectives from the prison and special response squads to hunt the three, who were finally discovered holed up on the banks of the river near Jamison. One of the taskforce, Graeme Sayce, recalls the breakthrough was made by an observant fly-fisherman who saw the getaway car hidden under bracken at Picnic Point.

He went back to his wife and said they should move. She said she was sick of trying to find a better fishing spot and if they were to move it was to go home. They packed up and he was smart enough to reset his trip meter, and when he saw police he was able to give the exact distance to the dirt track where the car was hidden, says Sayce. Left to right: Graeme Arthur, Michael Engel, Graeme Sayce , Greg Bowd, Cameron Duncan and Peter Signorotto from the Santana team. Credit: Jason South Three Santana detectives, Graeme Arthur, Cameron Duncan, and Gary Silk, went to the scene and were caught in the crossfire as Butterly opened up on police. He was armed with a Colt automatic rifle (a version of the M16), boxes of ammunition, a pump-action shotgun and a .38 Smith and Wesson stolen from Treloar. The Special Operations Group fired 55 shots at Butterly. During the battle Gibb and Parker tried to sneak off through the river and were grabbed by Arthur and Duncan.

Loading Butterly had been shot dead, not by police but one of his team, who didnt like his fight-to-the-death plan. Their policy was flight after his death and one shot him behind the right ear. Five police, including members of the SOG and the police dog Shamus, were presented with bravery awards, but the Santana detectives were ignored - until now. Some time ago, we wrote about this injustice, and to their credit senior police agreed to revisit the case. It found: After a historical review from additional information provided, Crime Command would now like to acknowledge the Bravery and Courage of the members actions with a Command Commendation. Arthur, Duncan and Silk were recognised: For Outstanding Performance, Courage, Initiative, Planning and Perseverance during Operation SANTANA, which led to the arrest of an armed and dangerous escapee and his accomplice near Jamison on March 13, knowing that another member of the Force had been shot and seriously wounded during their escape from the Melbourne remand Centre on the March 7, 1993.

Arthur and Duncan were there to receive their awards. Gary wasnt; he was murdered in October 1998 with Senior Constable Rodney Miller in Cochranes Road, Moorabbin. Garys brothers Peter and Ian accepted the award and Duncan wore a special tie designed to commemorate his mate Silky. A further 12 Santana members received Crime Command Certificates for their roles in catching Gibb and Parker. Another team was acknowledged, a group of cops who took on the seemingly hopeless task of re-investigating a series of armed robberies that stretched back decades. The Gym Gang, a group of lifelong Melbourne mates connected to the fight and fitness business, formed an armed robbery gang that pulled jobs over 24 years that netted nearly $5 million.

Police linked the gang to seven armed robberies, each meticulously planned and each using a security insider often placed there for years until the time was right. Because the gang was so tight, no one would talk to police, and because the members were so smart they rarely left any clues. Police examine the Armaguard van after it was abandoned in the Richmond armed robbery in 1994. Credit: John Woudstra Their biggest job was the Richmond armoured van in June 1994 ($2.3 million), when they posed as a road gang to stop and steal the van. It was reviewed in 2007 as part of Operation Octopus and re-activated in 2007 as Operation Tideland. Its detectives used new-age forensics and old-fashioned persistence, eventually turning five witnesses to give evidence.

Eventually, a key member of the gang, Percy No Mercy Lanciana, was charged with the Richmond heist, not because of a smoking gun but on the money trail Tideland was able to follow. Key evidence was that Percy was identified outside a bank when a woman deposited money from the Richmond job into an account. Pasquale Lanciana, convicted of the Richmond armed robbery. Credit: Jason South Another link was a lawyer, John Anile, who was bugged talking of laundering money for Lanciana (and others) through property developments. He spoke freely of collecting $400,000 cash and taking it with Lanciana as part payment for land used to build 31 one and two-bedroom townhouses. The money was collected on August 9, 1994  six weeks after the Richmond heist.

The bugged evidence included Anile saying: All I can tell you is that the $400,000 cash was a small proportion of it. They had a bunch of cash, and they did not work. So unless theyve got a money tree, it came from somewhere. I know where it came from, but Im not going to talk about it. If I went to the cops and told them where it came from, he [Lanciana] would go to jail for 25 years. In fact, Lanciana was sentenced to 14 years, with a minimum of 10. A police summary of the investigation said Tideland investigators identified, cultivated and then managed a number of crucial witnesses, and prepared a complex and detailed brief of evidence against Lanciana for armed robbery and money laundering offences.
Keshtiar served time in prison for the attempted murder of a man and a woman he gunned down while on bail in 2003 and for shooting a security guard at a Prahran nightclub. The underworld figure was recruited to the Mongols, one of Melbournes most powerful bikie gangs, while in prison. Keshtiar was also aligned with Hasan Gunes, who was recently arrested and accused of threatening an ex-member of an outlaw motorcycle gang with a hammer during a roadside fight, and claimed the man had raped his sister. Gunes was believed to be connected to a gang feud which resulted in two suburban homes, several cars and three businesses being set alight in tit-for-tat arson attacks.

One underworld source, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told The Age that Keshtiars death would result in a ramping-up of violence between warring gangs. Its gonna really start now, he said. Keshtiar survived a botched assassination attempt several years ago, which resulted in a death that was a case of mistaken identity. Zabi Ezedyar was greeted at the front door of Keshtiars parents home on August 16, 2017 when he was shot several times from behind. He died on the footpath outside.

The laneway behind The Olsen Melbourne and Goldfields apartment complex was shut to the public on Saturday morning while homicide squad detectives investigated. Police were visiting nearby hotels and shops to check for CCTV footage of the area. The shooting happened metres from Chapel Street, in the heart of the shopping district. Almeida Crescent is across the road from the centre where Channel Ten film The Project and Have You Been Paying Attention? and runs alongside the $500 million Capital Grand complex, home to multimillion-dollar apartments. It is around the corner from the popular restaurant Beverly. Homicide squad detectives are working to determine the circumstances of the shooting and have requested anyone who witnessed anything or may have CCTV or dash-cam footage to provide it to police.

Loading Were very concerned about not only the risk to the people or persons that are targeted, but also innocent community members that get caught up in an activity like this, Porter said. Billy Algar, who lives in an apartment above the street, said she heard about 10 shots fired from where she was sitting in her living room. She said she opened the door and saw a man running towards Chapel Street. We just wouldnt believe that someone would get shot in the city of Melbourne, she said.

Stephanie Gleeson and Ahmed Alamy live near where the shooting took place. They had been out walking with their four-week-old baby about an hour before the incident. Gleeson said the northern part of Chapel Street, where they live, is usually fairly quiet, with more restaurants than nightclubs. We love the area. We feel really safe here, she said. Its definitely a shock. Lloyd Nicholas was working at nearby restaurant Wong Baby, which had just closed up for the night, when the shooting occurred.

He said his colleague had been taking out the bins when police arrived, sirens blaring. Nicholas said that while reports of violence were relatively rare in South Yarra, criminal behaviour did appear to have increased recently. Ive become a much more cautious when going out, especially up on Chapel Street, just because some people are a bit intimidating, he said. Its quiet down here. This is the Toorak side. People are coming for dinner, its not a party environment. Its really strange for us to see any kind of violence happening on this end. It was very confronting to have that happen right behind us.
A months-long investigation into the failures of Home Affairs, exposing deep flaws in the operation of Australias gatekeepers.

The Australian Federal Police has been unable to answer a raft of questions in parliament about how a man convicted of bribing foreign officials was able to keep $30 million in offshore processing contracts over the five years that he was under criminal investigation.

Contracts kept flowing to corrupt Sydney businessman Mozammil Bhojani or his company, Radiance International, even after the AFP publicly detailed their involvement in the bribery of Nauruan officials in two media releases in 2018 and 2020.

Mozammil Bhojani and Peter Dutton, who the AFP admitted had not been briefed about his investigation as head of Home Affairs.

The grilling of senior police about the AFPs actions relating to Bhojani raises serious further questions about how Home Affairs managed multibillion-dollar offshore processing contracts that are vulnerable to corruption.

ACT chief police officer Neil Gaughan was also forced to admit the AFP had got it wrong when it told parliament earlier this year that it had briefed then-Home Affairs minister Peter Dutton in 2018 about the investigation into Bhojani.
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 Max Chandler-Mather estimates he knocked on 15,000 inner-city Brisbane doors in the lead-up to the 2022 election, where he wrested the seat of Griffith from Labor frontbencher Terri Butler. Those thousands of hours gave the Greens MP a message to take to Canberra  one that has increasingly frustrated the federal government as it attempts to pass legislation enabling its $10 billion housing affordability fund, a key election commitment. As Labor argues the fund is needed to address the critical problems of housing affordability and availability, Chandler-Mather has one response on behalf of his constituents as well as renters around Australia: not good enough. Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather is taking the fight on housing to the government. Credit: Paul Harris Id certainly had an experience of trying to get a giant pile of rubbish moved out of the yard for like a year, finally issuing a breach notice because the real estate agent tells us to do it, and the landlord literally rocks up the next day and threatens us with eviction, he says. I dont think people in parliament necessarily understand how that makes you feel. Labors frustration with the Greens intransigence on the Housing Australia Future Fund is palpable. A bill that was supposed to sail through parliament has been stymied by the minor party and the Coalition, leading Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to threaten to use it as a double-dissolution election trigger.

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Annoyance boiled ever at the end of the tense winter sitting period when Chandler-Mather accused Albanese of misrepresenting him in question time. Photographs capture Albanese firing back, with sources reporting the prime minister told the first-time MP: Youre a joke mate. The baby-faced 31-year-old father has riled up the hardened political warrior like no other MP. A tense exchange between Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Max Chandler-Mather at the end of question time in June. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen The level of hostility here [in Canberra] is far, far, far, far greater than anything Ive ever experienced doorknocking, Chandler-Mather says. Give me a choice and I will 100 per cent of the time pick doorknocking in Carina Heights over having to sit through question time. He knows a lot about doorknocking after campaigning over the years for local and state candidates and, mostly recently, himself. You get to the end of a doorknock and you feel great because youve had, like, 10 to 15 conversations with people, youve learned something about peoples lives: it changes your politics a little bit, Chandler-Mather says in an interview in his parliamentary office in Canberra.

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Now he is attempting to change politics more than a little, representing renters at a time when rents are skyrocketing and homeownership looks more unattainable than ever for many people. Chandler-Mather is one of only a handful of MPs who rent, and his message resonates well beyond the chamber with the third of the population that also has a landlord. His social media posts rack up tens of thousands of views and comments, strengthening the Greens resolve to demand greater concessions from the federal government on housing affordability and renters rights. It is a visceral anger and powerlessness and injustice, he says, that has some fundamental effect on the material conditions of your life for no other reason other than our country has decided were going to throw renters to the wolves. He says most politicians are unfamiliar with the reality of renting. I think that probably does affect the way they make decisions around politics or maybe leads them to a decision that its okay for instance not to pursue any rental reforms, assuming that people will be okay to wait for that, he says. But until youve had that experience, maybe you wont understand why a lot of people maybe are switching to the Greens for instance.

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Chandler-Mather himself turned to the Greens less than a decade ago. Loading He grew up in West End, in Brisbanes inner south, in the same electorate he now represents. He describes his parents as big lefties although not politically active; his father was a librarian and his mother was a social worker who later joined the public service. Chandler-Mather joined the Whitlam Club, part of the young Labor movement, at university. I like Gough Whitlam  free university, he says, but he quickly grew disillusioned with Labor. You were convinced to join often on the argument that look, you might not agree with everything theyre doing but you can join it and we can change it from the inside, he says. But as an institution, it seemed utterly incapable of changing, and every year things seemed to get worse.

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Chandler-Mather left the party in 2013 because of the then-Labor federal governments decisions on asylum seekers and cuts to the single parenting payment. Loading But he didnt become involved with the Greens until 2016, when he worked on local council elections, an experience he describes as transformative. [We thought] if we can only reach enough people and have these face-to-face conversations and organise at scale and talk about renters rights and talk about these things that electoral politics hasnt focused on in a long time, actually, a lot of people would vote for that, and it happened. The message to voters helped get Jonathan Sriranganathan elected to represent The Gabba Ward on the Brisbane City Council. Sriranganathan, who stepped down earlier this year, says renters were being ignored by the major parties. We recognised that there was another layer of voters out there, particularly younger renters, who were open to swinging to the Greens if we started speaking their language, he says. Max played a big part in helping refine that message and pitch.

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The Japanese love to take random English words and put them together for fashion-brand and shop names, often with delightful or hilarious results. Among my favourites are Have a Nice Life, Soft Bank, Fanny Face and Titty & Co. Many dont make sense at all, such as Shake Tree, Magical Cheese, Hard-Off and a fashion store I recently spotted in Tokyo called Paris Madonna Junkie a Gogo. The fondness for French pastries A mille-feuille using layers of crepes instead of pastry in Japan. Credit: iStock I have no idea why the Japanese are obsessed with French pastries, but this is one cultural quirk to embrace wholeheartedly. Youll get the best patisserie outside France in Japan, whether from coffee shops, bakeries or department-store food halls. Some are interesting fusion creations, such as the crepe mille-feuille, or the Mont Blanc with purple yam instead of chestnut. Incidentally, French shop names are as eccentric as those in English.

Loading Pointless traffic controllers You see them at crossroads, outside certain buildings, and sometimes hovering at pedestrian crossings: men, usually elderly, in blue uniforms wielding a flashing red baton. Their sole purpose is to indicate the obvious with impeccable Japanese politeness: how to drive out of an underground carpark, for example. Or where to cross a road, just in case youre wondering what the zebra stripes are for. Dogs that are treated like babies A woman pushes a stroller with two dogs in Tokyo. Credit: iStock

An increasingly common trend among young Japanese is to abandon marriage and children in favour of a dog, but thats where it begins to get weird. Dogs are walked in fancy prams, dressed in designer clothes and pampered in cafes. Theyre taken to canine hot-spring resorts, massage parlours and day-care centres. Most are diminutive: miniature breeds of poodle and dachshund are all the rage. Loading Why its so hard to say no The only time you hear a Japanese give you a blunt no is when you ask if they speak English. Otherwise, over-politeness and the cultural importance of good service will cause them to try to help even if theyre clueless. Beware when getting directions, or asking for something in a store: the assistant might spend a half-hour trying to oblige. Always doing the right thing

Shibuya Crossing, one of the busiest crosswalks in the world. Credit: Sean Pavone / Alamy Stock Photo Okay, I get it. There are 126 million people crammed together in a very tight space, and regulations are what makes it all bearable. Without rules, everything would descend into chaos. But even the most trivial behaviours are rigidly observed in Japan. Want to panic a Japanese tour guide? Stray a few metres from the group and watch the reaction. Loading Children sitting in crowded trains Japanese trains do have priority seats for the elderly, frail and pregnant, but apart from that, good luck. Incredibly, children often remain seated while adults stand  not something my mother would have allowed when I was young. Parents themselves will often surrender a seat to their child. Whats with that? Just another of the great mysteries of the Land of the Rising Sun.
Soutine is a perfect example of why neighbourhood restaurants are so good. Part of the Wolseley Hospitality Group, its located on a prime corner of SJW High Street, with outdoor tables offering the ideal spot to soak up the sun (or huddle under a heater). The essence of a classic French brasserie, the cosy interior is just as inviting. Offering old-school service with an excellent all-day menu, my top pick is the steak frites et salade. See soutine.co.uk

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In SJW, there is only one answer to this question  coffee at Panzers. The jewel of the neighbourhood, Panzers is considered Londons original Jewish deli, opening 79 years ago. Far more than a purveyor of kosher products and cold cuts, its a destination in itself for its expertly curated selection of international delicacies and fresh produce. Panzers coffee bar pumps out coffee from 7am daily, with the option to sit outside and an impressive selection of mouth-watering house-made treats. Theres usually a queue, but its well worth the wait. As a true Melbourne coffee snob, I can say, hand-on-heart, that Panzers is by far the best cup youll get in London  evidenced by the fact I now brew the same beans at home (Origin Stronghold, if youre asking). See panzers.co.uk

Avoid

The Tube if you can. While theres no doubt its an incredibly efficient transport system, not even the locals enjoy catching it. London is a city best explored on foot, eyes up, not looking down at your phone! This is as much for safety as it is to soak it all in properly. For some of the best views in the area, head up to Primrose Hill where you can marvel at the city skyline.
In fact, Navalny and the Anti-Corruption Foundation that served as the umbrella organisation for his activities, mainly focused on investigating vast public corruption in Russia and on demanding free, democratic elections. The Kremlin has effectively crushed Navalny, who is recognised as a political prisoner by Amnesty International, and his supporters. In June 2021, Russian authorities banned three Navalny-linked organisations, including the Anti-Corruption Foundation and his political network, branding them as extremist in a move strongly condemned by Amnesty International and other global human rights organisations. Servicemen of the Russian National Guard (Rosgvardia) gather at Red Square to prevent a protest rally in Moscow after Alexei Navalnys arrest in 2021. Credit: AP In Navalnys trial on extremism charges, Russias highly politicised justice system reached a new low  a closed trial in a prison inaccessible to the public. His 19-year sentence was in stark contrast to the court systems treatment of Eduard Bitarov, a soldier who fatally stabbed his wife 16 times, was convicted of the killing but then freed last month by a military court in Rostov-on-Don because he fought in the war against Ukraine.

The trial was held in an unidentified room in Penal Colony Number 6 in the Vladimir region. News media and even Navalnys parents were barred from attending, except for 86 minutes on the first day when they were not allowed in the courtroom but watched a video link with barely intelligible sound. A similar video link with poor quality was used for the sentencing on Friday. Omon riot police arrest Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny in St Petersburg in 2012. The activist and opposition leader has spent a decade in and out of policy custody on charges the West sees as trumped up. Credit: AP At the start of the extremism case, the prosecutor, Nadezhda Tikhonova, demanded that the trial be closed, claiming there was a security threat, although it was not made clear what the threat was. Then the video screen abruptly went blank, and court officials later announced that the judge had closed the hearing. Navalny survived a poisoning attack in August 2020 carried out, according to the US State Department, by Russian security agents. In March, Navalny a film about how he and his team unmasked the Russian operatives responsible for the poisoning, won the Oscar for best documentary feature.

After recovering at a hospital in Germany, Navalny in January 2021 returned to Moscow, where he was imprisoned for more than two years on alleged probation violations. Last year, he was convicted of fraud charges and sentenced to an additional nine years. Navalny has denied all wrongdoing, describing the charges as political. The European Court of Human Rights also found that he was wrongfully prosecuted. In his final statement to the court during his most recent trial, Navalny said all Russians knew that a person facing a court was completely defenseless, without hope of justice. He described a Kafkaesque scene with 18 people in the court, including the judge, prosecutor, his lawyers and seven guards with their faces covered in black masks. The speech was released by his team. The chairwoman of Navalnys Anti-Corruption Foundation, Maria Pevchikh, said on YouTube after the verdict that her team had in its possession the 50,000-page secret trial documents in the case against him, where there was no evidence of any crime. They didnt even try to compile a real case, she said, displaying pages that included a photo of snowmen holding anti-Putin placards, an article about Navalny in the Hill and other content on the site including the who we are section, photos of Madrids airport posted online by Navalny team member Leonid Volkov and a photo of Navalnys co-defendant Daniil Kholodny, holding a copy of Time magazine with Navalny on the cover.

She said Putin wanted to bury Navalny in prison. No one should talk about him. No one should remember him, Pevchikh said. But she continued, Even from the darkest hell on Earth, from the prison where hes being slowly tortured to death, Navalnys voice is still heard. Navalny is seen on a TV screen standing among his lawyers during the sentencing on Friday. Credit: AP In a statement on Thursday, Navalny said another case being prepared against him  on terrorism charges  would potentially add another decade, although the law may limit his imprisonment to 30 years. Navalny said the case was being ignored on state television because to the average citizen, a hefty sentence for extremism in a case without victims and consequences will seem obviously unfair to him, and he will secretly sympathise.

There is no shame in choosing the safest way to oppose. There is shame in doing nothing, Navalny said. Its shameful to let yourself be intimidated. Whatever sentence they have planned, it wont achieve its goal if you understand what its all about and answer, Im not afraid, with a daily coldblooded, albeit small, contribution to the fight for freedom in Russia. Loading Navalny, who suffers from severe back pain, has lost 7 kilograms in prison and appears gaunt and hollow-cheeked, yet he managed to smile during Fridays sentence. Since his imprisonment he has been repeatedly handed harsh punishments  sent at least 15 times to a solitary confinement cell with a cup, stool and one book, and a bed that is folded up during the day, for trivial offences, such as failing to do up his top button, or washing his hands a few minutes too early. Every evening, a radio speaker blasts out the same Putin speech, that cannot be turned off. Throughout his prison term, he has maintained a social media presence, detailing the petty punishments and cruelty of the prison authorities, often conveying dark humour but refusing to show despair. He has lampooned Putin as a mediocre old man, quivering in his bunker, afraid of his own people.

He has constantly exhorted Russians to do whatever they can to resist Putins regime, and expounded on his dreams of a country where Russians are not only free, but happy. But people must be willing to make sacrifices for that to happen, he said in his final statement. Loading Not everyone has to go to jail. Its more like a lottery, and I pulled out such a ticket. But everyone has to make some sacrifice, some effort. He has mused about the meaning of life and the importance of religious faith, of telling the truth and doing what is right, no matter how hard it is to bear the consequences. I love Russia, he said in his final statement. My intellect tells me that it is better to live in a free and prosperous country than in a corrupt and impoverished one.

He added, A country without fair trials will never be prosperous. So now my intellect says again, it is reasonable and right of me to fight for an independent court, fair elections, to be against corruption because then I will achieve my goal and be able to live in my free, prosperous Russia. Despite his trial on extremism charges, his team, which is operating mostly from Vilnius, Lithuania, announced plans for an international protest action on August 20, under the banner Putin is a killer, which calls for demonstrations against the bloody dictatorship he built and the monstrous war he unleashed. At times, writing about his decision to return to Russia and fight for political change, knowing he faced a certain prison term, Navalny compared himself to an explorer in a spaceship, taking off, full of optimism, hoping to voyage to a beautiful new world. His cell was like a small, spartan spaceship, with food delivered by an automated cart, and shiny metal plates and spoons.
Russian police have blamed a spate of fire-bombings of military enlistment offices on phone scammers tricking people into carrying out the attacks.

At least 32 people have been involved in attacks on three dozen offices across Russia since Monday, accounting for a third of all such incidents reported since the start of the war in Ukraine.

Russian recruits gather outside a military recruitment centre of Bataysk, Rostov-on-Don region, in the south of Russia. Credit: AP

The arsons resumed this week just a few days after President Vladimir Putin signed into law several amendments which raised the age for draftees and made it almost impossible to dodge mobilisation.

Setting fire to enlistment offices, which hold records on conscripts and men deemed to be of combat age, became a popular form of protest for anti-war activists across Russia after the invasion of Ukraine.
MBABANE  Political antagonists who have an interest in Eswatini politics are abusing and piercing some South African media houses to plant anarchy, as claimed by Government Spokesperson Alpheous Nxumalo.

This claim by the government of Eswatini spokesperson emanates from a radio interview that he was requested to do on the Afrobarometer report purporting that People are not happy with King Mswati III. Channel Africa, an international broadcasting service of the South African Broadcasting Corporation, through its Journalist Tracey Boomgaard, extended the invitation to Nxumalo for the interview, which never transpired. This was after Nxumalo, as the latter revealed, had made a precondition demand that Channel Africa preambles the interview with a video/audio clip of His Majesty King Mswati III when entering Sibaya on July 11, 2023.

This is the same occasion wherein the King dissolved Parliament in preparation for the ongoing general elections under the Tinkhundla System of Government. Nxumalo revealed that Boomgaard first made an excuse that she would be unable to play the video clip on a radio show. Then Nxumalo made a sound clip of the masses adoring and appreciating His Majesty King Mswati III and sent it to Boomgaard and on receipt of same; she only responded with a smile and purportedly aborted the interview she actually initiated.

Duck

For her to duck and dive from this interview, leaves a lot to be desired and with unanswered questions such as - are there sinister and obscure forces that try to undermine Eswatini and its authorities through and by abusing some news channels and platforms in South Africa and elsewhere, wondered Nxumalo.

He said secondarily, the so-called Afrobarometer report on Eswatini was nothing but a fallacy and wishful thinking of some publicity hungry lobbyists who didnt really know what Eswatini and emaSwati were about in respect to the institution of the monarchy and the King. He said these were the most strategic and vital national interests for emaSwati to begin with. The fictional, novelty and imagined reports such as the latest on the people of Eswatini by the Afrobarometer, must be pushed to the dustbin of history where they rightfully belong by all sundry, said Nxumalo. Boomgaard, when questioned on why she purportedly aborted the proposed interview, said Nxumalo didnt give her a direct yes or no, only that he played the sound as the preamble of the interview.

Invited

It really had nothing to do with the sound; however, I needed to have context to the sound and would have had to figure out where I could play it. We had also invited Afrobarometer for an interview but we didnt do both angles, she said. Boomgaard further explained that Channel Africa was a Pan-African station, which only wanted the best for Africa. That is why instantly when they said we must do the Afrobarometer story I asked him for the interview. He should know by now I will always give him a right to reply and if there is a story he wants us to do, I will always try and accommodate it, she said.

Nxumalo made it known that he was growing tired of some of the journalists in the neighbouring country, because he had observed over time that there was a trend, that when they were inviting him for an interview, it appeared as though they had consultations with some forces from somewhere.

Upon seeing that Im not waved or they cant get an entry point, they tend to disappear and that is not good because by so doing, I get the impression that these guys are being used or abused by certain people. That is not the impression I should get when dealing with a journalist, he said. Nxumalo said he rarely got the impression that he was being engaged on a fair basis, where he could effortlessly address whatever queries the media had, without any suspicions.
Kyiv: Ukraine said its sea drones struck a major Russian port on Friday and damaged a warship in an attack that underlined Kyivs growing naval capabilities as the Black Sea becomes an increasingly important battleground in the war.

The strike on Novorossiysk halted maritime traffic for a few hours and marked the first time a commercial Russian port has been targeted in the nearly 18-month-old conflict. The port has a naval base, shipbuilding yards and an oil terminal, and is key for exports. It lies about 110 kilometres east of Crimea, where Russias Defence Ministry said it thwarted another attack.

The Security Service of Ukraine and the countrys navy carried out the attack that damaged the Olenegorsky Gornyak, a landing vessel of the Russian navy, according to an official with the security service. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to give the information to the media, said the attack rendered the ship unable to perform combat missions.

A sea drone shows the silhouette of Olenegorsky Gornyak warship near the port of Novorossiysk on the Black Sea in this screengrab obtained from social media video released on August 4, 2023. Credit: Reuters

Satellite photos analysed by The Associated Press appeared to show the ship leaking oil. An image from Planet Labs, taken a few hours after the attack, showed a ship dockside with another vessel next to it. The ship in the image matched the measurements of the Olenegorsky Gornyak, as well as known physical features of the vessel. Images posted on social media showed a ship listing.
Australias competition regulator, the ACCC, has rejected ANZs proposal to acquire Suncorp Bank, saying the move would lessen competition.

In announcing its decision today, the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission said under the statutory test, it must not grant authorisation unless it is satisfied in all the circumstances that the proposed acquisition would not be likely to substantially lessen competition, or that the likely public benefits would outweigh the likely public detriments.

We are not satisfied that the acquisition is not likely to substantially lessen competition in the supply of home loans nationally, small to medium enterprise banking in Queensland, and agribusiness banking in Queensland, ACCC deputy chair Mick Keogh (pictured above) said.

These banking markets are critical for many homeowners and for Queensland businesses and farmers in particular. Competition being lessened in these markets will lead to customers getting a worse deal.

The ACCCs decision is a blow to ANZ, which recently signed an implementation agreement with the Queensland government to establish a tech hub, including hiring 700 people, in the sunshine state. The major banks agreement was conditional on the successful $4.9 billion acquisition of Suncorp Bank.

Referring to this proposal, Keogh said ANZ claimed the hub would lead to increased lending to businesses in Queensland, including lending to support renewable energy targets and new energy projects.

Based on a recent determination from the Australian Competition Tribunal, it may not be appropriate for us to take the claimed Queensland benefits into account. However, even when taken into account they are insufficient to offset the competitive harm.

In a statement published on the ACCC website, McKeogh said second-tier banks such as Suncorp Bank were important competitors against the major banks, especially because barriers to new entry at scale into banking were very high.

Evidence we obtained strongly indicates that the major banks consider the second-tier banks to be a competitive threat, Keogh said.

The proposed acquisition of Suncorp Bank by ANZ would further entrench an oligopoly market structure that is concentrated, with the four major banks dominating. It also limits the options for second-tier banks to combine and strengthen in a way that would create a greater competitive threat to the major banks.

The ACCC today announced its determination and an executive summary of its reasons for denying ANZs acquisition proposal, with the full reasons to be released on Monday.

Increased likelihood of coordination in Australian home loans market

Commenting further on the ACCCs reasons for denying the acquisition, Keogh said there was an increased likelihood of coordination between the four major banks in the supply of home loans should Suncorp Bank become part of ANZ.

Coordinated market outcomes mean competition is muted at best, to the detriment of customers, Keogh said.

A substantial lessening of competition in home loans would have major flow-on impacts to Australians with a mortgage. More than a third of Australian households have a mortgage, with loans totalling around two trillion dollars, illustrating how critical it is that competition in this market is not substantially lessened

Keogh said the ACCC considers the Australian home loans market was already at risk of coordination between the major banks for a number of reasons, including banks ability to price signal, the similarities of the major banks in terms of size and structure, the stability of the existing market structure and high barriers to entry.

While there is evidence of increased competition in the home loans market recently, including in the form of cash-back offers to consumers, we are not persuaded that this level of competition will continue, he said.

The ACCC noted that the acquisition of Suncorp Bank would boost ANZs market share in home loans to be above NAB, and closer to CBA and Westpac.

Increased symmetry between competitors can increase the likelihood of coordination, as there is less incentive to upset the status quo and try to win market share by aggressively competing for customers.

Small and medium business banking in Queensland

The ACCC said SME banking services in Queensland was already concentrated and the acquisition would significantly increase ANZs market share.

Suncorp Bank is an important competitor for business customers in Queensland, Keogh said. It offers a differentiated product with a strong focus on customer relationships and smaller businesses.

Agribusiness banking in Queensland

Keogh said Suncorp Bank was a vigorous agribusiness banking competitor in many local areas of Queensland, and in particular competed strongly and directly against ANZ in a number of areas in regional Queensland.

Agribusiness banking services in Queensland are already concentrated. Removing Suncorp Banks independent presence will likely lead to worse offerings being made to Queensland farmers, he said.

As part of the decision-making process, the ACCC said sought the views of a range of interested parties including providers of banking and financial services, consumer organisations, and brokers and aggregators.
Amid declining bank transactions, Bankwest said it will close three Perth metro branches later this year, to direct further investment into meeting growing customer preferences for digital and broker services.

In a statement, the CBA-owned institution said the branch closures reflect Bankwests strategic focus as a WA-based bank for current and future homeowners by investing in improved digital and broker services for its customers.

Bankwests Baldivis branch will close its doors on Nov. 9, while the banks South Perth and Osborne Park branches will close on Nov. 16 and 23, respectively. The three branch closures follow the previously announced closure of Subiaco on July 20.

Bankwest has been evolving for 128 years and today we have a clear vision to be a simple, easy bank for current and future homeowners nationwide, said Scott Spittles (pictured above), Bankwest general manager of personal banking.

I understand these changes will cause some inconvenience, but we are seeing more branches become increasingly unsustainable to operate as customer banking preferences shift to digital options.

Spittles said customer demand for digital banking services has continued to grow, with digital transactions now accounting for around 97% of all transactions, while in-branch services have declined by 44% in the past three years.

WA branches now average just 39 transactions a day, with that volume expected to almost halve to 22 a day as business customers, who account for almost half of branch transactions, transition away from Bankwest, he said.

Bankwest is planning to operate fewer branches as more customers make the shift to digital banking services. Impacted Bankwest employees will be retained through re-skilling and re-training programs to support customers in digital channels, and through career opportunities in a broad range of CBA Group roles in WA.

As a major WA employer, our Fluid workforce initiative enables us to work with branch colleagues to retain their talents in roles where customers want more support, in our customer service centre, or in other roles in the group, Spittles said.

The CBA Group, including Bankwest, employs about 5,000 West Australians and more career opportunities are opening up in customer service, technology, data science, and operations areas to meet changing customer needs.

The bank has already notified customers regarding the branch closures, which included information on alternative banking options  digital and in-person through Bank@Post  to ensure continuity of banking services.

Bankwest customers who prefer in-person banking can continue to do so through Bank@Post, with participating Australia Post offices servicing many everyday banking transactions.

Well continue to balance customer preferences for digital banking services with alternative face-to-face options, including Bank@Post services, covering most everyday banking needs in communities across Australia, Spittles said.

Last September, Bankwest announced the closure of all branches outside WA.

Those changes have allowed the bank to invest in priority areas, such as Bankwests critical broker network and homebuying resources, including the new Bankwest Home Buying Hub, and improved digital banking services.

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Laurian appointed chair of urban planning

Urban planning education and research is about adapting to global and regional shifts to promote sustainable, equitable, just and resilient places, economies, institutions, communities, cities and regions. UBs urban planning faculty, staff and students make these changes thoughtfully, proactively and together. 

Lucie Laurian, an international expert in environmental justice and planning theory, has been appointed chair of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning in the School of Architecture and Planning. Laurians appointment is effective Aug. 23.

Laurian is a prolific scholar widely acclaimed for her research on environmental planning and public participation in environmental decisions related to toxic site cleanups in the U.S. and France.

She is professor and director of the School of Planning and Public Affairs at the University of Iowa, where she has served on the faculty for nearly 20 years. She holds a PhD in city and regional planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and earned her masters in sociology and demography in Paris, France.

Her research on urban planning spans the evaluation, implementation and outcomes of sustainability plans, the organizational determinants of implementation, and the linkages between elected officials campaigns and their support for environmental planning strategies.

More recently, she has conducted research on urban forestry, the role of trust in planning, and the treatment of time in planning research and practice. Her scholarship has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the New Zealand Foundation for Science, Research and Technology.

Laurian says she was drawn to UB for its prominence in research and the urban planning programs collaborative pursuit of teaching, scholarship and community engagement in building sustainable and equitable communities.

I decided to join the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at UB because it is a center of excellence, with tremendous assets, opportunities and potential. Urban planning education and research is about adapting to global and regional shifts to promote sustainable, equitable, just and resilient places, economies, institutions, communities, cities and regions. UBs urban planning faculty, staff and students make these changes thoughtfully, proactively and together, says Laurian, who takes over the post from Emmanuel Frimpong Boamah, associate professor of urban planning and interim chair since June 2022.

I look forward to leading this ongoing process in conjunction with UBs architecture program and with the new dean of the School of Architecture and Planning, she adds, referring to the recent appointment of landscape architect and leading design thinker Julia Czerniak, a professor of architecture at Syracuse University, as the schools incoming dean.

Laurian is the review article editor for the journal Planning Theory and associate editor of the Journal of the American Planning Association; she is a member of the editorial boards of several other journals, including LAND, the Journal of Planning Education and Research, Town Planning Review, and the Journal of Environmental Planning & Management.

As an administrator at an R1 institution in the Association of American Universities (AAU), of which UB is also a member, Laurian brings to UB expertise in faculty mentoring for tenure and promotion; improving the departments reputation among AAU universities in research and grant productivity, curriculum innovation and student success, staff satisfaction and development; and a culture of care and organizational health.

A champion for equity, Laurian is former chair of the University of Iowas first diversity, equity, inclusion and justice curriculum review, which supported an increase in female faculty from 10% of total faculty to 33%. Under her leadership, the University of Iowa also added undergraduate minors in urban studies and public policy, launched an online certificate in transportation planning, and established the interdisciplinary Master of Public Affairs degree.

The School of Architecture and Planning is thrilled to welcome nationally recognized urban planner Lucie Laurian to UB as chair of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, says Robert G. Shibley, who will step down as dean in September after more than 12 years at the helm of the school.

Her experience as a scholar, educator and administrator will support the growth of and innovation across our academic and scholarly enterprise as we prepare urban planners to confront the pressing problems facing cities today, Shibley adds. In particular, her experience leading an R1 institution like the University of Iowa positions our program for success as UB pursues its ambition to situate itself among the Top 25 public research universities in the nation.
The AGCO Agriculture Foundation (the Foundation), a private foundation with the vision to prevent and relieve hunger through sustainable agriculture development, will donate BRL 240,000 ($50,000) to Amigos do Bem. The resources will support the Cashew Project: Transformation Seedlings, which aims to develop small cashew farmers in the northeast of Brazil, generating work and income and positively impacting extremely vulnerable families.

The donation from the Foundation will be used to purchase and distribute 30,000 fruit tree seedlings, fertilizers and farming kits, as well as provide training, technical support and continuous monitoring of small farmers in the northeast of Brazil. The initiative will support 100 families, reaching more than 500 people directly and indirectly, in addition to supporting the neutralization of 500 tons of CO2 per year with the planting of cashew trees.

The cashew seedling initiative directly and positively impacts small producers and the environment. Most importantly, it builds a pathway into a guaranteed market for their crops," said Roger Batkin, Chair of the Foundation. This type of social impact initiative is strongly aligned with the Foundations approach for impactful programs that support food security and sustainable agricultural development in rural communities.

The cashew seedlings to be distributed to farmers will be planted on their own land, with a guaranteed purchase of products at market value, encouraging the role of Brazilian nut suppliers and generating direct and indirect income opportunities.

By supporting the initiative, we will contribute to transforming the lives of small farmers and their families in the northeastern hinterland, strengthening local agricultural development in a sustainable way and promoting the autonomy and empowerment of these communities, emphasizes Rodrigo Junqueira, Vice President Massey Ferguson and General Manager South America.

Created in 1993, the nonprofit institution Amigos do Bem promotes continuous education, job and income generation projects and access to water, housing, and health. The social project regularly aids 150,000 people throughout the northeast region of Brazil, with a focus on eradicating extreme poverty. "The Cashew Project started in 2018, with the distribution of surplus seedlings from our own plantations so that small-scale producers could find a source of income and subsistence. It ended up revolutionizing the cashew nut chain in the region," comments Andre de Luca, Executive Director at Amigos do Bem.

For the next five years, Amigos do Bem project goal is to neutralize 2,300 tons of carbon by planting 150,000 cashew trees, in addition to reaching around 420 farmers, generating income for their families.

About AGCO

AGCO (NYSE:AGCO) is a global leader in the design, manufacture and distribution of agricultural machinery and precision ag technology. AGCO delivers customer value through its differentiated brand portfolio including core brands like Fendt, GSI, Massey Ferguson, Precision Planting and Valtra. Powered by Fuse smart farming solutions, AGCOs full line of equipment and services help farmers sustainably feed our world. Founded in 1990 and headquartered in Duluth, Georgia, USA, AGCO had net sales of approximately $12.7 billion in 2022. For more information, visit www.AGCOcorp.com. For company news, information, and events, please follow us on Twitter: @AGCOCorp. For financial news on Twitter, please follow the hashtag #AGCOIR.

About AGCO Agriculture Foundation

Founded by AGCO Corporation (NYSE: AGCO) in 2018, the AGCO Agriculture Foundation is a private foundation with the vision to prevent and relieve hunger. The Foundation promotes impact programs that support food security, sustainable agricultural development and build the necessary agricultural infrastructure in marginalized farming communities. The Foundation is domiciled in Vaduz, Liechtenstein and its operations are managed from Duluth, Georgia, USA. For more information, visit https://www.agcofoundation.org/.

About the NGO Amigos do Bem

For 30 years, the Amigos do Bem institution has been working to transform lives in the northeastern hinterland, the poorest and most isolated region in Brazil. Every month, 150,000 people, who live in 300 villages in extreme poverty, are assisted with ongoing projects in education, work and income, water, housing, and health. We promote social inclusion and local development, meeting 12 of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals. We created a Sustainable Social Development Model and several initiatives with a positive impact with the participation of almost 11,000 volunteers. For more information, visit https://www.amigosdobem.org/

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MBABANE  The Teaching Service Commission (TSC) was sharply criticised for drawing a list of teaching posts that included a vacancy left by a teacher who recently died.

The teacher had died in the previous four, days, when the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT), was made aware that her position was up for grabs. The list, which was advertising available teaching posts in the Lubombo Region, circulated within teachers circles. So serious was the issue that SNAT confronted the TSC. The teachers union, through the Secretary General (SG), Lot Vilakati, said teachers were amazed by the inhumane practice. Someone who had just died and had not been buried yet had her post already being circulated, he said.

Advertised

The post was advertised on July 21, 2023, just four days after the teacher had passed away. The teacher, whose post was advertised, is the 50-year-old female educator from Loyiwe Primary School in the Lubombo Region, who lost her life on July 17, 2023, after the vehicle she was driving, a Corsa Utility van, was involved in an accident with two other vehicles. The other vehicles were a Toyota Quantum and a VW sedan. The Quantum had pupils on board, among its passengers, while the VW sedan was driven by a nurse. The accident happened at around 6am at Budvodza-abukhulelwa area, under Lukhula community.

At the time the post was circulated, the teachers family was busy with the burial preparations. Since she had died in an accident, there were still a number of procedures to be followed, including post-mortem and burial policies, to name a few. It was reported that the circulation of the list with the teachers post created a stir among teachers, to the extent that at the memorial service, the Ministry of Education and Training representatives were not fully welcomed by SNAT members. According to sources close to the matter, during the memorial service, unsavoury words were uttered and directed to the REO. Further, it was alleged that representatives of the ministry did not get a chance to speak.

TSC Executive Secretary Nhlanhla Dlamini, in responce to the concerns that were raised by the teachers, confirmed that indeed there was a post that was mistakenly advertised just a few days after the death of the teacher. Dlamini, however, explained that the list with the vacancies was mistakenly shared to other groups, without being finalised and scrutinised. He explained that during the week in which the teacher died, they were doing their routine inspection of vacant posts. He said they had instructed the regional education officers (REOs) to bring lists of vacant posts, which was somehow coincidental with the passing of the teacher.

The executive secretary then said when the REO presented the list, the teachers name was included. The REOs shared the lists in a group, which was then mistakenly shared to teachers circles and by the time we realised what had happened, the damage had already been done, he said.

Dlamini said it was never their intention to look insensitive. He sincerely apologised for the awkwardness that was brought about by the inclusion of Loyiwe Primary School in the circulated list.

When he was asked if the TSC regulations stipulated the amount of time that was acceptable for a post to be advertised upon the death of a teacher, he said he wouldnt be sure but the commission acknowledged that the inclusion of that particular post was too soon. He mentioned that the list was also circulated pre-maturely as a result, it was withdrawn.

We met with SNAT and we told them what happened and apologised, he said.

Another issue that was raised by SNAT members was that of the advertisement of a head teachers post at Sulutane Primary School, also in the Lubombo Region. According to SNAT, the post had already been filled as when schools opened for the second term on May 3, 2023, there was already a head teacher at the school.
MBABANE - Some residents of Enyonyane community in Ezulwini were left dejected after police officers allegedly forced them to abort their meeting, which had been convened by a nominee for the MP position.

The officers later left with the nominee and his campaign manager (galajane). Enyonyane is an area situated in Ezulwini under Lobamba Inkhundla.

The purpose of the meeting could not be immediately ascertained, but there were talks that it had to do with the ongoing general elections. It was gathered that the nominee, who had just been nominated for the Member of Parliament (MP) position, had requested to meet the elderly, but the agenda was not disclosed.

Gathering

Information gathered was to the effect that the police officers, who were driving in a white double-cab motor vehicle, arrived at the gathering shortly after a woman believed to be the nominees campaign agent (galajane) had started addressing the elderly. At the time, it is said that the elderly were eagerly waiting to hear what the nominee had in store for them. However, it is said that the police officers forced the residents to abort the meeting even before the nominee could greet the residents, most of whom were the elderly. One of the dejected elderly registered her disappointment over the arrival of the police at the gathering. She said the arrival of the police deprived them of an opportunity to get goodies from the nominee.

We were told that the nominee would greet and give us something. What good is it to come here and go back home empty handed? she asked. It is said that some residents hurled insults as they left the meeting venue. Information obtained was that the residents had been called to the gathering without having obtained permission from the areas authorities. Enyonyane is one of the zones forming Ezulwini Royal Kraal. The incident was confirmed by the areas Zone Leader, Boy Sihlongonyane, who said he only went to check after he had received information that the residents were gathered in the area.

Sihlongonyane shared that the police officers arrived just after he had parked his motor vehicle. The police officers approached me and asked about the purpose of the gathering. I did not have an immediate response because nothing had been communicated to us at the royal kraal. I called indvuna to ascertain if he knew anything about the gathering, however, he responded to the negative. A woman who was addressing the gathering tried to apologise but there was nothing I could do as permission is only granted by the royal kraal, he said. He stated that the man, who was said to be the nominee and had called the gathering, left with the police immediately.

Sihlongonyane stated that his presence at the gathering was solely to enquire how the meeting came about, since there was nothing communicated to him as the zone leader by the royal kraal, as per the procedure. He stated that procedurally, permission for an activity was sought from the zone leader, who then sought approval from the royal kraal.

Let me make it clear that as a zone, we are not against anyone but our duty is to make sure that the laws are observed. Anyone is allowed to approach the zone for whatever and approval is determined by the circumstances. In this case, we would have ascertained the purpose of the meeting and advised accordingly, he said. Sihlongonyane emphasised that the zone remained impartial when it came to the general elections. Ezulwini Royal Kraal Inner Council Indvuna Ndlavela Mavimbela confirmed having received a report of the meeting in the area. Mavimbela stated that he got a report that an unknown man met the residents without permission from the royal kraal. I heard that there was an unknown man to the zone, who had called a meeting, it means he is also unknown to the royal, Mavimbela said.

Comment

When given a chance to state his side of the story, the nominee requested not to comment on the matter. He stated that inasmuch as he respected the work of journalists, he felt duty-bound not to comment. Asked if he was ever at Enyonyane, the nominee responded to the negative. I was never at Enyonyane yesterday. I respect the work of journalists but with all due respect, may I not comment on this subject, the nominee said briefly. He had also been asked about the purpose of his purported visit to the area.

The nominee referred all questions to the police and the parties concerned. Police said the incident was not in their records. The Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) Communications Officer, Mbonisi Bhembe, said the office was not aware of the matter. Bhembe said it would be unfortunate if the allegations were true. He said what people needed to know was that no one had qualified to be an MP candidate for now.

Candidates

He said people needed to understand that the nominee remained the suggested candidates until after the vetting process. It should be noted that a nominee may be disqualified if he/she is found to owe tax. A nominee may also be disqualified if he/she has been convicted of a crime under the Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Act of 2018 or has not completed five years after serving a sentence of an offence falling under the fourth and fifth schedule.

People need to understand the significance of self-determination and leave emaSwati to exercise their right to elect their favourite candidates.

Police would have done a good job if they aborted the meeting and we would like to see the law taking its course, Bhembe said.

He also mentioned that the stage of the ongoing elections had not reached a stage of having campaign agents (bogalajane).
Friday, August 4, 2023 at 5:21AM

Image: Google

Google is launching a new feature to help you find and delete your contact information from its Search results. The company will now alert you when it detects your address, phone number, or email on the web. It will then let you review and request to remove that information from Search.

You can access this feature from Googles results about you dashboard on mobile and web, which it introduced last September. With the update, you can enter your personal information, and the dashboard will automatically show you websites with matches. It allows you to check each webpage it appears on and then ask to remove it. This move is a significant improvement, as Google used to require you to look for your personal information yourself and then manually ask for its removal.

If you want to prevent your information from showing up on Google in the future, you can also turn on push notifications that would warn you of any new results that appearsomething it said it would do last year. You can also track your requests from Googles hub, which displays your pending, approved, denied, and undone requests.

However, keep in mind that removing your information from Google doesnt mean its completely gone from the web. People can still find your info if they visit the webpage its on. Google also has restrictions on the types of search results it can and cant remove and wont act on results from governments or educational institutions.

Still, this update makes finding and deleting your personal information from Google much fasterwhich is especially useful if youre a target of doxxing. Right now, this feature is only available in the US in English to start, and Google says its working to bring it to other countries and languages soon.

Source
MACAO, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- The Micro Connect Macao Financial Assets Exchange (MCEX) officially started operation on Thursday in China's Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR), becoming the world's first Daily Revenue Obligations (DRO) financial market.

The exchange, launched by Micro Connect, an investment platform founded two years ago that now invests on over 9,300 small and micro firms in the Chinese mainland, allows investors to directly invest on the large number of mainland small and micro firms through DRO and generate diversified steady returns.

The exchange aims to channel global capital to help China's economic development while also help with Macao's industrial upgrading and economic diversification by building financial infrastructure as well as developing innovative and sci-tech industries in the city.

Lei Wai Nong, secretary for economy and finance of the Macao SAR government, said that the exchange can leverage Macao's institutional advantages and open financial system to attract international capital and enable mainland small and micro firms, contributing to Macao's appropriate economic diversification.

Senior officials including Chief Executive of the Macao SAR Ho Iat Seng, together with nearly 600 representatives of investors, mainland small and micro firms, financial institutions and media organizations, attended the ceremony.
Mexico City, Aug 4 (UNI) A passenger bus plunged into a ravine in northwest Mexico's Nayarit state early Thursday morning, killing 18 people, local authorities said.

Among the dead were three minors, with 22 others injured, local media said, citing Jorge Benito Rodriguez, Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection of Nayarit.

According to local reports, the bus was traveling from Mexico City to Tijuana on the border with the United States. It fell into a ravine about 50 meters deep along the north bypass of Tepic.

Rescue efforts were "extremely" complicated due to the location, said Rodriguez, adding that state police and firefighters, in coordination with the Mexican Red Cross and other agencies, were on the scene.

The cause of the accident remains unknown, he said.

UNI/XINHUA ARN
The 15th of August 1947 is inscribed in India's golden history. It is the anniversary of India's independence from British dominion after 200 years. It was a long and difficult struggle in which many freedom fighters and outstanding individuals gave their lives for the sake of our beloved nation. Every year on August 15th, India commemorates its Independence Day.

India commemorates its Independence Day with fervour .People from all around the country gather on the streets to celebrate, ignoring demographic differences such as caste, religion, or culture. On this day, people proudly display their national flag and sing the national anthem or another patriotic song. Many chores, including the March past, are done by the Indian army during the celebration at Red Fort in New Delhi, as well as cultural events by school kids. Following the hosting of the national flag and recitation of the national anthem (JANA GANA MANA), India's Prime Minister delivers his annual speech. On India's Independence Day, we remember all of the wonderful people who contributed to the country's independence.

Kite flying is a tradition in many parts of our country on Independence Day. Colourful kites flying freely in the sky are regarded as a symbol of liberty. People gather on their terraces or on surrounding grounds to watch a kite fly. They invited their friends and family to join them in celebrating. Flying kite tournaments are also held at several locations, and participants show considerable passion.

Even television and radio programming are infused with patriotism. Films with patriotic themes are aired to educate the public and children about the numerous episodes of our freedom struggle to instill a love for our nation. Newspapers, too, publish special editions with inspirational stories about great men taken from great books written by great men.

Independence Day is more than just a holiday; it serves as a reminder of the sacrifices made by freedom fighters and the obligation we have as citizens to defend the values of liberty, democracy, and togetherness. It is a day to reflect on our progress as a nation and to renew our commitment to our country's development and well-being. Independence Day reminds us that freedom is a hard-won privilege that should never be taken for granted. It motivates us to work for a brighter future in which every citizen can reap the benefits of freedom while also contributing to the nation's growth and prosperity.

History of Independence Day

The British have controlled India for nearly 200 years. During British rule, the people's lives were miserable. Indians were treated as slaves and were not allowed to communicate with them. Indian monarchs were nothing more than puppets in the hands of British officers. Indian soldiers were treated inhumanely in British barracks, while farmers starved to death because they couldn't grow food and had to pay enormous land taxes. Our freedom soldiers battled for the independence of India. Mahatma Gandhi, Subhash Chandra Bose, Bhagat Singh, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Jawaharlal Nehru, Mangal Pandey, and Dada Bhai Naoroji were among the famous leaders who heroically battled the British. Many of them perished to liberate India from British domination. Their achievements and efforts are honored in India's freedom.

Rise of Nationalism

Even the British were unable to quell the rebellion, but the seeds of nationalism and patriotism were sown in the minds of Indians. The Revolt of 1857 played a critical part in uniting India and convincing its people that independence can be attained if the country fought together. Civic societies began to emerge across India, such as the Indian National Congress Party, which was founded in 1855, over three decades after the revolution. The most crucial role in connecting India with a common thread of nationalism was played by political parties and their political sponsors. Finally, on August 15, 1947, India attained independence thanks to the efforts of liberation warriors such as Bhagat Singh, Chandrasekhar Azad, Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Lala Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, and others.

Importance of Independence Day

People are filled with patriotism on Independence Day. It brings people together and gives them the impression that we are one nation despite our many distinct languages, faiths, and cultural beliefs. India's essence and strength is unity in variety. We are happy to be citizens of the world's largest democratic republic, where the ordinary man wields power.

Independence Day Activities

Independence Day is widely celebrated around the country. Meetings are held, the tricolor flag is flown, and the National Anthem is sung. Everyone is quite enthusiastic. This day is commemorated with considerable pomp and display in the national capital, Delhi. All leaders and ordinary citizens congregate in great numbers in the parade area in front of the Red Fort. There is a lot of rush and activity around. They form a queue along the roads leading to the fort, waiting for the Prime Minister to arrive. The Prime Minister arrives, hoists the flag, and delivers a speech that highlights the government's accomplishments over the last year, acknowledges challenges that still need to be addressed, and asks for action. Independence Day Activities Foreign guests are additionally encouraged to attend. Tributes are paid to the liberation warriors who gave their lives in the fight. Jana Gana Mana, the Indian national anthem, is sung. The address is followed by a parade by the Indian Army and paramilitary troops. All state capitals hold similar events, with the Chief Minister of each state raising the National Flag.

Conclusion

Independence Day is a historic celebration that honours the spirit of liberty, unity, and patriotism. It honours the sacrifices made by many individuals in the fight for freedom and remembers the historic triumph of independence. The celebrations remind us of our joint commitment to defend democratic, egalitarian, and just principles. Independence Day is a call to action, motivating everyone to actively contribute to the nation's progress and well-being. On this day, let us gather together to celebrate our freedom, reflect on our national journey, and renew our commitment to create a stronger, more inclusive, and prosperous India.
YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, the Chief Minister, has granted his assent to begin a comprehensive recruiting process to fill all existing vacancies in Universities and IIITs regularly.

The Chief Minister authorised the Education Department to fill 2635 Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and Professor seats in universities, as well as 660 equivalent jobs in IIITs, during a review meeting held at the Camp Office here on Thursday. It should be noted that the government has previously filled 51,000 vacancies in the Medical and Health Department.

According to Jagan Mohan Reddy, universities will function best if they have regular teaching staff. "We should fill existing university vacancies regularly," he stated.

To ensure quality education for pupils, the Chief Minister stated that the selection process must be done only on merit.

"We have completed the appointment of 1.30 lakh staff members in village and ward secretariats flawlessly. The appointment of faculty in universities and IIITs should also be expedited in the same manner," he said.

Officials proposed that candidates already on contract be given a maximum of 10 weightage marks at a rate of one mark each year. The APPSC will issue a notification to fill the positions on August 23, and an online examination will be held in the third and fourth weeks of September. The results would be announced on October 10, and the final list, after interviews, would be announced on November 15.
According to a recent update from the Rajya Sabha, there are currently 703 openings in the Indian Police Service (IPS) and 1,365 openings in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS). According to Jitendra Singh, the Union Minister of State for Personnel, the Indian Forest Service (IFS) has 1,042 open positions, while the Indian Revenue Service (IRS) has 301. The central government is committed to speeding the recruitment process because filling these positions is an ongoing task.

Ongoing Process

Each year, the Civil Services Examinations (CSE) are held by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) in order to directly select candidates for these desired civil service positions, such as IAS, IPS, IFS, and IRS. The Union Public Service Commission meets with state governments to form selection committees to fill openings in the IAS and IPS promotion quota, according to the minister.

The government has boosted the annual intake of IAS officers through the CSE to 180 through CSE-2022, according to Singh. From CSE-2020, the IPS intake has been increased to 200. IFS enrollment will increase to 150 in 2022. Through CSE-2023, the Department of Revenue has reported 301 openings that need to be filled.
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A woman told police she was trying to get breakfast at the Community Kitchen when a man, who presumably worked at the kitchen, told her she could not come in and pushed her out the door. She said the man was very rude and she wanted to make a report about it. The man was no longer on scene.



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Suspicious activity was reported at a residence on Bowman Lane. A man told police some items were left on the property, so he moved them to the edge of the sidewalk. He then said a dark SUV pulled into the driveway and a white, blonde female got out and asked him where the items were. He told her he was willing to call the police if she believed that the items had been stolen, and the woman began to curse at him. The man wanted this issue to be documented because he believes the behavior was suspicious.

* * *

A woman on Cooley Street told police there was a man at her apartment and she wanted him to leave. The man told police he lives in the apartment, said he helps pay bills, has personal items inside the house and had mail in his name at the residence. Police could not make the man leave. He went inside to sleep.

* * *

Officers responded to a vehicle that ran off the road on I-24. The driver wanted a report for note in case the vehicle was damaged after towed back to the lot and inspected. He said he was driving his semi back to Coca Cola to pick up a load and hydroplaned and ran off the road into the grass. The vehicle did not hit anything and was visibly undamaged. The vehicle was towed.

* * *

A burglar alarm was activated at the Bank of America ATM at 5401 Brainerd Road. Police noticed that all the lights were out on and around the ATM. Police could see someone walking around the ATM, and, when the lights came back on, police noticed a man standing in front of the ATM. He didn't look like he was doing anything other than waiting for the ATM to start up. Police approached him, and he told them he was trying to get money. Police looked over the ATM and didn't see evidence that it had been tampered with, but as they searched the rear of the machine, they noticed an opened stand-alone fuse box. The man said he hadn't touched or tampered with the fuse box, nor did he see anyone else messing with it. At closer inspection, it didn't appear the fuse box was forced open, but possibly just left open. Police could not get a responsible to confirm their suspicions at the time. But later, Dispatch got a technician en route to service the ATM. Police did take the man's information because he happened to be in the area when they arrived on the scene.



* * *

After a suspicious vehicle call at 7720 Nautical Way, police found a Hyundai Elantra (TN tag) involved in a single-vehicle accident. Police found the vehicle to be unoccupied. Police confirmed it was listed as stolen in NCIC. Police notified the owner, who requested the vehicle be towed. Police arranged for Cains Wrecker Service to do the tow. Police removed the vehicle as stolen from NCIC and released the vehicle to Cains Wrecker Service.

* * *

A man on Boynton Drive told police a black male attempted to enter his residence. He said the man left prior to police arrival. Officers patrolled the area but were unable to locate any man matching the man's description.



* * *

A man on Chestnut Street told police that sometime overnight his bicycle had been stolen off the rack of his vehicle. He said the lock to the rack was secured when he left it and was still secured when he returned. He said how the suspect was able to remove the bicycle is unknown at this time. There was no damage to his vehicle. The man provided detailed description of his bicycle, however he did not have the serial number. He said he will provide the serial number at a later date. The man said he did not wish to press charges at this time. He described the bicycle as a light blue 'Giant Roam' with after-market blue/black seat. He said the seat will have a tear on the rear of the fabric and the bike will have a left handle rear view mirror, rubber strap cell phone mount, thumb bell on the right handle, and the tires don't match (he said the rear wheel has a reflective strip). He valued the bike at $850. The officer made contact with another officer who said he encountered a white male riding a similar light blue bike earlier in the morning. He said the man appeared to be bald and wearing a black sleeveless shirt and black shorts.

* * *

A woman on Marigold Drive told police she believed her boyfriend was inside her home. She said that she just wanted him to leave because they were breaking up. Police searched the home, but found no evidence to support that the boyfriend was still inside. Police told the woman to call if he returned, and she stated she would.

* * *



A woman on Holland Lane told police she wanted her brother out of her residence. The brother grabbed his belongings and left without further incident.

* * *

An employee at Precision Tune Auto Care, 4221 Hixson Pike, told police they had three vehicles parked outside of the shop that had been vandalized. A Nissan Altima had a broken rear driver's side window, a Ford TEL had a cracked front driver's side window and a Ford F150 had a broken rear window. There is no suspect information; however, the owner is going to attempt to get suspect information via video footage and will email it to police if they get any.

* * *

A man on Conner Street told police someone opened an account at the Check In To Cash in Hutchinson, KS using his name and information. He wanted a report to file with the company.

* * *

A woman on Wilson Street told police that at some unknown time she lost her wallet. The wallet contained her identity cards and EBT card.

* * *
The city Beer Board on Thursday heard new complaints about "Shady's Corner" bar near a mosque at Cemetery Avenue.

Two representatives from the mosque and the neighborhood returned with complaints that the business has disrupted the neighborhood since it opened in April. They asked the board what is considered a nuisance?

A beer permit was given to James Heeley for the bar at 1402 Cemetery Avenue in April after it had been denied at an earlier meeting. Mr. Heeley renovated a dilapidated building that is six feet from the adjacent Islamic Center which has been in that location for 39 years. The city codes prohibit an establishment selling beer to be located closer than 500 feet from a church, however 1402 Cemetery Ave. had been rezoned to UGC, Urban General Commercial which allowed the bar to locate there. That zoning also has less restrictive parking requirements. Shadys Corner has only seven parking spaces with any more vehicles having to use on street parking.

The Chattanooga Beer Board approved a beer permit after the denial was appealed, and a beer license was eventually given to the business, despite the heavy opposition and many people from the community surrounding the bar coming to the meetings to give reasons it should be denied.

Gary Rudolph, the resident living closest to Shadys Corner, said that he cannot sleep due to the noise. The bar opens at 11 a.m. and closes at 3 a.m., however employees are there beyond closing time and then deliveries begin and dumpsters are emptied. There is also amplified music going all the time, said Mr. Rudolph, so it is virtually disturbing the neighbors 24 hours a day. He said he cannot enjoy his home and now he cannot sell it because nobody wants to deal with the noise, lack of parking and bad behavior of the customers.

With just seven assigned parking spaces, customers park for blocks along the city streets and lots owned by nearby business, in residents driveways and a grassy yard area owned by the Islamic Center. It is estimated that there are 150-200 cars there each night. And a food truck has parked in Mr. Rudolphs driveway blocking it and causing the area to smell like Thai food, he said.

A member of the Islamic Center echoed what Mr. Rudolph said and added that the crowds from the bar line up in front of the windows and doors of the mosque, while the congregation is praying. People urinate on the buildings, drunks lay around on the sidewalk and people chant you lost into the Ring Camera at the mosque, then they blind the camera with bright lights so it cannot record what is happening or identify the people involved. "They have no respect for us," he said.



He said he has decided not to confront those creating the problems, that is a job for the people who are in authority, he said. The mosque has put up no parking/tow away signs so they can have vehicles towed. Both men and other neighbors have contacted the police many times about all the problems but they said the city has done nothing. This business has dominated the community since the bar opened. He said people are asking Why is the bar allowed to do this? concluding that they must know somebody.



Beer Inspector Sergeant Jason Wood said he will make an official visit to the bar regarding the complaints the board heard. Some of the issues such as blocking driveways and the food truck parking in a driveway are considered to be traffic offences, he said. And he will be able to address the litter and trash that is both a violation of the beer code and the city code. And he will make it clear to the owner of Shadys Corner that the citys noise ordinance applies to the bar. The two people asking for help were told to keep documentation and to continue making calls to the police to report activities that are a nuisance.


Tennessee Governor Bill Lee on Friday announced key leadership transitions and appointments in the governors office.

Michael Hendrix will succeed Tony Niknejad as policy director, effective Sept. 1, and Elizabeth Lane Johnson will serve as press secretary, effective Aug. 14, succeeding Jade Byers, who will serve as senior communications officer. After more than four years in the administration, Mr. Niknejad is stepping down to return to the private sector. Additionally, Alec Richardson has been appointed to serve as a senior advisor to the governor.

For more than four years, Tony has played a critical role in the administrations work to strengthen Tennessees economy, ensure responsible fiscal stewardship of taxpayer dollars and expand educational opportunity for students across the state, said Governor Lee. I wish him much success in his next chapter and have full confidence that Michaels significant public policy and leadership experience will continue our work to make life better for all Tennesseans.

As policy director since January 2019 and one of the longest-serving members of Lees team, Mr. Niknejad has been instrumental in achieving the governors policy agenda and crafted major legislative initiatives, including the Literacy Success Act of 2021 and Tennessee Works Tax Act of 2023. Mr. Niknejad was the lead coordinator for the Financial Stimulus Accountability Group, a bipartisan group of executive and legislative branch officials convened by Lee to support Tennessees economy and ensure the responsible stewardship of federal relief funds. He has also advised the governor on national policy relations and led coordination with 27 governors offices during Governor Lees tenure as chairman of the Republican Governors Public Policy Committee. Mr. Niknejad joined the governors team early in his successful primary run.

Michael Hendrix currently serves as special advisor to the governor. Previously, he was a senior fellow and the director of state and local policy at the Manhattan Institute, as well as the senior director for research and emerging issues at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation. Mr. Hendrix attended the College of William & Mary and is a graduate of the University of St. Andrews.

Chrissy Freeland recently assumed the role of senior policy analyst and has served in the governors office since November 2020. Ms. Freeland previously worked for the Tennessee General Assembly and earned her bachelors and masters degrees from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Elizabeth Lane Johnson will join Governor Lees communications office as press secretary, and Jade Byers, a longtime member of the governors team, will assume the role of senior communications officer.

Elizabeths significant media and communications experience will play a key role in our administrations work to serve Tennesseans, and we welcome her to the team, said Governor Lee. Jade is a dedicated public servant, and I am confident that she will continue to ensure that our key priorities and accomplishments are communicated effectively.

Ms. Johnson currently serves as press secretary for Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti. She has deep media and communications experience from her previous roles in broadcast journalism, including morning television anchor and reporter at the ABC affiliate in Nashville, and service with Texas Governor Greg Abbott. Ms. Johnson graduated from The University of Alabama with a degree in Communication and Information Sciences and a minor in Political Science.

Ms. Byers, currently Governor Lees press secretary, will assume key strategic communications responsibilities as senior communications officer. Ms. Byers has served Governor Lee since his successful primary run in 2018, including her previous roles as deputy press secretary and the director of boards and commissions. Ms. Byers earned her bachelors degree at Belmont University.

Mr. Richardson has been appointed to serve as a senior advisor to the governor and a member of Lees cabinet, in addition to his current role as the director of external affairs. Mr. Richardson earned his bachelors degree at the University of Tennessee at Martin and has served Governor Lee since his successful primary run in 2018.
Kirk Stephen Rau, 71, of Soddy Daisy, Tennessee, was beamed up by Scottie on Thursday, July 27, while in Radium Hot Springs on a cross country road trip with his best friend and wife of 50 years, Lynn. He was living his best life and was blessed to soak in some beautiful scenery of Gods natural creations that day.



Kirk had an infectious laugh and an unforgettable personality that would liven up any room he walked into. He made it one of his goals in life to make people laugh and to show others how to have a good time.



He was uniquely and unapologetically himself, and he had a true zest for life and spreading happiness. He had a very deep side to him, yet he also knew when to not take things too seriously and joke about things.



He was easily remembered by every person he crossed paths with due to his endless dad jokes, easy-going approach to life, and surplus of stories. He was the definition of a true storyteller, and he would instantly show photos to avid listeners to supplement all of his life stories.



He loved his family dearly, and they were his main focus. He enjoyed spending time with them and making meaningful memories because he knew that life experiences were more precious than any possessions he could give. He gave his time to his family and friends, helping without them even asking. He had a service heart and loved to help anyone he could.



He also loved all of his pets like they were his bonus children. He had many happy pets in life, and he was their favorite human. His pets are rejoicing by covering him with puppy kisses and wagging their tails at the sight of him again.



He had a love for nature, and he loved hiking and the outdoors. In fact, he and his wife spent several months in their younger years backpacking half of the Appalachian Trail. In his retirement years, he also spent many months traveling with her to view beautiful natural sights around North America. Yellowstone was one of his favorites, and he felt most connected to his higher power while in nature. He instilled the same love for hiking and nature into his children and grandchildren as they spent many days of hiking, camping, and fishing together.



One of his first jobs was working on The Bear Project in The Smoky Mountains in his 20s. He was in his true element during his time on the project, being submerged in nature and with animals. He loved sharing stories from his time in The Smokies and had an entire room in his home dedicated to the bears he came to love.



He loved teaching and spreading knowledge, and spent many years as a teacher for local school systems in California, Georgia, and Tennessee. He was frequently requested by students to be their driving instructor while he worked at Hamans New Drivers, as the students loved his personality and hearing his stories on their drives. He had a way of teaching that kept his students engaged and made him unforgettable.



He retired as a dental technician at Affordable Dentures and enjoyed listening to Sunny 92.3 while he worked. His coworkers remember him as the funny music guy.



He loved music and always wanted to have music playing. He shared his love of music with his family, friends, and coworkers. In fact, he listened to the radio so often that he won several call-in contests and would often win things like tickets to Riverbend, Lake Winnie, and other concerts.



He passed on his love of music to his children and grandchildren, providing them with a wide array of musical tastes. He shared his love for bands like The Beatles, The Moody Blues, Simon & Garfunkel, The Beach Boys, and Cat Stevens with his children at early ages while they traveled. Some of the fondest memories his children and grandchildren have are of his Kirk renditions to famous songs like "Show me the meat thats in bologna. " (a Backstreet Boys rendition of Show Me The Meaning of Being Lonely)



He leaves with his family an endless supply of Kirk jokes and stories that made them all laugh. Many were particularly engrained into his children and grandchildren as repeated over time, though he always seemed to come up with new ones to sprinkle in at the most opportune times.



He will be dearly missed by all that were blessed to know him. To him, they do not say goodbye forever, but goodbye for now. He had a true handle and understanding on what is important in life that some people search for their entire lives and have trouble finding. He was the only one like him.



"Youve got to make your little corner of the universe the best place it can be." -Dad



He is survived by his loving wife of 50 years, Lynn Hensley Rau; daughter, Heidi Rau; son, Stephen Rau; grandchildren, Layla Laurel and Louis; sisters, Terrie and Nicole Rau; mother, Corinne Tyne Rau; sisters-in-law, Ann Hensley Sarrafzadeh (Adel), Mary Hensley Baker (Bob), Libby Hensley Branch (Billy), Laura Hensley Snyder (Brad); and a host of nieces and nephews.



He was predeceased by his father, George Hans Rau.



A Celebration of Life will take place at Greenway Farms Conference Center located at 5051 Gann Store Road, Hixson, on Sunday, Aug. 20. The family will receive visitors starting at 12 p.m. with service commencing at 1 p.m.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Kirk's honor can be made to Friends of the Smokies by visiting http://friendsofthesmokies.org/donate
The objective of the ScaleH2 project within the BMBFs HyGATE funding initiative is the utilization of scalable PEM electrolysis stacks with innovative materials in order to create renewable hydrogen in a cost-efficient manner. The research results are then used to establish a hydrogen-export value chain between the Illawarra region in New South Wales (Australia) and Germany. The main areas of research are the processing of innovative catalyst materials from Australia, the utilization of cost-efficient bipolar plates, the demonstration of scalable coating and stack-assembly processes, the evaluation of geological underground storage facilities, and the techno-economic assessment of an export supply chain. In order to achieve this, renowned partners on both the German and the Australian side are working closely together; these include ATCO, UNSW, UTS, the Fraunhofer Institutes IST and IEG, the Institute of Energy and Process Systems Engineering at the TU Braunschweig, Eisenhuth GmbH & Co. KG and, as associated partners, Salzgitter AG and Uniper SE.



The vision of the project partners: Green hydrogen will be supplied in the form of ammonia to German ports, in particular via the ENERGY HUB Port of Wilhelmshaven. At the port, the ammonia is converted back into hydrogen and transported to industrial customers in the emerging "Hydrogen Valleys"; one of the aims thereby is the decarbonization of the steel plant of the Salzgitter AG, a partner of the Hydrogen Campus Salzgitter. With their research, the scientists want to provide a sustainable contribution towards a reduction in CO2 emissions and support the transition to a low-carbon industry. With this in mind, the Australian energy infrastructure operator ATCO is striving to develop an export supply chain with an electrolysis capacity of 1 gigawatt with subsequent conversion to ammonia.



The project kick-off took place at the Hydrogen Campus Salzgitter, where the first steps of the ScaleH2 project were agreed and coordinated. One particular highlight was the tour through our automated stacking facility for fuel cells and electrolysis stacks, which demonstrated how we can develop automated industrial-scale processes for innovative electrolysis technologies in the project, explained Christoph Imdahl, Project Coordinator of the German network and Group Manager at the Fraunhofer IST. We are highly motivated and excited about the upcoming challenges and opportunities that await us within the framework of this project. Together, we are working towards a sustainable future and we are looking forward to an exciting project with our partners.
There is so much to learn about the six women who married the famous English king, Henry VIII.

A lot of people are fascinated by the story of his second wife, Anne Boleyn, and often forget about the woman he betrayed in order to be with her  His first wife, Katherine of Aragon.

Katherine was born in Spain in 1485 and was the daughter of Queen Isabella of Castile and King Ferdinand of Aragon. From a young age, Katherine was seen as a way to bring together an allyship between Spain and England. She received a formal education and knew a lot about politics. She married the English Prince Arthur, the son of Henry VII, as a teenager in 1501.

Prince Arthur died one year after their marriage, so Katherine became a widow at 16. Prince Arthurs brother was Henry VIII, who took the throne in 1509. He fell in love with Katherine and was encouraged to carry on the English and Spanish alliance. With his fathers blessing, Henry VIII married Katherine in 1509.

Although Katherine was six years older than Henry, they were a very happy couple for many years. Not only was Katherine beautiful and elegant, but she was also very smart and politically savvy. For instance, when England went to war with France in 1512, Henry VIII trusted Katherine to help make decisions for their country.

However, things started falling apart as tensions grew around the couple because they struggled to produce a male heir. Katherine gave birth to several children, but sadly, only one survived, their daughter, Mary, who would become Queen Mary I in 1553.

As Henry VIII grew frustrated with Katherine over her inability to give birth to a healthy male heir, he began falling for one of her ladies-in-waiting, Anne Boleyn. He soon fell in love with her and wanted to marry her, but because he was Roman Catholic, he was heavily discouraged from divorcing Katherine.

Therefore, Henry VIII went to great lengths to end his marriage with Katherine and marry Anne. So, he took poor Katherine to court, where, over a grueling process, he testified their marriage was not valid. Around 1527, Anne agreed to be Henry VIIIs new wife, so he began the annulment process between him and Katherine, despite her being a faithful wife and queen all those years.

Katherine was very resilient and fought Henry VIII to prove to the court that she was Englands rightful queen. She fought hard for a long time, until in 1533, when Henry VIII became the new head of the Supreme Church of England and was able to banish her from the royal court himself.

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This girl is on vacation in Italy right now with her friend, and they went out for dinner a few evenings ago.

They sat down at a table that was super, super close to another table of 4 American girls. It was clear to her and her friend that these girls were also all on vacation together.

As soon as one girl from their group left for the bathroom (lets call her Hannah), the other 3 friends started immediately talking [trash] about her, she explained.

Hannahs friends called her ditzy, they said she was obnoxious for crying on their vacation, and they also talked about how she failed a class at school.

One of the girls even said they should check and make sure Hannah wasnt coming back to the table immediately so they would not get caught bad-mouthing her.

My friend and I immediately felt very bad for the girl and agreed we would not want to be in a lifelong friendship with people that secretly hated her, she said.

We decided we wanted to let Hannah know the situation before we left.

So, she and her friend started to leave the restaurant, but before they did, they stopped to tell Hannah, who was back at the table, the truth.

She simply said to Hannah that she would want to know if her friends were talking badly about her behind her back, and thats exactly what Hannahs friends had been doing to her when she got up to use the bathroom.

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Exhausted and emotionally spent at the end of a full week surveying the damage from Turkeys massive earthquake last February, Ali Kalkandelen needed hope. As chairman of his nations Association of Protestant Churches (TeK), he felt the weight of responsibility to help his colleagues in 27 affected congregations.

Eventually, he found a template for moving forward in the biblical figure of Tabitha.

Scattered over 11 cities in a geographic area the size of England, local Turkish Christian leaders had already launched into service, supported by the larger body of 186 affiliated churches with aid, funds, and volunteers.

Kalkandelen set out from Istanbul, encouraging colleagues in Antakya, Adiyaman, and three other cities. He traversed ruined highways, lamented collapsed buildings, and tried to take stock of the task of relief.

Last on his list was Kahramanmaras, for a personal visit. His fathers home had been destroyed, and he went to check in on his many relatives there.

And there in the rubble flitted a small piece of paper.

Upon inspection it was a page from a Turkish Bible, from 2 Corinthians 1. He read verse 34: Praise be to  the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble.

The slip of paper was all the more moving because, among the population of half a million people, the city had no church and no known Christians.

I read it with my wife, and we started weeping, said Kalkandelen. God was talking to his church in Turkey.

Six months later, alongside trauma counseling and spiritual care, TeK provided 7,500 tents, 27,000 outfits of clothing, and over one million meals to those displaced by the earthquake. And to compensate for the destroyed infrastructure, TeK made available three tons of drinking water, 7,000 diapers, and 146 tons of coal for winter heating.

To do so required organization.

With previous natural disasters in Turkey, the church had always played a role in relief. But with experts warning that another earthquake was likely to hit Istanbul within a few years, Kalkandelen wanted a standing response. By April he had gathered leaders from the affected areas, linking them with TeK elders from across the country.

Searching for an appropriate name, the six-person committee took note of Tabitha in Acts 9. Also known as Dorcas, she hailed from Joppamodern-day Jaffa outside Tel Avivand was known for her good works and charity, especially in sewing clothes for area widows. When she died, the believers called for Peter, and he raised her from the dead.

Kalkandelen recalled his scrap of paper and the shell-shocked faces of the earthquake survivors. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again, says verse 10. On him we have set our hope.

The Tabitha committee has since met biweekly, coordinating between TeK leadership, local churches, and the Turkish government. Communicating with donors from abroad, it prepares reports and ensures financial transparency. And it approves new projects for aid, discerning how God will guide their next steps.

But there is a deeper sense of resurrection, Kalkandelen senses. Why was there a Bible in Kahramanmaras? One hundred years ago, the city had a strong Armenian Orthodox presence. Today, nearby TeK congregations have found a local man who has welcomed them. As they serve through his network, Kalkandelen wonders, might unknown believers emerge in a rebirth of the church?

Every believer we talked to thought they were going to die [during the earthquake], but now we feel they were raised again to serve and comfort the nation, he said. These verses fit the Tabitha name.

He didnt know how right he was.

Turkish Protestants interviewed by CT appreciated the biblical example of Tabitha, but none had a personal connection to her story or sense of her regional importance.

Three churches in Palestine are named after St. Tabitha, while her feast day is commemorated by Orthodox and Catholic churches worldwide on October 25. The Lutheran and Episcopal denominations also celebrate her on the liturgical calendar.

With the flow of the many-streamed river of almsgiving, you watered the dry earth of the needy, states the Orthodox liturgy. Glory to Christ whom you followed as a true disciple and a spotless lamb!

Tabitha is the only woman in the Bible specifically labeled a disciple.

Celebrated as the patron saint for tailors and seamstresses, her burial site is still a place of pilgrimage today. The first recorded visit was made by an Italian traveler from Piacenza in 560 A.D., but as early as the fourth century she was depicted on sarcophagi in France, heralded as a maternal patron.

A widow who enjoys sufficiently robust health, wrote Basil of Caesarea, commending Tabitha, should spend her life in works of zeal and solicitude.

Scholars say that early church fathers took a skewed view of widows, warning against their reliance on charity. But the sarcophagi coincide with a change in attitude, with Tabitha becoming an exemplar of the Christian family in its social legitimization as it moved beyond Jewish circles to include Gentiles.

One sarcophagus depicts characters with clearly foreign dress, indicating non-Jewish recipients of her aid.

A study of local names in the ancient port city of Joppa indicates a mixed population that included Gentiles from Alexandria, Cyrenaica, and Cappadocia. The cloth industry was dominated by women, so it is likely Tabitha was at least a small business owner.

Some scholars have speculated that the upper room where her dead body was prepared for burial may have been the meeting place of the local church. Following her resurrection, many people believed in the Lord (Acts 9:42).

It was not her house that proclaimed her wealth, wrote St. John Chrysostom, but the bodies of widows furnished with dress, and their tears that were shed.

In the biblical text, scholars say Tabitha plays a linking role in the progression of salvation to Gentiles. Having been summoned to Joppa, Peter resides in the house of Simon the Tanner, wherein he has his vision of ceremonially unclean food. God commands him to eat, and then immediately Cornelius the centurion calls for him from Caesarea.

One sarcophagus depicts one of Tabithas widows kneeling, reaching out to touch the hem of Peters garment. It recalls the scene of the bleeding woman, doing the same to Jesus.

Commentators also describe Tabithas name as a key to understanding one of Jesus most obscure teachings. If your eye is good, he says in Matthew 6:22, your whole body will be full of light.

Tabitha means gazelle, an animal cited for its keen eyesight, which ancient Jews and Christians associated with a charitable spirit. In the original Hebrew of Proverbs 22:9, for example, the word rendered as generous translates more literally as the bountiful eye, which is blessed as it gives to the poor. Chrysostom wrote that her name matched her character, while Bede the Venerable also noted the apt symbolism.

She who had conferred upon suffering widows the assistance for living, wrote St. Cyprian of Carthage, deserved to be recalled to life by the petition of widows.

As Turkish Christians hope for their church today.

Together with the small number of Protestants in Turkey, the overall Christian community numbers about 380,000 citizens among a Muslim population of 80 million. But Antakya used to be ancient Antiochone of the five primary centers of the faith, where believers were first called Christians.

Just so, the Turkish church today is also being recalled to life. Believers in modern-day Antakya keep the spirit of Antioch alive.

The apostles did what Jesus did, and the Tabitha committee is full of modern-day apostles, said Ilyas Uyar, an elder in the Protestant Church Foundation of Diyarbakir. We want to raise people from the dead by extending our hand to them.

Though not a member himself, Uyar gathered the statistics of all aid distributed. Relief flows primarily through the two hubs of Antakya and Adiyaman, where TeK has set up service centers that have become places of ongoing fellowship for Muslims and Christians alike.

He is especially proud of their work with neighborhood children, freeing motherssome of whom are now widowsto rebuild life after their homes were destroyed. Through church generosity, the kids now have over 14,000 donated toys to play with.

Partnering indirectly with the churches is First Hope Association (FHA), the Turkish Protestant NGO that secured permission for Samaritans Purse to administer a field hospital in Antakya. Over 8,000 patients were treated through the end of March, when it yielded the facility to the ministry of health.

A small team of Americans remains on the ground, supporting the maintenance of 120 mobile hygiene unitscomplete with shower, sink, and toiletfor up to a year.

But having distributed thousands of tents for emergency shelter, FHA board chairman Demokan Kileci is now identifying the next phase of aid.

Containers are not coming fast enough, he said. Tents will not work well with the coming winter cold.

In the meantime, there is the summer complication of snakes and scorpions. Addressing both issues, FHA has so far installed 170 corrugated steel units, each measuring 225 square feet, with two living quarters and a bathroom. Ongoing projects include building two schools to serve up to 120 K12 students each, and two kitchens to provide 300 meals per day for those with celiac disease and diabetes.

As a Christian organization, Kileci said they take every natural opportunity to speak about Jesus. But while church leaders told CT after the earthquake that it would be at least six months until there can be non-exploitative gospel outreach, he said that time is still not yet.

Containers could make the difference.

Once families feel they are settled and can breathe a little, then maybe we can discuss spiritual matters, Kileci said. But we will see Gods miracles more and more in the coming months.

Some agencies have already left the affected areas, causing people to wonder why Christians are still therewho they then ask for prayer. Other agencies are pushing an Islamic message, and people are getting sick of it, he said. Meanwhile, the government is doing the best it can to restore services, but with experts warning there may yet be two years of ongoing tremors, few people can return to life as normal.

For Christians, normal includes an emerging sense of solidarity.

Back in 2018, then-TeK leader Behnan Konutgan joined Orthodox and Catholic Turkish leaders to launch Christianity: Fundamental Teachings, a 95-page guide on essential doctrine, distributed through the Bible Society. Whereas there has been tension between the historic churches and evangelical believers, Konutgan stated the joint project has helped dispel 90 percent of ecumenical distrust.

There are other hopeful signs of Christian unity in the country. Since the earthquake, the interdenominational SAT-7 media and satellite TV ministry has produced the first two episodes in a series of four hour-long Turkish documentaries, to highlight the cooperation between sects as it chronicles the state of every damaged and destroyed church building. And TeK, largely composed of converts from Islam, will continue the same, helping all denominations without distinction.

Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us, Kalkandelen recalls from his slip of paper, in answer to the prayers of many (2 Cor. 1:11).

Just as with the widows of Acts 9 and their beloved patron.

The good works of the historic church in Turkey can help raise the church anew, through us, its new apostles, he said. And once raised, Tabitha did as she did beforeserve.
In this weeks episode of The Bulletin, hosts Mike Cosper, Nicole Martin, and editor in chief Russell Moore gather with special guests legal analyst Sarah Isgur and CT writer Hannah Anderson to talk about current events shaping the public consciousness. Hannah talks with our hosts about the new Barbie movie and the latest top song on the Christian music charts. Sarah joins the conversation for a discussion of former president Trumps latest indictments.

Join Beth Moore for a special evening as she interviews her friend, Russell Moore, about faith, culture, and his new book, Losing Our Religion: An Altar Call for Evangelical America.

Joining us this week:

Hannah Anderson is an author and speaker who lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia with her husband and three children. Her work explores themes of human flourishing with a particular focus on how ecology, gender, and socioeconomics affect spiritual formation. Besides being a regular contributor to Christianity Today, she has authored multiple books including All Thats Good: Recovering the Lost Art of Discernment and the recently released Heaven and Nature Sing.

Sarah Isgur is currently a staff writer at The Dispatch, hosts the legal podcast Advisory Opinions, and frequently appears as a legal analyst on cable news. Prior to joining The Dispatch, Sarah served in the Justice Department as the Director of the Office of Public Affairs and as Senior Counsel to the Deputy Attorney General.

Resources Referenced:

What if We're the Bad Guys Here?

Barbie and Ken Go East of Eden | Christianity Today

In the beginning, there was Barbie

High school boys are trending conservative | The Hill

Opinion | Huberman Husbands, Bro Diets and the Masculine Branding of Fitness Culture - The New York Times

Opinion | Christine Emba: Men are lost. Heres a map out of the wilderness. - The Washington Post

Read More from Christianity Today about Todays Topics:

The Masculinity Debate Needs Johnny Cash | Christianity Today

In Search of Non-Toxic Male Sexuality | Christianity Today

The Church Needs Reformation, Not Deconstruction | Christianity Today

How We Stay in Church Matters as Much as Why | Christianity Today

Trump's Indictment Demands a Distinctly Christian Response

Humoring the President Was Not Harmless | Christianity Today

The Bulletin is a production of Christianity Today

Executive Producer: Erik Petrik

Producer: Clarissa Moll and Matt Stevens

Associate Producer: Azurae Phelps

Editing and Mix: TJ Hester

Music: Dan Phelps

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Graphic Design: Amy Jones

Social Media: Kate Lucky
The last Soul Survivor festival, led by popular British evangelist Mike Pilavachi, marked the end of an era.

What began as a gathering of around 2,000 young people at a campsite in southwest England had grown into a movement of tens of thousands, with 32,500 peoplemostly teensattending the final event in 2019.

Pilavachi was the founder and figurehead of Soul Survivor and the driving force behind a movement that had embraced charismatic gifts and inspired a generation of young Brits to pursue Christianity in an age when the countrys churches struggled to retain teenage worshippers.

Before this year, the first line in a recent statement from the youth ministry charity Youthscape would have read as a tribute to his legacy: Mike Pilavachis influence is such that a significant proportion of Christians in the UK and beyond will feel some connection to the ministry of Soul Survivor.

Instead, it was a warning. As the Church of England conducts a safeguarding investigation into allegations against Pilavachi, Youthscape issued a 2,600-word guide to help leaders respond.

This news is likely to be disorientating, the charity wrote. It could be causing us to question memories or experiences of the festivals we hold dear. We might feel disappointed, angry, or betrayed hearing that someone we trust is under investigation in this way.

Pilavachis case comes as the church faces growing scrutiny over its safeguarding policies and response to abuse, with a string of leaders facing accusations spanning decades.

The claims against Pilavachi first became public in May, when British media published accounts from men who said Pilavachi massaged, straddled, and wrestled with them and others as teens.

Some had been involved in a gap-year program as interns. Alleged victims also described the emotional torment of falling out of favor with Pilavachi, an influential ministry leader.

Young men were being picked up then discarded year after year. Like me, they would leave feeling like it was them who had messed up, one said. Mike had the power to break your career  The only doors that would open for you were the ones that he opened for you to go through. For a teenager, it was emotionally devastating.

It is unclear what spurred the reporting of allegations to the Church of England this year. The church initially described the allegations as non-recent, but the qualifier was later removed. Some said that concerns had been raised as early as 2004.

Pilavachi resigned in July from his church, Soul Survivor Watford, seeking forgiveness from any whom I have hurt, but declined to comment further.

Pilavachi was ordained in the Church of England in 2012. The allegations against him follow high-profile cases of clergy who have used their position to abuse boys and young men in church. A few years ago, evangelical leader Jonathan Fletcher, who had served for 30 years at Emmanuel Church, Wimbledon, faced allegations of massages and naked beatings.



A review of the churchs handling of his case underscored the risk of spiritual abuse by church leaders, noting that the issue of consent requires further legislative scrutiny in contexts where there is a significant imbalance of power and/or status and/or age, including in a religious context.

Pilavachi began his ministry as a youth leader at St. Andrews Church, a charismatic evangelical church in Chorleywood. He opened a cafeDregsto reach young people. That ministry grew into a congregation of its own, Soul Survivor, which opened at a warehouse in nearby Watford.

While the average churchgoer in the United Kingdom is over 60, Soul Survivor Watford bucked Anglican trends and stereotypes. It was a congregation full of teens, led by high-energy lay leaders like Pilavachi. The vicar at St. Andrews, the Rt. Rev. David Pytches, was Pilavachis mentor and the church maintained a connection to Soul Survivor.

In Watford, the two pastors who led alongside PilavachiAndy Croft and Ali Martinhave known Pilavachi since they were teenagers. Croft, Soul Survivors senior pastor, was one of Pilavachis interns, while Ali Martin, assistant pastor, participated in a leadership and discipleship program after attending the first festival in 1993. Both were suspended in June, with a statement from Soul Survivor stating that this related to concerns over the handling of allegations.

The response to the allegations against Pilavachi has reflected the silos within the broader Church of Englandcharismatic evangelicals were immediately shocked and shaken by the news and some Anglicans were unaware of Pilavachis ministry at all.

Within the Church of England, charismatic revival, with its emphasis on baptism with the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts such as speaking in tongues, has been a major influence in recent decades. The Archbishop of Canterbury is among those shaped by it. But it has not been universally welcomed. Some Anglicans are sympathetic to Joseph Butler, the 18th-century bishop of Bristol, who told John Wesley that the pretending to extraordinary revelations and gifts of the Holy Ghost is a horrid thing, a very horrid thing.

The debate came before the Church of Englands General Synod in 1981, with critics concerned that the charismatic movement was divisive and represented a flight from the rational and intellectual. But it was also celebrated for having transformed parishes, making worship warm, vibrant and meaningful for many Christians who had previously felt coolness and aridity.

In Pilavachis case, his ministry was heavily influenced by John Wimber, the American Vineyard leader and signs and wonders evangelist who made his first of several trips to the UK in 1981.

In the same year that the Synod was debating the charismatic movement, this American visitor was having a dramatic impact on leading evangelical parishes in the country, including St. Andrews in Chorleywood, his first stop.

The vicar, David Pytches, said there was holy chaos, with people falling down in the pews. A later visit transformed life at Holy Trinity, Brompton, home of the Alpha course, and now a major church-planting force in the Church of England.

Pilavachis first encounter occurred two years later in 1983, when Wimber addressed a worship conference in London. Pilavachi recalled in his book For the Audience of One being totally unhinged by the singing. I spent a whole part of the week just crying and sniffling my way through songs  Many of the songs were incredibly simple and yet totally intimate. As I worshipped, I found healing for my soul. Intimacy set me free.

In the years to come, this approach to worship would become central to Soul Survivors ministry. Soul Survivor has served as a stable for musicians worldwide, including Matt Redman and Tim Hughes. (Last month Redman commented on the Pilavachi allegations, revealing that he had experienced first-hand the harmful behaviors that have been described.)

If music was one part of Wimbers impact, the other was a theology that democratized supernatural ministry. Among Wimbers mottos was Everyone gets to play. This was the approach that Pilavachi adopted in ministry, preaching that the gifts of the Holy Spirit were for all of Gods people, and encouraging young people to pray for one another accordingly.

While he was careful to speak about the dangers of hype and encouraged simple prayers and waiting on God, this ministry could have dramatic outward effects from crying to shouting and falling down. It was also a key part of what drew young people to Soul Survivor.

Soul Survivor is one of the most tangible times where I have been able to meet with God and have seen other people meet with God, one young festival-goer told the Church Times at the final 2019 gathering.

On stage, Pilavachi was a captivating speaker, combining an easy informality and deadpan witoften entailing self-deprecating confessionswith passionate exposition of Scripture and unabashed accounts of his own relationship with Jesus. In many ways, he defied expectations of Christian celebrity leaders.

In My First Trousers, a book on growing in faith that is part-memoir, Pilavachi described himself as a swollen-bellied and gently maturing afro-haired bloke from Harrow, a London suburb.

In the same book, he wrote that it was vital that we Christians perform regular safety checks on ourselves, adding that his own friends know I want them to tell me anything they notice about my attitudes or behaviour which worries them.

Mike was not thought to be a Christian celebrity, wrote Lucy Sixsmith, a PhD student at the University of Cambridge, in a blog reflecting on her own experiences of Soul Survivor.

Vulnerability, self-deprecation: that was Mikes thing  Mikes audiences heard about the brokenness in his youth that led him to Jesus, the bouts of depression that hit during and after the summer festivals, his loneliness, his occasional habit of hiding from his friends  Soul Survivor seemed to be the genuine article. Mike Pilavachi did not seem to be a Christian celebrity.

She went on to suggest that vulnerability could be toxic, a place to hide, a way to deflect scepticism: if a Christian celebrity sends himself up or strategically reveals some struggle or other, we all ask fewer questions about what power he has in fact, for all his gentleness.

Hers is one of a growing number of stories being shared online of Soul Survivor and Pilavachi. Former staff members, interns, congregation members, and festival-goers have turned to the internet to process their memories and thoughts amid the Church of Englands investigation. This has included reflections that have gone beyond the specific allegations to explore the nature of charismatic ministry.

In its guide to healthy discussions with young people, Youthscape suggests, If the allegations are true, it doesn't undermine everything that happened at the festivals, programmes or church  If you have had an experience of God through Soul Survivor, and this seemed real to you, you don't have to abandon it, whichever humans were involved in leading at the time.

But others have questioned this. Luke Larner, an Anglican priest who served on the prayer and prophecy team at the summer festivals, has asked: What if the intense experiences, what if the incredible emotional highs of being in a big top with thousands of other young people, what if the overwhelming desire to be something bigger than ourselves, what if hearing a mission from Godwhat if it wasnt real? What if it wasnt God? What would that mean?

While Christians await the report, it is these accounts that are driving discussion within the Church of England about what happened at Soul Survivor and what the implications are for youth ministry and safeguarding in the future.

Though some had never heard of Pilavachi, they have now, and with so many of the churchs youngest worshippers having experienced his ministry, they are forcing the conversation beyond its silos.
Christian ministry in Haiti praying through tears as kidnapped nurse and daughter still missing

As they hit the one-week mark since New Hampshire nurse Alix Dorsainvil and her daughter were kidnapped from their campus near Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Christian education ministry, El Roi Haiti, said they have been aching and praying through tears for the release of their founders wife and daughter.

We are at the one-week mark of Alix and her daughters kidnapping. Many tears have been shed this week but we, together with our team, are working and praying continuously to bring them home safely, and we continue to hold onto hope, the ministry said in a statement Thursday about their nurse who was kidnapped on July 27.

Alix Dorsainvil married El Roi Haiti founder Sandro Dorsainvil in 2021 after she began her role as a school nurse with the organization in 2020. She is also a committed Christian who has been traveling to Haiti since 2010 and is described by the ministry as someone who lives a life following in the footsteps of Jesus.

Witnesses told The Associated Press that the New Hampshire nurse was busy caring for patients in a small brick clinic when armed men ambushed the site and took her captive.

Lormina Louima, a patient who was waiting for a check-up, told the news service that one man brandished a gun and ordered her to relax.

When I saw the gun, I was so scared, Louima told the AP. I said, I dont want to see this, let me go.

Members of the community said the gunmen are demanding a $1 million ransom, but neither the U.S. Department of State nor El Roi Haiti have publicly shared any details of the investigation citing the sensitive nature of the situation.

On July 27, the same day Alix Dorsainvil was kidnapped, the U.S. State Department issued a Level 4 Travel Advisory asking Americans not to travel to Haiti, ordering all U.S. Citizens and non-emergency government employees to leave as soon as possible because of the unstable security and social conditions in the Caribbean nation.

Kidnapping is widespread, and victims regularly include U.S. citizens. Kidnappers may use sophisticated planning or take advantage of unplanned opportunities, and even convoys have been attacked. Kidnapping cases often involve ransom negotiations and U.S. citizen victims have been physically harmed during kidnappings. Victims families have paid thousands of dollars to rescue their family members, the advisory said.

Violent crime, often involving the use of firearms, such as armed robbery, carjackings, and kidnappings for ransom that include U.S. citizens are common. Mob killings against presumed criminals have been on the rise since late April. Travelers are sometimes followed and violently attacked and robbed shortly after leaving the Port-au-Prince international airport. Robbers and carjackers also attack private vehicles stuck in heavy traffic congestion and often target lone drivers, particularly women, the State Department added.

El Roi Haiti said in their statement that they are looking forward to the safe release of the kidnapped nurse and her daughter as officials in both the U.S. and Haiti continue working privately to secure her freedom.

We continue to ask that no attempts be made to contact the family for comment at this time, the ministry said while acknowledging their pain and find hope in the Gospel.

El Roi is a Hebrew name of God found in the Bible, in the book of Genesis Chapter 16. In her desperate state, a suffering woman calls God The God who sees me. We serve a loving and compassionate God who sees our suffering. He sees it now as we ache for news of Alix and her daughters safe release, He sees Alix and her daughter as they wait for freedom, and He sees the struggle of our Haitian friends who suffer daily, the ministry said.

We have this promise found in 1 Peter 5:10 that He not only sees our suffering but In his kindness God called [us] to share in His eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus, they added.

So after [we] have suffered a little while, He will restore, support, and strengthen [us], and He will place [us] on a firm foundation.
Did Wisconsin police ignore state law when they arrested a Christian preacher at a public drag event? Pastor rebukes officers with message from Romans 13: 'Your duty is to punish evildoers'

Did Wisconsin police working a drag event ignore state law and instead choose to target a Christian street preacher for his beliefs?

An event held at a public park in Wisconsin featuring men dressed as women led to a viral video showing police arresting a Christian preacher who was sharing the Gospel with the events attendees.

The July 29 Pride in the Park event at Riverside Park in Watertown, located about 30 miles west of Milwaukee, was hosted by Unity Project of Watertown.

Video footage shared on social media showed Watertown police arresting a member of Christian apparel brand Rescue the Rainbow after he was told by police to stay away from the event stage, even as other members of the public were seen gathering in that same space.

Nearby, a young street preacher was speaking into a microphone when he was surrounded by police officers who told him preaching was not allowed due to a town ordinance about amplification devices.

Another video shows at least three Watertown police officers grabbing the young mans microphone and urging him not to resist arrest.

Rescue the Rainbows Facebook page later identified one of the arrestees as Marcus Schroeder. The identity of the second arrestee was not clear.

Following the arrest, Rescue the Rainbow shared a video of Pastor Matt Trewhella of Mercy Seat Christian Church in Milwaukee rebuking the police officers for their unlawful, tyrannical behavior and preaching from the Apostle Pauls letter to the church in Rome.

Romans 13, again, for those of you officers who just arrived, makes it clear that your duty is to punish the evildoers. That would be the people over there that are sexualizing children, Trewhella is heard saying in the video.

And our duty is to reward those who do good. That would be the people you've arrested. So you've totally perverted your God-given function and role, turned it on its head, and we wonder how did evil get a foothold in Germany? In the Soviet Union?

As several police officers stood watch, Trewhella continued: ... You shouldn't be arresting the good guys and letting the bad guys have free reign. Your duty is to arrest the bad guys. There is an ordinance right here in town regarding instructing children and sexual matters.

What do you think that's all about? They're instructing children in sexual matters. You could arrest them but you chose not to. You chose to arrest the Christians who are simply out here praying and offering literature to people.

While its not clear which ordinance Trewhella referenced in the video, under Wisconsin law, police have the authority to arrest any adult who causes a child to view or listen to sexually explicit conduct.

A Watertown ordinance also prohibits sexually oriented conduct with children, but its unclear whether the pride event violated that or any other local ordinance.

The Christian Post reached out to Watertown police and the city attorney for comment Wednesday. We also contacted both Rescue the Rainbow and Pastor Trewhella for comment. This story will be updated if a response is received.

According to a number of media reports, a neo-Nazi group was on hand to protest the drag event, with LGBT outlet The Advocate grouping the Christian protesters with the Nazi group and what was described as other right-wing hate groups.

Other reports touted what the events organizers described as a good relationship with the Watertown Police Department.

In response to the event, Unity Project of Watertown spokesperson Robin Kangas shared this statement: "Yes, we had a Neo-Nazi group show up to protest our event. But you know who else showed up? The police department working hard at keeping us safe and the event peaceful. A group of religious leaders including rabbis, pastors, and priests affirming the individuals and community at the event.

Allies and members of the [LGBT] community who spent the rest of the day laughing, sharing joy, making friendships, and spreading love. The Neo-Nazi group tried to derail us, but they failed. At Watertowns Pride in the Park, love won."

The groups 2022 pride event  which was also protested by another local Christian group  featured a youth drag performer named Andi Withani Domino, who said in a March interview that he began performing when he was around 13 years old while attending a pride event.

... My now-drag mother Cass Marie Domino had taken me backstage to meet the queens, and they asked if I wanted to join them onstage, Withani told local outlet The Capital Times.

They did my make-up, gave me a dress and a wig, and I was out there performing  and it was one of the most empowering experiences of my life, to be able to reclaim my femininity and to be able to express it and be proud of it.

In another post from last years event, Kangas shared an image that showed a minor named Nemo wearing a wig and dress and in womens makeup. Its not clear whether either Withani or Nemo took part in Saturdays event.
DeSantis agrees to debate Newsom, defends pro-life credentials amid criticism

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has agreed to debate California Gov. Gavin Newsom as the two states continue to take divergent paths.

DeSantis, who is seeking the Republican nomination for president, appeared on Fox News Hannity Wednesday. Host Sean Hannity opened the segment with DeSantis by recalling that during a previous interview with Newsom, he floated the idea of the Democrat California governor engaging in a one-on-one debate with DeSantis as both continue to tout their respective states as models for the nation to emulate. Newsom described himself as all in to participate in such a debate, which Hannity would moderate.

When Hannity followed up and asked if he would do a two-hour debate with Ron DeSantis, Newsom responded, I would make it three. Hannity elaborated on the topics that he would focus on in the debates, which would highlight major political and philosophical divides in this country, such as the mass immigration from blue states to red ones as well as the differing tax, immigration and energy policies between the states.

DeSantis answered in the affirmative when asked if he would debate Newsom: Absolutely. Im game. Lets get it done. Just tell me when and where. Well do it.

The Florida governor and presidential candidate used his platform on primetime television to tout his record as leader of the nations third-largest state: In one respect, the debate between California and Florida  has already been had. As you suggest, people have been voting on that. They have been voting on it with their feet. They have fled California in record numbers. Florida has been the number one state for net in-migration. We have the number one-ranked economy, number one now in education, the crime rate at a 50-year low.

In another sense, this is the debate for the future of our country, he added. You have people like Joe Biden, they would love to see the Californication of the United States. Biden may not even be the nominee, you could have Gavin Newsom.

In addition to the differences in economic policy, DeSantis said California and Florida have responded to hot-button social issues in different ways. While DeSantis signed into law a six-week abortion ban earlier this year, California voters approved a constitutional amendment enshrining a right to abortion in the state's constitution last year.

Similarly, as Florida has banned disfiguring sex-change procedures for minors, California has established itself as one of 14 states that have implemented measures protecting access to such procedures.

DeSantis excitement to debate Newsom comes as the candidate faces criticism for suggesting in an interview with Megyn Kelly that he would be a leader with a bully pulpit ... to help local communities and states advance the cause of life and describing the pro-life movement as bottom-up. When asked if he would support a federal abortion ban, DeSantis vowed, Ill always come down on the side of life while stating, I dont have much confidence that Congress is going to do anything meaningful in this regard.

In a federalist system ... you have differences of opinions, and that stuff gets filtered out. But clearly, right now, you are going to see different states go in different directions and I understand that, he added. Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the pro-life advocacy group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, issued a statement decrying DeSantis comments: A pro-life president has a duty to protect the lives of all Americans. He should be the National Defender of Life.

According to Dannenfelser, The American people have expressed a clear consensus for protecting babies in the womb at least by the point they can feel pain at 15 weeks, while allowing states to enact stronger protections. The pro-life movement and the American people deserve a president who will boldly advocate this consensus and will work to gather the votes necessary in Congress.

Gov. DeSantis dismissal of this task is unacceptable to pro-life voters, she insisted. A consensus is already formed. Intensity for it is palpable and measurable. There are many pressing legislative issues for which Congress does not have the votes at the moment, but that is not a reason for a strong leader to back away from the fight. This is where presidential leadership matters most.

Former Vice President Mike Pence, another contender for the Republican presidential nomination, shared a link to Dannenfelsers statement on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, attempting to differentiate himself from his competitor by promising to always champion protections for the unborn in states across the country and in our nations Capital if elected president.

When I am President, #ProLife Americans will have a champion in the White House! In the Dobbs decision, the question of abortion was returned to the states AND the American people. I will always champion protections for the unborn in states across the Country and in our Nations  Mike Pence (@Mike_Pence) July 31, 2023

Speaking to Newsmax in New Hampshire Wednesday, DeSantis defended his pro-life credentials, characterizing himself as the only candidate running that has actually delivered pro-life protections and got those enacted. He reiterated that as president, Im pro-life. Ill come down on the side of life. DeSantis took a veiled shot at his rivals by telling the news outlet, Lets just be clear here about all this: Some people talk, I act.

Electorally speaking, DeSantis massively overperformed in his 2022 re-election bid, securing a second term by more than 19 percentage points in a state former President Donald Trump won by slightly more than 3 points in the 2020 presidential election. By contrast, Newsom underperformed, winning re-election by less than 20 percentage points in a state Biden carried by more than 29 points.

The current RealClearPolitics average of polls measuring voter intentions in the Republican primaries, based on surveys conducted from July 12-30, shows Trump with 53.9% and DeSantis in a distant second at 18.1%. All other candidates, including Pence, fail to make it out of the single digits.
Texas school district votes to provide schools with armed security officers after Allen outlet mall shooting

A school district in a North Texas city where a gunman killed eight people at an outdoor shopping mall will place armed security guards on every school campus.

The Allen Independent School District Board of Trustees voted unanimously Monday in favor of complying with a state requirement to provide every campus in Texas with safety measures in response to the shooting at the Allen Premium Outlets in May.

Under House Bill 3, which was signed by Gov. Greg Abbott in June, public schools are required to have at least one armed security officer or other armed school personnel. School districts have until September to comply with the law.

In order to comply with HB3, Allen ISD trustees approved hiring L&P Global, a private security firm, a move expected to cost the district around $700,000, half of which will be covered by grants.

At a special meeting held Monday, Allen ISD Supt. Brent Benningfield noted the districts deadline comes nearly three weeks after the fall semester begins on Aug. 10.

I know everybody is aware that we have students in the building on August 10, not after September 1, he said. Why would we wait a month to provide it when theyre already in the building?

Benningfield explained that due to a personnel shortage, the district does not have enough officers to provide additional security beyond Allen ISD police personnel already in place.

The May shooting at the outlet mall rocked the city of Allen, located about 20 miles northwest of Dallas, and left eight people dead, including children, and injured seven others. The shooter was killed by an on-duty police officer who happened to be at the mall on an unrelated call.

Authorities later identified the gunman as 33-year-old Mauricio Garcia. Investigators have not revealed any motive for the shooting.

Witnesses at the mall told The Associated Press they saw several victims, including some who seemed to be children. They also reported seeing a police officer and a security guard who appeared to be unconscious on the ground.

At least nine people were hospitalized following the incident, with their ages ranging from 5 to 61, according to a spokesperson for Medical City Healthcare, which operates three trauma facilities in the area.

Among the victims were three members of a Korean-American family who attended New Song, a Korean Baptist church in Carrollton, a suburb located about 10 miles north of Dallas.

Cindy, Kyu and James Cho lost their lives in the shooting, leaving 6-year-old William as the family's sole survivor.



Within days of the shooting, Prestonwood Christian Academy in Plano announced William was also a student at the private school and that students and staff would be providing counseling following the shooting.

"We're certainly heartbroken over the news of the shooting in Allen, Texas, and we can confirm that it did impact a family here at PCA, said PCA Supt. Mike Goddard. One of the things that's really powerful about having a connection to church and school is that we're family-oriented and we rely on God during times like this.
Pro-life activist targeted in FBI raid is running for Congress: 'Focus on restoring traditional values'

A pro-life activist whose home was raided by FBI agents and faced 11 years in prison in response to his pro-life activism, which sparked national outrage, has announced his intention to run for Congress.

Mark Houck, a pro-life activist arrested by FBI agents in an early morning raid for the purported assault of a Planned Parenthood clinic escort who was harassing his 12-year-old son, announced his intention to run for the U.S. House of Representatives in an interview with the Catholic website Church Militant Tuesday.

Houck is running to represent Pennsylvanias 1st Congressional District, currently represented by Republican Brian Fitzpatrick.

I have seen first-hand what an out of control government can do to its citizens, Houck explains in a statement on his campaign website. I will fight to protect all people and their rights under God & our Constitution. My platform is based on common sense.

Houck vowed that his campaign will focus on restoring traditional values & principles that are central to the American identity, such as faith, family & freedom of speech, religion, & the right to bear arms.

Support for the pro-life movement also looms large in Houcks campaign platform, with the candidate declaring that we must defend all human life at all stages of development because creating Human life is the greatest gift God has given to humanity.

Houck gained national attention after news broke of an early morning raid at his Bucks County, Pennsylvania, home on Sept. 23, 2022. That same day, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that it had indicted Houck for violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, a federal law that subjects any person who intentionally injures, intimidates, or interferes with or attempts to injure, intimidate or interfere with any person seeking to provide reproductive health services to federal charges.

The federal government maintained that the defendant is alleged to have twice assaulted a man because he was a volunteer reproductive health care clinic escort at a Planned Parenthood in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

A fundraiser set up to cover Houcks legal expenses painted a different picture of what took place on Oct. 13, 2021.

Last year, Mark and his son were praying in front of the PP at 12th and Locust. When one of the escorts began harassing Marks son, they walked down the street away from the entrance to the building, the fundraiser stated. The escort followed them, and when he continued yelling at Marks son, Mark pushed him away.

The fundraiser also detailed the ordeal experienced by Houck, his wife, and seven young children during the early morning raid. It states that 20 SWAT team members descended on Houcks home at 7 a.m., with guns drawn and shields up in the faces of Mark, his wife, and their seven young children. The father of seven was arrested in front of his children and released from custody later that day.

News of Houcks treatment at the hands of federal law enforcement did not sit well with Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.

He cited Houcks arrest as an example of the Biden administrations double standard when enforcing the law based on whether or not a person supports abortion, contending that there seems to be much interest in pursuing alleged wrongdoing by pro-life activists, yet little interest in pursuing alleged wrongdoing by abortion-rights activists.

The pro-life advocacy group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America offered a similar analysis of Houcks arrest as evidence of the Biden administrations effort to punish political enemies and protect the abortion industry that spends millions to elect pro-abortion Democrats.

Pennsylvanias Republican nominee in last years gubernatorial election, Doug Mastriano, lamented that the Houcks seven children were traumatized and in tears as they witnessed their parents held at gunpoint and their father led away in handcuffs.

Four months after the early morning raid that prompted outrage from pro-life organizations, Catholic advocacy groups and Republican politicians, a jury empaneled in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania found Houck not guilty on all counts connected to the supposed violation of the FACE Act. The pro-life activist has signaled his plans to press charges for prosecutorial abuse after he was cleared of all charges.

According to Daily Kos Elections, which keeps track of presidential election results by congressional district, President Joe Biden carried Pennsylvanias 1st Congressional District by 4.6 percentage points in the 2020 presidential election. Fitzpatrick has routinely overperformed in the Democratic-leaning swing district, winning his most recent re-election bid by nearly 10 points as Republican candidates running for statewide office lost to Democrats.

As a representative of a swing district, Fitzpatrick has developed a reputation as one of the more moderate Republicans to serve in the U.S. House. Most recently, Fitzpatrick voted against the Jackson Amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would ban the Pentagon from paying for service members to travel out-of-state to obtain abortions.

In the past, Fitzpatrick has supported the Right to Contraception Act, which would codify a right to contraception into federal law, the Respect for Marriage Act, which codified a right to same-sex marriage into federal law and the Equality Act, which would enshrine nondiscrimination protections for LGBT people into federal law. Houck outlined his concerns with Fitzpatricks voting record in his conversation with Church Militant.

He doesnt represent my views as a constituent of his, Houck said. He doesnt vote the way Im happy with. Were running to protect the rights of families and defend traditional family values in our district. Unfortunately, Brian doesnt represent that. He may disagree with me, but based upon the voting record, he does not represent me, and I think that theres a lot of people like me in this district; a lot of people that have similar views.

Despite his criticism of the incumbent, Houck stressed that he has the highest respect for Fitzpatrick.
The greatest story ever distorted: China trying to rewrite the Bible?

A powerful story of forgiveness is found in John 8, involving Jesus and the woman caught in adultery, wherein He famously said, Let him who is without sin cast the first stone. Her accusers quietly leave, one after another.

Jesus then tells her that neither does He accuse her, But go and sin no more  a part often ignored today by our tolerant society.

But now, if the Chinese Communists have their way, the whole story of Jesus and the adulterous woman will be completely turned on its head.

In their version, Jesus Himself stones her to death!

U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher, (R) Wisconsin, wrote an article for foxnews.com, in which he reports that the Chinese Communist Party is now busily at work rewriting the worlds best-selling book.

If they succeed in their venture, well go from the greatest story ever told to the greatest story ever distorted.

It isnt enough that the Chinese Communists have burned many Scriptures. It isnt enough that they actively ban the Bible online through firewalls on social media outlets.

Now, apparently they dare to attempt to destroy it from within, by rewriting it.

Gallagher comments: Across Henan province, local CCP officials forced Protestant churches to replace the Ten Commandments with Xi Jinping quotes. Thou shalt have no other gods before Me, became diktats like: Resolutely guard against the infiltration of Western ideology."

Todays Chinese Communists are following in the footsteps of Chairman Mao, the worst mass-murderer in the history of the world, who called religion poison. And the Chinese Communists persecute all religions.

Gallagher adds, In my work in Congress, Ive heard unthinkable stories of religious oppression. But Ive also listened to accounts of underground churches, brave clergy, and steadfast believers every bit as courageous as saints of the early Church.

I reached out to Wendy Wright, the president of Christian Freedom International, for a comment on this story about the Chinese Communists attempt to rewrite portions of the Bible.

She told me, Chinese Communists totalitarian tactics go beyond what may have ever been done before. Re-writing the Bible is their attempt to manipulate people into blind obedience to communist authorities. We need to pray that all of their lies will be exposed, and the truth of Jesus will penetrate peoples hearts  including those of the Chinese Communists.

ChinaAid.org, led by Bob Fu, also comments on this story:

This retranslating of the Bible is one of many strategies the Communist Party is using to dissolve Christianity in China.

A stark contrast of the Chinese Communist attempts to undermine belief in the Bible is the role the Good Book played in helping to shape the United States of America, Chinas chief foe in their attempt to become the worlds number one super power.

Although Americas ruling elite today also seems to despise the Bible, there is no question that the Scriptures played a key role in early America. The Bible was the chief textbook in early American history, helping to create a well-educated populace.

It was for the purpose of studying and promoting the Bible that Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, William and Mary, Princeton, and other great schools in America were founded.

Some of our key national leaders have remarked on the importance of the Bible:

George Washington, an avid Bible-reader, noted, true religion affords to government its surest support.

Ben Franklin, not an orthodox Christian, said during the Constitutional convention: We have been assured, sir, in the Sacred Writings, that except the Lord build the House, they labor in vain that build it. I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without His concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel.

Thomas Jefferson, also not orthodox, said, Of all the systems of morality, ancient or modern, which have come under my observation, none appear to me so pure as that of Jesus. Of course, those teachings are found only in the Bible.

Andrew Jackson, our 7th president, remarked that the Bible is the rock upon which our republic was founded.

Abraham Lincoln once said of the Bible, All the good the Savior gave to the world was communicated through this book. But for it we could not know right from wrong.

And we could go on and on. Thats why I call the Bible the book that made America and have written a whole book documenting it.

Throughout history, tyrants have tried to destroy the Bible and keep it away from the people. In some cases, those tyrants even wore clerical garb. But God has a way to turn the tables on the tyrants and protect His Word.

As the Bible itself notes, There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the Lord.
Breast cancer patient dropped by Oregan clinic after complaint about 'transgenderism banner hanging like a Nazi flag'

An Oregon woman battling breast cancer says she was dropped by her primary care doctor because of her response to the display of a transgender pride flag in the doctors office.

Marlene Barbera, who was scheduled to have a mastectomy later this month, was informed by Oregon Health Science University (OHSU) that she was dropped from the clinic due to alleged comments she made about the offices LGBT employees and staff, according to a GiveSendGo campaign.

Barbera shared a letter she sent to the clinic with the conservative social channel Libs of TikTok in which she raised concerns about an enormous transgenderism banner hanging like a Nazi flag behind the reception desk at OHSUs Richmond Family Medicine Clinic.

Pointing to the threats she says she received on social media from trans activists, Barbera said she found it daunting to go for medical treatment with that banner proclaiming that what I am, an adult human female, is a mere opt-in category for any gender non-conforming male and not a reality.

This negates women completely. And they are not asking.

In response to her complaint, Barbera shared another letter dated June 29 on her Twitter page under the handle @blah_blablather in which she was informed she was being dropped from all services at all OHSU clinics for ongoing disrespectful and hurtful remarks about our [LGBT] community and staff.

Ok-I was gonna try to get over this-but I am a liver transplant recipient with breast cancer facing double mastectomy at the end of August and now I have no primary care doctor.

A lawyer contacted me-i hesitated-

Nor more!

Would any lawyer out there help me?

Very scared. ???????????? pic.twitter.com/mfkSOoeOz6  Lady Laughingloudley (@blah_blablather) August 1, 2023

She wrote: Ok  I was gonna try to get over this  but I am a liver transplant recipient with breast cancer facing double mastectomy at the end of August and now I have no primary care doctor. A lawyer contacted me  i hesitated  No more! Would any lawyer out there help me? Very scared.

Multiple attempts by The Christian Post to contact Barbera were unsuccessful.

While OHSU spokesperson Sara Hottman declined a request for comment from The Christian Post due to privacy laws, she pointed to OHSUs patient rights and responsibilities, which states, OHSU patients, families and visitors have a responsibility to refrain from using discriminatory, profane, derogatory or threatening language, imagery or behavior, and understand that these behaviors can result in limitation of visiting privileges and impact access to care at OHSU.

Hottman did not provide any additional information as to why Barbera was denied service, nor did she respond to a question about whether OHSU violated Section 1557 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, or sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics), in covered health programs or activities.

As a Federally Qualified Health Center as described on its website, the Richmond clinic would likely be subject to such protections.

Barberas complaints about Richmond are not the first bout of controversy for the OHSU clinic: in April 2022, Andy Ngo, senior editor of conservative outlet The Post Millennial, profiled a Richmond medical assistant who espoused racist and communist ideologies.
Christian charity raises concerns over assisted suicide claims after man kills sick wife

Christian charity CARE has voiced concern about calls to legalize assisted suicide in the U.K. after a man sentenced in the killing of his terminally ill wife was freed by a Cypriot court.

David Hunter, 76, killed his wife Janice, 74, in an assisted suicide at their home in Paphos in 2021. He denied murder and said his wife, who suffered from blood cancer, became "hysterical" and "cried and begged" him to end her life.

The court sentenced him to two years in prison for manslaughter but released him on Monday after serving 19 months in custody.

Commenting on the outcome yesterday, CARE said the "narrative" around the case was "troubling."

Ross Hendry, CEO of CARE, said: "We're concerned by the narrative surrounding this case, which involves the violent death of a vulnerable woman.

"Janice Hunter became distressed after being diagnosed with cancer. She needed specialist support. Finding this would have been the compassionate response by David Hunter."

Hendry expressed concern that the case is being used by campaigners to press for the legalization of assisted suicide in the U.K.

He said that such calls should be resisted and that efforts should be focused on providing quality palliative care.

"Their argument is based on the premise that people with serious illnesses face a binary choice between suffering and death. This idea is false and dangerous," he said.

"Holistic palliative care meets the needs of dying people, including in the most difficult circumstances.

"Our national conversation needs to focus on how we improve care, not keep returning to assisted suicide. The experience of countries like Canada shows that assisted suicide is a Pandora's Box."

Originally published at Christian Today
Christian college asks federal appeals court to protect religious beliefs about female pastors

A Christian college has asked a federal appeals court to protect its religious beliefs regarding men and women in leadership following a lawsuit by a former employee that accuses the institution of discrimination.

Moody Bible Institute, a Christian college and seminary in Chicago, Illinois, was founded by evangelist Dwight L. Moody in 1886. The college states on its website that it offers students a Bible-focused education and practical ministry training, and equips students to serve as representatives of the Christian faith.

On Monday, the Christian college filed an opening brief with the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit with support from the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. Christian Poland of Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP is also representing Moody Bible Institute.

The brief asks the court to consider whether the federal judiciary should interfere with internal religious disputes and if the former employees claims are barred by the church autonomy doctrine and Title VIIs religious exemption.

Becket stated Tuesday that oral arguments will likely be scheduled for sometime this winter or spring 2024.

Mark Jobe, president of Moody Bible Institute, emphasized in a public statement that the college has trained and helped form men and women of faith for over 130 years.

This mission is rooted in Christs command to announce the good news to all people, and it has served as the bedrock of Moody since our founding," he said.

In an interview with The Christian Post, Daniel Blomberg, vice president and senior counsel for Becket, explained that Moody Bible Institute requires staff to adhere to its core statement of faith. One of those beliefs is that both men and women are called to religious ministry; however, the church office of pastor is reserved for men.

As Blomberg noted, Janay Garrick was aware of the schools position when she joined Moodys faculty, and she signed a yearly application stating that she supported the colleges views, as Moody requires its staff to affirm its beliefs each year.

Garricks actions while employed by the school indicated that she did not share Moodys views, however. In October 2015 and January 2016, two female students approached Garrick because they wanted to enter Moody's Pastoral Ministry Program, which is closed to women. The former Moody employee helped one of the students lodge a Title IX complaint against the college.

In addition, Garrick founded the "Respect for Women Personally and Ministerially" in 2015, where she announced the Title IX complaint and argued prohibiting women from the pastoral ministry program was discrimination, according to the lawsuit.

The schools faculty eventually met with Garrick in April 2017, expressing concern about whether she supported Moodys doctrinal statement. Following the meeting, the college decided not to renew Garricks contract for the coming year.

Garrick filed a lawsuit in January 2018, which a district court initially dismissed, as the former faculty member claims arose from a disagreement she had with Moodys beliefs about women in ministry, according to Blomberg.

The court dismissed the suit to avoid interfering with an internal religious dispute; however, it allowed Garrick to amend her complaint and remove any references to religion.

While the former Moody employee refiled the complaint, Blomberg noted that most of the references to religion remained, as the complaint indicates that the dispute is due to a religious disagreement about whether women can serve as pastors.

In November 2021, however, the district court decided that the case could proceed to determine if Moody had discriminated on the basis of sex.

Blomberg explained to CP that this prompted the appeal to the Seventh Circuit, asking it to intervene. While the case was halted for a while due to a long procedural process, the attorney confirmed that it has been reinstated and is moving forward.

And basically, the issue is, can federal courts intervene and interfere in internal religious decisions about the ordination of religious leadership? he asked.

The attorney cited the case of Christian Legal Society v. Walker, which also dealt with the issue of a religious group having to potentially keep a staff member that rejects the ministrys beliefs and violates the organizations right to exist.

He also cited Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC, a Supreme Court case that recognized the First Amendments religious clauses provide religious groups with special solicitude, allowing them to choose the individuals who will carry out their mission.

And at that time, the EEOC, which is the federal agency charged with enforcing Title VII, among other laws, admitted to the court: It said, listen, Title VII could not be used to force the Catholic Church to have to reject its beliefs in the male priesthood or to require an Orthodox Jewish seminary to ordain women, Blomberg said. Obviously, the First Amendment wouldnt allow that.

Well, that's exactly the case we're facing today, and a federal court, unfortunately, has said that's not so obvious anymore, and we're going to force you to go through years of litigation just to vindicate what a decade ago before a unanimous Supreme Court was an obvious First Amendment right, he continued.

The senior counsel for Becket also stated that the outcome of the case could have massive implications for religious colleges and their ability to operate according to their belief systems.

He warned that if a claimant can take what a court has already recognized to be a religious dispute and bring the same religious institution before the court after changing a few words of the complaint  forcing the institution to spend thousands of dollars and go through years of litigation just to achieve the same result  then that empties the First Amendment and federal civil rights law of a lot of its religious freedom protections.

A lot of religious institutions can't afford that, Blomberg said. They can't afford the process of going through that. And if it's so easy to evade the First Amendment, then the First Amendment is going to lose a lot of its meaning.
Alabama library accused of religious discrimination for abrupt cancellation of Kirk Cameron event

An Alabama library is being accused of religious discrimination for abruptly canceling a book reading event featuring Christian actor and author Kirk Cameron.

Officials with the Huntsville-Madison County Library announced Thursday that the event featuring Cameron and another Brave Books author, Riley Gaines, and organized by Moms For Liberty was initially set to take place on Aug. 5 in a meeting room at the library.

But after officials say the See You at the Library events organizers reported 20 people would be at the reading, the library learned that event organizers are now expecting over 300 people, a number that far exceeds any meeting room capacity within the Huntsville-Madison County Library System, according to spokesperson Jay Hixon.

According to Hixon, the library consulted with Madison City police, fire and other officials and explored options to make the event logistically possible.

In a statement, the city of Madison said organizers with Moms for Liberty failed to apply for an event permit in advance, and it was determined that City resources cannot support an event of this size on such short notice.

Consequently, the library said they will be unable to host the event, and on Wednesday, officials notified both Moms for Liberty and Brave Books that the venue is no longer available.

The following day, attorneys with First Liberty Institute, a religious liberty legal organization, sent a letter to Cindy Hewitt, executive director for Huntsville-Madison County Libraries, urging her to reverse the decision.

The letter signed by First Liberty senior counsel Jeremy Dys alleged Hewitt canceled the event over security concerns linked to a potential protest.

We write to inform you that, should you persist in the cancellation of this event, you will have engaged in unlawful and unconstitutional religious viewpoint and content discrimination in violation of the Alabama Constitution and the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, wrote Dys.

Further arguing that it strains credulity to cancel an event that may be over capacity when library staff could simply operate on a first-come, first-serve basis, the letter said Hewitt censored our client.

Its unclear whether the city met First Libertys deadline of reversing their decision by noon Friday. A request for clarification from The Christian Post was not immediately returned as of Friday afternoon.

Cameron and Brave Books, his publishing company, have been hosting story hour events at various libraries throughout the country, inviting people to attend and hear the actor read his childrens book, As You Grow. The Christian-themed book teaches children about the biblical concept of the fruits of the Spirit.

And while hes seen some pushback from a few libraries and their personnel  including the Indianapolis Public Library, which has denied allegations that it discriminated against Cameron by denying his request to host a story hour  the former Left Behind and Growing Pains actor became emotional at another event in New Jersey in May.

Hosting his tenth story hour event at the Cherry Hill Library, Cameron cried tears of gratitude and hope as parents and children who were waiting in line for the event began to sing songs of worship and praise.

"When the overflow group of families  started their own worship service  think beautiful voices of children and strong declarations from moms and dads, hands raised, singing sacred songs of thankfulness and praises to God  filling the lobby, the staircase and expanding into the upper room [of the two-story library], I got emotional and began to cry," Cameron told Fox News.

In December 2022, Cameron revealed that over 50 public libraries declined to run a story hour program for the actor to read his book despite having hosted controversial drag queen story hour events.
Louisiana law requiring In God We Trust display in public school classrooms takes effect

A Louisiana law requiring classrooms in all public schools in the state to display the words In God We Trust has taken effect as a new school year is set to begin.

House Bill 8, signed into law by Louisianas Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards in June, took effect Tuesday. The measure passed the Republican-controlled Louisiana Senate with no votes cast in opposition and the Republican-controlled Louisiana House of Representatives voted to concur with the Senate-passed version of the legislation with no members opposing the effort.

The text of the law requires the program of instruction on patriotic customs to include instruction on the national motto, In God We Trust and for every school district in the state to display the phrase in each building it uses and in all classrooms in each school under its jurisdiction. It specifies the requirements for such displays as consisting of a poster or framed document that is at least 11 inches by 14 inches with the motto as the central focus of the poster or framed document and printed in a large, easily readable font.

House Bill 8 amends existing Louisiana law which merely requires public school districts to display In God We Trust in at least one location at each school. The requirement previously only applied to displaying the motto at any one location in each public school, as opposed to all public classrooms, and dates back to the 2019-'20 school year.

The newly effective law clarifies that public school districts do not have to spend their funds to purchase national motto displays, stressing that a governing authority may spend its funds or donated funds to purchase the displays and may accept donated displays.

In addition to public school districts governing K-12 education in the state, the law also applies to public post-secondary institutions.

While House Bill 8 did not register any opposition in the Louisiana Legislature, artist and separation of church and state advocate Chaz Stevens has expressed implicit disapproval of the push to include the national motto in each public school classroom in the state by launching a GoFundMe page titled Messin w Louisiana. The page seeks to raise funds to produce In God We Trust displays written in Arabic to challenge accepted Pelican State limits of religious expression and freedom of speech.

Stevens is offering to produce and ship posters displaying In God We Trust in Arabic and emblazoned with rainbow colors that have come to symbolize LGBT activism. The fundraiser expresses a desire to beat the evangelicals to the school wall.

Stevens fully expects legal challenges to his efforts and noted that he has retained an attorney. As of Friday afternoon, the fundraiser has raised $687 out of a $25,000 goal.

Louisiana is not the first state to pass a law requiring the display of the national motto at public schools. Texas enacted a similar measure in 2021 while Tennessee lawmakers approved such a bill three years earlier. Other states that require schools to display the national motto include Arkansas, Kentucky, South Dakota, Utah and Virginia. Mississippi law requires the display of In God We Trust in all classrooms, school auditoriums and cafeterias at public schools throughout the state.
Pastor, wife and 3-year-old son jailed on charges of luring innocent people to Christianity

A pastor, his wife, and young son have been jailed for allegedly luring innocent people to Christianity in violation of an anti-conversion law in Uttar Pradesh, Indias most populous state where Christians only make up less than 1% of the 200 million population.

The pastor, Harendra Singh, and his wife, Priya, were arrested by the police and jailed along with their 3-year-old son on July 31 after they were accused of hosting a prayer meeting in their home located in the town of Haidargarh, a report from the Union of Catholic Asian News said.

Even though the pastor had denied the allegation that he was luring innocent people to the Christian faith, the family was arrested for violating Uttar Pradeshs Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021. Their young son had to be jailed with them because, in India, children up to 6 years old are frequently forced to live with their incarcerated parents, especially their mothers, UCA said.

It is unfortunate that their 3-year-old son also had to go to prison with them, Dinanath Jaiswal, a social activist assisting persecuted Christians, told the publication.

Even though Indias Constitution guarantees religious freedom to all persons, Uttar Pradeshs state legislators explained in a copy of the law that their anti-conversion statute was necessary to protect gullible persons.

In the recent past many such examples have come to light where gullible persons have been converted from one religion to another by misrepresentation, force, undue influence, coercion, allurement by fraudulent means, state legislators said.

Despite violating international human rights law, 12 of Indias 28 states, including Uttar Pradesh, have anti-conversion laws as of February, according to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. The others are Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand.

How these laws are enforced across each state varies. Some states enforce the laws while others, like Uttar Pradesh, are still actively charging violators. Some states without these laws are also considering introducing them.

Under Uttar Pradeshs Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021, no person shall convert or attempt to convert another individual, directly, or otherwise, by misrepresentation, force, undue influence, coercion, allurement or by any fraudulent means.

Violators of the law can be punished with a prison term of up to five years and fined 15,000 Indian rupees or $180.

Punishments are enhanced if an individual converts or attempts to convert a minor, woman, or person belonging to a Scheduled Caste or Tribe, or if a mass conversion in contravention of section three takes place, the USCIRF explains. The former is punishable by prison terms between two and 10 years and a fine of at least 25,000 rupees ($300); the latter is punishable by prison terms between three and 10 years and a fine of at least 50,000 rupees ($600).

Christian leaders told UCA that on July 30, 15 Christians, including three pastors, were arrested and jailed in separate incidents.

Pastor Amarjeet Ram and five others from Balapur village in Ghazipur district were also arrested and jailed for hosting a prayer meeting, and appeals to set them free have been denied.

In two other incidents, five Christians were arrested and sent to jail in Azamgarh district and two others in Jhansi district, Jaiswal, who said he is planning more court appeals, said. It is disgusting that people are being jailed for exercising their constitutional right to follow a religion of their choice.
Atheisms obsession with God: Is it cultural theism?

The amount of time that atheists dedicate to God is a bewildering paradox. They write massive books. They are constantly appearing on podcasts, video blogs, and platforms to discuss God. This obsession seems unjustifiable. How can so much time be spent denying a being that doesnt exist? Couldnt that precious time be utilized for solving humanitarian crises?



In 2006, an atheist published a lengthy book claiming that God is a delusion, with an arrogant comment that a religious believer who read it would become an atheist. Then in 2019, he wrote a copious guide on how to outgrow God. If God was already established as a delusion, why waste time instructing on how to outgrow Him? Perhaps G. K. Chesterton was right, If there were no God, there would be no atheists.

The atheist preoccupation with God doesnt seem to be sensible. The term atheist should be replaced by a more befitting term. God remains compelling and so atheism prefers to deny Him at every opportunity because it desires a world without Him. Its not strictly about science, reason, or evidence (I have argued this point elsewhere).

Thomas Nagel, whom I respect, desired a world without God. He expressed his honest sentiments:

I want atheism to be true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers. It isnt just that I dont believe in God and, naturally, hope that I am right in my belief. Its that I hope there is no God! I dont want there to be a God; I dont want the universe to be like that. [1]

This longing might help to explain contemporary atheisms inordinate fascination with God. In other words, it experiences God as a compulsion that necessitates a reaction. The conflict is more noteworthy than how its often caricatured.

Note Michael Shermer who is the editor-in-chief of the magazine, Skeptic, and a likeable person. As a teenager in the 70s, he once professed faith in Christ. In 2009, he wrote:

I have spent my entire adult life thinking about God  30 plus years cogitating on a being that may or may not even exist. Although I am no longer a believer, I still think about him more than I care to admit. Once I stopped believing in God in the late 1970s, I thought that the whole issue of Gods existence or non-existence would simply fall by the way side ... And yet for a concatenation of reasons involving both my personal and professional lives, God just wont go away. [2]

If a chief skeptic has spent his entire adult life thinking about God, I believe its likewise for many atheists. God just wont go away. No, God is never going away. So the only way for atheism is to focus on ousting Him. With equal rigor, open-minded skepticism should apply its interrogating skills toward the tenets of atheism, but it prefers not to. God becomes the exclusive object of criticism, and bias restricts a path toward discovering Him.

Another atheist attempted some clever intellectual maneuvering to explain God as a natural phenomenon. In his voluminous book, Daniel Dennett identified believe in belief in God among atheists. He wrote:

People who believe in God are sure that God exists ... because they hold God to be the most wonderful of all things. People who moreover believe in belief in God are sure that belief in God exists (and who could doubt that?) ... It is entirely possible to be an atheist and believe in belief in God. Such a person doesnt believe in God but nevertheless thinks that believing in God would be a wonderful state of mind to be in, if only that could be arranged. [3]

For me, these mental gymnastics could even be described as cultural theism. That is, God is acknowledged practically by atheism and its pre-determined methodology establishes a culture of denial. Or its a naturalized theism whereby God must remain within specific atheistic parameters. Regardless, God is inescapably part of atheisms experience and so the term atheist has evidently become a rigid misnomer.

Nevertheless, atheism often explains the belief in God as natures wiring of the mind, with a preposterous anecdote that humanity created Him. If so, how did nature wire some to deny that belief? Its illogical to equivocate on natures wiring and have it both ways. Moreover, how did humankind ever come to a consensus on making up God? The truth is that people concocted these naturalistic ideas of God, and atheism prefers them. Its convenient, but there remains a pesty existential conflict that seems to haunt atheism. A strictly atheistic worldview is failing in its suppression of God, and that is why cultural theism is emerging.

As a Christian, I speak for my faith and its unique Gospel message. Thus I encourage cultural theism to open up and consider the real connection to God through Christ, as multitudes have attested throughout the ages. Why not explore inner sentiments about God as emanating from Him? Some atheists reading this are probably thinking, nice try, but what about those who professed Christian faith and turned unbelievers? No person who truly comes to Christ can ever leave Him (John 10:1-18).

By the way, those books I mentioned in the intro were written by Richard Dawkins. He wrote another book in 2009 and dedicated it to Josh Timonen, his former right-hand man. Well, Timonen resigned and has professed faith in Christ. It seems that claiming God as a delusion and teaching how to outgrow Him are personal desires.

[1] The Last Word (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), 130-31. Italics are mine.

[2] How to Think About God: Theism, Atheism, and Science, In 50 Voices of Disbelief: Why we are Atheists, Russell Blackford and Udo Schuklenk, eds. (New York: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009), 65. Italics are mine.

[3] Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon (New York: Penguin Group, 2006), 221. Italics are in the text.
Foreign missionaries' visa fraud must stop in India

The missionary call in the 1970s and 1980s for short-term or long-term missionaries to go into nations to evangelize the world drew a great response.

It helped build the cross-cultural experience of young Westerners who went abroad with or without the proper missionary visas. This transformed many lives, but especially the lives of these young workers.

Heres a hard truth, though: Tourist and business visas were abused in that Westerners carried out missionary work without declaring themselves as missionaries.

It didnt take long before nations like China, India, Iran and Indonesia, and many others in the Middle East, discovered these tricks and they did not take kindly to this abuse of the visas given to foreign travelers. It was easy for the missionaries: they were kicked out safely to return to their home countries. But it wasnt so easy for those locals they sought to inspire. For years, many of them would be accused of being agents of a foreign power.

India clamped down heavily on this and went to the extent of even stamping not for missionary work on those visiting India for tourist and business purposes, on every visa.

Governments effectively changed the visa laws in order to stop this abuse. And now, skepticism of Christians is something the local church in India deals with in different ways, every day.

Recently, I have personally been involved in dealing with a group of Western missionaries who are part of a major international missionary agency that engages in missionary work in direct contravention of the law. I cant emphasize enough how this kind of abuse of the system affects the nationals at work in the nation.

How could this honor God? How could Western Christians believe God condones such deceptive practices? When foreign Christians exit these countries, it is the locals who have to answer the questions, and they are the ones that suffer guilt through association.

The words and terms used by Western missionaries also cause problems. For example, conversion and unreached people groups are dangerous words in the majority world. They carry the notion of foreign intervention in changing the local population, its culture, and its demographics. In todays world, this is considered a political act.

The international group I have been dealing with does not seem to care about the enormous threat and risk to nationals when foreigners carry out clandestine missionary work.

The group of missionaries is simply unwilling to let go and let God carry out His work through nationals. And, by the way, using proxy paid nationals should not be considered working with nationals.

Foreign mission organizations need to understand that the world has changed. This isnt the 70s anymore. Furthermore, this recklessness makes it all too easy for critics of Christianity to argue that religion is the product of white, Western colonialism. Of course, we know it isnt. Christianity is the most diverse, global movement in human history.

But who would know, since international groups continue to perpetuate the colonial model of missions. They consider themselves some kind of extra-judicial authority over national governments, determining what is right and wrong in terms of engaging in missionary work and visa regulations.

The era of missionary adventurism must end. We live in a global world, and furthermore, a digital world. Local governments can quickly access information, and there are consequences for breaking the law.

Whats more, there are also cases of missionaries acting like businesspeople, yet they are not truly involved in operating a business. There are also recurring cases of unqualified and untrained medical personnel doing medical work in most of the world as well.

In recent years, I have received calls either from overseas or from a local police station, where I am told of yet another foreigner getting arrested and in trouble because of missionary misadventure. Theyre usually looking for help. After assessing the particular situation, I almost always tell them to plead guilty and get out.

The other option is to be held in India for a long period of time, fight the case with the Indian government, which they are most likely going to lose.

We need to turn the church upside down. Its time for the Western church to learn from Asian and other non-Western churches. Stop trying to save us and then rely on us to save you when you break our laws.

With the world and the global Church dramatically changed, we need a new kind of engagement that not only respects local culture but local laws. Christians in the Western world need to let churches in other nations determine what is best for their church and their nation.

In the meantime, Im urging all Christians to end every kind of clandestine missionary work that abuses local laws.
Is lady justice still blind?

I must confess that I have never penned a column with a heavier heart. My beloved country, the United States of America, is in trouble.

We are in the early stages of what I strongly suspect will be a presidential campaign unlike any other in American history. The overruling Republican frontrunner at present is Donald Trump, a former president (2017-2021) who is now under multiple indictments by the Federal Justice Department which is under the authority of his most like opponent, President Joe Biden.

The prospect of a national partys candidate for president campaigning while juggling court dates is so bizarre that I suspect even a cocaine-addicted Hollywood director (if he were not on strike) would reject it as implausible. Nevertheless, it is happening.

The idea that the candidates general election opponent is likely to be the president who has directed the Justice Department to indict him would make the plot even more bizarre. Nevertheless, it is happening.

When you add to the mix that the current Democrat candidate (Joe Biden) is now laboring under the looming shadow of what gives every indication as shaping up to be one of the greatest corruption scandals in the history of Washington and that is saying a lot (Jonathan Turley, a non-Trumpister). Nevertheless, its happening.

Then you add the fact that President Biden gives every indication of throwing as many charges as he possibly can at his purported opponent in order to overshadow the skeletons in his own closet and you have a truly toxic brew adding to the implausibility of the plot. Nevertheless, it is happening.

Former Democrat Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (2013-2021) and former presidential candidate (2020) stated it candidly:

A death rattle of any democracy is when a sitting president uses the state security apparatus to go after political opponents and cover up lies and crimes committed by himself or his family. Biden is doing that now. His actions make it clear he believes himself to be not the enforcer of the law but the exception to it.

Why would former Representative Gabbard come to this conclusion?

On June 7, 2021, under significant congressional pressure, the FBI released documents alleging that the Bidens took a $10 million bribe from Burisma.

On June 8, Special Counsel Jack Smith indicted former President Trump in the Mar-a-Lago documents case.

On July 26, Hunter Biden goes to court and rejects the sweetest of sweetheart plea deals after the presiding judge discovered a paragraph that would have given him blanket immunity from future prosecutions.

On July 27, Special Council Smith added more charges to the Mar-a-Lago indictment.

On July 31, Hunter Bidens former business partner testified before Congress that President Biden participated on over 20 phone calls with Hunter Bidens business partners and that Burisma business executives pressured them to fire the prosecutor (an accomplishment Biden is on film bragging about having accomplished).

On Aug. 1, Smith indicted Trump for the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol and claimed Trump didn't really believe he won the 2020 election.

It seems clear to me that Gabbard has a point. I find myself asking the question, Just how gullible do the Bidens think the American people are?

Perhaps the most ominous development in this federal government's departure from the rule of law is the latest indictment against former President Trump. As George Washington University Law School professor and First Amendment scholar Jonathan Turley put it, This is a free speech-killing indictment. ... I have rarely seen a more chilling thing by the Department of Justice ... what they are attempting to do is criminalize what they consider to be disinformation.

As Trump's attorney John Lauro described it, former President Trump is being criminalized for questioning whether the 2020 election was conducted in a proper manner. Mr. Lauro declared: Were going to be representing not just President Trump, but every single American that believes in the First Amendment and believes in your ability to redress and bring grievance to Congress.

Even allowing for the fact that Mr. Lauro is Trumps defense attorney and thus far from impartial, he has a very valid point. Why would Jonathan Turley label this indictment a free-speech killing indictment? One need only examine the indictment itself to answer that question.

The indictment hinges on the assertion that then-President Trump knew he did not win the 2020 election and thus knowingly conspired to overrule the 2020 election. I know many people told President Trump that he did indeed lose the election. However, other people, including attorneys, told him otherwise.

If indeed Trump did think he actually lost the election, how would you prove it? You have to prove state of mind and intent. I have no trouble personally believing that former President Trump still believes he actually won the 2020 election, just as Hillary Clinton still argues that she won the 2016 election. Are we going to criminalize opinions with which the government disagrees? Are we going to start indicting attorneys for giving legal advice with which the current government disagrees? If we are, we are trampling the First Amendment free speech guarantees into sawdust.

We are treading on truly dangerous ground. As Allen Dershowitz, distinguished Harvard law professor (and non-Trump supporter) so admirably summarized it: The standards of morality and ethics have gone so low in America today for so many people, especially on both sides of the political spectrum, and the excuse they all have is, well, they did it first. Two wrongs do make a right. The victim is Americans who want to have a system of due process in place, and equal application of the law. Were very far from that today."

I am fearful that professor Dershowitz is unfortunately correct. We have unequal application of the law and Hunter Biden is the poster child for that argument. When I hear no one is above the law, usually referring to indictments of President Trump, I want to respond, True, but no one is below the law either!

The Biden Justice Departments jihad against a former president and current presidential candidate gives every appearance of being an attempt at political "knee-capping in the name of justice. By the way, why wait 31 months before this last indictment if it was not intended to distract from Bidens scandals and to disrupt the 2024 election?

As Americans, we are witnessing the deep-rending of the American political and social fabric and we are, or soon will be, discovering that the social fabric of a nation is far, far easier to rend than it is to mend. We are playing with fire here. It must stop. And only we the people can stop it. The hour is late.

Lady Justice is no longer blind. In fact, she is completely disrobed and exposed and she is no lady.

We must all covenant together to listen to the better angels of our nature, and resist the temptation for retaliation.

If we do not, we can indeed lose this remarkable republic of the rule of law which is our priceless collective heritage. If that happens we will only have ourselves to blame. Let us pray that America does not perish from self-inflicted wounds.
A year on from the Lambeth Conference

This time, last year the University of Kent's campus was awash with bishops and their spouses  they gathered round picnic benches to study the Bible and sang as they sat under the trees. The formal proceedings took place in a huge marquee surrounded by a courtyard and a large resources area.

The long-awaited 15th Lambeth Conference had finally arrived. Due to take place in 2018, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, first delayed the conference in the hope that tensions in the Anglican Communion might lessen, and was then forced to postpone the 2020 event due to Covid-19.

Four years late and with only two-thirds of the bishops in attendance, the Archbishop of Canterbury opened the conference. He explained that his prayer for the event was simple: "That everyone here, whoever you are, wherever you have come from, observer, steward, ecumenical guest, bishop, bishop's spouse  whoever - whatever hopes and fears you may bring with you, that you leave with your heart full of desire for friendship with Jesus Christ."

In his video marking the first anniversary since the gathering, Welby looked back and remarked that those gathered at the Lambeth Conference had "offered and received hospitality from one another".

Christians meeting to offer one another hospitality and encourage one another to love the Lord Jesus is a good thing  something that happens every day around the world - but surely one would hope that the legacy of the Lambeth Conference would be greater than that. It is, after all, one of four 'Instruments of Communion' that Anglicans have historically relied upon to maintain unity, and it is likely to have cost well over 5m.

Despite a third of the bishops boycotting the event, there were more than 600 bishops present from about 165 countries. So much could have been achieved, but the organisers of the Lambeth Conference could not risk public dissent so there were no resolutions and no votes (some may remember how the 'non-voting machines' disappeared very quickly). Instead, in a process reminiscent of the Delphi Method, the agenda was set, and the final words of the 'Calls' were chosen by carefully selected 'drafting groups'.

The final wording of the Calls published a few weeks ago, with very little change, suggests the discussions of the gathered bishops had very little impact - another indication of the impotence of the Lambeth Conference. It is now up to individuals, parishes and dioceses to read the Calls and do with them what they will.

There were, however, two interventions of significance. The first came before the Conference even began  the original draft of the Human Dignity Call stated:

"It is the mind of the Anglican Communion as a whole that same gender marriage is not permissible. Lambeth Resolution I.10 (1998) states that the 'legitimizing or blessing of same sex unions' cannot be advised. It is the mind of the Communion to uphold 'faithfulness in marriage between a man and a woman in lifelong union' (I.10, 1998)."

Leaders of the liberal churches were outraged, letters were written, Twitter stormed and before a single bishop had arrived in Canterbury a new version was published, reversing the original position and introducing plural truth to the whole Anglican Communion:

"Many Provinces continue to affirm that same gender marriage is not permissible. Lambeth Resolution I.10 (1998) states that the 'legitimizing or blessing of same sex unions' cannot be advised. Other Provinces have blessed and welcomed same sex union/marriage after careful theological reflection and a process of reception."

The second significant intervention came from the leaders of the Global South Fellowship of Anglicans (GSFA), represented by Archbishop Badi, who said at the time, "Today in Canterbury, we may be gathered together, but we most certainly cannot 'walk together' until provinces which have gone against Scripture  and the will and consensus of the bishops - repent and return to orthodoxy."

They wanted an opportunity for the bishops gathered at Lambeth to vote on whether Lambeth I.10 remained 'the mind of the Communion' but this was disallowed and instead the Archbishop of Canterbury announced that matters of human sexuality were now matters indifferent, the ultimate adiaphora, and ignoring the words of the GSFA he claimed that the bishops gathered at Lambeth were committed to "walking together", something which he had to admit later was untrue.

The decision of the Archbishop of Canterbury to ignore the views of the GSFA last year and then to ignore them again in February, when he encouraged General Synod to vote in favour of the Prayers of Love and Faith, have had catastrophic consequences for the Anglican Communion. The vast majority of Anglicans, represented by Gafcon and the GSFA, have rejected Justin Welby's leadership and are working out how to reset the Anglican Communion without him or the other Instruments of Communion.

In 2008, after the last Lambeth Conference, the Rt Rev Richard Ellena, Bishop of Nelson, New Zealand, said: "I believe that this has been the most expensive exercise in futility I have ever been to." He retired at the end of 2018, so was not invited to last year's omnishambles but a year on it seems that Lambeth 2022 has stolen that accolade.

Susie Leafe is director of Anglican Futures, which supports orthodox Anglicans in the UK.
Don't let leprosy surge spoil your holiday plans, says charity

A Christian charity is telling holidaymakers not to fear after reports that leprosy is on the rise in the US and may already be endemic in Florida.

A report published in the US-based Emerging Infectious Diseases journal reported 159 new cases of leprosy in the US in 2020. Nearly a fifth of reported cases were in Florida, a state that is popular with holidaymakers because of its many theme parks and beaches.

The findings have prompted the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to warn holidaymakers that "travel to this area, even in the absence of other risk factors, should prompt consideration of leprosy in the appropriate clinical context".

Chief Executive of The Leprosy Mission, Peter Waddup, has sought to reassure holidaymakers.

"While I appreciate this week's news could cause worry for some, it's a really great opportunity for people to understand leprosy," he said.

"Leprosy is a disease of poverty that continues to destroy lives across Asia, Africa and South America. It is a disease that thrives where there is malnutrition, overcrowding and poor sanitation.

"To put the figures into context, there were 159 cases of leprosy found and cured in the US in 2020 compared with 65,147 in India alone."

He went on to say that leprosy is "only mildly infectious" and that over 95 per cent of people are naturally immune.

Leprosy Mission estimates that it would take a person living in extreme poverty with a leprosy sufferer for six months to become infected.

"It is important for holidaymakers to Florida, or anywhere in the world for that matter, to see the whole picture when it comes to leprosy. They should certainly not let it spoil plans for a happy time," he continued.

According to Leprosy Mission, leprosy has been completely curable since the 1980s using multidrug therapy. However, Waddup raised concerns that some people returning to the UK with leprosy are not being treated quickly enough.

"Over the past few years there have been a handful of new leprosy cases diagnosed in the UK where people have become infected overseas," he said.

"Worryingly it has taken on average more than two years for these few individuals to be cured of leprosy after first flagging symptoms to their GP."

He said it was important that new cases are prescribed multidrug therapy "at the earliest stage" so that they can be "spared a life of disability by a prompt diagnosis and treatment".

"Leprosy is likely to first present as a discoloured patch of skin which can be numb to touch. It is our mission to find and cure everyone of leprosy at this early stage, before it goes on to devastate lives," he said.

"Leprosy shouldn't exist in the 21st century. It is tragically ignorance, a lack of healthcare and prejudice that see it blight the world's poorest communities today."
The week in which two worlds collided

The chasm between those living comfortably and those living in the world's poorest neighbourhoods has struck me afresh this week. Particularly as the two worlds have seemingly collided. Rather unusually, smack bang in the sunshine state of Florida!

It's always a little surreal to see leprosy hit the national and international news agenda. I always view this as a good thing though. So many people in the UK don't realise that leprosy remains a 21st century disease. It gives us a real opportunity to be a voice for this group of people, all too often pushed to the fringes of society.

No doubt, and quite understandably, many families will be left questioning their trip of a lifetime to Florida. Is it safe? Afterall the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's report on Monday states that central Florida could be an endemic location for leprosy. The report cites that there were 159 new cases of leprosy diagnosed in the US in 2020, with central Florida being particularly problematic.

Statistics can be misleading, can't they? This does sound alarming! Particularly as the CDC report goes on to say, 'travel to this area, even in the absence of other risk factors, should prompt consideration of leprosy.' An excited prospective visitor to Disney World Florida could certainly be forgiven for raising an eyebrow!

But to put this into context, there were 159 cases of leprosy found and cured in the US in 2020 compared with 65,147 in India alone.

Leprosy is a disease of extreme poverty. It thrives where there are overcrowded and poor living conditions. A lack of sanitation and poor nutrition weaken the immune system leaving people susceptible to this terrible disease. As our teams understand it, a person would need to live in extreme poverty for six months with someone with the disease to become infected.

The irony is that while the chances of us catching leprosy in Florida are negligible, at least if we were to catch it, we could access healthcare.

I have been humbled so many times during visits to Africa and Asia. Sitting with people who have travelled night and day to reach a Leprosy Mission hospital. Many had suffered by then heart-wrenching rejection from their families after suspecting the disease. Yet because of the kindness of a stranger in the UK, who they had never even met, they were given a glimmer of hope. They had heard about these special hospitals that wouldn't turn anyone away. That they wouldn't even need to find or beg for money for treatment! Even perhaps that they would be loved as the special people they are, made in God's own image.

The wait at the hospital pharmacy for Multidrug therapy, the antibiotic cure for leprosy, is a time for big emotions. There is the reassurance that this will stop the disease in its tracks. But for those who have already developed disabilities, what does the future hold? Will they be able to work again? How will they even survive? And toughest of all, will they ever be allowed to see their beautiful children's faces again.

I have sat and wept with too many people at this overwhelming juncture in their lives. Humbled and yet secure in the knowledge that my circumstances in the UK are a million miles from theirs, catching leprosy is the last thing on my mind. I can simply do what our supporters do each time they give, offer what comfort I can during their greatest hour of need.

The ever-widening gap between the world's richest and the world's poorest was at the very crux of this week's news agenda. Why are we not hearing about the 65,147 diagnosed with leprosy in India in 2020? Or perhaps, even more worryingly, that for every one of these people, there are a hidden 19 people who we desperately need to find and cure of leprosy.

It prompted me to look at the verse given to me by The Leprosy Mission's trustees at my commissioning service back in 2017. It made me thankful that this news story had reminded me of my responsibility to act justly for these people so precious to God.

'And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God' (Micah 6:8 NIV).

Peter Waddup is Chief Executive of The Leprosy Mission
This data coming in through the machine sensors, assembly lines and nifty components ensures that the entire team doesnt need to be on the shop floor to know what is going on. It allows us to perform timely remote intervention on the alerts and signals received, thus supporting the on-site engineer.

IoT software in the machines connected to the sensors gives information on the strength or durability of the brakes while the locomotive is in use. There is an initiative to develop autonomous locomotives as well, which we are very confident about executing skilfully on fixed tracks.

Technologically, were looking at drone-based monitoring of railways in the future. This would help track maintenance, yard planning and oversee the whole track area during flooding and other natural calamities.

We are bringing these new technologies to India too, because railways are such an integral part of the country and its economy. The largest budget proposals were made by railway ministers this year, under the leadership of Ashwini Vaishnaw, the Minister for Railways and Information Technology.

What are some of the steps that you are taking to foster a culture of innovation and experimentation amongst the employees and customers, and encourage them to move towards digital transformation in in their work?

There can be parts of the industry which are still working on redundant legacy systems. For instance, some software developers still use Windows 2007 servers, which are completely end-of-life, and dont have the necessary security patches.

Thus, we insist on customers to upgrade, because if someone sitting in a faraway location is using our software but havent upgraded underlying operating systems of the locomotive, then it poses a security risk.

Even with the all the essential security upgrades, the cyberthreat has been real in the last 2 years, and everybody has become more sensitive to it. Customers including private and government counterparts question us when it comes to the safety of their data.

Ultimately, we are as much a technology company as we are a locomotive company. The board is committed to this too, evident by the increased investment just around cybersecurity.

Our strong CTO structure and advanced technology teams are committed to problem solving. We are asking the right questions  about what railroads will look like in the future, and how the design of the locomotives needs to evolve.

Were using generative AI use cases to train the drivers to fix problems. We allow a lot more freedom of experimentation for our engineers, which helps us raise our innovation standards while still protecting the production environment where the customer is running their locomotives.

What does sustainability look like for WABTEC India? What are the steps youre taking as part of the leadership to ensure that the sustainability goals are met?

As a major transportation player in the industry, we have signed up to reduce the carbon footprint generated by locomotives and passenger trains.

We have also launched programs like Winnovate, under which teams aim to solve age-old problems, like new designs for battery cooling, or a particular recent innovation which is a novel system to capture and repurpose the tremendous heat energy that is released when you deconstruct a locomotive or a huge train and putting it back into the battery.

We have a chief sustainability officer, and were making efforts in green technology, hydrogen fuel cells, bringing down diesel consumption and now, manufacturing electronic locomotives as well. In India, the mandate dictates that by 2030, we need to shift to electronic locomotives.

When you reflect on your career, whats a decision that youve taken during your tenure that youre most proud of?

I believe that stretching myself to reset every time I embarked into a new domain is something that I am very proud of. Whether it was dabbling in network, chemicals, data projects, power plants, or locomotives, Ive changed several teams and have ensured that I emerge successful in my domain so that people can vouch for my expertise.

Earlier, a business leader would simply delegate an IT intervention to somebody down in the department and cease to be involved after that. I have been triumphant in gaining the confidence and involvement of the senior leadership in IT endeavours. I have developed a keen sense of foresight for impending mistakes or failures. Now, I do not launch projects till I have buy-in from the leadership. My vast experience enables me for these nuances of the role.
Increased sales of NEVs to accelerate demand amid country's dual carbon objectives Charging piles for electric vehicles expanded at a rapid pace in China during the first half of the year on booming demand for EVs, industry data showed. More than 1.44 million charging piles were added from January to June, up 40.6 percent from the same period in 2022, the China Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Promotion Alliance said, taking the vehicle-pile ratio to 2.6:1. New energy vehicle sales in the country surged 44.1 percent year-on-year in the first half to nearly 3.75 million units. NEV output touched nearly 3.79 million units, rising 42.4 percent year-on-year, data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers showed. China's NEV sales had gone up from 1.37 million in 2020 to 6.89 million in 2022, it said. As EV demand has undergone sustained expansion in recent years, production and sales of charging piles are expected to climb further, ushering in greater opportunities for market players, said Lin Boqiang, head of the China Institute for Studies in Energy Policy at Xiamen University. Increased sales of NEVs will boost demand for charging stations and the industry may enter an era of high growth, he said. Charging stations have become an indispensable component for bolstering the competitiveness of NEV companies both at home and abroad, and many EV makers worldwide are already stepping up construction of charging piles. Tesla Inc, for instance, has built more than 1,600 supercharging stations and over 10,000 supercharging piles in China, covering all provinces, Lin said. EV startups including NIO, Li Auto and Xpeng are actively deploying charging stations to improve mileage efficiency and user experience. Traditional oil giants, such as China National Petroleum Corp, China Petrochemical Corp and China National Offshore Oil Corp, have also entered the sector to compete for a share of this lucrative market, which will, in turn, lead to increased competition, he said. The construction of charging infrastructure is still lagging behind sharp demand from the EV sector in China, said Essence Securities in a research note recently, adding that the current vehicle-pile ratio holds great potential for expansion. The government should step up construction of charging stations as support infrastructure for NEVs to alleviate range anxiety among consumers, it said. The government has steadfastly aided the development of the NEV industry in recent years, aiming to build a high-quality charging infrastructure system by 2030 to achieve the country's goal of reaching carbon neutrality by 2060. China has established the world's largest charging infrastructure system in terms of quantity and coverage area, providing strong support for the rapid development of NEVs, said the National Development and Reform Commission, the country's top economic regulator. The State Council, or China's Cabinet, released a document last month that detailed five major targets in building a high-quality charging infrastructure system by 2030, with extensive coverage, moderate scale, reasonable structure and perfect functions. According to the document, efforts will be made to optimize and improve the network. Convenient and efficient intercity charging networks and interconnected charging networks in urban agglomerations will be built, especially charging infrastructure in road networks between key cities. Efforts will also go toward enhancing the layout and construction of public charging infrastructure in rural areas, the commission said. Local governments should accelerate the distribution and construction of public charging infrastructure in rural areas, while promoting smart charging models and intelligent technologies, it said. The potential for growth of NEVs in rural areas is vast, surpassing that of even large cities, said Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the China Passenger Car Association. The NDRC said it would encourage NEV firms to develop economically practical vehicle models, including new energy cargo micro-vans, micro-trucks and light trucks, for the rural market.
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By Ivelin Radkov, Adobe

The Charity Commission has concluded its nine-year-long investigation into Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Britain (Watch Tower), taking the view that the charity is no longer the body responsible for safeguarding within Jehovah's Witness (JW) congregations.

The statutory inquiry was opened in May 2014 to examine the charity's handling and oversight of safeguarding matters such as child protection advice provided to individual JW congregations.

Following the merger of over 1,000 JW congregations into the Kingdom Hall Trust (KHT), the regulator ruled that KHT is now responsible for safeguarding JW beneficiaries, including children.

However, a regulatory compliance case into KHT, which was opened in February 2022, is still under way. The Commission is continuing to engage with KHT trustees to ensure adequate safeguarding policies are in place.

Engagement with Watch Tower began back in 2007

The Commission first began interacting with Watch Tower in 2007. Since then, JW congregations have revised and updated their safeguarding policies on several occasions.

In 2007, a statutory inquiry was launched into a JW congregation  London Mill Hill Congregation of Jehovahs Witnesses  as a result of historic abuse of 13 young people over a period of 13 years. The offences were committed by a member of a JW congregation.

This inquiry found that the congregation did not have a child protection policy, and one of the outcomes of the investigation was Watch Tower agreeing to develop a policy that was disseminated to all congregations.

Watch Tower disseminated a child protection policy to congregations in 2011.

In 2013, a former ministerial servant of a JW charity was convicted and the Commission sought advice from NSPCC on Watch Towers policy.

NSPCC found the policy to be at odds with UK legislation and guidance, so Watch Tower updated and recirculated the guidance.

In 2014, the Commission met with Watch Tower over concerns the policy did not address some of the issues raised by NSPCC.

At the time, Watch Tower did not tell the regulator that it was no longer responsible for drafting or disseminating such a policy. Neither did it direct the regulator to the organisation that would be responsible until much later, the report reads.

The regulator opened a statutory inquiry into the charity to investigate the handling of safeguarding matters, the administration and management of the charity and whether or not the trustees had complied with their duties under charity law.

The Commission's inquiry report concluded that while Watch Tower had had a role in disseminating JWs 2011 child protection policy, by 2017 it had no role at all in safeguarding, including the production, dissemination and practical implementation of the JW child protection policy.

The charity does not provide any services to children and no longer has a role in spreading spiritual guidance and advice to other congregations, the Commission found.

Charitys legal challenges delayed investigation

Throughout the latest inquiry period, Watch Tower launched several legal challenges which substantially constrained the Commission's investigation. The regulator's report states that the charity was not as straightforward or transparent as it should have been in relation to JW child safeguarding responsibilities.

At a tribunal in 2016, judge Alison McKenna said that Watch Tower had caused prolonged delays to the regulators investigation which created ongoing risks to children.

The Commission's inquiry report states that during certain phases of the investigation, the trustees communications were protracted, with the charitys responses often failing to provide the information requested or sufficient clarity to satisfy the inquiry, giving rise to further questions.

However, it added that there was insufficient evidence to conclude that these behaviours were deliberate attempts to obstruct.

Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse

JW organisations reported a total of 67 allegations between 2009 to 2019 against 67 individuals involved with the organisations to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA).

This included 25 allegations against elders, 32 allegations against ministerial servants and 10 people accused of abuse within an institutional context, such as abuse at a place of worship by a congregant or non-Jehovahs Witness.

IICSA published its report on Child Protection in Religious Organisations and Settings in 2021. It focused on a number of organisations, including JW.

Watch Tower: Nothing to suggest the trustees did anything other than cooperate with the inquiry

A spokesperson from Watch Tower told Civil Society that trustees were pleased the inquiry was over, and added: The Commissions report confirms that Jehovahs Witnesses have had a child safeguarding policy in place since 2011. That policy, which is updated periodically, builds on decades of published advice and guidance for families and congregations on the subject of child safeguarding.

Expert opinion evidence on the child safeguarding policy of Jehovahs Witnesses confirms that the current child protection policy of JW provides an adequate framework delivering what it sets out to achieve and that it offers clear guidance as to the circumstances which would give rise to making a report to civil authorities.

In addition, the Commission concludes that there is nothing to suggest the trustees of Watch Tower Britain did anything other than cooperate with the inquiry. In fact, during the inquiry the Commissions lead investigators repeatedly commended Watch Tower Britain in written correspondence for working collaboratively, contributing to productive meetings and fostering a spirit of cooperation. The trustees will continue with the important charitable activity of Watch Tower Britain.

Charity Commission CEO: Pleased this long-running inquiry has now concluded

Helen Stephenson, chief executive of the Charity Commission, said: We are clear that a charity must be a safe, trusted environment and that protecting people and safeguarding should be a governance priority for all charities, regardless of size, type or income. I am pleased that this long-running inquiry, which demonstrates the Commissions resolve and determination to ensure that safeguarding policy issues are addressed comprehensively by charities, has now concluded.

Our continuing regulatory compliance case involving the Kingdom Hall Trust aims to ensure that the KHTs safeguarding policies and procedures protect congregation members and those that come into contact with KHT.
Last summer, in a piece for CJR, Karen Maniraho spoke with writers who cover the internet and its subcultures. The best of these journalists are immersed in the internet but do not obsess over viral moments, which fly by too fast and seem, in isolation, to be trivial, she observed. By focusing on creators, communities, and the algorithm-based platforms that drive trends, these writers find ways to cut through the noiseand surface a deeper understanding of life, online and off. This summer has only reinforced the impression that everything online is ephemeralincluding the platforms themselves.

A timeline of the cascading social media dramas that led us to this point might begin last fall, when Elon Musk took charge of Twitter. For a while, Mastodon, an open-source alternative, looked poised to serve as a replacement; a number of journalists set up camp there. But Mastodon was complicated, intimidating, often uninviting. An array of other candidates saw an opening, including Bluesky (a product of Jack Dorsey, Twitters founder and former CEO), Spill (created by two Black former Twitter employees and described as a hopeful New Black Twitter), and, most recently, Threads (from Meta). Musk, meanwhile, blocked people without Twitter accounts from viewing the site and imposed a rate limit on the number of posts registered users could see. By early July, when Threads debutedwith more than a hundred million sign-ups in its first few daysMusk had challenged Mark Zuckerberg, Metas CEO, to a literal dick measuring contest and threatened to sue. So far, so puerile. But as Sriram Krishnana general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, a venture capital firm that has invested in Twitter, Reddit, and other social media companieswrote for the New York Times, This is more than just a tech founder cage match; it is the latest incident in a pattern of increasing chaos.

One platform stood at the center of the chaos. Twitter is hemorrhaging users and relevance, Taylor Lorenz declared, in the Washington Post. (Threads had an impressive start, she added, though TikTok still reigns.) Tucker Carlson, who had recently debuted a Twitter show, played to dwindling audiences. Within weeks, a crane rolled up to Twitters headquarters on Market Street, Casey Newton reported for his newsletter, Platformer. The crane was there to remove a sign from the buildings facade, marking the rebranding of Twitter as X. In keeping with Musks characteristic indifference to authority, none of this had been cleared beforehand with the city, Newton continued. The crane partially blocked the street, confusing passing robo-taxis. The San Francisco Police Department briefly intervened to stop the work in progress, but eventually relented. Newton called the name change intentional vandalism, writing, The old Twitter has been vanquished, it seemed to say. X marks the spot.

Confronted by a cornucopia of non-Twittersor, non-Xssocial media managers have been tasked with firing all burners; journalists are burned out. Some seemingly promising ventures have simply crashed and burned. Bluesky has gotten real toxic real fast, Ryan Broderick, who produces a newsletter called Garbage Day, reported. Nadira Goffe noted for Slate that, in 2020, Black people congregated on Clubhouse until the app disintegrated into a hellscape as it suffered from a lack of content moderation, which resulted in too many offensive and tired conversations, adding: Many Black Twitter members are afraid that Spill will devolve in just the same way. TikTok, which last week announced the arrival of its e-commerce business in the United Statessure to trigger both impulse purchases and regulatory concernshas now enabled users to share text posts. Youd be forgiven for forgetting that, earlier this year, ByteDance, TikToks parent company, brought a standalone Pinterest-meets-Instagram app to the US called Lemon8, which went briefly viral, then sputtered. For The Verge, Barbara Krasnoff compiled a list of Twitter alternatives, writing that no social network is forever.

As Rebecca Jennings, a senior correspondent for Vox, told Maniraho last year, Covering every little thing that goes super viral on TikTok is just like running on a treadmill. Because theyre all kind of the same. The same principle could apply to covering every bit of social-platform intrigue, every digital-media company pivot, every tech-exec feud. If the dynamics of online life have always been complex, the ways people communicate now seem to be increasingly fragmented. It can all be hard to sort through, though the approach that Jennings aims forto look for stories that help me explain something to people, or could be a bigger part of our future, or the way that we interactseems a wise one. You can read Manirahos piece on internet culture here.



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ICYMI: Meta let researchers study whether it stokes polarization. The results were polarizing.

Correction: A previous version of this post misidentified Ryan Brodericks newsletter.

Betsy Morais is the managing editor of CJR.
EEMSHAVEN, Netherlands (AP)  Tugboats towed a freight ship that burned for a week on the North Sea while carrying thousands of cars into a Dutch port on Thursday for salvaging, laying to rest fears that it could sink close to shipping lanes and a protected habitat for birds.

The Fremantle Highway was taken to the northern port of Eemshaven, the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management said. A boat that has special booms to clean up oil spills accompanied the nearly 200-meter-long (around 650- foot-long) vessel as a precaution.

The ship with 3,784 new vehicles, including 498 electric ones, on board caught fire on July 25 while traveling from the German port city of Bremerhaven to Singapore.

Much of the gray paint on the ships sides was gone, apparently scorched off by the heat inside the ship when the fire was raging.

The fire on the Fremantle Highway burned out of control for a week as it floated near busy North Sea shipping lanes and the shallow Wadden Sea, a UNESCO World Heritage-listed migratory bird habitat. Dutch authorities did not attempt to spray water onto the ship for fear of making it unstable.

The blaze put nerves on edge in the Netherlands and Germany, which shares the Wadden Sea with its neighbor.

The environment minister of Germanys Lower Saxony state, Christian Meyer, thanked Dutch authorities for making a quick decision on what do with the Fremantle Highway.

With the decision, the nail-biting and the worry that the cargo ship could break apart and still lead to an environmental disaster in our inestimably valuable Wadden Sea hopefully will end, Meyer said in a statement.

Curious sightseers gathered on a bridge and a seawall at the Eemshaven port as the freighter was being towed. It was not clear how long salvage work would take.

Port authority Groningen Seaports said it would work with local organizations to limit the damage to people and the environment as much as possible.

The ministry said Eemshaven, 215 kilometers (134 miles) northeast of Amsterdam, was chosen because it was close to the Fremantle Highway`s location in the North Sea and because of deteriorating weather conditions and the facilities the port offers for the salvage of the ship.

Meyer appealed to Germanys federal government to set a route further from the coast for ships transporting hazardous materials, including large car transporters.

The Dutch ministry said salvage experts have inspected most of the ship and there are no indications that the fire is still burning.

One crew member died and others were injured when the fire erupted. The crew of 21, all Indian nationals, and two other people on board were evacuated in the early hours of July 26. The cause of the blaze has not been established.

Associated Press writers Mike Corder in The Hague and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.

Top photo: Stricken cargo ship Fremantle Highway, that caught fire while transporting thousands of cars, including nearly 500 electric vehicles, from Germany to Singapore, is towed into the port of Eemshaven, the Netherlands, on Thursday, Aug. 3, 2023. The ship that burned for almost a week close to busy North Sea shipping lanes and a world renowned migratory bird habitat will be salvaged at the northern Dutch port. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Copyright 2023 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
A dump truck driver last year may have never seen an oncoming Amtrak train before it was too late, federal investigators concluded in a report, finding that a steep, poorly designed railroad crossing in rural Missouri contributed to last years fatal Amtrak derailment that killed four people and injured 146 others.

The National Transportation Safety Board said Wednesday that the 45-degree angle where the road crossed the tracks made it hard for the dump truck driver to see the approaching train, and the steep approach discouraged the truck driver from stopping beforehand.

The safest rail grade crossing is no rail grade crossing. But at the very least, every road-rail intersection should have an adequate design to ensure proper visibility so drivers can see oncoming trains, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said. Communities across the country deserve safer crossings so these types of accidents dont happen again.

The NTSB said the dump truck driver didnt stop before continuing through the crossing at a speed of about 5 mph. The train was travelling 87 mph (140 kph)  close to the 90 mph speed limit for the area in western Missouri  at the time of the collision.

The NTSB has previously said investigators didn`t find any problems with the train`s brakes or other mechanical issues.

The crossing near Mendon where the collision happened didnt have any lights or signals to warn that a train was approaching. Before the crash, area residents had expressed concerns for nearly three years about the safety of the crossing because of the lack of visibility. Another dump truck driver who witnessed the crash told investigators that he didnt typically stop at the crossing either because the steep grade of the gravel road entering the crossing made it hard to start up again.

The state Transportation Department had put the $400,000 project to add lights and gates at the crossing on a priority list, but it hadn`t received funding before the derailment.

The Mendon crossing was closed immediately after last year`s crash. State officials will announce a $50 million plan to upgrade rail crossings statewide along tracks that passenger railroads use Thursday. Those projects will focus on the 47 passive crossings on three tracks that carry passenger trains although the NTSB said last year that Missouri has about 3,500 crossings like that statewide.

Roughly half of all rail crossings nationwide  some 130,000 of them  are considered passive without any lights or arms that automatically come down when a train is approaching.

For years, the NTSB has recommended closing passive crossings or adding gates, bells and other safety measures whenever possible. The U.S. Transportation Department recently announced $570 million in grants to help eliminate railroad crossings in 32 states but that funding will only eliminate a few dozen crossings.

Federal statistics show that roughly 2,000 collisions occur every year at rail crossings nationwide, and last year nearly 250 deaths were recorded in car-train crashes.

The people killed in the Amtrak derailment included the dump truck driver, 54- year-old Billy Barton II, of Brookfield, Missouri, and three passengers: Rochelle Cook, 58, and Kim Holsapple, 56, both of DeSoto, Kansas, and 82-year- old Binh Phan, of Kansas City, Missouri.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol said up to 150 people also were injured.

The Southwest Chief was traveling from Los Angeles to Chicago when it hit the rear right side of the truck near Mendon. Two locomotives and eight cars derailed. The train had 12 crewmembers and 271 aboard.

Several lawsuits were filed against BNSF after the derailment because that Fort Worth, Texas-based freight railroad owns and maintains the tracks involved.

Amtrak and BNSF estimated that the derailment caused roughly $4 million damage to their equipment and tracks.

Top photo: An Amtrak train lies derailed after the train hit a truck at a crossing, June 27, 2022, near Mendon, Mo. The poor design of a rural Missouri railroad crossing contributed to the fatal Amtrak derailment in 2022 that killed four people and injured 146 others, the National Transportation Safety Board said Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2023. (Jill Toyoshiba/The Kansas City Star via AP, File)

Copyright 2023 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Lawyers for thousands of people who claim Johnson & Johnsons talc-based powders caused them to develop cancer on Wednesday urged a U.S. judge to temporarily block the company from seeking bankruptcy protection for a third time for its talc subsidiary.

J&Js attempt at resolving thousands of cancer lawsuits in bankruptcy court stumbled for a second time last week, when a judge ruled that the talc subsidiary, LTL Management, was not in the kind of immediate financial distress necessary to trigger bankruptcy protection.

While J&J intends to appeal that ruling, cancer claimants and the U.S. Department of Justices bankruptcy watchdog asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Michael Kaplan in Trenton, New Jersey, to block the company from filing for bankruptcy a third time for at least 180 days.

LTLs bankruptcy proceedings have largely paused the 38,000 lawsuits against J&J, although one case was allowed to proceed to a $18.8 million verdict in July. J&J has said its talc products are safe and do not contain asbestos.

During a Wednesday court hearing, LTL attorney Greg Gordon countered that the company would strongly resist any request to pre-judge a potential future bankruptcy before it could be filed.

But David Molton, an attorney for the official committee representing cancer claimants in LTLs bankruptcy, said that a temporary prohibition on new bankruptcy filings was appropriate, given LTLs repeated bankruptcy filings.

Kaplan, who dismissed LTLs second bankruptcy, said he was not inclined to block future bankruptcy filings because circumstances could change in the next six months. I just dont have a crystal ball, Kaplan said.

But the judge said he was open to further written arguments on that point before issuing a formal decision closing LTLs second bankruptcy case next week.

J&Js first bankruptcy gambit began in 2021, when it offloaded its talc liabilities into a new company via a corporate division known as a Texas two-step and immediately placed the new company into bankruptcy.

LTLs first bankruptcy was dismissed in April after a U.S. appeals court ruled that it was not in sufficient financial distress to be eligible for bankruptcy protection.

LTLs second effort, premised on a proposed $8.9 billion settlement of current and future talc lawsuits, met the same fate after Kaplan ruled that the company was still not in the kind of immediate distress required by the appellate courts ruling.
BEREA, Ohio -- A worker at Papa Johns, 114 Front St., was arrested early July 27 after he twice trashed the inside of the restaurant and smashed a window at a nearby Mr. Hero.

Someone at Papa Johns called police at about 10:45 p.m. July 26 and said the worker, a 20-year-old Cleveland man, was screaming and throwing restaurant equipment onto the floor.

When police arrived, they found food, containers, appliances, electronic equipment and shelving on the floor.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Minutes before jury selection was set to begin this week in a trial involving Catholic Charities, a judge removed his staff attorney from the case after learning that she had ties to a local organization that solicits millions of dollars in donations to Catholic Charities each year.

Cuyahoga County Common Please Court Judge Brian Mooney dropped staff attorney Lori Anne Dyke from participating at the request of the attorney representing the estate of 5-year-old Jordan Rodriguez. The child died in 2017 while his mother engaged in a food-stamp fraud with a Catholic Charities employee who failed to check on the family for months.

The hearing, which took place Tuesday in Mooneys chambers with a court reporter present, quickly became contentious and saw Dyke and an attorney representing Catholic Charities shout at Chicago-based attorney Jay Deratany, who is representing the boys estate, according to a copy of a transcript from the proceeding.

Youre so full of crap, Dyke told Deratany at one point, according to the transcript.

Even after Mooney removed Dyke from the case, the trial hit another snag on Thursday. Mooney agreed to halt the trial on the third day of selection so Deratany could tend to a medical issue. It will likely be several months before a new trial date is set.

Dyke and Mooney both declined to comment through a court spokesman, citing the ongoing case.

The wrongful death lawsuit, filed in 2019, seeks to hold Catholic Charities liable for the death of Jordan, whose body was discovered buried in the back yard of his mothers home in Cleveland.

The boys mother, Larissa Rodriguez, and her boyfriend, Christopher Rodriguez, pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and other charges and were sentenced to decades in prison. Larissa Rodriguez was enrolled in programming through Catholic Charities, whose former employee Nancy Caraballo was to conduct frequent home visits.

Caraballo later pleaded guilty in connection to a scheme in which she bought Larissa Rodriguezs food stamps at a discount and did not conduct the home visits. She filed false reports that said she had.

The lawsuit says that Caraballo, whose position required her to report child abuse and neglect to authorities, would have done so had she actually done her job. It also accuses Catholic Charities of failing to properly train and supervise her.

Catholic Charities has denied wrongdoing.

The issue that gave rise to the hearing in Mooneys chambers involved Dykes name appearing on a list of attorneys who were members of the Lawyers Guild of the Diocese of Cleveland in 2020 and 2021. The list is maintained by the Catholic Community Foundation. Bishop Edward Malesic is a member of the boards of the foundation and Catholic Charities.

While the Lawyers Guild has received support from the Catholic Community Foundation, as well as the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland, in terms of hosting the Guilds webpage, making staff members available to assist the Guilds leadership and providing meeting space, the Guild is independently managed by its officers and executive committee, a diocesan spokeswoman said in a statement.

The foundation manages the annual fundraising effort for Catholic Charities, and the same website that listed Dykes name as a member of the Lawyers Guild also featured multiple requests for donations to Catholic Charities.

The foundations annual report from 2021 showed that it raised more than $14.5 million for Catholic Charities during that years annual appeal.

A reporter for cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer noticed Dykes connection to the guild on Monday and asked a member of the plaintiffs team about it. The attorney did not answer, and the issue was not brought up in court.

Instead, Deratany asked Mooney before jury selection began Tuesday morning to discuss a sensitive issue in his chambers, outside the publics view. The judge granted the request.

During the nearly hourlong, closed-door hearing, Deratany acknowledged that his team learned about the issue from a reporter and believed Dyke should have disclosed her membership in the organization, the transcript says.

He also questioned whether Dyke, who as staff attorney advises Mooney on civil law, could be impartial on the case. Deratany said members of his legal team had seen Dyke rolling her eyes and shaking her head at Mooney while Deratany was making arguments, and she openly scoffed at him during a settlement conference before the trial began.

Deratany asked Mooney to either recuse himself from the case or remove Dyke from the case.

I have an ethical obligation to protect my client, Deratany said. I dont mean to insult the Court.

Dyke responded, Youre insulting me.

Dyke characterized the guild as nothing more than a Catholic bar association that has no connection at all whatsoever with Catholic Charities Corp., according to the transcript. She said she, as a Catholic, signed up to become a member and paid the $50 fee and listed civil as her area of practice. The group put her on the list.

The reporter doesnt know what theyre talking about, Dyke said. Its a reporter. They usually dont.

She also said that she cannot receive client referrals from the list because she is barred from private practice as a staff attorney.

She later told Deratany that she is Catholic and asked if he had a problem with that. Mooney told Dyke that we dont ask questions.

Deratany then accused Dyke of yelling at him.

I am yelling at you, she replied.

Mooney repeatedly sought to bring the rooms temperature down, scolding the attorneys not to speak over or interrupt one another. He also repeatedly told Dyke not to argue with Deratany.

You got to stop that, Lori, the judge told his staff attorney after she called Deratany full of crap.

John Patton, a defense attorney for Catholic Charities who is also from Chicago, accused Deratany of a last-ditch effort to get Mooney off the case because he made several rulings against Deratany in the previous two days. Patton also asked Mooney to order the reporter into chambers to give sworn testimony. Mooney declined the request.

Mooney took a break and spoke to Brendan Sheehan, the courts administrative judge, and looked into the organization, he said. He said he decided to remove Dyke from the case and asked for the court to provide him with a new staff attorney to handle the lawsuit. He declined to recuse himself and denied Deratanys motion for a mistrial.
LOS ANGELES, California -- Taylor Swift will perform her second show in the Los Angeles area tonight -- Friday, Aug. 4. This is the second of six shows in Inglewood, Calif., and the last city of the U.S. leg of The Eras Tour.

Swift is scheduled to perform at SoFi Stadium and the big third-party ticket websites still have tickets waiting for you. After the last show on Aug. 9, Swift will take a break before moving into the international part of her tour, which runs through 2024.

Swift is coming back to North America at the end of all of the international tour for 15 additional concerts, including Toronto, Canada, she announced Thursday afternoon on Twitter.

WHERE TO BUY TICKETS FOR FRIDAY, AUG. 4 CONCERT IN L.A.: Vivid Seats | StubHub | SeatGeek | TicketCity

Here are the cheapest single tickets I could find for tonights concert:

Vivid Seats: $330

StubHub: $342

SeatGeek: $305

Here are the remaining Los Angeles concerts and where you can buy tickets:

WHERE TO BUY TICKETS FOR SATURDAY, AUG. 5 CONCERT: Vivid Seats | StubHub | SeatGeek | TicketCity

WHERE TO BUY TICKETS FOR MONDAY, AUG. 7 CONCERT: Vivid Seats | StubHub | SeatGeek | TicketCity | MegaSeats

WHERE TO BUY TICKETS FOR TUESDAY, AUG. 8 CONCERT: Vivid Seats | StubHub | SeatGeek | TicketCity | MegaSeats

WHERE TO BUY TICKETS FOR WEDNESDAY, AUG. 9 CONCERT: Vivid Seats | StubHub | SeatGeek | TicketCity

Swift starts the international tour in Latin America from Aug. 24 until Nov. 26. She will then visit other countries and major cities. Tickets for Mexico City, Argentina, Brazil, Australia, Singapore and Paris are also available.

Swifts re-recorded Speak Now album dropped last month, in case you missed it!

Kaylee Remington is the commerce reporter for cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer. Follow her for deals, trends and breaking news in the shopping and entertainment industries. Read her work here.
JACKSON, Mississippi  Five deputies and a police officer accused of torturing and falsely arresting two Black men pleaded guilty to a litany of federal charges Thursday and now could be sentenced to decades in prison.

Brett McAlpin, 52, Christian Dedmon, 28, Jeffrey Middleton, 46, Hunter Elward, 31, and Daniel Opdyke, 27, all former members of the Rankin County Sheriffs Office, and Joshua Hartfield, 31, a former member of the Richland, Miss., Police Department, pleaded guilty to a total of 16 felonies, including civil rights conspiracy, deprivation of rights under color of law, discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence, conspiracy to obstruct justice and obstruction of justice, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Three of the defendants admitted in court they were members of The Goon Squad, a group of sheriffs department officers known for using excessive force and not reporting it.

The defendants in this case tortured and inflicted unspeakable harm on their victims, egregiously violated the civil rights of citizens who they were supposed to protect, and shamefully betrayed the oath they swore as law enforcement officers, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. The Justice Department will hold accountable officers who abuse the public trust that is essential to public safety.

Authorities say the two men assaulted, Michael Corey Jenkins, 32, and Eddie Terrell Parker, 35, were at a home in Braxton, Miss. USA Today reports Parker was taking care of a woman at the home and Jenkins was there temporarily. The woman is white and lives in a predominantly white neighborhood.

A neighbor reportedly complained to one of the officers about suspicious Black men staying at the home.

Prosecutors say that on Jan. 24, the six officers, with no warrant, kicked in the door of the home. The officers handcuffed and arrested the men, called them racial slurs and warned them to stay out of Rankin County.

The officers punched and kicked the two men, and used a Taser on them 17 times, and assaulted them with a sex toy, prosecutors say. They threw eggs on the handcuffed victims and forced them to lie on their backs while pouring milk, alcohol and chocolate syrup down their mouths. They forced the men to strip naked and shower to remove the evidence.

Prosecutors say at one point during the 90-minute ordeal, Elward secretly removed a bullet from his handgun, then forced it into Jenkins mouth and pulled the trigger. The gun did not fire, but Elward then racked the slide and pulled the trigger again, not expecting it to go off. The gun fired, with the bullet breaking Jenkins jaw and cutting his tongue before exiting out of his neck.

The shot left Jenkins bleeding on the floor, prosecutors say, but the officers did not help him. They instead went outside and began working a cover story. The officers planted a gun on Jenkins, and destroyed surveillance video, spent shell casings and Taser cartridges, prosecutors say.

In addition, the officers filed fake drug evidence and wrote up false crime reports on Jenkins, prosecutors say. They also lied to investigators and pressured witnesses to back their cover story.

Dedmon, Elward, and Opdyke also pleaded guilty Thursday to three additional federal charges, including deprivation of rights under color of law and discharge of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, in connection with a separate incident that occurred on Dec. 4, 2022. Prosecutors say Dedmon beat and tased a white man and fired a gun near his head to coerce a confession, while Elward and Opdyke failed to intervene.

U.S. District Judge Tom Lee said the men will be sentenced in mid-November. Dedmon and Elward each face a maximum sentence of 120 years plus life in prison and $2.75 million in fines. Hartfield faces a possible sentence of 80 years and $1.5 million, McAlpin faces 90 years and $1.75 million, Middleton faces 80 years and $1.5 million, and Opdyke could be sentenced to 100 years with a $2 million fine.

The defendants face state charges arising out of the same incident, including home invasion, aggravated assault, conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice, and obstruction of justice.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.
POWELL, Ohio  A man who had climbed onto a handrail during a cheetah exhibition Thursday at the Columbus Zoo was taken to a hospital after he fell into an enclosure.

The zoo says in a news release the man fell into an area that is not shared with animals, but a cheetah did notice the commotion and the man began calling for help. The zoo says the 3-year-old cheetah, named Adrienne, stayed with her trainer and was immediately secured.

The incident occurred at about 12:10 p.m. near the zoos Heart of Africas Watering Hole exhibit. The zoo says the area is used for Cheetah Run presentations and that other animals graze and gather there during the day.

Zoo officials first noticed a teen male had climbed into a tree behind a protective barrier during the presentation. Officials told the male to get out of the tree.

It was moments later that the adult male fell over the 42-inch handrail, landing 12 to 15 feet below. EMS workers at the zoo were able to help the man, who was taken to a hospital conscious and alert, the news release says.

Liberty Township Fire Battalion Chief Brian Niemet tells WCMH Channel 4 the man did not appear to have serious injuries.
SAN FRANCISCO  If you love chocolate chip cookies, theres a bakery in Lakewood known for having some of the best in the U.S.

Blackbird Baking Company in Lakewood, Ohio, was ranked among the Top 100 Chocolate Chip Cookies to Dip Your Milk Into, according to Yelp. Blackbird ranked 13 in Yelps top 100 rankings, the only Ohio bakery to make the list.

RELATED: Two Ohio restaurants named Top 100 Burger Spots in the US

Blackbird Baking Company boasts a beautiful selection of baked goods  featuring everything from sticky buns to scones, and brownies to breads. Their classic cookies are a popular treat to-go, and Yelpers rave about the perfect balance behind their salted chocolate chip cookie, Yelp writes in its chocolate chip cookie rankings. Husband and wife duo Tom and Adria Clark say their goal when starting this West Cleveland bakery was to be the living room of the neighborhood, and we think theyve done just that. You cant go wrong with anything from Blackbirds regular menu, but be sure to call ahead or visit their website if youre interested in some of their seasonal offerings like the Campfire Bar, or the Cherry Almond Levain bread.

Located at 1391 Sloane Avenue in Lakewood, Blackbird opened in June 2009. The bakery is open 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day, and offers a variety or pastries, breads, coffees, teas and more.

RELATED: Two Ohio doughnut bakeries named Top 100 US Donut Shops 2023

While Blackbird ranked 13th on Yelps list of best chocolate chip cookies, just outside of the top 10, the Top 10 Chocolate Chip Cookies to Dip Your Milk Into are::

1.) Zenaidas Cafe in Las Vegas

2.) B Patisserie in San Francisco

3.) Ariscault Bakery in San Francisco

4.) Levain Bakery in New York City

5.) Annies Sweet Oven in Sylmar, Calif.

6.) Gideons Bakehouse in Orlando, Fla.

7.) Antoines Cookie Shop in San Mateo, Calif.

8.) specialTEA Lounge in Miami

9.) Ginger Elizabeth Chocolates in Sacramento

10.) Buds in Salt Lake City

Yelps full list ranking the Top 100 Chocolate Chip Cookies to Dip Your Milk Into can be found online.
CLEVELAND, Ohio  Keith LaMar knows he could die in a state prison. What he is unsure of is whether it will be at the hands of an executioner.

LaMar has spent nearly three decades on Ohios death row after being convicted of helping to kill five inmates during the Lucasville prison riot in 1993. Before that, he was serving an 18-years-to-life term after pleading guilty in 1989 for fatally shooting a man in Cleveland.

It is hell in here. Youre just waiting minute-by-minute. But I am going to make the minutes count, LaMar, 54, said in a phone interview with cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer from the Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown.

Last month, Gov. Mike DeWine rescheduled Lamars execution from Nov. 16 to Jan. 13, 2027, citing the states ongoing problems with acquiring lethal-injection drugs. Companies have refused to sell products to the state if the drugs are used in executions.

That has left the states harshest penalty in a yearslong holding pattern. An inmate has not been executed in Ohio since 2018, when inmate Robert Van Hook was put to death at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville.

Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C., said it is likely that more executions will be delayed.

Currently, 123 inmates are on Ohios death row, making it the sixth largest in the country, according to the center, which provides information on the issue but does not take a stance on it. Twenty-two of those to be executed are from Cuyahoga County.

The case of LaMar offers insight into an inmate on death row whose case has dragged on for decades. He said he fears his life ending during an execution. But he has attempted to champion his innocence through social media and supporters. He has exhausted his appeals, though his attorneys are working to bring the case back before judges.

In court documents, prosecutors said LaMar was not part of the planning of the riot. But once gang leaders gained control of the prison, LaMar led a death squad, which went from cell to cell killing inmates with bats and shovels, according to court documents prosecutors filed. The groups members sought out those inmates who had been deemed to be prison snitches, the records show.

A jury convicted LaMar in the deaths of Darrell Depina, William Svette, Albert Staiano, Bruce Vitale and Dennis Weaver. He was one of five sentenced to death from the riot, as he joined Carlos Sanders, George Skatzes, Jason Robb and James Were.

LaMar denies the allegations.

He told cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer that he had no role in the deaths during the 11-day siege in which nine inmates and Robert Vallandingham, a prison guard, died.

Advocates for inmates have long said prosecutors and state investigators relied heavily on prisoners who offered information in exchange for leniency. In court documents, LaMars attorneys said prosecutors improperly withheld evidence at his trial, a claim appellate courts have denied.

LaMar has gained a following with activists and attorneys who say he is innocent. They maintain that he was just a witness to the attacks.

In 2021, a number of jazz musicians released the album, Freedom First Jazz, which puts music, poetry and words from LaMar to promote the Justice for Keith LaMar movement.

Most recently, he was featured on the Wrongful Conviction podcast, which highlights conversations with incarcerated people who maintain their innocence.

Several people who have spoken on the podcast have been exonerated. Jason Flom, an activist and host of the podcast, hopes the same for LaMar.

Pressure breaks pipes, Flom said. So many people have rallied behind this cause. It is awakening a new generation of people and a new army of people that will rally behind Keith and hopefully many others. Maybe together, well be able to extricate Keith from this 30-year nightmare.

Before DeWine delayed the execution date, LaMar said he had not done anything to prepare for his death, nor does he plan to.

You never know how youre going to go, he said. Were all going to die eventually. I could die in my sleep tonight or I could die from someone in here stabbing me. I havent done any type of preparation for when my time comes.

He said he spends his time in prison trying to better himself. He reads, writes and works on a painting to give to his nephew. Lately, he has been listening to music from Elvis Costello, specifically his Imperial Bedroom album.

When he has the opportunity, he said, he likes to speak with young people about his life experience in hopes of helping them. He said he did not have any help as a child.

I was in my first apartment when I was 12, he said. I was selling drugs in the most dangerous parts of Cleveland as a means of survival.

LaMar said he does not feel like he has been treated differently by other inmates or guards since his sentencing in 1995. He also said he does not think about his execution date often, even though he is terrified to die.

I dont know what happens after death. I try not to think about that but instead think about the present. Stay in the moment because thats all we have, he said.

LaMar said despite his fear, he does not resent the executioner who might end his life one day.

Its all just much bigger than that, he said. It would be a waste to hold onto any anger toward anyone for this.
For the series known as Clevelands Promise, the Cleveland Metropolitan School District gave two reporters, Hannah Drown and Cameron Fields, unprecedented access to classrooms at Almira Elementary School to show readers how teachers overcome the challenges of educating children whose lives are complicated by poverty. The following piece was written by Mrs. Sharon Lenahan, the fourth-grade teacher who hosted Hannah and Cameron in her classroom for the first year of Clevelands Promise.

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- As cleveland.coms special project Clevelands Promise came to a close last month, I sat back and thought that something was missing. That there was a piece of the puzzle lost within the articles. A story that I wanted to write. A story told through my eyes, about two reporters, who came to write about students within the city of Cleveland and came out as warriors, with a valiant effort for change.

As a classroom teacher of about 24 fourth-grade students, its hard to really get to know all of them. Our first goal is to build a rapport. Build relationships. And I do that. But to know what they go home to and what life is like beyond the walls of Almira Elementary School, is something different. We would like to believe that these sweet, innocent, beautiful children go home, and someone is there to greet them with a hug, a plate of food and a helpful hand, if its needed for homework. But we know thats not always the case. And not just in Cleveland, but everywhere, every district.

When Hannah and Cameron first started in my classroom, one of the first things they did was build their own relationships with my students. They interviewed them, one at a time, spent time with them on their classwork, went to lunch and recess with them. They eventually went to a few homes and spent time with the whole family. And thats right about when those two reporters realized how different life was for some.

Hannah, a powerful force, began to make note of everything fourth-graders Sophia and Grace were saying. These girls began to confide in Hannah, and she was always there, listening. Hannah confided in me about problems at home with Sophia, and it was very clear that action needed to be taken to help this little girl and her sister. Change was made on a very large scale. That school year was so pivotal for Sophia. As the life she knew unfolded and became very scary for a time, Hannah was there for her. Everyday. As I continued to power through with Sophias schoolwork and getting her caught up from days missed, Hannah was there, like a big sister, to hold her hand through probably the worst days of her little life. It was the Butterfly Effect in action -- just as Hannah had written in her personal reflection, closing the series. But Hannah was the butterfly that with the tiny breeze of a proverbial butterflys flapping wings, could, somewhere, eventually stir a typhoon.

And Grace, that soft spoken sweetheart. Little did I know that she was going to a home of complete disarray. Mold, holes in the ceilings, filth. When Hannah came back from visiting Grace at home, new clothes were immediately being brought in. Help was on the way. New sheets and bedding were donated. Bags and bags of clothes were being taken home. Grace was so happy, more confident. Something so many of us take for granted. To have clean clothes. It was the Butterfly Effect. Hannah, again, was that butterfly that with a single act of support or compassion can unleash a chain reaction of transformative moments, altering the path of a childs life and clearing the way for a future in which their potential  their promise  can be realized.

And Cameron  hes going to be a teacher! A perfect fit. Cameron came to Almira as a reporter, and he left inspired to pursue a new calling in education.

When the school year was ending, I asked fifth-grader Paul what he would miss most. After having Cameron in his life for almost two years, Paul said with a smile, Im gonna miss him. Hes my best friend. I dont even think Cameron knows quite the impact he made on these little men. He was their rock.

While in fourth grade, Paul would often say how dumb he was. He just insisted that he wasnt smart. When Cameron showed up, I immediately had Paul start working with him. Paul is a great kid, a good student, who tries hard. He just needed someone like Cameron around to help build him up, instead of tearing him down. I wasnt going to be able to do it by myself.

Did I mention that Cameron is, like, 65? He was a gentle giant with these boys. When Cameron would walk in, their little eyes would light up. As soon as Cameron sat at the back table, a group would immediately take their work and seek Camerons help. Some needed it, but some just enjoyed the attention from Mr. Fields. He has an amazingly calm spirit, and the boys loved it. Sometimes they would get off track and start talking about non-schoolwork topics. I didnt mind. The smiles on the boys faces were priceless. To those boys, Cameron was priceless. Again, the Butterfly Effect. How nurturing and mentorship can improve a students relationships beyond the classroom walls.

Cameron continued to build relationships with boys throughout his time at Almira. He was always at lunch, enjoying conversations and being a role model. Young, African-American males are not common in education. Cameron was meeting a need with these little men. They could talk to him. I know Cameron loved the conversation as much as they did. He realized through these times that being in education was his true calling. Priceless. The Butterfly Effect.

Cameron and Hannah were fixtures at Almira for almost two years. Through the stories they wrote, they covered just about every square inch of what makes Almira, Almira. But what went unsaid -- and the puzzle piece that makes Clevelands Promise complete -- was their commitment and passion and energy to Almira and our scholars. They fought for the children in ways sometimes teachers cant. They fought and reported on the Say Yes Cleveland program, the importance of which I cannot even put into words. It was a program that was about to be taken away, and the readers responded. So much was donated to students (and even teachers), because of cleveland.coms stories.

Hannah and Cameron were there when students needed mediation or just simply a walk down the hall with a friend. They were with us on field trips, helped the students pull weeds on Earth Day and cheered them on during Dancing Classrooms. If there was an event, they were there, supporting the students -- not just gathering material for their stories.

Lives were changed forever because of Mr. Fields and Miss Hannah. I dont think either one of them had any idea, back in October 2021, how their warrior-like energy would have such an impact on Almira and the children of Room 304.

To Cameron and Hannah and all of the readers, who reached out and donated or sent a supportive message  even to help with a new classroom therapy lizard -- I say thank you, from all of us at Almira.

-- Mrs. Sharon Lenahan, Almira Elementary School

Thank you for reading Clevelands Promise. Please consider supporting journalism like this by joining our community of subscribers. With a paid subscription, you gain access to everything published by a team of journalists committed to providing accurate information on news, entertainment and sports in Northeast Ohio. Please subscribe here. -- Chris Quinn, Editor

Read more about this project here.
An illustration of the new Apple store in Mumbai, India

India imposed restrictions on the imports of personal computers and tablets, citing security reasons and the need to boost domestic manufacturing  in a move that could impact Samsung and Apple hardware sales in one of the world's largest markets for consumer electronics.

Laptops and tablets are among a handful of electronics that will require a license to be imported into India, according to a government notice published Thursday.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, India's information technology minister, on Friday laid out a reason for the development, citing his country as one of the world's fastest-growing markets for digital products.

In a post on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, Chandrasekhar said that the government aims to ensure "trusted" hardware and systems, to reduce dependence on imports and to increase the domestic manufacturing of these products.

In theory, companies from Apple and Samsung to HP will need licenses to import products like laptops and tablets into India.

Apple and Samsung did not respond to a CNBC request for comment. On Thursday, Bloomberg had reported that Apple, Samsung and HP were among the companies freezing imports of restricted products to India, citing people familiar with the matter.

The move comes as New Delhi looks to position itself as a high-tech manufacturing hub for everything from consumer electronics to semiconductors. The government has sought to lure in the world's biggest technology firms with incentives.

Already, Apple has shifted some manufacturing to India for its latest iPhones. Foxconn, the main assembler of Apple's iPhones, announced a $600 million investment in India this week as part of a phone manufacturing project and separate semiconductor equipment facility.

Tarun Pathak, an analyst at Counterpoint Research, said that the licensing development could lead to price increases for certain products ahead of the Diwali festive season in India in early November.

Pathak said that the Diwali month festive season accounts for one-fifth of the annual sales of these products that have come under the latest restrictions.

"The recent restrictions on imports may lead to short-term price increases and a supply crunch for some key brands relying mostly on imports. Assembling locally or even obtaining licenses for such brands will take time," Pathak told CNBC.

"With the festive season approaching, there might be some disruptions in offers and discounts as well and those couldn't be as aggressive as last year due to possible demand and supply mismatches."
An effigy of Elon Musk is seen on a mobile device with the Twitter logo in this photo illustration on 23 July, 2023 in Warsaw, Poland.

Imran Ahmed refuses to be intimidated by Elon Musk. And he's insisting that researchers at his nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate remain equally unafraid.

Earlier this week, the company formerly known as Twitter filed a lawsuit in federal court against the CCDH, after the organization in June published research that Musk didn't like. The group found a rise in hate speech on Twitter since Musk purchased the company last year, and said X, as it's now known, fails to take action against paying subscribers who post racist, homophobic, conspiratorial and other inflammatory content.

In an interview with CNBC, Ahmed said the CCDH has no plans to suspend its research into the spread of hateful content and other emerging problems it finds on the social media platform. Rather, Ahmed told staffers in a meeting after he heard about the lawsuit that they should "double down" on probing X.

"I've never, ever, ever walked away from a fight," Ahmed said.

Ahmed, 44, lives in Washington, D.C., though he studied in the U.K. at the University of Cambridge. He founded the CCDH in 2018 after the death of Jo Cox, a U.K. Labour Party colleague and member of parliament, by a white supremist who was reportedly "a loner obsessed with Nazis."

Lawyers representing X alleged in this week's lawsuit that the CCDH improperly obtained access to social media analysis tool Brandwatch and also illegally scraped data from Twitter using other methods. The attorneys claimed the CCDH has used "flawed methodologies to advance incorrect, misleading narratives" that have driven away X's advertisers, damaging its business.

In March, the CCHD published a study showing that since Musk took over Twitter, there's been a 119% increase in tweets mentioning the grooming narrative, referring to a conspiracy theory that implies LGBTQ+ people are grooming children. The study was based on an analysis of 1.7 million tweets from the beginning of 2022 through February 2023. The CCDH said it obtained the tweets using a data-scraping tool and Twitter's search function.

X said in its lawsuit that it's seeking a jury trial, unspecified monetary damages, and wants to block CCDH and any of its collaborators or employees from accessing data provided by X to Brandwatch.

Ahmed declined to comment about the specifics of the case though he noted that X has not yet physically served him or the CCDH with a lawsuit.

He's accustomed to the criticism.

Prior to the challenges from X, Meta and TikTok took issue with the CCDH's research methodology after the group released reports alleging those platforms fostered misinformation and content that could harm the mental health of teenagers.
A pedestrian crosses a road in front of residential buildings in Beijing, China. Qilai Shen | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Chinese property stocks surged on Friday after the People's Bank of China vowed to pledge more financial resources to support the private economy. Hong Kong-listed shares of real estate developers like Country Garden Holdings , Longfor Group Holdings, and China Resources Land were some of the top gainers on the Hang Seng index. Longfor gained as much as 8.19% and Country Garden Holdings surged 6.2%, before paring some gains. The broader Hang Seng Mainland Properties Index rose as much as 4.76%, but later moderated its gains.

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The PBOC meeting on Thursday was attended by representatives of eight companies, including Longfor and Country Garden, the central bank said in a statement. Other attendees included diary giant Yili Group, aluminum products manufacturer China Hongqiao Group and electrical components manufacturer Chint Group . At the symposium, PBOC governor Pan Gongsheng said the central bank will promote the expansion of private business bond financing support instruments, and strengthen the financial market to support their development. This is the latest move by the central government to boost market confidence and vow support for private businesses and the real estate sector amid signs of slowing growth.

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At the Politburo meeting on July 24, the top leadership promised to "adjust and optimize policies" to boost the beleaguered property sector, as well as introduce measures to promote private investment. Separately, China's state planner, the National Development and Reform Commission, also released a 17-point statement, and pledged to encourage more private capital into the construction of major national projects. Days before, the government and the Communist Party issued a rare joint pledge vowing to treat private companies the same as state-owned enterprises, and ensure fair treatment in areas like intellectual property, financing and labor supply.
An XPeng Inc. G9 electric vehicle at the Shanghai Auto Show in Shanghai, China, on Monday, April 24, 2023.

Global electric vehicle makers are tapping advanced technology to vie with each other and domestic brands in the intensively competitive Chinese market.

China is the world's largest EV market with 5.9 million units sold in 2022, capturing 59% of EVs sold globally, according to Canalys. Counterpoint Research data showed that domestic brands command 81% of the EV market, with BYD, Wuling, Chery, Changan and GAC among the top players.

"China's domestic brands are leading the market in the development and implementation of advanced assisted driving systems, capitalizing on their early-entry advantages in the electric and intelligent vehicle sector," research firm Canalys said in a recent report.

"These brands have an edge over other joint ventures in the planning and execution of smart assisted driving systems."

BofA Securities in a May report said it expects China to still be the world's largest EV market in 2025, standing at 40%-45% market share.

"China auto makers are accelerating vehicle platform, technology upgrade or innovation, leading to outstanding user experience. China EV products are much more competitive than before, and China will continue to see EV penetration expanding, in our view," said the BofA Securities analysts.
Google is hoping to lure workers back to the office with a new on-site hotel special, but some workers aren't convinced it's a good deal.

The company said full-time employees can book a room at an on-campus hotel in Mountain View for $99 a night in what it's deeming a "Summer Special," according to materials viewed by CNBC. The description states that the special will run through Sept. 30 in hopes it'll "make it easier for Googlers to transition to the hybrid workplace."

Since the promotion is for unapproved business travel, the company will not reimburse their stays, but will require employees to use their personal credit cards, the special's description states.

"Just imagine no commute to the office in the morning and instead, you could have an extra hour of sleep and less friction," the description reads. "Next, you could walk out of your room and quickly grab a delicious breakfast or get a workout in before work starts."

The ad goes on to say that after the work day ends, "you could enjoy a quiet evening on top of the rooftop deck or take in one of the fun local activities."

The Google-owned hotel is situated on a newer campus in Mountain View, California, that it opened last year. The 42-acre campus is adjacent to NASA's Ames Research Center and has capacity to house 4,000 employees working on its ads products, the company said upon its opening.

The San Francisco Bay Area has some of the highest real estate costs due in part to limited housing supply from decades-old zoning restrictions and elevated demand, most of which comes from high-paying tech workers and executives working in the surrounding tech industry. The city of Mountain View is especially short on housing and contains large swaths of corporate offices  many of which are owned or leased by Google.

A Google spokesperson noted that the company regularly runs specials for employees to take advantage of the company's spaces and amenities.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie speaks with reporters outside the Child Rights Protection Center in Kyiv, Ukraine, Aug. 4, 2023.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Friday met with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a surprise trip to Kyiv.

The unannounced travel was revealed as Christie, a longshot candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, appeared to be making headway in the key primary state of New Hampshire, according to a new poll.

Christie met with Zelenskyy at the presidential palace, where he reiterated his support for increasing U.S. aid to Ukraine  a view that distinguishes him from some of his GOP primary competitors, including former president Donald Trump.

"I am an advocate for there being more aid to Ukraine, more substantial aid to Ukraine," Christie said according to a pool report, adding that he wanted "to help you win the war."

Christie also visited Moshchun and Bucha, the site of a reported Russian massacre of Ukrainian civilians that sharply amplified international condemnation of Moscow's invasion of its European neighbor.

Christie shook hands with Bucha Mayor Anatoliy Fedoruk before visiting the site of a mass burial, the pool reported. Russia has been accused of war crimes in connection with the deaths of more than 1,000 civilians in the town.

Christie, who jumped into the presidential race in June, quickly established himself as the most aggressively anti-Trump Republican in the running. But while his message has cut through the fray, most national polls of the race have shown him stuck in the low- to mid-single digits.

But the former New Jersey governor has focused his campaign squarely on New Hampshire, and that strategy may be paying off, at least according to one new poll, which put him in third in the Granite State behind Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

The Manhattan Institute's survey of 704 New Hampshire likely primary voters, conducted last month, found 11% of those respondents would pick Christie in the GOP primary. That's just two percentage points below DeSantis, within the poll's margin of error of 4%.

Thirty-four percent of the New Hampshire Republicans chose Trump, according to the poll.

Christie's campaign says it has qualified him to participate in the first Republican debate, set for Aug. 23, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
A screen shows the already imprisoned Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny (2L) as he listens to his verdict over a series of extremism charges at the IK-6 penal colony, a maximum-security prison some 250 kilometres (155 miles) east of Moscow, in the settlement of Melekhovo in the Vladimir region on August 4, 2023.

Kremlin opposition leader Alexei Navalny was sentenced to 19 more years in prison after being found guilty in a Russian court on a series of charges, his team confirmed Friday.

Navalny faced charges of inciting and financing "extremist activity" and "rehabilitating Nazi ideology," charges he and his supporters reject.

In a social media post on Thursday, Navalny said that he expected to receive a "Stalinist" prison term. He has also condemned Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, calling it "the most stupid and senseless war of the 21st century."

Navalny, one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's most vocal critics, was already serving two prison sentences. A nine-year prison sentence on charges of embezzlement and fraud and more than two years for a parole violation.

Friday's sentence marks Navalny's third and longest prison term.

The Biden administration said it will continue to advocate for Navalny and the "more than 500 other designated political prisoners Russia holds."

"For years, the Kremlin has attempted to silence Navalny and prevent his calls for transparency and accountability from reaching the Russian people," State Department spokesman Matt Miller wrote in a statement.

"By conducting this latest trial in secret and limiting his lawyers' access to purported evidence, Russian authorities illustrated yet again both the baselessness of their case and the lack of due process afforded to those who dare to criticize the regime," Miller added.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai testifies before the House Judiciary Committee at the Rayburn House Office Building on December 11, 2018 in Washington, DC.

A federal judge narrowed the case that states and the Department of Justice can make in the antitrust trial against Google beginning in September, according to a newly-released decision.

It's a significant win for Google, though it will still need to face other claims brought by the enforcers when the trial begins September 12.

D.C. District Court Judge Amit Mehta granted, in part, Google's motion for summary judgment in the cases brought by the Department of Justice and a coalition of state attorneys general. The cases both alleged that Google illegally maintained a monopoly by cutting off rivals from search distribution channels.

While the judge mostly allowed that shared argument from the enforcers to move forward, he notably threw out the states' claim that Google unfairly hurt search rivals like Yelp and Tripadvisor through the design of search results pages that lowered their visibility.

Mehta also narrowed the DOJ's case to remove arguments over certain agreements Google made for its Android mobile operating system, Google Assistant and internet of things devices. He also removed arguments pertaining to how Google managed its Android Open Source Project. After Google filed the motion on summary judgement against those portions of the suit, the DOJ chose not to offer an opposition on those particular points, the filing notes.

Mehta denied Google's motion for summary judgement on both enforcers' claims that Google used exclusive dealing arrangements to violate anti-monopoly law, writing, "There remain genuine disputes of material fact that warrant a trial."

As for the states' claims about Google's alleged anticompetitive behavior around its search ad tool SA360, Mehta wrote that there also remains a "genuine dispute of material fact with regard to the anticompetitive effect of Google's disparate development of SA360's ad-buying features," meaning that claim is allowed to move forward.

The DOJ and a bipartisan group of AGs from 38 states and territories, led by Colorado and Nebraska, filed similar but separate antitrust suits against Google in 2020. Though they are separate complaints, they were combined for pretrial purposes, such as discovery of evidence.

The DOJ's complaint focused on the ways Google allegedly used exclusionary contracts to tie up important channels to distribute search engines. In doing so, the agency alleged, Google maintained its monopoly power by denying rivals the chance to reach a similar scale and challenge its dominance.

The coalition of states made similar arguments but added additional points that aimed to address core arguments that Google's longtime opponents have made against the tech giant.

In addition to the allegedly exclusionary contracts for search distribution, the states alleged that Google also violated antitrust law through its product to buy search ads and the way it designed its search results pages.

The states will still be allowed to bring claims that Google used its search ad product to disadvantage advertisers by not allowing them interoperate between its own tools and competitors' to buy general search ads. But they will no longer be able to bring the claim that Google harmed competition by designing its search results to push down search engine competitors' results, the judge decided.

That part of the complaint was most similar to the focus of a Federal Trade Commission investigation that closed a decade ago. The FTC decided to close the investigation without charges after probing whether the company gave its own content on its search results page an unfair advantage at rivals' expense. But The Wall Street Journal later revealed that FTC staff had recommended filing suit against Google in connection to the search bias allegations, concluding that "conduct has resultedand will resultin real harm to consumers and to innovation in the online search and advertising markets."

The judge's decision to throw out the states' claims of search result bias is a blow to companies like Yelp, which have fought for more than a decade to have regulators around the world challenge the webpage design of Google's search results.

"We appreciate the Court's careful consideration and decision to dismiss claims regarding the design of Google Search," Kent Walker, Google's president of global affairs and chief legal officer, said in a statement. "Our engineers build Search to provide the best results and help you quickly find what you're looking for. People have more ways than ever to access information, and they choose to use Google because it's helpful. We look forward to showing at trial that promoting and distributing our services is both legal and pro-competitive."

"I am pleased that the multistate attorneys general lawsuit challenging Google's monopoly in the search engine market and search advertising will proceed to trial in September," Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said in a statement. "We will continue to evaluate how to best press forward and establish Google's pattern of illegal conduct that harms consumers and competition."

The DOJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

This story is developing. Check back for updates.
Morgan Stanley upgraded Indian stocks to "overweight" from "equal weight," citing a strong profit outlook and the country's attractiveness to investors in a "multipolar world." India's situation is in "stark contrast to that in China," the bank said in its Aug. 2 note. "With GDP per capita only US$2.5k per capita (vs. US$12.7k for China) and positive demographic trends, India is arguably at the start of a long wave boom at the same time as China may be ending one," it said. It added that India's household debt is at 19% of its gross domestic product, lower than China's 48%. Morgan Stanley downgraded Chinese stocks to equal weight in the same note. India's manufacturing and services purchasing managers' indexes have "rallied consistently" since Covid-19 restrictions ended, in contrast to the "rapid fade" seen in China, said the bank. Morgan Stanley also said India's ability to "leverage multipolar world dynamics" is a significant advantage: it's a member of the Quad; it's benefiting from a surge in foreign direct investment; and private equity firms are expanding there. "Simply put, India's future looks to a significant extent like China's past," the bank said, adding it expects GDP growth in India to be around 6.5% at the end of the decade, above China's 3.9%. Stock picks While Indian stock valuations "overshot somewhat" last October, it's "less extreme" now, Morgan Stanley said. The industrials, financials and consumer discretionary sectors will be major beneficiaries of India's "structural story," it said, giving all three an overweight rating. "Improvement in per-capita income boosting consumption and a broadening credit penetration should help the Financials sector. Strong government capex and a pickup in private capex will drive up demand for industrial companies," the bank wrote. Morgan Stanley added two Indian stocks to its focus list: Maruti Suzuki : Morgan Stanley said the automaker is set to benefit from a higher per-capita income in India; an expansion in market share; and an improving product mix. Valuations remain fair, it added. It gave Maruti Suzuki nearly 15% potential upside to its target price, based on its Aug. 1 closing price. Larsen & Toubro : The bank said the construction firm is a beneficiary of the country's capital expenditure cycle. "Beside domestic macro tailwinds, infrastructure prospects from the Middle East, particularly Saudi Arabia, remain strong," it added. It gave Larsen & Toubro nearly 7% potential upside to its target price, based on its Aug. 1 closing price. The other Indian stocks on its focus list are ICICI Bank and Hindustan Aeronautics , which it gave a potential 35.7% upside and 10% downside respectively.  CNBC's Michael Bloom contributed to this report.
Shares of electric truck maker Nikola fell more than 26% Friday after a complicated second-quarter report, news of a CEO departure and shareholder approval to issue new stock.

Nikola said Friday its CEO, Michael Lohscheller, will step down effective immediately due to a "family health matter." Nikola's current board chair, former General Motors vice chairman Steve Girsky, will take over as CEO.

Lohscheller will remain in an advisory capacity until the end of September to support the transition, Nikola said.

The news came alongside Nikola's second-quarter earnings report. Here are the key numbers, compared with Refinitiv consensus estimates:

Loss per share: 20 cents vs. 22 cents

20 cents vs. 22 cents Revenue: $15.36 million vs. $15.4 million

Nikola's net loss for the quarter was $217.8 million, or 31 cents per share. That figure includes $77.8 million, or 11 cents per share, related to discontinued operations including the closure of the former Romeo Power battery-pack factory in California. Nikola acquired Romeo Power last year.

A year ago, Nikola lost $173 million, or 41 cents per share. Aside from the discontinued operations, Nikola had no adjustments in the second quarter of 2023. On an adjusted basis, it lost 25 cents per share in the year-ago quarter.

Revenue fell to $15.4 million from $18.1 million in the second quarter of 2022.

Nikola on Thursday evening won approval from shareholders to issue new stock, which could double its total number of shares outstanding. It's expected to raise additional cash later in the year.

Meanwhile, it was able to raise $233.2 million in cash during the second quarter via sales of stock and some physical assets. It also took steps to reduce its cash consumption going forward. It had $226.7 million in cash on hand as of June 30, up from $121.1 million as of March 31.
Explosions were reported at Russia's port of Novorossiysk, a major hub on the Black Sea for Russian oil exports. Russia's Defense Ministry says the port was attacked by unmanned Ukrainian sea drones, and ship movement at the port was temporarily halted, according to emergency workers and pipeline services cited by Reuters.

Videos posted to social media show a large Russian ship listing to one side while being towed back to port. Kyiv has not yet made any official comment.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was sentenced on Friday to 19 more years in prison after being found guilty of a series of charges his supporters say are politically motivated.
SoftBank Founder Masayoshi Son is pictured here in 2019 during an earnings presentation.

SoftBank's Vision Fund filed suit against the founders of one of its portfolio companies Monday, alleging that they artificially inflated user metrics, lied to the fund about performance and bilked the fund for millions.

Buzzy social media startup IRL launched in April 2021 and was seemingly "one of the fastest growing social media apps for Generation Z," the complaint in San Francisco federal court alleges.

SoftBank was invested in the company due to its apparently low cost, "strong" user engagement that left it "well positioned for further viral growth" in the same way Facebook and Twitter exploded.

In May 2021, a month after the company launched, SoftBank invested $150 million in IRL through one of the conglomerate's high-spending Vision Funds, buying $125 million in shares from the company and another $25 million from insiders including CEO Abraham Shafi as well as Noah Shafi and Yassin Aniss, the complaint says.

SoftBank believed that IRL had 12 million monthly active users.

But those numbers were a lie, the complaint alleges. IRL was secretly swarming its own platform with an army of bots, according to the complaint, creating the veneer of a thriving social network which was, in reality, a cover to "defraud investors."

The plot began to unravel when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission opened an investigation into IRL in late 2022. In April 2023, Abraham Shafi was suspended as CEO, and the company dissolved in June.

The suit raises significant questions about the level of scrutiny that SoftBank applied to its portfolio companies. When a third-party assessment of user numbers came in significantly below IRL's own sales pitch, SoftBank representatives accepted Abraham Shafi's explanations that they were "definitely not accurate," according to the suit.

Past missteps from SoftBank include large positions in allegedly fraudulent crypto exchange FTX and devalued property company WeWork . SoftBank's Vision Funds have faltered significantly since the market highs of 2021, and the conglomerate posted a full-year loss of $32 billion for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2023.
Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading.

Amazon  The e-commerce giant surged 8.3% after delivering a massive profit beat and positive guidance. Amazon's cloud and ad businesses also reported better-than-expected revenue for the quarter.

Apple  The big tech stock slipped 4.8%. Apple reported earnings per share for the fiscal third quarter of $1.26, 7 cents more than expected by analysts polled by Refinitiv. Revenue was also above Wall Street's forecast but was down on a year-over-year basis.

Tupperware Brands  The stock popped 35.5% during midday trading after the container maker announced a finalized debt restructuring deal, which it expects will help reduce or reallocate about $150 million of cash interest and fees. Tupperware said Thursday that the deal would give the company immediate access to a revolving borrowing capacity of about $21 million.

Booking Holdings  Shares of the online travel company jumped 7.9% and hit a new 52-week high after it announced its quarterly results Thursday after hours. The company posted adjusted earnings of $37.62 per share on revenue of $5.46 billion in the second quarter. Analysts polled by Refinitiv estimated earnings of $28.90 per share on revenue of $5.17 billion.

Icahn Enterprises  Shares of Carl Icahn's conglomerate dropped a whopping 23.2% after the firm slashed its quarterly dividend in half amid Hindenburg Research's campaign. The short seller had taken issue with IEP's high dividend yield, saying it's "unsupported" by the company's cash flow and investment performance.

Block  The fintech company's shares plunged 13.6% despite a strong quarterly report. Square reported earnings of 39 cents per share, versus the 36 cents estimate per Refinitiv. Revenue of $5.53 billion also came in higher than the expectation of $5.10 billion. Block Chairman Jack Dorsey said the company is focused on reducing costs, including pulling back on the pace of hiring.

Nikola  Shares of the electric truck maker slid 26.4% after the company said Friday that its CEO will step down effective immediately due to a "family health matter." Nikola also reported second-quarter results that fell short of Refinitiv consensus estimates, with its net loss coming to $217.8 million, or 31 cents per share, for the quarter. Late Thursday, the company had announced it won shareholder approval to issue new stock. The vote will allow Nikola to raise additional funds to support the launch of a fuel-cell-powered electric semitruck and the buildout of a hydrogen refueling network in the U.S. and Canada.

Fortinet  Shares of the cybersecurity stock plummeted 25.1% following a mixed second-quarter report and outlook. Fortinet posted 38 cents in adjusted earnings per share, while analysts polled by Refinitiv expected 34 cents per share. The company also reported $1.29 billion in revenue, slightly under the consensus forecast of $1.3 billion. Guidance for the current quarter was similarly mixed.

Opendoor Technologies  The real-estate tech stock tumbled 26.3% after telling investors to expect revenue to come in lower than analysts expect in the current quarter. Opendoor said to expect between $950 million and $1 billion, while analysts surveyed by FactSet estimated $1.36 billion.

DraftKings  The sports-betting stock climbed 5.8% on a strong quarterly report. DraftKings reported a loss of 17 cents per share, less than the 25 cents forecast by analysts surveyed by Refinitiv. Revenue came in at $875 million, better than the $764 million anticipated.

Airbnb  Shares shed 0.5% following the company's second-quarter earnings announcement. Although Airbnb's earnings and revenue came above analysts' estimates, its nights and experiences bookings missed expectations.

Dropbox  The online collaboration platform added 5.9% after beating Wall Street expectations in the second quarter. Dropbox posted 51 cents in adjusted earnings per share, while analysts surveyed by Refinitiv anticipated 46 cents. Revenue came in at $623 million, beating the $614 million estimate.

Redfin  The real estate tech stock dropped 24.4% on soft third-quarter revenue guidance. The company forecast third-quarter revenue between $265 million and $279 million, lower than the $288 million expected by analysts polled by Refinitiv.

Corsair Gaming  Shares fell 9.8% even though the gaming company had a strong quarter and reaffirmed full-year guidance. Earnings per share came in line with the FactSet consensus estimate at 9 cents. Corsair beat expectations for revenue, posting $325.4 million while analysts forecast $322.8 million.

Coinbase  The crypto exchange slid 3.8% despite posting a strong second-quarter report. The company said it lost 42 cents per share and saw $708 million in revenue for the quarter, while analysts surveyed by Refinitiv expected 77 cents lost per share and revenue at $633 million.

Sprout Social  The digital media stock slid 12.3% Friday, a day after Sprout announced its acquisition of Tagger Media, a social intelligence and influencer marketing platform.

Intercontinental Exchange  The exchange company rose 1.7% after Citi upgraded the stock to buy from neutral. The firm said the company is showing signs of improvement.

Shake Shack  Shares added 5.6% in midday trading. The company reported adjusted earnings per share of 18 cents Thursday, topping the 10 cents expected from analysts polled by StreetAccount. However, revenue missed estimates. Raymond James upgraded the stock to outperform from market perform Friday, citing the second-quarter results.

Petrobras  The Brazilian oil stock retreated 3.5% following a downgrade to neutral from overweight by JPMorgan. The firm said many positives for the stock are already reflected in its price.

 CNBC's Samantha Subin, Hakyung Kim, Pia Singh, Michelle Fox and Yun Li contributed reporting.
An employee of Tupperware Brands Corporation is at work on the production line at the company's plant in Joue-les-Tours, France, on the day of its 40th anniversary.

Check out the companies making headlines before the bell Friday.

Apple  Shares of the tech giant dropped nearly 2.4% in premarket trading. The company reported earnings per share for the fiscal third quarter came in at $1.26, above the $1.19 expected by analysts polled by Refinitiv. Apple's revenue, which came in higher than anticipated, was down about 1% on a year-over-year basis, showing a decline for the third consecutive quarter as the company reported a decline in sales of its hardware products.

Block  Shares of the payments tech company slid more than 5% in premarket trading even after the firm reported second-quarter earnings and revenue above expectations. The company, formerly known as Square, reported earnings of 39 cents per share, beating expectations by 3 cents, according to Refinitiv. Revenue of $5.53 billion also came in higher than the expectation of $5.10 billion.

Coinbase  Shares of the crypto exchange fell 1.5% in early morning trading Friday after the company posted a narrower-than-expected loss of 42 cents a share late Thursday. Analysts polled by Refinitiv estimated a loss of 77 cents per share. Revenue also surpassed expectations, coming in at $708 million, versus analysts' forecast of $633 million.

Amazon  The e-commerce giant popped more than 9% following a strong second-quarter results and upbeat revenue guidance for the current period. Amazon reported earnings of 65 cents a share, ahead of the 35 cents expected by analysts, per Refinitiv. Revenue rose 11% during the period and came in at $134.4 billion, ahead of the expected $131.5 billion.

Booking Holdings  The stock soared more than 12% after Booking Holdings said it expects gross bookings to grow in the third quarter. The online travel company also reported second-quarter adjusted earnings of $37.62 per share on revenue of $5.46 billion, while analysts polled by Refinitiv called for earnings of $28.90 per share on revenue of $5.17 billion.

Nikola  Shares of the electric truck maker rose 1.9% after the company said late Thursday that it won shareholder approval to issue new stock. The vote will allow Nikola to raise additional funds to support the launch of a fuel-cell-powered electric semitruck and buildout of a hydrogen refueling network in the U.S. and Canada.

Fortinet  Fortinet tumbled 18.8% after posting a mixed second-quarter report and outlook. The cybersecurity company posted 38 cents in adjusted earnings per share on $1.29 billion in revenue, while analysts polled by Refinitiv had expected 34 cents per share on $1.3 billion. Fortinet similarly issued mixed guidance for the current quarter, with forecast earnings in line with expectations and revenue coming in softer than the Street's expectations.

Tupperware Brands  The stock popped 56% before the bell Friday on news that the container maker finalized a debt restructuring deal, which it expects will help reduce or reallocate about $150 million of cash interest and fees. The deal would also give Tupperware immediate access to a revolving borrowing capacity of about $21 million, the company said Thursday.

Opendoor Technologies  Shares dropped 10.3% after Opendoor Technologies issued weak third-quarter revenue guidance. The online home-selling company estimates third-quarter revenue of $950 million to $1.0 billion, lower than the $1.36 billion expected by analysts polled by StreetAccount.

DraftKings  Shares of the digital gambling company gained 12% after DraftKings flew past analysts' estimates in the second quarter. The company reported a loss of 17 cents per share on revenue of $875 million, surpassing analysts' calls for a loss of 25 cents a share and $764 million in revenue, per Refinitiv.

 CNBC's Tanaya Macheel, Yun Li and Sarah Min contributed reporting.
Industrials came roaring back to life in the second quarter, with Club holdings Caterpillar (CAT), Emerson Electric (EMR), Honeywell (HON), Stanley Black & Decker (SWK) and Linde (LIN) all reporting largely solid results on the back of increased infrastructure spending, reduced costs and improved supply chains. Despite a difficult operating environment given the uncertain state of the global economy, there were bright spots in each company's quarterly performance for the three months ended June 30. Here's a breakdown of the results  along with our take, too. CAT YTD mountain Caterpillar (CAT) year-to-date performance. Caterpillar had a stand-out quarter , delivering big on an item that previously dinged its share price. The company's backlog  sales made, but not yet completed and recorded  increased to $30.8 billion, an increase of $2.2 billion year-over-year. The construction-equipment manufacturer had strong quarterly sales, too, bolstered by the U.S. government's increased infrastructure spending. Revenue in the second quarter surged 22% year-over-year, to $17.32 billion, topping expectations of $16.49 billion, according to Refinitiv. Adjusted earnings per share (EPS) jumped 75% on a annual basis, to $5.55, above Wall Street's estimates of $4.58 a share. In Tuesday's post-earnings conference call, management said the company expects "continued growth in nonresidential construction in North America due to the positive impact of government-related infrastructure investments and a healthy pipeline of construction projects." Markets cheered, with the industrial powerhouse's stock notching an all-time high of above $287 apiece. The Club  which had booked profits in Caterpillar last month  raised its price target on the stock to $300 a share, up from $285. In response to this strong move, we would look to take profits again when trading restrictions allow. EMR YTD mountain Emerson Electric (EMR) year-to-date performance. Emerson Electric posted a strong quarter , with better-than-expected profit margins and a raised full-year outlook for sales and earnings. We're hoping this is a catalyst for Emerson, which has been one of the biggest laggards in the portfolio throughout 2023. The company is up less than 1% year-to-date, while its closest industrial automation peer Rockwell Automation has gained roughly 16%. Revenue for Emerson's fiscal third quarter increased 13.9% year-over-year to, $3.95 billion, beating analysts' forecasts of $3.88 billion, according to Refinitiv. Adjusted EPS jumped 40% on an annual basis, to $1.29, topping expectations of $1.10 a share. Given the strong figures and growing sense the business can sustain this momentum, the Club reiterated a 1 rating and $110-per-share price target on the company's stock. Shares have climbed nearly 6% since the earnings release. HON YTD mountain Honeywell (HON) year-to-date performance. Although Honeywell posted mixed second-quarter earnings , the industrial conglomerate's backlog grew to a record high on the back of its aerospace and performance materials businesses. The company's overall segment margin was also a bright spot, along with a robust cash-flow performance. Revenue rose 3% year-over-year organically, to $9.15 billion, just shy of analysts' estimates of $9.17 billion, according to Refinitiv. EPS of $2.23 advanced 6% year-over-year, above the consensus forecast of $2.21 apiece. Honeywell's quarter was met with selling last week, prompting the Club to upgrade its rating to a 1, meaning we would be buyers here, while reiterating a $225-per-share price target. We bought 25 shares on Tuesday, citing ongoing strength in Honeywell's aerospace business and signs of bottoming in a few challenged areas. SWK YTD mountain Stanley Black & Decker (SWK) year-to-date performance. Stanley Black & Decker's turnaround is in full swing. The company notched a strong second quarter, showing shareholders that it's becoming a more efficient business through cost cuts and inventory reductions, not to mention an improved supply chain. We're looking to add to our Stanley Black & Decker position on a potential pullback, as the company's gross margins improve and earnings growth inflects next year. Revenue declined 5% year-over-year, to $4.16 billion, slightly above analysts' estimates of $4.14 billion, per Refinitiv. EPS came in at a loss of 11 cents, down from a $1.77-per-share profit last year but ahead of Wall Street's forecast of a 37 cent-per-share loss. Following the results, Morgan Stanley raised its price target on the stock to $99 a share, from $90, while maintaining an equal weight rating. Citi took an even more upbeat view, raising its price target to $110 a share, from $98. LIN YTD mountain Linde (LIN) year-to-date performance. Industrial gas giant Linde reported strong second-quarter results and raised its full-year outlook for the second time in 2023, as the company continues to find ways to optimize costs through productivity initiatives. The firm is in a league of its own and has recorded 18-consecutive beat-and-raises. After the release, the Club increased its price target on Linde to $410 a share, from $390. Linde's earnings growth should also ramp up in the coming years, given management still sees $50 billion of clean energy opportunities over the next decade. "Linde has something to offer across the entire hydrogen value chain," CEO Sanjiv Lamba told Jim Cramer this week. Sales of $8.20 billion were down 3% from last year, missing analysts' estimates of $8.68 billion, according to Refintiv. EPS of $3.57 were up 15% year-over-year, topping Wall Street's $3.48 estimate. (Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust is long CAT, EMR, HON, LIN, SWK. 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.

A worker washes a Caterpillar crawler dozer at Ideal Tractor in West Sacramento, California, US, on Monday, Aug. 1, 2022. David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Former president Donald Trump arrives at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Va. on Thursday, August 3, 2023 after appearing at E. Barrett Prettyman United States Court House.

Less than one day after being arraigned on charges of trying to subvert the 2020 presidential race, former President Donald Trump on Friday called for the U.S. Supreme Court to step into the 2024 contest.

Trump, the top contender in the Republican presidential primary, claimed that dealing with numerous ongoing legal battles amounts to "election interference"  the very thing he is accused of conspiring to do in his latest indictment.

"My political opponent has hit me with a barrage of weak lawsuits, including D.A., A.G., and others, which require massive amounts of my time & money to adjudicate," Trump wrote Friday morning on Truth Social.

"Resources that would have gone into Ads and Rallies, will now have to be spent fighting these Radical Left Thugs in numerous courts throughout the Country," Trump wrote. "I am leading in all Polls, including against Crooked Joe, but this is not a level playing field."

"It is Election Interference, & the Supreme Court must intercede," he wrote.

While the Supreme Court has in the past been tasked with making major decisions about presidential elections  perhaps most notably by ruling on a disputed recount in Florida in 2000  it's far from clear what Trump expects the high court to do about his 78 criminal charges. In most cases, the Supreme Court has appellate jurisdiction, meaning it considers cases that have been appealed from lower courts.
Aileen Cannon, the Florida judge initially assigned to oversee Donald Trump's classified documents case, answers questions during her nomination hearing by the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary at the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, U.S. July 29, 2020 in a still image from video.

The judge in former U.S. President Donald Trump's upcoming trial over his handling of classified documents made two key errors in a June trial, one of which violated a fundamental constitutional right of the defendant and could have invalidated the proceedings, according to legal experts and a court transcript.

Florida-based U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon closed jury selection for the trial of an Alabama man - accused by federal prosecutors of running a website with images of child sex abuse - to the defendant's family and the general public, a trial transcript obtained by Reuters showed. A defendant's right to a public trial is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution's Sixth Amendment.

Cannon, a 42-year-old former federal prosecutor appointed by Trump to the bench in 2020 late in his presidency, also neglected to swear in the prospective jury pool - an obligatory procedure in which people who may serve on the panel pledge to tell the truth during the selection process. This error forced Cannon to re-start jury selection before the trial ended abruptly with defendant William Spearman pleading guilty as part of an agreement with prosecutors.

Cannon's decision to close the courtroom represents "a fundamental constitutional error," said Stephen Smith, a professor at the Santa Clara School of Law in California. "She ignored the public trial right entirely. It's as though she didn't know it existed."

In Cannon's decision to close jury selection, the judge cited space restrictions in her small courtroom at the federal courthouse in Fort Pierce, Florida.

Legal experts said closing a courtroom to the public has been recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court as a "structural error" - a mistake so significant that it can invalidate a criminal trial because it strikes at the heart of the entire process. A public trial also has been found to implicate First Amendment rights of freedom of assembly, speech and press.

Cannon's decision raises questions about how she will handle the intense public interest at Trump's trial, which is scheduled to begin on May 20, 2024, in the same courtroom.

The unprecedented prosecution of a former president as he campaigns seeking a return to the White House promises to bring enormous public scrutiny. The trial also will represent the first time that Cannon handles a case involving classified evidence and the arcane rules surrounding it.

Cannon's trial errors also illustrate her judicial inexperience, five former federal judges - Democratic and Republican appointees - said in interviews.

"A lack of experience can be really hard in a big case, especially when there's all this media attention and everything you do is being watched and commented on and second-guessed," said Jeremy Fogel, a former federal judge who leads the Berkeley Judicial Institute in California.

Fogel said Cannon made "two fairly significant mistakes" during jury selection in the June trial.

"It looms larger because of who the judge is," Fogel added.

Mark Bennett, the former Chief U.S. District Judge of the Northern District of Iowa, said, "She should have figured ahead of time a way to accommodate a small number of family members in a very small courtroom, in my opinion. It's just the right thing to do, and not run the risk of there being reversible error."

Cannon did not respond to a request for comment. Scott Berry, a federal public defender representing Spearman, declined to comment, as did a Justice Department spokesperson.
Former president Donald Trump arrives at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, after appearing at the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse, Aug. 3, 2023.

Former President Donald Trump on Friday pleaded not guilty and waived his personal appearance for an arraignment on a superseding indictment in his classified documents criminal case in Florida.

Trump entered his plea and waiver in a filing in federal court, where the new indictment issued July 27 added charges for an alleged effort to destroy surveillance video of efforts to hide hundreds of classified government records he kept at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach.

Trump was charged in the original indictment with retaining those records after leaving the White House and conspiring to prevent their return to U.S. officials. Those counts remain in effect.

Trump and his valet, Walt Nauta, a co-defendant in the case, were due to be arraigned on the new charges on Thursday in U.S. District Court in Fort Pierce, Florida.
Investment banks are bearish about European stocks because of a rapid deterioration in economic data. Strategists at UBS expect the Stoxx Europe 600 index to decline by 12.5% to 410 by the end of the year from its current level of 468. And Bank of America's strategists are forecasting an even steeper decline of 18.8% to 380 for the index by the first quarter of next year. Why will stocks tumble? A significant factor behind the poor sentiment is the worsening outlook for new orders in many of Europe's service sectors, according to Gerry Fowler, head of European equity strategy at UBS. .STOXX 1Y line "The 'new orders' outlook for many of the service sectors in Europe seems to have deteriorated quite rapidly. It was quite firm in May, and for three months in a row, we've seen service sector new order weakness," Fowler told CNBC's " Squawk Box Europe ". In July, the flash Composite Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) for the euro area fell to 48.9, down from June's 49.9  below the 50 mark that separates growth from contraction. The decline was also widespread, with Germany and France, the two largest economies in the euro zone, both experiencing contraction. Yet, stock markets in the continent have continued to hold up so far. "We've been in a range of 440-450, up to 470, where we are at the moment, for month after month after month," Fowler said. The stock market has been range-bound, according to him, due to the disparity between the services and manufacturing sectors in Europe. Even as manufacturing sector activity declined in the euro zone, growth in the bloc's dominant services industry kept stocks afloat. However, Fowler said, cracks have begun to show. The strategist highlighted that although first-quarter earnings reported in April were quite robust, the second quarter has shown signs of weakness. "The beats are the lowest we've seen since before Covid," he said, suggesting a gradual weakening of the health of companies in Europe. A bigger decline Bank of America supports Fowler's analysis. The Wall Street bank's strategists noted that the global growth acceleration behind the recent rally in European stocks appears to be fading. "Given that monetary policy works with a lag, the impact of the most aggressive monetary tightening cycle in four decades is only just now starting to show up in the data," said BofA strategists led by Sebastian Raedler in a note to clients on July 28. The bank's strategists expect an 18% decline for the Stoxx Europe 600 index to 380 by the first quarter of next year  if global PMIs continue to decline as expected. Opportunities in a bleak market Despite the bleak outlook for the market, UBS' Fowler sees some opportunities. "We do still like some of the cyclical sectors, particularly banks. We also like real estate, which was one of the least preferred sectors for us all the way through till May, but from May it really started looking like it was dropping and potentially rebounding," Fowler added.
Illustration of the logo of British communications company WPP.

WPP, the world's biggest advertising group, downgraded its full-year like-for-like growth forecast to 1.5-3.0% from 3-5% after lower spending from tech clients caused its revenue in North America to decline in the second quarter.

Chief Executive Mark Read said the group delivered a "resilient" performance in the first half, with growth accelerating in all regions except the United States.

"(The U.S.) was impacted in the second quarter by lower spending from technology clients and some delays in technology-related projects," he said on Friday.

"China returned to growth in the second quarter albeit more slowly than expected."

The British company reported a 2.0% rise in like-for-like revenue less pass-through costs to 5.81 billion pounds ($7.39 billion) in the first half.
Government sources revealed that India seeks to address gateway issues and prioritize key areas of interest for FTA negotiations or Joint Trade and Economic Cooperation (JETCO) with these nations.

The Indian government has taken significant steps towards expanding the trade relations with Latin American countries, with Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations underway with Peru and plans to consider similar talks with Chile. Government sources revealed that India seeks to address gateway issues and prioritize key areas of interest for FTA negotiations or Joint Trade and Economic Cooperation (JETCO) with these nations.

According to officials, the groundwork for the FTA negotiations with Peru has commenced, with a focus on boosting bilateral trade and economic ties. The discussions aim to enhance market access for goods and services, facilitate investment opportunities, and foster greater collaboration in various sectors of mutual interest.

The Indian government has also welcomed Chile's interest in pursuing FTA negotiations with India, government sources said.

The commerce ministry officials at present are negotiating several FTAs with countries including the UK, Canada and European Union. A senior official said that the Commerce Ministry is looking at ways to increase its bandwidth for undertaking these time and human resource consuming talks, as a number of countries have been approaching India for negotiating bilateral FTAs to boost economic ties.

After the G20 meeting scheduled for September 10, Indian authorities plan to actively engage in further discussions with Peru and Chile to fast-track the negotiation process and strengthen economic ties between the nations.

Alongside the FTA endeavours, India aims to establish Joint Trade and Economic Cooperation (JETCO) arrangements with Peru and Chile. JETCO provides a formal structure for less intense negotiations, fostering an environment for increased collaboration in various sectors without the complexities of an FTA. The establishment of JETCO with these countries would create a platform to address shared challenges, promote trade, and explore opportunities for greater economic integration.

In addition to trade and economic cooperation, India seeks to extend its expertise in healthcare services to Latin American nations. Officials highlighted telemedicine and consultation as potential services India seeks offer, in a bid to support its Latin American counterparts in enhancing their healthcare capabilities and promoting greater people-to-people ties.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 3)  The Commission on Audit (COA) again called out the company that supplies food to New Bilibid Prison (NBP) inmates for not adhering to agreed menu cycle and portions.

In its 2022 report for the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor), COA said a review of disbursement vouchers showed that caterer AFS Eatery made changes in the menu without the approval of the superintendent.

It added that the replacement meals were not assessed by the bureau's nutritionist.

"The failure to comply with the required approval prior to substitution of meals may result in serving meals that are not nutritionally appropriate," state auditors said.

Based on records, there were days when AFS Eatery provided rice and jumbo hotdog for breakfast instead of rice with hard-boiled egg and dried fish.

Another example was when inmates were supposed to get burger patties with gravy, rice, and a banana. But they were served cheese bread and coffee instead.

COA also found that inmates in NBP and the Correctional Institute for Women (CIW) were provided with lesser serving of rice than what was indicated in the contract.

Detainees in NBP are supposed to receive two cups of rice while those in CIW should get one and a half cups.

"However, based on the delivery receipts attached to the DVs, it was noted that all inmates in all camps were served with only one cup of rice," it noted.

COA identified Mang Kiko Catering Services as the food supplier in CIW. It also recommended that an appropriate penalty be imposed on AFS Eatery  the same supplier flagged by auditors in 2021 over the same violations.

Meanwhile, BuCor said the Food Inspection Committee  tasked to monitor the implementation of the terms of agreement  is under investigation.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 4)  Senator Sherwin Gatchalian on Friday said he sees no problem in the 58% increase in the allocation for President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.s trips under the proposed 2024 national budget as his official travels in the past year have evidently benefited the country.

Citing data from the Philippine Statistics Authority, Gatchalian told CNN Philippines The Source the 1.408 billion proposed budget for overseas and local travels of the president is justifiable as his trips abroad since he took office have translated to a 120% increase in the number of investment pledges.

Based on the news reports that I read, the trips are not very long, typically 2 days, 3 days packed with meetings and the template there is to meet with the head of state, OFWs (overseas Filipino workers), and investorsThere is a direction in the trips, it's not vacation, Gatchalian said.

This strategy of Marcos personally going to potential investors is a unique approach when compared to the past administrations, the senator added.

While these are bearing fruit, the next question will be when these will come in and the follow through of these pledges, Gatchalian said. This will be a different story because investors will now have to deal with relevant government agencies to implement their proposals, he noted.

Gatchalian also said he does not see any problem with the proposed budget for confidential and intelligence funds, noting there are legitimate uses for these.

The Marcos administration is looking to secure some 10.14 billion in confidential and intelligence funds for next year, higher than earlier reported by the budget chief.

The senator noted that what is important is for safeguards to be followed, and for the Commission on Audit and lawmakers to ensure that public funds are used appropriately.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 4)  The Philippines is becoming the center of human trafficking activities in the world because of the continued presence of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) in the country, a senator said Friday.

Speaking to CNN Philippines The Source, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian said the country is not only emerging as the "POGO hub of the world," but also the "human trafficking hub of the world." The problem will persist as POGOs now are being used as a front for human trafficking, he said.

Gatchalian noted that 4,000 victims of human trafficking victims were rescued in the last 60 days.

Its an ongoing struggle and its an ongoing fight but were ready to take the long haul until we ban POGOs in our country, he said.

In July, Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means, said he submitted his Chairmans Report to Malacanang in April, recommending the immediate shutdown of all POGO operations.

He said the committee hearings showed that the country is not benefitting from the supposed revenues from POGOs. Even if it did, it could not outweigh the social costs of the crimes linked to POGOs, he noted.

While waiting for President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.s action on the matter, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) is currently reviewing the status of all POGOs in the country to check if they are subleasing their license, Gatchalian said.

It took them almost five years to figure that out. But now that they figured that out, they are trying to cleanse the ranks of the POGOs by banning all of these sublicensees, the senator said.

Gatchalian said the sublicensing of POGOs contracts is prohibited, adding that these sublicensees are the ones involved in illegal activities.

As long as POGOs are operating in the country, crimes related to them will continue, Gatchalian said. This will just waste the efforts of the president to attract more foreign investors, he added.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 4)  The government should immediately start renovating schools that were damaged by Typhoon Egay and the southwest monsoon, or habagat, with the nearing resumption of classes, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) said Friday.

Kinakailangang mabigyang aksyon kaagad ang pagpapaayos ng mga sirang pasilidad para matiyak na mayroong ligtas at maayos na pasilidad ang mga guro at mag-aaral para sa darating na pasukan, said ACT Secretary General Raymond Basilio.

[Translation: There is a need for prompt action on repairing the damaged facilities to ensure that teachers and students have safe and decent facilities for the upcoming resumption of classes.]

According to the Department of Education, 169 schools were damaged by the weather disturbance in Cordillera Administrative Region, Metro Manila, Cagayan Valley, Ilocos Region, Central Luzon, CALABARZON, MIMAROPA, Eastern Visayas and Bicol Region.

Meanwhile, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said educational materials, computers and armchairs were destroyed in 38 municipalities, as of Aug. 2.

It also logged 559 damaged classrooms from affected regions.

Speaking to CNN Philippines The Source, Sen. Win Gatchalian said the senate will conduct a hearing to assess the readiness of schools to resume classes.

We wanted to know whether our schools are ready, our teachers are ready, and what are the problems that our schools are facing, said Gatchalian, who heads the Senate's basic education committee.
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Quick: What app do you use to manage your calendar on your phone?

If you're anything like most people I hear from, the answer's probably something along the lines of: "Uh...whatever calendar app came on the phone when I got it?"

It's a surprisingly common position, but guess what? On Android in particular, there's a decent chance your phone's default calendar app isn't the best option. And it doesn't take much work to give yourself an upgrade. In fact, you don't have to look any further than this very page.

After much exploration and experimentation, I've identified the best Android calendar apps available for different styles of professional schedule management. Some are meant to act as replacements for the less-than-stellar services that come preinstalled on certain phones, while others are supplements that have the potential to add worthwhile functions into any Android calendar setup.

We'll start with the simplest and work our way up to some increasingly advanced and feature-laden options.

The best all-around Android calendar app for most users

If you don't have any special needs or requirements  and especially if you're already using Google Calendar on the desktop  Google's own native Calendar application is a spectacular way to manage your agenda on Android.

And lest you think it's too obvious to warrant inclusion in this list, remember: The Google Calendar app doesn't actually come preinstalled on all Android devices, including the massive number of phones sold by Samsung. If you're using a Galaxy phone in particular, switching to the Google Calendar app will represent a significant leap forward in both overall experience and protection of your data (ahem).

JR Raphael / IDG The official Google Calendar app for Android is clean, simple, and easy to use  and it has all the basics most business users require.

The Calendar app is nicely designed and easy to use, with a clean and simple scrollable agenda view along with serviceable monthly, weekly, daily, and three-day viewing options. It closely matches the Calendar experience on the web and gives you thought-free syncing of your Google Calendar agenda. And it probably goes without saying, but the Google Calendar app is free for individuals and built into the enterprise-level Google Workspace package.

The best Android calendar app if you have a Microsoft account in the mix

If you lean on Microsoft for your agenda organization  or rely on a mix of Microsoft and Google, thanks to the presence of both personal and work accounts on your device  the most effective way to keep up with your calendar on Android is with Microsoft's official Outlook app.

Once you sign into the app using your Microsoft account, you'll see all of your Outlook-associated appointments right alongside events from Google Calendar  for any accounts you have connected to your phone. That effortless configuration is a sharp contrast to the numerous hoops you have to jump through to get Outlook events to show up within Google's app.

JR Raphael / IDG Microsoft's Outlook app for Android has an integrated calendar function that effortlessly brings different data sources together.

And cross-account compatibility aside, the calendar portion of Microsoft's Android Outlook app is also just intuitively designed and pleasant to use. It's a commendable tool for keeping track of appointments on the go, regardless of what account or series of accounts you're using.

The best Android calendar app if you want extra features and customization

For professional users seeking an Android calendar experience with some extra oomph, Business Calendar 2 represents a noteworthy upgrade over the status quo. The thoughtfully designed app offers all the basics you'd expect along with handy additional features, such as an always-present favorites bar that lets you easily hide or show different calendars with a single tap, a week slider to quickly zoom into any date range you need, and a custom template system for faster event creation.

JR Raphael / IDG Business Calendar 2 adds some genuinely useful functions into the standard Android calendar setup.

The app has tons of time-saving shortcuts, too, and it works incredibly well on both the ChromeOS front and with any Wear OS smartwatch as a hefty upgrade for either of those Android-associated areas.

Business Calendar 2 automatically syncs with your device's system-level calendar, which means it'll effectively sync with Google Calendar and thus work seamlessly with Calendar on the web. It's free to use with an optional $7 Pro upgrade that removes ads and unlocks certain advanced features, including the aforementioned template system as well as forecast integration and a variety of customization options.

The best Android calendar app for interacting with your agenda on your home screen

Most Android calendar apps come with widgets, but few are as easy-to-use, flexible, and customizable as the amusingly named Event Flow. (If you don't get the joke in the app's name, c'mon: You really need to bone up on your '90s rock knowledge.)

Event Flow does one thing and does it well: It gives you an app-like interface for accessing and managing your agenda on your home screen. The entire app is essentially just a widget, along with a configuration tool to make it work the way you want. So it's less of a replacement for your standard Android calendar app and more of a supplement for whatever app you're using.

JR Raphael / IDG Event Flow places your agenda right on your home screen, with far more tools for taking control of that view than most standard calendar apps give you.

Event Flow is about as customizable as it gets, too. You can have its widget show as much or as little detail as you want  with a visual arrangement, font size, and color scheme that's optimized for your reading style and general preferences. You can even have it include the weather for upcoming days, if you're so inclined.

The widget lets you specify which calendars and types of events it displays, too, and it even lets you dictate the number of days it includes and the total number of events it shows at any given time  an almost shockingly sensible option that's somehow missing from most Android calendar widgets (here's lookin' at you, Google!).

Event Flow is free to use with an optional $1 upgrade for some of its more advanced options.

The best Android calendar app for having easy access to your agenda from anywhere

Widgets on the home screen are certainly handy, but maybe you reference your calendar often enough that you want to be able to get to it from anywhere on your device. Enter Calendar Notification, a clever Android calendar addition that puts a persistent view of your agenda right into your phone's standard notification panel.

That means no matter what else you're doing, all you've gotta do is swipe down once from the top of your screen to get a quick glance at your upcoming events  without having to exit your current app or in any way switch processes.

JR Raphael / IDG With Calendar Notification, your agenda is never more than a single swipe away.

Calendar Notification is interactive, too, so you can tap any individual event within its notification to view more details about that appointment or edit it. And it has some other clever touches, like the ability to switch between different views with the tap of an icon and the option to keep the current day and date visible in your device's status bar for easy at-a-glance viewing.

Calendar Notification is free to use with a monthly view only. An optional $5 upgrade adds in all the other views, along with some of the more advanced customization options.

The best Android calendar app for managing meetings

Last but not least, if you find yourself scheduling lots of meeting with colleagues, clients, camels, or any other kinds of creatures, Calendly has become the de facto standard for managing the timeless dance around finding a mutually acceptable appointment time  and the service's Android app is a fantastic way to stay connected to all of your meeting presets on the go.

The Calendly Mobile app provides a simple but effective interface for viewing and adjusting your existing meeting types, as well as creating new meeting options and then sharing them directly with your contacts.

JR Raphael / IDG If you use Calendly for meeting management, you'll absolutely want its companion Android app.

The Calendly Android app is free, though the service itself costs $8 per person per month for anything above the service's limited free plan.

This article was originally published in May 2020 and updated in August 2023.
Improv, street theatre; get set for a new, evolved Dastak 2023 in Singapore

Singapores premier Hindi theatre festival Dastak returns to the Lion City, and its even bigger and better this year!

Dastak 2023 is running from August 18 - 20 at the Black Box in Goodman Arts Centre. Photo courtesy: Dastak team

The festivals organisers have opted for performing five 20-minute plays this year instead of the 10 usual 10-minute shows. The theme this year is street-play-inspired theatre from the streets of Mumbai.

Shalaka Ranadive, Dastak's festival director has decades of acting experience. She has worked on popular Indian General Entertainment channels like Zee TV and many theatre productions. Photo courtesy: Shalaka Ranadive

The benefit of a slighter longer format is that stories can have a little longer in their narratives to unfold and in the story telling itself, Shalaka Ranadive, festival director, told Connected to India.

Dastak 2023 is running from August 18 - 20 at the Black Box in Goodman Arts Centre.

Over the years, the festival has evolved and grown in terms of people participating, the diversity of plays, branching into other ventures, reach on social media and, most importantly, the appreciative audience who come to the theatre, Shalaka added.

Charu Madan, director of SH. Photo courtesy: Dastak team

Reflecting the multicultural diversity of Singapore and arts transcending boundaries, Dastak has presented plays in Mandarin, Malay and Tamil, to give the audience the full experience of the vibrant theatre scene in Singapore.

New additions and features for this years festival include Gopal Datt, of Delhi Crime fame, bringing a team from India to perform Aur Karo Theatre, a street-play inspired piece.

The festival will also have its first ever improv performance, directed by Lewin Bernard, a non-Hindi speaking director. This is the first time the audience will participate in the narrative, the organisers said.

Sajini Naidu and KP Sandhu, popular Singaporean Tamil and Punjabi performers, are bringing their talents for Good Night, a dark dramatic comedy directed by local Thai talent Dew Chaiyanara.

Dastak has produced and presented over 50 plays across genres since it was launched. The true success of this production is its emphasis on providing inclusive and quality theatre. Alongside established local Hindi artists such as Sharul Channa, Rishi Budhrani and Subin Subaiah, and non-Hindi-speaking artists such as Gavin Low (2021), Susie Penrice Tyrie (2017), Hemang Yadav (2017 & 2021) and Grace Kalai (2019), Dastak allows aspiring actors with full-time day jobs to explore and fuel their creativity unreservedly, an official statement read.

Hemang Yadav will direct 'The Proposal'. Photo courtesy: Dastak team

Over the years, Dastaks plays have been performed not just during its own festival but also in Singapore at the Indian Heritage Centre festival, in Malaysia at Melacca and in India at the Kaala Ghoda Arts Festival at Mumbai. This years event might serve as a springboard for an exciting foray into the Indian theatre scene, as the organisers are planning to host next years iteration in India.

The intent of Dastak has been to present, showcase talent and build further the community of patrons, artists alike and over the years we have been able to build our little corner, Shalaka said.  We wanted to try something different and explore a new format, approach and content. Right from planning to execution its a different journey from the past five editions.

Dew Chaiyanara, directing 'Good Night'. Photo courtesy: Dastak team

Here are the previews of the five plays of Dastak 2023:

SH, directed by Charu Madan

Starring: Avtar Bhulla, Saurabh Sardana, Charu Madan

Can we bridge the gap that our society faces after 80 years of independence? Perhaps with a little acceptance, a little truth, a little friendship? Do you know how to make it happen in a little Indian village?

Lewin Bernard will direct the improv performance 'Bang Bang'. Photo courtesy: Dastak team

The Proposal, directed by Hemang Yadav

Starring: Rachita Arke, Neeraj Sujanani, Yogesh Tadwalkar, Sheetal Sharma

It should have been a straightforward proposal: all Salim had to do was propose to Anarkali. After all, with her father Javeds blessing already in the bag, what could go wrong? Well, when chaos ensues, can the faithful Sigal come to the rescue in the marriage of convenience?

Gopal Datt, of Delhi Crime fame, bringing a team from India to perform Aur Karo Theatre, a street-play inspired piece. Photo courtesy: Dastak team

Good Night, directed by Dew Chaiyanara

Starring: Sajini Naidu, KP Sandhu

'Good Night' is a dark comedy about an exhausted mans sleepless anguish contributed to by his eccentric lovers neurotic tendencies and hilarious phobias.

Bang Bang, directed by Lewin Bernard

Starring: Amit Joshi, Lagnajit Patnaik, Saurabh Sardana

Why do we do the things we do? Is it because of love or because of what is at stake? We find two assassins in a room with their target who is bounded to a chair but only to find out that their power to choose what to do next has been taken away. One wants to retire, another wants to be number 1, and the last one just wants to stay alive. Maybe you should decide what should happen next in this assassins game. This improv play will draw the audience into a farcical murder mystery.

Aur Karo Theatre, directed by Gopal Dutt

Street-play inspired piece with limericks and poetry brought to you by a talented trio from India. The play will include music, poetry, and dance drama.
The best thing about being a celebrity is people recognize you wherever you go. The worst thing about being a celebrity is people recognize you wherever you go.

But maybe thats not true. Really, the best thing about being a celebrity is money. The worst thing about being a celebrity, meanwhile, is when people who know all about you finally see you and dont recognize you at all. Like what happened when...

5 New Jersey People Called 911 When They Saw Bob Dylan In 2009, a family saw an eccentric old man walk into the yard in front of their house. To them, he was some old guy in sweatpants and two raincoats, probably homeless and probably looking to cause trouble. He was actually Bob Dylan, which was perhaps a far better explanation for both his disheveled appearance and overall mental impairment. The family called the police, and when an officer arrived, she asked the man to explain himself. He said hed wandered into the yard because hed seen a for sale sign and was looking to buy a house there  an answer that sounded unconvincing if the man were really some hobo and frankly even more unconvincing if the man were Bob Dylan. He then identified himself as Bob Dylan, and the officer didnt believe him, particularly since he carried no ID. Paparazzo Presents Clearly just a bum, up for some blowin in the wind. The man insisted he was in New Jersey touring with Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp, indicating that he might have been an escaped hospital inmate, but after the officer loaded him into her car, she humored him and accepted his directions to a hotel. The hotel lot was full of tour buses. A superior officer also met her there, and after looking at the guy, he too agreed this was clearly not Bob Dylan. But the wet hooded man went inside and fetched his passport. Advertisement The passport confirmed who he was, as did various people at the hotel. The officers now said, Okay, youre famous, but that does not undermine the accusation of trespassing, so were going to have to keep you in custody. Just kidding. They let him go, of course.

4 Tourists Met the Queen and Didnt Realize It At the end of her life, Queen Elizabeth II had perhaps the most famous face in the world and surely the most famous face in England, if for no other reason than from appearing on all those banknotes. Not too many of those banknotes, however, showed her wearing a headscarf, a fashion choice enjoyed sometimes by her but more often by lots of old lady commoners. Advertisement One time, tourists were visiting Balmoral Castle and Estate while the Queen was walking the grounds, relatively incognito thanks to her scarf and tweed coat. We imagine security had already checked the tourists for weapons (maces, pikes, etc.), and the Queen was escorted by her personal bodyguard, Richard Griffin. He would have that job for a total of 14 years, after serving other palace guard functions for another 45 years. George Washington Wilson This was Balmoral when he first started working. The tourists met the Queen on a trail from a picnic site. They talked to her, as tourists talk to fellow tourists, then asked the inevitable traveler question: Where do you live? I live in London, she said, but I have a holiday home just on the other side of the hills. And how often, they asked, have you been coming here (to Balmoral, not understanding that Balmoral was the holiday home she was referring to). Ive been coming here ever since I was a little girl, she said. So, over 80 years. Well, said the tourists, if youve been coming here so long, youve surely met the queen. No, she replied. Then she pointed to Griffin. But he has. Advertisement Advertisement Griffin would recall this many times, slightly changing the wording but telling the same basic story. According to another version, her final reply was, Well, I havent. But Dick here meets her regularly. They then asked for a picture with Dick, who made sure they also got a picture without him but with the old woman, whom their friends back home would surely be able to identify for them.

3 Andre the Giants Family Saw Him Become a Wrestler But Didnt Know It Was Him Andre the Giant grew fast. He was more than six feet tall when he was 14, but by the time he was full-grown, he was almost seven and a half feet. His family must have seen him shoot up before their very eyes during those years... if they saw him then at all. Which they didnt because at the age of 14, he left his French village and headed to the city. Advertisement He moved furniture for a living and then was recruited from a gym to wrestle. When he was 19, he headed back home, and his parents did recognize him  as a wrestler theyd seen on TV. When hed appeared on TV, theyd had no idea he was their son. That was because hed grown and also because he used a stage name. No, not Andre the Giant. Andre was his real name. Hed been calling himself Jean Ferre, a name taken from a 14th-century folk hero. The original Ferre supposedly killed 70 men in battle, grew ill, then killed five more while on his deathbed. Heres a painting of him, arranged for maximum butt exposure: Antoine Rivoulon You can tell this is not Andre as hes so small and weak. Advertisement

2 Pat Morita Used Anonymity to Try Out for The Karate Kid Twice Morita didnt have an easy route into appearing in The Karate Kid. At the start, some executive producer was keen on him and put his name forward. Then a higher-up, Jerry Weintraub (who happened to manage tours for Bob Dylan, by the way), put his foot down and said no. And that was why Pat Morita never appeared in The Karate Kid. Columbia Pictures In 1984, Mr. Miyagi was played by a 30-year-old Jackie Chan. Advertisement Wait, no, thats not right. Much further along during pre-production, Morita grew out his hair and beard while getting no acting work, and his agent got him a reading for The Karate Kid after all. After that, his headshot went to Weintraub, who saw it and thought that guy would make for a great Mr. Miyagi. Then everyone around him informed him this was the actor hed specifically rejected before, so Weintraub felt a little bit of the old resistance return, but after making Morita read five more times, he gave him the part. Keep in mind, Morita wasnt some total rando, enough that youd expect the casting department to forget theyd rejected him before. He was a known stand-up comic and had had his own sitcom, along with appearing even more famously on bigger sitcoms. The unintentional makeover was essential for getting past Weintraubs defenses. And now you know the true reason behind depression beards. Its not because men lose hope and stop grooming. Its a purposeful quest for reinvention. Advertisement Advertisement
Nobody likes nepotism. Not even the people who benefit from it. For different reasons, of course. Most people hate it because its a slap in the face of the meritocracy we like to pretend modern humans operate on, it locks people into an endless cycle of wealth and takes away opportunities from more qualified applicants. The nepotists themselves hate it because it gets thrown in their face constantly. This threatens to upset the delicate illusion theyve created that, by the grace of an ordered universe, the best possible CEO for their parents company happens to be them.

Most of the time these days, this sort of preferential treatment for mommy and daddys sweetest baby bunny just ends in failed businesses or general ire. Sometimes, though, when the role in question is important enough, nepotism can end in lost lives. Losing jobs when poorly managed businesses fail isnt great, sure, but at least those people are still occupying their musculature and not in the afterlife because of some kid who snorted his way through an Ivy League legacy stint.

Here are four times nepotism cost people their lives

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4 Aldrich Ames Public Domain Their problem was trusting a guy with that mustache. Whether its spy movies or the allure of redacted documents, wed like to think the CIA is a well-oiled, intelligence and assassination machine. We want it to be a slick, silent office filled with impeccably dressed agents and a weapon lab with at least one laser. Unfortunately, even an agency tasked with covert intelligence is still susceptible to classic business bullshit. For example, Aldrich Ames, who, thanks to his CIA analyst father, was whisked right out of high school into a summer internship at the CIA. Now, CIA intern sounds patently insane to me, closer to a slapstick comedy pitch than a genuine position. Are you trading Chinese intelligence for college credits? It is real, however, and Ames was not good at it. He received poor evaluations at every step of his career, and yet, he continually failed upward. Instead of topping out in some corner office, left to get day-drunk and collect a check like some failsons would, however, he ended up as the chief of Soviet counterintelligence. During the Cold War. All this despite the fact that he was a known alcoholic, which isnt ideal for a loose lips sink ships type role. He even reportedly left a briefcase of classified documents on the New York subway. So anyone with a functional capacity for logical thinking might have raised an eyebrow at handing that guy a folder filled with the identities of the United States undercover operatives. How did it go? More poorly than youd even think. Ames ended up as a KGB double agent, and as such, he handed over the identities of multiple foreign agents to the Soviets for money, most of whom promptly disappeared.

3 George W. Bush Public Domain This photo just gerrymandered your voting district. For a country that loves to talk about how we triumphantly threw off the reins of a monarchy, we sure do love a neat and tidy political bloodline. Heaven knows name recognition is a whole lot easier to work with than maybe the most hated hobby in all of America: research. Id love to see a GeoCities-style hit counter on the policies pages of political candidates. Not that we have particularly much say in who makes it to the highest echelons of government, since at that point, any candidate presented has been groomed like a Westminster show poodle. And Im not going to pretend this is a one-party problem, or a new one. You can find it as far back as John Quincy Adams, and neo-libs love them a Kennedy or a Clinton. As far as questionable qualifications and ruinous results go, though, its hard to overlook George W. Bush. Should the 2000s have ended up a time of peace, he might have been able to coast by and cut taxes and social services, but instead, we ended up in a horrifically botched war of ego against Iraq that sniffed uncomfortably familiar to the disaster in Vietnam. You can argue all youd like about the decision to pull troops out, but the fact is that the Bush administration was responsible for a disastrous destabilization in the Middle East that cost an incredible amount of lives both during wartime and thanks to the creation of extremist groups like ISIS. All of which could have been avoided if wed just said, Hey, maybe the guy with the DUI and the alleged coke habit might not be our best and brightest.

2 Caligula Richard Mortel Even his busts look vaguely evil. If we want to talk about disastrous historical familial rulers, the most well-known reference might be Romes Caligula. He was born Gaius Caesar Germanicus to Germanicus and Agrippa the Elder. His particular familial connections get quite bloody and complicated almost immediately, with his mother and sisters being imprisoned by Tiberius after his fathers death. Tiberius was much more benevolent with Caligulas future, making his nephew his adopted son and an heir to the throne. This would turn out quite poorly. He would end up succeeding Tiberius as emperor, and began a reign that was equal parts inexplicable and horrific. He has a reputation as one of historys quintessential mad kings and not in any sort of fun way. He murdered senators who dared disagree with him, and citizens for pretty much no reason at all. He spent only four years on the throne before the Praetorian Guard, meant to guard the emperor, instead decided it was high time for a new one, and assassinated him.
If you would have showed up on the set of Pee-wees Playhouse in the late 1980s, odds are an unknown young man would have been waiting at the door to ask for your ID. Of course, if you fast-forwarded a few years, you might have recognized the face of John Singleton, the Oscar-nominated director of Boyz n the Hood.

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John was the lowliest of PAs, Laurence (Cowboy Curtis) Fishburne told Conan OBrien in 1995. We met on Pee-wee's Playhouse in 1988. I had just done a movie with Spike Lee called School Daze so naturally, he was a big Spike Lee fan: Tell me Spike Lee stories. It was on the Pee-wee set that Singleton told Fishburne that he was working on a coming-of-age story and that hed direct Fishburne in it one day.

Play

Singleton, still a student at USCs film school, made another Boyz connection when he met jazz musician Stanley Clarke, who composed music for Paul Reubens show. John came up to me and stated that he and I were going to work together in the future, Clarke revealed to The Hollywood Reporter. Im not sure what I thought at the time, but who was to know that he would later ask me to score his first feature, Oscar-nominated Boyz n the Hood.

The Pee-Wee set was known for being more diverse than most shows of its time. I think it was groundbreaking in a lot of ways, and that was in front of the camera and behind the camera, said Epatha (Reba the Mail Lady) Merkerson on a DVD featurette. It was a multiracial and multiethnic group of people.

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According to the aforementioned Hollywood Reporter piece, Fishburne agreed. The crews were the most diverse of all the crews Ive ever worked with, which means there were more people of color behind the scenes, there were more women behind the scenes in nontraditional roles for women, he was quoted as saying. It was probably the first time I ever encountered a woman working as a camera assistant or a focus puller, and I was really impressed by that, and obviously that was down to Paul.

On that same featurette, Singleton, who passed away in 2019, revealed how influenced he was by his Pee-wees Playhouse experience: Having that be my first introduction into production was a godsend because I didnt feel alienated at all working on that set  even at my small job being a security guard-slash-PA. I felt like I was part of a family.

Maybe it should have been Boyz in the Playhouse?
Theres a litany of candlestick formations that traders can look for but few carry the potential of the engulfing candlestick.

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Engulfing candlesticks are fairly simple to explain, its simply a candle that takes out the entirety of the prior candle. But, working with them can be a bit more difficult and new traders are seemingly perplexed by the formation so, well dig into this topic in a little more depth in this article. We do have some additional materials available on the topic in DailyFX Education. We looked at bearish engulfing candlesticks and bullish engulfing in different articles and, in this piece, well incorporate that formation into our broader price action education as these can be very actionable when they do show up.

The important takeaway is that the engulfing candlestick body must take out the entirety of the prior candlestick body  indicating a momentum-driven reversal.

Defining the Engulf

There are two types of engulfing patterns. The first and most common is an engulfing of the entire prior body. In FX or futures markets, where prices are streaming 24 hours a day, these are far more common as the end of one bar simply starts the next. This means that the prior candles close is this candles open, so if were going to see an engulfing formation take place, buyers will need to step in (in terms of a bullish engulf) to completely eclipse the move from the prior bar  and this bar still needs to close above the prior bars open.

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The second brand of engulf is more rare but this would include a full engulf of the prior candles wicks. This would illustrate a wider range from the prior bar but, similarly, both show a possible shift in momentum.

Is one better than the other? Thats difficult to say as they both illustrate the same kind of thing but, the second engulf with full cover of the prior candles wicks does make a strong statement about an increasing rate of activity.

On the below hourly chart of GBP/JPY Ive pointed out a handful of these patterns that appeared between April 17th and April 22nd, 2022. The engulf located on the far right of the chart is the only that was a full candle engulf, where even the wicks of the engulfing candlestick took out the prior bars entire range.

GBP/JPY Hourly Price Chart

Chart prepared by James Stanley ;GBP/JPY hourly chart, April 18  April 22, 2022

Types of Engulfing Candlesticks

The engulfing candlestick says quite a bit and will often be approached with anticipation of something continuing to happen. Theres a few specific situations where this can come up as important, and Ill look at a few of those below.

The Engulfing Reversal

Reversals are notoriously tough because, as traders, were basically saying whats been happening  is about to change. And by and large its often more advisable to follow the status quo, but when an engulfing candlestick shows up at the top of a trend that can be a big statement. And, it could also be a sign of whats to come.

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On the below GBP/JPY chart, Im looking at a trend on the daily chart from Q4 of 2021. Ive noted a few engulfs on the left side of the chart but the reversal setup can be found towards the top of the below illustration, in red. At the time, the trend had jumped by more than 900 pips in the first three weeks of October, and then this bar showed up on the daily chart.

It wasnt a full candle reversal, as only the body of this candle engulfed the prior candles body. This was a clear sign in shifting momentum that eventually played through for a really strong reversal. And, notably, the three engulfs that I pointed out before that reversal formation showed up  those also so continuation on the day after they had printed, further illustrating the potential for momentum to continue after one of these engulfing patterns print.

GBP/JPY Daily Price Chart (Sept -Dec 2021)

Chart prepared by James Stanley; GBP/JPY daily chart, Sep.  Dec. 2021

The In Trend Engulf

Timing trends can be tricky. Theres been an observable bias so theres a directional pull that youd like to incorporate but, it seems that many have the same idea at the same time and this can keep trends from pulling back far enough to afford an attractive entry point. And  when the pullback does come about  how is the trader to know that its a pullback and not a reversal? Whats the proper way of timing re-entry in the trend-side direction?

The in trend engulfing candlestick can help with this. Its basically looking for a pullback, followed by an engulf in the direction of the trend, thereby giving the idea that buyers are back and the trend may be ready to continue up to fresh highs.

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GBP/JPY Daily Price Chart (2022  May 2022)

Chart prepared by James Stanley; GBP/JPY daily chart, Jan  May 2022

The Counter Trend Engulf

On that topic of trends  for traders looking to fade the move, engulfs can help there, as well. The essential logic would be waiting for an engulf to print in the opposing direction of the trend, which may turn into a bigger picture reversal.

Sure, not everyone will turn into a full-fledged reversal. But  it can help to open the door for reversal strategies and the momentum that can carry through such a formation will usually allow for some fast counter-trend movement.

GBP/JPY Daily Price Chart

Chart prepared by James Stanley; GBP/JPY daily chart, Jan  May 2022
Visitors emphasize need to pass down goodwill, increase youth exchanges The futuristic configuration and construction efficiency of the Xiong'an New Area in Hebei province highly impressed a group of guests from the US state of Iowa who visited the area recently. The group's members  some of whom have been acquaintances of President Xi Jinping's since the 1980s  visited the province from July 1 to 3. This year marks the 40th anniversary of Iowa's sisterhood with the province in North China. In 1985, Xi, then secretary of the Communist Party of China Zhengding county committee in Hebei, led a delegation to Iowa for a two-week visit that kicked off a slew of memorable interactions between the two nations in the decades to come. Last month, some of those Iowa friends got the chance to visit Xiong'an on their first trip to Hebei since the outbreak of COVID-19 three years ago interrupted travel. On April 1, 2017, China announced plans to establish Xiong'an, a new economic zone about 100 kilometers southwest of Beijing, to relieve Beijing of functions not essential to its role as the nation's capital and to advance the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. "The size of the buildings and the green space show that a lot of thought went into making the city of the future and how people want to live," said Gary Dvorchak, managing director of Blueshirt Group Asia. His parents are Eleanor and Thomas Dvorchak, who hosted Xi during his 1985 visit to Muscatine, Iowa. The Dvorchaks' house has been designated by Muscatine as the Sino-US Friendship House, which greets visitors to the small city. The Iowa guests visited Xiong'an's center for planning and exhibition and the comprehensive service center of Xiong'an's startup area. They listened to briefings by local officials about the city's overall planning. They also witnessed the progress of infrastructure construction and the building of a smart city in Xiong'an's Rongdong area. In addition, they toured the scenic Baiyangdian Lake to view the lucid waters there and the progress made in ecological preservation and restoration. Recalling the tour in Xiong'an, Dvorchak said the city is "very modern and forward thinking", with a scale that is highly livable. "We're all looking at it saying, boy, it would be nice to live here," he added. The US guests, including Rick Kimberley, a farmer at Kimberley Family Farm in Iowa, also visited Tayuanzhuang village in Zhengding county to witness how China's ambition for rural vitalization is being translated into reality. Yin Jiping, the village's Party chief, briefed them on plans for development of the village, including the blueprint for the agriculture and tourism sectors and social services for senior citizens. Kimberley said, "The development of the agricultural industry has been something that you can be proud of." In February 2012, Xi, then China's vice-president, visited Kimberley's farm and rode a tractor with him. Kimberley added that he looks forward to continuing discussions with Chinese friends about agriculture, the importance of sustainable agriculture, and how to provide products in a safe, secure and sustainable way. Bonds go on Luca Berrone, a board member of Iowa Sister States and a businessman, helped arrange the schedule for Xi's five-person delegation during the Iowa visit in 1985. "I considered the five people from the 1985 visit not only my friends but my brothers, and they have allowed me to broaden my vision of global culture and friendship," he said. Xi's visit in 1985 "cemented the foundation of the 40-year friendship between Iowa and Hebei province", Berrone said. "The two weeks I spent together with President Xi and the other members of the delegation proved to be a life-changing experience for me, and continue to be a source of inspiration for improving relationships." Guests such as Berrone have voiced their hopes and personal willingness to work to enhance subnational-level contacts and exchanges between the two largest economies in the world and to help improve the two nations' strained relations. "We must continue to invest in friendship, because we cannot ever take it for granted. Friendship can be hard work and not just idle talk," Berrone said. Boosting networking between the younger generations of the two countries is also high on their agenda. During their Hebei trip, the US guests visited Shijiazhuang Foreign Language School and attended a dialogue with students and faculty members there. At the dialogue, students asked questions about the friendship between the peoples of China and the US, global agricultural issues, and exchanges between young Chinese and Americans. Kenneth Quinn, former president of the World Food Prize Foundation and former US ambassador to Cambodia, responded to the students' questions. Quinn hosted Xi in 1985, and in 1980, he helped arrange a tour of Iowa for a Chinese delegation headed by Xi's father, Xi Zhongxun, who was then governor of Guangdong province. Quinn, a keen participant in academic contacts with Chinese scholars and students, underlined the necessity to pass friendship down to future generations. "It's so important to have these exchanges for young students, and some exchanges allow Chinese students to come and spend a year going to high school someplace in the United States," Quinn said. "When you're there for a year and you become part of a high school, it really sends them to connect with someone, makes them feel enough a part of America that a bond is formed. And I think it would be the same sending Americans to China, and feeling those attachments," he added. Dan Stein, chairman of the Muscatine-China Initiatives Committee, said that some of the students from the Shijiazhuang school will visit Iowa during the fall, and some US students will come to China. "The more people go back and forth, the more we can learn about each other and then find out more opportunities to cooperate together," he said.
Health Secretary Steve Barclays decision to make more use of private providers to cut NHS waiting lists is both welcome and, to all but the most ideologically blinkered, eminently sensible.

After all, if you have been waiting 18 months in acute pain for a hip or knee replacement, are you really going to quibble about where and by whom you are treated?

Part of the Governments broader NHS recovery strategy, the idea is to set up 13 new community diagnostic centres  eight of them privately run  offering scans and other pre-operative tests.

This builds on existing use of the independent sector, which currently provides around 6 per cent of all NHS care.

So what is Labours position on this enhancement of public-private partnership? Health spokesman Wes Streeting is apparently all for it. Indeed, he attacked the Government yesterday for not bringing it about sooner.

DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Health Secretary Steve Barclays decision to make more use of private providers to cut NHS waiting lists is welcome and eminently sensible

So what is Labours position on this enhancement of public-private partnership? Health spokesman Wes Streeting (pictured) is apparently all for it

Which is interesting, given that less than four years ago both he and his leader, Sir Keir Starmer, stood on a manifesto which promised to end and reverse privatisation within the NHS.

The big healthcare think-tanks are rather cooler on Mr Barclays plan. The Nuffield Trust says there is a risk the NHS would be left with only the most complex cases without the capacity to deal with them.

But isnt that the whole point? Use the private hospitals to help clear the backlog of minor operations, so the NHS can concentrate on the more serious cases.

How can that be anything but a relief to hard-pressed hospital staff? (Those who are not on strike, that is.)

The sad truth is that Labour and most of the medical establishment are instinctively hostile to any private involvement in the NHS, preferring to pour ever more cash into an unreformed system that is cracking at the seams. A waiting list of 7.5million is hardly a ringing endorsement of the status quo.

The Covid vaccine miracle showed how the dynamism of the private sector can supercharge the development and delivery of new drugs. If the ideologues can swallow their prejudices, it could have the same galvanising effect on the NHS.

Two-way traffickers

We have long known that people smugglers make huge profits from bringing Albanian migrants into Britain illegally.

Now, as the Mail reveals today, they are bumping up their earnings even more by smuggling them out.

For 17,500, traffickers offer a bespoke service to Albanian criminals who need to get out of Britain in a hurry. They provide forged documents and a place in the cab of a lorry, where the wanted man poses as a second driver.

They even advertise on the social media site TikTok, using the tagline Inbound and outbound by lorry. One gang offers a 100 per cent guarantee that they will evacuate people with problems.

British police are hunting at least 38 suspected Albanian criminals, including nine wanted for murder. It is feared many have already been spirited out of the country. With small boats coming in and lorries going out, could our borders be any more porous?

This perverse tax

As an example of flawed logic, Jeremy Hunts plan to end VAT-free shopping for foreign visitors is hard to beat.

The Chancellor believes the measure will raise 2billion. Meanwhile, analysis by the Centre for Economics and Business Research says the Treasury will lose 2.3billion in net receipts, as high-spending tourists desert Britain and take their business elsewhere.

Its time for Mr Hunt to apply some joined-up thinking and abandon this perverse and ill-conceived reform.
The late Queen Mother was known as the most extravagant of modern royals, maintaining a large and expensive household at Royal Lodge complete with liveried flunkeys and an overdraft of 4 million at Coutts.

She was, according to the title of the biography by Ingrid Seward, The Last Great Edwardian Lady.

Yet the wife of an emperor, George VI, and mother of a Queen, had rather different side to her that would, in time, be eclipsed by all that grandeur and attention - that of a country-loving girl who wanted a quiet life.

The Honourable Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon was born on this day, August 4, in 1900.

Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon was born on August 4, 1900. Her childhood was one of wealth and love, as the youngest daughter in a large family of the Scottish aristocracy

When her father inherited his Earldom in 1904, she became Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon

Throughout her youth, Lady Elizabeth and her older sisters were companions to the children of King George V and Queen Mary

The ninth child and fourth daughter of Lord Claude George Bowes-Lyon and Lady Nina Cecilia Bowes-Lyon, Lord and Lady Glamis, she belonged to a family descended from the Royal House of Scotland.

Elizabeth's childhood was one of great wealth, comfort and love. In 1904, aged just four, she became Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon when her father inherited his Earldom.

During her early childhood, Elizabeth and her family divided their time spent between Glamis Castle in Scotland and her parent's country home at St Paul's Walden Bury in Hertfordshire.

Lady Elizabeth was educated at home, and at the age of 10, she was fluent in French.

When First World War broke out - it commenced on Elizabeth's 14th birthday - Glamis Castle became a military hospital.

While she was too young to work as a nurse, Elizabeth did assist in the running of the hospital and helping the patients.

The Castle was returned to Elizabeth's family once the war had ended in 1918.

However, the period remained sombre for the family as Elizabeth had lost her older brother, Fergus, at the Battle of Loos in 1915.

As children, Lady Elizabeth and her older sisters, Mary and Rose, had become companions to the children of King George V and Queen Mary, including David, the future Edward VII, and Bertie, George VI.

On occasion, members of the Royal Family would even stay at Glamis Castle, near Forfar.

Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne with his daughter, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon - the ninth of ten of his children

Elizabeth and her family divided their time spent between Glamis Castle in Scotland and her parent's charming country home, St Paul's Walden Bury in the village of St Paul's Walden, Hertfordshire (pictured)

In 1920, Elizabeth became a debutante. On June 2, she attended a ball in Grosvenor Square, where she met her future husband Prince Albert, known to his family as Bertie

It was in 1920, once she had been announced to society as a debutante, that she would meet her future husband at a magnificent ball in Grosvenor Square.

However, the gentleman who caught Elizabeth's eye on the dancefloor was not Prince Albert, but Captain James Stuart, the Earl of Moray's handsome younger son.

Stuart was serving as an equerry to Prince Albert, known to his family as Bertie, who would later become George VI.

When Stuart and Elizabeth had finished dancing, Bertie leaned over to his equerry and said, 'Who was that lovely girl you were talking to? Introduce me to her.'

Within weeks of meeting, Albert, the Duke of York, had fallen in love with Elizabeth. But while she was fond of him, she was not romantically interested.

The Prince proposed to Lady Elizabeth in 1921, but she turned him down because, according to her biographer John Ezard, she felt 'afraid never, never again to be free to think, speak and act as I feel I really ought to'.

In 1922, Elizabeth serve as a bridesmaid in Princess Mary's wedding to Henry, Viscount Lascelles at Westminster Abbey. She was one of eight members of the bridal party.

Albert is reported to have proposed a second time when Elizabeth was a bridesmaid, but she rejected the Prince for a second time.

At that point, his mother, Queen Mary, stepped in as Elizabeth was 'the one girl who could make Bertie happy', and Captain Stuart unexpectedly received a job offer in the oil industry.

Following the news, Elizabeth finally accepted Bertie's proposal on his third attempt.

In January 1923, the news of her engagement to The Duke of York, the King and Queen's second son, appeared in newspapers across the world.

Elizabeth reportedly told her brother, David, 'I could hear a door clanging behind me  never to open again.'

Prince Albert, Duke of York, and Lady Elizabeth Bowes Lyon, pictured together around the time of their engagement. Albert, later George VI, proposed three times before Elizabeth accepted

The front page of the Daily Mail from April 27, 1923, celebrating the marriage of King George VI and Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon

Their wedding, as pictured in The Illustrated London News on April 28 1923. When their engagement was announced, Elizabeth had told her brother David: 'I could hear a door clanging behind me  never to open again'

For her wedding day, Elizabeth opted for a 1920s-inspired bridal gown, featuring a drop waist and crystal embroidered bodice

Prince Albert initially proposed with a ring comprising a sapphire flanked by diamonds. But the future Queen switched her ring for one featuring a pearl and diamond cluster.

Elizabeth married her Prince on April 23, 1923, in Westminster Abbey. The union marked a departure from the long-standing practice of an English royal marrying into foreign royalty.

For her big day, Elizabeth opted for a 1920s-inspired bridal gown, featuring a drop waist and crystal embroidered bodice, custom-made by Queen Mary's dressmaker.

A tradition for future royal brides also began with Elizabeth as she laid her wedding bouquet at the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior in memory of her brother, Fergus.

After her marriage, Lady Elizabeth become the Duchess of York and made her first public appearance as a member of the Royal Family at the RAF pageant at Hendon.

The future King George VI and future Queen Elizabeth at the christening of their first daughter Princess Elizabeth, the future Queen Elizabeth II, on May 29, 1926

The Duchess of York, later Queen Elizabeth, with her younger daughter, Margaret in 1932

Three years after her wedding day, Elizabeth gave birth to her first child, Princess Elizabeth, who was born on April 21, 1926. Their second child, Princess Margaret, followed on August 21, 1930.

Following the death of King George V in January 1936, the Duke of Yorks older brother, King Edward VIII, was next in line for the throne.

However, after Edward abdicated on December 11 of the same year, his brother, Albert ascended the throne and Elizabeth became Queen, the first British-born Queen consort since Tudor times.

When Elizabeth received the news, she was bedridden with a bout of influenza that developed into pneumonia. Lying in her sickbed, Elizabeth became queen as she listened to her brother-in-law's radio address relinquishing the throne.

Before he boarded a warship for temporary exile in France and Austria, Elizabeth sent a letter to the ex-king to tell him that she prayed: 'God bless you from my heart. We are all overcome with misery, and can only pray that you will find happiness in your new life.'

The Coronation of Queen Elizabeth and King George at Westminster Abbey on May 12, 1937

Elizabeth was so unwell that she did not get out of bed until 12 days after the news.

She never forgave Edward for abandoning the throne, having expected a quieter life and to never become Queen.

The Coronation of Queen Elizabeth and King George fell on May 12, 1937, to many the ceremony at Westminster Abbey was a welcome relief after the royal tumult of 1936.

As Queen Consort, Elizabeth enjoyed great popularity and many credited her with setting the tone for the modern British monarchy, as she eased formalities and established an unprecedented rapport with the public.

She served the country alongside her husband for 16 years until the death of the King in February 1952.

Afterwards, Elizabeth supported her daughter, the new Queen Elizabeth, taking hte title Queen Mother for herself..
In his mind, the drug is 'the most significant... medical breakthrough in history'

Botched star Dr. Terry Dubrow has argued that Ozempic really is a 'miracle' weight-loss drug.

The plastic surgeon, 64, spoke to US Weekly alongside co-host Dr. Paul Nassif, 61, to claim the treatment is 'better' than Botox and other cosmetic procedures.

He also urged those who criticize users of Ozempic to think again and called for 'shaming' to stop as conversation around the drug continues.

Celebrities rumored to have tried such weight-loss include Mindy Kaling as well as Kim and Khloe Kardashian - with a small handful, including Elon Musk and Amy Schumer, confirming as much.

Botched star Dr. Terry Dubrow, 64, has argued that Ozempic really is a 'miracle' weight-loss drug

The plastic surgeon spoke to US Weekly alongside co-host Dr. Paul Nassif, 61, to claim the treatment is 'better' than Botox and other cosmetic procedures

Discussing the prevalent use of Ozempic, Dr. Dubrow said: 'I think anyone who wants to control their cravings, who wants to lose a little bit of weight [should take it].

'It's even been shown to be useful for gambling addictions, heroin addictions, alcohol addictions. This is a new time where we're able to control our cravings and get control of our behaviors.

'Whether somebody's critical about it or not, whether they liked the fact that other people are using or not, it's here, it's going to happen, it's a good thing - but we need to learn how to use it.'

Discussing the stigma felt by users of the drug, he urged: 'Don't make people feel bad about it. If somebody's on Ozempic, talk to them about it and make them feel good about it.'

Of the alleged prevalence of 'Ozempic shaming,' he doubled down: 'I think we have to stop immediately We need to share our experiences - we're learning as the patients are learning what the side effects really are.

'It's really important that we celebrate that we actually have a breakthrough in treating obesity. It's really an exciting time but it's also a very scary time.'

He elaborated that Ozempic and similar drugs like Mounjaro and Wegovy are 'going to change the very nature of our bodies, and what's happening with our physiology.

'It's going to be in the drinking water very soon, it's going to be as common or more common than Botox,' he further prophesied.

Ozempic first hit the market in 2019 - but it wasn't until earlier this year that knowledge of the drug and its well-documented effectiveness reached the mainstream consuming public

Elon Musk, 52, attributed his weight-loss to taking Wegovy among other strategies. He's pictured at left in July 2022 and at right in May 2023

Dr. Dubrow concluded that Ozempic is superior to a litany of other cosmetic procedures, stating: 'Listen, these are Ozempic-type drugs aren't the new Botox they're better.

'They're Botox, liposuction, breast augmentation, face lifts - put it all together, and you've got a drug that's not only making people look better and feel better - it's treating the number one risk factor for heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

'So this is an incredibly powerful positive thing, that is truly the most significant, I think, medical breakthrough in history.'

Ozempic hit the market in 2019, while knowledge of the drug and its effectiveness went mainstream earlier this year following a New York Magazine cover story on the subject.

The drug has since become the source of much controversy, scandal, and speculation over which celebrities may or may not have relied on it in order to aid their weight loss - while several users have come forward to expose the horrifying side effects they experienced while taking it.

One woman, Emily Wright, 38, a teacher from Toronto, Canada, told CNN that she took Ozempic for four years before being diagnosed with gastroparesis, which now causes her to vomit so frequently that she has had to quit her job.

Meanwhile, Sharon Osbourne admitted that she spent her first two weeks on Ozempic vomiting, saying during an appearance on the Club Random with Bill Maher podcast: 'Its different for everybody, but for me, the first few weeks was f***ing s**t because you just throw up all the time. You feel so nauseous.'

Earlier this month, it was revealed that the drug behemoths behind obesity medications like Ozempic and Mounjaro are being sued over claims that the medications caused stomach paralysis.

Personal injury firm Morgan & Morgan has taken the case on behalf of a 44-year-old Louisiana woman with diabetes who lost weight while taking the drugs, only to suffer later from severe stomach paralysis marked by such violent vomiting that she has lost some teeth and required multiple trips to the hospital.

The suit against Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, which make Mounjaro and Ozempic respectively, alleges that the companies failed to warn consumers about the risk of gastroparesis, or paralysis of the stomach.
Experts say Harry and Meghan have 'failed to find their feet' since Megxit

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have failed to find their feet after leaving the royal family, royal experts have claimed.

Speaking on this week's Palace Confidential, the Daily Mail's diary editor Richard Eden and Town & Country Contributing Editor Victoria Murphy and journalist Jo Elvin discussed the Duke and Duchess of Sussex after the pair released a video speaking to young leaders as part of their new initiative to improve the digital world.

Discussing the latest issue of People magazine, which says the couple are 'under pressure' after a string of failed deals, Victoria explained that people are questioning if they've 'made the right decisions'.

'What they have failed to do yet is to really kind of cultivate a really strong brand outside of the monarchy,' she explained.

'Something that means that they can go out there and that they're representing something other than just themselves in a meaningful way and that's what they lost when they stepped back as working royals.

Speaking on this week's Palace Confidential, the Daily Mail's diary editor Richard Eden and Town & Country Contributing Editor Victoria Murphy (pictured) and journalist Jo Elvin discussed the Duke and Duchess of Sussex after the pair released a video speaking to young leaders as part of their new initiative to improve the digital world

Discussing the latest issue of People magazine, which says the couple (pictured) are 'under pressure' after a string of failed deals, Victoria explained that people are questioning if they've 'made the right decisions'.

'They took away that substance that you get from representing this institution and representing a country.

'If want to be this philanthropic power couple with the longevity then I think that's what that's what they need to find.'

She added that the pair are trying to be a 'really visible, really game changing couple' 'completely on their own terms.'

'They set that bar and they also set the bar for their lifestyle, you know that the property that they live in is very expensive.

'They have this security that they feel it's very important for them to have. So they are the ones who are sort of trying to live up to their own expectations'.

When asked by Jo what they were actually doing and how they managed to win humanitarian awards, Victoria added: 'I think that is what they need to either to find that better or communicate that better.

Richard added that the video was 'interesting' because the video was about 'showing how marvellous Harry and Megan were'

'What the royal family can go off and do all these things because they have this central focus at the core their raison d'etre.

'They're the monarchy, and that's what they represent, and people get that and Harry and Megan, I don't think of either found that or communicated it properly.

'They are doing lots of different things. And they do in some senses fit into certain categories,'.

She added that Meghan is 'doing things around female empowerment' and Harry is focusing on internet safety but 'there's a lot of different things going on' that means they're 'not connecting people into one really strong message'.

She added that Meghan (pictured) is 'doing things around female empowerment' and Harry is focusing on internet safety but 'there's a lot of different things going on' that means they're 'not connecting people into one really strong message'

'There are times when I wonder, would they if they were doing something like this from within their family? Would they be making more of an impact with the message around this that they're trying to make?'

Richard added that the video was 'interesting' because the video was about 'showing how marvellous Harry and Megan were'.

'It was a bit cringe making,' he added. 'The video just seemed to say "we're here, we're great, and everyone love us".

Richard added that Harry had 'gone from being this great asset to actually, you know potentially a bit of a liability' for brands and is often not taking front and centre of brands.

It comes as experts said the royal is 'losing his star power'.

PR gurus said the Prince has become a 'lightning rod for negative PR', after he was overlooked by the Travalyst relaunch.

PR gurus said the Prince (pictured) has become a 'lightning rod for negative PR', after he was overlooked by the Travalyst relaunch

The Duke of Sussex's sustainable tourism project announced that it has entered an 'incredibly exciting' era with a new board of directors - with no mention of the royal.

The independent non-profit organisation based in London was launched by the Duke of Sussex in 2019, when he was still a working royal, with wife Meghan.

Harry spent three years as the public face of the initiative to encourage the tourism industry to become more sustainable - despite a furore over his use of private jets.

But he was left out of a major announcement by the group in May about its transition from a 'pilot phase' to a new board of five people with 'world-class expertise'.

PR experts said today that Harry had become a 'polarising figure' and business would 'second think their association' with him amid the 'negativity' after his book Spare.

Brand and culture expert Nick Ede told MailOnline: 'There is a problem with brand Harry and that's that in the space of only a few years he has begun to lose his star power, authenticity and ability to elevate brands and good causes he believes in.

September 2019 - Prince Harry launches his Travalyst initiative at A'dam Tower in Amsterdam

September 2019 - Harry addresses an audience as he launches Travalyst in Amsterdam

September 2019 - The announcement of Travalyst on the 'Sussex Royal' Instagram account

'Businesses rely on spokespeople who engage their audience, elevate by association and generally benefit from the relationship. The tide of negativity towards the Prince post the book Spare has made businesses second think their association.

'Businesses rely on spokespeople who engage their audience, elevate by association and generally benefit from the relationship. The tide of negativity towards the Prince post the book Spare has made businesses second think their association.

'Whilst Harry can be perceived as a man on a mission to right many wrongs and take institutions to task, this one-man crusade may not fit in to the narrative of the businesses he put his name to on leaving the UK.'

Mr Ede added: 'Harry has become a polarising figure and when businesses have spent big money on their star spokespeople they don't want to deal with negativity from the media, shareholders and stakeholders.

'This is going to be an issue for Harry for a while as South Park made a mockery of him and this satirical opinion of him has stayed glued into many people's minds and has damaged his brand terribly.'

Travalyst's statement about its changes was made eight days after Harry and Meghan's spokesman said the couple had been involved in a 'near-catastrophic' car chase while being followed by paparazzi in New York after the Ms Foundation Women of Vision Awards.

The NYPD later seemed to soften the couple's dramatic account, saying 'there were no reported collisions, summonses, injuries or arrests' related to the incident.

Harry, 38, is still in regular contact with the Travalyst chief executive and board behind the scenes and remains committed to it, according to a report in Newsweek . In addition, the Duke is still listed on the Travalyst website as its 'founder and patron'.

But it is notable that he was not used as a promotional tool for the revamp - given how prominently he has previously been involved in conferences and marketing.
This week, comedian David Baddiel revealed his next book will focus on men and the male gaze. In it, he will explore his belief that decent men can both objectify women's bodies and respect their minds. But can they? Two writers give their brutally honest verdicts on how both men  and women  really size up the opposite sex...

SIMON MILLS

There's a sign on London Underground trains that gives me chills every time I read it. 'Intrusive staring of a sexual nature is sexual harassment and is not tolerated.'

Underneath, a message encourages the public to report any 'stare crimes' to the authorities. 'See or experience it on public transport? Text what, where and when to 61016. In an emergency always dial 999.'

I don't really know how anyone can be 100 per cent sure of differentiating 'intrusive staring of a sexual nature' from harmlessly unweaponised, non-sexual staring, but the carefully gender-non-specific notice does flag up a modern conundrum; the male gaze has a serious image problem. (I was once shouted at by a woman on the Underground: 'Stop staring at me!' I apologised honestly and explained that I was actually squinting to read the Circle line map above her head.)

Originally defined in dictionaries as a deep, thoughtful, steady and intense look of admiration, the gaze  the male version, at least  was rebranded by 1970s feminists as an offensive, salivating leer.

Today, a man looking at a woman for more than a second is perceived as doing so only in the context of desire, the female body existing purely as eye candy, female flesh only as a stimulus to sexual fantasy.

Simon Mills was once shouted at by a woman on the Underground: 'Stop staring at me!' to which he apologised and explained that he was actually squinting to read the Circle line map above her head

Amanda Platell says that what any woman of any age is looking for in a man is someone fit, sexy, gorgeous, gregarious, confident and supportive, with a glint in his eye

According to this notion, a culture of the objectification and self-objectification of females persists. Women are nothing more than beguilingly available sexual quarry, while all men  on the train, in the street, in the office  are cast as probable harassers and sex pests.

The truth is more subtle, nuanced and conflicted.

Are men internally quantifying every woman they meet based on her looks? At first, yes; and the audit is fleeting, efficient, brutal and  needless to say  not infallible.

We misinterpret signs. We read things wrong sometimes. If our eyes wander, we are swiftly called out and loudly rebuked.

Actually, this happened to me at the Cannes Film Festival a few years ago. I was at a party, chatting to the actress Gemma Arterton  beautiful, smart, bilingual, ballsy, and looking utterly sensational in Capri pants, heels and a push-up bustier top. As we talked, my gaze somehow veered from hers, moving fatefully south towards the basque's devastating architecture.

I felt the gentle upward pressure of an Arterton fingertip on my chin, lifting my head back up a few degrees. 'Simon. My eyes are up here.'

I still shudder in post-traumatic shame at the thought of this. Gemma, on behalf of all men everywhere, please forgive me.

That said, men's benign objectification of women does not negate an examination of personality and intelligence, of capability and empowerment, or, over time, an attraction that is more cerebral. It's just that the visual side of things gets in there first. Unless we happen to be a guest on a latter-day version of Cilla's Blind Date, second-guessing attraction by voice alone, how could it not?

(Stock Photo) SIMON MILLS: We misinterpret signs. We read things wrong sometimes. If our eyes wander, we are swiftly called out and loudly rebuked

Men placing an over-reliance on aesthetics and objectifying women in this way are often accused of 'having a type', as if we have decided on a make and model of woman in adolescence, then stuck with it for the next sexually active 60 years or so.

This theory may be borne out by a series of partners, wives and lovers who look quite similar  hair colour, build, ethnicity, etc. But really, our favourite type, if we have one, is every and any woman. The women who show interest in us  we love them. And the women who show zero interest in us. We like them a lot, too. We are an uncomplicated breed.

David Baddiel, who recently set out his revealingly honest thesis on the subject, in advance of a book, is quite correct when he states that 'men can hold two thoughts in their head' at the same time. Achievement and empowerment, intelligence and conversation can all be appreciated while simultaneously assessing attractiveness. That is human. It is also a male multi-tasking thing.

'Am I interested in that woman physically? Because I can't help that interest,' says Baddiel. 'That's part of being a heterosexual male. It doesn't mean I see her only as a body. I actually am listening to her as well and think she should be capable of everything a man is capable of. The problem is that those two things feel contradictory.'

Men don't gaze, anyway. We don't stare. We don't 'undress with our eyes'. We know not to do that. We know we will be harshly judged if we do. But our internal monologue is constant. Every passing encounter, formal introduction or daily proximity to a woman elicits a lightning-fast review. The intelligent, philogynous male is a restless connoisseur of the female, who appreciates the opposite sex in all its forms, pheromonal signals and multi-sensorial features.

Meanwhile, are women objectifying men? Absolutely.

The only difference? Women are free to make known their objectification targets. Recently, I referenced Brad Pitt's shirtless rooftop cigarette break  Brad was then 55 years old, but all buff and magnificent in that scene from Tarantino's movie Once Upon A Time In Hollywood  to a bunch of women (mainly in their 30s and 40s) in my office. I was almost knocked sideways by the barrage of bawdy phwoaring, wolf-whistling and cat-calling that ensued.

In the 21st century, a man saying  out loud  that a woman is attractive, beautiful or even well-dressed is tantamount to sexual assault. If he wants to stay out of trouble, a middle-aged man like me must turn his gaze to the floor, his book or his computer screen and avoid all eye contact.

David Baddiel revealed his next book will focus on men and the male gaze, and will explore his belief that decent men can both objectify women's bodies and respect their minds

Had I drooled and simpered in similar vulpine fashion over, say, Eva Mendes or Scarlett Johansson in front of my colleagues, I would have been marched to HR.

Still, the female gaze remains a non-existent, unspoken and un-pejorative conceit.

AMANDA PLATELL

Well, David Baddiel truly is a great comic because his thesis that decent and respectful men can simultaneously admire a woman's body while also respecting her brain is genuinely laugh-out-loud.

It's the metaphorical equivalent of a man being able to gaze into a woman's eyes and ogle her cleavage at the same time.

Asking us to believe that any man, on meeting a woman, thinks, 'Hey, I bet she reads Dostoevsky in bed; I want to explore her beautiful body while discovering her sensationally clever mind too' is surely a punchline too far. But worse is to come. As a self-appointed enlightened heterosexual male, Baddiel says that while he may well be interested in a woman's body, that doesn't mean he is only interested in her body.

'I actually am listening to her as well and think she should be capable of everything that a man is capable of.'

Cor, thanks for that, Dave. What utter condescending nonsense.

The truth is that what most men are attracted to is the way a woman looks. Her radiant face, her curvy body, her bosom . . . that is a simple fact, an inalienable truth. Having brains is a bonus which you may, or may not, discover after a few days or weeks in bed.

(Stock Photo) AMANDA PLATELL: When a woman first meets a man, she is not interested in his mental muscle but purely in his physical brawn

If you're looking for equality, perhaps find it in the fact that women are just as guilty of judging men on their physical attributes. It has nothing to do with feminism or being enlightened or enthralled by a clever mind.

Allow me to educate Baddiel on something he has clearly never thought about: the existence of the female gaze.

Men of a sensitive disposition should not read on because  sorry  this will be brutal.

For when a woman first meets a man, she is not interested in his mental muscle but purely in his physical brawn. We are as callous as men and judge potential paramours only on their appearance.

We first look to see if he is fit, with nice muscly arms to embrace us and firm thighs to entangle us. Does he have a man-belly overhanging his trousers? Are his fingernails tatty? Is he one of those men who never go to the dentist?

And, yes, the clothes  are they well-cut or shabby? If he's in jeans, does he, um, fill them out nicely? Yes, women are as susceptible to such carnal considerations, too.

Does he have, heaven forbid, tattoos? If he's an older man, does he need to hold onto the restaurant table before getting up for the loo? Again.

In fact, when it comes to assessing a potential partner, women are like the Terminator. We can coldly and cruelly decipher a male human form in minute detail in seconds, deciding whether to accept or reject him purely on his body.

(Stock Photo) SIMON MILLS: In the 21st century, a man saying  out loud  that a woman is attractive, beautiful or even well-dressed is tantamount to sexual assault

Too short, too fat, too thin, too sweaty. Shabby shoes, greasy hair, the shadow of a wedding ring, a shoddy suit he's been wearing for decades  we give them five minutes before moving on, and that's when we're feeling generous.

Men mistakenly believe their wit and banter will win us over, that these are the 'most important things', but don't believe it. They're not. We women will size you up in the blink of an eye.

Like most of my female friends, I have never, ever, dated a man I didn't find physically attractive at the very first meeting. If there is no physical chemistry, then there is nothing.

With apologies to Elizabeth Barrett Browning, who wrote How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43), when I count the ways I have loved men in my past, it is always based on physical looks  at least at first. Names are changed to protect the innocent.

First love, Mark: smitten at first sight by a fit young man singing A Hard Day's Night on a late shift while typing out the weather report for our local newspaper. Blond, burly, scruffy hair, cheekbones you could cut Cheddar on.

Our first date was to the ballet Swan Lake; he turned out to be highly intelligent, but that was not what mattered. It was pure lust.

Second: a languidly beautiful man I met at a bar in Sydney which was frequented by journalists. I don't recall at any stage considering how clever he was. Call me shallow, but I was bedazzled by his beauty. I think he felt the same about me  I was young then  but either way there was an instant chemistry and we married.

Third: a bloke I thought at first was a brickie on a building site but who turned out to be a wealthy property developer. He thought I was a secretary when I was in fact deputy editor of a national British newspaper. Our eyes met across a dusty suburban street. Not once during our six years together did anything matter but the sheer physical longing between us.

To conclude, what I and any woman of any age is looking for in a man is someone fit, sexy, gorgeous, gregarious, confident and supportive, with a glint in his eye. We make no apologies for it because that's what men look for in us.

If, in the end, he has a brain, that's a bonus. We can read Crime And Punishment to each other in bed.

But be warned, the female gaze is deadlier than the male.
Coronation Street actress Catherine Tyldesley, asked fans and friends for recommendations for a 'non-expensive' baker 10 years ago, a resurfaced tweet has revealed.

The Coronation Street actress, 39, recently become embroiled in a scandal after a small bakery was approached by party planners organising a 40th birthday bash on her behalf.

They asked for more than 100 cakes to be made in exchange for social media exposure, leaving the baker Rebecca Severs stunned by the offer, before she took to social media to reveal the request.

In response, Catherine took to her Instagram story to claim she had no idea the party organisers had made the request

However in 2013, the actress tweeted: 'Can anyone recommend a good cake maker in Manchester?? Not too expensive!'

Many rushed to the comments to poke fun at the resurfaced tweet alluding to the fact it didn't age well in light of recent scandal.

Resurfaced tweet from Catherine Tyldesley 10 years ago asked for recommendations for a 'non-expensive' cake maker in Manchester

One person wrote: 'There's a lass in Leeds, best get on her good side now, she'll be fuming with you in 10 years time.'

Another simply said: 'Cake beg.' While someone else wrote: 'Oh dear.'

A fourth quipped: 'Clown pay for your cake.'

Rebecca Severs, from Keighley, shared a Facebook post this week with a screenshot of an email exchange between her bakery and the PR company which represented an unidentified 'well-known' celebrity asking for a cake for a 40th birthday party in September. They also requested 100 cupcakes and an extra smaller birthday cake for her husband.

The founder of Three Little Birds Bakery wrote: 'This poor celebrity apparently can't afford to pay people for their products and services. Spare a thought! What happened to women supporting women.'

The Mail revealed earlier this week that the party planners were in fact organising a 40th birthday bash for Catherine - and now the actress has hit back at the baker on her Instagram page.

Sharing a video this morning, she gave a thumbs up to the camera as she said: 'Utterly bizarre. I don't really know what to say. I mean I hope the cake lady got the exposure she was craving.'

The Coronation Street actress, 39, recently become embroiled in a scandal after a small bakery was approached by party planners organising a 40th birthday bash on her behalf

In 2013, the actress tweeted: 'Can anyone recommend a good cake maker in Manchester?? Not too expensive!'

Starting the video, the actress said: 'Cake gate! WHAT!'

'So I had no idea those emails were being sent. I'm not working with the lovely Ok magazine on anything that I'm aware of and NVRLND are an amazing company.

'They've supplied me with performers in the past;. They're insane and they've been completely misrepresented in this matter.'

She went on to brand the scandal 'utterly bizarre' and suggested Rebecca was 'seeking exposure' with her Facebook post sharing the email.

The email from the celebrity management team, which was posted on Facebook by Rebecca this week, read: 'We are organising a 40th Birthday Party for a well-known celebrity on the 1st of September 2023 in Manchester.

'In return for being a supplier for the event, payment would be made in the form of promotion on their socials with over 700K followers, as well as promoted on OK Magazine.

Many rushed to the comments to poke fun at the resurfaced tweet alluding to the fact it didn't age well in light of recent scandal

'They will be crediting all the suppliers on these platforms.'

It continued: 'The party has a guest list full of celebrities and industry people from tv/film and music, so loads of work would come from it.'

The email went on to outline that the birthday theme has been designed with 'pinks, sparkles and a touch of flamingos'.

They then requested one birthday cake with the theme 'camp as tits', as well as 100 cupcakes.

Finally, they asked for another, smaller, birthday cake because 'it's actually her husband's birthday that day and we wanted to surprise him.'

Photographer Tom Pitfield, turns 37 on the day of the Manchester bash.

In return, the small bakery would be rewarded in the form of promotion on their [the celeb's] socials with over 700k followers, as well as promoted in OK Magazine, while the party promised a guest lists full of celebrities and industry people from TV / film and music, so loads of work would come from it.

Ms Severs, 37, did not know it was the former Strictly star and mum-of-two she would be providing for but it mattered not.

And in posting her pithy response to social media, she has won herself a new army of fans.

Replying to Leeds-based party planners NVRLND, Ms Severs confirmed she had availability but jokingly said: Im so sorry to hear that your client has fallen on such hard times they cant afford to pay small businesses their products.

Rebecca Severs, from Keighley, shared a Facebook post this week with a screenshot of an email exchange between her bakery and the PR company which represented an unidentified 'well-known' celebrity asking for a cake for a 40th birthday party in September

Best known for playing Eva Price on Weatherfields famous cobbles for seven years until 2018, Ms Tyldesley, has starred in BBC sitcom Scarborough and appeared on Strictly Come Dancing in 2019

Unfortunately as my mortgage provider doesnt take payment in the form of promotion on their socials, and my staff cant feed their kids with exposure on Instagram, Ill have to decline your very generous offer.

The bakery was met with a wave of support for the post, with one person commenting: 'Best response! Good for sticking to your guns!'

Meanwhile another added: 'Good for you!'

A third wrote: 'Love it!'

A fourth commented: 'Got yourself a new follower here, purely because this response is exactly the level of business like sarcasm I aspire to. Fab response.'

Another person wrote: 'We have this a lot. Influencers are very frustrating and most expect everything for free.

'It happens more often than people know. Like you say, exposure doesn't pay the mortgage.'

Days later, the bakery put another post up on social media saying they have now been 'threatened' with legal action and added: 'I've now been threatened with legal action by.as a response to this post which they say is encouraging defamation of their business.'

The email claimed to be from the management company of a 'well-known celebrity' who was having a 40th birthday party

Rebecca emailed the company back, explaining that she would be declining the 'very generous offer'

The bakerys Facebook page last night said: Hi to all our new followers. We deal in delicious cakes and a generous side of sarcasm when necessary.

We are getting a massive amount of phone calls, emails and messages as a result of the media coverage of the news story that is us refusing to work for heart emojis.

We are blown away by all your support and so happy to see that so many other people agree that small business shouldnt be taken advantage of!

And speaking to local station Rombalds Radio, Rebecca said: Its really important to highlight the issue of small businesses, especially in female-dominant industries, not earning a fair wage for their time and skill, especially in the cost-of-living crisis we are experiencing.

We are proud of our team who are all highly skilled at cake baking and decorating, and proud to have built a successful business based on correct pricing which means our staff are paid a decent wage and have job stability.

We wish the same for NVRLND and offer them and their clients our best regards for the future.

Last night a different cake baker, who wanted to remain anonymous, told the Mail that they had also been passed on the opportunity to make cakes for the same party planners.

The small business owner confirmed that the request was for Ms Tyldesleys 40th birthday party.

Best known for playing Eva Price on Weatherfields famous cobbles for seven years until 2018, Ms Tyldesley, has starred in BBC sitcom Scarborough and appeared on Strictly Come Dancing in 2019.

The star is very active on social media which she regularly uses to promote brands, businesses and products.
The Prince of Princess of Wales have posted a sweet message on social media this afternoon - but it has nothing to do with their sister-in-law's birthday.

Princess Kate and Prince William, both 41, used their Kensington Royal Twitter account and their joint Instagram page to praise the documentary team behind the film Rhino Man, which has been shortlisted for a Jackson Wild Media Award.

But as Meghan Markle celebrates her 42nd birthday, there has so far been no mention of the occasion, in an approach that differs from recent years.

The tweet from the couple read: 'Congratulations to the RHINO MAN team! Such an important story being told, great to see it being recognised', with the same sentiment repeated on their Instagram story.

Princess Kate and Prince William, both 41, are understood to have had little contact with their sister-in-law and Prince Harry over the last year, which has seen the Royal Family rocked by the Sussexes' explosive Netflix documentary and Prince Harry's tell-all memoir, Spare.

The Prince and Princess of Wales have posted a tweet praising a rhino documentary team on Meghan Markle's 42nd birthday

The tweet praised the film crew who have been nominated for an award, but have so far made no mention of Meghan's birthday

The Duke, 38, took aim at the Prince and Princess of Wales in his memoir, detailing an alleged incident in which his older brother knocked him to the ground in a physical fight over Meghan which took place at Frogmore Cottage.

Relations between Charles and Harry are thought to still not be good after the Duke launched a string of attacks on the Royal Family with his bombshell memoir Spare and a flurry of media interviews to promote the book.

It is believed that contact between Prince William and his brother is non-existent and there doesn't seem to be a reconciliation in the offing any time soon.

'You can read the room on that as to where things are [between them],' said a source.

A rift began to form in the royal family when the Duke and Duchess of Sussex left the UK to live in California in 2020, shortly before the nation was plunged into lockdown.

Since then, the Sussexes have been somewhat at odds with other members of the family - however the Waleses continued to pay tribute to Meghan on her birthday using their social media channels.

Last year, Kate and William's Instagram and Twitter accounts posted a photograph of the Duchess of Sussex from the Queen's Jubilee celebrations in June this morning alongside the simple message: 'Wishing a happy birthday to the Duchess of Sussex!'

Shortly afterward, King Charles and Queen Camilla went on to share a similar message and image of the mother of two.

The images selected by both couples showed Meghan at the Queen's Service of Thanksgiving at St. Paul's Cathedral and didn't feature her husband, Prince Harry.

The service was the only event from the Queen's Jubilee the Duke and Duchess of Sussex publicly attended. It marked the first time the couple were seen with 'The Firm' since the frosty Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey in March 2020, shortly before they officially stepped down as senior royals.

However, since Meghan's 41st birthday, relations have been more strained than ever between the Sussexes and the rest of the family.

In March, two months after the release of Harry's bombshell memoir, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex revealed they had christened their daughter, Princess Lilibet, and celebrated with a party for family and friends at home.

Harry and Meghan invited King Charles, Queen Consort Camilla and the Prince and Princess of Wales to the California ceremony last Friday but they declined, a source close to the couple told People magazine.

The Duchess of Sussex enjoyed a date night out in Montecito ahead of her milestone alongside the Duke, 38. The pair were pictured smiling and laughing as they left the trendy Italian restaurant Tre Lune, a favourite among A-listers including Kourtney Kardashian.
Tori Spelling is hoping to return to the world of reality television amid her recent 'money issues,' and is already in 'talks' for the upcoming Dancing With the Stars season.

The actress, 50, has fallen on hard times recently - she was forced out of her home due to mold in May, split from her husband-of-18-years, Dean McDermott, a few weeks later, DailyMail.com exclusively revealed that she'd been spotted living in an RV with her five children, something that's been said to have left her ex 'mortified.'

Now, a source has told DailyMail.com that the star - who had a brief stint in reality television during the early 2000s, starring in a slew of shows alongside her then-husband - may be plotting a major TV comeback.

They explained that the options for work are slim amid the current actors and writers strikes, and that reality TV or a competition show could pose as an 'opportunity' for her to finally 'tell her truth.'

Tori Spelling is hoping to return to the world of reality television amid her recent 'money issues,' and is already in 'talks' for the upcoming Dancing With the Stars season

The actress, 50, has fallen on hard times recently - she split from her husband, was forced out of her home due to mold, and was recently spotted living in an RV with her five children

Now, a source has told DailyMail.com that the star may be plotting a major TV comeback. She is seen with ex-husband Dean Mcdermott and two of their kids in 2009

Another insider told DailyMail.com that Dean is 'furious' with Tori for choosing to live in a van despite receiving numerous 'offers from friends to stay in their homes.' They're seen in June

'Tori is caught between a rock and a hard place right now as she is trying to figure out what her next job is going to be because she is having some money issues,' they dished.

'With the strike in full effect, she is looking into doing some more in the reality competition show world.'

One of the sources explained that Tori (seen exiting the RV this week) wants to work on reality TV or a competition show because options for work are slim amid the current actors and writers strikes, and it could pose as an 'opportunity' for her to finally 'tell her truth'

The actress and her estranged husband, Dean, previously starred in a series of Oxygen reality shows including Tori & Dean: Inn Love, Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood, Tori & Dean: sTORIbook Weddings, and Tori & Dean: Cabin Fever from 2007 to 2014, which followed the early years of their marriage as they took on various endeavors.

The insider added that while Tori is desperate for 'a more consistent flow of money to come in,' she still 'wants to be a mom first.'

'Scheduling is very important to her,' they continued. 'As she tries to get on future shows, it all has to work out perfectly with her family.

'She is not desperate yet but let us see what happens in the next few months and what she might have to do to ... make things work.'

The friend of Tori's said her dream would be to participate in Dancing With the Stars, and revealed that there are already some discussions being had about getting her on the show.

'This might finally be the year that she does the show. So many 90210 stars have done it, so she would have so much support from her former cast members,' they said.

The friend of Tori's said her dream would be to participate in Dancing With the Stars, and that there are already some discussions being had about getting her on the show

They added that while Tori is desperate for 'a more consistent flow of money coming in,' she still 'wants to be a mom first.' She's seen with her family in 2019

The actress and her estranged husband, Dean, previously starred in a series of Oxygen reality shows including Tori & Dean: Inn Love (seen) and Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood

Another insider said that Dean, 56, believes Tori is living in the RV 'for sympathy' and insisted that she 'is not broke.' The exes are seen in 2019

'The show would love her story and she would welcome the opportunity to tell her truth.

'She feels that doing the show could open some doors for her going into the end of the year and into 2024.

'There have been talks to see what can be done, nothing official but the outcome is gearing towards her being on the dance floor.'

Representatives for Tori and Dean did not respond to requests for comment.

Tori revealed that she and her kids had been forced to move out of their home after discovering a massive mold infestation that was making the children 'so sick' in May

On June 16, Dean revealed in a since-deleted Instagram post that he was parting ways with Tori after 18 years of marriage.

He said that they 'would continue to work together as loving parents' to 'guide and love their children through this difficult time' and asked for 'privacy' as they 'take time' to 'work their way through it.'

Just weeks earlier, Tori revealed that she and her five kids had been forced to move out of their home after discovering a massive mold infestation that was making them 'so sick.'

Last month, the family was seen leaving a $100-a-night roadside motel, and earlier this week, they were pictured exiting an RV at a California campground.

Another source told DailyMail.com that Dean is 'furious' with Tori for choosing to live in a van despite receiving numerous 'offers from friends to stay in their homes.'

They added that the Canadian actor, 56, believes Tori is 'doing it for sympathy' and insisted that she 'is not broke.'

'Dean is legit mortified, as are all of Toris friends,' they said. 'They do not understand why she would be doing this unless for sympathy. She has money.

Tori (seen as a kid) was raised by one of most successful TV producers on the globe, and was propelled into the spotlight as a teen after she was cast in Beverly Hills, 90210

She was propelled into the spotlight after she was cast in Beverly Hills, 90210 (seen) at 17, but in the years since it went off the air, she's racked up tens of thousands of dollars in debt

'In all honesty, I grew up a certain way. I never had to worry about money  that was my reality,' she once said. She's seen in 2003

'She is not broke and she has gotten offers from friends to stay at their house. Dean does not think that the kids should be living like this and of course he is angry.

'He is furious at Tori because she is acting like a child. She had every opportunity to make this marriage work and instead, she fostered the narrative for years that she was done with Dean.'

The insider added that Dean's 'main concern' is his kids, and that 'he is still talking to them' regularly.

Tori was raised by one of most successful TV producers on the globe, and famously lived in in the second largest abode in all of Los Angeles as a teen.

She was propelled into the spotlight after she was cast in Beverly Hills, 90210 at just 17, but in the years since the show went off the air, she's racked up tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt.

The star has been very open about her financial struggles over the years, previously telling Good Morning America that after she was cast in the hit series, her parents told her she was on her own financially.

She explained that she had a hard time managing her funds - which she believed stemmed from growing up with a lot of money.

'In all honesty, I grew up a certain way. I never had to worry about money  that was my reality,' she said.

When her dad died in 2006, Tori only received $800,000 of the estimated $600 million fortune that was left behind by her late father.

In 2016, she was sued by American Express for failing to pay an outstanding credit card balance of $87,594.55. According to court documents, the money was 'seized' from her bank account in 2020.

Tori and her husband were also hit with a lawsuit from City National Bank later that year, who claimed they had 'failed to repay a $400,000 bank loan.' That case is still ongoing.
An American Airlines pilot has been praised for his impassioned speech about plane etiquette, which quickly went viral after a passenger shared it.

New York-based comedian Anna Leah Maltezos uploaded a video to Instagram on July 26, which gives the unnamed pilot's full public announcement complete with subtitles.

Firstly, the aviator instructs all of the passengers to 'listen' to what the flight attendants have to say, as 'they represent my will in the cockpit or in the cabin... and my will is what matters.'

He then goes on to tell everyone over the intercom to be 'nice' and 'respectful' to each other; something that should be a given, but instead he says he sees 'rude' and 'selfish' travelers time and time again.

New York-based comedian Anna Leah Maltezos uploaded a video to Instagram on July 26, which gives the unnamed pilot's full public announcement complete with subtitles

Continuing his monologue, he offers some stern advice: 'Do your stuff. Get it out of everybody else's way'

Continuing his monologue, he offers some stern advice: 'Do your stuff. Get it out of everybody else's way.

'Put your junk where it belongs. Everybody has paid for a space.'

In terms of navigating personal space, the pilot tells passengers to be considerate to their neighbors.

He says with a continued air of seriousness: 'Don't lean on other people. Don't fall asleep on other people.

'Don't pass out on other people or drool on them, unless you've talked about it and they have a weather-resistant jacket.'

His last comment causes some passengers to snigger but he quickly moves on to the next topic; using cell phones on speaker mode.

He makes it very clear that this is one of his pet hates, stating: 'The social experiment on listening to videos on speaker mode and talking on a cell phone on speaker mode, that is over.

'Over and done in this country.'

Reiterating the point, he adds: 'Nobody wants to hear your video. I know you think it's super sweet and it probably is but it's your business right, so keep it to yourself.'

His last comment causes some passengers to snigger but he quickly moves on to the next topic; using cell phones on speaker mode

To date the Anna's Instagram video has been viewed more than 390,000 times with many viewers applauding the pilot's rant. The comedian is pictured above

The pilots instructs all of the passengers to use their 'Airpods... headphones [or] whatever it is' so they do not bother others around them.

'It's just being part of being in a respectful society,' he explains.

Returning to the subject of personal space, the captain asks all of the 'middle seaters' to raise their hands and 'raise them up' high.

When only five people raise their hands, he seemingly gets annoyed as he says the plane is full and the headcount is a clear indicator that 'nobody's listening... fine!'

Offering a dose of humor to his uncompliant audience, he tells the 'middle seaters' that 'you own both armrests... That is my gift to you. Welcome on board our flight.'

To date the Anna's Instagram video has been viewed more than 390,000 times with the majority of viewers applauding the pilot's rant.

One commenter wrote: 'He's not wrong. For him to say this, that means he's fed up with all these childish adults.'

Another viewer revealed that they were one of the flight attendants on the flight and they 'approved this message.'

A fellow flight attendant said they also approved of the pilot's speech, writing: 'As a flight attendant for over 35 years (not for AA) All I can say is bravo Captain!

'Anyone who doesn't agree with what he said apparently is oblivious to social manners and could care less about being respectful to fellow passengers.

'The things I have seen people do and say is mind boggling. If everyone just followed the golden rule flying would be a breeze.'
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's 'goal' is for their two children to 'have a normal life as much as possible,' a source has told People.

Princess Lilibet, two, and four-year-old Prince Archie's upbringing is 'very play-based', the insider claimed to the US magazine, adding: 'They have several play areas, including a climbing gym on their property.'

The Duke, 38, and Duchess of Sussex, who turns 42 today, are said to be 'united when it comes to family values and how to raise their kids,' added the source.

They also revealed how Archie and Lilibet enjoy playdates as well as walks on the beach with their parents, who live at their 11millon California mansion.

The Prince and Princess of Wales similarly strive for as normal a childhood as possible for their three children, Prince George, ten, Princess Charlotte, eight, and Prince Louis, five.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's 'goal' is for their two children (pictured together) to 'have a normal life as much as possible,' a source has told People

Royal biographer Ingrid Seward told True Royalty TV's The Royal Beat that Kate, 41, wants to 'wrap some semblance of normality around their children, because she knows what [royal life] can do.'

Richard Kay added in the 2022 show that their parenting style is motivated by the fact that William and Harry were thrust into the spotlight at a young age.

'William has curated George's appearances in a completely different way from the way his mother and father curated his, Richard said.

'William and Harry, particularly William, were thrust from a very young age centre stage. William has taken a different view, he wants to protect [his children] for as long as possible, give them some semblance of a normal childhood.

'But inevitably as [George] gets older, we're going to see more of him, in a jacket and tie, at Wimbledon as we did, and at Platinum Jubilee-type celebrations.'

Ingrid agreed saying: 'I think Kate has to wrap some semblance of normality around [their children], because she knows what [royal life] can do.

'She's seen it; she's been around long enough... but they're not normal children, and I think it's extremely hard to keep their little feet on the ground I think this is a danger Kate's very aware of.'

The sources' remarks in People magazine come after the Duke and Duchess enjoyed a date night out in Montecito to celebrate Meghan's birthday - a day after the couple made their first public appearance together in months.

Princess Lilibet, two, and four-year-old Prince Archie's (pictured with Prince Harry) upbringing is 'very play-based', the insider claimed to the US magazine , adding: 'They have several play areas, including a climbing gym on their property.'

The Prince and Princess of Wales (pictured with Prince George and Princess Charlotte in June 2022) similarly strive for as normal a childhood as possible for their three children, Prince George, ten, Princess Charlotte, eight, and Prince Louis, five.

Meghan and Harry were seen in good spirits, smiling and laughing, as they were pictured leaving the trendy Italian restaurant Tre Lune, a favourite among A listers including Kourtney Kardashian and Ellen DeGeneres.

It is the first time the couple have been seen in public together since their last public appearance in May amid mounting speculation about their future in Hollywood and rumoured strains behind the scenes.

Meghan looked glamorous wearing a strapless column-style black and white Posse dress, priced at 188, paired with her beloved Cult Gaia bag and flat strappy black sandals. The Prince accompanied her wearing a linen blue shirt and white trousers on Wednesday night.

The pair entered the popular eatery, where musician Travis Barker was spotted earlier that night, and they were joined by their good friend Matt Cohen, husband of the Duchess of Sussex's friend of many years Heather Dorak.

Meals at the Italian restaurant range from $24 (19) to $61 (48). Italian-lovers can also choose from 24 different pasta and risotto meals, while an array of meat and fish dishes on offer, from salmon fillets $44 (37) to filet mignon steak $65 (55).

Photographs show the couple walking out of the restaurant front, before Meghan is seen pointing at something in the distance. They then jump in a car that appears to have been waiting for them.

The pair have been faced with mounting speculation about their future in Hollywood, after their deal with audio giant Spotify was axed and one of their planned Netflix shows was quietly dropped.

Their celebratory outing comes after the couple appeared to combat any negative rumours by appearing in a happy two-minute, 40-second clip released on Wednesday.

They were seen surprising US recipients of the first Responsible Technology Youth Power Fund (RTYPF) grants with phone calls to congratulate them. Their Archwell Foundation is a founding member of the initiative that will help fund 26 youth-led projects.

Harry, 38, also mentioned their children Archie, four, and Lilibet, two, telling one winner in a call: 'Thank you for doing everything that you do. Our kids especially are incredibly grateful.' Meghan then added: 'They don't know it yet, but they will!'

The Sussexes are thought to be in danger of losing millions after their lucrative Spotify deal was axed and further concerns were raised over the future of their Netflix deal.

Further questions were raised over the future projects of 'Brand Sussex' after Hollywood powerhouse Jeremy Zimmer dismissed Meghan as 'not a great audio talent, or necessarily any kind of talent'.

The dismissal followed the scathing remarks made by one of Spotify's podcast chiefs, who branded the couple 'f***ing grifters'.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex's lucrative Spotify project was pulled last month after they produced one 12-episode podcast and a festive special over three years

Sources close to the Duchess were also at pains to say that she was looking to take her Archetypes series to another streaming platform

READ MORE: Prince and Princess of Wales post a tweet praising a rhino documentary as it is nominated for an award - but make no mention of Meghan Markle's 42nd birthday Advertisement

Sources close to the Californian-based royals said that their struggle to make a mark on Hollywood and have their new careers take off was simply a result of 'growing pains'.

The pair signed multi-million-pound deals with both Spotify and Netflix after moving across the pond in 2020, but these since stagnated.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex's lucrative Spotify project was dramatically pulled last month after they produced one 12-episode podcast and a festive special over three years.

The couple also reportedly did not produce enough content to receive the full pay-out from the reported 18million deal they signed after stepping down as senior working royals.

But sources have said that the deal ended early because there was too much 'red tape' and they were 'given no formal lay of the land', which set them up to fail.

There were claims that the couple had 'lots of ideas and did pitch them' but none of them ever took off and 'things moved very slowly on both ends'.

One of those ideas, Bloomberg reported, was Harry's suggestion to interview 'controversial' guests such as Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump about their childhoods.

Another one of the Prince's ideas reportedly touted was to interview the Pope on fatherhood - despite not having children.

Meanwhile their Netflix docuseries Live to Lead failed to take off, while a Meghan-driven animation called Pearl, about a girl inspired by female leaders, was quietly dropped.

But an industry executive told People that there was still time for the couple to turn things around, adding: 'Has their final chapter been written? Absolutely not...Hollywood loves a comeback.'
A huge vintage clothing sale is coming to Sydney this month where shoppers can get a bundle of brand name items that won't break the bank.

At the Kilo Sale Sydney shoppers can pick up piles of secondhand clothing and pay by the kilogram.

The event will be Australia's biggest and first-ever vintage kilo sale and kicks off on Saturday, August 26 until Sunday August 27 in the inner west suburb of Marrickville.

Fashion lovers will be able to rummage through 150m of racks with more than 6,000 vintage garments including items from brands names like Tommy Hilfiger and Ralph Lauren.

Pricing starts at $10 per kilo for a bundle and there is also a range of clothing for $20 and $50.

Sydney shoppers are gearing up to give their wardrobe a budget refresh at Australia's first-ever kilo vintage sale on Saturday, August 26 and 27

At the Kilo Sale Sydney, Fashion lovers will be able to rummage through more than 6,000 vintage garments including items from brands names like Tommy Hilfiger and Ralph Lauren

Depending on what shoppers pick up, a kilo of clothing is roughly three or four garments.

The stock is made up of pre-loved clothing from overseas countries including the USA, Japan as well as Europe.

Doors will open at 8:30am but organisers say not to worry about getting there early to find the best buys as racks will be constantly restocked with fresh finds.

Excitement is building for the Australian-first event online among stylish Aussies who are keen to give their wardrobe a budget refresh in a sustainable way.

Pricing starts at $10 per kilo for a bundle and there is also a range of clothing for $20 and $50. One kilo of clothing is roughly three to four garments

One woman asked what styles will be available to which organisers replied: 'You'll find clothes from Y2K, 90s and 80s which are vintage and if you're lucky and dig well you will find some 70s pieces too.'

'But realistically if you are after vintage clothes from the 50s/60s its unlikely you ll find any in a kilo sale,' they added.

The Kilo Sale Sydney is from runs until 5pm over the two days at a warehouse on 29 Smith Street, Marrickville.
She also shared her kitchen rules and love for native ingredients

MasterChef star turned restauranteur Mindy Woods has shared the go-to dishes she prepares for dinner parties, how to shop on a budget and her five kitchen rules.

The talented chef won fourth place on Season 4 of MasterChef Australia in 2012 and is now the owner of the popular Karkalla Byron Bay Restaurant in Byron Bay.

Mindy told FEMAIL her family is currently obsessed with macadamia butter chicken with lemon myrtle flatbread, and she often hosts 'curry parties'.

'There is always something for everyone and curries are generally cheap to make and are an absolutely flavour bomb,' she said.

She's also a fan of preparing dahl and Italian chilli tuna pasta when on a tight budget.

Mindy Woods is a whiz in the kitchen and landed in fourth place on Season 4 of MasterChef Australia in 2012

At home she hosts 'curry parties' with family and one of her favourite dishes to cook is Macadamia Butter chicken with lemon Myrtle flatbread

Mindy has also partnered with Australian Macadamias to create two native infused recipes - The Original Macas Burger (pictured) and Mylkshake

When money is tight, Mindy recommends first looking what's in your pantry and freezer before going to the supermarket.

'Cooking with canned food and out of jars can deliver huge on the flavour front, without breaking the bank,' she said.

'My go-to pantry dish is a weekly special at home is tinned tomato and Italian chilli tuna pasta. Cooked down in a pan and tossed through packet spaghetti with capers and olives - a delicious meal with everything out of the cupboard.'

Leftovers - or 'best overs' as Mindy calls them - often taste better than next day and can be used for work lunches.

'Being creative with leftover vegetables, meats, curries and casseroles allows you to create a whole next dining experience out of the very same ingredients,' she said.

'Think of turning last night's curry into a pot pie by simply reheating it in the oven with a puff pastry top, creating delicious tacos or enchiladas by adding Mexican spices and seasonings to leftover roast meats and vegetables. I love the creativity leftovers can inspire.'

When sticking to a budget, Mindy recommends buying local and shopping and farmers markets. 'Hands down the BEST most flavoursome produce is direct from the farmer and at the best price,' she said

Mindy also recommends buying local and shopping at farmers markets for seasonal produce.

'Hands down the BEST most flavoursome produce is direct from the farmer and at the best price,' she said.

'You will find everything from locally grown fruit, vegetables, meat and nuts to locally made cheeses, pastas and more. It's a great way to become part of your greater community.'

She added how 'weirdly' shaped fruit and vegetables tend to go on special at farmers markets, but taste the same.

'They may look funny but they'll certainly save you money! Imperfect fruit and vegetables will not just save you money, they will support Aussies farmers and importantly help the environment by reducing food waste.'

What are Mindy's kitchen rules? 1. Always use sharp knives and learn how to sharpen them. Sharp knives are safe knives and learning the skill of knife sharpening means you are respecting your tools and working safe in the kitchen. 2. Lift and stir away - Condensation and steam forms inside hot pots and pans. To avoid burns, splatters and spills, tilt the lid away from you when you open it from a hot pot or pan and always stir away from not towards your body. 3. Cut down on clutter on your kitchen bench. Kitchen benches should be used for food preparation not for storing or displaying utensils and food. A clean organised kitchen bench helps ease of cooking and helps create a clean and safe cooking environment. 4. Cover the pot when bringing water to a boil. There's a reason we choose high heat when bringing water to a boil - the faster water is able to heat up, the faster it will boil. Covering the pot to trap in the heat, will cut down on the time and energy needed to bring the water to a boil. 5. MAKE IT FUN! It breaks my little chef heart when people consider cooking a chore over choice! Advertisement

Overthinking or complicating meals tends to be the biggest mistake people make in the kitchen, according to Mindy.

Instead of preparing complex menus and dishes to impress family or friends, she recommends keeping it simple.

'Simplicity doesn't mean boring when it comes to food. Buy ingredients in season and at the height of their flavour and prepare them in a way that helps them shine,' she said.

When budgeting she turns to a Tarka Dal recipe which is often described as a 'warm hug in a bowl.'

'It is so cheap to make and will feed a crowd. It also freezes well,' she said.

The vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free dish consists of onions, garlic, tomatoes, ginger, potatoes and tumeric along with spices and herbs to bring the dish to life.

Instead of preparing complex menus and dishes to impress family or friends, she recommends keeping it simple. 'Simplicity doesn't mean boring when it comes to food. Buy ingredients in season and at the height of their flavour and prepare them in a way that helps them shine,' she said

The Macas Mylkshake (pictured) can be made at home using Australian Macadamias

Mindy has also partnered with Australian Macadamias to create two native infused recipes - The Original Macas Burger and Mylkshake.

Both can be made at home using native ingredients, with the taste of macadamia nuts being the hero of both dishes.

'Most Aussies don't even realise that the Queen of all nuts; the Macadamia is native to Australia. It is our very own world-famous nut and one we should all embrace cooking with at home,' Mindy said.

'Not only are macadamias good for you, delicious and great for snacking they are incredibly versatile in cooking and can be used in both sweet and savoury applications.'
Delia Smith was once mercilessly mocked for teaching the nation how to boil an egg.

But after a study recently showed that one in four adults don't know how to carry out this seemingly simple kitchen task, she may have been onto something.

As the debate rages on over the best way to boil an egg to perfection, the Telegraph has invited its readers to share their top tips, plus their favourite ways to eat a boiled egg.

One reader insisted that the top of the egg should be removed with a precise knife stroke, leaving the top of the yolk undamaged.

Malcolm Allen, from Berkhamsted, told the publication: 'A half-slice of buttered toast should be cut into six soldiers, the first two at an angle to achieve a point that can break through the vitelline membrane of the yolk.'

You would think it would be the easiest meal to make, but even top chefs argue on how best to boil and eat an egg (stock photo)

Experts too have something to say on the matter. There are some things most agree on - that is to use fresh eggs and that boiled water is necessary. But after that, opinions differ wildly.

Here Femail brings you the sometimes wildly contrasting views on how to boil an egg.

How do you cook the perfect boiled egg?

Citing different methods from Jamie Oliver, Nigella Lawson, Gordon Ramsay and Delia Smith, the letter writers note there are lots of different ways to cook the perfect boiled egg.

The Telegraph's recipe columnist and author of the Friday Night Dinner cookbook, Eleanor Steafel, likes 'six and a half minutes in just boiling water for a jammy yolk'.

She then advises to then run it under the cold tap for 30 seconds.

The British Egg Industry Council advises to cover an egg with at least 2.5cm of cold water in a pan then place on a high heat.

It then says that once the water is boiling, it should take three minutes for really soft-boiled yolk and set white, four minutes for slightly set yolk and set white, and five minutes for a medium-cooked firmer yolk and white.

They also have a trick to see if the egg is ready - if it wobbles while spinning, the yolk and white are still somewhat liquefied, but if it spins evenly in place, it means it's fully cooked.

What about cooling it down?

If you want to eat your egg at a colder temperature, either saving it for later or hoping to stop the cooking process to preserve a perfectly soft yolk, you can run the cooked egg under a cold tap - or even plunge it into a bowl of ice water.

Gordon Ramsay has quite an obscure trick - cracking the eggs, blowing on them, putting them in water and blowing inside them again, which he claims also makes peeling easier.

According to the publication, the British Egg Industry Council says submerging eggs in water helps avoid the formation of a grey line around the yolk.

They add that the egg will shrink slightly in the water, making it easier to peel - as will using an egg closer to its best before date. This is because the older the egg, the more the white will have separated from the shell.

How to eat it?

The classic way to eat a boiled egg is with buttered soldiers or toast cut into thin strips - but some say this is childish.

Eleanor Steafel recommends placing the whole egg on buttered toast, or perhaps layering a hint of marmite on the toast first.

But Nigella does not even insist on toast. She suggests using asparagus soldiers to dip in the yolk instead.
A nutritionist who helped supermodel Elle Macpherson stay at her healthiest has revealed a simple trick for staying hydrated throughout the day.

Dr Simone Laubscher said while most people drink water through the day there are small changes they can make to ensure they're staying properly hydrated

The wellness and longevity expert said adding simple and affordable ingredients including lemon, lime and even cinnamon to your daily water can up your hydration levels, help curb sugar cravings, boost metabolism and stay energised.

'Most people are drinking water but they're still dehydrated and that has a massive impact on kids and adults alike,' she told FEMAIL.

'If you pimp your water to scale up your hydration process, it's cheap, you have most of the ingredients in your house anyway, it will have no added cost to your life and has a massive impact on your mind body balance if you rehydrate properly.'

Dr Simone Laubscher (right) formulator of Elle Macpherson's (left) brand WelleCo's beauty supplements has shared why drinking water all day may not be enough to stay hydrated

Dr Simone, who is originally from Sydney but living in the UK, has a PhD in nutrition and is a functional nutritionist, naturopath, wellness and longevity expert.

The 51-year-old is the formulator behind Elle Macpherson's brand WelleCo's beauty supplements which are the model's secret to looking and feeling fit, young and healthy.

Dr Simone has two recipes to up your hydration game, the Rejuv wellness water and detox water.

The wellness water is two litres of water infused with the juice of one lemon or lime, a quarter teaspoon of unprocessed sea salt, a thumb of grated ginger or a bunch or fresh mint leaves and one cinnamon stick.

Whip up a batch of the of wellness water and leave it in a jug to stay hydrated each day.

Dr Simone said consuming one, three or six grams of cinnamon per day had been shown to help stop cravings, make you feel mentally and physically strong and have proven benefits for people with type 2 diabetes.

Dr Simone adding simple ingredients including lemon, lime and cinnamon to your daily water can up your hydration levels, help curb sugar cravings, boost metabolism and stay energised

For those who suffer from water retention where the body swells due to a build up of fluid, she recommends swapping sea salt for cucumber slices.

The detox water recipe take minutes to prepare and includes key ingredients to naturally cleanse the body.

Warm up one to one and a half litres of water then mix with 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, two tablespoons of lemon juice, half a teaspoon of ground ginger, a quarter teaspoon of cinnamon, and a dash of cayenne pepper.

An optional ingredient is a teaspoon of raw honey which Dr Simone said is 'nutrient-dense, anti-microbial and fungal to help support a healthy immune system and the gut microbiome'.

Dr Simone Laubscher's Detox Water Recipe Ingredients 1-1.5 L of warm or hot water

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

2 tablespoons lemon juice

 teaspoon ground ginger

 teaspoon cinnamon

1 dash of cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon raw honey (optional) Instructions Warm the water. Mix the warm water with lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, ginger, cinnamon, and cayenne pepper. Best served warm but drink at desired temperature. Source: Rejuv Advertisement

Dr Simone Laubscher's Wellness Water Recipe Ingredients 2L of water

Juice of 1 lemon or lime

 teaspoon of unprocessed sea salt

A thumb of grated ginger or a bunch of fresh mint leaves

1 fresh cinnamon stick Leave it in a jug or glass pitcher to stay hydrated each day. if you suffer from water retention, swap the sea salt for half a sliced cucumber to help flush out your lymphatic system. Drink 2-3L of clean filtered water every day and try to drink 1-2L of that quota mixed with our detox water recipe. Source: Rejuv Advertisement

'Cinnamon, cayenne pepper and ginger contain healing compounds that help to reduce inflammation, support digestion and boost your metabolism, helping you stay strong and lean,' she said in a blog post.

For those who struggle to consume enough water Dr Simone said to incorporate drinking a glass into your daily routine like leaving a cup next to your toothbrush

Dr Simone said the water recipes can help with 'cellular hydration' and have a huge impact on overall health.

'The body is 70 per cent water and unless we grassroots get something like that in place then it's kind of like throwing mud against the wall hoping something will stick,' she said.

'We're too buy trying to do all the other things to stay healthy whereas something as simple as hydration can have a massive impact on how you look, how you feel, and your mood across every single level.'

Cellular hydration is when your cells have enough water to help your body functions work properly and leave you feeling energised and healthy.

'Maintaining cellular hydration can help protect your cells so they can carry out your body's key functions,' Abbott nutrition scientist specialising in hydration Jennifer Williams explained.

'What's more, chronic cellular dehydration is linked to unwanted health effects later in life, such as insulin resistance and hypertension, for example.'

What is cellular hydration and why is it important? Your body consists of trillions of cells working every minute to help you function and feel your best. Each cell relies on water to do its job. When youre not well-hydrated, water filters out of the cells into larger fluid spaces like blood vessels. While these larger spaces also need fluid, this water shift makes your cells shrink and shrivel enough to hinder their work. Cellular hydration, sometimes called inner or internal hydration, means your cells have all the water they need to keep you feeling energetic and well. Surprisingly, you could drink eight glasses of water a day  or half your body weight in ounces  and still be dehydrated. Eight glasses of water daily may be too little or too much for your unique situation. Each person's water needs vary with hot and dry climates, age, medications, exercise habits, and medical conditions. Its best to monitor your unique signals of dehydration rather than the number of glasses you drink during the day. Signs include: Fatigue

Brain fog

Ongoing morning sluggishness

Headaches

Stiffness and joint pain Low mood

Irritability

Dark urine

Dry, inelastic skin

Muscle cramps Source: Health News Advertisement

Dr Simone said a lot of people are drinking plenty of water however that water is not the same structure as what we have at an intracellular level.

'If we can use lemon lime cinnamon clove and Celtic unprocessed sea salt you can actually change the structure of the water so it hydrates,' she said.

For those who struggle to consume enough water Dr Simone said there are some helpful ways to incorporate drink a glass into your daily routine.

She said adding a visual queue in a place or ext to an item you use regularly.

'Put a glass of water by the sink or next to your toothbrush to drink in the morning after your brush your teeth. Leave a huge pint of water the night before,' she said.

'Have your one on the bedside table but youve been fasting for eight hours so you need to hydrate. As soon as you go to brush your teeth you're going to have 500ml of water to hydrate again.'
Experts have raised the alarm over a little-known side effect of ketamine, a popular drug among students.

Ketamine, also used as a horse tranquiliser and sold for as little as 3 per dose, can inflame the bladder and leave users unable to urinate. Its effects can mimic that of cystitis, an agonising UTI.

Academics labelled it a 'poorly understood' phenomenon, given it has only been documented in a handful of medical reports.

But up to a quarter of patients who use ketamine recreationally suffer the side effect, they estimate.

Their warning comes on the back of a British man being struck down with ketamine-associated cystitis.

The dissociative aesthetic  a class of psychedelic drug  often attracts students as it is half the price of cocaine; a single dose costs about 3. But side effects including the damage to users kidneys have long been known. Yet medics are now warning of a 'poorly understood' phenomenon, leaving users with inflamed bladders

Writing in the American Journal of Medical Case Reports, medics at the Countess of Chester Hospital in Cheshire, said an unnamed man told his GP that he was suffering from recurring urinary tract infections (UTI) and heartburn.

He confessed he had previously taken ketamine, but did not detail how long for.

Blood tests and ultrasound scans showed his renal function and appearance of his kidneys were 'normal'.

But he was unable to fill his bladder, despite multiple attempts to drink fluid in the ultrasound department.

A healthy adult's bladder can comfortably hold around 500ml  equivalent to just under a pint  of urine, the NHS says.

Yet the man could hold just 45ml and complained of a 'severe urgency' to urinate, medics said.

The bladder also appeared abnormally shaped, with doctors noting it was three times thicker than usual.

After being referred to the urology team for further testing, a cystoscopy  a procedure to look inside the bladder using a thin camera  showed his bladder could hold just 100ml.

CT scans also revealed he was suffering from bilateral hydronephrosis  when the kidneys become swollen as a result of urine being unable to drain into the bladder.

'Our patients symptoms and investigation findings were typical for long-term ketamine use,' doctors wrote.

They advised the unidentified man to stop using ketamine.

A follow-up ultrasound, at a later data, showed his kidneys were no longer swollen.

Medics noted that bladder inflammation is becoming more common 'as the availability and use of illicit drugs increases'.

The medics warned that the infection can cause 'irreversible' kidney damage if it remains untreated.

It is, therefore, vital that patients are diagnosed early, stop using ketamine and any complications are treated, the team said.

'Clinicians should be aware of the disease and consider it as a possible cause of unexplained lower urinary tract symptoms particularly in young patients,' they said.

Ketamine, also known as Special K, Ket, or Kit Kat, was popular as a party drug in the late 1990s, when it was commonly taken at all-night raves.

But its popularity slipped in the 2000s when it became a Schedule III drug and concerns were raised over side effects including hallucinations and, in rare cases, seizures.

The drug is now seeing a return, however, with surveys indicating it is once again trickling back into the party scene.

Yet medics have previously warned of the impact of ketamine-associated cystitis, dubbed 'K bladder', on young people taking the drug.

These problems were so severe for one young user that he tried to take his own life.

A study in May by researchers in the US found ketamine could ease depression in people with the most severe form of the condition. Researchers at Mass General Brigham Hospital in Boston recruited 403 patients with major depression who were not helped by standard treatments like drugs. Among those who were offered ketamine via an intravenous drip, 55 percent said their symptoms had eased over the next six months. The above graph, depicting the study's results, shows ketamine was at least as effective as ECT

On another occasion, the man 'woke up on the bathroom floor covered in blood, fitting because the pain had got so bad'.

A second sufferer also previously termed the condition the 'worst pain I have ever had' and thought they were going to lose their bladder.

In some cases the only solution to K bladder is surgery, or even the removal of the bladder.

Other side effects of using the drug have long been known about.

Some users describe a frightening experience known as a 'K-hole' when mind and body seem separated and the power of movement is lost.

One dose can kill, especially when mixed with other substances including alcohol.

The drug was dubbed Britain's 'campus killer' earlier this year when it was revealed it had caused 41 student deaths since 1999, according to the National Programme on Substance Abuse Deaths.

Seven UK students died in 2021 alone, the latest date data is available for.

However, a growing number of studies are suggesting that there could be a place for the drug in treating mental health problems.

A study in May by researchers in the US found ketamine could ease depression in people with the most severe form of the condition.

Researchers at Mass General Brigham Hospital in Boston recruited 403 patients with major depression who were not helped by standard treatments like drugs.

Among those who were offered ketamine via an intravenous drip, 55 percent said their symptoms had eased over the next six months.

The study adds to growing evidence that ketamine  along with other psychedelics  could be an effective treatment for depression, potentially helping people by remolding connections in the brain and stimulating the formation of new ones.
It will sell the chicken in one dish in a six-course event once a month

A California restaurant will become second in the US to sell lab-grown chicken

Many foodies refuse to order chicken because of its 'lack of originality' - but that won't be a problem for diners at a luxury California restaurant tonight.

The Michelin-starred Bar Crenn in San Francisco will serve poultry that was grown in a laboratory as part of its sold-out $150-a-head tasting course.

One of the six courses will be man-made chicken 'coated in a recedo negro tempura batter, drizzled with burnt chili aioli, and garnished with edible flowers.

Cultivated meat is made by taking a sample of cells from livestock like chickens and cows and growing them in a lab.

Selling it became legal last month, and the Bar Crenn will become only the second restaurant to have served it in the US after tonight.

The dish at Bar Crenn is described as: UPSIDE Chicken coated in a recedo negro tempura batter, drizzled with burnt chili aioli, and garnished with edible flowers.

Bar Crenn is a restaurant by French chef Dominique Crenn, 58, who is famous for being the only woman in the U.S. to achieve three Michelin stars

The man-made meat on the menu tonight was made by UPSIDE Foods, one of the two USDA-approved manufacturers of cultivated meat.

Amy Chen, chief operating officer at UPSIDE Foods, told Food & Wine: 'It was important to be able to showcase the chicken, and to recognize that this is a whole-cut piece of chicken.'

'[The recipe] really fit into that broader story about sustainability and artisanship and stewardship. Everything about it is just exquisite.'

The cruelty-free meat alternative is created by taking a sample of stem cells, the building blocks of muscle and other organs, from an animal.

The cells are placed in petri dishes with amino acids and carbohydrates to help the muscle cells multiply and grow.

Once enough muscle fibers have grown, the result is a protein that resembles real meat.

Bar Crenn is a restaurant by French chef Dominique Crenn, 58, who is famous for being the only woman in the U.S. to achieve three Michelin stars.

Ms Crenn, who has starred on the cooking show Iron Chef, created dishes with UPSIDE's alternative chicken after taking meat off her menu in 2018.

Going forward, the restaurant will offer lab-grown meat during the first weekend of every month as part of its six-course tasting menu.

In January, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) declared engineered animal products safe for human consumption.

So far, Singapore is the only other country with approved lab-grown meats for sale.

The European Union, Israel, and other countries are working on regulatory frameworks for cultivated meat but have not yet approved a product for human consumption.

Cultivated meats could be coming to a high-end restaurant near you this year. Pictured: Founder of UPSIDE Foods Uma Valeti peers into one of the cultivators where lab-grown meats are manufactured

Workers pictured operating machinery at the plant where chicken breasts are grown

Shown above is a chicken breast grown in a vat by UPSIDE meats, in Emeryville, California

Serving the food in restaurants could turn the tide for engineered meat's popularity.

A 2022 study published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology, for example, found that 35 percent of meat eaters and 55 percent of vegetarians would be too disgusted to try cultivated meat.

Last month, China Chilcano in Washington, DC became the first restaurant to sell US and Singapore-based GOOD Meats chicken in a dish called 'Anticuchos de Poll'.

The restaurant, run by Chef Jose Andres, served their first GOOD Meat dish exclusively to the family of the late Willem van Eelen, who was considered the godfather of cultivated meat.

Mr Andres told Reuters he wants to sell cultivated meat because of its environmental benefits.

'We can see in what is happening all around us, in every country around the globe, that our planet is in crisis,' he said.

After gaining the USDA's approval for sale in June, UPSIDE Foods posted on its Instagram account: 'This is a historic, world-changing, moment and brings our vision of a more human, sustainable future one giant bite closer to reality.
America's leading child doctors are continuing to back transgender healthcare services for minors under 18 - despite concerns about long-term risks.

The influential American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) voted to stand by its 2018 guidance that supports access to counseling, hormone therapy, puberty blockers, and occasionally surgery.

But the AAP has commissioned a systematic review of those treatments, which are becoming increasingly common because of the sharp rise in gender dysphoria diagnoses among minors.

The decision to keep recommending the pharmaceutical interventions puts the US at odds with other countries like the UK and Sweden, which have also commissioned systematic reviews but have paused puberty blockers, hormone drugs and surgery until those reviews are concluded.

The AAP's move comes as trans youth issues have become a culture war flashpoint, with 19 US states banning or severely restricting under-18s from accessing the drugs.

Access to gender-affirming care in the US has been heavily restricted or banned in 20 states. Many also have bills under consideration to further limit access to care

The above map from a study published in JAMA shows the median travel time to the nearest gender-affirming clinic before various states enacted restrictions on medical care for transgender youth.

The above map from a study published in JAMA shows the median travel time to the nearest gender-affirming clinic after various states enacted restrictions on medical care for transgender youth

The AAPs 16 members, who represent a collective 67,000 pediatricians, all expressed confidence in the evidence available showing the clinical benefits of gender-affirming care for trans youth.

They concluded that children should still have access to comprehensive, gender-affirming, and developmentally appropriate health care.

This type of gender-affirming care typically starts with robust social support including the use of preferred pronouns and psychological counseling, which can sometimes lead to the decision to start certain clinical interventions like puberty blockers. These temporarily halt the development of secondary sex characteristics, giving youth more time to explore their gender identity without undergoing irreversible changes.

Doctors may also consider prescribing hormone replacement therapy, which entails giving cross-sex hormones to promote the development of physical characteristics consistent with the individual's gender identity.

For instance, testosterone injections for trans boys who were born girls can help deepen the voice and increase muscle mass.

In rare cases, doctors may recommend that the person undergo surgery such as a double mastectomy, also known as top surgery, to help them feel better attuned to their gender identity.

Surgeries among under-18s are uncommon but totally irreversible.

This is typically seen as the final step toward transitioning only after other therapies such as hormones have been used.

The AAPs 2018 policy statement regarding surgeries said: These changes are irreversible.

'Although current protocols typically reserve surgical interventions for adults, they are occasionally pursued during adolescence on a case-by-case basis, considering the necessity and benefit to the adolescents overall health and often including multidisciplinary input from medical, mental health, and surgical providers as well as from the adolescent and family.

The AAPs decision to stick by the 2018 policy reaffirms the groups belief that gender-affirming care is evidence-based and even life-saving in some cases.

Pointing to several studies, including Government-run research, the group said 56% of youth who identified as transgender reported previous suicidal ideation, and 31% reported a previous suicide attempt, compared with 20% and 11% among matched youth who identified as cisgender, respectively.

At the same time, transition care does not solve the problem every time. There have been many anecdotes of trans people in the US and aboad who underwent treatment such as hormone therapies or top surgeries as minors only to regret it later.

Some people, such as now-25-year-old Laura Becker from Wisconsin, have gone so far as to detransition. Ms Becker was referred for top surgery at 19, just seven months after being prescribed hormone-warping drugs to make her more masculine. Becker said the surgery is her 'biggest regret'.

Luka Hein, another detransitioner, was prescribed hormone treatments to transition from female to male at 15 and was just 16 when she had her breasts removed.

The Minnesotan was a young teenager when she became unsure of her true gender, but thinks doctors were too quick to nudge her in the direction of surgery and did not take her mental health issues into account.

Mark Del Monte, the chief executive of the AAP told the New York Times: The board has confidence that the existing evidence is such that the current policy is appropriate.

Laura Becker (left) began testosterone treatments at 19 to transition from female to male (pictured right). Doctors pressed ahead with her mastectomy even though she told them she was feeling suicidal

Luka Hein is speaking out about how she feels she was rushed into surgery at a young age and doctors did not take into account her poor mental state

At the same time, the board recognized that additional detail would be helpful here.

The AAPs vote comes less than two months after the UKs National Health Service upended its system for youth gender-affirming care system by limiting the use of puberty-suppressing drugs to youth in clinical trials only.

That decision followed an independent review which found there is not enough evidence to support their safety or clinical effectiveness as a routinely available treatment.

In the US, childrens access to gender-affirming care has been extremely curtailed as more states enact restrictions or all-out bans on types of care services.

As of May 2023, 20 states have enacted legislation, executive actions, or other policies that restrict or ban healthcare for transgender youths, and more than 100 additional bills are under consideration.

All of the states are Republican or Republican-leaning, and all but one voted for former President Donald Trump in the 2020 election.

Up until the wave of state bans began in 2020 and 2021, there were no restrictions at the federal level for access to these treatments.

But a white-hot culture war sparked by rising stars on the right such as Florida Gov and GOP Presidential candidate Ron DeSantis is ongoing.

Still, there is compelling evidence to show that trans youth are more susceptible to mental health issues when their dysphoria goes unaddressed, with one study showing as many as 56 percent of trans youth experience suicidal thoughts, while 31 percent reported having attempted suicide.

According to the AAP: [The risk for mental illness] is believed to be multifactorial, stemming from an internal conflict between ones appearance and identity, limited availability of mental health services, low access to health care providers with expertise in caring for youth who identify as TGD, discrimination, stigma, and social rejection.

Prescribing forms of gender-affirming care, even social measures such as calling a trans person by their preferred new name or pronouns, can have immeasurable benefits for a childs emotional wellbeing.
Two people in Michigan have been diagnosed with swine flu after attending county fairs, health officials confirmed today.

The patients - whose infections are not linked to one another - caught different strains at separate fairs last month, where they were exposed to infected pigs.

Both sufferers - whose identities have not been revealed - experienced mild illness, and there is no sign they spread it to others.

But the infections come amid an unprecedented influenza outbreak in animals that has many experts fearful of a spillover into people.

The patients contracted different strains at separate agricultural fairs last month, where they were exposed to infected pigs

The first patient, a Lapeer County resident, was working at the Oakland County Fair, which took place at the Springfield Oaks County Park in Davisburg between July 7-16.

They were infected with an H3 variant of swine flu which was confirmed via a test carried out by state health officials on July 26.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) tested a sample from the patient which came back inconclusive, which it said was likely due to the sample not containing enough virus.

The second patient attended the Tuscola County Fair in Caro, about 50 miles from Davisburg, between July 23 and July 29.

The patient was confirmed to have a H1 strain of the virus, which is typically more mild than H3 types.

Neither patient required hospitalization, and both were treated with flu antivirals. They are now recovering.

The CDC advised people to take general precautions to limit the spread of swine flu, including not eating or drinking while pigs are present, avoiding contact with pigs that appear sick, and washing hands with soap and water before and after contact with pigs.

Flu viruses can spread from pigs to people, but it's rare, with only a handful of spillover events occurring in the US each year.

Like any flu, when infected pigs cough, sneeze or even just breathe, droplets with pieces of flu virus in them can spread through the air.

If these land in a person's nose and mouth, or are breathed in, they can become infected with swine flu.

Swine flu surges in pigs around the fall months, raising the risk of the disease spilling over into humans.

People who become infected tend to suffer similar symptoms to seasonal flu, including fever, cough, runny nose and body aches.

But cases are normally mild and clear up on their own in a few weeks. There is little risk of death.

Scientists say, however, that children under five, people over 65, pregnant women and those with underlying health conditions are more at risk of complications if they become infected.

A major swine flu outbreak was triggered in 2009 after a mutated version of the virus  strain H1N1  spilled over into humans.

In the end, about one in five people globally became infected. For the US, there were estimated to have been about 60 million cases alongside 275,000 hospitalizations and 12,000 deaths.

But the case fatality rate  the proportion of patients that died from the disease  was thought to have been around 0.03 percent. For comparison, when Covid first struck, it had a fatality rate of up to three percent.
The U.S. Border Patrol is holding migrants in an outdoor cage in the baking Arizona desert as officers try to cope with a fresh surge people in people crossing from Mexico.

DailyMail.com pictures show people crammed onto narrow benches as they seek out shade to protect them from the burning sun in a region where temperatures are expected to hit 113F at the weekend.

Figures can be seen taking it in turns to stand in front of a giant fan at Ajo Border Patrol station.

The site is in the remote desert, about two hours west of Tucson. The area is at the heart of a surge in migrant arrivals, undermining Biden administration hopes that its new immigration restrictions are having an impact.

And the increase marks a reversal of the normal pattern, when arrivals tail off amid the extreme heat of the summer.

Extraordinary images show migrants being held in an outdoor cage at Ajo Border Patrol station in southern Arizona where brutal daytime temperatures have been above 110F

They are kept beneath an awning that provides some shade but humanitarian groups are demanding an end to such 'inhumane treatment' amid a surge in arrivals from Mexico

Migrant advocacy groups condemned the practice of caging arrivals but officials said they were forced to use outdoor facilities as they struggle to manage the surge.

It is bad news for the Biden administration. The pictures of people held inside wire fences provide a visual echo of families caged under the Trump administration.

And it shows that its efforts to turn the tide, with a set of strict immigration measures, may provide only temporary respite for overstretched border services.

New Customs and Border Protection data reveal that July brought a jump in illegal crossings of more than 30 percent, reversing a decline since President Joe Biden overhauled immigration regulations.

C.B.P. recorded more than 130,000 arrests along border compared with 99,545 in June, according to a source close to Border Patrol.

The spike is greatest in southern Arizona in the region around Ajo. The Tucson sector recorded 40,000 arrests last month, making it the highest monthly total in 15 years. (The numbers were first reported by the Washington Post.)

That comes despite a record heatwave. Temperatures have been running at more than 105F for days.

Worse is to come. The National Weather Service has issued a severe heat warning with temperatures of up to 113F expected through Sunday.

Even so, migrants have been walking through the Sonoran Desert to reach the U.S. border.

Ajo Border Patrol Station is in a remote part of the Arizona desert. Sonic booms rip through the desert here as U.S.A.F jets make runs over a nearby bombing range

Ajo border station is about 28 miles from the border with Mexico. Migrants are brought here after being detained along the border before being moved on to other sites

Dozens of mostly men could be seen staying in the shade of the canopy on Wednesday morning after four large groups of migrants were found in the desert along the border

A source close to Border Patrol told DailyMail.com that several large groups had arrived on Tuesday night. At least 600 people were detained in the Ajo area and the whole Tucson sector saw 1,900 encounters on that day alone.

That compares with an average of 800 a day in November last year, when the weather was gentler and numbers were high all along the border.

On Wednesday, the result was evident in the outdoor holding pen at Ajo station.

From a cactus-studded ridge overlooking the site, several dozen arrivals could be seen trying to shelter in the shade of a canopy waiting to be processed and bussed to facilities in Tucson or Yuma.

They moved deeper into the cage as the sun's position shifted through the day.

Chris Clem, who retired recently as chief Border Patrol agent in Yuma to the west and who also served in Tucson sector, said the use of the outdoor overflow facility showed that the underlying problems had not been solved.

On Thursday morning, seven young men could be seen getting out of a van that arrived from the border. This area has seen the biggest surge in arrivals during the past month

A steady stream of processed migrants were loaded on to buses to be taken to Tucson or Yuma. Eventually they will be released with court dates far in the future

The number of arrivals dropped steeply in June but rose again by 30 percent in July, according to a source familiar with provisional Customs and Border Protection data

'These people know there are zero consequence. If you cross illegally, you're going to be processed and released,' he said.

'And so there's nothing to deter them.

'The administration will tell you all day long they're putting them in removal proceedings, but we know that those proceedings are years down the road so what are the consequence for coming across illegally?'

The Biden administration introduced new restrictions in May to replace Title 42, a pandemic measure that allowed certain migrants to be turned away without claiming asylum.

The new system uses a mix of carrots and sticks. It allows more migrants to enter lawfully but with stiffer penalties for those who arrive illegally.

It includes a 'transit ban,' rejecting would-be asylum seekers who do not apply for refuge in countries along their route.

Clem said cartels and smugglers had simply readjusted their methods to take account of new enforcement procedures. That meant shifting attention from areas around Yuma and hot spots in Texas, which were subject to intense scrutiny earlier this year, to focus on Tucson.

Donald Trump's border wall runs for hundreds of miles through Arizona. However, a former senior Border Patrol officer told DailyMail.com that Tucson sector had seen resources moved to other parts of the border, which meant it was now being targeted by cartels

A sign close to the border crossing of Lukeville warns people of the surrounding dangers

'They believe that Tucson is one of the areas where the resources had been pulled from and so they see a vulnerability there,' he said.

Insiders say the Ajo station is simply not equipped to handle the numbers being picked up in the desert. The cage is an overflow facility that is needed on busy days.

Ajo Samaritans, who provide humanitarian aid along the border, demanded an immediate end to the practice.

'We are absolutely horrified to learn that migrants who have been detained at the Ajo Border Patrol station are being caged outdoors in the life-threatening heat, reportedly due to a lack of space,' the group said.

'Temperatures have consistently topped 110 degrees over the past several weeks. Even the stop-gap measures such as fans and canopies are inadequate to protect their health and safety. This inhumane treatment of migrants is a violation of their basic human rights and must end immediately.'

Officials say they are not to blame. Blame should instead lie with the human smugglers who are moving people through the desert and then dumping them at the border.

A heat advisory issued this week warns that temperatures could rise to 113F through Sunday. The are includes the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

A bus leaves Ajo station with newly arrived migrants ready for the next step in their journey

The C.B.P. has worked to reduce time in custody to an average of 15 hours and the use of outdoor, shaded facilities was a matter of last resort, said a spokesman.

'The U.S. Border Patrol has surged personnel and transportation resources to respond to the increase in encounters in the area  some of the hottest, most isolated, and dangerous area of the southwest border  where individuals have been callously sent by smuggling organizations to walk for miles, often with little or no water,' he said.

Moving arrivals out of the desert has been prioritized because of the dangerous conditions, he added.

'USBP has utilized outdoor shaded areas only when necessary and for very short times while they await onward transportation to larger facilities,' he continued.

'The Ajo Border Patrol State is not equipped to hold large number of migrants due to historic trends in this area.'
The top prosecutor who led the criminal trial against Bruce Lehrmann would never have been publicly humiliated by an inquiry if he hadn't fired off a furious letter to police, falsely accusing them of conspiring against Brittany Higgins.

Shane Drumgold, the ACT Director of Public Prosecutions, was blasted in a 600-page report by former judge Walter Sofronoff as an incompetent liar who knowingly misled the Supreme Court.

The report, obtained by The Australian, was the result of a Board of Inquiry held in May which examined the conduct of federal police, prosecutors, and Victims of Crime Commissioner Heidi Yates throughout the prosecution of Mr Lehrmann.

The inquiry found that Mr Sofronoff noted police and Ms Yates largely behaved appropriately and fulfilled their roles property - but the findings against Mr Drumgold were so damning his career is potentially over, The Australian reported.

However, it appears as though Mr Drumgold was the architect of his own demise.

It was Mr Drumgold himself who called for the public probe to begin - in the form of a five-page letter to Chief Police Office Neil Gaughan on November 1, 2022.

The letter was sent a month before the case against Mr Lehrmann was dropped.

The Board of Inquiry was launched after ACT DPP Shane Drumgold (pictured) claimed there was political interference in the investigation into Mr Lehrmann

Featuring the office of the DPP's letterhead, the letter began: 'I want to raise serious concerns I hold with what I perceive as some quite clear investigator interference in the criminal justice process.'

He went on to detail observations of his interactions with police officers. He claimed they had 'clearly adopted' an opinion that Mr Lehrmann should not be charged, argued they had tried to persuade him against pursuing it, and accused them of 'cherry-picking' weaknesses in the case.

But the inquiry has reportedly now found that Mr Drumgold was making 'baseless' claims that there was a police conspiracy afoot.

And it was also found that he wrongly accused Mr Lehrmann's defence barrister Steven Whybrow of essentially bad-mouthing him in secret meeting, which did not happen, The Australian reported.

In a statement on Thursday, Mr Drumgold said he still had not been given a copy of the report and therefore could not comment on its contents.

'I have neither seen the report nor have I been informed of any content, so I am not in a position to respond,' he said.

Mr Sofronoff found there was no evidence of anyone putting pressure on Ms Higgins (left) that could be described as 'strong political forces'

Some of the 'weaknesses' Mr Drumgold referred to about the case were contained in a document written by Detective Superintendent Scott Moller, now known as the Moller report, which questioned Ms Higgins' credibility.

Detective Moller stated in the report that he did not think there was enough evidence to prosecute Mr Lehrmann.

Mr Drumgold took issue with the contents of the report, and made an application not to disclose it to the defence under legal professional privilege - even though it was up to the police to claim such privelege.

Mr Drumgold told the inquiry that he believed disclosing the fact that police believed there were discrepancies in Ms Higgins' allegations would be 'crushing' to her.

In his report, Mr Sofronoff reportedly said it was 'not a proper basis for a prosecutor to resist disclosure of documents' and said Mr Drumgold did not abide by the rule of thumb: 'If in doubt, disclose'.

'Mr Drumgold kept the defence in the dark about steps he was taking to deny them the documents,' Mr Sofronoff said. 'Criminal litigation is not a poker game in which a prosecutor can hide the cards.'

Mr Sofronoff said, had Mr Lehrmann's defence team not persisted and gained access to the Moller report, any conviction could have been cast aside on the basis that it was a miscarriage of justice.

Bruce Lehrmann is pictured, left, outside the ACT Supreme Court with his defence barrister Steven Whybrow, right

Mr Drumgold's letter to Chief Police Office Gaughan went on: 'During the conduct of the trial, a number of disturbing events have occurred.'

He accused Ms Higgins' ex-boss and former defence minister Linda Reynolds of 'soliciting' transcripts from Mr Lehrmann's lawyer Steven Whybrow to 'tailor' her evidence.

Ms Reynolds, who was a witness for the prosecution, previously told the court she did ask Mr Whybrow for transcripts - he didn't send them, but even if he had, she said she did not intend to use the information to change her evidence.

Ms Reynolds had told the court she asked for transcripts because: 'I was curious to know what had been said but I was advised that it was not appropriate.'

In his letter, Mr Drumgold then said the conduct of 'investigators has been equally concerning' and accused them of 'regularly conferencing' with Mr Lehrmann's legal team during breaks - which Mr Whybrow denied when questioned during the inquiry.

In his concluding paragraphs, Mr Drumgold asserted that Australian Federal Police officers 'had a strong desire for this matter not to proceed to charge' and said investigators had 'clearly aligned with a successful defence'.

He said there was a 'very clear campaign to pressure me to agree with the investigator's desire not to charge, then during the trial itself, and finally attempting to influence any decision on a retrial'.

'I am of the view that, at the conclusion of the trial, there should be a public inquiry into both political and police conduct in this matter,' he wrote.

'I further seek your support for an inquiry to be conducted at the conclusion of the trial process into the conduct of police investigators in the lead up to charge and beyond, during the trial process itself.'

The inquiry went ahead in May and Mr Drumgold was grilled about his conduct for about a week. The questioning was so severe that he dropped out altogether and never finished his cross-examination.

West Australian Senator Reynolds was a witness for the prosecution in the trial

But on his second-last day at the inquiry, he admitted that he no longer thought there was a police conspiracy afoot, saying he was 'possibly mistaken' - despite calling for an inquiry based on that very belief.

The revelation was brought about by his own lawyer, Mark Tedeschi, who asked: 'So you would acknowledge your suspicions about the existence of political interference about the case going ahead were mistaken?'

Mr Drumgold replied: 'I do accept that.'

Mr Tedeschi continued: 'The suspicions that you had in November of last year at conclusion of the trial, when it was aborted, those suspicions have been allayed?

Mr Drumgold replied: 'Yes, they have been.'

In his scathing report, Mr Sofronoff said he was 'deeply disturbed' by Mr Drumgold's behaviour, likening him to Pontius Pilate - a Roman governor who gave in to demands to crucify Jesus, The Australian reported.

He also said the DPP made false representations to the ACT Chief Justice that were 'untrue' and 'an invention of his own, adding that he was guilty of a 'serious breach of duty' by failing to disclose documents.

Mr Drumgold stepped aside from his role as DPP after the inquiry. He did not resign, but the revelations about Mr Sofronoff's report have political commentators asking whether he could realistically carry on with the job.

Speaking with News Corp on Thursday, Mr Drumgold would not indicate whether he intends to formally step down.

The report was not released by the ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr, but was instead leaked on Wednesday night.

In a statement to Daily Mail Australia, a spokesperson from the ACT Government said it was 'disappointed' the report was released prematurely.

'The release of information about the Inquiry outside of the government procedures has affected the Inquiry process and harmed people involved,' the statement said.

'It further contributes to the ongoing public discussion of the matter that has been very difficult for all of the individuals impacted.'

It confirmed the report was not leaked by the government, and did not authorise the release to any media outlets.

The government will likely release the report early next week.

Ms Higgins alleged her former colleague Mr Lehrmann raped her inside Parliament House in 2019 - which he strongly denies - and was tried in the ACT Supreme Court in October last year.

The first trial was vacated because a member of the jury brought banned research material into the court, and the second never went ahead because Mr Drumgold dropped the charge entirely - citing concerns over Ms Higgins' mental health.
Six former Mississippi police officers have pleaded guilty to a shocking racist attack against two Black men involving sex toys, firearms and stun guns that resulted in a cop shooting one man through the mouth.

The group, who are all white, admitted to assaulting Michael Corey Jenkins, 32, and Eddie Terrell Parker, 35, after entering a house in Braxton, Simpson County, for around 90 minutes on January 24 with sex toys, firearms, stun guns, milk, eggs, alcohol and chocolate syrup.

The former cops, who worked for Rankin County Sheriff's department and Richland Police Department at the time of the shocking incident, appeared in a federal court and pleaded guilty on Thursday after the civil rights charges were unsealed.

After entering the house, the six former deputies handcuffed the two men, before throwing the food items at them as they lay on the floor.

The men were later forced to strip naked and shower to get rid of any evidence.

The six cops are facing a combined total of 590 years and two life sentences for their sickening crimes. They will be sentenced in November by a federal judge

The Department of Justice began investigating the sick and twisted cops, who spent 90 minutes torturing two men in last January, in February

The sick cops repeatedly used their stun guns on the pair in a twisted competition to see which department's weapons were more powerful.

Two of the cops, identified as former Rankin Country deputies Christian Dedmond and Jason Opdyke, assaulted one of the men with a sex toy.

During the harrowing 90-minute assault, officers repeatedly used racist slurs against them, and the two men were warned to 'stay out of Rankin County or go back to their side of the Pearl River', an area of Mississippi with a high concentration of Black residents.

Court documents revealed that the officers were initially called over by a White neighbor who had complained that Black people were staying with a white woman who owned the house.

But documents revealed that Mr. Parker was a longtime friend of the homeowner, and was taking care of her at the time.

Michael Corey Jenkins (pictured) was tortured alongside his friend Eddie Terrell Parker for around 90 minutes in a home belonging to a friend of Parker's

The families of Michael Corey Jenkins and Damien Cameron sit together during the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division tour

The sickening episode ended after one former Rankin County cop, Hunter Elward, shot Mr. Jenkins in the mouth after staging a 'mock execution'.

The bullet from his gun, shredding his tongue and breaking his jaw before exiting his neck behind his ear.

Sickeningly, instead of helping the severely injured man, the racist cops planned on planting and tampering with evidence at the house.

This wasn't the only instance of the groups cynically attempting to get away with the shocking episode.

Documents revealed that the twisted cops agreed to enter the Braxton property without a warrant as long as they could avoid being spotted by security cameras.

On top of this, they planned to use excessive force on the two men as long as they avoided injuring their heads so there would be 'no bad mugshots'.

U.S. Attorney Darren J. LaMarca, speaks to reporters after six white former law enforcement officers in Mississippi pleaded guilty

Deputy Attorney General Mary Wall of the Mississippi Attorney General's Office

In fact, several members of the group called themselves 'the Goon Squad' because of their 'willingness to use excessive force and not to report it', court documents revealed.

The five former Rankin County Sheriffs Department cops, named as Christian Dedmon, Hunter Elward, Brett McAlpin, Jeffrey Middleton and Daniel Opdyke, and the former Richland police officer who was off duty when he participated in the raid, Joshua Hartfield, are set to be sentenced in November.

The six sick cops are facing hefty sentences and fines, potentially facing a maximum combined sentence of 590 years and two life sentences in prison, as well as a combined $12.25 million in fines.

The six former cops are expected to plead guilty to the state charges later this month

And this isn't the end of the legal worries, as the Mississippi attorney generals office said on Thursday that it had filed state charges against the six former officers, including assault, conspiracy and obstruction of justice.

The men are scheduled to plead guilty to the state charges on August 14, said Mary-Helen Wall, a deputy state attorney general.

Figures across the US have condemned the racist group, including their former boss.

Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey, who said he first learned about what happened after he read unsealed court documents, condemned his former employees, saying:

'This is the most horrible incident of police brutality I've learned of over my whole career, and I'm ashamed it happened at this department.'

US Attorney General Merrick Garland said they 'egregiously violated the civil rights of citizens who they were supposed to protect.'

Meanwhile, US Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi Darren LaMarca said: 'They became the criminals they swore to protect us from. Now, they'll be treated as the criminals as they are.'

Mr. Jenkins and Mr. Parker's lawyer Malik Shabazz said: 'These guilty pleas are historic for justice against rogue police torture in Rankin County and all over America.

'Today is truly historic for Mississippi and for civil and human rights in America.'
A top urban planner has warned one western Sydney suburb will become 'the hottest place in the world' in just six months' time.

Sam Austin, who was awarded NSW's Young Planner of the Year, said residents in Marsden Park, about 50km north-west of the CBD, will soon be sweltering under temperatures of up to 50C throughout the upcoming summer.

Mr Austin said several poor design choices made while constructing developments in western Sydney meant residents were now living on dangerous urban heat islands where temperatures were 10 to 12 degrees hotter than the rest of Sydney.

'Suburbs like Marsden Park have helped create urban heat islands that exceed 50C. What makes it so hot? Houses,' he explained in a video posted to social media.

'Specifically, these brand-new, identical houses being built across the country. Most of these homes have black rooves and a tiny yard with no space for a tree.

'Street verges are too small for a mature tree to grow. The roads are black asphalt, and this goes on and on for miles.

'These factors combined create areas that can be over 12C hotter than neighbouring suburbs. That's right, the colour of your roof can increase the heat by 12 degrees.'

Temperatures soared in Jordan Springs, near Penrith, during the 2019-2020 Summer. Picture: Climate Council

An urban planner has warned one western Sydney suburb is about to 'become the hottest place in the world' in just six months' time (pictured: construction in Marsden Park)

Mr Austin finished his video with a stark warning to western Sydney residents.

'Western Sydney was already the hottest place on earth three years ago,' he said.

'It will happen again.'

Mr Austin is referring to when Penrith, about 55km west of the CBD, hit a record-breaking 48.9C on January 4, 2020, and was officially the hottest place on earth.

The mind-boggling temperature was recorded as the state was ravaged by bushfires, with inner Sydney hitting 35C on the same day.

Canberra also reached record-breaking highs, hitting 43C in the January afternoon.

More than three years later, extreme heat remains a significant concern for residents in western Sydney, who already experience temperatures up to 10 to 12 degrees hotter than those residing in the eastern suburbs.

Dozens of worried Sydneysiders shared their concerns, with one asking, 'Why are there no trees?'

'Because developers are too cheap to landscape and allow green spaces, less green space more houses,' another replied.

Penrith in Sydney's west, was the hottest place on earth on January 4, 2020, reaching 48.9C

Residents in Penrith are seen cooling down in the Nepean River after temperatures soared above 40C in January, 2020, during a horror bushfire season

'I used to take my child to a GP in Marsden park. Summer about three years ago I was driving him home from the GP and the car temperature gauge was 50C,' one said.

'Gregory Hills in [south-west] Sydney is the same. The new development at Menangle has white roofs. But still no extra trees planted,' another wrote.

Mr Austin said the combination of black rooves, kilometres of asphalt, and a lack of greenery had created the urban 'heat islands' in western Sydney.

He told news.com.au that while trees and grass can absorb the heat of the sun, fake grass and 'non-permeable surfaces like concrete and roofing... spit it back out'.

NSW's Young Planner of the Year said black rooves were purely at 'decorative choice' but were in fact at least six degrees hotter than a white roof.

The urban planner said the lack of vegetation meant there was less water in the atmosphere which in turn hindered efforts to cool the concrete environment.

More than three years later, extreme heat remains a significant concern for residents in western Sydney who already experience temperatures up to eight to 10 degrees hotter than those residing in the eastern suburbs (pictured: construction at Marsden Park)

Mr Austin said the combination of black rooves, kilometres of asphalt, and a lack of greenery had created dangerous 'urban heat islands' in western Sydney (pictured: Marsden Park)

Mr Austin said living in western Sydney were traditionally residents who were more socioeconomically disadvantaged than those in other parts of the city.

He said these 'vulnerable' people would be copping higher energy bills as a result of trying to remain cool during the upcoming summer months.

The construction of developments identical to those in Marsden Park began after the previous Liberal government announced specific 'urban release areas'.

The sprawling developments in greater western Sydney have seemingly offered the NSW government a short-term solution to its growing housing crisis.

Mr Austin said there were several low-cost solutions to temper conditions on the 'heat islands' including more vegetation, white instead of black rooves and ensuring there was enough space to plant mature trees that could provide shade.

Sobering modelling by the Australia Institute in 2022 revealed western Sydney is on track to experience five times the number of extreme heat days a year if something is not done to curb emissions.

The report found that in a high-emissions scenario Penrith could face up to 58 days or two months of extreme heat in a year.
A Met Police sergeant sexually assaulted a stranger in the sea at Brighton on his stag night would have been dismissed if he had not resigned from the force.

Laurence 'Larry' Knight, 34, carried out the attack after his group were entertained by strippers at their AirBnb in the Sussex resort.

Knight met the 21-year-old victim in Brighton town centre on July 17, 2021, while social distancing rules were still in place due to Covid-19. They headed for the sea and were treading water together when Knight complained he was having a 'rubbish night' and was meant to enjoying himself.

Former Oxford University student Knight moved her underwear to one side and touched her intimately after she told him: 'You're getting married in two weeks'.

Laurence 'Larry' Knight, 34, carried out the attack after his group were entertained by strippers at their AirBnb in the Sussex resort

The police sergeant, who was based at Stoke Newington police station in north London at the time, denied rape and sexual assault. He was convicted of sexual assault and cleared of rape. The former royalty protection officer was jailed for two years.

A Met Police misconduct panel found that the officer had breached professional behaviour standards and would have been kicked out of the force if he had not resigned following his conviction.

Chief Superintendent Peter Gardner, responsible for Met Detention, said: 'Knight's actions were thoroughly reprehensible and I recognise his behaviour would have further damaged the public's trust in the police.

'The commissioner has been clear that there is no place in the Met for officers who corrupt our integrity. Knight was suspended as soon as his offending came to light and had he not resigned he would have been dismissed with immediate effect.'

Knight met the 21-year-old victim in Brighton town centre on July 17, 2021, while social distancing rules were still in place due to Covid-19

Summing up a victim impact statement Maryam Syed, prosecuting, said: 'She had to seek counselling much of which she had to fund herself.

'She has suffered fear, she has suffered anxiety, she has suffered some very dark thoughts over the course of this matter. Taken together, if this is not deemed severe psychological harm, what would be.'

Ms Syed had referenced the cases of the former Met firearm officers, serial rapist David Carrick and killer cop Wayne Couzens when she said they are 'charged with upholding the law and are empowered to do so.'

Knight, who studied chemistry at Balliol College, Oxford, admitted he pulled the woman's bikini bottoms to one side but said he stopped when he realised what he was doing was wrong.

He insisted there was 'no way' he could have penetrated her during the encounter.

Knight, of Leyton, east London, denied rape and sexual assault. He was found guilty of sexual assault and cleared of rape.
Harry and Meghan enjoyed a date night out in Montecito to celebrate the Duchess' birthday - a day after the couple made their first public appearance together in months.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were seen in good spirits, smiling and laughing, as they were pictured leaving the trendy Italian restaurant Tre Lune, a favourite among A listers including Kourtney Kardashian and Ellen DeGeneres.

It is the first time the couple have been seen in public together amid mounting speculation about their future in Hollywood and rumoured strains behind the scenes.

Meghan, who turns 42 today, looked glamorous wearing a strapless column-style black and white Posse dress, priced at 188, paired with her beloved Cult Gaia bag and flat strappy black sandals. The Prince accompanied her wearing a linen blue shirt and white trousers on Wednesday night.

The pair entered the popular eatery, where musician Travis Barker was spotted earlier that night, and they were joined by their good friend Matt Cohen, husband of the Duchess of Sussex's friend of many years Heather Dorak.

It is the Californian-based royals' second public appearance within days, after weeks of not being seen together, showing the pair are determined to present a united front and combat swirling rumours about strains behind the scenes.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were spotted leaving the trendy Montecito restaurant of Tre Lune, on the eve of the Duchesses 42nd birthday

The pair, who made their first public appearance together in months on Wednesday night, seemed in good spirits as they left the eatery

Meghan looked glamorous wearing a strapless black and white Posse dress, priced at 188, paired with her beloved Cult Gaia bag and flat strappy black sandals

Tre Lune is a popular restaurant in Montecito that is frequented by Kourtney Kardashian and her husband Travis Baker, among other A-listers

The Tre Lune restaurant where Harry and Meghan were spotted on a date night as the duchess celebrated her 42nd birthday

The mains at the Italian restaurant range from 33 to 51

The group appeared to have a laugh over an inside joke as they walked to the car

Meghan is then seen smiling and talking to someone as she walks towards the car waiting for them

The trio looked relaxed as they left the trendy Italian restaurant

Meghan looked glamorous leaving the restaurant in a striped strapless maxi dress

The celeb friendly restaurant is one of Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Baker's favorites

A source told The Sun: 'There hasn't been any outreach to them.'

Meals at the Italian restaurant range from $24 (19) to $61 (48). Italian-lovers can also choose from 24 different pasta and risotto meals, while an array of meat and fish dishes on offer, from salmon fillets $44 (37) to filet mignon steak $65 (55).

Photographs show the couple walking out of the restaurant front, before Meghan is seen pointing at something in the distance. They then jump in a car that appears to have been waiting for them.

The Duchess kept her jewellery simple for the outing, opting to go without any necklaces in order to allow her decolletage to remain on full display in the strapless dress design. She chose chunky gold hoop earrings, as well as a stack of bracelets on one wrist, to add a bit of sparkle, however.

This included her favorite $5,427 Cartier Love bracelet and what appeared to be her 3,736 Jennifer Meyer Gold Mini Bezel Tennis Bracelet.

The pair have been faced with mounting speculation about their future in Hollywood, after their deal with audio giant Spotify was axed and one their planned Netflix shows was quietly dropped.

Their celebratory outing comes after the couple appeared to combat their falling popularity and quash any negative rumours by appearing in a happy two-minute, 40 second clip released on Wednesday.

They were seen surprising US recipients of the first Responsible Technology Youth Power Fund (RTYPF) grants with phone calls to congratulate them. Their Archwell Foundation is a founding member of the initiative that will help fund 26 youth-led projects.

Harry, 38, also mentioned their children Archie, four, and Lilibet, two, telling one winner in a call: 'Thank you for doing everything that you do. Our kids especially are incredibly grateful.' Meghan then added: 'They don't know it yet, but they will!'

The Sussexes are thought to be in danger of losing millions after their lucrative Spotify deal was axed and further concerns were raised over the future of their Netflix deal.

Further questions were raised over the future projects of 'Brand Sussex' after Hollywood powerhouse Jeremy Zimmer dismissed Meghan as 'not a great audio talent, or necessarily any kind of talent'.

The dismissal followed the scathing remarks made by one of Spotify's podcast chiefs, who branded the couple 'f***ing grifters'.

The Californian-based royals once again put on a united front despite a series of swirling rumours

Meghan is seen pointing into the distance as she leaves the boutique restaurant

The pair were joined at the popular eatery by their good friend Matt Cohen, husband of the Duchess of Sussex's friend of many years Heather Dorak

Their celebratory outing comes after the couple appeared to combat their falling popularity and quash any negative rumours by appearing in a happy two-minute, 40 second clip released on Wednesday

The Duke and Duchess have been plagued by a series of rumours since their last public appearance in May

Sources close to the couple insisted they were both 'fine' despite becomingly increasingly 'fed up' by the rumour mill, adding that the pair were determined to make their move to America a success.

The Duke and Duchess have been plagued by a series of gossip-fueled claims since their last public appearance in May.

The pair had been at an awards ceremony in New York but ended chaotically with opposing reports that they were chased by paparazzi through the city.

One suggestion was that the couple had stepped back from joint projects and were instead focusing on solo ventures.

The rumour came after Meghan was signed to power agency William Morris Endeavor, and Harry, 38, working on a Netflix series with a trip to Botswana.

The couple have since become increasingly irritated by the speculation swirling around them.

One source told OK! Magazine: 'The Sussexes' marriage is fine,' adding that unfounded online snipes had stemmed from Harry's upcoming solo trip to Africa.

'That's a work trip. It's not a sign of trouble.'

Similarly, an 'insider' told PageSix last month that the rumours were categorically 'not true. It's literally made up'.

Others close to the Californian-based royals said that their struggle to make a mark on Hollywood and have their new careers take off was simply a result of 'growing pains'.

The pair signed multi-million-pound deals with both Spotify and Netflix after moving across the pond in 2020, but these since stagnated.

Meals at the Italian restaurant range from $24 (19) to $61 (48). First course options include antipasto della casa (cold cuts, grilled vegetables, cheese and olives) at $28, bruschetta and asparagus at $20 and calamari alla griglia salad at $32

Meghan appeared to jump in the car first before the two men accompanied her in the back seat

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were set up to fail by Spotify and were 'given no formal lay of the land', insiders claimed

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex's lucrative Spotify project was pulled last month after they produced one 12-episode podcast and a festive special over three years

Sources close to the duchess were also at pains to say that she was looking to take her Archetypes series to another streaming platform

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex's lucrative Spotify project was dramatically pulled last month after they produced one 12-episode podcast and a festive special over three years.

The couple also reportedly did not produce enough content to receive the full pay-out from the reported 18million deal they signed after stepping down as senior working royals.

But sources have said that the deal ended early because there was too much 'red tape' and they were 'given no formal lay of the land', which set them up to fail.

There were claims that the couple had 'lots of ideas and did pitch them' but none of them ever took off and 'things moved very slowly on both ends'.

One of those ideas, Bloomberg reported, was Harry's suggestion to interview 'controversial' guests such as Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump about their childhoods.

Another one of the Prince's ideas reportedly touted was to interview the Pope on fatherhood - despite not having children.

Meanwhile their Netflix docuseries Live to Lead failed to take off, while a Meghan-driven animation called Pearl, about a girl inspired by female leaders, was quietly dropped.

But an industry executive told People that there was still time for the couple to turn things around, adding: 'Has their final chapter been written? Absolutely not...Hollywood loves a comeback.'
Sunrise host Nat Barr has questioned Labor minister Jason Clare over a bold proposal to set aside some of a person's superannuation for their future aged-care costs.

In June, Aged Care Minister Anika Wells announced a task force would be set up to advise the federal government on how to get more funding into aged care.

Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones on Thursday said the task force would consider a range of funding options, but the nation needed to look at the possibility of some people being made to 'ring-fence' part of their superannuation to fund their care.

On Friday morning, Barr confronted Mr Clare about whether this proposal would be seriously considered by the government as a feasible option.

'So you would consider using a slice of a person's super to pay for the aged care costs?' she said.

'Well Nat this is an independent review,' the education minister responded.

'I'm doing the exact same thing with universities - appoint a bunch of experts, give us some advice, they report by the end of the year.'

'And we'll see the ideas they come up with and see if they're good, bad or indifferent.'

The pair agreed about the appalling state of aged-care in Australia which was revealed in the damning Royal Commission into the system.

'Half of aged-care centres can't even afford to operate, but is that something you look at and think, 'That's a good idea'?' Barr asked in reference to the Superannuation solution.

Mr Clare said he 'didn't want to interfere' in the process of the independent review.

'The whole point of an independent review is not for politicians to say what they like and what they don't like but get the expert advice, invite feedback from the community, and then politicians can look at it at the end of the year,' he said.

The education minister (pictured) said an independent review into Australia's aged-care system that was underway and he wasn't going to interfere with that process

The Aged and Community Care Providers Association, an industry group, has released an issues paper recommending that super savings be specifically set aside for aged care and withdrawn as a lump sum to pay for residential accommodation.

READ MORE: Radical plan to 'ring fence' super for aged care The Aged and Community Care Providers Association, an industry group, has released an issues paper recommending that super savings be specifically set aside for aged care and withdrawn as a lump sum to pay for residential accommodation. 'An alternative could be a compulsory saving approach for which a proportion of superannuation guarantee contributions is ring-fenced to pay for aged care costs,' it said. The group's chief executive Tom Symondson, who is a member of the government's Aged Care Taskforce, said 'those with the means should be asked to pay for' accommodation and lifestyle expenses. 'We want to see a system that encourages use of superannuation as it was intended,' he said. The issues paper also suggested an inheritance tax be charged to a deceased estate for 'superannuation if it is not used for retirement as intended'. Advertisement

'An alternative could be a compulsory saving approach for which a proportion of superannuation guarantee contributions is ring-fenced to pay for aged care costs,' it said.

The group's chief executive Tom Symondson, who is a member of the government's Aged Care Taskforce, said 'those with the means should be asked to pay for' accommodation and lifestyle expenses.

'We want to see a system that encourages use of superannuation as it was intended,' he said.

The issues paper also suggested an inheritance tax be charged to a deceased estate for 'superannuation if it is not used for retirement as intended'.

The association also called for a Medicare levy increase to fund aged care, up from the existing two per cent level, as one of several 'future funding options' including higher taxes or a new social insurance scheme.

The Medicare levy was increased from 1.5 per cent in July 2014 to fund the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

Wealthier retirees could also be called upon to top up their super to fund their aged care, even though compulsory employer contributions rose by 0.5 percentage points to 11 per cent on July 1.

'For those who can afford it, there should be consideration of increased consumer co-contributions in aged care for accommodation and lifestyle expenses, which people have funded throughout their lives,' the paper said.

The Royal Commission into aged care in March 2021 recommended minimum staffing levels to address sub-standard care issues, and Labor went to the 2022 election promising to have an on-call nurse on duty at all times within a year.

'The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety acknowledged that current financing arrangements for aged care are not well designed to support a sustainable system into the future,' the paper said.

'Older Australians deserve better.'

The Aged and Community Care Providers Association has released an issues paper recommending that super savings be specifically set aside for aged care and withdrawn as a lump sum to pay for residential accommodation (stock image)

The association argued the existing funding model for aged care, based on general taxation revenue, wasn't working despite the Department of Health and Aged Care receiving special appropriations funding of $31.154billion in 2022-23, compared with $14.441billion for Defence.

The federal government's May Budget also set aside $11.3billion over four years to fund a 15 per cent increase in aged care worker wages July 1.

Ms Wells in June established a 16-member aged care taskforce, to meet monthly in 2023, after aged care groups raised concerns about meeting new staffing requirements.

Former New South Wales Liberal premier Mike Baird and former Labor deputy premier John Watkins, who are now both health and aged care executives, are on this panel.

The details come a month after Australia's top performing super funds during the previous financial year were revealed in new data.

These funds delivered double-digit returns in a big turnaround from 2022.
Idaho quadruple murder suspect Bryan Kohberger's legal team have claimed he had a habit of 'going for drives alone at night' and did so on the night of the killings.

The 28-year-old is accused of fatally stabbing students Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, at their home in Moscow, Idaho, in the early hours of November 13 last year.

His trial is currently set for October and prosecutors have said they would be seeking the death penalty, as well recently filing a motion to force him to reveal an alibi.

In a new motion filed by his defense after the state requested alibi from him, his lawyers said: 'Mr. Kohberger has long had a habit of going for drives alone.

'Often he would go for drives at night. He did so late on November 12 and into November, 13, 2022.'

Kohberger's legal team has said that he had a habit of going for drives alone and did so on the night of the murders, he is pictured here on June 27

Kohberger is accused of fatally stabbing students Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, at their home in Moscow, Idaho

New Bryan Kohberger motion. His defense is fighting the state's request he give an alibi at this stage.

Motion:

"Mr. Kohberger has long had a habit of going for drives alone. Often he would go for drives at night. He did so late on November 12 and into November 13, 2022." pic.twitter.com/CTJNGrXpOG  Brian Entin (@BrianEntin) August 3, 2023

The motion continues: 'Mr Kohberger is not claiming to be at a specific location at a specific time.

'At this time there is not a specific witness to say precisely where Mr. Kohberger was at each moment of the hours between late night November 12 and early morning November 13.'

It also states: 'Corroboration of Bryan Kohberger NOT being at 1122 King may be brought out through cross-examination of the states witnesses.

'At this time, Mr. Kohberger cannot be more specific about the possible witnesses and exactly what they will say.'

Prior to the new motion, his defense filed a motion to dismiss the case, demanding the case be thrown out or remanded for a preliminary hearing.

His legal team also filed a request to halt proceedings without waiving his right to a speedy trial in an attempt to challenge the jury selection process.

Both sets of lawyers submitted motions demanding exhibits be sealed and kept from being relayed to the public during the trial.

Idaho law stipulates that defendants must submit an alibi defense to the court within ten days of a written demand from the prosecuting attorney.

Kohberger's defense filed a motion to dismiss, demanding the case be thrown out or remanded for a preliminary hearing

Kohberger was pulled over by Indiana State Police on December 15 - but cops didn't have information that he was a suspect in the student murders

Police bodycam footage captured the moment Kohberger's sedan was stopped on I-70 outside of Indianapolis last December following the murders.

Idaho cops had first appealed for information on a white Hyundai Elantra a week before the traffic stop.

Kohberger was eventually arrested on December 30 at his parents' house in Pennsylvania.

Last month, his team filed a separate defense suggesting that DNA linking him to the knife sheath may have been planted.

They wrote: 'What the State's argument asks this Court and Mr. Kohberger to assume is that the DNA on the sheath was placed there by Mr. Kohberger, and not someone else during an investigation that spans hundreds of members of law enforcement and apparently at least one lab the State refuses to name.'

A criminal affidavit that was filed in January, shortly after Kohberger was arrested, says that DNA matching the suspect's was found on a knife sheath recovered at the crime scene close to the bodies of Mogen and Goncalves.

The house in Moscow, Idaho, where Kohberger is said to have slaughtered four students

Investigators later closely matched the DNA on the sheath to DNA found in trash taken from Kohberger's parents' home in Pennsylvania, where he was arrested in December.

Sources say the sheath found at the scene belonged to a seven-inch utility knife, which is traditionally used as a hunting tool for chopping firewood or cutting wire and rope. That knife has not been found.

Kohberger is scheduled to stand trial on October 2.
Dianne Feinstein's daughter Katherine now has power of attorney over her mother's affairs - as the ailing 90-year-old refuses to relinquish her California Senate seat.

It's not clear when Feinstein handed over power of attorney to her daughter, Katherine. The younger Feinstein filed a lawsuit on behalf of her mother in mid-July, according to a San Francisco Chronicle report.

A new New York Times report detailed the messy legal dispute that is currently pitting Feinstein and her daughter, 66, against her late wealthy husband Richard Blum's three children.

The Feinsteins are at odds with Blum's three daughters over access to Blum's life insurance policy - which the senator says she needs to pay for her growing health insurance bills. Feinstein is covered by Medicare and the DC Health Link, which provides health plans for members of Congress.

They are also dueling over Feinstein's desire to sell a beach house in a ritzy neighborhood in Stinson Beach, north of San Francisco.

Dianne Feinstein's daughter Katherine now has power of attorney over her mother's affairs - as the ailing 90-year-old refuses to relinquish her California Senate seat

Katherine Feinstein has already filed two suits her mother's two co-trustees. The first lawsuit states that the beach house Senator Feinstein wants to sell is in disrepair and she no longer wants to use it and that she wants to sell it in the summer or fall.

The second lawsuit claims Blum's life insurance policy has been held back by other trustees.

Feinstein, 90, was born in 1933 and has held her seat in the Senate representing California for nearly 31 years.

Her reputation has begun to sour as the ailing senator clings to power despite apparent cognitive decline and absence that led to a backlog of judge confirmations through the Judiciary Committee.

Last week Feinstein had to be told to 'just say aye' when voting for a defense bill during an Armed Services markup.

When she was supposed to vote 'aye' or 'nay,' she instead launched into a bizarre diatribe.

'I would like to support a 'yes' vote on this. It provides $823 billion ...' she said. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., leaned over and whispered, 'just say aye.'

'Aye,' Feinstein said.

Feinstein held up judicial confirmations that could not move forward without her vote on the split Judiciary Committee for over two months.

After her sick leave, Feinstein returned to the Capitol in May looking noticeably thinner and frail, about ten weeks after being diagnosed with and being briefly hospitalized for shingles in San Francisco.

Feinstein returned with vision and balance impairments as well as facial paralysis known as Ramsay Hunt syndrome in addition to encephalitis, a brain infection.

She is the fifth-oldest person to serve in the Senate. Strom Thurmond, the segregationist Democrat-turned-Republican, was the oldest and longest-serving senator ever: he was 100 when he retired in January 2003 after 48 years in office.

She is also one of the wealthiest: Feinstein is worth an estimated $58 million, according to the Los Angeles Times. She was married to investment banker Richard Blum from 1980 until his death in 2022.

Feinstein, whose groundbreaking political career shattered gender barriers from San Francisco's City Hall to the corridors of Capitol Hill, announced in February that she would not seek reelection.

Three House Democrats have already lined up to try to replace her: Reps. Barbara Lee, Katie Porter and Adam Schiff. Businessman Eric Early is running on the Republican side.
The family of an allegedly murdered schoolgirl has asked for any donations from the community to go towards the funeral home that has assisted them during their grief.

Police have now officially confirmed the body found in bushland in Tasmania belonged to 14-year-old Shyanne-Lee Tatnell.

She was last seen on CCTV footage walking east along Henry Street, in Launceston, about 8.30pm on April 30.

Christopher Jordan, a complete stranger to Shyanne-Lee's family, was charged with her murder last Thursday.

A GoFundMe was set up by loved ones which stated Shyanne-Lee's heartbroken family did not want flowers or gifts.

Police have now officially confirmed the body found in bushland in Tasmania belonged to 14-year-old Shyanne-Lee Tatnell (pictured, Shyanne-Lee with her mother, Bobbi-Lee Ketchell)

'As the family does not wish to receive anything but expressions of condolence, it is important to them for members of the public who have been involved in showing their compassion that they have an opportunity to show their gratitude to services who have also gifted compassion,' the fundraiser read.

A spokesperson for Parkside Funerals, where Shyanne-Lee will be farewelled, told Daily Mail Australia any funds donated are going directly to the family instead.

'The fundraiser had been put up without the family consulting us and it sounded like the funds were coming directly to us,' they said

'The money will help with the funeral costs and what not, but the majority is going directly to the family. It was nice of them to thank us but we don't have anything to do with it other than assisting the family.'

Farmer Christopher Jordan, 36, (pictured) has been charged over the alleged murder

So far, $2,235 has been raised.

On Monday afternoon Tasmanian Police formally identified Shyanne-Lee's remains through DNA testing.

Police will allege Jordan came across Shyanne-Lee on the night she vanished before taking her to his Scottsdale property where he murdered her, before later dumping her body 24km away in remote bushland.

The shocking allegations have rocked the small, tight-knit communities in the state's north - including Shyanne-Lee's hometown, Burnie - as both the teenager's family and residents nervously spent the past few months hoping she would safely return home.

Tasmania Police confirmed on Monday the remains found belonged to the 14-year-old

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia outside the family's Burnie home on Saturday, Shyanne-Lee's stepfather Nathan Spurr confirmed the alleged attack appeared to be random.

He told Daily Mail Australia neither he, Shyanne-Lee's mother Bobbi-Lee Ketchell, nor the rest of the family knew of Jordan before his arrest.

Police are yet to reveal whether they believe Shyanne-Lee had any prior interactions with Jordan before they allegedly crossed paths in the moments after she was last seen.

Jordan briefly appeared in Launceston Magistrates Court last Friday and did not enter a plea to one count of murder.

He has been remanded in custody and is expected to next appear in court on August 16.
A South Carolina detective who was first at the scene of the June 2021 Murdaugh murders has lost his three-year-old daughter after his SUV collided into a tree.

Detective Sgt. Daniel Greene was off-duty at the time of the single vehicle horror crash which took place at about 11:30am on Sunday.

CARE Flight med-e-vaced his daughter, Carter, for medical treatment to a nearby hospital where she was later pronounced deceased as a result of her injuries.

Greene, his wife, Jennifer, and another child were also taken to hospital for severe, non-life threatening injuries, according to Colleton County Sheriff's Office.

Carter had been the daughter of the officer and his previous partner Ashley Taylor Greene, who posted a heartbreaking tribute to her daughter: 'My beautiful, sweet baby girl. My perfect Angel. I miss you so so much.'

Detective Sgt. Daniel Greene was off-duty when he slammed into a tree killing his three-year-old daughter and injuring himself, his new wife and another child

Greene later testified in the Murdaugh trial and helped convict Alex of the brutal slayings of his wife Maggie and son Paul

There has not been a condition update for Greene, Jennifer and the other child, who remains anonymous, however, Jennifer was seen posting online a few days after the incident.

'Words will never be enough to describe the pain we feel in our hearts, please continue to pray for our family, especially Daniel and Ashley! I will always love this sweet little princess!!' Jennifer wrote in reference to Carter.

Greene has remained silent in the wake of the tragedy. His previous partner Ashley, however, posted a heart wrenching video and picture as she mourned the loss.

In the picture, Carter can be seen running into Ashley's arms in the Facebook post captioned: 'I'll never understand why you had to leave us, or how we're supposed to live this life without you. I am so lost without you and I am so angry.

'This will never make sense to me. You were taken from me way too soon. God knows I need you here. I just wish I could hear you say 'I love you more' one more time, and give you all the bear hugs in the world.

'I don't know a world without you. You are the most beautiful miracle God could have ever given me, the absolute best thing that has ever been mine. Mama loves you more, princess.'

Greene has remained silent in the wake of the tragedy. His previous partner Ashley, however, posted a heart wrenching video and picture as she mourned the loss

A video also posted alongside the image reveals the doting mother arguing about who loves the other more.

'I love you more,' says Ashley to Carter who giggles, 'No, I love you more.'

On Greene's Facebook, a description which reads 'Dad/Superhero to the greatest little girl' can be found alongside images of his beloved daughter.

Tributes from family and friends poured out for the toddler who will have a visitation on Saturday and funeral service on Sunday.

'Little Miss Carter Alivia Greene, at the age of 3, left this world with a heart full of love on Sunday afternoon, July 30, 2023, at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston,' an obituary made by the family read.

There has not been a condition update for Greene (right), Jennifer (pictured far left) and the other child, who remains anonymous, however, Jennifer was seen posting online a few days after the incident

Born February 17, 2020, it goes on to say that 'she stole the hearts of everyone that she encountered.'

'She had a smile that could never be forgotten and she began each day as her favorite princess, which was herself.

'She will always be remembered for her love of bubbles and that Edisto Beach was her favorite place to be.'

She was a rising star at the Colleton Preparatory Academy and was a part of the school's 'Teeny Hawks' cheer group.

The South Carolina Highway Patrol are investigating the incident.

Greene made headlines as one of the first responding officers at the scene of savage killings at the hands of Alex Murdaugh, who was this year convicted of the murders of his wife Maggie, 52, and son Paul 22.

Bodycam footage shows the moment in which Greene arrives at the Murdaugh family estate at Moselle coming face-to-face with Alex in the wake of the shootings.

Greene later testified and helped convict Alex of the brutal slayings.

In a horrifying 911 call, Murdaugh told the dispatcher through sobs: 'I can tell [Paul's] shot in the head and he's shot really bad... He's got blood everywhere. I can see his brains.'

He went on to describe how his wife was lying down nearby, telling the dispatcher 'she's got a hole in her head.'

Murdaugh told the dispatcher his son 'has been being threatened for months and months and months'.

During the trial, Greene, told jurors he could not see any blood on Murdaugh and although he appeared upset, he did not see any tears either.

Murdaugh sounded lucid as the officer questioned him and is even heard casually greeting an officer arriving on the scene, saying: 'How ya doin?'

Greene, who said he saw multiple tire tracks incompatible with the number of vehicles at the hunting lodge, admitted that he did not photograph the tracks or footprints at the scene at the time.

He said he did not inform SLED (state law enforcement) about the evidence because it was 'not part of my job description.'

Alex Murdaugh pictured with his wife Maggie and their two sons Paul (left) and Buster

Murdaugh claimed he had been visiting his elderly mother who suffers from Alzheimer's and arrived home to find Maggie and Paul dead near the estate's dog kennels

Greene also showed jurors a shotgun Murdaugh had been holding when he arrived - he secured the weapon in his patrol car because the defendant appeared 'upset and anxious.'

Greene said that as he approached Murdaugh his 'immediate reaction was to start telling me about his son - about a boating accident.' At the time of his death, Paul was facing trial for the drunken boat crash which killed Mallory Beach.

The trial took place at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, a sleepy, rural town 50 miles west of Charleston in a low-lying region of South Carolina over which the Murdaugh family wielded immense judicial and political power.

Alex Murdaugh is serving two consecutive life sentences and faces additional proceedings for a litany of other financial crimes that unraveled from the murders.
A leading health expert has revealed the terrifying effects of vaping on teens after a school student in Victoria became the latest victim of e-cigarettes.

The 13-year-old student at Bannockburn P-12 College, north-west of Geelong, was rushed to hospital after collapsing in a school bathroom on Thursday morning.

The incident has prompted health experts to issue an urgent plea to children, particularly teenagers, to ditch vapes or face lasting damage to their bodies.

Young vapers have been warned of the potentially deadly side effects after a 13-year-old collapsed in a bathroom at a Victorian school on Thursday after smoking the e-cigarette

Dr Sandro Demaio, the CEO of VicHealth, told 3AW vapes can be deadly.

'They can cause seizure, confusion [and] vomiting,' Dr Demaio said.

'We are seeing the rise of vaping triggering asthma attacks, [which are] very, very serious and can be a fatal condition in young people,' he said.

Vapes contain toxic chemicals that are found in products such as paint thinners, rat poison. and batteries.

According to VicHealth, there are more than 200 dangerous chemicals inside vapes, which enter the lungs when inhaled.

Dr Sandro Demaio of VicHealth warned vaping can cause seizures, confusion and vomiting, as well as asthma attacks, which can be deadly, particularly among children and teens

There are grave concerns over the growing addiction to vapes with some young users even drinking the vape juice in the e-cigarettes.

'We saw a doubling of notifications to the poisons hotline in NSW last year as the result of toddlers actually drinking what looks and smells like something tasty...,' Dr Demaio said.

It comes after a recent study found young men who vaped were at risk of developing erectile dysfunction.

The study published by the American Journal of Preventive Medicine in November 2021 found healthy men aged 20 to 65 years old were twice as likely experience the condition.

Australia's leading urologist Dr Christopher Love told Daily Mail Australia vaping has long-term impacts on men's sexual health.

'Vaping fits into that group of things that we think should not be done if you want to keep yourself healthy into the future,' he said.

Health experts have issued an urgent plea for teens to ditch vapes, which contain toxic chemicals found in paint thinner and rat poison

Dr Love explained nicotine was already known to impact sexual performance, adding that vaping was exposing men to the problem on a far wider scale.

'That's why cigarette smoking is bad for erections. Vapes have that, let alone the other chemicals we still don't know about,' he said.

It comes after the federal government announced in May it would crack down on the use of vapes purchased at convenience stores across Australia.

Health Minister Mark Butler said new laws would be introduced, which would only allow Aussies to purchase vapes in plain packaging with a prescription at pharmacies.

There is a major push to regulate vapes, with Mr Butler also considering a ban on disposable and single-use cigarettes as part of a tougher stance on the harmful products.
The Government is turning to private healthcare firms in a bid to cut NHS waiting lists, in what has been dubbed the biggest expansion of the sector since the Blair era.

As waiting lists for routine checkups soar to 7.47million, ministers plan to open 13 new community diagnostic centres (CDCs) across England to carry out an additional 742,000 scans, checks and tests per year.

Eight of the new facilities will be operated by the private sector - although services will be free to patients - and five will be run by the NHS.

Health Secretary Steve Barclay said: 'We must use every available resource to deliver life-saving checks to ease pressure on the NHS.

'By making use of the available capacity in the independent sector, and enabling patients to access this diagnostic capacity free at the point of need, we can offer patients a wider choice of venues to receive treatment and in doing so diagnose major illnesses quicker and start treatments sooner.'

More than 7.47million patients in England - equal to one in eight people - were waiting for routine operations by the end of May - up by 56,700 in just one month

Junior doctors on strike at a picket outside UCL Hospital in London on July 13

Figures released last month revealed NHS waiting lists stood at 7.47 million at the end of May, the highest number since records began in 2007.

Private centres will operate similarly to their NHS counterparts, the Government said, but staff will be employed by private operators, which also own the buildings.

Sites in the South West - located in Redruth, Bristol, Torbay, Yeovil and Weston Super Mare - will be operated by diagnostics company InHealth.

Other private facilities will also be located in Southend, Northampton and south Birmingham and join four already operating in Brighton, north Solihull, Oxford and Salford.

The new NHS-run sites are in Hornchurch, Skegness, Lincoln, Nottingham and Stoke-on-Trent.

The Government pledged to open 160 CDCs by 2030. There are currently 114 operating, which have carried out 4.6 million tests, checks and scans since July 2021.

A number of other measures to use capacity in the private sector have been outlined by the Elective Recovery Taskforce, which was set up in December.

These include using data from private health providers to identify where they could take on more NHS patients to help clear backlogs. They will also look at using the private sector to train junior NHS staff.

Health minister and Elective Recovery Taskforce chair Will Quince added: 'We have already made significant progress in bringing down waiting lists, with 18 month waits virtually eliminated.

'I chaired the Elective Recovery Taskforce to turbocharge these efforts and help patients get the treatment they need.

'These actions will bolster capacity across the country and give patients more choice over where and when they are treated.'

David Hare, chief executive of the Independent Healthcare Provider Network, who participated in the taskforce, said the plans represent 'a real, significant step forward to unlocking more of the capital, capacity and capability of the independent sector'.

Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting, said: 'The Conservatives are failing to make use of private sector capacity and patients are paying the price'

Junior doctor members of the British Medical Association on the picket line outside St Thomas' Hospital in London on July 13, at the start of a five-day strike amid the continuing dispute over pay

Ambulances took an average of 36 minutes and 49 seconds to respond to category two calls, such as burns, epilepsy and strokes. This is twice as long as the 18 minute target and more than four minutes longer than one month earlier

In May, fewer than six in 10 cancer patients (58.7 per cent) were seen within two months of an urgent GP referral to their first treatment. The NHS target states the figure should be 85 per cent

Health bosses were forced to cancel 108,602 appointments and operations when junior doctors withdrew care for three days in June, including from cancer wards and A&E. It took the total number of postponements as a result of strike action by the likes of junior doctors, nurses, and physiotherapists to 651,232 since December

A source close to the plans told The Telegraph: 'This isnt just about setting up private clinics which operate purely for NHS patients.

'That is the start of it, but the intention is something far more ambitious, to squeeze much more out of the independent sector so that supply and demand can be matched in real time.'

However, Labour said the Government is currently not making enough use of private capacity.

The party claims 331,000 patients waiting for NHS care could have been treated since January 2022.

Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting, said: 'The Conservatives are failing to make use of private sector capacity and patients are paying the price.

'No-one should be waiting in pain while hospital beds that could be used lie empty. The next Labour government will use spare capacity in the private sector to get patients seen faster.'

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak vowed to bring waiting lists down earlier this year, but last month he said industrial action across the NHS is making the task 'more challenging'.

Junior doctors are currently preparing for another four-day strike on August 11 in their ongoing row with the Government over pay, with consultants set to walk out for 48 hours on August 24.

On Wednesday, Rishi Sunak blamed swelling NHS waiting lists on strike action by medics.

The Prime Minister blamed industrial action by doctors and nurses for the fact that the number of people waiting has risen by 700,000 since he took power.

He clashed with a junior doctor live on a radio phone-in, saying that they were being unrealistic with their pay demands.

Last month those in England took part in the longest strike in NHS history - five consecutive days - in pursuit of an inflation-busting 35 per cent pay rise. It followed months of walkouts by nurses and ambulance staff.

After LBC presenter Nick Ferrari said the waiting list was 7.2 million when Mr Sunak came into office, the Prime Minister added: 'Yeah, and now it's 7.9 (million) give or take.

'But if you look at what happened Nick, I'll just be totally honest with everybody, if you look at what happened we were actually making progress, we eliminated the number of two-year waiters - people waiting a really long time - we practically eliminated the number of people waiting one-and-a-half years, and we were making progress on bringing the overall numbers down.

'What happened? We had industrial action, we've got strikes.'

The Prime Minister blamed industrial action by doctors and nurses for the fact that the number of people waiting has risen by 700,000 since he took power.

Last week those in England took part in the longest strike in NHS history - five consecutive days - in pursuit of an inflation-busting 35 per cent pay rise.

More than 700,000 NHS appointments have been cancelled since strikes began seven months ago. In the latest five-day walkout by junior doctors, more than 100,000 were called off

Last month's strike saw tens of thousands of operations and appointments cancelled as a result of the British Medical Association (BMA) action, with A&E and cancer wards affected by the action.

His claim was given short shrift by a doctor working in accident and emergency.

Junior doctor Olivia from Newcastle told him during the call-in: 'I think it's amazing we're blaming the increase in waiting lists on doctors going on strike, you're losing staff because we are undervalued and it's not just doctors, it's everyone, we're all leaving.

'A happy workforce is your responsibility. You're the Prime Minister, you're the Government, your staff aren't happy - that's your fault.

'And ultimately that's not good for patients because retaining staff is one of the bedrocks of making sure you have good patient safety.'

Mr Sunak had argued junior doctors and consultants were to blame for not accepting pay deals: 'That's what's causing the waiting lists to go up, I don't think that's right.

'I would say to them I'm very grateful and respectful of the incredible job you do, but we all have a shared mission to bring the waiting lists down.'
Students in Florida can no longer study for Advanced Placement (AP) psychology, after the group which administers the test withdrew it, saying the course could not be modified to fit the state's new laws against discussions of LGBTQ issues in class.

The College Board, which oversees tests such as the SAT, said they had been asked by Florida's authorities to sign an 'assurance document' that AP psychology, and other AP courses, met Florida laws and rules.

In March 2022, Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law 'Don't Say Gay', which forbids public school teachers from discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity in class.

The bill was initially only through third grade, but in April this year the Board of Education approved a ban on classroom instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity in all grades, at the request of DeSantis.

In May, Florida asked the College Board to review all its courses to make sure they comply with Florida law.

Ron DeSantis is pictured in March 2022, signing into law the Parental Rights in Education bill, known as 'Don't Say Gay', which forbids classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten-third grade. It was expanded this year for all students

Florida's GOP-dominated legislature passed the controversial 'Don't Say Gay' bill Tuesday, despite a swell of protests by students and LGBTQ activists rejecting the bill

The College Board said they would not sign Florida's 'assurance document', because it would mean having to drop the topics of sexual orientation and gender identity in their college-level psychology course.

As a result, it advised school districts not to make it part of their schedule for the coming school year.

In January, Florida banned AP African American Studies, arguing the class indoctrinates students to 'a political agenda.'

'As submitted, the course is a vehicle for a political agenda and leaves large, ambiguous gaps that can be filled with additional ideological material, which we will not allow,' said Bryan Griffin, DeSantis' press secretary.

Florida insisted on Thursday that they had not banned AP psychology, and accused the College Board of 'playing games'.

But multiple school districts were left scrambling to try and find replacement classes and help ambitious high school students who had intended on taking the college-level course.

Last year, 28,000 Florida students took AP psychology, and the course was offered at 562 different schools.

In 2021, Florida had the highest AP participation rate in the country, and was second only to Connecticut for the percentage of high school seniors who had passed at least one AP exam.

In 2022, Florida high school students took nearly 364,000 AP exams, according to College Board data cited by The Orlando Sentinel.

Multiple school districts confirmed they had dropped AP psychology after the College Board's announcement.

DeSantis in January blocked AP African American Studies in his state

Lake County schools will not offer AP psychology this year, said Sherri Owens, a spokesman, in an email to the paper.

Orange County Public Schools sent messages late on Thursday to parents of students enrolled in AP psychology, telling them the class cannot be offered because of 'select content' that isn't allowed by Florida rules.

They noted the 'College Board requires educators to teach the entire curriculum for an AP course for college credit.'

Schools in the district are 'working to identify alternative options for your child's schedule,' the message said.

Cassie Palelis, an education department spokeswoman, said it was not true the course was banned, because other 'advanced course providers,' such as the International Baccalaureate program, had 'no issue' with offering a college-level psychology course in Florida.

'The Department didn't 'ban' the course,' said Palelis.

'The course remains listed in Florida's Course Code Directory for the 2023-24 school year.

'We encourage the College Board to stop playing games with Florida students and continue to offer the course and allow teachers to operate accordingly.'

But the College Board said it advised districts not to offer the course because doing so would either break state law or, if altered, make the class incomplete.

'We are sad to have learned that today the Florida Department of Education has effectively banned AP Psychology in the state by instructing Florida superintendents that teaching foundational content on sexual orientation and gender identity is illegal under state law,' the College Board said in a statement.

'Therefore, we advise Florida districts not to offer AP Psychology until Florida reverses their decision and allows parents and students to choose to take the full course.'

Randi Weingarten, the head of one of the nation's biggest teachers' union, the AFT, condemned Florida's hardline policy

Weingarten said DeSantis was turning Florida into an 'embarrassment'

Anna Eskamani, a Democrat representing Orlando, called the state's stance on LGBTQ discussion a 'terrible decision' that is '100% politically motivated' and will hurt Florida students.

'As someone who graduated from Florida public schools with college credit via AP classes, I know how powerful and effective these classes are and I am sick to my stomach to see what Governor Ron DeSantis and the Republican Party are doing in our state,' she said in a statement.

Randi Weingarten, the head of one of the nation's biggest teachers' union, the AFT, condemned Florida's hardline policy.

AP psychology has been offered in the state since 1993.

'Sadly, it's all part of the DeSantis playbook of eroding rights, censoring those he disagrees with and undermining access to knowledge,' she said.

'Just this year, countless educators have been forced to remove or cover up their classroom libraries under threat of sanctions and jail, countless students have lost out because the governor ended AP African American studies, and now this assault on AP psychology.

'It's an unconscionable but far-from-surprising move from an extremist and increasingly unpopular leader who is fast becoming both a national pariah and a global embarrassment.'
More than $60million worth of cannabis has been seized by police following a massive drug bust on two rural Queensland farms.

Detectives from the Drug and Serious Crime Group charged 11 people on Friday and Saturday after searching properties in Coonambula and Mount Maria.

The raids were part of Operation Victor Alon, a long-term investigation into an alleged 'sophisticated criminal syndicate' using isolated properties in Queensland to grow commercial quantities of cannabis.

It's alleged the syndicate distributes its supply across Australia.

Last Friday, officers executed a search warrant on a property in Coonambula, 300km northwest of the Sunshine Coast in the state's North Burnett region.

Police arrested 11 people after finding greenhouses allegedly full of cannabis plants on two rural Queensland properties (pictured, the greenhouses at the Coonambula property)

It's alleged they discovered 11 greenhouses containing 4932 cannabis plants, including seedlings and fully grown plants, as well as dried and drying cannabis.

The drugs seized at the property have an estimated value of $24.7 million.

Officers also seized drug production equipment from the site.

Three Victorian men aged 30, 55 and 38 and a 41-year-old Bundaberg man were arrested.

They were charged with one count each of producing dangerous drugs, possessing dangerous drugs, possessing anything used in the commission of crime and possessing anything for use in the commission of crime.

The men have been remanded in custody and will face Bundaberg Magistrates Court on October 3.

A fifth man was arrested on Saturday after arriving at the property in a vehicle allegedly carrying more drug equipment.

Police allegedly seized more than $60million worth of cannabis during the busts on Friday and Saturday (pictured, cannabis growing inside one of the Mount Maria greenhouses)

It's alleged officers found 15 'sophisticated hydroponic purpose-built greenhouses' (above) on a property at Mount Maria

The 39-year-old Queensland man was charged with producing dangerous drugs and possessing anything for use in the commission of crime.

He was remanded in custody and is set to appear in Bundaberg Magistrates Court on August 24.

That Saturday officers also raided a property at Mount Maria, 113km south of Gladstone in Central Queensland.

It's alleged officers found 15 'sophisticated hydroponic purpose-built greenhouses', 6189 cannabis plants and 564.23kg of dried cannabis on the property.

They also allegedly found a large quantity of drug equipment and a small amount of cocaine.

The cannabis seized has an estimated value of $35.3 million.

Police allege six people working on the property ran from officers into nearby bushland and scrub and had to be tracked by the dog squad.

Police allege six people working on the Mount Maria property ran from officers into nearby bushland and scrub (pictured, police arresting one of the men)

It's alleged officers found 564.23kg of dried cannabis on the Mount Maria property (pictured, a room on the Mount Maria property)

Two Victorian men aged 48 and 45 and four men from New South Wales aged 28, 30, 38 and 26 were arrested.

They have been charged with two counts of possessing dangerous drugs and one count each of producing dangerous drugs, possessing anything for use in the commission of a crime, possessing anything used in the commission of a crime and possessing drug utensils.

The 28-year-old NSW man was remanded in custody and will face Bundaberg Magistrates Court on August 17.

The other five men were also remanded in custody, with their matters to be heard in Bundaberg Magistrates Court on October 3.

Drug and Serious Crime Group State Drug Squad Detective Inspector Bradley Phelps thanked members of the public for assisting in the significant bust.

Police allegedly found 11 greenhouses containing 4932 cannabis plants (some above) on the Coonambula property

The 11 men arrested have all be remanded in custody with drug charges (pictured, greenhouses on the Coonambula property)

'Information from the local community was vital in assisting us to investigate and successfully execute these warrants and seize cannabis with a combined value of $60million,' he said.

'While Queensland Police Service has a number of investigative methods, information from the public is crucial in helping us disrupt alleged criminal activity.

'We thank everyone who has provided us information and urge anyone who may know something, no matter how small, to come forward.'

Operation Victor Alon remains ongoing.
The City watchdog is to demand that major banks reveal how many accounts they have shut down and the reasons why so it can gauge the scale of 'unjustified' de-banking.

The Financial Conduct Authority last night said it would ask the largest banks and building societies to divulge the number of accounts terminated or denied and how many complaints they received about this.

Their assessment - set to be completed by mid-September - is being carried out in parallel with a review of the treatment of Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) such as politicians.

It came as SumUp, a major card reader provider, was criticised for revoking their financial services to a hunting group during their most prolific charity event.

In a letter to Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, the FCA's chief executive Nikhil Rathi said: 'We recognise the increased public concern about payment accounts being closed without justification.

In a letter to Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, the FCA's chief executive Nikhil Rathi (pictured) said: 'We recognise the increased public concern about payment accounts being closed without justification

'In recent years, we have seen a significant increase in the number of bank accounts being closed.

'It is less clear to which extent banks may be terminating accounts for reasons which may be unjustified and, in some cases, may contravene the law.

'As the regulator, it is important we understand the scale of the issue and the drivers behind a reported increase in account terminations.'
A man convicted of strangling his wife and brutally murdering another woman in the late 80s has been put to death - after refusing his customary last meal.

James Phillip Barnes, 61, died by lethal injection at 6:13pm Thursday at Florida State Prison in Starke - the fifth person executed in the state this year.

Governor Ron DeSantis signed off on the con's death warrant this past June, after he recently dropped all of his legal appeals and said he was set to accept his punishment after 16 years on death row.

While serving a life sentence for the 1997 strangulation of his wife Linda Barnes, Barnes confessed to the 1988 killing Patricia 'Patsy' Miller, a nurse who lived in a condominium on Florida's east coast.

The confession came in the form of letters some eight years into his incarceration, sent to a state prosecutor. DNA evidence later linked him to the killing, and a jury ultimately sentenced him to death in 2007. He pleaded guilty.

James Phillip Barnes, 61, died by lethal injection at 6:13pm Thursday - the fifth person executed in the state this year

While serving a life sentence for the 1997 strangulation of his wife Linda Barnes (left), Barnes confessed to the 1988 killing Patricia 'Patsy' Miller, a nurse who lived in a condominium on Florida's east coast. DNA evidence later linked him to the killing, and a jury ultimately sentenced him to death in 2007. His case had been held up since

One of the victim's siblings, Andrew Miller, witnessed the execution and said he came to remember his sister - who was 41 when Barnes killed her at her home in Melbourne.

'I did not come here to watch someone die. I came here to honor our sister, Patricia Miller,' he told reporters, shortly after a repentant Barnes died and refused his final meal, for which state officials had set aside a sanctioned $40.

'No one should live in fear within the safety of their own home. No woman, no child, no animal should have that fear,' the deceased's relative added, citing how Barnes entered her condo through a bedroom window and repeatedly raped her.

The attack - which prosecutors said came after multiple, unspecified negative interactions between the pair - also saw a then 26-year-old Barnes beat her with her bathrobe belt, strike her head with a hammer, and set her bed on fire with her body on it to eliminate evidence.

'We did,' her brother said.

Offering the comments at a news conference held after the execution, Miller said that the rest of his family sees similarities between his sister the case surrounding Barnes' other victim, his then estranged wife.

'The commonality between these two women? They were both hard-working professionals. They were someone's daughter. They were someone's sister. They were someone's mother,' Miller said.

He went on to praise the painstaking work of Melbourne's detectives, thanking them for sticking with the 1988 case that ultimately saw Barnes die and not giving up eve as the case became tangled in the Sunshine State's court system.

Barnes - who had been in prison since 1997 for strangling his wife - was put to death at Florida State Prison in Starke, where he had been on death row for the past 16 years after convincing to the 1988 rape and murder

Florida Departmen of Corrections spokesperson Kayla McLaughlin is seen telling press that the con - who converted to Islam during his incarceration and recently dismissed his defense attorneys - refused a last meal before his execution

Governor Ron DeSantis signed off on the con's death warrant this past June, after he recently dropped all of his legal appeals and said he was set to accept his punishment after 16 years on death row

Barnes - seen here in the 80s - had been in and out of prison since his teenage years, including convictions for grand theft, forgery, burglary and trafficking in stolen property, before her brutally raped and set Miller ablaze in 1988 and killed his estranged wife seven years later

Barnes' older sister, Beth Catron of Grant-Valkaria, last month told Florida Today 'her family is glad the nightmare will soon be over', adding 'maybe well be able to sleep in peace.'

She declined to comment further following the con's actual execution, which was more than a decade and a half in the making.

About 20 witnesses - most of them family of the two victims - sat inside a white-walled rectangular viewing room to watch Barnes' death, facing a large glass window that opened into the execution chamber.

At 6 p.m., the curtain behind the window opened to reveal Barnes, who reporters wrote could be seen lying on a gurney and covered by a white sheet.

His left arm was exposed with IV tubes and secured with a brown strap, and at 6:01 pm - a minute past the scheduled time of execution - Barnes elected not to give a final statement.

The execution process then began, during which three suited men with earpieces observed the goings on from a few feet away.

By 6:12pm, a doctor emerged to check Barnes' vital signs, and pronounced him dead at 6:13 pm.

Those watching from the viewing room reportedly remained silent throughout the process.

Later, Melbourne Police Chief David Gillespie later told Florida Today - which has followed the drugdealer-turned-Islam convert's case for more than a decade - by email: 'James Barnes was a violent and ruthless criminal.'

The officer went on to disclaim: 'While today's execution ensures he will never harm another individual again, let us not forget the victims and the torture they had endured.

'My heart goes out to the victims and their families.'

After the order was finalized, Barnes - who was interviewed from prison for an episode of UK show On Death Row in 2012 (seen here) - declined to participate in media interviews prior to his execution

An October 2005 correspondence to Assistant State Attorney Michael Hunt in Viera also offered to grant a jailhouse interview to local law enforcement, an offer that was quickly accepted. During that interview, which was videotaped by Melbourne police, Barnes described how he brutalized and killed Miller at her home in the River Oaks Condominiums

Barnes first came under Brevard County cops radar after he killed his wife in 1997, after she discovered that he was dealing drugs.

Her body was later found stuffed in a closet after she was strangled, court records revealed - with Barnes later going on to claim he killed at least two other people in addition to Miller, for which he was never charged.

Before that, Barnes had been in and out of prison since his teenage years - including stints for grand theft, forgery, burglary and trafficking in stolen property.

In the Miller case, state lawyers appointed to represent Barnes filed several appeals that held the case up for years, including one that led to a series of extensive mental competency evaluations.

The studies, presided over by two doctors, found that Barnes had symptoms of personality disorder - as well as 'borderline antisocial and sociopathic features.'

The case would remain in limbo for more than a decade, before Barnes - who worked as a law clerk while on death row - decided to drop all his legal appeals, telling jurists he wanted to accept his punishment.

The about-face came after Barnes said he found god in prison, becoming a devout Muslim. DeSantis, having already signed off on four other state-sanctioned deaths in the past six months, swiftly ruled his execution could move forward.

Six days later, the Brevard County Circuit Court issued an order granting Barnes' motion to dismiss all pending motions and appellate reviews in the case, setting the stage for the execution Thursday.

After the order was finalized, Barnes - who was interviewed from prison for an episode of UK show On Death Row in 2012 - declined to participate in media interviews prior to his execution.

His October 2005 correspondence to Assistant State Attorney Michael Hunt in Viera - in which he said a 'Muslim brother' at the prison had convinced him to 'confess an unresolved matter' involving Miller - also offered to grant a jailhouse interview to local law enforcement, an offer that was quickly accepted.

During that interview, which was videotaped by Melbourne police, Barnes described how he brutalized and killed Miller at her home in the River Oaks Condominiums before setting her bed ablaze, his sentencing order said.

Seven years earlier, in 1998, advances in DNA testing had linked Barnes to the homicide, his sentencing order said. But he had refused to speak with Brevard County Sheriffs Office investigators about the matter.

In a followup letter to Hunt in December, Barnes further confessed to his involvement Millers murder - providing a detailed narrative of his crimes as proof.

Barnes wrote om that correspondence: 'Contrary to popular opinion, Im not looking to go to death row. As you can tell from the video, I like fresh air and sunshine and being healthy. I plan on living another 40+ years.'

By 2007, his death sentence order was finalized.

In it, forensic psychology specialists testified he was a psychopath - citng how he 'grew up in a violent home without love or support with his family.'

The filing also stated Barnes - whose convictions in Brevard ranged from burglary, grand theft, aggravated battery, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, violation of state probation, resisting arrest, battery domestic violence and trafficking in stolen property -had a cocaine dependency and antisocial personality disorder.

After his appeals were rescinded earlier this year, one of his former lawyers, Gerod Hooper, told WESH 2 he approved of his client's decision to be put to death.

As you are probably aware, he is not alone in his decision to waive proceedings,' he told the station in an email.

'Living in a 12x12 cell in 100+ degrees with no air conditioning (no heat in winter) is not something everyone will fight to prolong. Nothing we can do but respect his decision.'
One of the government's top environment advisers faced calls to resign his membership of Greenpeace after eco protesters climbed onto the roof of Rishi Sunak's house.

Natural England chairman Tony Juniper sits on the board of the Department for Environment and Rural Affairs as a non-executive director, but is also a member of the environmental group.

Other politicians called for him to resign after four activists from the climate group were arrested after demonstrating for seven hours on the roof of the Prime Minister's 2million mansion in Richmond, North Yorkshire, yesterday morning.

The protesters arrived to the property at 6am but it took two hours before police were alerted just after 8am. It was not until 12.30pm that the group was coaxed down and loaded into the back of police vans.

They draped it in what they described as '200sq m (2,150sq ft) of oil-black fabric' in a protest at his backing for a major expansion of North Sea oil and gas drilling.

Natural England chairman Tony Juniper (pictured) sits on the board of the Department for Environment and Rural Affairs as a non-executive director, but is also a member of the environmental group

Greenpeace activists on the roof of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's house in Richmond yesterday

Four Greenpeace activists climbed on the roof of Rishi Sunak's home in North Yorkshire yesterday

At the same time, two further activists on the ground unfurled a banner featuring the words 'Rishi Sunak - Oil Profits or Our Future?' across the grass in front of the house.

The Prime Minister and his family are currently in the US for a summer holiday and were pictured soaking up the sun on Santa Monica Pier yesterday while activists scaled their house.

Earlier this week, Greenpeace member Mr Juniper appeared to criticise government moves to grant 100 new oil and gas licences in the North Sea by retweeting criticisms of the policy.

Politicians called last night for Mr Juniper 'to distance himself' from Greenpeace's 'simply unacceptable' activities, while he was also urged to consider quitting his membership of the group.

Tory MP Craig Mackinlay MP said: 'He should certainly consider his position as a member of Greenpeace.

'I would have thought it would be wise for Tony Juniper to distance himself from such activity. The occupation of the Prime Minister's house or indeed any house is simply unacceptable behaviour.

'I'm sure his membership doesn't imply his support for this activity, but it must seem to be unhelpful to his directorsip role at Defra'.

Mr Juniper, who is an expert on endangered parrots, previously served as executive director of Friends of the Earth.

The Prime Minister is currently on a 10-day family holiday with his wife Akshata Murty and their daughters Krishna, 12, and Anoushka, ten

Mr Juniper (right) is a friend of King Charles (centre) and has co-authored three books on environmental themes with the monarch

He is a friend of King Charles and has co-authored three books on environmental themes with the monarch.

The 62-year-old, who stood as a Green Party election candidate in 2010, has previously stepped down from memberships of organisations due to his official role.

He resigned his membership of the Greens when he was appointed to the chairmanship of Natural England.

He also stood down from his position of director of advocacy and campaigns at the World Wildlife Fund, and as president of the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts.

Natural England was approached for comment.
A Thames Valley Police officer recorded himself sexually assaulting a young girl on her mobile phone while off duty, a court heard.

Former Pc Luke Christopher Horner travelled to Rushden, Northamptonshire to attack the 13-year-old on June 11.

In a hearing at Northampton Crown Court on Thursday, the 24-year-old, who was based in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, pleaded guilty to a charge of sexual activity with a child. Horner resigned as an officer on July 26, TVP confirmed following his plea.

Former Pc Luke Christopher Horner travelled to Rushden, Northamptonshire to attack the 13-year-old on June 11

A second count, of making an indecent image of a child, was removed from the indictment, with prosecutor Ben Gow claiming this offence formed part of the sexual activity. He also said the defendant recorded the act on his victim's phone.

He said: 'I understand that the pleas are entered on the basis he did record [the sexual activity] and the phone was in his hand. The phone was not his phone, it was belonging to the child in question.

'It can be seen in his hand in the video. We regard this as one of the culpability features of the offence in question.'

Northamptonshire Police said following Horner's plea that he had travelled more than an hour from his home in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, to commit the offence.

Wearing a light grey suit, white shirt and blue tie, Horner spoke only to confirm his identity and enter his plea over a video link from HMP Peterborough, in Cambridgeshire.

Charges against Horner were brought by Northamptonshire Police, but TVP suspended him from duty and launched a separate misconduct investigation after referring the matter to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).

Judge Rebecca Crane remanded him into further custody until sentencing at the same court on September 8.

Deputy Chief Constable Ben Snuggs, of Thames Valley Police, said: 'We are all appalled by Luke Horner's crimes, and our thoughts are with the young woman who has been affected and her family. The bar at which standards are set in policing is rightly high.

'Anyone who falls below those standards in this way betrays the public's trust and confidence in policing and the values of the profession as a whole. I welcome his admission of guilt and resignation from the force.'

General view of Northampton Crown and County Court

Detective Sergeant Sarah Osborne, who led the investigation for Northamptonshire Police, said: 'First of all, I want to thank the family of the young girl in this case who put their trust in us to investigate it and bring Luke Horner to justice.

'I am pleased that he has pleaded guilty today which has prevented them from having to go through the trauma of a trial, and I hope that whilst what happened can never be erased, this result will allow them to move forward.

'Cases of child sexual exploitation are always abhorrent but the fact that Luke Christopher Horner was a serving Thames Valley police officer, in a position of trust, makes this case all the more shocking.

'He is a disgrace to the uniform and I am glad that he will now go to prison and never be allowed to call himself a police officer ever again.

'Finally, I would like to thank Thames Valley Police for their support and assistance with our investigation.'

Detective Inspector Liam O'Neill, of Northamptonshire Police, said: 'Following a thorough investigation led by DS Osborne, Northamptonshire Police has been able to secure a guilty plea from Luke Christopher Horner, who betrayed everyone's trust by committing these offences.

'The young girl in this case has been subjected to abuse from someone who not only should have known better but who was sworn to protect the public. We thank the family for their support and hope that this result helps restore some trust in the police.

'This is another example of the great work we are doing in Northamptonshire to protect the public in cases of serious crime committed against children.'
This is the shocking moment an off-duty police officer brutally assaults his 72-year-old neighbor after he accidentally hit the officer's paddleboard with his car.

Victim Harry Horsley was assaulted by his neighbor of 36-years Scott Saunders, an 18-year veteran of the Hull Police Department, in Massachusetts, on Monday July 24.

Horsley said he was left bloodied and bruised by the altercation, that another neighbor of theirs managed to capture on video.

In the cell phone video, Horsley is seen on the ground with the police sergeant on top of him pinning him down.

Horsley told Boston 25 News that the assault started when he had been driving him and Saunders hit his car with a paddleboard he was carrying.

In this still from the video, Saunders can be seen on top of his 72-year-old neighbor with his fist raised

Sergeant Saunders, pictured here in the center, has now been charged with assault and battery

The shocking video shows Horsley clearly struggling and trying to throw Saunders off him by kicking his legs.

As Saunders eventually gets off Horsley, the older man is red in the face as he backs away from the police officer.

The 72-year-old told the outlet he got out of his car and asked him: 'Why did you hit my car? That's all I said.'

Horsley said the next thing he knew he was pushed to the ground and punched by Saunders.

He continued: 'He bull-rushed me down to the ground. Landed on top of me, Im on my back.

'He pounded away, Im like this trying to protect myself from getting hit worse.

'Here I am, 72 years old. I shouldnt be taking a punch from anybody, let alone a Police Sergeant.'

Pembroke Police have since charged Saunders with assault and battery following the attack, which resulted in Horsley presenting at a local hospital.

A police report said that Horsley suffered a cut to the left side of his face, a bloody nose, swelling and bruising around an eye and other injuries.

Horsley told Boston 25 News that the assault started when he had been driving him and Saunders hit his car with a paddleboard he was carrying

A police report said that Horsley suffered a cut to the left side of his face, a bloody nose, swelling and bruising around an eye and other injuries

Horsley continued: 'He should have known that everything he has done, was wrong. You dont assault somebody thats a senior. You just dont do it, its unheard of.'

Since the charge against him, Saunders has been placed on paid administrative leave and had his badge and service weapon taken from him.

The Hull Police Department has launched an internal affairs investigation and notified the Massachusetts Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission.
The regulator claimed it would not lessen competition

ANZ takeover of Suncorp has been blocked by the ACCC

The competition regulator has declined to give ANZ permission to acquire Suncorp's banking arm in a $4.9 billion transaction that would have shaken up the banking industry.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said on Friday it wasn't satisfied the transaction would not lessen competition in the supply of home loans, small to medium enterprise banking in Queensland and agribusiness banking in Queensland.

'These banking markets are critical for many homeowners and for Queensland businesses and farmers in particular,' ACCC Deputy Chair Mick Keogh said

'Competition being lessened in these markets will lead to customers getting a worse deal.'

Mr Keogh said the regulator thought it was more likely there'd be co-ordination between the four major banks in the supply of home loans if Suncorp Bank becomes part of ANZ.

The ACCC has declined to give ANZ permission to acquire Suncorp's banking arm as they determined it would not lessen competition (pictured, Suncorp Bank branch in Melbourne)

ANZ CEO Shayne Elliott said the bank was 'naturally disappointed' with the decision by the competition regulator and would 'seek an independent decision through the avenues of review available to us' (pictured, ANZ branch in Brisbane)

ANZ and Suncorp have the option of appealing the matter to the Australian Competition Tribunal or the Federal Court.

'We are naturally disappointed and disagree with the ACCC's decision,' ANZ CEO Shayne Elliott said in a statement.

'We are closely reviewing the determination and will seek an independent decision through the avenues of review available to us.

'We believe the acquisition will improve competition, which will benefit Australian consumers, particularly in Queensland. All of the relevant markets are intensely competitive and will continue to be intensely competitive after the acquisition.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the government respected the independence of the ACCC and wouldn't comment.

The deal was first announced back in July 2022.
The identity of the child care worker accused of being Australia's worst paedophile is being protected by Queensland law - but that could be overturned within days.

State attorney-general Yvette D'Ath has legislation set to become law this month that will lift the veil of secrecy around the names of alleged sex offenders.

Under the current laws, anyone accused of a sex crime in Queensland is given the same protection and anonymity as their alleged victims until the case goes to trial.

But proposed new amendments will remove the right to anonymity from the legislation - and be retrospective too, meaning anyone already charged with a sex crime will be named.

It would also lead to the naming of another high-profile Queensland man currently facing rape charges in Toowoomba, whose name has also been suppressed.

However the Gold Coast man, 45, at the centre of this week's shocking allegations, may still escape being identified.

The Queensland child care worker accused of 1,623 sickening sex offences cannot be currently identified until he is committed to stand trial, but that ban may be scrapped under new legislation set to be passed within days

He was this week charged with 1,623 sickening offences at 10 childcare centres in Brisbane, one in NSW and one overseas between 2007 and 2022.

Concerns over identifying any of the children involved in the alleged sex attacks could still see a judge suppress his identity, legal experts warn.

Ms D'Ath announced the proposed legislation scrapping the anonymity for accused sex offenders at the end of May.

It's set to be passed into law and immediately put into action when Queensland's state parliament sits later this month, government insiders told Daily Mail Australia.

'The previous protections for accused rapists were based in part on the false assumption that women maliciously make up complaints to damage reputations,' said the justice minister.

'These rape myths have absolutely no place in our society and our laws need to reflect this.

'Under the reforms we have introduced, those accused of rape and other prescribed sexual offences will no longer fall into a different category.

'They will be treated exactly the same as any other individual charged with an offence.'

Removal of the protection is one of numerous amendments contained in Ms D'Ath's Justice and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2023.

The removal of the identification ban before committal was one of the recommendations made by a Womens Safety and Justice Taskforce.

The amendments will apply to all matters from the time the laws commence, even if a defendant was charged before that date.

Under the reforms, those accused can apply for a non-publication order, but the court must consider the wishes of the alleged victim when making their decision.

Media will have a right of appearance on any application for non-publication and will be notified when an application is filed.

The Attorney-General hoped the public naming of accused sex offenders may also help encourage other victims to come forward in certain cases.

'Queenslanders understanding of consent and the impact of sexual assault has evolved in large part because of the bravery of women and girls who have shared their lived experiences,' she said.

'It is only right that our laws evolve as well.

'Its also our hope that the public naming of these defendants will lead to other witnesses coming forward with relevant evidence.'

The high profile man facing the rape charges in Toowoomba last week asked the magistrates court for six months of his alleged victim's phone records.

The man was charged with two counts of rape in January this year by detectives from the Toowoomba Criminal Investigation Branch over the alleged incident in Toowoomba in October 2021.

State attorney-general Yvette D'Ath has legislation set to become law this month that will lift the veil of secrecy around the names of alleged sex offenders

The high profile man facing the rape charges in Toowoomba last week asked the magistrates court for six months of his alleged victim's phone records

The court was told the man and the alleged victim 'were not known' to each other prior to the date of the alleged offence.

The accused cannot be named until he appears for committal in his trial.

Magistrate Clare Kelly adjourned the matter to August 9 for the parties to consider the request.

The man's bail was continued and Mr King again asked to appear at court over the phone.

Earlier this year several media organisations unsuccessfully applied to the court seeking permission to name the man in the proceedings.

That application remains before the courts but the ban may now be overturned by the new legislation within a matter of days if it gets through parliament.
Sightiings of Red Admiral butterflies have soared by more than 400 per cent in the past year due to warmer weather, according to conservationists.

Members of the public taking part in the Big Butterfly Count witnessed seeing the butterfly 179,000 times this year.

The sight of Red Admirals, known for its dark black-brown wings and orange-red band, increased by more than 150,000 between July 14 and August 2 compared with the same period last year.

Red Admirals normally travel to Britain from continental Europe or North Africa in the spring and lays eggs in the countryside.

But their population is increasing as many are now overwintering in southern England.

The Red Admiral was spotted 179,000 times this year during the Big Butterfly Count

A Red Admiral butterfly feeding on aster amellus 'Forncett Flourish'

Bosses at environmental charity Butterfly Conservation said there is 'no doubt' that this is due to climate change.

Dr Zoe Randle, the conservation's senior surveys officer, said: 'We've been surprised to see the Red Admiral taking the lead - however, with the increased frequency of warm weather, the UK may well become a permanent home for this species.'

Last year, during the entire Big Butterfly Count July 14 to August 7, the most commonly spotted butterfly was the Gatekeeper, with 142,618 sightings, followed by the Large White with 139,666 sightings.

The Red Admiral was only spotted 40,547 times in the same period.

A favourite of novelist Vladimir Nabokov, who referred to it as 'the Butterfly of Doom', Red Admirals first appeared in Northern Russia in 1881, the year that Tsar Alexander II was assassinated.

The Big Butterfly Count finishes on August 6 and members of the public still have time to submit their sightings.
Bosses at Oxfam have branded GDP 'anti-feminist and colonial' amid calls that it should measure the monetary value of women's domestic work.

The charity - which has been embroiled in a litany of recent scandals relating to women's rights  added its voice to calls to move 'beyond GDP' (Gross Domestic Product) - the main measure of a country's economic growth based on the value of goods and services produced.

Failing to include cooking, cleaning and unpaid care - much of it carried out by women - in the calculations ultimately means these activities are not valued properly, Oxfam said.

It added: 'Market relations are given precedence over family and social relations, individualism over solidarity and interdependence, rational choice over wellbeing.

'Women are rendered to the 'private' sphere and their work is invisible. At the same time, GDP has helped erase indigenous and alternative conceptions of what can and should be valued.'

Bosses at Oxfam have branded GDP 'anti-feminist and colonial' amid calls that it should measure the value of women's domestic work

Oxfam was forced to apologise for releasing a video that appeared to demonise JK Rowling as an anti-trans villain

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) - which collects, analyses and publishes statistics about the UK's economy, society and population - has already said it is working on radical plans to go 'beyond GDP'.

A report last year by the Centre for Progressive Policy think tank found women in the UK are providing more than twice as much unpaid childcare per year as men - 23.2 billion hours compared with 9.7 billion hours - as well as spending more time caring for adults than men.

Oxfam has faced claims women in Haiti and Africa were sexually exploited by its staff, and was for a time banned from receiving government funding.

It was also forced to apologise when an LGBT video it released appeared to demonise JK Rowling as an anti-trans villain.

The charity, founded in 1942 as the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief, has also caused controversy for telling staff that racism is a 'power construct created by white nations for the benefit of white people' and for its Inclusive Language Guide, which says workers should not use the words mother and father or headquarters, because it 'implies a colonial power dynamic'.
A barefoot heckler has bizarrely interrupted a memorial for an international art dealer who died after a boat crash off Sydney Harbour - interrupting the proceedings by screaming profanities at security guards.

Keen fisherman Tim Klingender, 59, was found dead near Watsons Bay on July 21, naked except for his socks. The body of his friend who was also onboard - tech entrepreneur Andrew Findlay, 51 - was found about a week later.

Mr Klingender was remembered at a Bondi Pavillion 'celebration of life' service on Friday that was attended by a Who's Who of the city's fashion industry, including kaftan queen Camilla Franks and designer Nikki Campbell.

But the elevated service - which was adorned with flowers and featured free-flowing champagne and violins - came to an abrupt halt during speeches when a wandering heckler unleashed a profanity-laden rant towards security guards.

Eastern suburbs security guard to the stars Tux Akindoyeni was quick to remove the barefoot woman and escort her away from the service - following prior attempts from mourners.

Chaos at Tim Klingender's memorial: Security guard to the stars Tux Akindoyeni frog-marched the heckler away from the Bondi Pavillion on Friday afternoon

Friends comforted widow Skye McCardle (second from left) at the high-class service, which was packed with a Who's Who of Sydney's fashion elite

Mr Klingender's heartbroken wife Skye McCardle arrived at her late husband's memorial looking solemn and downcast as friends comforted her and held her close.

Among the hundreds to join her in paying their respects were artist Damon Downey and his glamorous partner Georgia Gorman and fashion personality Camilla Freeman-topper.

Hospitality figure Maurice Terzini was there, along with artist Stephen Ormandy, socialite Manon Youdale, interior designer Alex Zabotto-Bentley and hospitality entrepreneur Peter Metzner.

The memorial heard speeches from friends and family who recounted the full life of the passionate outdoorsman.

Mr Klingender's brother, Jon Jon, led the service with a tearful tribute to his brother known as 'Ace', 'Timmy' and 'Timmy dog'.

His sister Jessica said her brother had died at the top of his game and had 'everything he wanted' in life.

She recalled him getting bitten by a catfish and stepping on a star fish during his fishing escapades, when he had 'some of his happiest times'.

Security guard to the stars Tux Akindoyeni escorted the unruly individual away from the 'celebration of life'

Fashion designer Nikki Campbell was one of the big names in attendance

Former publishing mogul Deke Miskin was in attendance

There was laughter, applause and tears too for the much loved art dealer

Mr Klingender had joined his friend Andrew Findlay on 7.85-metre Brig Eagle inflatable fishing boat for a fishing expedition on July 20.

The pair, who were not wearing lifejackets, were thrown overboard after their boat was hit with five-metre waves and smashed into rocks at The Gap near Watsons Bay.

Klingender's body was found swept up on the rocks near a small overturned vessel about 10am the same day.

Findlay's body was recovered from water off Sydney's east coast a week after a boating accident.

Since Mr Klingender was found dead last month, tributes have continued to pour in from around the country as loved ones struggle to come to terms with his sudden passing.

'I am so thankful for the time we all spent recently with you in New York Tim,' close friend and fellow art dealer D'lan Davidson said.

'Together we laughed, we drank way too much but most importantly of all, we were there together for one sure thing  to support each other for benefit of what we all believe in  the important art of this great nation. See you in heaven.'

Mr Klingender was a respected pioneer in the dealing of Australian Indigenous art. He founded an Indigenous art department at Sotheby's, one of the world's most prolific brokers of fine art.
RCT sales soared to 25million in 2022 in a 'momentous' year for the Trust

A seismic 12 months for the Royal family, one which included the Platinum Jubilee and Queen Elizabeth II's death, helped push sales of official souvenirs to a record 25million last year.

The figure was contained in the annual report of the Royal Collection Trust (RCT), the charity responsible for maintaining the artwork and furniture the King holds in trust for his heirs and the nation.

The report, released yesterday, said the RCT's retail sales in the 'momentous' year totalled 25,449,836, including on site sales, online sales and publishing-related income.

The finances of the charity were severely hit when royal palaces and official residences were forced to shut to the public because of the Covid pandemic.

But the RCT said the summer opening of Buckingham Palace in 2022 for the first time since 2019 was a 'significant milestone' in its 'continuing post-pandemic recovery'.

HM The Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip on a re-visit to Broadlands, to mark their Diamond Wedding Anniversary on November 20. The royals spent their wedding night at Broadlands in Hampshire in November 1947

Other residences reopened by the end of 2020, and the trust says it has been 'heartening' to see visitors returning from across the globe to enjoy the collection.

Its annual report for 2022-23 said: 'Retail sales were boosted by the Platinum Jubilee range and a commemorative range celebrating the life of Her late Majesty.

'The increased visitor numbers on site meant additional footfall in store, while online sales maintained the levels achieved during the pandemic.'

The Platinum Jubilee was celebrated with a wide selection of products from the RCT, including a range of homeware - including a 9.95 tea towel and 14.95 jigsaw puzzle - with a design inspired by sculptor Arnold Machin's iconic profile portrait of Queen Elizabeth II.

This January, a chinaware range commemorating the life of Queen Elizabeth II was launched.

The design featured the late Queen's personal cypher when Princess Elizabeth and words spoken by the King in his first public tribute to her. It included a 70 teacup and saucer, and a 25 coffee mug.

RCT chairman Sir James Leigh-Pemberton said in the report that throughout a 'momentous year' encompassing 'moments of great joy and celebration along with times of sorrow and reflection', the RCT 'has been more active than ever and goes from strength to strength.'

He added: 'Our new King, Charles III - who as Prince of Wales was Chairman of The Royal Collection Trust for many years and is now our Patron - has an unbounded interest and enthusiasm for art and history.

His reign ushers in a new era in which the Royal Collection will assuredly flourish.'

An RCT spokesman last night confirmed that its retail sales last year were the highest since it was established as a charitable trust in 1993.

The RTC annual report for 2022-23 said: 'Retail sales were boosted by the Platinum Jubilee range and a commemorative range celebrating the life of Her late Majesty

Analysis by the Mail found the previous record of 21.7 million came in 2018-19, when commemorative ranges of china were produced to mark the birth of Prince Louis; the weddings of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, and of Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank; and the 70th birthday of Charles, who was then the Prince of Wales.

The RCT's retails sales totalled 3.8 million in 2020-21 when non-essential shops were closed because of the pandemic and it relied on its online sales.

Last year's record sales were also helped by the launch of Royal Windsor Pink Gin, infused with raspberries grown at Windsor Castle, in February, and a range of Buckingham Palace beeswax wraps - a reusable alternative to cling film, released as part of the RCT's ongoing commitment to sustainable trading.

The RCT had a total income of 61.9 million last year and a net surplus of 8 million. It had to secure an emergency loan from Royal bankers Coutts when the pandemic struck, but the report says that last year the RCT was able to reduce its total loan facilities by 12 million to 40 million.
A Queensland community is in mourning over the loss of a treasured florist who collapsed and suffered a brain injury during an asthma attack - with locals tributing the fierce social campaigner with a final heartfelt gesture.

Rosslyn Price Mirciov, 66, died on July 25 after losing oxygen for eight minutes during an asthma attack that caused her brain to swell.

The florist and valued community member, better known as 'Ros', owned a florist on Edith Street in the suburb of Wynnum in Queensland's Gold Coast.

She was farewelled at St Peters Anglican Church on Wednesday, with the colourful flowers from her casket left outside her shop for the public to take home.

'Please take a flower one last time for Ros,' a handwritten sign on the window read.

Another handwritten note claimed the 66-year-old had died from swelling from the brain after she lost oxygen and collapsed during an asthma attack (pictured, flowers outside her shop)

Queensland florist Rosslyn Price Mirciov, 66, was left fighting for oxygen for eight long minutes and sustained swelling to her brain after she collapsed on July 25

She was farewelled at St Peters Anglican Church on Wednesday, with the colourful flowers from her casket left outside her shop for the public to take home (pictured)

Her daughter, Maz Mirciov, asked that in lieu of flowers or financial contributions for her mother donations could be made to Rosies - Friends on the Street and Orange Sky Australia - two organisations that were close to her mother's heart.

'It is with the heaviest of hearts to announce the passing of our Mum, Rosslyn Price Mirciov. You were a force of nature with a heart of absolute gold,' she wrote.

'Faithful, caring, passionate, incredibly giving and extremely stubborn. You were always right, and you made sure everyone knew it! You will be missed by so many and remembered by everyone who had the pleasure of meeting you.

'We love you Mum and I am so proud to be your daughter!'

Ms Mirciov will be remembered for her advocacy of vulnerable groups and her generosity when it came to offering a place to stay or a hot meal.

She was also known in her community for attending Wynnum Magistrates Court as a support person for defendants, especially for victims of elder abuse.

The Facebook page 'NSW Trustee and Guardian Client Abuse' said Ms Mirciov had been considered as the matriarch of their cause across Australia and was an administrator for both the NSW and Queensland groups.

'An exceptionally active campaigner, she was always available to anyone who contacted her with their problems,' the post read.

'Rosslyn was also active in her work for the homeless and the back of her florist shop in the Brisbane suburb of Wynnum was used as a place where people could come in off the street and meet each other.

'She would not let those who were hungry go away without first providing them with something to eat or drink and that drink would most certainly be non alcoholic.

'It was her choice to live the life of a homeless person so that she could truly be seen and Identified as being one and a part of them. However, it was this lifestyle that contributed to her suffering respiratory ailments that progressively got worse and as an asthmatic this had even greater consequences on her health.

'The end was sudden as it seems she had a fall with her latest asthma attack and hit her head, She never regained consciousness. She will be sorely missed.'

Women of Wynnum Manly Podcast posted a lengthy tribute to the 'whip smart' and stubborn florist who was due to be a guest on the podcast in August.

'Although in her 60s, Ros often slept rough herself. She was known for many things in the area, including running the florist in Edith St, opening it up often as a safe space for people who were doing it tough,' the post read.

'Ros was funny, whip smart, tough (so tough), proud, a great story teller, quite the character and very stubborn.

'Ros lived her life how she wanted to, living and breathing her values, despite how other people may have perceived those choices.

A neighbouring business owner described Ms Mirciov as a 'beautiful, funny, quirky woman' who had given her gerberas as a welcome gift to the area.

'Will miss her face and sense of humour around Edith Street,' the woman wrote.
The Western Australian Premier has written an angry letter to ABC chair Ita Buttrose, blasting the national broadcaster over the behaviour of a camera crew outside the residence of an oil and gas company CEO.

Three members of the Disupt Burrup Hub group were on Tuesday charged following attempts to protest outside the Perth home of Woodside boss Meg O'Neill, allegedly arriving with an ABC camera crew.

The trio was arrested before being able to carry out an alleged plan to spray paint Ms O'Neill's home and lock one of themselves to the property.

The protestors were joined outside the City Beach residence by a television crew and a journalist filming for the ABC's flagship current affairs program, Four Corners.

WA Premier Roger Cook wrote a scathing letter to ABC chair Ita Buttrose on Thursday

Mr Cook wrote that he hoped the national broadcaster would 'reflect on the role it played in this matter'

In a letter to ABC chair Ita Buttrose on Thursday, WA Premier Roger Cook condemned the network over the 'morally wrong' attendance of the camera crew at the home of Ms O'Neil, according to the West Australian.

The Premier said it was 'doubtful' the activists would have targeted Ms O'Neill's residence 'if your TV crew was not present to publicise such appalling actions', which he said had 'encouraged' the attack.

'Wittingly or unwittingly, the ABC was complicit,' he wrote.

Mr Cook said that while he understood the 'vital role the news media plays in a healthy democracy', the fact that the camera crew attended the private home of a WA citizen to document alleged criminal acts was 'cause for great concern and morally wrong'.

He urged the national broadcaster to reflect on the role it played in this matter'.

'I believe we need to unite against this type of behaviour and call it out,' he wrote.

'I hope the ABC will agree and send a clear message to your employees.'

Mr Cook (pictured) blasted the alleged protestors as 'extremists'

The scorching criticism came just a day after Mr Cook had slammed the protestors as 'extremists seeking to terrorise' Ms O'Neill and her family and called ABC managing director David Anderson to raise his concerns.

'This activity, these actions are just unacceptable and not on, and they must stop,' he said on Wednesday.

The West Australian reported that the ABC had refused to condemn the actions of the protesters.

The national broadcaster released a statement on Wednesday saying Four Corners had received a tip directing them to the address 'just prior' to the activists arriving and had been unaware it was a private home.

The ABC denied its crew had in any way 'colluded with the activists'.

But Mr Cook said in his letter that it was 'difficult to comprehend how a TV crew could not understand how their presence at a private residence only encouraged these activists'.

The ABC said in a statement it denied its camera crew had in any way 'colluded with the activists' (Pictured: ABC chair Ita Buttrose)

A Woodside executive said the company's boss has been shaken by the alleged protest attempt.

Speaking at a Senate inquiry examining the rising cost of living on Friday, Woodside's executive vice president Mark Abbotsford said Ms O'Neill was safe following the incident but she was disturbed by the events.

'There is a line and I think that line has been crossed,' Mr Abbotsford told the inquiry.

'She deserves better, as we all do, to be in our homes and to feel safe in our own home, so it's a very disappointing escalation.'

Daily Mail Australia has contacted the ABC for comment.
Joe Biden's rule that asylum can only be granted when a person applying can prove they've tried in another country and been rejected has been upheld by an appeals court.

The court on Thursday allowed the rule restricting asylum at the southern border to temporarily stay in place.

The decision is a major win for the Biden administration, which had argued that the rule was integral to its efforts to maintain order along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The new rule makes it extremely difficult for people to be granted asylum unless they first seek protection in a country they are traveling through on their way to the U.S. or apply online.

It includes room for exceptions and does not apply to children traveling alone.

Joe Biden, seen on July 29, had argued that the asylum restrictions were necessary to reduce migration

Migrants stand in an immigration checkpoint line in Tapachula, Mexico, on Thursday

Migrants are seen on July 27 wading past a string of buoys in Texas

People line up against a border wall as they wait to apply for asylum after crossing the border from Mexico on July 11 near Yuma, Arizona

The decision by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals grants a temporary reprieve from a lower court decision that had found the policy illegal and ordered the government to end its use by this coming Monday.

The government had gone quickly to the appeals court asking for the rule to be allowed to remain in use while the larger court battles surrounding its legality play out.

The three-judge panel ruled 2-1 in favor of the government's request to stay the lower court's ruling while the appeal goes forward.

They also said they would expedite the hearing for the appeal with both sides expected to send in their arguments to the court by mid-September, and a hearing to be held at an unspecified date.

The decision means a relatively fast timeline to review the case.

Judges William Fletcher and Richard Paez, who were both appointed by Bill Clinton, ruled in favor of the stay but gave no reason for their decision.

Judge Lawrence VanDyke, who was appointed by Donald Trump, dissented.

In his dissent VanDyke seemed to agree with the legality of the rule in theory but said it was little different than previous rules put forward by the Trump administration that were shot down by the same appeals court when Trump was in office.

He suggested that the judges had been moved to grant the stay because they feared that if the case went all the way to Supreme Court, that body would have done it instead.

'I wish I could join the majority in granting a stay. It is the right result. But that result, right as it may be, isn't permitted by the outcome-oriented mess we've made of our immigration precedent,' VanDyke wrote.

The new asylum rule was put in place back in May.

At the time, the U.S. was ending use of a different policy called Title 42, which had allowed the government to swiftly expel migrants without letting them seek asylum. The stated purpose was to protect Americans from the coronavirus.

Migrants trying to enter the U.S. from Mexico approach the site where workers are assembling large buoys to be used as a border barrier on July 11

Workers continue to deploy large buoys to be used as a border barrier along the banks of the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass, Texas, on July 12

The 1,000ft barrier is made up of large, wire-bound buoys designer to deter migrants from crossing

The administration was concerned about a surge of migrants coming to the U.S. post-Title 42 because the migrants would finally be able to apply for asylum. The government said the new asylum rule was an important tool to control migration.

Rights groups sued, saying the new rule endangered migrants by leaving them in northern Mexico as they waited to score an appointment on the CBP One app, which the government is using to grant migrants the opportunity to come to the border and seek asylum.

The groups argued that people are allowed to seek asylum regardless of where or how they cross the border and that the government app is faulty.

They also argue that the new asylum rule is essentially a reboot of two previous rules put forward by Trump that sought to limit asylum - the same point Judge VanDyke alluded to in his dissent.

The groups also have argued that the government is overestimating the importance of the new rule in controlling migration.

They say that when the U.S. ended the use of Title 42, it went back to what's called Title 8 processing of migrants.

That type of processing has much stronger repercussions for migrants who are deported, such as a five-year bar on reentering the U.S.

Those consequences - not the asylum rule - were more important in stemming migration after May 11, the groups argue.

'The government has no evidence that the Rule itself is responsible for the decrease in crossings between ports after Title 42 expired,' the groups wrote in court briefs.

But the government has argued that the rule is a fundamental part of its immigration policy of encouraging people to use lawful pathways to come to the U.S. and imposing strong consequences on those who don't.

The government stressed the 'enormous harms' that would come if it could no longer use the rule.

'The Rule is of paramount importance to the orderly management of the Nation's immigration system at the southwest border,' the government wrote.

The government also argued that it was better to keep the rule in place while the lawsuit plays out in the coming months to prevent a 'policy whipsaw' whereby Homeland Security staff process asylum seekers without the rule for a while only to revert to using it again should the government ultimately prevail on the merits of the case.
A wild story about a McDonald's restaurant that banned 'feral' students from a nearby school has been hosed down by the Victorian Department of Education.

Reports emerged on Friday that pupils from Somerville Secondary College, in Somerville, in Melbourne's south-east, were no longer welcome at their local Macca's eight minutes down the street due to antisocial behaviour.

The story gathered pace when a photo surfaced on Instagram of a handwritten sign pinned to the store's glass front door that read: 'No entry for Somerville Secondary Students. You will not be served.'

However, when Daily Mail Australia contacted the college for comment, the school redirected us to a spokesperson for the Department of Education, who said no such ban was in place at Somerville McDonald's.

They said students were welcome at the fast-food joint, and the sign on the door wasn't a directive from management, but had been put up by a junior staff member.

A wild story about a McDonald's restaurant that banned 'feral' students from a nearby school has been hosed down by the Victorian Department of Education

The restaurant's supervisor had initially refused to comment when contacted on Friday morning.

The Macca's store, located at 49 Eramosa Road West, Somerville, is a short walk from the school, which is located just over 14 kilometers from the Mornington Peninsula.

According to the school's website, the year 7-12 high school aims to provide a 'an inclusive, encouraging, caring, safe and secure learning environment'.

The website also states the school is located in a thriving locale, with up to 700 students expected to be enrolled at the college in the coming years.

Reports emerged on Friday that pupils from Somerville Secondary College, in Somerville, in Melbourne's south-east, were no longer welcome at their local Macca's eight minutes down the street due to antisocial behaviour
A HSBC customer has been shocked to discover he was credited a whopping $105,000 to his Visa Platinum account by a mystery donor.

The Sydneysider came across the jaw-dropping amount when he randomly checked his banking app last week.

He reported the transaction to HSBC through their chat app after fighting off temptations to keep the 'life changing' amount.

'It was pretty tempting to do something dodgy, I'm not going to lie. But a quick Google search saying it's a crime was enough for me,' he told Yahoo News Australia.

'[I] brought myself back to reality that this is too good to be true and I won't be keeping that money.'

The Sydneysider came across the jaw-dropping $105,000 when he randomly checked his banking app last week

He reported the transaction to HSBC through their chat app after fighting off temptations to keep the 'life changing' amount

He said at first glance he thought he had lost $105,000 from being hacked before realising 'it was actually the reverse'.

He took screenshots of his interaction with a HSBC representative which showed him informing the bank of the error.

The bank worker said the transaction sounded 'worrying' and said they would look into it.

He then received an email from Head of Mortgage Services at HSBC Australia, Tim Mozsny, who informed him the payment 'dispute' would be resolved.

It is understood the man received an incorrect cash back transaction which was followed up the day after with a $9.52 cash advance surcharge.

The Aussie said the massive $105,000 was reversed by the bank on Monday and he planned to phone the bank to waive the surcharge.

He also said he discovered a $100 credit which he assumed could have been from the party who made the erroneous transfer as a thank you.

The man posted the bizarre transfer to social media with the caption: 'Woke up to $100k transferred into my bank account.'

'It was a blissful and magnificent feeling to suddenly have $100k+ in your bank account but overall quite annoying, would not recommend,' he wrote.

A HSBC spokesperson said the bank could not comment on individual account matters due to client confidentiality.

'If customers believe an error has been made in regards to their accounts, we ask them to contact our dedicated customer service team,' they said.
Texas A&M has agreed to pay a former New York Times editor $1million after a botched attempt to hire her to direct its journalism school - during which she faced backlash over her past work promoting diversity.

Awarded to Kathleen McElroy Thursday, the settlement was accompanied with an apology - in which school officials admitted mistakes were made during [McElroy's] hiring process' this past June.

A conservative-led charge on campus fueled that month's hysteria, during which many repeatedly voiced concerns about McElroys experience in diversity, equity and inclusion - to the point where the situation soon came under staffers' radar.

Following a recent ban on DEI offices at Texas universities, officials questioned how 'McElroys advocacy for DEI could be reconciled' with the school's obligations, despite the prospective role having little to do with the subject.

After weeks of back and forth more than a month after McElroy accepted the offer, school officials decided to change the terms of her appointment, citing the 'DEI hysteria', and McElroy being a 'black woman who worked at The New York Times.'

Awarded to former Aggie Kathleen McElroy on Thursday, the $1million settlement was also accompanied with an apology - in which school officials admitted mistakes were made during her hiring process. She is seen outside her alma mater in June before backlash over her hiring - led by conservatives concerned about her past work promoting diversity - began

Despite the apology, the school stopped short of saying race and gender were not involved in the botcher, saying there was no evidence staffers like then-Arts and Sciences Dean Jose Luis Bermudez (left) and then-President Katherine Banks (right) used McElroy's race against her. Both were forced to resign last month in the in the wake of McElroys bungled hiring

A series of watered-down offers would ensue - the first of which saw staffers remove the stipulation of tenure from their initial three-year offer, and another that changed the terms of employment from three years to one. McElroy ultimately refused.

The Texas A&M System would later launch a probe into what predated the rejection, detailed in a report from the school's Office of General Counsel release Thursday. In it, officials acknowledged administrators failed McElroy during her hiring process.

'Texas A&M acknowledges that mistakes were made during the hiring process relating to Dr. McElroy,' university officials wrote in a joint statement with the experienced journalist who worked at the Times for more than 20 years.

'The leadership of Texas A&M apologizes to Dr. McElroy for the way her employment application was handled, has learned from its mistakes and will strive to ensure similar mistakes are not repeated in the future.'

That said, the school stopped short of saying race and gender were not involved in any of the decisions - saying there was no evidence staffers like then-Arts and Sciences Dean Jose Luis Bermudez used McElroy's race against her.

In text messages with then-school President Katherine Banks after McElroy accepted the initial offer, Bermudez commented on McElroys race twice, including a comment about McElroy being a 'black' former newspaper editor on June 19.

Three days before those messages were sent, Bermudez and Banks discussed during a phone call how McElroy could work at A&M on a non-tenure track instead of the already agreed upon alternative, the report revealed.

That call came after a June 15 article in the conservative-affiliated Texas Scorecard labeled McElroy a 'DEI proponent' for her past work, which includes a Pulitzer Prizes juror position, and research surrounding the relationship between news and race.

An A&M alum herself, she also served for four years as director of School of Journalism and Media at the school's fiercest rival, UT-Austin,

McElroy, class of 1981, is seen signing her first offer to head the school's Department of Communication and Journalism at a ceremony on June 13. Two days later, he conservative-affiliated Texas Scorecard labeled McElroy a 'DEI proponent', spurring a flood of calls to the school from angry conservatives

The school - the biggest public university in the country - would later proceed to reneg on their initial offer of a tenure-track position, first reducing it to a non-tenured five-year post and then reducing again to a one-year position from which she could be fired at any time. She ultimately rejected the offer and withdrew her resignation from UT-Austin as a journalism professor.

After news of her hiring was revealed in the Scorecard's story, Banks' office was bombarded by a flood of calls and emails from concerned conservatives, including the aforementioned activist group, The Rudder Association, the report revealed.

It also found that some six or seven members of A&M Systems Board of Regents called Banks to raised concerns, during which they repeatedly brought up the ongoing DEI office ban at state universities.

A&M officials on Thursday pointed especially to communications between the Texas A&M Board of Regents and Banks and Bermudez as evidence the school botched the hiring process.

Following the outcry seen from the Scorecard and The Rudder Association, the report found that regents asked each other how McElroys 'advocacy for DEI could be reconciled', given their obligations to annually certify they were following state law.

In messages between Regents Jay Graham and David Bagget, board members lamented how they had hoped the journalism program would 'get high-quality Aggie journalist(s) with conservative values into the market.'

Graham wrote shortly before the school reneged on their initial three-year tenure offer: 'Kathy [Banks] told us multiple times the reason we were going to combine arts and sciences together was to control the liberal nature that those professors brought to campus.'

He declared: 'This wont happen with this kind of hire.'

And Regent Mike Hernandez would go on to tell Banks and Sharp in an email that 'granting tenure to somebody with this background is going to be a difficult sell for many on the [board of regents'. He also suggested they 'put the brakes on this.'

The school days later would go on renege on their initial offer, first reducing it to a non-tenured five-year post and then again to a one-year position from which she could be fired at any time.

The report also confirmed that McElroy accepted her first offer on May 11 - after which Bermudez told the head of his Department of Communication and Journalism, Blanton Hart (pictured), in texts on May 11 and 12 that Banks preferred no publicity around the hiring

Blanton - seen here a month later at the McElroy's hiring ceremony- proceeded to push back, but was rebuffed. Days later, after Banks and Bermudez secretly debated about the circumstances of McElroy's hiring, Bermudez reportedly reached out to McElroy, asking her if she was ok with changing the initial terms of her employment for the first time. McElroy went on to relay the contents of that alleged conversation to Blanton, who confronted Bermudez. Bermudez denied that race played a part in the conversation - to whcih Blanton disagreed

McElroy - who was all smiles a few days earlier at a school ceremony days earlier celebrating her presumed hiring - ultimately rejected the offer, and withdrew her resignation from UT-Austin as a journalism professor, where she still works today.

The report also confirmed that McElroy accepted her first offer on May 11 - after which Bermudez told the head of his Department of Communication and Journalism, Blanton Hart, in texts on May 11 and 12 that Banks preferred no publicity around the hiring.

A sign of what was to come, the correspondence from Bermudez showed the then-dean's desire to hold off on any major announcements until after the legislative session ended.

He wrote, before eventually resigning two months later: 'Bottom line is the NYT connection is poor optics during this particular legislative session.'

Blanton proceeded to push back, but was rebuffed.

The school would go on to hold a ceremony a month later - before the backlash began - with Blaton, Bermudez, and Bank all in attendance.

Days later, after Banks and Bermudez secretly debated about the circumstances of McElroy's hiring, Bermudez reportedly reached out to McElroy, asking her if she was ok with changing the initial terms of her employment for the first time.

During that discussion, Bermudez allegedly referred to the 'DEI hysteria' that had been surfacing across campus and the rest of the state, and mentioned how her being a 'black woman who [used to work at the Times]' could prove problematic.

Some 42 years after graduating the school herself, McElroy - whose oeuvre includes a Pulitzer Prizes juror position, and research surrounding the relationship between news and race - issued a statement celebrating the settlement

McElroy went on to relay the contents of that alleged conversation to Blanton, who confronted Bermudez.

As for an explanation, Bermudez said he told McElroy that it was her nontraditional academic background could be problematic - on the basis that the college didnt have established tenure review procedures for such candidates

Blanton - who was seen days earlier at the ceremony happily shaking the then new hire's hand - said he didnt agree, officials found.

McElroy went on to agree to the afroementioned multi-year nontenured appointment days later, the report shows. In a text with Bermudez, Banks, who joined the school in 2021, said she intended to discuss the change with System Chancellor John Sharp in a meeting.

The report found that Sharps calendar on June 20 showed a meeting with Banks, but after being questioned, the chancellor said the changing job stipulations for McElroy - which would soon become public knowledge - were not discussed.

On June 27, McElroy received new appointment letters, the system said. Her hiring was then discussed in a July meeting of the Board of Regents, but no action was taken.

During the meeting, no one directed Banks to modify the terms of the offer, officials said.

That said, the terms were again changed days later, after Banks called Bermudez on July 6 to tell him to advise McElroy that she was coming into a precarious environment - and that her job appointment would degrade from three years to one.

Bermudez spoke to McElroy the next day, and while he told officials he does not recall his comments, texts found during the probe showed that he did make comment about race being a factor in McElroys treatment, the review states.

Bermudez has since said his comments referred to race potentially being a factor for outside parties, not for the school.

He, however, did confirm to officials that he had told McElroy - a Texas A&M grad herself - how the environment at her alma mater would prove 'unwelcoming' based on his view of the current climate on campus and across the country.

He suggested she should see if she could retain tenure at her old employer, UT, in the event the appointment didnt work out.

McElroy then cut off contact with Texas A&M, and Bermudez sent McElroy updated appointment letters with a one-year appointment as professor of practice and a three-year appointment as journalism director.

The system ultimately obtained documents that showed how Banks and Bermudez were had been in contact about the changes as late as July 21. She resigned that evening.

Afterward, the case surrounding her phantom hiring began to make national headlines, leading the now settled lawsuit that claimed was the victim of 'anti-woke hysteria'.

Some 42 years after graduating the school, McElroy issued a statement celebrating the settlement.

"Texas A&M University remains in my heart despite the events of the past month," McElroy wrote in the joint statement.

'I will never forget that Aggies  students, faculty members, former students and staff  voiced support for me from many sectors.

'I hope the resolution of my matter will reinforce A&Ms allegiance to excellence in higher education and its commitment to academic freedom and journalism'.
A teacher at a prestigious New York City school has been fired after allegedly trying to film an 11-year-old boy in a bathroom stall.

Matthew Chicas has been indicted on charges including unlawful surveillance, possessing a sexual performance by a child and endangering the welfare of a child.

Chicas had been a Maths teacher at the $21,000-a-year private school Xavier High School in Manhattan, when he allegedly filmed the youngster back in April.

At the time, he had been working at the REACH leadership program and Jesuit preparatory class that was being held at Regis High School also in Manhattan.

During an appearance in Manhattan Supreme Court on Wednesday, Chicas pleaded not guilty to all three charges.

Matthew Chicas, pictured has been indicted on charges including unlawful surveillance, possessing a sexual performance by a child and endangering the welfare of a child

Chicas had been employed by the prestigious Xavier High School, pictured here

Chicas had been suspended after his arrest in April and Xavier High School and according to the New York Post he is no longer employed at the school.

According to a criminal complaint seen by the Post, the alleged victim had gone to the fourth floor bathroom at Regis when he heard a noise of someone moving.

The complaint continues that as he urinated the boy looked up and saw a green cell phone with a black camera hanging over the top of the stall, pointing at him.

A school official checked surveillance footage and is said to have saw Chicas walking into the bathroom prior to the alleged incident.

Chicas is said to have been seen coming out of the restroom after the boy ran out.

The papers seen by the post also say that the program director then went to the police with the footage the same day.

A statement from Regis High School said: 'On April 15, a student informed us that an unidentified person attempted to take photos of him while he was in a restroom.

'Immediately after the allegation was reported to us, we contacted the students parents and reported the allegation to both Child Protective Services and the NYPD.'

The alleged incident is said to have taken place at Regis High School in the Upper East Side of Manhattan in April

His lawyer has said he maintains his innocence and is looking forward to his day in court

The statement continues: 'The NYPD responded and came to Regis that afternoon to begin their investigation.

'The same day we also notified all REACH and Regis parents with news of this allegation. Based on our review of the facts, we terminated REACH teacher Mr. Matthew Chicas.

'Mr. Chicas has been charged with attempted illegal surveillance and endangering a minor, and REACH and Regis are fully cooperating with the NYPDs investigation.

'We are deeply distressed that one of our REACH teachers may have violated the high standards that we expect our faculty and staff to uphold in their interaction with our students.'

The mother of the boy, Olaya Lopez, filed a lawsuit in June of this year against Regis High School over the alleged incident.

In it, Lopez claims the school never reported the abuse and instead to suppress it and that her son, known only as 'JC', reported the alleged abuse to another teacher.

Chicas is expected to make his next appearance in court on September 13, with his attorney Donald Vogelman saying his client 'is not guilty of the charges and he looks forward to his day in court', according to the post.
Boy, 10, struck by car while riding his bike

A 10-year-old boy has been rushed to hospital after being struck by a car while riding his bike south of Sydney.

The little boy collided with the car on Railway Street in Corrimal, just north of Wollongong in NSW's Illawarra region, at 5.50pm on Thursday.

Emergency services rushed to the scene after receiving reports of a collision.

The little boy collided with the car on Railway Street (pictured) in Corrimal, just north of Wollongong in NSW 's Illawarra region, at 5.50pm on Thursday

The 10-year-old was treated for leg injuries before he was taken to Wollongong Hospital, where he remains in a stable condition on Friday.

The driver of a Honda Jazz, a 25-year-old woman, was breath tested at the scene and returned a negative result.

Anyone with dashcam footage or information is urged to contact Wollongong Police or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
It's supposed to be 'Your ABC' shining the light on Australia without fear or favour.

But in the last week, that light has been turned inward after a series of incidents involving the national broadcaster's journalists.

And one thing we have learned is they like to disparage those who work for their commercial rivals.

Perhaps the most extraordinary act of all was the allegation a team from the ABC's much-vaunted Four Corners show were involved in the home invasion of the Perth home of a mining executive with a group of 'extremist' climate protesters.

In the little-reported incident, a camera crew went to the City Beach property of Woodside Energy CEO Meg O'Neill at 6.45am on Tuesday along with spray-paint carrying members of the Disrupt Burrup Hub.

Western Australian counter-terrorism police were waiting for the protestors, whose allegedly illegal trespass Ms O'Neill claimed was deliberately accompanied by the ABC crew 'to intimidate her'.

The ABC has strongly denied the claim, saying it was merely filming a story, but a war of words has erupted over the incident in a week which has seen the broadcaster make news for all the wrong reasons.

MONDAY: 'PIT BULL' BAGGING AND 'TIKTIK' JOURNALISM

On Monday, video emerged of a senior ABC journalist slagging off Sky News host Sharri Markson, branding her 'an unhinged pit bull', in Brisbane.

In the embarrassing hot mic debacle, a giggling Stephen Dziedzic, the ABC's foreign affairs reporter, shared his thoughts to fellow journalists on everything from the broadcaster's management to fellow ABC stars.

Recoded before a press conference featuring Defence Minister Richard Marles and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the hapless reporter was unaware his comments were being broadcast straight into rival newsrooms across the country.

Dziedzic was prattling on about Markson's Weekend Australian front-page exclusive in on the theory that the Covid virus emerged from a laboratory leak in China.

He can be heard grudgingly conceding Ms Markson might be 'on to something', saying, 'She's like a pitbull and she's so unhinged, but yet she might still be right'.

He then concedes that he 'remembers being super dismissive of that' theory and 'that it was the most unhinged thing ever'.

'I was overly influenced by the fact it was truly nasty, crazy people who were so deep down the rabbit hole. I probably didn't look at it dispassionately enough,' said Mr Dziedzic.

In the embarrassing hot mic debacle, a giggling Stephen Dziedzic, the ABC's foreign affairs reporter, unloaded his thoughts to fellow journalists on everything from the broadcaster's management to fellow ABC stars

Opening the batting for its week from hell ws an ABC journalist embarassingly caught in a hot mic blunder damning award-sinning Sharri Markson with faint praise and airing the national broadcaster's laundry

But the discussion didn't end there, with The Australian's foreign affairs and defence correspondent Ben Packham and The Sydney Morning Herald's foreign affairs reporter Matthew Knott moving on to the ABC's decision to make former ABC political editor Andrew Probyn redundant.

'It was the worst decision we have ever made,' Dziedzic says, then suggesting that it would have been 'super awkward' between Probyn and the Insiders' host, David Speers, who was then appointed to a similar role.

In response to Mr Knott's comments about the ABC's Canberra bureau, Mr Dziedzic suggested there was a real 'generational divide' in the ABC Canberra newsroom.

'There has been a generational split and it was the worst thing like, whoever the f**k leaked to our dear friends at The Australian,' he laughed.

'I would be hypocritical to complain about leaks. But like, people in the bureau feel personally attacked, right? So we had this awful bloody meeting literally afterwards. It was just scarifying. I don't think it was a diversity thing, I genuinely don't.'

He suggested Sky presenter Sharri Markson was 'like a pitbull and she's so unhinged but yet she might still be right'

He then says there were 'big editorial disagreements' between Probyn and ABC bureau chief Michelle Ainsworth, with the decision to let him go ultimately 'personal'.

The chat turned to an interview that new Q+A host Patricia Karvelas conducted with US ambassador Caroline Kennedy on ABC breakfast radio, with Packham asking the ABC journalist what he thought of Karvelas.

Dziedzic mused that some listeners who were 'loyalists' to former RN Breakfast host Fran Kelly were 'hostile' to Karvelas and he didn't know why.

'What's the feeling at the ABC about her kind of, the Patricia everywhere kind of stuff?' Packham then asked.

'There's a level of cynicism,' said. 'I mean there's honestly that there is a bit of tall poppy to that stuff as well, like, people  people are just jealous.

'I like PK. I think she probably does crowd out a bit but she also works f**king hard which not everyone in the ABC does.'

TUESDAY: SPRAY CANS AT DAWN

By 6.30am at Perth's luxury City Beach suburb, climate activists were poised and ready outside the family home of Woodside Energy CEO Meg O'Neill, armed with cans of spray paint and in the company of an ABC TV crew.

Four activists planned a dawn attack with Matilda Lane-Rose, 19, aiming to chain herself to Ms O'Neill's gate in opposition to Woodside's massive Burrup gas project in WA's Pilbara region.

Also lying in wait was the WA Police's counter-terrorism squad and within minutes they had moved on the protesters, who were later charged with conspiracy to commit an indictable offence and had their bail refused.

The ABC camera crew waiting outside Ms O'Neill's home with the Disrupt Burrup group was reportedly not one of the national broadcaster's normal news crews.

Four Corner is accused of knowingly sending in a film crew with with spray-paint carrying climate activists to trespass at the family home of Woodside CEO Woodside Energy CEO Meg O'Neill at 6.45am on Tuesday

The team was not a news crew, instead shooting for a Four Corners special on climate activism wars, and it was accused of being a part of the trespassing protest rather than just covering it.

In, the continuing controversy since, WA Premier Roger Cook has written to ABC Chair Ita Buttrose.

'I have been in public life long enough to understand the vital role the news media plays in a healthy democracy and the right of journalists to report the news without fear or favour,' Cook wrote.

'However, the fact that an ABC TV crew attended the private home of a WA citizen to document the committing of alleged criminal acts is cause for great concern and morally wrong.'

ABC managing director David Anderson reassured him the television crew had no prior knowledge of what was planned by the protesters, but Cook wrote it was difficult to comprehend how a TV crew could not understand that being there encouraged the activists.

'Wittingly or unwittingly, the ABC was complicit,' he said.

A statement from the public broadcaster said the Four Corners crew had received a tip-off to head to the address, but denied they had any knowledge of what the protest was about or that they were colluding with the activists.

An ABC spokeswoman said, 'An ABC TV crew was there to film the protest as part of an upcoming report. The ABC has nothing to do with the protest beyond the reporting it is doing.'

WEEK-LONG FEAST ON THE 'BOTTOM FEEDERS'

The long-running defamation case taken out by Afghan war veteran Heston Russell against the ABC and two investigative journalists has become somewhat of a festering wound for the broadcaster.

Russell is suing for defamation over stories written and produced by journalists Mark Willacy and Josh Robertson in 2020 and 2021 he claims made it look like he was being investigated for shooting an unarmed prisoner

The stories Mr Russell claim a US Marine 'Josh' alleged Heston's November platoon had killed a prisoner because an helicopter couldn't fit him in.

Josh's assertions were based on a 'pop' sound he heard on a call with the platoon, but in February the Federal Court found the series of articles by the ABC had conveyed several defamatory meanings, including linking Russell to war crimes and alleging he left 'fire and bodies' in his wake during his service in Afghanistan.

In March, the judge sensationally struck out the ABC's third truth defence - a decision which is made if the material tendered discloses no reasonable cause of action or defence.

The ABC was then seeking to rely on a new public interest defence that was introduced in July 2021 in NSW and was being tested for the first time in this case.

A public interest defence is aimed at protecting investigative journalism and relates to publications that concern an 'issue of public interest' where the defendant 'reasonably believed the publication of the matter' was in the public interest.

The ABC has changed tactics several times in its defence of a defamation suit by Heston Russell over stories by Mark Willacy (above) who this week i was revealed describes News Corp journalists as 'tabloid bottom feeders'

However in July, the the ABC abandoned its public interest defence when ordered to reveal a confidential source, then two days later reversed its decision.

This caused Justice Michael Lee to say 'this is developing into a bit of a farce'.

When the case, being funded by the taxpayer, resumed this week, it heard that Mark Willacy had sent an email to the US soldier 'Josh' saying not to talk to any other journalists about his allegations of war crimes and describing News Corp journalists as 'tabloid bottom feeders'.

'Let me know if you hear from any Aussie journos! But as suggested, I'd just say I stand by my account, read the ABC story, and I won't answer any other questions,' the email said.

Afghan war veteran Heston Russell (above) is suing the ABC and two if its journalists for defamation over stories he says suggested his platoon killed innocent people

'Murdoch's people are tabloid bottom-feeders,' the email continued.

Sue Chrysanthou SC, for Heston Russell, put to Willacy the comment about other media was to 'encourage' Josh not to have anything to do with them: 'You were saying don't trust them trust me'.

Mr Willacy denied the claim, saying the source didn't have 'great trust in certain sections' of the media.

He told the court a colleague who had previously worked at the Courier Mail had moved to the Guardian before working with him at the ABC.

'Let's just say that I don't have a great trust of the tabloid media,' Mr Willacy said.

Justice Lee questioned Willacy, saying it was 'more than' what he was telling the court.

The judge said: 'I've just taken note of what you said ... someone left the Courier Mail to go to the Guardian and that was obviously sought to absolve himself of that ... I take it from that, that your view at the time you're dealing with him that it's wrong to act for that section of the media.'

Mr Willacy apologised and said he was being 'flippant'.

In February the Federal Court found the the ABC had conveyed several defamatory meanings, including linking Heston Russell (above, centre) to war crimes and alleging he left 'fire and bodies' in his wake during his service in Afghanistan

'I want to suggest to you the reason you didn't want Josh talking to any other media is because you were concerned his story wouldn't stack up if asked questions,' Ms Chrysanthou pressed.

When Mr Willacy responded saying it was Josh's decision, Ms Chrysanthou suggested it was because he had 'scared him off' by calling them 'bottom feeders'.

She told the court Mr Willacy had known there were flaws in the story because he had engaged in some 'pretty serious artistic licence with the truth when it came to what Josh had actually told you compared to what you reported'.

'That's not correct,' Mr Willacy said.

Ms Chrysanthou suggested it was 'so obvious' who Josh was in the ABC article that Mr Willacy was 'worried' he could be found by journalists.

But Mr Willacy was confident he had taken 'enough care' for that not to happen, conceding there was 'potential' it could.

'Because you accept you put enough identifying factors and features in your article that could lead to him,' Ms Chrysanthou said.

'There was a pretty big trail of breadcrumbs.'

Mark Willacy denied he called 2GB producer James Willis (above) and told hiom to get Ben Fordham to 'back off' the Heston Russell story about November platoon in Afghanistan

The 'bottom feeders' email emerged after revelations of another clash between Willacy and rival journalists over the ABC's fraught defamation defence in the November Platoon saga.

2GB Executive Producer James Willis disclosed that he had been targeted by Willacy last November when the case was starting in the Federal Court, and that it had been a heated exchange.

Willis said Willacy had become hot under the collar after broadcaster Ben Fordham had supported Heston Russell on his breakfast radio show.

Willis said that Willacy had told him: 'Get Ben to back off, he has f**king defamed me' in an awkward phone call.

He launched into a two-to-three minute spray where he was very angry at you (Ben Fordham) and very angry at 2GBs coverage of his story, Willis said on 2GBs Ben Fordham Live.

Challenged in court this week about the exchange, Willacy denied it, saying 'I would never believe (I could get) 2GB to back off, its ridiculous, youre only inviting more attention Ms Chrysanthou, trust me,' Mr Willacy said.

'I did find it curious however that my private conversation, robust as it may have been, with Mr Willis did end up the subject of a 2GB article in which Mr Willis was interviewed, so they made good ratings material out of it.

'Obviously, these conversations arent confidential anymore.'

On Friday afternoon, the ABC's Head of Investigations and Current Affairs, Jo Puccini, was grilled about what checking the broadcaster did before airing the story about November platoon and the soldier.

The ABC will need to persuade the court that its journalists genuinely believed the publication of the articles were in the public interest.
A QantasLink plane headed from Sydney to Port Macquarie has been diverted after it suffered a mechanical issue.

QF2162 left Sydney Airport at about 10.50am on Friday morning but returned and landed safely at 12pm.

Emergency crews had rushed to meet it.

More to follow.

QF2162 from Sydney to Port Macquarie was redirected back to Sydney after suffering a mechanical issue (pictured, the plane's flight path)
Two Tennessee politicians who were expelled from the state legislature for protesting in favor of tougher gun control won re-election on Thursday, ensuring their return after four months of turmoil.

Justin Jones, 27; Justin Pearson, 28; and Gloria Johnson, 61, became known as the Tennessee Three after they faced censure by the legislature for their rowdy April protest on the floor of the House.

Their protest came days after three nine-year-old children and three adults were killed in a Nashville school shooting.

Jones and Pearson, who are both black, were expelled: Johnson, who is white, avoided expulsion and said the legislature was racist.

The two young black men were temporarily restored to the legislature after a week, amid a blaze of publicity - Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and Barack Obama all praised them for taking a stance, and Biden invited them to the White House to discuss gun control.

On Thursday, they both won re-election to their seats in a special election held after the expulsion.

Justin Jones (left) and Justin Pearson (right, with his mother Kimberly) are pictured on Thursday celebrating their election wins

The result means that they are restored as full members of the legislature, and will serve out the remainder of their term.

Jones tweeted a photo of the Speaker of the House, Cameron Sexton, who had argued that the three deserved to be expelled as they were 'disruptive'.

The three said they were only causing a scene because their repeated efforts to hold a debate on gun control in the Republican-controlled legislature were blocked.

'Well, Mr. Speaker, the People have spoken,' tweeted Jones on Thursday.

'The FIND OUT era of politics is just beginning.

'See you August 21st for special session.'

Thursday's election came as lawmakers are preparing to return to Nashville later this month for a special session to address possibly changing the state's gun control laws.

Nancy Pelosi was among those who tweeted congratulations, telling Jones: 'Congratulations on your decisive victory and return to the Tennessee legislature! So pleased that the voters have sent you back where you belong  pursuing justice and opportunity For The People.'

Pearson is seen with Joe Biden in the Oval Office on April 24

Jones (left) and Pearson (right) are seen at their expulsion hearings on April 6

Jones, who lives in Nashville, was up against Republican candidate Laura Nelson.

Meanwhile, Pearson, from Memphis, faced independent candidate Jeff Johnston.

'I think if we keep running this race, there will be victory after victory after victory,' Pearson said to supporters on Thursday.

He stressed that his victory was largely possible due to black women and the organizing work they had done to make him and other politicians successful.

While Jones and Pearson's reelection to their old posts will not make a significant dent to the Republican supermajority inside the legislature, they are expected to push back heavily against some of their Republican colleagues' policies.
A man arrested after a woman escaped a cinderblock cell he'd held her captive in under his Oregon rental had previously 'threatened to kill the mother of his two children.'

Negasi Zuberi, 29, fled to Reno, Nevada where he was arrested by state police a day after the woman, who has not been identified, escaped the horror prison July 15.

The fresh claims against Zuberi come in the wake of his arrest and were claimed in a protective order filed three years ago by another woman he is claimed to have children with.

Zuberi has been linked to at least four violent sexual assaults in four states and may have more victims across the U.S.

He went by a number of different names including Justin Joshua Hyche, Sakima Zuberi and Justin Kouassi.

Negasi Zuberi, 29, who was arrested after a woman escaped a cinderblock cell he'd held her captive in under his Oregon rental had previously 'threatened to kill the mother of his two children'

In July 2020, the woman who also remained anonymous, filed a petition for a domestic violence restraining order against one of the aliases 'Justin Kouassi.'

'He physically attacks me, he hits me, he brakes (sic) and throws things, he screams at the kids and me... we get woken up every night from him being drunk and loud and scares us,' the court document filed to the Contra Costa County, California and obtained by NBC read.

It remains unclear whether the order was issued or the case dropped. The document does however state that as September 2020 appearance was dropped from the court calendar.

The alleged 2020 victim also made claims that Zuberi took her phone to keep her from calling the police and took her money as a form of financial abuse.

Its been claimed her hit, restrained and beat the woman who was left with bruises from his alleged attacks.

'He comes at night without my permission, broke my windows, trying to beat on me, treatening (sic) to kill me and my kids,' she wrote.

'He treat (sic) to take them away so I can be miserable without them.'

The document also claims that the two children she alleged to have had with Zuberi are 'scared of him.'

A woman, who has not been identified, miraculously escaped a cinder block cell after she was kidnapped in Seattle by a man posing as an undercover cop and driven more than seven hours away

After being placed in this cell, the victim 'briefly slept and awoke to the realization that she would likely die if she did not attempt to escape'. She started punching the metal door and broke some of its welded joints, creating a small opening which she climbed through

'My kids hide from him because he's always loud and angry and unpredictable,' she wrote.

'Wakes them up all hours of the night making them cry all time.'

A neighbor speaking to the outlet in the wake of his arrest said that she 'rarely saw his wife or children' both who are younger than 10.

Melanie McClure said the family moved into the home earlier this year and that she tried to invite Zuberi's wife to a 'mom's night out' with other friends in April or May.

McClure said she recalls Zuberi's wife asking him whether she can 'at least' bring her cellphone.

'He told me, 'She can go, that's fine,' McClure recalled. 'But then this door's gonna be locked, and she'll need to figure out where she's gonna stay tonight.'

After pushing back, McClure said Zuberi agreed to let his wife have her phone and said he'd leave the door unlocked.

Zuberi is claimed to have displayed disturbing and possessive behavior, according to McClure who recalled him showing up at the restaurant and watching his wife for roughly 30 minutes without saying a word.

'He controlled her and her life,' McClure said, adding that she pushed Zuberi's wife to seek help.

McClure told NBC that she believed officers would likely be called to the home, rented out by Klamath Falls mayor Carol Westfall, for an incident involving his wife but was shocked to hear what had happened.

'To think you could get away with something that crazy, it's baffling,' she said.

Zuberi kidnapped a woman in Seattle under the guise that he was an undercover cop.

The Klamath Falls rental home where Zuberi allegedly took the woman is owned by the city's mayor, Carol Westfall, and her husband, Kevin, according to property records

The woman was kidnapped July 15 just after midnight, sexually assaulted and driven more than seven hours away, according to a criminal complaint.

Hidden in the makeshift cell, the woman slept and awoke with the realization she would likely die if she didn't attempt to escape. She broke down the door leaving her hands bloodied.

FBI released eerie photos of the tiny quarters in which he'd held her captive.

'She beat the door with her hands until they were bloody in order to break free,' Klamath Police Captain Rob Reynolds said at a press conference Wednesday.

'Her quick-thinking and will to survive may have saved other women from a similar nightmare.'

Negasi Zuberi, 29, fled the rental home in Klamath Falls to Reno, Nevada where he was arrested by state police a day later, on July 16. Authorities are now probing whether he may have attacked other women in at least 10 other states

On July 15, Zuberi allegedly traveled from his Klamath Falls rental to Seattle where he solicited the woman for prostitution along Aurora Ave - a known area for prostitution, according to court documents.

The woman told cops that Zuberi told her he was an undercover cop before he showed her a badge.

He pointed a stun gun at her placed her in the backseat of his car after he'd handcuffed and put leg irons on her.

Zuberi drove more than seven hours to his home in Klamatha Falls only to stop when he 'pulled his vehicle over and forced [the victim] to perform both oral and vaginal sex.'

The affidavit said that 'Zuberi attempted to have anal sex with the [victim] but stopped after [the victim] pleaded for him not to do it.'

When they arrived, Zuberi put his captor into the cell - he said he was leaving to do paperwork.

The woman 'briefly slept and awoke to the realization that she would likely die if she did not attempt to escape,' according to the arrest affidavit.

She started punching the metal door and broke some of its welded joints, creating a small opening which she climbed through.

The victim saw Zuberi's vehicle parked in the garage, opened it, grabbed his gun and then took off.

She left behind blood on a wooden fence that she'd climbed over to escape, before flagging down a passing driver, who called 911.

Investigators said that when they searched Zuberi's home and garage, they found the makeshift cell, the woman's purse and handwritten notes

Another handwritten document appeared to include a rough sketch for an underground structure using concrete blocks, foam insulation and waterproof concrete

According to the complaint, investigators interviewed Zuberi's wife and neighbors.

They would not say if there was any indication that any of them had been aware of the Seattle woman's abduction.

When Zuberi was arrested by Nevada State Patrol officers in a Walmart parking lot the day after he fled, he was with his wife and at least one of his children. It remains unclear how many children he has.

When he was approached by the officers, he refused to exit his car, started cutting himself with a sharp object and tried to destroy his phone.

Carol Westfall said she was 'shocked and dismayed by what has occurred'

Investigators said that when they searched Zuberi's home and garage, they found the makeshift cell, the woman's purse and handwritten notes.

One of the notes was titled 'Operation Take Over,' and included a bullet point list with entries that read 'Leave phone at home' and 'Make sure they don't have a bunch of ppl (sic) in their life. You don't want any type of investigation.'

Another handwritten document appeared to include a rough sketch for an underground structure using concrete blocks, foam insulation and waterproof concrete.

The FBI is now probing whether Zuberi may have had any other victims.

They are also investigating whether he may have used other methods of gaining control of women, including drugging their drinks. The agency said it was setting up a website asking anyone who believes they may have been a victim to come forward.

According to the FBI, Zuberi has lived in multiple states since 2016, possibly including California, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Utah, Florida, New York, New Jersey, Alabama, and Nevada.

Klamath Falls Police Capt. Rob Reynolds speaks at a press conference at the FBI Portland field office in Portland, Ore., on Wednesday, August 2

Stephanie Shark, Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Portland field office, speaks at a press conference in Portland, Oregon, on Wednesday

An FBI flag and a seeking information posterboard displaying photos of suspect Negazi Zuberi are set up next to a podium ahead of a press conference at the FBI field office in Portland, Ore., on Wednesday

The Klamath Falls rental home where Zuberi allegedly took the woman is owned by the city's mayor, Carol Westfall, and her husband, Kevin, according to property records.

The house backs onto a park and is on a residential street, less than a quarter-mile from a highway.

Court records show that after Zuberi's arrest, the couple had him evicted.

'We are shocked and dismayed by what has occurred,' the Westfalls said in an email to DailyMail.com.

'We applaud the actions of the woman who helped capture this person and prevent him from committing further atrocities.'

The Westfalls also praised local, state and federal law enforcement for their work on the case. They declined to respond to queries about their interactions with Zuberi.

DailyMail.com has contacted Zuberi's wife for comment.
A woman has issued a desperate plea after she was punched in the face in a terrifying road rage incident that left her requiring facial surgery.

Tori Lee, 31, had been driving through Campbelltown in Sydney's south-west between 5.45pm and 5.55pm last Saturday when she stopped at the intersection of Blaxland Road and Campbelltown Road.

The woman told police when she sounded her horn at a black Mitsubishi sedan in front of her, the driver got out of his car and punched her in the face.

The man then attempted to drag her from the vehicle before she was able to drive away, seeking medical assistance at Campbelltown Hospital.

Ms Lee has since been transferred to Liverpool Hospital where she has undergone surgery for multiple facial fractures.

In a video posted online, Ms Lee recalled how the man in the Mitsubishi had been driving up close behind her after she had tooted her horn at him at a previous intersection when he had failed to take off at a green light.

Ms Lee said she had raised her hand to apologise at the driver but he had not reacted well and had tried to 'to cause an accident, trying to run me off the road'.

She said the man got out of his car and was 'yelling stuff' at her as she sat terrified in her vehicle.

Ms Lee said she rolled her window down to speak with the angry man, and turned to lower the volume of her music before he allegedly punched her face.

'I just started bleeding profusely from my nose,' she said.

Tori Lee, 31, was left with facial injuries after she was allegedly punched in the face by a male driver during a road rage incident in south-west Sydney last Saturday

Ms Lee said she had 'blacked out for a second' before looking around to see if she'd been hit in the face with an object, but said she realsied that she had in fact been hit by the owner of the Mitsubishi.

She said she looked up at the man and he was smiling like he was 'very proud of himself'.

Ms Lee said she then locked the car door and tried to reverse into the other lane, almost hitting the person behind her.

'I rang whoever I could as quick as I could and took myself to Campbelltown hospital,' she said.

'He was very big, over 6 foot and over 100kg. I am five-foot-four, about 92kg and also a female.'

CT scans revealed that Ms Lee had multiple fractures in her face which required surgery.

Ms Lee said she had tried not to look at herself in the mirror because it made her 'very upset'.

She said in posting about the ordeal to social media she hoped the public could assist her in obtaining any information about the incident.

She said she did not get the man's details because her first priority was getting herself to hospital.

Ms Lee said she has been left unable to work and that her sister had started a GoFundMe page to raise money to help with medical costs.

Ms Lee warned others to not react if they were caught in the middle of a road rage episode.

'Just ignore it' she said.

Ms Lee underwent surgery for multiple facial fractures after the incident

The incident took place at the intersection of Blaxland Road and Campbelltown Road in Campbelltown, south-west of Sydney

Officers attached to Campbelltown City Police Area Command have commenced an investigation into the incident and have released a description of a man who may be able to assist investigators.

The man is described as being of Pacific Islander/Maori appearance, about 182cm tall, of large build with hair in a top bun and a tattoo on his left arm

At the time he was wearing a white shirt and shorts.

Police believe there would have been motorists who witnessed the incident, or who would have dash cam relevant to the investigation.

Detective Inspector Andrew Mackay told a media conference there was 'certainly no violence from (Lee) at all'.

'It's very shocking, it's disgusting behaviour ... we take all incidents of violence very seriously,' he said.

'Someone will have seen what occurred, it was just before 6pm on a Saturday, it's a busy intersection with a lot of cars around, I need the public's help.
Newly released bodycam footage shows police officers in Tampa handcuffing and releasing the Miami-Dade police director after he 'put his gun in his mouth' and threatened to 'end it now' - hours before he shot himself in the head.

Around a dozen Tampa Police Department officers were called to a hotel on July 23 at around 6.30pm following reports that a man - now known to be Miami-Dade police director Alfredo 'Freddy' Ramirez - was arguing with his wife and had pointed a gun at his head.

After putting Ramirez in cuffs and speaking with the couple, police released him from custody and left his hotel. Ramirez then called the Miami-Dade mayor and said he wanted to resign as he had 'made mistakes'.

As Ramirez and his wife, Jody, were driving home to Miami at around 8.30pm, he pulled over his car on the I-75 and shot himself in the head, according to police reports.

He was immediately taken to Tampa Hospital and underwent surgery. He was said to be in a stable condition and expected to recover without brain damage but has likely lost the use of his right eye.

Miami-Dade police director Alfredo 'Freddy' Ramirez is seen in handcuffs in Tampa police bodycam footage released on Wednesday afternoon

Miami-Dade Director Alfredo 'Freddy' Ramirez (second from left) is pictured with his wife Jody Ramirez (left)

Reports and footage released by Tampa police on Wednesday detail how officers responded to the alleged incident, in which Ramirez allegedly pointed the gun at his head outside the hotel he was staying at while attending a Florida Sheriff's Conference with his wife.

In the new footage Ramirez can be heard asking the Tampa cops responding to the scene, 'What are you doing?' and 'You know I'm the director of the Miami-Dade police department?'

Ramirez is a 27-year Miami-Dade police veteran and leads the largest law enforcement agency in the southeastern US.

In May, he announced his intention to seek election next year to the newly created role of sheriff. It's unclear if he will remain in the race. In the meantime, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava has appointed an interim police director.

The incident began on July 23 outside a JW Marriott hotel, where Ramirez had been attending the Florida Sheriff's Association's annual summer conference with his wife.

The pair got reportedly got into a loud dispute outside the hotel before heading up to their room on the 12th floor.

In the new footage, a hotel employee can be heard telling officers: 'What a witness saw was they were arguing, they came out here, he said "I'm going to end it all," and put a gun in his mouth.'

Police were then directed to the couple's room. Due to the report of a gun, more than a dozen were in attendance and at least one was equipped with a bulletproof shield.

A hotel employee (pictured) told Tampa Police Department officers that a witness had seen Ramirez aim a gun at his head and threaten to 'end it all'

Ramirez's wife Jody assured Tamp cops that she did not feel threatened and said she could not recall if her husband had taken his gun out of its holster outside the hotel

Ramirez can be heard asking the Tampa cops responding to the scene, 'What are you doing?' and 'You know I'm the director of the Miami-Dade police department?'

After knocking on the hotel room door at around 6.45pm, Ramirez's wife Jody opened the door and appeared in the hallway with her arms raised. She told them her husband was in the room and the police ushered him out.

When Ramirez exited the room and raised his arms as instructed, two officers appeared to quickly place him in handcuffs. He then asked them what they are doing and told them of his senior position in the Miami-Dade Police Department.

'Who called the cops?' he asked them. 'I didn't do anything, I don't understand.'

When police asked him what happened outside the hotel, he told them, 'We were just talking, that's it. I didn't touch her, you can ask her, I didn't do anything.'

Ramirez was asked about the gun, and he told them he had a 'police gun' with him. He also denied pointing the gun anywhere.

'I'm here for the sheriff's conference,' he said. At around 7pm Ramirez was taken out of cuffs.

In the 15 minutes Ramirez was handcuffed, his wife Jody was interviewed by separate police officers down the hallway. She told them that her husband 'Freddy' is the director of the Miami Dade Police Department.

'We were just having a heated conversation,' she told them. 'We're fine.'

When asked if Ramirez took his gun out from his holster, she told police,' I don't recall him taking it out'.

She then told officers she had no concerns for her safety. 'If I felt unsafe I would tell all of you right this minute,' she said. 'He has plenty of demons from the job as I'm sure you guys are all probably aware of.'

The couple are then left alone, and according to police reports, at about 8.30pm Ramirez called his boss, Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, and offered his resignation.

'Freddy told me he had made a mistake, he was prepared to resign,' the mayor recounted during a July 26 press conference.

Ramirez is a 27-year Miami-Dade police veteran and leads the largest law enforcement agency in the southeastern US. He was said last week to be in a stable condition but likely to lose the use of his right eye

Ramirez and his wife were driving home to Miami from Tampa when he pulled over on the side of the road and shot himself in the head

She said Ramirez was 'very remorseful' during their conversation, and that she told him to get home safely and they would discuss it the next day. Sometime after that, he shot himself, according to police records.

As Ramirez and his wife were driving home to Miami from Tampa, somewhere along I-75 in the Riverview neighborhood, toward the southern end of Hillsborough County, and south of Tampa, he pulled over and shot himself in the head.

Jody Ramirez called 911. 'Oh my God, help me, help me, help me, help me!' she told dispatch, and said that her husband had walked into the road and that she was trying to help him.

She said she tried to treat his head wound on a grassy part of the road but that he would not let her.

The police chief was rushed to a Tampa hospital, where he underwent surgery.

Last week, Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said Ramirez was in stable condition at the hospital. Miami-Dade police said on Thursday that he remains in the Tampa area 'and is making progress.'
China will lift punitive tariffs on Australian barley exports from Saturday.

The Chinese government imposed the tariffs on barley imports in May 2020, over what it claims were concerns over the dumping of cheap grain.

'The Ministry of Commerce ruled that, in view of the changes in the market situation of barley in China, it is no longer necessary to continue to impose anti-dumping duties and countervailing duties on the imported barley originating in Australia,' the Chinese government said.

Australia said it would suspend a World Trade Organisation dispute against China in exchange for Beijing agreeing to review its tariffs.

Trade Minister Don Farrell, Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Agriculture Minister Murray Watt said in a joint statement the decision would benefit Australian producers and Chinese consumers.

The decision comes before the August 11 deadline for Canberra to reinstate the dispute.

Trade Minister Don Farrell, Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Agriculture Minister Murray Watt said in a joint statement the decision would benefit Australian producers and Chinese consumers.

'It affirms the calm and consistent approach that the Albanese government has taken,' the ministers said.

Since May 2020, China's duties on Australian barley have effectively blocked $916 million in exports to the world's biggest beer market.

'The removal of these duties means that Australia will now discontinue legal proceedings at the WTO,' the ministers said.

'This outcome demonstrates the importance of the WTO dispute mechanism in defending the interests of Australia's world-class producers and farmers.'

The Australian government will continue to pursue its wine dispute in the WTO and remained confident of a positive outcome, they said.
Teenagers who share extremist content online are risking a prison sentence without leaving their bedrooms, the head of Counter Terrorism Policing has said.

Matt Jukes also told the BBC officers were seeing more online hatred spill over into 'real threats of violence on the streets'.

Under-18s accounted for 14 per cent of all terrorism-related arrests in the UK in the year to March 2023, down from a record 15 per cent in the previous 12 months, Home Office figures show. It marks a significant rise on 2019/20, when it was 5 per cent.

Some 24 people under the age of 18 were arrested for terror-related activity in the year to March 2023, down from 29 in the previous 12 months.

The overall number of terror arrests in the UK has been on a downward path in recent years, dropping from a record 447 in 2017/18 to 169 in 2022/23.

Mr Jukes described the rise in the number of younger terror suspects since 2019 as a 'really worrying trend'.

He added the trend was a 'real concern' and a 'contagion', citing the case of Daniel Harris, 19, from Derbyshire, who was convicted over videos he had posted online, which were then shared by a man who carried out an attack in Buffalo, New York.

Teenage extremist Daniel Harris has been sentenced to 11-and-a-half years in jail, and a further 3 years on licence, for five counts of encouraging terrorism and possessing a 3D printer for purposes of terrorism

Payton Gendron killed 10 black people in a racially-motivated mass shooting in May last year

Payton Gendron posted a video in May last year showing him carrying out an attack at Tops supermarket in the US city, leaving 10 dead.

Harris was jailed for 11 years for posting videos promoting racist violence in January.

Mr Jukes told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'The really remarkable thing is now that literally, you can find yourself with a prison sentence not having left that bedroom, because of encouraging, inciting, sharing information, downloading bomb instructions and encouraging other people to take part in acts of violence.

'And sadly we're seeing more of this translate into real threats of violence on the streets.'

He added that counter terrorism officers have seen young people downloading instructions for 3D printed firearms, buying chemicals online and the reconnaissance of potential targets.

Read more: How British neo-Nazi who inspired mass shooting from his grandfather's bedroom was pulled out of school at age seven and produced a 'stream of terrorist bile' while 'left to his own devices' spending 14 hours a day online - before being jailed for 11 years Advertisement

Mr Jukes said: 'We know that the driving threat here is online but we also can see in our casework that for younger people than ever before, that's translating into the prospect of them actually carrying out acts of violence.'

'But it's one in five of the arrests we make now involve someone under 18, and more of them involving under 25s, so this is a new and emerging threat, which should concern us all and certainly should concern us in respect to the online lives of our communities.'

Islamic State fanatic Matthew King was jailed for life earlier this year with a minimum term of six years for plotting a terror attack on British police officers or soldiers, after he was filmed scoping out a police and train station.

King, from Wickford in Essex, had pleaded guilty to preparation of terrorist acts between December 22, 2021 and May 17, 2022.

The 19-year-old carried out surveillance at police stations, railway stations, a magistrates' court and a British Army barracks, and was just one day away from embarking on a terror attack when he was arrested by police last year.

In mitigation, his barrister Hossein Zahir KC said King was 'immature' and the prospect he would have carried out a terror attack in the UK or travelled to Syria to join the so-called Islamic State was 'remote'.

Matthew King, 19, who converted to Islam during the COVID-19 lockdown, became quickly radicalised by watching extremist material on the internet

But Judge Mark Lucraft KC told the 19-year-old he poses a risk to the public, and revealed a phone call made by King to his mother after being arrested in which he claimed to have done 'nothing wrong'.

King, who converted to Islam during the COVID-19 lockdown, became quickly radicalised by watching extremist material on the internet.

A student who planned a bomb attack on a police station to ignite a race war was also jailed for four years last month.

Luke Skelton, 20, a far-right extremist, wrote the 'Reactionary British Manifesto', which he planned to release after carrying out the attack, a court heard.

The teenager wrote down recipes for bomb-making and travelled to Newcastle City Centre to take surveillance pictures of a police station in September 2021.

The court heard he had researched how to make napalm and dynamite and written notes on his mobile phone about constructing a homemade bomb.

Luke Skelton, 20, a far-right extremist, wrote the 'Reactionary British Manifesto'

The court heard Skelton downloaded propaganda material on his phone from an extreme right-wing group. He was arrested by counter-terrorist police in June 2021 and told they were taking no further action, but in October he was arrested again and charged.

In one online message he wrote about becoming 'the great man of history.'

He said he wanted to 'accelerate the coming collapse and racial war' adding: 'Parliament will be responsible for the number of dead in the thousands.'

Streatham terrorist Sudesh Amman, 20, yelled 'Allahu Akbar' as he stabbed two innocent people during a 62-second rampage in South London before he was shot dead by armed police.

Amman, raised in Coventry and Birmingham before moving to Harrow in North-West London, had grabbed a knife from the display in the Low Price hardware store while wearing a fake suicide belt before stabbing two passersby - both of whom survived - in the attack on February 2, 2020.
Anthony Albanese has declared the Voice to Parliament will succeed during a meeting with Aboriginal elders at the Garma Festival - Australia's largest Indigenous cultural gathering.

Mr Albanese was joined by his partner Jodie Haydon on the trip to East Arnhem in the Northern Territory this week.

The couple both donned large wide-brimmed hats for the occasion, with Ms Haydon wearing brown boots paired with khaki pants and a white linen shirt.

The Prime Minister said he was confident Australians would vote Yes in the upcoming referendum, expected to be announced between October and December.

'I'm here to say to you that my word matters, and we will put it to the Australian people and we will succeed together in ensuring a 'Yes' vote in the referendum because there is everything to gain and nothing to lose from this,' he said on Friday.

'I'm very confident that Australians will listen to the gracious and generous request of Indigenous Australians to listen and to walk that journey of reconciliation.'

'First lady' Jodie Haydon joined Anthony Albanese on his trip to the Garma Festival

During his trip, Mr Albanese also announced that people in remote northeast Arnhem Land will be able to access a $6.4million tertiary institution to improve their job prospects and learning.

The Yothu Yindi Foundation will receive funding from the Aboriginals Benefit Account for the design and development of the Garma Institute.

The foundation already offers a Yolngu-centred curriculum for school students through the Dhupuma Barker School at Gunyangara, a 1,000km drive east of Darwin.

The independent bilingual school has driven strong attendance rates and improved education outcomes.

The institute will give the students a pathway to continue their higher education.

Mr Albanese said it was important for students to be able to live and learn on-country.

'This has been a long aspiration of the Yolngu people,' he said.

'This partnership shows how governments can work alongside communities, meeting their needs and helping them realise their full potential.'

During his trip, Mr Albanese also announced that people in remote northeast Arnhem Land will be able to access a $6.4million tertiary institution to improve their job prospects and learning

Mr Albanese was joined by his partner Jodie Haydon on the trip to East Arnhem in the Northern Territory this week

Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney said the Garma Institute would give Yolngu people the opportunity to continue their education without having to move away from family.

Yothu Yindi Foundation chief executive Denise Bowden said it was 'ground-breaking and exciting work'.

The benefit account receives money from the Commonwealth based on the value of royalties generated from mining on Aboriginal land in the Northern Territory.

The four NT land councils receive money for administration from the account, which also provides funding for projects that benefit the Aboriginal people of the NT.

In November last year, Ms Burney announced changes to the benefit account, setting up a new Aboriginal-led corporate Commonwealth entity to manage the process, the NT Aboriginal Investment Corporation.

Ms Burney said at the time establishing the corporation would shift decision-making over the benefit account from Canberra to the NT, a process that began in 2021 under coalition minister Ken Wyatt.

Mr Albanese is seen posing for a photo with a primary school student on Friday

In 2007, changes to the Land Rights Act meant while the benefit account Aboriginal advisory committee could make recommendations, it was the minister who had ultimate control over how and where the money was spent.

Since that time, ministers from Labor and coalition governments have been criticised for allocating funds to pet projects outside of the advisory committee's recommendations and for topping up budget shortfalls from the account.

According to the corporation website, it began legally operating on November 15, 2022, and the first grant process under the new system opened in April.

A spokesperson for Ms Burney told AAP the funds for the Garma Institute had been allocated before the new arrangements kicked in.

Consultations with the community and stakeholders about the facility's curriculum would begin at this year's Garma Festival.
A lawyer accused of destroying evidence linking her husband to a murder has been acquitted.

Alev Rojda Oncu, 32, allegedly attempted to destroy recordings from cameras at her Blacktown home on May 28, 2019 to pervert the course of justice or, alternatively, to mislead a judicial tribunal.

Less than a day after jurors began deliberating, they returned to Parramatta District Court on Friday and found her not guilty on both counts.

Oncu breathed a loud sigh of relief as the jury foreperson read out the verdicts.

Within five minutes, she was discharged from the stand, free to go.

Lawyer Alev Rodja Oncu (left) has been acquitted of destroying recordings from cameras at her western Sydney home which allegedly linked her husband to a murder

In May 2019, Sydney solicitor Oncu was looking forward to taking time off work when her husband Ali Cevik was arrested for participating in a criminal group and eventually pleaded guilty to murder, details of which cannot be published under court order.

Throughout the trial, prosecutors alleged Oncu had attempted to delete CCTV footage from her Blacktown home which showed Cevik leaving with another man hours before the murder.

But Oncu's barrister Mike Smith said they had twisted the facts to fit allegations his client wanted to destroy the recordings.

The 32-year-old could not have plotted the alleged scheme as she was 'technologically hopeless' and not a very smart lawyer who failed subject after subject, including criminal law, he said.

A technician Oncu called to the house had erased the footage and lied about Oncu asking him to do so after realising police wanted the hard drive when he wrongly thought he could be criminally charged, the jury heard.

When police reviewed the CCTV hard drive, they found everything had disappeared from before when the technician attended.

In August 2022, police were able to retrieve the missing footage using updated software.

Her husband Ali Cevik (left) was arrested for participating in a criminal group and eventually pleaded guilty to murder

Mr Smith said it was unlikely Oncu believed her husband was involved in serious criminal activity because he was a 'drug-addled mess' who couldn't even put his shoes on.

Oncu first met her husband when he was a mixed martial arts fighter before the two got married and bought a home.

Cevik then became involved in drugs and people with a 'bad reputation'.

Four men involved in the murder, including Cevik, either pleaded guilty or were found by a jury to be guilty. A fifth man pleaded guilty to being an accessory.
The chair of the ACT board of inquiry that examined the Bruce Lehrmann rape trial has admitted to handing his report to journalists before giving it to the Chief Minister, the ACT government has revealed.

Walter Sofronoff KC 'has provided the government with a detailed written explanation for why he chose to release the report to selected journalists prior to providing it to the Chief Minister', a government spokeswoman said, according to the Canberra Times.

It is understood part of Mr Sofronoff's reasoning is that he wanted the media outlets to be able to precisely and thoroughly report on the inquiry's findings shortly after the report was formally released by the ACT government.

Mr Sofronoff has not made any public comments since confirming he had provided the report to what the ACT government said was 'select media outlets' under an embargo.

Walter Sofronoff KC, the chair of the ACT board of inquiry that examined the Bruce Lehrmann rape trial, has admitted to giving his report to journalists before the Chief Minister

The Australian reported on the contents of the board of inquiry report on Wednesday evening.

The newspaper on Friday said it had not breached an embargo and it would not reveal the source of the leak.

The ABC on Thursday also published a story citing a copy of the report.

The ACT government faces criticism over the release of the landmark report into the justice system and a possible damages claim for the handling of the case against Mr Lehrmann, an ex-Liberal staffer.

The findings from the inquiry into the way the ACT legal system dealt with Brittany Higgins' rape allegation against her former colleague are due to be released next week.

The findings from the inquiry into the way the ACT legal system dealt with Brittany Higgins' (left) rape allegation against her former colleague, Mr Lehrmann, are due to be released next week

The government said the leaking of the report to the media, which led to widespread early reporting on the findings, had 'affected the inquiry process and harmed people involved'.

ACT director of public prosecutions Shane Drumgold, who was reportedly criticised in the findings, said he had not received the report.

Mr Lehrmann told multiple media outlets he was preparing to sue the ACT government over his prosecution.

'I've instructed my solicitors to prepare a statement of claim against the state,' he said.

'I've got lawyers that need to be paid, people who have supported me, like my mum and uncle, who need to be supported.

'I'm not interested in becoming a millionaire, but I do want to perhaps get on with my life and maybe buy a house.'

Mr Lehrmann was charged with raping Ms Higgins at Parliament House after a night out in 2019, but he has always denied the allegations.

His trial was aborted in October due to juror misconduct and prosecutors later dropped the charge over fears about the impact of a second trial on Ms Higgins' mental health.

Former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann (pictured) told multiple media outlets he was preparing to sue the ACT government over his prosecution

ACT Liberal leader Elizabeth Lee said there was a legal obligation for people with adverse findings made against them in a report to be notified.

But she called on the government to immediately release the report after the disclosure of its findings.

'If there is going to be some adverse findings in this report, the people who are affected should have already been notified,' Ms Lee said.

Opposition frontbencher Simon Birmingham lamented the way the matter had been 'politicised'.

'That's where the ACT government, from this latest report, really needs to make sure they are comprehensive in addressing it,' he said.

'And ensure that they give far greater confidence to people in future to do what ultimately is the right thing and that is to report any crimes and do so first and foremost to the police.'

Mr Drumgold has taken leave until the end of the month while the government considers the findings.
The former boss of an academy trust launched by the government to take on schools nobody else wanted to run has been charged with historic child sex offences, it was revealed today.

Gareth Mason is alleged to have carried out an indecent assault and attempted to commit an act of gross indecency on a young girl.

The 52-year-old, of Leeds, will appear in the city's magistrates' court later this month.

A West Yorkshire Police spokesman told MailOnline: 'Gareth Mason has been charged with sexual offences which are alleged to have occurred in Wakefield between 2001 and 2002.

'The offences are for indecent assault and attempting to commit an act of gross indecency and relate to a single female who was under the age of 16 at the time'.

Former CEO of Falcon Education Academies Trust, Gareth Mason, has been charged with child sex offences

Mason was one of Britain's top education chiefs with a track record of turning around struggling schools that nobody wanted to run, which were dubbed 'orphan' schools.

Until three years ago, he was CEO of the Falcon Education Academies Trust, which was set up by former education secretary Sir Gavin Williamson in 2019.

Falcon's aim was to take on schools struggling with academic performance or financial issues.

But Mason left suddenly in October 2020, without explanation. At the time, the Falcon trust refused to say why. He was on secondment from the Delta Academies Trust, one of the largest of its kind.

They have said today that Mason has not worked for them 'for a number of years'. Falcon Education Academies Trust and the Department for Education have not commented. Falcon is set to be shut down, it emerged last month.
Some Royal Mail customers attempting to swap old stamps bought from the Post Office for new digital versions are allegedly being told their purchases are fakes.

Old stamps became invalid on Tuesday, with anyone using them now facing a 1.10 surcharge - meaning new stamps with barcodes are now the only ones allowed.

The Royal Mail launched a free 'Swap Out' scheme meaning old stamps can be exchanged for their new equivalents by posting them to 'Freepost Swap Out'.

Officials confirmed that Special Stamps featuring pictures and Christmas stamps without a barcode will continue to be valid and do not need to be swapped out.

But some Britons are said to have been informed that their old stamps  which they bought from branches of the Post Office  are fraudulent or 'not genuine'.

Royal Mail presents the new King Charles stamp at the Postal Museum in London in February

The Post Office said it receives its postage stamps direct from Royal Mail's 'secure printers'

Other customers have claimed that even the new stamps - also bought from Post Office branches - have also been labelled fake, reported the Daily Telegraph.

What Royal Mail stamps are no longer valid? Royal Mail has now added barcodes to all of its regular postage stamps. Old-style regular stamps without a barcode are no longer valid for postage, as of Tuesday (July 31). The stamps that have changed feature the profile of the late Queen Elizabeth II on a plain-coloured background. However, Special Stamps with pictures on and Christmas stamps without a barcode will continue to be valid and don't need to be swapped out. Old stamps can be exchanged for new barcoded versions through the 'Stamp Swap Out' scheme. To swap out stamps, people can complete a form, include their stamps and send it free of charge to 'Freepost Swap Out'. The form can be accessed by clicking here Advertisement

The newspaper revealed it had seen 40 examples of customers claiming that old or new stamps bought from Post Offices or the Royal Mail website were 'invalid'.

It cited an example of customer Susan Harrison, 60, in Hartlepool, County Durham, who sent off eight old stamps bought from a Post Office counter in a WH Smith store to be swapped.

However, a few weeks later Royal Mail sent her a letter claiming the stamps could not be switched because they had 'already been used or are not genuine'.

She told the Telegraph: 'I'm gobsmacked. If you can't buy stamps in a post office without them being counterfeit then where can you buy them?'

Which? consumer law expert Lisa Webb has urged Royal Mail to investigate, saying it is 'unacceptable for recipients to be wrongly charged for stamps that have been bought legitimately from reputable retailers'.

She told MailOnline: 'It's in Royal Mail's interests to investigate as a priority any issues reported with its new stamp barcode system.

'Anyone who believes they have been wrongly charged for stamps marked as counterfeit should raise it with Royal Mail and the company must ensure that any customers who encounter problems with the new system are not left out of pocket.'

The new stamps were introduced with barcodes so they can be used with the Royal Mail app. Officials also hope they will improve efficiency and security.

The new stamps were first introduced in February last year and the deadline to use old stamps was originally January 31, 2023 - but an extra six-month grace period was then added until July 31.

A Post Office spokesman told MailOnline today: 'Stamps are available to buy from a number of different sources.

The Royal Mail's website shows what postage stamps are now invalid - and others that are not

'Post Office Ltd receives its stamps direct from Royal Mail's secure printers and are shared with our experienced Postmasters and operators to sell in their Post Offices.

'Customers who buy stamps at Post Offices are given an itemised receipt.

'We take any allegation of fake stamps at our branches seriously and will always require a receipt as proof of purchase before we can investigate.

'As part of this, any alleged fake stamp needs to be double checked by Royal Mail to verify the status of the stamp.'

The Royal Mail launched a free 'Swap Out' scheme meaning old stamps can be exchanged

And a Royal Mail spokesman told MailOnline: 'We encourage any customer who believes they have been incorrectly surcharged to send the stamps they have remaining to us.

'It is important that we can investigate and determine whether the stamps are genuine, as well as understand exactly where they were purchased.

'Barcoded stamps have been in use since February 2022 and each barcode is unique.

'This uniqueness enables our machines to check the validity of stamps and to identify barcodes that have been through the network before.

Former Post Office workers celebrate outside the High Court in London in April 2021 after having their convictions overturned by the Court of Appeal following the Horizon IT scandal

'If one of these stamps is showing as previously used it may suggest that the stamp has been reproduced by a counterfeiter.

'If a stamp is identified by our machines as counterfeit, it will also be individually checked by a member of our team before the recipient is asked to pay a surcharge.'

There is no suggestion that postmasters are selling fake stamps in their Post Offices.

But the news comes nearly a decade after the Post Office Horizon IT scandal from 2000 until 2014 when more than 700 subpostmasters were prosecuted based on information from the accounting system, but wrongly accused of theft, fraud and false accounting.

In 2019 a judge ruled the system contained a number of 'bugs, errors and defects' and there was a 'material risk' that shortfalls in Post Office branch accounts were in fact caused by it. Many subpostmasters have since had convictions overturned.
The childcare worker accused of sexually abusing 91 girls has been moved to a secure prison cell after inmates worked out who he was, raising the prospect of a 'revenge attack' behind bars.

The 45-year-old Gold Coast man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is accused of carrying out sickening sexual abuse involving 91 'pre-pubescent girls' at 10 childcare centres in Brisbane, one in NSW and one overseas between 2007 and 2022.

Police have identified all 87 Australian alleged victims, all of which were young girls, and are still working to identify four young girls overseas.

The man's charges include 136 counts of rape and 110 counts of sexual intercourse with a child under 10.

He has spent the last year at Arthur Gorrie jail, but was moved to Brisbane Correctional Centre on Thursday after news of the alleged offending came to light this week. He is now being held in a special needs unit, the Courier Mail reported.

A childcare centre worker has been charged with 1,623 child abuse offences against 'pre-pubescent girls' (stock image)

A mother of a little girl who was aged three and four when she was allegedly abused by the childcare worker posted a distressing open letter on the Brisbane Mum's Group on Facebook on Wednesday evening.

'My youngest daughter, the one I eventually realised he was (allegedly) abusing, would run up to him every time she was at kindy,' the anonymous post read, reported the Courier Mail.

'She would exclaim his name and express excitement at all they would do that day. I felt so reassured knowing my baby was cared for it made me feel secure knowing she was in good hands and was happy at that centre.

'But with such beauty was lurking a darkness. While he greeted us and told us our daughters 'had a great day', he had (allegedly) been raping them.'

The horrified mother said she struggled with this 'on a deep level'.

AFP Assistant Commissioner Justine Gough (pictured) acknowledged the alleged details would be 'deeply distressing' but assured the public that alleged Australian victims have been identified and are receiving support

He has has been in custody since August last year after he was initially charged with two counts of making child exploitation material and one count of using a carriage service for child pornography material.

These initial charges relating to two alleged victims at a childcare centre in Brisbane's southwest led to a major investigation which uncovered the scale of his alleged crimes.

NSW Assistant Commissioner Michael Fitzgerald described the matter as 'one of the most horrific child abuse cases' he had seen in his 40-year career.

All parents of the identified alleged victims have been informed by police.

While the mother's anonymous open letter has not been verified, it contains information consistent with the police investigation.

'Despite such a well-outlined and professional delivery by the Australian Federal Police, I felt like my voice was lost among the horrific detail of what this individual (allegedly) did to our daughters,' the woman wrote.

'Many will ask, 'were there any red flags?' To be honest, no, for me there weren't.

'This individual befriended us and appeared to be child-centred in his approach to early learning.

'He... indulged the children in exceptional play-based learning strategies that had everyone impressed.

'His approach was akin to that of Montessori, using natural elements to create new and wonderful things.

'He loved art and would encourage the kids to express themselves using any media they could find.'

The mother said she felt a deep sense of betrayal mixed with guilt on learning of the allegations.

'I grapple with my own sense of responsibility, how could I not have seen this?' she wrote.

She said the man suddenly left the centre last year.

'It was six months later that we would be contacted by the Australian Federal Police to identify stills of our daughters from videos where he was (allegedly) abusing them,' she wrote.

'Fast forward to today, where I sit and I write out my feelings.

'The profound truth is: My life has been turned upside-down by this atrocity.

'In so many respects, we, as parents, have been let down and failed by the systems which are meant to keep our children safe.

'He should have been (arrested) earlier.'

Police this week revealed two reports had been made about the man in 2021.

They were both investigated but there was not enough evidence to proceed, the AFP said.

'When I asked our childcare centre why we were not advised about the 2021 report, the very dismissive reply suggested that the centre could not appear discriminatory against the individual by advising parents, for it was imperative that they retained his right to confidentiality,' the mother wrote.

'Well, what about the right of our children to attend a childcare safely  what about the right of parents to make an informed decision around removing their child from a centre if there is a report made?

NSW Assistant Commissioner Michael Fitzgerald described the matter as 'one of the most horrific child abuse cases' he had seen in his 40-year career (stock image)

'How dare these centres make those choices for us, hiding the truth and keeping us in the dark.

'When the childcare and the greater systems at large were meant to have checks and balances in place to prevent offending like this, 87 Australian girls are (allegedly) raped and sexually abused across 15 years of offending'

The mother said one of the reasons she had specifically chosen that childcare centre because it was 'one big room with no hidey-holes'.

'So many of the systems in place have profoundly failed us and our daughters,' she added.

'How can 91 little girls be (allegedly) raped by their childcare teacher and we still deny there is an issue here?

'We need to implement more educated policies around employing childcare workers, formulate better consistent procedures in managing the Blue Card status and criminal history checks.

'We need to educate more staff and parents alike on what a predator's grooming behaviour can look like.'

To the parents of the other children allegedly abused by the man, she wrote: 'You are not alone.

'I want to say, 'I see you'. It might feel like the world is falling apart right now, and perhaps it is, but trust me, it will get better.

'Life will move on as we heal, as our daughters heal and find solace in our communities.

'From this dark night of the soul moment for all of us, we will be rebirthed in the flames as ever stronger and courageous beings willing to fight for change for our kids.

'It's up to us to advocate for them. The power is in our hands.'

Her post, which has since been taken down, was met with an outpouring of support.

'By sharing your story, you are educating parents on the need to act on gut instincts when something doesn't seem right,' wrote one.

'You are standing up and demanding change.'

On Thursday it was revealed that the families the alleged victims are now planning to take legal action against the daycare centres.

'Multiple families' of the little girls allegedly abused have now reached out to law firm Slater and Gordon to seek compensation.

The childcare worker's case is set to be mentioned in Brisbane Magistrates Court on August 21.

It's understood in 2014 when police dismantled a disturbing dark web ring, in which members produced and traded child abuse material, images and videos were discovered which put investigators on the man's trail.

The network was run by Australian Shannon McCoole, who is now serving 35 years in prison for a litany of child sexual abuse offences.

Police initially had no clue who made the material or where it was produced, but they uploaded it to an international law enforcement victim identification database in the hope a collaborative effort could shed some light.

Then in August 2022, bed sheets pictured in one of the sickening videos were traced by the Australian Federal Police back to a Brisbane childcare centre in which the man had worked.

He was arrested on August 20, with police allegedly finding nearly 4,000 images on his digital devices.

If you or someone you know needs support, contact 1800 RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or Kids Helpline on 1800 551 800.
Sweden's PM said it was 'the most serious security situation since World War II'

Danish police are tightening border controls following recent burnings of the Koran, following a similar decision by Sweden earlier in the week.

The controls will initially be in place until August 10, the Danish ministry said, following an assessment by Sweden's domestic security service that protests over the last few weeks had put the country at a 'heightened terror threat'.

Anti-Islam activists in Denmark and Sweden have burned and damaged several copies of the Muslim holy book in recent months, inciting outrage and protest in the Muslim world and demands that governments ban such acts.

Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard was forced to admit: 'The recent Koran burnings have, as the security police have said, affected the current security situation.'

Protestor Salwan Momika outside the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm, Sweden, on July 20, 2023, one of several demonstrations prompting Sweden's security service to up its terror threat

Men from the far-right Danish group Danske Patrioter 'Danish Patriots' hold a banner reading a message against Islam outside the Embassy of the Republic of Iraq in Copenhagen, 24 July

Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs Lars Loekke Rasmussen addresses journalists after a briefing on the international reactions to the Koran burnings in Copenhagen on July 31, 2023

At the end of July, Denmark sought new legal ways to limit Koran burnings, citing security concerns.

The government said it would seek to find a 'legal tool' that could enable authorities to intervene in such protests, if deemed to entail 'significant negative consequences for Denmark, not least with regard to security'.

Now, according to the Ministry, they will also 'increase the focus on who is entering Denmark, in order to respond to the specific and current threats.'

With book-burning events becoming more regular in Sweden and Denmark, officials have looked to find a way resolve spiralling tensions.

But Right-wing parties in both Sweden and Denmark have denounced the initiatives, some saying freedom of speech cannot be compromised.

Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said on 31 July that he hoped the government's proposal to limit Koran burnings would help de-escalate the situation.

Protests against Islam have strained diplomatic relations between the Scandinavian countries and the Muslim world, despite general condemnation from their governments.

Most recently, Sweden came under fire after police granted a permit for a protest that saw the desecration of a Koran outside parliament in Stockholm on 31 July.

Salwan Momika and Salwan Najem kicked and stomped on the book before setting it on fire, as they had done at a protest outside Stockholm's main mosque in late June

There is no law in Denmark or Sweden specifically prohibiting the burning or desecration of the Koran or other religious texts.

Iranians burn Sweden's flag during an anti-Sweden rally after the Friday prayer ceremony in Tehran, Iran, 27 January 2023. Iran harshly condemned the burning of the Koran in Sweden by the Leader of the far-right Danish political party Stram Kurs, Rasmus Paludan on 21 January

Yemenis participate in a protest denouncing the burning of Islam's holy book, the Koan, in Sweden and Denmark, on July 24, 2023 in Sana'a, Yemen

'It's a serious situation that we're in,' Susanna Trehorning, SAPO's deputy head of counter-terrorism, told Swedish public broadcaster SVT.

'It's a heightened threat and an attack can occur within the framework of a heightened threat.'

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson was forced to admit his country was in 'the most serious security situation since World War II'.

Muslims view the Koran as the literal word of God and actual or alleged desecration of the holy book often sparks protests in the Muslim world.
This is the moment a huge fireball erupted from a warship as Ukraine staged an audacious kamikaze sea drone attack on the key Russian port and naval base of Novorossiysk.

Dramatic footage shows the explosion in the harbour after Vladimir Putin's forces deployed two warships to counter the strikes.

Russia said it had thwarted Ukrainian sea and air drone attacks on a naval base in the Black Sea and the Crimean peninsula.

One of two Ukrainian marine drones was seen burning before dramatically exploding in the port, some 450 nautical miles from the Kyiv-held waters where it was likely launched.

'Tonight, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, with the use of two unmanned sea boats, attempted an attack on the Novorossiysk naval base of the Russian Armed Forces,' Russia's defence ministry said on Telegram.

Footage shows a huge explosion from one of the vessels in the harbour after Vladimir Putin's forces reportedly deployed two warships to counter the strikes

Two Russian naval vessels - landing ship Olenegorsky Gornyak and anti-sabotage boat Suvorovets - were deployed to shoot at the incoming surface drones, according to reports. Olenegorsky Gornyak was reported to have sustained damage

Russian ships destroyed the naval drones, it said. It was the first such attack targeting the port city.

A Ukrainian intelligence source told Reuters that the Olenegorsky Gornyak landing ship was damaged during a sea drone attack conducted by Ukraine's SBU security agency and navy near the Russian port of Novorossiysk on Friday.

'As a result of the attack, the Olenegorsky Gornyak received a serious breach and currently cannot conduct its combat missions,' the source said, adding that Russia's statements about a 'repelled attack' are false.

The 112-metre-long vessel, which can carry a 450-ton cargo and 25 armoured personnel carriers, is one of three landing ships that has remained on the Black Sea since the start of the invasion.

The mayor of Novorossiysk, Andrey Kravchenko, said the crews of the Olenegorsky Gonyak and Suvorovets ships 'immediately reacted to the attack and helped to avoid consequences'.

A plume of smoke after one of the ships was hit by the strike. Locals reported seeing 'a bright flash over the sea and explosions'

Video shows a fireball erupting from one of the vessels. One of two Ukrainian marine drones was seen burning before dramatically exploding in the port

The Olenegorsky Gornyak ship that was reported to have sustained damage

Veniamin Kondratiev, the governor of the Krasnodar region where the base is located, said there were no casualties.

Footage shows a large vessel being towed ashore. A source with knowledge of the port's operations told Reuters that it had to be towed because it could not move under its own power after being damaged.

Elsewhere, there were loud explosions as Ukraine staged a nighttime attack on an oil depot in Feodosia, annexed Crimea.

READ MORE: Ukraine accuses Russia of preparing to stage a false flag attack on oil refinery in Belarus in order to blame Kyiv saboteurs and draw Minsk into war The Security Service of Ukraine said the attack on the refinery would be carried out by military and intelligence forces sent by Moscow to Belarus disguised as Wagner mercenaries Advertisement

Ship movements in the key port of Novorossiysk - which handles 2 per cent of the world's oil supply and also exports grain - were temporarily halted amid the drone strikes and sound of gunfire.

Locals reported seeing 'a bright flash over the sea and explosions'.

This was close to the facilities of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, a major international oil pipeline system that delivers oil from western Kazakhstan to Black Sea terminals at Novorossiysk.

Explosions were reported after midnight and also closer to dawn.

The Russian defence ministry said its forces had repelled two drone strikes in Novorossiysk.

'Two unmanned sea boats attempted to attack the Novorossiysk naval base,' said the ministry.

'During the repulse of the attack, unmanned boats were visually detected and destroyed by fire from the standard weapons of Russian ships guarding the outer raid of the naval base.'

Pro-war Russian channel Rybar said: 'It is noteworthy that at the time of the raid and attempted strike on Novorossiysk, three reconnaissance UAVs of the US Air Force and NATO Air Force - RQ-4D Phoenix, two MQ-9A Reapers - and one R-8A aircraft were in the air in the southwest of the Black Sea.'

Mayor Andrei Kravchenko said: 'Today military units have worked effectively to protect our hero city.

'Our servicemen are technically provided with everything necessary to perform their tasks.

'All life support and logistics facilities are under reliable protection.'

In Crimea, just across the water from Novorossiysk, Russia's Ministry of Defence said it thwarted another attack by Ukraine overnight, taking down 13 drones.

Footage shows the moment a maritime drone hits a Russian landing ship

The black-and-white footage shows the drone accelerating towards the ship

Footage showed an explosion at or near an oil depot in Feodosia.

Pro-Russian sources said this was 'air defences shooting down enemy drones in the Crimean town of Feodosia', but there was no independent confirmation.

The Black Sea port of Novorossiysk hosts the terminus of a pipeline that carries most Kazakh oil exports through Russia.

The fuel artery's operator Caspian Pipeline Consortium said it was continuing to ship oil to moored tankers at the terminal, Russian state media reported on Friday.

But 'a temporary ban has been established on the movement of ships in the port', said the company, as quoted by Interfax news agency.

The number of attacks in the Black Sea has increased from both sides since Moscow exited a deal last month that had allowed Ukrainian grain exports via the shipping hub during the conflict between the two countries.

Russia's Black Sea Fleet has been targeted since the beginning of Moscow's military campaign in Ukraine more than a year ago, but attacks have increased in recent weeks.

Footage appears to show the Olenegorsky Gornyak landing ship being towed in the Russian port and naval base of Novorossiysk

Horrified Russian sunbathers watch as a large ship in Novorossiysk appears to be towed towards the port

On Tuesday, Russia's defence ministry said it foiled a Ukrainian drone attack targeting patrol boats in the Black Sea.

Three drones were trained on ships navigating in waters 340 kilometres (210 miles) southwest of Sevastopol, the base of Russia's Black Sea fleet in Crimea.

A similar attack was repelled a week earlier.

Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014, has been targeted by Kyiv throughout Moscow's Ukraine offensive but has come under more intense, increased attacks in recent weeks.

Ukrainian drone attacks on Crimea in July blew up an ammunition depot and damaged a strategic and symbolic bridge linking Russia's mainland to the peninsula.

Kyiv has repeatedly said it plans to take back Crimea, which is a regular target for its forces.

On Sunday, Russian-installed authorities in Crimea said 25 Ukrainian drones were destroyed over the peninsula.

Kyiv says Russia has repeatedly attacked Odesa, a centuries-old city on the shores of the Black Sea and one of Ukraine's main ports.
The designer has worked with Salvador Dali, Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks

She is best known for designing the iconic 'cat eye' sunglasses frame

Google Doodle has decided to honour Altina Schinasi on her 116th birthday.

Altina Schinasi, also known as Altina Carey, was an American designer, artist and inventor, best known for the popular 'cat-eye' sunglasses frame.

In her lifetime she worked alongside Salvador Dali, Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks.

But, who was the designer? What else did she contribute to the arts? Read on to find out more about her inspirational life.

Altina Schinasi (pictured) also known as Altina Carey, was an American designer, artist and inventor, best known for the popular 'cat-eye' sunglasses frame

Who was Altina Schinasi?

Altina Schinasi was an innovative visionary who broke barriers in the world of art.

Throughout her lifetime she was a filmmaker, sculptor, entrepreneur, window dresser, designer and artist.

She is best known for inventing and designing the popular 'cat-eye' glasses that are still prevalent in the fashion world today.

She wanted more fashionable options for women and the glasses intended to convey whimsy, mystery and romance.

Despite setbacks, they became a fashion staple for women around the world.

She worked with famous artists and activists during her time such as Salvador Dali and Martin Luther King Jr.

Schinasi was married four times: first to architect Morris Sanders, second to Viennese doctor Eric Barrett, then to political scientist Charles Carey (Hence why she is also known as Altina Carey), and finally to Cuban artist Celestino Miranda.

She had two sons: Denis and Terry, who both grew up to be filmmakers and win Academy Awards.

Google Doodle has decided to honour Altina Schinasi on her 116th birthday (pictured)

Early life and culture

Altina Schinasi was born on this day (August 4) in 1907, in Manhattan, New York.

Her parents, Laurette and Morris, were immigrants from the then Ottoman Empire.

Laurette Schinasi, her mother, was a native of Salonica and her father Morris Schinasi, was a Sephardic Jewish Turk.

Her father migrated to New York City in 1890 and established a family-run tobacco business that successfully landed him a large fortune.

The artist grew up in a culturally diverse environment and her art was often inspired by her parents experiences as immigrants.

After she graduated high school, Schinasi moved to Paris to study painting, which was where her love for the arts began.

When she returned to the USA, she studied art at The Art Students League in New York - this led her to take a job as a window dresser for multiple stores on Fifth Avenue.

The cat-eye glasses

The cat eye glasses quickly became a huge success and Schinasi was swarmed with publicity

American model, Emily Ratajkowski, wearing the design that's been popular for 100 years

Rihanna also opted for Schinasi's cat-eye design when she shared this poolside snap on Instagram

It was actually Schinasi's time as a window dresser that inspired the iconic Harlequin glasses, more commonly known as 'cat-eye' glasses.

She was looking at the display in an Optician's window and noticed that there were not many options for women's glasses - most of them were round frames.

The designer wanted to create a new, fashionable choice for women.

The idea for the Harlequin glasses stemmed from the Harlequin masks she saw people wearing in Venice, Italy during the Carnevale festival - she believed the pointed edges were flattering to your fact.

She began to cut out the shape she wanted using paper and took her demo to manufacturers.

However, all of the major manufacturers rejected her design as they thought it was too edgy - realistically, Schniasi was ahead of her time.

Finally, a local shop owner took a liking to the design and asked for an exclusive design for six months.

The glasses quickly became a huge success and Schinasi was swarmed with publicity - through the late 1930's and into the 1940's Harlequin glasses became a staple fashion accessory for women in the USA.

The designer was awarded the Lord & Taylor American Design Award and was recognised by major magazines such as Vogue .

The idea for the Harlequin glasses stemmed from the Harlequin masks she saw people wearing in Venice, Italy (pictured)

Salvador Dali, Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks

Schinasi worked with trailblazers throughout her time including Salvador Dali, Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks.

During her time dressing Fifth Avenue windows, Schinasi got to work with renowned Spanish artist, Salvador Dali.

They worked together on designs for Bonwit Teller - then, they met again while she studied under German artist George Grosz as Dali frequented the same classes.

Later in life, she was drawn to Martin Luther King Jr.'s March on Washington, which she managed to acquire film rights for - she got author John Oliver Killens to write the screenplay.

When the script was completed, Schinasi met with Dr. King Jr. in Atlanta to show him.

From there, he invited her to visit Savior Church in Montgomery, Alabama where his father was the pastor and he was the guest preacher.

From the pulpit, Dr. King Jr. told the congregation about the script and that he looked forward to the film.

Around this time she also met with civil rights activists Rosa Parks and Ralph Abernathy.

However, sadly after this, due to a lack of funding the project could not continue.

What else did she do?

In the 1960s, Schinasi produced a documentary about George Grosz which was gave her more recognition.

The film won first place at the Venice Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award - it portrayed the life of the artist and her former mentor, George Grosz.

She was also a successful sculptor - she mainly sculpted chairs and benches, which she named Chairacters.

The Chairacters even featured on the cover of The Los Angeles Times Magazine.

In her later years she wrote and published her autobiography called 'The Road I have Travelled' (1995) and also volunteered as an art therapist.

Altina Schinasi also sculpted figural chairs and benches, which she named Chairacters (pictured)

In 2014, there was a documentary released about her life by Peter Sanders, called 'Altina'

Her legacy

Altina Schinasi left behind a huge legacy, with cat-eye glasses still being worn across the world, almost 100 years after their first invention.

In 2014, there was a documentary released about her life by Peter Sanders, called 'Altina'.

It won a variety of awards including Best Documentary at the Toronto Jewish Film Festival.

She continued to paint, sculpt and design for her entire life - she lived out her final years in Santa Fe, New Mexico with her fourth husband, Celestino Miranda, before passing away on August 19 in 1999.
A woman who stole 155,000 from a medical practice while having an affair with a doctor has been ordered to pay 41,000 in compensation.

Jacqueline Rodger, 56, had a secret relationship with Dr Iain Hathorn while she was practice manager at the surgery.

The pair had been having regular trysts but the affair ended when Rodger got married.

Their relationship was revealed after an investigation was launched into cash problems at Greenhills Medical Practice in East Kilbride, Lanarkshire.

Rodger, of Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, admitted embezzling 155,012.71 between April 2014 and February 2018 and was jailed for 18 months last year. She was released on a tag from HMP Edinburgh in March after serving less than a third of her sentence.

Jacqueline Rodger (above) was a manager at the Greenhills Medical Practice in East Kilbride, Scotland. She stole more than 155,000 from the surgery over nearly four years

Rodger appeared at Hamilton Sheriff Court and was ordered to hand over 41,157.50 as part of a confiscation order. The court heard the money had come from the sale of a house and will be handed over to her old bosses.

Rodger, who claimed to have taken the cash due to stress, told Hathorn by text message: 'Iain, it's Jacqueline. It was me that did it. I'm so sorry, so ashamed. You're all such lovely people.'

A message sent to another doctor at the surgery said: 'I am so sorry and ashamed of what I have done. You were all so good to me, I deserve everything that's coming my way.'

She later claimed she had been forced into the relationship, but a police investigation dismissed her allegations. It showed Rodger, who had worked at the centre since 2008, had been moving money to her own account disguised as bogus payments to locum doctors and office supply firms. After the money was stolen the medical centre was forced to close.

Sheriff Linda Nicolson said: 'I will make an order directing the entirety of the compensation has to be paid out of the confiscation order I have granted.'

Rodger was ordered to pay back 41,000 of the embezzled cash during a hearing at Hamilton Sheriff Court (pictured). The court was told she sold a house to generate the money

Rodger had originally been accused of taking 224,375.39 but prosecutors accepted her guilty plea to the lesser amount.

Kenny Donnelly, deputy crown agent, said: 'This woman's crimes caused significant disruption to a community's GP services.

'This compensation order should serve as a warning to anyone involved in financial crime of any kind that we will not stop at prosecution.'

'Even after a conviction is secured, COPFS will continue to use Proceeds of Crime legislation to ensure that funds obtained through embezzlement are confiscated and compensation awarded where appropriate to the victims of such crimes.'

During Rodger's trial last year, depute fiscal Jennifer Cunningham told the court: 'As a result of this investigation and the actions of the accused, the Greenhills partners decided to cease their contract with the NHS and, as of 31st October 2018, Greenhills Medical Practice ceased to exist.

'Many of the doctors within Greenhills had been part of the practice for over 20 years.'
A scout leader has blasted the organisation of the World Scout Jamboree where 600 youngsters were struck down by a heatwave - as he claims a food shortage has left children having a dessert for lunch and complaints are being censored.

The man, who wished to remain anonymous, told MailOnline that he was originally planning to attend - and while he's glad he is not experiencing the 'nightmare' that those in South Korea's North Jeolla province are facing, he wishes he could help.

The former jamboree leader also accused the UK contingent leaders of telling staff not to share any images of anything bad going on - something he described as 'diabolical'.

About 43,000 people from 158 countries - including 4,500 Brits - are currently taking part in the World Scout Jamboree - known as the world's largest youth camp. Among those in attendance is adventurer Bear Grylls - the UK's Chief Scout since 2009 - who called for people to remain calm.

The event being held at the SaeManGeum site coincides with the highest heat warning by the government in four years, as temperatures in some parts of South Korea topped 38C this week.

While some parents insisted their children are still having a good time, others have told how it is is 'alarming how quickly order broke down' and that their children feel like 'they are going to die'.

Speaking to MailOnline, the former world jamboree leader said that people who he knows over there 'have had an absolute nightmare'. He added: 'They haven't had enough hospital facilities for the amount of young people. They've had to get get more doctors in. They have had to put more medical tents up.'

The source continued: 'It shouldn't have got to the point of 600 young people collapsing in one evening for the president to turn around and say we will get you more vehicles.

More than 600 participants at the 25th World Scout Jamboree have been struck down by a heatwave in South Korea

Pictures shared with MailOnline show how tents have been raised onto platforms due to flooding

A female participant sits on the floor as scouts queue to get into a souvenir shop amid the blistering heat

Other pictures show fumigation trucks trying to clear mosquitoes. Parents have described their children being stuck in mosquito-infested fields

Adventurer and TV presenter Bear Grylls, who is at the World Scout Jamboree, called for people to remain calm

'It should have been pre-empted especially with the heatwave they've got. I was going to go but decided not to go. In some ways, I'm glad I did but in other ways, I wish I was there to help.'

The source also said that 'there's not enough food and water', adding: 'Lunch for most of them is a sweet of some sort, nothing savoury. The food options have been really bad. It's all been sweet options... none of them can read the packaging, if you have food allergies, that's sort of thrown out the window.'

He went on to blast this year's 'upsetting' scenes, contrasting it to his own experience as a leader in America four years ago where there was 'more cover, more water, more food, more everything'.

'I think it's the disorganisation, the lack of communication and the masking of images and details going out,' he added. 'The UK contingent has asked leaders and international service teams not to post pictures reflecting bad what's going on. That to me is diabolical. It's the public-facing 'look how brilliant it is', and privately, it's 'look how c**p it is'.'

In a bid to calm things down, Grylls posted a clip of his rousing speech at the opening ceremony on Instagram with the caption: 'It's super hot in Korea. To all @Scouts there, remember the mantra: Shade & hydrate act early if struggling buddy buddy always.'

Grylls became the UK's youngest ever chief scout when he was appointed at the age of 34. He described it as 'one of the proudest moments of my life'. In 2018, Grylls also became the first ever Chief Ambassador of World Scouting - which involves promoting scouts to an international audience.

Despite Grylls' call for calmness, when an emergency alert was sent out on the jamboree's app, parents could not help but panic. One British parent told The Telegraph: 'We now have kids crying, thinking they are going to die.'

Parents also complained that their children, who are all aged 14 to 17, were stuck outside in the early hours of the morning in a 'mosquito-infested field' with no tents, dirty toilets and limited food.

One father told MailOnline that his 15-year-old son has 'had an awful time', adding: 'It's alarming how quickly order has broken down.' He described it as being reminiscent of the Woodstock Festival of 1999 - where festival-goers had little shade and limited water. The unbearable heat, exhaustion and dehydration left people seriously ill.

He also brought up that the 'only food on offer is highly processed sweet food'. Referencing William Goulding's novel about a group of boys who try to govern themselves after get stranded on an island together, he added: 'The older children have been given it in bulk with instructions to distribute, but predictably a sort of Lord of the Flies tuck shop scenario has developed.

'The organisers have certainly not been prepared for this - [Robert] Baden-Powell [scouts founder] must be turning in his grave!'

Grylls took to Instagram to tell scouts to 'remember the mantra' and find shade and hydrate

British parents have complained their children have been abandoned in a mosquito-infested field

Participants are seen attempting to take shelter from sun at the camping site in Buan, South Korea

A source told this newspaper that there was not enough shade at the South Korea site so the UK contingent 'had to go off site and buy poles and shading material' to give the British scouts more shade.

Images have been shared to this newspaper of tents on pallets, floating above the flooded land - while fumigation trucks were seen trying to fend off mosquitoes.

He continued: 'This is the first time I've seen this at a jamboree. The international service team arrived a few days before and walked into the marshlands.

'The jamboree site is on a reclaimed marsh but they haven't reclaimed it well it's floating. They've got tents floating. There's not enough there even with pallets to keep dry.

'The fumigation trucks are pumping chemicals all over tents and where people are all day.'

It comes after this year's event has faced criticism over a lack of shelter or water amid the major heatwave. Local media outlets have described the situation as a 'national disgrace', given the time the country had to prepare for the event.

SBS News reports that the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, which prepared the festival, were allocated more than 120million (200 billion KRW) but many are wondering where the money went. Poor drainage has left huge puddles and swarms of bugs, while many have fumed at unhygienic conditions at the camping sites - and there was mould found in eggs provided to attendees, according to local media.

Local authorities and organisers said around 600 participants had suffered heat-related illnesses, prompting Seoul officials to order the deployment of military doctors and nurses on Thursday. Its understood youngsters were fainting, had headaches and felt dizzy from the scorching heat.

There have been reports of mould found in eggs provided to the participants at the camping sites

Attendees of the World Scout Jamboree cool off with water at a scout camping site in Buan, South Korea

One majorly concerned mother told The Telegraph the event has been shambolic. 'Flooding, ambulances everywhere, rubbish, poor sanitation, not enough food, the list is endless,' she said.

'They are trying their hardest to make it work but it's a disaster waiting to happen.'

She added that the heat has been described by her son as 'stifling' and that people can't cope with the lack of shade, while they have been told to leave air-conditioned areas regularly.

Another anxious parent said that people are feeling 'bullied into keeping quiet' and don't know what to do. Participants and Unit Leaders from the UK have paid 3,495 for the event.

One parent told local radio station MBC Radio: Children these days are raised as precious, but no matter how much it's in the spirit of the Jamboree, shouldn't they send the kids camping with basics such as hygiene and cleanliness at least?

'I talked to my son until late last night, and he was extremely tired Some participants suffered from heatstroke from the 40C weather, and even after coming back from the hospital due to dehydration, they were asked to stand up and give a round of applause for 25 minutes when each guest arrived in alphabetical order.'

Other parents insisted that their children were still having the 'time of their lives' despite the blistering heat. They commended event organisers for providing electrolyte drinks, shaded tent areas and pop up hospital rooms for young people.

One parent, Rob Drummer, told MailOnline: 'I have had nothing but positive messages from a young man who is having the time of his life, meeting new people and exploring different cultures.' Another parent said that while it is undoubtedly hot, their 14-year-old son was being 'very well cared for' by their leaders.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol responded to hundreds of cases of heat exhaustion by ordering an 'unlimited' number of air-conditioned buses that scouts can use for brief refuge and refrigerator trucks to provide cold water, presidential spokesman Kim Eun-hye said Friday.

A participant is carried by stretcher at Jamboree Hospital during the 25th World Scout Jamboree

A participant drinks water at a water supply zone of the camping site amid soaring temperatures

Participants receive medical treatment at Jamboree Hospital as many struggle with the heatwave

Attendees of the World Scout Jamboree hold umbrellas to avoid sunshine at one of the camping sites

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol (delivering welcome speech) ordered an 'unlimited' number of air-conditioned buses that scouts can use for brief refuge and refrigerator trucks to provide cold water

South Korea's President Yoon Suk Yeol (front C) and his wife Kim Keon Hee (centre R) throwing paper airplanes during the glitzy opening ceremony

An attendee of the World Scout Jamboree walks by garbage and items for recycling at a scout camping site

Yoon's office added that the emergency meeting would make a decision 'regarding the allocation of approximately six billion won (3.6million) in contingency funds'.

The United States Forces Korea told AFP that about 600 American jamboree participants had been offered the chance to stay at Camp Humphreys, a US army garrison in Pyeongtaek, to avoid the heat.

Local broadcasters reported some scouts were 'stuck' at the remote campsite despite the heat, citing anonymous staff members.

'It's hard to even arrange bus rides on your own,' one staffer said.

Some people online compared the situation to the deadly survival game featured in South Korea's mega-hit Netflix series 'Squid Game'.

'Greetings to Scouts from all around the globe, as you arrive at the K-Survival Game,' one quipped on Twitter, which is being rebranded as X, above an image of pink Squid Game-style costumes.

The jamboree has gathered scouts from around the world since 1920 and takes place every four years - each time hosted by a different country.

Youngsters at the World Scout Jamboree rest under the shade at the scout camping site in Buan

World Scouting acknowledged on Friday that an 'extreme heatwave and humidity' has caused 'some challenging conditions' for young people at the event

Participants for the 25th World Scout Jamboree gather at a water supply zone on a camping site

An ambulance drives to a hospital from a scout camping site during the World Scout Jamboree

One of the participants receives medical attention after being struck down by South Korea's heatwave

A youngster is carried on a stretcher at Jamboree Hospital. More than 600 children have been hit by heat exhaustion

World Scouting acknowledged on Friday that an 'extreme heatwave and humidity' has caused 'some challenging conditions' for young people at the event.

'We share your concerns and are working closely with the Host and Government of Korea to ensure a safe, healthy and fun jamboree environment for all,' it wrote.

Organisers said they were modifying the schedule depending on the temperature, adding that the scouts remained resilient.

'Despite the heat and the difficulties and the challenges that they are facing, only 8% reported that they were very unsatisfied with the experience so far,' Jacob Murray, the director for World Events at the Scouts, told reporters.

'We are grateful to the Korean government and provincial government for providing additional resources.'

South Korea raised the heat warning level in its four-tier system to the highest as of 6pm on Tuesday, the first time since 2019.

The highest 'serious' warning is issued when the apparent temperature is expected at 35C or higher in at least 40 per cent of the country's 180 regions for three or more days. It can also be issued when the apparent temperature is likely to be 38C or higher for three or more days in 10 per cent of the country.

Following the heatwave chaos at the SaeManGeum site, it was announced British children would be moved away to hotels.

The UK Scout Association, which is the largest contingent there, said young people and adult volunteers will be moved to hotel accommodation in the country's capital Seoul over the next two days to help 'alleviate the pressure' on the site.

It said in a statement: 'We know that may be a disappointment for some and we will continue the Jamboree experience in Seoul, working with Korean authorities on a programme of activities so our young people still get the most from their time in Korea.

'Young people will travel home as originally planned from August 13.

'While we have been on site at the Jamboree, the UK volunteer team has worked extremely hard with the organisers, for our youth members and adult volunteers to have enough food and water to sustain them, shelter from the unusually hot weather, and toilets and washing facilities appropriate for an event of this scale.'

A Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office spokesman said: 'We continue to closely monitor the situation at the World Scout Jamboree in SaeManGeum closely.

'Consular officials are on site to support attendees as planned and in line with standard practice for such events. We are in regular contact with both the UK Scouts and the relevant Korean authorities to ensure the safety of British nationals.'
Scotland's police chief has pledged that the probe into SNP finances will get to the facts  and the sooner it is concluded 'the better for everyone involved'.

Sir Iain Livingstone said Operation Branchform would clarify 'evidence and facts' instead of 'rumours and innuendo'.

He also admitted his own working relationship with Nicola Sturgeon had made the process 'difficult'.

The former First Minister was arrested and questioned under caution in June, before being released without charge pending further investigation.

She was the third prominent SNP figure to be arrested as part of the probe, following her husband Peter Murrell and the former party treasurer Colin Beattie, who were also both released without charge pending further investigation.

Sir Iain Livingstone, the chief constable of Police Scotland, said the probe into SNP finances will get to the facts  and the sooner it is concluded 'the better for everyone involved'

Former SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon was arrested and questioned under caution in June, before being released without charge pending further investigation

In April. police spent two days scouring the Glasgow home of Ms Sturgeon and her husband Peter Murrell, the party's former chief executive

In an interview with the BBC before he retires next week, Sir Iain said: 'We are duty bound to investigate matters if they are reported to us.

'Our action and our investigation is in the interests of everybody involved because it will clarify facts and deal with evidence and facts as opposed to rumour and innuendo.

'So the sooner this investigation is concluded, the better for everyone involved.'

Asked about his close working relationship with Ms Sturgeon, Sir Iain said: 'These issues are difficult to deal with. But we have to do our duty, we have to do that without fear or favour  and our priorities are the rule of law and the interests of justice and the protection of individuals and their rights.

'So these are difficult challenges, but I would fiercely reject any sense that I as an individual am motivated through any political perspective, I am not. Not for a second.

'My priorities are the rule of law and public safety.'

Sir Iain admitted that it is not possible to predict when the investigation will be finished, but he insisted that the two-year probe led by a dedicated team of officers had been 'entirely legitimate'.

He said: 'In the nature of these complex investigations, there are a whole series of factors and a multitude of variables that come into play. So I would never put an artificial timescale on it.

'It has to take its course. We will continue to work very closely with independent prosecutors and matters will progress in due course.'
France was previously forced to pull out of Mali and Burkina Faso after coups

Macron has sought an ally in Niger amid regional insecurity and insurgency

French President Emmanuel Macron has criticised his chief spy over his failure to predict the Niger coup.

He said that Bernard Emie, 64, director of France's foreign intelligence agency, should have foreseen the overthrowing of President Bazoum by a junta on July 26.

The director of the Directorate-General for External Security (DGSE) said that he had issued a warning earlier this year and that it was ignored by the government.

It followed attacks on the French Embassy in Niger on Sunday as thousands backing the coup marched through the capital denouncing France and waving Russian flags.

The coup in Niger represents a major setback for Macron, raising questions about France's military presence in the country and wider strategy in Africa, analysts say.

The coup against Niger's President Bazoum is the third such putsch in the region in three years, following similar clashes in Mali and Burkina Faso in 2021 and 2022 that forces French troops to pull out.

Macron (right) slammed Emie (left) for not predicting the coup. Emie retorted that he had warned of the possibility, and that the French government had chosen not to act on it

A firefighter hoses torched cars near the Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism headquarters in Niamey, Niger, 27 July 2023

Protesters hold an anti-France placard during a demonstration on independence day in Niamey on August 3, 2023. It reads: 'France must leave. Long live Niger'

Pro-junta demonstrators break down one of the doors of the French embassy building as violence erupted in Niger

Pro-junta demonstrators set fire to the French embassy before the army intervened to break up the crowd

The French embassy in Niger has been attacked as pro-Russian protesters marched through the capital after the pro western government was overthrown in a military coup

The last week has seen devastating scenes across the country as protests have erupted, borders closed and a curfew declared.

The coup began on July 26 when Niger's presidential guard detained president Mohamed Bazoum and its commander general, Abdourahamane Tchiani, proclaimed himself the leader of a new military junta.

'We, the defence and security forces... have decided to put an end to the regime' of President Bazoum, Colonel-Major Amadou Abdramane said in a televised address late last Wednesday.

'This follows the continued deterioration of the security situation, poor economic and social governance,' he added, surrounded by nine other uniformed soldiers.

Niger has consistently been ranked on the bottom of the Human Development Index - an aggregated index of life expectancy, education and per capita income indicators.

The country has increasingly welcomed western support and is a key ally in a fight against Islamist insurgents in the region.

Situated in the middle of West Africa, a US drone base in the country allows allies to project power and manage the rising threats of instability and insurgency.

The country had also been one of the most cooperative in peace-keeping in the region, and foreign powers fear militants could gain ground under the junta.

The discovery of precious metals and rare elements across the region has also increased interest from foreign powers.

The coup is particularly devastating for Macron, who sought to make a special ally of Niger and a hub for France's presence in the region after backing away from Mali.

In December 2018, Macron vowed that France would remain engaged in the fight against jihadists in the Sahel region of Africa 'until the victory is complete'.

France has around 1,500 troops in the former French colony, according to France24.

Last Wednesday's takeover marks the fifth coup in Niger since it gained independence from France in 1960.

'History repeats itself, the setbacks are accumulating,' Pascal Boniface, director of the French Institute of International and Strategic Affairs, told AFP.

'If the putschists stay in power in Niamey [the capital], it will be very difficult to leave our soldiers there.'

Niger's junta on Thursday said it was scrapping military pacts made between Niamey and France, following last week's coup.

'Faced with France's careless attitude and its reaction to the situation', the 'National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland decided to scrap the cooperation agreements in the field of security and defence with this state,' one of the putschists said in a statement read out on television late on Thursday.

In light of the coup, Niger has been hit by a string of sanctions.

The EU has already withdrawn funding and military support due to the 'unacceptable attack on the integrity of Niger's republican institutions'.

The bloc had set aside $554mn of its budget, 2021-24, to support education, growth and governance.

General Abdourahamane Tchiani, Niger's new strongman, speaking on national television on July 28 after the ousting of President-elect Mohamed Bazoum

Niger's President Mohamed Bazoum refused to resign while detained at the palace

Thousands of anti-sanctions protestors gather in support of the putschist soldiers in the capital Niamey, Niger August 3, 2023

Thousands of anti-sanctions protestors gather in support of the putschist soldiers in the capital Niamey, Niger August 3, 2023. The sign reads 'Down with France long live CNSP'

Resentment has grown in West Africa among those who see France's continued involvement as a neocolonial project.

Protestors in Niger have been seen with signs telling France to leave. New flags have also been on show, with some Nigeriens preferring to align with Russia.

A Ukrainian official on Tuesday pinned the coup of Moscow, calling it a 'standard Russian tactic'.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, said: 'It is now absolutely clear that Russia is behind the so-called 'military coup' in Niger.

'It is a standard Russian tactic: to divert attention, seize the moment and expand the conflict.'

France finds itself in a bind, recognising the security risk of struggling governments collapsing and creating new power vacuums.

The collapse of stable Francophone governments would also harm France's trade and nuclear power.

Niger supplies 15 per cent of France's significant uranium needs.
Lord Mounbatten's biographer has claimed the British Government spied on him during his 450,000 legal battle to release the royal's secret diaries.

Andrew Lownie says he has uncovered Cabinet Office documents on him which indicate officials had been tasked with monitoring his social media accounts and public appearances in an effort to try and 'smear' him.

It comes after the historian's explosive discovery in 2019 of a secret wartime FBI dossier on Lord Mountbatten, which accused the Earl of being a paedophile who allegedly had a 'homosexual with a lusting for young boys'.

Dr Lownie, the author of The Mountbattens: their Lives & Loves, claimed when he requested the FBI release other files held on Mountbatten, he was told they had been destroyed 'after you asked for them', in a move he says had been 'clearly' carried out at the 'request of the British Government'.

Speaking about his latest claim the Cabinet Office had been spying on him, he told The Guardian: 'The inference was that this information might be useful to smear me. My crime? I'm an historian who pushes back against the censoring of our history by the government and highlights its failures to adhere to public records acts and the Freedom of Information Act.'

Lord Mountbatten's biographer claims the British Government spied on him during his costly legal fight to release the personal diaries of the earl, who was assassinated by the IRA in 1979

Dr Lownie gained the documents by issuing a subject access request, which gives people the power to demand organisations to reveal what personal information it holds on them.

In the historian's case, it meant a wealth of correspondence was revealed which reportedly showed how the government had attempted to keep tabs on him.

The Government denies spying on the biographer. But Dr Lownie said the documents he had received showed both the Cabinet Office and Foreign Office had been monitoring his social media accounts.

Andrew Lownie is the author of The Mountbattens: their Lives & Loves. Photo: CC BY-SA 4.0

He also claimed the Government had a flyer for a talk he gave at a private club, details of a lecture he was giving at a Cambridge alumni weekend and a library talk with an internal heading by the Cabinet Office of 'Not just any cook-along this week'.



'The Cabinet Office eventually admitted that it held so much material on me collected over the past five years  it estimated it would take more than 650 hours to collect the information  that my requests needed to be broken down into six-monthly periods,' he said.

The historian added documents - which included newspaper articles and crowdfunding activities were 'brought to the attention of Alex Chisholm', the permanent secretary of the Cabinet Office.

Hitting back, a Government spokesman told the Guardian there was 'no basis to these claims'.

Earl Mountbatten, who was assassinated by the IRA in 1979, served as head of the Royal Navy and had been Viceroy of India when the country became independent from Britain in 1947.

He was a well-known figure in Britain thanks to his close relationship with the Queen, Prince Philip. He was also an inspirational figure for King Charles, when he was the Prince of Wales.

Lord Mountbatten was said to have been an inspirational figure for a young King Charles, when he was the Prince of Wales (the pair are pictured together in July 1968 watching the Grand Prix at Brands Hatch)

Lord Mountbatten, pictured left, with the his wife Edwina, right, and the Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru in 1948

Dr Lownie says he has spent 450,000 in legal fees in his effort to force the release of papers contained in the vast Broadlands archive - which contains 4,500 boxed of official documents containing letters from Queen Victoria to Lord Palmerston, the diaries of the 7th Earl of Shaftesbury, and the Mountbattens' papers.

The archive of historic documents was bought by the University of Southampton for 2.8million to preserve it for the nation - with a view of allowing the public to view the records.

Instead, the university blocked the release of the diaries and correspondence from the Mountbattens which covered historical events from the abdication of Edward VIII to the independence of India. It followed advice from the Cabinet Office.

Dr Lownie spent five years fighting to win unrestricted access to the documents as he researched a book about Mountbatten and his wife Edwina, the last Viceroy and Vicereine of India.

Last month, a Freedom of Information request revealed the Government has spent more than 180,000 of taxpayers' money fighting its 'needless' legal battle to keep the diaries under lock and key.

The FBI file on him, which emerged in 2019, also claimed that his alleged penchant for young men made him 'an unfit man to direct any sort of military operations'.

The file was obtained after a freedom of information request by Dr Lownie.

Agents began compiling the document in February 1944, shortly after Mountbatten became supreme allied commander of southeast Asia.

Following his appointment, the FBI interviewed Elizabeth de la Poer Beresford, Baroness Decies, about another matter, and she brought up Mountbatten.

Earl Mountbatten, pictured with his wife Edwina, was assassinated by the IRA in 1979. He served as head of the Royal Navy and had been Viceroy of India when the country became independent from Britain in 1947.

Lord Mountbatten and his wife Edwina prepare to leave Northolt for India in 1947

The then Prince Charles with Lord Mountbatten in Windsor in the 1970s

The file read: 'She states that in these circles Lord Louis Mountbatten and his wife are considered persons of extremely low morals.

'She stated that Lord Louis Mountbatten was known to be a homosexual with a perversion for young boys.

'In Lady Decies' opinion he is an unfit man to direct any sort of military operations because of this condition.

'She stated further that his wife Lady Mountbatten was considered equally erratic.'

The document was signed by EE Conroy, head of the FBI's New York field office, who wrote that she 'appears to have no special motive in making the above statements'.

Dr Lownie says in his article for MailOnline: 'After I discovered a wartime FBI file which claimed Mountbatten was "a homosexual with a perversion for young boys", I requested other listed files held on him, only to be told they had been destroyed.

'When I asked when that destruction had taken place, the American authorities candidly admitted, "After you had asked for them".

'Clearly this had been at the request of the British Government, previously unaware that such damaging material existed.'

The Cabinet Office previously declined to comment about the historian's claims. The FBI was approached for comment.
A man has died from serious head injuries after a suspected mugging in an alleyway - prompting Met Police to launch a hunt for the killer.

Ibrahim Pertek, 52, was found next to Wood Green Library in Enfield, north London, in the early hours of the morning on July 16.

It is believed he was assaulted, possibly during a robbery just after 1am.

Officers and the London Ambulance Service were called at 2:50am and found Mr Pertek with a serious head injury.

He was rushed to hospital in a critical conditions where he tragically died on August 1.

Ibrahim Pertek, 52, (pictured) died from serious head injuries after a suspected mugging in an alleyway

Police have issued a witness appeal to anyone who might have caught Mr Pertek on their dashcam or seen him in the time leading up to his death.

Detective Inspector Andy Griffin said: 'We are asking for anyone who was around the area of Wood Green High Road at this time to contact police, particularly any motorist who was passing while using a dash cam.

'We believe Mr Pertek was seen by people prior to him being injured, and we want those people to come forward and speak to us.

'We are releasing a photo of Mr Pertek and I would ask people to look at it carefully and contact police if you remember seeing him.

'If you have any information that could assist, please come forward, it could help police and Mr Pertek's family understand what happened that night.'

They added: 'Officers will be conducting a witness appeal in the area of Wood Green High Road on Saturday, 5 August, from 22:00hrs, if you wish to speak to police in person.'

He was found next to Wood Green Library (pictured) in Enfield, north London, in the early hours of the morning on July 16

A Met Police spokesperson said: 'Homicide detectives are appealing for information after the death of man following an incident in Enfield.

'Ibrahim Pertek, who was 52 and from Wood Green, died in hospital on Tuesday, 1 August.

'His family has been informed.

'It is believed that Mr Pertek may have been initially assaulted, possibly during a robbery, at about 01:10hrs on Sunday, 16 July.

'After extensive CCTV inquiries, officers believe Mr Pertek was assaulted in an alley next to Wood Green Library that leads from Wood Green High Road to Caxton Road.'

They added: 'Officers and the London Ambulance Service were called at 02:50hrs and found Mr Pertek with a serious head injury.

'He was taken to hospital in a critical condition and sadly did not recover.

'The incident was initially investigated by local detectives, but following his death homicide detectives launched a murder investigation.'
A trans killer who identifies as a baby and demands infant food and dummies has been moved to an all-male jail after several years at a women's prison.

Sophie Eastwood  who was born Daniel  is serving a life sentence after strangling cellmate Paul Algie, 22, with shoelaces at Dumfries Young Offenders Institute in Scotland.

Eastwood, now 38, began transitioning while in prison in 2017 and was later granted a switch to Cornton Vale, a women's prison that has been at the centre of a row over its housing of trans convicts.

Her case has attracted attention due to a series of unconventional demands she has made behind bars, including requests for dummies, nappies and infant food as she now identifies as a baby.

As part of a comprehensive review of trans criminals' living arrangements, Eastwood has been moved from the women's lockup to HMP Shotts in Lanarkshire  a maximum security prison capable of holding more than 550 of Scotland's most dangerous criminals.

Sophie Eastwood, 38, is serving a life sentence after killing her cellmate at a young offenders' institution in Scotland. She was born a man but began transitioning behind bars

Eastwood  seen here while living as Daniel  was one month away from being released after being convicted of dangerous driving when she killed cellmate Paul Algie. She has served her minimum term of 15 years but has not yet been considered for release

She has previously claimed that she would be at risk of sexual violence if she was transferred to a male jail.

A source told the Scottish Sun of the move: 'This is a big move as Eastwood will be one of the first trans prisoners moved to a male jail.

'Eastwood is a danger to the female population and should be housed with men.

'Eastwood even identified as a baby and demanded baby food and a dummy - that is just taking the p***.

'To say Eastwood isn't happy about the switch is an understatement.'

READ MORE: Killer who has changed from male to female now says she identifies as a baby and demands nappies, baby food and a dummy in her prison cell Advertisement

Eastwood served her 15 year minimum term for killing her cellmate as of 2019  but has not yet been considered for release. She had been one month away from release on a dangerous driving conviction when she strangled Algie.

Earlier this year, she told the Daily Record that any move to a male prison would put her at risk  and that she 'deeply regretted' strangling her cellmate.

She said: 'I was threatened by other prisoners in the male estate when I started to transition and the main threat was that I would suffer serious sexual violence.

'It was a relief to be moved to the female estate where I have felt safe and Ive gained the trust of fellow prisoners.

'I think Scottish Prison Service staff manage trans prisoners well but it would be impossible for me to feel safe in a male prison.'

A Scottish Prison Service spokesperson said: 'We do not comment on individuals.

'All trans men and trans women in our care are accommodated in a way which meets the risks and needs of them as individuals, and others in the establishment.'

Scots prison bosses announced a comprehensive review of trans convicts' arrangements after trans rapist Isla Bryson was controversially initially housed among female prisoners Cornton Vale, in Stirling.

Bryson, who was born a man called Adam Graham, is serving an eight-year sentence after being convicted in February this year of raping two women in 2016 and 2019.

Sophie Eastwood had been serving her sentence at HMP Cornton Vale (left) near Stirling. But a comprehensive review of trans prisoners' arrangements have seen her kicked out and moved to HMP Shotts (right), a maximum security prison

The case of double rapist Isla Bryson (left) sparked a review of trans prisoner arrangements in Scotland. Bryson, who was charged as a man called Adam Graham (right), began transitioning while awaiting trial and is now serving an eight year sentence

She began transitioning ahead of her trial and was moved from Cornton Vale to HMP Edinburgh earlier this year following an outcry.

But during the race to be elected Scotland's new First Minister, Humza Yousaf accused Bryson of not being a 'genuine trans woman', and said she was 'trying to play the system'.

Yousaf, who served as Scottish justice secretary and health secretary before succeeding Nicola Sturgeon in the top job, said during an SNP leadership debate broadcast on the BBC: 'What we should never do is because we have a despicable individual like Isla Bryson who plays the system, we shouldn't roll back the rights of 99.9 per cent of trans women who commit no crime whatsoever.'

Conservative shadow justice secretary Russell Findlay said: 'The sending of a rapist to a woman's prisons exposed the dangerous reality of the SNP's gender self-ID agenda - and rightly forced a review of trans prisoners.

'Prison staff will have assessed all factors, especially the safety of vulnerable female inmates, before deciding on this transfer.'

Attempts by Ms Sturgeon to force through new laws on self-ID, allowing children to identify as their preferred gender from the age of 16 with no medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria, were blocked by Rishi Sunak's government in January.
An Australian tourist is fighting for life in Bali after a horror motorcycle crash.

Daniel Quinn, 30, from Sydney, was found face-down by his friends after he lost consciousness and crashed his motorbike while on holiday.

After being rushed to hospital, doctors found a blood clot in his brain which required life-saving emergency surgery to remove.

Mr Quinn has since undergone extensive surgery and remains in intensive care following the accident on his 30th birthday, just days into his two-week Bali holiday.

His family have made the mercy dash to Bali to be by his side as he prepares to undergo more operations to save him from going blind.

A GoFundMe has been launched to cover his medical expenses, which is nearing its $100,000 goal.

Daniel Quinn (pictured left with sister Alex) had a horror motorbike crash while holidaying in Bali

A GoFundMe has been launched to cover Daniel's medical expenses, whichhas already raised $85,000

Mr Quinn's mother Lesley recalled every parent's worst nightmare after seeing her son for the first time with bandages wrapped around his head.

'I have just experienced a parent's worst nightmare being told your child has had a traumatic head injury and requires life saving surgery,' she wrote online.

'Daniel sustained a huge blood clot on the front of his brain which was causing pressure and pushing his brain down on the base of his skull.

'Causing him to lose consciousness and the ability to breathe and have any basic skills.'

The accident occurred on his 30th birthday, which his mother said was unbearable.

Before making the mercy dash to Bali, his parents had to sign documents granting Indonesian doctors the ability to perform the operation which saved their son's life.

Mr Quinn underwent evacuation craniotomy and cranioplasty to remove the clot, and has had several skin grafts in order to repair the damage to his face caused by the motorcycle crash.

On Tuesday afternoon, Mr Quinn faced another operation to relieve pressure on his optic nerve which hopefully could save him from blindness.

Any further operations to aid his recovery are now on hold until the family can provide upfront payment, which is required in Bali before surgeons can operate.

After being found by his friends over five metres from his motorbike, Daniel Quinn was rushed to hospital where doctors performed life-saving surgery

Ms Quinn revealed that her family has already paid over $70,000 to save Mr Quinn's life.

'Our hands are tied as in Bali no surgery is done without payment first, even if it is life threatening,' she continued.

'Bills will continue to rise the longer he stays.

'Any form of support would be greatly appreciated for Daniel's recovery to keep back home safe to Australia.'

The GoFundMe, which was launched on Tuesday, has now gained over $92,000 from generous donations which will be used to support Mr Quinn's recovery.

At the time of the incident, he had been holidaying with his sister and their friend before losing consciousness.

Mr Quinn's friends found him lying face-down on the side of the road, more than five metres away from the motorbike he had been riding.

His sister immediately called their mother, who was out walking in Sydney with a girlfriend when she got the news of her son's condition.

In Bali, surgeons cannot operate without being paid first, and any funds recovered from the GoFundMe will go towards further operations and getting him home

After catching the first flight to Bali, airport security prioritised her entry and she rushed to BIMC Hospital Kuta in time to for Mr Quinn's optic nerve surgery.

'His brain surgery took place while we were on the flight and we didnt know what to expect until we got there,' Ms Quinn told news.com.au.

'He's hooked up to a breathing ventilator. He has tubes coming out of every limb.

'It's been a nightmare.'
People should be paid to allow electricity pylons to be built near their homes in a bid to speed up improvements to the grid, the government's net zero tsar recommended today.

A report by Electricity Networks Commissioner Nick Winser suggests paying lump sums to those living near the route of new rural lines, as well as setting up a 'community fund' in the local area to pay for green power improvements.

It comes amid a furious Tory row over plans for pylons in rural areas, with many local MPs opposing schemes.

The UK needs to lay 600 miles of new cables by 2035 if it is to reach its 2050 Net Zero goals.

In a letter to Energy Secretary Grant Shapps, Mr Winsor said: 'There is every opportunity to be generous with these payments. Undergrounding power line costs between five and 10 times more than overhead lines and causes more environmental damage.'

But the idea is sure to face opposition from politicians. Yesterday Dr Dan Poulter, the MP for Central Suffolk and Ipswich said he would continue to 'work with colleagues' to oppose plans to build more power lines through the East of England.

A report by Electricity Networks Commissioner Nick Winser suggests paying lump sums to those living near the route of new rural lines, as well as setting up a 'community fund' in the local area to pay for green power improvements.

It comes amid a furious Tory row over plans for pylons in rural areas, with many local MPs opposing schemes.

Yesterday Dr Dan Poulter, the MP for Central Suffolk and Ipswich said he would continue to 'work with colleagues' to oppose plans to build more power lines through the East of England.

'When it comes to power lines connecting new sources of power production to the energy grid, what matters is where they are sited, and I remain opposed to erecting new electricity pylons across the countryside when there are better options including offshoring these new energy connections or putting them underground,' he said.

'I shall continue to work with the other MPs in our area to oppose the current plans from national grid and fight for a better plan for either an offshore or underground solution for power transmission.'

The report said that Britain risks wasting a major achievement if it builds massive wind farms and nuclear sites without ensuring there are enough cables to take the new electricity to homes and businesses.

As projects to build new lines keep getting held up, including due to local opposition, it could leave wind turbines and solar panels standing idle, and lead to higher costs for customers across the country.

It currently takes about 12 to 14 years to get new big transmission lines up and running, about twice the time it takes to put up a large wind farm, the report said.

This is slowing the transition to clean energy as developers of wind and solar farms are having to wait to have their sites connected to the grid.

Britain needs enormous new investment to deliver the clean electricity that will power cars, homes and industries in the future. Wind turbines, solar panels and other solutions have been popping up all over the country.

One of the trade-offs for the cheap energy that wind and solar farms can provide is that they are often smaller scale, rather than being one massive power plant.

This means that the grid needs to pull lots of smaller cables to many different power generation sites across the country, rather than enormous cables to few big coal plants.

Yet very few transmission lines have been built over the last 30 years.

In his report Mr Winser said: 'Communities hosting national infrastructure do not always see a direct benefit for doing so.

'They are often faced with disruption during construction and left with visual impact once construction is complete.

'Communities may not see a direct link between connecting low carbon generation and local decarbonisation outcomes. Citizens may respond by strongly opposing projects.'

He went on: 'Residents of properties close to new overhead lines should receive a defined direct payment.

'Communities should receive a set amount of money for new visible infrastructure they host. The benefit should be a defined value per kilometre of overhead line (OHL) or an appropriate amount for other visible infrastructure. This benefit would only be available for hosting OHL or other visible infrastructure, (eg, substations).'

The report included a series of recommendations for the Government and regulators.

They include that financial returns for the companies that operate the transmission network should be linked to them successfully delivering the lines needed.

It also called for a campaign to explain to people why massive upgrades are necessary, for both the environment and also to keep the lights on and people's homes warm.

Getting local communities on board should also include some kind of more direct benefit for them, the report said.

It suggested paying lump sums to individual households close to the infrastructure, and community funds that can be spent to upgrade people's homes.

The report also said that supply chains and skills in the workforce are likely to be stretched over the coming years.

Companies should ensure they have access to enough cables and the Government must lead an effort to tackle the skills shortage.

The trade body for the energy sector said that the Government needed to urgently respond to the recommendations.

'Cutting the time to plan and build network infrastructure is arguably the most pressing challenge facing the energy transition,' said Energy UK deputy director Adam Berman.

'We welcome Nick Winser's recommendations, particularly the focus on strategic network planning as well as supply chain development and skills, and encourage the Government to respond to these recommendations with urgency and ambition.'

Dan McGrail, chief executive of trade body RenewableUK, said: 'Our electricity network is the single biggest barrier to delivering a zero-carbon power system by 2035.

'So we're pleased that this timely report puts forward a series of constructive measures to speed up the pace at which the UK builds vital new grid infrastructure.

'These recommendations will benefit billpayers across the country by ensuring that we maximise the vast quantities of cheap, clean power we're generating from renewables, and that we can get it to British homes and businesses more efficiently.'

Mr Shapps told the BBC Mr Winser had presented his proposals to Downing Street and they were 'well received', adding: 'The idea is to halve the amount of time it takes to get these connections going.'

He said said the Government plans to 'halve' the time it takes for more power lines to be built across the UK.

Deputy PM Oliver Dowden also said renewable energy can be brought on shore in a way that does not 'blight our countryside'.

The Deputy Prime Minister said that 'trade-offs' would have to be made as the Government tries to speed up the building of new electricity cables and pylons across the UK.

But he said ministers were open to suggestions about the right way forward and would listen to the concerns of affected communities.

Former home secretary Priti Patel has also urged ministers to consider an undersea alternative to the East Anglia project.

Ms Patel told the Commons in April that communities were 'horrified' at plans to build pylons across the entire region.

The project is to ensure new windfarms and the Sizewell C nuclear power station have a reliable connection to the grid.
Rishi Sunak has seen his popularity rise among Tory members since the Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election win and his change in approach to green policies.

The Prime Minister, who is currently on a family holiday in California, has seen his net satisfaction rating among the Conservatives' grassroots return to a positive score after a slump the previous month.

In the latest ConservativeHome survey of Tory members, Mr Sunak scored a net satisfaction rating of 20.7 (up from -2.7 in the last survey).

It comes after the Tories surprisingly held onto the Uxbridge and South Ruislip seat, which was largely due to a local backlash against Labour mayor Sadiq Khan's expansion of London's Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez).

Since the by-election win on 20 July, Mr Sunak has made efforts to signal a change in the Government's approach to green policies.

Although the PM has reiterated his commitment to achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 - as well as sticking to the 2030 ban on new petrol and diesel vehicles - he has announced a boost to oil and gas drilling in the North Sea.

In the latest ConservativeHome survey of Tory members, Rishi Sunak scored a net satisfaction rating of 20.7 (up from -2.7 the previous month)

The PM, who is currently on a family holiday in California, saw his net satisfaction rating among the Conservatives' grassroots return to a positive score after a slump the previous month

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, who is soon due to leave his role as he steps back from frontline politics, remained the most popular Cabinet minister among Tory members

Mr Sunak has pledged to 'scrutinise' green policies and their impact on Britons' household budgets and stressed that action to reach net-zero needs to be done in a 'proportionate and pragmatic way' amid the cost-of-living crisis.

The PM has also ordered a review of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) as part of an effort to show car drivers he is 'on their side'.

Energy Secretary Grant Shapps, who recently vowed to 'max out' the UK's remaining reserves of North Sea oil and gas, has also returned to a postitive net satisfaction rating (3.1) among Tory members after suffering a negative score (-7.3) the previous month.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, who is soon due to leave his role as he steps back from frontline politics, remained the most popular Cabinet minister among Tory members in the latest survey with a net satisfaction rating of 76.8.

He has topped the rankings for the past 18 months as he leads Britain's response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Among those tipped to be his replacement, Foreign Secretary James Cleverly (54.7) is ahead of House of Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt (48.8), security minister Tom Tugendhat (28.1), and Chief Secretary to the Treasury John Glen (14.2).

Immigration minister Robert Jenrick (-17.5) languishes in second-last place in the Cabinet rankings as the Home Office struggles to get control of Channel migrant crossings.

He is just ahead of Environment Secretary Therese Coffey (-17.6).
A young woman accused of throwing her pet dog off the top level of a two storey car park, causing the pup to sustain fatal injuries faces potential time behind bars.

Amy Lea Judge, 25, from Clarkson north of Perth, broke down in tears as her alleged 'egregious, callous and cruel' actions were laid bare in court on Friday.

Prosecutors are seeking jail time for Judge, who allegedly 'taunted' her Maltese shih-tzu Princess, before throwing her from a shopping centre car park on April 7 2022, the Joondalup Magistrates Court was told.

The court heard Judge and her partner Scott Frost, 22, from Madeley, drove to Westfield Whitford City shopping centre in Hillarys on the day of the alleged incident.

CCTV from the carpark showed the pair 'taunting' Princess and allowing her to walk on the carpark's ledge before the dog fell nine metres, WA Today reported.

Amy Lea Judge fought back tears on Friday after being told she faces poential jail time

Maltese shih-tzu Princess (pictured) sustained internal haemorrhaging, brain injury and spinal/pelvic trauma

Princess fell because she was deliberately thrown off, RSPCA prosecutor Ruby Harris told the court.

The shih-tzu landed on the lower level of the carpark, where she was found by a passer-by who took the dog to the vet, thinking that she'd been hit by a car.

Princess sustained extensive injuries, including internal haemorrhaging, brain injury and spinal/pelvic trauma from the impact of the fall.

Harris told the court that Judge and Frost may have been engaged in 'acrimonious discourse' at the time, and both parties left without checking on Princess' condition.

It was only due to Princess being microchipped that staff at Vet West in Whitfords were able to gather contact details for Judge and ask her to assess the dog's health.

Upon arriving at the vet and being notified of the severity of Princess' injuries, Judge decided that the best course of action was to have her euthanised.

Upon arriving at the vet and being notified of the severity of Princess' injuries, Judge decided that the best course of action was to have her euthanised (pictured together)

'Princess was described to be in a state of shock and (with) multiple severe injuries,' Harris said.

'After a discussion about her injuries and cost of treatment, Ms Judge decided to have her euthanised.'

Judge was charged with ill treatment of an animal. She's yet to enter a plea.

Frost was also charged with not taking reasonable steps to prevent an animal suffering harm, fined $2500 and has been ordered to not own or handle animals for three years.

Judge asked the court for adjournment in order to seek legal council advice, She's expected to reappear on September 1.

She was released on bail despite her prior extensive record for violence-related offending.

Prosecutors perceived that she was not likely to reoffend in relation to animal cruelty however.
Sadiq Khan has expanded the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) scrappage scheme to include all Londoners.

However, the move has been branded as 'too little, too late' by Conservative London Mayoral candidate, Susan Hall.

The total for the ULEZ scrappage scheme is set to sit at an eye-watering 160 million.

He has received pushback about the ULEZ expansion from his own party, with deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner expressing concern about 12.50 a day charge.

But what is the ULEZ scrappage scheme? What does it mean for drivers? And who is entitled to the grant?

The ULEZ expansion scheme is set to start on August 29. Sadiq Khan has pumped another 50 million into the scrappage scheme, setting its cost at an eye watering 160 million

Sadiq Khan has expanded the scrappage scheme to include all Londoners who live within the 32 boroughs. Those eligible could receive up to 2,000 for scrapping their vehicle

What is the ULEZ vehicle scrappage scheme?

Sadiq Khan is said to be making a 'huge expansion' on the scrappage scheme, which will be introduced to encourage drivers to swap in their non-ULEZ-compliant vehicles.

The mayor initially drew 110 million from City Hall reserves for the scheme. But to widen the pool of Londoners eligible for the grant, he is set to spend another 50 million.

The scrappage scheme is a grant that was introduced to encourage motorists to trade in their polluting vehicles in a bid to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions in the air.

According to the Transport for London website, the ULEZ standards currently are:

Euro 3 for motorcycles, mopeds, motorised tricycles and quadricycles

Euro 4 (NOx) for petrol cars, vans, minibuses and other specialist vehicles

Euro 6 (NOx and PM) for diesel cars, vans and minibuses and other specialist vehicles

Most petrol and diesel motors under 16 and 6 years old respectively already meet the emissions standards.

You can check if your vehicle is ULEZ compliant by entering your registration number here.

It was originally feared that Londoners with disabilities and on low incomes would be disproportionately affected by the ULEZ expansion which is set to hit London on August 29.

When the grant was first introduced only those receiving Child Benefit, disability benefits or low income benefits could apply.

Those who had vehicles and wheelchair accessible motors that did not meet the ULEZ emissions standard were also eligible, as well as, registered charities and businesses in London

As a result of scrapping their car they would be entitled to one full grant.

Additionally, they could opt for a part grant of 1,200 and two annual TFL Bus and Tram passes worth 932.

Sadiq Khan said he would never 'step back, delay or water down' ULEZ as he announced an expansion of the scrappage scheme for older vehicles

Who is entitled to the grant now?

Now, Sadiq Khan has pumped an additional 50 million into the scrappage scheme, all Londoners living in the 32 boroughs will be eligible to exchange their polluting vehicle for a greener solution.

The Mayor of London said: 'I'm not prepared to step back, delay or water down green policies like ULEZ, which will not only save lives and protect children's lungs by cleaning up polluted air but help us to fight the climate crisis.'

Motors you can scrap to receive the grant include, motorcycles, motorised tricycles and quadricycles, car, vans and wheelchair accessible motors. They must also not be ULEZ compliant.

In order to receive the grant, your vehicle must have been registered with the DVLA since January 30, 2022 or prior.

The vehicle must also be registered in your name or to another individual who resides in your place of residence.

MOT, insurance and valid road tax are tick boxes that must be fulfilled if you want to receive a four-figure grant.

Sign highlighting the boundary of London's Ultra Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ) zone. If you want to receive the grant you must ensure your vehicle has valid MOT, insurance and road tax

How much money can I get?

Scrappage Scheme Grant Payment Options Scrap a car - 2,000

Scrap a car - 1,600 plus one adult-rate Annual Bus & Tram Pass

Scrap a car - 1,200 plus two adult-rate Annual Bus & Tram Passes

Scrap a motorcycle - 1,000

Scrap a motorcycle - 600 plus one adult-rate Annual Bus & Tram Pass

Scrap a motorcycle - 200 plus two adult-rate Annual Bus & Tram Passes

Scrap a wheelchair accessible vehicle (car or van) - 10,000

Retrofit a wheelchair accessible vehicle - 6,000 Source: Transport for London Advertisement

Anyone living in the city of London or its 32 boroughs could receive up to 2,000, if they get rid of their non ULEZ-compliant vehicle.

There are three options if you decide to scrap your car.

You can receive a full 2,000 grant or you could opt for a 1,600 and an Annual TFl Bus & Tram Pass.

You could also receive two Annual TFL Bus & Tram Pass, if you opt to only receive a 1,200 grant.

The most you can receive for scrapping your motorcycle is 1,000. Similarly to scrapping your car, there are two other options where you can receive Annual TFL Bus & Tram Passes in exchange for a smaller grant.

The TFL passes will be put on an Oyster card and can be given to you or one of your co-habitants.

These passes are non-refundable and non-transferable.

Londoners with disabilities will be entitled to more support than was previously on offer.

Now those who scrap their their non-compliant wheelchair accessible motors can get 10,000.

If they do not want to part from their vehicle then they can get 6,000 to modify it in order to make it ULEZ compliant.

It is important to note that scrapping your vehicle to receive one of the grant options, may affect your means-tested benefits.

This is because the grant received from the scheme could be considered as savings., and certain types can be affected if you exceed a certain level of savings.

Sadiq Khan with an air quality monitoring station sign during a visit to Mums for Lungs community group in South Woodford, London. If you want to apply for the scrappage scheme you must set up an RUC account

How do I apply?

To begin your application you will need to create an RUC account.

You have to complete the application at once as it will cut off if you are not active for 30 minutes. If you do not then you will have to start again.

In your application you must have the following documents to hand:

A V5C log book (DVLA registration document)

A valid vehicle insurance certificate

Proof of identification via a passport, UK Blue Badge or driver's licence

You may also need a to prove your place of residence via utility bill or bank statement. The letter must be no more than three months old

A picture showing the motor's number plate

If you have a wheelchair accessible vehicle you will need to prove the motor has specific adaptions in your application.

To apply for the ULEZ car and motorcycle scrappage scheme visit the Transport for London site.
A military-style boot camp fitness instructor repeatedly raped and sexually assaulted a younger schoolteacher on their first internet date, a court heard this week.

Former British Army Airborne Gunner Christopher Millington-Lee, 44, flattered the woman by extending their Bumble introduction by twenty-four hours and allowing their online relationship to develop.

'There was full-on kinky texting for two weeks,' she told the Kingston-upon-Thames Crown Court jury, where British Military Fitness instructor Millington-Lee denies the charges.

'I wouldn't normally go out with someone that old. He was a bit out of my age range, but I thought I would give him a chance,' the woman said from behind a screen.

'He came across as ex-military in the way he held himself and the way he walked and he had quite a posh accent.'

Former British Army Airborne Gunner Christopher Millington-Lee, 44, smothered his date with a pillow and making death threats as he raped her, a court heard

However, she said the date with Millington-Lee, whose full-time career is online business marketing, ended with him smothering her with a pillow and making death threats as he raped her.

Millington-Lee consumed alcohol during their pub date, but the schoolteacher kept to soft drinks and agreed to return to his Wyvil Road, Vauxhall flat because of difficulties getting a train home.

'It had been a good date and he said he wanted a kiss and cuddle and I was up for that,' said the woman. 'However, I wouldn't have gone back to his flat if he had not already agreed we were not going to have sex.'

She told the trial she consented to kissing Millington-Lee while both were naked on his bed, but not to intercourse.

'It really shocked me and I was thinking: 'This is weird.' It took a split second for me to realise, I didn't expect it.

'I did not find that a natural progression because it happened so fast. I didn't say 'stop'. I was shocked and that's where the fear came from.

'I remember thinking: 'Do I push this guy off, who I don't know in an area of London I don't know or get onboard with it?' With a military-trained person in his flat in Vauxhall.

'I thought it would be easier to be onboard with it. That was quite a quick decision.'

Millington-Lee consumed alcohol during their pub date, but the schoolteacher kept to soft drinks and agreed to return to his Wyvil Road, Vauxhall flat because of difficulties getting a train home. Pictured: Kingston-upon-Thames Crown Court

The woman explained she was shocked at how the kissing and cuddling developed, but once it did she felt powerless to stop the physically-stronger Millington-Lee.

'I did not want to have sex that night, but as it seemed it wasn't going to be very bad I wasn't going to push a muscular man, who had been drinking, off me.

'A man who could have got angry that I accused him.'

She insisted the consensual petting was not an indication she wanted physical intimacy to progress. 'Having a kiss and cuddle in bed was agreed in the pub, those parameters had not changed.

'I thought it would be over soon so I could handle it, but he enjoyed kinky violence and if I pushed him off how would he react?

'I would like to point out he hit me by this point. He hit the back of my legs and pulled my hair.

'It was very intense sex with a touch of violence to it.'

Following the date on June 2, last year the woman confided the events to family and eventually reported Millington-Lee to the police eight months later.

In her recorded police interview, which was played in court, she added: 'He would put my hands on him, put his hands on my breasts, it was heavy-petting behaviour and it would build up to sex again.

'He slapped my inner thigh and across my breasts. It wasn't that hard, but it felt it could build-up and I was scared of that.

'When he was on top of me he said he was going to kill me and had his hand over my nose and mouth.'

She also said Millington-Lee twice smothered her with a pillow.

'Once it got violent I felt I had to get through it until the morning. I was very mission-based and focused on my end goal.'

The woman told the police Millington-Lee also showed her explicit pornography on his phone and made further threats.

'He said: 'I could kill you. Nobody would come looking for you. Your mother and sister would be happy.'

'I left at around 7.00am in the morning and he walked me to the train station.'

She did not want to go to hospital the next day. 'I did not want it to become dramatic and a big deal.

'Chris also told me he used to be a policeman so I wanted to stay as far away from that as possible.

'In the days after everything was my fault and I believed if I reported it the day it happened I wouldn't be allowed to work with children again.'

Millington-Lee has pleaded not guilty to six counts of rape; one attempted rape; sexual assault; attempted sexual assault; two counts of sexual activity and causing actual bodily harm.

The trial continues.
A man in Argentina had the shock of his life after purchasing two poodles, only to later find out they were rodents pumped with steroids.

The unidentified man, of Catacarma, Argentina, spent $150 on what he believed to be gorgeous toy poodles, but turned out to be ferrets pumped with drugs.

The individual was duped by the knock-down price for a pedigree dog and became suspicious he had bought what Argentinians call a 'Brazilian rat' and when he returned home took the 'dogs' to a vet for their vaccinations.

He had in fact purchased two ferrets that had been given steroids at birth to increase their size and then had some extra grooming to make their coats resemble a fluffy toy poodle, confirming his suspicions.

It comes as social media users have debated back and forth over the saga of the 'fake' sun bear in China, which has caused quite the stir online.

No longer an urban myth: People in the Argentinian market of La Salada were sold ferrets (Brazilian rats - right) given steroids so that they resemble toy poodles

Toy poodles are one of the most popular dog breeds for pet owners, with people drawn by their cute facial expressions and playful temperament (file image)

Ferrets typically have brown, white or mixed fur and are around 51 cm in length - which includes a 13 cm tail.

They weigh around three pounds and have a lifespan of 7 to 10 years.

When happy, ferrets may perform a routine known as the weasel war dance - which is characterized by a series of hops and frenzied attempts to bump into things.

This is often accompanied by a soft clucking noise called dooking. When upset ferrets make a hissing noise.

Toy poodles are known for their intelligence and are around 25 cm tall and weigh around nine pounds.

If a toy poodle exceeds 25 cm height, it cannot compete in any dog show as a toy poodle.

Toy poodle have long lifespans and have been known to live as long as 20-years.

They are described as sweet, cheerful and perky and lively and love to be around people.

The incident in Argentina was part of a wider occurrence, which saw gullible bargain hunters at the country's largest bazaar spend hundreds of dollars for what they believed to be gorgeous toy poodles, only to discover they had purchased what was in fact a ferret pumped up on steroids.

This comes as sun bears in China have been the subject of much attention, as people are sceptical as to whether they are real bears, or merely humans dressed in a disguise.

Visitors have been flocking to Hangzhou zoo in eastern China to see a strange-looking bear that has gone viral online over speculation it is, in fact, a person in a costume.

Around 20,000 people a day are now going to Hangzhou zoo, a 30 per cent rise since the video was first shared on Sunday July 30, to judge for themselves.

Speculation broke online after Angela the sun bear was seen standing, begging for food, with the camera angle offering an unflattering view of its loose bottom fur.

Experts told MailOnline that the animals are 'incredibly clever' as they are able to remember the locations of food and mimic each other's facial expressions to communicate.

Kim Vaughan, Section Leader of Primates and Small Mammals at Paradise Wildlife Park told MailOnline: 'All ursids [members of the bear family] can stand due to their strong physique.

'Their limbs are straighter unlike terrestrial carnivores, Plantigrades disturb their weight to their back feet which provides excellent balance and standing.

'Sun bears are incredibly clever, they can remember locations of food and have complex facial expressions to communicate.'
Jailed gang members were rounded up in their underwear as more than a thousand soldiers stormed an Ecuadorian prison, recovering a haul of deadly and unexpected finds.

During the operation, armed soldiers and police officers confiscated bullets, cash and mobile phones from prisoners at the notorious Litoral Penitentiary.

In the pavilions, they also discovered a pool of tilapia fish and a 'farm' containing chickens, ducks and dogs, as well wild animals, Ecuadorian media reports.

In photos made available by the Ecuadorian Armed Forces, soldiers with rifles can be seen standing menacingly over a crowd of prisoners lying face-down or sitting hunched over on the floor with their hands behind their heads.

A video released by the armed forces shows two soldiers standing guard over a large drug haul.

Soldiers can be seen standing menacingly over a crowd of prisoners sitting hunched over on the floor with their hands behind their heads in an image made available by the Ecuadorian Armed Forces

Topless prisoners are then marched out into the yard to be frisked.

The intervention at the notorious prison in Guayaquil took place at dawn on Thursday, according to the Joint Command of the Armed Forces.

Some 1,200 soldiers took part in the operation after Ecuador last Tuesday announced a state of emergency for all of its prisons due to a series of violent incidents, including shootings and explosions, that occurred in the Litoral Penitentiary.

At least 2,700 heavily equipped soldiers and police officers entered the prison that day after the enactment of the 60-day measure, to regain control of three cellblocks with controlled detonations.

Clashes between gangs began the previous weekend at the prison, one of the most dangerous in Ecuador.

A soldier stands guard with his weapon raised as prisoners at the Litoral Penitentiary in Guayaquil lie on the floor face-down during the operation

Prisoners in the yard during an operation that follows on from the July 25 state of emergency declared for all of Ecuador's prisons

A video released by the armed forces shows two soldiers with rifles standing guard beside a big drug haul

A large quantity of drugs is laid out on the table. Mobile phones and cash were among the other items confiscated

Bullets were also recovered. Military intervention in Ecuador's prisons will continue until control has been retaken and there is no threat to prisoners or officials, the government said

The soldiers found a pool of tilapia fish during the operation. They also discovered a 'farm' containing chickens, ducks and dogs, as well wild animals, according to reports

The prosecutor's office raised the death toll to 31 from 18 and the number of injured to 14.

Some 120 prison officers had been freed after being held hostage in six jails around the country, the government said.

The latest surge of prison violence comes during campaigning for the August 20 elections, with some presidential candidates pledging prison reforms.

According to the decree signed by President Guillermo Lasso, inmates in Guayaquil used firearms during the unrest and set fire to facilities using gas tanks.

On July 24, Lasso declared a state of emergency in the provinces of Manabi and Los Rios and in the city of Duran, after the mayor of the city of Manta, Agustin Intriago, was shot dead.

Military intervention in Ecuador's prisons will continue until control has been retaken and there is no threat to prisoners or officials, the government said.

Lasso has regularly declared states of emergency in the country's prisons as he tries to tackle violence that has surged since 2021, claiming the lives of hundreds of prisoners.
A childcare worker accused of sexually abusing 91 young girls was reported in 2021 by a newly hired colleague who allegedly saw him 'kissing' a sleeping child, a whistleblower has revealed.

The 45-year-old man has been charged with more than 1,600 offences allegedly committed between 2007 and 2022 at multiple centres in Queensland and NSW and one centre overseas.

Yolanda Borucki, a manager of a chain of daycare centres where the man worked in senior roles for three years, told A Current Affair she raised concerns with Queensland Police a year before his arrest last August.

Ms Borucki explained the accused man often would take some of the children to an outside playground area while the others napped.

'He apparently was organising - I didn't witness this, I was only told - some activities for them to learn and he would put a blanket over this area,' Ms Borucki said.

AFP Assistant Commissioner Justine Gough (pictured)announced a 45-year-old man has been charged with 1,623 offences against 91 young girls

'They [had] been placing a few mats under for when the children had been climbing and when they decided they want to have a little nap they will be able to lie down under the fort,' she said.

Ms Borucki explained in October 2021 a newly hired staff member told her she had looked into the 'fort' and allegedly witnessed the man kneeling over one sleeping girl and 'kissing' her.

Ms Borucki, a 59-year-old grandmother, said a written complaint was immediately sent to Queensland Police and the man was stood down on full pay while they investigated.

'The notification was in writing. We submitted this to the police.'

She also informed the girl's parents of the allegation and said they were skeptical because they were close to the man and had a high opinion of him.

Ms Borucki said the man was eventually cleared of the allegation because there was 'no evidence'.

Queensland Police said on Friday they did not search the man's residence or digital devices during that investigation.

Ms Borucki said the man's explanation was that: 'This person could not see very clear under the fort because it's quite [a] dark space, and he wasn't kissing the girl, he was just whispering to her ear to wake her up because [her] mum doesn't want her to sleep too long.'

Yolanda Borucki ran a chain of childcare centres at which the accused man had worked for three years and said she made a written complaint to police but they had cleared him

Under Queensland law a single educator can be alone with children who are more than three years old as long as they follow the 'ratio' of one educator to 11 children, with the law similar in other states and territories.

When the man returned from his suspension, Ms Borucki said the parents at the centre seemed pleased, with one mother even saying she would buy him a box of chocolates and other parents emailed her to complain she was trying to get rid of the teacher.

The staff member who had made the allegation was 'devastated' and resigned, she said.

Ms Borucki added she had her own 'gut feeling' about the man after an incident she allegedly witnessed.

'He was talking to me and there was a HR person with me as well and there was a little girl stand[ing] up in front of him and he was rubbing her arm,' Burucki said.

'And during the conversation I just noticed all of a sudden he actually kiss[ed] her on the forehead.'

She confronted the man the next day saying the behaviour was unprofessional and he immediately apologised, claiming the centre was 'very close' and 'like a family'.

The AFP acknowledged the community would be 'distressed' by their allegations

Borucki said she wanted the man out of her centre but the human resources department was concerned he would go to Fair Work Australia as there had been no findings against him.

After unsuccessful attempts to force the man out he was made redundant four months after the police investigation cleared him.

Months later in October 2022 she was called by the AFP to say the man was in jail and they needed to collect some files.

The AFP had been led to the man after they traced bedsheets in the background of a video that appeared on the dark web in 2014 back to a Brisbane childcare centre the man had worked at.

AFP officers allegedly found 4,000 images on his devices when they arrested him, leading to the identification of the alleged 91 victims.

He is set to appear in court later in August.
A nine-year-old boy may be left 'scarred for life' after a henna tattoo he got while on a family holiday to Turkey left him with a huge chemical burn that caused his chest to start 'oozing yellow liquid'.

Mother-of-two Monika Shakesheff said both of her sons - Ollie, nine, and seven-year-old Charlie - got the temporary tattoos while at the Pegasos Royal hotel in Alanya, Turkey, last month.

Ollie chose to get a 10cm wolf pattern on the left side of his chest, while Charlie went for a 10cm outline of Cristiano Ronaldo on his left leg.

While the tattoos, which were done at the TUI-managed hotel were initially fine after the boys passed patch tests, it was only when they got home that Ollie began complaining about the tattoo causing him pain.

After coming home to Bridgetown, Stratford-upon-Avon, from the 5,000 trip, Ms Shakesheff and her husband Matthew took their eldest son to a GP and a hospital after he began suffering from a red, itchy chest that started to ooze yellow liquid.

Nine-year-old Ollie (pictured) may have the massive scar on his chest for the rest of his life

He chose to get a 10cm wolf pattern emblazoned on his chest, while his younger brother wanted to get a tattoo of Cristiano Ronaldo

Ms Shakesheff, who owns a family transport and haulage business, said: 'His clothes and the bed covers were covered in yellow-red stains so we decided to go to A&E.'

There, doctors confirmed that the young boy had suffered a chemical burn, before dressing it and prescribing antibiotics.

It is believed that the burn was caused by Paraphenylenediamine (PPD), a chemical commonly found in black henna and dark hair dyes. Doctors told her that black henna should never be used on skin.

'They [the henna people] didn't even say it was black henna, they said it was just a henna tattoo, which is very misleading because the customer should know it's black henna,' the distraught mother said.

'They were advertising henna tattoos but they were using black henna. We had never had henna before so we didn't think about it.'

While Ollie is feeling better, Ms Shakesheff worries that her son will be left with the wolf outline burned into his chest for the rest of his life.

'What was supposed to be [some] holiday fun scarred my boy for life.

He and his brother got the tattoos done at a henna tattoo stand run in a TUI-operated hotel in Turkey

Monika is now warning other parents to be careful if they allow their children to get similar tattoos

'Ollie is okay with it at the moment but they have said it could be permanent and he could be left with a white wolf outline on his chest.

'I feel guilty as a mum. It was just a fun thing to do on holiday and I feel guilty that I let them do it.'

On top of this, she's now worried that her youngest son will soon suffer a similar fate.

'Charlie has some red patches on his skin where the head of the Ronaldo in henna was,' the worried mother said.

'Charlie's shows a bit of reaction but it is not as bad as Ollie's.'

Ms Shakesheff is now warning other parents of the dangers they face should they choose to get similar tattoos.

She said: 'To other parents I would say check what product they are using and, if you don't know do some research before they put it on your child's skin.

'If I knew it was black henna they were using I wouldn't have let them have it done.

'So, before you decide to have your child tattooed, think again. A lesson learned for us.'

A TUI spokesman said: 'We are very sorry to hear about Monika and her family's experience at The Pegasos Royal in Turkey.

'Whilst black henna isn't illegal in Turkey, we take health and safety of our customers very seriously.

'Our health and safety teams are aware of the incident and we will be investigating thoroughly with our resort teams.'
A man is expected to survive being stabbed through the head with a flagpole at a fast-food restaurant in Oklahoma, police said yesterday.

The victim, who has not been identified, was impaled by Clinton Collins on Wednesday evening at a Sonic in Tulsa.

Collins was arrested and charged with felony maiming, the Tulsa Police Department said in a statement.

'The pole entered the victim's head beneath his jaw and exited the other side of his head near his right temple area,' police said. 'The American Flag was still attached the pole at the time.'

Firefighters with the Tulsa Fire Department had to cut part of the flagpole in order to fit the victim into an ambulance, police said.

Clinton Collins was arrested after stabbing a man through the head with a flagpole at a fast-food restaurant in Oklahoma

The victim, who has not been identified, was impaled by Clinton Collins on Wednesday evening at a Sonic in Tulsa (pictured)

'Miraculously, we're told the victim will survive his injuries, but will likely lose an eye,' police said.

Witnesses told investigators that they saw Collins charge at the victim and stab him with the flagpole, according to the police statement.

Police said witnesses could hear Collins say: 'That's what he gets. He deserved it.'

Preston Stanley, a spokesperson for the police department, said that police cannot provide information regarding whether Collins has hired an attorney.

The Tulsa County Clerk of Courts office said Collins is a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, and that his case either will be handled in tribal court or in U.S. District Court.

In 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Oklahoma prosecutors lack the authority to pursue criminal cases against defendants who are tribal citizens in a large chunk of eastern Oklahoma because it remains an American Indian reservation. That area includes most of Tulsa, the states second-largest city.

However, last year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Oklahoma can prosecute non-Native Americans for crimes committed on tribal land when the victim is Native American.

It was unclear on Thursday where the case against Collins would be headed.

Records for criminal cases filed in U.S. District Court in Oklahoma did not list a case against Collins on Thursday afternoon.

Kayla McCleery, a FBI spokesperson in the agencys Oklahoma City office, declined to comment, stating that the FBI doesn't comment on pending cases.
Britain's squadron of top gun RAF pilots have intercepted Russian warplanes 50 times in just four months during their mission to protect Nato airspace from Vladimir Putin's forces.

Typhoon pilots based at a military HQ in Estonia have flown more than 500 hours as the spearhead of the alliance's mission to deter Kremlin jets from muscling into Nato's eastern flank.

Royal Air Force personnel have now returned to the UK following the taxing four-month operation to protect the skies over the Baltic from Putin's forces.

Members of 140 Expeditionary Air Wing and a squadron of supersonic RAF Typhoons carried out 'Quick Reaction Alert' intercepts of any potential hostile aircraft approaching Nato airspace.

During the most hectic period of the deployment, British pilots from No IX(Bomber) and No 1(Fighter) squadrons, based at RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland, were scrambled 21 times in just 21 days to intercept Putin's warplanes.

Among the aircraft shadowed included a Russian jet known as the 'Flying Kremlin' or 'Doomsday plane' - an airborne command and control centre to be used by Putin in the event of a nuclear war.

The pilots have been on the front line of NATO's response to the war in Ukraine, regularly carrying out security patrols of the alliance's border and intercepting Russian jets

From high above the clouds, a Typhoon is pictured soaring above a Russian 'Doomsday' plane (pictured right)

During the most hectic period of the deployment, RAF Typhoons were scrambled 21 times in 21 days (pictured is one of the British jets, left, during one of the operations to shadow a Russian plane)

The deployment, codenamed 'Op Azotize', began with RAF pilots flying missions alongside the German Air Force, which is when the first ever joint air intercept between Nato allies took place.

British and German Typhoons shadowed a Russian air-to-air refuelling aircraft and transport aircraft flying between St Petersburg and Kaliningrad.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said: 'Hundreds of RAF pilots and personnel have spent months away from their families, working round-the-clock alongside our allies to keep Europe's skies safe.

'The UK's successful leadership of Nato's air policing mission in Estonia, resulting in the interception of dozens of Russian aircraft by the RAF, sends a strong message to Putin that we stand united with our allies against any threat to our borders.'

The fighter jet squadron was always held at a moment's notice - ready to scramble and take on any possible threat in the skies.

Their job intercept the Russian jets as fast as possible so they can be identified, and information relayed to ground controllers to ensure there is no serious encroachment.

After taking full leadership of the air policing operation, RAF Typhoons regularly flew QRA missions  intercepting 21 Kremlin fighters, long-range bombers, and reconnaissance aircraft in just three weeks.

Among the pilots on the frontline with NATO is Flight Lieutenant Ben (pictured), whose full name we are withholding for security reasons

Pilots have to be ready to scramble to their jets within minutes as they carry out security patrols

Applying the afterburners to give the jet a turbo boost Flt Lt Ben his Typhoon soared into the grey (pictured)

Pictured: RAF Typhoons with NATO planes Number 1 Squadron RAF know as No. 1 (Fighter) Squadron who are based in Estonia undertaking NATO's Baltic Air policing missions

Defence Minister Baroness Goldie paid tribute to the 'commitment and dedication' of the 140 Expeditionary Air Wing in protecting Nato airspace.

'The day to day, personal sacrifices made not only by the individuals but also their families in the name of duty are nothing short of commendable,' she added.

While deployed in Estonia, the RAF took place in the largest Nato Air Deployment exercise since the Cold War.

In a potent show of force to Putin, the alliance had more than 250 250 aircraft and 10,000 personnel from 25 Nato and partner nations involved in the aerial war games.

Last month, MailOnline exclusively revealed what it life on the frontline was like for British pilots defending Nato's borders.

Unique footage, filmed from a GoPro camera mounted in the cockpit of the 90million superjet revealed the dramatic moment young Brit pilots intercepted Russian fighter jets.

In one clip, a Typhoon shadows a TU-214 - the 'Flying Kremlin' - as it flew from Moscow along the Baltic coast.

While another piece of footage showed the moment vapour trails from a Russian jet - known as a 'Zombie' - trials across the sky as the British Typhoon closes in at over 400mph.

In some of the footage piece vapour trails from a Russian jet  known as a 'Zombie' - streak across the sky but the plane rapidly disappears as a Typhoon closes in at over 400mph

Signs indicated when the jets are loaded with its lethal array of bombs and missiles

The Typhoons can travel at a staggering speed of Mach 2  1,550mph. Pictured is one of the jets preparing to take off

Flying from Amari Airbase, about 30 miles from the Estonian capital Tallin, the pilots of 1 Fighter Squadron are following in the footsteps of those who fought in the Battle of Britain in the summer of 1940.

Just as the Spitfire and Hurricane pilots did over 80 years ago, their modern-day equivalents still 'scramble' to engage their foes.

That means getting airborne as fast as possible in a jet that can hit a speed of Mach 2  1,550mph.

Those pilots on quick reaction alert duty might be sleeping or relaxing in a crew room watching TV when an alarm sounds.

'As soon as we hear the siren sound, and it is so loud everyone in the building hears the siren we just run as fast we can to the hangar where the Typhoon is waiting, said RAF Flight Lieutenant Ben, whose full name we are withholding for security reasons.

'I often sleep in my flying suit and put the rest of the kit on as I get out to the plane. I run up the steps and strap in while I start getting messages about the flight, such as speed and the direction to take.'

Six Typhoon single seat fighter jets form the QRA force.

Britain's Air and Space Commander, Air Marshal Harv Smyth, said the RAF team had excelled' in its mission to protect Nato airspace.

'I am extremely proud of the whole forces hard work and dedication. Now that they are back in the UK, their focus will be straight back to providing UK quick reaction alert where they will help ensure the safety and integrity of UK airspace, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year,' he added.
Eddie Izzard has announced she is making her latest attempt to become an MP and is bidding to be Labour's general election candidate for the Brighton Pavilion seat.

The 61-year-old comic's newest effort to enter Westminster politics comes after she last year failed to be chosen as Labour's parliamentary candidate for Sheffield Central.

In a social media video announcing her candidacy, Izzard hailed Brighton as an 'open-minded' city that is 'welcoming to all' and pointed to her 'roots' in Sussex.

She also lashed out at the Tories and the Green Party, who lost control of Brighton and Hove City Council earlier this year as Labour retook power in the city.

The current Brighton Pavilion MP is long-serving Green politician Caroline Lucas, who is standing down at the next general election.

Eddie Izzard has announced she is making her latest attempt to become an MP and is bidding to be Labour's general election candidate for the Brighton Pavilion seat

In a social media video announcing her candidacy, the 61-year-old comic hailed Brighton as an 'open-minded' city that is 'welcoming to all' and pointed to her 'roots' in Sussex

Izzard also lashed out at the Tories and the Green Party, who lost control of Brighton and Hove City Council earlier this year as Labour retook power in the city

The current Brighton Pavilion MP is long-serving Green politician Caroline Lucas, who is standing down at the next general election

Izzard has previously spoken about her gender-fluid identity and requests to be referred to with she/her pronouns.

Her previous bid to become a Labour candidate, in Sheffield Central, was marked by a furious 'transphobic' row.

Rosie Duffield, Labour MP for Canterbury, used a fringe event at the party's conference in Liverpool last year to threaten to quit the party if Izzard was allowed onto an all-women shortlist.

She also said: 'Eddie Izzard is not a woman.'

Tory deputy chairman Lee Anderson, MP for Ashfield, was criticised after declaring he would not 'be following him into the toilets' if Izzard became an MP.

He also questioned whether female representation in Parliament would 'increase or decrease' with Izzard's election.

In response to the comments, Izzard said that 'some people haven't joined the 21st century' and hit out at 'bullying' and 'transphobic attitudes'.

Izzard is a former member of Labour's ruling National Executive Committee and has previously flirted with a bid to become London mayor.

She spent part of her childhood in Bexhill-on-Sea, around 30 miles from Brighton on the South Coast, and has hailed how she is 'just the latest in over 200 years of Izzards in East Sussex'.

'Whilst the Tories stoke fear and encourage culture wars, Brighton has shown the country another way; Open-minded and welcoming to all, with a thriving arts, creative and cultural scene,' Izzard said in the video declaring her candidacy.

'Imaginative, energetic and full of entrepreneurial spirit.

'But for 13 years the Tories have tried to drag us down. Police numbers, cut. Fewer dentists, doctors and nurses.

'A rail network grinding to a halt, and sewage dumping into the sea. Hiking the cost of everything and holding Brighton back.

'And we all saw what happened under the Green council  house building stalled whilst rubbish piled high in the streets.

'It will take practical action  not protest  to fix whats broken, and to win this seat, Labour needs a candidate that can inspire many thousands to become our friends and allies in the fight for a fairer-greener-cleaner planet.

'Reaching out and lifting people up, is at the heart of my politics. I believe in making connections  not breaking connections.

'So please join me  get in touch, get involved and lets make Brighton Pavillion Labour again.'

Izzard's newest effort to enter Westminster politics comes after she last year failed to be chosen as Labour's parliamentary candidate for Sheffield Central

Labour's selection process in Brighton Pavilion is not expected to be held until the autumn.

The party's chances of winning back the seat they last held in 2010 - prior to Ms Lucas winning the constituency for the first time at that year's general election - will have been buoyed by their performance in recent local elections.

Labour won an overall majority on Brighton and Hove City Council in May to replace the Green administration.

Sian Berry, former Green co-leader, will be the party's candidate to succeed Ms Lucas in Brighton Pavilion at the next general election.

Labour currently hold the neighbouring constituencies of Brighton Kemptown and Hove.

Izzard lost out to local councillor Abtisam Mohamed in the contest to be Labour's candidate in Sheffield Central.
This is the dramatic moment an activist opposing London's Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez) climbed a lamppost and used a drill to tear down an enforcement camera.

The footage shows a member of the 'Blade Runners' sabotaging a Ulez camera - worth an estimated 7,000 - in Bromley, south-east London, according to Talk TV.

The covert group vandalising and stealing the Ulez cameras takes its name from the 1982 Harrison Ford action movie.

The Blade Runners have been attacking ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) cameras that catch out drivers using high-polluting vehicles across the capital.

Sadiq Khan's scheme will force Londoners to pay 12.50-a-day to drive in Greater London from August 29 if their cars do not meet certain environmental standards.

A spokesperson for the London Mayor told MailOnline: 'It is deeply disappointing to see opposition to a policy being used as an excuse for criminal damage.

A member of the 'Blade Runners' group climbs up the post towards the Ulez camera in Bromley

The activist uses a drill to take down the Ulez camera in Bromley after climbing up the post

The 'Blade Runner' takes down the Ulez camera which is worth an estimated 7,000

'This petty vandalism of London's essential transport infrastructure is completely unacceptable.'

Police said reports of this nature are investigated by officers as part of Operation Eremon, which was launched after allegations of criminal damage were passed to the Metropolitan Police by Transport for London.

Detective Superintendent Daniel Smith, whose officers are leading the probe, said: 'We have been proactively targeting those we suspect of causing or seeking to cause damage.

'We are carrying out a thorough investigation and this includes gathering CCTV, speaking to potential witnesses and following up active leads.

'We are also working with TfL to prevent further offences in the future.'

Some 11 Ulez cameras were reported stolen and 17 more vandalised just last week.

As of last week, there were 1,775 cameras in place - with 2,750 planned for the full expansion of Ulez across all of Greater London which is due to start on August 29.

Mr Khan yesterday announced a major expansion of financial support designed to ease the impact of the capital's ultra low emission zone on people's pockets.

Mr Khan said every Londoner with a polluting car facing charges under Ulez will now be able to receive a grant of up to 2,000 to support an upgrade. Previously only those on low incomes could apply.

The announcement follows a request made by Sir Keir Starmer for Mr Khan to reflect on how the extension of Ulez to all London boroughs was being carried out.

The expansion of the Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez) is due to come into force on August 29

Mayor Sadiq Khan on board a Transport for London low-emission bus today as he reveals an expansion of the scrappage scheme at the Metroline bus garage in Edgware, north London

Demonstrators protest against the Ulez expansion outside the High Court in London on July 29

Signage indicates the boundary of the Ulez scheme beside the South Circular in London

The Labour leader blamed concerns around the scheme for his party's narrow by-election defeat in Boris Johnson's old Uxbridge and South Ruislip seat last month.

Mr Khan said while he will not 'step back, delay or water down' the policy to tackle air pollution, he is widening the scrappage scheme after listening to residents' unease about Ulez amid a cost-of-living crisis.

While previously only child benefit recipients, low-income and disabled people were eligible for scrappage grants, from August 21 all Londoners with non-Ulez compliant cars or motorcycles can apply.

The Labour incumbent in City Hall also announced that small businesses and sole traders can get 21,000 to junk up to three vans, with 27,000 available for charities to replace three minibuses.

More support kicking in today includes higher payments for switching to an electric vehicle for charities with old vans, and for retrofitting an existing vehicle. Grants for replacing wheelchair accessible vehicles will double to 10,000.

It comes ahead of the Ulez expansion to beyond the capital's north and south circular roads on August 29.

Drivers of vehicles which do not meet minimum emissions standards are charged a 12.50 daily fee for entering the zone.
Skeletal remains discovered in a shallow grave in 2007 have been identified as a 39-year-old Florida woman who was never reported missing - while police are searching for her husband.

Jeana Lynn Burrus, who lived in Sarasota with her husband and son, was identified through DNA technology on Wednesday, marking a major breakthrough in the case which had been cold for 16 years.

Sarasota County Sheriff's Office (SCSO) said the case was complicated by the fact she was never reported missing, so her whereabouts were not on the radar of detectives.

Jeana lived on the 6200 block of Pauline Avenue in the south-west Florida coast city with her husband, James Burrus, now 57, and their son James Burrus Jr, now 26.

Skeletal remains discovered in a shallow grave in 2007 have been identified as 39-year-old Florida woman Jeana Lynn Burrus, who was never reported missing

Burrus, who lived in Sarasota with her husband and son (pictured), was identified through DNA technology on Wednesday, marking a major breakthrough on the case which had been cold for 16 years. Her husband James Burrus has now been named a 'person of interest' by police

SCSO said Jeana was unemployed, while her husband worked at a local body shop on the 5600 block of Sarah Avenue in Sarasota, and their son attended Gulf Gate Elementary School

Her remains were found around three miles away in a wooded area of Ashton Ct. on February 6, 2007.

The investigation into the circumstances of her death remained cold until November 2022, when the SCSO, working with DNA Labs International Inc, used advancements in DNA testing and genetic genealogy to re-examine the remains.

Police announced the results on Wednesday, and launched an appeal for anyone who knew Jeana, her husband, or son, to come forward.

SCSO said Jeana was unemployed, while her husband worked at a local body shop on the 5600 block of Sarah Avenue in Sarasota and their son attended Gulf Gate Elementary School between 2005-06.

Prior to residing in Sarasota County, the couple lived in Citrus County, Florida, and Frederick, Maryland.

Jeana was involved in a serious road accident in 2003 when she was 35, according to a local paper report.

A Tampa Bay Times article from August of that year said she was driving west on Cypress Boulevard when her 1996 Chevrolet veered off the road and rolled over.

She was thrown from the vehicle by the impact and she lost consciousness briefly after the accident, before walking for half a mile to a residence for help.

Jeana lived with her family on Pauline Avenue in the south-west Florida coast city of Sarasota

A deputy attended the house where she found refuge, and medics later took her by helicopter to Tampa General Hospital.

Jeana was cited for not having a valid driving license, careless driving, having an expired tag and failing to carry proof of insurance, according to the report.

As police search for information linked to her death, anyone with knowledge of Jeana or her family is asked to contact SCSO Detective Brian Ng at 941 861 4900.

The DNA discovery comes after the Florida murder victim known only as 'Trunk Lady' for 53 years was also finally identified by genetic evidence.

'Trunk Lady' was so called because she was discovered stuffed inside a trunk in a Florida field on Halloween day 1969 after being strangled with a Bolo tie.

Thanks to DNA breakthroughs, she was identified by St Petersburg Police Department in May as 41-year-old Arizona mother-of-five Sylvia June Atherton.

The force said the investigation began more than half a century ago, when two teenagers reported seeing two white men haul a trunk out from a pickup truck on 4200 block, 32nd Street South, which was then Oyster Bar.

Officers arrived on scene and found a woman's body wrapped in plastic and wearing nothing but a pajama top stuffed inside the trunk.

'Trunk Lady': the cold case which has perplexed police for 53 years has finally been partly resolved through the identification of the victim as Sylvia June Atherton

They investigated but no leads were found, and the incident became one of St Petersburg's oldest cold cases.

This was until May 2023, when police announced they had identified 'Trunk Lady' after more than half a century thanks to DNA breakthroughs - though her killer is still unknown.
A woman accused of murdering her two-year-old daughter while involved in a cult three decades ago has pleaded not guilty.

Ellen Rachel Craig, 60, allegedly killed Tillie Craig near Oberon in central NSW in July 1987.

Police allege the toddler was beaten to death with plastic tubing and her remains disposed of at a rural property in Porters Retreat, which also served as the headquarters of the cult The Ministry of God.

The 60-year-old appeared for arraignment in court via audio-visual link from Dillwynia Correctional Centre in western Sydney, where she pleaded not guilty.

Craig and her co-accused Alexander Wilon - the cult's alleged leader - were initially set to face court in a joint trial.

Two-year-old Tillie Craig (pictured) was allegedly beaten to death with plastic tubing in 1987

But after Wilon's recent stroke his lawyer Troy Anderson SC requested a delay.

'Mr Wilon recently suffered a stroke (and his) situation will not stabilise for three months,' he told NSW Supreme Court on Friday.

'After three months we will know if his position will improve, if ever.'

The case went cold for more than three decades until the Unsolved Homicide Unit received a tip-off in 2019.

By November 2021, police arrested and charged the alleged cult leader over his potential role in the murder, six months before Craig was arrested in New Zealand and extradited to NSW.

Ellen Rachel Craig, 60, was arrested in New Zealand and extradited to NSW in May 2022. She pleaded not guilty to her daughter's murder

Craig's legal team will file an application for a judge-alone trial that will be assessed on August 28.

Wilon's matter will return to court in November.
The Parkland school shooting will be re-enacted today as part of a civil lawsuit against the Broward' sheriff's deputy who was found not criminally guilty for remaining outside during the massacre.

As many as 140 live rounds of bullets will be fired inside into a ballistic trap inside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Friday, mimicking the killer's movements on February 14, 2018, when 17 students and teachers were killed in the deadliest US high school shooting.

It's all part of a civil lawsuit brought by several of the victims' families and one survivor against former Broward' sheriff's deputy Scot Peterson, who was found not guilty of child neglect in June over his actions during the shooting.

Prosecutors had accused him of ignoring his training and failing to confront the shooter while taking cover outside the building as children were shot dead.

Peterson, who is being accused of negligence, claimed he did not enter the building because he couldn't tell where the shots were coming from.

Nine members of Congress and others enter Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Friday, Aug. 4, 2023, in Parkland, Fla.

The group will tour the blood-stained and bullet-pocked halls, shortly before ballistics technicians reenact the massacre that left 14 students and three staff members dead in 2018

The reenactment is part of a lawsuit filed by the victims' families against former Deputy Scot Peterson and the Broward Sheriff's Office.

As many as 140 live rounds of bullets will be fired inside into a ballistic trap inside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Friday, mimicking the killer's movements on February 14, 2018, when 17 students and teachers were killed in the deadliest US high school shooting

Those behind the lawsuit hope the re-enactment will prove Peterson heard 'upwards of 70 shots and knew where they were coming from,' attorney David Brill said in court, as reported by CNN.

The same model of semiautomatic rifle and caliber of cartridges will be used, and the fire alarm will sound at the same times as it did during the actual shooting.

The Florida school will be closed for the day with no students on campus for the choreographed reenactment, which will be recorded.

'Residents should be advised that the simulation will include gunfire that will be heard as far as a mile or more from' the school, the city of Parkland said.

A bipartisan congressional delegation is is scheduled to tour the site before the shooting reenactment. Some families of the victims are set to accompany them.

The Parkland school shooting will be re-enacted today as part of a civil lawsuit against the Broward' sheriff's deputy who was found not guilty for remaining outside during the massacre

Scot Peterson, who is being accused of negligence, claimed he did not enter the building because he couldn't tell where the shots were coming from

The reenactment will mimic the killer's movements on February 14, 2018, when 17 students and teachers were killed in the deadliest US high school shooting

Max Schachter, whose lost his son Alex in the tragedy, told the Miami Herald the reeneacment brings the affected families closer to justice.

'Im going to come to the school to witness the reenactment and its going to be really hard because Ive never heard gunshots from an AR-15 with a .223 round, which is armor piercing,' said Schachter.

'Its going to be scary, especially knowing that these are the gunshots that Alex heard and how scared he would have been. But we hope that it will prove to the civil case against the deputy that theres no possible way that he didnt hear these gunshots.'

Prosecutors had accused Peterson of ignoring his training and failing to confront the shooter while taking cover outside the building as children were shot dead

The reenactment will take place in the school's 1200 building where the students were gunned down on February 14, 2018

Last month, Judge Carol-Lisa Phillips granted the request of the families of victims Luke Hoyer, Alaina Petty, Meadow Pollack, Alex Schachter, and survivor Madeline Wilford to conduct the reenactment.

The reenactment will take place in the school's 1200 building where the students were gunned down on February 14, 2018. Its costs will be shared by both parties.

The families are currently suing the Broward County Sheriff's Office and Deputy Scot Peterson, alleging more could have been done to save and assist children in need.

Lawyers for the families argued that a 'reenactment that would parallel the killer's movements, and the gunfire, inside of Building 12, in relation to Defendant Scot Peterson's movements and actions outside of the building.'

In late June, the deputy, 60, was found not guilty on 11 charges including child neglect in a criminal trial.

The former deputy said that being found not guilty was equivalent to getting his 'life back.'

'We got our life back after four and a half, five and a half, years because of [lawyer] Mark [Eiglarsh] and being able to get the truth out of what happened,' he said.

Peterson added that 'the only person to blame was that monster,' referring to Cruz, who was sentenced to life in prison in 2022.

Shooting survivor Madeline Woodford (pictured) is one of the plaintiffs in the civil case

The families of Alaina Petty (left) and Luke Hoyer (right) are involved in the lawsuit

The parents of Meadow Pollack (left) and Alex Schachter (right) are also suing

But Tony Montalto, whose 14-year-old daughter, Gina, was killed in the massacre, disagreed, saying Peterson should have been found guilty for fleeing the scene when Cruz opened fire.

'Sadly we don't understand what you need to see to find people guilty in Broward County,' he said, explaining: 'There's video of the former deputy commissioner hearing the shot, running and hiding, taking up the position for 48 minutes, standing still while other officers rushed in, standing still while victim were brought out '

At that point, Montalto was drowned out by the sound of Peterson's friends and families cheering his release.

The acquittal ended the first trial in U.S. history of a law enforcement officer for conduct during an on-campus shooting.

Peterson spent nearly three decades working at schools, including nine years at Stoneman Douglas. He retired shortly after the shooting and was then fired retroactively.

Security videos show that 36 seconds after Cruz's attack began, Peterson exited his office about 100 yards from the 1200 building and jumped into a cart with two unarmed civilian security guards. They arrived at the building a minute later.

Peterson, who was not wearing a bullet-resistant vest, got out of the cart near the east doorway to the first-floor hallway. Cruz was at the hallways opposite end, firing his AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle.

He didn't open the door. Instead, he took cover 75 feet away in the alcove of a neighboring building, his gun still drawn. He stayed there for 40 minutes, long after the shooting ended and other police officers had stormed the building.
A woman had to be airlifted to hospital after she and two friends were attacked by an otter while river rafting in Montana.

The three tourists were floating on inner tubes on a remote stretch of the Jefferson River, a tributary of the Missouri River, when the rare attack happened on Wednesday evening.

They were attacked by at least one otter and a women suffered such serious injuries to her face and arms she had to be flown by helicopter to a hospital in Bozeman.

Her two friends were left with injuries to their arms as they tried to fight the animal off.

The women, who live in Montana, were able to escape and get to the shore where they called 911 for help.

A woman had to be airlifted to hospital after she and two friends were attacked by an otter while river rafting in Montana

The three tourists were floating on inner tubes on a remote stretch of the Jefferson River, a tributary of the Missouri River, when the rare attack happened on Wednesday evening

First responders had to use a jet boat and a side-by-side to reach the victims because the incident happened in a remote location.

It is not clear how many otters were involved in the attack that happened on the stretch of river that's popular with anglers and recreational floaters.

The trio said at least one otter swam up to them shortly before attacking although another woman said she had spotted two otters.

Authorities are shocked by the incident which happened at around 8.15pm and say otter attacks are extremely rare.

'It's just not something you run into very often. Bears do it, moose too and occasionally a deer, but otters? That's not normal,' Jefferson County Undersheriff James Everett said.

Water levels in rivers are low during the summer and people are brought into more contact with wildlife.

'While attacks from otters are rare, otters can be protective of themselves and their young, especially at close distances,' Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks said in a statement.

'They give birth to their young in April and can later be seen with their young in the water during the summer.

'They may also be protective of food resources, especially when those resources are scarce.'

There are no plans to try and locate or kill the otters because it's believed to have been a defensive attack.

But signs have been put up to warn visitors about the potentially dangerous animals in the area.

Authorities are shocked by the incident which happened at around 8.15pm and say otter attacks are extremely rare

There are no plans to try and locate or kill the otters because it's believed to have been a defensive attack. But signs have been put up to warn visitors about the animals in the area

Otters can can use their teeth and claws to bite and scratch, Morgan Jacobsen from Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks said

Northern river otters are members of the weasel family and can reach up to 20 pounds - as heavy as a small dog - and up to 47 inches long. They primarily eat fish.

They can can use their teeth and claws to bite and scratch, Morgan Jacobsen from Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks said.

'If folks are attacked by an otter, our recommended response is to fight back, get away and get out of the water,' he said.

Two years ago, a 12-year-old boy on an inner tube was attacked but not seriously hurt by an otter on Montana's Big Hole River.

Last month in California, a sea otter gained widespread attention for aggressively wrestling surfboards from surfers off the coast of Santa Cruz.

A well documented otter attack happened in 2016 when a 52-year-old woman was swimming in a Quebec lake.

It aggressively followed her as she swam before biting and scratching her. The incident left her with deep wounds on her legs.
Residents have hit out at a 'far from finished' regeneration scheme which has left a town centre looking like an 'eyesore' after officials announced works had been completed.

Developer Hellens Group reformed the site of a former Kwik Save supermarket on Festival Walk in Spennymoor, County Durham, constructing a new Aldi store and car park.

But residents have slammed the development as 'rotten,' saying builders have left fencing around the area as well as an incomplete pavement.

Pictures appear to show a number of derelict units surrounded by fences. Diggers and equipment have also reportedly been discarded.

Resident Dave Butler said: 'Festival Walk is nowhere near finished, no matter who has done what.

Residents of Festival Walk, in Spennymoor, County Durham, have hit out after a major regeneration scheme of their town centre was announced as completed

Locals say the works are 'far from finished' and say it looks like an 'eyesore'

A number of diggers and equipment have also reportedly been discarded

'All they have done is one length of Festival Walk with work on the shopfronts.

'Even there the paving is uneven with tarmac between crazy paving. It looks like a total mess.

'They have fenced off an area and are lifting the paving and relaying it.

'There is a great piece of land between Aldi and Greggs which is fenced off and does not appear to be anybody's land with metal fencing all round to stop people walking across it.'

Michael Ellison, who runs Wolf Thai Fitness Gym said: 'There is bit down the bottom of Festival Walk, where the Aldi store is that still needs doing.

'It's like a pigeon palace. It looks rotten. There are railings I have seen kids hanging off.

'Don't get me wrong, it has improved enormously with Spennymoor town councillors Billy McAloon and Liz Maddison pushing Hellens Group to get the work done - but it is far from finished.'

Another resident took to social media to say: 'What a joke, shops had a quick makeover with parts of the shopping centre grassed over.

Photographs show how fencing still appears in place in the area

Residents say builders have left fencing in place as well as an incomplete pavement

One resident said it looked 'rotten' as another blasted the works as 'far from finished'

'Other parts left redundant near Penny Gill, should have knocked it all down and started again. The paving outside of the shops must have been down for years. It's a mess.'

A spokesperson for Hellens Group said: 'The main development phase of Festival Walk is now concluded and Hellens Group and Durham County Council are continuing to work together to finalise works to the public realm, with a date of future improvements to be confirmed shortly.

'We understand that ongoing works may cause some inconvenience, for which we apologise, but we hope local residents will understand and appreciate the vast improvements the scheme has delivered.

'We are in discussions with Durham County Council about the future of the remaining derelict units.'

Graham Wood, Durham County Council's economic development manager, said: 'We can confirm that Hellens Group has successfully completed the first phase of works at Festival Walk.

'We are now working with the group to finalise a scheme of public realm works as part of our continued commitment to regenerate the town, increase footfall, and boost the local economy.

'Some preparatory works have been carried out as part of this, with an official date for future improvements to be announced soon.'

MailOnline has contacted Hellens Group and Durham Council for further comment.
Boris Johnson today joins the fight to save the humble British newt after the aquatic amphibians threatened to derail his plan for a swimming pool.

The former prime minister, writing exclusively for the Daily Mail, comes out batting for the great crested newt after officials queried construction at his family home.

South Oxfordshire District Council staff said work at the property he shares with Carrie and their three young children could have a possible impact on a local population.

Due to a marked decline in population newts are a protected species in Britain.

But Mr Johnson today tells Mail readers: 'I want you to know that if there are newts here, no-one could be more delighted than me to cohabit with those threatened amphibians.

'And I believe that it is our job to protect them and do everything we can to make sure they do not suffer the continual decline in population that we have seen over the last 30 years.'

Watch out for Boris Johnson's column on Mail Online from 5pm and in Saturday's Daily Mail.
On July 27th, the weather in Hefei was exceptionally fine, with blue sky adorned by white clouds floating in the air, giving a hint of 'refreshment' to the scorching heat.

As a landmark of Hefei, Swan Lake is even more breathtaking with its azure water and blue sky. Using the technique of time-lapse photography, the presented beautiful scenery appears more magnificent and awe-inspiring. In this video, our reporter captured 1750 images using time-lapse photography on July 27th, and after post-production, compiled them into a time-lapse video of Swan Lake.





Reporter: Liu Zhiwei; Intern: Qian Kaiguo

Edited and translated by Zheng Chen




The aftermath of the latest Donald Trump indictment has set off a political dogfight, with Mike Pence blasting 'crackpot lawyers' advising his former boss  and Rudy accusing the former vice president of being bossed by his wife.

Pence provided some of his most pronounced criticism of Trump this week following his bombshell grand jury indictment.

'Sadly, the president was surrounded by a group of crackpot lawyers that kept telling him what his itching ears wanted to hear,' Pence said.

That was a dig that Giuliani, a former Trump who has been identified as 'co-conspirator 1' in the indictment, took to heart. He responded with a personal attack.

'I always worried about him following Trump because I would see him with his wife having something around his neck every night,' Giuliani told Newsmax host Eric Bolling.

Former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, identified as 'co-conspsirtor 1' in the latest Trump indictment, attacked former VP Mike Pence after Pence said Trump was listening to 'crackpot lawyers' before January 6

'She doesnt let him go to the ...' Giuliani said, before stopping himself. 'No, she lets him go to the bathroom by himself, thats about it. But imagine that skunk doing what he did today?' Giuliani said.

Giuliani's attacks come as Trump also took notice of Pence and threw shade in his direction.

'I feel badly for Mike Pence, who is attracting no crowds, enthusiasm, or loyalty from people who, as a member of the Trump Administration, should be loving him,' Trump posted on his Truth Social site.

Then he repeated claims of election fraud that had him in federal court in Washington, D.C. Thursday facing charges stemming from his election overturn effort.

'I always worried about him following Trump because I would see him with his wife having something around his neck every night,' Giuliani said of Pence

GOP presidential candidate Mike Pence dines Wednesday at Pioneer Village at the Indiana State Fair

Former President Donald Trump attacked Trump on his Truth Social platform Wednesday

'He didnt fight against Election Fraud, which we will now be easily able to prove based on the most recent Fake Indictment & information which will have to be made available to us, finally  a really BIG deal. The V.P. had power that Mike didnt understand, but after the Election, the RINOS & Dems changed the law, taking that power away!' Trump wrote.

The indictment revealed that prosecutors have obtained contemporaneous notes that Pence kept during his pressure campaign. It also quotes Trump as admonishing him for being 'too honest' amid his resistance. Trump and his allies wanted Pence to refuse to accept votes certified by states during the electoral count.

Giuliani also tore into Pence's legal bonafides. Pence attended the Indiana University school of law, which is located at the IU-Purdue campus in Indianapolis. Giuliani, a former federal prosecutor who is fighting to have his law license revoked, attended the New York University school of law.

'I once got a congressman to break down at the witness stand and confess, so I really know what Im doing, and to be described as a what did he, what did Pence say? I dont think hes ever been in a courtroom and he went to the law school nobody even knows. I mean, that guy is that guy, I mean, I thought before this all happened that he was a really good guy, but too weak to be president,' Giuliani said.

His blasts at Pence come during a difficult week for Giuliani, who was once known as 'America's mayor.

He is the subject of a blistering court document by former aide Noelle Dunphy, who alleges in the filing that in a hotel room he pulled his pants down and had her give oral sex 'against her will.'

It says he acted 'in a similar manner' to a scene in the film Borat, where Giuliani is depicted laying down on the bed of a hotel room.

Giuliani in filings has denied the allegations and calls her charges 'a large stretch of the imagination.'

Pence spoke about the case during a campaign stop Wednesday to the Indiana State Fair, as he continues to struggle to rise in the polls.

'Sadly, the president was surrounded by a group of crackpot lawyers that kept telling him what his itching ears wanted to hear,' Pence said.

'And while I made by case to him, with what I understood my oath to the Constitution to require, the president ultimately continued to demand that I choose him over the Constitution,' the former vice president added.

Pence revealed in 2002 that he won't eat alone with a woman unless his wife Karen is with him, and won't go to public events where alcohol without having her with him, as part of his faith.
Investigators have identified a seventh victim in the Gilgo Beach murders - known as 'Jane Doe 7' or 'Fire Island Jane Doe' - as Karen Vergata, 34, who went missing in 1996.

Authorities from Suffolk County, New York, identified the victim at a press conference on Friday.

They said Vergata lived in Manhattan, worked as an escort. and was never reported missing.

Rex Heuermann, 59, was arrested last month in connection to the murders of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Lynn Costello, all of whom disappeared in 2009 and 2010. He is the prime suspect in a fourth murder and is being looked at for other killings in the area.

District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney declined to comment on whether Heuermann is connected to Vergata's murder but emphasized he has not been charged.

Rex Heuermann was arrested last month in connection to the murders of three women whose bodies were found dumped in burlap sacks on Gilgo Beach

Investigators have identified a seventh victim in the Gilgo Beach murders - known as 'Jane Doe 7' or 'Fire Island Jane Doe' - as Karen Vergata, 34. She is pictured in a school photo

The newly identified victim's legs were found in a plastic bag at Davis Park on Fire Islands Blue Point Beach nearly two decades prior on April 20, 1996.

Her skull was then found off Ocean Parkway, near Tobay Beach in Nassau County; her torso and hands were never recovered.

Police said they developed a DNA profile from Vergata's remains in August 2022 after the Gilgo task force was created. That October the FBI was able to identify the remains with genetic genealogy using a swab from one of her relatives.

It comes after case investigators added the profile of teen girl from the Bronx, Judith Ramona Veloz, who vanished in 1993 to the national missing persons database last October - months before they arrested Heuermann.

Veloz was 19 when she went missing from Manhattan nearly 20 years before the Gilgo Beach Four and other remains in the area were discovered.

Meanwhile, a woman whose aunt vanished in New York City over 30 years ago now believes Heuermann was behind her murder.

Felicita Figueroa told Pix11 'there are too many similarities' between Huermanns' alleged victims and her aunt, Carmen Vargas, who was 29 when her body was found in 1989 dumped by the Meadowbrook Parkway, which is about 8 miles from Heuermann's house.

Authorities requested on Thursday to collect more DNA from Heuermann as they continue to investigate whether he murdered a fourth victim.

Heuermann is also considered the prime suspect in the murder of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, who vanished in 2007. Police told CNN the investigation 'is expected to be resolved soon.'

Vergata's legs were found in a plastic bag at Davis Park on Fire Islands Blue Point Beach nearly two decades prior on April 20, 1996. Her skull was then found off Ocean Parkway in 2011

District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney declined to comment on whether Heuermann is connected to Vergata's murder but emphasized he has not been charged

A 'major excavation' took place at Heuermann's Massapequa Park home. Pictured are State Police investigators gathering evidence at the scene

Brainard-Barnes body was bound by a belt that was stamped with the initials 'WH' or 'HM' - which police said could match relatives of Heuermann

Brainard-Barnes body was bound by a belt that was stamped with the initials 'WH' or 'HM' - which police said could match relatives of Heuermann.

The high-profile case was cracked after DNA from a pizza crust and a napkin Heuermann threw out in a trash bin outside his Manhattan architectural firm was a 99.96 percent match with the DNA profile created from hair recovered from the 'bottom of the burlap' bag used to transport Waterman's naked body, according to the documents obtained by the New York Daily News.

The district attorney's office, however, is apparently growing worried that the pizza crust DNA may not be enough to convict him.

In order to ensure the Massapequa Park resident is thrown behind bars, Suffolk County Assistant District Attorney also filed paperwork requesting a swab of the inside of the suspect's cheek.

Without the sample, Assistant District Attorney Michelle Haddad argued, forensic biologists would only be able to reference the pizza crust and napkin as being 'purported to be used/touched' by Heuermann.

'Should the defendant's DNA from the [cheek swab] not match the DNA profile from the pizza crusts and napkin submitted for Rex Heuermann, the defense would be presented with a potential trial defense.

'Thus, there is a clear indication that material and relevant evidence will be found and is crucial for that.'

A cheek swab, she said, 'would provide further relevant evidence of the defendant's identity as the perpetrator of these crimes.'

The first victim, Melissa Barthelemy, 24, was discovered by Suffolk County Police on December 11, 2010. The body of Megan Waterman, 22, was found two days later

Maureen Brainard-Barnes was 25 years old when she went missing (left). Amber Lynn Costello was 27 years old. Their bodies were found near Barthelemy's the same day

Police said Heuermann may have killed at least one of his victims at his Massapequa Park home.

For more than a week following his July 14 arrest, investigators had been conducting an exhaustive search of the house  which is located just miles from where the bodies were discovered more than a decade ago.

A yellow excavator scooped dirt in the backyard, and drone footage showed a man operating a piece of equipment that can be used to scan for buried objects.

Exclusive DailyMail.com photos also showed investigators looking at a tray of objects recovered from the backyard dig.

Some experts had speculated they could be human remains, while others warned they could be from animals or something else entirely.

Heuermann is accused of killing the women while his family was out of town, with investigators finding his hair and his wife's on the bodies of some of the alleged victims.

Since his bombshell arrest in Manhattan, the once quiet block where the married father lived has become the scene of a media circus and a popular destination for crime junkies.

A forensic photographer is seen bending over the tray of objects excavated from the back yard of Heuermann's house. Prosecutors say 'nothing of note' was discovered in the back yard

Dozens of people from all parts of Long Island and further abroad have been seen stopping to catch a glimpse of the active crime scene, as forensic teams comb the Massapequa Park home for evidence.

Detectives are now looking into unsolved murders across the country to see if they are linked to Heuermann.

Cops are probing whether he operated in the Atlantic City area, and have been interviewing jailed sex workers who interacted with him.

The investigation now covers four states - Heuermann owns a time-share in Las Vegas and a property in South Carolina - and police are investigating if he could be connected to any unsolved killings there.

Officers executed search warrants at his home in Chester, South Carolina, and recovered a green Chevrolet Avalanche truck they believe is connected to the suspect and one of the murders and transported it back to New York.

Meanwhile, Heuermann's high school classmates have claimed he was a 'loner' who developed a 'mean streak' after being bullied.
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Anthony Albanese will refuse to cancel the referendum on an Indigenous Voice to Parliament in a speech at a major Aboriginal festival today.

The Prime Minister is in remote northeast Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory for the Garma festival, the nation's largest Indigenous gathering.

He will defend his government's plan to hold the vote this year in his strongest and most impassioned defence of the Voice, to be delivered at the festival on Saturday.

The Prime Minister will invoke the spirit and vision of the late Yolngu elder Yunupingu to promote the 'coming-together of two worlds'.

He will also highlight the disadvantages Indigenous Australians face and that our country is 'the home of the fair go', according to a draft speech seen by The Australian.

Prime minister Anthony Albanese attended the Garma festival in remote northeast Arnhem Land where he pledged not to delay or cancel the Voice referendum

The festival, which is the nation's largest Indigenous gathering, was instead used as a time to hail the vote's importance - though Mr Albanese did not announce the date it would take place

The prime minister (pictured on Friday holding a spear aloft) has vowed to not delay or defer the referendum

'We will not deny the urgency of this moment,' Mr Albanese will say.

'We will not kick the can down the road.'

He is yet to nominate a date but has refused to delay or defer the referendum.

Mr Albanese will add that there is 'nothing to fear, and so much to gain' from voting Yes and the result will see a 'once-in-a-generation opportunity for real, overdue and much-needed change'.

On the other hand, he fears a No result will be an acceptance of entrenched Aboriginal disadvantage that would guarantee 'more of the same'.

It would also mean 'rejecting the form of recognition that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have requested'.

'An eight-year gap in life expectancy in the home of the fair go,' Mr Albanese will say.

'A suicide rate twice as high, in the lucky country. Shocking rates of disease, in a nation with some of the world's best healthcare. Only four out of 19 Closing the Gap targets on track.

'Surely no leader can honestly say this is good enough. Surely no leader can imagine that change is not desperately and urgently needed.'

Red Flag dancers perform the Bungul dance during Garma Festival

Cedric Marika leads the Gumatj dancers at the massive Indigenous festival

Mr Albanese is determined to keep pushing for the Voice, despite dwindling public support for the Yes vote, according to the latest polls.

'We will not abandon substance for symbolism or retreat to platitudes at the express of progress,' he says.

'Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been clear. The form of constitutional recognition they are seeking is a voice.

'Not our sympathy, not a symbol  a vehicle for progress, a practical tool to make their children's lives better.'

'The No campaign are desperate to talk about anything but the actual question before the Australian people,' the Prime Minister says. 'Because even they understand more of the same is not just unacceptable, it is indefensible.

'We can bring our two worlds together. With our hearts and with our heads  the power to reach for a better Australia is in our hands.'

Mr Albanese will add that the Voice to parliament would also benefit the Garma festival which ' would no longer be confined to 'this one part of Australia and one group of Australians for four days a year'.

'It is shared with our nation, to serve our whole nation,' the Prime Minister says.

'To ensure that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people everywhere have the opportunity of a better life.

'So instead of the inspiring success stories we see around us being shining exceptions, like stars in the night sky, there can be a new day.'

The prime minister confirmed on Friday he would not use the event to announce the referendum date.

A Red Flag Dancer performs in front of Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese

In a draft of Mr Albanese's Saturday speech obtained by the Australian, he intends to reiterate that change is needed and now is the time to introduce it

He said the festival was an opportunity to discuss the benefits of the voice for Indigenous people.

'Historically in Australia, we don't have 10-week or 12-week referendum campaigns,' Mr Albanese told reporters.

'There hasn't been a referendum held this century, which is why I don't think people want a date announced many months in advance, and then a long day-to-day campaign.'

The referendum to enshrine the voice in the constitution will be held between October and December.

The prime minister was later handed a ceremonial spear, which he held up in front of the crowd as they were urged to 'say yes' to the voice.

Mr Albanese told reporters he would be speaking with attendees at Garma about their views on a potential referendum date.

He said while the debate surrounding the voice could be viewed as divisive among Indigenous Australians, it was needed to achieve the constitutional change.

'This is something that is for First Nations people, but it is more than that - it is something for all of us to be lifted up.'

Opposition leader Peter Dutton said that he would not be attending the festival, and instead opted to privately visit the people Arnhem Land

Opposition leader Peter Dutton won't be attending the festival, but senior Liberal Angus Taylor said the opposition leader had already visited Arnhem Land and Alice Springs twice, as well as a number of other communities.

'This is where you find out what's really going on on the ground - in and amongst those communities,' Mr Taylor said.

'I don't think a festival is the time to see the real issues playing out.'

Although it is an important occasion, Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley agreed that addressing the issue took more than one festival.

'Reconciliation and indigenous policy is about more than one festival and one day,' she said.

Recent polling for the Voice shows that support for the referendum has dropped in recent months, but Mr Albanese said that the trend did not worry him.

'We will not abandon substance for symbolism or retreat to platitudes at the express of progress,' he said.

'Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been clear. The form of constitutional recognition they are seeking is a voice.'
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) accused Russia on Friday of preparing to stage a 'false flag' attack at the Mozyr oil refinery in Belarus in order to blame Ukrainian saboteurs as part of an effort to draw Minsk into the war in Ukraine.

The attack, it said in a statement on the Telegram app, would be carried out by military and intelligence forces sent by Moscow to Belarus disguised as Wagner mercenaries who were exiled after staging a mutiny in Russia in June.

'Russia plans to accuse Ukraine of what they have done in order to try once again to draw Minsk into the full-scale war against our state,' it said in a statement, without providing evidence.

It said its assertions were based on information obtained from several sources, including a captured Russian serviceman.

Belarus is a close Kremlin ally and Moscow's forces used Belarusian territory as a staging ground for their abortive drive towards the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv at the beginning of their February 2022 full-scale invasion.

An oil refinery located on a branch of the Druzhba oil pipeline in Mozyr. The Security Service of Ukraine said the attack on the refinery would be carried out by military and intelligence forces sent by Moscow to Belarus disguised as Wagner mercenaries

Pictured: Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. Belarus is a close Kremlin ally and Moscow's forces used Belarusian territory as a staging ground for their abortive drive towards the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv at the beginning of their February 2022 full-scale invasion

But Minsk's troops have not taken part in the war.

Fighters from the Wagner mercenary group launched a mutiny against the Russian defence establishment in June and some of its fighters have since moved to Belarus under a deal.

On Thursday, the leaders of NATO members Poland and Lithuania warned against 'provocations' and 'sabotage actions' from neighbouring Belarus by Wagner group members, days after two Belarusian helicopters breached Polish airspace.

'Our response to the provocation is to increase the size of the Polish Army on the eastern border of the country by redeploying troops from the west,' said Poland's defense minister, Mariusz Blaszczak.

'In accordance with the applicable law, soldiers in a specific situation can use weapons. They are not defenseless.'

Pictured: Yevgeny Prigozhin and members of the Wagner mercenary group. Wagner fighters launched a mutiny against the Russian defence establishment in June and some of its members have since moved to Belarus under a deal

A flame burning natural gas is seen at an oil refinery located on a branch of the Druzhba oil pipeline (File photo)

Belarus shares large borders with both Lithuania and Poland, which stand with Ukraine.

Poland's prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Thursday that there are at least 4,000 members of the Wagner mercenary force in Belarus.

The Wagner group is 'extremely dangerous,' Morawiecki said, and it is 'being redeployed to NATO's eastern flank to destabilize it'.

Poland said on Tuesday it was rushing troops to its eastern border after accusing Belarus of violating its airspace with the military helicopters.

Local media reported on Tuesday that two helicopters showing Belarusian flags were spotted in the area of Bialowieza, just across the border from Belarus.

The Belarusian military denied any such violation and accused Poland, one of Ukraine's most fervent backers in its conflict with Russia, of making up the accusation to justify a buildup of its troops.

Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko had earlier taunted Poland over the presence of Russian Wagner mercenaries near their joint border.

Poland's defence ministry said it was sending 'additional forces and resources, including combat helicopters'.

It said it had informed NATO of the border violation and Belarus' charge d'affaires had been summoned to provide an explanation.

It also said the defence minister ordered an increase of the number of soldiers at the Belarusian border, citing intensified 'hybrid actions' by Russia and Belarus against Poland.

Belarus' defence ministry, writing on Telegram, said Warsaw had changed its mind about the incident 'apparently after consulting its overseas masters'.
A mystery woman rang the doorbell of an Oklahoma home and quizzed the owner about being a Republican because he had Fourth of July decorations on his lawn.

Surveillance footage of the July 8th incident shows the woman walk up to Pascal Quintero's home located in the area of South Janeway Avenue and ring his doorbell.

After Quintero answers the door, the stranger asks him about his political affiliation and his independence-themed decorations - an American flag, patriotic banners and an inflatable Uncle Sam character riding a firework. She then blames him for not being able to get an abortion.

The Moore Police Department criminal investigations division posted the incident on their Facebook page August 1st, asking the public to 'please help identify' the unknown woman. They said she was driving a black Toyota 4-Runner.

As of Friday, the woman has not been identified, officials told DailyMail.com.

The woman, who has not yet been identified, is seen outside Pascal Quintero's home located in the area of South Janeway Avenue, ringing his doorbell

The incident took place on July 8 and was captured on the homeowner's ring camera

Quintero told KFOR-TV that the woman asked if he was a Republican because of the American decorations.

'I told her that it's none of her business who I voted for,' he said. 'She continued questioning me about the decorations and then asked if I was a Trump fan.'

Quintero then posted the disturbing exchange on his Facebook page asking if 'anyone knows this lady?' She drives a black Toyota 4Runner with Texas tags.'

In the July 8 post, he shared that the woman became irate, so he told her to get off his property which led to her vicious rant.

'She was daring me to shoot her and at one point I asked why I would shoot her,' Quintero told the news outlet.

'She then says I'm coming back to blow your house up. I am like, are you threatening me? You're going to blow my house up? She said yes, I'm coming back so you'd better be ready.'

In the social media post, he expressed how proud he is to be an American.

'I've had uncles that are veterans and I'm proud of that!,' he wrote, in part. 'She continued to question me about my decor and asked where's my trump sign. And said that I took her rights away as a woman and now she can't get an abortion.'

The Moore Police Department said anyone with information about the woman is asked to call 405-793-4522

Quintero said he lives with his elderly mother and son who has special needs. 'My family comes first and she's lucky I only used words in that moment,' he told the news outlet.

After the incident, he filed a police report with the Moore Police Department.

A distressed Quintero told the news outlet 'Imagine, every time I go to care for my lawn or go outside I'm hoping that someone isn't going to drive by and shoot at us or come at us because we decorate our house.'

He also said he hopes that the woman is caught soon.

The Moore Police Department has asked anyone with information to call 405-793-4522.
Britain has demanded the immediate release of jailed Putin critic Alexei Navalny after the Kremlin opposition leader was given a further 19-year sentence for trump-up charges of 'extremism'.

The 47-year-old appeared in a closed hearing on Friday in a makeshift courtroom at the IK-6 penal colony where he is being held, roughly 155 miles east of Moscow.

Mr Navalny, already serving a nine-year term, was handed nearly two decades more following the behind-closed-doors trial - which has since been dubbed a 'sham'.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said Moscow's 'abuse' of the opposition leader shows a 'complete disregard for even the most basic of human rights' - and demanded his release.

Mr Cleverly tweeted: 'Alexei @Navalny has been sentenced to an additional 19 years in a Russian prison.

Navalny (pictured, second from left) is already serving 11-and-a-half-years behind bars

Alongside him were several of his supporters who work with him at his non-profit, the Anti-Corruption Foundation

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly this afternoon called for Navalny's 'immediate release'

'His abuse shows Russia's complete disregard for even the most basic of human rights. Dissent cannot be silenced. The UK calls for his immediate release.'

One of Putin's loudest critics, Mr Navalny's arrest in 2021 came after he returned to Moscow following a period of recuperation in Germany after being poisoned by the Novichok nerve agent.

Mr Navalny denied the charges and warned ahead of the verdict he would be handed a 'Stalinist' prison term to ward off other dissenters.

Appearing gaunt in court but displaying a defiant smile, he was convicted of extremism charges relating to his anti-corruption foundation. He was ordered to serve his latest prison term in a 'special regime' penal colony, which are among the harshest prisons in Russia that hold the highest levels of security and the strictest inmate restrictions.

Both the European Union and United Nations have condemned the sentence as 'unacceptable.'

Mr Navalny now has 10 days to appeal the court's verdict. If he chooses to, he will not be sent to prison until the appeal has been ruled on.

It is not currently known whether he and his team will appeal the verdict. If he were to lose an appeal, it could mean he leaves jail at the age of 75.

Prosecutors alleged that he and his non-profit organisation tried to incite a revolution in Russia

Journalists were forced to take pictures of a TV screen as no one was allowed into the makeshift courtroom set up at the maximum penal colony

The sentencing took place behind closed doors in a makeshift courtroom in a maximum security penal colony, more than 100 miles from Mosow

The president of the European Union's council Charles Michel said of the harsh sentence: 'The latest verdict in yet another sham trial against Alexei Navalny is unacceptable.

'This arbitrary conviction is the response to his courage to speak critically against the Kremlin's regime.'

Meanwhile, The United Nation's high commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk insisted that Russia 'immediately [cease] violations of Navalny's human rights and release him'.

Other major groups and global figures have spoken out against Navalny's sentencing.

The UK's minister for Europe, Leo Docherty, said in a Tweet that the sentencing 'further demonstrates the Russian state's contempt for freedom of speech and democratic rights. Russia should immediately release him.'

A spokesperson for France's foreign office said that the French government was calling on Russia to 'to free Mr Navalny immediately and without conditions', adding that his sentencing was a case of 'judicial persecution.'

Annalena Baerbock, Germany's foreign minister, condemned the ruling, writing on social media: 'Russia's arbitrary justice system imprisoning Alexei Navalny for another 19 years is pure injustice.

'Putin fears nothing more than standing up against war and corruption and for democracy - even from a prison cell. He will not silence critical voices with this.'

Navalny has claimed that Russia prison officials have been torturing him by playing Putin's speeches to him and other prisoners over and over again

He called on his supporters to break free from the iron grip Vladimir Putin has over Russia

Marie Struthers, Amnesty International's director for eastern Europe and central Asia, said: 'It is a sinister act of political vengeance that not only targets Navalny personally but serves as a warning to state critics across the country.

'The outcome of today's sham trial offers just the latest example of the systematic oppression of Russian civil society that has intensified since Russia's invasion of Ukraine last year.'

'We are following this case closely', UN Human Rights Office spokesman Jeremy Laurence said during a briefing on Friday before Navalny was sentenced.

The opposition leader called on his supporters to resist Putin's iron grip on Russia, saying in a statement released on Thursday via Telegram: 'Better show solidarity with me and other political prisoners by thinking for a minute. Think about why such an exponentially huge [sentence] is needed.

'Its main purpose is to intimidate. You, not me. I will even say this: personally to you, who is reading these lines.'

He also starkly predicted that he would be given a brutal 'Stalinist' sentence of 18 years.

Russian prosecutors sought an eyewatering 20 years behind bars for the politician, alleging that Navalny created an organisation that undermined public security by carrying out 'extremist activities'.

Alexei Navalny (right) has been a political dissident in Russia for years, campaigning against corruption

He's been arrested several times for leading and participating in political rallies that challenge Vladimir Putin's regime

The 47-year-old has already been in prison since 2021 after he returned to Russia from Germany

His non-profit group, the Anti-Corruption Foundation, which investigates the ways that Russian officials bend the rules for their own benefit, was banned in 2021 for extremism. They claimed that though his non-profit he tried inciting a revolution that would've destabilised Russia.

Many of his close allies have either fled the autocratic country or have been jailed themselves. His former chief of staff Leonid Volkov and others involved in the foundation were also charged with organising or participating in an 'extremist community'.

This is the fifth time the dissident has been criminally convicted in Russia, and the third time he has been sentenced to jail. The politician is already serving 11-and-a-half years in prison.

Last year, he was given a nine-year sentence after a Russian court found him guilty of large-scale fraud and contempt. The year before, he was given two-and-a-half years for violating his parole after landing back in Russia from Germany, where he was recovering from allegedly being poisoned by Russian officials with Novichok.

Navalny says that since he was put in the maximum security penal colony, he's been subjected to torture at the hands of Russian officials.

He said that prison officials forced him to share a cell with a sickly inmate, and have forced him and other prisoners listen to Putin's speeches.

He has also complained of health problems and major weight loss since being jailed in a strict regime penal colony.
The man is thought to have been the victim of a sophisticated group of conmen

A man who had a secret love affair with a woman he met on Tinder was scammed out of 500,000 - before she then faked her own death in a ruthless bid to continue ripping him off.

The victim was tricked over several years after going behind the back of his partner of 15 years to pursue a sexual relationship with a 'much younger woman' from a 'wealthy background'.

Have you been a victim of a con while trying to hide your affair? Did scammers rip you off while you were trying to hide something from your lover? Tell your story by emailing tom.cotterill@mailonline.co.uk Advertisement

During their lengthy fling, the man splashed out tens of thousands of pounds on his new 'lover', who convinced him she was in a witness protection programme after becoming embroiled with a 'drugs gang' during her time as a prostitute.

The honey-trapper even convinced her 'intelligent' target to 'pay for her university degree' by claiming she wanted to turn her life around and train to become a paramedic, while he lied to his partner and claimed he was pumping money into an internet investment firm in a bid to hide his affair.

After faking her own death, the woman's 'daughter' then continued the costly charade, this time telling the victim - who is not being named - she needed help wrapping up her mother's affairs.

Conmen, claiming to be lawyers, then told the man he was the beneficiary of his dead girlfriend's 'trust fund' - and convinced him to pay hundreds of thousands of pounds in 'legal fees' without ever getting anything back in return.

Then, as if by miracle, the man's girlfriend 'came back to life', emailing him a photo of herself - as the gang behind the brutal scam attempted, and failed, to continue milking their victim's bank account.

All of it - the girlfriend, her daughter, the lawyers, the university course - was a ruse by a gang of sophisticated crooks.

The woman was stunned to learn her partner's secret - he had been paying money to a woman he met on Tinder

The shocking story was revealed in the most unlikely place - the letters section to the Daily Telegraph's consumer champion, Katie Morley.

The column is full of stories about people's day-to-day money woes, ranging from readers asking how to get insurance companies to stump up after falling foul to pickpockets on holiday, to a person waiting for a refund from British Airways for a year.

The astonishing story came when an anonymous reader wrote to Ms Morley with concerns about their partner, who they feared had been 'scammed'.

In the letter, the person described how her partner had insisted he had invested 'a significant amount money' in an online investment firm.

'After four years he wanted to withdraw some money, and he was told a lawyer needed to become involved,' the reader wrote. 'He has now paid the investment firm, and the lawyer, a combined 500,000. Then the website disappeared.

'Fearing this was a scam, I urged him to contact Action Fraud. He really wasn't convinced, but ultimately he did make contact and was given a reference number. About three months ago he received a call from 'Action Fraud'. He was asked to pay 900 and was told his case was not fraud.

She was shocked to learn the truth: 'I said all along he was being scammed, but he didn't want to believe it'

'I said all along he was being scammed, but he didn't want to believe it. He is a very intelligent and proud man who, I think, feels extremely stupid and embarrassed.'

Ms Morley investigated the claim, speaking to the partner - who then made the sensational confession he had been having an affair.

'He warned me this was going to be one of the strangest conversations I'd ever had in my life, and he wasn't far wrong,' wrote Ms Morley.

The consumer champion goes on to reveal how the male told her about how he had lied to his partner about his 'investment' - and how his younger lover's teenage daughter then came 'out of the woodwork' following the 'death' of her mother.

Delving deeper into the story, Ms Morley analysed the death certificate of the man's lover - which proved to be fake, with a medical report having claimed an autopsy was been performed a year before the woman died.

Astonishingly, the man confessed that police had warned him back in 2019 that he was being scammed, Ms Morley said, and that the fraudsters went to 'great lengths to convince him' his girlfriend was real.

After proving letters he received from his 'bank', and 'Action Fraud' were also all fakes, the man was told to block all the numbers of the 'fictitious lawyers' who were trying to call him and extract more cash from the unwitting mark.

The story took a stranger twist when the man's alleged lover claimed to have come back from the dead

Then, Ms Morley said something happened that left 'both our jaws on the floor: his girlfriend miraculously came back to life' in what she is convinced was an effort by scammers to continue to siphon more cash from their victim.

The investigation into the con revealed the man had made a staggering 4,000 payments from his Lloyds bank account to the conmen.

Lloyds has since refunded 150,000 - about half of the cash the man gave his 'girlfriend' during the phase of the scam where she was 'still alive', Ms Morley added.

However, the banking giant said it will not refund any of the money he lost after the police warned him in 2019 he was being scammed.

Have you been the victim of an outlandish con and want to tell your story? Email tom.cotterill@mailonline.co.uk
Mexico authorities have identified the young Honduran man who drowned in an attempt to cross to the United States this week.

Norlan Bayardo arrived at the border city of Piedras Negras with his mother and five siblings 12 days ago and was hoping to make it to the United States to find a job to cover the expenses of an urgent medical treatment for his sister, who is diagnosed with Down syndrome.

Yuri Supaya told Univision that her son took off with a friend and tried to cross the Rio Grande when a current swept him downstream Sunday.

'The river swept him,' the distraught mother told the network.

Supaya recalled her son approached her inside the shelter and told her that he had grown restless with the online application for migrants to check information regarding their asylum process.

Bayardo hugged her and took off for the Rio Grande shore.

Honduran migrant Norlan Bayardo was found dead Wednesday in the Rio Grande. The 20-year-old was trying to migrate with a friend to the United States on Sunday when a river current swept him away

Yuri Supaya pictured with her daughter, the youngest of her five children, who is diagnosed with Down syndrome

Supaya learned of her son's tragedy after receiving a call from a friend who told her that her Bayardo was unable to withstand the river's perilous current. She said that her son's friend safely made it to the Texas shore.

Bayardo's body was located on the Mexican shore of the Rio Grande on Wednesday, three miles south of the controversial floating barrier that Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered installed in the river across from Eagle Pass, Texas.

She was able to identify Bayardo after recognizing tattoos on his body as well as the Paris Saint Germain jersey and a pair of sneakers that he was wearing.

The Coahuila Attorney General's Office is also trying to identify the body of another man who was located first along the buoys between Eagle Pass and Piedras Negras on Wednesday evening.

Mexico said the Texas Department of Public Safety had advised its consulate of the body along the floating barrier. But it was unclear if that was the body that ultimately ended up lodged against the buoys by the force of the river.

Norlan Bayardo's body was found Wednesday on the Mexico shore of the Rio Grande, three miles south from the location of the controversial floating barrier installed by Texas Governor Greg Abbott

Migrants crossing into the United States from Mexico walk along large buoys being used as a floating border barrier on the Rio Grande on Tuesday

Norlan Bayardo had been in Mexico with his family for 12 days before he tried to cross the Rio Grande and drowned Sunday. His body was found Wednesday

Mexico said the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) had advised its consulate of the body along the floating barrier. But it was unclear if that was the body that ultimately ended up lodged against the buoys by the force of the river.

DPS director, Steve McCraw, said an initial report points to the man having 'drowned upstream from the marine barrier and floated into the buoys.'

Mexico and the administration of President Joe Biden have raised concerns about the dangers behind the orange, wrecking ball-sized buoys that were placed to prevent migrants from unlawfully crossing to the United States.

The Mexican Foreign Relations Department also contends the barrier violates treaties regarding the use of the river and Mexico's sovereignty.

'We made clear our concern about the impact on migrants' safety and human rights that these state policies would have,' the department said in its statement Wednesday night.

A spokesperson for Abbott said in a statement Thursday that 'the Mexican government is flat-out wrong' and added that preliminary information showed the person drowned before coming near the floating barriers.
Spanish authorities are set to fine low-cost airlines for charging passengers extra for hand luggage and for choosing where they sit.

Budget airlines including Ryanair, Vueling, Easyjet and Volotea will come under fire for forcing customers to pay extra for bags or to sit with the rest of their party.

Spain's Ministry of Consumer Affairs said an investigation has been launched, and fines of up to one million euros (more than 860,000) could be imposed.

The ministry said that by separating such fees from those traditionally included in ticket prices these airlines 'offer in their advertisement very competitive prices'.

This 'does not correspond in most cases with the price that the consumer ends up paying, as a consequence of these practices'.

Budget airlines including Ryanair, Vueling, Easyjet and Volotea could be fined by Spanish authorities for forcing customers to pay extra for bags or to sit with the rest of their party. File image

The authorities said that low-cost airlines have better positioning on search engines than their competitors because their prices are so low, and deceptively so, as the customer often ends up with hidden costs and additional fees not advertised up front.

The fines these budget airlines could face are considerable, with the authorities saying: 'The sanctions provided for these infractions can be considered as serious or very serious infractions, and be penalised with fines of between 10,001 and 100,000 euros, in the case of serious ones, and between 100,001 and 1,000,000 euros, in the case of serious ones. very serious.

'In the event that the illicit benefit obtained from the infringing practices exceeds said amounts, the sanctions imposed could reach up to between four and six times the illicit benefit obtained, for serious infringements, and between six and eight times the illicit benefit obtained, in the case of very serious ones.'

In 2019, a Spanish court ruled Ryanair's policy of charging a fee for hand luggage was 'abusive'. However, Ryanair continued with its policy, citing airlines' commercial freedom to determine the size of their cabin baggage.

Ryanair, Vueling, Easyjet and Volotea have been approached for comment by MailOnline.
An unaware tourist tried to get a photo, whilst standing on a memorial for hundreds of Jews who were killed in Budapest during World War II.

People have been left stunned by a Reddit video of a woman clamoring onto the iron shoes cemented next to the Danube river, while a man attempts to take a 'perfect' photo of her.

Usually, visitors leave flowers in the iron shoes that adorn the promenade or they light candles as a sign of respect for the hundreds of Jews who died in the tragedy.

But this tourist can be seen, in her black and white polka dot dress, among the flowers and candles scattered across the 60 pairs of 1940's style shoes.

The memorial serves as a stark reminder of the events which took place nearly 70 years ago.

The unaware tourist (pictured) can be seeing standing on the shoes, which stand as a memorial for Jews killed on the embankment during World War II

Also known as 'The Shoes on the Danube Bank', stands in memory of Jews who were shot by members of the Arrow Cross Party.

Each pair of shoes standing as a poignant reminder of their missing owner.

Stunned by the woman's actions, a Reddit user commented: 'Some people are out here walking around without a clue in their head and it's scary.'

Another chimed in: 'Ive been there and simply cant understand how anyone wouldnt know exactly what it is. Bronzed shoes from the 30s-40s facing the river?

'Even the most basic awareness of world history should help one fill in the blanks.'

In 1944, the Nazi's deposed Miklos Horthy's government in Hungary, bringing into power the anti-Semitic and fascist leader Ferenc Szalazi.

He and the Arrow Cross Party instilled fear into the fabric of Hungarian society during the war.

Sometimes they would tie their Jewish victims, both adults and children, together with shoestrings. They would then kill one person, with the other victims helplessly falling with the deceased into the river.

Shoes were a prized item during the war, and if they were not too worn, members of the inhumane party would steal the victims' shoes and sell them on the black market.

They would often murder Jews next to the Danube river - a stone throw away from the Hungarian Parliament - so that the river would take their bodies away.

Most whose lives were taken, especially children, would die instantaneously, as they fell into the river because of its ice cold temperatures.

However, those who were seen to still be breathing by the barbaric Arrow Cross members, would be used as target practice.

Many Jews were killed by the Arrow Cross Party during the winter of 1944-45. They would tie adults and children, together with shoestrings and then kill one person, with the other victims helplessly falling with the deceased into the river

Zsuzsanna Ozsvath, a Hungarian survivor told Yad Vashem, The World Holocaust Remembrance Centre:

'What I saw was worse than anything I had ever seen before, worse than the most frightening accounts I had ever witnessed.

'Two Arrow Cross men were standing on the embankment of the river, aiming at and shooting a group of men, women and children into the Danube.

'One after the other, on their coats the Yellow Star. I looked at the Danube. It was neither blue nor gray but red.'

The memorial was put into place by Can Togay and Gyula Pauer in 2005.

There are three separate signs in Hebrew, Hungarian and English at 'The Shoes on the Danube Bank' that say: 'To the memory of victims shot into the Danube by Arrow Cross militiamen in 1944-45.'
Met Police rescued six Romanian 'sex slaves' who were forced into prostitution from homes in north London, in the early hours of this morning.

The organised crime network is believed to have been recruiting females in Romania using the 'loverboy' tactic - male recruiters act as a boyfriend to potential victims before trafficking them to London.

The women are then forced into prostitution and controlled by the traffickers. The victims are now being supported by specialist officers and the charity Justice and Care.

More than 133 officers were part of the raids in both the Colindale area of London and around the city of Iasi in North Eastern Romania.

Five people have been detained for questioning in Romania for Human Trafficking offences. A 24-year-old man was also arrested in London for being wanted on a UK court warrant, he was taken to a north London police station.

Firearms were found during the warrants undertaken by Met Police and the DIICOT team in Romania, who rescued six 'sex slaves' earlier today

More than 133 officers were part of the raids in both the Colindale area of London and around the city of Iasi in North Eastern Romania where large quantities of cash were found

As part of the warrants large quantities of cash, and high value watches and vehicles as well as firearms were seized in Romania.

The joint investigation team was formed between the Metropolitan Police Modern Slavery Unit together with the Directorate for the Investigating Organised Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) in Romania. They were supported by Europol and Eurojust.

Detective Inspector Melanie Lillywhite from the Met's Central Specialist Crime's Modern Slavery Unit said: 'The action today and the substantial amount of work which has led up to today has significantly disrupted this organised criminal network (OCN). Members of this OCN are suspected of recruiting and grooming women in Romania before trafficking them to the UK where they are forced into prostitution.

'Unfortunately, this type of exploitation is still happening across London and the UK. The Met's modern slavery team works around the clock to identify people involved in human trafficking and forced labour, and we play a role in protecting and supporting hundreds of victims each year.'

Julie Currie, Victim Navigator Programme Coordinator for Justice and Care, said the victims would be safeguarded and supported 'during what can be a difficult time for them'.

DI Lillywhite said the public have an important role to play in recognising and reporting modern slavery.

She added: 'If you suspect someone may be a victim of modern slavery, report it. You will always be taken seriously and protection and support is available.

'Often those affected do not see themselves as potential victims of sexual exploitation and many will have been coerced into this life to make money for an organised crime network. Victims are often told the police and authorities in the UK are not to be trusted and with limited English are unable to seek help, even if they want to.

As part of the warrants large quantities of cash, and high value watches (pictured) and vehicles as well as firearms were seized in Romania

Three North London homes were raided in addition to 12 warrants executed in Romania

'We believe there are victims of modern slavery in every borough across London and the public may encounter them every day, possibly without realising. As well as being sexually exploited, victims have been found working in construction, domestic servitude, agriculture, cannabis factories and in places you use yourself, such as car washes, barbers and nail bars.'

A Met police spokesperson said: 'If you suspect that you, or someone you have come into contact with, may be a victim of modern slavery or trafficking and require support, please call The Salvation Army's 24 hour confidential referral helpline on 0800 808 3733. This is the best way to get support to anyone you suspect might be a victim.

'You can also report a suspicion or seek advice through the Modern Slavery Helpline confidentially on 08000 121 700. This is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

'You can also report to the police online at www.met.police.uk or by calling 101, in case of an emergency dial 999. Alternatively, you can contact the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or online at crimestoppers-uk.org.'
A grand jury has indicted a former Columbus police officer for murder for shooting dead an unarmed man after mistaking his vape pen for a gun while carrying out a search warrant two years ago.

Ricky Anderson, a 30-year veteran, was charged with murder and reckless homicide over the death of Donavan Lewis.

Lewis, 20, died in the early hours of of August 30, 2022, after a 3am raid on his home in the Hilltop district of the city, which was recorded by police body cameras.

Officers were there to arrest him on multiple warrants including domestic violence and assault. Police knocked on the door for several minutes, and handcuffed two men who came out of the apartment.

They sent in a K-9, and when the dog indicated a third man was in the room the K-9 handler opened the door, firing his gun a second later and killing Lewis.

Attorneys representing Lewis' mother Rebecca Duran said the family was relieved following news of the indictment, according to WBNS.

Donovan Lewis, 20, was shot and killed by police in Columbus, Ohio, shortly before 3am on Tuesday while he was in bed

Lewis is seen in the split second before Ricky Anderson, a K-9 handler and 30-year veteran of Columbus police, pulls the trigger

Anderson was placed on administrative leave following the incident pending an investigation. But he decided to retire from the police department in March.

There were 10 citizen complaints made against him in 2001, including the use of force and violating police rules, according to his personnel file.

The indictment was announced after the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation finished its investigation.

The case was brought to the Franklin County grand jury for consideration of charges. A warrant has been issued for Anderson's arrest.

'We are relieved that a grand jury concluded what we've known all along: Officer Ricky Anderson broke the law when he shot and killed an unarmed Donovan Lewis as he laid in his bed,' attorneys representing Lewis' mother said.

'CPD bodycam video showed this clearly and nothing has changed in almost a year. Although Mr. Lewis' family is pleased that his killer will soon face a jury of his peers, they are incredibly disappointed that it took so long to come to this conclusion in the first place.

'Mr. Lewis' family understands that although there are many good officers doing their best to protect citizens, when an officer violates policy or breaks the law, they must be held accountable.

'As prosecutors pursue Mr. Anderson in the criminal case, we will continue to fight for justice and accountability in our civil case. Our hope is that no other parent has to bury their child as the result of a reckless act by a member of law enforcement.'

The Columbus chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police released a statement in response the indictment.

Brian Steel, the executive vice president of the police union, said: 'While the grand jury plays an important role in our system of justice, the grand jurors only hear the evidence the prosecutor wants it to hear.

'There is no defense attorney, no cross-examination, no judge, essentially no rules.'

Bodycam footage shows two men come out of the apartment with their hands up and are handcuffed

Police knocked for eight minutes before the first of the two men emerged from the apartment

One of the two was asked who else was in the apartment, and said they did not know

Mark Collins, the attorney representing Anderson, said it is 'not about if Ricky Anderson made the decision to use deadly force, but why he made the decision to use deadly force.'

'As we progress through litigation, the evidence will show that it was because he was justified in doing so,' he added.

Lewis' family have been demanding answers since he was shot dead while sitting with only a vape pen in his hand.

Rex Elliott, an attorney for the Lewis family, previously said Anderson was 'entirely reckless'.

'The bodycam footage released yesterday afternoon says it all,' said Elliott.

'In literally the blink of an eye, a Columbus Police Officer shot and killed Donovan Lewis, an unarmed young black man who was alone in his bed in the middle of the night.

'As a result of this entirely reckless behavior by a Columbus Police Officer, a family is left to grieve the loss of such a young soul.'

Body camera footage shows at least three officers arriving at the apartment complex on Sullivant Avenue.

They were serving a felony warrant for domestic violence, assault, and weapons-related incidents on the second floor of the apartment complex.

The video shows the officers standing outside the door knocking for at least eight minutes, yelling at those inside to come out.

Two men came out of the apartment, and were handcuffed and asked to sit down by a wall.

The K-9 is seen searching the apartment, and honing in on the bedroom where Lewis lay in bed

Anderson is seen restraining his dog moments after the fatal shooting

The gunshot was fired by Anderson (right, with the dog) less than a second after the door was opened

An officer asks if Donovan Lewis is inside, and the man replies that he does not know who is inside, as he was sleeping.

A K-9, handled by Anderson, is brought in and released into the apartment. The dog barks at a bedroom door, indicating there is a person inside.

Seconds later, a dog is seen barking at a back bedroom, which prompted Anderson to leash the K-9 and push the door open.

'We're gonna send that dog in,' one officer is heard saying just before Anderson pushes open the door.

The light from the gun of another officer is seen shining on Lewis as another officer yells: 'Hands!'

Anderson is seen firing a shot at Lewis less than a second later as he starts to sit up in a bed pushed in the back corner of the room.

Lewis can be seen raising his right hand toward officers, while his left hand is still back near the pillow.

An officer then demands Lewis 'crawl out here', but he remains on the bed.

They enter the room, and search for weapons before handcuffing him, telling him to 'stop resisting'. A vape pen was found next to him.

Officers are seen standing outside the complex after the fatal shooting of Lewis

Lewis is seen being carried out the apartment, and taken to a waiting ambulance. But he died in hospital.

'Frame by frame, the video reveals the truth  three white officers accompanied by an aggressive K9 dog shot an unarmed 20-year-old in cold blood as he sat up in his bed in compliance with police commands,' attorney Elliott said.

Columbus Police Chief Elaine Bryant said the bodycam footage was released because the department wanted full transparency in the investigation.

'Donovan Lewis lost his life,' she said.

'As a parent, I sympathize and grieve with his mother. I grieve with our community.

'Every day, officers are put in compromising, sometimes life-threatening situations in which we are required to make split-second decisions.

'As the chief, it is my job to hold my officers accountable, but it's also my job to offer them support and make sure I give that to them during the process.

'If they do the right things for the right reasons, we will support them. If they do something wrong, they will be held accountable.'
The Environment Secretary Therese Coffey has ordered her department to blacklist Greenpeace after activists sat on the roof of the Prime Minister's family home, it was revealed today.

Civil servants from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) have been told to end meetings and engagement with the pressure group until further notice.

The decision was made about 12 hours after a group scaled the Prime Minister's grade II-listed mansion on Thursday morning, the Guardian reported.

The protesters were arrested amid an ongoing investigation by North Yorkshire Police, who were branded 'soft' today after they released five Greenpeace activists after just 18 hours.

The three men and two women who were held at the Prime Minister's constituency home are already out on bail.

In response to Ms Coffey's reported intervention, Greenpeace defended the protest as 'entirely peaceful' and diligently planned to avoid safety risks. They also said they knocked on the PM's door first before clambering up to the roof.

Greenpeace activists on the roof of British prime minister Rishi Sunak's home in North Yorkshire. The group has been blacklisted by a government department

The group came prepared with ladders and safety equipment. All the suspects were bailed within hours of arrest

The decision was made by Ms Coffey about 12 hours after a group of activists scaled the Prime Minister's grade II-listed mansion on Thursday morning after he went on his summer holiday to California (right)

The group's UK co-executive director, Will McCallum, said: 'This isn't about the Government engaging with Greenpeace, it's about them engaging with the world around them. The planet is on fire and Rishi Sunak is acting like nothing's happening.'

North Yorkshire Police has not brought any charges and said that they need time for 'further inquiries to be carried out'  even though four of the five suspects were sat on the PM's roof. Officers are guarding the house today amid major questions about why it took them more than two hours to intervene yesterday.

Greenpeace's co-executive director Areeba Hamid has even revealed that the group had 'knocked on the door to make sure that there was nobody there' before climbing up on to the roof and unfurling jet-black fabric over the property and a 'no new oil' banner.

Tory MP for Dartford, Gareth Johnson, a former lawyer and justice minister who believes groups like Just Stop Oil should be labelled terrorist organisations, told MailOnline today that he is shocked police have bailed the Greenpeace mob so quickly.

Mr Johnson said: 'It's difficult to see what further investigation is needed. It's not surprising some take the right to protest too far when we have such a softly-softly approach. Imagine the response if protesters sat on top of the White House and refused to come down'.

Police officers are guarding Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's constituency home in Richmond, North Yorkshire this morning

Officers are on patrol at the property - but took two hours to intervene yesterday when Greenpeace were on the roof

Greenpeace activists on the roof of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's house in Richmond. All the mob have been bailed

One of the Greenpeace activists smiles as she is led away by police from the house

Four Greenpeace activists climbed on the roof of Rishi Sunak's home in North Yorkshire . A fifth person was also held

Greenpeace has defended its protest today and said it was planned 'carefully and meticulously' - and would not have done it if Rishi Sunak was there.

Areeba Hamid, co-executive director of the charity, told Sky News the protest was 'proportionate response to a disastrous decision' by the Prime Minister to grant more than 100 new licences for oil and gas extraction in the North Sea.

She went on: 'It was an empty home, the fact that he wasn't there was actually national news, everybody knows that he wasn't there.

'We made sure, in fact we wouldn't have done it if he was there because our intention was to draw attention to the fact that what he's doing on climate is actually a big disaster, rather than to talk about his family or where he lives, so that was the entire point.

'Security is a big part of whatever we do, we planned it carefully and meticulously, we knew he wasn't going to be there.

'We knocked on the door to make sure that there was nobody there, initially there was no response, then we got a response, we told them who we were. So this was quite a peaceful, calm thing to make a very important point.'

Police near Mr Sunak's home the day after it was targeted by Greenpeace activists in protest against his backing of a major expansion of North Sea oil and gas drilling

The group were able to get to the roof and unfurl banners and black fabric with police facing huge questions

Greenpeace activists are led away, one smiling, by police after they climbed on the roof of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's house in Richmond, North Yorkshire. Police have bailed them after less than 18 hours in custody

Greenpeace activists are led away by police from Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's house

Police watch on at Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's house in Richmond, North Yorkshire

Officers arrested the group on Thursday, after protesters climbed on the grade II-listed manor house and draped oil-black fabric over the property while Mr Sunak and his family are on holiday in California.

Yet somehow, despite the seriousness of the stunt, the Greenpeace five are already back out on the streets with detectives claiming they need time for 'further inquiries to be carried out' despite four of them sitting on the PM's roof before being arrested at 1.15pm yesterday.

A statement from North Yorkshire Police said: 'All five suspects who were arrested following the protest on August 3, have been released on conditional police bail to allow for further inquiries to be carried out. The investigation remains ongoing.'

The protesters arrived at the Prime Minister's mansion in Richmond, North Yorkshire, at 6am, two hours before police were alerted just after 8am.

They eventually came down around 1pm before being loaded into the back of police vans and taken away.

A fifth person has been arrested in connection with a Greenpeace protest where four demonstrators scaled Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's North Yorkshire home.

Now, major security questions have been raised over how the stunt was carried out, while Mr Sunak spends ten days in the US with his wife and two daughters.

Health minister Maria Caulfield said it would not be 'responsible' for her to comment on the Prime Minister's security arrangements when asked whether a protest targeting his home raised concerns.

Asked whether the Greenpeace demonstration raised security concerns, she told Sky News: 'I'm not going to comment on the security arrangements of the Prime Minister, I don't think that would be a responsible thing to do.

'But it does raise concerns for everyone, most people have seen some disruption from protesters'.

People should be 'proud' of the Greenpeace protest on the roof of Rishi Sunak's constituency manor house, a climate activist from another campaign group has said.

Jon Fuller, of Extinction Rebellion, told LBC: 'I do think it is a very, very sad situation we've got ourselves into here where this actually happens and people feel that it's necessary.'

He added: 'We are seeing an awful lot of damage being done to property because of climate change.

'So people are going to get frightened, young people are very frightened indeed.

'They see on the Government's website this message of adapt or die, and they see the government isn't adapting, so that fear just grows and grows.

'So what are people supposed to do? I think we should be proud of them because they're not violent.'

Greenpeace activists on the roof of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's house in Richmond

Police holding climbing gear after Greenpeace activists climbed onto Mr Sunak's roof

The security arrangement at Mr Sunak's house has not been revealed, although witnesses pointed out that any camera surveillance that may be in the area did not trigger an alert because police were not informed for two hours. Experts said Mr Sunak is normally protected by close protection officers, MI5 and anti-terror police.

Greenpeace said it draped his home in '200sq m (2,150sq ft) of oil-black fabric' in a protest at his backing for a major expansion of North Sea oil and gas drilling.

At the same time, two further activists on the ground unfurled a banner featuring the words 'Rishi Sunak - Oil Profits or Our Future?' across the grass in front of the house.

The group claimed they knocked on the door upon their arrival and said: 'This is a peaceful protest.' But there was no answer. It is not known who reported them to police, but by the time officers arrived, the four were on the roof, 40ft above ground.

One of the four roof activists was identified as Alex Wilson, who is originally from East Yorkshire but now lives in Newcastle with their partner Amy, who was also among the four on the roof. Wilson said they are a 'volunteer climber with Greenpeace' and were joined on the roof by 'Mike and Matteo'.

READ MORE Just Stop Oil are caught boasting their protest tactics have shaped Labour policy in secret recording at a meeting Advertisement

Posting a video message from the roof, Wilson said: 'We're all here because Rishi Sunak has opened the door to a new drilling frenzy in the North Sea while large parts of our world are literally on fire. This will be a disaster for the climate.'

On the ground, activist Philip Evans told BBC News: 'We're here to bring home to the Prime Minister the really serious consequences of a new drilling frenzy in the North Sea.' Mr Evans refused to say how the protesters gained access to the property.

The incident prompted serious questions about how the group was able to carry out the stunt so easily, with former North Yorkshire Deputy Chief Constable Peter Walker saying it was a 'major breach of security'.

Mr Walker, who spent 30 years in the police until retiring in 2003, told LBC radio: 'I am absolutely astonished that they have been able to gain the access that they have. It is clearly, in my view, a major breach of security. Obviously, nobody was there to prevent what they were doing and they've had access to the roof as well.

'They have done a protest and don't appear to have caused any damage but, if free access is being granted to that property, people who wanted to do much more serious things would be able to leave devices, booby traps I think this is a major failing and it grieves me to say it because it's my old police force that's failed.'

'I suspect that what has happened is that people have not done their job - in an operational sense - who are much closer to the action. But there really does need to be a significant investigation into how this has been allowed to happen.'

Mr Sunak is not at the property after leaving to go on a US family holiday with his wife Akshata Murty and their daughters Krishna, 12, and Anoushka, ten.

The Prime Minister is expected to spend about ten days abroad on the West Coast and will visit Disneyland in California - leaving Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden in charge of the UK.

Alicia Kearns, the senior Tory who chairs the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, said the protest action was 'unacceptable'.

She said: 'Politicians live in the public eye and rightly receive intense scrutiny, but their family homes should not be under assault. Before long police will need to be stationed outside the home of every MP.'

And Conservative backbencher Brendan Clarke-Smith added: 'MPs and their families have enough to worry about with their security without extremist groups and their spoilt activists pulling stunts like this at their homes to promote their unrealistic, extravagant demands and student union-level politics.'

The Grade II-listed property, which was built in 1826, was purchased by Mr Sunak after he became the Conservative MP for the Richmond constituency in 2015.

Greenpeace has insisted the protesters were aware that Mr Sunak was not in - and also knew how to climb up safely and how to avoid causing damage to the property.

Greenpeace activists on the roof of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's house in Richmond

Police near Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's house in Richmond, North Yorkshire, this morning

Greenpeace activists on the roof of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's house in Richmond

Rishi Sunak left to go on a family holiday today with his wife Akshata Murty and their daughters Krishna, 12, and Anoushka, ten. They are pictured at the cinema to see Barbie on July 22

The demonstration follows a vow by Mr Sunak this week to 'max out' opportunities in the North Sea as he pledged to stand up for the oil and gas industry.

The Prime Minister confirmed 100 new licences were set to get the green light and signalled support for the controversial Rosebank development west of Shetland.

Mr Dowden told protesters to 'stop the stupid stunts'.

Speaking on a visit to Able Seaton Port in Hartlepool, he said: 'I think what most people would say is, 'Can you stop the stupid stunts'. Actually, what they want to see from Government is action.

'That's what you're seeing here today - the world's largest offshore wind farm being built right here, creating jobs.

'But at the same time we're going to need in the coming decades oil and gas as part of our energy mix. The question is do we produce it here, where we get more tax, we create more jobs, or do we do what the Labour and others say which is say 'no more investment in our North Sea oil and gas'?'
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin could turn one blue state red, a new Virginia poll predicts, pitting the Republican against President Joe Biden in the 2024 race.

A survey conducted by Virginia Commonwealth University's Wilder School found that if the presidential election was held today, Virginia's popular Republican governor would beat Biden by seven points in the commonwealth - 44 percent to 37 percent.

Biden would tie with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in Virginia, the poll found - at 41 percent each, while Biden would again earn Virginia over former President Donald Trump - 43 percent to 40 percent.

Youngkin, a first-term governor who before that had never held political office, originally pulled himself out of the running when asked if he was mulling a 2024 White House bid.

In late May, Axios reported that he was reconsidering that decision, with some anti-Trump GOP donors encouraging him to jump in.

A new poll finds that Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin could turn Virginia red in a presidential race against Democratic President Joe Biden

Virginia's Gov. Glenn Youngkin performs better against President Joe Biden than Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis or former President Donald Trump in a 2024 match-up in the commonwealth of Virginia

Youngkin is an ideal candidate for Republicans ready to move on from Trump, because he's neither full MAGA nor anti-Trump, so could potentially grab voters from both camps.

He won statewide election in 2021 in a commonwealth that hasn't voted for a Republican for president since 2004.

Youngkin did so by focusing on pocketbook issues and not aligning himself too closely with Trump, though not criticizing the ex-president either.

Virginia's governors are only allowed to serve one term consecutively, so Youngkin isn't beholden to staying in office.

And The New York Times reported last month that Fox News Channel owner Rupert Murdoch has privately told people he'd like to see Youngkin enter the race.

'He'd be in his own lane: He's not never-Trump, and he's not Trump-light,' a source close to Youngkin told Axios.

So far, the trio of anti-Trump candidates - former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and former Rep. Will Hurd - have stayed in the single-digits in the polls.

While the poll shows Youngkin winning in Virginia against President Joe Biden (left), it shows the current president tied with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (right), should be become the GOP nominee

Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump, seen arriving in Washington Thursday for his third arraignment, loses Virginia to President Joe Biden 40 percent to 43 percent

Youngkin is getting renewed interest by the GOP donor class because the primary 'Trump-light' candidate, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, has remained stuck in a distant second place.

The latest poll out of Iowa, which holds the first GOP caucus in January, has Trump still running 24 points ahead of the Florida governor.

On Thursday, NBC reported that billionaire Republican megadonor Thomas Peterffy wired $1 million to Youngkin's 'Spirit of Virginia' PAC, accounting for his second million dollar donation to the political group since April.

His first donation came after the billionaire told the Financial Times he was putting his support for DeSantis 'on hold' due to the Florida governor's stance on social issues.

'Because of his stance on abortion and book banning . . . myself, and a bunch of friends, are holding our powder dry,' Peterffy told the paper.

Peterffy's comments came one day after DeSantis signed Florida's six-week abortion ban.

DeSantis has pushed back that he's pro-book 'bans,' saying he doesn't think children should be exposed to certain sexualized content at a young age.

The books in question deal with LGBTQ themes.

In the NBC story, Virginia state House Speaker Todd Gilbert portrayed Youngkin as a fundraising powerhouse.

'We have always struggled to keep up with what the other side seems to do year in, year out - which is bringing in all this out of state money from millionaires and billionaires who have nothing to do with Virginia, but who want to change our way of life here,' Gilbert told the network. 'We could not do it without his efforts. Period,' he said of Youngkin.

Gilbert also didn't discourage a Youngkin presidential bid.

'I do think Governor Youngkin would be formidable if he decided to enter the presidential race, but he has been laser focused on winning back the Senate, holding the House, and making sure that he finishes the job that he started here in Virginia,' he said.
READ MORE: Devon Archer tells Tucker Carlson Joe KNEW he was on calls with Hunter's business partners

He also said he was 'surprised' that Hunter got into painting following his years of business ventures but it is a good 'reset' for him

Archer addressed the toll that Hunter's struggle with a drug and alcohol addiction took on their partnership

Hunter's ex-best friend Archer revealed new details about his personal and business relationship with the president's son during the second part of Tucker Carlson's interview that was released Friday.

Archer addressed the toll that Hunter's struggle with his crack cocaine and alcohol addiction took on their 10-year partnership.

For the initial part of their business partnership Hunter was 'sober,' he said. So his addiction struggle 'wasn't apart of our relationship.'

But things got hard for Hunter 'mentally' after the passing of his brother Beau in May 2015, creating 'chaos' that led to 'less effective business decisions,' said Archer.

Then Hunter went on a 'downward spiral,' continued his ex-business partner, although he said he made 'many efforts to repair.'

Archer also said the release of Hunter Biden's infamous laptop was 'not great' and contributed to the 'nightmare' that he's been living for years since its publication.

Ep. 13 Part 2. Devon Archer pic.twitter.com/R1sxSuPrKq  Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) August 4, 2023

Right wing nonprofit Marco Polo posted 8,864 pictures on bidenlaptopmedia.com that include hundreds of images of Hunter Biden taking drugs and having sex with prostitutes. Hunter is pictured holding up what appears to be a smoking pen with marijuana oil inside

'That was a real bummer, I guess...It was an absolute shock that has perpetuated this kind of nightmare that I've been living.'

He said Hunter did not call him after emails on the laptop were publicized, even though Archer was included 'extensively' in the content.

'It's led to incessant and never-ending media fodder,' he continued.

Archer also said he was 'surprised' that Hunter got into painting following his years of business ventures.

Carlson asked Archer if Hunter, over the 10 years they spent in business together, ever expressed any interest in painting.

'No, not particularly,' responded Archer, who said Hunter was a 'well read student of history,' so he may have been interested in artwork, but not painting himself.

He called Hunter's new hobby a 'reset,' which was necessary after a 'long-haul covered with tragedy and addiction.'

'Going through that I think you need a reset,' he continued.

He joked that he might also turn to painting after the ups and downs he and Hunter experienced while in business together.

Now, the president's son is racking up hundreds of thousands of dollars for his amateur pieces.

In 2021, Hunter made his debut at a ritzy New York art gallery, where the sticker price clocked in on some of his amateur pieces at $500,000.

One single purchaser spent $875,000 on 11 of Hunter's paintings - though the identity of that person is unclear.

It was recently revealed that Los Angeles-based real estate investor and Democratic donor Elizabeth Hirsch Naftali and Hollywood attorney Kevin Morris are two of the top purchasers of Hunter's work.

Archer also emphasized to Carlson that it's 'categorically false' to say then-Vice President Joe Biden didn't know about his son's business deals at all.

'They have a great relationship, father and son. They speak everyday, and I witnessed that for 10 years,' said Archer.

Joe Biden 'was aware of Hunter's business, he met with Hunter's business partners,' Archer told Carlson.

The vice president wrote a letter that 'illustrated he knew me,' he continued. So it's not 'factually right' to say Joe was unaware.

He added that Joe may not have directly been looking at financial statements, but he was aware of his son's dealings.

Archer shared a letter with Carlson that then-Vice President Joe Biden had written to him in 2011.

'I apologize for not getting a chance to talk to you at the luncheon yesterday. I was having trouble getting away from hosting President Hu,' Biden wrote referring to China's then-president.

'I hope I get a chance to see you again soon with Hunter. I hope you enjoyed the lunch. Thanks for coming,' it read, followed up with a handwritten addition: 'Happy you guys are together.'

In the first part of the interview released Wednesday, one day after Archer testified behind closed-doors to the House Oversight Committee, he told Tucker Carlson that the 'Biden brand' was 'absolutely' a key component of Hunter's work on the Burisma board.

The photos include 7,032 mostly from Hunter's MacBook Pro iPhoto app, 1,832 from a backup of his iPhone XS, 428 'live photos' (short videos taken on an iPhone), 674 images sent in text messages, 579 screenshots, 40 sent via WhatsApp, and 111 others

Hunter's ex-best friend Archer revealed new details about his personal and business relationship with the president's son during the second part of Tucker Carlson's interview that was released Friday

Archer testified behind closed-doors to the House Oversight Committee on Monday

Archer also shared a letter with Carlson that then-Vice President Joe Biden had written to him in 2011

Archer confirmed he had met the now-president 'probably 20 times' and again confirmed that Joe Biden had interacted with Hunter's business partners around 20 times over the 10 years he was close with the family.

'I can definitively say at particular dinners or meetings, he knew there were business associates,' said Archer, who did not claim that Joe Biden had ever actually discussed the business dealings.

'I don't know if it was an orchestrated call in or not. It certainly was powerful, though, because, you know, if you're sitting with a foreign businessperson and you hear the vice president's voice, that's prize enough,' Archer went on.

'Sometimes it was the call was coming in and the speaker would go on,' Archer said, detailing the conversations. 'You understand D.C. right? So the power to have that access in that conversation - it's not in a scheduled conference call and that's a part of your family. That's like the pinnacle of power in D.C.'

Rep. Dan Goldman, N.Y., the only Democrat in the room for Archer's testimony, did not deny Biden had been on business calls with his son but said it was moreso to exchange 'niceties' like talking about 'the weather, "what's going on?"'

'Remember, this is when Beau got ill,' Goldman said, noting that Hunter and Joe spoke on the phone frequently before Beau - Joe Biden's eldest son - died in 2015.

Through the investment and policy advisory firm Archer and Hunter Biden led together - Rosemont Seneca - Hunter led on 'government regulatory issues,' said Archer.

'Did Hunter have regulation expertise?' asked Carlson.

'I think he led a team that did,' said Archer, noting that the work Hunter did was primarily knowing who to call.

Both Archer and Carlson acknowledged it was not new for the relatives of famous government officials to use their connections in business.

'What we ran into was almost an Icarus issue,' said Archer. 'It was too close to the sun it was too good to be true. The connections were too close, the scrutiny too much.'

Archer and Hunter Biden were close friends at the time they were in business together.

Last week Hunter Biden's plea deal for tax and gun crimes imploded when a judge informed him he could be charged in the future for further crimes - specifically mentioning failing to register as a foreign agent (a FARA violation).
It comes 10 days into a military coup which ousted President Mohamed Bazoum on July 26, sparking a diplomatic crisis as chaos overran the streets

Alfonzo Edwards, a member of the group who did not go on the trip, told DailyMail.com 13 members ranging in age from 11 to 70 are still stranded there

Members of the Cornerstone Christian Center in Antioch, California, had been scheduled to fly back to the US this week until the coup derailed their plans

American missionaries including children and seniors are still trapped in Niger on day 10 of the military coup - as the situation escalates with the country's 'hostage' president pleading for US help.

Members of the Cornerstone Christian Center in Antioch, California, had been scheduled to fly back to the US this week before an armed uprising deposed President Mohamed Bazoum.

The July 26 rebellion sparked power cuts, a lockdown on commercial flights and chaos on the streets of one of the world's poorest countries.

Alfonzo Edwards, a member of the California church group who did not go on the trip, told DailyMail.com that all 13 members who traveled to the West African nation - ranging in age from 11 to 70 - were still stranded on day 10 of the coup.

School principal Logan Heyer, who is among the Christian travelers, told the Mail on Thursday that US officials were 'potentially' flying them home the next day.

Thirteen members of the Cornerstone Christian Center in Antioch, California, ranging in age from 11 to 70, were still trapped in Niger as of 4pm local time on Friday. Pictured: one missionary speaking to children in the West African nation as part of their trip

In a Washington Post piece titled 'my country is under attack and I've been taken hostage' President Mohamed Bazoum said the coup leaders are 'trying to overthrow our democracy'. He is now pleading with the US and allies for help

The July 26 rebellion sparked power cuts, a lockdown on commercial flights and chaos on the streets of one of the world's poorest countries

But Edwards was still anxiously awaiting the return of what he called his church 'family' at 4pm Niger time on Friday with no word on when they would return.

'It's stressful,' he told DailyMail.com.

'They are good friends of mine and they have been through some stressful moments - but I am trusting in God for protection and an answer to prayer for a safe return.'

The church group traveled to the impoverished country to help build schools, educate local children and boost their economy.

Alfonzo Edwards, pictured with his wife Nikki, also said he hoped his church 'family' will be safe as it is 'part of God's plan'

The Biden administration has been criticized for its reluctance to evacuate Americans, while many Europeans were quickly repatriated.

On Wednesday, the White House ordered only a partial evacuation of its embassy Wednesday, a week after the coup was launched.

A State Department spokesperson told DailyMail.com: 'Given that the borders and the airport remain closed and commercial flights to and from Niamey will reportedly be suspended until August 5, 2023, we are working to facilitate the departure of U.S. citizens from Niger.'

Meanwhile, Niger's military junta said it is severing military agreements with France, its former colonial ruler, with President Bazoum held hostage.

In a Washington Post piece penned Thursday titled 'my country is under attack and I've been taken hostage' Bazoum said the junta is 'trying to overthrow our democracy'.

The 63-year-old, who was elected president on April 2021, said he is now 'just one of hundreds of citizens who have been arbitrarily and illegally imprisoned' by the rebels led by General Abdourahamane Tchiani.

Bazoum said the coup has 'no justification whatsoever' and warned it will have 'devastating consequences for our country, our region and the entire world'.

Niger is the last major security partner of the US and allies in the Sahel - the vast region south of the Sahara Desert which various Islamic extremist groups have turned into the world's terrorism epicenter. It also produces uranium and lies on a major migration route

Logan Heyer's daughter Maddison (pictured) is among the group stranded in the African nation

The church group traveled to the impoverished country to help build schools, educate local children and boost their economy

Niger is of key international importance as a significant uranium producer - which is used in nuclear power and bombs - and because it lies on a major migration route to North Africa and the Mediterranean.

It is also the last remaining major security partner of the US and allies in the Sahel - the vast region south of the Sahara Desert which various Islamic extremist groups have turned into the world's terrorism epicenter.

France moved the center of its West Africa counter-terror operations from Mali to Niger in 2021 after Mali military leaders joined forces with the Russian Wagner mercenary group.

Heyer (pictured with his wife Holly) said the stranded members of his church group were left 'confused' by the delay for their rescue

Bazoum warned that because of the Niger coup, 'the entire central Sahel region could fall to Russian influence via the Wagner Group, whose brutal terrorism has been on full display in Ukraine'.

In an attempt to calm Niger's mutinous soldiers, envoys from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) arrived in the country for talks on Thursday.

But the delegation from ECOWAS, a political and economic union of 15 West African countries, was unable to meet coup leader Tchiani or gain access to the capital, Niamey, a source with close knowledge of the talks told AP.

ECOWAS set a Sunday deadline for the rebels to release President Bazoum or face possible force.

But the junta's televised announcement late Thursday brought further trepidation about the potential for negotiation, as it terminated military agreements and protocols signed with France and fired Niger's ambassadors to the country.

Niger President Mohamed Bazoum was deposed on July 26 in a military coup

It also cut ties with Niger representatives to the US, Togo and neighboring Nigeria, which is leading ECOWAS efforts on dialogue.

A spokesman for Col. Maj. Amadou Abdramane, a Niger Air Force officer who helped install Tchiani, warned that any 'attempt at aggression against the state of Niger will see an immediate response and without warning'.

Mali and Burkina Faso - West African countries contiguous with Niger's western border which supported the coup - have also said any aggression towards Niger would be seen as a declaration of war against them, according to AP.

Meanwhile, France's Foreign Ministry dismissed the coup, saying it only recognizes 'the legitimate Nigerien authorities,' and reiterating calls for 'the re-establishment of the democratic institutions of Niger'.

France has 1,500 military personnel in Niger, while the U.S. has 1,100, including many stationed at a key drone base - which they are reluctant to withdraw amid the growing presence of the Wagner group.

Commenting on Bazoum's plea for help, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned against foreign intervention.

'Interference by non-regional powers is unlikely to change the situation for the better,' he said.

'Of course, we are concerned about the tension that is now emerging in the region, and, as before, we stand for the speedy return of this situation to the constitutional track without any damage, without a threat, most importantly, to human lives.'

The church group traveled to the impoverished country to help build schools, educate local children and boost their economy

Supporters of the military coup hold a Russian flag as a protest against sanctions erupted in the capital of Niamey, on August 3, 2023

Nigeria's President Bola Tinubu, fulfilling a legal requirement, informed lawmakers on Friday of the ECOWAS intention to intervene militarily in Niger if the coup leaders 'remain recalcitrant.'

But there are risks that any intervention could get Bazoum killed, said James Barnett, a researcher specializing in West Africa at the Hudson Institute.

'You would have to have a very surgical rescue operation to ensure that doesnt happen,' he said.

Another concern is that the junta might arm civilian militias to resist any intervention.

'Already theyve been using the threat of an intervention to try to bolster their legitimacy and rally the population around the flag, quite literally by organizing some major rallies,' Barnett said.

'I fear the junta would gladly use its own people as cannon fodder or human shields, and ECOWAS militaries dont have a good record when it comes to avoiding collateral damage.'

Analysts said theyre not putting much faith in talks.

'I dont expect mediation efforts to bear fruit in the short term. The junta is digging in ... Seems like uncharted territory,' said Alex Thurston, assistant professor of political science at the University of Cincinnati.

Many people in Niamey didn't appear concerned that ECOWAS will use force, while others wondered why the regional bloc hasnt had the same resolve to tackle extremist violence.

'If ECOWAS has an army it could mobilize 1,000 soldiers per country ... 15,000 soldiers.

'If ECOWAS was serious, why didnt it consider mobilizing 15,000 soldiers to help Mali, Burkina and Niger, which are undergoing insecurity?' said Annassa Djibrilla, president of the Dynamic Citizen activist group.

Nigers roughly 25 million people live in one of the poorest countries in the world, and any cuts in foreign aid could be disastrous.

Nigerian security forces have clashed with pro-junta demonstrators, pictured outside the French Embassy on July 30, 2023

Niger President Mohamed Bazoum was deposed last week, sparking chaos on the streets and evacuations from several nations

Already, citizens are feeling the effects after ECOWAS suspended all commercial and financial transactions between its member states and Niger and froze Nigerien assets held in regional central banks.

The blocs sanctions include halting energy transactions with Niger, which gets up to 90% of its power from Nigeria, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency.

Earlier this week, power transmission from Nigeria to Niger was cut off, an official at one of Nigerias main electricity companies said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment.

There have been fears the junta could limit the export of uranium from Niger, which contributes 5% of the global share, according to the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
A senior Met Police officer requested the then Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick grant his immediate resignation instead of him taking a drug test, a misconduct hearing was told today.

Commander Julian Bennett, 64, was accused of trying to 'compromise the integrity' of the former commissioner by attempting to use his 'hotline' to her to evade a 'with-cause' drugs test.

Bennett, who drew up the Met's anti-drug strategy, regularly smoked cannabis in front of his former lodger Sheila Gomes, the hearing has been told. He is said to have taken the drug before breakfast and work in late 2019.

When Ms Gomes submitted photos to the Met purporting to show a bag of cannabis and a grinder on his living room table, Bennett - who has served at the force since 1976 - was hauled into New Scotland Yard to take a drug test.

A '1.5 million' misconduct case lasting three years has ensued - the money has largely been stumped up by taxpayers, Bennett said today.

Commander Julian Bennett, 64, was accused of undermining former Met Police Commissioner Cressida Dick's authority by attempting to use his 'hotline' to her to evade a 'with-cause' drugs test

Former Met Police Commissioner Cressida Dick has become embroiled in drugs chief Julian Bennet's misconduct hearing after he admitted to requesting she grant his immediate resignation instead of him taking a drug test

He has been accused of attempting to 'sweep' his alleged cannabis use 'under the carpet' by asking his line manager to find the Commissioner - who he calls 'Cress' - to request permission to step down in lieu of the urine test.

Bennet claims he was taking CBD oils to treat facial palsy, which could have caused the test to come up positive for an innocent reason.

Mark Ley-Morgan KC, representing the Met, suggested if the former commissioner had accepted his resignation, it would have smacked of 'organised corruption at the highest level'.

At a misconduct hearing in Southwark, south London, he broke down as he told the panel 'the Met needs me' and said he would rather be at work than suspended on full pay.

Mr Ley-Morgan told the hearing that Assistant Commissioner Louisa Rolfe said Bennett asked her to approach the Commissoner and told here: 'I can't take the test, I have done something foolish.'

Bennett accepted the recitation of the conversation, but reiterated that he said 'silly' not foolish.

He insisted that he spoke in fear that taking over-the-counter CBD oils would produce an innocent positive result. He said he may not have told AC Rolfe about the CBD products.

Bennett said AC Rolfe told him to take the test before disappearing to find the Commissioner.

After five minutes she returned to say she couldn't find Commissioner Dick and he would have to follow the proper procedure, warning that if he did not take the test it would automatically be considered a positive result.

He declined the offer of meeting a force medical examiner (FME) - a police doctor - to whom he could confidentially disclose any medication he is taking that could produce an innocent positive result.

Assistant Commissioner Louisa Rolfe (pictured) said Bennett asked her to approach the Commissoner and told here: 'I can't take the test, I have done something foolish'

At the hearing, Mr Ley-Morgan asked: 'What do you think the commissioner would say to Pc Jones from Streatham police station being asked to give a sample and offering to resign instead?'

He replied: 'I think she would not engage.'

Mr Ley-Morgan asked: 'Why would she engage with you?'

He replied: 'I am a senior officer. It would have stopped a lot of this. I would not be here.'

Mr Ley-Morgan said: 'Absolutely right. It might have gone a different way.'

He added: 'If the commissioner had allowed you to resign rather than give a sample, do you think she would have been doing the right thing?'

Mr Bennett replied: 'Yes I do.'

Mr Ley-Morgan asked: 'What do you think a fair-minded member of the public would think if they discovered the Met Police had intelligence that a commander was taking drugs and the commissioner had allowed him to resign?'

He replied: 'I would have thought if they had released intelligence and followed it up, and the evidence is very limited in this case, there would not be any evidence of drug taking and they would be quite content with that, rather than having three years of this.'

Mr Ley-Morgan later asked: 'You were so desperate to avoid providing a sample that you asked the commissioner to compromise her integrity.'

He replied: 'That is absolutely not the case.'

Mr Ley-Morgan asked: 'Your sole concern was the reputation of the Metropolitan Police service?

He replied: 'I was trying to avoid discredit (to the force). That is actually what happened.'

Mr Ley-Morgan asked: 'I suggest that is a bare-faced, cynical lie.'

The officer replied: 'I am not lying on this issue or any of the other issues.'

Julien Bennett, who has served the force since 1976, is said to have taken cannabis before breakfast and work in late 2019

The hearing was told that Bennett said he knew he would test positive and did not want to embarrass the Met, adding: 'I think I was seeing headlines, and headline would be 'officer responsible for the Met's drug strategy fails drug test'.'

During cross-examination, Mr Ley-Morgan asked Bennett to pick the more damaging headline from 'Commissioner of Police allowed Met Commander to resign rather than take a with-cause drug test,' or 'Met commander tests positive for cannabis after taking legal CBD products bought on the high street.'

Bennett responded: 'Oh my goodness, they're both horrendous.'

Mr Ley-Morgan asked him: 'Is [the second] not a positive headline for the Met Police service because it shows everyone even up to Commander level is going to be tested?

'You've accidentally taken a product that's perfectly legal without knowing it would produce a positive test.'

Bennett said: 'I think it's incredibly damaging.'

The specialist police law barrister asked whether all officers could ask the Commissioner to let them resign instead of taking a drug test.

Bennett said he didn't think she would have spoken to a Constable.

Mr Ley-Morgan questioned whether he was setting a precedent in which any officer accused of smoking cannabis could present bottles of CBD oils and get off their with-cause drugs tests and potential charges.

He suggested: 'It could become known as the 'Bennett Defence' couldn't it? Haven't you thought of that?'

Bennett replied: 'I certainly hadn't.'

Mr Ley-Morgan continued to question whether Bennett was trying to make the allegations disappear.

He asked the officer: 'What made you think that the Commissioner would have been party to stop them, a serious allegation against a senior police officer, and sweep it under the carpet?'

Bennett responded: 'It's not about sweeping an allegation under the carpet.

'Of course the Commissioner isn't going to do that. I thought at the time it was the right thing to do.

'It's taken three years, its cost a million-and-a-half pounds now and a lot of that is public money.

'I'm not asking for anything to swept under the carpet, and the fact is it wouldn't have swept it under carpet because, as we said yesterday, the investigation would have continued.'

Commander Julian Bennett at a Police misconduct hearing over three allegations of discreditable conduct in Southwark, London

Bennett was first asked to take the drugs test on July 21, 2020, and waited over a month to provide his written response to the Met's questions on August 28 that year.

There was no in-person interview, for which Bennett cited new Covid-19 norms that relied on remote investigations.

He claimed that during the month interim he researched CBD oils and learned they would not produce the same test result as cannabis.

Despite his discovery, he said he decided to not take a drug test because he felt it would not make a difference to his case.

Bennett denies three counts of gross misconduct. The hearing continues.
A photo from the JetBlue cockpit shows how perilously close it came to disaster

The 63-year-old captain of the LearJet later blamed a 'stuffed nose' for the error

The JetBlue flight coming into land at the Boston airport missed the private jet by just a few hundred feet, the National Transportation Safety Board said

A JetBlue flight landing at Logan International Airport in Boston nearly smashed into a private jet which took off without permission, the National Transportation Safety Board has revealed.

The incident, on February 27, was captured in a chilling photograph from the JetBlue flight's cockpit which shows the LearJet aircraft obstructing the runway as it came into land.

Only the quick-thinking of the JetBlue Flight 206 pilot prevented a collision, investigators said. The pilot performed a 'climb-out maneuver' to narrowly avoid the other aircraft.

The LearJet's 63-year-old captain - flying for Hop-A-Jet, a Florida-based private charter company - had been told to lineup and read back the air traffic controller's instruction. But the pilot 'then began the takeoff-roll instead'.

He later told investigators: 'I cannot understand what happened to me during the clearance, the only thing that comes to my mind is that the cold temperature in Boston affected me, I was not feeling completely well and had a stuffed nose. My apologies.'

The incident, on February 27, was captured in a chilling photograph from the JetBlue flight's cockpit which shows the LearJet aircraft obstructing the runway as it came into land

Only the quick-thinking of the JetBlue Flight 206 pilot prevented a collision, investigators said. The pilot performed a 'climb-out maneuver' to narrowly avoid the other aircraft (circled)

He only learned about the near miss after arriving at Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport. The private jet's crew was notified 'they had taken off without authorization and caused an airplane that had been cleared to land on runway 04 to execute a go-around, passing about 400 above them.'

The report into the incident said: 'The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this incident to be: The Hop-a-Jet flight crew taking off without a takeoff clearance which resulted in a conflict with a JetBlue flight that had been cleared to land on an intersecting runway.'

The JetBlue aircraft, a Embraer 190, was just 30 feet from the ground and approaching the intersecting runway when the two aircraft came closest to one another.

The frightening incident follows a string of other near misses at US airports this year, prompting experts to warn the industry is facing 'the biggest disaster in its history' if the trend isn't reversed.

The JetBlue aircraft, an Embraer 190 like the one pictured, was coming into land at Logan International Airport in Boston on February 27 when it nearly ploughed into a private jet

The 63-year-old captain of the LearJet - an aircraft similar to the one pictured - told investigators: 'I cannot understand what happened to me during the clearance, the only thing that comes to my mind is that the cold temperature in Boston affected me, I was not feeling completely well and had a stuffed nose. My apologies'

In February, a Boeing 767 FedEx cargo plane landing at Austin-Bergstrom International came within less than 100ft of a Southwest Airlines 737 aircraft that was taking off from the same runway.

Analysts say only the quick-thinking of the FedEx pilot prevented a collision.

The incident follows a similar near miss at John F. Kennedy International in New York City on Friday, January 13, when a Delta flight was forced to perform an emergency stop during takeoff while an American Airlines plane crossed the same runway.

Aviation expert and pilot Juan Browne said: 'These sort of incidents are increasing at an alarming rate.

'There's a huge turnover in the industry, not only among pilots but amongst air traffic controllers, mechanics, mainters, rampers. And with the state of hiring practices and training today and the relentless effort to do things faster, cheaper and more efficiently we're just one radio call away from having the biggest aviation disaster in history.'

In both the JFK and Austin-Bergstrom incidents, experts have said directions issued by air traffic controllers appear to have been an issue.

Kit Darby, an aviation consultant and former United Airlines pilot, told DailyMail.com that he believes safety protocols to avoid near misses are adequate, but added: 'It's a very large, very complicated system that's relying on humans, and humans make mistakes.'
Choudary, 56, of east London, is charged with three terrorism-related offences

The preacher and a second suspect Khaled Hussein were arrested on July 17

Islamist preacher Anjem Choudary has appeared in court accused of leading banned militant network Al-Muhajiroun - and is facing trial next May for alleged terror offences.

The 56-year-old was arrested at his home in Ilford, east London, on July 17, while a second suspect, Khaled Hussein, was detained at Heathrow having arrived on a flight the same day.

Choudary was charged with directing a terrorist organisation, being a member of the proscribed organisation Al-Muhajiroun (ALM) and addressing meetings to encourage support for the group.

Hussein, 28, who lives in Canada, was charged with membership of ALM.

On Friday, the defendants appeared at the Old Bailey for a preliminary hearing by video link from custody.

Court artist sketch by Elizabeth Cook of Anjem Choudary appearing by video link from HMP Full Sutton in Yorkshire, at the Old Bailey in London, where he is charged with three terror offences relating to banned organisation Al-Muhajiroun

Choudary was at HMP Full Sutton in Yorkshire and Hussein appeared from HMP Wandsworth in south London.

Mr Justice Jeremy Baker set a plea hearing for January 5 and a provisional trial at Kingston Crown Court from May 20 next year.

The court was told the trial of up to eight weeks would be heard before a High Court judge.

During the hearing, the defendants spoke only to confirm their identities and dates of birth.

Grey-bearded and bespectacled Choudary wore a white robe and Hussein appeared in a grey and black checked shirt.

Choudary could be seen on the video link scribbling notes as defence barristers in court discussed the timetable for the case.

Mr Justice Baker told the defendants: 'The trial in this case - if it is to take place - will take place at Kingston Crown Court before a High Court judge on May 20 of next year and you will appear at either that court or this court on January 5 for a plea and trial preparation hearing.

'In the meantime, you will remain in custody.'

The 56-year-old was arrested at his home in Ilford, east London, on July 17. Pictured speaking to members of the press on July 19

Prosecutor Warren Stanier earlier told Westminster Magistrates Court the Islamist group seeks to establish an Islamic Caliphate ruled by Shariah law.

Founded by Omar Bakri Muhammed, ALM was proscribed in this country in January 2010.

Mr Stainer said: 'The prosecution say Choudary acted in a role where he directed the action of that organisation because he was at the very top, the leader of the organisation.

'Another organisation I'm going to mention is the 'Islamic Thinkers Society'.

'That organisation is ALM, it follows the same activities it possesses the same ideology, the prosecution says the members of that organisation regard themselves as 'ALM'.

'Mr Choudary and his wife regard it as the same organisation.

'The case involved Mr Choudary lecturing to the Islamic Thinkers Society from June 2022, the prosecution case is in those lectures they provided direction, advise, operational security, particularly about the need to change the name and the platform of organisation to avoid intervention of law enforcement.

'The case against Mr Hussain is he has, for around two years, been a member or belonged to that organization and has been in close contact with Mr Choudary, in effect working for him on the online space to provide a platform for the words and messages of that organisation.'
The popular fast-food retailer Chik-fil-A sent a 16-year-old female employee home after she was told by a supervisor that the blonde color in her braids was 'unnatural.'

Autumn Williams, who had been working at the fast food restaurant located along Highway 49 in Harrisburg, North Carolina for the last three months, said that a manager approached her last month for reportedly violating the company's uniform policy.

She said one of the supervisors told her that 'they noticed blond in your hair, and he asked that you leave and come back when it's taken out since it's an unnatural color to you,' Queens City News reported.

Williams said she was caught off guard and was not only embarrassed by the ordeal, but also felt singled out, particularly since she said her other co-workers also had hair color that was unnatural.

'The guy, when I had orientation, he never said anything about my hair color or it being an issue.'

Autumn Williams, 16, said that a manager approached her last month for reportedly violating the company's uniform policy

The teen had only been employed by the fast-food retailer for three months before the July incident took place

When she approached the supervisor in human resources to find out more about what the issue was regarding her hair, she was told to review the employee handbook.

But, according to Williams there is nothing in the handbook under the 'grooming' section that addresses what is deemed unnatural hair color.

The teen decided to leave on her own accord. Williams' mother, Nina Burch completely supported her daughter's position and believes that that there needs to be some 'sensitivity training.'

Burch said in part, 'it's a protective style for us. 'There was nothing eccentric about the color that was in her hair,' as per the news outlet.

She added: 'So I think maybe there needs to be some sensitivity training about what people can and cannot look like. But that just sounds so crazy to say because who's to say what anybody can look like based on their race?'

Williams expressed that she was happy she was able to stay her authentic self and hopes that sharing her experience could help others.

'I was glad that I didn't have to change myself to fit into someone else's ideal image of what it's like to be a Chick-fil-A worker,' she said. '

'I could still have my braids, which I felt there was nothing wrong with, so I was just glad that I was able to just stay true to myself and move on and find somewhere else to work; that's fine with how I look.'

She also pointed out that the company never reached out to her after the incident.

'I just hope that companies realize that no one fits in a box. People come in different colors, shapes, sizes and what you perceive to be natural based off someone's ethnicity or race isn't necessarily true,' Burch told WBTV.

The company issued a statement to Queen City News explaining their account.

'The operator reached out to (Autumn) Williams today and had a good conversation. In further detail,' the statement read. 'The operator explained that the policy was misinterpreted and said Williams was not terminated and she's more than welcome to come back and work at the restaurant,' the statement read.

Williams had declined the offer to return to that Chik-fil-A location.

Her mother are considering all possibilities, as far as taking any legal action, the news outlet reported.

The young woman has also filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, as per WBTV.

DailyMail.com reached out to a Chik-fil-A spokesperson for comment, but have not yet heard back.
The father of a five-year-old boy who drowned in a pool at a Cornwall holiday park has demanded a 'full investigation' into his son's death.

Robin Caliskan, from Plymouth, Devon, was with his family at the Atlantic Reach Holiday park in Newquay on Monday when the tragedy occurred.

Mr Caliskan was in the pool with Robin, as well as his wife Ferzan and the couple's six-month-old baby son. It is unclear what happened but Robin was found dead in the pool by another guest. Attempts to revive Robin by the poolside were tragically to no avail.

Robin's father Cemal, 35, insists there a lot of unanswered questions over the circumstances leading up to Robin's death. He told the BBC: 'Robin died in front of our eyes. I feel there are a lot of unanswered questions about why Robin died. I just cannot accept it at all.'

He added that his 'very happy' son was outgoing and a 'quick learner' who made friends easily.

Robin Caliskan, five, pictured with his parents Cemal and Ferzan, drowned in a pool at a Cornish holiday resort on Monday

Robin was pictured alongside his baby brother just moments before he drowned in the pool

One of the pictures shows Robin in the tent his family pitched shortly before he died

Devon and Cornwall Police said it will pass a file to the coroner. The force confirmed the incident is not being treated as suspicious but an investigation is ongoing with Cornwall Council Health and Safety to establish the circumstance surrounding Robin's death.

Hundreds of heartfelt tributes have poured in for Robin and his family, with those who knew Robin describing him as an 'angel boy'.

One said: 'Rip Robin fly high baby boy. Caleb will miss you very much.'

Another added: 'He was an angel boy. Heartbreaking. I will always remember him.'

A third said: 'From a parent to another. I am so sorry this has happened. My deepest thoughts are with you all at this time.'

Atlantic Reach has also said their thoughts are with Robin's family.

A statement issued on behalf of the resort said: 'We do not feel it is appropriate to comment further at this stage, except to say our thoughts are with the family at this time.

'Atlantic Reach is committed to supporting our guests and community, as well as our team that provided immediate assistance. As such we respectfully ask that all those affected are given time and space at this distressing time.'

Robin Caliskan lost his life on the first day of his family holiday to Newquay

'He was intelligent and his handwriting, he could write with both hands,' said his father

Describing little Robin, his father Cemal said he 'loved hugs' and was a 'very cute and clever' little boy

A police spokesman said: 'Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of a child at a holiday park in Newquay.

'Police were informed by the ambulance service that a five-year-old boy had drowned in a swimming pool within Atlantic Reach Holiday Park on Monday, July 31.

'The boy is from the Plymouth area and his next of kin are aware, the death is not being treated as suspicious and a file is to be prepared for the coroner.

'Officers from Devon and Cornwall Police along with representatives from Cornwall Council Health and Safety are undertaking enquiries in relation to the circumstances surrounding this death.'
Families, friends and well-wishers have welcomed the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales as it returned to its home port almost a year after breaking down just a few miles into a journey to the United States.

The 3 billion warship suffered a broken propeller shaft after it sailed from Portsmouth Naval Base in August 2022 for a diplomatic mission to carry out exercises with the US Navy, the Royal Canadian Navy and the US Marine Corps.

The carrier came to a halt off the Isle of Wight and was brought under tow back into harbour for the problem to be identified.

It was then taken to the Babcock shipyard where it was built in Rosyth, Scotland, to undergo the repairs to a propeller shaft which have taken nine months to complete.

Fears had been raised that the 65,000-tonne vessel was being 'cannibalised' for parts to be used on sister ship HMS Queen Elizabeth but Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said this was 'perfectly normal' and the ship would return to service by the autumn.

The 3 billion warship suffered a broken propeller shaft after it sailed from Portsmouth Naval Base in August 2022 for a diplomatic mission to carry out exercises with the US Navy, the Royal Canadian Navy and the US Marine Corps. The carrier came to a halt off the Isle of Wight and was brought under tow back into harbour for the problem to be identified (pictured: HMS Prince of Wales returning to Portsmouth today)

Fears had been raised that the 65,000 tonne vessel was being 'cannibalised' for parts to be used on sister ship HMS Queen Elizabeth but Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said this was 'perfectly normal' and the ship would return to service by the autumn (pictured: HMS Prince of Wales returning to Portsmouth)

The carrier moved out of dry dock at Rosyth and into the River Forth on July 21 before starting its journey back to Portsmouth Naval Base where it returned to the waving and cheering well-wishers who had lined the harbour walls.

A navy spokesman said: 'The carrier will then build on her previous successes including acting as Nato's command ship and leading the Maritime High Readiness Force in the Arctic, before she takes over from HMS Queen Elizabeth as the nation's flagship towards the end of 2024.'

The ship's commanding officer, Captain Richard Hewitt, said: 'We are returning HMS Prince of Wales to operations as the most advanced warship ever built for the Royal Navy.

'This year, we will be operating F-35s, V-22 Ospreys, drones and the RN Merlin helicopters - pushing the boundaries of naval aviation and UK Carrier Strike capability as we progress towards a global deployment in 2025.

'Our sailors are paramount to ensuring our return to operations. They have approached the task of getting us back to sea with the remarkable ethos that I have come to expect from them. They are a credit to the ship and the Royal Navy.'

The navy spokesman said that the ship's engineering departments had worked with civilian engineers from Babcock to fix the propeller shafts along with BAE Systems which has also been carrying out previously-planned upgrade works.

He added that the 750-strong crew have undergone training and supported recruitment drives as well as taking part in civic events during the period of the repairs.

The spokesman said the carrier had undergone a number of exercises while sailing from Scotland to test its systems, including with F-35B Lightning jets.

The carrier moved out of dry dock at Rosyth and into the River Forth on July 21 before starting its journey back to Portsmouth Naval Base where it returned to the waving and cheering well-wishers who had lined the harbour walls

A navy spokesman said: 'The carrier will then build on her previous successes including acting as Nato's command ship and leading the Maritime High Readiness Force in the Arctic, before she takes over from HMS Queen Elizabeth as the nation's flagship towards the end of 2024'

Many people gather at the port to welcome HMS Prince of Wales home after one year

The ship's commanding officer, Captain Richard Hewitt, said: 'We are returning HMS Prince of Wales to operations as the most advanced warship ever built for the Royal Navy'

He said: 'HMS Prince of Wales has spent the last ten days ramping up for an autumn deployment, which will see the ship operate a multitude of aircraft and drones off the east coast of the United States, pushing the boundaries of carrier operations.

'The 65,000-tonne behemoth made 'calm seas rage' on a series of trials, putting her upgrades through their paces and ensuring all her state-of-the-art systems were ready for full action

'It was then on to the carrier's main line of work as the flight deck reopened for business, with Chinook and Merlin helicopters appearing on board during a busy schedule of day and night flying.

'HMS Prince of Wales also worked with F-35B Lightning aircraft - the fifth-generation stealth jet the ship was designed around - and Typhoon fighters on air defence training.

'It means both the Royal Navy's aircraft carriers are now ready for deployments this autumn.'

Capt Hewitt added: 'My sailors have worked hard to get us back to sea and ready to deploy this autumn. Now back in Portsmouth we will take some leave with families and friends and then we go.'
People smugglers are cashing in twice by bringing illegal immigrants into Britain and helping wanted criminals  including murderers  escape across the Channel.

The Albanians are brazenly advertising emergency journeys in the back of lorries for 'people who have problems and want to leave England as soon as possible'.

One told a Mail undercover reporter  posing as the relative of a man on the run after killing someone  he could escape to the Continent that night for 3,000.

Another smuggler account running on Tiktok offers a 17,500 bespoke service for escaping criminals by forging documents for them to pose as a second driver in the cab of a lorry. The trafficker said the trick was routinely used to spirit illegal immigrants into the UK.

Today Tory MPs blasted the gangs making a fortune by 'using the UK like a criminal playground'.

Eugert Merizaj (pictured) of Montague Street fled the UK after carrying out the 'meticulously planned' gangland-style execution of a drugs rival in Hartlepool in 2019

Suspects in other cases include Ron Domi, 21 (pictured) from Luton, who is wanted for the rape and sexual assault of a teenage girl under 16

Md Mokter Hossain ( pictured ) , aged 54, of Gaynes Hill Road, Woodford Green, was arrested in May 2021, following a covert National Crime Agency investigation which included the use of surveillance and undercover tactics

A TikTok advert by smugglers which translates to 'People with problems who want to leave England as soon as possible, going to France or Belgium on the back of the lorry. Price 2,500 sterling. Get in touch to send you a phone number'

And Alp Mehmet of Migration Watch UK said: 'Our country, once revered for its law and order, is being turned into the Wild West by Albanian criminals who seem to have taken control and can do as they please.

'It is utterly shameful.'

British police forces are hunting at least 38 suspected Albanian criminals, including nine wanted for murder and two alleged rapists, one who is accused of attacking a child.

Other Albanian suspects on the run include an alleged 3million fraudster, a domestic abuser, a cannabis producer, a cocaine dealer and a fugitive who escaped jail.

It is feared some of these may have fled the UK with the help of people smugglers.

A TikTok advert found by the Mail said: 'People with problems who want to leave England as soon as possible, going to France or Belgium on the back of the lorry. Price 2,500 sterling.'

A second people smuggling gang's TikTok page with over 140 adverts, some seen over 5,000 times, offered 'inbound and outbound by lorry'. And a third page run by another gang asks for direct messages from 'anyone who wants to return to the EU from England by lorry, people with problems who cannot get an airplane. 100 per cent guarantee'.

The site had over 40 posts, many offering illegal passage into the UK either by lorry or 'super comfort' yacht and urged Albanians in France or Belgium to get in touch.

People smugglers are using TikTok to advertise their services

Migrants sit beside a boat used to cross the English Channel as more migrants are helped ashore from a RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) lifeboat at a beach in Dungeness, on the south-east coast of England

When an undercover Mail reporter contacted this site and left his details, he received a message from an Albanian smuggler with a UK phone number.

In subsequent exchanges on WhatsApp, the reporter explained that his relative in the UK needed to escape as soon as possible because he had stabbed a rival gang member who was trying to rob his cannabis factory. The victim had later died in hospital, our concocted story went.

Quoting '3,000 to France', the smuggler took just minutes to pass on the postcode of a retail park on the outskirts of Ashford, Kent, a short motorway drive from the Channel Tunnel and Dover, with a meeting time of 1am.

He added: 'Your man has to be at that address tonight. It is a small restaurant and petrol station. The driver will be there.

'Hand the money to the driver and without any worries he will be in France. Tell your man that if the driver asks to tell him he has a urgent family problem and want to get out asap.'

Another smuggler account called 'Travel Agency London' said for 17,500 he said they would pick our 'fugitive killer' up from a safehouse in Leeds and promised a ride in the cab of the Belgian lorry out of the UK, complete with fake travel documents.

A group of people thought to be migrants arrive in Dungeness, Kent, being rescued in the Channel by the RNLI following following a small boat incident

This gang offers both routes into the UK by lorry or yacht and escape routes out by lorry

'In the lorry, he will not get burned. No one will find and stop him. No worries,' the smuggler encouraged.

'We bring people from Belgium to England in the cab of the lorry as a second driver all the time.'

Tory MP Gareth Johnson, who is a former lawyer, described our findings as 'frightening'.

'What's is so worrying is they believe they are a law unto themselves and are treating our country like criminal playground,' he said.

'This is the consequence of having such porous borders.

'If criminals are coming here illegally we can hardly be surprised that criminals are also escaping when they are wanted, but it is utterly cynical that it is the same gangs making money to take them both ways.'

Fellow Tory MP Natalie Elphicke, whose constituency is Dover, where many migrants enter the UK, said: 'This investigation underlines that the small boats crisis is about serious and organised crime as well as illegal immigration.

'The criminal gangs will only be stopped when they know they won't succeed in using small boats.

A group of people thought to be migrants rest on the beach after arriving in Dungeness, Kent, following being rescued in the Channel by the RNLI during a small boat incident

People believed to be migrants arrive on the beach in Dungeness, Kent, after being rescued

Translation: 'Super trip super comfort. Anyone in Brussels France send a message. Yacht. Only serious people.'

'That's why France needs to work together with the UK to stop small boats leaving the French coast to put an end to this criminality once and for all.'

Wanted Albanian suspects have managed to escape the UK on many occasions.

Eugert Merizaj fled the UK after carrying out the 'meticulously planned' gangland-style execution of a drugs rival in Hartlepool in 2019.

He bought an axe and cable ties to help carry out the execution while another member of the Albanian crime gang fired the gun.

After an international manhunt he was eventually found living in Belgium under a false name and extradited to the UK where he was convicted of murder and jailed for 32 years last year.

Cleveland Police are still hunting three other Albanian men, Daniel Kadiu, Armando Marku, and Sajmir Dodoveci, in connection with the case who are believed to be living overseas. Detectives on Teesside are working with international crime agencies to trace them.

Suspects in other cases include Ron Domi, 21, from Luton, who is wanted for the rape and sexual assault of a teenage girl under 16.

It is unclear where he has gone, but detectives have said as well as Luton, Domi has links to north London and Albania. They have appealed to members of the Albanian community for information on his whereabouts.

A group of people thought to be migrants arrive on the beach in Dungeness, Kent

TikTok advert which translates to ''Route Belgium-England. Anyone in France-Brussels send a message. 100% security and guarantee'

TikTok banned the people smuggling accounts after being alerted by the Mail but when such pages are taken down, they usually quickly reappear in a similar form.

A TikTok spokesman said: 'We have zero tolerance for content that facilitates human smuggling and trafficking.

'The videos and accounts in question have been banned, and we continue to work closely with UK law enforcement and industry partners to find and remove content of this nature.'

Our investigation comes after the Mail revealed lawyers are charging up to 10,000 to submit fake asylum claims for illegal immigrants.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority closed three firms, banned a legal adviser and launched a review of the entire sector after the Prime Minister called for urgent action following our expose.
A leafletteer has taken the blame after an actor and writer was left in tears after just one person turned up to her show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival because he had taken a day off, MailOnline can reveal today.

Harry Robinson, 23, said he was found out what had happened because it had been his job to hand out fliers and persuade audiences to turn up - but he had had a day off.

Georgie Grier posted a picture of herself crying on Twitter telling everyone of her heartbreak after just one woman bought a ticket for 'Sunsets' - causing a wave of empathy from the public and established comedians like Jason Manford and Dara O Briain.

Now MailOnline has found out the no-shows were down to a promotional failure - as confessed by Harry, from Surrey, a former student in Edinburgh.

He added: 'I am the man to blame. When I read Georgie's tweet I thought f***, I feel so guilty.'

Leafleetter Harry Robinson said: 'I am the man to blame. When I read Georgie's tweet I thought f***, I feel so guilty'

Georgie Grier posted a picture of herself crying on Twitter telling everyone of her heartbreak after just one woman bought a ticket for 'Sunsets'

Ms Grier's show about the creation of a podcast only had one woman in the audience yesterday

Harry explained it happened because he found himself double-booked and the stand-in he arranged let him down: 'I was doing another show and I put someone else in charge of flyering for the day and it turns out that he was rubbish.

'I'm back today so hopefully we get a good turnout, I'm going to keep flyering for the rest of today and make sure people actually come in.

He added: 'I saw all the publicity that came out, I thought maybe it was meant to be and hopefully it would boost her numbers.'

He revealed that despite the lack of audience, Ms Grier didn't blame him or his stand in.

He said: 'She was a bit upset - I did feel really sad but I had no idea what it would lead to, and I thought my friend would have been better at his job.

'I've had words with him and told him if he does it again he needs to put in more of a shift.

'I don't think I've seen a response to Georgie like it, though, it's been amazing.

'This is what the Fringe is all about, I was working here last year. I love it.'

Georgie's show 'Sunsets' was at near full capacity this afternoon, with a steady stream of people being spotted entering the venue.

Festival-goers today turned out in force to support her and Sunsets, with people queueing out of the door until she played to a packed room.

Around 32 seats out of the 40 available for the 11-a-ticket sold for her performance this afternoon. She looked delighted and said: 'Hello Wembley', before launching into her show.

Susan Keelan, 59, and her husband have travelled from Ireland for the festival and said: 'My daughter in Sydney saw Dara O Briain post a link about what happened yesterday, and as we were randomly walking up here some guy gave us a leaflet for the show.

'And we thought well that's fate, we'll definitely give it a go. It's not that I felt sorry for her because it's so hard for them all - we've been here for three days now and we've gone to a lot of shows.

'The competition is huge and the talent is amazing and so much can fall under the radar but going to see her today just seems to be a good opportunity to pick this one up and give her [Georgie] a bit of a boost'.

Another festival-goer, who has travelled from London, said: 'I read about what happened this morning - so I wanted to come along.

'I can understand why she's upset because it's like baring your soul, and it can make you feel very vulnerable when nobody comes to see your show. But I think she's going to do all right.'

The actress's one-woman show Sunsets plays to a packed house in Edinburgh today - 24 hours after only one person turned up

The London-based actress is the star of her one-woman play, 'Sunsets' (pictured today)

Supporters file in for today's show - in marked contrast to yesterday

Susan Keelan and her husband had travelled to Edinburgh from Ireland and were among Georgie Grier's supporters

Others took to Twitter to say they would also be going to watch after one person turned up



Lisa West, 33, and her friend Lewis Easton, 26, from Glasgow, were at 'Sunsets' this afternoon, she: 'We came along because we read about Georgie online and really felt for her.

'It was a good show, and I think a lot of people can probably relate to it as well. A lot of people in the audience today said they only came along because of what they had read online.

Lewis added: 'It was fun and enjoyable and like Lisa said people can probably relate to it.

'I wasn't too sure about coming to see Sunsets, but again after what I had read online, I thought we should come along and show our support to her and I'm glad we did.'

Ryan Smith, 44, went along with his wife Sophie Lane, 39, he told us: 'There was a huge cheer for her and I really hope seeing the place more or less full today has picked up her mood.

'I'd imagine it's really daunting performing at the festival like this, and for only one person to turn up is just awful. But I hope it's given her the boost she needs.

'The majority of people who are here today only came because of what happened yesterday. We had already planned to come today, we've traveled from Shetland and always try to attend as many shows as possible when we come.'

Another punter, who didn't want to be named after sneaking out of work early, told us: 'It was a decent show, not something I'd usually go to see, but after reading about what happened I wanted to come and give her my support.

'Loads of folk have done the same - and I think that is really good because she must have felt terrible yesterday. I almost shed a tear for her.'

Ms Grier has now revealed that she took to social media to avoid worrying her mum by phoning her in an emotional state and says she had no prior intentions of her message going viral.

She said: 'I didn't want to call my mum crying. I didn't want her to have to go through that again.

'I thought the hash tag Ed Fringe community on social media has been a really supportive place.

'I thought I might find a couple of other people who had one person or get some words of comfort.

'I did not expect the level of reaction I've had it's been so lovely, so unexpected, so many words for what I have experienced. I am so appreciative of what I have experienced.'

Those doubting Ms Grier's intentions will remember comedian Robin Grainger, who last year rose to fame when one person attended his show at the Scottish festival.

She added: 'I just wanted someone to vent to who wasn't my mum. In that moment I had tears in my eyes, I wasn't thinking anything further than needing a bit of a release and not having to bother my mum, my dad and my sister.'

Ms Grier, who says she decided to put on a one woman play to save production costs, told Anita Rani on today's Woman's Hour: 'I thought I might find a couple of other people who had one person or get some words of comfort. I did not expect the level of reaction I've had it's been so lovely, so unexpected, so many words for what I have experienced. I am so appreciative of what I have experienced.

'Comedian Jason Manford very kindly put a video out saying he had been in a similar position. He did a whole little video... it was so nice of him. And other comedians and other performers across the Edinburgh Fringe.'

Well-known comedians have offered their support to an actor after she posted that only one person attended her one-woman play at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

O Briain offered his support on Twitter by writing: 'We've ALL done it. Soon, you'll dine out on this anecdote.

'More than once I had to buy my audience a drink, as a thank you for being the only ones there.

'Best thing though, it's all stage time, and the show will get better every single time, ready for the big crowds later!'

A smiling Georgie Grier this afternoon after her show became an overnight hit

TV star Jason reacted by sending Georgie a video, reassuring the writer, 'It's absolutely normal for one person to rock up to your show especially at the beginning of Edinburgh'

Manford replied with a video message, in which he said: 'It's absolutely normal...for one person to rock up to your show, especially at the beginning of Edinburgh, and also for you to be a bit upset or annoyed or pissed off about it.

'That's totally fine as well.

'I did Edinburgh in 2004-5 and I remember [the] first couple of shows, the first week I think, was just, it was such a slog and I was out in the rain and I was flyering and people weren't coming.

'I got total impostor syndrome. How much is this costing me? What am I doing here?

'Look at all these amazing people. How embarrassing that...nobody's turned up but, you know what, you're on the path and it's just the start, that's all.'

He told Ms Grier that 'tomorrow will be better and next week will be better...so just enjoy yourself, if you can'.
Senator Tim Scott took his presidential campaign to the southern border on Friday, where he promised as president to complete Donald Trump's wall and on day one to delete the app introduced by the Biden administration for migrants to claim asylum.

He is the latest 2024 hopeful to use the frontier with Mexico as a backdrop for campaign promises to crack down on illegal immigration.

He heard from local officials and hospital staff in Yuma, Arizona, about the pressures facing their community as well as a plea for an end to the C.B.P. One app for migrants to make asylum appointments.

'If I am president of the United States I will delete the app that President Biden has ushered into smartphones,' he said during a roundtable at the Yuma Regional Medical Center.

'I think here's so many perverse incentives to break our laws to come to our country.'

Earlier DailyMail.com got an exclusive view as Scott visited the border wall just outside the city.

Sen. Tim Scott toured the border wall just outside Yuma, Arizona, on Friday morning. He was escorted by a former Border Patrol agent and saw the spots where migrants are picked up

Scott, whose 2024 campaign has gained momentum in recent weeks, was also briefed by Sheriff Leon Wilmot who showed him foreign ID cards dumped by recent arrivals

He heard from Sheriff Leon Wilmott and Country Supervisor Jonathan Lines about how local border services were still stretched thin despite a downturn in arrivals since May, when pandemic Title 42 restrictions were lifted.

And he was told that 140 different nationalities had been recorded coming through the area.

Later he set out his plans to secure the border and to speed up processing of arrivals.

'Having an additional 1000 immigration judges so that we can expedite the transfer back to their home countries are essential as well,' he said during the roundtable.

'So there are things that we can do, literally day one that will help reduce the flow of illegal immigration immigrants.'

Scott promised to finish Donald Trump's border wall and is seen here through its slats

Construction continues filling gaps in the wall outside Yuma after court action led to the removal of containers that plugged holes in the barrier

A day earlier DailyMail.com revealed that migrants were being kept in a sweltering outdoor cage at Ajo Border Patrol station as agents struggled to keep to cope with an influx.

Scott said it was a symptom of President Joe Biden's broken system.

'When you have a virtual sign, not a literal sign, that says that your border is wide open, even though it's insecure and unsafe, you cannot expect 6 million people to come through the country without creating a real crisis,' he said.

'One of the things that you can do very quickly to solve that problem is to finish the wall if it cost of that wall would be around $10 billion dollars. If we did that we would significantly reduce the traffic.'

At the roundtable he also heard how the immigration crisis impacts local businesses, the hospital and emergency services.

A mother described losing her son to fentanyl poisoning, in an area where deaths are running 16 times higher than the national average.

After his border visit, Scott joined a roundtable discussion where he heard how the immigration crisis impacts local businesses, the hospital and emergency services

County Supervisor Jonathan Lines said high temperatures along the border were deterring crossers but that the area was on course of a record number of deaths

Border security will be a key battleground in next year's presidential election. And the border itself is a key stepping stone for Republican hopefuls.

But it means candidates' record on immigration will be under scrutiny. The Center for Effective Lawmaking, which monitors lawmakers' results, has scored Scott a zero on the issue in every year since he was elected.

For the time being numbers of people crossing the border around Yuma have declined since peaks earlier this year before the end of strict Title 42 restrictions.

Locals say extreme heat has brought some respite for Yuma.

Lines said daily temperatures exceeding 100F was keeping people away. But that brought other problems.

'The border is a little bit more calm right now just because of the heat. We have seen fewer people coming across in this area,' he said.

'The cartel has actually pushed people further out into the desert, which strain our local resources, because we've got to go do search and rescue and pull people out of the desert

'Some of these people don't have any idea where they're being dropped off.'

Extraordinary images show migrants being held in an outdoor cage at Ajo Border Patrol station in southern Arizona where brutal daytime temperatures have been above 110F

They are kept beneath an awning that provides some shade but humanitarian groups are demanding an end to such 'inhumane treatment' amid a surge in arrivals from Mexico

He said the result was likely to be a record number of deaths as people tried to cross the border. The number is already close to 20 this year, he added.

Border Patrol in Ajo is forced to use an outdoor cage to house migrants because their indoor facilities are full.

The area is seeing the largest spike in arrivals as cartels target an area of the border from where agents and resources have been moved to higher-profile hotspots.

Overall, new Customs and Border Protection data reveal that July brought a jump in illegal crossings of more than 30 percent, reversing a decline since President Joe Biden overhauled immigration regulations.

C.B.P. recorded more than 130,000 arrests along border compared with 99,545 in June, according to a source close to Border Patrol.

Ajo Border Patrol Station is in a remote part of the Arizona desert. Sonic booms rip through the desert here as U.S.A.F jets make runs over a nearby bombing range

Ajo border station is about 28 miles from the border with Mexico. Migrants are brought here after being detained along the border before being moved on to other sites

The spike is greatest in southern Arizona in the region around Ajo. The Tucson sector recorded 40,000 arrests last month, making it the highest monthly total in 15 years. (The numbers were first reported by the Washington Post.)

A source close to Border Patrol told DailyMail.com that several large groups had arrived on Tuesday night. At least 600 people were detained in the Ajo area and the whole Tucson sector saw 1,900 encounters on that day alone.

That compares with an average of 800 a day in November last year, when the weather was gentler and numbers were high all along the border.

On Wednesday, the result was evident in the outdoor holding pen at Ajo station.

From a cactus-studded ridge overlooking the site, several dozen arrivals could be seen trying to shelter in the shade of a canopy waiting to be processed and bussed to facilities in Tucson or Yuma.

They moved deeper into the cage as the sun's position shifted through the day.
This is the first picture of a fugitive wanted in connection with the murder of an aspiring lawyer who fled to the Ivory Coast before he could be arrested.

Lior Agbayan, 20, remains on the run in the west African nation two and a half years after Sven Badzak, 22, was knifed to death in a case of mistaken identity as he walked back from Waitrose after buying some orange juice.

Rashid Gedel, 22, and Shiroh Ambersley, 23, were yesterday each jailed for a minimum of 27 years after being found guilty of murder and a knife attack on Mr Badzaks friend, 16, in Kilburn, north-west London, in February 2021.

But Agbayan, the son of a diplomat, remains in the Ivory Coast  which has no extradition agreement with Britain. A warrant has been issued for his arrest.

Extradition experts said an ad hoc deal could in theory be struck that could bring the suspect to the UK to face justice, but warned this could take years and his father could attempt to frustrate attempts using his political connections.

Lior Agbayan, 22, the son of an Ivorian diplomat, remains on the run in West Africa as Scotland Yard admitted detectives have no idea where he is

22-year-old aspiring lawyer Sven Badzak was stabbed in a case of mistaken identity as he returned from a trip to Waitrose in Kilburn, northwest London, in February 2021

He boarded a plane to Paris then flew to the Ivory Coast in March 2021, the month after Mr Badzak was stabbed to death in the street, sources said.

Agbayans father, a respected diplomat who was once based in London but now works out of the Ivorian embassy in Burkina Faso, has ignored multiple calls and messages from the Mail.

The Ivorian government has declined to comment.

Dr Anna Bradshaw, a partner at law firm Peters & Peters, said the lack of an extradition treaty between the two nations did not mean it was impossible to bring Agbayan back to the UK, but there had to be sufficient political will.

If there is appetite to spend the time and resources not just finding him but then negotiating an ad hoc extradition agreement with the Ivory Coast then it cannot be ruled out, she said.

If Ivorian authorities agreed to cooperate then proceedings in Africa would have to take place, which could be a protracted process that could take years before a judge eventually grants extradition.

Rashid Gedel (left) and Shiroh Ambersley (right) laughed and joked in the dock yesterday when they were they were each jailed for 27 years over Mr Badzak's death

An Interpol red notice against Agbayan would mean that if he travelled to another nation the authorities would be notified and the UK would be informed of his whereabouts.

Interpol said it could not comment on specific cases.

International law specialist Toby Cadman said that though Agbayans political connections should have no legal influence on the process, in practice he may be able to exert influence and frustrate proceedings.

But Mr Badzaks mother Jasna said she would not give up efforts to bring all her sons killers to justice.

There must be a way, and I will not stop pestering the Metropolitan Police until all six are behind bars, she said.

Dr Badzak said she was in talks with the Crown Prosecution Service about the possibility of ever bringing Agbayan back to Britain to face justice. The CPS could neither confirm nor deny whether it was working on the case.

I will do everything within my power to fight to make sure this man faces British justice, Dr Badzak said.

Three of Svens killers have now faced justice and my sole purpose in life is to make sure the rest of them do.

A Met police spokesman said: Officers have made a number of arrests, in addition to those convicted of Mr Badzaks murder and the inquiry continues.

Officers are determined to bring all those responsible for the death of Sven Badzak to justice.

Gedel and Ambersley laughed and joked in the dock yesterday when they were they were each jailed for 27 years.

Judge John Dodd KC reprimanded Gedel for snickering, telling him: I really dont understand how you can find something funny or amusing, I really dont.

The pairs accomplice, Harvey Canavan, 19, who watched the sentencing remotely from HMP Belmarsh, was jailed for seven-and-a-half years after admitting manslaughter and unlawful wounding before the killers trial began.

Extradition expert Toby Cadman said that if there is a refusal to extradite then there is a possibility that Agbayan could be prosecuted in the Ivory Coast with assistance from the British authorities.

There is a precedent for that in a 2019/20 prosecution of three Pakistani nationals prosecuted in Pakistan for a murder that took place in London, he said.

This would of course require political will from both sides.

There have been examples of individuals being extradited from the Ivory Coast to Europe.

The Devils couple, Hilde Van Acker and Jean-Claude Lacote were extradited to Belgium in 2020 after 23 years on the run following the shooting of British businessman Marcus Mitchell.

The pair had been convicted in absentia in 2011 by a court in Bruges. They were re-convicted in a Belgian court in person in 2021.
Devout blue city Portland lost $1 billion in income over a 12-month period between 2020 and 2021 in the wake of soaring crime, rampant homelessness and rioting following the death of George Floyd, a new study shows.

Shocking figures also show that conditions in the city are far from improving, with fentanyl deaths increasing by more than 200 percent since 2020 Homelessness is also up 50 percent since 2019, while in 2020 and 2022, Portland broke its own homicide record.

Prior to 2020, Portland's population had been steadily growing for 15 years. But that year, voters elected to decriminalize possession of hard drugs, including fentanyl, as city sidewalks continue to play host to homeless encampments.

Meanwhile, the cost of damage done to federal buildings during the infamous summer of 2020 was estimated at $2.3 million, reported Fox News.

Despite the growing crisis, Democratic Mayor Ted Wheeler has remained in power since 2017.

Despite the rising crime and homelessness, Democratic Mayor Ted Wheeler has managed to cling to power

Portland lost $1 billion between 2020 and 2021 as taxpayers fled the area in droves

Since 2020, the city has seen fentanyl use increase, homicide records broken and homelessness on the increase

A new report shows that Portland is the U.S.'s fastest shrinking city with former residents leaving for other counties in Oregon as well as different states

The Oregonian report shows that Multnomah County, where Portland is located, shed over 14,000 tax filing residents during that time, which led to the shortfall.

The number of people who left in 2020 was 14 percent more than those who moved out of the city in 2019. To make matters worse, income levels among those who remained in Portland dropped between 2020 and 2021.

Rose City is the fastest declining large city in the U.S. Earlier this year, the Wall Street Journal reported that three percent of residents left Portland between 2020 and 2022.

The vast majority of those who have left tend to stay within Oregon. Of those who leave the state, South Carolina, Washington and Texas are the most popular destinations.

The working from home boom since the pandemic has also made it easier for residents re-locate out of Portland.

'It's like Portland died. The tourists haven't come back like they used to be. Especially the Japanese, they love this city,' longtime resident Larry May told Fox Oregon in May.

'I hope they get it back up again because the crime is really bad, shootings. Its not the Portland I knew,' he added.

The Oregonian report shows that deaths are outnumbering births in the state.

In 2022, it emerged that District Attorney Mike Schmidt was prosecuting less than half of misdemeanor thefts.

Costantino suffered a black eye as well as a burst nose and said she thought she was going to die following the incident

Last week, shocking video emerged showing a doctor being seemingly randomly attacked by a homeless person.

Speaking to Fox News Digital, radiologist Mary Costantino said she woke up on the ground and was sure she was about to be killed and immediately called 911.

Costantino has also now taken a swipe at the city for the poor response time to the situation - and said the deterioration of public safety in Portland has led her to change her voting habits from Democratic to Republican.

'I thought we were still being sort of attacked in some way,' she told Fox.

'I was like, I'm going to just try to verbalize a report of what's happening, so there's some record of how I died.'

In June, the city attempted to take some action to counter the growing homelessness problem by banning tents blocking sidewalks following a lawsuit brought by people with disabilities.

The federal class action lawsuit, filed in September, alleged that the city violated the American with Disabilities Act by allowing tents to obstruct sidewalks.

The plaintiffs included a caretaker and nine people with disabilities who use wheelchairs, scooters, canes and walkers to get around. The settlement still requires approval from the City Council and the U.S. District Court in Portland.

Camps made by homeless people are seen scattered on the sidewalk in Portland, Oregon

The settlement comes as City Council prepares to consider new restrictions on camping. The updates to the citys camping code would ban camping between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. in many locations, including sidewalks.

The City Council previously voted in November to gradually ban street camping and create at least six large, designated campsites where homeless people will be allowed to camp.

The city must devote at least $8 million in the 2023-2024 fiscal year to making sure the conditions of the settlement are met, and at least $3 million annually for the following four fiscal years, according to a copy of the settlement shared with reporters by DiLorenzo.

It has also agreed to pay $5,000 to each of the 10 plaintiffs and reasonable attorney fees.

Oregons homelessness crisis has been fueled by an affordable housing shortage, a lack of mental health treatment, high drug addiction rates and the coronavirus pandemic.

In Multnomah County, home to Portland, there were more than 5,000 people experiencing homelessness in 2022  a 30% increase compared with 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to federal point-in-time count data.
More than 100 transgender men have entered the Miss Italy pageant in protest after the event organiser said that transgender women would not be allowed to compete.

Trans activist Federico Barbarossa, who lives in southern Italy, said the exclusion of trans women from competing in the Miss Italy pageant made him angry but he was also 'kind of amused by it', since he could enter because he was assigned female at birth but looks like a boy and would considered as one by the pageant.

Previously, Patrizia Mirigliani, who is the official organiser of Miss Italy, told Italian news outlet Il Primato Nazionale: 'Lately, beauty contests have been trying to make the news using strategies that I think are a bit absurd.'

She also said to an Italian radio station that Miss Italy wouldn't allow trans women to compete, adding that the pageant historically only allowed those assigned female at birth to enter.

Her comments came after transgender woman Rikkie Valerie Kolle won the Miss Netherlands pageant last month.

Her comments came after transgender woman Rikkie Valerie Kolle (pictured) won the Miss Netherlands pageant last month

Trans activist Federico Barbarossa (pictured), who lives in southern Italy, said that Mirigliani's comments made him angry but he was also 'kind of amused by it', since he could enter because he was assigned female at birth but looks like a boy and would considered as one by the pageant

To test his theory that trans men could easily take part in the competition, Barbarossa entered under his deadname - the name he was given when he was born - in protest and shared a screenshot of his entry confirmation on social media, which encouraged other trans men to do the same.

READ MORE: Who is the trans trailblazer who owns Miss Universe? Advertisement

After his campaign went viral, the activists estimates that more than 100 trans men entered the pageant, with some of them even being invited to selection rounds.

Barbarossa told NBC News: 'They really have to go through every single application.' He added that he hopes the protest will lead organisers of Miss Italy to 'think better next time'.

'I like to think I'm a little part of Italy's progress in this sense,' Barbarossa said.

Barbarossa said that it appears the Miss Italy organisers are aware of the protest, because they're speaking with some of the trans men who have been called to selections, but that he hasn't personally received a call.

More beauty pageants have started including trans women recently, with Angela Ponce from Spain becoming the first trans woman to compete in the Miss Universe pageant in 2018.

Ponce told NBC at the time that she 'never could have imagined' that she would make it to the final stage.

Ms Kolle, who won Miss Netherlands, and other transgender contestants have been able to compete in Miss Universe since 2012 - when it was owned by former US President Donald Trump.

Ten years later, it has been bought by transgender reality star and Thai businesswoman Anne Jakkapong Jakrajutatip.

Ms Jakrajutatip promised 'not only to continue its legacy of providing a platform to passionate individuals from diverse backgrounds, cultures, and traditions, but also to evolve the brand for the next generation'.

Ms Kolle has become the first transgender woman to win the title of Miss Netherlands

Ms Kolle (pictured) was eight when she says her journey started but she was 16 when she started the process of transitioning into a woman, which included taking female hormones

Earlier this year Daniela Arroyo Gonzalez, who is openly transgender, was also selected to compete in the Puerto Rico competition.

The moment that Ms Kolle spread her arms wide and had a crown placed onto her head is one that will go down in history for the LGBT+ community.

Trans activist Barbarossa said he thinks beauty pageants try to exclude trans women from competing partially because they don't understand them or their aspirations.

'They would never think that a trans person might even aspire to win a beauty pageant, because we're seen as this kind of, like, three-headed monster, and I think a part of it is that so many people have never seen trans women or trans men or trans people in general,' he said.

He said excluding trans women from competitions like beauty pageants is sending the message that 'trans women are not women,' which has a ripple effect on how they are treated on a wider scale.

'The result of it is just transphobia,' Barbarossa said.

In Italy, the current government is the 'most far right' in over 80 years, Barbarossa stated. Under Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, the government has barred same-sex parents from being listed on their children's birth certificates if they aren't biologically related.
Disgraced Oscar-winning director Paul Haggis could be forced to sell his lavish Manhattan apartment after being 'financially decimated' when he lost a sexual assault civil suit in November.

Haggis' expansive Soho apartment is estimated to be worth $3.6 million on Zillow - and if he is made to give it up the sale price could become collateral for the $12 million in damages he still owes his accuser, film publicist Haleigh Breest.

The company that owns Haggis' apartment complex petitioned a judge this week to foreclose on his property or allow it to take the case to housing court after the director reportedly fell $24,000 behind on maintenance payments.

Breest has also asked the courts to force Haggis to sell the apartment to pay off his debt to her, and is seeking proceeds from Haggis' ex-wife after she sold a separate Manhattan apartment in 2019.

If Haggis is forced to hand over the profits of his SoHo property to Breest she would recoup the money owed to her from the same apartment where she claims she was sexually assaulted.

Oscar-winning screenwriter Paul Haggis was ordered to pay $12 million dollars after being found liable for rape in November

Film publicist Haleigh Breest filed her civil suit against Haggis in 2017 at the height of the #MeToo movement, claiming the renowned director had raped her when she was 26

Haggis' Manhattan apartment has an estimated value of $3.6 million on Zillow

If Breest recoups the money owed to her from the property, it would come from the same apartment she was sexually assaulted in in 2013

Breest brought her lawsuit against Haggis at the height of the #MeToo movement in 2017, claiming he raped her after a movie screening afterparty in 2013.

Haggis, best known for directing Crash and Million Dollar Baby, was found liable for sexually assaulting her and awarded $10 million in damages. A jury later decided he should pay additional punitive damages of $2.5 million - bringing the total he owes to $12 million.

His financial woes led him to fall behind on keeping up his ritzy apartment, and the building management company Annapurna claims he has only made two $1,001 maintenance payments since January, despite being $24,858 in debt, according to the Daily Beast.

Haggis won Oscars for best original screenplay and best picture for his 2006 hit Crash

Annapurna said that if Haggis is unable to pay, it will 'pursue its remedies for nonpayment of maintenance, whether by a statutory nonpayment proceeding in Civil Landlord-Tenant Court or by foreclosure of its lien pursuant to the UCC.'

The director's ex-wife, Deborah Rennard, had struck a deal with Breest to push the apartment hearing from this week to late September, but the building owner stepped in to try and retrieve the owed money.

Annapurna asked a judge to keep the hearing to this week so it could seek its 'remedies' to recovering the cash, under a restraining order issued in the case.

But while the company also claimed they should have first profits on the sale, Breest's legal team argued that the company had not been so determined to pursue Haggis' debt, even though he has been in 'substantial default' for eight months.

'Annapurna does not explain its sudden sense of urgency to now foreclose on Mr. Haggis co-op,' Breests lawyers wrote.

The director reportedly fell $24,000 behind on his maintenance payments for the lavish place

Alongside Haggis' apartment (pictured), Breest is also seeking proceeds from the director's ex-wife after she sold a separate Manhattan apartment in 2019

Haggis was one of the most sought after directors in Hollywood at his height. He is pictured after his 2006 Oscar win with actors Jack Nicholson and Cathy Schulman

At the time of the alleged assault, Haggis was one of the most in demand directors in Hollywood after a series of blockbuster hits.

Breest, then 26, claimed that the two-time Academy Award winner invited her back to his place for a drink after a movie premiere afterparty.

She accused him of forcibly kissing her and climbing on top of her, coercing her into oral sex and raping her. The director faced similar accusations of unwanted sexual advances from four other women at his trial, however none of the women who testified against him took legal action.

'I thought I was getting a ride home,' Breest told jurors. 'I agreed to have a drink. What happened never should have happened. And it had nothing to do with me, and everything to do with him and his actions.'

Haggis maintained his innocence throughout the proceedings as he said his exchange with Breest was consensual.

His legal team branded the lawsuit a 'cash grab', and he told reporters outside the courthouse after he was found liable that he was 'going to continue fighting to clear my name.' Haggis was never criminally charged in the matter.

Haggis, who is known for writing best picture Oscar winners 'Million Dollar Baby' and 'Crash,' told reporters after his guilty verdict he would 'continue to fight to clear my name'

Breest seen hugging her legal team after the jury read its verdict

Haggis was slapped with an additional $2.5 million in punitive damages a week after he lost the civil trial - after his lawyer Priya Chaudhry had already told the jury he was 'financially decimated' by Breest's legal action.

'He's not going to be able to pay the judgment you've already created and there's no way he can pay anything further,' she said.

Haggis has also reportedly taken out two liens on his SoHo apartment to pay for the mounting legal bills.

Known for being one of the creators of the Walker Texas Ranger television series, Haggis received an Oscar for best picture and best original screenplay in 2006 for Crash.

He was additionally the screenwriter for Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima, as well as James Bond films Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace.
A 21-year-old woman and young mother known as 'a beautiful soul' was brutally stabbed outside a subway station in downtown Boston as officials continue to search for the suspect(s).

Jazreanna Sheppard was fatally knifed multiple times on July 20 outside the Park Street MBTA Station on Boston Common in the area of 121 Tremont Street, officials said.

Earlier that day, officers had responded to a report of a woman stabbed. When they arrived at the scene around 11:43 pm, Sheppard was found in dire condition with numerous stab wounds.

She was taken to the hospital, but died two days later from her injuries she sustained in the heinous attack.

Boston Police Department PIO and Sargent Detective John Boyle told DailyMail.com on Friday that 'no arrests have been made yet and that it is an 'active investigation.'

'We are urging anyone with information to contact us,' he said.

Jazreanna Sheppard was fatally stabbed outside a downtown Boston train station last month. She would have turned 22 on August 12 and leaves behind a two-year-old son (pictured)

The outside of Boston-Park Street MBTA Station near Boston Common on Tremont Street where the deadly incident took place

A close-up of the train station where the young mother lost her life near Boston Common

Sheppard was described by family as a 'wonderful sister, mother and friend, who touched the lives of those around her.'

The young mother, who would have turned 22 on August 12, leaves behind a two-year-old son.

Sheppard was working in security and concierge services for high-end apartment buildings around the Boston area, the news outlet reported.

She was working towards getting a job with UPS where her mother has worked as a supervisor for more than a decade.

Sheppard's friends and family also told NBC Boston that she was thinking about a career in nursing.

Madeline Gonzalex, 45, the victim's grief-stricken mother, said her daughter 'always had her heart open to everybody. She was very kind ... straight-A student  very, very smart.'

Kristian Valdes-Gonzalez, 25, Sheppard's brother, flew from Florida to Boston the day after he learned the horrifying news, The Boston Globe reported.

He described his younger sibling as devoted to her 2-year-old son. 'She was always playing with her son, either at the beach or at the park,' he told the news outlet.

Jazreanna Sheppard, 21, was fatally knifed multiple times on July 20 outside the Park Street MBTA Station on Boston Common in the area of 121 Tremont Street, officials said

The young mother was described by family as a 'wonderful sister, mother and friend, who touched the lives of those around her'

Earlier this week, Katia Ramos created a GoFundMe to help raise money for funeral expenses.

She called Sheppard 'caring and inspiring,' and said that her death is 'a great loss for family and friends.'

'On July 20th, 2023 our beloved Jazreanna was murdered in the area of downtown Boston at Park Street Station after being violently attacked by individuals,' Ramos wrote.

'The Family decided to donate her organs to heroically save the lives of others,' she said.

'We are all devastated by Jazreanna's loss and were not prepared for the high cost of a funeral service. We want to give Jaz the memorial she deserves to honor her memory and say our last goodbyes.'

As of Friday afternoon, more than $3,600 has been raised towards their goal of $15,000.

The Boston Police Department is asking anyone with information to call 617-343-4470. For those who wish to remain anonymous, tips can be left by calling Crime Stoppers at 1-800-494-TIPS, or by texting 'TIP' to 27463.
Joe and Jill Biden left their Rehoboth beach house on Friday and made their way to their Wilmington home, returning there for the first time in months after the Secret Service made some security upgrades.

Details about the changes to their 6,850-square-foot Wilmington home were not available but the Bidens were last there over Memorial Day weekend in May.

The couple had spent a week at their $2 vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, where they rode bicycles, relaxed on the beach and even went on a date night complete with dinner and a movie.

On Friday morning, they boarded Marine One at a park near their vacation home and flew to Wilmington, where they will be until Monday.

While the first couple has enjoyed some down time, Donald Trump was arraigned in Washington D.C. on four federal charges related to attempts to overturn the 2020 election results. And Devon Archer, their son Hunter's former business partner, testified to Congress about Hunter's dealings with foreign companies.

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden depart Marine One after their arrival in Wilmington, Delaware, following a week at Rehoboth Beach

The Bidens bought their home in Rehoboth Beach, a popular resort town on the Atlantic Ocean, in 2017. The 4,786-square-foot home boasts six bedrooms plus five bathrooms, a 'gourmet' kitchen, three fireplaces and numerous decks and porches.

The couple installed an in-ground pool and it even has an outdoor dog-washing station for their German Shepherd Commander.

Rehoboth Beach uses the tagline is 'The Nation's Summer Capital' due to its promxomity to Washington D.C.

Its popular boardwalk has shops, food stands and all the ice cream the president - who is known to love the sweet treat - could want.

But security concerns kept him off the popular main drag.

Instead he went to church. He went to the beach. He bicycled. And he even caught some shut eye after he and Jill took a late-night walk on the beach to see the super moon that lit up the night sky.

And they enjoyed sunny skies during their week-long getaway.

'Hard to complain about this weather,' Biden told the press about his trip.

Joe and Jill Biden's Wilmington home received upgrades from the Secret Service

Marine One takes off from Rehoboth Beach on Friday to head to Wilmington

'No,' President Joe Biden said on Thursday when asked if he would follow Donald Trump's arraignment in Washington D.C.

Joe and Jill Biden biked nearly every day of their week in Rehoboth Beach

President Joe Biden gets in a nap on the beach on Wednesday

Biden bicycled nearly every day of his vacation, zipping around the 5-mile loop at Gordon's pond - a popular bike path near his house. Jill Biden was often with him.

Locals who were biking, running and walking the trail got swept by the Secret Service when Biden was out getting his exercise. Crowds of them waited near the entrance to wave at him as he rode by.

Twice during their downtime the Bidens journeyed to the public beach near their home, where crowds of onlookers were held off by a ring of Secret Service agents.

Phones were held up to capture the couple as they chilled on the beach. A few people on Sunday even got snaps of Biden without his shirt - images that quickly went viral on social media.

Later in the week, Biden was caught napping on the beach after a late night out with the first lady.

He also was spotted taking phone calls and looking at his iphone. At one point he handed it to the first lady to show her something on it.

Jill Biden continued reading the Pulitzer Prize winning novel Demon Copperhead, which the book-loving first lady has been reading during her downtime. She also made sure to slather on some sun block and even took a walk down to the water.

Jill Biden puts on her sun block

First lady Jill Biden reads as President Biden gets some shut eye

The couple lazed on the beach after their date night on Tuesday, where the Bidens took in a seafood meal at Matt's Fish Camp before heading to the local theater to see Oppenheimer, the film about the man who developed the atomic bomb.

The movie is a summer smash hit that is garnering award show buzz.

'It was compelling,' Biden told reporters after he finished watching the three-hour epic.

They concluded the evening with a romantic walk on the beach to see the super moon, which is when a full moon occurs near the Moon's closest point to Earth in its monthly orbit. The president had his arm around the first lady.

President Joe Biden talks to the first lady

President Joe Biden and Jill Biden pack up after their lazy afternoon on the beach

A ring of Secret Service agents guarded the first couple

President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden are silhouetted by motorcade lights as they walk on the beach to see the super moon

Biden returns to Washington D.C. on Monday.

He heads to the West Coast next week for a visit to Arizona, Utah and New Mexico to talk about his green energy initatives and how his administration is helping to combat the record high temperatures sweeping the nation.
A Southern California judge has been arrested on suspicion of killing his wife in the couple's home, authorities said Friday.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Ferguson was arrested late Thursday after police received reports of a shooting at the $1.4 million Anaheim Hills home.

Once they arrived, they found the judge's wife, Sheryl Ferguson, shot and she was declared dead at the scene in the upscale neighborhood, said Anaheim police Sgt. Jon McClintock.

Ferguson is being held on $1 million bail and is expected to appear in court on Monday. He has not yet been formally charged.

McClintock said one other person was at the home at the time but declined to say who the person was or whether they were among the callers who notified police of the shooting.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Ferguson was arrested late Thursday after police received reports of a shooting at the home. His wife Sheryl Ferguson was pronounced dead at the scene

The $1.4 million home in Anaheim Hills has been cordoned off by police tape as officers investigate

A police officer is seen removing firearms from the home

Several firearms were removed from Judge Ferguson's home as cops combed the scene

A huge cache of high-powered weapons were seen being removed from the home

It was not immediately possible to determine whether Ferguson has an attorney.

Ferguson serves as a judge handling criminal cases in a courthouse in the Orange County city of Fullerton. He previously worked in the Orange County District Attorney's office, and prosecuted drug cases, according to the North Orange County Bar Association.

During his time as a prosecutor, he was honored as an 'attorney of the year' by the association. He served as its president from 2012 to 2014.

'This is a very tragic situation for all involved,' Lorrie A. Walton, a current member of the association's board, said in an email.

Ferguson took a seat on the bench in 2015. Two years later, he was admonished by the Commission on Judicial Performance for posting a statement on Facebook about a judicial candidate 'with knowing or reckless disregard for the truth of the statement' and for being Facebook friends with attorneys appearing before him in court, according to a copy of the agency's findings.

Ferguson took a seat on the bench in 2015. Two years later, he was admonished by the Commission on Judicial Performance for posting a statement on Facebook about a judicial candidate and for being Facebook friends with attorneys appearing before him in court

Ferguson said on his Facebook page that he grew up in a military family and traveled throughout Asia as a child. He went on to attend college and law school in California. He and his wife were married in 1996.

He was previously married to another woman and they had a son. He and Sheryl Ferguson have another son together, said Juli Mitchell, the sister of his ex-wife.

On Friday, the Orange County Superior Court declined to provide additional information about the allegations.

'Although no case has been filed with our Court, when appropriate we will take all necessary steps to ensure full compliance with our legal and ethical obligations,' Orange County Superior Court Presiding Judge Maria Hernandez said in a statement.
She was convicted on 25 counts over the attacks and faces 600 years in prison

A 74-year-old former teacher faces 600 hundred years in prison after she repeatedly sexually abused a teenage boy at a private school in Wisconsin.

Anne N. Nelson-Koch was convicted on 25 counts linked to the attacks which took place in the 2016-2017 school year.

She would take the boy down the the unnamed school's basement to abuse him. Nelson-Koch was 67 at the time and the boy was 14.

The former teacher was convicted at Monroe County Court after a jury deliberated for five hours.

Prosecutors asked that Nelson-Koch be immediately remanded in custody ahead of sentencing on October 27. Judge Richard Radcliffe instead granted bail with a GPS monitor ahead of the hearing.

Anne N. Nelson-Koch was convicted on 25 counts linked to the attacks which took place in the 2016-2017 school year. She would take the boy down the the unnamed school's basement to abuse him. Nelson-Koch was 67 at the time and the boy was 14

Assistant District Attorney Sarah Skiles (pictured), the prosecutor in the case, added: 'The victim of these crimes is an incredibly brave young man. 'He spoke the truth, and the jury heard him loud and clear. We are so grateful to the jury for their dedication to finding the truth'

Monroe County District Attorney Kevin Croninger said she faces a sentence of up to six centuries behind bars.

Assistant District Attorney Sarah Skiles, the prosecutor in the case, added: 'The victim of these crimes is an incredibly brave young man.

'He spoke the truth, and the jury heard him loud and clear. We are so grateful to the jury for their dedication to finding the truth.'

Skiles also praised Paul Sloan of the Tomah Police Department, who led the investigation.

'We could not have achieved this outcome without the victims strength and Investigator Sloans dedication and thorough investigation,' she said.
READ MORE: Devon Archer tells Tucker Carlson Joe KNEW he was on calls with Hunter's business partners

Joe Biden 'was aware of Hunter's business' and wrote a letter to Archer to 'illustrate that he knew me'

'They have a great relationship, father and son. They speak everyday,' said Archer

Hunter Biden's business partner Devon Archer told Tucker Carlson that it was impossible that Joe Biden would have zero knowledge of his son's business dealings.

'They have a great relationship, father and son. They speak everyday, and I witnessed that for 10 years,' said Archer.

He emphasized that it's 'categorically false' to say then-Vice President Joe Biden didn't know about his son's business deals at all.

Joe Biden 'was aware of Hunter's business, he met with Hunter's business partners,' Archer told Carlson during the second part of his tell-all interview released Friday.

The vice president wrote a letter that 'illustrated he knew me,' he continued. So it's not 'factually right' to say Joe was unaware.

Archer shared a letter with Carlson that then-Vice President Joe Biden had written to him in 2011.

Hunter's ex-best friend Archer revealed new details about his personal and business relationship with the president's son during the second part of Tucker Carlson's interview that was released Friday

Archer also shared a letter with Carlson that then-Vice President Joe Biden had written to him in 2011

'I apologize for not getting a chance to talk to you at the luncheon yesterday. I was having trouble getting away from hosting President Hu,' Biden wrote referring to China's then-president.

'I hope I get a chance to see you again soon with Hunter. I hope you enjoyed the lunch. Thanks for coming,' it read, followed up with a handwritten addition: 'Happy you guys are together.'

Archer added that Joe may not have directly been looking at financial statements, but he was aware of his son's dealings.

Hunter's ex-partner said that he initially was working with Burisma to raise money for his real estate fund, but he was persuaded to join the energy company's board by the then-president of Poland.

Carlson pressed Archer about whether Burisma saw adding him to the board as an opportunity to get Hunter or another 'political power' into their fold.

Archer said he brought Hunter onboard with Burisma initially as counsel.

'I'm calling bulls**** on just this one thing,' responded Carlson.

D.C. is 'a city filled with law firms...a lot that deal with foreign transactions.'

And Hunter Biden didn't have that experience at all, Carlson pointed out.

'That's an influence play,' Carlson said, to which Archer agreed.

Carlson also grilled Archer about why Americans were interested in doing business in Ukraine in particular.

He responded that there were a 'lot of Americans lobbying USAID, State Department officials - there were a lot of Americans.'

'There is a lot of interest in Ukraine and who controls Ukraine,' added Archer.

Hunter's ex-best friend Archer also revealed new details about his personal and business relationship with the president's son.

Archer addressed the toll that Hunter's struggle with his crack cocaine and alcohol addiction took on their 10-year partnership.

For the initial part of their business partnership Hunter was 'sober,' he said. So his addiction struggle 'wasn't apart of our relationship.'

But things got hard for Hunter 'mentally' after the passing of his brother Beau in May 2015, creating 'chaos' that led to 'less effective business decisions,' said Archer.

Then Hunter went on a 'downward spiral,' continued his ex-business partner, although he said he made 'many efforts to repair.'

Archer also said the release of Hunter Biden's infamous laptop was 'not great' and contributed to the 'nightmare' that he's been living for years since its publication.

'That was a real bummer, I guess...It was an absolute shock that has perpetuated this kind of nightmare that I've been living.'

He said Hunter did not call him after emails on the laptop were publicized, even though Archer was included 'extensively' in the content.

'It's led to incessant and never-ending media fodder,' he continued.

Archer also said he was 'surprised' that Hunter got into painting following his years of business ventures.

Carlson asked Archer if Hunter, over the 10 years they spent in business together, ever expressed any interest in painting.

'No, not particularly,' responded Archer, who said Hunter was a 'well read student of history,' so he may have been interested in artwork, but not painting himself.

He called Hunter's new hobby a 'reset,' which was necessary after a 'long-haul covered with tragedy and addiction.'

'Going through that I think you need a reset,' he continued.

He joked that he might also turn to painting after the ups and downs he and Hunter experienced while in business together.

Now, the president's son is racking up hundreds of thousands of dollars for his amateur pieces.

In 2021, Hunter made his debut at a ritzy New York art gallery, where the sticker price clocked in on some of his amateur pieces at $500,000.

One single purchaser spent $875,000 on 11 of Hunter's paintings - though the identity of that person is unclear.

It was recently revealed that Los Angeles-based real estate investor and Democratic donor Elizabeth Hirsch Naftali and Hollywood attorney Kevin Morris are two of the top purchasers of Hunter's work.

Archer also emphasized to Carlson that it's 'categorically false' to say then-Vice President Joe Biden didn't know about his son's business deals at all.

'They have a great relationship, father and son. They speak everyday, and I witnessed that for 10 years,' said Archer.

Joe Biden 'was aware of Hunter's business, he met with Hunter's business partners,' Archer told Carlson.

The vice president wrote a letter that 'illustrated he knew me,' he continued. So it's not 'factually right' to say Joe was unaware.

He added that Joe may not have directly been looking at financial statements, but he was aware of his son's dealings.

Archer shared a letter with Carlson that then-Vice President Joe Biden had written to him in 2011.

'I apologize for not getting a chance to talk to you at the luncheon yesterday. I was having trouble getting away from hosting President Hu,' Biden wrote referring to China's then-president.

'I hope I get a chance to see you again soon with Hunter. I hope you enjoyed the lunch. Thanks for coming,' it read, followed up with a handwritten addition: 'Happy you guys are together.'

In the first part of the interview released Wednesday, one day after Archer testified behind closed-doors to the House Oversight Committee, he told Tucker Carlson that the 'Biden brand' was 'absolutely' a key component of Hunter's work on the Burisma board.

Right wing nonprofit Marco Polo posted 8,864 pictures on bidenlaptopmedia.com that include hundreds of images of Hunter Biden taking drugs and having sex with prostitutes. Hunter is pictured holding up what appears to be a smoking pen with marijuana oil inside

The photos include 7,032 mostly from Hunter's MacBook Pro iPhoto app, 1,832 from a backup of his iPhone XS, 428 'live photos' (short videos taken on an iPhone), 674 images sent in text messages, 579 screenshots, 40 sent via WhatsApp, and 111 others

Archer testified behind closed-doors to the House Oversight Committee on Monday

Archer confirmed he had met the now-president 'probably 20 times' and again confirmed that Joe Biden had interacted with Hunter's business partners around 20 times over the 10 years he was close with the family.

'I can definitively say at particular dinners or meetings, he knew there were business associates,' said Archer, who did not claim that Joe Biden had ever actually discussed the business dealings.

'I don't know if it was an orchestrated call in or not. It certainly was powerful, though, because, you know, if you're sitting with a foreign businessperson and you hear the vice president's voice, that's prize enough,' Archer went on.

'Sometimes it was the call was coming in and the speaker would go on,' Archer said, detailing the conversations. 'You understand D.C. right? So the power to have that access in that conversation - it's not in a scheduled conference call and that's a part of your family. That's like the pinnacle of power in D.C.'

Rep. Dan Goldman, N.Y., the only Democrat in the room for Archer's testimony, did not deny Biden had been on business calls with his son but said it was moreso to exchange 'niceties' like talking about 'the weather, "what's going on?"'

'Remember, this is when Beau got ill,' Goldman said, noting that Hunter and Joe spoke on the phone frequently before Beau - Joe Biden's eldest son - died in 2015.

Through the investment and policy advisory firm Archer and Hunter Biden led together - Rosemont Seneca - Hunter led on 'government regulatory issues,' said Archer.

'Did Hunter have regulation expertise?' asked Carlson.

'I think he led a team that did,' said Archer, noting that the work Hunter did was primarily knowing who to call.

Both Archer and Carlson acknowledged it was not new for the relatives of famous government officials to use their connections in business.

'What we ran into was almost an Icarus issue,' said Archer. 'It was too close to the sun it was too good to be true. The connections were too close, the scrutiny too much.'

Archer and Hunter Biden were close friends at the time they were in business together.

Last week Hunter Biden's plea deal for tax and gun crimes imploded when a judge informed him he could be charged in the future for further crimes - specifically mentioning failing to register as a foreign agent (a FARA violation).
The grieving father of Goldman Sachs analyst John Castic says his cause of death was drowning, after he was pulled from a Brooklyn creek.

Castic was seen on surveillance video walking past a Doughboys pizza truck parked outside Brooklyn Mirage at around 3.15am on Saturday morning.

He had just left his friends inside and was on his way back to the apartment he rents on the Lower East Side. After a frantic search over Sunday and Monday, police yesterday recovered his body from the Newtown Creek on Tuesday.

The 27-year-old's father Jeffrey Castic told Fox News Digital that the coroner determined that his cause of death was drowning.

'At the moment we're trying to focus on the positive of his life. He was a bright, charismatic, caring and hardworking young man,' he said.

The medical examiner is still awaiting the results of a toxicology report, but Jeffrey Castic says police believed that his son may have consumed alcohol or drugs.

Earlier this week, Jeffrey Castic told DailyMail.com that the NYPD did not think his death was suspicious and he believe he may have died from a fatal peanut allergy.

John Castic, 27, was last seen leaving the Bushwick-Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn at 2:30am on Sunday morning. His remains were discovered midday Tuesday

Castic, a Goldman Sachs analyst, looked calm and in control as he strode past a Doughboys pizza truck parked outside Brooklyn Mirage at around 3.15am on Saturday morning. He was walking north along Stewart Avenue in the direction of the portion of the creek where his body was found.

Castic, a Goldman Sachs analyst, looks calm and in control as he strides past a Doughboys pizza truck parked outside the popular music venue at around 3.15am on Saturday morning

The 27-year-old vanished after telling friends he was on his way to an Uber to get home

He also revealed that prior to leaving the music venue, John told his friends that he was feeling unwell.

'He was at the club and he started to catch ill so he said to his friends that he was going home.

'We think he either had an allergic reaction - he was allergic to peanuts and maybe ate something without realizing that it contained peanuts - or there was an undetected allergy mixed with alcohol.

'There is no indication of foul play,' Jeffrey Castic said.

In June, 27-year-old Karl Clemente died after being turned away from the Brooklyn Mirage because he had been drinking.

Jeffrey Castic said the family was well aware of Clemente's case, but that the cops have so far not drawn any connection between the two incidents.

A heavy police presence was seen in Newtown Creek, near the Brooklyn Mirage, Tuesday morning. Castic's body was found in the water

Police confirmed the body was Castic several hours after it was found midday Tuesday

'All of his personal effects were in his possession, where they should have been, so there was no robbery. So far it doesn't look like foul play,' he said.

He added that his son was 'very happy' in New York City, where he lived with roommates, and that he was performing well at work.

'He was a bright, charismatic young man. He had lots of friends and loved to travel.'

He is the second young man to have gone missing from Brooklyn Mirage and been found in the creek in the last eight weeks.

In June, 27-year-old Karl Clemente also vanished from the same location.

His body was pulled from the creek days later. Clemente hadn't even made it inside to see the music act he ventured to the club for.

Security turned him away for being too drunk on arrival, according to reports at the time.

When his body was pulled from the water, there were no obvious signs of trauma. His death was ruled as non-suspicious.

The two deaths have sent chills through the local community and music lovers who frequent the venue.
Michael Sanchez, brother of Jeff Bezos's fiancee Lauren, has failed in his bid to sue National Enquirer publishers, American Media Inc and its former CEO David Pecker, for 'defaming' him with the claim that he leaked the story of his sister and the Amazon founder's affair.

Court documents obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com and filed in the United States District Court, Central District of California Friday reveal that Judge Dolly M Gee has dismissed his suit finding that there is 'no genuine dispute' that Sanchez was 'the first and only source,' of the story.

Neither Lauren, 53, nor Bezos, 59, were parties to Sanchez's suit, but his case turned on the details of the exposure of their affair four years ago.

Earlier this year DailyMail.com revealed that Sanchez was trying to depose both in what Lauren described as a 'psychologically abusive' attempt to put pressure on the power couple, 'in the hope that she would pay him to go away.'

Lauren Sanchez's brother Mikey Sanchez is pictured. He's failed in his bid to sue the National Enquirer after claiming he was defamed when it was alleged he'd leaked news of his sibling's romance with Jeff Bezos

Hollywood talent agent Sanchez, 56, claimed that he was defamed by AMI and co when they named him as the source for the tip and materials that led to the story of the affair being broken in The National Enquirer on January 9, 2019.

Earlier that same day Bezos and his then wife Mackenzie Tuttle, 53, published an announcement on Twitter that they were separating.

According to Sanchez's lawsuit, around that same time Lauren also told her husband Patrick Whitesell, 58, the truth of her affair with Bezos, as well as sharing the fact that she had been approached for comment by The National Enquirer.

Sanchez, who was acting as a defacto manager and advisor to his sister at the time, had admitted to being a source but insisted that he was not the first or only one to bring the information to the publication and pointed the finger at Lauren's then husband, Patrick Whitesell.

But today's court documents reveal that among the damning evidence to emerge against Sanchez during the discovery process of his own civil suit was a deposition given by Whitesell.

In it he testified under oath that he was not the source and went onto discredit other claims made by Sanchez regarding the timeline of the leaked story and communications relating to it.

Lauren and Jeff, pictured at a Hollywood Versace fashion show in March, announced their engagement in May

In fact, the judgement against him found that, despite Sanchez's claims, there was 'no evidence that a third party provided AMI with any photos or other substantive information regarding Bezos and Lauren's affair,'

The ruling flies in the face of Sanchez's insistence that the Enquirer approached him with knowledge of the affair in Fall 2018.

It also dismisses his account of a labyrinthine and political plot against Bezos which he had claimed lay at the root of the story and involved not only Lauren's ex-husband but the Saudi Arabian government.

Bezos himself had responded to the story's publication by having his head of security mount an investigation into where it had come from.

Given his ownership of the liberal Washington Post and AMI's affiliation with President Trump and the Saudi government, he wanted to know if the story was politically motivated.

In May 2018 AMI had published a heavily favorable 97-page special entitled, The New Kingdom profiling Saudi Arabia and its Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salam.

The Washington Post's coverage of the murder of Saudi dissident, their columnist Jamal Khashoggi just five months later flew in the face of the modernizing image the nation was trying to project. It later emerged that Saudi intelligence had indeed hacked Post owner Bezos's phone with sophisticated spy wear, Pegasus  a program that gave them full access to all his communications and data.

According to Sanchez's suit, AMI's then CEO, Pecker, became 'apoplectic' when he learned that Bezos had launched an investigation into their sources.

At the time the story was published the magazine had claimed to have a 'steamy picture too explicit to print.'

In February 2019 Dylan Howard, editor of the National Enquirer, informed Bezos first verbally and later by email, that he had obtained intimate text messages between the lovers as well as a 'below the belt selfie,' or 'dick pick' of Bezos.

Howard allegedly threatened to publish this material if Bezos didn't shut down his investigation into the story source.

Instead, Bezos called his bluff and published the communications which, he characterized, as tantamount to extortion.

It was in the chaotic fallout of this mess that AMI made a public statement naming Sanchez as the solitary source of both the tip and all the materials relating to the story of his sister's affair.

Sanchez brought his case against AMI three years ago and during that time also brought a failed suit against Bezos himself.

Across the months of litigation in pushing back at his bid to depose his own sister, Lauren's lawyers pointed out, that Sanchez 'admitted privately that he disclosed her private information to AMI.'

In a letter included in court filings seen by DailyMail.com and dated February 2022, Lauren's attorney Bird wrote, 'It is undisputed that Ms. Sanchez shared with Mr. Sanchez information regarding her relationship with Mr. Bezos because she trusted him as her brother. It is similarly undisputed that Mr. Sanchez took that information and offered to sell it to the National Enquirer for $300,000, before ultimately being paid $200,000, all without Ms. Sanchez's knowledge of consent.'

Bird added, 'The immensity of the harm caused to Ms. Sanchez by [her brother's] deceitful betrayal cannot easily be put into words, but it suffices to say that it was devastating.'

Sanchez had, Bird wrote, 'Without even a scintilla of self-reflection or shameasserted that it was he who had been manipulated, not his sister whose confidence he had betrayed, and that it was he who was the true victim.'

In fact, according to today's judgement, Sanchez brought no compelling evidence to support his claims while the defendants introduced substantive evidence to undermine them.

The order reads, 'In light of the foregoing, the Court concludes that no reasonable juror could find, even drawing all inferences in Sanchez's favor, that Defendants' statement that Sanchez was their first and only source for the Bezos affair was untrue.'

The court noted, 'There is no question that he did sell the information regarding his sister's affair.'
The father of missing Wisconsin teenager James Yoblonski has been grilled by an FBI agent during a lie detector test two months after the 13-year-old went missing.

William Yoblonski - who is not a suspect - last saw his son at their home on Water Street in Reedsburg city on June 11, and he believes the boy took their family Chrysler van to live off-grid at Devil's Lake State Park.

The vehicle was found by cops the next day near Baraboo where James is believed to have abandoned it before embarking on a 'survival mission', armed with his father's gun and two wilderness guide books.

Sauk County cops say he searched online for 'means of traveling out of state' in the months before he went missing.

On Friday, his worried father told DailyMail.com police had asked him to take a polygraph, which he passed.

James Yoblonski (pictured) was last seen at the family residence in Reedsburg, Wisconsin, on June 11

James' father William Yoblonski told DailyMail.com an FBI investigator had grilled him during a lie detector test on Thursday, which he passed

When asked why cops wanted him to take the test even though he is not a suspect in the case, Yoblonski said: 'To prove my innocence.

'I guess they just didn't believe me even though I have proven over and over to them that I have nothing to do with this.

'They even have video of him leaving my house by himself.'

Yoblonski previously said he would mortgage his home to raise a $10,000 reward for anyone who gives information leading to James being found.

He also spoke with WKOW outside Sauk County Sheriff's Department headquarters moments after taking the polygraph on Thursday.

'It makes you feel even worse that you haven't found your son and he hasn't been brought home yet,' Yoblonski told the local broadcaster.

'You know you're innocent but yet here we are doing this (test).

'At first, I was upset, but now that I know that proves that I'm innocent and I had nothing to do with it.

'Maybe that'll relieve people. I had nothing to do with my son's disappearance.'

James is believed to have embarked on a 'survival mission', armed with his father's gun and two wilderness guide books

Sauk County Sheriff Chip Meister confirmed that the FBI is assisting his department's investigation into the missing boy

Yoblonski previously said he would mortgage his home to raise a $10,000 reward for anyone who gives information leading to his son being found

Tennessee-born Yoblonski said he was quizzed by an FBI agent along with other investigators, who asked him questions like: 'Do you know where James is?' and 'did you have anything to do with his disappearance?'

Sauk County Sheriff Chip Meister confirmed that the FBI is assisting his department's investigation into the missing boy.

Meister added that the missing teenager's internet history shows he searched for 'means of traveling out of state' twice in the months before he disappeared.

Investigators found evidence of his searches after analyzing 'several electronic devices' including one owned by the Yoblonski family, and another 'issued to James by the Baraboo School District', he said.

There were also 'several internet searches located of physical locations inside the State of Wisconsin', which have since been scoured in person by police, according to Meister.

'The Yoblonski family has been made aware of these search locations and have cooperated with the Sheriffs Departments efforts,' he said.

Last week, Sauk County Sheriff Lt. Steven Schram said that after using police search dogs, a makeshift campsite was found near Baraboo and Devil's Lake State Park on both sides of Highway 12.

James's father William Yoblonski believes his son took the family's Chrysler van to live off-grid at Devil's Lake State Park (pictured)

The family's vehicle was then found abandoned just off the highway, on June 12. His cell phone was also located 200 yards west of the van.

Tracking of the phone showed that James had left the family residence on Water Street in Reedsburg, driven through Wisconsin Dells, headed back toward Reedsburg, and then south toward Baraboo.

Investigators said they believe James could be attempting a survival mission and wants to see how long he can live in the wilderness.

After no further signs of James have been found since the spotting of the campsite, Yoblonski said he believes someone may have picked up the boy.

Investigators have appealed for help from anyone who believes they might have seen James or has information about him to contact them on 608-355-4495.

Tips can also be given anonymously via Crime Stoppers on 1-888-TIP-SAUK (1-888-847-7285).
Pope Francis, 86, was seen in good spirits as he posed for pictures in a wheelchair at a rally in aid of promoting Catholicism in Portugal.

Francis heard confessions of some young people who were in Lisbon for World Youth Day, the big Catholic festival, before having a festive pasta and steak lunch with others.

Later on, he was presiding over the solemn Way of the Cross procession recreating Christ's crucifixion.

Francis visited a community center in the city's Serafina neighborhood, which sits beneath a giant 18th-century aqueduct that is a symbol of the wealth from Portugal's Brazilian colony that once afforded the country.

Two decades ago, drug and crime problems dogged the neighborhood, but Serafina has tried to put that past behind it, thanks in part to efforts by church charity groups, including one that was created to provide an alternative to parents considering abortions or who otherwise couldn't care for their children.

Pope Francis gestures after presiding over the Stations of the Cross ceremony with young people in Edward VII Park, in Lisbon

Francis was spotted in a wheelchair for the majority of the ceremony

Pope Francis posers with the actors that performed the Stations of the Cross on Meeting Hill

An actress performs above Francis' head as part of the procession

All were seen grinning as photos were snapped

Speaking off the cuff to young people and the charity organizers, Francis said true service must be done with concrete gestures that make an impact.

He said he couldn't come to Lisbon to celebrate World Youth Day without visiting the center because 'this is also youth, in the sense that you generate new life continually.'

'With your conduct, your commitment and getting your hands dirty by touching the reality and misery of others, you are giving inspiration and generating life,' he said.

Francis has long said that true service and charity has to hurt, and that it's not enough just to give a beggar a coin on the street.

He has championed the charitable side of the Catholic Church, including boosting the Vatican's efforts by providing showers and medical care to area homeless people while also sending regular truckloads of aid to Ukraine and other places wracked by conflict or natural disasters.

Pedro Duarte, who works at the St. Vincent de Paul social center in Serafina, said Francis' visit was important because he was backing his words with action.

'It is so important that the pope not only said that one should go to the peripheries, but that he actually came to the periphery,' he said outside the center where other community members had gathered to cheer Francis as he came and left.

The "Stations of the Cross" procession with young people at Parque Eduardo VII during his apostolic journey to Portugal

Many sat beneath the pope listening to his 14 meditations at the procession

The bishop's appearance was celebrated by all in the once-troubled community

A cross was stood up in view of Francis

Francis was escorted as thousands lined the street waiting for him

In Lisbon, Francis has also emphasized the inclusive message of the church that he has championed throughout his 10-year papacy, telling the World Youth Day opening ceremony on Thursday that 'in the church, there is room for everyone.'

He led the crowd of a half-million people in a chant of 'todos, todos, todos' or 'everyone, everyone, everyone' to make his point.

That message of inclusivity has resonated in particular with LGBTQ+ Catholics, who have long felt ostracized by a church that considers homosexual activity 'intrinsically disordered.'

Francis, though, has offered a message of welcome to LGBTQ+ Catholics, starting from his very first World Youth Day in 2013, when he famously said 'Who am I to judge,' when asked about a purportedly gay priest.

Dignity USA, a group of LGBTQ+ Catholics, has a delegation in Lisbon and said overall the reception was positive, with a few moments of tension.

'We've been able to trade our rainbow pens, our rainbow prayer cards,' member Sam Barnes said Friday.

There was an incident in which protesters tried to disrupt an LGBTQ+ Mass, but it went ahead after police were called in, said one of the participants, who gave her name as Victoria and said she was a transgender Catholic.

'It's important that everyone, independent of their sexuality, can have their faith and their relation with God,' Victoria said, adding that despite such incidents she has felt very accepted in Lisbon.

The Mass had been organized by the Centro Arcoiris, an offshoot of a much larger Portuguese LGBTQ+ Catholic group called Sopro.

They set up a 'Rainbow Center' to welcome LGBTQ+ pilgrims to World Youth Day, outside the official organization.

In another incident captured on social media and broadcast on Portuguese television, two World Youth Day participants told a transgender participant to put away her flag.

In an interview published Friday by the Spanish Catholic magazine Vida Nueva, Francis referred to his frequent meetings with members of the transgender community and his message of welcome.

Francis gestures after presiding over ceremony with young people in the park

Pilgrims were snapped being thrown in the air by friends at the celebration

Thousands attended the ceremony in Parque Eduardo VII

'The first time a group of transsexuals came to the Vatican and saw me, they left weeping, saying I had given them my hand, a kiss, as if I had done something exceptional,' Francis was quoted as saying. 'But they're children of God!'

The Rev. James Martin, an American Jesuit who runs an outreach program for LGBTQ+ Catholics, said he had dined in Lisbon with the Arcoiris group the night before the Mass was disrupted.

He said they had been looking forward to the liturgy, which he did not attend.

Recalling that the incident occurred on the same day as Francis' 'todos, todos, todos' comment, Martin tweeted: 'LGBTQ people are part of todos.'
The United States has declined so far to classify Army Private Travis King as a prisoner of war, despite his being taken into North Korean custody after he crossed into the country last month.

The decision, which could mean King is not covered by the protections entitled to prisoners of war under the Geneva Convention, is highly sensitive for the U.S. military given its commitment to leave no soldier behind enemy lines, four US officials told Reuters.

How to classify the 23-year-old, who dashed across the heavily guarded border during a civilian tour of the demilitarized zone separating North and South Korea, has been an open question for the military.

As an active-duty soldier he might appear to qualify as a POW, given that the United States and North Korea technically remain at war. The 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty.

But factors including King's decision to cross into North Korea of his own free will, in civilian attire, appear to have disqualified him from that status, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The United States has declined so far to classify Army Private Travis King as a prisoner of war

King (wearing a black shirt and black cap) is seen in this picture taken during a tour of the tightly controlled Joint Security Area on the border between the two Koreas shortly before he ran into North Korea

Factors including King's decision to cross into North Korea of his own free will, in civilian attire, appear to have disqualified him from that status

A Pentagon spokesperson declined to comment on King's POW status, but said the defense department's priority was to bring him home and that it was working to achieve that through all available channels.

'Private King must be treated humanely in accordance with international law.' the spokesperson said.

Washington has conveyed that message in private communications to Pyongyang, the U.S. officials said, adding that those communications have not invoked POW status.

The United States still has the option to call King a POW. A U.S. official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said there was no final decision and that the U.S. view on King's status could evolve as it learns more about his case.

The State Department referred a request for comment to the Pentagon. White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Prisoners of war are protected by the Third Geneva Convention, to which North Korea and the U.S. are signatories. That agreement details standards for the treatment of captives, ensuring everything from sufficient medical care and Red Cross access, to the ability of prisoners to send messages to their families.

Rachel VanLandingham, a military law expert at Southwestern Law School, said King would benefit from being classified as a POW, even if that could be seen legally as a stretch.

'It provides a much clearer, very structured framework for exactly how they're to treat him down to the number of cigarettes a day they're required to give him if he asks,' she said.

It is not clear that labeling King a POW would change how the isolated North Korean government treats him. Pyongyang, which continues to develop nuclear weapons in violation of UN resolutions, has repeatedly shown it is not willing to be bound by international law.

His mother spoke out for the first time in weeks and said that her son's life is in 'jeopardy' as his whereabouts remain a mystery

King's mother, Claudine Gates, just wants her son to return to their Wisconsin home (pictured)

In any case, said Geoffrey Corn, a military law expert at Texas Tech University School of Law, it would be difficult for the United States to assert that King is a prisoner of war - in part because there was no active fighting at the time on the peninsula.

'He wasn't really captured in the context of hostilities. If that happened to us, we'd probably designate him as an undocumented alien who crossed the border without a visa,' Corn said.

King, who joined the U.S. Army in January 2021, had served as a Cavalry Scout with the Korean Rotational Force, part of the decades-old U.S. security commitment to South Korea.

But his posting was dogged by legal troubles.

He faced two allegations of assault in South Korea, and eventually pleaded guilty to one instance of assault and destroying public property for damaging a police car during a profanity-laced tirade against Koreans, according to court documents.

After serving time in detention in South Korea, King had been due to face military disciplinary action on his return to Fort Bliss, Texas.

There are precedents for using the POW designation in cases where the U.S. was not in an active war.

The U.S. awarded prisoner of war medals to Christopher Stone, Andrew Ramirez and Steven Gonzales who were held for more than a month by Yugoslavia after being captured on March 31, 1999 during a NATO peacekeeping mission.

And Navy Lieutenant Robert Goodman was also awarded the medal after he was captured in 1983 in Lebanon and taken prisoner in Syria for a month after his aircraft was shot down.

The Pentagon has so far described King's formal status as "AWOL," or absent without leave. He would automatically be declared a deserter after 30 days being AWOL, according to military regulations.

Corn said he could be declared a deserter sooner, given the likelihood King knew his decision had ended his military career.

'He can't really run across that border without the knowledge and arguably the intent to remain away permanently,' Corn said.

(Reporting by Phil Stewart, Idrees Ali and Josh Smith; Additional reporting by Simon Lewis, Editing by Don Durfee and Daniel Wallis)
A one-day old baby boy was miraculously found alive in a basket outside a Texas church after it was abandoned in temperatures that soared into the triple digits.

Surveillance footage captured a man and woman carrying a basket into the parking lot of Grissom Road Church around 1 a.m. on July 17, San Antonio Police said, according to a Crime Stoppers report on Wednesday.

The pair was seen placing the basket with the newborn inside by the back door of the church located at 5400 'Lost' Lane before leaving the area on foot.

Around 8:50pm, nearly twenty hours later, a person riding a bicycle noticed a 'suspicious basket on the ground.'

The carrier had a black jacket placed over it. As the person got closer, they noticed a baby's leg sticking out, and once they moved the jacket, saw the baby inside.

After the stunning surprise, the Good Samaritan called the police.

Surveillance footage captured a man and woman carrying a basket into the parking lot of Grissom Road Church around 1 a.m. on July 17, San Antonio Police said, according to a Crime Stoppers report on Wednesday

Police said that the temperatures that day was 110 degrees, Yahoo News reported.

Ximena V. Alvarez, a Public Relations Manager with the San Antonio Police Department issued a statement to DailyMail.com on Friday.

She said, 'the baby was not in distress and still had the umbilical cord attached to it.'

The spokesperson also said there was a 'note found at the scene left by the unknown suspect.'

It is unclear if the child's parents dropped off the baby.

Though Alvarez was unable to disclose further details, she said Texas Child Protective Services was notified and the investigation remains active.

Texas Governor Gregg Abbot signed the SB 780 regarding the state's 'Baby Moses' law in June, according to a press release.

This legislation provides accessibility to families in crisis by allowing the use of 'baby boxes' to surrender a newborn to an emergency infant care provider.

The inclusion of the devices as an option to surrender a child will take effect September 1.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tried to pick apart former President Donald Trump's tough guy image, saying her rival looked like a 'scared puppy' during his court appearance Thursday.

Pelosi, who repeatedly clashed with Donald Trump during his presidency, offered her take on video images of Trump's historic arraignment on four charges related to his election overturn effort.

The California lawmaker, now called speaker emerita, ridiculed Trump hours after he pleaded not guilty after glancing at special counsel Jack Smith inside a federal courthouse.

'I wasn't in the courtroom, of course. But when I saw his coming out of his car and this or that, I saw a scared puppy,' she said, after Trump flew into Washington for his 27-minute hearing before a U.S. magistrate judge, then addressed cameras and blasted the city where he served four years.

'He looked very, very, very concerned about the fate,' Pelosi told interview Andrea Mitchell. 'I didn't see any bravado or confidence or anything like that. He knows he knows the truth, that he lost the election and now he's got to face the music,' she said.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said former President Donald Trump looked like a 'scared puppy' on Thursday, when he was arraigned in federal court

Trump offered his own commentary on Thursday. He spoke of his 'persecution' and called it a 'sad day,' then tore into the city where Pelosi lived and worked for decades while maintaining her primary home in San Francisco.

'And it was also very sad driving through Washington, D.C., and seeing the filth and the decay, and all of the broken buildings and walls, and the graffiti. This is not the place that I left. It's a very sad thing to see it,' Trump said about his brief drive past monuments while motoring from Reagan National Airport to the courthouse.

Pelosi experienced several memorable moments during the Trump presidency. She was filmed by her daughter using her mouth to open a bag of beef jerky from a secure location amid the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

She presided over two Trump impeachments, and famously ripped up her copy of his speech following a combative State of the Union address. In 2017, Trump called her out for 'Nervous Nancy's unhinged meltdown!' following an angry White House meeting.

Her comment came after Trump was forced to wait for 15 minutes for his hearing to begin

But her office thanked him for sending out an image of her confronting the president.

In her MSNBC appearance, she called it a 'very prayerful time.'

She also credited the House January 6 Committee, which she created after a dispute with then-minority leader Kevin McCarthy over its composition.

'I'm very proud of the work of the January 6th committee, which laid the foundation, created a path for us to get to this place, to seek the truth.'
A woman left infertile by a bungling surgeon has fulfilled her dream of becoming a mother after the NHS paid 1million for a surrogate in California.

Donna Roberts, 41, was injured in a botched operation for a bowel condition 15 years ago.

The internal damage left her infertile, apparently robbing her and husband Marc, 47, of their hopes of starting a family.

But in 2020 the Supreme Court ruled that women left unable to conceive due to medical negligence can claim the cost of a surrogacy abroad.

Mrs Roberts' lawyers secured a settlement to fund an egg donor and surrogate in San Diego.

Happy family: Mia with her Californian surrogate mother Reggie Webster, left, and Donna Roberts and her husband Marc

And baby Mia was born last summer  and celebrates her first birthday next Saturday. The couple now hope the payout will fund up to two siblings for Mia.

'I still can't believe she's really here,' Mrs Roberts said yesterday. 'We're both absolutely besotted with her.

After everything we've gone through since my surgery, it's incredible to think that we've finally got a family of our own.

'Mia is doing brilliantly, she's such a cheeky, bubbly, happy little thing. What I went through in hospital has changed my life forever, I'll never be the same again. But Mia is the ultimate silver lining.'

Mrs Roberts had surgery at Gwynedd Hospital in Bangor, North Wales, in 2007 for complications from ulcerative colitis.

But after an operation, which a review found to be 'doomed to failure', she was left battling sepsis and MRSA, and told she could not conceive.

The surgery meant it was unsafe to harvest her eggs. so she and her electrician husband began legal action.

After the Supreme Court ruling, their lawyer, Richard Malloy of Gregory Abrams Davidson Solicitors, secured an apology from Betsi Cadwaladr health board.

Proud: Donna Roberts and Mia, who is now 11 months, are pictured at their home in Allerton, Merseyside

A confidential settlement covered the 300,000 cost of organising a surrogate to California  where commercial surrogacy is legal  including legal, travel and accommodation bills.

After choosing an egg donor who resembled Mrs Roberts and shared their Welsh roots, the eggs were fertilised in a laboratory using Mr Roberts' sperm.

The embryos were then implanted in teacher Reggi'e Webster's womb. Mia was born on August 12 last year.

'It was just the most incredible moment,' Mrs Roberts said. 'Because surrogacy is so normal in California, there was absolutely no awkwardness about it.'

The couple, who moved from Llangefni in Anglesey to Liverpool after losing faith with the health service in North Wales, now hope to try for a second child using the same surrogate.

Mrs Roberts said: 'For some people the best option may be adoption. But for us it's been a dream come true.'

Mr Malloy said: 'The very significant hospital failings cruelly deprived Donna of the ability to conceive naturally, and we are delighted to have been able to support her and Marc.'

Ysbyty Gwynedd Hospital is run by Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board which is in special measures after its leadership was branded 'dysfunctional'.

Executive medical director, Dr Nick Lyons, said: 'We offer our most sincere apologies to Mrs Roberts and hope that the settlement reached will provide the support she needs.'

He added that 'significant changes' had been made to the way patients were treated and the operation she had was no longer offered.
Dark-coloured swimsuits on sale in major retailers could put children at risk of drowning or serious injury, campaigners have warned.

Blue, black and dark-toned beachwear can effectively camouflage youngsters if they sink below the surface, potentially costing rescuers vital seconds in an emergency.

Experts are urging families to ensure that children are kitted out in bright, neon colours. Mother-of-two Yianoula Philippou filmed her young son, Lucas, 'disappearing' under water in a pool during a family holiday to Cyprus while wearing a blue shark-print swimsuit.

Sharing the video online, she said: 'These cute swimming costumes were brand new from Marks & Spencer for our holiday.

'I thought the kids would love them because they love sharks [but] when these costumes go under the water, they disappear. If he was at the bottom of the pool and we didn't know he was there, I don't even want to think about it.'

Danger: Lucas Philippou, circled, 'disappears' in a pool while wearing a blue holiday swimsuit

The grieving mother of a schoolgirl who drowned off Bournemouth beach while swimming with her siblings believes her daughter's dark clothing may have played a role in her death. Sunnah Khan was wearing a black T-shirt and leggings when she is thought to have been pulled under by a riptide near the town's pier in May.

The 12-year-old, of High Wycombe, died alongside Joe Abbess, 17, of Southampton, after being airlifted to hospital. Her mother, NHS nurse Stephanie Williams, 32, said: 'They could not locate Sunnah for 50 minutes, and she wasn't in deep water.

'I think her wearing dark colours impeded their ability to see where she was. If she had been wearing something brightly coloured, they might have been able to see her sooner and she might still be here.'

The mother-of-four has shared her concerns with the coroner overseeing the inquest into the teenagers' deaths. Miss Williams and Aylesbury MP Rob Butler are to meet bosses at swimwear manufacturer Speedo to discuss the issue.

In a test conducted by water safety firm Alive Solutions, bright neon colours such as orange, pink, green and yellow were the most visible, while blue, grey, white and dark colours performed the worst. Solid colours offered better visibility than patterned swimsuits.

Tory MP Giles Watling, chairman of the all-party parliamentary group for water safety, said it would 'look at' the dangers of dark-coloured swimwear.

Marks & Spencer and other stores referred the Mail to the British Retail Consortium, which said retailers offer swimwear in a variety of colours that 'meet all current safety guidelines'.
A British woman who suffered 'excruciating pain' from a lip infection allegedly caused by a dirty glass on holiday in the Dominican Republic has blasted TUI over her 'filthy' hotel.

Sandra Mason, 58, took aim at the Riu Republica hotel in Punta Cana after hearing reports from other guests who described seeing couples have sex and defecate in the pool, uncleared vomit and casual drug dealing on site.

Mrs Mason, a police worker from Liverpool, and her husband Neil, 53, told the Daily Mirror she needed to seek medical help for her infected lips after they flew out on July 13.

Mrs Mason, who was celebrating three years clear of cancer treatment, said: 'It was the worst holiday of my whole life. They called one of the pools "Bano" - which is Spanish for toilet. We were warned not to go in that pool.

'It was a total and utter nightmare and TUI should not send anybody there, its a disgrace. My husband was even offered sex and drugs when I went to the toilet!'

Sandra Mason, 58, from Liverpool, has told how she was left in 'excruciating pain' with a lip infection from a plastic cup while on holiday in the Dominican Republic

Mrs Mason and her husband Neil blasted their stay at TUI's Riu Republica hotel in the Dominican Republic, saying the holiday company 'should not send anybody there'

The pair spoke out following even more disturbing reports, including one which alleged a dead woman's body was hidden under a bloody sheet after 'falling' from a balcony.

In a separate incident, the bodies of two young men were said to have been found in a hotel room after an apparent drug overdose.

Mr Mason said he spotted a young man drop a pill in a girl's drink and he walked over, picked the drink up and threw it away.

He said: 'I went to security and they just walked away, it was horrendous. We complained to TUI but heard nothing back. It was full of Americans aged 18 or 19 getting hammered for three days and then going home. They dont give a monkeys about anyone else. It was crazy with people going down corridors banging on our door with ghetto blasters at 3am.'

The couple's experiences have been mirrored by other guests who also reported disastrous stays at the venue.

50-year-old NHS worker Alan Stevens said he was offered just 200 in vouchers and counselling after his 3,000 17-day trip to the resort.

He described it as '100% the worst holiday' he had even been on and described seeing a couple openly have sex in the swimming pool.

Mrs Mason said she need to be hospitalised over her infected lip and said her husband was even offered sex and drugs while she was in the toilet

Another couple, Kerry and Fowler from Lincolnshire, said they spotted people having sex during their two-week stay at the hotel and that there was 'semen' in the swimming pools.

Mrs Fowler, 57, said the trip reminded her of horror film The Purge, in which the government provides a 12-hour amnesty for crime.

The pair said they wanted to go home as soon as they arrived and they were hit by an awful smell in their bedroom.

Pulling back the covers, they said the mattress was 'completely covered' with green mould from head to foot.

She likened the atmosphere to 'Beiruit' and said there were a lot of discarded glasses and uncleared vomit, with queues of English tourists complaining.

TUI has been approached for comment about Mr and Mrs Mason's claims.

Regarding the other guests, a spokesman said: 'We are sorry to hear of Mr Stevenss experience during his stay at the Riu Republica Hotel. At TUI, we strive to make travelling with us a smooth experience from start to finish, but unfortunately on this occasion, and largely due to factors outside of our control, we did not meet our usually high standards.

'Our team has been in contact with Mr Stevens and he was offered a gift voucher as a gesture of goodwill, as well as counselling from CCP (Centre for Crisis Psychology), but unfortunately this was declined.'
Behind towering displays of lemon meringue cupcakes and home-made raspberry macarons, staff at the Three Little Birds bakery in Keighley, West Yorkshire, have been rushed off their feet.

Customers have been queueing out of the door, the phone ringing off the hook and the small team of female bakers, in aprons and blue hairnets, working into the early hours to get on top of the mounting cake orders.

Amid the commotion, owner Rebecca Severs, 37, has been cursing herself for taking the week off work. It is her family's first holiday since last August  and what a week to choose, after her small family business found itself at the centre of a heated online debate dubbed 'Cakegate'.

Speaking exclusively to the Mail, Rebecca (who prefers to be called Bec) says she never imagined her company, whose shop only opened three months ago, would cause such a furore.

'I don't have a huge social media following, so I thought it would just be a bit of fun,' she says of her viral Facebook post, in which she called out a VIP party planner  Leeds-based Nvrlnd  for trying to blag two cakes and 100 cupcakes for a celebrity's 40th birthday, with payment 'in the form of promotion on their socials with over 700,000 followers, as well as [being] promoted in OK! Magazine'.

Amid the commotion, owner Rebecca Severs (pictured), 37, has been cursing herself for taking the week off work. It is her family's first holiday since last August  and what a week to choose, after her small family business found itself at the centre of a heated online debate dubbed 'Cakegate'

After Bec's post made headlines, the celebrity was revealed by the Daily Mail to be former Coronation Street actress and Strictly star Catherine Tyldesley (pictured), whose ill-judged retort on Instagram described the outcry over the exchange as 'utterly bizarre'

In the post, which was liked and shared thousands of times, Bec wrote: 'This poor celebrity apparently can't afford to pay people for their products and services. Spare a thought! What happened to women supporting women.'

Depending on decoration and detail, she says, the now-infamous order should have cost around 675, a reflection of the hard work and expertise that goes into every one of her bakes.

Bec told Nvrlnd: 'My mortgage provider doesn't take payment in the form of promotion on their socials.'

'I've been approached before and it's a very common theme in our industry,' she explains. 'I think it's important that businesses get paid fairly for what they do. Without that, there is no business and there are no jobs.'

After Bec's post made headlines, the celebrity was revealed by the Daily Mail to be former Coronation Street actress and Strictly star Catherine Tyldesley, whose ill-judged retort on Instagram described the outcry over the exchange as 'utterly bizarre'.

Wearing a 120 sweatshirt and 180 glasses, in a video apparently recorded in a 72,000 BMW, Catherine insisted she 'had no idea those emails were being sent', adding: 'I don't really know what to say. I mean, I hope the cake lady got the exposure she was craving.'

That is something of an ironic statement, some might say, from a television actress who is known, in the Greater Manchester area where she lives with her husband and two children, for seldom turning down a red-carpet event, party invitation or glitzy dinner.

Much has been made, too, of the fact that Catherine  who earned 100,000 a year on Corrie and has a reported net worth of 800,000 isn't the type of person who needs freebies, when it's clear she could easily afford to pay full price.

Bec, a hard-working mum-of-three who started her baking business in 2015 from her kitchen table, leads a very different life.

Though she doesn't want to talk salaries, the contrast is stark: the average annual wage of a bakery owner is about 35,000.

Rebecca Severs has broken her silence after the Coronation Star Catherine Tyldesley accused her of 'seeking exposure'

The email claimed to be from the management company of a 'well-known celebrity' who was having a 40th birthday party

Rebecca emailed the company back, explaining that she would be declining the 'very generous offer'

London-born Bec started baking as a toddler, taught by her mum 'a fantastic baker and cook'  and her late aunt Liz, who sparked her interest in cake decorating.

Before having children, she worked in legal publishing, designing cakes on the side for friends and family. She moved to Keighley in July 2008 to marry husband Aidan, who is from the area.

'It was always the dream to open a shop in Keighley,' she says. Baking furiously around the clock in the cramped family kitchen, she was so determined to succeed that she says she 'didn't charge nearly enough'.

'I remember working it out after one Christmas  I made 2 an hour  and thinking, why am I doing this? It's so stressful and it's so time-consuming but I'm not really making a proper wage.'

Because of the pandemic, and a tenancy falling through in another property in town, it wasn't until May this year that Bec's longed-for shop finally opened its doors.

'It's gone better than I could ever have hoped,' she says. 'We've already had to recruit more staff, and we've had brilliant support from the local community. Keighley is a town full of friendly, supportive and close-knit people.' Three Little Birds prides itself on shopping local: butter is from a nearby dairy, milk is delivered by a milkman and they only use British sugar, organic eggs and sustainable chocolate.

Together with her husband, an education consultant, Bec funnelled all her savings into the project and worked non-stop.

'On our opening weekend, I was in the shop until 2.30am finishing all the cakes,' she says. 'I've burnt the candle at both ends, getting up early to bake at the shop, then doing admin until late at night. And it's not all glam decorating  there's so much washing up.'

She relies on Aidan and their daughters Isla, Amelie and Josie for morale and support, and is happy to pay them  but only them, she stresses  in cake.

'I know they find it hard,' she says, 'but they also understand why I'm doing it. My husband does a regular shift on the shop counter on a Friday, which he loves.' The family have had to tighten their belts, too.

Catherine Tyldesley's response to the cakegate freebie row in a video posted to her Instagram page

Rebecca Severs, from Keighley, won praise for her response to a company asking for a free birthday cake for Catherine

Online, Rebecca is described as leaving her career as an editor in legal publishing after welcoming three daughters before setting up her business

Catherine Tyldesley received many freebies for promotions on Instagram, like a BMW SUV (left) and free furnishings for her home (right)

She also had a giveaway on her Instagram for retailer Very (left) as well as free staycations (right)

'Pouring finances into the shop renovation meant sacrificing a lot of luxuries for a while,' she says. 'But the risks you take make you more determined to succeed. I had to weigh up whether to part with a stake in the business and I eventually decided against it. To keep full control, I'm paying a higher cost of capital.'

And it's important to Bec that her six staff  including Debbie, her manager and 'right-hand woman', who is always happy to pull an all-nighter to get the work done  know how much she values them. 'We all try to look after each other,' she says.

Party planner Nvrlnd  whom Bec says has threatened her with legal action  say its enquiry was 'completely misconstrued' and insists the bakery's 'expenses and costs' would have been paid.

The way Bec sees it, their email was crystal clear.

'It's important to be transparent,' she says, adding that women 'should not feel guilty about charging for their work and earning money'.
His celebrations were as modest as he is unassuming: released from a Cypriot prison on Monday for the mercy killing of his desperately ill wife, David Hunter marked his freedom with a pint of shandy and a beef burger.

No champagne, no triumphalism  just the quiet relief of a man cleared of murdering the woman he loved most in the world.

David, 76, a retired miner from Northumberland, was sentenced to two years in prison for the manslaughter of Janice, his wife of 52 years, who had blood cancer, after she repeatedly begged him to end her suffering.

Freed after serving 19 months in custody, David told me immediately after his release: 'I feel numb, a little bit dizzy. It's hard to take in actually. It doesn't feel real.

'I've just called my daughter Lesley in England and we were both crying so much we couldn't speak. Neither of us could say a word. We just managed, 'I love you.'

'The custody policeman hugged me when I got out and said, 'Congratulations, David. You got the result you deserved. In the nicest possible way I hope I never see you again'.'

He chuckles, then there are quiet tears. There is an awful ambivalence about his freedom because he is also now consigned to a life without his adored wife. His wish is to remain in Cyprus, where they shared 16 gloriously happy years of retirement before she became ill, so he can be close to her.

Speaking exclusively to the Mail in a searingly honest and heartbreaking interview, he is frail now and depleted by his time in prison.

On Tuesday, he stooped to place a bright bouquet on Janice's grave. It was a moment of affecting tenderness; his first visit to her burial place  he was in custody for her funeral.

'I looked forward to going and dreaded it at the same time.

'It's a beautiful spot, a little way from the house in Tremithousa [a village four miles from Paphos] where we used to live and I'd like to get a little place there now, near the grave, so I can visit her every day, and when my time comes I'll be buried next to her.

'I still speak to Janice. I still tell her I love her and miss her every day. I say, 'I don't know whether I love you more or miss you more'.'

He smiles. 'I used to call her my greatest treasure, because she was. In all the years we were together we never forgot a wedding anniversary or Valentine's Day.'

Speaking exclusively to the Mail in a searingly honest and heartbreaking interview, David Hunter is frail now and depleted by his time in prison

There is an awful ambivalence about his freedom because David is also now consigned to a life without his adored wife

David's wish is to remain in Cyprus, where they shared 16 gloriously happy years of retirement before she became ill, so he can be close to her

He is still plagued by flashbacks to the terrible day in December 2021 when he suffocated his wife, before drinking a bottle of brandy and swallowing a cocktail of prescription pills so he could 'go with her'.

He remembers the horror of it, countered by relief that he was liberating Janice from her suffering.

'Over six weeks she'd pleaded with me. She'd said, 'I don't want to carry on like this'.' However David continued to refuse to act.

Just before he suffocated her, he told her he loved her. 'She just closed her eyes and said, 'Give us a kiss.' I kissed her on the cheek.

'I've seen some awful things in my life, but the memory of her face as she died...' He sobs, pauses, then gathers himself. 'She went grey. Her jaw was twisted. I tried to straighten it. She looked nothing like my wife.

'Those are the nightmares I still get. I see her face in those nightmares. And they are always so vivid. There are always lots of faces, all Janice's face, and I turn round and think she is by me  but she's dead. I can't get those images out of my mind. She doesn't, she didn't, look anything like my Janice. Her face changed so quickly.

'In life she had such a beautiful smile. It lit up the world.'

David first met Janice in his home village of Ashington, Northumberland, in the local pub

David Hunter told his mum that he had met 'the most stunning girl you've ever seen'

When the Hunters sold their home in Ashington in 2001 to live permanently in Paphos, life settled into a happy routine

We talk about euthanasia, whether the act of deliberately ending a life to eliminate pain and suffering should be legalised and he says: 'I'd like to see it become legal or at least debated, investigated. Janice was not going to get better and when you love someone so much  and they plead with you repeatedly to end their life  you make that terrible decision to put them out of their misery.

'Janice was in such pain. She was saying for weeks, 'Darl, I can't fight any more. I want to kill myself.' She was going through hell. I couldn't bear to see her like that.

'Of course, if we'd had the money and Janice hadn't been too ill to make the journey, we could have gone to Switzerland.'

He is referring to the Dignitas clinic there, where doctors assist in suicides of those with terminal or debilitating illnesses, but in both Cyprus and the UK it is currently illegal to help a dying person, or one in acute pain, to end their life.

The Hunters' tragedy is a compelling one. Janice and David, a miner for more than 40 years at Ellington Colliery, Northumberland  he worked from the ages of 15 to 55 at the pit  retired to Paphos in 2001. 'We were so excited. It was like an endless holiday. The longest and best we'd ever had,' he recalls. 'It was a lovely life, paradise. And I wouldn't swap those years for the world.'

David Hunter, 76 from Northumberland sits down with the Daily Mail for an exclusive chat after he was released from Prison in Cyprus

David talked about euthanasia and whether the act of deliberately ending a life to eliminate pain and suffering should be legalised

David is still plagued by flashbacks to the terrible day in December 2021 when he suffocated his wife

We are talking at the Elysium Hotel, a stone's throw from their first home in Cyprus. The hotel has a special resonance; it was here they'd come for celebratory meals, to the restaurant with its blazing sunset backdrop over a palm-fringed beach.

I ask him to describe her: 'Bloody good fun,' he says. 'Beautiful, vibrant, full of life.'

David first met Janice in his home village of Ashington, Northumberland. 'One night I was in the local pub  dancing upstairs, drinking downstairs  and Janice said, 'You're sitting in my seat.' Then she said, 'let's dance,' and we were never apart after that.

'I told my mum, 'I've met the most stunning girl you've ever seen.' She was so beautiful.

'I was 18, she was a year and four months older. We courted for about three years then in 1969 we got married. And I made her promise that if we'd had an argument we'd always kiss and make up before we went to sleep. And that worked for 52 years. I was always faithful to Janice and I never had the slightest inkling or suspicion she was ever unfaithful to me.'

But the early years of their marriage were marked by sadness. They lost two sons  one born prematurely, the other a full-term stillbirth. Then in 1972, to their delight, a daughter, Lesley, their only child, was born, 'and I was so happy I was jumping through hoops,' he smiles.

David pictured with his wife Janice on their wedding day in 1969 after courting for about three years

He and Janice wanted the best for their girl. 'I worked seven days a week to put Lesley through university. She was the first in the family to go,' he says.

When the Hunters sold their home in Ashington in 2001 to live permanently in Paphos, life settled into a happy routine. 'We went to barbecues, explored the island.

'I helped out at an Italian restaurant as a waiter, just for the beer and Janice would come in for a meal and a drink.

The couple lost two sons  one born prematurely, the other a full-term stillbirth before a daughter, Lesley, their only child, was born

'We had quite a few Cypriot friends. Janice learned Greek: she could speak, read and write it.'

But by 2016 storm clouds were gathering. Health problems beset Janice. She'd already had two knee replacements and an appendectomy when she slipped and broke her collar bone.

Then in the summer of that year, David had a stroke. With typical stoicism he recovered. Lesley, in England with her husband and teenage daughter insisting he give up smoking and alcohol  which he did  to lessen his chances of a recurrence. 'At one of my check-ups in September 2016, the doctor said to Janice, 'You look white. Are you OK?'.'

Tests revealed she was lacking in iron and a course of daily injections was prescribed for two weeks.

Further tests disclosed a more intractable problem  she was diagnosed with myelodysplasia, a rare form of blood cancer in which bone marrow does not produce healthy blood cells. It can develop into leukaemia.

Dabid made Janice a promise that if they had an argument they'd always kiss and make up before going to sleep

Janice would need regular injections for the rest of her life to counter the symptoms  fatigue, weakness, bleeding, infections and pain  and boost her healthy blood cell count. David learnt to administer them into her stomach.

But as their health insurance did not cover the cost  460 euros for four syringes of medication, with injections twice weekly  they decided to sell their apartment and move to a rural rented property to fund her treatment.

Then came the trial, imprisonment and their attendant costs. Today David, despite a lifetime of grafting, is almost destitute.

'Janice didn't want to sell our home and move. She was crying, but I decorated the new place and she grew to love it,' he says.

'And she was doing OK, not as tired as she was. We went to the general hospital in Paphos for weekly blood tests and if her haemoglobin count was too low they would increase the injections.'

But at the back of Janice's mind was the image of her elder sister who died in 1987 of leukaemia.

'We'd been to see her. She was bloated with no hair and you could see the terrible pain in her eyes. Eventually she died in hospital and Janice said, 'If I ever get that disease I want you to help me die.' But I never thought then that I'd see Janice suffer. I didn't imagine she'd plead with me to help her die,' says David.

Ten days before she died Janice was hysterical with pain and begged David again to end it

To compound their worries, Covid brought devastating setbacks. 'The local hospital that supplied Janice's medication closed. I couldn't get hold of our GP for a prescription. I kept ringing and the phone would go dead. No one would answer. We were desperate but everything was shut, barred, and none of the doctors or specialists Janice had seen called to check if she was all right.'

David drove to hospitals, pharmacies and surgeries in a frantic and fruitless attempt to get a supply of medication but it was eight weeks before he secured it  by which time Janice's condition was deteriorating.

'After Covid she seemed to get worse.

'She said, 'I'm sick of life. I'm not going to get better.' She was having blood transfusions which gave her nose bleeds and a side-effect of the injections was terrible diarrhoea. She wore adult nappies. She was a proud woman and it was so embarrassing for her, but I told her I didn't mind helping her  not one bit.

'Her hair was coming out in clumps, the weight was falling off her. When she had her last blood transfusion they couldn't find a vein and they put the needle in between her fingers. She was crying her eyes out. Her whole arm was purple.

'She said she didn't want another blood transfusion after that. She had such bad headaches, flashes of pain and her sight was going.

David drove to hospitals, pharmacies and surgeries in a frantic and fruitless attempt to get a supply of medication but it was eight weeks before he secured it

'She was dog-tired. One night she said, 'I can't manage the stairs,' so I put her on my back and carried her. After that, for the last six weeks, we slept on recliner chairs in the sitting room side-by-side. I held her hand.

'She ate very little, noodles, soup, and when she did she was sick and needed to go to the toilet.

'The pain got worse. It seemed to pick on the points where she'd had operations. Her skin was covered in lesions. She couldn't stand.

'And that was when she started to beg me. She said, 'I can't fight any more. I can't walk, I need help to go to the toilet. Nothing will get better. I want you to help me die.' And I'd say, 'No, no. We'll just take it day by day.'

'I kept thinking, 'What do I do?' I loved her so much and she was in such pain. Ten days before she died she was hysterical with pain. She begged me again to end it. I was hoping she'd change her mind. I was waiting for a miracle. It never came.'

It was a Monday evening in December 2021 when David ended Janice's suffering, suffocating her then taking all the prescription medicines he could find in the house.

It was a Monday evening in December 2021 when David ended Janice's suffering, suffocating her then taking all the prescription medicines he could find in the house

'I intended to kill myself too. I left a suicide note but I don't even remember writing it.

'There are parts of that day that are just blank. But the note was read in court, 'My wife is in so much pain. She has asked me to help her, so we did this together.'

'I knew I couldn't live without her. So I kissed her and when I knew she was dead I kissed her one more time.

I said, 'Bye darling. I'll see you soon.'

'She had a saying, 'Until the next time.' She was a bit psychic  she believed there was another life. There was some magic about her.'

He recalls the next steps, how he intended to join his beloved Janice: 'And then I got every bottle of pills in the house  blood pressure tablets, painkillers, anything I could find  and put them in a tumbler, then swallowed them down with a full bottle of brandy.

'I hadn't drunk alcohol for six years, since my stroke, and it hit me hard. I really wanted to die.'

Before he did so, he wanted a 'last word' with his brother William in England  his junior by ten years  whom he video called.

'We were very close. I didn't want to phone Lesley because it would have killed her to know what I'd done, but I phoned and just talked to William,' he said.

David has no recollection of what he said to his brother  the drugs and alcohol were taking their toll  but we know that William phoned Manchester police who, in turn, contacted Interpol, who then alerted Cypriot police.

William also contacted Lesley, who video-called David in great distress, pleading with him to stay alive for her sake, telling him: 'We really love you, Daddy. We do not care what you've done. We just want you safe.'

Within an hour, police had arrived at David's door and his plan to join Janice was thwarted.

Instead, he was to face a charge of murdering her.

To make a donation to Lesley Cawthorne's fundraiser to cover David's legal bills visit: crowdjustice.com/case/helpbring-david-home/
Former US president Donald Trump pleaded not guilty on Friday to the new charges filed against him for allegedly mishandling top secret government documents.

The move, made in a court filing, came just hours after Trump flew to Washington, D.C. to go before a federal judge, pleading not guilty to four counts related to his election overthrow effort.

The 77-year-old Trump was charged with three additional felonies in a superseding indictment handed down last week by special counsel Jack Smith.

In a written notice on Friday to the US district court in Florida handling the case, Trump pleaded not guilty to the new charges.

Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, also waived his right to be present at his August 10 arraignment on the new charges.

Former president Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to the new charges filed against him for allegedly mishandling top secret government documents. It came just hours after he appeared in federal court in D.C. to plead guilty to charges related to January 6

That frees up a bit of time in what is proving to be a busy late summer of court activity. In the D.C. case, his next hearing is set for August 28, although a magistrate judge indicated he might not have to show up in person.

Trump is scheduled to go on trial in Florida in May of next year for allegedly taking classified documents to his Mar-A-Lago estate and refusing to return them.

He pleaded not guilty in June to charges of unlawfully retaining national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice and making false statements.

The additional charges filed against Trump last week by Smith, the special counsel, relate to his alleged efforts to obstruct the FBI investigation and its bid to recover the classified documents.

Trump is accused in the latest indictment of attempting to delete security camera footage at Mar-A-Lago to prevent it from being provided to the FBI and a grand jury.

Trump placed his hands on a table as he waited for Magistrate Judge Moxila A. Upadhyaya during Thursday's hearing in D.C. He conferred with attorneys Todd Blanche and John Lauro as he waited

Also charged in the case are Trump's longtime personal aide Waltine "Walt" Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, the Mar-A-Lago property manager.

The D.C. case could end up on a faster track. Lawyers for Trump and the government have already skirmished over Trump's right to a 'speedy trial,' with Trump lawyer John Lauro warning about the 'massive' amount of evidence his team will have to review.

A quick trial could bring a verdict, on charges carrying years' worth of jail time, before the 2024 Election Day.
His fiance, Seeley Oblander, said the episode had been 'quite the wake-up call'

A black bear was shot and killed after it broke into a Montana home in the middle of the night through a screened window.

Thomas Bolkcom, 27, had to gun down the wild animal after it broke into his home in the rural community of Luther, Montana, on Thursday night.

After staying up late the night before with his fiance Seeley Oblander, the two had been woken around 3AM with their dog Maizey barking furiously.

Bolkcom, who works as a commercial painter and elk hunter, went to investigate and discovered black bear standing in his living room.

After quickly grabbing his handgun, Bolkcom managed to shoot the bear before it made off into another room, where he killed it.

Bolkcom had to gun down the animal after it broke into his Montana home in the early hours of Thursday morning

Bolkcom, left, his fiance Seeley Oblander, the two had been woken around 3AM with their dog Maizey barking furiously at the bear

The couple had been up late the night previous preparing to travel to Arizona where Oblander had a bachelorette party planned with her friends.

They later discovered that the bear had entered their home via a screened window.

She said: 'I never thought there would be a bear in our house, so that was quite the wakeup call at three in the morning.

'I just stayed downstairs with the dogs, trying to help keep them out of the way and let Tom handle it. He did a great job.'

The couple and Bolkcom's brother dragged the bear outside then called both their fathers, who came to the house to meet with a game warden so the others could catch their morning flight.

Oblander told the Billings Gazette: 'We wanted it out of our house, the bear smelled awful, and he really made a mess.'

The warden told them the bear was around ten years old and weighed around 250-300 pounds.

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks spokesperson Chrissy Webb said that the shooting was justified in self-defense.

The warden told them the bear was around ten years old and weighed around 250-300 pounds

The bear had managed to gain entry to their home via a screened window, pictured here

Black bears are said to frequent the area and have been spotted prowling the local neighborhood in recent weeks

According to Webb, black bears have frequented the area and in recent weeks one had been prowling the neighborhood, taking food from trash cans.

Although the house that was broken into did not have unsecured food or garbage, Webb said the bear likely became habituated to associate humans with food, creating a dangerous situation for local residents and the animal.

Webb continued: 'This is pretty abnormal behavior to have a bear entering a home.

'This large male black bear ended up dying because of improperly stored attractants in the community.'

DailyMail.com has contacted the couple for comment but did not immediately hear back.
A legal watchdog could be given greater powers to monitor and punish rogue lawyers following an undercover investigation by the Mail.

The Legal Services Board (LSB) announced it will review the tools available to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) to probe lawyers suspected of wrongdoing.

The LSB said this could include increasing the maximum financial penalty the SRA can issue, which is currently 25,000, as well as looking at whether officials should be able to 'proactively gather information and share intelligence to help them detect and address misconduct'.

Last week, the Mail ran a series of reports exposing the widespread abuse of Britain's asylum system by immigration solicitors and advisers.

Legal professionals at several firms agreed to help an undercover reporter file a fabricated asylum claim to the Home Office.

A legal watchdog could be given greater powers to monitor and punish rogue lawyers following an undercover investigation by the Mail. VP Lingajothy (pictured) asked for 10,000 to invent a horrific back story to use in the asylum application

Malik Nazar Hayat (pictured) told our reporter the whole process would cost 5,500 in cash, a price he insists is a steal from his usual fees of 12,000 to 15,000 for similar cases

The findings prompted the SRA to close three of the firms after Rishi Sunak and Lord Chancellor Alex Chalk said the allegations of 'appalling' conduct must be met with the 'full force of sanctions'.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman, Labour's shadow attorney general Emily Thornberry and Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Alistair Carmichael were among politicians from all parties that had also called for legal authorities to investigate.

Alan Kershaw, chairman of the LSB, said: 'The public rightly expects that lawyers in England and Wales will uphold the highest professional standards and ethical conduct.

'For some time, we have been concerned that a lack of effective fining powers among some regulators, particularly the SRA, may hamper their ability to tackle wilful and serious misconduct.

'We are anxious to ensure... regulators have the most effective tools available to identify and deal with such misconduct.'

The Mail's investigation revealed that solicitor VP Lingajothy asked for 10,000 to invent a horrific back story to use in the asylum application. This included claims of sexual torture, beatings, slave labour, false imprisonment and death threats that left him suicidal and compelled to flee to the UK.

The legal adviser promised he could get a doctor's report to back up the story and produced anti-depressants to be given to the Home Office as 'evidence' of psychological trauma.

At another firm a lawyer said he would have to 'create the evidence' to make it appear the reporter had a genuine fear of 'persecution and assassination' if he returned home.

He boasted of a success rate of more than 90 per cent with similar asylum cases. A third outlined the 'fine ingredients of an asylum case' he said he would use to make it appear the reporter feared for his life in India. This could include anti-government political allegiances, a love affair with someone from the wrong caste or being gay.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman (pictured), Labour's shadow attorney general Emily Thornberry and Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Alistair Carmichael were among politicians from all parties that had also called for legal authorities to investigate

Two said they would falsely claim the Mail's reporter was a 'victim of human trafficking' who had been fleeced, betrayed and abandoned by people smugglers.

Many of the law firm staff enjoy wealth and prestige, including Mr Lingajothy who owns a multi-million pound property empire with his wife, drives a BMW with personalised number plates and sent his son to Eton.

But while immigrants face jail for making false asylum claims, solicitors who encourage, facilitate and profit from them merely face professional sanctions.

One law firm sacked the representative the Mail spoke to and closed one of its offices after we revealed our findings. It said his actions breached the law and broke the Solicitors Regulation Authority's code of conduct.
Nobody needs to be told that petting a dog can brighten your day  but a growing body of research suggests that it could be great for your health as well.

A new field of scientific study is finding that even brief positive experiences between people and man's best friend can have a lasting impact, lowering stress hormones and increasing what experts sometimes call the 'love hormone'.

In fact, there's growing evidence that even just brief moments of quality time with a good dog can also help people think better.

Twice-weekly short interactions between school children and dogs helped improve the youngsters' reasoning skills and concentration  positive effects that researchers found persisted for months on end.

A new field of scientific study is finding that even brief positive experiences between people and man's best friend can have a lasting impact, lowering stress hormones and increasing what experts sometimes call 'the love hormone'

'I think it is safe to say that animals are beneficial to our mental and physical health,' psychiatry professor Nancy Gee, director of the Center for Human-Animal Interaction at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), told National Public Radio.

'We're seeing really nice effects,' she added.

Gee's center at VCU is part of an explosion of new research into the health-improving potential of people interacting more often with animals.

Research into the topic has expanded thanks to funding both from the public sector, including the US National Institutes of Health, and private not-for-profits, notably the Waltham PetCare Science Institute.

Gee is quick to point out that 'pets are not a panacea,' however, and that many of the therapy dogs used in her group's research have been specially selected for their good behavior, friendly demeanor and willingness to follow directions.

Plus, not every person is a dog person, whether because of allergies or simply personal preference.

'But for people who really get it, who really connect with the animals, they really can make a big difference,' Gee said.

Last year, a team of medical researchers and psychologists in Australia reviewed 129 peer-reviewed studies of human-dog interactions, finding that more than half of those studies measured positive physiological changes inside people's bodies and minds.

In particular, these studies have shown that the presence of the stress hormone cortisol plummets in people who have simply enjoyed 5 to 20 minutes with a dog. It didn't matter, the researchers said, whether it was their pet or someone else's.

'Also, we see increases in oxytocin, that feel-good kind of bonding hormone,' Gee told NPR.

The Australian team also found broad scientific consensus that human-dog interactions increased 'heart rate variability', changes in people's heartbeat which have proven to be a good measure of overall improvements in health.

Higher 'heart rate variability' (HVR), according to medical experts, has been linked to increased rates of relaxation, while lower HVR has been associated with major depression diagnoses and a higher risk of fatal heart disease.

'What I love about this research,' Gee said, 'is that it's a two-way street,'

'We see the same thing in the dogs,' she noted. 'So the dogs' oxytocin also increases when they interact with a human.'

Evidence has mounted that the presence of the stress hormone cortisol plummets in people who have simply enjoyed 5 to 20 minutes with a dogs. It didn't matter, research has shown, whether it was their pet or someone else's. But the best part: the dogs' brains felt the love too

Gee herself has contributed to international collaborations on this research, helping scientists at the UK's University of Lincoln with a randomized control trial studying how regular playtime with dogs could benefit school children.

The team looked at the effects of short interactions between young students, each around eight and nine years old, and dogs visiting their classroom about two times a week.

She and her colleagues found that the students who got in some playtime with dogs during the week had lower stress and improved 'executive functioning', meaning that their reasoning skills and their ability to focus got measurably better.

And those cognitive benefits did not fade with time.

'We actually saw [those effects] one month later,' Gee said. 'And there's some evidence that [they] may exist six months later.'

Of course, for as good as an impromptu meet-cute with a new dog in a public park or at school might be, their health benefits pale in comparison to the documented rewards of true blue dog ownership.

Another comprehensive analysis of peer-reviewed scientific studies, this one published by the American Heart Association, found that dog ownership was linked to a 33 percent drop in the risk of death for heart attack survivors who lived alone.

The so-called 'meta-analysis,' which took in data from 10 studies that all told tracked the health of 3.8 million people, reduced the risk of death for stroke survivors who had previously lived alone by 27 percent.

Over all, the American Heart Association found that living with a dog reduced the chances of death  across the board  by 24 per cent and lowered the risk of heart attack deaths by 31 per cent.

According to Megan Mueller, a psychology professor at Tufts University, one reason dogs are so good at lowering the stress and improving focus for humans is simply because they're so good at living in the moment themselves.

'Animals, and dogs in particular, live in the moment,' Mueller told NPR. 'They're experiencing their environment with wonder and awe all the time.'

'They're not bringing up what happened to them earlier in the day or what they're thinking about in the future,' she said. 'They're there right now.'
Summer 2023 is adding more worrying records to the history books, with the world's oceans hitting their hottest ever recorded temperature, scientists have revealed.

Data from the EU's Copernicus programme shows that the average sea temperatures hit 69.72F (20.96C) on July 31, beating a record of 69.71F (20.95C) set in March 2016.

Average sea temperatures have been climbing steadily since the 1970s, the data reveals, due to greenhouse gases trapping more heat and making the water feel 'like a bath', according to one expert.

Global air surface temperatures for July 2023 were also expected to make it the hottest month on record.

The new data follows the hottest June on record and extreme weather events, including heatwaves in Europe, North America and Asia and wildfires in Canada and Greece.

Average sea temperatures have been climbing steadily since records started back in the late 1970s, the data shows. Here, daily global sea surface temperature (C) are plotted as a time series for each year from January 1, 1979 to July 23, 2023. The years 2023 and 2016 are shown with thick lines shaded in bright red and dark red, respectively. Other years are shown with thin lines and shaded according to the decade, from blue (1970s) to brick red (2020s)

Air surface temperatures are usually the main metric looked at when considering temperature rises, but ocean temperatures are key indicators too (file photo)

READ MORE: Ocean temperatures in Florida hit 'hot tub-like' 97F A sunbather on Miami Beach, Florida, where sea surface temperatures hit almost 100F Advertisement

Staff at the Copernicus climate change monitoring programme blamed 'anthropogenic' (human-made) greenhouse gas emissions for the concerning stats.

'Record-breaking temperatures are part of the trend of drastic increases in global temperatures,' said Carlo Buontempo, director of the Copernicus climate change service.

'Anthropogenic emissions are ultimately the main driver of these rising temperatures.'

Air surface temperatures are usually the main metric looked at when considering temperature rises, but ocean temperatures are key indicators too.

Earth's oceans are considered 'carbon sinks', meaning they are good at absorbing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere.

But the warmer oceans become, the less adept they are at absorbing CO2, which leads to more of the gas in the atmosphere instead.

This simply adds to the greenhouse effect and in turn fuels climate change, but warmer oceans have other serious implications too.

Increasing water temperatures also result in more evaporation, which creates additional moisture in the atmosphere leading to heavy rainfalls and flooding.

WMO says July is sure to be the hottest month 'by a significant margin'. Pictured are the 30 warmest months on record globally

READ MORE: July is 'virtually certain' to be the world's hottest month on record Ablaze: Worldwide temperature readings of the air and sea as well as losses of Antarctic sea ice have all smashed previous records this summer, while wildfires are currently ripping through Greece (pictured) and other parts of the Mediterranean Advertisement

Oceans also become more acidic when they're warmer, which threatens marine life such as corals and clams as it can dissolve their calcium carbonate shells and skeletons.

And corals are also threatened by a process called 'bleaching' where they turn white, caused by warmer temperatures and other factors.

It follows reports that ocean temperatures off the Florida coast hit 'hot tub-like' temperatures last month of 97F (36C) which can cause unprecedented damage to fragile coral reefs.

Dr Kathryn Lesneski, a marine biologist at the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, said the 'water feels like a bath when you jump in'.

'Right now there is widespread coral bleaching at shallow reefs in Florida and many corals have already died,' she told the BBC.

As for global air surface temperatures last month, records were broken four days in a row, from July 3-6, according to Copernicus data.

All days since then have been hotter than the previous record for average global air surface temperature of 62.2F (16.8C), set on August 13, 2016, it reveals.

The hottest day last month was July 6, when the global average reached 62.7F (17.08C), and the values recorded on July 5 and 7 were within 0.01C of this.

The EU service stresses that these figures refer to the global average  so lower than a single typically 'hot' temperature reading  but as an average it is unusually high.

Coral bleaching (seen here in the Great Barrier Reef) is thought to have been caused by heat stress due to warmer water temperatures as a result of global climate change

Scientists are warning the soaring temperatures could devastate coral reefs. Pictured: A healthy reef displaying vibrant colour

Data also shows the global mean surface air temperature for the first 23 days of July was 62.5F (16.95C)  although an average for the whole month is yet to be revealed.

But this is above the 61.9F (16.63C) recorded for the full month of July 2019, which is currently the hottest month on record.

Scientists at Copernicus and the World Meteorological Organisation have already said they expect July 2023 to smash the record set by July 2019 and became the new hottest month on record.

Once they have data for the whole of last month rather than just the first 23 days will they know if it has set the record  although they strongly suspect it will.

Pictured, global air surface temperatures for 1-23 July for all months of July from 1940 to 2023. As yet, there's only data available for the first 23 days of July, so prior Julys have been compared accordingly for this graph. Once the data for the whole of July 2023 is available, scientists will know if the month smashes the record for 'hottest month on record' (although they strongly suspect it will)

The data follows extreme weather events, including heatwaves in Europe, North America and Asia, and wildfires in Canada and Greece. Pictured, flames burn a forest in Vati village, on the Aegean Sea island of Rhodes, southeastern Greece, July 25, 2023

The experts said fossil fuel use is to blame for the extreme heat that has July on track to be the warmest ever 'by a significant margin'  potentially 62.51F (16.95C) as an average for the entire month.

'The extreme weather which has affected many millions of people in July is unfortunately the harsh reality of climate change and a foretaste of the future,' said World Meteorological Organization's Secretary-General Professor Petteri Taalas.

'The need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is more urgent than ever before. Climate action is not a luxury but a must.'

In a chilling statement last week, UN chief Antonio Guterres has said the era of global warming had ended and that our planet is now entering an 'era of global boiling'.

He said: 'Climate change is here. It is terrifying. And it is just the beginning. The era of global warming has ended; the era of global boiling has arrived.'
Struggle to pick the best picture for your dating profile? Maybe a robot can help.

That's because Tinder has just started testing a new artificial intelligence (AI) tool that selects users' best-looking photos for their profiles.

It studies a user's photo album and selects the five images that best represent them in the hope of enhancing the chances someone will swipe right.

Bernard Kim, the chief executive of Tinder's owner, Match Group, said the aim of the feature was to remove the stress that comes with having to choose a profile picture.

He added: 'Sometimes, people are really excited to jump into the Tinder experiencethen in that exact moment where you upload five pictures, people get generally nervous or uncomfortable, like, "What is the right picture that Ive taken over the last year to make my dating profile more me?"'

Update: Tinder has just started testing a new artificial intelligence (AI) tool that selects users' best-looking photos for their profiles

HOW TO SPOT A TINDER SWINDLER Idealistic profile : In Italy, many scammers pose as real estate agents, while those in the Philippines pose as salesmen. Military persona : Scammers often pose as military servicemen to portray an image of authority. Flattery : Fraudsters may pile on the compliments and pet names, indicating a strong longing. Money requests : Cybercriminals may claim they need money to help relatives or escape an emergency. Advertisement

'I really think AI can help our users build better profiles in a more efficient way that really do showcase their personalities.'

Kim said the feature was part of a series of initiatives that Match Group is planning to launch that use generative AI to 'eliminate awkwardness' and make dating more rewarding.

For example, Tinder is getting a new capability that leverages AI to 'surface the right content to the right people to help improve relevancy,' the company wrote in a letter to shareholders.

The language is not exactly clear but essentially means ways to reduce the number of left swipes.

Tinder's chief product officer Mark Van Ryswyk also suggested last month that the dating app may adopt AI to help users write their bios.

It is still in its infancy and only available in test market, but this would come up with a personalised text that is put together by studying the 'interests' and 'relationship goals' of a person's profile.

'You know, some of us are gifted writers, but many of us are not So, being able to help draw out what's important to capture in a bio, you know, sharing something a bit more personal or maybe that's just sharing a highlight, or just sharing what your intent ultimately is,' Van Ryswyk said.

He added that a recent Tinder study had shown that a third of its members would 'absolutely' use generative AI to help them build a profile.

The feature studies a user's photo album and selects the five images that best represent them in the hope of enhancing the chances someone will swipe right (stock image)

However, Kim cautioned that Match Group would be careful about its approach to AI dating amid fears that the tech could be used by scammers to create fake profiles to trick people.

'We need to be really thoughtful about making sure that we're giving the right thought to authenticity and ethical and privacy concerns,' he said.

Three years ago the dating app announced plans to crackdown on catfishing with the help of AI.

It unveiled a photo verification feature to check that profile photos uploaded by users are genuine.

Once a person's photos have been verified, their profile is granted a blue checkmark icon so that other users can trust their appearance is genuine.

Tinder is one of the world's leading dating apps, which claims that it receives around two billion views per day and is responsible for around one million dates every week.
The most exciting time of the year for Apple fans  the announcement of a new iPhone  is now just a month away.

The tech giant is expecting to pull back the curtain on the iPhone 15 in the first two weeks of September from its Cupertino headquarters.

iPhone 15 could pack some of the biggest design changes for an Apple smartphone in recent years, including a new charging port.

It will come hot on the heels of the company's first ever augmented reality headset, which is expected to be released in the US in the first few months of 2024.

Here's everything we know about the iPhone 15, including what it will look like, when it will be released and how much it will cost.

Here's what we know about the iPhone 15's design based on leaks and predictions from industry experts

Rumoured iPhone 15 models iPhone 15 (standard model)

iPhone 15 Plus

iPhone 15 Pro

iPhone 15 Pro Max (also being referred to as 'iPhone 15 Ultra') Advertisement

HOW MANY iPHONE 15 MODELS WILL APPLE REVEAL?

Apple is expected to unveil four variations of the iPhone 15  the standard model, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max.

According to some reports, Apple has decided to change the name of the iPhone Pro Max  the top end version  to 'iPhone Ultra'.

Whatever its name, it's still considered one of its two 'Pro' models (meaning it'll have more power and greater capabilities, as well as a higher price-tag).

A few features will be exclusive to the higher-end versions, but the biggest design tweaks will come to the entire iPhone 15 family.

HOW WILL iPHONE 15 BE DIFFERENT FROM iPHONE 14?

Newly-unveiled iPhones can be a disappointment because they're not much different from the prior year's version  but iPhone 15 is shaping up to be an exception.

According to leaked information and dummy units  accurate models given to third parties  there are some substantial design changes coming with the new flagship.

Firstly, iPhone 15 will have a completely different charging port, although Apple has been effectively forced to make this design change.

Unlike predecessors, iPhone 15 has a USB-C charging port  commonly used by Android phones  instead of a Lightning port, which is an Apple design.

iPhones currently use Apple's proprietary power connector technology 'Lightning' (top right). But Apple will have to comply with a new EU law that makes USB-C (bottom right) the EU standard. This means iPhones sold in EU countries will have to come with USB-C instead of Lightning

Pictured, dummy units of all four iPhone 15 models as revealed in a video posted to YouTube by MacRumors

YouTuber Dan Barbera, who tried out the new port with a USB-C charger, seems certain that the charging technology is all but confirmed for the next iPhone

READ MORE: Apple DOES NOT seem happy about the USB-C law Apple exec Greg Joswiak (right) said the tech giant will 'have to comply' with a new law passed by the EU Advertisement

Apple has had to switch from Lightning, discernible by its eight pins, to USB-C due to new European legislation that is aiming to make a single charging design the common standard  and ultimately reduce electronic waste.

YouTuber Dan Barbera had access to a iPhone 15 dummy unit that clearly showed a port with a USB-C charger.

In fact, the dummy was so accurate that he was able to plug his USB-C charging cable into its charging port.

'You get that sense of relief that we're finally going to basically be able to carry one cable for almost all modern day electronics,' the YouTuber said.

In terms of the flagship's shape, all four iPhone 15 models have curvier edges compared with the iPhone 14 models, which makes it more comfortable in the hand, according to Barbera.

iPhone 15's edges also have a more 'dull, brushed' look than the shiny metal edges on the iPhone 14 models, thanks to the use of titanium instead of stainless steel, while the back is a matte glass rather than polished glass.

While Apple is not expecting to increase the size of the iPhone's screen this year, it will shrink the border that goes around the edge  known as the 'bezel'.

A US leaker and Apple expert called Mark Gurman claims the border size around the display will be 1.5 millimeters, down from about 2.2 millimeters on current iPhones.

Long term, Apple wants to release an iPhone that is 'truly all-screen' with no borders around the display and no cutouts for cameras or sensors, he says  and iPhone 15 is a step towards that goal.

Meanwhile, Dynamic Island  a feature introduced last year with just the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max  is rumored to feature on all four iPhone 15 models.

Dynamic Island - seen at the top of these iPhone 14 Pro models - is a built-in notch that gets bigger to display notifications

READ MORE: Apple unveils its augmented reality headset Apple's Vision Pro headset on display at the Worldwide Developers Conference, June 5 Advertisement

Dynamic Island is a pill-shaped notch at the top of the screen that hides the front-facing camera but also changes size to show important alerts, notifications and activities, blurring the boundary between hardware and software.

Meanwhile, the camera bump on the back will be thicker, possibly to house more powerful image sensors, according to a report from 9to5mac, while the lenses are 'protruding' more, likely for greater zoom capabilities.

Previous reports have suggested Apple was introducing touch-sensitive buttons for the iPhone 15, but these have been shelved, according to Gurman.

'The buttons wouldnt physically press in, allowing new software tricks and reducing the number of breakable components on the device,' he said.

'The enhancement, codenamed Bongo, was cancelled after a slew of engineering problems.

'There also were concerns about the cost increase compared with regular buttons.'

A top-of-the-range chip called A17 Bionic for the iPhone 15 Pro and Max models will also improve performance, including AI capabilities and battery life.

Apple releases a new iPhone every year to much fanfare. The iPhone 15 models will likely be released in September 2023 - although one analyst claimed this will be delayed by a month

HOW MUCH WILL iPHONE 15 COST?

According to Apple analyst Jeff Pu based in Hong Kong, iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max will be more expensive than previous Pro models.

Apple has raised the prices for the two Pro models this year due to big hardware updates, including the titanium frame and the A17 Bionic chip, he claims.

iPHONE 14 PRICES iPhone 14: 799/$849 iPhone 14 Plus: 949/$899 iPhone 14 Pro: 1,099/$999 iPhone 14 Pro Max: 1,199/$1,099 Advertisement

Although Pu didn't reveal exact price-tags, it's worth noting that last year's iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max started at 1,099/$999 and 1,199/$1,099, respectively.

Tim Long, an analyst at Barclays, also expects price hikes for the two more expensive iPhone 15 models, while the standard and Plus models will be about the same as last year.

iPhone 14's standard model was 799/$849, while the iPhone 14 Plus was 949/$899.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has already fueled speculation that this year's models will be pricier than any iPhone predecessors.

During an investor call in February, he suggested that a price increase would be justified.

'The iPhone has become so integral into peoples lives,' the CEO said.

'I think people are willing to really stretch to get the best they can afford in that category.'

iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max are seen at an Apple store in New York, September 16, 2022. iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone Pro Max started at 1,099/$999 and 1,199/$1,099, respectively

WHEN WILL iPHONE 15 BE RELEASED?

Apple usually announces a new flagship iPhone during a live event in the first two weeks of September, and 2023 is set to be no different.

Last year, the iPhone 14 was unveiled on a Wednesday (September 7), while the year before that the iPhone 13 arrived on a Tuesday (September 14).

That suggests iPhone 15 will be launched on one of four days in September 2023  Tuesday 5, Wednesday 6, Tuesday 12 or Wednesday 13.

Apple has been quiet so far about any unveiling event for this autumn, although teaser promos and invites will likely drop this month.

Fans will be hoping Apple won't have to delay the unveiling until October due to manufacturing issues, as claimed by one US analyst.

Apple already had to postpone the iPhone 12's debut in 2020 due to supply chain disruption brought on by the Covid pandemic.
British restaurants could be one step closer to featuring sizzling lab-grown steaks on their menus.

Israeli firm Aleph Farms is believed to have become the first to apply for regulatory approval from the UK's Food Standards Agency.

Each slab of beef, which takes around four weeks to grow, is cultivated from a single batch of cells taken from a cow in California.

Though it takes two years on average to get approval, the company is planning to begin production in the UK within the next few years.

A decade has now passed since the world's first cultivated beef burger - created from cells taken from an animal and grown in a lab - was first unveiled.

Fake meat: British restaurants could be one step closer to featuring sizzling lab-grown steaks on their menus. Pictured is a cultivated rib-eye steak produced by the Israeli firm Aleph Farms

READ MORE: British scientists grow pork in a lab that looks like real meat British scientists successfully grew a complete pork steak Advertisement

But while the technology has raced ahead, the industry is still hampered in its struggle to gain regulatory approval.

US start-up GOOD Meat became the first company in the world to sell lab-grown chicken after it was given the go-ahead in Singapore in 2020.

It took a further three years however before it was able to introduce it to the firm's home country in June.

No lab-grown meat is available yet in the UK, with industry figures warning that tight regulation is proving the biggest obstacle.

British investment in the industry has soared in recent years, with the market expected to make up almost a quarter of global meat consumption by 2035.

Aleph's first cut, the 'Petit Steak', was taken from a premium Black Angus cow named Lucy, who was bred in California.

All the technology needs is a one-time collection of the cow's fertilised eggs to grow what it claims are 'high-quality, tasty, and nutritious' steaks.

Growing the steaks takes around four weeks and, once at scale, the firm expects to grow thousands of tons of steak from this single collection of cells.

Didier Toubia, chief executive of Aleph, said: 'We believe the UK will take a couple of years, but the potential is huge.'

Aleph plans to begin production in the UK in the next few years and is in talks with potential commercial partners, he said.

It is unlikely to be sooner however as the FSA said most product applications took around two years on average to complete.

Each slab of beef, which takes around four weeks to grow, is cultivated from a single batch of cells taken from a cow in California

Though it takes two years on average to get approval, Aleph Farms is planning to begin production in the UK within the next few years

How it works: All the technology needs is a one-time collection of a cow's fertilised eggs to grow what it claims are 'high-quality, tasty, and nutritious' steaks. Cells are extracted and then grown in a lab over a period of about 3 to 4 weeks

The firm applied to the FSA on July 21 - shortly after it also submitted one in Switzerland, the first such filing in Europe.

Since Brexit, Britain has begun reviewing the way it authorises novel foods - products that have not previously been eaten by humans.

The regime in the European Union had been criticised for being too complex and lacking transparency.

Over 2bn has been invested in the industry ever since Dutch scientist Mark Post unveiled the first cultivated meat burger on live television in 2013.

A recent study suggested lab-grown meat could decrease climate emissions by up to 92 per cent compared to conventional beef.

Over 150 companies on 6 continents are trying to develop their own version, with around 50 per cent based in Europe.

Investment in the UK soared by 400 per cent last year - making Britain the number one nation in Europe for funding the technology.
Former high-ranking intelligence official David Grusch has made waves all summer, charging in public and classified settings that the US government has hidden crashed non-human spacecraft from both the public and, illegally, from Congress.

Grusch added to his sworn testimony and classified whistleblower complaint in a new interview with BBC radio Thursday  describing his claims of a classified UFO reverse-engineering program and UFO-related deaths as 'an act of truth to power.'

He warned that America's alleged top secret UFO portfolio opens 'a Pandora's Box for potential military weapons development-type reverse engineering activities.'

And, for the first time, Grusch's attorney in his active whistleblower complaint, Charles McCullough, also came forward to speak publicly on his client's allegations.

McCullough, the former Inspector General of the US Intelligence Community (ICIG) appointed by President Obama in 2011, told BBC radio that Congress needs more information on UFOs 'to properly oversee things going on in the executive branch.'

While Grusch has asserted he has 'firsthand access' to some evidence in support of his claims, neither Grusch nor McCullough has said that the UFO whistleblower has seen crashed craft or recovered 'non-human intelligences' with his own eyes.

David Grusch, a former high-ranking intelligence official, testified under oath last week to Congress regarding his knowledge of secret UFO programs. To his right, Grusch's lawyer, former US Intelligence Community watchdog Charles McCullough (light blue tie), watched on

'Our government relies on congressional oversight, the checks and balances of congressional oversight,' McCullough told BBC Radio 4's The World Tonight this past Thursday.

'David's allegation, at its base, is essentially that Congress does not have access to the information it needs to properly oversee things going on in the executive branch,' McCullough said.

McCullough  who served as Obama's top legal watchdog over America's spy agencies, after a decade with the FBI  also confirmed that his client Grusch did, in fact, brief both House and Senate intelligence committees behind closed doors.

'He's briefed both of the intel committees,' McCullough told BBC radio, 'and he's had a two-hour hearing with two-hours of testimony last week.'

And the intelligence committees appear to have taken Grusch's testimony quite seriously.

Last month, Senate intel member Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate majority leader, in partnership with Republican Senators Marco Rubio of Florida and Mike Rounds of South Dakota, led efforts to appoint a nine-member review panel to assess all classified government records on UFOs.

That amendment, which contained language echoing Grusch's claims, has since passed a Senate vote.

Critics, however, have been quick to point to a statement made by McCullough's law firm in June, which appeared to dramatically distance the firm from aspects of the news media's reporting on Grusch and their client's own extraordinary claims.

While critics speculated that McCullough might have regretted his involvement with Grusch, the former civil servant nevertheless has stood by his client  quite literally while attending the House oversight committee's UFO hearing last week.

Grusch, a former Department of Defense official, first appeared on camera for NewsNation to tell his story of deeply covert US programs that he says possess 'intact and partially intact' craft of non-human origin

'It is unlikely that Grusch, speaking to Congress under oath, would perjure himself so brazenly over such specific, falsifiable facts,' another past Obama-appointee, former Defense Department official Marik von Rennenkampff, wrote in The Hill this week.

'Particularly with his high-profile attorney sitting directly behind him.'

If Grusch knowingly provided false material to the ICIG in his formal complaint, the UFO whistleblower could face a fine of up to $10,000 for the criminal offense, under Title 18  1001 of the US criminal code, or worse, up to five years in prison, or both.

Such penalties raise intriguing, unresolved questions about both Grusch and the firsthand witnesses whom he says he has referred to the current US Intelligence Community Inspector General.

'Given the significant penalties for making false statements to an inspector general,' von Rennenkampff wrote, 'it is extremely unlikely that multiple high-level, highly-cleared officials would falsely claim to have first-hand knowledge of myths and rumors.'

Ryan Graves, a former pilot, Air Force and intelligence agency veteran David Grusch and Navy veteran fighter pilot Commander David Fravor testified under oath that they had firsthand UFO encounters or knowledge about secret government programs involving 'non-human' tech

The US Navy's so-called 2015 GIMBAL UFO video (above) taken with an F/A-18's infrared targeting pod, infamously depicted a mysterious object flying in restricted airspace off the Atlantic coast. The airspace had been cordoned off for use by Naval aviators during training

Grusch waxed philosophical when asked by BBC Radio 4 why he chose to come forward with his extraordinary accusations of federal government malfeasance on the UFO issue.

'I believe the US government should be held accountable for potentially overclassifying or misclassifying basic science,' Grusch told the BBC.

'I found that to be very important, for the public at large to understand, you know, their place in the cosmos, their place in the universe.'

'It boils down to a sense of duty,' Grusch said, 'an act of truth to power.'

Pictured: Supposedly a dead alien receiving an autopsy following the Roswell incident

While Grusch is still forbidden from disclosing certain information, per the terms of his Defense Office of Prepublication and Security Review agreement with the Pentagon, he did manage to clarify and reemphasize key facts in his new interview.

'There's certain things that I have firsthand access to that I can't publicly discuss at this time,' Grusch said.

'However, myself and other colleagues interviewed 40 individuals, both current and former highly distinguished intelligence and military personnel that were specifically on these [UFO crash retrieval] programs.'

'And those that were willing I directed to the Intelligence Community Inspector General. So, the Inspector General was able to interview these people that do have direct firsthand information.'

Grusch noted that the classified UFO program has existed in some form or another for over 89 years and that it leveraged secrecy protocols first put in place for the Manhattan Project: the top secret US military effort that built the first atomic bomb during World War II.

'They weren't sure how ontologically shocking it was gonna be to the world populace,' Grusch said. 'So, they decided to keep it under wraps for many years.'
'Where the skies are so blue, the late Ronnie Van Zant sang in the country music classic Sweet Home Alabama, in a southern drawl full of conviction. Looking out from my seafront balcony, he certainly seems to have got that right.

As the beaming sun settles high in the sky above sugar-white sands and crystalline waters, it quickly becomes clear that the catchy tune is spot on about this much-maligned state  so often talked down because of its rural backwaters populated by tough, poor and sometimes rough-around-the-edges communities. Google Alabama and redneck and youll get a lot of hits.

But despite Zant bringing the sunny skies of Alabama to the worlds attention 50 years ago, most first-time visitors to this corner of the States, known as Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, are likely to come away pleasantly surprised.

I, for one, didnt even know that the 22nd state had a coastline.

And its a lovely one. As I arrive, Alabamas pristine shores are sparkling, pelicans glide overhead in neat V formations and the empty golden beaches stretch into the distance. It feels remote and tranquil  yet to the east lie Floridas crowded sands, while 600 miles south across the Gulf of Mexico, Cancun throbs with all-night parties.

Serene: During his tour of Alabama's coast, James March explores the beaches of the resort city Orange Beach

James says that most first-time visitors to Alabama's coastal hotspots - such as Orange Beach (above) - 'are likely to come away pleasantly surprised'

'I, for one, didnt even know that the 22nd state had a coastline,' writes James

Here, it could not be more different. The narrow coast juts out beneath Mobile Bay, a shallow inlet from the sea, and stretches from the Civil War bulwark Fort Morgan in the west to the serene Orange Beach in the east, with so many quiet bays youll often find you have the beach all to yourself.

My billet is The Lodge At Gulf State Park, a Hilton hotel. Despite its 350 rooms, the neutral colour palette, laid-back atmosphere and host of wooden screens and panelling make it seem more like an opulent beach shack.

Directly behind lies Gulf State Park, a world of meandering trails, quiet lakes and a key part of one of the most biodiverse regions in the United States: 450 of Americas 1,000 bird species either live or pass through Alabama.

The narrow Alabama coast juts out beneath Mobile Bay (above), a shallow inlet from the sea, and stretches from the Civil War bulwark Fort Morgan in the west to the serene Orange Beach in the east

Going native: Kayakers in the Orange Beach area. James says Alabama's coast 'feels remote and tranquil'

This I learn from my guide, Kelly, during a morning park stroll. She excitedly points out flame-red cardinals and high-hanging turkey vultures. The distant staccato yelps, she says, are those of a coopers hawk.

A small crowd gathers around us when Kelly picks up a passing ribbon snake with bulbous eyes. Venomous snakes have thin black eyes, while non-venomous snakes have more rounded pupils, she explains. So dont worry!

If avoiding serpents appeals then both traditional and e-bikes are available to hire at the park, while the nearby Waterville USA waterpark is ideal for families when the mid-afternoon heat picks up.

Back on the shore at Gulf State Park Pier, the hazy coastal views are magnificent and fishing is a fine way to pass languid mornings. Rods are available to hire for 16 for four hours.

My awkward attempts at casting are almost as risible as the fishs luck in gobbling on to the shrimp at the end of the hook. I return empty-handed.

For a more successful taste of the deep, some of the Gulfs finest seafood is found further east, at Orange Beach.

At Gulf State Park Pier, the hazy coastal views are magnificent and fishing is a fine way to pass languid mornings, says James

James reveals that it's common to spot pelicans 'gliding overhead in neat V formations'

Above is a dish at Coastal restaurant, which James says is the place to go for seafood

Coastal restaurant is the place to go: its dreamy patio is bathed in the milky orange glow of a Gulf sunset just about every evening and its creamy grouper fish sandwich is deliriously succulent. Dont miss the magnificently delicate Murder Point oysters, too.

This being America, though, I also spot a trend for grilled oysters doused in melted cheese and fiery hot sauce, something I feel is akin to pouring Irn-Bru into a glass of single malt whisky.

Ready for a change of scene, I drive an hour north towards Five Rivers Delta for a Wild Native kayak tour. Here, the landscape evolves into an evocative scenery of lazy river bayous, often referred to as Americas Amazon.

As I paddle slowly downstream in my kayak, I notice the dead eyes and dark green snout of an alligator poking through the water near some reeds. It lies there, motionless, like a scaly submerged statue.

Theres been only one recorded alligator attack in 48 years in Alabama, my chirpy guide, Chris, announces. In Florida theyve had over 300.

This fact keeps everyone at ease, alongside his relentless stream of chatter, wildlife facts and jokes.

James goes to Five Rivers Delta (above) for a kayak tour. 'Here, the landscape evolves into an evocative scenery of lazy river bayous, often referred to as "Americas Amazon",' he says

Speaking of Florida, back at Orange Beach theres a bar straddling the Florida/Alabama state line, imaginatively titled Flora-Bama. Heading for a drink there, I come to a ramshackle maze of wooden corridors with five stages and live music every night.

On the two-storey main stage, the Justin Johnson Trio belts out Tom Petty covers as a huge stars-and-stripes flag unfurls from the ceiling.

The swinging jazz rhythms of New Orleans are just a three-hour drive away and make for an alluring diversion, but Im content here with empty beaches, seductive southern rock, otherworldly nature and an endless sun.

Alabamas a sweet home, indeed.
Nicola Walker has got used to strangers shouting at her in the street.

Theyre drawn to the myriad characters shes portrayed on TV whove captured their imagination, from spy Ruth in Spooks to divorce lawyer Hannah in The Split and now boat-based crime-buster Annika.

When I was on Spooks theyd sidle up to me on the Tube and say, The package will be released at midnight, laughs Nicola, 53.

With The Split I had a woman shout at me across the platform at Baker Street, I wish youd been my lawyer! so I shouted back, Id have got you a good deal! Its fabulous.

What about Annika, the head of Scotlands Marine Homicide Unit in the acclaimed Alibi drama that was recently shown on BBC1 and returns to Alibi for a second series this week?

Actress Nicola Walker, from London, plays Annika Strandhed, a brilliant but quirky detective of Norwegian descent who's been made head of Scotland's Marine Homicide Unit

I got cornered in a supermarket by a woman who was very keen to learn whether I was actually driving the boat, says Nicola, talking about the RIB (rigid inflatable boat) Annika uses to zip across lochs in search of villains and dead bodies.

We had a long chat about boats and how I really did get the qualification to drive it. Im not sure why people talk to me, she shrugs. It must be something about my face.

Nicolas face is certainly one of TVs most familiar following acclaimed performances in hits including Last Tango In Halifax and Unforgotten.

When I say shes really hit her stride in her 40s and 50s, she laughs and recalls a warning she was given early in her career.

When I was 21 I was told by a very famous older actress that by 40 it would all be over, she says.

I remember thinking with youthful arrogance, No it wont, but it could have been. Women did disappear once they hit 40 back in the 90s. But its changed because weve all changed as a society.

And thank goodness for that, or Nicola may not have given us Annika. It sees her play Annika Strandhed, a brilliant but quirky detective of Norwegian descent whos been made head of Scotlands Marine Homicide Unit.

A single mother, she spent much of series one dealing with her stroppy teenage daughter Morgan (Silvie Furneaux) while trying to win over her team, which includes DS Michael McAndrews (Jamie Sives) and Varada Sethu, who joins the unit this series as DC Harper Weston.

What makes Annika so appealing is her quirky habit of talking directly to camera about whats on her mind. Annikas got a really different feeling to it, she says.

The shows success is also down to Nicolas portrayal of the socially awkward copper.

She can be really brave and clever, then really stupid, before redeeming herself by looking to the camera, raising an eyebrow and admitting shes made a terrible mistake. She feels very human.

Norwegian actor Sven Henriksen also joins the show as Annikas dad Magnus, whose arrival forces her to confront their difficult relationship

And Annika has made what appears to be a terrible mistake. At the end of season one she revealed to viewers that DS McAndrews is Morgans father and shes kept it a secret for years. Annika will pay for that in this series, says Nicola.

Thats whats interesting about the show. Crime is a Trojan horse to talk about other things. Season two is all about fathers.

Norwegian actor Sven Henriksen also joins the show as Annikas dad Magnus, whose arrival forces her to confront their difficult relationship.

But she was pleased to be back on the water. In one scene it said, Annika drives the RIB at full speed towards a seaplane, says Nicola. I had to play chicken with a plane!

I thought camera angles would let us cheat, but in fact I was driving full pelt at the seaplane with Varada next to me screaming. It was all very safe but it felt thrilling!

Just like the series itself.
Teen Mom star Cory Wharton has confirmed that his youngest child Maya will have to undergo more open-heart surgery - as he opened up about the 'intense' health battle she has endured in the first year of her life.

Cory, 32, and his girlfriend Taylor Selfridge have faced a brutal struggle over the past year watching their daughter go through multiple hospital stays and procedures after she was diagnosed with tricuspid atresia, a congenital heart condition.

Little Maya underwent open-heart surgery earlier this year, and speaking exclusively to DailyMail.com, Cory revealed it was 'the hardest thing we've ever had to do in our lives'.

Cory and Taylor, 29, along with their three-year-old daughter Mila, and his six-year-old daughter Ryder, are now 'trying to enjoy every moment' together and confirmed Maya is 'doing great' following her cardiac surgery.

'Life is amazing, all my girls are healthy and I'm just kind of pushing through the year,' Cory told DailyMail.com during a candid chat.

Life update: Teen Mom star Cory Wharton has confirmed that his daughter Maya will need to have more open-heart surgery in the future

Daddy's girl: Little Maya was diagnosed with tricuspid atresia, a congenital heart condition, when she was born in June 2022

Family man: Cory pictured with his girlfriend Taylor Selfridge and his three daughters: Ryder, six, Mila, three and one-year-old Maya

Getting along: Cory with ex Cheyenne Floyd and their daughter Ryder on Teen Mom: The Next Chapter

'That was the hardest thing we've ever had to do in our lives, watch Maya go through open heart surgery, it was just very intense. It's so rough.

'Being at the Children's Hospital in Los Angeles, the ICU unit is just like... I would talk to a doctor and then they would look at me and be like, "Hey, can you hold that for one second", and this blue light would go on in the room next to us and that basically means like a kid's heart stopped, so they have to go in there and resuscitate them, and it's just like such a stressful environment.

'No one wants to be there, no one wants to see their kid in bed. None of us parents want to be there, it was just terrible,' Cory added.

'It was a lot on everybody, Mila went up to Seattle with grandparents, I didn't see Ryder for like two weeks, so it was a lot on everybody, all the kids. I think everybody can agree we're so happy to be moved past that experience, and we have one more open heart surgery that she'll need in about two to three years, and then there shouldn't be any other surgeries.'

Cory continued: 'We're just happy to turn that chapter and move on, and she is doing great. She checks out all the doctor's appointments, she's passing all the little tests, and we're just so happy to turn that page and start a new chapter.'

Despite going through such a hard time as a family, Cory explained that Maya's health struggles have '100 per cent' made his and Taylor's relationship even stronger.

'No one else knows what we went through, we get to share that that experience together - even though we might not like it. And it just made me love her even more and I think she could say the same for me. We just all put everything aside and made sure that Maya came first,' the MTV star said.

During a recent episode of Teen Mom: The Next Chapter, fans of the show saw Taylor breaking down during a conversation with Cory as they spoke about the fact that Maya was 'struggling to breathe' ahead of her surgery.

Dad and daughter: Cory confirmed Maya is 'doing great' and they're now ready to 'start a new chapter'

Former couple: Cory and Cheyenne pictured together before their split

Group shot: Cory and Taylor, pictured in June, are 'living in the moment' with their adorable family

Brave girl: Cory often kept his fans up-to-date by sharing pics of Maya on social media

When asked if it was hard to watch those scenes back months later, Cory replied: 'It's fine. It's more so, Taylor gets a little bit upset that not more of the story can be told. It's very quick on the show, it doesn't really go through much of how we're feeling, it's just like one conversation here and there.'

Cory and Taylor have also had the support of his ex Cheyenne Floyd, whom he shares eldest daughter, Ryder, with. Cheyenne, 30, is now married to Zach Davis and the couple have a two-year-old son Ace.

Speaking about their co-parenting relationship, Cory said: 'Cheyenne keeps it very easy on me and we're very straight to the point. Like, we just shake it easy or be very straight to the point.

'And I think my biggest thing is, I just always want to show her respect. The big thing with us is like, I show you respect, you show me respect, and we don't ever cross that line, and things are easy and we just keep on flowing.

'I'm glad she's married and happy with her life. And I got my own family and doing my thing, so it's perfect because we just come together, we both want what's best for Ry, we just get it done,' he added.

In regards to their onscreen relationship on Teen Mom, Cory explained: 'I would say the biggest thing about Teen Mom is that it's through Cheyenne's voice. And what I mean by that is she's always gonna have the last say... you know, the show's called Teen Mom, it's not called Teen Dad!'

'So we're like kind of side characters in the show, so we just kind of do our thing and have fun with it,' he continued, before admitting he would 'love' to have his own spinoff show.

Emotional scenes: Cory was seen comforting his girlfriend in a recent episode of Teen Mom: The Next Chapter

Strong couple: The former Real World star said that Maya's health battle made him love Taylor 'even more'

Sweet moment: The father-of-three pictured with his eldest daughter in June 2023

Co-parenting: Cory said he and his ex Cheyenne just want what's best for their daughter Ryder

'I would love a show about what's going on and our co-parenting thing because I think we can be very entertaining,' he teased.

But in the meantime, Cory is gearing up for his appearance on MTV's reality competition show The Challenge, and making the most of every single day with his girls.

'Health is wealth, because you don't know what you have until you lose it. But honestly, we're just trying to enjoy every moment and all my daughters are healthy.

'We're so happy in the place that we're at and it's just like, "Let's just enjoy this", because it could all be taken from us with a snap of a finger so let's just live in the moment.'
DC fans have expressed their outrage after Gal Gadot announced that she would be returning for Wonder Woman 3.

The actress, 38, revealed that she will be working on the film with James Gunn during an interview with ComicBook.com which was released on Wednesday but conducted before the SAG-AFTRA strike.

'I love portraying Wonder Woman. It's so close to and dear to my heart. From what I heard from James and from Peter is that we're gonna develop a Wonder Woman 3 together,' Gadot said.

But this did not sit well with dozens of DC fans who took to Twitter to express their upset.

DC fans have expressed their outrage after Gal Gadot announced that she would be returning for Wonder Woman 3

Following the revelation, one frustrated fan asked: 'Why are we getting wonder woman 3 with Gal Gadot, just why?'

Another lamented, 'What? NO. I thought she was done as WW.'

'I'm speaking for everyone when I say that we won't be watching,' a third stated.

Many fans were disappointed that Gadot would be returning after her performances in Wonder Woman (2017) and Wonder Woman 1984 (2020).

'I really don't think Gal Gadot is a good actress, please, I beg of you James Gunn, swap her,' one wrote.

Another commented, 'So we're stuck with her mediocre acting for next decade? Congrats I guess.'

In addition to her acting, one fan raised issue with her extreme stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

They wrote: 'They really need to move on and find a new WW. She's not a very convincing actor to begin with, and her support of the far-right Israeli government/denial of the human rights of Palestinians, has made her a polarizing distraction.'

But the announcement did not sit well with dozens of DC fans who took to Twitter to express their upset

Many fans were disappointed that Gal Gadot would be returning after her performances in Wonder Woman (2017) and Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)

Others expressed their confusion on why Gunn decided to keep Gadot in the midst of the complete DC reboot.

Gunn announced his slate for the big eight- to ten-year overhaul for the DC Universe in January.

He explained that 'DC has been disconnected in film and television for a long time.'

'I have an incredibly deep connection to these characters, to these stories, and to wanting to create that type of magic not only in the kid that I was, but in the connection that I had with my father, with friends later on,' Gunn explained.

He added: 'And wanting to create a unified world in DC where we tell stories.'

In order to truly revamp the franchise, Gunn has hinted that most of the returning characters will be recast for consistency - so fans were confused when they heard Gadot might be stepping back in as Wonder Woman.

'I thought DC was supposed to get a "reboot" why Is Gal Gadot still playing Wonder Woman?!' one asked.

'I thought it was hard reboot,' another vented. 'Why can't they start fresh DCU Its so frustrating to see DC like this.'

Meanwhile, others were frustrated because some of the other pivotal characters have been recast while Gadot has not

Others expressed their confusion on why Gunn decided to keep Gadot in the midst of the complete DC reboot

Meanwhile, others were frustrated because some of the other pivotal characters in the DC universe who were popular with fans have been recast.

For instance, Henry Cavill has been booted from the role of Superman and Ben Affleck's Batman film was also scrapped in a direct response to the reboot.

'How can you possibly bring this back but fire Henry Cavill,' one user wondered.

Another demanded: 'If you going to recast Cavill and Affleck, [Gadot] should be recast as well.'

'Yet he couldn't keep Cavill? It seems hypocritical that Gunn wants to let the past go, yet he hires someone from the previous universe back - it seems to me that The Rock built this new foundation for nothing,' a third said, referencing Dwayne The Rock Johnson's demands in order to appear in the franchise.

It was recently revealed that David Corenswet would be the new Superman.

When speaking of the choice to go in a different direction with Superman, Gunn made it clear the decision was not personal.

Director James Gunn announced his slate for the big eight- to ten-year overhaul for the DC Universe in January

Meanwhile, others were frustrated because some of the other pivotal characters in the DC universe have been recast like Henry Cavill (left) who has been replaced by David Corenswet (right)

'We didn't fire Henry. Henry was never cast. For me, it's about, who do I want to cast as Superman, and who do the filmmakers we have want to cast? And for me, for this story, it isn't Henry,' Gunn told THR.

He added: 'I like Henry, I think he's a great guy. I think he's getting d***ed around by a lot of people, including the former regime at this company. But this Superman is not Henry, for a number of reasons.'

While there is certainly a fair amount of disappointment surrounding Gadot's announcement, some fans pointed it out that she didn't say in which capacity she was returning.

'The phrasing is extremely weird. From what I understand (you can call me dumb for thinking this) she could either be a protagonist, a writer, or a producer,' one fan stated.

Regardless, Gadot's statement is quite surprising considering sources told THR that Wonder Woman 3 was no longer happening in December 2022.

They told that outlet that Patty Jenkins' Wonder Woman 3 'is not moving forward and is considered dead in its current incarnation.'

It's possible that in an effort to curb offshoots of the traditional DC cannon - which Gunn has dubbed as DC Else Worlds - Jenkins is no longer attached to Wonder Woman but Gadot will be.

A similar thing happened to Zack Snyder, whose DCEU was discontinued in order to unify the DC world and allow Gunn to move forward with his vision.
Alison Brie and Dave Franco were pictured while protesting outside of Paramount Studios in Hollywood on Thursday amid the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike.

The 40-year-old actress and the 38-year-old actor stayed close to one another while they showed their support for their fellow union members by walking the picket line.

The GLOW star, who recently spent time in Australia with her husband, wore vibrantly patterned overalls on top of a sleeveless black shirt during her time at the protest.

Brie also donned a pair of blue running shoes and kept a fanny pack strapped around her waist. The actress accessorized with a pair of round sunglasses, and much of her gorgeous brunette hair fell out from underneath a blue cap.

Franco opted for a black t-shirt featuring a graphic print of Jimi Hendrix, as well as slim-fitting shorts and white sneakers.

Voicing their displeasure: Alison Brie and Dave Franco were pictured while protesting outside of Paramount Studios in Hollywood on Thursday

Solidarity: The 40-year-old actress and the 38-year-old actor stayed close to one another while they showed their support for their fellow SAG-AFTRA members by walking the picket line

The celebrity pair was seen as the SAG-AFTRA strike - which has been aimed on getting actors better pay, transparent streaming royalties and restrictions on the implementation of artificial intelligence - concluded its third week after beginning July 14.

SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher last month spoke about the urgency for the strike, which comes after the Writers Guild of America hit the picket lines in May.

'It's a very serious thing that impacts thousands, if not millions of people all across this country and around the world,' Drescher said in a July 13 news conference amid stalled negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

Drescher said that the union had 'no choice' but to hit the picket line, amid unprecedented levels of lowballing and financial exploitation actors face under the current arrangement.

'We are the victims here - we are being victimized by a very greedy entity,' she said.

On Thursday, WGA leaders told members - who have been on strike since May 1 - that they had been slated to meet with AMPTP studio reps as of Friday in hopes of resuming talks to broker a new contract.

'We'll be back in communication with you sometime after the meeting with further information,' an email from the WGA to members stated, according to the AP. 'As we've said before, be wary of rumors. Whenever there is important news to share, you will hear it directly from us.'

AMPTP leaders have not yet reached out to SAG-AFTRA officials about restarting conversations on their labor dispute, the AP reported.

Working together: Brie and her husband, who tied the knot in 2017, recently collaborated on the romantic comedy feature Somebody I Used To Know

SAG-AFTRA Executive Director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland told the AP Tuesday, 'I had hoped that we would already have had some kind of conversations with the industry by now; obviously, that hasn't happened yet, but I'm optimistic.'

An AMPTP rep told the AP Tuesday that it remains 'committed to finding a path to mutually beneficial deals with both unions.'

Brie and her husband, who tied the knot in 2017, recently collaborated on the romantic comedy feature Somebody I Used To Know.

The actress served as the movie's star, while Franco directed the movie from a script he co-wrote with his wife.

The feature was centered on a woman who reconnected with an ex-boyfriend during a trip to her hometown.

In addition to Brie, the movie starred performers such as Kiersey Clemons, Jay Ellis and Haley Joel Osment.

Physical production on the feature took place in Portland, Oregon in September of 2021.

Somebody I Used To Know was released on the Amazon Prime Video streaming service on February 10.

The feature received generally positive reviews from critics, and it currently holds a 72% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Collaborators: The actress served as the movie's star, while Franco directed the movie from a script he co-wrote with his wife

Doing well: The feature received generally positive reviews from critics, and it currently holds a 72% rating on Rotten Tomatoes

Brie spoke about collaborating with her husband during an interview with Screen Rant, where she expressed that they came to enjoy working with each other during their first shared project.

'We had such a great time together on The Rental and more and more I think we realized how well we work together, how much we love to work together and just be together on set,' she stated.

The actress went on to detail why she specifically liked collaborating with Franco.

'We have a great emotional support system then for one another, and we have the same sensibilities, and it just made sense. I would imagine that we'll work on a lot more stuff together,' she stated.
Florence Pugh, 27, proved she had a great sense of humor when she shared her thoughts on her celebrity doppelganger on Instagram for her millions of followers.

The Oppenheimer starlet captioned a photo of herself with short, platinum blonde hair with the following hilarious caption.

'Sometimes when I get out of the shower I look like Guy Fieri and I love it,' she wrote.

Not one to stop there, the Don't Worry Darling star threw in, 'Just saying. Could there be a new mayor of Flavor Town?'

Sporting a pair of elegant sunglasses in her snaps, Florence landed a punchline with, 'Or should I say, 'Flo'-ver town.'

Funny lady: Florence Pugh hilariously compared herself to a Food Network star in new Instagram post: 'Sometimes when I get out of the shower I look like Guy Fieri'

She'll be here all night: The blonde beauty showed off her sense of humor with the Guy Fieri comparison. The Food Network star is pictured right

While she's known for more serious roles in films like Midsommar and Christopher Nolan's latest historical epic, the petite A-lister first demonstrated her gift for comedy in the 2021 Marvel film Black Widow.

Playing Yelena Belova, the sister of Scarlett Johansson's Natasha Romanoff in the film, Florence provided a perfect comedic foil to Black Widow, with her deadpan delivery instantly inspiring a million internet memes (like the scene where Yelena makes fun of Black Widow's superhero landing, for instance.)

The British born beauty's Oppenheimer role also garnered a lot of attention, where Florence portrayed Jean Tatrock, Robert Oppenheimer's (played by Cillian Murphy in the film) secret Communist lover.

Off screen, the Little Women star found herself an online icon when she was spotted at the 2022 Venice International Film Festival, skipping press interviews and appearing unbothered by behind-the-scenes drama swirling around Don't Worry Darling as she sipped an Aperol spritz.

Fans of the actress praised the star for refusing to address the speculation and her iconic 'unbothered energy.'

The 'Flavor Town' reference Florence made in her viral Instagram posts were a nod to the Guy's Grocery Games star's favorite abstract phrase he frequently uses on his various food-centered shows.

According to the celebrity chef, Flavor Town isn't a concrete idea, but more like a state of mind, where perfect flavors and excellent experiences combine for a heavenly culinary experience.

Standup gal: The Dune: Part Two star made a funny face when she threw in her punchline comparing herself to the Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives star

Bond girl vibes: The A Good Person star debuted her platinum-hued buzz cut in May; seen in July

Leading lady: The versatile actress rocked a longer, brunette hairdo in Christopher Nolan's epic, Oppenheimer

Capitalizing on the Flavor Town concept, Guy started an actual business of the same name, offering Flavor Town delivery options to multiple states across America.

As for the Hawkeye star, Florence was also recently named as a house ambassador for the Tiffany Lock jewelry collection.

She is also slated to appear in another major motion picture later this year.

Florence portrayed Princess Irulan in Dune: Part Two.

The follow-up to Dennis Villeneuve's 2021 Dune epic premieres in cinemas on November 3, 2023.
Celebrity chef Guillaume Brahimi has spoken candidly about his wedding to his chicken heiress wife Tamie Ingham in Paris in June.

Guillaume attended the Logie Awards in Sydney on the weekend and told The Daily Telegraph how 'happy' he is after tying the knot.

He described their big day, which was attended by the likes of Lachlan Murdoch and Karl Stefanovic, as 'very nice'.

'It was very special, as a wedding should be,' he said.

He sweetly added about newlywed life: 'It has been two months and it is perfect, I am very happy.'

Celebrity chef Guillaume Brahimi has spoken candidly about his wedding to chicken heiress wife Tamie Ingham in Paris in June. The pair are pictured on their wedding day

The Ingham chicken heiress, 38, and the celebrity chef, 55, wed at Musee Rodin, before heading to Maxim's de Paris for the reception.

Guests also attended a lavish pre-wedding dinner at the exclusive Girafe Paris, a gourmet seafood restaurant that boasts views of the Eiffel Tower.

Among the star-studded guests at the wedding ceremony was media mogul Lachlan Murdoch, 51, who served as a groomsman, and TV presenter Karl Stefanovic's wife Jasmine Stefanovic, 39, who was a bridesmaid.

Guillaume attended the Logie Awards in Sydney on the weekend and told The Daily Telegraph how 'happy' he is after tying the knot. 'It was very special, as a wedding should be,' he said

A Who's Who of Australian showbiz, business and media attended the glamourous ceremony, including Sarah Murdoch, Grant Kenny, Michael 'Wippa' Wipfli and his wife Lisa, Tom Waterhouse and celebrity chefs Matt Moran and Shannon Bennett.

In pictures obtained exclusively by Daily Mail Australia, Ingham and Brahimi exchanged a tender kiss on the grounds of the historic art museum.

After their vows, the newlyweds posed for a series of intimate photos in the Musee Rodin's grounds.

He sweetly added about newlywed life: 'It has been two months and it is perfect, I am very happy.' The Ingham chicken heiress, 38, and the celebrity chef, 55, wed at Musee Rodin, before heading to Maxim's de Paris for the reception

Jasmine Stefanovic looked stunning as a bridesmaid in a demure black gown

Karl Stefanovic arrived solo to the event while his wife Jasmine served as a bridesmaid

Sarah Murdoch also kept on theme in a black long-sleeved dress paired with black heels as she arrived alone to the ceremony. Her husband Lachlan was a groomsman

Tamie looked phenomenal in a white applique wedding gown with a plain yet sophisticated bodice and a trumpet silhouette with a detailed train.

She wore her wavy brunette tresses loose and flowing for her big day and carried a stunning all-white rose bouquet.

The Ingham family net worth was valued at $1.17 billion back in 2019, according to Financial Review Rich List.

Karl and Jasmine, who married in 2018, introduced their respective friends Guillaume and Tamie to each other in 2020.

Guillaume and Tamie have a base in the French capital. Tamie works as a shoe designer and Guillaume is a celebrated chef.

It is Brahimi's second marriage, after he split with his ex-wife Sanchia in 2016.
Jules Robinson, 41, and Cam Merchant, 39, have reunited with their Married At First Sight co-star Mel Schilling.

The MAFS in-house therapist, 51, took to Instagram on Thursday to document the happy reunion at a rooftop cocktail spot in London.

'Had a gorgeous lunch at today with The OG MAFS Success Couple,' the caption read.

'It's so inspiring to see how they have built their love story, family and business empire  all from the seed planted by MAFS,' Mel continued.

She then revealed that she initially thought the couple, who have been a couple since 2019 and share a child together, wouldn't last - for one very specific reason.

'Had a gorgeous lunch at today with The OG MAFS Success Couple,' Mel Schilling (pictured right) wrote under her pictures featuring MAFS alumni Jules Robinson (pictured left) and Cam Merchant

'Fun Fact: when I first met Jules, she was adamant that *height* was a deal-breaker for her - that is, she'd only date guys who were taller than her,' Schilling wrote in her caption.

'Fast forward to MAFS + real life  now she's all loved up with Cam who is shorter then her,' the relationship expert wrote, before adding a tongue-in-cheek hashtag: '#loveislove.'

Cam, perhaps wanting to set the record straight about his proportions, then posted a reply in the comments of Mel's post.

She then revealed that she initially thought the couple, who have been a couple since 2019 and share a child together, wouldn't last - for one very specific reason

'Fun fact...I am actually one centimetre taller than Jules just to confirm...' he wrote, followed by a ruler and laughing emoji.

'There goes my theory...your woman loves her heels,' the behaviour specialist replied.

The loved-up MAFS couple are currently on a lavish European vacation, but it hasn't been all smiles and cocktails.

'Fun Fact: when I first met Jules, she was adamant that *height* was a deal-breaker for her - that is, she'd only date guys who were taller than her,' Schilling wrote in her caption, before claiming Cam was actually shorter than his bride

Last month, Jules took to Instagram to share her first world problems by complaining about the hot weather and service in Italy.

She posted a photo of herself sitting in a taxi looking frustrated while stuck in traffic, which prompted an epic rant.

'Back in the 80 [euro] taxi for 20 mins up a hill. Yep I broke, tears and all. One of those days, a tipping point of relentlessly being ripped off by drivers,' whinged the reality TV star.

The loved-up MAFS couple are currently on a lavish European vacation, but it hasn't been all smiles and cocktails

Last month, Jules took to Instagram to share her first world problems by complaining about the hot weather and service in Italy. She posted a photo of herself sitting in a taxi looking frustrated while stuck in traffic, which prompted an epic rant

She then complained she was charged an extra five euro because she paid by card.

Jules also shared another photo of a crowd waiting to board a bus in front of a gorgeous Italian mountain range, and captioned it with some choice words.

'33 degrees but feels 45. People screaming and fighting to get on the bus. Yep, we ain't fitting. #badbehaviour.'

Jules shared another photo of a crowd waiting to board a bus in front of a gorgeous Italian mountain range, and captioned it with some choice words

Upon arriving at her hotel, she took the opportunity to vent about their service prices

Upon arriving at her hotel, she took the opportunity to vent about their service prices.

'Welcome to out hotel! You know we have to pay 30 [euro] to use the pool. Each.'

Fortunately, her experience was not entirely negative as Jules later posted a snap of her looking refreshed and enjoying a drink while beaming at the camera.

'Okay, let's push start again,' she wrote next to the photo.
Tom Sandoval, 40, reportedly snuck photos of himself with mistress Raquel Leviss, 28, onto the set of the second season of Special Forces: World's Toughest Test.

It was exposed earlier this year that the Vanderpump Rules stars were having a months-long affair while Sandoval was still with his girlfriend of nine-years Ariana Madix, 38.

Nick Viall, 42  who will also compete on Special Forces  dished about Tom's alleged contraband on his Viall Files podcast this week.

'He snuck in pictures of him and Rachel and he showed them to the cast, for what's that worth,' the Bachelor alum claimed. 'You weren't allowed to sneak things in.'

Viall added that he would have loved to have had a pic of his fiancee Natalie Joy with him during the weeks-long shoot.

'I would have loved to sneak in a picture of my fiancee and I. I guess I could have tried but I just didn't,' he added.

Tom Sandoval, 40, reportedly snuck photos of himself with mistress Raquel Leviss, 28, onto the set of the second season of Special Forces: World's Toughest Test

Scandoval: It was exposed earlier this year that the Vanderpump Rules stars were having a months-long affair while Sandoval was still with his girlfriend of nine-years Ariana Madix, 38 (right)

He continued: 'He went out of his way to bring in, like, endearing photos of him and Raquel/Rachel and show them around.'

In the wake of 'Scandoval' and her stay in a mental health facility the former beauty queen has started going by her birth name of Rachel.

Viall said Sandoval appeared to be 'a guy who cared' about Leviss despite the massive backlash of their scandalous affair.

'Honestly, the conversations with the cast were kinda, like, "Well, f**k, you might as well go for it," Viall said.

'There seemed to be some real reluctance about whether the public would allow them to be together, but he came across to me as someone who still had feelings and cared about Rachel.'

'He seemed emotionally invested in Rachel in an environment where he wasn't incentivized to portray that narrative,' he added.

Sandoval and Viall are two of the 14 celebrities competing on Fox's Special Forces: World's Toughest Test.

They will face-off against the likes of Blac Chyna and JoJo Siwa as they push themselves to the limit to survive real military training.

In the teaser trailer, Sandoval reveals in confessional that he wants to 'get punched' in the show. And he seemingly got his wish as the trailer cut to a grisly footage of the TomTom co-owner with a bloody, swollen nose.

Season two will premiere Monday, September 25 on Fox.

Sandoval departed for New Zealand to film Special Forces months after his affair with Raquel was revealed.

He delayed his return to the set of season 11 of Vanderpump Rules to finish filming the competition series in June.

'[Tom] snuck in pictures of him and Rachel and he showed them to the cast, for what's that worth,' Nick Viall claimed on his podcast this week. 'You weren't allowed to sneak things in'

Filming: Sandoval started filming Special Forces in New Zealand months after his affair with Leviss was revealed

Sandoval returned to Los Angeles in July amid reports that Madix refuses to film scenes with him for the popular Bravo reality show; seen in 2022

Sandoval returned to Los Angeles in July amid reports that Madix refuses to film scenes with him for the popular Bravo reality show.

Adding to the complications is the fact that Leviss has yet to return to filming despite being contractually obligated to appear in VPR's 11th season.

The Sur server checked into a mental health facility after the explosive season 10 reunion special.

And Lala Kent teased fans about the upcoming season on her podcast Give Them Lala.

'There will be a day where the dust settles. People move on. It is the strangest season that we have ever filmed,' she dished.
Ekin-Su Culculoglu put on a leggy display as she attended the opening of the BPerfect Cosmetics mega store in Cork, Ireland on Wednesday.

The former Love Island star, 28, looked sensational for the event as she donned a denim long-sleeved crop top that highlighted her toned midriff.

The Turkish beauty paired it with a matching mini skirt with a pleated detail and added height to her frame with a pair of cream ankle boots.

Letting her blonde locks fall loose down her shoulders, Ekin-Su added to her look with a simple gold necklace.

Striking a pose for the cameras, the star accentuated her natural beauty with a light palette of makeup.

Stunning: Ekin-Su Culculoglu put on a leggy display as she attended the opening of the BPerfect Cosmetics mega store in Cork, Ireland on Wednesday

Looking good: The former Love Island star, 28, looked sensational for the event as she donned a denim long-sleeved crop top that highlighted her toned midriff

The outing comes after Ekin-Su sparked speculation she's patched things up with ex-boyfriend Davide Sanclimenti, 27.

The Love Island couple, who won last year's series, announced they had split last month following an 11 month romance, but were seen in the back of a cab after the ITV summer party last week.

After jetting on separate holidays to Turkey and Ibiza, the former couple have a number of awkward run-ins before both receiving invites to the ITV bash.

But far from giving each other the cold shoulder, Davide was seen as he sneakily hopped into the taxi with Ekin-Su.

The two looked a little bleary-eyed after spending the night partying with a whole host of ITV stars including AJ Odudu, Charlotte Hawkins and Olivia Attwood.

Following their breakup, which Davide announced on Instagram last month, the Italian was captured on video 'sniffing a white suspicious powder' in Ibiza, later telling his fanbase that the past few weeks have been 'difficult'.

A source told MailOnline: 'Davide spent the beginning of the week moving out of the London flat he shared with Ekin.

'He's had a terrible time since their split from having to find a new place to live back in Manchester and the added stress of being betrayed by someone he trusted while on holiday.

Radiant: The Turkish beauty paired it with a matching mini skirt with a pleated detail and added height to her frame with a pair of cream ankle boots

In demand: Hundreds of fans turned out to see the Love Island star at the store opening

Style: Letting her blonde locks fall loose down her shoulders, Ekin-Su added to her look with a simple gold necklace (pictured with BPerfect founder Brendan McDowell)

Gamour: Striking a pose for the cameras, the star accentuated her natural beauty with a light palette of makeup (pictured with actress Demi Isaac Oviawe)

'Davide and Ekin have always loved the excitement of film premieres and attending them together, so it was a sad moment to be at the Barbie opening but not as a couple.

'He's now gone home to Italy to spend some much-needed time with his family.'

The former couple were repeatedly rocked by rumours that Davide was unfaithful, but Ekin stood by him until the bitter end when he allegedly 'blindsided' her by announcing their breakup on social media.

Following their separation, Davide jetted to Ibiza on holiday, where he was filmed 'sniffing a suspicious white powder'.

Last week, Davide released a statement admitting that he found himself in an 'awkward situation' and a 'vulnerable state'.

He said: 'You have seen some stories about me over my trip in Ibiza. It was no secret that the last few weeks have been difficult for me.

'There was speculation about my behaviour and a video which was questionable. However, below the surface of this I did something that's not nice to see and was not acting like myself.'

Reunion: The outing comes after Ekin-Su sparked speculation she's patched things up with ex-boyfriend Davide Sanclimenti, 27

Ekin-Su returned to Instagram last week where she addressed the end of their 11-month romance.

She penned: 'Hi everyone, I thought it was time to come back online to thank you so much for all of your messages over the past 2-weeks.

'It has shown me what a kind, supportive, strong community I have behind me. I took some much needed time away with my family which has been really special but now it's time to realign & get back to work.

'I have such an exciting year ahead & I want to fully focus on that. I really appreciate your ongoing support. Thank you for cheering me on. Ekin x'
The summer sequel Meg 2: The Trench dives into theaters this weekend, though the critics are none to pleased with the film.

The first wave of reviews have surfaced on Rotten Tomatoes on Thursday, with the sequel garnering just a 21% score on the critic aggregator site.

That figure is more than half the RT score of its predecessor, 2018's The Meg, which earned a 46% score from the critics.

While the first movie wasn't a critical darling, it did go on to earn a surprising $145.5 million domestic and $530.2 million worldwide, thanks in part to a strong showing in China ($153 million), from a $130m budget.

Jason Statham returns as Jonas Taylor, who explores one of the deepest parts of the ocean and finds multiple megaladon sharks... and a few dinosaurs as well in this adventure where prehistoric creatures meets the present day.

With the sequel's theatrical release beginning on Thursday night, the first 45 reviews have come in, with many critics claiming the film is 'dull' and 'boring.'

Not pleased: The summer sequel Meg 2: The Trench dives into theaters this weekend, though the critics are none to pleased with the film

Rotten: The first wave of reviews have surfaced on Rotten Tomatoes on Thursday, with the sequel garnering just a 21% score on the critic aggregator site

Predecessor: That figure is more than half the RT score of its predecessor, 2018's The Meg, which earned a 46% score from the critics

More sharks: More massive sharks return in Meg 2: The Trench, in theaters Friday

Jason returns: Jason Statham returns as Jonas Taylor, who explores one of the deepest parts of the ocean and finds multiple megaladon sharks... and a few dinosaurs as well in this adventure where prehistoric creatures meets the present day

Dull: With the sequel's theatrical release beginning on Thursday night, the first 45 reviews have come in, with many critics claiming the film is 'dull' and 'boring'

Deadline critic Todd McCarthy bluntly states in his review, 'Meg 2 rather wears out its welcome very early on as it begins feeling like a tedious, repetitive joke.'

Jason Statham's paleologist character Jonas Taylor is the only one returning from the 2018 original, though the original writers (Jon & Erich Hoeber and Dean Georgaris) return with acclaimed British filmmaker Ben Wheatley (Free Fire) taking the helm.

McCarthy bashes the writers who, 'for some reason stinted in the creation of any worthy supporting players to fill out the cast and seem uninterested in character building or even finding distinctive young actors to fill out the crew.'

Variety's Owen Gleiberman pulled no punches in his negative review, while also leaning into one of the hot-button issues of the WGA strike.

'If you want to know what a movie would sound like were it written entirely by AI, look no further than The Meg 2,' he states.

He adds that, 'the problem isnt just that the dialogue theyve come up with is leaden, or that the movie is sprinkled with discordant low-camp-meets-inept lines like Before you start whining about the ecosystem, who cares? Its that everything we see or hear is functional, a series of arduous nuts and bolts jammed together.'

Like many other critics, Gleiberman criticized the film for its rather dull first half before the creature feature really kicks into gear, though it's roughly too late.

He added the movie, 'is numbingly formulaic, promiscuously derivative and, for a few stretches (like te over-the-top third act), diverting in its very shamelessness.'

Repetitive: Deadline critic Todd McCarthy bluntly states in his review, 'Meg 2 rather wears out its welcome very early on as it begins feeling like a tedious, repetitive joke'

Jason as Jonas: Jason Statham's paleologist character Jonas Taylor is the only one returning from the 2018 original, though the original writers (Jon & Erich Hoeber and Dean Georgaris) return with acclaimed British filmmaker Ben Wheatley (Free Fire) taking the helm

AI: 'If you want to know what a movie would sound like were it written entirely by AI, look no further than The Meg 2,' he states

Too late: Like many other critics, Gleiberman criticized the film for its rather dull first half before the creature feature really kicks into gear, though it's roughly too late

Formulaic: He added the movie, 'is numbingly formulaic, promiscuously derivative and, for a few stretches (like te over-the-top third act), diverting in its very shamelessness'

One of the few RT Top Critics to give Meg 2: The Trench a positive review is The New York Times' Calum Marsh, who praised Wheatley for a fun sequel.

'The director having fun is the presiding feeling here  which may account for why the movie is so frequently amusing, and occasionally delightful,' he said.

Slant Magazine's Derek Smith also praised the sequel for 'leaning into the ludicrous' while Tribune News Services' Kate Walsh thinks the second half completely redeemed the lackluster first half.

'Its an odd viewing experience, to have the second half of a movie not necessarily redeem the bland first half but rather find its sea legs, leaning into the slippery silliness of a summer shark flick,' she said.
Ireland Baldwin celebrated International Breast Feeding Day with a sweet snap of herself with her newborn daughter Holland.

In the post, she was all about supporting mamas in having 'a happy, fed baby' and reminding them that that 'is all that matters.'

The new mom, 27, was makeup free in the photo and wore a pink tank top as she held her daughter and kept her face from being seen.

'I think yesterday was international breastfeeding day? Regardless of how you chose to feed your baby, a happy, fed baby is all that matters,' she began.

'To be completely transparent, I did not want to breast-feed. I had my own personal reasons for that choice. But it turned out that me and little Miss were kind of good at it!!! It just took a little time to get there,' the model revealed.

New mom: Ireland Baldwin celebrated International Breast Feeding Day with a sweet snap of herself with her newborn daughter Holland

She continued: 'She was supplemented with formula and still gets formula/breast milk combo! I take pride in my ability to feed her with these milk jugs but I also love that shes taking well to all of the options!

'Regardless of what youre doing, just know, youre doing a good job!!! In case someone hasnt told you that lately,' she reminded her fans and followers.

Ireland has made the decision to not show her daughter's face in social media snaps, following the lead of several celebrities.

In today's post, she held Holland but kept her face out of the frame of the photo.

In other posts, she has opted to draw a pink heart over her daughter's face using the markup pencils available in the editing tools for smartphones.

Ireland shares three-month-old Holland with her partner, the musician RAC, whosew real name is Andre Allen Anjos.

Ireland and RAC began dating in 2021 and have kept their relationship largely out of the public eye.

Ireland is the daughter of Alec Baldwin, 65, and Kim Basigner, 69. Holland is the first grandchild for her parents.

Support: In the post, she was all about supporting mamas in having 'a happy, fed baby' and reminding them that that 'is all that matters.' The new mom, 27, was makeup free in the photo and wore a pink tank top as she held her daughter and kept her face from being seen

Caring: 'Regardless of what youre doing, just know, youre doing a good job!!! In case someone hasnt told you that lately,' she reminded her fans and followers

Anonymous: Ireland has made the decision to not show her daughter's face in social media snaps, following the lead of several celebrities

Parenthood: Ireland welcomed Holland in May with her partner, the musician RAC

In January, the new mom told the Girlboss Radio podcast the reasoning behind her daughter's name.

'We're naming her Holland,' she said. 'I'm Ireland, so we chose another country name because we wanted to keep that consistent.'

She explained that another reason for their decision was that 'I love the actress Holland Taylor. I've always loved that name since I was young, I just thought that was such a classy, beautiful name, so we're going with Holland.'

Ireland and RAC broke the news that she was expecting on New Year's Eve, wishing the fans: 'Happy New Year' with a sonogram on social media.
Courteney Cox enjoyed the support of her celebrity gal pals at a launch party for a new line of her home goods products.

Her brand Homecourt is now selling a Mandarin Basile collection of fragrance items including a candle and various types of soap.

Famous faces galore were gathered around the dinner table, including Jennifer Aniston, whom Courteney shot to global superstardom with on Friends.

As the festivities rolled along, Courteney, 59, also posed for a selfie framed by her fellow television stars Sarah Paulson and Molly Shannon.

Her guest list also featured Jennifer Meyer, the daughter of fallen showbiz mogul Ron Meyer and the ex-wife of Tobey Maguire.

Aglow: Courteney Cox (center) dined with (from left) Krista Smith, Ali Taekman, Amanda Anka, Sarah Paulson, Sarah Jahnke, Molly Shannon, Jennifer Aniston and Arielle Vandenberg

Having a ball: As the festivities rolled along, Courteney, 59, also posed for a selfie framed by her fellow television stars Sarah (left) and Molly (right)

The dinner included such names Vanity Fair alum Krista Smith, PR exec Ali Taekman, Paul Anka's daughter Amanda, who happens also to be married to Jason Bateman.

Event planner Jo Gartin, Homecourt's CEO and co-founder Sarah Jahnke, and Love Island star Arielle Vandenberg were all among the boldface names at the fete.

Courteney, who launched Homecourt last year, fired up her Instagram last week to promote the Mandarin Basile collection.

'Its fresh and light with notes of sparkling mandarin, fresh basil leaves, fig and spiced ginger,' Courteney wrote on Instagram. 'I hope you love it!'

On the personal front, Courteney is involved with the dashing Johnny McDaid, a Northern Irish musician known for his work in the band Snow Patrol.

Over the course of their romance Johnny and Courteney were briefly engaged but never tied the knot, calling off the engagement in 2015 when they temporarily split.

Although they repaired their romantic relationship they never got engaged again, though Courteney has suggested marriage is not entirely off the table.

Last January she talked to People about the prospect of marrying Johnny, saying: 'I don't know. I'm definitely not opposed to it. I just don't think about it.'

Boldface names: Her guest list also featured Jennifer Meyer, the daughter of fallen movie mogul Ron Meyer and the ex-wife of Tobey Maguire

In aid of: Her brand Homecourt is now selling a Mandarin Basile collection of fragrance items including a candle and various types of soap

The before pic: Courteney also let her fans get a glimpse of her California chic place settings, in a picture taken prior to the dinner party

She and Johnny were kept apart for nine months by the COVID-19 lockdowns, when he was in the UK and she in the US, but they reunited in December 2020.

'I've learned that love is precious. As I've gotten older, I've realized that,' she said, reflecting on how the pandemic forced them to stay separate.

Courteney's family life also includes her 19-year-old daughter Coco Arquette, whom she shares with her sizzling ex-husband David Arquette.

David and Courteney met and fell in love on the set of the first Scream movie, and in spite of their divorce in 2013 they continued working together on the franchise.

However David's character was killed off in the fifth Scream picture, leaving Courteney as the last member of the original cast to still be in this year's Scream VI.
Scandal-prone reality star Keira Maguire isn't letting a recent court appearance get in the way of a girl's night out.

The Bachelor alum, 37, has hit the town in Melbourne mere hours after admitting to throwing a drink at a woman at The Osborne Rooftop and Bar in South Yarra.

Fresh from her court case on Thursday, she stepped out for dinner accompanied by a friend.

Decked out in tight black leggings, a skimpy black shirt, black denim jacket, and black heels Keira was a picture of rebel style as she climbed out of the passenger side of her friend's car.

As she walked down the street smiling and laughing, she linked arms with her friend, enjoying the crisp Melbourne air.

Scandal-prone reality star Keira Maguire isn't letting a recent court appearance get in the way of a girl's night out, hitting the town in Melbourne mere hours after admitting she assaulting a woman in a South Yarra bar

Showing her friend something on her phone and then taking a call, Keira didn't seem to have a care in the world, despite her legal woes.

The Instagram influencer's carefree attitude was on display earlier that day when the Daily Mail Australia spotted her shortly after her court ordeal as she popped out for a coffee in ankle weights.

Though Keira admitted that she recklessly caused injury, she insists that she didn't use a glass in the altercation.

As she walked down the street smiling and laughing, she linked arms with her friend, enjoying the crisp Melbourne air

Maguire told Daily Mail Australia she did not 'glass' anyone.

'I threw a drink on this person,' she said.

Scratches obtained by her victim came from her fingernails, not from the glass, Maguire claimed.

'It's totally false to suggest I glassed anyone... My fingernail happened to come into contact and that's how the scratch happened,' she said.

Showing her friend something on her phone, Keira didn't seem to have a care in the world, despite facing court earlier that day

Decked out in tight black leggings, a skimpy black shirt, black denim jacket, and black heels Keira was a picture of rebel style

Maguire said the admission of guilt came via a deal with prosecutors that saw them dump an allegation the glass has caused her victim's injury.

Maguire's legal troubles follow a string of PR disasters and controversial appearances on a series of reality shows, including The Bachelor in Paradise and Love Island.

The influencer rose to fame on Richie Strahan's season of The Bachelor in 2016, before appearing on I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! and Bachelor in Paradise.

In 2021, she revealed Instagram was her only source of income during an SBS program.

Keira has 133,000 Instagram followers, and regularly uses the social media app to promote brands and products.
Isla Fisher and husband Sacha Baron Cohen shared a rare look into their lives on Tuesday when they packed on the PDA during a luxury Greek getaway.

The Hollywood stars were spotted having a passionate smooch on a romantic night out which they shared a snap of to Instagram.

'GREECE You definitely don't sock!' Isla, 47, captioned her short reel of photos, referencing a picture of her wearing long socks under a summery dress.

The next image in the slide was a candid image of The Wedding Crashers star sharing a sweet kiss with her British comedian husband of 13 years.

In the final picture, Isla was all smiles as she posed alongside her close friend Janet Lavack Kay.

Isla Fisher, 47, (right) and husband Sacha Baron Cohen, 51, (left) shared a rare look into their lives on Tuesday when they packed on the PDA during a luxury Greek getaway

Though the Australian star and her husband Sacha are very much in the public eye, they are notoriously private about their children.

Appearing on UK TV show Lorraine earlier this year, Isla explained the reason she chooses to keep them out of the spotlight.

She said: 'It's unfair on them! Kids deserve a normal childhood. I want them to be outdoors and play and run around - not feel self-conscious.'

This is not the first time the actress has spoken about her decision to shield her children from the public eye.

In an interview with Marie Claire Australia in 2021, Isla said: 'Motherhood is actually my favourite topic  but I keep it private.

Though the Australian star and her husband Sacha are very much in the public eye, they are notoriously private about their children. Pictured in 2020

'GREECE You definitely don't sock!' Isla captioned her short reel of photos, referencing a picture of her wearing long socks under a summery dress

In the final picture, Isla was all smiles as she posed alongside friend Janet Lavack Kay (right)

'I think all parents are trying to protect their kids, especially in the social media age.

'I want our children to have a normal childhood  being able to play outside without pressure or scrutiny. All kids have the right to just be kids, and I would never sell a film or magazine by speaking about [mine].'

In November last year, the former Home and Away star explained being a mother is the most important role in her life, and acting has helped hone her skills for it.

She said she has 'a bunch of silly voices' in the back of her head that she's able to bring out at story time to engage her kids before bed.
Kendall Jenner had legs for days when she spotted dashing around Los Angeles during a coffee run this week.

The 27-year-old, who leads the globetrotting life of a top supermodel, was in her native city soaking up the August sunshine on Thursday.

She emphasized her vertiginous pins in a clinging pair of high-waisted black trousers, cinched with a belt to play up her enviably trim waistline.

Her taut midriff was on display in a black full-sleeved crop top, complementing her dark hair and her sleek sunglasses.

Slinging a tote bag over one shoulder, the world-famous reality star plumped for casual footwear and slipped on a pair of flip flops.

Delicious: Kendall Jenner had legs for days when she spotted dashing around Los Angeles during a coffee run this week

Feel the heat: The 27-year-old, who leads the globetrotting life of a top supermodel, was back in her native city soaking up the August sunshine

On the personal front, Kendall is enjoying a romance with the Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny, whose songs include the drag anthem Yo Perreo Sola.

Although the duo have been glimpsed out on dates together, they have both remained scrupulously tight-lipped in public about the relationship.

When the subject of Bad Bunny arose during a recent interview with WSJ Magazine, Kendall offered no details further than 'no comment.'

She did however shed light on why she has chosen to adopt such a private attitude to her love life, which in the past has included Blake Griffin and Devin Booker.

Kendall wants to retain a 'balance of keeping things private and keeping things sacred,' she explained to the magazine.

Her goal is 'also not letting the unfortunate frustration and stress of everyone trying to get in on it stop me from enjoying my side. Does that make sense?'

She added: 'I'll go out of my way to do things as privately as possible because I just think that that's the healthier way of dealing with relationships anyway.'

Bad Bunny chose to remain similarly secretive about Kendall when he covered Rolling Stone recently - and for similar reasons.

On the personal front: Kendall is enjoying a romance with the Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny, whom she is pictured with at a Lakers game in May

'I know something is going to come out. I know [people are] going to say something. People know everything about me, so whats left for me to protect?' he asked.

'My private life, my personal life. Thats the only answer. In the end, the only thing I have is my privacy,' Bad Bunny explained.

'Were in the worst time, the worst moment for the privacy of other humans; not just artists, but human beings. Today, no one respects the privacy or life of anyone.'

He is realistic about the fact that '[f]ans are always going to want to know more, but I dont focus on that. Im always going to keep living my way.''
Lily-Rose Depp indulged in a public display of affection with her girlfriend 070 Shake when they were spotted in Los Angeles this week.

The 24-year-old daughter of Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis was glimpsed with the American rapper picking up some sweets in a bakery.

As they approached the counter, the pair of them appeared unable keep their hands off one another, with Lily-Rose wrapping her arms around 070 Shake.

Showing off her svelte frame in a backless white bodysuit, Lily-Rose swept her caramel locks into a tight updo.

Meanwhile 070 Shake threw an open flannel top over a white t-shirt, slipping into a loose-fitted pair of grey trousers and a chunky pair of black shoes.

Loved up: Lily-Rose Depp indulged in a public display of affection with her girlfriend 070 Shake when they were spotted in Los Angeles this week

On the go: The 24-year-old daughter of Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis was glimpsed with her ladylove picking up some sweets in a bakery

Off she goes: Showing off her svelte frame in a backless white bodysuit, Lily-Rose swept her caramel locks into a tight updo

Lily-Rose has been dating 070 Shake, whose real name is Danielle Balbuena, since January but only went public with the romance in May.

She broke the news with an Instagram snap of herself kissing 070 Shake and gushed in the caption: '4 MONTHS WITH MY CRUSH.'

The post finally confirmed the conjecture that had been raging since Lily-Rose and 070 Shake were glimpsed at Paris Fashion Week together in February.

Lily-Rose's dating history has included a high-profile romance with Timothee Chalamet, her co-star in the Netflix movie The King.

Timothee and Lily-Rose went viral in 2019 when they were spotted passionately kissing on a boat off the coast of Capri, but in 2020 they had broken up.

In the intervening time, Lily-Rose was seen locking lips with Austin Butler in 2021 and at one point also ran around with the French rapper Yassine Stein.

Lately, however, she has been hitting the headlines not for her love life but because of her polarizing new show The Idol.

Ever since it screened at Cannes, the show has provoked an explosive controversy over its racy depiction of Lily-Rose's pop star character Jocelyn, who becomes ensnared by a cult-leading nightclub owner played by The Weeknd.

Meanwhile: 070 Shake threw an open flannel top over a white t-shirt, slipping into a loose-fitted pair of grey trousers and a chunky pair of black shoes

History: Lily-Rose has been dating 070 Shake, whose real name is Danielle Balbuena, since January but only went public with the romance in May

Timeline: She broke the news with an Instagram snap of herself kissing 070 Shake and gushed in the caption: '4 MONTHS WITH MY CRUSH'

Looking back: The post finally confirmed the conjecture that had been raging since Lily-Rose and 070 Shake were glimpsed at Paris Fashion Week together in February

Company: 070 Shake's predecessors in Lily-Rose's dating history has included a high-profile romance with Timothee Chalamet, her co-star in the Netflix movie The King

Backdrop: Timothee and Lily-Rose went viral in 2019 when they were spotted passionately kissing on a boat off the coast of Capri, but in 2020 they had broken up

On one episode, Jocelyn masturbates and self-harms while mourning her dead mother and ultimately falls into the carnal thrall of The Weekend's character Tedros.

In what British GQ has called 'the worst sex scene in history,' Jocelyn pleasures herself as Tedros instructs her to 'make that throat wet for me' and demands that she 'f***ing stretch that tiny little p***y.'

The Weeknd co-created The Idol with former nightlife entrepreneur Reza Fahim as well as Sam Levinson, the writer behind Euphoria.

Sam, whose own history with drugs helped inspire Euphoria, is Lily-Rose's fellow 'nepo baby' as the son of the acclaimed director Barry Levinson.

Upon its premiere at Cannes, The Idol got a five-minute standing ovation but also elicited a raft of blistering responses from critics.

The Playlist's Gregory Ellwood called the second episode 'Sexist, pseudo-porn,' while the New York Times' Kyle Buchanan dismissed the show as 'a Pornhub-homepage odyssey' starring 'Lily-Rose Depps areolas,' and The Wrap dubbed it 'luxury sleaze.'

'Lots of strong reactions to #TheIdol out of #Cannes2023 - ranging from: "I hated it" to "the TV version of clickbait" to "I dont need to see any more of Lily-Rose Depp naked,"' tweeted Variety reporter Ramin Setoodeh, author of the bestselling book Ladies Who Punch about the backstage drama on The View.

Much of the chatter revolved around Lily-Rose's raunchy role, which at one point involves an apparent picture of her character with semen on her face.

Lately: However, she has been hitting the headlines not for her love life but because of her polarizing new show The Idol

Scandalous: Ever since it screened at Cannes, the show has provoked an explosive controversy over its racy depiction of Lily-Rose's pop star character Jocelyn

The brass: The Weeknd co-created The Idol with former nightlife entrepreneur Reza Fahim as well as Sam Levinson, the writer behind Euphoria

Insiders alleged to Rolling Stone in March that the show was almost completely reshot in order to give it less of a feminine outlook.

Pet Sematary actress Amy Seimetz, who has also helmed such movies as Sun Don't Shine and She Dies Tomorrow, was claimed to have directed around 80 percent of The Idol before she left the project.

The Weeknd was said to have felt The Idol had an excessively 'female perspective' and wanted the plot to give his character more attention than Lily-Rose's.

Sam stepped in as director and reshot the show, which reportedly was heavily rewritten with so much raunchy material that one source was left thinking: 'What is this? What am I reading here? It was like sexual torture porn.'

Other sources, however, said that the insiders Rolling Stone quoted had made their remarks without seeing the finished product.

The Weeknd responded publicly by denouncing the report as 'ridiculous,' arguing to Vanity Fair: 'Shows get reshot every day.'

Lily-Rose also defended Sam, issuing a statement to E! News in which she called him 'for so many reasons, the best director I have ever worked with.'

She added: 'Never have I felt more supported or respected in a creative space, my input and opinions more valued.'

The showbiz legacy continued: 'Working with Sam is a true collaboration in every way  it matters to him, more than anything, not only what his actors think about the work, but how we feel performing it.'

At a press conference at Cannes, Lily-Rose defended the extensive nudity on the show, arguing that 'the occasional bareness of the character physically mirrors the bareness that we get to see emotionally in her,' according to People.
Teresa Giudice was spotted with her husband, Luis Ruelas, during a romantic getaway in Porto Cervo, Sardinia on Thursday.

The Real Housewives of New Jersey star, 51, modeled a bright orange string bikini complete with a plunging halter top and cheeky bottoms as she enjoyed some relaxing time on the beach.

To go with the gold details on her bathing suit, she accessorized with oversized gold hoops and various bangle bracelets.

The reality TV personality  who modeled a Barbie pink bikini while lounging on the beach on the island of Mykonos in Greece the day before  also flashed her stunning diamond ring from the entrepreneur, 48.

The pair appeared to have been on a double date as the cookbook author was seen frolicking onto the beach with pals.

Beach day: Teresa Giudice was spotted with her husband, Luis Ruelas, during a romantic getaway in Porto Cervo, Sardinia on Thursday. The Real Housewives of New Jersey star, 51, modeled a bright orange string bikini complete with a plunging halter top and cheeky bottoms as she enjoyed some relaxing time on the beach

Gilded in gold: To go with the gold details on her bathing suit, she accessorized with oversized gold hoops and various bangle bracelets. The reality TV personality  who modeled a Barbie pink bikini while lounging on the beach on the island of Mykonos in Greece the day before  also flashed her stunning diamond ring from the entrepreneur, 48.

As she made her way to the beach with Ruelas and her friends, she donned a white linen maxi skirt and carried a canvas tote bag.

Later, she shed the cover-up and was seen with a Chanel tote purse that her husband was previously carrying for her.

She left her brunette tresses down in effortlessly stylish beach waves for her day of sunbathing by the seaside.

For makeup, she looked glamorous in a makeup look featuring full, fluttering eyelashes and ample bronzer for a sun-kissed appearance.

Finally, she finished off her look with a mauve pink lipliner and light gloss.

For their beach day, she opted to go barefoot as she walked through the sand and lounged on the luxurious daybeds.

At one point, she also enjoyed a quick bite and some chilled bubbly with her husband.

For their beach date, Ruelas sported a pair of black swim trunks featuring white stripes down the sides and covered with faint Balmain logos.

Beach waves: She left her brunette tresses down in effortlessly stylish beach waves for her day of sunbathing by the seaside. For makeup, she looked glamorous in a makeup look featuring full, fluttering eyelashes and ample bronzer for a sun-kissed appearance

Cheeky: Her string bikini featured a criss-cross back and the matching cheeky bottoms with ties at the side

Effortlessly chic: For their beach date, Ruelas sported a pair of black swim trunks featuring white stripes down the sides and covered with faint Balmain logos. He also donned a white, short-sleeved button-down that he left open to showcase his tattoos and a tag pendant necklace

Double date: The pair appeared to have been on a double date as the cookbook author was seen frolicking onto the beach with pals. At one point, Ruelas was spotted walking beside his pal  who sported a white T-shirt and gingham shorts  as they followed closely behind their partners

Walking through the sand: As she made her way to the beach with Ruelas and her friends, she donned a white linen maxi skirt and carried a canvas tote bag. Giudice chatted animatedly with her gal pal and was seen holding hands then later linking her arm through hers

He also donned a white, short-sleeved button-down that he left open to showcase his tattoos and a tag pendant necklace.

At one point, Ruelas was spotted walking beside his pal  who sported a white T-shirt and gingham shorts  as they followed closely behind their partners.

Giudice chatted animatedly with her gal pal and was seen linking her arm through hers.

He also accessorized with a smart watch with a red band and a black beaded bracelet.

Like his wife, he opted to go barefoot on the beach even though he was seen wearing a pair of designer slides at one point.

To shield his eyes from the sun, he donned a pair of all-black wayfarer shades.

The couple were spotted sitting side by side on a large daybed and enjoying the scenic view together.

Later on, Giudice was seen laying down in the shade while Ruelas lit a cigarette to unwind.

Ready for the beach: For their beach day, she opted to go barefoot as she walked through the sand and lounged on the luxurious daybeds. At one point, she also enjoyed a quick bite and some chilled bubbly with her husband

Sunny day: To shield his eyes from the sun, he donned a pair of all-black wayfarer shades

Simple accessories: He also accessorized with a smart watch with a red band and a black beaded bracelet

Chilling: The couple look quiet and relaxed as they sat side by side. Then, they were seen enjoying a quick bite together

Feet in the sand: Like his wife, he opted to go barefoot on the beach even though he was seen wearing a pair of designer slides at one point

Relaxing: Later on, Giudice was seen laying down in the shade while Ruelas lit a cigarette to unwind

Cuddly: The couple were also seen cuddling as they relaxed on the beach together

Previously, Giudice and Ruelas met in 2020 while vacationing separately on the Jersey Shore.

Shortly after, the pair started dating and public confirmed their relationship that November on social media.

Almost exactly a year later, the pair got engaged in October 2021.

In August 2022, the couple exchanged vows and tied the knot during a lavish wedding in East Brunswick, New Jersey.
Poppy Delevingne looked more loved up than ever as she canoodled with boyfriend Prince Constantine Alexios of Greece in Ibiza on Tuesday.

The model, 37, looked sensational in a tiny bikini as she soaked up the sunshine alongside her 24-year-old aristocratic boyfriend.

A skimpy pink two-piece showcased her slender physique and long legs as she topped up her tan on a yacht before enjoying a relaxing swim in the water.

The blonde bombshell showed off her natural beauty as she went makeup-free for her fun-filled day.

By her side for much of the outing was boyfriend Alexios, a member of the non-reigning Greek royal family

Pucker up: Poppy Delevingne looked more loved up than ever as she canoodled with boyfriend Prince Constantine Alexios of Greece in Ibiza on Tuesday

Fun in the sun: The model, 37, looked sensational in a tiny bikini as she soaked up the sunshine alongside her 24-year-old aristocratic boyfriend

Cute couple: Poppy and Alexios couldn't keep their hands off one another during the trip

The young royal showcased his ripped physique and various tattoos in a pair of patterned swimming trunks.

They couldn't keep their hands off one another as they enjoyed their day out with friends, clinging to one another and cuddling up for kisses in the sunshine.

In February the model was spotted with Constantine during a stroll together in West London.

Despite the 12-year age gap between Poppy and Constantine  known to his pals as Tino  they are believed to have been enjoying each other's company for some time.

Constantine, who was once Europe's most eligible royal bachelor, is the eldest son and second child of Crown Prince Pavlos and Crown Princess Marie-Chantal of Greece.

He's also the grandson of Greece's late King Constantine II, who was a cousin of King Charles and one of Prince William's five godparents. He died aged 82 last month.

He remains close to the royal family and is said to be William's godson.

Meanwhile, Tino, son of Crown Prince and Princess Pavlos, has often been considered one of Europe's most eligible royal bachelors.

He is the grandson of Greece's late King Constantine II, who was a cousin of King Charles and one of Prince William's five godparents. He died aged 82 last month.

Rumours started to circulate about the state of Poppy's marriage since James, 43, resigned as a director of her company, Poppy Delevingne Limited in January, the firm which files the accounts for her 'photographic activities'.

Pretty in pink: A skimpy pink two-piece showcased her slender physique and long legs as she topped up her tan on a yacht before enjoying a relaxing swim in the water

Au naturel: The blonde bombshell showed off her natural beauty as she went makeup-free for her fun filled day

Jumping in: Poppy gracefully jumped into the water for a cooling dip

Topping up her tan: Poppy was seen strolling around the yacht with a small beach bag

Cosy: By her side for much of the outing was boyfriend Alexios, a member of the non-reigning Greek royal family

Tanned and toned: The young royal showcased his ripped physique and various tattoos in a pair of patterned swimming trunks

All over each other: They couldn't keep their hands off one another as they enjoyed their day out with friends, clinging to one another and cuddling up for kisses in the sunshine

Catching up: They enjoyed a cosy chat while enjoying the stunning views on board

Loving life: Poppy was in hysterics as she chatted away with her handsome boyfriend

Smitten: They had their hands all over each other during their yacht trip

Celebrity dating app Raya had a new account added in November featuring pictures appearing to be of James.

But he never confirmed whether it was his account or that somebody had opened a parody account instead.

Poppy and James, who works for his family's aerospace company, tied the knot in 2014 at a Knightsbridge church ceremony, with sisters top model Cara and Chloe among her many bridesmaids.

Exes James and Poppy have not addressed their split publicly but are said to have called time on their union at the beginning of last year.

The Mail On Sunday reported last January that the pair had 'consciously uncoupled' after being little more than friends for the best part of a year.

The following month she flashed her ringless hand to photographers at Perfect Magazine's London Fashion Week party at The Standard.

Poppy looked gorgeous on the night in a striking black and white gown, enjoying the celeb-packed bash with friends Georgia May Jagger and Iris Law.

The same month, Poppy's husband James was posting from Chamonix, France, enjoying a ski trip with friends.

It's believed that Poppy moved into her own place in West London, with an insider spilling: 'James is refusing to accept things are over.'

Blooming lovely: Poppy layered up with a sheer floral sarong as she made her way off the yacht

Legs eleven: She showed off her model figure in her stunning swimwear and sarong

Catching up: She was seen enjoying a chat with her boyfriend once they left the yacht

Despite the reported split, the pair have continued to mix in the same social circles, with the pair attending Glastonbury Festival together alongside pals Sienna Miller, Alexa Chung and Matt Smith in June.

While the pair are said to have remained friends and still mix in the same social circles, it appears James is now moving on romantically.

Last week he was spotted on a dinner date with a striking blonde companion.

The businessman and his mysterious lady made their first public debut in May when they were spotted enjoying some drinks in Mayfair.
Helen Flanagan has opened up about being up all night with her son after he was left in pain due to a health complaint on Thursday night.

Taking to Instagram the mother-of-three, 32, shared a picture of the two-year-old son Charlie's nasty rash as she said he'd been 'up all night crying'.

The star shared a close up of her child's knee which looked incredibly painful as she said 'Charlie's skin is really, really bad.'

The former Coronation Street actress stroked her son's head as she said the plan for the day was just lots of cuddles after she applied Cetraben cream from the dermatologist.

'He's been so upset bless him so we're watching Paddington Bear and having lots of cuddles today.'

Stressful night: Helen Flanagan, 32, confessed she's been up all night after son's painful health complaint on Thursday

Sore: The mother-of-three shared a picture of her son's painful looking rash as she confessed he was in a lot of pain

The worried mum was clearly feeling down after the traumatic night watching her youngest in pain as she captioned her story 'My poor baby's skin'.

'It's really sore bless him,' she added.

The snaps come after Helen returned from her holiday in Barbados with her brood, including Matilda, seven, Delilah, four and Charlie two who she shares with her ex-fiance Scott Sinclair.

Back from paradise the star was back to reality as she shared a video of her son looking upset as he cuddled up to his mum.

It comes after Helen showcased her jaw-dropping figure in an orange floral bikini as she soaked up the sun during her lavish getaway last week.

She looked incredible in the eye catching two piece as she posed against a stone wall backdrop.

But she did not leave her racy content there as she later took to Instagram again to share a snap showing her wearing just bikini bottoms - and going topless - as she enjoyed an al fresco shower for the suggestive snap.

It comes after Helen was reportedly turned away from a posh Barbados restaurant while on holiday last week for not meeting the dress code.

A fellow tourist claimed to have come to Helen's rescue after she was told she would not be allowed in the restaurant while wearing only a gold two-piece bikini.

Lots of love: The star said it would be a day of cuddles and Paddington Bear to help nurse Charlie, two, back to high spirits

Back to reality: The mum stroked her baby's hair as he looked under the weather

Beach babe: Helen showcased her jaw dropping figure in a busty orange floral bikini on Instagram on Sunday as she soaked up the sun during a lavish Barbados getaway

Sizzling: She did not leave her racy content there as she later took to Instagram again to share a snap showing her wearing just bikini bottoms - and going topless - as she enjoyed an al fresco shower for the suggestive snap

Oh dear: It comes days after the former Coronation Street star was reportedly turned away from a posh Barbados eatery while on holiday for not meeting the cafe's dress code after arriving in a gold two-piece bikini

She was said to have been left red-faced after staff at the Kyma coffee shop at the four-star Waves Hotel and Spa asked her to cover up her swimwear before entering with her children.

I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! was given a dress to wear by a sympathetic onlooker.

Another holidaymaker told The Sun: 'Helen turned up to the Kyma bar with her kids and was enjoying a drink outside. It was seriously hot in the early afternoon and when Helen took her kids indoors to get the air-conditioning, she was told she had to cover up or leave.

'She looked horrified because all she had on was a bikini and people were staring. My sister had a Skims black dress and lent it to her so she could go in.

'She was so grateful because it was a little awkward.
James Norton joined his A Little Life co-stars at the play's wrap party at 1 Hotel in London's Mayfair on Thursday evening.

The actor, 38, who appeared nude on stage, cut a stylish figure for the evening in a cream over shirt which he layered over a simple white T-shirt.

James completed the look with blue trousers emblazoned with a quirky whale print and a pair of retro style spectacles.

The West End play had divided critics and left audiences traumatised by its graphic on-stage portrayals of suicide, self-harm and paedophilia.

One attendee at Richmond Theatre, where the stage re-telling of Hanya Yanagihara's 2015 book opened before transferring to The Savoy, said they made the decision to leave at the interval after the 'relentless misery' became too much for them.

Cool customer: James Norton, 38, joined his A Little Life co-stars at the play's wrap party at 1 Hotel in London's Mayfair on Thursday evening

Celebrate: The actor cut a stylish figure for the evening in a cream over shirt which he wore open and layered over a simple white T-shirt

Trauma: The play had divided critics and l eft audiences traumatised by its graphic on-stage portrayals of suicide, self-harm and paedophilia

Another audience member called the adaptation, brought to stage by director Ivo Van Hove, 'possibly the most upsetting, unflinchingly brutal and explicit play I've ever seen.'

The performance, which lasts a whopping 3 hours and 40 minutes and will soon transfer to the Savoy Theatre, has a star-studded cast, including James, It's A Sin actor Omari Douglas and Bridgerton's Luke Thompson.

The book, shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2015, became a word-of-mouth hit and won the author a following of dedicated fans.

The novel is 814 pages long and follows four classmates from a small US college who move to New York and their relationships with one another, as well as complex issues including sexual abuse, disability and addiction.

After attending early performances fans of the play took to social media to express their shock at just how 'raw' the production is.

One wrote: '#Only made it to the interval of 'A Little Life'. 1 hour 50' of relentless misery was more than enough for me....(I gather it didn't end 'happily') #Alittlelifeplay.'

A fellow audience member wrote: '#ALittleLifePlay is brutal. Relentlessly brutal. But also brilliant theatre. The entire cast shines. But it's James Norton who is the powerhouse. Barely off stage for more than 3.5 hours, this may be his best work. Award winning stuff. But not for the faint hearted!'

Another added: 'Possibly the most upsetting, unflinchingly brutal and explicit play I've ever seen which is definitely not for the faint of heart. The entire cast soars and James Norton is an absolute powerhouse in this heartbreaking epic.'

Cast: (L-R) Omari Douglas, Luke Thompson, James Norton and Emilio Doorgasingh

Say cheese: One attendee said they made the decision to leave at the interval after the 'relentless misery' became too much for them (L-R) Luke Thompson, James Norton, Nathalie Armin and Omari Douglas

Smart: It's A Sin's Omari Douglas cut a suave figure in a black suit

Stylish: Actress Nathalie Armin looked lovely all in white

Quirky: Brigerton's Luke Thompson (L) looked smart in a printed shirt (pictured with co-star Nathalie Armin)

Pose: (L-R) Shevonne Harper and Samson Ajewole

Actors: Elliot Cowan (L) was joined at the event by Zubin Varla (R)

Cast: The cast appeared in high spirits as they celebrated the end of their long run

One theatregoer penned on Twitter: 'It feels wrong to say you enjoyed something when the content is so raw & difficult, but I am extremely glad I got to see this masterpiece brought to life in such a thoughtful way.'

The novel became a critically acclaimed bestseller, with celebrity fans including Dua Lipa who said the book 'changed her life' on her podcast.

The play left critics divided with Daily Mail's Luke Jones in his four-star review said the show was 'A little grim but worth the pain'.

While The Independant's Alice Saville gave the production two stars and branded it a 'A naive and psychologically incurious narrative of abuse'
Joe Pasquale has revealed that he 'narrowly avoids certain death' last weekend.

The British comedian, 62, recalled on White Wine Question Time podcast that he was rushed to hospital after stabbing himself in a freak accident.

While on stage at the Embassy Theatre in Skegness, Joe accidentally fell and stabbed himself on the razor-sharp bone of a moose's antlers.

The curtain had just come down on the second night of his new tour, when the terrifying accident occurred, which has left him permanently scarred.

The former I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here winner confessed: 'I nearly died at the weekend. I nearly killed myself, I nearly died. I really did. That close!' before detailing the terrifying incident.

OMG! Joe Pasquale, 62, has revealed that he was rushed to hospital last weekend after stabbing himself in a freak accident, and admitted he 'narrowly avoided certain death' (pictured outside the hospital)

Yikes! While on stage at the Embassy Theatre in Skegness, Joe accidentally fell and stabbed himself on the razor-sharp bone of a moose's antlers

Terrifying: The former I'm A Celeb winner confessed: 'I nearly died at the weekend. I nearly killed myself, I nearly died. I really did. That close!'

Joe explained: 'In the act I have a great big pair of moose antlers and they're huge things - they've got like these huge prongs sticking on.

'And the gag is I have to put them on my head and I go: ''I put too much mousse on me hair.'' But at the end of the act the curtains came down and all my props are strewn all over the stage and they bring the lights down obviously.

'And I'm starting to put all my props away and I literally trip over my moose head. It was in slow motion. My moose head's on the floor all sticking up and I'm starting to go down - I'm falling on to the moose head.

Gory: The curtain had just come down on the second night of his new tour, when the terrifying accident occurred, which has left him permanently scarred

'I was going to impale myself on eight moose points right in my belly. Seriously, I was going to die.'

Joe went on to explain how, if he'd been stabbed in his stomach it could have been fatal, but thanks to being 'nimble' he managed to avoid any life-threatening damage.

However, he ended up needing seven stitches in his leg after the moose's prongs severed the back of his leg.

The comedian continued: 'I am 62, but I am quite nimble for a bloke of my age. So I had one leg on the ground, the other one's hanging out there to the right hand side, and I managed to push myself over. My torso went over the top of the moose head.

'It was like Tom Cruise in the new Mission Impossible film. I actually twisted round on to my back as well, all in a split second. It was all in a split second.

'And as I came down on the moose's head, on its prongs, it only got me in the back of the leg. It really hurt, but I thought ''that's ok''.

'Anyway, I went to see my tour manager who's doing the sound. I went, ''Lee, I think I've hurt my leg, will you have a look at it?'' He went, ''yeah, what have you done?''

'I said, ''I've just fallen over and landed on my moose head''. He laughed. I pulled my trousers down to show him and he nearly went white, he nearly fainted. He went, ''Oh my god, you need a medic''.'

Joe admitted that he must have been in a state of shock, before the medic insisted he go straight to A&E because the gash was so severe.

Close call! Joe needed seven stitches, and said: 'I've got a great big hole in the back of my leg, but if I'd gone straight down on my belly I'd be dead'

The comedian recalled: 'I pulled my trousers down again and he went ''Oh my God, you need to go to hospital. I can't do that. You'll have to get it sewn up. It's a great big hole in your leg''. I said, ''how big?'' He said, ''too big for me''

This is in Skegness at 11 o'clock at night. I said ''There's no way I'm going to Skegness at 11 o'clock, I'll be there for 48 hours, it will be full of every drunk person in the world there''. He said ''Well you've got to go''.

'In the morning I was in Bridlington so I went to an A&E in Bridlington. I go there nine o'clock in the morning. They sewed me up. I had to have seven stitches.

'I've got a great big hole in the back of my leg, but if I'd gone straight down on my belly I'd be dead.'
Robert Downey Jr. revealed that he is giving away six of his prized possessions in an 'RDJ Dream Car Sweepstakes' competition that anyone can enter.

The Iron Man star, 58, took to Instagram on Tuesday to share that he is dishing out six of his 'dream cars' from his personal collection in collaboration with the Edward Charles Foundation - a company with helps charitable operations to raise money and efficiently utilize their funds.

According to the sweepstakes website, the competition is being held to raise money for the FootPrint Coalition, a nonprofit founded by Robert himself, which is focused on environmental advances.

Robert shared a picture himself standing next to his six vintage cars with the caption: 'In case you haven't heard yet, I'm giving away some of my cars'.

The eco-modified cars include a 1965 Chevrolet Corvette, a 1966 Buick Riviera, a 1969 Mercedes-Benz 280SE, a 1972 Chevrolet K10 Pickup, a 1972 VW Bus and a 1985 Chevrolet El Camino.

In the next snap he informed his fans how to enter and stressed no purchases or donations would be accepted or increase the chances of winning.

However, it appears that in order to enter the giveaway, participants are required to make a donation to the FootPrint Coalition - with various options on offer, from $10 for ten entries to $5,000 for 8,500 entries.

Generous: Robert Downey Jr. revealed that he is giving away six of his prized possessions in a random competition which can see anyone can enter

Luck of the draw: The Iron Man star, 58, took to Instagram on Tuesday to share that he is dishing out six of his 'dream cars' from his personal collection

He explained: 'No purchase/ donation required & making one will not increase chances of winning.'

The giveaway is open to the USA, UK and Canada, excluding Quebec, to legal residents over 18.

The Oppenheimer star, who plays Lewis Strauss, chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission in the film, recently praised his co-star Cillian Murphy.

Cillian Murphy plays the title character - J. Robert Oppenheimer - director of the Los Alamos Laboratory where he developed the first atomic bomb, that was later dropped on both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, bringing an end to World War II.

Speaking to People, he said: 'I have never witnessed a greater sacrifice by a lead actor in my career,' adding he was impressed by his co-star's 'commitment' to the character.

'He knew it was going to be a behemoth ask when (writer-director) Chris (Nolan) called him.

'But I think he also had the humility that is required to survive playing a role like this,' Robert added, before continuing with a specific example from the set.

'We'd be like, "Hey, we got a three-day weekend. Maybe we'll go antiquing in Santa Fe. What are you going to do?" "Oh, I have to learn 30,000 words of Dutch. Have a nice time." But that's the nature of the ask,' Robert admitted.

Competition: He informed his fans how to enter and stressed no purchases or donations would be accepted or increase the chances of winning

Oppenheimer: Robert plays Lewis Strauss, chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, in the film

Praise: Robert (centre left) recently praised his co-star Cillian Murphy (centre right)

Last month, the two-time Oscar nominee was spotted arriving to Jimmy Fallon's star-studded party with his wife Susan Downey.

For the occasion, the two-time Oscar nominee wore a white and grey pinstriped blazer over a graphic t-shirt and khaki pants.

He completed his look with a pair of prescription glasses and brown and white sneakers.

The actor's wife, 49, sported a black sleeveless dress, oversized sunglasses and her light brown hair in loose waves.

Robert and his wife share two children Exton, 11, and Avri Roel, nine and also shares a son, named Indio, with his first wife, Deborah Falconer.
A huge nineties alternative rock band star looks almost unrecognisable, decades after their hit single Unbelievable catapulted them to fame.

EMF, standing for Epsom Mad Funkers, was comprised of vocalist James Atkin, drummer Mark Decloedt, bassist Zac Foley, and keyboardist Derry Brownson.

The band, who first came together when they met in school, got their name from a fan club of the band New Order in 1989.

They later met keyboardist and guitarist Ian Dench after enjoying music success in group Apple Mosaic.

Ian previously told The Guardian: 'I hitched a lift home and the lorry dropped me on the M50.

Wow: Huge nineties alternative rock band EMF looks almost unrecognisable, decades after their hit single Unbelievable catapulted them to fame (pictured in 1991)

Recent: EMF, standing for Epsom Mad Funkers, was comprised of vocalist James Atkin, drummer Mark Decloedt, bassist Zac Foley, and keyboardist Derry Brownson

Split: During their two decade break, the band members went onto forge different career paths. However, all members of the band continued to play music (James pictured in 2016)

'I remembered this cool kid called James that I'd met at Glos Music Co, who had kept saying, 'You should come to the Forest of Dean. We've got this great band. We wear Afghan coats and play death metal.'

'I phoned him from a call box. 10 minutes later he arrived with Zac, we went out and got drunk and I didn't go home for three days.'

During their initial eight-year run, from 1989 to 1997, the band, from Cinderford in Gloucestershire, released three studio albums before a hiatus.

Their first single, Unbelievable, reached number 3 on the UK Singles Chart and was a number 1 hit on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart.

It is believed that Ian's break-up served as the inspiration behind their first single.

He told the New York Times: 'More than the music, EMF is about an attitude and that attitude comes more from punk than anywhere else.'

Meanwhile, their debut album, Schubert Dip, went to number 3 on the UK Albums Chart.

The band broke up after their third record in 1997.

Different: EMF, standing for Epsom Mad Funkers, was comprised of vocalist James Atkin (pictured in 2022), drummer Mark Decloedt, bassist Zac Foley, and keyboardist Derry Brownson

History: The band, who first came together when they met in school, got their name from a fan club of the band New Order in 1989

During their two decade break, the band members went onto forge different career paths. However, all members of the band continued to play music.

James became a teacher specialising in GCSE and A-level music.

In 2014 he announced his debut solo album A Country Mile and tour.

While Ian is a senior executive at Epic Records in New York and has co-writes music for megastars Beyonce and Shakira.

James told XSNoise: 'It did make it hard because you have to be selling records to have a record deal and you have to have a record deal to pay your wages.

'When you're that age, you're really confused, you don't know why things aren't happening the way you want them to.

'Simply, we didn't make a great record. Stigma didn't sell that well either compared to the first album.

'We were all growing up as people and doing our own thing, the gang mentality had gone out of us a little bit.

'We were maturing and having girlfriends and going off doing other projects, we weren't all living in the same town.

'In hindsight looking back, I can see that's how we lost our way after all that success you kind of loses yourself a bit.'

In 2001, EMF played a reunion gig in London. They also released a greatest hits album: Epsom Mad Funkers: The Best of EMF.

Popular: During their initial eight-year run, from 1989 to 1997, the band, from Cinderford in Gloucestershire, released three studio albums before a hiatus

Sadly, bassist Zac passed away on 3 January 2002 at the age of 31, due to an overdose of non-prescribed drugs.

Following his death, EMF played just four more gigs in late 2002 before splitting again.

In 2007, the band reformed to play a one-off gig at the Scala in King's Cross, London.

The place of Foley was taken by Richard March, formerly of Pop Will Eat Itself and Bentley Rhythm Ace.

In 2008, EMF played the Portsmouth Festival on 9 October and supported Carter USM at Birmingham Academy and London's Brixton Academy in November that year.

In May 2009, EMF announced that due to personal issues, the band would not be doing any more shows in the near future, thus ending their second reunion.

Last year, the band made a surprise return to the music scene to release their first album of new material in 27 years, Go Go Sapiens.
Abbie Chatfield has concerns about how warm it's been in Sydney lately.

The mercury hit 20 degrees Celsius on Friday as the final weeks of winter wind down into spring.

That left Abbie on alert, with the radio star posting to Instagram on Friday to share her concerns.

'It's really f***ing scary how warm it is right now,' she captioned one post which showed her out in the sunshine.

She added in a second post: 'If anyone has any positive climate thoughts I would love that, because I've been in a state of panic for months'.

Abbie Chatfield (pictured) has concerns about how warm it's been in Sydney lately. The mercury hit 20 degrees Celsius on Friday as the final weeks of winter wind down into spring

The average temperature in Sydney in August is around 14 degrees but can rise as high as 17 degrees Celsius.

The former Bachelor star is known to be vocal on environmental issues and climate change.

During the NSW election earlier this year, she urged her fans to 'vote for change' on climate action.

'New South Wales! Vote Today! Vote for change! Use your preferences. Do not just Vote 1,' she captioned a photo of herself attending the election.

'Climate action, rental crisis assistance, First Nations rights, LGBTQIA+ rights and so much more is at stake! As a comment says: kick the Liberals out!'

'It's really f***ing scary how warm it is right now' she captioned one post which showed her out in the sunshine

She added in a second post: 'If anyone has any positive climate thoughts I would love that, because I've been in a state of panic for months'

Abbie recently revealed in July that she has been at a retreat in Thailand to recover from her addiction issues.

The podcast host, 28, recorded a message for her It's A Lot listeners explaining she was taking the week off from work to re-prioritise her commitments.

In an emotional voice recording, the radio host revealed she has a 'genuine addiction to work' and was suffering from serious burnout because of it.

'I've been absolutely depleted and burnt out by the start of this year for a number of reasons,' she said.

'But I've been here for about five days and I think I've realised that my priorities need to shift a bit, to be honest, I've taken on so many jobs and so many roles.'
Amir Khan has hinted at a reunion with his wife Faryal Makhdoom in the wake of news that they had separated over a sexting scandal.

Taking to Snapchat, the boxer posted a clip in which he revealed he was at a private cinema with his estranged wife and a camera crew, saying: 'We've just come into the cinema. It's a nice little private one this.

'Everything else is good just came with Faryal and the crew here to the cinema. We're just chilling doing our thing.' Faryal also posted an image in a cinema.

Following her snap from the cinema, she also posted a cryptic quote reading: 'Stay soft. Do not let the thing that have hurt you turn you into a person you are not'.

Last week, MailOnline revealed that Amir and Faryal, 31, have separated and are said to be splitting their time between their homes in Dubai and Britain while Faryal decides whether she wants to end their 10-year marriage.

Back on? Amir Khan has hinted at a reunion with his wife Faryal Makhdoom in the wake of news that they had separated over a sexting scandal

Statement: He stated that: 'Everything else is good' and revealed he was with Faryal

Tough: Last week, MailOnline revealed that Amir and Faryal, 31, have separated and are said to be splitting their time between their homes in Dubai and Britain while Faryal decides whether she wants to end their 10-year marriage

Cryptic: Following her snap from the cinema, she also posted a cryptic quote reading: 'Stay soft. Do not let the thing that have hurt you turn you into a person you are not'

Prior to the post, a new woman has claimed she had an affair with the boxer over four months - which only ended when Faryal threatened to 'name and shame' her.

The unnamed woman has revealed that the champion fighter admitted his marriage was 'on the rocks' and said that she slept with him this year after he demanded 'no holds barred' sex.

The woman reportedly said she met with Amir on several occasions, but that their fling ended when she received a call from his furious wife.

His cryptic post comes after it was reported that the couple had been rejected for BBC's Celebrity Antiques Road Trip due to their marriage woes.

Show producers were concerned about how the current status of their relationship would affect them on-screen.

A source told The Sun: 'BBC producers are aware of the troubles Amir and Faryal are going through in their relationship, and so decided against booking them for the show.'

Amir's BBC reality show Meet The Khans: Big In Bolton has reportedly been put on hold amid claims he sexted another women.

The third series aired in January but talks on whether to reprise it have stalled, they report. A source told the publication: 'Amir and Faryal were a hit on the BBC with their reality show.

'At the start of the year, it was unclear whether they would be getting a fourth series but discussions were ongoing. Now, in the wake of the cheating allegations, it is completely on ice.

Inside: He shared clips from inside the cinema as they kicked back

Swish: The private area was swanky as they were joined by cameras

Viewing pleasure: She also shared a clip from their cinema trip

Split: Amir's BBC reality show Meet The Khans: Big In Bolton has reportedly been put on hold amid claims he sexted another women

'They are waiting to see how this all pans out before a decision is made on the future of it.'

The BBC has been contacted for comment.

It comes after Faryal put on a brave face and ditched her wedding ring while out partying with friends. Meanwhile, Amir jetted back to London from Dubai after being caught sexting another woman.

The former professional boxer, 36, took to his Instagram Stories on Friday to share that he was leaving Dubai, where he has been staying, and returning to the UK.

Elsewhere on Friday, Faryal took to her own Instagram Stories to share a string of cryptic posts about 'love' and 'loose ends' after Amir was caught sexting another woman.

Amir shared a video on Friday confirming that a car was picking him up and taking him to the airport in Dubai for a flight back to London. It is not known where Faryal is currently staying.

He later shared a selfie of himself lying back and relaxing on the aeroplane as he prepared to have a nap on the nearly eight-hour long flight.

A source told The Sun: 'BBC producers are aware of the troubles Amir and Faryal are going through in their relationship, and so decided against booking them for the show.'

Meanwhile, Faryal took to Instagram to share a cryptic message about falling in love with someone who doesn't make it seem 'hard'.

She wrote: 'Fall in love with someone who doesn't make you think love is hard.'

In another post, Faryal shared a poem about the main character of a book 'finding their love' and 'shining' bright.

It read: 'Just like a book, I hope the second half writes a perfect tale where all loose ends find their place.'

Elsewhere this week, Amir also shared a birthday tribute to Faryal on Instagram , uploading a snap of both of them smiling together.

Amir, who is currently in Dubai, captioned it: 'Happy birthday Faryal. You deserve the world and more,' with a heart emoji.

Separated: Amir's wife Faryal ditched her wedding ring while out partying after her boxer husband was caught sexting another women

Split: It comes after MailOnline revealed that Amir and his wife Faryal, 31, have separated and are said to be splitting their time between their homes in Dubai and Britain while Faryal decides whether she wants to end their 10-year marriage

He then reiterated the message on his Story as he added another photo of his wife and wrote: Since its 12am in Dubai, I want to wish Faryal a happy birthday.'

In the second post, his wife looked stunning as she posed for a selfie with a full face of glamorous make-up.

It comes after MailOnline exclusively revealed that Amir and Faryal have separated and are currently living apart after he was caught sexting another woman.

Amir's tumultuous marriage to the mother of his three children is on the rocks after the sportsman approached bridal model Sumaira online and eventually asked her to send raunchy pictures.

It is understood that Amir and Faryal are now separated and are splitting their time between their homes in Dubai and Britain while Faryal decides whether she wants to end their 10-year marriage.

A source close to the Khan family told MailOnline: 'Faryal is taking time to think about whether or not to walk away. She's going through a very difficult time and choosing to focus on her children while she and Amir continue to co-parent.'

MailOnline contacted Amir for comment at the time.

Amir admitted he 'regretted' messaging model Sumaira, revealing he'd contacted her out of 'boredom' and telling The Sun that he'd go through therapy to stop him sexting other women.

Asked if he would attend therapy sessions, he said, according to The Sun : 'That question hasn't been brought up before.

Travels: Amir Khan has jetted back to London from Dubai after being caught sexting another woman and separating from his wife Faryal Makhdoom

'But maybe I do need help to stop me from messaging other women. I am willing to go to therapy to stop me sending texts to women who aren't my wife.

'I think nowadays with mental health issues, any help goes a long way. It's definitely something I would do. Things like that do help, so maybe it's something to think about.'

The sportsman said Faryal was 'disgusted' at the news of him messaging another woman, with her telling him: 'If you have a diamond at home, why do you want to mess around with rocks and stones?'

Amir admitted his behaviour was 'not nice' and noted that his children will one day read about what happened, which he said will 'upset them'.

Initially complimenting the model's tattoos, Amir's messages quickly turned racy, telling the model that she 'looked good (in a) G string', suggesting that she'd had a boob job and asking her to send raunchy pictures, before then trying to meet up with her in person.

Faryal appeared to defend her husband, blasting Sumaira in a lengthy Instagram post after the model claimed Amir had told her his marriage was 'a bit of a business arrangement'.

On Instagram, she said she 'refuses to play out my marriage publicly' and said that 'after a long week of accusations, slander and harassment I have decided it is now time to address the situation that has unfolded'.

Earlier this month, it was alleged Amir contacted bridal model Sumaira online and said that he and Faryal were 'not properly together' and that their marriage was 'a bit of a business arrangement'.

Amir later hit out at the claims in a chat with Geo News , claiming Sumaira had sent him raunchy pictures unsolicited.

Addressing his denial, Sumaira, 25, shared a TikTok video in which she accused the boxer of lying and threatened to disclose more screenshots of their conversations, prompting his wife Faryal to address the remarks in an Instagram Story.

Faryal, who shares three children with boxer Amir, described Sumaira's actions as a 'hate campaign' and has denied that she is 'responsible for Sumaria's current mental state'.

Messages: Elsewhere on Friday, Faryal took to her own Instagram Stories to share a string of cryptic posts about 'love' and 'loose ends' after Amir was caught sexting another woman

Cryptic: Faryal took to Instagram to share a message about falling in love with someone who doesn't make it seem 'hard'

Gushing: He then reiterated the birthday message on his Story as he added another photo of his wife and wrote: Since its 12am in Dubai, I want to wish Faryal a happy birthday'

Implying that she was standing by Amir, Faryal said 'the whole world is aware of his track record' and insisted that Sumaira must have been aware he was married when she sent him revealing photos.

'Over the duration of the last 7 days, I had had private conversations of mine dissected and torn apart by an alleged 'legal representative' acting on behalf of Sumaira, who has taken to social media with what I can only describe as a hate campaign,' Faryal wrote.

'My name has been used in almost every single story she has posted in a bid to tarnish my reputation and name label me as not only a woman who has no 'self respect' but Amir's supporter and enabler in these circumstances, all because I refuse to publicise the private dealings I have with my husband.'

'How I deal with my marriage and my husband is not the concern of anyone else. I refuse to play out my marriage publicly, the situation has been humiliating enough for me and I will not further play in the spectacle created by others in order to satisfy their desires.

'I will stand strong in my stance that I did not owe Sumaira anything more than a civil conversation.'

Faryal then addressed Sumaria's claims that she was unaware Amir was married, writing: 'This woman was not under the impression that Amir was a single bachelor, yet she continued on speaking to him whilst gathering her evidence to take to social media.'

Revealing what she said to Sumaria in a 'civil conversation' Fayral wrote that 'I knew what the outcome of this situation would be and I forewarned her not to take this to social media.'

'I explained that the situation would cause immense embarrassment not only for her but for my family also and that in the end no one wins.'

'I am a woman who receives abuse on a daily basis simply for existing and I knew she would also receive the same for even entertaining a married man, no matter what spin she put on the story.'

'I'm now being made responsible for Sumaria's current mental state. Her 'legal representaive has claimed that Sumaria suffering with her mental health as a result of her social media presence and exposures in her exchanges with my husband Amir and this has somehow become my fault too.'

'I was the one who was disrespected, lied to and embroiled in scandal and once again, it has become my fault.'

Difficulties: It comes after MailOnline exclusively revealed that Amir and Faryal, who share three kids, have separated and are living apart after he was caught sexting another woman

'Amir and Sumera are both adults who engaged in consented communication. They did not consult me when exchanging messages nor did they consider or respect me when building a 'bond.''

'I will not be dragged through the mud now for not 'supporting another woman'. This woman had no respect or regard for me as a woman and as Amir's wife. There was also no consideration of my mental health.'

'I am not in control of Amir's actions not those of Sumaira. I had a civil conversation with her which is more than most women in my position would be willing to do.'

Faryal finished her statement by addressing Amir's previous 'scandals,' explaining: 'I am being criticised for being Amir's wife, for still staying with him knowing his 'track record'.

'This is the man I am married too and have three young children with. The whole world is aware of his track record, his reputation precedes him, why would you as a single woman want to engage in a conversation with him at all?'

'My focus is my children and shielding them from all that is happening.'
Two Australian TV hosts embarrassed their celebrity guest this week after getting carried away during a cooking segment.

The Morning Show's Larry Emdur and Kylie Gillies were interviewing TikTok star B. Dylan Hollis about his new cookbook, Baking Yesteryear, when they got side tracked by a risque dish.

The pair couldn't stop giggling over a questionable looking banana that had been stuck inside of a pineapple slice.

Trying to introduce the dish, Hollis calmly called it a 'bonafide creation of the 1950s,' before Emdur interrupted him to make a crude remark.

'You believe this is a BONE-afied creation?' he asked, sending both Gillies and a red-faced Hollis into a fit of giggles.

The Morning Show's Larry Emdur (left) and Kylie Gillies (center) embarrassed TikTok star B. Dylan Hollis during a racy cooking segment this week

'Can I tell you what it looks like to me?' he continued. 'I've gotta be honest with you, it looks like Kylie's hen's night.'

He then grabbed a can of whipped cream and suggestively squirted the frothy foam all over the banana.

Gillies then joined in on the fun, snatching the can and spraying a squirt of cream on the end of her banana, before 'finishing it off' by sticking a grape on top of it.

The pair couldn't stop giggling over a questionable looking banana that had been stuck inside of a pineapple slice, making several crude jokes and innuendo during the segment

'There we go. Is that how it's meant to look?' she asked as off-camera producers could be heard shrieking with laughter.

Emdur quipped, 'I think you should taste it and see!'

Hollis, who was watching via satellite, buried his head in his hands to try and contain himself.

Emdur joked that they had probably gotten the show 'cancelled' due to their juvenile on-air antics during the outrageous segment

'We've gotta go because I think we're about to be taken off air,' Emdur said.

'The HR department wants to see us,' he added, before telling Gillies that she might enjoy the meal 'with her cup of tea' later.

'I'll save this for later,' she responded, licking some whipped cream off her thumb.

Signing off the segment, Emdur said, 'So anyway, we probably just got cancelled, so thanks for being here for that.'
Marnie Simpson put on a very racy display as she stripped down to her green underwear to tease her new OnlyFans content on Friday.

The Geordie Shore star, 31, took to Twitter to put on a very daring display and showcase her sensational figure.

She dared to bare in green underwear and covered her torso with a purple top while posing up a storm for a selfie.

Captioning her post, she wrote: 'I had some fun before I left, sound on! Coming tonight.'

The mother-of-two wore thigh-high latex boots and posed a smouldering look in her sexy snap.

Raunchy: Marnie Simpson put on a very racy display as she stripped down to green underwear to tease her new OnlyFans content on Friday

The newlywed, who shares two young sons with her new husband, tied the knot with former X Factor contestant Casey Johnson, 27, on March 22 in a rustic barn wedding.

It's not unusual to see Marnie's racy content as it comes after she posted a very raunchy snap naked on the bed.

She urged her followers on Twitter to 'slide into her DMs' as she promoted her OnlyFans, just weeks after marrying Casey.

Lying in bed on her front, Marnie was sure to include an eyeful of her naked body in the jaw-dropping photograph.

Marnie looked nothing short of sensational for her special day, where she recently revealed that she had chosen not one, but seven wedding dresses for the celebration.

She said that the multiple dresses were on standby 'just in case' as she worried about stains and drink spillages.

Making good use of the options, the bride donned three throughout the day, looking stunning in a mesh-sleeved gown with a corset bodice for the ceremony.

But then it was time for dress number two, the blush ruffled gown with elbow-length gloves - which she dubbed 'her favourite' of the choices.

The couple were forced to postpone their nuptials back in 2021 due to ongoing Covid restrictions, before finally walking down the aisle.

Her former Geordie Shore co-stars Sophie Kasei, Charlotte Crosby and Holly Hagan all attended with their respective partners; Jordan Brook, Jake Ankers and Jacob Blyth, as well as pal Lateysha Grace.

Racy: It's not unusual to see Marnie's racy content as it comes after she previously posted a very raunchy snap naked on the bed
Former Neighbours star Ian Smith has sparked concern after sporting what appeared to be a bruise on his face this week.

The 83-year-old, who played Harold Bishop on the beloved Australian soap, had the marking on the side of his face, right next to his mouth.

Smith was spotted with the blemish while attending a protest to prevent the closing of a 136-year-old Australia Post office in Glenroy from being closed.

Clearly frustrated with the looming closure, Smith told 9News that it was 'so wrong'.

'Come on, let's save this post office!' he blustered to a reporter.

Former Neighbours star Ian Smith has sparked concern after sporting what appeared to be a massive bruise on his face this week at a protest in Melbourne

His appearance shocked viewers, with one tweeting, 'Is that Harold?'

Another fan jokingly brought up Smith's stint as Harold on Neighbours, writing that the actor, 'should speak to Mayor Lou Carpenter. He's still got strong connections in Erinsborough.'

It comes after news that Smith will reprise his iconic role as Harold in Amazon's upcoming Neighbours reboot.

The actor, 83, was spotted with the blemish while attending a protest to prevent the closing of a 136-year-old Australia Post office in Glenroy from being closed

The 83-year-old was spotted on the Ramsay Street location in May breathing new life into the character he played for 28 years.

He looked elated to be back on the Neighbours set as he smiled alongside Australian actor Scott Major, who has also previously starred in the soap as Lucas Fitzgerald.

Last July, filming for the iconic Australian soap wrapped up after 37 years.

It was cancelled as it failed to find a new broadcaster after Channel 5 dropped the long-running soap for its UK audience.

It comes after news that Smith will reprise his iconic role as Harold in Amazon's upcoming Neighbours reboot

Smith is pictured in a classic episode of Neighbours alongside Stefan Dennis

However, just months after a reunion episode was aired that included iconic stars such as Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan, it was announced that the soap would be coming back after a new broadcaster was found.

The new series will now air for free on Amazon Freevee in the UK and US and will include streaming rights to thousands of episodes from previous seasons.

In Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, it will stream on Prime Video.
Jamie Lee Curtis was seen smiling as she attended Project Angel Food's groundbreaking ceremony in Los Angeles on Thursday.

The 64-year-old actress - who recently gifted new mom Lindsay Lohan - dressed in a gray pantsuit to launch the organization's Rise To The Challenge campaign.

The Halloween star wore a pair of aviator eyeglasses and rocked her white-gray locks in her signature pixie cut.

Underneath her blazer, the philanthropist wore a blue T-shirt with the nonprofit's name and logo printed in white.

Also at the event in Hollywood was Abbott Elementary star Sheryl Lee Ralph.

In great spirits: Jamie Lee Curtis was all smiles as she attended Project Angel Food 's groundbreaking ceremony in Los Angeles on Thursday

Her look: The 64-year-old actress - who recently gifted new mom Lindsay Lohan - dressed in a gray pantsuit to launch the organization's Rise To The Challenge campaign

Curtis posed with volunteers who were also clad in Project Angel Food tees.

According to the official website, the program 'prepares and delivers more than 1.5 Million Medically Tailored meals each year, free of charge to homes of men, women, and children affected by life-threatening illnesses.'

During the COVID-19 pandemic it was deemed an essential service Mayor Eric Garcetti.

The org gathered to break ground on its new Chuck Lorre Family Foundation Campus expansion.

Lorre, who co-created the hit television show The Big Bang Theory, was present at the ceremony.

While there, he addressed attendees and recalled being diagnosed with ulcerative colitis diagnosis when he was 22-years-old.

'When I was a young man, I was really really very ill. I was severely ill with ulcerative colitis. I weighed about 110 pounds and was told I needed a colectomy,' he shared, according to an account by Variety.

'I didnt know what to do, I didnt know where to go. I had no money, no insurance. I managed to find my way to the Cedars of Lebanon, which was a teaching hospital,' he added. 'I was fortunate enough to get an anesthetic-free colonoscopy in front of a classroom of students.'

Looking good: The Halloween star wore a pair of aviator eyeglasses and rocked her white-gray locks in her signature pixie cut. From left, Chuck Lorre, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Richard Ayoub, Project Angel Food CEO, Curtis, Marianne Williamson and Tim Robinson

Supporting the cause: Underneath her blazer, the philanthropist wore a blue T-shirt with the nonprofit's name and logo printed in white

Connecting the incident to Project Angel Food's mission, Lorre noted that his condition was put in remission 'after about six months on a wonderful nutrition program.'

'It wasnt Western medicine' that fortified him, he said, adding that 'it was food' that helped him get better.

'During the pandemic, I learned about Project Angel Food. It is a food delivery system tailored to people's health needs. I was like, "I want to be a part of this because this is personal,"' he shared.

His eponymous foundation donated $10 million to the construction of the new $51 million campus.

The undertaking is expected to begin in January, which an estimated completion date of 2027.

Project Angel Food was founded in 1989, focusing on providing a food service for people with HIV and AIDS.

To date it has donated more than 17 million medically tailored meals.

L-R: Trisha Cardoso, Chuck Lorre, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Richard Ayoub, Project Angel Food CEO, Jamie, Marianne Williamson, and Tim Robinson

Breaking ground: The attendees smiled as they posed in photos with bronze shovels

Dressed in a hot pink pantsuit with a wrap-around blazer, Ralph shared remarks during Thursday's launch.

The former Moesha star shared about her friends and colleagues affected by the AIDS epidemic.

'For so many of them, there was no help, no love, no food  there was nothing but the worst that people could show other human beings,' the Emmy-winning entertainer said.

'Were here together because a group of people said, "We dont know what to do, but we know what we need," which is love and food,' Curtis added.

'They werent doctors or scientists, they werent going to be able to come up with a cure. They were facing the same amount of hatred and misinformation that was being spewed about a population, and they said, "Lets feed them."'
Calvin Harris risked the ire of Simon Cowell on Thursday after he poked fun at the music mogul's 'cosmetic work'.

Appearing as a guest on The One Show, the Scottish DJ, 39, hilariously shared an anecdote from a bizarre hotel stay in Switzerland.

The conversation came about after Calvin - real name Adam Richard Wiles - was asked by the presenters, Alex Jones and Roman Kemp, about some of the weirdest places he's ever been.

Recalling the memory, Calvin said: 'I stayed in a hotel in Switzerland once.

'I checked in and I was a bit hungry, so I look to the room service menu and it was just full of cosmetic treatments. On the room service menu!

Risky! Calvin Harris risked the ire of Simon Cowell on Thursday after he poked fun at the music mogul's 'cosmetic work'

'Botox, boob job.... eyebrow lift,' he explained.

Making a quip about the X Factor judge, he continued: 'I walked out of there looking like Simon Cowell. It was mad. I was out there for two days.'

His story was met by a room full of laughter, as Calvin continued the joke by stretching his face and mimicking the procedures.

Despite Calvin's playful comments, Simon has in the past insisted he has never had a facelift but has admitted to having Botox in the past.

In April, after Ant & Dec made a cheeky quip about his changing appearance during filming for Britain's Got Talent, Simon 63, hit back after the Geordie duo, both 47, for joking about his 'new face'.

Dec told the audience: 'We have a new face joining the judging panel' to which his comedy partner replied: 'What? Simon has a new face?'

Speaking to The Mirror Simon laughed off the suggestion he had gone under the knife, despite his drastically altered features.

'I think it's hysterical. I mean, it just makes me laugh. I haven't had a facelift or anything.'

Uh oh! Appearing as a guest on The One Show, the Scottish DJ, 39, hilariously shared an anecdote from a bizarre hotel stay in Switzerland

Story time: The conversation came about after Harris - real name Adam Richard Wiles - was asked by the presenters, Alex Jones and Roman Kemp, about some of the weirdest places he's ever been

Amused: Making a quip about the X Factor judge, he said, 'I walked out of there looking like Simon Cowell. It was mad. I was out there for two days'

'I've had a bit of Botox or whatever, but nothing drastic. So when I hear about this stuff, honestly it does make me laugh'.

Appearing on Lorraine that week ahead of the talent show's return fans expressed concern for the star with one writing: 'He seems to have changed his face which has made him look strange.'

The TV mogul looked unrecognisable as he sported an incredibly smooth complexion, bright white teeth and enhanced features.

Another added: 'WTF does Simon look like? Ruined his face totally ridiculous.'

A third penned: 'Simon Cowell looks like a completely different person lately.'

'Simon Cowell looks like a hologram,' another posted.

In recent times, Simon has sparked concern with his radically different facial features, looking unrecognisable notably in a Britain's Got Talent promo.

The record label also boss sparked concern with his 'unrecognisable' appearance at the Royal Variety Performance, which was filmed on December 2 and aired on ITV later that month.

Simon recently revealed that he took his love of Botox too far , with his final treatment leaving him looking like 'something out of a horror show'.

No chance: Simon Cowell insisted he has never had a facelift after Ant & Dec made a cheeky quip about his changing appearance (left in September 2022, right in 2002)

Changes: Appearing on Lorraine earlier this year ahead of the talent show's return fans expressed concern for the star with one writing: 'He seems to have changed his face which has made him look strange'

According to The Sun, the talent show boss said he decided to stop when his strange appearance left son Eric, eight, in hysterics.

The former X Factor judge, who shares his son with partner Lauren Silverman, 44, revealed that as a result he no longer has any filler in his face.

Elsewhere during Calvin's appearance, he revealed that he takes a photograph of Rod Stewart on stage with him for encouragement while he is performing - prompting host Roman to gift him a photo of himself.

Calvin first told how he takes a picture of Rod, 78, on stage with him and places him on his DJ decks for motivation, and the snap has been spotted during his Ibiza residency.

Presenter Alex, 46, first said: 'We learnt that Calvin has got a certain somebody next to him while all of this is going on, somebody to motivate you. Would you like to share with the group?'

To which Calvin revealed: 'Well, it's a picture of Rod Stewart from the 80s. There was a show that wasn't going particularly well.

'I turned to Connor, who takes photos, and said 'what would Rod Stewart do?' and he said 'he'd smile and he'd point at people', and I did that for the rest of the show, and I felt amazing, just smiling and pointing at folk.

'And from then on we've had this little picture of him, if it's not going so well, you just smile and point.'

Big fan: Elsewhere during Calvin's appearance, he revealed that he takes a photograph of Rod Stewart on stage with him for encouragement while he is performing - prompting host Roman to gift him a photo of himself

Calvin described Rod as a 'legend' as he gushed over his inspiration, before Alex asked him: 'If Rod couldn't make it, who would be your back-up?'

But doubling down on his tactic, Calvin said: 'Another picture of Rod, a different picture of Rod. It's only Rod, don't ask me why, it's only Rod.'

However, host Roman appeared undeterred by Calvin's insistence that he would only ever take a snap of Rod on stage, as he presented him with a framed picture of himself.

Roman said: 'I just wanted to tempt your mind, and I thought just in case, you can have a picture of me. That's yours to keep, you can have that. You do with that whatever you please.'

Calvin looked skeptical and puzzled about the gift as he asked Roman: 'Did you take this especially?', with the presenter then confirming that he did.

However, Calvin remained completely unconvinced and hilariously responded: 'Let's see where it ends up.'

Roman and Alex, as well as members of the crew, were sent into fits of laughter at Calvin's dubious response.
Dancing On Ice star Alexander Demetriou has married his new partner Julia Mercer after splitting from his ex-wife three years ago.

Speaking after his divorce in 2020 the professional skater, 34, revealed his closeness with his dance partner Maura Higgins left his wife Carlotta Edwards feeling jealous.

Sharing the happy news to Instagram on Thursday, Alexander announced that he was set to marry Julia later that day.

The couple could be seen smiling in a photo from a recent trip to New Mexico, that he captioned: 'Well today is the day I get to marry this worldie. Luckiest man alive.'

Alexander and Julia first went public with their relationship at the end of 2020 as they shared a series of love-up Christmas snaps on social media.

Congratulations! Dancing On Ice star Alexander Demetriou has married his new partner Julia Mercer after splitting from his ex-wife three years ago

Speaking candidly about the breakdown of his marriage in May 2020, the professional skater said of his now-estranged wife: 'I didn't want to lead her on anymore.'

Alexander admitted that his 'close bond' with Love Island beauty Maura was tough for Carlotta to witness, with their relationship eventually breaking down.

The previous month, he confirmed that he had separated from his ice skater wife, in a statement posted to his Instagram Stories.

He wrote: 'I'm Sorry I have been quiet on social media recently but it's been a tough time for me personally.

'Carlotta and I have separated. Although it saddens me that we can no longer be together, I feel this is best for both of us.

'I'm looking forward to what the future will bring but in the meantime let's all say home and stay safe.'

In an interview with The Sun, Alexander opened up about the factors that ended his four-year marriage to the Canadian native.

He said: 'I think Carlotta found it hard to see me close, yet so professional, with Maura. It had an impact on her.'

Jealous: Speaking after his divorce the professional skater revealed his closeness with his dance partner Maura Higgins (pictured) left his wife Carlotta Edwards feeling jealous

Torn apart: Speaking candidly about the breakdown of his marriage in 2020, the professional skater said of his now-estranged wife: 'I didn't want to lead her on anymore' (pictured in 2019)

'I told Carlotta we needed a break but I knew it was for good. I didn't want to lead her on any more. She was shocked at how serious it was.'

He went on to say that it was his decision to call time on their union, adding that Carlotta was 'very upset'.

He added: 'Several times I had to explain to Carlotta that Maura and I were just friends. Once the rumours start, it becomes a conversation - it was hard for Maura being called a homewrecker online.'

Alexander also stated that he and the former grid girl became 'emotionally dependent' on each other as the pressure of competition intensified.
Emily Ratajkowski showed off her sleek and sexy fashion sense as she took to the streets of New York City on Friday.

The 32-year-old multihyphenate - who teased her abs earlier this week - stepped out in a sleeveless little black mini dress as she walked her dog Colombo.

The outspoken mother-of-one, who shares 2-year-old son Sly with ex Sebastian Bear-McClard, accented the figure-hugging look with a black leather belt fastened around her hips.

The High/Low With Emrata podcaster elevated the look with a pair of black leather to-the-knee boots with a kitten heel.

She looked every bit the runway star as she donned a pair of dark, oval-shaped sunglasses.

Fashionista: Emily Ratajkowski took to the streets of New York City on Friday and showed off her sleek and sexy fashion sense

Her look: The 32-year-old multihyphenate stepped out in a sleeveless little black mini dress as she walked her dog Colombo

The star wore her ginger-toned locks loose with a center part and fringy, face-framing bangs.

Emily slung a quilted leather purse with a gold chain strap over her shoulder.

She clasped her dog's leash with flawlessly manicured hands, showing off her long, almond-shaped, nude-painted nails.

The beauty had on a light face of makeup underneath her stylish shades, dusting her cheeks with a peachy blush and finishing with a nude, matte lipstick.

Emily's star ascended after she appeared in Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines music video ten years ago.

She began her modeling career as a teenager growing up in Encinitas, California as the only child of an art teacher father and a writer mother.

Ratajkowski's debut book of essays, titled My Body, made her a New York Times bestselling author in 2021.

In the literary effort, she detailed being groped by Thicke while on set of his video and shared other essays about being exploited in the modeling world.

Stunner: She looked every bit the runway star as she donned a pair of dark, oval-shaped sunglasses

Effortless look: The superstar wore her ginger-toned locks loose with a center part and fringy, face-framing bangs

Footwear: The High/Low With Emrata podcaster elevated the look with a pair of black leather to-the-knee boots with a kitten heel

Skimpy: Emily's teeny dress cropped right beneath her bum and flashed her toned legs

Solo: Ratajkowski later dropped off Colombo and went for a stroll by herself

Staying updated: The fashion industry personality checked her phone as she walked through the streets of New York City's Lower East Side

Linking up: The supermodel was also pictured while spending time with a friend

Color coordination: The influencer's bright red hair contrasted perfectly with the dark tones of her clothing

On her podcast she's welcomed a star-studded lineup of guests, including Julia Fox, Winnie Harlow, Troye Sivan, and Esther Perel.

Emily also discusses being a single mother and dating again after filing for divorce from her ex-husband Sebastian in 2022.

Since the split she has been romantically linked to Pete Davidson, Harry Styles, and Eric Andre.

The star spoke to Elle UK last year and opened up about raising her son.

'You sacrifice so much of your identity when you become a mother,' she admitted.

'Now, for the first time, I am enjoying the world more. And yet now I have this incredible responsibility of raising a child. But one thing I have decided is how I want Sly to think about women. I want him to have an example of a mom who is happy.'
Angela Rippon, Amanda Abbington and Layton Williams have been confirmed as the first three stars for the upcoming series of Strictly Come Dancing.

The news was announced during the BBC's The One Show on Friday, with all three stars making an appearance.

As the host of Come Dancing, Angela Rippon knows a thing or two about ballroom.

But she has revealed that her decision to take part in Strictly as she approaches the age of 79 was a 'scary one' as she prepares to perform the Argentine Tango as the shows oldest ever contestant.

Confirming she has signed up for the BBC One dance programme, she said: 'Having been a fan of Strictly since day one, and as a former presenter of Come Dancing, this will be quite an adventure for me.

Signed up! Angela Rippon has been confirmed as taking part on the upcoming series of Strictly Come Dancing

Twinkle-toed: The BBC also announced during The One Show on Friday that Sherlock actress Amanda Abbington will also be joining the line up

Born to perform: Layton Williams, who is known best for performances as the title role in Billy Elliot and Everyones Talking About Jamie, is an early favourite to win the competition

'A scary one, considering Im about to be 79. But Im looking forward to the challenge, and perhaps being able to learn to dance the Argentine Tango.'

Appearing on The One Show on Friday, Angela revealed the first thing she asked the BBC show when they approached her was 'why didn't they ask me 10 years ago'.

She added: 'The serious reason behind doing it is because I've been advocating ever since I did a series called How To Stay Young with Chris van Tulleken where we demonstrated as part of the programme that dance is the complete full mind and body exercise for everybody, regardless of your age, but particularly for people as they get older.'

Her appearance on the show comes 47 years after high-kicking dance routine she performed during Morecambe and Wises 1976 Christmas special which was watched by 27 million viewers.

While she admits she is only able to kick her leg up to waist height, Angela still takes regular ballet classes in an effort to stay fit and healthy.

She told recently the Sunday Mirror: 'I still do a ballet class as often as I can. I worked on a documentary which found that dance is the best way of staying fit, supple and strong.

'I studied classical ballet until I was 17 and you never forget the basics. Can I still hold the positions? Well, yes.

'Put it this way  the mind is willing, the body sometimes says, "What the hell do you think youre doing?" I used to be able to do 10-to-six high-kicks but I can probably do to about [waist height] now.'

Challenge: Angela revealed her decision to take part in Strictly as she approaches the age of 79 was a 'scary one' as she prepares to dance as the shows oldest ever contestant

Well practiced: The former newsreader hosted Come Dancing between 1988 and 1991, before returning in 1998 when the show ended for good

In style: Angela showed off her elegant sense of style in some white trousers and a pink and white blouse backstage at The One Show (pictured with former Strictly contestant Sara Davies, who also appeared on The One Show on Friday)

Famous friends: Angela, Amanda and former Strictly contestant Sara Davies appeared in good spirits as they stood backstage at The One Show

The BBC also announced on Friday that Sherlock actress Amanda Abbington will also be joining the line up, as well as theatre star Layton Williams - who is likely to prompt controversy as he is a fully trained dancer and has been performing on stage since he was just six-years-old.

Amanda, 49, who starred as Mary Watson alongside her former partner Martin Freeman in the drama series said: 'Im thrilled to have been asked to do Strictly. Im actually really shy and self-conscious so this will be a great opportunity for me to overcome those things.

'I get to learn to dance which I am incredibly excited about and Im really looking forward to the training too, Im quite competitive as my family and friends will tell you.'

Angela hosted Come Dancing - described as the 'original Strictly' between the years of 1988 and 1991.

Last year she appeared on the dance show as part of the BBCs 100th birthday celebrations where she took part in a skit where she introduced Kym Marsh and her dance partner Graziano Di Primas routine.

BBC bosses are said to be 'thrilled' that she has signed up, with some expecting her to decline the offer due to her age.

Until now the oldest ever competitor was comedian Johnny Ball who took part in 2012 at the age of 74.

A source close to the show told the Mail on Sunday last month: 'Its such a coup to get Angela. She was Mrs Come Dancing so what a wonderful thing that she is going to be on Strictly all these years later.'

Overcoming fears: Amanda said: 'Im thrilled to have been asked to do Strictly. Im really shy and self-conscious so this will be a great opportunity for me to overcome those things'

Fashion focus: Amanda looked chic in a semi sheer white top which she teamed with some black trousers as she walked alongside The One Show host Alex Jones (right)

Greeting her public: Amanda appeared in good spirits as she stopped to speak to fans ahead of her appearance on The On

Tough time: Amanda revealed that she considered suicide after her split from ex-husband Martin Freeman left her 'hating herself' (pictured together in 2014)

Former love: The pair met on the set of the film Men Only in 2000 and went on to play formidable duo John and Mary Watson in the acclaimed BBC drama Sherlock (pictured)

Amandas appearance on the show comes after she revealed earlier this year she contemplated suicide after her devastating split from Martin in 2016 left her hating herself.

The pair never married but were together for 16 years and share two children; Joe, 17, and Grace, 16.

Meanwhile, Layton, who is known best for performances as the title role in Billy Elliot and Everyones Talking About Jamie, is an early favourite to win the competition.

Speaking taking part on the show, the 28-year-old said: Absolutely buzzing to confirm that I will be taking part in THE most iconic dance competition in the UK! Its time to bring it to the Ballroom. So excited to learn new skills from the best. Bring on the sequins ALL the sequins!

He added that he would like to be paired with a male professional dancer so he can be lifted up during the performances.

Performer: Layton is likely to prompt controversy as he is a fully trained dancer and has been performing on stage since he was just six-years-old

On stage: Layton started his career at the age of 12 playing the title role in the West End production of Billy Elliot (pictured in 2016 as Angel in musical Rent)

Seasoned performer: The West End performer starred in hit musical Everybody's Talking About Jamie, which is based on the 2011 BBC documentary Jamie: Drag Queen at 16

He has also appeared as Stephen Carmichael in the Bad Education movie and the television series that followed, as well as Beautiful People, Benidorm, The Cleaner, and I Hate Suzie.

Last week, The Mail on Sunday revealed former Family Fortunes host Les Dennis, 69, is set to slip on his dancing shoes for this years competition.

They will join BBC presenter Angela Scanlon, actor Nigel Harman and former Love Island contestant Zara McDermott.

Also tipped to appear are Bobby Brazier, son of the late Big Brother star Jade Goody, and actor Adam Thomas, who stars in BBC One drama Waterloo Road.
Joseph Baena showcased his incredible muscular physique as he struck a few poses in new photos shared to his Instagram stories on Friday.

The 25-year-old bodybuilder, who recently gave an update on his fitness progress in Venice Beach, could be seen standing outside underneath the hot sun as he mirrored similar poses his father, Arnold Schwarzenegger, used to do.

The real estate agent opted to go shirtless to stay cool in the summer heat, and only donned a pair of black gym shorts as well as a black and white-checkered Vans.

He added a pair of black shades and folded his arms near his left side as he paused for a quick pose.

Joseph also uploaded a second snap as he turned his back away from the camera and held his right arm upwards to better show off his muscular biceps.

Muscular frame: Joseph Baena, 25, showcased his incredible muscular physique as he struck a few poses in new photos shared to his Instagram stories on Friday

Like father like son: The bodybuilder could be seen standing outside underneath the hot sun as he mirrored similar poses his father, Arnold Schwarzenegger, used to do; seen in 1977

Baena often gives his fans and followers a glimpse of his fitness progress with various snaps on social media.

In regards to how he achieves such as a muscular physique, Joseph opened up to Men's Health last year about his rigorous regime at Gold's Gym located in Venice Beach.

He aims to focus on various parts of his body, and tends to start out with a dumbbell press to work out his upper chest area and pectoral muscles.

Afterwards, he will stretch out the pectoral muscles by doing reps on a lat pull down machine. The DJ revealed that his 'favorite workout at the gym' was the cable row, which he also adds into his regime.

Baena then works on his legs and glutes with a hack squat machine. The actor stated that he aims to train at the gym for 'six days a week' and when he doesn't stop by the gym, he will still try to stay as active as possible, such as enjoying a hike.

He also told the outlet that his father - who was a bodybuilder himself and a Mr. Olympia champion - is an inspiration to him.

'My father really inspired me. He kind of created the ideal physique for most people, and I'm speaking on behalf of most people.'

'To me, he has the best physique I've ever seen in my life. Do I wanna have the same physique? I don't know if I can,' he humorously admitted.

Working hard: Joseph also uploaded a second snap as he turned his back away from the camera and held his right arm upwards to better show off his muscular biceps

Role model: 'My father really inspired me. He kind of created the ideal physique for most people, and I'm speaking on behalf of most people,' the real estate agent added to the outlet

While talking to People late last year in November, Joseph revealed that he had been 'bullied' in school due to being overweight.

'I was bullied when I was a kid, elementary, middle school, and not really in high school, but I just felt like an outsider in high school at the beginning,' and added he was, 'really overweight from the end of elementary school into the beginning of high school.'

He then expressed, 'It was my closest friends that were the ones that bullied me the most and made fun of me for being overweight and all these kind of things.'

'So, that was really a big struggle for me in finding myself and figuring out and creating that ambition to change my weight and my physique and all these kind of things,' the budding actor explained.

Joseph was born in October 1997, to parents Arnold and housekeeper Mildred Baena, whom he notably had an affair with.

During a recent Netflix documentary titled, Arnold, the former governor of California reflected on the moment he told then-wife, Maria Shriver, of the affair and how he had fathered a child.

He revealed the news during a marriage counselling session in 2011 and expressed that Shriver had been 'crushed.'

Regarding the affair, Arnold admitted that it was his 'biggest failure' and stated, 'I have caused enough pain for my family, because of my f**k-up. Everyone had to suffer. Maria had to suffer, the kids had to suffer, Joseph, his mother, everyone.'

Throughout the course of their 25-year marriage, the pair welcomed daughters Katherine, 33, and Christina, 32, as well as sons, Patrick, 29, and Christopher, 25, who was born mere days before his other son, Joseph, was born.

Rigorous regime: He aims to focus on various parts of his body, and tends to start out with a dumbbell press to work out his upper chest area and pectoral muscles

Past bullying: While talking to People late last year in November, Joseph revealed that he had been 'bullied' in school due to being overweight

'Proud' Arnold also revealed that he was 'very proud' of his son, Joseph, who is also an actor and bodybuilder, like his own father. 'I saw Joseph developing into a fantastic human being'

The housekeeper retired in 2011, the same year that Maria ended her relationship with Arnold, prompting their separation. She filed for divorce in July 2011, which wasn't officially finalized until 10 years later in 2021.

Following their split, both Arnold and Maria have maintained a positive relationship, from attending to children's graduations to celebrating birthdays together.

Arnold also revealed that he was 'very proud' of his son, Joseph, who is pursuing acting and bodybuilding, like his own father. 'I saw Joseph developing into a fantastic human being.'

'It was wrong what I did but I dont want Joseph to think hes not welcome in this world because he is very much welcome and I love him. He has turned out to be an extraordinary young man,' the star sweetly added.
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Model Charlotte McKinney shared several new images to her Instagram account on Friday.

The 29-year-old former Guess model - who will turn 30-years-old on Sunday - was seen in a pink string bikini that made the most of her very slender figure.

It was decorated with a yellow and red daisy print.

The star was on a sandy beach as she posed away, at one point even flipping double birds.

It seemed as if it may have been a size too small as it rode up on her chest, flashing some underboob, but her 1m followers were not complaining.

Charlotte also showed off her brown purse and the beach at sunset.

Eye-popping beauty: Charlotte McKinney on Friday shared several photos to Instagram where she was working on her tan on a sandy beach

A closer look: The cover girl was seen in a very skimpy string bikini with ties on the briefs that barely stayed on her dynamic figure

The ex of Stephen Dorff was also seen taking in a beach setting.

McKinney is a model and actress who first gained attention as an Instagram personality, eventually achieving wider recognition for her appearance in a Carl's Jr. commercial which aired regionally during Super Bowl XLIX in 2015.

The star has already be on the cover of GQ and Vanity Fair.

And Charlotte has competed on Dancing With The Stars and acted in the Baywatch remake.

This new sighting comes two months after she landed one of her most scintillating ad campaigns of her long career.

The blonde beauty from Orlando, Florida was seen posing in skimpy lingerie to plug a major shoe brand in Miami.

The face of Larroude footwear as she was seen pouting for the camera in new eye-popping images shared to her Instagram page.

A size too small works for her: It seemed as if it may have been a size too small as it rode up on her chest

Wonderful woman: The blonde bombshell is hitting a milestone soon: her 30th birthday falls on August 6

'New @larroude spring collection out now!' wrote siren in her brief caption.

'Shooting this campaign was extra special because the first time I wore their shoes I fell in love and became such a fan of the line but all that aside I had the chance to work with some of the most kindest and bad a** people.'

The Hollywood veteran then added hashtags for the brand as well as the glam team.

The star had on a pale pink sheer corset that had applique over her chest. McKinney also wore very tiny briefs that barely covered her up.

The outfit was used to plug the pale pink high heels from Larroude, though it is debatable if anyone was checking out her feet as her body seemed to be the focus.

The fashion industry personality left little to the imagination while showcasing her shapely form. The social media figure let her blonde hair fall down over her bare shoulders and her glam was on point.

McKinney began her modeling career by building a large presence on Instagram in the mid-2010s.

The model spoke about her platform during an interview with Marie Claire, where she pointed out that what she shared on her account was not indicative of what her life was normally like.

Sexy for sale: In February McKinney has landed one of her most scintillating ad campaigns of her long career; she was selling the shoes here, not the lingerie

Her big breakout role: She came to fame when she modeled a bikini top and micro shorts for a Carl's Jr campaign in 2015

'Social media is an interesting part of life, and it's not all it looks like from the outside. Instagram is just an outlet to exude this image of what you deem as a perfect life,' she stated.

McKinney went on to express that she was not necessarily fond of using the social media outlet, although she recognized its necessity in her professional life.

'I have such a love hate relationship with it, being a private person but it plays such an essential part of my career,' she said.

The fashion industry personality concluded by expressing that prospective models should consider utilizing unconventional means while looking for success.

'Now more than ever, there isn't just one path to wherever you want or need to go. Explore as many options as possible, and don't rely on one straight road,' she said.
Sophia Bush is divorcing her husband Grant Hughes after just 13 months of marriage but will remain amicable.

The 41-year-old One Tree Hill actress filed for divorce from the 41-year-old researcher on Friday according to People.

A source told the publication: 'Sophia and Grant were friends for 10 years and bonded during COVID through their love of community service.

'They continue to run their nonprofit together and remain good friends.'

Moving on: Sophia Bush is divorcing her husband Grant Hughes after just 13 months of marriage but will remain amicable; the two are seen in New York in June 2021

The two are founders of The Bush Hughes Foundation For Progress which was established to 'support organizations and individuals working for equity, social justice, and progress in the City of Tulsa' according to the nonprofit's website.

The two have a great connection to the city as they were married in the Oklahoma city in June 2022.

The split news comes just seven weeks after Sophia had celebrated their wedding anniversary with a now-deleted Instagram post.

People reported that she had posted a black and white throwback photo from their wedding day with the caption: 'Today marks 365 days of calling you "husband."

'Best decision of my life. It still feels just like this. Ecstatic. Running toward the future, grinning and laughing, together. I love you, my favorite. Happy Anniversary [white heart emoji].'

Meanwhile on June 11, Grant also took to Instagram to share a sweet tribute which is still up also featuring them on their wedding day.

He posted a lengthy caption which read: 'What a full, beautiful, dynamic, exciting, growth-filled year weve had together. I truly love doing life with you!'

He also shared that had given her a card the morning of their one-year anniversary which read: 'There are seven billion people on this planet. You are my favourite.'

'Sophia and Grant were friends for 10 years and bonded during COVID through their love of community service': The 41-year-old One Tree Hill actress filed for divorce from the 41-year-old researcher on Friday according to People; they are pictured in March

People reported that she had posted a black and white throwback photo from their wedding day with the caption: 'Today marks 365 days of calling you "husband." Best decision of my life. It still feels just like this. Ecstatic. Running toward the future, grinning and laughing, together. I love you, my favorite. Happy Anniversary [white heart emoji].'

Taking a stand: Meanwhile on June 11, Grant also took to Instagram to share a sweet tribute which is still up also featuring them on their wedding day

He posted a lengthy caption which read: 'What a full, beautiful, dynamic, exciting, growth-filled year weve had together. I truly love doing life with you!'

Their wedding ceremony took place on June 11, 2022 as it was attended by multiple celebrity friends of the couple.

The Tulsa County Court Clerk told the UsWeekly at the time that the duo obtained a marriage license on June 8th and returned it on June 11.

The nuptials took place at Philbrook Museum of Art, which was built in 1927 and is surrounded by more than two dozen acres of greenery.

A source told Us that the reception was enjoyed at The Church Studio.

The guest list included the likes of Colton Underwood, Aaron Paul, and Bush's One Tree Hill costar Hilarie Burton.

Sophia revealed she became engaged to her businessman boyfriend while on vacation in Lake Como in August 2021.

'So it turns out that being your favorite person's favorite person is the actual best feeling on planet Earth #YES,' she said in her Instagram caption as she shared an image.

'Thank you to @comoclassicboats and @bottega53 for helping my favorite human plan the most incredible, moving surprise of my life. My heart. It bursts,' she added.

Joyous: Their wedding ceremony took place on June 11, 2022 as it was attended by multiple celebrity friends of the couple; they are pictured in July 2021

Gorgeous: Sophia revealed she became engaged to her businessman boyfriend while on vacation in Lake Como in August 2021

Picture-perfect: The two were first linked together when they were spotted together in Malibu in 2020

'So it turns out that being your favorite person's favorite person is the actual best feeling on planet Earth #YES,' she said in her Instagram caption as she shared an image

Grateful: 'Thank you to @comoclassicboats and @bottega53 for helping my favorite human plan the most incredible, moving surprise of my life. My heart. It bursts,' Bush wrote at the time of her engagement

The next day she was seen posing in a summer outfit while in Italy. 'Turns out this whole being engaged thing is really, really fun,' Bush said in her caption.

The couple had been dating for a year and The Hitcher actress - who was married to Chad Michael Murray from 2005 until 2006 - around the time she admitted she'd be sure about the 'motivations' behind tying the knot again before agreeing to it.

Speaking on the Inside of You podcast, she said: 'I think it depends on what people's motivations are and I want to make sure, whether it's myself or one of my best friends, that we're clear on what it is we're signing up for rather than thinking we're getting some Kate Hudson and Matt McConaughey rom-com life.

'This notion that you're going to meet your person and they're going to make you so happy that you're going to be fulfilled and you'll never be nervous again and you'll never ever think anyone else is hotlike what? It's such an absurd joke.'

Short-lived: Sophia was married to her former costar Chad Michael Murray from 2005-2006

And when it comes to her relationship, Sophia thinks 'radical honesty' is vital.

When asked about Murray by Michael Rosenbaum, Bush immediately replied: 'Oh, I'm not going to talk about him. I'm not allowed to.'

'I've tried to poke fun at being a dumb kid and whenever I've done that, it gets twisted into I'm talking s**t about somebody who I don't even know anymore, who's clearly a grown-up,' she explained.

'I think you have to, like, laugh at who you used to be,' she continued. 'But when people ask me about history that involves someone else ... it's not worth my time. It's not a place where I harbor ill will or anything.'
Joey King lended her support to the SAG-AFTRA strike on Friday in Burbank, California as she picketed outside Disney studios.

The 24-year-old Kissing Booth star - who recently enjoyed a festive bachelorette weekend - showed up to march with her fellow actors.

King, who is a Los Angeles native, arrived in black leggings and a black T-shirt that read 'SAG-AFTRA STRONG.'

The blonde beauty wore her tousled locks in an imperfect center part, tucking the front pieces behind her ears.

She carried a green backpack over her shoulders and held a sign as she walked in a pair of cream-colored Reebok sneakers.

Taking a stand: Joey King lended her support to the SAG-AFTRA strike on Friday in Burbank, California as she picketed outside Disney studios

Joey, who is engaged to be married to Steven Piet, wore a colorful charm necklace and and a pair of square-shaped red sunglasses.

She skipped earrings but wore multiple rings, bringing attention to her metallic silver manicure.

King mingled with her industry colleagues, who have been striking since July 14 to fight for better wages and protection from artificial intelligence.

Other celebrities were also pictured striking on Friday. Beanie Feldstein, 30, joined the picket line in New York City, sporting checkered pants and a tee.

Modern Family star Eric Stonestreet, 51, was casual cool in a black v-neck t-shirt and a matching hat, as he protested alongside Jerry Lambert in Hollywood.

Titanic star Frances Fisher, 71, was also spotted joining the picket line while Gabrielle Carteris, 62, protested outside Universal Studios.

The union joined the Writers Guild of America, which began its strike on May 2. Due to the strike, both television and film productions have come to an unceremonious halt.

The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA)  which represents approximately 160,000 actors and entertainers  announced last month that negotiations from studios had ended without a deal.

Solidarity: The 24-year-old Kissing Booth star showed up to march with her fellow actors

Pause: Under the rules of a strike, SAG-AFTRA members are not able to film any movie or TV series, or take part in any press or film premieres

Camaraderie: King mingled with her industry colleagues, who have been striking since July 14 to fight for better wages and protection from artificial intelligence

Then, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the National Executive Director of SAG-AFTRA and chief negotiator for its collective bargaining agreement, announced the union leadership had officially voted for a work stoppage.

It came after the entertainers' demands for higher wages and protections against AI were not met.

Under the rules of a strike, SAG-AFTRA members are not able to film any movie or TV series, or take part in any press or film premieres.

The announcement marks the first strike for actors from film and television shows since 1980.

It is also the first time two major Hollywood unions have been on strike at the same time since 1960, when Ronald Reagan was the actors' guild president.

The strike will affect Disney's Avatar and Lion King sequels, as well as shows that were scheduled to return to television in the fall, like The Simpsons.

Crabtree-Ireland said that dead-end discussions with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers left the union 'no choice' but to go forward with a strike.

'It came with great sadness that we came to this crossroads. We had no choice,' Fran Drescher, the president of SAG-AFTRA, said in an impassioned speech at the time.

'We are the victims here. We are being victimized by a very greedy entity. I am shocked by the way the people we have been in business with are treating us.

'I cannot believe it, quite frankly, how far apart we are on so many things. How they plead poverty that they're losing money left and right while giving hundreds of millions of dollars to CEOs,' the former Nanny star emphasized.

Marching on: Beanie Feldstein (L) joined the picket line in New York City, sporting checkered pants and a tee

In support: Modern Family star Eric Stonestreet was casual cool in a black v-neck t-shirt and a matching hat, was he protested alongside Jerry Lambert in Hollywood

Joining in: Titanic star Frances Fisher, 71, was also spotted joining the picket line in Hollywood

The battle goes on: Gabrielle Carteris, 62, protested outside Universal Studios

Later on Friday, King took to Instagram to share photos from her day marching for workers' rights.

She wrote in the caption, 'Get in loser were going picketing. Loved seeing some of our #WeWereTheLuckyOnes family today.'

As for her personal life, Joey has much to look forward to with her upcoming nuptials.

King met Piet on the set of her hit TV series The Act, and they began dating in September 2019.

The 32-year-old filmmaker popped the question in February 2022, which King announced in an Instagram post shortly after.
Shares of ASM International NV (OTCMKTS:ASMIY  Get Free Report) reached a new 52-week high on Thursday . The company traded as high as $486.94 and last traded at $482.42, with a volume of 2345 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $474.17.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Sanford C. Bernstein lowered shares of ASM International from an outperform rating to a market perform rating in a report on Friday, July 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $341.50.

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ASM International Price Performance

ASM International Cuts Dividend

The company has a market capitalization of $23.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.65 and a beta of 1.70. The business has a 50-day moving average of $433.26 and a 200-day moving average of $385.23.

The business also recently declared a dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 25th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 18th were given a $2.2659 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, May 17th. This represents a yield of 0.61%. ASM Internationals dividend payout ratio is presently 17.37%.

About ASM International

(Get Free Report)

ASM International NV, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the research, development, manufacture, marketing, and servicing of equipment and materials used to produce semiconductor devices in the United States, Europe, and Asia. Its products include wafer processing deposition systems for single-wafer atomic layer deposition, plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition, epitaxy, silicon carbide, vertical furnace systems, and low pressure chemical vapor deposition and diffusion products, as well as provides spare parts and support services.

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AvalonBay Communities (NYSE:AVB  Get Free Report) updated its third quarter 2023 earnings guidance on Monday. The company provided earnings per share guidance of $2.55-$2.65 for the period, compared to the consensus earnings per share estimate of $2.63. The company issued revenue guidance of -. AvalonBay Communities also updated its FY 2023 guidance to $10.46-$10.66 EPS.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have issued reports on AVB shares. 888 reaffirmed a maintains rating on shares of AvalonBay Communities in a research note on Friday, May 19th. Bank of America raised shares of AvalonBay Communities from a neutral rating to a buy rating and upped their price target for the company from $199.00 to $212.00 in a research note on Monday, May 15th. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of AvalonBay Communities from $186.00 to $195.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 31st. KeyCorp upped their target price on shares of AvalonBay Communities from $193.00 to $205.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 12th. Finally, Truist Financial increased their price target on shares of AvalonBay Communities from $190.00 to $211.00 in a report on Wednesday, June 14th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, AvalonBay Communities presently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $203.50.

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View Our Latest Analysis on AvalonBay Communities

AvalonBay Communities Trading Down 0.9 %

AvalonBay Communities stock traded down $1.73 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $184.39. The company had a trading volume of 869,117 shares, compared to its average volume of 803,957. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $188.10 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $178.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 0.95. AvalonBay Communities has a 1 year low of $153.07 and a 1 year high of $220.42. The firm has a market cap of $26.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.74, a P/E/G ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 0.93.

AvalonBay Communities (NYSE:AVB  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 1st. The real estate investment trust reported $2.59 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.60 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $690.86 million for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $675.67 million. AvalonBay Communities had a return on equity of 11.16% and a net margin of 46.32%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.43 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that AvalonBay Communities will post 10.52 earnings per share for the current year.

AvalonBay Communities Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, July 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 30th were issued a dividend of $1.65 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, June 29th. This represents a $6.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.58%. AvalonBay Communitiess dividend payout ratio is currently 74.24%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CIO Matthew H. Birenbaum sold 4,000 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $176.10, for a total transaction of $704,400.00. Following the sale, the executive now owns 62,559 shares of the companys stock, valued at $11,016,639.90. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.42% of the companys stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AvalonBay Communities

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in AvalonBay Communities by 5.6% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,087,597 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock worth $1,711,547,000 after acquiring an additional 531,677 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in AvalonBay Communities in the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,001,550,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in AvalonBay Communities by 18.5% during the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 4,863,429 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock worth $817,348,000 after purchasing an additional 759,388 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in AvalonBay Communities by 2.3% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 4,833,571 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $812,332,000 after purchasing an additional 106,604 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of AvalonBay Communities by 2.1% in the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,157,645 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock worth $529,565,000 after buying an additional 66,300 shares during the last quarter. 87.85% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

AvalonBay Communities Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

As of March 31, 2023, the Company owned or held a direct or indirect ownership interest in 295 apartment communities containing 88,826 apartment homes in 12 states and the District of Columbia, of which 19 communities were under development and one community was under redevelopment. The Company is an equity REIT in the business of developing, redeveloping, acquiring and managing apartment communities in leading metropolitan areas in New England, the New York/New Jersey Metro area, the Mid-Atlantic, the Pacific Northwest, and Northern and Southern California, as well as in the Company's expansion regions of Raleigh-Durham and Charlotte, North Carolina, Southeast Florida, Dallas and Austin, Texas, and Denver, Colorado.

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BlackRock Municipal Income Trust II (NYSEAMERICAN:BLE  Get Free Report) announced a monthly dividend on Tuesday, August 1st, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 15th will be paid a dividend of 0.034 per share on Friday, September 1st. This represents a $0.41 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.02%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 14th.

BlackRock Municipal Income Trust II Stock Performance

NYSEAMERICAN:BLE traded down $0.19 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $10.16. 171,202 shares of the companys stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 101,347. BlackRock Municipal Income Trust II has a 12 month low of $9.40 and a 12 month high of $11.97.

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Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Peter Hayes sold 3,582 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.36, for a total value of $37,109.52. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BlackRock Municipal Income Trust II

BlackRock Municipal Income Trust II Company Profile

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of BlackRock Municipal Income Trust II during the 1st quarter valued at $63,000. Worth Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in BlackRock Municipal Income Trust II in the 1st quarter worth $147,000. Private Advisor Group LLC acquired a new stake in BlackRock Municipal Income Trust II in the 1st quarter worth $163,000. Cerity Partners LLC acquired a new stake in BlackRock Municipal Income Trust II in the 1st quarter worth $170,000. Finally, B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in BlackRock Municipal Income Trust II in the 3rd quarter worth $175,000.

(Get Free Report)

BlackRock Municipal Income Trust II is a closed ended fixed income mutual fund launched by BlackRock, Inc It is managed by BlackRock Advisors, LLC. The fund invests in fixed income markets. It primarily invests long-term and short-term investments, and money market funds. The fund primarily in investment grade municipal bonds that are exempt from regular federal income tax.

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BlackRock MuniVest Fund II, Inc. (NYSE:MVT  Get Free Report) declared a monthly dividend on Tuesday, August 1st, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 15th will be paid a dividend of 0.0315 per share by the financial services provider on Friday, September 1st. This represents a $0.38 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.64%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, August 14th.

BlackRock MuniVest Fund II Stock Down 1.5 %

NYSE MVT traded down $0.16 during trading on Thursday, hitting $10.38. The company had a trading volume of 76,152 shares, compared to its average volume of 44,247. BlackRock MuniVest Fund II has a one year low of $9.51 and a one year high of $12.25. The companys fifty day moving average is $10.53 and its 200-day moving average is $10.64.

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Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of BlackRock MuniVest Fund II in the 3rd quarter worth about $132,000. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of BlackRock MuniVest Fund II by 19.4% in the 1st quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 14,081 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $182,000 after buying an additional 2,283 shares during the period. Susquehanna International Group LLP purchased a new stake in shares of BlackRock MuniVest Fund II in the 1st quarter worth about $192,000. LPL Financial LLC grew its position in shares of BlackRock MuniVest Fund II by 9.9% in the 4th quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 19,872 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $208,000 after buying an additional 1,782 shares during the period. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada grew its position in shares of BlackRock MuniVest Fund II by 27.5% in the 3rd quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 22,842 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $230,000 after buying an additional 4,928 shares during the period. 21.56% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

BlackRock MuniVest Fund II Company Profile

BlackRock MuniVest Fund II, Inc is a closed ended fixed income mutual fund launched by BlackRock, Inc It is managed by BlackRock Advisors, LLC. The fund invests in fixed income markets. It invests primarily in long-term municipal bonds exempt from federal income taxes. BlackRock MuniVest Fund II, Inc was formed on March 29, 1993 and is domiciled in United States.

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Bristow Group Inc. (NYSE:VTOL  Get Free Report) reached a new 52-week high on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $30.97 and last traded at $30.90, with a volume of 57376 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $30.77.

Bristow Group Stock Up 2.1 %

The firm has a market capitalization of $876.71 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 74.53 and a beta of 1.38. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $27.77 and a two-hundred day moving average of $25.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 1.91 and a quick ratio of 1.60.

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Bristow Group (NYSE:VTOL  Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 3rd. The company reported ($0.05) earnings per share for the quarter. The company had revenue of $302.02 million during the quarter. Bristow Group had a net margin of 0.98% and a return on equity of 2.05%.

Insider Activity at Bristow Group

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Bristow Group

In other Bristow Group news, major shareholder Alternative Asset Manage Solus sold 33,318 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.35, for a total transaction of $844,611.30. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 3,721,665 shares in the company, valued at approximately $94,344,207.75. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink . In other news, EVP David F. Stepanek sold 7,333 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.09, for a total transaction of $183,984.97. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 42,180 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $1,058,296.20. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website . Also, major shareholder Alternative Asset Manage Solus sold 33,318 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.35, for a total value of $844,611.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 3,721,665 shares in the company, valued at approximately $94,344,207.75. The disclosure for this sale can be found here . 15.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of VTOL. Swiss National Bank raised its holdings in shares of Bristow Group by 7.1% in the 1st quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 16,700 shares of the companys stock worth $619,000 after purchasing an additional 1,100 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in shares of Bristow Group by 293.4% in the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 183,280 shares of the companys stock worth $6,796,000 after purchasing an additional 136,686 shares during the period. Citigroup Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Bristow Group by 10.8% in the 1st quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 19,598 shares of the companys stock worth $727,000 after purchasing an additional 1,906 shares during the period. Bank of Montreal Can bought a new stake in Bristow Group during the 1st quarter valued at $226,000. Finally, MetLife Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Bristow Group by 57.0% during the 1st quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 13,043 shares of the companys stock valued at $484,000 after acquiring an additional 4,735 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 94.43% of the companys stock.

About Bristow Group

(Get Free Report)

Bristow Group Inc provides vertical flight solutions. It primarily offers aviation services to integrated, national, and independent offshore energy companies and government agencies. It also provides personnel transportation, search and rescue (SAR), medevac, ad hoc helicopter, and fixed wing transportation services, as well as logistical and maintenance support, training services, and flight and maintenance crews.

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Hayward (NYSE:HAYW  Get Free Report) announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday. The company reported $0.19 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.03, Briefing.com reports. Hayward had a return on equity of 12.20% and a net margin of 10.21%. The company had revenue of $283.54 million during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $266.69 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.34 earnings per share. The firms quarterly revenue was down 29.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Hayward updated its FY 2023 guidance to EPS.

Hayward Price Performance

NYSE:HAYW traded up $0.80 on Thursday, reaching $14.69. 5,688,926 shares of the companys stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,895,918. The company has a quick ratio of 2.07, a current ratio of 3.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $12.21 and a 200-day simple moving average of $12.10. The firm has a market cap of $3.13 billion, a PE ratio of 29.37 and a beta of 1.06. Hayward has a 12 month low of $7.97 and a 12 month high of $14.97.

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Insider Buying and Selling at Hayward

In other news, CEO Kevin Holleran sold 52,910 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $13.17, for a total transaction of $696,824.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 476,321 shares in the company, valued at $6,273,147.57. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CFO Eifion Jones sold 34,620 shares of Hayward stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $13.59, for a total transaction of $470,485.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 211,862 shares of the companys stock, valued at $2,879,204.58. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Kevin Holleran sold 52,910 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $13.17, for a total transaction of $696,824.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 476,321 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $6,273,147.57. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 15,749,429 shares of company stock valued at $185,202,241 over the last ninety days. 3.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Hayward

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of HAYW. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in shares of Hayward by 26.6% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 8,899,941 shares of the companys stock worth $104,306,000 after acquiring an additional 1,867,996 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund raised its holdings in Hayward by 126.9% in the 1st quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 160,617 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,882,000 after acquiring an additional 89,816 shares during the last quarter. Advisory Services Network LLC grew its stake in shares of Hayward by 44.7% in the 1st quarter. Advisory Services Network LLC now owns 3,237 shares of the companys stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 1,000 shares during the period. Hudson Bay Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in shares of Hayward in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $6,754,000. Finally, Jane Street Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Hayward by 125.5% during the 1st quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 108,033 shares of the companys stock worth $1,266,000 after purchasing an additional 60,116 shares during the period.

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded Hayward from a hold rating to a buy rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $14.00 to $16.50 in a report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Hayward from $13.00 to $14.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, KeyCorp increased their target price on Hayward from $15.00 to $17.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Thursday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Hayward currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $13.19.

View Our Latest Report on Hayward

About Hayward

(Get Free Report)

Hayward Holdings, Inc designs, manufactures, and markets a portfolio of pool equipment and associated automation systems in North America, Europe, and internationally. The company offers pool equipment, including pumps, filters, robotics, suction and pressure cleaners, gas heaters and heat pumps, water features and landscape lighting, water sanitizers, salt chlorine generators, safety equipment, and in-floor automated cleaning systems.

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Shares of Holmen AB (publ) (OTCMKTS:HLMNY  Get Free Report) traded up 5% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $19.64 and last traded at $19.64. 100 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 72% from the average session volume of 355 shares. The stock had previously closed at $18.71.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, DNB Markets downgraded Holmen AB (publ) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 7th.

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Holmen AB (publ) Price Performance

Holmen AB (publ) Company Profile

The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $19.43 and a 200 day simple moving average of $20.51.

(Get Free Report)

Holmen AB (publ) engages in forest, paperboard, paper, wood products, and renewable energy businesses in Sweden and internationally. Its Forest segment offers logs and pulpwood; and manages forests. The company's Paperboard segment provides paperboards for consumer packaging to brand owners, converters, and wholesalers.

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China launched a meteorological satellite on Thursday for weather forecasting, climate change monitoring and research on atmospheric chemistry.

A Long March 4C carrier rocket lifted off at 11:47 am at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China and flew about 22 minutes before placing the Fengyun 3F into a sun-synchronous orbit, according to the China National Space Administration.

The administration said in a news release that the satellite is equipped with 10 sets of advanced equipment including a hyperspectral infrared atmospheric sounder, a micro-wave temperature sounder and an Earth radiation measurement device. It will replace the Fengyun 3C, which has been operating for nearly 10 years and should have retired years ago, it noted.

Fengyun 3F is mainly tasked with obtaining three-dimensional, multi-spectral data of atmosphere, land and ocean surface around the world. Specifically, it will be used to monitor global ozone distribution, ice and snow coverage, sea temperatures, natural disasters, and ecosystems, the administration noted.

Its products will help improve short-term climate predictions, climate change forecast, climate emergency response, as well as disaster prevention and relief, it added.

China launched its first weather satellite, Fengyun 1A, in 1988. Since then, it has lifted 21 Fengyun meteorological satellites. Currently, the nation operates 10 weather satellites  two of Fengyun 4 series, three of Fengyun 2 series and five of Fengyun 3 series.

Thursday's space mission was China's 32nd rocket launch this year and the 481st flight of the Long March rocket family. It was also the 100th launch of the Long March 4 series of rockets.

Both the rocket and satellite were launched on Thursday, and were built by Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology, one of the major subsidiaries of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, the nation's leading space contractor.
Illinois Tool Works Inc. (NYSE:ITW  Get Free Report) saw a large growth in short interest in July. As of July 15th, there was short interest totalling 6,630,000 shares, a growth of 5.6% from the June 30th total of 6,280,000 shares. Currently, 2.2% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 1,080,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 6.1 days.

Insider Buying and Selling at Illinois Tool Works

In other Illinois Tool Works news, CAO Randall J. Scheuneman sold 5,425 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Monday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $239.23, for a total value of $1,297,822.75. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 8,870 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,121,970.10. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.88% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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Hedge Funds Weigh In On Illinois Tool Works

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Illinois Tool Works by 13.8% in the 2nd quarter. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. now owns 12,266 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $3,072,000 after buying an additional 1,489 shares during the period. Paragon Private Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Illinois Tool Works by 6.6% in the 2nd quarter. Paragon Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,735 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $1,185,000 after buying an additional 293 shares during the period. Appleton Group LLC purchased a new stake in Illinois Tool Works during the second quarter worth approximately $311,000. PFG Investments LLC lifted its stake in Illinois Tool Works by 3.4% during the second quarter. PFG Investments LLC now owns 3,257 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $815,000 after purchasing an additional 106 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Los Angeles Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Illinois Tool Works by 2.4% during the second quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 397,446 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $99,425,000 after purchasing an additional 9,414 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.37% of the companys stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ITW has been the topic of a number of research reports. Credit Suisse Group raised their price objective on Illinois Tool Works from $281.00 to $292.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Illinois Tool Works from $230.00 to $232.00 and gave the stock an underweight rating in a report on Thursday. Citigroup lifted their price target on Illinois Tool Works from $256.00 to $258.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Wednesday. Barclays lifted their price target on Illinois Tool Works from $203.00 to $210.00 in a report on Monday, July 10th. Finally, 3M reiterated a maintains rating on shares of Illinois Tool Works in a report on Wednesday, May 3rd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $236.75.

Check Out Our Latest Stock Report on Illinois Tool Works

Illinois Tool Works Trading Up 0.1 %

NYSE ITW traded up $0.16 during trading on Thursday, hitting $250.18. The stock had a trading volume of 1,107,597 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,098,965. The company has a market capitalization of $76.03 billion, a PE ratio of 24.70, a PEG ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.78. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $244.40 and a 200 day moving average price of $237.24. Illinois Tool Works has a twelve month low of $180.27 and a twelve month high of $264.19.

Illinois Tool Works (NYSE:ITW  Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 1st. The industrial products company reported $2.41 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.39 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $4.07 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.14 billion. Illinois Tool Works had a return on equity of 94.33% and a net margin of 19.30%. Illinois Tool Workss revenue was up 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.37 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Illinois Tool Works will post 9.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Illinois Tool Works Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 13th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 30th were paid a $1.31 dividend. This represents a $5.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.09%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 29th. Illinois Tool Workss payout ratio is presently 51.83%.

Illinois Tool Works Company Profile

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Illinois Tool Works Inc manufactures and sells industrial products and equipment worldwide. It operates through seven segments: Automotive OEM; Food Equipment; Test & Measurement and Electronics; Welding; Polymers & Fluids; Construction Products; and Specialty Products. The Automotive OEM segment offers plastic and metal components, fasteners, and assemblies for automobiles, light trucks, and other industrial uses.

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Wayfair Inc. (NYSE:W  Get Free Report) Director Anke Schaferkordt sold 679 shares of Wayfair stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.10, for a total transaction of $49,634.90. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 9,286 shares in the company, valued at approximately $678,806.60. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Anke Schaferkordt also recently made the following trade(s):

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On Friday, June 2nd, Anke Schaferkordt sold 11 shares of Wayfair stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.40, for a total value of $488.40.

Wayfair Price Performance

Shares of NYSE W traded up $11.72 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $84.61. The company had a trading volume of 24,526,008 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,838,662. The businesss 50-day simple moving average is $59.56 and its 200-day simple moving average is $47.72. Wayfair Inc. has a 12 month low of $28.11 and a 12 month high of $90.71. The firm has a market cap of $9.50 billion, a P/E ratio of -6.65 and a beta of 3.19.

Institutional Trading of Wayfair

Wayfair ( NYSE:W Get Free Report ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 4th. The company reported ($2.50) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of ($3.14) by $0.64. The business had revenue of $2.77 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.74 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Wayfair Inc. will post -8.74 EPS for the current year.

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Captrust Financial Advisors boosted its stake in Wayfair by 102.6% in the first quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 780 shares of the companys stock valued at $86,000 after acquiring an additional 395 shares during the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC increased its stake in Wayfair by 132.4% in the 4th quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 853 shares of the companys stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 486 shares during the last quarter. IFP Advisors Inc increased its stake in shares of Wayfair by 169.5% during the 4th quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 919 shares of the companys stock worth $96,000 after purchasing an additional 578 shares during the last quarter. Covestor Ltd increased its stake in shares of Wayfair by 2,934.3% during the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,062 shares of the companys stock worth $118,000 after purchasing an additional 1,027 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Centaurus Financial Inc. increased its stake in shares of Wayfair by 73.3% during the 1st quarter. Centaurus Financial Inc. now owns 1,587 shares of the companys stock worth $176,000 after purchasing an additional 671 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.35% of the companys stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently commented on W shares. Truist Financial raised their price target on Wayfair from $56.00 to $96.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Wayfair from an underweight rating to an overweight rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $135.00 to $100.00 in a research note on Thursday. Loop Capital reduced their price objective on Wayfair from $30.00 to $25.00 in a research note on Friday, May 5th. Moffett Nathanson upgraded Wayfair from an underperform rating to a market perform rating and set a $44.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 23rd. Finally, DA Davidson upped their target price on Wayfair from $49.00 to $57.00 in a report on Friday, May 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Wayfair presently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $64.15.

View Our Latest Stock Analysis on W

Wayfair Company Profile

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Wayfair Inc engages in the e-commerce business in the United States and internationally. The company provides approximately fourty million products for the home sector under various brands. It offers online selections of furniture, decor, housewares, and home improvement products through its sites, including Wayfair, Joss & Main, AllModern, Birch Lane, Perigold, and Wayfair Professional.

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Materion (NYSE:MTRN  Get Free Report) announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday. The basic materials company reported $1.38 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.36 by $0.02, Briefing.com reports. Materion had a return on equity of 14.03% and a net margin of 5.57%. The firm had revenue of $398.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $451.22 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.28 earnings per share. The businesss revenue was down 10.5% on a year-over-year basis. Materion updated its FY23 guidance to $5.60-6.00 EPS and its FY 2023 guidance to $5.60-$6.00 EPS.

Materion Stock Down 3.7 %

MTRN traded down $4.01 during trading on Thursday, reaching $103.90. The stock had a trading volume of 88,551 shares, compared to its average volume of 111,507. The stocks 50 day moving average is $112.31 and its two-hundred day moving average is $107.25. The company has a current ratio of 2.85, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. The company has a market capitalization of $2.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.15 and a beta of 1.08. Materion has a one year low of $64.89 and a one year high of $123.41.

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Materion Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 31st were issued a $0.13 dividend. This is an increase from Materions previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 30th. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.50%. Materions dividend payout ratio is 11.09%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Materion

In other Materion news, VP Gregory R. Chemnitz sold 2,378 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $102.05, for a total value of $242,674.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 19,310 shares in the company, valued at $1,970,585.50. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website . In other news, Director Emily M. Liggett sold 2,398 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $104.59, for a total value of $250,806.82. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 2,621 shares of the companys stock, valued at $274,130.39. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink . Also, VP Gregory R. Chemnitz sold 2,378 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $102.05, for a total value of $242,674.90. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 19,310 shares in the company, valued at $1,970,585.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here . 2.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC boosted its position in shares of Materion by 948.2% during the first quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 587 shares of the basic materials companys stock valued at $68,000 after buying an additional 531 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Materion during the second quarter valued at $111,000. UBS Group AG boosted its position in shares of Materion by 23.7% during the third quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 1,433 shares of the basic materials companys stock valued at $115,000 after buying an additional 275 shares during the last quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Materion during the first quarter valued at $116,000. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors boosted its position in shares of Materion by 9.2% during the second quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 2,174 shares of the basic materials companys stock valued at $160,000 after buying an additional 183 shares during the last quarter. 93.24% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MTRN has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Seaport Res Ptn restated a buy rating on shares of Materion in a report on Wednesday, July 5th. CL King upped their target price on Materion from $128.00 to $133.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 5th. KeyCorp upped their target price on Materion from $131.00 to $133.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Materion from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report on Saturday, July 15th.

Check Out Our Latest Research Report on MTRN

About Materion

(Get Free Report)

Materion Corporation, through with its subsidiaries, produces advanced engineered materials used in semiconductor, industrial, aerospace and defense, automotive, energy, consumer electronics, and telecom and data center in the United States, Asia, Europe, and internationally. It operates through Performance Materials, Electronic Materials, and Precision Optics segments.

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Mechanics Financial Corp decreased its holdings in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC  Free Report) by 12.5% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 15,150 shares of the financial services providers stock after selling 2,156 shares during the quarter. Mechanics Financial Corps holdings in Bank of America were worth $433,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Legend Financial Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Bank of America by 6,772.7% in the 4th quarter. Legend Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 756 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 745 shares during the last quarter. Tanglewood Legacy Advisors LLC bought a new position in Bank of America in the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Ahrens Investment Partners LLC bought a new position in Bank of America in the 1st quarter valued at $31,000. Grey Fox Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in Bank of America in the 4th quarter valued at $35,000. Finally, Mendota Financial Group LLC bought a new position in Bank of America in the 4th quarter valued at $36,000. Institutional investors own 67.34% of the companys stock.

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Bank of America Stock Performance

BAC stock traded up $0.22 on Thursday, hitting $31.41. The companys stock had a trading volume of 27,568,491 shares, compared to its average volume of 51,702,344. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $29.49 and a two-hundred day moving average of $30.52. Bank of America Co. has a 1 year low of $26.32 and a 1 year high of $38.60. The stock has a market cap of $249.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.36. The company has a current ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12.

Bank of America Increases Dividend

Bank of America ( NYSE:BAC Get Free Report ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 18th. The financial services provider reported $0.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.84 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $25.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $24.98 billion. Bank of America had a net margin of 19.97% and a return on equity of 12.01%. Bank of Americas revenue was up 11.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.73 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Bank of America Co. will post 3.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 29th. Investors of record on Friday, September 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 31st. This is a boost from Bank of Americas previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.06%. Bank of Americas dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 25.29%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have commented on BAC. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of Bank of America from $45.00 to $40.00 in a report on Thursday, July 6th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an outperform rating and issued a $35.00 price target on shares of Bank of America in a research note on Friday, June 30th. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Bank of America in a research note on Thursday, May 18th. They issued a hold rating on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on Bank of America from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an underperform rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 19th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $48.00 to $39.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 12th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $36.26.

Read Our Latest Report on Bank of America

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Dean C. Athanasia sold 77,806 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $31.48, for a total transaction of $2,449,332.88. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 353,971 shares in the company, valued at $11,143,007.08. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.27% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Bank of America Profile

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Bank of America Corporation, through its subsidiaries, provides banking and financial products and services for individual consumers, small and middle-market businesses, institutional investors, large corporations, and governments worldwide. Its Consumer Banking segment offers traditional and money market savings accounts, certificates of deposit and IRAs, noninterest-and interest-bearing checking accounts, and investment accounts and products; and credit and debit cards, residential mortgages, and home equity loans, as well as direct and indirect loans, such as automotive, recreational vehicle, and consumer personal loans.

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Shares of Mkango Resources Ltd. (LON:MKA  Get Free Report) traded down 2.5% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as low as GBX 9.60 ($0.12) and last traded at GBX 9.75 ($0.13). 131,713 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 83% from the average session volume of 781,712 shares. The stock had previously closed at GBX 10 ($0.13).

Mkango Resources Price Performance

The businesss fifty day simple moving average is GBX 10.26 and its 200-day simple moving average is GBX 7.23. The company has a current ratio of 16.11, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 44.21. The firm has a market cap of 23.73 million, a P/E ratio of -487.50 and a beta of 1.90.

About Mkango Resources

(Get Free Report)

Mkango Resources Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, explores for and develops rare earth elements and associated minerals in the Republic of Malawi, Africa. It explores for uranium, tantalum, niobium, zircon, nickel, cobalt, rutile, corundum, graphite, gold ores, and base metals. The company's flagship project is the Songwe Hill property within the Phalombe exploration license located in southeast Malawi.

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Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of New York Community Bancorp (NYSE:NYCB  Free Report) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report report published on Monday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft currently has $16.00 price target on the financial services providers stock, up from their previous price target of $10.00.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently commented on NYCB. TheStreet upgraded shares of New York Community Bancorp from a c+ rating to a b- rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 16th. Jefferies Financial Group raised New York Community Bancorp from a hold rating to a buy rating and set a $11.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised New York Community Bancorp from a neutral rating to an overweight rating and raised their price target for the stock from $13.00 to $16.00 in a research report on Friday, July 28th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on New York Community Bancorp from $11.00 to $12.00 in a research note on Friday, July 7th. Finally, Raymond James lifted their price target on New York Community Bancorp from $14.00 to $17.00 in a report on Friday, July 28th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $12.25.

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New York Community Bancorp Stock Performance

New York Community Bancorp Announces Dividend

Shares of New York Community Bancorp stock opened at $13.60 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 3.38, a PEG ratio of 0.95 and a beta of 1.10. New York Community Bancorp has a 12 month low of $5.81 and a 12 month high of $14.22. The firms fifty day simple moving average is $11.46 and its 200-day simple moving average is $10.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.55, a current ratio of 1.14 and a quick ratio of 1.11.

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 17th. Investors of record on Monday, August 7th will be given a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 4th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.00%. New York Community Bancorps dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 16.92%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On New York Community Bancorp

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC bought a new position in New York Community Bancorp in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $223,000. CWM LLC grew its position in New York Community Bancorp by 59.8% during the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 7,778 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $87,000 after buying an additional 2,910 shares in the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp bought a new position in New York Community Bancorp during the second quarter worth about $152,000. NewSquare Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of New York Community Bancorp in the second quarter valued at approximately $160,000. Finally, Coldstream Capital Management Inc. raised its position in New York Community Bancorp by 31.1% in the 2nd quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 13,711 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $154,000 after purchasing an additional 3,254 shares during the last quarter. 62.49% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

New York Community Bancorp Company Profile

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New York Community Bancorp, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Flagstar Bank, N.A. that provides banking products and services in the United States. The company's deposit products include interest-bearing checking and money market, savings, non-interest-bearing, and retirement accounts, as well as certificates of deposit.

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NiSource (NYSE:NI  Get Free Report) posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday. The utilities provider reported $0.11 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $0.13 by ($0.02), Briefing.com reports. NiSource had a net margin of 11.72% and a return on equity of 11.14%. The business had revenue of $1.09 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $1.16 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.12 earnings per share.

NiSource Stock Performance

NI traded down $0.77 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $26.94. The companys stock had a trading volume of 4,177,715 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,934,792. NiSource has a fifty-two week low of $23.78 and a fifty-two week high of $31.87. The company has a current ratio of 0.60, a quick ratio of 0.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.13 billion, a PE ratio of 18.54, a PEG ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 0.47. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $27.41 and a 200 day simple moving average of $27.59.

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NiSource Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 18th. Investors of record on Monday, July 31st will be paid a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 28th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.71%. NiSources payout ratio is currently 68.03%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently weighed in on NI shares. UBS Group upgraded NiSource from a neutral rating to a buy rating and set a $31.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 6th. Guggenheim reduced their price objective on NiSource from $31.00 to $30.00 in a report on Friday, July 7th. StockNews.com started coverage on NiSource in a report on Thursday, May 18th. They set a hold rating for the company. Evercore ISI reduced their price objective on NiSource from $31.00 to $30.00 in a report on Wednesday, June 21st. Finally, Bank of America reduced their price objective on NiSource from $32.00 to $31.00 in a report on Thursday, June 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat, NiSource currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $30.00.

Check Out Our Latest Stock Report on NI

Insider Buying and Selling at NiSource

In other news, SVP Kimberly S. Cuccia sold 11,157 shares of NiSource stock in a transaction on Monday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.54, for a total transaction of $318,420.78. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 20,329 shares in the company, valued at $580,189.66. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.24% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of NiSource

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Systematic Financial Management LP acquired a new position in shares of NiSource in the 1st quarter worth approximately $242,000. Engineers Gate Manager LP increased its position in shares of NiSource by 12.2% in the 3rd quarter. Engineers Gate Manager LP now owns 9,132 shares of the utilities providers stock valued at $230,000 after buying an additional 991 shares in the last quarter. West Family Investments Inc. bought a new stake in shares of NiSource in the 1st quarter valued at $228,000. NewEdge Advisors LLC bought a new position in NiSource during the 2nd quarter worth about $219,000. Finally, Belpointe Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in NiSource by 9.7% during the 1st quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC now owns 7,701 shares of the utilities providers stock worth $215,000 after purchasing an additional 684 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.18% of the companys stock.

NiSource Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

NiSource Inc, an energy holding company, operates as a regulated natural gas and electric utility company in the United States. It operates through two segments, Gas Distribution Operations and Electric Operations. The company distributes natural gas to approximately 859,000 customers in northern Indiana, as well as approximately 2.4 million residential, commercial, and industrial customers in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Kentucky, and Maryland.

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Nuveen Municipal Income Fund, Inc. (NYSE:NMI  Get Free Report) declared a monthly dividend on Tuesday, August 1st, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 15th will be paid a dividend of 0.0315 per share on Friday, September 1st. This represents a $0.38 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.05%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, August 14th.

Nuveen Municipal Income Fund Stock Performance

Shares of Nuveen Municipal Income Fund stock traded down $0.23 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $9.33. The company had a trading volume of 13,038 shares, compared to its average volume of 17,666. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $9.49 and a 200 day simple moving average of $9.49. Nuveen Municipal Income Fund has a 12-month low of $8.45 and a 12-month high of $10.61.

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Hedge Funds Weigh In On Nuveen Municipal Income Fund

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. UBS Group AG raised its position in Nuveen Municipal Income Fund by 32.0% during the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 12,800 shares of the companys stock worth $120,000 after buying an additional 3,100 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP acquired a new stake in shares of Nuveen Municipal Income Fund during the 4th quarter worth approximately $201,000. Morgan Stanley grew its stake in shares of Nuveen Municipal Income Fund by 55.9% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 85,760 shares of the companys stock worth $806,000 after purchasing an additional 30,760 shares during the period. Finally, LPL Financial LLC grew its stake in shares of Nuveen Municipal Income Fund by 29.2% during the 2nd quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 86,575 shares of the companys stock worth $802,000 after purchasing an additional 19,582 shares during the period. 16.78% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Nuveen Municipal Income Fund Company Profile

Nuveen Municipal Income Fund, Inc is a closed ended fixed income mutual fund launched by Nuveen Investments Inc The fund is co-managed by Nuveen Fund Advisors LLC and Nuveen Asset Management, LLC. It invests in the fixed income markets of the United States. The fund primarily invests in municipal obligations issued by state and local government authorities.

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ONE Gas (NYSE:OGS  Get Free Report) updated its FY 2023 earnings guidance on Tuesday. The company provided earnings per share guidance of $4.02-$4.26 for the period, compared to the consensus earnings per share estimate of $4.13. The company issued revenue guidance of -.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

OGS has been the topic of several analyst reports. Guggenheim lowered their target price on shares of ONE Gas from $77.00 to $73.00 in a report on Friday, July 7th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an equal weight rating and issued a $73.00 target price on shares of ONE Gas in a report on Friday, July 21st. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of ONE Gas in a research report on Thursday, May 18th. They set a hold rating on the stock. Finally, Mizuho reduced their price target on shares of ONE Gas from $84.00 to $83.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 3rd. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $78.33.

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Check Out Our Latest Stock Analysis on OGS

ONE Gas Stock Down 1.6 %

Shares of OGS traded down $1.23 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $78.11. 315,107 shares of the companys stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 515,369. The company has a market cap of $4.33 billion, a PE ratio of 19.10, a P/E/G ratio of 3.78 and a beta of 0.65. ONE Gas has a 52 week low of $68.86 and a 52 week high of $89.01. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $78.88 and a 200 day simple moving average of $79.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 0.51 and a quick ratio of 0.45.

ONE Gas (NYSE:OGS  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.59 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $398.11 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $397.88 million. ONE Gas had a return on equity of 8.83% and a net margin of 8.67%. ONE Gass revenue was down 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.59 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that ONE Gas will post 4.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ONE Gas Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.65 per share. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.33%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 15th. ONE Gass dividend payout ratio is 63.57%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ONE Gas

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of ONE Gas by 3.6% during the first quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 424,490 shares of the utilities providers stock worth $33,632,000 after buying an additional 14,637 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in shares of ONE Gas by 40.7% during the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 530,263 shares of the utilities providers stock worth $42,014,000 after buying an additional 153,505 shares in the last quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of ONE Gas by 528.7% during the first quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 4,288 shares of the utilities providers stock worth $338,000 after buying an additional 3,606 shares in the last quarter. Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of ONE Gas by 0.8% during the first quarter. Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC now owns 908,416 shares of the utilities providers stock worth $71,974,000 after buying an additional 6,794 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of ONE Gas by 201.2% during the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,266,661 shares of the utilities providers stock worth $496,508,000 after buying an additional 4,186,102 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.79% of the companys stock.

About ONE Gas

(Get Free Report)

ONE Gas, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a regulated natural gas distribution company in the United States. The company provides natural gas distribution services to approximately 2.3 million customers in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas. It serves residential, commercial, and transportation customers.

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StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Phoenix New Media (NYSE:FENG  Free Report) in a report issued on Monday morning. The firm issued a hold rating on the information services providers stock.

Phoenix New Media Stock Down 2.4 %

FENG opened at $1.60 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02, a quick ratio of 2.51 and a current ratio of 2.51. Phoenix New Media has a 1 year low of $1.55 and a 1 year high of $5.13. The stocks 50 day simple moving average is $1.96 and its 200-day simple moving average is $2.24.

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Phoenix New Media (NYSE:FENG  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 15th. The information services provider reported ($0.69) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $21.31 million for the quarter. Phoenix New Media had a negative net margin of 12.10% and a negative return on equity of 7.46%.

Institutional Trading of Phoenix New Media

Phoenix New Media Company Profile

An institutional investor recently bought a new position in Phoenix New Media stock. Virtu Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Phoenix New Media Limited ( NYSE:FENG Free Report ) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 21,805 shares of the information services providers stock, valued at approximately $58,000.

(Get Free Report)

Phoenix New Media Limited provides content on an integrated Internet platform in the People's Republic of China. The company operates through two segments, Net Advertising Services and Paid Services. It offers content and services through PC channel, mobile channel, and telecom operators, as well as transmits content to TV viewers, primarily through Phoenix TV.

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Primerica, Inc. (NYSE:PRI  Get Free Report) shares reached a new 52-week high on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $214.30 and last traded at $214.30, with a volume of 104069 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $212.70.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PRI has been the subject of a number of research reports. StockNews.com raised shares of Primerica from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note on Saturday, July 8th. Raymond James initiated coverage on shares of Primerica in a research note on Wednesday, April 12th. They set a strong-buy rating and a $244.00 target price for the company. Finally, Truist Financial boosted their target price on shares of Primerica from $220.00 to $240.00 in a research note on Monday, July 10th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong 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 target price of $210.25.

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Check Out Our Latest Report on Primerica

Primerica Stock Up 0.8 %

The stock has a market capitalization of $7.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.41 and a beta of 1.17. The businesss 50-day moving average is $197.71 and its two-hundred day moving average is $180.74.

Primerica (NYSE:PRI  Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 8th. The financial services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $3.45 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $690.04 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $697.61 million. Primerica had a net margin of 15.33% and a return on equity of 27.48%. Primericas quarterly revenue was down .2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.11 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Primerica, Inc. will post 15.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Primerica Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 12th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 22nd were issued a $0.65 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 19th. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.20%. Primericas payout ratio is 23.47%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Primerica

In other news, President Peter W. Schneider sold 2,000 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.19, for a total value of $384,380.00. Following the sale, the president now directly owns 13,024 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $2,503,082.56. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Glenn J. Williams sold 4,000 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $191.25, for a total transaction of $765,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 49,902 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $9,543,757.50. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, President Peter W. Schneider sold 2,000 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $192.19, for a total transaction of $384,380.00. Following the sale, the president now directly owns 13,024 shares in the company, valued at $2,503,082.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 11,200 shares of company stock worth $2,119,760 in the last ninety days. 0.85% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Primerica

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Summit Trail Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Primerica by 2.4% in the 2nd quarter. Summit Trail Advisors LLC now owns 2,522 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $499,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC increased its position in shares of Primerica by 2.7% in the 1st quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 2,281 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $393,000 after purchasing an additional 59 shares during the last quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Primerica by 110.0% in the 2nd quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 126 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 66 shares in the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Primerica by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 5,882 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $1,013,000 after buying an additional 66 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank boosted its holdings in shares of Primerica by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 5,777 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $995,000 after buying an additional 67 shares in the last quarter. 91.27% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Primerica

(Get Free Report)

Primerica, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides financial products to middle-income households in the United States and Canada. The company operates in four segments: Term Life Insurance; Investment and Savings Products; Senior Health; and Corporate and Other Distributed Products. The Term Life Insurance segment underwrites individual term life insurance products.

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Sculati Wealth Management LLC cut its stake in Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY  Free Report) by 3.6% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 800 shares of the companys stock after selling 30 shares during the period. Sculati Wealth Management LLCs holdings in Eli Lilly and Company were worth $275,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Fairfield Bush & CO. bought a new stake in shares of Eli Lilly and Company during the 1st quarter valued at about $107,000. Roundview Capital LLC increased its position in shares of Eli Lilly and Company by 2.6% during the first quarter. Roundview Capital LLC now owns 2,056 shares of the companys stock valued at $589,000 after acquiring an additional 53 shares during the last quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Eli Lilly and Company during the first quarter valued at approximately $210,000. NewEdge Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Eli Lilly and Company by 9.9% during the first quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 53,052 shares of the companys stock valued at $15,193,000 after acquiring an additional 4,774 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Barometer Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Eli Lilly and Company during the first quarter valued at approximately $561,000. Institutional investors own 87.25% of the companys stock.

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Insider Transactions at Eli Lilly and Company

In related news, major shareholder Lilly Endowment Inc sold 20,646 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $442.77, for a total transaction of $9,141,429.42. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 101,668,164 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,015,612,974.28. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Eli Lilly and Company news, CAO Donald A. Zakrowski sold 600 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $435.29, for a total value of $261,174.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 5,978 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,602,163.62. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, major shareholder Lilly Endowment Inc sold 20,646 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $442.77, for a total value of $9,141,429.42. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 101,668,164 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $45,015,612,974.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 568,254 shares of company stock worth $258,314,906. Company insiders own 0.13% of the companys stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on Eli Lilly and Company from $408.00 to $430.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a research report on Friday, July 21st. UBS Group raised their target price on Eli Lilly and Company from $447.00 to $498.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 24th. Bank of America raised their target price on Eli Lilly and Company from $450.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 24th. Barclays raised their target price on Eli Lilly and Company from $420.00 to $500.00 in a research report on Tuesday, June 27th. Finally, Guggenheim decreased their target price on Eli Lilly and Company from $395.00 to $392.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $467.45.

View Our Latest Stock Analysis on Eli Lilly and Company

Eli Lilly and Company Price Performance

LLY stock traded down $5.32 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $449.16. 2,385,974 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,987,725. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 1.02. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $449.87 and a 200 day moving average price of $391.98. Eli Lilly and Company has a 12 month low of $296.32 and a 12 month high of $469.87. The stock has a market capitalization of $426.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 71.58, a PEG ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.35.

Eli Lilly and Company Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 8th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 15th will be issued a $1.13 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 14th. This represents a $4.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.01%. Eli Lilly and Companys dividend payout ratio is currently 71.86%.

Eli Lilly and Company Profile

(Free Report)

Eli Lilly and Company discovers, develops, and markets human pharmaceuticals worldwide. It offers Basaglar, Humalog, Humalog Mix 75/25, Humalog U-100, Humalog U-200, Humalog Mix 50/50, insulin lispro, insulin lispro protamine, insulin lispro mix 75/25, Humulin, Humulin 70/30, Humulin N, Humulin R, and Humulin U-500 for diabetes; and Jardiance, Trajenta, and Trulicity for type 2 diabetes.

Further Reading

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Stairway Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (NYSEARCA:HYG  Free Report) by 0.2% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 287,802 shares of the exchange traded funds stock after acquiring an additional 540 shares during the quarter. iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF comprises approximately 1.9% of Stairway Partners LLCs holdings, making the stock its 11th largest holding. Stairway Partners LLC owned 0.14% of iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF worth $21,605,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF by 178.9% in the 1st quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 343 shares of the exchange traded funds stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 220 shares during the period. Retirement Group LLC increased its holdings in iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF by 926.9% in the 4th quarter. Retirement Group LLC now owns 534 shares of the exchange traded funds stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 482 shares during the period. Hollencrest Capital Management bought a new stake in iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF in the 4th quarter valued at $49,000. North Star Investment Management Corp. increased its holdings in iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF by 38.0% in the 1st quarter. North Star Investment Management Corp. now owns 726 shares of the exchange traded funds stock valued at $55,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the period. Finally, Sunbelt Securities Inc. bought a new stake in iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF in the 1st quarter valued at $56,000.

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iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF Trading Down 0.3 %

iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF stock traded down $0.23 on Thursday, hitting $74.22. The companys stock had a trading volume of 30,347,721 shares, compared to its average volume of 39,577,195. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $74.71 and a 200-day moving average price of $74.75. iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF has a one year low of $70.40 and a one year high of $79.32.

iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF Company Profile

iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (the Fund), formerly iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond Fund, is an exchange-traded fund (ETF). The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the Markit iBoxx USD Liquid High Yield Index (the Index), which is a rules-based index consisting of liquid the United States dollar-denominated, high yield corporate bonds for sale in the United States, as determined by the index provider.

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Valmont Industries, Inc. (NYSE:VMI  Get Free Report)s share price reached a new 52-week low on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $254.07 and last traded at $254.16, with a volume of 80944 shares. The stock had previously closed at $260.81.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Valmont Industries in a research note on Thursday, May 18th. They set a buy rating on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on shares of Valmont Industries from $389.00 to $352.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 17th. Finally, DA Davidson decreased their price target on shares of Valmont Industries from $310.00 to $290.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research note on Monday.

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Get Our Latest Report on Valmont Industries

Valmont Industries Stock Performance

Valmont Industries Announces Dividend

The firm has a market cap of $5.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.08. The stocks 50 day moving average is $281.35 and its 200 day moving average is $298.38. The company has a current ratio of 2.41, a quick ratio of 1.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57.

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, October 16th. Investors of record on Friday, September 29th will be paid a $0.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 28th. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.95%. Valmont Industriess dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 18.63%.

Institutional Trading of Valmont Industries

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. D.B. Root & Company LLC boosted its holdings in Valmont Industries by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. D.B. Root & Company LLC now owns 2,950 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $859,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares during the period. Belpointe Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Valmont Industries by 7.6% in the 1st quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC now owns 607 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $194,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares during the period. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC boosted its holdings in Valmont Industries by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 1,890 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $625,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the period. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Valmont Industries by 6.0% in the 2nd quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 790 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $230,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the period. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp boosted its holdings in Valmont Industries by 16.3% in the 1st quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 350 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $112,000 after purchasing an additional 49 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 85.39% of the companys stock.

Valmont Industries Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Valmont Industries, Inc produces and sells metal products in the United States, Australia, Brazil, Denmark, and internationally. The company operates through two segments: Infrastructure and Agriculture. It manufactures and distributes steel, pre-stressed concrete, composite, and hybrid structures for lighting, transportation, and telecommunications equipment, as well as electrical transmission, distribution, substations, and renewable energy generation equipment; and provides coatings services to preserve metal products.

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Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd cut its holdings in Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) by 38.9% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 277,716 shares of the financial services providers stock after selling 176,447 shares during the quarter. Wells Fargo & Company makes up about 0.2% of Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltds holdings, making the stock its 24th biggest holding. Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltds holdings in Wells Fargo & Company were worth $10,381,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Silicon Valley Capital Partners purchased a new stake in shares of Wells Fargo & Company in the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. US Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Wells Fargo & Company in the 4th quarter worth about $28,000. Studio Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Wells Fargo & Company in the 4th quarter worth about $28,000. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC grew its position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 494.8% in the 4th quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 2,754 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 2,291 shares during the period. Finally, Activest Wealth Management purchased a new stake in shares of Wells Fargo & Company in the 1st quarter worth about $30,000. 72.11% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on WFC shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $44.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Monday, April 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $49.00 to $45.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $46.00 to $49.00 in a research note on Friday, April 14th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $49.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Atlantic Securities upped their price target on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $50.00 to $52.50 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Tuesday. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $48.62.

Wells Fargo & Company Stock Performance

NYSE WFC traded down $0.15 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $45.00. 5,309,109 shares of the companys stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 21,489,150. Wells Fargo & Company has a 52 week low of $35.25 and a 52 week high of $48.84. The firm has a market capitalization of $168.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.34, a P/E/G ratio of 0.91 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a current ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05. The businesss fifty day moving average price is $43.04 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $42.36.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 14th. The financial services provider reported $1.25 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.16 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $20.53 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $20.11 billion. Wells Fargo & Company had a net margin of 16.18% and a return on equity of 11.15%. The companys revenue was up 20.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.74 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Wells Fargo & Company will post 4.86 EPS for the current year.

Wells Fargo & Company Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.35 per share. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.11%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 3rd. This is a boost from Wells Fargo & Companys previous quarterly dividend of $0.30. Wells Fargo & Companys dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 30.00%.

About Wells Fargo & Company

(Free Report)

Wells Fargo & Company, a diversified financial services company, provides banking, investment, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance products and services in the United States and internationally. It operates through four segments: Consumer Banking and Lending; Commercial Banking; Corporate and Investment Banking; and Wealth and Investment Management.

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The Boston Beer Company, Inc. (NYSE:SAM  Get Free Report) has received an average recommendation of Reduce from the fifteen ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $318.21.

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on SAM shares. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Boston Beer from $340.00 to $330.00 in a research note on Friday, April 28th. Cfra lifted their price objective on shares of Boston Beer from $300.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a report on Friday, July 28th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price objective on shares of Boston Beer from $297.00 to $276.00 in a report on Monday, July 17th. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Boston Beer from $364.00 to $349.00 in a report on Friday, April 28th. Finally, Evercore ISI cut their target price on shares of Boston Beer from $330.00 to $320.00 and set an in-line rating for the company in a research note on Friday, July 21st.

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Insider Buying and Selling

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Boston Beer

In other Boston Beer news, insider John C. Geist sold 3,524 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $353.00, for a total value of $1,243,972.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,573 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,967,269. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website . In other news, insider John C. Geist sold 10,000 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $341.35, for a total value of $3,413,500.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,573 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,902,343.55. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink . Also, insider John C. Geist sold 3,524 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $353.00, for a total transaction of $1,243,972.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,573 shares in the company, valued at $1,967,269. The disclosure for this sale can be found here . Over the last three months, insiders have sold 15,168 shares of company stock worth $5,194,041. 23.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in SAM. Baird Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in Boston Beer by 1,280.7% during the 4th quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 163,214 shares of the companys stock worth $53,782,000 after buying an additional 151,393 shares during the period. Southeastern Asset Management Inc. TN purchased a new stake in shares of Boston Beer in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $35,680,000. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P purchased a new stake in shares of Boston Beer in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $38,859,000. Millennium Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Boston Beer in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $18,690,000. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in shares of Boston Beer by 119.6% in the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 92,524 shares of the companys stock valued at $35,943,000 after purchasing an additional 50,384 shares during the last quarter. 65.46% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Boston Beer Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:SAM opened at $358.22 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $4.40 billion, a PE ratio of 67.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 1.07. The firms 50 day simple moving average is $322.83 and its 200-day simple moving average is $330.20. Boston Beer has a one year low of $296.27 and a one year high of $422.75.

Boston Beer (NYSE:SAM  Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 27th. The company reported $4.72 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.45 by $1.27. The company had revenue of $603.30 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $590.03 million. Boston Beer had a net margin of 3.06% and a return on equity of 7.94%. Boston Beers revenue was down 2.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $4.31 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Boston Beer will post 7.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Boston Beer

(Get Free Report

The Boston Beer Company, Inc engages in the production and sale of alcohol beverages primarily in the United States. The company's flagship beer is Samuel Adams Boston Lager. It offers various beers, hard ciders, flavored malt beverages, and hard seltzers under the Samuel Adams, Twisted Tea, Truly Hard Seltzer, Angry Orchard, Dogfish Head, Angel City, Coney Island, and Havana Lager brand names.

Further Reading

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Commercial Metals (NYSE:CMC  Get Free Report) and Maanshan Iron & Steel (OTCMKTS:MAANF  Get Free Report) are both basic materials companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings, profitability, valuation, institutional ownership and risk.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Commercial Metals and Maanshan Iron & Steel, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

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Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score Commercial Metals 0 3 3 0 2.50 Maanshan Iron & Steel 0 0 0 0 N/A

Commercial Metals presently has a consensus target price of $57.83, indicating a potential upside of 1.28%. Given Commercial Metals higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Commercial Metals is more favorable than Maanshan Iron & Steel.

Earnings & Valuation

Gross Revenue Price/Sales Ratio Net Income Earnings Per Share Price/Earnings Ratio Commercial Metals $8.91 billion 0.75 $1.22 billion $8.09 7.06 Maanshan Iron & Steel N/A N/A N/A $0.02 9.62

This table compares Commercial Metals and Maanshan Iron & Steels gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

Commercial Metals has higher revenue and earnings than Maanshan Iron & Steel. Commercial Metals is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Maanshan Iron & Steel, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

83.0% of Commercial Metals shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 3.2% of Maanshan Iron & Steel shares are held by institutional investors. 1.2% of Commercial Metals shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Commercial Metals and Maanshan Iron & Steels net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets Commercial Metals 10.72% 26.49% 15.24% Maanshan Iron & Steel N/A N/A N/A

Summary

Commercial Metals beats Maanshan Iron & Steel on 9 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Commercial Metals

(Get Free Report)

Commercial Metals Company manufactures, recycles, and fabricates steel and metal products, and related materials and services in the United States, Poland, China, and internationally. The company processes and sells ferrous and nonferrous scrap metals to steel mills and foundries, aluminum sheet and ingot manufacturers, brass and bronze ingot makers, copper refineries and mills, secondary lead smelters, specialty steel mills, high temperature alloy manufacturers, and other consumers. It also manufactures and sells finished long steel products, including reinforcing bar, merchant bar, light structural, and other special sections, as well as semi-finished billets for rerolling and forging applications. In addition, the company provides fabricated steel products used to reinforce concrete primarily in the construction of commercial and non-commercial buildings, hospitals, convention centers, industrial plants, power plants, highways, bridges, arenas, stadiums, and dams; sells and rents construction-related products and equipment to concrete installers and other businesses; and manufactures and sells strength bars for the truck trailer industry, special bar steels for the energy market, and armor plates for military vehicles. Further, it manufactures rebars, merchant bars, and wire rods; and sells fabricated rebars, wire meshes, fabricated meshes, assembled rebar cages, and other fabricated rebar by-products to fabricators, manufacturers, distributors, and construction companies. The company was founded in 1915 and is headquartered in Irving, Texas.

About Maanshan Iron & Steel

(Get Free Report)

Maanshan Iron & Steel Company Limited, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and sells iron and steel products, and related by-products in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and internationally. The company offers steel plates, including hot and cold-rolled thin plates, galvanized plates, coil-coating plates, and medium plates; section steel products, such as H-shaped steel and medium-shaped steel; high-speed wire rod and hot-rolled reinforcing steel products; and train wheels and wheel rims. It also engages in the production and distribution of ferrous metallurgy, screw threaded steels, round and section steels, angle and deformed steels, wires, and rods; sale, import, and export of iron ore, iron ore fines, and scrap steel; metallurgy and extended processing of ferrous metals; production and sale of coke and coke chemical products and energy; production and distribution of metallic products; design, research and development, manufacture, maintenance, and sale of rail wheels, axles, wheel sets, bogies, and other rail equipment; trading of steel products and pig iron; and investment and trading businesses. The company was founded in 1953 and is headquartered in Maanshan, the People's Republic of China.

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Avista (NYSE:AVA  Get Free Report) posted its earnings results on Wednesday. The utilities provider reported $0.23 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.15 by $0.08, Briefing.com reports. Avista had a return on equity of 6.23% and a net margin of 8.38%. The company had revenue of $379.94 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $398.20 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.16 earnings per share. Avista updated its FY23 guidance to $2.27-$2.47 EPS.

Avista Price Performance

Shares of AVA stock traded down $0.42 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $37.33. The company had a trading volume of 130,876 shares, compared to its average volume of 812,908. Avista has a 12 month low of $35.72 and a 12 month high of $45.28. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.56, a PEG ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 0.49. The firms fifty day moving average is $39.61 and its 200 day moving average is $41.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 1.08.

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Avista Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 26th were paid a $0.46 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, May 25th. This represents a $1.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.93%. Avistas dividend payout ratio is currently 95.34%.

Insider Activity

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Avista

In other news, EVP Mark T. Thies sold 46,006 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $41.45, for a total value of $1,906,948.70. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 95,467 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,957,107.15. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website . In related news, EVP Mark T. Thies sold 46,006 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $41.45, for a total transaction of $1,906,948.70. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 95,467 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,957,107.15. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink . Also, VP James M. Kensok sold 800 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.63, for a total value of $32,504.00. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 16,079 shares in the company, valued at $653,289.77. The disclosure for this sale can be found here . In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 49,806 shares of company stock worth $2,062,843. Company insiders own 1.00% of the companys stock.

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of AVA. Lazard Asset Management LLC grew its position in Avista by 178.0% during the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 1,540 shares of the utilities providers stock worth $69,000 after acquiring an additional 986 shares during the last quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC grew its position in Avista by 21.1% during the 1st quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC now owns 2,002 shares of the utilities providers stock worth $85,000 after acquiring an additional 349 shares during the last quarter. Covestor Ltd boosted its position in Avista by 83.0% in the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 2,492 shares of the utilities providers stock valued at $113,000 after buying an additional 1,130 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its position in Avista by 15.5% in the 2nd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,476 shares of the utilities providers stock valued at $150,000 after buying an additional 466 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Metropolitan Life Insurance Co NY boosted its position in Avista by 6.1% in the 4th quarter. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co NY now owns 4,559 shares of the utilities providers stock valued at $202,000 after buying an additional 263 shares during the last quarter. 89.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have weighed in on AVA shares. Mizuho cut their target price on Avista from $38.00 to $36.00 and set an underperform rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 21st. Guggenheim cut their target price on Avista from $35.00 to $33.00 in a report on Friday, July 7th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Avista from a sell rating to a hold rating in a report on Thursday.

Check Out Our Latest Analysis on Avista

About Avista

(Get Free Report)

Avista Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an electric and natural gas utility company. It operates in two segments, Avista Utilities and AEL&P. The Avista Utilities segment provides electric distribution and transmission, and natural gas distribution services in parts of eastern Washington and northern Idaho; and natural gas distribution services in parts of northeastern and southwestern Oregon, as well as generates electricity in Washington, Idaho, Oregon, and Montana.

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Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO  Get Free Report) Director Bonilla Luis Miguel Palomino sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.11, for a total transaction of $43,555.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 5,414 shares in the company, valued at approximately $471,613.54. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Bonilla Luis Miguel Palomino also recently made the following trade(s):

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On Monday, June 12th, Bonilla Luis Miguel Palomino sold 500 shares of Southern Copper stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.21, for a total transaction of $35,105.00.

On Monday, May 8th, Bonilla Luis Miguel Palomino sold 500 shares of Southern Copper stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $78.50, for a total transaction of $39,250.00.

On Friday, May 5th, Bonilla Luis Miguel Palomino sold 500 shares of Southern Copper stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $78.97, for a total transaction of $39,485.00.

Southern Copper Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:SCCO opened at $83.77 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $64.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.28, a P/E/G ratio of 19.81 and a beta of 1.26. The firms 50 day simple moving average is $74.48 and its 200 day simple moving average is $74.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 4.17 and a quick ratio of 3.38. Southern Copper Co. has a fifty-two week low of $42.42 and a fifty-two week high of $87.59.

Southern Copper Increases Dividend

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 23rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 9th will be given a $1.00 dividend. This represents a $4.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.77%. This is an increase from Southern Coppers previous quarterly dividend of $0.95. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, August 8th. Southern Coppers dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 115.94%.

A number of equities research analysts have commented on SCCO shares. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered shares of Southern Copper from a neutral rating to a sell rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $65.00 to $66.00 in a report on Tuesday, May 9th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Southern Copper from $53.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research report on Friday, April 21st. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Southern Copper in a research report on Thursday, May 18th. They set a buy rating on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on shares of Southern Copper from $55.00 to $56.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Southern Copper from $67.00 to $74.00 in a research report on Wednesday, June 21st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $62.86.

Read Our Latest Stock Analysis on SCCO

Institutional Trading of Southern Copper

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of SCCO. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in Southern Copper by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 283,570 shares of the basic materials companys stock worth $21,523,000 after buying an additional 3,611 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. raised its holdings in Southern Copper by 48.3% during the 1st quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 11,974 shares of the basic materials companys stock worth $909,000 after buying an additional 3,901 shares during the period. MetLife Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in Southern Copper during the 1st quarter worth approximately $388,000. Rhumbline Advisers grew its stake in shares of Southern Copper by 121.4% during the 1st quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 173,100 shares of the basic materials companys stock worth $13,138,000 after acquiring an additional 94,910 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BlackRock Inc. grew its stake in shares of Southern Copper by 10.7% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 7,022,108 shares of the basic materials companys stock worth $532,978,000 after acquiring an additional 680,165 shares in the last quarter. 7.74% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Southern Copper

(Get Free Report)

Southern Copper Corporation engages in mining, exploring, smelting, and refining copper and other minerals in Peru, Mexico, Argentina, Ecuador, and Chile. The company is involved in the mining, milling, and flotation of copper ore to produce copper and molybdenum concentrates; smelting of copper concentrates to produce blister and anode copper; refining of anode copper to produce copper cathodes; production of molybdenum concentrate and sulfuric acid; production of refined silver, gold, and other materials; and mining and processing of zinc, copper, molybdenum, silver, gold, and lead.

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Shares of General Electric (NYSE:GE  Get Free Report) have been assigned an average recommendation of Moderate Buy from the fourteen analysts that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and eleven have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $118.47.

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on GE shares. Citigroup lifted their price target on General Electric from $126.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, July 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on General Electric from $100.00 to $102.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. Barclays boosted their target price on General Electric from $125.00 to $131.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 25th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on General Electric from $97.00 to $103.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 12th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on General Electric from $120.00 to $130.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 26th.

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General Electric Price Performance

Shares of NYSE GE opened at $112.36 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $122.29 billion, a PE ratio of 13.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.93 and a beta of 1.28. General Electric has a fifty-two week low of $48.06 and a fifty-two week high of $117.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.90 and a current ratio of 1.25. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $108.16 and a 200-day moving average of $96.96.

General Electric (NYSE:GE  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 25th. The conglomerate reported $0.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.46 by $0.22. General Electric had a return on equity of 9.30% and a net margin of 13.32%. The firm had revenue of $15.85 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.76 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.78 earnings per share. The companys revenue was up 18.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that General Electric will post 2.33 earnings per share for the current year.

General Electric Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 25th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, July 11th were given a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.28%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, July 10th. General Electrics dividend payout ratio is currently 3.80%.

Insider Transactions at General Electric

In related news, SVP Scott Strazik sold 173,873 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $99.56, for a total transaction of $17,310,795.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 56,049 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $5,580,238.44. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, major shareholder General Electric Pension Trust acquired 35,160 shares of General Electric stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 30th. The stock was bought at an average price of $995.44 per share, with a total value of $34,999,670.40. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 175,160 shares in the company, valued at $174,361,270.40. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Scott Strazik sold 173,873 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $99.56, for a total value of $17,310,795.88. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 56,049 shares in the company, valued at $5,580,238.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 344,779 shares of company stock valued at $36,385,935. Corporate insiders own 0.67% of the companys stock.

Institutional Trading of General Electric

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GE. Prostatis Group LLC purchased a new stake in General Electric during the 4th quarter valued at $29,000. TFO TDC LLC purchased a new position in shares of General Electric in the 4th quarter worth $31,000. Silicon Valley Capital Partners purchased a new position in shares of General Electric in the 4th quarter worth $31,000. Global Wealth Management Investment Advisory Inc. boosted its stake in shares of General Electric by 808.1% in the 1st quarter. Global Wealth Management Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 336 shares of the conglomerates stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 299 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Syverson Strege & Co boosted its stake in shares of General Electric by 53.6% in the 1st quarter. Syverson Strege & Co now owns 338 shares of the conglomerates stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 118 shares during the last quarter. 74.75% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

General Electric Company Profile

(Get Free Report

General Electric Company operates as a high-tech industrial company in Europe, China, Asia, the Americas, the Middle East, and Africa. It offers gas and steam turbines, full balance of plant, upgrade, and service solutions, as well as data-leveraging software for power generation, industrial, government, and other customers.

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Old Republic International Co. (NYSE:ORI  Get Free Report) EVP Stephen J. Oberst sold 26,500 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.68, for a total value of $733,520.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 68,574 shares of the companys stock, valued at $1,898,128.32. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink.

Old Republic International Trading Up 1.5 %

NYSE:ORI opened at $28.18 on Friday. Old Republic International Co. has a 1 year low of $20.27 and a 1 year high of $28.20. The stock has a market cap of $8.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.67 and a beta of 0.79. The business has a fifty day moving average of $25.48 and a 200-day moving average of $25.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a current ratio of 1.23.

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Old Republic International Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 5th were paid a $0.244 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 2nd. This represents a $0.98 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.46%. Old Republic Internationals payout ratio is 37.12%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of ORI. SPC Financial Inc. boosted its stake in Old Republic International by 4.7% during the second quarter. SPC Financial Inc. now owns 17,225 shares of the insurance providers stock valued at $434,000 after buying an additional 775 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC boosted its stake in Old Republic International by 172.9% during the second quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 168,636 shares of the insurance providers stock valued at $4,244,000 after buying an additional 106,844 shares in the last quarter. Avidian Wealth Solutions LLC boosted its stake in Old Republic International by 60.4% during the second quarter. Avidian Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 13,211 shares of the insurance providers stock valued at $333,000 after buying an additional 4,976 shares in the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp bought a new position in Old Republic International during the second quarter valued at about $3,805,000. Finally, Coldstream Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in Old Republic International by 4.8% during the second quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 18,207 shares of the insurance providers stock valued at $458,000 after buying an additional 836 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.66% of the companys stock.

A number of brokerages recently commented on ORI. StockNews.com upgraded Old Republic International from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note on Thursday. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on Old Republic International from $27.00 to $31.00 in a research note on Friday, July 28th.

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Old Republic International Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Old Republic International Corporation, through its subsidiaries, engages in the insurance underwriting and related services business primarily in the United States and Canada. It operates through three segments: General Insurance, Title Insurance, and the Republic Financial Indemnity Group Run-off Business.

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Nan Fung Trinity HK Ltd. boosted its holdings in iShares MSCI China Small-Cap ETF (NYSEARCA:ECNS  Free Report) by 30.2% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 465,260 shares of the companys stock after acquiring an additional 107,900 shares during the period. iShares MSCI China Small-Cap ETF accounts for about 4.2% of Nan Fung Trinity HK Ltd.s investment portfolio, making the stock its 8th largest position. Nan Fung Trinity HK Ltd. owned about 22.70% of iShares MSCI China Small-Cap ETF worth $15,647,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vontobel Holding Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of iShares MSCI China Small-Cap ETF during the 1st quarter valued at about $220,000. Flow Traders U.S. LLC raised its holdings in shares of iShares MSCI China Small-Cap ETF by 152.1% during the first quarter. Flow Traders U.S. LLC now owns 13,748 shares of the companys stock worth $549,000 after purchasing an additional 8,295 shares during the period. Royal Bank of Canada grew its position in shares of iShares MSCI China Small-Cap ETF by 9.1% during the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 5,185 shares of the companys stock worth $207,000 after acquiring an additional 433 shares during the last quarter. Jane Street Group LLC bought a new position in shares of iShares MSCI China Small-Cap ETF during the second quarter worth about $774,000. Finally, UBS Group AG grew its position in iShares MSCI China Small-Cap ETF by 32.1% in the 3rd quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 6,563 shares of the companys stock valued at $192,000 after buying an additional 1,596 shares in the last quarter.

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iShares MSCI China Small-Cap ETF Trading Down 1.1 %

ECNS traded down $0.35 on Friday, reaching $30.80. The company had a trading volume of 4,862 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,036. iShares MSCI China Small-Cap ETF has a one year low of $26.57 and a one year high of $41.03. The company has a market capitalization of $67.76 million, a P/E ratio of 5.82 and a beta of 0.51. The company has a fifty day moving average of $29.78 and a 200-day moving average of $33.33.

iShares MSCI China Small-Cap ETF Profile

The iShares MSCI China Small-Cap ETF (ECNS) is an exchange-traded fund that is based on the MSCI China Small Cap index. The fund tracks an index of small-cap Chinese securities. The fund covers roughly the bottom 14% of Chinese securities by market cap. ECNS was launched on Sep 28, 2010 and is managed by BlackRock.

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Want to see what other hedge funds are holding ECNS? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for iShares MSCI China Small-Cap ETF (NYSEARCA:ECNS  Free Report).

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Portland General Electric (NYSE:POR  Get Free Report) has been given an average recommendation of Hold by the six research firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $50.83.

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on POR shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. initiated coverage on shares of Portland General Electric in a research note on Monday, May 8th. They issued an overweight rating and a $56.00 price target on the stock. StockNews.com upgraded Portland General Electric from a sell rating to a hold rating in a report on Wednesday. 58.com reiterated a downgrade rating on shares of Portland General Electric in a research note on Tuesday, June 20th. Guggenheim decreased their target price on Portland General Electric from $50.00 to $48.00 in a research report on Friday, July 7th. Finally, Bank of America reduced their price objective on Portland General Electric from $56.00 to $52.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 22nd.

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Check Out Our Latest Stock Report on Portland General Electric

Portland General Electric Stock Down 1.9 %

Shares of POR opened at $46.82 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $4.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.51, a PEG ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 0.55. Portland General Electric has a 52 week low of $41.58 and a 52 week high of $56.37. The stocks 50-day moving average price is $47.93 and its 200-day moving average price is $48.43. The company has a quick ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18.

Portland General Electric (NYSE:POR  Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $0.49 by ($0.05). Portland General Electric had a return on equity of 8.03% and a net margin of 7.82%. The firm had revenue of $648.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $571.82 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.72 earnings per share. The businesss quarterly revenue was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Portland General Electric will post 2.67 EPS for the current year.

Portland General Electric Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, October 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 25th will be given a dividend of $0.475 per share. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.06%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 22nd. Portland General Electrics payout ratio is presently 79.17%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, VP John Teeruk Kochavatr sold 3,000 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.12, for a total transaction of $153,360.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 15,489 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $791,797.68. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.51% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Portland General Electric

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Portland General Electric by 8.1% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 11,268,761 shares of the utilities providers stock worth $489,739,000 after purchasing an additional 848,958 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in Portland General Electric by 21.8% during the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 6,067,961 shares of the utilities providers stock worth $334,647,000 after acquiring an additional 1,087,996 shares in the last quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Portland General Electric by 18.4% in the 4th quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,269,606 shares of the utilities providers stock valued at $209,211,000 after purchasing an additional 663,996 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Portland General Electric by 2.0% in the 1st quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,550,262 shares of the utilities providers stock valued at $173,572,000 after purchasing an additional 71,051 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Portland General Electric by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,386,966 shares of the utilities providers stock worth $148,730,000 after purchasing an additional 47,399 shares during the last quarter.

About Portland General Electric

(Get Free Report

Portland General Electric Company, an integrated electric utility company, engages in the generation, wholesale purchase, transmission, distribution, and retail sale of electricity in the state of Oregon. It operates six thermal plants, three wind farms, and seven hydroelectric facilities. As of December 31, 2022, the company owned an electric transmission system consisting of 1,255 circuit miles, including 269 circuit miles of 500 kilovolt line, 413 circuit miles of 230 kilovolt line, and 573 miles of 115 kilovolt line; and served 926 thousand retail customers in 51 cities.

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Grove Collaborative (NYSE:GROV  Get Free Report) and Meiwu Technology (NYSE:WNW  Get Free Report) are both small-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, dividends, risk, institutional ownership, profitability and valuation.

Volatility and Risk

Grove Collaborative has a beta of 0.75, indicating that its stock price is 25% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Meiwu Technology has a beta of 1.74, indicating that its stock price is 74% more volatile than the S&P 500.

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Institutional and Insider Ownership

0.6% of Meiwu Technology shares are owned by institutional investors. 8.7% of Grove Collaborative shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets Grove Collaborative -17.65% -423.09% -38.75% Meiwu Technology N/A N/A N/A

Analyst Recommendations

This table compares Grove Collaborative and Meiwu Technologys net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for Grove Collaborative and Meiwu Technology, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score Grove Collaborative 0 0 2 0 3.00 Meiwu Technology 0 0 0 0 N/A

Grove Collaborative presently has a consensus target price of $12.50, indicating a potential upside of 554.45%. Given Grove Collaboratives higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Grove Collaborative is more favorable than Meiwu Technology.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Grove Collaborative and Meiwu Technologys revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

Gross Revenue Price/Sales Ratio Net Income Earnings Per Share Price/Earnings Ratio Grove Collaborative $321.53 million 0.21 -$87.71 million ($5.85) -0.33 Meiwu Technology $10.98 million 0.97 -$11.07 million N/A N/A

Meiwu Technology has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Grove Collaborative.

Summary

Meiwu Technology beats Grove Collaborative on 7 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Grove Collaborative

(Get Free Report)

Grove Collaborative Holdings, Inc. operates as a plastic neutral consumer products retailer in the United States. It offers household, personal care, beauty, and other consumer products through retail channels, third parties, direct-to-consumer platform, and mobile applications, as well as online store. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

About Meiwu Technology

(Get Free Report)

Meiwu Technology Company Limited operates as an online and mobile commerce company in the People's Republic of China. It operates in three segments: Clean Food Platform, Restaurant, and others. The company offers green food, organic food, intangible cultural heritage food, agricultural products, and pollution-free products. It operates Clean Food Platform, an electronic online platform designs to provide primarily clean food to customers in China. The company also engages the provision of restaurant services; sells drinks, fruits, and frozen products; and wholesale of agricultural products, as well as provides short messages services and technical and consulting services. The company was formerly known as Wunong Net Technology Company Limited and changed its name to Meiwu Technology Company Limited in August 2021. Meiwu Technology Company Limited was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in Shenzhen, the People's Republic of China.

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Truist Financial Corp lessened its stake in shares of UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH  Free Report) by 1.2% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 698,832 shares of the healthcare conglomerates stock after selling 8,581 shares during the quarter. Truist Financial Corp owned about 0.07% of UnitedHealth Group worth $330,261,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of UNH. Chelsea Counsel Co. purchased a new stake in shares of UnitedHealth Group during the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. Freedom Wealth Alliance LLC purchased a new stake in UnitedHealth Group in the 4th quarter valued at $31,000. Kalos Management Inc. purchased a new stake in UnitedHealth Group in the 1st quarter valued at $34,000. Investors Research Corp raised its position in UnitedHealth Group by 51.1% in the 4th quarter. Investors Research Corp now owns 71 shares of the healthcare conglomerates stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares during the last quarter. Finally, WFA of San Diego LLC purchased a new stake in UnitedHealth Group in the 4th quarter valued at $42,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.61% of the companys stock.

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Insider Buying and Selling at UnitedHealth Group

In other news, CEO Andrew Witty sold 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $506.19, for a total transaction of $2,024,760.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 78,573 shares in the company, valued at approximately $39,772,866.87. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.35% of the stock is owned by insiders.

UnitedHealth Group Price Performance

NYSE UNH traded up $1.49 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $506.35. The companys stock had a trading volume of 1,271,296 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,614,764. The stock has a market cap of $471.43 billion, a PE ratio of 22.59, a PEG ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 0.66. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated has a fifty-two week low of $445.68 and a fifty-two week high of $558.10. The companys 50-day moving average is $484.35 and its two-hundred day moving average is $485.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a current ratio of 0.80.

UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, July 14th. The healthcare conglomerate reported $6.14 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $5.92 by $0.22. The firm had revenue of $92.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $90.97 billion. UnitedHealth Group had a net margin of 6.06% and a return on equity of 26.72%. The firms revenue was up 15.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $5.57 EPS. Analysts forecast that UnitedHealth Group Incorporated will post 24.83 EPS for the current year.

UnitedHealth Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 19th were issued a $1.88 dividend. This represents a $7.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.49%. This is a positive change from UnitedHealth Groups previous quarterly dividend of $1.65. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 15th. UnitedHealth Groups dividend payout ratio is 33.65%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently commented on UNH. Piper Sandler began coverage on shares of UnitedHealth Group in a research report on Thursday, May 25th. They issued an overweight rating and a $580.00 price target for the company. Loop Capital upped their price objective on shares of UnitedHealth Group from $590.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Monday, April 17th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of UnitedHealth Group from $616.00 to $561.00 in a research report on Thursday, July 13th. Cantor Fitzgerald started coverage on shares of UnitedHealth Group in a research report on Thursday, April 20th. They set an overweight rating and a $591.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Morgan Stanley restated an overweight rating and set a $587.00 price objective on shares of UnitedHealth Group in a research report on Friday, July 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of Buy and a consensus price target of $579.89.

View Our Latest Analysis on UnitedHealth Group

About UnitedHealth Group

(Free Report)

UnitedHealth Group Incorporated operates as a diversified health care company in the United States. It operates through four segments: UnitedHealthcare, Optum Health, Optum Insight, and Optum Rx. The UnitedHealthcare segment offers consumer-oriented health benefit plans and services for national employers, public sector employers, mid-sized employers, small businesses, and individuals; health care coverage, and health and well-being services to individuals age 50 and older addressing their needs; Medicaid plans, children's health insurance and health care programs; and health and dental benefits, and hospital and clinical services, as well as health care benefits products and services to state programs caring for the economically disadvantaged, medically underserved, and those without the benefit of employer-funded health care coverage.

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Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge with party leader Rahul Gandhi at AICC headquarters (PTI)

New Delhi: Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is all set to return to the Lok Sabha. The Supreme Court on Friday stayed his conviction in a 2019 defamation case on his "Modi surname" remark, paving the way for the revival of his Lok Sabha membership. Celebrations broke out at the AICC office as hundreds of jubilant Congress workers thronged the Akbar Road party headquarters. It now remains to be seen whether Gandhi is able to attend Parliament and participate in the no-confidence motion next week. Sources said it "will depend on the Lok Sabha Speaker on how fast he completes the formalities". Congress Lok Sabha leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Friday urged the Speaker to allow Gandhi to attend the House after the Supreme Court stayed his conviction in a criminal defamation case.

Congress MPs are expected to meet the Lok Sabha Speaker on the issue. Taking to Twitter for his initial reaction, Gandhi said: "Come what may, my duty remains the same. Protect the idea of India."

Addressing a press conference with Rahul Gandhi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, said the process of disqualification of Rahul Gandhi took just 24 hours lets see how long does the restoration takes. The debate and voting on the no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha is to take place on August 8-10 next week.

Speaking at the press conference, Mr Gandhi said: "Truth always triumphs, if not today, then tomorrow or the day after. I thank people for their support."

Kharge added: "It is a very happy day for us, democracy has won, the Constitution has won I welcome the Supreme Court judgment, the Constitution is still alive," he added.

A three-judge bench of Justices B.R. Gavai, P.S. Narasimha and Sanjay Kumar said no reason was given by the trial court judge while convicting Gandhi except that he had been admonished by the apex court in a contempt case. The apex court had then closed the contempt proceedings against Gandhi for wrongly attributing to it his "chowkidar chor hai" remark against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in connection with the Rafale case, with a warning to be more careful in future after the senior Congress leader had tendered an unconditional apology.

The top court said in so far as the conviction was concerned, it has considered that the sentence for an offence punishable under Section 499 (defamation) of the Indian Penal Code is a maximum of two years imprisonment or a fine or both, and the trial judge has awarded the maximum sentence of two years.

"Except the admonition by the Supreme Court in a contempt case, no other reason has been granted for this (conviction) by trial judge. It is to be noted only on account of this maximum sentence imposed by the trial judge, the provisions of the Representation of the People Act have come into play Had the sentence been a day lesser, the provisions would not have been attracted, particularly when an offence is non-cognisable, bailable and compoundable. The least the trial court judge was expected to do was to give some reason to impose the maximum sentence. Though the appellate court and the high court have spent voluminous pages rejecting the stay on conviction, these aspects are not considered in their orders," the bench said.

Referring to its earlier order in a contempt case against Gandhi, the apex court said while filing his affidavit in the contempt petition, he ought to have been more careful and exercised a degree of restraint in making such remarks which are alleged to be defamatory.

The apex court said Gandhis conviction and subsequent disqualification not only affected his right to continue in public life but also that of the electorate who had elected him to Parliament to represent their constituency. "No doubt the utterances were not in good taste and a person in public life is expected to exercise caution while making public speeches. Taking into consideration these and that no reason has been given by the trial judge for imposing the maximum sentence, the order of conviction needs to be stayed pending the final adjudication," the bench said.

As the hearing began, senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, who appeared for Gandhi, told the bench that his client was not a hardened criminal and was never convicted despite several cases having been filed against him by BJP workers. Senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, appearing for former Gujarat minister Purnesh Modi, whose complaint had led to Gandhis conviction, said there was plethora of evidence against the former Congress president.

Gandhi had persistently refused to apologise for his remark but urged the Supreme Court to stay his conviction in the criminal defamation case stemming from his comment, asserting he was not guilty.

A metropolitan magistrates court in Surat on March 23 had sentenced Gandhi to two years in jail after convicting him under Sections 499 and 500 IPC. After that, his plea for a stay was rejected by a Surat sessions court on April 20. While dismissing Gandhis application, the court said his counsel failed to demonstrate that an "irreversible and irrevocable damage" was likely to be caused to him if he is denied the opportunity to contest elections under Section 8(3) of the Representation of the People Act 1951 on account of his conviction not being stayed.

In its order, the sessions court said the power accorded under Section 389(1) CrPC to suspend/stay the conviction is required to be exercised "with caution and circumspection" as observed by the Supreme Court in a number of pronouncements. "If such power is exercised in a casual and mechanical manner, the same would have serious impact on the public perception on the justice delivery systems and such order will shake public confidence in the judiciary," it said. The court observed that the appellant has not made out any case to suspend the conviction recorded against him.

In its July 7 order, the Gujarat high court refused to stay the conviction. Dismissing the plea, Justice Hemant Prachchhak noted that Rahul Gandhi was already facing 10 criminal cases across India, adding that the order of the lower court was "just, proper and legal" in handing a two-year jail term to Gandhi for his remarks. There was no reasonable ground to stay the conviction, the high court said.
Telangana Assembly. (File Image: DC)

Hyderabad: The Assembly late on Friday introduced and passed the four bills in the Legislative Assembly that were rejected by Governor Tamilisai Soundarajan earlier, and referred them back to her for re-consideration. The four Bills were passed through a voice vote.

With the government passing the same Bills for a second time on Friday and sending for reconsideration, it was stated that the Governor would be duty bound to give her approval.

These bills were passed by Assembly in September 2022 and sent to the Governor for her approval. Dr Soundararajan sent the Bills to state government after raising a few queries.

Ministers K.T. Rama Rao, T. Harish Rao, P. Sabitha Indra Reddy and Errabelli Dayakar Rao, who introduced the Bills, urged the Governor to give her assent without delay. The Assembly had first passed the four Bills in September 2022 and the delay had adversely affected various sections of people.

Rama Rao and Harish Rao said that in a democracy the decision of the elected governments was supreme and the Governor should not block the Bills for political reasons.

These Bills include the Telangana Municipal Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2022; The Telangana Public Employment (Regulation of age of superannuation) (Amendment) Bill, 2022; The Telangana State Private Universities (Establishment and Regulation) (Amendment) Bill, 2022; and The Telangana Panchayat Raj (Amendment) Bill, 2023.

AIMIM floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi raised concern about the fate of students who took admissions in various private universities last year even before the private universities Bill was not approved by the Governor. CLP leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka questioned the state government's negligence in preventing private universities from making admissions even before the Bill got the Governor's nod.

BJP MLA Etala Rajender demanded reservations for BCs, SCs, STs in private universities and government regulation on admissions and fee structure.
"The Prime Minister called the Opposition alliance ghamandiya and suggested that we should call them ghamandiya and not INDIA," an NDA MP present in the meeting said. (File Image: DC)

New Delhi: Taking a dig at the Opposition alliance, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that they are not "INDIA" but "ghamandiya" (arrogant). The Prime Minister took a potshot at the Opposition while interacting with the NDA MPs from Bihar late on Thursday evening.

In the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the Opposition bloc parties have named their alliance INDIA  Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance. Sources said that during his interaction with the NDA MPs from Bihar, Modi told the parliamentarian that the Opposition alliance is not INDIA but ghamandiya.

"The Prime Minister called the Opposition alliance ghamandiya and suggested that we should call them ghamandiya and not INDIA," an NDA MP present in the meeting said.

During his interaction with NDA MPs from Bihar, the Prime Minister, sources said, told them that they should expose how the Mahagathbandhan government has betrayed the mandate of 2020 and how "jungle raj" is destroying the state.

"The Prime Minister also told the MPs to give facts about how the state is suffering under the Mahagathbandhan government. The PM asked the MPs to stress in their constituencies how the BJP never cared for the chief minister's post despite winning more seats than the JD(U) when the latter was part of the NDA alliance, unlike the former alliance partner," sources said.

In another meeting, Modi also met NDA MPs from Delhi, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Haryana, Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh. The Prime Minister, according to sources, advised the parliamentarians to increase their social media presence and use it to spread the schemes and works of Union governments.

The Prime Minister, sources claim, also said that the UPA had only one programme, MGNREGA, to show to the people, while the NDA has implemented hundreds of developmental works during the last nine years.

During the meeting with the NDA MPs, Modi advised the parliamentarians to avoid out-of-turn talking and gave the example of former Union minister Sushma Swaraj, who never crossed the line while speaking.
A senior official in the state disaster management department said that the damages pertain to roads of panchayat raj and R&B departments; electricity department's poles, transformers and substations; irrigation projects and major and minor irrigation tanks. (Representational Image: DC)

Hyderabad: The state government has submitted a report to the Centre putting the loss on account of the recent floods and heavy rains in several districts at Rs 4,600 crore. The report was submitted to the central team, which was on a three-day tour of the state, to assess the damage caused by floods.

A senior official in the state disaster management department told Deccan Chronicle that the damages pertain to roads of panchayat raj and R&B departments; electricity department's poles, transformers and substations; irrigation projects and major and minor irrigation tanks.

He said the central team may undertake a second visit after going through the governments report before submitting its final report to the centre.

Meanwhile, the Congress and the BJP slammed the state government in the Legislative Assembly on the issue of flood management when the House took up the debate on impact of the recent heavy rains and floods.

AIMIM took strong exception to the governments failure to table a comprehensive report on the impact of floods.

Congress member D. Sridhar Babu accused the state government of building inferior quality check dams that had breached and led to flooding of villages and towns. This led to heated arguments between him and ministers Vemula Prashanth Reddy and T. Harish Rao, who refuted the allegations.

At one point, the debate deviated towards free power to agriculture and Dharani issues, which led to heated arguments between minister K.T. Rama Rao and Sridhar Babu. Rama Rao demanded that the Congress apologise to farmers for the comments made by TPCC chief A. Revanth Reddy that only three-hour free power was enough for them.

Harish Rao took potshots at the Congress for promising to abolish the Dharani portal if they were voted to power. "Dharani reduced corruption and ensured transparency in land transactions. The Congress wants to bring back corruption by abolishing Dharani," Harish Rao alleged.

AIMIM floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi found fault with the government for releasing a meagre Rs 500 crore for flood relief measures when the losses were estimated to be Rs 6,000 crore. He said that Rs 250 crore aid for flood relief measures under GHMC limits was insufficient and it had to be duly enhanced.

BJP member M. Raghunandan Rao sought compensation to farmers for the crop losses they had suffered. He demanded the state government to implement the PM Fasal Bima Yojana to save farmers from losses on account of natural calamities.
Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan said that she would sign the Bill only after examining all legal issues, which requires some more time. (File Image: Twitter)

Hyderabad: In a twist to the proposed merger of Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) with the state government, Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan on Friday said that she would sign the Bill only after examining all legal issues, which "requires some more time."

Consequently, the BRS governments plans to introduce the Bill in the ongoing monsoon session of the Legislative Assembly, which ends on Sunday, have gone haywire.

With just two days left, the chances of tabling the TSRTC merger Bill in the last session before the elections are near-zero. Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao is likely to clarify on this issue in the House on Saturday.

Even if the government hopes to bring in an ordinance, it has to get the Governor's approval. The government may convene a special session of the Assembly to pass the Bill if the Governor gives her assent at a later date and before the election code comes into force.

A media statement issued by Raj Bhavan on Friday stated: "The Assembly was scheduled to meet on August 3 and the Draft Bill of "The TSRTC (Absorption of Employees into Government Service) Bill, 2023 was received at Raj Bhavan, Hyderabad on August 2 at about 3.30 pm only requesting for permission to introduce the same in Assembly. It requires some more time to examine it and obtain legal opinion for taking a decision on the request."

Since the TSRTC Bill comes under the category of financial bill, the Governor's approval is mandatory for tabling it in the Assembly.

For the moment, the state government appears clueless on going about the issue.

Meanwhile, RTC employees are wondering if the Bill will be introduced and passed in this Assembly session or whether they have to wait till a new government takes over.

The state government and the Governor have been at loggerheads after she rejected four Bills though they were passed by the Legislative Assembly last September. The government even moved the Supreme Court against the Governor in March. It also moved the High Court in January seeking directions to the Governor to clear the state Budget for 2022-23 to table it in the Assembly. She consented following the High Court's intervention. Dr Soundararajan cleared some Bills and returned some after the state government approached the Supreme Court.

Official sources said that the Chief Minister is exploring various options on the TSRTC merger issue following Fridays dramatic developments. The state government is planning to move either the High Court or the Supreme Court on this issue.

Even if the government hopes to bring in an ordinance, it has to get the Governor's approval. The government may convene a special session of the Assembly to pass the Bill if the Governor gives her assent at a later date and before the election code comes into force.

It may be recalled that the state Cabinet had on July 31 approved the merger of TSRTC with the state government. About 43,372 employees will be absorbed into the state government after the merger. This has been a long pending demand of the corporations employees as the merger gives them job security.
Bandi Sanjay Kumar. (DC File Photo)

HYDERABAD: "It is time to either sink or swim in Telangana." With this battle cry, Bandi Sanjay Kumar, who on Friday took charge as general secretary of the BJP, practically relaunched his partys election campaign in Telangana, declaring that this is a war that the BJP must, and will, win.

Sanjay, the BJP MP from Karimnagar who until recently headed the state BJP before being replaced by Union minister G. Kishan Reddy, received a rousing reception upon arrival from New Delhi where he took up his new responsibilities in the party. He was taken to the state BJP office in Nampally by his supporters in a rally that took some three hours to make its way from Shamshabad to the party headquarters.

Speaking to media persons later, Sanjay called upon everyone in the party to work for a BJP win in the state elections.

"We will all work under Kishan Reddys leadership. Some people keep claiming that BJP has groups. Minor differences of opinion might occur here and there but these are being blown out of proportion. The BRS and Congress may have succeeded to some extent in pushing this narrative but it is the BJP that has found a place in the hearts of the people," Sanjay said.

"No one in the BJP works for personal glory. Everyone works for the principles the party stands for. The party doesnt run because of one person, it runs because of everyone in it," Sanjay said.

"This is the time for the party to decide whether it wants to sink or swim. We fought for the people on various issues, be it farm loan waiver, changes in GO 317, TSPSC question paper leaks, purchase of paddy from farmers or pushing the government to press ahead with installation of the 125-ft Ambedkar statue in Hyderabad. Each of these was an agitation the BJP led. Our workers were beaten up, thrown into prison but we were not deterred," he said.

Attacking Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, Sanjay said when thousands of farmers were distraught over crop losses in the recent rains and floods, the Chief Minister was busy in Maharashtra trying to expand his party base.

"Rao is scared of going on an inspection tour of flood-hit areas as he knows that people will take him to task. He is running scared," he said.

On the merger of TSRTC with the government, Sanjay said Chandrashekar Rao must declare if he will pay the RTC workers their salaries on the first of every month because he has not been doing so for the entire government staff in the state.

This government cannot pay salaries on time and is making tall promises that it will never keep," Sanjay said.
On Friday, the firm revealed new measures it had taken to comply with the DSA: making it easier for European users to report illegal content, allowing them to turn off personalised recommendations for videos and removing targeted advertising for users aged 13-17.
The accused resides in Varthur limits and has been the principal of the school  which has about 140 students  for almost 10 years. The investigating officers told DH, that the accused owns the school and has been running it with his wife for the last 23 years and stays in the same premises.
We had maintained from the very beginning that it was a conspiracy of the BJP to disqualify Rahul Gandhi from the Lok Sabha. He had exposed before the Parliament how the government was working for a select few and not for the masses, Saikia, who is the leader of opposition in Assam Assembly said.
The third meeting of the bloc is being hosted jointly by the Shiv Sena (UBT) and the NCP's Sharad Pawar faction, with support from the Congress -- the three constituents of the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance. The MVA constituents had been holding parleys to schedule the meeting.
He said that he filed a petition at a trial court in Surat, and the court had sentenced Gandhi to two years in prison in 2023. All legal proceedings were followed. Rahul Gandhi then filed a petition in the Surat Sessions Court for a stay on conviction, but his request was denied. The judgement was in our favour. He then went to the High Court, which also denied the stay on conviction, and the judgement was in our favour, Modi said.
Highlighting the efforts made by the Ministry of Cooperation to secure Rs 5,000 crore from the Sebi-Sahara Fund, Shah said the ministry took the initiative of bringing all government bodies concerned, including the CBI and Income Tax department on this issue and made a common appeal before the Supreme Court that small investors should get the first right over the funds.
Six people, including two home guards and a cleric, have died in the clashes that spread to Gurugram and other districts of the state over the past few days.
"Why should we interject at this stage? Two courts have held against you....Despite assurance that it (survey) is not going to harm you, you are objecting to it, tomorrow you may succeed and this survey will be reduced to just a piece of paper," the bench told the counsel.
Quoting the girls complaint, the official said that Madheshiya visited the girls house on Monday when she was alone. He tried to make advances but she once again rejected them.
With this, four people from Chitradurga have died of gastroenteritis so far. But the district administration has confirmed that only two died due to drinking contaminated water and the cause of death of the remaining two people is yet to be ascertained.
Huntsman (NYSE:HUN  Get Free Report) had its price objective hoisted by stock analysts at Royal Bank of Canada from $26.00 to $30.00 in a report issued on Wednesday, MarketBeat.com reports. The firm currently has a sector perform rating on the basic materials companys stock. Royal Bank of Canadas price objective indicates a potential upside of 4.79% from the companys current price.

Several other equities analysts also recently weighed in on the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price target on Huntsman from $29.00 to $27.00 in a report on Tuesday, June 20th. 58.com restated an initiates rating on shares of Huntsman in a report on Wednesday, June 14th. VNET Group restated a maintains rating on shares of Huntsman in a report on Tuesday, May 9th. Mizuho dropped their price objective on Huntsman from $27.00 to $26.00 in a research report on Tuesday, May 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an overweight rating and set a $30.00 price objective on shares of Huntsman in a research report on Wednesday, July 19th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $28.42.

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Huntsman Price Performance

HUN opened at $28.63 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $26.81 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $27.78. The company has a current ratio of 2.08, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. The company has a market cap of $5.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.82 and a beta of 1.14. Huntsman has a 12-month low of $23.52 and a 12-month high of $33.46.

Huntsman (NYSE:HUN  Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $0.30 by ($0.08). The firm had revenue of $1.60 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. Huntsman had a return on equity of 5.71% and a net margin of 2.64%. Huntsmans revenue for the quarter was down 26.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.28 EPS. Research analysts predict that Huntsman will post 1.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Huntsman

In other Huntsman news, VP David M. Stryker acquired 2,500 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 2nd. The stock was bought at an average price of $24.50 per share, for a total transaction of $61,250.00. Following the acquisition, the vice president now directly owns 385,502 shares in the company, valued at $9,444,799. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 5.60% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Huntsman

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in HUN. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Huntsman by 61.7% in the 1st quarter. FMR LLC now owns 7,976,147 shares of the basic materials companys stock worth $218,227,000 after buying an additional 3,044,156 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Huntsman by 152.6% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,369,184 shares of the basic materials companys stock worth $119,541,000 after purchasing an additional 2,639,490 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its stake in shares of Huntsman by 119.8% during the 1st quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 4,665,493 shares of the basic materials companys stock worth $127,648,000 after purchasing an additional 2,542,749 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Huntsman by 69.8% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,556,712 shares of the basic materials companys stock worth $170,921,000 after purchasing an additional 1,873,388 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Huntsman during the 4th quarter worth $47,780,000. 85.53% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Huntsman

(Get Free Report)

Huntsman Corporation manufactures and sells diversified organic chemical products worldwide. The company operates through three segments: Polyurethanes, Performance Products, and Advanced Materials. The Polyurethanes segment offers polyurethane chemicals, including methyl diphenyl diisocyanate, polyether and polyester polyols, and thermoplastic polyurethane.

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New Mexico Educational Retirement Board lowered its position in shares of Whirlpool Co. (NYSE:WHR  Free Report) by 3.8% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,544 shares of the companys stock after selling 100 shares during the quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Boards holdings in Whirlpool were worth $336,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Acadian Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Whirlpool by 14.7% in the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 3,228 shares of the companys stock valued at $557,000 after buying an additional 414 shares during the last quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Whirlpool by 19.4% in the first quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 16,019 shares of the companys stock worth $2,768,000 after acquiring an additional 2,599 shares during the last quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS lifted its position in shares of Whirlpool by 3.5% during the first quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 7,894 shares of the companys stock worth $1,364,000 after purchasing an additional 270 shares in the last quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Whirlpool by 2.4% during the first quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 11,256 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,945,000 after purchasing an additional 260 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cibc World Market Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Whirlpool by 13.4% in the first quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. now owns 3,677 shares of the companys stock valued at $635,000 after purchasing an additional 435 shares in the last quarter. 89.04% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have commented on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Whirlpool from a neutral rating to a buy rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $170.00 to $160.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 11th. StockNews.com began coverage on Whirlpool in a research report on Thursday, May 18th. They issued a hold rating for the company. Bank of America cut their target price on shares of Whirlpool from $90.00 to $87.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 18th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of Whirlpool from $118.00 to $121.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 26th. Finally, Credit Suisse Group reaffirmed a neutral rating and issued a $150.00 price objective on shares of Whirlpool in a research note on Tuesday, July 25th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $131.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Whirlpool news, CEO Marc R. Bitzer sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $143.18, for a total value of $2,863,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 138,583 shares in the company, valued at $19,842,313.94. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, CFO James W. Peters sold 6,000 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $143.12, for a total transaction of $858,720.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 40,764 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $5,834,143.68. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Marc R. Bitzer sold 20,000 shares of Whirlpool stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $143.18, for a total transaction of $2,863,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 138,583 shares in the company, valued at $19,842,313.94. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 26,420 shares of company stock worth $3,778,667. Corporate insiders own 1.85% of the companys stock.

Whirlpool Stock Down 2.8 %

Shares of WHR stock opened at $141.41 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $145.45 and a 200-day moving average of $140.79. The company has a quick ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.92. Whirlpool Co. has a one year low of $124.10 and a one year high of $178.05.

Whirlpool (NYSE:WHR  Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Monday, July 24th. The company reported $4.21 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.76 by $0.45. Whirlpool had a negative net margin of 8.13% and a positive return on equity of 29.70%. The firm had revenue of $4.79 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.81 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $5.97 earnings per share. The businesss quarterly revenue was down 6.0% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Whirlpool Co. will post 16.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Whirlpool

(Free Report)

Whirlpool Corporation manufactures and markets home appliances and related products and services in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and Asia. The company's principal products include refrigerators, freezers, ice makers, and refrigerator water filters; laundry appliances, and commercial laundry products and related laundry accessories; cooking and other small domestic appliances; and dishwasher appliances and related accessories, as well as mixers.

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New Mexico Educational Retirement Board lowered its position in shares of Invesco Ltd. (NYSE:IVZ  Free Report) by 3.2% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 21,014 shares of the asset managers stock after selling 700 shares during the period. New Mexico Educational Retirement Boards holdings in Invesco were worth $345,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in IVZ. Raymond James & Associates boosted its position in Invesco by 16.8% during the 1st quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 102,118 shares of the asset managers stock valued at $2,355,000 after buying an additional 14,711 shares during the period. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS boosted its position in Invesco by 6.6% during the 1st quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 45,665 shares of the asset managers stock valued at $1,053,000 after buying an additional 2,827 shares during the period. Blair William & Co. IL raised its holdings in Invesco by 5.3% in the 1st quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 64,802 shares of the asset managers stock worth $1,494,000 after purchasing an additional 3,241 shares in the last quarter. Aviva PLC raised its holdings in Invesco by 85.7% in the 1st quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 47,718 shares of the asset managers stock worth $1,100,000 after purchasing an additional 22,027 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Prudential PLC bought a new position in Invesco in the 1st quarter worth $273,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 65.99% of the companys stock.

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Invesco Stock Up 1.8 %

NYSE:IVZ opened at $16.65 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $7.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.81, a P/E/G ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a quick ratio of 4.88 and a current ratio of 25.97. Invesco Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $13.20 and a fifty-two week high of $20.56. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $16.59 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $16.88.

Invesco Announces Dividend

Invesco ( NYSE:IVZ Get Free Report ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 25th. The asset manager reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $0.40 by ($0.09). The firm had revenue of $1.09 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.11 billion. Invesco had a net margin of 15.29% and a return on equity of 6.84%. The firms revenue for the quarter was down 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.39 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Invesco Ltd. will post 1.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 5th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.80%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 10th. Invescos payout ratio is presently 56.74%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have commented on IVZ shares. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Invesco from a sell rating to a hold rating in a report on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Invesco from $18.00 to $18.50 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Friday, April 14th. BMO Capital Markets started coverage on shares of Invesco in a report on Monday, July 10th. They issued a market perform rating and a $21.00 price objective for the company. Morgan Stanley restated an equal weight rating and issued a $17.00 price objective on shares of Invesco in a report on Tuesday, July 25th. Finally, TheStreet lowered shares of Invesco from a b- rating to a c+ rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 30th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $18.45.

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Invesco Profile

(Free Report)

Invesco Ltd. is a publicly owned investment manager. The firm provides its services to retail clients, institutional clients, high-net worth clients, public entities, corporations, unions, non-profit organizations, endowments, foundations, pension funds, financial institutions, and sovereign wealth funds.

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New York State Common Retirement Fund decreased its holdings in shares of Atkore Inc. (NYSE:ATKR  Free Report) by 12.6% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 58,142 shares of the companys stock after selling 8,405 shares during the quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund owned about 0.15% of Atkore worth $8,168,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ATKR. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in Atkore by 19.2% in the 4th quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,057,118 shares of the companys stock valued at $119,898,000 after purchasing an additional 170,539 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Atkore by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,010,358 shares of the companys stock valued at $114,595,000 after buying an additional 9,367 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Atkore by 2.2% during the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 950,244 shares of the companys stock worth $93,542,000 after acquiring an additional 20,685 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Atkore by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 897,421 shares of the companys stock valued at $102,606,000 after acquiring an additional 18,084 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its position in Atkore by 17.8% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 713,859 shares of the companys stock valued at $70,272,000 after acquiring an additional 108,075 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.69% of the companys stock.

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Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Atkore in a report on Thursday, May 18th. They issued a buy rating for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $166.00.

Atkore Stock Performance

Shares of Atkore stock opened at $154.42 on Friday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $146.43 and a 200-day simple moving average of $137.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a quick ratio of 2.10 and a current ratio of 2.99. Atkore Inc. has a one year low of $70.50 and a one year high of $164.76. The company has a market cap of $5.95 billion, a PE ratio of 7.95 and a beta of 2.21.

Atkore (NYSE:ATKR  Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 9th. The company reported $4.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $3.71 by $0.60. The business had revenue of $895.93 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $910.20 million. Atkore had a net margin of 21.54% and a return on equity of 66.55%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Atkore Inc. will post 16.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Atkore

In other news, VP Leangela W. Lowe sold 3,000 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.09, for a total transaction of $480,270.00. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 25,585 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $4,095,902.65. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, Director Scott H. Muse sold 1,211 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.00, for a total value of $181,650.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 26,583 shares of the companys stock, valued at $3,987,450. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, VP Leangela W. Lowe sold 3,000 shares of Atkore stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.09, for a total value of $480,270.00. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 25,585 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,095,902.65. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 2.11% of the companys stock.

Atkore Company Profile

(Free Report)

Atkore Inc engages in the manufacture and sale of electrical, safety, and infrastructure products in the United States and internationally. The company offers conduits, cables, and installation accessories. It also designs and manufactures safety and infrastructure solutions, such as metal framing, mechanical pipe, perimeter security, and cable management.

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At a sitting of the High Court, Justice Niamh Hyland granted leave for two judicial review applications brought by Dominic Og McGlinchey.

The applications arose from the Garda investigations into the deaths of Dominic's mother Mary, who was murdered in Dundalk in 1987 and his father Dominic, who was murdered in Drogheda in 1994. Dominic was a child at the time of his parents murders and witnessed both.

A statement from the family's solicitor read: "Having heard from Counsel, Mr Ronan Munro SC who leads Glenn Lynch BL with Conan Fegan BL, during the course of the hearing, the Court was satisfied of the existence of an arguable and credible case thus granting leave. Proceedings have now been adjourned until the new term in October.

"Today's decision marks a significant step towards seeking clarity and accountability from the State.

"It is indeed an outrage that the family was compelled to pursue litigation without any prior progress being offered by the State in response to their pleas for engagement.

"The manner in which victims and survivors of the Troubles are dealt with in this State needs to be addressed whereby a compassionate approach within the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement is adopted."

Dominic Og McGlinchey and members of the McGlinchey and McNeil family travelled to Brussels with their Primary Solicitor, Ciaran Mulholland, to discuss with delegates in the European Parliament the murders of Dominic Senior and Mary McGlinchey.

Originally from south Derry, ex-INLA 'chief of staff' Dominic McGlinchey was shot dead in Drogheda, County Louth, on February 10 1994.

A former member of the IRA, in an 1983 interview he claimed to have killed 30 people during the Troubles.

His wife Mary was also killed while bathing their young children at their home in Dundalk, County Louth, seven years prior, on January 31 1987.

The family previously launched judicial review proceedings in relation to both murders against the office of the Commissioner of An Garda Siochana and Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee.

Previously commenting on the latest developments, Ciaran Mulholland of Mulholland Law, said: "This is an important opportunity for us to raise awareness about the ongoing legal issues surrounding these cases, and to ensure that the voices of the victims and survivors are heard at the highest levels of government arising from our Troubled past in Ireland."

Sinn Fein councillor for Causeway Coast and Glens council and brother of Dominic Snr, Sean McGlinchey, previously stated he is "horrified even at this stage of the peace process" by the approach of authorities in Dublin.

Councillor McGlinchey said: "There are many victims and survivors from the recent conflict on this shared Island that still are denied justice.

"There is no monopoly on victimhood and there should never be any superiority with survivors, however my nephew is still denied any form of justice or access to achieving the truth into the gruesome and heinous murders of his parents."
A judge at Derry Magistrate's Court said today that it was 'practically impossible' for a local woman to avoid a custodial sentence as he adjourned her case for a pre-sentence report to be prepared.

Hannah Duddy (28) of Rockmills in Derry appeared charged with a series of offences in Waterside Health Centre.

She admitted assaulting a receptionist at the Health Centre on August 1.

She also admitted attempted criminal damage in the same location on the same date as well as a charge of disorderly behaviour.

Duddy further further admitted three assaults on police officers and one on a designated officer on August 2.

The court heard that police were called to the Health Centre at around 5.40pm on August 1 after Duddy had demanded a prescription which had been refused.

She then punched a screen putting the receptionist in fear of being assaulted.

Duddy left the premises before police arrived and they went to her home to locate her.

While in custody she assaulted several officers and then racially abused the custody officer calling her 'a brown skinned bitch.'

Defence solicitor Paddy McGurk said his client claimed she had been given the wrong prescription and had gone back to get the right one and when she was refused 'got her temper up.'

He said Duddy was trying to engage with services to assist her with her issues.

As regards the assault on police the solicitor said after Duddy was put in restraints she kicked out.

He described the whole affair as 'an unsavoury incident'.

District Judge Barney McElholm said this was 'an outrageous way to behave.'

He said health service staff already worked under difficult conditions with poor pay and everything else 'without people coming in and abusing them.'

The judge said it was difficult to hold out any hope for Duddy as her behaviour was 'completely unacceptable'.

He ordered a pre-sentence report to be prepared and released Duddy on bail.

She will be sentenced on September 29.
The Devenny family was the first to be bereaved at the hands of state forces in Irelands modern Troubles.

Sammy Devenny (42) died on July 16, 1969, three months after RUC officers broke into his home in William Street and attacked him and his family with batons.

Speaking to Derry Now following the family screening of British Legal Impunity: The stories of women, men and children killed by the British army and RUC, Sammys son Harry said he had found his fathers film very emotional.

Sammy Devenny's daughters, Christine and Collette (Photograph courtesy of Tom Heaney, nwnewspics)

Over the past 50 years, it has not gotten any better for my family and me. Saturday was very emotional. But, I thought it was great that the families are coming together against this Legacy Bill, he said.

When you see the likes of Stephen McConomy, Annette McGavigan, it rips the heart out of me.

My father was the first man to be killed in Derry and it doesnt get any easier. It doesnt go away.

Harry was 20 when his father died, the eldest of 10 children: Ann, Katie, Colette, Danny, Mena, Christine, Jim, Caroline and Adrian. His mother, Phyllis was widowed at 39 years of age.

My fathers death was devastating for us as a family. Not only was my father killed, a month later, on my 21st birthday, the RUC and the Paisleyites came up William Street and burned the house down. They Paisleyites squealing for the Devenny house.

They burned four houses down before they got ours. They actually got ours because we lived next door to Ritchies factory. They burned the factory and the factory fell in on top of our house. That was on August 15, 1969, said Harry.

Even if we are trying to put it to the back of our minds, there is always something on television or in the press or a conversation that brings it to the forefront again, he added.

And, as long as that door of the possibility of getting a result is left open, anybody can walk through it. Anybody can say or print what they want.

People printed photographs of my fathers injuries without asking permission and it had a terrible effect on all of my sisters. It destroyed me as well.

Once thats in the public domain and the case is lying open and we have no closure, anybody can print what they want.

However, Harry was clear it was not the fault of his family or the media that the Devennys had not received closure.

When I was young, after my father died, we thought the Conservatives were against the Irish and when Labour came in, it would be better. But experience has taught us, there is a hierarchy above whatever government is in power, stopping us from getting justice.

It is too much of a coincidence, after 55 years, no matter what government is in, they wont give us justice. This makes me believe, it is not the government making the decisions about who gets justice and who doesnt.

I remember meeting the Shadow Secretary of State in Rath Mor. We were talking about looking into our files and he said to me, Harry, Ill contact Mayor [of London] [Sadiq] Khan because Scotland Yard was holding all our files and it wouldnt release them. He thought Mayor Khan would have the authority to release our files.

Anyway, I subsequently got a nice, polite letter from Mayor Khan saying, Im sorry Mr Devenny, there is nothing I can do. That didnt come from the government. Somebody else is denying us justice.

Harry said the British Government was foolish to think the Legacy Bill would shut the family up.

It is only going to make us stronger, he said. The more they try to put us down, the more we rise.

It was great to see on Saturday, the Derry and Strabane families come together for the films. I hope they make more films. It will bring us closer and make us stronger. In fact, I think these events should be done more often and get more families to come forward all the time.



I can only speak for the Devenny case. The report contains the names of the RUC. I said to them, we did not want names. We are not looking for prosecutions. We dont want old men, if they are still alive, to come in front of us and say, We did it. All we want is the report. Black out the names. We dont care.

Young [Paul] Withers was killed by a plastic bullet and they are withholding his file to 2064. What in under God is that about. That is a disgrace, said Harry.

After Sammy Devenny was killed, the head of Scotland Yard in London, Kenneth Drury, was sent in to investigate the case.

According to Harry, Drury met his mother and himself in the Rocking Chair Bar in the City.

Drury told us he had come to his conclusions but he could not tell us what they were.

I said, Is this a whitewash?. He said, No its not but my hands are tied. I was told to give the report over to the Metropolitan Police and it is to be sealed for 30 years.

However, when the 30 years were up, they still refused to make the report public, even after us giving assurances we didnt want to prosecute anybody or to have the names of the RUC men involved.

All we want to know is what Drury found out and they still wont do it. I cant understand why successive governments, Conservative and Labour, wont give us justice. It is not the Prime Minister who is making that decision.

We have tried absolutely everything to find out the truth of what happened and what Drury found out.

We were all in the house with my father. We know what happened. We just want the world to know it and they wont do it. But the more they try to deny us justice, the stronger we are going to become.

 If they bring this bill in that there will be no prosecutions, that is not going to stop us. That is never going to stop us.
Elaine Duffy, owner of Vintage Star Shop on Derry's Pump Street, has been shortlisted as a finalist in the Miss Vintage UK competition 2023 at the Twinwood Festival.

Elaine was the first person from NI to be selected as a finalist eight years ago when she attended the festival and said she is so excited to represent Derry and the vintage community once again.

"There is nothing really happening in the North West for the vintage community yet and I'm hoping I can make a start on that and change that," Elaine explained.

"When I was shortlisted eight years ago, I wasn't as experienced. I went around all the local vintage shops and they all kindly supported and sponsored me.

"This time around, I am flying solo but I am feeling good. I haven't really been nervous to be honest with you, it is all very familiar ground. Also, when you are there, you do very much feel a part of the Twinwood family."

The competition is to be held on August 27th as part of a four day event. Elaine said the festival is amazing for making connections and meeting new people in the vintage community

Twinwood Festival has been going for quite a number of years and it's a lovely, family friendly event with lots of events and concerts. This is the first year after lockdown that it will be in full swing and the fields will be filled," Elaine continued.

"People of all ages and backgrounds attend; from small children right the way through to 90 year olds, they all come along and it is a lovely, safe atmosphere.

"It's very cosy, it is like you are sitting in your own living room and a vintage city pops up out of nowhere," she laughed.

"It is amazing. Everyone is dressed in so many beautiful pieces, from all eras. Everyone makes so much effort and puts their whole self into it."

Elaine explains that all generations appreciate vintage clothing and she has noticed a lot of her customers would be teenagers with a real love for the early 1900s.

"A lot of clothing from the 20s, 30s, and 40s- they are timeless. It is eye opening to see what people love, there is definitely a demand there and it's lovely to see."

Elaine is flying on August 24 to get ready for the event and hopes to bring the title back to Northern Ireland.

Elaine added: "It would be great to bring it back to Northern Ireland for the first time but for me it truly is all about the taking part- it is the fun of it.

"All the competitors and everyone in the vintage world know each other through one thing or another- for us it is a reunion. I can't wait to spend time with so many lovely people."
Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris has said he has every confidence in the ability of Sir Jeffrey Donaldson to lead the DUP back into Stormont.

Mr Heaton-Harris also said he believed Sir Jeffrey was leading the party in a strong and robust way.

In an email to party members sent last weekend, Sir Jeffrey expressed frustrations after claiming the actions of some within the DUP ranks were damaging the partys electoral prospects and the cause of the Union.

He said that those briefing against their own party were motivated by a desire to gain media coverage or advance their own personal agenda.

Mr Heaton-Harris has been in negotiations with the DUP to try to find a legislative solution that will assure Northern Irelands place within the UK internal market.

The DUP has been boycotting the powersharing institutions at Stormont for more than a year as a protest against post-Brexit trading arrangements, which it feels jeopardise Northern Irelands position in the Union.

Mr Heaton-Harris told the media in Belfast on Friday he had every confidence in Sir Jeffreys ability to unite his party and bring it back to Stormont in the autumn.

He said: I have every confidence that Jeffrey Donaldson is leading his party in a strong and robust way, and trying to make sure that, like all political leaders, that he brings his party together. Thats a lot of work in any circumstances. And so yeah, absolutely.

Mr Heaton-Harris added that political parties are broad churches, and bringing a party together was a difficult task.

On the Democratic Unionist Party, I was the chief of the Conservative Party in the last six months of a Boris government, Im not going to comment on any other political partys interests, he said.

I just know that political parties are broad churches and its very difficult for the leadership, for anyone, to keep every single member happy, but its what leaders of political parties do.

On Friday Mr Heaton-Harris met with the head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service Jayne Brady to discuss potential measures to raise more public revenue.
South Korea initiates major R&D project to boost chips packaging competitiveness

Recognizing the strategic importance of semiconductor packaging technology, the South Korean government is reportedly initiating a major packaging technology R&D project aimed at assisting companies in quickly catching up with international leaders like TSMC in the advanced packaging field, and the project will be headed by a former CEO of Amkor Korea.

South Korean news media outlet The Elec cited sources from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) and the Korea Evaluation Institute of Industrial Technology as indicating that the "Semiconductor Advanced Packaging Leading Core Technology Development Project" will cost between KRW300500 billion (US$234390.6 million) over a period of 57 years. The planning process is being helmed by Park Yong-chul, former CEO of Amkor Korea, who has chaired the promotion committee for the project.

The advanced package R&D project can be broadly categorized into two types: catch-up and lead. The former aims to boost domestic capabilities in areas such as heterogeneous integration, wafer-level package (WLP), panel level package (PLP), and high-density flip chip. These areas are currently dominated by Taiwan's TSMC, America's Amkor, and China's JCET group. Among them, TSMC excels in the area of high-density SoC technology, and by leveraging its strengths in technologies such as fan-out wafer-level packaging (FOWLP), chip integration, and 2.5D packaging, it has secured significant orders from major US tech players like Apple, Nvidia and AMD.

As to the lead type, it will concentrate on technology segments where South Korean companies have demonstrated prowess, such as 2.5D package-based high-bandwidth memory (HBM) optimization, 10 to 40 micrometer (m) bonding, and hybrid bonding, with the latter being particularly high profile lately, especially in the context of Nvidia's H100 AI GPU.

It is reported that the R&D project has reached the final drafting state and will soon undergo a preliminary review, but industry players are calling for the review process to be exempted or simplified in order for South Korean semiconductor players to faster enhance their chips packaging competitiveness.

In related development, Yonhap News Agency has recently reported that South Korea's Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) has developed an advanced semiconductor chiplet packaging technology that can save 95% of power consumption compared with the current Japanese technology. ETRI has achieved this by utilizing its newly developed materials and lasers, reducing the manufacturing process from nine to three stages, and the advancement holds promise for future applications in high-performance AI chips for self-driving vehicles and datacenters.

The new technology involves applying a non-conductive thin film (NCF) onto a semiconductor wafer, with the film made from a novel material developed by ETRI. Subsequently, chiplets are placed onto the wafer and then subjected to a broad area laser beam exposure for just one second. The entire process consists of only three stages, similar to stacking LEGO blocks on a semiconductor substrate.

Currently, semiconductor manufacturers primarily utilize materials from Japan in their advanced packaging processes. Due to the complexity of the manufacturing, involving nine stages and multiple pieces of equipment, there are various drawbacks, including high power consumption, high cleanroom maintenance costs and emissions of toxic substances.

When ETRI's newly developed material is irradiated with laser light, it can simultaneously address multiple stages in the semiconductor packaging process such as bonding, cleaning, drying, coating, and curing. This simplification of the process leads to a significant reduction in production facilities, from over 20 meters to four meters. Additionally, the process doesn't require nitrogen gas, thereby avoiding the generation of toxic substances, and it can also be conducted directly at room temperature of 25 degrees Celsius.

According to ETRI, the new chiplet packaging technology will be commercialized within three years at the earliest.
Head of XPeng's autonomous driving project departs for Nvidia

Recently, there were rumors that Wu Xinzhou, head of Autonomous Driving Center at XPeng Motors, would be leaving the company and joining Nvidia in the United States. This news caused a sensation in both the Chinese autonomous driving industry and the semiconductor industry. Subsequently, XPeng chairman, He Xiaopeng, and Wu Xinzhou himself confirmed the news.

Wu Xinzhou expressed his gratitude, reluctance, and best wishes for XPeng Motors in a post on Weibo. Chairman He Xiaopeng revealed that Wu Xinzhou would become a top-level executive of a globally renowned company and continue to collaborate closely with XPeng in various areas, including chip technology.

According to sources at Nvidia, Wu is likely to join the company in the next one to two months. It is considered a semi-public secret in the industry. After joining the GPU giant, Wu Xinzhou will serve as a global vice president. Nvidia neither confirmed nor denied this news.

Due to their business cooperation, Wu had frequent exchanges with Nvidia CEO, Jensen Huang. XPeng Motors' North American employees also mentioned that Wu Xinzhou often disclosed some meeting contents with Huang during internal meetings.

On the evening of August 2nd, Wu announced his departure on social media. Following this, XPeng CEO He Xiaopeng stated that due to family and various reasons, Wu expressed his intention to return to the United States in the second half of 2022.

To prepare for this departure, XPeng has already confirmed a new work model and optimized its structure and organization within the past 10 months. Li Liyun, the head of XNGP, will take over XPeng's autonomous driving team.

Wu, a naturalized American citizen of Chinese descent, joined XPeng in March 2019 and was responsible for the overall management of their autonomous driving business and team.

Over the past five years, Wu Xinzhou has contributed significantly to XPeng' intelligent development. The reasons for his departure are speculated to extend beyond family matters. Among the "various factors" mentioned by He Xiaopeng, his American citizenship may have caused pressure under the talent ban imposed by the Biden Administration, resulting in many American employees in the Chinese semiconductor field being asked to return to the United States since the introduction of the new ban in October 2022.

For Nvidia having someone like Wu Xinzhou, with extensive experience in managing autonomous driving business in the automotive industry, is undoubtedly a valuable asset for its own autonomous driving business. According to Chinese media data, in 2022, Nvidia ranked first globally in terms of high computational power autonomous driving SoC shipments, with an 82.5% market share. However, the revenue from the automotive business still accounts for a relatively limited proportion of Nvidia's total revenue.
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A dog crisis in Ireland is deepening according to an Irish animal charity who say they are extremely concerned about the soaring levels of abandoned dogs across the country.

Dogs Trust Ireland says the number of dogs being put down double last year, due to a lack of space for dogs.

The latest Irish Dog Control Statistics released by the Department of Rural and Community Development, reveals that the number of dogs being euthanised in Irish pounds across the country has doubled.

According to Dogs Trust, 340 dogs were put to sleep in 2022, more than twice as many dogs, compared to 2021. Under the Control of Dogs Act, dogs who have completed their mandatory five day stay in Irish Dog Pounds, can be euthanised to create space, if the pound cannot rehome them or find a rescue with space to take them.

"Another major concern we have is the 95% increase of stray dogs entering pounds, from 4,165 the previous year to 7,352 in 2022," a spokesperson for Dogs Trust said.

As part of the information released, the department also published the number of official complaints from members of public who reported dog aggressive behaviours. 791 incidences of aggressive behaviour were recorded while the number of people physically injured, which includes damage to clothing, was 308.

Commenting on the report, Corina Fitzsimons, PR & Communications Manager at Dogs Trust says: While Dogs Trust welcomes the additional information provided this year, more in-depth data is required to understand and address the causes of these incidents and most importantly, to prevent them occurring in the first instance.

"We believe that education and early interventions are key to preventing unwanted behaviour and keeping people safe around dogs. A 2022 survey we carried out revealed that only 41% of people could recognise a dog displaying apprehensive body language. We offer free online Be Dog Safe workshops for adults on the basics of understanding dog body language, while also visiting schools to deliver free workshops to children about safe and kind behaviours around dogs.

Suzie Carley, Executive Director at Dogs Trust Ireland continues: As these figures are from 2022, they do not fully reflect the unwanted dog crisis animal welfare charities are currently facing. From January until the end of July 2023, we have dealt with 2,379 cases of people seeking to relinquish their dogs into our care. This is an average of more than 11 requests per day, and a 41% increase compared to the same period in 2022.

The upsetting reality is that due to the sheer volume of unwanted dogs, there simply isnt enough space to house the dogs that are being surrendered, and our own services cannot keep up with the demand. We, like many other organisations are completely overwhelmed and sadly fear that this is only going to get worse. One positive we can take from the statistics is that thankfully, there does appear to be an increase in the number of dogs being rehomed directly from the pounds. However, this still isnt enough to keep up with the volume of unwanted dogs in the country.

As the volume of people looking to surrender their dogs continues to soar, we are renewing our plea for foster families. We rehome dogs across Ireland and is desperate for families who can help ease the pressure by welcoming a dog into their home, even on a temporary basis. Fostering not only gives a dog a chance to experience home life, but it allows us to free-up a kennel space, so we can continue to rescue Irelands most vulnerable dogs and provide the rehabilitation and second chance they deserve. Please see www.DogsTrust.ie/Fostering for more information, Ms Carley said.
Cllr Conor Keelan raised Louth County Council's engagement with the No Mow May policy at the local authority's July meeting, saying that he did not believe that No Mow May has been of great benefit to the town particularly in areas such as cemeteries.

Cllr Keelan said that he believes there is a problem with weeds, in the town and on the approach roads into town and that the policy should be adapted, adding that more tackling of weeds like ragwort, on approach roads to the town needs to be taken.

In response Senior Engineer Mark Johnston said that work was taking place to mechanically remove weeds in the town, with ragwort being included.

He added that the No Mow Policy is one that the Council has engaged with for a number of years, to leave areas to grow wild, saying that in nearly every park they have small areas they allow grow wild as it is good for the all-island pollinator plan it has signed up to.

Cllr Keelan questioned if it was a useful policy in large public cemeteries and in public parks.

In response Chief Executive Joan Martin said that she have a look at it but said that the Council is committed to being part of the national pollinator programme and is taking on a biodiversity officer.

She added that the Council cannot overlook its commitments to climate action and biodiversity and that the Council has to lead by example in terms if its commitment to improving the environment for biodiversity.

Cllr Keelan said that people have complained to his family about No Mow May in the cemeteries and parks and that it was seen by some locals as an excuse to not cut the grass. Cllr Keelan's comments were supported by Cllr Maeve Yore and Cllr John Reilly.

Cllr Liam Reilly offered a different view saying, "I disagree with all the comments made so far. I think its a national issue. We're currently in a major climiate crisis, where we have floods in South Korea, we have rain here every single day in July, and we have the highest temperature recorded on earth.

"No Mow May is a simple thing that we can do individually, local communities can do it. Its not a way to refuse mowing as you can mow then in June."

Cllr Reilly continued, reminding councillors that "this Chamber agreed a biodiversity plan less than 12 months ago in which we said there was No Mow May."He said that for community grants, when applying for them, there is a line that asks, "are you providing for No Mow May?"

He further added, "I don't agree with councillors saying we shouldn't have it and yet downstairs in the community section we're saying you must have it. It needs to be a joined up thinking process."
Photo: Declan Savage, Chairperson of Carlingford Community Development Ltd (CCDL) Board; Colm Prendergast, Community Finance Ireland (CFI) Client Relationship Executive; Brother and sister, Peaches and Felix Savage from Carlingford and Erin Finegan, CCDL youth volunteer. Photo credit: Brian Morrison Photography

This is a much-needed space that young people in Carlingford have asked for and which they can make their own while also feeling feel safe and supported.

Thats according to the team at Carlingford Community Development Ltd (CCDL) who recently opened a new Youth Hub and Cafe in the Foy Centre, which was supported by a bridging loan from Community Finance Ireland (CFI).

Established in 2002, the CCDL manages the Foy Community Centre, a multi-purpose community space, at Dundalk Street, Carlingford.

Through consultations with young people in the local community, CCDL took action to address a rise in anti-social behaviour in the local community, by converting an existing vacant cafe within the Foy Centre into a dedicated Youth Hub.

Erin Finegan joined the CCDL in 2020 as Youth Volunteer, working to improve community initiatives for young people in the area. She said:

The Carlingford Community Development team has been at the heart of Carlingfords community sector for twenty years and were delighted to create a dedicated space for young people here in the Foy Centre.

Weve run some really successful initiatives with young people in the area over the past year and the feedback they shared was that they needed a space of their own to meet and socialise and feel connected. We knew we could make that possible for them with the right financial support.

On foot of Louth Leader Grant aid, we approached Community Finance Ireland and they could not have been more straight-forward and the team were so easy to work with. Once the paperwork was submitted, we could access the funds within 2-3 weeks which meant we could get started with work on the cafe straight away.

Community Finance Ireland provides social finance loans to community and volunteer-led organisations that drive social impact through sport, community projects, faith-based groups, and social enterprises.

Operating a model similar to traditional credit unions, all loan repayments go toward supporting other communities across Ireland. To support CCDLs refurbishments, Community Finance Ireland provided a bridging loan of 20,400.

Colm Prendergast, CFI Client Relationship Executive for North Leinster said:

It has been a pleasure to work with the CCDL team and were delighted to see how the newly established Youth Cafe has transformed the local communitys relationship with its young people.

The cafe has already hosted several different initiatives including a Womens Aid outreach programme and English lessons for Ukrainian refugees. In the evening time, the cafe is a safe space for local young people to meet and socialise while being supervised and supported.

Between 2016 and 2022, Community Finance Ireland delivered 16.2 million in social finance supports to volunteer and community-led organisations in Leinster, including  1.39 million in support of projects in Louth.
I WAS into reading until I was maybe 10, but by the time I got to secondary school that had dropped off.

The reading experience of Kevin Smith was a familiar one among teenage boys, even before the arrival of smartphones and social media to divert their attention from books.

For Cork city native Kevin, however, comic books and graphic novels not only rekindled his love of reading, but sparked a creative partnership that has just published its first full-length collection of comic adventures for teens.

Comic books, he says, are a much more accessible medium for literature than traditional novels, with an instant visual appeal which ensures their popularity in the digital age.

They also allow creators free rein for lengthy, imaginative plots without boundaries, a case in point being his collaboration with Scottish-based illustrator Ryan Ibbotson, Tropical Punch, which is described by Kevin as a martial arts road trip.

Kids are very much on their phones and social media, TikTok and all the rest, and the plots of what theyre consuming are very self-contained, very short, and repetitive, says Kevin.

As a teenager, he recalls, I really appreciated reading incredibly expansive series, which is a thing you can do in comic books in a way that Ive very rarely seen even in novels.

What was drawing me into it was this sense of agency, I suppose, he adds.

When youre a teenager, youre told what to do, where to go; you have very little freedom. But I really liked these stories about kids my age and their friends going on big action-packed adventures that were a lot of fun.

They got to go to all these fantastical places, whereas I wouldnt even have known that road trips with friends was a possibility at the time.

Author Kevin Smith on the North Mall in Cork city for his book launch last week

Also, the heightened sense of emotion was something that really drew me in as a kid. A lot of kids media can be quite over-dramatic, especially the action stuff, but I think that is the appeal of it, that it is so easily-understandable and digestible for kids.

The stakes would be high. If I cant beat this one bad guy in a fight, the whole world is going to explode. Everything about that is digestible to a teenager.

Kevin had begun reading comics in his early teens, but his interest in writing his own was piqued by the Teen Graphic Novel Project run by Cork City Libraries.

They would pair teenagers up together, so if you were a writer theyd pair you up with an artist, and they put [the comics] out as one cohesive anthology, he says.

I got into that when I was 16 and I got bitten by the bug. Then I started writing my own stories over the summer and replicated the process I had gone through with the library project, to make my own anthology.

After creating comics entitled Patch and Scrap in his teens, in 2018 Kevin linked up online with Ryan Ibbotson, their first comic collaboration being Marco the Demon Dude, which went on to win four Irish Comic News awards, including Overall Best Irish Comic.

I initially pitched him on a 12-page comic for Marco the Demon Dude, but we ended up producing about 80 pages in total, all throughout the first wave of lockdown, says Kevin, who works primarily on script and speech bubbles, with Ryan creating the illustrations, though the roles in the partnership often cross over.

The idea for Tropical Punch, for instance, originated with Ryan, who had created the characters years previously, with Kevin going on to develop the plot.

Its about this kid from this ancient line of kung-fu fighters, but when he was younger he was kicked out and he didnt know why - he was never given a reason, he explains.

Hes on his own, trying to find his way back, so the series is like a martial arts road trip. The main character is Chu and his teacher is Niko, a seasoned martial arts veteran, who also happens to be an anthropomorphic dog... and a chain smoker.

The comic books, initially released in individual 20-page issues, quickly established a following among teenage fans of the likes of Scott Pilgrim and Manga, but also reached a wider readership.

We were targeting the teenage boy [reader] aged 14-16, but selling the individual issues at conventions and fairs, Ive been really surprised that a lot of girls and younger kids are interested, and some young adults, says Kevin.

Tropical Punch was also on sale at The Comic Vault off Corks Parnell Place prior to the shops closure in May. Whenever I was going to the shop, the shopkeeper would be like Theres this kid whos coming in every week and says Whens the next issue coming out? says Kevin. Ive never met that kid, but hearing that is really nice.

Chapters 1-4 of Tropical Punch, with new artwork and behind-the-scenes sketches, were launched as a collected edition last Friday in Cork, the culmination of a lengthy creative process for Kevin and Ryan.

Currently finishing his dissertation for a masters in digital arts and humanities at UCC while also working as a web developer, Kevin promises Tropical Punch will be back after a brief hiatus.

Its part one of many, he says. Depending on where we are in the process, both of us are putting in about 10 to 15 hours a week - its a very time-intensive hobby.

Were taking a bit of a pause now to play around with some other stories but were hoping to do more in the future.

Tropical Punch is priced 10 and is available at Waterstones, comic shops, conventions, and online at livewirecomics.gumroad.com
A PLANNING application for a residential development in Blackpool, designed to be used as sheltered housing, has been green-lit by Cork City Council.

Last November, Summertime Developments Ltd lodged the application seeking permission from the local authority to develop 18 units at 95 Gerald Griffin St.

Located to the rear of Neptune Stadium, the site is understood to have had a former industrial use. It is currently vacant.

The planning statement submitted with the application said the proposed development would see the existing buildings on site retained and converted and new infill buildings constructed.

The residential units, it said, have been designed to suit a use as sheltered housing.

The site comprises a three-storey warehouse building fronting onto Gerald Griffin St with a two-storey outbuilding to the rear.

The planning statement argued that the existing buildings, whilst in poor condition, contribute to the architectural character of the area and the applicants therefore proposed to retain both structures.

Summertime Developments Ltd proposed to convert the warehouse building into three apartments over three levels and convert the outbuilding into a bin and bike storage area on the ground level with storage rooms on the upper floor.

It said the other residential units would be constructed in two new blocks.

Cork City Council required some further information before making a decision on the application, which resulted in some modifications to the proposals.

Among the points raised by the local authority was a concern that the four-storey element of the eastern residential block, containing one of the units, unit 18  would have an overbearing impact on the existing adjoining property to the north.

As a result, unit 18 has been omitted from the revised plans, with that element of the development reduced to three storeys.

The council has now approved the proposed development subject to 23 conditions.
AN unpublished report from December 2022 found major structural defects in local authority housing on Noonans Road and St Finbarrs Road, and recommended the complete demolition of the buildings.

The report, which encapsulates two surveys outsourced to private firms and a follow-on survey carried out by Cork City Council, strongly recommends that the 60-year-old social housing flats be demolished and rebuilt.

The internal report, which has been seen by The Echo, found: structural cracks in each of the apartment blocks; the connections anchoring the roofs to the masonry walls are insufficient; the connections between internal and external walls are insufficient; and a lack of mortar in the masonry of half of the buildings.

Despite the existence of this eight-month-old report, the chief executive of Cork City Council, Ann Doherty, last week visited Noonans Road and St Finbarrs Road and told tenants she was shocked by the living conditions .

Ms Doherty also told tenants she was waiting on a report on the future of the flats which, she said, was due this coming September. The internal December report was not mentioned.

When asked by The Echo why council tenants on Noonans Road and St Finbarrs Road were not immediately informed that a council report stated that the roofs on their buildings were not sufficiently connected to the walls, and the external walls were not sufficiently connected to the internal walls, a spokesperson for Cork City Council said:

It is important to note that the buildings at Noonans Road are not unsafe.

The council spokesperson said the report had been prepared as part of the most recent 2021 Energy Efficiency Retrofit Programme application the Cork City Council has been working with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage to secure funding approval for a significant and complex energy efficiency programme upgrade for the units at Noonans Road.

The spokesperson said the report was an internal draft report circulated to key staff in the housing directorate and the cost of the various surveys in the report could not be detailed, due to commercial sensitivity.

The spokesperson said the contents of the December 2022 report would inform the report on the future of the Noonans Road and St Finbarrs Road flats due in September of this year.

Cork City Councils spokesperson said: The council is very aware of the sensitivities in this case, and as Noonans Road and adjacent units are occupied and are peoples homes, any possible actions need to be fully scoped and understood to allow proper consultation and engagement before any works commence given the likely disturbance and impacts involved. This process is critical as the issues involved are challenging and complex.

The December 2022 report contains the findings of a structural survey of the council properties, carried out by John Quigley and Associates Consulting Engineers and DJF Consulting Engineers, as well as a subsequent council survey, and a cost estimate of repairs to the flats, evaluated by Tony ORegan Quantity Surveyors.

The report notes that the flats were built in the 1960s and had an initial design life of 50 years.

The structural survey finds significant structural cracking, connection of timber roof purlins  found to be insufficient, issue with masonry wall ties between internal and external leafs no ties were visible during survey, and connection between party walls and masonry external walls are insufficient.

The Quigley survey focuses on the second and fourth blocks at Noonans Road, but a subsequent survey was carried out by Cork City Council of six flats in Noonans Road and St Finbarrs Road and the council report concludes that the issues identified in the survey are not confined to the properties surveyed.

Due to the proximity and variety of the inspected properties along with the fact that all properties were designed and built at the same time, we can assume with a high level of confidence that the issues found across the below properties, have been repeated across all of the Noonan Road and Saint Finbarrs Road apartments, the report finds.

The report estimates that repairs to the Noonans Road and St Finbarrs Road properties would cost 103,558 per unit, or a total of 9,113,101, while a refurbishment of the councils properties on Dean St and Fort St would cost 2,899,623.

In total, the cost estimate for repairs to the flats on Noonans Road and St Finbarrs Road came to 12m, before the cost of rehousing tenants and storing their possessions is taken into account, but the council report stresses, in bold, block capitals:

It is NOT the recommendation of this report to carry out these repairs post construction due to the volume of ties required and size of elements involved. The recommendation of this report is to knock all external walls to ground level and re-build entire structure.

The councils report also contains an estimate of the cost of demolishing the existing structures to ground level and constructing new structures and properties in their place.

The report estimates that new three-bedroom apartments would cost 258,000 each, with two-bedroom apartments costing 193,500 each.

The report estimates that a full, new build of 30 three-bedroom apartments and 30 two-bedroom apartments at Noonans Road would cost an estimated 13,545,000.

It estimates that a similar rebuild on St Finbarrs Road of 12 two-bed units and 12 three-beds would cost an estimated 5,418,000.

The report allows a demolition cost of 1m for the two developments, and gives a combined total for demolition and refurbishment of 19,963,000.

William OBrien, a community activist who has highlighted the plight of Noonans Road residents over the past month, said he was lost for words to learn that the December 2022 report existed.

Noonans Road and St Finbarrs Road residents have been campaigning on their own for years, and the realities of life in dilapidated and dangerous buildings has been confronting them for years, and all these reports have been done in the background and the residents were never told, he said.

Thomas Gould, Sinn Fein TD for Cork North Central, said the report was a shocking indictment of the city councils failure to resolve issues for residents at Noonans Road.

The report highlights the poor conditions of these units and the need for urgent long-term solutions. It found serious issues with the units and the long-term recommendation was to rebuild from the ground up, he said.

The serious structural issues found in this report, with roofs and walls, are deeply concerning. We would agree with the recommendation that the most credible and reasonable long-term alternative is to demolish these units and rebuild from the ground up.

Mr Gould said his Sinn Fein colleague Councillor Fiona Kerins had raised the issue of the flats multiple times over the past years, but to no avail.

That Cork City Council have sat on this report for over eight months now and failed to move forward with a plan or inform residents of the findings of the report is scandalous.

Fine Gael Councillor, and current chair of the Cork South Central Ward, Shane OCallaghan, said his understanding was that it was a preliminary report and he believed it would inform the report due in September.

I would suspect that the recommendation in the September report will be to demolish and rebuild, which is something that, given the level of deterioration, in my opinion would be the correct course of action, he said.

Asked specifically by The Echo whether Cork City Council had any other unpublished reports relating to the flats at Noonans Road, St Finbarrs Road, Fort Street and Dean Street, a council spokesperson said: No. The council has no further reports relating to the assessment of options for Noonans Road.
Locals in North Cork took to the streets recently to raise their concerns over restrictions to the SouthDoc service.

Local representatives and residents have claimed that the red eye service at SouthDoc Fermoy ceased at 10pm on Tuesday, July 18.

The recent protest was the latest in a series of events organised to highlight concerns over what locals claim is a reduction in the service.

This comes as locals fear that the out-of-hours GP service will close due to a lack of replacement staff.

However, the HSE has said there are no plans to cease operations of the service.

In a statement issued to The Echo, Cork Kerry Community Healthcare (CKCH) said it wished to reassure people that there is no reduction of service, red eye or otherwise, in Fermoy.

Despite the reassurance made by CKCH and the HSE, The Mayor of the County of Cork, Fianna Fail councillor Frank OFlynn said that serious concerns remain about the level of service provision at SouthDoc in Fermoy.

Mr OFlynn called on the HSE and SouthDoc to outline exactly what service there is. He said:

We want full retention of the existing services. Its a very large area and theres a lot of concern and hurt in the area over this.

Speaking to The Echo on the main street of the North Cork town, users of the Fermoy SouthDoc service highlighted their concerns.

Doreen Walsh, Fermoy:

Doreen Walsh. Picture: Dan Linehan

Im from Galway originally but have been living in Fermoy for 18 years. We have always used SouthDoc. Its an invaluable service, especially with kids.

Whatever about us adults, we can hold on that bit longer, but when the kids are sick or in pain, its different.

Growing up we used it a lot at the weekends.

SouthDoc is an unbelievable service, if you cant get to the doctor during the week, if youre working or they are so busy for an appointment, you have that back-up.

We would be devastated if that service was taken away and we had to travel to Cork. For kids, if they are sick they cant travel that distance.

It's frightening to think that it could go.

Geraldine Hayes, Fermoy:

Geraldine Hayes. Picture: Dan Linehan

I would be very upset if it went. We cant control when we are going to get ill. Where are we meant to go then?

Especially if you have no car, what is going to happen? I am from Ballyhooly but have been living in Fermoy for the last 20 years.

My granddaughter, kids, my whole family use the SouthDoc here. Where are we supposed to go after ten oclock?

The whole town has been out protesting and we are organising a petition now to stop the service being taken away.

It is badly needed as its covering the whole area, not just Fermoy. I only used it myself less than two weeks ago.

Hopefully, it wont come to that.

Colm Fenton, Fermoy:

Colm Fenton. Picture: Dan Linehan

The idea that such a badly-needed service could be taken away, it is a disgrace. It is so badly needed to the town and the surrounding area.

The area is too big to not have this service kept. Its a massive catchment area, youre talking from Mitchelstown, all the way to Watergrasshill.

Its obvious that it has been downgraded over the last number of years, but it needs to stay. It would be a huge loss. People badly need it.

If people dont drive, they will be badly stuck. Thankfully, I havent had to use it, but I know of family members that have so I know how valuable it is. There was a fine protest there last week and I can see that taking great momentum.

Christy Roche, Fermoy:

Christy Roche. Picture: Dan Linehan

It would be a real shame if the SouthDoc here was to go. A lot of medical services are being restricted.

Its terrible news for the ordinary man on the street if it was to be taken away.

It's not that easy for everyone to get to Cork.

I drive myself, but there are lots of people that dont drive and you will have to drive them up. You have a long wait above there then.

Things arent improving. Its a backward step.

Nora OFlynn, Kildorrery:

Nora O'Flynn. Picture: Dan Linehan

Im from Kildorrery but we use the Fermoy SouthDoc service. I would be devasted to see it taken away in Fermoy. Its ridiculous.

We have been using it since my kids were small. We would be 15 minutes away from the service here, but driving to Cork, or even further to Mallow in an emergency, would be ridiculous.

If Im honest, I wouldnt feel safe even driving to Cork.

People can take the backroads into Fermoy, and they are there in no time, but the main road isnt safe at the best of the times, let alone when you are sick. I will definitely be taking part in any petition that is going around to get my voice across to keep the service.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has expressed his solidarity with Corks library staff and has warned that history has shown that the burning of books can sometimes lead to the burning of people.

Mr Varadkar made his remarks yesterday during a visit to the Apple campus in Hollyhill.

It comes following last Saturdays far-right rally on the Grand Parade, which resulted in Corks Central Library being closed for only the second time  apart from the pandemic  in 130 years.

Enterprise Minister Simon Coveney, who was also visiting Apple yesterday, said he believed that all of Corks politicians were disgusted by what had happened in the city on Saturday.

I just want to express my solidarity and support for our librarians, Mr Varadkar said.

Libraries are repositories of knowledge, theyre repositories of wisdom, theyre where people go to learn things, said the Taoiseach.

I think its a very disturbing element that were seeing, I think spill over from abroad into Ireland, the idea that certain books shouldnt be read or certain books [should] be banned.

Its not long after you start burning books, that sometimes people start burning other people.

We shouldnt forget our history in that regard.

Mr Varadkar said he had spoken with Housing and Local Government Minister Darragh OBrien and Justice Minister McEntee about Saturdays incident.

One thing the gardai do have to judge when it comes to any instance like this is the risk of escalation, he said.

The Taoiseach said there were people on the extreme right, and on the extreme left, who wanted to be arrested, so as to accuse gardai of engaging in brutality.

Thats why I think the gardai have to make the right judgment call as to how they deal with each particular incident, and Im confident theyre making the right decision, he said.

Meanwhile, Enterprise Minister Simon Coveney said he believed Corks politicians were disgusted by what happened last weekend.

You know, the library in Cork city centre, its a really important part of the infrastructure of the city, for children, for adults, for people looking for a bit of peace and quiet to go in and read a book, or to take a book out, Mr Coveney said.

The idea that the libraries are deliberately being targeted by people who have political agendas, often who are looking to cause trouble, and are looking to shut down appropriate education facilities, looking to get certain books banned, and intimidating staff, all of that is completely unacceptable.

Mr Coveney said he did not think it was a coincidence that Saturdays far-right rally occurred on the first day of Cork Pride.

Many of us here are hugely supportive of Cork Pride and Pride month in other parts of the country as well, said the Cork South-Central Fine Gael TD.

We really do need to ensure that a small minority of people who are deliberately looking to make headlines and disrupt and intimidate peoples lives, dont succeed in doing that.
A Cork fire station officer has called on the Minister for Housing, Local Government, and Heritage Darragh OBrien to step in and make an offer that will help to end the current impasse concerning retained firefighters.

Those stationed in Cork and across the country resumed their strike action on Wednesday, July 26, with crews only responding to life-threatening incidents and 50% of stations off the run at any one time.

It comes after members of the retained service, who are paid an annual retainer for being on-call, voted to reject a Labour Court recommendation aimed at resolving a dispute over pay and conditions.

The Labour Court had recommended that the retainer be increased by between 24% and 32.7%.

However, members voted by an overwhelming majority of 82% to 18% to reject the recommendation.

We are hoping that Darragh OBrien would step in with something and make an interesting offer to come to the table and move things alon g.

What was on the table wouldnt attract people into the job, said Jonathan Madden, station officer in Mallow Fire Station.

We will keep battling on. We just want improved pay and conditions because we cant get people into the job.

Currently we have people looking to leave the job because it is no longer paying them. We want to serve our communities.

We want to go back to doing our job and look after the communities.

We dont have enough people to man the fire engines in some stations and it is not going to get any better.

The Siptu National Retained Fire Fighter Committee has agreed to undertake a national consultation at all retained fire stations as strike action continues around the country.

Siptu public administration and community divisional organiser, Karan OLoughlin, said:

Retained fire fighters realise that their employers and the Government are not listening and that there is currently a lack of political will to engage meaningfully to resolve this dispute.

In these circumstances, the dispute actions will have to be escalated.

The national committee will meet again on August 9 to consider the consultation outcomes and actions.

Siptu sector organiser Brendan OBrien said there is a window of opportunity.

The longer the management and the Government continue to turn away from the retained fire service, the harder it will be to resolve this dispute, he said.

There is a window of opportunity now for engagement on a resolution before a serious level of escalation further entrenches positions.

A spokesperson for Minister OBrien told The Echo a resolution to this dispute that addresses the issues of recruitment and retention within the retained fire service is possible through an acceptance of the Labour Court recommendation which provides for a substantial improvement in the earnings and conditions of retained firefighters.

We remain steadfast in the belief that a resolution to this dispute can only be found through continued engagement in the context of public sector pay policy, the spokesperson added.
CORK Airport has been hailed as an important contributor to Ryanair's ongoing success

Recently released figures showed that Ryanair operated over 102,000 flights in July 2023. Their traffic last month increased by 11% as they carried over 18 million passengers in one month for the first time ever.

Overall, Ryanair carried a total of 18.7m passengers across their 37 markets throughout Europe.

Jade Kirwan, head of communications with Ryanair, praised Cork Airport for helping Ryanair to grow strongly.

18.7m passengers is a phenomenal amount to carry. It was the third successive month of record passenger numbers.

This is a very strong indicator that things are going well and that we have grown strongly since covid.

Cork was definitely a big contributor to our summer success.

"This year we have our biggest summer schedule in Cork, she said.

Ms Kirwan said Ryanair continue to increase the number of routes out of Cork Airport.

In Cork, we have grown 20% versus the summer of 2022, which is significant," she said. "We have about 270 weekly flights in and out of Cork now.

We have based our third aircraft there which represents a $300m investment, and we are supporting about 1,600 jobs locally in Cork which is massive.

We bring in passengers who spend 1.5bn in the Irish economy every year which helps to create a massive jobs boost. It is important that we are supporting that regional development."

She highlighted the range of flights they operate from Cork.

We have put on more UK capacity. We have 29 routes in total connecting to the UK, France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy. We have five entirely new routes operating this summer as well which are Seville, La Rochelle, Rome, Venice, and East Midlands in the UK.

They are all going very strongly.

We have also upped the frequency on eight of the routes that we operate out of Cork because they are going so well."

She said the UK is a key destination for Cork Airport.

"There is a strong demand which includes weekend getaways," she said. "With the Premier League due to resume very soon, we have seen strong bookings for the UK in August and September.

Cork Airport would also be our main hub to get Irish passengers to Italy."

Ms Kirwan said Ryanair, who will be launching their new winter routes in the coming weeks, strives to make flights out of Cork Airport as seamless as possible.

We are always trying to improve the customer experience generally and make things more convenient for passengers.

We have introduced express bag check-in kiosks in Cork.

We really do commend Cork Airport and we have a great relationship with them. It is always a seamless journey to travel through Cork Airport.
COLD case killer Noel Long, who was jailed for life on Friday, has lived without taking accountability nor showing an ounce of remorse for the murder and sexual assault of a vulnerable woman 42 years ago, the victims family have told the Central Criminal Court.

We hope you are at peace now mom. We never gave up hoping that one day we would get justice for you and we hope we have done you proud, the family of Nora Sheehan wrote.

The oldest prosecution for murder ever brought in Ireland, which saw the jury weigh evidence that was silent on a cause of death and did not include any evidence from the accused himself or his interactions with gardai, ended on Friday morning with a jury unanimously finding Long guilty.

Katie Sheehan said that her grandmothers life was taken from her in the cruelest way imaginable and it was hard to convey in words the hurt we have carried over four decades, the legacy of which carries on to new generations.

The testimony was heard as part of an emotional victim impact statement read on Friday to the Central Criminal Court by the chief investigating officer in the case, where 74-year-old Noel Long was sentenced to the mandatory term of life imprisonment for murdering Mrs Sheehan. The sentence was backdated for a period of four weeks for the time he previously spent in custody.

Sentencing judge Mr Justice Paul McDermott said that in cases of this kind, the sentence is mandatory and, despite the detailed evidence in the trial and the detailed account of the effect of the crime on the family, what he had to say on the matter was quite short.

The judge said at this stage of the focus of the case is brought back to the victim of the crime, who had been eloquently described in the statement he had received.

Sometimes the family of the victim feels the focus is not as central as they think it should be, but of course it is all about the victim and how Nora Sheehan came to meet her death, he said. He sympathised with the Sheehan family and extended his condolences to them.

The court heard on Friday that Long has 31 previous convictions that span 50 years from 1966 to 2016; 27 of those are for offences committed in Ireland and four are in the UK. These include six counts for common assault, four counts for burglary and a large number of road traffic convictions.

Detective Inspector Eamonn Brady said Long received a 12-month sentence from Cork Circuit Court in December, 1971 for assault with intent to ravish, attempted carnal knowledge and common assault. He said Longs most recent conviction was from Cork Circuit Court for assault causing harm on February 11, 2014 in Cork city. The court heard the four convictions in the UK were from the 1960s, when Long served in the British Army with The Royal Irish Rangers.

Nora Sheehan. Photo: Garda.ie

Long, with an address at Maulbawn, Passage West, had pleaded not guilty to murdering 54-year-old Mrs Sheehan between June 6 and June 12, 1981 at an unknown place within the State. Her naked and bruised body was found by forestry workers at The Viewing Point, Shippool Woods in Cork six days after she went missing.

Earlier, Det Insp Brady, from Macroom Garda Station, told Brendan Grehan SC, prosecuting, that matters had commenced a long time before his involvement in the investigation when Mrs Sheehans body was discovered in Shippool Woods on June 12, 1981. He said Long became a suspect and was arrested in relation to another matter on June 16, 1981 and questioned over the course of a number of days, and subsequently on July 6, 1981.

As a result of the directions of the then Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Eamonn Barnes, Long was charged with the murder of Mrs Sheehan and brought before the District Court in Cork on July 7, 1981. He was admitted on bail two weeks later on July 18, said the Inspector.

The witness agreed with Mr Grehan that the pathologist who carried out the postmortem on the body of Mrs Sheehan died on August 5, 1981. The Inspector also agreed that as a result, the DPP decided this was an insurmountable obstacle in pursuing the murder charge, leading to its withdrawal on November 10, 1981.

Noel Long who has been sentenced to life in prison.

Mr Grehan said that, due to a change in the science of DNA, Long was charged again with the murder of Mrs Sheehan on June 28, 2022 and was granted bail by the High Court on July 7 of that year.

The barrister said that Long was married with small children in June 1981 but he and his wife later separated. Long has been in a new relationship for the past 25 years, he added.

VICTIM IMPACT STATEMENT

In her victim impact statement, Katie Sheehan said Nora Sheehan was a much loved wife, mother, daughter, sister, aunt and friend.

She was kind, compassionate and opinionated. She adored children and animals. She grew up in the countryside in Crookstown in a very happy home and lived there until she fell for a Cork city man James Sheehan and moved to the big city.

It was here she became a mother to her three precious boys Jerry, James Junior and Eugene. She was a modern woman and a bit ahead of her time and wanting to earn her own wage worked at a psychiatric hospital bringing her country charm into the lives of the vulnerable patients.

She continued: Those connected to Nora think about her almost every day. Unfortunately we have been unable to think about her many wonderful qualities very often and the horrendous circumstances surrounding her death is what has occupied our thoughts these past 42 years. So many lives have been negatively impacted by this awful crime but we would like to pay special mention to some of Noras loved ones.

We remember our father who died completely heartbroken four years after she was taken from him.

"He was affected hugely by the loss of our mother and really struggled in his final years, dying without any form of closure.

She added: We remember our grandfather who mom affectionately called Pop Carty who died a number of years after the loss of his little girl. No father should outlive their child or lose them in such horrific circumstances.

Ms Sheehan said they also think of their cousin Eugene Junior, who was tasked with identifying the body. This is an image he will never be able to wipe from his mind. We think of the seven grandchildren that Nora didnt get the chance to dote on. She would have been the fun, happy, cheeky granny every child deserves to grow up loving and her presence was greatly missed. We know this awful crime impacted their childhoods and they continue to carry the awful legacy of it with them.

From your three boys  to lose a mother at such young ages under any circumstances is incredibly difficult but to learn that your vulnerable mother was taken advantage of, beaten, sexually assaulted and her dead body disposed of in such a horrific manner is something we have been unable to process. We dealt with things as best we could individually, all trying to block out what happened to our mother in our own ways.

Ms Sheehan continued: Visions of how scared she must have been in the final moments, how much pain she was in and how long her violated and injured body laid in the undergrowth all alone have been the focus of many of our nightmares.

Our peace of mind was taken from us.

"Sleep hasnt come easy. Relationships have been strained. The happy moments these last few decades have been tainted with so much grief and sadness. It feels as if we just existed for the longest time trying to take things day by day while the person responsible for our dear mothers death has lived their life never taking accountability for their actions or showing an ounce of remorse.

We hope that we can now begin the process of dealing with what happened to our mother and go on to live the remainder of our lives at peace and begin to remember our mother for the quirky, feisty, glamorous mother she was. We hope you are at peace now mom. We never gave up hoping that one day we would get justice for you, and we hope we have done you proud.

Lastly we would like to take a moment to pray for the victims of sexual assault and those who have lost their lives by homicide. We pray for your families who live with this trauma. Our thoughts are also with the families of the hundreds of unsolved cold cases. We hope that this outcome gives you hope that one day you will achieve justice for your loved ones.

At the end of todays proceedings, Mr Michael Delaney SC, defending Long, asked for legal aid to cover his legal team in the event that the matter goes further.

OUTSIDE COURT

Speaking outside the Criminal Courts of Justice after the sentence, Katie Sheehan said: The Sheehan family wish to remember the late Dr Coakley, the pathologist. We would like to thank all the retired gardai in particular Garda Sergeant John B OSullivan, Superintendent Matthew Thorne, Detective Inspector Colm Dardis, Inspector Larry Barron and their colleagues.

The scientists, the staff both current and retired at Forensic Science Ireland, the investigation unit in Bandon Garda Station led by Detective Inspector Eamonn Brady, the Serious Crime Review Team. Senior counsel Brendan Grehan and his colleagues for prosecuting this case, every single witness who came forward with information. A very special thank you to Garda Damien White our family liaison officer. We thank each member of the jury. Finally, we wish to thank the people of Ballyphehane who have always supported us.
A 40-year-old dad of four with 228 previous convictions including 31 for theft has been told by a district court judge to stay out of West Cork as part of suspended sentences imposed on him.

William ODriscoll with an address at Corks Simon Community, Mill House, Anderson Quay, Cork city pleaded guilty at Bandon District Court to the thefts of alcohol from the Aldi supermarket in Bandon.

Sgt Trish OSullivan told Judge James McNulty that on July 4 last the manager of the supermarket reported to gardai that four bottles of rum and two bottles of whisky were taken by the defendant who left the store without paying for them.

The total value of the goods stolen was 93.78.

The court heard that a second incident of theft occurred eight days later when the manager of SuperValu in the Riverview Shopping Centre reported that a male took 16 of groceries without paying for them.

"CCTV was downloaded and Mr ODriscoll was identified by gardai," said Sgt OSullivan.

She said that Mr ODriscoll has 228 previous convictions including 99 for public order, 39 for road traffic and 31 for thefts.

Solicitor Eamonn Fleming said his client who is a dad to four children, was co-operative with investigating gardai and pleaded at the first opportunity.

"He has had difficulties and is dealing with alcohol addiction and he is currently serving a sentence in prison with a release date on September 20th," said Mr Fleming.

Judge McNulty asked if Mr ODriscoll has any business in West Cork and said he should not return there as conditions of a suspended sentence.

He sentenced him to eight months in prison on each charge but suspended it for two years on the usual conditions that he keep the peace and be of good behaviour during that period.

The judge also added a special conditions that during the next two years the defendant shall not visit any town or place in West Cork.

"If he returns to West Cork theres an eight month sentence waiting for him."
Founded in 2005 as an Ohio-based environmental newspaper, EcoWatch is a digital platform dedicated to publishing quality, science-based content on environmental issues, causes, and solutions.

Canadian wildfires have released 290 megatonnes of carbon emissions from January to July 2023, already breaking the previous annual high of 138 megatonnes of carbon emissions in 2014 by more than double, according to Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service. The emissions for this year are set to keep rising as fires continue to blaze, with fire season typically spanning from May to October.

Canadas wildfire emissions this year make up about 25% of global total emissions from wildfires, Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service reported. Major wildfires are currently burning across the country.

According to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, there are 1,052 wildfires burning in Canada, with 666 of these fires considered out of control burns. The fires are particularly affecting British Columbia and Northwest Territories, and most of Canadas territories have been impacted by wildfires since May. Wildfires are also affecting the Arctic Circle, the service reported.

We have been monitoring the emissions from wildfires right across Canada for three months since the beginning of May, during which time they have continued to increase almost continuously to a level which is already considerably higher than the previous annual total fire emissions for Canada in our dataset, Mark Parrington, senior scientist with the Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service, said in a statement. As fire emissions from boreal regions typically peak at the end of July and early August, the total is still likely to continue rising for some more weeks and we will continue to monitor.

The wildfires in Canada have contributed to poor air quality around the country and in the U.S. for months, and by the end of June, emissions for the first six months of the year had already surpassed the record high, reaching 160 megatonnes. The 2023 fire season has also hit a record high for the amount of area burned, with over 131,000 square kilometers burned, Reuters reported.

Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service noted that climate change was contributing to conditions that raise the chances of longer fire seasons, and rapidly increasing surface air temperatures in the Arctic could also be playing a part in the record-breaking fires.

In recent years we have seen significant wildfires in the Northern Hemisphere, but this years fire activity in Canada is highly unusual, Parrington explained. The weather has played a part, with warm and dry conditions increasing the flammability of vegetation and increasing the risk of large-scale fires. We support users in mitigating the impacts through monitoring the fire activity and intensity, and the emitted smoke.
In a despondent plea, Ubair Fayaz, a resident of the town of Kulgam, Jammu and Kashmir, has written to Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, Manoj Sinha and the Ministry of External Affairs, S Jaishankar. Fayaz's dream of becoming a doctor might come to a grinding halt and is now clouded by doubts and confusion over certain results declared by the Directorate General of Health Services, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Bangladesh, on July 31, 2023.

Ubair who has been a meritorious student, and was a student from the Jammu and Kashmir Board of School Education, had applied for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) MBBS 2023 Scholarship, sponsored by the Bangladesh Government that reserved a total of 104 seats for MBBS and 13 seats for BDS courses for the students from the seven SAARC nations namely India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Maldives and Afghanistan.

Ubairs grievances hark around the fact that despite achieving an aggregate of 98.6%, scoring a 98 in Biology, 99 in Physics and 99 in Chemistry and with a total of 493 marks out of 500 in his J&K Board of State Examination (JKBose) for Class XII in the year 2021, he could not qualify for it, still.

A letter dated August 3, 2023, has also been forwarded by the State President of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Ravinder Raina to the Ministry of External Affairs, to give adequate representation to the issue.

The student who is also ranked 7th in the State Examination, alleges that the whole procedure was unfair as students who had allegedly scored lower marks than him, had received the scholarship.

Dr Wasim Khan, President of JKMSA (Jammu and Kashmir Medical Studentss Association) also alleges that there is no exact information on the selection process, and alleges "involvement of consultants and agents.

The student says that till now, there has been no response by the government, or by the Bangladesh High Commission or the Embassy.

What is the eligibility criteria?

Students who avail the opportunity of booking themselves a SAARC quota MBBS seat in Bangladesh, get some waiver in their tuition fees and to be eligible for it, a student must necessarily fulfil some criterias that firstly expects them to procure the minimum qualifying marks of the NEET exam.

The notice released by the Directorate General of Medical Education, Bangladesh, states, Applicants must have aggregate GPA 8.0 (Eight) in GPA 5 (Five) scale for Government Medical/Dental Colleges/Dental Units and GPA 7.0 (Seven) in GPA 5 (Five) scale for Private Medical/Dental Colleges/Dental Units with GPA 4.0 in Biology in HSC/A-level/equivalent examination in both instances."

The Evaluation Board takes into consideration not only the marks for Class XII but also for Class X. Although they have set minimum criteria for application, the chances of receiving the scholarships increase if the student scores near to cent per cent marks in PCB (Physics/Chemistry/Biology) subjects, especially in Biology.

EdexLive spoke to an educational consultancy based out of West Bengal, and on the condition of anonymity, they said, We have had students who had scored close to full marks with a 100 in Biology, yet they were rejected on grounds unknown. The competition is too high as for a mere 20+ seats, almost 1,300-1,400 students apply and almost everyones meritorious.

Woes that continue

Ubair says, I was sure I would get the scholarship, or else I would not have wasted my two years. But he says that his hopes were dashed when he saw his name was not on the list. My dream has always been of becoming a doctor, and I had toiled hard for years to achieve good marks and attain knowledge.

He further adds that hailing from a small town in Kashmir, they are not financially resourceful enough to pay for private tuition fees. Although belonging to Jammu and Kashmir, the students now fall under the category of Open Merit, he said to EdexLive, which means that they are now marked under the unreserved category which further makes it difficult for him to secure a good government college via the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test - Undergraduate (NEET-UG) exam.

This year two students scored a 99.99 percentile in the NEET UG exams held by the National Testing Agency (NTA), with 11,45,976 qualifying the exam. The growing competition is palpable as medical aspirants grow in number with each passing year and hence, the opportunities are granted to a handful, leaving the rest in perpetual doubts about their future.
Taiwan's Agriculture Minister Chen Chi-Chung led a delegation to the United States to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Ministerial Meeting on Food Security in Seattle. Minister Chen chaired the "Taiwan Agri-Food Press Conference" on August 2, introducing Taiwanese high-quality agricultural and seafood products such as grouper, edamame, mango, tea, dried fruit and orchids to US officials, importers, distributors and media.

In his speech, Accesswire reported, Chen stressed that Taiwan's agricultural exports to the United States reached US$920 million in 2022, an increase of 5.1 percent from 2021. The United States they have now overtaken China to become Taiwan's largest agricultural export market. The minister then expressed the hope of recommending even more Taiwanese agricultural and food products to American consumers and deepening agricultural trade between Taiwan and the United States.

The agriculture ministry stressed that the United States has always been Taiwan's most important agricultural trading partner. In 2022, 22.8 percent of Taiwan's agricultural products imported came from the United States, totaling about US$4.67 billion. Taiwan is the seventh largest foreign market for US agricultural products, with major US imports including soybeans, wheat, corn, beef, chicken and apples. On the other hand, the United States is Taiwan's largest agricultural export market. In 2022, Taiwan's agricultural exports to the United States amounted to approximately US$860 million, including products such as orchids, tea, edamame, baked goods, noodles, as well as tilapia and other frozen fish. Taiwanese agricultural products are well received in the United States, and Taiwan is actively seeking US approval for the export of pineapple and processed pork products, hoping to introduce even more valuable and delicious Taiwanese agricultural products to consumers of the United States.

The global value of agricultural exports and exports to markets outside China reached record highs in 2021 and 2022, while the share of exports to China decreased from a high of 23.2% in 2018 to 12. 9% in 2022. The share of fruit exports to China dropped from 80.1% in 2019 to 1.6% in 2022. The United States and Japan have overtaken China to become the top two markets for Taiwan's agricultural exports, indicating significant achievements in government efforts to expand agricultural exports and reduce over-dependence on the Chinese market.




Vietnam to export 2 million African swine fever vaccines to Philippines and Indonesia



Vietnam is set to make significant strides in combating African swine fever (ASF) as it prepares to export 2 million doses of ASF vaccines to the Philippines and Indonesia between August and October this year, Vietnam Plus reported.

This initiative comes as a collaborative effort between Vietnam's ASF vaccine producers and local authorities, aiming to curb the impact of the disease that has affected swine populations.

Nguyen Van Long, Director of the Department of Animal Health under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), confirmed that the Philippines has previously imported 300,000 doses of these vaccines.

In a proactive measure, Vietnamese ASF vaccine producers are partnering with local entities to initiate comprehensive vaccination campaigns targeting swine herds. This deployment encompasses households, farms, and businesses, all seeking to safeguard their pig populations against the virus.

The export of domestically produced ASF vaccines to multiple countries with positive feedback not only reflects Vietnam's contribution to international disease management but also positions the nation to broaden its global export markets for this crucial product.

Having administered 600,000 doses of ASF vaccines to pigs across more than 40 provinces and cities under the Department of Animal Health's supervision, Vietnam has observed favourable outcomes. As a result, the country's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has expanded the scale of ASF vaccine usage across numerous localities.

Director Nguyen Van Long said that enterprises involved must vigilantly monitor and uphold the quality of the vaccines they provide to the market. This ensures the efficacy and safety of the vaccine interventions.

Vietnam's proactive approach extends to collaborating with other nations. In response to requests from certain countries, Vietnam has not only extended support but also dispatched experts to assist in organising vaccination campaigns abroad.

Notably, Vietnam's ASF vaccine achievements are already yielding positive results internationally. The NAVET-ASFVAC vaccine, developed by NAVETCO Central Veterinary Medicine Joint Stock Company, demonstrated its efficacy in the Dominican Republic, with the country expressing gratitude for the support and expressing interest in purchasing the vaccines for future use.

Similarly, the AVAC ASF LIVE vaccine, created by AVAC Vietnam JSC, has undergone careful evaluation in the Philippines. Local authorities have validated the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine, noting a 100% immune response among the vaccinated swine.

- Vietnam Plus




Thailand's Egg Board calls upon poultry farmers to release hens based on specified age

Thailand's Egg Board has requested local farmers, who raise caged laying hens, to release the birds based on a specified age in order to stabilise egg prices.

The aim is to strike a balance between production and consumption, ensuring that egg prices do not fall too low for farmers while still remaining affordable for consumers.

The Department of Livestock, through the secretary of the Egg Development and Product Policy Committee, has sent a letter requesting farmers to release caged laying hens at an appropriate age, following discussions with representatives from egg producers, cooperatives and poultry breeding companies.

The guidelines established to maintain egg prices include:

- Large-scale operators with a flock size of over 100,000 hens should release caged laying hens when they reach an age not exceeding 78 weeks until the end of August 2023. After that, hens should be released at an age not exceeding 80 weeks;

- Farmers with a flock size of under 100,000 hens should release caged laying hens at an age not exceeding 80 weeks.

Excluded from this arrangement are small-scale egg farmers with less than 30,000 hens, who are not part of Thailand's contract farming system with large-scale operators.

Also excluded as well are egg farms using alternative rearing systems such as free-range, organic livestock, cage-free, or those raising hens for non-commercial purposes like state farms, educational institutions, or research facilities.

The latest action aims to align with Thailand's egg production plan to mitigate price fluctuations. Since June 2023, domestic egg prices have increased, resulting in a decline in fresh egg exports.

Hong Kong, China, and Singapore are the main importers.

- Thai News Agency




Thai Union Feedmill releases Q2 2023 financial results

Thai Union Feedmill Co., Ltd. (TFM) recently reported its financial results for the second quarter of 2023 on August 2.

The company achieved sales of 1,343.6 million, a 5.3% increase compared to the previous year. It recorded an initial profit of 122.4 million, up by 32.7%, and a net profit of 47.8 million, a 41.6% increase.

In this quarter, the company had a 'special item' of 20 million related to the disposal of assets from a trial farm in Trang province, Thailand, due to the expiration of BOI investment tax incentives. Excluding this special expense, the net profit would have been 67.8 million.

Comparing Q2 results with the first quarter of the same year, TFM displayed positive performance, turning a profit of 47.8 million, a 272.3% increase. Initial profit increased by 156.4% and sales grew by 16.6% from the first quarter of the year.

Peerasak Boonmeesook, chief executive officer of TFM, who assumed his current position on January 1, 2023, emphasised the company's efforts to enhance various management systems, cost control and production quality. The company focused on meeting customer demands, especially concerning fresh and high-quality aquafeeds, and supporting optimal growth with low feed conversion ratios (FCR).

TFM aimed to foster profitable relationships with farmers and expand business opportunities within the Thai Union Group.

TFM's sales were categorised into three main segments: shrimp feed at 60.6%, fish feed at 29.3%, and livestock feed at 8.7%.

Sales from other sources accounted for 1.4%. In Q2 2023, shrimp feed sales reached 813.9 million, a 14.8% increase from the same period last year. Fish feed sales decreased by 9.3% to 394 million due to reduced sales in Pakistan despite strong performance in Thailand.

Livestock feed sales were 116.4 million, up by 6.5%, bolstered by increased sales in Pakistan.

Peerasak emphasised TFM's comprehensive management strategies and commitment to enhancing production efficiency, product quality and customer satisfaction.

Despite challenges posed by rising raw material costs, TFM's strategic management allowed it to achieve profitability this quarter and set the stage for continued growth throughout the year.



- TFM
Rendering of Infineon Technologies AGs manufacturing site in Kulim, Malaysia: By significantly expanding the fab  over and above the original investment announced in February 2022  Infineon will build the worlds largest 200-millimeter SiC Power Fab.

Infineon is to expand investions into its 200-mm SiC Power Fab in Kulim, Malaysia, to make it the worlds largest 200-mm SiC Power Fab with a total revenue potential of about seven billion euros by the end of the decade.

Infineon rates this as "another critical step to develop this market." The significant expansion of manufacturing in Kulim - beyond the investment originally announced in February 2022 - will create the world's largest 200mm "SiC Power Fab" in Kulim. The planned expansion will be supported by customer commitments of around 5 billion for new design wins in the automotive and industrial sectors and upfront payments of around one billion euros.

Over the next five years Infineon will additionally invest up to five billion euros in Kulim during a second construction phase for Module Three. The investment will lead to an annual SiC revenue potential of about seven billion euros by the end of the decade, together with the planned 200-millimeter SiC conversion of Villach and Kulim. This highly competitive manufacturing base will support Infineons SiC market share target of 30% towards the end of the decade. Infineon is confident that the companys SiC revenue in the fiscal year 2025 will come in ahead of the target of one billion euros.

The market for silicon carbide shows accelerating growth, not only in automotive but also in a broad range of industrial applications such as solar, energy storage and high-power EV charging. With the Kulim expansion, we will secure our leadership position in this market, said Jochen Hanebeck, CEO of Infineon. With the industrys leading scale and a unique cost position, we are leveraging our competitive position of best-in-class SiC trench technology, the broadest package portfolio and unrivaled application understanding. These factors are the areas of differentiation and success in the industry.

Infineon has been awarded new design wins of about five billion euros along with about one billion euros in prepayments from existing and new customers: In the automotive sector this includes six OEMs, three of them from China. Among the customers are Ford, SAIC and Chery. In the area of renewable energies customers include SolarEdge and three leading Chinese photovoltaic and energy storage systems companies. In addition, Infineon and Schneider Electric agreed on a capacity reservation including prepayments for power products based on silicon and silicon carbide. Infineon and the respective customers will provide more details in separate announcements in the near future. The prepayments will contribute positively to Infineons cash flow in the coming years and shall be fully repaid in connection with the agreed sales volumes by 2030 at the latest.

The Right Honourable Dato' Seri Anwar bin Ibrahim, Prime Minister of Malaysia, expressed his appreciation for Infineons commitment to creating a significant wide bandgap hub in the country. "Malaysia is putting in maximum efforts to meet its national target to decarbonize its economy and achieve net zero by 2050. Malaysias continued appeal as a preferred investment destination comes with a well-established landscape for developing innovative and sustainable technologies. In this vein, Infineons vision on green technology and sustainability puts it right at home in Malaysia. Infineon and other well-established German corporations continued faith in Malaysia is a vote of confidence in Malaysia's new economic growth agenda premised on inclusivity and sustainability, enabled by strong policies on knowledge transfer, quality investments, business enablement and socio-economic well-being based on equitable sharing of the nations wealth."

The Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry (MITI), His Hon. Tengku Datuk Seri Utama Zafrul Aziz lauded Infineons expansion and said, "Infineons expansion of their world-class silicon carbide facility in Kulim marks a significant milestone in Malaysia's pursuit of developing advanced manufacturing capabilities, creating high-skilled employment opportunities and positioning the country at the forefront of enabling green technologies, which are crucial to achieving our global sustainable development goals. The innovative power semiconductor technologies manufactured in the SiC Power Fab will also bolster Malaysia's position as a key player in the world's semiconductor ecosystem, with a growing role specifically in the sustainable technology supply chain. I am heartened by Infineons sharing of Malaysia's commitment to address the impact of climate change and I look forward to our long-term partnership for the further development of Malaysias green technologies ecosystem.

Sustainability is a key element in the planning, construction and operation of the fab. The building is designed in a way that allows Infineon to make responsible use of resources such as electricity and water.


Drug gang leader who ran racket from jail cell given 20 years



Kyle Brian Molyneux (Johnson)

The organiser of an Isle of Man and Merseyside based organised crime group, Kyle Johnson (aka Molyneux) was sentenced yesterday (August 3) for importing both Class A and B drugs to the island.

He was jailed for 20 years.

Johnson organised the importing of heroin, cannabis and cocaine from his prison cell, whilst on remand for a previous drug importation offence.

Multiple packages of heroin, cocaine and cannabis have been intercepted at the Isle of Man Post Sorting Office since 2020; Kyle Johnson was involved with all of these cases after it was found he had access to a number of illicit SIM cards in his IOM prison cell, the call data from the SIM cards linked him to the illegal activity.

In August 2021, a microwave was delivered to an address on island that had 248 grams (street value of 24,780) of cocaine within its mechanism. Two local men and one woman were involved in this importation, however phone data proved that again, so was Johnson.

Evidence gathered indicated that Johnson, an inmate within IOM prison was orchestrating the drugs coming into the island from his prison cell and a distribution network thereafter along with the collection of monies.

During September 2021, Prison Officers searched Johnsons prison cell. They located a prison issue mobile phone with an illicit SIM card therein. This was subsequently linked to the other individuals involved in this Operation and according to the IOM Constabulary:

it was clear Johnson was the main orchestrator and the link between all of these individuals.

As a result of this investigation into an Organised Crime Group which spans both the Isle of Man and the North West of England, twelve individuals have been given lengthy custodial sentences having pleaded guilty to a wide range of serious drug, conspiracy and money laundering offences.

The drugs seized during this operation had a street value of nearly 100,000.00. Over 50,000 was also seized as criminal property (cash).
Manxman berthing trials complete

The Manxman has now completed berthing trials at Douglas and Heysham and has also paid an initial visit to Belfast.

Since the arrival of the new ship, just over a month ago, considerable work has been undertaken to prepare Manxman for its role as flagship and workhorse of the fleet, according to the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company.

Some of the work has been very visible to the public, such as the successful test of the Marine Evacuation System in Douglas harbour under the watchful eyes of Isle of Man Ship Registry surveyors.

Manxmans masters, officers and crew have also been in the public eye as they test the manoeuvrability of the vessel, and learn how the largest-ever ship in the Manx fleet handles in a range of conditions in ports and at sea, said the Steam Packet.

Brian Thomson, Isle of Man Steam Packet Company Managing Director said: Im pleased to say that the timeline is now weeks rather than months. Ive always been really clear that we wont rush things to have Manxman in service before it is ready, but everyone involved in this project is working hard every day with only one goal in mind, getting Manxman into service.

Sailings update

As previously announced, Manxman will initially only carry out daytime sailings (departing Isle of Man 8:45am, departing Heysham 2:15pm) for a period of approximately four weeks.

Ben-my-Chree will run the overnight sailings for this period, with a slightly later departure time of 8:15pm from Douglas, departing Heysham for the return sailing at 2:15am. The slightly later departure time from Douglas will "allow for operational flexibility around berths".

At the end of the four week period of daytime only sailings, Manxman will undertake the previously announced cruise, before commencing four weeks of night time sailings, with Ben-my-Chree switching to the daytime schedule.
Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan, the couple who were arrested last year for the massive 2016 Bitfinex hack involving billions of dollars of cryptocurrency, have pleaded guilty in court. Lichtenstein has admitted that he used multiple advanced hacking tools and techniques to gain entry into the cryptocurrency exchange's network. He then authorized 2,000 transactions to move 119,754 bitcoins to wallets he controlled. To cover his tracks, he said he deleted access credentials, logs and other digital breadcrumbs that could give him away. Morgan, his wife, helped him move and launder the stolen funds.

If you'll recall, the Justice Department seized 95,000 of the stolen bitcoins at the time of their arrest. Back then, that digital coin hoard was worth a whopping $3.6 billion and was the largest financial seizure in the agency's history. Authorities were able to trace more of the stolen funds after that to recover an additional $475 million worth of cryptocurrency.

According to the DOJ, Lichtenstein and Morgan used false identities to set up online accounts on darknet markets and cryptocurrency exchanges. They then withdrew the funds and distributed the bitcoins from there by converting them into other forms of cryptocurrency and keeping them in crypto mixing services. By doing so, they obfuscated the coins' sources and made them harder to trace. The couple also set up businesses in the US to make their banking activities look legitimate  Morgan had a TikTok where she talked about establishing a "multimillion dollar business" with "zero outside funding"  and they apparently used the stolen money to purchase physical gold coins that Morgan then buried.

To be precise, Lichtenstein pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering and could spend up to 20 years in prison. Meanwhile, Morgan pleaded guilty to one count of money laundering conspiracy and one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States. Each one carries a maximum prison sentence of five years.
While Motorolas pricier Razr+ beat Samsungs Galaxy Z Flip 5 to the punch with its expansive external display, the Razr (named the Razr 40 in other regions like the UK) was pitched as a more budget-friendly foldable. For now, pricing and availability in the US havent been confirmed, but in the UK its priced at 800 (roughly $1,025) while the Razr+ retails at 1,050 in the UK and $999 in the US.

The new Razr is cheaper, but its also more limited. In screen terms, it's comparable with foldable phones from a few years ago. But it has a bigger battery and seemingly better cameras. As the fanfare from Samsungs Unpacked reveal dies down (and we get to grips with the Z Flip 5), the Moto Razr begs the question: What do you really get from a cheaper foldable phone?

Motorola Motorola Razr (2023) SCORE 71 Engadget 71 Critics - Not yet scored N/A Users - Not yet scored N/A Pros A cheaper foldable phone

Decent battery life

tactile soft finish Cons Unremarkable external screen

Underwhelming cameras

Design and displays

Lets start with some Razr family resemblances. Both the Razr and Razr+ have the same body and internal flexible 6.9-inch display, and there is no more Razr chin on either device. No corners have been cut on the foldable screen, with a crisp 413 pixels per inch and up to 1,400 nits of brightness. This is a flagship display. Internally, at least.

However, the cheaper Razr has a much smaller 1.5-inch external panel, which puts it somewhere between Samsungs original Z Flip and the Z Flip 3. You know it will feel constrictive when its smaller than the first two Samsung flip smartphones. This is all exacerbated by the fact that its own sibling the Razr+ has a 3.6-inch external screen.

The Razrs panel takes up about 20 percent of the lower front of the device, with a 64-megapixel and 8MP camera duo to its right. It has an IP52 rating, which is better than nothing, but wont protect against more than a weak splash or light rain.

I do like the Razrs vegan, faux leather texture, so much so that despite my fear of breaking or damaging foldable devices, I risked using the phone without the hard shell case that came in the box. I particularly liked the grey-green sage colorway, too. Like the Razr+, Motos middleweight phone folds completely closed, with no gaps when looking at it from the side.

Photo by Mat Smith / Engadget

The small external screen is limited to basic phone functions. You can swipe sideways through your calendar, weather forecasts, while a drag up from the clock will show all your notifications. Swiping down gets to quick toggles for things like WiFi and Bluetooth. Its functional, but a little dated. This is what we got with the very first flip smartphones; I need a little more. Even compared to last years Z Flip 4  likely to be discounted to a similar price as this Razr now that its successor is here  Samsungs device offers more to do and see on its external screen.

The Razrs second screen is most helpful when youre using exterior cameras for selfies. Double pressing the power button quick-launches the camera app, and you can tap to capture images with a timer, swipe up and down to switch between the ultra-wide and standard lenses and swipe sideways to swap between video, photo and portrait modes. You can even summon a cartoon character to distract children when taking photos, in both unfolded and folded modes.

The Razrs 2,640 x 1,080 screen can refresh at up to 144Hz, a little shy of the Razr+'s 160Hz. That said, if youre coming from smartphones with refresh rates of 90Hz or less, youre still going to sense the improved smoothness. The panel is bright, responsive  its a smartphone screen. Anyone serving in the Crease Police, yes its there, but compared to older foldables, running your finger over it doesnt feel like it's testing the screens durability. Foldable hinges (and the screens covering them) continue to get better but if youre looking for visible hints of a folding display, theyre still there.

Performance and software

With a Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 chip, the Razr shows its midrange hand a little. Its not a flagship processor, but this is not a flagship foldable. I noticed the Razr lagged a little when I was trying to edit a lengthy video file, but it eventually managed to complete the task.

A pleasant surprise with this Razr was its 4,200mAh battery. This is much larger than the 3,800mAh battery in the Razr+ and the Galaxy Z Flip 4s 3,700 mAh cell. In our video rundown test, it lasted just beyond 18 hours, a good three hours longer than the Razr+ and better than last years Z Flip 4.

Photo by Mat Smith / Engadget

The Razr can also fast-charge at 30W with the included adapter included (outside of the US at least). I was able to get the Razr to reach 100 percent in under an hour. Theres also support for slower 5W wireless charging, but alas, no reverse charging, if you were hoping to top up any wireless earbuds.

Ive already noted the limited utility of the Razrs external display, but software-wise its just not good enough. Customization options only extend to different fonts and colorways for the clock. Its especially jarring given that we know Motorola is capable of more, thanks to the Razr+.

Cameras

One of the big spec differences between Motorolas duo of foldables this year are the cameras. While the Razr+ has a pair of 12MP cameras like the Galaxy Z Flip series, the standard Razr has a 13MP wide-angle lens alongside a 64MP primary lens with optical image stabilization. Ah, so this will be where the Razr shines, right? Sadly, no.

Gallery: Motorola Razr (2023) camera samples | 7 Photos











/7 Gallery: Motorola Razr (2023) camera samples | 7 Photos











/7

In almost every shot I took, the Razr didnt reach the standards of the Razr+ or even last years Galaxy Flip 4. Motorola's claims of ultra-fast and accurate laser auto-focus dont really bear out in reality, especially with video. The Razr twitches and struggles to keep consistent focus. I struggled to see many images where the 64MP sensor outperformed the pricier devices, either. I wasnt getting notably more detail, in fact I was getting less. Turns out, unless you activate high-res capture mode (which is hidden away in the furthest reaches of the cameras menu), the primary 64MP sensor is aggressively pixel-binned, stripping away detail without improving overall image quality all that much.

Wrap-up

Photo by Mat Smith / Engadget

Are foldables going to be the new smartphone normal? Doubtful. Motorolas bid for a cheaper (if not that much cheaper) flip phone tries to broaden their appeal, but sadly misses the mark. Its external display simply lacks enough utility in 2023. And Im not sure who is willing to spend this much money on a phone that's already two years behind the curve.

However, Motorola has yet to announce pricing or a launch date in the US. If the Razr were to cost $800 or lower, which would be closer to a Galaxy S23 or iPhone 14, it could find an audience. But for most people intrigued by a foldable flip-phone, they would be better served hunting down a discounted Galaxy Z Flip 4.
Warner Bros Discovery warned that the dual Hollywood strikes by writers and actors could hit its flagging studio business, while Toymaker Hasbro also flagged a hit from the strikes.
Thursday, August 3, 2023

Moving to a foreign country as an expatriate can be an exciting yet challenging experience. The challenges of adjusting to a new culture, overcoming language barriers, making new friends, and navigating bureaucratic processes can be complex. Fortunately, expat directories offer a wide range of information and services to help expats navigate these challenges with their transition abroad. This article will explore the top 10 expat resource directories, each offering unique features and benefits, making life easier for expats worldwide.

Popular Resource Directories for Expats

1. Just Landed  Your One-Stop Relocation Solution

Just Landed is an expat directory that provides a convenient and comprehensive resource for individuals relocating and living abroad. Their primary goal is to simplify moving to a new country and getting settled. They offer extensive country guides that cover important topics such as visa requirements, healthcare systems, and education. Additionally, Just Landed features a diverse expat directory with specialized services, a vibrant community for networking and sharing experiences, a housing portal with numerous listings, an international job market, and a classifieds marketplace, all tailored to meet the unique needs of those relocating to foreign countries.

2. Expat.com  A Comprehensive Platform for Expats

Expat.com is another comprehensive online directory designed to assist expatriates and individuals planning to move to a foreign country. It offers services and resources, including an active and lively expat community with forums and discussion boards that encourage connections among expatriates worldwide. The website provides detailed destination guides for various countries and cities, equipping users with crucial information on visas, healthcare systems, education, job opportunities, local cultures, dating norms, and more.

3. InterNations  For Meaningful Connections Across Borders

InterNations is a popular social network for expatriates. It helps people living in a foreign country connect with others like them. You can attend events and join groups based on your interests. The platform provides useful resources like city guides, forums, and expert articles to help you make good decisions and build a supportive network in your new home. Whats special about InterNations is that it focuses on face-to-face meetings through local events, which helps you make meaningful connections with other expats.

4. International Living  Retirement and International Living Made Easy

Internationalliving.com is a specialized platform created by International Living for expats and people interested in living or retiring abroad. Its amazing features, like the daily postcard e-letter, retirement calculator, and magazine, make it unique. The daily postcard e-letter shares real stories and tips from expats worldwide, giving firsthand advice on living in other countries. The retirement calculator helps you plan for your retirement abroad by comparing costs and finances. Plus, you can access their exclusive magazine with in-depth articles, destination highlights, and expert advice, making it a valuable expat resource. With all these great features, pro.internationalliving.com supports and guides you to a successful and fulfilling life as an expat.

5. Expatica  A Must-Read Resource for English-Speaking Expats

Expatica.com is a comprehensive expat directory for English-speaking expats all over the world. Its a one-stop place for everything you need about living abroad. You can find guides with important information on moving, working, and living in another country. The website has many useful features and expert-written guides on taxes, housing, jobs, education, and general life as an expat. It also has tools like the directory, which lists expat-friendly services; the housing search to find homes and apartments; and the job search for job opportunities. Its a great resource that offers personalized help and support to expats on their international journey.

6. Angloinfo  Localized Content for Smooth Settlement

Angloinfo is another resource directory catering to expatriates and English-speaking communities worldwide. It offers extensive coverage of information tailored to individual cities and regions, providing localized content and practical advice for expats settling into specific locations. The website has many helpful features, like local business listings, classifieds, and job listings. This makes it easy for expats to find important services, housing, and job opportunities in their new places. Angloinfo also has lively community forums where expats can talk to each other, share experiences, and get advice from people who live there too. The website also has detailed how-to guides with honest and thorough information, making it a great resource for expats living or moving overseas.

7. ExpatWoman  Empowering Women and Families Abroad

ExpatWoman.com is a specialized expat directory that supports women and families facing new expat challenges. Their main goal is to connect, educate, and empower members all around the world through various networking opportunities, both online and offline. Its a platform for women who are expats, have lived or worked abroad, want to move to another country, or just want to be part of an international community. It offers comprehensive guides, community forums, events, job listings, blogs, and more to support them throughout their global journey. Additionally, the website features a classifieds section for expats to buy and sell goods and a job board to assist in global job searches. With useful articles, expert interviews, and real-life expat stories, ExpatWoman.com becomes a valuable resource for anyone facing the challenges of living abroad.

8. ExpatExchange  Connecting Expats Worldwide

ExpatExchange.com is one of the pioneering expat directories dedicated to addressing the specific needs of expatriates, digital nomads, and retirees worldwide.

It helps connects expatriates worldwide, offering a range of resources and forums for international relocation. The directory covers various topics, including international schools, real estate, healthcare, counseling, and banking. Expats can leverage the platform to ask questions, share experiences, and receive valuable insights from fellow expatriates.

9. ExpatInfoDesk  Your All-Inclusive Expat Hub

ExpatInfoDesk.com is an all-inclusive expat directory dedicated to providing a wide range of resources and services tailored to meet the needs of expatriates. Whether you need help with visas, money advice, taxes, moving, schools, or learning a new language, theyve got it covered. What makes ExpatInfoDesk.com stand out is that it focuses on companies run by expats or those dedicated to helping expats. This way, you get unique and specialized support from people who understand what its like to live abroad. With its comprehensive listings and expat-focused approach, ExpatInfoDesk.com is a valuable resource that makes living abroad easier and more fulfilling by connecting you with the right services for your specific needs.

ExpatFocus.com is an extensive expat directory facilitating moving abroad. They have detailed guides for over 80 countries, giving you all the important information you need for a successful relocation. This website is dedicated to offering lots of valuable resources and services for individuals who are planning to live or work abroad. You can find guides for popular expat destinations, interesting articles written for expats, a monthly email newsletter with useful tips, stories from expats worldwide, and an entertaining podcast you can listen to online. What sets Expat Focus apart is that they have been around for a long time, more than two decades, and have earned trust as a reliable and essential resource for anyone thinking about or starting an expat journey.

Conclusion

In summary, expat resource directories have made life easier for people living abroad or planning to move to another country. They offer valuable information, specialized services, and friendly communities that support expats in facing challenges and finding what they need. With these directories, you can connect with others who understand your experiences and access important information easily. Using these directories can make your expat journey much smoother and more enjoyable as you adapt to life in a foreign country.

For your US expat tax needs, Tax Samaritan offers valuable resources to help you stay updated and compliant with US tax laws. Whether you are a first-time expat or a seasoned one, Tax Samaritans team of tax professionals can offer expert advice and support tailored to your unique expat tax situation. Contact us for a free, no-obligation consultation with one of our tax experts today.
FRIDAY, Aug. 4, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Los Angeles county is seeing more cases of flea-borne typhus, with 171 cases and three deaths reported in 2022, health officials reported Thursday.

That's a big rise, they noted: Since 2010, when only 31 cases of typhus were reported, fleas have been spreading the disease widely in the California city.

While many people who become infected don't even know they're sick, those with serious medical conditions are at risk for severe illness or death, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"We don't completely understand how typhus causes complications, but we do know that flea-borne typhus can cause complications in general, such as sepsis, fevers and issues with your liver," said report author Dr. Jemma Alarcon, a CDC epidemic intelligence service officer stationed in Los Angeles. The report was published Aug. 4 in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

"A majority of people are asymptomatic or have very mild disease. They might just get a headache and not even know that this is what they had," she explained. "In this instance, the flea-borne typhus, unfortunately, did affect the patients... one of them, her heart, and another one, his immune system was hyperactive, and the last one was related to sepsis and blood issues."

Report co-author Dr. Umme-Aiman Halai, from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, said the number of infected fleas living on animals that people come into contact with has been increasing in Los Angeles.

"There could be population expansion to suburban areas, increased contact with wildlife, lack of rodent control programs in urban centers and suburban areas," she noted.

Global warming might also be leading to more infected fleas, but that's only speculation, Halai said.

Regardless of the reason for the increase in cases, one expert said doctors need to take note.

"This has been a rare and unusual condition, and to see reports that describe the increasing frequency of this tells me that in this world things are always changing," said Dr. Bruce Hirsch, an infectious disease specialist at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y.

These three deaths are unusual, he noted.

"Individuals who are dealing with other health conditions are more vulnerable to all kinds of complications, and all kinds of outcomes," Hirsch said. "We must add flea-borne typhus to that list."

Alarcon is also concerned that doctors don't think of typhus when symptoms appear. "I am concerned that there could be cases where the patient does go to see the doctor, but the doctor might not know to test for this disease," she said.

To protect yourself, the researchers suggested controlling fleas on your pets and avoiding contact with animals likely to carry fleas.

In the first case detailed in the report, a 68-year-old Hispanic man suffering from lymph node disease, type 2 diabetes and obesity was hospitalized with typhus and treated with the antibiotic doxycycline. But he later died from a blood disorder and septic shock.

The second patient, a 49-year-old Hispanic woman also treated with doxycycline, suffered several episodes of cardiac arrest and later died of multiple organ failure caused by typhus. The woman had feral cats living in her backyard.

The third patient was a 71-year-old Hispanic man with a compromised immune system who also died of septic shock linked to typhus infection. This patient had been living in a homeless encampment, where he was most likely exposed to infected fleas.

The fact that all the patients were Hispanic isn't relevant, Halai noted. It's merely a reflection of the population of Los Angeles, she explained.

Flea-borne typhus is caused by a bacteria called Rickettsia typhi. It's spread by contact with fleas that are infected when they bite infected animals, such as rats, cats or opossums. Once bitten, the disease carried by flea poop can get into the wound and cause sickness. The infected poop can also be inhaled or rubbed into the eyes. This bacteria is not spread from person to person. Flea-borne typhus occurs in tropical and subtropical climates around the world, including Southern California, Texas and Hawaii, according to the CDC.

Just last month, a Texas man lost his hands and part of his feet after contracting a severe case of typhus and going into septic shock.

Symptoms begin within two weeks after contact with infected fleas or flea poop and may include:

Fever and chills

Body aches and muscle pain

Loss of appetite

Nausea

Vomiting

Stomach pain

Cough

Rash (typically occurs around day 5 of illness)

Severe illness is rare and most people recover completely, sometimes without treatment. However, untreated disease can cause severe illness and damage to one or more organs, including the liver, kidneys, heart, lungs and brain, the CDC says.

"The biggest concern here is that it's got to be under-diagnosed, because it's got a lot of symptoms that are easily mistaken for other symptoms, so it's got to be treated early," said infectious disease expert Dr. Marc Siegel, a professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City.

Siegel said typhus is easy to treat with doxycycline.

But he's worried about the growing rodent and rat population in Los Angeles. "I'm concerned about more and more fleas carrying typhus and spreading it, but I don't know how to stop it," he said.

More information

For more on typhus, head to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

SOURCES: Jemma Alarcon, MD, epidemic intelligence service officer, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Umme-Aiman Halai, MD, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, Los Angeles; Marc Siegel, MD, professor, medicine, NYU Langone Medical Center, New York City; Bruce Hirsch, MD, infectious disease specialist, North Shore University Hospital, Manhasset, N.Y.; Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Aug. 4, 2023
Fairfield, MT (59436)

Today

Mostly clear. Low near 55F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Mostly clear. Low near 55F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph.
MONTGOMERY, Texas, Aug. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Kodiak Gas Services, Inc. (NYSE: KGS), ("Kodiak" or the "Company"), a leading provider of critical energy infrastructure and contract compression services, today announced that it will release second quarter 2023 financial results on Wednesday, August 9, 2023 after the market closes. In conjunction with the release, the Company has scheduled a conference call, which will also be broadcast live over the Internet, on Thursday, August 10, 2023 at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time (10:00 a.m. Central Time).

What: Kodiak Gas Services Second Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call







When: Thursday, August 10, 2023 at 11:00 a.m. Eastern / 10:00 a.m. Central







How: Live via phone  By dialing 201-389-0872 and asking for the



Kodiak Gas Services call at least 10 minutes prior to the start time, or



Live over the Internet  By logging onto the web at the address below







Where: https://ir.kodiakgas.com/news-events/ir-calendar

For those who cannot listen to the live call, a replay will be available through August 17, 2023 and may be accessed by dialing 201-612-7415 and using pass code 13738944#. Also, an archive of the webcast will be available shortly after the call at https://ir.kodiakgas.com/news-events/ir-calendar for 90 days.

About Kodiak Gas Services, Inc.

Kodiak Gas Services is a leading operator of contract compression infrastructure in the continental United States with a revenue generating fleet of approximately 3.2 million horsepower. The Company focuses on providing contract compression services to oil and gas producers and midstream customers in highvolume gas gathering systems, processing facilities and multiwell gas lift applications. More information is available at www.kodiakgas.com.

Contacts:

Kodiak Gas Services, Inc.

Graham Sones, VP of Investor Relations

ir@kodiakgas.com

(936) 755-3259

Dennard Lascar Investor Relations

Ken Dennard / Rick Black

KGS@dennardlascar.com

713-529-6600

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/kodiak-gas-services-announces-2023-second-quarter-earnings-release-and-conference-call-schedule-301892486.html

SOURCE Kodiak Gas Services, Inc.
(The Center Square)  Citing record breaking heat levels, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Democratic Sens. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland asking him to sue the fossil fuel industry. They claim the industry has carefully coordinated a campaign to mislead consumers and discredit climate science in pursuit of massive profits.

Oil and gas industry leaders from Texas, which is leading the U.S. in energy production, say the request is not surprising, a distraction and misguided.

The actions of ExxonMobil, Shell, and potentially other fossil fuel companies represent a clear violation of federal racketeering laws, truth in advertising laws, consumer protection laws, and potentially other laws, and the Department must act swiftly to hold them accountable for their unlawful actions, the senators wrote in their July 31 letter. The fossil fuel industry has had scientific evidence about the dangers of climate change and the role that burning fossil fuels play in increasing global temperatures for more than 50 years.

The senators cite Edward Teller, the theoretical physicist known as "the father of the hydrogen bomb," who in 1959 warned the American Petroleum Institute that carbon emissions from the burning of fossil fuels would raise global temperatures. They also cite a lawsuit filed by the state of Minnesota, which claims the fossil fuel industry spent millions on advertising and public relations  to continue to earn profits by conducting business as usual.

Industry leaders point out that the computer, internet, and electricity used to write the letter, their cell phones, eye glasses, other technology, the methods of transportation they use to travel to and from Washington, D.C., are also made possible by the fossil fuel industry.

Ed Longanecker, president of the Texas Independent Producers & Royalty Owners Association, told The Center Square, their request is not surprising, but its incredibly unfortunate as it does nothing to help the American people. In fact, these kinds of distractions do the opposite by putting further strain on companies that supply the energy that fuels our modern society and makes the protections, conveniences, and products we all value and utilize on a daily basis possible.

Longanecker said the senators are misplacing their priorities and should be focused on real problems facing the country.

We need to stop politicizing energy security and work together on shared priorities, including creating economic opportunity for Americans, strengthening energy security, and protecting the environment," he said. "Through collaboration and coordination, we can expand the responsible development of domestic oil and natural gas and energy infrastructure to support demand growth here at home and abroad for our allies and trade partners.

TIPRO has also pointed to Texas-produced liquified natural gas exports providing a lifeline to European countries and to methane emissions in the Permian Basin  one of the largest oil and natural gas fields in the world  falling by 76% as production increased by 345% in the most recent decade analyzed.

Todd Staples, president of the Texas Oil & Gas Association, told The Center Square, Oil and natural gas are indispensable components of daily life, as 96% of the products we use have a component of oil or natural gas as the basic building block. Misguided actions which disrupt the production of these essential resources as part of the energy mix are detrimental to consumers.

Policy can promote prosperity, or it can hinder it. We need sound policy in Washington that treats oil and natural gas as an asset, not a liability. By fostering policies that lessen Americas dependence on foreign produced resources and encourage increased domestic investment and production, we can create jobs here at home, grow our economy, and keep the United States as the world's energy leader."

TXOGA has published reports on the economic impact of the industry, including a record $24.7 billion into Texas coffers in fiscal 2022, the highest in state history. It also broke records in every production category in 2022.

If Texas were its own country, it would be the worlds third largest producer of natural gas and fourth largest producer of oil. In the first half of 2022, the U.S. became the worlds largest liquid natural gas exporter, led by Texas, according to EIA data.
Downtown Red Lodge, Montana pictured on August 13, 2022. (Photo by Nicole Girten/Daily Montanan)

We may be loving Montana to death.

Literally.

A new report, published by Headwaters Economics, which specializes in studying, researching and policies for the western U.S., has recently released, Amenity Trap: How high-amenity communities can avoid being loved to death. Its authors conclude that, while not focusing on Montana solely, the Treasure State is a perfect example of difficulties faced by mostly small or even rural communities whose locations are discovered by tourists.

The report concludes that many of these communities pay an economic and social cost for being popular, and that policies inadvertently make the problems in those places worse.

For example, small gateway communities, like those that line both of Montanas most-visited places, Yellowstone and Glacier national parks, often see their numbers swell from the Spring to Autumn. But hundreds of local, year-round residents are often outnumbered by thousands of tourists, who need lodging, food and even bathrooms that smaller communities strain to provide.

Montana lawmakers have addressed the problem, in part, by giving small resort communities the option of a sales tax aimed at the tourists to help offset the additional costs, which range from law enforcement to sewer systems, but the report says any one tool is often not enough. And in Montana, larger communities like Missoula, Bozeman and Billings, which serve as gateways to popular tourist destinations, are ineligible for the tax.

Sometimes, the problem is an outgrowth of popularity. In other words, places are so popular that tourists become permanent residents, moving to a place they discovered while on vacation. COVID-19 and the work-from-home change exacerbated and accelerated the problem.

The influx of tourists and new residents into these cities and small towns brings economic opportunities and can create a positive feedback loop, whereby new businesses and services make a place even more attractive, the report said. More people and new development can put pressures on existing infrastructure and contribute to growing inequality, including dramatic increases in housing costs that force long-time residents out or into the crisis of homelessness.

The paradox of a place with natural attractions that make it a great place to live but also threaten it with being loved to death is what is known as the amenity trap.

For example, housing often takes center stage in these communities, and remains the most challenging because it is a problem that exists without an easy solution. Limited buildable land creates soaring housing prices. That, in turn, generates economic hardships that push the labor force out of an area, according to the report. Not enough workers in a local, rural community that depends on tourism is a challenge, and can put an emphasis on planning for growth, the report said.

Some of the examples of western communities achieving some success include Durango, Colorado, which declared an accessory dwelling unit amnesty in 2016. For example, creating accessory dwelling units in current housing, garages or relaxing zoning laws to create higher density is a way of easing the problem, the report said, especially vacation spots where land may be highly desirable, but scarce and prohibitively expensive.

The report also suggests looking at both buildings and lots that have not been developed, for example, turning older school buildings into viable housing stock. Both King County, Washington, and Raleigh, North Carolina, give priority to affordable housing projects when considering disposing of real estate.

The study by Headwaters also describes a phenomenon familiar to many Montana communities that have experienced an explosive rise in property values.

Amenity destinations also attract investors and second homeowners, further increasing prices, the report said. Oftentimes new residents, second homeowners and investors bring with them greater wealth and can pay for more housing. The challenges are compounded when home buyers pay cash: When a buyer is financing a house, lenders will only sell mortgages that are comparably priced to similar homes that recently sold. Cash buyers, however, do not have this limitation, subsequently freeing the purchase price from modest increases to exponential price increases.

That, in turn, creates a trickle-down effect that forces residents to lower-quality housing, eventually pushing some in already marginal housing into homelessness.

A 2020 study found that a $100 increase in median rent was associated with a 9% increase in homelessness, the study said.

As a city or town explodes with new growth, Headwaters describes an equal and opposite reaction by leaders to curb the growth, whether through zoning, limiting construction, or even adopting other growth control policies, which the report concludes backfire.

(They) often have the unintended consequences of driving up the cost of existing housing, it said. They do not affect peoples desire to live in these places or impact businesses need to hire and house employees.

Instead, the report suggests adopting new models that allow companies and communities to anticipate the growth. For example, on-site home creation, which includes housing that can be pre-fabricated, shipped to a site and assembled for a quicker construction time.

Due to the economies of scale, this approach can save buyers 10% to 20% compared to a house built on site, the report said.

The rental problem

One of the other trends is the rise of short-term rentals, like VRBO or AirBnB. In smaller communities, the problem of short-term rentals becomes even more pronounced because they typically have a lower baseline inventory of housing stock as compared to more urban locations. In those places, homes that would have been sold to other single families or rented to workers are now rented out on short terms. This leads to a situation where supply plummets while demand increases briskly, resulting in rocketing housing prices.

So many communities dont see the problem coming, said Megan Lawson, Headwaters economist and chief author of the report. Unfettered, you see that the market fails. It does not accomplish what we want to see.

Some communities have approached this familiar Montana problem in two different ways. A group of towns has put a cap on the number of short-term rentals, requiring them to be licensed. Those rentals, in some cases, are taxed at a higher commercial rate as a disincentive. Another approach, like one used in Big Sky Montana, as well as Truckee, California, provides cash payments to property owners when they lease to local workers.

Finally, another approach that some communities like Breckenridge and Vail, Colorado, have tried are adopting deed restrictions on the property. That entails an owner placing a restriction on the property deed, which will limit who will buy the property, requiring the renter or the buyer to work in the community. A deed restriction follows the property in perpetuity, and owners who participate in the program receive from 15% to 20% of the propertys fair-market value in order to compensate the sellers, who are likely limiting the number of potential buyers.

Lawson points out that subsidies toward things like deed restrictions or creating incentives for long-term rentals become economically more efficient for communities. For example, several hundreds of thousands of dollars can be spread out over multiple properties, while in most Montana cities, the same amount couldnt pay for a single home.

And you have the benefit of neighborhoods feeling like neighborhoods, she said.

Subsidizing tourism

The report also highlights another problem with tourism in the West  those who pay for the infrastructure  a catch-all term for things like roads, water treatment systems and even law enforcement  are borne by the residents of the area, often a much smaller number than the tourists who pass through.

In the report, Headwaters mentions Bozeman, which hosts around 1.5 million people annually. However, the Montana Legislature has not given larger communities, like Bozeman, the option of a local sales tax, which could help offset the added services that must be provided to feed, house and accommodate the tourists.

If Gallatin County was able to implement a 3% sales tax on nonessential goods, it would raise an estimated $30 million in revenue to help offset these costs while ensuring that infrastructure costs are spread between visitors and residents, the report said.

Meanwhile, down the road from Bozeman, in West Yellowstone, Montana, that community of 1,100 people hosts more than 4 million people annually, straining the roads and wastewater systems to the limit. Law enforcement and medical responders are particularly stressed as most of the calls are related to tourism, but the expenses are paid from local budgets.

The real question, especially in a case like West Yellowstone where 1,000 people pay for close to 5 million visitors a year is: Is it fair? Lawson asked.

Another layer the report pointed out is that providing services is often lumpy. For example, things like roads or wastewater treatment plants arent usually gradually expanded  they have to be upgraded in more substantial ways. Lawson gives as an example sewer plants: Its hard to expand capacity by small numbers, and usually the upgrades are by the tens of thousands of hook-ups, rather than a few customers at a time. But, the costs for upgrading are also exponential, forcing small communities to overbuild for a peak usage, not an average.

They cant run at a much lower capacity, she said.

Policy questions

As unexciting as the topic may sound, the report points to a very real policy conundrum that Montana faces. Lodging taxes in the state go back into promotional efforts to attract more people to Montana. Such campaigns, which can see billboards for the state go up in places like California or Las Vegas, cost millions, but are often seen by state leaders as a business investment with tourism becoming the second-largest industry in Montana, behind agriculture.

But the Headwaters report questions the wisdom of such an investment by asking: Who hasnt heard of Montana? The problem has grown even more profound after the hit television series Yellowstone, which has created a cottage industry around the states rugged beauty and independent people.

The Headwaters report suggests that a policy shift might be in order, moving that revenue from beefing up promotional and advertising budgets back into investment in many towns so that the amenities, from housing to water treatment plants, are better equipped for the tourism and growth.

Tourism gets to be the goose that laid the golden egg. And the tourism in this state is tremendous, Lawson said. But talk to gateway communities, and tourism is a four-letter word. We often forget that theres another side to tourism. Lets have a conversation about the trade-offs. Weve done years of good work talking about the good, but weve been tone deaf about talking about the drawbacks.

Take Missoula County, Lawson points out: Lodging taxes promote more tourism to the area, but one of the most costly aspects of the budget is search and rescues, especially where there are limited roads.

Its counterproductive (to use those funds) because they just promote the area, which creates more of the problem, Lawson said. No funds are going to offset the impacts of tourism.

Smaller resort communities, like West Yellowstone or Red Lodge, have resort taxes that help offset some of the cost that would otherwise bleed the local tax base. But even that doesnt appear to be enough.

It may not be enough or adequate, Lawson said. And this approach can work, but the limitation is that it doesnt reflect the impact on midsize or larger cities. Theyre the face of Montana and there are grants and revolving loans, but what were finding is that a lot of these small communities, like those affected by the (Yellowstone National Park) flooding, is they dont have the capacity to navigate the grant or loan programs. Their municipal staff is already stretched thin.

The post Loved to death: New report says tourism that drives the states economy can hurt local cities appeared first on Daily Montanan.
GREAT FALLS, Mont. - A long-term investigation led to the arrest of three people in Great Falls.

Law enforcement in Great Falls sent a warning Wednesday afternoon, telling people to stay away from the area of 10th Ave. NW and that they were evacuating nearby residents as they were trying to serve a warrant.

The warrant was a part of an investigation that worked to identify members and patterns of a large drug trafficking organization based out of another state.

A standoff ensued that lasted three hours and ended without injury.

"Initially, we're trying to catch two individuals in a vehicle that were out distributing drugs to members in the community. They were able to get find that or get that vehicle. It was stopped. The people left on foot. Members of our high risk unit were involved in that to do the take down. They were able to get those two males into custody, and it was determined that there was still a third male that we were looking for, Great Falls Police Captain Doug Otto said.

According to the Russell Country Drug Task Force, the organization has been working to infiltrate Great Falls since 2022, and it is believed they have been making money through the distribution of fentanyl pills.

Demitrius Milan, 33, was the individual in the house that law enforcement was serving the warrant on.

Charges have been filed for distribution of dangerous drugs, conspiracy to commit distribution of dangerous drugs, possession of dangerous drugs, two counts of tampering with/destroying evidence, possession of property subject to criminal forfeiture and obstruction of justice.

Law enforcement also arrested two other people in relation:

Demetrius Lietey, 27, for conspiracy to commit distribution of dangerous drugs, possession of property subject to criminal forfeiture and criminal endangerment.

George Smith, 40, for conspiracy to commit distribution of dangerous drugs and obstruction of justice.

"You know, we always want the people in the community to understand that we're always watching and there are drugs constantly coming and going. That is, unfortunately, the nature of the beast that's happening in today's world. And our task force and our department is committed to making sure to take down these large organizations as we can to make sure that the citizens in this community are safe, Otto said.

The Russell Country Drug Task Force provided this statement on the arrest:

Fentanyl is a major problem in our world today and your drug task force is taking it seriously. The Russell Country Drug Task Force; which is comprised of members of the Great Falls Police Department, Cascade County Sheriffs Office, Montana Department of Criminal investigation, Drug Enforcement Administration, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and supported by the Montana Army Guard as well as legal support from the Cascade County Attorneys Office and our local staff of Federal US Attorneys, works diligently to stop the flow of illegal narcotics into Great Falls. We encourage our community members to understand the severity of drugs like fentanyl, educate your children about the dangers of drug use and to report suspicious behavior that might be indicative of drug trafficking when you see it. Only together can we stem the flow of narcotics into our community and make it a safer place to live."

UPDATE:

The person the Great Falls Police Department was trying to serve a warrant on has been cleared from the residence.

No injuries were reported during the incident.

"Thank you for your patience and cooperation as we worked to ensure everyone's safety," the Great Falls Police Department said.

GREAT FALLS, Mont. - Great Falls police are evacuating residences close to where they are trying to serve a search warrant.

According to the Great Falls Police Department, community members may see police activity in the 1100 block of 10th Ave. NW.

Several nearby residents are being evacuated and people are asked to stay away due to the evolving nature of the situation.

We will provide updates as more information becomes available.
The momentum among Republicans against ranked-choice voting (RCV) is hard to miss. A spate of bills in statehouses across the country aim to ban the measure, while the Republican National Committee passed a resolution in January opposing it. Even the hotel keys at the recent ALEC Annual Meeting were branded with "Stop RCV" language. It might come as a surprise, then, that Republicans may be the ones who stand to benefit from ranked-choice voting.

As Republican state lawmakers gathered in Orlando for the ALEC Annual Meeting, the R Street Institute hosted an event featuring two Republican former state lawmakers, Chris Saxman of Virginia and Scot Turner of Georgia, to discuss how instant-runoff elections using RCV can help the GOP find the best candidates and win more elections.

RCV asks voters to rank the candidates in order of preference. These rankings can then be used to conduct an instant-runoff election, where candidates are eliminated one-by-one until one candidate reaches a majority of support.

Chris Saxman, former Virginia state delegate, spoke first and pointed to the 2021 Virginia gubernatorial race to show how RCV helped the GOP build momentum in a contentious primary election and flip the state for Republicans. According to Saxman, the use of RCV in the state party convention prevented candidates from considering independent bids for the office and splintering the party. Moreover, Saxman shared that RCV discouraged candidates from engaging in negative campaigning against their opponents out of fear of dropping down in voters rankings for going negative.

The result was not only the nomination of a widely liked and compelling gubernatorial candidate in Glenn Youngkin, but the party was able to quickly rally around the candidate and immediately focused their attention on defeating the Democrat, Terry McAuliffe. Saxman argued that the partys choice to use RCV in the primary contributed to the strong Republican enthusiasm heading into the general election and set the foundation for his success.

The event also featured former Georgia state representative Scot Turner, who highlighted how RCV can help Republicans in states with runoff elections. Currently, nearly a dozen states, concentrated in the South, use costly runoff elections if no candidate reaches majority support. To support his claim, Turner pointed to the 2020 Senate elections in Georgia, where Republican David Perdue came just short of a majority in the general election before losing in the runoff election. According to Turner, an instant runoff using RCV would have kept the seat red.

The math backs this up. Had Georgia used RCV, Perdue would have needed just 12 percent of Libertarian Shane Hazels voters to rank him above Democrat Jon Ossoff in Novembera near certainty given the historic preference by Libertarian voters for Republicans over Democrats. Instead, Georgia voters returned to the polls in January, where depressed turnout among Republicanswho were upset with the results of the 2020 presidential electionultimately cost the GOP two Senate seats and handed control of the U.S. Senate to the Democrats.

Turner also pushed back against the concern from RCV opponents that ranking candidates is a difficult task for voters. Turner pointed to Utah, where many localities use RCV. Voters there have overwhelmingly found that ranking candidates was easy to do and a strong majority expressed a desire to keep voting using RCV. Turner also noted that Georgias sweeping election integrity legislation from 2021, Senate Bill 202, established RCV for military and overseas voters in order to ensure their participation in the event of a runoff. If this style of voting can be useful for our troops, Turner argued, Republicans shouldnt dismiss it out of hand.

All told, Saxman and Turner made the case that RCV can be a valuable tool for finding the best candidates, building momentum, and winning elections. This message was not lost on the attendees. Many expressed more openness to RCV after initial skepticism, particularly as a way to find the best candidates in primary elections.

While Republicans across the country have expressed wariness or even hostility to RCV, they should not be so quick to condemn it. RCV can be a valuable resource for the GOP. It can help elevate the most competitive general-election candidates and reduce the volatility of runoff elections. Just like the GOPs recent embrace of early voting, Republicans should reconsider their position on RCV as another tool for winning elections.

Matt Germer is the associate director of the Governance Program and a resident fellow at the R Street Institute
Many children spend a lot of time thinking and talking about what they want to be when they grow up. As they get older, they start to explore careers through schools or activities like 4-H. But a lot of those conversations start around the dinner table, with their families.

The children that the Christian Childrens Home of Ohio works with, however, havent all had those opportunities. The Christian Childrens Home of Ohio is a residential treatment center for abused and neglected children.

The children that were dealing with are coming from abuse and neglect, and some of them havent had the opportunities that typical kids have, said David Walker, donor relations manager for the center. We want to get them excited about potential careers that they could get involved with.

Thats why this year, the center is running a summer farm camp to help the children it works with explore agriculture. Wayne County, where the center is located, is the top dairy-producing county in Ohio, and the third largest agricultural economy in the state, according to the countys economic development council.

I want to see them walk away with just an understanding of agriculture, said Forrest Lang, director of the farm camp and instructor at the Ohio State University Agricultural Technical Institute. Showing them that there are these viable career opportunities to work outside on a daily basis  sparking interest in a potential career route.

Campers

The center houses as many as 45 children on campus, and also has 13 Christian counseling centers around northeast Ohio. The camp attendees are children who live at the center and children who are treated at the counseling centers. They range in age from 6 to 18.

The camp is funded by a Youth Pathways grant for Careers in Agriculture from the Ohio Farm Bureau Foundation. The grant program aims to get youth interested in careers in agriculture.

When the center and the organizers started planning the details of the program, after getting the grant in February, they were only expecting about 30 or 40 children, Walker said. But by the time the program started in June, there were more than 100 signed up.

We were overwhelmed by how many people wanted to do it, Walker said.

Program

The farm camp includes classroom sessions and visits to farms in the area. Because of the number of children in the program, Lang is conducting four classroom sessions. Children are divided into three different grade levels.

Really the only challenge is logistics, Lang said. As far as the actual classroom and tours, it couldnt be going better.

The topics the program is covering include dairy farming, livestock farming, beekeeping and technology in agriculture.

For the classroom sessions, Lang used some of the resources and information that the Ohio Farm Bureau had available to make tools like virtual presentations that children can click through to learn about different topics. One of the goals for Lang and the Christian Childrens Home of Ohio was to put together tools that other organizations can use for their own programs.

Were not trying to reinvent the wheel, Lang said. Im just utilizing a lot of what [the farm bureau has], and repackaging into a template that can be used by someone with an education background at another organization.

Lang also had the children put together projects about whatever topic theyre the most interested in from the classes, and took the children with the top 15-20 projects to the state fair, so they can kind of engage in a completely non-classroom environment with topics of agriculture, he said.

The program will wrap up in the second week of August, leaving some time between the end of the camp and the beginning of the school year. Certified Angus Beef will hold a graduation ceremony for the children at a beef cattle farm at the end of the camp.

Our goals are to provide a fun and memorable experience, said Mandy Atterholt, beef community educator for Certified Angus Beef. We also want them to see where beef comes from.

Farm visits

The children have already visited several farms in the area. The camp includes visits to a dairy farm, a bison farm, Ohio State ATI, the Ohio Beekeepers Association and Certified Angus Beef.

Because of the number of children in the program, farm visits are split up over several days. While the logistics can be a little tricky, the visits themselves have gone smoothly.

The kids just did so well, said Carolyn Baer, of Baer Family Dairy Farm. The Marshallville, Ohio farm hosted the children in the program in June. We let them climb up in the tractors and take pictures, and some of the teenage girls actually got to milk a cow.

The farm uses robotic milkers to milk 250 cows and has been in the family for 200 years. Baer and her family gave the children tours of their farm that included seeing the robotic milking process, the feeding and manure systems, historic buildings and the calves on the farm.

We think animals are therapeutic, so we really enjoy taking kids to pet the baby calves and talk to cows, Baer said.

The children visited each farm in a few different groups over several days. For the visit Certified Angus Beef is hosting at Chippewa Valley Angus Farm, in Wayne County, the organization is planning to show the children around the farm and to hold a wide range of games and activities like bingo, trivia and bale tosses.

Some education and fun combined is kind of what were going for, Atterholt said.

While the main goals of the program were to introduce children to opportunities in agriculture, the farmers involved believe theres a lot the children can learn from farm visits even if they arent interested in careers in agriculture. As an agriculture teacher, Baer also likes to host field trips and farm visits so children can learn about where food comes from and how farmers take care of their animals and environment responsibly.

We really like to leave the message that working together is what makes us successful, she said.
Getting to grips with the energy injustice faced by farming businesses is one of the key challenges currently faced by the rural economy, experts have warned.

Restrictions impacting those farmers who are seeking to invest in small renewable energy projects, such as planning restrictions and a lack of grid capacity, should be removed.

This is according to a panel of experts brought together by the Farmers Union of Wales (FUW), as the Welsh government seeks to reach zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Experts were brought together to discuss how on-farm renewable energy projects can help towards meeting future targets, without undermining food production.

However, following the removal of feed-in energy production tariffs in 2019, on-farm investment into renewable energy has slowed down significantly.

In addition, farms who may have wished to invest in hydropower projects have been disincentivised after the business rates relief scheme for such projects came to an end in 2021 resulting in a ten-fold increase in rates costs.

Dewi Owen, FUW diversification committee chair told the panel: Our reliance on and exposure to global fossil fuel markets has been laid bare over recent years.

"Vast amounts of renewable energy are produced on Welsh farmland, but we have only tapped into a fraction of what is possible.

"We need to ensure that barriers are removed and incentives restored in order to boost agricultures contribution to future energy targets.

According to one renewable energy expert, rural communities are currently facing an energy injustice and that the planning process for smaller scale renewable energy projects need to be streamlined.

Ed Bailey, director of Baileys and Partners, advises farmers on a range of projects including hydroelectric projects, commercial scale wind and solar farms, battery storage and tidal energy systems.

As a farmer himself, he recognises the increasing need to produce home-harvested energy whilst also protecting the biodiversity of the land in Wales and the continued viability of food production.

But he added that several of his clients were still facing huge barriers that were preventing them from making an active contribution towards these targets.

What we lose when schemes are refused are support for a rural economy, support for the local communities and we lose confidence from investors," he said, adding that this had to be addressed.

The National Grid was designed for centralised generation, and rural areas have been at the end of the line. Restructuring the whole grid would, of course, be too expensive.

"In my opinion, rural areas are facing an energy injustice, because of a lack of access to affordable low carbon energy," Mr Bailey explained.

"We need localised energy solutions, and we need to streamline the consenting regime for projects. It can put people off what can be pretty simple schemes, such as generating hydro power.

Answering some of the concerns raised during the seminar, Wales' Minister for Climate Change, Julie James MS, said: We want to make sure that the energy generation is there, also that the transmission networks are done in a way which is compatible with living in Wales.

"We are keen to work with all communities in Wales to create small energy networks so that they can create energy and store it to use when its most needed.

"And thats where the planning system comes in. We want to get the planning system to properly consider the merits and impacts of the developments, and to make sure that they are properly routed in the right way.

Were here to make sure that we develop the local energy plans with the communities of Wales that do benefit them in that way, and that are compatible with our farm businesses and our communities across Wales.

She added that the Welsh government had just reviewed Planning Policy Wales, and that should remove many of the barriers currently faced by smaller projects.

She said: It would have a presumption in favour of small scale energy renewables, including single, community owned, wind turbines, and a number of other things.
Researchers have been awarded funding to progress vaccine development for Enzootic pneumonia, the most common respiratory disease in pigs.

The Royal Veterinary College (RVC) research, which has been given a boost with Defra funding, will specifically focus on Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae (M.hyop), the causative agent of the disease.

Infection of M.hyop is a debilitating disease in pigs that causes huge economic losses for farmers.

It is present in 80% of UK pig herds, and can result in a 16% reduction of growth and a 14% reduction in feed conversion in pigs.

Additionally, piglets are considered free from M.hyop at birth. But with close contact between infected and susceptible pigs, the main route of transmission is often during lactation when piglets are first exposed.

This places piglets under enormous risk of developing the respiratory disease as well as infection from secondary pathogens.

There are currently no commercial vaccines available that would prevent initial infection.

While M.hyop is susceptible to a variety of antibiotics, use of them need to be reduced to avoid overuse and the occurrence of multi-drug resistant strains.

A priority for the team of RVC researchers will be developing new vaccines that confer protective immunity and reduce transmission.

The research team will also research the optimisation of protocols to eliminate M.hyop from pig herds in an effort to further minimise potential transmission.

The project aims to discover the bacterial genes that are necessary for disease as a basis for the development of better vaccines to prevent the circulation of Enzootic pneumonia.

Dirk Werling, Professor of Molecular Immunology at the RVC, said: Infection of Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae is a really debilitating disease in pigs that causes huge economic losses for farmers.

"I am very pleased that we will be able to continue working with a pharmaceutical partner to develop a new vaccine using state-of the-art technologies.

The research is part of the UK government's investment of 9 million to combat endemic livestock diseases.
Donald Trump has claimed hes being persecuted after he pled not guilty to conspiring to overturn the 2020 election.

Donald Trump has claimed hes being persecuted after he pled not guilty to conspiring to overturn the 2020 election

The former US president, 77, was indicted for a record third time on Tuesday (01.08.23) and on Thursday at Reagan National Airport following his face-off with Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya in Washington  who he stared down during before declaring his innocence  he gave a short speech in which he blasted the filth and decay of Washington D.C..

He said at the airport, where he grasped a huge black umbrella brandished with his surname: This is a very sad day for America and it was also very sad driving through Washington D.C. and seeing the filth and the decay and all of the broken buildings and walls and the graffiti.

This is not the place that I left. When you look at what's happening, this is a persecution of a political opponent.

This was never supposed to happen in America. This is the persecution of the person thats leading by very, very substantial numbers in the Republican primary and leading Biden by a lot. So if you cant beat him, you persecute them or you prosecute him. We cant let this happen in America.

Trump earlier faced the federal judge as she read out the four charges against him related to the 6 January Capitol riot and his plot to stay in power  which carry a combined maximum sentence of 55 years in prison if hes found guilty.

She set the next hearing for 28 August while Trumps lawyer outside court said the case was a bid to ruin his 2024 campaign.

When asked to state his age in court, Trump  dressed in a navy blue suit and red tie  fumbled his words and replied: Seven-seven. 77.

Judge Upadhyaya asked if he had taken any medications or anything that would make him unable to respond, and he insisted: No, I have not.

The former Apprentice judge was flanked at a table on either side by his attorneys, John Lauro and Todd Blanche, and he stood up, stared down the judge and entered his not guilty plea.

Trump will be released on the condition that he does not communicate with witnesses in the case.

The scandal-plagued former leader is now facing four counts in connection to his involvement in the events of January 6, 2021, including conspiracy to defraud the American government and obstruct the electoral count for trying to overturn the 2020 election.

A 45-page indictment states the former Apprentice judge was determined to remain in power despite having lost his leadership.

The sealed indictment was delivered to a Washington D.C.-based judge on Tuesday containing the four felony counts against the former president.

The indictment papers also references six unnamed and unindicted co-conspirators.

It says: The Defendant and co-conspirators used knowingly false claims of election fraud to get state legislators and election officials to subvert the legitimate election results and change electoral votes for the Defendants opponent, Joseph R. Biden, Jr., to electoral votes for the Defendant.

Trump railed against the news of his third indictment in six months on his Truth Social platform  branding the investigating US attorney in the case Jack Smith deranged.

Trump has denied his involvement in the events of 6 January that saw his supporters storm the Capitol Building in Washington D.C., leaving five people dead and others injured.

Trump is also currently facing federal charges in Florida stemming from his mishandling of classified docs after he left office.

He made history in April when he became the first US president to be charged with a crime after leaving office, when the Manhattan district attorneys office indicted him on charges related to hush money payments he made prior to the 2016 election.
Leah Remini has been branded a "bigot" and a "horrible person" by the Church of Scientology.

Leah Remini is suing the Church of Scientology

The 'King of Queens' actress filed a lawsuit against the organisation and leader David Miscavige earlier this week, in which she accused them of subjecting her to 17 years of

harassment, intimidation, surveillance, and defamation , and the church has now hit back at the 53-year-old star, branding her claims "ludicrous".

They said in a statement: "This lawsuit is ludicrous and the allegations pure lunacy. Remini spreads hate and falsehoods for a decade and is now offended when people exercise their right to free speech, exposing her for what she isan anti-free speech bigot.

"Reminis complaints are like an anti-Semite complaining about the Jewish Anti-Defamation League for exposing the anti-Semites bigotry and propaganda."

Leah quit the church in 2013 and has campaigned against the controversial religion since, and the organisation accused her of causing "threats of and actual violence" towards members, as well as circulating "false propaganda".

The statement continued: "Reminis obsession with attacking her former religion, by spreading falsehoods and hate speech, has generated threats of and actual violence against the Church and its members as evidenced by multiple criminal convictions of individuals poisoned by Reminis propaganda.

"All the while, Remini has profited handsomely from her fabrications, through the sale of hate books, hate podcasts and paid-for tabloid hate television.

"Now that Reminis propaganda has been exposed, Remini has spun entirely out of control by filing a frivolous lawsuit attempting to stop free speech exposing her false propaganda. Reminis decade of harassment and fabrications are all coming back to haunt her.

"If Remini can no longer get a job, she has nobody to blame but herself. Obviously everybody in Hollywood now knows what we already knew: That Remini is a horrible person and toxic to so many who have the misfortune to come in contact with her.

"While Remini was in the Church, she had to restrain her antisocial traits. She said so herselfthat Scientology was the only thing keeping her monster at bay.

"The Church is not intimidated by Reminis latest act of blatant harassment and attempt to prevent truthful free speech. If Remini does not believe in free speech, then she should consider emigrating to Russia."

The lawsuit alleges the Church of Scientology stalked, surveilled, harassed, threatened, intimidated Leah and allegedly and created intentional malicious and fraudulent rumours about her via hundreds of Scientology-controlled and -coordinated social media accounts that she said existed solely to intimidate and spread misinformation.

The former 'Talk' host added her family members, friends and colleagues allegedly have also been incessantly harassed, threatened, intimidated, and embarrassed.

In 2018, the actress alleged the church was sending her death threats because they try to destroy our lives.
Len Wiseman is engaged to actress CJ Franco.

Len Wiseman and CJ Franco are engaged

The 50-year-old Hollywood director - who was previously married to Kate Beckinsale - proposed to 32-year-old CJ during a sun-soaked holiday in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico over the Independence Day weekend as they celebrated eight years after they first met. Len popped the question during dinner at their favourite restaurant as a fireworks display kicked off.

CJ told PEOPLE: "He got down on his knee and said 'I know weve only know each other for a little while, so this may come as a shock. He proposed as fireworks began, which felt like they were just for us. I didnt hear anything he said but he looked really cute doing it!"

The actress revealed the newly-engaged couple ended the evening in a swimming pool surrounded by "candles and rose petals" but she nearly suffered a disaster when her new Cartier diamond ring slipped off her finger during the swim.

She added: "It was like a dream until I realised my ring was missing. We put goggles on and spent the next half hour searching the bottom of the pool for lost treasure - as romantically as possible."

CJ also shared pictures of the trip on her Instagram page, showing off her new ring. She wrote: "Been keeping a little secret since 4th of July!

"I wanted to keep it quiet until we could share the news with our families in Northern California. Super happy, swipe to see a photo from today!"

The couple met back in 2015 after Wiseman's marriage to his 'Underworld' star Kate collapsed. The director was previously married to teacher Dana before tying the knot with second wife Kate in 2004. The union lasted until their separation in 2015 and they later divorced citing "irreconcilable differences".

Wiseman met CJ when she was 25 at a July 4 party in Malibu, California.
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex reportedly has her Instagram page ready to roll out as part of an online comeback.

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex reportedly has her Instagram page ready to roll out as part of an online comeback

The former Suits actress, who will celebrate her 42nd birthday on Friday (04.08.23), is said to have the @meghan handle, which already has 2,420 followers, despite the fact she has never actually posted anything.

A source told Page Six she got her own Instagram account  which features a placeholder image of pink flowers  just before she launched her now defunct Spotify podcast in August 2022.

The outlet added Meghan has been in talks with a number of brands to work with and is apparently especially keen to sign with jewellers Cartier as she works towards the future after signing with Hollywood agency WME.

An insider added: Meghan was set to go live on Insta, but changed her mind shortly before she launched her Archetypes podcast, so its just sitting there now.

Meghan revealed she was toying with the idea of returning to social media in an interview with The Cut in August 2022, saying: Do you want to know a secret? Im getting back on Instagram.

Rumours of her imminent Instagram return come after she and her husband Prince Harry, 38, presented a united front to the world in the face of widespread reports their marriage is in trouble.

The couple sat cosily side-by-side on Wednesday (02.08.23) for a video in support of the young peoples foundation the Responsible Technology Youth Power Fund after reports they have been spending time apart.

As they spoke about their two children, son Archie, four, and two-year-old daughter Lilibet, Harry said about the good cause: Thank you for doing everything that you do. Our kids especially are incredibly grateful.

Meghan chimed in: They dont know it yet, but they will.

The couple made the clip as their Archewell Foundation is on the Responsible Technology Youth Power Fund Advisory Committee.

Insiders have denied widespread reports in the US the couple have been giving each other space.

One source insisted Page Six: Its not true  its literally made up.

The reports the couple were taking time apart were spurred on by the fact Meghan has hardly returned to the UK since Megxit, and was not with Harry when he returned to Britain in May to see his father King Charles coronation at Londons Westminster Abbey.

A source told The Sun: Harry was desperate to come back for the Coronation and spend quality time with his family.

Meghan stayed in their mansion in California for their boy Archies fourth birthday.

The video comes after Harry and Meghans big-money Spotify deal ended in June, while the Duke of Sussexs green travel project Travalyst made a major announcement about a huge revamp in May without mentioning him.

Their appearance also comes as it was announced the couple will attend the Invictus Games in Dusseldorf together next month for the events between September 9 and 16.
China maintained its top position among apparel exporting countries globally last year with a 31.7 per cent market share, according to data released by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) recently. It exported apparel worth $182 billion last year.

Bangladesh retained its second position among apparel-exporting nations last year. The countrys share in garment trade rose to 7.9 per cent in 2022 from 6.4 per cent in 2021.

Bangladesh exported garment items worth $45 billion in 2022, the WTO said in its World Trade Statistical Review 2023.

China topped apparel exporting nations globally last year with a 31.7 per cent market share, according to the World Trade Organisation. It exported apparel worth $182 billion in 2022. Bangladesh retained its second position, with a 7.9 per cent share in global garment trade last year. Vietnam ranked third, grabbing 6.1 per cent market share.

Vietnam ranked third, grabbing 6.1 per cent market share. It shipped products amounting to $35 billion in 2022.

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Arvind Shekar, the husband of Tamil TV actress Sruthi Shanmuga Priya, died on Wednesday at the age of 30. He had a heart attack while at home, according to reports. According to reports, he was rushed to the hospital but could not be resuscitated. They recently celebrated their first wedding anniversary. His Instagram post is currently going viral on social media. Arvind Shekar previously posted an Instagram Reel from their Paris trip last year on his timeline. The video begins with Sruthi peering through a telescope to the next frame, which shows the couple admiring the city from the top of the Eiffel Tower. In the video, Arvind and his wife are seen twinning in black, with the Eiffel Tower in the background. The post's caption has gotten a lot of attention from fans. One year of Paris. Die with good memories, not with unfulfilled dreams," he wrote.

Sruthi Shanmuga Priya shared a photo of herself with her late husband on social media to announce the news. She wrote a lengthy letter in honour of Arvind. The actress stated,Its just the body that parted. But Your soul and mind surround and protect me now and forever! Rest in peace my love Arvind Shekar. My love for you is getting more and more now and weve already had a hell of a lotta memories with each other that Ill cherish for a lifetime. Miss you and love you more Arvind! Feeling your presence next to me.

Arvind worked as a fitness trainer and model. Last year, he was crowned Mr Tamil Nadu. Shruti, on the other hand, has appeared in a number of popular Tamil television daily soap operas such as Bharathi Kannamma, Nadaswaram, Vani Rani, Ponnoonjal, and Kalyana Parisu.
Bollywood art director Nitin Desai reportedly left a voice note before taking his own life in which he criticized a financial services company and expressed his frustration with their procedures. He also mentioned four individuals in the note and made a final plea to the government to take over his studio due to his company's financial crisis.The police are now investigating the matter. According to the police, a voice note discovered after his supposed suicide revealed that Nitin Desai expressed dissatisfaction with a financial services company and that his business owed money. He also reportedly stated that he had travelled a great distance and could not continue any longer.During their investigation into the suicide, Raigad police in Maharashtra discovered 11 audio recordings on a voice recorder that was found in Desai's office. According to an official, one of the recordings features Desai expressing that his company was unable to recover from its financial crisis due to the methods used by the financial services firm. The recordings varied in length from four to twenty minutes, and some of them included Nitin sharing his life story. He was 57 years old at the time of his death.It is expected that the financial services firm mentioned in the note will be questioned by the police, according to the speaker. The company owned by Nitin had failed to repay a loan of Rs 252 crore to its creditors, leading the National Company Law Tribunal's Mumbai bench to commence insolvency proceedings against it. In 2016 and 2018, ND's Art World Pvt Ltd, owned by Nitin, had taken two loans totalling Rs 185 crore from ECL Finance. However, repayment issues began in January 2020.On Thursday, during a session of the state Assembly, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced that an investigation would be conducted into the private lending firm that provided a loan to Nitin. The aim is to determine if Nitin was charged high interest and if he was under any mental stress. The police official also stated that the voice notes referred to four individuals.He made a plea to the government to acquire his Karjat studio and transform it into a space for emerging artists. According to reports, he had experienced various obstacles throughout his life and had reached a point where he could no longer continue. He allegedly stated in an audio recording that he had come to the end of his journey and could not take any more steps forward.On Wednesday morning, Nitin Desai was found dead in his Karjat apartment. During his 30-year career, he closely worked with many renowned directors such as Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Rajkumar Hirani, and Ashutosh Gowariker as an art director in films like Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Lagaan, Jodhaa Akbar, and Prem Ratan Dhan Payo. Additionally, he designed sets for popular television shows including Kaun Banega Crorepati, Kamzor Kadi Kaun, Dus ka Dum, and Sacch ka Saamna.
Dilip Kumar's Bungalow Demolition: It's been two years since the demise of Bollywood's iconic superstar, Dilip Kumar, who left an indelible mark on the film industry with his timeless performances. Now, a significant transformation is set to take place at his cherished Pali Hill bungalow.

DILIP KUMAR BUNGALOW SET TO BE DEMOLISHED

Often hailed as the 'Tragedy King,' Dilip Kumar enchanted audiences with his roles in cinematic gems like Mughal-E-Azam, and Devdas among several others. His legacy continues to shine even after his passing, and now his family has chosen a remarkable way to honor his memory.

A report by the Indian Express reveals that Dilip Kumar's family has given their approval for the demolition of his iconic Pali Hill bungalow. In its place, a state-of-the-art residential project is set to emerge, accompanied by a dedicated museum on the ground floor, which will serve as a tribute to the actor's illustrious life and his achievements.

For the luxurious project that is slated for completion by 2027, the late star's family has teamed up with realty developer Ashar Group. The venture is estimated to yield an impressive revenue of Rs 900 crore. The sprawling half-acre land, situated in one of Mumbai's most upscale neighborhoods, will house an eleven-story construction spanning an astounding 1.75 lakh square feet.

The project has weathered legal disputes over the years, including allegations of document forgery by a real estate firm aiming to take over the property. However, following an extended legal battle, Saira Banu, Dilip Kumar's wife, secured ownership of the cherished bungalow in 2017. With legal hurdles now resolved, the construction is set to initiate smoothly.

Meanwhile, Dilip Kumar's cinematic journey was marked by unforgettable portrayals of characters with tragic destinies. His performances in films like Mughal-E-Azam and Devdas etched his name in the history of Indian cinema.
OMG Face Of The Year has been India's first and most popular digital talent hunt in the country. After all, it gives a chance to the youngsters to showcase their talent and achieve new heights. And after the stupendous success of the first season, OMG Face Of The Year is back with the second season.

Interestingly, Josh has collaborated as the official short video partner for OMG Face of The Year Season 2. This contest is designed with holistic rounds in genres like acting, dance, fitness, photography & walks where contestants have to depict their talent digitally. The top 20 finalists, chosen from all over India will compete for the title in Mumbai. The Winners will be clicked by the ace photographer Dabboo Ratnani along with many other exciting incentives.

Josh had started a special campaign for the digital talent hunt as #OMGonJosh in which creators from North are showing their talent in genres like acting, fashion, dance, lipsync, etc.

https://share.myjosh.in/challenge/e2be67ce-84b3-41fa-9744-c34c149ec42d?u=0xd62361470b08cd6a

https://share.myjosh.in/content/81a6a0b6-efd6-4f6e-9335-9933be846744?ref_action=click&flow_id=e2be67ce-84b3-41fa-9744-c34c149ec42d

https://share.myjosh.in/content/6ec556ac-ed2e-4c82-820d-cc60e3c7f1ec?ref_action=click

The campaign saw a huge response, hitting over 55M views!

As several creators participated in the campaign and shared videos in different categories for #OMGonJosh. Here comes the time to announce our Final 10 Josh creators who qualified for the OMG Face of The Year Season 2 : Top 60

Sayani Pradhan

https://share.myjosh.in/profile/b68b058d-6aa5-420f-81fe-bc3ea44aa843

Dipti Sharma

https://share.myjosh.in/profile/e14cdf22-31bb-49e7-a9c0-498bd8905589

Shweta Ranjan

https://share.myjosh.in/profile/8449d9be-6c50-411c-b3f1-afa5be273020

Srijita Ghosh

https://share.myjosh.in/profile/59cdf0cb-3adc-4e79-8504-1d51af71d835

Tanvir Pandit

https://share.myjosh.in/profile/3f9433c3-ecbe-423c-aedf-c4f62c0738e1

Vikas Shakya

https://share.myjosh.in/profile/d240f8ec-84db-4b04-bd45-6c63677496ac

Kishore Paul

https://share.myjosh.in/profile/d55d9446-d2d0-4dec-8ae7-f90b164ffe4d

Lovlesh Kumar

https://share.myjosh.in/profile/e26403c4-0078-4596-80c0-f2d03ea8124d

Taranjeet Singh

https://share.myjosh.in/profile/1b78076a-456e-4039-a253-f534f398d29e?u=0x1dbb2252b48a9676

MJ Salman

https://share.myjosh.in/profile/4a691de0-aaeb-4143-9ec0-fbd20886a824?u=0xd62361470b08cd6a

Out of the ten creators, seven creators took part in the Walk & Sync round where they had to upload a video showing three different styles of walks in three different pieces of music. After this, a one-on-one personal interview round was held with the creators and the jury where they learned more about the upcoming rounds and talked about their journey.

Josh is leaving no stone unturned to give the maximum spotlight to its talented creators. In addition, an exclusive interview with all the ten creators will soon be up on Boldsky youtube channel.

Hitting the headlines, two Josh creators - Dipti Sharma and Taranjeet Singh - qualified for Top 20 and they are all slated to compete with other contestants from Aug 8-10 in Mumbai.

Speaking of our Top 2 Josh Creators, Dipti Sharma is a celebrated Beauty & Lifestyle Blogger from Jaipur, Rajasthan, who has managed to create quite a fan base with her videos on social media. Taranjeet, another dedicated Josh creator, hailing from Jharkhand, has won millions of hearts on social media with his transition videos also featuring his family members.

Dipti and Taranjeet expressed their gratitude to Josh for giving them such a huge platform to showcase their talent. They said, "Being on Josh is like being on the World Stage, they constantly provide us with amazing opportunities. We have come a long way, thanks to all the support Josh app provided us. The creator community feels like family, thank you Josh"

The finale round is slated to take place at a posh resort in Mumbai on August 10. Adding to the celebrations, Josh Kol and celebrated influencer and model Bhumika Modi will also be part of the jury at the finale. Josh is encouraging its creator community to witness and support fellow Top 2 Creators, ten Mumbai-based creators will be attending the event and Josh music artist Chirag Chopra will also perform live.

Why wait, join Josh app now and get more such amazing opportunities while you are entertained!
Seema Haider Lappu Sa Sachin: Remember the lady who gained widespread attention for her rant, coining the term "lappu sa Sachin," while she expressed anger over the cross-border love tale of Seema Haider and Sachin Meena?

Well, that very rant went viral on social media, and now it has been transformed into a song by music producer Yashraj Mukhate. Yashraj is known for making songs out of viral videos or dialogues that get traction on social media.

Viral Seema Haider Cross Border Love Story Rant 'Lappu Sa Sachin' Gets Musical Twist By Yashraj Mukhate

Talking about Seema Haider, the Pakistani woman has been making headlines since July 2023, after she crossed borders to meet her love Sachin in India. Sachin is a resident of Greater Noida, and they both fell for each other while playing PUBG.

And now, Mukhate has given a musical twist to the popular meme "Lappu sa Sachin". A short clip of Sachin's neighbour went viral on the internet, wherein she was disgusted by the couple and claimed that there was nothing extraordinary about the man. Seema crossed the border to stay with him.

The lady used the phrase "lappu sa Sachin" in her rant, which has now been converted into a track by Yashraj Mukhate. Sharing the video a few hours ago, we see Yashraj making a tune out of the woman's dialogue while he is singing as well. "Lappu sa Sachin," he captioned the post.

Pakistani Woman Seema Haider To Make Her Entry In Bollywood, Set To Play RAW Agent? Here's What We Know

The video has been viewed over 4 lakh times and received 58,000 likes.

Here's how internet users reacted to the song

Many fans took to the comment section and expressed their views on the song. One said, "Omg, you turned this into a romantic track." A second user added, "You are too good."

A third commented, "To all Sachins out there, keep calm and enjoy this melody," while one wrote, "Was waiting for your version."

Watch the video below:-

Seema Haider and Sachin Meena cross border love story

30-year-old Pakistan national Seema Haider, who is a mother of four, fell in love with an Indian man, Sachin Meena, 22, in 2019 while playing the online game PUBG. The woman crossed the border to unite with Sachin in India. She also brought her kids along.

Pakistani National Seema Haider Dance Video Goes VIRAL After Illegal Immigration To Meet PUBG Lover. WATCH

She illegally travelled to India through Nepal, where she met Sachin and got married as per Hindu rituals. Reportedly, she has converted to Hinduism. She was arrested in July, and since then, she has been under police radar as she is suspected of being an ISI agent.
Anirudh Ravichander's Tweet About Jailer: Rockstar Anirudh Ravichander posted a symbolic tweet after watching Jailer. Fans are getting super hyped with great hope on Rajinikanth's Jailer now.

Stellar Cast In Cameo Roles

Jailer is a film directed by Nelson Dilip Kumar starring Rajinikanth, Mohanlal, Shiva Rajkumar, Jackie Shroff, Sunil, Vinayakan, Yogi Babu, Ramya Krishnan, Vasanth Ravi, Tamannaah and many others. Produced by Sun Pictures with music composed by Anirudh, the film will release worldwide on 10th August.

Jailer   Anirudh Ravichander (@anirudhofficial) August 4, 2023

A police officer rescues his son from a gang, is said to be the film's one line. It stars Rajinikanth as a retired jailer. Despite the action mood of the film, everyone hope that Nelson Dilipkumar will give the film mixed with dark comedy in his own style.

The trailer of the film confirms it. At the very beginning of the trailer, Sunil makes us laugh by asking if they need any donation when the person says "We are from CBI". And all of Rajini's action sequences are spectacular in the trailer.

Anirudh's Metaphorical Jailer Tweet

Rajini plays the role of Muthuvel Pandyan as everyone knows. While Mohanlal is said to have less than 15 minutes of screen space in the film, Tamannaah will appear as a Telugu actress in the film. It is worth noting that the main villain of the film is Malayalam actor Vinayakan despite the presence of Pan India stars.

In such a situation, Anirudh shares a simple tweet about Jailer movie with a hidden meaning in a symbolic way. He just said, "Jailer" with emojies such as collision, trophy and rasing hands. Fans are expressing their happiness in the comment section. On of them said, "First ever review for a movie before a week and that too from Ani. Every second is a pain with joy now to wait and watch see Thalaivar on screen."
Jailer Malayalam Movie Director Sakkir Madathil Protests Against Rajini Film: Actor Rajinikanth's Jailer is all set to release in theaters on August 10th not only in Tamil Nadu but also in Kerala, Karnataka and many other states in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi languages.

Jailer Stars In Promotional Activites

The promotions of this film directed by Nelson Dilipkumar have been going on in full swing for the past few weeks. The actors of the film, Tamannaah, Vasant Ravi, Sunil and others are giving subsequent interviews.

The songs of Jailer composed by Anirudh have also been released and have impressed the fans. Tamannaah's song Kaavaalaa along with Rajinikanth in this film has received huge response. Tamannaah has been enthralling her fans by dancing to this song in the shows she participates in.

As the film is releasing as a pan India film, director Nelson roped in excellent actors from every language. In that way, Mohanlal from Malayalam has played an important character in Jailer. Mohanlal is not featured in the Jailer trailer. So his character in the film is expected to be a surprise traet for fans.

40 Screens For Malayalam Jailer & 400 Screens For Tamil Jailer In Kerala

In this case, a movie named Jailer has been made in Malayalam directed by Sakkir Madathil. Sakkir had requested Sun Pictures to change the title of Rajini's film saying that if Rajini's Jailer is released in the same time, the collection of his film Jailer will be affected.

But this request was rejected by Sun Pictures. After that, Sakkir told the media that his future is based on this film, he has lost all his assets and made this film, and Rajini should take appropriate action on this issue. But actor Rajinikanth did not show any reaction on this matter. In this case, Tamil Jailer and Malayalam Jailer will be released simultaneously on August 10.

It is important to note that Rajinikanth's Jailer featuring Mohanlal has been allotted 400 theaters in Kerala. But Sakkir's Jailer has been allotted only 40 screens, and Sakkir is currently protesting at the streets before film chamber with banners saying 'Save Malayalam Cinema'.
Dufry International AG / Key word(s): Half Year Results

Dufry delivers strong results with Turnover of CHF 5.7 billion, 31.5% Organic Growth, and successfully completes Autogrill combination



04-Aug-2023 / 06:30 CET/CEST

Release of an ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 LR

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.



AD HOC ANNOUNCEMENT PURSUANT TO ART. 53 LR Dufry reports continued growth and strong performance with its first half 2023 results, delivering on all performance indicators. Autogrill was successfully delisted in July, coming together as One Team. Dufry reconfirms the announced synergies while executing its Destination 2027 strategy to deliver long-term sustainable performance. FURTHER HIGHLIGHTS: CORE Turnover 1 reached CHF 5,715.2 million, with a combined Organic Growth of 31.5% versus 2022

Reported Turnover of CHF 5,823.6 million achieved by the consolidated business

Underlying momentum for travel into HY2, with July Turnover (periodic) estimated at plus 17.0% versus 2022 and plus 4.7% versus 2019 for the combined Group 2

Delivering CORE EBITDA of CHF 491.8 million, with an 8.6% margin, and Operating Profit of CHF 322.0 million

Strong cash flow performance with Operating Cash Flow of CHF 1,091.5 million and Equity Free Cash Flow (EFCF) of CHF 165.1 million Xavier Rossinyol, CEO of Dufry Group, commented: "Today's results underline the solid performance of Dufry and Autogrill and, even more, our potential as One Company. They are an early indication of what we can achieve when acting as One Team, united by a shared vision and led by clear objectives. Together, we have delivered another strong set of results, driven by an uninterrupted demand for travel and the outstanding execution of our teams. Dufry and Autogrill achieved CHF 5,715.2 million CORE Turnover as a combined company, while our CORE EBITDA margin stood at 8.6%, based on our sales performance, our disciplined approach to costs, and the merger synergies. Conversion from EBITDA to Equity Free Cash Flow reached 34%, partly supported by CAPEX phasing into the second half of the year. Supported by our results, we believe profitability and cash flow in 2023 will be ahead of forecast with a 30 to 40bps better than expected EBITDA margin and EFCF conversion in the mid-twenties. We say this with prudence; our teams continue to closely monitor any potential changes in business climate and consumer sentiment, and we remain disciplined in our approach to new business development as well as cost and cash management. We are rapidly advancing on the integration and have successfully concluded the combination with Autogrill, delisting the company from the Italian Stock Exchange. We have defined the combined Group's organization, ways of working and we are well on track to generate the cost synergies. The benefits of combining our expertise are starting to show; we are offering innovative and hybrid concepts in our tenders, as seen in Spain most recently, where we retain our position as leading travel experience operator. Destination 2027 can be seen across the world. From our winning proposal in Spain through to new store openings from Jordan to Brazil, as well as through the launch of new concepts such as mind. body. soul. and Haute Parfumerie, we are changing the way travellers experience retail and F&B. What is truly exciting is that these are early examples of our innovation concepts; we are just beginning to unleash our potential. Behind the scenes we are working on even bigger opportunities, making our stores even more fun, more vibrant, and smarter, adding live events and gamification elements in our customer experience. All to generate value for our shareholders, for our customers, for our concession and brand partners, and for our Company. The combined Group is also more diversified, both geographically and on business segments, creating scope to address projects on Duty Free, Duty Paid and F&B, as well as exploring combined and hybrid initiatives. Together, we will further accelerate our ESG engagement - visible in our day-to-day operations globally - and are in a position to make a difference for customers, our employees and the communities we work in. With all of these developments, I see our talented people at the centre once again. I thank our employees - every one of the over 60,000 - for their motivation and dedication to our day-to-day, and most importantly for their commitment to brighten the journeys of our travellers. Our onward journey remains clear; by revolutionizing the travel experience globally we will continue along our growth trajectory and reinforce our track record of delivery." FINANCIAL SUMMARY Dufry reports continued growth and resilient demand throughout the first half of 2023. Consolidated Turnover reached CHF 5,823.6 million, and CORE Turnover (excluding fuel sales) 5,715.2 million, translating to CORE Organic Growth of 31.5% for the combined Group against first half 2022, which was still impacted by Covid-related restrictions on travel. New concessions (net) contributed positively with 2.7%. Currency effects on CORE Turnover augmented to -4.7% for the period, mainly related to USD, EUR and GBP. CORE Turnover Growth HY 2023 versus HY 2022 Proforma3 HY 2023 versus HY 2022 HY 2022 versus HY 2021 Like for Like 28.8% 32.7% 143.6% New concessions, net 2.7% 2.8% 3.6% Organic Growth 31.5% 35.5% 147.2% Change in Scope - 65.1% - Growth (CER)4 31.5% 100.6% 147.2% FX Impact -4.7% -4.9% -1.0% Growth (AER)5 26.7% 95.7% 146.2%



The combined Group benefited from a balanced split of business lines. Duty-free accounted for 38% of net sales, duty-paid for 31% and F&B for 31%. The airport channel contributed 82% in a more diversified portfolio including motorways, railways, ferries, cruise ships, ports and other channels. Reported Gross Profit stood at CHF 3,685.8 million and CORE Gross Profit at CHF 3,679.4 million, with a CORE margin of 64.4% for HY 2023 versus 63.7% (proforma) in HY 2022. The improvement was supported by solid consumer demand, mix effects as well as active and improved commercial management. CORE EBITDA for the first half of 2023 came in strongly with CHF 491.8 million, at a margin of 8.6% above prior years' levels of 7.9% (proforma), driven by higher CORE Turnover and CORE Gross Profit, cost discipline considering the challenging macro-environment, and synergies from the merger. Dufry's CORE Operating and net results reflect lower D&A due to prior year pandemic related impairments as well as lower depreciation of PP&E due to lower CAPEX spend. CORE EBIT reached CHF 343.9 million and CORE Net Profit to equity holders CHF 124.0 million. Diluted CORE Earnings per share stood at CHF 1.01. Looking at IFRS results, Operating Profit improved to CHF 322.0 million in HY 2023. Reported Net Profit to equity holders stood at CHF -27.6 million and diluted Earnings per share at CHF -0.23. Dufry's positive P&L results also translated into its cash flow, with Operating Cash Flow reaching CHF 1,091.5 million for the first six months of the year. EFCF amounted to CHF 165.1 million versus CHF 200.4 million for the combined business in 2022. The solid performance was driven by strong CORE EBITDA as well as CAPEX phasing into the second half, and despite neutral working capital changes versus an inflow of CHF 60.6 million (proforma) related to the recovery pattern during HY 2022. CAPEX came in at 3.2% of CORE Turnover during HY; Dufry confirms CAPEX expectation of around 4% in the mid-term, with some CAPEX moving from HY1 to HY2 this year. The combined Group's net debt stood at CHF 2,805 million as of end-June 2023. Available liquidity amounted to CHF 2,814.3 million, including CHF 1,006.9 million in cash and cash equivalents and CHF 1,807.4 million undrawn debt under its Revolving Credit Facility (RCF) at the end of June 2023. During HY, Dufry used the RCF's "Accordion" feature for increased flexibility and to on-board some of Autogrill's lending banks alongside Dufry's existing providers. In this way, Dufry increased the facility by overall CHF 576.5 million (EUR 590 million) by the end of June 2023. The same terms and conditions as the initial RCF amount apply. During the first half 2023, Dufry obtained rating upgrades from both S&P Global Ratings and Moody's Investors Service based on the company's strong performance, the continued momentum as well as the successful completion of the business combination with Autogrill. S&P Global Ratings upgraded Dufry's credit rating to BB, Outlook Stable in July, following an earlier upgrade received already in March. Moody's Investors Service upgraded Dufry's credit rating to Ba3 with Outlook Positive in April. Reconciliation of Dufry's Alternative Performance Measures and IFRS figures are provided in the Half-Year 2023 Report here .

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS Dufry sees strong demand for Travel Retail and F&B into the start of the second half of the year, in line with steady demand for travel and validating the Group's confidence in its near-term outlook. The company estimates July Turnover performance of 17.0% versus 2022 (proforma, CER) and of plus 4.7% versus 2019 (proforma, CER). Dufry expects continued positive developments throughout 2023 based on current trading and visibility on consumer behaviour. At the same time, the Company continues monitoring potential changes in the macro-economic environment, operational challenges and impacts on consumer sentiment and travel-related spending. Dufry has successfully closed the business combination with Autogrill, now owning 100% of Autogrill shares and having ultimately delisted the company from the Italian Stock Exchange. As of July 24, 2023, Dufry's number of Swiss Stock Exchange (SIX) registered ordinary shares amounts to 150,522,138. The integration process began in February following the transfer of Edizione's 50.3% stake. Dufry confirms run-rate cost synergies of CHF 85 million, now already being fully delivered in 2024. In 2023, in-year synergies of CHF 30 million will already be executed. Integration-related costs amount to CHF 50 million only, expected to be equally split between 2023 and 2024. With ESG continuing as a core pillar in its long-term strategy, Dufry maintains its focus on strengthening its sustainability impacts around People, Communities and Planet, and has now fully integrated F&B in its ongoing stakeholder engagement, materiality assessment and strategy redefinition. Further ESG information is provided in the Sustainability part of Dufry's website . REGIONAL PERFORMANCE



With the consolidation of Autogrill as of February 2023, Dufry amended its segment reporting to four regions in line with its leadership and management structure: Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), North America (NA), Latin America (LATAM) and Asia-Pacific (APAC). Within the regions, India and Sri Lanka became part of APAC (versus EMEA previously); Advertising Income is allocated to the regions. CORE Turnover, in CHF million HY 2023 HY 2022 Reported Growth vs 2022 FX Impact vs 2022 Organic Growth vs 2022 Organic Growth Proforma6 vs 2022 Europe, Middle East and Africa 2,744.9 1,463.6 87.5% -5.4% 38.0% 34.2% North America 1,865.1 741.0 151.7% -4.5% 22.4% 21.6% LATAM 776.5 579.6 34.0% -3.9% 39.4% 39.4% Asia Pacific 284.8 76.6 271.8% -9.5% 220.1% 168.3% Distribution Centers 43.9 61.8 -29.0% -0.4% -28.8% -28.8% Dufry Group 5,715.2 2,922.5 95.6% -4.9% 35.5% 31.5%

CORE Turnover, in CHF million Q2 2023 Q2 2022 Reported Growth vs 2022 FX Impact vs 2022 Organic Growth vs 2022 Organic Growth Proforma7 vs 2022 Europe, Middle East and Africa 1,699.3 957.8 77.4% -5.8% 26.8% 25.0% North America 1,083.5 442.9 144.6% -7.2% 14.1% 14.0% LATAM 400.2 325.3 23.0% -6.9% 32.1% 32.1% Asia Pacific 153.7 45.0 241.6% -8.9% 180.9% 151.9% Distribution Centers 19.3 33.0 -41.5% -0.6% -40.4% -40.4% Dufry Group 3,355.9 1,804.0 86.0% -6.3% 25.5% 22.6%

Reported Turnover in Europe, Middle East and Africa amounted to CHF 2,853.4 million, CORE Turnover8 to CHF 2,744.9 million in HY 2023, resulting in combined Organic Growth of 34.2% year-on-year (yoy). The EMEA region's continued healthy performance was largely driven by leisure demand, with special attention on holiday traffic in South Europe, Middle East and Africa. UK, Northern and Central Europe also contributed positively. Dufry confirmed its position as best partner for Spanish airport operator, Aena, having been awarded operations at Andalusia-Mediterranean, the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, Catalonia and Madrid for a period of twelve years, including a total of 21 airports, and representing 100% of the lots tendered for, reinforcing its presence in Spain. Further, Dufry succeeded in winning or extending retail and F&B concessions at other airports including Helsinki Airport (Finland) and Hamad International Airport (Doha; F&B joint venture with Qatar Airways), as well as celebrating openings at, among others, Rome Fiumicino Airport (Italy) , Milan Malpensa Airport (Italy) , Dusseldorf Airport (Germany) and across The Netherlands. North America's Turnover stood at CHF 1,865.1 million in HY 2023, with Combined Organic Growth of 21.6% yoy. The main performance driver was the strong domestic market in the United States, while Canada continued to be impacted by lower levels of Chinese travellers. In retail, a new Hudson Nonstop, powered by Amazon's Just Walk Out technology, opened in Washington Dulles International Airport (USA), bringing the total number of Hudson Nonstop stores to nine. In F&B, openings included Toronto Pearson International Airport (Canada) , Daniel K. Inouye International Airport, Hawaii , LaGuardia Airport and Jacksonville International Airport (all USA) . Additionally, Dufry was awarded a new long-term duty-free contract for Boston Logan International Airport , along with an extension for its duty-paid business there, and was awarded long-term contracts for both retail and F&B at Oakland International Airport (all USA). Latin America Turnover stood at CHF 776.5 million in HY 2023 with combined Organic Growth of 39.4% yoy. Best performing markets were Argentina, positively impacted by local currency developments, as well as Mexico and the Caribbean. Brazil saw an upside trend as well. The cruise business continued to recover. New or extended concessions include Vitoria Airport (Brazil) , where Dufry opened its new duty-paid store, after signing a ten-year contract. Following the easing of restrictions in China at the beginning of the year, Asia-Pacific saw a significant improvement from its previous year's low base. China's re-opening started to benefit from domestic and intra-regional travel, with international travel remaining temporarily impacted by capacity constraints and backlogs in passport issuance. Hong Kong was among the best performing regions. Turnover reached CHF 284.8 million in HY 2023 with combined Organic Growth of 168.3% yoy. New, newly opened or extended concessions include new stores at Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport (China) as well as operations in Bangalore (India), Bali (Indonesia) and Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia). For the HY 2023 Results Presentation, the HY 2023 financial tables, the Conference Call access and other related information, please visit our dedicated page: https://www.dufry.com/en/HY23 IFRS / CORE Profit or Loss statement IFRS 6M 2023 Adjustments CORE 6M 2023 CORE Proforma9

6M 2022 CORE Reported

6M 202210 IN MILLIONS OF CHF Acquisition

related Leases Fuel sales Net sales 5,731.6 - - -108.4 5,623.2 4,446.7 2,854.6 Advertising income 92.0 - - - 92.0 67.9 67.9 Turnover 5,823.6 - - -108.4 5,715.2 4,514.5 2,922.5 Cost of sales -2,137.8 - - 102.0 -2,035.8 -1,636.7 -1,143.6 Gross profit 3,685.8 - - -6.4 3,679.4 2,877.9 1,778.9 % Margin 63.3% - - - 64.4% 63.7% 60.9% Leases expenses (IFRS) / Concession expenses (CORE) -841.3 - -594.2 - -1,435.5 -1,096.3 -858.0 % Turnover -14.4% - - - -25.1% -24.3% -29.4% Personnel expenses -1,167.9 - - - -1,167.9 -962.9 -440.7 % Turnover -20.1% - - - -20.4% -21.3% -15.1% Depreciation and amortization -804.6 116.0 688.6 - - - - % Turnover -13.8% - - - - - - (Impairment) / Reversal of impairment, net 21.5 -31.2 9.7 - - - - % Turnover 0.4% - - - - - - Other expenses, net (IFRS) / Other expenses, net (CORE) -571.5 13.0 -32.1 6.4 -584.2 -460.6 -253.2 % Turnover -9.8% - - - -10.2% -10.2% -8.7% Operating profit / CORE EBITDA 322.0 97.8 72.0 - 491.8 358.0 227.0 % Margin 5.5% 8.6% 7.9% 7.8% Depreciation, amortization and impairment (CORE) - - -147.9 - -147.9 -159.0 -67.2 Operating profit / CORE EBIT 322.0 97.8 -75.9 - 343.9 199.0 159.8 % Margin 5.5% - - 6.0% 4.4% 5.5% Financial result -248.6 15.7 150.0 - -82.9 -63.6 -55.0 Profit before Taxes/CORE Profit before Taxes 73.4 113.5 74.1 - 261.0 135.4 104.8 % Margin 1.3% 4.6% 3.0% 3.6% Income tax -34.8 -20.0 -11.7 - -66.5 -42.2 -28.5 % Profit before Taxes/CORE Profit before Taxes -47.4% - - - -25.5% -31.2% -27.2% Net Profit/CORE Net Profit 38.6 93.5 62.4 - 194.5 93.2 76.3 Non-controlling interests -66.2 -2.0 -2.4 - -70.6 -50.9 -33.3 % Net Profit/CORE Net Profit -171.5% -36.3% -54.6% -43.6% Net Profit/CORE Net Profit to equity holders of the parent -27.6 91.5 60.1 - 124.0 42.3 43.0 Basic Earnings/CORE Basic Earnings per share (in CHF) -0.23 - - 1.02 - 0.47 Diluted Earnings/CORE Diluted Earnings per share (in CHF) -0.23 - - 1.01 - 0.47 Cash Flow11 HY 2023 HY 2022 Proforma12 HY 2022

Reported in CHF million CORE EBITDA 491.8 358.0 227.0 Other non-cash items and changes in lease obligation 25.4 27.8 23.3 Changes in net working capital 26.1 60.6 88.6 Capital expenditures -184.6 -125.4 -46.7 Cash flow related to minorities -34.5 -40.9 -22.6 Income taxes paid -33.4 -12.9 -13.0 Cash flow before financing 290.9 267.2 256.7 Interest, net and other financing items -125.8 -66.8 -60.0 Equity free cash flow 165.1 200.4 196.7 Acquisition & financing activities, net13 -116.1 - 0.0 Transaction costs -28.7 - - FX effect on net debt and other non-cash items -14.9 - -20.7 Decrease/ (Increase) in Financial net debt 5.4 - 176.1 Net Debt - Beginning of the period 2,810.8 - 3,079.5 - End of the period 2,805.4 - 2,903.4

Note: Reconciliation of Dufry's Alternative Performance Measures mentioned in this news release are disclosed in Half-Year Report 2023, pages I-VI, published on Dufry's website

All 2022 proforma figures for the combined Group within this release are approximations, not audited, not reviewed 1CORE Turnover is excluding net sales from motorway fuel business; income from fuel sales included in CORE other operating income

2Combined Organic Growth (proforma) assuming Autogrill consolidated from February 2022 onwards for the comparable period 3Proforma assuming Autogrill consolidated from February 2022 onwards for the comparable period 4CER Constant Exchange Rate 5AER Actual Exchange Rate 6Proforma assuming Autogrill consolidated from February 2022 onwards for the comparable period 7Proforma assuming Autogrill consolidated from February 2022 onwards for the comparable period 8Fuel net sales part of EMEA; in all other regions reported and CORE Turnover are identical 9Proforma assuming Autogrill consolidated from February 2022 onwards for the comparable period 102022 reconciliation provided in Dufry's HY 2023 report pages I-VI 11IFRS reconciliation provided in Dufry's HY 2023 report pages I-VI 12Proforma assuming Autogrill consolidated from February 2022 onwards for the comparable period; HY 2022 excluding Dufry and Autogrill one-off MAG relief of CHF -78 million and Autogrill US tax refund of CHF -90 million 13Acquisition & Financing activities, net consist mainly of the acquisition of net debt from Autogrill, the cash portion of the MTO consideration and purchases of treasury shares For further information:



CONTACT

DR. KRISTIN KOHLER RENZO RADICE Global Head Investor Relations Global Head Corporate Phone: +41 79 563 18 09 Communications & Public Affairs kristin.koehler@dufry.com Phone: +41 61 266 44 19 renzo.radice@dufry.com

End of Inside Information
BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - German real estate services company Vonovia SE (VONOY) on Friday reported that its second-quarter funds from operations edged down from last year, while net result was a loss compared to prior year's profit, despite higher revenues. The company also confirmed its full year FFO and revenue guidance. The second-quarter funds from operations or FFO decreased 0.3 percent to 502.2 million euros from 503.5 million euros last year. FFO per share declined 2.6 percent to 0.62 euro per share from 0.63 per share a year ago. The company reported a loss of 2.042 billion euros, compared to earnings of 1.812 billion euros for the same period last year. Quarterly adjusted EBITDA increased to 681.2 million euros from 677.1 million for the same period last year. Segment revenue grew 1.5 percent to 1.495 billion euros from 1.473 billion euros. Looking ahead to the full year, the company continues to expect Group FFO to range between around 1.75 billion euros and 1.95 billion euros, and EBTIDA to range between 2.6 billion euros and 2.85 billion euros. It still forecasts revenue between 6.4 billion euros and 7.2 billion euros. On Thursday, shares of Vonovia closed at 20.58 euros up 1.28% on the Xetra stock exchange. Copyright(c) 2023 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Regulatory News:

TotalEnergies (Paris:TTE) (LSE:TTE) (NYSE:TTE) and its partner SOCAR (State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan) have signed an agreement to sell a 15% participating interest each in the Absheron gas field to ADNOC (Abu Dhabi National Oil Company).

After completion of this transaction, which is subject to the approval by the relevant authorities, TotalEnergies will own a 35% interest in Absheron gas field, alongside SOCAR (35%) and ADNOC (30%).

Absheron gas and condensate field is located in the Caspian Sea and operated by JOCAP (Joint Operating Company of Absheron Petroleum).

"TotalEnergies is pleased to welcome ADNOC, one of its strategic partners, into the Absheron gas field, where production of the first phase started in early July, and which offers a significant further development potential to meet the growing gas demand", said Nicolas Terraz, President, Exploration Production at TotalEnergies.

About TotalEnergies in Azerbaijan

TotalEnergies has been present in Azerbaijan since 1996, where it is a 50% partner of SOCAR in the Absheron gas and condensate field and holds a 5% stake in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline.

About TotalEnergies

TotalEnergies is a global multi-energy company that produces and markets energies: oil and biofuels, natural gas and green gases, renewables and electricity. Our 100,000 employees are committed to energy that is ever more affordable, cleaner, more reliable and accessible to as many people as possible. Active in nearly 130 countries, TotalEnergies puts sustainable development in all its dimensions at the heart of its projects and operations to contribute to the well-being of people

@TotalEnergies -TotalEnergies -TotalEnergiesTotalEnergies

Cautionary Note

The terms "TotalEnergies", "TotalEnergies company" or "Company" in this document are used to designate TotalEnergies SE and the consolidated entities that are directly or indirectly controlled by TotalEnergies SE. Likewise, the words "we", "us" and "our" may also be used to refer to these entities or to their employees. The entities in which TotalEnergies SE directly or indirectly owns a shareholding are separate legal entities. This document may contain forward-looking information and statements that are based on a number of economic data and assumptions made in a given economic, competitive and regulatory environment. They may prove to be inaccurate in the future and are subject to a number of risk factors. Neither TotalEnergies SE nor any of its subsidiaries assumes any obligation to update publicly any forward-looking information or statement, objectives or trends contained in this document whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Information concerning risk factors, that may affect TotalEnergies' financial results or activities is provided in the most recent Universal Registration Document, the French-language version of which is filed by TotalEnergies SE with the French securities regulator Autorite des Marches Financiers (AMF), and in the Form 20-F filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230804851965/en/

Contacts:

TotalEnergies

Media Relations: +33 (0)1 47 44 46 99 l presse@totalenergies.com l @TotalEnergiesPR

Investor Relations: +33 (0)1 47 44 46 46 l ir@totalenergies.com
TAIZHOU, China, Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- When planning a trip to China, people must have a lot of imagination and expectations for the colorful experiences that this ancient country with vast territory and abundant resources can offer:

They might want to visit the scenic mountains and rivers and feel the poetic vibe depicted in traditional Chinese ink paintings;

They might want to trace the origins of traditional Chinese culture and learn more about the oriental philosophy that values harmony while cherishing diversity;

They might want to wander in the quaint old streets to get a glimpse into the historical sites that are not overshadowed by the bustling modern city;

Or They might want to go on a gourmet tour of China, eating all the best local delicacies along the way.

The advice is 'Come to Taizhou!' This city, located in east China's Zhejiang Province, can almost single-handedly fulfill the bucket list of global travelers for a satisfying trip to China.

Taizhou has both coastal and mountainous regions. It's home to three national 5A-level tourist attractions, namely Tiantai Mountain, Shenxianju scenic area and Taizhou's ancient city, 17 national 4A-level tourist attractions, one world geological park, three national wetland parks and four national scenic spots. Besides, it has a beautiful coastline of 726 kilometers connecting three beautiful bays, which offers diverse impressive scenery, according to Global Communication Center of Hehe Culture.

This is a city full of oriental romance.

For one thing, Taizhou's name is closely related to China's long-standing and sophisticated star culture. In ancient China, people divided the corresponding areas on the ground according to the positions of the stars in the sky, and the place where Taizhou is located corresponds to Tai Star in the traditional Chinese 28 stars, hence its name.

For another, Tiantai Mountain, located in north Taizhou, is an important cradle of Chinese harmony culture as well as the birthplace of Tiantai sect of Buddhism and southern sect of Taoism in China.

Three different philosophical schools of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism have learned from each other here since ancient times, forming a unique cultural harmonious symbiosis, which is still evident today in the echoing bells of Buddhism and Taoism temples in the mountain.

During the Tang Dynasty, Han Shanzi, a poet, and Shi De, a monk of Guoqing Temple, once lived in seclusion here. The former's poems were translated into many languages and were once a hit in Japan, Europe and America.

Although they are not from a family, they have developed brotherly relations, leaving many moving poems and legends. They have been named Hehe Gods by a Qing Dynasty emperor, which later became the symbol of the Hehe culture with far-reaching influence at home and abroad.

Meanwhile, Taizhou is known for a rich poetry legacy. In the Tang Dynasty (618-907), one of the peaks of Chinese poetry culture, more than 300 poets came here, either asking for meditation or seclusion. They sang their aspirations and expressed their feelings by depicting local scenery, leaving behind more than 1,400 majestic poems, leaving a historic "Tang Dynasty poetry corridor" in eastern Zhejiang.

Li Bai, probably the best-known Chinese poet, is one of the literati who lingered in Taizhou.

"Clad in rainbow garments, riding on the wind, come the queens of all the clouds, descending one by one. With tigers for their lute-players and phoenixes for dancers. Row upon row, like fields of hemp, range the fairy figures."

These fantastic and colorful scenes are not just in Li Bai's dreams, but could well be found in Taizhou's Shenxianju scenic spot. With a unique geological structure, Shenxianju is the largest volcanic rhyolite landform cluster in the world, which can offer a feeling of being in a fairyland as its Chinese name suggests.

If people prefer to explore ancient buildings and street life, Taizhou's ancient city, which has a history of more than 1,600 years, will definitely impress them.

A 5,000-meter-long Taizhou ancient city wall meanders along the lush green trees and a winding river, representing a beautiful style different from the Great Wall in Beijing.

Under the city wall, Ziyang Street, an ancient street running through the ancient city, boasts time-honored charm and buzz. It used to be the most prosperous commercial district, and has maintained the street pattern and the architectural style in ancient times. Various old-fashioned shops are interspersed among them, and walking through them makes one feel like walking into ancient China.

And of course, food is an indispensable element of travel.

Taizhou is one of the emerging best food destinations of China's top online travel agency Trip.com in 2022. There are not only glutinous snacks such as black rice sesame cake, rice cake roll and plum-shape cake and sweet fruits like Yongquan Township's tangerine, Yuhuan County's grapefruit and Xianju County's bayberry to replenish energy for travelers at any time, but also fresh delicacies from mountains and seas to satisfy picky taste buds.

In recent years, Taizhou cuisine has gained reputation and popularity among diners all over the country and even the world thanks to its unique local fresh and sweet tastes. The first three-star Michelin Chinese restaurant in Chinese mainland was born here, and Taizhou restaurant Xinrongji with 49 Michelin stars and 72 black pearls and diamonds has become the top-rated Chinese restaurant, and it is so popular that it's often difficult to grab a seat.

In addition, Taizhou is also a unique and charming health resort. The city offers poetic, scenic, romantic and even educational stays thanks to its diverse culture and landscape, and all these stays will bring both mental and physical comfort and pleasure.

A sound China trip should not only offer a taste of local beautiful scenery, nice food and charming culture, but also a tempo of modernization. Taizhou is one of the cities with the most economic vitality and innovative steam in China, an excellent tourist city in China and a national civilized city, and has been rated as one of the happiest Chinese cities for seven times.

Taizhou's "No.1 Highway" under construction is a highly recommendable route for a road trip into China. This beautiful road with a total length of about 270 kilometers passes through 6 cities, counties and districts, offering a view of natural coastal landscape, island parks, pastoral villages, and cultural sites.

Home to mountains and seas, cultural relics and industrial clusters, ancient traces and modern spots, Taizhou is a perfect combination of China's scenic beauty, culinary pleasure, cultural charm and economic development. Travellers just won't regret paying a visit to Taizhou for a dream China trip.

Image Attachments Links:

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Caption: A fairyland-like part of Shenxianju scenic area & Guoqing Temple in Tiantai Mountain

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ROTHERHAM, UK / ACCESSWIRE / August 4, 2023 / The Black British Business Awards (BBBAwards) proudly announce the finalists for the 2023 ceremony, celebrating a decade of excellence in recognizing Black professionals and entrepreneurs in the United Kingdom. Among the distinguished nominees is Gail Waterman the founder of the renowned hair growth brand Watermans, shortlisted for the prestigious "Entrepreneur, Senior Leader of the Year" award.

The BBBAwards have long been acknowledged as the premier UK awards ceremony, honouring the exceptional contributions and achievements of Black talents across various industries. This year marks their 10th Anniversary, and the awards ceremony will take place at the InterContinental London, Park Lane, on 13th October.

Since its inception, the BBBAwards have spotlighted over 370 individuals and 80 organizations that epitomize Black excellence in business. The 2023 edition celebrates both rising stars and seasoned leaders across six categories, representing influential companies such as Netflix, Accenture, Sky, Farfetch, ASOS, LinkedIn, KPMG, and outstanding startups spanning diverse sectors, including publishing and healthcare.

Under the theme of WeAre, the BBBAwards this year highlight the collective power of the Black community and their Allies, working together to drive racial equity within British companies. The event serves as a testament to the remarkable journey of Black Britain, reflecting on their progress and envisioning a future of individual and collective growth.

Gail Waterman's nomination as a finalist in the "Entrepreneur Senior Leader of the Year" category is a testament to her tenacity and entrepreneurial spirit. Coming from humble beginnings in a UK south Yorkshire pit village called Elsecar, Gail encountered racism and narrow-mindedness as the community's only young girl of colour. Despite the challenges, Gail persisted, overcoming obstacles to rise as a successful entrepreneur.

As the visionary behind the globally acclaimed hair growth product Grow Me shampoo, Gail's dedication and hard work have transformed Watermans into a multimillion-dollar international brand. With sales occurring every 30 seconds worldwide, Watermans Hair Growth brand has become a symbol of triumph over adversity and a beacon of hope for aspiring entrepreneurs of colour.

Gail's inspiring journey exemplifies the resilience and determination of Black business leaders, breaking barriers and challenging stereotypes. She recalls her experiences in business meetings, where she faces astonishment when people discover her position as the owner of an international brand. Despite these encounters, Gail remains steadfast in her commitment to driving change and proving that success knows no boundaries.

The BBBAwards ceremony in 2023 promises to be a grand celebration of achievements, marked by its significance as a cornerstone of Black History Month in the UK. The event will be attended by esteemed business leaders, government officials, and influential figures of all races from across the nation.

Join us on 13th October at the InterContinental London, Park Lane, as we celebrate the outstanding contributions of Black professionals and entrepreneurs and honour Gail Waterman's remarkable journey as a finalist for the "Entrepreneur Senior Leader of the Year" award. More info about the Meet the BBBAwards finalists



Learn more about how Gail started and see the good Watermans do for others. Click Here

Contact:

Waterman Corporate Enterprises Ltd

Matt Waterman

pr@wceltd.com

https://watermanshair.com

SOURCE: Waterman Corporate Enterprises Ltd

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/772328/The-Black-British-Business-Awards-Reveal-2023-Finalist-Gail-Waterman-of-Watermans-Hair-Growth-Brand-Nominated-for
New York, New York--(Newsfile Corp. - August 4, 2023) - Making strides in the field of flexible packaging, Bloomflex has announced the launch of its latest innovative product, Bloom45. This consists of precision engineered modified atmosphere fresh produce packaging (MAP) and instructions on best post-harvest handling practices to ensure quality and sustainability.

Bloomflex

"Our team's determination for innovation has been crucial in creating Bloom45," says Abhilash Maruvada, Bloomflex LLC, Managing director & CEO. "Our post-harvest scientists work closely with our polymer and packaging engineers, as well as our customers, to create the most suitable packaging solution for each specific application."

Bloom45 is a potent solution that addresses a key issue in our food supply chain. "With our in-house extrusion capabilities, we create complex structures, providing diverse packaging options and with our expertise in agriculture supply chain combined with precise breathing rate mapping algorithms have helped us engineer solutions in various formats," adds Maruvada.

Bloomflex is an ISO 9001:2015 and BRC certified enterprise with a specialty in research and development, packing technology, and manufacturing. Founded in the year 2014 by the visionary founder Manasa Yeddula (Managing Director), subsequently joined by Abhilash Maruvada (CEO), Nikhil Maruvada (COO), the firm recently reported a combined revenue of rs 300 Crores INR ($35 Million USD approximately) with a growth rate of 22% Year-over-Year (YoY).

They manufacture precision engineered modified atmospheric bags, using powerful laser technology and real-time camera verification, designed to extend the freshness of produce. Their portfolio also includes a range of products like barrier, normal, breathable and laminate films, various labels, lidding films, weld sealed wicket bags, custom pouches, and shaped punch/handle bags.

About Bloomflex

Bloomflex is a pioneering packing technology company based in Hyderabad, India with presence across 5 continents leveraging IoT, Big Data, and machine learning in manufacturing to create products that significantly reduce food waste and streamline supply chain processes.

Their mission is to lead the packaging industry with groundbreaking solutions that promote sustainability and combat inefficiencies. At the heart of this vision lies a strong commitment to minimize environmental impact and support global sustainability objectives. The introduction of Bloom45 not only marks the debut of an innovative product, but also signifies their unwavering dedication to a future where packaging plays a vital role in preserving freshness for longer durations with innovative packaging helps in minimizing waste, making a significant contribution to global food security and sustainability.

Contact:

Name: Abhilash Maruvada

Email: sales@bloomflex.com

Website: https://bloomflex.com

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/175368
SAN JOSE, Calif. and LONDON and BENGALURU, India, Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Happiest Minds Technologies Limited (NSE: HAPPSTMNDS), a 'Born Digital. Born Agile', Mindful IT Company, today announced it has advanced in the ServiceNow Consulting and Implementation Partner Program to help organizations with their digital transformation needs. The partnership enables Happiest Minds to modernize and scale IT and Enterprise Service Management landscape for customers.

Happiest Minds' expertise, experience, and services will bring efficiency to customers' digital initiatives by enabling seamless adoption of ServiceNow. With support from the global stakeholders of ServiceNow coupled with Happiest Minds consulting-driven approach will demonstrate tangible ROI to drive ServiceNow adoption in existing and new customers.

Happiest Minds' ServiceNow MSP partnership (Premier Level) is poised to support customers in addressing multiple challenges in the market:

Value realization from IT and Enterprise Service Management implementations

Siloed processes and data impacting customer service & operational inefficiencies

Tools & process alignment as per ITIL and similar maturity frameworks

Lack of holistic and structured automation in IT and Enterprise workflows

As a Consulting and Implementation partner, Happiest Minds will deliver the following features of the ServiceNow platform to customers: IT Service Management, IT Operations Management, IT Asset Management, Security Management, Governance, Risk and Compliance, Security Operations Support, Customer Service Management, Low Code Application Development, Automation and Platform Operations.

Happiest Minds has successfully integrated the ServiceNow Platform as a core component of its ELLIPSE Platform - an AIOps-powered Managed Services Delivery Platform currently supporting more than 25 global customers. This integration enables Happiest Minds to efficiently deliver Enterprise Services leveraging a single platform. Given our focus on disruptive technologies & emerging areas like Low Code Application Platforms (LCAP), we are well positioned to help clients migrate their legacy custom applications builds to the ServiceNow LCAP solution - apart from leveraging our industry knowledge & solution accelerators. Customers also benefit from our deep services expertise in areas like GRC, to realize the expanded portfolio of offerings from ServiceNow.

Ram Mohan C, President & CEO, Infrastructure Management & Security Services (IMSS), Happiest Minds Technologies said, "We are delighted to announce the launch of the MSP partnership with ServiceNow. Happiest Minds' proven delivery and differentiated managed services delivery (MSP) model, coupled with ServiceNow's deep expertise, differentiated offerings, and solutions using new age modules like TPSM, GRC & SecOps, Automation, and App Engine, will help connect the customer ecosystem, enable proactive service delivery, and improve the customer experience. We believe this alliance will enable our customers to stay ahead of the curve by combining market-leading technology and Happiest Minds' proven global delivery capability."

Dinesh Ramachandran, SVP & Global Alliance Head, Happiest Minds Technologies said, "We are happy to be a global partner of ServiceNow to realize value faster, offer premium support, and use cutting-edge tools to guide our customers' digital transformation. Happiest Minds' focus on next-generation, disruptive technologies & data analytics, along with ServiceNow's highly scalable platform, will drive innovation and connect people, functions, and systems across organizations."

"Happiest Minds Technologies' expertise in next-generation product and platform engineering is essential to scaling and extending ServiceNow capabilities into new markets," said Tom Davasia, Senior Director - Global Partner Management, ServiceNow. "We are thrilled to partner with the team at Happiest Minds to deliver a seamless experience to address some of our customers' biggest digital transformation challenges."

About Happiest Minds Technologies:

Happiest Minds Technologies Limited (NSE: HAPPSTMNDS), a Mindful IT Company, enables digital transformation for enterprises and technology providers by delivering seamless customer experiences, business efficiency and actionable insights. We do this by leveraging a spectrum of disruptive technologies such as: artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud, digital process automation, internet of things, robotics/drones, security, virtual/augmented reality, etc. Positioned as 'Born Digital. Born Agile', our capabilities span digital solutions, infrastructure, product engineering and security. We deliver these services across industry sectors such as automotive, BFSI, consumer packaged goods, e-commerce, EduTech, engineering R&D, healthcare, hi-tech, manufacturing, retail, and travel/transportation/hospitality. The company has been recognized for its excellence in Corporate Governance practices by Golden Peacock and ICSI.A Great Place to Work-Certified company, Happiest Minds is headquartered in Bangalore, India with operations in the U.S., UK, Canada, Australia, and Middle East.

Media Contact: media@happiestminds.com

Disclaimer: ServiceNow, the ServiceNow logo, Now, Now Platform, and other ServiceNow marks are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of ServiceNow, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries.

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LAGOS, NIGERIA / ACCESSWIRE / August 4, 2023 / Jumia Technologies AG (NYSE:JMIA), ("Jumia"), today announced that it will release its results for the quarter ended June 30, 2023 before the U.S. market opens on Tuesday, August 15, 2023.

Management will host a conference call at 8:30 a.m. US Eastern Time on the same day.

Details of the conference call are as follows:

US Dial-in (Toll Free): 877-545-0523

International Dial-in: 973-528-0016

United Kingdom Toll Free: 0800 520 0845

Entry Code: 650734

A live webcast of the earnings conference call can be accessed on the Jumia Investor Relations website: https://investor.jumia.com/

An archived webcast will be available following the call.

Please visit the Investor Relations website to view the press release and accompanying slides ahead of the conference call.

About Jumia

Jumia is the leading pan-African e-commerce platform, present across 11 countries in Africa. Its mission is to improve the quality of everyday life in Africa by leveraging technology to deliver innovative, convenient and affordable online services to consumers, while helping businesses grow as they use Jumia's platform to better reach and serve consumers.

The Jumia platform consists of a marketplace, which connects sellers with consumers, a logistics service, which enables the shipment and delivery of packages from sellers to consumers, and a payment service, which facilitates transactions among participants active on the Jumia platform in selected markets.

On the marketplace, more than 100,000 sellers offer a broad range of goods and services.

Jumia Logistics facilitates the delivery of goods in a convenient and reliable way, leveraging an extensive network of third-party logistics service providers, seamlessly integrated through the Jumia proprietary technology platform.

JumiaPay offers a safe and easy solution to facilitate online payment transactions on the Jumia platform, with the intention of integrating additional financial services in the future.

Contacts

Safae Damir

Head of Investor Relations

investor-relations@jumia.com

Abdesslam Benzitouni

Head of PR and Communications

press@jumia.com

SOURCE: Jumia Technologies AG

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/772095/Jumia-to-Announce-Second-Quarter-2023-Results-on-August-15-2023
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / August 4, 2023 / CoTec Holdings Corp. (TSXV:CTH)(OTCQB:CTHCF) ("CoTec" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that Binding Solutions Limited ("BSL") has secured an additional investment of US$17.5 million from Australian based Mineral Resources Limited ("MinRes"). The fundraise was completed at a further significant increase to CoTec's previously reported investment value.

MinRes has a market capitalization of more than AUD13.5 billion and is a leading diversified resources company with extensive operations in lithium, iron ore, energy, and mining services across Western Australia.

BSL will use the funds to progress the design and construction of a demonstration plant capable of producing approximately 50 tonnes per hour of cold-bonded iron ore pellets applying its patented cold agglomeration technology.

Julian Treger, CoTec CEO commented; "We are very pleased with the progress at BSL. Obtaining an investment from MinRes, which has a demonstrated track record of working with leading multinational iron ore producers, is a further validation of their achievements to date. We look forward to the continued progress of rolling out the BSL technology to support the development of a sustainable, low carbon, green steel industry. The resulting uplift in the value of our BSL investment is expected to be reflected in our Q3 financial results."

"The continued strong performance of our investments emphasizes the disconnect between the intrinsic value of our portfolio and our market capitalization. CoTec's internal sum of the parts valuation significantly exceeds its market value at the current share price."

About CoTec

CoTec is an ESG-focused company investing in innovative technologies that have the potential to fundamentally change the way metals and minerals can be extracted and processed. The Company is committed to supporting the transition to a lower carbon future for the extraction industry, a sector on the cusp of a green revolution as it embraces technology and innovation. CoTec is a publicly traded mining issuer listed on the Toronto Venture Stock Exchange and the OTCQB and trades under the symbols CTH.V and CTHCF respectively.

For further information, please contact:

Braam Jonker - (604) 992-5600

Forward-Looking Information Cautionary Statement

Statements in this press release regarding the Company and its investments which are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties, including statements relating to management's expectations with respect to the BSL investment and other current and potential future investments and the benefits to the Company which may be implied from such statements. Since forward-looking statements address future events and conditions, by their very nature, they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results in each case could differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements. For further details regarding risks and uncertainties facing the Company please refer to "Risk Factors" in the Company's filing statement dated April 6, 2022, a copy of which may be found under the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com.

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.

SOURCE: CoTec Holdings Corp.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/772330/Binding-Solutions-Limited-Secures-US175m-Investment-at-Increased-Valuation
Surprisingly, recent data from Gallup has shown that a staggering 41% of students enrolled in postsecondary education programs have considered dropping out in the past six months.

MINNEAPOLIS, MN / ACCESSWIRE / August 4, 2023 / Higher education is a transformative journey that opens doors to a world of opportunities and personal growth. However, the path to success is not always smooth, and many students face overwhelming challenges that lead them to contemplate dropping out. Surprisingly, recent data from Gallup has shown that a staggering 41% of students enrolled in postsecondary education programs have considered "dropping out" in the past six months. CARE Counseling, a Minnesota-based therapy practice, is aiming to bring awareness and offer support that helps to overcome these hurdles and pave the way for students' academic success.





41% of Students have considered dropping out of postsecondary education in the last six months.

What can students do to support themselves in their college journey?





Postsecondary education can be demanding, leaving students juggling academic responsibilities, extracurricular commitments, financial burdens, and personal challenges. It is no wonder that a significant number of students find themselves contemplating dropping out, as they grapple with these overwhelming emotions. Therapy offers a safe and confidential space for students to share their concerns, fears, and struggles without judgment.

Here are some ways in which therapy can be of immense help to students:

Emotional Well-being: Therapy equips students with coping strategies to manage stress, anxiety, and depression effectively. Learning healthy ways to process emotions and handle challenging situations can significantly improve overall well-being. Building Resilience: Therapists work with students to build resilience and develop a positive mindset. By cultivating resilience, students can bounce back from setbacks and persevere through difficult times. Academic Support: Therapy can assist students in addressing underlying academic challenges such as time management, study skills, and test anxiety. Improved academic performance can alleviate feelings of frustration and boost confidence.

The journey toward success starts with acknowledging the need for support. Rather than waiting until academic challenges become overwhelming, students are encouraged to schedule an appointment with a therapist proactively. Here's how to get started:

Reach Out: Reach out to the counseling center or health services to inquire about available resources. CARE Counseling, offers same-week availability, accepts all major Minnesota insurances, is a partner with all major Minnesota Colleges, and is a great solution for students seeking support.

In a world that demands constant growth and success, students must recognize the significance of mental well-being in their educational journey. The fact that 41% of students have considered dropping out is a wake-up call to address the mental health challenges faced during postsecondary education. Therapy provides a transformative opportunity for students to conquer obstacles, build resilience, and thrive academically and personally. Remember, it's okay to ask for help, and therapy can be the key to unlocking your path to success.

Contact Information

Nicole Dahl

VP of Marketing

nicole.dahl@care-clinics.com

6122238898

SOURCE: CARE Counseling

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/772183/Supporting-Student-Success-The-Power-of-Therapy-in-Overcoming-Educational-Challenges
Ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 LR

Newron Pharmaceuticals S.p.A. ("Newron") (SIX: NWRN, XETRA: NP5), a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel therapies for patients with diseases of the central and peripheral nervous system, today announced its financial results and operational highlights for the half year ended June 30, 2023, and provided an update on its R&D and business activities.

Highlights H1 2023:

Evenamide

Results from study 014/015, the first international trial of an antipsychotic new chemical entity (NCE) as an add-on therapy to a single antipsychotic in patients with treatment-resistant schizophrenia (TRS) demonstrated evenamide's efficacy on multiple measures of psychopathology support movement to potentially pivotal, multinational, randomized, placebo-controlled trial suggest a potential new strategy for the management of TRS patients

Presentation of data to the medical community at several international psychiatry conferences, highlighting the multi-modal, clinically important response to evenamide in TRS patients, across various domains and multiple timepoints

Publication of data from study 014/015 in the peer-reviewed International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology , outlining the continued improvement in symptoms of psychosis in TRS patients receiving evenamide

, outlining the continued improvement in symptoms of psychosis in TRS patients receiving evenamide Following the publication of this encouraging data, the Company is working towards initiation of study 003, a potentially pivotal, multinational, randomized, double-blind, twelve-week, placebo-controlled study assessing the efficacy, safety and tolerability of evenamide (15/30 mg bid) as an add-on treatment in patients with TRS

Evenamide (30 mg bid) is also being evaluated as a treatment in patients with chronic schizophrenia demonstrating inadequate benefit to their current second-generation antipsychotic, in study 008A, a potentially pivotal four-week, randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study; patient recruitment is ongoing and on track to report full results by end of 2023/early 2024

Corporate

As per July 2023, two key promotions strengthening Newron's senior management team: Laura Faravelli, Director Business Development at Newron since 2019, was promoted to Vice President Business Development, and Roberto Galli, Vice President Finance since 2012, was appointed Chief Financial Officer

Gillian Dines was elected as a Non-Executive Director to the Board of Newron, following J. Donald (Don) deBethizy stepping down as per the AGM 2023 from the Board after a nine-year tenure

Implementation of 2023 ESG goals well on track

Stefan Weber, CEO of Newron, commented:

"The first half of 2023 has been a period of enormous progress for Newron. We have reported three striking sets of data from our evenamide development program for treatment-resistant schizophrenia (TRS), presented these results at international psychiatry scientific conferences, and published key results in a peer-reviewed journal. Newron is on track to report more crucial data in the second half of 2023 and early next year from the Phase II study in TRS as well as data from its Phase III trial in non-treatment resistant schizophrenia. Finally, we are progressing towards the initiation of the potentially pivotal study assessing the efficacy, safety and tolerability of evenamide (15/30 mg bid) as an add-on treatment in patients with TRS. The exciting results triggered substantial interest from potential partners on future collaboration opportunities for the development of evenamide."

Evenamide (Schizophrenia)

In Q1 2023, Newron announced three exciting new sets of data evaluating evenamide as an add-on treatment for patients with TRS.

In January, the Company presented data from the first 100 patients to complete six months (30 weeks) of treatment with evenamide in study 014/015, the first, international, multi-centre, randomized, open label, rater-blinded study of NCE evenamide (7.5/15/30 mg bid) as an add-on to an antipsychotic (excluding clozapine) in patients with moderate to severe TRS not responding to their current antipsychotic medication

This announcement was followed in February by further data from the same cohort at the one-year (52 weeks) timepoint

In March Newron also reported topline data from all 161 patients at the six-week timepoint

Overall, data from study 014 has demonstrated that evenamide was safe and well-tolerated at all doses, with 97% of patients completing six weeks of treatment. The incidence of treatment-emergent adverse events was very low, and more than 90% of the completers chose to continue with evenamide treatment into the long-term extension study (study 015).

The results at the six-week, six-month and one-year timepoints demonstrated a statistically significant improvement of symptoms compared to baseline in patients with TRS after treatment with evenamide. Moreover, comparison of both the six-month and one-year data with the six-week data shows that not only was there a sustained improvement in all key measures of psychosis, but this benefit increased over time. Further evidence of the increasing proportion of patients who experienced a clinically meaningful benefit over time was provided by the proportion of patients considered as "multi-domain-responders", increasing 2.5-fold from six weeks to 38% at one year. This continued, sustained improvement is unprecedented for an antipsychotic treatment in patients with TRS and demonstrates the potential of evenamide to offer a genuinely innovative therapeutic option for patients struggling with debilitating schizophrenia symptoms who have exhausted other antipsychotic treatments.

Newron presented these data sets at three key conferences in the CNS space during H1 2023; furthermore, they were published in the peer reviewed journal International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology at the end of the reporting period. The Company will be presenting the full results from extension study 015 of all 161 patients after six months in October at the 36th European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP) Congress, in Barcelona, Spain, in October.

Newron's key focus now is on initiating study 003, a randomized, placebo-controlled and potentially pivotal Phase III study of evenamide, which will hopefully confirm its potential as a new add-on for TRS patients. Newron is also investigating evenamide in patients with chronic schizophrenia who experience an inadequate response to their current antipsychotics but who are not classed as having TRS. Study 008A is continuing to enroll patients in this indication, and results are expected by end of 2023/early in 2024.

If approved, evenamide would be the first medication added to existing antipsychotics that improves the symptoms of TRS, offering a much-needed new treatment option for those who are not responding to existing second-generation antipsychotics. Evenamide is revolutionary in its glutamatergic mechanism of action, working through modulation of glutamate and voltage-gated sodium channel blockade. Evenamide modulates sustained repetitive firing, without inducing impairment of normal neuronal excitability, and normalizes glutamate release induced by aberrant sodium channel activity. The results seen validate the rule of glutamate release inhibition in repairing disturbed neural connectivity in the TRS population.

Xadago/safinamide (Parkinson's disease)

In partnership with its partners Zambon and Supernus, Newron continues to further develop and market its product, Xadago/safinamide. In reference to the receipt of several Paragraph IV Notice Letters in May 2021 regarding the submission by generic manufacturers of an Abbreviated New Drug Application to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), seeking approval to engage in the commercial manufacture, use or sale of safinamide mesylate drug product in the US before expiration of certain US patents, Newron and its partners Zambon and Supernus had filed an infringement case against these manufacturers to secure its intellectual property rights. The companies continue to challenge these submissions and note that the patents on Xadago (safinamide) tablets remain protected by three patents in the FDA Approved Drugs Product List (Orange Book) until at least 2027.

Financial Summary (IFRS) H1 2023 and H1 2022: In thousand EUR (except per share information) H1 2023 H1 2022 Licence income/Royalties/Other income 5,494 2,830 Research and development expenses (5,685) (5,324) General and administrative expenses (4,062) (3,894) Net profit/loss (6,950) (8,636) Profit/loss per share (0.39) (0.48) Cash used in operating activities (5,603) (5,630) As of June 30, 2023 As of December 31, 2022 Cash and Other current financial assets 17,139 22,774 Total assets 31,494 37,195

Outlook 2023:

The second half of 2023 and early 2024 will bring further crucial data sets and proof points in Newron's evenamide development program. In the TRS indication, this includes the presentation of full data from all patients in study 014/015 after six months at the ECNP Congress in October, and for the 12 months, as well as the preparations towards initiation of study 003, a potentially pivotal trial. The Company remains on track to report full results from study 008A in patients with chronic schizophrenia who are inadequate responders to their current antipsychotic. Newron's total available cash resources, in addition to its royalty income and Italian R&D tax credits, will fund the Company's planned development programs and operations well into 2024.

Newron's Half-Report 2023 with further details and information is available for download on https://www.newron.com/investors/reports-and-presentation/year/2023

Financial calendar

Investora 2023, Zurich September 13-14, 2023 36th ECNP Congress, Barcelona October 7-10, 2023 Jefferies 2023 London Healthcare Conference November 14-16, 2023 Deutsches Eigenkapitalforum, Frankfurt November 27-29, 2023

About Newron Pharmaceuticals

Newron (SIX: NWRN, XETRA: NP5) is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel therapies for patients with diseases of the central and peripheral nervous system. The Company is headquartered in Bresso near Milan, Italy. Xadago/safinamide has received marketing authorization for the treatment of Parkinson's disease in the European Union, Switzerland, the UK, the USA, Australia, Canada, Latin America, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Japan and South Korea, and is commercialized by Newron's Partner Zambon. Supernus Pharmaceuticals holds the commercialization rights in the USA. Meiji Seika has the rights to develop and commercialize the compound in Japan and other key Asian territories. Newron is also developing evenamide as the potential first add-on therapy for the treatment of patients with symptoms of schizophrenia. For more information, please visit: www.newron.com

Important Notices

This document contains forward-looking statements, including (without limitation) about (1) Newron' s ability to develop and expand its business, successfully complete development of its current product candidates, the timing of commencement of various clinical trials and receipt of data and current and future collaborations for the development and commercialization of its product candidates, (2) the market for drugs to treat CNS diseases and pain conditions, (3) Newron's financial resources, and (4) assumptions underlying any such statements. In some cases, these statements and assumptions can be identified by the fact that they use words such as "will", "anticipate", "estimate", "expect", "project", "intend", "plan", "believe", "target", and other words and terms of similar meaning. All statements, other than historical facts, contained herein regarding Newron's strategy, goals, plans, future financial position, projected revenues and costs and prospects are forward-looking statements. By their very nature, such statements and assumptions involve inherent risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, and risks exist that predictions, forecasts, projections and other outcomes described, assumed or implied therein will not be achieved. Future events and actual results could differ materially from those set out in, contemplated by or underlying the forward-looking statements due to a number of important factors. These factors include (without limitation) (1) uncertainties in the discovery, development or marketing of products, including without limitation difficulties in enrolling clinical trials, negative results of clinical trials or research projects or unexpected side effects, (2) delay or inability in obtaining regulatory approvals or bringing products to market, (3) future market acceptance of products, (4) loss of or inability to obtain adequate protection for intellectual property rights, (5) inability to raise additional funds, (6) success of existing and entry into future collaborations and licensing agreements, (7) litigation, (8) loss of key executive or other employees, (9) adverse publicity and news coverage, and (10) competition, regulatory, legislative and judicial developments or changes in market and/or overall economic conditions. Newron may not actually achieve the plans, intentions or expectations disclosed in forward-looking statements and assumptions underlying any such statements may prove wrong. Investors should therefore not place undue reliance on them. There can be no assurance that actual results of Newron's research programs, development activities, commercialization plans, collaborations and operations will not differ materially from the expectations set out in such forward-looking statements or underlying assumptions. Newron does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking statements except as may be required by applicable regulations of the SIX Swiss Exchange or the Dusseldorf Stock Exchange where the shares of Newron are listed. This document does not contain or constitute an offer or invitation to purchase or subscribe for any securities of Newron and no part of it shall form the basis of or be relied upon in connection with any contract or commitment whatsoever.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230804020920/en/

Contacts:

For more information:



Newron

Stefan Weber CEO, +39 02 6103 46 26, pr@newron.com



UK/Europe

Simon Conway Ciara Martin Natalie Garland-Collins, FTI Consulting, +44 20 3727 1000, SCnewron@fticonsulting.com



Switzerland

Valentin Handschin, IRF, +41 43 244 81 54, handschin@irf-reputation.ch



Germany/Europe

Anne Hennecke Caroline Bergmann, MC Services, +49 211 52925222, newron@mc-services.eu



USA

Paul Sagan, LaVoieHealthScience, +1 617 374 8800, Ext. 112, psagan@lavoiehealthscience.com


BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - The European Union has imposed a tough round of sanctions against Belarus over its continued human rights abuses and in response to involvement in Russia's military aggression against Ukraine.



The measures expand the ban on exports to Belarus to a number of highly sensitive goods and technologies which contribute to Belarus's military and technological enhancement.



The European Council imposed an additional export ban on firearms and ammunition, and on goods and technology suited for use in Belarus' aviation and space industry, including aircraft engines and drones.



'These restrictive measures are fast-tracked in view of the urgency linked to the fight against circumvention regarding certain highly sensitive goods and technologies,' the European Commision said.



In light of the deteriorating human rights situation in Belarus, the EU adopted new restrictive measures against 38 individuals and 3 entities from Belarus who are responsible for serious human rights violations, contribute to the repression of civil society and democratic forces, as well as those who benefit from and support the Lukashenko regime.



The new listings include penitentiary officials responsible for the torture and ill-treatment of detainees, including political prisoners, prominent propagandists, as well as members of the judicial branch involved in prosecuting and sentencing democratic opponents, members of civil society and journalists.



Sanctions also target state-owned enterprises which have taken measures against employees or dismissed them for participating in peaceful protests and strikes. Belneftekhim, a state-controlled oil and chemical conglomerate, is also listed as one of the strategic companies, which is supporting the Lukashenko regime.



'We have adopted new sanctions in reaction to the Lukashenko's illegitimate regime continued systematic, widespread and gross human rights violations and brutal repression against all segments of the Belarusian society,' said Josep Borrell, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. 'Today we are also taking further measures against the Belarusian regime as an accomplice in Russia's illegal and unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine. We stand by the Belarusian people in their quest for peace and democracy'.



The latest round of EU sanctions targeting Belarus are in addition to restrictions already imposed in the financial, trade, energy, transport and other sectors of the Lukashenko regime.



The European Commission said that the new measures create a closer alignment of EU sanctions targeting Russia and Belarus and will help to ensure that Russian sanctions cannot be circumvented through Belarus.



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SEATTLE, WA / ACCESSWIRE / August 4, 2023 / Taiwan Minister of Agriculture CHEN Chi-Chung led a delegation to the United States to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Food Security Ministerial Meeting held in Seattle. On August 2nd, Minister Chen presided over the "Taiwan Agri-Food Press Conference". He introduced high-quality Taiwanese agricultural and seafood products such as grouper, edamame, mangoes, teas, dried fruits, and orchids to US officials, importers, distributors, and media. In his speech, Minister Chen pointed out that Taiwan's agricultural exports to the US reached 920 million US dollars in 2022, representing a 5.1% increase from 2021. The US has now surpassed China to become Taiwan's largest export market for agricultural products. He expressed hope to recommend even more Taiwanese agricultural and food products to American consumers and deepen agricultural trade between Taiwan and the US.

Minister of Agriculture Chen Chi-chung met with Washington state senators, Washington state representative, and Seattle senior deputy mayor to promote Taiwan agri-food. (Photo provided by Taiwan Ministry of Agriculture)

The "Taiwan Agri-Food Press Conference" was attended by dignitaries, including Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Seattle Director General Daniel K.C. Chen, Washington State Senators Keith Wagoner and Ann Rivers, Washington State Representative Cindy Ryu, Seattle Senior Deputy Mayor Monisha Harrell, DNC Member Sharon Mast, Greater Seattle Partners President Brian Surratt, Congressman Adam Smith's office District Director Glenn Carpenter, Congresswoman Suzan DelBene's Office District Director Kelly Marquardt, Governor Inslee's King County Director Chris Esh, as well as retailers, importers and leaders of Taiwanese Chamber of Commerce. Their presence demonstrated the friendly and close Taiwan-US relations and support for furthering agricultural trade and cooperation between the two nations. During the event, Minister Chen specially recommended Taiwanese grouper, edamame, and mangoes, and collaborated with a five-star hotel chef to create delicious dishes and desserts using Taiwanese agricultural ingredients, receiving unanimous praise from the attendees. The event showcased high-quality Taiwanese products, such as tea, dried fruits, processed foods, and orchids. These products generated considerable interest from US importers and distributors, who expressed their willingness to collaborate with Taiwanese businesses, with the assistance of Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECO) and Taiwan Trade Center in the US.

The Ministry of Agriculture pointed out that the United States has always been Taiwan's most important agricultural trade partner. In 2022, 22.8% of Taiwan's imported agricultural products came from the US, totaling approximately$4.67 billion US dollars. Taiwan is the 7th largest overseas market for US agricultural products, with major imports from the US including soybeans, wheat, corn, beef, chicken, and apples. On the other hand, the US is Taiwan's largest export market for agricultural products. In 2022, Taiwan's agricultural exports to the US amounted to around 860 million US dollars, including products such as orchids, tea, edamame, baked goods, noodles, as well as tilapia and other frozen fish. Taiwanese agri-food products are well-received in the US, and Taiwan is actively seeking US approval for exporting pineapple and processed pork products, hoping to introduce even more high-quality and delicious Taiwanese agricultural products to consumers of the US.

Despite the global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in recent years, Taiwan's farmers, agricultural organizations, exporters, and the government's joint efforts, along with the strong support from domestic and international consumers, have successfully stabilized the prices of related agricultural and fishery products and ensured farmers' revenue. Additionally, the global value of agricultural exports and exports to markets beyond China reached historical highs in 2021 and 2022, while the proportion of exports to China decreased from the highest of 23.2% in 2018 to 12.9% in 2022. The share of fruit exports to China also declined from 80.1% in 2019 to 1.6% in 2022. The US and Japan have surpassed China, becoming the top two markets for Taiwan's agricultural exports, indicating significant achievements in the government's efforts to expand agricultural exports and reduce over-reliance on the Chinese market. The Ministry of Agriculture will continue to adopt diverse marketing strategies, develop new products, and explore new markets and channels to increase the export value of domestic agricultural products and enhance farmers' revenue.

Minister of Agriculture Chen Chi-chung and executive chef Brian of Grand Hyatt Seattle collaborated to promote Taiwan Agri-food. (Photo provided by Taiwan Ministry of Agriculture)

Taiwan Minister of Agriculture Chen Chi-chung had lunch with guests, sharing delicious food from Taiwan. (Photo provided by Taiwan Ministry of Agriculture)

Crispy golden-fried Taiwanese grouper fillet with pineapple tartar sauce. (Photo provided by Taiwan Ministry of Agriculture)

Taiwanese-style tropical salad with imported bamboo shoots, baby corn, and edamame from Taiwan. (Photo provided by Taiwan Ministry of Agriculture)

Media Contacts:

Taiwan Ministry of Agriculture

Sophia Hung

hchung@moa.gov.tw

https://eng.moa.gov.tw/

SOURCE: Taiwan Ministry of Agriculture

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/772348/Taiwan-Minister-of-Agriculture-CHEN-Chi-Chung-Promotes-Agricultural-and-Fishery-Products-in-the-US
River snail rice noodles from Liuzhou in China's Guangxi exported to 28 countries and regions

People's Daily Online) 16:45, August 03, 2023

A villager shows river snails in a rice paddy in Maping village, Sanjiang county, Liuzhou city, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. (Photo/Li Ning)

River snail rice noodles, or luosifen in Chinese, which is a signature street food in Liuzhou city, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, reached markets in 28 countries and regions in 2022, according to Liuzhou customs.

In the first five months of 2023, Liuzhou customs handled 305 batches of luosifen worth nearly 50 million yuan ($6.95 million) for export, up 47 percent year on year.

Last year, Liuzhou guided districts and counties under its jurisdiction to vigorously produce raw materials of luosifen, including bamboo shoots, beans, river snails, and wood ears. The city recognized 20 demonstration bases covering a total area of 552,000 mu (36,800 hectares) for luosifen raw material production, which helped bring an average annual income increase of about 10,000 yuan to more than 200,000 rural residents.

With funding from China Tobacco Guangxi Industrial Co., Ltd., Maping village in Sanjiang county, Liuzhou built a rice-river snail co-culture demonstration base last year, fattening villagers' wallets by transferring land use rights and creating jobs.

"Last year, our village built a rice-river snail co-culture demonstration base covering 20 mu. We achieved a bumper harvest of river snails, which didn't affect rice yield. This boosted our confidence. This year, the base was expanded to 50 mu, and its output value is expected to exceed 200,000 yuan," said Gong Congling, Party secretary of Maping village.

Villagers select river snails in Maping village, Sanjiang county, Liuzhou city, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. (Photo/Li Ning)

Photo shows a rice-river snail co-culture demonstration base, which is built with funding from China Tobacco Guangxi Industrial Co., Ltd., in Maping village, Sanjiang county, Liuzhou city, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. (Photo/Li Ning)

Villagers release river snails into a rice paddy in Maping village, Sanjiang county, Liuzhou city, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. (Photo/Li Ning)

(Web editor: Chang Sha, Du Mingming)
Progress on Sagaliam Acquisition Corp Transaction

ALLEN, TX / ACCESSWIRE / August 4, 2023 / Enzolytics, Inc. (OTC PINK:ENZC) (https://enzolytics.com/).

Virogentics, Inc. ("VIRO"), a wholly owned subsidiary of Enzolytics, Inc. (the "Company" or "ENZC"), a drug development biotech company, updated the progress being made on the permit application with the European Medicine Agency (EMA) for the patented immunotherapy ITV-1 treatment of HIV/AIDS virus, for use by patients after receiving chemo and radiation treatment to facilitate recovery from the treatments and those with immunodeficiency.

A report has been prepared by the Bulgarian Academy of Science Institute of Organic Chemistry, describing the module 3 clinical trials to be conducted using the Company's ITV-1 therapeutic. The report consists of a description of the research to be performed, the methods for pharmaceutical development of ITV-1 immunotherapy, a technical report of the production process, production control procedures used, analytical procedures, process validation, batch analysis guidelines, characterization of impurities, opening and closing system description and stability expectations. The documentation for the clinical trial will be prepared by Kiwi Farma. A meeting is scheduled in Sofia, Bulgaria on September 19 with the Director of Business Development of CCDR and Development Company, the German company Cooperative Clinical Research and Development (Korporativ Klinik Drug Research and Development) engaged by VIRO to perform the Pharmacokinetic study on the porcine pepsin. Professor, Doctor and Doctor of Medical Sciences, Lachezar Ivanov, will represent the Company in these discussions to identify the specific dates and details regarding the start of clinical trials for the European Medicine Agency.

Professor, Doctor and Doctor of Medical Sciences, Lachezar Ivanov, is a valuable member of the VIRO ITV-1 team. Born on August 13,1962 in Sofia Bulgaria, he graduated from Sofia Medical Academy with a medical degree in 1989, obtaining the first specialty of AG. After graduation Dr. Ivanov worked at the Military Medical Academy, where he completed an internship (in all clinical specialties), followed by a specialty in internal medicine. He has also completed courses in ultrasound of abdominal areas and specialty pulmonology. Dr. Ivanov presented his first dissertation in 2005, graduating with degrees in management and administration in healthcare. He is working on additional presentations in the healthcare field. He currently holds a position as a faculty member at the Medical University of Sofia. Since 2005, Dr. Ivanov has represented the people of Bulgaria in the Parliament of Bulgaria. For 18 years he has been a member of the Health Commission, having held the position of Chairman of the Commission, and currently holds the Deputy Chairman office of the Commission. Dr. Ivanov is a consultant to the largest hospitals in Bulgaria, VMA and Lozenetz Hospital. Throughout his career, Dr. Ivanov has had numerous papers published in medical journals on a variety of topics.

In the second and third quarters of 2023, VIRO will continue meetings with Director Iseness in connection with the launch of pharmacokinetics studies to submit documents and begin the preparation of the investigators' brochure. The studies are being performed on volunteers in anticipation of the start of module 3 clinical trials administering ITV-1 later this year. Once the trials are completed, the findings will be included in the EMA permitting application which has been prepared by Kiwi Farma in close association with EMA assigned representative member of its Regulatory Science & Innovation Task Force, who has given the Company invaluable methodical help and guidance.

Included in the analytical procedures of the clinical trials for module 3 are the following: 1) analysis of 8 samples of the hydrolyzed pepsin preparation, 2) spectrophotometric analysis with UV-Vis spectrophotometer SHIMADZU of 8 samples, 3) determination of the protein concentration by the Bradford method, 4) electrophoretic analysis of 8 samples by one-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and reading the degree of hydrolysis, 4) analysis using the ImageQuant TL8 software program determining the distribution of proteins based on their molecular weight and concentrations, and 5) analysis of the peptides obtained after hydrolysis in 2 samples using UHPLC-Q-TOF mass spectrometer which includes the Bruker Impact HD Q-TOF system. The interpretation of the results from these studies will be used to prove the effectiveness and preservation of the action of hydrolyzed pepsin.

VIRO and Dr. Ivanov have completed conversations with R & D Services, LTD, ("RDS") a specialized provider of onsite operational and administrative support of clinical trials at state funded, municipal and private health facilities. RDS is certified under the international standards ISO 14001:2015, ISO 27001:2013 and ISO 14001:2015 . RDS has a well-developed patient referral network enabling the inclusion of a maximal number of patients in a minimal amount of time, once the centers are established and the clinical trial is launched. RDS will provide a designated software platform for tracking patients participating in clinical trials.

VIRO has also moved forward preparing preliminary studies from data received and processed from volunteers, who have been taking insulin for years to control their type 2 diabetes, to determine the impact ITV-1 has on the volunteer's blood sugar levels. The initial results have been extremely encouraging and show great promise. Clinical studies for diabetes are expected to begin in October 2023, including documentation, reports, and the selection of a principal investigator.

In addition to the EMA, VIRO's African project is progressing in August with the initial administration of ITV-1 to HIV/AIDS infected volunteers at the HEAL Africa Hospitals, GOMA, PRC and Panzi Hospital, Bukavu, DRC under the supervision of Neuro Pharma Ltd - Rwanda

The Company has also received notice from the U.S. Trademark Office that its application for the federal registration of the IPF trademark has been approved. The application for registration will now be published for a 30- day period and absent any opposition, the mark will be federally registered.

Finally, ENZC has negotiated additional compensation in the form of a monthly management fee to be paid by Sagaliam Acquisition Corp (SAGA) to ENZC over a 30-month period following the close of the purchase of BGEN and VIRO. The funds will be used to facilitate the continued compliance of ENZC's OTC Market filing requirements, administration of the dividend payment of the 45 million SAGA share issuance received as part of the SAGA purchase transaction to the ENZC shareholders and the Company's development of a new business strategy to be implemented after the close of the sale of BGEN and VIRO. ENZC and SAGA have continued the process of documenting the Business Combination agreement and expect to provide further guidance later this month.

Harry Zhabilov, Chief Scientific Officer of VIRO stated, "It is gratifying to reach this stage. This is the culmination of decades of work from my family. We have a fantastic team of researchers, clinicians, regulatory and government officials who have facilitated our progress to reach this milestone, not only with HIV, but also the application to diabetes and other therapies. We are continuing to move forward and are excited about beginning to bring our therapies from the lab to patients."

Barry Kostiner, CEO of Sagaliam, commented, "Enzolytics has assembled an impressive team in Bulgaria, and is benefitting from the European regulators who have supported the accelerated development of therapeutics for the benefit of patients desperately in need of improved efficacy at lower costs. EMA's dedication to fostering a healthy and well-regulated pharmaceutical landscape is truly commendable and deserving of praise. I am looking forward to my meetings with our team in Sofia next month, and contributing to the advancement of the financial, implementation and marketing plan."

Professor, Doctor and Doctor of Medical Sciences, Lachezar Ivanov, advisor to Enzolytics, commented, "I greatly enjoy my partnership with the Enzolytics team. We have put together a winning combination of researchers and medical professionals dedicated to producing world-class therapies. I look forward to meeting Barry in person and introducing him to our team. The expertise we have assembled in Bulgaria is impressive, and we are eager to accelerate our therapeutics development and implementation with the expansion of resources to be made available as part of the Sagaliam transaction."

Charles Cotropia, CEO of Enzolytics, stated, "Virogentics' progress in the further development and human trials of its ITV-1 anti-HIV immunotherapy is highly significant. Its development and application in this much needed health area will represent a tremendous success."

Enzolytics, Inc. Overview

Enzolytics, Inc. is a drug development company committed to commercializing its proprietary proteins and monoclonal antibodies to treat debilitating infectious diseases. The Company is advancing multiple therapeutics targeting numerous infectious diseases. One patented and clinically tested compound, ITV-1 (Immune Therapeutic Vaccine-1), is a suspension of Inactivated Pepsin Fraction (IPF), covered by U.S. Patent Nos. 8,066,982 and 7,479,538. Studies have shown it to be effective in treating HIV/AIDS. ITV-1 has also been shown to modulate the immune system.

The Company has proprietary technology for producing fully human monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) against infectious diseases which is currently being employed to produce monoclonal antibody therapeutics for treating the CoronaVirus (SARS-CoV-2), HIV-1 and the Feline Leukemia virus. The Company has also identified conserved epitopes on and has plans to produce mAbs targeting many other viruses, including HIV-2, Influenza A and B, H1N1 influenza, Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), Small-Pox, Ebola Virus, Tetanus, Diphtheria, HTLV-1/2, Rabies, Herpes zoster, Varicella zoster, Anthrax, Mason-Pfizer monkey virus (MPMV) and Visna virus (VISNA). The Company has also analyzed epitopes of animal viruses and plans to produce mAbs for treating these animal viruses.

Safe Harbor Statement : This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties associated with financial projections, budgets, milestone timelines, clinical development, regulatory approvals, and other risks described by Enzolytics, Inc. from time to time in its periodic reports filed with the SEC. ITV-1 is not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or by any comparable regulatory agencies elsewhere in the world.

While Enzolytics, Inc. believes that the forward-looking statements and underlying assumptions contained therein are reasonable, any of the assumptions could be inaccurate, including, but not limited to, the ability of Enzolytics to establish the efficacy of its therapeutics in the treatment of any disease or health condition, the development of studies and strategies leading to commercialization of its therapeutics in the United States, the obtaining of funding required to carry out the development plan, the completion of studies and tests on time or at all, and the successful outcome of such studies or tests. Therefore, there can be no assurance that the forward-looking statements included in this release will prove to be accurate.

Such forward-looking statements are based on current expectations. They involve inherent risks and uncertainties, including factors that could delay, divert or change any of the statements made, and cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially from current expectations. No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this press release. The Company expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update the forward-looking statements or update the reasons why actual results could differ from those projected in the forward-looking statements.

Company Contact:

Enzolytics, Inc.

1101 Raintree Circle

Allen, Texas 75013

www.enzolytics.com

SOURCE: Enzolytics, Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/772346/Virogentics-Inc-Provides-Update-on-African-Project-European-Medicine-Agency-Application-and-Clinical-Trials-for-Application-for-Type-2-Diabetes
CHICAGO, Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Due to continued cloud use, the market for cloud security appears to have a bright future. The incorporation of AI, zero trust models, improvements to IAM, and a focus on container and serverless security are among the trends. Data security, compliance, and cooperative threat intelligence sharing will also be important areas for improvement.

The global Cloud Security Market size is projected to grow from USD 40.7 billion in 2023 to USD 62.9 billion by 2028 at a CAGR of 9.1% during the forecast period, according to a new report by MarketsandMarkets. The Cloud Security Market experienced substantial growth due to the rising adoption of multi-cloud environments, the expansion of DevSecOps practices, increased utilization of AI and ML for cloud security, and the growing trend of BYOD and CYOD, which led to an increased demand for cloud security solutions.

Browse in-depth TOC on "Cloud Security Market"

371 - Tables

46 - Figures

312 - Pages

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Scope of the Report

Report Metrics Details Market size available for years 2017-2028 Base year considered 2022 Forecast period 2023-2028 Forecast units Value (USD Million) Segments Covered Offerings, Service Model, Type, Verticals, and Regions Geographies covered North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, and Latin America Companies covered Major vendors in the global Cloud Security Market include IBM (US), Broadcom (US), Check Point (Israel and US), Google (US), AWS (US), Zscaler (US), Akamai Technologies (US), Forcepoint (US), Fortinet (US), F5 (US), Qualys (US), TrendMicro (Japan), Palo Alto Networks (US), Proofpoint (US) and many more.

By vertical segment, the retail & eCommerce vertical will grow at the highest CAGR during the forecasted period.

The retail and eCommerce industry is experiencing the highest CAGR in the Cloud Security Market due to the increased adoption of cloud technologies for digital transformation. Data protection has become a priority, with more sensitive customer data and financial transactions being processed in the cloud. Retailers also face a higher risk of cyberattacks and data breaches, leading to the demand for advanced cloud security solutions. The COVID-19 pandemic has further accelerated the shift towards online shopping, boosting the adoption of cloud technologies in this sector. To tap into this growth opportunity, cloud security providers are customizing their solutions to meet the specific needs of retail and eCommerce, ensuring seamless integration and compliance with industry regulations. Thus, the retail and eCommerce segment is projected to have the highest CAGR during the forecast period.

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By Type, Visibility and Risk Assessment holds the largest market size during the forecast period.

By type, Visibility and Risk Assessment hold the largest market size in the Cloud Security Market due to their critical role in enhancing overall cloud security. As cloud environments grow in complexity and scale, organizations face challenges in effectively identifying and managing potential security risks. Visibility solutions provide real-time insights into cloud assets, configurations, and activities, enabling businesses to monitor and detect any suspicious behavior or vulnerabilities proactively. On the other hand, risk assessment tools help organizations assess the security posture of their cloud infrastructure, applications, and data. By conducting thorough risk assessments, businesses can prioritize security measures, allocate resources efficiently, and proactively address potential threats. These capabilities are essential as they empower organizations to stay ahead of evolving cyber threats and maintain a robust security posture in their cloud deployments. The need for comprehensive visibility and risk assessment solutions has grown exponentially as businesses recognize their critical role in safeguarding sensitive data and maintaining compliance with industry regulations.

By region, the Asia Pacific market is to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period.

The Asia Pacific region demonstrates solid technological adoption, with a mix of developed and growing economies like China, Japan, India, Australia and New Zealand, and Singapore. Additionally, the governments in the region actively promote internet accessibility, driving demand for cloud security solutions. Also, policy improvements and regulatory enhancements, such as strengthened privacy regulations in Australia, boost adoption. Moreover, unique cybersecurity risks and rising data protection awareness accelerate the demand for cloud security in the region. Furthermore, collaborative initiatives and the adoption of SASE solutions reinforce the region's position as the fastest-growing market for cloud security. Thus, Asia Pacific has the highest CAGR in the Cloud Security Market.

Top Key Companies in Cloud Security Market:

IBM (US), Broadcom (US), Check Point (Israel and US), Google (US), AWS (US), Zscaler (US), Akamai Technologies (US), Forcepoint (US), Fortinet (US), F5 (US), Qualys (US), TrendMicro (Japan), Palo Alto Networks (US), Proofpoint (US), Tenable (US), Netskope (US), Microsoft (US), Cisco (US), Imperva (US), Trellix (US), Rapid7 (US), Skyhigh Security (US), FireMon (US), Sysdig (US), LookOut (US), Fidelis Cybersecurity (US), DataTheorem (US), OpsCompass (US), Tufin (US), Menlo Security (US), Tigera (US), Orca Security (US), Ascend Technologies (US), Secberus (US), Ermetic (Israel), Sonrai Security (US), Wiz (US), Caveonix (US), Banyan cloud (US), and AccuKnox (US) are the key players and other players in the Cloud Security Market.

Recent Developments

In May 2023, AWS introduced a new service, Amazon Security Lake, a cloud security offering that automatically centralizes an organization's security data from multiple sources into a purpose-built data lake. It helps customers improve their security posture, respond faster to security events, and simplify security data management across hybrid and multi-cloud environments. With Amazon Security Lake, organizations can aggregate, normalize, and store security data, enabling faster threat detection, investigation, and response. It gives customers greater visibility into potential security threats and allows them to leverage their preferred analytics tools for comprehensive security insights.

In May 2023, Check Point (US & Israel) expanded Harmony Endpoint protection solutions to include vulnerability assessment and automated patch management capabilities. It helps organizations address the growing number of cyberattacks that exploit unpatched system vulnerabilities.

In April 2023, IBM (US) introduced a new platform, IBM Security QRadar Suite, a comprehensive cloud security offering that combines EDR/XDR, SIEM, SOAR, and cloud-native log management capabilities. It is designed to unify and streamline the security analyst experience in hybrid cloud environments. With advanced AI and automation, the suite empowers analysts to detect, investigate, and respond to threats faster and more efficiently. It is delivered as a service on AWS and provides simplified deployment, visibility, and integration across cloud environments and data sources.

In September 2022, Google (US) acquired Mandiant (US). Integrating Mandiant's capabilities will enhance Google Cloud's security operations suite, providing organizations with improved threat intelligence, incident management, and exposure management. The addition of Mandiant will enable organizations to monitor assets for exposures, validate security controls, and enhance their security posture. The acquisition reinforces Google Cloud's commitment to providing comprehensive security solutions to its customers.

In November 2021, Qualys (US) partnered with TD SYNNEX (US). The partnership enables TD SYNNEX's resellers to access Qualys' cloud-based security and compliance solutions, including the VMDR app and Patch Management. It simplifies security operations, enhances threat detection, and reduces business compliance costs. This partnership strengthens Qualys' presence and extends its access to TD SYNNEX's partner ecosystem.

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Cloud Security Market Advantages:

As the demands of the organisation change, cloud security solutions can scale up or down. Cloud security services may quickly adapt to changes in demand or corporate growth without requiring significant hardware or infrastructure modifications.

The requirement for significant upfront investments in hardware and software is eliminated by cloud security. Instead, companies can pay-as-you-go for cloud security services, which lowers capital costs and offers predictable operational costs.

Authorised users can use any internet-connected device from any location at any time to access vital security resources and data thanks to cloud security. By allowing for remote work, this flexibility boosts productivity.

Traditional on-premises security solutions cannot compare to the speed at which cloud security solutions may be deployed. Organisations can respond rapidly to new security risks and effectively secure their assets thanks to this rapid deployment.

Software upgrades and security fixes are frequently handled automatically by cloud security companies. This minimises the danger of exploitation by cyber attackers by ensuring that the security measures are current and that potential vulnerabilities are swiftly fixed.

Reputable cloud security vendors have a solid architecture with redundancy and backup features to guarantee high availability and dependability of security services. This lessens downtime and improves the organization's general security posture.

AI and machine learning techniques are widely used in cloud security systems to quickly identify and address new threats. Potential security incidents can thus be identified and mitigated more quickly.

Centralised management consoles are frequently offered by cloud security systems, enabling IT personnel to oversee and control security across numerous locations and endpoints from a single interface. As a result, visibility is improved and security procedures are streamlined.

Report Objectives

To define, describe, and forecast the Cloud Security Market based on offerings, service models, types, verticals, and regions:

To predict and estimate the market size of five main regions: North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa, and Latin America

To analyze the subsegments of the market with respect to individual growth trends, prospects, and contributions to the overall market

To provide detailed information related to the primary factors (drivers, restraints, opportunities, and challenges) influencing the growth of the Cloud Security Market

To analyze opportunities in the market for stakeholders by identifying high-growth segments of the Cloud Security Market

To profile the key players of the Cloud Security Market and comprehensively analyze their market size and core competencies.

To track and analyze competitive developments, such as new product launches; mergers and acquisitions; and partnerships, agreements, and collaborations in the global Cloud Security Market.

Browse Adjacent Market: Information Security Market Research Reports & Consulting

Browse Other Reports:

Cyber Insurance Market - Global Forecast to 2028

Digital Identity Solutions Market - Global Forecast to 2028

Quantum Cryptography Market - Global Forecast to 2028

SASE Market - Global Forecast to 2028

Identity Verification Market - Global Forecast to 2027

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Oscillate Plc - Annual General Meeting & Members Voluntary Liquidation

PR Newswire

LONDON, United Kingdom, August 04

4 August 2023

Oscillate Plc

("Oscillate" or the "Company")

Annual General Meeting

Members Voluntary Liquidation

Further to the announcement of 31 May and 19 July 2023, Oscillate Plc announces that, it has posted a notice of annual general meeting ("AGM") and an accompanying circular ("Circular") to seek approval for, amongst other things, the Members Voluntary Liquidation ('MVL') of the Company.

Accordingly, the Directors have convened an AGM of the Company, which will be held at 9.00am on 29 August 2023, at the offices of Shakespeare Martineau LLP, 6th Floor, 60 Gracechurch Street, London EC3V 0HR,at which a resolution to voluntarily wind up the Company will be proposed.

The MVL is being proposed with a view to distributing the entirety of the cash and assets of the Company to shareholders in the most efficient manner.

If that resolutions related to moving ahead with the MVL are not passed at the AGM, the Company will continue to operate with a view to identifying and completing a reverse takeover transaction.

An expected timetable in relation to the distribution to shareholders and the MVL is set out below.

A copy of the full Circular and AGM notice will shortly be available at the Company's website: https://oscillateplc.com/

The Directors of the Company accept responsibility for the contents of this announcement.

--ENDS-

Enquiries

Oscillate plc:

John Treacy

ir@oscillateplc.com

https://oscillateplc.com

Corporate Adviser:

Peterhouse Capital Limited

Guy Miller & Heena Karani

Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7220 9796

Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation EU 596/2014 as it forms part of retained EU law (as defined in the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018).

EXPECTED TIMETABLE OF PRINCIPAL EVENTS
Regulatory News:

ACTICOR BIOTECH (ISIN: FR0014005OJ5 ALACT) (Paris:ALACT), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the development of innovative treatments for cardiovascular emergencies, including ischemic stroke, today discloses the total number of voting rights and shares as of July 31, 2023 (pursuant to Article L. 233-8 II of the French Commercial Code and Article 223-16 of the General Regulation of the French Financial Markets Authority).

Listing Place: Euronext Growth Paris

ISIN Code: FR0014005OJ5

Web site: acticor-biotech.com

Date Number of shares making

up the share capital Theoretical number of

voting rights (1) Number of voting

rights excluding

shares stripped of

voting rights (2) July 31, 2023 12.338.781 12.338.781 12.294.156

(1) In accordance with Article 223-111 of the AMF's General Regulation, this number of shares is calculated based on all shares carrying the right to vote, including those stripped of voting rights.

(2) The actual voting rights correspond to the total number of voting rights that can be exercised in a general meeting. They are calculated on the basis of the total number of voting rights attached to the total number of shares minus the shares without voting rights.

About ACTICOR BIOTECH

Acticor Biotech is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, a spin-off from INSERM (the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research), which is aiming to develop an innovative treatment for cardiovascular emergencies, including ischemic stroke.

The positive results from its Phase 1b/2a study, ACTIMIS, confirmed the safety profile and showed a reduction in mortality and intracerebral hemorrhage in the glenzocimab-treated group in patients with stroke. The efficacy of glenzocimab is now being evaluated in an international Phase 2/3 study, ACTISAVE, which will include 1,000 patients. In July 2022, Acticor Biotech was granted "PRIME" status by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for glenzocimab in the treatment of stroke. This designation will allow the company to strengthen its interactions and obtain early dialogues with regulatory authorities.

Acticor Biotech is supported by a panel of European and international investors (Mediolanum farmaceutici, Karista, Go Capital, Newton Biocapital, CMS Medical Venture Investment (HK) Limited, A&B (HK) Limited, Anaxago, and the Armesa foundation). Acticor Biotech is listed on Euronext Growth Paris since November 2021 (ISIN: FR0014005OJ5 ALACT).

For more information, visit: www.acticor-biotech.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230804457575/en/

Contacts:

ACTICOR BIOTECH

Gilles AVENARD, MD

CEO and Founder

gilles.avenard@acticor-biotech.com

T.: +33 (0)6 76 23 38 13

Sophie BINAY, PhD

General Manager and CSO

Sophie.binay@acticor-biotech.com

T.: +33 (0)6 76 23 38 13

NewCap

Mathilde BOHIN Quentin MASSE

Investor Relations

acticor@newcap.eu

T.: +33 (0)1 44 71 94 95

NewCap

Arthur ROUILLE

Media Relations

acticor@newcap.eu

T.: +33 (0)1 44 71 00 15
Rightmove Plc - Transaction in Own Shares

PR Newswire

LONDON, United Kingdom, August 04

4 August 2023

Rightmove plc

Share buy-back programme

Rightmove plc - transactions in own shares

Rightmove plc ('Rightmove'), announces that today it purchased 120,000 of its 0.1p ordinary shares at a volume weighted average price paid per share of 570.297. The highest price paid per share was 574.600p and the lowest price paid per share was 565.400p. Rightmove purchased these shares through Numis Securities Limited.

The number of shares purchased represented 0.0147% of the voting rights attributable to the total ordinary shares in issue prior to such purchase. The purchased shares will be cancelled.

Since announcing a share buy-back programme on 28 December 2007, Rightmove has purchased in aggregate 492,164,568 ordinary shares.

The total number of ordinary shares in issue (excluding treasury shares) following this announcement is 814,883,259. Rightmove holds 12,006,253 shares in treasury.

In accordance with Article 5(1)(b) of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 (the Market Abuse Regulation) as amended by The Market Abuse (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (the "UK MAR"), the schedule below contains detailed information about the purchases made by Numis Securities Limited on behalf of the Company as part of the buyback programme.

Contact: Carolyn Pollard, Company Secretary

CompanySecretary@rightmove.co.uk

Schedule of Purchases - Individual Transactions
NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / August 4, 2023 / South Pole



In late June, the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) released its first two standards: the IFRS S1 and S2.

Companies globally welcomed these standards because they consolidate many existing reporting frameworks in which they are already participating - both voluntarily and, increasingly, as mandated by governments and stock exchanges. Investors were also appreciative of the standards as they prioritise financial materiality instead of requiring double (i.e. social and environmental impact) materiality.

What you need to know about the ISSB

The first standard, IFRS S1, defines the requirements for companies to communicate their sustainability-related risks and opportunities. The second, the IFRS S2, sets out specific climate-related disclosure requirements covering a holistic climate strategy such as greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, transition plans, the impacts of climate risks using scenario analysis, and mitigation/ adaptation plans.

It is anticipated that these standards will gradually be adopted by regulators. Australia, Canada, the UK, Singapore and Hong Kong have already announced intentions to align their mandatory sustainability reporting requirements with the ISSB. The standards will apply to annual reporting periods starting from January 2024, with companies issuing disclosures against the standards in 2025. However, as the ISSB is a voluntary standard, applicability depends largely on adoption timeframes in specific jurisdictions.

Building on the TCFD

The standard draws heavily upon the Task Force for Climate-related Financial Disclosure (TCFD) which has to date been considered the gold standard for sustainability disclosure and has been adopted in multiple jurisdictions globally. From 2024, the ISSB will also take over the monitoring of progress on companies reporting against the TCFD.

The climate-specific standard IFRS S2 adopts an identical structure to that of the TCFD, following the same four pillars of governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics and targets. Yet in some areas, it also goes further than the TCFD.

Some key examples include the following:

Risk management now integrates climate opportunities While the TCFD's risk management pillar focused specifically on climate risks, the expectation from the IFRS S2 is that the disclosure and integration of processes to identify, assess and manage climate risks will now include climate opportunities too.

More detail is also expected on the extent and nature of the integration that will take place within enterprise risk management processes and on how the nature, likelihood and magnitude of climate risks and opportunities are to be determined. Scope 3 emissions must be disclosed The IFRS S2 framework requires the disclosure of scope 3 emissions in addition to scope 1 and 2. Under the TCFD, scope 3 was encouraged if it is deemed to be material but was not mandatory. The change ensures that the reporting shows the full impact of the company and its value chain.

Financed emissions (scope 3, category 15) must also be disclosed by entities involved in asset management, commercial banking or insurance. Disclosed scope 2 emissions must be location-based The GHG Protocol outlines two methods for calculating scope 2 emissions: location-based scope 2 emissions reflect the average emissions intensity of grids, while the market-based approach reflects emissions from electricity that companies have purposefully chosen (or not chosen) to procure, e.g. by using contractual instruments. The ISSB stipulates that location-based scope 2 emissions should be used for disclosure, but that this should also be supplemented by information on any contractual instruments that are relevant (e.g. renewable energy certificates), so as to give the most informed understanding of the entity's scope 2 emissions.

Clearer requirements for key disclosure areas

In other areas, the ISSB makes existing expectations under the TCFD framework more explicit. Examples include the following:

Quantified financial impact of climate risks and opportunities The ISSB standards specifically require companies to disclose information on their financial position, performance and cash flows in the reporting period, whether as a range or single amount. This reinforces the TCFD's expectation that companies provide information about their sustainability impacts and their efforts in their financial statements in order to reflect the financial impacts that climate issues can have on companies. In assessing climate risks and opportunities, entities must also disclose the amount and percentage of assets or business activities that are vulnerable to climate-related transition and physical risks, and which are aligned with climate-related opportunities.

Greater focus on transition plans Reporting entities must outline how they plan to transition to a low-carbon economy and achieve set climate targets. This should also include current and anticipated changes to a company's business model, strategy, resource allocation and capital as a result of its exposure or vulnerability to climate change risks and opportunities.

Climate-related skills and competencies on your Board and within your management teams Entities must disclose how the governance body(s) or individual(s) determine whether the appropriate skills and competencies are available or will be developed to oversee strategies designed to respond to climate-related risks and opportunities



While this may seem overwhelming for some, the standards include a proportionality principle which clarifies that the ISSB only expects companies to use reasonable and supportable information that is available without undue cost or effort and within consideration of its skills, capabilities and resources to fulfill the disclosure requirements.

Where to from here?

No matter where your company is on its climate disclosure and action journey, you should take the ISSB into account before you take your next steps. We recommend that you prepare ahead of potential mandatory ISSB disclosure requirements in your jurisdiction/s. Each jurisdiction will define the specific scope of companies that may need to comply with its disclosure requirements. However, it is good practice for companies to start aligning with ISSB voluntarily, especially if you're looking to be an industry leader.

For companies who are at the beginning of their climate journey or not yet reporting against the TCFD, the best way to start is to review your readiness using the ISSB standards. This can help locate your alignment gaps and the results can be used as inputs for the development of a roadmap or holistic climate strategy.

For more advanced companies who are already familiar and aligned with the TCFD, you should focus on the key areas where the ISSB requires more extensive disclosure compared to the TCFD and update your sustainability planning accordingly.

Not sure how the ISSB disclosure requirements will impact your business? It's always better to be proactive with new best practice standards and prepare ahead of possible incoming mandatory requirements. Reach out to your South Pole representative to discuss.

View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from South Pole on 3blmedia.com.

Contact Info:

Spokesperson: South Pole

Website: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/south-pole

Email: info@3blmedia.com

SOURCE: South Pole

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/772345/Interpreting-the-ISSB-How-Companies-Should-Respond-to-the-Ambitious-New-Baseline-for-Sustainability-Disclosure
NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / August 4, 2023 / TriplePundit

Originally published on TriplePundit

On-farm animal welfare is a growing concern for consumers. Though some principles of animal welfare - such as housing, nutritional programs and care interactions - have been established, the implementation of these practices is below par in many parts of the world, according to farm animal welfare literature.

To tackle this issue, New Zealand's Ministry for Primary Industries collaborated directly with farmers and the country's red meat industry to launch the New Zealand Farm Assurance Program (NZFAP) in 2017. The national program is a collective of red meat and wool businesses that adhere to verified best-practices for animal welfare and production.

We spoke with Dr. Will Halliday, senior advisor for biosecurity and animal welfare at the farmer-owned industry organization Beef + Lamb New Zealand, about the importance of prioritizing animal welfare and the impact of the NZFAP on farmers and other stakeholders.

Ensuring animal welfare is ethical, and it's also good for business

New Zealand's Animal Welfare Act, passed in 1999, includes language which recognizes that animals can experience and understand positive and negative emotions. In addition to this, considering and meeting animal welfare standards is also beneficial for businesses, Halliday said.

Animals that are cared for "are more productive," he told us. "So not only do we have animals that experience a good life, but they are also more productive for our farmers. They grow faster and bigger and produce what we consider to be a premium product."

New Zealand's national Assurance Programs - NZFAP and NZFAP Plus - provide certification based on audits in areas of integrity, traceability, biosecurity, origin, environmental sustainability, and animal health and welfare.

"What it means is that customers now can be assured that all of New Zealand's producers of red meat are meeting that same threshold, the same high-quality standard," Halliday said. "You can buy a piece of New Zealand meat in the supermarket and have confidence that there is a single standard that has been met by whoever produced that piece of meat. You can be assured they have done it sustainably, with good environmental and animal welfare practices."

Beef + Lamb New Zealand represents New Zealand's beef and sheep farmers. Among its members is First Light Farms, a collective of family farms across New Zealand that produce grass-fed wagyu beef and venison and communicate regularly about their duty of care to animals.

"Animal welfare is important to both the public and our customers. Without good animal welfare, farmers would lose the social license to operate in New Zealand," said Nicola Morgan, general manager of sustainability, technical and quality assurance at First Light Farms. "First Light consumers demand third-party verification that our animals are being treated well."

Again, she underscored that along with being the right thing to do, treating animals well is essential to ensuring a quality product. "In general, animal welfare affects meat quality, but this is particularly significant for our grass-fed wagyu cattle, who require optimal conditions and welfare to marble well," Morgan said.

Assurance programs establish credibility, and incentives are a win-win for stakeholders

To date, New Zealand sheep and beef farmers are among the most efficient farmers in the world, and the nation's red meat carbon footprint is one of the world's lowest, in fact less than half the global average.

In Halliday's view, what differentiates New Zealand from other countries is that it takes the approach of farmer-led first, as opposed to top-down regulation. In this "grassroots level" approach, incentives are provided for farmers to take on sustainable and efficient practices - all of which makes assurance programs and incentives a win-win for animals and farmers in the country's meat industry.

"Farmers can enjoy a premium for the product they supply based on whatever practices they undertake," Halliday said. "Farmers who do that have better productivity, better animal welfare, and they're also enjoying the premium."

How participation in animal welfare groups can drive immediate action

Given that it established animal welfare protections over two decades ago, New Zealand is recognized for its trustworthy animal management practices. National and regional governments, as well as farmers, also want to protect their land and water resources and continue to call for high standards, Morgan said.

"Farmers recognize the value of healthy animals and soil, for production efficiency and future-proofing their asset," she told us. "Holding third-party verifications delivers a premium from consumers for farmers. Our farmers are farmers because they care about what they do - they want to protect the quality of their land, and they care about their livestock."

For First Light Farms, involvement in groups like the NZFAP instills confidence in customers and partners, and it offers opportunities to learn, Morgan said. "Being a member of [the NZFAP] gives our farmers a start point," she said.

Around 8,000 farms across New Zealand are certified in the NZFAP, representing more than 95 percent of the country's beef, sheep, deer and wool production. Many of them, including First Light Farms, also use certification systems like the Non-GMO Project and the Certified Humane and ASPCA standards to further verify their environmental and animal welfare practices.

"We expect more of our farmers, who rightly expect to be financially rewarded for their investment," Morgan said. "Having a great product, surrounded by third-party verified attributes, gives both our retail partners and our consumers reassurance and confidence."

This article series is sponsored by Beef + Lamb New Zealand and produced by the TriplePundit editorial team.

Image courtesy of Beef + Lamb New Zealand

View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from TriplePundit on 3blmedia.com.

Contact Info:

Spokesperson: TriplePundit

Website: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/triplepundit

Email: info@3blmedia.com

SOURCE: TriplePundit

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/772355/Learning-From-New-Zealands-Animal-Welfare-System-How-a-Farmer-Led-Approach-Pushes-Industry-Commitments-Forward


CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - The U.S. dollar was lower against its major counterparts in the New York session on Friday, as softer-than-expected job growth in July sparked speculation that the Federal Reserve has neared the end of the tightening cycle.



Data from the Labor Department showed that non-farm payroll employment climbed by 187,000 jobs in July after rising by a downwardly revised by 185,000 jobs in June.



Economists had expected employment to jump by 200,000 jobs compared to the addition of 209,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.



The unemployment rate edged down to 3.5 percent in July from 3.6 percent in June. Economists had expected the unemployment rate to remain unchanged.



U.S. stocks rose as jobs data reduced the possibility of further rate hikes from the Fed this year.



The greenback declined to 4-day lows of 0.8699 against the franc and 141.64 against the yen, from Thursday's close of 0.8739 and 142.52, respectively. The greenback is seen finding support around 0.85 against the franc and 138.00 against the yen.



The greenback weakened to a 4-day low of 1.1029 against the euro and a 2-day low of 1.2783 against the pound, from yesterday's closing values of 1.0949 and 1.2708, respectively. The greenback is likely to find support around 1.12 against the euro and 1.31 against the pound.



The greenback fell to 2-day lows of 0.6608 against the aussie and 0.6131 against the kiwi, from yesterday's closing quotes of 0.6550 and 0.6077, respectively. The greenback may face support around 0.68 against the aussie and 0.63 against the kiwi.



The greenback eased to 1.3340 against the loonie, from more than a 2-month high of 1.3393 seen at 8:30 am ET. At yesterday's close, the pair was quoted at 1.3352. If it drops further, it may find support around the 1.30 area.



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Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Top 3 Energie-Dividendenaktien Im neuen Energieboom von kontinuierlichen Ertragen profitieren. Wir zeigen hier, von welche drei Aktien Sie profitieren konnen. Hier klicken
Regulated Information - Denominator

Atlas Special Opportunities, LLChas converted 12convertible bonds in Oxurion resulting in a EUR 300,000capital increase. This is part of Atlas Special Opportunities, LLC's EUR 20 million Capital Commitment1 that will allow Oxurion to focus on progressing its novel and differentiated back of the eye drug candidate targeting potential market opportunities of over USD 5billion.

Leuven, BELGIUM,Boston, MA, US-August 4, 2023- 07.00 PM CET - In accordance with article 15 of the Belgian Act of May 2, 2007 on the disclosure of major participations in issuers of which shares are admitted to trading on a regulated market and regarding miscellaneous provisions, Oxurion NV (Euronext Brussels: OXUR) (the "Company" or "Oxurion"), announces the below information, following the issuance of 191,815,856 new ordinary shares on August 4, 2023, for a total amount of EUR 300,000, as the result of the conversion of 12 convertible bonds, pursuant to the Capital Commitment entered into with Atlas Special Opportunities, LLC.

Following completion of the capital increase through the conversion of the convertible bonds, the total number of shares issued by Oxurion amounts to 1,715,909,094 outstanding ordinary shares carrying voting rights (compared to 1,524,093,238 outstanding ordinary shares previously). This number will be used as the denominator for the calculation of the percentages of shareholdings.

Therefore, Oxurion publishes the following updated information:

Share capital (EUR) 81,306,161.32



Total number of securities with voting rights (all ordinary shares) 1,715,909,094 Total number of ordinary shares (= denominator) 1,715,909,094 Number of outstanding, granted rights to subscribe to securities carrying voting rights not yet issued: 591,500 subscription rights ("SRs") issued on November 20, 2017, entitling their holders to subscribe to a total number of 591,500 securities carrying voting rights (all ordinary shares);

60,000 SRs issued on December 23, 2020, entitling their holders to subscribe to a total number of 60,000 securities carrying voting rights (all ordinary shares);

972,250 SRs issued on April 14, 2021, entitling their holders to subscribe to a total number of 972,250 securities carrying voting rights (all ordinary shares);

532,500 SRs issued on September 22, 2021, entitling their holders to subscribe to a total number of 532,500 securities carrying voting rights (all ordinary shares);

614,249 SRs issued on December 30, 2021, entitling their holders to subscribe to a total number of 614,249 securities carrying voting rights (all ordinary shares);

168 convertible bonds issued on March 14, 2023, April 20, 2023, May 22, 2023, and June 15, 2023, entitling its holder, Atlas Special Opportunities, LLC, to subscribe to a total number of securities carrying voting rights (all ordinary shares) in accordance with the terms and conditions of these convertible bonds pursuant to the Subscription Agreement entered into between the Company and Atlas Special Opportunities, LLC on March 1, 2023; and

100 convertible bonds issued on December 20, 2021, entitling their holders (Kreos Capital VI (UK) Limited, Pontifax Medison Finance (Israel) L.P. and Pontifax Medison Finance (Cayman) L.P.) to subscribe to a total number of securities carrying voting rights (all ordinary shares) in accordance with the terms and conditions of these convertible bonds as attached to the Agreement for the provision of a Loan Facility entered into between the Company, Kreos Capital VI (UK) Limited, Pontifax Medison Finance (Israel) L.P. and Pontifax Medison Finance (Cayman) L.P., on November 21, 2021 (as amended from time to time).

END

About Oxurion

Oxurion (Euronext Brussels: OXUR) is a biopharmaceutical company developing next generation standard of care ophthalmic therapies, which are designed to improve and better preserve vision in patients with retinal disorders including diabetic macular edema (DME), the leading cause of vision loss in working-age people, as well as other conditions. Oxurion intends to play an important role in the treatment of retinal disorders, including the successful development of THR-149, its novel therapeutic for the treatment of DME. THR-149 is a potent plasma kallikrein inhibitor being developed as a potential new standard of care for the up to 50% of DME patients showing suboptimal response to anti-VEGF therapy. Oxurion is headquartered in Leuven, Belgium, with corporate operations in Boston, MA. More information is available at www.oxurion.com.



Important information about forward-looking statements

Certain statements in this press release may be considered "forward-looking". Such forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, and, accordingly, entail and are influenced by various risks and uncertainties. The Company therefore cannot provide any assurance that such forward-looking statements will materialize and does not assume any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or any other reason. Additional information concerning risks and uncertainties affecting the business and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from any forward-looking statement is contained in the Company's Annual Report. This press release does not constitute an offer or invitation for the sale or purchase of securities or assets of Oxurion in any jurisdiction. No securities of Oxurion may be offered or sold within the United States without registration under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or in compliance with an exemption therefrom, and in accordance with any applicable U.S. state securities laws.

For further information please contact:

Oxurion NV

Tom Graney

Chief Executive Officer

Tel: +32 16 75 13 10

tom.graney@oxurion.com (mailto:tom.graney@oxurion.com)







Michael Dillen

Chief Business Officer

Tel: +32 16 75 13 10

michael.dillen@oxurion.com (mailto:michael.dillen@oxurion.com) US

Conway Communications

Mary T. Conway

m (mailto:mtconway@conwaycommsir.com)tconway (mailto:mtconway@conwaycommsir.com)@conwaycommsir.com (mailto:mtconway@conwaycommsir.com)













1Press releaseOxurion, 02/03/2023

Attachments
COLOGNE, Germany, Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- On the occasion of World Youth Day in Lisbon from August 1st to 6th, 2023, 333 child figures were be placed in front of the imposing Cologne Cathedral. The small figures are draped in white-purple barrier tape, symbolizing the colors of innocence and the curia.

With outstretched hands, they point towards Cologne Cathedral, drawing attention to the church's disastrous handling of victims and perpetrators of sexual abuse. Through the installation "Shattered Souls in a Sea of Silence," artist Dennis Josef Meseg aims to "give more visibility and a voice to the victims."

However, the installation doesn't solely focus on the victims, but also casts a critical light on the perpetrators and accomplices. His intention is that they can no longer continue their wrongdoing under the church's protection.

The decision to choose Cologne as the location and the timing during this year's World Youth Day in Lisbon as the occasion for the installation is deliberate. It aims to underscore the ongoing discussion about dealing with potential abusers in the Archdiocese of Cologne and the Catholic Church worldwide.

The distressing reality of abuse and the way it is handled have rightfully sparked discontent in the past. In 2022, over 600,000 members left the German Catholic Church, a sad testament to the loss of trust in the Catholic Church.

Contact:

Christopher Goebel

Mobile: +49 160 5187683

E-Mail: chris @dennis-josef-meseg.de

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2169952/Denis_Josef_Meseg_1.jpg

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2169953/Denis_Josef_Meseg_2.jpg

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/dennis-josef-mesegs-shattered-souls--in-a-sea-of-silence-denounces-the-handling-of-abuse-cases-within-the-catholic-church-301893845.html
TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / August 4, 2023 / Further to his prior press releases dated May 22, 2023, June 7, 2023 and June 15, 2023, concerned shareholder Grant Sawiak (the "Concerned Shareholder") has delivered a notice to NWST (the "Notice") re-nominating his competing directors' slate for election at the upcoming September 6 annual meeting (the "Meeting") in accordance with section 14.12 of NWST's articles. Mr. Sawiak has received no outreach from the current board or management of NWST since the June 23 meeting was cancelled despite NWST indicating in its May 29, 2023 press release that one of the reasons for delaying the June meeting was for there to be an opportunity to have further discussions with the Concerned Shareholder.

Below are brief descriptions of the 6 board nominees that the Concerned Shareholder is proposing for election to unlock shareholder value in NWST (the "Nominees"). Each Nominee has consented to stand for election. The Concerned Shareholder will not contest Management's nomination of David Moore if he decides to stand for election. This information has not changed from the May 22, 2023 press release.

JOHN THEOBALD. John is a Chartered Engineer who also holds a degree in geology as well as several financial designations. He resides in London, England. During his 40+ year career he has acted in the capacities of President, CEO, Chair, COO, Operations Director, Executive Operations Manager, Business Development Manager, Senior Staff Geologist and a director of mining companies with interests in countries from South Africa to Canada to England to Australia to Belgium and the United States. Some of the companies he has been involved with range from majors such as Anglo American Corp of South Africa, Phelps Dodge, Iscor Ltd., royalty and investment company Anglo Pacific Group as well as Vancouver and Toronto based companies such as Gold Hunter Resources, Max Resource Corp. and First Coal Corp. Mr. Theobald is independent as he owns no shares of NWST nor does he have any contractual arrangements with either NWST or the Concerned Shareholder.

BRAAM JONKER. Braam is a CA/CPA who resides in Vancouver and has qualified as a chartered accountant in other jurisdictions such as England & Wales as well as South Africa. He has 30 years of extensive management, accounting and corporate finance experience across 5 continents mostly in the mining industry. He currently serves as the Lead Independent director of Mandalay Resources and CFO of Century Lithium and CoTec Holdings. Previously he was the CFO of Nevada Copper and Western Coal at the time of its take-over by Walter Energy for $3.3 billion. He has been a key management member in the strategic growth of several public companies and has raised and overseen the raising of more than $750 million in equity and debt as well as being involved in corporate transaction aggregating several billion dollars. Mr. Jonker is independent for the same reasons as Mr. Theobald.

JIM STEEL. Jim is a tri-lingual professional geoscientist with a graduate degree in management finance. He has over 35 years of experience working in exploration and production geology, portfolio management and as a buy /sell side analyst. Jim resides in Brampton, Ontario. In 1992 Jim discovered one of the world's largest copper deposits - the Ujima project in Chile. In addition to currently acting as the founder and a director of a silver exploration company in Ontario; a hyperspectral imaging accelerating exploration and discovery company and a Chilean gold company where he constructed a gravitational mill to process artisanal miner ore at better recoveries, Jim has held various senior positions in mining companies operating in Canada, USA, Chile, Argentina, Colombia, Guyana, Indonesia, Zambia, Namibia and Egypt. He is independent for the same reasons as Messrs. Theobald and Jonker.

MARYANTONNETT FLUMIAN. Maryantonnett has a career spent in the Canadian federal and provincial public service. A former Deputy Minister in the Canadian federal government as well as the President of the Institute on Governance for 10 years, she established an Indigenous Advisory Circle at the latter to do research to enable a dialogue on reframing the issues of Reconciliation. She resides in Ottawa and now spends her time primarily working with Indigenous communities across Canada. Currently she is spending her time assisting First Nations in British Columbia where she is a governance advisor to both the Musqueam First Nation and 5 other First Nations working under the auspices of the New Relationship Trust. Ms. Flumian is independent for the same reasons as Messrs. Theobald, Jonker, and Steel.

ADAM MANNA. Adam holds a J.D. and practices litigation in Toronto. Part of his practice includes representing high net worth individuals and he is often asked to sit on a board of directors to represent his clients' interests as he is doing with NWST. Prior to opening his own practice Adam was part of a small executive team for a company that had worldwide sales of approximately $200 million per annum. As part of his ongoing role he was responsible for environmental and corporate compliance and assumed lead responsibility for the negotiations and sale of the company to a NYSE listed multinational company. Adam is independent for the same reasons as Messrs. Theobald, Jonker, Steel and Ms. Flumian.

GRANT SAWIAK. Grant practiced securities law in Vancouver and Toronto. He began his career as one of the first lawyers hired by The Toronto Stock Exchange to regulate listed companies and those companies applying to list on the TSX. After leaving the TSX he became head of the securities law departments of two Canadian international firms and one Canadian regional law firm. He was also lead securities counsel for Nav Canada in the then largest privatization in Canadian history - Nav Canada's $5.5 billion acquisition of the Canadian civil air navigation system. Over his 40+ year career he represented mining clients on all 6 inhabited continents and the Canadian financial press have referred to him as a Canadian "mining veteran". Mr. Sawiak resides in North York, owns 753,165 shares of NWST but has no contractual or other arrangements with NWST.

Information in Support of Public Broadcast Solicitation

The information contained in this press release does not and is not meant to constitute a solicitation of a proxy within the meaning of applicable securities laws. The Concerned Shareholder intends to rely on the exemptions contained in Section 9.2(2) and Section 9.2(4) of National Instrument 51-102 - Continuous Disclosure Obligations to solicit proxies from no more than 15 securityholders and by soliciting proxies by broadcast, speech or publication. The Concerned Shareholder may also choose to file a dissident information circular in due course in compliance with applicable securities laws. A copy of the Notice containing additional information on the Nominees as required by National Instrument 51-102 and Form 51-102F5 is being filed on SEDAR+ concurrently with this press release.

The information contained herein, and any solicitation made by the Concerned Shareholder in advance of the Meeting, is or will be, as applicable, made by the Concerned Shareholder and not by or on behalf of the management of NWST. All costs incurred for any solicitation will be borne by the Concerned Shareholder and by Mr. John Kimmel (the "Solicitors"), provided that, subject to applicable law, the Solicitors may seek reimbursement from NWST of the Concerned Shareholder's out-of-pocket expenses, including proxy solicitation expenses and legal fees, incurred in connection with a successful reconstitution of the Company's board of directors. The Solicitors are not soliciting proxies in connection with the annual meeting of shareholders at this time. Other than in respect of their beneficial ownership, control or direction of securities of the Corporation described above, none of the Solicitors or any of their associates or affiliates has any material interest, direct or indirect, by way of beneficial ownership of securities or otherwise, in any matter to be acted upon at the Meeting other than the election of directors.

The Concerned Shareholder has engaged Shorecrest Group Ltd. to act as proxy solicitor in respect of this matter and will incur expenses of up to $120K plus out of pocket expenses. The Concerned Shareholder may engage the services of one or more other agents and authorize other persons to assist in soliciting proxies on behalf of the Concerned Shareholder. Any proxies solicited by or on behalf of the Concerned Shareholder, including by any other agent retained by the Concerned Shareholder, may be solicited in any other manner permitted under Canadian corporate and securities laws. Any such proxies may be revoked by instrument in writing executed by a shareholder or by his or her attorney authorized in writing or, if the shareholder is a body corporate, by an officer or attorney thereof duly authorized or by any other manner permitted by law.

The head office of NWST is located at Suite 1900, 1055 West Hastings Street Vancouver, British Columbia V6E 2E9. A copy of this press release may be obtained on NWST's SEDAR+ profile at www.sedarplus.com.

For more information contact:

Grant Sawiak

416.917.2816

SOURCE: Grant Sawiak

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/772395/Northwest-Copper-TSXVNWST-Concerned-Shareholder-Grant-Sawiak-Announces-Delivery-of-Nominating-Shareholder-Notice-Renominating-the-Competing-Slate-of-Directors-With-International-Mining-Experience-Expertise-and-Reputation-To-Replace-Current-Directors
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - August 4, 2023) - Renegade Gold Inc. (TSXV: RAGE) (OTCQX: TGLDD) (FSE: 070) ("Renegade" or the "Company") announces that it has arranged a private placement of up to 9,433,963 units (the "Units") at $0.53 per Unit for total gross proceeds of up to $5,000,000 (the "Placement"). Each Unit will consist of one common share and one non-transferable share purchase warrant, each warrant exercisable into one additional common share for a period of two years from date of issue at a price of $0.75 per share. If at any time following the expiry of the hold period, the closing price of the Company's shares on the TSX Venture Exchange is greater than C$1.25 for seven (7) or more consecutive trading days, the Company may give notice to the holders of Warrants that the Warrants will expire on the 30th business day following the date of such notice.

All securities issued under the Placement will be subject to a hold period expiring four months and one day from the date of issue.

The Company anticipates closing of the Placement (in one or more tranches) as soon as practicable subject to receipt of all necessary regulatory approvals.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or solicitation of an offer to sell any 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 U.S. Persons unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available.

About Renegade Gold Inc.

Renegade Gold Inc. is a growth focused company engaged in the business of acquisition, exploration and development of mineral properties located in the Red Lake Mining District of Northern Ontario. As part of its regional-scale consolidation strategy, the Company has assembled one of the largest prospective land packages in and around the Red Lake mining district in proximity to major mines and deposits, as well as along the Confederation Lake and Birch-Uchi greenstone belts. The recent completion of the acquisition of Pacton Gold Inc. extends Trillium's ownership in Red Lake to over 89,600 hectares of prospective and diversified exploration properties with significant potential for gold and critical minerals on trend with the major structures hosting known gold occurrences in the Red Lake mining district today. A portfolio of prospective projects in Western Australia has also been acquired.

For further information, please contact:

Renegade Gold Inc.

Nav Dhaliwal

President, CEO and Director

info@renegadegold.com

Tel: 604-678-5308

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Note regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Statements contained in this press release that are not historical facts are "forward-looking information" or "forward-looking statements" (collectively, "Forward-Looking Information") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation and the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-Looking Information includes, but is not limited to, the anticipated timing for completion of the Placement and use of proceeds therefrom. The words "anticipate," "significant," "expect," "may," "will" and similar expressions are intended to be among the statements that identify Forward-Looking Information. Forward-Looking Information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those implied by the forward-looking information. In preparing the Forward-Looking Information in this news release, the Company has applied several material assumptions, including, but not limited to, assumptions that general business and economic conditions will not change in a materially adverse manner; that all requisite approvals will be received and all requisite information will be available in a timely manner. Factors that may cause actual results to vary materially include, but are not limited to, inaccurate assumptions concerning the exploration for and development of mineral deposits, currency fluctuations, unanticipated operational or technical difficulties, risks related to unforeseen delays; general economic, market or business conditions, regulatory changes; timeliness of regulatory approvals, the risks of obtaining necessary licenses and permits, changes in general economic conditions or conditions in the financial markets and the inability to raise additional financing. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on this Forward-Looking Information. The Company does not assume the obligation to revise or update this Forward-Looking Information after the date of this release or to revise such information to reflect the occurrence of future unanticipated events, except as may be required under applicable securities laws.

NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWS WIRE SERVICES

OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/176222
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - August 4, 2023) - The BC Bud Corporation (CSE: BCBC) (OTCQB: BCBCF) ("The BC Bud Co" or the "Company"), a house of high-quality cannabis brands based out of British Columbia, Canada, announces it has closed an initial tranche of its previously announced (see news release dated July 28, 2023) of its previously announced non-brokered private placement (the "Placement").

Gross proceeds of $52,500 were raised through the sale of 700,000 units at a price of $0.075 per unit (each a "Unit"). Each Unit comprised one common share and one share purchase warrant. Each whole warrant entitles the holder to purchase a further common share at a price of $0.15 per share until August 4, 2026.

No finder's fees were paid in connection with the initial tranche of the Placement. All securities issued in the first tranche are subject to a hold period in Canada expiring on December 5, 2023.

Proceeds of the Placement will be utilized for business development and general working capital purposes.

Additionally, the Company reports that its subsidiary, the BC Bud Holdings Corp. ("Holdings") has entered into an amending agreement with Sutton Ventures Ltd. ("Sutton"), a private entity owned and controlled by CEO, Brayden Sutton, to increase the amount of the secured loan dated January 22, 2021 from $100,000 to $150,000 (the "Amendment"). All other terms of the loan remain the same.

Additionally, Holdings has also entered into a loan agreement dated August 4, 2023 with Cybin Therapeutics Inc. ("Cybin") pursuant to which Cybin has advanced to Holdings the principal amount of $60,000 (the "Loan"). The Loan is due on July 30, 2024 and bears interest at a rate of 8% per annum, payable upon maturity. The Loan will be secured by a general security interest in the personal property of Holdings. Cybin is a private entity in which both Brayden Sutton, CEO and director and Josh Taylor, President and director, are controlling shareholders.

As both Sutton and Cybin are controlled by directors of the Company, the Amendment and the Loan constitute "related party transactions" as such term is defined under Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101"). The Company is relying on exemptions from the formal valuation and minority approval requirements under MI 61-101. The Company relied on Section 5.5(a) of MI 61-101 for an exemption from the formal valuation requirement and Section 5.7(1)(a) of MI 61-101 for an exemption from the minority shareholder approval requirement of MI 61-101 as the fair market value of the Loan and the Amendment do not exceed 25% of the Company's market capitalization.

About The BC Bud Co

The B.C. Bud Co. is a house of brands created by industry professionals who are passionate about the user experience.

Investor Relations

Phone: 1-(778)-656-0377

Email: invest@thebcbc.com

Web: www.thebcbc.com

Disclaimer

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements included in this press release constitute forward-looking information or statements (collectively, "forward-looking statements"), including those identified by the expressions "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "expect", "intend", "may", "should" and similar expressions to the extent they relate to the Company or its management. The forward-looking statements are not historical facts but reflect current expectations regarding future results or events. This press release contains forward looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and various estimates, factors and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors.

Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions which are difficult to predict. Factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include failure to obtain regulatory approval, the continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions, including the effects of COVID-19. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. These statements should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those implied by such statements. Although such statements are based on management's reasonable assumptions, there can be no assurance that the statements will prove to be accurate or that management's expectations or estimates of future developments, circumstances or results will materialize. The Company assumes no responsibility to update or revise forward-looking information to reflect new events or circumstances unless required by law. Readers should not place undue reliance on the Company's forward-looking statements.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange (the "CSE") nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/176211


NEW YORK CITY (dpa-AFX) - In a recent letter addressed to hospitals, pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. (PFE) announced its decision to limit the distribution of certain drugs manufactured at its Rocky Mount, North Carolina plant. The move comes after the facility was struck by a devastating tornado last month. The letter outlined 12 injection products that will only be distributed through emergency orders 'due to their high medical need,' effective immediately and until further notice.



Among the drugs on the list were items that were already facing shortages, as reported by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists. These included a critical sodium chloride injection used to replenish water and salt lost due to specific medical conditions, as well as an injection to treat metabolic acidosis arising from issues like kidney failure.



Surprisingly, the list also encompassed drugs that were not previously in short supply, like particular versions of heart failure injection dobutamine and dopamine, employed to address shock and low blood pressure caused by heart attacks, infections, or surgeries. However, Pfizer did not disclose the exact extent of these products' supply from the damaged plant.



Previously, Pfizer stated that the Rocky Mount facility accounted for 8 percent of all sterile injectable medicines used in U.S. hospitals, spanning anesthesia, analgesia, therapeutics, anti-infectives, and neuromuscular blockers. The company did not address concerns raised by health experts regarding potential exacerbation of existing shortages or the emergence of new ones due to the new distribution limits.



The United States is already grappling with a severe shortage of medications, ranging from ADHD pills to pain relief medications and injectable cancer therapies. The scarcity has been attributed to various factors, including manufacturing quality-control issues and unexpected surges in demand.



While urging hospitals to explore alternative options before resorting to emergency orders, Pfizer advised healthcare facilities to check the availability of the 12 restricted products with wholesalers or distributors. The company emphasized that all other products manufactured at the damaged plant and not on the limited list remain available in the distribution chain.



Meera Bhavsar, Pfizer's sterile injectables portfolio lead, stated that this approach would enable equitable distribution of remaining inventory and support continuity of patient care while efforts are underway to restart production. However, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla mentioned that the company is still assessing the timeline for bringing the plant back online.



Last month's tornado inflicted significant damage to a warehouse facility at the plant, which housed raw materials, packaging supplies, and finished medicines awaiting quality assurance. Fortunately, the drug-manufacturing areas of the facility were reportedly spared major damage.



The extent of the impact of Pfizer's distribution restrictions on the healthcare industry and patients remains to be seen as the company works diligently to resolve the challenges posed by the tornado's aftermath.



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Vivoryon Therapeutics N.V.Announces Proposed Appointment of Dr. Frank Weber as Chief Executive Officer





Frank Weber, MD, current Chief Medical Officer (CMO),promoted to Chief Executive Officer (CEO) to lead Company through next stage of development with focus on upcoming VIVIAD trial readout in 1Q24

To-Date, varoglutamstat has demonstrated potential for meaningful safety and ease of use advantages over antibody-based therapies, continues to show encouraging safety data at therapeutic dose of 600 mg twice daily, a dose demonstrated to result in nearly 90% target occupancy

AnneDoering, CFA, toassume newly created position of Chief Strategy & Investor Relations Officer(CS&IRO) to bolster continued efforts to support varoglutamstat and Vivoryon corporate goals

Vivoryon to report first half 2023 financial results and operational progress on September 7, 2023





Halle (Saale) / Munich, Germany, August 4, 2023 - Vivoryon Therapeutics N.V. (Euronext Amsterdam: VVY; NL00150002Q7) (Vivoryon, or the Company), a clinical stage company focused on the discovery and development of small molecule medicines to modulate the activity and stability of pathologically altered proteins, announced that Frank Weber, MD, Vivoryon's Chief Medical Officer (CMO) will assume current CEO Dr. Ulrich Dauer's responsibilities effective August 14, 2023. Dr. Weber has a long-standing history with the Company, having joined Vivoryon in 2010. He has deep knowledge of the scientific foundation of the Company and has been integral in shaping varoglutamstat's rigorous clinical development strategy. Dr. Ulrich Dauer will support the Company through the transition period in an advisory role through the end of 2023.

"I am honored to become the next CEO of Vivoryon and to continue to work alongside Uli and the team through this transition period. We have developed a truly differentiated and compelling small molecule for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease, and I am excited to lead this team through varoglutamstat's late clinical-stage development as we work tirelessly to bring this exceptional product to patients in need. I look forward to leading the Company through VIVIAD's trial readout in the first quarter of 2024 as well as partnering with the broader management team and the Board to further support Vivoryon along its future growth path. Contrasted with currently approved products, varoglutamstat's convenient oral administration and promising safety profile with no ARIAs has potential to be a transformative medicine that can deliver extraordinary value to patients with Alzheimer's disease and their caregivers. As varoglutamstat approaches the final stages of its Phase 2 development, I feel confident that the Company is poised to become a leader in the field of Alzheimer's disease treatment with our novel approach," commented Frank Weber, MD. "I also would like to express my deep gratitude to Uli not only as the leader of Vivoryon for many years, but also as a trusted partner throughout my role as CMO."

Further management changes include Anne Doering, CFA, the Company's current Head of Investor Relations, taking on the newly created position of CS&IRO effective August 14, 2023, supporting Dr. Weber. Ms. Anne Doering joined Vivoryon as Head of Investor Relations in April 2023, focusing on expanding the Company's investor communications and network by leveraging her capital markets experience. In this newly created position, Ms. Doering will lead the development and execution of portfolio and growth strategies for the Company while remaining responsible for investor relations activities.

"Uli's leadership has transformed Vivoryon to become a financially stable company with clinical and operational success. Vivoryon has never been stronger and is well-positioned for the future with a clear, differentiated strategy in Alzheimer's disease and is at the cusp of delivering extraordinary value for patients and shareholders. It is with great pleasure that we announce Frank's designation as CEO. The Board has worked closely with Frank for several years and we believe that he will be a significant asset to the company in this new role, having been a true partner in all aspects of Vivoryon's business in a leadership capacity. Given Frank's extensive clinical development expertise and his integral role in varoglutamstat's clinical development strategy, combined with his corporate strategy and financial experience resulting from numerous successful transactions throughout his tenure, we feel he is the natural choice to succeed Uli. We have full confidence that he will successfully steer Vivoryon as we approach a clinical inflection point with our upcoming VIVIAD results in the first quarter of 2024 and we anticipate a smooth and effective leadership transition," commented Dr. Erich Platzer, Chairman of the Board. "In addition, Anne's experience complements the new leadership team very well, broadening the Company's visibility in the capital markets and supporting Frank through key inflection points with varoglutamstat. We welcome her on board."

Dr. Weber brings 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and life science industry. He supported InterMune (now Genentech/Roche), in particular, its launch of Esbriet in Europe, as Global Clinical Advisor. Prior to this, he served as Chief Medical Officer at Merck KGaA in Germany and Switzerland, where he contributed to several marketing authorizations and market access agreements in the EU, U.S. and Japan and also spearheaded personalized medicine, biomarker and companion diagnostics. During his career, he has also been involved in several M&A transactions as well as licensing deals. Dr. Weber started his industry career after ten years in academic clinical research and patient care in the areas of cancer, immunology, infectiology and maxillo-facial surgery. His past roles include management positions in medical affairs and clinical development at American Cyanamid (Lederle), USA and at Synthelabo (now Sanofi), France. Dr. Weber is also a board member at Zambon Biotech SA, a Swiss-based private company searching for innovative in-licensing projects for the Zambon Group. Dr. Weber is a licensed physician and received his MD in Cancer Immunology from the Medical University Cologne, Germany.

Ms. Doering brings over 25 years of capital markets, investment and corporate biopharmaceutical industry experience. Prior to joining Vivoryon, Ms. Doering was Director of Investor Relations at BioNTech and Director of Group Strategy at Merck KGaA, where she contributed to the strategic direction of the company. Her additional corporate experience includes R&D finance and strategy at Merck & Co. On the investment front, Ms. Doering helped build the Franklin European Equity Funds franchise at Franklin Templeton, a leading global asset manager, as portfolio manager and analyst and has spent time in venture capital at Creathor Ventures in Germany. In addition, for several years Ms. Doering was a healthcare equity research analyst covering pharmaceutical companies for a number of investment banks in New York including Bear Stearns, Credit Suisse, Bank of America and Commerzbank, during which time she was instrumental in the team achieving a #1 Institutional Investor ranking. Ms. Doering holds an MBA from The Wharton School and an MA in International Studies from The Lauder Institute, both of the University of Pennsylvania. She is also a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Charterholder.

Vivoryon will hold an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) on Friday, September 15, 2023, in connection with the appointment of Dr. Weber and Ms. Doering to the Company's Board as executive directors

###

About Vivoryon Therapeutics N.V.

Vivoryon is a clinical stage biotechnology company focused on developing innovative small molecule-based medicines. Driven by our passion for ground-breaking science and innovation, we strive to change the lives of patients in need suffering from severe diseases. We leverage our in-depth expertise in understanding post-translational modifications to develop medicines that modulate the activity and stability of proteins which are altered in disease settings. Beyond our lead program, varoglutamstat, which is in Phase 2 clinical development to treat Alzheimer's disease, we have established a solid pipeline of orally available small molecule inhibitors for various indications including cancer, inflammatory diseases and fibrosis. www.vivoryon.com



Vivoryon Forward Looking Statements

This press release includes forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, those regarding the business strategy, management plans and objectives for future operations of the Vivoryon Therapeutics N.V. (the "Company"), estimates and projections with respect to the market for the Company's products and forecasts and statements as to when the Company's products may be available. Words such as "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "intend," "may," "plan," "project," "predict," "should" and "will" and similar expressions as they relate to the Company are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance; rather they are based on the Management's current expectations and assumptions about future events and trends, the economy and other future conditions. The forward-looking statements involve a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties and other factors could materially adversely affect the outcome and financial effects of the plans and events described herein. Actual results, performance or events may differ materially from those expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements and from expectations. As a result, no undue reliance should be placed on such forward-looking statements. This press release does not contain risk factors. Certain risk factors that may affect the Company's future financial results are discussed in the published annual financial statements of the Company. This press release, including any forward-looking statements, speaks only as of the date of this press release. The Company does not assume any obligation to update any information or forward-looking statements contained herein, save for any information required to be disclosed by law. This press release contains inside information within the meaning of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014.

For more information, please contact:

Investor Contact

Stern IR

Julie Seidel

Tel: +1 212-698-8684

Email: SternIR-Vivoryon@sternir.com



Media Contact

Trophic Communications

Valeria Fisher

Tel: +49 175 8041816

Email: vivoryon@trophic.eu



Attachment
Jess Hunichen and Emily Ward

Jess Hunichen and Emily Ward, the co-founders of global influencer talent management & brand partnerships agency Shine Talent Group, have launched Shine Ventures, a Los Angeles, CA-based angel investment firm.

The vehicle will invest in early stage startups with strong digital engagement that are building technology for the creator economy, innovating in womens health, and more.

Shine Ventures has already invested in norm., a platform that helps influencers scale their revenues.

Shine Ventures leverages proprietary trend data and network of content creators who can test and actively be involved in the R&D of the invested brands products, providing built-in influencer strategy and digital marketing expertise. Ward and Hunichen are also experts in PR, events and media communication strategy.

Shine Talent Group originally started as Shine PR, as Ward and Hunichen boast a combined 30 years of marketing and communications experience. They also have expertise in acquisitions, making them equipped to support the growth and sale of the companies they invest in. Shine Talent Group acquired Toronto-based influencer management agency, Fourth Floor Management (FFM), in December 2020. In December 2022, Ward and Hunichen sold The BodCon, the body confidence-centric virtual conference series they co-founded, to the e-Commerce group, Trafilea.

Ward and Hunichen are looking to invest in early-stage global companies, with a strong focus on startups based in North America.

Shine Ventures will be announcing a new category of focus each year. For the rest of 2023, it will be focusing on investments in the womens health space, with a specific emphasis on all things mensuration through menopause. It will also release a white paper with trend data, qualitative and quantitative analytics and Ward and Hunichens commentary on why theyve chosen the particular category for the coming year.

FinSMEs

04/08/2023
GroGuru, a San Diego, CA-based leader in strategic water management for commercial farmers, closed a Seed A round with $2.3m in funding.

The round was co-led by Cove Fund and Impact Venture Capital, with participation from Integral Capital Partners, Comeback Capital, Right Side Capital Management, VIGR Crop, NutraDrip, and Thunderhead Crop.

The company intends to use the funds to expand sales, continue to develop and commercialize its innovative AI-enabled solutions for continuous farm monitoring and management, and the expansion of its strategic partnerships.

Led by Patrick Henry, president and CEO, GroGuru supplies precision soil and irrigation monitoring and management systems to the commercial agriculture industry. Its solutions enable farmers to increase crop yields, and, at the same time, efficiently use water, energy, fertilizer and labor in a more sustainable way. It combines a patented wireless underground system (WUGS) for soil monitoring, an AI-based recommendation engine in the Cloud, and an intuitive farmer-friendly user interface that farmers can access on their tablet, computer or mobile device.

GroGuru has been a part of the OCTANE LaunchPad, EvoNexus, AgLaunch, the Yield Lab, SVG-Thrive and Plug & Play AgTech accelerator programs.

FinSMEs

03/08/2023
TytoCare, a NYC-based virtual care company enabling health plans and providers to deliver primary care from home, raised $49m in additional growth funding.

The round, which brought total funding raised to date to $205m, was led by Insight Partners, with participation from new investors MemorialCare  a California health system  as well as two major pension funds, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) and Clal.

The company intends to use the funds to roll out its Home Smart Clinic and develop next-generation AI capabilities.

Led by Dedi Gilad, Co-Founder and CEO, TytoCare provides the Home Smart Clinic, a virtual care solution that replicates the doctors office in the home. The solution combines TytoCares FDA-cleared handheld remote examination device, the AI-backed Tyto Insights smart diagnosis support, and the Tyto Engagement Labs to provide virtual care in the home and enable health plans and providers to deliver on expected ROI and drive improved health outcomes. To complete its offering, the company also provides the Pro Smart Clinic, for professional settings outside the home to serve rural clinics, schools, workplaces, and more. TytoCare serves over 220 major health systems and health plans in the U.S., Europe, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East.

FinSMEs

03/08/2023
Chilling new details keep emerging about the macabre Harvard University morgue scandal.

On Thursday, 19 families impacted by the scandal joined a class action lawsuit against the Ivy League school over the alleged theft of body parts including heads, brains, skin and bones.

This comes after prosecutors in Pennsylvania in June indicted a former manager at the Harvard Medical School morgue, his wife and three other people for the theft and sale of human body parts.

The families, accusing Harvard of negligence, claimed the school abandoned the remains in a facility that was a place of freakish desecration.

But what do we know about the scandal?

Lets take a closer look:

What happened?

Cedric Lodge, 55, the former morgue manager at Harvard Medical School is accused of stealing dissected portions of cadavers that were donated to the school in the scheme that stretched from 2018 to early 2023.

Lodge was fired from his position at Harvard in May, as per USA Today.

Lodge sometimes took the body parts  which included heads, brains, skin and bones  back to his home where he lived with his wife, Denise, 63, and some remains were sent to buyers through the mail, authorities said.

The indictment charges the Lodges and three others  Katrina Maclean, 44, of Salem, Massachusetts; Joshua Taylor, 46, of West Lawn, Pennsylvania; and Mathew Lampi, 52, of East Bethel, Minnesota  with conspiracy and interstate transport of stolen goods.

Lodge also allegedly allowed buyers to come to the morgue to pick what remains they wanted to buy.

According to prosecutors, the defendants were part of a nationwide network of people who bought and sold remains stolen from the school and an Arkansas mortuary. The Lodges allegedly sold remains to Maclean, Taylor, and others in arrangements made through telephone calls and social media websites.

Taylor sometimes transported stolen remains back to Pennsylvania, authorities said, while other times the Lodges would mail remains to him and others. Maclean and Taylor resold the stolen remains for profit, authorities said.

Maclean owns Kats Creepy Creations, a store in Peabody, Massachusetts, where authorities say she sold and stored human remains. Its Instagram page notes the store sells creations that shock the mind & shake the soul, along with creepy dolls, oddities and bone Art.

The indictment cites a transaction where Maclean allegedly sold human skin to a Pennsylvania man who tanned it to create leather.

After MacLean shipped more human skin to the man, she contacted him to confirm the shipment arrived because she wanted to make sure it got to you and I dont expect agents at my door, court papers said.

In another instance, MacLean allegedly agreed to buy two dissected faces for $600 from Cedric Lodge in October 2020.

The indictment also alleged that over a three-year period, Taylor transferred 39 payments for human remains totaling $37,355.56 to a PayPal account operated by Denise Lodge. One payment for $1,000 included the memo head number 7, while another for $200 read braiiiiiins.

Authorities said the body parts were taken without the schools knowledge or permission and that Harvard has complied with the investigation.

Two other people have been charged in the case.

Jeremy Pauley, age 41, of Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, allegedly bought some remains from Candace Chapman Scott, of Little Rock, Arkansas, who allegedly stole them from a mortuary where she worked.

Authorities have said Scott stole body parts from cadavers she was supposed to have cremated, noting many of the bodies had been donated to and used for research and educational purposes by a medical school in Arkansas.

Pauley allegedly sold many of the stolen remains to other people, including individuals, including Lampi. Pauley and Lampi bought and sold from each other over an extended period of time and exchanged more than $100,000 in online payments, authorities said.

Scott and Pauley have both pleaded not guilty.

What have the families alleged?

As per Insider, the lawsuit stated that Harvard described its programme as an indispensable component of medical and dental education and research.

It claimed the gifts would allow let alleviate human pain and suffering.

The lawsuit states donors enrolled in the program in the hope and expectation that this final act of service and kindness could help train [a] new generation of doctors.

But Harvard abandoned the remains in a facility that was a place of freakish desecration, where, according to the indictments, criminals were allowed to roam and pick over loved ones remains for bits like trinkets at a flea market, the lawsuit claims.

As per Insider, a Korean war veteran who passed away of lung cancer  and wished for his body to aid in helping others  was a victim of the scheme,

A diesel mechanic and fisherman and a former English teacher were other victims.

CNN quoted the lawsuit as accusing Harvard and Lodge of negligence and failing to ensure that the cadavers were properly handled and maintained for their intended purpose of scientific study and not improperly mishandled, dissected, and/or sold to third parties.

We started hearing from the families of loved ones who selflessly donated their bodies to science before they died, Jonathan Sweet of the Keches Law Group, was quoted as saying by the outlet.

In doing so, a trust was formed.

This case is about an alleged breach of that trust, which has come to light in a very unfortunate way, Sweet said.

The lawsuit says the law entitles people to be treated with decency and dignity after death including by not having their bodies mishandled, viewed, dismembered, and/or sold by those entrusted with them.

This lawsuit comes on the heels of a separate lawsuit in June which alleged that around 400 bodies could have been used in the scheme.

According to Boston.com, that lawsuit was filed by a man whose mothers body may have been among the desecrated.

By 23 June, around 150 people had already joined the lawsuit.

Paula Peltonovich and her sister, Darlene Lynch, said they were shocked to learn that their fathers remains were among those said to be stolen. They said their parents were both police officers in New Hampshire who wanted to donate their bodies to science.

While the woman fear they may never know what happened to their fathers remains, they have asked the school to return the body of their mother, who died in March. Their father died in 2019.

Who could do something like that? What kind of person? No respect at all for the family, Peltonovich said about the defendants. They need to pay.

What has Harvard said?

Harvard is yet to comment on the latest lawsuit.

But in a message earlier posted on the schools website entitled An abhorrent betrayal, deans George Daley and Edward Hundert called the matter morally reprehensible.

We are appalled to learn that something so disturbing could happen on our campus  a community dedicated to healing and serving others, the deans wrote.

The reported incidents are a betrayal of HMS and, most importantly, each of the individuals who altruistically chose to will their bodies to HMS through the Anatomical Gift Program to advance medical education and research.

We have been working with information supplied by federal authorities and examining our own records, particularly the logs showing when donor remains were sent to be cremated and when Lodge was on campus, to try to determine which anatomical donors may have been impacted, they added as per USA Today.

Some crimes defy understanding, Attorney for Pennsylvania Gerard Karam earlier said.

The theft and trafficking of human remains strikes at the very essence of what makes us human. It is particularly egregious that so many of the victims here volunteered to allow their remains to be used to educate medical professionals and advance the interests of science and healing. For them and their families to be taken advantage of in the name of profit is appalling. With these charges, we are seeking to secure some measure of justice for all these victims.

With inputs from agencies
The debate over remote work continues.

New data is showing that those that work from home are far less productive than those at the office.

Lets take a closer look:

What does the data show?

According to Fortune.com, economists Dave Atkin and Antoinette Schoar at MIT and Sumit Shinde at UCLA in a study showed that workers at home are 18 per cent less productive than office workers.

The researchers studied data entry workers in Chennai.

The study showed that a large chunk of that differential between the two groups began on the very first day of work  and the rest came as a result of the remote group picking things up slower.

Interestingly, Those that favoured working from home were far less productive  27 per cent  in a remote setting than when working in-office.

Meanwhile, those who prefer being at the office were just 13 per cent less productive.

The paper authors explain that discrepancy up to those who are less likely to prefer in-person work because of childcare eldercare responsibilities  which can disrupt the work day.

Workers who most need to be around the house during the workday are exactly the workers who are most distracted working from home, Atkin told Fortune.

We think our results are most applicable to low-skilled job environments and those hiring new workers, Atkin cautioned.

Meanwhile, the latest working paper from WFH Research by Stanfords Institute for Economic Policy and Research showed a 10 to 20 per cent drop in productivity for workers that are fully remote compared to their in-office brethren.

It is to be noted that this paper has not been peer-reviewed.

According to BNN Bloomberg, McKinsey & Co. in a study of its own company determined that the hybrid work model best works when its employees are in the office around half the time.

Any time spent above that doesnt improve performance and instead detracts from focus and flexibility, the study found.

What do experts say?

That managers need to carefully consider when taking a decision  sometimes on a case-by-case basis.

In the first study, for example, the data entry workers were all new hires.

Theres obviously going to be a big difference between someone who already understands the work well and already knows the culture of the firm and how things are done, and now youre saying Ok, now you can work from home a few days a week, Atkin told BNN Bloomberg

In terms of extrapolating, we do need to think carefully about that.

Jose Maria Barrero, an economist and co-founder of WFH Research, told BNN Bloomberg that the first papers results reflect the findings of other studies.

Barrero, however, pointed to the fact that companies could save a fortune on real estate through remote work  even if means their workers are less productive.

Many of the articles that come out and criticize remote work and provide evidence that remote work is less productive are really talking about fully remote work, when really what matters for most of the people who can work from home is hybrid, Barrero told BNN Bloomberg. Its important to keep those nuances top of mind.

Forbes noted that such findings need not necessarily spell the end of remote work.

Instead, they may lead to a more balanced approach. Hybrid work models, combining in-person and remote work, may emerge as a preferable solution. These models can provide the flexibility that many employees value while still maintaining the community and collaboration that offices offer. Companies may need to invest in better remote working tools and training to overcome the identified challenges, the piece noted.

The piece also noted that a dip in employees productivity does not detract from the many advantages of remote work including the lack of commute, flexibility and a larger talent pool to choose from.

A balanced approach can maximize these benefits while mitigating the challenges, the piece concluded.

With inputs from agencies
Social media was the immediate trigger for the full-blown violence in Haryanas Nuh district.

Among the provocative videos doing rounds on the internet is that of Ahsan Mewati, a YouTuber, who publicly threatened to kill Monu Manesar.

Lets take a look.

Also read: Haryana: How Nuh violence spread to Gurugram, where mosque was attacked

All about YouTuber Ahsan Mewati

According to India Today, Ahsan described himself as a farmer and a YouTuber. He is a reasonably well-known YouTuber, according to his social media profiles. He has more than 80,000 YouTube subscribers as of 3 August and more than a lakh Facebook fans.

In his videos that went viral on X.com (formerly Twitter), Ahsan publicly urged Muslims to kill Monu Manesar, while also professing hatred for Hindus.

The left ecosystem is trying hard to portray the Muslim community as victims. In this thread,Im going to share inciting videos from the Muslim side. Lets start with Ahsan Mewati, a Pakistani YouTuber currently located in Alwar, Rajasthan. He incited riots and promoted the pic.twitter.com/ck9XZbaWMg  THE INTREPID  (@Theintrepid_) August 2, 2023

In February this year, two Muslim cattle traders were killed in Haryanas Bhiwani by Mohit Yadav alias Monu Manesar, a self-described cow vigilante, and he has been on the run since then. A day prior to the Shobha Yatra organised by the Bajrang Dal and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, he had uploaded a video confirming his attendance. On 31 July, ethnic violence took place in Nuh, which later spread to other regions.

In another video, Ahsan can be seen praising the violence, while people questioned why the Haryana Police had not detained him.

Also read: Nuh violence: Who is gau rakshak Monu Manesar at the centre of communal clashes?

Indian or Pakistani?

Ahsan Mewati is a YouTuber who listed Alwar, Rajasthan as his residence on his Facebook page, leading many to think that he was Indian. However, it was confusing for people as he had also added Kahror Pakka, a tehsil in Pakistans Punjab.

A man Ahsan Mewati Pakistani was giving instructions for violent attacks against Jalabhishek Yatra in Mewat by uploading several videos. Those videos were watched & shared by 1000s of people. He has 2 YouTube Channels & 1 Facebook page. And, this man is a Pakistani national. pic.twitter.com/eiln4ec9TC  Anshul Saxena (@AskAnshul) August 2, 2023

On the day of violence, Ahsan uploaded a video on YouTube where his location was listed as Pakistan. While speaking to India Today, he confirmed that he hails from Pakistans Mewat region and has never been to India before.

It is to be noted here that Pakistan does not have a place called Mewat. Some portions of unidentified Mewat were transferred to Pakistan during the Partition. The people who live there call themselves Mewati. Mewat in India was renamed Nuh in 2016.

He makes an effort to demonstrate Pakistani Mewati Culture on YouTube.

According to Alt News, there is also a second YouTube channel linked to Pakistani national Ahsans primary channel. According to the report, in one of his interviews with Riaz Noor, he admitted that his family had migrated from Alwar, Rajasthan, his village is Shahpur, and that he initially settled in Pakistans Lodhran district in Punjab.

Moreover, he also has a brother who is a Pakistani Police. In March 2022, he shared a Facebook post congratulating his older brother on joining the police force. On the mans uniform, the flag of the neighbouring country was embroidered on his shirt sleeve.

As per his contact information on Facebook, the country code is +92, which is used in Pakistan. In some of his YouTube videos, Urdu boards with Pakistani contact numbers are also visible.

Additionally, Alwar Police also responded to one of the tweets alleging that the person in the video is an Alwar resident. The police said that they have not yet discovered any relation between the person in the video and Alwar.

In conclusion, the man in the viral video is Ahsan Mewati who hails from Pakistan, and not from Alwar, Rajasthan.

From village vlogs to communal ones

Ahsan has produced several videos about rural life and the local culture on YouTube. However, he started posting politically charged videos on Mewat in India (formally known as Nuh district) in the past few months.

Before this, he even posted offensive things to gain attention. Many of his video titles are also written in Hindi using the Devanagari alphabet, which may also interest Indian users.

He claimed that the undivided Mewat was the origin of his ancestors. Speaking to India Today, he said that he belonged to the Meo community and that he was emotionally connected to Mewat. Thus, it is also possible that the YouTuber saw Nuh violence as an opportunity to gain popularity.

Also read: Haryana communal violence: Did the police fail to act on time in Nuh?

False Indian claims

In an article about the viral video, right-wing propaganda outlet OpIndia identified the person as Pakistani YouTube Ahsan Mewati. They claimed that he lived in India.

The video host who is a resident of Mewat region in Haryana seems to be in love with Pakistan as he has added Pakistani to the name of his YouTube channel, it said.

Similarly, a section of netizens also tweeted the video and alleged that the YouTuber was an Indian national.

                                   -   pic.twitter.com/ebinCs29h4  Gopal Goswami (@igopalgoswami) August 2, 2023

Warning  Abusive Language

       

                     

        

    @police_haryana @gurgaonpolice pic.twitter.com/QL05KNhfPy  Major Surendra Poonia (@MajorPoonia) August 2, 2023

He is probably Paki but he has mentioned Alwar as location on Facebook. He can read & write Hindi very well. If he is Paki then someone from india is helping him with all sensitive info In either case, his channel should have been banned in ind by now @MIB_India @ianuragthakur https://t.co/TuTjRZNDJG  Squint Neon (@TheSquind) August 2, 2023

Also read: Haryana violence: How tensions have forced migrants to flee Gurugram, Nuh

Nuh Violence

Ethnic tensions flared in the Nuh region of Haryana during a Hindutva procession led by the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Bajrang Dal on Monday, 31 July. By the evening, reports of fresh incidents of clashes also came in from nearby regions, including Gurugram and Sohna.

To date, there have been five fatalities due to violence, dozens are injured, and property worth crores have been destructed by enraged mobs.

According to media reports, Manesars video served as the immediate catalyst for the violence as he had urged his supporters to attend the procession.

The yatra in question was a Brajmandal yatra, which is being held since 2021 by the VHP members on a massive scale.

Despite having many supporters on social media and in Haryana, he is not well-known in Mewat because of his vigilantism-related videos.

With inputs from agencies
On 5 August 2019, the Narendra Modi-led government did what many thought was unthinkable  it scrapped Article 370, a constitutional provision that grants special status to Jammu and Kashmir, and also announced that the state would be divided into two Union territories  Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah had been tasked with this mammoth mission  of ensuring the passage of the law in Parliament as well as ensuring that theres minimal fallout of this move in the area and the country.

Now, as we approach the fourth anniversary of this momentous occasion, lets take a look back at how exactly did Amit Shah orchestrate the move, within the walls of Parliament as well as in the region that was going to witness, perhaps the biggest change it had seen in recent years.

How Shah dealt with Parliament

Before we take a look at how Amit Shah dealt with the fallout of the abrogation of Article 370, lets take a closer look at the process of how the minister prepped for it. And all of it dates back to when the Modi-led alliance won the 2019 general elections. It is reported that soon after their historic victory in the Lok Sabha polls, the Modi government decided to go the whole hog and get rid of Article 370 itself.

But this would be no easy task. However, Home Minister Amit Shah did his homework brilliantly. A lot of the initial work happened outside the offices of the Home Ministry and the Law Ministry in North Block and Shashtri Bhawan respectively and total secrecy was maintained.

Also read: Four years of abrogation of Article 370: Kashmirs journey from alienation to integration

Files, documents and other related papers were sent to Home Minister Amit Shahs ground floor office in the Parliament complex and the leader would burn the midnight oil giving shape to the legislation that would enable separating the state and also the presidential order that eventually made Article 370 inoperative.

According to a Hindustan Times report, Shah kept close contact with Solicitor General of India, Tushar Mehta, throughout the process and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval was also brought in to the discussions.

When Shah was adequately prepared, it was decided that the Parliament session of the time would be extended until 7 August with the aim to get these bills passed. As the wheels within the BJP turned  then Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Railways Minister Piyush Goyal were asked to manage things in the House and a whip was issued.

Then on 5 August of 2019, Home Minister Amit Shah stood up and introduced the proposal to read down Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir. The decision to table the bills and resolution on Jammu and Kashmir took a portion of the Rajya Sabha by surprise, as Trinamool Congress MP Derek OBrien noted in his speech.

However, Shah didnt back down and presented his proposal. During his address, the home minister described how the government had the power to revoke Article 370. He utilised Section 3 of Article 370  Notwithstanding anything in the foregoing provisions of this article, the President may, by public notification, declare that this article shall cease to be operative or shall be operative only with such exceptions and modifications and from such date as he may specify: Provided that the recommendation of the Constituent Assembly of the State referred to in clause ( 2 ) shall be necessary before the President issues such a notification  to revoke the legislation.

A closer look at this part clearly shows that the President could scrap Article 370, if he/she received the green signal from the Constituent Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir. However, J&K doesnt have a Constituent Assembly nor did it have a Legislative Assembly and in such a power vacuum, the president has the power to act on Article 370.

However, Amit Shahs proposal triggered a massive uproar from the Congress and other parties over the manner in which the resolutions had been brought. Two Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members, Nazir Ahmad Laway and Mir Mohammad Fayaz, were very agitated. While Fayaz tore his own kurta, Nazir Ahmad tore up the Indian Constitution. They were immediately removed from the House by marshals on orders from the Chairman.

After day-long deliberations, Amit Shahs proposals were put to a vote and it won, receiving 125 votes in its favour and 61 against it. The next day, the bill was passed by the Lok Sabha with 370 votes in its favour and 70 against it. The bill became an Act after it was signed by the President.

What about the fallout?

Revoking Article 370 in Parliament seemed to be the easy part of this mission. After all, Jammu and Kashmir hadnt witnessed long-term peace, as terrorists and separatists continued to cause mass unrest in the state.

For this purpose, Amit Shah roped in NSA Ajit Doval and now it has emerged that the Centre had laid the groundwork for the abrogation of Article 370 in the area long before the minister introduced his proposals in the House.

First off, was the Centres Operation All-Out against the terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir. Through this operation, the Centre identified over 258 terrorists and went after them. This, however, was only the first step of the entire operation.

In the third week of July of 2019, inquiries were carried out if Jammu and Kashmir was ready for a big change. In fact, one security official told The Print that K Vijay Kumar, adviser to Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik, had then said, We should be ready for some tough decision on Kashmir.

Also, NSA Doval had visited the area in the third week of July and had wide-ranging discussions on the situation on the ground. He had then visited the Amarnath cave, giving an impression to officials that he was reviewing security arrangements in view of the then-ongoing Amarnath Yatra.

Senior security officials then felt a change coming and when substantial deployment of Border Security Force (BSF) followed by that of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in the last week took place, they realised something big was going to happen.

The Home Ministry also sent 2,000 satellite phones to the J&K administration in the event of phones and internet not functioning. Moreover, the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO)s high altitude long-endurance Israeli Heron drones were sent across the Pir Panjal for crowd control. Military aircraft flew dozens of sorties flying relief supplies including food, water and medicines into the Valley.

As per an Hindustan Times report, it was on 4 August that Shah called up the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) chief Samant Goel and told them to be ready  this was probably the first time the security establishment realised that the Modi government was going to scrap Article 370 in Parliament.

The Amarnath Yatra was called off and the Centre also placed the Valleys political leaders under house arrest over fears that Pakistans spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and jihadists would target them.

Amit Shah also took the brave decision of snapping communication lines of Kashmir, though this move was severely criticised by the Opposition and human rights activists. While some would argue that this only enraged the locals more, it broke the terrorists ability to organise and unleash terror in the region. There was no terrorist leader active on the scene and even if there was, they couldnt use social media to convey their messages and provoke the people.

The minister also deployed security personnel in significant numbers along the streets and at the entry and exit points of Srinagar and other major towns to pre-empt spontaneous mobilisation.

But at the end of it all, Article 370 was revoked and as they say, the rest is history.

How has Kashmir fared post-Article 370?

Its been four years now that Article 370 has been abrogated and since then Jammu and Kashmir has undergone a remarkable change.

The Centre even told the Supreme Court that abrogation of the legislation led to unprecedented development, progress, security and stability to the region and that life has returned to normalcy in the region after three decades of turmoil. It has also said that the abrogation of Article 370 led to dismantling of the terror network, and incidents of stone pelting and street violence have now become a thing of the past.

Also read: Article 370 revoked: Narendra Modi, Amit Shah demonstrate ability to move stealthily, confidently on major policy decisions

For instance, stone pelting incidents recorded a significant drop from 2018 to 2023 until date  from 1,767 to zero. Also, 52 instances of bandh/hartal have reduced to zero in this year. There is also a significant drop in terrorist recruitment from 199 in 2018 to 12 in the year 2023 till date.

Tourist footfalls in the region have surged with border tourism gaining immense popularity. In the post-Article 370 days, educational institutes have seamlessly functioned. Moreover, businesses have mushroomed in the region. Startups and entrepreneurs have capitalised on newfound opportunities.

A true display of Kashmirs transformation since the abrogation of Article 370 was the G20 Tourism meet held in May, which saw the participation of Over 60 delegates from G20 member countries. This was biggest international event organised in the region since the scrapping of special status.

With inputs from agencies
Rahul Gandhi must be heaving a huge sigh of relief. The Supreme Court has stayed the Congress leaders conviction in the 2019 Modi defamation case, which had led to his disqualification as a sitting member of Parliament  he was previously the MP from Wayanad.

Just minutes after the top courts reprieve, the party tweeted: It is a victory of love against hate. Satyamev Jayate  Jai Hind.

The stay on the conviction by a three-judge bench  Justices B R Gavai, P S Narasimha and Sanjay Kumar  said that the utterances were not in good taste and that a person in public life is expected to exercise caution while making public speeches.

However, it added, No reason has been given by the trial judge for imposing maximum sentence, the order of conviction needs to be stayed pending final adjudication.

What was the defamation case all about? What did the Supreme Court say today? And most importantly what does this mean for Rahul Gandhis future?

Also read: Modi surname defamation case: How Priyanka Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge reacted to SCs verdict

We simplify it all and get you the answers.

What is the defamation case against Rahul Gandhi?

All this legal drama emerges from a 2019 defamation case filed by Purnesh Modi  a BJP MLA and ex-Gujarat minister. Purnesh had then filed a defamation case, under IPC sections 499, 500 and 504, against the former Congress party chief, Rahul Gandhi, for a comment that he made during at a campaign during the 2019 Lok Sabha general elections.

The case stated that Gandhi at an election rally at Kolar in Karnataka on April 13, 2019 had said, Why all the thieves, be it Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi or Narendra Modi, have Modi in their names.

The complainant held that Gandhi had defamed all people whose surname is Modi. According to rough estimates, there are about 130 million people in India who carry the surname.

On 10 October of that year, Rahul Gandhi appeared before the court and pleaded not guilty in the matter. In March 2022, the Gujarat High Court had stayed the proceedings in the case after the complainant sought a stay citing lack of sufficient evidence.

The stay was then lifted in February this year after Purnesh Modi told the High Court that there was sufficient evidence such as CDs and pen drives that had come on record of the trial court. During the course of the case, Rahul Gandhis lawyer, Babu Mangukiya, argued that it should have been Prime Minister Narendra Modi and not Purnesh Modi to have been the complainant in the matter as the prime minister was the main target of the Congress leaders speech.

On 23 March, this year, Surats court found Gandhi guilty of defamation and sentenced him to two years in prison. The court approved Gandhis bail on a surety of Rs 15,000 and suspended the sentence for 30 days to allow him to appeal.

The two-year sentence led to the disqualification of Gandhi as an MP, under the provisions of the Representation of the People Act.

Following the courts verdict, Rahul approached the Surat Sessions Court in April 2023, seeking suspension of sentencing and a stay on the conviction pending his appeal. However, the sessions court granted him bail but refused to stay the conviction. Gandhi then approached the high court, seeking a stay on his conviction. But, on 7 July, the court provided the Congress leader with no relief and dismissed his plea.

It was only after all this that Rahul on 15 July moved the top court challenging the decision of the court in the matter.

What did the court say today?

Appearing for Rahul Gandhi in court today, counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi contended that that the complainant BJP MLA Purnesh Modi belongs to the Modh Vanika Samaj which includes other communities as well.

He argued that the class of persons sharing Modi surname is not an identifiable class within the meaning of Section 499/500 IPC who can file a defamation complaint. He also highlighted that it was an extreme rarity that a court awards a maximum sentence of two years in a criminal defamation matter. I am yet to see a non-cognisable, bail and compoundable offence, which is not against society, which is not kidnapping, rape and murder, in which the maximum sentence is given. How can this become an offence involving moral turpitude? Singhvi stated, as per a LiveLaw report. He further also said that Rahul was not a hardened criminal.

After hearing the arguments, the three-judge bench provided their order, staying the conviction. The apex court judges in their order raised concerns as to why the trial judge had awarded the maximum sentence of two years and didnt even provide sufficient reasons for it. The court criticised the lack of explanation, stating, The trial court was expected to give some reasons on why he gave the maximum punishment of two years.

While pronouncing the verdict, Justice BR Gavai also noted that the ramifications of Gandhis conviction are wide since it will also affect the right of the electorates who elected him. You are not only affecting the right of one individual but an entire electorate of a constituency, Justice Gavai said, as per Bar and Bench.

What does the future hold for Rahul Gandhi?

With the Supreme Courts ruling, Rahul Gandhis status as a Member of Parliament stands restored. Moreover, he can contest the 2024 general elections.

And shortly after the decision, Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said that he had met the Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and asked him to immediately restore Rahul status as an MP, so he could take part in the no-confidence motion proceedings on 8 and 10 August. We have met the Lok Sabha Speaker and asked him that Rahul Gandhis membership must be restored so that he can take part in no-confidence motion proceedings, he was quoted as saying.

In fact, according to an Hindustan Times report, Rahul could return to Parliament as early as Monday (7 August).

And the Congress gearing up for such a moment already posted an image of Rahul Gandhi on Twitter, now rebranded as X, saying, Main aa raha hoon. Sawaal jari rahoonga. (I am coming back. Question will continue.

With inputs from agencies
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who left Goa on Thursday after completing his private visit to the state, returned to the National Capital with a special companion.

He has a three-month-old Jack Russell Terrier puppy with him, which is a vibrant and entertaining pet.

Given the reputation of the terriers as a beloved family pet, the politicians choice of this dog breed is not surprising.

Heres all you need to know about the two short-legged pets.

Also read: Modi surname defamation case: Will Rahul Gandhi return to Parliament on Monday?

Rahul Gandhis new furry friend

The pet that Gandhi brought home is from a dog kennel in North Goas Mapusa town, run by Shivani Pitre and her husband Stanley Braganca.

According to PTI, Pitre said that Gandhi left with one puppy, he selected another one, which will be sent to him later.

Gandhi arrived in Goa on Wednesday night and returned to the national capital on Thursday morning. Pitre said Gandhi had sent his representative earlier to inquire about the puppy and he himself wanted to see it before taking him.

The Congress leader arrived at the shelter in Mapusa at around 9 am on Thursday on his way to Manohar International Airport, Mopa in North Goa.

We breed several exotic breeds of dogs. We were told that he [Gandhi] had lost a pet (dog) recently We did not know he would visit in person. It was a short visit. He came across as a humble and down-to-earth person. He chatted with us like a friend and had coffee. Most of the time, he was engrossed in playing and interacting with the dogs and selected two Jack Russell Terrier puppies, Pitre said according to Indian Express.

Gandhi had met Congress leaders, including Goa MLAs and Goa Pradesh Congress committee president Amit Patkar, on Wednesday night in a hotel.

Also read: Dog to wolf: Why are Japanese men spending millions to become animals?

About Jack Russell Terrier

The tiny Jack Russell Terrier, which originated in England as a fox-hunting breed, is renowned for its vivacious nature and gregarious demeanour. The breed got its name from its original breeder  Reverend John Russell.

Its ancestors are still unknown as some think Jack Russell was bred from a Wire Fox Terrier crossed with a Smooth Terrier, while others believe there were Bull Terriers and Beagles in the mix as well, according to PetKeen.

Because of how perfectly this endearing breed embodies the phrase small package, big punch, it has won the hearts of dog lovers all around the world.

Also read: From 12 Tughlaq Lane to Delhis Nizamuddin East: Why is Rahul Gandhi moving houses?

Traits and characteristics

The Jack Russell Terrier is an intelligent and brave dog, which ranges in size from 13 to 17 pounds and stands between 10 and 15 inches tall.

The medium-sized nose and short, low-shedding coat of Jack Russells give them their distinctive terrier appearance. Although Jack Russell terriers are bigger than toy breed dogs like min-pins, their coats can be silky or wiry, and they can also be little.

They are indeed little yet possess a lot of energy and lead an active lifestyle. They engage in demanding play sessions and have an inquisitive and exploring nature. So, to keep them under control, they need careful monitoring and appropriate training.

They have a natural tendency to be friendly towards people, but if they are not properly socialised as puppies, they may become forceful towards other dogs and animals.

Though these terriers are kind, they can also be stubborn at times, which can be difficult for new pet owners. But they can exhibit impressive adaptability when trained using regular, positive reinforcement techniques.

The average lifespan of these dogs is 1214 years. According to India Today which cited a study from 2022, Jack Russell Terriers have the UKs longest life expectancy among dogs.

The Jack Russell Terrier is a low-maintenance breed in terms of grooming, with a coat that only needs to be brushed occasionally to be in good condition.

These paw friends need a house that can accommodate their extensive exercise needs and wants for mental stimulation.

With inputs from agencies
There was increased speculation that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would attend the summit of BRICS nations in South Africa virtually. But in a move that has surprised many, who thought he would follow Russian president Vladimir Putins footsteps, the PM has decided to travel to Johannesburg where leaders of the bloc that includes Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa will gather.

The Indian premier spoke to South African president Cyril Ramaphosa and accepted the invitation to visit Johannesburg for the meeting from 22 August to 24 August.

How Modi decided to attend BRICS summit

After their telephonic conversation, the Prime Ministers Office said in a statement, President Ramaphosa invited the PM for the BRICS Summit being hosted by South Africa on August 22-24, 2023 and briefed him on the preparations for the same. The PM accepted the invitation and conveyed that he looked forward to his visit to Johannesburg to participate in the Summit.

They positively assessed the progress in bilateral cooperation, including in the context of the thirtieth anniversary of the establishment of bilateral diplomatic relations being celebrated in 2023, the statement said. It also said that they also exchanged views on matters of mutual interest.

Also read: Dumping the Dollar: Will a new BRICS currency replace the US currency for trade?

There were reports that like Putin, Modi would attend the summit virtually. Reuters reported on 2 August that the PM would not travel to South Africa. One Indian government official told the news agency that there was growing discomfort in New Delhi about being part of groupings like BRICS and SCO [Shanghai Cooperation Organisation] which China dominates, especially as India inches closer to the United States and other Western powers.

China and Russia, which are facing isolation from the US and the European Union, are constantly looking to expand their economic influence over developing countries. But even as Beijing tries to assert its importance, India and Brazil have their say in the bloc. And it is crucial that they make their presence felt.

Why Modis visit is important

PM Modis decision to go to South Africa matters. It comes at a time when around 20 countries have formally applied to join the BRICS. They include Argentina, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Iran, and Venezuela, said Brazilian foreign affairs minister Mauro Vieira recently.

Among these, Saudi Arabia and UAE are considered close allies of India. However, the issue is said to have raised some concerns among members of the bloc many fearing that their influence would decrease if pro-China nations are admitted.

The important decision on whether to expand the five-nation bloc is likely to be taken in Johannesburg, reports Hindustan Times. The focus will be on including Indonesia and Saudi Arabia.

A Bloomberg article in late July said that India and Brazil were pushing back against Chinas bid to rapidly expand BRICS to grow its political clout and take on the US. The two countries reportedly raised objections in preparatory talks in the run-up to the summit.

India wants strict rules on how and when other nations could move close to the group without formally expanding it. India and Brazil want to discuss bringing in additional nations with observer status, the report said.

External affairs ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi on Thursday reiterated Indias position that BRICS should be expanded through full consultation and consensus among members of the bloc.

We have talked about Indias position on expansion, we have clarified our position in the past. As mandated by the leaders last year, BRICS members are internally discussing the guiding principles, standards, criteria, and procedures for the BRICS expansion process on the basis of full consultation and consensus, the MEA spokesperson told a regular media briefing.

What is Russias stance?

Russia does not have a firm position on expanding BRICS, Fyodor Lukyanov, head of the Council on Foreign and Defence, told Bloomberg.

Its broadly in favour of BRICS expansion, but without any enthusiasm. It is following others lead. We wont block any decision.

Members of BRICS have not sanctioned Russia over the war in Ukraine.

Putins possible attendance put South Africa in a fix at first. But the Russian president has decided to participate virtually. With this, he avoids the risk of arrest on a warrant from the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes in Ukraine if he travels to the country, which is a member of the tribunal.

South Africa took over the chair of BRICS from China at the beginning of this year. The summit in Johannesburg comes at a time when ties between Beijing and Washington remain tense. Relations between New Delhi and Beijing also hit a low after a clash in Galwan in 2020 in which 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese soldiers were killed.

With inputs from agencies
The Supreme Court on Friday (4 August) stayed the conviction of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in a 2019 criminal defamation case over his Modi surname remarks, clearing the way for the restoration of his Member of Parliament (MP) status.

Pronouncing the verdict, a three-judge bench headed by Justice BR Gavai, as per Hindustan Times (HT), said: No reason has been given by the trial judge for imposing maximum sentence, the order of conviction needs to be stayed pending final adjudication.

The Congress leader was disqualified as an MP after a court in Gujarats Surat convicted and sentenced him to two years in prison in the Modi surname remarks suit filed by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Purnesh Modi.

Gandhi had reportedly asked at a rally in Karnatakas Kolar in April ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls: How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname?

While Rahul Gandhi has got respite in one case, he is still facing at least a dozen defamation lawsuits filed mostly by the BJP and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) members across the country in the past few years. Moreover, there is another defamation case on the Modi surname remark ongoing in Jharkhand.

Lets take a closer look at the Jharkhand case and how Rahul Gandhis legal troubles are not yet over.

Ranchi Modi surname case

Pradip Modi, an advocate, had filed a Rs 20 crore defamation case against Rahul Gandhi in Jharkhands Ranchi over his 2019 Modi surname remarks.

In early July, the Jharkhand High Court directed that no coercive action be taken against the former Congress chief till 16 August in the case. The High Court also exempted Gandhi from appearing before the trial court in this case.

This came after the Congress leader moved the Jharkhand HC challenging a May order by the Ranchi MP-MLA court that had directed him to appear in person in the defamation case, as per Scroll.

We informed the court that our client was ready to give an undertaking that he would neither dispute his identity during the court proceeding nor would raise objection if witnesses are examined in his absence and in the presence of his counsel. After the hearing, the court ordered no coercive action and has sought reply from the complainant, Gandhis lawyer Deepankar Roy said at the time, as per HT.

Earlier in June, a special court in Ranchi had allowed the Congress leaders plea seeking 15-day time for appearance before it in the case.

After Gandhis Modi remarks in Karnataka in 2019, defamation cases were filed against him in several parts of the country.

On 4 July, the Patna High Court had put a stay on the proceedings in the criminal defamation case against Gandhi filed by BJP MP Sushil Kumar Modi over the surname remarks till 12 January 2024, reported LiveLaw.

Series of cases against Rahul Gandhi

In April, Satyaki Savarkar, grandnephew of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, filed a criminal defamation complaint against the Congress leader in Pune for making false, malicious and wild allegations about the Hindutva icon during his trip to the United Kingdom earlier this year.

Kamal Bhadoria, who claims to be an RSS volunteer, filed a defamation case against Rahul Gandhi at the Haridwar CJM court in March over his alleged comments in Kurukshetra made during the Bharat Jodo Yatra, where he called the RSS 21st century Kauravas, reported Indian Express.

BJPs Krishnavadan Brahmbhatt lodged a criminal defamation suit in an Ahmedabad court in May 2019 against Gandhi for making derogatory remarks against Amit Shah at an election rally in Jabalpur by allegedly calling him a murder accused. As per Indian Express, the trial in this case has been put on hold.

In April 2019, Ahmedabad District Co-Operative (ADC) Bank and its chairperson Ajay Patel filed a criminal defamation case against Gandhi for defaming Amit Shah by allegedly accusing him of money laundering during the 2016 demonetisation. Shah was a director at the ADC Bank at the time.

Another case was filed against Gandhi by BJP supporter Mahesh Shrishrimal in 2018 over his commander-in-thief remark about Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The complainant claimed the statement made in connection with the Rafale fighter jet deal had hurt the sentiments of the PMs supporters. On Tuesday (2 August), the Bombay High Court extended the interim relief granted to Gandhi from appearing before a magistrate court in the case till 26 September, reported The Hindu.

In 2018, RSS worker Dhrutiman Joshi lodged a criminal defamation case against Gandhi and CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury before a Sewri court in Mumbai for allegedly trying to link the RSS with journalist Gauri Lankeshs murder, reported Indian Express.

The same year, Navin Jha, a BJP worker, moved the CJM court in Ranchi against Gandhi for allegedly making derogatory remarks about the saffron party at an internal meeting of the All India Congress Committee (AICC).

A criminal defamation suit was filed by RSS worker Anjan Kumar Bora against the Congress leader before a CJM Kamrup court in Guwahati in 2016 for allegedly making false statements to defame the RSS. While visiting the area in December 2015, Gandhi had alleged that the RSS workers did not let him enter a monastery in Barpeta. However, monastery officials had denied his claims, as per Indian Express.

Rajesh Kunte, a Bhiwandi resident, who claims to belong to RSS, filed a defamation complaint against Gandhi before a Bhiwandi civil and criminal court in Maharashtras Thane in 2014. He claimed that the Congress leaders alleged statement that Mahatma Gandhi was killed by people from the RSS uttered during a 2014 election rally had harmed the reputation of the Hindutva organisation.

ALSO READ: Modi surname defamation case: Will Rahul Gandhi return to Parliament on Monday?

What has the Supreme Court in the Surat case?

The apex court observed that Rahul Gandhis remarks were not in good taste, and the petitioner ought to have been more careful in making speeches, reported NDTV.

The Supreme Court also pointed out that the trial court in Surat had highlighted Gandhis criminal antecedents.

Responding to this, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing Rahul Gandhi, told the top court: They have cited 13 cases but no conviction in any of those cases. How are these cited for criminal antecedents? I am not a hardened criminalNo conviction despitelook at the chart. Full of cases filed by BJP karyakartas, but never any conviction.

Earlier in July, while refusing to stay the Congress leaders conviction in the case, the Gujarat High Court had noted  as many as ten criminal cases are pending against the applicant.

Meanwhile, reacting to the Supreme Courts reprieve, Gandhi wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, that his duty of protecting the idea of India remains the same.

With inputs from agencies
The army personnel who went missing from his native in the southern Kashmir district last week has been found, police said on Thursday.

Rifleman Javaid Ahmad Wani (25), who was posted in Ladakh, went missing on Saturday from Kulgam district while he was on leave.

The news of his disappearance had raised tensions among his family members who thought terrorists would have kidnapped him, as they had done with other Indian Army soldiers from Jammu and Kashmir in the past.

Lets take a closer look.

Army jawan found to be interrogated

A top Jammu and Kashmir Police officer on Thursday confirmed the soldiers whereabouts on X.com (formerly Twitter).

Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) of Kashmir Vijay Kumar tweeted, Missing Army jawan has been recovered by Kulgam Police. Joint interrogation will start shortly after a medical checkup. Further details shall follow.

#Missing Army jawan has been recovered by Kulgam Police. Joint #interrogation will start shortly after medical checkup. Further details shall follow: ADGP Kashmir@JmuKmrPolice  Kashmir Zone Police (@KashmirPolice) August 3, 2023

Further information about who kidnapped him or where he was found is yet to be known.

Also read: J&K: NIA raids nine locations in NGOs terror funding case

Abducted while grocery shopping

Wani, a JAKLI member, reportedly went missing on 29 July while he was shopping for groceries in a city close to his house. According to Hindustan Times, he drove away from his home in Asthal to get some groceries as he was set to leave for Ladakh the following day to resume his duties.

As time passed and he didnt come home, the family started to worry. An hour later, security personnel in Kulgams Paranhall village found the car he was travelling in with its doors open. In the abandoned vehicle, some of his food and sleeping bags were discovered.

He left for market at 7.30 pm and after some time, we found his car with blood marks. One of his slippers and a cap was also there, the soldiers brother, Mudasir Ahmad Wani, told the outlet.

Wani, who enlisted in the army in 2014, returned home for the holiday of Eid al-Adha after being on leave since 29 June. On Sunday, he was scheduled to return, reported The New Indian Express.

VIDEO | Security forces launch a search operation for a missing Army soldier in Jammu and Kashmirs Kulgam. pic.twitter.com/fvTyO0PhzS  Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) July 30, 2023

His absence was reported to the J&K police as panic set in. Due to the jawans disappearance, there was speculation that he may have been kidnapped by terrorists; consequently, his family had made a request for his release.

His father Mohammad Ayoub Wan had pleaded with anyone who may have seized him to forgive him if he had made any mistakes and release him alive in a video message.

According to the report, police, the CRPF, and the army carried out a large manhunt after the soldier went missing to find him. Over twenty people were interrogated by the security guards, who also examined the call logs and cell data of the missing soldier.

To find the missing soldier, the security guards also put sniffer dogs to work.

Also read: No infiltration into J&K till June-end in 2023: MoS Home Nityanand Rai

This is not the first time

In the past, militants have kidnapped and murdered security personnel who were at home on leave.

According to Wion News, terrorists from Lashkar-e-Taiba kidnapped and assassinated J&K Light Infantry soldier Sameer Ahmad Malla in March 2022. His body was recovered in Budgams orchard.

Shakir Manzoor Wagay of Shopian, a soldier in the Territorial Army, was kidnapped in September 2020; more than a year later, his decomposing body was discovered in the Kulgam region.

Lieutenant Ummer Fayaz was abducted from a family wedding in Shopian on 11 May 2017, while he was on leave. He was reportedly shot dead by four terrorists.

With inputs from agencies
A couple known as the Bitcoin Bonnie and Clyde have pleaded guilty to a multi-billion-dollar money-laundering scheme on Thursday.

Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan, a married couple from New York, were arrested last February.

The justice department in February seized 95,000 bitcoin from the duo  then valued at $3.6 billion.

The government at the time called their arrest its largest financial seizure ever.

Lets take a closer look at them:

Who are they?

According to CNN, the 35-year-old Lichtenstein is originally from Russia.

As per Washington Post, Lichtenstein, a dual citizen, was raised in a suburb in the Midwest.

A high-school friend called him introverted but really tech-savvy.

Lichtenstein has a degree in psychology and describes himself as a technology entrepreneur on his LinkedIn profile.

As per Forbes, Lichtenstein previously raised funds from billionaire Marc Cuban and even launched a company.

He has invested in startups alongside tech leaders like Marc Benioff.

His wife Morgan, 33, is a marketing expert as per Washington Post.

She has written for Forbes.com on women in leadership positions.

Morgan is also an aspiring rapper who has called herself the crocodile of Wall Street, as per CNN.

Her Twitter bio reads: I make the weird kids feel at home.

She calls herself a tech entrepreneur, surrealist artist, rapper, prolific writer, & fashion designer with synesthesia.

The couple have been seen walking their Bengal Cat Clarissa on a leash in Manhattan, as per CNN.

One of Morgans many aliases was Razzlekhan while Lichtenstein was known as Dutch.

The couple were dubbed Bitcoin Bonnie and Crypto Clyde by financial newsletter Morning Brew.

What do we know about the case?

The couple in court on Thursday pleaded guilty to laundering money stolen in a 2016 hack of cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex through an elaborate scheme involving burning documents in a trash can in Kazakhstan.

Prosecutors said the pair stole the bitcoin in 2016 using advanced hacking tools.

The tokens were worth $71 million at the time of the hack but had appreciated to more than $4.5 billion at the time of their 22 February arrests in New York.

According to Forbes, there was high drama at the couples New York home in January after federal agents turned up.

After investigators agreed to let Morgan retrieve her cat from the bedroom, she frantically attempted to lock her phone.

While Morgan was crouched next to the bed calling to the cat, she positioned herself next to the nightstand, which was still holding one of her phones. She then reached up and grabbed her cell phone from the nightstand and repeatedly hit the lock button. It appeared that Morgan was attempting to lock the phone in a way that would make it more difficult for law enforcement to search the phones contents. Law enforcement had to wrest the phone from her hands, the document states.

Investigators found $40,000 in cash, dozens of electronic devices, and even two hollowed-out books, among other items.

Since their arrests, the government has seized another approximately $475 million tied to the hack, the Southern District of New York said in a statement.

The couple also agreed to jointly forfeit another $72 million.

In total, the couple admitted to laundering conspiracies arising from the theft of approximately 120,000 bitcoin from Bitfinex, a global cryptocurrency exchange.

The charges carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.

Prosecutor Christopher Brown said Lichtenstein also had a long history of hacking, including as a juvenile, and had stolen funds from virtual currency exchanges prior to 2016.

Lichtenstein admitted to hacking the exchange and enlisting his wife Morgan to help conceal some 119,754 stolen bitcoin.

It was at my direction, Lichtenstein told the judge.

But Forbes quoted prosecutors as saying that Morgan was extremely hands-on when it came to the scheme and that her business accounts were employed to clean and legitimize funds stolen.

Prosecutors said that Lichtenstein, at times with Morgans help, employed numerous sophisticated laundering techniques.

That included using fictitious identities to set up online accounts and utilizing computer programs to automate transactions.

They deposited the stolen funds into accounts in a variety of darknet markets and cryptocurrency exchanges and then withdrew the money, which confuses the transaction history.

They couple also converted bitcoin to other forms of cryptocurrency and even exchanged a portion of the stolen funds into gold coins, which Morgan then concealed by burying them.

He was evasive

Morgan at a separate plea hearing said her husband first told her he had hacked the exchange in 2020, but that she had long been suspicious his money came from an illicit source such as drugs or tax evasion.

She said the couple took several trips to Ukraine and Kazakhstan, which she thought were for tourism and generating business for a company they ran.

But she said alarm bells went off when she saw Lichtenstein burning documents in a trash can during a Kazakhstan visit.

When I asked him about it, he was evasive, Morgan said.

Sentencing dates have not been not set.

Both defendants agreed to cooperate with the US Attorneys office in Washington as part of a late July plea deal.

Before Lichtensteins plea hearing ended, his lawyer Samson Enzer asked Kollar-Kotelly if his client, who is jailed, could speak to Morgan, who is free on bail and was in the courtroom audience.

A member of the US Marshals Service told them no contact was allowed.

Lichtenstein, wearing a dark green T-shirt reading prisoner on the back, then looked toward Morgan and puckered his lips as if to blow a kiss. Morgan waved back as he was led out of the courtroom.

With inputs from agencies
Former US president Donald Trump pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to criminal charges accusing him of attempting to change the outcome of the 2020 US presidential election and deceive American voters.

Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya read from the 45-page indictment presented by special counsel Jack Smith the four criminal offences and the potential maximum jail sentences Trump might face.

As to counts one to four, how does Trump plead? Judge Upadhyaya asked Trump as he stood at the defence table, flanked by his lawyers, according to published accounts of the arraignment. Not guilty, he answered, raising his head.

The proceedings lasted about 30 minutes in the same courtroom where hundreds of former presidents supporters were sentenced for their roles in the attack on the US Capitol on 6 January, 2021.

Moxila Upadhyaya set the next hearing for 28 August, which will take place in the court of District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan, who will preside over the eventual trial.

But what do we know about Moxila Upadhyaya, the Indian-American judge who presided over the case.

Born in Gujarat, appointed as US Magistrate Judge

Moxila A Upadhyaya was appointed as a United States Magistrate Judge on 7 September, 2022. She was appointed last year and has presided over cases for multiple defendants on 6 January at the E Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse in Washington.

She worked as a complex commercial litigation lawyer and as a law clerk for justices on the United States District Court in Washington and the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit before being appointed to the bench.

Born in Gujarat and raised near Kansas City, Missouri, Upadhyaya received her Bachelor of Journalism, magna cum laude, from the Missouri School of Journalism and Bachelor of Arts, with honours in Latin, from the University of Missouri.

She received her JD, cum laude, from the American University, Washington College of Law, where she earned distinction for her trial work representing clients in the Criminal Justice Clinic and was a member of the Administrative Law Review.

After graduating from law school, Upadhyaya served a two-year term as a law clerk to Eric T Washington, former Chief Judge of the DC Court of Appeals.

She then joined Venable LLPs Washington, DC office, where she practised complex commercial and administrative litigation. She left Venable in 2011-12 to serve as the first law clerk to Robert L Wilkins (currently the US Circuit Judge for the DC Circuit) during his tenure as a district judge in this court.

Upadhyaya then rejoined Venable after her clerkship with Judge Wilkins and continued her litigation practice until her appointment to the bench.

During her time as an associate and ultimately partner at Venable, according to her resume, Upadhyaya devoted her pro bono practice to representing indigent clients in post-conviction proceedings, including representing clients who raised challenges under the DC Innocence Protection Act and the DC Incarceration Reduction Amendment Act.

For her work in this capacity, the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project awarded Judge Upadhyaya its Defender of Innocence Award in 2009 and Venable named her Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year in 2006.

From 2021-22, Judge Upadhyaya was appointed to serve on this courts Committee on Grievances. She is the former co-chair of the DC Bar Litigation Section Steering Committee and has served on the board of directors for the DC Access to Justice Foundation and Council for Court Excellence. She is also a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation.

With inputs from PTI
A principal of a private school in Bengaluru has been arrested for allegedly raping a 10-year-old specially abled girl student.

A police officer said when the Class 2 student, diagnosed with dyslexia, returned home from school on Thursday, her mother noticed that she was bleeding from her private parts. She was rushed to the hospital.

A report by Deccan Herald quoted an officer saying that as per reports by hospital authorities, the minor girl was alleged raped between 11 am and 1 pm on Thursday.

The officer further informed that the accused took the child to his house, which is next to the school, and committed the heinous crime.

The girl identified the person and the location, the report quoted the officer as saying.

The childs mother has registered a complaint against the principal.

The principal has been residing in Varthur limits. He has been holding the post of principal at the school for about a decade. The school has about 140 students.

The police have arrested the principal and are also investigating if he has done similar acts with other students of his school.

The accused school principal has been booked under the Protection Of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

With inputs from agencies
In a fit of rage amid domestic row, a man in Karnatakas Bengaluru bit off his wifes finger and swallowed it.

The accused identified as Vijay Kumar, an employee at a private firm, has been arrested after an FIR was registered by his wife Pushpa with the Konanakunte police station in Bengaluru.

Vijay Kumar and Pushpa were married for 23 years. The couple have a 20-year-old son from the marriage.

Domestic feud

Kumar allegedly would abuse his wife physically and verbally. Annoyed by the torture, she went back to her parents.

Since their marriage, the accused used to torture his wife physically and mentally. Unable to take in the torture, the woman moved out of their house with their son and started living separately, a report by Hindustan Times quoted a police officer as saying.

Bit wifes finger, threatened to get son killed

As per the complaint, on 28 July, Vijay Kumar went to meet Pushpa at her parents house. Over there, he picked up a fight which turned into a heated argument. He bit one of her fingers on her left hand and ate it.

The accused also threatened to kill Pushpa and eat her the way he swallowed her finger, the complaint further said.

Pushpa, in her complaint, also alleged that Vijay Kumar threatened to get her son killed by goons.

FIR has been registered against Vijay Kumar under sections 498A (subjecting married woman to cruelty), 325 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt), 504 (Insult intended to provoke breach of the peace), and 506 (criminal Intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.
Reacting to the Supreme Courts verdict on the Modi Surname case, Rahul Gandhi said, Come what may, my duty remains the same.

Earlier today, the apex court stayed the Congress leaders conviction in the Modi surname defamation case.

It has also restored Gandhis status as a Member of Parliament and now the Congress leader can contest elections.

The court said there was no reason given by the trial judge in giving the maximum punishment of two years. It further said Gandhis disqualification affects not only him but also the electorates of his constituency.

A three-judge bench of Justices BR Gavai, PS Narasimha and Sanjay Kumar hearing Gandhis plea, on Friday observed that the remarks by him were not in good taste and said a person in public life ought to have been more careful while making public speeches.

The bench said that it is staying the conviction after considering the wide ramifications of Section 8(3) affecting not only the right of the petitioner but also the rights of the electorate which elected him in the constituency and also the fact that no reason has been assigned by the trial court to award the maximum sentence.

Rejoicing the apex courts judgment, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra quoted Gautam Buddha, saying, Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge said, Justice has been delivered. Democracy has won. The Constitution has been upheld.

Earlier this week, Gandhi refused to apologise for his remark but urged the Supreme Court to stay his conviction in the criminal defamation case, asserting he is not guilty.

In an affidavit filed before the apex court, Gandhi said, Modi in his reply used slanderous terms such as arrogant for him only because he has refused to apologise.

Using the criminal process and the consequences under Representation of People Act to arm twist the Petitioner into apologising for no fault is gross abuse of the judicial process and ought not to be countenanced by this Court.
In a school in Delhis Hauz Khas, a sanitation worker has been arrested on charges of raping a three-year-old student of nursery for nearly a week.

Lid was blown off the shocker when the victim asked her mother to give less food in lunch box.

On being asked for the reason, the victim told her mother that if she ate less, she would not need visit the toilet frequently and Arjun, the accused sanitation worker, would not be able to watch her and would not be able to touch her inappropriately.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Chandan Chowdhary told media that police received a complaint pertaining to child abuse on August 1. The incident had reportedly occurred at a school near Chirag Delhi flyover in Panchsheel

Enclave area under the Hauz Khas police station.

The police reached the school along with the three-year-old victim, her mother and aunt.

The victim showed the police the place on the school premises where she had been allegedly abused and also identified the accused sanitation worker.

The statements of the child and her mother were recorded in front of the counselor of Delhi Womens Commission on Tuesday.

According to the girl, whenever she used to go to the toilet, the sweeper would watch and rape her.

After registering a case on the basis of the victims statement, the police arrested accused Arjun Kumar, produced him before court and sent him to judicial custody.

The victims father works in a Union ministry and the family is a resident of Ambedkar Nagar.

Arjun Kumar was identified as a resident of Haibatpur, Shivam Enclave, Gautam Buddha Nagar.
Union Home and Cooperative Minister Amit Shah on Friday transferred first installment of Rs 10,000 each to 112 beneficiaries of the four cooperative societies of the Sahara Group through the Sahara Refund Portal in Delhi.

#WATCH | Today, the first instalment of Rs 10,000 each has been transferred to 112 beneficiaries. Till now, 18 lakh people have registered on the portal, says Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah. pic.twitter.com/aZIpwds5NI  ANI (@ANI) August 4, 2023

Today, the first instalment of Rs 10,000 each has been transferred to 112 beneficiaries. Till now, 18 lakh people have registered on the portal, said Shah.

Shah had launched the Central Registrar of Cooperative Societies (CRCS)-Sahara Refund Portal last month, on which depositors of four cooperative societies of Sahara Group could submit their claims to get their money back.

In its order on 29 March, 2023, the Supreme Court had directed that Rs 5,000 crore be transferred out of the Sahara-SEBI Refund Account to the CRCS for disbursement against the legitimate dues of genuine depositors of the Sahara Group of Cooperative Societies.

The process of disbursement is being supervised and monitored by Justice R Subhash Reddy, former judge of the Supreme Court.

With inputs from agencies
The Superintendent of Police (SP) of Haryanas Nuh district, Varun Singla, has been transferred to the states Bhiwani district.

Reportedly, Singla was on leave when the violent clashes broke out in Nuh on Monday during a Vishva Hindu Parishad Rally.

The SPs transfer copy was issued late on Thursday stating that he has been transferred to the district of Bhiwani.

IPS officer Narendra Bijarniya, currently Nuhs acting SP, has replaced Varun Singla.

At the beginning of the rally, Bijarniya was rushed from Bhiwani to Nuh owing to Singlas leave of absence.

Also, the SP of Palwal Lokendra Singh was given additional charge to monitor the situation in Nuh during the rally, according to a report by India Today.

Before transferring to Bhiwani, Singla said on Thursday, Light arson has been done in one mosque while short circuit seems to be the reason for the fire in the other. The police took control of the situation and are conducting raids to nab the suspects.

Muslim community to not attend Friday namaz

Mufti Saleem Qasmi, president of Jamiat Ulama in Gurugram, has appealed to the Muslim community via a video message not to attend prayer meets in public places or gather in mosques to offer namaz.

Meanwhile, heavy security has been deployed around Jama Masjid in Gurugrams Sadar Bazar following an incident where a mosque in Nuh was set on fire.

3-member SIT formed to oversee investigation

A three-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) has been constituted to oversee the probe into the communal clashes in the Nuh district of Haryana.

Security has been intensified in Nuh. On Thursday, paramilitary forces conducted a flag march in Nuh after a curfew was imposed in the district following the clashes. Streets wore a deserted look due to the curfew imposed in the area.

Till now, 176 arrests have been made for the communal clashes that first broke out on Monday during a Hindu religious procession in Nuh district, after rumours spread that the absconding cow vigilante Monu Maneser, a key accused in Bhiwani killings, would also attend the event.
Five men abducted a minor student on her way to school, raped her one after the other, and subsequently dumped her on a city road in Dungarpur, Wednesday.

According to initial reports, the victim knew one of the five accused identified as Raju Meena, a driver, from before.

He accompanied by four of his friends allegedly pulled the girl, a student of class 10, inside his car and took her to a forest some 40 kms away from the spot where she was forcefully kidnapped.

The victim alleges that Meena raped her in the forest while other kept watch and later they took her to a room built in a deserted place where two more of them raped her inside the room while the rest waited outside.

Subsequently, the accused men dumped the victim at around 5 PM in the evening on a roadside in Dungarpur city. The victim walked several meters from there to find a vegetable seller. She borrowed his mobile phone to inform her father.

Upon getting the information, the cops ensured a medical examination of the victim and subsequently an FIR was registered Dungrapurs Dovda police station against the five accused persons on Thursday, said SHO Hemant Chauhan.

He added that The distance of the school from home is about one kilometer. A detailed investigation in the matter is underway.

The incident came the same day a 14-yr-old girl was thrown in a coal furnace after gangrape by three men in Bheelwara. Back to Back incidents have prompted several opposition leaders raise concerns over security of women in Rajasthan.

BJP MP Ranjeeta Koli, who comes from the Dalit community, said the state has been known for its tradition of respect for women. But it has been reduced to rapist Rajasthan.
Three people died and at least 146, including 44 children, fell ill at Kavadigarahatti locality in Chitradurga city of Karnataka after they allegedly consumed contaminated water.

The deceased have been identified as Manjula (23), Raghavendra (27), and Praveen (24), all residents of Kavadigarahatti, according to South First report.

The incident dates back to 31 July, when residents of Kavadigarahatti colony complained of diarrhoea and vomiting after they consumed contaminated tap water supplied by the Chitradurga City Municipal Council.

The Chitradurga District Administration has collected the water samples and sent them to labs to ascertain contamination levels.

Among the children, none is in serious condition, and all are responding to treatment. All the three deceased are between the ages of 23 and 27. All the people are being treated at the district health hospital, South First quoted a Chitradurga district administration official as saying

District Health Officer (DHO) R Ranganath said that prima facie four of the five collected water samples are unfit for human consumption.

Prima facie, four of the five collected water samples are unfit for human consumption. It was found out in the lab reports that there was the vibrio cholerae bacteria [in them]. We are waiting for the final and detailed water analysis report, he told South First.

It has also been suspected that a toxic chemical was added to the water. We have sent the samples for testing, and results are expected in two days. After the autopsy of the three deceased, the samples have been collected and sent to the labs, he added.

He said that as many as 15 people are still being treated in the ICU and two are in critical condition.

The cases started occurring from 31 July. The numbers were initially low, but increased to 146 on Thursday. We have also opened a temporary clinic in the locality and door-to-door testing is being conducted, the DHO added.

Meanwhile, Deputy Commissioner (DC) GRJ Divya Prabhu has suspended a Group-D employee, while two wall-men (contract employees) have been terminated from the services.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has also ordered a detailed probe into the incident and directed the suspension of the officials concerned.

Two FIRs have also been registered in the incident, one in Chitradurga Rural and another in Bengaluru City.

It may be noted that this is the third incident of water contamination reported in the last two months in the state.

With inputs from agencies
Lok Sabha on Friday passed a bill to empower commanders of inter-services organisations to exercise disciplinary or administrative control over personnel of the Army, Air Force and Navy serving under their command.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said that the legislation is an important step in the direction of military reforms.

The defence minister moved the Inter-Services Organisations (Command, Control and Discipline) Bill, 2023 for passage in the House amid opposition protests over their demands related to Manipur debate.

Before the minister moved the bill for passage, he urged the Chair to allow him to speak from another seat. Rajendra Agrawal, who was in the Chair, said it is not a good situation in the House that the minister has to speak from another seat.

The bill is seen as a step towards theaterisation to optimize military resources. Speaking on the bill, Rajnath Singh said it promotes jointness and provides better disciplinary and administrative powers to commander of inter-services organisations.

I want to assure the House that this bill is an important step in the direction of military reforms. This bill does not include any additional financial implications, he said.

Rajnath Singh said that at present the service personnel of Air Force, Army and Navy are governed by the provisions of the Air Force Act, 1950, the Army Act, 1950 and the Navy Act, 1957 and only officers of the respective services are empowered to exercise disciplinary powers over the service personnel under the respective Service Acts.

He said the Bill will essentially be an enabling legislation, which empowers the Heads of the Inter-services Organisations to exercise effective command, control and discipline on all personnel of regular Air Force, Army and Navy and to persons of other forces as notified by the Central Government, who are serving in or attached to an Inter-services Organisation, without amending the respective Acts.
In a fresh incident of arms looting, a mob comprising the majority community broke into a police armoury and stole weapons, including AK and Ghatak series of assault rifles, and over 19,000 bullets of various calibres, officials said.

The incident took place at the battalion headquarters of the 2nd India Reserve Battalion (IRB) located at Naranseina in Bishnupur district. A crowd had gathered there to march towards Churachandpur where tribals were planning to carry out a mass burial of their people killed in ethnic clashes that broke out in the state on May 3, they said.

More than 19,000 rounds of bullets of different calibres, an AK series assault rifle, three Ghaatak rifles, 195 self-loading rifles, five MP-5 guns, 16 9mm pistols, 25 bulletproof jackets, 21 carbines, 124 hand grenades among others were looted by the mob, officials said.

The mass burial programme by the tribals had sparked fresh tension in the strife-torn state with the majority community opposing the move.

More than 25 people were injured in clashes as the Army and RAF personnel fired tear gas shells in Kangvai and Phougakchao areas in Bishnupur district on Thursday to stop processions on their way to the proposed burial site in violation of restrictions on gatherings, officials said.

The majority community had also attempted to loot two other armouries located in the state capital but the attempts were foiled.

The Manipur High Court, in an extraordinary hearing held on Thursday morning, had stayed the proposed mass burial even though the Kuki community claimed that they had postponed the programme after discussions with the Union home ministry.

More than 160 people lost their lives and several hundred were injured since the ethnic clashes broke out in Manipur on May 3, after a Tribal Solidarity March was organised in the hill districts to protest against the Meitei communitys demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status.

Meiteis account for about 53 per cent of Manipurs population and live mostly in the Imphal Valley. Tribals  Nagas and Kukis  constitute little over 40 per cent and reside in the hill districts.
In a big relief to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, the Supreme Court has stayed his conviction in the Modi Surname case. Rejoicing the apex courts judgment, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra quoted Gautam Buddha, saying, Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.

The apex court has also restored Gandhis status as a Member of Parliament and now the Congress leader can contest elections.

The court said there was no reason given by the trial judge in giving the maximum punishment of two years. It further said Gandhis disqualification affects not only him but also the electorates of his constituency.

A three-judge bench of Justices BR Gavai, PS Narasimha and Sanjay Kumar hearing Gandhis plea, on Friday observed that the remarks by him were not in good taste and said a person in public life ought to have been more careful while making public speeches.

The bench said that it is staying the conviction after considering the wide ramifications of Section 8(3) affecting not only the right of the petitioner but also the rights of the electorate which elected him in the constituency and also the fact that no reason has been assigned by the trial court to award the maximum sentence.

Meanwhile, Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, hailing SCs decision, said, The SCs decision is a big relief for Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. The conspiracy against Rahul Gandhi has failed today.

He added, We met the Speaker & raised it in the Parliament that Rahul Gandhi should be allowed in the ParliamentRahul Gandhis disqualification must be revokedI will also write to the Speaker.

#WATCH | After Supreme Court stays the conviction of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in Modi surname defamation case, Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury says, The SCs decision is a big relief for Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. The conspiracy against Rahul Gandhi has failed pic.twitter.com/MogT1DxiQI  ANI (@ANI) August 4, 2023

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge said, Justice has been delivered. Democracy has won. The Constitution has been upheld.

Truth Alone Triumphs! We welcome the verdict by the Honble Supreme Court giving relief to Shri @RahulGandhi. Justice has been delivered. Democracy has won. The Constitution has been upheld. BJPs conspiratorial hounding of Shri Gandhi has been thoroughly exposed. Time for  Mallikarjun Kharge (@kharge) August 4, 2023

Earlier this week, Gandhi refused to apologise for his remark but urged the Supreme Court to stay his conviction in the criminal defamation case, asserting he is not guilty.

In an affidavit filed before the apex court, Gandhi said, Modi in his reply used slanderous terms such as arrogant for him only because he has refused to apologise.

Using the criminal process and the consequences under Representation of People Act to arm twist the Petitioner into apologising for no fault is gross abuse of the judicial process and ought not to be countenanced by this Court.

The petitioner maintains and has always maintained that he is not guilty of offence and that the conviction is unsustainable and if he had to apologise and compound the offence, he would have done it much earlier, Gandhi said in the affidavit.
The Supreme Court of India has made a pivotal observation that is likely to change how victims file claims for accidents to the Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal, making it much easier for victims to file a claim and pursue cases.

The Supreme Court made an observation, clarifying that claimants seeking compensation under Section 166 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, are not obligated to file their application with the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (MACT) located in the area where the accident occurred.

Instead, they have the option to approach the MACT in the jurisdiction of their domicile, that is, where they reside, conduct business, or even where the defendant resides, should the claimant choose to.

This decision was taken by Justice Dipankar Datta while handling a transfer petition, in the case Pramod Sinha vs Suresh Singh Chauhan (Tr.P (C) 1792/2023), as per a report by Live Law.

The court observed that the petitioner, who owned the vehicle involved in the accident, had requested the transfer of the claim petition to the MACT in Darjeeling, West Bengal, where the accident took place.

The claimants having chosen the option to approach the MACT, Farrukhabad at Fatehgarh, UP, a forum that law permits them to choose, no grievance can be raised by the petitioner. The contention is misconceived and, hence, stands overruled, the court observed.

However, the court ruled that since the claimants had chosen to approach the MACT in Farrukhabad at Fatehgarh, Uttar Pradesh, which was permitted by law, the petitioner cannot raise any objections. The court deemed the petitioners argument as misconceived, before rejecting it.

The petitioner had also raised concerns about language barriers, stating that all witnesses are from Siliguri, where Bengali is the dominant language. The court dismissed this contention, emphasizing that India is a diverse country with multiple official languages, including Hindi, which is the national language.

The court expected the witnesses to communicate and present their statements in Hindi before the MACT in Fatehgarh, U.P. If the petitioners argument were to be accepted, it would disadvantage the claimants, who may not be able to communicate effectively in Bengali.

In a country as diverse as India, it is no doubt true that people speak different languages. There are at least 22 (twenty-two) official languages. However, Hindi being the national language, it is expected of the witnesses who would be produced by the petitioner before the MACT, Fatehgarh, U.P. to communicate and convey their version in Hindi. If the contention of the petitioner is to be accepted, it is the claimants who would be seriously prejudiced not being in a position to communicate and convey their version in Bengali, the court observed.
In Delhis Preet Vihar, a man alleged to have been raped by a restaurant owner and bouncers after a feud over an inflated bill he was unable to pay.

As per the complaint, the restaurant owner, along with two bouncers, kidnapped the man in his car and took him all the way to Muradnagar in Uttar Pradeshs Ghaziabad.

There, the situation turned even more horrifying as they not only raped the young man but also recorded a pornographic video of him.

The culprits then threatened to circulate the video on social media unless they were paid a hefty sum of Rs 50,000.

As the victim was unable to meet their demand, they brutally beat him and stole eight thousand rupees and his mobile phone.

Leaving the injured victim near Vivekananda College in Vivek Vihar, the criminals fled the scene.

Next, someone alerted the cops who rushed the victim to Dr. Hedgewar Hospital for medical attention.

After two days of treatment, the victims condition improved enough for him to file a First Information Report (FIR) at Preet Vihar police station.

The charges included robbery, kidnapping, sodomy, attempted murder, and criminal conspiracy.

Following their investigation, the police apprehended the restaurant owner, Vicky, and his two bouncers.

The victim resides in Mayur Vihar and works in a private company. He had recently connected with a young woman through a dating app, with whom he went on a date at Vickys restaurant on July 27.

During their encounter, both had ordered drinks, and the disagreement over the bill ensued.

Allegedly, the restaurant staff mistreated the young man after he objected to the bill. Even the girl got furious on his behaviour and left after allegedly slapping him.

Matters quickly worsened when the restaurant owner and bouncer intervened, assaulting the man further and forcing him into his car before taking him to Muradnagar.

Late at night, the culprits left the unconscious victim in Vivek Vihar.

The incident was reported to the police at 2:13 pm, and an FIR was filed on July 29.

Suspicion has also been raised regarding the involvement of the woman who accompanied the victim.

Investigators reportedly are looking into her connection with the restaurant staff and are diligently probing the matter.
Amid reports of Pakistani national Seema Haider joining his party, Union Minister and Republican Party of India (A) chief Ramdas Athawale on Friday said there is no question of including her in the party and the only ticket the party can offer her would be a ticket from India to Pakistan.

Speaking to news agency ANI outside Parliament, Athawale said, Our party has no relations with Seema Haider. She has come from Pakistan to IndiaThere is no question of including her in our partyIf after all, we have to give her a ticket then it will be a ticket from India to Pakistan

#WATCH | Delhi: On Pakistani national Seema Haider, Ramdas Athawale, President, Republican Party of India (Athawale) & Union Minister says, Our party has no relations with Seema Haider. She has come from Pakistan to IndiaThere is no question of including her in our partyIf pic.twitter.com/o735VvRh4u  ANI (@ANI) August 4, 2023

Earlier, some media reports, quoting party official Kishore Masoom, suggested that she could be made the partys womens wing president.

However, Athawale said that the statement was made without his knowledge.

Haider, 30, who hails from the Sindh province in Pakistan, entered India illegally through Nepal border with her four children to live with her Indian lover Sachin Meena (22) in the Rabupura area of Greater Noida.

While she was arrested on 4 July, Sachin was put behind bars for sheltering the illegal immigrants.

However, they both were granted bail by a local court on 7 July and have been living together along with the womans four children in a house in Rabupura.

Haider has also said she does not wish to go back to Pakistan and wants to live with Sachin. She has also claimed to have adopted Hinduism. The couple first got in touch in 2019 over the online game PUBG.

With inputs from agencies
Punjab Polices Special Operation Cell (SSOC) has arrested a Non-Residential Indian living in Spain in connection to terror funding and planning target kiiling in the North-Indian State.

The suspect identified as Harjeet Singh, was intercepted the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi.

Along with Singh, his associate Amrinder Singh, also known as Bunty was arrested from his home district of Khanna.

This development follows the recent dismantling of a target killing module by Punjab Police, involving five members and reportedly linked to the Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF).

According to AIG Ashwani Kapur of the SAS Nagar SSOC, the tip-off came after they learned that Harjeet Singh, hailing from Ghanshampur village in Gurdaspur, had returned to India around a month ago.

The authorities suspected his involvement in terror funding and planning target killings in the state.

It was discovered that he was about to fly back to Spain from IGI airport, which led the police to issue a look-out circular (LOC) resulting in his arrest on Tuesday.

Further investigation into Harjeet revealed his pivotal role in facilitating terror activities by providing funding and assistance to his associate, Amrinder.

As per the leads from Harjeets interrogation, the SSOC managed to apprehend Amrinder from Khanna.

During the preliminary inquiry, it was revealed that both Harjeet and Amrinder had come into contact through social media and shared similar radical ideologies.

Harjeet had allegedly sent financial aid from Spain to Amrinder multiple times to support the target killings of religious leaders.

Authorities have also uncovered that Harjeet was acting on the instructions of foreign-based radicals associated with KLF.

Additionally, he had been using two fake Facebook accounts to promote radical content, including activities related to Sikhs for Justice.
Shortly after the Supreme Court stayed the conviction of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in Modi surname defamation case, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday welcomed the court verdict saying Truth Alone Triumphs! and attacked the BJP for conspiratorial hounding of Gandhi.

Taking to Twitter, the Congress chief said, Truth Alone Triumphs! We welcome the verdict by the Honble Supreme Court giving relief to Shri @RahulGandhi. Justice has been delivered. Democracy has won. The Constitution has been upheld.

Attacking the BJP, he said that saffron partys conspiratorial hounding of Gandhi has been thoroughly exposed.

Time for them to stop their malicious targeting of Opposition leaders. It is high time they respect the mandate given by the people and start governing the country, on which they have miserably failed in the last 10 years, added Kharge.

Earlier in the day, Rahul Gandhi got a big relief after the Supreme Court stayed his conviction in the 2019 defamation case, paving the way for revival of his Lok Sabha membership.

The Lok Sabha speaker can now revive his membership on his own or Gandhi, armed with the apex court order, seek restoration of his status as an MP.

A three-judge bench of Justices BR Gavai, PS Narasimha and Sanjay Kumar said no reason was given by the trial court judge while convicting Gandhi except that he was admonished by the apex court in a contempt case.

The top court was hearing a plea by Gandhi challenging the Gujarat High Court verdict which dismissed his plea seeking a stay on his conviction in the defamation case filed by Purnesh Modi over his Modi surname remark.

Gandhi had persistently refused to apologise for his remark but urged the Supreme Court to stay his conviction in the criminal defamation case stemming from his comment, asserting he is not guilty.

Purnesh Modi had filed the criminal defamation case in 2019 against Gandhi over his How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname? remark made during an election rally in Kolar in Karnataka on 13 April, 2019.

With inputs from agencies
Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Friday said that unemployment in India is below pre-pandemic levels, down from 7.2 per cent in January 2020 to 6.5 per cent in January 2023.

VIDEO | Unemployment in India is below pre-pandemic levels down from 7.2 percent in January 2020 to 6.5 percent in January 2023, says Union minister @HardeepSPuri. pic.twitter.com/8vmKfxamWR  Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) August 4, 2023

He said that over 2.9 crore youth between the 18-23 age bracket have been added to the EPFO since April 2020.

Hailing the extraordinary changes witnessed in the country in the last nine years, Puri said that India is now moving in the direction of being the third-largest economy in the world.

Today foreign policy and trade policy is being implemented with the view to benefitting the Indian citizens, India and India and the world. A leader and country led by a leader with broad shoulders will be judged not by how the country fairs in normal times but by how it responds to challenges. The challenge of the pandemic was once in a lifetime challenge, said Puri referring to the able leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

#WATCH | Today foreign policy and trade policy is being implemented with the view to benefitting the Indian citizens, India and India & the world. A leader and country led by a leader with broad shoulders will be judged not by how the country fairs in normal times but by how it pic.twitter.com/S1p7KFGQ8i  ANI (@ANI) August 4, 2023

On fuel prices, the minister said that PM Modi personally monitored the situation and on two occasions  November 2021 and May 2022  he reduced the central excise on petrol and diesel by a significant part.

The BJP-ruled states immediately reduced VAT. The only parts of our political system that talks about high fuel prices are the ones that have not reduced VAT, said Puri taking swipe at the non-BJP ruled states.

Talking about the humanitarian streak of the Modi government, Puri said that India today is capable of heavy lifting.

The humanitarian streak and with the PMs policy, we are today a country which is capable of heavy lifting and we have shown that capacity when an earthquake struck Turkey, said the Union minister.

With inputs from agencies
Senior BJP leader Vasundhara Raje has strongly criticised Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, questioning when the Congress government will finally wake up and bring an end to such heinous crimes against the sisters and daughters.

A girl was allegedly abducted and raped by three men in Rajasthans Dungarpur district, police said on Thursday. Dowara Station House Officer (SHO) Hemant Chauhan said a case was registered on Wednesday night against the three men for abducting and raping the girl, a class 9 student.

Expressing dismay over a recent incident of gang rape after the kidnapping of a schoolgirl in Dungarpur, she said that such brutality is deeply disturbing and appealed to the Chief Minister to uphold moral values and ensure the protection of womens honour.

Raje also expressed her concern over the repeated occurrences of such tragic incidents, she urged the Congress government to wake up from slumber. Raje emphasized that the safety and security of sisters and daughters are at stake and called for immediate measures to put an end to such atrocities.

A 14-year-old girl was allegedly murdered and later burned in a coal furnace in Rajasthans Bhilwara district, police said on Thursday as the locals claimed that she was also gang-raped.

On Wednesday, the teenage girl had gone to graze cattle but did not return home till evening following which the family members started searching for her, police said.

Later in the night, the family members spotted the girls footwear near one of the five furnaces. On peeping inside, they found her bangle and a few bones, they said.

Locals caught hold of a few people, suspecting their involvement in the crime, and handed them over to the police, they said.

The detained people who live near the furnaces are being interrogated at the Kotri police station, they said.

SHO of Kotri police station said that there were a total of five furnaces in a row and last night one of them was being operated without being fully covered, contrary to the normal practice.

The locals spotted a fire in one furnace. Usually, the furnace is fully covered but the furnace was opened from the side. They reached there and found the girls bangle and some bones, he said.

He said that barring the crime scene, four other furnaces were demolished today as they were illegally set up on government land.

BJP leader Kalulal Gurjar who reached the village and met the victims family members alleged that the girl was raped and her body was burnt in the kiln.

Gurjar alleged that the police did not act promptly in the case and detained the suspected accused only after the villagers caught them.

Police said they have not yet ruled out the possibility of rape in the matter, adding that further probe is on.

Taking cognizance of the matter, Sangeeta Beniwal, the chairperson of the Rajasthan State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, formed a three-member committee, which will submit a report to her after collecting facts.

The chairperson also wrote a letter to ADG Civil Rights and SP Bhilwara to send a factual report on the matter.

Meanwhile, the opposition BJP attacked the government over the incident and demanded the resignation of the chief minister.

BJP state president CP Joshi said the incident was gruesome.

Such an incident would not have happened anywhere in the country. Rajasthan is being tarnished by such incidents. Chief Minister Gehlot should resign, Joshi said.

A three-member committee formed by Joshi visited the village and talked to the family members as well as the police officers.

The committee members demanded the suspension of Bhilwara SP Adarsh Sidhu alleging that the police were negligent in the matter.

The family members informed the local police station in the evening that the girl was missing but the police did not take action and asked them to bring documents of the girl to establish she was a minor, BJP Anita Bhadel said.

She said that when the police did not act, the family members again started looking for the girl and saw fire in one of the furnaces.

Only a few bones were found from the finances. There was no recovery of the skull or other parts of the skeleton. It is also possible that the accused cut the body into pieces and dumped it at different places, including the furnace, she said.

Police officers said that ten persons were involved in the crime. Five have been detained and the other five are being searched. The police have also registered a case of gang-rape and murder, the MLA said while referring to her talk with the police officers.

She said that when the family members were searching for the girl, the furnace was off and they found it burning in the night, which suggests that the body was burnt in the night while the girl went missing in the afternoon.

At least the body could have been recovered had the police acted in time, she said.

Bhadel demanded the suspension of SP Bhilwara Adarsh Sidhu in the matter.

Former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje said that the incident was heart-wrenching.

A girl was gang-raped and burnt alive by throwing her in a furnace. Gehlot, how long will you keep hiding such incidents under the guise of statistics? Raje said in a tweet.

Every day your shamelessness is also getting registered in your achievements. Bring them also in front of the public, she said.

With PTI inputs.
In a big win for the Hindu side, the Supreme Court Friday refused the Muslim sides demand and allowed the ASI to continue with the scientific survey of Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh.

The apex court said Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has clarified that the entire survey would be completed without any excavation and without causing any damage to the structure.

The court further said the entire process of scientific survey shall be concluded with non-invasive methodology.

We reiterate the direction of the High Court that there shall be no excavation, a bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said.

#WATCH | The court order is that the survey will continue. There will be no excavation or damage to the building. The survey exercise will be conducted without any damage to the building.., says Advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain, representing the Hindu side in Gyanvapi survey case https://t.co/Mm1ZGcU0cC pic.twitter.com/X7OzA9ezUS  ANI (@ANI) August 4, 2023

Rejecting the plea by Muslim party challenging the survey, the apex court said that the High Court order for survey does not warrant interference by the Supreme Court at this stage and such a survey was conducted even in Ayodhya case.

"The district judge has ordered scientific investigation by ASI. The High Court has found no reason to interfere having set out the legal position while dealing with an interlocutory order of this nature. High Court has introduced certain safeguards. Having regard to nature and ambit of court appointed commission we are unable to differ with the High Court," the Supreme Court said.

The court has asked the ASI to submit the report of its survey in sealed cover.

Meanwhile, a Varanasi court on Friday granted additional four weeks to the ASI for completing the scientific survey on the Gyanvapi mosque that stands next to the Kashi Vishwanath temple.

Hearing a plea by the ASI, District Judge A K Vishvesha allowed it the additional time.

Representing the Hindu petitioners, advocate Madan Mohan Yadav, said the deadline for completing the survey has been extended till 4 September from 4 August.

With inputs from agencies
Windows usually open in Jammu and Kashmir to breathtaking views. But the repeal of Article 370 four years ago, coupled with central government measures and the crumbling of Pakistans economy, has presented the region with a window which is not just pretty but could prove to be destiny-altering.

Separatists and pro-Pakistan elements had weaponised temporary provisions Article 370 and Article 35A to fan separatism and derail J&Ks integration with India. These laws robbed the states women, LGBTQ+ persons, Dalits and menial labourers and others of their rights.

With these gone, J&K is slowly emerging out of its decades-old cycle of Islamist terrorism, intifada-style stone-pelting and halted growth. The Modi governments vision is unfolding with 3Ds  development, delimitation and domicile.

A slew of development schemes has rolled out since August 5, 2019. This year on March 16, for instance, the much-awaited T-5 tunnel at Panthyal in Kashmirs Ramban district became open to the public. This 870-metre-long tunnel was completed at a cost of Rs 100 crore. The Panthyal stretch of the strategic national highway (NH44) used to be considered as a death trap because of landslides. In September, the road had shut down, causing Rs 1,500 crore loss to Kashmirs economically crucial apple industry.

The 272-km Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) will be completed by 2025. Once done, the USBRL, with 38 tunnels, will be an engineering marvel. The worlds highest Chenab Bridge is the topping to this rail connectivity project.

Apart from hundreds of infrastructure projects, 1.27 crore tourists have landed in Jammu and Kashmir till June this year. It is set to break last years record of 1.83 crore. Stability has brought with it prosperity.

The second D of delimitation balances the skewed power equation between Hindu-majority Jammu and Muslim-majority Kashmir. The number of Assembly constituencies in Jammu, the BJPs stronghold, has been increased from 37 to 43. But seats in Kashmir have gone up from 46 to 47. Nine seats have been earmarked for the Scheduled Tribes  six in Jammu, three in Kashmir  so no Muslim candidate can contest from these constituencies.

The third and pivotal change is being quietly brought about with the states new domicile policy. Families of forces, migrant workers and others are getting domicile under a simplified, online process. A domicile certificate is being issued within 15 days. One can appeal to the competent authority in case of a deliberate delay by officials.

Till last count, more than 61 lakh (61,47,482 to be precise) domicile certificates had been issued.

Moreover, for the first time since Independence, more than one lakh people who migrated from West Pakistan to Jammu in 1947 are set to get full citizenship and domicile rights including the ownership rights of immovable properties, right to vote in all elections and eligibility for government jobs.

Islamist lobbies, legacy parties and families that till 2019 monopolised political power in J&K are naturally alarmed. They have started building conspiracy theories of a demographic shift. The latest target is the proposal to earmark five marlas of land for 1,99,550 landless people in the Union Territory.

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti has termed this as an attempt to further the demographic shift and alleged that the number of homeless in the state are far fewer.

Undeterred by such Islamist fear-mongering, the central government has started settling non-Muslim populations in eight safe enclaves in Kashmir.

The shift has palpably begun. But it is more democratic and developmental than demographic.

Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstposts views.

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Artificial Intelligence is causing a revolution in various aspects of our lives, making a significant impact across diverse fields. From aiding software engineers in coding to assisting students with assignments and even helping chefs with recipes, AIs capabilities seem boundless. However, its influence extends further.

Generative AI has demonstrated its versatility by taking on roles traditionally performed by humans, including that of an astrologer. AI is now stepping into the shoes of an astrologer, offering people the opportunity to comprehend their horoscopes and gain glimpses into their future.

Kundli-GPTs Vedic Chatbot

Raj Sutariya, an alumnus of NIT-Surat, has developed an innovative website called Kundli GPT, where users can experience the power of an AI-powered Vedic Astrologer Chatbot. The website provides personalized astrological readings and addresses user queries based on their Kundli, guiding individuals to seek deeper insights into their horoscopes and future.

According to the company, the AI-powered chatbot offers concise Kundli readings and identifies any negative influences present, while also suggesting appropriate remedies.

Moreover, it utilizes advanced AI technology to provide valuable insights into potential health concerns and financial guidance, all based on the individuals planetary positions, ensuring accurate responses. Essentially, this AI chatbot functions just like a regular astrologer, delivering a brief Kundli reading.

The Kundli GPT AI chatbot boasts the capability to shed light on various aspects of life. For those curious about their career and professional path, the chatbot can offer insights into potential opportunities and challenges, as determined by the planetary positions in their Kundli. Similarly, for those seeking predictions about their marriage and family life, the chatbot can provide guidance on navigating potential obstacles and enhancing positive influences.

In essence, AI is proving to be a transformative force in the realm of astrology, with Kundli GPT leading the way in offering personalized astrological readings and predictions through its AI-powered chatbot platform.

An experimental tool, should not be considered professional advise

The company emphasizes that Kundli GPT is an experimental tool and should not be used for commercial purposes. Its information is intended solely for general information and not for any specific professional or financial decisions.

Regarding AI integration in other companies, numerous firms, including YouTube and LinkedIn, have announced the implementation of AI-powered assistance on their platforms. LinkedIn, for example, is reportedly testing Microsofts AI art generator to facilitate the drafting and sharing of posts within the platform.

Furthermore, Apple is also making strides in the AI field, with the development of its own artificial intelligence chatbot named Apple GPT. This move can be seen as a response to the existing AI offerings such as Googles Bard, Microsofts Bing, and ChatGPT. According to a report by Bloombergs Mark Gurman, Apple has made AI a top priority in recent months due to the increasing competition in this area.
Elon Musks ambitions to turn what we formerly know as Twitter, now X, into his dream project, a super, do everything app called is charting course in a new direction.

Elon Musk and his team is is looking for a financial-data giant to create a trading hub within the app. The information was published by the news outlet Semafor, based on leaked documents and interviews with individuals familiar with the matter.

Turning X into an everything App

According to the documents, X recently reached out to financial-data providers, requesting proposals for various financial content, including real-time stock data. It remains uncertain if any firms submitted their proposals by the deadline, which was last week, as stated by Semafor.

Xs request to the data firms emphasized offering potential partners access to hundreds of millions of highly qualified users. However, there was no mention of compensation in the request. Instead, the firms were asked to indicate the amount of money they were willing to invest in the project, as reported by Semafor.

Musk denies any knowledge about upcoming feature

Musk, however, made a statement on X, saying that as far as he knows, no active development is currently taking place for a trading hub on X. Although not a direct denial, this could imply that such a service might be under consideration but not ready to be implemented soon.

No work is being done on this to the best of my knowledge  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 3, 2023



The idea of having a trading hub integrated within the X platform has been discussed before. Earlier this year, eToro, a social investing platform, revealed plans to offer trading services for cryptocurrencies and other assets directly to users of what was then called Twitter, through a partnership.

Should the in-app trading hub plans proceed, given Musks fondness for digital assets, particularly meme coin dogecoin (DOGE), the platform could potentially support trading of cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin (BTC), which may be viewed as a secure asset from a regulatory standpoint. This comes after Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong disclosed that the Securities and Exchange Commission had instructed him to halt trading of all cryptocurrencies except bitcoin, suggesting that this specific cryptocurrency might face fewer regulatory obstacles.
A team of South Korean researchers claimed that they have successfully synthesised what could be the worlds first ambient-temperature superconductor, or a superconductor that can operate in room temperature and does not need to be cooled.

However, a team of Indian researchers, quickly disproved the South Koreans claims, stating that the material the team developed, LK-99, was not superconductive at all.

A breakthrough that will change how we see the world

On July 22nd, researchers from Korea University in Seoul made a groundbreaking announcement about the discovery of a room-temperature superconductor, which they named LK-99. They released a pair of preliminary papers, which have not yet undergone peer review. If their findings are accurate, it could mark one of the most significant physics discoveries in recent decades.

To put it in a very reductive manner , in metal-based circuits, resistance decreases gradually with decreasing temperature. A superconductor, on the other hand, demonstrates a unique property. It has a critical temperature, also known as the transition temperature, below which its resistance suddenly drops to zero. This abrupt loss of resistance allows electric current to flow through the superconductor without any hindrance, resulting in the phenomenon of superconductivity. This characteristic makes superconductors highly valuable for various applications in science and technology.

Considering its implications in supercomputing, AI, ML, EVs, and clean energypractically all major fields that the tech industry is heavily invested in right nowthis was a massive achievement that would put South Korea on top of the technological food chain for years to come.

The most reputable efforts have shown that the material referred to as LK-99 by Korean researchers does not exhibit superconductive properties at room temperatures.

Not repeatable

Since the publication of the papers, numerous laboratories worldwide have been making efforts to reproduce the findings. However, the most credible attempts so far have failed to demonstrate superconductivity in LK-99.

On July 31, researchers from the National Physical Laboratory of India shared their paper on arXiv, concluding that LK-99 does not exhibit superconductive properties. V.P.S. (Veerpal Singh) Awana, the chief scientist at the National Physical Laboratory, has been openly sharing the details of his teams replication attempts on Facebook. He has posted images of the materials they produced and provided updates on his communication with Sukbae Lee, one of the Korean researchers of the team that put out the paper.

Awana expressed how his team worked tirelessly, even during the weekend, to swiftly recreate the results obtained by the Korean team: This weekend was quite hectic for us My team was very busy.

The majority of experts hold doubts regarding the Korean researchers findings. Scientists globally are attempting to reproduce and validate the results.

More researchers failed to recreate LK-99

On July 31, researchers from Beihang University in Beijing also released a paper on arXiv, which confirmed that LK-99 does not exhibit superconductivity.

On August 1, researchers from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China posted a video showcasing the magnetic levitation of an LK-99 sample. What makes this video noteworthy is that the sample appears to levitate at multiple angles, indicating that it possesses a perfect diamagnetic propertya rarer characteristic associated with superconductorsrather than just simple diamagnetism.

However, diamagnetism that diamagnetism is a common property found in many materials, including copper, as per Simon Clarke, a professor of chemistry at the University of Oxford. He highlights that this phenomenon is observed in various substances, and some experiments have been conducted using extremely high magnetic fields to achieve levitation of objects like strawberries or frogs. So, while diamagnetism is interesting and can cause levitation, it is not exclusive to superconductors like LK-99.

Since then, several other organisations have come out and claimed that their experiments have shown that LK-99 is not superconductive at ambient temperatures as the researchers claim.

The Korean Society of Superconductivity and Cryogenics has established a verification committee to assess the validity of the LK-99 discovery. According to a report by Yonhap News Agency on August 3, the Society has concluded that LK-99 is not a superconductor because it lacks the Meissner effecta defining characteristic of superconducting materials that causes them to expel all external magnetic fields, leading to levitation in the presence of a magnetic field.

Several research institutions are actively attempting to replicate the findings, including Argonne National Laboratory in the US, the Center for Quantum Materials and Superconductivity at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul, the Laboratory of Superconducting Materials and Applications at Korea University, and the Center for Novel States of Complex Materials Research at Seoul National University.

Theory will only take you so far

Theoretical researchers have also conducted calculations to explore the potential properties of the compound claimed to have been synthesized by Korean researchers.

While theoretical calculations can only suggest possibilities and cannot confirm superconductivity, calculations from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, Northwest University in Washington, Vienna University of Technology, Kings College London, and many other research groups have all indicated that LK-99 could theoretically exhibit superconductivity at room temperatures.

However, as Christopher Nolan showcased in Oppenheimer what the scientists at Project Manhattan had gone through, theory will only take you so far.

Experts like Awana have not given up hope though. He still believes that LK-99 is the best chance we have had yet of synthesising a superconductor, at this scale. Awana expressed his optimism about the potential for LK-99 to be a superconductor, but he also emphasized the need for patience. My gut feeling is this: I am very hopeful this compound will be a superconductor. In a week or so, we will be able to say for sure, he said.
Japans finance ministry has issued a statement, warning Elon Musk-backed X, which was formerly known as Twitter, to remove an account that was impersonating Masato Kanda, a highly positioned minister in Japans financial ministry.

Normally, the Ministry makes most of its announcements in English. However, in this instance, the ministry made the statement in English on the platform. This was a very rare thing to do for the Japanese government and goes on to show the gravity of the situation, and that they mean business.

The statement made by the Japanese government department requested users not to engage with the impersonation account. Kanda plays a crucial role in Japans efforts to stabilize the yens value, making his public comments influential in currency markets.

Evidently, the fake or impersonated account was posting stuff that was detrimental to Kanda both on a personal level, and made it a lot more difficult for him to carry out his tasks.

The fake account, which had approximately 550 followers, has now been suspended.

Kandas statements can significantly impact the yens value against other major currencies. According to Reuters, the impersonation account had not made any comments related to the yen or financial markets. It had only posted five times, with the most recent one trying to impersonate Mr. Kandas supposed trip to Ukraine.

The finance ministry confirmed the existence of the impersonation account and is currently urging X to suspend it. On Friday, X displayed a notice stating that the account had been suspended for violating Twitter Rules.
Denmark is tightening its borders to boost domestic security and prevent unwanted individuals from entering the country after recent Quran burnings, the government said on Friday, following a similar decision by Sweden earlier in the week.

The Danish government apprehends revenge attacks after anti-Islam activists in Denmark and Sweden burned and damaged several copies of the Muslim holy book in recent months, inciting outrage in the Muslim world and demands that European governments ban such acts.

Authorities have today concluded that it is necessary at this time to increase the focus on who is entering Denmark, in order to respond to the specific and current threats, the Danish justice ministry said in a statement on Friday.

A small group of Danish far-right activists has burnt at least ten copies of the holy book in the past week and said it plans to burn more Qurans at two demonstrations on Friday and at three more events over the weekend.

Both the Danish and Swedish governments have condemned the burnings and are considering new laws that could stop them. But domestic critics say any such decisions would undermine freedom of speech that is protected in their Constitutions.

Denmarks stringent border controls will initially be in place until August 10.

The recent Quran burnings have, as the security police have said, affected the current security situation, Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard said.

The decision to tighten border controls with more checks for incoming travellers arriving in Denmark follows an almost similar move by Sweden.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen late on Thursday said religious texts should not be burned. I think it would be wrong if someone stood there and burned the Bible. I also dont think we should burn the Torah for the sake of those who belong to the Jewish faith, Frederiksen told public broadcaster DR.

Muslims view the Quran as the literal word of God and actual or alleged desecration of the holy book often sparks protests in the Muslim world.
A 35-year-old mother-of-two from the United Kingdom lost her life to water toxicity during a family outing at Lake Freeman, Indiana, in the US.

Ashley Summers had been enjoying the scorching Fourth of July weekend with her husband and children when dehydration symptoms began to trouble her.

Feeling a throbbing headache and lightheaded, she yearned for hydration.

On the final day of their trip, as the family returned by boat from a hot sandbank, Ashleys thirst seemed insatiable.

She quickly downed four water bottles, each approximately 500ml, within a mere 20 minutes. The decision, though unintentional, proved fatal.

Back at home, Ashley collapsed in the garage, her brain swollen severely. Despite being rushed to the hospital, she couldnt be saved.

Medical experts at the hospital identified water toxicity, or hyponatremia, as the cause  a condition resulting from an excess of water and insufficient sodium in the body.

Devon Miller, Ashleys brother, expressed shock and disbelief upon hearing the news.

He recounted, She just felt like she couldnt get enough water When they left the sandbar to when they got to the dock, it was about a 20-minute boat ride she drank four bottles of water in that 20 minutes.

Ashleys family had been vacationing at Lake Freeman, a renowned holiday spot about 80 miles north of Indianapolis, from July 1 to July 4.

They described her as a daycare worker who cherished spending time on the water.

What is Water Toxicity?

Water toxicity is a rare occurrence, but it can arise when an individual ingests a substantial amount of water in a short span. Excessive intake overwhelms the bodys intricate systems, particularly the kidneys, which regulate fluid balance.

For optimal bodily function, it is essential to maintain a balance between water and electrolytes like sodium, potassium, and chloride. Sodium plays a crucial role in facilitating cell communication through electrical impulses. It also aids in nutrient absorption and helps the kidneys regulate water and electrolyte levels in the bloodstream and urine.

Symptoms of water toxicity include muscle cramps, drowsiness, nausea, headaches, confusion, and, in severe cases, seizures and loss of consciousness.
North Korea has responded to efforts by the United Nations Command to discuss American soldier Travis King, who ran across the border into North Korea last month and is believed to be detained by Pyongyang, the Command said on Thursday.

The US-led multinational force, which oversees the Korean War truce, said in a statement that Pyongyangs military has responded to the United Nations Command with regards to Private King.

In order not to interfere with our efforts to get him home, we will not go into details at this time, it added.

The latest announcement comes more than a week after the UN Command said it had started a conversation with the North over the soldier.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed contact had been made with North Koreans, adding he still had no idea where King was or in what condition.

Were actually trying to learn more about his whereabouts and his well-being, and we simply dont have that information, Blinken told US television channel ABC.

Yesterday, finally, the North Koreans acknowledged that they understand were asking these questions. They havent given us responses, he added.

After a drunken pub fight, an incident with police and a stay in South Korean jail, Private Second Class King was being taken to the airport last month to fly back to Texas.

But instead of travelling to Fort Bliss for disciplinary hearings, King snuck away, joined a Demilitarised Zone sightseeing trip and slipped over the border.

The two Koreas remain technically at war because the 1950-53 conflict ended in an armistice, not a treaty, and most of the border between them is heavily fortified.

But at the JSA, the frontier is marked only by a low concrete divider and is relatively easy to cross, despite the presence of soldiers on both sides.

Pyongyang has a long history of detaining Americans and using them as bargaining chips in bilateral negotiations.

The latest incident comes as relations between the two Koreas are at one of their lowest points ever, with diplomacy stalled and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un calling for increased weapons development, including of tactical nuclear warheads.

But Thursdays development reads as a sign of Norths willingness to negotiate, Vladimir Tikhonov, professor of Korean studies at the University of Oslo, told AFP.

They basically want some progress towards normalisation with the US, in order to offset the disproportionally high dependency on the Chinese economy.

So, a goodwill gesture may happen  although it is far from sure for now.

Beijing is North Koreas most important ally and economic benefactor.

Washington continues to enforce stringent sanctions against North Korea as a means of addressing the ongoing concerns surrounding their nuclear weapons programme.

Pyongyang last week held a dramatic military parade featuring its new attack drones and nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missiles, with leader Kim flanked by visiting Russian and Chinese officials.
Pakistans Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif announced on Thursday that the National Assembly would be dissolved on August 9.

The decision came after a meeting with parliamentary leaders during a dinner event, where they thoroughly discussed the countrys political situation, as reported by The Express Tribune.

In the meeting, Prime Minister Shehbaz sought the advice of the parliamentary leaders and held discussions regarding the arrangements for the caretaker prime minister and the caretaker setup.

Sharif will send formal advice to the President on August 9 for the dissolution of the National Assembly and the President, according to the constitutional provisions must sign it within 48 hours to effectuate the dissolution. If, for any reason, the President does not sign the advice, the Assembly will be automatically dissolved, The Express Tribune reported.

Furthermore, Prime Minister Shehbaz assured that after three days of consultation with the opposition, he will submit the name of the caretaker prime minister to the President. However, if no agreement is reached, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will step in and nominate a candidate for the caretaker prime minister position from the proposed names, The Express Tribune reported.

Notably, he highlighted the successful negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), underscoring the importance of economic stability for the nations progress. Earlier this week, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that the upcoming elections in Pakistan would be held on the basis of the 2023 digital census, Dawn reported.

The premier, whose government is expected to hand over the countrys reins to a caretaker setup this August, shared this during a recorded interview on the Aaj News show Faisla Aap Ka, which was aired on Tuesday.

We have to hold the elections on the basis of the new census  When a census has been conducted, the [polls] should be held on its basis unless there is an obstacle that cannot be overcome. But I dont see [any such hurdle], Dawn quoted Sharif as saying.

He added that a meeting of the Council of Common Interest (CCI)  the body that approves census results  was expected.

Sharif further said the census results would be referred to the CCI as soon as they were finalised.

Notably, PM Sharifs statement is a deviation from that of his ministers previous assertions, who said that the upcoming election would be held on the basis of the 2017 census, Dawn reported.

When asked about the possibility of any delays in elections, he said that this should not be the case, however, adding that the ball will be in the election commissions court.

This decision, however, prompted a terse response from the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), one of the ruling allies in the coalition government in Pakistan that maintains Karachis population has been undercounted in the new census, as per Dawn.

Last week, PM Sharif held a meeting with its leaders in Karachi, in an apparent bid to appease the party, where he assured them that any decision on the matter would be made after consultation with all coalition partners, Dawn reported.

Earlier, PM Sharif had said that the National Assembly will be dissolved before August 12 with the consultation of the allied parties.

In an interview at a Geo News programme, he said the tenure of the National Assembly will end on August 12 and before that, the assembly will be dissolved.

Sharif further said the decision about the caretaker PM will be taken in consultation with the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly and before that he would consult all the allied parties and Pakistan Muslim League(N) Quaid Nawaz Sharif.

With inputs from agencies.
Pakistans Supreme Court on Friday dismissed Imran Khans plea against trial proceedings in a corruption case in which the former premier is accused of concealing details of the gifts he retained from the state repository, as he withdrew the case.

While dismissing the plea in the Toshakhana case, the apex court observed that the application seeking the transfer of the case to another court was underway in the Islamabad High Court (IHC). The court expressed the hope that the trial and the IHC will make decisions as per the law.

The Supreme Court observed that the said decision would not affect other pleas filed by Khan, 70.

Khan is accused of misusing his 2018 to 2022 premiership to buy and sell gifts in state possession that were received during visits abroad and worth more than Rs 140 million (USD 635,000).

On Wednesday, the apex court turned down Khans request to stay the trial in the Toshakhana case being heard at an Islamabad sessions court. However, it had also granted relief to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief by postponing further proceedings till Friday so that he could approach the court again in case any adverse order was passed by the Islamabad High Court (IHC).

Meanwhile, IHC on Thursday reserved its verdict on a set of petitions filed by Khan against the Toshakhana trial. It is expected to issue the said verdict on Friday. The IHC will also issue the reserved verdict on Khans appeal against the trial courts order to refuse his right to produce witnesses in the case.

A three-member Supreme Court bench, led by Justice Yahya Afridi and comprising Justice Musarrat Hilali and Justice Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi, was set to hear Khans plea on Friday.

However, the bench was reconstituted earlier today with Justice Hasan Azhar Rizvi replacing Justice Naqvi.

During the hearing, Advocate Khawaja Haris appeared as Khans counsel while Advocate Amjad Pervaiz appeared as the counsel for the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

At the outset of the hearing, the apex court observed that the trial court could not reserve its verdict on the Toshakhana case until the IHC gave its verdict, the dawn newspaper reported.

Justice Afridi summoned the ECP lawyer to the rostrum, upon which Khans lawyer informed the court that the IHC had reserved its verdict yesterday on his clients pleas.

The judge then asked, Has the high court given a stay order? to which Advocate Haris answered in the negative.

The trial court cannot make a decision until a decision is made on the plea to transfer the case, Justice Afridi noted.

At this, the ECP lawyer said Section 528 (sessions judge may withdraw cases from assistant sessions judge) of the Code of Criminal Procedure was clear on this matter.

Under the said section, any sessions judge may withdraw any case from, or recall any ease which he has made over to, any assistant sessions judge subordinate to him.

At one point during the hearing, Justice Afridi asked Advocate Haris about the current status of the pleas pending in the IHC, to which he responded that the IHC heard four pleas yesterday and that requests were also made during the arguments.

We have requested the high court that the case be transferred to any other judge, the PTI chiefs lawyer said.

He further informed the apex court of the IHCs dismissal of Khans witnesses in the Toshsakhana trial.

The ECP on October 21 last year, disqualified the former prime minister in the Toshakhana case for making false statements and incorrect declaration.

Khan is facing more than 140 cases across the country and faces charges like terrorism, violence, blasphemy, corruption and murder.

Khan was ousted from power in April last year after losing a no-confidence vote, which he alleged was part of a US-led conspiracy targeting him because of his independent foreign policy decisions on Russia, China and Afghanistan.
A man rammed his car onto a sidewalk in South Korea and then began to stab people at a shopping mall. According to authorities, at least 14 individuals were injured in this incident, marking the second mass stabbing in the country within a month.

The incident took place in a crowded leisure district near a subway station in the city of Seongnam, according to Yoon-Sung-hyun, an official from the southern Gyeonggi provincial police department. In the attack at least five individuals were injured by the car, while nine others were stabbed.

Following the incident, authorities arrested a 22-year-old suspect at the scene and questioned the suspect. The police have not disclosed the mans identity or provided any immediate details regarding a possible motive.

According to Park Gyeong-won, an official at Gyeonggis Bundang district police station, the suspect during police interviews talked incoherently and said he was being stalked by an unspecified source. The suspects family told police he had a history of mental illness.

While the suspect had purchased the two knives he used in the stabbings from a different shopping mall on Wednesday, there isnt clear evidence he planned the attacks in advance, Park said.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Friday called for closer monitoring of social media to detect threats, deploying more law enforcement officers for prevention and equipping them with better suppression gear, according to Seouls presidential office.

An official at Gyeonggis provincial fire department, Ha Dong-geun, said at least two of those who were wounded after the suspect drove the car onto the sidewalk were hospitalized in critical condition. Among the nine who were stabbed, eight were being treated for injuries seen as serious.

Photos from the scene showed forensic units examining the halls of the AK Plaza, where the stabbings took place. A white Kia hatchback with a broken front window and ruptured front tire could be seen on a sidewalk near the subway station.

South Koreas Kyunghyang Shinmun newspaper published a video on its website that it said was sent by a witness. The footage showed a man wearing sunglasses and a black hoodie walking up the malls escalator with an object in his hand.

A witness named Hwang Hee-woon told YTN television that he heard a sound from the first floor that seemed like a scream, so customers and shop workers were gathering on the rails of the second-floor near the escalator to see what was happening below.

Suddenly, someone told us the person who committed the crime was coming up to the second floor, so we ran away in panic, he said. He ended up hiding inside a refrigerated storage room with some mall employees.

Last month, a knife-wielding man stabbed at least four pedestrians on a street in the capital, Seoul, killing one person.

The National Police Agency held an online meeting Thursday with regional police chiefs to discuss ways to deal with stabbings and other attacks against random targets. Officials discussed increasing nighttime patrols in leisure districts and other crowded areas and strengthening security camera surveillance, according to the agency.

With inputs from AP
A bipartisan group of US senators has proposed legislation to support establishment of national security councils in strategic Pacific island states that are known to be home to key US military installations and at risk of espionage and coercion by China.

The provisions are contained in the sweeping National Defence Authorization Act, which was passed by the Senate last month but is still several steps from becoming law, and would allow for greater coordination between the US security establishment and Palau, the Marshall Islands and Micronesia.

The sparsely populated nations, whose territories cover vast areas of the Pacific, have relations with the United States governed by so-called Compacts of Free Association.

Under these, Washington retains responsibility for their defence and provides economic assistance while gaining exclusive access to strategic swathes of ocean.

The US recently agreed renewed COFA deals with Micronesia and Palau and is still negotiating with the Marshall Islands at a time when China is making significant inroads into the Pacific, a region the U.S. has long considered its back yard.

Republican Senator Jodi Ernst, a co-sponsor of the proposed legislation, which is expanded on in a separate soon-to-be submitted CONVENE Act, highlighted the challenge posed by China, noting Beijings stepped up ties with the Solomon Islands and incursions by Chinese vessels into Palaus waters.

Currently, there is limited coordination between the U.S. and the COFA nations to counter Chinese malign influence, curb Chinese purchases of land around U.S. installations on the islands, or prevent Chinas infiltration and monitoring of U.S. activity throughout the island nations, she said in a statement shared with Reuters.

The strategic location of these islands is integral to our national security, but the lack of direct security channels between our nations creates risk, she added.

The NDAA provision is co-sponsored by Democrats Mazie Hirono, Tim Kaine and Chris Van Hollen.

An Ernst aide said Palau had already established a national security council and the other COFA states were actively considering doing so.

He noted that the U.S. has significant military installations on the islands, including high-powered radar on Palau and its main long-range missile testing site in the Marshall Islands.

The councils would comprise members of respective COFA states and make use of Pentagon-approved communications equipment to prevent Chinese espionage and allow sharing of intelligence, he said.

As well as countering Chinese espionage, the councils would enable better coordination in areas such as maritime security and in countering illegal fishing, he said.

This bill does not mandate the COFA islands to anything, but what it does do is to say that if you do choose to build these councils  theres going to U.S. support for such cooperation to include intelligence sharing and other types of cooperation, the aide said.
Two serving members of the US Navy have been arrested on suspicion of spying for China, the Department of Justice said Thursday.

The men are suspected of selling secret information to Beijing that included manuals for warships and their weapons systems, as well as blueprints for a radar system and plans for a huge US military exercise.

These arrests are a reminder of the relentless, aggressive efforts of the Peoples Republic of China to undermine our democracy and threaten those who defend it, said Suzanne Turner of the FBIs Counterintelligence Division, which was involved in the sting.

China compromised enlisted personnel to secure sensitive military information that could seriously jeopardize US national security.

In a press release, the Department of Justice said sailor Jinchao Wei, who served on the amphibious assault ship the USS Essex in San Diego, had handed over dozens of documents, photos and videos detailing the operation of ships and their systems.

These included technical and mechanical manuals that dealt with the weaponry of his own vessel.

The 22-year-old, who is alleged to have been paid thousands of dollars for the information, faces possible life in jail if convicted.

In a separate case, the DoJ said Petty Officer Wenheng Zhao, 26, had spied for China for nearly two years from his perch at Naval Base Ventura County, north of Los Angeles.

Zhao is alleged to have been paid almost $15,000 by a Chinese intelligence agent for information about a large-scale US military exercise in the Indo-Pacific, including details on the timing and location of amphibious landings.

He is also alleged to have handed over electrical diagrams and blueprints for a radar system at a US military base in southern Japan, where the United States has a large military presence.

By sending this sensitive military information to an intelligence officer employed by a hostile foreign state, the defendant betrayed his sacred oath to protect our country, US Attorney Martin Estrada said.

Unlike the vast majority of US Navy personnel who serve the nation with honor, distinction and courage, Mr. Zhao chose to corruptly sell out his colleagues and his country.
Ukrainian sea drones launched an attack on a Russian naval base near the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, a significant center for Russian exports. The assault occurred on Friday and resulted in the destruction of the drones by Russian warships.

As a result of the attack, the Novorossiysk port temporarily suspended all ship operations. This information was provided by the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which manages an oil terminal at the port.

Russian social media users reported hearing explosions and gunfire near Novorossiysk on Friday morning. If confirmed it would be the first Ukrainian attack on one of Russias main commercial ports.

The Caspian Pipeline Consortium, responsible for loading oil onto tankers in Novorossiysk, reported that the port has temporarily suspended all ship activities. The organization clarified that its facilities remained undamaged, and the loading of oil onto tankers that were already docked continued as usual.

Videos shared on a local online community and circulated by the Russian online news outlet Astra depicted ships near the coastline in motion, accompanied by the sound of gunfire emanating from the seas direction.

The emergency services of Novorossiysk have confirmed reports of blasts and security services have been informed, Russias RIA news agency reported. The port is one of the biggest in the Black Sea.

The Caspian Pipeline Consortium is the main exporter of Kazakh crude.

Clashes in the Black Sea and adjacent ports have escalated since Russia refused last month to extend a deal allowing for the safe exports of grain from Ukrainian ports; Russian drones and missiles have struck several Ukrainian port facilities and grain silos on or near the Black Sea.

Russia has also reported an attack by Ukrainian sea drones on its warships which were escorting a civilian vessel.

Russian air defences downed 10 Ukrainian drones over Crimea on Friday morning and suppressed three more with electronic countermeasures, TASS cited the Russian defence ministry as saying.

With inputs from agencies
The United States is preparing to deploy Marines and Navy personnel aboard commercial tankers transiting the Gulf as part of efforts to deter Iran from seizing ships, a US official said Thursday.

The security forces would provide a further layer of protection for the tankers in addition to the warships and planes operating in the strategically vital area, through which around a fifth of the worlds oil passes.

There is an effort to employ security details composed of both Marines and Navy sailors on commercial tankers transiting in and near the Strait of Hormuz as an added layer of defense for these vulnerable ships, the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

An invitation is needed to do so because the ships are private vessels, but we are undergoing preparations to execute should final agreements be in place to do that, the official said.

Asked if there are concerns that the deployment could lead to confrontation between US and Iranian forces, the official said that was effectively up to Tehran.

There should be no interaction at all if Iran plays by the rules and follows international law, the official said, adding: If they attack and we have forces on board, we will respond  as we should.

Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Pat Ryder and National Security Council spokesman John Kirby both declined to confirm reports of the planned deployment.

Critical choke point

Kirby emphasized the importance of the area, saying the Strait of Hormuz is a vital seaway that has a huge impact on seaborne trade around the world.

Its a critical choke point in the maritime world, and we have seen threats by Iran to affect that choke point, he added.

The United States is boosting its forces operating in the region, announcing last month that it would deploy a destroyer, F-35 and F-16 warplanes, as well as an Amphibious Readiness Group/Marine Expeditionary Unit comprised of some 3,000 personnel.

The US military says Iran has either seized or attempted to take control of nearly 20 internationally flagged ships in the region over the past two years.

Washington said its forces blocked two attempts by Iran to seize commercial tankers in international waters off Oman on July 5, while Tehran took control of a commercial ship the following day.

In April and early May, Iran seized two tankers within a week in regional waters, and Tehran was also accused of launching a drone attack against an Israeli-owned tanker in November 2022.

There have been a series of such incidents since 2018, when then-US president Donald Trump pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal and reimposed crippling sanctions on the Islamic republic, which Washington says Tehran has succeeded in evading.
As the 2024 Republican presidential primary race heats up, hedge fund financier Vivek Ramaswamy has emerged as a surprising contender. Ramaswamy has been steadily climbing in the polls. However, his journey to the top has not been without its challenges, as some Republican activists express unease about the possibility of a Hindu person securing the GOP nomination.

Critics question Ramaswamys beliefs

Critics have gone so far as to claim that God hates Ramaswamy due to his Hindu religious background. This has sparked heated discussions within the Republican Party about the role of religion in politics. The US Constitution protects religious freedom, making it crucial to evaluate candidates based on their qualifications and policy positions rather than their religious affiliations.

Ramaswamys conservative values

Ramaswamys conservative values align closely with the Christian agenda, promising to ban abortions at six weeks and oppose gender-affirming care for transgender youth if such bills pass Congress. His views on LGBTQ+ rights have also drawn attention, with suggestions to nominate anti-LGBTQ+ Senator Ted Cruz to the Supreme Court if given the opportunity.

Anti-choice activist Abby Johnson voices concern

Despite the vocal criticism from anti-choice activist Abby Johnson, who questioned Ramaswamys appearance on a conservative Christian program, the financiers charisma and ability to articulate his policies have struck a chord with voters.

Speaking about Ramaswamy, Johnson said on Flashpoint, Satan is the author of confusion, adding, And right now, the battle is coming for the presidential nomination. And theres a man who is gaining traction right now as the presidential nominee and his name is Vivek Ramaswamy and he is Hindu. And those who are Hindu believe in many gods.

Vivek Ramaswamy is a Hindu,, and that is why he unfit to become President of USA.because Christian God hates Hindu?? pic.twitter.com/ZlQUcxcTH9  No Conversion (@noconversion) August 3, 2023

Abby Johnson, an anti-choice activist, expressed her concerns about Vivek Ramaswamy's rise in the polls during the 2024 Republican presidential primary race. She acknowledged Ramaswamy's charisma and ability to speak well, saying, "He says so many right things sometimes I'm like, 'Maybe he is the right guy!' But he's not, because our God will not be mocked."

Comparison with Barack Obama

Drawing a comparison to former President Barack Obama, Johnson cautioned viewers not to be fooled by charisma and eloquence, stating, "Do not be a victim of Satan's confusion right now. This is an important time for us to have clarity of mind as we are going into an election cycle. So please discern. Please use discernment right now because God hates those who are willing to put up idols over him, and he will not be mocked."

Where does Ramaswamy stand in terms of popularity?

Ramaswamy's rise in the polls has surprised many, surpassing notable figures like former Vice President Mike Pence, former Trump administration official Nikki Haley, and Senator Tim Scott (R-SC).

As of the latest polling data, Ramaswamy currently stands in third place behind former President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. His presence in the top three has intensified the debate on religion's role in politics and its potential influence on voters.

The scenario underscores the complexities and sensitivities surrounding religious diversity within the political landscape. While some activists may express reservations about a Hindu candidate, Ramaswamy's policy positions mirror those of many conservative Christians. It serves as a reminder that evaluating candidates based on their qualifications, stances on critical issues, and ability to represent all Americans is essential for a healthy democratic process.
In a latest from the Ukraine Russian war, Russian warship suffered severe damage after allegedly being targeted in a kamikaze sea drone attack.

The attack occurred at the strategic Russian port and naval base of Novorossiysk, causing a massive explosion that sent flames soaring into the sky, as seen in videos shared on social media.

A Russian Northern Fleet ship is sinking after a Ukrainian surface drone strike at night near the port of Novorossiysk in the Black Sea. Identified as Olenegorsky Gornyak landing ship. pic.twitter.com/C9CYgrvVLC  Igor Sushko (@igorsushko) August 4, 2023

In response to the strikes, two warships under Vladimir Putins command were dispatched to counter the attack.

Among them was the Olenegorsky Gornyak, which reportedly approached the harbor but listed heavily to one side.

Surprisingly, the Kremlin asserted that there was no damage, despite compelling visual evidence suggesting otherwise.

In a peculiar twist, a Ukrainian marine drone was spotted in flames before detonating in the port area. The distance between the port and the waters held by Ukraine, where the drone was likely launched from, spans approximately 450 nautical miles.

The drone strikes and accompanying gunfire had a noticeable impact on ship movements at Novorossiysk, leading to temporary halts. In an attempt to fend off further surface drone attacks, Russia deployed both the landing ship Olenegorsky Gornyak and the anti-sabotage boat Suvorovets.

In the midst of the escalating conflict, Kyiv initiated separate attacks on other targets, including an oil depot in Feodosia, which has been under Putins control since the contentious annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed concerns that the war was inching closer to Russian territory, viewing the aerial onslaught on Moscow as an inevitable consequence of Putins actions.

The heightened tensions have even prompted a senior Russian politician, Dmitry Medvedev, to renew threats regarding the potential use of nuclear weapons.

Citing a nuclear deterrence policy adopted by President Vladimir Putin in 2020, Medvedev argued that Moscow would be justified in such a response.

He ominously warned that there might be no other recourse and called upon their enemies to pray for their warriors, who prevent a catastrophic nuclear conflagration on a global scale.
Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin announces:

At the invitation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Special Representative of the Chinese Government on Eurasian Affairs Li Hui will travel to Jeddah to attend the meeting on the Ukraine issue. China stands ready to work with the international community to continue to play a constructive role in seeking a political settlement of the Ukraine crisis.




Google has introduced four new features for its Chrome mobile browser to make it easier for users to find the information they need while on the go. These features include tools for finding trip inspiration and keeping up with trending topics.

Smart Search Suggestions on Eligible Sites

When using Chrome on iOS or Android and clicking on the address bar, relevant search suggestions will now appear. For instance, if youre reading an article about Japan for an upcoming trip, youll see a new section called Related to this page with suggestions for other searches like local restaurants or tourist attractions in Japan.

Stay Updated with Trending Searches

Chrome on Android now shows trending Google searches directly in the address bar. By opening a new tab and tapping the address bar, you can scroll down to see the latest trends.

Clicking on a trending search will provide search results and more information. This feature will be available for Chrome on iOS later this year.

Discover Related Searches with Touch to Search

Introduced a few years ago on Android, Touch to Search allows you to quickly search a word or phrase from a webpage. Now, it also offers related searches in a carousel format.

If you come across a topic you want to learn more about while reading an article, Touch to Search will display related search options for easy access to more information.

Expanded Suggestions in the Address Bar

When typing in the Chrome address bar on your phone, youll now see 10 suggestions (up from six) to assist you in refining your search.

The most pertinent suggestions will be displayed at the top, and by scrolling, you can view additional options. This feature is now available for both Android and iOS users.

Announcing the updates, Nick Kim Sexton, Product Manager, Chrome, said:
Qualcomm has announced the appointment of Savi Soin as senior vice president and president of Qualcomm India. As President of Qualcomm India, Soin will be in charge of leading and executing Qualcomms strategy in India by fostering relationships with industry partners and the Government of India across mobile, automotive, semiconductor, industrial & IoT and communication infrastructure sectors.

He will be reporting directly to Jim Cathey, Chief Commercial Officer, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. (QCT).

Soin joined Qualcomm 20 years back and has been a part of Qualcomms senior leadership team in the last 10 years, helping shape the strategic direction for the company in several leadership roles, said Qualcomm.

Soin led the Global Strategic Partnerships and Business Incubation team for Qualcomm Technologies, responsible for new businesses and executing strategic relationships, the company added.

Prior to his current role, Soin was the head of Strategy and Business Development at Qualcomm Technologies semiconductor division, where he was responsible for planning and execution of Qualcomms strategy.

Rajen Vagadia, Qualcomm India President for the last 5 years, will relocate to Qualcomm headquarters in San Diego and transition to a new role as a Vice President to lead Global Distribution and Global Carrier Strategy.

Commenting on the appointment of the new President and SVP, Jim Cathey, Chief Commercial Officer, said:

India is a priority market for Qualcomm, and we remain committed to investing in it. I would like to thank Rajen for his leadership and contribution to driving growth in India by strengthening our presence and accelerating innovation in the country. Savis leadership experience, technical knowledge, and ability to work through complex challenges and build strong collaboration across teams, have played a pivotal role in his success at Qualcomm. In his new role, Savi will continue to drive growth in one of the fastest growing economies, supporting Indias digital transformation and the development of its domestic technology innovation capabilities. He will continue driving our efforts towards furthering the semiconductor and start-up ecosystem in India by leveraging the strength and scale of Qualcomms innovations and technology assets. In addition, he will be focused on accelerating transformation in areas such as 5G, AI, IoT and Automotive, building on our strong engineering presence and brand in the India market.

Savi Soin, President of Qualcomm India, said:

Its a privilege to return home. India has an enormous opportunity to drive the global digital transformation with its scale and resources. My objective is to partner with the Indian ecosystem to accelerate this transformation using Qualcomms technology innovations across sectors.
Apple has reported latest quarterly revenue of $81.8 billion, down 1.44% from a year ago, which is better than the expectations. It posted a net profit of $19.9 billion, up 2.57% YoY and quarterly earnings per diluted share of $1.26, up 5% YoY for the financial year Q3 2023 that ended July 1, 2023.

During the earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that the company continued to see strong results in emerging markets, driven by robust sales of iPhone with June quarter total revenue records in India, Indonesia, Mexico, the Philippines, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the UAE.

Apple also set June quarter records in a number of other countries as well, including France, the Netherlands and Austria.

Products revenue was $60.6 billion, down 4% from last year due to FX headwinds and an uneven macroeconomic environment. Installed base reached an all-time high across all geographic segments, driven by a June quarter record for iPhone switchers and high new-to rates in Mac, iPad and Watch, coupled with very high levels of customer satisfaction and loyalty. Services revenue set an all-time record of $21.2 billion, up 8% year-over-year, and grew double digits in constant currency. All-time Services revenue records in Americas and Europe and June quarter records in Greater China and rest of Asia Pacific. iPhone revenue was $39.7 billion, down 2% year-over-year but grew on a constant currency basis. iPhone revenue records in several markets around the world, including an all-time record in India and June quarter records in Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, Indonesia, the Philippines, Italy, the Netherlands and the U.K. iPhone active installed base grew to a new all-time high, thanks to a June quarter record in switchers. iPad revenue was $5.8 billion, down 20% year-over-year and in line with Apples expectations. These results were driven by a difficult compare against the full quarter impact of the iPad Air launch in the prior year, according to Apple iPad installed base grows, with over half of the customers who purchased iPads during the quarter being new to the product. Mac generated $6.8 billion in revenue, down 7% year-over-year. Almost half of Mac buyers during the quarter were new to the product. Wearables, Home and Accessories revenue was $8.3 billion, up 2% year-over-year, with a June quarter record in Greater China and strong performance in several emerging markets. 1 billion paid subscriptions across the services on our platform, up 150 million during the last 12 months and nearly double the number of paid subscriptions 3 years ago.



Speaking on Apples FY Q2 2023 earnings results, Apple CEO, Tim Cook, said,

We are happy to report that we had an all-time revenue record in Services during the June quarter, driven by over 1 billion paid subscriptions, and we saw continued strength in emerging markets thanks to robust sales of iPhone. From education to the environment, we are continuing to advance our values, while championing innovation that enriches the lives of our customers and leaves the world better than we found it.
Renowned Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicts that Sonys semiconductor capacity constraints will persist until 2025 due to the adoption of stacked design CIS (Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Image Sensor) in the upcoming iPhone models.

This advanced technology is expected to revolutionize smartphone photography and videography, promising enhanced image and video capture.

Additionally, Apple has ambitious plans for its upcoming iPhone lineup, including two iPhone 15 standard models and iPhone 16 Pro models, featuring the cutting-edge stacked-designed CIS technology.

Will Semiconductor (Will Semi) is expected to face increased competition as demand for stacked design CIS grows. With Sonys tight high-end CIS capacity driven by iPhone 16s adoption, Will Semi aims to secure more orders from Chinese smartphone brands, boosting its market growth.

Despite a decline in 1H23 CIS shipments due to inventory issues, the company anticipates a remarkable recovery in 2H23, with projected YoY growth of about 8%.

Sonys limited capacity presents an opportunity for Will Semi to expand its high-end CIS market share, forecasting a 35% YoY increase in 2H23 shipments. Looking ahead, 2024 expects 15-20% YoY total CIS growth and 40-50% YoY high-end CIS growth, indicating significant sales and profit growth from 2H23 onwards.

With this latest report, we can expect significant camera improvements in the upcoming iPhone models. Moreover, the overall growth in the sensor segment is anticipated, driven by increasing demand for stacked design CIS.

Source
Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Cologne Cathedral



Cologne Cathedral, located in Cologne, Germany, is a magnificent example of Gothic architecture. Its construction began in 1248 and continued for several centuries, with final completion in 1880. One of its most significant relics is the Shrine of the Three Kings, said to contain the remains of the biblical Magi. These relics were taken by Frederick Barbarossa and later housed in the cathedral, making it a significant pilgrimage site during the Middle Ages.



During World War II, Cologne Cathedral suffered significant damage due to Allied bombing raids. However, the cathedral's basic structure miraculously survived, and its restoration efforts began soon after the war's end. Today, Cologne Cathedral is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, recognized for its outstanding architectural significance and cultural value.

2. Reichstag



Construction of the Reichstag began in 1884 and was completed in 1894. Its architectural style is characterized as Neo-Renaissance, featuring elements reminiscent of Italian Renaissance architecture. The Reichstag played a significant role in the unification of Germany in 1871, as it became the seat of the German Empire's parliament. Prior to World War II, the Reichstag suffered severe damage due to arson only four weeks after Adolf Hitler was declared chancellor. He used the pretext of the fire to claim communists were attacking the German government.



After the war, the building lay in ruins until the post-war division of Germany during the Cold War. Following German reunification in 1990, the Reichstag was extensively restored, and its iconic glass dome was added as a symbol of transparency and democracy. Today, the Reichstag houses the German Bundestag (parliament) and stands as a symbol of Germany's turbulent history and its commitment to democracy and unity.

3. Neuschwanstein Castle



Neuschwanstein Castle, located in Bavaria, Germany, was constructed in the 19th century and is a prime example of Romantic architecture. Its construction began in 1869 under the reign of King Ludwig II of Bavaria, who had a deep passion for the operas of Richard Wagner. The castle was intended to be a homage to Wagner's works and served as a retreat for the reclusive king. Christian Jank and Eduard Riedel were the architects responsible for the castle's design, drawing inspiration from medieval European castles and incorporating artistic elements from Wagner's operas.



During World War II, the castle was used as a depot for Nazi plunder that was looted from France, raising significant controversy in later years. Today, Neuschwanstein Castle remains one of Germany's most popular tourist destinations, attracting millions of visitors annually with its fairytale-like appearance and stunning mountainous surroundings. Neuschwanstein Castle, located in Bavaria, Germany, was constructed in the 19th century and is a prime example of Romantic architecture. Its construction began in 1869 under the reign of King Ludwig II of Bavaria, who had a deep passion for the operas of Richard Wagner. The castle was intended to be a homage to Wagner's works and served as a retreat for the reclusive king. Christian Jank and Eduard Riedel were the architects responsible for the castle's design, drawing inspiration from medieval European castles and incorporating artistic elements from Wagner's operas.During World War II, the castle was used as a depot for Nazi plunder that was looted from France, raising significant controversy in later years. Today, Neuschwanstein Castle remains one of Germany's most popular tourist destinations, attracting millions of visitors annually with its fairytale-like appearance and stunning mountainous surroundings.

4. Marienplatz



Marienplatz is a central square located in the heart of Munich, Germany. Its construction dates back to the Middle Ages, with origins tracing to the 12th century. The architectural style of Marienplatz is a mix of various periods, ranging from Gothic to Renaissance and Baroque influences. In the Middle Ages, the square served as a marketplace and the center of civic life in Munich.



One of its prominent features is the Glockenspiel, a famous clock tower located on the New Town Hall. The Glockenspiel performs at specific times during the day, depicting scenes from Munich's history and a jousting tournament. Another notable landmark is Mary's Column, a Marian column erected in the 17th century as a symbol of the city's devotion to the Virgin Mary.

5. Berlin TV Tower



The Berlin TV Tower, also known as the Fernsehturm, had its construction begun in 1965 and was completed in 1969. The architectural style of the TV Tower is often associated with the East German modernist architecture of the time, showcasing a cylindrical concrete tower with a spherical observation deck at the top. During the Cold War, the tower served as a symbol of Communist power in East Berlin and was intended to demonstrate the superiority of East German engineering and technology.



Today, the Berlin TV Tower is a popular tourist attraction, offering visitors panoramic views of the city from its observation deck. The tower houses a revolving restaurant, making it a memorable dining experience for locals and tourists alike. An intriguing phenomenon, in which the sun shines on the tower in the shape of a Greek cross, is called the "Pope's Revenge". Since the government had previously removed crosses from churches in East Germany, the cross appearing daily as the rays of light hit the tower was perhaps a bit of solace for the religiously-inclined.

6. Bastei Bridge



The Bastei Bridge, located in Saxon Switzerland National Park, Germany, was constructed in 1851. The bridge spans across the dramatic rock formations known as the Bastei, which rise majestically above the Elbe River. The rock formations and the surrounding landscape are a result of centuries of natural erosion, creating an awe-inspiring setting for the bridge.



The Bastei Bridge is an impressive feat of engineering, connecting the otherwise inaccessible rocky outcrop to the mainland. Its inaccessibility adds to the allure, as visitors must navigate winding pathways and steep stairs to reach the bridge, making the experience more adventurous and rewarding. The Bastei Bridge has inspired many artists and writers, including the renowned German Romantic painter Caspar David Friedrich, who featured the dramatic cliffs in his paintings, capturing the sublime beauty of the natural world.

7. Heidelberg Castle



Heidelberg Castle, located in Heidelberg, Germany, is a historic ruin, with its earliest construction dating back to the 13th century. The castle is an exquisite example of Gothic and Renaissance architecture, and despite its impressive past, Heidelberg Castle fell into ruin after suffering repeated damage during various wars and conflicts. One of the most significant events in its history was the siege it endured during the Thirty Years War, which led to extensive destruction and left the castle in ruins.



Over the years, Heidelberg Castle has attracted numerous visitors, including the famous French writer Victor Hugo, who expressed admiration for its grandeur. Additionally, the influential theologian Martin Luther once visited the castle, being regaled by Wolfgang of the Palatinate, a nobleman from the House of Wittelsbach.

8. Brandenburg Gate



The Brandenburg Gate, situated in Berlin, Germany, was constructed between 1788 and 1791 under the orders of King Frederick William II of Prussia. The architectural style of the gate is Neoclassical, featuring six Doric columns supporting a grand entablature and a chariot statue on top. Frederick William II commissioned the gate to serve as a triumphal arch, symbolizing peace and unity following the conclusion of Prussian war campaigns.



During the Napoleonic Wars, Napoleon Bonaparte's forces seized the Brandenburg Gate in 1806 as a symbol of victory, only to return it to Berlin in 1814 following his defeat. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Brandenburg Gate became associated with German nationalism, as it became a symbol of Prussian and later German unity.



During the Nazi era, the gate was extensively used as a backdrop for Nazi propaganda, with the party's iconic swastika flags displayed prominently on the structure. After World War II, the Brandenburg Gate became a potent symbol of the division of Germany, standing in the no man's land between East and West Berlin. Following the reunification of Germany in 1990, the Brandenburg Gate has become a symbol of peace, unity, and the hope for a peaceful and united Europe. The Brandenburg Gate, situated in Berlin, Germany, was constructed between 1788 and 1791 under the orders of King Frederick William II of Prussia. The architectural style of the gate is Neoclassical, featuring six Doric columns supporting a grand entablature and a chariot statue on top. Frederick William II commissioned the gate to serve as a triumphal arch, symbolizing peace and unity following the conclusion of Prussian war campaigns.During the Napoleonic Wars, Napoleon Bonaparte's forces seized the Brandenburg Gate in 1806 as a symbol of victory, only to return it to Berlin in 1814 following his defeat. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Brandenburg Gate became associated with German nationalism, as it became a symbol of Prussian and later German unity.During the Nazi era, the gate was extensively used as a backdrop for Nazi propaganda, with the party's iconic swastika flags displayed prominently on the structure. After World War II, the Brandenburg Gate became a potent symbol of the division of Germany, standing in the no man's land between East and West Berlin. Following the reunification of Germany in 1990, the Brandenburg Gate has become a symbol of peace, unity, and the hope for a peaceful and united Europe.

9. Geierlay suspension bridge



The Geierlay suspension bridge, located in Morsdorf, Germany, was constructed in 2015. The bridge showcases a modern architectural style, designed to blend harmoniously with the natural surroundings of the Hunsruck region. The Geierlay suspension bridge spans an impressive length of 360 meters (1,181 feet) and hangs 100 meters (328 feet) above the Morsdorfer Bach, a scenic river flowing beneath it.



Visitors from around the world come to experience the thrill of crossing the Geierlay bridge, though it is believed that up to 20% of visitors decide not to make the trek across. The bridge has traditionally been free to access; however, a small fee was charged during the start of the coronavirus pandemic. That fee has since been removed, and the bridge is once more free to cross.

10. Berlin Cathedral



Berlin Cathedral was constructed between 1894 and 1905. The architectural style of the cathedral is primarily neo-Renaissance, characterized by its imposing dome, grand facade, and ornate decorations. The cathedral served as the court church of the Prussian royal family, the House of Hohenzollern, making it their final resting place.



Berlin Cathedral has a rich religious history, having witnessed significant events in German Protestantism. It became an influential center for the Protestant church and played a vital role in shaping the religious landscape of Germany. During World War II, Berlin Cathedral suffered severe damage from Allied bombing raids, with its dome and parts of the structure being destroyed. However, extensive restoration efforts in the post-war years restored it to its former glory.

11. Romerberg plaza



The Romer building complex, located in the Romerberg plaza, has a fascinating history dating back to the 14th century. Originally serving as a guildhall, it later became Frankfurt's city hall. The complex comprises three main buildings, including the Old Town Hall, the New Town Hall, and the Imperial Hall.



During World War II, the Romerberg plaza and its buildings suffered significant destruction from Allied bombing raids. However, post-war reconstruction efforts meticulously restored the square and its historic buildings to their former splendor. Today, the Romerberg plaza remains a popular tourist destination, attracting visitors with its beautiful architecture and rich historical significance.

12. Eltz Castle



The construction of Eltz Castle dates back to the 12th century. The castle is a prime example of medieval architecture, featuring a mix of Romanesque, Gothic, and Renaissance styles. Over the centuries, Eltz Castle remained virtually unscathed and survived its only major attack when local feuding lords attempted bombardment of the castle with primitive pot-de-fer cannons, doing little damage.



Eltz Castle has been preserved throughout the years by the Eltz family, who still reside in the castle to this day. Preservation efforts have ensured that the castle remains in excellent condition, allowing visitors to experience a genuine medieval castle in its original state. Eltz Castle's cultural and architectural significance is so esteemed that it was featured on the 500-deutschmark banknote in Germany during the late 20th century. The construction of Eltz Castle dates back to the 12th century. The castle is a prime example of medieval architecture, featuring a mix of Romanesque, Gothic, and Renaissance styles. Over the centuries, Eltz Castle remained virtually unscathed and survived its only major attack when local feuding lords attempted bombardment of the castle with primitive pot-de-fer cannons, doing little damage.Eltz Castle has been preserved throughout the years by the Eltz family, who still reside in the castle to this day. Preservation efforts have ensured that the castle remains in excellent condition, allowing visitors to experience a genuine medieval castle in its original state. Eltz Castle's cultural and architectural significance is so esteemed that it was featured on the 500-deutschmark banknote in Germany during the late 20th century.

Source: Author trident This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor stedman before going online.Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.
Dutch law professor on Schengen: EU Council can be sued by Romania and Bulgaria for opposing their accession

Stefan Salomon, a law professor at the University of Amsterdam, told a Schengen-related hearing in the European Parliaments petitions committee that member states were bound by the EU treaties to accept Romania and Bulgarias entry once the technical criteria were deemed to have been met.

Article 4(2) of the act of accession basically indicates that this provision only refers to the Schengen evaluation as the basis for the verification by the Council if the conditions for a full application are met. The specific criteria are then determined by the Schengen evaluation body. This very Schengen evaluation body concluded already in 2011 that Bulgaria and Romania made sufficient progress in the fields of data protection, police cooperation, visa issues, land, sea, and the EU borders, and the Schengen implementing system. So, neither the accession act nor the relevant secondary legislation on the Schengen evaluation include any additional criteria, which suggests that the legal criteria for full application are fixed rather than adaptable, he said during the debate, according to the transcript.

The Dutch expert also said that the resolution of a situation such as Austrias veto can come before the European courts, pointing out that member states concerned by the veto can go to the European Court of Justice.

I could only point you to the legal options and which kind of legal options do exist. So if the council does not adopt this decision due to some member states blocking the anonymous Council decision, there is always the possibility for a member state or for another privileged applicant such as the European Parliament Audit Commission to bring an action for failure to act in article 265 of the TFEU against the council. , said Stefan Salomon.

He also pointed out that there is a possibility that citizens who feel directly affected can seek compensation in court: an EU citizen who has suffered a loss because of waiting time at the internal border, because of border controls, can always go to the National Court and seek compensation for the losses they have suffered.

The debate took place after the European Parliament adopted a new resolution in July asking the EU Council to vote on the accession of Romania and Bulgaria to Schengen. The accession of the two countries was blocked in December 2022 by an Austrian veto. European Parliament resolutions have no legal force and are not binding on EU member states or the other European institutions. However, they are an instrument of political pressure. Austria announced this week that it maintains its veto on the accession of Romania and Bulgaria on the grounds that the two countries are not handling illegal immigration properly.

Read Stefan Salomons full speech below:

So, Ive been as you mentioned, Ive been basically asked to address three points. First, the current state of the reintroduction of border controls, so the current state of Schengen. Second, what are the economic costs of maintaining these controls. Third, the full application of the Schengen acquis to Bulgaria and Romania focusing again on internal border controls. I guess these three points would be enough to fill an entire afternoon, but I will try to do this in the next 10 minutes. And just to be clear, I will talk about these points as a legal expert. So, from a legal perspective, as to the first point, the current state of Schengen. So the legal if we talk about changing the legal and normative core of Schengen is the very area without internal border controls, and it is exactly this core that has been undermined and still is undermined since 2015, when the first member states, reintroduced controls, and that still maintain controls due to back then the terrorist attacks in France and the increase of (asylum seekers in a couple) the number of asylum seekers in a couple of member states. Three points and let me illustrate this undermining of the legal normative caution with three points. First, the number of controls rose considerably. (In 20) In the first 20 years of Schengen from 1995 to 2014. Member states, reintroduced controls a total of 90 times. Since 2015, this number rose to 369 times This is an increase of more than 600%. Second, the duration of these controls is also longer. Before 2015 controls were reintroduced for a few hours to a maximum of four weeks. Since 2015, most member states reintroduced controls for six months at a time and then continuously prolonged these controls. The third point that illustrates this crisis of Schengen is that the nature of the reasons that member states provide for reintroducing controls changed. The Schengen borders code requires the existence and I quote <<a channelling of a genuine present and sufficiently serious threat that affects one of the fundamental interests of society>> end of quote. Prior to 2015, member states reintroduced controls because of concrete threats. These threats included sport events, political summits, or the meeting of the Icelandic chapter of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club. In 20 years, migration, so from 1995 to 2014, migration was only used four times as reason for reintroducing controls. Terrorist threats were used only 10 times. This changed fundamentally since 2015. A common feature of the controls, or rather often notifications that member states send to the commission is that they all emphasise risks, that is potential risks rather than concrete threats. The upshot of these developments since 2015 is that border controls are turned from exceptional measures that are used only on a temporary basis into instruments of risk governance that are employed on a quasi-permanent basis. In principle, the Court of Justice put an end to this practice. In April of last year, the Court held in the in its decision in Landespolizeidirektion Steiermark that unless there is a new threat to internal security, that is different in nature from the previous threat, member states are only permitted to unilaterally reinstate controls for a maximum of six months. Although this judgement by the court is binding on all member states, they do not implement it. Traditional checks in the member state by member states courts are also failing. In France, they conceded that upheld that the prolongation of controls by the French government would be in accordance with EU law. They conceded that, thereby adopted an interpretation that is flatly contrary to the judgement of the Court of Justice. This brings me to my second point. So, what if member states maintain these controls since 2015? Well, its five member states which maintain these controls since 2015. In what are the economic costs of these prolonged reintroductions? Well, if we look at the existing (studies on) economic studies on the costs of the of these controls, (there are) there are a couple of studies out there. So, the scientific service German Bundestag, for instance, enumerates along with four studies that exist in Germany, there are two studies that have been commissioned by the European Parliament and at least one study by a French government, institution France Strategie. All of these studies differ (both) both in breadth and in depth. However, what they do have in common is (that) that they all basically come to the conclusion that controls at the internal borders result in significant direct and indirect costs. Im pretty sure that many of you will be familiar with at least some of these studies, so I dont want to rehearse all of the findings in these studies. But I just want to highlight some or give you some concrete examples of the indirect costs on free movement of goods and services. The, to my knowledge, most exhaustive study by the ifo Institute at University of Munich, estimates that controls at the German-Austrian border alone would result in a reduction of the import of goods and services by 0.5 percentage points a year. In Germany, that is equivalent to the sum of 6.3 billion euros a year. To give you another example, at the Austrian border, there are, on a daily basis, more than 51,000 EU citizens who commute from Hungary into Austria, and more than 14,300 EU citizens who commute from Slovenia into Austria. Those are the most recent data that I found from Statistics Austria. Based on an estimated 10 minutes waiting time for one crossing at the border, the indirect costs for these Union citizens would amount to more than 47 million euros a year. I assume that similar studies exist for commuters in Denmark and Sweden. Let me come to the direct costs now of border controls. In Austria, direct costs for border controls amounted to 88 million euros in 2021. And these are mostly costs that are related to personnel costs. One remarkable thing about the direct costs is that, to my knowledge, in none of the member states, data on direct costs for the prolongation of these controls are publicly available. This of course raises transparency issues. From a legal perspective, the point about these economic costs is that each time member states reintroduced controls and sent notifications to the Commission, these costs would need to be part of the proportionality assessment. So as to measure or at least to weigh the impacts and the effects of these controls on the free movement rights of citizens and companies in the EU. Virtually none of the notifications that were sent to the Commission since 2015, basically included such costs. This brings me to my final point: the full application of the Schengen acquis to Romania and Bulgaria. Bulgaria and Romania are already fully bound by the Schengen acquis, only parts of the Schengen acquis do not yet fully apply to Bulgaria and Romania, especially the part on the abolition of internal border controls. The full application of this part of the Schengen a key is basically a two-step procedure. First, an evaluation must be carried out that the necessary conditions for the application of all parts of the Schengen acquis are met. Second, a unanimous decision by the Council must be adopted with the consultation of the European Parliament. The Schengen evaluation report, so thats the first step, stated already in 2011 that Romania and Bulgaria are sufficiently prepared to fully apply the rules of the Schengen acquis. The Council decision, however, was not adopted in 2022, due to the veto of Austria and the Netherlands. And it is interesting to look at the reasons that the Dutch and the Austrian government give so the Dutch government argues that Bulgaria must, and I quote, <<Bulgaria must implement all the necessary measures: rule of law, fighting corruption, independent judiciary>> end of quote. In a similar way, the Austrian Chancellor cited the dysfunctionality of the Schengen area as a reason for not extending the Schengen acquis. This basically from a legal perspective, this basically raises the question: so, what are the legal criteria for full application of the Schengen acquis to these countries? Are they fixed criteria or are they rather adaptable, as the Austrian and Dutch Government suggest? Well, look at Article Two. Sorry, look at Article 4(2) of the act of accession basically indicates that this provision only refers to the Schengen evaluation as the basis for the verification by the Council if the conditions for a full application are met. The specific criteria are then determined by the Schengen evaluation body. This very Schengen evaluation body concluded already in 2011 that Bulgaria and Romania made sufficient progress in the fields of data protection, police cooperation, visa issues, land, sea, and the EU borders, and the Schengen implementing system. So, neither the accession act nor the relevant secondary legislation on the Schengen evaluation include any additional criteria, which suggests that the legal criteria for full application are fixed rather than adaptable. The question then is what are the legal implications that follow from that? Does the council in particular have an obligation to adopt a decision if the criteria are met? Or is the decision of the Council a purely political one? For the sake of brevity, I would say (that the criteria are) that the criteria are first legally binding, and that theyre also justiciable by the Court of Justice, for a variety of reasons. The wording of Article of Article 4(2) of the accession Act, the structure of rights and obligations in the Schengen acquis and institutional considerations among others. I would gladly explain that if need be further in the Q&A.

Let me start with the comment that was given by the truck drivers. When the Saarbrucken Agreement, which was the predecessor to the Schengen agreement was concluded in 1985, it was actually the impetus for the conclusion of this agreement was actually truck drivers, German truck drivers, Austrian truck drivers and other truck drivers in Italy, which basically blocked the roads and therefore demanded political action to finally abolish the border controls which have been promised in prior EU documents. So I found this a very, very telling anecdote and back then, the political leadership in Germany, actually supported in Bavaria actually supported the political acts of the truck drivers by providing them with food and beer. What was otherwise an illegal action. So let me answer the questions in the order. I basically summed them up a bit. So the first point was, so the first question basically concerns the veto of Netherlands and Austria and whats the purpose of this veto? Well, the purpose of this veto is that the council verifies that the technical standards which have been adopted by the Schengen evaluation body are actually fulfilled, so its really a verification mechanism. So, the council decision would then be the legal basis for the full application of the Schengen acquis. What if two or more member states block it, although the Schengen evaluation has been fulfilled, and this is not in the criterion, the Schengen evaluation has been fulfilled. And this is actually not contested, but other criteria are cited. While the solutions to this either I can only the political solutions, I dont know. I could only point you to the legal options and which kind of legal options do exist. So if the council does not adopt this decision due to some member states blocking the anonymous Council decision, there is always the possibility for a member state or for another privileged applicant such as the European Parliament Audit Commission to bring an action for failure to act in article 265 of the TFEU against the council. The second point basically concerns the compensation for losses. Well, I guess we need to distinguish their recompensation for losses suffered by Romania, Bulgaria. And the compensat-; and losses suffered by citizens because of border controls, which are currently still (in place by) maintained by all states, Germany and other states. As to the second point, there is always a possibility of state liability. (And you basically) the conditions I would see fulfilled. So, a citizen, an EU citizen who has suffered a loss, because of a company, which has suffered a loss, because of waiting time at the internal border, because of border controls, can always go to National Court and claim the compensation for the losses that they suffered. I do not see this possibility in Bulgaria and Romania currently. And the third question concerning the EP, the European Parliament proposal. So, the European Parliament proposal, grosso modo, maintains the legal framework, as it is, in the sense that border controls would still have this exceptional nature. The Council and the Commission proposal sees this a bit differently, and it would basically envisage to reintroduce controls more with longer term measures to counter longer threats, which would then shift border controls for more exceptional measures into longer term measures.

I conclude by saying basically, even if the proposal is adopted, (the Commission) still needed this enforcement by the Commission, in addition to the enforcement actions that are by EU citizens. There is a concern by citizens, as the petitions clearly show however, the fact that EU citizens do not take legal actions as often, the reason for this is often (the costs of) the procedural costs that are involved with this. Thank you.
Welcome to my genealogy blog. Genea-Musings features genealogy research tips and techniques, genealogy news items and commentary, genealogy humor, San Diego genealogy society news, family history research and some family history stories from the keyboard of Randy Seaver (of Chula Vista CA), who thinks that Genealogy Research Is really FUN! Copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver, 2006-2021.
President Bola Tinubu has sent a letter to the Nigerian Senate, seeking approval for military action and other sanctions against the military officers who have seized power in the Niger Republic.

President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, read the letter on the floor of the Upper Chamber on Friday.The letter read, Political situation in Niger.

Quote

Following the unfortunate political situation in the Niger Republic culminating in the overthrow of its President, ECOWAS under my leadership condemned the coup in its entirety and resolved to seek the return of the democratically elected govt. in a bid to restore peace, ECOWAS convened a meeting and came out with a communique.



Closure and monitoring of all land borders with the Niger Republic and reactivating of the border drilling exercise.



Cutting off Electricity supply to the Niger Republic



Mobilizing international support for the implementation of the provisions of the ECOWAS communique



Preventing the operation of commercial and special flights into and from Niger Republic



Blockade of goods in transit to Niger especially from Lagos and eastern seaports



Embarking on sensitization of Nigerians and Nigerians on the imperative of these actions, particularly via social media



Military build-up and deployment of personnel for military intervention to enforce compliance of the military junta in Niger should they remain recalcitrant
Russia Will Back Niger Republic Against Nigeria  Tinubu Warned

bayonel3 at 4-08-2023 02:31 PM (5 days ago) (m)

As diplomatic tension continues to build up in Niger republic following the coup detat that sacked former President Mohamed Bazoum, Nigerias President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been urged to exercise caution in his intervention. The Economic Community of West African States ECOWAS led by President Tinubu has been speaking tough threatening military action against the new junta.

As diplomatic tension continues to build up in Niger republic following the coup detat that sacked former President Mohamed Bazoum, Nigerias President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been urged to exercise caution in his intervention. The Economic Community of West African States ECOWAS led by President Tinubu has been speaking tough threatening military action against the new junta.

Bazoum was removed by his personal security aides in the countrys presidential guard  making it the sixth successful coup to be recorded in West Africa since August 2020. Colonel Major Amadou Abdramane announced the overthrow of Bazoum who took power on April 2, 2021. The Whistler reported that President Tinubu who doubles as the chairperson of ECOWAS had in his first reaction warned the junta that the world will not tolerate any situation that incapacitates the democratically-elected government of Niger Republic.



The ECOWAS leaders subsequently held an emergency meeting on Sunday in Abuja, where they resolved to forcefully invade Niger Republic to restore democratic order in the country. Amid the threat, the junta reportedly announced that it was immediately suspending the export of uranium and gold to France, with the country said to account for 24% export of uranium to the EU. But Shehu Sani, the former Senator representing Kaduna Central Senatorial District of Kaduna State, has warned President Tinubu not to allow himself to be pushed to initiate and trigger a war with a neighbouring country and later be left stranded.



According to him, Russia may back Niger Republic against Nigeria in the event that a war supervenes. In a tweet, Sani gave the following thirteen reasons Tinubu should tow the path of negotiation instead of subscribing to use of force in resolving the problem.

1 Ecowas armed invasion of Niger Republic is simply a war between Nigeria and Niger because of our proximity.

2 Russia and Wagner May come in support of Niger Republic and Nigeria will have to use its own money to prosecute the operation; Nigeria offset Bazoum was removed by his personal security aides in the countrys presidential guard  making it the sixth successful coup to be recorded in West Africa since August 2020. Colonel Major Amadou Abdramane announced the overthrow of Bazoum who took power on April 2, 2021. The Whistler reported that President Tinubu who doubles as the chairperson of ECOWAS had in his first reaction warned the junta that the world will not tolerate any situation that incapacitates the democratically-elected government of Niger Republic.The ECOWAS leaders subsequently held an emergency meeting on Sunday in Abuja, where they resolved to forcefully invade Niger Republic to restore democratic order in the country. Amid the threat, the junta reportedly announced that it was immediately suspending the export of uranium and gold to France, with the country said to account for 24% export of uranium to the EU. But Shehu Sani, the former Senator representing Kaduna Central Senatorial District of Kaduna State, has warned President Tinubu not to allow himself to be pushed to initiate and trigger a war with a neighbouring country and later be left stranded.According to him, Russia may back Niger Republic against Nigeria in the event that a war supervenes. In a tweet, Sani gave the following thirteen reasons Tinubu should tow the path of negotiation instead of subscribing to use of force in resolving the problem.1 Ecowas armed invasion of Niger Republic is simply a war between Nigeria and Niger because of our proximity.2 Russia and Wagner May come in support of Niger Republic and Nigeria will have to use its own money to prosecute the operation; Nigeria offset

Post Reply I scour the world wide web to bring you interesting stories from around the globe. bayonel3@gmailcom Posted: at 4-08-2023 02:31 PM (5 days ago) | Addicted Hero

gogoman at 4-08-2023 02:37 PM (5 days ago)

(m) so be it!! it's our call!! this is Africa, not Europe!! ECOWAS must follow their mind!! junta must be crushed!!! Posted: at 4-08-2023 02:37 PM (5 days ago) | Grande Master so be it!! it's our call!! this is Africa, not Europe!! ECOWAS must follow their mind!! junta must be crushed!!! Reply

Dopybadass at 4-08-2023 02:40 PM (5 days ago)

(m) Thank God You know,I was about to say this,this dummy you people selected as president will put Nigeria into trouble,this is just the beginning,no send your soilders to go and fight Niger,make una see shege,you wey the whole world know say you no win election still dey talk Posted: at 4-08-2023 02:40 PM (5 days ago) | Gistmaniac Thank God You know,I was about to say this,this dummy you people selected as president will put Nigeria into trouble,this is just the beginning,no send your soilders to go and fight Niger,make una see shege,you wey the whole world know say you no win election still dey talk Reply

Dopybadass at 4-08-2023 02:42 PM (5 days ago)

(m) Quote from: gogoman on 4-08-2023 02:37 PM

so be it!! it's our call!! this is Africa, not Europe!! ECOWAS must follow their mind!! junta must be crushed!!! Posted: at 4-08-2023 02:42 PM (5 days ago) | Gistmaniac May dangote trailer crush you to death , apathetically bastard Reply

gogoman at 4-08-2023 03:06 PM (5 days ago)

(m) Quote from: Dopybadass on 4-08-2023 02:42 PM May dangote trailer crush you to death , apathetically bastard



I will eat your 7days akara soon Posted: at 4-08-2023 03:06 PM (5 days ago) | Grande Master I will eat your 7days akara soon Reply

Jiiitk4 at 4-08-2023 03:43 PM (5 days ago)

(m) Let the war begin Posted: at 4-08-2023 03:43 PM (5 days ago) | Gistmaniac Let the war begin Reply

Ojex004 at 4-08-2023 05:56 PM (5 days ago)

(m) Quote from: gogoman on 4-08-2023 02:37 PM

so be it!! it's our call!! this is Africa, not Europe!! ECOWAS must follow their mind!! junta must be crushed!!!

No mind that idiots cursing his or her generation Below u.



You wonder the foolish pple that hates Niger during buhari regime suddenly love them now because tinubu still be thr president.



You wonder the stupid tribe that always call Nigeria zoo before election suddenly want to rule the zoo.

Now they are back by calling Nigeria all sorts of name again.

They always happy whenever bad news hit the country they claim they love more than is.

They always bitter and wailing when ever things don't fall to thr side.

Very set of people with entitlement mentalities.

They even pleading to Niger for post in thr government.

Some of them are saying if ECOWAS bring war to Niger, they ready to support Niger to fight Nigeria.

U can imagine

Posted: at 4-08-2023 05:56 PM (5 days ago) | Upcoming No mind that idiots cursing his or her generation Below u.You wonder the foolish pple that hates Niger during buhari regime suddenly love them now because tinubu still be thr president.You wonder the stupid tribe that always call Nigeria zoo before election suddenly want to rule the zoo.Now they are back by calling Nigeria all sorts of name again.They always happy whenever bad news hit the country they claim they love more than is.They always bitter and wailing when ever things don't fall to thr side.Very set of people with entitlement mentalities.They even pleading to Niger for post in thr government.Some of them are saying if ECOWAS bring war to Niger, they ready to support Niger to fight Nigeria.U can imagine Reply

Dopybadass at 4-08-2023 07:05 PM (5 days ago)

(m) Quote from: Ojex004 on 4-08-2023 05:56 PM No mind that idiots cursing his or her generation Below u.



You wonder the foolish pple that hates Niger during buhari regime suddenly love them now because tinubu still be thr president.



You wonder the stupid tribe that always call Nigeria zoo before election suddenly want to rule the zoo.

Now they are back by calling Nigeria all sorts of name again.

They always happy whenever bad news hit the country they claim they love more than is.

They always bitter and wailing when ever things don't fall to thr side.

Very set of people with entitlement mentalities.

They even pleading to Niger for post in thr government.

Some of them are saying if ECOWAS bring war to Niger, they ready to support Niger to fight Nigeria.

U can imagine



Goat of a hypocrite,no wetin Niger do Nigeria now,una country never fit solve the problem they have,they wan go fight Niger,wetin make them no fight Niger when buhari buy how many exotic hillox for them,na thiefnibu regime wey the whole world knows how corrupt he is wan go send soilders go fight Niger, orishirishi Ogun kill all of una Posted: at 4-08-2023 07:05 PM (5 days ago) | Gistmaniac Goat of a hypocrite,no wetin Niger do Nigeria now,una country never fit solve the problem they have,they wan go fight Niger,wetin make them no fight Niger when buhari buy how many exotic hillox for them,na thiefnibu regime wey the whole world knows how corrupt he is wan go send soilders go fight Niger, orishirishi Ogun kill all of una Reply

gogoman at 4-08-2023 07:46 PM (5 days ago)

(m) Quote from: Ojex004 on 4-08-2023 05:56 PM No mind that idiots cursing his or her generation Below u.



You wonder the foolish pple that hates Niger during buhari regime suddenly love them now because tinubu still be thr president.



You wonder the stupid tribe that always call Nigeria zoo before election suddenly want to rule the zoo.

Now they are back by calling Nigeria all sorts of name again.

They always happy whenever bad news hit the country they claim they love more than is.

They always bitter and wailing when ever things don't fall to thr side.

Very set of people with entitlement mentalities.

They even pleading to Niger for post in thr government.

Some of them are saying if ECOWAS bring war to Niger, they ready to support Niger to fight Nigeria.

U can imagine











No mind the idiot! na hypocrite.... an enemy of NIGERIA Posted: at 4-08-2023 07:46 PM (5 days ago) | Grande Master No mind the idiot! na hypocrite.... an enemy of NIGERIA Reply

kacylee at 4-08-2023 09:12 PM (5 days ago)

(f) some set of people will cashing out on this looming war I have been reporting for several years now and I am very interested in visual news reportage with strong inclusion of photos and video multimedia. Posted: at 4-08-2023 09:12 PM (5 days ago) | Addicted Hero some set of people will cashing out on this looming war Reply

4element at 5-08-2023 09:47 AM (4 days ago)

(m) Nigeria must be very careful, how many years did military rule Nigeria? did so call ECOWA send military to Nigeria to flush out the Juntas? Did Nigeria have money to fund war in Niger? why people are dying of hunger in Nigeria? Posted: at 5-08-2023 09:47 AM (4 days ago) | Newbie Nigeria must be very careful, how many years did military rule Nigeria? did so call ECOWA send military to Nigeria to flush out the Juntas? Did Nigeria have money to fund war in Niger? why people are dying of hunger in Nigeria? Reply

Onuhude at 5-08-2023 11:50 AM (4 days ago)

(f) I support. please take ebola tinbu out of Nigeria Posted: at 5-08-2023 11:50 AM (4 days ago) | Upcoming I support. please take ebola tinbu out of Nigeria Reply
felicilin at 4-08-2023 09:29 PM (5 days ago) (f)

Former Kaduna Central lawmaker, Shehu Sani has urged the Senate not to approve any military action against the Niger Republic.

Former Kaduna Central lawmaker, Shehu Sani has urged the Senate not to approve any military action against the Niger Republic.

Reno Omokri, socio-political commentator and former presidential aide, on the other hand urged those in the opposition to come together and support President Bola Tinubu in his fight against the unrest in the afflicted nation.



Information Nigeria reports that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had officially briefed the National Assembly on the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) proposed military action and other penalties against the coup plotters in the Niger Republic.



The brief was contained in a letter to the Senate and read during plenary by Senate President, Godswill Akpabio.



Following the unfortunate political situation in Niger Republic culminating in the overthrow of its President, ECOWAS under my leadership condemned the coup in its entirety and resolved to seek the return of the democratically elected government, Tinubu said.



In the letter, Tinubu informed the upper chamber that sanctions, including freezing utility services and closing land borders with the Niger Republic, were imposed on the neighbouring West African country at an emergency meeting after its coup.



Blockade of goods in transit to Niger, especially from Lagos and eastern seaports Embarking on sensitisation of Nigerians and Nigerians on the imperative of these actions, particularly via social media. Military build-up and deployment of personnel for military intervention to enforce compliance of the military junta in Niger should they remain recalcitrant, the President added.



In reaction, Sani who warned the Senate against approving Tinubus request, advised the President not to be misled by foreign powers.



The former lawmaker insisted that diplomatic measures should be employed in combating the unrest in Niger.



The Nigerian Senate should NOT approve any military action against Niger Republic. This country should not be plunged into war and eventually stuck in war in the Sahel. President Tinubu shouldnt allow himself to be misled by foreign powers. Saudi in Yemen, America in Afghanistan, and now Russia in Ukraine should teach us a lesson that war doesnt end in days, weeks or months.



Senators should weigh the implications and consequences of their decisions, especially those senators representing states along the Niger Border.



Weaponising electricity supplies to Niger is also condemnable.



President Tinubu should continue to explore diplomatic channels and save the lives of those who will be sacrificed. Thats my view, Sani wrote via Twitter.



Omokri, on his part, praised ECOWAS under the leadership of Tinubu, for shutting down electricity, enforcing a No-Fly-Zone and shutting land borders as a way of asserting itself to defend democracy in the embattled country.



He opined that the coup plotters are already feeling the effect of the stringent measures, adding that it is the reason for the anti-Tinubu protests in Niamey.



Speaking further, Omokri argued that if former President Muhammadu Buhari had been as democratically assertive as this, there would still be democratically elected governments in Burkina Faso and Mali.



Reno Omokri, socio-political commentator and former presidential aide, on the other hand urged those in the opposition to come together and support President Bola Tinubu in his fight against the unrest in the afflicted nation.Information Nigeria reports that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had officially briefed the National Assembly on the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) proposed military action and other penalties against the coup plotters in the Niger Republic.The brief was contained in a letter to the Senate and read during plenary by Senate President, Godswill Akpabio.Tinubu said.In the letter, Tinubu informed the upper chamber that sanctions, including freezing utility services and closing land borders with the Niger Republic, were imposed on the neighbouring West African country at an emergency meeting after its coup.the President added.In reaction, Sani who warned the Senate against approving Tinubus request, advised the President not to be misled by foreign powers.The former lawmaker insisted that diplomatic measures should be employed in combating the unrest in Niger.Sani wrote via Twitter.Omokri, on his part, praised ECOWAS under the leadership of Tinubu, for shutting down electricity, enforcing a No-Fly-Zone and shutting land borders as a way of asserting itself to defend democracy in the embattled country.He opined that the coup plotters are already feeling the effect of the stringent measures, adding that it is the reason for the anti-Tinubu protests in Niamey.Speaking further, Omokri argued that if former President Muhammadu Buhari had been as democratically assertive as this, there would still be democratically elected governments in Burkina Faso and Mali. Quote No matter what you think of President Tinubu, you must admit that the steps taken by his administration in response to the coup in Niger Republic are thus far commendable. It may not even be Tinubu. It is more likely his top notch National Security Adviser, but it does not matter. At least, he had the good judgment to appoint him.



For the first time, ECOWAS is asserting itself to defend democracy. And Nigeria is leading that defence. Shutting down power to Niger, establishing and enforcing a No-Fly-Zone. Cutting aid and shutting land borders. Very commendable.



And make no mistake about it. The Nigerienne putschists are feeling the squeeze. That is why they are sponsoring anti-Tinubu protests in Niamey. That is important. They are not sponsoring anti-Bazoum protests. They are sponsoring anti-Tinubu demonstrations because they know he threatens their dictatorial ambitions. That is novel in West Africa.



If Buhari had been as diplomatically assertive as this, there would still be democratically elected governments in Burkina Faso and Mali.



Every Nigerian citizen, especially our political elite, whether in the ruling party or the opposition, has to support Tinubus government for this limited purpose (we will still fight him in court). Because if this coup is allowed to stand, West Africa will have accepted the domino effect of coups and soldiers in member states will get the message. Finding excuses for coups is the easiest thing in the world.



It is possible to roll back coups. President Obasanjo did it in 2003 in Sao Tome and Principe, a country that is not even a member of ECOWAS. And he did it in a similar mode as Bola Tinubu is currently doing.



Shut electric supply. Shut finances going in and out. Block land borders. And then wait. The solidarity celebrations you are seeing are staged. By the time it becomes clear that the junta cannot pay its soldiers, the rank and file of the army will turn against it, and that is when you will see the real response of Nigeriennes to the coup. Not this choreography you are seeing now! Omokri wrote via Instagram.

Meanwhile the Nigerian government clarified on Friday that any use of force in the Niger crisis, as proposed by ECOWAS, will be the last option while mediation continues.



The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Adamu Lamuwa shared this during a briefing with members of the diplomatic corps in Abuja that forceful intervention was a last-ditch effort.



The use of force is the last resort and we hope we do not get there, Lamuwa stated. Meanwhile the Nigerian government clarified on Friday that any use of force in the Niger crisis, as proposed by ECOWAS, will be the last option while mediation continues.The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Adamu Lamuwa shared this during a briefing with members of the diplomatic corps in Abuja that forceful intervention was a last-ditch effort.Lamuwa stated.

Post Reply Posted: at 4-08-2023 09:29 PM (5 days ago) | Addicted Hero
Amazon Great Freedom Sale 2023: Top deals on Tech Accessories, TVs, Smartphones, more Deal Of The Day oi -Carlsen Martin

The Amazon Great Freedom sale kicks off on the August 4 and will introduce big discounts on several products across various categories. However, the Amazon sale is already live for Prime members. The Amazon Great Freedom sale ends on August 8.

During the sale, the e-commerce giant is introducing big discounts, bank offers (10% using SBI credit cards), and other exchange and no-cost EMI offers. Before we dive into the deals, it is worth noting that the prices mentioned are inclusive of bank offers. So without any further delays, here are the top deals.

Amazon Great Freedom Sale (2023) | Amazon Best Deals on Mobile Phones

The iPhone 14 will be available at a major discount, starting from Rs 65,999 during the sale.

The Samsung Galaxy M34 5G also gets a big discount, starting from Rs 16,999 during the Amazon Great Freedom sale.

The Realme Narzo 60 5G will get a discount of Rs 1,000 during the sale, starting from Rs 16,999.

Another flagship smartphone getting a major discount is the iQOO 11 5G, which will be available for as low as Rs 49,999.

The 8GB/256GB variant of the Galaxy S23 will be available for Rs 73,999, down from Rs 79,999.

The Xiaomi 13 Pro with Lecia cameras will be available for as low as Rs 71,999 during Amazon's Great Freedom sale.

The ultra-premium iPhone 14 Pro will be available at an effective price of Rs 1,18,900, down from its launch price of Rs 1,29,900.

India's most affordable foldable smartphone, the Tecno Phantom V Fold 5G will be available at an effective price of Rs 83,888 during the sale.

The OnePlus 10 Pro 5G will be available for as low as Rs 49,999 during the Amazon Great Freedom Sale (2023).

The Xiaomi 12 Pro was easily one of the best value flagships of 2022 and it will be available for as low as Rs 39,999 during the Amazon Great Freedom (2023) sale.

The Tecno Camon 20 Pro is easily one of the best smartphones under Rs 20,000 in India. And it can be purchased for Rs 17,999 during the sale.

The Lava Agni 2 5G was one of the most popular smartphones under Rs 25,000 in India, although it will be available for just Rs 20,999 on Amazon.

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Two U.S. Navy Servicemembers Arrested for Transmitting Military Information to the People's Republic of China

Thursday, August 3, 2023

For Immediate Release

Office of Public Affairs

In two separate cases in the Southern and Central Districts of California, two U.S. Navy servicemembers were arrested for transmitting sensitive military information to the People's Republic of China (PRC).

"These individuals stand accused of violating the commitments they made to protect the United States and betraying the public trust, to the benefit of the PRC government," said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department's National Security Division. "The Department of Justice will continue to use every tool in our arsenal to counter threats from China and to deter those who aid them in breaking our laws and threatening our national security."

"These arrests are a reminder of the relentless, aggressive efforts of the People's Republic of China to undermine our democracy and threaten those who defend it," said Assistant Director Suzanne Turner of the FBI's Counterintelligence Division. "The PRC compromised enlisted personnel to secure sensitive military information that could seriously jeopardize U.S. national security. The FBI and our partners remain vigilant in our determination to combat espionage, and encourage past and present government officials to report any suspicious interactions with suspected foreign intelligence officers."

United States v. Jinchao Wei, Southern District of California

A U.S. Navy sailor, Jinchao Wei, aka Patrick Wei, was arrested yesterday on espionage charges as he arrived for work at Naval Base San Diego, the homeport of the Pacific Fleet. He was indicted for conspiracy to send national defense information to an intelligence officer working for the People's Republic of China.

The indictment, unsealed this morning, alleges that Wei, was an active-duty sailor on the amphibious assault ship the U.S.S. Essex stationed at Naval Base San Diego. In his role as a machinist's mate, Wei held a U.S. security clearance and had access to sensitive national defense information about the ship's weapons, propulsion and desalination systems. Amphibious assault ships like the Essex resemble small aircraft carriers and allow the U.S. military to project power and maintain presence by serving as the cornerstone of the U.S. Navy's amphibious readiness and expeditionary strike capabilities.

According to the indictment, in February 2022, Wei began communicating with an intelligence officer from the PRC who requested that Wei provide information about the U.S.S. Essex and other Navy ships. Specifically, the Chinese intelligence officer tasked Wei with passing him photos, videos and documents concerning U.S. Navy ships and their systems. The two agreed to hide their communications by deleting records of their conversations and using encrypted methods of communication.

At the request of the intelligence officer, between March 2022 and the present, Wei sent photographs and videos of the Essex, disclosed the locations of various Navy ships and described defensive weapons of the Essex. In exchange for this information, the intelligence officer paid Wei thousands of dollars over the course of the conspiracy.

The indictment further alleges that in June 2022, Wei sent the intelligence officer approximately 30 technical and mechanical manuals. These manuals contained export control warnings and detailed the operations of multiple systems aboard the Essex and similar ships, including power, steering, aircraft and deck elevators, as well as damage and casualty controls. The intelligence officer confirmed with Wei that at least 10 of those manuals were useful to him. For passage of those materials, the indictment alleges that Wei was paid $5,000.

In June 2022, the intelligence officer requested that Wei provide information about the number and training of U.S. Marines during an upcoming international maritime warfare exercise. In response to this request, Wei sent multiple photographs of military equipment to the intelligence officer.

In August 2022, Wei sent an additional 26 technical and mechanical manuals related to the power structure and operation of the Essex and similar ships. The manuals contained warnings that this was technical data subject to export controls and that it was deemed "critical technology" by the U.S. Navy.

The indictment further alleges that in October 2022, Wei sent a technical manual to the intelligence officer describing the layout and location of certain departments, including berthing quarters and weapons systems. Specifically, Wei sent a weapons control systems manual for the Essex and similar ships. This manual contained export-controlled data that could not be exported without a license from the U.S. government. The indictment alleges that Wei knowingly violated the International Traffic in Arms Regulations by transmitting this manual to the Chinese intelligence officer without obtaining a required license.

The intelligence officer continued to request information in 2023, including information about the overhaul and upgrades to the Essex. Specifically, he requested blueprints, especially those related to modifications to the flight deck. Wei provided information related to the repairs the Essex was undergoing, as well as other mechanical problems with similar vessels.

During the alleged conspiracy, the intelligence officer instructed Wei to gather U.S. military information that was not public and admonished him not to discuss their relationship and to destroy any evidence regarding the nature of their relationship and their activities.

"We have entrusted members of our military with tremendous responsibility and great faith," said U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman for the Southern District of California. "Our nation's safety and security are in their hands. When a soldier or sailor chooses cash over country, and hands over national defense information in an ultimate act of betrayal, the United States will aggressively investigate and prosecute."

U.S. Attorney Grossman thanked the prosecution team and investigating agencies for their excellent work on this case.

The FBI and Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) investigated the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys John Parmley and Fred Sheppard for the Southern District of California and Trial Attorney Adam Barry of the National Security Division's Counterintelligence and Export Control Section are prosecuting the case.

United States v. Wenheng Zhao, Central District of California

A U.S. Navy servicemember, Petty Officer Wenheng Zhao, aka Thomas Zhao, 26, of Monterey Park, California, was arrested following an indictment by a federal grand jury, charging him with receiving bribes in exchange for transmitting sensitive U.S. military information to an individual posing as a maritime economic researcher, but who was actually an intelligence officer from the PRC.

The indictment alleges that Zhao, who worked at Naval Base Ventura County in Port Hueneme and held a U.S. security clearance, received bribes from a Chinese intelligence officer in exchange for violating his official duties as a U.S. sailor by, among other actions, disclosing non-public sensitive U.S. military information.

Beginning in August 2021 and continuing through at least May 2023, at the Chinese intelligence officer's direction, Zhao allegedly violated his official duties to protect sensitive military information by surreptitiously recording, and then transmitting to the intelligence officer, U.S. military information, photographs and videos. According to the indictment, the Chinese intelligence officer told Zhao that the intelligence officer was a maritime economic researcher seeking the information for investment decisions.

In exchange for bribes, Zhao allegedly sent the Chinese military officer non-public and controlled operational plans for a large-scale U.S. military exercise in the Indo-Pacific Region, which detailed the specific location and timing of Naval force movements, amphibious landings, maritime operations and logistics support.

The indictment further alleges that in exchange for bribes, Zhao also photographed electrical diagrams and blueprints for a radar system stationed on a U.S. military base in Okinawa, Japan.

The intelligence officer allegedly directed Zhao to conceal their relationship and to destroy evidence of the unlawful and corrupt scheme.

In exchange for the sensitive information Zhao provided - information Zhao accessed as a result of his position within the U.S. Navy - the Chinese intelligence officer paid Zhao approximately $14,866, the indictment alleges.

"By sending this sensitive military information to an intelligence officer employed by a hostile foreign state, the defendant betrayed his sacred oath to protect our country and uphold the Constitution," said U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada for the Central District of California. "Unlike the vast majority of U.S. Navy personnel who serve the nation with honor, distinction and courage, Mr. Zhao chose to corruptly sell out his colleagues and his country."

If convicted, Zhao faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.

The FBI Los Angeles Field Office's Counterintelligence and Cyber Division and NCIS investigated the case. IRS Criminal Investigation provided substantial assistance.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Annamartine Salick, Sarah Gerdes, Christine Ro and Kathrynne Seiden of the Terrorism and Export Crimes Section for the Central District of California are prosecuting this case. Trial Attorney Adam Barry of the National Security Division's Counterintelligence and Export Control Section is providing substantial assistance.

An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Topic: National Security

Components: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)

National Security Division (NSD)

USAO - California, Central

USAO - California, Southern

Press Release Number: 23-853

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Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen Delivers Remarks on U.S. Navy Servicemembers Arrested for Transmitting Military Information to the People's Republic of China

Location

San Diego, CA

United States

Remarks as Prepared for Delivery

Thank you, Randy. Good morning.

I am Matt Olsen, the Assistant Attorney General for National Security at the Department of Justice.

Today, we are announcing charges in the Central and Southern Districts of California against two active-duty members of the U.S. Navy. Through the alleged crimes committed by these defendants, sensitive military information ended up in the hands of the People's Republic of China (PRC).

U.S. Attorney Estrada and U.S. Attorney Grossman will discuss these cases in more detail in a minute.

The charges demonstrate the PRC's determination to obtain information that is critical to our national defense by any means, so it could be used to its advantage. The alleged conduct also represents a violation of the obligation of members of our military to defend this country, safeguard its secrets and to protect their fellow service members.

In the first case out of the Central District, the defendant, a petty officer who served as a construction electrician, is charged with conspiring with a PRC intelligence officer to collect and transmit sensitive U.S. military information about Navy operations. The defendant allegedly accepted bribes and gave a PRC intelligence officer photographs and videos of military exercise plans, operational orders and electrical systems at a naval installation.

In the second case out of the Southern District, the defendant faces charges for espionage and violating our export control laws - for collecting and transmitting sensitive national defense information at the direction of a PRC intelligence officer. As tasked by the intelligence officer, the defendant allegedly transmitted, or attempted to transmit, more than 50 manuals and other documents containing technical and mechanical data about naval amphibious assault ships. Several of these materials were allegedly marked with export control warnings and detailed sensitive information about the power structure, weapons systems and damage controls aboard the ships.

These individuals stand accused of violating rules that protect the United States and ensure that those who are entrusted with our national security do not abuse their positions for any reason, including for personal profit.

The National Security Division - my division - working with U.S. Attorneys' Offices across the country has been relentless in pursuing and holding accountable those who commit crimes to advance the interests of hostile nation states. And as I've said before and today's charges reflect, China among all such nations, stands apart in terms of the threat that its government poses to the United States. China is unrivaled in the audacity and range of its malign efforts to subvert our laws.

Make no mistake, as a department, we will continue to use every legal tool in our arsenal to counter that threat and to deter the PRC and those who aid it in violating the rule of law and threatening our national security.

I want to commend the outstanding work of the U.S. Attorneys' Offices and FBI Field Offices in Los Angeles and San Diego. The National Security Division works with these offices - they are on the front lines a to combat efforts by the PRC to engage in espionage and other activities that threaten our national security. These offices work closely with the Navy, and other partners across the U.S. government to identify and respond to such threats and to bring perpetrators to justice.

I'll note that we are in San Diego, a city with especially deep and longstanding ties to the United States Navy. The Navy plays an integral role in defending our country from all manner of threats and protecting U.S. values and interests around the world, including in the Pacific region. Every day, the men and women of the Navy carry out their critical mission while upholding their duty to protect our interests.

I am grateful to NCIS for its critical partnership in these cases. The Department of Justice is proud to work shoulder to shoulder with Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), FBI and our many military and law enforcement partners, in responding to threats to this country's most important institutions, whether those threats come from within or without.

We stand ready to hold accountable those who would betray the public trust and violate the commitments they have made to this country.

I will now turn it over to U.S. Attorney Estrada.

Speaker: Matthew G. Olsen, Assistant Attorney General

Topic: National Security

Component: National Security Division (NSD)



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Chinese Ministry of State Security unveils channel to report espionage activities

Global Times

By Global Times Published: Aug 03, 2023 11:21 AM

After China's Ministry of State Security (MSS) debuted on WeChat on Tuesday, calling on the whole society to contribute to counter-espionage efforts, the agency released detailed guidelines on Thursday on how to report and where to report suspected spy activities while emphasizing the importance of punishing espionage and protecting human rights.

The Counter-Espionage Law explicitly stipulates that "any citizen or organization that discovers espionage activities should report them promptly to the national security authorities." It also requires that "national security authorities should run awareness campaigns including the phone numbers, mailboxes, online platforms, and so on, for accepting reports, promptly handling reported information in accordance with the law, and keep the informant's identity confidential," the MSS said in a post on WeChat. It also provided the phone numbers and website to report and handle relevant reports.

Regarding individuals who are coerced or deceived into engaging in espionage activities abroad, the Counter-Espionage Law has explicitly outlined measures for education and rescue. It stipulates that "those who are coerced or deceived into joining espionage organizations or hostile organizations abroad, and engage in activities harmful to the national security of the country, can avoid prosecution if they promptly report the true situation to the diplomatic missions of China abroad, or directly or through their units to the national security authorities upon entry back in China, and demonstrate remorse."

National security authorities should keep the information of those who report relevant information confidential and take protective measures in line with relevant laws.

The MSS said on Tuesday that counter-espionage work requires the mobilization of all parts of society, which combines the "open work" and "secret work" as well as the specialized work with the mass public work, the authority said in its first article published on its official WeChat account.

In following posts on WeChat, the MSS detailed punishments for espionage activities including new types of espionage activities such as cyber espionage and third-party country espionage included in the new Counter-Espionage Law, listing other documents, data, materials, and items related to national security and interests as protected objects, enhancing the precision and comprehensiveness of counter-espionage work.

It also emphasized the respect for human rights during the counter-espionage work, for example, it clarifies a series of procedural requirements during law enforcement, such as performing approval procedures, showing documentary credentials, a two-person system for law enforcement, and full-process audio and video recording.

The MSS will fully safeguard individual rights including the right to request protection when facing danger due to supporting and assisting counter-espionage work and the right to report or accuse illegal law enforcement.

It stipulates that the legal responsibility shall be investigated in accordance with the law should officials working for national security agencies abuse their power, neglect their duties, engage in favoritism, illegally detain, torture for confessions, use violence to extract evidence, or violate regulations to disclose state secrets, work secrets, commercial secrets, and personal privacy.

The US on Wednesday raised concerns over Chinese call to encourage its citizens to join counter-espionage work and said it has been closely monitoring the implementation of Beijing's expanded anti-spying laws, Reuters reported on Thursday.

Hu Xijin, a Chinese media professional, said in a latest article published on the Global Times that the purpose of involving the whole society in counter-espionage is not to become a "mass movement to catch spies." Public participation in counterintelligence and espionage prevention should strictly follow legal channels. Any individuals or incidents suspected of espionage must be rigorously identified by the MSS and handled in accordance with the law.

Also on Thursday, the MSS released a 4-minute video on their official WeChat account titled "With Me" showing how the authority safeguards national security. The video includes reenacted scenes from the 2019 social turmoil in Hong Kong, featuring black-clad rioters wearing black masks swinging hammers, individuals holding Molotov cocktails, and fires from debris on the streets.

The subtitles reference, "When the storm suddenly hit the Pearl River, I rooted out the hidden hands behind the scenes, helping to restore peace and tranquility," followed by a display of the physical text of the "National Security Law for Hong Kong."

The video also reenacts a scene at the airport after Huawei senior executive, Meng Wanzhou, returned to China from Canada. The subtitle states, "No matter where you are trapped or what dangers you encounter, the motherland is your strongest backbone."

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US concerns over China's counter-espionage efforts 'a misinterpretation, defamatory label'

Global Times

By GT staff reporters Published: Aug 03, 2023 09:10 PM Updated: Aug 03, 2023 10:40 PM

As China's Ministry of State Security (MSS) made its debut on Chinese social media platforms and opened a channel to report suspected spy activities, and also released on Thursday a video featuring major incidents such as the black-clad riots in Hong Kong in 2019 and the return of Huawei's Meng Wanzhou, the US raised its so-called concerns over the mobilization of all parts of Chinese society in counterintelligence and espionage prevention, which some experts said is a misinterpretation and defamatory label that Washington has put on Beijing.

With China facing an increasingly complex counter-espionage situation, particularly when the US-led West has stepped up their infiltration efforts in other countries, instigating "color revolutions," it's necessary to increase Chinese citizens' vigilance against suspected espionage activities and strengthen their awareness of national security, said experts

But the mobilization of the whole of society in counter-espionage is not "encouraging citizens to spy on each other" or "a mass movement to catch spies," and linking counter-espionage efforts with the openness of the Chinese market is a fundamental misdirection led by the West, as the anti-espionage and opening market are not contradictory, and China's nationwide mobilization against espionage reassures those eager to invest in China, some experts said. ""

US' double standards

After the MSS debuted on WeChat on Tuesday, calling on the whole of society to contribute to counter-espionage efforts, the agency released detailed guidelines on Thursday on how and where to report suspected spy activities while emphasizing the importance of punishing espionage and protecting human rights.

The US on Wednesday raised concerns over the latest call from China to encourage its citizens to join counter-espionage work and said it has been closely monitoring the implementation of Beijing's "expanded anti-spying law," Reuters reported.

"We do have concerns over it, certainly encouraging citizens to spy on each other is something that's of great concern," US State Department spokesperson Matt Miller was quoted as saying in the media report.

The US alleging that China encourages citizens to spy on each other is a misinterpretation of the concept. We encourage citizens to remain vigilant against espionage and report suspicions, which is completely different from spying on each other, and the US' constant double standards on this issue are obvious, Li Haidong, a professor at the China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times on Thursday.

"In the US, mass surveillance of citizens is widespread and extensive, not to mention its prevalent McCarthyism in the 1950s when there was indeed a nationwide hunt for spies," Li said, noting that there is a similar trend now in the US when it comes to China-related issues, which undermines a healthy society.

Some experts said that the latest reaction from the US toward China's counter-espionage efforts, along with the stereotypical interpretations in some US media, reflect the reaction of "a thief afraid of being caught." This kind of excessive reaction from the US government and media, especially some anti-China media outlets, toward China's regular anti-espionage activities only exposed their ill-intentioned attempts.

Recently, CIA director William Burns said that his agency has "made progress" in rebuilding its spy networks in China. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said earlier that China will take all necessary measures to firmly safeguard its national security.

"It's a normal and standard practice on counter-espionage to mobilize all of society, as from an objective view, espionage activities could occur among people around you," Shen Yi, a professor at Fudan University told the Global Times on Thursday.

The USA Patriot Act, for example, encouraged the public to participate in anti-terrorism activities after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001. "Only by building a network like this, with the efforts of the whole of society can we effectively deal with the espionage threat," Shen said.

Intelligence is an important part of the strategic rivalry among countries. US intelligence agencies have also deployed networks around the world, and their relevant intelligence work has received support from some hostile forces in China's Taiwan island and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Shen noted.

Increasing public awareness

The MSS released on Thursday a four-minute video on their official WeChat account entitled "With Me" showing how the authority safeguards national security.

The video includes reenacted scenes of the social turmoil in Hong Kong in 2019, featuring rioters wearing black masks swinging hammers, individuals holding Molotov cocktails, and fire from debris on the streets. It also reconstructs a scene at the airport after Huawei senior executive Meng Wanzhou returned to China from Canada after three years of house arrest by the Canadian authorities.

The subtitle states, "No matter where you are trapped or what dangers you encounter, the motherland is your strongest backbone."

By aiming to instil universal anti-espionage awareness among our citizens, we seek to prevent and oppose any infiltration and "color revolutions." What happened in Hong Kong in 2019 clearly stemmed from substantial Western infiltration, which enabled violent opposition against central and local authorities and serves as a stark warning to us, Li noted.

The Meng Wanzhou incident also shows that suppressing leading enterprises and aiming to sabotage China's technological and economic strength is a pillar of US and Western policy toward China, Li said. "To protect our citizens, our society, and the security of the government, we must solidly carry out work against US and Western infiltration, opposing 'color revolutions' and espionage, ensuring long-term societal stability, prosperity, and peace."

Some Western media said that "an expansion of China's counter-espionage law that took effect in July" has alarmed not only the US but also foreign companies in China, which could be punished for regular business activities.

"If China were to become a haven for Western spies, it would be unsafe for all enterprises operating healthily in China and even for tourists. If we cannot guard against spies and ensure a safe and stable investment environment, then that would indeed be a matter of grave concern," a cybersecurity expert who preferred not to be named told the Global Times on Thursday.

China's nationwide mobilization against espionage reassures those who embrace and have confidence in China and are eager to invest in its reform and opening-up, the expert noted.

"In such circumstances, China governs by law and will not wrong an innocent person, nor will it let off a culprit," he said.

For example, the secrets of corporate partnerships are valuable, and spies now wage hybrid warfare not only for military but also for economic objectives. Therefore, from this perspective, anti-espionage and openness to foreign investment are not conflicting concepts, the expert noted.

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Coup in the Niger: Political situation and evacuation of German nationals

Germany Federal Foreign Office

02.08.2023 - Article

The attempted coup in the Niger is a full-on attack on the young democracy and is jeopardising the country's future. A political solution now needs to be found quickly so that the country can return to the path of democracy.

By detaining the elected President Mohamed Bazoum on the morning of 26 July 2023, the instigators of the coup have shaken the Niger's still young democracy to the core. In particular, the coup is a bitter blow for the many people in the Niger who have been working tirelessly during the last few years to build a better future for their country. The German Government has already taken initial steps to respond to the situation by suspending development cooperation, and stands ready to take further measures together with its European partners.

We remain firmly persuaded that only a democratic government can develop viable responses to the many challenges that the country faces. Because where soldiers reach for power, they damage their country. - Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock

The regional organisation ECOWAS and the African Union are currently seeking to mediate so that constitutional order can be restored as quickly as possible. To achieve this, those responsible for the coup must immediately release the members of the democratically elected government illegally detained by them and give power back to them. Germany and Europe support the mediation efforts of ECOWAS and the African Union. For the Niger deserves a democratic future.

Evacuation of German nationals underway

The German Government's utmost priority at this time is the safety of the German nationals in the country. The Federal Foreign Office has therefore issued a travel warning for the Niger and called on all German nationals to leave the country. They are receiving practical help from the German Government's crisis unit and the German Embassy in Niamey, which are working together to organise the safe departure of German nationals currently in the Niger. As in previous crises, this is being done in close coordination with France and other European partners. The close Franco-German friendship is being put into action: France is taking many Germans on its evacuation flights. The German Embassy in Niamey will continue its work.

Info

The Niger has been confronted with many challenges during the last few years: the consequences of the climate crisis, the scarcity of national resources, a high population growth rate and great poverty have presented President Bazoum's Government with major hurdles. Like its neighbours, the Niger is also grappling with terrorism and organised crime. The Niger's Government endeavoured despite these challenging circumstances to fight poverty, bring lasting improvements to the lives of its people and thus uproot terrorism. Support for these efforts by the Niger's democratic government came from, among others, the European Union.

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August 3, 2023

Release

Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III Meeting With the Prime Minister of Mongolia, His Excellency Luvsannamsrain Oyun-Erdene

Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder provided the following readout:

Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III hosted Mongolian Prime Minister Luvsannamsrain Oyun-Erdene today at the Pentagon to discuss issues of mutual concern and to reaffirm the strength of the U.S.-Mongolian bilateral relationship.

Secretary Austin noted that this was the first time a Mongolian Prime Minister had visited the Pentagon and expressed appreciation for the Prime Minister's efforts to strengthen the bilateral defense relationship between our two nations. Secretary Austin conveyed his gratitude to Prime Minister Oyun-Erdene for the decades of partnership between DoD and the Mongolian Armed Forces, while noting, in particular, his gratitude for Mongolia's contributions to U.S. stabilization missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Secretary Austin commended Mongolia on its impressive record of performance in United Nations peacekeeping operations worldwide and noted the 20 Joint Light Tactical Vehicles that Mongolia will be receiving from the United States in support of Mongolia's UN peacekeeping missions. The two leaders also discussed ways to enhance U.S.-Mongolian defense cooperation, as well as a range of other regional challenges.

https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/3482651/

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August 3, 2023

Transcript

Senior DOD Leaders Host On-the-Record Media Roundtable on the Availability of Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts for Service Members

Commander Nicole Schwegman, Public Affairs Officer; Jennifer Walker, Executive Director of the Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account; Andrew Cohen, Director of the Office of Financial Readiness

COMMANDER NICOLE SCHWEGMAN: Hey everyone, it's Commander Nicole Schwegman. Can someone let me know if they can hear me?

(UNKNOWN): Loud and clear.

CMDR. SCHWEGMAN: Thank you so much  thank you so much. Hey everyone, thanks so much for your time today. We're going to go ahead and get started.

I want to introduce to you Jennifer Walker. She's the Executive Director for Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account Initiative, and she's going to  if you can see, she has a presentation on the screen that is also the embargoed materials that you got.

She's also joined by Andy Cohen, who is Director of the Office of Financial Readiness, and they're going to explain this new rollout of the Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account for you.

After they've finished with their presentation, I'll call on the folks who asked to ask questions. And then just know after, when we hang up this call, the embargo breaks and you are free to post your, your stories or tweets or whatever.

So again, thank you so much, and then I'm now going to go ahead and just turn it over to Ms. Walker. Ma'am, over to you.

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR JENNIFER WALKER: Thank you very much and thank you to everyone who is here to hear about this initiative. This was initially announced as part of Taking Care of Our People in the March 2023 memo, and what you're going to hear today is our information on the rollout for Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account for service members, which has been a collaborative effort between the Department of Defense and OPM.

As many of you may be aware, over the last several months, the department has been implementing DCFSAs. Starting with last fall, we launched an exploratory work group to investigate options for implementing these accounts specifically for service members. Prior to this, they were not available to service members and were only available to civilian DOD employees.

In March, we announced the memo Strengthening Our Support to Service Members and Their Families, part of the Taking Care of Our People initiative, and that memo announced that DOD would make Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts accessible to service members. At that time, we did not announce the timeline or any further details, and that's what we're here to announce today.

In June, there was an executive order from the White House stating that the Secretary of Defense shall, in coordination with the Director of OPM, establish flexible spending accounts for the care of military Dependents for military personnel by January 1st, 2024, and what we'll be sharing with you today is that we will meet that timeline to make this benefit available to our service members.

Today, we're launching this educational campaign, and then starting in mid-November through mid-December, which is the federal benefits open season, service members will be able to enroll in this benefit for accounts to start on January 1st, 2024.

Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts are accounts where service members or any enrolled individual can contribute up to $5,000 per year, pre-tax, for use for eligible dependent care services. On this slide, you see a short list of some of those services. There are many other services that are eligible for reimbursement under these accounts. The funds that are contributed, up to $5,000 per family or as little as $100, are not subject to any payroll taxes.

As I previously mentioned, service members will be able to enroll starting in mid-November through mid-December and the federal benefits open season. If they do not enroll at that time or if there's a new service member, they can enroll throughout the plan year or if they experience a qualifying life event. Several of them are listed here  births, deaths, divorces, adoptions, and changes in an individual's dependent care situation.

There is a much larger list of qualifying life events that is available at FSAFEDS. FSAFEDS is administered by the Office of Personnel Management, and that is the program that currently supports DOD civilians and will support DOD service members for enrollment in these accounts.

At this time, the DOD estimates that about 400,000 service members have eligible dependents and will be eligible for enrollment in these accounts. That includes families who have children who are under the age of 13 or who have a spouse or other tax dependent, regardless of age, who is mentally or physically incapable of self-care, and those are the IRS requirements for eligibility for a DCFSA.

The population who will be eligible to enroll this year includes DOD civilians who are already eligible, as well as the regular active components, and active Guard and Reserve members who are on Title 10 orders.

Listed here on the bottom of this slide is the populations who are not yet eligible for enrollment. That includes active Guard and Reserve members who are on Title 32 orders, other Reserve component members, and uniformed service members in the Coast Guard, NOAA, and the U.S. Public Health Service. The department is continuing to pursue the feasibility of extending this benefit to additional populations.

These accounts are a key part of the department's Taking Care of Our People initiative. By signing up for a DCFSA account, a service member can lower their taxable income by up to $5,000. This can result in more money in their pocket, more take home pay, and it's also a message to effectively budget for dependent care expenses.

The funds that are contributed to these accounts are placed into the DCFSA account, the FSAFEDS, and can only be used for dependent care services. This is a tool to help families find affordable childcare and is vital for maintaining overall military readiness.

Critical for the department's rollout of Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts is ensuring that service members understand these accounts and to make an educated decision on whether they should sign up and whether a DCFSA account is right for their family.

Today, the department is rolling out a comprehensive educational campaign, supported primarily by the DOD's Office of Financial Readiness. On the (inaudible) website, you will find a landing page with a plethora of materials to support service members and their families in learning more about this benefit. This page includes videos, posters, fact sheets, and a  a comprehensive list of frequently asked questions about these accounts.

Additionally, Military OneSource today launched an updated fact sheet related to these accounts, as well as an updated benefits page. And finally, FSAFEDS, which is administered by OPM, launched today a uniformed services landing page that is specific to DCFSA for uniformed service members and includes additional frequently asked questions and content that are relevant to the service member population.

And finally, in mid-November, the enrollment for service members will occur on the FSAFEDS site, starting in mid-November. And you can learn more at the links on this slide, and I thank you very much for your time today.

CMDR. SCHWEGMAN: All right. So, with that I'm going to go ahead and start the Q&A portion. Ellen from Synopsis, please unmute yourself and feel free to ask your question.

Q: Hi, thank you for doing this. I see that Reserve component members on Title 32 and not on orders are not eligible, and there are already complaints that the whole eligibility for benefits between the different kinds of orders is confusing and frustrating. How are you going to manage that as people come on and off of the various types of orders?

MS. WALKER: At this time, the department is only extending this benefit to AGR members who are on Title 10 orders. We are continuing to look at the feasibility to extend this benefit to additional populations. And it's also important to mention that OPM's FSAFEDS cafeteria plan for this benefit requires an enrollee to be on orders for 180 days or more.

We're continuing to work through the complexities of extending this benefit for those additional populations and understand that there are concerns from that population. We will share more information when it is available.

CMDR. SCHWEGMAN: And Ellen, do you have a follow-up?

Q: Yeah, I do. So, somebody goes on orders for 190 days, so they're not allowed to set up the plan until they've been on orders for 180 days?

MS. WALKER: No, they are able to set up the plan on the first day of their orders. In fact, if they are aware of their orders in advance, the FSA rule for any qualifying life event or for a new employee is you can set up that account 31 days prior and up to 60 days after the occurrence of that event. So, they do not need to wait until the end of that 180 days, but their order length does need to be for 180 days or longer.

Q: Okay. Thank you so much.

CMDR. SCHWEGMAN: Patricia?

Q: Yes, hi. Thanks for doing this. I understand most of my questions will probably be answered in those  those fact sheets and their references but, you know, once that account is set up, how do you access it and then pay? Like, you know, how do they verify that they're using the money for these specific things, like school and childcare and that kind of thing?

MS. WALKER: So absolutely. The funds are administered by FSAFEDS. They are working with the DOD's payroll providers, and funds will be automatically deducted from service member pay and sent over to FSAFEDS.

Once that occurs, the member can log in to their FSAFEDS account. There is a mobile app as well. And on that app, they can see the funds that are available in their account for them to use and they  that is where they submit their claims to receive these funds.

They can either have the funds paid out directly to their dependent care provider or they can pay in advance and then FSAFEDS will reimburse the member.

Q: Okay, so there is an option to have that just directly go to the daycare or the pay  the caregiver, that kind of thing?

MS. WALKER: Absolutely, yes there is.

CMDR. SCHWEGMAN: Do you have a follow-up, Patricia?

Q: No, I think  I think that's about it.

CMDR. SCHWEGMAN: Okay. Well, fantastic. Well, I mean, short but sweet. So, is there anything you'd like to add, Mr. Cohen?

DIRECTOR ANDREW COHEN: Yeah, just we  just want to also talk about really quick that we know the military life cycle is unique and that military families have some challenges that other families don't have. And so, one of the things that's unique about the DCFSA for military families is under qualifying life events, that should a family get the deployment or PCS orders, that counts as a qualifying life event under the (inaudible) plan for military families for DCFSA.

Q: Can I ask one more question?

CMDR. SCHWEGMAN: Sure.

Q: I'm just  I am just curious about, like, it  your sort of outreach to people in trying to explain to them the tax implications of it and why this is, you know, a money saver for them. I know that there is  I  you know, there are savvy people in the world but there's also people that this is just confusing to them. So  so how  you know, how are you selling this as a real advantage to lowering their tax base?

MR. COHEN: So that  that  that's a great question. And so one of the things we're doing as part of our kick off today is to begin educating the force with the resources that Jennifer talked about, and those resources also directs  or encourage members to reach out to, our DOD financial counselors, our network of counselors at the installation or at Military OneSource, and that the counselors can help walk them through the pros and cons to determine if a DCFSA is  is right for them and to help them make that informed financial decision. And they're available to help with any other financial questions that folks have about the  making sure that they're building financial well-being.

Q: Thank you. Appreciate it.

CMDR. SCHWEGMAN: Hey, just because we had a  a little bit of time, I just want to throw out if there's one  anyone else who has a burning question that did not get to ask it and did not sign up ahead of time? Now's your time to do it. We'll hold for  for a few seconds.

All right, hearing nothing. If you have any additional questions that come up after this call and in  you'd want to ask them, just use our distro that we provided earlier today to send those questions in, and we'll happily source those questions for you.

As of now, the embargo is broken. Thank you so much for attending this call and we'll be in touch. Take care.

https://www.defense.gov/News/Transcripts/Transcript/Article/3482472/

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August 3, 2023

Transcript

Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder Holds a Press Briefing

Brigadier General Pat Ryder, Pentagon Press Secretary; Mark Gorak, Principal Director for Resources & Analysis, Office of the Chief Information Officer

BRIGADIER GENERAL PAT RYDER: All right, well, thank you very much for being here today, ladies and gentlemen. For today's briefing, I'm pleased to introduce Mr. Mark Gorak, the Principal Director for Resources and Analysis for DOD's Chief Information Officer.

He's joining us today to announce the DOD's 2023-2027 Cyber Workforce Strategy Implementation Plan. Mr. Gorak will provide some opening remarks and then has graciously agreed to stay and answer a few questions. Afterwards, I will stick around and provide an update on a few other items.

For ground rules, I'd ask that you keep your questions for Mr. Gorak focused on the Cyber Workforce Strategy, and I'll be happy to take any unrelated questions later in the briefing.

Sir, over to you.

PRINCIPAL DIRECTOR FOR RESOURCES & ANALYSIS MARK GORAK: Thank you, General Ryder, and thanks for joining us today. On behalf of the DOD Chief Information Officer, Honorable John Sherman, I'm Mark Gorak, I'm the Principal Director for Resources and Analysis.

In March, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks signed the 2023-2027 DOD Cyber Workforce Strategy. This strategy provides a roadmap for the advancement and unified management of the cyber workforce comprised of about 225,000 highly trained civilians, military, and contractor personnel.

Today, we are releasing the Cyber Workforce Strategy Implementation Plan, which is a comprehensive and proactive approach that will further assist the department in advancing talent management initiatives aimed at cultivating an agile, flexible, and responsive cyber workforce.

The implementation plan sets the foundation for how the department will successfully execute the 22 objectives and 38 initiatives tied to the four goals in the Cyber Workforce Strategy. To realize the success of these goals and objectives, we will measure and monitor progress on a set battle rhythm, holding ourselves and our executing organizations accountable.

To recruit and retain the most talented workforce, we must advance our institutional culture and reform the way we do business. We are breaking the mold of the past and changing the way we identify, recruit, develop, and retain our cyber talent.

The threats to our nation don't sleep. They are watching our every move. Imminent cyber-attacks are just around the corner and the calling to defend and protect our nation in today's digital battlefield is more important now than ever before.

Which brings me to tell you a story about how DOD personnel are writing history. Note, we changed the name to protect the privacy. Master Sergeant Jason Hines grew up in a small town. He graduated high school and made the decision to join the Marine Corps.

Not long after enlisting, Jason deployed to Iraq, supporting the regimental combat teams' ability to maneuver and communicate in the cyber domain. Though it wasn't the combat he envisioned, he quickly discovered the vital role that technology plays in modern warfare.

Hines gained experience maintaining communications systems, analyzing data, and securing networks in extreme environments. Jason's affinity for technology drove him to seek out opportunities to expand his skills and knowledge in the field of cybersecurity. He enrolled in specialized training programs and obtained certifications that furthered his expertise in protecting critical information systems.

As Master Sergeant Hines progressed in his military career, his skills caught the attention of the Marines Corps Forces Cyberspace Command, a unit responsible for offensive and defensive cyber operations. Jason served as a defensive cyber operator for the next few years until making the decision to separate from the military.

Leaving his cyber expertise and top secret clearance  a correction  leveraging his cyber expertise and top secret clearance, Jason joined a cybersecurity firm here in D.C. Fast forward to 2016, when the Democratic National Committee had been hacked, Jason is now part of a small elite team of cyber defenders investigating the breach.

The malicious code used to infiltrate the DNC has been identified and is discovered to share the same digital footprint as a previous phishing attack that occurred in 2015. After some additional analysis, it's confirmed. The team has identified the perpetrator of the attack  Russia.

The department commits to being bold, challenging the historical norms, and deriving innovation through new programs and initiatives that will bolster the cyber workforce, and the nation's challenges and economic security are dependent on an effective cyber workforce, ready and able to execute any mission around the world.

The DOD cyber workforce continues to evolve and adapt, to address the challenges posed by our adversaries with confidence and resolve, to win any conflict. The successful execution of the Cyber Workforce Strategy through this implementation plan and follow-on actions will empower the department and its components to foster the most capable and dominant cyber workforce in the world.

I look forward to your questions.

GEN. RYDER: Thank you, sir. OK, we'll go ahead and take any questions for Mr. Gorak.

Q: Thank you. I have one question about the cyber hacking. How are you copying with the (inaudible) enforcements to respond to North Korea's cyber hacking or cryptocurrency?

MR. GORAK: So again, I'm focused on the workforce in general, and one of our initiatives is to work with our international partners on establishing bases of education and tasks and abilities for each of our cyber work roles  so partnering with North Korea to identify those training objectives  South Korea, sorry  partnering with South Korea to identify those, that training required to be able to address those operational impacts.

Q: What about China (inaudible) ...

GEN. RYDER: Janne, we're going to keep the focus on the workforce strategy and not  not operational questions.

Jennifer?

Q: What were you doing before and what's the biggest change that we're going to see?

MR. GORAK: So I think the biggest change is this is not business as usual. So to  to address our shortage and to keep up with the demand, we must fundamentally change the way we're doing business. So I think the biggest change in these initiatives is how we go after recruitment, looking at the whole spectrum, how do we go after education of  it's a national challenge. It's not just a DOD challenge.

So the initiatives we put in place to go after this  you know, K-12 reach  reaching out, getting kids interested in STEM, and then all the way through a whole human capital talent management pipeline to get to actual outputs of people who are qualified and want to serve their country.

And I view this as a partnership, both private and public. So we've a lot of initiatives in here with exchange programs with private industry, as well as with other public entities, other federal agencies, so we can exchange that talent back and forth and keeping track of that talent as we go through time.

Even for people who leave the military, like in my story, that's OK. That helps the nation. The key then is how do we keep track of those people so that if we need them in a crisis, we can be able to call on them to help serve?

GEN. RYDER: Tara.

Q: Have the number of cyber-attacks incidents increased because you have a larger number of people teleworking? Has that increased vulnerability, where they're working from home, maybe don't have the same protections?

MR. GORAK: So...

Q: Or they've got other stuff on that computer?

MR. GORAK: Yes, so I don't have any data that supports that assumption, but I would say one of our initiatives is to empower our hybrid workforce. We have to find ways to mitigate the security challenges, address those risks and then mitigate them. So  because I think in order to address the best talent, you have to have a flexibility in the workforce, because that's what the workforce of today is demanding.

So how do we enable that flexibility and yet still maintain security? So that's one of the huge initiatives that we're addressing.

GEN. RYDER: Let's go to John and then we'll go over the Phil.

Q: Thanks. Are you currently facing  currently facing any personnel shortfalls in terms of the Cyberforce? I know some of the services have been having challenges recruiting folks for other positions, but with regard to the cyber workforce specifically, are you trying to grow that force? What's kind of the state of play there?

MR. GORAK: So I think the force is growing. Today we have about a 24 percent vacancy rate, and our plan in the first 2 years of this plan, we're trying to reduce that about in half. On the military side, we actually don't have a problem recruiting in the cyber workforce, because the military provides the training and education to train you in this, and then they provide you the experience. So then the problem is retention.

On the civilian side, we have both a recruiting and a retention challenge. And again, I look at it as a partnership with industry, how do we increase those partnerships? And moving between each of those  between public and private sector? So I think we have to get better at doing that to address this.

Q: And do you have figures for the total number of personnel that you're short, that you're  you said I think 24 percent, something like that? Do you have like  just in terms of the number of billets that you're trying to fill?

MR. GORAK: So yes, so about 24 percent vacancy rate, our total force is about 75,000 civilians, 75,000 military, and about 75,000 contractors. You can do the math on that.

GEN. RYDER: OK, let's take a couple more. Phil and then we'll go over here to Jim.

Q: How has the case of the Air National Guard  guardsman (inaudible) affected your view of the workforce and the tele-management issues that you may be facing.

MR. GORAK: So again, we  we're looking at the total force here, and how do we provide the talent and education? Part of our job is to provide them the knowledge, skills, abilities, and tasks, and specific education to know what's acceptable and what's not acceptable. So that's how we're addressing that, it's through education.

In addition, the challenges there also  again, like I mentioned, in the hybrid workforce, how do you maintain that flexibility but yet still providing the security that we have and the safeguards we need to put in place so that those things don't happen.

Q: I mean, just coming at it a different way, if you're trying to fill a 24 percent shortfall, are there concerns that by  by  in the rush to do that, you could  you could open yourself up to other vulnerabilities from bad actors?

MR. GORAK: No, I don't see it that way at all. Again, I think as a national challenge  well first of all, I just think if there's going to be a bad actor, there's going to be a bad actor. The numbers that we're looking at, 99.999 percent of all of our employees are outstanding employees and doing the right thing. So when we have an occasional issue, I think we address it and we put in procedures and safeguards to try to prevent that from happening again.

GEN. RYDER: Final question will go to Jim.

Q: Sir, are you going to have  for civilians especially, are you going to have special pays, bonuses, or, you know, signing bonuses? Are you  are you asking for that sort of leeway in order to try and attract people? Because you're never really going to be able to match what a civilian corporation can pay an IT specialist.

MR. GORAK: So I think we look at compensation as a total package, and I think one of the biggest advantages we have in DOD is our mission. And it's the only place I know of in the country that can do legal offensive cyber operations. So it's very much an attraction to a lot of people.

And then service, right, providing that service, people have that quality. But in addition, we have cyber-accepted service within DOD, where we can actually pinpoint through work roles that are critically short and incentivize them with even greater pay.

And also, we already have the authorities today in general to provide what we call the three Rs  you know, relocation, retention, and recruitment bonuses, which can relate up to 25 or sometimes up to 50 percent of their base salary. So we have those authorities today. Now it's a matter of getting the word out and actually utilizing those authorities to maintain and attract not all of our talent but the best talent.

GEN. RYDER: Sir, thank you so much for your time today. Did you have any closing remarks?

MR. GORAK: I do. So on closing, thank you again for joining us today. The call to action starts now. We are advancing our institutional culture, we are proactively and productively addressing today's cyber threats and we will remain the most capable and dominant cyber workforce in the world. And I thank you for your time.

GEN. RYDER: Thank you, sir. Thank you very much. All right, again, a big thanks to Mr. Gorak for doing that. I do have a few things at the top that I'd like to pass along and then we'll get right to your questions.

So first, regarding the current situation in Niger, let me flag upfront that there are no changes at this time to the U.S. military force posture in Niger during the U.S. Department of State-led ordered departure. Additionally, State Department has not requested DOD personnel or equipment as part of the ordered departure. Also, no policy decisions have been made regarding future security cooperation, and in the meantime, as we've previously said, we're taking prudent force protection measures and monitoring the security situation.

As we continue to move forward, we will monitor the situation, which is fluid and evolving, and I would reiterate that the U.S. government focus remains on the diplomatic solution. When and if we have any significant updates to provide, we'll be sure to get those to you.

On a separate note, earlier today, Secretary Austin met with Mongolian Prime Minister Oyun-Erdene here at the Pentagon to discuss our bilateral security cooperation efforts within the Indo-Pacific region. A full readout of their discussion will be posted to the DOD website later this afternoon.

Also today, the Department of Defense, in coordination with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, has expanded eligibility for a benefit that will provide our military families with another financial option to help reduce the cost burdens associated with dependent childcare.

This important initiative is another key step in the DOD's continuing efforts to take care of our people and ultimately bolsters military readiness. The Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account initiative provides personal accounts that will allow eligible service members to set aside up to $5,000 per household in pre-tax earnings for qualified dependent care expenses.

The introduction of the Dependent Care Flexible Spending will further help our families afford care for their loved ones while supporting the U.S. military's important mission worldwide. Again, additional information can be found on the DOD website.

Tomorrow, Secretary Austin will attend Chief of Staff of the Army General James McConville's relinquishment of responsibility and Sergeant Major of the Army Michael Grinston's change of responsibility ceremony. The ceremonies will take place at Summerall Field located on Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall. Please contact Army Public Affairs for additional details.

In other news, as an update from earlier this week, over the last 72 hours, in the wake of Typhoon Egay, U.S. Marines with the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing joined with their Philippine counterparts to deliver over 32 tons of humanitarian assistance supplies provided by the government of the Philippines to remote Philippine islands.

U.S. Marines provided relief and lifesaving capabilities to remote regions at the request of the Armed Forces of the Philippines in response to the typhoon. In addition, U.S. Navy and Marines also conducted overland and water search and rescue efforts in support of the Philippine Coast Guard north of the Luzon region.

On 3 August, U.S. Marines were pleased to accompany the Philippine Secretary of National Defense Teodoro to participate in humanitarian efforts at Lal-lo, an Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement site, to demonstrate our unwavering support to the ongoing humanitarian assistance and disaster response operations.

Shifting gears, over the next few days, National Guard troops from 25 states, one territory, and multiple international partners will arrive at the National All-Domain Warfighting Center in Michigan for the kick-off of Northern Strike 23-2, one of the Department of Defense's largest Reserve component readiness exercises.

From August 5th through the 19th, more than 7,000 service members will take part in the integrated training at Camp Grayling Maneuver Training Center, Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center, Selfridge Air National Guard Base, and Oscoda-Wurtsmith Airfield.

Northern Strike trains for joint operations and decisive action missions, including offense, defense, and stability operations, with special emphasis on contested sustainment logistics, combined Joint All Domain Command and Control, and combined-arms live fire exercises.

Additional focused opportunities include joint fire support with live close air support, integrated maneuver with fires, force protection, air mobility, and C4I elements of theater air ground systems. Unique to this year's exercise design is the integration of inter-theater medical care training, where Northern Strike participants will evacuate simulated patients to Fort McCoy, Wisconsin for follow-on treatment.

Northern Strike is the premier Reserve component training event designed to build readiness with joint and partners forces in all domains of warfare, and I'd encourage you to contact the National Guard for additional information.

And with that, we'll take your questions. We'll start with AP and then we'll go to Fox. Tara?

Q: If I can go back to Niger, besides the training being suspended, are there any other changes to U.S. military presence there? Are they all staying on base? Are any flights taking off? The airspace  as I understand, the restricted the airspace. So is that affecting any sort of training flights for U.S. military personnel?

GEN. RYDER: Thanks for the question. So first of all, as we've highlighted, there's no changes to the U.S. military force posture in Niger or policies at this time. Our forces there in Niger continue to cooperate daily with Nigerian forces to keep base operations and services functioning.

And so we're  as I mentioned, we're continuing to monitor the situation  which remains fluid and evolving, but right now, again, our focus is going to continue to be on a diplomatic solution to the situation there.

Q: So just to follow up on that, so cooperate  are U.S. forces going outside the base or are they still going on missions or is everybody staying inside the base for now?

GEN. RYDER: Yeah, so for the most part right now, they're staying on the bases. As I mentioned earlier this week, if there is a reason that they need to go off-base to engage with counterparts, you know, certainly conditions permitting, they're doing that, but for force protection reasons, largely remaining on the bases, and again, cooperating with the Nigerian forces to keep those bases running.

Q: And then just one quick last ...

GEN. RYDER: The last one and then I've got to go to Fox.

Q: Because the airspace is restricted, does the military have any role in helping negotiate flights for the Americans that are in Niger that are being asked to evacuate out?

GEN. RYDER: So for the ordered departure, State Department has the lead. They have not requested any support from DOD at this time.

Jennifer?

Q: Are there any Nigerian troops on the base where the U.S. military is located?

GEN. RYDER: So I'd refer you to AFRICOM for further details but my understanding, short answer is yes, we continue to work with our Nigerian counterparts there on the ground, obviously the forces that are not necessarily associated with this seizure of the President, but again, we're working with them on a daily basis to keep the bases running and the services going.

Q: And do you have any assurances from the current military leadership of Niger that they will not harm either U.S. forces or that  that U.S. forces can remain on the base?

GEN. RYDER: Well, again, as we monitor this situation  I mentioned earlier in the week that the Chairman has spoken to his counterpart in Niger. Right now, we have no indication of any imminent threat against American forces in the country. Again, this is something that we'll continue to monitor very closely.

Janne?

Q: Thank you, General. I have two questions. First question on Private King's  Private King's North Korea seems to be the wrong choice because there is no freedom and human rights in North Korea and people suffer from hunger. My question is what kind of education is the DOD providing to U.S. soldiers about the  North Korea?

GEN. RYDER: Janne, you know, in terms of what kind of training or anything like that in Korea, you know, I'd refer you to USFK. I think largely speaking, most folks have an understanding of the situation in North Korea.

As it pertains to Private King, again, I don't want to speculate. As I've mentioned before, it's under investigation and we'll know more later.

Q: ... U.S. soldiers aware that North Korea is an enemy country?

GEN. RYDER: Again, I think there's a clear understanding about entry into and out of North Korea, but again, for specifics, I'd refer you to USFK.

Phil?

Q: The Department of Justice has announced charges against two sailors for espionage related to China. Has the  I'm not asking about that investigation or that case but has the DOD conducted an  a damage assessment? And if so, what are your concerns?

GEN. RYDER: Yeah, thanks, Phil. So I don't have anything to provide on that right now. I am aware of DOJ's announcement today. So as it relates to that, I'd refer you to them. Thank you.

Oren?

Q: Just a follow-on about this. This is the second time this year a service member has been charged with disseminating classified information. Are you considering taking measures above and beyond what the Pentagon has already done following the case of Jack Teixeira? Are you looking at the possibility of that?

GEN. RYDER: You know without getting into specific cases, as we've talked about before, I think we have clear policies and procedures in place when it comes to safeguarding and protecting sensitive information. And so if those rules are violated, appropriate action will be taken, as it has in the cases that we're highlighting.

Q: But you put in more  more actions and more steps for security following Teixeira. Are you considering adding on to those or  or extending those in some way? Cause (inaudible) we've seen them fail again in this case.

GEN. RYDER: Yeah, again, I mean, the broader issue of, you know, espionage or the lack of proper handling of classified information is something as old as warfare itself. That said, again, we have a robust set of policies and procedures going through the situation that you're referencing, in terms of the Airman. As you know, we have done a very thorough analysis on steps that can be taken to further tighten controls, and we're working through that process now. Thank you.

Let me go back here. Yes, ma'am?

Q: Did they have any ties to China, such as family members?

GEN. RYDER: Again, I don't want to get ahead of the DOJ investigation, so I'd refer you to them for any questions on that. Thank you.

Sir?

Q: Thanks, General. So in the Wall Street Journal this week, it was reported that anywhere from 20,000 to 50,000 Ukrainians have suffered mutilation of limbs. I'm just wondering if you could add color to that, if the Pentagon has any figures, in terms of, you know, casualties to that level over there in Ukraine?

GEN. RYDER: I don't have any casualty data to provide as it relates to Ukraine. Clearly, we know that the damage and suffering inflicted upon the Ukrainian people by the Russians due to their illegal invasion of Ukraine is significant, which is again another reason why we would call on Russia to end this conflict immediately.

In the meantime, knowing that they have no indication of doing that, we're going to continue to support Ukraine, working with our allies and partners to ensure that they have the capabilities they need to defend their country. Thank you.

Yes, ma'am?

Q: Hi, General. Thank you. Tima from Al Jazeera English.

Could you comment on reporting from the AP today about the possibility of the U.S. military putting armed personnel on commercial ships to prevent Iran from harassing and seizing ships in the Hormuz Strait?

GEN. RYDER: Yeah, I've seen those press reports. I would tell you I don't have any announcements to make regarding any force posture changes. As you are tracking, we've previously announced the decision to deploy the Bataan Amphibious Readiness Group, Marine Expeditionary Unit into the area of responsibility there, as well as F-35s, F-16s, and A-10s, but as it pertains to that particular reporting, I don't have anything to provide. Thank you very much.

Tony?

Q: I have one budget question and one broader question. Jon Tester last week said  the Senator Jon Tester last week said he expected the DOD to submit a supplemental for Ukraine this month. What's the status? Any preparation for a Fiscal '23 or a Fiscal '24 supplemental?

GEN. RYDER: Thanks, Tony. I don't have anything to provide for you today. If that changes, certainly we'll let you know.

Q: Is something in the works though?

GEN. RYDER: Again, I'm not going to get ahead of any process at this point.

Q: ... on a broader subject, the  the Gallup this week disclosed a poll that shows that confidence in the U.S. military among the public is the lowest in two decades. Did that poll generate any discussion among the leadership here, in terms of why it's happened and what steps DOD can take to pull that back or pull  you know, just pull that back (inaudible) with  with the public.

GEN. RYDER: Yeah. Well, I've seen the press reporting on the poll. I will say I'm not really in a position to address the "why" behind the decrease in those numbers, particularly since the research didn't really delve into that beyond stating that there has been a general decline in confidence in public institutions writ large.

So I'll offer a few thoughts, with the caveat that these are Pat Ryder's personal opinion. So first, the U.S. military continues to be the best fighting organization in the history of the world. Anywhere you go around the globe, 24/7, you're going to see our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, Guardians, Coast Guardsmen conducting operations, bolstering our defense and security cooperation relationships, and engaging in activities that keep our country safe.

And I would say that a consistent fact throughout the history of the American military is that there has been and continues to be brave and selfless  selfless Americans who are willing to raise their hand, take an oath to defend the Constitution, defend our nation, regardless of how popular the military is or military service is at any point in time. And as you see in those polls, that popularity ebbs and flows over time.

But let me just conclude by saying that we don't take public trust and confidence for granted. As an all-volunteer force, we know that we have a responsibility to Congress and the American public to ensure that they have an understanding of what we're doing to defend the country, how we are spending taxpayer dollars, how we are employing the resources that we've been entrusted with.

And so through a variety of means, whether it's community relations, whether it's media engagement, whether it's congressional testimony or through our recruiting efforts, just to name a few, we will continue to stay engaged with the public that we serve and that our fellow citizens can have the facts when it comes to their military.

And so we're going to work hard to continue to maintain that trust and confidence.

Q: Do you think this is an indication that the right wing, Republican attacks on the military for being too woke and the media echo chamber of the right wing world are having an impact and this may be a reflection of that?

GEN. RYDER: Again, you know, the challenge here, Tony, is you go out and you ask a question, yes or no, and the Gallup Poll produces some statistics. I'm not going to sit here and speculate on the specific whys, other than acknowledge the fact that earning the trust and confidence of the American public is something we will continue to do in the midst of continuing to do what's job number one, which is defending this nation, and that's something that we do very well and that we'll continue to do.

But let me  I'm happy to talk with you a little bit more offline and we can do that. Let me go over here to Dan, and then I'm going to go to the phone so I don't get in trouble with the phone guys.

Q: Can you clarify what the situation is on the border between Poland and Belarus? And to what degree is there heightened concern about the presence of Russian Wagner paramilitary units along the border?

GEN. RYDER: Yeah, thanks, Dan. So, you know, when it comes to the specific situation on the border, I think really Poland are in the best position to talk to you about what their current situation and concerns are. Largely speaking, again, I'm aware of the rhetoric that we've seen from Wagner and from Belarus, as it pertains to the border.

Right now, there are no plans that I'm aware of, from a U.S. standpoint to adjust our current force posture. We obviously are committed to the security of NATO and we'll continue to stay in close communication with our Polish allies on that front.

Q: But you don't see some kind of heightened risk or ...

GEN. RYDER: I'm not aware of any imminent risk right now, as it relates to cross-border operations, but again, you know, when it comes to Wagner Group, I think we all keep a close eye all of the time.

Q: And just one on Ukraine, on the counter-offensive, there seems to be a consensus now that it's  it's a difficult task and there hasn't been, you know, kind of a dramatic breakthrough. There are some criticisms that the U.S. has been too slow at trying some  providing some weapons systems over time, whether it's tanks or longer range missiles, and  and that that has perhaps also complicated things for the Ukrainians. What's your response to that criticism? Do you think there's any truth to that?

GEN. RYDER: Not at all. I think that we have been very aggressive in providing Ukraine with a variety of capabilities  and when I say "we," the United States and the international community  and that's something that we're going to continue to keep after.

The problem is that Russia invaded its democratic neighbor unprovoked and has killed thousands and thousands of innocent people. And so there are no illusions that this  this fight that Ukraine finds itself in is an easy fight. And so again, Russia has had time to build up the defenses along their occupied areas and Ukraine is taking the fight to them and it's going to be a tough fight.

But, you know, I would just go back and highlight, first of all, we've been training the Ukrainians since 2014. Even after the war started, after Russia's invasion, the international community and United States have continued to help train Ukrainian forces. We've literally met almost every single month since the invasion with international allies and partners, over 50, to highlight Ukraine's needs and rush aid, security assistance to them.

So we are confident that they have significant combat capability available to them and that they're going to employ that at a time and place of their choosing to defend their country and take back sovereign territory.

Let me move on to a few more questions here. Yes, sir? And then I'm really  yeah, you all the way in the back, and then I'm going to go to the phone.

Q: On Tuesday, you were asked about Senator Tuberville's holds and about how that affects readiness, and you said, you know, the Pentagon's focused on winning our nation's war and winning  you know, winning battles  I  I think you said  was the term you phrased  or winning wars, and I wanted to ask you about that.

The Pentagon is a reflective institution, along with the services. It's why we have so many lessons learned. This month marks two years since the 20 year war of Afghanistan ended. What does the Pentagon see that as? Did we win or did we lose?

And I  and I don't ask that to be flippant or as a gotcha but  but I wondered what has the two years of reflection been like here at the Pentagon and  and how did they view that war, in terms of, like  you know, like you said, we  we fight our nation's wars to win.

GEN. RYDER: Yeah, so first of all, I'm not going to engage in a sort of, you know, oversimplification of our experience in Afghanistan, whether we won or lost. What I would tell you from a lessons learned standpoint, as someone who has served in the military for that duration of 20 years, when it comes to the global war on terror and operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, is that this is very much a learning organization, and I think our operations around the world demonstrate that.

Most notably, if you look at the U.S. military and the level of engagement that we have with international partners and allies and how we go about, in a coalition format, in order to address international security issues, those are all lessons that we took out of places like Iraq and Afghanistan and that we don't do anything alone.

Look at the counter-ISIS fight and the fact  you know, as an Airman, we had 25 different nations at one time conducting air operations over Syria and Iraq to strike ISIS. What other nation can bring together 25 different countries to focus on a singular problem and address it?

So all of those experiences and all of those relationships that were built are exactly the things that we're leveraging now, when it comes to challenges that we're seeing in the Indo-Pacific region or that we're seeing in the European region right now with Russia and Ukraine.

So the United States  when I say the U.S. military is the strongest fighting force in the world, that is because of that, because we don't do it alone, because we do it with our partners, shoulder-to-shoulder, to address mutual areas of concern.

Q: I understand.

GEN. RYDER: OK.

Q: But just ...

GEN. RYDER: With that, let me  let me - I appreciate it. I just don't want to get into a longer debate but I'm happy to talk with you offline.

Let me go to John  let me go to the phone and then I'm going to come to you, John.

All right, let's go to Missy Ryan, Washington Post. You there, Missy?

Q: Hi. Sorry, I'm just trying to unmute. Thanks, Pat. I just wanted to follow-up related to the AP report about the Strait of Hormuz. I know you  you can't confirm that but in  on  just to provide a little bit of information on the existing operations related to trying to deter Iranian maritime aggression in that area, can you talk about the department's current approach for that?

And also, give us any more detail about the Bataan group's activities, what exactly they are going to be doing once they all arrive in theater, just so we have an understanding of what the  the current status is. Thanks.

GEN. RYDER: Yeah, thanks, Missy. So we'll come back to you know, with some more specifics, in terms of once they arrive in theater, but broadly speaking, as we've talked about before, by increasing the presence, by working with our partners in the region, and stepping up the tempo and pace of our patrols writ large around the region, the intent, again, is to be closer to be able to respond quicker to any potential provocations and to deter any type of Iranian aggression.

And so we will continue to focus  be focused on that, but as I just highlighted to the previous question, it's important to see it through the lens of we're not doing this by ourselves, we're doing this as part of a coalition in the region, to ensure that the Strait of Hormuz remains open, that there's freedom of navigation, and that we're deterring any type of maligned activity.

OK, let me go to Will Dunlop. Will, are you there? OK, Lara Seligman?

Oh, there you go.

Q: Pat. Sorry, I was just unmuting. I wanted to see if there's anything you can tell us about DOD's concern regarding the possible presence of Wagner forces into Niger? I know there are some concerns about Wagner in Mali and elsewhere in Africa. I'm wondering whether you have any indication that the Wagner forces are moving into Niger and what are the ramifications there?

GEN. RYDER: Yeah, thanks, Lara. So I don't have anything new to provide, beyond what I briefed earlier this week. No indication that Wagner was anyhow associated with this attempt to seize power. And so that continues to be the situation.

Obviously, Wagner does have a presence in Africa, it's something that we're continuing to keep a close eye on, but beyond that, I don't have any additional information to provide.

OK, let me just do a couple more. John, and then we'll come over here.

Q: Is the Northern Strike exercise that you mentioned at the top connected with the global information dominance experiments that the combatant commands and CDAO have been conducting or is this kind of a separate, contained exercise?

GEN. RYDER: John, let me make sure that we  we'll come back to you on that one. I don't believe that they're connected but I don't want to give you bad info.

OK, let me go to Carla Babb with VOA.

Q: Hey. Thanks, Pat, for doing this. Tima actually answered my question, Missy followed up a little bit, but I just want to follow-up one more time. I know you can't make a policy announcement on saying that the U.S. is putting armed personnel on ships traveling through the Strait of Hormuz but can you at least give us a feeling is the U.S. military considering that, is that under consideration at this time?

GEN. RYDER: Yeah, thanks, Carla. I'm not going to get into discussions about, you know, what we may or may not be considering. If and when there's anything to announce, you know, as it relates to our force posture, we'll do that as appropriate. Thank you.

OK, just two more. Yes, sir?

Q: Yeah, Sean Carberry, National Defense Magazine. Regarding Niger, over the course of this week, has this caused any pauses, changes to other partner force arrangements or activities across Africa, Syria, or other places where there's similar train, advise, assist? Anything in terms of greater monitoring of partner forces, things like that that  that's ...

GEN. RYDER: Yeah, I'm not aware of any changes as it relates to other activities within the AFRICOM AOR, so, thanks.

And Ryo?

Q: Thanks, General. Yesterday, Assistant Secretary for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Dr. Ratner met the PRC Ministry of Foreign Affairs Director General Tao, and readout said that Dr. Ratner emphasized the U.S. ongoing commitment to maintaining open lines of military-to-military communication between U.S. and China. So what was the reaction from Chinese  Chinese side? And did you find any positive sign for future military-to-military communication?

GEN. RYDER: Yeah, thank you. As I'm  I'm sure you can appreciate, the extent of what we have to provide on that was what was in the readout. I don't want to speak for the PRC on that front.

Again, I will just emphasize that we continue to emphasize the importance of military-to-military communication for all of the reasons that we've talked about to reduce the potential for miscalculation. And so we remain committed to keeping those lines of communication open.

All right, thank you very much, everybody. Appreciate it.

https://www.defense.gov/News/Transcripts/Transcript/Article/3482846/

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August 3, 2023

By Jim Garamone , DOD News

Ryder Says Military Will Work to Maintain Americans' Trust

While still high, Americans' trust in the military has dropped, and DOD officials will do all they can to communicate to the American people about the positive good of the U.S. military.

Trust in all public institutions dropped according to the Gallup Poll conducted yearly. Still, 60% of Americans trust the military - second only to their trust in small businesses at 64%.

Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder was asked about the poll during the news conference today.

Ryder said the American people need to understand that "the U.S. military continues to be the best fighting organization in the history of the world."

Service members are based around the world doing the nation's business. "Anywhere you go around the globe - 24/7 - you are going to see our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, guardians and Coast Guardsmen, conducting operations, bolstering our defense and security cooperation relationships and engaging in activities that keep our country safe," he said.

He said one consistent fact throughout American history is "that there has been, and continues to be, brave and selfless Americans who are willing to raise their hand take an oath to defend the Constitution and our nation, regardless of how popular military service is at any point in time."

Polls chart how popular the military is and that ebbs and flows over time, he said.

No DOD official takes the public's trust for granted, Ryder said. The all-volunteer force has a responsibility to Congress and the American public to communicate and ensure Americans know what the military is doing to defend the country, spend taxpayer dollars and employ resources.

"So, through a variety of means, whether it's community relations, whether it's media engagement, whether it's congressional testimony or through our recruiting efforts, just to name a few, we will continue to stay engaged with the public that we serve, and that our fellow citizens can have the facts when it comes to the military," Ryder said. "So, we're going to work hard and continue to maintain that trust."

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August 3, 2023

By David Vergun , DOD News

Troops From 3 Nations Make Amphibious Landing in Australia

Light swells lapped the white, sandy beach of Stanage Bay on the Capricorn Coast of Queensland, Australia.

On the horizon, small dots appeared, growing larger by the minute as they approached the shore at high speed. They were landing craft, air-cushion hovercraft, launched from the well decks of the amphibious transport dock ships USS Green Bay and USS New Orleans in the Coral Sea.

Overhead, Japanese CH-47 Chinooks from the Izumo destroyer and three types of U.S. Marine Corps aircraft  CH-53E Super Stallion helicopters, MV-22B Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft and AH-1Z Cobra helicopter gunships from the Green Bay, New Orleans and amphibious assault ship USS America  supported the amphibious landing yesterday during Exercise Talisman Sabre 23.

Over 30,000 personnel and 13 nations are participating in this year's full exercise. This year is the largest Talisman Sabre ever in its history, since the exercises began in 2005.

U.S. Marines with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit sailors from the German Coastal Operations Sea Battalion, and a company of Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force troops disembarked, some on foot and others in tactical vehicles that rolled off the ramps of the hovercraft.

The troops moved inland to engage with an opposing force entrenched in built-up positions.

Just after midnight, U.S. Army paratroopers of the 11th Airborne Division and Indonesian soldiers parachuted inland from Stanage Bay.

U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Col. Glenn Baker, commanding officer of the 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment and amphibious landing participant, said it was an honor and a privilege operating alongside German and Japanese troops.

"We're here with a common purpose. The more we practice together, the better we get at doing this," said Baker, who commands Battalion Landing Team 2/1.

The U.S., Japan, Australia and other allies and partners are committed to ensuring a free and open Indo-Pacific, and exercises like this deter bad behavior, he added.

German naval infantry Capt. Jonas Limke, 27, a native of Hamburg, Germany, was embedded with U.S. Marines in a convoy moving inland.

"Participating with U.S. Marines and Japanese forces has been a great training opportunity," he said, noting that it was his first deployment to the Indo-Pacific region and first-time training with troops from both nations.

"We each speak a different language, but we all speak the same military language and make it all work out, achieving the same goals and objectives," he said. Limke's home station is the German naval base in Eckernforde on the Baltic Sea.

U.S. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Elijah Akashichesser, 20, a native of Chico, California, is a mortarman with Battalion Landing Team 2/1, 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit.

He showed his M-60 mortar, which he said has an effective range of 3,490 meters, or about two miles. Akashichesser said he enjoys the adventure of landing in Australia, as his unit is based far away at Camp Pendleton, California.

Besides the adventure, he said there's a lot of camaraderie between the Marines, German and Japanese troops.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of the Marine Corps, besides firing the M-60, is participating in the Marine Corps' martial arts program, which borrows from a number of martial arts styles and also teaches use of weapons of opportunity, he said.

This year marks the 10th iteration of Talisman Sabre, a biennial exercise designed to advance a free and open Indo-Pacific by strengthening partnerships and interoperability among key allies. The spelling of the name  sabre vs. saber  reflects which country is leading the exercise: Talisman Sabre when Australia leads and Talisman Saber when the U.S. leads.

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Statement of the International Support Group for Lebanon

European External Action Service (EEAS)

03.08.2023

Beirut, Lebanon

Press and information team of the Delegation to LEBANON

On the third anniversary of the catastrophic explosion at the Port of Beirut on 4 August 2020, the members of the International Support Group for Lebanon (ISG) express their solidarity with the families of the victims and with those whose lives, homes, and livelihoods were severely affected by this tragic event.

Three years since this deadly explosion left over 220 people dead, and many thousands injured and rendered homeless, the families of the victims and the Lebanese people are left wanting for truth, justice and accountability.

The ISG laments the lack of progress in the judicial proceedings. The ISG calls on the Lebanese authorities to lift all obstacles hindering the pursuit of justice and facilitate the completion of an impartial, thorough and transparent investigation.

Ensuring judicial accountability and combatting impunity is integral to restoring the credibility of Lebanon's state institutions. The stalemate in the port explosion investigation underscores the urgent need to safeguard the independence, impartiality and integrity of the Lebanese judiciary. The members of the ISG call on the Lebanese Parliament to accelerate the adoption of necessary legislation to strengthen the independence of the judiciary in line with international standards.

The ISG continues to stand by Lebanon and its people.

The International Support Group has brought together the United Nations and the governments of China, France, Germany, Italy, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States, together with the European Union and the Arab League. It was launched in September 2013 by the UN Secretary-General with former President Michel Sleiman to help mobilize support and assistance for Lebanon's stability, sovereignty and state institutions.

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Bangladesh's largest opposition party leader, spouse sentenced in absentia for graft

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 16:09, August 03, 2023

DHAKA, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- Tarique Rahman, acting chairman of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), has been sentenced to nine years' imprisonment in absentia, and his wife Zubaida Rahman has been handed a three-year jail sentence in a graft case.

The exiled largest opposition party leader has also been fined 30 million taka (273,000 U.S. dollars), in default of which he will have to serve three more months in jail.

Dhaka Metropolitan Senior Special Judge Md Asaduzzaman delivered the verdict in the case on Wednesday in their absence.

The court fined Rahman's wife Zubaida 3.5 million taka. If she fails to pay the money, she will have to serve one more month in prison.

The court also ordered authorities to seize 27.4 million taka in assets as the unaccounted property of Rahman and his wife who have been living in London since 2008.

Security was heightened as pro-BNP lawyers staged demonstrations on the court premises against the trial of the case.

Bangladesh's Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) filed the case in 2007, accusing the couple of owning 48.15 million taka beyond their means and concealing information on their assets.

Rahman was arrested and secured bail in 2008. He became the acting chairman of the party after his mother, three-time ex-Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, was jailed in 2018.

Political analysts said the key challenge for Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's Bangladesh Awami League (AL) party leadership would be keeping the ruling party in power in the next general elections slated for early 2024.

The political crisis in Bangladesh has intensified in recent weeks as BNP strengthened its movement demanding Hasina's resignation and parliament polls under a non-party government. (1 U.S. dollar equals 109 taka)

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Foreign Ministry Spokesperson's Remarks on Protecting the Safety of Chinese Nationals and Institutions in Niger

People's Republic of China Ministry of Foreign Affairs

2023-08-03 21:34

Q: Is China planning to evacuate its nationals from Niger?

A: China is closely following the developments in Niger. We care deeply about the safety and security of Chinese nationals and institutions there. The foreign ministry and our embassy in Niger have issued a security alert to remind Chinese nationals and institutions in Niger to take extra precaution and be prepared for emergency response.

The foreign ministry and our mission in Niger will continue to stay in close contact with Chinese nationals and institutions in Niger, provide timely consular protection and assistance and do everything possible to protect their lives and property.

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Hundreds in Niger stage protest rally amid rising anti-French sentiment

Iran Press TV

Thursday, 03 August 2023 6:44 PM

Hundreds of people in Niger have taken to the streets to show their support for the military coup that has removed President Mohamed Bazoum from power and triggered anti-French sentiments across the region.

A number of demonstrators on Thursday in Niamey held a placard that said: "Long live Niger, Russia, Mali and Burkina. Down with France, ECOWAS, EU."

Many of them chanted anti-Western slogans and waved Russian flags as they gathered outside the National Assembly.

The angry protesters also denounced the main regional bloc, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which has imposed sanctions on Niger and said it could authorize the use of force if soldiers did not restore Bazoum to power by Sunday.

"We are going to demonstrate to all the ECOWAS countries and all those who are taking inhumane and unpopular measures against Niger, which is in the process of freeing itself from the yoke of colonization," a protester at the rally was quoted as saying.

General Abdourahamane Tiani, the former head of Niger's presidential guard, confined Bazoum to his residence last Wednesday and declared himself head of state in the seventh coup in West and Central Africa since 2020.

In his address on Wednesday, Tiani called the sanctions "inhumane", saying he rejected any foreign interference but was open to dialogue within the country.

Tiani has won the backing of the juntas in some neighboring countries and cited persistent insecurity as his main justification for seizing power.

Mali and Burkina Faso have said they would treat an intervention in Niger as a "declaration of war" against them too and would come to Niamey's defense. Tiani sent a general to both countries on Wednesday to shore up support.

Niger coup brings rising anti-French sentiments into the spotlight

The rally comes amid a growing wave of anti-French sentiment, with locals saying they want the former colonial ruler to stop interfering in their affairs. Junta supporters also say they want French troops to leave Niger.

Observers say resentment towards France seems to be coming to a boiling point in Mali, Burkina Faso and now Niger.

France has a long history in West Africa, where it was a colonial power until 1960. Since independence, France has maintained a military presence in the region, which has caused long-term tensions that now seem to be reaching new heights.

French troops withdrew from Mali in 2022 and Burkina Faso in 2023 following military coups. New leadership in Niger could lead to another withdrawal from a country France saw as a key ally in the Sahel.

France has between 1,000 and 1,500 troops in Niger to fight the so-called war on terrorism. In Niger, there are not only French forces but American and European soldiers as well. Burkina Faso and Mali have already kicked out French troops, many of whom are now stationed in Niger.

Meanwhile, the turmoil has prompted some European nations to evacuate citizens by plane. Paris said on Thursday it has completed the evacuation of hundreds of French and European citizens.

US orders partial evacuation of embassy: State Dept

The United States on Wednesday ordered a partial evacuation of its embassy in Niger, the State Department said.

"On August 2, 2023, the Department ordered the departure of non-emergency US government employees and eligible family members from Embassy Niamey," an updated US travel advisory for Niger said.

The advisory warned US citizens "not to travel to Niger," but stopped short of advising all Americans to leave the landlocked African country.

"The US Embassy in Niamey has temporarily reduced its personnel, suspended routine services, and is only able to provide emergency assistance to US citizens in Niger," the advisory added.

British embassy in Niger to reduce staff numbers temporarily

The British embassy in Niger's capital Niamey will temporarily reduce the number of staff due to the security situation, Britain's foreign ministry said o Thursday.

"There has been a military takeover in Niger, which has led to protests and unrest," the Foreign Office said.

"The group who organized the demonstration on 30 July (M62) have called for another on Thursday 3 August, Niger Independence Day. Protests can be violent and the situation could change quickly without warning."

Western countries are also concerned that Niger could emulate those neighbors in turning towards Russia.

China said on Thursday it believed Niger and regional countries had the wisdom and capability to find a political solution.

Over the past decade, Russia and China, in particular, have consolidated their relations with African states in a number of domains, from trade to energy and military cooperation.

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Iran urges Palestinian unity amid deadly clashes in Lebanon camp

Iran Press TV

Thursday, 03 August 2023 9:01 AM

Iran has expressed concerns about fatal clashes at a refugee camp in Lebanon that have pitted Palestinian groups against each other, urging the Palestinians to close ranks in the face of the Israeli enemy.

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kan'ani made the remarks on Thursday, as days of confrontations in the Palestinian Ain al-Hilweh camp in southern Lebanon have left at least 12 dead and dozens wounded.

He underlined the need for a complete cessation of the fighting at the densely populated refugee camp, saying all parties should abide by a ceasefire.

"Palestine needs unity and cohesion within the ranks of the Palestinians more than ever," the spokesman added.

"It is necessary that the Palestinian groups, currents, and nation remain vigilance and use their power and resources to fight against the occupying Zionist enemy, which is the source of all the problems for the Palestinian people, along with instability and chaos in the region."

Kan'ani further called on the Palestinians to provide the ground for the complete eradication of the Israeli occupation, the return of all refugees to their homeland, and the establishment of an independent and unified Palestinian state with al-Quds as its capital.

More than 63,000 people, most of them Palestinians, live in Ain al-Hilweh situated in the Lebanese coastal city of Sidon.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said over 2,000 people were forced to flee since the beginning of the clashes in the camp, which involved heavy weaponry.

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Hamas asks Hezbollah to help restore peace to Palestinian camp

Iran Press TV

Thursday, 03 August 2023 7:23 AM

The Palestinian Hamas resistance movement has asked Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah to do his best in order to stop deadly clashes between Palestinian factions in a densely populated refugee camp in Lebanon.

In a message, the head of Hamas' political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, asked Nasrallah to intervene as clashes rage between Palestinian groups in the Palestinian Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp in southern Lebanon, Shehab news agency reported on Thursday.

Haniyeh said that Hamas wants peace and stability in Ain al-Hilweh, noting that the weapons of the Palestinian groups must only be directed at the Zionist enemy.

The violence erupted in the refugee camp on Saturday, when an unknown gunman attempted to kill a member of an armed group named Mahmoud Khalil, but fatally shot his companion instead.

In the confrontations that ensued, Abu Ashraf al-Armouchi, a senior commander with the Fatah party who was in charge of security inside Ain al-Hilweh, was killed along with several of his aides.

Reports say many terrorists and extremists have infiltrated the camp, targeting Fatah members and trying to create chaos.

Speaking during a televised address on Tuesday, Nasrallah called for a halt to the clashes, saying, "This fighting must not continue because its repercussions are bad - for the camp's residents, for the dear Palestinian people ... for the south, for all of Lebanon."

A ceasefire subsided the fighting, but heavy confrontations resumed on Wednesday.

Dr. Riad Abu al-Einein, head of Al Hamshari Hospital in the coastal city of Sidon, said that 12 people were killed in the clashes over the past few days and that the hospital received 56 wounded.

The Ain al-Hilweh camp is home to more than 63,000 people, most of them Palestinians and their descendants who were forcibly expelled from their homes following the 1948 Nakba Day (the day of catastrophe).

Haniyeh, Berri speak over phone

Haniyeh also discussed the situation in the camp with Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.

In a telephone conversation, Haniyeh underlined the need for respecting the decisions made by Palestinian authorities and putting weapons aside.

He also called for the cessation of fighting and the withdrawal of armed forces from the streets in a bid to give the fact-finding committee an opportunity to conduct an investigation.

For his part, Berri said that peace should prevail at the camp and that the Palestinian people must live in security and resolve their rifts through dialog and compromise.

He further promised to make attempts to calm down the situation in Ain al-Hilweh with the help of the Palestinian side.

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Over 6 million on brink of famine as hunger, displacement 'spiraling out of control' in Sudan: UN

Iran Press TV

Thursday, 03 August 2023 7:22 AM

The United Nations has warned that millions of people are on the brink of famine in Sudan, as hunger and displacement are spiraling out of control in the African country amid the ongoing armed conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Response Forces (RSF).

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) issued the warning in a statement on Wednesday, saying that 6.3 million people in Sudan, about 13% of the population, are now one step from famine, in a new escalation of an already dire humanitarian situation.

The UN aid agency went on to say that over 20 million people are facing high levels of acute food insecurity due to the conflict, economic decline and mass displacement.

Citing data from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), OCHA said more than 3 million people have been internally displaced since the start of the conflict in Sudan, adding that over 900,000 people have fled to neighboring countriesnamely Egypt, Libya, Chad, the Central African Republic, South Sudan, and Ethiopia.

According to IOM, people have been forced to leave all of Sudan's 18 states, with the majority of them from Khartoum State.

The UN organization further said the current estimate of displacements over the past 108 days surpasses the total recorded for the previous four years.

It also noted that no humanitarian corridors have been created despite promises from the warring sides, thus preventing aid groups from delivering increasingly life-saving assistance.

The latest development comes as the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has already warned that more than 19 million Sudanese people are facing food insecurity.

Mohamed Gamal, communication officer of the WFP, raised the alarm last Sunday as the months-long heavy fighting between the warring sides in Sudan has led to the disruption of water, electricity and gas supplies and severe shortages of food and medicine in many areas.

The fighting in Sudan began in mid-April over a power struggle between army chief, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and his former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who commands the RSF.

The clashes in Sudan have caused over 3,000 deaths and more than 6,000 injuries, according to figures released by the Sudanese Health Ministry.

The United Nations, the Arab League as well as many countries in the world have already urged the opposing sides to show restraint and engage in dialog to end the hostilities.

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Philippines defense chief orders upgrades at military bases speeded up

The nine sites fall under an expanded defense agreement with the United States.

By BenarNews staff 2023.08.03 -- Top Philippine defense officials pushed on Thursday for speeding up the construction of upgrades at military bases where U.S. troops will have access amid regional tensions with China.

Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. joined military chief Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. at the Lal-lo airfield in northern Cagayan province, one of nine bases and facilities covered under a defense pact that the two longtime allies agreed to expand in early 2023.

Tedodor said there was a "need to speed up the development" of the sites "to serve a total national security picture of our country."

"We need to build more facilities to increase our operational tempo so we have to expedite the development of the five initial EDCA sites and four more Philippine bases with EDCA sites," he told reporters, referring to the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement.

The militaries of both countries are using the airfield here for joint relief operations in the wake of a typhoon that struck the northern Philippines in late July. Teodoro noted "operational limitations" and pointed out that Philippine and U.S. personnel had to use barrels to refuel aircraft by hand.

The five initial EDCA sites approved during previous administrations were: the Antonio Bautista Air Base in Palawan; Basa Air Base in Pampanga; Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija; Lumbia Air Base in Cagayan de Oro City; and Benito Ebuen Air Base in Cebu.

In April, the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. administration announced four additional EDCA sites: Lal-lo airfield; Naval Base Camilo Osias in Sta Ana, Cagayan; Camp Melchor Dela Cruz in Gamu, Isabela; and Balabac island in Palawan.

"The development [at the EDCA sites] is quite slow except for the first five [sites], so we need to work on the four more because they are the most disaster-prone areas actually," Teodoro said. "And they are also essential to the integrity of our credible deterrent posture and Philippine territorial security."

Teodoro said the EDCA sites are logistical and the U.S. could use them "to help us speed up the operational tempo and response."

"But the rest of the Philippine assets that will be positioned in the EDCA sites are Philippine national security items for our territorial defense," he said.

On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Defense did not immediately respond to a BenarNews request for comment on Teodoro's statement.

China, Taiwan question

The upgrades are happening amid tensions between the U.S. and China over Taiwan and territorial disputes between the Philippines and China over the South China Sea.

Last month, Teodoro said the government was monitoring on a daily basis for a possible Chinese invasion of Taiwan where 150,000 Filipinos live and work. Their safety could be compromised if China invades the island, which Beijing considers a renegade province.

While officials from Manila and Washington have denied that the flurry of activities at Philippine bases had anything to do with Taiwan, analysts have said that the Southeast Asian country's strategic location is central to the American aim of deterring a possible Chinese attack on the island.

Some analysts, however, have said it is unlikely that Beijing would carry out its threat of invasion.

Former President Rodrigo Duterte, who met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in China last month, visited President Marcos on Wednesday, according to the presidential palace in Manila.

Marcos is seen as rekindling Philippine ties with the U.S., as opposed to Duterte who was staunchly anti-American and never visited Washington during his six-year term (2016-22).

"Former President Rodrigo Duterte went to see President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. to talk to him about his recent meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in China. They also discussed other issues," Communications Secretary Cheloy Velicaria-Garafil said in a statement.

Duterte gave Marcos "some good pieces of advice," Garafil said, without elaborating. She said Duterte had met with Xi in his private capacity and was not an official representative of the Philippine government.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry previously said Xi "appreciates the strategic choice Mr. Duterte made to improve relations with China during his presidency."

On Thursday, Teodoro said the discussion between Marcos and Duterte was "very productive," but said he was not in a position to divulge details.

Noel Celis and Basilio Sepe in Manila contributed to this report by BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated news service..

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 August 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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Hun Sen says he could return if son encounters danger as new prime minister

The longtime prime minister said even his wife was surprised at the recent announcement that he would step down.

By RFA Khmer 2023.08.03 -- Outgoing Prime Minister Hun Sen said on Thursday that the recent announcement that he would transfer power to his eldest son may have been done hastily, adding that he could return to office if his son's life is ever endangered.

Speaking at an inauguration ceremony in Kandal province, Hun Sen said even his wife - Hun Manet's mother - didn't know about the plan to appoint the 45-year-old four star general as prime minister this month. Hun Sen had previously said that he would continue as prime minister until 2028.

But on July 26, he announced on state television that a new Hun Manet-led government would be formed on Aug. 22, after the National Election Committee officially reports election results.

The news came three days after preliminary results showed Hun Sen's ruling Cambodian People's Party winning 120 of 125 seats in the tightly controlled parliamentary election.

On Thursday, Hun Sen said he was worried that infighting among senior CPP ministers could result in bloodshed if a smooth and timely transition to a new government wasn't made. But his plan to wield influence behind the scenes as head of CPP should maintain stability, he said.

"I warn you that if my son's life is endangered, the possibility of returning to be the prime minister is that I have to come back and work," he said. "I have to return to be the prime minister for a while. After that, I will choose who can be the next prime minister."

Still a few days left

The abrupt transfer of power may be a sign that key CPP officials still don't support Hun Manet's prime minister candidacy, said Um Sam An, a former opposition party member of parliament.

Longtime CPP leaders like Interior Minister Sar Kheng and Defense Minister Tea Banh are also planning to step down this month.

Um Sam An said Hun Sen has appointed Sar Kheng, Tea Banh and others to the Supreme Council of the King - which has no real authority over government affairs - to keep them out of power. But failing to share some influence could eventually exacerbate divisions within the CPP, he said.

"The fact that Hun Sen consolidates power alone may result in armed conflicts that prevent the transfer of power," Um Sam An said. "Sar Kheng may join hands with Tea Banh to prevent that transfer of power."

"So, there are still a few days left, and Hun Sen is still worried," he said.

Sar Kheng, Tea Banh and Deputy Prime Minister Men Sam An were also recently promoted to vice president positions of the CPP. Hun Sen has said he will serve as president of the Senate.

CPP spokesman Sok Ey San said he didn't know yet who the CPP would appoint as president of the National Assembly. He added that the ruling party has no internal divisions.

Translated by Sovannarith Keo. Edited by Matt Reed.

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 August 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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Six-Month Truce Begins Between Colombian Gov't, National Liberation Army Insurgent Group

Sputnik News

20230803

Fantine Gardinier

Gustavo Petro, Colombia's first leftist president, ran for office on a platform of reversing many of the country's most hated policies, including the decadeslong war against Marxist rebel groups that left hundreds of thousands dead.

A six-month truce between the Colombian government and the National Liberation Army (ELN) began on Thursday that could lead to a more permanent peace agreement. The deal allows the group to defend itself if attacked.

Colombian Defense Minister Ivan Velasquez said on Wednesday that the deal will protect the "civilian population that has been so affected by the actions of the illegal armed organizations."

"Hopefully it will bear fruit," said Petro, himself a former guerrilla fighter with the now-defunct 19th of April Movement militia. "It will depend more on them than on us."

Indeed, top ELN commander Antonio Garcia urged his roughly 5,800 fighters to abide by the ceasefire in a video circulated earlier this week, explaining that further discussion with the "participation of society" would push ahead, aiming "to make Colombia a fairer, more democratic and inclusive country."

The ELN is the country's second-largest rebel group after the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which is in its own ongoing peace talks with Bogota. It is designated a terrorist group by the United States, which is a close ally of the Colombian government and has supported its counterinsurgency efforts.

The Marxist-Leninist ELN and FARC were both founded in 1964, part of the ongoing fallout of the period of political violence known in Colombian history as La Violencia. Decades of warfare have flared since, not just between the communist groups and the government, but also a plethora of right-wing militias as well.

A Colombian effort to register the victims of this civil war had recorded 9.2 million as of April 2022, including 220,000 deaths - 177,307 civilians and 40,787 fighters. According to the United Nations, just 12% of the civilian deaths are attributed to the FARC and ELN, while 80% were caused by right-wing paramilitary groups; the remaining 8% are attributed to the Colombian military and police, the latter of whom are also paramilitarized.

Various efforts at peace talks and demobilizations have been attempted over the years, with various degrees of success. One attempt to reach a deal with the ELN collapsed in 2018 after the newly-elected President Ivan Duque rejected the efforts of his predecessor, Juan Manuel Santos, and canceled the talks being hosted by Cuba.

After the war resumed, the ELN delegation remained in Havana over fears about their ability to safely return to Colombia, and the United States used the opportunity to claim Cuba was harboring terrorists and put the socialist state on the State Department's List of State Sponsors of Terrorism.

After Petro won the 2022 presidential elections and Duque left office in early 2023, the peace talks were relaunched, with Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Cuba, Venezuela and Norway acting as guarantor countries in the negotiations.

 Sputnik

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Ireland Will Not Follow Sweden and Finland's Route to NATO

Sputnik News

20230803

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Discussions of Ireland possibly joining NATO were sparked by an alleged sighting of Russian ships close to Ireland's north-west and south-west coastline in March. Some view the security consultations that followed the incident as an attempt to push Ireland into the alliance.

Ireland has no intention of abandoning its neutrality and joining NATO the way Finland and Sweden sought, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said on Thursday.

"[Ireland is] never going to be a significant military power, is never going to be a huge asset to NATO, if we ever were to join it," the prime minister told media.

Varadakar said that Ireland's role in any conflict, including in Ukraine, is limited to supplying only non-lethal equipment and humanitarian aid.

The newspaper noted that Ireland's neutrality is backed by its relative distance from continental Europe and history as a British colony. Despite that neutrality, Vardakar said that partners from the European Union appreciated contributions that Ireland was making to their Ukraine aid efforts.

"No country in western Europe, on a per-capita basis, has accepted as many [Ukrainian] refugees as we have," the prime minister said.

Sweden, along with Finland, submitted its NATO application in May 2022, several months after Russia launched its military operation in Ukraine. Finland became a member of the alliance in April 2023. Sweden's application is still pending ratification by Hungary and Turkey.

 Sputnik

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Secretary Antony J. Blinken After the UN Security Council Open Debate on Famine and Conflict-Induced Global Food Security

US Department of State

Remarks

Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State

United Nations Headquarters

New York City, New York

August 3, 2023

SECRETARY BLINKEN: Well, good afternoon, everyone. We're here today and using our presidency of the Security Council this month to focus in on the rising challenge of global food insecurity. We've seen an almost perfect storm emerge in recent years, a combination of climate change, of COVID, and now particularly of conflict that is driving this food insecurity. There are now about 260 million people around the world who are acutely food insecure. And in turn, this food insecurity itself drives conflict; it drives forced migration. It stunts growth, both physical growth and economic growth. It holds countries back. It holds people back.

The flip side of the coin is we're also increasingly seeing food being used as a weapon of war, for leverage, for political purposes in conflict after conflict. So, we wanted to put the focus on both of these challenges: rising food insecurity and, at the same time, the use of food as a weapon of war. We've just had 91 countries commit in a joint communique to ending the use of food as a tool of war. That, in and of itself, is a powerful statement, and we urge others to join.

Of course, the place where we're seeing this most immediately and most acutely is in Ukraine, where, as part of Russia's aggression, it initially blockaded Ukraine's ports; in effect blocking the export of grains to the world that Ukraine had been a key country for providing. Then, thanks to the good work of the United Nations secretary-general and Turkiye, an agreement was put in place that allowed grain to flow through the Black Sea, the Black Sea Grain Initiative. While that agreement was in force, more than 30 million tons of grain were able to get out of Ukraine and to markets around the world - well over half of that to developing countries and, in fact, two-thirds of the wheat to developing countries. It was the equivalent of 18 billion loaves of bread.

A few weeks ago, Russia tore up that agreement. The result has been rising prices for countries around the world. The result has been a diminution in the access to these food products, particularly for developing countries. And as we've seen, Russia's actions since then, not only in tearing up the deal but in intentionally targeting food silos in Ukraine - literally destroying food as well as the means to produce it - while holding ports and sea lanes at risk to prevent countries from shipping these products out of Ukraine and to the people who need it - I think we've heard from around the world a chorus of condemnation for this action and a strong desire on the part of many, many countries that this arrangement be put back in place.

And it's very simple. It's on Russia to decide whether to do so. Of course, it could end the war that it started tomorrow, and that would solve the problem definitively. But short of that, at the very least, the world is insisting that it restore the Black Sea Grain Initiative.

The urgent assistance that we're providing to countries around the world - not just in the context of Ukraine, but of other serious risks of famine - has been significant. Over the last year and a half, the United States has provided an additional $14.5 billion in food assistance to countries around the world. We are the largest contributor by far to the World Food Program - 50 percent of its budget every single year. And today, I was able to announce another $360 million in assistance to combat food insecurity in Haiti and 11 African countries.

But for all the emergency assistance that we're providing, and others are providing, it's not enough. The United Nations and particularly the World Food Program has determined that right now we need to address the food insecurity for well over 100 million people around the world - $25 million.[1] To date, only 4.5 billion of that has been pledged by various countries. We have to do better. We have to do more. We have to do it now.

Finally, as important as these urgent appeals are and as important as the work that we're doing to address immediate needs are, we also have to take a long-term perspective, and make sure that we are acting on that as well. By 2050, it is estimated that the population of this planet could be as many as 10 billion people. Demand for food is likely to increase by 50 percent over what it is today, and yet yields - what's actually being produced - are going down, not up. We have to - and we are - addressing this challenge.

I spoke today at the council about one of the initiatives the United States is advancing that is a Vision for Adapted Crops and Soil. And simply put, what that means is this: We know that we have the ability to produce seeds for planting that are resilient, certainly more resilient to climate change, in all of its various manifestations - and are much more nutritious than some of the things being planted today. We also know that the quality of soil makes all the difference in the world. And we now have the ability to map pretty much any terrain anywhere in the world to determine the quality of its soil - where it's good, where it's bad, where we can improve it, and how we can improve it.

You put those two things together - seeds and soil - and you can powerfully address the challenge of producing sustainable agricultural production capacity with better yields, more nutritious crops, in a sustainable way.

We are putting $100 million to that effort. Other countries are joining in, and we expect to see significantly more come forward in the weeks and months ahead. This is a powerful new way to really make a difference over the long term in making sure that we have strong agricultural capacity and production around the world, and notably in Africa.

So let me stop there, and happy to take any questions.

QUESTION: (Off-mike.)

MR PATEL: We'll start with Edith from the Associated Press.

QUESTION: Thank you very much, Mr. Secretary.

SECRETARY BLINKEN: Nice to see you.

QUESTION: Edith Lederer from the Associated Press. On the Black Sea Grain Initiative, we understand that the Russians have made some indication that they might want to revive talks. They say that, despite there being no sanctions, there are still issues with banking, financing, insurance, shipping, et cetera. What is the United States prepared to do to try and help overcome those issues, if and when talks resume?

And on Niger, the ECOWAS, the regional organization, gave a week for the military leaders to restore the president to power. That expires Sunday. They have threatened to use force if that doesn't happen. What is the U.S. position? Thank you.

SECRETARY BLINKEN: Edith, thank you very much. First, with regard to Russia and grain, to be very clear, the sanctions imposed by us and others for Russia's aggression in Ukraine have, from day one, exempted its own food products. And that includes not just the food products, but the means to ship them and insure them. And in fact, just now, if you look at where Russian exports are, its exports of food exceed what they were before its aggression against Ukraine.

Having said that, to the extent that there have been any problems with things like shipping and insurance, we have, throughout the process of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, taken steps to work through them and to address them - including, for example: writing comfort letters to banks to assure them that it was fine to process these transactions, and that they wouldn't run afoul of our sanctions.

So, in the event of a return to the agreement, of course we'll continue to do whatever is necessary to make sure that everyone can export their food and food products freely and safely, to include Russia. We want to see that food on world markets. We want everyone to benefit from the lower prices.

With regard to Niger, we strongly support the very strong leadership of ECOWAS on Niger. I don't want to get ahead of where things are, but what ECOWAS has done in terms of stating very clearly that there's an expectation for a return to the constitutional order and a continuation of the democratic process, and putting pressure on those responsible for interrupting the democratic order and constitutional order in Niger - we stand very much behind that. We will work closely with ECOWAS, with other concerned countries. I don't want to get ahead of where things are right now, but we believe that the work that ECOWAS is doing and the statements it's made are important, strong, and have our support.

MR PATEL: Will Mauldin, in the back.

SECRETARY BLINKEN: Hey, Will.

QUESTION: Thank you so much. Just to clarify on Edie's question, so the U.S. has not taken a position of supporting military force by ECOWAS, by the African group, within Niger - just so I understand what you're saying? But would the U.S. provide logistical or other support to such an intervention in the country?

And then on the grain issue, I wanted to ask you: Borrowing - sorry, barring a return to the grain initiative, are there other ways to get Ukrainian grain onto the high seas?

SECRETARY BLINKEN: Thanks, Will. Again, on ECOWAS, we support what they've said. We are working closely with ECOWAS, with other - with concerned countries. I don't want to get ahead of where we are now. We'll see how the coming days play out. But as I said, we believe it is vitally important that what ECOWAS has called for actually take effect, and that is the freeing of President Bazoum and a restoration of the constitutional order in Niger. And we support the efforts that ECOWAS is making, including the pressure that it's exerting, in order to achieve that result.

Short of returning to the Black Sea Grain Initiative, of course we're looking at every option to maximize the export of grains from Ukraine, including by land routes - which are already in effect - potentially by sea and river routes, rail, et cetera. Having said that, as I see it right now, even maximizing those other routes, it will be very difficult to make up what we were doing, what Ukraine was able to do with the Black Sea Grain Initiative. In other words, the volumes I think will be hard to match. And even if, for example, there was an effective and safe way to move things by sea from the south, the fact that Russia is targeting the ports, targeting the production facilities, the storage facilities, the grain itself - as long as that continues, it's going to be incredibly difficult.

So, I think that's what we really have to be looking at is what does Russia do. And as I said earlier in the Council, it's not about what we're saying, (inaudible) it's quite literally what virtually everyone in that Council is saying and so many members of this of this body, of the United Nations. The Kenyan foreign ministry called what Russia did in tearing up the grain deal "a stab [in] the back," and that is reflective of what many countries around the world feel. Russia has to address that.

QUESTION: Follow-up? Come back to me after this?

MR PATEL: Michelle Williams from Reuters.

QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. Secretary. Michelle Nichols from Reuters. A follow-up on Niger. Have any ECOWAS countries notified the U.S. of their plans for potential military action once this deadline expires on Sunday? And on China, you've invited Foreign Minister Wang Yi to come and visit in D.C. Has he formally accepted that invitation, and when might that visit take place?

SECRETARY BLINKEN: Thank you. On ECOWAS, I'd really invite you to address questions to them about their planning, their timelines, et cetera. But as I said before, we're in close contact with them, with a number of other countries. I've also been in direct contact with President Bazoum multiple times, including as recently as yesterday, other actors on the ground on Niger. And I just don't want to get into hypotheticals now. We're playing - we're playing this out one day at a time, and we are looking for the restoration of the constitutional order in Niger.

With regard to China, as you know, when I was in China I invited the then-foreign minister, Qin Gang, to come to the United States at a mutually convenient time. We were looking at the fall. I have in fact extended that invitation to Wang Yi, who is now serving as foreign minister. We don't have a response yet, but we just extended that invitation. And I would expect we'll have an opportunity to see each other and to continue the important conversations that that I had in Beijing, that a number of my colleagues in the Cabinet had, including Secretary Yellen, John Kerry. Others will be going, and we fully expect Chinese counterparts to come to the United States.

As you've heard me say, I think there's an obligation that both the United States and China responsibly manage this relationship. That starts with talking, including dealing directly with our very serious differences, as well as seeing if we can find areas for cooperation that would benefit our own people and benefit many people around the world. And again, all of that starts with engaging, with talking, with being very clear and direct with one another. That's why it would be beneficial to continue these conversations, and I'll look forward one way or another to seeing the foreign minister. As you know, I saw him on the margins of the meetings recently in Indonesia, in Jakarta, and I would look forward to seeing him in the United States. Thank you.

QUESTION: (Off-mike.)

SECRETARY BLINKEN: Thanks, everyone.

[1] $25 billion

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Secretary Blinken Intervention at a United Nations Security Council Open Debate on Famine and Conflict-Induced Global Food Insecurity

US Department of State

Remarks

Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State

UN Headquarters

New York City, New York

August 3, 2023

SECRETARY BLINKEN: I thank Ms. Salem for her briefing. Indeed, I thank all three of our briefers for their compelling and important contributions to our discussion this morning. Thank you.

I would like to draw the attention of speakers to Paragraph 22 of Note 507, which encourages all participants in council meetings to deliver their statements in five minutes or less in line with the Security Council's commitment to making more effective use of open meetings. I shall now make a statement in my capacity as the Secretary of State of the United States of America.

Again, to our briefers, thank you. And thank you for keeping our focus on what's really at stake here, and that is the human element of our discussions. It's easy to get caught up in numbers and statistics, in big concepts, but ultimately it comes down to people. It comes down to children. So I thank you for that focus, as well as on practical solutions to the problem before us. So to all three of our briefers, again, you have powerfully illustrated the challenge before us; but even more important, you've given us very good ideas for actually how to address that challenge.

Last September, President Biden told the General Assembly, and I quote, "In every country in the world...if parents cannot feed their children, nothing else matters." In some ways, it's as simple and as stark as that. Too many families are experiencing the overwhelming urgency, the consequence of an unprecedented global food crisis that, as we've heard, has been fueled by climate, by COVID as well, and, as we're discussing today, by conflict.

Hunger and conflict are inexorably linked. Scarce resources heighten tensions between communities and nations. Warring parties weaponize food to subjugate local populations. Indeed, conflict is the largest driver of food insecurity, with violence and unrest pushing 117 million people into extreme deprivation last year.

In Sudan, the fighting has disrupted the summer planting season and driven up the cost of food.

In Myanmar, where one in five people - one in five people - is severely undernourished, the military regime is making the problem worse to tighten its grip, including blocking aid convoys. Deteriorating conditions prevent the safe return of nearly 1 million Rohingya refugees who fled their homeland and who now live in Bangladesh on rations that are down to about 27 cents per day.

In Yemen, some families have reported and resorted to boiling leaves to stay alive. They call it famine food.

Unless the world acts, Burkina Faso, South Sudan, Somalia could all experience famine next year.

And again, I ask each of us, pause for that on - for a moment. Think about what that actually means. Imagine just for a minute if this was your child, your son, your daughter. You heard the compelling description of what that actually is all about. And I hope, if nothing else, having that image in our minds, tying it to our own lives and experiences, will be some added motivation for us to act.

Since January 2021, the United States has provided more than $17.5 billion to address famine and food insecurity. In 2021, in 2022, we convened this council to focus on the intersection between hunger and conflict. We chaired last year's food security ministerial, where we joined over three dozen countries in issuing a global roadmap, committing to get food to those in need, and to build greater resilience for the future. To date, more than 100 countries have signed that pledge and begun to take concrete steps to actually implement it.

But as this crisis ramps up, so must our efforts. This council is charged with maintaining international peace and security, and we simply cannot preserve peace and security without strengthening food security. Each of us has a responsibility to act.

This morning, for the first time in three years, this council has unanimously put conflict, hunger, and famine, as well as climate change, at the center of its agenda. This is a noteworthy and welcome step. Now, let's harness the momentum to further combat food insecurity and famine around the world to turn what we're talking about into concrete actions.

Five years ago, as you heard, this council adopted Resolution 2417, emphasizing that the intentional starvation of civilians may constitute a war crime. Today, we can build on these efforts. Nearly 90 countries, including the United States, have already signed a new joint communique that we drafted and circulated, committing to end the use of famine, starvation, and food as weapons of war. Hunger must not be weaponized. I urge all member states to join this communique.

We also must significantly increase aid to tackle extreme hunger and to avert famine. Last year, governments and private donors made record contributions, providing direct relief, equipping farmers with fertilizer, using satellite imagery to maximize yields. Donations for the World Food Program jumped 48 percent. The United States alone provided more than $7.2 billion, funding roughly half - half - of the World Food Program's budget. These and other efforts helped the world to narrowly avoid famine last year. But this year, as we've heard, the World Food Program estimates that it has to spend $25 billion to deliver relief to 171 million people.

To date, countries have funded only $4.5 billion; in other words, 18 percent of what's required. The cost of that shortfall will be measured in growth stunted and in lives lost.

While we welcome smaller countries punching above their weight, the world's largest economies should be the world's largest donors. For member states that consider themselves global leaders, this is your chance to prove it. All of us - all of us - can dig deeper.

But, of course, we know while it is necessary, it is not sufficient to meet immediate needs. We must also increase agricultural productivity. We've got to invest in adaptation. We have to build greater resilience to future shocks, especially in regions that are affected by conflict.

Around the world, farmers confront soaring temperatures, eroding soil, disappearing ground water. That reduces yields. It makes crops less nutritious. By 2050, climate change could cut output by as much as 30 percent even as global food demand increases by over 50 percent. So we have a planet that's heading in the current - in the coming decades to a population of as much as 10 billion people with demand going up in accordance, and yet supply is actually declining, not increasing.

So as challenging, as urgent as the situation is now, we can also see what's coming if we don't take the necessary steps to address it. Mitigating climate impacts is central to the United States Feed the Future Initiative, a public-private partnership to strengthen food systems, to expand social safety nets, to enhance nutrition in 40 countries around the world.

We've devoted over a billion dollars every year to this effort. Last year, we expanded the program to eight more target countries in Africa. To build on this work, we've now launched what we call the Vision for Adapted Crops and Soils in February alongside the African Union and the Food and Agriculture Organization. The shorthand, VACS - through this program, we're identifying the most nutritious indigenous African crops, assessing how climate change will likely affect them, and investing in breeding the most climate resilient and most resilient varieties, as well as improving the soil that they'll grow in.

This focus on the quality of the seeds and the quality of the soil can have a powerful impact on sustainable agricultural productivity throughout Africa. Today, I'm also announcing $362 million more to tackle the drivers of food insecurity and to enhance resilience in Haiti and 11 African countries, like getting nutritious food to pregnant women, and helping farmers grow heartier and more diverse crops.

The United States will continue to do our part, but this is by definition a global challenge. It demands global resources. And we'll be looking to governments, to companies, to philanthropies, to help us continue to improve nutrition and invest in sustainable and resilient food systems.

Finally, we must address Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine and the resulting assault on the global food system. This past year, the Black Sea Grain Initiative negotiated by the United Nations and Turkiye delivered over two - excuse me - 32 million tons of Ukrainian foodstuffs to the world. Wheat exports alone were the equivalent of 18 billion loaves of bread - 18 billion loaves of bread. Keep in mind, this initiative never should have been necessary in the first place. It only was necessary because of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and its blockade of Ukrainian ports. But the initiative produced concrete, demonstrable, powerful results in making sure that these food products could continue to get to world markets, going to those who needed it.

And let's be very clear about who benefitted from this initiative. Over half the food products exported through this effort and two-thirds of the wheat went to developing countries. These shipments helped to lower global food prices for everyone by roughly a quarter since Russia's full-scale invasion.

Since Russia pulled out of the arrangement of July 17th, ignoring the world's appeals, grain prices have risen by more than 8 percent around the world. Kenya's foreign ministry called Russia's move, and I quote, "A stab in the back."

The Kremlin claims that it tore up the deal because international sanctions were restricting its agricultural exports. In reality, sanctions explicitly exclude food and fertilizer. In fact, at the time it abandoned the initiative, Russia was exporting more grain at higher prices than ever before.

And what has Russia's response been to the world's distress and outrage? Bombing Ukrainian granaries, mining port entrances, threatening to attack any vessel in the Black Sea - no matter its flag, no matter its cargo.

These actions are consistent with Russia's decision last month to block the reauthorization of critical cross-border humanitarian assistance to Syria - a country where, after February's devastating earthquake, 12 million people don't have enough to eat.

The United States is prepared to renew efforts to mandate this vital lifeline if the United Nations and Syria cannot find a way forward. We also very much appreciate Turkiye and others working to reinstate the grain deal. Every member of this council, every member of the United Nations, should tell Moscow: Enough; enough using the Black Sea as blackmail; enough treating the world's most vulnerable people as leverage; enough of this unjustified, unconscionable war.

Strengthening food security is essential to realizing the vision of the United Nations Charter. To save generations from the scourge of war and reaffirm the dignity and worth of every single human being.

That hope is embodied in one of the statues outside the building of a figure fulfilling the biblical directive to beat swords into ploughshares. These words of scripture are not yet in reach, but - but - we can at least commit not to use our swords to destroy other's ploughs. We can deliver lifesaving aid to those in urgent need. We can ensure that people around the globe are fed now and for years to come. If we do that, if we build a healthier, more stable, more peaceful world for all, we will have at least begun to live up to the responsibility entrusted to us, entrusted to this council, entrusted to this institution.

Thank you.

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Secretary Blinken's Opening Remarks at a UN Security Council Open Debate On Famine and Conflict-Induced Global Food Insecurity

US Department of State

Remarks

Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State

UN Headquarters

New York City, New York

August 3, 2023

SECRETARY BLINKEN: The Nine Thousand Three Hundred and Ninety-Second Meeting of the Security Council is called to order. (Gavel.)

The Provisional Agenda for this meeting is Maintenance of International Peace and Security, Famine and Conflict-Induced Global Food Insecurity. The Agenda is adopted. (Gavel.)

First, I wish to warmly welcome the distinguished ministers and other high-level representatives. Your presence here today underscores the importance of the subject matter that is under discussion.

In according with Rule 37 of the Council's Provisional Rules of Procedure, I invite the representatives of Algeria, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belarus, the Plurinational State of Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Chile, Cuba, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Germany, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Latvia, Lebanon, Liberia, Lichtenstein, Mexico, Morocco, Myanmar, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, the Republic of Korea, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkiye, Ukraine, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Vietnam, and Yemen to participate in this meeting.

It is so decided. (Gavel.)

In accordance with Rule 39 of the Council's Provisional Rules of Procedure, I invite the following briefers to participate in this meeting: Ms. Reena Ghelani, United Nations Famine Prevention and Response Coordinator; Mr. David Miliband, President and Chief Executive Officer of the International Rescue Committee; and Ms. Navyn Salem, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Edesia.

It is so decided. (Gavel.)

In accordance with Rule 39 of the Council's Provisional Rules of Procedure, I also invite the following to participate in the meeting: His Excellency, Mr. Thibault Camelli, Charge d'affaires of the Delegation of the European Union to the United Nations; and His Excellency, Mr. Paul Beresford-Hill, Permanent Observer of the Sovereign Order of Malta to the United Nations.

It is so decided. (Gavel.)

I propose that the Council invite the Permanent Observer of the Observer State of the Holy See to the United Nations to participate in this meeting in accordance with the Provisional Rules of Procedure and the previous practice in this regard.

There being no objection, is it so decided. (Gavel.)

The Security Council will now begin its consideration of Item 2 of the Agenda. I wish to draw the attention of Council members to Document S/2023/560, a letter dated 26 July 2023 from the Permanent Representative of the United States of America to the United Nations addressed to the President of the Security Council transmitting a concept paper on the item under consideration.

The Council has before it the text of a statement by the president on behalf of the Council on the subject of today's meeting. I thank the Council members for their valuable contributions to this statement. In accordance with the understanding reached among the members of the Council, I shall take it that the members of the Security Council agree to the statement, which will be issued as a document of the Security Council under the symbol S/PRST/2023/4.

I now give the floor to Ms. Reena Ghelani. Ms. Ghelani, over to you.

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Secretary Antony J. Blinken With George Stephanopoulos of ABC Good Morning America

US Department of State

Interview

Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State

New York City, New York

August 3, 2023

QUESTION: And I am here, Robin, with the Secretary of State Antony Blinken. He's in New York today to chair a meeting of the United Nations Security Council - at the top of the agenda Russia's war on Ukraine, the impact on the world food supply. Welcome, Mr. Secretary.

SECRETARY BLINKEN: Thanks, George.

QUESTION: Let's start with that right now. We've seen this collapse of the grain deal 

SECRETARY BLINKEN: Right.

QUESTION:  where Russia was allowing Ukraine to export its grain. We're now seeing attacks on Ukraine's grain supply, and that has ripple effects around the world.

SECRETARY BLINKEN: It does, George. Ukraine has been one of the biggest providers of grains, of wheat, corn, to the world for years. When Russia invaded, they blockaded Ukraine's ports, weren't allowing these food products to get out. A deal was struck by the United Nations and by Turkiye about a year ago to allow those food products to get out. During that year, about 30 million tons of food products got out. It's the equivalent of 18 billion loaves of bread. Russia tore up that deal a couple weeks ago.

That means that countries that need the food most and who were getting it - more than half this food was going to developing countries - are not getting it. Everyone is being affected by rising prices. So the world is looking to this, and particularly countries throughout Africa are looking to this and looking to Russia to get back into this agreement, to get back into this deal.

There's a bigger picture here, though. We've got about 260 million people around the world who are acutely food insecure. It's a product of climate change, of COVID a couple of years ago, and also conflict. And what that does is - this food insecurity - it drives more war, it drives forced migration, it stunts growth - economic growth, physical growth. And at the same time, we have countries like Russia that are using food as a weapon of war.

So we're bringing countries today at the United Nations. We've got 91 countries to date signed up to a commitment not to use food as a weapon of war. And at the same time, we're putting a spotlight on what Russia is doing in Ukraine.

QUESTION: Are you going to speak directly to the Russian representatives? Is there any chance of putting this deal back together?

SECRETARY BLINKEN: Look, we hope so. But more than the fact we hope so is the fact that countries around the world, including the countries most directly affected, want to see this happen. There was just a summit between Russia and African countries. Half the African leaders didn't show up, which tells you something. But the ones that did made it very clear to Vladimir Putin that they wanted this deal back on. Kenya said that Russia tearing up this deal was a stab in the back.

So I think Russia is hearing a demand signal from countries around the world that they need to stop using food as a weapon of war in Ukraine.

QUESTION: Earlier in the program, we heard from the family of Travis King.

SECRETARY BLINKEN: Yeah.

QUESTION: Of course, he's the American who went over into North Korea. What more do we know about his condition and efforts to bring him home?

SECRETARY BLINKEN: George, I wish we did know more. We're actually trying to learn more about his whereabouts and his well-being, and we simply don't have that information. Just yesterday, finally, the North Koreans acknowledged that they've - understand we're asking these questions. They haven't given us responses. We're trying by every reasonable means possible just to get that basic information, and then to see what we can do about bringing him home.

QUESTION: Well, right now we know basically nothing.

SECRETARY BLINKEN: That's correct. We don't.

QUESTION: Finally, before you go, I know you stay out of politics, but you also talk a lot about democracy in the world. We're going to face the situation today of former President Trump being arraigned in federal court in Washington, D.C., for trying to overturn the 2020 election. Are you hearing about that from our diplomatic counterparts, from our allies? Are they concerned about the state of American democracy?

SECRETARY BLINKEN: George, you're right; I do stay out of politics. It's not my job. But what I can tell you is this: One of the things that is a source of strength for us around the world is when we have challenges in our own democracy, we deal with them. We deal with them transparently, we deal with them openly. We don't try to sweep them under the rug. We're talking about it on TV. And that's a very important distinguishing feature, because it allows us to say to other countries around the world that may have challenges we hope at the very least you'll do the same thing; you'll confront these challenges and work through them.

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, thanks for your time this morning.

SECRETARY BLINKEN: Thanks, George.





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Daily Press Briefing by the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General

Department of Public Information . News and Media Division . New York

3 August 2023

The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today's noon briefing by Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.

** Colombia

Good afternoon, everyone.

I have the following statement attributable to the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General on Colombia. The Secretary-General congratulates the Government of Colombia and the National Liberation Army (ELN) as they embark on a new phase in their peace process, with the entry into force today of their bilateral ceasefire agreement and the launch of the National Participation Committee.

By adhering to the ceasefire in good faith and with a clear commitment to alleviating the suffering of civilians, the parties can significantly reduce violence while enhancing trust at the peace table. In accordance with the mandate given to it yesterday by the Security Council, the Verification Mission is ready to do its part in the monitoring and verification of the ceasefire.

The United Nations also stands ready to support the critically important work of the National Participation Committee in facilitating the inclusive participation of Colombian society in the peace process.

Colombia's persistent efforts to expand peace through dialogue are advancing. The Secretary-General calls on the international community to continue to assist these initiatives both politically and through support for the implementation of agreements.

** Armenia-Azerbaijan

We also had a statement last night saying that the Secretary-General is deeply concerned by the reports of continued challenges related to the freedom of movement along the Lachin Corridor between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

He recalls his previous statement on the need for the Parties to implement the Orders of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), related to measures to ensure unimpeded movement of persons, vehicles and cargo along the Lachin Corridor in both directions.

The full statement is online.

** Scientific Advisory Board

And I have an announcement for you, about the creation by the Secretary-General of a new Scientific Advisory Board.

This Board will comprise a group of seven eminent scientists  Professors Yoshua Bengio, Sandra Diaz, Saleemul Huq, Fei-Fei Li, Alan Lightman, Thuli Madonsela, and Thomas C. Sudhof, and another group of Chief Scientists of different UN entities, the UN University Rector and the Secretary-General's Envoy on Technology.

The primary objective of the Board is to provide independent insights on trends at the intersection of science, technology, ethics, governance and sustainable development. Through their collaborative efforts, the Board and its Network will support UN leaders in anticipating, adapting to and leveraging the latest scientific advancements in their work for people, planet and prosperity.

The Board will act as a hub for a network of scientific networks. The objective is to have better interface between the scientific community and decision-making in the UN.

Importantly, this Board comes out as a follow-up to a recommendation outlined in Our Common Agenda.

Much more about the design and membership is available in a press release being sent out now.

** Security Council

This morning, the Security Council held an open debate on famine and conflict-induced global food insecurity, under the agenda item maintenance of international peace and security.

Briefing Council members, Reena Ghelani, the UN Famine Prevention and Response Coordinator, noted that the number of people suffering from acute food insecurity reached a quarter billion last year.

Ms. Ghelani pointed out that this situation has not come as a surprise: it is a man-made crisis that has been swelling for years, and we are now at a tipping point. She noted that hunger and conflict feed off of each other, with armed conflict destroying food systems, shattering livelihoods and driving people from their homes. These impacts are by-products of war, she said, but all too often they are inflicted deliberately and unlawfully  with hunger utilized as a tactic of war.

Ms. Ghelani added that conflict does not spare those who are providing assistance to stave off famine. She noted that last year, dozens of humanitarian workers were killed and many more were kidnapped or injured in situations of conflict.

Her full remarks have been shared with you.

** Sudan

The United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS) said today that it is gravely concerned about the severe impact of the fighting between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) supported by Arab militias and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) on civilians in the Darfur region.

The UN Mission strongly condemns the indiscriminate targeting of civilian populations and public facilities by the Rapid Support Forces and allied militias, particularly in the locality of Sirba, 45 kilometres north of El Geneina in West Darfur. The Mission is also concerned by similar incidents in Nyala, South Darfur, and Zalingei, Central Darfur.

The UN Mission urges all forces engaged in hostilities to cease their military operations immediately and calls on them to resume the Jeddah-facilitated talks.

** Sudan  Humanitarian

Also on Sudan, on the humanitarian side, we have some good news on our efforts to reach the Darfur region with life-saving assistance, despite the ongoing conflict. The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs tells us that today, it facilitated cross-border deliveries of food items by the World Food Programme from Chad into West Darfur. This is one of the parts of Sudan facing high levels of food insecurity.

In the coming weeks, UN agencies and partners are hoping to provide additional assistance  especially food, nutrition, health, water, hygiene and sanitation supplies.

The Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Martin Griffiths, said that cross-border access into the Darfur region represents a key milestone, as the UN seeks to access all hard-to-reach areas in Sudan and provide critical humanitarian assistance to people in need, wherever they are.

Meanwhile, the Deputy Special Representative for the Secretary-General and Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, Clementine Nkweta-Salami, is calling for more support for relief efforts immediately, amid the ongoing conflict in the country. Ms. Nkweta-Salami made the appeal during a mission to Gedaref and Kassala in eastern Sudan this week.

** Democratic Republic of Congo

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, we and our partners urgently appealed for $1.57 billion of this year's Humanitarian Response Plan for the country. The funds will help 5.5 million people in the eastern provinces of Ituri, North and South Kivu, where the humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate.

Since March of last year, more than 3.3 million people have been displaced. This brings the total number of internally displaced people in these three provinces to a staggering 5.6 million men, women and children.

Reported protection incidents are alarming, particularly gender-based violence cases. Thirty-three thousand cases were reported in the first quarter of the year, already surpassing the entire number reported last year.

The funds will focus on providing food assistance, nutrition, protection and support for victims of gender-based violence. The funds will also go towards addressing epidemics in these three provinces until the end of the year.

Humanitarian organizations have already strengthened their operations and response in recent weeks, reaching more than 900,000 people with emergency assistance. They need urgent financial support to continue and increase their response.

The humanitarian appeal for the DRC this year is $2.3 billion, and it is only 33 per cent funded.

** Ukraine

From Ukraine, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs continues to warn about the impact of a new wave of attacks on civilians, including aid workers. Our humanitarian colleagues note that today, rescue workers of the National State Emergency Service were injured due to hostilities when extinguishing a fire in a church that had just been hit in Kherson. This comes only a few days after the attack on a hospital in the same region.

On 31 July, four aid workers from the national NGO, Misto Syly, were also injured in Kherson city. The team, which is one of the UN's partners in Kherson, came under fire while clearing the debris left by the flooding caused by the Kakhovka Dam destruction.

Our humanitarian colleagues stress that it is unacceptable that aid workers, rescue teams and doctors are being injured while supporting the people of Ukraine or, in most cases, trying to rebuild their own communities.

OCHA reminds that under international humanitarian law, homes, hospitals, schools, places of worship and other critical civilian infrastructure, as well as civilians, including aid workers, should be protected.

** Syria

On Syria, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says that, today, 18 trucks carrying shelter supplies from the International Organization for Migration crossed into north-west Syria from Turkiye through the Bab al-Salam border crossing. This brings the number of trucks that have entered the north-west over the past four days to 60.

Additional truck movements and UN staff missions are planned through the Bab al-Salam and al-Ra'ee crossings in the coming days as we work with our humanitarian partners to continue providing essential supplies and services to people in the north-west.

High temperatures and recurrent heatwaves continue to put lives at risk, including the 2 million people living in camps in north-west Syria. Some 800,000 people living in tents, often in overcrowded conditions, are especially vulnerable to extreme temperatures.

Our partners working on water and sanitation have increased the amount of water being provided in nearly 800 camps, accommodating nearly 1 million displaced people. Water-purifying supplies have also been distributed in areas that are at high risk of cholera.

** Lebanon

The members of the International Support Group for Lebanon (ISG), which includes the UN, marked the third anniversary of the catastrophic explosion at the Port of Beirut on 4 August 2020 and expressed their solidarity with the families of the victims and with those whose lives, homes and livelihoods were severely affected.

The International Support Group lamented the lack of progress in the judicial proceedings. It calls on the Lebanese authorities to lift all obstacles hindering the pursuit of justice and facilitate the completion of an impartial, thorough and transparent investigation.

** Panama-Colombia

Our colleagues at the UN Refugee Agency have warned that the Darien jungle crossing between Panama and Colombia is witnessing record numbers of migrants and refugees, with over 250,000 people crossing on foot in the first seven months of the year, surpassing the total for the whole of last year.

The International Organization for Migration and the UNHCR are calling for a comprehensive and collaborative regional approach to address the protection risks and humanitarian needs of those on the move in Latin America and the Caribbean.

UNHCR and IOM are working together with national institutions and host communities to provide humanitarian assistance, support Panamanian State response in reception stations and help with refugee status applications. The agencies also emphasized the urgency of expanding regular pathways for refugees and migrants, protecting their rights, and addressing the root causes of displacement through international cooperation and shared responsibility.

** Briefings Tomorrow

Tomorrow, at 11 a.m., there will be a briefing by Leonardo Garnier, Special Adviser of the Secretary-General on the Transforming Education Summit, along with Stefania Giannini, UNESCO's Assistant Director-General for Education. They will both join us virtually to brief on the forthcoming Our Common Agenda policy brief on Transforming Education.

Then, at around noon, my guest will be Ted Chaiban, UNICEF's Deputy Executive Director, Humanitarian Action and Supply Operations, who will brief you on his recent visits to Chad and Sudan.

** Questions and Answers

Deputy Spokesperson : And before we get to Paulina Kubiak, are there any questions for me?

Yes, Ibtisam.

Question : Farhan, just a quick follow-up on Syria and the cross-border. Is there any updates regarding Bab al-Hawa, Bab al-Ra'ee and also Bab al-Salam?

Deputy Spokesperson : Well, the updates I gave you were about the number of crossings we're doing in Bab al-Salam and Al-Ra'ee, and we are continuing the use of those crossings. We are in discussions with the Syrian authorities trying to do what we can to keep those crossings open, as well as to resume work through the Bab al-Hawa crossing point, but there's no further progress to report to you on that yet.

Question : And you don't have any news about renewal of Bab al-Ra'ee and Bab al-Salam?

Deputy Spokesperson : Not at present, but we are in discussions with the Syrian authorities on that matter.

Question : And regarding Ein el Hilweh refugee camp, the fighting is continuing, and do you have any updates there regarding the needs? A few days ago, you talked about 2,000 people who had to leave their houses and so, yeah.

Deputy Spokesperson : Yeah. The update I have is to say that we are concerned about the continued violence in the Ein el Hilweh Palestine refugee camp in southern Lebanon that has so far claimed a reported 13 lives. We call on all parties to immediately return to calm and take all measures necessary to protect civilians, in particular children. The UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Joanna Wronecka, is in touch with key interlocutors, encouraging all parties to exercise self-restraint and protect civilians. And we strongly urge all armed actors to respect all UNRWA [United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East] premises and facilities in accordance with international law. And as you know, some of those premises, including schools have been used to shelter people displaced by the fighting.

Linda?

Question : Thank you, Farhan. Regarding the PRST [Security Council presidential statement] today on food. I was just wondering, Secretary [Antony] Blinken said that the US is the largest contributor of food to the World Food Programme, amounting to about 50 per cent. That means clearly, it's more than double our share of the UN budget. Does the Secretary-General, or does the UN have any procedures or ways of addressing countries that really are not volunteering enough money, given their financial role in the world?

Deputy Spokesperson : Well, we do encourage countries, all countries. And particularly those that have the means to contribute to our agencies, funds, and programmes. And the need particularly to fund the World Food Programme, as well as all of the other humanitarian aid appeals that come through the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs is something that we emphasize repeatedly. But ultimately, whether or not they contribute is up to those countries. We can keep pushing, but it's up to them to respond.

Question : But just to follow-up, is the Secretary-General content, so to speak, that may be not the most accurate word with the levels of contributions that some of the larger countries give?

Deputy Spokesperson : We can't be content when people are starving. We can't be content with millions of people around the world, even hundreds of millions, are hungry. So, he's not content, but at the same time, we are aware of the pressures on different Governments, and we are simply determined to keep pushing to get the aid that the people around the world so desperately need.

Dezhi, and then Grigory.

Question : I've got a couple of questions, but first a follow-up. You just said the Secretary-General has announced that the UN would establish a Scientific Advisory Board. Just want to know two things first. What would this Board report to? Like, would this report to the UN as the advisory for UN policymaking, or would this Board give report to other Governments so that they can adopt what the UN suggested them to do? And secondly, why now the Secretary-General announced such a Board?

Deputy Spokesperson : This was announced now as a follow-up to one of the recommendations in the report on Our Common Agenda. So, there will be other follow-up actions, but this is one of the first steps that we're doing to make sure that we follow through on the things that the Secretary-General was talking about. And the Board is important, because the idea is you want to have an interface between the scientific community and Governments and the United Nations as a whole, so that we can work together in adapting to the latest scientific advances. And those include advances in everything from genetics, to technology, to other things, and make sure that all of those are used in a manner that is fair and ethical. And so, there's more details about the Board in a press release that you should have received by now in your emails.

Question : Yeah. Now my question here. First, concerning food security. Today, the Security Council just discussed that. Recently, I have received some theories on the food security issue that the traders of grains, there are four big traders, ABCD, ADM, Bunge, Cargill and Dreyfus. They control 70 per cent of the trade of grain. Put the humanitarian's grain aside. These big traders, they could, how to say that, decide the price of the grain. Does the UN has any contacts or suggestion to those big grain traders so that in the time when the grain price could be increased for those least developed countries that they could maybe give some exemptions or lower the price?

Deputy Spokesperson : In this case, what we're trying to do is work primarily on the key macroeconomic factors. Ultimately, the world and the world economy operate on supply and demand. And it's simply logical that when the supply of grain on the world markets is drastically decreased, the prices will rise. That is what we've been trying to deal with, both through initiatives, such as the Black Sea Initiative, and through other efforts to see what can be done to make sure that exports go out from Ukraine and the Russian Federation to the wider world.

Question : But economically speaking, if you got a monopoly or maybe four big companies that control 70 per cent of the grain, would it be a possibility that if you raise the price and then you give more supply that the price will never drop?

Deputy Spokesperson : You know as well as I do that in a competitive market, if one company were to do that, it would face pressures from the other companies. What we're trying to deal with is the overall macroeconomic issue. There's not an actual monopoly control over world grain in that way.

Grigory?

Question : Thank you very much, Farhan. On grain deal, also pleased to add, today, Deputy Foreign Russian Minister, [Sergey] Vershinin, spoke by phone with Rebeca Grynspan [Secretary-General of the UN Conference on Trade and Development]. They discussed the implementation of Memorandum of Understanding. So, can you please provide any details from your side and any scheduled meeting? Thank you.

Deputy Spokesperson : I don't have any meetings to report. Obviously, as you've just confirmed from your side, Rebeca Grynspan is continuing to be in touch with key officials, including on the side of the Russian Federation, and is continuing with her efforts. And similarly, Martin Griffiths is. But, at this stage, there's no larger meetings to describe on this. We're just continuing with our efforts to do what we can to keep the exports going.

And with that, I'll turn the floor over to Paulina Kubiak.

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UNRWA appeals for end to deadly clashes at Palestine refugee camp in Lebanon

3 August 2023 - Thirteen people have been killed and more than 60 injured in four days of deadly violence at the largest Palestine refugee camp in Lebanon, a senior UN official in the country said on Thursday.

The fighting between Palestinian armed groups at Ein El Helweh camp has also forced thousands to flee their homes that have been damaged.

Ein El Helweh is one of 12 camps in Lebanon operated by the UN agency that assists Palestine refugees, UNRWA. It provides services to nearly 50,000 people.

Dorothee Klaus, UNRWA Director in Lebanon, said clashes continued on Wednesday night despite the announcement of a ceasefire.

Education under fire

She said an UNRWA school complex inside the camp, that provides education to 3,200 children during the academic year, was used for the fighting.

"We have not been able to enter the camp and deliver much needed assistance," she said.

"UNRWA calls for an immediate cessation of fighting in the camp in order for civilians to get respite and for the Agency to be able to provide assistance and conduct needs assessments."

Supporting displaced residents

Ein El Helweh is located near Lebanon's third largest city, Saida, which shut down as shelling and artillery fire reached commercial and residential areas.

The camp was established in 1948 and residents mostly came from coastal Palestinian towns but a large number were displaced from other parts of Lebanon,

Ms. Klaus said 360 UNRWA staff live there. While some were trapped, and one was injured, others fled, with some continuing to work to respond to the needs.

UNRWA and partners are currently hosting 600 displaced persons in two schools at another of its camps and in Saida city. The agency is also providing fuel to a hospital operating inside Ein El-Hilweh camp.

Ms. Klaus called for the protection of all UNRWA schools and other facilities at all times, including during the fighting.

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USAF, RAAF conduct bilateral training during Talisman Sabre 23

Published Aug. 3, 2023

By Capt. Margaret Kealy-Machella

Pacific Air Forces Public Affairs

ROYAL AUSTRALIAN AIR FORCE BASE DARWIN, Australia (AFNS) -- The U.S. Air Force and Royal Australian Air Force executed numerous high-end, multi-domain flying missions from bare bases across the Northern Territory and Western Australia during Talisman Sabre 2023.

Talisman Sabre is a biennial large-scale military exercise between Australia and the United States that started in 2005. This is the 10th and largest iteration of the exercise with more than 30,000 personnel from 13 countries participating.

Talisman Sabre 23 provided both the RAAF and the U.S. Air Force with a unique challenge and exceptional opportunity: executing agile operations on a scale never seen in a bilateral exercise across an expansive geographical area.

"From our perspective, it's much more complex this time. It brings its own challenges, having things spread out across the north and west," said RAAF Air Commodore Pete Robinson, Air Task Group commander. "It's much more convenient to be at one place and have everything under your control there, but this is a good challenge."

The combined air components departed RAAF Base Darwin and moved to RAAF Bases Curtin and Tindal, where the operations and support teams generated large force movements enabling agile operations in airspace across the north and west of Australia.

For the team across the three bases, the primary objective throughout the exercise is increasing interoperability in every aspect of operations, but during flying missions. These missions included the integration of RAAF and U.S. Air Force assets, but also U.S. Navy including aircraft from the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76).

"Being out here has given our warfighters an opportunity to mission plan, brief, execute and debrief with some of our key allies in the region, and the learning has been invaluable," said U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Paul Lopez, 199th Air Expeditionary Squadron commander. "The experiences the warfighters are gaining has been well above average, and the lessons we're learning during this exercise are lessons we're going to be able to apply in the future."

Bringing together diverse aircraft capabilities to fly missions in the same airspace, while integrating as a collective team takes a lot of bilateral planning. This planning occurs at RAAF Base Darwin, but also with the forward units ensuring every detail is discussed and decided, as a team.

"Bilateral mission planning is important because it brings all of the players to one common space where they can discuss gameplans, capabilities, leadership styles, thought processes and levying experiences in order to ensure a thorough mission planning process and ultimately, mission success," said U.S. Air Force Capt. Desmond Jackson, 19th Fighter Squadron Raptor Intelligence chief.

Once mission planning is finalized and briefs completed, the aircrews are ready to roll. Aircraft such as the U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor and KC-46 Pegasus, alongside RAAF F-35A Lightning II, KC-30A Multi-role Tanker Transport, F/A-18F Super Hornet, E/A 18G Growler and P-8A Poseidon, take to the skies.

"These large force employment missions are huge for getting everybody on the same sheet of music, especially tactics wise, and that will help us further advance our capabilities as an allied force," said U.S. Air Force Capt. Christopher Loo, 199th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron F-22 pilot, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii. "We go out, fly, regroup, fly more, land, debrief, all with the Royal Australian Air Force."

After the aerial training event is complete, maintainers from the U.S. Air Force and RAAF, inspect each aircraft and ensure mission readiness. Beyond ground maintenance, fuel is a critical factor to get the aircraft in the skies.

Refueling occurs on both the ground and mid-air. The U.S. Air Force KC-46 and the RAAF KC-30As are both able to refuel mid-air, further increasing the time and distance each aircraft fly. In addition, there is a ground crew fueling a variety of airframes side by side as a bilateral team.

"We've been learning how their equipment is different and how we could integrate with the RAAF to see how we can do things better," said U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Corey Broder, 13th Air Expeditionary Wing fuels distribution operator, petroleum, oils, and lubricants flight. "Every challenge during this exercise helps, because when it's the real thing, we know what to do, seamlessly rolling with it."

Generating large sorties with many aircraft to accomplish bilateral training objectives is a normal day's work in executing Talisman Sabre in the Northern Territory and west Australia. The exercise continues to grow and become larger and more complex for the air component in future iterations.

"I've been the lead for the United States Air Force for Talisman Sabre since 2019. Just in that short amount of time, I've seen the relationship between the RAAF and USAF strengthen to the point where we know exactly who to call when faced with a challenge," said Col. Brian Baldwin, 13th AEW commander. "We have friends that help us overcome those challenges more quickly, and I can't wait to see how our combined team gets after new challenges in the next Talisman Sabre."

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Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard & Intermediate Maintenance Facility Named Naval Supervising Authority and Lead Maintenance Activity for Submarine Rotational Force - West

US Navy

03 August 2023

From NAVSEA Office of Corporate Communications and AUKUS Integration and Acquisition Program Office Public Affairs

WASHINGTON -- Commander, Naval Sea Systems Command Vice Adm. Bill Galinis named Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility (PHNSY & IMF) as the Naval Supervising Authority (NSA) and Lead Maintenance Activity (LMA) for Submarine Rotational Force - West (SRF-W) July 26.

As the NSA/LMA, PHNSY & IMF will support the establishment of SRF-W, which is the first phase of the AUKUS Pillar One effort that is delivering conventionally armed nuclear-powered attack submarines (SSNs) to Australia. SRF-W will host up to four Virginia-class and one United Kingdom Astute-class attack submarines (SSNs) at HMAS Stirling on a rotational basis in Western Australia starting in 2027.

Initially announced in September 2021, the AUKUS trilateral agreement between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States is a strategic endeavor aimed at strengthening the security and defense capabilities of the three nations that also promotes stability and security in the Indo-Pacific region. Australia will acquire SSNs under Pillar One of AUKUS via a plan known as the "Optimal Pathway" announced by the heads of the three partner nations on March 13, 2023.

With the extended rotations lasting between three and five years, Virginia-class SSNs will require voyage repair and Intermediate-Level (I-Level) maintenance that generally lasts several weeks and does not require dry docking. As the NSA/LMA, PHNSY & IMF will support training Australian military and civilian personnel to execute the required work.

"There is no doubt that Pearl Harbor is the right shipyard to serve as the NSA/LMA for SRF-W," said Galinis. "Having completed numerous maintenance availabilities, they know the Virginia-class. When you add in the exceptional skill of the Pearl Harbor workforce, it is the right decision."

"It is an honor and a formidable responsibility to have PHNSY & IMF chosen to serve as the NSA/LMA for SRF-W," said the shipyard's commanding officer Capt. Richard A. Jones. "Significant effort will be required, but we understand our efforts will sharpen the tip of the Royal Australian Navy's spear and set their submarine force on the path to sovereign readiness to operate and maintain their own conventionally armed nuclear-powered attack submarines. PHNSY & IMF's mission is to keep the fleet fit to fight and we look forward to sharing our knowledge and dedication to a culture of excellence that returns submarines safely to the fleet on time, every time."

In the near future, Australian and United Kingdom personnel will travel to PHNSY & IMF to refine their understanding of the requirements associated with maintaining SSNs.

"Soon, Australian and UK nationals will be at our naval shipyard, embedded within our maintenance organization, learning skills that are unique to only six countries in the world," said Rear Adm. Scott Brown, Naval Sea Systems Command's Deputy Commander, Industrial Operations. "PHNSY & IMF will be charged with leading a trilateral effort to develop the capability to repair and maintain SSNs in Australia. We are committed to ensuring that Australia has all the local knowledge, training, and skills needed to maintain SSNs in accordance with our standards."

To ensure PHNSY & IMF can meet its future obligations, additional personnel will be hired to support the AUKUS effort. "We recognize we can't absorb this added workload with our current workforce," said Jones. "Working with NAVSEA, we will be looking to add people across numerous shops throughout the shipyard to support this effort so we don't overburden our systems or impact any planned maintenance availabilities."

"The AUKUS Integration and Acquisition Office is extremely happy to have PHNSY & IMF designated as the NSA/LMA for SRF-W and we are honored to have them as part of the AUKUS `Ohana,'" said Captain Lincoln Reifsteck, the AUKUS Integration and Acquisition Program Manager. "The men and women of the Navy's No Ka 'Oi (of the best) shipyard in the heart of the Pacific are critical to our overall success and I am looking forward to building a strong working relationship with them and our Australian shipmates."

The AUKUS partnership is a strategic endeavor that strengthens the three nations' national security and promotes peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. Australia will acquire conventionally armed SSNs for the Royal Australian Navy under AUKUS Pillar One via the Optimal Pathway announced by the heads of the three partner nations on March 13, 2023. The AUKUS Integration and Acquisition (I&A) Program Office is responsible for executing the trilateral partnership to deliver conventionally armed, nuclear-powered attack submarines to the Royal Australian Navy at the earliest possible date while setting the highest nuclear stewardship standards.

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USS Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group joins Royal Australian Navy for Sea, Air and Intelligence Integration during Talisman Sabre 23

US Navy

03 August 2023

From Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Jordan Brown

INDIAN OCEAN (Aug. 4, 2023) -- Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 5 hosted a team of Royal Australian Navy intelligence leaders aboard the flagship Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) during Talisman Sabre 23 off the northwestern coast of Australia.

The intelligence integration coincided with the carrier strike group's maritime exercises in the Indian Ocean with the Virginia-class fast-attack submarine USS North Carolina (SSN 777) and Royal Australian Navy's HMAS Perth (FFH 157).

The CSG's participation in Talisman Sabre also included coordinated air exercises involving the embarked Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 5, as well as elements from the U.S. Air Force and Royal Australian Air Force.

"Talisman Sabre gives us another opportunity to maintain and improve upon our ability to integrate seamlessly with our Australian allies to execute complex, multi-domain missions across a vast area," said Rear Adm. Pat Hannifin, commander of Carrier Strike Group 5. "In addition to our advanced air and sea exercises, this event provides us valuable space to share best practices with specialists from the Australian intelligence community, building relationships and shared awareness that will pay dividends deep into the future."

The embarked Australian intelligence team was led by Cmdr. Darryl Scott of the Royal Australian Navy Information Warfare Force.

"Interoperability is of great importance to our two Navies," said Scott. "We're getting an even better understanding of how many ways we can support each other. Our ability to share intelligence, share reporting and share data allows us to better prepare for future operations, either interlinked with American forces or actually embedded with a strike group like this."

In addition to the Australian intelligence team, the USS Ronald Reagan and CSG staff hosted a group of Australian Sailors from the crew of HMAS Perth.

The Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group also includes the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruisers USS Robert Smalls (CG 62) and USS Antietam (CG 54).

Talisman Sabre is taking place over multiple weeks from mid-July through early August, involving more than 30,000 Australian, U.S. and other international military personnel.

Conducted biennially since 2005, Talisman Sabre is the United States' largest military exercise with Australia. This exercise demonstrates the strong U.S.-Australia alliance, which has sustained cooperation and trust throughout decades of operating, training, and exercising together.

Jointly sponsored by U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and Australian Defence Force Headquarters Joint Operations Command, this year's exercise is the 10th iteration of Talisman Sabre, and incorporates U.S. Space Force, U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Coast Guard, and Australian Defence Forces, as well as other government agencies from each country. Participating nations include: Australia, Canada, Fiji, France, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Republic of Korea, Tonga, United Kingdom, and United States.

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Afghan Taliban Call On Pakistan to Avoid Baseless Terror Charges

By Ayaz Gul August 03, 2023

Taliban leaders in Afghanistan have called on Pakistan to share its "concerns" on cross-border terrorism formally instead of leveling unfounded allegations in the media.

Pakistani officials blame a recent uptick in terrorist attacks on the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, and militants linked to other extremist groups, allegedly from Afghan sanctuaries.

Taliban chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid refuted the allegations Thursday and reiterated that his government does not allow anyone to use the territory of Afghanistan against another country.

"If there is any concern about this, it should be shared directly with the Islamic Emirate instead of disseminating futile claims in the media, which are not in the interest of both countries and people," Mujahid said in his statement, using the official name of his two-year-old government in Kabul.

The rebuttal comes a day after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and other Pakistani officials said that anti-state militants had found sanctuaries inside Afghanistan and stepped up cross-border attacks since the Taliban seized control of the country.

Sharif called on de facto Afghan authorities to take "concrete measures toward denying their soil be used for transnational terrorism."

Last Sunday, a suicide bomber struck a pro-election rally in the northwestern border town of Khar, killing 63 Pakistanis and injuring dozens more. Islamic State Khorasan Province, or IS-K, an Afghan affiliate of the Islamic State terrorist group, claimed it carried out that bombing.

Pakistani authorities have maintained that the TTP attacked a military base in the southwestern city of Zhob last month with the help of heavily armed fighters of the Afghan Taliban. The July 12 raid killed at least nine soldiers and five assailants in ensuing hours-long gun battles.

A foreign ministry statement said Wednesday that three of the slain "terrorists" had been identified as Afghan nationals who lived in the Afghan border province of Kandahar. It noted that Islamabad had asked the Afghan Embassy to receive the bodies of the slain terrorists.

"It's an easy excuse to ask for evidence. What about Zhob attackers?" a senior Pakistani foreign ministry official told VOA when asked for his response to Thursday's claims by the Taliban that they were not allowing the use of Afghan soil for cross-border attacks.

Pakistani officials report a 70% increase in TTP-led terrorist attacks since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in August 2021, when all American and NATO troops chaotically withdrew after nearly 20 years of involvement in the Afghan war.

"Statistics show that Pakistan has experienced a quantitative rise in [terrorism] after the fall of Kabul [to the Taliban]," Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said Wednesday. "Also, weapons left behind by U.S. and NATO forces, unfortunately, have now found themselves in the hands of terrorists and criminal organizations," Zardari told reporters in the Pakistani capital.

Militant violence has killed more than 450 people, including security forces, across Pakistan in the first seven months of 2023. The Pakistani military has confirmed the killing of more than 120 officers and soldiers this year alone.

The TTP, also referred to as the Pakistani Taliban, is known to be an offshoot and a close ally of the Afghan Taliban. It is listed as a global terrorist organization by the United States.

The United Nations, in a report released late last month, noted that up to 6,000 TTP members are operating out of Afghanistan and the Taliban takeover has "emboldened" them. It is "gaining momentum in its operations against Pakistan and aspires to regain control of territory within the country," the report said.

"In June, certain TTP elements were relocated away from the border area, as part of the Taliban's efforts to rein in the group under pressure from the government of Pakistan," the U.N. report said. It warned that the TTP could become a regional threat if it continues to have a safe operating base in Afghanistan.

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Amnesty Blames Sudan Rival Forces, Militias for War Crimes, Civilian Suffering

By Mohammed Yusuf August 03, 2023

Amnesty International says Sudan's warring military factions are committing war crimes as the country is ravaged by more than three months of violence. The group has documented premeditated attacks against civilians, sexual violence and action that amounts to war crimes. In the Darfur region, Amnesty says some communities are targeted because of their ethnic identity, leading to hundreds of thousands fleeing into neighboring Chad.

Sarah Jackson, deputy regional director for Amnesty's East Africa, Horn and Great Lakes, provided details from a new report.

"The report that Amnesty International is launching today, 'Death Came to Our Home,' looks at war crimes and civilian suffering in the current context in Sudan," she said. "It looks at the deliberate targeting of civilians as well as civilians who have been caught in the crossfire. And it also documents cases of sexual violence. It shows how serious the war crimes are that are being committed by the rapid support forces and the Sudanese armed forces in the context of the current conflict where we see untold death and destruction."

Sudan security factions turned their guns against each other in April in what appears to be a power struggle between the leader of Sudan's Sovereign Council, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the Paramilitary Rapid Support Forces led by Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti.

The conflict has killed thousands and displaced 4 million people from their homes, who now are living in dire conditions.

The human rights group's investigators spoke to at least 180 Sudanese inside and outside of the country to document attacks on civilians, humanitarian infrastructure and sexual violence against women and girls.

Amnesty International's Somalia and Sudan researcher Abdullahi Hassan said the group has evidence to back up the accounts of abuses taking place in the country.

"The report is also supported by other evidence, including digital evidence, which is verified by our evidence lab team, including photos, videos, satellite imagery and forensic reports," he said. "Essentially, what these people told us is that the fighting in Sudan is really devastating communities, both in Khartoum and in Darfur, and particularly in Western Darfur. In Western Darfur, we were able to document targeted, ethnically motivated attacks carried out by the RSF and Arab militias on ethnic Masalit people."

The latest Sudan conflict has ignited ethnic conflict in the Darfur region, which has seen targeted killings and ethnically motivated attacks conducted by the RSF and allied militias.

It's not the first time Sudan's army leaders and militias have been accused of war crimes. The International Criminal Court in the Hague issued four arrest warrants, including former president Omar al-Bashir's relation to the conflict in Darfur between 2003-2008, on charges of war crimes and genocide.

Last month, the ICC launched an investigation into the conflict in the Darfur region, where armed groups are accused of killings, rapes, arson, population displacement and crimes affecting children.

Jackson says lack of accountability for past atrocities is enabling some leaders and armed individuals to continue to carry out attacks.

"Impunity for crimes that have been committed in the past is absolutely a central driver of this current conflict that Hemedti and Burhan think they can get away with this, because they have done in the past," she said. "So, it's really vital that accountability is central to any solution of the current situation, and families of victims and survivors of abuse deserve justice, they deserve truth, and they deserve reparations."

Flavia Mwangovya, the deputy regional director of Amnesty for Eastern and Southern Africa, calls for restrictions and an arms ban to protect the Sudanese population.

"We are calling on the United Nations Security Council to specifically consider the question around the arms embargo that is already in the territory of Darfur, that all countries around the world and neighboring should ensure that this arms embargo is respected ... and we are also asking that the U.N. Security Council to actually consider expanding this arms embargo to the rest of Sudan given what we are seeing in terms of the violations," she said.

The rights group urges the rival armies and other militias to safeguard civilians and cease attacks. It also calls on neighboring countries to open their borders and offer refuge to Sudanese people seeking safety.

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Cameroon Says Military Deployed After New Militant Attack Kills at Least a Dozen

By Moki Edwin Kindzeka August 03, 2023

Cameroon said Thursday that at least 12 people have been killed in new attacks by Boko Haram in Darak, a fishing island on Cameroon's northern border with Chad and Nigeria. Military officials say troops have been deployed to stop more incursions and attacks by the Nigeria-based insurgent group.

Regional officials say the 12 corpses were discovered by civilians.

Government troops say civilians have escaped to safer locations on the island. The military says ongoing sporadic attacks make it difficult to establish a total number of casualties.

Midjiyawa Bakari, the governor of Cameroon's Far North region where Darak is located, said this week's wave of attacks is devastating to the psychological and physical well-being of civilians in Darak, who have not experienced Boko Haram atrocities for more than a year. He said he has asked the military to immediately collaborate with local militias and put an end to the infiltration which killing and looting jihadists have been carrying out in Darak this week.

Bakari said Cameroon has remobilized militias and civilians to assist troops fighting the jihadists by reporting strangers and armed men hiding in border towns and villages to government troops.

The government said heavily armed militants arrived in Darak on Monday on motorboats through the vast Lake Chad. Eight of the 12 corpses already found have been identified as fishers in the lake, the government said. Civilians say at least three villages on the island have been attacked in the previous 48 hours, with attackers shooting indiscriminately, and looting.

Military officials in northern Cameroon say troops have been deployed to stop the incursion.

Cameroon said the deadliest Boko Haram attack in Darak occurred on June 10, 2019, when about 20 soldiers and 16 civilians were killed in an incursion the military said involved at least 300 heavily armed Boko Haram fighters. Cameroon said close to 90 jihadists were killed in the attack and eight were taken into custody.

Cameroon said other attacks, with fewer casualties have been reported monthly since the June 2019 attack.

Saibou Issa, a conflict resolution specialist at the University of Maroua in Cameroon, said the attacks are an indication that Boko Haram is still very active.

Issa said new Boko Haram attacks and atrocities occur in towns and villages where relative peace had returned, and troops of the Multinational Joint Task Force of the Lake Chad Basin Commission had temporarily withdrawn. He said troops fighting Boko Haram should be on alert because the militants are still very active.

The Multinational Joint Task Force of the Lake Chad Basin Commission comprises troops from Cameroon, Nigeria, Chad and Niger. Cameroon's military says the task force has ordered the deployment of troops to villages and towns in the Lake Chad Basin where Darak is located.

In February, the task force said Boko Haram attacks were drastically reduced last year, and scores of children were rescued in operations that killed 800 militants in the Lake Chad basin.

The United Nations says 36,000 people have been killed and 3 million have fled their homes since 2009, when fighting between Nigerian government troops and Boko Haram militants deteriorated into an armed conflict and spread to Cameroon, Niger and Chad.

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Niger Coup Supporters Protest Sanctions as Neighbors Debate Intervention

By VOA News August 03, 2023

As West African states consider intervening in Niger to restore democracy one week after a military coup, hundreds of supporters of Niger's junta gathered in the capital Niamey on Thursday to protest sanctions imposed by the country's neighbors.

General Abdourahamane Tchiani, the former head of Niger's presidential guard, ousted President Mohamed Bazoum last week in a military coup and declared himself head of state.

Tchiani said the move was necessary because of insecurity in the country caused by an Islamist insurgency.

But violent incidents in Niger actually decreased by almost 40% in the first six months of 2023 compared with the previous six months, according to data published Thursday by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, or ACLED.

ACLED is a crisis-monitoring group based in the United States. The group's data also indicate that security in Niger was improving thanks to strategies used by Bazoum's government and assistance from French and U.S. forces.

In addition to imposing sanctions, the main regional bloc, the Economic Community of West African States, or ECOWAS, said it could authorize the use of force if soldiers did not restore Bazoum to power by Sunday.

U.S. President Joe Biden called Thursday for Bazoum's immediate release. He said in a statement that Niger was "facing a grave challenge to its democracy."

"The Nigerien people have the right to choose their leaders," he said. "They have expressed their will through free and fair elections  and that must be respected."

China's Foreign Ministry said Thursday that it thought Niger and regional countries had the capacity to find a "political resolution" to the current situation, which it refrained from explicitly calling a coup.

"We believe that Niger and regional countries have the wisdom and capability to find a political resolution to the current situation," the ministry said in a written statement to Reuters.

"President Bazoum is a friend of China, it is hoped that his personal safety is guaranteed, and that relevant parties in Niger peacefully manage differences through dialogue with the fundamental interests of the nation and the people as a starting point," the ministry added.

ECOWAS defense chiefs were scheduled to complete a second day of talks in neighboring Nigeria about the situation.

The White House, which also has stopped short of calling developments in Niger a coup, said Thursday, "[We are] going to continue to review all our options around our cooperation with the Nigerien government."

But John Kirby, director of strategic communications for the National Security Council, refused to predict how the U.S. would react if the putschists ignored the deadline for restoring Bazoum to power.

"You saw ECOWAS come out yesterday and say that, in their view, any use of force would be a last resort," Kirby told reporters. "I think I'd let them speak to that eventuality and the parameters of it. Right now, we're focused on diplomacy. We still believe there's time and space for that."

The State Department said Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Bazoum by telephone Wednesday to discuss the situation.

Tchiani said in a televised address Wednesday that the junta rejects the ECOWAS sanctions "and refuses to give into any threats, wherever they come from. We refuse any interference in the internal affairs of Niger."

Abdel-Fatau Musah, ECOWAS commissioner for political affairs, peace and security, told reporters Wednesday in Abuja that the military option was a "last resort" for the West African bloc. But Musah said preparations had to be made for that possibility.

"There is a need to demonstrate that we cannot only bark but can bite," he said.

ECOWAS also sent a delegation on Wednesday to Niger's capital, Niamey, for talks with junta members.

Britain said Thursday that it was temporarily reducing its embassy staff in Niamey because of security concerns.

On Wednesday, the United States said it was ordering the "temporary departure of non-emergency U.S. government personnel and eligible family members from the U.S. Embassy in Niamey." It also raised its travel advisory to Level 4  Do Not Travel  for Niger.

France's military and foreign ministry continued Wednesday to evacuate people from Niger, as did Italy. More than 1,000 people have left Niger so far on evacuation flights. The evacuees included French nationals along with others from Niger, Portugal, Belgium, Ethiopia, Lebanon, Germany, Canada, India, Austria and the United States.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.

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Biden Calls for Release of Niger's President After Coup

By VOA News August 03, 2023

U.S. President Joe Biden called Thursday for the immediate release of Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum, who was ousted last week in a military coup.

Biden said in a statement that Niger is "facing a grave challenge to its democracy."

"The Nigerien people have the right to choose their leaders. They have expressed their will through free and fair electionsand that must be respected," Biden said.

Defense chiefs from the Economic Community of West African States were due to complete a second day of talks in neighboring Nigeria about the situation.

Days after the coup, ECOWAS enacted sanctions against the coup leaders and set a Sunday deadline for Bazoum to be reinstated with the potential of using military force if he is not.

General Abdourahamane Tchiani, who declared himself the new head of state, said in a televised address Wednesday that the junta "rejects these sanctions altogether and refuses to give into any threats, wherever they come from. We refuse any interference in the internal affairs of Niger."

Abdel-Fatau Musah, ECOWAS commissioner for political affairs, peace and security, told reporters Wednesday in Abuja that the military option was a "last resort" for the West African bloc. But Musah said preparations had to be made for that possibility.

"There is a need to demonstrate that we cannot only bark but can bite," he said.

ECOWAS also sent a delegation on Wednesday to Niger's capital, Niamey, for talks with junta members.

Britain said Thursday it was temporarily reducing its embassy staff in Naimey due to security concerns.

On Wednesday, the United States said it was ordering the "temporary departure of non-emergency U.S. government personnel and eligible family members from the U.S. Embassy in Niamey." It also raised its travel advisory to Level 4 - Do Not Travel - for Niger.

France's military and foreign ministry continued Wednesday to evacuate people from Niger. The foreign ministry said about 1,000 people left Niger on four flights. The evacuees included French nationals along with others from Niger, Portugal, Belgium, Ethiopia, Lebanon, Germany, Canada, India, Austria and the United States.

Italy also carried out its own evacuation flight.

Military leaders put Bazoum under house arrest on July 26 and named Tchiani, commander of the presidential guard, as their new leader on Monday. Coup leaders said they were acting in response to what they described as a worsening security situation and the government's lack of action against jihadis.

The coup has been condemned by Western countries, including the U.S., which says it stands with Nigeriens, ECOWAS and the African Union as it continues to work to roll back the coup, U.S. officials say.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke by telephone Wednesday with Bazoum to discuss the situation in Niger, the State Department said.

Spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement about the call that the United States "remains committed to the restoration of the democratically-elected government" in Niger.

"We reiterate that the safety and security of President Bazoum and his family are paramount," Miller said. "The United States is dedicated to finding a peaceful resolution that ensures that Niger remains a strong partner in security and development in the region."

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.

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Thai PM Vote Postponed Again as Political Crisis Deepens

By Vijitra Duangdee August 03, 2023

Thailand slipped deeper into political crisis on Thursday as the latest vote for a prime minister was postponed, leaving the kingdom without a new leader or new government, a day after the election-winning Move Forward Party was dumped from its own coalition, sparking accusations of betrayal.

The vote was to have taken place on Friday, Aug. 4.

The political uncertainty comes three months after Move Forward Party, or MFP, won the most seats in elections, which saw the public decisively reject the military-aligned government of former general Prayuth Chan-ocha.

More than 14 million Thais voted for MFP and its radical agenda to cut the military from power, break up a monopoly on the economy and amend the royal defamation law, which criminalizes criticism of the powerful monarchy.

But the party has rattled the royalist establishment, which has blocked its bid for power.

In mid-July, Move Forward's prime ministerial candidate, Pita Limjaroenrat, was voted down in parliament by the military-appointed Senate and later denied the chance of another vote.

That opened the way for second-place party, Pheu Thai, the once-unbeatable political machine of self-exiled ex-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, to put forward a candidate for premier despite its poorest electoral performance in its history.

Pheu Thai said Wednesday it would lead a coalition without Move Forward, which is increasingly friendless among the older powers that dominate Thai politics.

That has raised fears the once stalwart pro-democracy Pheu Thai  whose "Red Shirt" supporters have died by the scores to defend Shinawatra governments  will now align with the same conservative parties that have run the country for nine years.

"That will be crossing the line," Teerachai Rawiwat, 25, a former Pheu Thai member, told VOA, saying he has quit the party in disgust at the split with MFP. "How am I supposed to look into the eyes of the Red Shirt people who voted for us if we're joining hands with the very people who have hurt them?"

On Thursday, Pita broke his silence on the parting with Pheu Thai, which effectively pushes MFP, Thailand's largest party, into opposition.

"No disappointment, only power," he wrote on Instagram.

New charter, new election?

A joint sitting of parliament was scheduled to vote Friday on a bid by Srettha Thavisin, the former property tycoon who is now fronting Pheu Thai, to be prime minister.

But the vote was abruptly postponed after Thailand's top court said it needed more time to consider a petition by Move Forward. MFP contends that Pita has been unfairly prevented from trying to win the premiership in a second vote.

The Constitutional Court next meets on Aug. 16.

The delay means Pheu Thai's bid to make a government with Srettha at the helm has been put on hold.

It may also jeopardize the return of the billionaire Thaksin to Thailand after 15 years as a fugitive overseas. His daughter, Paetongtarn, recently said he would return Aug. 10 to face justice over corruption charges.

As soon as Pheu Thai announced its split with MFP, dozens of protesters arrived at its Bangkok headquarters in an angry demonstration against the perceived betrayal of the democracy bloc.

To head off the outcry of a public that voted for change, Pheu Thai said it will drive through most of Move Forward's policies if it can form a government.

Those include a marriage equality act, ending the monopoly of the economy and reforming the police and army. But the party does not back reform of the royal defamation law.

Pheu Thai leader Cholnan Srikaew also said the party will push to rewrite the constitution, which gives wide veto powers to the army-appointed Senate.

"We will push for the problematic constitution  the one that is causing us all troubles in forming the government this time  to be amended as a national agenda," he told reporters. "We will return the power to the people with a new election as soon as we have a new constitution."

The party hopes it will sway some senators to back Srettha once a vote for prime minister is held.

But the split with Move Forward has the potential to backfire on Pheu Thai, experts warn, especially if it enters a coalition with the parties from the former government, including Bhumjaithai and Palang Pracharath.

Palang Pracharath is headed by ex-general Prawit Wongsuwon, the notorious 77-year-old power broker of Thai politics who remains in contention for a role in government, even as prime minister, if Srettha's bid fails.

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Statement from President Biden on the Occasion of Niger's Independence Day

August 03, 2023

This year, as Niger marks the 63rd anniversary of its independence, it is facing a grave challenge to its democracy. In this critical moment, the United States stands with the people of Niger to honor our decades-long partnership rooted in shared democratic values and support for civilian-led governance. The Nigerien people have the right to choose their leaders. They have expressed their will through free and fair electionsand that must be respected.

Defending fundamental democratic values, and standing up for constitutional order, justice, and the right of peaceful assembly, are essential to the partnership between Niger and the United States. I call for President Bazoum and his family to be immediately released, and for the preservation of Niger's hard-earned democracy.

###



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Russo-Ukraine War - 04 August 2023 - Day 527

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 31

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 in the last two weeks, Russia has conducted several waves of strikes against Ukrainian ports on the Danube River using Iranian-produced one-way attack uncrewed aerial vehicles (OWA UAVs). It is highly likely attempting to coerce international shipping into stopping trading via the ports.

OWA UAVs have struck targets as close as 200 metres from the Romanian border, suggesting that Russia has evolved its risk appetite for conducting strikes near NATO territory.

There is a realistic possibility that Russia is using OWA UAVs to strike this area in the belief they are less likely to risk escalation than cruise missiles: Russia likely considers them as acceptably accurate, and they have much smaller warheads than cruise missiles.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that during the day August 4, Russian forces carried out 39x airstrikes (using 2x "Shahed-136/131" strike drones, all of which were destroyed) and launched 43x MLRS attacks on Ukrainian cities and Ukrainian Armed Forces. As a result of the Russian terrorist attacks, unfortunately, there are dead and wounded among the civilians, houses and other infrastructure were destroyed.

The threat of missile and air strikes remains high across Ukraine.

30x combat clashes took place throughout the day.

Volyn' and Polissya axes: no significant changes detected.

Sivershchyna and Slobozhanshchyna axes: the Russian forces carried out airstrikes at Volfine and Kostyantynivka of the Sumy Oblast. They shelled with mortars and artillery more than 25x settlements, in particular Khrinivka, Bleshnya and Yanzhulivka of the Chernihiv Oblast; Kozache, Boyaro-Lezhachi, Kindrativka in the Sumy Oblast and Hatishche, Vovchans'k, Bochkove in the Kharkiv Oblast.

Kup'yans'k axis: more than 10x settlements, including Zapadne, Kindrashivka, Petropavlivka, Kucherivka and Kup'yans'ke of the Kharkiv Oblast, were shelled by artillery and mortars.

Lyman axis: Russian forces shelled the settlements of Nevske, Bilogorivka of the Luhansk Oblast and Torske, Verkhnyokamianske, Spirne of the Donetsk Oblast.

Bakhmut axis: defense forces are attacking the Russian forces in the districts of Klishchiivka and Kurdyumivka. More than 10 settlements, including Vasyukivka, Bohdanivka, Hryhorivka, Markove and Ivanivske of the Donetsk Oblast, were shelled by artillery.

Avdiivka axis: Ukrainian defenders successfully repelled attacks by Russian troops near Avdiivka despite heavy fire from the Russian forces' aircraft and artillery. More than 15x settlements, including Keramik, Avdiivka, Vodyane, Pervomaisake, Karlivka, Halytsynivka of the Donetsk Oblast, were shelled by artillery.

Mar'inka axis: UAF continue to hold back the advance of Russian troops in the vicinities of Marainka and Krasnohorivka. Russian forces launched airstrikes at Krasnohorivka. Shelled more than 10x settlements, including Krasnohorivka, Hostre, Marainka, Pobyeda, Novomykhailivka, Paraskoviivka, Katerynivka, Donetsk Oblast.

Shakhtars'k axis: Russian forces made unsuccessful attempts to restore the lost position in the Blagodatny area. They carried out airstrikes at Staromayorsky. Blagodatne, Ugledar, Bogoyavlenka, Prechistivka, Zolota Niva, Velika Novosilka of the Donetsk Oblast were shelled by artillery; Staromayors'ke, Levadne, Zaporizhzhia Oblast.

Zaporizhzhia axis: the Russian forces conducted unsuccessful offensive opertaions near Novopokrovka. They carried out airstrikes at Mala Tokmachka, Orikhov and Novodanilivka of the Zaporizhzhia Oblast. russians areconcentrating main efforts on preventing the further advance of Ukrainian troops. More than 15x settlements, including Malynivka, Hulyaipole, Zaliznychne, Hulyaipilske, Yehorivka of the Zaporizhzhya Oblast, were shelled by artillery.

Kherson axis: Russian forces launched an air strike in the Odradokamyanka area. More than 20 settlements, including Kachkarivka, Respublikanets, Zmiivka, Beryslav, Molodizhne, and Kherson of the Kherson Oblast, were hit by Russian artillery fire; Ochakiv, Mykolaiv Oblast.

Defense Forces of Ukraine continue offensive operations on the Melitopol' and Berdyans'k axes, and are equipping captured positions, open fire with artillery on identified Russian targets, and carry out counter-battery measures.

Russia continues to hide his losses. Mobile crematoria are actively used for this purpose. In particular, it is known that one of these crematoria is currently operating 24/7 in the northeastern part of the occupied Melitopol, Zaporizhzhia Oblast, while the bodies of the dead occupants are transported by trucks. In addition, local residents complain about the constant corpse stench in the city, especially at night.

Ukrainian Air Force conducted 7x strikes manpower, weapons and military equipment concentrations.

Ukrainian missile and artillery units hit 9x artillery units at firing positions and 2x manpower, weapons and military equipment concentrations.

The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reported that the AFU continued unsuccessful attempts at offensive actions in South Donetsk, Kupyansk, Krasny Liman and Donetsk directions.

In Donetsk direction, during active defence activities, the units of the Yug Group of Forces have successfully repelled 8 enemy attacks close to Belogorovka, Spornoye, Vesyoloye, Staromikhaylovka, Paraskoviyevka, and Pervomaiskoe (Donetsk People's Republic).

After repelling the attack, the Russian troops have conducted a counter-attack operation against retreating enemy units near Belogorovka and Vodyanoye (Donetsk People's Republic), and as a result, captured more advantageous positions.

Operational-tactical and Army aviation, supported by artillery, launched attacks at manpower and hardware concentration areas of AFU 24th, 28th, 110th mechanised brigades, as well as 5th assault and 81st aeromobile brigades near Toretsk, Klescheevka, Adveevka, Krasnoye, and Belogorovka (Donetsk People's Republic).

The enemy losses were up to 185 servicemen, two armoured fighting vehicles, two pickup trucks, four motor vehicles, one Polish-manufactured Krab self-propelled artillery system, and one D-20 howitzer.

In South Donetsk direction, the Vostok Group of Forces assault units continued offensive actions close to Staromayorskoye (Donetsk People's Republic) and improved tactical situation.

In addition, manpower and hardware of the AFU 31st mechanised and 35th marines brigades have been hit near Rovnopol and Makarovka (Donetsk People's Republic).

In addition, the actions of one Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance groups have been disrupted close to Priyutnoye (Zaporozhye region).

The enemy losses were up to 120 Ukrainian servicemen, two armoured fighting vehicles, three motor vehicles, one Msta-B howitzer and one Gvozdika self-propelled artillery system.

In Zaporozhye direction, as a result of active actions by Russian units, aviation, artillery and heavy flamethrower systems, one enemy attack has been successfully repelled close to Rabotino (Zaporozhye region).

In addition, 33rd, 47th, 65th and 118th mechanised brigades of the AFU have been hit close to Malaya Tokmachka, Yablonevoye and Uspenovka (Zaporozhye region).

The enemy losses were up to 130 Ukrainian servicemen, three infantry fighting vehicles, including one U.S.-manufactured Bradley IFV, two armoured fighting vehicles, two motor vehicles, and one D-20 howitzer.

In Kupyansk direction, assault detachments of the Zapad Group of Forces continued offensive actions on a wide front and have taken more advantageous positions close to Olshana, Petropavlovka and Tokarevka (Kharkov region).

In the course of active defence, four attacks by units of the 14th mechanised and 25th airborne brigades of the AFU have been successfully repelled near Novosyolovskoye (Lugansk People's Republic).

In addition, AFU manpower and hardware concentration areas of nine brigades have been hit near Orlyanskoye, Kotlyarovka, Ivanovka, Pletenyovka and Berestovoye (Kharkov region).

The enemy losses were up to 45 Ukrainian servicemen, two armoured fighting vehicles, three motor vehicles, one U.S.-manufactured M777 artillery system, as well as U.S.-manufactured M109 Paladin and Polish-manufactured Krab self-propelled artillery systems.

In Krasny Liman direction, as a result of active actions by units of the Tsentr Group of Forces, Army Aviation and artillery, two enemy attacks have been successfully repelled near Novovodyanoye and Kremennaya (Lugansk People's Republic).

In addition, units of 21st, 43rd, 54th, 63rd, 67th mechanised and 95th airborne assault brigades of the AFU have been hit close to Karmazinovka, Chervonaya Dibrova (Lugansk People's Republic), Torskoye and Krasny Liman (Donetsk People's Republic).

The enemy losses were up to 70 Ukrainian servicemen, two armoured fighting vehicles, two motor vehicles, one U.S.-manufactured M777 artillery system, as well as D-20 and D-30 howitzers.

In Kherson direction, the enemy losses were up to 25 Ukrainian servicemen, two motor vehicles, and two D-30 howitzers.

Operational-Tactical and Army aviation, Missile Troops and Artillery of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation have neutralised 116 artillery units at their firing positions, manpower and military hardware in 142 areas.

In addition, fuel and ammunition depots of Ukrainian troops have been destroyed near Krasnoye (Donetsk People's Republic) and Peschanoye (Kharkov region).

Two command posts of Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles have been hit close to Belogorovka and Belaya Gora (Donetsk People's Republic).

Air defence facilities have shot down 15 projectiles launched by HIMARS MLRS.

In addition, 28 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles have been destroyed close to Svatovo, Lisichansk (Lugansk People's Republic), Donetsk, Soledar and Volnovakha (Donetsk People's Republic).

In total, 458 airplanes, 245 helicopters, 5,496 unmanned aerial vehicles, 428 air defence missile systems, 11,113 tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, 1,142 fighting vehicles equipped with MLRS, 5,746 field artillery cannons and mortars, as well as 12,057 special military motor vehicles have been destroyed during the special military operation.

***

Since the beginning of the so-called offensive by the Kiev regime during June and July, the AFU losses, in the course of combat actions, have already totalled more than forty-three thousand servicemen.

This figure does not include wounded and foreign mercenaries evacuated to Ukrainian hospitals and abroad, as well as servicemen eliminated as a result of long-range precision weapons strikes in rear areas.

Over four thousand nine hundred units of various AFU weapons have been destroyed on the line of contact, including 26 aircraft, nine helicopters, 1,831 tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, including 25 German-manufactured Leopard tanks, seven French AMX wheeled tanks and 21 U.S.-manufactured Bradley IFVs.

In addition, the enemy losses were 747 field artillery pieces and mortars, including 76 U.S.-manufactured M777 artillery systems, as well as 84 self-propelled artillery systems from Poland, the United States, France and Germany.

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U.S. and International Cybersecurity Partners Warn Organizations of Routinely Exploited Vulnerabilities

Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)

Released: August 03, 2023



Joint advisory urges organizations to implement secure by design practices and prioritize patching known exploited vulnerabilities to reduce risk of compromise

WASHINGTON - The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), National Security Agency (NSA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Australian Signals Directorate's Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (CCCS), New Zealand National Cyber Security Centre (NZ NCSC), Computer Emergency Response Team New Zealand (CERT NZ), and the United Kingdom's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC-UK) published an advisory today on the common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVEs), to include associated common weakness enumeration (CWE), that were routinely and frequently exploited by malicious actors last year.

The joint Cybersecurity Advisory, titled "2022 Top Routinely Exploited Vulnerabilities," provides technical background details on the 12 most exploited vulnerabilities and an overview of an additional 30 vulnerabilities often used to compromise organizations, including specific details that organizations can use to identify and mitigate their exposure.

For the first time, this advisory outlines the CWEs associated with these vulnerabilities, which reflects the underlying root causes that led to the exploited vulnerability. In order to reduce the prevalence of common classes of vulnerabilities, this advisory urges technology vendors to implement specific secure by design principles and to ensure that all published CVEs include the proper CWE identifying the root cause of the vulnerability.

"Today, adversaries commonly exploit categories of vulnerabilities that can and must be addressed by technology providers as part of their commitment to Secure by Design," said Eric Goldstein,CISA Executive Assistant Director for Cybersecurity. "Until that day, malicious actors will continue to find it far too easy to exploit organizations around the world. With our partners, we urge all organizations to review our joint advisory, for every enterprise to prioritize mitigation of these vulnerabilities, and for every technology provider to take accountability for the security outcomes of their customers by reducing the prevalence of these vulnerabilities by design."

"Organizations continue using unpatched software and systems, leaving easily discovered openings for cyber actors to target," said Neal Ziring, the Technical Director for NSA's Cybersecurity Directorate. "Older vulnerabilities can provide low-cost and high impact means for these actors to access sensitive data."

"The FBI remains committed to sharing critical cyber threat information with the private sector to combat malicious cyber activity that is targeting American businesses," said Bryan Vorndran, Assistant Director of the FBI's Cyber Division. "We strongly encourage all organizations to address potential network vulnerabilities and implement mitigation strategies referenced in the product. By working with our federal, international, and private sector partners, we will continue to strengthen our defense against malicious cyber actors."

"We have used the power of our international partnerships to identify the attack methods most popular with malicious actors operating internationally," said Abigail Bradshaw CSC, Head of the Australian Cyber Security Centre. "Every organisation should be using this list to patch their systems and use it to guide their vulnerability management strategy. Equally, industry can use this list to strengthen products in design processes. Unpatched software is a top access route for hackers and no one should assume all their systems are up to date."

"When we work as a community we can strengthen our collective resilience," Sami Khoury, Head, Canadian Centre for Cyber Security. "Every organization with internet-facing networks that implements recommended mitigation measures will greatly reduce their risk of compromise by malicious cyber actors. We know that timely patching reduces the effectiveness of the vulnerabilities listed in this report. We also know that vendors and developers also have a strong role to play by responsibly designing products that are secure by design and default. Together, we can reduce our collective vulnerability and increase our overall security posture."

"This advisory reinforces one of the foundational aspects of cyber security, said Lisa Fong, responsible for New Zealand's National Cyber Security Centre. "Malicious actors continue to succeed using the same techniques over and over. I can't emphasise enough the importance of doing the basics well by understanding your assets, and rapidly applying patches when they become available. Acting on CVE reporting is the difference between getting onto your to-do list and getting onto someone else's to-do list."

"This is a timely reminder for organisations that asset lifecycle management and patching policies are incredibly important," Rob Pope Director CERT NZ. "I'd also like to stress that vulnerability disclosure is a very good thing and organisations that supply software or services should have a vulnerability disclosure policy in place as part of the secure-by-design principles. Doing this makes everyone more secure in the long run."

"Vulnerabilities are sadly part and parcel of our online world and we see threat actors continue to take advantage of these weaknesses to compromise systems," said Jonathon Ellison, NCSC-UK Director of Resilience and Future Technology. "This joint advisory with our allies raises awareness of the most routinely exploited vulnerabilities in 2022 to help organisations identify where they might be at risk and take action. To bolster resilience, we encourage organisations to apply all security updates promptly and call on software vendors to ensure security is at the core of their product design to help shift the burden of responsibility away from consumers."

All organizations are encouraged to review and implement the recommended mitigations in this detailed joint CSA.

Organizations should share information about incidents and unusual cyber activity with their respective cybersecurity authorities. When cyber incidents are reported quickly, it can contribute to stopping further attacks. In the U.S., organizations should inform CISA's 24/7 Operations Center at report@cisa.gov

or (888) 282-0870, or an FBI field office.

###

About CISA

As the nation's cyber defense agency and national coordinator for critical infrastructure security, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency leads the national effort to understand, manage, and reduce risk to the digital and physical infrastructure Americans rely on every hour of every day.

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Long-range missile fire enhanced

3 August 2023

Exercise Highball has advanced understanding of how the ADF will employ long-range land-based precision rocket and missile fires in the land and maritime domains.

A combined Australian Joint Operations Command and US Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) initiative, last month's exercise used a range of air, land, space and maritime capabilities to send targeting data to a US Army high mobility artillery rocket system (HIMARS) platoon.

Two HIMARS launcher vehicles from the US Army I Corps' 17th Field Artillery Brigade were hosted by Army's 13th Brigade at Irwin Barracks near Perth ahead of a live-fire from the Lancelin Defence Training Area onto a maritime target located in the offshore Western Australia Exercise Area.

Commander 13th Brigade Brigadier Brett Chaloner said the opportunity to host and collaborate with the US HIMARS team had been insightful and instructive.

"Army and 13 Brigade have been rapidly adapting their posture and purpose in Western Australia," Brigadier Chaloner said.

"Exercise Highball provided an opportunity to explore options that allow us to rapidly integrate and employ critical combat systems like HIMARS in novel ways, and in partnership with other systems and sensors."

Brigadier Chaloner said Army's mastery of long-range fires was critical to Army's future.

"Land-based long-range fires are one of the core elements of the Defence Strategic Review's recommendations," he said.

"HIMARS and associated capabilities will deliver persistent land and maritime strike effects that can dominate a given area, including maritime approaches, while having greater survivability because of the unpredictability of the exact location of any system at any given time.

"In the context of 13th Brigade's mobile and expeditionary nature, the capabilities of the HIMARS mitigates the challenges generated by the vast distances across Western Australia and across the region."

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Pacific commitment adds depth

3 August 2023

His Majesty's Armed Forces - Tonga Contingent Commander, Lieutenant Colonel Tau Aholelei waited to rendezvous with his soldiers who were sat in an armoured cavalry screen in Townsville Field Training Area.

The Tongan soldiers had worked alongside the 2nd/14th Light Horse Regiment as part of Battle Group Warhorse for the past 6 weeks, in a training progression that culminated in Australia's largest Defence Exercise, Talisman Sabre 23.

Lieutenant Colonel Aholelei said the collective training was essential to gain an understanding of Battle Group tactics and procedures to integrate infantry and cavalry troops.

"Our soldiers are light-infantry," Lieutenant Colonel Aholelei said.

"This is the first time we have worked with cavalry as dismounts, where we can support the tactical actions of cavalry."

"New operating procedures are an opportunity for us a to learn and update our training, so we can integrate and operate with motorised or cavalry units on exercises or operations."

Commander of the Australian Army's Combat Training Centre, Colonel Benjamin McLennan, said the Tongan soldiers have added great value to 7th Brigade and Battle Group Warhorse operations.

"The Tongan soldiers have afforded the Battle Group an essential dismounted infantry and cavalry scout capability that clear terrain and seek to close with and destroy enemy tanks," Colonel McLennan said.

"Their actions enable armoured cavalry teams, equipped with Boxer and the Australian Light Armoured Vehicle, to achieve crucial reconnaissance missions as the 'eyes and ears' of the 1st Australian Division."

Lieutenant Colonel Aholelei also said the increased capability and partnership developed by the two militaries adds depth to the battle group should they be called on to conduct operations within the region.

"We want to demonstrate that we add value and are committed to regional security partnerships," Lieutenant Colonel Aholelei said.

"Exercise Talisman Sabre is a great opportunity to work alongside 7th Brigade and the 12 other like-minded nations," he said.

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Collaborative refuelling in the northern skies

3 August 2023

Flying high over northern Australian skies, air-to-air refuelling is an essential component of Exercise Talisman Sabre 2023 as a force multiplier to enable mission success.

For the first time, Royal Australian Air Force KC-30A Multi-Role Tanker Transport aircraft have worked together domestically with United States Air Force KC-46A Pegasus to provide coordinated refuelling for the deployed Air Task Group.

Deployed out of RAAF Base Darwin, SQNLDR Craig Whiting, the Detachment Commander for No. 33 Squadron, explained the combined procedures both tankers are implementing to coordinate refuelling in the airspace.

"Exercise Talisman Sabre provides an interoperability that you cannot get when you're operating dislocated," he said.

"When we're operating together, we learn about each other's systems, processes, and infrastructure."

Many US and Australian aircraft rely on the KC-30A and KC-46A to enable the long-range strike capability include the USAF F-22 Raptors, United States Navy F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, and RAAF F-35s Lightning II.

These aircraft are refuelled using the Advanced Refuelling Boom System mounted on the tail or a pair of air refuelling pods under each wing of the KC-30A and centreline of the KC-46A.

Detachment Commander Major John Webb said that this is the first time the KC-46s have staged out of Darwin in this magnitude, with seven aircraft and 150 unit personnel.

"The importance of our tankers on a large exercise like Talisman Sabre is that if air-to-air refuelling didn't exist, we wouldn't be able to conduct this exercise," he said.

"I've always described air refuelling as the lashing for the tip of the spear."

The KC-46A and KC-30A are able to refuel both USAF and RAAF aircraft due to the similarities with how the refuelling systems are designed.

This enables both aircraft to fly in formation and use different training and operating systems alongside common procedures in order to succeed.

This integration has been excellent, said Major Webb.

"I feel that our relationship is growing between both tanker communities and I'm looking forward to continuing to work with the RAAF KC-30s."

Exercise Talisman Sabre runs from 21 July to 04 August and tests Air Force's ability to deploy to forward operating bases and sustain high-intensity air operations, including employing large forces over distance.

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Global joint forces working as one

3 August 2023

Seven nations have worked to overcome the vast distances of the Indo-Pacific during Exercise Mobility Guardian.

The exercise involved more than 3000 participants from Australia, Canada, France, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States and New Zealand.

Normally conducted within the United States, this year's exercise spanned an area from Tokyo to Townsville, and Darwin to Hawaii.

The goal was to deploy across the Indo-Pacific and deliver the mobilisation, deployment and sustainment functions required by the joint force.

This included air-to-air refuelling, strategic airlift, and airdrop missions - through to aeromedical evacuation (AME), search and rescue, and humanitarian assistance.

Major General Darren Cole with the United States Air Force's Air Mobility Command (AMC) was the Exercise Director.

"The success of the joint force requires a capable and integrated mobility Air Force that has the ability to rapidly deploy and employ in contested, degraded and operationally limited environments," Major General Cole said.

"Through Mobility Guardian, we have [had] the opportunity to become a more tightly integrated force, refining how we all operate, making our mission one and the same."

Aircraft arrived from around the globe - including a Royal Air Force A400M that landed in Guam after a non-stop flight from its base outside London, aided by three in-flight refuellings.

At RAAF Bases Darwin and Townsville, 13 Squadron and 27 Squadron projected United States Air Force tanker and transport aircraft on missions to faraway airspace.

A RAAF contingent at Andersen Air Force Base in Guam included a C-130J Hercules, C-17A Globemaster III and AME teams.

Flight Lieutenant Peter Spearman led a RAAF C-17A contingent from 36 Squadron.

"The main objective of the exercise was to practise interoperability and coalition planning within the Indo-Pacific," Flight Lieutenant Spearman said.

"Everyone operating on different procedures and aircraft types made it a challenge, but when it all came together during the mission, it made it more satisfying."

Interfly arrangements - whereby RAAF and United States Air Force (USAF) C-17A aircrew serve on each other's aircraft - were conducted on the exercise.

"This is the first time that RAAF and United States Air Force AMC C-17As have conducted interfly together, although we have conducted this with United States Pacific Air Forces," Flight Lieutenant Spearman said.

"It was very successful. It took a bit of work pre-exercise, but the interfly flights with loadmasters and pilots were conducted successfully between RAAF and USAF C-17As.

"We also conducted maintenance interoperability, with a RAAF C-17A maintenance team working with AMC to conduct maintenance on their aircraft."

Flying Officer Tyrone Osborn is a combat systems officer with 37 Squadron, and deployed to Guam with the Hercules.

"We flew AME scenarios, search and rescue, and a mass airdrop mission amongst a large formation of airlift aircraft," Flying Officer Osborn said.

"I've found Mobility Guardian to be an incredible opportunity not only for myself but for the RAAF, to have this opportunity to interact with all of these nations.

"It's great to see how all these different nations operate and run."

The exercise's multinational fleet included C-130s, A400Ms and C-17A Globemasters; as well as KC-135 and KC-46A tankers, and A330 Multi-Role Tanker Transports.

Each aircraft brought unique capabilities to Exercise Mobility Guardian missions, but the human element was perhaps the most important training outcome.

"Some of the things that we've learned are [about] the interactions with people - relying on people, meeting new people, asking favours and doing the same for them," Flying Officer Osborn said.

"Planning is key - especially in this sort of environment where we've got bilingual partners or missions with many nations, interoperability between us is really important.

"One of our captains was lead planner on one of the mass airdrops. He was herding everyone together and we achieved mission success, and he can now take those learning points back to our squadron."

Flying Officer Alyssa Collins, a nursing officer with 3 AME Squadron, said the experience of Exercise Mobility Guardian will aid future operations.

"As we see in Australia, we have natural disasters like fires and floods, and the ADF links in with civilian agencies there," Flying Officer Collins said.

"Coming here to Mobility Guardian helps us to strengthen those relationships [with other nations] so that we can provide that assistance within the Indo-Pacific if and when required.

"Learning the differences that we have in our team dynamics helps us to understand how we're going to integrate together if we're to fly AME missions together."

For Flying Officer Collins, the exercise was her first time working overseas with other nations on AME missions.

"I've had a great time working with our partner air forces," Flying Officer Collins said.

"Bringing in all the forces together and getting to see their dynamics and teams is a fantastic experience for myself and our squadron.

"We've learned a lot - we're very keen to integrate as much as possible so that we've got that seamless process so that we're ready if and when required."

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AUKUS nuke submarine deal a threat to global security, intl NPT regime: report

Global Times

By Wang Qi Published: Aug 03, 2023 10:44 PM

The AUKUS nuclear submarine deal, which is rooted in "great power competition," poses a serious risk to regional and global security and the international non-proliferation regime, says a joint report by a Chinese and a Russian think tank at a seminar held in Vienna.

Analysts said on Thursday that the report will help the global community form a stronger international consensus, better maintain peace, ensure prosperity, and resist the scheme of the US-led bloc.

The report, titled "The AUKUS submarine deal: risks for the nuclear non-proliferation regime and global security", was jointly released by the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association and Russia's Center for Energy and Security Studies on Wednesday.

"The AUKUS strategic military cooperation is unprecedented and goes against the goals and spirit of the NPT (Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons), and may inflict severe damage on the international non-proliferation regime and the NPT itself," says the report.

The AUKUS submarine cooperation "exploits an important lacuna of the non-proliferation regime and reduces political and moral barriers to nuclear proliferation," it adds. It also poses challenges to the safeguard system of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), according to the report.

"Possible attempts of behind-the-scenes discussions between the parties to AUKUS and the IAEA Secretariat can lead to the politicization of the Secretariat and erode overall trust in the IAEA," the report notes.

Under the trilateral AUKUS alliance, announced in September 2021, Australia can build nuclear-powered submarines with technology provided by the US and the UK. The AUKUS deal involves the transfer of up to four tons of weapons-grade highly enriched uranium from the US and UK, two nuclear-weapon states, to Australia, a non-nuclear-weapon state.

The AUKUS deal, "rooted in a US model of 'great power competition'," brings fresh uncertainties to regional and global security by stimulating some non-nuclear-weapon states' interest in nuclear weapon options and prompting an arms race and possibly a nuclear submarine arms race, says the report.

It says the IAEA member states and the IAEA Board of Governors should be involved in ensuring a reliable and effective arrangement for the AUKUS deal in favor of the NPT and non-proliferation regime.

It also calls on all countries to uphold the international non-proliferation regime, specifically to address the risks of the AUKUS deal through open and inclusive dialogue and cooperation.

Li Haidong, a professor at the China Foreign Affairs University, described AUKUS as "time bomb" and "cancer cell" to the Asia-Pacific and even the world security mechanism.

According to the expert, in the past, the world nuclear non-proliferation mechanism was characterized by cooperation and coordination among major countries, which prevented global nuclear proliferation from becoming rampant and going out of control. But currently, the US and UK are tearing up the international nuclear non-proliferation mechanism through AUKUS, which would lead to division.

The existence of AUKUS will bring the Asia-Pacific region and even the entire world into crisis: the conventional arms race will go out of control, as will the nuclear arms race, and the process of building a security framework would be extremely chaotic, Li told the Global Times.

The Asia-Pacific region has enjoyed prosperity and stability for almost 50 years. The key to peace and stability is for countries and regions to be able to form a close community of interests and values. However, the existence of AUKUS may undermine the Asia-Pacific region's cherished opportunity for peaceful development, analysts said.

The report could help peace-loving countries around the world form a stronger international consensus to resist the schemes of the US, UK and Australia, and to better maintain peace and ensure prosperity, Li said.

More than 80 delegates, including researchers from the two think tanks and diplomats, attended the seminar. It was held as a side event at the ongoing first meeting of the Preparatory Committee for the 2026 Review Conference of the Parties to NPT, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

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US Conducts First Ever Live Firing of ATACMS Missile in Australia - Reports

Sputnik News

20230803

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The US military test-fired an MGM-140 ATACMS long-range tactical surface-to-surface ballistic missile for the first time in Australia during the Talisman Sabre 2023 exercise in late July, the Australian Defence Magazine reported on Thursday.

The missile was fired from an M142 HIMARS launcher at the Delamere range in Australia's Northern Territory, according to the report. The HIMARS was delivered by a US transport aircraft MC-130J from the Shoalwater Bay Training Area in the state of Queensland.

At the Shoalwater Bay range, multiple M31 guided missiles were fired from HIMARS launchers earlier during Talisman Sabre.

In April, the Australian government announced plans to spend $2.7 billion to purchase HIMARS and to launch domestic production of guided missiles.

The Talisman Saber 2023 drills are scheduled to run from July 21-August 4.

A Sputnik

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Belarus: EU adopts new round of individual sanctions over continued human rights abuses and imposes further targeted measures in response to involvement in Russia's military aggression against Ukraine

European Council / Council of the European Union

Council of the EU

Press release

3 August 2023

The Council today imposed sanctions on an additional 38 individuals and 3 entities. It also extended export bans to firearms, aviation and space industry.

We have adopted new sanctions in reaction to the Lukashenko's illegitimate regime continued systematic, widespread and gross human rights violations and brutal repression against all segments of the Belarusian society. Today we are also taking further measures against the Belarusian regime as an accomplice in Russia's illegal and unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine. We stand by the Belarusian people in their quest for peace and democracy.

- Josep Borrell, High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy

In light of the deteriorating human rights situation in Belarus, the EU adopted new restrictive measures against 38 individuals and 3 entities from Belarus who are responsible for serious human rights violations, contribute to the repression of civil society and democratic forces, as well as those who benefit from and support the Lukashenko regime.

The new listings include penitentiary officials responsible for the torture and ill-treatment of detainees, including political prisoners, prominent propagandists, as well as members of the judicial branch involved in prosecuting and sentencing democratic opponents, members of civil society and journalists.

Sanctions also target state-owned enterprises which have taken measures against employees or dismissed them for participating in peaceful protests and strikes. Belneftekhim, a state-controlled oil and chemical conglomerate, is also listed as one of the strategic companies, which is supporting the Lukashenko regime.

Altogether, EU restrictive measures on Belarus now apply to a total of 233 individuals and 37 entities. Those designated are subject to an asset freeze and EU citizens and companies are forbidden from making funds available to them. Natural persons are additionally subject to a travel ban, which impedes them from entering or transiting through EU territories.

The relevant legal acts, including the names of the persons concerned, have been published in the Official Journal.

Moreover, in response to Belarus's continuous involvement in Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, the EU imposed targeted restrictive measures, namely the following:

export ban on goods and technology suited for use in aviation and the space industry , including aircraft engines and drones

, including aircraft engines and drones prohibition of sale, supply, transfer or export of firearms , their parts and essential components and ammunition

, their parts and essential components and ammunition further export restrictions on goods used by Russia for its war of aggression against Ukraine, including semiconductor devices, electronic integrated circuits, manufacturing and testing equipment, photographic cameras and optical components

extended export ban on dual-use goods and technology

Belarus also remains subject to restrictions in the financial sector, trade, energy, transport and others.

Background

EU autonomous sanctions vis-A -vis Belarus have been in place since 2004. Since August 2020, in response to the fraudulent presidential elections and the brutal crackdown on civil society and democratic opposition, the EU has imposed successive rounds of sanctions against those responsible for internal repression and human rights violations in Belarus, those undermining democracy and the rule of law, as well as against other persons associated with the Lukashenko regime. The forced landing of a civilian airplane in May 2021 and the arrest of a Belarusian journalist triggered a first round of sectoral measures. Since March 2022, the EU has broadened the scope of sectoral measures on Belarus, in response to Belarus's involvement in Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine. These measures signal to the responsible political and economic actors that their actions and support for the Lukashenko regime and involvement in the Russian war effort come at a cost.

The EU condemns in the strongest possible terms Belarus's involvement in Russia's unprovoked and unjustified war of aggression against Ukraine and continues to urge Belarus to stop its collaboration in Russia's war. Moreover, the EU is determined to address the human rights situation in the country and will continue to support the Belarusian people in their legitimate quest for democracy, including through support to civil society and independent media.

The relevant legal acts, including the names of the listed individuals and entities, have been published in the Official Journal of the European Union.

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Russia's illegal war of aggression against Ukraine: EU agrees to extend the scope of sanctions on Belarus to fight circumvention

European Commission

Press release

3 August 2023

Brussels

The European Commission welcomes today's adoption by the Council of further targeted restrictive measures arising from Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine, and in response to Belarus's involvement in the aggression.

In particular, the new measures create a closer alignment of EU sanctions targeting Russia and Belarus and will help to ensure that Russian sanctions cannot be circumvented through Belarus.

The measures expand the ban on exports to Belarus to a number of highly sensitive goods and technologies which contribute to Belarus's military and technological enhancement. The Council also imposes an additional export ban on firearms and ammunition, and on goods and technology suited for use in aviation and the space industry. The changes also align the Belarus sanctions with the Russia sanctions regime.

These restrictive measures are fast-tracked in view of the urgency linked to the fight against circumvention regarding certain highly sensitive goods and technologies. They are without prejudice to the remainder of the proposals presented by the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Commission to amend Decision 2012/642/CFSP and Regulation (EC) No 765/2006 on 26 January 2023, which remain on the table.

Background

The EU's sanctions against Russia are proving effective. They are limiting Russia's ability to wage the war against Ukraine, including to manufacture new weapons and repair existing ones, as well as hinder its transport of material.

The geopolitical, economic, and financial implications of Russia's continued war of aggression against Ukraine are clear, as the war has disrupted global commodities markets, especially for agrifood products and energy. The EU continues to ensure that its sanctions do not impact energy and agrifood exports from Russia to third countries.

As guardian of the EU Treaties, the European Commission monitors the enforcement of EU sanctions by EU Member States.

In addition, the European Commission is determined to make every effort to ensure that the sanctions are implemented and is committed to combating their circumvention. As part of the 11th package of sanctions against Russia, the EU has adopted new anti-circumvention measures in June 2023. The EU continues to work closely with third countries, and will continue providing guidance and technical assistance on the scope of EU sanctions.

The EU stands united in its solidarity with Ukraine, and will continue to support Ukraine and its people together with its international partners, including through additional political, financial, military and humanitarian support for as long as necessary.

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EU imposes new sanctions against Belarus

Government Offices of Sweden

03 August 2023

Ahead of the anniversary of the August 2020 presidential election in Belarus, the EU is imposing new sanctions in response to the increased domestic repression in the country. The measures are also in response to Belarus's support for Russia's aggression against Ukraine.

The EU is imposing sanctions against people responsible for oppression of the Belarusian democratic opposition and against companies with links to the Belarusian regime. The EU is also introducing increased export restrictions on goods and technology that can be used to strengthen Belarus's war capacity.

"The Swedish Government condemns the restrictions on democracy and human rights that we continue to see in Belarus. With these new measures, Sweden and the EU are demonstrating that we stand on the side of the Belarusian people and support the country's democratic forces. It's important that we continue to put pressure on Belarus in light of the oppression in the country and its open support for Russia's aggression against Ukraine," says Minister for Foreign Affairs Tobias BillstrAm.

The 2020 presidential election was held under undemocratic circumstances and followed by widespread popular protests. The EU does not recognise the election since it was considered to be neither free nor fair and therefore failed to meet international requirements.

After the 2020 election, repression in Belarus has continued to worsen. The number of political prisoners in the country has increased dramatically, and arbitrary detentions and politically motivated trials against human rights defenders and the democratic opposition have also increased.



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The President on the Wagner group in Belarus: We must be prepared for all scenarios

President of the Republic of Lithuania

August 03, 2023

On Thursday, President Gitanas NausAda met with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki in SuwaAki to discuss the security situation on the border, the threats posed by the presence of the Wagner group in Belarus, the likelihood of provocations and the readiness to counter them.

The President stressed that the presence of Wagner mercenaries in neighboring Belarus is an additional and very important security risk factorawe need to stay vigilant and prepared for any scenario.

President Gitanas NausAda underlined the importance of further strengthening the borders with Russia (Kaliningrad Oblast) and Belarus. The State Defense Council has agreed to strengthen intelligence capabilities in the border area, as well as to enhance interoperability between border guards and the army. According to the President, Lithuania is closely monitoring the situation and is ready to take action to counter all threats to its security, including the Wagner threat.

Gitanas NausAda highlighted that we need to continue to raise NATO's awareness of the additional security risks posed by Wagner mercenaries to the security of both countries and other NATO allies. This factor must be seriously taken into account also in the context of NATO's deterrence and defense.

According to the President, actions by the Wagner group would be considered as part of the actions by the Russian Federation. Gitanas NausAda pointed out that NATO's newly approved defense plans provide for a collective defense response from the very first moment of a threat, and ensure an even greater defense response by NATO's eastern flank as well as the presence of NATO forces in Lithuania up to the level of a brigade.

The Lithuanian President and the Polish Prime Minister also discussed Ukraine's grain exports and the need to find concrete solutions to help Ukraine increase the volumes of its grain exports.

The President's Communication Group

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Poland Warns Of Wagner Buildup In Belarus

By RFE/RL's Russian Service August 03, 2023

Poland has warned that a growing presence of mercenaries from Russia's Wagner private military firm in Belarus is aimed at destabilizing NATO's eastern flank amid the ongoing Russian war in Ukraine.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, speaking after a meeting with Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda on August 3, said NATO allies must increase vigilance as the likelihood of provocations remains very high.

Morawiecki was speaking two days after two Belarusian military helicopters that were conducting training exercises near the border briefly violated Poland's airspace.

The Belarusian Defense Ministry denied that its helicopters violated Polish airspace, accusing Warsaw of "fabrications."

"We need to be aware that the number of provocations will rise," Morawiecki said at a news briefing with Nauseda.

"The Wagner group is extremely dangerous and they are being moved to the eastern flank to destabilize it."

Morawiecki and Nauseda met in the Polish border town of Suwalki, which sits on what is known as the Suwalki Corridor -- the 80-kilometer stretch that is NATO's only land connection with Baltic members Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.

The Suwalki Corridor separates Moscow's exclave of Kaliningrad from Belarus and is seen as a potential target for Russia in order to isolate the Baltic states in case of a conflict with NATO.

"Some people say the agreement reached at the NATO summit on Sweden's future membership is changing the geopolitical situation, and the strategic importance of the Suwalki Corridor is diminishing," Nauseda said, referring to last month's summit of the military alliance that moved Sweden closer to joining the group.

"I certainly do not agree with this view and I believe that the Suwalki Corridor remains a potential target of provocation by both Russia and Belarus," he said, adding that Wagner could have more than 4,000 fighters already in Belarus.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/belarus-poland-lithuania- wagner-suwalki/32532747.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 steps up political control over religious venues, sermons and activities

Religious venues must support Xi Jinping's 'sinicization' campaign and are banned from overseas.

By Gao Feng for RFA Mandarin 2023.08.03 -- The ruling Chinese Communist Party is stepping up control over religious venues that will ban ties with overseas organizations while forcing them to deliver 'patriotic' education to believers.

According to new rules taking effect from Sept. 1, monasteries, temples, mosques, churches and other religious activity venues are required to support the leadership of the Communist Party of China and leader Xi Jinping's plans for the "sinicization" of religious activity.

"No organization or individual may use religious activity sites to conduct activities that endanger national security, disrupt social order [or] damage national interests," a copy of the rules published on the website of the party's outreach and influence arm, the United Front Work Department, said.

Managers of religious venues, who will be thoroughly vetted by religious affairs officials, must "love the motherland and support the leadership of the Communist Party of China and the socialist system."

The rules form part of an ongoing political campaign to "sinicize" religious activity that has already included the hanging of portraits of Xi Jinping in churches, a ban on Christmas celebrations and enforced demolition work at major mosques and churches to remove domes and crosses.

Venues must submit detailed plans for activities for approval in advance, and have a duty to "educate religious citizens to love the motherland" and comply with sinicization policies, according to the guidelines.

They must also keep files on all staff or residents detailing their religious and social activities and any contact with overseas organizations or individuals.

Meanwhile, the government has some pointers for the content of any sermons or teachings.

"The content of sermons shall be appropriate for the Chinese national situation ... and embody socialist core values."

Venues will be required to engage in nationalistic and patriotic education, and promote the use of Mandarin in religious activities and writings.

Venues must "integrate Chinese culture and embody Chinese style in terms of architecture, sculpture, painting, decoration and so on," according to the guidelines, which warn "it is forbidden to build large open-air religious statues outside temples and churches."

Wider crackdown coming

Meanwhile, crowdfunding from religious believers to build or extend venues now appears to be a thing of the past.

"It is prohibited to invest in, contract and operate religious activity sites or large open-air religious statues," the guidelines say.

Management teams are expected to "stop illegal religious activities and cult activities, resist religious extremism, and prevent foreign forces from using religion to infiltrate [their organization]."

The rules include a ban on accepting teaching posts from overseas religious groups or institutions without prior authorization, and on accepting donations from overseas.

Religious groups are also banned from carrying out unapproved activities outside their pre approved, scheduled programs, and against hosting unapproved religious activities in a site not approved for such activities.

A Buddhist monk who gave the religious name Shi Daoguo said the new rules won't be good news for religious believers in China.

"Buddhism is a religion of wisdom, which should train people to think independently," he said. "But sinicized Buddhism is just a form of organizational brainwashing in disguise."

"It can't lead people to free or independent thought."

Shi Daoguo said he is already under close surveillance by local officials, who have cut off his religious credentials and his income after he started to speak out against the sinicization of his religion.

"All of my documentation has been revoked, and my phone is being monitored," he said. "They can cripple you financially, making it very difficult for you ... without any formal affiliation with a religious venue or any donations, there is no income."

Buddhist monks are generally expected to renounce material wealth and rely on laypeople to provide their food and other necessities through donation.

Chang Chia-lin, a professor at the Institute of Mainland China at Taiwan's Tamkang University, said the new rules represent the triumph of politics over spirituality.

"One another level, it means that politics trumps religion, so that if you break these rules, they can take legal action against you," Chang said.

"I think that these religious venues will be forced to obey the government after Sept. 1 ... either the State Administration of Religious Affairs or the United Front Work Department."



Translated with additional reporting by Luisetta Mudie.

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 August 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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Hong Kong police question family of Elmer Yuen amid plan for parliament-in-exile

Yuen's ex-wife, son and daughter are taken in for questioning by national security police, reports say.

By Amelia Loi for RFA Mandarin and Simon Lee for RFA Cantonese 2023.08.03 -- Hong Kong police on Thursday took the family members of U.S.-based businessman and democracy activist Elmer Yuen for questioning, in the latest in a series of moves targeting the relatives of eight prominent overseas activists wanted under a draconian national security law, local media reported.

Police took away Yuen's ex-wife Yuen Stephanie Downs and their daughter Yuen Mi-shu and son Yuen Mi-man, the Ming Pao newspaper reported, while government broadcaster Radio Television Hong Kong cited police sources as saying Yuen's ex-wife, son and daughter had been hauled in for questioning.

"According to sources, officers were seeking information on whether they remained in touch with Yuen or have any financial dealings with him," RTHK reported.

The raids came after police raided the homes of three other Yuen family members on July 24, taking them away for questioning on suspicion of "assisting fugitives in continuing to engage in acts that endanger national security."

Police have also launched similar actions against the family members of two other exiled pro-democracy activists who, like Yuen, are on a wanted list of eight prominent overseas activists with bounties on their heads.

Thursday's move came two days after Yuen held a news conference in London to campaign for a Hong Kong parliament-in-exile to be returned by democratic votes of Hong Kongers around the world.

Speaking in London on Tuesday, Yuen said he wouldn't be deterred by the police action against his relatives.

"Freedom for Hong Kong is more important than my personal wealth, freedom, or the freedom and safety of my family," he said. "I would say that the future of Hong Kong is more important than me and my family."

"I know I am taking risks, but there is a price to be paid, and that is a price that we should be paying," he said.

In August 2022 Yuen told Radio Free Asia that China's state security police had tried to get him to shelve the parliament plan, warning that his activism could bring down repercussions on his family.

Appeal to exiles

But Yuen said he expects around one million voters to turn out in worldwide online elections for the parliament, which he hopes will choose among 50-100 candidates to form the first Hong Kong Parliament in exile.

He said it's time for the people of Hong Kong, many of whom have left the city amid an ongoing crackdown on dissent, to stand up and take responsibility for their own fate.

"We used to leave it all up to the British, and let them handle everything as long as we could do business, and we would pay our taxes," he said.

"Then it was handed over to the Chinese Communist Party to implement the Basic Law [intended to protect the city's rights and freedoms] while we just sat back and watched," he said. "That was a very problematic approach."

"Now, we're going to set up our own parliament in a way that suits us, and we will be our own masters," Yuen said, adding that the parliament would likely be physically located in London, but carry out its business in online meetings.

Yuen cited Ukraine's response to the Russian invasion as an example of taking responsibility for one's own fate while still campaigning for help from the international community.

Simon Cheng, who founded the group Hongkongers in Britain, said he believes the parliamentary process would be the best way to engage Hong Kongers around the world.

"Democratic voting is the best way to connect with Hong Kong people, because this is a core part of Hong Kong people's identity," he said.

Cheng said the parliament would give the people of Hong Kong an international voice, and a platform from which to respond to the actions of the Hong Kong government.

A preparatory committee is currently in the process of consulting with Hong Kongers around the world on how best to run the parliament and its electoral system, with an election committee due to be formed later this month, according to the news conference.

Translated by Luisetta Mudie.

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 August 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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US, Chinese Security Officials Discuss Defense Relations

By VOA News August 03, 2023

The U.S. Defense Department said Wednesday the Pentagon's top official for Asia has discussed U.S.-China defense relations and regional security issues with a Chinese foreign ministry official.

The talks between Ely Ratner, U.S. assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs, and Yang Tao, director of the Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry's Department of North American and Oceanian Affairs, came days after Ratner and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin wrapped up a trip focused on strengthening defense ties with Australia and Papua New Guinea and promoting a "free and open Indo-Pacific."

Pentagon spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Martin Meiners said in a statement Wednesday that Ratner "also emphasized the Department's ongoing commitment to maintaining open lines of military-to-military communication" between the United States and China in his talks with Yang.

U.S. officials have spoken of the need for U.S.-China communications as a way to avoid conflict.

Austin told an Asian security forum in June that such communication is essential to prevent miscalculations.

Chinese National Defense Minister Li Shangfu refused Austin's requests to meet during the summit, and the two defense chiefs only shook hands without any "substantive exchange," the Pentagon said.

Jeff Seldin contributed to this report. Some information for this report came from Reuters.

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Press Statement by Director General of Department of Chinese Affairs of DPRK Foreign Ministry

Korean Central News Agency of DPRK

Pyongyang, August 4 (KCNA) -- Maeng Yong Rim, director general of the Department of Chinese Affairs of the Foreign Ministry of the DPRK, issued the following press statement on August 3:

Recently, the U.S. made public "Weapons Aid Package" for providing Taiwan with weapons worth 345 million U.S. dollars, thus driving the military tensions in the Asia-Pacific region to another ignition point of war.

In less than three years since the present U.S. administration came into power, it provided military aid to Taiwan as times as the preceding administration had done.

The U.S. is planning to provide Taiwan with military aid worth 10 billion U.S. dollars for the coming five years and emergency defense aid worth a billion U.S. dollars every year.

This constitutes a flagrant violation of the one China principle, which the U.S. committed itself before the Chinese government and people, and of the spirit of the three China-U.S. joint communiquAs. It is also an interference in internal affairs of China and a grave encroachment on China's sovereignty and security.

The U.S. says in public that it abides by the principle of one China but instigates in the rear the "independence" of Taiwan, inseparable part of China. Such shameless duality and double-dealing of the U.S. are a dangerous political and military provocation totally destroying the stability of the regional situation and an anti-peace reckless act which must be condemned by the world people.

It is very natural that the Chinese government and army clearly reiterated their stand resolutely opposing the U.S. provision of weapons to Taiwan island and scathingly censured that such acts are making Taiwan a "powder keg" and "ammunition depot" and driving the situation in the Taiwan Strait to the brink of war.

While talking about the improvement of relations with China, the present U.S. administration is clinging to the Taiwan issue, the most important core interests of China. Its intention is clear.

It is the sinister intention of the U.S. to turn Taiwan into an unsinkable advanced base against China and the first-line trench for carrying out its strategy for deterring China and thus secure its hegemonic position in the Asia-Pacific region.

But the U.S. ambition for hegemony can never work on the strength of the powerful Chinese people.

What the "Taiwanese independence" separatist forces have gotten from the U.S. arms sale to Taiwan is nothing but to turn its island into a U.S. huge old weapon exhibition and a heap of scrap iron.

If the U.S. persists in dangerous acts of provoking the core interests of China while repeatedly violating the red line set by China in the Taiwan issue, it will surely have to pay a high price for them.

The Asia-Pacific region including the Korean peninsula and the Taiwan Strait is neither a theatre of the U.S. military activity nor a test site of war.

Independent and sovereign states in the Asia-Pacific region have the strength and will to firmly defend their sovereignty and core interests from the U.S. high-handed and arbitrary practices.

We brand the U.S. moves to instigate the "Taiwanese independence" separatist forces as a wanton interference in the internal affairs of China and a grave encroachment upon its sovereignty and strongly denounce and reject them.

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea will fully support any measure of the People's Republic of China to defend the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country and achieve the sacred cause of the unification of the Chinese nation. -0-

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In Remote Indian State, Festering Ethnic Conflict Poses Challenge to Modi

By Anjana Pasricha August 02, 2023

In India's remote northeastern state of Manipur, violence that erupted in May has created a deep ethnic divide between two communities and become a political flashpoint between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and opposition parties.

Three months after mobs rampaged through towns and villages, tensions run high between the Meiteis, who are predominantly Hindu and the Kukis and other tribes, who are mostly Christian. Thousands of security forces patrol the hilly state that lies on the border of Myanmar.

The toll of the conflict so far: about 140 people dead and hundreds of homes torched. An estimated 60,000 people who were displaced still live in refugee camps in the state of 3.2 million.

Among those who fled their home were the parents and other family of Hoihnu Hauzel, who lives in Gurugram near New Delhi. She told VOA her family home was attacked by a mob in the capital Imphal.

"They came pelted stones, burst cylinders, it was like they were out to get us. There were babies, my 2-year-old niece, my neighbor's daughters, elderly people, they were really driven out," said Hauzel, who belongs to the Kuki community.

There have been victims of violence on all sides. Now the two communities are geographically divided along ethnic lines a Kukis and other tribes live in the hills, and the valley is inhabited by the Meiteis.

Outside villages, young men hunker down in bunkers to guard their people and control their territories.

Fault lines 'out of control'

Insurgencies and tribal rivalries have troubled Manipur for decades, but the ethnic divide this time runs deep. Analysts question why Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party government, which controls both the federal government and the Manipur administration, has failed to stem the conflict.

"These fault lines have always existed, but they were allowed to go out of control," according to Neerja Chowdhury, author and political analyst. "And the fact that the government of the state and the Centre cannot get a grip on the situation three months on is a very worrying phenomenon."

The trigger for the conflict roiling the state was a ruling handed down by the Manipur high court in March that would potentially give the Meiteis more access to land and jobs reserved for Kukis and other tribes, who fear that the action could adversely affect them.

The court order set off protests and the violence that raged in early May a the scars left behind by rampaging mobs run deep. "We have had historical feuds with different communities, but it was not with so much of vehement and aggravated hatred like this," pointed out Hauzel. "The manner in which the attacks were carried out, it is so hurtful, this is what is going to stay in the minds of people."

The Supreme Court, while hearing a case on violence against women in the state, said this week that there had been a "complete breakdown" of law and order and constitutional machinery in Manipur. "There is a great need for a healing touch in the state," according to Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud.

A 21-member delegation from opposition parties that visited Manipur on the weekend said in a memorandum submitted to the state governor that "there is anger and a sense of alienation amongst all communities, which has to be addressed without delay."

Video draws attention to violence

While the remote state rarely grabs national headlines, the spotlight turned on Manipur after a video of two women being paraded naked went viral two weeks ago. One of the women was allegedly gang raped, according to a police complaint filed about the incident. It was one of several incidents of violence reported against women as mobs rampaged the state amid the ethnic rivalry.

It prompted Modi to promise tough action. "What happened to the daughters of Manipur can never be forgiven," he said speaking outside parliament on July 20.

That did not satisfy opposition parties a the main opposition Congress Party has moved a no confidence motion against the Modi government that will be debated next week starting Monday.

The motion is likely to be easily defeated as the BJP enjoys an overwhelming majority in parliament, but opposition leaders say the move could force Modi to speak on the conflict. There have been widespread questions on the prime minister's public silence a while he addressed the sexual violence against women shown in the video, he has not spoken about the wider conflict.

"As head of government, people expected him to say something about it and if nothing else to appeal for peace," according to analyst Chowdhury. "Now the government is stirring itself and the first thing that will have to be done is to fix accountability."

The government has said it is opening peace talks between the two communities and ensuring security. But as the state remains on edge, it may not be easy to bridge the ethnic divide.

"There is disappointment in the state that the government did not come early to wave a green flag between the two communities," according to Hauzel. "It is going to take many, many years to heal the state and for that we have to ensure that there is justice delivered to begin with."

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Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi speaks with President of South Africa

India - Ministry of External Affairs

August 03, 2023

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a telephone conversation today with His Excellency, Mr. Matemela Cyril Ramaphosa, President of the Republic of South Africa.

The two leaders positively assessed the progress in bilateral cooperation, including in the context of the thirtieth anniversary of establishment of bilateral diplomatic relations being celebrated in 2023.

President Ramaphosa invited PM for the BRICS Summit being hosted by South Africa on August 22-24, 2023 and briefed him on the preparations for the same. PM accepted the invitation and conveyed that he looked forward to his visit to Johannesburg to participate in the Summit.

They also exchanged views on a number of regional and global issues of mutual interest.

President Ramaphosa conveyed his full support to India's initiatives as part of its ongoing G-20 Presidency and said that he looked forward to visiting India to attend the G-20 Summit.

The two leaders agreed to remain in touch.

New Delhi

August 03, 2023

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PORT CALL OF INS SAHYADRI AND INS KOLKATA TO PORT MORESBY, PAPUA NEW GUINEA

India - Press Information Bureau

Ministry of Defence

Posted On: 03 AUG 2023 2:22PM by PIB Delhi

Indian Naval Ships Sahyadri and Kolkata, mission deployed in the Eastern IOR, arrived at Port Moresby on 02 Aug 23, for enhancing maritime partnership and cooperation with Papua New Guinea.

During the port call, the crew from the two ships will engage with personnel from PNG Defence Forces in a wide range of activities including professional interactions, cultural exchanges, Yoga sessions and ships visits. The port call is aimed at strengthening ties between India and Papua New Guinea in the maritime domain.

INS Sahyadri is the third ship of the indigenously designed and built Project-17 class multirole stealth frigates and is commanded by Capt Rajan Kapoor. INS Kolkata is the first ship of the indigenously designed and built Project-15A class destroyers and is commanded by Capt Sharad Sinsunwal. Both the ships have been built at Mazagon Dock Ltd, Mumbai and are armed with an array of modern weapons and sensors which can address threats in all three dimensions.

***

VM/PS



(Release ID: 1945363)

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US says working with Iraq on transfer of blocked Iranian funds

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Aug 3, 2023

Tehran, IRNA -- Washington says it is in contact with the Iraqi government to ensure that Iran's frozen assets, amounting to $10 billion worth of energy debts, can be transferred to the country "consistent with US sanctions."

"We work closely with Iraq to ensure these energy payments are managed in a manner consistent with US sanctions," US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters on Wednesday.

The official said a sanctions waiver issued by the United States last month allows Baghdad to deposit payments into accounts in third countries.

"The electricity waiver provided to Iraq last month allows for the transfer of funds from Iran's restricted accounts in Iraq to restricted accounts in select third-country banks," he explained.

The funds deposited into accounts in third countries would still be restricted and require a US waiver to be accessed by Iran.

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IRGC Ground Force busts terror team in Sistan and Baluchestan

Iran Press TV

Thursday, 03 August 2023 4:01 PM

Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Ground Force has managed to bust a team of terrorists in the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan close to the border with Pakistan.

The Force's Quds Base said in a statement on Thursday that the team had affiliation to a foreign-sponsored terrorist group, and was busted following intricate intelligence and operational measures.

The statement said the IRGC servicemen disbanded the team before carrying out "destructive and terrorist acts" in the southeastern part of Iran.

The operation also resulted in the confiscation of six assault rifles, some of which had telescopic sight mounted on, and a large cache of ammunition.

In a similar incident last month, the IRGC Ground Force busted a team of terrorists in the province. Two terrorists were killed and a third one was arrested in the operation, which also resulted in the confiscation of ammunition, weapons and explosives.

Sistan and Baluchestan borders Pakistan. The province has witnessed several terrorist attacks targeting both civilians and security forces over the past years.

Terrorist groups carrying out attacks against Iranian interests in the southeastern and southwestern parts of the country have known links to a number of repressive regimes in the Persian Gulf region.

Iran's security forces have invariably protected the border areas and managed to repel virtually all terrorist attacks by foreign-backed anti-Revolution elements across the country.

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Number Of Politically Motivated Executions Rising In Iran, Rights Group Says

By Baktygul Chynybaeva August 03, 2023

The U.S.-based Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) says politically motivated executions in Iran are increasing "dramatically" as authorities use capital punishment as a "tactic of intimidation and retribution" amid a wave of unrest that has posed the biggest threat to the Islamic leadership since the revolution in 1979.

The CHRI said in a statement released on August 2 that Iran has executed 17 men -- most of whom were young -- in "blatantly unlawful" prosecutions over the last 10 months. Among them, seven were hanged as of July 2023 for participating in protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, who died in police custody last September, while at least 10 other were executed for various political "crimes."

"The international community must be clear with Iranian authorities that continuing its killing spree will result in an extraordinary intensification of the Islamic republic's political and economic isolation," said Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the CHRI.

"Without strong coordinated international action, the world is green-lighting this carnage," Ghaemi added.

According to the CHRI, individuals prosecuted endured trials marred by "severe" human rights violations, with authorities denying them the right to counsel and even the right to choose their own legal representation, which are guaranteed under Iranian law and international treaties to which Iran is a signatory.

"The aim of these unlawful executions is to eradicate dissent and sow fear among the population. Governments and international organizations have a crucial role in exerting pressure on the Iranian government to put a stop to this state-sanctioned murder," Ghaemi said.

The rate of executions in Iran has been rising sharply, particularly in the wake of the widespread protests following the death of the 22-year-old Amini, who was being held for an alleged head-scarf violation.

Amnesty International says the regime in Tehran executes more people than any other country in the world other than China and recently highlighted the disproportionate impact of drug-related executions among marginalized and economically disadvantaged population in Iran.

The Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, a Washington-based organization specializing in Iranian human rights research, said in a recent report that 135 executions were carried out in Iran in May alone, while Iran Human Rights (IHR) says that since the start of the year, at least 423 executions had been recorded, which indicates "a potential surpassing of last year's tally of 582 hangings and due to the Iranian government's lack of transparency, the actual number of executions is suspected to be much higher than reported."

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-executions- report/32532263.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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Exclusive: Canada Acknowledges Families' Request That ICC Probe Iran's 2020 Downing of Ukrainian Airliner

By Michael Lipin August 03, 2023

Canada is publicly acknowledging for the first time that families, including Canadians, who lost loved ones when Iran shot down a Ukrainian passenger jet in 2020, have asked the International Criminal Court to take action.

The Association of Families of Flight PS752 Victims announced last September that it had made a legal submission to the ICC prosecutor's office to expand an investigation of alleged war crimes in Ukraine to include the Iranian missile strike that downed the Ukraine International Airlines plane. The incident happened as the jet took off from Tehran on January 8, 2020.

The strike killed all 176 people on board, most of them Iranians and Iranian Canadians who were flying to Canada via Kyiv. Iran says its forces mistook the plane for an incoming U.S. missile.

The prosecutor's office at The Hague-based ICC has made no public statement about whether it has opened or intends to open a preliminary examination of the association's nearly 12-month-old request. The ICC is a permanent international court governed by a treaty called the Rome Statute that investigates and tries individuals accused of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression.

Under ICC rules, when considering taking up a case, the prosecutor's office must determine whether there is sufficient evidence of a crime of sufficient gravity falling within the ICC's jurisdiction, whether that crime is subject to genuine national legal proceedings, and whether opening an ICC investigation would serve the interests of justice and the victims.

"If the requirements are not met for initiating an investigation, or if the situation or crimes are not under the ICC's jurisdiction, the ICC's prosecution cannot investigate," the court's website says.

In a message sent to VOA on July 29, Canada's high commissioner in Britain, Ralph Goodale, offered the first public comment by a Canadian official on the families' request.

Goodale was appointed in March 2020 as a special adviser to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Ottawa's response to Iran's downing of Flight PS752. Goodale told VOA that he has continued his advisory role since assuming the ambassadorial post in London in 2021.

"The ICC process is an option that was open to the families to request. They have done so. It is now a matter for the independent ICC Prosecutor to examine and determine," Goodale wrote.

In an interview for the July 19 edition of VOA's Flashpoint Iran podcast, the association's Canada-based spokesman, Kourosh Doustshenas, expressed disappointment that neither Ottawa nor any other government has publicly supported the group's ICC request.

ICC rules allow its prosecutor's office to start an investigation on its own initiative or upon request from any of the 123 states that are parties to the Rome Statute. Those states include Canada, Britain and Sweden, three nations that lost citizens in the downing of Flight PS752. Ukraine, a fourth nation whose citizens were killed, is not a state party, but has accepted ICC jurisdiction over alleged crimes committed on its territory since November 2013.

Britain, Canada, Sweden and Ukraine initiated separate legal action against Iran last month at the International Court of Justice. Also based in The Hague, the ICJ is the main judicial organ of the United Nations, responsible for settling legal disputes between states.

In their July 4 application to the ICJ, the four nations alleged breaches of international legal obligations by Iran in relation to the downing. Tehran rejected the move and accused the complainants of acting in pursuit of "political objectives."

"We have been trying to find out why these countries are reluctant to support our case at the ICC," Doustshenas told VOA. "We understand that [the ICC prosecutors] are overwhelmed with all kinds of investigations that they are currently undertaking, namely investigations of atrocities in Ukraine and elsewhere. But we do not want our case to be forgotten."

In his message to VOA, Goodale said that Britain, Canada, Sweden and Ukraine have "taken nothing off the table" in their pursuit of transparency, accountability and justice for the families of the Flight PS752 victims.

"But we are making certain that in the welter of legal moves that might be made, we are proceeding with proper sequencing on a solid footing without mistakes or self-imposed errors," Goodale wrote.

In reference to the ICC, Goodale said, "As Mr. Doustshenas points out, that office has a lot on its plate right now. In the meantime, we will continue to press forward on other fronts. When you read the text of the remedies we are seeking in the ICJ, they correspond in a major way with the demands of the families from the very beginning."

The four nations have asked the ICJ to declare that Iran violated the 1971 (Montreal) Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Civil Aviation. They also want the court to order Iran to apologize and extradite or prosecute alleged offenders in a transparent and impartial manner, and require it to return missing belongings of victims and provide full compensation for the families' suffering.

The families' association, which thanked the four nations for the ICJ application, has said its primary goal is to "reveal the truth [about Flight PS752] and bring the perpetrators to justice," which it says will "help put a stop to such heinous crimes."

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Iran, Pakistan Discuss Ways to Complete Gas Pipeline Bypassing US Sanctions

By Ayaz Gul August 03, 2023

Iran announced Thursday its readiness to help urgently complete and operationalize a long-delayed multibillion dollar pipeline to export natural gas to neighboring Pakistan.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian, on a three-day visit to Islamabad, made the remarks after delegation-level talks with his Pakistani counterpart, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

"We held important discussions on how we can find solutions to some existing banking and financial problems between the two countries within the framework of the international rules and regulations," Abdollahian told a joint news conference without elaborating. He spoke through his official interpreter.

Tehran maintains that it has finished constructing the nearly 2,700-kilometer pipeline on its side of the border to export Iranian gas to the energy-deficient South Asian neighboring country and is waiting for Islamabad to complete its part of the project.

Pakistani officials told a parliamentary committee hearing earlier this year the agreement that the two countries signed nearly a decade ago requires Pakistan to complete its portion of the pipeline by March 2024 or pay $18 billion in financial penalties to Iran.

Islamabad maintains that sanctions the United States has imposed on Iran over its nuclear program have deterred Pakistan from constructing the pipeline.

Cash-strapped Pakistan reportedly sent a delegation to Washington in March to request the U.S. administration to allow Islamabad to build the pipeline or help pay the expected financial penalty. The mainstream Pakistani Dawn newspaper reported at the time that "Washington is still reviewing the request."

Speaking Thursday, the Iranian foreign minister underscored the project's importance for both countries but did not say if Tehran would ask for the penalty in case Islamabad fails to meet the completion deadline.

"We do believe that the completion of the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline is definitely going to serve the national interests of these two countries," Abdollahian said.

Zardari, reading from a written statement, said he discussed a wide range of bilateral and regional issues with his Iranian counterpart but did not discuss the fate of the gas pipeline project.

Officials in Islamabad have consistently maintained they remain committed to the pipeline, calling it an "important project that symbolizes the friendship between Pakistan and our neighbor."

Last May, Iran and Pakistan jointly inaugurated a marketplace and a power transmission line along their nearly 900-kilometer border in a significant move aimed at expanding bilateral, regional trade and energy cooperation.

Abdollahian said Thursday that in his discussions with Zardari, the two sides agreed to double the annual volume of bilateral trade to $5 billion. He said more border marketplaces would also be set up in the coming months to help enhance the business activity.

"Both sides remain committed and determined to get away from borders mostly characterized by security concerns and issues and move more towards making them as points of interaction, making them borders of economy and trade that can serve the interest of the two countries," the Iranian chief diplomat said.

Insurgent attacks on both sides of their shared border have long strained relations between Iran and Pakistan. Both sides accuse the other of not doing enough to deny sanctuaries to militants operating on their respective soils.

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Kazakhstan-Afghanistan Business Forum Opens In Astana

August 03, 2023

Kazakh Trade and Integration Minister Serik Zhumangharin opened the Kazakh-Afghan Business Forum on August 3, stressing what he called the "importance" of economic ties between the two countries even though Astana considers the Taliban militants running Kabul to be "terrorists."

"I would like to reiterate again that Kazakhstan wants Afghanistan to develop further as an independent, neutral, integral, peaceful, democratic, and flourishing nation. We are interested in preservation of the trade, economic, transportation, logistic, as well as energy cooperation established with Afghanistan," Zhumangharin said.

In all, more than 200 representatives from Afghanistan have arrived in the Kazakh capital for the three-day forum. Kazakh authorities said the majority of those in attendance are businesspeople.

Earlier this week, Deputy Foreign Minister Qanat Tumysh said the forum will not affect Kazakhstan's official stance on the Taliban.

The Taliban is officially considered in Kazakhstan a terrorist organization, though Astana maintains official contact with Afghanistan's Taliban-imposed government.

Tumysh emphasized at the time that none of the 150 Afghan officials and businesspeople expected at the forum were under international sanctions.

On the eve of the forum, Zhumangharin held talks with Taliban Industry and Trade Minister Nuriddin Azizi, who arrived to Astana the same day.

Zhumangharin noted at the talks that during the visit of a Kazakh government delegation to Kabul in April, the sides agreed to raise the bilateral trade volume from $1 billion to $3 billion.

He added that Kazakhstan's imports to Afghanistan were rapidly diversifying, stressing that Astana plans to deliver to Afghanistan goods, oil, chemical substances, metals, and machine-building items worth $500,000 in the near future.

The forum runs until August 5.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/kazakhstan-afghanistan- business-forum/32532865.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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Myanmar military arrests Sagaing region villagers, torches homes

Around 8,000 locals fled ahead of the junta raids.

By RFA Burmese 2023.08.03 -- Junta troops detained six villagers and burned homes in a township in Myanmar's Sagaing region, locals and anti-regime forces told RFA Thursday.

Residents of Ayadaw township said troops fired heavy artillery and then raided Baw Kone village around dawn on Wednesday.

They took six villagers as human shields when they withdrew, the locals said.

"They entered the village firing heavy artillery and handguns and burned 10 houses," said a resident who didn't want to be named for fear of reprisals.

"Six villagers were taken hostage. They have not been released yet. Their names are still unknown as we were on the run for safety. And no one knows if they are alive or dead .... We can't expect anything until they get back."

The local added that the hostages were taken in the direction of Naung Gyi Aing village where the troops are temporarily stationed.

A member of Ayadaw township People's Defense Force said his militia fought with troops a few hours before the village raid.

"The clash broke out for only a few minutes. But we had to retreat because they had more weapons," he said.

"We easily outnumbered them but we didn't have the firepower."

Locals said nearly 8,000 residents from nine villages, including Baw Kone, had fled junta raids.

RFA's calls to the junta's spokesperson for Sagaing region, Saw Naing, went unanswered Thursday.

Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn and Taejun Kang.

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 August 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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Rohingya Refugees Wary as China Develops Plan for Repatriation

By Ingyin Naing August 03, 2023

Rohingya refugees living in squalid and sprawling camps in Bangladesh are casting a skeptical eye on a Chinese initiative to facilitate their return to Myanmar, where they were subjected to a campaign of murder and burning by the same military forces that now rule the country.

"We want to return home. However, under this pilot scheme, the Myanmar military will confine us in camps. They won't allow us to go back to our homes and villages," Aung Myaing, a Rohingya relief volunteer at the Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, told VOA by phone.

"We feel that China's intervention in the Rohingya repatriation issue has been motivated by China's own self-interest rather than concern for the refugees here. If China truly wishes to assist, it must act to ensure that the Rohingya return safely and with dignity," he said.

Nearly 1 million Rohingya are living in camps in the border district of Cox's Bazar, most having fled a military-led crackdown in Myanmar in 2017, now the subject of a genocide case at the International Court of Justice.

More than two years since the military coup in Myanmar, China has resumed close ties with the now-ruling junta. On July 27, during a surprise two-day visit to Myanmar, Chinese special envoy Deng Xijun met with key military officials, including Senior General Min Aung Hlaing.

"We had a detailed discussion about our peace process, the stability of the China-Myanmar border region, and security and law enforcement issues," junta spokesperson Major General Zaw Min Tun told VOA by phone.

Chinese representatives, including former Foreign Minister Qin Gang, have made several trips to Myanmar this year. According to analysts, the frequent visits are a sign that China is attempting to reimplement its large investment projects there.

In January, China renewed discussions with Bangladesh about a pilot repatriation program for displaced Rohingya. In April, Deng visited Dhaka to discuss Rohingya repatriation with Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen and Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen. That same month, China hosted a Rohingya repatriation tripartite (China, Myanmar, Bangladesh) meeting in Kunming, capital of Yunnan province.

The committee proposed to repatriate just 1,176 Rohingya under the pilot program. A Rohingya delegation was sent to Myanmar's Rakhine state to assess housing conditions there, and later that month, a Myanmar delegation met with Rohingya in Cox's Bazar. According to local news reports, a Bangladeshi official said it was unclear when the pilot program would begin.

China's involvement

"China is pressing for stability in a region that is part of its Belt and Road Initiative project, specifically the Rohingya's home, Rakhine state," Hla Kyaw Zaw, a Burma-China scholar based in China, recently told VOA. "This will connect the important trading hub, the border town, Ruili, in southern Yunnan state, to Kyaukphyu seaport, which lies on the Bay of Bengal.

"As a world power, China likes to be seen as taking the initiative to solve regional issues. China's slogan is 'Development, Peace and Cooperation,'" she said. "There is a meeting at the end of this year to mark the 10th anniversary of the start of President Xi Jinping's BRI project, and the Kyaukphyu deep sea port in Rakhine state is quite important to them, especially now.

"Another factor," she said, "is that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor plan has already been completed; but in Myanmar, the road has not yet been built. In order to do this more quickly, China stepped in, thinking that it would help to solve the Rohingya problem in Burma." Burma is another name for Myanmar.

Legacy of violence

China tried to broker an agreement with Myanmar in November 2017 to repatriate about 700,000 Rohingya Muslims who had fled persecution in their home country. Again, in 2019, further efforts were made to return the refugees, but Rohingya refugees rejected the move, fearing a reemergence of the violence that forced them to flee, a sentiment still widely held among Rohingya refugees.

Shwe Maung, a former Rohingya lawmaker during the Thein Sein presidency who now lives in the United States, told VOA that the Rohingya have serious reservations about China's involvement.

"China is characterizing the Rohingya pilot repatriation project as a kind of humanitarian aid," Shwe Maung said. "In fact, it should be seen through the lens of their actions against the minority Uyghur Muslims in their own country. They are put in prison camps called 'educational camps' and cut off from the world."

He continued: "Since the coup in Myanmar, the world's attention to the Rohingya issue has diminished, which is beneficial for both China and the junta's interests."

According to Shwe Maung, China has provided the junta with an example of how to control the Rohingya in a new way.

"The junta likes the way the Uyghurs were controlled," he said. "More than 1,000 Rohingya who are now slated to be sent back to their home country will be kept in a detention center. This detention center will become a concentration camp in the long run."

Bangladesh's role

As the host country to one of the world's largest refugee populations, Bangladesh has sought cooperation from the international community, including China, to repatriate Rohingya refugees to Myanmar.

China is an important trade partner for Bangladesh, mostly for raw materials used in manufacturing, and the two countries get along well. But keeping close ties with Beijing is not easy for Bangladesh since it must balance political and trade ties with China's major rivals: India and the United States.

Aung Myaing, the relief volunteer, told VOA that the government and the people of Bangladesh support repatriation of the Rohingya refugees to Myanmar.

"The prime minister of Bangladesh has appealed directly to the United Nations and the international community for help to resolve the crisis," he said. "Bangladesh is also involved in the International Criminal Court case of possible crimes against humanity in Myanmar since 2019."

He continued: "The international community, however, hasn't been able to provide effective assistance in the past six years. Bangladesh is a very densely populated country with many internal issues that make hosting so many refugees that much more difficult. Therefore, international aid should be provided quickly and effectively."

Yearn to return

"Looking at the situation in Myanmar," Aung Myaing said, "the military junta has yet to resettle the Rohingya IDP [internally displaced persons] to their homes in Rakhine state. If we do any pilot resettlement projects, we should deal with IDP in Myanmar first. Only after we do that, we can begin the process of repatriation of Rohingya currently in Bangladesh."

Aung Myaing is keen to return to Myanmar but says he wants his citizenship rights there guaranteed. "We are the citizens of Myanmar by birth. We want to go back home with all our rights, including citizenship, free movement, livelihood, safety and security," he told VOA, adding that, "the refugees here still hold out hope for help from the international community, including from the United Nations."

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Prime Minister along-side Turkish Vice President jointly launch PNS Tariq in Karachi

Prime Miinister's Office - Islamic Republic of Pakistan

Karachi: August 2, 2023.

Prime Minister along-side Turkish Vice President jointly launch PNS Tariq in Karachi

Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, along-side Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz, jointly launched PNS Tariq Corvette, at a ceremony held today in Karachi Shipyard & Engineering Works, Karachi.

Addressing the ceremony, PM Sharif appreciated the close defence collaboration between the brotherly countries. He referred to the 'MILGEM' project based on joint collaboration between the two countries, as a significant milestone in the Pakistan-TArkiye strategic partnership. He underscored the importance of enhancing bilateral defence cooperation in new and emerging technologies and joint defence production. Echoing the warm bilateral sentiments, Vice President Yilmaz shared the desire to further deepen the special bilateral relationship, solidifying it through strategic and economic cooperation.

After the ceremony, Vice President Yilmaz called on Prime Minister Sharif. The two leaders held discussion on wide-ranging issues encompassing bilateral relations, the regional situation and other areas of mutual interest. Appreciating the strong bilateral cooperation, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif stressed the importance of transforming the brotherly relations into mutually rewarding trade and economic ties. He underscored the importance of enhancing people-to-people contacts and joint collaborations in R&D, IT, energy, infrastructure, food security, tourism and mining sectors. Both the leaders agreed to continue close coordination and engagement through well-established bilateral mechanisms to continue with the upwards trajectory of bilateral relations.

The launching ceremony for the first MILGEM Corvette PNS Babur was performed in Istanbul in August 2021, second MILGEM Corvette PNS Badr in Karachi in May 2022, and third MILGEM Corvette PNS Khaiber in November 2022 in Istanbul. PNS Tariq is the fourth MILGEM Corvette.

Pakistan and TArkiye enjoy fraternal ties deeply embedded in commonalities of faith, culture and history and defined by exceptional cordiality and mutual trust.



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Russia's Navalny Expects 'Stalinist Term' When Sentenced On Extremism Charges

By RFE/RL's Russian Service August 03, 2023

Jailed Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny says he expects to be given a "Stalinist term" when he's sentenced on August 4 on extremism charges that could keep him incarcerated for decades.

Navalny issued a statement through his supporters that was published on the Meduza website a day before his scheduled sentencing, saying he expects "it's going to be a huge term."

The 47-year-old Navalny said that the formula for calculating his sentence was simple and would involve "taking what the prosecutor asked for on July 20 -- 20 years -- and reducing it by 10-to-15 percent."

"This is what's called a 'Stalinist' term. They asked for 20 years so they will give 18 or something around it. It doesn't really matter...its main purpose is to intimidate," said Navalny, who has been in prison since February 2021 serving a combined 11 1/2-year sentence on previous convictions called politically motivated.

The prosecutors also asked for 10 years for co-defendant Daniel Kholodny.

The Kremlin critic and anti-corruption crusader is accused under six articles of the Criminal Code, including creating and financing an extremist community, calling for extremism, rehabilitating Nazism, and involving minors in dangerous acts.

The case deals with Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), which, at the request of the prosecutor's office, was declared extremist in 2021, banning all of its activities in Russia.

Navalny previously said on social media that he expected a sentence of 15 years to 20 years, despite what he claims to be "nonsensical" evidence presented during his closed-door trial.

In his opinion, a harsh sentence is necessary to intimidate hm and his supporters.

"By the severity of the sentence, the thoughts of opposition are knocked out of my head," he said, calling for his supporters to stay calm.

He added that his supporters should take the repression against him and his supporters "coolly" and continue to fight the Russian authorities in some way "from transferring money to going to rallies."

Navalny also expressed gratitude to his supporters, lawyers, and defense witnesses, and separately he thanked Kholodny, a former Navalny Live employee. According to Navalny, Kholodny "does not let himself be intimidated," and he encouraged his supporters to "be the same."

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-navalny-stalinist- sentence/32533052.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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Counter-terrorism drills with the participation of ASEAN member countries and Dialogue Partners (ADMM plus) began in Myanmar

03.08.2023

Representatives of the Russian Ministry of Defence together with members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and dialogue partners of ADMM plus, started participating in a command and staff training (CST) on countering terrorism held in the Republic of the Union of Myanmar. In addition to the Russian side, representatives of the military departments of Brunei, Vietnam, India, Indonesia, Cambodia, China, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand and the Philippines are also involved in the training.

From the Russian side, groups of officers of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the Eastern Military District and the Pacific Fleet are involved. The Russian military delegation is headed by the Deputy Commander of the Eastern Military District, Lieutenant General Mikhail Nosulev.

'The fight against terrorism is currently a common task for all countries and requires common approaches. Joint work within our expert working group allows us to find these approaches, as well as directly improve ways to counter terrorists. The command and staff training of the expert working group is one of the two most important events of the three-year work cycle. It is aimed at preparing for the anti-terrorist exercise, which will be held in September this year in Russia. Also, our joint work will contribute to strengthening the relationship. It will allow us to increase the level of operational interaction between the ASEAN countries and their dialogue partners in the field of countering terrorism, and to exchange experience in this area. We believe that the established mechanisms of interaction between ASEAN and partner countries operating in their structure are effective tools for maintaining peace and stability in the region. Judging by the dynamics of the development of the regional situation, the numerous risks and threats present in the Asia-Pacific region, an open exchange of experience between military departments on security issues is of great importance,' Mikhail Nosulev said.

During the CST, which will last until August 4, issues are being worked out on the creation of a coalition group of troops of the ASEAN countries in order to counter terrorist threats on the territory of a mock state. Participants will have to demonstrate the ability to quickly assess the current situation, develop competent solutions, and ensure continuous and stable command of troops in a rapidly changing environment. The main goal of the drills is to develop a unified plan, as well as coherence in the work of all management units.

ADMM plus is a mechanism of interaction between the defence departments of ten Southeast Asian countries (ASEAN) and the so-called dialogue partner states (Australia, India, China, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Russia, the USA, Japan), created in April 2010 on the initiative of Vietnam. The activities of specialists within the framework of ADMM plus are carried out in seven Expert working groups: humanitarian demining, humanitarian assistance and emergency response, military medicine, maritime security, counter-terrorism, organization of peacekeeping operations, cybersecurity.

Department for Media Affairs and Information

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Syrian Arab Army Special Forces and Russian Aerospace Forces hold joint exercises in Syrian province Hama

03.08.2023

Special Forces units of the Syrian Arab Army together with the Russian Aerospace Forces' crews conducted a tactical exercise at night in Hama province for the first time.

According to the plan of the exercise, enemy units attempted an offensive on the government troops' positions and captured a settlement with residents.

In the course of the exercise, the command of the Russian Group of Troops together with the command of the Syrian Arab Army decided to conduct a joint night airborne operation to liberate the settlement.

The Russian Aerospace Forces' Su-35 fighter jets and Su-24 fighter-bomber crews together with the Syrian Armed Forces' artillery units launched fire attacks at mock enemy critical facilities. The Russian Aerospace Forces' Ka-52 attack helicopters destroyed enemy hardware and fortifications of mock terrorists. As a result, 25th Special Forces Division Tiger vehicles conducted a tactical airborne landing in the operation area. During the operation, the Syrian Arab Army units landed from a height of 1,500-3,000 metres with weapons on Russian Arbalet-2 parachute systems and desended from Mi-8AMTSh helicopters of the Russian Aerospace Forces. Assault units on high mobility vehicles and armoured fighting vehicles stormed the settlement and eliminated the mock terrorists who captured it.

The command of the Group of Troops (Forces) of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in Syria and the senior staff of the Armed Forces of the Syrian Arab Republic praised cohesive actions of Russian and Syrian units.

Department for Media Affairs and Information

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Germany Arrests Syrian War Crimes Suspect

By Liam Scott August 03, 2023

A Syrian national accused of committing crimes against humanity and war crimes during the early stages of the Syrian Civil War has been arrested in Germany, prosecutors announced Thursday.

The federal prosecutor's office said the suspect was detained on July 26 in the northern city of Bremen. He was remanded in custody on Thursday.

Named only as Ahmad H., the suspect is accused of perpetrating the atrocity crimes of torture and enslavement between 2012 and 2015 as a local leader of pro-government "shabiha" militiamen in Damascus. The militiamen were tasked with helping crush local dissent.

The militia allegedly operated checkpoints where "people were arrested arbitrarily so that they or their family members could be extorted for money, committed to forced labor or tortured," prosecutors said.

The alleged crimes took place within the broader context of Syria's brutal, ongoing civil war, which was sparked by severe suppression of protests in 2011 by the government of President Bashar Assad.

The countrywide conflict that followed has been characterized by rampant atrocity crimes, including crimes against humanity and war crimes. Assad has denied all accusations of atrocity crimes.

Since the start of the conflict, more than 580,000 people have been killed, and nearly 13 million people have been displaced.

In 2015, Germany allowed hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees to enter the country.

Since then, Germany has become a global leader in the prosecution of Syrian war criminals under the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows courts to prosecute suspects accused of committing mass atrocity crimes anywhere in the world.

Some information in this report came from Reuters and Agence France-Presse.

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Latest US plan to fund arms to Taiwan island, military aid further endanger peace in the Taiwan Straits

Global Times

By Liu Xuanzun Published: Jul 30, 2023 12:38 PM Updated: Aug 03, 2023 10:36 PM

With the secessionist deputy regional leader on the island of Taiwan Lai Ching-te, who is also a candidate for the election of next regional leader, scheming to make a transit visit to the US in August shortly after the one-year anniversary of then US house speaker Nancy Pelosi's provocative visit to the island, tensions around the island of Taiwan continue to build up.

In response, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Thursday that China firmly opposes any form of official interaction between the US and the Taiwan region, firmly opposes any visit by "Taiwan independence" separatists to the US in any name or under whatever pretext, and firmly opposes any form of US connivance and support for "Taiwan independence" separatists and their separatist activities.

China urges the US to abide by the one-China principle and the three China-US joint communiquAs, act on its leaders' commitment of not supporting "Taiwan independence", stop official interactions with Taiwan, stop upgrading its substantive exchanges with the region, stop sending wrong messages to separatist forces seeking "Taiwan independence", and refuse to let William Lai "transit" the US, it said.

The true purpose of Lai's "transit" to the US is to rely on Washington for seeking "independence," and seeking personal electoral gains. But ultimately, it will only harm the interests of people on the island and disrupt peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits, Zhu Fenglian, spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, said on Thursday, adding that facts will prove that Lai is a complete "troublemaker."

The White House will ask Congress to fund arms for the island of Taiwan as part of a supplemental budget request for Ukraine, in an effort to speed up the supply of weapons to the island, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.

If passed by Congress, the island of Taiwan would get arms through a US taxpayer-funded system known as "foreign military financing" for the first time, the report said.

The latest US move comes shortly after the US announced on July 28 a military aid package worth $345 million for the island of Taiwan, which is the Biden administration's first major package drawing on the US' own stockpiles to help the island counter the Chinese mainland, the Associated Press reported on Saturday.

The package would include defense, education and training for the armed forces on the island of Taiwan, as Washington will send man-portable air defense systems, intelligence and surveillance capabilities, firearms and missiles to the island, the report said, citing the White House and anonymous US officials.

'Expendable card'

It marked the latest US plan to deliver weapons to the island of Taiwan among many of its attempts to build the island into a "porcupine," which is supposed to defend itself with its spikes, deterring others and hurting them should they attack.

With this "porcupine plan," the US further intensified arms sales to the island over the past few years, including Volcano mine-laying systems, HIMARS multiple rocket launch systems, M1A2 main battle tanks, Harpoon anti-ship missiles, SLAM-ER cruise missiles, Patriot surface-to-air missiles, Stinger man-portable missiles and F-16V fighter jets.

In response to the latest military aid, Chen Binhua, spokesperson of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, said on Saturday that China firmly opposes US providing weapons to China's Taiwan region.

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities' stubborn insistence on the secessionist position of "Taiwan independence," attempting to seek "independence" by relying on the US and by using force, begging for US arms sale or military aid, and enhancing military collusion with the US are moves that are making Taiwan a powder keg and ammunition depot and have increased the danger and risk of a conflict in the Taiwan Straits, Chen said.

The US is seeking every possible means to instigate contradictions and estrangements between the Chinese mainland and the island of Taiwan, attempting to turn people on the island of Taiwan into cannon fodders and have them to resist reunification by force, at the cost of lives of local people, Wei Dongxu, a Beijing-based military expert, told the Global Times.

US weapons such as mine-laying systems provided to the island are also double-edged swords that could become threats to civilians on the island decades after deployment, causing serious humanitarian disaster, observers said. A large number of weapons provided by the US, even possibly to civilians, will only raise risks of collateral damage, they said.

It exposed the US scheme to use the island of Taiwan as an "expendable card" to serve US' hegemonic goals in containing and suppressing China, without considering lives of people on the island.

Converting the island of Taiwan into a "porcupine" is a plan that benefits only the US, and selling such amounts of outdated yet overpriced weapons also brings huge profits to the US' military-industrial complex, observers said.

Wrong signals

The US has been rallying up its allies and partners in the Asia-Pacific region and even from other parts of the world to hold military joint exercises on China's doorsteps, often bringing in the Taiwan question as a subject of drills. Analysts pointed out that the US is using its Asian allies and partners as forward deployment bases and at the same time treating them as cannon fodder.

One of the recent exercises was held in the East China Sea and the Philippine Sea near the island of Taiwan in June. Two US Navy carrier strike groups featuring the aircraft carriers USS Nimitz and USS Ronald Reagan operated with Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force helicopter carrier JS Izumo and surface units from Canada and France, according to press releases from the US 7th Fleet at the time.

Earlier this year, the US and the Philippines held their largest combat exercises in decades in the Philippines and waters across the South China Sea and the Taiwan Straits. The US was granted access to four additional military bases in the Philippines, enhancing its military tactical flexibility in the region.

As the PLA is preparing for a scenario in which US forces militarily interfere on the Taiwan question, it remains questionable if the US is really committed to doing so at the cost of American soldiers' lives.

The US' Taiwan Relations Act states that the US will enable the island to maintain sufficient self-defense capabilities, but the US does not have a mutual defense treaty with the island and is not obligated to defend it, CNBC reported.

The US is pushing its allies to the frontline of a potential conflict to face its strategic opponent. With the US being a country from outside of the region, such a conflict is far away from US homeland, but countries within the region tied up to the US chariot would have to face cost themselves, another Chinese mainland military expert who requested anonymity told the Global Times.

By provocatively sending warplanes and warships through the Taiwan Straits, the US is encouraging the DPP authorities to confront the Chinese mainland, and showing the US' strong stance against China, the expert said.

Such provocative transits by a small number of aircraft or vessels are of little military significance compared to the PLA's growing capabilities, but they had sent wrong signals to the "Taiwan independence" secessionist forces and other countries in the region, deceiving them and having them confront the PLA, the expert said.

Seeing the truth

Some people on the island of Taiwan have over the years seen through the US' malicious intensions.

A commentary published on a media outlet on the island in May said that the US is selling the fear of war, with the US government, US Congress and even normal people seeing the Taiwan Straits as the most possible place for a conflict that could break out. And then, US arms dealers came to the island to sell weapons.

The Chinese mainland does not renounce the use of force, and the PLA has demonstrated its capabilities with large-scale military exercises that encircled the island in August last year and April this year following provocative collusion moves between the US house speakers and the DPP authorities.

The exercises showed that the PLA can form a blockade to cut off energy supply routes, reinforcement routes and escape routes of "Taiwan independence" forces, as well as their hopes for US military reinforcement, Zhao Xiaozhuo, a research fellow at China's Academy of Military Sciences, told the Global Times.

The move demonstrated the PLA's firm will and strong capability in thwarting all "Taiwan independence" secessionist moves and external interference attempts and safeguarding national sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity, Zhao said.

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China firmly opposes Taiwan deputy regional leader Lai's 'transit' in US, will closely follow the development: FM

Global Times

By Global Times Published: Aug 03, 2023 09:13 PM Updated: Aug 03, 2023 10:40 PM

China urges the US to refuse to let Taiwan deputy regional leader Lai Ching-te "transit" the US, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday, stressing that China firmly opposes any form of official interaction between the US and the Taiwan region, firmly opposes any visit by "Taiwan independence" separatists to the US in any name or under whatever pretext, and firmly opposes any form of US connivance and support for "Taiwan independence" separatists and their separatist activities.a

The Taiwan "external affairs authority" announced on Wednesday that Lai, who is also running for the 2024 regional election as Taiwan secessionist Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) candidate, will make "stopovers in New York and San Francisco" during an August 12-18 trip to Paraguay.

The Taiwan question is at the core of China's core interests and a red line that cannot be crossed, the Chinese Foreign Ministry reiterated in the statement, urging the US to abide by the one-China principle and the three China-US joint communiquAs, act on its leaders' commitment of not supporting "Taiwan independence."

The ministry urged Washington to stop official interactions with Taiwan, stop upgrading its substantive exchanges with the region, stop sending wrong messages to separatist forces seeking "Taiwan independence."

China will closely follow the developments and take firm and strong measures to safeguard nation's sovereignty and territorial integrity, it added.

The Ministry also warned the DPP authorities that "Taiwan independence" is a dead end, fawning on the US and selling Taiwan away will onlyaharmathe people of Taiwan, and any attempt to seek "independence" and make provocation in collusion with external forces is doomed to failure.

The Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council also expressed its strong opposition against Lai's "transit" trip to the US, saying that the true purpose of Lai's plan is to rely on Washington to pursue "Taiwan independence," and seek personal electoral gains.

But ultimately, it will only harm the interests of the people on the island and disrupt peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits, Zhu Fenglian, spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office said in a statement, saying that facts will prove that Lai is a complete "troublemaker."

The latest episode will become a new incident that worsens tensions in the Taiwan Straits and is further evidence of the US' encouragement of Taiwan secessionism, which is an absolute contradiction to the US' promises to China on "opposing Taiwan Independence," experts said.

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Foreign Ministry Spokesperson's Remarks on Deputy Leader of the Taiwan Region William Lai's Planned Transit in the US

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the People's Republic of China

2023-08-03 20:54

Q:aThe DPP authorities announcedaon August 2athatatheadeputyaleaderaof the Taiwan region William Lai will leave on August 12 for Paraguay to attend theapresident'sainauguration. He willa"transit"ain New York and San Francisco in the US on his way to and from Paraguay. What's your comment?a

A:aChina firmly opposes any form of official interaction between the US and the Taiwan region, firmly opposes any visit by "Taiwan independence" separatists to the US in any name or under whatever pretext, and firmly opposes any form of US connivance and support for "Taiwan independence" separatists and their separatist activities.a

The Taiwan question is at the core of China's core interests and a red line that cannot be crossed. China urges the US to abide by the one-China principle and the three China-US joint communiquAs, act on its leaders' commitment of not supporting "Taiwan independence", stop official interactions with Taiwan, stop upgrading its substantive exchanges with the region, stop sending wrong messages to separatist forces seeking "Taiwan independence", and refuse to let William Lai "transit" the US. China will closely follow the developments and take firm and strong measures to safeguard our nation's sovereignty and territorial integrity. We would like to tell the DPP authorities seriously that "Taiwan independence" is a dead end, fawning on the US and selling Taiwan away will onlyaharmathe people of Taiwan, and any attempt to seek "independence" and make provocation in collusion with external forces is doomed to failure.



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Taiwanese Man Convicted of Spying in China Shares Story of 'Painful 4 Years'

By William Yang August 03, 2023

For 51-year-old Taiwanese businessman Lee Meng-chu, the last four years have been a life-altering journey.

His two-day business trip to southern China turned into an experience that involved lengthy detention, a forced televised confession, a two-year exit ban, and being sentenced for "espionage" by the Chinese government.

"It's been a painful four years for me," he told VOA in a telephone interview. "I didn't do anything wrong, and the Chinese government arrested me as a scapegoat amid rising political tension" between Beijing and Taipei.

Lee was arrested in August 2019 after joining an anti-extradition bill protest in Hong Kong and for taking photos of hundreds of armed police who had gathered in a stadium near his hotel in the southern Chinese industrial hub of Shenzhen.

Lee transited through Hong Kong while he was on his way to meet a colleague in Shenzhen. As he prepared to leave, the video cameras he was carrying attracted the attention of police officers.

When officers searched his luggage, they found flyers that said "Hong Kong and Taiwan stand together" and photos he took in Hong Kong and Shenzhen.

Following hours of questioning at the airport, police took him to a hotel in Shenzhen, where he says he was under 72 days of "residential surveillance at a designated location."

While there, "the police interrogated me more than 100 times, and I was monitored by three police officers and two surveillance cameras at all times," he told VOA. "I felt completely disconnected from the outside world because I was essentially 'disappeared' by the Chinese authorities."

Human rights organizations have long criticized the Chinese government's use of residential surveillance against activists and dissidents. According to the human rights organization Safeguard Defenders, Beijing has used the detention procedure against tens of thousands of people since Chinese leader Xi Jinping came to power in 2012.

Even though it's hard to independently verify Lee's experience, Jing-Jie Chen, a campaigner at Safeguard Defenders, told VOA that his description fits the features of residential surveillance at a designated location, where individuals are detained at an unknown location for an extended period.

Hong Kong protests

Apart from the hours of interrogation, Lee told VOA police also combed through the content of his mobile phone and laptop as they tried to find evidence against him.

"They printed out some of my conversations with friends related to the Hong Kong protests in 2019, asked about all the organizations I joined during my student years in the U.S., and zeroed in on my connection to the Taiwan United Nations Alliance," he said.

One of the stated aims of the organization is "to campaign for Taiwan's membership in the UN and to make Taiwan a Normal State both in name and in fact in the world community."

All the pamphlets and other materials collected by Chinese police were eventually used as evidence in the espionage charges against him. They were also referenced extensively in state media reports about Lee's case.

In a television segment about Lee that was broadcast by China's state-run CCTV in October 2020, an unnamed uniformed Chinese police officer said the video and photos taken by Lee could provide information about Chinese tactics to an intelligence agency, which is a threat to national security. Lee apologized and said he committed many wrongdoings that "did some harm to the motherland."

The "televised forced confession" that Lee experienced is a common tactic used by the Chinese government to crack down on activists or dissidents in China, analysts say.

Several other Taiwanese who have been arrested and detained in China have also been featured in "video confessions."

"Chinese authorities use televised forced confessions to show that they haven't arrested the wrong person and that the process aligns with China's procedures," Safeguard Defenders' Chen told VOA.

2-year exit ban

Three months after the televised confession, a court sentenced Lee to one year and 10 months for "foreign espionage and illegally sharing state secrets."

Soon after that, Lee was transferred to a jail in Guangdong province, where he had to share a cell with more than a dozen people. During the day, he worked with other inmates wrapping internet cables on a production line.

Lee originally thought his ordeal in China would end when he completed the prison sentence in July 2021.

However, one month before his scheduled release, police told him that as part of the two-year "deprivation of political rights" that he received from the court, he would be banned from leaving China.

"I couldn't accept this news in the beginning, but after realizing that the decision didn't come from the police, I had to agree to the terms (of the exit ban) by signing a document," he said.

Taiwanese activist Lee Ming-che, who was sentenced to five years in prison on subversion charges in 2017 and returned to Taiwan last year, told VOA that by enforcing an exit ban as part of a two-year "deprivation of political rights" China was trying to treat Lee Meng-chu like a Chinese citizen.

"Taiwanese people don't have civil rights in China, so theoretically, Chinese authorities should expel Taiwanese detainees once they have completed prison sentences," he said.

"When Beijing treats Taiwanese people as Chinese citizens and executes the terms of deprivation of civil rights, it is an attempt to violate Taiwan's sovereignty."

Taiwan views itself as a sovereign state with its own military and constitution. China claims Taiwan is a part of its territory and demands that the self-ruled island be unified with the mainland, by force if necessary.

Following his release, Lee initially kept a low profile but after realizing police surveillance of him had become less stringent, he decided to travel to more than 100 cities across China, relying on his own savings and financial support from families. Along the way, he befriended some Chinese human rights lawyers and activists and began to change his views on China.

"Before my arrest, I was a normal Taiwanese businessman who thought China was a country that was open and abides by international rules, but my experiences [over the last four years] changed my understanding of China completely," he said. "Ever since the 2019 protest in Hong Kong, everyone knows that Beijing doesn't follow the rules."

Heightened risks

Apart from Lee, at least six other people from Taiwan are known to have been arrested and imprisoned by Chinese authorities on national security-related charges since 2017.

While the exact number of arrests is unclear, analysts note that the number of people from Taiwan and other countries who have been forcibly disappeared or arbitrarily detained by the Chinese government is growing as they continue to expand the definition of national security.

"Amid the ongoing tensions across the Taiwan Strait, Taiwanese people may face greater risks," Eeling Chiu, secretary general of Amnesty International Taiwan, told VOA.

The U.S. State Department's current travel advisory for China is to "reconsider travel" due to the "arbitrary enforcement of local laws, including in relation to exit bans and the risk of wrongful detentions."

Last week, Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council, which handles relations with China, revealed that a Taiwanese academic was interrogated by Chinese airport authorities for four hours when he arrived.

While he was eventually let go, the council has warned some academics not to visit China in the near future.

After his four-year ordeal, Lee arrived on July 26 in Japan, where he says he plans to spend some time with friends and family. With his new perspective on China, Lee has opened a YouTube channel named "Free Air."

He also plans to write down his experiences and establish what he calls an "international rescue platform" sometime in the near future.

"I hope to help people in trouble, and I will keep paying attention to human rights issues in China," he said.

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RAF completes NATO air policing mission in the Baltic after intercepting 50 Russian aircraft

The UK has been leading NATO's air policing mission in Estonia for the last four months, demonstrating the UK's commitment to the Alliance and security in Europe.

3 August 2023

Royal Air Force personnel have returned to the UK after leading NATO's Baltic air policing mission in Estonia for four months, during which pilots intercepted 50 Russian aircraft and flew for a combined total of more than 500 hours.

Members of 140 Expeditionary Air Wing (140 EAW) have been deployed to Amari Air Base since the start of March, along with a squadron of RAF Typhoon fighter jets, to conduct Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) intercepts of Russian aircraft transiting close to NATO airspace.

Typhoon jets and their pilots from IX(Bomber) and 1(Fighter) squadrons had deployed to Estonia from RAF Lossiemouth, where the majority of 140 EAW's personnel have now returned.

The deployment, named Op Azotize, began with RAF pilots flying missions alongside the German Air Force - during which the first ever air joint air intercept between NATO allies took place, as British and German Typhoons shadowed a Russian air-to-air refuelling aircraft and transport aircraft.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said:

Hundreds of RAF pilots and personnel have spent months away from their families, working round-the-clock alongside our allies to keep Europe's skies safe.

The UK's successful leadership of NATO's air policing mission in Estonia, resulting in the interception of dozens of Russian aircraft by the RAF, sends a strong message to Putin that we stand united with our allies against any threat to our borders.

Personnel from 140EAW were held at a moment's notice to intercept Russian aircraft that do not liaise with NATO-controlled regional air traffic agencies and do not file flight plans, thus failing to adhere to international norms. This, in turn, creates a flight safety risk that must be investigated and monitored by NATO aircraft to ensure the safety of all air traffic in the region.

After taking full leadership of the air policing mission, RAF Typhoons flew QRA intercepts on a regular basis - including a 21-day period in which Russian fighters, long-range bombers, and reconnaissance aircraft were intercepted 21 times.

During the course of the deployment, operations were conducted in coordination with the Portuguese and Romanian Air Forces, which jointly led the NATO air policing mission in Lithuania.

Defence Minister Baroness Goldie DL said:

Following a successful deployment to Estonia from our strategic airbase at Lossiemouth, I pay tribute to the commitment and dedication of personnel from 140 Expeditionary Air Wing for their role in protecting NATO airspace over the last four months. The day to day, personal sacrifices made not only by the individuals but also their families in the name of duty are nothing short of commendable. It is reflective of the important contribution to our defence capability from all parts of the UK.

Our work with European partners and our NATO Allies continues to provide the backbone to European security, of which our pilots, aircrews and RAF personnel have all formed a central part. They should be proud of what they have achieved

While deployed to Estonia, the RAF has also taken part in a number of major exercises with NATO allies, including Exercise Air Defender, the largest NATO Air Deployment exercise since the end of the Cold War, with more than 250 aircraft and 10,000 personnel taking part from 25 nations. The RAF contribution to the exercise combined Typhoons from 140 EAW based in Estonia and 903 EAW based in Cyprus, and included F-35, Voyager and A-400M aircraft flying from the UK.

The RAF Typhoons of 140EAW conducted multiple exercises with NATO's newest member Finland, including joint training in the Arctic Circle, as well as with future Alliance member Sweden. These exercises ensure the strength and unity of the alliance as well as deterring and defending against threats to NATO security

On Wednesday, the Commanding Officer of 140 EAW, Wing Commander Scott MacColl, formally handed over leadership of the air policing mission in Estonia to the Spanish Air Force.

Air & Space Commander, Air Marshal Harv Smyth, said:

The RAF is committed to its role within NATO of collective defence, to ensure the strength and unity of the alliance and to deter and defend against threats to NATO security. While in Estonia, 140 Expeditionary Air Wing has excelled, participating in 12 major NATO and Joint Expeditionary Force exercises in addition to the Air Policing role.

I am extremely proud of the whole force's hard work and dedication. Now that they are back in the UK, their focus will be straight back to providing UK quick reaction alert where they will help ensure the safety and integrity of UK airspace, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

The NATO Baltic Air Policing mission was established at Amari base in Estonia and Siauliai Air Base in Lithuania in 2014 after Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea. Allies who contribute to the mission deploy to the air bases in Eastern Europe on a four month rotational basis, providing protection and assurance to all NATO members as well as partner nations.

The UK's defence commitment to Estonia will continue through Op Cabrit, with more than 1,000 soldiers from the British Army currently stationed at Tapa Army Base to form the UK's contribution to NATO's enhanced Forward Presence along its eastern border with Russia.

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Facts about Ukraine crisis: Ukraine claims ports facilities damaged by Russian drones

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 13:06, August 03, 2023

MOSCOW/KIEV, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- The following are the latest developments related to the Ukraine crisis:

Several port infrastructure facilities in Ukraine's southern Odesa region were damaged overnight Wednesday in a massive drone attack carried out by Russia, Ukrainian authorities said.

A grain elevator, grain storage hangars, a cargo terminal, as well as warehouses and administrative premises at a port on the Danube River were destroyed in the attack, the Prosecutor General's Office said in a statement.

According to Odesa Regional Military Administration, the industrial infrastructure of the region also caught fire as a result of the drone strikes.

The Ukrainian air defense intercepted 11 drones over the Odesa region overnight, the Operational Command "South" said on Facebook. There were no reports on the casualties in the attack.

- - - -

The Russian Defense Ministry said Wednesday that Kiev attempted to attack a Russian navy vessel with an unmanned boat overnight. The Russian vessel was escorting a civilian transport ship in the southwestern part of the Black Sea.

The Ukrainian boat was quickly detected and destroyed, it added.

- - - -

The Russian Defense Ministry said Tuesday that Kiev had attempted to attack two Russian patrol ships of the Black Sea Fleet overnight with the use of three unmanned sea boats.

The Russian patrol ships were performing their duties in the southwestern part of the Black Sea, 340 km southwest of Sevastopol. All three Ukrainian boats were destroyed, it added.

Kiev had attempted to carry out an attack overnight, with the use of three semi-submersible unmanned boats, targeting Russian civilian transport vessels that were heading to the Bosporus Strait in the southwestern part of the Black Sea, said the defense ministry, adding that Russian naval forces destroyed all the boats.

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Russia: Upcoming Ukraine-West summit in Saudi Arabia a 'sham'

Iran Press TV

Thursday, 03 August 2023 4:17 PM

Russia has said that a planned meeting on Ukraine scheduled to be held in Saudi Arabia this week is intended to forge an anti-Russian coalition.

"The meeting initiated by the Kiev regime and its Western curators to promote Volodymyr Zelensky's [peace] formula is a sham," the Tass news agency quoted the Russian Foreign Ministry's spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying on Wednesday.

"It's another staged event to gather caring states under the guise of putting together an anti-Russian coalition, showing the pseudo unity of the world in terms of rejecting Russia's actions," she said.

Zakharova noted that the meeting was "bait" for those countries that are honestly seeking a peaceful settlement of the Ukrainian conflict in order to avoid further escalation.

"This is neither a conference of a scientific and practical nature nor a meeting of diplomats to find political solutions, but an attempt to take advantage of the sincere intentions of a number of states in order to forge an anti-Russian coalition," she said.

She added that these countries had been invited "with the aim of developing some kind of supposed peace initiative, to settle the situation."

The Wall Street Journal recently quoted sources as saying that Saudi Arabia planned to hold peace talks on Ukraine in Jeddah on August 5-6.

It was reported that the European Union, Britain, Poland and South Africa had already confirmed their participation in the consultations, and the presence of US presidential national security advisor Jake Sullivan was expected.

Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier that the meeting in Saudi Arabia would help the West to realize that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky's so-called peace plan is a dead end.

The Ukrainian president has been promoting his formula for peace with US President Biden and other leaders.

Zelenskyy has been actively promoting his 10-point peace plan, discussing it with US President Joe Biden among others, and urging world leaders to hold a global peace summit based on it.

Last year, Zelensky presented a 10-point peace formula to world leaders at the Group of 20 Summit in Indonesia. The plan envisions Russia giving up the four regions as well as Crimea, which it seized in 2014 and subsequently annexed.

The Kremlin has dismissed the peace plan by Ukraine's President Zelensky, saying proposals to end the protracted war must take into account "today's realities" of four Ukrainian regions that recently joined Russia.

The Kremlin has repeatedly said it is open to peace talks with Ukraine but sees no willingness to negotiate on the part of Kiev.

Regarding Moscow's conditions in the peace talks, Russian diplomats say the demilitarization of Donetsk and Lugansk in eastern Ukraine is among the main conditions the Kremlin has stated to end the war. The two regions broke away from Ukraine in 2014 after refusing to recognize a new government.

The Western world's support for Ukraine's military has run into billions of dollars, led by Washington.

Russia says its objective of military operation is to demilitarize the breakaway Ukrainian regions with ethnic Russian populations. Since the start of the war, the United States and Europe have slapped waves of sanctions on Moscow and have been assisting Ukraine with financial and military assistance.

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Several Wounded In Russian Shelling Of Kherson Cathedral, Trolleybus; Kyiv Attacked With Drones

By RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service August 03, 2023

Several people were wounded, one of them seriously, in the Russian shelling of the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, local authorities said on August 3, shortly after Russia launched a fresh wave of drone attacks on Kyiv for the second day in a row.

Russian troops shelled Kherson's St. Catherine Cathedral and the surrounding area twice during the morning hours, Oleksandr Tolokonnikov, a spokesman of the regional military administration told RFE/RL.

In the first incident, a passing trolleybus was hit and three people were wounded. One of them, an elderly man, was in critical condition, Tolokonnikov said.

Four members of rescue teams that rushed to put out a fire at the cathedral following the first attack were wounded in a second shelling of the site, Ukraine's Interior Ministry said in a statement.

Kherson, which was liberated by Ukrainian troops in November, has been repeatedly targeted by Russian shelling from the left bank of the Dnieper River.

A Russian missile attack on August 1 hit a hospital in Kherson, killing a doctor and injuring several medical workers.

The drone attack on Kyiv was repelled without causing damage or casualties according to preliminary information, the region's governor said early on August 3.

"Again, like yesterday, the wave of attacks was massive. Eight consecutive attacks of [Iranian-made] Shahed drones on Kyiv," regional Governor Serhiy Popko said on Telegram.

"Almost a dozen [drones] were detected and destroyed by the air defense on the approach to Kyiv," Popko said, adding that "according to our current information, there were no victims or destruction in the capital."

Kyiv was under an air-raid alert for three hours, until 4 a.m., Popko said, adding that this was the 820th air-raid alert for the capital since the beginning of Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

On August 2, more than 10 drones were shot down over Kyiv, with the debris causing some damage in parts of the city.

Since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, 10,749 civilians, including 499 children, have been killed and another 15,599 have been wounded -- 1,900 of them children, Ukraine's Prosecutor-General's Office said on August 3.

"We understand that these figures are just the tip of the iceberg. When we de-occupy our territories, these numbers are likely to grow many times -- possibly dozens of times. I think that there will be tens of thousands of dead in Mariupol alone," Yuriy Belousov, an official with the Prosecutor-General's Office told Interfax-Ukraine.

Also on August 2, Russian drone strikes damaged grain facilities at the Ukrainian ports of Izmayil and Odesa.

A grain silo was damaged in Izmayil, one of the two Danube ports that Ukraine has been using to export its grain since Moscow refused to extend a Turkey- and UN-brokered deal that had allowed the export of Ukrainian grain and other produce by sea.

Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said almost 40,000 tons of grain in the warehouses and elevators in Izmayil that were waiting to be exported to African countries, China, and Israel had been destroyed.

Izmayil is located some 15 kilometers north of Tulcea, a major Danube port of NATO member Romania. Last week, Russian drones struck Reni, the other Danube port used by Ukraine to export grain. Reni is some 200 meters across the Danube from Romania.

In Odesa, Russian drones struck grain storage facilities and destroyed a grain elevator.

Odesa, Ukraine's main Black Sea port, has been increasingly subjected to Russian shelling and drone attacks since Russia's withdrawal from the grain deal.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Russia has destroyed 180,000 tons of grain inside Ukraine, including 40,000 tons destroyed on August 2, since refusing to extend the grain deal.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to abstain from moves that would exacerbate tensions, Erdogan's office said after the two leaders held a phone call.

Romania's Danube administration agency said it will clear up to 30 ships waiting to enter the Black Sea from Ukrainian inland ports by August 4, following a Russian attack on the port of Izmayil.

"We are trying to handle these clusters as best we can, to relieve navigation congestion on the Danube," Florin Uzumtoma, the administration's navigation director, told Reuters. "We will clear around 30 ships in two days, at least 12 today, if not 14, and the rest tomorrow."

On the battlefield, Ukrainian forces repelled counterattacks by Russian troops in the area of Staromayorske in the Donetsk region, the military's media center reported on August 3.

Staromayorske was recaptured by Ukrainian forces on July 27.

Ukrainian forces were making gradual advances in the Bakhmut area of Donetsk, Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said on Telegram.

Russian forces had "tried quite persistently to halt our advance in the Bakhmut sector. Without success," she wrote.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that Kyiv's troops were faced with brutal fighting all along the front, but were prevailing nonetheless.

"The occupiers are trying to stop our guys with all their might. The attacks are very brutal," Zelenskiy said, adding that "it is hard everywhere. But whatever the enemy does, it is the Ukrainian force that dominates."

The General Staff on August 3 recorded about 30 combat clashes at the front.

It said that in the area around the eastern city of Bakhmut, Ukrainian forces were holding back the Russian offensive to the south and southeast of Ivanovskiy. The headquarters recorded air strikes on three settlements and shelling of 15 more in the area, the General Staff said in its evening briefing.

"In the Avdiyivka direction, the enemy launched an air strike...[and] carried out unsuccessful offensive actions north and southeast of Avdiyivka and southeast of Pervomayiskiy in the Donetsk region." Other communities in the area were "subjected to artillery shelling," the summary said.

Ukrainian forces also continue to repulse Russian attacks near Avdiyivka and attempts to regain lost positions west of Staromayorske and east of Urozhany, the report said.

The battlefield claims could not be independently verified.

Russian troops in Zaporizhzhya are focused on preventing the further advance of Ukrainian troops, while Ukrainian forces "continue to conduct an offensive operation in the Melitopol and Berdyansk directions, establish themselves at the reached borders, and carry out counterbattery combat measures," the General Staff said.

The General Staff reports 10 air strikes on concentrations of Russian troops and equipment, as well as a total of 18 missile and artillery strikes on Russian positions.

With reporting by Reuters and AFP

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-russia-drone- attacks-kyiv-bakhmut-fighting/32532125.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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World Must Tell Russia To Stop 'Blackmail' Involving Ukrainian Grain, Blinken Tells UN

By RFE/RL August 03, 2023

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on August 3 took aim at Russia in a speech to the UN Security Council in New York, accusing Moscow of "blackmail" over its recent withdrawal from the Black Sea Grain Initiative.

Blinken told the 15-member council that "hunger must not be weaponized" and urged all UN countries to tell Russia they have had "enough" of Moscow's actions.

"Enough using the Black Sea as blackmail. Enough treating the world's most vulnerable people as leverage. Enough of this unjustified unconscionable war," he said.

Blinken announced that nearly 90 countries had backed a U.S.-drafted communique in which they commit "to take action to end the use of food as a weapon of war and the starvation of civilians as a tactic of warfare."

The communique does not call out any countries by name. Blinken, however, singled out Russia in his speech, saying its invasion of Ukraine had sparked an "assault" on the global food system.

The United States and the European Union have previously accused Russia of using food as a weapon of war by worsening a global food crisis when it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Russia last month quit the grain deal that for nearly a year had allowed the safe export of Ukrainian grain through three of Ukraine's Black Sea ports.

Since quitting the deal, which was brokered by the United Nations and Turkey to help ease the food crisis, Moscow has targeted Ukrainian ports and grain infrastructure on the Black Sea and Danube River.

Blinken spoke at a meeting he chaired on famine and food insecurity caused by conflict. The United States took over the rotating presidency of the Security Council on August 1.

Moscow says it would return to the deal if its demands to improve its own exports of grain and fertilizer were met. The sanctions imposed on Russia "explicitly exclude food and fertilizer," Blinken said, but Moscow argues that restrictions on payments, logistics, and insurance have hindered its agricultural exports.

"At the time it abandoned the initiative, Russia was exporting more grain at higher prices than ever before," Blinken said.

Blinken added that the United States would provide $362 million in new funding to "tackle the drivers of food insecurity and to enhance resilience" in 11 African countries and Haiti.

With reporting by Reuters and AFP

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-un-blinken-ukraine- grain/32533068.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. Research Finds 'Disturbing Campaign' To Force Ukrainians To Become Russian Citizens

By RFE/RL August 03, 2023

Ukrainians living in Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine are being forced to assume Russian citizenship or face harsh retaliation, including possible deportation to Russia, U.S.-backed research published on August 2 said.

The research says residents of the Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhya regions are being targeted by a systematic effort to strip them of Ukrainian identity.

"The report details a disturbing campaign to compel residents to adopt Russian citizenship," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said. "Those who refuse to do so face limited access to public services, employment, and property ownership with implications for their mobility, health, and livelihoods."

Parents of children born in occupied parts of Ukraine who refuse to register their children for Russian citizenship face even greater difficulties, including reduced access to parental benefits, he said.

"Some parents have been threatened with losing custody of their children and possible deportation to Russia," Miller said.

The tactic, which Miller said Russia has used before in Georgia, also provides pretext to further advance the Kremlin's "imperial ambitions."

Miller said Ukrainians living under Russian occupation "are and will remain" Ukrainian citizens.

"State-sanctioned intimidation will not change the facts. Every inch of Ukraine's territory is and will remain Ukraine," Miller said.

The report was released by the Conflict Observatory program at Yale University's School of Public Health's Humanitarian Research Lab.

The researchers said they identified laws and tactics used to make it impossible for residents to survive in their homes unless they accept Russian citizenship.

"These laws and tactics violate international law, including the prohibition on discrimination against people living under occupation based on nationality, and forcing people to declare allegiance to an occupying power, both illegal under The Hague Convention and the Geneva Conventions," the report said.

A series of decrees signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin compel Ukrainians to get Russian passports in a process the researchers call forced passportization.

Ukrainians in occupied territory who do not seek Russian citizenship "are subjected to threats, intimidation, restrictions on humanitarian aid, and basic necessities, and possible detention or deportation -- all designed to force them to become Russian citizens," the report said.

Ukrainians in areas under Russian control have no choice but to accept a Russian passport if they want to survive, Humanitarian Research Lab Executive Director Nathaniel Raymond told Reuters.

"It is very widespread and very ongoing," Raymond said.

The Kremlin has consistently denied allegations of war crimes in Ukraine in what it calls a "special military operation" launched, it falsely claims, to "de-Nazify" its neighbor and protect Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, a Russian children's rights official, have been accused by the UN's International Criminal Court (ICC) of the forced deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia. The ICC in March issued arrest warrants for Putin and Lvova-Belova, saying their actions amount to a war crime under international legislation.

Russia said at the time that the warrants were "outrageous" and legally void.

The Ukrainian government says it has identified almost 19,500 children who have been deported or separated from their parents or guardians since the start of Russia's unprovoked invasion in February last year.

With reporting by Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-russia-campaign- forced-citizenship-report-war/32532114.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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Russia Counterattacks in Donetsk Direction, Ukraine Lost up to 380 Soldiers

Sputnik News

20230803

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Russian forces have engaged in counterattacks in the Donetsk direction where the Ukrainian military lost up to 380 soldiers in the past 24 hours, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Thursday.

The Ukrainian forces continued to make attempts to attack in Donetsk, South Donetsk, Kupyansk and Krasny Lyman directions, the ministry mentioned. In the Donetsk direction, Russia repelled eight Ukrainian attacks.

"After repelling the attacks, Russian troops counterattacked the retreating enemy and improved the position along the front line in the areas of the settlements of Berestovoe, Krasnogorovka and Marinka of the Donetsk People's Republic. During the past day, the enemy's losses amounted to 380 Ukrainian servicemen, one tank, five armored combat vehicles, four vehicles, two Polish-made Krab self-propelled artillery mounts, as well as the Rapira anti-tank gun," the ministry said in a statement, adding that Kiev lost up to 175 soldiers, one tank and two M777 howitzers in the South Donetsk direction.

According to the ministry, the Ukrainian military lost up to 110 soldiers in the Krasny Lyman direction and up to 150 soldiers in the Kupyansk direction.

"In the Kupyansk direction, the assault detachments of [Russia's] western grouping of forces carried out offensive operations on a wide front and took up more advantageous positions in the areas of the settlements of Olshanskoe, Pershotravnevoe in Kharkov Region and Kuzemevka in the Lugansk People's Republic," the ministry said.

A Sputnik

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Russian Air Defense Forces Shoot Down 6 Drones in Kaluga Region

Sputnik News

20230803

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that Ukraine tried to attack facilities in Moscow and the Moscow Region with three drones, two were destroyed by air defenses over the Odintsovo and Naro-Fominsk districts, one was suppressed by electronic warfare systems and crashed into a tower of the Moscow-City business center.

Russian air defense has foiled an attempted terrorist attack by the Kiev regime in the Kaluga region, destroying six drones, the Russian Defense Ministry said Thursday.

"Overnight, an attempt by the Kiev regime to conduct a terrorist attack using unmanned aerial vehicles was thwarted over the Kaluga Region. Air defense forces destroyed six drones," the ministry said, adding that there were no casualties or damage as a result of the thwarted attack.

It added that "there were no casualties or damage as a result of the foiled terrorist attack".

Earlier in the day, the governor of the Kaluga Region, Vladislav Shapsha, said that six drones had been shot down, while flying over the Kaluga Region overnight, with no casualties or damage reported.

Shapsha added that response services were operating at the site.

A Sputnik

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Everyone must work for the victory, for the protection of people and Ukraine - address by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

President of Ukraine

3 August 2023 - 21:45

I wish you health, fellow Ukrainians!

There were many meetings today. Different ones. International work, internal security, defense of the state.

The meeting on the Crimea Platform - the content of the summit, the international presence at the summit, its impact on our ability to keep up the pressure for the liberation of Crimea - we are working on the details. And we are already preparing not only the Crimea Platform Summit at the level of leaders in August, but also the parliamentary dimension of the Crimea Platform, which will be held in the autumn.

Today is the second day of an important meeting with the ambassadors of Ukraine in Zakarpattia region.

Yesterday and today we had the highest political and highest military levels of communication. The ambassadors had very substantive conversations with the Minister of Defense, the Commander-in-Chief, Commander of the Air Force, Vice Admiral Neizhpapa, the Commander of the Naval Forces, Head of the Foreign Intelligence Service Lytvynenko, and NSDC Secretary Danilov. All of them. I specifically asked Commander-in-Chief Zaluzhny, the commanders and Mr. Kuleba to hold such a meeting to discuss the key things that our warriors and defense forces need so much, so that they could convey all this to the ambassadors.

Prime Minister Shmyhal, Yulia Svyrydenko, Stefanishyna, Kubrakov also attended the meeting today. There was also a meeting between the ambassadors and Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Ruslan Stefanchuk on parliamentary diplomacy, which can be very effective if it is fully consistent with our overall state strategy.

It is important that the ambassadors of Ukraine are fully informed about every need of Ukraine in great detail. Weapons, equipment, munitions, finances, specific political decisions... I thank everyone who was active at this meeting in Zakarpattia, and I thank Zakarpattia for such a welcome.

Today, there were reports from Head of the Security Service of Ukraine Malyuk and Minister of Internal Affairs Klymenko. In particular, one of the issues is the inspection of the "military commissars".

We talked in detail. The inspection reveals many abuses. Frankly disgusting ones. All the facts revealed by law enforcement officers will be presented to the public and investigated in the framework of criminal proceedings. The conclusion is obvious: the recruitment system needs people who understand the value of defending Ukraine. The value, not the price of decisions. People who have seen the war and gone through it should work in the "military enlistment offices". There are those who, unfortunately, lost their limbs, but did not lose their dignity and did not lose Ukraine. I am grateful to them.

Minister Klymenko reported separately and in detail on the training of our National Guardsmen - the provision of ammunition and equipment is a priority. He also spoke about the protection of critical facilities, including nuclear power plants. We discussed the situation in the regions after the Russian terrorist attack on the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant, and the provision of all necessary supplies to people. The Minister also reported on measures taken to combat crime. There were informative reports on the entire range of work of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

And, of course, the frontline.

The battles are tough, the occupiers are trying their best to stop our guys. The assaults are very fierce. Kupyansk, Lyman, Bakhmut, Maryinka, Avdiivka directions. Southern directions. It is difficult everywhere. But no matter what the enemy does, it is the Ukrainian force that dominates. And I am grateful to everyone on the frontline for this!

Today I would like to recognize the warriors of the 15th operational brigade of the National Guard. Melitopol direction. Thank you, guys! I would also like to mention the warriors of the Izmail border guard detachment who, together with the maritime units, counter Russian "Shahed" attacks.

In total, the terrorists have already launched at least 1961 "Shaheds" against Ukraine, and a significant number of them have been shot down. Unfortunately, not all of them. We are working to shoot down more - to shoot down as many as possible. We are working to have more air defense systems. In particular, this is a task for each of our ambassadors, all representatives of Ukraine.

Everyone must work for the victory, for the protection of life. The lives of people and the protection of our beautiful Ukraine! We will definitely win.

Glory to Ukraine!

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Latest in Ukraine: Ukraine Pursuing Global Support in Saudi-Hosted Peace Talks

By VOA News August 03, 2023

Latest Developments:

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Ukraine is "doing our best with our partners to increase the supply of air defense systems."

Ukraine says Russian attack that hit port in Izmail damaged 40,000 tons of grain

Ukraine and its allies are preparing to mobilize global support for a peace plan to be discussed during talks that Saudi Arabia is hosting this weekend.

Ukraine and Western diplomats hope the meeting in the Saudi Arabian port city of Jeddah will be an opportunity for officials to agree on key principles to inform any peace agreement that would end Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine.

About 40 countries are set to be represented at the session, but it is currently unclear whether China will be among them. China was invited to a previous round of talks in Denmark in June but did not attend.

The session is expected to begin on Friday, and the main discussions will take place on Saturday and Sunday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday he hopes this weekend's talks will lead to a bigger "peace summit" of global leaders this fall.

Russia will not be involved in this weekend's talks or the summit Zelenskyy has planned for the fall.

Beyond its Western backers, Ukraine hopes to garner diplomatic support from more Global South countries, including Brazil, India, South Africa and Turkey.

Part of Ukraine's strategy to gain support from Global South countries will reportedly be to emphasize how food prices have risen as a result of Russia quitting a deal last month to permit safe passage of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea and attacking Ukrainian port facilities.

That facet of the conflict has been top of mind for U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who on Thursday pressed all countries at the United Nations to tell Moscow to stop using the Black Sea as blackmail after Russia killed the Black Sea Grain Initiative.

"Every member of the United Nations should tell Moscow, 'Enough,'" Blinken said while chairing a U.N. Security Council meeting on famine and food insecurity caused by conflict.

"Enough using the Black Sea as blackmail. Enough treating the world's most vulnerable people as leverage. Enough of this unjustified unconscionable war," Blinken said.

In addition to targeting Ukrainian port facilities, Russian forces have targeted Ukrainian cultural sites.

Ukrainian officials said Russian shelling Thursday hit a historic church in the city of Kherson, wounding at least seven people.

The site of the attack was St. Catherine's Cathedral, where Ukraine's state emergency service said a second round of shelling wounded four emergency workers who were fighting a fire after the initial attack.

Oleksandr Prokudin, Kherson's regional governor, said three other people were hurt aboard a trolley bus that was driving past the cathedral at the time of the shelling.

The attack on the church follows last week's Russian missile strike that hit an Orthodox cathedral in Odesa.

At least 274 Ukrainian cultural sites have been damaged since Russia's invasion, according to UNESCO.

In the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, officials said Russia attacked for a second consecutive day with a wave of drones but that there were no reports of injuries or damage.

Ukraine's military said it downed 15 Iranian-made Shahed drones launched by Russia overnight.

Also Thursday, Russia reported a Ukrainian drone attack on the Kaluga region, about 150 kilometers south of Moscow.

The regional governor, Vyacheslav Shapsha, said on Telegram that Russian air defenses shot down six drones and that there were no reported casualties.

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.

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Japan, Ethiopia to Work on Black Sea Grain Deal Resumption

By Maya Misikir August 03, 2023

Japan's foreign minister, following a one-on-one meeting Thursday with Ethiopia's deputy prime minister, expressed hope their two nations would work together on the resumption of the Black Sea Grain Initiative.

Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, making his first visit to Ethiopia, said he shared concerns about the impact of Russia's aggression against Ukraine on food security in Africa. following a one-on-one meeting with Ethiopia's Demeke Mekonnen.

"Japan deplores the termination of the Black Sea Grain Initiative by Russia, and Japan hopes to work together with Ethiopia towards the resumption of the initiative," Hayashi said.

Since the start of the Black Sea grain deal, which took effect in July 2022, the United Nations has overseen the export of more than 262 metric tons of wheat to Ethiopia.

Climate shocks that brought about severe droughts and conflict in Ethiopia have put over 20 million people in need of food assistance.

Hayashi also talked about the Japanese government's support of the peace deal that ended the war in Ethiopia's Tigray region.

"I mentioned Japan's support for implementation of the peace agreement signed between the Ethiopian government and the TPLF [Tigray People's Liberation Front] and stated that Japan would give serious consideration to further cooperation toward the implementation of this agreement," he said.

Demeke, who also serves as Ethiopia's foreign minister, said the two had a productive discussion on issues of mutual interest.

"In our talks, we pledged to deepen our partnership in the political, economic and social sectors," Demeke said. "In particular, we renewed our commitment to strengthen our investment, trade and development cooperation."

The Japanese foreign minister's stop in Ethiopia wrapped up a six-nation tour of Southwest Asia and Africa.

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Hiroshima

Hiroshima Bay is that portion of the Inland Sea of Japan associated with the city of Hiroshima. Iwakuni is located on the western side of the bay in a relatively flat, open area while Kure is embedded in a region of mountains and mountainous islands with almost complete protection from all directions.

The city of Hiroshima is located on the deltas of southwestern Honshu Island facing the Inland Sea. Hiroshima, the City of International Peace and Culture, was originally a reedy delta, but it began to develop as a city after the construction of the Hiroshima Castle and surrounding houses at the end of 16th century.

The city is said to have originated in Tensho 17 (1589 A.D.) during the Azuchi Momoyama Period when Terumoto Mori began building a castle at the mouth of the Ota River. On April 15, 1589, Terumoto appointed Naritoki Ninomiya and Motokiyo Hoita magistrates in charge of construction and ordered them to begin the foundation work with all possible speed. The next year the castle town was laid out, the moat dug, and the castle buildings themselves were under construction. Castle construction proceeded even though during that year Terumoto was on duty protecting Kyoto, while Hideyoshi Toyotomi was attacking Odawara Castle. Terumoto moved into the castle in 1593 when construction was nearly complete. It was clearly constructed in a great hurry.

Earth and sand, washed down by the Ota River, accumulated in the bay over a long period of time and formed a number of flat islands. At that time people began to occupy these islands and called the area "Gokaura" or "Gokasho" or "Gokason" (Five Villages). Some say that the name of Hiroshima came from the fact that the castle was built on the largest of the islands. (Hiro means large; shima means island.) Hiroshima Castle is also called "Rijo" (the Castle of the Carp). This is because "Koi" in Koi-ura, the whole area where the castle was located, is a homonym of carp in Japanese.

With the completion of the castle, as retainers moved in from Yoshida, merchants and artisans were recruited from many places. Thus, a new castle town, befitting a great feudal lord, was born. Rivers running through the town were utilized for water transport, connecting the town with the Seto Inland Sea.

During the Edo Period, the expansion of arable land through land reclamation and a burgeoning population generated vigorous commerce. Eventually, Hiroshima became a major urban center, following Edo, Osaka, Kyoto, Nagoya, and Kanazawa. By 1864, the Tokugawa government no longer held power as in the past, and rapid changes in the world were bringing about the breakdown of feudalism. Hiroshima became a military base for the Tokugawa government with the possibility of becoming a dangerous battle field. By 1866 the powerlessness of the Tokugawa government was revealed to the whole country, and the political situation took a sudden turn from restoring power to the Tokugawa government to the establishment of imperial rule.

In 1868, the new Meiji government was formed. With the inauguration of the new government, the system of the administration of local municipalities was also changed. In July, 1871, the feudal clan system was abolished and the Hiroshima fief became Hiroshima Prefecture. The castle town of Hiroshima began the process of rebirth as one of the most important cities of Japan. In Meiji 22 (1889), the municipal system was implemented, and Hiroshima developed into a modern city with a dual military and academic character.

Japan, which had been victorious in the early stages of the war, lost the battle of Guadalcanal in 1943. Afterwards, the military situation grew steadily worse, and it appeared that the mainland of Japan would be turned into a battlefield. The army hurriedly prepared for a decisive battle on the mainland. With these preparations Hiroshima was to take on a new role. Japan was divided into two parts; the First General Headquarters was placed in Tokyo, and the Second General Headquarters (under the command of Marshal Shunroku Hata) in Hiroshima, where the headquarters of the Chugoku District Governor-General (led by Isei Otsuka), the highest administrative body commissioned by the central government, was also established.

By 1945 Hiroshima had a civilian population of almost 300,000 and was an important military center, containing about 43,000 soldiers. Occasional bombs, which did no great damage, had fallen on Hiroshima. Many nearby cities in turn were destroyed, but Hiroshima itself remained largely unscathed. There were almost daily observation planes flying over the city, but none of them dropped bombs. The citizens wondered why they alone had remained undisturbed for such a long time.

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MONTREAL, Aug. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Knight Therapeutics Inc. (TSX: GUD) (Knight), a leading pan-American (ex-USA) specialty pharmaceutical company, will release its second quarter 2023 financial results on Thursday, August 10, 2023 prior to market opening. Following the release, Knight will hold a conference call and audio webcast. Knight cordially invites all interested parties to participate in this call.



Date: Thursday, August 10, 2023

Time: 8:30 a.m. ET

Telephone: Toll Free: 1-888-664-6383 or International 1-416-764-8650

Webcast: www.knighttx.com or Webcast

This is a listen-only audio webcast. Media Player is required to listen to the broadcast.

Replay: An archived replay will be available for 30 days at www.knighttx.com.

About Knight Therapeutics Inc.

Knight Therapeutics Inc., headquartered in Montreal, Canada, is a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on acquiring or in-licensing and commercializing pharmaceutical products for Canada and Latin America. Knights Latin American subsidiaries operate under United Medical, Biotoscana Farma and Laboratorio LKM. Knight Therapeutics Inc.'s shares trade on TSX under the symbol GUD. For more information about Knight Therapeutics Inc., please visit the company's web site at www.knighttx.com or www.sedar.com.

Forward-Looking Statement

This document contains forward-looking statements for Knight Therapeutics Inc. and its subsidiaries. These forward-looking statements, by their nature, necessarily involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements. Knight Therapeutics Inc. considers the assumptions on which these forward-looking statements are based to be reasonable at the time they were prepared but cautions the reader that these assumptions regarding future events, many of which are beyond the control of Knight Therapeutics Inc. and its subsidiaries, may ultimately prove to be incorrect. Factors and risks which could cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations are discussed in Knight Therapeutics Inc.'s Annual Report and in Knight Therapeutics Inc.'s Annual Information Form for the year ended December 31, 2022, as filed on www.sedar.com. Knight Therapeutics Inc. disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information or future events, except as required by law.
Westford, USA, Aug. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to SkyQuest, the general aviation market is playing a pivotal role in driving economic growth and creating new opportunities. This positive trajectory is expected to persist with the development of supersonic and electrically powered commercial aircraft. As technological advancements shape the future of aviation, the industry must prioritize innovation for efficiency, performance, and safety.

Browse in-depth TOC on the "General Aviation Market"

Pages - 189

Tables - 37

Figures  66

The flourishing tourism sector in different regions has triggered an optimistic outlook for charter operators and tourism companies, leading to ambitious expansion plans for their fleets. The increasing demand for travel and tourism experiences has prompted these companies to invest in new aircraft types, including piston-engine aircraft, turboprop aircraft, and helicopters, in the general aviation market.

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Report Scope & Segmentation:

Attributes Details Market Size in 2022 USD 27465.98 Million 2030 Value Projection USD 41883.86 Million CAGR 4.8% Forecast Period 2023-2030 Segments Type: Helicopters, Piston Fixed-wing Aircraft, Turboprop Aircraft, and Business Jets Regions Covered North America

Europe

Asia Pacific

Latin America

Middle East and Africa

Prominent Players in the General Aviation Market

ATR Aircraft

Textron

Airbus

Boeing

Embraer

Bombardier

Pilatus Aircraft

One Aviation

Gulfstream Aerospace

Cirrus Aircraft

Lockheed Martin

Dassault Aviation

Browse summary of the report and Complete Table of Contents (ToC):

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Piston Fixed-Wing Aircraft Segment is Expected to Grow in the Market Due to Various Training Purposes

Piston fixed-wing aircraft segment are designed for low-altitude, moderate-speed flights, making them ideal for various training purposes in the general aviation market. Consequently, most orders for piston fixed-wing aircraft come from pilot training institutes and flight schools. These aircraft offer an excellent platform for aspiring pilots to hone their skills and gain practical experience, as they are well-suited for primary flight training and maneuvers.

The markets in Europe has been a notable surge in the adoption of private jets for intra-region travel, particularly among high net worth individuals (HNWIs) in the general aviation market. This trend has been driven by the disruptions faced by commercial airlines, leading to frequent cancellations of intra-region flights due to staffing shortages.

Fixed-Wing Aircraft Segment is Expected to Dominate the Market Due to Diverse Range of Applications and Industries

Fixed-wing aircraft segment is pivotal and prominent in the general aviation market. These aircraft have stationary wings that generate lift, allowing them to achieve stable and sustained flight.

Regional markets in North America stand as a dominant strength in the general aviation market, boasting the largest market share. This position is projected to persist throughout the forecast period. One of the key factors driving this prominence is the region's possession of the world's largest operating general aviation aircraft fleet.

A comprehensive analysis of the major players in the general aviation market has been recently conducted in a report. The report encompasses various aspects, including collaborations, mergers, innovative business policies, and strategies, providing valuable insights into key trends and breakthroughs in the market. Furthermore, the report scrutinizes the market share of the top segments and presents a detailed geographic analysis. Lastly, the report highlights the major players in the industry and their endeavours to develop innovative solutions to cater to the growing demand.

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Key Developments in the General Aviation Market

In 2022, the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) made a significant ruling pertaining to CHC's acquisition of Babcock International's offshore oil-and-gas aviation business, which had taken place the previous year. The CMA concluded that the acquisition was anti-competitive and ordered CHC to divest the acquired business. This decision aimed to address concerns about potential monopolistic practices and promote fair competition within the offshore oil-and-gas aviation sector in the UK.

ATR made an exciting announcement in 2022. The company stated that the partially configured short takeoff and landing (STOL) variant of its ATR 42-600 turboprop had completed its maiden flight. The aircraft took off from Francazal Airport in Cugnaux, France, at 10 a.m. and conducted a flight lasting 2 hours and 15 minutes.

Key Questions Answered in General Aviation Market Report

What specific growth drivers are projected to impact the market during the forecast period?

List the top companies in the market and explain how they have achieved their positions of influence.

In what ways do regional trends and patterns differ within the global market, and how these differences shape the market's future growth?

Related Reports in SkyQuests Library:

Global Aircraft Communication System Market

Global Aircraft Sensors Market

Global Aircraft Tires Market

Global Military Aircraft Lighting Market

Global Aircraft Tail Lighting Market

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Helicopters, Piston Fixed-wing Aircraft
New York City, Aug. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- World Breastfeeding Week (August 1-7, 2023) is a time to underscore the vital role of breastfeeding and acknowledge the challenges and provide support for breastfeeding moms. In the spirit of this celebration, Momcozy , the beloved companion to over 2 million moms worldwide, is announcing its event: " Real Support for Breastfeeding Moms '' in partnership with Alicia Samone Photography. Slated for August 12 in Scottsdale, Arizona, the gathering is a demonstration of Momcozys commitment to providing tangible support to breastfeeding moms which extends beyond World Breastfeeding Week.



Free to attendees, the event will serve as a rich resource hub and networking platform for hundreds of moms seeking community and practical support. Momcozy has crafted an agenda brimming with engaging conversations, reliable and relevant information on breastfeeding, and an interactive Q&A session with breastfeeding experts to address attendees most pressing breastfeeding questions and challenges.

Additionally, the event will feature the 'gASP Im Breastfeeding' group photo. For 10-plus years, local photographer Alicia Samone has led this powerful photoshoot featuring mothers breastfeeding their children to challenge societal norms while empowering moms to embrace the bond they have with their child.

To further tackle barriers that mothers face in accessing breastfeeding support, Momcozy will launch its Breastfeeding Support Program at the event, with the ultimate goal of empowering mutual support between mothers in their breastfeeding journeys.

Beyond in-depth insights and breastfeeding information, attendees will receive an array of additional perks, including live Momcozy product demonstrations and exciting prize giveaways.

"As an organization, we want to do everything in our power to make every mom's life a little cozier," said a Momcozy representative. "This means keeping the dialogue thriving, the support flowing, and making a real difference in the lives of breastfeeding moms." She continued, "Moms need more than just the encouragement to breastfeed, they need tangible, real-world support, and that's exactly what we aim to provide."
Westford, USA, Aug. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to SkyQuest, the rising demand for automation in factories has led to a significant increase in the adoption of innovative manufacturing technologies in product development and production processes. The emergence of Industry 4.0 has further intensified the need for interconnected machinery, driving the demand for machines equipped with predictive maintenance capabilities in the metal cutting tools market .

Browse in-depth TOC on the "Metal Cutting Tools Market"

Pages - 239

Tables - 66

Figures  75

The automotive industry's rapid growth is expected to be a key driver of market expansion over the forecast period. As the demand for automobiles increases, so the need for new and innovative welded automotive components. This surge in the production of light vehicles, including cars and motorcycles, will result in a significant demand for metal cutting tools market.

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Prominent Players in the Metal Cutting Tools Market

Sandvik AB

Kennametal Inc.

Mitsubishi Materials Corporation

Hitachi Metals, Ltd.

Kyocera Corporation

Ceratizit S.A.

Seco Tools AB

OSG Corporation

Nachi-Fujikoshi Corp.

Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd.

Walter AG

Iscar Ltd.

IMC Group

Guhring KG

MAPAL Dr. Kress KG

Tungaloy Corporation

TaeguTec Ltd.

Sumitomo Corporation

LMT Onsrud LP

KOMET GROUP GmbH

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Lathe Machines Segment is Expected to Grow the Market Due to Increase in the Need for Precision Engineering

Lathe machines segment is poised to witness rapid growth, primarily fueled by the heightened demand from the automotive industry. As the automotive sector continues to expand, there is a corresponding increase in the need for precision engineering and metal cutting processes, driving the demand for lathe machines in the metal cutting tools market.

The markets in North America are anticipated to witness profitable growth in the forecast period, driven by the increasing demand for prefabricated metals in the metal cutting tools market. The construction industry in these regions is experiencing a surge in demand for prefabricated metal components and structures owing to their cost-effectiveness, time-saving benefits, and sustainability advantages.

Machining Centers Segment is Expected to Dominate the Market Due to Increasing Demand for Mass Manufacturing

Machining centers segment stands as the dominant force in the metal cutting tools market and is projected to maintain its leading position during the forecast period. The prominence of this segment is attributed to the increasing demand for mass manufacturing across various industries, with the automobile sector being a significant contributor.

Regional markets in the Asia Pacific are major players in the metal cutting tools market, currently holding a significant market share, and it is expected to maintain its dominant position throughout the forecast period. The region's growth can be attributed to the rising demand for industrial machinery from various industries, including construction, automotive, and food & beverage.

A comprehensive analysis of the major players in the metal cutting tools market has been recently conducted in a report. The report encompasses various aspects, including collaborations, mergers, innovative business policies, and strategies, providing valuable insights into key trends and breakthroughs in the market. Furthermore, the report scrutinizes the market share of the top segments and presents a detailed geographic analysis. Lastly, the report highlights the major players in the industry and their endeavors to develop innovative solutions to cater to the growing demand.

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Key Developments in the Metal Cutting Tools Market

Sandvik AB, a prominent manufacturer of metal cutting tools, recently made a notable acquisition by acquiring Preziss, a leading developer of solutions for aluminum and composite machining. This strategic move demonstrates Sandvik's commitment to expanding its portfolio and enhancing its capabilities in providing innovative cutting solutions for various materials, including aluminum and composites. The acquisition is expected to bolster Sandvik's position in the market and further solidify its reputation as a provider of cutting-edge technologies for the metalworking industry.

Sandvik Coromant, a business division of Sandvik AB, recently announced the launch of CoroDrill 860-PM, a cutting-edge solution for drilling operations. The CoroDrill 860-PM is designed to deliver premium performance, offering increased efficiency and precision in drilling tasks.

Key Questions Answered in Metal Cutting Tools Market Report

What specific growth drivers are projected to impact the market during the forecast period?

List the top companies in the market and explain how they have achieved their positions of influence.

In what ways do regional trends and patterns differ within the global market, and how these differences shape the market's future growth?

Related Reports in SkyQuests Library:

Global Microchannel Heat Exchanger Market

Global Hydraulic Equipment Market

Global Aerosol Cans Market

Global Industrial Films Market

Global Fiber Laser Market

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Solvay SA announces bond liability management transactions

Brussels, August 4, 2023 at 8 am CEST  Solvay SA (Solvay or the Company) announced today that it has launched consent solicitation exercises (the Consent Solicitations) in relation to its

500,000,000 Undated Deeply Subordinated Fixed to Reset Rate Perp-NC5.5 Bonds with first call date on 2 December 2025 (ISIN: BE6324000858),

500,000,000 2.750 per cent. Fixed Rate Bonds due 2 December 2027 (ISIN: BE6282460615), and

600,000,000 0.500 per cent. Fixed Rate Bonds due 6 September 2029 (ISIN: BE6315847804)

(together the Bonds)





in connection with the planned separation of Solvay into two independent publicly traded companies and industry leaders, Specialty Holdco Belgium (SpecialtyCo, expected to be renamed Syensqo) and EssentialCo (which will keep the Solvay name), that is intended to take place by means of a partial demerger of Solvay under Belgian Law (the Partial Demerger).

The completion of the separation of Solvay will be subject to a number of customary closing conditions, including (among others) the final approval by Solvays Board of Directors, as well as its shareholders at an extraordinary general meeting. As part of the separation, Solvay is offering the holders of certain of its outstanding debt securities the opportunity to transfer their securities to SpecialtyCo (preliminary ratings: Baa1/BBB+), the stronger rated of the two entities post separation.

The purpose of the Consent Solicitations is to invite eligible holders of the Bonds to consider and, if thought fit, approve (i) the substitution of SpecialtyCo in place of Solvay in respect of each series of the Bonds and (ii), in respect of certain series of the Bonds, certain modifications to the conditions of the Bonds, all as further described in the Consent Solicitation Memorandum dated 4 August 2023. The Bondholders meetings will be held on 5 September 2023 at the offices of Solvay at Rue de Ransbeek, 310 1120 Brussels, Belgium. The convening notice to the Bondholders meetings is available at https://www.solvay.com/en/investors/creating-two-strong-industry-leaders.

In addition, holders of the outstanding 500,000,000 Undated Deeply Subordinated Fixed to Reset Rate Bonds with first optional redemption date of 3 June 2024 (ISIN: XS1323897725) issued by Solvay Finance and irrevocably guaranteed on a subordinated basis by Solvay are invited to tender any-and-all of their holdings for cash, subject to the conditions described in the Tender Offer Memorandum dated 4 August 2023 (the Tender Offer).

Lastly, exchange offers and consent solicitations in relation to the U.S.$800,000,000 4.450% Senior Notes due 2025 issued by Solvay Finance (America), LLC (CUSIPs: 834423 AB1 (144A) / U8344P AB5 (Reg S)) and U.S.$250,000,000 3.95% Senior Notes due 2025 issued by Cytec Industries Inc. (CUSIP: 232820 AK6) are expected to be launched in early September 2023.

Further details on the Consent Solicitations and the Tender Offer are included in the Consent Solicitation Memorandum and the separate Tender Offer Memorandum, which are both available from the Information and Tabulation Agent (D.F. King Ltd.: https://www.dfkingltd.com/solvay).

Relevant Bonds

EUR Consent solicitations

ISIN Description Outstanding Amount BE6324000858 500,000,000 Undated Deeply Subordinated Fixed to Reset Rate Bonds with First Call Date on 2 December 2025  500,000,000 BE6282460615 500,000,000 2.750 per cent. Fixed Rate Bonds due 2 December 2027  500,000,000 BE6315847804 600,000,000 0.500 per cent. Fixed Rate Bonds due 6 September 2029  600,000,000

EUR Tender Offer

ISIN Description Outstanding Amount XS1323897725 500,000,000 5.869% Undated Deeply Subordinated Fixed to Reset Rate Bonds with First Optional Redemption Date on 3 June 2024  500,000,000





Disclaimer

The contemplated separation of Solvay is subject to general market conditions and customary closing conditions, including final approval by the Board of Directors of Solvay SA (the Company), consent of certain financing providers and shareholder approval at an extraordinary general meeting, and is expected to be completed in December 2023. There can be no assurance, however, regarding the ultimate timing of the separation or that the separation will actually be completed. The Company will keep the market informed if and when appropriate.

This press release is for informational purposes only and is not intended to, and does not, constitute an offer or invitation to sell or solicitation of an offer to subscribe for or buy, or an invitation to purchase or subscribe for, any securities of the Company or Specialty Holdco Belgium SRL (SpecialtyCo), any part of the business or assets described herein, or any other interests or the solicitation of any vote or approval in any jurisdiction in connection with the transactions described herein or otherwise, nor shall there be any sale, issuance or transfer of securities in any jurisdiction in contravention of applicable law. This press release should not be construed in any manner as a recommendation to any reader thereof.

This press release is not a prospectus or other offering document for the purposes of Regulation (EU) 2017/1129 of June 14, 2017 (as amended, the Prospectus Regulation).

The distribution of this press release may be restricted by law in certain jurisdictions and persons into whose possession any document or other information referred to herein comes, should inform themselves about and observe any such restriction. Any failure to comply with these restrictions may constitute a violation of the securities laws of any such jurisdiction.

This press release is directed solely to persons in the United Kingdom who (i) have professional experience in matters relating to investments, such persons falling within the definition of investment professionals in Article 19(5) of the FSMA (Financial Promotion) Order 2005, as amended (the Financial Promotion Order) or (ii) are persons falling within Article 49(2)(a) to (d) of the Financial Promotion Order or other persons to whom it may lawfully be communicated or caused to be communicated, (all such persons together being referred to as relevant persons). This press release is directed only to relevant persons and must not be acted on or relied on by persons who are not relevant persons.

The securities referred to in this announcement have not been and will not be registered under the US Securities Act of 1933 (the Securities Act) and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements of the Securities Act. The Tender Offer and the Consent Solicitations are not being made, and will not be made, directly or indirectly in or into, or by use of the mail of, or by any means or instrumentality of interstate or foreign commerce of, or of any facilities of a national securities exchange of, the United States. This includes, but is not limited to, facsimile transmission, electronic mail, telex, telephone, the internet and other forms of electronic communication. Accordingly, copies of this announcement and any other documents or materials relating to the Tender Offer or the Consent Solicitations are not being, and must not be, directly or indirectly mailed or otherwise transmitted, distributed or forwarded (including, without limitation, by custodians, nominees or trustees) in or into the United States or to any person located or resident in the United States and the securities in relation to the Tender Offer cannot be tendered by any such use, means, instrumentality or facility or from within the United States or by any person located or resident in the United States.
New York, NY, Aug. 04, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Zion Market Research has published a new research report titled Advanced CO2 Sensors Market By Product (Non-Dispersive Infrared (NDIR) CO2 Sensors And Chemical CO2 Sensors), By Connectivity (Wired CO2 Sensors And Wireless CO2 Sensors), By End-Use Industry (Healthcare, Petrochemical, Building Automation, Automotive, Consumer Electronics, And Others), And By Region - Global And Regional Industry Overview, Market Intelligence, Comprehensive Analysis, Historical Data, And Forecasts 2023  2030 in its research database.

According to the latest research study, the demand of global Advanced CO2 Sensors Market size & share in terms of revenue was valued at USD 10.1 billion in 2022 and it is expected to surpass around USD 14.5 billion mark by 2030, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 4.23% during the forecast period 2023 to 2030.

What are Advanced CO2 Sensors? How big is the Advanced CO2 Sensors Industry?

Report Overview:

The global advanced CO2 sensors market size was evaluated at $10.1 billion in 2022 and is slated to hit $14.5 billion by the end of 2030 with a CAGR of nearly 4.23% between 2023 and 2030.

Advanced CO2 Sensors are able to adjust to changes in altitude, temperature, and humidity. These sensors help monitor the concentration of carbon dioxide in various media such as air and water and can detect the intensity of carbon dioxide in different mediums. The demand for innovative CO2 sensors has increased as a result of an increase in the emission of dangerous gases from a large number of enterprises as well as an increase in the levels of air pollution that has occurred as a result of expanding industrialization. The automation of buildings in both the residential and commercial sectors has led to an increase in the amount of carbon emissions in the atmosphere, which has led to an increase in product penetration in construction and real estate operations. The product not only assesses the energy efficiency of buildings in the residential and commercial sectors, but it also offers information about the air quality that is present inside of structures.

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Global Advanced CO2 Sensors Market: Growth Factors

Massive consumer interest in goods that can measure and monitor levels of carbon dioxide in water and gases is driving global market developments.

The development of new applications for improved CO2 sensors in the management of carbon emissions in the atmosphere will be the primary driver of growth in the global market for advanced CO2 sensors. In addition to this, sophisticated CO2 sensors are utilised for the purposes of detecting and tracking the quantity of carbon dioxide in water as well as other gases that are present in the bodies of water. This, in turn, will provide favourable conditions for the expansion of the market on a global scale. Innovative CO2 sensors allow for the regulation of a wide variety of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which can be emitted from paints and new furnishings that are used in construction activities. This allows for the expansion of the worldwide market to be directed.

The successful growth of the healthcare, automotive, and petrochemical industries has resulted in a rise in carbon emissions, which has led to an increase in demand for cutting-edge CO2 sensors in those particular industries. The introduction of brand-new products will have a significant impact on the size of the worldwide market. For example, Fellowes has introduced ArrayTM, a cutting-edge network air quality solution that will increase indoor air quality and, as a result, enrich the market for air purification. This strategic approach will also push market players to launch sophisticated CO2 sensors, and as a result, it will drive the trends of the global market.

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Report Scope

Report Attribute Details Market Size in 2022 USD 10.1 billion Projected Market Size in 2030 USD 14.5 billion CAGR Growth Rate 4.23% CAGR Base Year 2022 Forecast Years 2023-2030 Key Market Players Amphenol Corporation, Gas Sensing Solutions Ltd., Vaisala Oyj, Asahi Kasei Corporation, Balluff GmbH, Sick AG, Honeywell International Inc., Siemens Aktiengesellschaft, Veris Industries LLC (Schneider Electric), and Johnson Controls International. Key Segment By Product, By Connectivity, By End-Use Industry, and By Region Major Regions Covered North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East &, Africa Purchase Options Request customized purchase options to meet your research needs. Explore purchase options

Advanced CO2 Sensors Market: Segmentation Analysis

The global market for sophisticated CO2 sensors may be broken down into four categories: product, connectivity, end-use industry, and region.

Non-dispersive infrared (NDIR) CO2 sensors and chemical CO2 sensors are the two product categories that make up the different sectors of the global market for advanced CO2 sensors. In addition to this, it is anticipated that the non-dispersive infrared (NDIR) CO2 sensors market segment, which had about three-quarters of the global market share in 2022, will achieve the highest CAGR during the period of time covered by the research. The enormous need for products in a variety of end-use sectors, including agri-food, pharmaceuticals, refrigeration and brewing, and beverages, can be credited to the rise of the segment in the years to come. This demand will play a significant role in the expansion of the segment. In addition to this, the product's advantageous characteristics, which include an extended lifespan, automated operations, accurate temperature measurement, reduced maintenance costs, and enhanced performance, have further contributed to an increase in demand for the product.

There are two primary categories of sophisticated CO2 sensors on the market today: wired CO2 sensors and wireless CO2 sensors. These categories are differentiated from one another on the basis of the type of connectivity they provide. In addition, the market for wireless CO2 sensors, which held a sizeable share of the global industry in 2022, is predicted to take the lead in the application market within the next couple of years. The segmental spike in the time range covered by the projection can be explained by its accurate measurement, rapid response, and long-term viability. In addition to this, wireless CO2 sensors are able to precisely measure both the surrounding temperature and the relative humidity.

The global market for advanced CO2 sensors is segmented into the healthcare sector, the petrochemical industry, the building automation industry, the automobile industry, the consumer electronics industry, and other categories based on the end-use industry. In addition, the building automation segment, which held a significant proportion of the global market in 2022, is projected to establish itself as the most important part of the end-use industry segment in the years to come. The increase in the number of construction projects carried out over the world is likely to be a primary factor in the market segment's expansion in the years to come.

The global Advanced CO2 Sensors market is segmented as follows:

By Product

Non-Dispersive Infrared (NDIR) CO2 Sensors

Chemical CO2 Sensors

By Connectivity

Wired CO2 Sensors

Wireless CO2 Sensors

By End-Use Industry

Healthcare

Petrochemical

Building Automation

Automotive

Consumer Electronics

Others

Browse the full Advanced CO2 Sensors Market By Product (Non-Dispersive Infrared (NDIR) CO2 Sensors And Chemical CO2 Sensors), By Connectivity (Wired CO2 Sensors And Wireless CO2 Sensors), By End-Use Industry (Healthcare, Petrochemical, Building Automation, Automotive, Consumer Electronics, And Others), And By Region - Global And Regional Industry Overview, Market Intelligence, Comprehensive Analysis, Historical Data, And Forecasts 2023  2030" Report At https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/report/advanced-co2-sensors-market

Competitive Landscape

Some of the main competitors dominating the global Advanced CO2 Sensors market include -

Amphenol Corporation

Gas Sensing Solutions Ltd.

Vaisala Oyj

Asahi Kasei Corporation

Balluff GmbH

Sick AG

Honeywell International Inc.

Siemens Aktiengesellschaft

Veris Industries LLC (Schneider Electric)

Johnson Controls International

Key Insights from Primary Research:

According to the analysis shared by our research forecaster, the Advanced CO2 Sensors market is likely to expand at a CAGR of around 4.23% during the forecast period (2023-2030).

In terms of revenue, the Advanced CO2 Sensors market size was valued at around US$ 10.1 billion in 2022 and is projected to reach US$ 14.5 billion by 2030.

The global advanced CO2 sensors market is anticipated to record massive growth over the forecast period owing to the escalating application of advanced CO2 sensors for controlling carbon emissions in the atmosphere.

In terms of product, the non-dispersive infrared (NDIR) CO2 sensors segment is slated to register the fastest CAGR over the analysis period.

On the basis of connectivity, the wireless CO2 sensors segment is slated to dominate the segmental surge over the forecast period.

Based on end-use industry, the building automation segment is projected to lead the segmental growth over the forecast timeline.

Region-wise, the North American advanced CO2 sensors market is projected to register the highest CAGR during the assessment timeline.

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Key questions answered in this report:

What is the market size and growth rate forecast for Advanced CO2 Sensors industry?

What are the main driving factors propelling the Advanced CO2 Sensors Market forward?

What are the leading companies in the Advanced CO2 Sensors Industry?

What segments does the Advanced CO2 Sensors Market cover?

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Key Offerings:

Market Size & Forecast by Revenue | 20232030

Market Dynamics  Leading Trends, Growth Drivers, Restraints, and Investment Opportunities

Market Segmentation  A detailed analysis By Product, By Connectivity, By End-Use Industry, and By Region

Competitive Landscape  Top Key Vendors and Other Prominent Vendors

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Regional Analysis:

Europe to account for a major share of the global market over the anticipated timeline

Europe, which accounted for more than 66% of the global advanced CO2 sensors market share in 2022, is anticipated to record notable growth over the analysis timeframe. The market expansion in the region over the projected timeframe can be subject to massive product penetration in HVAC applications for measuring air quality. Apart from this, they are immensely utilized in monitoring fermentation, photosynthesis, and carbon dioxide consuming methods in the food & beverages sector in the countries of Europe.

Furthermore, the advanced CO2 sensors industry in North America is projected to register the highest gains over the assessment timespan. The key growth driving factors of the industry in the region include an increase in the sale of the products in various end-use industries in countries such as Canada and the U.S.

By Region

North America U.S. Canada Rest of North America

Europe France UK Spain Germany Italy Rest of Europe

Asia Pacific China Japan India South Korea Rest of Asia Pacific

The Middle East & Africa Saudi Arabia South Africa Rest of the Middle East & Africa

Latin America Brazil Argentina Rest of Latin America



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Pune, Aug. 04, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Based on the SNS Insider report, The Cosmetic Packaging Market reached USD 36.21 billion in 2022 and is projected to reach USD 51.49 billion by 2030, exhibiting a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 4.5% during the forecast period spanning from 2023 to 2030.

Market Report Scope

Cosmetic packaging is an integral part of the cosmetics industry, serving multiple purposes from protecting the product to showcasing brand identity and sustainability efforts. As consumer preferences evolve, cosmetic companies are constantly innovating and embracing new trends to stay ahead in the market. The future of cosmetic packaging lies in the convergence of functionality, creativity, sustainability, and technology, providing consumers with a delightful and immersive experience.

Download PDF Brochure: https://www.snsinsider.com/sample-request/3089

Market Analysis

The cosmetic packaging market is poised for a bright and dynamic future, driven by ever-changing consumer preferences, a growing focus on sustainability, technological advancements, and the rise of the beauty and personal care industry. Brands that can adapt to these evolving trends and offer unique, attractive, and environmentally conscious packaging solutions are likely to flourish in this highly competitive landscape. As the beauty industry continues to evolve, cosmetic packaging will remain a vital element in capturing consumer attention and creating a lasting brand impression.

Cosmetic Packaging Market Overview & Scope:

Report Attributes Details Market Size by 2023 USD 36.21 billion in 2022 Market Share by 2030 USD 51.49 billion CAGR CAGR of 4.5% From 2023-2030 Key Segments By Source (natural, synthetic), by product (Benzenoids, Terpenes, Musk Chemicals, Others)



By Application (Food & Beverages, Fine Chemicals, Cosmetics & Toiletries, Soaps & Detergents, Others) Regional Analysis/Coverage North America (USA, Canada, Mexico), Europe (Germany, UK, France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands,Rest of Europe), Asia-Pacific (Japan, South Korea,China, India, Australia, Rest of Asia-Pacific), The Middle East & Africa (Israel, UAE, South Africa, Rest of Middle East & Africa), Latin America (Brazil, Argentina, Rest of Latin America) 20% free customization scope (equivalent to 50 analyst working hours) If you need specific information as per your business requirement, which is not currently within the scope of the report, we will provide it to you as a part of customization. Pricing & Purchase Options Avail customized purchase options to meet your exact research needs. Explore purchase options.

Impact of Recession

While recessions present significant challenges to the cosmetic packaging market, they also offer opportunities for adaptation, innovation, and transformation. As consumer priorities shift, the industry responds by embracing sustainability, innovation, and online retail channels. By understanding and catering to evolving consumer demands, cosmetic packaging companies can navigate through economic downturns successfully. Embracing eco-friendly practices, prioritizing innovation, and leveraging digital platforms will not only help them endure recessions but also foster long-term growth in an ever-changing market.

Impact of Russia-Ukraine War

The Russia-Ukraine War has undeniably left its mark on various industries worldwide, including the cosmetic packaging market. Supply chain disruptions, geopolitical tensions, and market uncertainties have posed significant challenges for cosmetic packaging manufacturers. However, amidst adversity, the industry has responded with resilience and adaptability. The shift towards sustainable packaging, market diversification, and technological innovations showcase the industry's determination to overcome challenges and thrive in a rapidly changing global landscape.

Key Regional Development

The cosmetic packaging market is a dynamic and evolving landscape influenced by regional factors and changing consumer preferences. As sustainability, personalization, and cultural relevance become integral to packaging decisions, companies must adapt to seize opportunities in each region. By incorporating innovative materials and designs while prioritizing eco-friendliness and cultural sensitivity, cosmetic packaging manufacturers can position themselves for success and make a lasting impression on consumers worldwide.

Key Takeaway from Cosmetic Packaging Market Study

The market is undergoing a profound transformation, driven by sustainability, functionality, and personalization. The tubes segment and skin care segment are at the forefront of this revolution, each offering unique attributes that resonate with the evolving preferences of modern consumers.

As cosmetic brands continue to embrace eco-consciousness and digital innovation, these segments are poised to dominate the market, catering to the growing demand for responsible, personalized, and holistic cosmetic packaging solutions.

Recent Developments Related to Cosmetic Packaging Market

In a strategic move to expand its presence in the cosmetics packaging industry, TPG, a leading global private equity firm, has recently announced its intention to acquire Samhwa, a well-established cosmetics container company, in a deal estimated to be worth approximately $237 million.

In a dazzling display of creativity and expertise, renowned packaging giants Axilone USA and Alder Packaging have joined forces to revolutionize the cosmetics industry with their groundbreaking partnership.

Buy Complete Research Report Which Provide Detail Impact Analysis of COVID-19, Russia-Ukraine War & Ongoing Recession: https://www.snsinsider.com/checkout/3089

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

1.1 Market Definition

1.2 Scope

1.3 Research Assumptions

2. Research Methodology

3. Market Dynamics

3.1 Drivers

3.2 Restraints

3.3 Opportunities

3.4 Challenges

4. Impact Analysis

4.1 Impact of Russia-Ukraine war

4.2 Impact of Ongoing Recession

4.2.1 Introduction

4.2.2 Impact on major economies

4.2.2.1 US

4.2.2.2 Canada

4.2.2.3 Germany

4.2.2.4 France

4.2.2.5 United Kingdom

4.2.2.6 China

4.2.2.7 Japan

4.2.2.8 South Korea

4.2.2.9 Rest of the World

4.3 Supply Demand Gap Analysis

5. Value Chain Analysis

6. Porters 5 forces model

7. PEST Analysis

8. Cosmetic Packaging Market Segmentation, By Material

8.1 Plastic

8.2 Paper

8.3 Glass

8.4 Metal

8.5 Others

9. Cosmetic Packaging Market Segmentation, By Product Type

9.1 Tubes

9.2 Bottles

9.3 Jars & Containers

9.4 Tins & Cans

9.5 Blister & Strip Packs

9.6 Others

10. Cosmetic Packaging Market Segmentation, By Application

10.1 Skin Care

10.2 Hair Care

10.3 Nail Care

10.4 Makeup

10.5 Perfumes

10.6 Others

11. Regional Analysis

11.1 Introduction

11.2 North America

11.3 Europe

11.3.1 Eastern Europe

11.3.2 Western Europe

11.4 Asia-Pacific

11.5 Middle East & Africa

11.6 Latin America

12 Company profile

12.1 AREMIX Packaging

12.1.1 Company Overview

12.1.2 Financial

12.1.3 Products/ Services Offered

12.1.4 SWOT Analysis

12.1.5 The SNS View

12.2 Graham Packaging Company

12.3 Bemis Company Inc

12.4 HCP Packaging

12.5 Silgan Holdings

12.6 Albea

12.7 Libo Cosmetics

12.8 RPC Group Plc

12.9 AptarGroup Inc

12.10 DS Smith

13. Competitive Landscape

13.1 Competitive Bench marking

13.2 Market Share Analysis

13.3 Recent Developments

13.3.1 Industry News

13.3.2 Company News

13.3.3 Mergers & Acquisitions

14. Use Case and Best Practices

15. Conclusion

About SNS Insider

At SNS Insider, we believe that businesses should have access to the best market intelligence and insights, regardless of their size or industry. That's why we offer a range of solutions tailored to meet the unique needs of each client, from startups to big corporations. With a passion for our work and an unwavering commitment to delivering value, we are dedicated to helping our clients achieve their full potential.
Pune, Aug. 04, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As per the SNS Insider report, The Aroma Chemicals Market reached USD 5.33 billion in 2022 and is projected to reach USD 7.58 billion by 2030, with a forecasted compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.0% during the period of 2023 to 2030.

Market Report Scope

Aroma chemicals are the essence of captivating fragrances that enhance our daily lives. Their continuous development and exploration in both natural and synthetic forms contribute to the ever-evolving world of perfumery, creating an enticing tapestry of scents that delight and inspire us in countless ways.

Download PDF Brochure: https://www.snsinsider.com/sample-request/3146

Market Analysis

The aroma chemicals market is poised for significant growth due to factors such as the increasing demand for personal care and home care products, the expansion of the fragrance and flavor industry, technological advancements in production, and the rising popularity of natural and organic products. As the market continues to evolve, innovative solutions, sustainable practices, and the ability to adapt to changing consumer preferences will be crucial for companies seeking to thrive in this dynamic industry.

Aroma Chemicals Market Overview & Scope:

Report Attributes Details Market Size by 2023 USD 5.33 billion in 2022 Market Share by 2030 USD 7.58 billion by 2030 CAGR CAGR of 4.0% From 2023-2030 Key Segments By Source (natural, synthetic), by product (Benzenoids, Terpenes, Musk Chemicals, Others)



By Application (Food & Beverages, Fine Chemicals, Cosmetics & Toiletries, Soaps & Detergents, Others) Regional Analysis/Coverage North America (USA, Canada, Mexico), Europe (Germany, UK, France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands,Rest of Europe), Asia-Pacific (Japan, South Korea,China, India, Australia, Rest of Asia-Pacific), The Middle East & Africa (Israel, UAE, South Africa, Rest of Middle East & Africa), Latin America (Brazil, Argentina, Rest of Latin America) 20% free customization scope (equivalent to 50 analyst working hours) If you need specific information as per your business requirement, which is not currently within the scope of the report, we will provide it to you as a part of customization. Pricing & Purchase Options Avail customized purchase options to meet your exact research needs. Explore purchase options.

Impact of Recession

A recession can have a substantial impact on the aroma chemicals market due to reduced consumer spending, shifts in consumer preferences, and disruptions in supply chains. However, with innovation and adaptation, the industry can recover and grow as the economy stabilizes. Companies in the fragrance and flavor industry must be prepared to weather economic downturns and strategically navigate challenges to emerge stronger in the long run.

Impact of Russia-Ukraine War

The Russia-Ukraine War has cast a shadow of uncertainty over the aroma chemicals market, impacting supply chains, prices, regulations, competition, and consumer behavior. As the conflict's ramifications continue to unfold, the industry will need to remain agile and adaptable to navigate through these challenging times successfully. Market players will have to seek innovative strategies to maintain stability, sustain growth, and seize opportunities amidst the evolving geopolitical landscape.

Key Regional Development

The aroma chemicals market is a dynamic and evolving landscape, shaped by regional preferences, cultural heritage, and economic factors. Europe, North America, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa all contribute uniquely to the global fragrance industry. The demand for natural and sustainable aroma chemicals continues to rise across all regions, as consumers increasingly prioritize health, sustainability, and eco-consciousness.

Key Takeaway from Aroma Chemicals Market Study

The rise of the natural segment has been fueled by the growing interest in clean-label products, free from synthetic chemicals and harmful additives. Manufacturers are responding by investing in research and development to discover new, exotic botanical sources and extract aroma chemicals through environmentally-friendly processes.

The cosmetics and toiletries industry has long been a driving force behind the market. Fragrances and flavors are integral components of personal care and beauty products, enhancing the overall consumer experience. The demand for these products has soared with changing beauty trends, increased disposable income, and a booming global cosmetics market.

Recent Developments Related to Aroma Chemicals Market

In a significant development in the global chemical and fragrance industry, Belgium-based Azelis has successfully acquired a majority stake in Ashapura Aromas, a renowned player in the fragrance and aroma ingredients market.

In a strategic move to focus on its core business and streamline operations, International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. (IFF), a leading global producer of flavors and fragrances, has announced its decision to sell its aroma chemical business to a prominent private equity firm.

Buy Complete Research Report Which Provide Detail Impact Analysis of COVID-19, Russia-Ukraine War & Ongoing Recession: https://www.snsinsider.com/checkout/3146

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

1.1 Market Definition

1.2 Scope

1.3 Research Assumptions

2. Research Methodology

3. Market Dynamics

3.1 Drivers

3.2 Restraints

3.3 Opportunities

3.4 Challenges

4. Impact Analysis

4.1 Impact of Ukraine- Russia War

4.2 Impact of Ongoing Recession

4.3. Introduction

4.3.1 Impact on major economies

4.3.1.1 US

4.3.1.2 Canada

4.3.1.3 Germany

4.3.1.4 France

4.3.1.5 United Kingdom

4.3.1.6 China

4.3.1.7 Japan

4.3.1.8 South Korea

4.3.1.9 Rest of the World

5. Value Chain Analysis

6. Porters 5 forces model

7. PEST Analysis

8. Aroma Chemicals Market Segmentation, By Source

8.1 Natural

8.2 Synthetic

9. Aroma Chemicals Market Segmentation, By Product

9.1 Benzenoids

9.2 Terpenes

9.3 Musk Chemicals

9.4 Others

10. Aroma Chemicals Market Segmentation, By Application

10.1 Food & Beverages

10.2 Fine Chemicals

10.3 Cosmetics

10.4 Toiletries

10.5 Soaps & Detergents

10.5 Others

11. Regional Analysis

11.1 Introduction

11.2 North America

11.3 Europe

11.4 Asia-Pacific

11.5 Middle East & Africa

11.6 Latin America

12 Company profile

12.1 BASF SE

12.1.1 Company Overview

12.1.2 Financial

12.1.3 Products/ Services Offered

12.1.4 SWOT Analysis

12.1.5 The SNS View

12.2 Symrise

12.3 Takasgo International Corporation

12.4 Privi Organics India Limited

12.5 HINDUSTAN MINT & AGRO PRODUCTS PVT. LTD

12.6 Givaudan

12.7 Bell Flowers & Fragrances

12.8 Kalpsutra Chemicals Pvt. Ltd.

12.9 Veera Fragrances

12.10 S H Kelkar and Company

13 Competitive Landscape

13.1 Competitive Benchmarking

13.2 Market Share Analysis

13.3 Recent Developments

13.3.1 Industry News

13.3.2 Company News

13.3.3 Mergers & Acquisitions

14. Use Case and Best Practices

15. Conclusion

About SNS Insider

At SNS Insider, we believe that businesses should have access to the best market intelligence and insights, regardless of their size or industry. That's why we offer a range of solutions tailored to meet the unique needs of each client, from startups to big corporations. With a passion for our work and an unwavering commitment to delivering value, we are dedicated to helping our clients achieve their full potential.
Dublin, Aug. 04, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Europe REIT Industry - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2023-2028)" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The Europe Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) industry has achieved a remarkable revenue of USD 510 billion in the current year and is set to experience a promising Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 15% during the forecast period.

REITs are companies that own and operate income-producing real estate, encompassing apartments, warehouses, self-storage facilities, malls, and hotels. Their appeal lies in their track record of offering substantial and growing dividends, making them a reliable investment choice. However, the potential for growth comes with varying risks depending on the type of REIT.

The European Public Real Estate Association (EPRA), in partnership with the Real Estate Equity Securitization Alliance (REESA), plays a pivotal role in driving the continued growth of the REIT approach to real estate investment across the region.

Impact of the Pandemic on Europe REIT Industry

Like many other sectors, the Europe REIT industry has faced challenges due to the pandemic's economic repercussions. Global political and economic uncertainties, such as Brexit, have also contributed to subdued Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) over the past 12 months. Despite these hurdles, continued growth in the European listed real estate, mergers and acquisitions (M&As), and the rise of the alternatives sector continue to drive the REITs industry forward.

Europe REIT Market Trends

REITs' Debt Heavy Nature

The legal structure of REITs often leads to high debt levels, making them among the most indebted companies in the market. However, investors have grown comfortable with this situation due to REITs' long-term contracts, which generate regular cash flow, such as leases, ensuring consistent debt payments and dividend distributions. An infographic showcasing the outstanding debt of European REITs over the years is provided below.

REITs' Significance in Residential Real Estate Investments in Germany

Germany boasts the largest real estate market in Europe, with approximately half of the properties being residential in nature. In this context, Special Funds and REITs play a significant role in residential real estate investments in Germany. Despite facing challenges from pandemic conditions, existing REITs with exposure in Germany experienced a negative 16% performance in their market capitalization from January 2020 to April 2020, creating opportunities for new investments.

Europe REIT Market Competitor Analysis

The report provides an overview of REITs operating across Europe, offering detailed profiles of major companies. These profiles encompass product offerings, governing regulations, headquarters, and financial performance.

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/j8xfxx

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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Dublin, Aug. 04, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Europe Student Accommodation Market - Growth, Trends, Covid-19 Impact and Forecast (2023 - 2028)" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The Europe student accommodation market is projected to witness a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of greater than 5% during the forecast period.

Countries like France, the UK, and Germany, boasting a high percentage of students engaged in tertiary education, are significant contributors to the demand for student accommodation. As a majority of European adults attained Upper Secondary and Bachelor's or equivalent education levels in 2021, student accommodation providers find higher education level students as a major component of their business, bolstering the growth of the student accommodation market in Europe.

COVID-19's Impact on Europe Student Accommodation Market

The COVID-19 pandemic led to a drastic shift from classroom to online education in Europe, resulting in a decline in the demand for student accommodation during 2020-21. However, as educational institutions reopen their doors to students and the global economy recovers from the pandemic's effects, accommodation providers are anticipating positive growth in the market.

The United Kingdom, for instance, witnessed an increase in the share of adults in education from 41% in 2019 to 44% in 2021, creating expectations for market recovery with the resumption of colleges and COVID-19 recovery.

Europe Student Accommodation Market Trends

Percentage of Young Adults in Education Impacting Student Accommodation Market

Countries like Iceland, Ireland, Italy, France, and Germany observed variations in the enrollment rates of young adults (18-24 years) and adults (25-29 years) in education from 2019 to 2021. Germany had 62% of adults aged 18-24 years enrolled in school in 2019, and this figure is expected to rise to 61% by 2021. Similarly, Iceland and Ireland witnessed growth in the adult population engaged in education from 56% and 59% in 2019 to 59% in 2021.

The percentage of GDP spent on education is also a crucial factor driving the demand for student accommodation in Europe. Switzerland, Iceland, Sweden, and Finland allocate a substantial portion of their GDP (5.7%, 7.7%, 6.7%, and 5.7% respectively) to education. These countries attract more students, leading to a surge in demand for housing and fostering growth in the student accommodation market. Additionally, Iceland and Ireland's efforts to make it easier for students to choose schools outside of Germany and France have contributed to market growth in these regions.

Investment in Education Paving the Way for Lucrative Growth

Countries in Europe with better educational facilities and higher investments witness a higher influx of students, driving the demand for student housing in these regions. The UK, Chile, Germany, and the Netherlands, hosting top universities, attract both domestic and international students.

In 2020, general government expenditure on education in the EU amounted to EUR 671 billion, equivalent to 5% of the GDP. Germany's significant spending on R&D education (1.5% of GDP) and secondary education (1.4% of GDP) is linked to the demand for student housing and the growth of educational institutions in these regions.

Europe Student Accommodation Industry Overview

The COVID-19 pandemic severely impacted student accommodation services, leading to a steep decline in revenue. In response, accommodation providers are offering a range of products with price variations to ensure affordability, and high-quality accommodations hold greater value in the market. As educational institutions reopen and students return, providers are introducing various schemes to capture a larger share of the market.

Key players in the European student accommodation market, such as Nestpick, AmberStudent, Spotahome, UniAcco, Ocxee, Roomi, Housing Anywhere, and Homelike, are actively competing in the industry.

A selection of companies mentioned in this report includes

Amber Student

UniPlaces

Housing Anywhere

Casita

Yugo

Nestpick

Spotahome

UniAcco

Ocxee

Roomi

Homelike

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/2ui1oq

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, Aug. 04, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business (CCAB) is pleased to honour Rose Paul as the recipient of the 2023 Indigenous Women in Leadership (IWIL) award.

CCABs IWIL award, sponsored by LNG Canada, is presented each year to a strong leader, mentor, and businesswoman who has been instrumental in making a difference that impacts her community and/or country.

This year, Rose Paul is CEO of Bayside Development Corporation, the business arm of Pagtnkek Mikmaw Nation, is the recipient of this award.

Paul is committed to the growth of Pagntkek community members, and under her leadership, Bayside Development Corporation prioritized working alongside other parties to complete the first phase of a highway interchange that has significantly benefited the economy of Pagtnkek Mikmaw Nation. Her persistent efforts were also instrumental in the development of Bayside Travel Centre and the construction of a new business centre.

We are immensely proud to present Rose Paul with the Indigenous Women in Leadership Award, said CCAB president and CEO, Tabatha Bull. Her tenacity, vision, and dedication to her community exemplify how to create and be a powerful force for positive change. We wholeheartedly congratulate her and look forward to witnessing the incredible impact she will continue to make as a leader and role model.

Paul has been a tireless advocate for economic growth and has developed strong relationships within clean energy, mining, and even the sustainable food industry, thanks to partnerships with Everwind Fuels, Signal Gold and Clearwater Seafoods. She has been recognized for her achievements receiving multiple awards for women in community leadership, economic development, community building and tourism.

I am extremely honored to be receiving the prestigious Indigenous Women in Leadership award. I am earnestly grateful for the recognition I have received for my work, because I am very sure that every other nominee for this award was as capable, if not more, of winning this award, said Paul I have faced several challenges on my way here, but each one of them has only strengthened me to make me the person I am today. Winning this award would not have been possible without the inspiration I have received from my community, leadership, my beautiful family and my colleagues, for whom I have the deepest respect, and from whom I have derived the strength to challenge myself and perform better at each stage.

Paul will be honoured at CCABs Indigenous Women in Leadership Forum in Vancouver, British Columbia on October 18, 2023.

On behalf of LNG Canada, congratulations to Rose Paul on receiving this years Indigenous Women in Leadership Award, said Teresa Waddington, Vice President Corporate Relations at LNG Canada. Rose is a visionary building business and industry partnerships that create business opportunities benefitting many communities. She is an inspiration and truly deserves this recognition.

Past recipients of CCABs IWIL award are from all across Canada, including the Honourable Jody Wilson-Raybould, Roberta Jamieson, Dr. Deborah Saucier, and Chief Tammy Cook-Searson.

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About Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business:

CCAB is committed to the full participation of Indigenous peoples in Canadas economy. As a national, non-partisan association, its mission is to promote, strengthen and enhance a prosperous Indigenous economy through the fostering of business relationships, opportunities, and awareness. CCAB offers knowledge, resources, and programs to its members to cultivate economic opportunities for Indigenous peoples and businesses across Canada. For more information, visit www.ccab.com.

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Toronto, ON, Aug. 04, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business (CCAB) proudly announces Chief Dr. Robert Joseph, a prominent advocate for Indigenous rights and reconciliation, as the recipient of the 2023 Award for Excellence in Aboriginal Relations.

A Hereditary Chief of the Gwawaenuxw First Nation, Chief Dr. Robert Joseph is a leader of change and an influential voice in reconciliation. As a survivor of the Indian Residential School System, he was formerly the Executive Director of the Indian Residential School Survivors Society and an Honorary Witness to Canadas Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). He is the Ambassador for Reconciliation Canada, Chair of the Native American Leadership Alliance for Peace and Reconciliation, and a former member of the National Assembly of First Nations Elders Council. His lifelong work shows his dedication to his vision of reconciliation.

"I am so honored and filled with a sense of immeasurable gratitude to be receiving the Canadian Aboriginal Business Award for Excellence in Aboriginal Relations. My spirit soars," said Joseph.

The Award for Excellence in Aboriginal Relations, sponsored by Sysco Canada, is presented to a bridge builder who is known for their efforts toward reconciliation between Indigenous communities and Canadian society. They are leaders who have created an impact locally and/or nationally through professional and voluntary commitments.

We are thrilled to recognize Chief Dr. Robert Josephs remarkable achievements with the Award for Excellence in Aboriginal Relations, said CCAB president and CEO, Tabatha Bull. His journey and his legacy has and will continue to serve as an inspiration to future generations towards a more inclusive and equitable Canada. A huge thank you and congratulations to Chief Dr. Robert Joseph for his unwavering commitment to peace and reconciliation.

Through his commitment to fostering understanding and advancing reconciliation, he has received an Honorary Doctorate of Law Degree from the University of British Columbia, an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from Vancouver Island University, and others. In addition to these efforts, he is also a sought-after speaker as he shares his story and knowledge in Canada and abroad. His message of peace and healing have resonated with many. Mostly recently, he has written a book, Namwayut, where he speaks of his personal journey, while also providing insight on how Canada and Indigenous communities can move forward.

Through his persevering commitment to education and awareness, Chief Dr. Robert Joseph, has truly supported meaningful progress toward reconciliation in Canada and other countries, said Roger Francis, President of Sysco Canada. He has humbly and tirelessly offered his strength and courage to improve the lives of others by promoting reconciliation among Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. At Sysco Canada, we admit, with humility, that we rely on the trails blazed by extraordinary individuals such as Chief Dr. Robert Joseph in our journey towards reconciliation. On behalf of Sysco Canada, I offer our congratulations to Chief Dr. Robert Joseph for being honoured for Excellence in Aboriginal Relations.

Chief Dr. Robert Joseph will be honoured during CCABs Award Dinner, following the West Coast Business Forum, on October 19, 2023 in Vancouver.

Past recipients of the Award for Excellence in Aboriginal Relations are represented from coast to coast, including, Senator Murray Sinclair, Carol Anne Hilton, Keith McIntosh, Dr. Marie Delorme, and more.

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About Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business:

CCAB is committed to the full participation of Indigenous peoples in Canadas economy. As a national, non-partisan association, its mission is to promote, strengthen and enhance a prosperous Indigenous economy through the fostering of business relationships, opportunities, and awareness. CCAB offers knowledge, resources, and programs to its members to cultivate economic opportunities for Indigenous peoples and businesses across Canada. For more information, visit www.ccab.com.

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Parsippany, New Jersey, USA, Aug. 04, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Wireless Telecom Group, Inc. (the Company or WTT), a leading test & measurement solutions provider, today announced that Maury Microwave, a leading provider of state-of-the-art RF measurement and interconnect solutions for wireless communication technologies, completed its previously announced acquisition of WTT.



The combination of Maury Microwave and WTT, including its prominent test and measurement divisions Boonton, Holzworth, and Noisecom, will enable us to provide even more comprehensive solutions and superior service to our customers, Maury Microwave Executive Chairman Bill Pezza said. We welcome the talented team from WTT to the Maury organization and look forward to a future of innovative growth together.

Daniel Monopoli, WTTs General Manager stated, At WTT, we are all excited to collaborate with the Maury team to usher in the Companys next phase of growth and look forward to developing a complementary technology portfolio that provides even greater value to our customers, suppliers, and employees.

The all-cash transaction was announced on May 25, 2023. Under the terms of the merger agreement, Maury acquired all the outstanding shares of the Company for cash consideration of $2.13 per share. Payment of the merger consideration will be made as promptly as practical following receipt of written confirmation of administrative approval by the State of New Jersey, which is expected in approximately seven business days.

In connection with the completion of the transaction, WTTs common stock ceased trading and is no longer listed on the NYSE American.

Advisors

CDX Advisors served as exclusive financial advisor and Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP served as legal counsel to WTT. Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP served as legal counsel to Maury Microwave.

About Wireless Telecom Group, Inc.

Wireless Telecom Group, Inc., comprised of Boonton, Holzworth, and Noisecom, is a global designer and manufacturer of advanced RF and microwave components, modules, systems, and instruments. Serving the wireless, telecommunication, satellite, military, aerospace, and semiconductor industries, Wireless Telecom Group products enable innovation across a wide range of traditional and emerging wireless technologies. With a unique set of high-performance products including peak power meters, signal generators, phase noise analyzers, signal processing modules, noise sources, and programmable noise generators, Wireless Telecom Group enables the development, testing, and deployment of wireless technologies around the globe. Wireless Telecom Group is headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey, in the New York City metropolitan area, and maintains a global network of Sales and Service offices for excellent product service and support. Wireless Telecom Groups website address is http://www.wirelesstelecomgroup.com.

About Maury Microwave, Inc.

Headquartered in Ontario, CA, Maury Microwave, Inc. designs and manufactures state-of-the-art RF measurement and interconnect solutions that enable the worlds best wireless communication technologies and networks to get better, faster, and stronger.

For more information, please visit https://www.maurymw.com

Contacts

Michael Kandell

25 Eastmans Road

Parsippany, NJ 07054

Tel: (973) 386-9696

Fax: (973) 386-9191

www.wirelesstelecomgroup.com
Toronto, Aug. 04, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sam Primucci, founder of Pizza Nova, has been named 2023 Entrepreneur of the Year by Canadian Immigrant Magazine and one of the Top 25 Canadian Immigrants. The 15th annual Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Awards, presented by Western Union and hosted by Canadian Immigrant Magazine, took place on August 3 to celebrate the inspiring achievements of immigrants.

This award coincides with the year-long celebration of Pizza Nova's 60th anniversary, a business Sam Primucci founded in 1963, 11 years after having immigrated to Canada from Italy.

"It is a true honour to receive the Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Award as well as the Entrepreneur of the Year Award among such an inspiring group of people," says Sam Primucci, founder of Pizza Nova. "When I came to Canada 71 years ago, it was in search of a better life, and I am eternally grateful for this country that provided us with so much opportunity. Grazie a tutti!"

Sam arrived in Canada in 1951 at the age of 12 with his family. The Primucci family left their working farm in Palazzo San Gervasio, Italy, and immigrated to Canada, where they eventually settled in Scarborough, Ontario, boarding with fellow immigrants until the family bought its first home. Sam endured many challenges integrating into the Canadian school system. At the age of 14, Sam started working.

The first Pizza Nova location opened on May 12, 1963  11 years after the Primucci family immigrated. The family worked to expand the business, creating hundreds of jobs and franchise business opportunities along the way. Sam continues to lead the company alongside his son, Domenic, who serves as the president. Together, they are supported by a dedicated team of individuals who possess a deep appreciation for and knowledge of pizza and gastronomy.

A distinguished panel of judges of past winners reviewed all nominees and presented a list of 75 finalists. To determine the final list of 25, award organizers deferred to a public vote, which took place from April 11 to June 9. The 25 Canadian Immigrant Award honourees are listed at canadianimmigrant.ca/top25.

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About Pizza Nova

Founded in 1963, Pizza Nova is a family-operated business committed to sharing Italy's rich taste with Canadians. Pizza Nova has more than 150 stores and concession locations in Southern Ontario and is inspired by family values such as trust, integrity, and authenticity. They are known for fresh toppings, high-quality ingredients, and a wide range of authentic Italian menu items, including lasagna, panzerotti, Italian sandwiches, chicken wings, arancini, and FOCACCIA BARESE. They also have a line of Primucci branded products featuring Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Homestyle Tomato Sauce, Italian Hot Peppers, Spicy Green Olives, and Sundried Black Olives. Taste the Difference or Learn more at pizzanova.com.

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Honolulu, Aug. 04, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Honolulu, Hawaii -

Waialae Plumbing & Construction, a leading plumbing and renovation company serving the beautiful island of Oahu since 1994. What began as a one-man operation has evolved into a renowned, full-service plumbing and construction enterprise, earning a reputation as the go-to company for all plumbing needs in the area.

Since its inception, Waialae Plumbing & Construction has been committed to providing top-notch plumbing services to residents and businesses across Honolulu and the surrounding communities. With a focus on quality, professionalism, and customer satisfaction, the company has built a loyal customer base over the years, becoming synonymous with reliability and excellence.

Waialae Plumbing & Construction offers a comprehensive range of plumbing services, including plumbing repairs, maintenance, installation, and renovation. Their team of highly skilled and licensed plumbers is equipped to handle any plumbing issue, from minor repairs to large-scale residential or commercial projects. Whether it's a leaky faucet, a clogged drain, or a complete bathroom renovation, their experts approach each job with the same level of dedication and expertise.

The company's success can be attributed to its unwavering commitment to customer service. John Emery, the founder and owner of Waialae Plumbing & Construction, expressed his gratitude for the support received from the community over the years. He said, "We are immensely grateful to the people of Honolulu for entrusting their plumbing needs to us for almost three decades. It's an honor to serve this wonderful community and be a part of their lives. Our team is dedicated to delivering the best solutions, ensuring our customers' satisfaction, and building lasting relationships."

Waialae Plumbing & Construction's reputation extends beyond their regular customers; it has become the plumbing company that other plumbers call when they need assistance or encounter complex challenges. Their expertise and experience make them a reliable partner in the plumbing industry, and they are often called upon to collaborate on special projects and joint ventures to better serve those in need of high quality plumbing services. Theyve also been producing solid 5 star reviews on their Google business listing from satisfied customers, which you can see here: https://goo.gl/maps/ixEq9pgUC2LjoFpU9.

As part of their ongoing commitment to providing cutting-edge solutions, Waialae Plumbing & Construction stays abreast of the latest industry trends and technologies when it comes to plumbing and construction. The company invests in continuous training and equips its staff with state-of-the-art tools to ensure they deliver the highest standard of plumbing services today.

Furthermore, the company is known for its dedication to sustainable practices and environmental responsibility. They prioritize eco-friendly solutions whenever possible, contributing to the preservation of the natural beauty of the island of Oahu.

Waialae Plumbing & Construction takes pride in being an active member of the local community, supporting various charitable initiatives and community events. They believe in giving back to the community that has supported them throughout their journey.

For nearly 30 years, Waialae Plumbing & Construction has been a trusted partner in meeting the plumbing and renovation needs of Honolulu residents and businesses. With their unwavering commitment to quality, professionalism, and customer satisfaction, they continue to serve as the benchmark for the plumbing industry in the region.

For more information about Waialae Plumbing & Construction and the services they offer, please visit their official website at https://www.waialaeplumbing.com.

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For more information about Waialae Plumbing & Construction, contact the company here:



Waialae Plumbing & Construction

Roger Monton

(808) 735-8595

info@waialaeplumbing.com

825 Halekauwila St # D

Honolulu, HI 96813
NEW YORK, Aug. 04, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- WHY: Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, announces an investigation of potential securities claims on behalf of shareholders of Lumen Technologies Inc. (NYSE: LUMN) resulting from allegations that Lumen Inc. may have issued materially misleading business information to the investing public.

SO WHAT: If you purchased Lumen securities you may be entitled to compensation without payment of any out of pocket fees or costs through a contingency fee arrangement. The Rosen Law Firm is preparing a class action seeking recovery of investor losses.

WHAT TO DO NEXT: To join the prospective class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=17736 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email pkim@rosenlegal.com or cases@rosenlegal.com for information on the class action.

WHAT IS THIS ABOUT: On July 12, 2023, before the market opened, The Wall Street Journal released an article entitled What AT&T and Verizon Knew About Toxic Lead Cables which also discussed Lumen and how its workers had been exposed to lead.

On this news, the price of Lumen stock fell by $0.03 per share, or 1.45%, to close at $2.04 on July 12, 2023.

Then, on July 26, 2023, after the market closed, The Wall Street Journal released an article entitled Justice Department and EPA Probe Telecom Companies Over Lead Cables. The article stated, in pertinent part, The Justice Department and Environmental Protection Agency are investigating the potential health and environmental risks stemming from a sprawling network of toxic lead-sheathed telecom cables across the U.S. It highlighted how the EPA had said it takes the issues raised in the articles very seriously and will move expeditiously under our statutory authorities to protect the public from legacy pollution.

On this news, Lumen stock declined in intraday trading on July 27, 2023.

WHY ROSEN LAW: We encourage investors to select qualified counsel with a track record of success in leadership roles. Often, firms issuing notices do not have comparable experience, resources, or any meaningful peer recognition. Many of these firms do not actually litigate securities class actions. Be wise in selecting counsel. The Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. Rosen Law Firm has achieved the largest ever securities class action settlement against a Chinese Company. Rosen Law Firm was Ranked No. 1 by ISS Securities Class Action Services for number of securities class action settlements in 2017. The firm has been ranked in the top 4 each year since 2013 and has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors. In 2019 alone the firm secured over $438 million for investors. In 2020, founding partner Laurence Rosen was named by law360 as a Titan of Plaintiffs Bar. Many of the firms attorneys have been recognized by Lawdragon and Super Lawyers.

Follow us for updates on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-rosen-law-firm, on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rosen_firm or on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rosenlawfirm/.

Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

Contact Information:

Laurence Rosen, Esq.

Phillip Kim, Esq.

The Rosen Law Firm, P.A.

275 Madison Avenue, 40th Floor

New York, NY 10016

Tel: (212) 686-1060

Toll Free: (866) 767-3653

Fax: (212) 202-3827

lrosen@rosenlegal.com

pkim@rosenlegal.com

cases@rosenlegal.com

www.rosenlegal.com
Washington, D.C., Aug. 04, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Environmental Protection Agency is picking and choosing which companies are allowed to produce and sell hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)refrigeration chemicals commonly used in air conditioners and refrigeratorsby using power that Congress unconstitutionally handed the agency.

The New Civil Liberties Alliance has petitioned the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit for an en banc hearing in RMS of Georgia d/b/a Choice Refrigerants v. EPA. NCLA urges the Court to address the unlawful delegation by Congress on the merits, rather than interposing exhaustion of the issue before the EPAwhich is in no position to address it anywayand to put an end to this unconstitutional arrangement. The timing of this petition is particularly appropriate, as dangerous levels of heat are prevailing in parts of the country.

Congress passed the American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act of 2020 to phase down HFC production, assigning EPA the power to distribute a limited number of allowances for companies to import or manufacture these critical products. But lawmakers did not give EPA guidance as to who should receive the allowances, violating basic Constitutional protections barring Congress from abdicating legislative authority to agencies.

Instead of allocating allowances properly attributable to NCLAs client, Choice Refrigerants, an American small business that created and patented a popular HFC blend, EPA oddly granted allowances to Choices import agent and to a Chinese-owned company that infringed Choices patent. EPA has also relied on Executive Orders to set aside some allowances for new market entrants rather than existing companies like Choice, saying priority for these rights would in part be given based on race and gender.

NCLA is asking the en banc D.C. Circuit Court to prevent Congress from delegating legislative power to EPA via the AIM Act. Article I,  1 of the Constitution vests such power in Congress, which may not divest it to EPA.

NCLA released the following statements:

The Administrative State has turned our government of limited powers into a paternalistic juggernaut. As a result, administrative agencies such as the EPA are snuffing out businesses like Choice Refrigerants in the interest of whatever alleged public good they can conjure. NCLA exists to pare back the Administrative State, return legislative power to Congress, and restore civil liberties to the people of the United States.

 Zhonette Brown, Senior Litigation Counsel, NCLA

A statute that gives an agency a blank slate to write its own rules is really no statute at all but an abdication of Congresss legislative power. The EPA cannot be left to its own devices to distribute allowances based on no criteria other than who the EPA deems worthy. NCLA is stepping in to protect small businesses like Choice Refrigerants from being run over by senseless, unconstitutional agency action.

 Kaitlyn Schiraldi, Staff Attorney, NCLA

For more information visit the case page here.

ABOUT NCLA

NCLA is a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group founded by prominent legal scholar Philip Hamburger to protect constitutional freedoms from violations by the Administrative State. NCLAs public-interest litigation and other pro bono advocacy strive to tame the unlawful power of state and federal agencies and to foster a new civil liberties movement that will help restore Americans fundamental rights.

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Los Angeles, Aug. 04, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Los Angeles, California -

CaliforniaA man who came back from the brink of suicide is praising BeWellLine, an emotional support line operated by Alter Mental Health, in a 5-star review of the mental health service and the counselor who listened.

I was seriously considering cutting my losses by just giving up on life, but I came across the BeWellline toll-free number, wrote RC, a 47-year-old man who said he had been struggling with a very stressful downturn in my life with finances and family.

I called, thinking it was going to be pointless, but gave it a shot, he continued, and upon hearing the person on the line sound so soothing and comforting, I felt comfortable opening up and expressing my issues. She was extremely helpful. I cannot express how this counselor, named Gina, made me feel that I am worthy of life and I can move beyond this roadblock in my life. She provided resources I can seek for additional help with my financial hardships and family counseling. Her patience and guidance are something I cannot express in simple words. Shes an angel, and God guided her to help me. Thank you, Gina  youre a savior!!!

RCs words are gratifying not for their praise but for showing the genuinely lifesaving work of BeWellLine and its counselors. His experience demonstrates the effectiveness of the BeWellLine mission to make mental health care, life guidance, and community-based counseling available to everyone across California, free of charge. The service combines practical advice with peer companionship, using the power of community to show clients that their lives have value and, in cases like RC, should not be cut short.

BeWellLines non-clinical emotional counseling via phone is supported by a grant of more than $5 million to Alter Mental Health from the California Mental Health Services Authority, which funded the support line to assist in combating the mental health crisis. Alter Mental Health specializes in the care and treatment of behavioral and mental health issues to help people live full, happy lives. It also offers the Mindfuli virtual platform to provide free ongoing peer counseling services through video conferencing as well as voice and text communication. Mindfuli enables peer counselors to refer help seekers to higher levels of care as needed, connecting them to a personalized mental health provider in minutes.

Although RC was saved from suicidal behavior by a BeWellLine counselor, its important to note that the support line is not a crisis service; its mission is to connect callers with compassionate listeners who can help them find the resources they need to better cope with their challenges.

BeWellLine uses the power of community in several virtual support groups, a well-established strategy for managing mental health issues. Groups and topics that bring people together to support each other in their journeys to recovery include LGBTQ+ (ages 15 and older), teens (ages 13-19), substance abuse disorders, grief processing, and womens empowerment. Each group provides a safe, non-judgmental space where participants can work through their issues together.

The effectiveness of this approach is evident in BeWellLines success rates. Its counselors have impressive outcomes for the many conditions and situations that cause callers to pick up the phone and seek help: substance use/abuse (91%), anxiety (90%), depression (82%), health concerns (81%), housing/homelessness (75%), suicidal ideation (80%) and finances (81%).

BeWellLine seeks to create a hub of accessible mental health care, life guidance, and community and make it available to all. Anyone can thrive with the proper support, and BeWellLine is committed to providing this support to as many people as possible without obstacles like financial or geographic limits.

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For more information about BeWellLine, contact the company here:



BeWellLine

866-349-6597
RADNOR, Pa., Aug. 04, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The law firm of Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP (www.ktmc.com) informs investors that a securities class action lawsuit has been filed in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey against Bausch Health Companies Inc. (Bausch) (NYSE: BHC). The action charges Bausch with violations of the federal securities laws, including omissions and fraudulent misrepresentations relating to the companys business, operations, and prospects. As a result of Bauschs materially misleading statements and omissions to the public, Bauschs investors have suffered significant losses.



CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT YOUR BAUSCH LOSSES. YOU CAN ALSO CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING LINK OR COPY AND PASTE IN YOUR BROWSER: https://www.ktmc.com/new-cases/bausch-health-companies-inc?utm_source=PR&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=bhc&mktm=r

LEAD PLAINTIFF DEADLINE: SEPTEMBER 25, 2023

CLASS PERIOD: AUGUST 6, 2020 THROUGH MAY 3, 2023

CONTACT 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 worlds 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.

BAUSCHS ALLEGED MISCONDUCT

Bausch is a pharmaceutical company known for its majority ownership of Bausch + Lomb Corporation (B+L). In 2016, Bausch was forced to replace its senior management and attempt to rebuild its reputation after it was revealed that it had engaged in one of the most egregious cases of securities fraud in U.S. history. Among other things, Bausch was forced to restate its financial statements, enter into a settlement with the SEC, and settle a class action with investors for a payment of more than $1.1 billion. The class action lawsuit, however, did not resolve all of Bauschs investors claims as a number of Opt-Out Plaintiffs, consisting of numerous institutional and professional investors, proceeded with their claims after the settlement. According to the complaint, the potential damages at issue from the Opt-Out Plaintiffs equals approximately $4.2 billion.

The Class Period begins on August 6, 2020, when Bausch announced a plan to spinoff B+L as a separate company in order to reduce Bauschs debt. When the spinoff was announced, Bausch knew they faced substantial risk from the Opt-Out Plaintiffs. Bausch also knew that spinning-off B+L would leave Bausch with significant debt and the loss of the cashflow B+L had historically generated.

On May 5, 2022, B+L effected the spinoff and began trading as an independent company under the ticker BLCO on the NYSE. Throughout the Class Period, Defendants repeatedly described the B+L spinoff as an attempt to reduce Bauschs debt and said the spinoff was in the best interest of Bausch shareholders. The spinoff was actually an attempt to shield valuable assets from the Opt-Out Plaintiffs that ultimately operated to the detriment of ordinary Bausch shareholders.

On May 4, 2023, Bausch released its first quarter 2023 financial results, revealing negative earnings, indicating further delay of its B+L spinoff share distribution, which had been originally scheduled for May 2022. Analysts claimed that the probability of a distribution was now less than 50% and unlikely to occur in the near term. Following this news, Bauschs stock price fell $1.51, or 25.3%, to close at $5.89 per share on May 4, 2023.

WHAT CAN I DO?

Bausch investors may, no later than September 25, 2023, move the Court to serve as lead plaintiff for the class, through Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP or other counsel, or may choose to do nothing and remain an absent class member. Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP encourages Bausch investors who have suffered significant losses to contact the firm directly to acquire more information. The class action complaint against Bausch, Kelk v. Bausch Health Companies, et al., Case No. 23-cv-03996, is filed in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey before the Honorable Zahid Nisar Quraishi.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE CASE

WHO CAN BE A LEAD PLAINTIFF?

A lead plaintiff is a representative party who acts on behalf of all class members in directing the litigation. The lead plaintiff is usually the investor or small group of investors who have the largest financial interest and who are also adequate and typical of the proposed class of investors. The lead plaintiff selects counsel to represent the lead plaintiff and the class and these attorneys, if approved by the court, are lead or class counsel. Your ability to share in any recovery is not affected by the decision of whether or not to serve as a lead plaintiff.

ABOUT KESSLER TOPAZ MELTZER & CHECK, LLP

Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP prosecutes class actions in state and federal courts throughout the country and around the world. The firm has developed a global reputation for excellence and has recovered billions of dollars for victims of fraud and other corporate misconduct. All of our work is driven by a common goal: to protect investors, consumers, employees and others from fraud, abuse, misconduct and negligence by businesses and fiduciaries. The complaint in this action was not filed by Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP. For more information about Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP please visit www.ktmc.com.

CONTACT:

Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP

Jonathan Naji, Esq.

280 King of Prussia Road

Radnor, PA 19087

(484) 270-1453

info@ktmc.com
TORONTO, Aug. 04, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rockcliff Metals Corporation (CSE: RCLF) (OTCQB: RKCLF) (Rockcliff) today announced the filing of its management information circular (the Circular) and related materials for the special meeting (the Meeting) of Rockcliffs shareholders (Shareholders) to be held to consider the previously announced plan of arrangement (the Arrangement) pursuant to which Hudbay Minerals Inc. (Hudbay) would acquire 100% of the issued and outstanding common shares of Rockcliff that it does not already own. Under the Arrangement, Shareholders will receive 0.006776 of a Hudbay common share for each Rockcliff common share held.



The Meeting is scheduled to be held in person at 18 King Street East, Suite 902, Toronto, Ontario on August 31, 2023 at 10:00 a.m. (Toronto time). At the Meeting, Shareholders will be asked to consider and, if deemed advisable, to pass, a special resolution approving the Arrangement. To be effective, the special resolution must be approved by at least two-thirds of the votes cast at the Meeting in person or represented by proxy. Subject to any adjournment or postponement of the Meeting, the deadline for completed proxies to be received by Rockcliff or its transfer agent is August 29, 2023 at 10:00 a.m. (Toronto time).

In connection with the Arrangement, all of the directors and senior officers of Rockcliff as well as Greenstone Resources II L.P. and Olive Resource Capital Inc. have entered into customary voting support agreements with Hudbay, pursuant to which they have agreed to vote their Rockcliff common shares, representing approximately 65% of the issued and outstanding Rockcliff common shares, in favour of the Arrangement.

The record date for determining the Shareholders entitled to receive notice of and vote at the Meeting has been fixed as at the close of business (Toronto time) on July 31, 2023, as more particularly described in the Circular. The Circular, together with letters of transmittals and related proxy materials are available on Rockcliffs profile on SEDAR+ (www.sedarplus.ca).

Receipt of Interim Order

Rockcliff also announced today that, on July 27, 2023, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice (Commercial List) (the Court) granted an interim order regarding the Arrangement (the Interim Order). The Interim Order authorizes Rockcliff to proceed with various matters relating to the Arrangement, including the holding of the Meeting to consider and vote on the Arrangement.

Subject to the receipt of the requisite approval of Shareholders, the final approval of the Arrangement by the Court and the satisfaction of other customary conditions (including receipt of all applicable stock exchange approvals), the Arrangement is expected to close in September 2023.

About Rockcliff

Rockcliff is a Canadian exploration and resource development company with several advanced-stage, high-grade VMS copper-zinc dominant deposits in the Snow Lake area of central Manitoba. The company is a major landholder in the Flin Flon-Snow Lake Greenstone Belt which is the largest Paleoproterozoic VMS district in the world, hosting high-grade mines and deposits containing copper, zinc, gold and silver. The company's extensive portfolio of properties totals approximately 1,800 km and includes six 100% owned high grade, undeveloped VMS deposits. Rockcliff's (49% ownership) seventh high grade VMS deposit, the Talbot copper deposit, is a joint venture with Hudbay (51% ownership).

Forward-Looking Information

This release contains certain "forward looking statements" and certain "forward-looking information" as "defined under applicable Canadian and U.S. securities laws. Forward-looking statements and information can generally be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "may", "will", "should", "expect", "intend", "estimate", "anticipate", "believe", "continue", "plans" or similar terminology. The forward-looking information contained herein is provided for the purpose of assisting readers in understanding management's current expectations and plans relating to the future. Readers are cautioned that such information may not be appropriate for other purposes.

Forward-looking statements relate to future events or future performance and reflect Rockcliff's expectations or beliefs regarding future events. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to statements with respect to the consummation and timing of the Arrangement; approval of the Arrangement by Rockcliff's shareholders; the satisfaction of the conditions precedent to the Arrangement; expectations regarding the timing, receipt and anticipated effects of court approval and other consents and approvals (including receipt of all applicable stock exchange approvals); and the impact of the Arrangement on Rockcliff, Hudbay and their respective shareholders and other stakeholders. By their very nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such factors include, amongst others, risks related to failure to receive approval by Rockcliff shareholders, the required court and other consents and approvals required to effect the Arrangement, the potential of a third party making a superior proposal and the possibility that the Arrangement Agreement could be terminated under certain circumstances.

Forward-looking information are based on management of the parties' reasonable assumptions, estimates, expectations, analyses and opinions, which are based on such 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. Such factors, among other things, include: business integration risks; fluctuations in general macroeconomic conditions; fluctuations in securities markets; fluctuations in spot and forward prices of copper or certain other commodities; change in national and local governments, legislation, taxation, controls, regulations and political or economic developments; risks and hazards associated with the business of mineral exploration, development and mining (including environmental hazards, industrial accidents, unusual or unexpected formations pressures, cave-ins and flooding); discrepancies between actual and estimated metallurgical recoveries; inability to obtain adequate insurance to cover risks and hazards; the presence of laws and regulations that may impose restrictions on mining; employee relations; relationships with and claims by local communities and indigenous populations; availability of increasing costs associated with mining inputs and labour; the speculative nature of mineral exploration and development (including the risks of obtaining necessary licenses, permits and approvals from government authorities); and title to properties.

Rockcliff undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking information except as required by applicable law. Such forward-looking information represents management's best judgment based on the information currently available. No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed and actual future results may vary materially. Accordingly, readers are advised not to place undue reliance on forward- looking statements or information.

For further information, please contact:
Vivoryon Therapeutics N.V. Extraordinary General Meeting to Confirm New Executive Director Appointments to the Board, Being Held on September 15, 2023

Halle (Saale) / Munich, Germany, August 4, 2023  Vivoryon Therapeutics N.V. (Euronext Amsterdam: VVY; NL00150002Q7) (Vivoryon, or the Company), a clinical stage company focused on the discovery and development of small molecule medicines to modulate the activity and stability of pathologically altered proteins, today announced that it will hold an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) Friday, September 15, 2023, at 1:00 p.m. (CEST) at the Amsterdam offices of NautaDutilh N.V. The full agenda and all relevant documents for the upcoming EGM are available on the Company's website (https://www.vivoryon.com/2023-extraordinary-general-meeting/).

The agenda includes the appointment of two new members to Vivoryons Board of Directors (the Board). The Board identified long-standing member of Vivoryons management team and current Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Frank Weber, MD, as the optimal candidate to assume the position of CEO. Additionally, the Board has proposed a newly created position, Chief Strategy & Investor Relations Officer (CS&IRO), to be assumed by current Head of Investor Relations, Anne Doering, CFA. Both Dr. Weber and Ms. Doering will also assume positions as executive directors of the Board. The proposed appointments follow the decision of Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Ulrich Dauer, PhD, to step down from his position following his notification to the Board to not renew his contract, previously announced on June 15, 2023.

###

About Vivoryon Therapeutics N.V.

Vivoryon is a clinical stage biotechnology company focused on developing innovative small molecule-based medicines. Driven by our passion for ground-breaking science and innovation, we strive to change the lives of patients in need suffering from severe diseases. We leverage our in-depth expertise in understanding post-translational modifications to develop medicines that modulate the activity and stability of proteins which are altered in disease settings. Beyond our lead program, varoglutamstat, which is in Phase 2 clinical development to treat Alzheimers disease, we have established a solid pipeline of orally available small molecule inhibitors for various indications including cancer, inflammatory diseases and fibrosis. www.vivoryon.com



Vivoryon Forward Looking Statements

This press release includes forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, those regarding the business strategy, management plans and objectives for future operations of the Vivoryon Therapeutics N.V. (the Company), estimates and projections with respect to the market for the Companys products and forecasts and statements as to when the Companys products may be available. Words such as anticipate, believe, estimate, expect, forecast, intend, may, plan, project, predict, should and will and similar expressions as they relate to the Company are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance; rather they are based on the Managements current expectations and assumptions about future events and trends, the economy and other future conditions. The forward-looking statements involve a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties and other factors could materially adversely affect the outcome and financial effects of the plans and events described herein. Actual results, performance or events may differ materially from those expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements and from expectations. As a result, no undue reliance should be placed on such forward-looking statements. This press release does not contain risk factors. Certain risk factors that may affect the Companys future financial results are discussed in the published annual financial statements of the Company. This press release, including any forward-looking statements, speaks only as of the date of this press release. The Company does not assume any obligation to update any information or forward-looking statements contained herein, save for any information required to be disclosed by law. This press release contains inside information within the meaning of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014.

For more information, please contact:

Investor Contact

Stern IR

Julie Seidel

Tel: +1 212-698-8684

Email: SternIR-Vivoryon@sternir.com



Media Contact

Trophic Communications

Valeria Fisher

Tel: +49 175 8041816

Email: vivoryon@trophic.eu



Attachment
CHICAGO, Aug. 04, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A strong supporter of mental health, particularly for children and families, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, (D-IL), met with future mental healthcare professionals at The Chicago School, one of the nations premier psychology graduate schools.



"We are thrilled to welcome Senator Durbin to our Chicago campus," said Dr. Michele Nealon, President of The Chicago School. "His visit reaffirms the importance of mental health and underscores our collective responsibility to address the pressing mental health needs of our communities. We are proud to showcase the dedication and passion of our students and faculty in their pursuit of a better, more equitable world."

During his visit, Senator Durbin engaged in a fireside chat with a group of students and alumni discussing the shortage of mental healthcare professionals in this country, particularly in disadvantaged and rural communities, among other topics. According to estimates, Illinois has only 13.8 mental health professionals for every 10,000 residents. (Illinois Department of Human Services 2022)

Sen. Durbin, who is the Majority Whip in the senate, and Sen. Tammy Duckworth recently announced their support for a number of mental and behavioral health programs advancing out of the Appropriations Committee. I hope we find a way to recognize mental health and speak about it honestly, said Senator Durbin. To acknowledge that it is part of the challenge when it comes to gun violence and our future after COVID. There is hope - thanks to you, thanks to your training. You can make a difference in your lives, and you will feel better for it, he told the students.

It was an honor to meet Senator Durbin, said Deondre Rutues, a recent graduate with a Ph.D. in Business Psychology from The Chicago School and was also recently elected to the Chicago Police District Council. Having champions like Senator Durbin in the highest offices will go a long way toward improving mental health concerns throughout the country.

Sen. Durbin is supporting funding to Communities United for a youth violence prevention program as well as funding for Sinai Health System to expand trauma-informed mental health services at Holy Cross Hospital both in the Chicago area.

As a leading voice on mental health policy, Sen. Durbin told the students and faculty of The Chicago School he strongly supports their mission to increase the pipeline of mental healthcare professionals into communities that need them  as well as the importance of ensuring this new generation of professionals is culturally competent to help all communities.

About The Chicago School:

Founded in 1979, The Chicago School, formerly known as The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, is a not-for-profit, accredited institution with over 40 years of history in educating professionals in the field of psychology and related behavioral sciences. The school offers innovative online and campus-based programs, including PsyD and PhD degrees in Clinical Psychology, Counseling Psychology, Educational Psychology, Forensic Psychology, Health Psychology, Industrial-Organizational Psychology, and Applied Behavior Analysis. The Chicago School has campuses across the United States and is accredited by the WASC Senior College and University Commission.

Media Contact:

Kelton Gibson

Email: kgibson1@thechicagoschool.edu

Phone: 1-661-607-2012
VANCOUVER, Aug. 3, 2023 -

TSX VENTURE COMPANIES

ODESSA CAPITAL LTD. ("ALFA.P")

BULLETIN TYPE: Resume Trading

BULLETIN DATE: August 3, 2023

TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

Further to the Exchange's Bulletin dated August 1, 2023, the Company has submitted to the Exchange

acceptable documentation respecting its Capital Pool Company listing.

Effective at the opening, Tuesday, August 8, 2023, shares of the Company will resume trading.

______________________________________

UNIVERSAL PROPTECH INC. ("UPI.H")

[UNIVERSAL PROPTECH INC. ("UPI")]

BULLETIN TYPE: Transfer and New Addition to NEX, Symbol Change

BULLETIN DATE: August 3, 2023

TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

Further to the Company's news release dated February 1, 2023, in accordance with TSX Venture Policy 2.5, as a result of the closing of the sale of all of the issued and outstanding shares of its wholly-owned subsidiary, VCI Controls Inc., the Company no longer satisfies the requirements of a TSX Venture Tier 2 company. Therefore, effective at the opening on Tuesday, August 8, 2023, the Company's listing will transfer to NEX, the Company's Tier classification will change from Tier 2 to NEX, and the Filing and Service Office will change from Toronto to NEX.

As of August 8, 2023, the Company is subject to restrictions on share issuances and certain types of payments as set out in the NEX policies.

The trading symbol for the Company will change from UPI to UPI.H. There is no change in the Company's name, no change in its CUSIP number and no consolidation of capital. The symbol extension differentiates NEX symbols from Tier 1 or Tier 2 symbols within the TSX Venture market.

________________________________________

23/08/03 - TSX Venture Exchange Bulletins

TSX VENTURE COMPANIES

CIELO WASTE SOLUTIONS CORP. ("CMC")

BULLETIN TYPE: Property-Asset or Share Disposition Agreement

BULLETIN DATE: August 3, 2023

TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing documentation with respect to the arm's length disposition of a property located in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta that consists of approximately 60 acres for consideration of $11,000,000 to extinguish the mortgage and a promissory note of up to $2,000,000 subject to conditions.

For further details, please refer to the Company's news releases dated July 17, 2023 and August 3, 2023.

________________________________________

Eminent Gold Corp. ("EMNT")

BULLETIN TYPE: Shares for Debt

BULLETIN DATE: August 3, 2023

TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing the Company's proposal to issue 781,250 shares at a deemed price of $0.32 per share and 781,250 share purchase warrants to settle outstanding debt for $250,000.

Number of Creditors: 2 Creditors

Non-Arm's Length Party / Pro Group Participation:









Creditors # of Creditors Amount Owing Deemed Price per Share Aggregate # of Shares









Aggregate Non-Arm's Length Party Involvement: 1 $150,000 $0.32 468,750



Warrants: 781,250 share purchase warrants to purchase 781,250 shares.

Warrant Exercise Price: $0.50 for a three year period.

The Company shall issue a news release when the shares are issued and the debt extinguished.

________________________________________

enCore Energy Corp. ("EU")

BULLETIN TYPE: Prospectus-Share Offering

BULLETIN DATE: August 3, 2023

TSX Venture Tier 1 Company

The Company's Short Form Base Shelf Prospectus dated June 20, 2023 was filed with and accepted by TSX Venture Exchange (the "Exchange"), and filed with and receipted by the British Columbia Securities Commission, pursuant to the provisions of the Securities Act (British Columbia), and the Ontario Securities Commission, pursuant to the provisions of the Securities Act (Ontario), on June 20, 2023. The Prospectus was also filed under Multilateral Instrument 11-102 Passport System in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador, Yukon, Nunavut and Northwest Territories. A receipt for the Prospectus is deemed to be issued by the regulators in each of those jurisdictions if the conditions of the Instrument have been satisfied.

Further to an at-the-market offering of shares ("ATM Distribution") made pursuant to a Prospectus Supplement dated June 26, 2023 to the Company's Short Form Base Shelf Prospectus dated June 20, 2023, the Exchange has accepted for filing documentation with respect to the sales set out below under the ATM Distribution. The Company raised aggregate gross proceeds of $ pursuant to the ATM Distribution from to as set out below.

The Exchange has been advised by the Company that sales under the ATM Distribution during the quarter ended June 30, 2023 occurred for gross proceeds of U.S.$403,340.88.

Agents: Cantor Fitzgerald Canada Corporation, PI Financial Corp., Canaccord Genuity Corp., Haywood Securities Inc., Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. and Canaccord Genuity LLC and Jett Capital Advisors, LLC

Offering: 171,501 shares in aggregate during the quarter ended June 30, 2023

Share Price: Varying prices during the quarter ended, with an average sale price of U.S. $2.3516 per share

Agents' Warrants: None

Over-allotment Option: None

Agents' Commission: 3.0% of the gross proceeds of the Offering, being U.S.$10,083.52 in aggregate for the quarter ended June 30, 2023

For further information, please refer to the Company's Short Form Base Shelf Prospectus dated June 20, 2023, the Prospectus Supplement dated June 26, 2023, and the news release dated July 28, 2023 which are available under the Company's SEDAR profile.

________________________________________

Highwood Asset Management Ltd. ("HAM.R")

BULLETIN TYPE: Halt

BULLETIN DATE: August 3, 2023

TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

Effective at 4:03 a.m. PST, August 3, 2023, trading in the shares of the Company was halted, pending delisting; this regulatory halt is imposed by Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada, the Market Regulator of the Exchange pursuant to the provisions of Section 10.9(1) of the Universal Market Integrity Rules.

________________________________________

Highwood Asset Management Ltd. ("HAM") ("HAM.R")

BULLETIN TYPE: Halt

BULLETIN DATE: August 3, 2023

TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

Effective at 6:38 a.m. PST, August 3, 2023, trading in the shares of the Company was halted, pending news; this regulatory halt is imposed by Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada, the Market Regulator of the Exchange pursuant to the provisions of Section 10.9(1) of the Universal Market Integrity Rules.

________________________________________

Highwood Asset Management Ltd. ("HAM)

BULLETIN TYPE: Resume Trading

BULLETIN DATE: August 3, 2023

TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

Effective at 11:30 a.m. PST, August 3, 2023, shares of the Company resumed trading, an announcement having been made.

________________________________________

KDA GROUP INC. ("KDA")

BULLETIN TYPE: Property-Asset or Share Purchase Agreement

BULLETIN DATE: August 3, 2023

TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing documentation relating to an asset purchase and rights assignment agreement (the "Agreement") between KDA Group Inc. ("the Company") and an arm's length party to the Company, in connection with the acquisition of all the proprietary rights in the ZRx Digital Prescriber held by the seller.



CASH ($) SECURITIES

CONSIDERATION Upon closing of the transaction None 10,000,000 Class A Shares





For further details, please refer to the Company's news release dated July 28, 2023.

GROUPE KDA INC. ( KDA )

TYPE DE BULLETIN : Convention d'achat de propriete d'actif ou d'actions

DATE DU BULLETIN : Le 3 aout 2023

Societe du groupe 2 de TSX Croissance

Bourse de croissance TSX a accepte le depot de documents relativement a une convention d'achat d'actifs et de cession de droits (la  convention ) entre Groupe KDA Inc. (la  societe ) et un tiers independant vis-a-vis la societe, concernant l'acquisition de tous les droits de propriete du prescripteur numerique ZRx que detenait le vendeur.



ESPECES ($) TITRES

CONTREPARTIE A la cloture de la transaction Aucune 10 000 000 actions de categorie A





Pour plus d'information, veuillez-vous referer au communique de presse emis par la societe le 28 juillet 2023.

________________________________________

LAHONTAN GOLD CORP. ("LG")

BULLETIN TYPE: Halt

BULLETIN DATE: August 3, 2023

TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

Effective at 12:18 p.m. PST, August 2, 2023, trading in the shares of the Company was halted, pending news; this regulatory halt is imposed by Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada, the Market Regulator of the Exchange pursuant to the provisions of Section 10.9(1) of the Universal Market Integrity Rules.

________________________________________

LAHONTAN GOLD CORP. ("LG")

BULLETIN TYPE: Resume Trading

BULLETIN DATE: August 3, 2023

TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

Effective at 5:00 a.m. PST, August 3, 2023, shares of the Company resumed trading, an announcement having been made.

________________________________________

LOMIKO METALS INC.("LMR")

BULLETIN TYPE: Private Placement-Non-Brokered

BULLETIN DATE: August 3, 2023

TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing documentation with respect to a Non-Brokered Private Placement announced on June 16, 2023, and July 14, 2023:

Number of Units: 13,366,666 Common Shares

Purchase Price: $0.03 per share

Warrants: 13,366,666 share purchase warrants to purchase 13,366,666 shares

Warrant Exercise Price: $ 0.05 for a five-year period

Number of Placee: 5 Placee

Insider / Pro Group Participation:







Placees # of Placee (s) Aggregate # of Units





Aggregate Existing Insider Involvement: Aggregate Existing Pro Group Involvement: N/A 1 N/A 200,000









Aggregate Cash Amount Aggregate # of Shares Aggregate # of Warrants Finder's Fee: $2,550 416,667 85,000



Finder's Warrants Terms: Each warrant entitles the holder to purchase one common share at the price of $ 0.05 for a period of 5 years from the date of issuance

Pursuant to Corporate Finance Policy 4.1, Section 1.9(e), the Company issued a news release on July 14, 2023, and August 02, 2023, announcing the closing of the private placement.

________________________________________

Northern Superior Resources Inc. ("SUP")

BULLETIN TYPE: Private Placement - Non-Brokered

BULLETIN DATE: August 3, 2023

TSX Venture Tier 1 Company

TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing documentation with respect to a Non-Brokered Private Placement announced on January 24, 2023.

Number of Shares: 10,000,000 Common Shares

Purchase Price: $0.50 per Common Share

Number of Placees: 18 Placees

Insider / Pro Group Participation:









Placees # of Placee (s) Aggregate # of Shares





Aggregate Existing Insider Involvement: 4 1,700,000 Aggregate Pro Group Involvement: N/A N/A



Aggregate Cash Amount Aggregate # of Shares Aggregate # of Warrants Finder's Fee: $ 70,000 N/A N/A



The Company issued news releases on February 09, 2023, confirming the closing of the private placement.

________________________________________

NOVA ROYALTY CORP. ("NOVR")

BULLETIN TYPE: Prospectus-Share Offering

BULLETIN DATE: August 3, 2023

TSX Venture Tier 1 Company

The Company's Short Form Base Shelf Prospectus dated November 17, 2022 was filed with and accepted by TSX Venture Exchange, (the "Exchange"), and filed with and receipted by the British Columbia Securities Commission, pursuant to the provisions of the Securities Act (British Columbia), and the Ontario Securities Commission, pursuant to the provisions of the Securities Act (Ontario). The Prospectus was also filed under Multilateral Instrument 11-102 Passport System in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador. A receipt for the Prospectus is deemed to be issued by the regulators in each of those jurisdictions, if the conditions of the Instrument have been satisfied.

Further to an "at-the-market" offering of shares made pursuant to a Prospectus Supplement dated November 18, 2022, to the Company's Short Form Base Shelf Prospectus dated November 17, 2022, the Exchange has accepted for filing documentation with respect to the sales set out below under the "at-the-market" offering. The Company raised aggregate gross proceeds of $1,786,149.96 pursuant to the "at-the-market" offering from April 01, 2023, to June 30, 2023, as set out below.

The Exchange has been advised by the Company that sales under the "at-the-market" offering during the quarter ended June 30, 2023, occurred for gross proceeds of $ 1,786,149.96.

Agents: BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc. and PI Financial Corp

Offering: 1,029,100 shares in aggregate during the quarter ended June 30, 2023

Share Price: Varying prices during the quarter ended June 30, 2023, with an average sale price of $1.736 per share

Agents' Warrants: None

Over-allotment Option: None

Agent's Commission: $ 44,653.75

For further information, please refer to the Company's Short Form Base Shelf Prospectus dated November 17, 2022, and Prospectus Supplement dated November 18, 2022, which are available under the Company's SEDAR profile.

________________________________________

ODESSA CAPITAL LTD. ("ALFA.P")

BULLETIN TYPE: Halt

BULLETIN DATE: August 3, 2023

TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

Effective at 5:00 a.m. PST, August 3, 2023, trading in the shares of the Company was halted, pending closing; this regulatory halt is imposed by Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada, the Market Regulator of the Exchange pursuant to the provisions of Section 10.9(1) of the Universal Market Integrity Rules.

________________________________________

Patriot Battery Metals Inc. ("PMET")

BULLETIN TYPE: Private Placement-Non-Brokered

BULLETIN DATE: August 3, 2023

TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing documentation with respect to a Non-Brokered Private Placement announced on July 31, 2023:

Number of Shares: 7,128,341 shares

Purchase Price: $15.29 per share

Warrants: N/A

Number of Placees: 1 Placee

Insider / Pro Group Participation: N/A



Aggregate Cash Amount Aggregate # of Shares Aggregate # of Warrants Finder's Fee: $3,443,759 N/A N/A



The Company issued a news release on August 3, 2023, confirming closing of the private placement.

________________________________________

RUGBY RESOURCES LTD. ("RUG")

BULLETIN TYPE: Private Placement-Non-Brokered

BULLETIN DATE: August 3, 2023

TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing documentation with respect to a Non-Brokered Private Placement announced on June 23, 2023:

Number of Shares: 23,496,667 shares

Purchase Price: $0.05 per share

Warrants: 23,496,667 share purchase warrants to purchase 23,496,667 shares

Warrant Exercise Price: $0.15 for a two-year period

Number of Placees: 32 Placees

Insider / Pro Group Participation:









Placees # of Placee (s) Aggregate # of Shares





Aggregate Existing Insider Involvement: 3 4,700,000 Aggregate Pro Group Involvement: 4 2,200,000



Aggregate Cash Amount Aggregate # of Shares

Aggregate # of Warrants Finder's Fee: $23,400 N/A

N/A

The Company issued a news release on August 2, 2023, confirming closing of the private placement. Note that in certain circumstances the Exchange may later extend the expiry date of the warrants, if they are less than the maximum permitted term.

________________________________________

Silver Valley Metals Corp. ("SILV")

BULLETIN TYPE: Private Placement-Non-Brokered

BULLETIN DATE: August 3, 2023

TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing documentation with respect to a Non-Brokered Private Placement announced on July 18, 2023:

Number of Shares: 6,858,741 shares

Purchase Price: $0.10 per share

Warrants: N/A

Number of Placees: 30 Placees

Insider / Pro Group Participation:









Placees # of Placee (s) Aggregate # of Shares





Aggregate Existing Insider Involvement: 3 350,000 Aggregate Pro Group Involvement: N/A N/A



Aggregate Cash Amount Aggregate # of Shares Aggregate # of Warrants Finder's Fee: $13,600 N/A N/A

The Company issued news releases on July 18, 2023, and August 3, 2023, confirming the closing of the private placement's first and second tranches. Note that in certain circumstances, the Exchange may later extend the expiry date of the warrants if they are less than the maximum permitted term.

________________________________________

VOXTUR ANALYTICS CORP. ("VXTR")

BULLETIN TYPE: Shares for Debt

BULLETIN DATE: August 3, 2023

TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing the Company's proposal to issue 2,500,000 common shares at a deemed price of $0.185 per share to satisfy severance payment to a former officer of the Company's subsidiary.

For more information, please refer to the Company's news release dated July 14, 2023.

________________________________________

SOURCE TSX Venture Exchange
Rio Tinto has today disclosed detailed information on 14 of its global tailings facilities and their progress towards conformance with the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management (GISTM).

These tailings facilities are those rated Very High or Extreme under GISTM classifications, based on the highest potential consequences in the extremely unlikely event of a failure.

Rio Tinto Chief Technology Officer Mark Davies said "Since the tragic failure of the tailings facility at Brumadinho in Brazil in 2019, the entire industry has been working to improve the way we manage tailings facilities.

"Responsible tailings management is critical to ensure the safety of our people and communities and to protect the environment. It is fundamental for our business and social license. We have made considerable progress since August 2020 towards conformance with the GISTM. We have completed most of the work and have detailed plans to complete outstanding items.

"GISTM has meant a step change in how the industry manages its tailings facilities. Good tailings management is also about transparent partnership, and we have been working with the local communities near our facilities to increase awareness of our management practices and how we can best work together to continue to keep people and the environment safe from harm."

Details of these facilities and their progress in implementing the requirements of the GISTM can be accessed via an interactive map available at http://www.riotinto.com/tailings.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230803143822/en/

Contact

Please direct all enquiries to media.enquiries@riotinto.com

Media Relations,

United Kingdom

Matthew Klar

M +44 7796 630 637

David Outhwaite

M +44 7787 597 493

Media Relations,

Australia

Matt Chambers

M +61 433 525 739

Jesse Riseborough

M +61 436 653 412

Alyesha Anderson

M +61 434 868 118

Media Relations,

Americas

Simon Letendre

M +1 514 796 4973

Malika Cherry

M +1 418 592 7293

Investor Relations,

United Kingdom

Menno Sanderse

M +44 7825 195 178

David Ovington

M +44 7920 010 978

Laura Brooks

M +44 7826 942 797

Investor Relations,

Australia

Tom Gallop

M +61 439 353 948

Amar Jambaa

M +61 472 865 948

Rio Tinto Plc

6 St James's Square

London SW1Y 4AD

United Kingdom

T +44 20 7781 2000

Registered in England

No. 719885

Rio Tinto Ltd.

Level 43, 120 Collins Street

Melbourne 3000

Australia

T +61 3 9283 3333

Registered in Australia

ABN 96 004 458 404

riotinto.com

Category - General
Vancouver, August 4, 2023 - Atco Mining Inc. (the "Company" or "Atco") (CSE:ATCM) (OTC:ATMGF) (Frankfurt:QP9) is pleased to announce that along with its contracted consultant partners, RESPEC Consulting Inc. ("RESPEC"), it completed a 2D seismic interpretation on the Flat Bay Salt Project (the "Project"), located in the St. Georges Bay Basin in Southwestern Newfoundland, locating at least one salt structure prospective for halite exploration, the mineral form of sodium chloride or road salt. The 2D seismic data shows the potential presence of a salt structure within the project boundary. The preliminary seismic data interpretation findings align with gravity lows and are potentially indicative of salt in the subsurface.

RESPEC is currently combining the seismic and gravity data to create a 3D geological model of the salt structure. The 3D model will be used for the placement of future core well locations and will define the dimensions of the salt structure.

Jai Duhan, Subsurface Energy Storage Consultant at RESPEC, comments, "The 2D seismic and gravity data show the potential presence of salt structure at the Flat Bay Project Site, and RESPEC is looking forward to assisting Atco in defining the appropriate next steps in its exploration program."

Etienne Moshevich, Chief Executive Officer of Atco, comments. "These preliminary results are very positive and I'm eager to move ahead with our next steps. With further data compilation and a 3D geological model to follow from RESPEC, we will be able to further define the potential of a salt dome. We look forward to receiving additional reporting and updates within the coming weeks as we look to prepare our next steps in our exploration efforts."



Click Image To View Full Size

About RESPEC Consulting

Respec's experts have evaluated over 1,000 caverns in nearly every major cavern storage region in the world. Its extensive history underground has helped them pioneer in-house specialty software and rock lab testing that focuses on analyzing solution-mined and conventionally mined caverns. Respec has the world's largest rock laboratory dedicated to the underground storage industry and has experience with some of the largest scale projects in North America, including Mitsubishi Power's Advanced Clean energy storage project in Utah, the Atco Heartland Energy Centre in Alberta and seven other hydrogen storage projects worldwide.

Qualified Person

The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Tabetha Stirrett (P.Geo), who is a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101.

About Atco Mining (CSE: ATCM):

Atco is a junior exploration mining company focused on exploring for green energy metals throughout Canada. Atco is also exploring for sulphide-rich VHMS deposits in Saskatchewan as well as salt opportunities in Western Newfoundland. Investors are encouraged to visit the company's website here: www.atcomining.com

For further information contact:

Atco Mining Inc.

Email: info@atcomining.com

Telephone: (604) 681-0084

www.atcomining.com

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. The Canadian Securities Exchange has not in any way approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release.

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS:

Certain information in this news release may contain forward-looking statements that involve substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements are often identified by terms such as "will", "may", "should", "anticipate", "expects" and similar expressions. All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this news release are forward-looking statements that involve 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. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's expectations are detailed from time to time in the filings made by the Company with securities regulations. The reader is cautioned that assumptions used in the preparation of any forward-looking information may prove to be incorrect. Events or circumstances may cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted, as a result of numerous known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Company. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking information. Such information, although considered reasonable by management at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect and actual results may differ materially from those anticipated. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date of this news release and the Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise such information, except as required by applicable law.

Copyright (c) 2023 TheNewswire - All rights reserved.
Vancouver, August 4, 2023 - Gold\'n Futures Mineral Corp. (CSE: FUTR) (FSE: G6M) (OTC Pink: GFTRF) (the "Company" or "Gold'n Futures") is pleased to provide an update respecting its non-brokered, private placement. The announcement of the offering was made yesterday in Gold'n Futures' news release, dated August 3, 2023. This Private Placement will comprise up to 18,000,000 units ("Units") with each Unit consisting of one common share in the capital of the Company ("Common Share") and one Common Share purchase warrant ("Warrant"). Each Unit is priced at $0.015 and the total offering is for approximately $270,000.

Each Warrant shall be non-transferable and exercisable to acquire one common share of the Company (a "Warrant Share") at C$0.05, for a period of 24 months from the closing date of the Private Placement.

The securities sold pursuant to the Private Placement including the Common Shares and Warrant Shares, will be subject to a four month and one day hold period in Canada and thereafter will be freely tradable.

The net proceeds of the Private Placement will be used to advance the Company's Hercules project and for general working capital purposes.

About Gold'n Futures Mineral Corp.

Gold\'n Futures Mineral Corp. (CSE: FUTR) (FSE: G6M) (OTC Pink: GFTRF) is a Canadian-based, exploration company focused on advancing its Hercules gold project. The Hercules is located 220 km northeast of Thunder Bay, Ontario, in the townships of Elmhurst and Rickaby, within the Thunder Bay North Mining District. The Project is in the heart of the Beardmore - Geraldton gold mining camp, the 4th largest gold camp in Ontario and is 40 km west of the Equinox Gold's Greenstone gold mine which reportedly hosts 6.9 million ounces in its Measured and Indicated Resources. The Property comprises 475 contiguous claim cells (10,052 ha). From the historical work and its own drill and geophysical programs, the Company has built an extensive database including reconnaissance grab samples; channel samples; a variety of geophysical surveys; and a drill hole database that includes historical and current drilling totalling in the order of 547 holes and 114,000 meters of available drill core.

Qualified Person

The scientific and technical content of this press release has been prepared, reviewed, and approved by Mr. Walter Hanych, P. Geo., who is a Qualified Person under NI43-101 regulations and is a director of the Company.

For more information on the Company, please visit our website at: www.goldnfuturesmineralcorp.com

On behalf of the Board of Directors

For further information

Stephen Wilkinson,

President and CEO

Email: stephen@goldnfutures.com

Tel: +1.236.886.8808

Forward-Looking Statements:

This news release includes certain forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein including, without limitation, statements regarding the trading of the Company's common shares on the Canadian Securities Exchange, future capital expenditures, anticipated content, commencement, and cost of exploration programs in respect of the Company's projects and mineral properties, anticipated exploration program results from exploration activities, resources and/or reserves on the Company's projects and mineral properties, and the anticipated business plans and timing of future activities of the Company, are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Often, but not always, forward looking information can be identified by words such as "pro forma", "plans", "expects", "will", "may", "should", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", "believes", "potential" or variations of such words including negative variations thereof, and phrases that refer to certain actions, events or results that may, could, would, might or will occur or be taken or achieved. In making the forward-looking statements in this news release, the Company has applied several material assumptions, including without limitation, that market fundamentals will result in sustained precious and base metals demand and prices, the receipt of any necessary permits, licenses and regulatory approvals in connection with the future exploration of the Company's properties, that the COVID-19 global pandemic will not affect the ability of the Company to conduct the exploration program on the Hercules Gold Project, the availability of financing on suitable terms, and the Company's ability to comply with environmental, health and safety laws.

Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such risks and other factors include, among others, statements as to the anticipated business plans and timing of future activities of the Company, including the Company's option to acquire the Hercules Gold Project, the proposed expenditures for exploration work thereon, the ability of the Company to obtain sufficient financing to fund its business activities and plans, delays in obtaining governmental and regulatory approvals (including of the Canadian Securities Exchange), permits or financing, changes in laws, regulations and policies affecting mining operations, risks relating to epidemics or pandemics such as COVID-19, including the impact of COVID-19 on the Company's business, financial condition and results of operations, the Company's limited operating history, currency fluctuations, title disputes or claims, environmental issues and liabilities.

Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any of the forward-looking statements in this news release except as otherwise required by law.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/176154
IBAG releases 2023 list of insurance brokers in good standing

Business Desk Report Business News Aug - 01 - 2023 , 17:33

The Insurance Brokers Association of Ghana (IBAG) has released the 2023 list of insurance brokers in good standing.

The list comprises 88 reputable firms, recognised for their commitment to professionalism, ethics, and excellence in the insurance industry.

Below are the names of the 88 members of the association.

1. Africa Sureties & Ins. Advisory Ltd

2. Afro-Asian Reinsurance Brokers Ltd

3. Akoto Risk Management Ltd

4. All Risks Consultancy Ltd

5. All Star Insurance Brokers Ltd

6. Alpha Insurance Brokers Ltd

7. Apex Insurance Brokers Ltd

8. ARB Insurance Brokers Ltd

9. AROD Insurance Brokers Ltd

10. Arete Insurance Brokers Ltd

11. Ark Insurance Brokers Ltd

12. Arrow Class Insurance Brokers Ltd

13. Ascoma Ghana Ltd

14. Aseda Insurance Brokerage Ltd

15. Asterix Brokers Ltd

16. Banbo Insurance Brokers Ltd

17. Baobab Brokers Ltd

18. Beulah Insurance Brokers Ltd

19. Boaitey & Associates Limited

20. Ceris International Limited

21. CLAIM Limited

22. Cover Universal Insurance Brokers Ltd

23. Corporate Trust Ins Brokers Ltd

24. Crown Insurance Brokers Ltd

25. Dezag Insurance Brokers Ltd

26. Dynamic Insurance Brokers Ltd

27. Edward Mensah, Wood & Assoc. Ltd

28. Excel Insurance Brokers Ltd

29. Expertis Ghana Ins. Brokers Ltd

30. Felin Insurance Brokers Ltd

31. First Anchor Risk Management Ltd

32. Functions Risk Management Ltd

33. GG & B Partners Brokerage Ltd

34. Global Impact Insurance Brokers Ltd

35. Goodwill Insurance Brokers Ltd

36. Goldlink Insurance Brokers Ltd

37. Goldstar Insurance Brokers Ltd

38. Harmonia Africa Insurance Brokers Ltd

39. Hedge Risk Consult Ltd

40. Horizon Insurance Brokers Ltd

41. Ins. Consultancies Int. Ltd

42. Insurance Mgmt. Services Ltd

43. Insurance Solutions Ltd

44. iRisk Management Ltd

45. J in G Insurance Brokers Ltd

46. K&A Insurance Brokers Ltd

47. KAV Insurance Brokers Ltd

48. KEK Insurance Brokers Ltd

49. KEK Reinsurance Brokers (Af.) Ltd

50. Khols & Hols Insurance Brokers Ltd

51. Liberty Insurance Brokers Ltd

52. Lordship Insurance Brokers Ltd

53. Magnum Insurance Brokers Ltd

54. MDS Risk Solution Ltd

55. Metrix Brokers Ltd

56. Multinational Insurance Brokers Ltd

57. NDL Insurance Consult Ltd

58. Novelty Insurance Brokers Ltd

59. OLEA M&G Insurance Brokers Ltd

60. Pacific Insurance Brokers Ltd

61. Pelmax Insurance Brokers Ltd

62. Planwell Insurance Brokers Ltd

63. Progressive Ins. Services Ltd

64. Prudent Insurance Brokers Ltd

65. Rellius Insurance Brokers Ltd

66. RingFence Insurance Brokers Ltd

67. Riscovery Ltd

68. Risk Mgt. & Advisory Services Ltd

69. Risk Partners Ltd

70. Safeguard Insurance Brokers Ltd

71. Safety Insurance Brokers Ltd

72. Securisk Insurance Brokers Ltd

73. Shield Insurance Brokers Ltd

74. SpotOn Insurance Brokers Ltd

75. Strategic Insurance Consult Ltd

76. Supreme Trust Ins Brokers Ltd

77. Surge Insurance Brokers Ltd

78. Titan Insurance Brokers Ltd

79. Trans-National Brokers Ltd

80. Trinity Insurance Brokers Co. Ltd

81. Tri-Star Insurance Services Ltd

82. Universal Ins. Consultants Ltd

83. Visal Insurance Brokers Ltd

84. Visal Reinsurance Brokers Ltd

85. Westom Insurance Brokers Ltd

86. Willis Towers Watson

87. Wing-Heights Ins. Brokers Ltd

88. Worldwide Insurance Brokers Ltd
Fiifi Colemans The Dilemma of a Ghost records massive patronage

Kofi Duah Showbiz News Aug - 03 - 2023 , 17:43

LAST Saturday, July 29, will go down as one of the happiest moments for actor Fiifi Coleman when he filled the National Theatre with his latest play, The Dilemma of a Ghost.

The play was in honour of the late author Prof. Ama Ata Aidoo who died on May 31, 2023. She was 81.

Prior to the start of the first show play at 4pm, the National Theatre was already parked and Fiifi Coleman tells Graphic Showbiz it was God and the effort of his team who made this happen.

Although this is not my first play, I must say that patronage for The Dilemma of a Ghost was massive and I am excited for this. There was a first show at 4pm a second one at 8 pm and I was surprised both shows recorded massive turnout.

I want to say a big thank you to God almighty and also to my team at Fiifi Coleman Productions and cast for promoting the play on their social media handles, he said.

The play, originally written by the legendary Ghanaian playwright, Ama Ata Aidoo, tells the story of Ato Yawson, a Ghanaian man who returns home from the United States of America with his American wife, Eulalie.

The couples cultural differences cause friction in their marriage, and they must find a way to bridge the gap between their two worlds.

The Dilemma of a Ghost produced by Fiifi Coleman Productions features a star-studded cast of Ghanas top actors, including Fred Amugi, Fiifi Coleman, Brew Riverson Jr., and Naa Ashorkor.

Some of the plays Fiifi Coleman has to his credit include Women at Work, You Play Me I Play you, Flows For Sale and Still A Rose among others.

He will restage Still A Rose at the National Theatre on November 4 and 5.
Okyeame Kwame, Noguchi and MDS-Lancet mark World Hepatitis Day

Graphic Showbiz Showbiz News Aug - 03 - 2023 , 18:32

THE Okyeame Kwame Foundation in collaboration with Noguchi Memorial Institute, Madina Health Directotate of Ghana Health Service and MDS-Lancet Laboratories marked World Hepatitis Day with a health screening and vaccination exercise at Madina Market, Accra, on Friday, July 28.

World Hepatitis Day, observed annually on July 28, aims to raise global awareness of hepatitisa group of infectious diseases and encourage prevention, diagnosis and treatment.

In a chat with Graphic Showbiz, rapper Okyeame Kwame who leads Okyeame Kwame Foundation and has been celebrating World Hepatitis Day since 2009, said a total of 438 people were screened and about eight percent tested positive with the rest getting free vaccination.

(From left) Dr Samuel Nuamah; Director, Public Health Alliance International Ghana, Dr Priscilla Poku; Municipal Health Director, Rapper Okyeame Kwame, Agnes Baffoe; Client Services Manager, MDS Lancet, Prof. Joseph Kofi Bonney, Prof Kwadwo Asamoah Kusi of Noguchi and Cynthia Afetsi, Chief Administrative Assistant with Immunology Dept.

Hundreds of people participated in the celebration at Madina Market, specifically at the STC Yard. Participants were given pre-test counseling before they signed a consent form and registration.

Afterwards, a phlebotomist took their blood samples and participants were asked questions to assess their knowledge of how hepatitis is contracted and how it can be prevented.

They answered questions about lifestyle choices and family history. When the test results were ready, participants were given post-test counseling, whether they have tested positive or negative.

At the end of the day, those who tested positive were advised to see a doctor at the Liver Clinic at Legon Hospital, Accra, while those whose results came out negative received their first shot of vaccination and were given a yellow vaccination card that indicated the date for second and third shots at either Madina Hospital or Legon Hospital.

 I am also happy to say interested individuals can arrange and visit the Noguchi Memorial Institute for free hepatitis screening and vaccination throughout the year, he added.

Some of the dignitaries who graced the occasion were Dr Priscilla Anima Poku, Municipal Health Director, Professors Joseph Kofi Bonney and Kwadwo Asamoah Kusi of Noguchi, Dr. Samuel Nuamah, Director, Public Health Alliance International Ghana, Marsha D. Thomas and Dr. Shirley Evers-Manly, both of National Black Nurses Association, Rodney Boatey, MD of Excelsior Global, Agnes Baffoe, Client Services Manager, MDS-Lancet and many volunteers.

According to Okyeame Kwame, since the beginning of July, a number of activities were organised as a build up to the main event on July 28.

We held an inter-schools health quiz from July 6-21, a 30-day social media campaign with infographics among others.

The health quiz was organised in the Ayawaso West Municipality and schools were grouped into Abelemkpe and Roman Ridge zones. Students were given comprehensive information about hepatitis and general health information to prepare them for the competition.

About 600 students participated in the competition which was under the co-supervision of the Municipal Director of Education. Espo Best Child JHS emerged winners and received GHc1,000 and a trophy. Convenant Presby School came second and they took home GHc700 and third place University Staff Village JHS received GHc500, he stated.

Sponsors for the programme include Anglo Gold Ashanti, HEPMAL project based at Noguchi, Ghana Chamber of Mines, East Cantoments Pharmacy Ltd., Crescent Chemist, Excelsior Global Ltd, West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP), Mr. James Akwetea-Foli and Black American Association of Nurs
Penelope Jones-Mensah Esq reveals book cover "She Rose"

Kofi Duah Showbiz News Aug - 03 - 2023 , 17:36

Renowned Ghanaian lawyer, women and childrens rights advocate and former beauty queen, Princess Penelope Jones-Mensah who turned 51 on 21st July 2023 has unveiled the cover of her book, "She Rose".

She Rose is an anthology of fifty empowering stories of grit and grace by fifty outstanding women leaders from different parts of the world.



The book features some renowned women including; technology icon Angela Kyeremanteng-Jimoh, celebrated Nigerian actress and philanthropist Omotola Jalade Ekeinde, Menaye Donkor, Claudia Lumor, Joyce Bawah Mogtari, special aide to former President John Mahama and the deputy governor of the Bank of Ghana, Elsie Addo Awadzi. The foreword is written by former President John Agyekum Kufuor.



The cover of the book itself speaks volumes. It's the powerful vision of a strikingly beautiful darkened face of the enigmatic mother of three, painted with gold cracks (suggesting the japanese art of kintsugi) and a red rose.



The book was heralded with this equally powerful poem on her page



She Rose, On countless occasions, Every occasion, The days we wilt inside, Because life can be cruel

The moments we dance on air

Because our joy infects the world, Sheroes, they rose, When cowering makes the greatest comfort

They rose, When inaction is safest

She Rose, Testing the mettle of greatness, Because settling,

Embracing mediocrity,In a world of possibilities, Makes our world so small, Our dreams so insignificant

So we rise, Stepping up with grit and grace, As She Rose, In majestic pose, To remake the world and

Our gift to ourselves



Our appetite is whetted. We can't wait to read the stories of resilience, struggles and triumphs of these 50 phenomenal women from around the world and we commend Penelope for this enthralling literary piece.
Yango treats customers to an exciting Movie Night

Kofi Duah Showbiz News Aug - 03 - 2023 , 17:38

Customers of Ghanas preferred ride hailing company, Yango have been treated to a movie screening in Accra.

Dubbed the Yango Movie Night, the event hosted over 155 customers drawn from tertiary institutions, the influencer and content creation community, social media followers, and some partners.



The event was the latest in a series of innovative projects from the company, aimed at bringing customers closer to the brand and offering them treats deserving of the loyalty theyve shown Yango in the last 4 years since launching in Ghana.



Country Manager of Yango, Tom Ofonime said the event underscored the companys commitment to its customers.



"We wanted to celebrate our riders, and I am glad we did," he said.



"Thank you for trusting us not just with your journeys but with your safety as well, and we hope that we will be able to continue taking you from one point to the other."



Patrons were treated to an all-expense-paid experience, including movie tickets, drinks, and popcorn. A surprise gift hunt climaxed what was a beautiful night.



Since its launch in 2019, Yango has experienced strong growth in Ghana. The Yango brand has already become synonymous with fast, comfortable, and safe travel. Yango uses its own maps; routes, and navigation system based on artificial intelligence technologies. The company frequently introduces new features with a focus on enhanced security for riders. Yango operates in over 20 countries across Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.
Cyber-crime: Ghanaian perspective

Abdul-Salam Shaibu Opinion Aug - 03 - 2023 , 13:49

ICT has become a crucial development tool in developing countries, despite challenges such as limited resources and education.

Online portals in education and Hospital Management Systems in health care have increased technology usage among students and medical professionals.

Ghana's banking industry utilises technology for convenient access, while drone applications and irrigation techniques improve agricultural yield.

Creative arts in Ghana benefit from software, digital music stores and social media apps, increasing Internet penetration and income generation.

Ghana is the first sub-Saharan African country to achieve full Internet connectivity and has a high number of mobile and Internet users.

With 16.7 million mobile subscribers, 15.1 million smartphone users, and 10.7 million mobile Internet users, Ghana had the highest mobile penetration in West Africa at 55 per cent by the end of 2019.

This growth benefits the digital economy and has led to increased technology use, with 16.99 million Internet users and a 53 per cent penetration rate.

Advancements in technology and the Internet have created a new world without visa requirements and where the physical world behaviours are exported.

Computers and the Internet were created to simplify life and work, but cybercrime is now a major threat.

ERP software streamlines business processes, but digital devices are still vulnerable to exploitation.

Cybercrime is a growing concern as technology advances.

Attackers

Cyber attackers can be classified based on their motivations, actions and level of sophistication.

They seek access to devices for various reasons, such as stealing processing power or information, weakening network performance or extortion.

They can work independently or as part of larger organisations such as nation-state intelligence agencies or criminal groups.

In 2022, the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security identified various cyber threat actors and the reasons behind their actions.

Nation-States/Espionage: Some countries use cyber threats to achieve their geopolitical objectives, even without a developed cyber programme.

State-sponsored actors engage in activities such as espionage, disrupting critical systems, and building networks of compromised devices for further attacks.

They may also have relationships with private sector entities and organised criminals.

Cybercriminals are motivated by money.

They vary in skill level and some have planning and support functions to target many victims.

Illegal online markets provide access to sophisticated attack tools.

Hacktivists use simple tools and have less skill than organised cyber criminals.

They cause reputation damage and sometimes financial and physical harm.

Terrorists and thrill-seekers also engage in this type of cyber threat.

Insider threats are employees who pose a risk because they have access to protected internal networks.

They may steal proprietary information for personal, financial or ideological reasons.

Cybercriminals

Cybercriminals use various methods to execute attacks on business-critical systems.

Among these include but are not limited to:

Malware is a harmful software that can harm computer systems.

Examples include worms, ransomware, trojans and spyware.

Other malware includes Botnet, Rookit, etc.

To avoid attacks, use strong antivirus and firewalls, and avoid clicking on suspicious links.

Social Engineering is a form of deception used to gain sensitive information to enable one to access or manipulate a system.

Phishing attacks, which use fake emails or websites to obtain passwords and credit card details are a common example.

Password attacks are attempts to guess or crack passwords to access a system or network.

Prevention includes using strong passwords with special characters, avoiding repeating passwords, and not leaving password hints in the open.

Denial-of-Service (DoS) and Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks - Malicious attacks overload networks to cause shutdowns by sending too many packets than they can handle to exhaust their resources and bandwidth.

Man-in-the-middle (MitM) attacks: A MitM attack is when an attacker intercepts communication to steal data, modify messages or impersonate a party.

To prevent man-in-the-middle attacks, use encryption on devices and avoid public Wi-Fi networks.

Cybercrime is a serious offence that should not be justified.

It's a growing problem in Ghana, with many people thinking it only refers to cyber fraud.

This perception makes it difficult to address cybercrime.

Here are some common forms of cybercrime:

Cyber fraud: In Ghana, cyber fraud makes up 45 per cent of all cybercrime cases, where people are tricked into giving money or services illegally through the Internet.

Unauthorised Access (Intrusion): Unauthorised access is when criminals attack digital and networking systems without authorisation to steal resources, gather information, disrupt activity, or cause damage.

Examples include hacking, data breaches and website defacement.

Ghana has experienced various attacks on government and media websites.

Cyber violence includes stalking and bullying through electronic means.

The act of using the Internet or electronic devices to stalk or harass an individual, group, or organisation is known as cyberstalking.

Cyberbullying is the use of digital technologies to intentionally and repeatedly harass and cause harm to another person.

These practices are common due to ineffective law enforcement.

Charlatanic adverts: the publication in any journal or newspaper of any advertisement or notice relating to fortune-telling, palmistry, astrology or the use of any subtle craft, means or device sought to deceive or likely to deceive any member of the public.

Charlatanic adverts in Ghanaian newspapers are criminal and punishable by law.

Fake news to endanger life and property  news or stories created to deliberately misinform or deceive readers.

Fake news in Ghana is illegal, as it intentionally misinforms or deceives readers.

Indecent Image of a Child/Sexual Exploitation- any visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct involving a child which includes a photograph, video, digital or computer-generated image indistinguishable from an actual child and an image created, adapted, or modified but appeared to depict a child.

Others include: Digital/Cyber extortion, Cyber laundering, cyber terrorism, Crypto-jacking, Espionage, Stealing, unauthorised modification, identity theft, etc.

In Ghana, the traditional '419' methods haves been replaced by Cyber fraud, which includes the following:

Romance scam involves criminals using fake online identities to gain victims' trust and manipulate them into sending nude photos, demanding money and threatening to publish them if demands aren't met.

Shopping scams increase as electronic commerce becomes prevalent, where people shop online and make payments expecting product delivery but turns out to be a deception.

Gold scams involve presenting fake gold photos and videos, often containing gold-plated tungsten.

They convince victims to provide large amounts of money for transporting the gold to Accra.

Once they receive the money, they use excuses to delay delivery, claiming more money.

They also export small quantities to gain trust and supply larger quantities.

Once the trust is gained, they demand large sums of money, leaving victims frustrated.

MoMo fraud involves fraudulent acts against MoMo users using deception to deceive victims into parting with money.

Examples include Raffle Schemes, Long Service Award Schemes, False SMS and Sick Child Schemes.

These schemes involve deceiving victims into believing they won a raffle or received an award, and requesting money to settle hospital bills.

Unsuspecting victims may end up sending their own money to the fraudsters.

Police arrest schemes, romance schemes, transaction reversal, and spiritual schemes, are all carried out on social media.

Prevent

To prevent cybercrime, individuals should use strong passwords, keep software up-to-date, use antivirus software, be cautious when clicking suspicious links, enable two-factor authentication, protect personal information, back up data, educate themselves, secure their home network with strong passwords and encryption, and report cybercrime to authorities.

Regularly back up data and stay informed about the latest threats to protect yourself and your online activities.
Ghanaian artist Moh Awudu unveils stunning Sankofa Mural in New Jersey (PHOTOS)

GraphicOnline Life Aug - 04 - 2023 , 13:49

Newark, the vibrant city known for its rich cultural diversity and thriving public art scene, has recently added two awe-inspiring pieces to its collection.

Among them is a towering 60-foot-tall mural that pays homage to Ghanaian artist Mohammad "Moh" Awudu's West African heritage. Named "Sankofa" - meaning "go back and get it" - the mural was officially unveiled by city officials and the talented artist at 2 Treat Place.

Moh Awudu, born and raised in Nima, a suburb of Accra, Ghana, arrived in Newark in early June to participate in the AfroBeat Fest, a significant event coordinated by First Lady Linda Baraka. The occasion also celebrates the longstanding Sister City relationship between Newark and various cities in Ghana, further strengthening the connection between the two communities.

The massive 4,000-square-foot masterpiece took approximately three weeks to complete, and it showcases a powerful and captivating composition. At its forefront, a woman is adorned with a vibrant Dukus (turban), locking eyes with passersby and exuding strength and resilience. Surrounding her, the mural features an array of African iconography and Islamic calligraphy, with Adinkra symbols symbolizing unity, God's supremacy, toughness, and perseverance.

The Arabic word "Iqra," meaning "read," is emphasized, underlining the importance of language in fostering community development and inclusivity. Birds flying throughout the background allude to migration, serving as a reminder to embrace one's roots even when establishing a new home.

The message conveyed by the mural is one of universal truth and self-discovery. Moh Awudu said, "This mural represents a universal truth, that each of us, no matter our culture, race, or belief system, holds within us the key to understanding and liberation. If we can be still long enough to be guided by our own heartbeat, we will find our way toward every answer we need." The artwork stands as a testament to love, generosity, and the shared human experience.

Located at Treat Place, within the Four Corners Public Arts project, between Branford Place and Williams Street, the mural was commissioned by the City of Newark Division of Arts and Cultural Affairs, organized by Four Corners Public Arts, and supported by Invest Newark. It fittingly graces Branford Place, the former site of the Islamic Society of Essex County and its historic mosque, adding an even deeper cultural resonance to the artwork.

Mayor Ras Baraka expressed his appreciation for the mural's significance, saying, "'Sankofa' could well be a motto for our City of Newark, as we reflect on where, and what, our residents have come from, come through, and come to. When we draw on the ancestral wisdom we carry within us and use it as a guiding light through current challenges, we honour our traditions and safeguard our future. I'm so grateful to Mr. Awudu for expressing this truth here in the middle of our downtown district."
Founders' Day: President Akufo-Addo calls on citizens to uphold Ghana's founding vision

Kweku Zurek Aug - 04 - 2023 , 07:15

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has urged the people of Ghana to honour the aspirations of the nation's founding leaders and work towards achieving the country's true potential.

In an address delivered to mark this year's Founders' Day on Facebook, the President emphasized the importance of upholding the rule of law, respecting individual liberties and human rights, and embracing democratic accountability - the very principles for which Ghana's forebears fought. He said the challenge before contemporary Ghanaians is to build a modern economy that fosters prosperity and progress, creating a dignified life for all citizens.

Founders' Day, observed on August 4, commemorates the contributions of successive generations in liberating Ghana from colonialism and imperialism, leading to the founding of the nation-state.

President Akufo-Addo acknowledged the significance of the day, noting that Ghana, after 66 years of independence, has become a beacon of democracy and stability in Africa.

Today, sixty-six (66) years after independence, our nation is considered a beacon of democracy and stability in Africa. August 4, in the life and history of our nation, is one of utmost importance. It is, indeed, a sacred day, the President said in an address delivered to mark this years Founders Day.

He paid tribute to the sacrifices made by the forebears, dating back 126 years when the Aborigines Rights Protection Society was formed in Cape Coast to resist the Crown Lands Bill of 1897. This courageous act prevented the sequestration and expropriation of Ghanaian lands for the benefit of the British Crown, safeguarding the people's ownership of their lands throughout the colonial period.

The ownership of our lands was never an issue again during the rest of the colonial period. We should not, then, forget that we continued to possess our lands freely, unlike the situation in Eastern and Southern Africa, because of the bravery and foresight of the members of the Aborigines Rights Protection Society, and we must continually pay homage to these patriots, the President said.

The President also highlighted the formation of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) exactly fifty years later, the first political party in the country to demand independence.

The UGCC's demand for freedom paved the way for subsequent events and the eventual independence of Ghana in 1957. The leaders of the UGCC, known as the "Big Six," including Kwame Nkrumah, played pivotal roles in Ghana's journey to independence.

As Ghana continues to evolve and progress, President Akufo-Addo called on citizens to remember the bravery and foresight of their forebears, paying homage to those who fought for the nation's freedom.

About Founders' Day

Founders' Day holds historical importance in Ghana as it marks the contributions of successive generations of Ghanaians who played pivotal roles in liberating the country from colonial rule.

The decision to designate the day as a public holiday was part of a broader initiative by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who proposed amendments to the Public Holiday Act in 2018.

The Public Holidays Amendment Bill, 2018, which was presented by Minister of the Interior, Ambrose Dery, led to the cancellation of three existing public holidays and introduced two new holidays. As a result, Founders' Day was designated on August 4, while September 21 was set aside as a memorial day for Ghana's first president, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, in recognition of his significant role in the fight for Ghana's independence on March 6.

The three holidays affected by this amendment were the Republic Holiday, previously observed on July 1, the African Union (AU) Holiday, observed on May 25, and the original Founders' Day, which fell on Kwame Nkrumah's birthday, September 21.

According to the bill's explanation, August 4 was chosen to replace Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Day because it holds historical significance as the day when Ghana's independence movement began in 1947. On this date, Ghanaian patriots such as George Alfred Grant, J.B. Danquah, R.A. Awoonor-Williams, Edward Akufo-Addo, Ebenezer Ako Adjei, and various chiefs formed the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC). The UGCC was founded on the principles of the Fante Confederacy of 1868 and the Aboriginal Rights Protection Society of 1897, with a shared mission of achieving Ghana's independence.

While Founders' Day has been established as an official public holiday, two opposition political parties, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the Convention People's Party (CPP), have indicated that they might consider scrapping the holiday if they come into power.
Wassa Nkyirifi: Man kills 7-year-old niece for money rituals

Dotsey Koblah Aklorbortu Aug - 04 - 2023 , 10:17

Residents of Wassa Nkyirifi, a farming community in the Western Region woke up on Friday morning to the horror of a suspected murder of a seven-year-old girl by her uncle for money ritual purposes.

After allegedly killing and burying the body in a nearby bush, the suspect, identified only as Augustine, a 37-year-old farmer reported to the police that his niece had gone missing.

The 7-year-old victim has been identified as Sandy Manu.

The suspect then went further to make public announcements on radio asking for help to locate his niece.

The police in the Wassa Amenfi East Municipal area however, suspected foul play because of Augustines responses to the questions and why he was desperately concerned about the missing young girl.

Augustines body language, his responses and his eventual exhibition that he was terrified according to a police source, prompted an intense interrogation by the police during which he burst into tears.

According to the police source, he then confessed that he had killed the niece for money ritual so he could evade poverty.

He is said to have told the police that, he complained about poverty to one elderly man in the Wassa Nkyirifi community and the elderly man told him to use one of his many nieces for money rituals.

Upon meditation, he went to see a spiritualist the next day to help him go through the process of money rituals.

The suspect said the spiritualist then told him to bring human head - that is the head of one of his nieces.

From there, he went in for Sandy and killed her.

After killing and beheading her, he buried the headless body and concealed the head for the process.

He then led the police to the nearby bush where the headless body was buried and the body was exhumed.

The head was also retrieved from another location.

The body has since been deposited at the morgue and the suspect is currently in police custody.

A video from the scene where the body was exhumed has been shared on social media by some of the community members.
Ghana praised for repealing death penalty

Graphic.com.gh Politics Aug - 04 - 2023 , 04:29

The Death Penalty Project UK has commended Ghana for the repeal of the death penalty.

The Ghana Parliament and the Speaker, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin were commended for their roles in the repeal of the death penalty from Ghanas statute books.

Parliament on July 25 2023, and July 27 2023, passed the Criminal and Other Offenses (Amendment) Bill, 2022, and Armed Forces (Amendment) Bill, 2022, to substitute life imprisonment for the death penalty.

These amendments which have been described globally by Human Rights watchers as historic were proposed by a private member who is a Human Rights and Public Interest lawyer and Member of Parliament for Madina Constituency, Francis-Xavier Kojo Sosu.

Prior to the amendments, the proposal had received widespread support from key stakeholders including the President, the Chief Justice and Justices of the Supreme Court, the Ghana Armed Forces, the Police and Prison Services, Religious Organisations, Civil Society Organisations, Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, and the Diplomatic Community.

During a visit to Parliament, Executive Director of the Death Penalty Project UK, Saul Lehrfreund, said As a Project, we will like to thank the Parliament of Ghana and especially Rt. Hon. Speaker for his historic leadership and guidance without which Parliament may not have been able to take these bold steps.

The passage of the Bills form part of efforts by the 8th Parliament to ensure the realization of a free, open, prosperous, inclusive and secure society, where individual rights and freedoms and the dignity of All persons are truly respected and guaranteed as enshrined in Article 15 of the 1992 Constitution.

Following passage of the Bills, Ghana has now become the 29th African country to abolish the death Penalty from its statute books for ordinary offenses following neighbours including Sierra Leone, Zambia, Benin, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Togo, Burkina Faso, Chad and Equatorial Guinea, among others.
Parliament to investigate National Cathedral Project

GraphicOnline Politics Aug - 04 - 2023 , 06:22

Parliament has agreed to form an ad-hoc committee to investigate the National Cathedral project and all related matters. The aim is to propose suitable recommendations for the consideration of the House.

The move follows a private member's motion filed by six minority members, including Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, the Member of Parliament for North Tongu.

The motion seeks to probe the stalled National Cathedral project.

About US$58 million has since been spent on the project according to the proponents of the motion.

The National Cathedral project has faced challenges, with work having ground to a halt a year ago.

Parliament, with the Second Deputy Speaker, Andrew Amoako Asiamah presiding adopted the motion for further action.

Stressing the significance of the motion, he invoked Order 919, which allows the House to appoint a special or ad-hoc committee to investigate matters of public importance.

According to Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, despite an expenditure of around $58 million on the project, there remains uncertainty about the actual progress.



He said observers have noted that the project has been abandoned since March of the previous year.

With the costs continually rising, concerns have been raised regarding liabilities, interest, and suspension claims, which alone amount to approximately $52 million.

The National Cathedral project of Ghana is essentially the most expensive project in the history of Ghana. Already as we speak, this project has ballooned from 100 million to $400 million and its still a moving target, it is still rising," Mr Ablakwa said.

So far, about $58 million has been spent on the project and what we see has become a subject of considerable controversy. We only see a hole and we are not too sure really if it is $58 million that has gone into the project. We know that the project has been abandoned since March last year.

As we speak the cost continues to go up, there are liabilities, there are interests and suspension claims which on its own runs into about $52 million by my check, he stated.

The formation of the ad-hoc committee signals a significant step in bringing transparency and clarity to the National Cathedral project and its financial implications, he added.
Oppos foldable shipments appear to be doing more than well in its home market of China as a new Canalys report confirms Oppo was the foldable market leader for the Q1 period. Oppo held a 31% market share in the Chinese foldable smartphone segment for the January-March 2023 period. The jump in market share is remarkable as Oppo controlled just 12% of the foldable market in China a year ago.



Oppo controlled 31% of all foldable shipments in China during Q1 2023

The Find N2 Flip was the key seller managing an impressive 15% share of the China market on its own in Q1 2023. The flip foldable also performed well on the international stage as it helped Oppo gain a 13% market share globally during the same period. The notable bit is that China is the market with the fiercest competition for foldables with available devices from all the major vendors including Oppo, Xiaomi, Honor, Huawei and Samsung. Oppo was also China's leading smartphone vendor in Q1 with an 18% market share.
Kuo: the vanilla iPhone 15s will get stacked image sensors first, the Pros will wait for next year

The vanilla iPhone models are still stuck on 12MP resolution, but this year things are finally about to change  the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus are rumored to have 48MP main sensors. Interestingly, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reports that this new sensor will be better than the one found in the iPhone 15 Pro pair.

If you recall, the current expectations for the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max are that they will keep using the same sensor as last year (Sony IMX803). However, the vanilla iPhone 15 duo will be the first to get Sonys new stacked image sensor design.

Stacked refers to having the photodiode and transistor for each pixel in two separate layers, one on top of the other. Regular sensors place them side by side, so there is less room for both the photodiode and the transistor. vivo, which will use the Sony Lytia LYT800 sensor for the upcoming X100 series, says that the 1/1.43 LYT800 performs similarly to a 1 sensor with a traditional design.

According to the timeline constructed by the analyst, the Pro models will get stacked sensors next year, i.e. the iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max. Of course, Apple can differentiate their cameras in other ways  sensor size, type of image stabilization, etc.

Not just that, the iPhone 15 Pro Max will be the only one with a periscope in its generation, its not all about the main camera. And the iPhone 16 Pro Max will get an exclusive super telephoto periscope.

Kuo warns that supply of stacked Sony sensors will be tight until 2025 as Apple gobbles them up to build tens of millions of iPhones. But thats for other smartphone makers to worry about.

Source | Via
Tucked rather well inside a "Community Update" video, Nothing CEO Carl Pei has a rather big announcement for us today (go to 8:45 in the embedded video below to jump straight to it). Namely, that the company is introducing a new sub-brand: CMF by Nothing.

According to Pei, this will be a more affordable brand than Nothing itself, focused on delivering "timeless designs" for great prices, along with "quality that's very hard to find" in its price segment.

Its first two products, launching later this year, will be a smartwatch and a pair of earbuds. Both of these will be imbued with the design-led mantra that's shared by both Nothing and CMF by Nothing. The CMF products will "work really well" owing to "the same attention to user experience" as Nothing.

Meanwhile, Nothing itself will stay committed to "design innovation" and pushing boundaries, Pei says. Nothing products will keep being premium, featuring the best performance and "latest technology" (insert joke about the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 SoC literally not being that when the Nothing Phone (2) launched).

CMF by Nothing will be run by a separate team inside the company to ensure no distractions from its main products. More details about the smartwatch and earbuds are promised to arrive "in the coming months", and we should undoubtedly see tons of teasers too, so stay tuned for that.
A man currently on probation in a 2020 drug case has become the latest person arrested in connection with the alleged murder of Army veteran Jason Quintanilla Susuico, whose decomposed body was found in January in the Yigo jungles by the Guam Raceway Park.

Brandon Rufus Chandler, from Sinajana, was arrested on Thursday after he was located and taken into custody, Guam Police Department spokesperson Berlyn Savella said on Friday.

Chandler was arrested on suspicion of aggravated murder, aggravated assault, conspiracy use of a deadly weapon, disinterring of a corpse, and destroying evidence, according to Savella.

Chandler is currently serving a five-year probation in connection with a July 2020 drug case, according to PDN files.

In January 2022, he entered into a deferred guilty plea to charges connected to the raid of his Mongmong apartment two years earlier. In that drug case, he was arrested with three others.

After his Aug. 3 arrest, this time in connection with Susuicos alleged murder, Chandler was booked and confined at the Department of Corrections.

Autopsy reports showed that the cause of Susuicos death was blunt force trauma, and his death was ultimately ruled a homicide.

GPD said Chandlers case has been forwarded to the Attorney Generals Office for information and disposition. The case remains open.

Police previously arrested three others in connection with the Susuico murder case. On July 3, police arrested Cynthia Rose Quinata and Justin Jay Nededog Perez. Four days later, police also arrested Jordan Michael Babauta.
Some 2,000 tickets for premier stand-up comedian Jo Koy's newly added third show for Guam sold out in under an hour Friday afternoon, according to Guam Comedy.

Tickets for the added Aug. 21 show went live at 3 p.m. and fans were already out of luck before 4 p.m.

"Less than an hour," Guam Comedy's Nate Denight said of the time it took to get all the available tickets spoken for.

It's reminiscent of the more than 4,000 tickets for the original two shows that were also sold out in less than an hour.

By 4 p.m., Guam fans were already venting their surprise -- and frustration -- for getting booted out while trying to buy a ticket because everything got sold fast.

The new show will be in addition to the Aug. 19 and 20 performances that were rescheduled from June because of Typhoon Mawar recovery efforts.

"We want to thank Jo Koy for rescheduling the dates and adding the extra show. We also appreciate the support of our sponsors and the local community. Were truly amazed at how quickly we sold out and cant wait to see Jo Koy perform three sold out shows at the Field House," Denight said.

Jo Koy, a half-white, half-Filipino comedian, is currently on his 2023 Jo Koy World Tour, which includes Guam.

Jo Koys previous Guam shows were always a hit, but this will be the first time he returns after becoming one of the most sought-after stand up comedians, filling up stadiums and arenas, and after having hit Netflix shows.

His return is expected to be the largest comedy event on Guam this year, which also recently saw performances by Hawaii-based stand up comedian Tumua and Canada-based Ron Josol.

Jo Koy's 2023 shows will be held at the University of Guam Calvo Field House:

8 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 19

7 p.m., Sunday, Aug. 20

8 p.m., Monday, Aug. 21

Tickets originally purchased for June 10 are valid for Aug. 19, while tickets originally bought for June 11 are valid for Aug. 20, Guam Comedy said.
A man is accused of damaging vehicles and breaking a bench near the Days Inn Hotel in Tamuning and now faces two misdemeanor charges, plus one felony drug possession charge, according to a magistrate's complaint.

According to documents filed in the Superior Court of Guam on Wednesday, Witnesses saw Richard Allen Camacho damaging vehicles at the Days Inn Hotel parking lot on July 31.

Hotel employees told police that they heard a loud banging sound and observed a man throwing things to a window. One witness said that she saw a man kick a car and break a bench.

Officers later located Camacho, and the hotel employees identified him as the man they saw damaging the car and bench.

During an inventory check of Camacho's belongings, officers found three small resealable plastic bags with a substance consistent with methamphetamine, as well as two pipes with suspected methamphetamine residue. A field test later confirmed the suspected substances were methamphetamine, leading the third charge.

Man charged with arson: 'Butterflies made me do it'

A man hired to maintain a property is suspected of setting part of it on fire, according to police.

Angelito Bancod Concepcion faces a 3rd-degree felony charge for arson when the Maina house he was hired to maintain was found burning, and his body covered in soot.

Police arrived at the Maina house on Monday, and found Guam Fire Department personnel extinguishing the last of a house fire.

The property manager at the scene said the vacant house belonged to her late mother. She said that within a week of hiring Concepcion, she heard him talking to himself and yelling out of nowhere.

Police said that Concepcion was talking incoherently and said "He had to burn to make the people less powerful and that the butterflies are locked in the house so that they dont bother him anymore," and "The butterflies made me do it. I had to burn the tree down so that the people are not powerful anymore."

The damages were estimated to be about $5,000.

Man accused of assault at Hagatna pavilion

Police responded to a complaint of an assault at 1:20 a.m. Monday at a Hagatna pavilion.

Officers met with a man who had severe bleeding on the inside of his mouth, with an unknown number of missing teeth. The victim reported that Nathaniel James Butler had thrown a rock to his face, resulting in the wounds.

The victim's brother told officers that he had heard the victim yell out for help, and that he believed the victim was assaulted because he had refused to give Butler a lighter.

Police located Butler at 5:05 a.m. Tuesday. He was located and was carrying a backpack with a machete attached. Upon searching the backpack, police found a small plastic bag containing what later tested positive for methamphetamine.

Butler faces two third-degree felony charges - one for aggravated assault and the other for drug possession.




Haiti - FLASH : Jamaica is preparing to send troops to Haiti





Prime Minister Andrew Holness confirmed that Jamaica remains committed to sending troops to Haiti to bring stability to Port-au-Prince, which is overrun by violence and 80% controlled by armed gangs.



The Jamaican newspaper The Gleaner reported on Thursday August 3rd that the Jamaican Defense Force hhas started making preparations for the mission in Haiti.



"As it is now, Jamaica's commitment still stands. We certainly can't go up to the 1,000 troops [...] But we will give what we can, Holness said at a press briefing, adding "We have our own challenges here. Whatever we do cannot impact in a negative way our own security challenges."



The Prime Minister said his Government is reviewing all threats to the stability of the island and acting pre-emptively and strategically to ensure there is the capacity to deal with these threats.



"Certainly, we can't deal with the threat of a massive migration problem should one occur but we use our international partnerships to ensure that we are able to address it.



Regardless of how we feel about the situation in Haiti and how it could impact Jamaica, in the core and in the heart of every Jamaican is sympathy and solidarity Holness said.



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-40165-haiti-un-flash-the-usa-is-preparing-a-resolution-to-authorize-an-intervention-in-haiti-led-by-kenya.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-40161-haiti-flash-the-united-states-congratulates-kenya-and-pledges-to-support-the-intervention.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-40157-haiti-flash-the-bahamas-promise-to-join-kenya-in-the-international-intervention-force.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-40149-haiti-un-flash-antonio-guterres-urges-the-states-of-the-region-to-join-kenya.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-40141-haiti-flash-first-reactions-to-kenya-s-announcement-to-support-the-pnh.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-40134-haiti-flash-kenya-agrees-to-deploy-1-000-police-officers-in-haiti.html



SL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - Crisis : To date, 5 countries are involved in the international intervention in Haiti





Following the decision of Kenya https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-40134-haiti-flash-kenya-agrees-to-deploy-1-000-police-officers-in-haiti.html to take the head of an international intervention in Haiti and to send 1,000 police officers to help the National Police of Haiti (PNH) to fight gangs, 5 countries have so far expressed their support for Kenya : the United States, Canada, Jamaica, Bahamas and Ecuador.



The United States pledges support and resources l-intervention.html without specifying if this help will be financial or if they will send men, same situation for Canada



According to Todd Robinson, US Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, such a mission could cost between $200 million and $400 million a year, noting that United States will seek contributions from other countries to fund this mission.



The assessment mission of Kenya is becoming clearer and according to Todd Robinson a delegation from Kenya should begin in Haiti on August 19 and meet with the Haitian authorities and other security officials. Another part of the delegation will travel to the United States to discuss various aspects of this mission.



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-40173-haiti-flash-jamaica-is-preparing-to-send-troops-to-haiti.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-40165-haiti-un-flash-the-usa-is-preparing-a-resolution-to-authorize-an-intervention-in-haiti-led-by-kenya.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-40161-haiti-flash-the-united-states-congratulates-kenya-and-pledges-to-support-the-intervention.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-40157-haiti-flash-the-bahamas-promise-to-join-kenya-in-the-international-intervention-force.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-40149-haiti-un-flash-antonio-guterres-urges-the-states-of-the-region-to-join-kenya.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-40141-haiti-flash-first-reactions-to-kenya-s-announcement-to-support-the-pnh.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-40134-haiti-flash-kenya-agrees-to-deploy-1-000-police-officers-in-haiti.html



PI/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - Education : Le Ministre Manigat satisfait du bon deroulement des epreuves du Bac





Thursday, August 3rd, during a press briefing organized in the courtyard of the Saint-Louis de Bourdon college, following the visit of two examination centers housed in this college, Nesmy Manigat, the Minister of National Education is said to be "satisfied with the progress of the single baccalaureate exams in the 10 Departmental Directorates of Education."



The Minister specified "This satisfaction is based on the remarkable work done by all the educational agents mobilized during these four days (July 31 to August 3rd, 2023) in order to facilitate the reception of more than 110,000 students distributed in 598 centers located in all nooks and crannies of the country," adding that even in difficult areas such as Ganthier (West), Liancourt and Petite-Riviere (Artibonite), the students were able to compose.



Students whose application has been validated, in good and due form, but who have been prevented for valid reasons, will be able to compose during a session which will be organized by the Permanent Center for Evaluation during the month of August, in all the DDE, reassured the Minister Nesmy Manigat.



Once again, Minister Nesmy Manigat did not fail to speak well of the sacrifices made by the actors of the educational chain, namely parents, school principals and teachers; sacrifices to defend and preserve, again this year, the right of children to go to school and learn.



The Minister also praised the dedication of the students who, during the months of May, June and July, despite the weekly workload, accommodated themselves to participate in the learning compensation courses organized each weekend.



The good organization of these exams is due to the fact that this year there were only teachers who were involved in the conduct of the actual operation, from the heads of the exam centers to the supervisors, by the way. by supervisors and proctors. In addition, valuable work has been done by the network of young academics deployed as observers throughout the country.



In the same vein, it is necessary to take advantage of the mobilization of the National Police, particularly the Educational Community Police (EduPOL), to guarantee the security of the operation through all the school districts of the country.



It is also important to consider the support of the brigadiers of the Mobile First Aid Unit/Motorized Medical Emergency Service who, during these four days of examinations, assisted more than sixty candidates.l, victims of illness, 5 of whom were taken to hospital.



From this Thursday, August 3rd, teachers who will be involved in the correction of candidates' copies will receive, electronically, an authorization card with a QR Code, confirming their participation in this operation which should begin shortly.



As for the candidates, they will be able to receive this year, via their emails, registered on the platform of the ministry (www.menfp.gouv.ht), their transcripts; and if they pass these exams, they will receive, by the same electronic means, their diplomas legalized by both the Ministry of National Education and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.



HL/ HaitiLibre


















Beth Davison at work on a documentary series about community cafes. Photo by Alonza Mitchell.

By Jan Todd

Whether it be the plight of Virginia big eared bats, the public perception of Appalachia culture, the role of community cafes, or the history of various sites on the Blue Ridge Parkway, Dr. Beth Davison seeks to showcase stories through a different lens.

Davison, co-director of Appalachian State Universitys Documentary Film Services, is a local filmmaker whose projects have been screened internationally  from visitor centers on the Parkway to the PBS television network.

Visitors who tour the Flat Top Manor at Moses H. Cone Memorial Park can see an example of Davisons work: an educational video about the history of the estate that is shown in the manors mini theater on the main floor. The film includes theatrical readings, excerpts from oral histories, and reenactments of the construction and early days of the Cones summer home.

Davison produced the video in 2019, aided by a team of App State students who portrayed characters and helped research, film, and edit the work.

I think anyone starting out in documentary work should begin with a historical piece. There are usually information and photographs in the archives, so you dont have to film everything. You can concentrate more on story structure and editing. Dr. Beth Davison

Davisons first documentary, The Denim Dynasty, was released in 2015 and screened on campus at App State, at BRAHM (Blowing Rock Art and History Museum), and at the Greensboro Historical Museum. The film delved into the history of the Cone family, their factories and all the workers who helped make Cone Textiles a world leader in the denim industry.

An avid hiker, Davison spends a lot of time in Cone Memorial Park. I walk on the carriage trails about four times a week, and it was there I got to thinking about my surroundings. The Cones were big time capitalists in their time, an important part of our history here in North Carolina. They provided jobs, amassed wealth, and then their family funded and established the Moses H. Cone Hospital to serve the textile workers and community. Their home at Flat Top is now in public hands and enjoyed by millions of people, Davison said.

Her musings and appreciation for the Cones history and contribution prompted Davison to take a sabbatical from teaching to work on The Denim Dynasty.

I started off working with Dr. Andrea Burns at App State, who devoted her graduate course in public history to helping with research for the project. We spent some time at the University of North Carolina Archives, and the National Park Service office in Asheville, Davison remembered. Working with historians helped her develop new research skills for producing documentaries.

I think anyone starting out in documentary work should begin with a historical piece, Davison advised. There are usually information and photographs in the archives, so you dont have to film everything. You can concentrate more on story structure and editing.

Beth Davison on set in Raleigh, while filming a documentary series. Photo by Alonza Mitchell. Maleek Loyd (left) films Renee Boughman (center) as she interviews Maggie Kane, executive director of A Place at the Table community cafe in Raleigh. Photo by Alonza Mitchell.

Embracing the Power Behind the Camera

Davison never attended film school. She studied religion and social philosophies and earned her doctorate in sociology. She taught in App States Department of Sociology for 18 years.

Driven by a passion for social justice, Davison was always drawn to documentaries. People from my high school days and college days remember me saying I wanted to be a documentary filmmaker, she said.

Documentaries have the power to change peoples hearts and minds about issues. They can draw people in and be an impactful teaching tool, showing the nuances and complexity of problems the society face. Dr. Beth Davison

But back in the early 1980s, there were few resources to pave that path. I remember as an undergraduate, I checked out a camera to work on a project. It had a huge battery pack that was very heavy  and I am a small person! There werent any classes for me to learn skills, and editing was complicated. You had to go into a studio and use a big control board, she explained. I got discouraged and pursued interests in other things.

She still enjoyed watching documentaries and occasionally incorporated them into her classroom as a sociology professor.

Documentaries have the power to change peoples hearts and minds about issues, she explained. They can draw people in and be an impactful teaching tool, showing the nuances and complexity of problems the society faces.

Davison recalled an impactful film entitled Poletown Lives, aired in 1982, which portrayed the story of a community of primarily Polish descendants fighting against General Motors plan to level their neighborhood and build an automotive assembly plant. The community was unsuccessful, and the plant was built.

Its one thing to just talk about what it means for people to organize and take on corporate America, but to show the students this real life example in a 30-minute documentary was powerful, Davison said.

Technology advances opened new doors for Davison to produce her own documentaries. Video cameras got smaller, and editing software became accessible on personal computers. Davison attended workshops through the Center of Documentary Studies at Duke University, learning the technical aspects of the craft as well as how to create a compelling story.

Beth Davison (left) consults with Maleek Loyd (right) and Ryan Witt (center) during filming at A Place at the Table community cafe in Raleigh. Loyd is an App State alumnus and former student of Davisons and is the director at Loyd Visuals in Charlotte. Witt teaches video production courses in App States Department of Communication. Photo by Alonza Mitchell

I credit App State for letting me learn on the job, Davison said. When I proposed we start the Documentary Center at the university, App State gave me the go-ahead and provided a budget for me to work with. They are good about letting people grow and follow their paths.

She transitioned from her role as a sociology professor to co-direct the newly created Documentary Center. Her filmmaking work is all under the umbrella of the university, used in teaching students and providing practical training ground for them to develop their own careers.

Beth Davison credits her father, Frank Davison, as her inspiration in photography. He always had a camera, she said. Here, young Frank takes a photo of himself in a mirror. It was a pretty cool 1930s selfie, Beth said.

Her background in sociology makes her a better storyteller, Davison said. As a social scientist, I employed research methods and statistics. For me, making documentaries is about discovery  and I use my research skills as the story unfolds. When I start a project, I really dont know how its going to end, and I love that.

Davison said her early inspiration in photography came from her father.

My dad always had a camera and bought his first home movie camera in the 1950s. He took lots of footage as well as thousands of photographs, she said.

Davison admitted she was often annoyed by her father pointing the camera in her direction. Its such a generational thing. Back then, anytime someone pulled out a movie camera, all the teenagers and adults would run behind trees to avoid being filmed. It wasnt like today, when kids grow up posing for videos and posting them on social media, she said.

Most people in the era of her childhood filmed celebratory moments  birthdays, holidays, and vacations. But my dad filmed everyday moments as well, like me running a lemonade stand, for instance. I greatly appreciate that he made that effort, Davison said.

Now, Davison feels shes carrying forth her fathers legacy.

Showcasing Others Work

It has long been Davisons dream to cultivate a documentary culture in the High Country  even beyond her own work and that of her students. In 2022, she collaborated with Ann Ward, assistant professor in App States Department of Communications, and Tom Hansell, professor and co-director of the universitys Documentary Film Services, to partner with The Appalachian Theatre in hosting the first annual BooneDocs Film Festival.

The festival, held the last Saturday of February each year, features documentary short films reflecting on life in the Appalachian region.

The festival shows the diversity of stories around the region, and really highlights all we have to celebrate, Davison said. It helps overcome some of the stereotypes that people have about Appalachia.

Subject matters of the films this past year ranged from bouldering to glassblowing to the history of Greek-owned restaurants in Birmingham. Yes, Birmingham is in the Appalachian region, Davison said. It isnt all rural; that is just one of the misguided stereotypes.

The festival shows the diversity of stories around the region, and really highlights all we have to celebrate. It helps overcome some of the stereotypes that people have about Appalachia. Dr. Beth Davison

The first year, approximately 250 attended the BooneDocs festival. In 2023, there were more than 350 in the audience. The film lengths varied from four minutes to about 24 minutes, and awards were given for Jurors Choice and Audience Choice.

Current Work

Last year, Davison produced a video for the F.A.R.M. Cafe  a nonprofit community cafe located in Boone  in celebration of its tenth year of operation. The project shone the light on the work of many volunteers in their mission to feed all regardless of means.

It was a special project for Davison, who has been involved as a volunteer with the organization since its beginning. She has served on the board of directors at the cafe, including a stint as its president.

Renee Boughman, founder and former executive director of the F.A.R.M. Cafe and now the Director of Community Engagement, served as the primary spokesperson in the film.

Beth Davison (left) and Renee Boughman at the F.A.R.M. Cafe in downtown Boone. The two are working together on a documentary series sharing stories of community cafes across the country. Photo by Jan Todd

Renee has a huge personality. She has strong storytelling skills and genuine emotion, Davison said.

While working on the 10th anniversary video, Davison and Boughman began to dream of something bigger: a documentary series about community cafes across the country.

The F.A.R.M. Cafe participates in One World Everybody Eats  a network of independent nonprofit pay what you can restaurants dedicated to increasing food security and building community. Each of the nearly 50 member cafes is unique in its setup and menu, but all operate on the principles of inclusion, access to healthy and nutritious food, opportunities to volunteer, and a dignified dining experience.

Beth Davison on set in Raleigh, while filming a documentary series. Photo by Alonza Mitchell.

We arent part of a franchise; were part of a movement, Boughman explained. We share information and support one another  because we want these organizations to survive.

Boughman said it has been fulfilling to watch volunteers  especially students  transform through their work at F.A.R.M. Cafe. Even after they graduate, they maintain connection with us and support whats happening. They tell me that working here changed their lives in ways they never expected, she said.

Her own experience at the F.A.R.M. Cafe sparked a curiosity in Boughman about the other organizations in the network. I have found that people want to do things to help each other, but sometimes dont know the path to get there. If we can provide a path, theyll jump in. It has been a remarkable journey to see that happen. Im fascinated with folks in other communities who have a similar story, she said.

Davison, Boughman, and a team of filmmakers have visited two community cafes so far, and plan to visit others in the coming months. Boughman serves as the host, interviewing cafe directors, staff, and patrons on camera.

Through Beths work, we can change the lens of how people view the world. And I love that. I think its amazing.  RENEE BOUGHMAN

Were hoping to raise awareness about the work these organizations are doing, because it is so relevant to issues people are talking about right now: diversity, equity, and inclusion. When it comes to community cafes, some dont know what to expect and are hesitant to come in. Were hoping to change that, Davison said.

Boughman said she has enjoyed hanging out with Davison and learning all the ways she chooses to tell a story.

We all have similar experiences in life, but sometimes its just how you look at things that makes a huge difference, Boughman mused. For instance, if you encounter a person on the street asking for money, do you experience that through the lens of fear and frustration? Or do you experience it through the lens of compassion and the understanding that this person may have been employed two years ago, but was hit with an economic demise or perhaps some mental health issues?

Through Beths work, we can change the lens of how people view the world, Boughman continued. And I love that. I think its amazing.

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(HedgeCo.Net) The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced that it obtained a temporary asset freeze, restraining order, and other emergency relief against Digital Licensing Inc., a Draper, Utah based entity doing business as DEBT Box, as well as the companys four principals, Jason Anderson, his brother Jacob Anderson, Schad Brannon, and Roydon Nelson, and 13 other defendants in connection with a fraudulent scheme to sell crypto asset securities to hundreds of U.S. investors that raised approximately $50 million and unspecified amounts of Bitcoin and Ether.

The SECs complaint, unsealed yesterday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah, charges the defendants in an ongoing scheme that began in March 2021 to sell unregistered securities they call node licenses. In hundreds of online videos and social media posts, as well as at investor events, the defendants told investors that the node licenses would generate various crypto asset tokens through crypto mining activity and that revenue-generating businesses in a variety of sectors would drive the value of the various tokens DEBT Box mined, resulting in exorbitant gains for investors. In reality, as alleged, the node licenses were a sham intended to obscure the fact that the total supply of each token was created by DEBT Box instantaneously using code on a blockchain.

We allege that DEBT Box and its principals lied to investors about virtually every material aspect of their unregistered offering of securities, including by falsely stating that they were engaged in crypto asset mining, said Tracy S. Combs, Director of the SECs Salt Lake Regional Office. We filed this emergency action to protect the victims of the defendants unlawful actions and stop further harm.

The SECs complaint further alleges that DEBT Box and its principals along with defendants James Franklin, Western Oil Exploration Company Inc., and Ryan Bowenlied to DEBT Box investors about the revenues of the businesses purportedly driving the value of the tokens.

In total, 18 defendants, including those mentioned above, have been charged with engaging in unregistered securities offerings. DEBT Box, Jason Anderson, Jacob Anderson, Brannon, Nelson, Franklin, Western Oil, and Bowen were also charged with violations of the antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws. Jason Anderson, Jacob Anderson, Brannon, Nelson, Bowen, Mark Schuler, Benjamin Daniels, Joseph Martinez, Travis Flaherty, Brendon Stangis, Matthew Fritzsche, B & B Investment Group, LLC, and iX Global, LLC were charged with acting as unregistered brokers.

The complaint seeks permanent injunctive relief, the return of alleged ill-gotten gains, and civil penalties. The Honorable Judge Robert J. Shelby, U.S. District Judge for the District of Utah, entered an order on July 28, 2023, imposing a temporary restraining order, asset freeze, and other relief. Judge Shelby also entered an order appointing Josias N. Dewey of the law firm Holland & Knight LLP as a temporary receiver over DEBT Box to, amongst other things, marshal assets for the benefit of investors.
While support for the opposition party has surged by 2.2 percentage points to 22.8 per cent since early July, the National Coalition and Finns Party have both lost support as they remain mired in racism controversies, the former slipping from 22.1 to 19.8 per cent and the latter from 20.2 to 19.2 per cent.

THE SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY has emerged as by far the most popular political party in Finland, according to an opinion poll published on Thursday by YLE.

Jussi Westinen, the research director at Taloustutkimus, stated to the public broadcasting company yesterday that the timing of the poll likely contributed to the downward trend of the two ruling parties.

July had quite a lot of political turbulence as the government found itself constantly in controversy trying to clear up the racism cases, he stated.

Stemming from the racist posts and comments of Minister of Finance Riikka Purra (PS), ex-Minister of Economic Affairs Vilhelm Junnila (PS) and Minister of Economic Affairs Wille Rydman (PS), the controversy has had a larger impact on the National Coalition than the Finns Party.

It seems that racist posts arent a problem to a large share of Finns Party supporters, he added.

Both the National Coalition and Finns Party lost support particularly among female and under 35-year-old voters. Westinen pointed out that the development may be attributable to the fact that, according to many studies, women are more tolerant, have more positive attitudes toward multiculturalism and are more likely to condemn racism than men.

He also reminded that parties that performed well in elections tend to enjoy high levels of support after the elections as many voters jump on the bandwagon. Prime Minister Petteri Orpos (NCP) government appears to have missed out on the honeymoon period this year.

The Social Democratic Party made gains at the expense of especially the Green League and Left Alliance, but also the Swedish Peoples Party, National Coalition and Finns Party, according to YLE.

Abo Akademi University in June published a study showing that nearly one-third of people who had previously voted for the Green League or Left Alliance voted for the Social Democrats in April. Kimmo Gronlund, a political scientist at Abo Akademi University, estimated to YLE on Saturday that many did so in order to prevent the formation of a right-wing government  a narrative that was pushed on the campaign trail particularly by ex-Prime Minister Sanna Marin (SDP).

Westinen on Thursday estimated that the poll results suggest such people have yet to shift their allegiance back to the Greens or Left Alliance.

Theres been a lot of speculation about whether ex-Greens and Left Alliance voters will stick with the Social Democrats. And so far they have. The Social Democrats has in that sense held on very well to its position. Support has continued to move to the Social Democrats especially from the Greens, analysed Westinen.

The Green League saw its popularity in the poll decrease by 0.6 points to 8.0 per cent. The Centre and Left Alliance both climbed 0.7 points to 10.7 and 8.5 per cent, respectively.

Although the Swedish Peoples Party has voiced its unease with collaboration with the Finns Party, its popularity has been largely unaffected by the turbulence, falling by only 0.2 points to 3.9 per cent.

The Christian Democrats was the only ruling party to see an up-tick in popular support, climbing from 3.8 to 4.0 per cent. Support for Movement Now similarly crept up by 0.2 points, to 1.4 per cent.

Taloustutkimus contacted 2,509 people for the poll between 5 July and 1 August. About four-fifths, or 1,963, of the people were able and willing to disclose which party they would vote for if the parliamentary elections were held now.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT
CITIZEN scientists from Henley will be carrying out regular water quality tests along the River Thames in Henley after receiving funding from an environmental charity.

Dave and Jacqui Wallace, and Chloe Jones, who founded Henley River Action, will take samples twice a week at two separate sites in Fawley, one opposite Upper Thames Rowing Club and the other opposite Temple Island.

They will analyse the samples for phosphates and nitrates using simple test kits and publish their results online immediately. The year-long testing programme, which will start next week, is being funded by Earthwatch.

The project is an extension of the analysis work that the group carried out in May and June when they found that the royal regatta course, or Henley Mile, was severely impacted by sewage pollution. Tests funded by the national campaign group River Action found levels of phosphate and nitrate along the stretch that were consistently double those considered ecologically damaging for rivers.

These also showed levels of E-coli and intestinal enterococci increasing fourfold after rainfall on June 20, equivalent to an official bathing water status of poor.

River Action said the project was one of the most intensive citizen science programmes to have been conducted in the UK.

As a result of the findings, Sir Steve Redgrave, chairman of the regatta, said that he and the stewards would be throwing all our weight behind the campaign to end sewage pollution in the River Thames at Henley.

Mr Wallace, 53, who works in fintech (financial technology) believes that the data collection will be invaluable in informing actions to improve the water quality of the river and its ecosystem. He said: We will have a very good idea on an ongoing basis of the level of pollution along the Henley Mile through all seasons and weathers.

It enables us to elevate the discussion from conjecture to having scientific proof for conversations were having. So were informed by science rather than slipping into conjecture and hyperbole.

Thames Water has invited the Henley River Action goup to a meeting later this month about a planned upgrade to the Henley sewage treatment works off Marlow Road.

The upgrade is expected to provide a major increase in treatment capacity, from 67 litres per seond to 82 litres per second.

Thames Water says that this will reduce the need for untreated discharges in wet weather.

The project is expected to be completed in 2025.

Mr Wallace said: We welcome the fact that Thames Water has taken notice of what weve been saying.

In 2021, the company was fined 2.3million for releasing sewage with high levels of ammonia into Fawley Court Ditch in 2016, killing more than 1,000 fish and other water life.
Dust Child, award-winning Vietnamese poet and novelist Nguyen Phan Que Mais powerful second novel, is set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War and its aftermath. The story follows two sisters who leave their rural home to work as bar girls in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) and get engulfed by the war. Decades later, the narrative shifts to modern-day Saigon, where the lives of Phong, a Black-Vietnamese Amerasian, and Dan, a war veteran seeking redemption, intersect. The novel sheds light on the struggles of Amerasian children and explores themes of identity, love, betrayal, and forgiveness. Author Nguyen Phan Que Mai (Courtesy the subject)

Phan Que Mai drew inspiration for Dust Child  which has been labelled best book of the year by Readers Digest, Cosmopolitan and Book Riot  from her childhood experiences of being a witness to the discrimination against GI babies (children born to an Asian mother and a US military father). Her doctoral research and interviews with Amerasian children left behind after the Vietnam war deeply influenced her writing process. Through her powerful storytelling, Phan Que Mai calls for empathy and understanding for Amerasians and veterans scarred by the war. Excerpts from an interview:

In Dust Child, you give voice and agency to Amerasians, the forgotten mixed-race children born out of the Vietnam War (who are often stigmatised), shedding light on their struggles and the complexities of their identities. What inspired you to explore their experiences, and what do you believe is the significance of telling their stories in the present day?

The seed of Dust Child was sown during my childhood. Growing up in Southern Vietnam, I saw Amerasian children, who had been fathered by American soldiers, being discriminated against and unable to go to school. Over the years, I kept thinking about them and wishing that life would treat them better. In 2015, I started assisting American veterans, who were coming back to Vietnam after more than 40 years, searching for the women and children whom theyd once abandoned. While I witnessed some happy reunions, there was also so much heartache, regret, and sorrow.

I interviewed many people and got their permission to fictionalize their experiences into Dust Child. While the characters in the novels dont resemble anyone in real life, they present real-life issues suffered by Amerasians and their parents. In writing this book, I would like to highlight the long-lasting impact of wars and armed conflicts beyond death and injuries and call for empathy and support toward those who are stigmatized or misunderstood. The best thing that has happened since Dust Childs publication are the messages I have received from Amerasians, adoptees and their family members who told me they saw themselves in the book. Its a privilege for me to be a part of a circle of healing.

The novel explores the theme of intergenerational trauma, and the search for identity and belonging through the interconnected lives of Nguyen Tan Phong, a Black-Vietnamese Amerasian, Dan, a war veteran, who had an affair with a Vietnamese woman during the conflict, and the sisters Trang and Quynh. How did you approach their stories to weave in themes of love, betrayal, and forgiveness?

Phong, Dan, Trang and Quynh have to bear the trauma of war yet they refuse to let themselves be defined by it. They have to search for healing for themselves and for others. Through the life of Phong, readers will experience the extent of the racism which still exists within our community, as well as the many things Amerasian people need to do to prove their humanity and contribution to society. Trang, Quynh and Dan are three gentle human beings whose youth was snatched away by the war. During the seven years I worked on this novel, these characters showed me where they needed to go, what needed to happen. Through their life experiences, the themes of love, betrayal, and forgiveness emerged. There are many social messages embedded in my novel, but I did not craft the characters so that they became the vehicles of those messages. Its the life experiences of my characters that call for these social changes, so that other people dont need to go through the trauma and sorrow that they did.

How did you approach Dans character and his search for redemption, and what do you believe his story represents in the larger context of the wars aftermath?

Many American writers, most of them male, have written in the voices of Vietnamese women, so I wanted to embark on a challenge: to take back the right for Vietnamese women to tell our own stories, and to empathize with the experiences of Americans who were involved in the war. The reality is that the Vietnam War destroyed many American lives and had a long-lasting impact. Many American veterans still commit suicide, nearly 50 years after the end of the war. Many have been searching for redemption, forgiveness, healing. This reality is reflected in the story of Dan, who joined the Vietnam War as a helicopter pilot and who witnessed such terrifying violence that it transformed him. But he also fell in love with Vietnamese people and later, he would realise that in searching for the humanity of Vietnamese people, he was trying to regain his own.

How did you navigate the emotional weight of the war? The novel explores the theme of homecoming, both in terms of physical return to Vietnam and the characters internal journeys of rediscovering their roots. How important was it for you, as the author, to incorporate this strand of homecoming in the novel?

Writing about wars is never easy and it did take a toll on me emotionally, especially because it evokes trauma I witnessed as a child growing up in Vietnam. However, Dust Child offers a path to healing and thats why I have incorporated joyful moments into the book: from delightful Vietnamese food and music to descriptions of nature and landscape. I really appreciate that you noticed the theme of homecoming in the novel: I wrote the novel to return home. Due to my husbands diplomatic postings, I have been travelling and living in different countries around the world. Writing about Vietnam offers me the chance to return home. It gives me tremendous joy to bring Vietnam alive on the page. When I write, I need to hear the Vietnamese language, our poetry, our music, taste the food, experience our daily customs.

You write that the novel sprang from your doctoral research and interviews with Amerasian children left behind after the war. How did this research influence your writing process and the portrayal of these characters? What were some of the most striking or poignant insights you gained from your exploration of their experiences?

As a writer of historical fiction, I would like to be truthful to historical events and experiences, therefore, real-life interviews are very important to me. I was very lucky to be able to carry out the research for Dust Child within the framework of my PhD programme at the UKs Lancaster University. Under the guidance of my supervisor and the ethics committee, I learned to apply the principles of ethics into my research. For example, I took care in formulating my research questions so that they were sensitive to my research participants experiences. My PhD studies also gave me the chance to research representation issues and highlighted the need for me to write beyond stereotypes and to decolonize literature about Vietnam by presenting my homeland not as the war but as a country with more than 4,000 years of history.

The themes of absolution and acceptance resonate strongly as Tan Phong and Dan grapple with their past actions and long for reconciliation with their respective families. Did you set out to dwell on their quests for healing and peace in the aftermath of war?

Amerasians like Phong, who were abandoned at birth and who dont know their parents, naturally yearn to be accepted and acknowledged. As for Dan who walked away from his pregnant girlfriend and unborn baby, he has to live with regrets and seek forgiveness. These are complicated emotions which are deeply rooted in the personal history of each character. My job as a novelist is to let readers experience these emotions so they can feel the need for healing and peace in Phong and Dan.

Dust Child addresses the issue of post-war reconciliation and healing, not only on an individual level but also within the broader context of Vietnamese society. How did you explore the process of reconciliation and its role in moving forward from the wounds of war?

The Vietnam War lasted 20 years and killed millions of people. Millions of others were injured, traumatized. Hundreds of thousands are still missing. Nearly 100,000 Amerasians were born into the war and most are still searching for their identity and their parents. Reconciliation and healing is therefore urgently needed because so much time has passed yet the wounds of war are still bleeding.

The novel shuttles between 1969 and 2016, bridging the past and the present to reveal the lasting consequences of the war. Did this structure allow you to explore the connections and intersections between Phong, Dan, and the sisters in a better way?

I love novels which employ a complicated timeline to build suspense, tension and to invite readers to take part in figuring out the plot. Therefore, both of my novels, The Mountains Sing and Dust Child, feature a dual timeline by presenting different perspectives from different time periods. Writing a novel based on this structure is much more complicated using a linear timeline, it is like working on a puzzle. But I enjoy figuring out how the pieces will fit together. Thats the magic of creative writing: it can take you to unexpected places. When I started writing Dust Child, I had no idea how it would end. And when I discovered the ending, it shocked me. And you are right; this complicated structure helped me explore the connections and intersections among the characters, so they become much more complex, more human.

352pp, 349; Oneworld Publications

The book highlights the need to support and recognize Amerasians and push for the well being of veterans whose lives were deeply impacted by the war. What actions or initiatives do you believe can facilitate this?

There are many ways in which we can help Amerasians, war veterans and women who were pulled into the vortex of wars: by acknowledging their trauma, listening to their stories and assisting them in their search for family members in ethical ways. I really hope that more DNA test kits, for example, are available for people who need to search for their family members yet cant afford to purchase them. My website has a page that lists organisations which I have been volunteering with and readers are most welcome to join me.

Having witnessed the horror of war myself, I grew up hoping that our human race would learn from the costly lessons of the Vietnam War, so that we can work together to build sustainable peace for generations to come. I am heartbroken to see many wars currently going on. We have much work to do to foster peace and understanding around the world, to prevent wars and armed conflicts, and the type of tragedies that took place in my novel.

In what ways can literature contribute to raising awareness and promoting understanding of marginalized communities?

Many readers have told me that my novels make them cry because they care about the characters in my books. They empathize with what these characters go through. Such care and empathy is much needed for raising awareness and support for people who have been marginalized. Therefore, I believe in the need to foster more diversity in literature, so that we can hear more stories from people who have not been represented in it before.

What are you currently working on?

I have just returned home after four months of being on tour for Dust Child (I travelled to seven countries and had more than 60 in-person events). I was also in Vietnam and Thailand doing research for my next book. I just started working on my third novel and my ideas and characters are not yet fixed. They are evolving and I am excited to discover the creative journey ahead of me.

Shireen Quadri is the editor of The Punch Magazine Anthology of New Writing: Select Short Stories by Women Writers.
The unlikeliest of friends This weeks reading list includes a debut novel on an unlikely set of friends finding each other in Paris, a volume on how the diverse peoples of the northeast became a part of India, and a book about two misfits who discover they are kindred souls. (HT Team)

327pp, 495; Rupa (The story of an unlikely set of friends who rely on each other in a city insistent on alienating them)

Set in the capital of all things chic, surrounded by inexplicably irritable inhabitants, this book is an ode to the friendships that have got so many through the darkest days of their lives. In spite of living in the same apartment block in Paris, Neera, Rosel, Violet and Dasha have no idea about each others existence. In the grand duplex of Number Thirty-Six, the socialite Neera chain-smokes spliffs and lives a life of luxury with her director-producer husband. Many floors above, Rosel, a Filipina housekeeper-cum-nanny, dreams in her tiny attic room of becoming a French citizen and being reunited with her son. Seventeen-year-old Russian model, Dasha, shares her cramped apartment with other women, wanting to walk the ramp for the biggest fashion moguls but settling for whoever pays the bills. And on the ground floor, Violet, a Senegalese trans woman, is a burlesque dancer at night and plays saviour to a handsome beggar by day. When the whole world comes to a halt and turns itself upside down, the women of Number Thirty-Six are shocked out of their arduous lives. They become the unlikeliest of friends, relying on each other to belong to this city that is insistent on alienating them. Irreverent, joyous, hilarious and passionate, with characters who seem to leap unapologetically off the page, Clearly Invisible in Paris is a celebration of the contradiction of being an outsider and belonging to the city.*

Of imperialism, Christianity and the British love of tea

432pp, 699; HarperCollins (How the remote hill tribes, and the diverse peoples inhabiting the valley of the Brahmaputra river became part of India.)

As India and the world are roiled by questions of nationalism and identity, this book journeys into the history of one of the worlds most fascinating regions: Northeast India. Having appeared with the stroke of a pen in 1947, as the British Raj was torn asunder and partitioned into India and Pakistan, this is a region of river valleys and hills inhabited by myriad tribes. Until colonial rule, several of these tribes had lived in their ancient ways, largely unmolested by their neighbours, who were rather keen to avoid their traditions of headhunting. Samrat Choudhury chronicles the processes by which these remote hill tribes, and the diverse other peoples inhabiting the valley of the vast Brahmaputra river, became parts of the imagined nation that is India. He explores two other ideas of India that remain in daily competition: Bharat, the Hindu nationalist conception of the country, and Hindustan, the Persian-origin name by which India is still known as far west as Turkey. Taking a long view, this absorbing political history chronicles the separate pathways by which imperialism, Christianity and the British love of tea brought each of the contemporary regions constituent states into modern India.*

Pointing to a new ecological story

152pp, 499; HarperCollins (Two misfits discover they are kindred souls)

Two strangers meet in a park by chance. Sonal, formerly a sociology professor and firebrand activist, is battling memory loss and acute depression. Abhay, a once-celebrated genetic engineer, is a paranoid fugitive hiding from an establishment whose scientific paradigm he once challenged. To the world they both are insane, but the truth is deeper. Abhay shares his most closely guarded thoughts with Sonal, in the form of a book. It is a radical, paradigm-shifting perspective, and the two misfits discover that they are kindred souls, forced to doubt their own sanity by a deluded culture. Together, they plan to take their revelation to the world before its too late. But, as always, reality has other plans.*

*All copy from book flap.

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Warner Bros. Movie! Here are options for downloading or watching Meg 2: The Trench streaming the full movie online for free on 123movies & Reddit, including where to watch Jason Statham's second installment of The Meg movie at home. Is Meg 2 available to stream? Is watching Meg 2: The Trench on HBO Max, Netflix, Peacock, Disney Plus or Amazon Prime? Yes, we have found an authentic streaming option/service.

Watch Now: Meg 2: The Trench (2023) Full Movie Online Free

Jason Statham is returning for Meg 2: The Trench  the sequel to 2018s The Meg. Luckily, we have you covered on all the ways you can watch this new flick!

Directed by Ben Wheatley, the sci-fi action film follows Jonas Taylor (Statham) as he leads a research team in exploring the deepest parts of the ocean. When their mission becomes threatened by a malevolent mining operation, they are forced to outrun and outsmart colossal, prehistoric sharks in the ultimate battle for survival.

Jason Statham is back as Jonas Taylor, the formerly washed-out, beer-guzzling anti-hero with a negative attitude who slayed the Meg in the first movie. With more megalodons surfacing from the trench, Statham will need more help which comes in the form of Chinese action star Wu Jing, who will be bad for the sharks but good for global sales since Wu is the highest-grossing male actor in China.

Five years after Jason Statham first punched a giant shark, Meg 2: The Trench comes to theaters to deliver a sequel thats bigger in every aspect. There are more underwater monsters, higher stakes, and action set pieces that are even more over-the-top than in The Meg. Yet bigger doesnt necessarily mean better, and Meg 2: The Trench repeats some of the same mistakes that gave The Meg such a mediocre critical reception.

Meg 2: The Trench picks up six years after the events of the first movie. Following the Oceanography Center of Hainan uncovering the existence of megalodons beneath the thermocline at the ocean floor, the scientists involved in the discovery were tasked with expanding their research on the mysterious trench. Of course, since megalodons are still a threat, the Mana One research center invested in creating submarines capable of emitting electrical charges and exoskeletons that allow divers to walk 25 thousand feet under the sea. The Hainans center has even raised a baby megalodon of their own to study the creatures behavior and expand human knowledge about the secrets hiding in uncharted corners of the ocean.

So, where can you watch Meg 2: The Trench? Is it on Max? What about Netflix?Heres everything we know about the upcoming movie:

When Is the Release Date for Meg 2: The Trench?

Meg 2: The Trench hits theaters on 4th Aug, 2023. Tickets to see the film at your local movie theater are available online here. The film is being released in a wide release so you can watch it in person. On Friday, August 4, 2023, The Meg 2 will make its way onto multiplexes. It is currently exclusively playing in theatres.

The Meg 2: The Trench arrives in cinemas globally on Friday, August 4, 2023. So far we have no word on when the film will be available to stream at home; we'll be sure to include that info when it arrives.

Will Meg 2: The Trench Be in Theaters?

Yes. Meg 2: The Trench will be in theaters and available in the Dolby format which could be the best way to devour (and get devoured by) this supersized creature feature.

Where To Watch Meg 2: The Trench Online:

As of now, the only way to watch Meg 2 is to head out to a movie theater when it releases on Friday, Aug. 4. You can find a local showing on Fandango.

Watch Now: Meg 2: The Trench (2023) Full Movie Online Free

Otherwise, youll just have to wait until it becomes available to rent or purchase on digital platforms like Vudu, Apple, YouTube and Amazon or available to stream on Max.

When Will Meg 2: The Trench Be on Streaming?

Meg 2: The Trenchs release date on streaming has not yet been announced though we can be sure the movie lands on Max, the streaming service of Warner Bros. Discovery.

In the meantime, the first Meg film is available to stream on Max, in case you are in the mood for a rewatch before going out to see the sequel.

When Will Meg 2: The Trench Be Streaming On Max?

Since Meg 2 is being distributed by Warner Bros., it will, indeed, join Max (formerly known as HBO Max). However, unlike the past when the company would drop their movies on the streaming platform the same day they were released in theaters, we are going to have to wait at least 45 days before we can watch from the comfort of our living rooms.

While there is no official streaming release date yet, Evil Dead Rise was released in theaters on April 21 and didnt make its way to Max until June 23  just over two months after it debuted. If Meg 2 follows the same trajectory, its possible we wont be able to stream it until early October 2023.

Is Meg 2 On Netflix?

No, Meg 2 will not be available on Netflix  at least not anytime soon, since it will be heading straight to Disney+ after its theatrical release. In the meantime, you'll just have to wait for it to become available on the Disney+ streaming platform

Is Meg 2: The Trench Available On Hulu?

Viewers are saying that they want to view the new animation movie Meg 2: The Trench on Hulu. Unfortunately, this is not possible since Hulu currently does not offer any of the free episodes of this series streaming at this time. It will be exclusive to the MTV channel, which you get by subscribing to cable or satellite TV services. You will not be able to watch it on Hulu or any other free streaming service.

How to Watch Meg 2: The Trench Free Online?

Most Viewed, Most Favorite, Top Rating, Top IMDb movies online. Here we can download and watch 123movies movies offline.

The film is based on The Trench by Steve Alten.

123Movies website is the best alternative to Meg 2: The Trench (2023) free online. We will recommend 123Movies is the best Solarmovie alternatives.

There are a few ways to watch Meg 2: The Trench online in the U.S. You can use a streaming service such as Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime Video. You can also rent or buy the movie on iTunes or Google Play. You can also watch it on-demand or on a streaming app available on your TV or streaming device if you have cable.

Meg 2: The Trench Cast:

Meg 2: The Trench was written by Jon Hoeber. It was directed by Ben Wheatley and stars the following actors:

Jason Statham as Jonas Taylor

Cliff Curtis as James Mac Mackreides

Shuya Sophia Cai as Meiying Zhang

Page Kennedy as DJ

Kiran Sonia Sawar as Sal

Sienna Guillory as TBC

Skyler Samuels as TBC

Sergio Peris-Mencheta as TBC

Jing Wu as TBC

Whoopie Van Raam as TBC

What Is Meg 2: The Trench About?

With films of this genre, it is highly likely that they will try and go bigger and better in the sequel, so be prepared for a potentially greater shark than the first time or perhaps even a much more devastating monster entirely, like the Kronosaurus that appears in the sequel novel that the film is based on (The Trench by Steve Alten).

Of course, the film is not just about sharks, with the original doing a great job of unpacking Jason Statham's Jonas Taylor as a character. We expect to see more of this in the sequel, with Jonas nearly sacrificing his own life at the end of the first movie, and the ramifications of this on his family and friends likely to have ripple effects as we enter The Meg 2. There is plenty to be excited about for fans of the original, with much more aquatic action and adventure to be had for sure.

In an interview with Steve Weintraub, the film's producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura teased what fans can expect from the sequel.

"It's really held its appeal, so in making this movie, one of the things we learned is you could add more comedy than we originally thought in a shark movie, in a way. So I think this movie is probably funnier. There's certainly some big laughs in it. There's more shark attacks. There's more crazy ideas that we've tested out on the audience. So the movie, it's testing well, but more importantly, the audience seems to be relating to it very similar to the first movie."

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. The decision to read hereinafter is purely a matter of choice and shall be construed as an express undertaking/guarantee in favour of Hindustan Times of being absolved from any/ all potential legal action, or enforceable claims. Hindustan Times does not encourage/ promote piracy by any means. The links given here are not taking the users to pirated streaming contents.
Date: 4 august 2023

MRC Agrotech Limited, a reputable BSE listed company with the ticker symbol 540809, is on the cusp of remarkable expansion as internal sources reveal the company's imminent securing of an impressive 85 crore order from Sri Lanka. In addition to this significant international contract, MRC Agrotech is set to sign lucrative deals with D Mart and Jio Retail for their new line of products. The collaboration with these retail giants will open doors to wider distribution and increased visibility as D Mart and Jio Stores will stock and sell MRC Agrotech's offerings. These positive developments are expected to catalyze a vertical uptrend in the company's stock price, with potential growth from the current 20 per share to an estimated range of 80 within the next 3 to 6 months.

The soon-to-be secured 85 crore order from Sri Lanka marks a major milestone for MRC Agrotech, reinforcing the company's reputation for delivering excellence in its products and services. This substantial international contract is set to significantly boost the company's revenue and augment its global market presence.

In a strategic move that is sure to expand its market reach, MRC Agrotech is forging deals with two retail giants, D Mart and Jio Retail. The collaboration entails D Mart and Jio Stores featuring and selling MRC Agrotech's innovative product line in their outlets. This partnership is expected to drive sales volumes and expose MRC Agrotech's products to a wider customer base.

The combined impact of the Sri Lanka order and the partnerships with D Mart and Jio Retail is anticipated to drive the company's stock price to new heights. Market analysts are optimistic about the potential for a vertical uptrend, propelling the stock from its current value of 20 to the range of 80 within the next 3 to 6 months.

Investors can take comfort in MRC Agrotech's strong financial position, as the company remains debt-free. Additionally, the absence of pledged promoter holdings underscores the management's dedication to the long-term success of the company.

The company's consistent profitability over time demonstrates its resilience and ability to thrive in the agrotech sector. MRC Agrotech's robust fundamentals have established it as a reliable investment option for shareholders.

The recent dip in stock price, caused by a market sell-off, has created an attractive entry point for investors looking to capitalize on MRC Agrotech's potential for a V-shaped recovery. Industry experts believe the stock has reached its bottom and is now well-positioned for an upward trajectory.

As with any investment, caution is advised, and potential investors should conduct thorough research and seek advice from financial experts to make informed decisions. Stock prices are subject to market fluctuations and external influences that can impact performance.

In conclusion, MRC Agrotech Limited's bright prospects are underscored by the impending 85 crore order from Sri Lanka and the promising collaborations with D Mart and Jio Retail. The company's debt-free status, unpledged promoter holdings, and consistent profitability make it an attractive investment opportunity. As the stock eyes a potential V-shaped recovery, market analysts expect a vertical uptrend, driving the stock's value from 20 to around 80 within the next 3 to 6 months. With the company's continued focus on growth and innovation, investors are eagerly awaiting the unfolding success story of MRC Agrotech.

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.
Dr. Mohamad Jamaan, a renowned dentist hailing from Syria, has been making waves in the field of dentistry with his compassionate care and commitment to transforming smiles at Zoya Dental Clinic. At just 29 years old, Dr. Jamaan has already become a pillar of hope and healing in the community, leaving a trail of satisfied patients and a legacy of compassionate service.

Born on January 1, 1994, in Syria, Dr. Jamaan's vision for Zoya Clinic was clear from the beginning - to create a haven where oral health care and compassion would combine to not only heal teeth but also uplift wounded souls. His journey in dentistry started with a passion for science and a desire to make a meaningful impact on people's lives.

After completing his early schooling at a local high school in Syria, Dr. Jamaan enrolled at a prestigious university in his home country, where he earned his dental degree. Fuelled by his determination to be at the forefront of dental technology, he continued to hone his skills through specialized training in restorative dentistry, orthodontics, and cosmetic dentistry.

"I believe that oral health is an integral part of overall well-being," says Dr. Jamaan, reflecting his commitment to his patients' health and happiness. My goal is not only to brighten smiles but also to improve lives.

Armed with knowledge, a positive attitude, and a proactive approach to learning, Dr. Jamaan founded Zoya Dental Clinic, which quickly gained popularity among the local community. The clinic's warm and inviting environment immediately puts patients at ease, thanks to Dr. Jamaan's compassionate care and attentive listening to their concerns. Each treatment plan is tailor-made to suit individual needs, ensuring the best possible care.

Outside of dentistry, Dr. Jamaan has embraced social media to share glimpses of his life with over 72k followers on Instagram. He frequently posts night-out photos, modeling shots, and tracking updates, showcasing his dashing looks and debonair personality. Not just a dentist, he is also a fitness and fashion enthusiast.

Through community outreach programs, Dr. Jamaan actively involves himself in initiatives that aim to relieve the sufferings and pain of mankind, showcasing his commitment to making the lives of others better and healthier.

Dr. Jamaan's story serves as an inspiration to the youth, emphasizing the importance of passion, determination, and compassion in pursuing one's dreams. With his innovative dental techniques and unwavering dedication, he continues to impact lives and brighten smiles, creating a lasting impression in the hearts of his patients and the community.

For those seeking top-notch dental services combined with a touch of empathy and warmth, Dr. Mohamad Jamaan and Zoya Dental Clinic stand out as a beacon of hope and transformation, offering a brighter future for oral health and overall well-being.

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.
Police here registered an FIR against senior BJP leader and former Karnataka Home Minister Araga Jnanendra for his objectionable comments on Congress national President Mallikarjun Kharge. Former Karnataka home minister Araga Jnanendra. (ANI)

The FIR was registered on Thursday based on a complaint lodged by Congress worker Rajiv Jane, in the Ashok Nagar police station here, a police official told PTI. Jnanendra has been booked under Section 504 of IPC (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), and the case will be transferred on Friday to Thirthahalli in Shivamogga district, where the incident occurred, the official said.

READ | BJP MLAs remark on Kharge sparks furore

The senior BJP MLA made an objectionable reference to the complexion of Kharge and people of the region he hails from, during a protest in Thirthahalli on August 1. Targeting Forest Minister Eshwar Khandre -- who also hails from the Kalyana Karnataka region to which Kharge also belongs to -- for his statement regarding the implementation of the Kasturirangan report, Jnanendra said, people from the region, who hardly know anything about trees, plants or shade are speaking about decisions that impacts the lives of people living in the Western Ghats region.

"...The government should make its stand clear (regarding implementation of Kasturirangan report), Mr Siddaramaiah! It is our misfortune that the Forest Minister is from that region (Kalyana-Karnataka), which doesn't have forest. They don't know what plant, tree or its shade is, under the scorching heat people there turn black (dark), we will know it by looking at our Kharge. Because of the hair cover, he is saved, it (hairs on head) is shade for them," Jnanendra said.

READ | 10 BJP MLAs suspended from Karnataka assembly: Speaker, Oppn call on governor

Addressing a gathering at the protest, he said, "Such people who don't know about the lives of people living in Malnad or Western Ghats region are speaking...so I urge the government to give clarity." Congress workers had on Wednesday held demonstrations in Bengaluru against Jnanendra, shouting slogans against him, while the party leaders hit out at him questioning his mental fitness.

However, as the issue snowballed into a controversy, Jnanendra had clarified maintaining that he never spoke about Kharge, but said he will express regret, if anyone is hurt. "I never spoke against Mallikarjun Kharge, I don't think I'm big enough to criticise him. I always speak with respect for his seniority and experience. My intention was not to hurt Mallikarjun Kharge or Khandre. I have seen reactions in the media. My intention was not to hurt anyone's feelings, but if anyone is hurt, I express regret," he had said, maintaining he had never taken Kharge's name.
Border Security Force (BSF) personnel shot dead an unidentified man marching towards them aggressively near the barbed fencing along the India-Pakistan border on Friday morning, officials said. The BSF official said when the man kept marching aggressively despite the warnings, the personnel opened fire in self-defence. (Representational photo)

According to a BSF official, the incident occurred around 4am near Bhikiwind-Khalra village in Tarn Taran district.

He said BSF personnel warned the man repeatedly after spotting him come towards them.

The official said when the man kept marching aggressively despite the warnings, the personnel opened fire in self-defence.

A police official said efforts were on to ascertain the identity of the man and how he reached the barbed fencing.
Enraged over death of a newly-wed woman, scores of men and women, including parents and relatives of the deceased, blocked Sidhra-Nagrota bypass for over an hour on Friday. Enraged over death of a newly-wed woman, scores of men and women, including parents and relatives of the deceased, blocked Sidhra-Nagrota bypass for over an hour on Friday. (PTI)

Demanding capital punishment to the in-laws of the deceased, protesters burnt tyres on the highway and tried to set ablaze the house of the womans in-laws.

However, a strong posse of policemen led by SP Rural Rahul Charak and civil administration officials pacified the protesters.

The woman died under mysterious circumstances at the house of her in-laws in Sidhra on Thursday. She was found hanging from the ceiling fan.

On Friday, protesters assembled at Sidhra where they blocked the road and tried to set ablaze the house of her in-laws.

The traffic movement on the highway that connects Sidhra with Nagrota and further leads to Srinagar came to a grinding halt.

SP Rural, Rahul Charak said, After efforts we pacified the protesters. The body of the deceased was cremated later in the afternoon.

The officer also informed that the police have now registered a case under Section 306 (abetment of suicide) of the IPC against her husband and his parents.

While her husband has been arrested, his parents are hospitalised. We are thoroughly investigating the case and the law will take its own course, he said.

A board of doctors had performed a post-mortem on the deceased at the GMC Hospital on Thursday and the report was awaited.

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The health department is conducting inspections and raising awareness about dengue larvae, and malaria in government offices and among the public. The department officials conducted dengue and malaria awareness campaigns at different police stations and police lines in Ludhiana on Friday. The health department officials conducting an inspection check in Ludhiana on Friday. (HT Photo)

Under the direction of civil surgeon Hitinder Kaur-led awareness campaign, district epidemiologist Ramesh Kumar addressed the police officers at Ludhiana Police Line, highlighting the importance of taking preventive measures against dengue.

He emphasised the need to avoid water accumulation in old vehicles, rooftops of buildings and other places where mosquitoes can breed. Cleaning and emptying coolers regularly were also stressed as essential steps in curbing the spread of dengue.

Furthermore, Kumar shared information on dengue symptoms, including high fever, muscle pain, joint pain, red rashes on the body and bleeding from the nose or gums among others. He urged everyone to seek immediate medical attention if any of these symptoms are experienced, as timely medical intervention is crucial in managing the disease.

Additionally, Kumar informed the officers that the health department provides free dengue tests and treatment at all government hospitals in the district. He underscored the significance of early diagnosis and prompt medical care, as delaying treatment can pose serious risks.

In response to the ongoing dengue and malaria awareness drive, all government hospitals have been directed to carry out tests and provide treatment for dengue free of cost.

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The director of the India Meteorological Department (IMD), Chandigarh, along with the head of the department of community medicine and School of Public Health, PGIMER, on Friday released infographics to inform the general public about the best practices during and after floods. The infographics have been released in English, Hindi and Punjabi for wider reach. (HT Photo)

Manmohan Singh, director, IMD, Chandigarh, stressed that there were visible changes in the weather pattern. He highlighted that extreme weather conditions were becoming more common due to climate change.

Recently, northern India recorded high frequency and intensity rainfall in a short time, leading to flood situations. He said awareness about flood risk management will increase the communitys resilience for their own safety.

The flood infographics have been designed and developed by Ravindra Khaiwal, professor of environment health, department of community medicine and School of Public Health, PGIMER, and Suman Mor, associate professor, department of environmental studies, Panjab University, along with the Indian Meteorological Society.

The first poster on Floodwater Precautions illustrates essential measures during floods. It covers guidelines on safe drinking water practices, personal hygiene and public health risk involved during floods.

The second poster, Returning Home after Floods, provides safety advice for reoccupying homes and communities after floodwaters have receded. It highlights steps for inspecting and cleaning buildings, assessing potential hazards and ensuring a safe living environment.

Both posters were released in three languages  English, Hindi and Punjabi  to maximise their reach and benefit diverse communities across the nation. These can be downloaded from https://www.care4cleanair.com/awarnessmaterial.
The Uttarakhand cabinet headed by chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Thursday approved a proposal to declare Mussoorie as a separate tehsil under the Dehradun district. Mussoorie twon in Uttarakhand (File Photo)

Located in the foothills of the Garhwal Himalayan range, Mussoorie, which was founded by the British in the 1820s, had a population of 6,461 in 1901 which increased to 30,118 in 2011 and as per the latest Jal Sansthan data, the population here has now crossed 50,000.

In July, a National Green Tribunal (NGT)-appointed panel to study the carrying capacity of Mussoorie submitted its report listing recommendations and remedial measures for preventing environmental damage to the hill station.

In the wake of the Joshimath land subsidence crisis and in light of a newspaper report which said Joshimath is a warning for Mussoorie, a committee was constituted by the NGT in January to suggest remedial measures for preventing environmental damage to the town, one of the most visited tourist destinations in the state.

The status report to the tribunal has recommended that expansion of construction activities should be avoided and proper drainage and sewage systems need to be implemented in Mussoorie. The panel has also recommended regulation of heavy tourist influx by charging visitors and using the funds thus generated for managing waste and cleanliness in the town.

The cabinet further has approved the new Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME) policy. Under the policy period, the state government will develop 50 clusters in the state.

Sharing details, chief secretary SS Sandhu said in 2008, the National Hydropower Policy came into effect, under which regional development fund was approved.

The cabinet has decided that one per cent of the project cost will be now used for the development of the same area, where the project is operating.

Sandhu said the cabinet also approved an amendment in the Uttarakhand Compulsory Registration of Marriage Rules 2012 to include Sikh marriages under the Anand Marriage Act 1909 in the rules so that Sikh marriages can also be registered in the state

The cabinet also announced that Chaurasi Kutia (also called Beatles Ashram) in Rishikesh will be developed as an international heritage destination for which the consultancy services of the HCP Design, Planning and Management Pvt Ltd will be sought.

The cabinet also approved Drone Policy 2023 to promote drone manufacturing and drone-based services in the state.
Hours after praising the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) governments mohalla clinic, Karnataka health minister and Congress leader Dinesh Gundu Rao made a very sudden volte-face and called the initiative overhyped, saying he was left disappointed after visiting one such clinic in the Capital. Delhi health minister Saurabh Bharadwaj and Karnataka health minister Dinesh Gundu Rao at a Mohalla Clinic, in New Delhi, Friday.(PTI)

Also Read| Delhi bill debate showed BJPs animosity towards AAP: Raghav Chadha

Earlier on Friday, Rao, accompanied by Delhi health minister Saurabh Bharadwaj, visited a mohalla clinic in Panchsheel Park. All seemed well, and when the Karnataka minister exited the facility, he praised the clinics and said his purpose was to learn and implement the best points from Delhis primary healthcare model.

After Raos visit, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted, Karnataka health minister visits Delhi mohalla clinics. We welcome him and his team. We all have to learn from each other. Delhi will also learn from the good work done by Karnataka govt.

Also Read| Supreme Court names Delhi high court ex-judge as pro-tem DERC chief

However, just hours later, Rao called the clinics overhyped. He tweeted, Visited a Mohalla Clinic in Delhi with hardly any people there. Our Clinics in Karnataka have more facilities including a laboratory to do immediate tests for patients. I guess it is overhyped and I came back feeling disappointed.

Speaking at a press conference, the Congress leader said, There were barely any patients there. I just meant that there are other states, including our Karnataka, where we are running similar clinics for the public in a much better way.

Raos abrupt change in stance led to an angry reaction from the AAP. In a statement issued on Friday evening, the party alleged, After the visit, Gundu Rao received a phone call and he said he had to rush for a meeting and left. Just minutes later he tweeted criticising Delhis mohalla clinics. Only he can clarify whose call he had received and what made him first praise the mohalla clinics and then change his statement.

AAP said comparing Delhis mohalla clinics to Bengalurus namma clinics was misleading, as the latter only provide basic care for small ailments such as fever, cold and cough.

While the two parties engaged in a war of words, the Bharatiya Janata Party claimed that the AAP is in a habit of taking dignitaries from other states to mohalla clinics or schools for their own political back patting but it often misfires.

Dinesh Gundu Raos tweet has shamed Saurabh Bhardwaj and he now owes a reply to Delhiites as to why they overhype the mohalla clinics. 90% of the Mohalla Clinics are lying in a depleted state, most dont have a doctor on duty with a health worker or a compounder cum pharmacist running them and half the month they remain locked, Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said.

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A day after the Centres ordinance on the control of services in the Capital was passed in the Lok Sabha, Aam Aadmi Party leader and Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha said that Union home minister Amit Shahs remarks during the debate showed the Bharatiya Janata Partys deep-seated animosity towards Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, and inadvertently underscored the effective governance delivered by AAP. AAP Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha (ANI)

He also alleged that the Delhi Services Bill was introduced by the BJP to curb AAPs growing influence. The introduction of the Delhi Services Bill was a strategic manoeuvre by the BJP to curb AAPs growing influence following their resounding victory in the 2015 elections, which had left the BJP bereft of political power in Delhi, Chadha said.

The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023,was passed after a nearly four-hour-long debate which was replied to by the home minister. Shah talked about the unique status of Delhi, a Union territory with a legislature, and slammed the AAP as a party which is only there to quarrel, and not to serve.

In response to Chadhas comments, Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva said anarchy, arbitrary administration, and corruption prevailed in the Delhi administration after AAP came to power in 2015. After the May 11 Supreme Court decision, the Arvind Kejriwal government started harassing officials probing scams of the Delhi government... gradually the administrative system of Delhi began to break down. Under these circumstances... the central government had to bring the ordinance, said Sachdeva.
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi, in an order issued on Thursday, said it will carry out a month-long drive to remove street dogs from at least 50 locations across the Capital ahead of the G20 summit in September, for nearly six weeks. The drive will be undertaken to ensure that the delegates and tourists visiting the Capital do not face any inconvenience, an MCD official said, requesting anonymity. Some people also flagged that it was against the Animal Birth Control Rules 2023 to keep a street dog at an ABC for over seven days. (HT Archive)

Also Read| Lodhis smaller monuments set for G20 facelift

The order has raised concerns about the care and safety of the dogs among animal rights activists, who said that such relocations may cause disease transmission apart from concerns about Animal Birth Control (ABC) centres capacity to host the dogs for such a long period. Some people also flagged that it was against the Animal Birth Control Rules 2023 to keep a street dog at an ABC for over seven days.

The civic bodys veterinary department on Thursday ordered its zonal offices and the NGOs working with it to ascertain the number of dogs in and around G20 locations and shift them to ABC centres for up to six weeks. The G20 locations are spread over seven MCD zones. The above quoted official added that all street dogs picked up during this time will be shifted to ABC centres and released back to the same locations after the summit.

Also Read| India plans to stitch up FTA during its G20 presidency

The corporation will start the drive on Friday and continue till August 30, during which civic staff, NGOs and private veterinary doctors will be deployed. No leaves will be sanctioned for MCD workers during this period, the order said.

The drive will focus on locations identified with the help of city administrations along with potential sites tourists may visit including near hotels, convention centres, markets, shrines and places of cultural and historical interest. Delhi will host six major G20 events between 3-10 September.

Some of the areas identified for the drive include tourist locations like Red Fort, Chandni Chowk, Town Hall, Jama Masjid, Ghalib Ki Haveli and Hauz Khas.

MCD has 18 ABC centers operated with the help of NGOs and private veterinary doctors where 80,000-90,000 dog sterilisations are carried out annually.

According to the guidelines laid down by the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) and ABC dog rules 2023, after sterilising street dogs, the civic agency should release them in the same area from where they were picked up.

MCD routinely relocates street dogs around key areas like Rajghat during the VIP movements but the relocation period usually lasts for 1-2 days.

Similar long-term street dog removal drives were held in Delhi in the run-up to the 2010 Commonwealth Games and the corporation admitted that it released the dogs in Noida, sparking outrage among animal rights activists.

Gauri Maulekhi, a trustee at People for Animals, an NGO, and an animal welfare expert said that such capture and release of dogs is routinely done on Republic Day but it is not a good practice as it may transmit diseases and add to conflict. If only MCD and the Delhi government make their respective monitoring committees and enforce the Animal Birth Control Rules 2023, a permanent solution may be arrived at, she said.

Ambika Shukla, another animal rights activist, who runs the Sanjay Gandhi Animal Care Centre (SGACC), said the MCDs plan seems like a recipe for disaster.

Lifting dogs at such a large-scale is unheard of. Our ABC centres are already operating at their maximum capacity and some of these centres only have a holding capacity of around 40 dogs, she said, stating keeping them there for over a month was also against the rules.

Not only will they fall sick, but the rules state a dog can only be kept for a maximum period of seven days, unless there is a wound. Delhi has hosted several such world events in the past, but there has not been a need to remove dogs at such a scale, she said.

Former veterinary director of the South MCD and an expert working with AWBI, Dr Ravindra Sharma, said that similar drives were carried out in 2010, ahead of the Commonwealth Games but the corporation teams faced multiple challenges from which lessons must be learnt.

We temporarily relocated dogs around the main venue but there would be some gaps near walls and more dogs would enter places like CWG village. The corporation needs to ensure proper disposal of food waste as it will attract more dogs, he said.

Delhi does not know the exact number of street dogs it houses. The last pan-Delhi survey was conducted by the erstwhile united MCD in 2009 in which the number of street dogs in the Capital was 560,000. A sub-committee constituted by the Delhi Assembly in 2019 on the issue of street dogs had estimated that the population of street dogs was around 800,000.

An MCD official said that enough provision for care and feeding will be made at ABC centres during the period and the dogs will be relocated to the same area. All details are updated online with photographs. Veterinary department officials can monitor the activity through the app. We will ensure all dogs are released in the same area, the official said.

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Shanties in Rohingya camps located in Nuhs Tauru area were bulldozed on Thursday evening , local police said, adding they have identified suspects among Rohingya refugees who were allegedly involved in this weeks communal violence in the area, and that the camps were encroachments. Migrants leaving from a settlement in Sector-70A in Gurugram following communal clashes this week. (Photo by Parveen Kumar/Hindustan Times)

Videos from Thursday show bulldozers clearing the area. The Rohingyas had illegally occupied the land of Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran. In addition to this, initial investigation has revealed that they were found involved in the violence. In such a situation, we bulldozed the illegal occupation, police said.

Rohingyas are predominantly Muslim refugees from Myanmar who fled their homeland following targetted violence against the community by the government in 2017.

There are about 16,000 UNHCR-certified Rohingya refugees in India. The government estimate puts the figure of Rohingya refugees living in India beyond 40,000 with maximum concentration in and around Jammu, HT had reported in 2022.

Over 50 illegal properties occupied by the Rohingyas were identified across Nuh, Prashant Pawar, Nuh deputy commissioner said, adding that demolition drive was carried out by relevant agencies and police provided manpower and security.

Earlier, the Nuh police had also demolished illegal properties of criminals allegedly involved in cattle smuggling, illegal mining, extortion, arms dealing and cybercrime.

So far, the local authorities have registered 44 FIRs, including three against objectionable videos celebrating the violence that singed the district and spilled over to adjoining areas this week.

As many as 141 persons have been arrested in Nuh so far. Combing exercises have been conducted in villages like Mewli, Shikarpur, Jalalpur and Singar. A special team of cyber experts had taken footage of all CCTV cameras installed across the Yatra route to create a sequence of events.

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Bharatpur district collector Lok Bondhu along with the superintendent of police (SP) on Friday visited the areas where Section 144 was imposed following the communal violence in neighbouring Haryanas Nuh. The development comes a day after the internet was restored in four tehsils of Bharatpur. (AFP picture)

The development comes a day after the internet was restored in four tehsils of Bharatpur.

Section 144 will be continued for a few more days till the further order. We met the locals as well as the Panchayat Pradhans today to inquire about the current situation in their areas. We have also asked them to maintain peace and follow the law and orders, SP Mridul Kachhwa said.

Considering the location near the Haryana border, Section 144 was imposed on Bharatpurs two tehsils Kaman and Pahari on Wednesday while the internet was also suspended in Nagar and Sikri along with these two from Tuesday.

Also Read:Days after Nuh clash, police superintendent Varun Singla transferred

However, the district administration on Thursday lifted the suspension of internet services in the four tehsils.

It also ordered the police department to keep monitoring the social media to prevent any inciteful activities or messages, said the police.

Alwar district administration also declared the imposition of Section 144 until August 10 in the ten adjoining areas of Haryana in AlwarAlwar, Nijara, Ramgarh, Govindgarh, Katumar, Laxmandgarh, Tapukada, Malakheda, Kishangarhwas, and Kotkaseem.

Bhiwadi SP Vikas Sharma said, Observing the present situation of the area, the enforcement of Section 144 was eased. We are only barring any massive unauthorised gathering. However, we have also intensified the police patrolling and fixed pickets in some sensitive areas.

Bhiwadi police added that they have held around ten meetings since Wednesday with representatives from both communities.

We have also conducted flag marches in the villages at the Haryana border areas. We have asked people to immediately get in touch with the police if they sense anything inciteful that can disturb the peace in their areas, said Sharma.

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NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday set aside the Calcutta high courts order allowing registration of a criminal case against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Suvendu Adhikari over an alleged hate speech and asked the high coutts chief justice to hear the matter afresh without being influenced by past orders granting a blanket stay on registration of FIRs against Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal assembly. The Supreme Court (HT File Photo/Sanjeev Verma )

The bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud set aside the July 20 order passed by the high courts two-judge bench without giving Adhikari time to file his response.

It was appropriate for the high court to grant the petitioner opportunity to file counter affidavit before issuing interim directions, the top courts bench, also comprising justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said.

The high court order came on a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by one Suman Singh who accused Adhikari of making hate speeches in the recent panchayat elections, complaining that the BJP leader was going unpunished as police was deterred from registering any FIR against the BJP leader in view of two separate orders of the high court issued on September 6, 2021 and December 8, 2022.

The July 20 order of justices IP Mukerji and Biswaroop Chowdhury directed the police to treat the PIL as a complaint and allowed the police to proceed with registration of FIR if the facts narrated in the petition make out commission of an offence of hate speech punishable under Section 153A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The court, however, barred the police from arresting Adhikari without its specific approval. Arrest of the respondent no. 3 (Adhikari) or any other coercive action against him can only be made in terms of the report only if leave is granted by this court. The police was directed to submit a report of its investigation by August 7.

In its order on Friday, the three-judge bench saidL We request the chief justice of the high court to hear the petition afresh and to facilitate this, the order of July 20 shall stand set aside. Allowing the chief justice to decide on the merits and maintainability of the PIL listed on Monday, the top court said: The HC while hearing the petition shall not be trammeled by the order of September 6, 2021 and December 8, 2022 passed by the single judge and consider if any prayer in the PIL can be granted.

Advocate Astha Sharma appearing for the West Bengal police informed the CJI-headed bench that the FIR has been registered and in compliance of the HC order, a report will be filed in high court on Monday.

Adhikari was represented by senior advocate PS Patwalia who pointed out that the matter was to originally come up before the chief justice bench but since he was not available that day, the matter went to another bench.

Without expressing any opinion on the manner in which the HC passed the order under challenge, the top court said, It is suffice to note that the interim order of July 20 has been passed without the petitioner, who is impleaded in the PIL as respondent, being furnished an opportunity to file reply.

Patwalia said that the two orders staying registration of FIRs against him came to be passed as frivolous cases were getting filed against him by the state acting out of political vendetta. These petitions such as the present PIL petitioner have been propped up by the state. This is state speaking through these individuals, Adhikaris lawyer said.

The PIL petitioner in the high court was represented by senior advocate Jaideep Gupta before the top court. Gupta pointed out that on December 15 last year, this Supreme Court considered an appeal challenging the blanket stay order of December 8 in favour of Adhikari and refused to interfere while directing that the matter in which the order was passed by decided at the earliest. He told the court that eight months have since elapsed and the matter has not been decided.

Gupta said, He (Adhikari) is the only man in this country who is beyond the pale of criminal law and continues to roam free going on making hate speeches. Even the top court observed, We will ask the CJ to hear this matter again and decide if earlier two orders should continue. Eight months have gone by since our order of December 15 and things are merrily going on over there.

In his petition before the top court, Adhikari said, The state has already lodged 26 FIRs against me since I became a member of legislative assembly (MLA) from BJP in 2021.... The order (of July 20) can have serious ramifications at this stage, potentially leading to registration of additional FIRs against the petitioner. The police machinery in West Bengal is in collusion with the current ruling party, constantly attempting to foist cases against the petitioner.
The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has sought assistance from the Varanasi district administration to resume its survey in the barricaded area of Gyanvapi, excluding its sealed section, on Friday. The move comes as the Allahabad high court on Thursday gave the go-ahead for the exercise. The survey is expected to begin in the morning. (FILE PHOTO)

Also Read| Gyanvapi panel moves apex court against survey by ASI

The survey will begin between 7 and 8am on Friday, said Subhash Nandan Chaturvedi, a counsel for four Hindu women plaintiffs in the Shringar Gauri-Gyanvapi case.

The district administration got a letter from ASI additional director general Alok Tripathi on Thursday, seeking cooperation and assistance for the survey, said a senior official.

District magistrate S Rajalingam said,  Order of the high court will be complied with. The ASI has sought our (administrations) cooperation to start the survey from tomorrow (Friday). The administration will provide whatever cooperation and help they (ASI team members) need (for the survey).

Also Read| Krishna Janmabhoomi petitioners welcome Gyanvapi survey order

On July 21, the court of the Varanasi district judge had ordered an extensive survey of the mosque by the ASI to ascertain whether it was built over a pre-existing temple, while holding that a scientific probe is necessary for truth to come out.

The judge, however, excluded a section  where the Hindu side claims a Shivling was found and the Muslims say the structure is part of a fountain  that has remained sealed since a Supreme Court order in May 2022.

The court of the Varanasi district judge was hearing a petition by four women Rekha Pathak, Manju Vyas, Sita Sahu and Lakshmi Devi. They were among the five Hindu women (Rakhi Singh being the other) who had filed the Shringar Gauri-Gyanvapi case in August 2021 seeking permission for unhindered worship at Maa Shringar Gauri sthal.

Thereafter, a 40-member team of ASI reached Varanasi on July 24 and conducted survey in the Gyanvapi complex for over four- and-a-half hours.

Later the same day (July 24), the Supreme Court halted till 5 pm on July 26 the detailed scientific survey. The apex court said some breathing time needed to be granted to appeal the order of the court of the Varanasi district judge who had allowed the exercise.

Following the Supreme Court order, the ASI halted the survey on a plea by the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee of the Gyanvapi mosque.

Having regard to the fact that the order of the district court was pronounced at 4.30pm on 21 July 2023 and the survey is in the process of being carried out today, we are of the view that some breathing time must be granted to the petitioners to move the High Court for pursuing their remedies. We direct that the impugned order of the District Court shall not be enforced until 5 pm on 26 July 2023. This shall not be construed as the expression of opinion on the merits, the bench comprising Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud, Justice J B Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra had ordered.

The top court had said the mosque committee was at liberty to move the high court against the order of the district judge, Varanasi. The Allahabad high court on July 27 had extended ongoing stay on the survey of Gyanvapi Masjid till the verdict was pronounced on August 3. The high court had said that the July 24 Supreme Court order temporarily suspending the survey of the mosque will operate till August 3. Allahabad high court chief justice Pritinker Diwaker gave the order while hearing plea filed by the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee which challenged the order of the court of the Varanasi district judge for the survey. On Thursday, the high court vacated the stay and restored the Varanasi court order.
The Bareilly district administration has denied permission for a Kanwar Yatra in Jogi Nawada locality on August 6 in the wake of the clash between Kanwariyas and the Muslim community in Bareilly on July 30 and amidst brewing communal tension for over 15 days, senior police and administrative officials said. For representation only (HT File Photo)

Bareilly additional city magistrate (ACM), N Ram, told the media that permission to take out Kanwar Yatra from Jogi Nawada to Vankhandi temple by Mahant Rakesh Kashyap and Aarendra Maurya at around 1 pm on Sunday (August 6) had been denied. A local intelligence unit report, apprehending trouble along the route traditionally used by the Kanwariyas, was taken into account, he said.

The police have intensified vigil and security measures have been upped in the region apprehending fresh trouble in the city. Police and administrative officials are holding meetings with senior people from both communities to maintain peace and law and order amidst rumours that some people are preparing to take out a Kanwar Yatra despite permission being refused for it.

Senior police officials said that Bareilly has always been a sensitive area during the Hindu holy month of Sawan that often coincides with the Islamic month of Muharram.

Bareilly superintendent of police (SP), Rahul Bhati, said the police and administration are on high alert and nobody will be allowed to disturb law and order. He said the Rapid Action Force and Provincial Armed Constabulary personnel are camping in the troubled locality and barriers have been put up to check crowd movement. He said the police are keeping an eye on every movement.

On July 30, a group Kanwariyas clashed with the Muslim community while passing through a narrow stretch of Jogi Nawada. The police had resorted to cane-charge the people involved in the clash after which the Kanwar Yatra was disrupted and cancelled.

Bareilly senior superintendent of police (SSP) Prabhakar Chowdhary was shunted from his post hours after he ordered a cane charge on Kanwariyas and other people causing trouble while some other lower rung cops were placed under suspension. Chowdhary was shifted as Commandant of 32nd battalion of PAC in Lucknow and Ghule Sushil Chandrabhan replaced him as SSP Bareilly.

Earlier, Kanwariya groups were pelted with stones near a mosque in the Jogi Nawada locality on July 23. Some people received minor injuries, but a major clash was averted.

According to reports, the kanwariyas were on their way to Badaun to get water from the Ganga when they were pelted with stones near the Shahnoori mosque around 3 pm. Kanwariyas groups were to perform Jalabhishek at the Vankandinath temple located barely 400 meters away from the spot.

Meanwhile, a local cop suggested that the July 23 incident was the fallout of the July 19 night incident in which a teenage boy belonging to a minority community was caught and thrashed for throwing stones at kanwariyas in the Shergarh area of Bareilly.
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday instructed trainee IAS officers to work with a positive attitude and gain the trust of the people. Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath with young IAS officers in Lucknow on Friday. (HT Photo)

He also gave them the mantra of communication, coordination, and positivity in order to have a fruitful career.

Becoming an essential part of the administration of a large state like Uttar Pradesh is filled with significant challenges, and these challenges will shape your personality, he said while interacting with 16 trainee officers of the UP cadre of the IAS 2021 batch.

As an IAS officer, you will have the responsibility of working from joint magistrates to the highest positions in government and formulating policies. On such occasions, you should have a sense of public welfare in your mind, he said.

The chief minister emphasised that the initial fivesix years of their work will pave the way for their career for the next 30-35 years.

During your transfers, if people are saddened by your departure, understand that you are moving in the right direction, he said.

Currently, there are thousands of pending revenue cases, and people are awaiting swift justice, and you can fulfill their expectations, he added.

Emphasising the importance of communication in matters of law and order, he mentioned that no matter how large the crowd or how intense the anger is, if there is proper communication, then every problem can be solved.

Officers who had been deployed in positions such as BDO, sub collector, and CDPO in districts such as Ayodhya, Kanpur, Hardoi, Rae Bareli, Moradabad, Agra, Saharanpur, Azamgarh, Jhansi, Mathura, Gorakhpur and Varanasi also shared their experiences during the dialogue.

These young officers, who are now prepared for the second phase of their training, not only discussed the challenges of their respective districts, but also acquainted him with the innovations they had introduced.
A massive fire broke out at the loco workshop at Charbagh station, Lucknow, on Friday. The fire was caused by an alleged short circuit, fire officials said. Fire fighters controlling the fire at loco workshop at Charbagh station in Lucknow on Friday morning (HT Photo)

As soon as the information was received at around 10 am, units of fire tenders were sent from Alambagh and Hazratganj fire stations, said Dharampal Singh, fire station officer, Alambagh.

There was a fire in the wheel shop of Charbagh loco workshop wheel section rolling site. Trains of several stations were also present at the spot. The fire started due to a short circuit in the crane used for transferring heavy objects, he added.

The FSO further said that there were workers present at the time of the fire, but they had come out on their own. But many items were burnt to ashes. The fire was massive but was brought under control and was completely extinguished by the fire-fighting units in no time and there was no loss of life, he added.

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KANPUR The Bundelkhand Industrial Development Authority (BIDA) to be set up by the state government would expedite industrialisation of the Bundelkhand region, considered as the most backward in the country. Funds of 5,000 crore had been earmarked for purchase of land in this region, said officials. There is a proposal for an airport in Bundelkhand, which would be close to Madhya Pradesh border. (Pic for representation)

The government plans to make BIDA an industrial, commercial and residential township on the lines of Noida-Greater Noida, and this would encourage industrial units from other areas in Bundelkhand to come here.

Industrial, residential, commercial townships and clusters would be developed on 14,258 hectares of land, which would be purchased in 36 villages of Sadar tehsil in Jhansi that would be the centre of this authority, said officials.

The purchase of land would begin after the UP State Industrial Development Authority (Upsida) issues guidelines. There is a proposal for an airport in Bundelkhand, which would be close to Madhya Pradesh border. Initially, the airport would accommodate domestic airlines but later it could be elevated depending on the need.

Upsida officials said the Madhya Pradesh side of Bundelkhand had seen better development as compared to UP. There were many industrial areas on the Gwalior stretch, and an airport close to the MP side would only help UPs cause of boosting industrialization in Bundelkhand, they added.

Three data centre parks would also be established in the region. These would contribute to the growth of digital economy and provide infrastructure for technology-based industries.

There are various reasons for Bundelkhand being an abode to long-term projects. First, the population density is low and land is available in abundance. Industries that could be set up in the National Capital Region or Kanpur can be moved to Bundelkhand. Besides, environmental clearances would not be that much of an issue in this region, said officials.

From BIDAs perspective, Jhansi was considered the most suitable as compared to the other six districts of Bundelkhand, including Chitrakoot, Banda and Mahoba, because of its location and infrastructure. Jhansi, an important junction in Central India, had excellent surface connectivity. Travel to southern and western India was easier from Jhansi, which is a gateway to Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, said officials.

Manish Chowdhary, deputy commissioner (industries) in Jhansi, said formation of BIDA was a priority of the government and work in this direction was underway on a war-footing. Recruitment of employees and postings of officials from Upsida will begin shortly, he added.

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PRAYAGRAJ: Police teams have received vital clues about the whereabouts of slain Mafioso-turned-politician Atiq Ahmads younger brother Khalid Azeem aka Ashrafs wife Zainab. Police have come to know that she was in Meerut, Azamgarh and even Lucknow for brief periods since absconding from Prayagraj following the February 24 triple murders. Zainab (Sourced)

They claim that Zainab, who is an accused in the murders of lawyer Umesh Pal and his two police guards, is very much active and even trying to sell benami properties of Atiq and Ashraf.

Atiq Ahmads lawyer Vijay Mishra was arrested from Lucknow a week back. Police teams received clues that a woman from Atiqs family was at the hotel from where Vijay Mishra was arrested. Although police officials did not confirm the identity of the woman, they said that she was related to Umesh Pals murder case.

It is believed that the woman was Ashrafs wife Zainab and her brother Saddam was also present in the hotel but they both escaped..

Investigations have revealed that Vijay Mishra had gone to Lucknow to fix the deal of one of Atiqs benami properties.

During questioning, Atiqs lawyer Vijay Mishra gave vital information to police about Zainab and people who were helping her to get safe shelter at different places, including in Lucknow.

A police official said that Zainab had escaped to Azamgarh and Meerut after her name surfaced in Umesh Pals murder case. If she failed to surrender, a cash reward on her could also be announced, he added.

To note, Atiqs sister Ayesha Noori and her husband Dr Ekhlaq lived in Meerut and have influence and properties. Dr Ekhlaq is in jail while Ayesha Noori is on the run. However, police suspects that people close to them provided shelter to Zainab. She escaped to Azamgarh after some time when police teams started mounting pressure for her. Zainab was helped in Azamgarh by some people who were close to Atiq and Ashraf.

Officials said that Prayagraj police were in contact with cops of other districts to get clues about Zainab, Shaista and Ayesha Noori.
MUMBAI: A special court designated under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) sentenced a 73-year-old man to three years imprisonment for molesting minor girls in April 2016. The accused, identified as Shashi Bajaj, who once worked as an actor, was arrested after the girls followed him to his house and called the police. HT Image

According to the prosecution case, on April 5, 2016, at about 11.20am, some girls were waiting outside their school in the Four Bungalows area of Andheri after their examination got over for their autorickshaw and vans to pick them up.

At that time, Bajaj who was passing by the neighbourhood, touched a girl  the complainant in the case, who was studying in Class IX. Angered over his inappropriate gesture, she expressed her dismay. Bajaj, who was 66 years old then, said sorry and walked away. A friend of the girl, who was studying in Class VII, then told her that the uncle had done the same act with her earlier. He had touched her inappropriately and then said sorry and walked away.

Bajaj then returned again and touched the complainant inappropriately, said sorry and left. This time, an alert girl clicked his photo, and the girls decided to follow him to his house in SVP Nagar, which is in the Four Bungalows area, where one of the girls called 103, which is the children and women safety helpline.

A lady constable reached the spot within minutes and the parents and relatives of the girls arrived there. The girls narrated the incident to them and identified the accused, who was promptly arrested by the police. Bajaj was eventually released on bail on August 10, 2016.

In his defence, Bajaj claimed that he was falsely implicated in the case, as the victims father had a dispute with his son. However, the complainant, who testified before the court, denied the claim. Besides the denial, the court also took into consideration that the defence (Bajaj) could not bring any evidence nor did it examine his son to prove the dispute between the victims father and Bajajs son.

The court also said that the accused was arrested, and the case was registered against him in a very short span of time after the incident, which would eliminate the possibility of false implication. The court said the incident took place around 11:25 am, after which the girls followed him, which took around 15 to 20 minutes. Meanwhile, they called the police, which reached the spot at around 12.30pm, apprehended him and the case was registered at 1.30pm.

This promptness in reporting the offence and setting the law in motion, to my mind, clearly points towards the correctness of the allegations made in the FIR, as the creation of a false story involving not only the victim but also three of her friends, would have required much more time and manipulation, said special judge SJ Ansari, while holding Bajaj guilty. The court accepted the prosecution case presented by public prosecutor SS Mahatekar and said that the accused touched the girls with sexual overtures.

The court further said that the girls were very scared when a stranger who was so senior touched them inappropriately. The special POCSO judge, however, showed some leniency to the senior man primarily in view of his old age and that he was suffering from diabetes. The accused was 66 years old at the time at which he committed the offences and is now 73 years of age. Therefore, he was a senior citizen at the time of the incident. Undoubtedly, such a man should not have sexually harassed and assaulted the minor schoolgirls in question who were of the age of his grandchildren.
Mumbai: On Friday morning, the state Common Entrance Test (CET) cell released its round one selection list for the undergraduate (UG) medical course. However, it was discovered that almost 1,000 medical seats were missing, causing confusion and chaos among aspiring students. HT Image

These seats were added to the seat matrix released by the states CET cell last week, and therefore, students opted for them while filling out their choices. The seat matrix provides information about vacant seats in respective colleges.

Students have now asked the CET cell to scrap the allotment list and declare the round invalid.

The cell clarified that these seats, which belong to six private and one government medical college and one private dental college, were excluded from the allotment due to a lack of approval from the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS).

Brijesh Sutaria, a parent of a student, said, The same thing happened last year too. Candidates are questioning why these seats were initially included in the seat matrix, leading them to choose these options in their preference forms. As a consequence, cut-offs in other colleges increased, affecting students chances of admission.

While saying this, Sutaria also added that the CET cells latest circular does not say whether these seats will be included in round 2 or not.

Disgruntled students and parents are now expressing their frustration, noting that this has been a recurring issue for the past three years.

This year, 10,145 government and private seats were available for admission in the state for MBBS and 3,444 seats were available for Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS).

Parent representative Sudha Shenoy said students fill out their choices based on the seat matrix. If these seats were not approved, why were they included in the seat matrix? It will not be fair for students who are eligible for these seats. I wrote to chief minister Eknath Shinde, deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, and the medical education minister Hasan Mushrif and asked them to make MUHS answerable for this.

A student said some of these seats are in top colleges. This is very unfair; the government should redo this round and deliver justice to us. Some of the colleges give admission to the students in the all-India quota, but they are not allowed to give admission in the state quota.

On Friday evening, the CET cell published a notification stating, There are few colleges for which some of the necessary permissions are awaited, and hence they are not included in the first round of allotment (MBBS/BDS) course. These seats will be considered during the subsequent round of allotment once all the necessary permissions are received.

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MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) carried out searches at several Mumbai and Kerala premises linked to a firm and its proprietor as part of its money-laundering investigation into a case related to the fraudulent collection of crores of rupees from emigrants. HT Image

The accused were involved in the alleged recruitment of nurses for the Ministry of Health, Kuwait, by using a license fraudulently obtained from the Government of India. The searches were carried out by multiple teams of the agency on Thursday and Friday, agency sources said.

The searches were conducted at the residential premises of Puthenveettil Joseph Mathew alias P J Mathew, proprietor of a Mumbai-based firm, Mathew International, and multiple other business and residential premises located in Mumbai and Kerala.

The accused had allegedly recruited nurses in Cochin by collecting exorbitant service charges of around 20 lakh from each of the candidates as against the maximum prescribed limit of 20,000, an ED source said. P J Mathew and his associates thereby allegedly made 205.71 crore.

The ED s investigation revealed that in 2015, Mathew, along with his son Thomas Mathew alias Tom Mathew, allegedly hatched a criminal conspiracy with Mahmood Naina Prabhu, the proprietor of another Mumbai-based firm, Munavarra Associates, to recruit nurses for the Ministry of Health, Kuwait, by using a license fraudulently obtained by Munavarra Associates from the Indian government.

Subsequently, P J Mathew obtained the demand letters and authorisation letters from two Kuwait-based firms, Jezan International and Al-Amar Company, in the name of Munavvara Associates, Mumbai, for recruitment of nurses for the Ministry of Health, Kuwait, said an ED source. L Adolphus, the then Protector of Emigrants, Cochin, had also joined the conspiracy.

During the searches, the ED found several bank accounts with a cumulative balance of 76 lakh, which were immediately frozen. Documents of immovable properties, with an estimated total market value of 12 crore, were seized as well. The ED had initiated its money-laundering investigation on the basis of a case registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation, Cochin against P J Mathew and others.
NAGPUR: Justice Rohit B Deo of the Nagpur bench of the Bombay high court on Friday said he has resigned from office citing personal reasons. Justice Rohit Deo was appointed as an additional judge in June 2017 when he was Maharashtras advocate general

Justice Deo announced his resignation in the courtroom on Friday. I apologise to each one of you who are present in the court. I scolded you because I want you to improve. I dont want to hurt any of you because you all are like a family to me and I am sorry to tell you that I have submitted my resignation. I cant work against my self-respect, he said.

My letter of resignation was sent to the President of the country. I resigned from the service following personal reasons, Justice Deo said.

Justice Deo was appointed as an additional judge in June 2017 when he was Maharashtras advocate general. In April 2019, he was elevated as a permanent judge. He was due to retire on December 4, 2025.

Justice Deo led the high courts two-judge bench that last year struck down the conviction and life term handed down to former Delhi University professor Gokalkonda Naga Saibaba, for shoddy paperwork and faulty procedure adopted by the trial court. In its verdict delivered in October 2022, the bench acquitted Saibaba and five others charged with links to Maoists in the absence of a valid sanction under section 45(1) of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.

In April this year, the Supreme Court set aside Saibabas acquittal and sent the matter to the Nagpur bench to be decided afresh by a different bench. The top court had also asked the high court to decide the case within four months.

On July 26, justice Deo also stayed the operation of a government resolution that empowered the state government to cancel punitive proceedings initiated against contractors working on the Samruddhi Mahamarg over alleged illegal excavation of minor minerals.

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Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar will meet the leaders of the Grand Alliance (GA) on Saturday to discuss the issues of protesting teachers who have been demanding government employee status for contractual teachers without any exam rider and requisite changes in the Bihar State School Teachers (appointment, transfer, disciplinary action and service condition) Rules, 2023, under which the government plans to carry out future appointments under a new cadre. Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar (File Photo)

The meeting is significant as it will take place in keeping with the promise made by parliamentary affairs minister Vijay Kunar Choudhary. The minister had last month promised the chief minister will meet the agitating teachers, discuss and fulfil the justified demands of contractual teachers.

The meeting will take place on August 5. I have delivered on my promise. I will listen to the viewpoints of all GA leaders. Deputy chief minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, education minister Chandrashekhar, and the leaders of the Congress and left parties, besides officials from the education department, will be present. The discussion will try to resolve the matters, as these are our teachers, said Nitish Kumar.

The teachers protest is against the new recruitment rules under which all future appointments of school teachers will be carried out by the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) through an examination.

The new recruitment rules have already witnessed several changes, including the removal of the domicile policy, which was later described as legally untenable.

Under the new rules, the BPSC has already moved ahead with its exercise for conducting examinations scheduled from August 24-27 to recruit 1.70 -lakh teachers.

The government wants to complete the exercise by the end of the year, as secondary schools have been working without adequate strength despite their upgradation to higher secondary level for nearly a decade.

However, the number of applicants for higher secondary schools received by the BPSC is still lower than the number of seats available and the last date for submission has ended. The working teachers mostly stayed away from applying under the new rules.

Bihar secondary teachers association president Shatrughan Prasad Singh said the chief minister talking to GA leaders on teachers genuine issues was a positive indication.

We hope the meeting will set the tone for agreement with teachers bodies to break the impasse. The demands of the teachers have got the backing of GA constituents also, he added.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Arun Kumar Arun Kumar is Senior Assistant Editor with Hindustan Times. He has spent two-and-half decades covering Bihar, including politics, educational and social issues. ...view detail
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar will meet the leaders of the states ruling alliance Mahagathbandhan constituents on Saturday to discuss the issues of school teachers, who have been demanding government employee status without any exam rider and requisite changes in the Bihar state school teachers (appointment, transfer, disciplinary action, and service condition) rules, 2023, under which the government plans to carry out future appointments under a new cadre. Bihar ministers Vijay Choudhary and Vijendra Prasad Yadav and others released a book, Sansad Mein Nitish Kumar in Patna on Friday. (Santosh Kumar/HT)

States parliamentary affairs minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary, during the monsoon session of the state legislature last month, had promised in the House that the CM would review the new rules and talk to leaders of alliance parties.

Angry over some provisions in the new rules, government school teachers have been staging protests. Last months, their protest in Patna had even turned violent.

The meeting will happen on August 5. I have delivered on my promise. The CM will listen to the views of all alliance leaders. Deputy CM Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, education minister Chandrashekhar, who has now started attending his office, and the leaders of the Congress and Left parties, besides officials of the education department, will be present. We will try to resolve the matters, as these are our teachers, Choudhary said.

The meeting assumes importance, as the government would not like to upset a strong force of around four lakh teachers ahead of parliamentary elections next year, especially when the BJP is throwing its weight behind them and had also taken out march to the state assembly to champion their cause.

The new recruitment rules have already witnessed several changes, including the removal of domicile requirement to be a teacher. It also led to agitations and chief secretary Amir Subhani had to come forward to clarify that there was no domicile requirement even during the previous recruitment of teachers carried out by the BIhar Public Service Commission (BPSC) in 1994, 1999 and 2000.

Under the new rules, the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) has already moved ahead with its exercise for conducting examinations, scheduled on August 24-27, to recruit 1.70 -lakh teachers.

The government wants to complete the exercise by the end of the year, as secondary schools have been working without adequate strength despite their upgradation to higher secondary level nearly a decade.

However, the number of applicants for higher secondary schools received by the BPSC is still lower than the number of seats available and the last date for submission has ended. The working teachers mostly stayed away from applying under the new rules.

Bihar Secondary Teachers Association president Shatrughan Prasad Singh said the chief minister talking to ruling alliance leaders on teachers genuine issues was a positive indication. We hope the meeting will set the tone for agreement with teachers bodies to break the impasse. The demands of the teachers has got the backing of the ruling constituents also, he added.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Arun Kumar Arun Kumar is Senior Assistant Editor with Hindustan Times. He has spent two-and-half decades covering Bihar, including politics, educational and social issues. ...view detail
An IndiGo flight from Patna to Delhi carrying 181 passengers and eight crew members was forced to make an emergency landing just minutes after take-off around 8:45am from Jaya Prakash Narayan International airport following a snag in one of its two engines, airport officials said on Friday. All passengers are safe. For representational purposes only. (Reuters File Photo)

Three minutes after departure, the IndiGo flight from Patna to Delhi reported that one engine was not working. The aircraft landed back safely at 9:11am, Patna airport director Anchal Prakash said.

According to information received from IndiGo, the airline accommodated all passengers on a separate flight. All operations are normal at the airport, Prakash said.

Soon after take-off, the flight captain informed the Patna air traffic control (ATC) about an engine failure. The ATC sounded an alert for emergency landing on high priority.

Two crash fire tenders had lined up along the side of the runway, and an ambulance was also kept on standby during the emergency landing, another airport official said.

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The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has filed a charge sheet against four cadres of Popular Front of India (PFI) in its probe into conspiracy by the banned outfit to carry out terror activities in Bihar. At least 15 accused have been arrested in the case so far for promoting the unlawful activities of the PFI. (Representative file image)

The charge sheet was filed before the NIA special court, Patna, against Mohammad Tanweer, Mohammad Aabid, Mohammad Belal and Irshad Alam, all residents of East Champaran district of Bihar, the agency said on Friday.

Also Read: NIA court issues non-bailable warrant against active terrorist

The accused were operating, along with other accused in planning of violent criminal acts by arranging arms and ammunition and in propagating the PFIs ideology and agenda of violent extremism, NIA said.

At least 15 accused have been arrested in the case so far for promoting the unlawful activities of the PFI and channelising illegal funds from abroad to PFI members/accused in this case.

The probe revealed that Alam is a member of the criminal syndicate, which was involved, along with other PFI cadres, in a criminal conspiracy related to attack and kill a youth belonging to a particular community, with the intention to spread terror and communal hatred.

Tanweer and Abid already had the terror hardware for carrying out the hate crime and handed over the same to one of the arrested accused, Yaqub Khan, who is a PFI master trainer of weapons and tactics and had conducted multiple arms training sessions for furthering the banned outfits violent and unlawful activities, the NIA statement said.

The case was initially registered on July 12 last year at Phulwarisharif police station in Patna against 26 people and was taken over and re-registered by the NIA ten days later.
Police arrested a passenger from Darbhanga airport on Thursday during the scanning process after he was found carrying two live catridges in his luggage. Representational image.

The arrested person, identified as Vishnu Thakur, is a native of Saharsa district, and claims to be a teacher by profession.

Pawan Kumar Singh, SHO of Sadar police station, confirmed the arrest and said the passanger had booked a ticket for Delhi.

When contacted, Darbhanga airport director Satyendra Jha said three individuals had booked the flight ticket on the same PNR number. Following the arrest of one passenger, the other two, his wife and a relative, also postponed their flight journey, he added.

In a similar incident last year, a passenger was arrested with a magazine and three live cartridges at Darbhanga airport on December 24. Mohd Kalamuddin, a resident of Motihari district, had come to Darbhanga to catch a Mumbai-bound flight.

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Mondelez India shortlists five startups to join accelerator program Colab Mondelez Internationals accelerator programme CoLab in collaboration with Huddle has shortlisted five start-ups from a pool of 250+ applications spanning across categories like baked snacks, chocolates, confectionary and savoury snacks, from across India (Getty Images/iStockphoto (PIC FOR REPRESENTATION))

Pune: Mondelez Internationals accelerator programme CoLab in collaboration with Huddle has shortlisted five start-ups. The final cohort comprises Flyberry, TruVitals, Evolve Snacks, Happy Jars, and Nova Nova, representing a diverse group of snacking brands with varied formats, well-being proposition, commercial excellence, and sound omnichannel plans. These startups were selected from a pool of 250+ applications spanning across categories like baked snacks, chocolates, confectionary and savoury snacks, from all over India. The 5 shortlisted startups will now go through the 12-week curriculum consisting of weekly virtual sessions and in-person interactions with mentors across Mondelez India as well as industry experts. This will be followed by a final showcase event wherein the selected five startups will get the opportunity to pitch and raise capital from Huddle and other potential investors.

SheLeadsIndia programme launched to empower product-based womenpreneurs

Pune: SMM Unleashed founder Nikita Vora has launched SheLeadsIndia initiative to empower product-based women entrepreneurs. The programme aims to equip women with essential tools and support to thrive in the dynamic world of e-commerce. The inaugural event will be hosted on September 9 at 3pm at the MCCIA auditorium on Senapati Bapat Road and the last date for participation confirmation is August 10. Vora said, Our aim is to provide womenpreneurs with the tools, training, and support necessary to thrive in the competitive digital landscape. Participants will receive personalized assistance in creating professional websites with custom domains and reliable hosting, establishing a strong online presence to attract customers and foster business growth. Comprehensive training in vital areas such as business strategy, digital marketing, and Instagram marketing will also be provided, empowering them to elevate their enterprises.

Emids launches EPulseAI platform for healthcare industry

Pune: Emids has launched its generative AI platform EPulseAI for the healthcare industry, to help enterprises design scalable new products with unprecedented efficiencies, build them with a faster speed time to market while ensuring seamless systems connectivity. The platform accelerates product engineering and enhances productivity across the entire product development lifecycle by as much as 50 per cent.

Medikabazaar partners with BLive

Pune: Multi-brand EV platform BLive has partnered with Medikabazaar to help the latter adopt EVs for its delivery operations. By opting for EV 2-wheelers, Medikabazaar aims to reduce carbon emissions and promote eco-friendly transportation alternatives. The first batch of EV two-wheelers has been delivered to their respective hubs in Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Delhi-NCR, Gurgaon, and Ahmedabad.

Ajeenkya DY Patil University hosts youth festival

Pune: Ajeenkya DY Patil University in association with Youth20 (an official engagement of G20) hosted its youth festival based on the theme of Future of Work: Industry 4.0, Innovation and 21st Century Skills in Pune recently. The three-day event included deliberations on important topics including Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Nurturing Start-up and Scale Up, Transformational Role of Universities in shaping the future of work, Women in Entrepreneurship, among others.

AIC Pinnacle launches incubation programme Evolve

Pune: Atal Incubation Centre (AIC) - Pinnacle Entrepreneurship Forum announced the launch of its incubation program Evolve aimed at nurturing innovative ideas and fostering profitable ventures for startups. Applications for the Evolve Incubation Program are now open and will be accepted until August 10, 2023. The cohort is set to commence on September 2, 2023.
At the Regional Mental Hospital (RMH), Yerawada, it is common for the family members of patients to disavow them. This frequently raises concerns regarding the patients sustenance post-recovery, particularly in orphans. As per officials, Rustam is an orphan and was admitted to the hospital in 2012 for mental health issues and epilepsy. (REPRESENTATIVE PHOTO)

Fortunately, 23-year-old Rustam (named changed) had a different fate and last week was reintegrated into society after a decade. He is now working in a hotel, performing his daily tasks and duty independently.

As per officials, Rustam is an orphan and was admitted to the hospital in 2012 for mental health issues and epilepsy.

He was referred from a government childrens home in Aurangabad. Rustam at the age of 12 years was brought to the childrens home in Aurangabad as a wandering case by the police.

A senior doctor on anonymity, said, this is the second case of a recovered patient being brought into the mainstream.

The first case was in February 2019 and it took three years for us to find an appropriate recovered patient who can be brought back into the mainstream.

Rustam has grown fond of the hospital, where he has worked in the outpatient department. We have a tea vending machine at the hospital which he regularly handled. He is also capable of maintaining accounts and counting money. He actively participated in the occupational therapies at the hospital, said the official.

Dr HS Gosavi, psychiatrist at Regional Mental Hospital, informed that this is reintegration of the patient and not rehabilitation. Reintegration cannot happen in all patients for which there are two reasons; medical and legal reasons.

In cases of medical reasons, chronic patients with suicidal tendencies, aggressive or violent cannot be considered for reintegration. For legal reasons, we need consent from the family. Rustam is an orphan and was 12-13 years kid when he came to the hospital. So, the hospital decided as his guardian, she said.

Dr Gosavi, said, following the treatment and therapies he slowly started to improve. After five years there was a remarkable recovery in him.

We have a close-knit team of psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, social workers and nursing staff who all helped him to live a normal life post-recovery. He is a quick learner and follows what is told to him. He does all his daily work on his own without any support or guidance. At the hotel, Rustam has a separate room to live in and a job, both provided by the employer. With the help of a private organisation, we were able to offer Rustom what he deserved, she said.
Pune: In a country with a vibrant entrepreneurial spirit, it is the grassroots enterprises that often bear the weight of economic inequality. Struggling to access a broader customer base and lacking the technological prowess to compete in the digital age, these small-scale businesses find themselves caught in the urban-rural divide. BharatGo, a tech-enabled social innovation startup dedicated to empowering artisans, women self-help groups, and small businesses in tier 2/3 cities in India, is determined to rewrite this narrative. The vision of husband-wife co-founders of BharatGo is to promote local entrepreneurship, reduce economic disparities, and create a more equitable society. (Getty Images/iStockphoto (PIC FOR REPRESENTATION))

Founded by Pravin Adik and Jayashri Patil in 2022, BharatGo is a SaaS DIY (Software-as-a-Service do it yourself) no-code platform, offering a lifeline to these local entrepreneurs with its user-friendly online store creation platform. Rooted in a vision of promoting local entrepreneurship, reducing economic disparities, and creating a more equitable society, the startup is breathing new life into the age-old traditions and crafts that make India truly unique. Breaking barriers and overcoming geographical limitations, the platform is extending the reach of these local businesses far beyond their physical borders, connecting them to customers from every corner of the country.

In the beginning

Pravin Adik, who hails from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, is a BE computer science engineering graduate with MBA in marketing and operations. An experienced management professional, Pravin comes with 18 years of experience in retail industry. Before starting BharatGo, Pravin was heading Tescos online operations for food and non-food for the UK, CE (Central Europe), and Asia. Pravins wife Jayashri Patil did her BE in electronics and communication, has experience in retail product mapping and connects well with artisans and women entrepreneurs.

Pravin Adik, co-founder, BharatGo (HT)

Pravin said, After my graduation, I decided to relocate to Pune for job. I always wanted to become an entrepreneur, but did not have the risk appetite to start any venture immediately. During my school and college days I did odd jobs. While pursuing MBA too, I was doing a field sales job. After the MBA, incidentally I got placed in a company at Aurangabad and during my second job I got to know about the retail sector. I learnt about market and industry research. Thereafter, I relocated to Hyderabad with a company where we created consumer databases and did research, including historical data and forecast, on more than 50 countries. My third job in Bengaluru, where I was heading the online vertical for food and non-food segment for the UK, Central Europe, and Asia region for seven years, helped me gain hold on the retail sector. I had covered almost all aspects of retail, including business research, market and industry research, consulting, creating forecasts, business models, backend operations, etc.

Learning from failures

Pravin said, I returned to Pune city in 2018 and decided to start my own business. The city had changed a lot in two decades and hence I decided to experience it before starting any project. In 2019, I quit my job and incorporated a company Snackro in February 2020. The idea was to provide a launchpad platform for local food stalls, carts, eateries which are famous, but cannot scale up or market themselves pan-India. It was for selective street vendors, but before the operations could begin, Covid-19 pandemic struck and we had to halt. During the initial three-month lockdown period, food sectors was the worst affected and it was difficult for new players like us to survive.

During lockdown, another business opportunity clicked. Schools were conducted online, but parents were required to collect the books from the vendor stall from school premises. Since parents feared going out, I offered home delivery of school books to them. We created a webpage on Snackro itself for parents to place their orders. We got five schools and parents using that page and completed 450 orders in a few days. However, we knew that this not a sustainable business. Interestingly, some of the parents started enquiring about similar services for the stores they were operating but for long-distance delivery. I realised this was an unsolved problem where people need specific things from specific locations or stores and they are ready to pay an extra amount for it, he said.

Kwyk

We decided to do away with the Snackro legacy and launched another brand Kwyk for which we did collaborations with iconic restaurants for delivering their products across Pune region, unlike other platforms which serviced restricted regions. We created a minimum viable product (MVP) platform and added curated restaurant delivery service for only 150 restaurants. Convenience was the benefit for customers at very little extra cost. In a few months, we completed 2,700 orders with a GMV (gross merchandise value) of around 37 lakh.

Soon we realised there were problems with customer acquisition. We were coming in direct competition with big players although we had a differentiating factor like selective and long-distance deliveries. Another challenge was that customers did not order regularly over long-distance outlets. Customers demand was to include nearby outlets in their areas, but with that we would have lost our USP. While we were trying to find a way out, we came across other small businesses like kirana stores, medical shops, local flea markets, artisans, etc which were neglected by other platforms. The Indian government also has several initiatives for women empowerment and skill development, lots of non-government organisations work, but the impact and empowerment of small businesses is not much visible, said Pravin.

Megapod Techworks incorporation

Since all platforms were targeting the top of pyramid, Pravin and Jayashri focussed on its bottom part comprising small businesses, artisans, women self-help groups, etc. Pravin said, The idea of BharatGo was born from my unwavering belief in the potential of our local artisans and small businesses. I dream of empowering them to thrive in the digital era and showcase their incredible talent to the world.

Jayashri Patil, co-founder, BharatGo (HT)

Jayashri said, Our primary research showed these groups do not understand technology. They have smartphones but do not know how to use it for growing their businesses. Other online platform solutions were too expensive and complex for them. Our vision was bigger and especially with the learnings from the earlier failures, we knew what are the exact problems in the market and what kind of right and scalable solutions are required to solve them. In September 2022, we incorporated another company Megapod Techworks Private Limited.

Initially we decided to keep it simple and focus on tier 2, 3 regions across the country. Since we were helping this Bharat market to Go digital we finalised the brand name as BharatGo, Jayashri said.

BharatGo

Pravin and Jayashris entrepreneurial journey went smooth after they got the Startup India Seed Fund of 15 lakh from AIC-IIIT Kottayam.

Pravin said, Some D2C (direct-to-consumer) brands or startups are exploiting artisans instead of empowering them. They buy products at a cheap rate from the artisans and sell it expensive on their platform. We want to remove such middlepersons and provide workshops of skill development and digital capabilities for artisans and provide support system to them. For this purpose, we created the SaaS DIY no-code platform of BharatGo. We want to make it so simple that any individual with zero technological knowledge should easily create and manage their own online store. BharatGo stands out from its competitors by catering to small and medium-sized businesses with a user-friendly, no-code platform, true omni-channel capabilities, and affordable pricing. Shopify, DotPe, and Dukaan may have different strengths, but BharatGos focus on empowering smaller businesses gives it a distinct competitive edge.

By omnichannel we mean that we provide a direct-to-order website, QR code, phone call order automation, aggregator marketplace for free listing to merchants and Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) integration. We want to be early adopters of ONDC and are in process of integrating BharatGo with ONDC. This integration will give artisans access to huge customer base across India. The D2C and ONDC combinations makes us a brand which provides unified omnichannel commerce platform. We are for-profit business, but we call ourselves a tech-enabled social innovation startup, he said.

Next move

Sharing his vision and plans for BharatGo, Pravin said, Each artisan and small business owner is an inspiration, and their success fuels our passion. My vision for BharatGo extends beyond mere transactions; it is about creating meaningful connections, preserving our rich cultural heritage, and fostering sustainable growth in every nook and corner of our incredible nation. Our mission is to promote local entrepreneurship, reduce economic inequality, and create a more equitable society. By providing an easy-to-use online store creation platform, we are fostering digital inclusion and bridging the urban-rural divide in the e-commerce landscape. As a fast-growing company, we are committed to driving positive impact in the Bharat market and revolutionising the way small businesses thrive in the digital age. We are collaborating with social groups, NGOs working with women, skill development, artisan related associations, small businesses related associations, etc. We are a team of 10 members and hiring extensively. In the next three years, our goal is onboarding 10 lakh merchants and achieve an annual recurring revenue of 350 crore.

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Maharastra NEET Counselling 2023: Maharashtra State Common Entrance Test Cell is going to release the selection list of round 1 NEET UG 2023 counselling today, August 4. Candidates can check it on the CAP portal by visiting cetcell.mahacet.org. Maharashtra NEET 2023 round 1 selection list today (Representational image)(Unsplash)

The list is only for group A (MBBS, BDS) courses.

CET Cell Maharashtra published the provisional merit list on August 1 and selected candidates had to fill their preferences by August 3, 6 pm. Those who have successfully completed this step have been considered for the selection list.

After the list is released, candidates have to report at allotted institutions between August 5 and 9 (up yo 5:30 pm) to complete the next step. The CET Cell has asked candidates to bring original documents and fees with them.

Registration for round 2 of Maharashtra NEET counselling 2023 (AYUSH and Allied courses only) will start also start today, August 4.

How to check Maharashtra NEET 1st selection list 2023

Go to the official website, cetcell.mahacet.org.

Now, go to the CAP portal link.

Visit the NEET UG page.

Open the selection list link.

If required, enter your login details and submit.

Download the list and check your selection status.

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The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) on Thursday inaugurated newly constructed buildings at four regional centres  Jodhpur, Aizawl, Rajkot, and Trivandrum  through a virtual ceremony held at Shastri Bhawan. New buildings inaugurated at IGNOU's regional centres (handout)

K Sanjay Murthy, Secretary, Higher Education and Sanjay Kumar, Secretary, School Education, Government of India were present during the inauguration event, the university said in a press statement.

Murthy said facilities at these Regional Centres would enable a broader outreach of higher education to the aspiring youth of the respective states and lauded the role played by IGNOU in the three years since the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, IGNOU said.

School Education Secretary Sanjay Kumar praised IGNOU for taking quality education to the doorsteps of marginalised sections of the society, it added.

In his welcome address, Prof. Nageshwar Rao, Vice-Chancellor, IGNOU highlighted the importance of embracing educational technology in the realm of Open and Distance Learning (ODL) and Online education pedagogies, emphasizing its significance for IGNOU in reaching the unreached.

The regional centres at these four places will meet the educational aspirations of deprived sections, particularly people residing in rural areas besides SC, ST, OBC and women, he added.

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The Kerala Story actor Adah Sharma shared an update on social media after reports of her hospitalisation surfaced. Confirming them, she revealed she had hives. Her condition further deteriorated due to a reaction to her medicine. Adah said she will be promoting her upcoming series Commando for one last time before heading out for treatment. Also read: The Kerala Story's Adah Sharma hospitalised, diagnosed with diarrhoea and food allergy Adah Sharma was recently hospitalised in Mumbai.

Adah Sharma shares health update

Adah Sharma posted a bunch of photos of her allergic reaction to the medicines. She wrote in Hindi, Thank you to everyone who reached out to me and some of them I haven't met for years, also Adah Sharma fan clubs. She added a disclaimer about the photos and said, Do not swipe if you are scared of rash on skin images, they are a little scary but I thought one should not share only nice photos on Instagram.

What happened to Adah Sharma?

She revealed she had hives initially, which cause her rashes all over her body. I've been sick since few days. I had hives, which is a horrible rash. I was hiding it by wearing full sleeves, but it started showing on my face due to stress! So then I took medicine and turns out I am allergic to the medicine so it made me nauseous. So now I'm taking another medicine and injection. I will be doing promotions today but my with full sleeves.

Adah added that she will be opting for an Ayurvedic treatment for her rashes. For this, she will be away to focus on her health for some time. She added, I have promised my Amma I will take care of health. Tomorrow I am leaving for a few days. My Amma has told me to focus on health instead of radio trails, zoom interviews and promo shoot. I will be back soon. Till then I will keep updating scenes from Commando on Instagram.

Adah Sharma hospitalised

Adah was rushed to a hospital on Wednesday morning reportedly as her health deteriorated considerably. As per reports, she started to vomit in the morning and was diagnosed with severe diarrhoea and food allergy. A source close to the actor said, "She came down with a severe burst of stress hives and diarrhoea today morning. Currently, she is under observation."

In Commando, Adah will be seen reprising the role of Bhavana Reddy. The series will release on August 11.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR HT Entertainment Desk Dedicated professionals who write about cinema and television in all their vibrancy. Expect views, reviews and news. ...view detail
Ananya Panday's father, actor Chunky Panday has said realtionship rumours are a part and parcel of being an actor. In a recent interview with Bollywood Bubble, Chunky Panday shared his take on reports about Ananyas relationship status, now that she is rumoured to be dating actor Aditya Roy Kapur. Also read: Aditya Roy Kapur, Ananya Panday are lost in conversation at a restaurant in Lisbon Chunky Panday's daughter, actor Ananya Panday, is rumoured to be dating Aditya Roy Kapur.

Chunky further gave his take on which actor Ananya Panday looks the best with. He also revealed if he has ever rejected any of Ananya's boyfriends and the one condition he has for any man dating her.

Chunky reacts to Ananya Panday's dating rumours

Chunky said during a chat with Bollywood Bubble, Nahi nahi wo toh hone wala hai (no no, this is bound to happen). They say na you live by the soul, you die by the soul. We are in the glamour profession, ye sab hone wala hai (and all this is bound to happen). This is collateral damage, hone wala hai (will be there). You cant prevent it."

When asked if she looks good with Aditya Roy Kapur, Chunky answered by mentioning other actors' names and said that right from Tiger Shroff in the beginning (Student of the Year 2) to Kartik Aaryan in Pati, Patni Aur Woh, the actors paired opposite Ananya looked superb with her. He concluded by saying that she has 'always complimented her heroes' and it has been a great journey for her. He added that 'she is lucky'.

In the same interview, the actor was asked if he had ever rejected any of Ananya or his younger daughter Rysa Panday's boyfriends. He replied, "I do not need to, they only reject. Maine unko bola jo bhi hoga (I told them), he has to be better than me."

Ananya Panday and Aditya Roy Kapur's relationship

Last month, pictures and videos of Aditya Roy Kapur and rumoured girlfriend Ananya Panday from Portugal went viral. Ananya had accompanied Aditya in Lisbon, and images of them sightseeing and stepping out on a date to a restaurant were shared on paparazzi pages and fan pages.

Aditya had recently opened up about his trip in an interview with Hindustan Times. When the actor was told that he made headlines for his holiday photos with Ananya, Aditya had said, "It's a good thing I am not so much on social media but definitely, I have heard."

Ananya was last seen in Liger alongside Vijay Deverakonda. She will next be seen in the sequel of Dream Girl with Ayushmann Khurrana. She also has Vikramaditya Motwane's untitled thriller. Aditya was last seen in the Disney+ Hotstar series, The Night Manager.

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The Cinematograph Bill 2023, with its new set of rules and regulations has caught the attention of the film industry. Directors, producers, and trade experts are at the forefront, as they discuss the bills implications for content certification, censorship, and regulation. While some stakeholders laud the proposed changes for promising to streamline the certification process and empowering filmmakers with creative freedom, others caution against potential challenges that may arise in enforcing certain provisions. Industry insiders talk about the Cinematograph Bill 2023

WHAT DOES THE BILL ENTAIL?

During the ongoing monsoon session, the the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha passed the Cinematograph Amendment Bill, 2023, tabled by the Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Anurag Thakur. The bill aims to curb the issue of film piracy and increase the levels of age-based certification categories given by CBFC to improve anti-piracy provisions and attain uniformity in the categorisation. The main goal is to amend the existing Cinematograph Act of 1952. The bill will now be signed into law after the approval of the President of India.

WHAT INDUSTRY EXPERTS HAVE TO SAY

Anand Pandit, Producer

The increased age categorisations create very clear demarcation as to what is appropriate for which age group. Earlier, we had broad age brackets like U/A and this has at times created problems for audiences. For instance, Barbie has been rated PG-13 for suggestive references but many parents confuse it for a childrens film. The newly introduced age categorisations like U/A 7+, U/A 13+ and U/A 16+ will create more transparency and surely provide clearer guidance to viewers about the suitability of the content for different age groups. As filmmakers, itll help us also to also understand clearly what kind of a demographic we are creating for. On the other hand, as a producer, I understand the high cost of piracy that my fraternity incurs. Its undoubtedly a deeply rooted evil in our Industry. I hope the bill will go a long way in curtailing piracy by imposing strict penalties. It can prove to be game changing. But I feel, we can do a lot more as an industry to counter piracy which is a very complex problem. We need to initiate awareness campaigns, and collaborate with various stakeholders including law enforcement, and online platforms to ensure that this problem is effectively tackled.

Atul Mohan, Trade Expert

The Cinematograph Bill is a wise and progressive step by the government. However, I find it a bit confusing and complicated. There are so many age categorisations, how would you understand that what should be controlled for 7-13, or 13-18? Initially, it was simple for parents to decide with U/A and A. Secondly, this might not be able to stop people from recording in the theatres. They may say, Mujhe pata hi nahi tha. There should be supervision in the theatre to see who is recording... even if its a short clip on Instagram, its a form of piracy only. There still would be people who are rebellious and dont tend to listen. Who will call the police for this or take drastic action? TamilRockers is openly saying in the public domain that we will do piracy. Its difficult to track peoples actions in the day and age of the Internet.

Girish Johar, Producer and trade analyst

Earlier, families with smaller kids would go to watch a U/A category film, but even then theyd find the content a little unfit for family viewing. Thats the reason the government got a lot of feedback from the fraternity and audiences, and the bill came into being. It may seem a little complicated to execute at the ground level, but its a humongous step for the fraternity. We lose so much revenues because of piracy in all formats, so controlling that aspect is a fantastic thing. Theres a framework where such people cant walk free now. Im happy with this step and its a positive development, which people might take some time to fully understand.

Milap Zaveri, Director

The age categorisations will surely improve the procedure of certification of films. You have more options now, so its a welcome step. And third party apps, like Telegram, etc, even though they exist right now, they still dont stop people from going to the theatre and watching the films they want to watch. Pathaan, Rocky Aur Raani Ki Prem Kahaani, Oppenheimer, Barbie, and many others had huge crowds in theatres. I hope the new stricter laws for piracy will act as a deterrent in stopping people from opting for unethical means. Given the punishment, audiences would also be scared to engage in such acts. The theatre staff should also take charge of such things to control the crowd from recording.

Ramesh Taurani, Producer

Implementing age certifications is a wise step by the government, as it be beneficial for films, too. Parents do care about such things these days. And enforcing stricter rules against piracy will surely help in curbing the menace and maybe eliminating it in the long run, and save the producers from incurring losses. Big cinema chains should appoint specialise staff to ensure audiences dont record during screenings. However, its effectiveness depends on how the state police and state governments will implement the set punishments.
Govinda has said that his account on Twitter, also termed X, was hacked after his tweet regarding the communal violence in Gurugram gathered attention. The actor took to Instagram on Thursday to refute the claims and said that he has never commented on such issues. He also told Bombay Times in a new interview that he wants people to keep him 'out of their politics'. Also read: Govinda could have been the biggest superstar, says Rohit Shetty Govinda clarified that his account has been hacked, hours after screenshots of a now-deleted tweet regarding Nuh violence viral.

Govinda assures fans his account was hacked

Sharing a video on his official Instagram account, Govinda said, I would like to say that my Twitter account has been hacked so please do not attribute the Haryana tweet to me. I have not posted it."

In the accompanying video, Govinda clarified that his account, which is now deactivated, had been hacked, hours after screenshots of a tweet regarding Nuh violence viral. In the clip, Govinda denied that neither he nor his team would do anything of the sort. Govinda also speculated that the timing of the hack could be related to the upcoming elections, hinting that political motives might be at play.

He said in Hindi, To all the people of Haryana, who are my friends and fans, I want to say that my Twitter (X) account has been hacked. I havent really been using Twitter for many years. My team has confirmed that they have not tweeted anything. They never share anything without informing me. I would request cybercell to look in the matter.

Govinda calls fake news dangerous

In a new interview with Bombay Times, Govinda also said, Its been 18 years since I quit politics, I wont slyly tweet to get back into it. This sort of fake news is dangerous as it can lead to people making assumptions about me. Mujhe Haryana mein shows na mile, kaam na mile (People want to ensure I get no work or shows in Haryana)... maybe someone has an ulterior motive... I want people to keep me out of their politics and agendas. Na main kisike politics mein gaya, na mujhe kisika support mila. Meri films ko theatres nahi mile (I have never been involved in politics, when my films didn't get theatres, no one supported me). I have suffered enough.

A screenshot of the tweet from Govinda's account.

Govinda's alleged tweet

The tweet that went viral was a reply to a tweet, which had a video where shops were being attacked in Gurugram. It said, "Muslim shops were looted by mob in Gurgaon (Gurugram)." To which the actor had allegedly replied, What have we come down to? Shame on the people, who call themselves hindus and do such things. Aman aur shanti banaye, hum democracy hai, autocracy nahi (Please remain peaceful; we are a democracy, not autocracy)!

Haryana violence

Clashes broke out in Haryanas Nuh earlier this week after a procession led by Hindu groups passing through the district was attacked. The attack led to the Haryana government imposing prohibitory orders under section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure in Nuh and Gurugram, but the violence spread to neighbouring Sohna and eventually, to Gurugram later.

Earlier actors such as Dharmendra and Sonu Sood had reacted the riots, which took place in Haryana. Taking to Twitter or X, they shared their thoughts for those affected by the violence. Dharmendra had said, Apne watan mein, teri duniyan mein mujhe aman sukoon bhaichara chahiye (I want peace and brotherhood in my country, in your world).

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Arbaaz Khan has revealed that ever since Javed Akhtar visited his writer-father Salim Khan recently when the latter was unwell, the former writer duo has been talking over frequent phone calls. Javed often enquires about Salim's health, the actor told Bollywood Bubble. (Also read: Arbaaz Khan says Helen never tried to separate' the family) Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar were the top writer duo in the 70s Bollywood.

Salim-Javed duo

Best known for writing superhit films in collaboration with Javed Akhtar, Salim stopped writing after their infamous split. Popularly known as Salim-Javed, they wrote movies such as Sholay, Zanjeer, Yaadon Ki Baaraat, Deewaar, Kaala Patthar, Trishul, Dostana, Mr India, Don, and Seeta Aur Geeta. Together, they wrote 21 films before their breakup in 1987.

Salim-Javed reconciliation

"Today they are in a very good space. We, as kids, would have never thought that Javed saab and dad would ever sit across each other and make a conversation. That day, dad wasn't well and Javed saab called me up and asked me to give his updates. He even asked me to give him a date when he can come home and see dad.

Arbaaz further said that he fix the time and date for the meeting. Javed saab came home and met him and spent two hours with him. It all seems so wonderful. Time is a great healer. People change, people forget and forgive, and they move on. And they make much stronger bonds. They communicate very often now. They speak over the phone very often and more so because dad is a little older than Javed saab so Javed saab keeps asking about dads wellbeing. Dad is much better now, he said.

Arbaaz also said in the interview that there was never any animosity or an effort to prove anything to the other side when the families met - when they met Javed or his kids Farhaan Akhtar and Zoya Akhtar.

Arbaaz's career

Having worked in popular films such as Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya, Dabangg, Hello Brother, Arbaaz has been choosy with his acting projects of late. He featured in the web show Tanaav and has the film Patna Shukla lined up for release soon.

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Little Things star Mithila Palkar has the cutest home and it deserves showing off. On Friday, the actor shared a home tour video on Instagram that was shot in association with Architectural Digest (AD). Mithila showed her adorable living room with a majestic view of the sea link and the sea, her perfect kitchen, serene bedroom and more. (Also read: Step inside Anil Kapoor's 4-floor Mumbai home) Mithila Palkar shared a home tour.

The gorgeous living room

The tour of her 700-square-foot Dadar home begins with the ambient living room that is decorated with a rust-coloured couch and a short, three-legged oval coffee table in the trendy plaster texture. There is also a rattan seat with comfy cushioning close to the windows and the room has two large bird of paradise plants. A huge TV hangs on the wall opposite the sofa and on top of a TV unit in oak-toned wood. A striking globe-light fixture also hangs next to the TV.

A kitchen everyone would want

We then walk through a small lobby next to the kitchen. Mithila and her designer have turned the lobby wall into a small gallery of pictures of her special moments with friends and family. The kitchen looks stunning with white countertops, beige cupboards and a breakfast counter with again, oak-toned rattan bar chairs.

The serene bedroom

The bedroom comes with an arch cut out in the main wall. The indent is decorated with a tropical wallpaper and a black wall scones with oak-tones side tables. The texture of the side tables matches the cupboards in the room that come with a pull-out tall mirror.

Speaking about the home, Mithila said, It was such a huge gamble  we were working together as professionals and it can go south. But if anything, it has only brought us closer together. She told AD, The three things we actually debated on for the longest time were the name plate, the coffee table, and the colour of the couch. But as my best friend, she manages to convince me."

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The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Dept. has decided not to charge Cardi B for throwing a microphone at a fan. (FILES) Cardi B performs at the Austin City Limits Music Festival on October 6, 2019 at Zilker Park in Austin, Texas. Cardi B will not face criminal charges over an incident in which she threw her microphone at a member of her audience, police in Las Vegas said August 3. Detectives launched a battery probe into the "WAP" star's actions after she retaliated when a concert-goer chucked a liquid at her. (Photo by SUZANNE CORDEIRO / AFP)(AFP)

We appreciate the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Depts diligent and prompt resolution of this matter, the Bodak Yellow rappers lawyers, Drew Findling, David Chesnoff, and Richard Schonfeld, quoted to TMZ Thursday.

On behalf of Cardi, there will be NO charges against Cardi, they added.

The WAP rapper celebrated the news on Twitter Thursday, posting a picture of two Jewish men walking in the street, seemingly referring to her Jewish lawyers.

Remember .., she tweeted.

Her fans replied with the lyrics from her 2018 hit Bickenhead, where she rapped, Lawyer is a Jew he gon chew up all the charges.

The investigation stems from an incident that occurred last week at Drais Beachclub in Las Vegas, where Cardi, 30, was performing.

A viral video shared on TikTok Sunday showed that Cardi was splashed with a drink by a concertgoer. She reacted by hurling her microphone at the person, hitting another woman who was standing next to them.

Security then stepped in and removed the woman who was hit by the mic.

Another video showed that the 30-year-old rapper had actually asked the audience to splash water in [her] p***y before the incident happened.

That s**t feels good, the Grammy winner said as she bent over and the fans splashed her.

After the incident, Cardi, born Belcalis Marlenis Almanzar was named as a suspect for battery.

The woman who was hit by the mic reported the incident to the Las Vegas Metro PD and, according to TMZ, she was not the one who threw the drink. She was hit by accident because the real culprit was next to her.

ALSO READ| Mic thrown by Cardi B during concert is on auction for 82,00,000

The microphone that Cardi threw is now being auctioned for charity on eBay by Scott Fisher, whose company provided audio support for the show.

If you want a piece of hip hop infamy and what has now become national and world news then please bid whatever you are willing to spend.thanks, Fisher wrote on the listing.

As of Thursday afternoon, the mic had hit a high bid of more than $99,000.
The cause of death for Angus Cloud Hickey has allegedly been revealed. The actor's mother, Lisa Cloud McLaughlin, called 911 about a possible overdose. Actor Angus Cloud's tragic death possibly due to overdose revealed by his mother's 911 call. Social media mourns the loss of the Euphoria star.(via REUTERS)

She told the cops that Angus did not have a pulse. He was later confirmed to have been dead on the scene by the time the fire department got there. It is said the American actor, who is known for his role as Fezco in the HBO drama series Euphoria, was going through some dark thoughts.

His dark thoughts are said to have been revealed by his father, Conor Hickey, who passed away due to cancer.

He passed away on May 18th, 2023, after a short illness. His wife, Lisa Cloud McLaughlin, later disclosed that his death took place due to cancer in a tribute post on her Facebook page on June 2nd, where she wrote:

I know I will eventually get out of the puddle of tears I am swimming in.

People on social media are mourning the loss of the actor, with some of his fellow classmates sharing tribute photos. The HBO and Euphoria social media accounts have also expressed their condolences.eir condolences.

Angus was having severe suicidal thoughts since he got back from Ireland. He was in Ireland because it was the place where his father was laid to rest. Shortly after the service, the actor decided to spend some time in Ireland to work his way through overcoming the grief.

ALSO READ: Billie Eilish pays tribute to Angus Cloud at Lollapalooza with Euphoria song Never Felt So Alone

He seemed to have faced severe drug addiction in the past, according to a claim made by his former talent manager. The manager also went on to say the actor had to be revived once by Narcan after an overdose last January.

It is still unclear what the actor overdosed on at the time of his death, but last year, when he was revived by Narcan, he overdosed on prescription pills.

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Who was Veerappan? A criminal or a rebel? The question haunts the new Netflix docuseries The Hunt for Veerappan, created by Selvamani Selvaraj. Segmented into four episodes, The Hunt for Veerappan looks back at the poacher, who managed to evade and escape the efforts of the police and the special task forces of two states for almost two decades. Facts like Veerappan was the subject of India's longest and costliest manhunt are thrown in . But it is the politics of disparity and an impossible central relationship that guides this sprawling saga to piece together the phenomenon that was Veerappan. (Also read: Poacher review: Richie Mehta crafts an atmospheric tale on illegal ivory trade) A still from The Hunt for Veerappan.

The premise

The Hunt for Veerappan begins with the narrative introduction of its subject as a husband  the point of view is first given to his wife Muthulakshmi. The year is 1989, and Veerappan was still relatively unknown. Muthulakshmi recalls her first memory of him walking with a bunch of men following him, his big rifle placed on his shoulder. Based in the small village of Gopinatham, located just near the border separating Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, no one was ready to talk openly about him.

Criminal or rebel?

The shift of viewpoint occurs from hereon, as other important perspectives begin to examine the activities of Veerappan. Investigative Journalist Sunaad, then-Karnataka Forest Officer B K Singh, underline the conviction and fearlessness with which Veerappan conducted his poaching activities and helped the impoverished in return  earning the goodwill very soon and becoming the leader. He then turned into a sandalwood smuggler. The threat only begins with his violent and merciless shooting of four police officers and then of Forest Officer Srinivas. Here was a man, who had challenged the entire might of the Police Force. He was ready to take on this fight.

The second episode, titled The Bloodbath, captures, in haunting and terrifying detail, how Veerappan confronted each new challenge thrown in by the Special Task Force. The murders continue. Blood spills. The unpacking of the details are integrated into the narrative with immense control by co-writers Forest Borrie, Apoorva Bakshi, Kimberly Hassett, and Selvaraj. These facts are presented with the archival pictures and the present day comments shared by the gang members, Muthulakshmi, some of the residents of Gopinatham and the task officers, including 'Tiger' Ashok Singh.

Balancing act of perspectives

The clincher here is the tone. The documentary acts as a prism for the version(s) of the incidents, the revelations and the truths to co-exist and confound one another. In The Truth of Veerappan, truth exists in the porous layers, in the sights and sounds of the dense jungle- creating a richly atmospheric canvas for revelation. The tone pulls off a dangerous balancing act- coming close to sympathizing the criminal yet stopping just short. The movement is not scattershot and insistent. Even as perspectives shift and polarize, the central narrative takes confident strides, superbly edited together by the team of Ajit K. Nair, Jack Price, and Weston Curie.

Then there is the central relationship that injects an unwieldy complexity into the narrative, as Muthulakshmi emerges with her version of the story. Their bond forms the tormented crux of The Hunt for Veerappan, as Selvaraj invites her perspective into the investigation. In one harrowing scene, she recounts the torture- physical and mental, at the hands of the Karnataka police after getting arrested. Even as The Hunt for Veerappan proceeds to address the horrifying murders and criminal activities that the man commits, the show also interrogates the system- unable and unjust to meet the demands of one man. The kidnapping of superstar Rajkumar and his subsequent release- what were the questions that were still being asked and how far were they revealed? Curiously, no one from the family of the star makes an appearance.

The Hunt for Veerappan works best, when its focus remains uncompromisingly on the devastating residues of this decades-long manhunt. Several police officers killed, a number of families imprisoned in connection to him, and so many unaccounted stories that remain buried under the shadows of pain and trauma. By that chilling end, I was somehow left shaken by its captivating visuals and reflective abundance.
The local administration in Nuh demolished about 250 shanties of those named in the recent communal violence in the Muslim-majority district of Haryana, claiming they were illegal. According to multiple news reports, police said the shanties belonged to illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and were used to orchestrate stone pelting on the religious process that led to communal flare-ups in the region, including neighbouring Gurugram in the national capital region. After the communal violence in Nuh on Monday, migrants start leaving the slum near DPS School in Sector-70A, in Gurugram, India, on Thursday, 03 August 2023. (Photo by Parveen Kumar/Hindustan Times)

Most of the miscreants who pelted stones and attacked shops were from the settlement, reported The Tribune quoting police sources. The administration has planned to carry out similar demolition drives at other places where mobs attacked the procession carried by the right-wing outfit Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), as per the report.

Narender Birjaniya, OSD to ADGP (Law) Mamta Singh, said, We have carried out demolitions and principally, these structures were illegal. You cannot have an illegal structure and use it to hamper law and order.

A mosque was set on fire and a short circuit apparently triggered a blaze in another in Haryana's Nuh district, while two brothers belonging to the Muslim community were allegedly beaten up in Gurugram by a group of about 30 people on Wednesday, police said.

Authorities in Nuh and Gurugram said no fresh cases of violence were reported on Thursday, asserting that the situation is under control.

Meanwhile, Nuh Superintendent of Police Varun Singla, who was on leave when the communal clashes broke out in the district, has been transferred, an official order said on Friday.

Singla has been made the superintendent of police, Bhiwani, it said.

Narendra Bijarniya, who was holding the additional charge in Singla's absence, will be the new SP of Nuh, according to a government order issued on August 3 by Additional Chief Secretary (Home) T V S N Prasad.

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Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Friday hailed the Supreme Court's verdict on staying Rahul Gandhi's conviction in defamation case over Modi surname remark saying that the latter was framed on the baseless charges. Chowdhury also met the Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla and urged him to revoke Gandhi's suspended parliament membership. Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury(ANI)

Follow Rahul Gandhi case LIVE UPDATES here

"We were overjoyed when the Supreme Court pronounced its decision. Rahul Gandhi's absence from the Parliament was felt. Through Point Of Information, I told the Chairman in the Parliament about the SC's decision and said that his membership should be reinstated at the earliest. Truth won today," he said while speaking to the reporters.

"We have met the Lok Sabha speaker and have urged him to restore Gandhi's membership in Lok Sabha after the Supreme Court has granted him relief," he added.

Chowdhury also claimed that the government may create hurdles so have urged the speaker not to delay the revocation of Gandhi's disqualification.

"Today, the entire country knows that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was framed on baseless facts. All the conspiracies against him have failed," he said while hailing the judgement.

Read here: 'My duty remains the same', says Rahul Gandhi after Supreme Court relief

Speaking on the no-confidence motion to be tabled in the Parliament next week, the senior Congress leader said, "We want Rahul Gandhi to speak on the no-confidence motion in Parliament. People all over the world should listen to the way in which the ruling party is conspiring against Rahul Gandhi."

While reacting on the court's verdict, Gandhi said, "My path is clear to me (as to) what is my work, there is clarity in my mind about that. I thank the people who helped us and the people for their love and support that they extended".

The Supreme Court on Friday, in an interim order, stayed the conviction of in the defamation case over 'Modi surname' remark. On March 23, the magisterial court convicted Gandhi for his remarks made during 2019 Lok Sabha poll campaign.

Read here: 'Will continue legal battle': Complainant BJP MLA on SC relief to Rahul Gandhi

"No reason has been given by the trial judge for imposing maximum sentence, the order of conviction needs to be stayed pending final adjudication," the bench said.

Former Gujarat minister Purnesh Modi had filed the case against Rahul Gandhi over his "How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname?" remark made during an election rally in Karnataka Kolar in 2019.

Following conviction, the former Congress president was disqualified as the Lok Sabha MP from Kerala's Wayanad, on March 24 following notification of the Lok Sabha Secretariat, under the rigours of the Representation of People Act.

Read here: Lion will once again roar in parliament: Congress after Supreme Court's verdict on Rahul Gandhi in defamation case

Gandhi had challenged the decision in the sessions court and later in the Gujarat high court. The high court on July 7 had affirmed the order, which was later challenged in the apex court.

(With inputs from agencies)
The Anusandhan National Research Foundation Bill (NRF), 2023 was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Friday by union minister of science and technology, Dr Jitendra Singh. Union minister Jitendra Singh speaks in the Lok Sabha during the Monsoon session of Parliament. (PTI Photo)

Earlier in June, the Union Cabinet had approved the NRF Bill, allocating a sum of 50,000 crore for the next five years to promote research and development in the country through various levels of Indias research institutions, colleges and universities in an organised manner.

In a statement issued the same month, the ministry of science and technology said, The bill, after approval in Parliament, will establish NRF, an apex body to provide high-level strategic direction of scientific research in the country as per recommendations of the National Education Policy (NEP), at a total estimated cost of 50,000 crore during five years (2023-28).

Also Read: Cabinet approves introduction of National Research Foundation Bill in Parliament

Out of the allocated 50,000 crore, the government plans to raise 36,000 crore through investments from industries and philanthropists, while the remaining amount will be funded by the government, 10,000 crore from the Centre and 4000 crore through subsuming Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) into the NRF.

Officials explained that the department of science and technology (DST) will be the administrative department of NRF, which will have a governing body headed by the prime minister who will be the ex-officio president, and an executive council, chaired by the principal scientific advisor to the government of India.

Since the scope of the NRF is wide-ranging  impacting all ministries - the prime minister will be the ex-officio president of the board and the union minister of science and technology, and union minister of education will be the ex-officio vice-presidents, the government read.

The government said that NRF will forge collaborations among the industry, academia, and government departments and research institutions, and create an interface mechanism for participation and contribution of industries and state governments in addition to the scientific and line ministries.

It will also focus on creating a policy framework and putting in place regulatory processes that can encourage collaboration and increased spending by the industry on research and development.

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Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the Supreme Court's decision to stay Rahul Gandhi's conviction in the Modi surname defamation case, saying the saffron party's conspiracy against Gandhi was exposed. He added, The Modi government and the people of BJP should do the work for which they have got the mandate. He has failed for a decade to keep his promises. Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge(PTI)

Also read: Rahul Gandhi eligible to return to Parliament as early as Monday

Kharge further hailed the apex court's decision and said, The Constitution, democracy and the common people of India have won.

Satyameva Jayate! We wholeheartedly welcome the decision of the Supreme Court. The citizens of Wayanad have won. The loud voice of common people will again echo in the temple of democracy. Rahul Gandhi has become a symbol of truth and courage, he wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

The struggle on the questions of the public will continue till the Parliament and the road, the Congress President added.

The Supreme Court's three-judge bench of justices B R Gavai, P S Narasimha, and Sanjay Kumar on Friday stayed Rahul Gandhi's conviction in the 2019 Modi surname defamation case and restored his status as a member of Parliament. "No reason has been given by the trial judge for imposing maximum sentence, the order of conviction needs to be stayed pending final adjudication," the bench said.

The top court was hearing a plea by Gandhi challenging the Gujarat High Court verdict which had dismissed his plea seeking a stay on his conviction.

In 2019, a BJP MLA and former Gujarat minister Purnesh Modi had filed a criminal defamation case against Gandhi over his "How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname?" remark made during an election rally in Kolar in Karnataka.
Police in Faridabad have questioned cow vigilante Bittu Bajrangi over for his alleged involvement in the communal clash in Haryanas Nuh on Monday, a police officer said and added he has been booked for attempting to stoke religious unrest, brandishing weapons and derogatory remarks against Muslims. Cow vigilante Bittu Bajrangi. (Sourced)

Bajrangi allegedly made provocative comments in live videos streamed on social media during Bajrang Dal and Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP)s Shobha Yatra in Nuh on Monday. Hindu and Muslim groups clashed during the procession. The violence spread to places including Gurugram and left six people dead and 70 injured.

Faridabads assistant police commissioner (crime) Aman Yadav said Bajrangi was called for questioning on Thursday. [Bajrangi] joined the investigation for the three cases registered against him including two old ones. He was let go and was asked not to travel until the investigation is on. We are investigating allegations against him and his involvement in triggering the violence in Nuh on July 31 and scanning his social media accounts, he said.

Earlier in July, Bajrani was booked for allegedly brandishing illegal arms, attacking a Muslim family, and taking away 60 cows and 17 goats being herded in Khori Jamalpur village.

Chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Wednesday said his government was identifying the perpetrators of the violence even as the tensions spilled over into Delhi. On Wednesday, right-wing groups took out rallies and held protests at 23 places in Delhi while a Muslim-owned shop was set ablaze in the Capitals Kherki Daula village.

Internet bans were imposed in Nuh and Manesar while prohibitory orders were effected across Gurugram. A police officer said the trigger for the violence was videos suggesting that Bajrang Dal member and cow vigilante Monu Manesar, who has been on the run after his alleged involvement in the killing of two Muslim cattle traders in February, will be part of an annual religious procession in Nuh but he did not turn up.

Migrant workers employed in factories, restaurants, households, and construction sites left in Gurugram or stayed put in their homes on Thursday. Some of them were threatened while others feared being attacked even as the authorities said the situation was now normal.

The Gurugram Police on Thursday formed a special investigation team to probe the arson attack on the mosque on Tuesday which left a cleric dead. On Thursday, a mosque was set afire and a short circuit apparently triggered a blaze in another in Nuh.

The Haryana government on Thursday said 116 people have been arrested and 90 detained in connection with the violence.

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Jagdish Tytler gets anticipatory bail in 1984 anti-Sikh riots case A Delhi court on Friday granted anticipatory bail to Congress leader Jagdish Tytler in a case related to the killing of three people at Delhis Gurdwara Pul Bangash during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots following the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhis assassination. Read more Congress leader Jagdish Tytler.(HT_PRINT)

Supreme Court stays Rahul Gandhi's conviction in defamation case: Here's what next?

In a big relief for Rahul Gandhi, the Supreme Court has granted a stay on the conviction of Congress leader in a defamation case. his conviction had previously resulted in his disqualification as a sitting Lok Sabha member of Parliament and raised doubts about his eligibility to contest in the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Read more

BJP's conspiracy exposed': Kharge after SC stays Rahul Gandhi's conviction in Modi surname defamation case

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the Supreme Court's decision to stay Rahul Gandhi's conviction in the Modi surname defamation case, saying the saffron party's conspiracy against Gandhi was exposed. Read more

'I am a big Bumrah fan but': Glenn McGrath's game-changing advice after India pacer's career-threatening injury

They may be one of the greatest fast bowlers of their generations but Glenn McGrath and Jasprit Bumrah are not much alike. Their actions are poles apart  while Bumrah's is as unorthodox as it gets, McGrath's was one of the smoothest ever. Also, Bumrah has pace and while his accuracy levels are equally top-notch, McGrath's bowling precision is yet to be matched. Read more

Hema Malini reveals she hasn't seen Dharmendra and Shabana Azmi's kiss in Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahaani yet

Veteran Hema Malini recently reacted to the viral onscreen kiss of husband Dharmendra in Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani. Dharmendra shared a kiss with Shabana Azmi. Read more

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Former Karnataka chief minister and JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy accused the Congress-led government in the state of corruption, and forcing contractors to pay commissions for every contract. Bengaluru: Kumaraswamy said that he received a tip-off that contractors are being asked to shell out commissions for ministers. (PTI)

I received a tip-off during my tour in Europe that contractors are being asked to shell out commissions for ministers in Bengaluru. The ministers and their associates are demanding these commissions from contractors, he told reporters during a press conference after returning from a Europe tour late on Thursday.

He also shared that a member of the Contractors Association informed him about a minister who demanded a fixed commission for every work. The ministers assistants are allowing the contractors to meet the minister only if they give them money, Kumaraswamy said.

Kumaraswamy levelled also alleged, that officers of the Bengaluru Development Authority (BDA) were instructed to collect a massive sum of 250 crore, and they were given directions on how to transfer the money to New Delhi. He stated that the officers from BDA shared this information with him.

Officers of the Bengaluru Development Authority (BDA) have been told to collect 250 crore. They have been also told how to reach the money to New Delhi as well. The officers in BDA have shared this information with me, he said.

The Congress had previously alleged 40% commission charges against the BJP government, leading to significant agitations in the state. This issue, along with guarantee schemes, was projected as a primary concern during elections.

Kumaraswamy raised questions about the Congresss commitment to anti-corruption, particularly after recent meetings with Congress leadership in Delhi. He criticised the party for projecting an image of fighting corruption for the outside world while engaging in bribery practices internally.

The anti-corruption image the Congress wants to build is only for the outside world, Kumaraswamy said. If I have to tell you the true story of Congress, that party is for Vasooli (taking bribery). East India Company (British East India Company) left us, but they handed over the administration of the country to the Congress party before leaving, the grand old party has continued East India Companys corrupt legacy.

The former chief minister earlier had announced the possession of a pen drive containing conversations of a prominent minister in the Karnataka government demanding 10 crore for a transfer. The JD(S) party stated that they would release the pen drive at an appropriate time.

Even for the allegations made on Thursday, Kumaraswamy didnt provide any evidence immediately.

Chief minister Siddaramaiah on Friday dismissed the allegations as nothing but hit and run case. Speaking to media persons in Bengaluru, he said the JD(S) leader has the habit of making baseless allegations and never proves them. Did he prove the charge (for taking kickback)? He could not prove the charge because he did not have a pen drive to substantiate the charge, Siddaramaiah said.

Following Kumaraswamys departure on a foreign tour, Deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar had alleged a conspiracy to topple the government, claiming it was hatched in Singapore. In response, Kumaraswamy mocked Shivakumar and the police intelligence, asserting that he was indeed in a European country with his family during that time. It shows that the intelligence department of the police department doesnt have a clue what is going on, he said.

Deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar did not directly address the allegations made by JD(S) but welcomed Kumaraswamy back and wished him well. He has come back from his travel. He is well rested. We wished him all the best, said Shivakumar.

Regarding the location mix-up during Kumaraswamys travel, home minister G Parameshwara clarified that the intelligence department had not made any such statements, shifting the blame to someone else for the misinformation. Someone else had made those statements. It is not fair to blame the police force for these, he said.

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The Supreme Court granted a big relief to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in the Modi surname defamation case, staying his conviction and restoring his status as the Lok Sabha MP.



However, the top court's relief came with a warning for the Congress leader. Gandhi should have been more careful in making the alleged remarks, the Supreme Court bench said.



No doubt that utterances not in good taste, person in public life expected to exercise caution while making public speeches. As observed by this court, while accepting his affidavit in contempt petition, he ought to have been more careful, Live Law quoted Justice BR Gavai.



ALSO READ: SC's three observations while suspending Rahul Gandhi's defamation conviction



The top court observed that no reasons given by trial judge in giving the maximum punishment of two years to Gandhi. The disqualification affects not only Gandhi but also the electorates of his constituency, the bench said.



Not a single of the persons Gandhi had named during his speech has sued. This is a small community of 13 crore people and there is no uniformity, or homogeneity. Who is aggrieved in this community are only people who are BJP office-holders and suing", Gandhi's lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi had argued during the hearing.



Former Gujarat minister Purnesh Modi had filed a criminal defamation case against the former Congress president over his "How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname?" remark made during an election rally in Kolar in Karnataka on April 13, 2019.



On March 23, a magisterial court in Surat had convicted Rahul Gandhi in the 2019 case. He was handed a punishment of two years, resulting in his disqualification as the Lok Sabha MP from Wayanad. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.(PTI file)

Gandhi later moved the sessions court rejected his plea for stay on conviction on April 20. He moved the Gujarat high court which cited his stature as an MP and said he should have been more careful in his comments.

On July 7, the Gujarat high court affirmed this order, rejecting Rahul Gandhis revision application seeking a stay on his conviction.

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PANAJI: Goa assembly speaker Ramesh Tawadkar on Friday declined to allow a discussion on the Manipur issue, leading Opposition members to protest in the Well of the assembly as soon as post-lunch proceedings started and later stage a walk out. An opposition MLA holding placard protests over Manipur issue in the Goa Legislative Assembly on July 31 (ANI FILE PHOTO/Representative Image)

Do not ruin the time of the house. Goa is a peaceful state. In Goa people of all castes, religions live in a good way. By bringing the Manipur issue do not try to ruin the peace of Goa. Dont try to instigate the people of Goa by bringing the Manipur issue, speaker Ramesh Tawadkar said.

The resolution was disallowed because it was an attempt to instigate communities in peaceful Goa, Tawadkar said. Opposition members including legislators of the Congress, Aam Aadmi Party and the Revolutionary Goans Party later held a sit-in protest outside the assembly complex.

Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said said: I feel these people unnecessarily want to disturb the communal harmony of the state.

Opposition members protested on Monday after a private members resolution moved by AAP MLA Cruz Silva was disallowed. The speaker later indicated that he could allow the discussion on private members day.

Leader of opposition Yuri Alemao said the speakers decision to disallow the resolution as undemocratic.

Opposition members, however, pointed out how a ruling member was allowed to table a private resolution condemning the BBC for the documentary India: The Modi Question despite the subject in question having nothing to do with Goa while when it came to Manipur the excuse given was that the issue was being tackled by the Supreme Court and the Central government.

The Supreme Court and the Union Home Ministry are seized with the issue of the situation in Manipur. We are also concerned about what is happening there, Pramod Sawant said.

Silva moved a resolution to strongly condemn the violence that has erupted and ongoing in the state of Manipur and expresses shock and concern over loss of life of innocent citizens, loss of property and disruption to normal life.

The resolution also called on the central government and the state government of Manipur to ensure peace and law and order in the state and start dialogue with the community and to protect their life, religious structure and public property.

All seven members of the opposition in Goa on Monday were suspended from the legislative assembly on Monday for two days after they disrupted proceedings in the house over the resolution being disallowed. The period of suspension was later reduced to 24 hours.
Google search engine is celebrating the life of American designer Altine Tina Schinasi, most known for designing the popular cat-eye eyeglass frame, through its August 4 Doodle to mark her 116th birthday. Born on this day in 1907 in Manhattan, New York, to immigrant parents, Schinasi's artistic journey took her from the streets of Manhattan to the vibrant art scene of Paris where she pursued her passion for painting after completing her high school education, according to Google Doogle blog post. Google Doodle to mark Altina Schinasi's 116th Birthday.

She further honed her artistic skills at The Art Students League in New York City while working as a window dresser for multiple stores along Fifth Avenue. During this time, she had the privilege of collaborating with and learning from artistic giants such as Salvador Dali and George Grosz, whose influence played a pivotal role in shaping her creative vision.

It was during her time as a window display designer that Schinasi had her groundbreaking idea for the "cat-eye" eyeglass frame. Observing that women's eyeglasses were limited to round frames with uninspired designs, she set out to create a fresh and unique option for women.

Inspired by the alluring shape of Harlequin masks worn during the Carnevale festival in Venice, Italy, she envisioned eyeglass frames with pointed edges that would accentuate and flatter the wearer's face. Cutting paper prototypes of her innovative design, Schinasi persisted in her pursuit despite facing multiple rejections from major manufacturers who considered her creation too unconventional.

Her breakthrough came when a local shop owner recognized the potential of her design and requested an exclusive agreement for six months. The Harlequin eyeglasses swiftly gained popularity and became a fashion sensation among women in the US during the late 1930s and 1940s.

Schinasi's invention earned her significant recognition, including the prestigious Lord & Taylor American Design Award in 1939. Esteemed publications like Vogue and Life also acknowledged her contribution to the world of fashion.

She also delved into filmmaking, producing a compelling documentary titled "George Grosz' Interregnum" about her former teacher, the celebrated artist George Grosz. The film received widespread acclaim, earning an Academy Award nomination and winning first place at the Venice Film Festival in 1960.

As the years went by, Schinasi continued to explore new artistic pursuits. In her later years, she penned her memoir, "The Road I Have Traveled," providing a glimpse into her extraordinary life journey. She also volunteered as an art therapist, using her creative talents to help others.

Today, almost 100 years after its inception, Altinas cat-eye design continues its influence in fashion accessory trends worldwide. Happy birthday to the woman who was a visionary in more ways than one! Google said in the blog post.

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The government has extended the term of the 22nd Law Commission of India till 31 August 2024, Union law minister Arjun Meghwal told the Parliament on Friday. Union law minister Arjun Meghwal (File Photo)

The law minister was replying to questions raised by Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader TR Paarivendhar who asked about the status of the constitution of the 22nd Law Commission.

On the DMK leaders question on the total number of members appointed to the Commission, Meghwal said, The government has appointed a chairperson, four full-time members (including member-secretary) and two part-time members of the 22nd Law Commission of India.

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A 40-member team of the Archaeological Survey of India(ASI) on Friday morning began a scientific survey at the Gyanvapi premises in Varanasi to determine whether the 17th-century mosque has been constructed over a pre-existing structure of a Hindu temple. Counsel for Hindu plaintiff advocate Subhash Nandan Chaturvedi and plaintiff Sita Sahu reach the Gyanvapi complex in Varanasi on Friday.(Rajesh Kumar/HT)

The survey began amid tight security arrangements a day after the Allahabad high court upheld a district court order and ruled that the proposed survey is "necessary in the interest of justice" and will benefit both sides".

Top updates on Varanasi's Gyanvapi mosque survey:

1. The Muslim body Anjuman Intezamia Masajid Committee will not participate in the survey as it did on July 24, when the Supreme Court put on the survey on hold. The committee's joint secretary SM Yasin said the high court has ordered the ASI to conduct a scientific survey of the Gyanvapi Masjid without causing any damage to the mosque. The Anjuman Intazamiya Masjid appealed against the order in the Supreme Court on Thursday. Its hearing is fixed for today, he said appealing to the officials to postpone the survey.

Joint commissioner of police, Varanasi, K Ejilearassane inspects security arrangements.( Rajesh Kumar/HT)

2. The Anjuman Intezamia Masjid committee moved the Supreme Court against the Allahabad high court order permitting the ASI survey at the Gyanvapi mosque.

3. The matter was mentioned by advocate Nizam Pasha before Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, who was heading a five-judge constitution bench hearing the arguments in the Article 370 issue and was rising for the day, seeking an urgent hearing. The Allahabad High Court has passed an order today. We have filed an SLP against the order. I have sent an email (seeking urgent hearing). Let them not proceed with the survey , Pasha said. The CJI said, I will look at the email right away. One of the parties from the Hindu side has also filed a caveat in the apex court saying that no orders be passed without hearing them in the matter.

4. Varanasi District Magistrate S Rajalingam said the ASI has sought assistance from the local administration to start the survey from Friday. He said detailed discussions were held with the Varanasi Police Commissioner on security during the survey and that the district administration is fully prepared to start the work.

5. Dismissing the petition by the Muslim body, which manages the affairs of the Gyanvapi mosque, challenging a district court order that had permitted the ASI survey, the bench of Chief Justice Pritinker Diwaker held that the order is just and proper, and no interference from the high court is warranted.

6. The high court ordered the ASI director to conduct a detailed scientific investigation by using GPR survey, excavation, dating method and other modern techniques of the present structure to find out whether the same has been constructed over a pre-existing structure of Hindu temple.

7. The Anjuman Intezamia Masjid committee moved the HC on July 25, a day after the Supreme Court halted the ASI survey till 5pm on July 26, allowing time for the committee to appeal against the lower court's order.

8. Chief Justice Diwaker had reserved the order on the mosque committee's petition on July 27 after hearing arguments from both sides. The court had also stayed the ASI survey till Thursday.

9. The mosque 'wazu khana', where a structure claimed by Hindu litigants to be a 'shivling' exists, will not be part of the survey -- following an earlier Supreme Court order protecting that spot in the Gyanvapi complex.

10. Hindu activists claim that a temple existed earlier at the site and was demolished in the 17th century on the order of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb.

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The Supreme Court will hear on Friday the plea filed by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi against the Gujarat high court's verdict that declined to put on hold his conviction in a defamation case over his Modi surname remark that cost him his Lok Sabha membership. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi refuses to apologise in defamation case. (PTI)

In the last hearing in the apex court, a bench of Justices BR Gavai and PK Mishra had sought responses from former Gujarat minister Purnesh Modi and the state government on Gandhi's appeal challenging the high court verdict and listed the matter for further hearing on August 4.

Purnesh Modi had filed a criminal defamation case against Gandhi over his "How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname?" remark made during an election rally at Kolar in Karnataka on April 13, 2019.

The limited question at this stage is whether the conviction deserves to be stayed, the bench had observed.

Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, who appeared for Gandhi, had said the Congress leader had suffered for 111 days, lost one Parliament session and is about to lose another session.

Singhvi said the only urgency is that by-election for Wayanad constituency from where Gandhi was elected and was later disqualified from Lok Sabha upon his conviction and two-year sentence in the defamation case, can be announced at any moment.

At the outset, Justice Gavai made it clear that his late father RS Gavai though not a Congress member was closely associated with the party for more than four decades and was a member of Parliament and MLA with its support. He said his brother is also a politician.

If anyone has any problem with my background then please let me know, Justice Gavai told Singhvi and senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, appearing for Purnesh Modi.

Both Singhvi and Jethmalani said that although they knew these facts, they dont have any objection to Justice Gavai hearing this matter.

The apex court asked Jethmalani and counsel for the Gujarat government to file their replies along with written submissions.

Rahul Gandhi defamation case

On March 23, a Gujarat magisterial court convicted Gandhi for his remarks on the Modi surname after Purnesh Modi filed a criminal complaint. The Congress leader was sentenced to two-year imprisonment, which disqualified him as an MP from Keralas Wayanad under the Representation of People Act on March 24, following a notification from the Lok Sabha Secretariat.

Gandhi approached the sessions court, which rejected his plea for a stay on his conviction on April 20, compelling him to approach the high court.

The April 20 order cited Gandhis stature as an MP and former chief of the countrys second-largest political party and said he should have been more careful in his comments.

On July 7, the high court affirmed this order, rejecting Gandhis revision application seeking a stay on his conviction.

The high court judgment meant that Gandhis disqualification from the Lok Sabha will continue. While Gandhi cannot be arrested since his jail term remains suspended for now, only a stay on his conviction by the Supreme Court or a favourable judgment in his appeal by a sessions court can enable him to contest next years Lok Sabha elections.

The conviction and two-year jail term renders Gandhi unfit to enter either House of Parliament for eight years. But this can be reversed if he can get the conviction overturned or suspended by a higher court.

(With inputs from Utkarsh Anand in New Delhi)

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India has asked Pakistan to concentrate on addressing its internal matters rather than raising the Kashmir issue and indulging in frivolous allegations against New Delhi. India responding to the issue of Kashmir raised by a Pakistani representative during the UN Security Councils Open Debate on Famine and Conflict-Induced Global Food Insecurity. (File)(AP)

To best utilise this council's time, I suggest the concerned delegation concentrate on addressing their internal matters and restoring order within their own borders, rather than indulging in frivolous allegations against my country, R Madhu Sudan, a Counsellor in Indias UN Mission, told members of the Security Council on Thursday.

Also Read | Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif to dissolve Parliament on August 9: Report

Madhu Sudan was responding to the issue of Kashmir raised by a Pakistani representative during the UN Security Councils Open Debate on Famine and Conflict-Induced Global Food Insecurity.

Unfortunately we saw one delegation misuse this forum yet again, to divert the attention of this council from the important topic of food security," he said in his remarks, adding that one delegation consistently sought to exploit various United Nations platforms to further its agenda.

Also Read | Pakistan blast: Videos show the moment bomb goes off at Bajaur rally killing 44

Emphasising that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India is non-negotiable, Madhu Sudan deemed it unnecessary to further engage in arguments or debates with those who resort to terrorism to advance their unlawful goals.

He advised Pakistan to address internal matters and restore order within its own borders rather than indulging in frivolous allegations against my country.

India and Pakistan have a strained relationship over a number of issues including Islamabad's continued support of cross-border terrorism and the Kashmir issue.

India asserts that Jammu and Kashmir "was, is and will" always be part of the country.

Bilateral relations between Islamabad and New Delhi have been tense since August 2019 when India changed the special status of Jammu and Kashmir.
Opposition bloc INDIA is likely to hold its next meeting on August 31 and September 1 in Mumbai, sources said on Friday. RJD chief Lalu Prasad during opposition parties' meet in Bengaluru on July 17. (PTI)

They said it would be held on the format of the Bengaluru meeting with leaders first confabulating in an informal setting on August 31 before their main meeting the next day.

"The opposition meeting will be a two-day affair and will take place on August 31 and September 1 with all leaders approving the dates," a source said.

The likely venue would be a hotel in Pawai and there will be a press conference on August 1 evening, the source said.

There have been several dates that have been talked about earlier but those did not work out as all leaders were not available on those dates.

The third meeting of the bloc is being hosted jointly by the Shiv Sena (UBT) and the NCP's Sharad Pawar faction, with support from the Congress -- the three constituents of the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance. The MVA constituents had been holding parleys to schedule the meeting.

The INDIA bloc's first meeting was held in Patna in June and the second in Bengaluru last month.

The coalition is also likely to announce the composition of committees for specific actions such as communication and 2024 general election campaign in the run-up to the polls.

A joint secretariat for better coordination among the parties will also be announced soon, the sources said.

During the meeting, the parties are expected to iron out their differences as much as possible, especially in states where they are in a direct poll battle.

At the Bengaluru meeting, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge had announced the name of the opposition bloc -- Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) -- after a nearly four-hour-long meeting of the 26 parties.

He had said a committee of 11 members will also be set up for coordination, and a convenor will be selected at the next meeting in Mumbai.

The 26 opposition parties which are part of the opposition alliance are: the Congress, TMC, DMK, AAP, JD(U), RJD, JMM, NCP (Sharad Pawar), Shiv Sena (UBT), SP, NC, PDP, CPI(M), CPI, RLD, MDMK, Kongunadu Makkal Desia Katchi (KMDK), VCK, RSP, CPI-ML (Liberation), Forward Bloc, IUML, Kerala Congress (Joseph), Kerala Congress (Mani), Apna Dal (Kamerawadi), and the Manithaneya Makkal Katchi (MMK).

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The 26-party Opposition alliance  Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance or INDIA  is set to hold their third meeting in Mumbai on August 31 and September 1 to hold further discussions on the strategy for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, according to people aware of the details. The alliance meeting in Bengaluru (ANI)

Top leaders of the alliance, formed to jointly take on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the Centre in next years elections, earlier met twice in less than one month  first in Patna on June 23 and then in Bengaluru on July 17-18.

The upcoming meeting, according to two senior leaders, will discuss the scope of coordinated programmes and may also draw the broad contours of seat adjustments.

The Opposition alliance also plans to hold at least three more meetings in the run up to the elections. The grouping will also set up their 11-member coordination committee before the leaders meet in Mumbai for the meeting.

A senior non-Congress Opposition leader said the coordination panel, which will comprise members from top 11 parties of INDIA, will act as a driving force.

Along with the coordination committee and a campaign committee, three to four smaller committees will be set up to handle various aspects of the functioning of the alliance.

One panel might specifically look into programmes, another one might focus on seminars, the leader mentioned above said.

A second Opposition leader said parties would be asked to send nominees for the constitution of the committees, which will handle logistics and other issues, and the broad architecture will be left to them.

At a mega meeting in Bengaluru last month, the 26 opposition parties, which won 134 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and secured a vote share of 35%, announced a pre-poll coalition to take on the incumbent BJP government at the Centre.

In the coming days, the Opposition leaders are keen to travel across the country to campaign on issues such as unemployment, price rise, alleged assault on the federal structure and misuse of investigating agencies.

Time is running out and we have to reach out to the people quickly. Therefore, these panels will come handy in coordinating effective campaigns and handle logistics on behalf of 26 parties, said a third leader, also seeking anonymity.
The implementation of the new India-Sri Lanka economic partnership for maritime, energy and financial connectivity can be a key step towards addressing the sensitivities of both countries and forging stronger relations, Sri Lankan envoy Milinda Moragoda has said. Sri Lanka s High Commissioner to India Milinda Moragoda (Twitter/@ICWA_NewDelhi)

Thanking India for its indispensable role in helping Sri Lanka cope with the financial crisis last year, Moragoda said in an interview that his country is eyeing greater economic integration to benefit from Indias growth. Sri Lanka also hopes India, especially the private sector, will play a key role in investments and divestment plans, he said.

The economic partnership, unveiled during Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghes visit to India last month, includes power grid interconnection, construction of a petroleum pipeline, and a feasibility study for land connectivity.

After talks with Wickremesinghe, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the security interests and development of both countries are intertwined and they keep in mind each others sensitivities.

Moragoda emphasised the benefits of stronger economic links and said: Once that economic integration takes place, I dont think there is space for anybody else in that.

Leaders on both sides have a good equation, and the strong bilateral dialogue has allowed the countries to talk through issues whenever they have gone through some difficult periods, he added.

The visit of a Chinese surveillance vessel to Chinese-controlled Hambantota port in Sri Lanka amid the economic crisis  during which India provided assistance worth $4 billion  had become an irritant in bilateral relations.

Moragoda pointed to civilisational and geographical links between the two countries and said Wickremesinghes talks with Modi helped address such issues and paved the way for the next stage of the relationship. I think we understand each other, but obviously...there are known, unknowns and unknown unknowns, and we have to face those. I am not saying the challenge is over, but I think as long as we keep the quality of dialogue. That is what matters, he said.

The economic partnership is crucial for connectivity, economic integration and investments, including the resumption of ferry services, expanded air connectivity, and the transformation of the Trincomalee oil tank farms into a regional energy hub.

If we do not hook on [to the Indian economy], I think probably we wont be able to grow as fast as we need to. [We need] to create these linkages and use India as a growth engine, Moragoda said.

Increased air and maritime connectivity are important for tourism since India is the largest source market for tourists. In July, 20% of tourists received by Sri Lanka were Indians, and Britain was in second place with 12%.

Wickremesinghe and Modi discussed the idea of the private sector playing a greater role in investments, both for new projects and disinvestment plans of the Sri Lankan government, Moragoda said. In this context, he pointed to the scope for Indian investments in Sri Lankas renewable energy sector, ports and Colombo airport.

The Sri Lankan governments plans to sell Sri Lankan Airlines, the main insurance company, a major hospital and the Hilton Hotel also offer opportunities for Indias private sector.

The two sides are holding technical discussions to decide on the most economical and efficient way to connect their electricity grids, with new technology facilitating a cheaper undersea option. Here too, the two sides are looking at private investments to speed things up, Moragoda said.

The land connectivity proposal includes a feasibility study and environmental issues. We have to work out the practical aspects of whatever is economical. The technology in road building has leapfrogged and it makes what looked impossible earlier, possible now, he added.

A key matter raised by Modi during Wickremesinghes India visit was a political solution to fulfil the aspirations of Sri Lankas Tamil minority and Moragoda said the only way forward is for the Sri Lankan president to build consensus on this issue in Parliament.

This conversation has been going on for 75 years, and I dont think we are going to resolve it immediately. But equally, we have to start someplace. He [Wickremesinghe] has done what he can, and I hope people will engage... And thats what he has on the table. But then we are a democracy, and we have to live with that, he said.

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A Delhi-bound IndiGo flight made an emergency landing at the Patna airport on Friday after one of its engines became inoperative. The aircraft made the landing shortly after taking off from the Jay Prakash Narayan International Airport. An Indigo aircraft.(File)

An Indigo flight on PatnaDelhi route returned to its origin due to a technical issue. Three minutes after its departure, the pilot reported one engine inoperative. The aircraft landed safely at 9.11am. As per the pilot, no further assistance was required. All operations are normal here," an airport official said.

The IndiGo flight 6E 2433 was carrying 181 passengers and eight crew. All passengers are safe.

The report of the incident comes days after a Dehradun-bound IndiGo flight carrying 108 passengers made an emergency landing at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport in New Delhi after it developed a technical snag, according to officials. The flight landed safely and no one was injured in the incident, police said. IndiGo officials refuted reports claiming the emergency landing was due to an engine failure.

"The emergency landing was not due to any fire or engine failure. It was due to a technical issue," they said.

On Monday, an Air India Express flight with 154 passengers from Tiruchirappalli to Sharjah made a precautionary landing at the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport on Monday due to technical reasons.

The airport authority declared a full emergency at the International Airport after the flight departed from Tiruchirappalli in Tamil Nadu at around 10:45am.

The flight landed safely at Thiruvananthapuram at around noon, an Air India spokesperson said. The airline also said there were 154 passengers on the flight and that it was a precautionary landing.

"Flight IX613, operating between Tiruchirappalli and Sharjah on 31 July 2023, made a precautionary landing at Thiruvananthapuram International Airport. The decision was taken due to a technical snag post-takeoff. The airline clarifies that this was not an emergency landing. We regret the inconvenience caused to guests on board. Our team is making alternative arrangements for their travel, the Air India Express spokesperson said.

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The Karnataka government is planning to launch its own ride-hailing mobile application for auto rickshaws and taxis on the lines of Ola and Uber, transport minister Ramalinga Reddy said on Friday. Bengaluru: Transport minister Ramalinga Reddy said that the new app will be launched in five months. (HT Photo)

The decision was made following a series of meetings with representatives from various transport unions, including autos, taxis, among others. The representatives voiced concerns about existing aggregators charging excessive commissions on rides, leading to minimal revenue for the drivers.

A decision has been made to develop an application similar to Ola and Uber as the autorickshaw drivers and cab drivers are facing a lot of issues due to high commissions, Reddy said, addressing the media in Bengaluru.

Reddy stressed that the primary intention behind the initiative is to safeguard the interest of the commuters, auto rickshaw drivers and cab drives. The new app will be launched in five months, he added.

In addition to the new app, the transport minister also disclosed plans to set up auto stands at all metro stations in collaboration with Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation (BMRCL), with an aim of improving accessibility for commuters and drivers alike.

Recently, representatives of over 35 unions of private buses, cabs and auto operators, held a meeting with Reddy regarding their various demands. The federation had put forth about 30 issues, including the losses incurred due to the implementation of the Shaki scheme, ban on illegal bike taxis in Bengaluru among others.

Federation of Karnataka Private Transport Associations had postponed the Bengaluru bandh called on July 27, after Reddy assured them of fulfilling their demands.

Last year, the Auto Rickshaw Drivers Union (ARDU) had launched a ride-hailing app called Namma Yatri, amid the tussle between the transport department and ride-hailing giants, Ola and Uber, which were accused of charging exorbitant fees to customers.

ARDUs Namma Yatri went live on November 1 last year, in partnership with Beckn Foundation, backed by Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani.

It connects customers directly to auto drivers, aims to tap into the market with affordable fares for customers by removing the middlemen. The app has garnered popularity among the commuters in Bengaluru. Fares are determined based on the governments fixed price list, and each trip incurs a booking charge of 10. Additionally, drivers have the provision to increase the booking charge up to 30.

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Around 500 people in over 40 vehicles and on foot looted arms and ammunition, including assault rifles and mortars, after attacking an Indian Reserve Battalion (IRB) camp at Naranseina in ethnic violence hit Manipurs Bishnupur district on Thursday, officials said on Friday. Paramilitary personnel in Manipur. (ANI)

In his complaint at Moirang police station, 2nd IRB battalion quarter master O Premananda Singh said the attackers overpowered the sentry at the main gate and the quarter guard after descending on the camp around 9:45am.

They broke two of the doors of battalion armed Kote [armoury] and looted a large number of arms, ammunition, munitions, and other accessories...320 rounds of ammunition and 20 tear smoke shells were fired to control the mob, the complaint said.

An annexure listing the number of arms and ammunition looted said they included assault rifles, pistols, magazines, mortars, detonators, hand grenades, bombs, carbines, light machine guns, and over 19,000 rounds of ammunition.

One AK series assault rifle, 25 INSAS rifles, 4 Ghatak rifles, 5 INSAS LMGs, 5 MP-5 rifles, 124 hand grenades, 21 SMC carbines, 195 SLRs, 16 9mm pistols, 134 detonators, 23 GF rifles, 81 51mm HE bombs were among the arms looted.

Security forces separately fired tear gas shells and prevented mobs, which included women, on Thursday from storming a Manipur Rifles battalion at Kabo Leikai and Khabeisoi areas in Imphal East district and the Singjamei police station.

Mobs have stormed police stations and armouries and looted around 4,000 weapons and 500,000 rounds of ammunition since ethnic violence between the dominant Metei and Kuki communities was triggered on May 3. The violence has claimed 150 lives and displaced close to 50,000 people.

Authorities were able to recover only around 1,000 of the arms until the end of last month.The fresh arms loot in Bishnupur came amid tightened security in the region on the day a proposed mass burial of Kuki victims of the violence in neighbouring Churachandpur was postponed for a week.

The opposition of Meitei groups to the burials prompted the authorities to enhance security in Imphal, Bishnupur, and Churachanpur. Talks through the night between the Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum (ITLF), security forces, the state government, and the Union home ministry led postponement of the burials. The Manipur high court ordered status quo ante at the burial site.

At least 30 women suffered minor injuries when Meitei groups opposed to the mass burial attempted to cross barricaded zones into Churachandpur and threw stones at personnel of the Assam Rifles and Rapid Action Force who used tear gas shells to disperse the mob.

On Monday, ITLF, a conglomerate of Kuki organisations, announced the burial of 35 victims near the homes of displaced Meiteis. At least 87 bodies have been lying unclaimed in hospitals in Imphal and Churachandpur.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Utpal Parashar Utpal is a Senior Assistant Editor based in Guwahati. He covers seven states of North-East India and heads the editorial team for the region. He was previously based in Kathmandu, Dehradun and Delhi with Hindustan Times. ...view detail
A large cache of arms --- 235 assault rifles, 21 sub-machine guns and 16 pistols --- and ammunition --- 19,000 rounds of bullets and 124 hand-grenades --- was looted from an armoury and a Manipur rifles personnel succumbed to his injuries, officials said on Friday as violence flared afresh in strife-torn Manipur. Ethnic tensions between the two ethnic groups have plunged Manipur into an unending episode of armed conflict, with at least 150 people dead. (ANI)

Two other people suffered gunshot injuries as well, as tensions surged on Thursday after the Kuki group, Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum (ITLF), announced a mass burial of 35 bodies of victims killed in the violence, which was opposed by Meitei Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI).

Ethnic tensions between the two ethnic groups have plunged Manipur into an unending episode of armed conflict, with at least 150 people dead. The Meitei groups said the mass burial was an act of provocation, triggering a standoff that was resolved only after hectic parleys with both groups by the state government, the Union ministry of home affairs, and a High Court order that directed status quo be maintained at the burial site.

But before the situation was defused, a mob of close to 500 armed people arrived in 40-45 vehicles to lay siege at the headquarters of the 2nd battalion of the India Reserve Battalion in Bishnupur. After overpowering the sentry at the main gate as well as the quarter guard, they broke two of the doors and looted large number of arms, ammunition, munitions and other accessories...During the incident 320 rounds of ammunition and 20 tear smoke shells were fired to control the mob, said a police complaint filed on the incident.

An annexure listing the arms and ammunition showed that what was looted included 19,000 rounds of ammunition, 1 AK series assault rifle, 25 INSAS rifles, 4 Ghatak rifles, 5 INSAS light machine guns, 5 MP-5 rifles, 124 hand grenades, 21 SMC carbines, 195 SLR rifles, and 16 9-mm pistols.

Police officials said that among the crowd were people that had gathered to march towards Churachandpur to protest the mass burial planned by the Kuki ITLF, despite it being called off by 9:30 am after the MHAs intervention.

Several other clashes too took place when people in the valley who planned to march to the mass burial, and were stopped by Army and RAF personnel who fired tear gas shells.

There were at least three other attempts by mobs to loot armouries on Thursday itself that were all repelled, including those of the Manipur Rifles Battalions in Kabo Leikai and Khabeisoi as well as the Singjamei police station.

The dead rifleman was identified on Friday as 48-year-old Tourangbam Rishikumar, of the 6th battalion of the Manipur Rifles, who was injured in a strike by armed assailants in Sekmai.

Rishikumar, who was stationed at a water supply tank to guard the villages near Senjam Chirang, was rushed to a hospital in Imphal, but succumbed to his injuries.

Manipur police officials said, Security forces retaliated the firing and repelled the miscreants. The security personnel succumbed to his injury. Joint security forces conducted operations in Koutruk hill range and destroyed seven illegal bunkers.

In a separate incident, 35-year-old Wahida Bibi of Kwakta in Bishnupur district also sustained bullet injuries when she was in her own kitchen after firing between unidentified groups erupted around 4:30 pm on Thursday.

Manipur has been in the throes of ethnic clashes between Meitei and Kuki communities since May 3 which have claimed over 150 lives, injured over 300 and left 50,000 displaced. A running theme of the violence have been attempts at looting weapons with more than 4,000 weapons and 500,000 rounds of ammunition stolen over the past three months. The police had only been able to recover around a thousand of these till July 31, police officers said.

Government officials relaxed curfew that had been imposed in Imphal East and West on Thursday for seven hours on Friday, but admitted that the situation was still tense.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Utpal Parashar Utpal is a Senior Assistant Editor based in Guwahati. He covers seven states of North-East India and heads the editorial team for the region. He was previously based in Kathmandu, Dehradun and Delhi with Hindustan Times. ...view detail
Kerala police on Thursday arrested a migrant labourer on charges of sexually assaulting a four-year-old girl in the Chelari area in the states Malappuram district. (Representative Photo)

Police said the minor girl is also the daughter of a migrant worker.

The accused, a marble worker, is a native of Madhya Pradesh, police said, adding that he was arrested based on a complaint filed by the minor girls mother.

According to the complaint filed by the mother, the accused sexually assaulted the four-year-old at her residence after enticing her with a soft drink. We took him into custody yesterday and recorded his arrest after the minor identified him, TK Sreenivasan, Tirurangadi Police station house officer, told reporters.

Police said the accused has been working in Chelari for the past one year, and they would ascertain if he has criminal cases registered against him in his home state.

The incident comes days after a five-year-old daughter of migrant workers was raped and killed allegedly by a migrant worker near Aluva in Ernakulam district.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Vishnu Varma Vishnu Varma is Assistant Editor and reports from Kerala for the Hindustan Times. He has 10 years of experience writing for print and digital platforms and has worked at The New York Times, NDTV and The Indian Express in the past. He specialises in longform reportage at the intersections of politics, crime, social commentary and environment. ...view detail
A 36-year-old migrant labourer from Madhya Pradesh was arrested on charges of sexually assaulting a four-year-old girl in Chelari in Malappuram district of Kerala, police said on Friday. Police said they would ascertain if the accused has criminal cases registered against him in his home state Madhya Pradesh. He has been in Chelari in Malappuram district for the past three years. (HT Archives)

According to the complaint filed by the minor girls mother, the accused, a native of Madhya Pradesh, sexually assaulted the four-year-old at her residence after enticing her with a soft drink on Thursday. The accused is a marble worker. We took him into custody yesterday and recorded his arrest after the minor identified him, TK Sreenivasan, Tirurangadi police station SHO, told reporters.

The survivor is the daughter of migrant workers who hail from the same town as the accused in Madhya Pradesh.

Police said they would ascertain if the accused has criminal cases registered against him in his home state. He has been in Chelari for the past three years.

An officer at the Tirurangadi police station, where the case was filed, said an FIR under section 376 (rape) of the IPC and relevant sections under the Pocso Act has been filed against the accused. He will be produced before a magistrate soon.

The incident comes days after a five-year-old daughter of migrant workers was raped and killed allegedly by a migrant worker near Aluva in Ernakulam district. The accused, hailing from Bihar, was arrested in that case.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Vishnu Varma Vishnu Varma is Assistant Editor and reports from Kerala for the Hindustan Times. He has 10 years of experience writing for print and digital platforms and has worked at The New York Times, NDTV and The Indian Express in the past. He specialises in longform reportage at the intersections of politics, crime, social commentary and environment. ...view detail
Opposition leaders across party lines welcomed Supreme Court's decision to put a stay on Rahul Gandhi's conviction in a criminal defamation case for his Modi surname remark. They also slammed the BJP's negative politics.

The SC bench observed that Gandhi's conviction on the issue has wider ramification since it will also affect the right of those who elected him. He was earlier convicted by a local court in Gujarat's Surat under a criminal defamation charge over a remark made by him during an election rally in 2019. He asked, "How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname?"

West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee said the decision by the apex body will further strengthen the resolve of the INDIA alliance to unitedly fight for our motherland and win.

I am happy with the news about the MP-ship of @RahulGandhi This will further strengthen the resolve of the INDIA alliance to unitedly fight for our motherland and win. A victory of the judiciary! she wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav quipped and said the SC verdict has boosted people's faith in the Indian democracy and judiciary.

By staying the sentence of Rahul Gandhi, the Supreme Court has boosted people's faith in Indian democracy and judiciary. The arrogant flag of BJP's negative politics should bow today in mourning of his moral demise, he wrote in Hindi.

Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Manoj Jha alleged that there was an attempt to keep Rahul's voice away from the Parliament and claimed that the same could have been practiced on other leaders of the country.

Jammu and Kashmir People's Democratic Party (JKPDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti called the Rahul Gandhi's earlier conviction a case with no legs to stand upon.

I welcome the SC verdict staying @RahulGandhis conviction in a case that had no legs to stand upon. Glad that he will be back in Parliament fighting for the idea of India," she wrote on X.

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After the Supreme Court stayed the conviction of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in the defamation case over Modi surname remark on Friday, the latter said that his duty of protecting the idea of India remains the same and would continue to do so. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. (PTI)

Follow Rahul Gandhi case LIVE Updates here

"Come what may, my duty remains the same. Protect the idea of India," he said on X (formerly Twitter), following the apex court's ruling, granting him relief by staying his conviction by a Surat lower court.

The Congress leader was also accorded a grand welcome by the party workers at the All India Congress Committee headquarter in New Delhi. Congress has been celebrating the Supreme Court's decision to stay Gandhi's conviction in the defamation case, that costed him the MP seat. The party hailed the decision as "strong vindication of truth" adding that the Constitution has been upheld and the BJP's "conspiratorial hounding of Gandhi has been thoroughly exposed".

The Supreme Court while passing the interim order said that a person in public life is expected to exercise caution while making public speeches. It further said that ramifications of the trial courts order are wide, the Congress leader ought to have been more careful.

Read here: 'Will continue legal battle': Complainant BJP MLA on SC relief to Rahul Gandhi

Trial judge has awarded maximum sentence of two years. Except for the admonition by Supreme Court, no other reason has been granted for this by the trial judge forwarding a maximum of two years of the sentence. It is to be noted only on account of this maximum sentence, provisions of the Representation of People Act have come into play. Had the sentence been a day lesser, provisions would not have been attracted, the bench stated in its order.

Gandhi was sentenced to two years imprisonment by a Surat local court which disqualified him as MP from Keralas Wayanad on March 24 following notification of the Lok Sabha Secretariat, under the rigours of the Representation of People Act.

The Lok Sabha speaker can now revive his membership on his own or Gandhi, armed with the top court order, seek restoration of his status as an MP.

Read here: Lion will once again roar in parliament: Congress after Supreme Court's verdict on Rahul Gandhi in defamation case

Former Gujarat minister Purnesh Modi had filed the case against Rahul Gandhi over his "How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname?" remark made during an election rally in Karnataka Kolar in 2019.
NEW DELHI: Petroleum and natural gas minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Friday criticised opposition parties for offering subsidies that are not targeted in states rules by them and for disrupting proceedings in Parliament. Union minister Hardeep Puri arrives at the Parliament House during Monsoon session in New Delhi (PTI File)

Puri pointed to the levels of bankruptcy in many states while noting that there might be good intentions behind subsidies in areas such as transport and energy. During an interaction with journalists to highlight the achievements of the Modi government over the past nine years in foreign and trade policy, he also pointed to the way some neighbouring countries such as Sri Lanka are struggling with debt.

A subsidy has to be targeted at those who are the most vulnerable, it has to be targeted in a manner that it brings relief, but a subsidy cannot get entrenched for all time [as it will lead to the] killing of all competition, he said.

Asked about the opposition raising sectarian tensions in Manipur and Haryana within Parliament, Puri said: In a democracy, opposition must be allowed to speak, but I think theyve made up their mind that theyre going to be in the opposition for all their lives.

The value of Parliament lies in the oppositions ability to put us on the mat, but these parties had created hurdles for themselves by laying preconditions when the government offered to have a discussion on issues such as the situation in Manipur, he said. If you want to run a country, there is no other way than the Modi way, which is you take responsibility and you bite the bullet in terms of taking the hard decision to do it, he added.

Puri, who also holds the housing and urban affairs portfolio, listed numerous achievements of the NDA government and its plans to make India a developed nation by 2047. In the realm of trade policies, he said free trade agreements (FTAs) signed in the past had fundamental flaws, including loosely framed provisions for rules of origin.

Without naming China, Puri suggested one major supplier had been able to take advantage of these provisions on rules of origin and this had impacted manufacturing industries across the world and made them vulnerable.

Responding to a question on Indias purchases of discounted Russian crude and the possibility of a cut in fuel prices, Puri said the country will continue to do well if we are able to play the market card. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has cut production from 102 million barrels per day (bpd) to 97 million bpd, and the discounts offered by Moscow were no longer as high as they were when India ramped up purchases of Russian crude, he said.

Puri also spoke of Indias plans to bolster its refining capacity, which currently stands at 252 million metric tonnes a year, with another 50 million metric tonnes in the pipeline. There are also plans to expand this figure to about 450 million metric tonnes a year.

India is set to become one of the worlds largest producers in this sector and it is already the fourth largest refining hub. With the focus on the reduction of fossil fuels, refineries wont produce just petrol and diesel but also green hydrogen, he said.

Puri also spoke of the governments other achievements in foreign trade policy, ranging from improved ties with countries in West Asia to the focus on the Global South, in terms of sharing resources and capacity. He also pointed to India being held up by others as the bright spot in the global economy, with the countrys growth rate expected to be between 6.1% and 6.5% in 2023-24.
The Opposition and the government on Friday appeared to have returned to an impasse over the issue of discussing the situation in Manipur in the Rajya Sabha, with the former turning down the latters offer of a response by Union home minister Amit Shah on August 11, which is the last day of the session. MPs welcome Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar as he arrives in the House during the Monsoon session of Parliament, in New Delhi, Friday.(PTI)

Also Read| Parliament logjam may end as Centre, Opposition aim for middle path

The Opposition has demanded that a discussion on the pressing issue be held in the earlier part of the week beginning Monday, after having climbed down from its insistence that Prime Minister Narendra Modi speak on the matter.

According to a government functionary, the discussion and the ministers reply have been scheduled for the last day of the session, since the matter will be taken up by both the Houses. The HM will be required to be present in the Lok Sabha on Monday, where there is a bill scheduled. Then there is the discussion on the no-confidence motion scheduled for August 8-10; that leaves the HM free only on Friday, the functionary said, asking not to be named.

Also Read| Parliament approves offshore minerals bill

On Thursday, opposition parties, pushing for a discussion on the situation in Manipur where ethnic violence since May 3 has left hundreds dead and thousands displaced, offered what they called a middle path by suggesting that the discussion on the issue be held under Rule 167. A motion under the rule, which if admitted by the House, allows for passing a resolution, preceded by the ministers reply.

The Opposition had initially been adamant on having a discussion on the issue under Rule 267 and pushed for a statement by the PM.

Responding to the governments offer, Congress chief whip Jairam Ramesh tweeted: Yesterday INDIA parties offered a middle path solution to the Modi government to enable the smooth functioning of the Rajya Sabha. We said let us have a mutually negotiated Motion on Manipur under Rule 167 and start a discussion on it. Modi government appeared to agree but indicated that the earliest that the discussion could take place was only on Friday, Aug 11th. This shows the government is not serious.

The Congress leader went on to say, ...The discussion should ideally have taken place today for which INDIA parties were ready or very soon  on Monday or Tuesday. We are very serious about the middle path, finding a solution, but clearly the Modi government is not. So much for our sincere efforts.

Those in the government, however, criticised the opposition for politicising the issue and said the objection to a discussion on the last day of the session was not tenable. The government was keen on discuss the issue, the chair said there would be no time limits. Even, now we are saying that if they want to extend the session by a day, we are ready, said the functionary quoted above.

The Opposition parties met on Sunday for their strategy meeting and decided that in the Lok Sabha, they will not participate in any legislative business. Our participation will only be restricted to the no-confidence motion in the Lower House, said a senior leader.

In the Rajya Sabha, the Opposition will not accept a debate on Manipur on the last day of the session. They are now devising a plan to use the discussion on the Delhi bill on Monday to put forward their views on Manipur.

The India alliance will find ways within the rules of parliament to expose the Modi government on Manipur while speaking on the Delhi bill, said Trinamool Congress leader Derek OBrien.

On Friday, two senior Opposition leaders also met Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar. Leader of the Rajya Sabha Piyush Goyal was also present. In the meeting, the government indicated that the pending notices under Rule 176 will be taken up and no any notice under Rule 167.

The two sides sparred over the issue in the Rajya Sabha as well.

Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge said the discussion under Rule 167 should be admitted as there is a complete breakdown of law and order in the state.

This was following the demand from within the government to take up the issue of crimes against women in Congress-ruled Rajasthan. The opposition protested and Kharge said the issue pertaining to Rajasthan should be taken up in the state assembly.

The house was adjourned amid protests from both sides, even as Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar said he has earlier ruled that the Constitution permits the Upper House to discuss everything. No issue or individual cant be discussed in this House, he said.

The House was eventually adjourned for the day after the government side pushed for taking up the issue of the alleged killing of a girl in Rajasthan, whose body was recovered from a coal furnace in Bhilwara district.

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Ramdas Athawale of the Republican Party of India (Athawale) on Friday dismissed his party leader Masoom Kishor's claim that Seema Haider, a Pakistani national who illegally entered India in May, might join his party. Union minister Athawale said there was no question of inducting the Pakistani woman into his party. Seema Haider and Ramdas Athawale.

Our party has no relations with Seema Haider. She has come from Pakistan to India...There is no question of including her in our party... Masoom Kishor didn't consult me before making the statement. If after all, we have to give her a ticket then it will be a ticket from India to Pakistan, Athawale said.

According to a report by a Hindi news channel, Haider was invited by the RPI, an ally of the NDA, to join the party.

Masoom reportedly said Haider will be made the president of the party's women's wing. She could also be made the official spokesperson of the party, considering her fluency in Hindi and English languages.

Even the party has talked about getting Haider to contest the election on the symbol of the Republican Party of India. The officials of the RPI said they were waiting for Haider to get a clean chit in the investigation by the security agencies.

Earlier, reports also claimed that Haider was likely to get featured in the movie. Haider has reportedly auditioned for a role in a movie named, "A Tailor Murder Story". The film revolves around the murder of Udaipur-based tailor Kanhaiya Lal by Islamic radicals.

HT could not independently confirm these news developments.

Seema Haider's plea to President Droupadi Murmu

Earlier, Haider, who entered sneaked into India without a visa, has filed a mercy petition with President Droupadi Murmu requesting that she, along with her four children, be allowed to stay at her "matrimonial home" in Greater Noida.

Haider has also urged for an oral hearing from the president in her case.

The petition, filed on her behalf by Supreme Court advocate AP Singh, was received at the President's secretariat.

In the petition, Haider (30) states that she is in love with Sachin Meena (22) who lives in Greater Noida and she came to India with her four children to live with him. The Pakistani citizen claims she has converted to Hinduism and got married to Meena as per Hindu rites and rituals at the Pashupatinath temple in Kathmandu, Nepal.

"...Hon'ble madam, petitioner has found peace, love and happiness and a sense of purpose with Sachin Meena as a beloved husband, his father as father-in-law and his mother as mother-in-law that the petitioner never had before. Her excellency, (the) petitioner begs you to believe the petitioner and show compassion to a lady, not highly educated," Haider stated.

"If you show mercy, the petitioner will spend the rest of her life with her husband, four minor children and matrimonial relative will be grateful that you gave chance to make something of myself and to be a source of strength and support matrimonial petitioner can. The petitioner will finally be able to live a life with dignity in India...," she stated in the petition.

Haider, who hails from Sindh province in Pakistan, says she got in touch with Meena while playing online game PUBG in 2019-20 and eventually the two talked over Whatsapp and Instagram before falling in love with each other.

She entered India illegally along with her four children on a bus via Nepal on May 13. She says she had come to live with Meena, who stays in the Rabupura area of Greater Noida.

On July 4, Haider was arrested by local police for entering India illegally and Meena was held for sheltering illegal immigrants. However, they both were granted bail by a local court on July 7 and have been living together along with her four children in a house in Rabupura.

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Parliament monsoon session Highlights: Parliament on Friday witnessed another day of disruption after both Houses were adjourned within minutes till 12 pm as leaders clashed over a number of issues, including the violence in Manipur. Rajya Sabha was later adjourned till 11 am, Monday, amid sloganeering from the Opposition. MPs in Lok Sabha during the ongoing Monsoon Session of Parliament House. (ANI)

On Thursday, the government and the Opposition had made attempts to break the deadlock with a middle path to a solution.

Meanwhile, the party floor leaders of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (I.N.D.I.A) held a meeting on Friday at 10 am in the office of the Leader of the opposition in Rajya Sabha in Parliament to chalk out the strategy for the floor of the house.

Read: PM Modi, you still havent come to Parliament even for: Derek O'Brien's jibe

The opposition leaders have been demanding a full-fledged discussion on the issue including a statement by the prime minister in the Parliament. Both houses -- Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha -- have seen repeated adjournments amid massive ruckus by the opposition leaders.

On the 11th day of the monsoon session, The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023, the Centre's contentious ordinance on the control of services in the capital, was passed in Lok Sabha.

The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2023, introduced by union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, faced stiff opposition with leaders protesting that the bill violates the fundamental right to privacy. They demanded that the bill should be sent to the standing committee for scrutiny.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to share pictures of letters he received from women in Delhi's Kalkaji who expressed their gratitude for the pucca houses they received through a government housing scheme. The letters were handed over to external affairs minister S Jaishankar during his visit to the locality. These flats have been constructed at a cost of about  345 crore and are equipped with all civic amenities, including finishing with vitrified floor tiles, ceramic tiles, and Udaipur green marble counters in the kitchen, among others.

In the letters, the women conveyed their happiness at finally having a safe and permanent place to call their own. Many of them mentioned that their long-cherished dreams of owning a house had become a reality, and they now had a clean and comfortable environment to raise their families.

Thank you for giving us the flat with neat and clean environment to raise our future generation. Thank you for the vaccination during Covid, thank you Modiji, one of the letters read.

Greetings, my name is Kusum Lata. I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to you, Prime Minister Modi, for the support and kindness you have shown to me and my children. For several years, we resided in Bhoomiheen Camp, but we now have a place to call our own - a safe and comfortable house. Your generosity has touched our lives in ways beyond words, and we are eternally thankful for the shelter and opportunity you have provided us, another said.

PM Modi, touched by the women's overwhelming response, thanked them for their letters and assured that the government would continue to work with the same commitment for the welfare of the poor. When the Foreign Minister @DrSJaishankar went there, the women handed over these letters to him, in which they expressed their happiness. She tells how through this scheme her years-old dream has come true and the life of the whole family has become easier. Many thanks to all of you for the letters! Our government will continue to work with the same commitment for the welfare of the poor, Modi tweeted.

Kalkaji under slum rehabilitation plan

Under the In-Situ Slum Rehabilitation Project, Modi has provided housing for all in-situ slum rehabilitation in 376 jhuggi jhopri clusters, which were undertaken by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA). The objective of the rehabilitation project is to offer a better and healthier living environment to the residents of the Jhuggi Jhopri clusters, with access to proper amenities and facilities.

The DDA has undertaken three such projects at Kalkaji Extension, Jailorwala Bagh, and Kathputli Colony. These flats have been constructed at a cost of about 345 crore and are equipped with all civic amenities, including finishing with vitrified floor tiles, ceramic tiles, and Udaipur green marble counters in the kitchen, among others.

Public amenities like community parks, electric sub-stations, sewage treatment plants, dual water pipelines, lifts, and underground reservoirs for hygienic water supply have also been provided. The allotment of flats will provide the people with ownership titles as well as a sense of security.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi will virtually lay the foundation stone for the redevelopment of 508 railway stations across the country on Sunday, August 6. Prime Minister Narendra Modi (File Photo)

This will be a historic move as this is the first time that a program of laying the foundation stone of such a huge number of stations is being conducted, a railways official said.

Railway officials said that the government aims to complete the work of these stations by 2025. Our internal target to complete redevelopment at these stations is by 2025, a senior official said.

The redevelopment work is being done under the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme. The cost of the redevelopment is projected at Rs.24,470 crore.

Union railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that the development of these stations is a major focus of the government. Our prime minister is personally monitoring the progress of these railway stations. He has given inputs in designs of these stations and will be laying the foundation of these 508 stations, he said.

These 508 stations are spread across 27 states and Union Territories, including 55 each in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, 49 in Bihar, 44 in Maharashtra, 37 in West Bengal, 34 in Madhya Pradesh, 32 in Assam, 25 in Odisha, 22 in Punjab, 21 each in Gujarat and Telangana, 20 in Jharkhand, 18 each in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, 15 in Haryana and 13 in Karnataka.

It is aimed to provide modern passenger amenities along with ensuring well-designed traffic circulation, inter-modal integration and well-designed signage for guidance of passengers, the Prime Ministers Office (PMO) said.

The design of these station buildings will be inspired by local culture, heritage, and architecture, it added.

Launched in February, the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme envisages the development of stations on a continuous basis with a long-term approach. It involves the preparation of master plans and their implementation in phases to improve the amenities at the stations.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Neha LM Tripathi I am a principal correspondent with the national political bureau of the Hindustan Times. I track the aviation and railways ministry. I also write on travel trends. I cover the beats at the national level for the newspaper. Before being in Delhi, I have worked as a journalist in Mumbai as well. My hobbies include trekking and travelling. ...view detail
In a big relief for Rahul Gandhi, the Supreme Court has granted a stay on the conviction of Congress leader in a defamation case. This conviction had previously resulted in his disqualification as a sitting Lok Sabha member of Parliament and raised doubts about his eligibility to contest in the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Rahul Gandhi.(AP)

The apex court's decision comes pending the final adjudication of Rahul Gandhi's appeal before the court. Notably, the court observed that the trial court had failed to provide adequate reasoning for imposing the maximum sentence of 2 years imprisonment on the Congress leader.

Rahul Gandhi Modi Surname Case follow LIVE Updates here

Rahul Gandhi, in his plea to the top court, argued that the complainant in the defamation case, Purnesh Modi, is not related to the Modi family and belongs to the Modh Vanika Samaj community. Also read | Rahul Gandhi's 'Modi surname' case timeline

SC stays Rahul Gandhi's conviction in defamation case | What it means for the Congress leader

Rahul Gandhi is entitled to return to Parliament from Monday. However, his reinstatement is subject to the issuance of a formal notice by the Lok Sabha Secretariat. The notice will say that his suspension from the Lok Sabha has been removed following the Supreme court decision. The Lok Sabha Secretariat has announced that it will consider revoking the suspension of Gandhi only upon receiving a copy of the Supreme Court order. A senior official from the Lok Sabha revealed that the order, once received, will undergo careful examination before a final decision is taken. Congress leader can now contest polls freely. Rahul Gandhi's Wayanad seat from Kerala has remained vacant post his disqualification as Lok Sabha Member of Parliament in March 2023. Rahul Gandhi's membership of Parliament has been fully restored. Earlier, on March 23, 2023, the Lok Sabha Secretariat had cancelled Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi's membership following his conviction and sentencing by a local court in Surat.

Rahul Gandhi defamation case

On March 23, a Gujarat magisterial court convicted Gandhi for his remarks on the Modi surname after Purnesh Modi filed a criminal complaint. The Congress leader was sentenced to two-year imprisonment, which disqualified him as an MP from Keralas Wayanad under the Representation of People Act on March 24, following a notification from the Lok Sabha Secretariat.

Gandhi approached the sessions court, which rejected his plea for a stay on his conviction on April 20, compelling him to approach the high court.

The April 20 order cited Gandhis stature as an MP and former chief of the countrys second-largest political party and said he should have been more careful in his comments.

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Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday said truth always triumphs, hours after the Supreme Court stayed his conviction in a 2019 defamation case over his purported remarks on Modi surname. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi with Priyanka Gandhi Vadra at the AICC headquarters, in New Delhi.(Sanjeev Verma/HT Photo)

Aaj nahi toh kal, kal nahi toh parson sachai ki jeet hoti hai (If not today, tomorrow truth will triumph). But my path is clear. I have clarity in my mind that what I have to do and what is my work. I thank the people who helped us. I also thank the people for their love and support, Gandhi said at the Congress briefing at the party headquarter.



ALSO READ: 'My duty remains the same', says Rahul Gandhi after Supreme Court relief



On Friday, the top court bench of justices B R Gavai, P S Narasimha, and Sanjay Kumar put a stay on the former Congress president's conviction in the defamation case filed by ex-Gujarat minister and BJP MLA Purnesh Modi. The BJP leader had filed the case against Gandhi over his "How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname?" remark made during an election rally in Kolar in Karnataka during the 2019 Lok Sabha election campaign.



During the presser, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge hailed the top court verdict, calling it a victory of democracy and constitution.



Rahul gandhi fights for truth, for India's development, against price rise, for creating awareness. I think we are showered with blessings of people of India. We have to see how much time they take to restore his membership. The distance between the Supreme Court and parliament is less than the distance between Surat and parliament, Kharge said.



ALSO READ: Rahul Gandhi eligible to return to Parliament as early as Monday

Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said,"It is the victory of truth and valour. We hope the BJP will shut down its special department that only targets other leaders and engages in mischief. We are ready and eager to listen to Rahul Gandhi on issues of common people".

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Celebrations erupted at the All India Congress Committee (AICC) headquarter in Delhi as the Supreme Court on Friday stayed the conviction of Rahul Gandhi, in the 2019 Modi surname case. Party workers held banners of Gandhi and were celebrating. Congress party workers celebrating outside AICC office in Delhi following the Supreme Court's interim order staying Rahul Gandhi's conviction on Friday. (ANI)

In a video shared by the news agency ANI, party workers gathered outside the AICC HQ with party flags and flexis of Rahul Gandhi. In another video, Congress MP Adhir Rajan, along with other Congress leaders, was seen celebrating the apex court's judgement outside the Parliament, raising slogans of victory. Victory, Victory! Rahul ji ki victory! they said.

After the Surat court convicted Gandhi and handed down a two-year sentence, he challenged the plea at the Gujarat High Court. However, on July 7, the high court in its order declined to stay his conviction. Gandhi then approached the Supreme Court.

Cong's Aa Raha Hoon warcry after relief to Rahul

The party welcomed the apex court's move, calling the judgment a strong vindication of truth and asserting that no force can silence the voice of the people.

Despite the relentless efforts of the BJP's machinery, Rahul Gandhi has refused to bend, break, or bow, choosing instead to place his faith in the judicial process, Congress general secretary in-charge of communications Jairam Ramesh said.

The Congress official Twitter handle shared a picture of Rahul Gandhi and captioned it, Aa Raha HunSawaal Jaari Rahenge which translates to coming... questions will continue.

Congress leader Supriya Shrinate said, We are very excited and happy because the lion will once again roar in the Parliament. Now, without any further delay, the Speaker should revoke the decision.

Congress leaders also said that they will officially write to the Speaker of the Lok Sabha to revoke the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi. He is then entitled to return to Parliament from Monday. However, his reinstatement is subject to the issuance of a formal notice by the Lok Sabha Secretariat.

What did BJP MLA Purnesh Modi who filed the case say

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Purnesh Modi, who filed the case against Rahul Gandhi for his remarks said he respects the decision of the top court but will continue the legal battle regarding the matter.

Today, the Supreme Court has stayed Rahul Gandhi's conviction. We welcome this verdict by the court. We will continue our legal battle in the court, said Purnesh Modi.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Lingamgunta Nirmitha Rao Trainee Content Producer at Hindustan Times Digital Stream. India's regional languages attract me. ...view detail
The Supreme Court on Friday granted a stay on Rahul Gandhi's conviction in a 2019 criminal defamation case related to his "Modi surname" comment. This paves the way for the restoration of his status as a Member of Parliament. Rahul Gandhi 'Modi surname' case timeline

Rahul Gandhi Modi Surname Case follow LIVE Updates here

Rahul Gandhi Modi Surname Case: Detailed Timeline

April 13, 2019: During his 2019 Lok Sabha election campaign in Karnataka's Kolar, Rahul Gandhi made a remark connecting the Modi surname with individuals involved in a theft. He questioned, "Why is it that the Modi surname is common among many individuals accused of theft?" Rahul Gandhi, however, said he referred to people like Nirav Modi while making this statement.

March 23, 2023: Rahul Gandhi was found guilty by a district court in Surat in the Modi surname case, resulting in a two-year jail sentence.

March 24: Following his conviction, Rahul Gandhi was disqualified from the Lok Sabha, as per the rule that prevents convicted individuals from holding parliamentary positions.

April 20: Rahul Gandhi's plea for a conviction stay was dismissed by the Surat sessions court. The court emphasized his role as an MP and former leader of a major political party, expecting greater diligence.

April 25: Rahul Gandhi escalated the matter, appealing to the high court to challenge the sessions court's decision.

May 3: The Gujarat high court declined interim relief for Rahul Gandhi, reserving the final verdict for post-summer vacation.

July 4: Post the conviction in Purnesh Modi's case, other defamation cases emerged against Rahul Gandhi. Rajya Sabha MP Sushil Kumar Modi filed one such case. The Patna high court suspended proceedings of the criminal defamation case until January 12, 2024. The Jharkhand high court also addressed another defamation case filed by advocate Pradeep Modi, barring any coercive actions against Rahul Gandhi until the next hearing on August 16.

July 7: The Gujarat high court declined to suspend Rahul Gandhi's conviction in the Modi surname case.

July 21: A Supreme Court bench of justices BR Gavai and PK Mishra issued notice on an appeal filed by Rahul Gandhi against a Gujarat high court order, fixing August 4 to hear his plea for staying the guilty verdict.

August 4: Supreme Court stays Rahul Gandhi's conviction in a criminal defamation case. This clears the way for the restoration of his status as an MP from Wayanad.

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Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is eligible to return to Parliament as early as Monday, two officials said as the Supreme Court on Friday stayed his conviction in a criminal defamation case and paved the way for the revival of his membership of the House. The officials added the Lok Sabha Secretariat has to issue a notice before the revival saying Gandhis suspension has been removed following the courts decision. The Lok Sabha Secretariat has to issue a notice before the revival of Gandhis membership. (Twitter)

The secretariat will consider revoking the suspension only after getting a copy of the court order. The order will be studied and then a decision will be taken, said a Lok Sabha official, requesting anonymity.

The secretariat in May revoked the disqualification of Lakshadweep member of Parliament (MP) Mohammad Faizal two months after the Kerala high court suspended his conviction and 10-year sentence in a criminal case.

The notice in Faizals case came ahead of the Supreme Courts hearing on his plea challenging the secretariats refusal to restore the membership despite the high court staying the conviction.

Gandhi is eligible to return a day before the two-day debate on the no-confidence against the government is scheduled to begin on Tuesday in the Lok Sabha followed by Prime Minister Narendra Modis reply on Thursday. The motion poses no threat to the government, which commands a majority in the Lower House. The Opposition has maintained it wants to use the debate to try and corner the government over the continuing violence in Manipur.

On July 20, 2018, the first no-confidence motion against the Modi government was defeated. Gandhi crossed to the treasury benches and hugged Modi during the debate on that motion.

The Supreme Court stayed Gandhis conviction on the grounds that the trial judge in Gujarat in March failed to explain why Gandhi deserved the maximum punishment in the case related to his comments on the Modi surname. It said the continuation of his disqualification would deprive the people of his constituency of a proper representation in Parliament.

A bench of justices BR Gavai and PS Narasimha said that Gandhi, who was elected as an MP from Keralas Wayanad in 2019, ought to have been more careful in making remarks due to his public standing. It said he was disqualified as an MP under the Representation of People Act only because of the two-year jail term and that even a day less would have saved his membership.

The court said it was imperative for the trial court to specify the reasons for handing him out the maximum punishment under the charge of defamation when the offence is categorised as bailable, non-cognisable, and compoundable.

The court clarified that the stay on Gandhis conviction would operate until the Gujarat sessions court, where his appeal against the conviction order of the Surat trial court is pending, finally decides the matter.

In an affidavit on Wednesday, Gandhi submitted in the Supreme Court that he would not apologise to settle the criminal defamation case Bharatiya Janata Partys Purnesh Modi filed against him over his remarks at a poll rally in 2019. He maintained that his conviction is unsustainable and that he has an excellent chance of success in his appeal.

The stay will also allow Gandhi to contest the national elections due next year.

Gandhi approached the top court last month, challenging the Gujarat high court order that refused to put on hold his conviction and the two-year jail term. The high court said the Congress leader breached modesty and that his offence involved moral turpitude.

Gandhi urged the top court to immediately stay his conviction to enable him to regain his MP status, arguing the conviction order would lead to throttling of free speech, free expression, free thought, and free statement.

It would contribute to the systematic, repetitive emasculation of democratic institutions and the consequent strangulation of democracy which would be gravely detrimental to the political climate and future of India.
The temple trust will hold the consecration ceremony at Ram Mandir in Ayodhya on January 21, 22, and 23 next year, a trust member said on Friday. The site of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. (Ravinder Singh/HH)

The trust members had earlier said they would be sending an official invite to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the event.

"The consecration ceremony of Ram Janmabhoomi will take place in the third week of January next year. Three dates  21, 22, and 23 of January have been fixed for the consecration ceremony. We will invite Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the ceremony which will also be attended by prominent sadhus and other dignitaries," Ram Mandir Trust General Secretary Champat Rai told PTI.

"The main event would be kept non-political. Guests from different political parties will also be invited, provided they have the intention to come. There will be no stage in the programme nor any public meeting," he said.

The trust plans to invite over 25,000 Hindu religious leaders of 136 Sanatan traditions for the ceremony.

A list of such saints is being prepared by the temple trust and soon an invitation letter will be sent to them with the signature of trust president Mahant Nritya Gopal Das, he said.

"The trust has planned to accommodate all prominent saints in the big monasteries of Ayodhya," Rai said.

These 25,000 saints will be separate from 10,000 "special guests" who will attend the consecration ceremony inside the premise of Ram Janmabhoomi.

The Bhoomi Pujan programme for temple was held on August 5, 2020 on a very limited scale due to the COVID-19 guidelines.

"The sanctum sanctorum of Ramlala is nearing completion. Now in the month of January the preparation for the grand event of 'Pran Pratishtha' is on in full swing," said Anil Misra, a temple trust member.

The trust is planning to provide free food for about a month to the devotees coming for the consecration ceremony in Ayodhya.

According to Rai, the trust would be feeding 75,000-1,00,000 people every day for the whole month of January.
AHMEDABAD: The financial and operational autonomy currently enjoyed by the Indian Institutes of Management might not be sustained indefinitely, renowned economist Dr Bakul Dholakia said in an interview with HT. Dr Dholakia, who was director of IIM-Ahmedabad during 2002-2007, spoke about how some of the top IIMs and their governing boards have, over the past six years, veered away from prioritizing the well-being of the institutes and suggested that while the boards currently hold decision-making authority, theres a possibility that some aspects of their autonomy could be diluted if their performance focus is compromised. Edited excerpts: Dr Bakul Dholakia was IIM-Ahmedabad director during 2002-2007

Why do you think the government decided to amend the Indian Institute of Management Act, that was enacted in 2017?

The intended purpose of the 2017 IIM Act was to transfer full autonomy to all the 20 IIMs, providing them unrestricted freedom with the purpose to promote institutional excellence. The 2017 Act aimed to allow them to take decisions independently for performance improvement, better governance, and improved operational effectiveness.

In the case of the bigger IIMs, protests and concerns from stakeholders, particularly faculty members, gained significance due to the inefficacy of the existing grievance redressal procedure. As a result, the governance structure within these institutes suffered a breakdown.

Despite being granted full autonomy, faculty members complaints against the institutes director were not appropriately addressed by the board. This lack of responsiveness and the chairmans blind faith in the director without exercising independent judgment further fueled discontent among the faculty and alumni. Consequently, the mounting pressure and dissatisfaction necessitated the government to act, which may have led to proposed modifications in the IIM Act.

So you are suggesting that the IIMs failed to effectively use the full powers that the 2017 Act gave them and hence they have been curtailed?

Yes. In light of the IIM Act enacted in 2017 to grant full autonomy to the IIMs, there are concerns about the need for amendments as certain institutes have faced challenges in fulfilling their intended objectives. Autonomy and accountability are interlinked, and while the IIM boards and the institute directors enjoy full freedom in their operations, there must be a framework for accountability which should be adopted by the board.

And to ensure accountability, specific parameters should be established to monitor performance on various aspects such as the introduction of new courses, new programmes, global rankings, research work, international reputation, faculty quality, and the institutes overall standing in the eyes of stakeholders and recruiters.

The IIM Act mandated an independent review of each institute every 3 years, which was to be conducted by eminent independent individuals who could objectively evaluate the institutes overall performance. The IIM Act specifies the review report must be presented to the board and after its approval should be placed in the public domain. The responsibility for implementing this clause this lies solely with the director and the chairman of the Board of Governors, with no involvement of the government in the process.

However, in the last six years, only IIM-Bangalore has conducted such a review.

Considering the substantial support provided by state governments in terms of free land and generous grants from the Centre in the initial stages, public accountability should be a hallmark of the IIM system. The director should be accountable to the board, and the board should be accountable to the people of India. Dilution of accountability has led to concerns among faculty members, alumni and other stakeholders.

Furthermore, the global rankings of top IIMs have not met the desired standards, prompting concerns about their effectiveness and competitiveness in the global arena. The IIM Bill was introduced with the intention to bolster the institutes overall performance and improve their global positioning and standing.

In 2009-10 IIM-Ahmedabad (IIM-A) ranked 11th in the FT (Financial Times) Rankings for the 1-year programme and 41st in the Economist Rankings for the 2-year programme. However, its current rankings have declined, with a position of 51 in FT Rankings and 99 in Economist Rankings. A decade ago, IIM-A was considered the best B-school in Asia, today it is no longer the best even in India   ISB is at the top in FT Rankings. One wonders whether the IIM boards are discussing the decline in performance of IIMs and looking for ways to improve performance in future. If the board does not monitor various parameters of performance, who else would do it?

Can you cite specific instances where challenges or issues have arisen since the passage of the IIM Act in 2017, potentially impacting the functioning of the premier institutes?

Take for instance, at IIM-Ahmedabad last year, the board decided to change the iconic logo (inspired by the lattice work of the Siddi Saiyyed Mosque in Ahmedabad) based on the directors proposal last year, which faced opposition from a group of faculty members and alumni.

Earlier in 2020, a proposal to demolish the heritage structures at IIM-A, starting with the iconic dorms designed by Louis Kahn, also sparked discontent among the faculty and alumni, leading them to approach the ministry for intervention. Despite protests and representations, both these proposals seem to have been implemented already.

In both cases, there seemed to be a lack of independent examination from a neutral perspective.

Similarly, at IIM-Calcutta, the appointment of a director from the US led to disagreements with some established faculty members, resulting in the curtailment of her powers by the board and an early exit from the position. The lack of transparency in the BoGs decision-making process raised concerns among the faculty members. and created avoidable unpleasant situation.

In the case of IIM-Rohtak, the director was re-appointed for a second term as the director, despite objections regarding his educational qualifications. The autonomy granted to the IIMs allowed them to take such decisions which further raises concerns about accountability and transparency.

These instances highlight the need for a more robust and transparent governance framework to ensure that decisions made by the boards of IIMs align with the intended principles of the IIM Act and prioritise the institutes reputation and welfare.

Will the IIM (Amendment) Bill politicise the appointment of chairman and institute directors?

Some people are concerned that the amendments may lead to political appointments. In my view, this apprehension is entirely misplaced. The new Bill requires prior approval from the Visitor for the appointment of IIM Directors and includes one Visitor-nominated member in the Search-cum-Selection Committee. It also changes the appointment process for the Chairperson of the Board, with the Visitor now nominating one individual. However, historical experience shows that the government has not used its power for making any political appointments in such positions. The objective of these changes seems to be to enhance transparency and neutrality in the selection process. The Visitors nominee is expected to be a well-recognized and respected professional capable of providing an independent view.

Currently, the chairmen of many IIMs are corporate leaders, and their influence may impact the selection process. The search committee, consisting of three board members and one external expert, may be swayed by the chairmans preference for a particular candidate, raising concerns that the director may become the chairmans nominee. By having a nominee appointed by the Visitor on the search committee, an independent voice which can influence the selection process can be introduced.

These amendments can empower the government to address specifically the appointments in non-performing IIMs while the better-performing ones will be continue to enjoy more autonomy.

The scenario needs to be viewed holistically, considering top IIMs and their inherent biases, leading them to be concerned about accountability. In case of IIM-A, an outgoing director was given a hefty bonus recently, something unprecedented. There is nothing wrong with it but what are the performances parameters used? How did the board evaluate the directors performance before deciding on performance bonus. This was obviously the case of using financial autonomy enjoyed by the board but the issue is whether use of financial autonomy should be limited to directors only.

Why should it not be used to reward top ranking teachers, researchers and administrators. Equality and fairness in the use of financial autonomy are essential.

Do you think the IIMs face further risk of losing their autonomy in future?

While this is the beginning of the era of amendments in the IIM Act, the IIMs still enjoy full financial and operational autonomy as the boards retain all the decision-making power. However, the significant increase in fees, without transparent cost audit reports, raises concerns among stakeholders. In last 12 years, fees have been hiked from 4 lakhs to 30 lakhs for a two-year MBA programme. The government has not yet questioned the IIMs autonomy in fee-setting, but it comes with the responsibility of ensuring accessibility through need-based scholarships. It is the responsibility of the board to ensure that high meritorious students from the economically backward section of the society get the need-based scholarship so they can pursue their dreams at IIMs. High fees should not compromise on inclusive and equal opportunities provided for all sections of the society.

If the boards dont deliver, they may end up losing part of their overall autonomy in future. There is a need to view the current state of amendments as a warning signal to ensure that the boards push the frontiers of accountability and focus on bringing about substantial improvements and overall performance of IIMs in future.
Rajasthan Congress leader Sachin Pilot has reacted strongly to the alleged rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl in the Bhilwara district and demanded stringent action against the culprits. Congress leader Sachin Pilot. (PTI file)

The girl was allegedly murdered and later burned in a coal furnace in Bhilwara district, police said on Thursday as the locals claimed that she was also gang-raped. Police have detained five people, who work at five coal furnaces in the area, in connection with the incident.

Locals alleged that the girl was gangraped before she was murdered and thrown into the furnace.

Reacting to the incident on Thursday night, Pilot said his heart was deeply disturbed by the news of brutality with the minor girl.

Any type of oppression on daughters-women is not acceptable. Stringent action should be taken against the culprits who commit such inhuman acts and the strictest punishment should be given to them and the victim's family should get justice soon. My deepest sympathies are with the victim's family, Pilot tweeted in Hindi.

Pilot's tweet comes days after hundreds of Bharatiya Janata Party workers staged a massive protest in Jaipur against the Ashok Gehlot-led Rajasthan government over the rise in crime against women.

Earlier, Rajendra Gudha, the sacked Rajasthan minister, also criticised the Ashok Gehlot-led government, alleging that the state has attained the dubious distinction of being ranked number one in crimes against women. Gudha is known as a loyalist to Pilot.

Last incident of crime against girl

On Wednesday, the teenage girl had gone to graze cattle but did not return home till evening following which the family members started searching for her, police said. Later in the night, the family members spotted the girls footwear near one of the five furnaces. On peeping inside, they found her bangle and a few bones.

Locals caught hold of a few people, suspecting their involvement in the crime, and handed them over to the police, officials said.

The detained people who live near the furnaces are being interrogated at the Kotri police station.

An FIR has been registered under sections of murder and gang-rape. Five suspects have been detained and being interrogated, SP Adarsh Sidhu said. IG Ajmer Lata Manoj Ajmer also reached Bhilwara and inspected the spot.

SHO of Kotri police station said that there were a total of five furnaces in a row and last night one of them was being operated without being fully covered, contrary to the normal practice.

The locals spotted a fire in one furnace. Usually, the furnace is fully covered but the furnace was opened from the side. They reached there and found the girls bangle and some bones, he said.

He said that barring the crime scene, four other furnaces were demolished today as they were illegally set up on government land.

BJP leader Kalulal Gurjar who reached the village and met the victim's family members alleged that the girl was raped and her body was burnt in the kiln.

Gurjar alleged that the police did not act promptly in the case and detained the suspected accused only after the villagers caught them. Police said they have not yet ruled out the possibility of rape in the matter, adding that further probe is on.

(With inputs from agencies)

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In a massive shake-up in the higher judiciary, the Supreme Court collegium has recommended transfers of at least 24 high court judges for better administration of justice. This is perhaps the highest number of transfers to be recommended by the Supreme Court collegium in one go. Supreme Court (HT Photo)

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At a meeting on Thursday, the collegium, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud and comprising four senior-most judges, proposed the transfer of judges from various high courts, including Punjab & Haryana, Telangana, Gujarat, Allahabad, Bombay, Andhra Pradesh and Patna.

The collegium, comprising justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Sanjiv Khanna, BR Gavai and Surya Kant, took into account the inputs received from the consultee judges. Consultee judges are those in the top court who have earlier served in the high courts where the judges being considered for elevation or transfer are currently posted.

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According to people aware of the details, the proposal for a major reshuffle in high courts was in the pipeline for a few weeks, and all inputs were verified before making the recommendations. All the high court judges proposed to be transferred have also been sent letters seeking their views. According to the convention, judges to be shifted out are asked for their views though the final decision rests with the collegium if someone seeks a reconsideration.

Article 222 of the Constitution makes provisions for the transfer of a judge, including the chief justice, from one high court to another. The memorandum of procedure (MoP), which guides the appointments and posting of the constitutional court judges, lays down that all transfers are to be made in public interest i.e. for promoting better administration of justice throughout the country.

MoP provides that after the recommendation of a transfer is received from the Chief Justice of India, the Union law minister submits the recommendation along with relevant papers to the Prime Minister, who then advises the President on the transfer of the judge concerned. On July 13, the Union government notified the transfer of three high court judges after sitting over the collegiums recommendations for over seven months.

The delay in notifying the transfers of judges was viewed seriously by the Supreme Court during its proceedings in January and February, when it took up a contempt plea against delays by the Union government in appointing judges.

At the time, a bench led by justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul took strong exception to the government sitting over almost a dozen recommendations pertaining to the transfer of high court judges, making it clear that any delay in transfers may result in administrative and judicial actions which may not be palatable.

Warning the government against any third-party interference in the transfer cases, the bench at that time told attorney general R Venkataramani that the judicial work of the judges  proposed to be transferred  could be withdrawn if the recommendations are not implemented soon. It added that lack of consistency in the time taken by the Centre to notify the recommendations was creating issues of faith between the judiciary and the executive.

The top courts comments came at a time when the judiciary and the executive were locked in a tussle over judicial appointments. Then law minister Kiren Rijiju issued a series of statements, criticising the manner in which the collegium functioned and questioning the division of powers between the two organs.

Between December and February, the top court, in a series of judicial proceedings, responded with reminders to the government that the collegium system is the law of the land that must be followed by the government to a T, while saying that the Centre had delayed a number of decisions without giving adequate reasons.

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The Supreme Court on Friday told former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia seeking interim bail for his wifes failing health condition to wait for a month as it found her condition to be stable and agreed to consider the matter after September 4 when his regular bail plea will also be heard in the two cases probed by the enforcement directorate (ED) and central bureau of investigation (CBI) over alleged discrepancies in the Delhi excise policy. AAP leader and former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia. (File Photo)

A bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and SVN Batti also asked the ED to explain how the money trail involving Sisodia was made out. The bench said, You have cited his role in the policy decision and on tampering of evidence, you say one file is missing. We need a clear picture of how the money trail is established. From a reading of your affidavit, it does not become clear.

Sisodia had moved the top court challenging two separate orders passed by the Delhi high court on July 4 and May 30 denying him bail in the ED and CBI cases respectively. He had additionally sought interim bail on account of prolonged illness of his wife, who suffers from an auto-immune disease for which she is receiving treatment since the year 2000. On Friday, the matter was placed only for consideration of interim bail.

Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi appearing with advocate Vivek Jain for the senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader produced latest medical reports of July 29 suggesting that his wifes condition was deteriorating as she was gradually experiencing loss of vision, restricted walking condition and diminishing bowel movement. As there was nobody else in the family to take care of her, Sisodia requested the Court on humanitarian grounds to release him on bail for at least two weeks.

The bench said, This is a stable condition. We will take this plea after some time. The Court ordered to re-list the matter along with the pending petitions by Sisodia for regular bail in the week commencing September 4.

The Court also observed that the disease of multiple sclerosis can have serious consequences too. Sisodias wife was discharged from hospital on July 3. This disease has its own consequences as there are health conditions which can become bad, the bench said.

The ED was represented by additional solicitor general (ASG) SV Raju who claimed that Sisodia played a crucial role in the liquor scam. The ED opposed his release as it was Sisodia who facilitated generation of proceeds of crime by favouring South lobby in the monopolisation and cartelisation of liquor sales in the Capital.

ED further suggested that his wife be examined by a team of doctors at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) to know her latest condition. The bench refused saying, You (ED) can get her papers examined. If she is already going to a reputed doctor, why should we suggest that the doctor be changed.

The CBI had arrested Sisodia on February 26 after an FIR was registered against him in August 2022 under Indian Penal Code Section 120B (criminal conspiracy) read with Section 477A (falsification of accounts) and Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act (illegal gratification) in connection with irregularities in framing and implementation of the excise policy of Delhi for the year 2021-22. It was under Sisodia, the 2021-22 excise policy was introduced in November 2021.

In his petition, Sisodia claimed that the chargesheet has already been filed by the CBI and the charges against him are punishable with less than 7 years imprisonment with other co-accused already on bail. In the ED case, the former Delhi deputy CM said that the probe conducted so far has not traced any proceeds of crime to him and in the absence of any evidence to link him with alleged money laundering, he deserves to be granted bail.

While declining bail in the CBI case, HC noted that due to the high political positions held by the accused and his position in the party in power in Delhi, the possibility of influencing the witnesses cannot be ruled out.

In April, even the trial court rejected him bail as it observed that based on the evidence collected so far, it could be clearly inferred that the applicant (Sisodia) was related to the generation of proceeds of crime of around 100 crores in the form of kickbacks which were paid by the South lobby to the co-accused Vijay Nair, who is Aam Aadmi Partys (AAP) communication in-charge.
NEW DELHI: The government and its institutions should not make judiciary dysfunctional by their sheer volume of litigation, the Supreme Court observed on Friday while dismissing a petition by government-owned telecom company Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL). The Supreme Court rebuked BSNL for filing its appeal against a  9 lakh award (AFP)

The amount of litigation we have to face from the government and its institutions...its just a lot. Why should the BSNL come up till the Supreme Court in an arbitral award of 9 lakh? a bench, headed by Chief Justice of India Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud, asked the BSNL lawyer.

The bench, also comprising justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, also pointed out that a single-judge bench as well as a division bench of the Madras high court has already affirmed the arbitral award in favour of the other side -- the RITES Ltd, which is also a public sector undertaking (PSU). The award was with respect to an agreement of consultancy services that BSNL entered into with the RITES.

The lawyer representing BSNL said that the issue is not just about 9 lakh but that the central PSU under the Union telecom ministry will have to shell out the money to around 100 such consultants.

It is actually about 9 crore...money is money, said the lawyer.

And courts are courts...Why should you make institutions dysfunctional? On every such case, a court will have to spend at least 15-20 minutes at every stage. And you keep filing appeals after appeals. Please, stop filing such petitions, retorted the CJI, dismissing the BSNLs petition.

The central government remains the biggest contributor to litigation in the court system. In June 2017, the department of justice of the Government of India, released an Action Plan to reduce Government Litigation. The action plan took into account that 46% of the total pending cases could be traced to the government.

In 2015, the government started LIMBS (Legal Information Management Briefing System) project that sought to connect 55 ministries and their departments for litigation management. As on date, LIMBS shows that there are 6,67,128 cases involving the government pending before the court system.

According to a statement given by Union law minister Arjun Ram Meghwal in response to a question raised in Parliament on July 22, the ministries of finance and railways rank at the top among 56 ministries of the central government.

The Department of Legal Affairs, the nodal ministry for litigation on behalf of the central government before the Supreme Court, high courts and other courts including tribunals, further informed Parliament that the total expenditure incurred on conducting these cases was 54,35,49,015 in the year 2022-23. The total expenses incurred over the last five years, beginning from 2018, comes to a little over 272 crore, the statement said.

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The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a PIL challenging appointment of Election Commissioner Arun Goel. The court dismissed the PIL filed by Association for Democratic Reforms as the same appointment was gone into by a Constitution bench which refused to pass any effective order disturbing the appointment. Arun Goel, Election Commissioner of India. (ANI Photo)(Ishant )

The court was referring to the decision of the Constitution bench in March where the top court held that future appointments to the Election Commission will be done by a panel comprising the prime minister, the leader of Opposition and the Chief Justice of India.

The ADR challenged the appointment on the grounds that it was arbitrary and violative of the institutional integrity and independence of the Election Commission Of India.

The plea alleged that the Union government and the ECI through their acts of omissions and commission participated in a carefully orchestrated selection procedure for their own benefits.

The writ petition is being filed in public interest challenging the appointment of Sh. Arun Goel as Election Commissioner vide notification dated November 19, 2022, on the ground that the appointment is arbitrary and violative of institutional integrity and independence of Election Commission Of India, the plea said.

The top court on March 2 had ruled that the appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner and ECs will be done by the President on the recommendation of a committee, comprising the prime minister, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha and the CJI, to maintain the purity of election.

The apex court had said it was mystified as to how bureaucrat Arun Goel applied for voluntary retirement on November 18 last year if he was not aware of the proposal to appoint him as an Election Commissioner.

The top court noted that a vacancy in the post of Election Commissioner arose upon the appointment of Rajiv Kumar as the Chief Election Commissioner with effect from May 15, 2022.

(With inputs from PTI)

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KOCHI: The Supreme Court on Friday extended the time to complete the trial in the actress abduction and sexual assault case in Kerala. The Supreme Court accepted the request of the trial judge seeking time till March 31, 2024 to complete the trial in the actress abduction and sexual assault case in Kerala. (HT Photo)

The top court bench of Justice Aniruddha Bose and Justice Bela M Trivedi accepted the request of the trial judge seeking time till March 31, 2024 to complete the trial. At the same time, the division bench said that the proceedings should be completed as soon as possible.

In May this year, the Supreme Court had asked the trial court to complete the trial by July 31, 2023. It has been monitoring the progress of the trial so far.

Actor Dileep, the eighth accused in the case who faces charges of criminal conspiracy among others, represented by senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, complained that the trial was being inordinately delayed over examination of witnesses. Earlier the actor had alleged that it was being protracted at the instance of the prosecutrix so as to evade a final verdict.

The case relates to the abduction and sexual assault of a Malayalam actress in a moving car in February 2017 near Kochi. Actor Dileep is one of the main accused in the case and spent less than three months in jail before being released on bail.

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The Supreme Court on Friday stayed Congress leader Rahul Gandhis conviction in a criminal defamation case, paving the way for the revival of his membership of Parliament, saying the trial court in Gujarat gave no reason in giving him the maximum punishment of two years. The stay will also allow him to contest the national elections due next year. The SC order will allow him to contest national elections due next year. (PTI)

Disqualification affects not only Gandhi but also the electorates of his constituency, the court said while asking him to be more careful.

Gandhi approached the court last month, challenging the Gujarat high court order that refused to put on hold his conviction and the two-year jail term.

The high court said the Congress leader breached modesty and that his offence involved moral turpitude.

Gandhi urged the top court to immediately stay his conviction to enable him to regain his Member of Parliament status, arguing the conviction order would lead to throttling of free speech, free expression, free thought, and free statement.

It would contribute to the systematic, repetitive emasculation of democratic institutions and the consequent strangulation of democracy which would be gravely detrimental to the political climate and future of India, he said.
The Supreme Court on Friday stayed Congress leader Rahul Gandhis conviction in a criminal defamation case on the grounds that the trial judge failed to explain why he deserved the maximum two-year punishment under the law, and held that the continuation of his disqualification from Parliament would deprive proper representation to the people of his constituency . Congress leader Rahul Gandhi leaves after a meeting at AICC headquarters, in New Delhi, on 4 August, 2023. (PTI)

The decision paves the way for the revival of Gandhis status as an MP after being ineligible for 134 days, and means that he could participate in the no-confidence motion debate against the Narendra Modi governments council of ministers in the Lower House next week.

Addressing a press briefing after the courts stay, Gandhi said the truth always triumphs.

My path is clear. I have clarity in my mind on what I have to do and what my work is. I thank the people who helped us. I also thank the people for their love and support, he said.

Gandhi was elected to the Lok Sabha from Keralas Wayanad in 2019. He was convicted on March 23, 2023 by a Surat trial court, which awarded him a maximum two-year-jail term in a case relating to his comments on the Modi surname at a poll rally. The sentence meant that the Lok Sabha secretariat declared his disqualification on March 24. Gandhis appeal in the Gujarat high court was rejected on July 7.

Even as a bench of justices BR Gavai and PS Narasimha said that Gandhi ought to have been more careful in making remarks in the wake of his public standing, it stressed that he stood disqualified as an MP under the Representation of People Act (RPA) only because of the two-year-jail term, and that even a day less would have saved his membership.

Therefore, the court held, it was imperative for the Sural trial court to specify the reasons for handing him out the maximum punishment under the charge of defamation in March this year, when the offence has clearly been categorised as bailable, non-cognisable, and compoundable in the Indian Penal Code.

Calling the ramifications of the punishment wide, the top court pointed out that not only Gandhis right to continue in public life has been affected by virtue of the sentence awarded, but also that of electorates of the constituency who elected him.

Considering the aforesaid circumstances and particularly that no reasons have been given by the trial judge for giving him maximum sentence which has incurred him the disqualification, order of conviction needs to be stayed during the pendency of proceedings before the appellate court, said the bench in its order.

It further emphasised that though the Surat sessions court and the Gujarat high court penned down voluminous judgments while rejecting Gandhis plea for a stay on his conviction, the aspects of maximum punishment as well as its ramification were not delved into.

About Gandhis conduct, the top court recalled that in November 2019, he was admonished by the Supreme Court in a contempt case after he wrongly attributed certain remarks to it. At the time, Gandhi was asked by the Supreme Court to remain careful about his public utterances after he submitted affidavits tendering unconditional apology.

The court on Friday noted that while the alleged defamatory remarks in this case were made by Gandhi in April 2019, the top courts order in the contempt case came in November 2019.

No doubt that alleged utterances are not in good taste. Persons in public life are expected to exercise a degree of caution while making public speeches. As observed by this court while accepting his affidavit in contempt petition (in 2019), he ought to have been more careful. Maybe if these observations came before the petitioner made these utterances, he would have been more careful before...He should have exercised a degree of restrain in making such remarks which are alleged to be defamatory, it added in the order.

The top court clarified that the stay on Gandhis conviction would operate until the Gujarat sessions court, where his appeal against the conviction order of the Surat trial court, finally decides the matter. It also expedited the proceedings before the sessions court.

During the proceedings on Friday, senior counsel Abhishek Singhvi strongly disputed that Gandhis alleged offence can be categorised as an offence involving moral turpitude. This is not an offence against society. This is a non-cognisable, bailable, and compoundable offence and without any reasoning, the trial court awards me the maximum punishment, leading to his disqualification. Can this man be silenced for eight years because of this? In democracy, we have dissent, he contended.

Appearing for Purnesh Modi, senior counsel Mahesh Jethmalani opposed a stay on Gandis conviction. His intention was to defame every person with surname Modi, just because it matches that of Prime Minister. This is ex facie malice...and he has never denied saying it, Jethmalani argued.

Gandhi is eligible to return to Parliament as early as Monday, officials said, adding that the Lok Sabha Secretariat received a copy of the Supreme Courts order on Friday evening. The officials added that the Secretariat has to issue a notice before the revival saying Gandhis suspension has been removed following the courts decision. As of going to print on Friday, it was unclear if this had been issued.

In an affidavit on Wednesday, Gandhi submitted in the Supreme Court that he would not apologise to settle the criminal defamation case filed against him by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator Purnesh Modi over his remarks on Modi surname at a poll rally in 2019, maintaining that his conviction by the Surat court is unsustainable and that he has an excellent chance of success in his appeal.

Requesting the apex court to stay his conviction, the Congress leader said that his is an exceptional case, considering that the offence is a trivial one and that irreparable harm accrues to him as an elected MP because of continuing disqualification. The petitioner is a parliamentarian and a leader of the Opposition, and therefore it was necessary for him to critically evaluate the conduct and performance of the ruling establishment, he said in the affidavit.

On July 21, the top court had issued a notice on Gandhis appeal against the Gujarat high court order that declined to put on hold his conviction and a two-year jail term in the criminal defamation case. The appeal was filed on July 15, a week after the high court dealt a blow to his endeavour to revive his Lok Sabha membership, ruling that the Congress leader breached modesty and that his offence involved moral turpitude.

In his plea, Gandhi urged the top court to immediately stay his conviction to enable him to regain his MP status, arguing the conviction order would lead to throttling of free speech, free expression, free thought, and free statement.

It would contribute to the systematic, repetitive emasculation of democratic institutions and the consequent strangulation of democracy which would be gravely detrimental to the political climate and future of India, the Congress leader said.

Gandhi complained that a political speech in the course of democratic political activity, critical of economic offenders, and also of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has been held to be an act of moral turpitude inviting the harshest punishment.

Responding to the court notice, Purnesh Modi, MLA from Gujarats Surat-West, on July 31 said that Gandhis personal hatred towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi led him to cast grossly defamatory aspersions on persons who incidentally bore the same surname as the Prime Minister.

During the Congress press briefing on Thursday afternoon, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge said: Satyameva Jayate....we all are happy and welcome the judgement of the Supreme Court. It is not only the victory of Rahul Gandhi but a victory of democracy and the Constitution...Its a victory of people.

Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said, The conspiracy against Rahul Gandhi has failed today.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal welcomed the SC stay and said it reinforced trust in Indian democracy.

I welcome Honble Supreme Courts intervention in an unjust defamation case against Rahul Gandhi ji. It reinforces peoples trust in Indian democracy and the judicial system. Congratulations to him and to the people of Wayanad, the AAP national convener said in a tweet.

The BJPs IT department head Amit Malviya tweeted, Rahul Gandhi may have survived this one but for how long?

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Tamil Nadu chief minister M K Stalin on Friday sought Prime Minister Narendra Modis immediate intervention to direct Karnataka to release Tamil Nadus due share of Cauvery water and also instruct the Jal Shakti ministry to take appropriate action to ensure the same. Tamil Nadu chief minister M K Stalin said the due share of water was crucial for the standing Kuruvai, a key crop for farmers at Cauvery delta (PTI)

In a letter to Modi, Stalin said the due share of water was crucial for the standing Kuruvai, a key crop for farmers at Cauvery delta, and Karnataka had not relented in releasing the supply despite him raising the matter with the Jal Shakti ministry twice last month.

The Karnataka government, however, said it is committed to resolving all issues on a priority basis.

On February 16, 2018, the Supreme Court delivered its verdict in the decades-old Cauvery water dispute, allocating more water to the state of Karnataka.

In his letter to Modi, Stalin said the available water in his state can support the Kuruvai for another 15 days only. Water is required for another 45 days for maturity and optimum yield, he added.

I wish to draw your kind attention to the grim scenario faced by the farmers of Cauvery delta in saving their Kuruvai paddy crop and request your immediate intervention to instruct Karnataka to release our due share of Cauvery water, he said.

In the current scenario wherein the Union Government has already banned the export of non-Basmati rice due to emerging concerns of rice shortage, it is all the more important that the current Kuruvai paddy crop in Cauvery delta and the livelihood of our farmers are saved by your urgent intervention, he added.

Stalins letter to Modi came despite criticisms from the Opposition, in the past, for not being able to resolve the issue amicably with the Karnataka government which is governed by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)s principle ally, the Congress.

The Kuruvai crop depends on flows from the Mettur reservoir, across the Cauvery in Tamil Nadus Salem district, which in turn depends on the water release from Karnataka. On June 12, the Tamil Nadu government had opened the Mettur reservoir to facilitate the cultivation of the crop.

Stalin, who is also the chief of DMK, said the top court had fixed the share of water to be delivered by Karnataka to Tamil Nadu at Biligundlu, on the inter-state border, as per the monthly schedule. Unfortunately, Karnataka is not honouring the order in letter and spirit and not adhering to the directions of Cauvery Water Management Authority, he said.

The chief minister said the Karnataka government has released only 11.6 TMC of water, as against 40.4 TMC due at Biligundlu, between June 1 and July 31. Such a huge shortfall of 28.8 TMC has been thrust on Tamil Nadu, even while Karnataka has a gross storage of 91 TMC in its four major reservoirs, against their full storage capacity of 114.6 TMC, he said.

On the other hand, the storage position in the Mettur Reservoir has only 26.6 TMC as on 2 August, 2023. After provisioning for drinking water and other essential needs, the available water can support the standing Kuruvai (short-term) crop for only 15 days more, whereas it needs water for another 45 days for maturity and optimum yield, he added.

The chief minister said his government had taken up the issue with the Union Minister for Jal Shakti on 5 July 2023 and 19 July 2023, urging him to advise Karnataka to adhere to the schedule of delivery fixed by the Supreme Court and to instruct the CWMA to monitor the same.

Karnataka, however, has not relented and except for the runoff from the fully filled Kabini reservoir, no water has been released from its major reservoirs which are 80 per cent full and continue to receive good inflows, he said.

Stalin urged the Prime Minister to ensure Karnataka cleared the shortfall incurred in June and July. I also request you to instruct the Ministry of Jal Shakthi to take appropriate action for ensuring the same, he said.

Karnataka deputy chief minister D K Shivakumar told reporters in Delhi that the state government has consulted legal experts on the matter. I have held discussions with legal experts regarding the Cauvery issue, but a final decision is yet to be reached. The issues will be discussed with the chief minister (Siddaramaiah) and in the state cabinet meeting, and further directions will be provided. The government is committed to resolving all issues on a priority basis, he said.

Tamil Nadu Bharatiya Janata Party president K Annamalai said the situation showed the reality of the opposition INDIA grouping. Both the DMK and Congress are part of the bloc.

The grim scenario faced by the farmers today has to do much with the corrupt DMK government and their promises for political gains, Annamalai said.

Last month, Karnataka said it will not be able to release the due share due to a water deficit. On July 17, state agriculture minister and Mandya district in-charge N Cheluvarayaswamy said: As a practice, the Tamil Nadu government has demanded release of water from Karnataka. But when there is no water even for drinking, how is it possible to release water to them? A meeting will be convened soon to discuss the issue.

While handing over the letter, seeking the Centres intervention, to Union jal shakti minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat on July 19, Tamil Nadu water resources minister Durai Murugan said: He (Shekhawat) assured us that he will give instructions to Karnataka to release water and implement a water distribution system during times of water scarcity.

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Three Army personnel were killed in an encounter with militants in Jammu and Kashmir's Kulgam district on Friday, officials said. An official said the search operation turned into an encounter after the militants fired at the security forces, who retaliated.(ANI/ Representative image)

Security forces launched a cordon and search operation in the higher reaches of the Halan forest area of Kulgam district in south Kashmir following inputs about the presence of militants there, a police official said.

He said the search operation turned into an encounter after the militants fired at the security forces, who retaliated.

In the exchange of fire, three security forces personnel were injured, the official said, adding, they succumbed during treatment.

"Operation Halan #Kulgam. On specific inputs regarding presence of terrorists on higher reaches of Halan in Kulgam, operations launched by Security Forces on 04 Aug 23. In exchange of firing with terrorists, three personnel sustained injuries and later succumbed. Search operations are continuing, Srinagar-based Chinar Corps of the Army said in a tweet.

The official said reinforcement has been rushed to the area and the search operation has been intensified.
Three jawans have been injured in an encounter with terrorists in Kulgam in south Kashmir. Security personnel conduct a search operation in Kulgam.(ANI file)

Three (03) jawans got injured in the #encounter. They are being evacuated to hospital for treatment. Search in the area intensifies. Further details shall follow, a J&K police spokesperson said.



The encounter broke out in the higher reaches of the Halan forest area of Kulgam district.



In another development, an army jawan who was reported missing from Kulgam last week was recovered on Thursday. Javaid Ahmad Wani, posted in Ladakh, went missing on Saturday from his native Kulgam district while he was on leave.

"Missing Army jawan has been recovered by Kulgam Police. Joint interrogation will start shortly after medical checkup. Further details shall follow," Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) of Kashmir Vijay Kumar said in a tweet.

Although police did not divulge any details about Wani's missing case earlier, there were fears that he might have been abducted by terrorists.

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Bengaluru The Udupi police registered a suo motu case against Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leaders for making inflammatory speeches at a protest meet (Representative Image)

The Udupi police registered a suo motu case against Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leaders Sharan Pumpwell an Dinesh Mendon for making inflammatory speeches at a protest meet in the town on Thursday, in the wake of suspension of three students over the alleged washroom filming incident, officers said on Friday.

The protest was organised by the VHP and the Bajrang Dal unit of the district, demanding a thorough investigation into the case in which three women students of a paramedical college in Udupi allegedly attempted to record another girl inside the washroom.

As Hindu protectors, we will give a befitting reply to the Jihadi monsters. This kind of attack should be stopped today itself. Hindu mothers need to wake up. The hands which hold spoons and brooms should now hold weapons. There is a need to hold swords and warn the community that we will not remain silent, Pumpwell said, during the protest meet on Thursday.

Similarly, Mendon too has been accused of making a provocative speech. The FIR was filled based on a complaint filed by a local officer on duty. Further investigation is underway, an officer aware of the matter said.

An FIR has been filed against Pumpwell and Mendon under section 505(1)(b) (Statements conducing to public mischief), 505(1)(c) and 506 (Punishment for criminal intimidation of the Indian Penal Code) of the IPC.

Right wing groups, including the VHP, have sought a probe by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) into the incident. Pumpwell claimed that according to the information with the VHP, the mobile phone seized by the police also had an objectionable photograph of a girl.

He further said that the parents of the three girls against whom the police have registered a case should be interrogated and claimed they were associated with the banned outfit Popular Front of India.

In another case of alleged hate speech, the Udupi police have registered a suo motu case against district BJP Mahila Morcha president Veena Shetty for a provocative statement against Muslims during a protest organised in the town on July 28.

In the video which was widely shared on social media, Shetty is seen urging educational institutions to stop providing admission to Muslim students. The administration must wake up and ensure that such incidents dont repeat in the future, Shetty said. I request the school administration no to admit Muslim students. Let them study in Madrasas, Shetty added.

Based on the video, the police have filed an FIR against Shetty under sections 153A (Promoting enmity between different groups on ground of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony) and 505(2) of the IPC.

The alleged incident occurred on July 18 when three Muslim students attempted to film one of their Hindu friends in the washroom at the Netra Jyothi College of Optometry and Paramedical Science, according to the police. However, a student from another stream ended up using the washroom, the FIR stated.

The alleged incident occurred on July 18 when three students attempted to film one of their friends in the washroom at medical college in Udupi district, according to the police.
I hold no truck with the absurd idea, originally propounded by the cornflakes and cereals industry, that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. As modern medicine has told us, you can happily skip breakfast if you want to. In fact, with the popularity of intermittent fasting increasing, more people are giving up breakfast with no adverse effects to their health. The Oreo (bottom) is not part of our tradition. Indias popular chocolate-sandwich biscuit, Bourbon (middle), is beaten out in the UK by the dark-chocolate digestive (top). (Shutterstock)

The original Bourbon was created in the early 20th Century. In India, Britannia produced the local version though other brands have now launched their own variants too. (Shutterstock)

Even when I drink Darjeeling tea, as I often do, I find myself reaching for a chocolate biscuit though the sweetness of the biscuit completely overpowers the delicate flavour of the tea. While the digestive biscuit has its fans, if you are having tea (with or without milk) the dunking biscuit has to be Bourbon. It does not spoil the flavour of the liquid and it holds its shape well after a quick dunk. (Shutterstock)

But it is not as good as the dark-chocolate digestive. Though it never really caught on in India, the original digestive biscuit was introduced in the UK also during the early part of the 20th Century. It was believed then that the biscuit, which has a coarser texture than the average biscuit, was made from wholewheat and had very little refined flour. Further, it was suggested that it would help with digestion, a polite way of saying that it would stop you from farting.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Vir Sanghvi Why hide the papers? Why keep the conspiracy theories related to Netaji Subhas Boses death alive? And why deny India the truth about the death of one of its great freedom fighters? ...view detail
When asked to divert the flight, a Lufthansa pilot made a 24 km long penis in the sky. On July 28, the pilot was scheduled to fly from Frankfurt to Sicily but was later instructed to land in Malta. It is alleged that the pilot grew irritated over the change in schedule and drew a penis in the sky. A Lufthansa pilot drew a giant penis in the sky when they had to divert the flight.(FlightRadar24)

Inbound flight 306 from Frankfurt, Germany, was headed towards the Sicilian city when it was informed midflight that it could not land at the Fontanarossa airport due to reduced operations caused by a terminal fire in July, reportedLa Repubblica.

As per The New York Post, the unnamed Lufthansa pilot allegedly became agitated over having to stall the aircraft. Before the pilot left Catanias airspace, the aircraft was flying eastward toward the Sicilian coast. However, upon its halt to Malta, the plane flew in such a way that it ended up creating the shape of a male genitalia.

Take a look at the picture of the airspace here:

24 km long penis drawn by Lufthansa pilot in the sky.(FlightRadar24)

The pilot took 16 minutes to complete the maneuver before heading back over Sicily and south to Malta. Lufthansa told La Repubblica that the penis shape was created accidentally when the pilot had to circle before being instructed to divert. The diversion was caused by a sudden change in wind patterns.

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When travelling in Malaysia, watching monkeys jump around can be a common sight. While, you may spot them in various touristy places, you would never imagine a monkey going wild at Kuala Lumpur Airport Terminal 1. Monkey at Kuala Lumpur airport.(Facebook/@MalaysiaAirports)

A video shared by the Facebook page of Malaysia Airports, you can see a monkey prancing around in the airport. In the post they shared, they wrote, "Poor buddy! Must be feeling completely overwhelmed! Hang in there! We are getting the abang specialists from Jabatan Perhilitan to rescue you! To all passengers at KLIA T1, our airport team is on ground to monitor the situation. Please stay calm and do not worry. Help is on the way for our little lost friend."

Watch the video of the monkey at the airport here:

This post was shared on July 29. Since being posted, it has been liked more than 100 times. The share has also received several comments.

Check out what people had to say about this video of the monkey at the airport below:

An individual wrote, "Oh no! Poor guy!!! Hope he gets rescued soon!" A second commented, "What in the world? Hope all will end well." A third shared, "The forest entered the airport!" A fourth added, "He was just catching the next flight."
The Permanent Mission of North Korea to the United Nations has criticized the U.S. for having nuclear weapons and urged it to stop "sharing nuclear" or "beefing up extended deterrence," state media KCNA reported on Saturday. In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, right, and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu attend a military parade to mark the 70th anniversary of the armistice that halted fighting in the 1950-53 Korean War, on Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang, North Korea Thursday, July 27.(AP)

While criticizing the U.S. over the AUKUS alliance and the Nuclear Consultative Group with South Korea, Pyongyang defended its nuclear weapons as an "exercise of sovereignty."

"Signatories to the NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty) should not take issue with the DPRK over its legitimate exercise of sovereignty, as it had legally withdrawn from the NPT 20 years ago," the DPRK permanent mission to the UN Office and international organizations in Vienna was quoted as saying.

DPRK is short for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

"Its nuclear force will never be a threat to those countries respecting its sovereignty and security interests," the permanent mission said.
In a significant development, authorities have announced the identification of a long-mysterious victim in the Gilgo Beach murders case. The victim known as "Jane Doe No. 7" has been revealed to be Karen Vergata, a 34-year-old Manhattan woman who disappeared in 1996. Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney speaks at a news conference to announce the identity of a victim investigators had called the "Jane Doe No. 7," as Karen Vergata, pictured at left, Friday, Aug. 4, 2023, in Hauppauge, New York. Law enforcement authorities said Friday they have identified a woman whose remains were found as far back as 1996 in different spots along the Long Island coast, some of them near the Gilgo Beach locations of bodies investigators believe were left by a serial killer. (AP)

Decades-long mystery unraveled

Karen Vergata, who was last seen around February 14, 1996, is believed to have been working as an escort at the time of her disappearance. Her story took a tragic turn when her legs were discovered two months later in a plastic bag at Davis Park on the bayside of Fire Islands Blue Point Beach.

The breakthrough in identification came through a combination of advanced forensic techniques. Her two sets of remains were linked using DNA analysis in July 2011. However, it wasn't until October 2022 that Vergata's identity was definitively established through genetic genealogy and a relative's buccal swab.

Maintaining confidentiality and ongoing investigation

While this identification provides some closure to Vergata's family, the authorities stress that the case remains confidential and that the investigation continues. Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney emphasized, "We are going to continue to work this particular case... We are going to have no comment on what if any suspect we have developed at this time."

More on the Gilgo Beach Murders:

DEVILISH LOOK: Gilgo Beach suspect Rex Heuermann appears in court, scans auidence with chilling stare

The Gilgo Beach murders case has haunted Long Island for decades, with multiple victims found in the area. Last month, Rex Heuermann, a Massapequa Park architect, was arrested and charged in connection with the deaths of three women near Gilgo Beach. However, investigators have yet to determine whether Heuermann is linked to other remains found in the vicinity, including those of Karen Vergata, known as Jane Doe No. 7. This breakthrough in identifying one of the victims brings new hope for solving these cold cases and finally bringing justice to the victims and their families.
Alleged Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermanns wife has revealed that her neighbours want their Long Island home to be torn down. 59-year-old Asa Ellerup and her adult children returned to their Massapequa Park ranch home last week. She has now said she does not want to walk down the street as her neighbours allegedly gossip about her husband. The neighbors want the house gone, Asa told the Daily Mail. Asa Ellerup said she does not even have a bed to sleep in now (GoFundMe)

Look, I dont want to walk down the street. I heard what people said about us. I heard it, she added. I heard the other people in the neighborhood. They want the house bulldozed. Do you understand? Please, I cant talk anymore.

Asa had previously said that her two children, 26-year-old Victoria Heuermann and 33-year-old Christopher Sheridan, cry themselves to sleep after their fathers arrest. Asa said she does not even have a bed to sleep in now. I woke up in the middle of the night, shivering, according to New York Post. Anxiety.

My children cry themselves to sleep

My children cry themselves to sleep. I mean, theyre not children. Theyre grown adults but theyre my children, and my son has developmental disabilities and he cried himself to sleep, she added.

Asas daughter, Victoria, revealed she feels not human after the mess authorities left behind. Ellerups lawyer, Bob Macedonio, explain the statement, saying, She meant what theyve done to them and the family is not even human. They were just complete animals. They treated them like animals.

Its the only thing I got, Asa said of the house, adding that it is unlivable at present. We did get another chair out from the basement and upstairs so me and my son can sit and talk. Hes so distraught and doesnt understand, and as a mother, I have no answers for him, she added.

But I said, Were together,' Asa said. Thats really what matters right now. That you and me are sitting here together and we will get through this.'
A man rammed a car onto a sidewalk Thursday in South Korea, then stepped out of the vehicle and began stabbing people at a shopping mall. Authorities said at least 14 people were wounded in the countrys second mass stabbing in a month. Police officers cordon off the scene near a subway station in Seongnam, South Korea, Thursday, Aug. 3, 2023.(AP)

At least five people were hurt by the car, and nine others were stabbed in the attacks that occurred in a crowded leisure district near a subway station in the city of Seongnam, according to Yoon Sung-hyun, an official from the southern Gyeonggi provincial police department.

Authorities arrested a 22-year-old suspect at the scene and were questioning him. Police did not identify the man or offer any immediate information about a potential motive.

According to Park Gyeong-won, an official at Gyeonggis Bundang district police station, the suspect during police interviews talked incoherently and said he was being stalked by an unspecified source. The suspects family told police he had a history of mental illness.

While the suspect had purchased the two knives he used in the stabbings from a different shopping mall on Wednesday, there isnt clear evidence he planned the attacks in advance, Park said.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Friday called for closer monitoring of social media to detect threats, deploying more law enforcement officers for prevention and equipping them with better suppression gear, according to Seouls presidential office.

An official at Gyeonggis provincial fire department, Ha Dong-geun, said at least two of those who were wounded after the suspect drove the car onto the sidewalk were hospitalized in critical condition. Among the nine who were stabbed, eight were being treated for injuries seen as serious.

Photos from the scene showed forensic units examining the halls of the AK Plaza, where the stabbings took place. A white Kia hatchback with a broken front window and ruptured front tire could be seen on a sidewalk near the subway station.

South Koreas Kyunghyang Shinmun newspaper published a video on its website that it said was sent by a witness. The footage showed a man wearing sunglasses and a black hoodie walking up the malls escalator with an object in his hand.

A witness named Hwang Hee-woon told YTN television that he heard a sound from the first floor that seemed like a scream, so customers and shop workers were gathering on the rails of the second-floor near the escalator to see what was happening below.

Suddenly, someone told us the person who committed the crime was coming up to the second floor, so we ran away in panic, he said. He ended up hiding inside a refrigerated storage room with some mall employees.

Last month, a knife-wielding man stabbed at least four pedestrians on a street in the capital, Seoul, killing one person.

The National Police Agency held an online meeting Thursday with regional police chiefs to discuss ways to deal with stabbings and other attacks against random targets. Officials discussed increasing nighttime patrols in leisure districts and other crowded areas and strengthening security camera surveillance, according to the agency.
As a series of allegations seem to be plaguing Meghan Markle, she appears to have taken the first step towards a comeback  an Instagram handle. Page Six reported that a handle called @meghan, which has 16.9K followers at present, belongs to the Duchess of Sussex. However, she has yet to post anything. Her display picture is that of a placeholder image of pink flowers, and her profile is not verified with a blue tick. Meghan Markle arrives at the Invictus Games venue in The Hague, Netherlands on April 15, 2022 (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, File)(AP)(AP)

Meghan was set to go live on Insta, but changed her mind shortly before she launched her Archetypes podcast, so its just sitting there now, a source told Page Six.

In her popular interview with The Cut, Meghan had revealed she was considering returning to social media. Do you want to know a secret? she told writer Allison P. Davis: Im getting backon Instagram.

Meghan used Instagram regularly as an actress on Suits, and even had a travel and lifestyle blog called The Tig. However, she gave that up after her marriage to Prince Harry. It was a big adjustment  a huge adjustment to go from that kind of autonomy to a different life, Meghan said.

After stepping into the Royal Family, Meghan joined Harry, Prince William and Kate Middleton on their shared Instagram, @KensingtonRoyal. She and Harry later created their own handle, @sussexroyal, but shut it down after they left the royal family in March 2020.

Recent allegations against Meghan Markle

Meanwhile, a former friend of Meghan claimed that the Duchess Harry into believing the allegations she made against the Beckhams, leading to a feud. At this rate, theyll have no friends at all! British TV presenter Lizzie Cundy said in an interview with The Mirror.

It was reported that David Beckham was furious with Meghan for suggesting that Victoria, his wife, was the source of a leak. The Beckhams previously maintained positive relations with Harry and Meghan. Meghan has been accused of secretly convincing Harry that Victoria had been speaking to the press. This resulted in a row between David and Harry over the phone.

Lizzie also said that Meghan squealed when she saw Victoria Beckham at an event in 2013. Lizzie and Meghan became friends while sitting next to each other at the charity event hosted by businessman pal John Caudwell.

Meghan is saying that Victoria leaked stories, Lizzie said, according to GB News. The second time I saw Meghan, Victoria was at the event and I've never seen anyone squeal quite like it, Meghan was so thrilled with excited to see Victoria Beckham. She went 'Oh my God, that's Victoria Beckham!'

Lizzie said, She was a proper big fan, she let that show  Victoria doesn't need to leak stories, she doesn't need to do that  I think Victoria and David have slowly tiptoed away like the other friends, many friends who went to the wedding have tiptoed away from Meghan.

A Royal Family butler also slammed Meghan for "using people" after the news of the feud between the Sussexes and the Beckhams surfaced. She will use people and drop them when shes finished with them, Paul told GB News. The Beckhams dont need Harry and Meghan, theyre A-listers in their own field, they dont need them. But isnt it sad that the Beckhams were at the wedding, as were the Obamas, as were the Clooneys. Where are they all now? Theyre beginning to see who the real Harry and Meghan are, and they dont want to be in the same sphere.
Amid a host of allegations that has been plaguing Meghan Markle, she has been urged to rethink her image. Both Meghan and Prince Harry have been criticised for their six-part Netflix docuseries and the Dukes memoir, Spare. According to an expert, Meghan must now undergo a rebrand, or even consider getting back to acting. Meghan Markle arrives at the Invictus Games venue in The Hague, Netherlands on April 15, 2022 (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, File)(AP)

There could be surprises from Meghan - people have talked about her possibly developing a lifestyle brand - but she needs to develop a more definite image than she has at the moment, Royal author Pauline Maclaran, a professor of marketing and consumer research at Royal Holloway University, told The Daily Express US.

It wouldn't surprise me if she went back to acting or something she is known to have done and to be quite good at. It wouldn't surprise me if she went back to acting or something she is known to have done and to be quite good at, Pauline added.

At this rate, theyll have no friends at all!

Meghan has been at the receiving end of massive criticism in recent days. Among other allegations, her former friend claimed that the Duchess Harry into believing the allegations she made against the Beckhams, leading to a feud. At this rate, theyll have no friends at all! British TV presenter Lizzie Cundy said in an interview with The Mirror.

It was reported that David Beckham was furious with Meghan for suggesting that Victoria, his wife, was the source of a leak. The Beckhams previously maintained positive relations with Harry and Meghan. Meghan has been accused of secretly convincing Harry that Victoria had been speaking to the press. This resulted in a row between David and Harry over the phone.

Lizzie also said that Meghan squealed when she saw Victoria Beckham at an event in 2013. Lizzie and Meghan became friends while sitting next to each other at the charity event hosted by businessman pal John Caudwell. Lizzie said, She was a proper big fan, she let that show  Victoria doesn't need to leak stories, she doesn't need to do that  I think Victoria and David have slowly tiptoed away like the other friends, many friends who went to the wedding have tiptoed away from Meghan.

A Royal Family butler also slammed Meghan for "using people" after the news of the feud between the Sussexes and the Beckhams surfaced. She will use people and drop them when shes finished with them, Paul told GB News. The Beckhams dont need Harry and Meghan, theyre A-listers in their own field, they dont need them. But isnt it sad that the Beckhams were at the wedding, as were the Obamas, as were the Clooneys. Where are they all now? Theyre beginning to see who the real Harry and Meghan are, and they dont want to be in the same sphere.
At least 17 people died in western Mexico when a passenger bus plunged off a highway into a ravine in the early hours of Thursday, a state official said, adding that 22 more had been injured but were in a stable condition. Authorities work to remove a passenger bus that plunged off a highway killing several people, in Tepic, Mexico.(REUTERS)

The rescue has been "extremely difficult", said Jorge Benito Rodriguez, the security and civil protection secretary for Nayarit state, as the ravine was some 50 meters (164 ft) deep.

Fourteen adults and three children were killed, he said, adding it was not clear what had caused the bus, carrying about 40 passengers towards Tijuana, to go off the road.

Earlier on Thursday, Nayarit's Civil Protection and Firefighters had shared photos of ambulances lining the highway and uniformed officials in the ravine below, as first respondents worked to move the passengers from the site.

The bus, part of the Elite passenger line, crashed near Barranca Blanca on the highway outside state capital Tepic, the officials said.

A source from Nayarit's firefighting service said six Indian citizens had been aboard the bus.

Neither the bus company nor Mexico's migration institute immediately responded to a request for comment.

Just last month, another bus crash in the southern state of Oaxaca left 29 people dead, and in February, another bus carrying migrants from South and Central America crashed in central Mexico, killing 17.
Thousands of people overran New York's Union Square and the surrounding streets on Friday after a popular live streamer announced a "giveaway" event that grew chaotic, prompting hundreds of police officers to respond and disperse the crowd. The crowd eggs on a person holding a toy gun wearing a spider man mask, Friday, in New York's Union Square.(AP)

The event was promoted by Kai Cenat, best known for his live streams on the gaming site Twitch and YouTube videos. He had earlier announced a "huge giveaway" on his Instagram account for 4 p.m. ET (2000 GMT).

Before the event began, footage from news choppers showed people flinging bottles and chairs, climbing onto the roof of a subway entrance, tearing down construction barriers, standing on top of cars and unloading a fire extinguisher.

Video from TV news helicopters showed Cenat in a black SUV, standing with his head through the moon roof, as people mobbed the vehicle. At least one person fell off the car as it drove away from the scene.

It was not immediately clear what had sparked the chaos.

By 5 p.m., police had set up barricades around the square and largely contained the crowd.

A spokesperson for the city police department said no injuries had been reported as of 4:45 p.m. and that there was no information yet on the number of arrests.

In a social media advisory, the department urged people to avoid the park, which is near New York University.

Cenat, 21, has 6.5 million followers on Twitch and 4 million subscribers on YouTube. He was named "Streamer of the Year" in 2022 at the Streamy Awards.
Pakistan Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Thursday announced the dissolution of the National Assembly on August 9. The decision came after he met with parliamentary leaders at a dinner in honour of the members of parliament, where the country's political situation was thoroughly discussed, The Express Tribune reported. Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharifs government is set to be dissolved to pave the way for holding a general election (via REUTERS)(HT_PRINT)

During the meeting, Prime Minister Shehbaz sought their input and discussed the arrangements for the caretaker prime minister and the caretaker setup.

On August 9, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will send formal advice to the President for the dissolution of the National Assembly. According to constitutional provisions, the President must sign the advice within 48 hours to effectuate the dissolution. If, for any reason, the President does not sign the advice, the Assembly will be automatically dissolved, The Express Tribune reported.

Furthermore, Prime Minister Shehbaz assured that after three days of consultation with the opposition, he will submit the name of the caretaker prime minister to the President.

However, if no agreement is reached, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will step in and nominate a candidate for the caretaker prime minister position from the proposed names, The Express Tribune reported.

Notably, he highlighted the successful negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), underscoring the importance of economic stability for the nation's progress.

Earlier this week, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that the upcoming elections in Pakistan would be held on the basis of the 2023 digital census, Dawn reported.

The premier, whose government is expected to hand over the countrys reins to a caretaker setup this August, shared this during a recorded interview on the Aaj News show Faisla Aap Ka, which was aired on Tuesday.

We have to hold the elections on the basis of the new census  When a census has been conducted, the [polls] should be held on its basis unless there is an obstacle that cannot be overcome. But I dont see [any such hurdle], Dawn quoted Sharif as saying.

He added that a meeting of the Council of Common Interest (CCI)  the body that approves census results  was expected.

Sharif further said the census results would be referred to the CCI as soon as they were finalised.

Notably, PM Sharifs statement is a deviation from that of his ministers previous assertions, who said that the upcoming election would be held on the basis of the 2017 census, Dawn reported.

When asked about the possibility of any delays in elections, he said that this should not be the case, however, adding that the ball will be in the election commissions court.

This decision, however, prompted a terse response from the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), one of the ruling allies in the coalition government in Pakistan that maintains Karachis population has been undercounted in the new census, as per Dawn.

Last week, PM Sharif held a meeting with its leaders in Karachi, in an apparent bid to appease the party, where he assured them that any decision on the matter would be made after consultation with all coalition partners, Dawn reported.

Earlier, PM Sharif had said that the National Assembly will be dissolved before August 12 with the consultation of the allied parties.

In an interview at a Geo News programme, he said the tenure of the National Assembly will end on August 12 and before that, the assembly will be dissolved.

Sharif further said the decision about the caretaker PM will be taken in consultation with the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly and before that he would consult all the allied parties and Pakistan Muslim League(N) Quaid Nawaz Sharif.: On Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharifs new offer for talks, Indias 3-line response
Ukrainian sea drones attacked a Russian navy base near the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, a major hub for Russian exports, early on Friday and were destroyed by Russian warships, Russia's defence ministry said. Ukrainian soldiers launch a drone at Russian positions near Bakhmut, Donetsk region. (Representative Image/ Al-Jazeera)

The attack prompted the Novorossiysk port to temporarily halt all ship movement, according to the Caspian Pipeline Consortium which operates an oil terminal there.

Russian social media users reported hearing explosions and gunfire near Novorossiysk on Friday morning. If confirmed it would be the first Ukrainian attack on one of Russia's main commercial ports.

The Caspian Pipeline Consortium which loads oil onto tankers in Novorossiysk said the port has temporarily barred all ship movement. It said its facilities had not been damaged and oil loadings continued onto tankers which were already moored

Videos posted on a local online community and circulated by Russian online news outlet Astra showed the movement of ships just off the coast with the sound of gunfire coming from the direction of the sea.

The emergency services of Novorossiysk have confirmed reports of blasts and security services have been informed, Russia's RIA news agency reported. The port is one of the biggest in the Black Sea.

The Caspian Pipeline Consortium is the main exporter of Kazakh crude.

Clashes in the Black Sea and adjacent ports have escalated since Russia refused last month to extend a deal allowing for the safe exports of grain from Ukrainian ports; Russian drones and missiles have struck several Ukrainian port facilities and grain silos on or near the Black Sea.

Russia has also reported an attack by Ukrainian sea drones on its warships which were escorting a civilian vessel.

Russian air defences downed 10 Ukrainian drones over Crimea on Friday morning and suppressed three more with electronic countermeasures, TASS cited the Russian defence ministry as saying.
Just as Meghan Markle and Prince Harry unveiled a heartwarming joint video that showcased their unity, a prominent television host has weighed in, labeling their relationship a "monstrous modern tragedy." The couple's decision to step back from royal duties seems to be taking a toll, with claims of a troubled marriage surfacing. (FILES) Britain's Prince Harry and Meghan Markle speak during the 2021 Global Citizen Live festival at the Great Lawn, Central Park on September 25, 2021 in New York City. A multi-million-dollar deal between a media group run by Britain's Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle, and streaming giant Spotify is to end, a report said June 15, 2023. (Photo by Angela Weiss / AFP)(AFP)

A modern tragedy unfolding

Sky News host Andrew Bolt didn't hold back in expressing his views on Meghan and Harry's journey beyond the royal spotlight. He painted their story as a Shakespearean tale of squandered potential. "Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are a modern tragedy," Bolt stated in his editorial. "How two people threw it all away by their monstrous self-pity and self-absorption."

Bolt highlighted the constant media scrutiny surrounding their relationship, asserting that the couple is facing the consequences of their choices. "Theyve had to endure headline after headline suggesting their marriage is in trouble," he remarked.

Clues in the video

Andrew Bolt dissected the couple's recent video appearance, pinpointing potential signs of strain. Notably absent were the usual displays of affection that were once a hallmark of their relationship. "Nowhere in this video do these famously touchy-feely, handholding people hold hands," he observed.

Body language expert Patrick Christys concurred, noting that the video conveyed a lack of happiness in their marriage. Christys suggested that the couple's concerted effort to present a united front may indicate underlying issues. "Increasingly, the spotlight has been on both of them doing solo work," he commented.

Regrets on the horizon?

As the discussion deepened, Patrick Christys posed a poignant question that hangs over Prince Harry's decisions. Could he eventually realize that his choices have come at a high cost? "Will Harry take a step back one day? Look around and realize, Ive married this woman. Ive lost my friends, family, and self-respect,'" Christys pondered.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have yet to respond to these speculations. Their upcoming Netflix project, the docuseries "Heart of Invictus," remains on the horizon. As the couple continues to navigate their new path, the world watches with curiosity and concern.
Ashley Summers, Indiana mother of two has lost her life due to an unexpected and rarely recognized health concern: water toxicity. Ashley Summers, Indiana mother of two reportedly died because of water toxicity

The heartbreaking incident unfolded after a seemingly joyous Fourth of July outing on Lake Freeman with her daughters Brooklyn and Brynlee. It is being widely reported that Ashley, sensing dehydration amid the scorching heat, downed four bottled waters within a short span of time, hoping to alleviate her discomfort. However, this well-intentioned effort led to an unforeseen and tragic consequence.

Ashley's uncle, Deon Miller, shared the family's ordeal with New York Post, recounting how Cody's swift response included administering CPR. Although her vital signs showed a flicker of hope initially, the damage was done. Ashley's brain had swelled uncontrollably, resulting in irreversible damage that ultimately led to her passing.

Deon Miller described the family's shock and disbelief at the diagnosis of water toxicity  a condition arising from excessive water intake within a brief duration. Ashley had unwittingly consumed an astounding 64 ounces, or half a gallon, in a short span, a quantity normally advised for an entire day.

This simply means, she had 2 litres of water in 20 minutes. Which led to her death. Quite unbelievable right? Let's find out what is water toxicity.

What is water toxicity

Water toxicity, also known as water intoxication, occurs when an individual consumes an excessive amount of water in a short timeframe. This can overwhelm the kidneys' ability to eliminate the surplus water, leading to a dangerous dilution of electrolytes, particularly sodium.

Symptoms may include nausea, headache, cramps, and in severe cases, seizures, brain swelling, and even death. The condition is a reminder that even seemingly innocuous actions, like excessive water consumption, can have serious health consequences. Maintaining a balanced fluid intake is essential to prevent water toxicity and maintain overall well-being. The condition arises when the kidneys struggle to handle an influx of water, potentially causing a dangerous imbalance in sodium levels.

What causes water toxicity

Medical reports say, kidneys can only remove 0.8 to 1.0 litres of water per hour, and a very high water intake can upset the bodys electrolyte balance. When a person consumes too much water, an electrolyte imbalance develops in the body, which is known as water toxicity, water intoxication, or water poisoning. In extreme circumstances, this condition may be risky and even fatal.

How much water is too much?

Over hydration happens when a person drinks too much water. According to a 2013 study, the kidneys can eliminate about 2028 litres of water a day so to avoid hyponatremia, it is important not to outpace the kidneys by drinking more water than they can eliminate.

The authors of the study report that hyponatremia symptoms can develop if a person drinks 34 litres of water in a short period, though they do not give a specific time estimate.

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Located in the trendy Hyde Park historic district of South Tampa, Epicurean Hotel recently announced the promotion of Andrea Paulino to Chef de Cuisine of the 137-room boutique hotel. In this position, Chef Paulino will provide culinary direction for the property's talented chefs, updating seasonal happy hour menus, and ensuring the quality and consistency of culinary items. Paulino will also assist in creating and teaching a diverse list of cooking classes at the hotel's state-of-the-art, 32-seat Epicurean Theatre.

Chef Paulino was born and raised in Morelia, Mexico, and graduated top of her class from Culinario de Mexico, one of Mexico's premier culinary arts universities. Her most recent positions were with Epicurean Hotel, first as a cook and then, with the guidance of Executive Chef Jon Atanacio, she was promoted to Executive Sous Chef. Prior to that, Chef Paulino was at Banyan Tree Ras Al Khaimah, a five-star resort near Dubai, UAE, where she managed dozens of cooks and assisted the executive chef with daily restaurant operations. She also worked in Seoul, South Korea, where she served as Head Chef for Tomatillo, and her love for Mexican cuisine led to their expansion to five locations. Paulino has fine-tuned her culinary techniques through a range of positions with Fairmont Hotel, Fiesta Inn, and Pangea, all in Mexico, as well as Il Fornello in Toronto, Canada.

The food-focused Epicurean Hotel features a state-of-the-art culinary classroom known as the Epicurean Theatre; Elevage SoHo Kitchen & Bar signature restaurant; EDGE Rooftop Cocktail Lounge; Bern's Fine Wines & Spirits wine shop; Evangeline full-service spa; Chill Bros. Scoop Shop; and 5,200-square feet of flexible event space. The Epicurean Hotel was developed in collaboration with Mainsail Lodging & Development and the legendary Bern's Steak House and is the first newly constructed hotel property in the United States to join the prestigious Autograph Collection of Marriott International, Inc. (NYSE: MAR). EpicureanHotel.com
Yesterday we issued our second quarter 2023 financial results. You can read the details here. Airbnb Co-Founder and CEO Brian Chesky said:

Our Q2 results show the desire to travel and host on Airbnb remains strong. We had over 115 million nights and experiences booked and added a record number of new listings  ending Q2 with over 7 million total active listings. We also saw 18% year-over-year revenue growth and Free Cash Flow of $900 million.

Overview of Q2 results

Q2 marked another quarter of strong results for Airbnb. Nights and Experiences Booked exceeded 115 million. Revenue of $2.5 billion grew 18% year-over-year (19% ex-FX). Net income was $650 millionour most profitable Q2 on a GAAP basis. Adjusted EBITDA was $819 million, while Free Cash Flow was $900 million, growing 13% year-over-year.

We also continued to make significant progress across each of our strategic priorities:

Make hosting mainstream: Supply growth stagnated at the beginning of COVID. Since then, weve been focused on making hosting mainstream by raising awareness, making it easier and improving our tools. Through these efforts, weve seen great results. In Q2 2023, active listings grew 19% year-over-year, with strong growth across all regions, market types and price points. In fact, we added more net active listings than in any previous quarter in Airbnbs history to exceed 7 million total active listings.

Supply growth stagnated at the beginning of COVID. Since then, weve been focused on making hosting mainstream by raising awareness, making it easier and improving our tools. Through these efforts, weve seen great results. In Q2 2023, active listings grew 19% year-over-year, with strong growth across all regions, market types and price points. In fact, we added more net active listings than in any previous quarter in Airbnbs history to exceed 7 million total active listings. Perfect the core service: We want people to love our service, and that means obsessing over every detail. Millions of people have given us feedback on how to improve Airbnb. Weve listened. Based on feedback from our community, we introduced over 50 new features and upgrades as part of our 2023 Summer Release. For example, we introduced several initiatives aimed at increasing affordability, including new pricing tools for Hosts. Since the Release, more Hosts have adopted our discounting tools and lowered their prices.

We want people to love our service, and that means obsessing over every detail. Millions of people have given us feedback on how to improve Airbnb. Weve listened. Based on feedback from our community, we introduced over 50 new features and upgrades as part of our 2023 Summer Release. For example, we introduced several initiatives aimed at increasing affordability, including new pricing tools for Hosts. Since the Release, more Hosts have adopted our discounting tools and lowered their prices. Expand beyond the core: Weve spent the last few years perfecting our core service. Today, its stronger and more profitable than ever. But were not stopping there. We have some big ideas for where to take Airbnb next, and were building the foundational capabilities for new products and services that we plan to launch in the years to come.

Q2 2023 financial results

Heres a snapshot of our Q2 2023 results:

Q2 revenue was $2.5 billion, up 18% (19% ex-FX) year-over-year. Revenue increased to $2.5 billion in Q2 2023 from $2.1 billion in Q2 2022, driven by solid growth in Nights and Experiences Booked and stable Average Daily Rate (ADR).

Revenue increased to $2.5 billion in Q2 2023 from $2.1 billion in Q2 2022, driven by solid growth in Nights and Experiences Booked and stable Average Daily Rate (ADR). Q2 net income was $650 million, up 72% year-over-year . Net income increased to $650 million in Q2 2023 from $379 million in Q2 2022 primarily due to our revenue growth, expense discipline and interest income. In Q2 2023, we delivered a net income margin of 26%  our highest second quarter ever  up from 18% in Q2 2022.

Net income increased to $650 million in Q2 2023 from $379 million in Q2 2022 primarily due to our revenue growth, expense discipline and interest income. In Q2 2023, we delivered a net income margin of 26%  our highest second quarter ever  up from 18% in Q2 2022. Q2 Adjusted EBITDA was $819 million, up 15% year-over-year. Adjusted EBITDA increased to $819 million in Q2 2023 from $711 million in Q2 2022. This demonstrates the continued strength of our business and discipline in managing our cost structure. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 33% compared to Q2 2022 EBITDA margin of 34% 1 .

Adjusted EBITDA increased to $819 million in Q2 2023 from $711 million in Q2 2022. This demonstrates the continued strength of our business and discipline in managing our cost structure. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 33% compared to Q2 2022 EBITDA margin of 34% . Q2 Free Cash Flow was $900 million, up 13% year-over-year. Net cash provided by operating activities increased to $909 million in Q2 2023 from $801 million in Q2 2022. The increase in cash flow was driven by revenue and bookings growth as well as net margin expansion. Our TTM FCF was $3.9 billion, representing a TTM FCF margin of 43%  a significant improvement from 39% a year ago 2 .

Net cash provided by operating activities increased to $909 million in Q2 2023 from $801 million in Q2 2022. The increase in cash flow was driven by revenue and bookings growth as well as net margin expansion. Our TTM FCF was $3.9 billion, representing a TTM FCF margin of 43%  a significant improvement from 39% a year ago . Q2 TTM share repurchases of $2.5 billion. Our TTM Free Cash Flow generation enabled us to repurchase $2.5 billion of our Class A common stock over the trailing twelve months. In total, our share repurchases since the start of our buyback program in August 2022 have helped to reduce our fully diluted share count from 705 million in Q2 2022 to 686 million at the end of Q2 2023.

Business highlights

Our strong quarter was driven by a number of positive business trends:

Guest demand on Airbnb remains strong. Nights and Experiences Booked grew 11% in Q2 2023 compared to a relatively hard comparison a year ago. We saw an improvement in year-over-year Nights and Experiences Booked growth during the quarter from 10% in April to 15% in June. In particular, we were encouraged by the acceleration in year-over-year nights in North America throughout the quarter, and the recovery in EMEA in June following challenging holiday comparisons in May. In the quarter, we saw active bookers growth in every region, as well as more first time bookers compared to a year ago. Since starting Airbnb, weve had more than 1.5 billion guest arrivals.

Nights and Experiences Booked grew 11% in Q2 2023 compared to a relatively hard comparison a year ago. We saw an improvement in year-over-year Nights and Experiences Booked growth during the quarter from 10% in April to 15% in June. In particular, we were encouraged by the acceleration in year-over-year nights in North America throughout the quarter, and the recovery in EMEA in June following challenging holiday comparisons in May. In the quarter, we saw active bookers growth in every region, as well as more first time bookers compared to a year ago. Since starting Airbnb, weve had more than 1.5 billion guest arrivals. Guests are traveling farther. Cross-border nights booked grew by 16% in Q2 2023 compared to a year ago. While the mix of international travel hasnt yet returned to pre-pandemic levels, weve continued to see strong year-over-year growth across all regions. In particular, cross-border travel to Asia Pacific grew over 80% in Q2 2023 compared to the same period a year ago, while cross-border travel to North America increased by 20%. We also saw more guests return to cities, with high-density urban nights booked increasing by 13% in Q2 2023 compared to Q2 2022.

Cross-border nights booked grew by 16% in Q2 2023 compared to a year ago. While the mix of international travel hasnt yet returned to pre-pandemic levels, weve continued to see strong year-over-year growth across all regions. In particular, cross-border travel to Asia Pacific grew over 80% in Q2 2023 compared to the same period a year ago, while cross-border travel to North America increased by 20%. We also saw more guests return to cities, with high-density urban nights booked increasing by 13% in Q2 2023 compared to Q2 2022. Guests are staying longer on Airbnb. As part of our 2023 Summer Release on May 3, we launched several new features for long-term stays (28 nights or longer). Following the release, year-over-year growth in bookings for long-term stays accelerated every month during the quarter. Overall, nights from long-term stays were stable with the prior quarter at 18% of total gross nights booked in Q2 2023. For the past six quarters, long weekends have been the fastest growing trip type on Airbnb. As our guests continue to have flexibility to travel and work remotely, theyre opting to stay an extra night or two on Airbnb.

As part of our 2023 Summer Release on May 3, we launched several new features for long-term stays (28 nights or longer). Following the release, year-over-year growth in bookings for long-term stays accelerated every month during the quarter. Overall, nights from long-term stays were stable with the prior quarter at 18% of total gross nights booked in Q2 2023. For the past six quarters, long weekends have been the fastest growing trip type on Airbnb. As our guests continue to have flexibility to travel and work remotely, theyre opting to stay an extra night or two on Airbnb. Supply growth continued to accelerate. In every quarter since our 2020 IPO, weve seen acceleration in the year-over-year growth of our total active listings (excluding China). In Q2 2023, we grew supply 19% compared to Q2 2022, up from 18% in Q1 2023, and we added more net active listings than any quarter in our companys history3. We continued to see double-digit supply growth across all regions, with the most growth in Asia Pacific and Latin America  the two regions that also had the most year-over-year growth in Nights and Experiences Booked. In addition, urban and non-urban supply grew at similar rates year-over-year.

1. A reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures to the most comparable GAAP measures is provided at the end of the Q2-2023 shareholder letter.

2. A reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures to the most comparable GAAP measures is provided at the end of the Q2-2023 shareholder letter.

3. In July 2022, all mainland China listings were taken down based on our decision to close the domestic business in China and instead focus on the outbound China business. As such, for comparative purposes, references to supply and supply growth exclude listings in China from prior periods.

About Airbnb

Airbnb was born in 2007 when two Hosts welcomed three guests to their San Francisco home, and has since grown to over 4 million Hosts who have welcomed more than 1 billion guest arrivals across over 220 countries and regions. Travel on Airbnb keeps more of the financial benefits of tourism with the people and places that make it happen. Airbnb has generated billions of dollars in earnings for Hosts, most of whom are individuals listing the homes in which they live. Among Hosts who report their gender, more than half are women, and one in five employed Hosts are either teachers or healthcare workers. Travel on Airbnb also has generated more than $4 billion in tax revenue around the world. Airbnb has helped advance more than 1,000 regulatory frameworks for short-term rentals, including in 80% of our top 200 geographies. In late 2020, to support our continued expansion and diversification, we launched the City Portal to provide governments with a one-stop shop that supports data sharing and compliance with local registration rules. We continue to invest in innovations and tools to support our ongoing work with governments around the world to advance travel that best serves communities.

About Airbnb.org

Airbnb.org is a nonprofit organization dedicated to facilitating temporary stays for people in times of crisis around the world. Airbnb.org operates independently and leverages Airbnb, Inc."s technology, services, and other resources at no charge to carry out Airbnb.org"s charitable purpose. The inspiration for Airbnb.org began in 2012 with a single host named Shell who opened up her home to people impacted by Hurricane Sandy. This sparked a movement and marked the beginning of a program that allows Hosts on Airbnb to provide stays for people in times of need. Since then, the program has evolved to focus on emergency response and to help provide stays to evacuees, relief workers, refugees, asylum seekers, and frontline workers fighting the spread of COVID-19. Since then, Hosts have offered to open up their homes and helped provide accommodations to 100,000 people in times of need. Airbnb.org is a separate and independent entity from Airbnb, Inc. Airbnb, Inc. does not charge service fees for Airbnb.org supported stays on its platform.

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CHICAGO - Hyatt Hotels Corporation ("Hyatt" or the "Company") (NYSE: H) today reported second quarter 2023 financial results. Highlights include:

Net income was $68 million in the second quarter of 2023 compared to $206 million in the second quarter of 2022. Adjusted net income was $88 million in the second quarter of 2023 compared to $51 million in the second quarter of 2022. Net income in the second quarter of 2022 included $251 million of gains recognized on the sales of real estate.

was $68 million in the second quarter of 2023 compared to $206 million in the second quarter of 2022. Adjusted net income was $88 million in the second quarter of 2023 compared to $51 million in the second quarter of 2022. Net income in the second quarter of 2022 included $251 million of gains recognized on the sales of real estate. Diluted EPS was $0.63 in the second quarter of 2023 compared to $1.85 in the second quarter of 2022. Adjusted Diluted EPS was $0.82 in the second quarter of 2023 compared to $0.46 in the second quarter of 2022. Adjusted EBITDA was $273 million in the second quarter of 2023 compared to $255 million in the second quarter of 2022.

was $0.63 in the second quarter of 2023 compared to $1.85 in the second quarter of 2022. Adjusted Diluted EPS was $0.82 in the second quarter of 2023 compared to $0.46 in the second quarter of 2022. Adjusted EBITDA does not include Net Deferrals of $28 million and Net Financed Contracts of $14 million in the second quarter of 2023, and Net Deferrals of $25 million and Net Financed Contracts of $15 million, in the second quarter of 2022.

Comparable system-wide RevPAR increased 15.0% in the second quarter of 2023 compared to 2022

increased 15.0% in the second quarter of 2023 compared to 2022 Comparable owned and leased hotels RevPAR increased 10.1% in the second quarter of 2023 compared to 2022. Comparable owned and leased hotels operating margins were 26.2% in the second quarter of 2023

increased 10.1% in the second quarter of 2023 compared to 2022. Comparable owned and leased hotels operating margins were 26.2% in the second quarter of 2023 Comparable All-inclusive Net Package RevPAR increased 9.5% in the second quarter of 2023 compared to 2022.

increased 9.5% in the second quarter of 2023 compared to 2022. Net Rooms Growth was approximately 6.9% in the second quarter of 2023.

was approximately 6.9% in the second quarter of 2023. Pipeline of executed management or franchise contracts was approximately 119,000 rooms.

of executed management or franchise contracts was approximately 119,000 rooms. Shares repurchased was approximately 969 thousand shares for $108 million in the second quarter of 2023.

For the fifth consecutive quarter we posted record results demonstrating our unique positioning and continued momentum. System-wide RevPAR expanded 15% year-over-year, generating a record level of total fee revenue in the quarter. We updated our full year RevPAR outlook, and we expanded our pipeline to 119,000 rooms, representing approximately 40% of our existing portfolio. Our outlook remains optimistic, fueled by strong group booking activity during the quarter, resulting in 2024 group pace up 10%. We believe our increasing asset-light earnings mix and free cash flow define a clear path for continued success and enhanced shareholder value into the future. Mark S. Hoplamazian, President and Chief Executive Officer of Hyatt

Click here to view the full release.

About Hyatt Hotels Corporation

Hyatt Hotels Corporation, headquartered in Chicago, is a leading global hospitality company guided by its purpose  to care for people so they can be their best. As of June 30, 2022, the Company's portfolio included more than 1,150 hotels and all-inclusive properties in 72 countries across six continents. The Company's offering includes brands in the Timeless Collection, including Park Hyatt, Grand Hyatt, Hyatt Regency, Hyatt, Hyatt Residence Club, Hyatt Place, Hyatt House, and UrCove; the Boundless Collection, including Miraval, Alila, Andaz, Thompson Hotels, Hyatt Centric, and Caption by Hyatt; the Independent Collection, including The Unbound Collection by Hyatt, Destination by Hyatt, and JdV by Hyatt; and the Inclusive Collection, including Hyatt Ziva, Hyatt Zilara, Zoetry Wellness & Spa Resorts, Secrets Resorts & Spas, Breathless Resorts & Spas, Dreams Resorts & Spas, Vivid Hotels & Resorts, Alua Hotels & Resorts, and Sunscape Resorts & Spas. Subsidiaries of the Company operate the World of Hyatt loyalty program, ALG Vacations, Unlimited Vacation Club, Amstar DMC destination management services, and Trisept Solutions technology services. For more information, please visit www.hyatt.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Forward-Looking Statements in this press release, which are not historical facts, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the use of words such as "may," "could," "expect," "intend," "plan," "seek," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "potential," "continue," "likely," "will," "would" and variations of these terms and similar expressions, or the negative of these terms or similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable when made, are inherently uncertain, and are subject to numerous assumptions and uncertainties, many of which are outside of Kiraku, Inc. or Hyatt's control, which could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by such statements. Forward-looking statements made in this press release are made only as of the date of their initial publication and neither party undertakes an obligation to publicly update any of these forward-looking statements as actual events unfold, except to the extent required by applicable law. If one or more forward-looking statements is updated, no inference should be drawn that any additional updates will be made with respect to those or other forward-looking statements.

Franziska Weber

+1 312 780 6106

Hyatt
Executive Summary

Hotel fundamentals softened in Q2, largely due to a 1.5% year-over-year drop in occupancy. The average daily rate (ADR) increased by 2.6% year-over-year, its slowest annual growth since Q1 2021. Revenue per available room (RevPAR) increased by just 1.1% year-over-year, a material slowdown from Q1's 15.9% pace.

Total inbound foreign visitors were 27% below pre-pandemic 2019 levels, while the number of Americans traveling to Europe and the Caribbean increased by 5% and 8%, respectively.

Hotel wage growth slowed in June but at 5.2% outpaced the national average of 4.7%. Hotel wage growth pressures are likely to persist, at least for the near term.

Leisure markets remained the strongest RevPAR performers relative to 2019; however, Q2 RevPAR declined from last year in several of them, including West Palm Beach, Savannah, Phoenix and St. Petersburg.

Occupancy rates for all location types were below 2019 levels in Q2. Urban locations were the only category to post year-over-year gains, with the other five location types contracting vs Q2 2022.

 Source: CBRE Hotels

 Source: CBRE Hotels

 Source: CBRE Hotels

Download the full report

About CBRE Group, Inc.

CBRE Group, Inc. (NYSE:CBRE), a Fortune 500 and S&P 500 company headquartered in Dallas, is the world's largest commercial real estate services and investment firm (based on 2021 revenue). The company has more than 105,000 employees (excluding Turner & Townsend employees) serving clients in more than 100 countries. CBRE serves a diverse range of clients with an integrated suite of services, including facilities, transaction and project management; property management; investment management; appraisal and valuation; property leasing; strategic consulting; property sales; mortgage services and development services. Please visit our website at www.cbre.com.
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Pittsfield Animal Commission Votes to Put Down 2 Dogs

PITTSFIELD, Mass.  The Animal Control Commission voted to euthanize two Dartmouth Street dogs after a man's encounter with them required surgery.



By a majority vote, the panel decided that two pit bulls owned by Matthew Jacobs are dangerous and should be put down to prevent further incidents.



Not much is known about the dogs, as the owner did not attend the meeting, and to the commission's knowledge they do not have a record. The decision was based on the severity of the allegations.



Joseph Czop of Brighton Avenue alleged that the dogs attacked him and his coonhound Lucy after getting away from their owner and cost him thousands of dollars in medical bills. He came to the commission for a solution so that another person does not have the same or a worse encounter with the dogs.



"What happened to me shouldn't happen to anybody else in my neighborhood," he said.



Czop said he was walking Lucy in June when Jacobs' dogs charged at them and got hold of Lucy before he could pick her up.



"One of them had her by the ear and was trying to rip her head off. The other had her by her hind and was trying to pull her in the other direction and I tried to push the one on the head off and I got these," he said, holding up his hand.



"You can hardly see them anymore but believe me they still hurt. Latched onto me there and then bites all the way up this arm and swelling from the other one. Thank god there was a jogger that stopped to help me and a couple other people that were stopped at the light that got them off of me."



Czop said the dogs' owner approached, asked if he was OK, and said they got away from him. The dogs were attached to leashes.



As far as he could tell from the owner's conversation with the police, the dogs were not licensed and didn't have shots.



Lucy was brought to the vet and Czop went to the emergency room where he had some stitches and a rabies vaccination. He said an orthopedic surgeon later had to reopen the wounds to clean them and that one was down to the bone.
Berkshire Health Systems President and CEO Darlene Rodowicz explains the process for reopening in-patient beds in North Adams. PreviousNext

North Adams Hospital Hopes to Open In-Patient Beds in 2024



About 100 people attended the presentation, which included audience questions. NORTH ADAMS, Mass.  A discussion on reopening North Adams Regional Hospital was greeted with strong applause on Thursday night.

Berkshire Health Systems, which acquired the hospital campus and restored many of its services, anticipates opening up to 18 in-patient beds next year and adding about 50 jobs.

Nearly 100 people attended the meeting at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts' Church Street Center to hear about plans to resurrect the hospital that closed nearly a decade ago.

"We're really focused on trying to create a healthier county as a whole. And re-establishing these inpatient beds we think is a big part of that, because it strengthens our ability to serve patients in North County," said Darlene M. Rodowicz, president and CEO of Berkshire Health Systems.

"We've heard concerns in the last nine years that not everybody finds it easy to get to Pittsfield and oftentimes people delay their care because of that."

She continued that restoring the hospital will not only provide convenience and comfort for patients but allow for more services to be provided to them.

"Our surgeons have been a little hesitant to do some cases in North Adams because we haven't had an ability to keep people for an extended time if the procedure doesn't go as planned," Rodowicz said. "And now with that observation designation, we're going to be able to do more surgeries in North Adams as well."

But, she cautioned, the facility will have to be financially viable.

"It'd be a terrible disservice if we were to open it up and close it two years later. Right?" she said. "So we need to make sure that we're making this decision that not only are we meeting the needs which we know exists here, but that it is something that can exist for years to come."

A crucial piece to ensuring the hospital's sustaining ability will be securing critical access hospital status, which will allow for greater reimbursements from Medicare and Medicaid.

"Critical access hospital is just one piece of this puzzle of strengthening the health system and being able to provide services close to home," Rodowicz said.

More than 1,300 rural hospitals have been designated as critical access since the program began in 1997, including Fairview in Great Barrington. A change in how a primary road is categorized by the government last year opened up the opportunity for BHS to apply for the designation for North Adams.

As a critical access hospital, NARH will be able to have up to 25 medical/surgical beds that can also be used as "swing beds" for rehabilitation. Rodowicz said it means that rather than being sent to a skilled nursing facility after, say, a knee replacement, a patient could be treated in the hospital.

BHS plans to open 18 private rooms on 2 North, including in what had been the critical care unit. Another seven rooms will open in another section and the hospital can have up to 10 rooms for behavioral, mental health and substance abuse treatment.

The beds will open in stages of four or five at a time; Rodowicz said there are no plans yet to open a mental health unit.

"We're really focusing on the inpatient beds. It's a huge lift, to get these beds open. And I don't want anything to get in the way," she said. "But you have my word that we are working on doing something in that space, and I don't know the answer because there's a lot of insurance regulations on what we can and can't do."

BHS is applying for a new license for the hospital, which dictates much of what it can do and how it operates. That limits the number of beds, requires things like a four-day average stay and that the hospital be part of a larger system of care community.

While much of the medical services are already in existence on campus, what won't be included are pediatrics and maternity, Rodowicz said in response to questions. She said pediatrics requires specialists and that most go to Bay State Medical Center. Berkshire Medical Center has five beds for simple observation.

As for maternity, there aren't enough babies being born in the Berkshires to justify a birthing ward.

"In order to open up a new birthing place, you need to have about 800 deliveries, Rodowicz said. "We're not even doing 800 deliveries in the whole county."

She acknowledged that the hospital system is wanting for workers, with about a 15 percent vacancy rate. BHS is investing $7 million to develop a "workforce of the future," including working with MCLA on its bachelor's degree nursing program and recruiting physicians.

The presentation was recorded for broadcast on Northern Berkshire Community Television.
#Ahora | La presidenta Dina Ercilia Boluarte Zegarra participa de la ceremonia por el Dia del Juez y la Jueza, que se realiza en el Palacio Nacional de Justicia. pic.twitter.com/njtmCiNC4E
A few weeks ago, Roald Dahls own museum condemned him on its website for undeniable and indelible racism and for his antisemitic statements. In February, his novels were tinkered with to remove their offensive language. If he was a character in one of his childrens stories, you can imagine how he might be portrayed: as a grumpy old curmudgeon with stinky breath, hair growing out of his nostrils, and enormous red bunions on his feet. Illustrator Quentin Blake would have a field day with him.

Often, when authors become tainted by scandal in the way Dahl has in recent months, they are instantly spurned. Their name drops out of the cultural conversation. With Dahl, though, the reverse has been happening. At the moment, Hollywood simply cant get enough of the work of the author of The Witches, The BFG and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Some 33 years after he died aged 74 in 1990, the bestselling writer is more popular than ever with filmmakers.

The Venice Festival later this month has the world premiere of The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, Wes Andersons new Netflix-backed short in which Ralph Fiennes stars as Dahl  and in which Benedict Cumberbatch plays Henry, a wealthy gambler with magical powers to see without using his eyes and to peer into the future.
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As the release date for Christopher Nolans new epic Oppenheimer approaches, rumours have begun circulating that the film is banned in Japan.

Oppenheimer follows the life of theoretical physicist J Robert Oppenheimer who developed the first nuclear bomb for the top-secret Manhattan Project.

Nuclear weaponry was, of course, used to reap death and destruction on Japan during the Pacific War in 1945.

The USA detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively, killing approximately 200,000 people, most of whom were civilians. It remains the only use of nuclear weapons in an armed conflict.

Oppenheimer does not yet have a theatrical release date for Japan, leading some to speculate that the film has been banned in that territory.

However, this theory has been debunked.

A spokesperson for Universal Pictures told Variety in June that plans have not been finalised in all markets. The studio did not immediately respond to The Independents request for comment.

Since the films premiere screenings over the last couple of weeks, Nolan has said people are leaving cinemas devastated.

Cillian Murphy is J Robert Oppenheimer in Oppenheimer (Universal Pictures)

It is an intense experience because its an intense story. I showed it to a filmmaker recently who said its kind of a horror movie. I dont disagree, he said.

Kai Bird, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian who co-authored American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J Robert Oppenheimer on which Nolans film is based, said in a recent academic talk: I am, at the moment, stunned and emotionally recovering from having seen [Oppenheimer].

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Like it or not, J Robert Oppenheimer is the most important person who ever lived, Nolan said at CinemaCon, the annual convention for cinema owners, earlier this year. He made the world that we live in for better or for worse. His story has to be seen to be believed.

Dr J Robert Oppenheimer, creator of the atom bomb (Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

A Change.org petition has also been kicked off demanding that Warner Bros and Universal Pictures, the studios behind the Oppenheimer biopic, call a halt to the Barbenheimer hashtag in Japan.

The petition has collected more than 16,000 signatures over three days.

Coincidentally, Greta Gerwigs Barbie, which is released on the same day as Oppenheimer, has been banned in Vietnam over a controversial depiction of the South China Sea.

The film, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, reportedly contains a scene depicting a map showing what appears to be the nine-dash line.

The line is a representation of Chinas territorial claims in the South China Sea, which Vietnam says violates its sovereignty.

China and Vietnam have long been in a stand-off over the region, while Taiwan, the Philippines, Brunei and Malaysia all make claims to parts of the sea.

In a statement to Variety, Warner Bros said the doodles shown were intended to depict Barbies make-believe journey from Barbie Land.

The map in Barbie Land is a child-like crayon drawing, a spokesperson said. They added that it was not intended to make any type of statement.

Oppenheimer is released in cinemas on 21 July.
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Mark Margolis, the actor best known for his Emmy-nominated performance as the malicious drug baron Hector Salamanca on Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, has died aged 83.

Margolis died Thursday (3 August) at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City following a short illness, his son announced on Friday.

Margolis will also be remembered for his turn as the Bolivian henchman Alberto the Shadow in Brian De Palmas Scarface (1984).

The actor had a longstanding relationship with The Whale director Darren Aronofsky, who first hired him to play a maths teacher in his 1998 psychological thriller, Pi.

He then called on his services for his next five films, Requiem for a Dream (2000); The Fountain (2006); The Wrestler (2008); Black Swan (2010); and Noah (2014).

Margolis told The Hollywood Reporter in a 2012 interview about why Aronofsky kept hiring him: He thinks he has an obligation! I started with him on his first movie, the $60,000 Pi, when he was unknown. I chased him for three months because he kept lying to me about when Id get my money. I finally threatened to call his mother, who was craft services on the film. Then he finally paid me.

He first appeared as Hector Tio Salamanca on Vince Gilligans Breaking Bad in March 2009 on the second episode of the second season of the hit AMC drama.

Mark Margolis as Hector Salamanca (AMC Studios)

Despite the fact that his character is paralysed and unable to speak, Margolis made a deep impression on the series. In the series four episode Hermanos, his characters history was deepened in an extensive flashback, which showed him to be responsible for the death of Max Arciniega, Gus Frings (Giancarlo Esposito) partner.

I was only coming onto Breaking Bad as far as I knew for that one episode, but theres no accounting for taste, and the fans took a fancy to me, he said. Somebody asked me recently, How did you manage to play such a horrible guy? and I said, Have you talked to my friends? Theyll tell you Im pretty miserable to begin with.

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His turn on the show earned him an Emmy nomination in 2012 for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series.

Margolis was born into a Jewish family in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1939. He moved to New York City to study acting as a teenager, going on to land roles in Broadway productions.

His big break on screen came in the De Palmas 1984 mob classic, Scarface, starring Al Pacino as the titular crime boss.

His other notable credits include a recurring role in CBS crime drama The Equalizer and Aces landlord Mr Shickadance in Jim Carreys 1994 comedy Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.

Margolis manager Robert Kolker said in a statement: He was one of a kind. We wont see his likes again. He was a treasured client and a lifelong friend. I was lucky to know him.

He is survived by his wife, Jacqueline Margolis (nee Petcove), his son, actor Morgan H Margolis, and two grandchildren.
The global economic landscape has been changing continuously since the start of the year, with ups and downs predicted for various countries, but the forecast for China has remained constant since January: growing at 5.2 per cent in 2023, and 4.5 per cent next year.

The figures are according to the quarterly update of the World Economic Outlook, released on July 25, 2023, by the International Monetary Fund, which predicted that global growth would fall from an estimated 3.5 per cent in 2022 to 3 per cent this year and next.

Compared with projections that the IMF made in April, global growth has been upgraded by 0.2 percentage point for 2023, with no change for 2024. Still, it remains well below the historical annual average of 3.8 per cent seen between 2000 and 2019.

For China, the IMF projected in January that the countrys economy would expand by 5.2 per cent this year from 3 per cent last year, as mobility and activity picked up after the lifting of pandemic restrictions, though it still faced significant economic challenges, including the contraction in the real-estate sector.

The global lender has reiterated its growth rate prediction in its July forecast, as it did in April.

The forecast for China closely mirrors the situation on the ground, as the National Bureau of Statistics on July 17 said that the countrys GDP grew 5.5 per cent year-on-year in the first half of 2023, driven by stronger consumption and steadily improving services.

The IMF noted that manufacturing activity and consumption of services in China rebounded at the beginning of the year following the easing of strict lockdown policies. It said the countrys net exports contributed strongly to sequential growth in February and March as supply chains normalised and companies swiftly cleared backlog of orders.

Employees work on the production line of a chemical fibre company in Jiaxing, Zhejiang province, in June (XU YU / XINHUA )

However, the IMF document noted that continued weakness in the real estate sector is weighing on investment, foreign demand remains weak as the global economy slows, and rising youth unemployment indicates labour market weakness, meaning that following a reopening boost, Chinas recovery is losing steam.

But the IMF also said that stronger policy support in China than currently envisioned  particularly through means-tested transfers to households  could further sustain recovery and generate positive global spillovers.

Such support seems to be in the pipeline, as China will carry out macroeconomic regulation with precision and force in the second half of this year to further drive recovery, with efforts including expanding domestic demand, which is now insufficient, according to a key Party leadership meeting on July 24.

Private investment will also be given more policy support, while multiple measures should be taken to keep the countrys foreign trade and investment stable, said a statement from a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.

In a podcast released on July 24, Hui Shan, chief China economist for Goldman Sachs Research, said: On the organic recovery side, I think were still seeing consumption recovering, especially in the services sector and contact-intensive sectors. We see that theres still room for recovery.

She said in the dialogue titled Whats next for Chinas economy? that Chinas economy in the third quarter should do better than in the second quarter, and for the full year, the countrys growth is projected to be 5.4 per cent.

International investment firms have frequently revised their forecasts for Chinas economy, with JPMorgan making six adjustments since January, CNBC reported on July 23.

It said that among the six investment firms that also include Nomura, UBS, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup, the highest China GDP forecast so far this year was 6.4 per cent forecast by JPMorgan.
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New footage has emerged of a sun bear waving in a Chinese zoo, amid claims the animal is actually a human in disguise.

Speculation began when an initial clip from Hangzhou Zoo in Chinas east showed the bear standing on her hind legs and gazing at visitors.

The zoo put out a statement from the perspective of four-year-old Angela denying she was a human in a bear suit after the interactions went viral.

The infamous Chinese sun bear waves at visitors (Twitter)

Now, a new clip has further brought into question the seemingly unusual way the bear engages with humans.

In the footage, Angela is seen standing up straight on slender legs and waving to the hoards of visitors who have come to see her since going viral.

Some social media users were prompted to point out the appearance of what seemed to be skin bagging around the bears hips.

Those are definitely human gestures, one person wrote online. Bears cant stand up for that long. Definitely not in place like that, another added.

However, the zoos statement was quick to offer a solid explanation, from Angelas perspective.

Some people think I stand like a person... It seems you dont understand me very well, the statement read.

Onlookers were perplexed at the bear on its hind legs (Twitter)

When it comes to bears, the first thing that comes to mind is a huge figure and astonishing power But not all bears are behemoths and danger personified.

The latest clip comes as Dr Ashleigh Marshall, from Chester Zoo, told the BBC the animal in previous footage was definitely a real bear. However, she added the breed often look a lot like people in their costumes.

Dr Mashall went on to explain the loose skin allows sun bears to turn around in their skin if they come into contact with violent predators.

One expert said the breed often look a lot like people in their costumes (Twitter)

Another wildlife park in the UK also shared footage of a sun bear standing on its hind legs in a bid to showcase the natural behaviour.

Paradise Wildlife Park in Hertfordshire said standing allows the bears a greater view of their surroundings or [to] smell far-off objects.

The parks statement added that the stance can also be used to try to intimidate their enemies by displaying the chest patch if threatened.

Sun bears are among the smallest bears in the world and stand at just 1.3m when they reach full height.

Hangzhou Zoo has reported a 30 per cent spike in visitors since the first sun bear video went viral.
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The launch of the Apple iPhone 15 smartphone is almost a month away now. Gossip about the upcoming handset, expected to launch in September, is getting fierce, and if the rumours are true, we could be about to see the biggest upgrade to the device since 2017 when Apple launched the iPhone X.

At Apples Worldwide Developers Conference in June, the company announced what new features would be coming to iOS 17 when the iPhone 15 launches this autumn. The new upgrade includes everything from journalling tools and AirDrop updates to live transcription in voicemail and a new standby mode that turns your iPhone into a smart display (like an Amazon Echo Show).

The company also unveiled the Apple Vision Pro. The latest iPhone 15 rumours give more clues as to how the two devices will work together when the new handset is released later this year.

That said, rumours are landing almost weekly when it comes to the iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max handsets. Leakers claim the iPhone 15 could ditch the lightning port in favour of USB-C for the first time. Apple could also remove the mechanical volume and power buttons on its handsets and replace them with solid-state ones, give the Pro line-up a new titanium design and even launch an iPhone 15 Ultra in 2024.

Below, weve rounded up all the iPhone 15 rumours you need to know, including our speculation on the release date, potential specs, price and design.

The latest Apple iPhone 15 rumours

Its been heavily rumoured that the iPhone 15 will feature a multi-action button on the side of the phone. The most recent rumour, published in late July, suggests that the button will be an action button for several different tasks. According to MacRumors, who has found new code in the latest iOS 17 beta, the button could be used for accessibility, shortcuts, silent mode, camera, flashlight, focus, magnifier, translate and voice memos.

The second most recent rumour comes courtesy of 9to5Mac, who reported on 3 August that major mobile phone carriers were asking its employees not to take any days off on Wednesday 13 September due to a major smartphone announcement. This could be anything, but the date lines up with our Apple event theories below.

Weve outlined more iPhone 15 rumours below, including specs, design and price leaks.

Apple iPhone 15 release date: When will the new smartphones launch?

Although an iPhone 15 release date has yet to be revealed (we wont be getting that until Apples launch event), Apple is a fairly predictable beast when it comes to iPhone release dates. The company almost always announces its new line of smartphones in the first two weeks of September. For example, the iPhone 14 was unveiled on Wednesday 7 September 2022 and the iPhone 13 on Tuesday 14 September 2021.

Apple usually prefers Tuesdays when it comes to its iPhone events, so the two most likely dates for an iPhone 15 event would be Tuesday 5 September or Tuesday 12 September. Can we speculate as to which day itll choose? We sure can.

Apple CEO Tim Cook delivers keynote address at Apples special event on 7 September 2022 (Getty Images)

Labor Day is happening on Monday 4 September in the US. Its highly unlikely that Apple would throw an event right after a long weekend, so were looking at 12 September as the most likely event date. The company usually drops its newest iPhone roughly 10 days after the big event, which is why weve got our sights set on 22 September for the new iPhone launch.

Obviously, this is all still conjecture, and we wont know until we hear it from Tim Cook himself, but one leakers report lines up with our basic mathematics.

Analyst Jeff Pu of Haitong International Securities has sources in Apples iPhone supply chain, and he claims that the iPhone 15 could launch on 23 September 2023. Thats a Saturday, but if we adjust for time zone differences, a 22 September launch date sounds feasible.

Apple iPhone 15 price: How much could the new handsets cost?

Rumours ahead of the Apple event last year suggested that the iPhone 14 could get a 15 per cent price hike in the US when the phones were revealed, as a result of the global economic downturn and increased prices of components.

While the rumour turned out to be incorrect for the US market, all four handsets appeared to get a price hike in the UK, with prices jumping from between 70 for the base iPhone 14 and 150 for the iPhone 14 Pro.

Rumours that the iPhone 14 could get a 15 per cent price hike in the US turned out to be incorrect (AFP via Getty Images)

Could we see another price hike for the iPhone 15? It appears the leakers are a little wary of reporting price increases after dropping the ball last year. Weve had one unverified report from the Chinese social media platform Weibo suggesting that the iPhone 15 Pro models will be getting a price increase this year, with Jeff Pu backing up that claim in a research note in March.

A blog post from Korean firm Naver also suggests that the base iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus could also get a price cut to make the non-Pro devices more enticing to customers, who have seemingly shunned the Plus device, as they did with the iPhone Mini.

Apple iPhone 15 design, specs and features

While the iPhone 14 Plus hasnt been a roaring success, with a lukewarm response from consumers, it appears the company may continue to power on and manufacture four iPhone 15 models this year, according to market intelligence firm TrendForce. That would give us the iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max.

Bloombergs Mark Gurman also indicated that an iPhone Ultra could rear its head in the next couple of years, but says that its more likely to feature for the iPhone 16 range than the iPhone 15. If true, it would mean Apple will ditch the floundering iPhone Plus and Mini models in favour of a beefier Ultra model, which Gurman says will need to differentiate itself from the Pro models.

There are a few renders swimming out there in terms of the design of the iPhone 15 Pro. In February, 9to5Mac obtained renders of the device based on a CAD model from a case manufacturer. In the render, it appears that the curved display is making a return for the first time since the iPhone 11 Pro, with another leaker suggesting that the iPhone 15 Pro will have curved edges with thinner bezels.

The renders also suggest that there will, once again, be two 6.1in iPhones and two 6.7in iPhones. Jeff Pu also claimed in his research note that he expects the Pro models to feature a titanium frame.

The lightning port has also been removed in the render in favour of a USB-C port, which seems to be the most plausible rumour so far (given the political wrangling with the EU). Another report from Gurman suggests that all four iPhone 15 models will also get the Dynamic Island from the iPhone 14 Pro, shrinking the notches down for every device.

A report in October from reliable analyst Ming-Chi Kuo suggested that the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max could also lose their physical-mechanical buttons in favour of solid-state buttons. The buttons would work similarly to the home button on the iPhone 7 and 8. On those phones, the button could be mistaken for a real one  but was actually just a touchpad that used precise vibrations to feel as if it was being pressed down.

However, in a Medium post published on 12 April, Kuo backtracked on the report about the transition to solid-state buttons. My latest survey indicates that due to unresolved technical issues before mass production, both high-end iPhone 15 Pro models (Pro & Pro Max) will abandon the closely-watched solid-state button design and revert to the traditional physical button design, Kuo said.

And for those of you waiting for Apple to bring back Touch ID (or an in-display fingerprint sensor), weve got bad news. It might not be happening after all. In Mark Gurmans PowerOn newsletter, he claimed that, while the company had been testing in-display sensors, Face ID would be here to stay for the foreseeable future. Twitter leaker Unknownz21 corroborated this claim in a tweet posted in late March.

In February, an unnamed source told 9to5Mac that the iPhone 15 Pro could come in a dark red, burgundy colour, with a light blue and light pink colourway being tested for the base iPhone 15 models.

Rumours about the specs of the iPhone 15 are still slim on the ground, but one rumour suggests that Apple will continue to differentiate the iPhone 15 and the iPhone 15 Pro by giving the Pro model phones an all-new A17 chip, while the base models will use an A16 Bionic chip.

The A17 Bionic chip is rumoured to be a 3-nanometer powerhouse, making it faster and more efficient. This report comes courtesy of Digitimes and Taiwanese manufacturer TSMC, which manufactures Apples silicon. The report was corroborated by a report from Nikkei.

Consumers could also be getting more RAM in their devices, according to a TrendForce report, which claims that the next series of iPhone 15 devices could get a boost in RAM, with Pu claiming 8GB instead of 6GB for the Pro models.

The current iPhone 14 pro features a main, ultre-wide and telephoto lens (Getty Images)

This ones a little sketchy, so get your handfuls of salt, but a rumour picked up by MacRumours claims that Apple will be removing the mute button on the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, replacing it with an action button that will presumably work like the action button the Apple Watch Ultra. The report suggests that you may be able to customise the action button to perform various functions. A further report published on 17 April suggests that this action button will be the new way of powering off your iPhone.

Reliable leaker Ming-Chi Kuo suggested in June that the iPhone 15 will feature a new ultra-wideband chip that will support Apples upcoming Vision Pro VR headset. The new UWB chip will allow the phone and the headset to be able to work together, he said on Twitter, as part of a more competitive ecosystem.

Apple iPhone 15 camera rumours

If theres one thing we can guarantee when it comes to iPhone upgrades, its that the camera is going to get a spec boost.

In the aforementioned Jeff Pu report, the analyst claims that the iPhone 15 Pro could get a periscope camera, which would improve long-range photography and zoom. This was rumoured for the iPhone 14 Pro as well, however, and it didnt materialise. The renders above do show that the iPhone 15 Pro Max has a slightly bigger camera bump, potentially there to house a periscope camera.

This rumour was given credence in June 2022 when leaker Ming-Chi Kuo stated that the iPhone 15 Pro Max would be the only iPhone to get a periscope camera in 2023, giving the iPhone a 6x optical zoom. Samsung was the first to popularise periscope cameras in 2020 when it launched the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra.

On 8 May, reliable leaker Unknownz21 revealed on Twitter that they had received independent confirmation a periscope camera would indeed be coming to the iPhone 15 Pro Max, and that it would be exclusively available on the larger handset. If true, it would make it the first time Apple has put in a distinctive point of separation between the Pro and Pro Max models.

According to a research note from Nomura analysts, the base iPhone 15s cameras will also get some significant improvements. Lower-end i15 models will have main cameras (wide) upgraded to 48MP with image sensor size at 1/1.5 which is slightly smaller than the i14 Pros 48MP sensor size, but much better than i14s 12MP, the note read.

On 27 May, Twitter leaker Revegnus claimed that the iPhone 15 Pro Maxs main camera and M12 OLED panel will be the exact same ones found on the iPhone 14 Pro Max. While its a great main camera sensor and a bright OLED panel, it would be a shame not to see an upgrade to both.

Apple iPhone 16 rumours

We know, the iPhone 15 isnt even out yet and rumours about the iPhone 16 are already starting to emerge. On 16 May, reliable leaker Ming-Chi Kuo claims that the iPhone 16 Pro will be getting a periscope lens in 2024, hinting that the 6.1in iPhone 15 Pro wouldnt be getting one this year. The leaker retains that the larger iPhone 15 Pro Max would still be getting the periscope lens.

He went on to suggest that the iPhone 16 Pro would be getting a slightly larger display to accommodate the periscope camera. Earlier, on 9 May, Ross Young of Display Supply Chain Consultants claimed that the aspect ratio of the iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max would be increasing in size to 6.3in and 6.9in, giving users bigger displays and (inevitably) bigger batteries.

On 22 May, 9to5Mac released CADs of the rumoured iPhone 16 Pro Max, and the outlet claims that it will have a 6.9in display, with a larger body. It will be taller, but only slightly wider. The website also suggested that the iPhone 16 Pro Max could ditch its Max moniker and opt to call it the iPhone 16 Pro Ultra, in-line with the Apple Watch Ultras branding.

The verdict: Apple iPhone 15 rumours

While everything here should be taken with a pinch of salt, the rumours regarding the iPhone 15 are promising indeed. If true, we could be seeing the first iPhones with a USB-C port, a Dynamic Island for the base iPhone 15 models and a periscope camera for the Pro-level devices, as well as a titanium frame and a curved screen. Well be keeping an eye out for more leaks and rumours right up until the likely release date in September.

Best Apple iPhone 14 deals

If your phone is feeling sluggish and you just cant wait until the iPhone 15 comes out to upgrade, the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro are worthy handsets. Weve outlined a few of the best deals below and also have a round-up of the best refurbished iPhone deals.

Apple iPhone 14, 128GB: Was 849, now 764, Amazon.co.uk

(Apple)

The base iPhone 14 currently has 10 per cent off at Amazon. This is a fast and attractive smartphone, with Apples excellent design and build quality, boasting now-routine features, such as water resistance and strong screen, and a significantly improved camera, our writer said in their review. The iPhone 14s internal upgrades, from camera to crash detection, are pretty extraordinary, all for a price less than the iPhone 13 pro, with which it shares the same processor.

If youd prefer to buy it with a contract, the best deal weve spotted is from Sky Mobile, who is offering a 3GB data contract for 32 per month. There is no up-front cost, and while the contract lasts for 36 months, you can upgrade your phone after 24 months (32 per month, Sky.com).

Apple iPhone 14 Pro, 128GB: Was 1,099, now 1,034.99, Amazon.co.uk

(Amazon )

The savings arent as good on the iPhone 14 Pro as they are on the common iPhone 14, but you can still save a modest 65 at Amazon. The iPhone 14 Pro is a powerful, beautiful smartphone. Our writer said in their review. At a time when many talk of incremental improvements or how phones have plateaued, the new pro handset is a real, chunky upgrade, offering slick new software, much better cameras and, in Dynamic Island, the kind of genuine innovation weve come to expect from Apple.

Again, the cheapest iPhone 14 contract deal weve spotted is from Sky Mobile. The company is offering up 3GB of data for 41 per month. There is no up-front cost, and you can swap your phone after 24 months (41 per month, Sky.com).

Tariff comparison

For the latest offers on mobile phone contracts, try the links below:

Looking for an offer on the tech brands products? Read our guide to the best Amazon Prime Day Apple deals
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Eva Mendes has revealed that she doesnt let her and Ryan Goslings daughters use the internet.

The actor, 49, took to Instagram on 3 August to share one of the rules that she has for her and Goslings daughters - Esmeralda, eight, and Amada, seven. Mendes shared a video of herself shaking her head no and wagging her finger, as she pointed out thats how she responds to her children when they ask to use the internet.

When my kids ask me if theyre old enough to go on the internet, social media or anything requiring wifi, she wrote in the caption.

When a fan in the comments asked when she will allow her children use the internet, Mendes candidly confessed that shes still figuring that out. She also specified that shes been doing research on how social media can impact children as they continue to get older.

I honestly dont know. I have to see where it goes, the Hitch star responded. For now, Im observing them and keeping up with research about how social media can impact a childs brain.

She responded to another fan who praised her parenting decision, with Mendes noting that while shes just sharing what [she] feels now, she thinks itll be harder to keep her children away from the internet as they get older.

Mendes clarified that her children are still given screentime, adding: I let my kids use the iPad to make movies and watch films Ive downloaded, but I dont have internet access on the iPad.

The actress was also hit with some criticism for her parenting rule, with one Instagram user writing: We are in the internet century so eventually everyone will need or want to access the internet sorry. While it appears the comment has since been deleted, Mendes responded to the remark by explaining why she doesnt feel like the internet is a safe space for her children.

In my house, children do not have access to the internet, she responded to the remark, as reported by E! News. Its too dangerous. Just like drinking or voting or getting a drivers license (etc..) isnt allowed for children, the internet falls under that category for me. Especially social media.

While Mendes and Gosling - whove been together since 2011 - are notoriously private about their family life, the couple have shared a few details about raising children together.

During an interview with Byrdie in July 2022, Mendes explained that she and her partner want to make sure that their children feel confident in themselves throughout everything they do in life.

Hopefully Ryan and I are doing the work by just loving them, completely loving them, and doing most of that work for them so that they grow up feeling like theyre enough, she said. Thats the one thing thats really important to me. Because once they feel like theyre enough, no matter what they do, no matter what they end up doing, that will feed into every area of your life. Especially into how attractive you feel, or any of that stuff.

In a cover story interview with GQ in June, Gosling also shared some candid thoughts about fatherhood. He revealed that prior to his relationship with Mendes, he didnt think much about becoming a father. However, that all changed when Mendes told him she was pregnant.

Eva said she was pregnant, he recalled. I would never want to go back, you know? Im glad I didnt have control over my destiny in that way, because it was so much better than I ever had dreamed for myself.

Elsewhere in the interview, the Barbie star clarified previous comments he made about the moment Mendes learned she was pregnant. While he maintained that he wasnt thinking about kids before they met, Gosling said: After I met Eva, I realised that I just didnt want to have kids without her.
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Season 2 of Heartstopper finally arrived on Netflix this week, to the delight of fans.

So far it has united viewers, whove been raving on social media about various scenes from the new series of the British coming-of-age romantic comedy-drama, based on creator and writer Alice Osemans graphic novel series.

The story centres on Charlie Spring (Joe Locke) and Nick Nelson (Kit Connor), two teens navigating their blossoming love for each other, as well as the trails and tribulations of high school life.

Looking for other series with teenage LGBTQ+ storylines? Here are five more to check out

1. Love, Victor (2020-present)

This Hulu show, which draws inspiration from the 2018 movie Love, Simon, delves into how titular character Victor Salazar (played by Michael Cimino) figures out his sexuality, often centred on his relationship with fellow teen Benji Campbell (played by George Sear).

It doesnt shy away on showing what it can be like if your parents may not always accept who you love, with Salazars mother finding it hard to accept her sons sexuality.

The show has been praised for shedding light on how to navigate love, freedom and exploring relationships at a time when many start to figure out who they are and the process of coming out.

2. Sex Education (2019-present)

This smash hit show has met with rave reviews, as well as being a hit with viewers. Will they or wont they is the question thats hung from everyones lips as they waited series after series to see if main characters Otis Milburn (Asa Butterfield) and Maeve Wiley (Emma Mackey) would finally get together.

But another storyline also gripped audiences: the unlikely relationship between Milburns hilarious best friend Eric Effiong (Ncuti Gatwa), a gay teen from a religious Ghanaian-Nigerian family, and the slightly hapless Adam Groff  his former high school bully.

The on-off romance had a less than stellar start, but blossomed into something which captivated viewers and even though they are not together at the moment, many hope they have their happy ending in the next series.

3. Young Royals (2021-present)

Those looking to brush up on their language skills should give this Swedish Netflix show a go. Prince Wilhelm (Edvin Ryding) is sent to a boarding school to keep him out of trouble, but finds something meaningful in the form of a relationship with Simon Eriksson (Omar Rudberg).

The show takes a fresh approach to LGBTQ+ representation, showing how to navigate your sexuality when you and your family are not just always in the public eye, but also ruling a country.

4. Never Have I Ever (2020-2023)

Co-created by Mindy Kaling, this coming-of-age Netflix series centres on American-Indian teenager Devi Vishwakumar (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan), as she navigates grief, friendships and venturing into dating.

Meanwhile, one of her best friends, Fabiola Torres (Lee Rodriguez), discovers she is gay and embarks on her own journey of self-discovery and the rollercoaster world of teenage romance. Hilarious, moving and full of heart.

5. Dickinson (2019-2021)

Theis Apple TV+ show runs with the long-held belief that American poet Emily Dickinson was in love with her brothers wife (and her best friend) Susan Gilbert. Modern and fictional, the series debuts Dickinson as a quirky, teen goth, who happens to fall in love with someone she should not.

Despite Dickinson exploring her sexuality, however, Alena Smith, the shows creator, told Page Six she did not want the character to be given a label.

She said: I think one of the things that Im interested in exploring is that in the 1850s, they didnt necessarily have the same categories for gender and sexuality that we have today, and perhaps that actually means that there were more experiences open to them than we have when we put ourselves in boxes.
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As Donald Trump pleaded not guilty in court on Thursday (3 August) after being arrested and arraigned for conspiring to overturn the 2020 presidential election, his wife, Melania Trump was nowhere to be seen.

While the former president has criticised the indictment, calling for the fake case to be moved out of Washington DC, where he claims it is impossible to get a fair trial, his wife, 53-year-old Melania, has not been by his side at the court proceedings in his third criminal case.

Melania Trump has reportedly rejected multiple requests to appear alongside her husband, former president Donald Trump, at campaign stops and appearances as part of the multiple criminal cases against him in New York and Florida.

The New York Times reported last month that the former first lady, who has eschewed the typical post-White House activities of her predecessors, is focusing on helping her and Donalds 17-year-old son, Barron Trump, search for and apply to colleges.

She also reportedly keeps her social circle small by choosing to spend time with her parents, her son, and a handful of old friends in addition to visits to hairdressers and consultations with longtime stylist Herve Pierre.

While reports say that she is seen meeting her husband for dinner on occasion, reports say she wants no involvement in the indictment or his 2024 presidential campaign. In April, it was reported that Melania had skipped Trumps indictment trip from Florida to New York, and was not named among the group of people who travelled onboard the former presidents private plane.

Former Trump White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham told CNN that Melania knows whats going on with her husbands indictment, but will turn up when she wants to.

I dont make anything of [her silence], she is saying in her mind, that this is his issue, he doesnt need me here to prop him up and Im too busy to go with him, Grisham said. And thats who she is. She will turn up by [Trumps] side when she wants to [and] when shes perfectly ready.

Grisham also expressed doubt that a conversation Donald Trump recalled, about the moment he told her about his looming indictment, had actually takent place.

She knows when hes going to get indicted, she knows whats going on, she watches media as much as he does, she said.

What is Melanias relationship like with Donald Trump?

Melania, a Slovenian-American former model and businesswoman, started dating Trump after meeting at a party in Manhattan in 1998 when the newly separated Trump asked then-model Melania Knauss, 24 years his junior, for her phone number.

They became a couple a year later. While Trump was seeking the Reform Party nomination in the 2000 presidential election, Melania was asked how she viewed herself if ever she became first lady. She told The New York Times.  I would be very traditional. Like Betty Ford or Jackie Kennedy.

Melania Trump reportedly views her husbands indictment as his issue (AFP via Getty Images)

The pair became engaged in 2004 and were married in 2005 in an Anglican service at an Episcopal Church in Palm Beach, Florida. Their wedding was attended by celebrities including model Heidi Klum, American rapper P Diddy, British TV personality Simon Cowell and former president Bill Clinton.

At the wedding reception, Billy Joel performed Just the Way You Are and did a new rendition of The Lady Is A Tramp. Melania wore a Christian Dior wedding dress and starred on the cover of Vogue in an exclusive inside look at the nuptials.

Melania gave birth to their son Barron William Trump in March 2006, and has our stepchildren: Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump and Ivanka Trump from Trumps first marriage to Ivana Zelnickova. She has another stepdaughter, Tiffany Trump from Trumps second marriage to Marla Maples.

Prince Charles with then-President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump at Winfield House, London, in June 2019 (Getty Images)

When Donald Trump was elected president of the United States, Melania assumed the role of the First Lady of the United States on 20 January 2017 and continued to live in Manhattan at the Trump Tower with their son until the end of his school year.

When Trumps presidency ended, Melania finished her tenure as first lady in 2021 as the least popular first lady ever, according to polling at the time.

During Trumps presidency, conspiracy theorists alleged that he was using a body double or decoy to stand in for his wife on official visits and public appearances. Trump and his team quickly denied the theories.
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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle reportedly did not receive an invitation for a royal family gathering to mark one year since the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

On 8 September, King Charles III is expected to commemorate his mother at a gathering in Balmoral Castle.

The day will also mark the anniversary of the Kings accession.

A source told The Sun that there has not been any outreach to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex regarding the royal event.

If they are not included in any of those plans they will find a way to mark the significance in their own way, the source said.

The Independent has contacted Prince Harry and his wifes representatives for comment.

This news comes after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were spotted leaving a celebrity hotspot restaurant in Montecito, California on Wednesday night (2 August), ahead of Meghan Markles birthday today (Friday 4 August).

One day after the event in Balmoral, Prince Harry is expected to be in Dusseldorf, Germany, for the 2023 Invictus Games from 9 September.

His wife will reportedly join him a few days later as they are due to attend a number of events before appearing at the closing ceremony on 16 September.

(Getty Images)

According to German newspaper Rheinische Post, Prince Harry will give a speech while Markle will help to moderate the ceremony.

All senior royal family members, including Prince Andrew, are expected to be at the anniversary ceremony held in Balmoral Castle, according to The Sun.

After the ceremony, the King and Queen Camilla will officially begin their summer holiday in Scotland on 21 August.

Britain Harry and Meghan Car Chase (Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

This year, the royal couple will break with tradition by not staying in the main Balmoral castle.

According to The Daily Mail, Charles will be breaking from his mothers tradition by not staying at Balmoral Castle itself, as the late Queen did, but staying instead at Birkhall  his private home at the estate.

One source told the publication the King and Queen will happily decamp to the main castle for official visits from prime minister Rishi Sunak and other political representatives, but Birkhall will be their main base until the early autumn.

Since the Duke and Duchess of Sussex stepped back from royal duties in 2020, and following the release of Prince Harrys tell-all memoir Spare in January, it is unlikely that the couple will be visiting the King and Queen Camilla at their residence this summer.
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China is lifting a stifling 3-year-old tariff on Australian barley starting Saturday  a sign of an improving bilateral trade relationship since Australias government changed.

China effectively closed its door to Australian barley in May 2020 by imposing an 80.5% tariff after the previous Australian government angered Beijing by calling for an independent inquiry into the origins of, and responses to, the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Friday, both governments confirmed the resumption of trade in the grain that was worth 916 million Australian dollars ($602 million) in the year before China blocked imports.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese welcomed the breakthrough, which comes as he plans his first visit to Beijing as government leader before the end of the year.

This is a very positive decision, Albanese told reporters.

When Albaneses government was elected in May 2022, he demanded Beijing drop a series of official and unofficial trade barriers against Australian exports  including barley, wine, coal, beef, wood and seafood  that were costing producers $15 billion a year.

Chinas Ministry of Commerce said in a statement it ruled that in view of the changes in Chinas barley market, it was unnecessary to continue to impose anti-dumping duties and countervailing duties on imported barley originating in Australia.

The ministry gave no details of the decision, nor did it explain the market changes.

Australia has denied Chinas claims that it subsidized barley and wine to export it at artificially low prices, a process known as dumping.

In April, Australia suspended a complaint to the World Trade Organization in a bid to reopen the Chinese market to barley. In exchange, China had agreed to review its duties on the grain.

With the barley trade reopened, the Australian government said it expects China will lift its trade barriers to Australian wine.

Australias complaint over wine remains before the Geneva-based WTO.

China is Australias biggest trading partner, with two-way trade totaling $287 billion in 2022.

___

Associated Press reporter Joe McDonald in Beijing contributed to this report.
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Andrew Tate has said he will be absolutely exonerated of charges of rape, human trafficking and forming a criminal gang to exploit women after being released from house arrest.

Tate and his brother Tristan, both dual UK-US nationals, and two Romanian nationals have been under house arrest for months after denying the allegations.

On Friday, they won an appeal to be able to leave their home but must remain in Romania, where they live.

Tate, 36, speaking outside his home in Bucharest on Friday, told reporters: In January when I was thrown into a jail cell the media reported and told the world that I was a terrible person, they said that I hurt people and that I make a lot of money from a criminal enterprise.

Here we stand seven or eight months later and I have not seen a single victim on the news, I have seen lots of girls sticking up for me, lots of people defending me, Ive not seen a single person stand up and say that I have hurt them, not one.

Its very exhausting to continue to perpetuate lies, its very hard to keep lies afloat when you have no actual evidence, weve been completely innocent since the beginning of this and I have to give absolute faith to the Romanian judicial system for finally making the right decision in letting us free.

Im sure in the end we will be absolutely exonerated and everybody who was pushing these lies and reporting things on repeat without any substantial evidence are going to have to analyse within themselves why they decide to try and destroy peoples lives purely for views.

Ive done nothing wrong, God knows Ive done nothing wrong, in my heart I know Ive done nothing wrong. I think the people at home with a functioning brain understand weve done nothing wrong.

In a statement through their lawyer, the Tate brothers thanked supporters for showing great resilience and patience.

In June, prosecutors alleged there were seven female victims, including some who were misled by false claims of marriage and love.

They said the defendants formed an organised crime group in early 2021 to commit human trafficking in Romania, the UK, the US and other countries.

The alleged victims were later taken to buildings in Ilfov county in Romania where they were intimidated, placed under constant surveillance and control and forced into debt, the statement said.

It is said the defendants then forced them to take part in pornography which was later shared on social media.

One defendant raped an alleged victim twice in March 2022, according to the statement.

Tate, who has lived in Romania since 2017, was previously banned from various social media platforms.

The kickboxer has denied all of the allegations, with a trial due to take place.
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The King and Queen are expected to mark the first anniversary of Queen Elizabeth IIs death privately, it is understood.

Charles and Camilla, who are on their traditional summer break, will not hold a private family gathering at their Balmoral estate to commemorate the passing of the late monarch and no public event is planned.

Elizabeth II, the UKs longest-serving monarch, died peacefully at Balmoral, Aberdeenshire, on September 8 last year, aged 96, after reigning for 70 years.

Her death was the moment her son and heir Charles became King, and the date will remain a poignant period for the head of state.

It is understood the King and Queen are not expected to attend any public engagements during the week of the anniversary.

The late Queen used to mark the passing of her father King George VI, who died on February 6 1952, privately at Sandringham.

Charles has carried out a number of firsts during his time as head of state, from carrying out his first overseas state visit to Germany to delivering his inaugural Christmas broadcast.
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A mother and stepfather have been jailed over the death of a 10-month-old boy who endured repeated physical abuse as part of a culture of cruelty.

Craig Crouch, 39, was convicted on Wednesday of the vicious murder of Jacob Crouch at their Derbyshire home in December 2020, as well as three counts of child cruelty.

Jacobs mother, Gemma Barton, 33, was cleared of murder and manslaughter but found guilty of causing or allowing the death of a child, and one count of child cruelty.

Prosecutors said Jacob endured significant pain and suffering and was assaulted on a regular basis (Derbyshire Police/PA Wire)

Crouch was jailed to life with a minimum term of 28 years on Friday while Barton was given a 10-year sentence, after the pair were remanded into custody by Mr Justice Kerr following the guilty verdicts.

Jailing Crouch, Mr Justice Kerr said the offence was an abuse of trust of the grossest kind, adding: You have not shown any remorse for what you did.

Mr Kerr said Crouch, of Moira, Leicestershire, was domineering, aggressive, boastful and arrogant, behaviour Barton tolerated due to misplaced affection.

Barton, of Heanor, Derbyshire, wept in the dock as her sentence was handed down, with the judge telling her: You either knew or should have known the risk to Jacob from Mr Crouch, and did nothing to protect him from it.

The pair were convicted following a seven-week trial at Derby Crown Court, which heard that Jacob endured significant pain and suffering and was assaulted on a regular basis by Crouch over six months, culminating in a vicious assault that tore his stomach.

The youngster was found dead in his cot on 30 December 2020 at the family home in Foxley Chase, Linton, Swadlincote, despite Crouch claiming in a 999 call that Jacob was fine just two hours before he died.

A mother and stepfather have been jailed over the death of a 10-month-old boy who endured their repeated physical abuse (PA Media)

A post-mortem examination found that he had died as a result of peritonitis  an infection of the lining of the abdominal organs  caused by a traumatic bowel perforation.

Dr Michael Biggs, a forensic pathologist, told the trial that this could have only been caused by blunt force trauma, such as a punch, kick or stamp.

Further examinations found that Jacob also had 39 rib fractures, 19 visible bruises and internal injuries, which Dr Biggs likened to those seen in car crash victims.

In a victim statement, read out in court by prosecutor, Mary Prior KC, Jacobs father Andrew Smith told of how his pain will be with him for a lifetime.

He said: I never got to meet him. All I have is a photo to remember him by. I will never be able to hug him and celebrate his achievements. I will never be able to buy him his first pint when he turns 18. You have taken Jacob and all the memories we would have shared.

A post-mortem examination found that Jacob Crouch had died as a result of peritonitis  an infection of the lining of the abdominal organs  caused by a traumatic bowel perforation (PA Media)

The pain will be with me for a lifetime. It will never go away.

I cant understand how or why you could inflict the injuries you did, Craig. My boy has some justice now, but it will never be enough for his suffering.

In his statement, also read out by Mrs Prior, Malcolm Barton, Jacobs maternal grandfather, called Crouch a liar. He added: We did not like Craig at all. His lies were huge and unbelievable.

Describing Jacob as such a happy little lad, he said: He was sitting on the floor and crawling about and I remember he was playing with his great-grandads walking stick.

We have lost the opportunity to see Jacob grow up, we will never see him have his 18th birthday, get married and have children of his own.

In his sentencing remarks, Mr Kerr said: Jacob was a happy, smiley, bubbly baby who never complained about the horrific treatment he was receiving. He had to put up with it, and he did, often with a smile in defiance of his tormentor.

A custody van is driven into Derby Crown Court, where Gemma Barton and Craig Crouch have been sentenced following the death of 10-month-old baby Jacob Crouch (Jacob King/PA Wire)

Even those who never knew Jacob personally will miss him. It is nothing less than tragic that he will never become a boy, and then a man.

Crouch was also given concurrent eight-year, six-year and one-year sentences for three counts of child cruelty.

In text messages, Crouch told Barton she needed to be more regimental with Jacob, claimed he was starting to get really pissed off with him and talked about bathing him in bleach.

Crouch, a former forklift driver at JCB, denied ever having harmed Jacob and suggested the injuries could have been caused by his stepson falling over or hitting himself with a toy, an explanation that a consultant paediatrician labelled not remotely possible.

The jury unanimously rejected Crouchs account after four days of deliberation.

Barton also denied ever having hurt her son, instead blaming her partner, and said that she went along with Crouchs parenting style as it was Craigs way or no way.

Speaking outside Derby Crown Court following the sentencing, Detective Inspector Paul Bullock, of the East Midlands Special Operations Unit, said the case was particularly harrowing, adding: While no sentence can bring Jacob back, we hope todays sentence brings the families some closure on what has been a horrific two-and-a-half years.

Andrew Baxter, Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor at Crown Prosecution Service East Midlands, said: Instead of nurturing Jacob, Crouch murdered him and Barton knew what was happening but did nothing to protect him from harm. The fact they behaved in this way towards a child so young makes their conduct all the more horrifying.

An NSPCC spokesperson said: Jacob was one of 36 children who died in England following abuse and maltreatment at home in 2020. For large parts of the year, due to lockdowns, children were cut off from their usual support systems and the wider community, making those at risk of abuse more vulnerable to serious harm.

We would urge anyone who has concerns for a childs safety to contact the relevant authorities or the NSPCC Helpline, which provides free and confidential help and advice.
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The police watchdog has confirmed it will investigate claims a woman was raped in police custody.

Zayna Iman claims she was drugged and raped in a police cell in February 2021 after she was detained by Greater Manchester Police. She was arrested at her home after officers responded to a friends concern for her safety after she had taken cocaine in the early hours of 5 February 2021.

The 38-year-old was taken to a nearby station, where she was carried into a jail cell and had her clothes removed whilst apparently unconscious  an element Ms Iman was able to uncover after requesting the CCTV footage through a subject access request.

The footage also shows that she was strip-searched and left undressed for prolonged periods.

Zayna Iman claims she was drugged and raped in a police cell in February 2021 (Zayna Iman/Sky News )

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said on Friday that it would begin an investigation following her complaint, confirming that it would look at the nature of the interaction the woman had with Greater Manchester Police.

Earlier this week, detectives asked computer experts to try to recover two hours of missing footage from the police cell. On Wednesday, police denied withholding the footage deliberately, explaining that the footage from the cell was put onto four discs, one of which was corrupted.

When the files were recovered, it was found that two hours of footage were missing, but by this time, the parent footage on the servers had been overwritten as the standard time for retaining the footage had passed, the force said.

Greater Manchester Police added: We have recovered and secured the servers and have an active line of enquiry  being if the outstanding hours can be recovered by Digital Forensics professionals.

Ms Iman went to hospital after being released from police custody and was there for five days, documents show. After leaving hospital, she asked Greater Manchester Police for evidence of what happened to her whilst she was held in the cell.

She finally received the footage a year later, but two hours were missing. At 1pm on 6 February, the footage shows Ms Iman naked, looking up at the camera, before the screen goes blank. There is also a section the day before where the footage cuts out, with both hours missing from the footage.

A doctors entry on 9 February states: Zayna has spent time with staff trying to make sense of the things that have happened and has now queried whether she was actually raped by the police.

The report concludes that Ms Iman, who does not have any prior history of mental disorder, was admitted with an acute psychotic episode that was resolved without treatment.

It is highly likely that this is drug related to the date rape drug which led to a sexual assault.

After 11am on 5 February 2021, Ms Iman appears topless in the cell (Cell footage/Zayna Iman/GMP )

I requested the footage and the documents in February 2021, Ms Iman told The Independent, waiving her right to anonymity. They sent the paperwork in October 2021, but they didnt send the footage until February 2022.

Recalling her condition at the time, Ms Iman said: My back passage hurt. Everything inside hurt, and I was struggling to walk, and my friends will tell you that when they picked me up five days later from the hospital I was still struggling to walk.

IOPC Regional Director Catherine Bates said: These very serious allegations will have undoubtedly unsettled the local community and the wider public. Their severity raises understandable concern and has the potential to undermine confidence in policing.

In light of the new information we recently received and the significant media attention generated, as well as a request from GMP, we have taken the decision that an independent investigation is required into the allegations.

We are aware of footage of the womans detention, which has been widely shared, and will be requesting a copy of all available video evidence to assist with our inquiries.

Our investigation, which will be thorough and independent of the police, will look at the nature of the interaction the woman had with police while in custody and allow us to understand what happened on the night in question.

Rape Crisis offers support for those affected by rape and sexual abuse. You can call them on 0808 802 9999 in England and Wales, 0808 801 0302 in Scotland, and 0800 0246 991 in Northern Ireland, or visit their website at www.rapecrisis.org.uk. If you are in the US, you can call Rainn on 800-656-HOPE (4673)
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A convicted Satanist neo-Nazi who was spared jail as a teenager has now been imprisoned for three years and two months after admitting a string of fresh crimes.

Harry Vaughan, from Twickenham, south-west London, was 18 when he admitted 14 terror offences and two of possessing indecent images of children.

He developed an interest in right-wing extremism, Satanism, the occult, and violence after disappearing down a rabbit hole of the internet from the age of 14, the Old Bailey heard previously.

In November 2020, Justice Sweeney handed Vaughan a two-year suspended sentence along with a 60-day rehabilitation order and a terrorist notification order for 10 years.

The court previously heard that the defendant was arrested at his family home on June 19 2019 in a counter-terror probe into Fascist Forge  an online forum used by extreme, right-wing militants.

In an application to join the System Resistance Network  an alias of the banned neo-Nazi group National Action  in March 2018, he wrote: I could handle myself in a fight. There is nothing I wouldnt do to further the cause.

Police found 4,200 images and 302 files, including an extreme, right-wing terrorist book and documents relating to Satanism, neo-Nazism and antisemitism, on his computer and other devices.

Vaughan had originally pleaded guilty to one count of encouragement of terrorism, one count of disseminating a terrorist publication, 12 counts of possessing a document containing information of a kind likely to be of use to a person preparing or committing an act of terrorism, and two counts of making an indecent photograph of a child.

In June this year, 21-year-old Vaughan, who now goes by the name of Harry Blake, returned to the Old Bailey and pleaded guilty to making an indecent photograph of a child in September 2022.

He also admitted three charges of possessing extreme pornographic videos, three counts of failing to comply with a Serious Crime Prevention Order and three breaches of his notification order.

The breaches, which began just a month after his original sentence, related to failing to tell authorities about an email address and details of cryptocurrency accounts.

Now in relation to the newer offences, Vaughan has been jailed for 38 months and was handed a serious crime prevention order of five years at the Old Bailey on Thursday.

After the sentencing, Detective Chief Superintendent Gareth Rees, of the Met Police Counter Terrorism Command, said: Blake had been convicted of offences relating to sharing extremist content online, so restrictions were imposed to curb his access to computer systems.

His breach of these conditions was extremely serious. Not only had he breached the conditions, but we uncovered that he had also been storing child abuse images.

I hope this case sends the message that we closely monitor people who are under terrorism notification and crime prevention orders, and that we will bring them back to court where weve found theyve broken those conditions.
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The chairman of a UK-based Republican group has said a lot of conservatives wish former US president Donald Trump would not run in the forthcoming election.

Greg Swenson, from Republicans Overseas UK, told the PA news agency the latest indictment against Mr Trump was a weaponisation of the judicial system but said it would be better for the party and the country if he did not run for president again.

Mr Trump pleaded not guilty on Thursday to trying to overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election, which he lost.

It is the third criminal case brought against him in less than six months, after he was also charged in New York with falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment to a porn actress during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Mr Trump is also accused of 40 felony counts in Florida, in which he is alleged to have illegally retained classified documents at his Palm Beach estate, Mar-a-Lago, and refusing government demands to give them back.

Mr Swenson said members of Republicans Overseas UK based in London were not extremely pro-Trump but described them as very conservative philosophically.

He said the group consists mainly of American ex-pats living in the UK, but also had interest from Britons and other Europeans.

Giving his own views on whether Mr Trump should run for president in next years election, he told PA: I do think we can do better, and I do prefer Ron DeSantis.

Two reasons, one I think Ron would be a better president and two, he can win.

Every time I think theres a chance for governor DeSantis to make a move, theres more Trump news.

Democrats have done a brilliant job of keeping the focus on Trump.

Asked if he believed it would be a better decision for the Republican Party not to let Mr Trump run for election, Mr Swenson said: Without a doubt  a lot of us just wish he wouldnt run.

I do think we can do better, and I do prefer Ron DeSantis Greg Swenson, Republicans Overseas UK

A lot of us wish the impeachment worked in 2021  the second one had some legs to it because even if it wasnt criminal, what he did was very un-presidential and could be considered impeachable.

This indictment is just a weaponisation of the justice system, but I think it would be better for the party and the country if Trump was not running, but thats not the way it works, its up to the voters.

Asked whether he thought it would be damaging for the US if Mr Trump was convicted while in office, Mr Swenson said: Completely damaging  and it makes it look like a banana republic.

Theyre reaching for these legally dubious challenges to affect an election and ruin a president.

Theyve been harassing him for so long, it makes the country look bad.

I dont think it will happen but if it does, yes, very bad news for the country  and frankly, bad news for the Republican Party and bad news for the Democrats.
The trip from August 7 to 9 will have as main item on the agenda Mrs. Boluarte's participation in the Fourth Presidential Meeting of the States Parties to the Amazon Cooperation Treaty.

The top official is expected to hold meetings with counterparts from other participating countries, including Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Concerning the role that Mrs. Boluarte will play at this event, she indicated that Peru will issue a message referring to an Amazon with human face.

In the pursuit of this goal, our country can play an important role in the world, she noted.

La jefa de Estado adelanto que el Ejecutivo esta comprometido en llevar el mensaje del Peru sobre una Amazonia con rostro humano, en el que nuestro pais tiene que jugar un rol importante en el mundo.
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A family is making a really difficult return to an East Sussex holiday park to hold a vigil, one year on from a father-of-sixs death.

Michael McDonagh, who was living in London, was on holiday with his family at the Parkdean resort in Camber Sands when he died aged 53 in August last year, following an altercation with a group of people.

Sussex Police arrested seven people after the incident, with six bailed and one released with no further action, and the investigation is continuing.

His daughter Stephanie McDonagh, 31, told the PA news agency that her family thought they would never be able to return to the area, and said the gathering in his memory at 1pm on Saturday outside the park will be really difficult.

She said: Its probably the worst year of our lives, as anyone could imagine, and its been an extremely difficult year for everyone.

Obviously, we know whats happened to dad, we know that hes not with us any more, but understanding that and processing that is completely different.

You still expect to see him, you still expect to see him walk through the door, you still pull out your phone and try to call him.

Ms McDonagh, a solicitor, described Mr McDonagh as the glue that held their family together and an upbeat father who had a sense of adventure that saw him zip-line and cliff dive a few months before his death.

She said: Dad was such a family man and he always put his family first and sort of every decision he made was for his family.

Hes the one that pushed us to achieve things, that we thought we could never achieve.

Ms McDonagh also said it was really hard to come to terms with the fact that her father would miss out on grandchildren being born and family celebrations.

She said: It feels like were going through the biggest thing in our lives and the biggest problem in our lives and the one person you want to talk to about it, hes not there for it.

The family hopes the candlelit vigil, described as a peaceful gathering that will be open to the public, will raise awareness and encourage any witnesses to help the police with their investigations, as well as honour him.

She said: Dad had his wife and six children and his two grandchildren but the effect he had on his extended family and friends is massive.

Its not just his family that were affected by his death. Theres so many other people that still want answers.

Ms McDonagh also said communication with the holiday park following her fathers death has been minimal and extremely insensitive.

She added that the company could have worded things a bit better for her grieving family.

A spokesman for Camber Sands Holiday Park said: We recognise that this a difficult time for the McDonagh family and we will continue to assist the authorities in this matter.

Sussex Police Detective Chief Inspector Emma Vickers said: We have been conducting a thorough, complex investigation into the death of Michael McDonagh since the tragic events of August 6 2022.

Our thoughts remain with Michaels family, who are being supported by specialist officers while we search for the answers they deserve.

A dedicated team has completed a painstaking review of CCTV footage and taken more than 150 statements as we look to establish the full facts of what happened that evening.

Six people arrested on suspicion of Michaels murder have been released under investigation, while a seventh person who had been arrested has been released with no further action.

We continue to appeal for any witnesses, or people with relevant video footage, to contact police online or via 101, quoting Operation Molton.
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Afghan refugees in the UK are presenting as homeless to councils after being turfed out of government hotels in shameful evictions.

The families, many of whom worked with or for the British government and armed forces in Afghanistan, came to the UK following the Taliban takeover in 2021.

All 8,000 Afghans living in bridging hotels were served with eviction notices by the end of May and were given three months by the government to find their own accommodation.

Now, the Local Government Association (LGA), which represents councils, has warned it was hearing reports that up to 20 per cent of those evicted have declared themselves homeless to local authorities. The hotels are being emptied in a staggered way, with those in the smaller hotels being moved out first.

Labour MP Dan Jarvis, who served in Afghanistan, described the fact that families are becoming homeless as shameful. He said it was reasonable to move people out of hotels, but not at the pace that the government was doing it.

He told The Independent: These are people who have come here at our invitation. The UK made an offer to them because of the nature of their service alongside UK armed forces in Afghanistan. The notion that - having done that - we subsequently allow them to become homeless, I think is shameful.

He continued: Its in nobodys interests to have Afghans homeless in the UK. Government needs to be a bit more pragmatic and provide more time to transition them into permanent accommodation.

He described the decision to evict the Afghans as morally deeply unpleasant and added that it was also deeply flawed from a public policy perspective because it creates a whole new set of problems.

Its in nobodys interests to have hundreds and hundreds of Afghans homeless across the country, he said.

Cllr Shaun Davies, chair of the LGA, said: Hotels have already begun to close to Afghan households across the country and - as we feared - councils are already seeing families presenting to them as homeless as a result.

It is wrong that some families are having to leave Home Office-funded hotels only to then end up having to move into temporary accommodation.

Cllr Davies warned that the situation is likely to worsen significantly as the Home Office stops paying for the remaining bridging hotels for Afghan families in the coming days and weeks.

Labour councillor for Harrow, Peymana Assad, said long term homes were needed for Afghan families and that the government needed to show care and consideration to their circumstances.

She added: I am really concerned that the pregnant Afghan women in these families are about to be put into really vulnerable situations like staying in unsuitable and unsafe hostels because of the Governments eviction notices.

In Northampton, a council spokesperson said that around 50 people have nowhere to go when they are evicted. There are 179 Afghans in hotels in the area who have received notice to quit by the end of August.

A spokesperson for West Northamptonshire Council told local media: We are currently looking at around 50 individuals who do not have a viable option at the end of the rehousing process and who the council will need to assess a homelessness duty for.

Many of these are single men so we are also exploring an additional, bespoke option based on the model of the Homes for Ukraine sponsorship scheme.

The Independent has been campaigning for the government to honour our debt to Afghans who supported the British military and grant them asylum in the UK.

A government spokesperson said: Hotels are not, and were never designed to be, long-term accommodation and it is not in Afghans best interests to be living in hotel accommodation for months or years on end.

Weve seen good progress with Afghans leaving hotels, with 10,500 Afghans so far provided with homes. We will continue to provide extensive support, backed by 285 million of new funding to speed up the resettlement of Afghans into permanent accommodation.
 Close Dan Wootton addresses 'smear campaign' allegations

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MailOnline has suspended Dan Woottons column while allegations he used a pseudonym and offered colleagues money for sexual images are investigated.

The GB News presenter, who has written a regular column for MailOnline since 2021, claims to be the victim of a witch hunt after being accused of using fake online identities to trick men into sending him explicit images for tens of thousands of pounds.

Wootton has denied any criminal wrongdoing, although he has admitted to errors of judgment in the past.

The broadcaster, who hosted the Dan Wootton Tonight programme on GB News as scheduled on Thursday night without reference to the suspension, dismissed the allegations on his show last month as simply untrue and a campaign to destroy my life.

The allegations, first published last month by independent outlet Byline Times, include claims about alleged behaviour while he edited The Suns Bizarre column, as well as claims of payments for explicit images and videos.

Following the claims, the publishers of MailOnline and his previous employers at The Sun said they were looking into allegations made against the New Zealand-born star.
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Senior commanders from Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) have tried to radicalise British university students with extreme antisemitic propaganda and calls for violence, it has been claimed.

Eight controversial armed forces chiefs gave speeches to Muslim students, urging them to support illegal attacks and venerate people who have carried out acts of violence, according to an investigation by the Jewish Chronicle. The paper claims the talks were hosted by the Islamic Students Association of Britain (ISA).

Recordings obtained by the paper are said to reveal that one commander claimed the Holocaust was fake, boasted of training al-Qaeda terrorists and urged listeners to join the beautiful list of soldiers who would fight and kill Jews in an apocalyptic war.

Another military leader allegedly claimed Jews created homosexuality and said students should raise the flag of the Islamic Revolution, Islam and martyrdom and see themselves as holy warriors, promising the era of the Jews would soon end.

The talks, which were live-streamed from Iran and viewed by tens of thousands of people, were from speakers who have played key roles in crushing of dissent in Iran, according to the Jewish Chronicle.

The allegations would mark the first time that IRGC commanders have been seen to play a direct role in disseminating regime propaganda in the UK.

In an online talk in 2021, one commander reportedly said that the Islamic State terror group was created by the central headquarters of the Americans, British and the Jews, and deployed by the Saudis and the Zionists.

Speaking about the Holocaust, he is quoted as saying: The one that the Jews say happened is fake. The real Holocaust happened in my country in the First World War, 1917-19, when the UK occupied Iran.

MPs and intelligence experts called for the government to ban the IRGC as a terrorist group, meaning that to organise such talks would be a criminal offence, although so far the Foreign Office is said to have resisted the idea.

The Islamic Students Association of Britain (ISA) has a network of branches across the UK, but its headquarters is at a converted Methodist church in Hammersmith, west London, just a mile from a synagogue.

Its former chair, Mohammad Hussain Ataee Dolat Abadi was granted a rare audience with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in January, when the Iranian regime leader praised his activities, the Jewish Chronicle reported.

In response to the investigation, the ISA on Friday denied having any links to the IRGC and denied holding any physical meetings with the falsely accused people.

In a statement issued via the Union of Islamic Student Associations in Europe, Mohammad Hussain Ataee Dolat Abadi said: Islamic Students Associations have never had any direct or indirect affiliation to the IRGC or any army, government or security group anywhere in the world and neither have I.

Regarding recent accusations of meetings, Islamic Students Associations have never held any physical gathering/seminar/conference in Kanoon Towhid or anywhere else with any of the falsely accused individuals.

Sir Richard Dearlove, the former head of MI6, told the paper he hoped that MI5 was fully aware of the ISA and its deeply troubling activities.

He added: The case for strong preventive action seems clear-cut. The IRGC should be a proscribed organisation under our counterterrorist legislation.

Anthony Glees, emeritus professor of security and intelligence studies at Buckingham University, said he was astonished that the IRGC was beaming its toxic message to UK universities, saying it was a perilous development that may well be damaging national security. America has proscribed these people and we should too, he added.

Recommended US sanctions Iranian firm for helping government censor internet

Tory MP Alicia Kearns, chair of the Commons foreign affairs select committee, who has been demanding a ban on the IRGC for months, told the Jewish Chronicle: To broadcast the jihadist and antisemitic ideas of senior members of the IRGC to students across Britain is a brazen act of radicalisation.

We must pursue and prosecute those responsible trying to incite violence here in the UK.

Shadow foreign secretary David Lammy said: The invitation of IRGC commanders and other speakers who glorify its actions to speak to British students is incredibly concerning. Robust action is needed now.

It represents a threat to life and to the UK, and its time to get the Foreign Office to act to stop this happening, he said.

The Independent has asked ISA for further comment.
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The Foreign Office failed to notice signs of torture and provide help to a British academic during his detention in the United Arab Emirates, a watchdog has found.

Matthew Hedges welcomed the conclusion of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) investigation as a personal victory in recognising the pain and abuse he experienced.

But he called on the department to make a formal apology and implement changes to ensure others do not have to experience what he went through.

Mr Hedges was detained in Abu Dhabi between May and November 2018, after being accused of working for MI6.

He had travelled to the UAE to carry out research for his PhD when he was arrested at Dubai airport.

Mr Hedges later described how he was questioned for up to 15 hours a day, forced to wear ankle cuffs, faced sleepless nights, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and was reliant on a cocktail of drugs that were fed to him in jail.

Mr Hedges, originally from Exeter, was sentenced to life imprisonment but was pardoned by the nations president days later.

He complained to the PHSO that the Foreign Office had failed to notice he was being mistreated.

This is the first step in enabling me to truly heal Matthew Hedges

The PHSO, an independent service which examines unresolved complaints against UK Government departments, has now concluded the UK failed to follow its own guidance on detecting potential torture and mistreatment of British nationals.

The PHSO said embassy staff noted Mr Hedgess voice was shaking when they visited him, he avoided eye contact and mentioned having anxiety attacks.

It added these were signs he might have been subject to torture or mistreatment, and that Foreign Office guidelines say that staff should have acted in response even when they do not have consent.

The PHSO recommendations included asking the Foreign Office to make a written apology to Mr Hedges, plus make a compensation payment of 1,500, within a month of the final report.

Mr Hedges told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: This is the first step in enabling me to truly heal.

The nightmare was made even worse by being failed by the British Government PHSO chief executive Rebecca Hilsenrath

He added: I wouldnt turn down financial compensation but of course 1,500 is a paltry sum by comparison.

But first and foremost the most crucial thing for my recovery is a formal apology from the Foreign Office and for them to acknowledge and to implement changes so that other people who are currently or have been in similar circumstances dont have to endure this.

PHSO chief executive Rebecca Hilsenrath said: It is hard to imagine the experience that Mr Hedges has endured and quite how terrifying his detention must have been.

The nightmare was made even worse by being failed by the British Government.

He trusted them to help him and they let him down. Officials failed to notice signs of torture, failed to intervene and failed to help.

At the end of the day, the role of the Government is to protect its citizens and this was a profound failure.

The impact will run deep for Mr Hedges and he will have to live with that for the rest of his life. This must not happen again to anyone else.

We have asked the FCDO to make sure it will fully use all its powers to protect British citizens abroad, and ensure that they are there precisely when they are most needed.

A Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office spokesman said: The best interests of British nationals, including those detained overseas, is at the heart of our consular work and we support their families wherever we can.

We will review the ombudsmans findings and respond in due course.

A statement from the UAE government said: Matthew Hedges was convicted of espionage in 2018 following a fair and transparent trial at which he admitted the charges against him.

The UAE government said they provided Mr Hedges with entirely proper care and treatment.

The statement added: He was never subjected to, or threatened with, either torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment of any sort. The UAE has evidence to support this.
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The nearest fire station to the governments new asylum barge has no full-time staff and its firefighters have other jobs, prompting real concerns over the response to an emergency.

In a report seen by The Independent, a long-serving firefighter called the Bibby Stockholm a major life risk and warned that most fire engines in the nearby area are on-call only  slowing response times.

Andy Dark, who was the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) assistant general secretary until his retirement earlier this year, called for the project to be abandoned on safety grounds, but the government hopes to put the first of 500 asylum seekers on board next week.

Ministers have been forced to insist the barge is not a death trap, as health and safety checks continue at Portland Port following official warnings over issues including fire exits and evacuation routes.

Mr Dark said there are only six fire engines stationed within 15 miles of the Bibby Stockholm, and all but one are staffed by part-time crews.

There's a real concern with regards to the availability of crews, he told The Independent.

Fires in expansive buildings are really, really labour intensive. You want to get in there quick, intervene quickly and knock it out.

Portland Fire Station has two engines under a 10-minute drive from the barge but is not staffed full-time, meaning on-call firefighters are paged in the event of an emergency.

Its firefighters have other jobs and obligations, says its website. They commit time to the Fire & Rescue Service throughout the week and respond to emergencies.

The next-nearest fire station is around a 15-minute drive away in Weymouth, which has one 24-hour crewed engine and a second one on call, as well as a rescue unit.

Over 13 miles away, Dorchester Fire Station has two engines but both are on-call only.

Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service said it had robust plans in place for the Bibby Stockholm and could draw resources from numerous stations over a wide area if necessary.

Inside the Bibby Stockholm asylum barge

But Mr Dark warned that there would be no second chances if a fire broke out, and urged the fire service to run real-life simulations to test its response.

We cannot have a situation as with both [fatal flat block fires in] Lakanal House and Grenfell where fire personnel were confronted with an operating environment and demands on a scale for which they had no experience or training to know where to start, he said.

The FBU formally wrote to home secretary Suella Braverman raising concerns earlier this week and demanding an urgent meeting but has not received a response.

Deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden sought to play down the warnings on Thursday, saying the union was affiliated to the Labour Party and suggesting its intervention was politically motivated.

He told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: We have to undertake a number of inspections and other measures to make sure that these vessels, and this vessel in particular, is suitable and ready.

We are confident that we will be able to address all of these concerns, Im absolutely certain of that, and Im absolutely certain we will be able to get people on this vessel in the coming weeks.

The Bibby Stockholm barge at Portland, Dorset, will house up to 500 people (James Manning/PA) (PA Wire)

Ben Selby, the FBUs assistant general secretary, said its warning had nothing to do with our democratically decided political affiliation and condemned Mr Dowdens suggestion as disgraceful.

Fire safety is a serious matter, and this situation calls for a grown-up approach, he added. We are sounding the alarm because it is our duty to do so.

Concerns over the issue were raised by the homelessness charity Shelter over two weeks ago, in a letter to the Home Office and local authorities asking numerous safety questions including: What plans/systems are in place in the event of a fire breaking out on board the vessel? Have any evacuation drills taken place and are any planned?

The letter asked if the government was checking whether the asylum seekers housed on the Bibby Stockholm could swim, and pointed to a report saying that smoking was common on board during its previous use for asylum seekers in the Netherlands.

The Independent understands the Home Office acknowledged receipt of Shelters letter but did not answer any of the questions.

Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service said the government and its contractors were responsible for completing a fire risk assessment, ensuring necessary measures are in place and determining if it is appropriate to move people aboard the Bibby Stockholm.

The official brochure for the Bibby Stockholm shows 222 single bedrooms, but the Home Office says it will house 500 asylum seekers (Bibby Marine)

It said it had provided advice and comment in relation to fire safety arrangements during official visits but there was no official approval process.

The service has robust plans for dealing with major incidents, including moving appliances from other fire stations and calling on neighbouring fire services for support, and all crews attending any such incident have access to relevant risk information while en route, a spokesperson told The Independent.

Officials said that firefighters from Portland, Weymouth, Dorchester, Bridport, Bournemouth and other locations could be drawn on, depending on the scale of any incident.

The Home Office said it had developed a fire protocol and its contractors were working with the service.

A spokesperson added: The Bibby Stockholm is being readied for the arrival of the first asylum seekers and will comply with all appropriate regulations. The vessel will adhere to all relevant health and safety standards, including over fire risk and to suggest otherwise is wrong.
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A group of British nationals have been evacuated from Niger on a flight to Spain following a military coup in the West African nation.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) on Friday said they had departed that morning and would be supported by officials from the department on arrival in Madrid.

The UKs ambassador to Niger Catherine Inglehearn and a core team remain in the country, the FCDO said.

The first group of Britons arrived in France on Wednesday after being evacuated from Niger.

Violence has broken out in Niger after soldiers detained President Mohamed Bazoum and seized power last week.

The takeover has been condemned by Western nations and West African leaders who have threatened to forcibly remove the ruling junta if it does not hand back power to Mr Bazoum.

Hundreds of anti-Western protesters rallied in the capital Niamey on Thursday after the military leaders and civil society groups called on people to mobilise to fight for the countrys freedom and reject foreign interference.

The march fell on the day Niger marked its independence from its former colonial ruler, France, with which junta said it is severing military ties.

Many European countries have moved to evacuate their citizens as tension increased in the capital and elsewhere.

An FCDO spokesperson said: A group of British nationals has left Niger on a Spanish flight this morning. We have a team in Madrid ready to support them on landing. The UKs Ambassador and a core team remain in Niger.

We are grateful to Spain for their help in this evacuation.
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The world-famous celebrity yacht used by Princess Diana on her final summer holiday in France has sunk to the bottom of the sea.

Cujo, once also a favourite of Hollywood superstars, disappeared below the Mediterranean waves after hitting an unidentified object off Beaulieu-sur-Mer, on the French Riviera, on Saturday.

Seven people on board were rescued following the accident, but the boat ended up at a depth of almost 2500m around 18 nautical miles off the coast.

The skipper of the Cujo issued a Mayday, said one officer. His ship was sinking due to a leak.

Cujo, once also a favourite of Hollywood superstars, disappeared below the Mediterranean waves (Gendarmerie des Alpes-Maritimes)

Rescue boats were sent from Antibes, and, after making sure everyone was safe, gendarmes detected a significant water leak at the level of the starboard front hull.

Her owner had activated the pumps and kept the engines running, but this didnt stop the boat sinking.

Reports about Cujo dominated the media in August 1997, when it was owned by Dianas boyfriend, Dodi Al-Fayed (PA)

All of those on board, including the Cujos Italian owner, were placed in a rescue boat, and taken back to shore uninjured.

Reports about Cujo - an Indian word that means Unstoppable Force - dominated the media in August 1997, when it was owned by Dianas boyfriend, Dodi Al-Fayed.

Salvage launches arrived, but could not save the boat sinking (Gendarmerie des Alpes-Maritimes)

The multi-millionaire film producer had spent some 1m refitting the boat, and wooed Diana on board, as the worlds media looked on.

This was shortly before the couple died in a car crash in central Paris caused by their drunk driver.

All of those on board, including the Cujos Italian owner, were placed in a rescue boat (Gendarmerie des Alpes-Maritimes)

That summer, Diana was also photographed on Sokar, the yacht then owned by Al-Fayeds father, retail billionaire Mohamed Al-Fayed.

Cujo was built in Italy in 1972 for businessman John von Neumann after he told Italys Baglietto shipyard that he wanted the worlds fastest motor yacht.

She was fitted with two 18-cylinder engines that ensured she had a top speed of 42 knots.

Van Neumann then sold the boat to the son of Adnan Khashoggi, the worlds richest arms dealer, and he sold her on to his cousin, Dodi Al-Fayed.

The memorial to Princess Diana and Dodi Fayad is seen in Harrods department store, December 2003 (Getty)

Cujo was frequently moored off St Tropez, the most famous celebrity hotspot on the Riviera, with celebrity guests including Clint Eastwood, Tony Curtis and Bruce Willis on board.

Following the death of Princess Diana and Mr Al-Fayed, Cujo fell into disrepair.

She was decommissioned in 1999, and spent years in storage, before being restored by new owners.
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The government must urgently address rising homelessness within Britains Roma communities, experts have warned.

It follows a new report which found that these groups face a heightened risk of living in overcrowded and severely substandard housing, which often impacts mental and physical health.

Exploring the phenomenon of Roma homelessness in the UK, published by the Institute for Social Policy, Housing, Equalities Research (I-SPHERE) at Heriot-Watt University, interviewed people in the community in the past year in Luton and Glasgow, areas that have high populations of Roma people.

A number of recommendations for solutions are proposed including the need for better conversations and understanding between the Roma community and public services that could assist them to navigate their housing and other challenges.

Matt Downie, chief executive of the homeless charity Crisis, said: This report makes for harrowing reading, but unfortunately its findings are not surprising. Every day we see in our services that minoritised ethnic communities are experiencing higher rates of homelessness.

Its horrifying that so many Roma people are having to endure appalling and overcrowded living conditions when trying to access a safe and secure home. National and local government must sit up and take notice of this report.

We need long-term, culturally sensitive solutions to end homelessness for good and the recommendations set out today should be implemented now to ensure everyone has access to suitable, safe and appropriate accommodation, regardless of their background, nationality or personal circumstances.

There are at least 200,000 migrant Roma people living in the UK and the lack of support that many experience is well-documented . From grappling with harsh immigration policies and difficulty securing work to overt discrimination and poorer health outcomes.

Healthcare inequalities are frequently experienced by Gypsy, Roma and Traveller (GRT) communities. Previously, The Independent revealed that UK GP practices were potentially breaching equalities law by refusing to register patients from these groups during the Covid-19 pandemic .

Many living in overcrowding conditions led to significant levels of stress and anxiety, it was found. This was seen as particularly problematic for younger household members who rarely had their own room or private space.

This was considered to impair the educational and personal development of children and teenagers; GRT pupils have the lowest attainment in compulsory schooling of all ethnic groups .

In order to avoid living in severely overcrowded accommodation, people spoken to by the researchers said they had moved out of accommodation shared with family and rented their own house, the report found, however, these properties were often of an extremely poor standard.

There were also cases of households facing health and physical injury due to high levels of overcrowding and poor housing conditions, the report highlighted. Some of these properties lacked basic utilities, such as electricity and water, while mould, rats or bed bugs were found.

As well as being dangerous to physical health, such conditions seriously impact mental health, compromising the well-being of the family, social networks and inducing feelings of shame and frustration, it was concluded.

Crina Morteanu, Luton Roma Trust, said: "This report sends a strong message that Roma homelessness exists and interventions at different levels are required in order to eradicate it. It captures a very accurate image of the situation of many Roma in the UK and especially in Luton.

As a Roma charity in Luton, working for the betterment of the Roma community, this report is very helpful and will help tremendously with raising awareness about homelessness and with advocating on behalf of the Roma."

The reports findings challenge the stereotypical image of Roma people living as large extended households by choice, finding instead they are constrained by circumstances.

Lead author Dr Ionut Cioarta, from Heriot-Watt University, who is Roma, said the issue of homelessness among Roma people is highly complex yet woefully under-researched. This leaves policymakers and service providers with extremely limited information to inform their current and future interventions.

A government spokesperson said: No-one in our society should have to suffer the injustice of living in overcrowded or substandard housing, and councils have a responsibility to ensure families or vulnerable people are not left without a roof over their head.

We are investing over 1billion into the Homelessness Prevention Grant over three years to help tackle homelessness before it occurs. Councils can use the funding, to help people find a new home, get help with evictions, or move into temporary accommodation.

We expect councils to commission services based on the needs of their communities. This ensures the needs of all people, regardless of background, ethnicity or religion, are met.
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Britain has demanded Russia releases Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny after he was sentenced to a further 19 years imprisonment on charges he rejected as politically motivated.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said Moscows abuse of the opposition leader shows a complete disregard for even the most basic of human rights.

Mr Navalny, already serving a nine-year term, was handed nearly two decades more following a behind-closed-doors trial in a penal colony east of Moscow.

Appearing gaunt in court but displaying a defiant smile, the 47-year-old was convicted of extremism charges relating to his anti-corruption foundation.

Mr Cleverly tweeted: Alexei @Navalny has been sentenced to an additional 19 years in a Russian prison.

His abuse shows Russias complete disregard for even the most basic of human rights.

Dissent cannot be silenced. The UK calls for his immediate release.

One of president Vladimir Putins loudest critics, Mr Navalnys arrest in 2021 came after he returned to Moscow following a period of recuperation in Germany after being poisoned by the Novichok nerve agent.

Mr Navalny denied the charges and warned ahead of the verdict he would be handed a Stalinist prison term to ward off other dissenters.




The measure is contained in Supreme Resolution No. 040-2023-DE published in the Official Gazette El Peruano on Friday.

The extension of the mandate is framed within the provisions of Article 10 of the Law on the Military Situation of Armed Forces Officers (Law No. 28359).

Said regulation establishes that the mandate granted to the generals or admirals appointed as Chief of the Joint Command of the Armed Forces or General Commander of the corresponding armed institution can be extended only for one year.

The time frame that the exercise of such duties originally lasts is two years.

Background

Chief of the Joint Command of the Armed Forces on August 3, 2021, via Supreme Resolution No. 027-2021-DE. Gomez de La Torre was appointed, via

The latest resolution was signed by the President of the Republic Dina Boluarte and Defense Minister Jorge Chavez





(END) FGM/CVC/MVB

The Executive Branch has extended for another year the appointment of Army General Manuel Gomez de La Torre as Chief of the Joint Command of the Armed Forces. Published: 8/4/2023
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A murder investigation has been launched after a 20 year-old man was stabbed to death in south-east London.

Police were called to Kender Street, at the junction with Queens Road, Lewisham, on Friday at just before 1am.

The victim was taken by the London Ambulance Service to a south London hospital in a critical condition, where he later died.

Detective Chief Superintendent Trevor Lawry, leading the Mets South East Command, said: I am saddened to see another young life lost needlessly to knife crime in our city, another family devastated by loss  my thoughts are with the young mans loved ones.

No arrests have yet been made and a crime scene remains in place.

The victims next of kin have been informed and a post-mortem examination has yet to take place.

Mr Lawry said: I know that local people will be shocked by this incident and I would like to reassure the community that, alongside our Specialist Crime colleagues, we are working hard to establish the full facts of this incident and to identify those responsible.

My officers remain at the scene and will be conducting enhanced patrols in the coming days to ensure that anyone with information, or concerns can approach them.

If you do have information that could assist the investigation, but dont want to speak directly to police, I urge you to contact Crimestoppers who will not even ask for your name.
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Police are appealing for information after a man died from a head injury in Enfield, north London.

Officers believe Ibrahim Pertek, 52, may have been assaulted during a robbery in an alley next to Wood Green library at about 1.10am on July 16, the Metropolitan Police said.

The alley leads from Wood Green High Road to Caxton Road.

Officers were called to the scene at 2.50am and found Mr Pertek with a serious head injury.

He was taken to hospital in a critical condition, where he later died.

If you have any information that could assist, please come forward, it could help police and Mr Perteks family understand what happened that night Detective Inspector Andy Griffin

Detective Inspector Andy Griffin said they believe Mr Pertek was seen by people before being injured.

We are asking for anyone who was around the area of Wood Green High Road at this time to contact police, particularly any motorist who was passing while using a dash cam, he said.

We believe Mr Pertek was seen by people prior to him being injured, and we want those people to come forward and speak to us.

We are releasing a photo of Mr Pertek and I would ask people to look at it carefully and contact police if you remember seeing him.

If you have any information that could assist, please come forward, it could help police and Mr Perteks family understand what happened that night.

Officers will be conducting a witness appeal in the area of Wood Green High Road on Saturday August 5 from 10pm, if you wish to speak to police in person.
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The government has begun a shameful campaign of evicting thousands of Afghan refugees from hotels across Britain.

All of the Afghans facing homelessness were evacuated by Britain during the fall of Kabul  many due to their heroic work with British forces during the 20-year conflict.

The Afghans, which include families with young children, have been living in the hotels since their rescue from the beleaguered country in 2021.

Now, all 8,000 living in the so-called bridging hotels have been given notice and will be made to leave Home Office-funded accommodation by the end of August.

One in five who have already been evicted presented as homeless to their local council, according to the Local Government Associaton (LGA), as they struggle to secure private rentals during the UK's worsening housing crisis.

Amid warnings many had put themselves in mortal peril to help the British, former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith called on the veterans minister, Johnny Mercer, to have one more go to prevent anyone becoming homeless, saying: At the end of the day, we do owe them.

And Admiral Lord West, the former head of the navy, also called for action, saying: Our nation has a debt of honour to those who risked their lives  and those of their families  to assist our men and women who were fighting in Afghanistan. This needs to be resolved now.

The call comes after the LGA warned the situation was likely to worsen significantly in the coming weeks as the staggered evictions continue.

Amir Hussein Ibrahimi, 24, who is living in a hotel in Southend-on-Sea after coming to the UK under a government scheme to help those who furthered British values in Afghanistan, told The Independent he was unable to sleep through worry and had been turned down by 10 landlords.

Mr Hussein, who works part-time as a marketing production assistant at the Good Chance Theatre in London, is facing eviction on 8 August. He has struggled to find somewhere due to soaring rents, the need for two or three months rent for a deposit and because he doesnt had a credit score.

Amir Hussein Ibrahimi must find somewhere to live by 8 August (Amir Hussein Ibrahimi)

Its too much for most of the Afghan families in this hotel. We dont have enough money for rent and deposit and everything else. The government support is not enough to cover all the expenses, he said.

Asked if he was worried he could be facing homelessness next week, the trained photojournalist and videographer said: This is one of the questions that I have in my mind, yes.

I dont know where I am going or what I want to do. There are lots of things happening in my mind, I am so nervous. During this last week, I didnt sleep well. Everything is not clear and the Home Office and the council are not being clear with us about what is the next step.

Labour MP Dan Jarvis, who served in Afghanistan, said it was shameful that those who had helped the UK were being left homeless.

He said it was reasonable to move people out of hotels, but not at the pace that the government was doing it.

These are not economic migrants, said Mr Jarvis. These are Afghans who placed themselves in mortal peril to serve alongside British forces in Afghanistan and they did so at our request.

These are people to whom weve given an invitation to come to our country. Nobody should be homeless and these people need to be given the time and space ... to ensure that they are properly relocated.

Mr Hussein says he has been rejected by 10 landlords and does not know where he will go once he is evicted (Amir Hussein Ibrahimi)

He added: We owe them a debt of gratitude, so I think what we need to do is move at a pace that sees these Afghan families transition in a way that allows local authorities the time to identify suitable accommodation. The notion that people are being forced to become homeless is just shameful.

Sir Iain called on Mr Mercer to have one more go at this to see whether we can somehow find some way of accommodating the remaining groups  at the end of the day, we do owe them.

In response, Mr Mercer said: Weve done a huge amount of work to help get these Afghan families out of hotels and into long-term suitable accommodation. Thats whats best for them and for British taxpayers.

He vowed no family would end up on the streets, telling the BBC the vast majority of those presenting as homeless have actually been offered somewhere to live  its just for some of them, its not where they want to live.

Which is understandable, but thats not the same as living on the street because the government hasnt done its job, he said.

Last month, Mr Mercer said the government had made 7,100 per person available to support refugees to move including through providing deposits, furniture, rental top-ups and rent advances.

But in Northampton, where 179 Afghans have been told they have to move by the end of this month, a council spokesperson said that around 50 people have nowhere to go.

Rachel Hopkins, the shadow veterans minister, accused ministers of failing Afghans who put their lives at risk helping our armed forces.

As we approach the second anniversary of the evacuation, she said it was shameful that ministers are kicking 8,000 eligible Afghans out of hotels by the end of this month without promising that they will not be made homeless.

Afghan refugees are already presenting as homeless to councils after evictions started this month (Getty Images)

Julian Lewis, the Conservative MP and former chair of the Commons defence committee, warned of the special debt owed to those who helped the British.

There is an opportunity to recognise the special debt that we owe, he said, an opportunity both for the veterans agency and the service charities to look at their own terms of reference and see if they there isnt any way in which they can use their very considerable resources to help resettle.

Sarah Champion, the chair of the Commons International Development committee, said she was appalled at the governments actions. Human suffering and moral duty doesnt seem to register for them, she added.

A Refugee Council spokesperson called on the government to halt the evictions. This is not how those who fled the Taliban and were promised a warm welcome in the UK should be treated, it added.
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The atmosphere was out of this world as a Nasa astronaut returned to her old university to receive an honorary doctorate.

US Army Colonel Anne McClain  helicopter test pilot, US national team rugby player and former resident of the International Space Station  spoke movingly to engineering students graduating from the University of Bristol.

As she received the honorary Doctor of Engineering degree, she said: Your graduation today is a product of your own ambition.

And I want you to take a minute to think back, reflect back, on the goal that you set three, four, five, six maybe even more years ago, when you decided you wanted to be sitting here today.

Think about all the decisions that you made to get from there to here, all the effort you spent, all the sacrifices you and your loved ones made. I want you to think for a minute why you made that choice.

Did you want to make a bigger impact on the world? Did you seek knowledge beyond that which you already had?

I would offer to you that much of the pride you feel today is as much about your reasons why as it is about the actual accomplishment.

Dont forget to live your life while you plan for the future Anne McClain

My challenge to you is to stay ambitious but to remember that why. To remember that your goals and your accomplishments are more than just a moment in time, they are a whole set of reasons.

Perhaps most importantly, dont forget to live your life while you plan for the future. Its going to be behind you before you know it and one of you is going to be on this stage having your biography read.

The journey will be your life, make it a good one.

By the time Col McClain had arrived at pre-school in her home city of Spokane, Washington, she had already decided she wanted to become an astronaut.

She later studied for a masters in International Relations at the University of Bristol, before joining the army as a pilot, where she flew more than 20 types of aircraft.

While training at the US Naval Test Pilot School, she was picked by Nasa to join the 21st Nasa astronaut class. Her first space mission was 204 days aboard the International Space Station.

Introducing Col McClain to the students, Professor Lucy Berthoud said we can draw inspiration from Col McClains extraordinary journey.

Prof Berthoud added: We are here to celebrate someone extraordinary, someone who has ventured beyond the boundaries of our planet, someone who has embraced the unknown with courage and determination.

Your achievements will inspire generations to come, and your example of excellence guides us all towards a brighter future.

Over the past two decades Col McClain has accumulated an array of medals, not least for serving in Iraq, where she flew on 216 combat missions.

She has degrees from the US Military Academy at West Point, the University of Bath and the University of Bristol, and has played rugby in the UKs premier league and for the US national side.

She was selected for Nasa training in 2013 and served on the ISS from December 3 2018 to June 24 2019. She currently serves as the Mission Support Branch Chief and is eligible for flight assignment.
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Comedian Eddie Izzard has launched a bid to become a Labour MP in Brighton at the next general election.

The 61-year-old announced she was joining the race to become the Brighton Pavillion candidate, saying she wants to help the city continue to be at the forefront of change.

Caroline Lucas, the UKs only Green Party MP, has held the seat since 2010, but announced in June she would be standing down at the next election.

It comes after Ms Izzard tried unsuccessfully to become Labour's candidate in Sheffield Central last year.

Making the announcement via her website, Ms Izzard said she was standing to support this brilliant city and its diverse and vibrant community.

She said: Brighton is a city at the forefront of change and I want to help it to continue to make that change.

Whilst the Tories stoke fear and encourage culture wars, Brighton has shown the country another way; Open-minded and welcoming to all, with a thriving arts, creative and cultural scene. Imaginative, energetic and full of entrepreneurial spirit.

For 13 years the Tories have tried to drag us down. Police numbers, cut. Fewer dentists, doctors and nurses. A rail network grinding to a halt, and sewage dumping into the sea. Hiking the cost of everything and holding Brighton back. And we all saw what happened under the Green Council  house building stalled whilst rubbish piled high in the streets.

Eddie Izzard arriving for the London premiere of Moonage Daydream at the BFI Imax Waterloo in London, September 2022 (PA)

Ms Izzard pledged to take practical action rather than protest to fix whats broken, committing to fight for a fairer-greener-cleaner planet.

Reaching out and lifting people up, is at the heart of my politics. I believe in making connections  not breaking connections. So please join me  get in touch, get involved and lets make Brighton Pavillion Labour again, she added.

At the last general election in 2019, Ms Lucas achieved a 57.2 per cent vote share, equating to 33,151. Meanwhile, Labour candidate Adam Imampour received 22.8 per cent, representing 13,211 votes respectively.

Following Ms Lucas announcement that she would be standing down at the next election, the Green Party selected former co-leader Sian Berry to stand after she won 71 per cent of first preference votes.

Ms Berry was co-leader of the party alongside Jonathan Bartley between 2018 and 2021, labelling her task to seek re-election in Brighton Pavilion an enormous responsibility.

Brighton Pavilion needs a Green MP in Parliament representing all the people across this wonderful constituency, and I can promise every voter in Brighton Pavilion that I will work every moment between now and the general election to win their trust and support, she said after her candidacy was announced last month.

Elsewhere, the Liberal Democrats said that it would begin the selection process for its candidate in September, whilst the Conservative Party has yet to announce any details of its selection process for the seat.
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A Conservative government minister has appeared to concede that Labour will win the next election during an appearance on TV news.

Maria Caulfield was accused of a "poor choice of words" after seemingly painting a Labour victory at the next election as an inevitability.

Speaking on Sky News, the health minister said people would be afraid of what Labour would do "when they get into government".

It comes as the opposition party retains a consistent 20-point lead in the polls over Rishi Sunak's outfit, with an election looming next year.

Ms Caulfield appeared to hint at a Labour victory while discussing changes to a London clean air charge announced by Sadiq Khan overnight.

"I think he's reacting to why Labour didn't win the Uxbridge by-election. You know, 2,000 is nothing if you're having to replace your car, and I think he's waking up to the fact that this tax on ordinary working people in London is not going down very well," she said.

"We don't take that approach. We want to phase out petrol and diesel cars rather than tax people out of it. And I think the worry that people have is if that's what Labour do in London, where they're in power, what would they do to the rest of the country when they get into government? I think that's been a wake-up call for labour, and that the Ulez charge is so unpopular."

Rob Powell, political correspondent at the broadcaster, highlighted the clip, commenting: "Eeek  poor choice of words from government minister Maria Caulfield."

Polling released last month by YouGov found that one in three Tory MPs expect Labour to win the next general election, with a majority expecting their own party to come out on top.

But by contrast, just 21 per cent of the British public expect the Tories to win the contest, with 55 per cent expecting a Labour victory.
 Close Greenpeace protesters descend from Sunaks roof following protest

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Rishi Sunaks environment secretary Therese Coffey has ordered her department to suspend its engagement with Greenpeace, after activists staged an anti-oil protest at the PMs constituency home.

The largely symbolic display of anger came as former home secretary Priti Patel and ex-Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith raised concerns about Mr Sunaks security arrangements, following the demonstration on the roof his constituency manor house.

The campaigners draped his home with an oil-black fabric at the prime ministers North Yorkshire home to protest against the governments plans to allow licences to be granted for further development of North Sea oil and gas.

North Yorkshire Police said the activists scaled the roof of his home at about 8am on Thursday, while Mr Sunak, his wife and children were on holiday in California, and stayed up until around 1.15pm, when they were arrested, before being released pending further enquiries.

Protester Alex Wilson said: Were all here because Rishi Sunak has opened the door to a new drilling frenzy in the North Sea while large parts of our world are literally on fire.
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Rishi Sunak has kicked off his summer holiday strolling along a sun-soaked pier with his family in California.

The prime minister, his wife Akshata Murty, and two young daughters, Krishna and Anoushka, were pictured at an amusement park on the buzzy Santa Monica Pier on Thursday, the first day of their US trip.

Ms Murty and the girls wore brightly-coloured clothes matching the colourful parasols, rides and stalls at the famous tourist destination, while Mr Sunak donned casual shorts and espadrilles.

The family, who will be heading to Disneyland, posed in front of a Ferris wheel, at a picnic table and with an ring-toss stall offering soft toys as prizes.

Before they jetted across the pond a day earlier, Mr Sunak said it would be a really special trip after a few years without a proper family summer holiday.

He said his daughters were very excited about going to Disneyland before joking they fear they will spend too much time at the Star Wars experience because he is a fan.

Prime ministerial holiday photo shoots are a long tradition, with recent examples including David Cameron being snapped at a Portuguese fish market, and Theresa May hiking in Switzerland.

California is a natural choice for Mr Sunak, who studied at Stanford and worked at a hedge fund there.

He said the place is very special to us as it is where I met my wife.

Deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden is at the helm in Mr Sunaks absence, which is expected to last for just over a week.

The prime ministers press secretary said Mr Sunak will be getting daily updates from his private office, particularly on anything that is urgent.

She said it would be his first time off since he became chief secretary to the Treasury almost four years ago.

While the Sunaks were away, back home a group of Greenpeace activists scaled their North Yorkshire mansion to protest against the prime ministers plans to maximise oil and gas production in the North Sea.
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A Delray Beach man accused of dismembering his wife with a chainsaw and stuffing her body in three suitcases that were later found floating in the Intracoastal Waterway was caught climbing in a window of his home as police executed a search warrant.

William Lowe, 78, was arrested Wednesday on charges of first-degree murder and abusing a dead body in the killing of his 80-year-old wife, Aydil Barbosa Fontes, Delray Beach police announced at a press conference.

Mr Lowe had been questioned in his wifes case last week but returned home as they were searching the property. He told police he just needed his phone and key to a storage shed, which led to finding a Ryobi chainsaw that appeared to be covered in blood, bone matter, and human hair, according to a police report.

Investigators have been trying for weeks to identify the remains that were first discovered in a suitcase on 21 July in the water along the Intracoastal Waterway off Delray Beach, Florida.

A reconstructed image of what the woman may have looked like before she was killed was released last week, along with pictures of two of the suitcases that her body had been stuffed in.

Investigators believe the suitcases were placed in the water sometime between 17 July and 20 July. They used dental records to identify the remains as Fontes.

A motive is not yet known, lead Detective Mike Liberta said at the presser, adding that the heinous crime was probably the worst Ive seen.

Remains stuffed in suitcases discovered on 21 July were identified as 80-year-old Aydil Barbosa Fontes (Delray Beach Police Department)

William Lowe, 78, was arrested Wednesday on charges of first-degree murder and abusing a dead body in the killing of his 80-year-old wife, Aydil Barbosa Fontes (Delray Beach Police Department)

Police found the first suitcase with human remains hanging out of it when responding to a 911 call about a suspicious object in the waterway. It had been weighed down with landscaping rocks and had an airport barcode sticker for LATAM Airlines with the name "Barbosa."

Two more suitcases were found a short time later nearby which also contained human remains.

Police also found a tote bag that had its handles tied shut with twine and wrapped with a mans belt. The womans head with a gunshot wound was inside.

Witnesses told police they had noticed a man looking out at the floating suitcases on 20 July. When one of the witnesses asked the man what he was doing, he said that he was waiting for the big boat to come into the harbour.

The witnesses added that the man appeared nervous" and immediately walked over to his car and drove away. The car was an older model gold sedan.

Investigators have been trying for weeks to identify the remains that were first discovered in a suitcase on July 21 in the water along the Intracoastal Waterway off Delray Beach, Florida (Delray Beach Police Department)

Police found the first suitcase with human remains hanging out of it when responding to a 911 call about a suspicious object in the waterway. It had been weighed down with landscaping rocks and had an airport barcode sticker for LATAM Airlines with the name "Barbosa." (Delray Beach Police Department)

More than one witness told police they had seen a man using a dock ladder to get into the water. And surveillance video also captured a man climbing on the dock ladder twice on 20 July, according to the report.

The report revealed that blood was later found on the dock near where the suitcases were found.

The witnesses who saw the man getting into his car, described the vehicle as a gold sedan or a Ford. Investigators later located the gold Ford Taurus nearby and ran the plates leading them to the Lowes home.

Police questioned Mr Lowe at the police department on 31 July and he claimed that Fontes was in Brazil where her family lives and that she had been there about three weeks, the report said.

But he could not provide details about which airline she flew or when he last spoke to her.

During a search of the couples home, police found blood splatter and drag marks throughout the living room, dining room, hallway, both bathrooms and the master bedroom, according to the report. They also found cleaning supplies containing blood splatter.

Mr Lowe was taken into custody on Wednesday and held without bond.
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Bryan Kohberger has finally offered up a vague alibi for the night that he is accused of brutally stabbing four University of Idaho students to death in their beds.

The 28-year-old criminal justice PhD student claims that he was out on a solo drive throughout the night of 12 November and into the early hours of 13 November  but admits that there are no witnesses to back up his version of events.

Mr. Kohberger has long had a habit of going for drives alone. Often he would go for drives at night, his attorney Anne Taylor wrote in a new court filing.

He did so late on November 12 and into November 13, 2022. Mr. Kohberger is not claiming to be at a specific location at a specific time; at this time there is not a specific witness to say precisely where Mr. Kohberger was at each moment of the hours between late night November 12, 2022 and early morning November 13, 2022.

He was out, driving during the late night and early morning hours of November 12-13, 2022.

The claims about Mr Kohbergers unusual nighttime habits  and his whereabouts on the night of the murders  come after prosecutors demanded that his legal team reveal his alibi ahead of his October trial.

Under Idaho law, defendants have 10 days to provide a written statement about where they claim to have been at the time of the alleged crime and offering information about any witnesses who can support their claim.

On 23 May  one day after he was arraigned on four murder charges  Latah County Prosecutors Office put in a demand for Mr Kohbergers notice of alibi.

Back then, Mr Kohbergers legal team asked Judge John Judge for an extension, saying that they needed more time due to the wealth of evidence in the high-profile case, and the deadline was extended to 24 July.

But the deadline came and went, with Mr Kohbergers legal team hinting that he has evidence placing him in another location at the time of the murders  but stopping short of revealing where and instead saying it may come to light at trial.

The prosecution subsequently filed a motion seeking to compel an alibi.

While Mr Kohbergers attorney said that there is no specific witness to say where he was throughout the time of the murders, she wrote in the new filing that she anticipates corroborating witnesses will back up his explanation at trial.

Bryan Kohberger appears in court for a hearing in June (Getty)

Mr Kohberger is facing the death penalty over the brutal 13 November murders of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin.

He is due to stand trial on 2 October after being indicted by a grand jury on four counts of first-degree murder and one burglary charge.

His explanation that he was out on a solo drive that night comes as prosecutors tied him to the murders, in part, through surveillance footage showing his white Hyundai Elantra travelling to and from the crime scene.

The affidavit, released in January, outlined some of the evidence against the accused killer  including his DNA on a knife sheath left behind at the scene of the murders, the surveillance footage and cellphone activity.

The sheath  for a military or Ka-Bar style knife  was found partly under Mogens body after she and Goncalves were found stabbed multiple times on Mogens bed on the third floor of the home.

DNA on the button clasp of the sheath was then found to match that of the 28-year-old accused killer.

Mr Kohbergers attorneys have sought to cast doubts on the strength of this DNA evidence, in particular the use of genetic genealogy.

According to the affidavit in the case, the FBI used genetic genealogy databases to try to identify the DNA source.

Trash was then collected from the suspects parents home in the Poconos Mountains and a familial match  from Mr Kohbergers father  was made to the sheath, according to the criminal affidavit.

Following Mr Kohbergers arrest on 30 December, DNA samples were then taken directly from the suspect and came back as a statistical match, say prosecutors.

The home on King Road, Moscow, where the four students were killed (AP)

Mr Kohberger is accused of breaking into an off-campus student home on King Road in the early hours of 13 November and stabbing the four students to death with a large, military-style knife.

Two other female roommates lived with the three women at the property and were home at the time of the massacre but survived.

One of the survivors  Dylan Mortensen  came face to face with the masked killer, dressed in head-to-toe black and with bushy eyebrows, as he left the home in the aftermath of the murders, according to the criminal affidavit.

For more than six weeks, the college town of Moscow was plunged into fear as the accused killer remained at large with no arrests made and no suspects named.

Then, on 30 December, law enforcement suddenly swooped on Mr Kohbergers family home in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania and arrested him for the quadruple murders.

The motive remains unknown and it is still unclear what connection the WSU PhD student had to the University of Idaho students  if any  prior to the murders.

The murder weapon  a fixed-blade knife  has still never been found.

Ethan Chapin, 20, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, took this photo together hours before they died (Instagram/Kaylee Goncalves)

As a criminal justice PhD student at WSU, Mr Kohberger lived just 15 minutes from the victims over the Idaho-Washington border in Pullman.

He had moved there from Pennsylvania and began his studies there that summer, having just completed his first semester before his arrest.

Before this, he studied criminology at DeSales University  first as an undergraduate and then finishing his graduate studies in June 2022.

While there, he studied under renowned forensic psychologist Katherine Ramsland who interviewed the BTK serial killer and co-wrote the book Confession of a Serial Killer: The Untold Story of Dennis Rader, the BTK Killer with him.

He also carried out a research project to understand how emotions and psychological traits influence decision-making when committing a crime.
? La jefa de Estado indico que su gobierno presento ante el @congresoperu un proyecto de delegacion de facultades legislativas al Poder Ejecutivo, por un plazo de 120 dias, a fin de emitir un conjunto de normas para hacer frente a la inseguridad. pic.twitter.com/rbEMkyfapF
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An Orange County Superior Court judge was arrested on suspicion of murder after his wife was fatally shot in their California home.

According to an Anaheim Police news release, police arrived at the judges home in Anaheim Hills around 8pm after receiving reports of a shooting.

When they arrived, officers found Sheryl Ferguson, 65, inside with at least one gunshot wound. The police said she was pronounced dead at the scene.

Officers arrested Jeffrey Ferguson, the Orange County Superior Court judge, and booked him into an Orange County jail in lieu of $1m bail.

Police said the investigation is ongoing.

One other person in the home at the time of the shooting was not injured, the Anaheim police sergeant said, according to the Los Angeles Times. Officers said the other person in the home was the Fergusons son, who was trying to perform CPR on his mother.

The outlet reported that at least one firearm was recovered from the property.

A neighbour, John Poulter, told the outlet that the shooting and subsequent arrest were tragic, adding that it was a shock.

So many people in the neighbourhood flooded the street [afterward] and just kept repeating, Theres no way he could have done this, Mr Poulter told the publication.

Mr Ferguson has served his current term as an Orange County Superior Court judge since 2015; his term is set to end in January 2027. He has won a number of awards, including prosecutor of the year, which he was awarded four times.

Susan Kang, a former chief of staff for Orange Countys district attorney, told the Los Angeles Times that she has been friends with the couple since 1999. Ms Kang said, I have always known Jeff to be someone who was devoted to his wife and his sons.

She recalled to the outlet, Just a little while ago, they were at my house having dinner. To be shocked to hear Jeff was arrested for murdering Sheryl would be an understatement. I cannot wrap my mind around it. I am brokenhearted, especially for Phillip.

The judge was previously admonished by the Commission on Judicial Performance. The commission found that he violated the Code of Judicial Ethics by posting a statement about a candidate for judicial office on Facebook with knowing or reckless disregard for the truth of the statement and for being Facebook friends with lawyers who were appearing before him in court regularly.
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Did he know that his time was up?

His alleged internet searches would certainly seem to suggest so.

Over the last year between March 2022 and June 2023, the suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann repeatedly looked online for updates in the investigation police say.

He searched for details about the victims and their families.

He googled the use of new phone technology in the case and looked for podcasts and documentaries about the murders.

And he even took a keen interest in the newly-launched task force  headed up by newly-appointed Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison  that was actively hunting for him.

For up to 16 years, police say he had gotten away with brutally murdering young women and dumping their bodies along the shores of Gilgo Beach in Long Island.

As body after body lay undiscovered, he added more victims to his graveyard, prosecutors allege.

Then, in late 2010, a search for another missing woman led authorities to the grim discovery.

But the suspects time still wasnt up.

For more than a decade, the accused killer continued to go about his day to day life  going to work at his architecture firm in Manhattan and coming home to his wife and two children.

He seemed just as baffled by his lack of arrest as the local residents and victims families who questioned why police had not been able to catch the killer.

Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Costello, Maureen Brainard-Barnes and Megan Waterman (from clockwise top left) (AP)

He even searched Google for the answers to questions including why could law enforcement not trace the calls made by the long island serial killer and why hasnt the long island serial killer been caught, court documents state.

Was he looking over his shoulder? Did he have an inkling that he was under surveillance?

Or after all this time had passed, did he think that he might never get caught?

Then, last Thursday, as he left his office in Midtown after a days work and walked along a busy Manhattan road, a group of suit-clad men approached and surrounded him.

The gig was finally up.

Rex Heuermann  a 59-year-old married father-of-two, professional architecture, Manhattan business owner and Long Island native  was arrested and charged with the murders of Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy and Amber Costello.

He was also named as the prime suspect in the murder of a fourth woman Maureen Brainard-Barnes, who was last seen alive in New York City in early June 2007.

Moment Gilgo Beach suspect arrested in crowded New York street

Its taken 13 years but Suffolk County Police finally say theyve caught the serial killer who lured in sex workers, brutally murdered them and then dumped their bound and wrapped bodies along the shores of Gilgo Beach.

What led them to the suspected killer was laid out in court documents as prosecutors asked a judge to deny him bail.

It consisted of a pimps tip about his pickup truck, a stash of burner phones, sadistic online searches, phone calls taunting victims families, his wifes hair  and a pizza crust.

Sighting of pickup truck

The first piece of the puzzle came when a witness in the Costello case revealed details about a vehicle that a client was driving when she was last seen alive.

Costello, who worked as a sex worker, was seen alive on the evening of 2 September 2010 when she left her home in West Babylon.

One night earlier, witnesses said that a prostitution client had come to her home but the client was subjected to a ruse where a man posing as Costellos outraged boyfriend showed up and made him leave  in a move to swindle the client out of cash. A witness  Costellos unidentified pimp  said that the client was driving a first-generation Chevrolet Avalanche.

The next day the same client contacted Costello to meet her but said that he wouldnt come to her home because of her boyfriend, the court documents state.

Police remove evidence from home of Long Island serial killer suspect (Patrick Reichart)

Costello left her home and was never seen alive again.

The details of the vehicle came to light last year after a new taskforce was assembled in January 2022 to solve the serial killings once and for all. The taskforce reviewed the evidence gathered in the case and investigators interviewed Costellos pimp in the spring of 2022.

He told officials about the suspect in the green Chevrolet Avalanche, telling them he didnt know the mans name but that you might want to look at him.

In March 2022, a registration search showed that local man Mr Heuermann owned a first-generation model of the truck at the time of Costellos disappearance. He also matched the witness description of the man believed to be the killer: a large, white ogre-like male in his mid-40s, around 64 to 66 tall, with dark bushy hair, and big oval style 1970s type eyeglasses.

As described below, this was significant, because a witness to the disappearance of Amber Costello identified a first-generation Chevrolet Avalanche as the vehicle believed to have been driven by her killer, the court documents state.

Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison told New York Daily News this was the turning point in the investigation  and the moment that authorities zeroed in on Mr Heuermann.

The turning point was the car, he said. Once we got that car, who it connected to, thats when the investigation got legs.

The discovery of the car led investigators to hone in on Mr Heuermann including executing 300 subpoenas, search warrants and other legal processes to obtain evidence to determine his potential involvement in the killings.

Trove of burner phones

Mr Heuermanns alleged use of burner phones then led police to make an arrest.

At the time when the three women went missing, they had been in contact with a person who was using a burner phone to arrange to meet them.

People often use burner phones for illicit or illegal activities as they are more difficult to trace.

But, according to the court documents, Mr Heuermann still managed to make a series of critical errors while using them.

The burner phones used to contact the victims always pinged off the same cell towers as Mr Heuermanns legitimate cellphone, the documents show  indicating that while using the burner phones, he was also in possession of his cellphone at the same time.

The burner phones also pinged off cell towers in two key locations  close to Mr Heuermanns office in Midtown Manhattan and close to Mr Heuermanns family home in Massapequa Park.

Rex Heuermann leaves court on Friday (Fox 5/YouTube)

Records show that Mr Heuermanns personal cellphone and the burner phones were in the same locations at the same time  and in the locations that corresponded with the disappearances and murders of each of the three women around Massapequa, Long Island and Midtown Manhattan.

Investigators could find no instance where Heuermann was in a separate location from these other cellphones when such a communication event occurred, the court documents state.

In the days leading up to Barthelemys disappearance, she had been contacted by the same burner phone multiple times.

The last contact from the phone came on 10 July 2009 when she was last seen alive in New York City.

Cell site records show the burner phone traveled from Massapequa Park to Midtown Manhattan that day.

Then, chillingly, Barthelemys own cellphone traveled from Midtown Manhattan to Massapequa Park.

Victims cellphones and taunting calls to grieving families

The killer took at least two of his victims cellphones after their murders as a trophy  and, in a sick move, called one of the victims families from her phone to taunt them about what he had done.

Prosecutors say the evidence shows this person was Mr Heuermann.

Following Brainard-Barnes and Barthelemys murders, the killer took and used their cellphones.

Barthelemys last cell site location was in the early hours of 11 July 2009 in Massapequa.

Surveillance footage captures Rex Heuermann adding credit to one of the burner phones (via REUTERS)

Throughout the next two months, the killer then used her cellphone to make taunting phone calls to Barthelemys family members.

In at least one of those calls, answered by a devastated family member, the male caller gloated about killing and sexually assaulting Barthelemy.

Prosecutors allege that Mr Heuermann made those cruel calls from or in the vicinity of his Midtown office where his own daughter is now an employee. Records show that each of the taunting calls pinged off cell towers in Midtown Manhattan.

Mr Heuermann also allegedly used Brainard-Barnes cellphone to check her voicemail, the court documents show.

Online searches for explicit images  and the LISK investigation

In the years after the murders, Mr Heuermann allegedly continued to slip up in his use of technology  as he allegedly continued to use burner phones to illicit sex from sex workers right up until his arrest.

While it showed a pattern of behaviour, prosecutors also point to other disturbing activity traced to the cellphone numbers.

Court documents show that Mr Heuermann had Tinder profiles and several email accounts under a series of fake names.

He used these accounts  linked to his burner phones  to search for graphic images of young girls and children and sadistic, torture-related pornography.

Selfie taken on one of his fake accounts (via REUTERS)

Searches included girl hog tied torture porn and 10 year old school girl.

As well as the disturbing sexual searches, prosecutors say he also looked up images of the murder victims and their relatives, and researched podcasts, documentaries and news stories on the case.

These included why could law enforcement not trace the calls made by the long island serial killer, and why hasnt the long island serial killer been caught, Long Island killer and Long Island serial killer phone call.

He also looked for information about the new task force on the case.

Knowing he was keeping a close eye on the investigation, police kept the developments close to the vest.

Surveillance footage captured Mr Heuermann adding credit to one of the burner phones  and he had it on him when he was arrested.

Wifes hair

In a bombshell twist, hair belonging to Mr Heuermanns wife was allegedly found on the bodies of three of the four victims.

Prosecutors say that two female hairs had been found on Waterman, one of them on the tape which the killer wrapped around her head. One female hair was found on tape used to wrap burlap around Costello and one hair was found in a belt buckle used to bind Brainard-Barnes  who Mr Heuermann is yet to be charged over.

To identify the female who the belonged to, investigators trawled through the trash at the Heuermann home in Long Island.

New York State police officers carry out a large item from the home of Rex Heuermann (AP)

In July 2022, they recovered 11 bottles from the trash and they were swabbed for DNA.

Forensic testing found that the DNA on the bottles matched the female hair found at the crime scene, concluding that the hair belonged to Mr Heuermanns wife.

The accuracy is such that more than 99 percent of the North American female population can be ruled out, according to the court documents.

Prosecutors found that the suspects wife was out of town at the time of the three murders for which he has been charged but that her hair could have transferred to the crime scene through her husbands clothing or through him using items such as tape taken from the family home.

Pizza crust

As well as his wifes DNA, Mr Heuermanns DNA was also found on one of the victims.

Prosecutors said that a male hair had been found on the burlap used to wrap Watermans body before the killer dumped her along Gilgo Beach.

When the hair was first retrieved in 2010, it was unsuitable for DNA analysis, according to the court documents.

But that hair was kept safely locked away and was submitted for analysis in 2020. A DNA profile came back.

A pizza box discarded by Gilgo Beach suspect Rex Heuermann was used to link him to the killings through DNA (Suffolk County DA)

Now, to check if it matched Mr Heuermann, investigators needed his DNA to compare the samples.

This January, a surveillance team watching the suspect saw him chuck a pizza box into the trash close to his office in Manhattan.

They nabbed the box and found a leftover pizza crust inside.

Last month, court records state the forensics came back: it was Mr Heuermanns hair found on Watermans body.
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The victim names were there, finally, in black and white on charging documents, immortalised in the justice system as their alleged killer stood before a judge. Melissa Barthelemy. Amber Costello. Megan Waterman. They were names that had before been connected primarily to a cold case and a mystery  a mystery still unravelling  and their appearance on the court documents marked a step towards justice and, just maybe, some semblance of closure for families and investigators.

Long Island architect and married father-of-two Rex Heuermann, 59, was charged last Friday with three counts of first- and second-degree murder in connection with the deaths of Ms Barthelemy, who went missing in 2009; Ms Costello, who vanished in June of the following year; and Ms Waterman, 22, who disappeared in September 2010.

Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said this week he was confident that Mr Heuermann would also be charged with the murder of Maureen Brainard Barnes, 25, who went missing in 2007. Her body was discovered in December 2010 in the same vicinity and within the same week as the remains of the three other victims.

Authorities were searching for Shannan Gilbert, who went missing in 2010, when they began discovering bodies along the south shore of Long Island; Mr Heuermann has not been charged in her death (Courtesy of John Ray Law)

But there were other names not included in the court documents, and there are other families watching closely as the investigation progresses  wondering if their loved ones murders were at the hands of the alleged serial killer.

And there are other victims whose names are still unknown  other bodies found on Long Island that may or may not be linked to the same perpetrator. Their families may not even known they are dead.

One of the names associated with the Long Island serial killings and Gilgo Beach murders, Shannan Gilbert, was not included in charging documents  although it was her familys push for answers that undeniably played a pivotal role in the crimes prominence.

Ms Gilbert, 24, went missing in 2010 right after making a 911 call from Long Island, desperately telling the operator somebodys after me as the call recorded the sound of her running and knocking on the doors of houses. Originally from upstate New York, Ms Gilbert had been working as a sex worker, as had the victims Mr Heuermann is charged with murdering. Investigators had been searching for her remains when they stumbled upon the other four bodies in 2010. Her skeletal remains were located more than a year later in a marsh eight miles from Gilgo Beach.

Police ruled out murder at the time of her discovery, theorising that she may have been under the influence and run into the marsh, where she died by hypothermia or drowning. But her family  doggedly demanding answers  commissioned an independent autopsy, which found that her death was consistent with a homicide. The Gilbert familys quest was depicted on screen in Netflixs 2020 Lost Girls.

Ms Gilberts sister, Sherre, released a statement on the Facebook page Praying for Shannan Maria Gilbert following Mr Heuermanns arrest.

I want to express my deepest sympathy & prayers to the families & their loved ones that have been named as victims of the Long Island Serial Killer (LISK), she wrote, continuing that their lives were cut short by this cruel heinous act of violence and no amount of justice will ever bring them back.

The pain, hurt & anger these families have had to deal with since these women first went missing is immense, she wrote, also thanking the media and investigators, including Suffolk County Police Department.

Aerial shots show marshlands around where Valerie Macks partial remains were discovered (Suffolk County Police Department)

Even though SCPD ruled my sisters death a tragic accident thats not connected to LISK and a mere coincidence, the time, effort, and dedication my mom & I put into this case isnt wasted ... Its sad how many of us have similar tragic stories & experiences with law enforcement with limited resources & opportunities to seek justice. Every victim deserves justice. And every case  big or small deserves recognition.

I wished, hoped & prayed for this day, she wrote. Im glad Im still alive to see it. And with LISK being captured, theres one less monster off the streets and hell never be able to hurt anyone else. I pray one day each of you who has gone through something similar and have yet to receive justice will have their day soon. The perilous fight is worth it!

The family of Valerie Mack is among those yet to receive justice.

Ms Mack, 24, was raised in an adoptive family in New Jersey and was working as an escort when she was last seen alive in 2000. Her remains were found on two separate occasions and two different locations, in Manorville in 2000 and in Oak Beach in 2011  the same place where Ms Gilberts remains were found  but she was only identified in 2020 through the use of genetic genealogy.

Following that identification, one of her sisters, Angela Mack, introduced herself on the Remembering Valerie Mack page and wrote: My big sister ... was a great smart sweet and troubled young woman. My parents did everything to try to help her troubled heart. My family and I tried to report her missing but they said she was an adult and left on her own.

Another sister, Danielle, told the Associated Press after news of Mr Heuermanns arrest that it was a lot to process  adding that she didnt know what to make of the fact that Heuermann wasnt charged in Valeries death.

Im just waiting for all the other facts to come out for us to really understand what happened and whos responsible, she said. Hopefully the right person is being brought to justice.

Jessica Taylor, 20, went missing in 2003; her partial remains were discovered in two separate locations on Long Island. Heuermann has not been charged in connection with her death (Courtesy of John Ray Law)

Tricia Fulton Hazen  describing herself in a previous post on the Remembering Valerie Mack Facebook page as the victims half-sister though they never met  wrote this week that she felt thankful [that] this arrest has happened and hoping and praying that they connect him to all of the people that were brutally murdered. Especially my sisters case.

The relatives of another victim, however, are also still waiting for answers. Jessica Taylor was just 20 and working as an escort when she went missing in New York in July 2003. Her partial remains were discovered in 2003 and in 2011 in two places, like Ms Macks: Manorville and along Ocean Parkway.

Ms Taylors cousin, Jasmine Robinson, was outside the courthouse last Friday where Mr Heuermann was arraigned, telling reporters that full justice would only be achieved when all the cases were solved, the AP reported.

Ms Robinson also hoped her cousin would be remembered as a beautiful young woman, not what her occupation was at that time.

But enduring mystery surrounds other victims found on Long Island and whether they could all be tied to the same perpetrator.

The search for Shannan Gilbert also yielded the partial remains in 2011 of a Black woman and, a few miles down the parkway, a toddler. DNA evidence later linked the womans skeletal remains to a dismembered torso discovered stuffed into a bin in a Long Island state park in 1997 as well as determining that she was the mother of the child. The adult victim has been nicknamed Peaches by investigators because of a large heart-shaped peach tattoo on her chest  but the identities of Peaches and her child have not yet been determined.

Around the same time that Peaches skeletal remains were found near the beach in 2011, a skull was also discovered that would be traced back to yet another body which turned up years earlier on Fire Island. The severed legs of an unidentified white woman, believed to be between 18-50, were discovered in April 1996 at Blue Point Beach, and DNA connected the remains to the 2011 find.

On 4 August 2023, Long Island officials announced that this victim  known as Jane Doe 7 or Fire Island Jane Doe  had finally been identified as Karen Vergata, a 34-year-old woman who was last seen alive in Manhattan around Valentines Day in 1996 while working as an escort.

Peaches identity meanwhile has yet to be ascertained.

So has the identity of the only male victim  found a quarter mile away from the bodies of the three victims whose murders Mr Heuermann is already charged with. The man, believed to be between 17 and 23 years old, was found in April 2011, was wearing womens clothing and had been dead for at least five years, according to the Long Island Press.

Investigators were continuing to comb through evidence this week, and pieces of information continued to trickle out regarding Mr Heuermann and his past  as victim families continued to hope for more and more answers.

Im grateful for the hard work that has been done, Ms Taylors cousin, Ms Robinson, said after Mr Heuermanns arrest, according to The New York Times.

Im grateful that today is happening, Ms. Robinson said. And Im hopeful for the future.
 Close Search of alleged Gilgo Beach serial killers home ends

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The Gilgo Beach murders victim previously known only as Jane Doe 7 has finally been identified more than 26 years after her partial remains were first discovered along the Long Island shores.

In a press conference on Friday, Long Island officials announced that they had identified the victim as Karen Vergata, a 34-year-old who was last seen alive in Manhattan in 1996 while working as an escort.

Police refused to take any questions and would not comment on whether or not they believe her disappearance and murder may be linked to serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann.

This comes as prosecutors have asked the court to obtain a swab of DNA from Mr Heuermann and as his wife broke her silence in her first interview since his shock arrest to reveal she is filled with anxiety and their two children cry themselves to sleep every night over the horror case.

Mr Heuermann, 59, was arrested on 13 July and charged with the murders of Amber Castello, Megan Waterman and Melissa Barthelemy. He is also the main suspect in Maureen Brainard-Barnes killing.

The women all went missing in 2009 and 2010 before their remains were found along Gilgo Beach.
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The Gilgo Beach murders victim previously known only as Jane Doe 7 has finally been identified more than 26 years after her partial remains were first discovered along the Long Island shores.

Karen Vergata, a 34-year-old woman who was last seen alive in Manhattan in 1996 while working as an escort, was named on Friday by Long Island officials  who refused to confirm whether or not her murder may be linked to suspected serial killer Rex Heuermann.

The huge breakthrough in the case comes almost three decades after some of Vergatas remains were first discovered  and just weeks after Mr Heuermann, a 59-year-old father-of-two architect, was arrested and charged with the murders of three other victims.

It was 20 April 1996 when a womans legs were found wrapped in plastic at Davis Park on Fire Islands Blue Point Beach.

Almost exactly 15 years later on 11 April 2011, the womans skull was then found off Ocean Parkway during the search for Gilgo Beach victims. The skull was located close to the remains of another unidentified victim  Jane Doe 3, also known as Peaches.

The two sets of remains in Fire Island and Ocean Parkway were later found to belong to the same person.

Before now, investigators had long been unable to identify Jane Doe 7  and the victim became known as Fire Island Jane Doe.

She was described only as a white woman aged 18 to 50 years old who had several notable scars including evidence of surgery on her left ankle.

She was one of 11 victims whose remains were found dumped along the shores of Gilgo Beach back in 2010 and 2011  several of whom are also yet to be identified.

Vergata vanished without a trace around 14 February 1996  Valentines Day, according to officials.

She lived on West 45th St in Manhattan and is believed to have been working as an escort at the time of her disappearance.

Police said that no missing persons report was filed at the time.

Karen Vergata (Suffolk County DA)

Decades later, investigators were finally able to identify Fire Island Jane Doe using genetic geneaology and her surviving relatives DNA.

In August 2022  around six months after the new Gilgo Beach taskforce was launched  a DNA profile suitable for genealogical comparison was developed from the remains of the victim, officials said in a press conference on Friday.

The next month, the FBI was able to presumptively identify the victim using genetic genealogy as Vergata.

Then, that October, investigators tracked down a relative of Vergata and took a buccal swab. Using this, they were able to definitively identity the victim as Vergata.

While her identity was confirmed late last year, Suffolk County DA Rodney Tierney explained that officials kept the major breakthrough under wraps until now due to both the ongoing investigation into Mr Heuermann and the need to contact all of Vergatas family members.

Prior to disclosing, we needed to contact all Vergatas family members and around the same time we were beginning the grand jury confidential investigation into the murders of the victims known as the Gilgo 4, he told reporters.

So we decided not to make it public... until the results of that investigation became public and we had made notice to Vergatas family.

He added: Today we are here to announce that as part of the Gilgo taskforces reexamination of all evidence in the case we are able to identify Fire Island Jane Doe as Karen Vergata.

It is important that we remember and honour not only Ms Vergata but all the vicitms on Gilgo Beach, he added.

While this marks a major breakthrough in the case, many questions still remain.

In Fridays press conference announcing her identity, Suffolk County officials refused to take any questions and would not comment on whether or not Vergatas murder could be the linked to Mr Heuermann  who has so far been tied to four of the victims found along the Long Island shores.

At this time, no one has been charged in connection to her homicide and her cause of death is unknown.

Map showing sites where victims remains found along Gilgo Beach (Suffolk County Police Department)

DA Tierney said that while there are no charges at this time, that the confidential investigation is ongoing.

He would not confirm or deny any ties to accused killer Rex Heuermann  or say if there was any potential suspects on his radar.

We are going to continue to work this particular case as we did the Gilgo Four investigation, he said.

Were not going to comment on what  if any suspects  we developed at this time. This is a confidential investigation so Im not going to be taking any questions.

This major development comes as prosecutors are seeking to obtain a swab of DNA from Mr Heuermann, the man arrested and charged with the murders of three of the victims and suspected of a fourth killing.

In a court filing this week, prosecutors said that the DNA sample would provide further relevant evidence of the defendants identity as the perpetrator of the crime.

Prosecutors have so far obtained hundreds of hours of footage from the suspects home in Massapequa Park and his office in Midtown Manhattan, 2,500 pages of documents, crime scene photographs and autopsy reports in the high-profile case.

The trove of evidence was turned over to Suffolk County Supreme Court Justice Timothy Mazzei and Mr Heuermanns attorney Michael Brown on Tuesday as the accused killer appeared in court for a brief preliminary hearing.

Suffolk County DA Tierney said last week that a massive amount of evidence had been recovered from the home which Mr Heuermann grew up in as a child  and which he went on to share with his family up until his sudden arrest.

No human remains were discovered, but a trove of around 270 guns were seized from the home.

The DA previously revealed that they believe at least some of the murders may have taken place inside the home.

Mr Heuermanns wife and two adult children were out of town at the time of each of the three murders he is charged with, according to court records.

The 59-year-old architect was taken into custody on 13 July, almost 13 years after the bodies of at least 11 victims were discovered along the shores of Gilgo Beach on Long Island.

He was charged with the murders of Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy and Amber Costello.

He is also the prime suspect in the murder of Maureen Brainard-Barnes  who was last seen alive in early June 2007 in New York City and who, with the three other women, is known as the Gilgo Four.

Rex Heuermann appeared in court on Tuesday (jtc)

All four women worked as sex workers and disappeared after going to meet a client. They were all found in December 2010 within one-quarter mile of each other, bound by belts or tape and some wrapped in burlap  their bodies dumped along Gilgo Beach.

They are among 11 victims whose remains were found along the shores of Long Island in 2010 and 2011, sparking fears of one or more serial killers.

As well as looking into his connection to the murder of Brainard-Barnes and the other Gilgo Beach victims, law enforcement agencies are now also looking into unsolved murders and missing persons cases all across the country.

Police in Las Vegas and South Carolina  where Mr Heuermann owns properties  and Atlantic City  where several sex workers have been found murdered  have confirmed they are eyeing the suspect in cold cases.

Court records show that Mr Heuermann was linked to the Gilgo Four murders through a tip about his pickup truck, a stash of burner phones, sadistic online searches, phone calls taunting victims families, his wifes hair found on the victims bodies  and a pizza crust.

The first piece of the puzzle came when a witness in the Amber Costello case revealed details about a vehicle that a client was driving when she was last seen alive.

Costello, who worked as a sex worker, was seen alive on the evening of 2 September 2010 when she left her home in West Babylon. A witness said she had gone to meet a client who was driving a first-generation Chevrolet Avalanche.

Last year, a registration search showed that local man Mr Heuermann owned a first-generation model of the truck at the time of Costellos disappearance. He also matched the witness description of the man believed to be the killer: a large, white ogre-like male in his mid-40s, around 64 to 66 tall, with dark bushy hair, and big oval style 1970s type eyeglasses.

Rex Heuermanns home being searched by investigators (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

The discovery of the car led investigators to hone in on Mr Heuermann including executing 300 subpoenas, search warrants and other legal processes to obtain evidence to determine his potential involvement in the killings.

Among this was Mr Heuermanns alleged use of burner phones, with prosecutors saying that he used burner phones to contact the three women and arrange to meet them at the time when they went missing.

He also allegedly took two of the victims cellphones  and used one to make taunting phone calls to one of their families where he boasted about her murder, court documents state.

Mr Heuermanns DNA was found on one of the victims, while his wifes hair was found on three of the four women he is connected to.

Following his arrest, his wife Asa Ellerup filed for divorce. She has since told The New York Post that she has been left filled with anxiety and their two children cry themselves to sleep over the horror.

I woke up in the middle of the night, shivering... anxiety, she said.

My children cry themselves to sleep. I mean, theyre not children. Theyre grown adults but theyre my children, and my son has developmental disabilities and he cried himself to sleep.

Mr Heuermanns sudden arrest comes after the horrific serial killer case has captured the nations attention for more than a decade.

The Gilgo Beach murders had long stumped law enforcement officials in Suffolk County who believed it could be the work of one or more serial killers who targeted sex workers and dumped their bodies along the remote beaches on Ocean Parkway.

The case began in May 2010 when Shannan Gilbert vanished after leaving a clients house on foot near Gilgo Beach.

She called 911 for help saying she feared for her life and was never seen alive again.

Crime scene investigators use metal detectors to search a marsh for the remains of Shannan Gilbert in December 2011

During a search for Gilbert in dense thicket close to the beach, police discovered the remains of another woman.

Within a matter of days, the remains of three more victims were found close by.

By spring 2011, the remains of a total of 10 victims had been found including eight women, a man, and a toddler. Police have long thought that it could be the work of one or more serial killers.

Gilberts body was then found in December 2011. Her cause of death is widely contested with authorities long claiming that it is not connected to the serial killer or killers but that she died from accidental drowning as she fled from the clients home.

However, an independent autopsy commissioned by her family ruled that she died by strangulation and her mother believes she was murdered.

Like Gilbert, most of the victims targeted were sex workers, while some are yet to be identified.
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Long Island police are believed to have identified another victim in the Gilgo Beach murders case in a major breakthrough that they are expected to announce later today.

Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney and other New York officials have scheduled a press conference for 10.30am ET on Friday to announce what they described as an update in the ongoing investigation by the Gilgo Beach Homicide Investigation Task Force.

A senior law enforcement source told NBC New York that investigators have been able to identify another victim  previously referred to as the seventh Jane Doe.

In total, the remains of 11 victims were found dumped along the shores of Gilgo Beach back in 2010 and 2011 but, more than a decade later, some are yet to be identified.

This major development comes as prosecutors are seeking to obtain a swab of DNA from Rex Heuermann, the man arrested and charged with the murders of three of the victims and suspected of a fourth killing.

In a court filing this week, prosecutors said that the DNA sample would provide further relevant evidence of the defendants identity as the perpetrator of the crime.

Prosecutors have so far obtained hundreds of hours of footage from the suspects home in Massapequa Park and his office in Midtown Manhattan, 2,500 pages of documents, crime scene photographs and autopsy reports in the high-profile case.

The trove of evidence was turned over to Suffolk County Supreme Court Justice Timothy Mazzei and Mr Heuermanns attorney Michael Brown on Tuesday as the accused killer appeared in court for a brief preliminary hearing.

Suffolk County DA Tierney said last week that a massive amount of evidence had been recovered from the home which Mr Heuermann grew up in as a child  and which he went on to share with his family up until his sudden arrest.

No human remains were discovered, but a trove of around 270 guns were seized from the home.

The DA previously revealed that they believe at least some of the murders may have taken place inside the home.

Mr Heuermanns wife and two adult children were out of town at the time of each of the three murders he is charged with, according to court records.

The 59-year-old architect was taken into custody on 13 July, almost 13 years after the bodies of at least 11 victims were discovered along the shores of Gilgo Beach on Long Island.

He was charged with the murders of Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy and Amber Costello.

He is also the prime suspect in the murder of Maureen Brainard-Barnes  who was last seen alive in early June 2007 in New York City and who, with the three other women, is known as the Gilgo Four.

Rex Heuermann appeared in court on Tuesday (jtc)

All four women worked as sex workers and disappeared after going to meet a client. They were all found in December 2010 within one-quarter mile of each other, bound by belts or tape and some wrapped in burlap  their bodies dumped along Gilgo Beach.

They are among 11 victims whose remains were found along the shores of Long Island in 2010 and 2011, sparking fears of one or more serial killers.

As well as looking into his connection to the murder of Brainard-Barnes and the other Gilgo Beach victims, law enforcement agencies are now also looking into unsolved murders and missing persons cases all across the country.

Police in Las Vegas and South Carolina  where Mr Heuermann owns properties  and Atlantic City  where several sex workers have been found murdered  have confirmed they are eyeing the suspect in cold cases.

Court records show that Mr Heuermann was linked to the Gilgo Four murders through a tip about his pickup truck, a stash of burner phones, sadistic online searches, phone calls taunting victims families, his wifes hair found on the victims bodies  and a pizza crust.

The first piece of the puzzle came when a witness in the Amber Costello case revealed details about a vehicle that a client was driving when she was last seen alive.

Costello, who worked as a sex worker, was seen alive on the evening of 2 September 2010 when she left her home in West Babylon. A witness said she had gone to meet a client who was driving a first-generation Chevrolet Avalanche.

Last year, a registration search showed that local man Mr Heuermann owned a first-generation model of the truck at the time of Costellos disappearance. He also matched the witness description of the man believed to be the killer: a large, white ogre-like male in his mid-40s, around 64 to 66 tall, with dark bushy hair, and big oval style 1970s type eyeglasses.

Rex Heuermanns home being searched by investigators (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

The discovery of the car led investigators to hone in on Mr Heuermann including executing 300 subpoenas, search warrants and other legal processes to obtain evidence to determine his potential involvement in the killings.

Among this was Mr Heuermanns alleged use of burner phones, with prosecutors saying that he used burner phones to contact the three women and arrange to meet them at the time when they went missing.

He also allegedly took two of the victims cellphones  and used one to make taunting phone calls to one of their families where he boasted about her murder, court documents state.

Mr Heuermanns DNA was found on one of the victims, while his wifes hair was found on three of the four women he is connected to.

Following his arrest, his wife Asa Ellerup filed for divorce. She has since told The New York Post that she has been left filled with anxiety and their two children cry themselves to sleep over the horror.

I woke up in the middle of the night, shivering... anxiety, she said.

My children cry themselves to sleep. I mean, theyre not children. Theyre grown adults but theyre my children, and my son has developmental disabilities and he cried himself to sleep.

Mr Heuermanns sudden arrest comes after the horrific serial killer case has captured the nations attention for more than a decade.

The Gilgo Beach murders had long stumped law enforcement officials in Suffolk County who believed it could be the work of one or more serial killers who targeted sex workers and dumped their bodies along the remote beaches on Ocean Parkway.

The case began in May 2010 when Shannan Gilbert vanished after leaving a clients house on foot near Gilgo Beach.

She called 911 for help saying she feared for her life and was never seen alive again.

Crime scene investigators use metal detectors to search a marsh for the remains of Shannan Gilbert in December 2011

During a search for Gilbert in dense thicket close to the beach, police discovered the remains of another woman.

Within a matter of days, the remains of three more victims were found close by.

By spring 2011, the remains of a total of 10 victims had been found including eight women, a man, and a toddler. Police have long thought that it could be the work of one or more serial killers.

Gilberts body was then found in December 2011. Her cause of death is widely contested with authorities long claiming that it is not connected to the serial killer or killers but that she died from accidental drowning as she fled from the clients home.

However, an independent autopsy commissioned by her family ruled that she died by strangulation and her mother believes she was murdered.

Like Gilbert, most of the victims targeted were sex workers, while some are yet to be identified.
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For around two decades, the sands and marshes of Long Islands Gilgo Beach kept a dark secret.

A killer or killers roamed the locality, luring in escorts and sex workers and brutally murdering them.

Body after body was dumped along the shoreline, hidden for months and even years without being discovered.

Then, in 2010, a chilling 911 call made by a woman in fear for her life led police to search the area.

What they discovered was far more horrifying than anyone could have imagined.

Over the next year, the remains of 11 victims  mainly female escorts  were discovered dumped in the area, plunging the Suffolk County community into terror.

But, the case went cold and no arrests were made, no suspects were named and there was no justice for the victims and their families.

That is, until now.

On Thursday, local married father-of-two Rex Heuermann was arrested on suspicion of being the infamous serial killer.

The 59-year-old has been charged with the murders of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello and is also the prime suspect in the murder of a fourth woman Maureen Brainard-Barnes  who was last seen alive in New York City in early June 2007.

Rex Heuermann in a video about architecture posted on YouTube (Bonjour Realty)

Long Island native Mr Heuermann lives close to Gilgo Beach, where the killer dumped his victims. He also works as an architect in Manhattan, where some of the women were last seen alive.

While neighbours, professional acquaintances and victims families react to the shocking news, the question is: now an arrest has been made, is the hunt for the Gilgo Beach serial killer finally over?

The murders

For more than a decade, the Gilgo Beach murders stumped law enforcement officials in Suffolk County who believed it could be the work of one or more serial killers who targeted sex workers and dumped their bodies along the remote beaches on Ocean Parkway.

The case began in May 2010 when Shannan Gilbert, a 24-year-old sex worker, vanished after leaving a clients house on foot near Gilgo Beach.

She called 911 for help, saying she feared for her life, and was never seen alive again.

In the chilling call, released last year, Gilbert is heard repeatedly telling the 911 operator that somebodys after me.

She is also heard arguing with a man  who she refers to as Mike  who appears to be trying to encourage her to get back into a car; at one point, she is heard asking if he is going to kill her.

Map of the sites the bodies were dumped (Suffolk County Police Department)

These people are plotting to kill me, she tells the dispatcher.

During a search for Gilbert in dense thicket close to the beach, police discovered the remains of another woman.

Within a matter of days, the remains of three more victims were found close by.

By spring 2011, the remains of a total of 10 victims had been found  eight women, a man, and a toddler.

Gilberts body was found in December 2011. Her cause of death is widely contested, with authorities long claiming that it is not connected to the serial killer or killers but that she died from accidental drowning as she fled from the clients home.

However, an independent autopsy commissioned by her family ruled that she died by strangulation and her mother believes she was murdered.

Like Gilbert, most of the victims targeted were sex workers.

Several theories have been considered over the years but no one had ever been charged with the killings.

Authorities have previously said they believe that three separate serial killers could be responsible for the slayings over a period of around 20 years.

Brush area along Ocean Parkway. where Megan Watermans remains were recovered in 2010 (Suffolk County Police Department)

The case appeared to go cold for several years until last year when Suffolk Polices Rodney Harrison vowed to finally close the case and bring the killer or killers to justice.

The newly appointed commissioner said that, with a set of fresh eyes, he had faith that he could get the cold case across the finish line. He launched a dedicated taskforce for the case.

The victims

The remains of at least 11 victims were found in the Gilgo Beach area though it remains unclear if they are all the work of the same killer. Many were sex workers who offered escort services on Craigslist or worked in New York City.

The first victim found was Melissa Barthelemy, whose remains were discovered along Ocean Parkway on 11 December 2010 during the search for Shannan Gilbert  a 24-year-old sex worker from New Jersey who vanished after visiting a client in Oak Park and making a chilling 911 call where she revealed fears for her life.

Two days later on 13 December, the remains of three other victims  Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Megan Waterman and Amber Lynn Costello  were found close by.

All three women were known to advertise escort services on Craigslist.

Brainard-Barnes  known as one of the Gilgo Beach Four  was last seen alive in early June 2007 in New York City while Costello was last seen leaving her North Babylon home one day in early September 2010.

Waterman was last seen alive in early June 2010 at a Holiday Inn Express in Hauppauge.

This combination of undated image provided by the Suffolk County Police Department, shows Melissa Barthelemy, top left, Amber Costello, top right, Megan Waterman, bottom left, and Maureen Brainard-Barnes (bottom right). (AP)

Seven months later, on 26 July 2011, the remains of Jessica Taylor were found in a wooded area in Manorville during the ongoing search for Gilbert. Taylor worked as an escort in New York City.

Valerie Mack also worked as an escort but was last seen alive in Philadelphia in 2000. Her remains were found on two separate occasions in Manorville in 2000 and in Oak Beach in 2011 but she was only identified in 2020 through the use of genetic genealogy.

On 4 August 2023, Long Island officials announced that another victim  known as Jane Doe 7 or Fire Island Jane Doe  had also finally been identified.

Karen Vergata, 34, was last seen alive in Manhattan in 1996 while working as an escort.

Her legs were first found wrapped in plastic at Davis Park on Fire Islands Blue Point Beach in 1996. Almost exactly 15 years later on 11 April 2011, her skull was found off Ocean Parkway close to some of the other Gilgo Beach victims.

In a press conference announcing her identity, officials refused to confirm whether or not Vergatas murder may be linked to Mr Heuermann.

Some of the victims have never been identified.

The skeletal remains of an Asian male, aged between 17 and 23 years old, around 5 feet 6 inches tall and with poor dental health, were found along Ocean Parkway in April 2011. He is believed to have died around five to 10 years earlier.

That same day, the remains of a female toddler were discovered. She was later identified as the daughter of the also-unidentified female victim dubbed Peaches whose remains were found in Nassau County.

The suspect

On 13 July, there was a huge breakthrough in the case when Mr Heuermann was finally arrested and charged with three of the murders  and suspected of a fourth.

Dramatic video captured him walking along a Manhattan road when he was suddenly surrounded by plainclothes officers and taken into custody.

Gilgo Beach: What we know so far

The accused killer has been married twice and shares a 26-year-old daughter and stepson, with special needs, with his second wife.

Mr Heuermann is president of architecture firm RH Consultants & Associates, a company which he founded in 1994 and which his adult daughter also works for.

According to the company website, Mr Heuermanns company has worked with the likes of Catholic Charities, NYC-DEP Sewerage Treatment and American Airlines and other major tenants at the JFK International Airport.

A company page called Meet The Team and featuring his photo was taken down on Friday morning as news of his arrest broke.

In an interview posted on YouTube by Bonjour Realty last year, the father-of-two said that he was born and raised in Long Island but had been working in Manhattan since 1987... [a] very long time.

The architecture firm is based in Midtown Manhattan  where some of the Gilgo Beach victims were last seen alive.

According to court records, phone calls made from burner phones and some of the victims cellphones can be traced to his office.

In his professional life, some acquaintances described him as arrogant while others said he was creepy.

Paul Teitelbaum, who worked with Mr Heuermann on a building in Brooklyn Heights, told The New York Times that the suspect had a swagger and an attitude that said: Im the expert, youre lucky to have me.

Meanwhile, Dominique Vidal  an interior designer who was part of the same architecture networking group as Mr Heuermann  said that he repeatedly called her and left her a creepy voicemail despite them never having worked together.

Rex Heuermann booking photo (AP)

He left this [voicemail] for me end of February after I left the group, she said in a TikTok video posted on Sunday.

Previous to that, he did call me a couple of times. I answered the phone. Nothing really significant. I found it odd he was calling me because I had no work for him. Theres no ongoing relationship. We were just two people who used to be in the same networking group.

Theres nothing incredibly scary about the voicemail, besides the fact that he is the Gilgo Beach murderer.

Neighbours of Mr Heuermann in Massapequa Park  which is located just a 20-minute drive from Gilgo Beach where the killer dumped the bodies of his victims  gave a mixed picture of the accused killer.

Neighbours told The Independent that he was a quiet family man who lived in the close-knit community with his wife and two children.

One neighbour, who has lived a stones throw from the Heuermanns for more than two decades, said that the family is a very quiet family who made no imprint at all on the neighborhood.

Basically, we never had any contact with him... living here 22 years and never said two words to him, the long-time Massapequa Park resident said, adding that one bad apple doesnt spoil the bunch in a great neighbourhood.

Yet another neighbour  who had lived there for 13 years  told Newsweek that children would avoid his home on Halloween.

Most people dont knock on his door, said Barry Auslander. During Halloween, the kids are told to stay away. Hes not a very nice person.

He added that his home was dilapidated and always dark.

New York State police officers move a metal cabinet as law enforcement searches the home of Rex Heuermann, Saturday, July 15, 2023, in Massapequa Park, N.Y. (AP)

Mr Heuermann has lived on Long Island his whole life  and now lives in the same property where he spent his childhood.

He grew up in Massapequa Park and attended Berner High School where Billy Baldwin was a classmate.

Maureen Holpit, 59, who also attended Berner High School with Mr Heuarmann, told The Independent that Mr Heauerman was once a shy teen who would often leave love notes in her locker. Ms Holpit said her exchanges with the now suspected serial killer were always pleasant and polite.

I was always nice and friendly to him, you know. Seemed like he kind of got picked on and people would make maybe portray him as a little nerdy. He was very quiet, mild-mannered. So I was nice and would say, Hey, Rex, how are you?, Ms Holpit, who now lives in Florida, tells The Independent.

I was getting these notes in my locker. As Im remembering, there were multiple little love notes but they were not signed, she added. Then, one day I did see him put it in my locker and so I knew they were from him. I may have said to him that I had a boyfriend or I just liked him as a friend.

The investigation

Last year, the Suffolk County Police Department, New York State Police, Suffolk County Sheriffs Office and the FBI revamped the probe into the killings that ultimately led to Mr Heuermanns bombshell arrest outside his Midtown office on Thursday.

A bail application released by the Suffolk County District Attorney revealed that Mr Heuermann was linked to the serial killings through cellphone evidence and surveillance.

Prosecutors have argued that no bail should be set for Mr Heuermann due to his recent searches for sadistic materials, child pornography, images of the victims and their relatives.

Mr Heuermann was first linked to the cold case in March 2022 after investigators discovered that a Chevrolet Avalanche registered to him was possibly the one spotted by a witness in Costellos disappearance.

Mr Heuermann appeared in court in handcuffs on Friday and pleaded not guilty to six murder charges (Fox 5/YouTube)

As law enforcement closed in on him, they served more than 300 subpoenas and search warrants that uncovered cellphone records for burner phones used to arrange meetings with three of the Gilgo Four victims before they went missing.

Further analysis also allegedly linked Mr Heuermann to taunting calls made to family members of the victims, according to investigators. The calls were made from the Midtown Manhattan area, where the offices of Mr Heuermans architecture business are located.

Among the evidence linking Mr Heuermann to the murders was a hair found on burlap material used to wrap Watermans corpse, according to court documents. DNA analysis had not been possible in the early stages of the investigation, but new technology allowed testing in July 2020.

A team surveilling Mr Heuermann collected a discarded pizza box that then confirmed a DNA match with the suspect on 12 June.

Records also show that several online accounts under fictitious names linked to Mr Heuermann were used for illegal activities. Mr Heuermann allegedly used those accounts and burner phones to contact women for prostitution services, as well as making chilling online searches.

Police remove evidence from home of Long Island serial killer suspect (Patrick Reichart)

The searches included sadistic, torture-related pornography, child pornography and other disturbing content.

Mr Heuermann is also accused of searching why could law enforcement not trace the calls made by the long island serial killer, why hasnt the long island serial killer been caught and new phone technology may be key to break in case.

More forensic analysis revealed that female hairs found in the three crime scene locations belonged to Mr Heuermanns wife. However, authorities have determined through cellphone records that Mr Heuermanns wife was out of state when the murders took place.

At the time Barthelemy went missing in July 2009, Mr Heuermanns wife was in Iceland. She visited Maryland around the time Waterman disappeared in June 2010, and also travelled to New Jersey when Costello was last seen in September of that year.

It is likely that the burlap, tape, vehicle(s) or other instrumentalities utilised in furtherance of these murders came from Defendant Heuermanns residence, where his wife also resides, or was transferred from his clothing, prosecutors explained.

Mr Heuermann is also the prime suspect in the murder of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, who is believed to be one of the Gilgo Four. Prosecutors noted in the application that records for the burner phones used to contact Brainard-Barnes were not obtained at the time she went missing and no longer exist.
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A Connecticut news anchor revealed that she had to keep her mothers cold-blooded murder a secret for months to protect the investigation while police searched for her killer.

Heidi Voight wrote in a social media post this week that the February death of her 73-year-old mother Claudia M Voight was not a medical incident like it was initially believed, but a homicide.

She should still be here, the Emmy Award-winning anchor for NBC Connecticut wrote on Instagram. My mothers death was not natural, nor peaceful. My mother was murdered, violently, in the place she should have felt safest. Our silence was necessary to protect the early stages of the intense criminal investigation.

Vermont State Police announced on Monday that the department is investigating the murder of Voight, who was killed on February 20 in her home in Windham.

Heidi Voight reveals her mothers death was a homicide. (Heidi Voight facebook post)

Police said in the release that her death did not appear to be suspicious at first but an autopsy that was performed several days later at the Chief Medical Examiners Office in Burlington revealed further injuries.

In April, her cause of death was determined to be neck compression.

Voight had sustained injuries that were detectable only during autopsy, the police release read. Final autopsy findings in April confirmed that Ms Voights cause of death was neck compression, and the manner of death was homicide. Due to the sensitive nature of the case from the early stages of the investigation, VSP opted to wait to disclose the incident to the public. The investigation has now progressed to a point where VSP is able to release information without jeopardizing the case.

It was a daunting secret the womans daughter has been keeping for months.

Voight announced her mothers passing on February 27 on Instagram, describing it as sudden and unexpected, and there are many questions and challenges. If you can, please just call your mom today and tell her you love her.

She has been on leave from NBC Connecticut ever since.

But several months later, she explained how she had to keep the news of the homicide to herself for so long in order to protect the investigation.

For the last 161 days, the world around us has moved on. But my family and I have been living February 21st on repeat. There is an emotional purgatory that comes when you must silence what you want to scream from the rooftops. How could we write her obituary or plan her service until the world understood the true magnitude of this senseless loss? But our silence was necessary to protect the early stages of the intense criminal investigation.

Police say Claudia Voights death was homicide

Voight thanked Vermont State Police for their hard work and her other family, NBC Connecticut, for their continued love and support. Im taking this time to be present for the many processes ongoing related to my moms case, and to make sure Im getting the help I need to be mentally and physically okay for the long haul. This has broken me and changed me. But I am my mothers daughter, and I will come back stronger. I will fight for her.

Police finally released information on Monday, stating that they believe the killing of Ms Voight was not random, and that there is no identified threat to the community.

No arrests have been made and Vermont State Police Spokesperson Adam Silverman told WCAX that he was not able to comment on whether they have any suspects at this time.

But I can tell you that the evidence in the case does indicate that there is no specific or general threat to the public and that the homicide does appear to be targeted at Mrs Voight, he said.

Police said the investigation remains active and ongoing with members of the Major Crime Unit, Bureau of Criminal Investigations, and Victim Services Unit.
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A man apparently obsessed with feet who allegedly broke into two vacation homes in Lake Tahoe and fondled womens feet as they slept has been arrested.

Mark Anthony Gonzales, 26, dubbed the Lake Tahoe Foot Fondler, was taken into custody on Tuesday at his home in Atwater, California, on two counts of burglary and two counts of battery, the Douglas County Sheriffs Office said in a Facebook post.

Mr Gonzales is accused of entering two Stateline resort condominiums at the Club Wyndham South Shore hotel through unlocked screen doors and rubbing the womens feet while they slept.

Women in the two separate incidents told deputies they were woken up around 4.30am on Sunday and Monday over the Fourth of July weekend to the suspect fondling their feet.

Each female awoke from their sleep as the subject was rubbing their feet, the sheriffs office said. Once awake the females confronted the male subject and he fled the scene.

The terrifying incidents prompted the local officials to urge local residents to lock their doors.

Forensic techniques were used to identify Gonzales, which led them to connect him to a slew of crimes "including the theft of womens shoes, trespassing, and sexual self-gratification during some of these incidents."

Investigators said its believed "that Gonzales crimes were escalating in nature.

Gonzales is being held at the Merced County Jail on a fugitive warrant and a $50,000 bond. He is set to be extradited back to Douglas County in Nevada.

I am extremely pleased that my Investigators were able to identify, locate, and arrest this individual, Douglas County Sheriff Dan Coverley said.

These types of crimes are especially alarming to a community, and being able to make an arrest allows the victims and community to feel safe again.
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Six former Mississippi police officers  who are white  pleaded guilty to 16 felonies stemming from the torture and physical abuse of two Black men.

Among the felonies are civil rights conspiracy, deprivation of rights under color of law, discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence, and conspiracy to obstruct justice and obstruction of justice, according to the Department of Justice. The ex-officers pleaded guilty to all 16 charges against them.

Five of the defendants are from Rankin County Sheriffs Office (RCSO), Chief Investigator Brett McAlpin, Narcotics Investigator Christian Dedmon, Lieutenant Jeffrey Middleton, Deputy Hunter Elward, and Deputy Daniel Opdyke, while one is from the Richland Police Department, Narcotics Investigator Joshua Hartfield.

According to the Department of Justices release, the officers admitted kicking in a door and entering a home belonging to two Black men  Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker on 24 January  without a warrant.

Mr Jenkins and Mr Parker were handcuffed and arrested  without probable cause to believe they had committed any crime. The officers called them racial slurs, and warned them to stay out of Rankin County, according to the release.

The officers punched and kicked the men, tased them 17 times, forced them to ingest liquids, and assaulted them with a dildo. Rankin County Narcotics Investigator Christian Dedmon fired his gun twice throughout the tortuous encounter to intimidate the men.

At one point, Rankin County Deputy Elward removed a bullet from the chamber of his gun and forced the gun into Mr Jenkins mouth and pulled the trigger, the release stated. The unloaded gun didnt fire, but it did click. Intending to dry-fire a second time, Elward pulled the trigger, and this time the gun discharged. The bullet lacerated the mans tongue and broke his jaw.

The officers did not provide medical aid to the man bleeding on the floor  even after a bullet just exited from his neck. Instead, the officers convened outside the house to concoct a false cover story and took steps to corroborate it.

They planned, according to the release, to plant the gun on Jenkins, to destroy the surveillance footage, the shell casings and the taser cartridges. Then they would provide fake drug evidence to the crime lab and file a false report, thus charging the man with crimes he did not commit.

Not only did the fake cover story involve the officers making false statements to investigators, but they were game to pressure witnesses to stick to the cover story.

Three of the officers told the court that they were part of The Goon Squad, a group of RCSO officers who were known for using excessive force and not reporting it.

The defendants in this case tortured and inflicted unspeakable harm on their victims, egregiously violated the civil rights of citizens who they were supposed to protect, and shamefully betrayed the oath they swore as law enforcement officers, said Attorney General Merrick Garland.

No human being should ever be subjected to the kind of torturous, traumatising and horrific acts of violence that were carried out by these law enforcement officers, said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Departments Civil Rights Division.

Todays guilty pleas are historic, in the fight for justice against rogue police torture and police brutality in Rankin County, the state of Mississippi and all over America, said Malik Shabazz, the attorney for the Black men in a statement.

According to the Associated Press, the men will be sentenced in mid-November, adding that Dedmon and Elward each face a maximum sentence of 120 years plus life in prison and $2.75m in fines. Hartfield faces a possible sentence of 80 years and $1.5m, McAlpin faces 90 years and $1.75m, Middleton faces 80 years and $1.5m, and Opdyke could be sentenced to 100 years with a $2m fine.

On top of this, Mr Jenkins and Mr Parker filed a civil rights suit in Mississippi Southern District Court on 12 June, in which they are seeking $400m in damages. The suit states that Rankin County is 73.5% White, 21% Black, according to 2019 data, explaining that the pair were allegedly the only two Black males residing within a two-mile area of the location of this occurrence.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 4, ARMENPRESS. Armenia and Azerbaijan still have to find solutions around a number of difficult issues, a senior Russian foreign ministry official has said.

In an interview with TASS news agency, Head of the Russian Foreign Ministrys Fourth CIS Department Denis Gonchar said that the commitment of Armenia and Azerbaijan to swiftly achieve peace doesnt mean that the two countries are ready to agree to any condition.

We still have to find solutions around a number of difficult topics, Gonchar said.

He added that the protection of the security and universally recognized rights of the Armenian population of Nagorno Karabakh within the framework of Azerbaijans legislative framework is one of the most important tasks.

The sides decided the relevant logic after mutually confirming the effectiveness of the 1991 Almaty Declaration. We also need an international support mechanism for the implementation of the agreement that wouldnt question the sovereignty and political independence of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Gonchar said, adding that Moscow is actively supporting the parties in preparing the peace treaty.

The Russian foreign ministry official also said that theres been significant progress in the talks on coordinating the methods of transport connection unblocking between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

In particular, the parties have a common understanding on the specific steps for restoring the Yeraskh-Julfa-Meghri-Horadiz railway, Gonchar said.

Russia seeks to ensure that all agreements on this topic are on an equal basis, he added.
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When Negasi Zuberi moved with his wife and two young children into a quiet street in Klamath Falls, Oregon, about six months ago, neighbours didnt notice anything out of the ordinary.

To residents of North Eldorado Avenue the 29-year-old was polite but not over-friendly, and didnt seem to follow a regular schedule, Melanie McClure told NBC News .

Mr Zuberi once stepped in to save Ms McClures Pomeranian-husky after it was attacked by her much larger Doberman pinscher puppy, prising the dogs apart and performing chest compressions on the injured animal.

He brought him back for me, Ms McClure told the network.

The quiet suburban setting was shattered on 15 July when a woman flagged down a car outside the Zuberis home and begged the driver to call 911.

According to the FBI , Mr Zuberi had abducted the woman in Seattle by impersonating an undercover police officer, aimed a Taser at her, placed her in handcuffs and leg irons before shoving her in the back of his car.

He then drove the 450 miles back to Klamath Falls, allegedly stopping to sexually assault her multiple times along the way.

Mr Zuberi then locked the woman in a purpose-built cinderblock cell in his garage, according to authorities.

A photo provided by the Federal Bureau of Investigations Portland Field Office shows a makeshift cinderblock investigators found in Zuberis home (FBI)

Police say she beat the door with her hands until they were bloody in order to break free, grabbed a gun from Mr Zuberis unlocked car and flagged down a car to raise the alarm.

Mr Zuberi fled the home with his family and was arrested the next day after a stand-off with police in Reno, Nevada, according to the FBI.

Authorities said Mr Zuberi has multiple aliases, has lived in 10 states since 2016. Authorities have linked him to violent sexual assaults in four states. They believe he is likely to have other victims and are appealing for information from the public.

Suspect arrested after kidnapping victim escapes from cinderblock "dungeon"

What we know about the kidnapping

Mr Zuberi approached the female victim, a sex worker, at about midnight on 14 July in Seattle, according to a probable cause statement.

Zuberi told the victim she was under arrest, the Klamath Falls Police Department said in a statement . The victim reported Zuberi had a firearm, police patches, a taser, and other law enforcement equipment.

After allegedly assaulting her on the drive back to Klamath Hills, he forced her into a soundproof cell that he had constructed from cinder blocks in the garage of the modest one-storey rental home.

The cell was built with a metal door installed in reverse so it could not be opened from the inside.

After ensuring the victim was secure in the room, Zuberi left, Klamath Falls police said.

The cinderblock cell constructed in the garage of Zuberis modest one-storey rental home was soundproof, police say (FBI)

The woman fell asleep briefly, before she awoke to the realisation that she would likely die if she did not attempt to escape, the FBI says.

She punched the security screen door repeatedly for several hours until her fists were bloodied, the FBI says.

She was eventually able to break the welds and pull the metal screen material down and climb through a small gap, before flagging down a passing motorist who took her to a local hospital.

Authorities praised the womans bravery, and credited her with saving lives.

Authorities have appealed for more information about Zuberi (Associated Press)

We are fortunate that this brave woman escaped and alerted authorities, Stephanie Shark, an FBI special agent in charge of the Portland Field Office, said in a statement.

Her quick thinking and will to survive may have saved other women from a similar nightmare.

The victims focus, actions and her will to survive triggered a law enforcement response that may have actually saved many other women from a similar nightmare, Ms Shark said.

How police arrested Zuberi

Klamath Falls Police Department obtained a search warrant for the property and found the cell in his garage as the victim had described, the FBI says.

Investigators also found a diagram of a planned 100-foot hole, and a note reading: You dont want any type of investigation.

Police traced the suspects cellphone and learned he was 250 miles southeast in Reno, Nevada.

Using cellphone technology, two Nevada State Police troopers located Mr Zuberi in a Walmart carpark in South Reno on 16 July.

An undated photo of Zuberi. Authorities say they have linked him to four other violent sexual assaults (FBI)

When they approached his vehicle, Mr Zuberi was holding his child in the car and his wife was outside talking to him.

Mr Zuberi allegedly threatened to harm himself, and grabbed a knife and cut himself, authorities said.

He was arrested after a 45-minute stand-off.

He is in federal custody on charges of interstate kidnapping and transporting an individual across state lines with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, and is expected to be returned to Oregon in the coming days to be formally arraigned.

Who is Negasi Zuberi?

According to the FBI, Negasi Ishaiah Zuberi used at least three other aliases including Sakima Zuberi. Justin Hyche and Justin Kouassi. His neighbours knew him as Sakima from Colorado.

The FBI said Mr Zuberi has resided in more than 10 states since 2016; California, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Utah, Florida, New York, New Jersey, Alabama, and Nevada.

In a statement, the FBI said it had linked Mr Zuberi to four other violent sexual attacks and feared there may be more victims.

Klamath Falls police said Mr Zuberi is believed to have several different methods to gain control of his victims including drugging their drinks, pretending to be a police officer, and soliciting the services of sex workers and then violently sexually assaulting them.

Some of the encounters may have been filmed to make it appear as if the assault was consensual, police said. The victims are threatened with retaliation if they notify the police.

Zuberi uses at least three aliases, and has resided in 10 states since 2016 (FBI)

The FBI believes he targeted sex workers or roommates in California, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Utah, Florida, New York, New Jersey, Alabama, and Nevada between August 2016 and July 2023.

Public records list his last address in Vancouver, Clark County, in Washington state.

A name linked to one of his aliases, Justin Hyche, shows his last known address in Antioch, California. Justin Hyche has four criminal incidents on file, including possession firearm public in Illinois, and driving in excess of 100 mph in California.

He also has civil court judgments listed against him in court states, New York, California, Illinois and Alabama.

Neighbours stunned

The arrest has stunned residents in Klamath Falls, a town of about 25,000 people just over the Oregon border from California, including,,that it appears his wife.

His former neighbour Ms McClure told NBC News Mr Zuberis wife had no idea about her husbands alleged actions and was doing her best to navigate this.

The Klamath Falls home where the woman was held (Screenshot / Google Maps)

This week, it emerged that Mr Zuberi had rented the home from Klamath Falls mayor, Carol Westfall, and her husband.

In a statement to FOX 12, Ms Westfall said she was shocked and dismayed by what has occurred.

We applaud the actions of this woman in helping capture this person and preventing him from committing further atrocities. We commend the work of the KFPD, 0SP and the FBI on this case. We encourage anyone with information about this situation to notify the proper authorities.

Anyone with information about Mr Zuberi is urged to visit fbi.gov/SakimaVictims or call 1-800-CALL-FBI to provide tips. The FBI Portland Field Office can be reached at (503) 224-4181.
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A father who lost his son in the Parkland school shooting joined lawmakers on Friday as they walked through the blood-stained halls at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School where 14 students and three staff members were gunned down in the horrific Valentines Day rampage.

Max Schachters 14-year-old son Alex was killed when a gunman opened fire at the school on 14 February 2018. The distraught father has since devoted his life to making schools safe.

On Friday, House members were led along the same path through the school that gunman Nikolas Cruz took during the six-minute attack five years ago.

Cruz, 24, a former Stoneman Douglas student, pleaded guilty in 2021 and was sentenced to life in prison in 2022.

Few people have been in the three-storey bullet-pocked building that has been locked behind a chain-link fence as it served as evidence during Cruzs death penalty trial.

Former Broward County deputy Scot Peterson walking with an unarmed security guard outside Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School during the Parkland mass shooting (Broward County DA)

Bringing members of Congress thru (sic) the building so they understand the failures before and during the shooting will hopefully ensure safer schools, Mr Schachter tweeted ahead of the tour.

I hope that after this we can all come together to ensure that all children / teachers are safe in their schools.

The Associated Press reported that there were still open textbooks and laptop computers on students desks. An unfinished chess game one of the slain students had been playing was also frozen in time, the pieces unmoved.

Mr Schachter, who had also recently returned to the classroom where his son was killed to see it for himself five years after the carnage, joined nine members of Congress on Friday.

It marked the first time a congressional delegation has toured the site of a mass shooting, Florida Democratic Rep Jared Moskowitz said.

He added that he expected the tour and reenactment to have a profound impact" on the six Democrats and three Republicans who belong to the House School Safety and Security Caucus.

When you watch something like this on TV, youre a thousand feet away  they show a picture of the building, Mr Moskowitz, who is a Stoneman Douglas graduate, told The Associated Press. You dont see the impact that the shooting had on the families ... or the impact on a community when a school becomes a war zone.

Cruz, 24, a former Stoneman Douglas student, pleaded guilty in 2021 and was sentenced to life in prison in 2022 ( South Florida Sun Sentinel 2022)

Cruzs prosecutors and members of the victims families are also touring the site of the shooting that sparked a nationwide movement for gun control.

A reenactment will take place as the House members leave the building with ballistics experts set to fire up to 139 shots of live ammunition from the same spots as Cruz did.

Its part of a lawsuit by the victims families and the survivors who accuse Scot Peterson, the Broward County deputy assigned to the school, of failing in his duty to protect them.

The experts will use an identical AR-15-style semi automatic rifle, and the bullets will be caught by a safety device. It will all be recorded in an attempt to capture what Mr Peterson heard during the six-minute attack.

Mr Peterson, 60, said he did not hear all the shots that were fired and that he could not trace them because of the echo in the hallways.

Scot Peterson, the Broward County deputy assigned to the school, was acquitted in June of felony child neglect and other criminal charges for failing to act ( South Florida Sun Sentinel 2023)

He got within feet of the buildings door and drew his gun, but backed away and stood next to an adjoining building for 40 minutes, making radio calls. He has said he would have charged into the building if he had known the shooters location.

Mr Peterson was acquitted in June of felony child neglect and other criminal charges for failing to act. It was the first US trial of a law enforcement officer for conduct during an on-campus shooting.

Circuit Judge Carol-Lisa Phillips allowed the reenactment to take place today, but made clear she was not ruling on whether the recording will be played at trial. No trial date has been set.

Following the tour, the caucus members and families were set to go to a nearby hotel to discuss school safety issues.

Youre not going to walk through this and then get out a pen and paper and start writing down your policy ideas, Mr Moskowitz said. But we have got to figure out how no other families become part of this exclusive club no one wants to belong to.

Jurors in the Cruz trial were also able to retrace the path of terror after the prosecution rested its case in August 2022. The state hoped that seeing the crime scene in person would convince them that Cruz deserved the death penalty, but jurors couldnt unanimously agree.

Cruz was ultimately sentenced to life in prison in November.

Five years after the shooting, staff hired by the school district found the final draft that Mr Schachters son Alex had turned into his English teacher. They also found the lunchbox his parents packed for him every day and the binder with his schoolwork, but his backpack was placed inside a box labelled biohazard that Mr Schachter hasnt opened yet.

Mr Schachter wasnt trying to find closure when he walked inside the building where his son was murdered. But he was hoping to feel closer to Alex.

Max Schachter holds up a photo of his 14-year-old son Alex (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

I wanted to walk through that building, [for it] to help me crystallise what had happened, Mr Schachter said. I wanted to understand what happened to Alex and I wanted to sit in that chair. I wanted to take that chair home with me, that was the chair that Alex took his last breath in.

Mr Schachter found what he described as a war zone  the harrowing evidence of the horrors that his son and his classmates endured.

As I got there, I realised how he killed everyone and was so brutal and what he did to Alex, Mr Schachter told The Independent. There was blood all over Alexs seat and all over the floor and his paperwork had blood on it.

There were also subtle hints of the sudden way in which hundreds of lives were changed that Valentines Day. The scattered textbooks, boards with lesson plans that were never taught, Valentines cards that were never delivered to their recipients and deflated balloons have become a painful reminder of the passage of time.

But Mr Schachter turned his pain into purpose through his nonprofit Safe Schools for Alex, which assists parents, students and school districts with resources to make schools safer. It provides training in threat assessments and school safety best practices.

Following Fridays tour and reenactment, the Broward school district plans to demolish the three-story building, likely replacing it with a memorial.
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His Manhattan business describes him as a registered architect with over 30 years experience.

His neighbours describe him as a family man living with his wife and two children in a tight-knit community in Suffolk County.

But now authorities are describing him as the suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer who unleashed terror along the shores of Long Island more than a decade ago.

Rex Heuermann was arrested on 13 July in connection to the shocking murder case where body after body was found dumped along the remote beaches on Ocean Parkway.

The 59-year-old has been charged with the murders of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello and is also the prime suspect in the murder of a fourth woman Maureen Brainard-Barnes  who was last seen alive in New York City in early June 2007.

All four women  known as the Gilgo Beach Four  worked as sex workers and vanished after going to meet clients.

While he has pleaded not guilty to the charges and broke down in tears sobbing to his attorney that he is innocent of the heinous crimes, authorities have painted a picture of a warped demon or animal who preyed on his victims, was obsessed with police efforts to catch him  and was at risk of striking again.

So who is the man suspected of being the infamous Long Island serial killer?

Rex Heuermann

Manhattan architect and married father-of-two Rex Heuermann was taken into custody at around 8.30pm on Thursday night near his Midtown office.

Dramatic video captured him walking along a Manhattan road when he was suddenly surrounded by plainclothes officers and taken into custody.

The accused killer has been married twice and shares a 26-year-old daughter and stepson, with special needs, with his second wife.

Mr Heuermann is president of architecture firm RH Consultants & Associates, a company which he founded in 1994 and which his adult daughter also works for.

Rex Heuermann in his booking photo (AP)

According to the company website, Mr Heuermanns company has worked with the likes of Catholic Charities, NYC-DEP Sewerage Treatment and American Airlines and other major tenants at the JFK International Airport.

A company page called Meet The Team and featuring his photo was taken down on Friday morning as news of his arrest broke.

In an interview posted on YouTube by Bonjour Realty last year, the father-of-two said that he was born and raised in Long Island but had been working in Manhattan since 1987... [a] very long time.

The architecture firm is based in Midtown Manhattan  where some of the Gilgo Beach victims were last seen alive.

According to court records, phone calls made from burner phones and some of the victims cellphones can be traced to his office.

In his professional life, some acquaintances described him as arrogant while others said he was creepy.

Paul Teitelbaum, who worked with Mr Heuermann on a building in Brooklyn Heights, told The New York Times that the suspect had a swagger and an attitude that said: Im the expert, youre lucky to have me.

Meanwhile, Dominique Vidal  an interior designer who was part of the same architecture networking group as Mr Heuermann  said that he repeatedly called her and left her a creepy voicemail despite them never having worked together.

New York State police officers carry out a large item as law enforcement searches the home of Rex Heuermann, Saturday, July 15, 2023, in Massapequa Park, N.Y. (AP)

He left this [voicemail] for me end of February after I left the group, she said in a TikTok video posted on Sunday.

Previous to that, he did call me a couple of times. I answered the phone. Nothing really significant. I found it odd he was calling me because I had no work for him. Theres no ongoing relationship. We were just two people who used to be in the same networking group.

Theres nothing incredibly scary about the voicemail, besides the fact that he is the Gilgo Beach murderer.

Neighbours of Mr Heuermann in Massapequa Park  which is located just a 20-minute drive from Gilgo Beach where the killer dumped the bodies of his victims  gave a mixed picture of the accused killer.

Neighbours told The Independent that he was a quiet family man who lived in the close-knit community with his wife and two children.

One neighbour, who has lived a stones throw from the Heuermanns for more than two decades, said that the family is a very quiet family who made no imprint at all on the neighborhood.

Basically, we never had any contact with him... living here 22 years and never said two words to him, the long-time Massapequa Park resident said, adding that one bad apple doesnt spoil the bunch in a great neighbourhood.

Yet another neighbour  who had lived there for 13 years  told Newsweek that children would avoid his home on Halloween.

Most people dont knock on his door, said Barry Auslander. During Halloween, the kids are told to stay away. Hes not a very nice person.

Rex Heuermann in a video about architecture posted on YouTube (Bonjour Realty)

He added that his home was dilapidated and always dark.

Mr Heuermann has lived on Long Island his whole life  and now lives in the same property where he spent his childhood.

He grew up in Massapequa Park and attended Berner High School where Billy Baldwin was a classmate.

Maureen Holpit, 59, who also attended Berner High School with Mr Heuarmann, told The Independent that Mr Heauerman was once a shy teen who would often leave love notes in her locker. Ms Holpit said her exchanges with the now suspected serial killer were always pleasant and polite.

I was always nice and friendly to him, you know. Seemed like he kind of got picked on and people would make maybe portray him as a little nerdy. He was very quiet, mild-mannered. So I was nice and would say, Hey, Rex, how are you?, Ms Holpit, who now lives in Florida, tells The Independent.

I was getting these notes in my locker. As Im remembering, there were multiple little love notes but they were not signed, she added. Then, one day I did see him put it in my locker and so I knew they were from him. I may have said to him that I had a boyfriend or I just liked him as a friend.

The murders

The case began in May 2010 when Shannan Gilbert, a 24-year-old sex worker, vanished after leaving a clients house on foot near Gilgo Beach.

She called 911 for help saying she feared for her life and was never seen alive again.

In the chilling call, released last year, Gilbert is heard repeatedly telling the 911 operator that somebodys after me.

She is also heard arguing with a man  who she refers to as Mike  who appears to be trying to encourage her to get back inot a car and at one point, she is heard asking if he is going to kill her.

Map showing proximity of home being searched by police and Gilgo Beach where bodies were found (Google Maps)

These people are plotting to kill me, she tells the dispatcher.

During a search for Gilbert in dense thicket close to the beach, police discovered the remains of another woman.

Within a matter of days, the remains of three more victims were found close by.

By spring 2011, the remains of a total of 10 victims had been found including eight women, a man, and a toddler.

Gilberts body was found in December 2011. Her cause of death is widely contested with authorities long claiming that it is not connected to the serial killer or killers but that she died from accidental drowning as she fled from the clients home.

However, an independent autopsy commissioned by her family ruled that she died by strangulation and her mother believes she was murdered.

Like Gilbert, most of the victims targeted were sex workers.

Several theories have been mulled over the years but no one had ever been charged with the killings.

Authorities have previously said they believe that three separate serial killers could be responsible for the slayings over a period of around 20 years.

Aerial view of Manorville area where Valerie Mack remains were recovered (Suffolk County Police Department)

The case appeared to go cold for several years until last year when Suffolk Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison vowed to finally close the case and bring the killer or killers to justice.

The newly-appointed commissioner said that, with a set of fresh eyes, he had faith that he could get the cold case across the finish line. He launched a dedicated taskforce for the case.

The victims

The remains of at least 11 victims were found in the Gilgo Beach area though it remains unclear if they are all the work of the same killer. Many were sex workers who offered escort services on Craigslist or worked in New York City.

The first victim found was Melissa Barthelemy whose remains were discovered along Ocean Parkway on 11 December 2010 during the search for Shannan Gilbert  a 24-year-old sex worker from New Jersey who vanished after visiting a client in Oak Park and making a chilling 911 call where she revealed fears for her life.

Two days later on 13 December, the remains of three other victims  Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Megan Waterman and Amber Lynn Costello  were found close by.

All three women were known to advertise escort services on Craigslist.

Brainard-Barnes  known as one of the Gilgo Beach Four  was last seen alive in early June 2007 in New York City while Costello was last seen leaving her North Babylon home one day in early September 2010.

Waterman was last seen alive in early June 2010 at a Holiday Inn Express in Hauppauge.

From L to R: (top) Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Lynn Costello, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Megan Waterman. From L to R: (bottom) Jessica Taylor, Valerie Mack, John Doe (Suffolk County Police Department)

Seven months later, on 26 July 2011, the remains of Jessica Taylor were found in a wooded area in Manorville during the ongoing search for Gilbert. Taylor worked as an escort in New York City.

Valerie Mack also worked as an escort but was last seen alive in Philadelphia in 2000. Her remains were found on two separate occasions in Manorville in 2000 and in Oak Beach in 2011 but she was only identified in 2020 through the use of genetic genealogy.

On 4 August 2023, Long Island officials announced that another victim  known as Jane Doe 7 or Fire Island Jane Doe  ha finally been identified.

Karen Vergata, 34, was last seen alive in Manhattan in 1996 while working as an escort.

Her legs were first found wrapped in plastic at Davis Park on Fire Islands Blue Point Beach in 1996. Almost exactly 15 years later on 11 April 2011, her skull was then found off Ocean Parkway.

In a press conference announcing her identity, officials refused to confirm whether or not her murder may be linked to Mr Heuermann.

Karen Vergata (Suffolk County DA)

Some of the other victims are yet to be identified.

The skeletal remains of an Asian male, aged between 17 and 23 years old, around 5 feet 6 inches tall and with poor dental health, were found along Ocean Parkway in April 2011. He is believed to have died around five to 10 years earlier.

That same day, the remains of a female toddler were discovered. She was later identified as the daughter of the also-unidentified female victim dubbed Peaches whose remains were found in Nassau County.

The evidence

Last year, the Suffolk County Police Department, New York State Police, Suffolk County Sheriffs Office and the FBI revamped the probe into the killings that ultimately led to Mr Heuermanns bombshell arrest outside his Midtown office.

A bail application released by the Suffolk County District Attorney revealed that Mr Heuermann was linked to the serial killings through cellphone evidence and surveillance. It also revealed recent internet searches for sadistic materials, child pornography, images of the victims and their relatives.

Mr Heuermann was first linked to the cold case in March 2022 after investigators discovered that a Chevrolet Avalanche registered to him was possibly the one spotted by a witness in Costellos disappearance.

Surveillance footage still of Rex Heuermann topping up a burner phone (via REUTERS)

As law enforcement closed in on him, they served more than 300 subpoenas and search warrants that uncovered cellphone records for burner phones used to arrange meetings with three of the Gilgo Four victims before they went missing.

Further analysis also allegedly linked Mr Heuermann to taunting calls made to family members of the victims, according to investigators. The calls were made from the Midtown Manhattan area, where the offices of Mr Heuermans architecture business are located.

Among the evidence linking Mr Heuermann to the murders was a hair found on burlap material used to wrap Watermans corpse, according to court documents. DNA analysis had not been possible in the early stages of the investigation, but new technology allowed testing in July 2020.

A team surveilling Mr Heuermann collected a discarded pizza box that then confirmed a DNA match with the suspect on 12 June.

Records also show that several online accounts under fictitious names linked to Mr Heuermann were used for illegal activities. Mr Heuermann allegedly used those accounts and burner phones to contact women for prostitution services, as well as making chilling online searches.

The searches included sadistic, torture-related pornography, child pornography and disturbing content.

Mr Heuermann is also accused of searching why could law enforcement not trace the calls made by the long island serial killer, why hasnt the long island serial killer been caught and new phone technology may be key to break in case.

Moment Gilgo Beach suspect arrested in crowded New York street

More forensic analysis revealed that female hairs found in the three crime scene locations belonged to Mr Heuermanns wife. However, authorities have determined through cellphone records that Mr Heuermanns wife was out of state when the murders took place.

At the time Barthelemy went missing in July 2009, Mr Heuermanns wife was in Iceland. She visited Maryland around the time Waterman disappeared in June 2010, and also travelled to New Jersey when Costello was last seen in September of that year.

It is likely that the burlap, tape, vehicle(s) or other instrumentalities utilized in furtherance of these murders came from Defendant Heuermanns residence, where his wife also resides, or was transferred from his clothing, prosecutors explained.

Mr Heuermann is also the prime suspect in the murder of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, who is believed to be one of the Gilgo Four. Prosecutors noted in the application that records for the burner phones used to contact Brainard-Barnes were not obtained at the time she went missing and no longer exist.
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A man has been arrested in Oregon after a woman escaped a cinderblock cell in his garage, the FBI has said.

The agency said that Negasi Zuberi, 29, from Klamath Falls, Oregon went to Seattle and picked up a prostitute on 15 July, pretending to be an undercover officer.

The woman told the authorities that Mr Zuberi aimed a Taser at her and put her in handcuffs and leg irons before placing her in the back of his vehicle, according to KPTV.

The victim said that Mr Zuberi sexually assaulted her several times during the 450-mile drive from Seattle to Klamath Falls, a journey estimated to take about seven-and-a-half hours.

After arriving at his home, the suspect allegedly placed the victim in the makeshift cinderblock cell in the garage.

The Assistant Special Agent in Charge at the FBI Portland Field Office, Stephanie Shark, told KPTV that the legal complaint states that the woman was kidnapped, chained, sexually assaulted, and locked in a cinderblock cell. Police say she beat the door with her hands until they were bloody in order to break free. Her quick thinking and will to survive may have saved other women from a similar nightmare.

Negasi Zuberi has been arrested after a woman escaped a makeshift cell in his house (FBI)

The entrance to the cell in the garage in the home in Klamath Falls (FBI)

The woman broke down the door of the cell when Mr Zuberi was away from the house and managed to escape and flagged down a driver who then called 911.

Mr Zuberi fled after the woman managed to get away. He was detained in Reno  more than four hours from Klamath Falls.

The makeshift cell constructed using cinderblocks in the garage in the home in Klamath Falls (FBI)

The inside of the cell where the woman was detained by the 29-year-old (FBI)

The FBI has stated that since Mr Zuberi has resided in more than 10 states since 2016  including California, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Utah, Florida, New York, New Jersey, Alabama, and Nevada  the investigation is expanding to search for further victims.

The home where the woman was held (Screenshot / Google Maps)

Those with information are urged to visit fbi.gov/SakimaVictims or call 1-800-CALL-FBI to provide tips. The FBI Portland Field Office can be reached at (503) 224-4181.
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A five-year-old Illinois girl has died after she was struck by a car-mounted starting gate during a county fair harness racing event.

Harper Layne Finn, from Altamont, was sitting in a grandstand at the Effingham County Fair last Sunday 30 July when she was hit by the folding arm of a pace car gate that failed to close due to a malfunction and extended into the grandstand, the Effingham County Sheriffs Office said.

Harper was rushed to a nearby hospital before being airlifted to St Louis Childrens Hospital, where she was pronounced dead on Wednesday.

The incident is under investigation by the sheriffs office, according to the Effingham Daily News.

We appreciate the publics assistance and willingness to help in this investigation, and our deepest condolences go out to the Finn family and all of those involved, Sheriff Paul Kuhns told the news site.

Mr Kuhns said he didnt consider it to be a criminal investigation, but that a final decision would be made by the Effingham County States Attorney.

The fair cancelled the remaining races and said it was working closely with law enforcement and would review processes and procedures once the investigation was complete.

Harper had been due to appear in the Effingham County Fairs Little Miss beauty pageant, according to the Effingham Daily News.

Several prayer vigils were held before her death was confirmed on Wednesday.

Harpers family has raced and trained horses in southern Illinois for several generations, and previously won events at the Effingham County Fair.

Her father Richard Finn had been due ride in a later harness racing event on Sunday.

A GoFundme set up by the Illinois Harness Horseman's Association has attracted more than $77,000 in donations for the family.
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New York police officers fought pitch battles with a mob of several thousand young rioters who turned up to Manhattans Union Square for a Playstation 5 giveaway by YouTuber Kai Cenat.

Aerial footage showed fights breaking out, rioters hurling stones and chairs at police officers, climbing on to a subway station entrance and tearing down metal barriers.

NYPD chief of department Jeffrey Maddrey said at a press conference that the teenagers broke into a construction site in the square and threw rocks, bottles, paint cans and lit fireworks at officers.

Our officers were attacked, we were crushed, we were pushed, I had officers on the floor, Mr Maddrey said.

You had people were walking around with shovels, axes... a lot of young people got hurt.

The crowd of mostly teenagers crammed into Union Square Park after a social media post promoting the 4pm giveaway went viral. At around 3pm, an hour before an anticipated appearance by Mr Cenat, violence suddenly exploded.

The NYPD put out a citywide alert for every available officer across the five boroughs  up to 1,000 officers  to go straight to Union Square to deal with the rioting.

A line of police with clubs and shields smashed through the crowd at around 4.30pm, and began to regain control of the situation, according to reporters on the ground.

Mr Cenat, 21, a YouTube star and live-streamer who has 6.5 million followers on Twitch, was surrounded by hundreds of fans in Union Square as the chaos unfolded. He left the square with a police escort and has since been taken in for questioning, Mr Maddrey said.

A huge crowd gathered in Union Square for a giveaway by YouTuber Kai Cenat (NBC New York)

Police are considering prosecuting him for incitement to riot and other charges, he added.

Mr Maddrey confirmed that there had been no coordination with police ahead of the event.

A large number of arrests had been made, and police were tallying exact numbers.

One police officer was reportedly jumped by rioters and severely beaten. Mr Maddrey said he had been in the thick of the riot, and suffered injuries after being hit with flying objects.

As you see Im a little embarrassed, Im very dirty right here.

I was in the middle of the crowd, I was hit with a couple of objects as well. I think I have a couple of injuries but Ill figure that out when I have time to think about it.

NYPD chief of department Jeffrey Maddrey was injured in the riot before fronting a press conference on Friday afternoon (NYPD)

I had officers who were hit and were hurt, but they stayed to help us resolve this.

Mr Maddrey saw young people in the crowd with severe injuries, and suffering panic attacks and anxiety attacks.

People were suffering out here. It was a lot of people, it was uncontrolled, it took us a while to get it under control, and a lot of young people got hurt.

Many of the injuries were sustained by teenagers throwing objects at one another, he added.

He said police were still gauging the exact number of injuries.

Earlier, CBS News New York showed live video footage showing several people had climbed onto a roof at the entrance to Union Square.

A huge crowd gathered in Union Square for a giveaway by YouTuber Kai Cenat (NBC New York)

Our officers used great restraint despite the aggression they were met with, Mr Maddrey said.

The gathering was declared an unlawful assembly, and officers tried to encourage them to leave the area.

After numerous warnings and assailed, we started to make arrests and clear out the park.

Traffic was snarled in streets surrounding the square, with groups of youths climbing on top of vehicles.

Rioters used makeshift weapons to hit cars (Associated Press)

People could be seen pounding on the side of a bus, and climbing on top of another bus and jumping up and down.

The MTA prevented subway trains from stopping at Union Square for about an hour, before resuming regular services just before 5pm.

A large amount of paint was splattered across the south side of Union Square Park.

Police erected metal barricades to try to push the crowd back.

They issued a warning over loudspeakers: This gathering is unlawful. You are ordered to disperse.

New York Police put up barricades in Union Square as they struggled to contain the crowd (Associated Press)

If you leave voluntarily, no charges will be placed against you. If you refuse to leave you will be arrested for unlawful assembly.

As of 6pm, police were monitoring groups of rioters who had spread out around Manhattan. Mr Maddrey said.

Officers were still encountering resistance and making arrests, Mr Maddrey.

We have encountered things like this before, but never to this level of dangerousness where young people would not listen to our commands, they were fighting each other and they were hurting each other.

This is the power of social media, the danger of social media, Mr Maddrey said. We cant allow this to happen again.
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An Indian American engineer has filed a federal lawsuit alleging he was wrongfully fired last year from his long-time job with a missile defense contractors Alabama office after he was heard speaking in Hindi with a dying relative on a video call.

Anil Varshney, 78, filed a civil rights lawsuit in the Northern District of Alabama against Parsons Corporation and US defense secretary Lloyd Austin, whose department oversees the US Missile Defense Agency.

This case arises out of Defendants intentional acts to end Mr Varshneys highly distinguished engineering career because he is a 78-year-old Indian American, the lawsuit read.

Defendants abruptly terminated Mr Varshney after one of his white colleagues overheard him speaking Hindi to his dying brother-in-law in India and falsely reported him for a violation of security regulations.

According to the lawsuit, Mr Varshney received a call from his ailing brother-in-law, KC Gupta, on 26 September last year while he was in office.

Aware that it could possibly be their last conversation, he moved to an empty cubicle to speak to him.

While the company at the time of the incident said he violated its security protocol by using Facetime at a classified worksite, Mr Varshney claims he ensured not being in possession of any classified material before taking the call, reported The Print.

He also claims there was no policy prohibiting the call he accepted.

Parsons has denied wrongdoing in their submission before the court and have sought to dismiss the lawsuit.

Mr Varshney, who worked in Parsons Huntsville office from July 2011 to October 2022, alleges in his lawsuit that his dismissal blackballed him from future work with the Missile Defense Agency.

He first began working for the federal agency in 2002 and continued in tandem with his employment at Parsons until 2022.

Additional reporting from agencies
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A father drowned after diving into a New Jersey river to save three of his children, authorities say.

Rolando Camarillo-Cholula, 42, went into the Millstone River in Franklin Township at about 2.15pm EST on Wednesday after the three children aged 8, 11 and 13 got into trouble in the water, police said.

The father-of-six managed to pull the children to shallow water, but struggled to maintain his balance and fell into the river, the Franlin Township Police Department said in a statement.

Emergency responders searched the waterway for hours, and eventually found his body at approximately 5.30pm.

Mr Camarillo-Cholula was a hardworking family man who had recently started his own construction business and bought his first home, his niece Isaura Lopez wrote on a GoFundme page.

My uncle, Rolando, was a true hero who spent his life in service of his family up to the very moment where he rescued his children after they fell into water.

Rolando Camarillo-Cholula, 42, drowned in Franklin Township, New Jersey, after going to the aid of his three children (GoFundme)

He had taken the day off work after learning his children were in low spirits, and had taken them out for breakfast before going to Millstone River in Somerset County.

Grieving son Kevin Camarillo told ABC7 his father would put others first before himself, he would risk his life.

Local authorities warned residents that New Jersey waterways can contain hidden dangers such as currents and uneven depths.

The GoFundme page, set up to raise funds for his childrens education, had received more than $15,000 on Friday.
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In a span of a decade, Alexei Navalny has gone from the Kremlins biggest foe to Russias most prominent political prisoner.

Already serving two convictions that have landed him in prison for at least nine years, he stands a new trial that could keep him behind bars for two more decades.

The verdict in the trial is due to be announced Friday in a makeshift courtroom in the Penal Colony No. 6, where Navalny is being held and where the trial took place behind closed doors, in the town of Melekhovo, about 230 kilometers (over 140 miles) east of Moscow.

Here's a look at Navalnys life, political activism and the charges he has faced through the years:

June 4, 1976  Navalny is born in a western part of the Moscow region.

1997  Graduates from Russias RUDN university, where he majored in law; earns a degree in economics in 2001 while working as a lawyer.

2004  Forms a movement against rampant overdevelopment in Moscow, according to his campaign website.

2008  Gains notoriety for alleging corruption in state-run corporations, such as gas giant Gazprom and oil behemoth Rosneft, through his blogs and other posts.

2010  Founds RosPil, an anti-corruption project run by a team of lawyers that analyzes spending of state agencies and companies, exposing violations and contesting them in court.

2011  Establishes the Foundation for Fighting Corruption, which will become his teams main platform for exposing alleged graft among Russias top political ranks.

December 2011  Participates in mass protests sparked by reports of widespread rigging of Russias parliamentary election, and is arrested and jailed for 15 days for defying a government official. March 2012  Following President Vladimir Putins reelection and inauguration, mass protests break out in Moscow and elsewhere. Navalny accuses key figures, including then-Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov and Chechnyas strongman leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, of corruption.

July 2012  Russias Investigative Committee charges Navalny with embezzlement involving Kirovles, a state-owned timber company in the Kirov region, while acting as an adviser to the local governor. Navalny rejects the allegations as politically motivated.

December 2012  The Investigative Committee launches another probe into alleged embezzlement at a Navalny-linked Russian subsidiary of Yves Rocher, a French cosmetics company. Navalny again says the allegations are politically motivated.

2013  Navalny runs for mayor in Moscow  a move the authorities not only allow but encourage in an attempt to put a veneer of democracy on the race that is designed to boost the profile of the incumbent, Sergei Sobyanin.

July 2013  A court in Kirov convicts Navalny of embezzlement in the Kirovles case, sentencing him to five years in prison. The prosecution petitions to release Navalny from custody pending his appeal, and he resumes his campaign.

September 2013  Official results show Navalny finishes second in the mayors race behind Sobyanin, with 27% of the vote, after a successful electoral and fundraising campaign collecting an unprecedented 97.3 million rubles ($2.9 million) from individual supporters.

October 2013  A court hands Navalny a suspended sentence in the Kirovles case. February 2014  Navalny is placed under house arrest in connection with the Yves Rocher case and banned from using the internet. His blog continues to be updated regularly, presumably by his team, detailing alleged corruption by various Russian officials.

December 2014  Navalny and his brother, Oleg, are found guilty of fraud in the Yves Rocher case. Navalny receives a 3 -year suspended sentence, while his brother is handed a prison term. Both appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.

December 2015  Navalnys Foundation for Fighting Corruption releases its first long-form video  a YouTube documentary called Chaika, which means seagull in Russian but is also the last name of then-Prosecutor General Yury Chaika. The 44-minute video accuses him of corruption and alleged ties to a notorious criminal group and has piled up 26 million views on YouTube. Chaika and other Russian officials deny the accusations.

February 2016  The European Court of Human Rights rules that Russia violated Navalnys right to a fair trial in the Kirovles case, ordering the government to pay his legal costs and damages.

November 2016  Russias Supreme Court overturns Navalnys sentence and sends the case back to the original court in the city of Kirov for review.

December 2016  Navalny announces he will run in Russias 2018 presidential election.

February 2017  The Kirov court retries Navalny and upholds his five-year suspended sentence from 2013.

March 2017  Navalny releases a YouTube documentary accusing then-Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev of corruption, getting over 7 million views in its first week. A series of anti-graft protests across Russia draw tens of thousands and there are mass arrests. Navalny tours the country to open campaign offices, holds big rallies and is jailed repeatedly for unauthorized demonstrations.

April 27, 2017  Unidentified assailants throw a green disinfectant in his face, damaging his right eye. He blames the attack on the Kremlin.

October 2017  The European Court of Human Rights finds Navalnys fraud conviction in the Yves Rocher case to be arbitrary and manifestly unreasonable.

December 2017  Russias Central Electoral Commission bars him from running for president over his conviction in the Kirovles case, a move condemned by the EU as casting serious doubt on the election. July 2019  Members of Navalnys team, along with other opposition activists, are barred from running for Moscow city council, sparking protests that are violently dispersed, with thousands arrested. Navalnys team responds by promoting the Smart Voting strategy, encouraging the election of any candidate except those from the Kremlins United Russia party. The strategy works, with the party losing its majority. 2020  Navalny seeks to deploy the Smart Voting strategy during regional elections in September and tours Siberia as part of the effort.

Aug. 20, 2020  On a flight from the city of Tomsk, where he was working with local activists, Navalny falls ill and the plane makes an emergency landing in nearby Omsk. Hospitalized in a coma, Navalnys team suspects he was poisoned.

Aug. 22, 2020  A comatose Navalny is flown to a hospital in Berlin.

Aug. 24, 2020  German authorities confirm Navalny was poisoned with a Soviet-era nerve agent. After he recovers, he blames the Kremlin, an accusation denied by Russian officials.

Jan. 17, 2021  After five months in Germany, Navalny is arrested upon his return to Russia, with authorities alleging his recuperation abroad violated the terms of his suspended sentence in the Yves Rocher case. His arrest triggers some of the biggest protests in Russia in years. Thousands are arrested.

Feb. 2, 2021  A Moscow court orders Navalny to serve 2  years in prison for his parole violation. While in prison, Navalny stages a three-week hunger strike to protest a lack of medical treatment and sleep deprivation.

June 2021  A Moscow court outlaws Navalnys Foundation for Fighting Corruption and about 40 regional offices as extremist, shutting down his political network. Close associates and team members face prosecution and leave Russia under pressure. Navalny maintains contact with his lawyers and team from prison, and they update his social media accounts.

Feb. 24, 2022  Russia invades Ukraine. Navalny condemns the war in social media posts from prison and during his court appearances.

March 22, 2022  Navalny is sentenced to an additional nine-year term for embezzlement and contempt of court in a case his supporters rejected as fabricated. He is transferred to a maximum-security prison in Russias western Vladimir region.

July 2022  Navalnys team announces the relaunch of the Anti-Corruption Foundation as an international organization with an advisory board including Francis Fukuyama, Anne Applebaum, and the European Parliament member and former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt. Navalny continues to file lawsuits in prison and tries to form a labor union in the facility. In response, penitentiary officials start regularly placing him in solitary confinement over purported disciplinary violations such as failing to properly button his garment or to wash his face at a specified time.

2023  Over 400 Russian doctors sign an open letter to Putin, urging an end to what it calls abuse of Navalny, following reports that he was denied basic medication after getting the flu. His team expresses concern about his health, saying in April he had acute stomach pain and suspected he was being slowly poisoned.

March 12, 2023  Navalny, a film about the attempt on the opposition leaders life, wins the Oscar for best documentary feature.

April 26, 2023  Appearing on a videolink from prison during a hearing, Navalny says he was facing new extremism and terrorism charges that could keep him behind bars for the rest of his life. He adds sardonically that the charges imply that Im conducting terror attacks while sitting in prison.

June 19, 2023  The trial begins in a make-shift courtroom in the Penal Colony No. 6 where Navalny is being held. Soon after it starts, the judge closes the trial for the public and the media despite Navalnys demand to keep it open.

July 20, 2023  The prosecution in its closing arguments asks the court to sentence Navalny to 20 years in prison, the politician's team reports. Navalny says in a subsequent statement that he expects his sentence to be huge  a Stalinist term, referring to the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.

___

Litvinova reported from Tallinn, Estonia.
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A Texas man who advocated for a mass shooting of poll workers and threatened two Arizona officials and their children has been sentenced to 3 1/2 years in federal prison, prosecutors said Friday.

Frederick Francis Goltz, 52, of Lubbock, pleaded guilty earlier this year to interstate threatening communications. Goltz was sentenced Thursday by U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix, who also ordered three years of supervised release following the prison term.

The U.S. saw a proliferation of threats against elections officials after former President Donald Trump falsely claimed that the 2020 election was stolen from him. Such threats contributed to an exodus of election officials across the country, and made recruiting poll workers difficult.

Trump, a Republican, was indicted on felony charges earlier this week for working to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the run-up to the violent U.S. Capitol riot by his supporters.

Prosecutors say court documents showed that Goltz threatened several people  including a lawyer with the Maricopa County Attorneys Office and a Maricopa County elections official  on far-right social media platforms.

Maricopa County, which encompasses Phoenix, became a target of Trump supporters after Democratic President Joe Biden won Arizona by more than 10,000 votes, with Maricopa County putting him over the top. But even a Republican-backed review of the election in the county ended without producing proof to support Trumps false claims of a stolen election.

In plea papers, Goltz admitted that on Nov. 21, 2022, he posted the lawyer's name and a home address and telephone number on social media, writing: It would be a shame if someone got to this children. On the same date, in response to another post referring to other Maricopa County officials, he wrote: Someone needs to get these people AND their children. The children are the most important message to send.

Prosecutors say court records show that two days later, Goltz responded to a post about the elections official with the comment, Hes got a WIFE that is a lawyer, too. We need to find out her name and where she works. I dont think he has kids, but Im not 100% on that. In response to another user who said that kids should be off limits, Goltz responded: NOTHING is off limits."

Prosecutors say that an FBI investigation found Goltz had a long history of making threatening statements against a variety of people. Court records showed that in November 2022, he advocated for a mass shooting of poll workers and election officials in precincts he believed had suspect results.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 4, ARMENPRESS. US Congressman Frank Pallone has welcomed the position of the UN Secretary-General regarding the humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh).

Glad that UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres is recognizing the humanitarian crisis in Artsakh, Pallone posted on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. Now the international community must act together to ensure Aliyev ends his blockade of the Lachin Corridor & allows essential aid & goods into Artsakh again.

On August 3, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed deep concern on the ongoing blockade of Lachin Corridor, describing it as continued challenges related to the freedom of movement along the Lachin Corridor, and called for urgent steps to facilitate access for the delivery of humanitarian aid.

Lachin Corridor, the only road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia and the rest of the world, has been blocked by Azerbaijan since late 2022. The Azerbaijani blockade constitutes a gross violation of the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire agreement, which established that the 5km-wide Lachin Corridor shall be under the control of Russian peacekeepers. Furthermore, on February 22, 2023 the United Nations highest court  the International Court of Justice (ICJ) - ordered Azerbaijan to take all steps at its disposal to ensure unimpeded movement of persons, vehicles and cargo along the Lachin Corridor in both directions. Azerbaijan has been ignoring the order ever since. The ICJ reaffirmed its order on 6 July 2023.

Azerbaijan then illegally installed a checkpoint on Lachin Corridor. The blockade has led to shortages of essential products such as food and medication. Azerbaijan has also cut off gas and power supply into Nagorno Karabakh, with officials warning that Baku seeks to commit ethnic cleansing against Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh. Hospitals have suspended normal operations.
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President Joe Biden has a brief response when asked if he would be following the arraignment of former president Donald Trump.

Mr Biden is currently vacationing in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, and was riding his bicycle when CNN asked him whether he would follow his predecessors arraignment.

No, the president said.

Mr Trump will appear in federal court in Washington DC to be formally arraigned on charges of conspiring to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.

The now-thrice-indicted, twice-impeached former president faces four counts of violating three sections of the US criminal code for his and his teams attempts to keep him in office even after he lost to President Joe Biden.

US Attorney General Merrick Garland, whom Mr Biden nominated, named Jack Smith, the special counsel in charge of investigating Mr Trump. So far, Mr Smith has presented before two federal grand juries, which has led to two federal indictments for the former president.

Republicans have accused Mr Biden of weaponising the Department of Justice to persecute a potential political opponent, despite the fact that Mr Garland said he appointed a special counsel specifically because Mr Trump announced his candidacy and because Mr Biden is seeking re-election.

For his part, Mr Trump promised that he would exact revenge on Mr Biden.

Look, its not my fault that my political opponent in the Democrat Party, Crooked Joe Biden, has told his Attorney General to charge the leading (by far!) Republican Nominee & former President of the United States, me, with as many crimes as can be concocted so that he is forced to spend large amounts of time & money to defend himself, he said on Truth Social.

The Dems dont want to run against me or they would not be doing this unprecedented weaponization of Justice, he continued. BUT SOON, IN 2024, IT WILL BE OUR TURN. MAGA!

-Alex Woodward, Oliver OConnell and Andrew Feinberg contributed reporting
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Republican presidential candidate and fierce Trump critic Chris Christie has made a surprise visit to Ukraine to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The former New Jersey governor arrived in Kyiv on Friday, becoming the second contender for the GOP nomination to make the trip after former Vice President Mike Pence in June.

In a meeting with President Zelensky, Mr Christie said he wanted to be the eyes of the American people and show them the situation in Ukraine, more than 18 months after Russia began its war on the country.

We have become a visual people. Reading something doesnt do it anymore. For a lot of Americans, they need to see it in order to feel it and understand it. I want to be able to be their eyes here, said Mr Christie.

He also told Mr Zelensky that he wanted more bipartisan support for Ukraine from US lawmakers, The New York Times reported of the closed-door meeting between the two.

The former governor visited areas of devastation in the vicinity of the capital city, including the suburb of Bucha where advancing Russian troops massacred more than 400 people in April 2022.

I feel the cruelty, and you feel the inhumanity, Mr Christie said. And you look at this, and I dont think theres anyone in our country who would come here and see this and not feel as if these are the things that America needs to stand up to prevent.

I really suspected that if I saw this in person that it would arm me to be a better advocate for support, I think, from the stuff I saw today just now, and the meeting with the president ... I think Im much better off, he noted after his meeting with Mr Zelensky.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky meets former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office)

While President Joe Bidens administration has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression, framing it as a battle for democracy, the issue has divided the Republican Partys 2024 primary field.

Mr Christie and Mr Pence, as well as former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, align with the traditional conservative stance of seeing the US as taking the lead in global affairs and standing shoulder to shoulder with its allies.

However, the two frontrunners, former president Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis argue that the war is not in the interests of the US with the former claiming he could end it within 24 hours (amid accusations of caving to Russian interests), and the latter belittling the conflict  the largest in Europe since the Second World War  as a territorial dispute.

Chris Christie visits a wall of rememberance to victims of Russias war on Ukraine (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Mr Trumps first impeachment was over a 2019 phone call to Mr Zelensky pressuring him to investigate the then-presidents political rival Joe Biden after he froze hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to Ukraine.

The former president continues to deny that this happened on what he describes as a perfect phone call with the Ukrainian president. The Senate found him not guilty in his early 2020 impeachment trial.

Mr Trump refused to say whether he would keep up the level of aid from the US to Ukraine were he to be re-elected during a CNN town hall in May or even if he supported Mr Zelenksy or Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Mr Christie has called the former president a puppet of Putin and when Mr Trump claimed he could end the war in 24 hours, sarcastically tweeted Move over Churchill, Trump is here to save the day.

The former presidents current attitude toward the war and belittling of the Nato alliance and its role in counterbalancing Russia during his time in office stands in complete opposition to the Biden administrations role in uniting European allies in massive financial and military support of Ukraine.

Pro-Ukraine Republicans nevertheless argue that Mr Biden is not doing enough to support the Ukrainian war effort.

After his meeting with Mr Zelensky, Mr Christie said: He was very complimentary of President Biden, some of the things that hes advocated for, but also made clear that he thought there was more that needed to be done.

There was no conversation at all from him about, you know, the race that Im in, the former governor added.

With reporting by The Associated Press
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Donald Trump has been hit with his third indictment this time for conspiring to overturn the 2020 presidential election in an attempt to thwart the vote of the American people.

A grand jury, which has spent months hearing evidence in special counsel Jack Smiths investigation, returned a federal indictment on Tuesday 1 August.

The former president was charged with four counts: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.

Mr Trump was arraigned in DC on Thursday and pleaded not guilty.

While the former president is the only person charged, the indictment refers to six co-conspirators who worked with him to try to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

The six individuals  four attorneys, one Justice Department official and one political consultant  have not been named in the charging documents because they have not yet been charged with any crimes.

However, based on the details in the indictment and records already known about the events leading up to the Capitol riot, the identities of five of the six co-conspirators are clear.

Co-conspirator 1: Former New York City Mayor and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani

The individual labelled as co-conspirator 1 appears to be Mr Trumps former attorney Rudy Giuliani  who is widely-known to be a key player in the efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

The indictment refers to co-conspirator 1 as an attorney who was willing to spread knowingly false claims and pursue strategies that the Defendants 2020 re-election campaign attorneys would not.

Multiple quotes attributed to co-conspirator 1 match those previously attributed to the former New York City mayor.

On 6 January 2021, co-conspirator 1 left a voicemail for a US senator, according to the indictment.

John Eastman and Rudy Giuliani speaking at the Ellipse to Donald Trump supporters on January 6 2021 (Reuters)

We need you, our Republican friends, to try to just slow it down so we can get these legislatures to get more information to you, he said.

I know theyre reconvening at 8 tonight, but it the only strategy we can follow is to object to numerous states and raise issues so that we get ourselves into tomorrow  ideally until the end of tomorrow.

The quotes match a previously-obtained transcript of a call made by Mr Guiliani to Senator Tommy Tuberville that day.

Mr Giulianis attorney Robert Costelllo acknowledged to The New York Times that it appears that Mayor Giuliani is alleged to be co-conspirator No. 1. He went on to denounce the indictment as election interference and a violation of the first amendment.

Mr Giuliani railed against the historic indictment in an appearance on Newsmax on Tuesday night. The people lying are the people bringing this They should be indicted for conspiracy against rights, he fumed.

Co-conspirator 2: Former Trump lawyer John Eastman

Co-conspirator 2  described in the indictment as an attorney who devised and attempted to implement a strategy to leverage the Vice Presidents ceremonial role overseeing the certification proceeding to obstruct the certification of the presidential election  appears to be Mr Trumps former lawyer John Eastman.

Mr Eastman can be identified through the mention of co-conspirator 2 writing a two-page memorandum falsely outlining how then-vice president Mike Pence could overturn the 2020 presidential election on 6 January 2021.

This memo was first reported in Bob Woodward and Robert Costas book Peril before Mr Eastman himself released a longer six-page memo to the media laying out his claims.

Beyond the memo, quotes cited to co-conspirator 2 match quotes of Mr Eastman previously revealed in court in Georgia, including an email which read:Although the President signed a verification for... back on Dec. 1, he has since been made aware that some of the allegations... has been inaccurate, the email read.

For him to sign a new verification with that knowledge... would not be accurate.

Mr Eastmans lawyer released a statement on Tuesday night where he slammed the indictment and ruled out any possibility that he could take a plea deal.

The indictment is a misleading presentation of the record to contrive criminal charges against presidential candidate Trump and to cast ominous aspersions on his close advisors, attorney Charles Burnham said in a statement.

If Dr Eastman is indicted, he will go to trial. If convicted, he will appeal.

Co-conspirator 3: Former Trump Kraken lawyer Sidney Powell

Co-conspirator 3 is described in the indictment as an attorney whose unfounded claims of election fraud the Defendant privately acknowledged to others sounded crazy  a description that appears to match Sidney Powell.

Former Mr Trump lawyer Ms Powell mounted what she claimed to be a Kraken case against the election results  a case that would blow up the case that President Joe Biden won.

However, her case did no such thing and was actually filled with conspiracy theories.

Attorney Sidney Powell speaks at a press conference on election results in Georgia in December 2020 (Reuters)

The indictment alleges that co-conspirator 3 filed a lawsuit against Georgia governor Brian Kemp on 25 November 2020 alleging that there was massive election fraud.

The lawsuit was then dismissed on 7 December 2021.

The dates and details of this lawsuit matches the federal lawsuit Ms Powell filed against Mr Kemp.

Co-conspirator 4: Former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark

Jeffrey Clark, a former top Justice Department official under Mr Trump, appears to be the individual identified as co-conspirator 4.

The indictment describes co-conspirator 4 as a Justice Department official who worked on civil matters and who, with the Defendant, attempted to use the Justice Department to open sham election crime investigations and influence state legislatures with knowingly false claims of election fraud.

In the charging document, prosecutors describe several encounters and documents involving Mr Clark that were previously detailed in the final report released by the House committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot.

One of these was a meeting between Mr Trump and co-conspirator 4 at the White House on 22 December 2020.

Jeffrey Clark is the former assistant attorney general for the Environment and Natural Resources Division (AP)

This meeting  which was allegedly a violation of DoJ policy restricting contacts with the White House to guard against improper political influence.

The charging document and the Jan 6 report also refer to the same letter sent by co-conspirator 4 claiming that the DoJ had identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election.

Co-conspirator 5: Lawyer Kenneth Chesebro

Co-conspirator 5 is described in the indictment as an attorney who assisted in devising and attempting to implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification proceeding. That attorney appears to be attorney and Mr Trump ally Kenneth Chesebro.

Mr Chesebros actions as well as specific quotes from documents from the January 6 committee report match up precisely with that of co-conspirator 5.

On 13 December 2020, Mr Chesebro sent an email to Mr Giuliani outlining the fake electors plot.

That same email was detailed in the January 6 report and cited as being sent by Mr Chesebro.

Co-conspirator 6: Mystery political consultant

Co-conspirator 6 is the only individual whose identity remains a mystery.

The indictment describes them as a political consultant who helped implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification proceeding.

It states that back on 7 December 2020, the political consultant spoke with co-conspirator 1  identified as Rudy Giuliani  and handed him a list of attorneys in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin who he believed could help with the fake elector scheme in their respective states.

While this person could have been a number of people in Mr Trumps orbit at the time,The New York Times zeroes in on a particular clue in the indictment in that an email sent in December 2020 matches the above description of an interaction with Mr Giuliani.

That email was sent on 7 December 2020 by Boris Epshteyn, a strategic adviser to the Trump 2020 campaign, and had the subject line Attorneys for Electors Memo.

Per the Times, it reads: Dear Mayor, As discussed, below are the attorneys I would recommend for the memo on choosing electors, and then goes on to identify lawyers in the seven states listed above on page 57 of the indictment.

Todd Blanche, a lawyer for Mr Epshteyn, declined to comment when contacted by the Times, as did Peter Carr, a spokesman for the special counsel Jack Smith.
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Sen Feinstein (D-CA), the oldest senator currently serving, is facing fresh calls to resign amid news that she handed power of attorney over to her daughter.

The San Francisco Chronicle first reported last month that the senior senator had handed over power of attorney.

The longtime senator from Californias only daughter Katherine Feinstein is engaged in a feud with the three children of Ms Feinsteins late husband Richard Blum, who died last year, The New York Times reported.

In one lawsuit, they two are debating Ms Feinsteins desire to sell a beach house in a neighbourhood in San Francisco, and in another, they are arguing about money from Mr Blums life insurance.

A number of commentators renewed calls for Ms Feinstein to step down after the latest revelation.

Earlier this year, Ms Feinstein was sidelined from Senate activities as she recovered from shingles. As a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, it put a halt to Democrats attempts to confirm some of President Joe Bidens judicial nominees who lacked Republican support.

When she returned to the Senate, she seemed to not recall her absence, according to a conversation with Slate. She has at times not understood basic questions from reporters. During a vote in the Senate Appropriations Committee last week, Sen Pattty Murray (D-WA) told her to Just say aye when she supported a bill.

Katherine Feinstein, who has power of attorney, filed the two lawsuits on her mothers behalf, arguing the beach house is in a disheveled state and accused Mr Blums children of limiting the senators ability to sell off parts of her trust.

The second lawsuit says that the senator incurred significant medical expenses and despite her late husbands intent to support his spouse after his death, the purported trustees have refused to make distributions to reimburse Senator Feinsteins medical expenses.

The suit challenges whether trustees to Mr Blums estate were properly appointed. The attorneys for Mr Blums private equity firm disputed the claims, saying it never denied payment for medical expenses.

Similarly, a statement said that Katherine Feinstein had not provided documentation that she had been appointed power of attorney. Nor has Katherine made it clear, either in this filing or directly to my clients, why a sitting United States senator would require someone to have power of attorney over her, they said.

This article was amended on 7 August 2023 to attribute the reporting of the latest line to the San Francisco Chronicle, and not the New York Times as was originally the case.
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Former president Donald Trumps attempts to undermine the results of elections that his rivals have won are now at the centre of a sprawling federal indictment against him, one that follows an avalanche of lies and conspiracy theories about the democratic process and a campaign to overturn the votes of millions of Americans.

Lawsuits from his legal team and Trump allies were shot down in court. His own administration and campaign failed to produce any evidence.

But his false and inflated claims, spanning more than a decade, have sowed enough doubt among his supporters to construct the lie of stolen and rigged elections, animating Republican attempts to challenge results and craft legislation to do what Mr Trump failed to do in the courts.

A persistent lie that the election was stolen from him fuelled violence at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, sustained partisan investigations intended to reverse the outcomes in states he lost, inspired Republican-led legislation in nearly every state to change how elections are run, and has formed the basis of Mr Trumps 2024 campaign.

Did he believe the truth of his claims? And how often was he told, by both his advisers and White House officials, that he was wrong?

These are questions that prosecutors are likely considering as US Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith and his team prosecute the former president, but they wont need to establish that he was aware that he was spreading misinformation to charge him for crimes allegedly committed to throw out millions of Americans votes and remain in power.

Years of evidence, however, suggests that he knew what he was saying was false, or that he should have known he was not telling the truth, when he waged his assault on an election he lost to Joe Biden.

A history of sham and rigged elections

Mr Trump told his followers to march on Washington and stop this travesty. He told them to fight like hell and stop this great and disgusting injustice.

The world is laughing at us, he said. This election is a total sham and a travesty. We are not a democracy! Our country is now in serious and unprecedented trouble... like never before.

It was 7 November 2012 and Barack Obamas election night defeat of Mitt Romney that first sent Donald Trump into a Twitter tailspin.

Most of those messages were later deleted, but similar statements were repeated often and in public in the years that followed, including on a stage in Washington, DC, that day a mob of his followers stormed the halls of Congress on 6 January 2021.

Four years after raging over 2012 results, after he came in second place in the Iowa caucus for the Republican nomination for president, Mr Trump said his then-rival Ted Cruz stole the primary from him.

Ted Cruz didnt win Iowa, he stole it. That is why all of the polls were so wrong and why he got far more votes than anticipated. Bad! he said on Twitter in February 2016.

He called for a new election or for the votes to be nullified.

In August 2016, during a campaign stop in Ohio, he said he is afraid the elections going to be rigged  a statement based on nothing.

But that summer, however, Republican operative Roger Stone called on then-candidate Trump to talk about voter fraud constantly.

He told Breitbart: He needs to say for example, today would be a perfect example: I am leading in Florida. The polls all show it. If I lose Florida, we will know that theres voter fraud. If theres voter fraud, this election will be illegitimate, the election of the winner will be illegitimate, we will have a constitutional crisis, widespread civil disobedience, and the government will no longer be the government.

Mr Trump will go to the places other politicians wont, and hes probably the only person to run for president within the last 50 years who would dare to do this, and might even get away with it, Stone added.

Then-candidate Trump would later tell Fox News host Sean Hannity that there are 1.8 million people who are dead, who are registered to vote, and some of them absolutely vote.

Of course there is large-scale voter fraud happening on and before election day. Why do Republican leaders deny what is going on? So naive! he said on Twitter that same week.

A voter fraud commission that found no evidence of voter fraud

Shortly after entering office in 2017, Mr Trump established a Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, chaired by his then-Vice President Mike Pence. Kris Kobach, then the secretary of state of Kansas and a key architect of GOP election laws, was appointed as vice chair.

Other members of the commission included members of influential right-wing think tanks like the Heritage Foundation and the Public Interest Legal Foundation, which have also advanced restrictive voting laws under the election integrity banner.

In July 2017, Mr Kobach requested every state to provide a list of all registered voters, the last four digits of their Social Security numbers, their addresses, dates of birth, political affiliation, and voting history.

Mississippis secretary of state Delbert Hosemann said the commissions request can go jump in the Gulf of Mexico. Virginias then-governor Terry McAuliffe said he had no intention to respond to the commissions request.

This entire commission is based on the specious and false notion that there was widespread voter fraud last November. At best this commission was set up as a pretext to validate Donald Trumps alternative election facts, and at worst is a tool to commit large-scale voter suppression, he said in a statement at the time.

He added that the only irregularity stemming from the 2016 presidential election involved Russian troll farms to sow political and social discord and boost Mr Trumps candidacy.

On 3 January 2018, Mr Trump announced that he was dissolving the commission.

Despite substantial evidence of voter fraud, many states have refused to provide the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity with basic information relevant to its inquiry, he said in a statement at the time.

Rather than engage in endless legal battles at taxpayer expense, today I signed an executive order to dissolve the Commission, and have asked the Department of Homeland Security to review these issues and determine next courses of action.

The commission released its documents six months later, after a lawsuit from Maines secretary of state and commission member Matthew Dunlap argued that instead of widespread evidence of fraud the commissions findings actually reveals a troubling bias.

Mr Dunlap said that the commissions purpose was not to pursue the truth but rather to provide an official imprimatur of legitimacy [from] President Trumps assertions that millions of illegal votes were cast during the 2016 election and to pave the way for policy changes designed to undermine the right to vote.

There exists no single document that reveals there is no widespread voter fraud, according to Mr Dunlap, but evidence that fails to substantiate the presidents claims.

A disinformation campaign before a single vote was cast

Before he publicly and repeatedly cast doubt on the legitimacy of mail-in ballots and the results of the 2020 election, then-President Trump was reportedly so impressed with his administrations work in election security that he planned a press conference around it.

Months before Election Day, intelligence officials met with Mr Trump and other White House officials on 14 February, 2020 to review potential threats to that years election and assured the president they had no concerns about its integrity.

That briefing came one day after a House committee hearing with intelligence officials who warned lawmakers that Russia was likely interfering in 2020 campaigns to boost Mr Trumps chances of re-election. Days later, Mr Trump fired Joseph Maguire, the acting director of national intelligence who testified at that hearing. He was immediately replaced with Richard Grenell.

That press conference never happened; Mr Trump continued his narrative that elections, particularly those in which Republicans lose, are corrupt.

In March 2020, as election officials prepared for an increase in voting by mail during the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Mr Trump told Fox News that higher voter turnout would be a political disaster for Republicans.

The things they had in there were crazy, he said of Democratic proposals for emergency coronavirus aid. They had levels of voting, that if you ever agreed to it youd never have a Republican elected in this country again.

Mr Trump vowed to block such emergency funding for the US Postal Service, specifically to prevent expanded access to voting by mail.

They need that money in order to make the Post Office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots, he told Fox Business in August 2020. But if they dont get those two items, that means you cant have universal mail-in voting, because theyre not equipped to have it.

Mr Trump and Republicans have repeatedly claimed without evidence that universal mail-in voting  in which any eligible voter can request an absentee ballot  is ripe for fraud.

Republicans should fight very hard when it comes to state wide mail-in voting. Democrats are clamoring for it, Mr Trump said in April 2020. Tremendous potential for voter fraud, and for whatever reason, doesnt work out well for Republicans.

Proponents have often defended those claims by pointing to a 2005 report from the Commission on Federal Election Reform, co-chaired by former president Jimmy Carter and former secretary of state James Baker.

The report noted that because voting by mail takes place outside of polling locations, there is an increased potential for fraud, but does not say that any such fraud has occurred on the scale Mr Trump has alleged. The report goes on to state that when safeguards are in place  like in Oregon, where voters have exclusively voted by mail since 1998  fraud was virtually nonexistent.

False claims and mischaracterisations about the report prompted former President Carter to issue a rare public statement in May 2020 urging political leaders to take immediate steps to expand vote-by-mail and other measures that can help protect the core of American democracy  the right of our citizens to vote.

After court rulings struck down his attempts to challenge vote-by-mail policies, and as he campaign failed to find evidence, then-President Trump routinely used his bully pulpit at the White House and on stage at his campaign rallies to launch a flood of false claims spread widely among his supporters and on social media.

When a federal judge ordered his campaign to produce such evidence in their possession, and if they have none, state as much, attorneys produced evidence pointing to only a handful of election fraud cases  none of which involved mail-in ballots.

A legal effort to overturn results while aides told him he lost

By Election Day in 2020, then-President Trump made dozens of false or misleading statements about voter fraud and voting by mail within that year alone. He kept going within hours after polls closed on 3 November.

A big WIN! he wrote on Twitter at 12.45am that night. We are up BIG, but they are trying to STEAL the Election. We will never let them do it. Votes cannot be cast after the Polls are closed! he wrote minutes later.

At a news conference hours later, he claimed a very sad group of people are trying to disenfranchise his supporters before listing states that he falsely claimed to have won.

Frankly, we did win this election, he said. So our goal now is to ensure the integrity, for the good of this nation. This is a very big moment. This is a major fraud on our nation.

Over the following days and months, he continued to suggest that the late-counted mail-in ballots for Mr Biden that changed the outcome in states that he lost were evidence of fraud, after he spent months denigrating absentee ballots and urging his supporters to cast their votes in person.

A flurry of legal challenges and partisan legislative hearings targeted election laws and outcomes in states that he lost; none produced any evidence of widespread fraud.

His legal team largely walked away from the effort, except for Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani, who are now facing defamation claims and professional sanctions for amplifying the same baseless claims.

In November 2020, one week after the election, Mr Krebs said in a statement through his agency that there is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised. That sentence was highlighted in bold in the statement.

Mr Trump fired him with a tweet.

The House select committee investigating the events surrounding January 6 found that Mr Trumps senior advisers told him on 12 November, 2020, that he lost the election  not from fraud, but because more people voted for Mr Biden.

Mr Trump was then reportedly furious with his US attorney general Bill Barr when he told the Associated Press in December 2020 that to date no agency has seen any evidence of fraud on a scale that could have affected a different outcome in the election.

That month, John Eastman  a Trump-linked attorney who organised the so-called alternate elector scheme  also warned the campaign against repeating debunked data in a suit targeting Georgias election results.

Mr Trump was made aware that some of the allegations (and evidence proffered by the experts) has been inaccurate, Mr Eastman wrote, according to court filings. For him to sign a new verification with that knowledge (and incorporation by reference) would not be accurate.

That email from Mr Eastman underscores what federal prosecutors have alleged: That Mr Trumps team was aware that the arguments they were making were indefensible, and that the man who was insisting on them knew that.

Judge Carter also pointed to an email from a Trump attorney that said merely having this case pending in the Supreme Court, not ruled on, might be enough to delay consideration of Georgia.

This email, read in context with other documents in this review, make clear that President Trump filed certain lawsuits not to obtain legal relief, but to disrupt or delay the January 6 congressional proceedings through the courts, wrote Mr Carter, alleging a similar tactic that Mr Trump has used to squash investigations and lawsuits against him for years.

The House committee spent a year and a half on its investigation, including a series of blockbuster public hearings laying out evidence and witness testimony describing the depth of Mr Trumps attempts to remain in office at whatever cost. The panels final 845-page report provides a detailed account of Mr Trumps refusal to cede power  regardless of the outcome of a democratic election  while his close advisers told him that he lost.

In his interview with the House select committee, Trump adviser Jason Miller said he had several conversations with Mr Trump that his claims were wrong. Mr Barr told the committee that Mr Trumps claims were detached from reality.

Mr Barr and other administration officials also said they tried to debunk conspiracy theories surrounding Dominion Voting Systems, which recently settled with Fox News for $787m in a landmark defamation case against the network. But Mr Trump went on to tweet about Dominion nearly three dozen times from November 2020 up until the attack on the Capitol on January 6.

In a text message reviewed by federal prosecutors, Mr Trumps own chief of staff Mark Meadows joked with a White House lawyer about his false claims of voter fraud in Georgia.

The former president has continued a narrative of political persecution as he seeks the 2024 Republican nomination for president, with a reliable mention of stolen or rigged election in speeches and on his Truth Social platform.

Mr Trump, who has reliably turned to projection in his rhetorical playbook, is now referring to the multiple investigations and indictments against him as their own form of politically motivated election interference to stop him from reaching the White House.

This story was first published on 27 July and has been updated with subsequent developments.
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The latest case of United States of America v Donald J Trump strikes at the heart of a question that has clouded the former presidents time in and out of office: Can he unequivocally lie and use that deceit to influence the outcome of a democratic election, against the will of millions of Americans?

An indictment against the former president for his very public plot to overturn the 2020 presidential election is remarkable in that it is not only his third criminal indictment within four months, a historic precedent for this or any former or current president in US history. It also chronicles the alleged actions of a sitting president on his way out to bring American democracy down with him.

Mr Trump already is criminally charged in New York City in a case connected to hush money payments to silence stories of his alleged affairs in the lead up to his 2016 election. The US Department of Justice also has charged him with his alleged retention of classified documents after leaving the White House.

But the indictment unsealed on 1 August outlines a graver threat.

Michael Waldman, president of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law, said the charges matter beyond the fact that a former president is accused.

Donald Trump and his co-conspirators tried to overthrow American democracy. They wanted to negate the votes of millions of Americans. They did this using phony claims of voter fraud and rigged elections. These conspiracy theories are still being used to justify changes to voting and election law all over the country. Donald Trump will stand trial, he said in a statement to The Independent. The Big Lie will be on trial too.

Watch: Donald Trump's third indictment explained

The indictment outlines the familiar contours of a conspiracy-driven scheme and the violence that followed it, a narrative that members of Congress investigated for more than a year before publishing an 845-page report detailing Mr Trumps refusal to cede power, regardless of the outcome.

That report and countless investigations into the events surrounding January 6 have painted the attack on the Capitol as part of a much-larger effort to preserve a fragile American democracy.

Unlike the other indictments against him, the latest charges amount to accusations of crimes committed by a man who president when he allegedly committed them.

For months leading up to the 2020 presidential election, then-President Trump routinely and publicly undermined the legitimacy of an election that hadnt even happened yet, sowing doubt about whether Americans votes would be counted at all.

But as the indictment alleges in a detailed, chronological accounting of the scheme, the former president was routinely made aware that his statements were false  by two attorneys general, Justice Department officials, an election security chief, his vice president, his campaign, and Republican governors and election officials who voted for and endorsed him.

According to the indictment, one senior adviser said the campaigns legal team cant back any of the former presidents claims.

Ill obviously hustle to help on all fronts, but its tough to own any of this when its all just conspiracy s*** beamed down from the mothership, the adviser wrote, according to prosecutors.

Federal prosecutors outlined what, allegedly, happened next, when it became clear Mr Trump was losing:

Then-President Trump and his allies conspired with officials in states that he lost to invalidate ballots and use fraudulent electors to cast their electoral college votes on his behalf, relied on the Justice Department to force the plan through, and pressured his vice president to go along with it, before exploiting the violent disruption in the halls of Congress to make another last-ditch attempt to reject the outcome.

It was an attempt to usurp from the people our right to choose our own leaders, our own president, through the electoral college system, according to Democratic US Rep Jamie Raskin, who served as the lead impeachment manager for Mr Trumps second impeachment for the events surrounding January 6.

Theyre very grave and serious charges, of course, but extremely well anchored in the facts, he told MSNBC.

Recommended Why Trump is charged under a civil rights law used to prosecute KKK terror

The resulting four-count indictment accuses the former president of committing three criminal conspiracies while he was still in office.

Mr Trump is accused of a conspiracy of dishonesty, fraud, and deceit to impair, obstruct, and defeat the process of collecting and certifying votes in the states, a conspiracy to obstruct the certification of those votes in Congress, and a conspiracy to deprive the right to vote and have ones vote counted, a violation of long-standing civil rights law first enacted in the violent aftermath of the Civil War.

The indictment also lists six unnamed co-conspirators who are likely to include Trump-connected attorneys and government officials.

Mr Trump relied on his prolific lies to help organize fake electors in several states to submit false vote certificates to Congress, positioning Mike Pence to oversee a fraudulent certification of those bogus slates of electors on 6 January, 2021, the indictment alleges.

The former president also allegedly leveraged the Justice Department to advance the scheme; at one point in the indictment, prosecutors suggest that the Trump administration was willing to deploy the military to crush opposition to his election, if he were to successfully overturn Mr Bidensvictory.

Three days before January 6, a co-conspirator believed to be Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark spoke with a deputy White House counsel who had previously warned Mr Trump that there is no world, there is no option, in which you do not leave the White House.

Well, Mr Clark allegedly replied, thats why theres an Insurrection Act.

Following the hours-long siege at the Capitol on January 6, a violent show of force fuelled by Mr Trumps baseless narrative, his aides and co-conspirators exploited that chaotic delay to pressure Congress to refuse the results for a final time.

We are talking about democracy on the brink, as you read through this indictment, Alyssa Farah Griffin, a former White House communications director under then-President Trump, told CNN. It shows how close we got.

Recommended Trump supporters see latest indictment as proof of a conspiracy to take him down

The charges are unprecedented in their scope, but the tools to prosecute election interference and voter fraud conspiracies that have deprived Americans rights have been in place for more than a century.

Our democracy and our legal system are actually prepared to deal with these kinds of unprecedented situations, Sean Morales-Doyle, director of the Brennan Centers voting rights and elections programme, told The Independent. I think the history is important, because were also not at the end of history here.

While he ultimately failed in his efforts, Mr Trumps narrative of victimisation and stolen elections has infected a wide swath of the American public, particularly Republican officials and their supporters.

Mr Trumps rhetoric has persuaded roughly three in 10 Americans to believe the lie that the election was stolen from him. His false and inflated claims, spanning more than a decade, have sowed enough doubt among his supporters to construct the lie of stolen and rigged elections, animating Republican attempts to challenge results and craft dozens of pieces of legislation to do what Mr Trump failed to do in court and while in office.

Since leaving office, the former president has continued a narrative of political persecution as he seeks the 2024 Republican nomination for president, with a reliable mention of stolen or rigged election in his fundraising messages, on his Truth Social, and on the stages of political conferences and campaign rallies.

Mr Trump, who has frequently used projection to accuse his rivals of doing the very things of which he has been accused, now refers to the multiple investigations and indictments against him as politically motivated election interference  a charge at the center of his latest indictment.

He accuses his rival of weaponising the federal government against him  once again, what prosecutors have alleged Mr Trump did to stop Mr Biden from winning the 2020 election.

Mr Trump and his defenders argue that the real crime is the unrelated case involving Hunter Biden, and what they allege is a Justice Department coverup to protect him, while they ignore the Trump family history of alleged fraud, self-dealing and enrichment at the publics expense.

Fox News has spent considerable airtime suggesting that the indictments are timed to distract from spurious Republican-led investigations into the presidents son, casting Mr Trump as a victim of his politically motivated rival.

The network  less than four months after its historic $787m settlement to avert a potentially devastating defamation trial involving many of the same lies at the center of Mr Trumps push to overturn election results  immediately got to work to defend the former president as news of the indictment broke. Jesse Watters, who inherited Tucker Carlsons prime-time slot after he was fired from the network, called the indictment political war crimes.

Right-wing media pundits claim he was merely acting within his authority to challenge the outcome of the results, or simply using his First Amendment protected rights to reject them, or that he truly believed, despite overwhelming evidence, that the election was stolen from him.

I would like them to try to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Donald Trump believed that these allegations were false, lead Trump lawyer John Lauro said on Fox News the night of his indictment.

The indictment makes clear that Mr Trump has the right  like every American  to say whatever he wants about the election, even to falsely claim that he won. But what he cannot do, prosecutors argue, is weaponize those lies in a conspiracy to overturn the results.

Theyre not attacking his First Amendment right, former US Attorney General Bill Barr told CNN. He can say whatever he wants. He can even lie. He can even tell people that the election was stolen when he knew better. But that does not protect you from entering into a conspiracy. All conspiracies involve speech, and all fraud involves speech. So, free speech doesnt give you the right to engage in a fraudulent conspiracy.

With each indictment, the former president has fanned the flames of outrage and suggested that the US faces World War III and imminent violence without his leadership. With news of criminal charges in New York City in March, he demanded widespread protests and called America a dying and third world country where leftist thugs are killing and burning with no retribution.

Theres no other way to say it: our nation is teetering on the brink of tyranny, a campaign fundraising message announced after news of his latest federal charges. On his Truth Social, he compared the current administration to Nazi Germany in the 1930s, the former Soviet Union, and other authoritarian, dictatorial regimes.

Mr Trump remains the frontrunner for the Republican Partys nominee in the 2024 presidential race, and by all measures it appears he would not do anything different should he return to the White House.

His 2024 campaign agenda builds from his dark vision of American carnage from his first moments as president and the four chaotic years that followed. In recent months, he has demanded the executions of drug offenders and human traffickers, considered the termination of the US Constitution, pledged national restrictions on abortions and gender-affirming care for trans people, and promised political vengeance and retribution for his supporters, offering himself up as a martyr for a movement he inspired.

Im being indicted for you, he tells them.

Federal prosecutors have already charged more than 1,000 people in connection with the attack on the Capitol on 6 January, 2021. Donald Trump is now one of them.

January 6 and the effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election, together with the first criminal trials of an American president, will now become singularly infamous events in American history, conservative former federal judge J Michael Luttig said. These events will forever scar and stain the United States. And they will forever scar and stain the United States in the eyes of the world.
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Capital punishment could emerge as a major campaign issue in the U.S. presidential race for the first time in 30 years, with top GOP rivals Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis already one-upping each other by touting tougher, more far-reaching death penalty laws.

Meanwhile, death penalty foes are poised to draw attention to what Democrat Joe Biden hasnt done as president: He has taken no action on or even spoken about his 2020 campaign pledge to strike capital punishment from U.S. statutes.

A demonstration that the death penalty issue is far from academic came Wednesday when federal jurors in Pittsburgh voted to impose a death sentence for Robert Bowers for killing 11 people in a synagogue. It's the first federal death sentence handed down during Bidens presidency.

Trump, who restarted federal executions after a 17-year hiatus and oversaw 13 in his final six months as president, wasted no time making capital punishment a focus in his current, third presidential run. In declaring his candidacy on Nov. 15, he called for the execution of drug dealers.

In a July campaign video, Trump added another category of criminals he said deserve death.

I will urge Congress to ensure that anyone caught trafficking children across our border receives the death penalty, immediately, he said.

While the Justice Department announced a moratorium on federal executions in 2021, its a temporary pause. Nothing precludes a pro-death penalty candidate elected next year from quickly resuming them.

Florida Gov. DeSantis has put capital punishment on his agenda, too.

After not authorizing state executions for three years, DeSantis signed death warrants for the recent executions of four people  two before and two after he declared his candidacy on May 24.

He has also signed two death penalty laws since April, one allowing for executions of convicted child rapists and another letting jurors impose death sentences with less-than-unanimous votes.

One juror," DeSantis said, "should not be able to veto a capital sentence.

Bidens silence suggests he would rather the death penalty not become a campaign issue. Activists will try to force him to speak about it anyway by lobbying campaign debate moderators to pose questions on capital punishment.

We'd like Biden to articulate his position and say it out loud, said Abraham Bonowitz, director of Death Penalty Action.

Bonowitz's group will also call on Biden to order the demolition of the federal death chamber, a small building on the grounds of a prison in Indiana, as proof that he's serious about permanently ending federal executions.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, support for the death penalty has fallen from nearly 80% in the mid-1990s to around 55% in recent years. As support waned, it faded as a campaign issue.

Among the last times it featured prominently was in 1988, during George H.W. Bushs successful race against Michael Dukakis. Bush spotlighted Dukakis' lifelong opposition to capital punishment. In 1992, Bill Clinton emphasized his support for it in defeating Bush.

Declaring such support has long been a way for politicians to send a broader message  that theyre tough on crime.

Trump has mastered that, said Lee Kovarsky, a death penalty scholar at the University of Texas at Austin.

So much of his campaign and government style centers on strength and masculinity  to punish without compromise," he said. It's a damaging combination.

Trump established himself as the most prolific execution president since Grover Cleveland in the 1890s when U.S. executions restarted during his 2020 campaign and continued into the lame duck period after his defeat.

William Barr, Trumps attorney general, argued in his 2022 book that the executions were legally and morally right. He said they delivered long delayed justice to victims of brutal killings, many of them children.

Trump's record may have partly inspired DeSantis, said Melanie Kalmanson, a Florida attorney who writes the Tracking Floridas Death Penalty blog, noting: It seems that there's some sort of competition between the two on capital punishment.

The four Florida executions this year brought the total under DeSantis to six. The most recent on June 15 was of Duane Owen who was convicted in the fatal stabbing of 14-year-old Karen Slattery and the killing of Georgianna Worden, 38.

DeSantis granted a May 22 stay so Owen could undergo mental health exams. Three days later, the day after DeSantis announced his run, he lifted the stay.

The bill lowering the juror-vote requirement to eight made Florida the state with the lowest threshold. He backed the change after jurors failed to reach unanimity to impose a death sentence on Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz, who killed 17.

DeSantis hopes the law he signed allowing for capital punishment for the rape of children will invite the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse its 5-4 finding in 2008 that executions for most crimes not involving murder violate prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment.

Despite his full-throated endorsement of capital punishment, DeSantis doesnt have Trumps knack for wooing voters who respond to over-the-top, anti-crime rhetoric, Kovarsky said.

That space is already occupied by Trump," he said.

As a U.S. senator, Biden enthusiastically supported capital punishment, leading passage of a 1994 crime bill that greatly expanded the number of federal capital crimes.

We do everything but hang people for jaywalking, he boasted then.

Only in 2016 did the Democratic Party platform first call for the abolition of capital punishment. Biden made his opposition explicit in 2020.

Many expected Biden to fulfill his campaign pledge within days of his inauguration, perhaps by commuting all federal death sentences to life. He didn't. And he's taken no executive action since.

Biden may calculate his continued silence is a prudent strategy because even those frustrated by his inaction wouldn't dare back Republicans.

I am not at risk of voting for Donald Trump, Kovarsky said.

Bonowitz says Biden won't take action to keep his 2020 promise during the 2024 campaign, because he understands that voters care more about pocketbook issues than capital punishment. But skittishness by candidates worried that speaking against the death penalty will damage them politically is no longer well founded, he added.

That, he said, should also make it safe for politicians to say what they really believe and stand by it.
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Florida governor and 2024 presidential candidate Ron DeSantis said on Friday that Donald Trumps claims that the 2020 election was rigged are not true.

All those theories that were put out did not prove to be true, Mr DeSantis told The New York Times during a campaign stop in Iowa.

It was not an election that was conducted the way I think that we want to, but thats different than saying Maduro stole votes or something like that, he added. Those theories, you know, proved to be unsubstantiated.

Mr DeSantis, seen as the former presidents chief rival in the Republican primary, has in the past largely avoided direct criticisms of Mr Trumps repeatedly disproven election claims.

We must reject the culture of losing that has impacted our party in recent years. The time for excuses is over, Mr DeSantis said in a speech earlier this year, before he formally announced his presidential campaign. If we get distracted, if we focus the election on the past or on other side issues, then I think the Democrats are going to beat us again.

The former presidents repeated falsehoods are back in the spotlight, after Mr Trump was indicted this week for allegedly conspiring to overthrow the presidential election results.

The attack on our nations capitol on January 6, 2021, was an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy, special counsel Jack Smith said on Tuesday, announcing the charges. As described in the indictment, it was fueled by lies. Lies by the defendant targeted at obstructing a bedrock function of the US government  the nations process of collecting, counting and certifying the results of the presidential election.

Ron DeSantis (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Mr Trumps rivals have seized on the indictment as the 2024 campaign heats up.

Former Trump administration vice president Mike Pence recently told Fox News he had to resist Donald Trump and his gaggle of crackpot lawyers.

The American people deserve to know that President Trump and his advisers didnt just ask me to pause, he said on Wednesday. They asked me to reject votes, return votes, essentially to overturn the election.

Mr DeSantis, however, has sided with Trump even as he criticises his underlying election claims.

Washington DC is a swamp and it is unfair to have to stand trial before a jury that is reflective of the swamp mentality, he said earlier this week of Mr Trump being tried in Washington. One of the reasons our country is in decline is the politicization of the rule of law. No more excusesI will end the weaponization of the federal government.

A recent poll found that Donald Trump is still comfortably leading the pack of GOP hopefuls ahead of 2024, with 54 per cent support compared to his nearest rival, Ron DeSantis, who only had 17 per cent.
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Rudy Giuliani, the former lawyer of Donald Trump, is accused of calling Oppenheimer star Matt Damon a homophobic slur  and mocked the actors height  after he struggled to name him, according to court documents.

No, Matt Damon is a  Matt Damon is a f**. Matt Damon is also 52, Eyes are blue. Coochie-coochie-coochie-coo, Mr Giuliani allegedly said. The quote appears in a transcript of a tape from 2019 in the court case filed by his former assistant Noelle Dunphy.

As the transcript attests, Ms Dunphy asked Mr Giuliani, Who were the other Republicans who are celebrities?

He replied, Aint too many. Brad  not Brad Pitt. The other guy that looks like him.

The former aide asked if her boss meant Bradley Cooper before she landed on Matt Damon, who is very liberal.

The actors IMDB page marks his height as 5ft 10in tall. Mr Damon has been married to Luciana Barroso since 2005, and the pair share four daughters.

Noelle Dunphy sued Mr Trumps former attorney in a Manhattan court in May for $10m for sexual assault and harassment.

He often demanded oral sex while he took phone calls on speaker phone from high-profile friends and clients, including then-President Trump, Ms Dunphy claimed in the lawsuit.

Ben Goodman, a political adviser to Mr Giuliani, previously told The Independent the former New York City mayor unequivocally denies the allegations in the lawsuit.

On Wednesday, Mr Goodman told The Independent that Mr Giulianis relationship with Ms Dunphy was entirely consensual.

In other tapes filed on Tuesday, Ms Dunphys lawyers allege Mr Giuliani told her in March 2019: Come here, big t*ts. Your t*ts belong to me. Give them to me. I want to claim my t*ts.

These breasts belong to me. Nobody else can get near these, okay? I dont care if theyre flirting or they give you business cards. These are mine, you got it? Mr Giuliani allegedly added.
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Rudy Giuliani claimed that Mike Pence is being led around on a leash by his wife during a mad rant sparked by the former vice presidents comments on Donald Trumps latest indictment.

Mr Giuliani, Mr Trumps former lawyer and allegedly one of the co-conspirators in that indictment, went after Mr Pence on Newsmax after he slammed the former presidents gaggle of crackpot lawyers for supporting his lies in connection to the 2020 election.

The former New York mayors rant came hours after Mr Trump pleaded not guilty to four charges at an arraignment in Washington, DC on Thursday. In his third indictment this year, the second from Special Counsel Jack Smith, Mr Trump has been charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.

Responding to that indictment on Wednesday, Mr Pence repeated what he has been saying since the insurrection on January 6 2021  that he had no right to attempt to overturn the electoral college votes and send them back to the states.

For my part, I want people to know that I had no right to overturn the election and that what the president maintained that day, and frankly has said over and over again over the last two and a half years, is completely false, Mr Pence said, according to The Hill. And its contrary to what our Constitution and the laws of this country provide.

You know, Im a student of American history. And the first time I heard in early December somebody suggest that as vice president I might be able to decide which votes to reject and which to accept, I knew that it was false  I dismissed it out of hand, Mr Pence added.

Sadly, the president was surrounded by a group of crackpot lawyers that kept telling him what his itching ears wanted to hear.

Mr Giuliani made his displeasure with the crackpot comment clear in his Thursday Newsmax appearance.

I'm a real trial lawyer  not make-believe  like a lot of these people. I once got a congressman to break down on the witness stand and confess, Mr Giulani told host Eric Bolling.

I dont think hes even been in a courtroom, and he went to a law school nobody even knows.

Mr Pence received his law degree from Indiana Universitys Robert H McKinney School of Law in 1986 while Mr Giuliani attended New York University.

I thought before that he was a really good guy, but too weak to be president. I always worried about him following Trump, because I would see him with his wife having something around his neck every night, Mr Giuliani said, referencing Mr Pences wife Karen and gesturing the use of a leash and collar.

She lets him go to the bathroom by himself, but thats about it, he added.

But imagine that skunk doing what he did today? If you cant separate Trump from the First Amendment issue here, then youre just not a good person. This is not about Trump. If this were being done to my worst enemy, I would be fighting the case for them, he said.

This comes after another bizarre rant on Mr Bollings programme by Mr Giuliani earlier this week, where he argued that Mr Smith should be indicted for indicting Mr Trump.

The people lying are the people bringing this They should be indicted for conspiracy against rights, he seethed on Tuesday night.

So heres what I say to Jack Smith, he said. After the Supreme Court threw out your case, which should have been a disgrace... you should have gone and found another profession because you dont belong in this one.

This one will be your legacy, violating the rights of free speech of an American citizen. Never mind whether he was president or not, he added. It could be anybody. It could be a homeless person. You dont get to violate peoples first amendment rights, Smith. No matter who the hell you are, no matter how sick you are with Trump derangement syndrome.

Mr Giuliani then brought up a copy of the indictment before slamming it down.

This isnt the first time youve acted like an unethical lawyer, he said. It should be the last.

Mr Giulianis attorney Robert Costello told to The New York Times that it appears that Mayor Giuliani is alleged to be co-conspirator No. 1.

Mr Giuliani made other unsavoury headlines this week over a sexual harassment lawsuit filed against him by a former assistant.

Noelle Dunphy sued the Trump ally in a Manhattan court in May for $10m for allegedly forcing her to perform sex acts and making racist, sexist, and remarks while working as his aide between 2019 and 2021.

In a new court filing this week, Ms Dunphys lawyers provided transcripts of tapes that allegedly lay out in graphic detail some of Mr Giulianis sexually explicit remarks.

Ben Goodman, a political adviser to Mr Giuliani, previously told The Independent that the 79-year-old political veteran unequivocally denies the allegations in the lawsuit.

On Wednesday, Mr Goodman told The Independent that Mr Giulianis relationship with Ms Dunphy was entirely consensual.

Bevan Hurley contributed to this report
YEREVAN, AUGUST 4, ARMENPRESS. Russia is actively preparing to open a Consulate General in Kapan, Head of the Russian Foreign Ministrys Fourth CIS Department Denis Gonchar said in an interview with TASS news agency.

We are actively preparing for the opening of the Russian Consulate General in Kapan, Syunik province, in full format. This initiative was approved by our leaders at a meeting held in Moscow on May 25. Already in September, Russian diplomats will visit the region to immediately deal with operational issues on the ground.

Gonchar added that there are many proposals related to the establishment of fraternal relations between the cities of Russia and Armenia, and the 10th Interregional Forum is planned in Armenia in the fall.
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Tennessee Representatives Justin Pearson and Justin Jones, who became Democratic heroes as members of the Tennessee Three, reclaimed their legislative seats on Thursday after they were expelled for taking part in a gun control protest on the House floor.

The young Black lawmakers were reinstated by local officials after being booted from the GOP-dominated Statehouse, but only on an interim basis.

They advanced Thursday through a special election to fully reclaim their positions.

Both faced opponents in districts that heavily favour Democrats and easily defeated them according to unofficial results from the Tennessees Secretary of States office.

Mr Jones, who lives in Nashville, was up against Republican candidate Laura Nelson. Meanwhile, Mr Pearson, from Memphis, faced independent candidate Jeff Johnston.

I think if we keep running this race, there will be victory after victory after victory, Mr Pearson said to supporters on Thursday.

He stressed that his victory was largely possible due to Black women and the organising work they had done to make him and other politicians successful.

Thursdays election came as lawmakers are preparing to return to Nashville later this month for a special session to address possibly changing the states gun control laws.

While Mr Jones and Mr Pearsons reelection to their old posts wont make a significant dent to the Republican supermajority inside the Legislature, they are expected to push back heavily against some of their GOP colleagues policies.

Mr Jones and Mr Pearson were elected to the Statehouse last year. Both lawmakers flew relatively under the radar, even as they criticized their Republican colleagues policies. It wasnt until this spring that their political careers received a boost when they joined fellow Democrat Rep Gloria Johnson in a protest for more gun control on the House floor.

The demonstration took place just days after a fatal shooting in Nashville at a private Christian school where a shooter killed three children and three adults. As thousands of protesters flooded the Capitol building to demand that the Republican supermajority enact some sort of restrictions on firearms, the three lawmakers approached the front of the House chamber with a bullhorn, and joined the protesters chants and cries for action.

Justin Pearson and Justin Jones after meeting President Biden at the White House (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Republican lawmakers quickly declared that their actions violated House rules and moved to expel their three colleagues  an extraordinary move thats been taken only a handful of times since the Civil War.

The move briefly left about 140,000 voters in primarily Black districts in Nashville and Memphis with no representation in the Tennessee House.

Ultimately, Ms Johnson, who is white, narrowly avoided expulsion while Mr Pearson and Mr Jones were booted by the predominantly white GOP caucus.

House Republican leaders have repeatedly denied that race was a factor in the expulsion hearings. Democrats have disagreed, with Ms Johnson countering that the only reason that she wasnt expelled was due to her being white.

The expulsions drew national support for the newly dubbed Tennessee Three, especially for Mr Pearson and Mr Jones campaign fundraising. The two raised more than $2m combined through about 70,400 campaign donations from across the country. The amount is well beyond the norm for Tennessees Republican legislative leaders and virtually unheard of for two freshman Democrats in a superminority.

Meanwhile, more than 15 Republican lawmakers had funneled cash to fund campaign efforts of Jones Republican opponent, Ms Nelson. Ms Nelson has raised more than $34,000 for the race. Mr Pearsons opponent, Mr Johnston, raised less than $400 for the contest.

Thursdays election will also influence two other legislative seats.

In Nashville, community organiser Aftyn Behn and former Metro Councilmember Anthony Davis were vying to advance to the general election for a House seat in a district in the citys northeastern region that opened after Democratic Rep Bill Beck died in June.

Meanwhile in eastern Tennessee, Republican Timothy Hill faced Democrat Lori Love in a general election for Republican-leaning District 3. The seat was left empty when former Republican Rep Scotty Campbell resigned following a finding that he had violated the Legislatures workplace discrimination and harassment policy.

Mr Hill served in the state House from 2012 until 2020 and rose to the position of majority whip. He later left his seat to run for an open US House seat in 2020, but lost in a crowded primary to current Republican US Rep Diana Harshbarger.
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Donald Trump appeared to stumble over his words when he was asked to state his full name and age at his arraignment on charges of attempting to overturn the 2020 election.

Mr Trump arrived at the E Barrett Prettyman federal courthouse in Washington DC on Thursday where he pleaded not guilty to four criminal counts of an alleged election hoax conspiracy that led to the January 6 riots at the US Capitol.

Mr Trump, dressed in his trademark navy blue suit and red tie, entered the courtroom at 3.51pm accompanied by John Lauro, a veteran Washington-based criminal defence attorney, and Todd Blanche, the New York-based lawyer who is leading his defence in the other criminal cases against him.

He was made to wait about 25 minutes before the magistrate judge entered the room at 4.15pm, and appeared nervous and fidgety.

After attorneys for the government and defence introduced themselves, Mr Trump stood to take his oath from a courtroom deputy.

US Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya then asked the former president to state his full name.

Donald J Trump  John  Donald John Trump, Mr Trump replied hesitantly.

He was then asked for his date of birth, and tripped over his words again. At first, he said seven seven, before correcting himself and saying 77.

After explaining his rights to remain silent and to legal representation, and reminding him of the lengthy prison sentence he faces if convicted, Judge Upadhyaya asked Mr Trump if he understood.

Donald Trump arrives at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Thursday 3 August (AP)

He replied in the affirmative.

Mr Lauro then entered a plea of not guilty on all counts on his behalf.

Prosecutors did not seek to detain Mr Trump, and set a date of 28 August for a first hearing before Judge Tanya Chutkan. Mr Trump is not required to attend.

In comments to reporters afterwards, Mr Trump described it as a very sad day before claiming Washington DC had deteriorated in the two and a half years since he left office.

This was never supposed to happen in America.... if you cant beat em, you persecute them, he said.

As his motorcade returned to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, it was met with a chorus of insults from a small group of protesters.

Former US President Donald Trump arrives at the E. Barrett Prettyman courthouse in Washington DC (Getty Images)

F** you, terrorist, one man yelled, according to Wall Street Journal reporter Andrew Restuccia.

Earlier this week, Mr Trump was charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, witness tampering, conspiracy against the rights of citizens, and obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding in relation to his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

The indictment also described six unnamed co-conspirators, who have been identified from details contained in the document as New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Mr Trump lawyer John Eastman, Kraken lawyer Sidney Powell, former top Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, and attorney Kenneth Chesebro.

Mr Trump has claimed in a series of unhinged posts to Truth Social that President Biden and the US Department of Justice had weaponised the federal government against him.
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A lawyer for former President Donald Trump, John Lauro, seemed to admit to a charge listed in the indictment related to January 6 and the efforts to overturn the 2020 election, shocking an MSNBC panel.

Mr Lauro on Thursday told Fox News host Laura Ingraham that leading up to January 6, Mr Trump supported Mr Pence sending the election results back to the states.

John Eastman, a lawyer who helped orchestrate Mr Trumps election scheme, laid out a series of options that were discussed with Vice President Pence, Mr Lauro said onThe Ingraham Angle.

Although Mr Pence disagreed, Mr Lauro continued, What President Trump said is, Lets go with option D. Lets just halt, lets just pause the voting and allow the state legislatures to take one last look and make a determination as to whether or not the elections were handled fairly. Thats constitutional law. Thats not an issue of criminal activity.

MSNBC anchor Lawrence ODonnell reacted to the clip, saying in shock: That is a Trump criminal defense lawyer quoting Donald Trump committing a crime.

Donald Trumps criminal defense lawyer tonight added information to Jack Smiths 42-page description of Donald Trumps crimes. The conversation that John Lauro just described appears on page 34 of the indictment against his client.

The indictment describes that conversation as a criminal conspiracy, the MSNBC host said.

The indictment described a meeting on 4 January, based on Mr Pences contemporaneous notes: The Defendant and Co-Conspirator 2 then asked the Vice President to either unilaterally reject the legitimate electors from the seven targeted states, or send the question of which slate was legitimate to the targeted states legislatures.

When the Vice President challenged Co-Conspirator 2 on whether the proposal to return the question to the states was defensible, Co-Conspirator 2 responded, Well, nobodys tested it before, the indictment continued.

The Vice President then told the Defendant, Did you hear that? Even your own counsel is not saying I have that authority. The Defendant responded, Thats okay, I prefer the other suggestion of the Vice President rejecting the electors unilaterally, the indictment claimed.

Mr ODonnell then explained: Donald Trumps defense lawyer tonight in effect admitted that the indictment is an accurate description of that meeting.

The MSNBC host also pointed out that criminal defence lawyers stay quiet, calling Mr Lauros move the single biggest mistake a criminal defence lawyer could make.

Former DOJ prosecutor Andrew Weissmann reacted to Mr Lauro repeating the claims on Newsmax, writing: An admission. Not a defense. He was sitting on the MSNBC panel as well. Mr Weissmann reacted to the interviews: So, I dont know why a defense lawyer is going to start giving facts about a critical moment.

Mr ODonnell then exclaimed, Its the whole case!

Mr Weissman continued, It is such a damning thing when you put it in context because remember what the indictment alleges[that] the reason this had to be done with the vice president is because, prior to that, all the efforts that Donald Trump took with respect to the secretaries of state did not work.

I just dont know why John, who is a good lawyer, didnt just zip it and not say anything, Mr Weissmann added.

Mr Trump pleaded not guilty on Thursday at his arraignment.
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Former president Donald Trump lashed out at authorities on Friday afternoon, a day after his arraignment on four charges related to his attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.

On Thursday, Mr Trump pleaded not guilty to four charges: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.

At times, Mr Trump appeared to stumble over his words during his appearance at the E Barrett Prettyman Courthouse.

During his arraignment on Thursday, Mr Trump was ordered to refrain from discussing the case with any witnesses without the presence of legal counsel. The former presidents bellicose rhetoric could create additional legal headaches for him.

On Friday, Mr Trump pleaded not guilty to new charges to the new 40-count superseding indictment against him for a separate case against him in South Florida. Prosecutors alleged that Mr Trump and co-defendant Walt Nauta conspired with Mar-a-Lago worker Carlos De Oliveira to have footage from the club deleted to prevent it from going to a grand jury.

But Mr Trump appeared to display no contrition on Friday afternoon in an all-caps post on Truth Social.

IF YOU GO AFTER ME, IM COMING AFTER YOU! the former president said.

Prosecutors also charged Mr Trump with specifically possessing a classified document that he allegedly showed to people at his club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

Mr Trumps campaign denounced the indictment, calling it nothing more than a continued desperate and flailing attempt by the Biden Crime Family and their Department of Justice to harass President Trump and those around him.

-Andrew Feinberg contributed reporting
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Donald Trump is now complaining that the myriad criminal cases against him are keeping him from the campaign trail, claiming that it must be unconstitutional.

On Truth Social on Friday morning, Mr Trump moaned that President Joe Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland had filed bogus cases against me so it becomes difficult for me to campaign. Nothing like this has every (sic) happened before. Must be Unconstitutional? BUT SOMEHOW, WE WILL WIN IT ALL!!!

The investigation into Mr Trump is being led by Special Counsel Jack Smith, a role which provides the prosecutor with more independence.

Also on Friday, Mr Trump hit out at Fox News, which he claimed was ignoring polls in which he leads President Joe Biden and primary rival Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

Why is it that Fox & Friends refuses to put up all of the polls where I am beating Biden, and DeSanctimonious is getting clobbered? Hes also down to me by 40 plus points, and not coming back. No wonder their ratings are way down!!! he wrote.

A recent Times/Siena poll found that Mr Trump had a massive lead in the GOP primary with 54 per cent to Mr DeSantiss 17 per cent with all the other candidates in the low single digits. The poll found Mr Trump tied with Mr Biden in a general election matchup with 43 per cent each.

Just before 8.30am on Friday, the morning after his arraignment in Washington DC on four charges in relation to his attempts to overturn the 2020 election, Mr Trump wrote: CRAZY! My political opponent has hit me with a barrage of weak lawsuits, including D.A., A.G., and others, which require massive amounts of my time & money to adjudicate.

Resources that would have gone into Ads and Rallies, will now have to be spent fighting these Radical Left Thugs in numerous courts throughout the Country, he added. I am leading in all Polls, including against Crooked Joe, but this is not a level playing field. It is Election Interference, & the Supreme Court must intercede. MAGA!

Mr Trump pleaded not guilty to four charges at his arraignment. In his third indictment this year, the second from Special Counsel Jack Smith, Mr Trump has been charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.

The Supreme Court has been asked to adjudicate in matters in relation in the past, such as following the 2000 election between George W Bush and Al Gore, but it remains unclear exactly what Mr Trump is expecting the court to do in his case.
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Donald Trump has now added a third criminal case to his list of ever-growing legal troubles  this time for his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election and the subsequent January 6 attack on the US Capitol.

The former president was indicted by a grand jury in Washington DC on 1 August on four charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, conspiracy against rights and obstruction of, and attempt to obstruct, an official proceeding.

The indictment came after an investigation from Special Counsel Jack Smith, whose office is also leading the criminal investigation into Mr Trumps handling of classified documents on leaving the White House.

Mr Trump surrendered to authorities in Washington DC on 3 August to be arrested before appearing for his arraignment.

In the courtroom, Mr Trump and his nemesis Mr Smith stared each other down as the former president pleaded not guilty to all charges.

A statement from Mr Trumps campaign called the latest indictment disgraceful and political targeting.

The lawlessness of these persecutions of President Trump and his supporters is reminiscent of Nazi Germany in the 1930s, the former Soviet Union, and other authoritarian, dictatorial regimes.

President Trump has always followed the law and the Constitution with advice from many highly accomplished attorneys, the statement from Mr Trumps campaign read.

What charges is he facing?

The indictment in the 2020 election interference case charges Mr Trump with four counts: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, conspiracy against rights and obstruction of, and attempt to obstruct, an official proceeding.

This is the second set of federal charges filed against Mr Trump and the third indictment hes received this year thus far, adding to the legal pressure against him as he seeks to win the Republican Partys nomination in the primary next year.

It is also the first criminal case over his alleged actions while he was running the country.

Former President Donald Trump walks over to speak with reporters before he boards his plane at Ronald Reagan Washington Airport after his arraignment (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

The first federal indictment against the ex-president occurred on 8 June, when a grand jury in Mr Smiths investigation charged Mr Trump and his co-defendant Walt Nauta on 37 counts related to Mr Trumps alleged unlawful retention of national defence information and obstruction of justice.

Those charges stem from a case that began early last year after National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) officials discovered more than 100 classified documents in boxes that were retrieved from Mr Trumps Palm Beach, Florida residence.

This came after his first criminal indictment in March on state charges in New York.

In that case, he appeared in a Manhattan courtroom to face criminal charges following Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Braggs investigation into hush payments leading up to the 2016 presidential election.

After the first two arraignments, he returned to his properties to deliver remarks to crowds of supporters to cast himself as a victim of political persecution, baselessly accusing his political rivals of interfering with his chances of winning election to the presidency in 2024.

In all three cases, Mr Trump has pleaded not guilty.

In this handout photo provided by the U.S. Department of Justice, stacks of boxes can be observed in the White and Gold Ballroom of former U.S. President Donald Trumps Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida (Getty Images)

But these cases are not necessarily his last, as prosecutors in Georgia also appear to be on the cusp of bringing charges.

A years-long investigation in Atlanta has been probing his attempts to reject the results of that election in the state of Georgia. That Georgia grand jury probe is also expected to result in charges against the ex-president and others in his orbit sometime in August or early September.

So will he go to jail?

With his growing list of criminal cases, speculation is mounting as to whether Mr Trump will face jail time.

If convicted, federal and state prosecutors and judges could have to decide whether to jail a presidential candidate  or even the potential victor in the 2024 race.

Following the first federal indictment, experts said that the Justice Department was likely to attempt to have Mr Trump incarcerated if hes convicted.

Each charge in that case  the classified documents case  carries a maximum sentence ranging from five years to 20 years. A potential sentence, if convicted, could include decades in prison.

National security lawyer and George Washington University law professor Kel McClanahan said that the department will probably want to go for incarceration in the case of Mr Trump, according to Insider.

Mr McClanahan said that the evidence in the indictment is intended to show that Mr Trump is a kingpin who knowingly broke the law, endangered national security, endangered nuclear weapon security, [and] endangered other countries national security.

Former US President Donald Trump waves from his vehicle following his appearance at Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. United States Federal Courthouse, in Miami, Florida, on June 13, 2023 (AFP via Getty Images)

The consensus among most legal experts commenting on the indictment appears to be that Mr Trump is in serious legal jeopardy.

A former assistant US attorney in the Southern District of New York, Sarah Krissoff, said that to the extent that theres a conviction here, the Department of Justice is going to want to be seeking a real sentence because of the nature of the conduct, how long it lasted, his involvement, the involvement of other people, working allegedly at Trumps direction.

She noted that if Mr Trump is convicted, the sentence would depend on the judge, which seems likely to be Trump-appointee Aileen Cannon in the District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Meanwhile, Mr Trump could be looking at a maximum of five to 20 years of prison time if he is convicted in the January 6 charges.

He has pleaded not guilty in all three cases. Mr Trumps next hearing in the January 6 probe will be the 28 August.
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British children attending the World Scout Jamboree in South Korea have been pulled from the gathering after hundreds of young people were treated for heat-related illnesses during scorching weather.

Temperatures have soared to 35C at the campsite near the southwestern town of Buan this week, where more than 40,000 scouts from around the world have gathered. So far, more than 600 people have been treated for heat-related illnesses.

Having saved up for years to attend the event, a member of the UK Scouts International Service Team called his father in tears after being informed of the UK contingencys decision to leave the site.

The father of the 18-year-old attendee told The Independent his son was shocked and disappointed at the jamborees poor infrastructure; citing poor sanitary conditions, a lack of drinking water and having to build their tents on pallets above swathes of mud.

The problem was the choice of the location in the first place. There are a lot of questions that need to be answered, he added.

The UK Scout Association, which is the largest contingent there with more than 4,000 taking part, said young people and adult volunteers will be moved to hotel accommodation in Seoul, the countrys capital, over the next two days to help alleviate the pressure on the site.

Participants for the 25th World Scout Jamboree arrive at a camping site in Buan (Reuters)

So far it is only the UK contingent who have left the site and parents of British children have expressed their concerns about the situation.

Have you been affected by this story? If so email rachel.flynn@independent.co.uk

One father with a child in attendance, writing on Twitter, called the camp a disaster zone.

My son was one of the first to arrive on the site last weekend and it was a disaster zone, he said. Thankfully things are improving but, seriously, why plan to ship thousands of teenagers to a hot zone?

Another worried parent told The Telegraph: Right now, Im frightened for my child. Many of us dont know what to do.

Attendees of the World Scout Jamboree beat the heat under a vine tunnel at a campsite in Buan (Yonhap)

But another father disagreed with UK Scouts decision to leave the site.

Absolutely gutted, he tweeted. My daughter has been so excited for 2 years to have a once in a lifetime experience at the World Scout Jamboree. Two days in and all the UK contingent are being taken back to Seoul due to conditions on site. Missing the whole multinational experience.

On Monday, the President of South Korea ordered an unlimited supply of air-conditioned buses and refrigerator trucks to the campsite.

An unnamed source told Mail Online: It shouldnt have got to the point of 600 young people collapsing in one evening for the president to turn around and say, We will get you more vehicles.

Temperatures have soared into the high 30s (Yonhap)

The Scout Jamboree usually takes place across July and August every four years and has housed thousands of scouts in different locations around the world. The last edition was in the US in 2019.

This is the first time the event has been held since the pandemic with scouts attending from 155 different countries.

A staff member called the decision to hold the event in the middle of the South Korean summer a huge mistake.

On Thursday, the unnamed worker wrote on Reddit: Im currently on the site right now. Its horrible. I have heat rash and prickly heat, and its killing me. Whats worse is theres nowhere I can go to get out of the heat.

An ambulance arrives at the site in South Korea (AP)

The Scout Association said in a statement: We know that may be a disappointment for some and we will continue the Jamboree experience in Seoul, working with Korean authorities on a programme of activities so our young people still get the most from their time in Korea.

Young people will travel home as originally planned from August 13. While we have been on site at the Jamboree, the UK volunteer team has worked extremely hard with the organisers, for our youth members and adult volunteers to have enough food and water to sustain them, shelter from the unusually hot weather, and toilets and washing facilities appropriate for an event of this scale.
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Andrew Tate has won an appeal to be released from house arrest in Romania as he awaits trial on charges of human trafficking.

The Bucharest Court of Appeals said in a written ruling that it replaces the house arrest measure with that of judicial control for a period of 60 days from August 4 until October 2.

While his placement under judicial control represents a lighter restrictive measure than house arrest, Tate will need a judges permission if he wishes to travel outside the municipality of Bucharest and nearby Ilfov county.

Tate has been under house arrest while authorities investigate allegations against him (EPA)

The misogynistic influencer was arrested in December and charged in June along with his brother Tristan and two Romanian female suspects.

The Tates are accused of rape, human trafficking and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women, with seven women alleged to have been targeted. They deny the charges.

Under Romanian law, the case was sent to the Bucharest courts preliminary chamber, where a judge has 60 days to inspect the case files to ensure legality.

The Tates spent three months in police detention after detectives raided their home in December, successfully appealing to be moved to house arrest on 31 March. While they lost an appeal to be released from that restriction last month, a further attempt this week was granted by the court.

After 10 months, 3 in jail, 7 at home. After 15 million euro of asset seizures. After an inditement [sic] based on nothing. The file was passed to a Judge who has ruled it weak and circumstantial. I have been released from house arrest but must remain within Romania, Andrew Tate posted on Twitter after Fridays ruling.

Andrew Tate, right, and his brother Tristan were at the Court of Appeal on Tuesday (AP)

Tate will not be allowed to be in close proximity with any of the other defendants, any of the witnesses or any of the alleged victims and their immediate family, his spokesperson said, adding: This positive outcome gives us confidence that more favourable developments are on the horizon.

Speaking outside his home in Bucharest on Friday, Tate told reporters: In January, when I was thrown into a jail cell, the media reported and told the world that I was a terrible person, they said that I hurt people and that I make a lot of money from a criminal enterprise.

Here we stand seven or eight months later and I have not seen a single victim on the news, I have seen lots of girls sticking up for me, lots of people defending me, Ive not seen a single person stand up and say that I have hurt them, not one.

Its very exhausting to continue to perpetuate lies, [and] its very hard to keep lies afloat when you have no actual evidence. Weve been completely innocent since the beginning of this and I have to give absolute faith to the Romanian judicial system for finally making the right decision in letting us free.

Im sure in the end we will be absolutely exonerated and everybody who was pushing these lies and reporting things on repeat without any substantial evidence are going to have to analyse within themselves why they decide to try and destroy peoples lives purely for views.

The brothers have accused five individuals of conspiring to falsely accuse them of human trafficking and rape (AP)

Ive done nothing wrong, God knows Ive done nothing wrong, in my heart I know Ive done nothing wrong. I think the people at home with a functioning brain understand weve done nothing wrong.

Last month, the brothers launched legal action against a woman in Florida, her parents, and a former resident of their home in Romania and her male friend, accusing the five individuals of conspiring to falsely accuse them of human trafficking and rape.

The pair are seeking at least $5m in damages, claiming that the allegations cost them their freedom and millions of dollars in income from their lucrative social media, podcasting and business ventures.

Romanian investigators said in their indictment that the Tates and two Romanian women formed a criminal group in 2021 in order to commit the crime of human trafficking in Romania, the UK and the US.

Investigators say the seven alleged victims were recruited with false declarations of love, but then forced to take part in pornography, and were controlled by intimidation, [and] constant surveillance and claims they were in debt. The Tates argue that all of the women were free to leave the estate.

Several women in Britain also are pursuing civil claims against the internet personality, alleging they were victims of sexual violence.

Tate was banned from TikTok, YouTube and Facebook for alleged hate speech and misogynistic comments, including that women should bear responsibility for being sexually assaulted.

But he remains on Twitter, where he has more than 7 million followers, many of them young men and schoolchildren.

Tate is a legitimising force for misogynistic ideas, campaigners have previously told The Independent (AP)

YouGov polling data shared with The Independent in May found that 63 per cent of British adults had heard of Tate  with 6 per cent holding a positive view of him, and around half viewing him negatively.

Of men aged between 18 and 29 who had heard of him, 26 per cent said they agreed with his opinions on women, rising to 28 per cent of 30 to 39-year-olds.

Campaigners told The Independent that Tate is a legitimising force for misogynistic ideas and described his luxurious lifestyle as a dangerous mask for violent and misogynistic content, which is drip-fed to his audience.

Additional reporting by agencies
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Ukraine has accused Russia of planning a "false flag" attack on an oil refinery in Belarus in an attempt to draw Minsk into the war, as tensions rise on Nato's eastern border.

While Alexander Lukashenko has so far avoided being dragged into the full-scale conflict by his close ally Vladimir Putin, the Belarusian president allowed Moscows troops to use Belarus as a staging ground for their invasion last February, and has agreed to host Russian nuclear weapons.

Concerns have been brewing in the West since Mr Lukashenko agreed to take in Wagner mercenaries exiled from Russia after their shortlived mutiny, with Nato member Poland warning this week of the threat posed by the extremely dangerous fighters, as it scrambled troops to their shared border.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has now accused Moscow of preparing to stage a false flag attack at the Mozyr oil refinery, allegedly to be carried out by Russian military and intelligence forces sent to Belarus disguised as Wagner mercenaries.

Russia plans to accuse Ukraine of what they have done in order to try once again to draw Minsk into the full-scale war against our state, the service said in a statement, without providing evidence.

It said its assertions were based on information obtained from several sources, including a Russian serviceman captured near Zaporizhzhia, whose mobile phone was also analysed.

There was no immediate comment on the Ukrainian statement from Russia or Belarus.

The Russian soldier had already been instructed to relocate to Belarus disguised as a Wagner mercenary, and had received information about a special mission at the Mozyr refinery, with cyber experts uncovering deleted correspondence containing further details of the operation, the SBU said.

Mozyr is one of two refineries in Belarus and is situated close to the border with Ukraine, to whom Belarus had formerly exported around a third of its petroleum products, according to the Interfax news agency.

Polish border guards patrol the area of a newly built metal wall on the border between Poland and Belarus (AP)

It is not the first time Kyiv has expressed fears of Russian plans to use such a deception to draw Belarus into the war, having issued a similar warning in February shortly after Mr Lukashenko vowed that Minsk would only enter the conflict if attacked by Ukraine.

In a further development on Friday, Lithuania revoked the residency permits of 910 Belarusian citizens and 254 Russians who it claimed were a threat to national security, after handing them a questionnaire asking their opinions of the Ukraine war and status of annexed Crimea.

It came a day after Lithuanian president Gitanas Nauseda and Polands premier Mateusz Morawiecki held an urgent meeting, with the leaders of both EU and Nato nations warning that they were bracing for provocations by Russia and Belarus amid increasing pressure on the borders.

We need to be aware that the number of provocations will rise. The Wagner group is extremely dangerous and they are being moved to [Natos] eastern flank to destabilise it, Mr Morawiecki said, after the meeting in eastern Poland, close to its borders with Lithuania, Belarus and Russia.

The meeting came two days after Warsaw accused two Belarusian helicopters of flying briefly at low altitude into Polish air space  which Belarus denied, before summoning Polands charge daffaires to the foreign ministry in Minsk.

Poland has now begun to send more than 1,000 troops to its eastern border, as Lithuanias president warned that there could now be more than four times that number of Wagner fighters in Belarus.

We must not only talk about measures at the national level but also ... what should be done if this situation becomes even more complicated, including the closure of the border with Belarus, Mr Nauseda said. This should be done in a coordinated manner between Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.

Mr Lukashenko has repeatedly taunted Poland over the new presence of Wagner troops in Belarus, joking that Warsaw should thank him for keeping the mercenaries in check. Otherwise, they would have seeped through and smashed up Rzeszow and Warsaw in no small way, he claimed.
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A Russian court has convicted the imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny of extremism charges and sentenced him to an extra 19 years in prison.

Mr Navalny  Vladimir Putins fiercest critic  is already serving a term of more than 11 years on a variety of charges which have widely been derided as politically motivated. His movement has been outlawed and declared extremist.

While a Moscow court was hearing the case on paper, a section of the IK-6 penal colony in Melekhovo, where Mr Navalny is serving his sentences, has been the setting to hear the case involving six separate criminal charges  including inciting and financing extremist activity and creating an extremist organisation. The Melekhovo colony is about 235km (145 miles) east of Moscow.

Dressed in his dark prison uniform and flanked by his lawyers, Mr Navalny smiled at times as he listened to the judge. The audio feed from the court, where the trial has been happening behind closed doors, was so poor that it was practically impossible to make out what the judge was saying. It took the judge less than 10 minutes to announce the verdict and the sentence  something that in Russia usually takes hours and even days.

The European Union and the US were among those to condemn what they called another politically motivated ruling, calling for Mr Navalny's immediate release.

The British foreign secretary James Cleverly condemned the sentence. His abuse shows Russias complete disregard for even the most basic of human rights, Mr Cleverly said. Dissent cannot be silenced. The UK calls for his immediate release, he added.

The fresh sentence will come as little suprise to Mr Navalny, who, on the eve of the trial posted a message to social media via his team saying that he was expecting a huge extension of his prison time. A Stalinist term he said, referring to the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. He said the purpose would be to frighten Russians, but urged them not to let that happen and to think hard about how best to resist what he called the villains and thieves in the Kremlin. State prosecutors had asked the court to hand him another 20 years.

Mr Navalny could yet face further charges. He has previously said that he has been told to expect another trial on terrorism charges.

One of Mr Navalnys associates, Daniel Kholodny, stood trial alongside him after being relocated from a different prison. Mr Kholodny, 25, a TV technician who worked for the YouTube channel of Mr Navalny, was found guilty yesterday of organising an extremist group, Novaya Gazeta reported. He was sentenced to a further eight years in jail.

Mr Navalny has proven to be a significant thorn in the side of Mr Putin ever since he rose to prominence in the 2010s. In 2011, Mr Navalny founded the Foundation for Fighting Corruption, which would become his teams main platform for exposing alleged graft among Russias top political ranks. His reputation only grew in playing a prominent role in anti-Kremlin protests in 2011 and 2012. Demonstrations that brought tens of thousands of people out onto the streets.

Navalny in one his orginial court hearings in Moscow in 2021 (Moscow City Court)

In 2021, Russian authorities outlawed Mr Navalnys anti-corruption foundation and their vast network of offices in Russian regions, calling them extremist organisations and exposing anyone involved to possible prosecution. Mr Navalnys allies say the charges retroactively criminalise all the foundations activities since its creation.

Mr Navalny, 47, has exposed official corruption with videoes he has released racking up tens of millions of views online. He was arrested in January 2021 upon returning to Moscow after recuperating in Germany from what is believed to have been nerve agent poisoning. He blamed that poisoning on the Kremlin  as did a number of Western nations. The Kremlin has denied involvement.

Authorities sentenced him to two-and-a-half years in prison for parole violations relating to previous cases and then to another nine years on charges of fraud and contempt of court. It isnt immediately clear if he will serve the new sentence concurrently with those.

About 40 supporters from different Russian cities gathered outside the colony, one of them told The Associated Press in the messaging app Telegram. Yelena, who spoke on condition that her last name was withheld for safety reasons, said the supporters werent allowed into the colony, but decided to stay outside until the verdict was announced. People think its important to be nearby at least like that, for moral support. We will be waiting, she said.

Mr Navalny was ordered to serve the new prison term in a special regime penal colony, a term that refers to the Russian prisons with the highest level of security and the harshest inmate restrictions. It wasnt immediately clear if or when he would be transferred to such a colony from the Melekhovo prison. Russian law stipulates that only men given life sentences or especially dangerous recidivists are sent to those types of prisons.

By law, Mr Navalny has 10 days to appeal the verdict, and if he does, it will not take effect until the appeal is adjudicated.

Mr Putin, in power since 1999, is expected to run for another six-year presidential term in 2024. With Russia waging war in Ukraine and locked into  according to the Russian president  an existential battle with the West, Mr Putin says it is vital for the country to remain united. In February, he ordered the FSB security service to raise its game to identify and stop the illegal activities of those who are trying to divide and weaken our society.

To coincide with the start of this latest trial, Mr Navalny and his team had announced a new mass campaign to turn Russian public opinion against Mr Putin and his invasion of Ukraine  urging Russians to join forces in the fight against Putins lies and Kremlin hypocrisy.

We will conduct an election campaign against war. And against Putin. Just that. A long, stubborn, exhausting but fundamentally important campaign where we will turn people against the war, he said in his launch messages. Mr Navalny argued that despite a relentless crackdown on dissent, such a campaign could be efficiently conducted on messaging apps outside the authorities control. Mr Navalnys movement is banned from all political activity.

No one but us could enter this fight for our citizens hearts and minds, so we need to do it and win, Mr Navalny said.

In his closing statement last month, Mr Navalny said: For a new, free, rich country to be born, it must have parents. Those who want it. Who expect it and who are willing to make sacrifices for its birth.

Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report
YEREVAN, AUGUST 4, ARMENPRESS. Javier Colomina, the NATO Secretary General's special representative for the South Caucasus and Central Asia has expressed serious concern over the deteriorating situation around Lachin Corridor.

Deeply troubled by the deteriorating situation surrounding the Lachin corridor. Key to ensure freedom of movement & address pressing humanitarian needs. NATO encourages all stakeholders to redouble efforts towards reaching a negotiated agreement, the NATO Secretary Generals envoy for South Caucasus said in a post on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

Lachin Corridor, the only road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia and the rest of the world, has been blocked by Azerbaijan since late 2022. The Azerbaijani blockade constitutes a gross violation of the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire agreement, which established that the 5km-wide Lachin Corridor shall be under the control of Russian peacekeepers. Furthermore, on February 22, 2023 the United Nations highest court  the International Court of Justice (ICJ) - ordered Azerbaijan to take all steps at its disposal to ensure unimpeded movement of persons, vehicles and cargo along the Lachin Corridor in both directions. Azerbaijan has been ignoring the order ever since. The ICJ reaffirmed its order on 6 July 2023.

Azerbaijan then illegally installed a checkpoint on Lachin Corridor. The blockade has led to shortages of essential products such as food and medication. Azerbaijan has also cut off gas and power supply into Nagorno Karabakh, with officials warning that Baku seeks to commit ethnic cleansing against Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh. Hospitals have suspended normal operations.
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The Royal Air Force has delivered a powerful message of unity to Russian president Vladimir Putin with the interception of dozens of Russian aircraft during its leadership of a Nato air policing mission in Estonia, Ben Wallace has said.

The defence secretary praised the RAFs success, emphasising the unwavering commitment of the UK and its allies in safeguarding European airspace and standing against any potential threat to their borders.

His comments come as RAF personnel have returned to the UK after leading the air policing mission in Eastern Europe for four months, during which pilots intercepted 50 Russian aircraft and flew for a combined total of more than 500 hours.

The members of the 140 Expeditionary Air Wing (140 EAW) had been deployed to Amari Air Base since the start of March, along with a squadron of RAF Typhoon fighter jets, to conduct Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) intercepts of Russian aircraft transiting close to Nato airspace.

Defence secretary Ben Wallace (Reuters)

The deployment, named Op Azotize, began with RAF pilots flying missions alongside the German Air Force  during which the first ever air joint air intercept between Nato allies took place, as British and German Typhoons shadowed a Russian air-to-air refuelling aircraft and transport aircraft.

Mr Wallace said: Hundreds of RAF pilots and personnel have spent months away from their families, working round-the-clock alongside our allies to keep Europes skies safe.

The UKs successful leadership of Natos air policing mission in Estonia, resulting in the interception of dozens of Russian aircraft by the RAF, sends a strong message to Putin that we stand united with our allies against any threat to our borders.

Personnel from 140 EAW were always ready to quickly intercept Russian aircraft that didnt follow the usual communication rules with Nato air traffic agencies and didnt file proper flight plans. This behaviour created a safety risk for all the planes flying in the area and Nato aircraft had to closely monitor these Russian planes to ensure everyones safety.

Once the RAF took full control of the air policing mission, their Typhoon fighter jets regularly intercepted Russian fighters, long-range bombers, and reconnaissance aircraft.

There was a 21-day period when they intercepted Russian planes a total of 21 times.

Ground engineer Sergeant Matt Cozens, who is part of the Royal Air Force (RAF)140 Expeditionary Air Wing, inspects the VAP60 weapon loaders, used to arm a squadron of RAF Eurofighter Typhoon jets, currently deployed for Operation Azotize (PA)

During the course of the deployment, operations were conducted in coordination with the Portuguese and Romanian Air Forces, which jointly led the Nato air policing mission in Lithuania.

Defence minister Baroness Goldie said: Following a successful deployment to Estonia from our strategic airbase at Lossiemouth, I pay tribute to the commitment and dedication of personnel from 140 Expeditionary Air Wing for their role in protecting Nato airspace over the last four months.

On Wednesday, the leader of 140 EAW, Wing Commander Scott MacColl, officially passed on the responsibility of the air policing mission in Estonia to the Spanish Air Force.

Air and Space Commander, Air Marshal Harv Smyth, said: The RAF is committed to its role within Nato of collective defence, to ensure the strength and unity of the alliance and to deter and defend against threats to Nato security. While in Estonia, the 140 Expeditionary Air Wing has excelled, participating in 12 major Nato and Joint Expeditionary Force exercises in addition to the Air Policing role.

A tactical recognition flash (TRF) for Operation Azotize (PA)

I am extremely proud of the whole forces hard work and dedication. Now that they are back in the UK, their focus will be straight back to providing UK quick reaction alerts where they will help ensure the safety and integrity of UK airspace, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

The Nato Baltic Air Policing mission was set up in 2014 at Amari base in Estonia and Siauliai Air Base in Lithuania, following Russias illegal annexation of Crimea.

Allies participating in the mission take turns every four months, deploying to the air bases in Eastern Europe.
 Close Huge smoke cloud rises after massive explosion at factory in Moscow

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45 people have been injured in a blast at a night-vision goggle factory in Moscow, The Moscow Times reports.

The explosion rocked the town of Sergiev Posad, 50 km (30 miles) northeast of Moscow on Wednesday, with emergency services reporting that the blast appeared to have taken place in a warehouse containing pyrotechnic equipment.

23 people were hospitalised, with six in intensive care, the Sergiev Posad mayors office said. Unverified footage on social media showed a huge column of smoke, and high-rise buildings with windows blown out.

The Zagorsk Optical and Mechanical Plant produces optical equipment for industrial and healthcare applications as well as for the Russian security forces.

However, TASS cited emergency services as saying they did not believe the blast had been caused by a Ukrainian drone attack - many of which have taken place in Moscow and the surrounding area in recent weeks and months.

The news comes as Russia claimed it shot down two Ukrainian drones headed for Moscow, one near a major airport to the south of the city and one to the west of the capital.
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A Ukrainian mother who lost an eye in a suspected assassination attempt has appeared as the cover star on the first Playboy printed since the Russian invasion.

Iryna Bilotserkovets, whose husband is an aide to Kyivs mayor Vitali Klitschko, posed with an eye mask and metal bikini after being caught in a gun attack just three days after Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year.

The mother of three was driving home with her children through a neighbourhood in Ukraine when her car was hit by several bullets.

Ms Bilotserkovets is the cover star for Playboys first printed issue in 18 months. (NO CREDIT)

Speaking to Playboy about life after the attack, she said: Doctors in Ukraine said I was probably going to die. I didnt agree.

The model and TV presenter was forced to undergo major reconstructive surgery in a hospital in Berlin and has since become a symbol of resistance in Ukraine.

During the surgery, Ms Bilotserkovets lost an eye and was left with a broken jaw and significant scars on her body.

She said: It was not a question of preserving my beauty; it was a question of whether I would live or not.

Ms Bilotserkovets is part of the Women stay strong edition (NO CREDIT)

Ms Bilotserkovets appeared on Playboys cover as part of its Women stay strong edition which looks at the resilience of Ukrainian women who have been injured during the war but who have not lost their thirst for life.

Talking of the injuries sustained in the attack, she said: Stitches, scars, wounds everywhere; I was just Frankensteins monster. My jaw had shattered, like a twig.

I no longer have a pretty face, but the rest of my body is beautiful.

Ms Bilotserkovetss husband is an aide to Kyiv Mayor Vitalii Klitschko, pictured here with a Kinzhal Russian hypersonic missile warhead, shot down by a Ukrainian Air Defence unit (REUTERS)

Ms Bilotserkovets now works to organise events for Ukrainian troops. In a statement, the American magazine called her the heroine of the new edition.

This edition marks the first time Playboy has printed an issue in the last 18 months after deciding to go online at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
Journalist, editor, and author Lorraine Candy joins us to discuss her latest book, Whats Wrong With Me?: 101 Things Midlife Women Need to Know.

Lorraine talks about a huge unravelling she experienced at around 47 years old, when she went through the perimenopause, and how a lack of knowledge about this process made her feel she was going mad.

We also discuss female rage, older women being sidelined in popular culture, and why the the myth that women can have it all is a dangerous one.
This is the moment workers are evacuated from the Bibby Stockholm barge in Portland Port during a fire drill.

The 305ft vessel was towed to the Isle of Portland in Dorset last month, but plans to move migrants onto the barge have been delayed amid safety fears.

A Fire Brigade Union spokesman said: Fire safety is a serious matter and this situation calls for a grown-up approach. As firefighters it is our duty to sound the alarm about the Bibby Stockholm. We await a response from the Home Secretary in regard to our serious fire safety concerns.
A man has been arrested after allegedly stealing a forklift and crashing it into multiple buildings in Los Angeles, police have said.

Footage shared by Twitter user @klotsson shows the vehicle driving on a pavement in front of the historic Tower Theater in downtown LA on Tuesday evening (2 August).

The forklift appears to try and turn into oncoming traffic before backing up, sending nearby pedestrians running in fear.

Per reports, the driver then crashed into the Apple store at the Tower Theater and fled the scene.

He was detained by the Los Angeles Police Department after crashing a second time.

No injuries were reported after the incident.
Military doctors and nurses have been sent to a global scout event in South Korea after hundreds of teenagers fell ill from the heatwave gripping the country.

At least 600 participants at the World Scout Jamboree have so far been treated for heat-related ailments. British celebrity adventurer Bear Grylls, who kicked off the jamboree, urged attendees to stay hydrated.

Kristin Sayers, a parent from the U.S. state of Virginia, said her son initially had to sleep on the ground at the camp because the tents were not ready. Im disappointed my sons dream is looking more like a nightmare, she told Reuters.
Rishi Sunak has been accused of trashing his brand. Some people who thought he was the second coming of Blairite reasonableness have been disappointed by his enthusiasm for new drilling for North Sea oil and gas.

And yet, not to be outdone, Greenpeace has decided that its response to this chance to press its arguments should be to trash its own brand. The stunt by five Greenpeace activists, who climbed on to the roof of the prime ministers North Yorkshire home and draped it in black cloth, could hardly have been better designed to undermine public support for its cause.
 Close UK weather: The latest Met Office forecast

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The Met Office has upgraded weather warnings to amber as eight people have been evacuated from their flooded Dublin homes.

The first named storm of the year, Storm Antoni moved eastwards in Ireland as heavy rains poured down overnight into this morning.

In England and Wales, an amber warning for wind is in place from 11am to 7pm for Devon, Somerset, Dorset and Torbay, and Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire and Swansea.

The Met Office warned flying debris is possible and could lead to injuries or danger to life.

Two yellow warnings for wind and rain are also in place for large swathes of England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

Met Office chief meteorologist Steve Willington said: Storm Antoni will bring some potentially disruptive weather on Saturday as it moves from west to east.

Northern Ireland is likely to see some of the highest rainfall totals, with 40-60mm falling in some spots, but 20-30 more widely.
YEREVAN, 4 AUGUST, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs Armenpress that today, 4 August, USD exchange rate up by 0.11 drams to 386.29 drams. EUR exchange rate up by 0.47 drams to 422.72 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate down by 0.05 drams to 4.06 drams. GBP exchange rate up by 2.23 drams to 490.55 drams.

The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.

Gold price down by 99.31 drams to 24039.83 drams. Silver price down by 10.53 drams to 292.54 drams.
Around 23pc said that increased competition is leading them to opt for different brands. Photo: Getty Images

The majority of Irish consumers have revealed that they are now less loyal to brands compared with two years ago.

A survey of 1,000 Irish people by digital workflow company ServiceNow showed that 82pc are opting to search for a cheaper option rather than stick to the same brands.

Almost half said that needing a more affordable option is a reason for less brand loyalty, especially as a further 84pc of respondents highlighted that they are now spending more due to price increases in recent months.

The survey also illustrated that a number of Irish consumers are utilising the cost-of-living crisis to try new brands and services. Around 23pc said that increased competition is leading them to opt for different brands.

Irish customers are also interested in more personalised discounts as they look to reduce costs. Around 90pc rate this as important, while 81pc said they are interested in samples and trials from different brands before purchasing.

As costs rocket for consumers, the most important aspect of the employee experience is the salary.

Around 61pc reported that salary was most important factor in their working lives.

Irish consumers are also one of the most security conscious across the region, the survey reported.

Data security was deemed the most important factor when dealing with a company for 78pc of those surveyed.

This was more important than response times, the quality of service and the different contact options offered by a brand.

Over 55s were the most conscious about the security of their personal data, followed by those aged 35-54.

Despite the rise of artificial intelligence tools in recent months, Irish consumers preferred being connected directly to a customer service representative online.

Just 10pc of Irish consumers said they prefer chat bots, while 37pc said email was preferable.

Brands shouldnt, and cant, consistently compete on price alone  this isnt sustainable for business, ServiceNow vice president of legal Mark Cockerill said.

Instead, they need to look at what is most important for customers beyond price: good security hygiene and being able to provide agents that solve customer queries quickly, he added.
A decision on whether the social media giant did enough to protect kids has been made by a European oversight body and relayed to the Irish Data Protection Commissioner.

TikTok will soon find out whether it is adjudged to have a violated EU privacy rules on protecting childrens data.

A longstanding investigation by the Irish Data Protection Commissioner into the social media giants handling of childrens data, and particularly whether TikTok has done enough to make sure that under-13s cannot easily use it, will finally come to an end in the coming weeks.

The Irish authority concluded its draft decision on the issue last year, but faced objections from other European data protection agencies.

Following EU rules, it referred the issue for adjudication to the European Data Protection Board (EDPB), which has now reached an undisclosed decision.

The objections concerned, among other things, whether there had been an infringement of data protection by design and default with regard to age verification, and whether there had been an infringement of the principle of fairness with regard to certain design practices, the EDPB said in a statement today.

The binding decision addresses legal questions arising from objections to the draft decision of the Irish DPA as lead supervisory authority regarding TikTok.

The original inquiry was into the processing by TikTok of personal data of registered TikTok users between the ages of 13 and 17, as well as certain issues regarding TikToks processing of personal data of children under the age of 13.

The EDPB process kicked in when no consensus was reached on the objections lodged by other EU data protection authorities.

Having made its decision, Helen Dixons office now has one month to inform TikTok of any possible sanctions against it.

A spokesperson for the Irish regulator said that it could not yet comment on the decision.

We have one month to adopt the EDPB's binding decision and will publish details then, the spokesperson said.

Ireland is TikToks main European regulator because of Dublin being the companys headquarters. TikTok is also under investigation by the Irish regulator around what levels of personal data transfers have taken place between the EU and China.

TikTok is owned by the Chinese company, ByteDance.

Earlier this year, the Irish Data Protection Commission fined Meta 1.2bn in the largest ever GDPR sanction.

TikTok also ran into controversy here when a a report by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) said that the social media app may present a cybersecurity risk and should not be present on Irish government-issued devices.

However, the NCSC stopped short of calling for a ban on the platform, saying that the advice was a precautionary measure.
Taylor Swift LA concerts will have similar levels of security as the 2022 Super Bowl (Jessica Christian/AP)

The Los Angeles County Sheriffs department says it is providing similar levels of security for Taylor Swifts six-show run as it did for the 2022 Super Bowl.

The department said that additional law enforcement was being put in place throughout the history-making run, which kicked off on Thursday.

The US megastar is performing six sold-out shows for her The Eras Tour at the SoFi Stadium, in the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood.

She is the only artist to have sold out six consecutive shows at the arena, which has a capacity of up to 100,000.

Last year the stadium hosted the Super Bowl  considered to be the biggest night in the US sporting calendar  in which the Los Angeles Rams triumphed over the Cincinnati Bengals.

In a statement on Thursday the force said: The department, in coordination with LA Metro and the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), will be providing additional law enforcement staffing throughout the Metro system to support the Taylor Swift concert series at SoFi Stadium.

The department is providing a similar level of visibility as the 2022 Super Bowl in order to ensure the safety of the public throughout the Metro System.

Earlier on Thursday Swift also announced further North America dates for The Eras Tour in 2024, in Florida, Louisiana, Indiana, and Toronto, in Canada.

Turns out its NOT the end of an era. Miami, New Orleans, Indy and Toronto: The Eras Tour is coming to you in 2024, she wrote, adding that she would be joined by support act Gracie Abrams for the shows.

Swifts arrival in California for the shows at SoFi stadium has prompted a number of special celebrations.

On Wednesday the Recording Academy announced a special pop-up exhibition  I Can See You (Taylors Version)  which will be on show at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles until September 18.

The exhibition will feature 11 costumes and two instruments from the US megastars recently released music video I Can See You (Taylors Version) (From The Vault).

Los Angeles bakery Sweet Lady Janes has also launched a new cupcake, titled Taylors Version, and various merchandise stores and themed party nights will be taking place across the city in the coming days.

US media reported that earlier this week, Swift gave members of her tour truck driving crew bonuses in the amount of 100,000 dollars (79,000).

Michael Scherkenbach, founder and chief executive of Shomotion trucking company, told CNN that the payments were unbelievable.
Fonterra Cooperative Group, the world's largest dairy exporter, slashed its forecast payment to New Zealand farmers after a drop in demand from Chinese buyers.

The midpoint of the projected payment range in the 2023-24 season is now NZ$7 ($4.25) per kilogram of milksolids, down from NZ$8 previously, the Auckland-based company said Friday. The revised range for the payout is NZ$6.25 to NZ$7.75.

"When we announced our opening forecast in May, we noted it reflected an expectation that China's import demand for whole milk powder would lift over the medium-term," said Chief Executive Officer Miles Hurrell. "Since then, overall GlobalDairyTrade whole milk powder prices have fallen by 12%, and China's share of whole milk powder volumes on GDT events has tracked below average levels."

Whole milk powder prices at the GDT auction this week fell to a three-year low, and have tumbled almost 40% from a record in March 2022. Economists had noted that ongoing sluggishness in the Chinese economy meant a downtrend in global dairy prices had been sustained much longer than expected.

The lower payment will hit the income of Fonterra's 10,000 farmer suppliers. The revised midpoint is about 15% lower than the expected NZ$8.20 a kilogram payout estimated for the 2022-23 season.

Hurrell said reasons for China's slower demand included a current surplus of fresh milk in China, resulting in elevated levels of local production of whole milk powder, and reducing near-term import requirements.

"The medium to long term outlook for dairy, in particular New Zealand dairy, looks positive with milk production from key exporting regions flat compared to last year," he said.

Bloomberg
Theres surely no better way to enjoy your first ever trip to Ladies Day at Ballybrit than to walk away with the prize of Best Dressed Lady.
Courts

Dublin man is sent for trial accused of knocking ex-partner out with bottle
Ive had rocks thrown at me for fun, were on edge, says Dublin delivery rider

Paulo from Brazil says he and his colleagues feel unsafe as attacks by youths are rarely punished

Deliveroo has introduced an app called Flare, which is used to help delivery workers in cases of emergency, such as an attack. Photo: Getty

Azmia Riaz Fri 4 Aug 2023 at 03:30
Ryanair Group CEO Michael OLeary has called on Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan to take action against Fingal County Councils enforcement order on daa to reduce the number of night flights at Dublin Airport.

The councils Planning Authority said it had received complaints about an alleged breach of condition five of the planning permission of the north runway and served a planning enforcement order.

It requires daa to conform with condition five within six weeks of the date of the notice, so that the average number of aircraft movements at the airport between 11pm and 7am is 65 per night or less  this is measured over a 92-day modelling period.

CEO of Ryanair Eddie Wilson called the enforcement notice stupid in a statement issued by the airline this morning.

Ryanair has now said Fingal County Council and a tiny number of residents cannot be allowed to damage or restrict air travel or connectivity to and from Ireland.

The airline has offered the solution of moving the proposed night time flight restriction from 11pm7am to 12am6am.

Speaking to The Pat Kenny Show on Newstalk, Ryanair Group CEO Michael OLeary said Eamon Ryan disappears whenever there is an issue with transport and said he needs to get up off his backside and intervene here.

Really its not acceptable that Ireland, which is an island on the periphery of Europe has its aviation policy and connectivity determined by a small number of residents in St Margarets and by couple of county councillors in Fingal, he said.

Mr OLeary says a simple solution to the issue is to modify the night time flight restriction period and instead look at the operation of cargo during certain hours.

Leo Varadkar defends council decision to cut night-time flights at Dublin Airport

I also think the daa deserves some criticism, they have been sitting on this thing over the last year since they opened the north runway. They seem to have taken no action, he said, adding he has some sympathy with Fingal County Council and residents.

Mr OLeary said, however, that a local county council cannot determine how and when flights leave and take off from the country.

He warned that mass cancellations will occur if the issue is not resolved.

Mr OLeary claimed that when the planning restriction was devised, it was due to noise from aircraft that has been since been adapted and operate at lower volumes.

"We have two different aircraft types here at the moment. We have the 737 NG that would be 5  thats 50pc quieter  and the new max aircraft we have 8 of them based in Dublin Airport out of 40 at the moment they would reduce the noise  theyre about 30pc quieter. And Aer Lingus, to be fair, are operating equally much quieter aircraft than when this planning restriction was devised eight or 10 years ago.

He said the restriction is bizarre and it requires intervention from our Transport Minister but sadly, he has gone missing as usual.

The issue is, are we going to start cancelling flights in four weeks time  Aer Lingus and ourselves  flights that are scheduled to depart between the hours of 6am or 7am when a ready solution exists and that is move this noise envelope from midnight to 6am. [It] would solve most of the problem. If youre really concerned about night time noise then ban cargo planes taking off at 2am, 3am, 4am.

"That may well be the solution but it needs a Transport Minister to intervene in this and sadly, weve been lumbered for the last three years with an incompetent Transport minister.

CEO of Ryanair Eddie Wilson says Transport Minister Eamon Ryan needs to do something useful for Irish air travel at Dublin Airport for the first time in his office and instruct the local council to withdraw their stupid enforcement notice.

He suggests the restriction period be slightly modified, adding it will still reduce night time noise at Dublin Airport (particularly when the majority of flights are now operated on new, quieter engine aircraft) and balances the needs of Irish air travel and its connectivity to Europe with the complaints of the tiny number of neighbours.

Mr Wilson said if Minister Ryan fails to act then someone competent should take over the portfolio.

If Minister Ryan fails to act, particularly when the DAA has spent 300m on a 2nd runway, then he should resign and appoint someone competent as Transport Minister, he said.

"He has repeatedly failed to act on aviation issues when DAA mismanaged airport security last summer or when drone activity closed Dublin Airport in January, and now when a local Council threatens to severely damage Irelands national aviation industry and connectivity to Europe with just 6 weeks notice.

The Department of Transport has been contacted for comment.
The vast majority of viable applications from women to join the Defence Forces this year failed. Stock image

Just one woman has successfully applied for and joined the Defence Forces this year, despite over 600 applications.

A mandatory psychometric test, which measures aptitude and personality of candidates, has been blamed for over two-thirds of valid applications from women this year being abandoned or refused. It has now emerged that the use of the same kind of test when recruiting for the navy has been suspended for at least six months.

There are also fears that concerns about gender inequality and harassment within the Irish military, raised by the Women of Honour group, may have also contributed to women giving up on their applications.

Just one woman successfully applied for and joined Defence Forces in 2023

In the first five months of the year, a total of seven women were inducted into the Defence Forces. But six of these women had started their application process last year.

Between January and May of this year, a total of 617 women applied to join the Defence Forces. Of these, 552 were found to be viable applications. Out of over 500 women whose applications were considered this year, just one has been inducted into the Irish military. Eight women withdrew their applications, while another 63 women are still having their applications considered.

The vast majority of viable applications from women to join the Defence Forces this year failed, with 480 out of 552 being unsuccessful at some stage of the process.

Almost half of all women whose applications were viable never showed up to their psychometric test. A total of 246 women didnt attend the mandatory test, which assesses the personality, motivation, aptitude and abilities of Defence Forces candidates. Another 151 women failed the test.

It means that psychometric testing was the greatest barrier to women joining the Defence Forces this year.

Passing the test is compulsory before becoming a recruit or a cadet. The test is timed, and both speed and accuracy are required to pass. Candidates are tested across five different areas: error detection, orientation, number fluency, word rules and deductive reasoning.

A mandatory fitness and medical test also resulted in a number of applications being abandoned or refused. Fifteen women failed their fitness or medical test, while another 45 didnt attend their fitness test or interview.

The figures were released by Tanaiste and Defence Minister Micheal Martin in response to a parliamentary question from Independent TD Violet-Anne Wynne. Mr Martin said that when someone does not show up for a test, the Defence Forces are proactive in trying to arrange another time that suits.

The military authorities continue to keep psychometric testing, and all other aspects of recruitment, under ongoing review to ensure it continues to effectively determine suitability for entry to the Defence Forces. On that basis, psychometric testing in the Naval Service General Service recruitment was paused, on a pilot basis, for six months. An analysis of the revised approach will then take place and will inform future decisions on this process, Mr Martin said.

Nine women either did not meet the criteria or educational requirements for the Defence Forces. A dozen were deemed unsuccessful, as they didnt meet the order of merit for cadet competition.

One application was a duplicate, and another didnt respond to multiple attempts to contact her. The Defence Forces are currently suffering from a recruitment and retention crisis, while also struggling to improve gender diversity.

Ms Wynne, a former member of the reserves, said she was concerned public confidence in the Defence Forces had been completely eroded by the important issues raised by the Women of Honour group.

She said the large number of women who didnt show up to tests or interviews showed that they changed their mind about joining the Defence Forces.

It really poses a question as to why? she said. I think having female participation in the Defence Forces is hugely important, for lots of different reasons. And so the fact that we only had one woman inducted out of this entire year thus far is obviously a red flag for me.

Defence Forces chief of staff, Lieutenant General Sean Clancy, said gender balance within the Irish Defence Forces, and in fact many other militaries around the world, is a challenge. The Commission on the Defence Forces (CoDF) has made a number of clear recommendations to assist in increasing female participation in the Defence Forces, which we are actively pursuing, some of which have already been implemented.
Television presenter Pamela Ballantine, in her own words, writes about her journey after being diagnosed with breast cancer seven months ago

I do not wish to offend anyone who has been given the same cancer diagnosis by saying that I do not want to be referred to as having battled cancer or beaten cancer or survived cancer as I feel that is doing a disservice to anyone, or their families, who have not had the same positive outcome I have had.

Even though I have been on TV for almost 40 years I am quite a private person which is why I have not really been talking about what is going on in my life this year. However, I knew that when I was ready I wanted to highlight just how important early detection is. I had no lump or any visible sign. If I had not gone when I was called for my regular breast screening, I would not have known I had tumours in my right breast and armpit, perhaps until it was too late.

It is very strange knowing there is something inside you, that you didnt know you had, that left untreated can kill you and the only way to get rid of it is to fill your body with poison. So you go to hospital feeling totally fine and leave knowing you are going to feel ill.

Pamela Ballantine Photo by Press Eye.

On Thursday 29th December 2022 I should have been raising a glass of champagne to celebrate my niece, Laurens 30th birthday with my sister, Susie, and other family and friends. Instead Susie, who has been an absolute rock as well as chauffeur and note taker, accompanied me to the Ulster Hospital to meet Prof Kirk to get the results of needle biopsies which had been carried out after I had been called back to the breast cancer screening unit following a routine mammogram. As I said, I had no lump or any sign that I had a tumour. Nothing can prepare you to hear the words that is cancer.

After that I am really not too sure what was said, other than it is breast cancer, which means it should hopefully, not have spread anywhere else. I had MRI and CT scans to make sure. I had a tumour in my right breast and in a lymph node in my armpit. I was told that surgery to remove the offending tumours would be carried out in three or four weeks followed by radiotherapy.

I was called back to see Prof Kirk 3 weeks later and given the good news that indeed it was only in my breast and lymph node, however the biopsy did show that, as well as being an oestrogen fed tumour, it was also the type of cancer, HER2, that could divide and spread around my body, so chemotherapy was recommended and that I was to meet the oncologist the following day.

That totally threw me. I couldnt cope. I had geared myself up for surgery the following week. I had too much on to be able to start the treatment so soon. I had a programme to record the next morning and I was meeting friends in Dublin that weekend, all of which now seems totally irrelevant and ridiculous, but it was my way of dealing with it.

Pamela Ballantine - Photo by Kelvin Boyes

The breast cancer team were so understanding and said it would be no problem to start the following week. As Susie and I were walking back to the car I said part of me wanted to get it started to get it over with, while another part of me needed to process everything.

The following day I got a call from Lindsay, one of the breast cancer nurses, to say the oncologist, Dr Lucy Jellett, could meet me the next day rather than wait a week, which actually was a relief.

When I met her on the Friday she explained the process would start the following Monday when I would be coming in at 8.30 to get a PICC line fitted ready for my first chemotherapy session on the Wednesday.

I think I was still in denial as I told her that Monday didnt suit as I was going to be in Dublin. However when she asked me why, I did feel a bit lame saying Ill be having a boozy lunch with my friends on Sunday. She looked me in the eye and said Pamela, you have to understand you are ours now. That hit home. The PICC line was fitted on the Monday morning and I had my first chemotherapy 2 days later.

Exactly 2 weeks after my first treatment my hair started coming out in clumps. Wigs are available through the NHS but I wasnt able to get one that looked like me. Thankfully I am lucky enough to be in a position to be able to buy one. I met Theresa at Tresses, who was wonderful, and I came home with my wig which I named Helen after the wonderful Dame Mirren, and Paul Stafford who has been cutting my hair for over 30 years trimmed her in to shape. In fact not too many people know Helen and I have been inseparable since the middle of February.

It has not been plain sailing by any means. I got an infection in my PICC line and spent 5 days in hospital getting i/v antibiotics. I was lucky enough not to have any sickness, thanks to the many anti-sickness drugs I was given. I had days when I just slept the clock round and others when I ached like I had the worst flu.

Today's News in 90 seconds - August 4th

I have cried, oh how I have cried. As well as losing all my hair, many of the horrendous side effects from the chemo included painful mouth ulcers, toe nails turning black and falling off, broken skin on my hands and feet which bled. These are just some of them. I will spare you the other details. However the Macmillan Helpline is there for a reason and they have been wonderful. I was in so much pain at 3 oclock one morning I rang. The phone was answered immediately and a calming voice consoled me.

On the positive side, thanks to chemotherapy, the official terminology is that I have had a complete pathological response, which means the treatment has been a success. MRI scans had shown that my tumours had gone. I have had surgery to remove the tissue and surrounding area where the tumours had been. I have not had a mastectomy, but I believe it was an option that was considered by Prof Kirk, my surgeon. The pathology report stated that there was scarring, which meant that there had been cancer in my breast and in 3 of 16 lymph nodes which were removed, but no more.

The Macmillan Nurses in the unit at the Ulster Hospital have been incredible. Their compassion, empathy, kindness, humour and of course professionalism has been second to none. Everyone has their own way of coping and Dr Lucy Jellett has been so understanding with me wanting to keep working. The District Nurses who I saw every week to flush out my PICC line and change my dressing and also who came the day after each chemo treatment to give me an injection, have been amazing. The breast cancer nurses have been and are still there for me should I have any concerns. Prof Kirk, who had to give me the bad news in the first place and then carry out the surgery has been brilliant in his explanation of everything I was going to experience. I think he even understood my sense of humour.

Over the last 7 months I have been treated for an illness I did not know I had. That treatment has been rough. I still have to have some treatment for the next few months and will be on medication for a few years. My hair is growing back. Helen may be retired soon. However please dont treat me any differently. I am still me and I hope I will be for many, many years to come.

If you've been affected by anything in this interview please go to: Macmillan Cancer, Action Cancer, Marie Curie or Cancer Focus.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 4, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has offered condolences to his Georgian counterpart Irakli Garibashvili on the deadly landslide in the region of Racha.

I am deeply shocked by the deadly and devastating disaster in Georgias Racha region. On behalf of the people and government of Armenia, I express condolences and support to you and the brotherly people of Georgia. I wish resilience to the families and friends of the victims, and speedy recovery to those injured. We share the deep sorrow of the brotherly Georgian people at this difficult time, Pashinyan said in a telegram sent to Garibashvili.
Images capture the essence of the social, cultural and technological changes that have taken place in Ireland from the mid 19th century.

This photograph, taken in 1902, shows the new lighthouse under construction as Fastnet Rock.

This idyllic image of Leap in West Cork was taken by Fergus OConnor sometime between 1900 and 1920 . OConnor, who produced nationalist postcards and other material was imprisoned in the UK following the 1916 Easter Rising. Photographs courtesy of the National Library of Ireland.

This family group photograph, commissioned by J.J. Healy Esq. GP, of Queenstown (now Cobh), was taken on May 27, 1916.

VISITORS to the capital have been invited to take in a free exhibition paying homage to the golden era of Irish analogue photography, featuring rare images from Cork, currently running at the National Photographic Archive in Dublins Temple Bar.

For those not in the known, analogue photography is the process of capturing images using rolls of film as opposed to the now more common form of digital photography.

Entitled People and Places the exhibition, which has been launched by the National Library of Ireland (NLI), features 50 photographs taken between 1858 and 2001, capturing the essence of the social, cultural and technological changes that have taken place across Ireland from the middle of the 19th century up to the turn of this century.

Photographs on display include early forms such as salt paper print and stereo-pair up, to more contemporary photography, each one offering a unique glimpse into Irish history, ordinary Irish lives and charting the evolution of photography.

They include a snapshot of women selling refreshments in Killarney and a stunning shot of a passing steam train taken at Clones, Co Monaghan in 1959.

The images from Cork include a glass plate negative capturing an idyllic street scene in the West Cork village of Leap taken some time between 1900 and 1920, The photographer, Fergus OConnor, was a Dublin publisher who published Sean OCaseys early writings and produced nationalist postcards and related material.

Following the Easter Rising, he was imprisoned in Lewes prison.

Another photograph belonging to the Poole Photographic Collection, is of a family group featuring eight people taken on May 27, 1916 commissioned by J.J. Healy Esq. GP, of Queenstown (now Cobh).

An altogether different photo from Cork taken around 1902 shows the construction of the new lighthouse at Fastnet Rock. The original Fastnet lighthouse, built in the 1850s, was not robust enough for its exposed position, and construction of its replacement began in 1897.

Blocks of Cornish granite were delivered by boat and then transported by a tramway and a pulley system to build the tallest, and widest, lighthouse in Ireland and Great Britain.

The Irish library of record, the National Library was established in 1877 with the aim of sharing Irelands vibrant and colourful history with the world through its extensive collection of more than 12 million items that include books, newspapers, periodicals, photographs, prints, drawings, maps, letters and diaries.

Sara Smyth, the acting head of Exhibitions, Learning and Programming at the NLI and curator of the People and Places exhibition, said what is collected today becomes tomorrows history.

As Irelands memory-keeper, the NLI continues to collect and share a vibrant national collection that documents historical and contemporary life on the island of Ireland. The NLI houses over five million photographs, which are a visual record of the history and culture of Ireland, said Ms Smyth.

She said the images contained in the People and Places exhibition, which will run until 2024, speak to the diversity of Ireland, with photographs representing almost every county, north and south of the border.

We highlight working-class and middle-class communities, women, who usually appear less often than men in history telling and we juxtaposition rural communities alongside their urban counterparts, said Ms Smyth.

Themes such as climate change and transport are also addressed, she added.

For more information about the exhibition and to discover more photographs from the NLIs vast collection visit www.nli.ie.
A Cork woman who is credited with saving the lives of hundreds of Jewish children during the Holocaust is among the change-makers to be celebrated in a new exhibition getting underway in Kerry this weekend.

Mary Elmes, in whose honour a bridge over the River Lee is named in her native city, saved the lives of least 200 Jewish children during various stages of the Nazi campaign to slaughter the Jewish population in Europe by hiding them in the boot of her car. In 2015 she became the first and only Irish person to receive on of Israels highest honours by being declared Righteous Among the Nations in recognition of her work during both the Spanish Civil War and World War 2.

She features among ten famous Irish women who are to be honoured in a series of exhibitions which includes new artworks by artists working in visual art, film, dance, theatre, creative writing and digital arts, which will be on show at exhibitions at three venues on the Iveragh peninsula getting underway this weekend.

The first event is taking place at the Old Barracks Heritage Centre in Cahirciveen at 7pm on Friday. Other events are taking place in St John the Baptist Church in Knightstown, Valentia, at 7.30pm on Saturday and the Valentia Island Lighthouse on Sunday at 2pm.

The stories celebrate change-makers in Ireland today, working to make society a better place for all and recognising them for their incredible contribution to Irish society.

Mary Moynihan, Smashing Times Artistic Director, the company behind the exhibitions and other events, said the they were thrilled to be involved in the exhibition. We are delighted to be able to showcase amazing Irish talent in the beautiful surroundings of Valentia Island and Cahersiveen especially recognising the Change-makers of Ireland, she said. This is a great opportunity to acknowledge the incredible contribution that people make to life in Ireland to change it for the better.

All live events are accompanied by a series of open, public panel discussions and post-show structured talks and audience Q and As on new visions for a peaceful and equal society for all, taking place after the performance and online, reaching across Ireland and internationally.

Inspired by the stories of ten change-makers, visionaries and leaders from the Decade of Centenaries 1912-1922 and the stories of change-makers from today working to make society a better place for all, professional artists come together to collaborate on the development of a series of artworks for public display.

Most events are free of charge, and tickets can be acquired at this link.
I still enjoy being a priest - I believe God has unconditional love for everybody and his plan is for the Human race to be happy and saved and its up to priests like me to help people find that - its what the Church is all about

At the tender age of 95 Canon Colie ODonovan, Corks oldest priest, shows no sign of slowing down and still maintains a busy schedule.

A priest in the parlour, a pump in the yard and a bull in the field  there were so many priests from rural areas at that time that it became a catch phrase all over Ireland  sure, the country was flush with priests and not just Cloyne, but all the dioceses had to send priests abroad.

Canon Colie ODonovan was recalling the very different Ireland into which he was ordained a priest 70-years-ago as he reminisces about seven decades of ministry in North, Mid and East Cork before he modestly dismisses the idea that he may be Irelands oldest priest, still saying Mass at the age of 95.

Relaxing in the sitting room of the family home on Youghal Road in Midleton in East Cork where he grew up, he reckons that there are at least three others ordained with him in Maynooth in 1953 who are still practising priests though there are surely few possessed of his impish sense of humour.

How many of them are still practising priests? How many are still above ground, more likely, he quips with a hearty laugh before he reveals that he knows of three of his classmates in Cashel, Armagh and Tuam, who are all still out and about while others are now resident in nursing homes.

I did seven years in Maynooth. You did a degree first, that took three years, and I studied Irish and Latin and then you did four years theology  we started out with 94 and we finished up with 54  that was about normal, a lot of lads wouldnt return after the degree, felt it wasnt for them.

The ordination itself was not without drama.

Along with his classmates, Canon ODonovan had seen Archbishop Charles McQuaid of Dublin ordain their predecessors and impressed by him, were keen he too would ordain them.

Today's News in 90 seconds - August 4th

The only problem was Archbishop McQuaid was in Australia at the time.

When we heard that Archbishop McQuaid was staying on in Australia for another two weeks and it was your man up in Armagh who was going to ordain us, the whole class came together and we were like the Cork hurlers when they went on strike, we said we wanted McQuaid to ordain us.

We had seen McQuaid ordain the classes for five-years before us and he was very impressive and when he heard about our insistence, he upped sticks in Australia where he had been attending a Eucharistic Congress or something and he came back, and he ordained us all in Maynooth.

Describing himself as a cradle Catholic raised by two devout parents, Canon ODonovan says it was only when he went to St Colmans College in Fermoy that the idea of becoming a priest began to take root even though he had been a regular Mass goer and altar server in his native Midleton.

I was never hearing church bells or felt I was destined for the priesthood, he said, before revealing the authorities at St Colmans told him that while he may have doubts about becoming a priest, if those assessing him for a vocation, deemed him suitable, then he would fare well choosing that path.

The one thing that bothered me about becoming a priest was the hurling - I was obsessed with it. I was blessed that God gave me the ability to hurl. I had a small build but could play better than many of the bigger fellows on the field, he says of the other great passion in his life.

A skilful hurler, Canon ODonovan hurled with St Colmans and Midleton and later with the Cork juniors before he managed to make his way on to the Cork senior hurling panel where in 1952, he started at left corner forward in the All-Ireland semi-final when Cork overcame Galway by 1-5 to 0-6.

Although he didnt play in the final when Cork comfortably overcame Dublin on a scoreline of 2-14 to 0-7 when his fellow East Corkman, the legendary Christy Ring won his sixth All-Ireland medal, Canon ODonovan collected his own Celtic Cross which still occupies pride of place in his home in Midleton.

Ring was exceptional  the greatest ever  he would be as focussed and committed training up in the Athletic Grounds (precursor to Pairc Ui Chaoimh) as he would playing a Munster final  he was tremendous, he said, his admiration for the Cloyne maestro still evident after all these years.

Ordination in 1953 put an end to Canon ODonovans inter-county hurling career  particularly as with a surfeit of priests in the Diocese of Cloyne, he was dispatched to Eastbourne in Sussex where he spent a year ministering to the many Irish emigrants who had left to rebuild Britain after the war.

He returned to Cloyne in 1954 with his first posting bringing to him to Mallow in North Cork where he spent seven happy years as chaplain in the hospital, which for a townie like himself was ideal before his first curacy brought him to Donoughmore in mid-Cork.

Donoughmore was my first experience of rural life and to be honest, its a place I didnt want to go. Fr Mick Williams was curate there and he would organise an annual soccer match for priests in the diocese - it was a kind of social gathering for the priests from all over Cloyne.

He would hold it every November and we were always playing on a wet mucky day and afterwards there would be buckets of cold water to wash so I wasnt too gone on Donoughmore  it was a real baptism of what rural life was like for country priests, but I came to love the place and the people.

He followed his ministry in Donoughmore with a stint over the hill in Glantane in North Cork before he was sent to Youghal in East Cork where he nurtured his love of swimming  all three postings as curate before he finished up in Inniscarra in Mid-Cork as parish priest.

He retired in 2003 at the age of 75 but retirement has brought little let up, saying Mass daily for the Presentation Sisters in the local convent in Midleton as well as deputising for local priests when they are away, helping with an adult catechism class and singing with a local choir.

As Ive been blessed with good health, Ive had the chance to help the local parishes a lot, like subbing in whenever someone went on holiday. I say Mass every day for the sisters and Im the lead singer in a group who do performances for the Midleton Day Care Centre, said Canon ODonovan.

A dapper sprightly man who could easily pass for someone in their 70s rather than someone just five years shy of making 100, Canon ODonovan has served under seven popes from Pope Pius XII, when he was ordained in 1953, right through to current occupant of the See of Peter, Pope Francis.

In that time, he has seen huge changes in Ireland with those describing themselves as Catholic dropping from 95pc of the population in the 1961 census to 69pc in the 2022 census.

Meanwhile, the number of priests being ordained has dropped hugely and parishes now have to share priests.

We were ordained into a setup where you had churches full on Sundays and it was mighty, and the priests were almost up on a pedestal - the respect was absolutely unreal and that was because the peoples faith was handed on from generation to generation, said Canon ODonovan.

But things have changed hugely, and Mass numbers have dropped and Im sorry to see that. Priests arent held in the same esteem and theres no longer the same trust  the abuse thing was mighty crippling  it shouldnt have happened, he added.

Looking back on his life, Canon ODonovan remembers the excitement that he and his fellow priests felt when, in the same spirit of change that saw John F Kennedy elected US President, Pope John XXIII convened the Second Vatican Council.

We were all excited about Vatican Two  there was a great sense of excitement about Pope John XXIII because he was opening the windows and letting in the fresh air but the way it happened, some fellows interpreted what came out of the council their own way and they went off on a solo run causing confusion, said Canon ODonovan.

Thats where the confusion started but the solid base is still there  the church in Ireland has taken an awful tumble - now that doesnt mean the church is in trouble here  well, it may be for numbers in a way, but the fundamental message of the church is set in stone and that wont be changed.

Questioned regarding the possibility of women being ordained priests, Canon ODonovan is adamant that will not happen.

However, he sees more women  and men  coming to the fore within the church in newer roles as the number of ordinations drop.

Im very optimistic we will turn a corner  we were down in Kilsheelan in Co Tipperary on retreat a few years ago and the Bishop of Waterford had set up this Catholic Youth Ministry Training Centre and there were a gabhal of young people there, said Canon ODonovan.

There were 20 of them - men and women aged between 20 and 30, all professional people who had taken leave of absence and they told us they would be there for 12 months studying the basics of Catholic teaching before going out to parishes to do youth ministry  that gave me a boost.

I still enjoy being a priest, being a brother of Jesus - I believe God has unconditional love for everybody, and his plan is for the human race to be happy and saved and its up to priests like me to help people find that - its what the Church is all about, he said.
Reverend Roman Biletskyy has been ministering in Ireland for 12 months or so and will take up an appointment as Curate in Fermoy on September 2.- Picture; David Creedon

A priest from the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv is to take up an appointment as curate in the parish of Fermoy and serving the pastoral area of Fermoy and nearby Kilworth, according to the appointments for the Diocese of Cloyne announced by Bishop William Crean this week.

Reverend Roman Biletskyy from the the Diocese of Kyiv-Halych will be ministering in Fermoy and nearby Kilworth in north Cork from noon on Saturday, September 2 when the appointments take effect.

Confirmation is being sought from the Diocese of Cloyne whether Rev. Biletskyy is the first Ukrainian priest to take up an appointment in Ireland following the invasion by Russia of his homeland last year.

The Diocesan Secretary, Fr. Jim Moore told The Corkman that Reverend Biletskyy has been administering to the Ukrainian Catholic community for the past 12 months or so and that his role here has now been put on a more formal basis.

The appointment comes at a time when theres a growing number of refugees residing in Cork and, also, when the Diocese of Cloyne, like other dioceses around Ireland, is experiencing no little difficulty recruiting younger priests as an increasingly elderly cohort of clerics take retirement or approach retirement age.

In this years round of diocesan appointments, the Reverend WIlliam ODonovan, the current Parish Priest of Conna in east Cork has tendered his resignation as he retires to take up residence in Doneraile. His replacement in Conna will be the Very Reverend William Winter, who is at present the Parish Priest in Banteer.

Bishop Crean has also made the following appointments:

 Rev. Patrick Corkery, CC Fermoy to be CC Charleville  Rev. Thomas Lane, CC Mallow to be CC Mitchelstown  Rev. Paul Bennett, CC Cobh to be PP Banteer  Rev. Anthony Sheehan, AP Charleville to be CC Mallow  Rev. Gerard Cremin, CC Youghal to be CC Cobh  Rev. Patrick ODonoghue, CC Mitchelstown to be CC Youghal

In announcing the appointments, Bishop Crean said that he was grateful to all involved for their generosity and enthusiasm in embracing their new commitments.

"These appointments take place shortly before Catholic Church representatives, lay religious and clergy gather for a Synod in Rome during the month of October, wrote Dr. Crean in a letter to the Diocese which is to be circulated at services this weekend.

Pope Francis has convened this meeting to enable and empower parishes and communities to a more effective exercise of co-responsibility in leadership and pastoral care, he said.
At the unveiling of the memorial bench to Dessie Byrne and Muriel Eriksson in Ballybunion on Thurdasy last were members of their families and friends who travelled from all over including Roscommon and Athlone for the poignant occasion. Front left to right: Justin Byrne, Niamh O Shea, Paulette Daly, Maggie Byrne and Fiona Flanagan. Back left to right: James McKeown, Paula Byrne, Megan Byrne, Shirley Byrne, Ciara Byrne, Kelly Byrne, Regina Dal and Bridie Burke

At the unveiling of the bench to remember Dessie Byrne and Muriel Eriksson who died in a double drowning tragedy were members of the Ballybunion Sea and Cliff Rescue. Back left to right Liam Mulvihill, John Walsh, Padraig Hennessy, Marie Alice Walsh and Geraldine Galvin with Dessie's partner Paulette Daly and Ruairi Walsh who was also in the water that fateful day. Photo by John Kelliher

Flowers were placed on the memorial bench by family and friends to remember Dessie Byrne and Muriel Erriksson who died in a double drowning in Ballybunion a year ago. Photo by John Kelliher.

The inscription on the bench in memory of Dessie Byrne and Muriel Eriksson.

Fr Sean Hanafin blessing the bench in memory of Dessie Byrne and Muriel Eriksson who died in a double drowning in Ballybunion and who were remembered on the year anniversary.

The partner of the late Dessie Byrne pictured with Ruari Walsh from Cork who played a part in guiding their son, Josh to safety in the double dorwning tragedy that claimed Dessie's life and that of his sister Muriel.

Paulette Daly sitting on the bench in Ballybunion in memory of her partner Dessie and his sister Muriel both of whom died in a double drowning in Ballybunion

Paulette Daly - the partner of the late Dessie Byrne who died along his sister Muriel in a double drowning in Ballybunion a year ago. Pictured with her son Josh (14) who was also in the water on that fateful day.

Paulette Daly, the partner of the late Dessie Byrne, who died in a double drowning alongside his sister, Muriel, in Ballybunion last year. The family, including their son, Josh, came together to remember the much-loved brother and sister on Ballybunion on Thursday, August 3.

There hasn't been a single day since a fateful evening in Ballybunion last year that the families of the late Dessie Byrne and Muriel Eriksson have not remembered what happened to their loved ones, who died side-by-side in the a double drowning tragedy last August 4.

On the one-year anniversary of the tragic deaths of the brother and sister in the North Kerry seaside resort of Ballybunion, their families and the local community gathered to remember them and to unveil a memorial bench in their honour.

The small ceremony included Paulette Daly  the partner of the late Dessie Byrne  along with their son, Josh, now 14, who himself almost died on that terrible day.

She was joined by members of Dessie and Muriels family, as well as friends. They travelled from Roscommon and Athlone to the scene where their loved ones  51-year-old Dessie of Lecarrow, County Roscommon; and his sister, 62-year-old Muriel Eriksson, from Malmo, Sweden  tragically lost their lives.

For Paulette, yesterday (Thursday) was a difficult day at the end of an horrific year.

"I can't believe it has been a year, it feels like two months ago. I don't know where Christmas went, St Patrick's Day is gone, events we would have celebrated, we didnt even notice, she said.

"The void in our lives is a deep, deep hole that can never be filled.

Tears flowed down her face as she hugged her beloved son, overlooking the spot where Dessie lost his life. Josh was lucky to survive the terrible tragedy, and the teenager who played a part in helping ensure Josh was safe on that day also returned to mark the anniversary.

A special tribute was paid to 15-year old Ruairi Walsh of Carrigrohane, Cork, at the inquest into the double drowning as he kept Josh under observation to make sure he was safe.

He said the events of the day were shocking, but a year on he says it is nice to commemorate Dessie and Muriel. He recalled the events of the day.

"In the moment I didnt do much. I just made sure he [Josh] got out of the water, he said.

He said he has overcome the trauma and had made peace with the events of the day but, for Paulette, Ruairi is a hero who helped to make sure her son was safe, and she is eternally grateful. The two hugged as they were reunited.

She said Dessie's death has been particularly hard on Josh, who has special needs and still phones his dads number. He asked for Santa to bring back his dad.

The pain is a pain that will never ease, she said.

Wreaths and flowers were placed at the bench, now engraved in memory of Dessie and Muriel.

The inscription to Dessie reads: The hardest goodbyes are the ones that we never get to say...Treasured memories of Desmond (Des Byrne)Look for me in the rainbows.

The memorial next to it, in memory of Muriel, reads: Treasured memories of Muriel Eriksson...The bottom line is to have fun and enjoy life.

Parish Priest Fr Sean Hanafin also spoke at the short ceremony and said all the community can do is "to be here in solidarity with them.

Ballybunion Sea and Cliff Rescue was also in attendance, and members brought family wreaths and flowers out to sea in honour of Dessie and Muriel.

"Today is a very important day for the family and ourselves. Our sole purpose of being is to help, if we can help them in these times, we can help them in any time...We just try to help and support them, said Sea and Cliff Rescue Chairman Gearoid OConnor.

A verdict of death due to misadventure was recorded at the inquests into the deaths of the brother and sister, who drowned when swimming together.
Megan O'Malley as Constance Markievicz in Courageous Women, a film by Mary Moynihan on display as part of States of Independence - A Celebration of Change-Makers, Smashing Times.

Cahersiveen and Valentia Island will this weekend play host to a series of exhibitions, projections, films and performances which will be presented by Smashing Times International Centre with the sole aim of the stories of change-makers from the Decade of Centenaries 1912-1922 in Ireland.

The performances, which start tonight and will continue on Saturday and Sunday, will celebrate women such Constance Markievicz, Valentia Island's Helen Blackburn and Cork's Mary Elmes amongst other incredible women.

The events taking place in Kerry will start tonight (Friday, August 4) with the first event taking place at The Old Barracks Heritage Centre in Cahersiveen at 7pm.

The Saturday August 5 event will take place at the St John the Baptist Church in Knightstown on Valentia Island Saturday 5 at 7.30pm; meanwhile on Sunday at the Valentia Island Lighthouse, Glanleam, the final event at will take place at 2pm.

St John the Baptist Church will host the live indoor performance on Tales of Love and Loss: Change-Maker Stories from History and Valentia Island Lighthouse will host the live outdoor performance in the courtyard in front of the lighthouse on Change-Maker Stories: Tales from an Afterworld.

The Old Barracks Heritage, Cahersiveen, will host the launch of the exhibition and Change-Makers Panel Discussion with artists and speakers.

Along with the live performances, exhibitions will be held in St John the Baptist Church from July 24 to August 13 and Valentia Island Lighthouse Heritage Centre from July 24 to August 31 and in The Old Barracks Heritage Centre in Cahersiveen from August 1 to October 31.

We are delighted to be able to showcase amazing Irish talent in the beautiful surroundings of Valentia Island and Cahersiveen especially recognising the Change-makers of Ireland. This is a great opportunity to acknowledge the incredible contribution that people make to life in Ireland to change it for the better, said Mary Moynihan, Smashing Times Artistic Director.

All live events are accompanied by a series of open, public panel discussions and post-show structured talks and audience Q and As on new visions for a peaceful and equal society for all, taking place after the performance and online, reaching across Ireland and internationally.

Most events are free of charge, and tickets can be acquired at https://smashingtimes.ie/
Winston, who lost his sight after being diagnosed with a rare illness, is carrying Louth's hopes in the Nose of Tralee

Winston, a five-year old rescue dog who lost his sight just weeks before he was due to move home from Canada to Dundalk with his owner Clodagh ORiordan, has been named as the Louth entry for the 2023 Nose of Tralee.

Clodagh had been working in Vancouver when the cute Aussalier (mini Australian Shepherd X Cavalier King Charles) who rehomed to her during the pandemic in 2020.

"He was two years old and had belonged to a colleague and didnt fit with the family, so it wasnt too traumatic.

The two quickly became best friends, so when Clodagh began planning to return home last September after four years in Canada, she naturally intended on bringing Winston with her.

"I had the tickets booked and then around the middle of August, he started getting eye infections, she says. He was in and out to vets, getting pressure eyedrops and pressure tests. The vets knew he had glaucoma but didnt know what was causing it, so they called in a specialist and he was diagnosed with a really rare autoimmune immune disease called Uveodermatologic Syndrome.

Winston was in a lot of pain and lost his eyesight, so he had to have emergency surgery to remove his eyes as he had no chance of regaining his vision.

"I was really worried that I would have to reschedule the flights but the vet said he would be a hundred per cent and he was. We flew home to Ireland three weeks later.

Winston quickly adjusted to life as a blind dog and to his new home in Ireland as Clodagh moved back in with her parents on the Red Barns Road.

"He runs the house, she says.

Clodagh and Winston have become familiar figures for the neighbours as they walk along the Red Barns, the Shore Road and the Navy Bank.

"He loves going for walks and loves the beach, its his favourite place.

When hes not going for walks, Winston likes to snooze on the couch, while eating is another favourite past-time.

Chicken is his top all-time favourite food.

Clodagh works for Graebel, a global relocation services company based in the Finnabair Business Park.

Shes still mostly working from home which suits Winston as hes very happy to be a supportive work colleague.

Winston was selected as the Louth Nose following a public vote and selection process.

"There were three dogs shortlisted and then the judges picked Winston.

He is now representing the Wee County in the national final and Clodagh is appealing for people to vote for him as it approaches the anniversary of him losing his sight.

It would mean a lot to see him winning this contest exactly a year after the most stressful time for him.

Voting is at https://www.petsittersireland.com/nose-2023 until August 21 and people can cast their vote once every 24 hours. Voting closes
Student nurses and staff from St. Angelas College visited rural parts of Uganda to partake in various projects

Flying the flag for St. Angelas at a Health Clinic in Oukut Village - (L-R) Nursing Student Emily Kelly; Programme Co-ordinator Sean Kelly, Nursing Students Eabha Heffron, Sorcha Higgins and Erin Russell; and Head of School, Dr Edel McSharry.

Four student nurses and two staff from St. Angelas College, Sligo visited rural districts of Uganda this summer to participate in a number of humanitarian community engagement projects where they delivered general health check clinics and vision assessments in several locations from Entebbe to Soroti, and beyond.

In preparation for the trip, a number of fundraising activities took place which meant the team could financially support initiatives on the ground there and all through a reputable community leader and founding director of NGO Bright Kids Uganda, Dr Victoria Nalongo Namusisi.

Donations were brought by the team or were purchased through local businesses in Entebbe, which included mattresses, blankets and mosquito nets for childrens dorms, educational supplies, a range of medical supplies and much needed drugs, fifty fruit trees, as well as equipment for solar energy harvesting to allow for the opening of a new health clinic.

In addition, donations also secured a years salary for two full-time care support staff and one full-time nurse.

Victoria welcomed the new partnership with St. Angelas. I assure you that these donations will go a long way towards improving the childrens lives both at Bright Kids Uganda and Noahs Ark Inclusive School for Disabled Children.

As the recipient of the 2023 African Humanitarian Award, Victoria is an advocate for promoting international students experiential learning in Uganda.

Her vision is to ensure students and volunteers can feel a part of the community when they visit.

Head of School of Nursing, Health Sciences and Disability Studies, Dr Edel McSharry, described her experience, meeting people who live with very basics means but yet can still smile and show their affection and appreciation, is something that will stay with us as a team.

Our students took the time to listen and did whatever they could to help in every interaction they had with the children and the people they met and worked with, this is at the very core of what a good nurse is and I have no doubt that this experience has changed our students perspective and understanding of the challenges people in developing countries face - the learning they gained and compassionate approach they practiced when in Uganda will stand to them in their future nursing careers.

Student nurses also presented nutrition and health workshops at a health conference to promote maternal and child health.

In addition, hundreds of eyeglasses were donated over the past several months which were all categorised and following a vision assessment, were hand delivered to those who needed them.

Donations could also purchase handcrafted cases which directly supported a local businesswoman in Entebbe.

The Uganda programme came about through a personal experience Programme Co-ordinator, Sean Kelly, had back in 2017.

Getting to reconnect with strong community leaders like Victoria is key to the success of any efforts we make.

Hesaid: Maintaining these relationships and contributing responsibly and sustainably can mean a brighter future for those we work with, and one St. Angelas and ATU can be proud to continue with.

The team wishes to sincerely thank everyone who donated generously towards the various campaigns including local Sligo opticians as well as other businesses.
News

Garda Finn took part in Shannon Boat Rally day before fatal fire in Carrick-on-Shannon

Tragic Garda Deirdre Finn who died in a fire which broke out on her boat on Bank Holiday Monday in Carrick-on-Shannon had taken part in the 61st annual Shannon Boat Rally which had finished on Sunday in the County Leitrim town..
With the deadline for submissions fast approaching (Wednesday 9th August) Sligo County Council is inviting everyone with an interest in the built, natural and cultural heritage of the county to have their say on the Draft County Sligo Heritage and Biodiversity Strategy 2023 -2030.

The draft Heritage and Biodiversity Strategy has been developed by Sligo County Council working with the members of Sligo Heritage Forum.

The draft Heritage and Biodiversity Strategy has been informed by the results of previous Heritage Plans for the county and pre-draft consultation undertaken with key stakeholders and the local community in March 2023. The draft Sligo Heritage and Biodiversity Strategy seeks to establish an ambitious vision for the management and conservation of our built, natural and cultural heritage in the changing context of the climate and biodiversity crisis.

The national heritage landscape has changed significantly in the last few years particularly with the publication of the new National Heritage Plan - Heritage Ireland 2030 - and the current preparation of a new - National Biodiversity Action Plan  for Ireland. The draft Strategy has considered these and how it can best reflect these changes at county level.

Cathaoirleach of Sligo County Council, Cllr. Gerard Mullaney outlined, Its important to acknowledge the excellent work of the heritage sector and local communities in caring for Sligos heritage resources. Heritage is so important for Sligos identity and for the sense of place and pride it provides within local communities. I am encouraging everyone with an interest in the built, natural and cultural heritage of County Sligo to make a submission on the draft Heritage and Biodiversity Strategy and to consider what they can do to support its implementation in the coming years.

Cllr. Donal Gilroy, Chair of Sligo Heritage Forum added: We are casting a wide net in this draft consultation and are encouraging everyone in the county to join in the conversation about what heritage means to them and to get involved in shaping the draft Heritage and Biodiversity Strategy for the county. Submissions are invited via https://consult.sligococo.ie or by email to heritage@sligococo.ie or by post to Siobhan Ryan, Heritage Officer, Sligo County Council, Heritage Office, Sligo County Council, City Hall, Quay Street, Sligo, F91 PP44.

All submissions by email or post shall be clearly marked Submission  Draft County Sligo Heritage and Biodiversity Strategy 2023-2030.

Please note that all submissions received by Sligo County Council will be made available to the public. Please do not include personal, confidential, or other sensitive information in submissions. The closing date for submissions is 4pm, Wednesday 9th August 2023.
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has branded EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrells recent remarks that Russia was purportedly creating the dependency of developing nations on its grain shipments as a farce.

August 4, 2023, 09:28 Zakharova slams Borrells remarks on Russia creating new dependencies with grain supplies

STEPANAKERT, AUGUST 4, ARTSAKHPRESS: "Am I not getting something, has hunger already been conquered? Arent there any problems with food security? This is some kind of a farce, a year ago, the West was screaming about the necessity to urgently feed those starving, and when nobody was fed besides [the West] itself, they are screaming that Russian grain is superfluous in the market," the diplomat wrote on her Telegram channel, Tass informs.
Fine Gael TD Paul Kehoe has called for Irelands Best Young Entrepreneur competition to be reinstated after being paused during the pandemic.

Deputy Kehoe said the program provided valuable publicity and funding to fledgling businesses or existing companies who wish to take their brand or product to a new level.

Deputy Kehoe, party spokesperson on Research and Innovation, said: I am calling for this valuable competition to be reinstated as soon as possible.

Over 600 young entrepreneurs nationwide received more than 8 million in funding before it was suspended due to Covid-19.

The programme was critical to many businesses, not only for finance but for the mentorship, credibility and press coverage it gave to young entrepreneurs and their businesses.

Deputy Kehoe continued: The beauty of this program was that almost any young person with a business idea could enter, no matter what your background was.

Maybe you have been to university and researched a business idea, maybe you have always wanted to be your own boss, maybe you are an existing young entrepreneur - it doesnt matter what you want to do, all that matters is you have a good business idea that works.

I have raised this with my colleague, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Simon Coveney, and I understand a Working Group has been established with representatives across the Enterprise Ireland Centre of Excellence and the Local Enterprise Office Network to consider the possibilities and opportunities of such an entrepreneurship programme.

I hope the decision will be reached to continue this invaluable programme as soon as possible.
Imelda May will star in three performances of Mother of all the Behans at the Bray Mermaid Arts Centre in August. Photo: David Conachy

BELOVED Dublin singer and performer Imelda May will star in three performances of the new play Mother of all the Behans at the Bray Mermaid Arts Centre from Thursday, August 10 to Saturday, August 12.

Adapted and directed for the stage by Peter Sheridan from the book by Brian Behan, the one-woman production follows the story of Kathleen Behan, the mother of the late Brendan Behan, which has been described as a fascinating record of a remarkable life.

Join Imelda May for an evening of songs and stories celebrating the life of Brendans Mammy and marking the centenary of the birth of Behan. Inspired by the songs and stories handed down through generations, this retelling is an entertaining journey through the social history of Dublin and the Behan family history.

Speaking in advance of the performance, Imelda May said: Im excited to announce today, on the centenary of our beloved Brendan Behans birth, that Ill be playing the role of his charismatic and magnificent mother Kathleen Behan in Peter Sheridans wonderful play Mother Of All The Behans. Kathleens historical songs, colourful stories and lust for life resonate with me deeply.

Shes a true Dub full of wit, wisdom, knowledge and humour that I feel I know from every woman that raised me. I love to learn, I love a challenge and for my growth, both personally and as an artist, I feel its imperative to leave my comfort zone often and swim a little deeper each time.

Im terrified and thrilled by this project but I feel passionately about this play, this story, this period of our history and culture and most importantly this woman.

Imelda May will perform three nights of Mother of all the Behans at the Bray Mermaid Arts Centre from Thursday, August 10 to Saturday, August 12 at 8 p.m.

Tickets are 35 and can be purchased via the Mermaid Arts Centre website at mermaidartscentre.ie
A policeman near Kabul in Afhanistan photographed by Bray novelist Tony 'Moon' Flood on one of his many adventures abroad.

A fascinating new book about the adventures of an intrepid Bray man entitled Travel with Moon will be launched at Dubray Books in Bray on Thursday, August 10.

Written by Wicklow man Tony Flood, nicknamed Moon for his love of spaceflight and his stock car racing car Apollo Moon, the captivating book details his journeys across Europe, Africa and the Middle East during the 1970s, with maps of his expeditions and plenty of comical tales about interactions with locals, odd jobs and near-death experiences.

With his pal Robert Clob Keogh often in tow, Tony hitchhiked and drove his way from Morocco to Denmark, Istanbul to Iran and everywhere in between, with the metal fabricator finding work as a cook, boat builder and even a goat herder along the way!

As the books tagline suggests, Travel with Moon takes the reader over land to the back of beyond, with tale after tale of friendship, hospitality and plenty of sticky situations.

Its all my travels around Europe, Africa and the Middle East from 71 to 77, and there are plenty of stories to tell, including some that youll just have to read about in the book, that are probably not fit for publishing, Moon joked.

Ah, it was a great time to be alive back then. Myself and Clob started the first trip in 71, with bags on our backs, hitchhiking all the way to Italy, where I found work on a barge doing a bit of cooking, and he was doing a bit of cleaning.

Just before we left, we visited Pisa, where we both went into confession to prepare for the road ahead. Just as we were coming out of the church there, Clob got flattened by a car and ended up in a hospital for a while  just a crazy experience altogether.

The following year, we put together a transit van and headed off to Morocco. There was a trip from Istanbul to Zurich through the former Yugoslavia, which was fascinating, considering a lot of the places we visited dont exist any more.

I sold leather bags that we bought in Morocco in Amsterdam, where I also worked on a barge, and I lived in Copenhagen on and off for years  as it was a closer base to mount trips to the east.

Probably the craziest experience was when I lived on a goat farm in Iran, way up in the mountains, where there was no electricity. I got a lift on a lorry up into the mountains one day and walked down to four or five little houses, and ended up staying there with a guy called Al. We took care of the goats during the week, then picked one out for the weekend for the BBQ, which was delicious!

That story and lots more are in the book. I started writing it six years ago, finished it in January and decided to self publish. Ill be selling signed copies at the launch and it will also be sold online on Amazon.

Ive already sold 100 books to friends and people that know me, and its been getting rave reviews so far. Thanks to them, those sales paid for the second run of 200 books, and Dubray Books will be taking 100 for the launch.

Its been a great experience writing it, and I just cant wait to hear peoples reactions. I think its a good read, and it was certainly a thrill living it!

Moon will be signing copies of his new book at Dubray Book shop on Bray Main Street on Thursday, August 10, at 6 p.m.
AGE & Opportunity is seeking applications from professional Wicklow artists with a background in the arts and older people in a care context to participate in the second iteration of their professional development arts initiative, the Artists Care Exchange (ACE).

A national provider of opportunities for older people, Age & Opportunity is encouraging professional artists from a wide range of art forms to apply, including but not limited to visual arts, dance, theatre, creative writing, music, circus and multidisciplinary arts.

ACE will offer six to eight professional artists working in care settings with older people an opportunity to exchange information, advice, and experiences in a group setting while also learning from experts in the social, medical, and arts fields.

Participants will sign up for seven facilitated sessions, which will take place between Thursday, September 28 and Thursday, December 14.

Each session will cover a specific topic, delivered by an expert and a chat session, with a focus on arts and ageing in care. There will also be an online mentoring session, allowing participants to learn further from more experienced artists.

The sessions will include an introduction focusing on participants expectations and experience, an understanding of the care setting perspective, the practice and ethics of working in care settings concerning ageing, ageism and understanding dementia and age-related health issues.

Considerations for working in hybrid contexts will be broached, how to research and evaluate a project, finance, funding and grant applications, a group recap and feedback session, plus online mentoring of up to eight hours per participant artist, matching experienced artists with each artist participant.

Age & Opportunity is the national organisation that provides a range of opportunities for older people who want to get more involved in arts and culture, sport and physical activity, civic engagement and personal development, the Age & Opportunity invitation reads.

Specifically, our arts programme aims to support and provide resources for artists, arts participants/audiences and arts organisations. We do this through our annual Bealtaine Festival, which is Irelands month-long (May) national festival celebrating the arts and creativity as we age and our Resource and Development Programme.

Speaking about the ACE initiative, it added: While there is no one definition of a professional artist, we would suggest that it relates to someone who is either making a living from or attempting to make a living from their work.

Membership of a professional representative body such as Visual Artists Ireland, Film Directors Ireland, Association of Irish Composers etc. could also demonstrate status as a professional artist.

A completed application form with CV or short biography, along with three examples of work, should be submitted to the arts programme administrator, Jessica Burton Restrick at arts@ageandopportunity.ie no later than 5 p.m. on Friday, September 8, with decisions promised on or before September 22.

Age & Opportunity is funded by the HSE, Sport Ireland and the Arts Council.
Cllr Edward Timmins, Patrizia Corazza, Michael Doyle, Cllr Avril Cronin, Andra Johnston and Marco Monesi on the steps of the Italian Embassy in Dublin. Photo: Barry Hamilton

Patrizia Corazza, Mayor Belinda Gottardi and Marco Monesi meeting the Angela O'Brien School of Irish Dancing at the Tramway Theatre in Blessington. Photo: Barry Hamilton

Mayor Belinda Gottardi of Castel Maggiore aigning the Twinning between Castel Maggiore and Blessington at the Wicklow County Council Offices Blessington. Photo: Barry Hamilton

Mayor Belinda Gottarid with the Twinning Committee, Michael Doyle, Jason Mulhall, Carmel Cashin, Liam Fay and Andra Johnston at The Avon in Blessington. Photo: Barry Hamilton

A delegation from the Italian town of Castel Maggiore were recently welcomed to Blessington to sign a friendship agreement, as part of the twinning process between the two communities.

The visit was part of an ongoing process to twin Blessington with Castel Maggiore, with the cooperation of Blessington and District Forum and the Baltinglass Municipal District.

The delegation were welcomed by District Manager Breege Kilkenny of Wicklow County Council, Cathaoirleach of Baltinglass Municipal District Cllr Edward Timmins, along with local councillors Avril Cronin and Patsy Glennon, as well as members of the Blessington and District Forum, Chair Carmel Cashin and twinning committee Chairman, Michael Doyle.

Cllr Timmins said: This is an opportunity for us to showcase all we have to offer in Blessington and indeed the wider west Wicklow area and to build up connections with our counterparts in Italy. 

Community groups within Blessington were invited to attend a welcome for the delegation at The Avon, an opportunity to build connections, exchange views and develop relationships with likeminded groups from Castel Maggiore.

Speaking at the event Cllr Avril Cronin said: Today marks the beginning of a great friendship between our two communities. It will allow our two communities to share their visions, exchange opinions, learn from each other, explore our cultures and create a strong relationship.

The delegation also met with Blessington Tourist office staff, experienced Irish music and dance at the Tramway Theatre, learned about the history of the town on a walking tour, and visited the library and the Comin Centre.

The group also had the opportunity to visit local tourist attractions such as Russborough House, Blessington Lakes and Glendalough.
Actor Domhnall Gleeson with Allison Ryder from the Wicklow Hospice Foundation, at the launch of Bewleys Big Coffee Morning Social for Hospice. Photo: Conor McCabe.

Domhnall Gleeson is urging people across Wicklow to host coffee mornings next month to help raise 2million for extraordinary hospice services.

The Hollywood star is supporting Bewleys Big Coffee Morning Social for Hospice, a fundraising drive which has generated 43.2million since 1992.

He joined Hospice hosts and volunteers at the iconic Bewleys cafe on Grafton Street on August 2, and asked everyone in Ireland to host or support this years event on September 21.

Both of Gleesons grandparents  his father Brendans parents - spent their final days in St Francis Hospice in Dublin.

My grandma (Pat) was only there for a few weeks and that was my first experience of being around a Hospice, said the Harry Potter and Star Wars actor, 40.

I was incredibly close to her and I was struck by the atmosphere of care and kindness. She had a rough journey before she got there - and all of a sudden, that difficult road seemed less punishing to travel.

He recalled thinking she seemed as safe and cared for as possible.

It was such a relief, he said. In terms of my granddad (Francis), we had been looking after him for a long time, probably about a year, and didnt think he was going to last that long in Hospice, but he was there for months.

The care was extraordinary, but he had a new lease of life, it (Hospice care) gives their body the care it needs, and makes them feel special.

He told how Francis constantly joked with staff who, he said, see beyond the illness or life-limiting condition.

Theres a focus on creating a connection and patients are not just a problem to be solved on the way to the next problem along the corridor. Each persons journey is different, and each one matters to the people working there.

I dont know how they do it; there is an incredible giving of oneself.

Now in its 31st year, organisers hope to raise 2million in 2023, returning the countrywide fundraiser to pre-Covid levels and bringing the total raised since its inception beyond the 45million mark.

Together for Hospice, the National Hospice Movement, represents 26 hospice and specialist palliative home care providers supporting patients and their families.

Funds raised locally stay local and go back into each hospice service, helping to pay for medical and general staff, palliative care beds, home care visits, specialist equipment and new hospice builds.

Communities right across Wicklow are urged to simply gather a group on September 21 to help raise much needed funds to support the work of Wicklow Hospice Foundation, Wicklow.

Mary Flanagan, of Wicklow Hospice Foundation, said: The Bewleys Big Coffee Morning Social for Hospice is a chance to celebrate our many coffee morning hosts across the county, who are an incredible testament to the dedication and committed nature of Hospice supporters in local communities. This ongoing support is invaluable and funds vital services and quality initiatives enhancing care for patients living with a life limiting illness.

Register to host a coffee morning on September 21, or on a date that suits you, to support your local Hospice, at hospicecoffeemorning.ie or call 0818 995 996.

If you cannot host or attend, you can make a donation at hospicecoffeemorning.ie/donate.
Hundreds of protesters gather in support of the putschist soldiers in Niamey yesterday. Photo: Mahamadou Hamidou/Reuters

Hundreds of people rallied in support of Nigers ruling junta in the capital yesterday, denouncing France and others who have criticised a recent coup  as the countrys military leaders sought to exploit anti-Western sentiment to shore up their takeover.
Europe

Children among the casualties as 41 migrants die after their boat was struck by a huge wave
FILE PHOTO: migrants onboard a boat during a rescue operation, before their boat capsized on the open sea, off Greece. Photo: Hellenic Coast Guard/Handout/File Photo via REUTERS

Migrants trying to cross from Italy to France at the Ventimiglia border point on the Mediterranean coast are mistreated by French police and offered little help by Italian authorities, the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) charity said on Friday.
An attempt to hastily conclude a peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan at the expense of careful preparations and planning will only lead to more conflicts in the future, Head of the Russian Foreign Ministrys Fourth CIS Department Denis Gonchar has told TASS in an interview.

August 4, 2023, 10:15 Hastily concocted Baku-Yerevan treaty to cause new conflicts  Russian MFA

STEPANAKERT, AUGUST 4, ARTSAKHPRESS: "A hastily concocted, raw peace treaty will not be able to bring about a lasting peace in the region. On the contrary, it will create potential grounds for new conflicts and future tragedies. It is not speed that should be viewed as a priority, but, instead, a careful preparation of balanced and mutually acceptable solutions," the diplomat said.

Gonchar noted that a number of Western countries claim that Baku and Yerevan may sign a peace treaty almost as early as in coming weeks or months.

In the Russian diplomats opinion, the timeframe for the signing should be determined by the sides themselves.

"A responsible mediators task is not to expedite the negotiating process for the sake of timeserving considerations, but to facilitate solid and long-lasting agreements," Gonchar added.
How truth caught up with the Dublin orphan conman who faked his way across the world
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Representative image by Mulyadi on Unsplash

Toronto/IBNS: Canada's major drop in surgeries to 13 percent during the early years of the pandemic has been highlighted by a new report, but those pains were felt unequally across the country's provincial health-care system, with the largest decrease in procedures seen in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Released Wednesday by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), an independent organization which compiles and analyzes health system data, the findings revealed roughly 743,000 fewer surgeries performed in Canada during the first 2 years of the pandemic, a drop of about 13 percent compared to 2019.

"It takes a long time to catch up when you have to cancel a large number of surgeries," Kathleen Morris, CIHI's vice-president of research and analysis reportedly said.

Although the number of surgeries dropped, the CIHI report noted an increase of 15 percent in overtime hours in Canada's public hospitals from 2020 to 2021 compared to the previous year, a stark example of the pressure COVID-19 put on health-care workers.

Other health-care issues, including staff shortages and burnout, levels of access to personal health information, and the roughly one in 10 Canadians not having a regular health-care provider were highlighted by the findings.

All provinces and territories except Quebec have signed on

Quebec did not provide any figures for CIHI's new report, leaving out health information for a population of roughly 8.8 million.

(Reporting by Asha Bajaj)
Kolkata: Police used tear gas to disperse a mob which turned violent following the death of a school kid who was hit by a truck in front of Barisha High School in Behala area of Kolkata on Friday morning.

The seven-year-old boy, identified as Souranil Sarkar, who was on his way to school, along with his father, was run over and killed by the speeding truck.

Following the incident, locals cited agitation and blocked the busy Diamond Harbour Road in Behala Chowrasata area.

The deceased child's father Saroj Kumar Sarkar was critically wounded and admitted to SSKM Hospital.

The accident happened around 0630 hours.

When the police came to the accident spot in front of Barisha High School, the irate mob attacked them by hurling stones and some personnel received wounds.

The agitating guardians and local people, while protesting the runover by the mud-laden truck, also pelted stones at the police, who resorted to lathi charges.

When the club-wielding action failed, police fired tear gas cells to disperse the attacking mob, which also set on fire a police van and a motorcycle. Four private buses were also ransacked, reports UNI.

The Rapid Action Force was also deployed to quell the violent people.

City police commissioner Vineet Goyal rushed to the accident site, along with senior policemen, and talked to the agitating people.

He also assured that the city police would ensure safety from traffic violations in the area in future.

He said the truck was seized and the driver was arrested.

Police removed the blockade after about three hours of traffic disruption on the busy Diamond Harbour Road.
Image: UNI

Srinagar/IBNS/UNI: Three Army jawans were injured in an ongoing encounter in Jammu and Kashmirs Kulgam district on Friday, police said.

The encounter started between militants and joint forces this evening at high reaches of Halan forest area of Kulgam.

"Three (03) jawans got injured in the encounter. They are being evacuated to hospital for treatment. Search in the area intensifies.." a police tweet said.

#KulgamEncounterUpdate: Three (03) jawans got injured in the #encounter. They are being evacuated to hospital for treatment. Search in the area intensifies. Further details shall follow.@JmuKmrPolice https://t.co/Wq0ND6GSZr  Kashmir Zone Police (@KashmirPolice) August 4, 2023

The gunfight erupted a day after an army soldier, Javaid Ahmad Wani, who went missing from his native Kulgam district while he was on leave, was traced by police.

Police didnt divulge more as to how the soldier was traced.

Wani, a rifleman with the Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry, from Achathal village in Kulgam, went missing on July 29 evening after he left for Chawalgam village, in the same district, to buy some items.

Wanis car was later found at Paranhal village, about 5 km from his Achathal residence.

Fearing that he might have been abducted by militants, his mother released a video message pleading for his safe return home.

Wani's family Friday praised the efforts of the police and the Army in tracing their son.
In image Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge at a media conference after Supreme Court order/courtesy: Facebook/INC

New Delhi/IBNS: Soon after the Supreme Court stayed the conviction of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in a criminal defamation case over his "Modi surname" remark made at an election rally in 2019, the Congress scion said his duty remains the same which is protecting the idea of India.

"Come what may, my duty remains the same. Protect the idea of India," the Congress leader tweeted in his first reaction after the top court overturned a lower court order, which led to his disqualification as an MP.

Come what may, my duty remains the same.



Protect the idea of India.  Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) August 4, 2023

Addressing a press conference with party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi said, "My path is clear. I have clarity about what I need to do. I am thankful for all the support."

Kharge said, "Democracy has won. He fought for truth... and walked over 4,000 km from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and met people from all walks of life. Their blessings gave us this relief."

Taking a swipe at the ruling BJP, Kharge said, "It took them less than 24 hours to disqualify him. Now let's see how long it takes to reinstate him."

The Supreme Court earlier in the day stayed the Gujarat High Court order, which had upheld the conviction of Rahul Gandhi for defamation over his "Modi surname" remark in 2019.

The judgement is stayed until the larger appeal is heard on merit, a bench of the Supreme Court headed by Justice B R Gavai said in its order.

The apex court passed the order after noting that there were no reasons given by the trial judge for giving the maximum punishment of two years.

The SC also said that the disqualification affected not only Gandhi but also the electorate of his constituency.

However, the top court also cautioned Gandhi that he should have been more careful in making the alleged remarks.

The court noted in its order that it had heard the counsel at length and that the arguments were entering into the merits of the matter.

"Proceedings are pending before the specific court, we therefore refuse to comment on the merits so as not to influence proceedings. On the stay of the sentence, we have considered certain aspects of the case.

"There is no doubt that the utterances by the petitioner are not in good taste," Justice Gavai noted in his order.

However, the SC noted that the trial judge has given the maximum punishment of two years without sufficient reasons and grounds.

"Order of the conviction is stayed," Justice Gavai said.
Photo Courtesy: U.S. Embassy Dhaka Twitter page

Former U.S. Ambassador to Bangladesh Dan Mozena mentioned the role of Bangladesh in fighting terrorism and militancy as one of the key determinants of Bangladesh-US partnership in a private conversation with one of the authors (Dr. Arif) in 2012.

Senator Robert Menendez, chairman of the foreign relations committee of the senate, mentioned in an event, organized by one of the authors (Dr. Nabi) in 2022 that the current Bangladesh government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is a reliable partner of the USA in fighting terrorism. Both also mentioned that the United States would wholeheartedly support any Bangladeshi governments stance against militancy.

The position of Bangladesh in the global anti-terrorism fight is significant for various reasons: The geo-political location of Bangladesh in the South Asian region, Bangladesh is the eighth largest country in the world by population and the fourth largest Muslim country.

Most importantly, nearly one-fourth of the population of Bangladesh is illiterate and many of them live below the poverty line. Hence, Bangladesh could be a breeding ground for the rise of religious militancy.

The United States along with other Western development partners of Bangladesh strongly realize it and provide utmost importance to Bangladesh. The Western partner of Bangladesh including the United States expect a government in Bangladesh that is strongly committed to fighting terrorism.

Sadly, several recent incidents by U.S. politicians have ignited questions about the ongoing support of the U.S. to Bangladesh in fighting against terrorism and religious fundamentalism.

There is a symbolic meaning of the recent visa restrictions of the U.S. on Bangladesh.

The BNP-Jamat-led right-wing political parties who have been patronizing the extremism in Bangladesh took this step by the U.S. as part of their victories in questioning the legitimacy of the current Awami League government.

As the lawful citizen of the greatest country on earth, we the Bangladeshi Americans strongly agree with the advocacy of the U.S. government for free and fair elections and for maintaining human rights in Bangladesh. We also believe that like any other democratic government, the Awami League is not out of the question.

There might be some room to improve for the current Awami League government led by Sheikh Hasina.

However, the steps on the counter-terrorism taken by the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina are outstanding and nobody can ignore the success of the Awami League in wiping out the national, regional, and international terrorist organizations in Bangladesh.

For example, Bangladeshs position went up almost double from 23rd to 43rd in the global terrorism index. This is the greatest success of the last one and half decades of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasinas rule in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh used to be known as one of the hubs of fundamentalism and terrorism in the world before Sheikh Hasinas government came to power in 2009.

Right after 9/11, BNP came to power with the collaboration of the extremist right-wing Islamic party Bangladesh Jamat-e- Islami. Bangladesh never experienced such type of rise of religious fundamentalism as it happened during the BNP-Jamat regime from 2001-2006.

The situation was so bad that the international terrorist groups went rampage and started mushrooming all over Bangladesh. The international media termed Bangladesh as the next breeding ground or next Afghanistan.



There were valid reasons for this type of characterization of Bangladesh by the international media. The supporters of Bangladesh Jamat-e-Islami used to have a slogan, Bangla hobe Afghan means Bangladesh would become Afghanistan.

Sheikh Hasina expressed the firm commitment of her government to wipe out terrorism and fundamentalism right after getting elected in 2009.

It was one of the agendas in the election manifesto of the Bangladesh Awami League.

The ordinary people of Bangladesh were so frustrated with bombings and killings of progressive writers, activists, and bloggers. Basically, Bangladeshi gave a supermajority to the Awami League to fight against those evil elements of the society.

She ordered law enforcement agencies to follow the zero tolerance policy in wiping out terrorism from Bangladesh. Sheikh Hasina government also have been using the special elite force Bangladesh Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) to fight these notorious groups.

As a result, extremist leaders like Bangla Bhai and ShaykhAbdur Rahman, the leader of Jagrata Muslim Janata (Risen Muslims) who instructed their forces to bomb all the districts in Bangladesh at the same time were captured and prosecuted in a speedy special tribunal.

Extremists leaders got capital punishment. In addition, the Awami League government led by Sheikh Hasina rooted out all most all other small terrorist groups that mushroomed during the BNP-Jamat government.



These types of actions against those groups who ran their political actions solely based on Islam in a Muslim-majority country were not easy for the Awami League.

It was politically risky for Sheikh Hasina and her party. Thus, Bangladesh became a role model among all Muslim countries to fight religious fundamentalism.

Recently, the way some of the lawmakers in the U.S. asked the Biden administration and the United States to put an embargo on Bangladesh is unrealistic.

Questions might arise whether these politicians are cross-checking the facts or analyzing the historical data about Bangladesh.

Under these circumstances, some of us wrote to President Biden and some congressmen about the true situation of Bangladesh and urged them to cross-check the information before putting any further statements about Bangladesh. Some of them appreciated us for enlightening them by educating them about the facts and figures on Bangladesh.

We simply stated the facts about the activities of the counter-terrorism of Bangladesh Awami League and how historically Bangladesh Awami League has been known as pro-religious minorities (Hindu, Buddhist, Christians, etc.) to the right-wing Islamic political parties.

As Bangladeshi Americans, we felt that some of the Congressmen signed the petition to put embargo on Bangladesh without any prior knowledge or they were influenced by the lobbyists hired by the BNP-Jamat.

As Bangladeshi-Americans we are worried by such steps taken by the Congressmen. We strongly believe that this type of initiative is directly contradictory with the ongoing support of the United States to fight against terrorism and militancy in the South Asian region.

Like the politicians and the U.S. government, we also support the demand for free and fair elections and ensuring human rights in Bangladesh.

However, we must be very careful in terms of the process of regime change and directly supporting the right-wing fundamentalist groups to come to the power.

This type of activity would be against the interest of the United States in South Asia.

We strongly believe that like any other democratic government in the world, Bangladesh Awami League is not above criticism, and they might have some missteps in running the government. However, in terms of the global political scenario, it is undeniable to ignore the contribution of the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina toall almost wipe out religious terrorism in Bangladesh.

(About the author: Dr. Delaware Arif is an associate professor of digital journalism and immediate past President of the USA Faculty Senate, darif@southalabama.edu, and Dr. Nuran Nabi is a councilman of Plainsboro Township of NJ, Ekushey Podok Awardee and a Freedom Fighter, nurannabi@gmail.com.)
Image: WFP/Marie-Helena Laurent

New York: Conflict in Sudan has forced nearly four million people to flee their homes in a little over 100 days, the UN migration agency, IOM, has warned.

Latest data from IOMs displacement matrix indicates that the clash between the Sudanese army and paramilitaries has uprooted a staggering number of people, with more than 926,000 seeking refuge abroad and a total of 3.02 million internally displaced.

According to IOMs latest humanitarian situation update, individuals have been forced to leave all of Sudans 18 states. Those with the highest proportions of displaced people are River Nile (15 per cent), North (11 per cent), North Darfur (9 per cent) and White Nile (9 per cent).

IOM field teams have reported that the majority of internally displaced individuals, 71 per cent, originated from Khartoum State.

The UN organization emphasized that the current estimate of displacements over the past 108 days surpasses the total recorded for the previous four years. But it also noted that access to many areas remains impossible because of the fighting, meaning that current assessments have been based on preliminary reports or estimates.

Shelter across borders

A total of 926,841 people have now sought refuge in neighboring countries such as Egypt, Libya, Chad, the Central African Republic, South Sudan, and Ethiopia. Sudanese nationals accounted for more than two-thirds of these arrivals, while foreign nationals and returnees made up the remaining third, IOM said.

To mark 100 days since the start of the conflict on 24 July, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said that it was time for all parties to this conflict to immediately end this tragic war, amid growing concerns for refugees fleeing Sudan.

According to the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, conditions have been harrowing for those reaching shelter in neighbouring countries, where displacement camps are overcrowded and the looming rainy season has made relocation and aid deliveries harder.

Echoing those concerns, the IOM also warned on Wednesday that the rains pose a significant risk of flooding and could exacerbate the already fragile conditions.

Horrors of war

Since mid-April, the conflict between Sudans armed forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has caused displacement, death, injury and an unfolding humanitarian crisis. Reports of looting, attacks on public institutions and the occupation of private homes continue in the capital Khartoum, while clashes persist in four out of the five Darfur states.

Last week, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported cases of infectious diseases and other illness among displaced populations who have sought shelter in hard-to-reach locations, where health services are limited. The UN agency also reported that more than 50 health facilities have been attacked.

Although the WHO is supporting health services both in Sudan and bordering countries, the organization warned that the health crisis has impacted the entire region. And as efforts continue to bring about an end to the fighting, humanitarians fear that the situation could worsen for already vulnerable civilians caught up in the conflict.

Six million on the brink of famine

Meanwhile, the UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, warned that hunger and displacement due to the war are spiraling out of control.

Latest analysis from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) revealed that more than six million people, around 13 per cent of the population, are now one step away from famine.

Overall, more than 20 million people across Sudan are facing high levels of acute food insecurity as a result of conflict, economic decline and mass displacement.
New York: The lead-up to, and the results of, the recent elections in Cambodia are extremely disconcerting, UN human rights experts said on Wednesday, adding that the credibility of the entire electoral process was affected.

Cambodians went to the polls on 23 July, amid shrinking civic and political space, including a ban on the main opposition party, media restrictions and harassment of perceived opponents of the ruling elite, UN Human Rights Council-appointed independent experts said.

As a result, the national elections were very unbalanced and raised major concerns for the international community, they said in a news release.

The experts, including Vitit Muntarbhorn, Special Rapporteur on human rights in the country, warned that the shrinking democratic space and repressive practices linked to Cambodias political leadership seriously undermined human rights and liberal democracy under its international obligations and the Paris Peace Agreements.

The October 1991 accords ended the conflict in the Southeast Asian nation. They also provided for the withdrawal of foreign forces, cessation of outside military assistance and national reconciliation.

Abide by international obligations

Cambodias new government must abide by its international human rights obligations and the Paris Peace Agreements and address an array of serious human rights violations  old and new  which impede sustainable and inclusive development in the country, the UN experts said.

They added that Cambodias human rights record will be considered by the UN Human Rights Council later this year, bringing the countrys 2022 commune elections and 2023 national elections into international focus.

Thirty years since peace was assured by the Paris Peace Agreements, a major obstacle remains the failure to ensure and protect human rights and the systemic undermining of democratic principles, they said.

Call for international vigilance

With the Prime Minister of Cambodia expected to transfer power to his eldest son in the near future, the international community must remain vigilant and prepare a cohesive international response to the countrys democratic crisis, the experts said.

In addition to the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Cambodia, the experts joining the call included the Special Rapporteurs on promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence; on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association; on contemporary forms of slavery; on the rights of internally displaced persons; on independence of judges and lawyers; on the rights of persons with disabilities; and the Working Group on enforced or involuntary disappearances.

Independent experts

The Special Rapporteurs, Independent Experts, and Working Groups are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council.

The experts are mandated to monitor and report on specific thematic issues or country situations and work on a voluntary basis. They serve in their individual capacity, are not UN staff and do not receive a salary.
68-year-old Vagif Khachatryan, who was being transferred from Artsakh to Armenia for treatment accompanied by the International Committee of the Red Cross, has not contacted any of his family members since his abduction by Azerbaijan on July 29.

August 4, 2023, 15:10 Vagif Khachatryan, kidnapped by Azerbaijan, has not contacted his family until today. daughter

STEPANAKERT, AUGUST 4, ARTSAKHPRESS: Vagif Khachatryan's daughter, Tsovinar Khachatryan, informed "Artsakhpress".

"We go to the Stepanakert office of the Red Cross several times a day, and my sister to their office in Yerevan to find out any information. They tell us they have no information. They say that they are negotiating to see my father, but so far it has been unsuccessful," Ts. Khachatryan said.

The representative of the Red Cross called only at midnight on July 29 and informed that Vagif Khachatryan was in a hospital in Baku, where he was connected to artificial ventilation machine.

According to the daughter, her father has health problems and once again urges the international institutions to respond to their requests and return the father to the homeland a day earlier in order to save his life.

By the way, the Office of the Human Rights Defender of Azerbaijan published a message yesterday, stating that Sabina Aliyeva met Vagif Khachatryan personally. According to the report, Khachatryan allegedly "expressed gratitude to Azerbaijani state for the treatment, conditions of detention and the opportunity to contact his family." In fact, the family had no contact at all with Khachatryan, whom even the Red Cross hasnt visited after July 29.






Image: UN Verification Mission in Colombia

New York: The Security Council on Wednesday unanimously voted to expand the mandate of the UN Verification Mission in Colombia to monitor a ceasefire between the Government and the largest remaining rebel group in the country.

The truce with the ELN, the Spanish acronym for National Liberation Army, comes into effect on Thursday and will last for 180 days, according to media reports.

The development follows nearly 10 months of negotiations and is part of the "total peace" policy of President Gustavo Petro, who took office last August.

More international observers

The Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution that authorizes up to 68 additional international observers at the UN Mission as well as an appropriate civilian component taking into account existing resources where possible.

The Mission was established following the signing of a 2016 Peace Agreement between the Colombian authorities and leaders from the countrys largest rebel group, FARC, which ended more than five decades of war.

The ELN and another group, EMC, were not part of the accord.

By the unanimous vote, the Security Council reaffirmed its full commitment to the peace process in Colombia.

The Council also expressed willingness to consider mandating the UN Mission to monitor a ceasefire with EMC when the Secretary-General confirms a ceasefire including appropriate verification protocols has been reached.
Moscow: Ukraine attempted to attack a Russian naval base in the city of Novorossiysk overnight with two unmanned boats, which were detected and destroyed by Russia's warships, the Russian Defense Ministry said Friday.

"This night, the Ukrainian armed forces attempted to attack the Novorossiysk naval base with two unmanned sea boats," the ministry said, adding that the boats were "visually detected and destroyed by fire from the standard weapons of Russian ships guarding the outer raid of the naval base."

Krasnodar Region Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said on Telegram that the Russian military repulsed the attack, adding that there was no material damage or casualties in the attack.

The Caspian Pipeline Consortium, a consortium and an oil pipeline to transport Caspian oil from the Tengiz field in Kazakhstan to an export terminal in Novorossiysk, said on Friday that its infrastructure was not damaged in Ukraine's drone attack and that oil was being loaded on the moored tankers.

The company added that a temporary ban on vessel traffic in the port of Novorossiysk was introduced.

(With UNI inputs)
Image: Pixabay

Copenhagen: The Danish police are temporarily toughening controls at the country's borders for security reasons following recent Quran-burning demonstrations, the Danish Justice Ministry has said.

"Against the backdrop of the recent burnings of the Quran and as the current threat pattern develops, the police are temporarily stepping up efforts at the internal borders of Denmark ... This means, among other things, that you may soon face with selective border controls when making an entry from Sweden," the ministry said in a statement late on Thursday.

The measure, which went into effect on August 3, is based on recommendations received from the Danish Police Intelligence Service.

The border controls strengthening measures are expected to stay in force until August 10.

Danish Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard said that the government took the current situation in the country seriously and agreed with the recommendations of the police intelligence service to intensify checks on the internal border.

On Wednesday, Hummelgaard said there were no reasons to toughen border controls in Denmark.

On Tuesday, Swedish Justice Minister Gunnar Strommer said that the Swedish authorities would tighten internal border controls amid the deteriorating security situation.

Over the recent months, multiple Quran-burning demonstrations took place in Denmark and Sweden.

Most Muslim countries have condemned the demonstrations, and some have summoned the Swedish and Danish ambassadors to issue them notes of protest.

Last month, hundreds of Iraqi protesters stormed the Swedish embassy following the burning of the Quran in Stockholm.

(With UNI inputs)
Image: Unsplash

The Afghan Immigrant Council in Pakistan said more than 17 immigrants from Afghanistan have been detained in Islamabad.

Even though they had visas and passports, some immigrants said Pakistani police arbitrarily detained them, reports Khaama Press.

"I've been told there were seventeen people arrested, and then the number rose. They frighten and threatened people in automobiles in a dangerous way. Both those with passports and those without were being detained until morning, Mir Ahmad Rufi, the head of the Afghan Immigrant Council in Pakistan, told Tolo News.

Some of the detained persons, who were granted bail, later spoke on the manner in which the police arrested them.

"We were detained overnight at the police station from twelve until seven in the morning. They then arrived and began questioning. They looked at our visa and passport. Then ... they freed us, an Afghan immigrant in Pakistan told Tolo News.

The Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation (MoRR), calling to refrain from politicizing the issue of immigrants in Pakistan, urged the neighborsespecially Pakistanto treat the Afghan immigrants in accordance with international norms.

"Pakistan is our neighbor, and the Afghans who have moved there have done so in order to live in safety. They ought to be treated as immigrants and be given rights in accordance with the international principles and laws, said Abdulmutallab Haqqani, the spokesman of the MoRR.
At least 13 people were injured when a Long Island Rail Road train derailed outside New York City's Queens borough station on Thursday. Photo Credit: Governor Kathy Hochul Twitter page

At least 13 people were injured when a Long Island Rail Road train derailed outside New York City's Queens borough station on Thursday.

All eight passenger train cars derailed just east of the Jamaica Station complex at 175th Street and 95th Avenue around 11:12 a.m, sources in the New York City Fire Department told New York Post.

Those hurt suffered leg and back injuries, sources told the newspaper.

Rescuers went to the spot and carried out the rescue process.

Earlier today, a train derailed east of Jamaica. We were able to safely evacuate customers from the train, and 10 are now being treated for minor injuries.



MTA Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber is on the scene with LIRR and EMS personnel. pic.twitter.com/jyspEy6LGs  LIRR (@LIRR) August 3, 2023

The Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) tweeted: "Earlier today, a train derailed east of Jamaica. We were able to safely evacuate customers from the train, and 10 are now being treated for minor injuries."

Grateful to the @MTA workers & first responders who quickly responded to this mornings derailment & are working to restore full service.



Riders can expect track changes & possible delays through tomorrow.



Use the TrainTime App or visit https://t.co/HdmSksTdqa for updates. pic.twitter.com/HVH5uGlWdP  Governor Kathy Hochul (@GovKathyHochul) August 3, 2023

New York Governor Kathy Hochul said: "Grateful to the @MTA workers & first responders who quickly responded to this mornings derailment & are working to restore full service."

She alerted that commuters can expect delays and track changes due to the mishap.
Two US Navy servicemembers were arrested for allegedly transmitting military information to China. Photo Credit: Unsplash

Washington: In two separate cases in the Southern and Central Districts of California, two U.S. Navy servicemembers were arrested for transmitting sensitive military information to the Peoples Republic of China (PRC), officials said.

These individuals stand accused of violating the commitments they made to protect the United States and betraying the public trust, to the benefit of the PRC government, said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Departments National Security Division. The Department of Justice will continue to use every tool in our arsenal to counter threats from China and to deter those who aid them in breaking our laws and threatening our national security.

These arrests are a reminder of the relentless, aggressive efforts of the Peoples Republic of China to undermine our democracy and threaten those who defend it, said Assistant Director Suzanne Turner of the FBIs Counterintelligence Division. The PRC compromised enlisted personnel to secure sensitive military information that could seriously jeopardize U.S. national security. The FBI and our partners remain vigilant in our determination to combat espionage, and encourage past and present government officials to report any suspicious interactions with suspected foreign intelligence officers.

A U.S. Navy sailor, Jinchao Wei, aka Patrick Wei, was arrested yesterday on espionage charges as he arrived for work at Naval Base San Diego, the homeport of the Pacific Fleet, read a statement issued by US Department of Justice.

He was indicted for conspiracy to send national defense information to an intelligence officer working for the Peoples Republic of China.

The indictment, unsealed this morning, alleges that Wei, was an active-duty sailor on the amphibious assault ship the U.S.S. Essex stationed at Naval Base San Diego.

In his role as a machinists mate, Wei held a U.S. security clearance and had access to sensitive national defense information about the ships weapons, propulsion and desalination systems.

Amphibious assault ships like the Essex resemble small aircraft carriers and allow the U.S. military to project power and maintain presence by serving as the cornerstone of the U.S. Navys amphibious readiness and expeditionary strike capabilities.

According to the indictment, in February 2022, Wei began communicating with an intelligence officer from the PRC who requested that Wei provide information about the U.S.S. Essex and other Navy ships.

Specifically, the Chinese intelligence officer tasked Wei with passing him photos, videos and documents concerning U.S. Navy ships and their systems.

The two agreed to hide their communications by deleting records of their conversations and using encrypted methods of communication.

At the request of the intelligence officer, between March 2022 and the present, Wei sent photographs and videos of the Essex, disclosed the locations of various Navy ships and described defensive weapons of the Essex.

In exchange for this information, the intelligence officer paid Wei thousands of dollars over the course of the conspiracy.

The indictment further alleges that in June 2022, Wei sent the intelligence officer approximately 30 technical and mechanical manuals.

These manuals contained export control warnings and detailed the operations of multiple systems aboard the Essex and similar ships, including power, steering, aircraft and deck elevators, as well as damage and casualty controls.

The intelligence officer confirmed with Wei that at least 10 of those manuals were useful to him.

For passage of those materials, the indictment alleges that Wei was paid $5,000.

In June 2022, the intelligence officer requested that Wei provide information about the number and training of U.S. Marines during an upcoming international maritime warfare exercise.

In response to this request, Wei sent multiple photographs of military equipment to the intelligence officer.

In August 2022, Wei sent an additional 26 technical and mechanical manuals related to the power structure and operation of the Essex and similar ships.

The manuals contained warnings that this was technical data subject to export controls and that it was deemed critical technology by the U.S. Navy.

The indictment further alleges that in October 2022, Wei sent a technical manual to the intelligence officer describing the layout and location of certain departments, including berthing quarters and weapons systems.

Specifically, Wei sent a weapons control systems manual for the Essex and similar ships.

This manual contained export-controlled data that could not be exported without a license from the U.S. government.

The indictment alleges that Wei knowingly violated the International Traffic in Arms Regulations by transmitting this manual to the Chinese intelligence officer without obtaining a required license.

The intelligence officer continued to request information in 2023, including information about the overhaul and upgrades to the Essex. Specifically, he requested blueprints, especially those related to modifications to the flight deck.

Wei provided information related to the repairs the Essex was undergoing, as well as other mechanical problems with similar vessels.

During the alleged conspiracy, the intelligence officer instructed Wei to gather U.S. military information that was not public and admonished him not to discuss their relationship and to destroy any evidence regarding the nature of their relationship and their activities.

We have entrusted members of our military with tremendous responsibility and great faith, said U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman for the Southern District of California. Our nations safety and security are in their hands. When a soldier or sailor chooses cash over country, and hands over national defense information in an ultimate act of betrayal, the United States will aggressively investigate and prosecute.

U.S. Attorney Grossman thanked the prosecution team and investigating agencies for their excellent work on this case.

The FBI and Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) investigated the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys John Parmley and Fred Sheppard for the Southern District of California and Trial Attorney Adam Barry of the National Security Divisions Counterintelligence and Export Control Section are prosecuting the case.

A U.S. Navy servicemember, Petty Officer Wenheng Zhao, aka Thomas Zhao, 26, of Monterey Park, California, was arrested following an indictment by a federal grand jury, charging him with receiving bribes in exchange for transmitting sensitive U.S. military information to an individual posing as a maritime economic researcher, but who was actually an intelligence officer from the PRC.

The indictment alleges that Zhao, who worked at Naval Base Ventura County in Port Hueneme and held a U.S. security clearance, received bribes from a Chinese intelligence officer in exchange for violating his official duties as a U.S. sailor by, among other actions, disclosing non-public sensitive U.S. military information.

Beginning in August 2021 and continuing through at least May 2023, at the Chinese intelligence officers direction, Zhao allegedly violated his official duties to protect sensitive military information by surreptitiously recording, and then transmitting to the intelligence officer, U.S. military information, photographs and videos.

According to the indictment, the Chinese intelligence officer told Zhao that the intelligence officer was a maritime economic researcher seeking the information for investment decisions.

In exchange for bribes, Zhao allegedly sent the Chinese military officer non-public and controlled operational plans for a large-scale U.S. military exercise in the Indo-Pacific Region, which detailed the specific location and timing of Naval force movements, amphibious landings, maritime operations and logistics support.

The indictment further alleges that in exchange for bribes, Zhao also photographed electrical diagrams and blueprints for a radar system stationed on a U.S. military base in Okinawa, Japan.

The intelligence officer allegedly directed Zhao to conceal their relationship and to destroy evidence of the unlawful and corrupt scheme.

In exchange for the sensitive information Zhao provided  information Zhao accessed as a result of his position within the U.S. Navy  the Chinese intelligence officer paid Zhao approximately $14,866, the indictment alleges.

By sending this sensitive military information to an intelligence officer employed by a hostile foreign state, the defendant betrayed his sacred oath to protect our country and uphold the Constitution, said U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada for the Central District of California. Unlike the vast majority of U.S. Navy personnel who serve the nation with honor, distinction and courage, Zhao chose to corruptly sell out his colleagues and his country.

If convicted, Zhao faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.

The FBI Los Angeles Field Offices Counterintelligence and Cyber Division and NCIS investigated the case. IRS Criminal Investigation provided substantial assistance.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Annamartine Salick, Sarah Gerdes, Christine Ro and Kathrynne Seiden of the Terrorism and Export Crimes Section for the Central District of California are prosecuting this case. Trial Attorney Adam Barry of the National Security Divisions Counterintelligence and Export Control Section is providing substantial assistance.
India is facing a series of multiple communal clashes across the country. Haryana and Manipur riots remain two of the most horrific and disturbing incidents. Where actors like Dharmendra and Sonu Sood have the guts to speak over the same, several other celebrities are mum.



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Twitter is irked and how!

Internet users are tagging their favourite stars to speak in the public interest but it seems they await the checks to open their mouths. Amid all this, an old ad of celebrities advocating Stop The Hatred has resurfaced on the internet. This video dates back to March 2002 when a deadly riot broke out in Gujarat.

Indiatimes

The video features several celebrities including Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Sachin Tendulkar, Shabana Azmi, Tabu, Anupam Kher, Zakir Husain, Raveena Tandon, Ashutosh Gowariker, Fardeen Khan among many others. The message? - Stop the hatred.



Sachin can be heard saying, "It doesn't matter if you are a Hindu or a Muslim on the field, don't let it matter off the field. I am an Indian first."

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Further, a text flashes that read, A crime against one Indian is a crime against all Indians. It is then joined by small clips of celebs saying, "I am an Indian" and "Main Hindustani Hu". Big B by the end of the video says, "Band karo yeah anarth. Hum ek dusre ke saat aisa kaisa kar sakte hai?"







One user wrote, SACHIN and AMITABH are amazingly QUIET now! These words were spoken long, long back !

Log kehte he insan badalta he mene pichle 9 saal me sitaro ( bollywood stars ) ko bhe badalte dekha he is besharmi tak gir gaaye he ab sarkar se kuch bol bhe nai paatein Varna phele har jagah inke prakriya hote the ab dar he sirf dar.

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Gone are those days, when Indians could speak their mind. Even Govinda had to delete his tweet, so celebrities and public figures will either keep mum or toe the line.

They had the guts bec before the violence wasnt state-sponsored. Govt of India at that time would request them to make such videos. The same guys are bullied into not making such posts or videos or else they might have ED CBI IT at their doorstep!

Twitter

(For more news and updates from the world of celebrities from Bollywood and Hollywood, keep reading Indiatimes Entertainment.)
Reporting a cybercrime within one hour of crime can prevent gullible citizens from losing money through financial frauds. One can call the number 1930 to report this issue for swift action. Citizens must also exercise caution and not share their one-time passwords (OTPs) or ATM pins with unknown people. Using tough passwords and changing them on a rotating basis could prevent such frauds.

The moment one sees an email from their bank with a similar-looking logo, they are urged to open the link- what if it is important? Beware, this could be a clear case of phishing mail. Most often, such emails push for panicked actions among customers. Customers, in the fear, click on those links and, in turn, become victims of cybercrime.



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"When you do not know what a genuine or a malicious link is, it is always better to log on to the bank's website or the establishment's website and then execute the transaction through that site than clicking on the link which you are not sure of," says Akhilesh Balasubramanian, member of the Executive Council (EC), Bangalore chapter of Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA), that manages government-public alliance.

Senior citizens using online banking are easy and targeted prey for cybercriminals. For instance, senior citizens who think that the electricity connection could be disconnected if some transaction is not done by a particular time of the day; they become vulnerable victims. "A false sense of alarm is instilled by reinforcing the timeline. It all starts with I am sending a link, please click on this link. Never ever panic when you receive this," says Akhilesh.

"Community people have to be vigilant. There is no other go. There will be more attacks when people are vulnerable," he adds.

As people have migrated to digital banking, there are concerns about safety of their money in banks.

"You are always covered by insurance as an end user. Banks will always have some amount of insurance; it may vary from bank to bank. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has stricter norms which the banks are required to adhere to. There are periodic audits that get conducted to ensure that security controls prescribed by RBI are implemented. If there are gaps, banks are given some time to remediate those gaps", says Akhilesh.

Having 'tough to break' passwords

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Having complex passwords, second factor of authentication, ensuring that the passwords are not very predictable, is critical. For instance, people use their spouse's or child's names, which anyone can crack easily.

"Try and think of ways that you, as a person, wouldn't identify yourself with something; that something becomes your password. Break the predictability aspect of it," says Akhilesh.

The other aspect is not sharing pins. "If you share those details, your liability clause also gets diluted. If the pin is shared, and authorities find that out, then your case becomes very weak," says Akhilesh.

It is a common practice among people to give ATM card to security guards, share their pin and then take out money. This is sharing the information with third party, according to the banks; in this case, banks cannot be held accountable. People can use password management tools (like password bolt). One needs to keep rotating the passwords on a regular interval.

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"We need to take an informed decision while using password management tool. It will be important to look at reviews of these products from technical experts. You have to understand what are you signing up and look at the technical feedback on these aspects. End of the day, one should not falter on basics. When someone pressurizes that you need to act now, please do not," says Akhilesh.

Reporting cybercrimes

Dayananda B, Police Commissioner, Bangalore, at the 26th Annual Karnataka Conference on cybersecurity and digitization, talked about how a retired senior citizen was repeatedly asked to cough up insurance money. The citizen lost Rs 5 crore in this fraud.

One can report cybercrime before filing a First Information Report (FIR), he said.

Karnataka's early steps to deal with rising cybercrimes became a classic case now adopted across India.

"Whenever a person becomes a victim to cyber threat, especially money, the first thing to be done is calling the number 1930, post which details of bank and other information, the type of crime are collected. After this, both the accounts, i.e., account holder's and the account where the money is transferred, is frozen," said Dayananda.

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"Criminals have multiple accounts; they are more known as mule accounts. They move the money to multiple accounts across multiple locations and withdraw the money. Once the money is gone, you cannot do much," he added.

Just like how in accident cases, we have to take the victim to hospital in one hour, the same rule applies here. If the crime is reported within the golden hour, actions can be taken, and money loss can be prevented.

"We have been able to recover a huge amount of money with the cooperation of the banks and return to the person who has lost the money," said Dayananda.

In Bangalore city, cyber police stations are there in all divisions. "As these crimes are increasing, people can visit their nearest police station and register their complaints. They need not go to cybercrime stations anymore," said Dayananda.
When Very Severe Cyclonic Storm Gaja hit the coastal areas of Tamil Nadu in November 2018, it left a massive trail of destruction behind.

Thanjavur, also known as the rice bowl of Tamil Nadu, was one of the several coastal districts of the state that faced the brunt of Cyclone Gaja.

BCCL

Returned from Dubai to help cyclone victims

After the storm passed, locals started rebuilding their lives, and Nimal Raghavan also joined them.



Raghavan, a native of Nadiyam village in Thanjavur who was working in Dubai, was visiting his family when the devastating cyclone hit his hometown.

INDIATIMES

"I come from an agrarian family, and the cyclone had destroyed everything. After the cyclone, we started relief work, like cleaning up the debris and providing necessary items to the affected people. We were taking care of around 90 villages, and in the four months were working on the ground, I learned about another major problem the people of the area were facing - water scarcity," Raghavan told Indiatimes.

How one lake changed the fate of farmers

According to Raghavan, farmers in the area used to sow seeds three times a year, but due to the water scarcity, they were not even being able to do farming once a year.

INDIATIMES

After speaking to some community elders, he learned that the area's primary water source, the Peravurani Lake, has been dead for many decades.



Despite having no prior knowledge about waterbodies restoration, the Electronics and Communication engineer decided to give it a shot at reviving the dead lake that was spread across 564 acres.

"After talking to a lot of farmers, I understood how big an issue this was, and that is how I decided to work on restoring the Peravurani Lake. The lake was dead for nearly 20-30 years, and we managed to restore it in 107 days and filled it with water," he said.

INDIATIMES

New calling in life

According to Raghavan, the restored Peravurani Lake positively impacted the groundwater table, and water levels in nearby wells and other water bodies also improved.



"Six months of our efforts put an end to a problem that people were facing for 20-30 years. This made me think about what I can do and help more people. That is how the journey started, and since then, I have restored over 160 water bodies across India and also some in Africa," Raghavan said.

INDIATIMES

I am still learning

Even after restoring over 160 waterbodies of different kinds, Raghavan said, each of them was a new experience, and he is still learning.



"Initially, I used to get data and ideas from some retired PWD officials. I also speak to local farmers and others who live around the waterbodies who have known the area well and will be the beneficiaries of the restoration," he said.

INDIATIMES

How a waterbody is restored

Raghavan, who works mostly with a team of volunteers and locals, looks into several factors, including the condition of the waterbody, water storage capacity, encroachments, inlets and outlets, topography, and history of the lake, before the restoration process is started.

"After the research, we take the necessary permissions from the district authorities, and we start by working on the inlet channels to the lake. In the next step, we desilt the lake. We also reinforce the boundaries of the lake to increase its water-holding capacity. In some lakes, we also create lake islands and plant native trees there, and this will grow into an ecosystem of its own. Finally, the outlets are also cleared to ensure that the excess water flows into the next waterbody," he explained.

INDIATIMES

Why community involvement is necessary

Throughout the restoration process and beyond, Raghav said it is essential to involve local stakeholders in every step as they will be the beneficiaries and the ones who will care for the water body in the future.

"It is important to have the beneficiaries onboard because it is their lake. Right from day one, we work with the local community by creating awareness about the importance of the water body and educating them on why it should not be encroached on. Once the restoration process is completed, a committee of the beneficiaries will be in charge of its upkeep in the future," he said.

INDIATIMES

Growing awareness about waterbodies conservation

The once-dead waterbodies are restored into a complete, self-sustaining ecosystem that can provide a new lease of life to the people and animals around it.

"After the lake is restored and it is filled with water, there will be a subsequent increase in the water level in other water bodies. So farmers can now irrigate their farms, grow cattle and do fish farming in the lakes. This has had a positive impact on their livelihoods, and there is a growing awareness among people of the importance of their waterbodies. These days I don't have to educate people about restoring waterbodies, but they come to me seeking help to restore their lakes," he said.

For more on news and current affairs from around the world, please visit Indiatimes News.
The health authorities in Tripura have issued a dengue alert for the entire state due to an unexpected outbreak of the disease in the villages near Sepahijala district.

Dr Supriya Mallik, the Director of Preventive Medicine, said 182 individuals have been admitted to hospitals for treatment as of Friday, as reported by UNI.

Disease experts dispatched to affected areas

On Tuesday, Tripura had reported its first suspected death due to dengue as an elderly man died in Tripura's Sepahijala district. However, This death was not confirmed as due to dengue since no MAC-ELISA test was conducted.

Centre for Disease Control and Prevention

The state health department on Friday said that dengue and vector-borne disease experts have been dispatched to the affected areas, especially Sepahijala district.

Dr Supriya Mullick Dutta told reporters: "The upsurge of fever cases was reported from July 13. The district authorities received information about the upsurge in fever cases from the local primary health centre (PHC) on July 20. We dispatched state and district surveillance teams on the next day, and daily health camps are being organised since then."

According to reports, Tripura conducted 2,038 tests, of which 158 confirmed cases were reported from Sepahijala district with a concentration in Dhanpur.

Rubber plantation workers most affected

AGMC Microbiology Department head Dr Tapan Majumder said that a large number of the dengue patients identified at Dhanpur were rubber plantation workers.

The breeding of Aedes mosquitoes is on the rise because of the accumulation of water in open areas, leading to the detection of a significant number of larvae in stored water and rubber plantations.

Aedes Aegypti mosquito/ Wikipedia

An Indian Express report stated that though the state government had announced earlier this year to distribute equipment and toolkit to rubber plantation workers to assist them in capacity building, many of them work in relatively informal ways, exposing themselves to mosquito bites.



Disease surveillance enhanced

National Vector-Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP) state programme officer Dr Abhijit Das said the state government has deployed medical teams at Akhaura, Srirampur and other land ports connected with Bangladesh for dengue surveillance to ensure that no person with fever enters Tripura without testing.

Twitter

In response to the outbreak, the health department has taken several measures to tackle the situation. They have increased door-to-door testing, conducted awareness campaigns about dengue, and organised medical camps in the affected regions, UNI reported.



For more on news, sports and current affairs from around the world, please visit Indiatimes News.


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It wasn't until the June afternoon when Kassidi Streeter was sworn into service as an attorney that she realized she made history.

Streeter, 26, an Auburn native who practices with the firm WHMB P.C., is the first Black attorney in the Cayuga County Bar Association.

WHMB partner Roberta Williams shared the news with Streeter's father at the June ceremony. When she found out, Streeter was excited but nervous to be such a significant first, she told The Citizen.

"(I'm) adding to the history of an already very historical city," she said. "But I knew there would be a lot of pressure from the community to portray myself a certain way and live up to a certain standard."

One of three children to Jeff and Stacey Streeter, Kassidi grew up in Auburn and graduated from the city's high school before enrolling at Syracuse University. At first she was interested in medicine, mainly psychiatry, but taking a few law classes led her to switch majors. She also joined the university's chapter of prelaw fraternity Phi Alpha Delta.

Next, Streeter attended New England Law in Boston, and received her graduate degree there in May 2022. During the COVID-19 pandemic she took her classes online from Auburn, which allowed her to begin interning for Williams at WHMB. All of its clients love Streeter, Williams told The Citizen, and the new attorney's skills include her grasp of many areas of law and her familiarity with the community.

"I came to Auburn in 1987 and it has always amazed me that we have not been able to attract and keep professionals of color in light of the fact that Auburn is such a mixed ethnic and racial environment," Williams said. "Kassidi brings that to the table, along with her special understanding of the issues of this environment. She can hear and understand issues from a different perspective."

According to 2020 data from the American Bar Association, about 5% of attorneys in the country are Black, while 13.4% of the total population is. The same data tallied 142 attorneys in Cayuga County.

(Though Streeter is the first Black attorney to become part of the county bar, she is not the first to practice locally. Angela Winfield began doing so in 2009 as part of Syracuse firm Barclay Damon LLP. She attempted to join the county bar at the time, she said, but never received a reply. She is now vice president and chief diversity officer with the Law School Admission Council.)

Streeter currently focuses on family and some criminal law at WHMB, where she became a full-time attorney after being sworn into service in June. The diversity of areas of law drew her to the field initially, she said, and family law stood out from the rest due to its potential for helping people of all backgrounds and improving their dynamics at home.

Other attorneys in Auburn have been helpful, Streeter said, and have made themselves available for advice. Meanwhile, she's taken the opportunity to go back to Genesee Elementary School, where she learned, and share some advice of her own with the students there now. On a few occasions she has spoken with them about the importance of school and preparing for a career  even a historic one.

"Hopefully the students I've talked to ... see the importance of setting goals and staying focused," she said, "to make yourself and your community proud, even those who may have doubted you."
The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill 2023 was introduced in the Parliament on Thursday, laying down new obligations for entities in terms of how they process data of individuals.

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What does the bill entail?

According to the bill, the Data Protection Board of India would be set up soon and provide protection to the government, the board, and its members "on action taken in good faith," PTI reported. The bill would also allow the central government to block access to content in the interest of general public.

Entities that misuse or fail to protect the digital data of users may face penalty of up to 250 crore, the bill states. Penalty norms in the updated bill have been relaxed compared to those proposed in the draft that was shared with the public in November 2022.

"If the board determines on conclusion of an inquiry that breach of the provisions of this Act or the rules made thereunder by a person is significant, it may, after giving person an opportunity of being heard, impose such monetary penalty specified in the schedule," the bill said.

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Also read: Unlocking Serenity: Discover The Power Of Digital Tools For Anxiety Relief

The bill states that a minimum of 50 crore and a maximum of 250 crore may be imposed on entities that violate the rules.

"No suit, prosecution or other legal proceedings shall lie against the central government, the board, its chairperson and any member, officer or employee thereof for anything which is done or intended to be done in good faith under the provisions of this Act or the rules made thereunder," the bill said.

Even though the bill allows the central government to block access to any piece of content, Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that the bill is intended to protect the rights of citizens, allow innovation, and expand the government's lawful access in the case of emergencies.

Also read: India's Digital Revolution: Innovative Technologies Driving Rapid Transformation



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"This is certainly a legislation that will create deep lasting behavioural change and create high punitive consequences for any or all platforms that misuse or exploit personal data of any Indian citizen," Chandrasekhar said.

What do you think about the new Digital Personal Data Protection bill? Let us know in the comments below. For more in the world of technology and science, keep reading Indiatimes.com.
In the first year of the conflict, Congress approved roughly $113 billion in aid to Ukraine  far more than any other country
The culture ministry is systematically studying the impact of the climate crisis on Greece's monuments and preparing a national plan that will be ready in 2025, Culture Minister Lina Mendoni said on Friday, in an interview with Alpha 9.89 radio
On Thursday , Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis paid a significant visit to the 120 Air Training Wing in Kalamata , located in the southwest Peloponnese region of Greece. During his visit, the premier received an enlightening tour of the base, gaining valuable insights into the cutting-edge technologies and training methods utilized to instruct Hellenic Air Force officers under the Instrument Flight Rules (IFR).
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at his first appearance at the All Progressive Congress (APC) National Executive Council meeting since his inauguration as President, adjudged that the 2023 election that brought him to power is the most credible in Nigerias history.

Tinubu who made the submission on Thursday said he is so convinced, despite existing legal battles in court challenging the process.

Yes, we are facing challenges in court, but I think this is the most credible election in Nigeria. So, we must congratulate ourselves. As a democrat, those who cannot accept the results of a free and fair election do not deserve the joy of victory, he said.

On Party affairs which produced the former governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Ganduje, as Chairman, Tinubu said the Party has a responsibility to promote unity, stability, and love among members.

He furthered that, being elected to serve is an opportunity to fulfil your dreams and the dreams of our founding fathers.

While acknowledging that there are governance issues that need to be tackled, he said : We are taking it head-on; we must oil the wheel, grease it, and we are. I have submitted ministerial lists to Senate for screening and approval. We are in the process of fully establishing the government of the people, for the people, and by the people.

READ ALSO: You Must Not Fall Asleep, Your Brake Must Work  Tinubu Tells Ganduje, Basiru

I can see a number of my friends here, and you have not been able to see me. It is what you all fought for to bring me here. We have governance issues, and you will not see me as often as you want to.

Speaking further, he said Nigeria is going through challenges, which he had sufficiently addressed in his broadcast.

He said his administration is ready to re-engineer the economy of this country, adding that, Our policies are for the people, not to punish the people.

Tinubu also said: I sent messages to Europe and America yesterday. To our partners, I ask, how can you handle a barking dog, a mad dog, and prevent a barking dog from eating from the plate of your enemy? We are hungry, and the continent depends on Nigeria. We need help, but not at the expense of our joy, peace, and happiness.

He however cautioned the Party leaders about the need for a united front, stressing that the APC is in their hands.

Let us show the rest of the country that we are united for a purpose, and if we deviate from the path, posterity will not forgive us, he said.
A Dei-Dei Grade I Area Court in Abuja on Thursday, August 3, ordered that a 40-year-old businessman, Abubakar Sanusi be remanded in a correction centre for allegedly threatening to kidnap his landlord.

The police charged the defendant with criminal intentional hurt and intimidation.

The Judge, Saminu Suleiman ordered that the defendant be remanded in the Nigerian Correctional Service facility in Suleja, until August 15.

READ ALSO: Rivers Monarch Arraigned For Murder, Kidnap, Other Crimes

Earlier, the prosecutor, Chinedu Ogade told the court that the complainant, Chimezie Nwokeogu of Dei-Dei API awe, Abuja, who is the defendants landlord reported the matter at the Zuba Police Station on July 27, 2023.

Ogada said the complainant reported that the defendants rent expired over one year ago and he refused to pay or move out of the house.

He said that when the complainant requested his rent money from the defendant, he refused to pay.

The police alleged that the defendant threatened to kidnap his landlord.

The prosecutor said that the offence contravened the provisions of Section 397 of the Penal Code.

The defendant pleaded not guilty to the offence and the prosecutor prayed the court to grant him a date to open his case.
The states of Kano, Yobe, Katsina, Lagos, FCT, Sokoto, and Zamfara have been identified as the states with the most severely affected with Diphtheria outbreak, representing 98 per cent of the suspected cases.

Ms. Cristian Munduate, the UNICEF Representative in Nigeria, disclosed this in Katsina, stating that the majority of the diseases victims were children.

As of July 2023, the United Nations agency reported 3,850 suspected cases of diphtheria in Nigeria, with 1,387 cases confirmed.

The outbreak has caused 122 deaths, with a case fatality rate of 8.7 per cent across 27 states in Nigeria.

Munduate highlighted that the affected states have 71.5 per cent of their cases occurring among children aged two to 14 years.

She said, UNICEF Nigeria is amplifying its efforts to counter a growing outbreak of diphtheria that has affected children in 27 states. As of July 2023, 3,850 suspected cases were reported with 1,387 confirmed as diphtheria. The disease has tragically claimed 122 lives, with a case fatality rate (CFR) of 8.7 per cent.

The outbreak has affected mainly Kano, Yobe, Katsina, Lagos, FCT, Sokoto, and Zamfara, which account for 98.0 per cent of the suspected cases.

Most confirmed cases, approximately 71.5 per cent, have occurred among children aged 2  14 years.

Munduate emphasized that a significant number of the affected children, especially those who lost their lives, had not received any vaccination, underscoring the urgent need to reach out to those who havent been vaccinated in the country.

Describing the situation as heartbreaking, he pointed out that only 22 per cent of the confirmed cases had received their routine childhood immunization vaccinations.

The UNICEF country representative assured their dedication to providing laboratory consumables and biosafety cabinets to facilitate the testing of suspected cases at the NCDC.

In addition, the agency will support and finance risk communication and community engagement initiatives while also transporting vaccines and related equipment to the affected states, enhancing routine immunization efforts.

Munduate emphasized that UNICEF will train health workers and volunteers to improve service delivery, risk communication, and community engagement. Furthermore, the agency will procure and supply face masks, hand sanitizers, and antibiotics for treating the disease.

UNICEF is working in collaboration with the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), the affected states, and the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) to offer technical support for planning and implementing a response to the outbreak.
The Comptroller of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) in charge of the Jibia Special Border Command in Katsina State, Mustapha Sani, has cautioned Nigerians against travelling to Niger Republic.

INFORMATION NIGERIA reports that this is coming due to the crisis in the Niger Republic following a coup detat in the country.

Mustapha made this known on Thursday in a joint celebration with the Katsina State Command of the NIS to commemorate the service at 60.

READ MORE: ECOWAS Sanctions: Nigeria Reportedly Cuts Power Supply To Niger Republic

Nigerians should stay at home and not attempt to go to the Niger Republic until the embargo is lifted. And we are determined to return any Nigerien we catch who is planning to come to this country, he said.

According to him, the Service is deploying men to man the Katsina border to help curtail illegal movement from the Niger Republic.

Despite the fact that we are divided by colonial masters, we share certain things in common like religion and culture, and that doesnt guarantee them to enter Nigeria without valid documents, he added.

We have already put our officers on alert and we have already deployed some to go and man the orthodox routes through which some of the foreigners use to enter into Nigeria and from what we have on the ground, we know it will be impossible for them to enter into Nigeria.

We have already stationed our officers at strategic places for stop and search as usual.

In his remarks, the Comptroller in charge of the Katsina Command of the NIS, Muhammad Adamu, said tremendous achievements have been recorded by the Command in border management in terms of patrolling the irregular and porous land borders.

So we are here to jointly celebrate and enlighten people about what we have been doing especially in Katsina State. We will put more effort to record much bigger achievements, he noted.
Aisha Yesufu, popular political commentator, has reacted to the appointment of the former Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje as the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Recall that the APCs National Executive Committee (NEC) appointed Ganduje, as the Partys chair on Thursday, to succeed former Governor Abdullahi Adamu of Nasarawa State, who resigned in July.

The immediate past spokesperson for the Senate, Ajibola Basiru also emerged the Partys National Secretary.

READ ALSO: Expect More APC Reforms, Party Membersll Be Democratically United  Ganduje

Reacting to the appointment, the rights activist noted via Twitter that Ganduje ought to be incarcerated instead of being a Party leader.

According to her, the ruling party has shown that it encourages, nurtures and rewards criminality.

A man that should be facing incarceration is heading the helm of affairs of APC.

In what more ways does APC show it is a party that encourages, nurtures and reward criminality? Yesufu queried.
President Bola Tinubu has been praised for nominating an indigene of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Zephaniah Jisalo as a minister.

INFORMATION NIGERIA reports that Jisalo is the first FCT indigene to be nominated as a minister since the present democratic dispensation in 1999.

Jisalo, from Abuja Municipal/Bwari Constituency, once represented the area in the House of Representatives. Born on April 3, 1970, he was also the chairman of the Abuja Municipal Council Area (AMAC).

I would like to, first of all, congratulate my nominee and all of the FCT for this nomination. We are all extremely happy and proud, she said during the ministerial screening in Abuja on Friday.

READ MORE: Gbajabiamila Submits Tinubus Second Batch Of Ministerial Nominees To Senate

We would like to thank the president and the vice president for actually making this a reality; something that we have been wishing and hoping for a very long time.

While praising the nominee, Senator Kingibe described him as highly recommended.

I have known him for so many years before he became local government chairman; he through two terms and after that two terms in the House of Representatives, she noted. So, he is well-known to me and definitely qualified to be a minister.

She thereafter asked her colleagues to allow Jisalo, a former member of the House of Representatives, to take a bow.

Therefore, I would urge all of you, according to the protocol that we have been following and as a member of the House two terms that he should also take a bow, the lawmaker said.

We FCT people are so happy to the extent that I am actually speechless of which you know that I am not.
Members of an upstate New York union, including Auburn-area Tops employees, will benefit from a $764 million payment to restore pensions that were affected by the 2008 financial crisis.

United Food and Commercial Workers Local One, which represents workers at Tops Markets and G&L Davis Meat Co., the makers of Gianelli Sausage, in North Syracuse, will receive the pension fix through the American Rescue Plan, a 2021 federal law that provided $1.9 trillion for COVID-19 relief. The larger bill included the Butch Lewis Relief Act, legislation to prevent the collapse of multiemployer pension plans.

UFCW Local One's pension plan was projected to run out of money in 2026, according to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. Without the bailout, members faced severe cuts to their pensions if the plan became insolvent.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer blamed "out-of-control speculation on Wall Street" for putting more than 200 multiemployer pension plans at risk. He advocated for the fix and the inclusion of funding in the American Rescue Plan to bolster the pension plans.

"Upstate New York union members of UFCW Local One and their families could have lost the benefits they earned over a lifetime of work  through no fault of their own  putting their financial security, retirements and families' futures at risk," Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement. "When I became majority leader, I promised I would not stop fighting until our union brothers and sisters and their families got the pension relief they needed and earned."

The funding is available through the Special Financial Assistance program administered by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. Other multiemployer pension plans have been approved for assistance. In November 2022, Schumer announced that the Teamsters' multiemployer pension plan would get more than $960 million.

Frank DeRiso, president of UFCW Local One, lauded President Joe Biden and Schumer for the pension fix.

"Prior to the Butch Lewis Relief Act, workers were at risk of losing the retirement security that they earned through a lifetime of hard work," DeRiso said, adding that his members and their families "can take a deep sigh of relief knowing that their hard-earned retirement savings are now protected from significant cuts."
Labour Party (LP) chieftain and former director general of Peter Obis presidential campaign, Doyin Okupe, has reacted to President Bola Tinubus proposed military invasion in the Niger Republic.

Okupe disclosed this on Friday on his Twitter handle while responding to the political situation in Niger.

He noted that irrespective of who the president is, Nigerians and political leaders must unite in defence of the country.

He added that Tinubu is fighting for the enthronement of democracy in West Africa, and it is a commendable act.

He wrote: I am not suggesting we go to war with Niger. But Niger cannot rubbish Nigeria. I as a patriot, will not take that. We should not be quiet cos of internal differences & allow this to happen. Presidents are not permanent. We must all protect that seat else its not worth fighting for.

READ MORE: Niger Coup: US President Calls For Immediate Release Of President Bazoum

In this period of international conflict, all Nigerians & our political leaders must unite and collectively rise in defence of our Sovereign state. It matters not who the president is.

The true test of our patriotism is the ability to put aside our domestic differences in times like this and jointly condemn the effrontery & undiplomatic assault from Nigers military adventurers. President Bola Tinubu is fighting for the enthronement of democracy in West Africa.

It is a commendable act. This has, from time immemorial, been the established focus and centre point of our foreign policy. We cannot waver now even in spite of economic challenges. We must rebuke and condemn the demeaning of the Nigerian Presidency, especially from countries that we have laboured and committed enormous resources to support the welfare & well being of their citizenry.
It was gathered that France, the former colonial power in Niger, asked the military junta which has taken control of the country to guarantee the security of their embassy.
The new national carrier, Nigerian Air, will begin operations by October this year according to reports from Bloomberg.

In an interview with Bloomberg TV, the CEO of Ethiopian Airlines, Mesfin Tasew noted that the firm is eager to see Nigeria Airlines start flying local and international routes.

According to Mr Tasew, the airline will begin operation with two wide-bodied planes and six narrow-bodied aircraft. In his words, We are eager to see the airline start flying and connecting the local market to the international market

READ ALSO: Ethiopian Airlines Chairman, Girma Wake Resigns Amidst Nigerian Air Controversy

On the management of the airline, the CEO said Ethiopian Airlines will manage it stating it is a proven model and the objective is to enable Nigeria to have a flag carrier.

He said, The prime objective is to enable Nigeria to have an air carrier. Ethiopian Airlines will have a management contract. Effectively, Ethiopian Airlines will manage the airline to be successful.

He also noted that Ethiopian airline owns a 49% stake in the airline, the Nigerian government 5% together with other institutional investors.

Mr Tasew also commented on the difficult business environment in Nigeria but expressed optimism based on the size of the Nigerian economy and the potential inherent in it.

Ethiopian Airlines 2022 won the bid to handle operations of the proposed Nigeria Air in controversial circumstances after local players complained the company was handed an advantage during the bidding process.
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) on Thursday, issued an ultimatum to the Federal Government to withdraw a lawsuit filed against the organised labour.

The NLC made the decision during its National Executive Council meeting which was held in Abuja.

According to a statement signed by the national president, Joe Ajaero, the Ministry of Justice and National Industrial Court have continued to allow themselves to be used as agents of anti-democracy.

READ ALSO: FG Sues NLC, TUC Over Nationwide Protests (Photos)

The NLC noted that though it agreed to suspend protests based on its meeting with the President, it will embark on a nationwide strike starting from August 14, 2023, should the government fail to withdraw the lawsuit filed against it.

Highlighting the decisions of the NEC, Ajaero said the NEC resolved to support and affirm the decision to suspend further protest on the nationwide mass protest; to commit to maintaining the required vigilance needed to hold government accountable on its assurances and governance in general; To commit to the terminal date of August 19, 2023, within which the issues around the Petroleum price hike will be agreed given the assurances of the President and the National Assembly.

To go on total strike across the country any day labour leaders are summoned to court by the government through the NICN. To demand the immediate withdrawal of this litigious terrorism by the Federal Ministry of Justice before the end of work Friday, the 11th of August, 2023.

To embark on a nationwide comprehensive strike beginning Monday, 14th of August, 2023 if this contemptuous court summons is not withdrawn by whosoever initiated it.
Operatives of the Abia State Police Command have rescued three kidnap victims identified as, Azubuike Okorie, Oluebube Nwafor and Ekene Ike, at a kidnap den in Umunneochi council area of the state.

According to Vanguard, the suspects were arrested and victims rescued following a raid at a bush in Lekwesi community.

The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Abia State Command, SP Maureen Chinaka, who confirmed the incident, disclosed that two male suspects, Abubakar Tukur and Ibrahim Sandari, have been arrested in connection with the kidnap incident.

Chinaka explained that the police acting on credible intelligence, moved into the bush in Lekwesi community, near Lokpanta where the two suspects; Tukur and Sandari were arrested and the three victims, Ike, Okorie and Nwafor, rescued.

READ ALSO: Popular Native Doctor Kidnapped In Anambra Regains Freedom

The PPRO also confirmed that the three victims hail from Egwueme community in Enugu State.

She said, On 02/08/2023, at about 0800hrs, in furtherance of the search for the kidnappers terrorising innocent citizens within Umunneochi and its environs, the Abia police command recorded the success.

Acting on credible intelligence, the Divisional Police Officer Isuochi and some operatives of Abia State Police Command moved into the bush at Lekwesi, Lokpanta where two Kidnapping suspects namely; Abubakar Tukur m and Ibrahim Sandari m were arrested and three kidnapped victims rescued.

The rescued kidnap victims include; Ekene Ike m, Azubuike Okorie m and Oluebube Nwafor m, all from Egwueme in Enugu state.

One of the arrested kidnapping suspects Abubakar Tukur confirmed being a younger brother to Bona, another kidnapping suspect who is already in custody.
Former Kaduna Central lawmaker, Shehu Sani has urged the Senate not to approve any military action against the Niger Republic.

Reno Omokri, socio-political commentator and former presidential aide, on the other hand urged those in the opposition to come together and support President Bola Tinubu in his fight against the unrest in the afflicted nation.

Information Nigeria reports that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had officially briefed the National Assembly on the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) proposed military action and other penalties against the coup plotters in the Niger Republic.

The brief was contained in a letter to the Senate and read during plenary by Senate President, Godswill Akpabio.

Following the unfortunate political situation in Niger Republic culminating in the overthrow of its President, ECOWAS under my leadership condemned the coup in its entirety and resolved to seek the return of the democratically elected government, Tinubu said.

In the letter, Tinubu informed the upper chamber that sanctions, including freezing utility services and closing land borders with the Niger Republic, were imposed on the neighbouring West African country at an emergency meeting after its coup.

Blockade of goods in transit to Niger, especially from Lagos and eastern seaports Embarking on sensitisation of Nigerians and Nigerians on the imperative of these actions, particularly via social media. Military build-up and deployment of personnel for military intervention to enforce compliance of the military junta in Niger should they remain recalcitrant, the President added.

In reaction, Sani who warned the Senate against approving Tinubus request, advised the President not to be misled by foreign powers.

The former lawmaker insisted that diplomatic measures should be employed in combating the unrest in Niger.

READ ALSO: There Are Better Days Ahead, Be Patient With Tinubu  Lagos CAN

The Nigerian Senate should NOT approve any military action against Niger Republic. This country should not be plunged into war and eventually stuck in war in the Sahel. President Tinubu shouldnt allow himself to be misled by foreign powers. Saudi in Yemen, America in Afghanistan, and now Russia in Ukraine should teach us a lesson that war doesnt end in days, weeks or months.

Senators should weigh the implications and consequences of their decisions, especially those senators representing states along the Niger Border.

Weaponising electricity supplies to Niger is also condemnable.

President Tinubu should continue to explore diplomatic channels and save the lives of those who will be sacrificed. Thats my view, Sani wrote via Twitter.

Omokri, on his part, praised ECOWAS under the leadership of Tinubu, for shutting down electricity, enforcing a No-Fly-Zone and shutting land borders as a way of asserting itself to defend democracy in the embattled country.

He opined that the coup plotters are already feeling the effect of the stringent measures, adding that it is the reason for the anti-Tinubu protests in Niamey.

Speaking further, Omokri argued that if former President Muhammadu Buhari had been as democratically assertive as this, there would still be democratically elected governments in Burkina Faso and Mali.

No matter what you think of President Tinubu, you must admit that the steps taken by his administration in response to the coup in Niger Republic are thus far commendable. It may not even be Tinubu. It is more likely his top notch National Security Adviser, but it does not matter. At least, he had the good judgment to appoint him.

For the first time, ECOWAS is asserting itself to defend democracy. And Nigeria is leading that defence. Shutting down power to Niger, establishing and enforcing a No-Fly-Zone. Cutting aid and shutting land borders. Very commendable.

READ ALSO: Gandujes Appointment Shows APC Rewards, Nurtures Criminality  Aisha Yesufu

And make no mistake about it. The Nigerienne putschists are feeling the squeeze. That is why they are sponsoring anti-Tinubu protests in Niamey. That is important. They are not sponsoring anti-Bazoum protests. They are sponsoring anti-Tinubu demonstrations because they know he threatens their dictatorial ambitions. That is novel in West Africa.

If Buhari had been as diplomatically assertive as this, there would still be democratically elected governments in Burkina Faso and Mali.

Every Nigerian citizen, especially our political elite, whether in the ruling party or the opposition, has to support Tinubus government for this limited purpose (we will still fight him in court). Because if this coup is allowed to stand, West Africa will have accepted the domino effect of coups and soldiers in member states will get the message. Finding excuses for coups is the easiest thing in the world.

It is possible to roll back coups. President Obasanjo did it in 2003 in Sao Tome and Principe, a country that is not even a member of ECOWAS. And he did it in a similar mode as Bola Tinubu is currently doing.

Shut electric supply. Shut finances going in and out. Block land borders. And then wait. The solidarity celebrations you are seeing are staged. By the time it becomes clear that the junta cannot pay its soldiers, the rank and file of the army will turn against it, and that is when you will see the real response of Nigeriennes to the coup. Not this choreography you are seeing now! Omokri wrote via Instagram.

Meanwhile the Nigerian government clarified on Friday that any use of force in the Niger crisis, as proposed by ECOWAS, will be the last option while mediation continues.

The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Adamu Lamuwa shared this during a briefing with members of the diplomatic corps in Abuja that forceful intervention was a last-ditch effort.

The use of force is the last resort and we hope we do not get there, Lamuwa stated.
Popular Nigerian skit maker, Trinity Guy has announced his return to social media weeks after regaining his freedom.

Trinity Guy, whose real name is Maruf Abdullah Adisa, shared new pictures of himself and expressed gratitude to everyone who stood by him.

Recall that on June 22, the Nigeria Police authorities summoned the prankster over his skit involving a female minor in a sexualized prank.

However, Trinity Guy was summoned to appear before the Oyo State Police Command.

In July, a Magistrate Court at Iyaganku, Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, ruled that Trinity Guy be remanded in prison till August.

Alongside the entertainer, the court also remanded the parents of the minor, Isiaka Ahmed, 40, and his wife, Rofiat Ahmed, 29.

The entertainer was later released on bail.

Following his release, Trinity Guy made his first post on his page after almost two months of being away.

According to him, his short-term stay in prison made him understand how precious freedom is and vowed to be upright onward.

READ MORE: Nigerian Skitmaker, Trinity Guy Regains Freedom After Sexualizing Minor

He wrote: THANK GOD DAVIDO BOY IS BACK

Spending few times in solitude showed me how valuable freedom is and how much the effect of a loving family can keep you from going insane. I will make sure moving on and try as much as I can to stay within the lines of modesty.

I would just like to take a moment to express my deepest gratitude to all my fans worldwide , all my colleagues and my family members, It is a very nice feeling when you know there are people who love you so much.

God bless the Nigeria police and God bless everyone that stood by me.
The Lagos State chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), has appealed to Nigerians to be patient and support President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in his quest to build a better country.

Stephen Adegbite, the State CAN Chairman made the submission at a news conference in Abuja, on Thursday, following protests by members of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) over the petrol subsidy removal and the countrys rising cost of living.

According to the Chairman, continuing with the subsidy regime would be the same as pushing forward the evil days which may be worse than what is being experienced now.

He however sued for calm, noting that the nation is already getting out of the woods.

We cannot be complaining about a deficit of social infrastructure and amenities as well as low wages for civil servants and at the same time be opposed to efforts to improve the quality and availability of same.

While it may be easy to appreciate the altruism behind the protest, I believe that it must have the overall benefit of the entire polity as its ultimate objective, Adegbite said.

READ ALSO: Ganduje Emerges APC National Chairman, Basiru As Secretary

The CAN leader added that when the subsidy was being paid, Nigerians were not the major beneficiaries as it was hijacked by a few individuals.

The best that can happen to us is what we are experiencing now, though with pain. We feel the pains of Nigerians, we have families, we have members; even in the church some people cannot come to church anymore because of fuel increase.

But we have to endure for now, Mr President said there are better days ahead and by the special grace of God, in another six months, Nigeria will sing a new song, Nigeria will be delivered.

Mr president is a very compassionate individual, we have known him for more than 27 years, even as an individual, he does not like people suffering around him.

He wants the best for this nation, he has the interest of this nation at heart and that is why he has met with the labour unions personally.

We will ensure to follow the government closely on their promises to ensure that the dividends of democracy is delivered and Nigeria becomes a better place for all us to dwell in, he added.
Leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Rivers State, says former Governor of the State, Nyesom Wike, decided to join the Party after realising his political career was over.

According to them, Wike was not to be commended for APCs impressive growth in the State.

Recall that Wike, a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) member, was recently nominated by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, for whom he was believed to have worked in the previous presidential election after falling out with PDP presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar.

Reports opine that Wike orchestrated the APCs victory in the Rivers presidential election.

In a statement released Thursday in Abuja, the State APC leaders noted that the Partys growth in Rivers has been organic since its inception in 2015.

The leaders, via the publicity secretary, Darlington Nwajulu, said thanks to the efforts of Party technocrats in the state, APC narrowed and eventually surpassed the lead held by the PDP since 2015.

Our growth patterns have been consistent since the 2015 presidential onslaught against Rivers APC. Our growth from 2015 to 2019 was 23.8 per cent, closing the huge gap of 2015 presidential election.

READ ALSO: Tinubu Wont Regret Nominating Me As Minister, Wike Tells Senate

Then the 2023 presidential election came in with additional 80,881 votes in favour of APC in Rivers State. The question is, where is the helping hand of former Gov Wike, can he claim to have helped Rivers APC with

only 80,881 votes, when our growth showed organic growth since 2019? the leaders queried.

The group also questioned whether those singing Wikes praise of how he helped Rivers APC knew about the 1,487,075 votes he carried in 2015 in favour of the PDP out of the 2,537,590 registered voters in Rivers.

They also inquired about the 472,971 votes Wike received for the PDP in the 2019 presidential election out of the 3,215,273 registered voters in Rivers State.

Can a non partyman take over a national ruling party in a state, simply because they claim to have helped the national party in his state with just 80,881 votes when such claims couldnt be substantiated with empirical data?

Such is the calamitous quagmire Wike, and his sponsored detractors have caused to their political dynasty. There is evidence to prove that Wike did not work for APC, Wike lost his polling unit and lost his ward.

When he found that his political career was gone, he decided to pitch his tent with APC, just to have a comfort zone to rob APC in Rivers State, the statement added.
At a certain age, the world is full of possibilities, the future is ahead, and life is ready to be designed.

And thats how it is to be 70.

At least, thats how it is at the Boca Oasis Retirement Community in Boca Raton, Florida, the setting for Boca, Jessica Provenzs hilarious, yet touching, comedy at the Act II Playhouse in Ambler.

A lot of it rings true, said actor Penelope Reed, who is 78. She plays two roles, ditzy Janet and Iris, a grounded salt-of-the-earth type. You feel more vulnerable, and time is ticking. When you get to this age, you have a lot of friends who are dying and who are dead.

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Unlike the characters in Boca, Reed isnt among her peers who have fled Philadelphia for Florida. But she deeply understands the demands and potential of this time of life played out at the Boca Oasis.

They are trying to make the best of their time, she said. Theyve given up their Northeast homes and they have traveled and here they are at Boca Raton, she said. Some of them are content, but illness and death move in and thats complicating things.

Some really want companionship. Theres a little bit of pressure among the women for finding a man and then theres the extreme some people go to get their man.

Theres the fact of living in a community, where everything is political, Reed said, laughing, because condominiums and condominium associations can become very contentious, as the people who live in them know.

For Reed, living the best way she possibly can means a renewed and joyous commitment to acting, which has been her whole life.

There are five generations of theater people in her family from her great-grandfather, who performed with renowned actor Edwin Booth in the late 1800s, to her son, Jared Reed, who became executive director of the Media Theatre in March. Her mother, Janet Kelsey, ran Hedgerow Theatre for 55 years, either as executive director or business manager. Both Penelope and Jared Reed took their turns helming the Rose Valley theater  the mother from 1991-2017, and the son from 2017-2021.

Reed had been on the administrative and teaching end of theater for so long that when Act IIs artistic director, Tony Braithwaite, asked her last year to play the lead role in Eleanor, a 90-minute one-woman play about Eleanor Roosevelt, she nearly turned him down.

She worried that she wouldnt be able to remember the lines.

When the time comes that I cant learn anymore, Ill stop, she said.

Meanwhile, you start cherishing your time, she said. OK, your body has problems and were going to deal with them in the best possible way. Its your friends that keep you going and maximizing those relationships. Thats the reason Im so happy acting again  because you get to have a relationship with the audience.

And with the actors and crew. It is such a joy, she said. Tony runs a happy, tidy ship.

Reed said that the characters in Boca learn the same lesson  the importance of community and relationships, although how they get to that understanding means lots of laughs for the audience.

Boca, Act II Playhouse, Aug. 1-Sept. 3 at the Act II Playhouse, 56 E. Butler Ave., Ambler, 215-654-0200, or act2.org Check with the theater for COVID-19 protocols. For information on other local events, visit inquirer.com/things-to-do-philly
Shanghai (Gasgoo)- On August 2, the Management Committee of Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area ("TEDA") signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on a new energy intelligent manufacturing investment project with Vitesco Automotive Tianjin Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Vitesco Technologies"), according to a post on the WeChat account of TEDA.

In 2019, Vitesco Technologies invested in establishing an R&D center in the TEDA, marking a significant layout for the company in the field of new energy vehicles. This move successfully helped upgrade Vitesco Technologies Tianjin base into a "super factory" integrating R&D, testing, and production.

Photo credit: TEDA

The recent signing represents a further expansion and upgrade of Vitesco Technologies R&D center business, signaling the official launch of a new round of investment in core new energy products in Tianjin.

In this cooperation, Vitesco Technologies will continue to invest 1.2 billion yuan in fixed assets, focusing on the development of new energy vehicle R&D platforms and the production of core components. This investment will drive the company's electrical business layout in the city and contribute to the high-quality development of the NEV industry in the TEDA, Binhai New Area, and even Tianjin as a whole.

Thomas Stierle, a member of the Executive Board and head of the Electrification Solution Division at Vitesco Technologies, expressed his full confidence in the development of the new energy vehicle industry in Tianjin. He said the company has been cooperating with the Tianjin Economic Technological Development Area for many years and has achieved remarkable results. Currently, Vitesco Technologies has invested over 500 million euros in the field of electrification in China. In the future, it will continue to increase investment in the domain of electric mobility and turn its Tianjin R&D center into a globally leading iconic project in the electrification field.

Just one day ago (Aug. 1), Vitesco Technologies officially inaugurated its new R&D Center in Changchun city, the capital of Jilin province, on Aug. 1, marking its continued commitment to the localized strategy of "rooting in the market, serving the market.
The Police Department has strict rules for initiating a vehicular pursuit. Investigative Support Services will handle the probe because it involves someone within Internal Affairs. Read more

A commander in the Philadelphia Police Departments Internal Affairs Bureau is himself facing an internal investigation for his role in an off-duty vehicle stop this week in Northeast Philadelphia that ended with the suspects car speeding away and flipping over. The driver and passenger were hospitalized.

Law enforcement sources said Inspector George Kappe  while driving an unmarked vehicle  pulled up behind a parked Dodge Charger shortly after 4 p.m. Tuesday. Hed just left work. A short time earlier, he had noticed the car doing doughnuts in a parking lot near the Internal Affairs building on Dungan Road.

When Kappe activated his emergency lights and relayed the information over police radio, the Charger pulled away, according to the sources, who spoke anonymously in order to comment freely on the matter. Kappe said he followed the car to try to get its license plate number, but turned his lights off after the vehicle reached a high speed, sources said.

The Dodge crashed and overturned on the 600 block of Tyson Avenue, sending the two men to the hospital.

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The Police Department has strict rules for initiating a vehicular pursuit, including requiring probable cause that the suspect has committed or attempted a felony involving force, or possesses a deadly weapon.

Sgt. Eric Gripp, a police spokesperson, would not confirm Kappes involvement, but said on Thursday that an Internal Affairs commander was under investigation by Investigative Support Services, which handles probes involving people within Internal Affairs.

The investigation will likely focus on whether any police department directives were violated.

Gripp said the commander had not been placed on restricted duty, but he is currently not overseeing any Internal Affairs investigations.

The Special Investigations Unit in the Philadelphia District Attorneys Office is also investigating the matter. A spokeswoman for the DAs office declined to provide additional details.

Kappe, a former 26th District captain and 37-year veteran of the department, declined to comment.

The matter has generated considerable buzz within the Police Department, largely due to Kappes reputation as a stickler for rules and regulations. Some referred to him over the years as Mr. Rogers.

The car that Kappe pursued was later determined to have been stolen in New York. In it were 27-year-old twin brothers. After the car flipped, one man was trapped inside, while the other tried to flee, but was apprehended nearby.

They had not been charged as of Thursday, but charges are expected, law enforcement sources said.

The extent of their injuries was not known Thursday. A relative said the twins parents were in Haiti.

Inquirer staff writer Barbara Laker contributed to this article.
A suspect in the killing of Philadelphia native and former Philadanco student OShae Sibley in New York last month is reportedly in custody.

A person turned himself in on Friday in connection with the fatal stabbing of Sibley, NBC New York reports. Earlier this week, police announced that a 17-year-old male was being sought in connection with the killing.

Officials have not yet identified the suspect.

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Sibley, 28, was stabbed the night of July 29 while at a Brooklyn gas station located only blocks from where he lived. He was returning from a birthday party with a group of friends at the time.

Sibley and his friends were reportedly playing Beyonce from the car and began voguing, a dance created and primarily performed by Black and Latinx LGBTQ people that imitates fashion models. A group of men approached them, and told them to stop dancing, and that they did not want to see gay men dancing in their neighborhood, The Inquirer previously reported.

Sibley was found by police with a stab wound to his torso, and died a short time later at a nearby hospital, MSNBC reports. The killing drew national attention because he was gay, and the men who approached him that night had used gay slurs during the altercation, the New York Times reported.

A motive for the killing was not determined, but police reportedly said a hate crimes unit was involved in the investigation.

A North Philadelphia native, Sibley moved to New York before the coronavirus pandemic, hoping to find better dance opportunities in the city. As a young man, Sibley studied dance at famed Philadelphia Dance Company, or Philadanco, until just before his move to New York, founder Joan Myers Brown previously told The Inquirer.

Even after leaving Philadelphia, Sibley stayed in touch with her. At one point, Myers Brown told The Inquirer, Sibley told her, I just want to be famous.

But he didnt want to be famous for this, Myers Brown said.
Nikki Giovanni in an interview with Marty Moss-Coane on WHYY in 2017, featured in "Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project." The documentary, directed by Michele Stephenson and Joe Brewster, screens at the BlackStar Film Festival this weekend. Read more

Where was Mr. Santa Claus and Mrs. Santa Claus? They saw what was going on with Rudolph, why didnt some of them come out and get that corrected? But the minute they needed something..., says poet and cultural icon Nikki Giovanni to a room full of laughing teens. Remember Rudolph, and that Rudolph shouldve cursed [Santa] out.

The year is 2017, and Giovanni has just taken the stage at the Free Library of Philadelphia and delivered lessons on the human condition, before turning to Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer.

Giovanni stayed at the library for hours, meeting people of all ages. She greeted a woman who named a daughter after her, signed an old album cover with her face on it, and received a drawing from a fan.

Brooklyn-based filmmakers Michele Stephenson and Joe Brewster were in her wake, capturing how much Philly loves Giovanni, and how much she loves it back. (She never leaves a line.)

The library scene is one of the many moments in the dreamy documentary Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project, directed by the husband-and-wife duo and screening at this weekends BlackStar Film Festival. Its a close study of Giovanni and her legacy, with archival footage, trippy shots of the galaxy, and incredible lyricism. Lately, shes been talking to astronauts about getting artists on rocket ships to outer space. Thus, the title.

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Im a space freak, Giovanni said to The Inquirer, over a Zoom call from the Virginia home she shares with her partner, Virginia Fowler, and their Yorkie, Cleopatra. Shes delighted by the recent conversations in Congress about UFOs and potential alien life. If another life-form is coming to Earth, they can drop by my house, and Ill do what Black women always do, Come on in baby, are you hungry? Because thats what Black women do, no matter what it is. We save life whenever we can, and we feed it, and we welcome that.

Going to Mars interrogates Giovannis cosmic ambitions and global impact as her health declines and memory fades. Her verses  read in part by executive producer Taraji P. Henson  are combined with visuals from different eras of her life and from Black history. Whether its her conversation with James Baldwin on Soul! in 1971 or her 2017 radio interview with Marty Moss-Coane at WHYY, Giovannis voice is spellbinding.

Though shes released albums of poetry readings  including 1997s In Philadelphia that she recorded at Sigma Sound  she learned something new watching Going to Mars: I have a Southern accent, and I didnt realize that until I was hearing myself on the documentary, she said, laughing.

Before that Sigma Sound appearance, Giovanni had been a 1996 artist-in-residence at the legendary Clef Club. In the late 1960s, she attended the University of Pennsylvanias School of Social Work but didnt live in the city. Like most poor people, I lived in Wilmington, because you couldnt afford Philly, and I would take the train, she said.

She was working at a Peoples Settlement House in Delaware in 1967 around the time she wrote her first collection of poetry, the self-published Black Feeling, Black Talk/Black Judgement (1971). She eventually dropped out of the Penn program and pursued writing and teaching along the East Coast.

The poet returned to Philly in 2017 with Brewster and Stephenson. Philadelphia was the birthplace of the United States, she said. Having the documentary about me in Philadelphia is also saying that there is still a new world, theres still something to create, still another step, or as the old spirituals used to say, we are climbing Jacobs Ladder. (But the city, especially the roads, need work, she advises.)

When the filmmakers shadowed Giovanni in Philly, they were most struck by the audiences she attracted. Stephenson said she gained an even deeper understanding of the amount of love that Black women have for Nikki, and how it cuts across generations  Philly [fandom] certainly made that clear.

Giovanni has been a lifeline, especially for Black women who view her as a force of nature and source of wisdom. At the 2017 Free Library event, one attendee recounted how she had written to Giovanni in 1983, when she was ready to quit college. Giovanni wrote back instructing her not to give up; now shes a teacher in Newark.

For Brewster, the questions the teens asked Giovanni were mind-boggling. They were sensitive. They were insightful, he said, I just left with a special feeling about the job that some parents were doing raising their kids.

At BlackStar, the directors will once again watch the citys crowd gather around Giovanni. When the film played in Chicago, Brewster recalled, the audience refused to leave the building because they were discussing issues in the film that were relevant to their life, he said. He hopes to see that energy in Philadelphia.

Giovanni, though not attending the screenings, is still talking about Rudolph, and how nobody should live trying to please everyone. She points to a jazz musician she admires: McCoy Tyner, the pride of West Philadelphia, who played piano in John Coltranes quartet before leaving for a solo career. Some questioned why he left the popular group.

McCoy said, Because I couldnt hear myself anymore, said Giovanni. If you listen to some of the later Coltrane, I understood exactly what he said  If you cant hear it and see it, then you need to get out of it.

Today, Giovanni is singing Cole Porter and old spirituals. Shes looking up at the stars, searching for new discoveries from faraway planets, and waiting to meet those other life-forms here, on Mars, or beyond.

Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project, directed by Michele Stephenson and Joe Brewster, screens at the Perelman Theater at Kimmel Center Cultural Campus, 300 S. Broad St., Phila., on Sunday, Aug. 6 at 5 p.m. More info at blackstarfest.org/festival.
Mark Margolis (right), seen here with fellow "Breaking Bad" actor Aaron Paul following the 2021 Emmy Awards. Read more

Mark Margolis, the veteran actor and Philadelphia native best known for playing former drug kingpin Hector Tio Salamanca on Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, has died at 83.

Mr. Margolis death was announced by his son, Morgan, who said his father died at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York following a short illness.

Mr. Margolis, who was born in Philadelphia on Nov. 26, 1939, had a career in Hollywood that spanned decades and included films such as Scarface, The Thomas Crown Affair, and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. He also appeared in nearly all of Darren Aronofskys films, including Pi, Requiem for a Dream, The Wrestler, and Black Swan.

But his portrayal of Salamanca, the stroke-stricken uncle in charge of a Mexican crime family, drew widespread praise from critics and viewers alike, earning the actor his first Emmy nomination.

I was only coming onto Breaking Bad as far as I knew for that one episode, but theres no accounting for taste, and the fans took a fancy to me, Mr. Margolis told the Hollywood Reporter in a 2012 interview. Somebody asked me recently, How did you manage to play such a horrible guy? and I said, Have you talked to my friends? Theyll tell you Im pretty miserable to begin with.

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Mr. Margolis grew up in West Philadelphia, and at the age of 14 attended the Bessie V. Hicks School of Drama. After graduating from Lincoln High School he spent a year at Temple University before dropping out to become an actor. Mr. Margolis and a friend traveled to New York City, where he attended classes with actress and instructor Stella Adler.

Stella Adler was like, If God was a woman, this is him,  Mr. Margolis said on the Better Call Saul Insider Podcast last year. Its all mine now, but the roots of what I have all came from Stella.

Absolutely devastated to hear that weve lost Mark Margolis, Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul writer and producer Peter Gould wrote on X, formerly Twitter. Mark was brilliant, funny, a raconteur with a million stories. I miss him already.

Mr. Margolis also appeared on scores of television shows, with recurring roles on The Equalizer, Quantum Leap, and HBOs Oz, where he portrayed Antonio Nappa, an inmate infected with HIV. He also played Dr. Nel Apgar on Star Trek: The Next Generation, a paranoid scientist with a murderous streak.

His final role was mobster Carmine Conti in the Showtime series Your Honor, which starred his Breaking Bad colleague Bryan Cranston. Season Two of the show was released earlier this year.

Mark has a distinct pedigree in the acting world and a respected reputation, but his contribution on Breaking Bad came down to keeping it simple, Cranston told the Observer in 2012. And in our business, simple is hard. To convey a full range of emotion without saying a word, speaks volumes.

He was one of a kind, Robert Kolker, Mr. Margolis longtime manager, said in a statement. We wont see his likes again. He was a treasured client and a lifelong friend. I was lucky to know him.
David Ansill, the chef behind such groundbreaking Philadelphia restaurants as Pif and Ansill, is going through chemotherapy for lymphoma, diagnosed several months ago.

Ansill, 64, and family have created a GoFundMe campaign to help with expenses, with a goal of raising $50,000. Right now, he said, he gets physical and occupational therapy, though he said the chemo had left him mostly confined to a hospital bed on the first floor of his South Philadelphia house. His wife, Catherine, and daughter, Ambre, are helping to care for him.

In recent years, Ansill has been creating cannabis-infused dinners around town with his longtime sous chef Aila DeVowe, as Squirly.net.

In April, Ansill noticed neck pain and thought it was a pulled muscle or strain. It just kept getting more painful, he said. During a trip to an emergency room, images showed a lesion on his spine. Later tests showed that it was cancer that had spread, he said.

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Chemotherapy has been rough, he said, because it led to neuropathy on his hands, legs, and feet.

Ansill, who grew up in Cheltenham, rose through the scene at assorted restaurants such as Judys Cafe, the Continental, and Lucys Hat Shop. In 2001, he was riding his bike to work when he spotted a for-rent sign on a onetime Vietnamese noodle house on Eighth Street near Washington Avenue in South Philadelphia. He opened Pif, a French BYOB bistro, named after Ambres teddy bear.

In early 2006, Ansill returned to the former site of Judys Cafe at Third and Bainbridge Streets to open Ansill Food & Wine, an edgy bar-restaurant specializing in European-style small plates  snacks and wines for food-conscious adults, as he called it. Soon after, in 2007, he closed Pif (which later became Bibou).

After Ansill closed in 2009 (its now Cry Baby), Ansill revamped the menu at Ladder 15, the Rittenhouse party bar. From there, he spent six months in Jamaica before returning to Philadelphia in 2012 to take the chefs job at Bar Ferdinand, then a Spanish bar-restaurant in Northern Liberties. Its owner, Owen Kamihira, and Ansill had worked together at Copabanana on South Street in the 1980s. Good notices followed.

Next up were stops at the Good King Tavern in Bella Vista and consulting at Pinefish, a now-closed seafood restaurant in Washington Square West.

For now, DeVowe is continuing with the cannabis pop-ups. Hopefully Ill be healthy enough to show up at some of them and the private ones that I was doing, Ansill said.
The Dunkin' logo is seen on a storefront in Boston. Workers at the manufacturing facility for a Dunkin' franchisee that owns 45 Philadelphia-area stores are trying to form a union. Read more

Bakers, drivers, cleaners, and other non-management employees at a Dunkin manufacturing facility in Frankford are trying to form a union.

The 46 workers filed paperwork with the National Labor Relations Board Wednesday, seeking to join United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 152.

The proposed bargaining unit includes all full-time and part-time drivers, cleaners, and production workers, bakers, finishers, bench, fryer and coffee employed by Northeast Donut Shops Management at 5201 Darrah St. in Philadelphia.

Northeast Donut Shops is a franchisee of Dunkin that owns 45 stores in Philadelphia and nearby suburbs with more than 800 employees, according to the companys website.

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The franchisees CEO, Sonny Ho, started working at the Erie-Torresdale Dunkin as a teenager and was managing four locations within a few years. He became a partner in Northeast Donut Shops in 1995 and CEO five years later.

I made the doughnuts. I made the muffins, Ho told The Inquirer in 2020. I made a lot of sacrifices.

Northeast Donut Shops and Ho did not respond to requests for comment on the workers NLRB petition.

Lawyer David Watkins, who represents the union, declined to comment on the workers organizing efforts.
The scene on the 1700 block of West Venango Street in Philadelphia where an FBI agent shot a person while serving a search warrant on Friday. Read more

An FBI agent in Philadelphia shot a person Friday morning in the citys Nicetown-Tioga section, a bureau spokesperson said.

The incident occurred as agents attempted to serve an arrest and search warrant at a home near the intersection of 17th and West Venango Streets. The wounded individual was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment, officials said.

Authorities did not release any other details Friday  including what led up to the shooting, the identity of the agent, the name, age, or gender of the person who was shot, or that persons condition. Neighbors along the block and those who gathered on the other side of police cordons said they had not seen anything.

Still, hours after the incident, investigators continued to comb the area, including some in white hazmat suits who appeared to search under a black Dodge minivan and other cars parked on the street near a police cordon. Federal agents also were seen removing evidence from a house on the 1600 block of West Venango Street, and two FBI agents later bagged up a pair of black sandals abandoned on the sidewalk near that streets intersection with 17th Street.

Officers from the Philadelphia and Upper Southampton Police Departments were seen assisting the investigation Friday afternoon. Spokespeople for both departments declined to comment, referring questions about the incident to the FBI.

The FBI takes all shooting incidents involving our agents or task force members seriously, bureau spokesperson Carrie Adamowski said in a statement. In accordance with FBI policy, the shooting incident is under review by the FBIs Inspection Division.

Staff writer Jesse Bunch contributed to this article.

This is a developing story and will be updated.
An unidentified dog was rescued by Pennsylvania State Police after making its way on I-95 in Philadelphia Friday morning. Read more

Commuters on I-95 in Philadelphia were brought to a standstill Friday morning after a confused dog wandered on the busy highway during rush hour, according to Pennsylvania State Police and video shared on social media.

The issues began around 7:15 a.m. when the pup was spotted on the southbound lanes near Allegheny Avenue and the Betsy Ross Bridge, according to state police and media reports.

Like everyone else in Philly, the dog took the opportunity to cross the temporary lanes built near Cottman Avenue, where a bridge collapsed due to a truck fire.

The dog, chased by state troopers for about a mile, was hit by a truck during the pursuit but kept running, according to 6abc.

Thankfully, the pursuit had a happy ending. The dog was ultimately cornered and rescued by state troopers, who took the pup to an animal clinic in Langhorne for evaluation.

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6abc traffic reporter Matt Pellman offered a dramatic play-by-play of the dogs rescue.

Hes off the road. He must be exhausted. ... Theres the state trooper whos been trying so hard to wrangle this dog and get him to safety, Pellman said on air as newscasters begged the dog not to bite the police.

Thankfully, the pooch was taken in without incident. Officials said the dog did not appear to have sustained any injuries.

It looks like that dog is going to be okay, a relieved Pellman said. Hes had quite the adventure this morning.

No one has come forward to claim ownership of the dog, state police said. Its unclear how the dog managed to make it onto the highway.
Joe Vaccone wants to use the $150,000 property to advertise his real estate company. So again, the 'Delco Shack' will be for sale, but it'll be Vaccone's name that 100,000 cars pass by per week along Balitmore Pike in Springfield here. Read more

Joe Vaccone recently bought a one-room Springfield property that lacks running water, a functioning sewage system, and the townships approval for anyone to live in it.

The 52-year-old Realtor is ecstatic about his purchase.

Vaccone now owns the Delco Shack, a 17-foot-by-17-foot redbrick building perched next to the Springfield Mall thats spent the better part of two decades with a seemingly perpetual For Sale sign outside.

But is the father of four really planning on moving into a 250-square-foot former AT&T facility overlooking Baltimore Pike?

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Dont count on it. For $150,000, Vaccone says hes purchased an advertising gold mine.

Among the 76,000 members of the Facebook group Meanwhile in Delco, the Shack is something of a local legend.

When exactly the Shack received its moniker is murky. A July posting to Facebook, however, declares the name official, beating out alternatives like Fort Delco and suggestions that Wawa should have snatched up the site for its next location.

Property records show the building was constructed for commercial use in 1951. Vaccone said it spent most of that time housing AT&Ts long-distance phone lines. As that technology phased out, an individual buyer purchased it in 2006 but struggled to sell the lot for years. Vaccone scooped it up this past January.

Passersby will still see a For Sale sign outside the Shack. This sign, however, belongs to Vaccone and features his name and telephone number.

Keeping an unoccupied property on the market is a common advertising strategy in commercial real estate, according to Vaccone. If someone calls Vaccone interested in the Delco Shack, he said, perhaps theyll like to hear about his other properties in nearby Swarthmore and Wallingford  ones with functioning toilets and electrical service.

A lot of listings are already taken, theyre sold, Vaccone said. They leave signs on there forever, hoping people will call up on them.

And sitting in the center of one of Pennsylvanias most populous counties, the Delco Shack is passed by an estimated 100,000 cars per week, Vaccone said. With potential buyers coming in from major highways like I-476 and I-95, or heading toward nearby Media, hes leaning on an age-old mantra: location, location, location.

Its always packed, Vaccone said, people going both ways.

While he sees his purchase as primarily an investment, Vaccone is still proud to have nabbed a piece of Delco lore.

Everybody wonders what the heck is in there, Vaccone said. Every time its listed online, this Facebook group posts and it gets thousands of likes and comments. Its this ongoing joke.

Vaccone is now in on the joke, too. Recently he installed a 25-foot flagpole outside the shack. Flying high above are two flags  one belonging to the U.S., and the other (unofficially) to Delco.

Thanks to Vaccone, when a good gust of wind comes south past the Carrabas Italian Grill and whips between the Macys and the Extra Space Storage warehouse, the word DELCO will now billow against the Southeastern Pennsylvania sky.

Not a Location But a Lifestyle, reads the Delco flag. When squinting, its bold-faced font and orange and yellow color scheme even call to mind a certain hoagie-centric convenience store chain.

Thats the work of Aaron Marshall, founder of Decals by Aaron, the company that designs and prints the Delco flag.

The 47-year-old Brookhaven resident is an old friend of Vaccones  everyone knows everyone in Delco, Marshall says. He was thrilled to see one of his creations in Springfield.

Marshall runs a vinyl lettering business, where he began printing Delco merch six years ago and quickly learned of the countys rabid pride.

The first day the company offered its Delco T-shirts for sale, it sold 150 within hours, Marshall said. A line of swag including hats, mugs, towels, and magnets soon followed.

Marshall likens interest in the Shack to other iconic Delco-isms, like summers down at the Wildwood RV campgrounds and Kate Winslets wooder-y drawl on Mare of Easttown.

Keeping with that spirit, Vaccone will continue to fly Marshalls flag while he waits to see whether his $150,000 billboard pays off. The Realtor will also consider the Shacks long-term future.

Vaccone said he may execute a construction plan drafted by the Shacks previous owner, one that would see it transformed into an office or a storage facility complete with a five-car parking lot. Or he could simply sell to the next-highest bidder, should someone make an offer.

But for now, Vaccone is doing the most Delco thing imaginable  taking very public pride in something that can be a little rough around the edges.

My intention was to proudly fly the American flag as a symbol of patriotism, Vaccone said, and to raise the Delco flag to put the location on the map.
(From left) Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, Rep. Dwight Evans, PHA's Kelvin Jeremiah, HUD's Richard Monocchio and members of the community at a ceremony to give $50 million to PHA's Bartram Village. Read more

Officials from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development made a visit to Southwest Philadelphia Friday to announce a $50 million investment in affordable housing and community development.

For the third time, the city and Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA) have been awarded a Choice Neighborhood Implementation (CNI) grant, which the authority is using to transform the Bartram Village public housing development. Apart from replacing existing housing units, PHA said it wants to provide affordable homeownership and reinvigorate a community commercial corridor.

About 80 people gathered in Bartram Village for a press conference with HUD Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Richard Monocchio, who was joined by congressional, state, city and community leaders.

This is an incredible down payment from HUD and the federal government in investing in a marginalized community that has been redlined since the 1960s, Kelvin A. Jeremiah, president and CEO of PHA, told The Inquirer before the event. This investment of $50 million allows us to leverage another $225 million to fully fund the redevelopment initiative. According to Jeremiah, approximately 668 households will benefit from the investment in the long run.

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Among the 25 most populous cities in the U.S., Philadelphia is the poorest. With almost a quarter of the citys households below the poverty rate, the need for affordable housing has been high for many years.

PHA has already received two CNI grants in the past  $30 million for replacing the Norris Apartments, and another $30 million for low-income homes in Sharswood, both communities in North Philadelphia. The grants are not only aimed at providing new housing but community amenities such as food stores and job training centers.

When you build new housing that has services attached to it  grocery stores, a place to go to the doctor  you see a great improvement in peoples quality of life, Monocchio told The Inquirer. Its more than just putting a nice roof over somebodys head.

Having seen how Sharswood benefited from the previous grant, he expects an uplift for Bartram Village residents as well. With a presidential election looming in 2024, Monocchio emphasized in his speech that CNI grants are really emblematic of President Bidens economic agenda.

He was followed by Tumar Alexander, the citys managing director who was also representing a traveling Mayor Jim Kenney.

This neighborhood, I cant wait to see what it looks like, Alexander told the residents in attendance.

Afterward, U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D., Pa.) remembered one of the first things she learned about this part of Philadelphia when she took office: Southwest has been squeezed for too long. Its squeezed between Delaware County and the Schuylkill River, kind of apart from the rest of the city and often overlooked. So this is such an important investment in Southwest to keep it from being overlooked. And housing, she said, was the key to making progress in everything else.

State Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams started out on a personal note. His grandmother and father lived just about half a mile from Bartram Village, in what people describe as poverty, so he knows the importance of housing that low-income families can afford. Philadelphia might be one of the poorest cities in the country, he said, but rapidly gentrified to have a different income level across the entire city.

Williams encouraged the crowd to participate in the community, a notion State Rep. Regina Young echoed just minutes after, urging residents to stay at the table.
With Gasgoo Daily, we will offer daily important automotive news in China. For those we have reported, the title of the piece will include a hyperlink, which will provide detailed information.

Shenzhen's annual new energy vehicle output expected to exceed 2 million by 2025

On August 4, the Industry and Information Technology Bureau of Shenzhen Municipality issued the "Three-Year Action Plan (2023-2025) for Accelerating the Development of a 'World-Class Next-Generation Automobile City'". Under the plan, Shenzhen aims to achieve an annual production of over 2 million new energy vehicles and an industrial output value of trillions in the automotive industry by 2025.

BYD Song Pro DM-i; photo credit: BYD

Thinktech closes new round of financing

Recently, Chinese fabless design company Shanghai Thinktech Information Technology Co., Ltd. announced the completion of a new round of financing, led by Chongqing Yufu Holding Group, following its strategic round. The company stated that it is embarking on full-scale mass production of high-performance vehicle-grade MCU products, filling the gap in domestically produced high-performance vehicle-grade control chips.

Farizon Auto ships first batch of H9E light-duty trucks to the Middle East

On August 2, Geelys Farizon New Energy Commercial Vehicle Group announced that its light-duty truck model, H9E, was officially shipped to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, after completing the loading process in Shanghai. This marks the first batch of these vehicles delivered to the Middle East market after the model's debut at an overseas auto show in May.

Photo credit: Farizon Auto

Tesla Shanghai Gigafactory delivers 64,285 vehicles in July 2023

Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory delivered 64,285 electric vehicles in the seventh month of this year, according to information released by the China Passenger Car Association on August 3.

Pony.ai teams up with Toyota China, GAC Toyota on Robotaxi development

On August 4, Pony.ai, the Chinese autonomous driving solution developer, held a signing ceremony with Toyota Motor (China) Investment Co. Ltd. (referred to as "Toyota China") and GAC Toyota Motor Co., Ltd. (referred to as "GAC Toyota"). The three parties announced the establishment of a joint venture to support the future mass production and large-scale deployment of autonomous driving taxis (Robotaxis).

Tesla China plans to recall 271 imported Model S, Model X vehicles

Tesla (Beijing) Co., Ltd. recently filed a recall plan with China's State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) in accordance with the "Regulations on the Management of Defective Automotive Product Recalls" and the "Implementation Measures for the Regulations on the Management of Defective Automotive Product Recalls."

NETA AYA SUV hits market to replace NETA V

On August 3, NETA Auto, the new energy vehicle maker under HOZON Auto, put its new "five-seater spacious intelligent all-electric SUV", the NETA AYA, onto the market. As the successor to the NETA V, the NETA AYA comes in four trim levels with prices ranging from 73,800 to 88,800 yuan.

Vitesco Technologies signs MoU for investment in NEV-related product manufacturing project in Tianjin

On August 2, the Management Committee of Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area ("TEDA") signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on a new energy intelligent manufacturing investment project with Vitesco Automotive Tianjin Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Vitesco Technologies"), according to a post on the WeChat account of TEDA.

In this cooperation, Vitesco Technologies will continue to invest 1.2 billion yuan in fixed assets, focusing on the development of new energy vehicle R&D platforms and the production of core components. This investment will drive the company's electrical business layout in the city and contribute to the high-quality development of the NEV industry in the TEDA, Binhai New Area, and even Tianjin as a whole.

Geely sets up new auto engineering technology development company

On August 3, Zhejiang Geely Automotive Engineering Technology Development Co., Ltd. was officially founded with a registered capital of 30 million yuan, according to the corporate information platform Tianyancha.

The newborn company has a business scope that extends to cover engineering and technology research and experimental development, R&D of automotive components, import and export of goods, technology import and export, and industrial design services. The shareholder information shows that it is wholly owned by Geely Automotive Research Institute (Ningbo) Co., Ltd.

SemiDrive allies with SEGGER to provide free development environment for clients

On August 4, SemiDrive, the all-scenario intelligent automotive chip solutions provider, and SEGGER, a veteran in the embedded systems industry, jointly announced a collaboration. Through a full buyout license, SemiDrive will provide all its customers using the E3 series high-performance MCU automotive chips and D3 series industrial chips with free access to SEGGER's versatile multi-platform integrated development environment (IDE), the Embedded Studio.

EVE Energy forecasts 50%-65% YoY spike in H1 2023 net profit

Chinese lithium battery maker EVE Energy Co., Ltd. ("EVE") announced this week its net profit attributable to shareholders is forecasted to reach between 2,038,581,700 yuan and 2,242,439,800 yuan in the first half of 2023 (H1 2023), which should surge 50% to 65% from the previous year.

Chery Holding's monthly sales hit new high in July 2023

Chery Holding reported remarkable monthly sales figures for July, with 150,466 vehicles sold, marking a 14.4% year-on-year increase, and setting a historic record.

AutoChips commences mass production of AC7802x automotive-grade MCU chips

Recently, AutoChips, a subsidiary of NavInfo, kicked off mass production of its AC7802x automotive-grade MCU chips. The chips have already been delivered to several benchmark customers and are being widely used, gaining market recognition for product and service quality.

Nuclei System Technology secures new funding to boost RISC-V expansion

On August 1, Nuclei System Technology (Nuclei System) announced the successful completion of a new round of financing. The funding round was led by China Fortune Innovation Capital, with participation from October Capital and LongDing Capital.
Nikki Giovanni in an interview with Marty Moss-Coane on WHYY in 2017, featured in "Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project." The documentary, directed by Michele Stephenson and Joe Brewster, screens at the BlackStar Film Festival this weekend. Read more

Start your day with the Philly news you need and the stories you want all in one easy-to-read newsletter

It should be another warm day with a high of 84 but be sure to grab an umbrella, just in case. Rain might make an appearance.

The BlackStar film festival returned this week for its 12th year. Black, brown, and Indigenous filmmakers are sharing their art through Sunday across three Center City venues: The Perelman Theater at the Kimmel Center, the Lightbox Film Center, and the Suzanne Roberts Theatre. This year, the festival features 90 films, representing 30 countries.

Our lead story follows the subject of one of the films, the iconic poet Nikki Giovanni.

 Taylor Allen (@TayImanAllen, morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)

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If someone forwarded you this email, sign up for free here.

Nikki Giovanni is one of Americas greatest living poets.

Its no wonder why Brooklyn-based filmmakers Michele Stephenson and Joe Brewster wanted to create a close study of Giovanni and her legacy in the dreamy documentary, Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project. The husband-and-wife duo featured archival footage and trippy shots of the galaxy. Giovannis been talking to astronauts about getting artists on rocket ships, hence the title.

In her own words: If another life-form is coming to Earth, they can drop by my house, and Ill do what Black women always do, Come on in baby, are you hungry? Because thats what Black women do, no matter what it is. We save life whenever we can, and we feed it, and we welcome that.

Going to Mars showcases Giovannis cosmic ambitions and her vast global impact as her health declines and her memory fades.

Keep reading to learn more about her life, including her time in Philadelphia.

The Philadelphia School District will now grant eighth graders at several special-admissions schools, including the top-ranked Julia R. Masterman school, automatic admission to high school as long as they meet the eligibility criteria.

The ability of eighth graders to skip the lottery is one of a number of changes the district announced Thursday to how students will be selected for special-admissions schools, starting in September with applications for the 2024-25 school year.

Necessary context: This comes after the backlash to an overhaul of the special-admissions process in 2021 that was intended to increase equity. To address imbalances, the district implemented a lottery which removed the principals ability to shape their student bodies and added preferences at some schools for students from specific zip codes.

Note: These new changes dont eliminate the lottery, but they do include additional review processes for students with certain disabilities.

Continue reading for a deeper understanding of the changes.

What you should know today

 Trivia time 

An estimated 200,000 ticket-holders attended Taylor Swifts three sold-out shows in Philly back in May.

Not everyone who showed up had a ticket, and instead opted to just hang out in the parking lot. About how many fans tailgated outside of the Linc over the course of the weekend?

A) 60,000

B) 57,000

C) 55,000

D) 50,000

Think you know? Check your answer.

What were...

 Wondering: What you think about pickleballs rising popularity. Columnist Jenice Armstrong is not a fan.

Sharing: How to prep your air-conditioning for the next heat wave.

 Recapping: Craig LaBans Reddit AMA forum discussion about his new Taste Philly newsletter that features exclusive profiles and reviews of Phillys diverse food scene.

 Unscramble the anagram 

Hint: Electric Factory

UNFLINCH ALARM SILK

Email us if you know the answer. Well select a reader at random to shout out here. Cheers to Evan Silverstein, who correctly guessed Thursdays answer: Tina Fey.

Photo of the day

Happy Friday. I hope its a light day so you can start your weekend early. 
TORKIV, Ukraine  At the entrance to the village cemetery, where they buried Vasyl Pushkar, stands a tall, gray stone marker.

The stone is engraved with an Orthodox cross and the words Holodomor, 1932-33, a memorial to the four million or more Ukrainian peasants who were starved to death by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin when their farms were collectivized and their harvests seized.

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Ninety years later, Vladimir Putin is sending food prices for poor nations soaring by blocking Ukraines grain exports, which come from black earth villages such as Torkiv, a community of a thousand people about 200 miles south of Kyiv. Meantime, on Monday, village residents gathered to bury their latest casualty from Moscows current genocidal effort to erase Ukraine from the map.

No wonder the pain and the defiance here run deep.

 READ MORE: As Russian missiles again rain down on Odesa, Putin sneers at the U.N. and NATO allies | Trudy Rubin

Mobilized in March, the 42-year-old Pushkar died from wounds sustained in a mine explosion on the wars front lines in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. After four weeks in the hospital, he fell into a coma, shortly after speaking with his 3-year-old daughter for the last time.

The village turned out the day before the funeral to line the narrow road and kneel as the body was delivered to his parents tidy cottage. When I entered their living room, a picture of a handsome man in uniform held pride of place on the mantle. It bore little resemblance to the torn and reassembled face in the coffin nearby.

Bent over her son, Pushkars mother constantly rearranged the surrounding bouquets of flowers, as his father wept by her side.

The skies were deeply overcast, and rain spattered the road as soldier colleagues carried Pushkars body the last two miles from his parents home to the burial ground. The coffin had been carefully wrapped in the Ukrainian flag.

Elderly female mourners, bent over walking sticks, trudged up the road without assistance. A local band, with tuba and bass drum, played funeral music along the route. Police officers knelt by the roadside as the cortege passed.

Noticeable by their absence were men of military age. They were all at the front.

At the cemetery, the coffin was opened one more time. Pushkars wife, who had stood like a black-clad statue throughout the religious service, threw herself onto the casket and kissed her husbands face, chest, and feet. His mother and father sobbed uncontrollably.

Then the coffin lid was carefully screwed on once again, the flag was folded and handed to the widow, and the body lowered into the grave.

The villages anger at Putins brutal war exploded when the crowd gathered to hear a senior officer from Pushkars 59th Brigade eulogize the sacrifice of their fallen son.

Give us a promise, a woman shouted at Major Andre (identified here by his military call sign). Give us a promise that when this war is over, you will build an alley of heroes for all the sons who have died from this village. The major swiftly responded, I promise not only an alley but also their portraits will be in the school where they studied. These heroes never die. They go on living in our hearts.

I caught up with a visibly moved Major Andre as the crowd dispersed. He has been to 20 such funerals of men from battalions within the 59th Brigade. He would have attended many more had his military duties not made that impossible.

This is the answer to why we have to move slowly, he told me bitterly, pointing back at the grave site. He was referring to critiques from U.S. officials that the current Ukrainian counteroffensive against the Russians has not moved quickly enough. But lacking air cover (given the long-delayed delivery of U.S.-made F-16s, and possessing only limited numbers of old Soviet-made planes), Ukraines military leaders have slowed their attack lest their infantry be slaughtered.

What [Ukrainian military commander Valery] Zaluzhny is doing is absolutely correct, respecting the life of every soldier, the major continued, vehemently. Of course we will win, but it is about the amount of losses it will take.

What eats at Major Andre, and at so many soldiers and officers I met on the front lines, is that their losses could have been slashed if Washington had not delayed the arrival of F-16s until next spring. And the number of Ukrainian dead still could be cut if the White House would finally green-light the long-range ATACMS missiles that could destroy Russian bases and supply depots far behind fighting lines. It will cost too many losses without ATACMS, the major said.

He then took out his iPhone and showed me photos of the bodies of two of his men who were captured by Russian troops in the Donbas region. They had been tortured, with tongues cut out and throats slashed. He flicked through more shots of distorted bodies, dead from the fumes of old chemical shells the Russians periodically fire.

The Ukrainian military takes great risks to recover the bodies of their fallen, he stressed, while the Russians leave many of their dead and wounded behind and even booby-trap the bodies.

How can we negotiate with such people? the major demanded  a query I have heard repeatedly on this trip.

 READ MORE: Putin is playing a game of food blackmail. The West cant let him win. | Trudy Rubin

What grieved this officer even more is that many Americans and Europeans dont seem to grasp that this is not a war about NATO. It is a battle for Ukraines very survival that affects all of Europe and the United States.

Now Ukraine stands on the border [in Europe] between good and evil, between darkness and light. We are defending the values of the whole civilized world. The West should understand this, he said.

As we drove away from the cemetery, the clouds lifted. We passed a stretch of golden sunflowers whose ubiquitous presence in Ukrainian farmlands always lifts the spirits. I believe Ukraine could drive the Russians out in the coming months if it gets the weapons it needs now for this counteroffensive.

Yet, on leaving Torkiv, it was painful to realize how many more Ukrainians will be grieving their dead in villages and cities if the U.S. doesnt act decisively to help end this war.
Phillies Cole Hamels pitches in the first inning of Game 5 of the 2008 World Series against the Tampa Bay Rays on Oct. 27, 2008. Read more

Former Phillies pitcher Cole Hamels has officially called it a career. On Friday, the San Diego Padres announced the lefty was being placed on the voluntarily retired list, ending his latest comeback attempt.

Hamels had signed a minor league contract with his hometown club with the goal of returning to the majors for the first time since undergoing multiple surgeries after joining the Dodgers in 2021.

With the World Series champions career coming to a close, its a good time examine five of Hamels most memorable moments his Phillies career, which spanned 10 of his 15 MLB seasons.

An MVP postseason in 2008

Hamels was named MVP of the 2008 World Series, giving up just four runs in 13 innings against the Tampa Bay Rays.

He was also named MVP of the NLCS, in which he surrendered just three runs in 14 innings against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

During that postseason run, Hamels became just the third pitcher in MLB history with five starts of at least six innings and no more than two runs allowed in a single postseason (Curt Schilling and John Smoltz). He finished that postseason run 4-0 with a 1.80 ERA.

A no-hitter in his final start

In what would be his final start for the Phillies, Hamels threw a no-hitter at famed Wrigley Field, stifling the Cubs six days before the trade deadline.

Hamels was dealt six days later to the Texas Rangers, but not before becoming the first pitcher to no-hit the Cubs since Sept. 9, 1965, the date of Sandy Koufaxs perfect game and then-record-setting fourth no-hitter. Hamels struck out 13, walked two, and at one point retired 17 consecutive batters en route to 129-pitch shutout and a 5-0 Phils victory. A year earlier in 2014, Hamels also pitched the lions share of a combined no-hitter against the Atlanta Braves.

A 15-strikeout gem in 2007

Hamels was stellar in his rookie campaign in 2006, but his 15-strikeout performance in April the following season turned out to be a career-high. The complete-game victory over the Cincinnati Reds also featured a triple-play in the fifth inning. It was his first complete game and the highest strike out total for a Phillies pitcher since Curt Schilling fanned 15 in 1998.

A home run duel with Matt Cain

Hamels hit just three home runs in his career. Home runs hit by pitchers are quirky on their own. This one, however, was memorable because it was the first time since 1925 that a Phillies pitcher hit a homer and gave one up to an opposing pitcher in the same game.

San Francisco Giants starter Matt Cain cracked a solo blast in the third inning. In the home-half, Hamels sent the first pitch he saw into the seats in right field at Citizens Bank Park.

A postseason shutout in Roy Halladays shadow

Four nights after Roy Halladay no-hit the Reds in Game 1 of the NLDS, Hamels clinched the series, scattering five hits and striking out nine in the 2-0 win.

Inquirer writer David Murphy summed Hamels outing thusly: For 3-plus hours on a picture-perfect autumn night, he made the slimmest of leads seem like the widest of chasms. And now, the Phillies are back where they normally are this time of year: one step away from the World Series.
Wellfleet oysters on the half shell are pictured at Oyster House in Center City Philadelphia on Tuesday, Aug. 21, 2018. TIM TAI / Staff Photographer Read more

A plate of freshly shucked oysters on the half shell is a briny and beautiful thing.

Philadelphia has a very old and rich oyster history, said Sam Mink, owner of the popular Rittenhouse seafood spot Oyster House.

Philadelphias proximity to the Delaware Bay, the Chesapeake, even the Shore, are large oyster-producing areas, which meant that in the 19th and 20th centuries, oysters and oyster bars were commonplace throughout the city. Oysters bars used to be ubiquitous, like the way pizza parlors are in every neighborhood, he said.

How we choose our best lists What makes something the best? Our recommendations are based on our reporters' deep regional knowledge and advice from local experts. We also strive to represent the geographic and cultural diversity of the city and region. Spot an error or omission? Email us at phillytips@inquirer.com

And while oyster bars arent as common as they once were in this area, there are still a number of great restaurants to visit for fresh oysters  many of which serve full-flavored oysters harvested from the Delaware Bay.

Below, find the best restaurants for freshly shucked oysters in the Philly area.

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Oyster House on Sansom Street has the best, most expertly shucked selection of oysters around, plus great fried oysters. They frequently serve a half-dozen varieties, including oysters from the Delaware Bay, Maine, Long Island, Cape Cod, Canada, and more, so theres lots from which to choose. Happy hour runs Tuesday through Friday from 4 to 6 p.m. at the oyster bar. During happy hour, a rotating oyster (usually local) costs $2 a pop. Dont forget to tip your shucker.

1516 Sansom St.,  215-567-7683,  oysterhousephilly.com,  @phloysterhouse,  Tuesday to Thursday 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday to -Saturday, 11:30 a.m. to -10 p.m.

Inside Reading Terminal Market, the menu at Pearls Oyster Bar leans classic with fried oyster and clam platters, crab cakes, clam chowder, and more, alongside fresh oysters available for $14 for a half dozen or $3 each.

51 N. 12th St.,  215-964-9792,  pearlsrtm.com,  @pearlsoysterbar,  Sunday to Friday 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Sweet Amalia Market and Kitchen is named for co-owner Lisa Calvos Sweet Amalia oyster farm on the Delaware Bay, and, naturally, its oysters are the draw, both from the farm and from Barnegat Bay Collective. Try a half dozen raw oysters from the farm for $21 and a dozen from Barnegat for ($18). Or get four baked ($18), eight fried ($22), and four cornmeal-fried oysters on a brioche roll with cabbage and lime slaw  or celery root slaw in the fall ($18).

994 Harding Hwy, US Route 40, Newfield, NJ,  856-839-2478,  sweetamalia.com,  @sweetamaliaoysters, Thursday to Monday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

If youre in the mood for a briny snack, happy hour at Pearl & Mary is Monday to Sunday from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. with $2 buck-a-shuck oysters that rest on ice as shuckers work nearby.

114 S. 13th St.,  215-330-6786, pearlandmary.com,  @pearlandmary_phl, Monday and Tuesday, 4 p.m. to 10 p.m., Wednesday and Thursday 4 p.m. to 11 p.m., Friday 4 p.m. to midnight; Saturday 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., 4 p.m. to midnight; Sunday, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., 4 p.m. to 10 p.m.

There are two ways to order your oysters at Vernick Fish, chef Greg Vernicks American oyster bar on the bottom floor of the Comcast Technology Center: raw by the shell ($3.25 to $4.75) and the broiled oysters Philadelphia ($24), which come topped with genoa salami and provolone.

 1 N. 19th St.,  215-419-5055,  vernickfish.com,  @vernickfish  Tuesday to Saturday 5 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. (The kitchen closes at 10 p.m.)

River Twice on East Passyunk Avenue also sources its oysters from a favorite on this list: Sweet Amalia oyster farm in Cape May. The oyster offerings and pricing change regularly.

 1601 E. Passyunk Ave.,  267-457-3698,  rivertwicerestaurant.com,  @rivertwicephl,  Thursday to Monday 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Find both East and West Coast oysters on the menu at Old Citys Royal Boucherie for market price, along with other raw bar options like shrimp cocktail. You can also splurge and get oysters on a seafood platter with a daily rotation of other seafood (for $99). Get $2 oysters at happy hour, Monday to Friday 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., at the bar and bar tables.

 52 S. Second St.,  267-606-6313,  royalboucherie.com,  @royalboucherie,  Monday and Tuesday 4 p.m. to 10 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 4-11 p.m., Wednesday and Thursday 11a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 11 p.m., Sunday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Sweet Amalia oysters are the star at a.kitchen. The bivalves come on the half shell with peach kimchi mignonette and grilled lemon, at $22 for six.

 1737 Walnut St.,  215-825-7030,  akitchenandbar.com,  @akitchenphilly,  Monday dinner 4:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.; Tuesday to Friday breakfast 9 a.m. to 11 p.m., lunch 11 a.m. to -3 p.m., dinner 4:30 p.m. to 10 p.m.; Saturday brunch 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., dinner 4:30 p.m. to 10 p.m., Sunday brunch 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., dinner 4:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Bring a bottle of white wine to pair with the freshly shucked Prince Edward Island oysters at Conshohockens Blackfish BYOB. The oysters are topped with whipped Meyer lemon and a light topping of pickled fennel and pink peppercorn, for $20 for five oysters.

119 Fayette St.,  610-397-0888,  blackfishrestaurant.com,  @blackfishbyob,  Tuesday to Friday 5:30 p.m. to 10 p.m., Saturday 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.

The oysters on the menu at Standard Tap change often to keep up with demand and availability but are always served with mignonette sauce and lemon wedges.

 901 N. Second St.,  215-238-0630,  standardtap.com,  @standardtap,  Monday to Friday 4 p.m. to midnight, Saturday and Sunday 11 a.m. to midnight

Dock Street Brewing Companys cocktail bar and taproom has $2-buck-shuck oyster parties every Wednesday from 5 p.m. until sellout. Find freshly shucked Fishtown Seafood oysters each week by Mars of Shell Daddy, plus a guest chef Deep Bleu Dining on Aug. 9.

1229 N. Front St.,  267-284-0345,  dockstreetbeer.com/dock-street-fishtown,  @dockstreetfishtown,  Tuesday to Thursday 4 p.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Sunday 4 p.m. to close, Saturday noon to close

This neighborhood gastropub offers buck-a-shuck oysters for $1 each during Seafood Night on Wednesdays. Find the oysters at both Port Richmond and Rockledge locations from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. or during happy hour Monday to Friday 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Oysters are $2 each during regular hours. Theres also specials like the all-you-can-eat combo of snow crab, mussels, and fries for $49.99.

2619 E Indiana Ave. and 704 Huntingdon Pike, Rockledge,  215-423-7878 and 215-935-6443, gaulandco.com,  @gaulandcorichmond and @gaulandcorockledge,  Monday to Friday, 11 a.m. to 2 a.m., Saturday and Sunday, 8 a.m. to 2 a.m.

 READ MORE: Live your best life in Philly: Read our most useful stories here.
Beijing (Gasgoo)- On August 4, Pony.ai, the Chinese autonomous driving solution developer, held a signing ceremony with Toyota Motor (China) Investment Co. Ltd. (referred to as "Toyota China") and GAC Toyota Motor Co., Ltd. (referred to as "GAC Toyota"). The three parties announced the establishment of a joint venture to support the future mass production and large-scale deployment of autonomous driving taxis (Robotaxis).

Photo credit: Pony.ai

Under the agreement, the joint venture, with an investment exceeding 1 billion yuan, will be set up within this year. It will provide a platform of Toyota's pure electric vehicles, produced by GAC Toyota, for Robotaxi use. These vehicles will be equipped with Toyota's redundant systems capable of fully autonomous driving and integrated with Pony.ai's autonomous driving system. Utilizing Pony.ai's mature Robotaxi operational platform, the joint venture aims to provide passengers with safe and reliable autonomous mobility services.

As a leading autonomous driving company, Pony.ai has already demonstrated commercial Robotaxi operations at Level 4 autonomy, making it an essential strategic partner for Toyota in the field of autonomous driving mobility services.

Back in August 2019, Pony.ai and Toyota formed their collaboration in China to jointly promote the development of autonomous driving vehicles for mobility services. In September of the same year, the two companies began their autonomous driving cooperation project on public roads in China, using Toyota's Lexus RX model and Pony.ai's autonomous driving system. In April 2023, the Toyota "Siena Autono-MaaS" vehicles equipped with Pony.ai's sixth-generation L4 autonomous driving software and hardware system initiated public road testing in Beijing and Guangzhou, marking another significant milestone in the advanced autonomous driving collaboration between Pony.ai and Toyota for mobility services.
When we embarked on this transaction, we were of the firm belief it was in the best interests of our customers, shareholders and employees and that it would provide a net benefit to the Australian economy, said Suncorp chair, Christine McLoughlin (pictured above).
The digital advance warning flood signs require minimal maintenance and operate with a sensor, enabling them to activate to close the road when water levels reach a specific depth over the road. Meanwhile, the cameras are activated once the creek or stream reaches a pre-determined level or the signs are activated.
Were extremely pleased to have found such fantastic partners in Hubbard Insurance Group and Assurance B. Belliveau Insurance, said Westland president and CEO Jamie Lyons. We're excited to be able to serve more communities in Eastern Canada as we welcome these best-in-class brokerages to the Westland family.
Annas track record of building a successful business in this space will be invaluable as we continue to broaden our offering to our clients and, with Jessicas support, I look forward to what the future brings for the team as we continue to go from strength to strength.
"We're launching umbrella/excess liability coverage to help entrepreneurs thrive, said Jack Ramsey, vice president of private agent business at NEXT Insurance. As businesses grow, their liability insurance needs change, and as a carrier, we want to make sure we're able to continue to support our customers' growth. We're confident that this highly-requested umbrella/excess liability offering will address the demand we've seen from both customers and agents who require this coverage for contractual obligations, and we are excited to be able to offer this expansion ourselves with the aim of being a one-stop-shop for our small business customers."
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The judge called it a spectacular fall from grace after a well-known Pennsylvania socialite was convicted in 2019 of more than $13 million in insurance fraud.

Four years later, the Bucks County woman, Claire Risoldi, has died at age 71, leaving behind a complicated story of greed and false allegations against firefighters, but also generosity and caring towards others, according to local news reports.

Risoldi, known for her GOP fundraising and social events, was called the mastermind behind schemes that led to false insurance claims for three fires at her familys Buckingham estate between 2009 and 2013. AIG Insurance paid out more than $10 million on one of the claims, although the family had claimed as much as $19 million in losses and sued AIG over the denials.

Part of the claim was for a large amount of jewelry, which Risoldi accused firefighters of stealing while they were battling the blaze at the mansion, The Morning Call and other news outlets reported. The family also vastly inflated the value of artwork that was lost in the fire, including a painting of the family on the ceiling, the Associated Press reported.

Defense lawyers argued that all three fires at the Clairemont estate were investigated by the insurance company and deemed accidental. Their experts blamed the last two on faulty wiring. The fire marshals office has declared the causes undetermined, according to prosecutors.

Authorities investigated for years, eventually finding that some of the same jewelry noted in the 2013 fire had been claimed in three previous incidents. In the end, the woman and five others were convicted of fraud and she was sentenced to as much as two years in prison. The judge, from another county after local judges recused themselves because of associations with the family, also ordered Risoldi to repay AIG the $10 million, as well as fines and costs.

Ownership of the estate was transferred to the state Attorney Generals Office, which sold the property as part of the restitution. The judge also mentioned the firefighters who were falsely accused, telling them they should feel vindicated after Risoldis conviction.

Risoldi appealed the conviction and died in July before the appeal was finalized.

Others, including family members, were also charged in the crimes. One was Risoldis second husband, a former Bucks County Sheriffs Office supervisor. He killed himself before the case came to trial, the New Hope Free Press reported. Her son pleaded guilty.

Top photo: Firefighters at a 2009 fire at the Risoldi mansion, known as Clairemont. (AP Photo/The Intelligencer, Rich Kennedy)

Topics Fraud Pennsylvania
The UK government unveiled a fresh attempt to bolster security of critical energy infrastructure like gas pipelines.

The release of an updated National Risk Register by Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden reflects concerns that heavy reliance on gas supplies piped from Norway via subsea links leaves the countrys energy network vulnerable. Downing Street is worried about the potential threat from Russia, and malicious use of drones to disrupt vital transport, cables and other infrastructure.

The government is urging businesses and local authorities to make use of the online tool, which lists about 90 main risks and includes some previously classified information, to help in planning responses. The announcement comes as Dowden highlights progress at the offshore Dogger Bank wind farm off Englands northeast coast, which eventually will have capacity to power more than six million homes.

Energy security was thrown into sharp focus last September, following explosions that hit the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas links running from Russia to Germany. The damage exposed how vulnerable Europe is to attacks on its infrastructure, including oil and gas pipelines, power lines and cables carrying data and financial information.

Thursdays announcement follows a commitment by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak earlier this week to grant hundreds of new licenses for oil and gas production in the North Sea. Sunak defended the move as a contribution to improving energy security, though opponents suggested that it showed the governing Conservatives were softening climate protection policies.

Energy and climate have risen up the political agenda following Russias invasion of Ukraine and the cost-of-living crisis, with critics warning that the UK has failed to invest sufficiently to enhance energy independence. The register also details risks such as terrorism, cyber attacks, disruption to oil trade routes, pandemics, industrial action and environmental hazards.

With assistance from Maddie Parker.

Photograph: Offshore drilling rigs near Scotland. Photo credit: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

Copyright 2023 Bloomberg.
Verlingue has announced the acquisition of Gloucester, England-based Brunsdon Employee Benefits, an independently owned employee benefits specialist.

The deal, subject to regulatory approval, supports Verlingues recent expansion in the Midlands and Southwest and significantly boosts its employee benefits capabilities in the SME and mid-corporate market. Financial details of the deal were not provided.

The acquisition aligns with Verlingue Groups 2024 strategic plan to create a major European, family-owned, independent insurance broker and has reinforced its ambition after the acquisition, early July, of INSER, one of the leading independent players in the Italian insurance brokerage market.

Brunsdon Employee Benefits provides schemes and advice to a broad portfolio of clients in the Southwest and across the UK.

The whole of the Brunsdon Employee Benefits team will join Verlingue as part of the deal and current Managing Director Seb Merritt, will take on the role of head of Employee Benefits reporting into CEO Mike Latham.

Mark Pugh, currently head of Employee Benefits, will take the opportunity to relinquish previous operational responsibilities and will now concentrate on expanding and delivering Verlingues multinational, major client and partnership propositions.

The acquisition follows hot on the heels of the launch of a new general insurance office in Birmingham covering the Midlands and South West.

This is an exciting acquisition for Verlingue which not only expands our footprint in the employee benefits market but builds on our recent expansion as a group in the Midlands and South West. Our strategy is to continue to grow our employee benefits operation, commented Mike Latham, CEO, Verlingue.

Verlingue Ltd. employs over 170 employees in offices in Manchester, Redhill, and Egham, as well as the London market. (It is headquartered in Redhill, England). It supports small corporate/large SMEs for general insurance, employee benefits and risk

management services across a range of specialist sectors. The business is owned by French parent company Verlingue, an independent insurance broker that employs more than 1,000 people with offices in France, Portugal, Switzerland, Great Britain, Italy. Based in Quimper, France, it places premiums in excess of 2 billion.

Source: Verlingue

Topics Mergers & Acquisitions Agencies
Beijing (Gasgoo)- Teslas Shanghai Gigafactory delivered 64,285 electric vehicles in the seventh month of this year, according to information released by the China Passenger Car Association on August 3.

Compared to the same month from 2022, Tesla scored a 128% year-on-year soar in monthly deliveries. However, the figure also indicated a 31.38% decline from the previous month where the US electric vehicle maker delivered an impressive 93,680 vehicles. Notably, July marked the automakers lowest delivery volume in this year so far.

In the first seven months of this year, the cumulative delivery volume of Teslas Shanghai Gigafactory reached 540,824 vehicles, shooting up 67.45% from a year ago.

Photo credit: Tesla

On July 12, the automakers Shanghai Gigafactory celebrated a significant milestone as the one millionth Model Y rolled off the production line. Earlier this year, the factory started exporting the Model Y vehicles to countries such as Canada and Mexico. Despite Tesla establishing additional factories since the inception of the Shanghai Gigafactory, this Chinese facility continues to be a symbol of efficiency and productivity, currently boasting the highest production output for the company.
Romania expects around 30 ships from Ukraine to clear customs on the Danube River over the next two days as it bids to clear a logjam in the aftermath of Wednesdays Russian attack on Ukraines main river port at Izmail.

The river and its mouth, now Ukraines last waterborne grain export route, are backed up with vessels traveling to and from Ukrainian ports, commercial ship tracking data shows.

Romanian authorities managing the waterway still expect a peak in traffic in August, despite the attack, an official said.

Russia has attacked the agricultural and port infrastructure of Ukraine, one of the worlds top grain exporters, for more than two weeks after refusing to extend a year-old safe passage grain corridor brokered by the United Nations and Turkey  effectively shutting Ukraines Black Sea ports.

Before Russia pulled out of the safe passage corridor, the Danube ports accounted for around a quarter of Ukraines grain exports.

Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said Russias attacks on Ukraines civilian infrastructure on the Danube amounted to war crimes. Ukraines prosecutor generals office said in a statement sent to Reuters that it was investigating the attacks on its agriculture infrastructure as potential war crimes.

Florin Uzumtoma, the navigation director for Romanias Danube administration agency, told Reuters: We are trying to handle these clusters as best we can, to relieve navigation congestion on the Danube.

We will clear around 30 ships in two days, at least 12 today, if not 14, and the rest tomorrow.

Uzumtoma said the administration cleared record high numbers of ships coming from Ukrainian inland ports in May and June, of over 477 per month.

May and June were peaks, and we expect August to have a peak as well, despite everything, he said.

Apart from the vessels waiting close to the Romanian port of Constanta, at least 20 commercial ships had stopped in the Danube channel leading up to the Ukrainian port of Izmail, tracking data from analytics company MarineTraffic showed on Thursday.

A further 30 ships had dropped anchor around Musura Bay in the Black Sea, which leads into a separate channel that links up with Izmail further along the waterway, the data showed.

A Ukrainian industry source told Reuters that the Romanian side has not yet allowed new ships to enter the Danube, citing poor weather conditions.

Insurance

The drone strikes on Izmail have already impacted the appetite of at least two underwriters who have paused cover for shipments through the Danube, two insurance sources said.

Industry sources have told Reuters war risk cover for Ukraines ports that were part of the previous grain deal had already been suspended.

Ukraine will insure ships that import and exports goods through the Danube and is considering the possibility of providing cover for ships going through the grain corridor, news agency Interfax-Ukraine reported on Thursday, citing Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.

We understand that if the Russians sink or blow up any merchant vessel, it will enormously complicate our work to attract partners to the grain corridor, Shmyhal was quoted as saying.

Ukrainian farm minister Mykola Solsky told national TV on Thursday that trading companies have significantly changed their logistic procedures in the Danube ports, taking into account the recent attacks.

Insurance and industry sources said on Thursday that Ukraine had approached trading companies and parts of the insurance industry to see what was feasible to ensure continued trade.

The Danube trade is being impacted and there is talk of floating mines (in that channel), one trade source active in the region said.

The situation is scary with the drone strikes, so close to a NATO border (with Romania).

(Reporting by Luiza Ilie in Bucharest, Jonathan Saul in London and Pavel Polityuk in Kyiv; editing by Peter Graff and Conor Humphries)

Photograph:A sailor talks on the radio on a pilot boat, taking a marine pilot to help navigate a cargo ship heading to Reni to load grains, from the Black Sea, where about 100 cargo ships were waiting to enter Sulina Channel, on July 27, 2022 in Sulina, Romania. Photo credit: Andreea Campeanu/Getty Images

Topics Carriers Ukraine
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP)  An Ohio-based utility company says it`s being investigated by a state office focused on organized crime in connection with payments the company made to the state`s former House speaker and a top utility regulator, a news outlet reported Wednesday.

FirstEnergy said in a financial report filed Monday that it had received a subpoena on June 29 from the Ohio Organized Crime Investigations Commission, Cleveland.com reported. The commission is a division of the state attorney general`s office.

The payments were the focus of a 2021 deferred prosecution agreement between the Akron-based firm and federal authorities in which the company agreed to pay a $230 million penalty and cooperate with investigators. The company said in its filing Monday that it had been unaware of the state investigation.

In the federal agreement, FirstEnergy acknowledged having bankrolled former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householders political ascendance in exchange for nuclear plant bailout legislation worth more than $1 billion to the company. Householder was convicted by a federal jury in June of racketeering in the $60 million scheme and was sentenced to 20 years. He is appealing. Lobbyist Matt Borges, former chair of the Ohio Republican Party, was also convicted of racketeering and sentenced to the minimum of five years in prison, which he is also appealing.

FirstEnergy also said it paid $4.3 million for favorable treatment to Sam Randazzo, the states former top utility regulator, who had ties to the company. Randazzo hasn`t been charged and has said he never used his position to further the firm`s interests.

FirstEnergy spokesperson Jennifer Young told Cleveland.com that the firm believes the state organized crime commission`s investigation is in an early stage and declined to comment further. She said FirstEnergy has accepted full responsibility for its past actions and addressed them by entering into the deferred prosecution agreement and paying a substantial penalty.

Bethany McCorkle, a spokesperson for Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, said her office would be legally barred from talking about any investigation before filing charges and also declined to provide a copy of the subpoena, Cleveland. com reported.

FirstEnergy`s former chief executive officer had said in an April court filing that the firm faced looming potential indictments. A U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission probe of the company continues.

The utility serves a number of states, including Ohio, New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

Copyright 2023 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Ohio
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Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd has agreed to pay up to $126 million to U.S. hospitals over 18 years to settle claims that its marketing of opioid drugs raised the hospitals operating costs.

As part of the proposed settlement, disclosed in Tevas quarterly earnings statement Wednesday, the Israel-based drugmaker also agreed to supply $49 million of the anti-overdose drug naloxone.

Teva said it had been sued by about 500 U.S. hospitals and other health care providers over opioids, and that the settlement would only be finalized if the company was satisfied that enough hospitals agreed to take part.

Teva did not say which hospitals were involved in the proposed settlement, and a spokesperson for the company did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A lawyer representing hospitals in mass tort litigation over opioids in Ohio federal court could not immediately be reached for comment.

Litigation against drugmakers, pharmacies and distributors over opioids, mostly brought by state, local and Native American tribal governments, has already resulted in more than $50 billion in total settlements, including a $4.35 billion settlement Teva reached last year.

Related: Teva Reaches Proposed $4.35 Billion Settlement of Opioid Lawsuits | Teva Says Opioids Settlement to Move Forward

The lawsuits claim that drugmakers downplayed the drugs risks and that distributors and pharmacies failed to prevent them from being diverted onto the illegal market.

Teva sells the brand-name fentanyl-based drug Fentora, used to treat breakthrough cancer pain, and previously made a similar drug called Actiq. It also makes generic opioid drugs.

More than 564,000 people died from opioid overdoses in the United States in the period from 1999 to 2020, and overdose deaths have risen further since then, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Topics USA
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Birmingham-based Valent Group, an insurance brokerage and risk management firm, has acquired Coastal Professional Insurance Inc., an independent agency in Mobile, Alabama.

Coastal, or CPI, has been in the business for three decades and offers property coverage. Principals also have considerable experience in flood insurance, allowing Valent to expand its commercial condominium specialization, according to a news release. La Donna Douglas is president of CPI.

Valent Group, with offices around Alabama, is a subsidiary of EBSCO Industries, a diverse, privately held global company based in Birmingham.

Topics Mergers & Acquisitions Alabama
X (formerly known as TwitterTWTR), the social media company founded in 2006, is now ubiquitous via its postsformerly called tweetson the Internet and all forms of media. It's best known for news-breaking tweets from politicians and celebrities, but it provides a platform for millions of users to publish their thoughts, interact, share content, and read breaking news.

The platform itself is free to use for individuals and businesses alike, though many of the features that enhance user experiences (such as editing tweets and user verification) are now locked behind a X Blue subscription with prices starting at $8 a month.



X Blue (formerly Twitter Blue) first launched in 2021 as a subscription service offering enhanced features like undoing a tweet and saving bookmarks to folders. Musk relaunched the program in November 2022 and introduced major changes like a blue checkmark in the features for paying users.

Once a user has created an account, they can post messages of up to 280 characters and up to 2,400 times per day, which are automatically distributed to followers in a feed that is constantly refreshed.

X-parent X Corp. (previously Twitter Inc.) divides its revenue into three categories: the sale of advertising services, the sale of data licensing and other services, and the recently incorporated Blue subscription. Although X has lost nearly half advertising revenue since Elon Musk takeover, it still constitutes the vast majority of the company's revenue.

X's major competitors include other social media companies like Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. (META), Google and YouTube parent Alphabet Inc. (GOOG), Snap Inc. (SNAP), and others.

Key Takeaways X (formerly known as Twitter) is a social media company providing a platform for users to interact in real time.

On April 25, X reported it would be acquired and taken private by Elon Musk in a $44-billion acquisition. After a rocky period, including Musk stating that he would no longer buy the company, the deal was completed on Oct. 27, 2022.

Parent company Twitter Inc. changed its name to X Corp. with the social media platform continuing to be called Twitter for a while until it also changed its name to X in July 2023.

X generated $4.4 billion revenue in 2022, an 11% decline year-on-year.

The company generated the vast majority of its revenue (90%) through advertising services in 2022.

X generated $11 million via X Blue in its first three months since it was relaunched in December 2022.

X's Industry

Twitter, Inc. was initially a social media company based in San Francisco, CA. It operated the social networking service Twitter and previously the Vine app and Periscope livestreaming service. In 2023, Twitter Inc. ceased to be an independent company after merging with a newly formed shell firm called X Corp.

Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, and WhatsApp are also leaders in the social media

industry with monthly active users ranginf from 2.9 billion (Instagram) to two billion (WhatsApp).

According to Grand View Research, the social networking app market was valued at $49.09 billion in 2022 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 26.2% from 2023 to 2030. Key

factors that are driving the social networking app market growth include the rising demand for the 5G technology, the surge in adoption of personalized feed-based app, and the growing demand for encrypted and self-destructive messaging-based social apps.

X operates worldwide as a microblogging service through a platform for putting out content in a quick, fast way. X solved the problem of Facebook posts and popular blogs that provide articles that can be too long to read.

As of 2023, X has 368 million monthly active users worldwide.

X's Financials

X generated $4.4 billion revenue in 2022, an 11% decrease from 2021 figures ($5 billion).



Revenue is expected to decrease in 2023 due to a loss of advertising, and in fact, the company has lost almost half of its advertising revenue since Elon Musks acquisition in October 2022. Many global advertisers left the company after changes to Xs service and content moderation rules. Agency executives who have worked with X said their clients continued to limit spending on the platform due to inconsistent support from Twitter and concerns about the persistent presence of misleading and toxic content.

Elon Musk declared that the company hasnt seen yet an increase in sales and confirmed cash flow remains negative and the company is struggling with a heavy debt: $13 billion of debt has to be paid by the end of July 2023. Still, X generates the majority of its revenue through advertising (90%, or four billion in 2022). It also generated about $570 million from data licensing (about 10% of total revenue).

The loss of advertising demand has fueled the need to find alternative revenue streams and rebuild the companys revenue model. X Blue is part of this strategy: a subscription service that allows users to access premium features and benefits on the app and that is available for $11 per month (or the local equivalent and $114.99 a year) on iOS and Android, and $8 ($84 a year) on the web.

X Blue made just $11 million on mobile in its first three months since it was relaunched on Nov. 4, 2022. Although the $11 million seems small when compared to the two other revenue streams, this figure doesnt cover web-based subscriptions. Its still uncertain how this revenue stream will evolve over the coming months, in part because the $11 million figure doesnt specify how much comes from monthly subcriptions vs. annual subscriptions.

X's History, Leadership, and Recent Developments

As of the end of July 2023, Twitter officially changed its name to X. The rebrand is yet another step in the ongoing transformation of the social media company, which changed the blue bird icon to the new black and white X logo. X has debuted the new logo on its desktop version, and a sign reflecting the company's new name appeared on its San Francisco headquarters.

Twitter was created by former Odeo employees Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Evan Williams, and Biz Stone, and publicly launched in July 2006. Originally, the site used SMS to send tweets onto the

network and its defining features were the tight limits placed on each post or tweet (140 characters, doubled to 280 in 2017).

On April 25, 2022, Twitter announced that Elon Musk, founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Tesla Inc., would acquire the company for $44 billion. Upon closing, the company would become privately held with all shareholders receiving $54.20 in cash for each share of the company owned.



The road to sealing the deal was a rocky one but Elon Musk completed his acquisition of Twitter on Oct. 27, 2022. Musk acted as CEO of Twitter until he stepped down in June 2023 and was replaced by Linda Yaccarino, who previously was the chair of advertising sales for NBCUniversal.

Soon Musk began making changes to the company and introduced a series of reforms and

management changes, rising concerns about the company's ability to maintain its platform. Its workforce was drastically reduced by laying off half of the employees on Nov. 4, 2022 in order to cut costs (a measure taken to compensate for the drop in the companys revenue). In total, about 80% of Xs staff has been laid off since Musk took over the company, or more than 6,000 people. As of 2023, the social media platform has only 1,500 employees, down from under 8,000 who were employed at the time of the acquisition.

On Nov. 20, 2022, Musk also reinstated Donald Trumps account (the former President was banned from the platform for inciting violence at the Capitol riots in 2021) causing advertisers to pull off due to what was seen as relaxed content moderation policies. More than half of Twitters top 1,000 advertisers in September 2022 (including major brands such as Coca-Cola, Unilever, Jeep, and Wells Fargo) were no longer spending on the platform in the first weeks of January 2023.



Also in November 2022, the Twitter Blue subscription service was relaunched as a way to generate revenue. In 2023, Twitter Inc. ceased to be an independent company after merging with a newly formed shell X Corp., a privately owned company operating within the X Holding Co.



What Is the Financial Status of X? On July 15, 2023, Elon Musk declared in a post that his company is having a negative cash flow due to a 50% drop in advertising revenue plus heavy debt load.

What Is X Blue? X Blue (previously Twitter Blue), is a paid subscription service intended to elevate quality conversations on the platform. The additional features designed to improve user experience and promote higher quality allow users to expand their reach, see fewer ads, and customize their experience on the platform. X Blue has two different costs: if you purchase it in your web browser, it costs $8/month or $84/year. If you sign up through the iOS or Android app, X Blue it costs $ $11/month or $114.99/year.

Which Social Media Generates the Most Revenue? Facebook and Instagram (both owned by Meta Platforms) generate the most revenue. Combined, they are responsible for around half of all revenue generated by social networking apps. As of Q2 2023, Facebook generated $17,550 million, and Instagram $13,876.

The Bottom Line

X generated $4.4 billion revenue in 2022, a 11% decrease on 2021 figures. Revenue is expected to be worse in 2023 due to a loss of advertising revenue. Still, 90% of Xs revenue came from advertising in 2022. X Blue, a paid subscription service, was launched as a way to generate non-advertising-based revenue, but the question on how much subscriptions will bring in the upcoming months remains uncertain.
August 4, 2023 (Investorideas.com Newswire) The US and China maintained their status as the preferred investment destinations for venture capital (VC) firms in the first half (H1) of 2023. Together, they accounted for a staggering 70% of the volume and value of high-value VC deals ($100m) announced globally during this period, reveals GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

An analysis of GlobalData's Financial Deals Database reveals that 69.5% and 76.6% of high-value VC deals volume and value remained concentrated only in the US and China.

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: "VC funding activity has taken a hit globally due to dent in investor sentiments amid challenging market conditions and the US is not an exception to this. However, it did not alter the US' dominance in global VC funding landscape. In fact, the US outpaced its peers by a significant margin. It alone accounted for more than half of these high-value VC deals volume and value in H1 2023."

The US' share of high-value VC deals volume announced globally during H1 2023 stood at 50.2% while accounting for 58.7% of the corresponding deal value.

Bose adds: "Akin to other key markets, although China's startup ecosystem is experiencing funding crunch. However, China still continues to be a highly preferred investment destination for VC firms and stands just next to the US in terms of high-value VC deals volume and value."

China accounted for 19.3% of the total number of high-value VC deals announced globally during H1 2023, whereas its share of corresponding deal value stood at 17.9%.

The UK occupied the third position in terms of high-value VC funding deals volume in H1 2023 followed by Germany, India, France, Singapore, South Korea, Canada, and Switzerland.

Bose concludes: "The data from H1 2023 clearly underscores the enduring appeal of the US and China as the powerhouses of the global VC funding landscape despite the prevailing market challenges. As investors navigate uncertainties, these two markets are expected to play a pivotal role in shaping the future of VC investments."

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Notes to Editors

Quotes are provided by Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData

The information is based on GlobalData's Financial Deals Database

This press release was written using data and information sourced from proprietary databases, primary and secondary research, and in-house analysis conducted by GlobalData's team of industry experts.

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Irish employers are prioritising efforts to increase the employment rate of persons with disabilities, especially young people.

This is an area in which Ireland has some ground to make up. A recent report from the European Disability Forum (EDF) found that Irelands rate of employment for people with disabilities stands at just 32.6%, versus the 51% EU average.

That rating currently means that Ireland is joint worst in Europe alongside Greece. However, Greeces near 15% general unemployment helps explain why people with disabilities are not in jobs. Irelands 3.9% general unemployment rate  near full employment in practical terms  raises questions as to why over 67% of people with disabilities in Ireland cannot find work.

Under the European Commissions ten-year Strategy for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities comes in, the EU is working with member countries to deliver concrete progress in key areas making it easier for people to work.

Topics range from adequate transport and healthcare to advice on countering discrimination against people with disabilities. The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) produced data showing that many young people with disabilities face discrimination in the world of work due to stereotypes portraying them as unproductive.

At one EESC hearing, Daphne Nathalie Ahrendt of Eurofound presented the results of a Eurofound survey which shows the stark differences between young people with and without disabilities: 27% of respondents with disabilities were unemployed, against 12% of respondents without disabilities. 55% of them are also considered financially fragile, against 38% of their peers without disabilities.

Daphne said: A high majority of respondents with disabilities are more likely to face depression, the feeling of being left out of society and loneliness. They are also less likely to feel optimistic about the future. The latter figures tend to be noticeably lower when the respondents are employed.

At the same EESC hearing, Anna Kwiatkiewicz-Mory of Business Europe stressed that social services should strive to offer more employment opportunities for young people with disabilities.

Anna said: Connection between services and education is absolutely crucial, and from this perspective, we need to have targeted employment services for young people with disabilities. We need social services to first come into play, to prepare them to enter the employment market.

Meanwhile, in Ireland back in April, more than 60 companies signed up to the second Elevate Pledge Annual Report by Business in the Community Ireland (BITCI), demonstrating their commitment to diversifying their workforce.

Of course, the BITCI pledge relates to all forms of inclusion, not just disability. Signatory companies included Bus Eireann, AIB, Diageo, Musgrave, Janssen, PwC and many others.

Workers, it seems, are afraid of bias. One BITCI survey found that less than 1% of employees disclosed a disability, when a rate of 7% would be expected; and only 1.7% disclosed an ethnicity other than white, compared to an expectation of 15%. In the same survey, only three workers identified as Traveller, where 60 would have been expected.

Tomas Sercovich, CEO of BITCI, said: We continue to see a major gap between skills and people shortages in business and jobseekers that are left behind in our society. We simply cannot afford to lose talent.

Business must embrace inclusion strategically, not as the right thing to do, but as a fundamental agenda of change. Inclusion is an imperative for all in society and business has the tools and the mindset to make this happen.

Meanwhile, Bank of Ireland has launched an inclusion campaign promoting its efforts to tackle any barriers to careers in banking. Its initiatives include steps to enhance the Banks socio-economic diversity, accessibility, ethnic minority representation, and gender balance.

The Bank has also reaffirmed that a leaving certificate or college degree is not required for most applicants. It is launching a marketing campaign to attract more ethnic minority candidates into the banks frontline customer-facing roles.

Partnering with DCUs Access Programme, students from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds will take up a paid internship with the bank while studying for a degree. The bank is hosting number of 8-week work placements and 3-6 month paid internships for students and graduates of the Trinity Centre for People with Intellectual Disabilities (TCPID).

Matt Elliott, chief people officer, Bank of Ireland, said: Talent is everywhere, but opportunity is not. We want to play our part in changing that. A vibrant, dynamic company needs a diversity of skills, perspectives and backgrounds.

If we allow conscious or unconscious barriers to act as a blocker to people joining our company, we lose out as a business and talent is squandered, which is bad for everyone. We will continue to evolve our approach to hiring to ensure we attract candidates who represent the breadth of society we serve.

Prof Ian Greer, president of Queens University Belfast, with Belfast Lord Mayor Councillor Ryan Murphy, launchng a new Business Services Employment Academy to give 15 people living in Belfast, with few or no qualifications, the chance to secure an administrative role in the university.

Also encouragingly, a partnership between Belfast City Council and Queens University Belfast will remove barriers to employment for 15 people living in Belfast, with few or no qualifications. These 15 people will secure an administrative role in the University, through a new Business Services Employment Academy.

Lord Mayor of Belfast, Cllr Ryan Murphy, said: Our Belfast Agenda makes a commitment to help people living here achieve their full potential. Our new academy will support 15 residents who have low, or no qualifications, to access a good, rewarding job with one of the citys largest employers.

Once employed, academy mentors will engage with participants regularly during training to offer ongoing support, advice, and guidance to help them settle into their new roles.
Ryanair has labelled demands by Fingal County Council for Dublin Airport to reduce night-time flights as stupid" and "idiotic" calling for it to be reversed.

Earlier this week, Fingal Council Council issued an enforcement order telling the airport to reduce the number of flights between 11pm and 7am to 65 a night within six weeks. It comes after the council ruled the airport was in breach of planning conditions for operating late-night flights.

Dublin Airport operator daa said it was disappointed with the order and warned of the prospect of unnecessary travel disruption. Now budget airline Ryanair has waded into the issue saying the council should not be allowed to dictate national aviation policy or to restrict flights to/from Ireland at "our national airport".

Ryanair has called on Transport Minister Eamon Ryan to intervene and reverse the decision. It is also calling for him to move this night-time flight restriction period from 11pm  7am to 12am  6am to avoid disruption to the vast majority of first-wave flights which depart Dublin between 6am and 7am.

Eddie Wilson, chief executive of Ryanair, said moving the night-time restriction period would still reduce night-time noise at Dublin Airport to satisfy the needs of the council.

This sensible solution balances the needs of Irish air travel and its connectivity to Europe, with the complaints of the tiny number of neighbours of Dublin Airport complaining about the airports ever-reducing noise envelope.

Mr Wilson said that the council threatens to severely damage Irelands national aviation industry and connectivity to Europe with just six weeks notice.

The enforcement order came after the Planning Authority at the council investigated the alleged breaches after the opening of the airports north runway last year prompted a series of noise complaints from nearby residents.

The council has also ordered the daa to pay 350 to cover the cost of its investigation. Daa chief executive Kenny Jacobs said the restriction would mean fewer night-time flights than the number before the new runway was opened.

He called for a noise quota system to replace the flight cap as a way to manage traffic at night. Mr Jacobs said the quota model was the industry standard approach for large airports. Daa urged the council to suspend the overly onerous conditions or provide at least six months for compliance.
Strong beef prices in the coming weeks and months are "vital" if factories want a constant supply of prime cattle year-round to maintain normal supply patterns, the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) has said.

IFA national livestock chairman Brendan Golden said that beef prices are not reflecting costs farmers are experiencing this year and the "persistence of factories in dropping prices is compounding the situation".

He said there is now a 13c/kg differential between current price and the Bord Bia Prime Export Benchmark price and while prices have weakened in Ireland's key export markets, "it is not acceptable that our factories are seen as leading these price drops".

Not reflecting farm costs

Mr Golden said factories and Bord Bia "must do more to position our beef at the higher end of these markets, and return prices that reflect our on-farm costs producing beef of the highest standards".

"Factories are acutely aware of the production cost increases associated with cattle finishing which is set to increase a further 3% in 2023 up from the 28% increase in 2022 based on Teagasc analysis," Mr Golden said.

"Farmers should reject the lower quotes offered by some factories, deals 10c/kg above quoted prices are available with steers making up to 4.70 to 4.80/kg this week and heifers still securing deals of up to 4.85/kg base price.

"Supplies of finished cattle are tight and will tighten further over the coming weeks and months based on projections for the throughput for the year. Live export demand for forward store and finished cattle from NI will also add important competition to the trade."

Based on Bord Bia supply projections for the year, 30,000 fewer cattle are anticipated for slaughter in the coming months, and with grass cattle slow coming to market, throughput is expected to remain tight in the coming weeks, the IFA said.

Mr Golden added that strong beef prices in the coming weeks and months are "vital" if factories want a constant supply of prime cattle year-round to maintain normal supply patterns.
Milk recording is a newish venture on our farm and now we wonder how we ever managed without it. The amount of individual cow data that is made available is farm life changing.

For us, milk recording day is an opportunity to catch up with our neighbour/milk recorder, Tim Sheehan and also its the anticipation of finding any high cell count cows or, even better, cows that have been cured since the previous recording.

Since starting, milking recording on our farm has improved our cell count significantly. We have been able to selectively breed replacements and cull chronic cows from the herd. The milk recording lifetime report is a super asset to us as shows us the profitability and performance of our cows, it takes away the guesswork.

We have a DeLaval jar herringbone parlour, so it makes it a very simple process for sampling each cow and recording the volumes.

We all have our jobs that morning; mine is calling out the cow numbers to Tim as he likes to keep things very calm and not alarm the cows to a new presence in the parlour. I have been explaining to Jonathans nephews, David and Thomas, the importance of being quiet in the parlour and how the cows enjoy a peaceful milking time.

Last week, we had a case of mastitis in the herd just before milk recording; cow 1107 came back with a cell count of 988,000 cells/ml (almost a 'millionaire').

We took a sample from the infected quarter prior to treatment and put it in the freezer for now. This is important to do for any cow with mastitis, as you never know when an outbreak is looming, and you will have a sample ready to go to the lab for culture and sensitivity when required.

It doesnt cost anything to do this little step, but it could save you money in the long run by choosing the right anti-biotic for the specific bacteria you are dealing with.

Make sure to take the sample as sterile as possible, as any contamination will make it null and void for culture.

In our report, we had five cows that were over the 200,000 threshold to be classified as a high cell count cow. The next plan will be to use the California milk test paddle on all of these cows and find which quarters are infected.

When using this device, it's essential to have to teats clean and to strip out the fore milk first before placing an equal amount into each quadrant.

Sometimes the paddle quadrants can get contaminated with dirt from the hair on the udder or she moves, and the wrong milk goes into the wrong quadrant; it's a bit of hassle, but in those cases, its important to start over.

Once the quarters are identified using the CMT Paddle samples, I plan to take samples for culture and sensitivity to find out what bacteria is causing the high cell counts on our farm. There are fantastic videos on the Teagasc website on the interpretation of the CMT.

If only one quarter is infected, the option is there to dry off that quarter. We try to milk the high cell count cows last, but we cluster dip between cows, make sure that the dip is fresh, the correct dilution, and not contaminated.

Ensure the clusters dont get air locked, so always dip two clusters, not four at a time. The main priority is to keep infected cows away from uninfected cows and to remember basic hygiene in the parlour at all times.

When treating mastitis cases, it is so important to always use an anti-inflammatory such as meloxicam, as it is firstly a painful condition, and the inclusion of an NSAID had been shown to reduce the SCC of the cow during the treatment.

Always follow the treatment protocol advised by your vet for any anti-biotic treatment and finish the course to the end to reduce the risk of future Antibiotic resistance. In this cows case, it was a mild clotty mastitis with no other clinical signs; however, if E.coli mastitis is suspected or the cow is off form in any way, a vet visit is required urgently as she may be going toxic.

Cellcheck

There is a new cell count solutions lactation consult now available to all dairy farmers through Animal Health Ireland.

It involves a consultation visit with your trained local vet, looking at the cows, the milking routine, the machine and all aspects of your milk recording data. It is open to any dairy herd that has a bulk cell count over 200,000 cell/ml; it is an opportunity to really dive into the finer details of your milking system and solve the SCC issue at hand.

The next recording will be our third of the year, and this will give an indication of what cows may need to be dried off early to allow for a better cure rate. Hopefully, cow 1107 will be back down to under 200 SCC, but in the meantime we will CMT her regularly as a precaution.

There is a new Cellcheck cell count solutions consult now available to all dairy farmers through Animal Health Ireland.

It involves a consultation visit with your trained local vet, looking at the cows, the milking routine, the machine and all aspects of your milk recording data. It is open to any dairy herd that has a bulk cell count over 200,000 cell/ml and is an opportunity to really dive into the finer details of your milking system and solve the SCC issue at hand.

You can apply online at AHI.ie/cellcheck if you feel this could benefit your farm.

This week I will be swapping my wellies for my tan Chelsea boots and heading to the Dublin Horse Show for two days. My very talented cousin, Alan O'Regan, has qualified for the six-year-old class, looking forward to cheering him on and best of luck to all competing.
PHOENIX  A northwestern Arizona county has rejected a proposal to hand-count ballots in the 2024 election cycle after the local elections director warned that it would cost more than $1.1 million and involve hiring hundreds of new workers.

The Mohave County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 on Tuesday against adopting a hand count, with supervisors Ron Gould and Hildy Angius voting in favor. Board Chair Travis Lingenfelter said during the meeting that he couldnt justify the steep costs of a hand count because of Mohave Countys projected budget deficit.

You cant talk about any other spending when you have $18 to $20 million deficit, he said. I mean, thats irresponsible.

Prior to the vote, Mohave County Elections Director Allen Tempert told the board that hand counting ballots for upcoming elections would require hiring more than 245 new workers and cost about $1.1 million. Tempert also said workers made errors during a test hand count of 850 ballots conducted in June by his department.

This job would just be astronomical to try to put together all these people, he said.

Deputy County Attorney Ryan Esplin also expressed concerns about the legality of a hand count.

Mohave County is among other counties across the U.S. that have explored tabulating ballots by hand. Prior to the 2022 general election, rural Cochise County in southeast Arizona pursued a hand count before it was stopped by a judge. A similar effort in Nye County, Nevada, was also subject to litigation last year.

While there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election, the prospect of hand counting ballots is popular among some elected officials, activists, and voters who distrust U.S. elections and spread conspiracies about election equipment. Former President Donald Trump and his allies frequently attack voting equipment with unsupported claims. Republican lawmakers in some states have also promoted legislation mandating that ballots be counted by hand instead of by electronic tabulators.

Its being pushed all over the country, mostly in deeply red counties where there are county boards who are sympathetic to the lies being spread, David Becker, a former U.S. Justice Department attorney and current executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, said earlier this year.

Mohave County began exploring the notion of hand tabulations after receiving a letter in May from Republican Arizona Senate Majority Leader Sonny Borrelli, who demanded that no electronic voting systems" be used as the primary tabulators in federal elections, Lingenfelter said.

Borrelli sent identical letters to other Arizona counties. In June, the board directed Tempert to come up with a plan for hand-counting ballots in the 2024 election cycle, prompting Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes to publicly assert that such a move would put Mohave County in serious legal jeopardy.

Borrelli defended the proposal during Tuesday's meeting as a national security issue. Borrelli and a spokesperson for the Arizona Senate Republicans did not immediately respond Wednesday to a request for comment from The Associated Press.

Lingenfelter told the AP before Tuesday's vote that a hand count would be worthwhile because of widespread distrust of elections in the county, but he did not see a problem with the county's elections equipment. Registered Republican voters outnumber Democratic voters in Mohave County by nearly 4 to 1.

Experts say the proposal is a logistical quagmire and could undermine the accuracy of Mohave Countys elections. Research has shown that hand counts are less reliable and take longer than machine tabulation.
2022 saw a 24% increase in reports of dogs worrying livestock, a new report published this week shows.

There were 268 incidents reported to local authorities in the year, with this increase described as "worrying" in the Local Authority Control of Dogs Statistics Report for 2022 published by the Department of Rural and Community Development (DRCD).

"Sheep worrying, threats to livestock, and related matters continue to be of significant concern amongst our farming and rural communities," the report states.

"In 2022, the Irish Farmers' Association [IFA] continued their 'No Dogs Allowed' campaign requesting dogs not be brought in or near farmland, and urging all dog owners to behave in a responsible way.

"The effect of dog attacks on livestock cannot be overstated  not just in terms of monetary loss of livestock, but the traumatic impact of witnessing the aftermath which can devastate farming families."

'Very difficult year'

IFA sheep chairman Kevin Comiskey told the Irish Examiner that 2022 was a "very difficult year" for livestock farmers in many ways, with the added "massive worry" around the potential of a dog attack occurring on their farms.

A number of dog attacks that resulted in the loss of dozens of animals on farms gained national attention throughout the last year, with pressure put on for changes to the laws.

Back in March, stronger regulations were brought before cabinet, including doubling the fine to 5,000 under the Control of Dogs Act, which the IFA recognised as a step in the right direction.

However, the association has said that progress is needed to prevent dog attacks on livestock.

Promises

"While we did get promises from the Government for the increase of the fines and needing more dog wardens in place, we still have to see that happen and have an effect," Mr Comiskey said.

"Attacks are a massive worry, and especially for farmers who had a dog attack, they are worried in case there would be another one."

Stronger regulations and enforcement "need to happen yesterday, not tomorrow", Mr Comiskey said.

The IFA began the 'No Dogs Allowed' campaign in 2021. Mr Comiskey said all dog owners should take heed that they are fully liable for all damage and suffering caused to farmers and their sheep by their dogs.

He said dogs should not be allowed in or near farmland and he urged all dog owners to behave in a responsible way and adhere to this.

Key areas

The IFA has repeatedly outlined the key areas that must be addressed:

The establishment of a single national database for all dogs correlating licensing and microchipping and identifying the person responsible for the dog;

Full enforcement of microchipping and licensing obligations of dog owners for all dogs;

Increased on-the-spot fines for failing to comply with the microchipping and licensing requirements;

Increased sanctions and on-the-spot fines for failing to have the dog under control;

Significant on-the-spot fines for dogs found worrying livestock;

Legal requirement for dogs to be microchipped and licensed and identified on the National Veterinary Prescription System prior to any veterinary treatment or prescribing of medicines by veterinary practitioners.

2022 saw the publication by the DRCD of a review of measures relating to the control of dogs in Ireland.

"This report, informed by a public consultation process to which over 1,000 responses were received, highlighted a need for increased focus on promoting and embedding a culture of responsible dog ownership  a message that DRCD intends to more actively progress in the years ahead," this week's local authorities report highlights.

"Of most concern, is a number of serious incidents involving dogs in 2022 which resulted in the then-Taoiseach, Micheal Martin, tasking the Department of Agriculture with the establishment of a Working Group on Control of Dogs in collaboration with DRCD and other stakeholders.

"It is expected that recommendations of this working group will drive further changes in dog control in the short to medium term."

Challenging environment

Concerning increases in incidents of livestock worrying in addition to an overview of reports of aggressive behaviour and dog attacks on people "further the case for increased focus on the area of dog control in the years ahead", DRCD said.

"DRCD recognise the challenging environment in which dog control services operate and are committed to supporting our colleagues in collaboration with other departments and agencies.

"Additionally, DRCD will continue working with stakeholders to support dog owners to be informed and responsible, to ensure better outcomes for all people, dogs, livestock, and property in our communities."


Cinema release

Inspired by the devastating terrorist attacks in Paris in 2015, which left 130 dead and hundreds injured, Paris Memories (15a) follows one womans attempt to rebuild her life in the aftermath of a terrorist attack.

Written and directed by Alice Winocour, whose brother survived the 2015 attacks, the film focuses on Mia (Virginie Efira), who meets her partner, Vincent (Gregoire Colin), for dinner.

He is called back to work, leaving Mia to go home alone, but she stops off at a bistro for a glass of wine, where her life is irrevocably changed when terrorists open fire.

Many are killed, Mia is shot and left for dead.

Three months later, Vincent tries to make life as normal as possible for Mia, who has returned to Paris after recovering in her parents home.

Paris Memories.

She has few memories of the attack, but fragments return. She wants to remember it all.

Mia returns to the scene of the attack, where a support group meets.

Here survivors help each other remember, and relatives of the dead come hoping survivors can tell them about their loved ones last moments.

She connects with Thomas (Benoit Magimel), a fellow survivor and teenager (Nastya Golubeva) whose parents died in the attack, but can things ever return to normal after such a trauma?

Paris Memories.

A study in grief and the continuing effects of trauma on memory, Paris Memories is a thought-provoking drama with stand-out turns by Efira and Magimel.

Thomas uses humour to deflect the horror of memories, and Magimel carries the humour with ease. Solid stuff.
When asked to state their religion, roughly one in four American adults  about 59m people  say none.

In the space of just over a quarter of a century, the proportion of US adults with no religious affiliation has more or less quadrupled. And 44% of American 18-19 year-olds now identify as having no religion.

Key to understanding this Rise of the Nones is what theologian and sociologist Professor Stephen Bullivant calls nonverts.

What are nonverts? Well, instead of leaving one religion for another, as converts do, they leave a religion, usually the one they were raised in, for having none: nonverts.

According to Professor Bullivants new book, the mass nonversion of millions upon millions of Americans who were raised religious is fundamentally and decisively changing the face of their society.

We are witnessing the making of ex-Christian America; and, with it, the unmaking of a paradigm that had seemed set in stone.

Within the sociology of religion, for a very long time, there was this classic contrast between Christian America and Godless Europe, Stephen told me when we sat down to chew over the nonvert question recently.

In Europe, religious practice, religious belief, and religious affiliation have declined over the past fifty, sixty, seventy years. Its the same in Canada, the same in Australia. There is a modern, western, democratic country path  except that the most modern, the most western country seemed to be quite a considerable exception.

However, America is an exception no more, it seems. It was always going to be of interest, if and when, having never seemed to secularise in any kind of serious way before, America suddenly seemed to start to do it.

Stephen Bullivant is a theologian and a sociologist. He grew up in Preston, England, where, religiously speaking, he was raised as a nothing and became a quite obnoxious secondary school atheist.

He lives near Oxford which is where he studied and converted to Catholicism. Nowadays, hes a professor at St Marys University in London and that is where I meet him.

Stephen Bullivant author of Nonverts, Professor of Theology and the Sociology of Religion Director, Benedict XVI Centre for Religion and Society St Mary's University, Twickenham, UK

Bullivant is still only in his late 30s, but he has amassed a very impressive publishing record, which includes co-editing the Oxford Handbook of Atheism and the Cambridge History of Atheism, and writing Mass Exodus, a recent landmark study of Catholic disaffiliation in Britain and America.

He is also an avid student and lover of Americana, everything from Bob Dylan to Taylor Swift, from rodeos to Mork and Mindy, from bluegrass to bourbon. (James Beam is thanked in the Acknowledgments section of Nonverts for being an unfailing source of comfort and resilience.)

He is eminently qualified then for the task of scrutinising the American religious scene and its burgeoning atheism, and for spotting the known unknowns.

We dont know how all this plays out. Its not finished, the process. Theres a sense in which were in this strange transitional moment, this kind of watershed moment, where, because its been so fast, theres this kind of cultural whiplash. A lot of the febrile moral debates, the church-state issues, anything around abortion, anything around gay marriage, because its all tied up with religion, mean its quite an excitable moment in American cultural life. Everyones got a dog in the fight. Its personal for so many people.

These people weave in and out of Bullivants book, speaking in their own voices, telling the story of their own idiosyncratic journey to no religion.

Nonverts opens with Stephen visiting a gun range in southern Louisiana. Pretty soon we are in the company of John, a libertarian happy to converse about everything from the ideas of Epicurus to the sex lives of octopuses; and then Judy, a polyamorous, mohawked, BDSM enthusiast and (along with the Adele and Benedict Cumberbatch) a minister in the Universal Life Church (which doesnt have a god). Both are nonverts.

John grew up in a nominal but very low-commitment Christian household. Judys mother is a pious Catholic in a traditionalist mould and, as a teenager, Judy herself once spoke to a mother superior about joining the convent.

Bullivant can write in a free-wheeling style that helps the reader to feel we are on a classic American road trip with him.

In Florida, were introduced to an ex-evangelical woman called Kate, a former employee of a scandal-hit megachurch and an alcoholic who compares going without church to going without drink, which she has managed to do for six years. When it comes to having religion, Bullivant observes, shes 15 years sober.

Meanwhile, in an upscale, west coast private members club, we meet Luisa, a third-generation Mexican American who, on the one hand, sends regular donations to support the retired Irish nuns who taught her  If it wasnt for them, everything would have just fallen apart  and, on the other hand, bangs the table when telling Bullivant that she never  ever  ever felt anything special when receiving communion.

Alongside the human stories sit bigger theories about how shifts in thought and feeling on this scale are shaped by history. Stephen expounds on one of them for me.

Nonverts: The Making of Ex-Christian America, by Stephen Bullivant

The Cold War, kind of kept the possibility of thinking of yourself as having no religion artificially low. It didnt play out like that in Europe. We were up to our necks in the Cold War, but it wasnt framed in these religious terms. But the millennial generation were brought up either completely or mostly once the Cold War has ended, when the public enemy number one is not people with no religion, its people with too much religion! And then in the early 2000s, once you start getting headlines that say nones on the rise, then people start thinking Ooh, thats what I am!.

The entanglements of politics and religion in America have been endlessly discussed and debated. But now we need to reckon with the encounter between politics and no religion: Its certainly true that nones tend to skew more liberal. Thats kind of the stereotype, right? But there are still five million Republican-identifying nones. There is a significant voting bloc here. As nones become a bigger and bigger segment of American society, were already seeing moves. Obamas first inauguration speech made headlines in certain quarters for being the first to have a little shout-out to all faiths and none. It was the first time the and none was included.

Could Ireland end up under Stephen Bullivants sociological microscope in the future? As it happens, Stephen was part of the CSO subgroup which examined changes to the religion question in the 2021 census.

I do have an interest in Irish religion. Partly, Im interested in Ireland itself, but to be interested in Catholicism anywhere, you have to be interested in Ireland. If youre interested in American Catholicism, English Catholicism, Australian Catholicism, African Its the greater hibernosphere! And the turning off of the taps of vocations in Ireland then rolls out elsewhere. You have to look to the Philippines or Nigeria or wherever. Ive never really focused on Ireland because I think its too big and important a topic just to dabble in without really fully immersing oneself in the work.

I hope it happens someday. A Bullivant road trip across Ireland would be mighty.
Keeping tabs on your health at home could save your life.

Experts say that simple checks can provide instant feedback on your risk for some critical health issues.

Heres how to perform the top 10 DIY assessments:

Heart rate

Why it matters: More than 40,000 adults aged over 50 in Ireland have atrial fibrillation, according to the Irish Heart Association, although many of them do not know it. An irregular heart rate carries a five-fold greater risk of a stroke so checking your heartbeat regularly is essential.

How to test: To test your pulse you need to remember 2x2x2  use two fingers on your wrist, check your pulse twice a day for two weeks and take note of the results, says the IHA.

A normal resting pulse is between 60 and 100 beats per minute.

Make sure youre sitting down when you check your pulse and dont drink caffeine or alcohol or smoke beforehand.

See a doctor if you have a persistent heart rate over 120bpm or below 40bpm.

When to re-test: Repeat the test every few weeks and see your doctor if there are any notable changes in heart rhythm.

Pic: iStock

Moles

Why it matters: Skin cancer is common in Ireland with about 13,000 new cases diagnosed yearly. The National Cancer Registry of Ireland (NCRI) estimates this will double by 2040.

What to check: According to the Irish Cancer Society, we should be checking for lumps, bumps, and scaly patches as well as moles. About 70% of melanoma cases in adults are not associated with existing moles but form as new marks on the skin, so count how many moles you have now and assess for new ones.

Develop good skin surveillance techniques, looking for changes in the shape, borders, colour and diameter of moles.

When to re-check: Do a thorough check of your body (you may need to ask for help or use a mirror) once a month.

Urine

Why it matters: The colour of your urine can determine dehydration and even mild dehydration has been linked to reduced cognitive functioning [exa.mn/hydration].

How to test: Healthy urine should be pale and straw-like in colour. If its dark yellow, it is a sign you are dehydrated, although bear in mind that some vitamin and mineral supplements can make urine turn a different shade of yellow. Any blood in urine is a warning sign for something potentially more serious and you should see a doctor.

When to re-test: Check throughout the day for changes in urine colour although be aware that it can be darker first thing in the morning when you are least hydrated.

Pic: iStock

Eyes

Why it matters: Changes in vision or the colour of your eyes can give an insight into health conditions ranging from heart disease to high blood pressure.

How to test: Broken larger blood vessels are usually harmless unless they persist for more than two weeks, which could be a sign of high blood pressure.

A blue-tinted ring around the iris is most probably caused by cholesterol deposits in the eye, says Giles Edmonds, a consultant optometrist and clinical services director for Specsavers in Ireland.

When to re-test: It is recommended adults get their eyes tested and checked by a professional at least every two years to assess for changes and related health issues, Edmonds says. But if you have any concerns you should see an optometrist sooner.

Pic: iStock

Gum health

Why it matters: According to the HSE, most adults in Ireland have some degree of gum disease  it is the 11th most common disease in the world. A recent study from Boston University, published in Clinical Periodontology, drew on 25 years of data and concluded it causes a chronic inflammatory burden that raises the risk of early death.

Two years ago, a study in BMJ Open showed people with a history of gum disease are at greater risk of developing illnesses, including mental ill-health and heart conditions and it has been linked to an increased risk of Alzheimers and diabetes.

How to test: Keep an eye on the colour and health of your gums. They should be pink and firm, not red, swollen and tender. Bleeding after brushing or flossing is an early sign of gum disease and should be checked by a dentist.

When to re-test: The Irish Dental Association says adults should visit a dentist for a thorough examination of their mouth, teeth and gums at least once a year, especially if they have problems. You should also clean your teeth and gums twice a day with fluoride toothpaste.

Pic: iStock

Waist circumference

Why it matters: A wide waistline can be a sign of dangerous visceral fat collecting deep within the abdomen between your organs. The wider your waist, the greater the risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, some types of cancer and metabolic problems related to obesity. Prolonged bloating or stomach pain should always be checked out by a doctor.

How to test: Get a tape measure and wrap it around your middle at the widest point, the halfway point between the top of your hip bone and the bottom of your lowest rib roughly in line with your belly button.

According to the HSE, men have a higher risk of health problems if their waist circumference is more than 102cm (40in) and women if their waist circumference is more than 88cm (35in).

When to re-test: The International Agency for Research on Cancer and the WHO suggest measuring your waist approximately once a month.

Pic: iStock

Breasts

Why it matters: Around 3,400 women and 30 men in Ireland are diagnosed with breast cancer every year, according to the Irish Cancer Society. Catching breast lumps early greatly increases the chance of successful treatment if needed.

How to test: You are looking for any changes in the feel or appearance of your breast or surrounding tissue, including lumps or thickening in the breast or armpit, changes in size or shape of breast or nipples, any discharge or crusty skin and swellings in the armpit, says the Irish Cancer Society. You should use a mirror to check for changes in appearance and feel for breast changes in the bath or shower.

When to re-test: You should check your breasts once a month advises the HSE.

Testicles

Why it matters: Testicular cancer is relatively rare, but it remains the most common form of cancer in men aged 15 to 34 in Ireland, with 160 men diagnosed each year, according to the Irish Cancer Society. If caught early it is curable and treatable.

How to test: Hold your scrotum and get to know the shape and weight of each testicle as they can be different  the best place to do this is in the shower. Examine each testicle by rolling it in your fingers to check for lumps and swellings. It is normal to feel a soft tube at the top and back of each testicle  this is the epididymis which collects sperm. If you are concerned about any changes, consult a GP.

When to re-test: Perform a self-examination every four to six weeks.

Poo

Why it matters: The Marie Keating Foundation says that around 2,560 people in Ireland develop bowel or colorectal cancer every year. The risk increases with age and it is usually diagnosed in people over 55, so screening is offered from age 60. But it also occurs in people under 50 so it pays to be vigilant regardless of age.

How to test: Changes in your poo, including red or black poo or blood are warning signs and should not be ignored. But keep an eye on any changes in normal bowel habits, too, such as diarrhoea or constipation for no apparent reason, lasting longer than six weeks. Unexplained weight loss and abdominal pain are also red flags.

When to re-test: Keep tabs on your poo regularly. People between 60 and 69 are invited to take a home bowel screening test every two years although you must be on the bowel screen register to be invited for your first between your 60th and 63rd birthday.

Balance

Why it matters: Balance diminishes quickly from the mid-50s, and the less stable we become the greater the risk of falls, fractures and health issues including stroke. According to research at Trinity College Dublin, approximately four in five older adults in Ireland experience falls.

How to test: Stand barefoot with your eyes open and raise one foot off the floor by bending it at the knee. Time how long you can maintain that position. A study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that the ability of those in middle age to stand on one leg for 10 seconds was associated with higher rates of survival years later. Others have shown that people in their 50s who cant manage more than two seconds are three times as likely to die before 66 as those who can.

When to re-test: Practice the balance daily, building up until you can manage 20 seconds on each leg, then try it with your eyes closed. Aim for 60 seconds on each leg if you can.
WE tend to promote narcissists to the top tiers of organisations; we elect them; we give them power because they present as efficient, efficacious go-getters who get the job done. And often they do  but will leave a trail of destruction, a high staff turnover, burnt-out colleagues, and bewildered minions. The bad news is they can pop up anywhere.

My boss initially seemed inspirational, driven, says Maire*, who worked in a small, people-centred organisation. But I began to notice how she had to be in charge of everything all the time. Shed be quite unreasonable, expecting me to stay late as a matter of course, but wouldnt be interested in discussing my progress. If I had an idea, shed be dismissive but would later present it as her own. I thought I was imagining it at first, but I wasnt. When I tried to talk to her about it, she became incredibly defensive. This went on for a while, and I felt constantly wrong-footed. In the end, I dreaded going into the office, so I resigned. Shes still there.

Dr Laurie Cure, a Denver-based management consultant and author of Leading Without Fear, offers a comprehensive list of red flags around narcissistic bosses. These include an unwillingness to be challenged or questioned, needing excessive loyalty, praise and adoration, struggling to accept feedback, and ignoring other peoples opinions. Narcissists show little empathy for colleagues (for example, No, you cant leave early for [your important life event], work is more important); they make decisions without involving others; display behaviours like grandiosity, self-importance, fantasised talent or expertise, arrogance; they over-focus on self-image.

They also demand high degrees of personal and positional power to ensure control; gravitate towards high-status individuals within the organisation; are highly competitive; use fear, guilt, shame, punishment and manipulation to gain compliance and control and  most notably - take personal credit for the work of individuals or the team.

Dr Ian Hughes, author of Disordered Mindsand a research fellow at UCCs Environmental Research Institute, explains the origins of narcissism. Its important to distinguish between narcissistic traits and narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), he says. Everyone has narcissistic traits  seeking attention, feeling very positive about yourself. These are healthy and a crucial part of our development, beginning when we are young children. We learn to internalise and self-sustain this positive feedback from our parents or carers.

NPD is when an individual doesnt develop this internal sustenance, so they are always looking for it externally, to others to shore up their sense of self-worth. When they dont get it, they can fly into narcissistic rage. Their personality structure is extremely fragile.

In psychoanalytic theory, its a normal part of human development to need to be the centre of attention in early childhood. Then the super-ego develops, acting as a kind of policing function or a conscience  its not pejorative or punishing, but acts as a self-directive.

With NPD, this function has not developed. This can be a result of the parent denigrating the small child, who then develops a punishing super-ego, an internalised voice telling them theyre worthless. In order to fend off this voice, the person develops NPD.

This can result in the individual telling themselves that they are the best, the greatest, the most wonderful and that everyone else exists to reinforce this. They are driven by a strong ego ideal and controlled by the shame of not living up to that ideal.

Pic: iStock

Lack of empathy

Hughes explains that around 5% of the overall population is affected by personality disorder: Broadly, there are three types of personality disorder  psychopaths, paranoid personality disorder, and narcissistic personality disorder. These three disorders share traits  a lack of empathy, competitiveness, and a need for supremacy, and in extreme cases, a propensity for violence.

The violence is mostly psychological, however. Narcissism, says Hughes, manifests as destructiveness towards an employee, where your boss takes things to extremes. Cruelty instead of empathy, for example, if youre going through something difficult like illness or bereavement, they will double down on deadlines instead of offering support. They will exploit difficult situations. Also, revenge is very important to those with NPD  they never forget slights.

Many hierarchical workplace structures normalise and even encourage narcissistic traits, where striving for wealth and power is normal, making it difficult to weed out narcissists.

They can proliferate, says Dr Damien Lowry, chartered member of the Psychological Society of Ireland, in the upper tiers of corporate industry and business where ruthlessness can be rationalised and justified as the cut and thrust of business.

Its an invisible problem, says Dublin-based consultant psychologist Eva Doherty. You might be struggling with a colleague, but its quite hard to pin down. Some professions screen for narcissism  there are medical schools around the world that screen for narcissism in doctors because the profession can attract those with NPD.

All professions where power is integral to the role will attract those with NPD, for whom power and feeling in control is integral, and who are failure-phobic. They will defend themselves to unbelievable levels.

Narcissism can be categorised either as grandiose/overt or vulnerable/covert. Basically, its the difference between Donald Trump and David Brent.

Overt and covert narcissism share traits, says Lowry. An overt narcissist will be very visible, exhibiting extraversion, seeking or demanding attention. This can spill over into aggression, or depending on the environment, possibly even physical violence. Whereas a covert narcissist does not court attention, but is more background, more socially averse.

This can make them more manipulative, so their narcissism isnt initially obvious, but under a more shy or withdrawn presentation, the self-absorption and grandiosity will shine through in time. They are more devious in reinforcing their sense of importance and possibly more sophisticated  theyre not alpha bullies, but are more sinister and crafty.

But all is not as it would appear. Behind the grandiosity lies a fragile psyche.

Both overt and covert narcissists are deeply vulnerable underneath but have plastered over this vulnerability and sense of inadequacy with delusion and an inflated sense of self-importance, says Lowry.

Pic: iStock

Outcome over process

Prof Patricia Mannix McNamara, head of education at the University of Limerick, has spent 25 years researching narcissism in the workplace.

The thing with narcissists is that they are effective and efficient, which are qualities we like to promote as we ignore the trail of destruction, she says. We promote outcome and ignore process.

Should you find yourself working for a narcissist and unable to change jobs, her advice is to set boundaries.

Clarify expectations  if youre tasked with something, be super clear about exactly what it is so that youre not subsequently gaslighted. Narcissists will always move the goalposts.

Establish strong boundaries around your own role, so that you dont end up doing other peoples work for them. This takes both courage and training.

Document everything  keep meticulous records. Know your rights, and be clear and strong. Often, people are slow to engage with workplace policies around dignity and respect, because theyre afraid of backlash or that it might negatively impact future promotion if they are seen as a trouble maker.

Workplace bullies and narcissists often leave those who keep their heads down alone  they will pressure those who seek promotion, who clearly want to get ahead because they view these colleagues as a competitive threat. There is still a reluctance in organisations to challenge this behaviour  and a narcissist will fight back using the same tools as you. Theyll exploit policy to coerce people rather than use it as a safety mechanism. Organisations dont always know how to deal with it.

Instead, she adds that they may move the narcissist to another area rather than taking them on.

The problem, says Doherty, is that people dont realise these are ongoing permanent conditions  they are not mental health issues which can be easily treated, but are innate and enduring, and often visible from early life. It can take 20 years to treat a personality disorder  its not like depression or even schizophrenia.

Nor is there any evidence to suggest that flattering and appeasing a narcissist is a safe or successful strategy. You could end up undermining yourself, gaslighting yourself, she warns.

Her advice is clear: Quit. Theyre not going to change.

*Name has been changed
Bars, nightclubs, and music festivals are being urged to do more to stamp out the issue of spiking.

Initiatives launched in Britain in recent months have put the issue back in the limelight, with 5,000 reports made relating to potential spiking each year.

CEO of the Sexual Violence Centre Cork (SVCC) Mary Crilly has said she is sick of people not being believed after raising concerns that they have been spiked, and she has called for greater participation from venues in tackling the issue.

Her comments come as Stamp Out Spiking Day was launched in Britain in July, an initiative that Ms Crilly feels Ireland can gear towards in the near future.

Im not saying we can eradicate it, but we can definitely raise awareness about it, Ms Crilly says.

She adds that venues have a big role to play in tackling the issue of spiking.

She says research shows that small actions such as hanging a poster in your bar to say, No spiking here  it doesnt happen, because people know theyre being watched.

Any venue that has their head screwed on will want everyone to have a good time, and for nothing to happen to [attendees], she says.

The Satu Annual Report 2022 published in July says that of 1,072 attendants nationwide, 21%, or approximately 225 people, were concerned that drugs (including alcohol) had been used to facilitate sexual assault.

In 2019 (pre-covid), this figure stood at 13%, or 122 people out of a total of 941.

Safe Gigs  an SVCC initiative aiming to eliminate abuse at gigs, concerts, events, and nightlife  released data to the Irish Examiner from its Spiking Hub.

The hub collects feedback from victims of recent or historical spiking.

Based on 116 respondents in the six-month period to June 2022, 27% said they reported the issue to the venue.

Of those who spoke to the venue, one-third said the venues response was very poor while some 20.5% said the response was very good.

One respondent said: Bouncers should have had a better response than throwing a girl out on her own who had been near unconscious.

In a statement, An Garda Siochana said that figures on reports of alleged spiking for 2022 and 2023 are not available at this time.

A spokesperson for gardai said it encourages any victim of spiking to come forward and report the incident to local gardai.

An Garda Siochana continues to work closely in co-operation with agencies including the Department of Health, the HSE, and Forensic Science Ireland to ensure that any emerging trend in spiking and associated risks are monitored and addressed with the objective of keeping people safe, they said.

All incidents of sexual crime including those with evidence to suggest a link with spiking are thoroughly investigated An Garda Siochana through the divisional proactive services units operating under the Garda National Protective Services Bureau, the spokesperson added.

While gardai were unable to present data, figures raised in the Dail in recent months said 106 reports of potential spiking had been made in 2022, up from around a dozen just two years earlier.

Ms Crilly says people presenting at the SVCC with the concern that they have been spiked often tell her, I know what I took, I know what I didnt take.

And they know the difference, she adds.

Venue participation

Ms Crilly says greater venue participation is needed.

I would really like to ask the venues, Why not? What is the problem? because youre not asking them to do an investigation or asking them to get involved with the guards, youre not asking them to appear in court or anything.

Youre just asking them to help with looking at spiking in Cork and the prevalence of spiking in Cork.

"And they can do it so easy, and Im asking, Why not?

Is their reputation more important than the safety and the protection of people who use those venues? If you say, spiking is not happening [in these premises], well then lets do the testing and find out, Ms Crilly says.

As reported in the Irish Examiner in July, Safe Gigs and the SVCC are working to get testing kits into venues.

These kits  involving a saliva swab and urine sample  will be given to those who feel they or their friend might have been spiked.

It will be sent to a lab for testing where up to 3,000 different substances can be detected.

Sourcing a lab to facilitate the tests for free is the final hurdle in getting the concept over the line, but Ms Crilly is confident that they will have one confirmed at the end of the summer.

While the kits will not be used in a criminal case, they will give people peace of mind.

Ms Crilly says that some of the people presenting at the SVCC just want to know, was I spiked or not?

Proprietor of a number of venues across Cork, Benny McCabe told the Irish Examiner that at the moment, his venues have their own protocols in place; that if someone raises concerns of spiking, parents and/or the ambulance service are contacted.

He said he was open to engaging with the SVCC on the potential roll-out of the test kits, adding that there would be a lot to discuss, but I would love to help out.

Once there was a legal and operational framework, wed be happy to explore establishing a protocol, Mr McCabe said.

Cork-based festival Indiependence takes place this weekend in Mitchelstown, with acts including Cian Ducrot, Lyra, Two Door Cinema Club, and The Coronas among the line-up across the three days.

In correspondence with the Irish Examiner, organisers said that while they have not seen spiking flagged as an issue at the festival, they are aware it is happening around the country and so ensure that medical staff are fully prepared in the event that it happens.

We have a large medical presence at Indie, doctors, advanced paramedics, paramedics, first responders etc so multiple people who are trained to deal with this should it arise.

"Equally, there is a large presence from An Garda Siochana at Indie  so from a medical side of looking after someone, but also should evidence be required for any future prosecution, we have that presence also, organisers said.

Looking at potentially using the test kits being worked on by Safe Gigs, Indiependence organisers acknowledged the work of Ms Crilly and Safe Gigs.

Safe Gigs and the SVCC are working to get testing kits into venues.

Music is the key of life, concerts, and festivals should be safe and inclusive environments for all people so we will always be willing to work with Mary and her team on anything like this now and in the future.

While groundwork is being laid for a Stamp Out Spiking Day in Ireland, Ms Crilly says there is still a very clear message.

Spiking is happening  we really need to realise its happening, she says.

Im just tired of people not being believed, Im really sick and tired of people not being believed, says Ms Crilly, and they ask for very little. I think victims of sexual assault ask for very little.

But even sometimes for them to ask for anything is too much for society  where the perpetrator asks for nothing, they just ask to shut up, be silent. So as long as we keep silent, I think issues like spiking are being tolerated.

And theres no way around it."
Animal charity Dogs Trust has warned new Government figures "do not fully reflect the unwanted dog crisis animal welfare charities are currently facing".

The Department of Rural and Community Development published the latest Irish Dog Control Statistics this week and it found 7,352 stray or unwanted dogs in 2022, an increase from 4,165 in 2021.

The report found while 5,045 strays entered pounds, 2,064 were surrendered and 243 were seized.

It also revealed 340 stray or unwanted dogs were euthanised in pounds last year, a jump from 167 in 2021.

The report says dog welfare charities have suggested a return to life post-lockdown, resuming in-office working and reopening of travel has left many dog owners struggling with dogs that are used to more 'attention and time'.

Cork county saw the highest number of euthanised dogs with 66, followed by Co Wexford with 51, Galway county with 28 and Co Clare with 24.

Under the Control of Dogs Act, dogs who have completed their mandatory five-day stay in dog pounds can be euthanised to create space, if the pound cannot rehome them or find a rescue with space to take them.

Dogs Trust said it was an "upsetting reality" that due to the sheer volume of unwanted dogs, "there simply isnt enough space to house the dogs that are being surrendered".

Dogs Trust Ireland executive director Suzie Carley said the figures from 2022 are not a full reflection on the number of dogs entering facilities like pounds.

"From January until the end of July 2023, we have dealt with 2,379 cases of people seeking to relinquish their dogs into our care. This is an average of more than 11 requests per day, and a 41% increase compared to the same period in 2022.

We, like many other organisations, are completely overwhelmed and sadly fear that this is only going to get worse."

Of the stray and unwanted dogs found last year, 1,468 were reclaimed and 2,122 were rehomed.

The report also highlighted that surrenders, while low during years marked by lockdown, have steadily increased.

The report says dog welfare charities have suggested a return to life post-lockdown, resuming in-office working and reopening of travel has left many dog owners struggling with dogs that are used to more "attention and time".

'It may be the case that a better understanding of what is involved in dog ownership and the lifetime cost and commitment it involves could have avoided some of this crisis,' Dogs Trust said.

"When coupled with a housing crisis, and reports that landlords may be reluctant to accept dog owners as tenants exacerbated by a cost-of-living crisis, it is clear that some dog owners have struggled to cope and felt no alternative but to surrender their dogs," the report said.

"It may be the case that a better understanding of what is involved in dog ownership and the lifetime cost and commitment it involves could have avoided some of this crisis."

Aggressive dog behaviour

The Government figures also show there was more than 300 people injured in dog attack incidents last year.

Some 791 incidences of aggressive dog behaviour was reported to local authorities last year  308 people were physically injured, with the figure including damage to clothes.

This is the first time statistics on aggressive behaviour or dog attacks have been compiled. The report said this data "was not uniformly collected by Local Authority Dog Services in advance of the compilation of data and therefore there are some gaps". The stats are presented as "a snapshot of the situation".

The report also said it "may be possible" that injured parties reported the attack to gardai or presented themselves for medical attention but did not alert the local authority dog wardens.

It follows a serious incident in Wexford last year where a child suffered significant injuries in a dog attack, which has since reignited debate on dog control legislation and enforcement.

Last year also saw an increase in reports of livestock worrying, with 268 incidents reported. This is a 24% increase on previous year.

Livestock worrying is where dogs attack or chase livestock on agricultural land.

The farming community has been concerned about threats to livestock in recent months, with the Irish Farmers Association continuing their "No Dogs Allowed" campaign in 2022. It requested no dogs being brought into or near farmland. The campaign also urged all dog owners to "behave in a responsible way".

The Government issued 205,919 dog licences last year, a jump of almost 5,000 on the 2021 figures.
Met Eireann is urging festival goers to take "extra care" over the weekend as Storm Antoni crosses Ireland and heads towards Britain.

The UK Met Office named the storm that will hit Britain this weekend as a number of Met Eireann weather warnings are in place.

Met Eireann has issued two status yellow rain warnings for the middle of the country with spot flooding, poor visibility and difficult travelling conditions expected.

The first warning, for Connacht, Clare and Tipperary, will be in place from 8pm on Friday until 8am on Saturday.

The second warning, for Leinster, Monaghan and Cavan, will be in place from 11pm on Friday until 10am on Saturday.

Elsewhere, there will be a yellow wind warning in place for Cork, Kerry, Waterford and Wexford on Saturday from 4am until midday.

Met Eireann's Aoife Kealy said: "What's going to happen today and overnight is that a low pressure system is going to cross the country and then it is going to cross the UK.

"That is why Met Eireann has those warnings out, the storm is going to bring heavy rains and some unseasonable winds to us.

"It will kind of develop a little bit more as it tracks eastwards, which means that [the UK] will see some slightly stronger winds and a little more rainfall."

Ms Kealy says this is why the UK Met Office has decided to name it Storm Antoni.

The storm is not expected to have the same impact on Ireland as it will on the UK.

"Tomorrow morning, overnight tonight it is going to be just really particularly wet and still quite windy in some southern and southwestern areas, but it will improve as the day goes on. Whereas it's going to be pretty much a wet and windy day in the UK all of tomorrow," she said.

Picture: Denis Minihane.

With Indiependence and All Together Now on this weekend, Ms Kealy is advising festival goers make sure that everything is secure if they are in tented accommodation and to also take an extra bit of care "if you are out and about."

Met Eireann has said the rest of the bank holiday weekend will be "rather mixed".

On Saturday afternoon, brighter and drier conditions with scattered showers in the west will gradually extend to all parts, however, Saturday night will be dry in many areas.

There will be clear spells "with showers becoming increasingly confined to Atlantic coastal counties".

Sunday "will be a bright day with a mix of sunshine and showers". Met Eireann has said that showers will be heaviest and most frequent in the north and east with temperatures reaching highs of 20C.

Bank Holiday Monday will be "mostly cloudy with outbreaks of rain in the west and southwest spreading to all areas through the afternoon and evening".

The rain will be heavy in places, with the potential for spot flooding, according to Met Eireann.

There will be further outbreaks of rain and drizzle on Monday night, becoming lighter and patchier as the night goes on.
The chief scout of Scouting Ireland has said five Irish scouts needed treatment for heat-related conditions as a result of the scorching temperatures at the World Jamboree in South Korea.

Temperatures have hit 34C in Saemangeum, the area of reclaimed land near the city of Buan on the west coast, where more than 39,000 scouters are camping, the majority aged between 14 and 17.

A large majority have opted to move to the nations capital of Seoul to escape the heat, but those who have stayed behind are risking illness.

Jill Pitcher Farrell said of the 222 Irish individuals who had made the trip to South Korea, 144 were young people and 78 were adults.

Of the five who required medical treatment, three were adults and two were aged between 14 and 17 years.

Most were dehydrated  not from the lack of water, but from doing activities in the heat, according to Ms Pitcher Farrell.

She explained there were air-conditioned medical tents on site along with air conditioned buses where people could go if they felt unwell.

She said conditions did improve at night, making it possible for people to sleep in tents. There were also shade tunnels dotted around the site.

South Korean authorities have pledged more water trucks, air-conditioned spaces and medics for the region.

A participant receives medical treatment at Jamboree Hospital during the 25th World Scout Jamboree in Buan, South Korea, on Friday. Picture: Reuters/Kim Hong-Ji

President Yoon Suk Yeol called for an unlimited supply of air-conditioned buses and water trucks to be sent to the jamboree, having already ordered in dozens of military doctors and nurses.

With the heatwave forecast to last until next week, some have questioned the viability of the 155-nation jamboree, the first global gathering of Scouts since the covid-19 pandemic, which closes on August 12.

Organisers said they were adapting the programme of events.

Despite the heat and the difficulties and the challenges that they are facing, only 8% reported that they were very unsatisfied with the experience so far, Jacob Murray, the Scouts director for world events, told reporters.

President Yoon's government was criticised a few weeks ago for its handling of floods that killed more than 40 people

Meanwhile, torrential rains described by rescuers as "biblical" hit northern and western Slovenia on Friday, disrupting traffic and causing black-outs, with helicopters evacuating people from some areas.

Slovenia's Environment Agency has issued a red warning against large-scale flooding. Meteorologists say the heavy rains, which are expected to spread to neighbouring Croatia and Bosnia further to the south, will last for the next 24 hours at least.

Rescuers struggled to reach flooded areas and issued a public call for rubber boats in places where roads were closed and impassable due to landslides.

 additional reporting Reuters
Climate change is a pressing long-term challenge but due to our location in the world, Ireland has a unique opportunity to become energy independent by harnessing our untapped renewable energy resources and leveraging our existing energy infrastructure.

In recent weeks, two significant publications have been released which will have huge effects on the future of green energy in Ireland. Just a fortnight ago, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its latest data on Irelands greenhouse gas emissions, with the most recent figures showing a significant drop in emissions from pre-Covid levels.

While this is positive change, its not coming nearly quick enough, as the report notes that arresting growth in emissions is a challenge in the context of a growing economy but one which must continue to be addressed by households, business, farmers and communities if Ireland is to reap the benefits of a low-carbon economy.

The second publication, meanwhile, seeks to address exactly that; with the National Hydrogen Strategy that was published in mid-July paving the way for the green gas to decarbonise the Irish economy  a vision in which Gas Networks Ireland plays a pivotal role.

Gas Networks Ireland's national gas pipeline has been deemed a safe, efficient and cost-effective transportation and storage solution for hydrogen.

The Strategy not only recognises that hydrogen is a zero-carbon substitute for fossil fuels, posing an unmissable opportunity for Ireland to transition to a climate neutral economy, but it also highlights that green hydrogen is both safe and feasible to use in Irelands existing gas distribution network. Gas Networks Ireland has the capability to transport hydrogen blended with natural gas now, and with some modifications, to transport 100% hydrogen in the future  a huge game changer for the green energy industry.

Our strategy is both focused on meeting our current customer demands and transforming our network to meet their future energy needs. Replacing natural gas with renewable gases, such as hydrogen, will support our customer on their net zero journeys while also complementing intermittent renewable electricity and ensuring a more diverse and secure energy supply, explains Gas Networks Irelands Chief Executive Officer, Cathal Marley.

We believe it is important that the National Hydrogen Strategy recognises how Irelands modern gas network can be leveraged to accommodate hydrogen produced from wind energy, as well as acknowledging that during this transition, natural gas will continue to be needed to ensure continued security and resilience of Irelands energy system. The gas network is Irelands hydrogen-ready infrastructure and reliable energy backbone, which will substantially reduce the countrys carbon emissions and play a vital role in establishing our future hydrogen economies.

As the gas pipelines are already in the ground, its the least disruptive option and cost-effective option as the cost of repurposing the existing gas network to transport hydrogen is significantly less versus the cost of building new dedicated hydrogen pipelines, Mr. Marley added.

Last year, Gas Networks Ireland supplied more than 30 per cent of Ireland's total energy.

Our own vision is to be at the heart of Irelands energy future and our strategy is focused on investing to meet current and future gas demands, while playing a key role in helping Ireland achieve its net zero carbon ambitions. We will continue to ensure that we have the right knowledge, the correct strategic partnerships and necessary resources in place to both accept hydrogen from the UK and enable the scale up and roll out of a renewable hydrogen industry in Ireland.

Many of these studies and world-leading research into renewable hydrogen are being carried out in none other than Irelands capital. In 2021, Gas Networks Ireland established its Network Innovation Centre in Citywest, Dublin, to understand the full potential of hydrogen and ensure that the gas network is capable of safely transporting and storing both blended and up to 100% hydrogen into the future.

Working with University College Dublins Energy Institute (UCDEI), one of the first innovation projects undertaken was Testing of Blends of Hydrogen and Natural Gas.

The research found that householders using natural gas blended with up to 20% hydrogen will not need to make any change to their existing domestic appliances or notice any difference. There was also a substantial emissions reduction obtained by blending hydrogen with natural gas.

Gas Networks Ireland established its Network Innovation Centre in Citywest, Dublin, two years ago to understand the full potential of hydrogen.

Additionally, Gas Networks Ireland is working with academia. Their involvement in several other strategic hydrogen research partnerships includes a study with Ulster University on hydrogen blend safety and with AMBER on materials compatibility with hydrogen.

The utility is also one of a number of industry players funding a 16 million strategic partnership with Irish third level institutions that will examine how to holistically decarbonise the overall Irish energy sector.

These academic pursuits are outstanding by their own merit but are especially impressive considering they happen in addition to the already jampacked day-to-day operations of Gas Networks Ireland. The gas network currently supplies more than 30 per cent of Ireland's total energy, including 40 per cent of all heating and almost 50 per cent of the country's electricity generation. This translates to over 720,000 Irish customers who rely on Ireland's gas network to provide efficient and reliable energy to meet their cooking, manufacturing and transport needs.

This customer base has been built up throughout almost 50 years that Gas Networks Ireland has been in business to date, delivering gas securely for Ireland. During that time, as the countrys licensed gas Transmission System Operator, Gas Networks Ireland has also continued to grow upon the in-house skills, competency and technical expertise that their nationwide workforce possesses.

For the Gas Networks Ireland team, the vision for a green-powered Ireland is finally coming to fruition.

This skillset will be invaluable to the utility in the coming years, as it can be transferred and adapted for hydrogen technologies, as well as other renewable energy sources such as biomethane.

Identical to natural gas, biomethane is a carbon-neutral renewable gas that can be made from farm and food waste through anaerobic digestion. Gas Networks Ireland first introduced domestically produced biomethane onto Ireland's gas network more than two years ago, and it is now beginning to replace natural gas thanks to its compatibility with existing appliances and technology.

By gradually replacing natural gas with these renewable gases, Gas Networks Ireland is making a critical difference for the entire nation  bringing Ireland one step closer to a net-zero carbon gas network by 2050.

Commenting on this brightening future for Ireland's energy, Eamon Ryan, Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications and Transport, said, "It is vital that Ireland realises the full potential of renewable hydrogen to decarbonise our economy and energy systems, and the publication of this strategy is an important first step to achieving this goal. While this is only the beginning, it sets out the important initial building blocks upon which the sector can grow, allowing Ireland to explore and harness the opportunities offered by a green hydrogen economy."

To find out more, visit the Gas Networks Ireland website.
One of the best-kept secrets in the world of trophy fishing is Lake of the Woods in northern Minnesota on the Canadian border. But fishermen in the know, and their families and friends, travel from all over to stay at Ballards Resort and be taken out onto a body of water that is itself a trophy.

A fishing paradise year-round

Lake of the Woods is 90 miles long and its shoreline extends to the Canadian coasts of Ontario and Manitoba. No doubt it takes a lake this size for the real lure of a luxury fishing vacation at Ballards Resort. Lake of the Woods is the Walleye Capital of the World, home to an estimated 10 million fish (on the Minnesota side of the lake) that are highly prized by anglers for their size, beauty and delicate flavor.

Here, trophy walleyes grow to 30-inches with an average weight of 10-pounds. The lake is also filled with monster musky, explosive smallmouth bass, and wicked northern pike.

Guided fishing tours for a catch of a lifetime

Ballards Resort makes vacation planning easy. They have lodging, fishing and meal packages to choose from that are perfect for families with kids, friend reunions and corporate trips. Dock slips are available to rent, if youd like to bring your own boat.

The mystique of trying to catch a 10-pound trophy walleye drives guests to come back here year after year, says Gary Moeller, managing partner of Ballards Resort. They know that when they come to Lake of the Woods they have a legitimate shot at catching the fish of a lifetime. Its the one, Moeller adds, that didn't get away!

Ballards Resort, which has been in operation since 1961, has 30 guest cabins. Family-sized cabins accommodate up to six guests, plus theres a main lodge, restaurant and bar on the Minnesota side of the lake. An additional five cabins and a smaller lodge (Ballard's Black Island) is located on the Canadian side.

From mid-May to mid-October, Ballards licensed guides take guests out aboard 27-foot charter boats outfitted with medium-action rods and state-of-the-art gear specifically made for walleye fishing.

During ice-fishing season, which typically runs from mid-December to mid-March, a fleet of restored bombardier snow buses shuttle guests to 50 ice-fishing shacks on the lake.

When you set the hook on a 10-pound walleye, youre going to know it, says Moeller, and youre going to get some fight.

Walleyes over 19 inches long are released after being measured and photographed (on the Canadian side, its 18 inches) to preserve the trophy fish population. Customized replicas of trophy catches can be made from photographs that the resort takes for guests. Smaller fish  as many as four walleyes and two saugers, a walleye cousin  can be kept for eating. Resort staff is available to clean the catches onshore.

Walleyes are arguably one of the finest-eating fish, Moeller says. To have the fish youve just caught cleaned and prepared for a traditional shore lunch or dinner in the lodge is something that each of our guests really looks forward to.

To book a fishing vacation at Ballards Resort or for more information, visit ballardsresort.com.

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At least 18 people died in western Mexico when a passenger bus plunged off a highway into a ravine early on Thursday, state officials said, adding the passengers were mostly foreigners and some were heading for the U.S. border.

En route to the northern border town of Tijuana, the bus had been carrying around 42 passengers, including citizens from India, Dominican Republic and African nations.
The Church of Scientology has described claims made against it by actor Leah Remini as allegations of pure lunacy.

Remini, known for US sitcoms including The King Of Queens and Kevin Can Wait, has filed a lawsuit against the organisation and its leader David Miscavige.

In a statement, the actor said she had endured 17 years of psychological torture, defamation, surveillance, harassment, and intimidation which had significantly impacted her life and career.

This lawsuit is ludicrous and the allegations pure lunacy. The Church is not intimidated by Reminis latest act of blatant harassment and attempt to prevent truthful free speech.

Her statement read: I believe I am not the first person targeted by Scientology and its operations, but I intend to be the last.

On Thursday, the Church of Scientologys response described Remini as an anti-free speech bigot and a horrible person.

The statement read: This lawsuit is ludicrous and the allegations pure lunacy.

The Church is not intimidated by Reminis latest act of blatant harassment and attempt to prevent truthful free speech.

The statement also accused Remini of profiting from her fabrications.

I believe I am not the first person targeted by Scientology and its operations, but I intend to be the last.

In her lawsuit, filed on Wednesday, the actor accused the Church of mob-style operations and attacks on her and other victims and survivors.

The complaint alleges attacks on Remini were activated by the Churchs Office of Special Affairs (OSA) and their operatives meant to totally restrain and muzzle, obliterate, and ruin her.

She said: With this lawsuit, I hope to protect my rights as afforded by the Constitution of the United States to speak the truth and report the facts about Scientology.

I feel strongly that the banner of religious freedom does not give anyone license to intimidate, harass and abuse those who exercise their First Amendment rights.

High-profile figures known to have been associated with the Church of Scientology include John Travolta and Tom Cruise.
South Korean police have detained a man suspected of stabbing a high school teacher with a knife in the city of Daejeon.

The stabbing follows a separate, apparently random attack on Thursday in which 14 people were wounded near a busy subway station in Seongnam.

Officials at the Daejeon Metropolitan Police Agency did not immediately release the personal details of the suspect in the Friday morning attack on the teacher at Songchon High School, describing him only as a man in his 20s or 30s.

According to police, the suspect waited for the teacher to step out of a classroom before stabbing him and fleeing the scene, which, according to officials, suggests they were acquaintances.

Police officers patrol around Songchon High School in Daejeon, South Korea (Kang Soo-hwan/Yonhap via AP)

Police and fire department authorities did not specify the teachers health condition.

The attack in Daejeon, about 120 kilometres (75 miles) south of Seongnam, came hours after President Yoon Suk Yeol called for ultra-strong law enforcement measures to restore faith in public safety after Thursdays violence, which he described as a terrorist attack on innocent citizens.

At least two people were in life-threatening conditions after Thursdays attack in Seongnam, in which a car rammed on to a pavement before the driver stepped out and began stabbing people at random at a shopping centre linked to the Seohyeon subway station at the heart of a bustling leisure and business district.

Of the five people who were hurt by the car, at least two were admitted to hospital in a critical condition.

Among the nine who were stabbed, eight were being treated for serious injuries, according to Gyeonggi Province fire department officials.

Police are questioning the 22-year-old suspect.

Police officers stand guard near the Seohyeon subway station in Seongnam, South Korea (Hong Ji-won/Yonhap via AP)

They did not identify the suspect or offer any immediate information about a potential motive.

During police interviews, the suspect talked incoherently and said he was being stalked by an unspecified source, said Park Gyeong-won, an official at Gyeonggis Bundang district police station.

The suspect purchased the two knives he used in the stabbings from a different shopping centre on Wednesday, Park said, but there is not clear evidence he planned the attack in advance.

Photos from the scene showed forensic units examining the halls of the AK Plaza, where the attack took place on Thursday.

A white Kia hatchback with a broken front window and ruptured front tyre could be seen on a pavement near the subway station.

A witness named Hwang Hee-woon told YTN television that he heard a sound from the first floor that seemed like a scream, so customers and shop workers were gathering on the rails of the second floor near the escalator to see what was happening below.

Police officers cordon off the scene near a subway station in Seongnam (Ahn Young-joon/AP)

Suddenly, someone told us the person who committed the crime was coming up to the second floor, so we ran away in panic, he said.

He ended up hiding inside a refrigerated storage room with some shopping centre employees.

Thursdays attack was the countrys second mass stabbing case involving random targets in a month.

In July, a knife-wielding man stabbed at least four pedestrians on a street in the capital Seoul, killing one person.

Attacks by firearms are rare in South Korea, which tightly controls gun possession, but there are not meaningful restrictions applying to knives, including kitchen tools that are often used for attacks.

In response to Thursdays attack, Mr Yoon called for closer monitoring of social media to detect threats, deploying more law enforcement officers for prevention and equipping them with better suppression gear, according to Seouls presidential office.

In response to the presidents comments, National Police Agency Commissioner General Yoon Hee-keun declared in a televised statement the start of an indefinite special surveillance period, during which police officers will step up patrols and stop-and-search activities to guard against people suspected of carrying weapons or acting abnormally.

Mr Yoon said police officers will also be instructed to actively use firearms or Taser guns to suppress suspects when violent crimes occur.
International pressure has mounted against leaders of the coup in Niger as the American secretary of state said the US stands very much in support of West African leaders who have threatened to use force to restore the nations democracy.

As hundreds of anti-French protesters rallied in the Nigerien capital in support of the ruling junta, US secretary of state Antony Blinken offered general support for the regional bloc known as Ecowas, though he did not specifically refer to its threat of military action.

Mr Blinken told reporters in New York that the US believes the blocs efforts to reinstate toppled President Mohamed Bazoum are important, strong and have our support.

Senegals foreign affairs minister said her country would participate in a military intervention if Ecowas decides to act.

Supporters of Nigers ruling junta hold a Russian flag at the start of a protest called to fight for the countrys freedom and push back against foreign interference in Niamey, Niger (Sam Mednick/AP)

Senegalese soldiers have to go  these coups detat must be stopped, Aissata Tall Sall said.

Meanwhile, Nigers military leaders sought to exploit anti-Western sentiment to shore up their takeover.

The junta suspended broadcaster RFI and France 24 television from broadcasting in the country, according to the French Foreign Affairs Ministry.

The suspensions were part of the juntas authoritarian repression, the ministry wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

Last weeks coup toppled Mr Bazoum, whose ascendency was Nigers first peaceful, democratic transfer of power since independence from France in 1960.

The coup stirred strident anti-French sentiment and raised questions about the future of the fight against extremism in Africas Sahel region, where Russia and Western countries have vied for influence.

The coup has been condemned by Western countries and the Ecowas bloc, which has threatened to forcibly remove the junta if it does not hand back power to Mr Bazoum.

As tensions have grown in the capital Niamey and the region, many European countries have moved to evacuate their citizens.

Supporters of Nigers ruling junta gather for a protest in Niamey (Sam Mednick/AP)

At Thursdays protest organised by the junta and civil society groups on Nigers independence day, protesters pumped their fists in the air and chanted support for neighbouring countries where militaries have also taken power in recent years.

Some waved Russian flags, and one man brandished a Russian and Nigerien flag sewn together.

For more than 13 years, the Nigerien people have suffered injustices, protester Moctar Abdou Issa said.

The junta will get us out of this, God willing  they will free the Nigerien people.

Were sick of the French, he added.

It remains unclear whether a majority of the population supports the coup, and in many parts of the capital people went about their lives as normal on Thursday.

US President Joe Biden used the occasion of Nigers independence day to call for Mr Bazoum to be released and democracy restored.

The Nigerien people have the right to choose their leaders. They have expressed their will through free and fair elections  and that must be respected, he said in a statement.

In our hour of need, I call on the US government and the entire international community to help us restore our constitutional order

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the administration was still focused on diplomacy.

We still believe theres time and space for that. The window is not going to be open forever, Mr Kirby said.

In an address to the nation on Wednesday, the new military ruler General Abdourahmane Tchiani lashed out at those who have condemned the coup and called on the population to be ready to defend the nation.

He said harsh sanctions imposed last week by Ecowas were illegal, unfair and inhuman.

Ecowas has set a deadline of Sunday for the junta to reinstate Mr Bazoum, who remains under house arrest.

In an opinion piece in The Washington Post, Mr Bazoum described himself as a hostage who was one among hundreds of citizens arbitrarily arrested.

He said his nations security situation was improving before the coup but was now at risk because Niger would lose foreign aid and terrorist groups would take advantage of its instability.

In our hour of need, I call on the US government and the entire international community to help us restore our constitutional order, Mr Bazoum wrote in the piece posted online late on Thursday.

Nigeriens participate in a march called by supporters of coup leader General Abdourahmane Tchiani in Niamey (Sam Mednick/AP)

After the deadline set by Ecowas expires, the bloc is expected to decide by consensus on the next step as recommended by its defence chiefs.

At a bloc meeting in Abuja, Nigerias capital, Brigadier General Tukur Ismaila Gusau, a Nigeria defence spokesman, said the defence chiefs have been asked to come up with a military solution, which they hope will be the last option.

The blocs sanctions include halting energy transactions with Niger, which gets up to 90% of its power from neighbouring Nigeria, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency.

France has 1,500 soldiers in Niger who conduct joint operations with its military against jihadis linked to al Qaida and the so-called Islamic State group.

The United States and other European countries have helped train Nigers troops.

Niger was seen as the Wests last reliable partner in the region, but some in the country see Russia and its Wagner mercenary group, which operates in a handful of African countries, as a powerful alternative.

The new junta has not said whether it intends to ally with Moscow or stick with Nigers Western partners, but that question has become central to the unfolding political crisis.

Neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso  both ruled by juntas  have turned towards Moscow.

Ahead of Thursdays demonstration, the French embassy in Niamey asked Nigers government to ensure the security of its premises after it was attacked by protesters and a door was set on fire.

The president of Nigeria, Bola Tinubu, dispatched two delegations on Thursday to deal with Nigers crisis.

A group from Ecowas headed by former Nigerian head of state General Abdulsalami Abubakar was on its way to Niger.

A second group led by ambassador Babagana Kingibe went to engage with the leaders of Libya and Algeria, said Ajuri Ngelale, special adviser to the president.
Nigers military junta says it is severing military agreements with France, its former colonial ruler, firing some of the previous governments key ambassadors and warning citizens of the West African nation to watch for foreign armies and spies.

The announcement on state television deepens the post-coup isolation for what had been the United States and allies last major security partner in the Sahel, the vast region south of the Sahara Desert that various Islamic extremist groups have turned into the global centre of terrorism.

With two days remaining before a deadline set by the West African regional bloc to release and reinstate President Mohamed Bazoum or face possible force, Mr Bazoum said in a plea published in a Washington Post opinion piece: I write this as a hostage.

Nigers mutinous soldiers face a Sunday deadline set by the regional bloc known as Ecowas, whose envoys arrived at the airport in the capital Niamey on Thursday for talks.

In our hour of need, I call on the US government and the entire international community to help us restore our constitutional order

But hours later, the juntas announcement brought scepticism about any deal.

It said it was terminating the military agreements and protocols signed with France and announced the end of functions for Nigers ambassadors to France, the United States, Togo and neighbouring Nigeria, which is leading Ecowas efforts on dialogue.

Mr Bazoum wrote that Nigers security situation had been improving before the coup, in contrast to neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso that are led by military juntas, but said that is now at risk because Niger would lose aid from foreign partners and extremist groups would take advantage of the countrys instability.

In our hour of need, I call on the US government and the entire international community to help us restore our constitutional order, he wrote.

France has 1,500 military personnel in Niger, which had been envisioned as the base for counterterror operations in the region after anti-French sentiments grew elsewhere.

The US has 1,100 military personnel in Niger, including at a key drone base, and indicates it is reluctant to leave, especially with the growing influence of the Russian private military group Wagner in the Sahel.

Ecowas has been unsuccessful in stemming coups and is trying to change course with Niger in a region that has seen five of them in the past three years  two each in Mali and Burkina Faso.

The Ecowas delegation is led by former Nigerian head of state General Abdulsalami Abubakar.

Supporters of Nigers ruling junta gather in Niamey at the start of a protest called to fight for the countrys freedom and push back against foreign interference (Sam Mednick/AP)

A second group led by ambassador Babagana Kingibe has gone to engage with the leaders of neighbouring Libya and Algeria, said Ajuri Ngelale, special adviser to Nigerias president.

But analysts said they are not putting much faith in talks.

I dont expect mediation efforts to bear fruit in the short term. The junta is digging in  Seems like uncharted territory, said Alex Thurston, assistant professor of political science at the University of Cincinnati.

Nigers roughly 25 million people live in one of the poorest countries in the world, and any cuts in foreign aid could be disastrous.

Already, citizens are feeling the effects after Ecowas suspended all commercial and financial transactions between its member states and Niger and froze Nigerien assets held in regional central banks.

The blocs sanctions include halting energy transactions with Niger, which gets up to 90% of its power from Nigeria, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency.

Earlier this week, power transmission from Nigeria to Niger was cut off, an official at one of Nigerias main electricity companies said.

Our suffering is already enough

Some residents in Niamey said things can hardly get worse.

Abdou Naif lives in a makeshift community on the side of a road with some 140 other people, unable to pay rent or find work.

Our suffering is already enough, he said.
Andrew Tate has said his charges of rape, human trafficking and forming a criminal gang to exploit women are based on nothing as he was released from house arrest.

Tate and his brother Tristan, both dual UK-US nationals, and two Romanian nationals have been under house arrest for months, having denied the allegations.

On Friday, they won an appeal to be able to leave their home but must remain in Romania, where they live.

The decision at the Bucharest Court of Appeal comes after prosecutors formally indicted the 36-year-old in June along with his brother, Tristan, and two Romanian women in the same case.

The courts decision says all four defendants will be subjected to geographical restrictions limiting them to the territories of Bucharest Municipality and the nearby Ilfov County unless they get prior approval from a judge.

The brothers said they are now confident more favourable developments are on the horizon and that truth is beginning to prevail.

Tate, 36, tweeted: After 10 months. 3 in jail, 7 at home. After 15 million euro of asset seizures.

After an indictment based on nothing. The file was passed to a Judge who has ruled it weak and circumstantial. I have been released from house arrest but must remain within Romania.

His brother said: Justice is justice. The law is the law. Evidence is evidence.

I am free.

A statement through their lawyer, given to Sky News, said: We would like to extend our sincere gratitude to the Romanian judicial system for their fair consideration.

This positive outcome gives us confidence that more favourable developments are on the horizon and the truth is beginning to prevail.

We also want to thank all the supporters who have shown great resilience and patience during this time.

In June, prosecutors said there were seven female alleged victims, including some who were misled by false claims of marriage and love.

They said the defendants formed an organised crime group in early 2021 to commit human trafficking in Romania, the UK, the US and other countries.

The alleged victims were later taken to buildings in Ilfov county in Romania where they were intimidated, placed under constant surveillance and control and forced into debt, the statement said.

It is said the defendants then forced them to take part in pornography which was later shared on social media.

One defendant raped an alleged victim twice in March 2022, according to the statement.

Tate, who has lived in Romania since 2017, was previously banned from various social media platforms.

The former kickboxer has denied all allegations of abuse and trafficking, with a trial due to take place.
Ukrainian sea drones have attacked a major Russian port on the Black Sea, damaging a naval ship, according to a Ukrainian official.

It is the latest in a series of strikes inside Russia as Kyiv vowed to bring the fight home to them.

Moscow claimed it repelled the attack.

The strike on Novorossiysk marks the first time a commercial Russian port has been targeted in the 18-month war.

The port  which hosts a naval base, shipbuilding yards and an oil terminal and is key for exports  lies just across the Black Sea from Crimea, where Russias Defence Ministry said it thwarted another attack overnight, taking down 13 drones.

The Olenegorsky Gornyak warship on July 30 (AP)

The Security Service of Ukraine and the countrys navy carried out the attack on Novorossiysk, according to an official with the security service, and the landing ship, Olenegorsky Gornyak, suffered a serious breach.

As a result, the ship is unable to carry out its combat missions, the official added.

Ukrainian news agencies carried footage from social media channels that they suggested showed the Olenegorsky Gornyak listing to one side.

The ship is designed to transport troops and heavy equipment and was sent for repairs in 2014, according to Russian media reports.

It is normally based with Russias Northern Fleet in the Arctic.

Russia, however, claimed it fended off the attack on Novorossiysk, saying ships patrolling the perimeter of the naval base, including the Olenegorsky Gornyak, destroyed two sea drones.

The Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which operates an oil terminal in the port, said maritime traffic was halted for a few hours but that its facilities were not damaged.

The regional governor said there were no casualties.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to comment on the attack during a conference call with reporters.

Footage published on Russian social media channels appeared to show a ship firing into the sea and a burning object exploding.

Ukrainian social media channels also posted night-time video shot from what they indicated was a sea drone, floating near a ship.

In this grab taken from video a drone manoeuvres as it approaches the vessel claimed to be a Russian large landing ship, the Olenegorsky Gonyak, close to the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk (via AP)

The Associated Press could not verify the videos.

Fridays attack is the latest in a string of assaults inside Russian territory.

Earlier this week, drones hit a building in Moscow  and a drone even struck the Kremlin harmlessly in May.

The assault comes as the Black Sea becomes an increasingly important battleground in the war following Russias withdrawal from a deal that had allowed Ukrainian grain shipments through the sea.

Since scrapping the deal, Russia has hammered the countrys ports, compounding the blow to food markets worldwide.

On Wednesday, Russian drones caused significant damage and a huge fire at facilities in the Odesa region that are key to Ukrainian grain exports.

A day earlier, the Russian military said Kyivs forces tried to attack two patrol vessels in the sea, south-west of the Russian-controlled city of Sevastopol on the annexed Crimean peninsula.

Shortly after Russia invaded, Ukraine said it successfully sank the flagship of Russias Black Sea fleet, the Moskva.

Svitlana Sushko sobs while visiting the grave of her youngest son, a Ukrainian soldier who was killed last year in the war against Russia, in Kyiv, Ukraine (Jae C Hong/AP)

Ukraine said it hit the Moskva, a guided-missile cruiser, with missiles in a devastating symbolic blow to Russia.

The Russian Defence Ministry said the heavily damaged Moskva sank in a storm under tow after being gutted by fire.

It previously said a fire set off some of its weapons and forced the crew to evacuate.

It denied there had been an attack by Ukraine on the ship.

Minutes after confirming the attack on the Black Sea port early on Friday morning, Russias Ministry of Defence said it had also repelled another attack by Ukraine on Crimea.

The ministry said air defence systems shot down 10 drones and it had electronically jammed another three.

Videos shared on Russian social media channels reportedly from around the city of Feodosia in Crimea showed what appeared to be air defence systems working, as well as loud explosions.
A Russian court convicted imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny on charges of extremism and sentenced him to 19 years in prison on Friday.

Mr Navalny is already serving a nine-year term on a variety of charges that he says were politically motivated.

The new charges related to the activities of Navalnys anti-corruption foundation and statements by his top associates.

It was his fifth criminal conviction and the third and longest prison term handed to him, all of which his supporters see as a deliberate Kremlin strategy to silence its most ardent opponent.

It was not immediately clear whether he would serve this new term concurrently with his current sentence on charges of fraud and contempt of court.

The prosecution had demanded a 20-year prison sentence, and the politician himself said beforehand that he expected to receive a lengthy term.

Mr Navalny was also sentenced in 2021 to two and a half years in prison for a parole violation. The extremism trial took place behind closed doors in the penal colony east of Moscow where he is imprisoned.

Mr Navalny appeared in the courtroom on Friday afternoon, wearing prison garb and looking gaunt, but with a defiant smile on his face.

As the judge read out the verdict, the politician stood alongside his lawyers and his co-defendant with his arms crossed, listening with a serious expression on his face.

It took the judge less than 10 minutes to announce the verdict and the sentence  something that in Russia usually takes hours and even days.

The 47-year-old Navalny is President Vladimir Putins fiercest foe and has exposed official corruption and organised major anti-Kremlin protests.

He was arrested in January 2021 upon returning to Moscow after recuperating in Germany from nerve agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin.

Alexei Navalny, second left, is seen standing with his lawyers, on a video link as he is sentenced (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Mr Navalnys allies said the extremism charges retroactively criminalised all of the anti-corruption foundations activities since its creation in 2011.

In 2021, Russian authorities outlawed the foundation and the vast network of Mr Navalnys offices in Russian regions as extremist organisations, exposing anyone involved to possible prosecution.

One of Mr Navalnys associates, Daniel Kholodny, stood trial alongside him after being relocated from a different prison. It was not immediately clear what sentence was handed to Mr Kholodny.

Mr Navalny rejected all the charges against him as politically motivated and accused the Kremlin of seeking to keep him behind bars for life.

On the eve of the verdict hearing, Mr Navalny released a statement on social media, presumably through his team, in which he said he expected his latest sentence to be huge  a Stalinist term.

Under the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, millions of people were branded enemies of the state, jailed and sometimes executed in what became known as the Great Terror.

In his statement, Mr Navalny called on Russians to personally resist and encouraged them to support political prisoners, distribute flyers or go to a rally.

Alexei Navalny, left, shakes hand with his fellow accused, Daniel Kholodny (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

He told Russians that they could choose a safe way to resist, but he added that there is shame in doing nothing. Its shameful to let yourself be intimidated.

The politician is currently serving his sentence in a maximum-security prison: Penal Colony No. 6 in the town of Melekhovo, about 140 miles east of Moscow.

He has spent months in a tiny one-person cell, also called a punishment cell, for purported disciplinary violations, such as an alleged failure to button his prison clothes properly, introduce himself appropriately to a guard or to wash his face at a specified time.

On social media, Mr Navalnys associates urged supporters to come to Melekhovo on Friday to express solidarity with the politician.

About 40 supporters from different Russian cities gathered outside the colony, one of them told the Associated Press in the messaging app Telegram.

Yelena, who spoke on condition that her last name was withheld for safety reasons, said the supporters were not allowed into the colony, but decided to stay outside until the verdict as announced: People think its important to be nearby at least like that, for moral support. We will be waiting.

Alexei Navalny returned to Moscow in 2021 after being poisoned with a nerve agent (AP Photo/Mstyslav Chernov, File)

Mr Navalny was ordered to serve the new prison term in a special regime penal colony, a term that refers to the Russian prisons with the highest level of security and the harshest inmate restrictions.

It was not immediately clear when he would be transferred to such a colony from the Melekhovo prison.

By law, Navalny has 10 days to appeal the verdict, and if he does, it will not take effect until the appeal is adjudicated.

Russian law stipulates that only men given life sentences or especially dangerous recidivists are sent to those types of prisons.

The country has many fewer special regime colonies compared to other types of adult prisons, according to state penitentiary service data: 35 colonies for dangerous recidivists and six for men imprisoned for life.

Maximum-security colonies are the most widespread type, with 251 currently in operation.
Thirty-one political prisoners, including 15 women, were beaten and placed in solitary confinement in Bago Regions Tharyarwaddy Prison for commemorating Martyrs Day, according to groups that monitor political prisoners in Myanmar.

The 15 women were removed from group cells and placed in solitary confinement for wearing black ribbons on Martyrs Day, said Ko Thaik Tun Oo, a spokesperson for the Political Prisoners Network-Myanmar.

All 15 have been kept in solitary confinement since that day, said Ko Thaik Tun Oo, who is a former political prisoner.

He said the 16 male political prisoners were beaten and then placed in solitary confinement for saluting fallen heroes on Martyrs Day, which falls on July 19.

We received reports that men were beaten once they were taken out of their dormitories and females were beaten when they arrived in solitary confinement, Ko Thaik Tun Oo said.

His network received the reports from inmates released from Tharyarwaddy Prison following the juntas pardon on August 1.

The reports from newly released inmates follow a report in early June that said torture of political prisoners was on the rise in Myanmar.

A National League for Democracy (NLD) youth member, Ko Than Toe Aung, and three other male prisoners were so severely injured during their assaults that they had to be transferred to the prisons hospital, Ko Thaik Tun Oo said.

Ko Than Toe Aung, a member of the NLD youth affairs committee in Yangon Regions Thanhlyin Township, sustained head injuries and his condition is alarming, the Political Prisoners Network-Myanmar said. He lost consciousness while he was being assaulted and sustained a life-threatening brain injury, a source close to the prisons staff said.

Four of the 15 female political prisoners required medical treatment as a result of the physical attacks on them, Ko Thaik Tun Oo said.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) also received reports that political prisoners had been placed in solitary confinement at Tharyarwaddy Prison. It confirmed that the female political prisoners were placed in solitary confinement for wearing black ribbons on Martyrs Day.

Besides being put into solitary confinement, we also heard they were tortured, an AAPP spokesperson said, adding that the condition of the prisoners remains unknown.

Most of the 15 female political prisoners placed in solidarity confinement are in their 20s, but one is 54 years old.

They are: Ma Hnin Lae Nandar Lwin, Ma Shune Ei Phyu, Ma Nilar Sein, Ma Su Yee Paing, Ma Wutt Yee Lwin, Ma Aye Thida Kyaw, Ma Yi Yi Swe, Ma Lwin Lwin Nyunt, Ma Sandi Nyunt Win, Ma Aye Thet San, Ma Shwe Yee Nyunt, Ma Yamin Htet, Ma Htoo Htet Htet Wai, Ma Myoo Thandar Htun and Ma Moe Myat Thazin.

Martyrs Day is celebrated all over the country, the AAPP spokesperson said, adding: How much harm does it do to wear a ribbon on that day?

Now they [the junta] are even scared of [Martyrs Day], and cruelly oppress those participate in it, the spokesperson added.

Tharyarwaddy Prison holds about 2,000 political prisoners. It is notorious for assaults on and torture of political prisoners, including during prison transfers.

The junta deliberately oppresses and tortures political prisoners for revenge. We have been informed about severe human rights violations and torture in every prison, the AAPP spokesperson said.

The Political Prisoners Network-Myanmar and the AAPP said they are deeply concerned about political prisoners kept in solitary confinement because their condition is unknowable.

Myanmar celebrates Martyrs Day on July 19 every year to mark the assassination of independence hero General Aung Santhe father of the jailed leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyiand eight colleagues in 1947. This year, the civilian National Unity Government (NUG) and its armed wing, the Peoples Defense Forces, commemorated the day to honor General Aung San and eight colleagues as well as those killed in the ongoing anti-regime Spring Revolution.

The junta, however, downgraded Martyrs Day from a state-level event and barred jailed civilian leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi from the ceremony. She has not been allowed to attend the annual event for the three years since the February 2021 coup.
Around 10 Myanmar junta troops were killed and 26 others, including a captain, were injured during the clashes in Launglon Township, Tanintharyi Region, on July 22, according to resistance forces.

A clash broke out near Maung Mae Shaung village in Dawei Township on July 22 when around 150 troops traveled to villages between Dawei and Launglon. Three resistance fighters from the Ba Htoo Column were killed and one injured during a 20-minute clash.

The junta troops triggered a series of mines between Kha Maung Taung and Taung Min Pyaung villages in Launglon Township. Ten soldiers were killed and at least 20 were injured in mine blasts, according to the Dawei Guerrilla Revolutionary Force, which is allied to the Ba Htoo Column.

There is only one way in and out, so its like a minefield. They triggered many mines, a Dawei Guerrilla representative told The Irrawaddy.

The troops then raided Taung Min Pyaung village and torched three houses.

They were attacked by drone bombs and improvised grenade launchers while they were raiding Phwar Boat Pyin village in the afternoon. A captain and five regime soldiers were injured during the 30-minute clash.

Some village homes were destroyed by regime shelling and two residents were injured.

A captain and other soldiers were hit by a drone bomb at the village school. The captain was seriously injured in the face, the Dawei Guerrilla representative said.

Thousands of villagers fled their houses for a week during the clashes but are currently returning to their villages, he added.

On Thursday, the Dawei Guerrilla attacked a military vehicle near Maung Mae Shaung village in Dawei Township, leaving five soldiers dead and many injured. Around 50 civilians from Maung Mae Shaung village were detained by soldiers after the clash, according to the Dawei Guerrilla.

The villagers were released in the evening, except four Dewei Technological University students, the resistance group said.

The whereabouts of the four students are unknown.

Tanintharyi Region is becoming an increasingly solid resistance stronghold after around two years of fighting.
Lincoln Public Schools Superintendent Paul Gausman speaks during a recent press conference about school funding in Nebraska. (Aaron Sanderford/Nebraska Examiner)

LINCOLN  A storm brewing over the superintendent of Nebraskas second-largest K-12 school district stirred this week into a potential threat against his license as a school administrator in Iowa.

The Iowa state board that disciplines teachers and school administrators found the allegations against Lincoln Public Schools Superintendent Paul Gausman by his previous employer credible enough on Wednesday that it referred them for a hearing with an administrative judge. Lincoln hired Gausman in 2022.

Sioux City Community Schools filed a complaint in December with the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners alleging that Gausman tried to bribe or induce two incoming school board members in November to back his pick for board president.

Effort to influence board

The complaint alleges Gausman approached the board members-elect at a public place in Des Moines and offered to make changes they wanted to school operations, activities or programs if they backed his favored candidate over a critic.

Iowa state law defines bribery of public officials as offering promises of action, benefits or something of value to someone serving, elected or selected to serve, according to the letter from the school district to the state board of examiners.

A Polk County prosecutor said someone had contacted Des Moines-area authorities about investigating the meeting but said he had not seen enough evidence to charge anyone with a crime. He said the office is aware of the separate state investigation.

No comment on the referral

Gausman declined to comment Thursday but has said in the past that he is the target of an activist board that is trying to tarnish his reputation.

The Sioux City complaint, signed by school board president Dan Greenwell, also alleges that Gausman obtained confidential information about a closed session of the school board from a board member and shared some of that information with his staff.

Greenwell, a frequent critic of Gausmans, said his district believes the matters outlined in the complaint 22-190 are substantive and serious. He credited the state board for conducting a detailed investigation of the boards complaint.

They found probable cause exists that violations as stated in the complaint have occurred and set the case for a hearing, he said. The district will continue to cooperate with the BOEE.

Sioux City past, Lincoln present

Gausman faced criticism from the board and some community members about how the district managed special education services and inconsistencies in how the district disciplined some teachers and students.

The Lincoln school board has voiced public support for Gausman after the Iowa board forwarded its complaint to court and after Gausman sued the Sioux City board in January. He is known from previous stops for fighting bullying.

Gausmans lawsuit alleged violations of open meetings laws, arguing he had not been properly notified of meetings meant to address his job performance. The board contends it has followed the law.

Documents reviewed as part of a public records request verify that Gausman was aware of some meetings, had requested one himself and had added some to his school district calendar.

Might change little

Lincoln Board of Education President Lanny Boswell said Thursday that the LPS board stood by its comments from January, when then-board president Don Mayhew recognized and applauded Gausmans work after a midyear evaluation, expressing confidence and support.

Gausman could negotiate a settlement. That could include giving up his administrative license in Iowa. Even if that occurred, it is unlikely to affect Gausmans ability to lead or teach in a Nebraska school district, people with knowledge of the process said.
Two civilians including a teenage boy were killed and three wounded when junta forces bombarded territory controlled by the Karen National Union (KNU) in Bago Region on Wednesday and Thursday.

Junta troops rained shells down on villages in Muu (Kyaukkyi) and Kyauktaga townships, territory under Brigade 3 of the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), the KNUs armed wing.

The KNU is the countrys oldest ethnic armed group and has been fighting for greater autonomy for decades. Its KNLA and Karen National Defense Organisation have allied with local armed resistance groups to topple the military regime.

The KNU reported on Thursday that junta troops had conducted indiscriminate shelling of civilian targets for two straight days.

Paing Soe Thu, 16, died of head injuries after being hit by shrapnel on Thursday morning as junta forces bombarded Tha Min Inn Kone village.

The shelling was reportedly conducted by the regimes Light Infantry Battalion 274 based in Kyauktaga town.

On Wednesday, a woman in her 30s was killed on the spot and three people were injured when a shell hit their house in Mway Twin village. Six-year-old Ma Chit Phone Thwe and U Tin Oo, 71, were among those injured in the attack.

Light Infantry Battalion 599 based in Tone Taw village targeted the village with three artillery rounds on Wednesday, according to the KNU.

Kyauktaga and Muu townships are located in eastern Bago, where junta troops are launching frequent artillery bombardments against civilian targets, according to the KNU.

Junta infantry has been conducting raids and heavy shelling of villages in KNU Brigade 3 territory since July.

Another six civilians were wounded by junta shelling between July 20 and 22.

Residents from 70 local villages have fled their homes, according to the Brigade 3 media relations team.

In the first week of July, the shelling killed two civilians and wounded six others.

Junta troops also detained 20 civilians from three villages between July 6 and 11.

One detainee has been released but the rest were taken to Kyauktaga police station, according to the KNU. Their fate is still unknown.

The first half of 2023 saw around 2,495 clashes in KNU territory and at least 599,400 civilians displaced, the group reported in July.
Junta boss Min Aung Hlaing has reshuffled his cabinet, including changes to the key posts of defense minister and home affairs minister, days after extending emergency rule in Myanmar for another six months on Monday.

The cabinet remains dominated by generals. The shakeup sees the Home Affairs Ministry portfolio pass from Lieutenant General Soe Htut to Lieutenant General Yar Pyae, who was previously the Union Government Office 1 minister, while General Tin Aung San takes over as defense minister, switching positions with General Mya Tun Oo, who takes over at the helm of the Transport and Communications Ministry. Both men will continue to serve concurrently as deputy prime ministers.

The shakeups at the Defense and Home Affairs ministries were the first since Min Aung Hlaing grabbed power in a 2021 coup.

They are the two ministries most responsible for countering the armed anti-regime resistance movement, which has rocked both urban areas and the countryside. Despite their efforts, more than two years on, the junta is still struggling to combat the unwavering resistance and has been unable to bring the country under its control. Analysts said this is likely one of the reasons behind the reshuffles of the ministries leaders. Soe Htuts health may also be a factor, however, as he has long been rumored to suffer from cancer, and some speculated this could explain his transfer to an effectively inactive post like Union Government Office 1 minister.

Meanwhile, new Home Affairs Minister Yar Pyae remains on the juntas governing body, the State Administration Council (SAC). He also maintains his positions as national security adviser to Min Aung Hlaing and head of the juntas peace negotiation team. His predecessor Lt-Gen Soe Htut concurrently served as deputy prime minister but will no longer hold the post. Yar Pyae was however not appointed a deputy prime minister. Min Aung Hlaing still leads the SAC, nine of whose 18 members are generals.

The appointments of Tin Aung San and Yar Pyae to key positions came after Min Aung Hlaing told a meeting of the National Defense and Security Council (NDSC) on Monday that he would do whatever it takes to reassert control of the country. The regime has lost control of large swathes of the country to resistance forces.

As part of the reshuffle, Foreign Minister Than Swe, tasked with defending Min Aung Hlaing on the international stage against critics of the juntas atrocious human rights record, while also trying to ease the juntas near isolation on the diplomatic front, was promoted to concurrently serve as a deputy prime minister.

The International Cooperation Ministry, headed by junta apologist Ko Ko Hlaing, better known as Candle Ko Ko Hlaing for urging Myanmar people to use candles amid frequent blackouts in 2014, has been disbanded and Ko Ko Hlaing shunted off to head Union Government Office 2.

Thet Thet Khine was replaced by Dr. Soe Win as social welfare minister and will take over as hotels and tourism minister. Thet Thet Khine, the chairwoman of the Peoples Pioneer Party, was previously a lawmaker with the National League for Democracy, whose government the Myanmar military ousted in 2021.

The reshuffle also saw deputy ministers appointed to the SAC Office, Agriculture and Livestock Ministry and Hotels and Tourism Ministry. Dr. Htein Lin Oo was appointed deputy legal affairs minister and deputy attorney-general.

Chief Justice Tun Tun Oo was forced to resign on health grounds, making way for Thar Htay, chairman of the Constitutional Tribunal of the Union. U Aung Zaw Thein succeeds Thar Htay as the head of the tribunal.

Naypyitaw Council Chairman Tin Oo Lwin, who was a classmate of Min Aung Hlaing at the Defense Services Academy, replaces Ko Ko as religious affairs and culture minister, while Than Tun Oo is the new chairman of the Naypyitaw Council.

Electricity Minister Thaung Han was replaced by Nyan Tun, Energy Minister Myo Myint Oo by Ko Ko Lwin, and Labor Minister Dr. Pwint San by Myint Naung. Auditor-General Htay Aung was replaced by Sitt Aung, and Myanmar National Human Rights Commission chairman Hla Myint was replaced by Paw Lwin Sein.

Ko Ko, who was sacked as religious affairs minister on Monday immediately after the consecration of the colossal marble Buddha statue built by Min Aung Hlaing in Naypyitaw, was quoted by the BBC as saying, I am in no mood for comment. I take it as normal.

Maung Ko and Dr. Aung Kyaw Min were forced to resign from the SAC, and were not appointed to any other body. Another SAC member, Dr. Kyaw Tun, was shunted off to the SAC central advisory body, which stands above the council in name only.

An observer pointed out that Min Aung Hlaing has fallen into a pattern of boasting that his cabinet is full of able individuals up to the task of overcoming the countrys many difficulties and challenges, only to reshuffle them. The observer compared the junta boss to a card player who constantly loses and then reshuffles the deck.
At least 31 Myanmar junta forces were killed in the past four days as Peoples Defense Force groups (PDFs) and an ethnic armed organization (EAO) continued to attack regime targets across the country.

The incidents were reported in Sagaing, Magwe, Bago and Tanintharyi regions and Shan State.

The Irrawaddy has rounded up the following reports of significant attacks from PDFs and the EAO.

Some military casualty figures could not be independently verified.

Junta suffers losses in northern Shan

At least 10 regime forces were killed and 13 others injured in Muse Township, northern Shan State on Wednesday when the Taang National Liberation Army (TNLA) clashed with four military battalions and pro-regime militia forces near a village for several hours, the ethnic rebel group said.

The junta forces were attempting to raid a TNLA base. TNLA troops also seized a large quantity of ammunition and weapons from the regime forces.

Nine clashes between the regime forces and the TNLA broke out in Muse from July 23 to Aug. 2, in which 25 junta soldiers were killed, 27 were injured and one was arrested, the TNLA claimed.

Police officers killed in drone strikes in Sagaing

Kyauk Lone Gyi PDF said it used makeshift fixed-wing drones to drop four bombs on the birthday party of a police chief at the Kani Township police station in Sagaing Region on Thursday.

Tun Myint, the chief of the police station, and police officer San Htay were killed in the bombardment. A policewoman and two relatives of police officers suffered injuries, the PDF group said.

Intense clashes break out in Sagaings Depayin



Resistance fighters clash with a military unit in Depayin Township on Wednesday. / Shwebo PDF

A fierce clash broke out in Depayin Township, Sagaing Region on Wednesday when four resistance groups attacked a military unit of 130 troops from Ye U Township that was raiding villages in Depayin, said Shwebo Township Peoples Defense Force, which joined the resistance attack.

Ten regime forces are believed to have been killed as the resistance groups triggered land mines to attack the military unit from five locations.

With the help of surveillance drones, the regime forces attacked the resistance members with heavy explosives. Seven resistance fighters also suffered minor injuries.

Another seven resistance groups continued to attack the military unit in Marakan Village on Wednesday afternoon, inflicting many regime casualties, said Bagan Ogre Force, which joined the attack.

Regime forces attempting to take down an anti-regime slogan bombed in Shwebo

Buffalo Soldiers Freedom Force said five regime forces were killed in Shwebo Township, Sagaing Region on Tuesday when the resistance group triggered land mines on two occasions to attack 50 regime forces attempting to take down an anti-regime banner at the entrance of the town.

The resistance group had hung a slogan reading, Welcome to the town where the Motherfer Min Aung Hlaing doesnt dare to visit, referring to the leader of the military junta.

Military unit ambushed in Sagaing

At least two regime forces were killed and five others injured in Pale Township, Sagaing Region on Thursday when Myanmars Royal Dragon Army (MRDA) used land mines to ambush a military unit of 80 troops between two villages.

A 30-minute shootout erupted after the mine ambush. The MRDA said it used guerrilla tactics to attack regime forces and retreated from the ambush site without casualties.

Police station pounded in Sagaing



Resistance groups fire improvised mortar rounds at a police outpost in Kyar Tat Village in Salingyi Township on Tuesday night. / Royal Tiger Fore

Royal Tiger Forces said it and other resistance groups used many improvised mortar rounds to bombard the Kyar Tat police station, where junta soldiers and police are stationed, in Salingyi Township, Sagaing Region on Tuesday night.

Regime casualties were unknown.

Regime forces, junta base bombed by resistance drones in Magwe



Resistance members conduct drone strikes on regime targets in Myaing Township, Magwe Region on Tuesday. / SSTF

Salingyi Special Task Force (SSTF) said it and other resistance groups used improvised fixed-wing drones to bomb regime forces and pro-junta Pyu Saw Htee militia members from the pro-regime village of Sinn Chaung in Yesagyo Township, Magwe Region on Thursday.

The junta forces were bombed while they were extorting money from vehicles and inspecting civilians on the Yesagyo-Pakokku highway.

That evening, the resistance groups conducted more drone strikes on regime forces stationed at the police station in the town of Myaing. The groups said they lost a drone in the operation.

Military casualties in both attacks were unknown.

Junta base bombarded in Magwe



Troops of Myaing PDF during a recent drone strike and ambush against regime forces in the pro-regime village of Kan Ni in Myaing Township. / Myaing PDF

Five regime forces were seriously injured in Myaing Township, Magwe Region on Tuesday when 20 resistance groups conducted over 12 hours of bombardments against the pro-regime village of Kan Ni, a base for regime forces and pro-junta Pyu Saw Htee militia using drones and improvised mortar rounds, according to the resistance groups. The attack started at 12 a.m. Tuesday and lasted until the afternoon, they said.

Another soldier was killed and three more injured on the same day when the resistance groups ambushed regime forces leaving Kan Ni, said Myaing PDF, which coordinated the attacks.

After the ambush, regime forces torched two houses and eight motorbikes in nearby Lat Htoke Htaw Village and stole six cows. On Sunday, one more soldier was killed and some others injured when Myaing PDF ambushed regime forces and militia members from Kan Ni.

Military checkpoint attacked in Bago

Myanmar Revolution Force (Nattalin) said it used bomb launchers to attack a military checkpoint at the Taung Nyo Dam in Nattalin Township, Bago Region on Tuesday night. Regime forces responded with firearms and heavy explosives but there were no resistance casualties.

Military casualties were unknown.

Military bases attacked in Tanintharyi

Tanintharyi Township PDF said it and other PDF groups attacked the base of the Myanmar militarys Light Infantry Battalion 561 in Nyaung Pin Kwin Village in the township in Tanintharyi Region on Tuesday afternoon.

That night, the groups attacked the military security affairs office and another police outpost in Tanintharyi town. Military casualties were unknown.
This Week in Review

A weekly review of the best and most popular stories published in the Imperial Valley Press. Also, featured upcoming events, new movies at local theaters, the week in photos and much more.
There was an excited buzz among the crowd of hundreds gathered in front of the new Boys Town Education Center.

Thursdays celebration marked the opening of the three-story, 110,000-square-foot facility, which will house all Boys Town students in grades 4-12.

The new school was built to meet the growing needs of current and future students as the former building was more than 70 years old, said Rev. Steven Boes, Boys Towns national executive director.

Boes said when Boys Town hosted a groundbreaking ceremony two years ago, he overheard a conversation between two students that is a perfect description of why the new school was built.

One of the kids was talking to another kid and said, I wonder why they are doing this all for us? The other kid said, I think its because they think were worth it, Boes said. All of you kids out there: I think youre worth it.

While the building will open with approximately 350 students this month, it can hold up to 600. The majority of the $46 million cost of the facility was funded by private donors and a state grant, according to the Nebraska Department of Economic Development.

Senior Jafar Liebers, who was elected mayor of the Village of Boys Town earlier this year, said students didnt just watch on the sidelines as the school was built. The projects architect, DLR Group in Omaha, recruited students to help with the design of the building.

Its been really special to be included in the process from the beginning, Liebers said. It means a whole lot that so many people care about us. We are actually excited for the first day of school this year.

Students designed the back of a large concrete mural outside of the school. While its still unfinished, it will eventually feature a scene of students who attend the school, including Liebers himself.

The front of the mural includes the face of Rev. Edward J. Flanagan, who founded Boys Town to offer care, treatment and education to at-risk children. More than 80% of students that arrive at Boys Town have significant academic deficiencies or behavioral challenges, according to the school. Roughly 97% graduate from high school or continue their education after leaving Boys Town.

Inside the school, the blue color of Boys Town is reflected throughout the hallways and classrooms, from the flecks of color in the floor to the cushioned seating in common areas. Students designed the teal and gray tile designs that decorate the walls and a vibrant 3D butterfly display above the media center.

The building also has more science labs than the former school, and a spirit hall that is a quiet place for students or teachers to sit, surrounded by high ceilings and large windows. Liebers said it even faces east, toward the city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, so Muslim students can use it as a place to pray during the school day.

The high school is separated from the middle school and elementary levels, Liebers said. Classrooms feature modern furniture and even different light settings to optimize learning: an energized setting is bright and helps sleepy students while a reading setting is dimmer and more yellow.

Lindsay Meier, Boys Town superintendent, said each facet of the building was carefully designed to create a safe and positive learning environment.

Most importantly, our new education center is an investment in the future of our Boys Town kids, and serves as a legacy to Father Flanagans vision and belief that all children deserve the chance to learn and to grow to their fullest potential in body, mind and spirit, Meier said. Our new education center was truly built for the future.

Photos: Boys Town's New Education Center
Today

Mostly sunny skies. Becoming windy during the afternoon. High 106F. WSW winds at 10 to 15 mph, increasing to 20 to 30 mph.

Tonight

A mostly clear sky. Low 83F. Winds W at 15 to 25 mph.

Tomorrow

Mainly sunny. High 104F. Winds W at 15 to 25 mph.
ArtWalk Downtown Billings hosts its fourth event of the 2023 Season on Friday, August 4 in downtown Billings.

ArtWalk locations across downtown will be open from 5 to 9 p.m. (unless otherwise noted) to host exhibits and feature artists from Billings and the region. A mobile-friendly map and more information about the June 2 event, including images and gallery notes, can be found at artwalkbillings.com and on Facebook and Instagram @billingsartwalk

One-time Event Participants include:

 Collaborative Art Project with Canvas Creek Team Building, Valley Credit Union, and Big Sky Economic Development

All ArtWalk events are free. Many locations host music and offer light refreshments. Often, artists attend and present gallery talks. There are a variety of parking options in the downtown area, including free on-street metered parking after 5 p.m.

Gallery notes and locations

A&E Design, 124 N. 29 St. Join A&E Design for ArtWalk on Friday, August 4th from 5 to 9 pm for a lively, thought-provoking night of urban art and music, featuring the bold, dynamic work of graffiti artist Tyson Middle. Middles work adds elaborate explosions of vibrant color, social commentary, and self-expression to the intersections of public and private spaces. His community influence and commission-focused approach help legitimize graffiti as a legal medium, transform infrastructure into canvases, and nurture local youth's creative talents and bright futures.

Adding to the energetic atmosphere, the evenings soundtrack will be courtesy of DJ N-ER-G, a 20-year mix-making veteran. Music begins at 5:30.

We look forward to seeing you Friday, August 4th from 5 to 9 pm at ArtWalk!

Aspinwall, 103 N. Broadway, hosts Trevan Hiersche, Sean McCotter, and Jessica Brophy during the August ArtWalk.

Brophy does art differently. She makes custom art, which means she works one-on-one with each of her clients to create a painting or drawing around their style and what they love. Her pet portraits are wildly popular!

Enjoy free beer and local art. We'll see you there!

Barjons Books, 223 N. 29th St. Danielle Egnew and Rebecca Douglas will share Barjons Artwalk space in a joint show. Both award-winning artists, Egnew's captivating oil works have sold worldwide, and Douglas' eye for light is making its debut from photography to oils. Wine and cider provided.

Billings First Congregational Church (BFC), 310 N. 27th St., will feature the original works of N. African artist Paul Joseph Louis Fenasse, who was born in Mustapha, Algeria in 1899. His childhood took place in Algiers during the Belle Epoque. As an artist, his work is part of Orientalism, and he is one of the painters of the School of Algiers. During the First World War, he entered the School of Fine Arts in Algiers. Paul Fenasse was a friend of sculptor Paul Belmondo. They were on the same bench at the Dordor Primary School in Algiers and later met at the School of Fine Arts. His paintings gained success quite quickly. The Society of French Orientalist Painters quickly took an interest in his works, which were regularly exhibited at the Salon of French Orientalist Painters in Paris. He traveled extensively in the Sahara desert and Aures, having been commissioned by the government to paint large tableaus of the region. Recipient of many awards, he painted until his death, in 1976.

Billings Public Library, 510 N. Broadway, will be showcasing the work of local artists PJ Smith, Ryan Brown, and Nikki Kostelecky.

Kostelecky has been creating art since the age of five. She finds inspiration in western landscapes and slow walks through nature. Nikki studied at Rocky Mountain College under Jim Baken and Mark Moak.

Brown paints beautiful pieces of abstract art with a modern western flair, utilizing and combining natural colors to create surreal landscapes. The sole objective of his work is to open a passageway to another world that will put the audience in a Zen-like state of mind.

Smith is an outside painter intent on capturing true light and accurate color representation in his pieces. PJ uses a pallet knife and thick paint to create unique pieces with captivating textures, hues, and edges. He believes both the beauty and harshness of nature are reflected in his style.

Each artist's work can be found at The Frame Hut here in Billings!

Billings Symphony Society, 2820 2nd Ave. N., will be closed for the August ArtWalk.

Bishops Cuts/Color, 108 N. Broadway; welcomes local painter, Sam Gordon. For Gordon, art has always been something intriguing. Gordon said, People were what I found interesting and, the more I get involved in this community, the less I see portraits. I want my paintings to convey the message that beauty is subjective and everything holds value; imperfections tell stories and history and that is what is beautiful. Sam mostly does portraits and a few landscapes. You can find Sams work on instagram (@sams_artt_)

Ceilon Aspensen Fine Art, 113 N. Broadway #406. will be closed for the August ArtWalk

Collaborative Art Project, 201 N. Broadway. Join Canvas Creek Team Building, Valley Credit Union, and Big Sky Economic Development to create a mural together on the BACK of the Valley Credit Union building! The Alley between BSED (201 N. Broadway) and Park 3 Parking Garage (2nd Ave between 28th and 27th Sts.)

No creativity required! We want everyone to add a smiley face, a stick figure of just their name! Now, if you're really creative....come on down and show off!

Art Walk will be happening so it's a GREAT evening to hang out downtown!

Downtown Billings Alliance (DBA), 116 N 29th St. is hosting the Yellowstone County Human Trafficking Task Force Red Sand Project for the August ArtWalk.

Youre invited to join community members, businesses, local, and non-profit organizations to attend the ArtWalk for a human trafficking awareness event. Our community will gather to speak out and spread red sand around Billings as a statement to bring awareness to human trafficking and modern day slavery happening in every corner of our world. This years SPECIAL features include: Local victim service organizations Survivor and advocate artists and art. The average age a person enters into trafficking is 13 years old. Learn the dangers and signs both off and online and hear about the affects of trafficking on our society and where to ask for help. Be encouraged to Fight Back. To stand up and say something.

DBA is also doing Chalk on the Walk. Feel free to create a masterpiece using chalk within downtown. Bring your own chalk or purchase chalk at the DBA office between 2-4 p.m. on Friday. Stroll throughout downtown throughout ArtWalk to view all the chalk creations!

Electric Storm Gallery, 405 North 24th St. Please check artwalkbillings.com for more information.

Global Village, 2815 2nd. Ave. N., features handcrafted items curated from all over the world.

Harry Koyama Fine Art, 2509 Montana Ave, showcases gallery works by Harry Koyama. Koyama's paintings portray the quintessential American west through images of American Indian dancers, buffalo, grizzly bears, mountain lions, and other iconic images. His abstract expressionist paintings are highly sought by collectors, institutions and businesses across Montana and nationally.

Hedden-Empire Gallery, 206 N. 29th St., hosts local artist Tammi Fladager during the August ArtWalk. Fladager and her husband live in Northeastern Montana where she draws the inspirations for her works. Dabbling in all things artistic, her mediums include pencil, charcoal, colored pencils, water colors and heavy body acrylics. Typically her work can be found at the Shadows of the Past Art Auction in Choteau, Montana. Her artwork can also be seen scattered throughout Sheridan, Wyoming at the direction of the SAGE Gallery.

Recently, her talents have found her illustrating childrens books depicting real-life Montana Agricultural stories to include The Noisy Ranch, What Do Ranchers Do?, and Carol Drives a Tractor. Several more are slated to be published in the coming months.

Although art has been a part of Fladager's life for decades, it has only just recently been the focus of her attention. Watch as her styles and techniques develop  you never know what she is going to come up with!

Jennco Design, 2905 Montana Ave. Come see us at Jennco Design for the August ArtWalk for a great lineup of artists including Jennco Design, Ruby Hahn, Elley Swan and Jaxson Davis will all be there with new pieces to show. So come to 2905 Montana Avenue from 5-8 and meet the artists and talk about your next piece of art.

Kennedy Stained Glass, 2409 2nd Ave. N. Visit the studio to see the beautiful vintage and newly restored antique windows that need to find new homes. These pieces will be discounted during the August ArtWalk.

Kirks Grocery, 2920 Minnesota Ave, features "Marla Goodman: Out of Hand: Misremembered Memoirs & Untouched Sounds," which features paintings and mixed media work by Bozeman painter and performance artist Marla Goodman. Her work revolves around her 15-year obsession with the Theremin, an electronic instrument that is played without being touched. Kirks Grocery will also participate in Downtown Billings Chalk on the Walk. Chalk on the Walk is a community art project featuring artistic works created using the medium of chalk and pastels on the sidewalks of downtown Billings.

Le Macaron, 112 N. Broadway, hosts local artist Cheltsie Williams during the August ArtWalk.

Williams is an Elementary Art teacher at Huntley Project Schools, where she also grew up. She lives in Shepherd with her husband and young daughter. She's has always loved horses, being outdoors, hunting, fishing and spending time with her family. She discovered the love of art from watching her father create beautiful chalk pastels and oil paintings. She then found her love of watercolor paints while attending MSU-Billings earning her teaching degree. Williams loves to paint things that she is passionate about but also loves bringing the joy of art to others by teaching and doing commissions. Williams always strives to challenge herself and enjoys learning new techniques and transforming her style. She's looking forward to the next challenge and learning experience.

Le Macaron will also participate in Downtown Billings Chalk on the Walk. Chalk on the Walk is a community art project featuring artistic works created using the medium of chalk and pastels on the sidewalks of downtown Billings.

Magic City Makers Art Collective, housed at Sassy Biscuit at 115 N. 29th St. Magics City Makers Art Collectives featured exhibit Inspired by Great Artists allows the viewer to step into a world where the past converges with the present and pays homage to the brilliant minds who have shaped the art world throughout history. Through a captivating array of contemporary artworks, this exhibit celebrates the influence & legacy of renowned artists from various periods & movements. Prepare to be enthralled by the creative fusion of past & present as our featured artists draw inspiration from the likes of Leonardo da Vinci, Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Frida Kahlo, & many more. Each piece on display is a heartfelt tribute, reflecting the indelible impact these great artists have left on the canvas of time. As you enjoy the exhibit, you'll witness a captivating exploration of diverse styles, techniques, & artistic visions that have been reimagined & reinvented in the modern context. Magic Citys Makers curated selection showcases the talents of both emerging & established artists, each with their unique perspectives on the enduring influence of the masters. Discover how the legacy of great artists continues to inspire, challenge, & shape the ever-evolving world of art.

Prepare to be inspired, captivated, & moved as 'Inspired by Great Artists' takes you on an artistic journey like no other. Join us in celebrating the unbreakable thread that connects the past to the present & immerse yourself in the timeless allure of artistic inspiration.

McCormick Cafe, 2419 Montana Ave., please check artwalkbillings.com for more information on happening during the August ArtWalk!

Robert Tompkins Fine Art, 115 N. 28th St. Ste 304. Robert Tompkins is an impressionistic oil painter. Subjects vary but all work bridges realism & abstraction. Florals, landscapes, Native American & animals are represented. Galleries in Montana & Stapleton Gallery locally.

Sandstone Gallery, 2913 2nd Avenue North, features local pyrography and mural artist, Rilie Tane Zumbrennen, as well as Sandstone members Teresa Brown, Jennifer Baretta, and Willian Crain.

Sandstone Gallery will also participate in Downtown Billings Chalk on the Walk.

Rilies fine art burnings and burned hats are displayed across the United States and in New Zealand. She has painted many murals for businesses and homes across Montana, the giant bison on the Jakes Downtown building is a shining example. As an artist, she is interested in creating works that allow viewers to relate to the same extent as her involvement in each piece.

Brown discovered her love for art while taking a painting class from a neighbor at 10 years old. She is continually challenging herself and exploring all sorts of mediums as a source for finding her own style and as a way to express herself through her art. She has painting classes locally and several online courses and loves to share her journey and process. Through the use of color, values and vision she brings the subject of her painting to life. She sees art as a way to bring forth a memory or a feeling and her goal is to bring beauty to the world through her creations. She is able to open a window for the viewer to enter and experience the subject as it flows around them. She is inspired by her experiences and the beauty of Montana. Teresa captures the essence of wildlife and nature with the goal to produce an emotional response and a feeling that even in the smallest detail, nothing is taken for granted.

Baretta grew up in Jackson, Wyoming and from an early age she had a knack for creating art. She has a degree in fine arts from U of Wyoming and that is where she found her ability to create pottery. She loves sharing her love of clay with others in her studio and travels far and wide. She is inspired by her surroundings and feels there is a painting in everything she sees.

Crain is our 3rd featured artist. He moved to Billings in mid 2005 to be closer to his daughter and joined Sandstone shortly after arriving. He has been an artist and stone carver for most of his life, owning and showing in Galleries from Jackson, Wyoming to Los Angeles. For Will, art takes place when one applies an inner urge to express ones interpretation of whatever within parameters. He is a direct stone carver, meaning no drawing is necessary and he works with Carrara Marble and alabaster.

Snook Art Company, 2420 2nd Ave. N., will be closed for the August ArtWalk.

Stephen Haraden Studio and Gallery, 2911 2nd Ave. N., STE. 235. Some artists scatter detritus onto canvas then try to convince the public that they have created art. Stephen Haraden works that way.

This House of Books, 116 North 29th Street, hosts local Billings photographer Kristin Logan Mayer for the August ArtWalk. Kristins photography expertly captures the textures of the world around her. Mayer said, My photography is the way I share my deepest self. I am attracted to patterns and textures and hopefully presenting a view that others may not see. Through the support of my family and friends, I am able to share the world through my personal lens.

Stop by This House of Books for conversation, photography, and to pick up a book or two!

Tyler Murphy Studio, 111 N. 30th St., is closed for the August ArtWalk.

Valcana Elupt, 212 N. 29th St., is showcasing the permanent installation of mixed media artist Jon Lodge. Lodges site specific installation at Valcana Elupt emulates the meditative mind fused with technical and chemical process of an elegant salon. Viewers may stop in during business hours and during bi-monthly ArtWalks. Hours are Tuesday and Thursday, 10 a.m.  7 p.m.; Wednesday and Friday, 10 a.m.  6 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m.  5 p.m.; closed Sunday and Monday.

Lodge grew up in Red Lodge, Montana in the 50s and 60s. His visual art relates to his work as a jazz musician and photographer on the east coast in the 60s and 70s. Simple materials such as carbon particles, graphite and gesso form intricate patterns that generate abstractions of nature rather than portraying just how nature looks.

Selected solo exhibitions include the Missoula Art Museum, Missoula, MT, University of Wyoming Art Museum, Laramie, WY, Montana State University Art Museum, Billings, MT, Sun Valley Center for the Arts, Ketchum, ID, Nicolaysen Art Museum, Casper, WY, Paris Gibson Square Museum, Great Falls, MT.

Western Heritage Center, 2822 Montana Ave, please check artwalkbillings.com for more information on happening during the August ArtWalk!

Yellowstone Art Museum (YAM), 410 North 27th Street. hosts their annual Art Auction Exhibition Opening Celebration rom 6-8 p.m. Take a first look at the artworks that will be available for auction during The Night Gala event. Hosted during First Friday and ArtWalk, this celebration will include many artists from the auction itself, as well as festive drinks, food, and music. This event is free and museum admission is always free on First Fridays from 4-8 p.m.
LOS ANGELES  Lizzo said Thursday that she's "not the villain" that three of her former backup dancers falsely accuse her of being in a sexual harassment lawsuit.

The civil lawsuit filed Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court claims Lizzo pressured the dancers to engage with nude performers at a club in Amsterdam and shamed one of them for her weight gain before firing her.

"I am not here to be looked at as a victim, but I also know that I am not the villain that people and the media have portrayed me to be these last few days," Lizzo said in a statement on social media. "I am very open with my sexuality and expressing myself but I cannot accept or allow people to use that openness to make me out to be something I am not."

Plaintiffs Arianna Davis, Crystal Williams and Noelle Rodriguez made numerous allegations including sexual, religious and racial harassment, disability discrimination, assault and false imprisonment. They accuse the Grammy winner and her production company of creating a hostile work environment.

The legal complaint seeks unspecified damages from Melissa Viviane Jefferson, known professionally as Lizzo, her production company Big Grrrl Big Touring Inc. and Shirlene Quigley, captain of the performer's dance team.

"These last few days have been gut wrenchingly difficult and overwhelmingly disappointing. My work ethic, morals and respectfulness have been questioned. My character has been criticized," Lizzo said in the statement. "Usually I choose not to respond to false allegations but these are as unbelievable as they sound and too outrageous to not be addressed."

She said the "sensationalized stories" come from former employees "who have already publicly admitted that they were told their behavior on tour was inappropriate and unprofessional."

The court filing claims that after performing a concert in Amsterdam, Lizzo and her crew attended a sexually themed show at a club in the city's notorious Red Light District where "Lizzo began inviting cast members to take turns touching the nude performers" and led a chant pressuring Davis to touch the breasts of one of the nude women performing at the club.

"Finally, the chorus became overwhelming, and a mortified Ms. Davis acquiesced in an attempt to bring an end to the chants," the complaint states. "Plaintiffs were aghast with how little regard Lizzo showed for the bodily autonomy of her employees and those around her, especially in the presence of many people whom she employed."

Lizzo, who routinely champions body positivity, is also accused of calling out Davis for her weight gain after accusing the dancer of not being committed to her role. Davis was fired in May for recording a meeting during which Lizzo gave out notes to dancers about their performances, according to the complaint.

The 10 most popular musical artists in the world The Weeknd, 111.4 million monthly users Miley Cyrus, 82.4 million Shakira, 81.6 million Ariana Grande, 80.6 million Taylor Swift, 80.2 million Rihanna, 78.5 million Ed Sheeran, 77.5 million Justin Bieber, 74.3 million David Guetta, 71.7 million SZA, 68.7 million
Montanas recent train derailments may have been prevented had the state Legislature beefed up the number of state rail inspectors, a key regulator told state lawmakers this week.

Public Service Commissioner Randy Pinocci reminded legislators on the Energy and Telecommunications Interim Committee that the PSC had requested two additional rail inspectors during the Montana Legislature. It was a request the Montana lawmakers turned down.

Pinocci said railroad bridge inspection was one of the jobs he wants PSC staff to be doing. A Montana Rail Link train plunged into the Yellowstone River near Reed Point on June 24 when a bridge collapsed sending 350,000 to 500,000 pounds of asphalt into the Yellowstone. Most of the sticky, taffy-like asphalt hasnt been recovered.

Just a few months ago, I was in front of the committee saying, please let me inspect bridges, rail and switches. Two months later, we had our worst bridge disaster. This isn't a crystal ball, it's just common sense. Some of our bridges are 100 years old and they're still made out of timber. We're replacing and doing fantastic maintenance on our bridges that we drive on, or ignoring our rail, which has increased in capacity.

Better known as a regulator of monopoly service providers of natural gas and electricity, as well as garbage and taxi service, the PSC is also charged with rail inspection. The commission was originally created in 1907 as a railroad board.

Railroad traffic in Montana has changed significantly in recent years, Pinocci explained to lawmakers. Single cargo unit trains of oil, coal or grain now stretch for more than two miles and weigh more than loads of even 15 years ago, which requires better track performance.

The Federal Rail Administration is still investigating the June 24 wreck into the Yellowstone River, as well as a July 22 BNSF train derailment near Havre.

Sen. Dan Zolnikov, a Billings Republican, happened upon the Have derailment while the wreckage was still emitting dust or smoke. He wanted to know if the PSCs work would have made a difference.

Would your inspectors, or yourself included, found issues like that and fixed them prior to then? Like, I guess, found what caused that issue in past occurrences and fixed it before it actually had a train derailment? Zolnikov said.

Railroad Safety Program Manager Dan Sherwood said the derailment appeared to stem from a track issue, based on a federal investigation. The PSC has two mechanical inspectors. The commission doesnt have jurisdiction over track structure, Sherwood said.

Going forward, if we were allowed to gain the additional (employees) and get track inspectors, then yes, I believe that if these defects would have been identified prior to the derailment, they would have been, the railroads would have been forced to make the repairs prior to the trains going over the track, Sherwood said.

The state rail inspectors are trained to inspect rail cars, not track, said Commissioner Jim Brown.

We have had our inspectors discover problems with railroad cars, namely the wheels before, long before, there was ever an accident that occurs, Brown said. What militates towards, I think, the legislature authorizing three or even more additional FTE for the agency is that the FRA currently has nine inspectors in Montana. However, those inspectors, none of them have exclusive Montana coverage. Typically, they split Montana east to west and includes Wyoming and Alaska or Idaho and Eastern Washington, in their territory.

Last week the National Transportation Safety Board identified worn rail, track misalignment and subgrade instability as the cause of a 2021 fatal Amtrak wreck that killed 3 passengers and injured 49 others on the Montana Hi-Line route owned by BNSF.

Investigators said video from two BNSF trains that passed over the stretch of railroad where the wreck occurred near Chester showed what the problem was. There have been at least six derailments in Montana since the fatal derailment of the Amtrak Empire Builder on Sept. 25, 2021.

Brown told lawmakers the PSC was unanimous in agreement that it would request three railroad personnel in the 2025 legislative session. He suggested ETIC, which oversees the PSC, craft a committee bill to fund the positions.
Last March, I testified before Montanas House Judiciary Committee about the threat posed by TikTok to Montanans. About a month later, Montana became the first state in the nation to ban this digital weapon of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) statewide and created a model for other states to replicate.

There is a broad bipartisan consensus about the danger TikTok poses to Americans. FBI Director Christopher Wray said the Chinese government uses TikTok for influence operations and espionage. Montanas Attorney General Austin Knudsen accurately called TikTok a pernicious spying application.

The threat from TikTok is multifold, but let me emphasize three points.

First, TikTok is owned by a Chinese company called ByteDance, which is controlled by the Chinese government from a legal, structural, governance, and leadership perspective. The CCPs 1% golden share stake in the company effectively gives it control of TikToks algorithm.

Furthermore, all Chinese companies and citizens are bound by Chinas National Intelligence Law. Under this law, they are forced to turn over all dataproprietary or otherwise  to the Chinese government upon request or suffer draconian consequences. TikToks Chinese employees have no choice in the matter.

Second, TikTok is programmed to track your keystrokes to capture personal data, such as your credit card information, drivers license, bank and medical records, passwords, and location. The Chinese government has been caught red-handed using TikTok to track whistleblowers and reporters in attempts to intimidate them.

TikTok also preys on children. The app is disguised as candy, but its really cocaine. In fact, the version of TikTok peddled to American kids is not available in China. Instead, the algorithm of its Chinese version is used for STEM education.

Finally, China uses TikTok as a powerful propaganda and censorship tool to sow discontent and limit your freedom of speech. Just try posting something critical of the CCPs Uyghur genocide or in favor of Taiwanese independence.

During my tenure as under secretary of State, my team built the Clean Network Alliance of Democracies that defeated the CCPs master plan to control 5G. The Clean Network included a number of other efforts  Clean Carrier, Clean Cloud, Clean Cable, Clean Apps, and Clean Store.

The Clean Store approach, adopted by Montana, is focused on removing untrusted apps, including TikTok, from U.S. mobile app stores, because Chinese apps proliferate viruses, spread propaganda, and threaten our national security. Montanas significant military infrastructure and its residents most sensitive personal information must be protected from Americas top foreign adversary.

Here in Montana, you are familiar with the Chinese governments attempts to spy on Americans. We owe the residents of Billings a big thank you for spotting the Chinese surveillance balloon. If the CCP can weaponize a balloon, imagine what it can do with 150 million U.S. TikTok users at its mercy, including hundreds of thousands of Montanans.

President Reagan said, Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.

We live in a world of tyrants determined to bend us to their will. With its TikTok ban, Montana has taken a bold step to protect its citizens from the long reach of Xi Jinping, paving the way for other states to do their part in saving freedom from extinction. Otherwise, as Reagan warned, one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our childrens children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.
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Ann Arbor (Informed Comment)  Yair Wallach in a post at X notes that Jewish Power Party member Amihay Eliyahu proposes that Palestinians be treated by Israel as Puerto Ricans are by the United States. This is a horrible and outrageous idea from the extremist corner of the Israeli far right, which Tamir Pardo, a former head of Israeli intelligence, castigates as the Israeli Ku Klux Klan. Eliyahu is not the only one to propose a Puerto Rico model.

First, let us consider why Eliyahu is not probably very serious in making a parallel between Palestinians and Puerto Ricans.

The United States was founded as a Republic, but like the French Third Republic it has sometimes also had an imperial dimension. Its old empire has either become states, in the Southwest, Alaska and Hawaii, or remains composed of territories, of which there are 16. Puerto Rico is one of the sixteen, though it is typically called a commonwealth.

Puerto Ricans living in Puerto Rico cant vote for national offices like president, senator or congressman. That is the point of the Jewish Power proposal they want to rule over Palestinians but not let them have the vote. But note that Puerto Ricans do vote for a governor of the islands, who serves a four-year term, and a legislature. Again, I doubt Jewish Power would let Palestinians vote for a Palestinian Parliament and Palestinian governor.

Puerto Ricans have United States citizenship and passports. Puerto Ricans, being citizens, can freely move to the mainland USA at will. They can just jump on a plane and rent an apartment anywhere they like. If they do so, they magically gain the right to vote for national offices. Puerto Ricans living in New York or New Jersey or Florida have all the legal voting rights of their American neighbors. Their Puerto Rico drivers license is, or should be, as acceptable as any states. It is only when they are in Puerto Rico that they cant vote for president or Congress.

If Palestinians were actually to be treated like the US treats Puerto Ricans, a Palestinian family from Nablus could just pick up and go live in Tel Aviv if they could afford an apartment there. They could vote in the next election for any party they liked in parliament. They could run for office. You could have a Palestinian Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the Knesset, whose mother was born in Ramallah, say, just as Alexandrias mother Bianca was born in Puerto Rico.

So is Eliyahu proposing that Palestinians should all be given Israeli citizenship? And would they then be able to pick up and move from Gaza and the West Bank to Israel proper? After all, the Puerto Ricans do the exact equivalent. And would Palestinians living in Israel proper get the right to vote for the Knesset or Israeli parliament? Again, that is the Puerto Rican model that Eliyahu says he is invoking.

If you know anything at all about the Puerto Rican model, you know that it would never be adopted in full for Palestinians by the Israeli fascists. The only thing they like about it is the idea of people living under US sovereignty without the right to vote for national office. But the model is much more complex than that and implies all sorts of rights for inhabitants of the territory that the extremist right wing would never actually be willing to proffer the Palestinians.

Article continues after bonus IC video

Middle East Eye: Israeli Army Locks down Hebron City

The other thing to say is that while declaring the Palestinians under Israeli rule as just like Puerto Ricans in America might be a good propaganda ploy for the ears of the US right wing, it is shameful.

Puerto Rico is essentially a colony, and while its 3.2 million inhabitants are American citizens they do not enjoy all the rights enumerated in the constitution, the way they would if they were an incorporated state.

That is shameful. It is shameful that they cant vote for congress or the presidency.

Members of Congress hope to reintroduce legislation that aims to allow a plebiscite in Puerto Rico. They would get to vote on whether they want to become an independent country, or they want to become a state of the US, or whether they want to become a sovereign nation in free association with the US.

Nicole Acevedo at NBC explains the third option: Places such as Micronesia, Palau and the Marshall Islands have a sovereignty with free association with the U.S. These are technically independent nations bound to the U.S. by a treaty governing diplomatic, military and economic relations.

She quotes Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) as saying of the proposed legislation, What we agree on, passionately, is that America ought not to be a colonial power.

So the Jewish Power Party is seeking a status for Palestinians that is not actually analogous to that of Puerto Ricans. And invoking a Puerto Rican model is anyway shameful, and the US congress recognizes the shame and is trying to move to a new and more just model.

Even supporters of Israel like the Biden administration do not try to justify the current situation, in which Palestinians are stateless and without rights and daily under attack by squatter vigilantes. They talk about transitioning to a two-state solution where Palestinians have a state in which they have citizenship.

This Puerto Rico suggestion is just another contemptible propaganda ploy, attempting to find a way to make the deplorable colonization of the Palestinians sound palatable to the outside world. That jig is up.
Middle East Monitor )  Despite US efforts to get Saudi Arabia and Israel to normalise their relations, the process keeps faltering. Israeli officials speak of a long and important list of demands made by the Kingdom to the Americans. Although a normalisation agreement with Saudi Arabia and other countries in the Muslim world will give greater legitimacy to relations with Israel, such an agreement requires the apartheid state to do certain things, according to Israeli political and diplomatic officials.

US President Joe Bidens administration has the ambitious goal to broker such normalisation before the next presidential election campaign. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seems to have set the same goal. He has a clear interest in strengthening relations with Saudi Arabia as it is the major Arab country with special status as the guardian of the Islamic holy places of Makkah and Madinah.

Israel believes that an agreement with the Saudis will give other countries in the Muslim world, such as Indonesia for example, more legitimacy  albeit not absolute  to do likewise. This raises questions about what Saudi Arabia will gain from normalisation, specifically from the US, since relations between the Kingdom and Israel will be different from those with other countries; the process will be slower and with different standards than those seen with the UAE and Bahrain, considering the specific sensitivities of its status in Muslim eyes.

The Saudis are holding talks with the Americans about their demands in return for normalisation. These include US security guarantees; a formal defence agreement between the two countries; a shopping list of advanced US weapons, including the F-35 fighter jet; and US assistance in establishing a civilian nuclear infrastructure that includes the ability to enrich uranium. Tel Aviv does not object to a defence agreement between Washington and Riyadh, claiming that it has an interest in the Kingdoms security and wants to see greater US commitment to building its alliance in the region.





Flags of Israel and Saudi Arabia

However, the Israelis fear that supplying advanced US weapons to Saudi Arabia will weaken their regional military hegemony. A more sensitive issue is Saudi Arabias entry into the nuclear club, which would have serious repercussions on regional nuclear proliferation, even if it is for civilian use and under US supervision; other countries may demand the same thing, such as Egypt and Turkey, for example.

In terms of Saudi Arabias political demands in return for normalisation, they are related to seeing some progress in the Palestinian issue, because it is still central to the Saudis and would give them the cloak of Arab and Islamic legitimacy for its relations with the occupation state. Contrary to what Israel hopes, Riyadh is going to demand practical steps in favour of the Palestinians, but there will be strong opposition from the far-right government in Tel Aviv, especially on matters such as a freeze on illegal settlements and transferring land to Palestinian Authority control.

The latest Netanyahu governments policies towards the Palestinians make it difficult to create favourable conditions for progress in Israeli-Saudi relations. The policies have to change, and excluding neo-fascist ministers would be a good starting point.

While normalisation talks continue, some Israelis are discussing what they believe are external challenges that could boost the process. These include Irans nuclear programme and its accumulation of enriched uranium using advanced centrifuges, plus its development of missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads. Another challenge is Chinas growing position in the region and Americas apparent weakness. Theres also the increasing boldness of Lebanons Hezbollah against Israel to consider. Palestinian developments are also in the equation, not least the ongoing armed resistance in the occupied West Bank with involvement from Hamas, which it intends to intensify.

Behind all of this is the tension between Israel and the Biden administration. Israel is worried about losing US support, which condones the occupation states policies and provides diplomatic protection at the UN, for example. This is happening even as Israels relations with pragmatic Arab countries have cooled, despite their normalisation agreements.

While Israelis claim that normalisation with Saudi Arabia is of common interest to them both, Washingtons positions are not so clear. The US is interested in a breakthrough in Israeli-Saudi relations, but it is reluctant to pay the price that the Kingdom demands. While it may support normalisation, it could focus on extracting benefits for the Palestinians to entice Riyadh, rather than paying with advanced weaponry. If the Biden administration decides to help, or at least not intervene, there is a reasonable opportunity to enhance normalisation, despite the recent rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Israelis believe that even if full public normalisation is not possible, relations with Saudi Arabia are warm enough to ensure the security of the Red Sea, given the transfer of the islands of Tiran and Sanafir from Egypt to the Kingdom, and to deal with what Israel describes as threats from Islamic elements. This not-quite-normalised relationship is mostly carried out through secret channels. If it continues, or even develops but still falls short of full normalisation, Israels position in the region will be boosted without the obligation for the Kingdom, Israel or the United States to pay any problematic price.

Israels calculations on this matter coincide with indications that Saudi Arabia is ready to turn words into action. Riyadh already allows Israeli flights to use Saudi air space, and has invited Jewish American community leaders to visit. The Kingdom also intends to allow Israeli representatives to participate in the UNESCO conference in Riyadh, and plans to develop a land bridge from the UAE through Saudi Arabia so that it can benefit directly from Israeli expertise in fresh water provision, green energy, desertification, cyber defence and medicine.

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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Ronald S. Sullivan Jr., Harvard University | 

What was Donald Trump thinking when he set about trying to maintain the presidency after losing it to Joe Biden?

Thats the key question a jury will need to consider in Trumps federal trial on charges announced Aug. 1, 2023, stemming from Trumps attempts to overthrow the results of the 2020 presidential election.

The latest indictment charges Trump with conspiring to defraud the United States; to obstruct an official government proceeding; and to deprive U.S. citizens of a civil right  namely, to have their vote count.

In a fourth count, Trump is charged with obstructing, or attempting to obstruct, an official proceeding of Congress.

As a criminal law scholar, its my belief that the key to a conviction or acquittal on these counts will be what jurors believe to be Trumps state of mind at the time of these alleged events.

Criminal intent

U.S. criminal law requires that the accused not just engage in an act, but to engage in that act with a guilty mindset. In other words, it is not enough to do something; the accused has to intend to do the thing to merit this charge.

In some statutes, criminal negligence is enough to convict someone of a crime. This means that the person grossly violated some duty of care, even though it may have been unintentional.

At the other end of the spectrum, some statutes require specific intent as the requisite state of mind for someone to be convicted. Specific intent means that the accused intended to cause the particular result that ensued.

With respect to the allegations lodged against Trump, the government must prove that Trump knowingly lied and intended to break the law.

The last count  obstruction of a proceeding of Congress  requires the government to prove corrupt intent, which means the actor intended to do something, and his motivation to do it was unlawful.

In short, the government must prove that Trump intended to obstruct the certification of the Electoral College vote for the purpose of overturning what he knew to be a lawful election.

Consciousness of guilt

The next logical question is how does one determine intent?

Its impossible to look into someones mind to figure out their intent. As a result, the law deploys several tools that allow jurors to infer the intent of an accused, largely from his actions.

Article continues after bonus IC video

MSNBC: Defendant Trump warned at first coup arraignment: Melber breakdown )  ) 

Consciousness of guilt is the leading tool.

Lets say a person is accused of homicide, a charge which requires a specific intent to kill. The defense is that the death was the result of an accident.

The government is allowed to present evidence that shows the accused hid the body, disposed of the gun and tried to create a false alibi. None of these actions are consistent with an accident. Instead, the accuseds actions demonstrate a consciousness of guilt, which allows the jury to infer intent.

Another example may be an accountant who comes into the office at midnight and logs on to a co-workers account to change the ledger of a client. Those actions are not consistent with an innocent accounting error; they demonstrate a consciousness of guilt.

Trumps actions

The same principle holds with the Trump election case as well as the other federal indictment in which Trump is accused of taking classified documents to his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida in violation of federal law.

In late July 2023, for instance, Special Counsel Jack Smith added new charges to the original indictment and alleged that Trump directed two of his employees to delete security camera footage of storage boxes containing classified documents being moved before federal investigators arrived.

That behavior may be used as evidence of Trumps consciousness of guilt and proof of his intent to commit a crime.

In another example, Trump had a conversation in July 2021 at his summer home in Bedminster, N.J., in which he talked about a military document concerning Iran.

In that conversation, which was recorded, Trump said: As president, I could have declassified it. Now I cant, you know, but this is still secret.

As the country contemplates these indictments, its important to remember that federal prosecutors will dissect everything Trump did, said or heard to argue that his behavior indicates that he intended to commit the crimes for which he is charged.

Ronald S. Sullivan Jr., Professor of Law, Harvard University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Revised 2023 All-In Sustaining Cost Guidance to $700-$800 per ounce

VANCOUVER, BC, Aug. 3, 2023 /CNW/ - Orla Mining Ltd. (TSX: OLA) (NYSE: ORLA) ("Orla" or the "Company") today announces the results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2023.

(All amounts expressed in U.S. dollars unless otherwise stated)

Second Quarter 2023 Highlights:

Gold production was 29,058 ounces and gold sold was 29,773 ounces (pre-released, July 12, 2023 ). Year to date gold production is 54,968 ounces. The Company remains on track to meet 2023 annual gold production guidance of 100,000 to 110,000 ounces.





). Year to date gold production is 54,968 ounces. The Company remains on track to meet 2023 annual gold production guidance of 100,000 to 110,000 ounces. All-in sustaining costs ("AISC") 1 of $698 per ounce of gold sold during the second quarter 2023. Year to date AISC is $696 per ounce of gold. AISC guidance for the full year 2023 has been reduced to a range of $700 to $800 per ounce of gold sold from the original guidance of $750 to $850 per ounce.





of per ounce of gold sold during the second quarter 2023. Year to date AISC is per ounce of gold. AISC guidance for the full year 2023 has been reduced to a range of to per ounce of gold sold from the original guidance of to per ounce. Adjusted earnings 1 for the second quarter was $14.0 million or $0.05 per share.





for the second quarter was or per share. Net income for the second quarter was $12.8 million or $0.04 per share which included $7.2 million in expensed exploration and development costs.





or per share which included in expensed exploration and development costs. Cash flow from operating activities before changes in non-cash working capital during the second quarter was $22.4 .





. At June 30, 2023 , the Company had a cash balance of $114.5 million , an increase of $30.7 million during the quarter, and a net debt 1 balance of $20.4 million .





, the Company had a cash balance of , an increase of during the quarter, and a net debt balance of . Advancement of exploration activities across the portfolio which continued to generate strong results, most notably at Camino Rojo where significant results have been returned from infill drilling of the Sulphides mineral resource, on extension of the Sulphides mineralization, and in the regional exploration program where the first visible gold outside of the Camino Rojo deposit was encountered.





During the quarter, Agnico Eagle partially exercised its top-up right for proceeds of C$25 million .

"Orla endeavours to be a predictable and consistent gold producer and cash generator. Camino Rojo's operational performance supports these objectives and we are on target to deliver on our 2023 plan," said Jason Simpson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Orla. "Our exploration efforts also continue to generate positive returns and we remain committed to a systematic approach to unlocking value."

________________________________ 1 Cash cost, AISC, adjusted earnings and net debt are non-GAAP measures. See the "Non-GAAP Measures" section of this news release for additional information.

Financial and Operations Update

Table 1: Financial and Operating Highlights Q2 2023 YTD Q2 2023 Operating Gold Produced oz 29,058 54,968 Gold Sold oz 29,773 56,632 Average Realized Gold Price2 $/oz $1,975 $1,934 Cost of Sales  Operating Cost $M $13.5 $25.3 Cash Cost per Ounce2 $/oz $485 $479 All-in Sustaining Cost per Ounce2 $/oz $698 $696 Financial Revenue $M $59.3 $110.4 Net Income $M $12.8 $26.1 Adjusted Earnings2 $M $14.0 $25.4 Earnings per Share  basic $/sh $0.04 $0.08 Adjusted Earnings per Share  basic2 $/sh $0.05 $0.08 Cash Flow from Operating Activities before Changes in Non-Cash Working Capital $M $22.4 $22.4 Free Cash Flow2 $M $18.5 $12.9 Financial Position June 30, 2023 Dec 31, 2022 Cash and cash equivalents $M $114.5 $96.3 Net debt2 $M $20.4 $49.5

2 Non-GAAP measure. Please see the "Non-GAAP Measures" section of this news release for additional information.

Financial and Operations Summary

Camino Rojo achieved quarterly gold production of 29,058 ounces of gold in the second quarter 2023 with an average ore stacking rate of 19,669 tonnes per day. The average mining rate during the second quarter was 34,583 tonnes per day with a strip ratio of 0.61. The average grade of ore processed during the second quarter was 0.77 g/t gold, in line with plan. Mined ore tonnes continue to reconcile well to the block model and process recoveries to date are in line with the metallurgical recovery model.

Gold sold during the second quarter 2023 totaled 29,773 ounces.

Second quarter cash costs and AISC totaled $485 and $698 per ounce of gold sold, respectively. The lower AISC is mainly attributed to lower waste tonnes mined. The lower waste tonnes mined during the quarter was due to limited access to certain areas of the pit as the Company await permits from the Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (known by its Spanish acronym, "SEMARNAT"). The permitting process in Mexico, including for amendments of existing permits, has become protracted and timing uncertain. The Company does not expect the delay in obtaining the permits to have any impact on 2023 annual production guidance. However, the Company expects waste tonnes to remain below average for the remainder of 2023, resulting in lower mining costs for the year and favorably impacting 2023 AISC.

Sustaining capital during the second quarter of 2023 was $2.1 million. Sustaining capital covered items such as the construction of a dome over the ore stockpile for dust control, the construction of water wells and IT network infrastructure, as well as drilling and evaluation work related to the layback area of approximately $0.7 million.

Exploration Update

In the second quarter, $10.5 million was spent in exploration ($7.2 million expensed and $3.3 million capitalized) with a focus on drilling near-mine Sulphides and regional targets at Camino Rojo in Mexico and regional targets in Panama.

Camino Rojo Exploration Update (Mexico)

Orla's 2023 Camino Rojo exploration program consists of three projects with a total budget of $22 million. Approximately 50% of the planned 34,000 metres of drilling on the Sulphides has been completed and is intended to advance the understanding of the deposit. The intention of the layback oxide extension (the "Layback Program") is to confirm and delineate mineralization located in the oxide pit layback and allow for an update of mineral resource and reserve estimates planned in late 2023. The Layback Program, consisting of approximately 3,000 metres in 24 drillholes, was completed in late May and assay results are pending. The regional exploration drill program is testing priority regional targets in an effort to make new satellite discoveries. Approximately 40% of the planned 20,000 metres regional drilling program has been completed to date.

Drill results at Camino Rojo Sulphides continue to support potential for underground development

Drilling continues to intercept wide zones (>15m down-hole drill intersections) of higher-grade gold mineralization (>2g/t Au), and in conjunction with metallurgical results from the 2021 drilling (see news release dated May 9, 2022), supports the potential for underground development and a standalone processing option for the Camino Rojo Sulphides. Assay results from 11 of the planned 57 holes completed in 2023 have returned 17 significant mineralized drill intercepts with a grade-by-thickness factor greater than 50 g/t gold by metre (g/t * m), including five intercepts with grade-by-thickness factor greater than 100 g/t gold by metre. See the Company's news release dated June 22, 2023, and full drill results are available at www.orlamining.com. Notable results include[3]:

Camino Rojo Sulphides Hole CRSX22-11 : 2.87 g/t Au over 93.0 m incl. 3.69 g/t Au over 48.5 m Hole CRSX22-12A : 3.26 g/t Au over 56.9 m Hole CRSX22-13 : 3.11 g/t Au over 34.0 m incl. 10.29 g/t Au over 5.6 m Hole CRSX22-13 : 2.12 g/t Au over 43.0m incl. 2.78 g/t Au over 26.0 m Hole CRSX23-14 : 2.00 g/t Au over 38.5 m Hole CRSX23-14A : 1.89 g/t Au over 63.0 m incl. 2.75 g/t Au over 31.5 m Hole CRSX23-16A : 1.62 g/t Au over 62.6 m incl. 7.72 g/t Au over 6.0 m Hole CRSX23-17A 3.18 g/t Au over 24.5 m Hole CRSX23-17A 4.18 g/t Au over 12.0 m incl. 23.7 g/t Au over 1.5m Hole CRSX23-17C : 3.16 g/t Au over 29.0 m Hole CRSX23-17C : 3.05 g/t Au over 42.0 m

New style of mineralization including high grade gold and zinc intersections continue to support potential for extension of Camino Rojo Sulphides

A new style of polymetallic (Au-Ag-Zn) semi-massive to massive sulphide mineralization has been confirmed in drill holes testing below the Caracol Formation hosted Sulphides. These intercepts indicate mineralization remains open at depth along and adjacent to interpreted feeder-like structures for the currently defined Camino Rojo deposit. Approximately 20% of the 2023 sulphide drill program is planned to be extended, beyond the boundaries of the current open pit resource estimate, to test the down plunge continuity of gold mineralization along the steep northwest dipping Dike Structural Zone.

Additional drilling in the Camino Rojo Sulphide Extension target area through the remainder of 2023 will seek to continue defining the extent and grade of this style of mineralization down-plunge of the Camino Rojo deposit. Notable results include3:

Camino Rojo Sulphides Extension Hole CRSX23-15C: 5.90 g/t AuEq over 8.5 m (3.52 g/t Au, 26.2 g/t Ag, 3.64% Zn, 0.26% Cu) Hole CRSX23-15C: 7.28 g/t AuEq over 3.3 m (4.54 g/t Au, 6.7 g/t Ag, 5.49% Zn, 0.06% Cu), incl. 8.00 g/t Au, 7.6g/t Ag, 12.5% Zn, 0.11% Cu over 1.2m) Hole CRSX23-15C: 17.6 g/t AuEq over 1.5 m (15.4 g/t Au, 6.7 g/t Ag, 4.39% Zn, 0.04% Cu)

Near mine layback drilling seeking to confirm mineralization with targeted mineral resource addition

The Company began drilling in the oxide pit layback in late April to confirm and delineate mineralization on the Fresnillo Plc ("Fresnillo") property, located immediately north of and adjacent to the Camino Rojo Oxide Mine open pit. While historical drilling indicates that mineralization continues across the property boundary onto the Fresnillo layback area, no ounces from this area are currently included in the Camino Rojo mineral resource and mineral reserve estimate. The Layback Program, consisting of approximately 3,000 metres in 24 drillholes, was completed in late May. Results of the Layback Program will be included in an update of mineral resource and mineral reserve estimate planned in late 2023. Assay results are pending.

Early Camino Rojo regional exploration drilling with positive showings

Follow-up drilling at the Guanamero target area, located approximately 7 km northeast of the Camino Rojo mine along the mine structural trend, returned encouraging and narrow high-grade gold results with occurrences of visible gold (VG) in two of the seven holes completed. Notable assay results include3:

Camino Rojo Regional Exploration (Guanamero) Hole CRED23-05: 0.69 g/t Au over 10.5 m incl. 4.02 g/t Au over 1.5 m (visible gold) Hole CRED23-05: 0.94 g/t Au over 3.3 m incl. 1.08 g/t Au over 1.7 m Hole CRED23-06: 61.2 g/t Au over 1.3 m (visible gold) Hole CRED23-06: 2.72 g/t Au over 1.5 m

Results from this most recent drilling at Guanamero suggest gold mineralization extends and plunges moderately to the southwest, similar to the plunge of mineralization at the Camino Rojo deposit. Additional follow-up drilling to test the southwest plunge of mineralization at Guanamero is planned for 2023, along with drilling at other regional targets.

For additional detail, please see the news release dated June 22, 2023, Orla Mining Provides Update On Successful Drilling Program In Mexico.

South Railroad Project and Exploration Update (Nevada, US)

Drilling at South Railroad began late in the second quarter and assay results are pending. The exploration objectives are to upgrade and grow resources at satellite deposits and drill test multiple targets for new discovery. For additional detail, please see the news release dated February 8, 2023, Orla Mining Drills Significant Gold Intersections at Multiple Oxide Targets upon Reactivation of Exploration at South Railroad Project, Nevada.

The Company is expecting the Bureau of Land Management ("BLM") to file the Notice of Intent for South Railroad in the Federal Register in late 2023 or early 2024. Once the Notice of Intent is filed, public scoping meetings can commence in conjunction with the development of the Environmental Impact Statement ("EIS"). The Company has engaged SWCA Environmental Consultants to manage the EIS process on behalf of the BLM as per the prescribed process. The Company anticipates awarding the Engineering, Procurement & Construction Management contract for the South Railroad Project once the Notice of Intent has been filed. Detailed engineering and design work could then commence in preparation for a construction decision following the conclusion of the National Environmental Policy Act process and receipt of the Record of Decision document.

Cerro Quema Exploration and Project Update (Panama)

The 2023 exploration program followed-up on encouraging results generated at regional targets in 2022. Exploration drilling at Cerro Quema for the 2023 exploration program was completed in the first half of 2023. Drilling was focused at La Pelona target where low grade (0.3 g/t Au) near surface oxide mineralization had been intersected. Results are currently being interpreted.

The mine environmental permitting process for the Cerro Quema Project has been ongoing and in May, Orla received the resolution approving the Category 3 Environmental & Social Impact Assessment ("ESIA") and has commenced the preparation of reports and data collection to fulfill the requirements established by the resolution. This approval came after the technical aspects of the ESIA were approved in 2021.

The original 20-year term for the mining exploitation concessions for Cerro Quema expired in 2017 and the Company has applied for the prescribed 10-year extension to these contracts as it is entitled to under Panamanian mineral law. In 2021, the extension of the exploitation contracts was signed by both Ministry of Commerce and Industry ("MICI") and by Orla. As of the date of this release, the documents are in the final review and approval stage. The final step in the process requires the publication of the resolution in the official Gazette  this process is pending. Upon receipt of mining concession renewals, the Company can contemplate a construction decision for the Cerro Quema Project.

Guidance Update

The Company is revising its AISC guidance for 2023, reducing the range to $700 to $800 per ounce of gold sold from its original guidance of $750 to $850 per ounce. The reduced cost guidance is mainly driven by lower waste tonnes mined during the first half of 2023 which is expected to continue for the remainder of the year due to limited access to certain areas of the pit as the Company await permits from SEMARNAT. This has resulted in lower than planned strip ratio and directly reducing the Company's expected mining cost for 2023.

The Company remains on track to achieve its gold production guidance of 100,000 to 110,000 ounces for 2023.

Agnico-Eagle Exercises Top-Up Right

As announced on May 11, 2023, Agnico Eagle partially exercised its top-up right and subscribed for 3,987,241 common shares of the Company (the "Common Shares") at a price of C$6.27 per Common Share, for total gross proceeds of C$25 million.

Financial Statements

Orla's unaudited financial statements and management's discussion and analysis for the quarter ended June 30, 2023, will be available on the Company's website at www.orlamining.com, and under the Company's profiles on SEDAR+ and EDGAR.

Qualified Persons Statement

The scientific and technical information in this news release was reviewed and approved by Mr. J. Andrew Cormier, P. Eng., Chief Operating Officer of the Company, and Mr. Sylvain Guerard, P. Geo., Senior Vice President, Exploration of the Company, who are the Qualified Persons as defined under NI 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

Second Quarter 2023 Conference Call

Orla will host a conference call on Friday, August 4, 2023, at 10:00 AM, Eastern Time, to provide a corporate update following the release of its financial and operating results for the second quarter 2023:

Dial-In Numbers / Webcast:

Conference ID: 5844017

Toll Free: 1 (888) 550-5302

Toll: 1 (646) 960-0685

Webcast: https://orlamining.com/investors/presentations-and-events/

About Orla Mining Ltd.

Orla's corporate strategy is to acquire, develop, and operate mineral properties where the Company's expertise can substantially increase stakeholder value. The Company has three material gold projects: (1) Camino Rojo, located in Zacatecas State, Mexico, (2) South Railroad, located in Nevada, United States, and (3) Cerro Quema, located in Los Santos Province, Panama. Orla is operating the Camino Rojo Oxide Gold Mine, a gold and silver open-pit and heap leach mine. The property is 100% owned by Orla and covers over 160,000 hectares which contains a large oxide and sulphide mineral resource. Orla also owns 100% of the South Railroad Project, a feasibility-stage, open pit, heap leach gold project located on the Carlin trend in Nevada. Orla also owns 100% of Cerro Quema located in Panama which includes a pre-feasibility-stage, open-pit, heap leach gold project, a copper-gold sulphide resource, and various exploration targets. The technical reports for the Company's material projects are available on Orla's website at www.orlamining.com, and on SEDAR+ and EDGAR under the Company's profile at www.sedarplus.ca and www.sec.gov, respectively.

Non-GAAP Measures

The Company has included certain performance measures in this news release which are not specified, defined, or determined under generally accepted accounting principles (in the Company's case, International Financial Reporting Standards ("IFRS"")). These are common performance measures in the gold mining industry, but because they do not have any mandated standardized definitions, they may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other issuers. Accordingly, the Company uses such measures to provide additional information and you should not consider them in isolation or as a substitute for measures of performance prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles ("GAAP"). In this section, all currency figures in tables are in thousands, except per-share and per-ounce amounts.

Average Realized Gold Price

Average realized gold price per ounce sold is calculated by dividing gold sales proceeds received by the Company for the relevant period by the ounces of gold sold. The Company believes the measure is useful in understanding the gold price realized by the Company throughout the period.

AVERAGE REALIZED GOLD PRICE Q2 2023 Q2 2022 YTD Q2 2023 YTD Q2 2022 Revenue $ 59,272 $ 47,797 $ 110,403 $ 87,442 Silver sales (475) (197) (899) (416) Gold sales 58,797 47,600 109,504 87,026 Ounces of gold sold 29,773 25,431 56,632 46,315 AVERAGE REALIZED GOLD PRICE $ 1,975 $ 1,872 $ 1,934 $ 1,879

Net Debt

Net debt is calculated as total debt adjusted for unamortized deferred financing charges less cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments at the end of the reporting period. This measure is used by management to measure the Company's debt leverage. The Company believes that in addition to conventional measures prepared in accordance with IFRS, net debt is useful to evaluate the Company's leverage and is also a key metric in determining the cost of debt.

NET DEBT June 30, 2023 Dec 31, 2022 Current portion of long term debt $ 45,000 $ 45,000 Long term debt 89,958 100,795 Less: Cash and cash equivalents (114,530) (96,278) NET DEBT $ 20,428 $ 49,517

Adjusted Earnings (Loss) and Adjusted Earnings (Loss) per share

Adjusted earnings (loss) excludes deferred taxes, unrealized foreign exchange, changes in fair values of financial instruments, impairments and reversals due to net realizable values, restructuring and severance, and other items which are significant but not reflective of the underlying operational performance of the Company. The Company believes these measures are useful to market participants because they are important indicators of the strength of operations and the performance of the core business.

ADJUSTED EARNINGS Q2 2023 Q2 2022 YTD Q2 2023 YTD Q2 2022 Net income (loss) for the period $ 12,827 $ (597) $ 26,062 $ 18,185 Unrealized foreign exchange 1,097 (1,634) (706) (621) Share based compensation related to PSUs 92  92  Loss on early settlement of project loan  13,219  13,219 ADJUSTED EARNINGS (LOSS) $ 14,016 $ 10,988 $ 25,448 $ 30,783 Millions of shares outstanding  basic 311.2 253.3 308.8 250.6 Adjusted earnings per share  basic $ 0.05 $ 0.04 $ 0.08 $ 0.12

Companies may choose to expense or capitalize their exploration expenditures. The Company generally expenses exploration costs based on our accounting policy. To assist the reader in comparing against those companies which capitalize their exploration costs, please note that included within Orla's net income (loss) for each period are exploration costs which were expensed, as follows:

Q2 2023 Q2 2022 YTD Q2 2023 YTD Q2 2022 Exploration & evaluation expense $ 7,201 $ 2,541 $ 14,067 $ 5,007

Free Cash Flow

The Company believes market participants use Free Cash Flow to evaluate the Company's operating cash flow capacity to meet non-discretionary outflows of cash. Free Cash Flow is not meant to be a substitute for the cash flow information presented in accordance with IFRS. Free Cash Flow is calculated as the sum of cash flow from operating activities and cash flow from investing activities, excluding certain unusual transactions.

FREE CASH FLOW Q2 2023 Q2 2022 YTD Q2 2023 YTD Q2 2022 Cash flow from operating activities $ 23,296 $ 19,936 $ 18,374 $ 40,429 Cash flow from investing activities (4,844) 8,789 (5,436) 4,638 FREE CASH FLOW $ 18,452 $ 28,725 $ 12,938 $ 45,067 Millions of shares outstanding  basic 311.2 253.3 308.8 250.6 Free cash flow per share  basic $ 0.06 $ 0.11 $ 0.04 $ 0.18

Cash Costs and All-In Sustaining Costs

The Company calculates cash cost per ounce by dividing the sum of operating costs and royalty costs, net of by-product silver credits, by ounces of gold sold. Management believes that this measure is useful to market participants in assessing operating performance.

The Company has provided an AISC performance measure that reflects all the expenditures that are required to produce an ounce of gold from operations. While there is no standardized meaning of the measure across the industry, the Company's definition conforms to the all-in sustaining cost definition as set out by the World Gold Council in its guidance dated November 14, 2018. Orla believes that this measure is useful to market participants in assessing operating performance and the Company's ability to generate free cash flow from current operations.

Figures are presented only from April 1, 2022, as the Camino Rojo Oxide Gold Mine commenced commercial production on that date.

CASH COST Q2 2023 Q2 2022 YTD Q2 2023 YTD Q2 2022 Cost of sales  operating costs $ 13,458 $ 10,776 $ 25,250 $ 10,776 Related to previous quarter  (503)  (503) Royalties 1,448 1,099 2,754 1,099 Silver sales (475) (197) (899) (197) CASH COST $ 14,431 $ 11,175 $ 27,105 $ 11,175 Ounces sold 29,773 25,431 56,632 25,431 Cash cost per ounce sold $ 485 $ 439 $ 479 $ 439

ALL-IN SUSTAINING COST Q2 2023 Q2 2022 YTD Q2 2023 YTD Q2 2022 Cash cost, as above $ 14,431 $ 11,175 $ 27,105 $ 11,175 General and administrative expenses 3,107 2,551 6,372 2,551 Share based payments 620 538 1,727 538 Accretion of site closure provisions 113 117 257 117 Amortization of site closure provisions 136 119 261 119 Sustaining capital 1,443 658 2,588 658 Sustaining capitalized exploration expenses 696  696  Lease payments 222 123 384 123 ALL-IN SUSTAINING COST $ 20,768 $ 15,281 $ 39,390 $ 15,281 Ounces sold 29,773 25,431 56,632 25,431 All-in sustaining cost per ounce sold $ 698 $ 601 $ 696 $ 601

Forward-looking Statements

This news release contains certain "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation and within the meaning of Section 27A of the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, Section 21E of the United States Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, or in releases made by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, all as may be amended from time to time, including, without limitation, statements regarding the Company's 2023 guidance, including production and AISC; the Company's exploration program, including timing, expenditures and the goals and results thereof, the potential extension of the Camino Rojo Sulphides and potential mineralization at Guanamero; the timing of mineral resource and reserve updates; and the timing of the BLM filing the Notice of Intent for South Railroad. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts which address events, results, outcomes or developments that the Company expects to occur. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made and they involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Certain material assumptions regarding such forward-looking statements were made, including without limitation, assumptions regarding: the future price of gold, silver, and copper; anticipated costs and the Company's ability to fund its programs; the Company's ability to carry on exploration, development, and mining activities; tonnage of ore to be mined and processed; ore grades and recoveries; decommissioning and reclamation estimates; the Company's ability to secure and to meet obligations under property agreements, including the layback agreement with Fresnillo plc; that all conditions of the Company's credit facility will be met; the timing and results of drilling programs; mineral reserve and mineral resource estimates and the assumptions on which they are based; the discovery of mineral resources and mineral reserves on the Company's mineral properties; that political and legal developments will be consistent with current expectations; the timely receipt of required approvals and permits, including those approvals and permits required for successful project permitting, construction, and operation of projects; the timing of cash flows; the costs of operating and exploration expenditures; the Company's ability to operate in a safe, efficient, and effective manner; the Company's ability to obtain financing as and when required and on reasonable terms; the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Company's operations; that the Company's activities will be in accordance with the Company's public statements and stated goals; and that there will be no material adverse change or disruptions affecting the Company or its properties. Consequently, there can be no assurances that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Forward-looking statements involve significant known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. These risks include, but are not limited to: uncertainty and variations in the estimation of mineral resources and mineral reserves; the Company's dependence on the Camino Rojo oxide mine; risks related to the Company's indebtedness; risks related to exploration, development, and operation activities; risks related to natural disasters, terrorist acts, health crises, and other disruptions and dislocations, including the COVID-19 pandemic; foreign country and political risks, including risks relating to foreign operations and expropriation or nationalization of mining operations; concession risks at the Cerro Quema project; delays in obtaining or failure to obtain governmental permits, or non-compliance with permits; environmental and other regulatory requirements; delays in or failures to enter into a subsequent agreement with Fresnillo plc with respect to accessing certain additional portions of the mineral resource at the Camino Rojo project and to obtain the necessary regulatory approvals related thereto; the mineral resource estimations for the Camino Rojo project being only estimates and relying on certain assumptions; loss of, delays in, or failure to get access from surface rights owners; uncertainties related to title to mineral properties; water rights; financing risks and access to additional capital; risks related to guidance estimates and uncertainties inherent in the preparation of feasibility and pre-feasibility studies; uncertainty in estimates of production, capital, and operating costs and potential production and cost overruns; the fluctuating price of gold, silver, and copper; unknown labilities in connection with acquisitions; global financial conditions; uninsured risks; climate change risks; competition from other companies and individuals; conflicts of interest; risks related to compliance with anti-corruption laws; volatility in the market price of the Company's securities; assessments by taxation authorities in multiple jurisdictions; foreign currency fluctuations; the Company's limited operating history; litigation risks; the Company's ability to identify, complete, and successfully integrate acquisitions; intervention by non-governmental organizations; outside contractor risks; risks related to historical data; the Company not having paid a dividend; risks related to the Company's foreign subsidiaries; risks related to the Company's accounting policies and internal controls; the Company's ability to satisfy the requirements of Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002; enforcement of civil liabilities; the Company's status as a passive foreign investment company for U.S. federal income tax purposes; information and cyber security; gold industry concentration; shareholder activism; and risks associated with executing the Company's objectives and strategies; as well as those risk factors discussed in the Company's most recently filed management's discussion and analysis, as well as its annual information form dated March 20, 2023, which are available on www.sedarplus.ca and www.sec.gov. Except as required by the securities disclosure laws and regulations applicable to the Company, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements if management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change.

Cautionary Note to U.S. Readers

This news release has been prepared in accordance with Canadian standards for the reporting of mineral resource and mineral reserve estimates, which differ from the previous and current standards of the United States securities laws. In particular, and without limiting the generality of the foregoing, the terms "mineral reserve", "proven mineral reserve", "probable mineral reserve", "inferred mineral resources", "indicated mineral resources", "measured mineral resources" and "mineral resources" used or referenced in this news release are Canadian mineral disclosure terms as defined in accordance with Canadian National Instrument 43-101  Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101") and the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (the "CIM")  CIM Definition Standards on Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves, adopted by the CIM Council, as amended (the "CIM Definition Standards").

For United States reporting purposes, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") has adopted amendments to its disclosure rules (the "SEC Modernization Rules") to modernize the mining property disclosure requirements for issuers whose securities are registered with the SEC under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. The SEC Modernization Rules more closely align the SEC's disclosure requirements and policies for mining properties with current industry and global regulatory practices and standards, including NI 43-101, and replace the historical property disclosure requirements for mining registrants that were included in Industry Guide 7 under the U.S. Securities Act. As a foreign private issuer that is eligible to file reports with the SEC pursuant to the multijurisdictional disclosure system, the Company is not required to provide disclosure on its mineral properties under the SEC Modernization Rules and provides disclosure under NI 43-101 and the CIM Definition Standards. Accordingly, mineral reserve and mineral resource information contained in this news release may not be comparable to similar information disclosed by United States companies.

As a result of the adoption of the SEC Modernization Rules, the SEC now recognizes estimates of "measured mineral resources", "indicated mineral resources" and "inferred mineral resources." In addition, the SEC has amended its definitions of "proven mineral reserves" and "probable mineral reserves" to be "substantially similar" to the corresponding CIM Definition Standards that are required under NI 43-101. While the above terms are "substantially similar" to CIM Definition Standards, there are differences in the definitions under the SEC Modernization Rules and the CIM Definition Standards. There is no assurance any mineral reserves or mineral resources that the Company may report as "proven mineral reserves", "probable mineral reserves", "measured mineral resources", "indicated mineral resources" and "inferred mineral resources" under NI 43-101 would be the same had the Company prepared the reserve or resource estimates under the standards adopted under the SEC Modernization Rules or under the prior standards of Industry Guide 7. Accordingly, information contained in this news release may not be comparable to similar information made public by U.S. companies subject to the reporting and disclosure requirements under the United States federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder.
Calgary, Alberta, Aug. 04, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Volt Lithium Corp. (TSXV: VLT) ("Volt" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has successfully raised $6.8 million under its previously announced financing (the Offering).

Details of the Offering

The Offering was undertaken on a best efforts agency basis led by Canaccord Genuity Corp. and including Paradigm Capital Inc. (collectively, the Agents) pursuant to the terms and conditions of an amended and restated agency agreement dated August 4, 2023 (the Agency Agreement) entered into between the Company and the Agents. Volt was also advised on the Offering by 3L Capital Inc.

Under the public offering, Volt issued 14,956,590 units ("HD Units") at a price of $0.22 per HD Unit and 11,262,500 flow-through units ("FT Units") at a price of $0.24 per FT Unit and, raising gross proceeds of approximately $6 million. Concurrent with the closing of the Offering, certain subscribers purchased a total of 266,666 FT Units at an offering price of $0.24 per FT Unit and 3,287,931 HD Units at an offering price of $0.22 per HD Unit on a private placement basis, raising gross proceeds of approximately $787,345 (the Concurrent Private Placement). The HD Units and FT Units issued pursuant to the Concurrent Private Placement are subject to a four month hold period expiring on December 5, 2023. Through both the Offering and Concurrent Private Placement, Volt raised gross proceeds of approximately $6.8 million.

The Company also granted the Agents an option (the Over-Allotment Option), exercisable in whole or in part, to purchase up to an additional 4,090,909 HD Units for a period of 30 days from and including the date hereof to cover over-allotments, if any, and for market stabilization purposes. Should the Over-Allotment Option be exercised in full, the aggregate gross proceeds of the Offering would be increased by $900,000.

The public offering was completed pursuant to the prospectus supplement of Volt dated July 27, 2023 (the Prospectus Supplement) to the (final) short form base shelf prospectus of Volt dated July 20, 2023.

Pursuant to the Agency Agreement, all of the directors and officers of Volt have entered into lock-up agreements with the Agents for a period of 90 days from the date hereof prohibiting their disposition of securities of the Company, subject to certain customary exceptions.

In connection with the Offering and the Concurrent Private Placement, the Company paid to the Agents and any other syndicate members a cash commission of $346,848, which was equal to 6.0% of the gross proceeds from the Offering, and issued an aggregate of 1,515,946 broker warrants, equal to 6.0% of the number of Units sold pursuant to the Offering, subject to a reduction to 3.0% cash commission and 3.0% broker warrants for up to $2,000,000 of Units sold to purchasers under the presidents list of the Offering and in respect of all Units sold under the Concurrent Private Placement. Each broker warrant is exercisable for one HD Unit at the offering price of the HD Units for a period of 24 months following the date hereof.

Each FT Unit consists of one common share in the capital of the Company (each, a Common Share) and one-half of one Common Share purchase warrant (each whole warrant, a Warrant), with the FT Units qualifying as flow-through shares within the meaning of subsection 66(15) of the Income Tax Act (Canada) (the Tax Act, which shall include such amendments or specific proposals publicly announced by or on behalf of the Minister of Finance (including those contemplated in the Federal Budget released by the Minister of Finance on March 28, 2023)), and each HD Unit will consist of one Common Share and one-half of one Warrant (the HD Units will be issued without the benefit of any flow-through tax consequences). Each Warrant entitles the holder to purchase one Common Share at an exercise price of $0.33 for 24 months following the date hereof.

Use of Proceeds

The net proceeds of the sale of the HD Units will be used to continue to develop its direct lithium extraction technology to improve operating efficiencies following its successful pilot operations; to complete the build-out of its permanent pilot to test Volts technologies in real-time; to fund the Companys preliminary economic assessment on its Rainbow Lake lithium from brine project; for continued exploration of Volts mineral properties; and for general corporate purposes. The gross proceeds of the sale of the FT Units will be used to incur Canadian Exploration Expenses that will be flow-through critical mineral mining expenditures (as such terms are defined in the Tax Act) on the Companys mineral properties.

Other Details

The securities offered 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 U.S. state securities laws and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an available exemption from the registration requirement of the U.S. Securities Act and applicable U.S. state securities laws. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities, in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

About Volt

Volt is a lithium development and technology company aiming to be North Americas first commercial producer of LHM and lithium carbonates from oilfield brine. Our strategy is to generate value for shareholders by leveraging managements hydrocarbon experience and existing infrastructure to extract lithium deposits from existing wells, thereby reducing capital costs, lowering risks and supporting the worlds clean energy transition. With four differentiating pillars, and a proprietary Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) technology, Volts innovative approach to development is focused on allowing the highest lithium recoveries with lowest costs, positioning us well for future commercialization. We are committed to operating efficiently and with transparency across all areas of the business staying sharply focused on creating long-term, sustainable shareholder value. Investors and/or other interested parties may sign up for updates about the Companys continued progress on its website: https://voltlithium.com/.

Contact Information

For Investor Relations inquiries or further information, please contact:

Alex Wylie, President & CEO

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

M: +1.403.830.5811

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release includes certain forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. When used in this news release, the words anticipate, believe, estimate, expect, target, plan, forecast, may, would, could, schedule and similar words or expressions, identify forward-looking statements or information. Statements, other than statements of historical fact, may constitute forward looking information and include, without limitation, statements about the qualification of the FT Units as flow-through shares under the Tax Act, which is subject to the risks set out in the Prospectus Supplement; the use of proceeds from the Offering and the Concurrent Private Placement; the ability of the Company to incur qualified Canadian Exploration Expenses with the gross proceeds of the sale of the FT Units; the conduct of the Companys preliminary economic assessment for the Rainbow Lake project; the Companys continued exploration of its mineral properties; and general business and economic conditions. With respect to the forward-looking information contained in this news release, the Company has made numerous assumptions. While the Company considers these assumptions to be reasonable, these assumptions are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and contingencies and may prove to be incorrect. Additionally, there are known and unknown risk factors which could cause the Companys actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information contained herein including those known risk factors outlined in the Companys amended and restated annual information form and the Shelf. All forward-looking information herein is qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement, and the Company disclaims any obligation to revise or update any such forward-looking information or to publicly announce the result of any revisions to any of the forward-looking information contained herein to reflect future results, events or developments, except as required by law.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.
This year, we celebrate the U.S. Small Business Administrations (SBA) 70th anniversary and recognize the tremendous work the agency does to power the American dream of entrepreneurship. For 70 years, the SBA has empowered entrepreneurs across Montana with the resources and support they need to start and grow their businesses. The SBA is a Cabinet-level agency that ensures the interests of small businesses are represented in Congress and the Oval Office, and is the only independent voice of small business, backed by the collective power and resources of the federal government.

SBAs creation was largely a response to the pressures of the Great Depression and World War II. The agency got its formal start on July 30, 1953, after President Dwight Eisenhower signed the Small Business Act into law creating the SBA. From its inception, the SBAs mission was to "aid, counsel, assist and protect, insofar as is possible, the interests of small business concerns." It was also charged with ensuring that small businesses earn a "fair proportion" of government contracts and sales of surplus property.

In Montana, the SBA has a rich and long history of supporting thousands of businesses with capital, business training, federal contract support, and/or disaster assistance.

The Biden-Harris administration put small business at the forefront of their historic Investing in America agenda which includes modernizing SBA programs and resources, expanding networks, and increasing access to capital and contracting so more entrepreneurs can benefit from our national investments in infrastructure and green energy spending. Over the last 30 months, the SBA has fostered a remarkable small business boom, pivoting from delivering pandemic aid to launching innovative initiatives that advance its equity plan, and expand access to capital for entrepreneurs in underserved and historically marginalized communities.

The agencys equity plan establishes a goal to improve access to capital for underserved communities  including businesses owned by women, minorities, veterans, and those in rural communities; expand access to federal procurement and contracting opportunities; provide support and expanded access to disaster assistance; and increase access to business counseling, training, and services to businesses in communities needing a boost. The agency is well on its way to accomplishing these goals to create a more equitable and sustainable economy supported by Americas small businesses.

For seven decades, the agency has linked entrepreneurs to the funding, counseling, and mentorship they need to succeed. It has also connected small firms to opportunities for federal contracts and remains ready to provide low-interest loans to businesses and homeowners affected by declared disasters. Since 1953, SBA approved an estimated $2 trillion in non-disaster related small business lending and assisted nearly three million entrepreneurs through training and counseling. During the pandemic, the SBA dispersed over $1.3 trillion in disaster economic aid to 13 million businesses nationwide.

Small businesses are the innovators and job creators in our communities. They employ half our nations workforce and create two thirds of all net new jobs in the private sector. These businesses give neighborhoods their character, sponsor our Little League teams, and place ads in the local high school yearbook. And in times of trouble or tragedy, its often our small business owners that step up to meet the needs of their neighbors. Today, we celebrate the SBAs 70th anniversary and reflect on the agencys mission and seven-decade legacy of powering the American Dream. Happy birthday SBA!
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - August 3, 2023) - Tudor Gold Corp. (TSXV: TUD) (FSE: H56) (the "Company" or "Tudor Gold") is pleased to announce the appointment of Daniel Le Dressay as a director of the Company.

Mr. Le Dressay is a lawyer with 38 years of experience as a Barrister conducting trials and appeals, and he has a law practice in Vancouver, British Columbia. He is a graduate of the University of Regina, Bachelor of Arts Honours (with High Honours), and Master of Arts (1981). Mr. Le Dressay graduated from the University of Saskatchewan, Bachelor of Laws (with distinction) in 1984 and was admitted to the Law Society of British Columbia in 1985, and to the State Bar of Arizona in 2004. He was a college instructor at Langara College in Vancouver, B.C. from 2006 to 2015 teaching Business Law and International Law. He is a member of the Canadian Bar Association and the American Bar Association.

Ken Konkin, President and CEO, states, "Dan's extensive background in securities law, capital markets, and the mining and exploration sector is a valuable asset that we eagerly anticipate utilizing as we advance our Treaty Creek gold and copper project. Our association with Dan spans several years, during which we have collaborated closely, and we are keen to tap into his insights at the board level. I look forward to Daniel's future involvements as he brings a unique facet of expertise that aligns seamlessly with our current board. His knowledge in legal matters, permitting processes, and compliance intricacies enriches our collective understanding of the business landscape, and we look forward to the insight he will contribute to our endeavors."

The Company also announces the resignation of Natalie Senger as a director of the Company to focus on her current role as VP of Resource Development of Tudor Gold.

Ken Konkin comments, "Speaking on behalf of the Board of Directors, I wish to thank Natalie for her dedicated commitment and valuable contributions during her tenure on the Board. I look forward to continuing our ongoing collaboration and the opportunity to harness her extensive wealth of knowledge and experience. I am confident her industry experience and expertise will undoubtedly prove invaluable not only in enhancing the technical aspects of the Treaty Creek Project but also as a very important member of our Management Team."

About Tudor Gold

TUDOR GOLD CORP. is a precious and base metals exploration and development company with claims in British Columbia's Golden Triangle (Canada), an area that hosts producing and past-producing mines and several large deposits that are approaching potential development. The 17,913 hectare Treaty Creek project (in which TUDOR GOLD has a 60% interest) borders Seabridge Gold Inc.'s KSM property to the southwest and borders Newmont Corporation's Brucejack Mine to the southeast.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF

TUDOR GOLD CORP.

"Ken Konkin"

Ken Konkin

President and Chief Executive Officer

For further information, please visit the Company's website at www.tudor-gold.com or contact:

Chris Curran

Head of Corporate Development and Communications

Phone: (604) 559 8092

E-Mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

or

Carsten Ringler

Head of Investor Relations and Communications

Phone: +49 151 55362000

E-Mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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.
Commenced production of separated rare earth products

Initial NdPr oxide shipments expected in Q3

Stage I REO sales and production volumes of 10,271 and 10,863 metric tons, respectively

Revenue of $64.0M and net income of $7.4M

Adjusted EBITDA of $27.0M

Diluted EPS of $0.04 and Adjusted Diluted EPS of $0.09

LAS VEGAS / Aug 03, 2023 / Business Wire / MP Materials Corp. (NYSE: MP) (MP Materials or the Company) today announced financial results for the three months ended June 30, 2023.

In recent weeks, MP Materials has begun producing refined rare earth products at Mountain Pass, an important milestone for the Company and in returning the full rare earth supply chain to the United States. We expect to report NdPr oxide shipments in the current quarter, said James Litinsky, Founder, Chairman and CEO of MP Materials. While our financials were impacted by weaker commodity pricing, we continue our solid execution in our upstream concentrate business and in our downstream magnetics business in Texas.

Litinsky added, Achieving refined rare earth production is a milestone worth celebrating as we work relentlessly towards solidifying MP as the American champion in our industry.

Second Quarter 2023 Financial and Operational Highlights For the three months ended

June 30, 2023 vs. 2022 (unaudited) 2023 2022 Amount Change % Change Financial Measures: (in thousands, except per share data) Revenue(1) $ 64,024 $ 143,562 $ (79,538 ) (55 )% Net income $ 7,395 $ 73,269 $ (65,874 ) (90 )% Adjusted EBITDA(2) $ 26,951 $ 109,952 $ (83,001 ) (75 )% Adjusted Net Income(2)(3) $ 17,023 $ 79,609 $ (62,586 ) (79 )% Diluted EPS $ 0.04 $ 0.38 $ (0.34 ) (89 )% Adjusted Diluted EPS(2) $ 0.09 $ 0.41 $ (0.32 ) (78 )% Key Performance Indicators: (in whole units or dollars) REO production volume (MTs) 10,863 10,300 563 5 % REO sales volume (MTs) 10,271 10,000 271 3 % Realized price per REO MT(2) $ 6,231 $ 13,918 $ (7,687 ) (55 )% Production cost per REO MT(2) $ 1,938 $ 1,750 $ 188 11 %

(1) The vast majority of our revenue pertains to product sales of our rare earth concentrate. (2) See Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures below for the definitions of Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted Net Income, Adjusted Diluted EPS and Production Costs, which is used in the calculation of production cost per REO MT. See tables below for reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measures. The definition of realized price per REO MT is also included in Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures below. (3) Effective September 30, 2022, the Company no longer excludes depletion expense for purposes of calculating and presenting Adjusted Net Income, and has retroactively revised the prior year period for comparability purposes.

Revenue decreased 55% year-over-year, driven by a 55% decrease in the realized price of rare earth oxide (REO) in concentrate partially offset by a 3% increase in sales volumes. The change in realized price reflects a significantly softer pricing environment for rare earth products as compared to the prior year period when recent pricing peaked. Metric tons (MT) of REO sold in the quarter increased year-over-year mainly due to the higher production volumes partially offset by further processing a portion of the volume of REO produced from Stage I operations for Stage II commissioning activities. The higher production volumes were driven in part by higher uptime.

Adjusted EBITDA decreased 75% year-over-year, driven by lower per-unit profitability, and higher personnel and other general and administrative costs, as well as advanced projects and development costs. The per-unit profitability decrease was driven primarily by the decline in realized prices discussed above, as well as higher production costs, partially offset by lower shipping costs. Production cost of $1,938 per MT of REO increased 11% year-over-year, mainly due to higher payroll costs, primarily as a result of increased headcount as we expand our workforce and ready our facilities to support separated rare earth (Stage II) production and slightly higher costs of materials and supplies.

Adjusted Net Income decreased by 79% year-over-year to $17.0 million, mainly due to the lower Adjusted EBITDA as well as higher depreciation expense resulting from an increase in capital assets placed into service over the last year. These declines were partially offset by increased interest and investment income earned on an increase in short-term investments as well as lower income tax expense primarily associated with the lower pre-tax income.

Net income decreased 90% year-over-year, primarily due to the factors driving the lower Adjusted Net Income discussed above, as well as costs incurred to support growth initiatives, start-up costs, and costs associated with the removal of legacy facilities at Mountain Pass. These impacts were partially offset by lower stock-based compensation expense compared to the prior year period, mainly due to the timing of grants and the accelerated method of recognizing expense for virtually all of our stock awards.

Diluted earnings per share (EPS) decreased 89% year-over-year to $0.04, in line with the lower net income discussed above. Adjusted Diluted EPS decreased 78% to $0.09 in line with the decrease in Adjusted Net Income discussed above.

MP MATERIALS CORP. AND SUBSIDIARIES CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS For the three months

ended June 30, For the six months

ended June 30, (in thousands, except share and per share data, unaudited) 2023 2022 2023 2022 Revenue: Product sales $ 64,001 $ 139,183 $ 159,667 $ 300,938 Other sales 23 4,379 57 8,882 Total revenue 64,024 143,562 159,724 309,820 Operating costs and expenses: Cost of sales (excluding depreciation, depletion and amortization) 22,704 22,092 46,920 45,265 Selling, general and administrative 18,865 18,120 38,268 38,428 Advanced projects, start-up, development and other 7,222 1,769 15,502 3,587 Depreciation, depletion and amortization 12,203 5,407 20,325 10,667 Accretion of asset retirement and environmental obligations 227 419 454 837 Loss on sale or disposal of long-lived assets, net 2,320 1 4,810 258 Total operating costs and expenses 63,541 47,808 126,279 99,042 Operating income 483 95,754 33,445 210,778 Interest expense, net (1,392 ) (1,326 ) (2,751 ) (3,231 ) Other income, net 13,821 2,212 27,514 2,406 Income before income taxes 12,912 96,640 58,208 209,953 Income tax expense (5,517 ) (23,371 ) (13,366 ) (51,133 ) Net income $ 7,395 $ 73,269 $ 44,842 $ 158,820 Earnings per share: Basic $ 0.04 $ 0.42 $ 0.25 $ 0.90 Diluted $ 0.04 $ 0.38 $ 0.24 $ 0.83 Weighted-average shares outstanding: Basic 176,984,917 176,527,570 176,933,605 176,442,043 Diluted 177,859,118 193,414,563 193,528,819 193,452,921

Reconciliation of GAAP Net Income to Non-GAAP Adjusted EBITDA For the three months

ended June 30, For the six months

ended June 30, (in thousands, unaudited) 2023 2022 2023 2022 Net income $ 7,395 $ 73,269 $ 44,842 $ 158,820 Adjusted for: Depreciation, depletion and amortization 12,203 5,407 20,325 10,667 Interest expense, net 1,392 1,326 2,751 3,231 Income tax expense 5,517 23,371 13,366 51,133 Stock-based compensation expense(1) 5,730 7,440 12,743 17,213 Start-up costs(2) 3,828 812 8,392 2,320 Transaction-related and other non-recurring costs(3) 2,160 119 5,482 136 Accretion of asset retirement and environmental obligations 227 419 454 837 Loss on sale or disposal of long lived-assets, net(4) 2,320 1 4,810 258 Other income, net(5) (13,821 ) (2,212 ) (27,514 ) (2,406 ) Adjusted EBITDA $ 26,951 $ 109,952 $ 85,651 $ 242,209

(1) Principally included in Selling, general and administrative within our unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations. (2) Relates to certain costs included in Advanced projects, start-up, development and other within our unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations that do not qualify for capitalization incurred in connection with the initial commissioning and starting up of our separations capability at Mountain Pass and our metal alloy and magnet-making capabilities at Fort Worth prior to the achievement of commercial production. These costs include payroll of employees directly involved in such commissioning activities, training costs, costs of testing and commissioning the new circuits and processes, and other related costs. Given the nature and scale of the related costs and activities, management does not view these as normal, recurring operating expenses, but rather as non-recurring investments to develop such capabilities. Therefore, we believe it is useful and necessary for investors to understand our core operating performance in current and future periods by excluding the impact of these start-up costs. (3) The majority of the amounts for the three and six months ended June 30, 2023, are included in Advanced projects, start-up, development and other within our unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations, and pertains to legal, professional services, and other costs associated with non-recurring transactions. (4) Amounts for the three and six months ended June 30, 2023, principally relate to demolition costs incurred in connection with demolishing and removing certain out-of-use older facilities and infrastructure from the Mountain Pass site to accommodate future expansion in rare earth processing. (5) Principally comprised of interest and investment income.

Reconciliation of GAAP Net Income to Non-GAAP Adjusted Net Income For the three months

ended June 30, For the six months

ended June 30, (in thousands, unaudited) 2023 2022 2023 2022 Net income $ 7,395 $ 73,269 $ 44,842 $ 158,820 Adjusted for: Stock-based compensation expense(1) 5,730 7,440 12,743 17,213 Start-up costs(2) 3,828 812 8,392 2,320 Transaction-related and other non-recurring costs(3) 2,160 119 5,482 136 Loss on sale or disposal of long-lived assets, net(4) 2,320 1 4,810 258 Other (21 ) (30 ) (41 ) (224 ) Tax impact of adjustments above(5) (4,389 ) (2,002 ) (7,878 ) (4,871 ) Adjusted Net Income(6) $ 17,023 $ 79,609 $ 68,350 $ 173,652

(1) Principally included in Selling, general and administrative within our unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations. (2) Relates to certain costs included in Advanced projects, start-up, development and other within our unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operation that do not qualify for capitalization incurred in connection with the initial commissioning and starting up of our separations capability at Mountain Pass and our metal alloy and magnet-making capabilities at Fort Worth prior to the achievement of commercial production. These costs include payroll of employees directly involved in such commissioning activities, training costs, costs of testing and commissioning the new circuits and processes, and other related costs. Given the nature and scale of the related costs and activities, management does not view these as normal, recurring operating expenses, but rather as non-recurring investments to develop such capabilities. Therefore, we believe it is useful and necessary for investors to understand our core operating performance in current and future periods by excluding the impact of these start-up costs. (3) The majority of the amounts for the three and six months ended June 30, 2023, are included in Advanced projects, start-up, development and other within our unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations, and pertains to legal, professional services, and other costs associated with non-recurring transactions. (4) Amounts for the three and six months ended June 30, 2023, principally relate to demolition costs incurred in connection with demolishing and removing certain out-of-use older facilities and infrastructure from the Mountain Pass site to accommodate future expansion in rare earth processing. (5) Tax impact of adjustments is calculated using an adjusted effective tax rate, which excludes the impact of discrete tax costs and benefits, to each adjustment. The adjusted effective tax rates were 31.3%, 25.1%, 24.0% and 24.7% for the three and six months ended June 30, 2023 and 2022, respectively. (6) Effective September 30, 2022, the Company no longer excludes depletion expense for purposes of calculating and presenting Adjusted Net Income, and has retroactively revised the prior year period for comparability purposes.

Reconciliation of GAAP Diluted EPS to Non-GAAP Adjusted Diluted EPS For the three months

ended June 30, For the six months

ended June 30, (unaudited) 2023 2022 2023 2022 Diluted EPS $ 0.04 $ 0.38 $ 0.24 $ 0.83 Adjusted for: Stock-based compensation expense 0.03 0.04 0.07 0.09 Start-up costs 0.02  0.04 0.01 Transaction-related and other non-recurring costs 0.01  0.03  Loss on sale or disposal of long-lived assets, net 0.01  0.02  Tax impact of adjustments above(1) (0.02 ) (0.01 ) (0.04 ) (0.02 ) Adjusted Diluted EPS $ 0.09 $ 0.41 $ 0.36 $ 0.91 Diluted weighted-average shares outstanding 177,859,118 193,414,563 193,528,819 193,452,921 Assumed conversion of Convertible Notes(2) 15,584,409    Adjusted diluted weighted-average shares outstanding 193,443,527 193,414,563 193,528,819 193,452,921

(1) Tax impact of adjustments is calculated using an adjusted effective tax rate, which excludes the impact of discrete tax costs and benefits, to each adjustment. The adjusted effective tax rates were 31.3%, 25.1%, 24.0%, and 24.7% for the three and six months ended June 30, 2023 and 2022, respectively. (2) The Convertible Notes were antidilutive for GAAP purposes for the three months ended June 30, 2023. For purposes of calculating Adjusted Diluted EPS, we have added back the assumed conversion of the Convertible Notes since they would not be antidilutive when using Adjusted Net Income as the numerator in the calculation of Adjusted Diluted EPS.

Reconciliation of GAAP Cost of Sales to Non-GAAP Production Costs For the three months

ended June 30, For the six months

ended June 30, (in thousands, unless otherwise stated, unaudited) 2023 2022 2023 2022 Cost of sales (excluding depreciation, depletion and amortization) $ 22,704 $ 22,092 $ 46,920 $ 45,265 Adjusted for: Stock-based compensation expense(1) (795 ) (506 ) (1,917 ) (1,221 ) Shipping and freight (1,995 ) (3,508 ) (4,283 ) (6,752 ) Other (11 ) (580 ) (614 ) (1,136 ) Production Costs(2) 19,903 17,498 40,106 36,156 Divided by: REO sales volume (in MTs) 10,271 10,000 20,486 21,706 Production cost per REO MT (in dollars)(2) $ 1,938 $ 1,750 $ 1,958 $ 1,666

(1) Pertains only to the amount of stock-based compensation expense included in cost of sales. (2) See Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures below for definition and further information.

Conference Call Details

MP Materials will host a conference call to discuss these results at 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time, Thursday, August 3, 2023. To access the conference call, participants should dial 1-833-470-1428 and international participants should dial 1-929-526-1599 and enter the conference access number 297364. The live audio webcast along with the press release and accompanying slide presentation, will be accessible at investors.mpmaterials.com. A recording of the webcast will also be available following the conference call.

About MP Materials

MP Materials (NYSE: MP) produces specialty materials that are vital inputs for electrification and other advanced technologies. MPs Mountain Pass facility is Americas only scaled rare earth production source. The Company is currently expanding its manufacturing operations downstream to provide a full supply chain solution from materials to magnetics. More information is available at https://mpmaterials.com/.

Join the MP Materials community on X, YouTube, Instagram and LinkedIn.

We routinely post important information on our website, including corporate and investor presentations and financial information. We intend to use our website as a means of disclosing material, non-public information and for complying with our disclosure obligations under Regulation FD. Such disclosures will be included in the Investors section of our website. Accordingly, investors should monitor such portion of our website, in addition to following our press releases, Securities and Exchange Commission filings and public conference calls and webcasts.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains certain statements that are not historical facts and are forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may be identified by the use of words such as estimate, plan, project, forecast, intend, expect, anticipate, believe, seek, will, target, or similar expressions that predict or indicate future events or trends or that are not statements of historical matters. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the continued demand for rare earth markets and the market for rare earth materials generally, future demand for electric vehicles and magnets, estimates and forecasts of our results of operations and other financial and performance metrics, the Companys ability to control costs, and the Companys Stage II and Stage III projects, including the Companys ability to achieve run rate production of separated rare earth materials and production of magnetic alloy and magnets. Such statements are all subject to risks, uncertainties and changes in circumstances that could significantly affect the Companys future financial results and business.

Accordingly, the Company cautions that the forward-looking statements contained herein are qualified by important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those reflected by such statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including fluctuations and uncertainties related to demand for and pricing of rare earth products; changes in domestic and foreign business, market, financial, political and legal conditions; changes in demand for NdFeB magnets; the effects of competition on the Companys future business; risks related to the rollout of the Companys business strategy, including Stage II and Stage III, and the timing of achieving expected business milestones; risks related to the Companys long-term agreement with General Motors, including the Companys ability to produce and supply NdFeB magnets; the impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic, on any of the foregoing risks; risks related to current and future governmental and environmental laws, regulations, licenses or legal requirements; and those risk factors discussed in the Companys filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K and other documents filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

If any of these risks materialize or our assumptions prove incorrect, actual results could differ materially from the results implied by these forward-looking statements. The Company does not intend to update publicly any forward-looking statements except as required by law. In light of these risks, uncertainties and assumptions, the forward-looking events discussed in this earnings release may not occur.

Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

This press release references certain non-GAAP financial measures, including Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted Net Income, Adjusted Diluted EPS, and Production Costs. We define Adjusted EBITDA as our GAAP net income before interest expense, net; income tax expense or benefit; and depreciation, depletion and amortization; further adjusted to eliminate the impact of stock-based compensation expense; start-up costs; transaction-related and other non-recurring costs; accretion of asset retirement and environmental obligations; gain or loss on sale or disposal of long-lived assets; and other income or loss. Adjusted Net Income is defined as our GAAP net income excluding the impact of stock-based compensation expense; start-up costs; transaction-related and other non-recurring costs; gain or loss on sale or disposal of long-lived assets; and other items that we do not consider representative of our underlying operations; adjusted to give effect to the income tax impact of such adjustments. Adjusted Diluted EPS is defined as GAAP diluted earnings per share (EPS) excluding the per share impact, using adjusted diluted weighted-average shares outstanding, of stock-based compensation expense; start-up costs; transaction-related and other non-recurring costs; gain or loss on sale or disposal of long-lived assets; and other items that we do not consider representative of our underlying operations; adjusted to give effect to the income tax impact of such adjustments. Our key performance indicator, realized price per REO MT, is calculated as the quotient of: (i) our GAAP product sales for a given period and (ii) our REO sales volume for the same period. Production Costs, which we use to calculate our key performance indicator, production cost per REO MT, is defined as our GAAP cost of sales (excluding depreciation, depletion and amortization), less stock-based compensation expense included in cost of sales, shipping and freight costs, and costs attributable to certain other sales, for a given period. Production cost per REO MT is calculated as the quotient of: (i) our Production Costs for a given period and (ii) our REO sales volume for the same period.

MP Materials management uses Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted Net Income, and Adjusted Diluted EPS to compare MP Materials performance to that of prior periods for trend analyses and for budgeting and planning purposes. MP Materials believes Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted Net Income, and Adjusted Diluted EPS provide useful information to management and investors regarding certain financial and business trends relating to MP Materials financial condition and results of operations. MP Materials believes that the use of Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted Net Income, and Adjusted Diluted EPS provide an additional tool for investors to use in evaluating projected operating results and trends. MP Materials believes realized price per REO MT is an important measure of the market price of the Companys concentrate product. Furthermore, MP Materials believes production cost per REO MT sold, which utilizes the non-GAAP financial measure, Production Costs, is a key indicator of the Companys concentrate production efficiency. As we evolve as a business and transition from a producer of rare earth concentrate to a producer of separated rare earth products upon completing the commissioning of our Stage II project, the metrics that management anticipates using to evaluate the business may change or be revised. For example, in completing the transition to separated rare earth products, we may determine that production cost per REO MT, which is a metric focused solely on Stage I concentrate operations, and consequently, Production Costs, are no longer meaningful in evaluating and understanding our business or operating results. MP Materials method of determining these non-GAAP measures may be different from other companies methods and, therefore, may not be comparable to those used by other companies and MP Materials does not recommend the sole use of these non-GAAP measures to assess its financial performance. Management does not consider non-GAAP measures in isolation or as an alternative or to be superior to financial measures determined in accordance with GAAP. The principal limitation of non-GAAP financial measures is that they exclude significant expenses and income that are required by GAAP to be recorded in MP Materials financial statements. In addition, they are subject to inherent limitations as they reflect the exercise of judgments by management about which expense and income are excluded or included in determining these non-GAAP financial measures. In order to compensate for these limitations, management presents reconciliations of such non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures.
VANCOUVER, BC, Aug. 3, 2023 /CNW/ - Sandstorm Gold Ltd. ("Sandstorm Gold Royalties", "Sandstorm" or the "Company") (NYSE: SAND), (TSX: SSL) has released its results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2023 (all figures in U.S. dollars).

SECOND QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS

Record revenue of $49.8 million (Q2 2022  $36.0 million );





of (Q2 2022  ); Attributable gold equivalent ounces 1 of 24,504 ounces (Q2 2022  19,276 ounces);





of 24,504 ounces (Q2 2022  19,276 ounces); Cash flows from operating activities, excluding changes in non-cash working capital 1 of $38.0 million (Q2 2022  $21.9 million );





of (Q2 2022  ); Average cash cost per attributable gold equivalent ounce 1 of $228 resulting in cash operating margins 1 of $1,744 per ounce (Q2 2022  $273 per ounce and $1,593 per ounce respectively);





of resulting in cash operating margins of per ounce (Q2 2022  per ounce and per ounce respectively); Net income of $2.7 million (Q2 2022  $39.7 million );





of (Q2 2022  ); Sale of Antamina NPI and closing of Horizon Copper transaction: In June, Sandstorm closed the final component of its previously announced arrangement with Horizon Copper Corp. ("Horizon Copper") to sell a portion of the Company's Antamina royalty in consideration for a silver stream, debt, equity, and cash. The transaction furthers Sandstorm's strategy to acquire precious metal streams on high-quality copper assets. With the closing of the Antamina sale, Horizon Copper is positioned as a competitive copper company with a portfolio of high-quality cash-flowing and development stage copper assets.





In June, Sandstorm closed the final component of its previously announced arrangement with Horizon Copper Corp. ("Horizon Copper") to sell a portion of the Company's Antamina royalty in consideration for a silver stream, debt, equity, and cash. The transaction furthers Sandstorm's strategy to acquire precious metal streams on high-quality copper assets. With the closing of the Antamina sale, Horizon Copper is positioned as a competitive copper company with a portfolio of high-quality cash-flowing and development stage copper assets. Share buybacks: During the six months ended June 30, 2023 and under the Company's normal course issuer bid, the Company purchased and cancelled approximately 2.8 million common shares for total consideration of $14.2 million .

OUTLOOK

Based on the Company's existing streams and royalties, attributable gold equivalent ounces for 2023 are forecasted to be between 90,000 and 100,000 ounces. The Company's production forecast is expected to reach approximately 125,000 attributable gold equivalent ounces within the next five years, with a sustainable average annual production of approximately 110,000 attributable gold equivalent ounces over the next 15 years.

RECORD REVENUE AND OPERATING CASH FLOW

For the three months ended June 30, 2023, the Company realized record quarterly revenue of $49.8 million compared with $36.0 million for the comparable period in 2022. The increase in revenue is largely attributable to a 27% increase in attributable gold equivalent ounces sold.

The Company had record cash flows from operating activities of $42.1 million and net income of $2.7 million for the three month period, compared with cash flows from operating activities of $33.2 million and net income of $39.7 million for the comparable period in 2022. The change is due to a combination of factors, including a $22.9 million gain that was recognized during the three months ended June 30, 2022, related to the sale of a portfolio of royalties to Sandbox Royalties Corp., and a $12.5 million gain on the sale of the Company's equity interest in Entree Resources Ltd. to Horizon Copper that was also recognized during the comparable period in 2022. Other contributing factors to the change include a $10.8 million increase in depletion expense partly driven by an increase in attributable gold equivalent ounces sold and a $9.1 million increase in finance expense, primarily related to interest paid on the Company's credit facility that was drawn down to finance acquisitions made in 2022. The change in net income and cash flows from operating activities was partially offset by a $13.9 million increase in revenue and a $5.7 million decrease in income tax expense.

STREAMS & ROYALTIES

Of the attributable gold equivalent ounces sold by Sandstorm during the second quarter of 2023, approximately 11% were attributable to mines located in Canada, 30% from the rest of North America, 45% from South America, and 14% from other countries.

Revenue

(in Millions) Gold Equivalent

Ounces Canada $5.5 2,769 North America excl. Canada $14.6 7,436 South America $23.4 11,092 Other $6.3 3,207 Total $49.8 24,504

Canada

Streams and royalties on Canadian mines contributed 11% less gold equivalent ounces to Sandstorm when compared to the second quarter of 2022. The change is primarily due to a decrease in royalty revenue from the Diavik mine in the Northwest Territories, driven by the timing of sales, production rates, and diamond prices, as well as a decrease in royalty revenue from the Bracemac-McLeod mine in Quebec, which discontinued operations in the second half of 2022. The decrease was partially offset by an increase in gold equivalent ounces received and sold from the CEZinc smelter in Quebec, which was acquired in July 2022, and an increase in ounces received and sold from the Black Fox mine in Ontario.

North America Excluding Canada

Operations located within North America, but outside of Canada, contributed 71% more gold equivalent ounces when compared to the second quarter of 2022. The change was primarily driven by an increase in gold equivalent ounces received from streams on the Mercedes mine in Mexico, which were acquired in April and August of 2022, and an increase in ounces received and sold from the Relief Canyon mine in Nevada, primarily due to the timing of sales, whereby, 1,476 gold ounces were delivered by March 31, 2023, and sold in the subsequent quarter. The increase was partially offset by a decrease in ounces received from the Santa Elena mine in Mexico, largely due to mining activity on concessions not subject to the Company's gold stream.

South America

Operations in South America contributed 18% more gold equivalent ounces when compared to the second quarter of 2022. The increase was largely driven by an increase in royalty revenue from the Antamina mine in Peru and the Caserones mine in Chile, both of which were acquired in the second half of 2022. The change was partially offset by a decrease in revenue attributable to the Chapada copper stream primarily due to a 39% decrease in the number of copper pounds sold as a result of planned lower recoveries, partially offset by higher throughput, as well as a decrease in the average realized selling price of copper when compared to the equivalent period in 2022.

Other

Streams and royalties on mines in other countries contributed 34% more attributable gold equivalent ounces when compared to the second quarter of 2022. This change is primarily due to an increase in gold equivalent ounces received and sold from the Bonikro mine in Cote d'Ivoire and the Blyvoor mine in South Africa, both of which were acquired in August 2022.

WEBCAST & CONFERENCE CALL DETAILS

A conference call will be held on Friday, August 4, 2023, starting at 8:30am PDT to further discuss the second quarter results. To participate in the conference call, use the following dial-in numbers and conference ID, or join the webcast using the link below:

International: (+1) 416-764-8688

North American Toll-Free: (+1) 888-390-0546

Conference ID: 86332521

Webcast URL: https://bit.ly/3rwhFWG

Note 1 Sandstorm has included certain performance measures in this press release that do not have any standardized meaning prescribed by International Financial Reporting Standards ("IFRS") including, (i) total sales, royalties, and income from other interests, (ii) attributable gold equivalent ounce, (iii) average cash cost per attributable gold equivalent ounce, (iv) cash operating margin, and (v) cash flows from operating activities excluding changes in non-cash working capital. (i) Total sales, royalties and income from other interests is a non-IFRS financial measure and is calculated by taking total revenue which includes sales and royalty revenue, and adding contractual income relating to royalties, streams and other interests excluding gains and losses on dispositions. The Company presents Total Sales, Royalties and Income from other interests as it believes that certain investors use this information to evaluate the Company's performance and ability to generate cash flow in comparison to other streaming and royalty companies in the precious metals mining industry. (ii) Attributable gold equivalent ounce is a non-IFRS financial ratio that uses total sales, royalties, and income from other interests as a component. Attributable gold equivalent ounce is calculated by dividing the Company's total sales, royalties, and income from other interests, less revenue attributable to non-controlling shareholders for the period, by the average realized gold price per ounce from the Company's gold streams for the same respective period. The Company presents Attributable Gold Equivalent ounce as it believes that certain investors use this information to evaluate the Company's performance in comparison to other streaming and royalty companies in the precious metals mining industry that present results on a similar basis. (iii) Average cash cost per attributable gold equivalent ounce is calculated by dividing the Company's cost of sales, excluding depletion by the number of attributable gold equivalent ounces. The Company presents average cash cost per Attributable Gold Equivalent ounce as it believes that certain investors use this information to evaluate the Company's performance and ability to generate cash flow in comparison to other streaming and royalty companies in the precious metals mining industry who present results on a similar basis. (iv) Cash operating margin is calculated by subtracting the average cash cost per attributable gold equivalent ounce from the average realized gold price per ounce from the Company's gold streams. The Company presents cash operating margin as it believes that certain investors use this information to evaluate the Company's performance and ability to generate cash flow in comparison to other streaming and royalty companies in the precious metals mining industry that present results on a similar basis. (v) Cash flows from operating activities excluding changes in non-cash working capital is a non-IFRS financial measure that is calculated by adding back the decrease or subtracting the increase in changes in non-cash working capital to or from cash provided by (used in) operating activities. The Company presents cash flows from operating activities excluding changes in non-cash working capital as it believes that certain investors use this information to evaluate the Company's performance in comparison to other streaming and royalty companies in the precious metals mining industry that present results on a similar basis. Refer to pages 3133 of the Company's MD&A for the three months ended June 30, 2023, which is available on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca, for a numerical reconciliation of the non-IFRS financial measures described above. The presentation of these non-IFRS financial measures is intended to provide additional information and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for measures of performance prepared in accordance with IFRS. Other companies may calculate these non-IFRS financial measures differently.

CONTACT INFORMATION

For more information about Sandstorm Gold Royalties, please visit our website at www.sandstormgold.com or email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

ABOUT SANDSTORM GOLD ROYALTIES

Sandstorm is a precious metals-focused royalty company that provides upfront financing to mining companies and receives the right to a percentage of production from a mine, for the life of the mine. Sandstorm holds a portfolio of 250 royalties, of which 40 of the underlying mines are producing. Sandstorm plans to grow and diversify its low cost production profile through the acquisition of additional gold royalties. For more information visit: www.sandstormgold.com.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENTS TO U.S. SECURITYHOLDERS

The financial information included or incorporated by reference in this press release or the documents referenced herein has been prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board, which differs from US generally accepted accounting principles ("US GAAP") in certain material respects, and thus are not directly comparable to financial statements prepared in accordance with US GAAP.

This press release and the documents incorporated by reference herein, as applicable, have been prepared in accordance with Canadian standards for the reporting of mineral resource and mineral reserve estimates, which differ from the previous and current standards of the United States securities laws. In particular, and without limiting the generality of the foregoing, the terms "mineral reserve", "proven mineral reserve", "probable mineral reserve", "inferred mineral resources,", "indicated mineral resources," "measured mineral resources" and "mineral resources" used or referenced herein and the documents incorporated by reference herein, as applicable, are Canadian mineral disclosure terms as defined in accordance with Canadian National Instrument 43-101  Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101") and the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (the "CIM")  CIM Definition Standards on Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves, adopted by the CIM Council, as amended (the "CIM Definition Standards").

For United States reporting purposes, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") has adopted amendments to its disclosure rules (the "SEC Modernization Rules") to modernize the mining property disclosure requirements for issuers whose securities are registered with the SEC under the Exchange Act, which became effective February 25, 2019. The SEC Modernization Rules more closely align the SEC's disclosure requirements and policies for mining properties with current industry and global regulatory practices and standards, including NI 43-101, and replace the historical property disclosure requirements for mining registrants that were included in SEC Industry Guide 7. Issuers were required to comply with the SEC Modernization Rules in their first fiscal year beginning on or after January 1, 2021. As a foreign private issuer that is eligible to file reports with the SEC pursuant to the multi-jurisdictional disclosure system, the Corporation is not required to provide disclosure on its mineral properties under the SEC Modernization Rules and will continue to provide disclosure under NI 43-101 and the CIM Definition Standards. Accordingly, mineral reserve and mineral resource information contained or incorporated by reference herein may not be comparable to similar information disclosed by United States companies subject to the United States federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder.

As a result of the adoption of the SEC Modernization Rules, the SEC now recognizes estimates of "measured mineral resources", "indicated mineral resources" and "inferred mineral resources." In addition, the SEC has amended its definitions of "proven mineral reserves" and "probable mineral reserves" to be "substantially similar" to the corresponding CIM Definition Standards that are required under NI 43-101. While the SEC will now recognize "measured mineral resources", "indicated mineral resources" and "inferred mineral resources", U.S. investors should not assume that all or any part of the mineralization in these categories will be converted into a higher category of mineral resources or into mineral reserves without further work and analysis. Mineralization described using these terms has a greater amount of uncertainty as to its existence and feasibility than mineralization that has been characterized as reserves. Accordingly, U.S. investors are cautioned not to assume that all or any measured mineral resources, indicated mineral resources, or inferred mineral resources that the Company reports are or will be economically or legally mineable without further work and analysis. Further, "inferred mineral resources" have a greater amount of uncertainty and as to whether they can be mined legally or economically. Therefore, U.S. investors are also cautioned not to assume that all or any part of inferred mineral resources will be upgraded to a higher category without further work and analysis. Under Canadian securities laws, estimates of "inferred mineral resources" may not form the basis of feasibility or pre-feasibility studies, except in rare cases. While the above terms are "substantially similar" to CIM Definitions, there are differences in the definitions under the SEC Modernization Rules and the CIM Definition Standards. Accordingly, there is no assurance any mineral reserves or mineral resources that the Company may report as "proven mineral reserves", "probable mineral reserves", "measured mineral resources", "indicated mineral resources" and "inferred mineral resources" under NI 43-101 would be the same had the Company prepared the reserve or resource estimates under the standards adopted under the SEC Modernization Rules or under the prior standards of SEC Industry Guide 7.

CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION

This press release contains "forward-looking statements", within the meaning of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation, concerning the business, operations and financial performance and condition of Sandstorm Gold Royalties. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the impact of general business and economic conditions; management's expectations regarding Sandstorm's growth; the future price of gold, silver, copper, iron ore and other metals, the estimation of mineral reserves and resources, realization of mineral reserve estimates, the timing and amount of estimated future production. Forward-looking statements can generally be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "may", "will", "expect", "intend", "estimate", "anticipate", "believe", "continue", "plans", or similar terminology.

Forward-looking statements are made based upon certain assumptions and other important factors that, if untrue, could cause the actual results, performances or achievements of Sandstorm Gold Royalties to be materially different from future results, performances or achievements expressed or implied by such statements. Such statements and information are based on numerous assumptions regarding present and future business strategies and the environment in which Sandstorm Gold Royalties will operate in the future, including the receipt of all required approvals, the price of gold and copper and anticipated costs. Certain important factors that could cause actual results, performances or achievements to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include, amongst others, failure to receive necessary approvals, changes in business plans and strategies, market conditions, share price, best use of available cash, gold and other commodity price volatility, discrepancies between actual and estimated production, mineral reserves and resources and metallurgical recoveries, mining operational and development risks relating to the parties which produce the gold or other commodity the Company will purchase, regulatory restrictions, activities by governmental authorities (including changes in taxation), currency fluctuations, the global economic climate, dilution, share price volatility and competition.

Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including but not limited to: the impact of general business and economic conditions, the absence of control over mining operations from which the Company will purchase gold, other commodities or receive royalties from, and risks related to those mining operations, including risks related to international operations, government and environmental regulation, actual results of current exploration activities, conclusions of economic evaluations and changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined, risks in the marketability of minerals, fluctuations in the price of gold and other commodities, fluctuation in foreign exchange rates and interest rates, stock market volatility, as well as those factors discussed in the section entitled "Risks to Sandstorm" in the Company's annual report for the financial year ended December 31, 2022 and the section entitled "Risk Factors" contained in the Company's annual information form dated March 23, 2023 available at www.sedarplus.ca. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. 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 Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that are contained or incorporated by reference, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.
Human Rights Watch urged the United States on Friday to stem "ongoing atrocities" in Sudan's Darfur region as it holds the presidency of the UN Security Council during August.

"The world should not stand by as town after town in West Darfur is burned to the ground, sending tens of thousands of civilians fleeing for their lives," said HRW executive director Tirana Hassan.

"The United States government needs to put words into action and ensure that the UN Security Council finally acts to protect civilians and to hold those responsible for the atrocities to account."

Sudan's regular army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan has been locked in a war with his former deputy, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, since April 15.

The fighting -- concentrated in the capital Khartoum and the western region of Darfur -- has killed more than 3,900 people, according to the NGO ACLED, and displaced more than 3.3 million, according to the UN.

Human Rights Watch said the US, which on Tuesday took over the Security Council's rotating presidency for August, must "ensure that the council takes robust measures to stem ongoing atrocities in Darfur, including by imposing targeted sanctions against those responsible for ongoing abuses".

The watchdog said there had been "repeated deliberate attacks on civilians, most by RSF forces and allied Arab militia targeting the ethnic Masalit population".

At least seven towns and villages in West Darfur have been largely or wholly destroyed since April, HRW said, most recently Sirba where at least 200 people were killed,according to the Darfur Bar Association.

Darfur is home to around a quarter of Sudan's 48 million people.

The RSF traces it origins to the Janjaweed militia, which was unleashed against ethnic minority villages suspected of supporting a rebellion in Darfur in the early 2000s.

That conflict killed more than 300,000 people and displaced 2.5 million, the UN estimates.

Atrocities committed during the conflict led the International Criminal Court to charge then dictator Omar al-Bashir with offences including genocide.

The court's chief prosecutor has launched a new investigation into suspected war crimes in the current fighting, including sexual violence and civilians being targeted for their ethnicity.

"Given the council's responsibility for the premature withdrawal of peacekeeping forces from Darfur in late 2020, the council should consider ramping up civilian protection there," HRW said.

"While Darfur is already on the Security Council agenda, the council has not actively addressed the issue, in part due to pushbacks by some of its members, preferring regional and bilateral ceasefire efforts to take precedence, an approach that has done nothing to stem the devastation and abuse."
The group responsible for facilitating the growth of electrical transmission infrastructure in North Dakota has a new executive director.

Claire Vigesaa has been serving as deputy director for the North Dakota Transmission Authority, assisting now-former Executive Director John Weeda.

Weeda had held the position since 2018. He requested that the commission consider Vigesaas appointment and his decision to step back.

Hes got a variety of experience; hes very well connected in the industry, Weeda said.

The state Industrial Commission appointed Vigesaa on Friday. The commission  the governor, attorney general and agriculture commissioner  comprise the rest of the authority.

Weeda told the Tribune he will continue to support Vigesaa in a new role that is yet to be formalized.

Im at the point in life where I wanted to slow down a little bit, he said.

The Transmission Authority facilitates the growth of transmission infrastructure in the state by funding projects and conducting studies. It received $7.5 million in funding from the federal Energy Departments Grid Resilience State and Tribal Formula Grants program, along with a $1.1 million match by the state Legislature for the 2023-25 biennium.

Vigesaa began serving with the authority after 40 years in the electric transmission industry. He served as general manager at the Upper Missouri Power Cooperative in Sydney, Montana, prior to taking on the role of authority deputy director.

In his co-op role he worked with both the Midwest Independent System Operator and the Southwest Power Pool, the two regional transmission organizations that oversee the grid in North Dakota, which familiarized him with their operations.

Electricity transmission in North Dakota is facing increased demand in conjunction with the states growth.

North Dakota generates a lot of power, whether its wind, coal, gas, so we want to have transmission stellar to serve our own load but also to market it to developers outside the state, Vigesaa said.

Another area that will be of focus to the authority in the coming years will be the issue of grid congestion from the wind power produced in the state, according to Weeda.

Grid congestion is a phenomenon that occurs when there is not enough transmission infrastructure to deliver energy without going over capacity.

There are times where the people that control the transmission system actually have to curtail wind generation in order to balance the system, he said.

The authority is pushing for the construction of additional infrastructure to allow for a greater amount of transmission, Weeda said.

I think the quickest we can get any of those built is in the five to six year range; we need them now but were glad theyre coming relatively soon, he said.

Vigesaa said he also plans to increase a focus on cybersecurity and reliability. He intends to get the Transmission Authority more involved in the Midwest Reliability Organization, which operates under the umbrella of the North American Electric Reliability Corp.

That group was given the authority to act as the national Electric Reliability Organization in the 2000s following widespread blackouts.

All the utilities in North Dakota are a part of it, Vigesaa said. Thats a very critical topic these days because the economy and the safety of North Dakotans is directly tied to having the lights on.
Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Catch up on old episodes!

Join David Alfery, a cardiac anesthesiologist and author of Saving Grace: What Patients Teach Their Doctors about Life, Death, and the Balance in Between. David recounts a transformative moment from his medical mission trip to Nicaragua, where he cradled an infant named Jose with a cleft lip and palate. We explore the emotions, the mothers heartfelt gesture, and the profound impact of this experience. Dont miss this inspiring discussion on the connections between doctors, patients, and lifes important lessons.

David Alfery is a cardiac anesthesiologist.

He discusses his book, Saving Grace: What Patients Teach Their Doctors about Life, Death, and the Balance in Between.

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An excerpt from Imposter Doctors: Patients at Risk.

On December 17, 2020, television network WGN America featured the book Patients at Risk: The Rise of the Nurse Practitioner and Physician Assistant in Healthcare in a news segment entitled, Families sound alarm on medical transparency after deaths of their children. The American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) was desperate to keep the public from seeing this news piece. The advocacy group worked frantically, issuing a call to action to its 121,000 members, urging them to inundate WGN with phone calls, emails, and social media messages demanding that the station pull the broadcast. An email written by AANP president Sophia Thomas read,

I have an urgent request. We need your help to contact WGN America, News Nation using Facebook, Twitter, email, and phone to pull an irresponsible news story by reporter Rich McHugh that maligns NP care.

The story is scheduled to air tonight around 7 p.m. This news piece suggests that NPs are unsafe providers who are unqualified to provide care. The storyline parrots the recent book by Physicians for Patient Protection President Rebekah Bernard and a coauthor.

This piece has the potential to reach millions of households nationwide. I was interviewed for this story, and the reporters bias was clear. We have worked together to stop irresponsible journalism before. We need your action immediately today.

The message was followed by contact information for WGN, including the networks phone number, email address, website, and even direct contact information for WGN executives. It included this sample phone message:

Shame on you, WGN. Pull this irresponsible story from Rich McHugh. You are maligning NPs working on the frontlines of a pandemic. NPs outstanding safety track record is backed by decades of research. News should be free of bias.

A sample Tweet suggestion read:

Your news promo on NP care is irresponsible and clearly biased. Pull this story. You should be ashamed of maligning frontline health care workers when patients need more care, not less.

Despite the AANPs aggressive actions, WGN aired the segment, prefacing the report with a mention of the techniques used by the organization. Journalist Rich McHugh pulled no punches, challenging Sophia Thomas with some of the toughest questions facing the nurse practitioner profession today. He began with a question that is far more complex than it seems at first light: Do nurse practitioners practice medicine?

Nurse practitioners are registered nurses who complete an additional two years of training, which includes a minimum of 500 hours of clinical experience. To be licensed to practice medicine, physicians must complete a minimum of 7 years of training, including 15,000 hours of clinical experience. Because of these differences, nurse practitioner advocates often state that rather than practicing medicine, NPs practice advanced nursing.

Thomas took a different tack, answering, Nurse practitioners practice health care.

McHughs brows furrow. But Im confused, he said. If nurse practitioners are prescribing medicines and treating patients, arent they practicing medicine?

Thomass reply: I think the definition of medicine is changing.

Indeed, the AANP has worked tirelessly for decades to expand the definition of medicine to incorporate care provided by nurse practitioners. Through strategic alliances and intensive lobbying efforts, nurse practitioners have successfully achieved full practice authority, the right to treat patients without physician oversight, in about half the states of the Union, despite having just a fraction of the training of doctors.

McHugh asked Sophia Thomas if the AANPs goal is for nurse practitioners to have full practice authority  basically the ability to run their own practices in every state in America.

Thomas answered in the affirmative, noting that this goal is supported by the Federal Trade Commission, the National Academy of Medicine, and National Governors Association. They know and understand that NP practice and clinical outcomes are equal to our physician colleagues and NPs improve access to care, she said.

While this messaging of equal outcomes is a core AANP talking point, it fails to include an important caveat: studies comparing nurse practitioner care to physician care have always evaluated low-risk patients with known diagnoses. Further, these studies have invariably involved some degree of physician supervision.

Just as the definition of medicine is being stretched, research findings are being extrapolated to the point of illogic, with advocates arguing that if nurse practitioners can treat simple medical problems with physician assistance, they should have similar outcomes with complex patients and no physician oversight.

Advocates also fail to mention that the last large-scale analysis evaluating NP outcomes was published more than 20 years ago, and well before the rapid growth of nurse practitioner training programs pumping out poorly prepared graduates. Rich McHugh asked Sophia Thomas about the rise of such programs. Would you agree that there is an issue with online diploma mills with regard to nursing schools right now?

Thomas: I think that there is an issue with, she paused. There are a few non-accredited programs out there, and AANP doesnt support programs that are not accredited. Thomas tells McHugh that nurse practitioners need to graduate from an accredited program of nursing. They are expected to meet certain core competencies and things like that, she said.

As part of the news story, Rich McHugh interviewed the family of Alexus Ochoa, who died after receiving improper treatment by a nurse practitioner working alone in an emergency department. Alexuss mother told McHugh that the nurse practitioner who treated Alexus introduced herself as a doctor, saying, I am the attending physician. It wasnt until after Alexuss death that the Ochoa family learned the truth.

Regarding this lack of transparency, McHugh asked Thomas if she had any issue with nurse practitioners inappropriately referring to themselves as a doctor. Thomas responded adamantly: Doctor is an academic term. Doctor doesnt mean physician and the physician world doesnt own the term doctor.

Rebekah Bernard is a family physician and the author of Imposter Doctors: Patients at Risk and How to Be a Rock Star Doctor: The Complete Guide to Taking Back Control of Your Life and Your Profession.
A family whose ranch would be impacted by a bridge proposed over the Little Missouri River near Medora is suing Billings County, opening a new chapter in the yearslong battle in the western North Dakota Badlands.

Members of the family that owns the Short Ranch filed the lawsuit against Billings County and its commissioners in federal court. The lawsuit alleges a breach of contract and an improper deployment of what it said is an inevitable use of eminent domain in the countys actions pertaining to the project. Eminent domain is the taking of private land for public use with just compensation.

The Billings County Commission is composed of Lester Iverson, Steven Klym and Dean Rodne. The three commissioners did not immediately respond to the Tribunes requests for comment Thursday. County States Attorney Patrick Weir declined comment.

The proposed bridge that would run through the Short ranch has been in the works since 2006, according to attorneys for the family.

The county has said the bridge would provide reliability for emergency services, commerce, recreation and public travel. Public safety officials have supported the proposal in the past. Current Billings County Sheriff Dean Wykoff has said he supports a bridge but opposes the use of eminent domain to build it.

The Short family believes the bridge would primarily benefit oil companies, according to their legal documents. They argue that the needs listed by the county can be fulfilled elsewhere.

If the county needs a bridge for public use, it needs to be built on public land and there is an incredible abundance of suitable public land for a bridge in Billings County, plaintiff David Short told the Tribune.

Current bridges over the Little Missouri are at Medora on Interstate 94 and south of Watford City on U.S. Highway 85. There are 18 unimproved private fords and one unimproved public ford that are used by some vehicles to cross the river, according to an environmental impact statement done in accordance with the National Environmental Protection Act as a requirement for building on anything under federal jurisdiction.

After the completion of the EIS in 2018 the Short family publicly opposed the project. They filed a lawsuit against the Federal Highway Administration, the agency that conducted the study, and also sued the County Commission when it intervened in the FHWA suit and voted to condemn parts of the Short ranch in 2020.

Plans for the bridge were seemingly ended in 2021 when the commission voted 2-1 to scrap the project and not use eminent domain to secure the land. The Shorts dropped their case after they reached an agreement with the county that it would not pursue eminent domain or any legal action to take the Shorts' land, according to legal filings.

Plaintiff Sandy Short argues that most Billings County residents are opposed to the use of eminent domain.

Our family has cared for and protected this land for over a century, even while Congressman Don Short represented the State of North Dakota in Washington D.C., she told the Tribune. Taking it away from us now by the abusive power of eminent domain is wrong, it's un-American.

The deciding vote was flipped after then-County Commissioner Mike Kasian lost his seat on the board to Klym in 2022.

Billings County opened up easement agreements again earlier this year, formally extending them on June 23 and offering $20,000 per acre for easements on the 30-acre ranch along with other temporary easements for construction. The countys previous offer had been $2,500 per acre with other construction-related easements.

Lawyers for the Short family argue this move is a breach of the agreement the family signed with the county in which the family would drop its previous lawsuits in exchange for the county stopping the pursuit of easements or eminent domain on the Shorts' land.

Derrick Braaten, one of the attorneys who filed the case, argued that this would mean agreements that the county signs with third parties would be subject to the whims of an election.

The Shorts' attorneys also argue that the use of eminent domain by Billings County is inevitable given the actions of the commissioners and the position of the family. They said this would be an improper use of the procedure, violating the Shorts' Fifth Amendment rights as well as North Dakota law. The Fifth Amendment states that private property can't be taken for public use without just compensation.

The lawyers question the extent to which the bridge serves public use and argue that due process has not been followed -- requirements for eminent domain.

There are exceptions to eminent domain, said Tim Purdon, who filed the suit with Braaten. The government doesnt always win in eminent domain cases.
By Bill Oketch

Magistrate Musa Ammaari Ssemwogerere was on Thursday denied bail by the Lira Chief Magistrates Court over lack of substantial sureties and further remanded to Lira prison awaiting trial.

Ssemwogerere, who made his second appearance before court at 12:55 pm on Thursday, was on July 28 remanded to Lira Central Prison for allegedly sitting exams for his female friend, Irene Mutonyi.

He allegedly committed the said offence at the Law Development Centre (LDC), Lira campus, in July, before he was apprehended.

Following his arrest, he was paraded before Lira Magistrates Court and charged with two counts of forgery and one of impersonation before he was sent to jail.

The accused also presented five sureties whom he believed were substantial enough to allow him gain his temporary freedom. They included five men and one woman, with three of the male sureties said to be leaders of the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council (UMSC) in their respective districts.

For the case of the fourth applicant, the LC1 chairman I rang on the phone, said the applicant only talked to him through his wife. The second applicant has an LC1 letter but there is no record of the duration of the time he has been a resident there, the chief state prosecutor told court.

He said the third surety claims to be a produce dealer in Lira City but the LC1 letter does not indicate whether he is a resident of the area or just someone who comes, buys produce, and takes it elsewhere.

The accused person stays in Rubaga Division (Kampala) but some of his sureties stay in Luweero, about 10 kilometers away and this makes it very difficult for them to supervise the accused, Mr Amalu added.
Administrators at Nakanyonyi Secondary School in Mukono district have asked police to fast-track the release of a report from forensic tests on the suspected food poisoning case.

The suspected poisoning incident left over 200 students admitted at different health facilities for emergency treatment on July 20.

This prompted police forensic experts to take food samples to the government analytical lab for testing. However, the report that had been expected in just a week is yet to be produced.

According to the school head teacher, Mr. Amos Balongo, the delayed release of the report has slowed down efforts to mobilize funds to clear the medical bills that amount to over Shs10 million.

He tells KFM that the report will help boost their efforts to solicit funds before legal proceedings are taken against the school.
By AFP

igers newly installed junta has threatened an immediate response to any aggression or attempted aggression, as the clock ticks down on a deadline given by its neighbours to reverse last weeks coup.

It also made diplomatic swipes against international condemnation of the putsch, scrapping military pacts with France and pulling its ambassadors from Paris and Washington as well as from Togo and Nigeria.

On Sunday, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) gave the junta a week to reinstate democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum, who was toppled by his guard on July 26, or risk a possible military intervention.

Regional military chiefs are in Nigerias capital Abuja to discuss the possibility of a such an intervention, but Nigerian President Bola Tinubu on Thursday told the blocs delegations to do whatever it takes to reach an amicable resolution.

Nigers junta warned it would meet force with force.

Any aggression or attempted aggression against the State of Niger will see an immediate and unannounced response from the Niger Defence and Security Forces on one of (the blocs) members, one of the putschists said in a statement read on national television late Thursday.
Gov. Doug Burgum plans another trip to the southern border to visit North Dakota National Guard soldiers serving there.

Burgum next week will visit about 100 members of the Wahpeton-based 188th Engineer Company who began a 30-day mission this week in support of Texas' Operation Lone Star. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott launched it in 2021, saying the Biden administration was essentially welcoming illegal immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border. Critics have questioned the effectiveness of the multibillion-dollar operation.

Burgum on June 1 announced his intention to send the troops. Six days later he announced a bid for the Republican endorsement for president, and made national security one of three focuses of his campaign, along with the economy and energy policy. On June 13 he formally authorized the deployment. The North Dakota Emergency Commission on June 20 approved a $2.2 million loan from the Bank of North Dakota to send the troops south. The loan ultimately will be repaid with taxpayer money.

Burgum also plans to visit with the 125 members of the Bismarck-based 1st Battalion, 112th Aviation Regiment who are deployed at the border on federal status in support of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. They deployed last fall, following 125 members of the Bismarck-based 957th Engineer Companys Multi-Role Bridge Company who returned last September after assisting Customs for about a year. Burgum traveled to the border in December 2021 to visit members of the 957th.

His office did not release specific details of the upcoming trip. Spokesman Mike Nowatzki did not immediately have a cost estimate.

"Its an official trip, similar to the one in December 2021, so it will be state-funded," Nowatzki said.
Kilkenny Arts Festival has now announced details of the literature strand of the 50th edition of the Festival, designed to thrill, delight and inspire.

Highlights include acclaimed journalist Ben Judah (Fragile Empire, This is London, This is Europe) who will deliver the 2023 Hubert Butler Lecture.

Over the last decade, Judah has set out criss-crossing Russia interviewing mobsters and government officials for Fragile Empire, his portrait of Putins rise to power.

For his new book, This is Europe, Judah travelled from Ireland to Turkey and back, listening to the stories of ordinary people.

The result is an epic work of compassion that reveals a continent transformed by diversity, migration, war, climate change, Covid and the quest for freedom.

For this years Hubert Butler Lecture, Judah shares his wealth of experiences, asking what it means to call ourselves European today.

The Hubert Butler Annual Lecture was established by the Festival in 2007 to honour the Kilkenny writer, historian and broadcaster whose remarkable consistency of vision and clarity of mind made him unique among 20th-century essayists.

Visit kilkennyarts.ie for more info and ticket details!
ABOVE: Philip Cushen, Paddy Morgan and Miriam Cushen sorting the new fleeces.

The shirt youre wearing, or your favourite pair of jeans - do you know where they came from? Not just the shop, but the individual strands used to make the material that was conjured into a piece of clothing?



Remarkably, there is a family business in Kilkenny where not only can you buy textiles that are woven on the premises, but now you can visit some of the sheep the wool came from, just a few miles down the road!



The stars of this new development are a herd of Galway Sheep. A heritage Irish breed, they are a protected breed and Irelands only indigenous breed, but remain in small numbers in this country.

They are a specialised wool breed, not favoured by the changing farming business that has focussed on food supply for many years.



The Galway Sheeps thick, high quality wool is perfect for processing into yarns and textiles. At Cushendale Woolen Mill it has long been the wool of choice.



In the past Miriam Cushen and her husband Trevor Ging have travelled all over Ireland to visit Galway Sheep herds, choosing the wool by hand and forming friendships with their farmer-suppliers. However, until now there hasnt been a local herd of the special sheep.



That changed this year, when friend and local farmer Paddy Morgan fulfilled his own dream of owning a herd of Galway Sheep.



Introduced to one of their suppliers by Cushendale, Paddy - like all Galway sheep farmers - was impressed and enamoured by the docile friendly sheep and last year brought some of the breed to his farm on the outskirts of Graignamanagh where they sheep settled in and are enjoying their new home at Dalton Farm, in the shade of Brandon Hill.
A Kilkenny-designed and built tractor that was lost in a system of African bureaucracy for almost 17 years, has finally made it back home.



The prototype machine was built in a cowshed in Danesfort in 2005 by local man Roger Stephenson. The following year, in 2006, the tractor began its adventure when it went to Ghana, West Africa, for demonstrations and field trials with the Ministry of Agriculture of Ghana.



After the trials were completed the shipment was then supposed to go to Kenya and Ethiopia but unfortunately, Roger said, bureaucracy took over and the shipment got stuck in a shipping container in Accra, the capital of Ghana.

And that was where the tractor stayed until this year!



It would take until this time last year before I could get a Ghanaian minister to look at the initial agreement and confirm that in fact the shipment was my property and cleared the way for me to remove it back to Ireland, Roger explained. It then took another year to clear the bureaucratic shipping hurdles to get the lost machine back to Dublin.



In April of this year it arrived back in County Kilkenny - 17 years after it was shipped out.



Roger developed the tractor to make machinery more accessible to small farmers in African countries. They are multi-use and designed for the specific challenges of the landscape and agricultural work they will tackle in countries like Ghana and Tanzania.



In many countries large, commercial tractors have been shipped in and contractors do work on smaller holdings. Rogers tractor is designed to be built and maintained in local communities, helping them to adapt and modify their farming methods, if needed, and allowing the farmer to escape a poverty trap.



Find out more about this unique tractor, and the work Roger is doing, on Facebook and Youtube under Tractor Factor Africa.
Even though many North Dakotans have been bad-mouthing socialism in recent years, two North Dakota socialistic institutions have refuted this knee-jerk reaction to faulty economic theory.

With record profits, the North Dakota Mill and Elevator  largest in the United States with a gross annual business of $8 billion  demonstrated that socialism works.

It wasnt too long ago that a state senator from Minot made it a biennial legislative issue to sell the Mill and Elevator.

Because the Mill and Elevator has been so successful, management was able to hand out $25,000 gainsharing checks to employees at a July company picnic.

The state-run Bank of North Dakota has been a godsend for a large number of opportunities that were snatched up for farmers, banks, economic development, student loans and a host of other programs tailored to North Dakotas needs.

The mood at the Mill has changed to the positive since I was last involved for the George Sinner administration when the North Dakota Industrial Commission delegated me to monitor labor negotiations at the Mill.

The negative management at the time hired an out-of-state union buster to negotiate on behalf of the Mill. His last best offer was inadequate and I ended up writing the new contract that protected the employees.

Even those who bad-mouth socialism end up bragging when they tell newcomers about the state-owned Mill and Bank.

Both institutions struggled in the 1920s to survive, partly because of scandals and partly because of hostile politics.

While we have no record of a public referendum on the Mill, in the special election Oct. 28, 1921, the Bank eked out a victory with 51% of the vote.

Running concurrently in the same election with the proposal to abolish the Bank was a move to recall the members of the Industrial Commission who controlled the Bank. While voting to keep the Bank, voters threw out the governor, attorney general and commissioner of agriculture.

This left the Bank in the hands of its adversaries. The new anti-Bank Industrial Commission, however, read public opinion favoring the Bank and decided to keep the institution.

The Nonpartisan League, then a branch of the Republican Party, sponsored creation of the Mill and the Bank because of the influence of socialists in the organization. The core of the League consisted of socialists who drifted away from their own party and into the NPL.

The success of the Mill and Bank should refute the bug-a-boo about socialism that has stymied adoption of new programs to help the less fortunate in our midst.

One of the greatest needs for socialism at the present time is health care. The present system is leaving too many people in cemeteries prematurely simply because the system isnt adequate.

There are many facets of health care that could use a little socialism. Maybe its time for the state to become more involved in the pharmaceutical industry.

We hear a lot about people dying because they cant afford the expense of medications while the pharmaceutical industry is raking in record profits, sometimes with government subsidies.

Of course, subsidies are socialism by a different name but even those who are beneficiaries of subsidies shudder when some demagogue disparages socialism. It seems that socialism is good for me but not for thee.

The outstanding success of the Bank and the Mill should tamp down some of the fears generated about socialism. If some is good maybe more is better.
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(Kitco News) - Rudi Fronk, chairman and CEO of Seabridge Gold, said his company offers significant leverage to rising metal prices.

Fronk spoke to Kitco at the Rule Symposium Natural Resource Investing 2023 show held in Boca Raton, Florida.

"What we're most proud of is keeping our share count relatively low over the 24 years since we've been in business," he said. "Today, we only have 83 million shares outstanding, but we've 170 million ounces of gold and over 50 billion pounds of copper in all resource categories, so if you look at us on a per share basis, two ounces of gold per common share and over 600 pounds of copper per common share, that provides the leverage and the optionality to higher metal prices."

Seabridge Gold (TSX: SEA) has one of the world's largest resources of gold, copper and silver in its KSM project, located in the Golden Triangle of northwestern B.C. KSM represents three of five deposits in a project hosting 11 billion tons of economic resources.

The company recently closed a USD$150 million financing with Sprott Streaming, part of a CAD$500 million secured note structure which, at the point of commercial production, will convert into royalties.

Early-work investments include building roads, bridges, camps, fish compensation areas, and tying into the power grid.

Kitco Mining's coverage of the Rule Symposium Natural Resource Investing 2023 was sponsored by G Mining Ventures.
SYDNEY/BEIJING, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Australia on Friday used China's decision to drop anti-dumping tariffs on its barley imports to call for the end to all remaining trade restrictions, led by wine, as commercial ties between the two trading partners edge towards normalisation.

China's Ministry of Commerce said on Friday anti-dumping and anti-subsidy tariffs on Australian barley would end on Saturday, roughly three years after the 80.5% duties first cut off what was once as much as a A$1.5 billion ($986.25 million) annual trade and led Canberra to file a case at the World Trade Organization (WTO).

The barley decision follows the resumption of trade in products like coal and timber and puts a spotlight on the few remaining Australian products restricted by China, including wine, which also faces tariffs, as well as unofficial restrictions on lobster and meat exports from certain abattoirs.

Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell said on Friday that Chinese restrictions affecting roughly A$20 billion of annual trade as of last May had shrunk to hit about A$2 billion of exports.

"We intend to use this process (barley) as a template for resolving the issue in respect of wine, which is still ongoing... as we seek to resolve all of those outstanding issues," Farrell told reporters after the decision.

Relations between the two major commodity trade partners had deteriorated in 2020 after Australia called for an inquiry into the origins of COVID-19, triggering reprisals by Beijing including anti-dumping duties on Australian wine and barley.

Tensions between Canberra and Beijing have eased since the centre-left Labor party won power in Australia last year, with Chinese purchases of Australian coal and timber resuming this year.

The U.S. Trade Representative's office, which has sided with Australia in the trade dispute, declined to comment on China's move to reduce barley tariffs.

The barley decision also smoothes the way for a potential trip to Beijing later this year by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, although no date has been set.

The barley tariffs will be dropped starting on Saturday, China's Ministry of Commerce said, noting industry players had reported increasingly robust beer market demand and domestic barley supply could not meet consumption needs.

The Australian dollar was up 0.34% to $0.65715 after the announcement, having risen to as high as $0.65875 earlier in the session, recovering from a two-month low it hit on Thursday.

POSITIVE STEP FOR WINE

Australia's wine trade with China was once worth A$1.2 billion annually, according to industry group Australian Grape & Wine, whose CEO Lee McLean said the end of the barley tariffs was a positive step.

Wine producer Treasury Wine Estate's (TWE.AX) shares reversed earlier declines to close 2.7% following the barley decision against an otherwise flat market (.AXJO).

The Australian government said it would end its barley dispute at the WTO but had not yet dropped a separate complaint against China's tariffs of up to 218% on Australian wine.

BARLEY MARKET SHIFTS

Rabobank senior grains analyst Dennis Voznesenski said the barley decision would be positive for Australian prices and farmers with malt quality barley were especially likely to attract a premium over recent prices.

"Market players who are going to be shipping barley to China may ask for a premium due to risks involved as there are going to be some concerns, if for example, China goes back on its decision," he said.

Grain Producers Australia CEO Colin Bettles welcomed the removal of tariffs, calling it a win for Chinese consumers and industry as well as local exporters.

Chinese buyers had turned to Canada, France and Argentina to replace Australian barley supplies over the last three years, while Australian sellers shifted exports to feed barley markets in the Middle East.

Those trade flows are likely to shift again after China drops the tariffs, with its barley buyers expected to begin purchases of the new Australian crop harvested in October for arrival by year-end.

($1 = 1.5209 Australian dollars)
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(Kitco News) - Barrick Gold (NYSE: GOLD) (TSX: ABX) announced today it is aiming to restart operations at the Porgera gold mine in Papua New Guinea later this year.

President and chief executive Mark Bristow said that, if all goes according to plan, Porgera could be back in operation before the end of 2023.

According to a press release, in preparation for the restart, the mobile fleet and fixed plant are being recommissioned, the mining and metallurgy plans have been updated, and the personnel recruitment plan has been finalized, with preference given to local employment.

Its been a long journey but in the process we have secured the buy-in of all the stakeholders. For Barrick, the re-opening of the mine represents another victory for our host country partnership model which has been so successful in Tanzania and has also been adopted for the Reko Diq project in Pakistan, Bristow said.

The Porgera joint venture is an open pit and underground gold mine located at an altitude of 2,200-2,600 meters in the Enga Province of Papua New Guinea, about 600 kilometers north-west of Port Moresby.

Papua New Guinea stakeholders own 51% of New Porgera with Barrick Niugini Limited, which will operate the mine, holding 49%. Economic benefits will be shared 53% by the PNG stakeholders and 47% by Barrick Niugini.
BEIJING, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Liquidity in China's banking system would be kept reasonably ample, an official said during a press conference by the state planner on Friday that left investors dismayed by slow roll out of support for an economy that has lost its post-pandemic bounce.

Anticipation was riding high for some positive news from three press conferences convened this week by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), after a meeting of the ruling Communist Party's Politburo on July 24 fanned hopes that stimulus measures were on the way.

Investors in China's stock markets, however, were clearly underwhelmed, as Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index (.HSI) dropped roughly 2% over the week, while the mainland's benchmark CSI 300 index (.CSI) eked out a 0.7% gain.

Share prices came off early highs after the conclusion of Friday's press conference, as the most positive takeaway was a reassurance from a central bank official that reductions in banks' reserve requirement ratio (RRR) were still on the table.

"The reserve requirement ratio cuts, open market operations and medium-term lending facilities (MLF) and other structural monetary policy tools... need to be coordinated and flexibly used," said Zou Lan, head of the monetary policy department at the People's Bank of China (PBOC).

But investors are becoming frustrated by the time the NDRC is taking to flesh out stimulus policies, or order measures like a cut in stamp duty - that could help China's ailing property sector, and please investors in stocks and bonds.

Ahead of similar press conferences on Monday and Tuesday, the NDRC released proposals to expand consumption in the automobile, real estate, and services sectors as well as to improve the business environment for private firms. But little in the way of detail emerged from news conferences.

"While the tone is supportive, these are mostly high-level measures without granularity and reiterations of what authorities had said before," UBS analysts said in a note.

"The joint briefing has likely disappointed some local investors, who held very high hopes (going) into the meeting, expecting to see strong measures like a stamp duty cut to boost the capital market."

Some analysts speculated that NDRC could be losing some of its clout, having held the power of a mini State Council, or Cabinet.

"I think officials at the ministries could be facing constraints from the top, some of which are ideological," said Xu Tianchen, senior economist at the Economist Intelligence Unit. "Hence the delays in policy formulation and a lack of groundbreaking measures."

Tuesday's proposals did include a central bank-backed extension to loan support tools for small and micro-sized enterprises until the end of 2024, but otherwise were a repeat of existing government objectives, such as continuing to cut down the negative list of industries closed to private investors, improving intellectual property rights and simplifying administrative procedures.

Netizens on Chinese social media have also begun to question what policymakers are doing.

"The official who put this document together has come up with so many policies, each of which has been made up without being clearly explained," said one user on social media platform Weibo.

Capital Economics said in a note to clients at the start of this week: "even if we do get the promised stimulus, it is likely to be fairly restrained. Even in a best-case scenario, growth over the second half of this year looks set to be modest."
PARIS, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Credit Agricole reported strong second quarter results on Friday, lifting its shares, and stepped up its wealth management ambitions by confirming plans to buy Degroof Petercam in a deal valuing the Belgian firm at 1.5 billion euros ($1.64 billion).

France's second-largest listed lender, which is a controlled by 39 regional banks, beat analysts expectations for the quarter with record sales and revenues, helped by performances in insurance and consumer finance.

The results boosted Credit Agricole SA's (CAGR.PA) stock, which was up by about 5% at 0817 GMT, making it the best performer within France's blue-chip index CAC 40 (.FCHI).

Helping the positive sentiment, the investment vehicle of the mutual banks that control Credit Agricole said it would spend 1 billion euros on the bank's shares, further tightening its grip on the lender.

The vehicle currently owns 60.2% of Credit Agricole SA and said it had no intention to go beyond 65%.

Credit Agricole's second quarter net income rose 25% from a year earlier to 2.04 billion euros ($2.23 billion), above the 1.39 billion euro average of analyst estimates compiled by the bank. Quarterly sales rose by 19% to 6.68 billion euros, also beating the consensus.

"(It) reported a solid set of results ... driven by higher-than-expected revenues and good cost control," Royal Bank of Canada said in a note. Barclays and JP Morgan also called the results "strong", highlighting cost control management.

Credit Agricole's planned acquisition of Degroof Petercam , which it expects to close in 2024, would increase the scope of its wealth management subsidiary Indosuez by roughly 50%.

Degroof Petercam has client assets of 71 billion euros, while Indosuez said it had assets under management of 130 billion euros at the end of 2022.

At 148.03 euros per share before various possible adjustments, the price offered for the 60% stake Indosuez agreed to buy in Degroof values the Belgian wealth manager at 1.54 billion euros, according to a regulatory filing on Friday.

The takeover means one of the best known names in Belgian finance will come under foreign ownership, continuing a long trend of buyouts which has left only KBC as a major privately-owned financial institution in the country.

Xavier Musca, head of Credit Agricole's investment bank, told reporters the lender aimed to own 80% of Degroof Petercam after the acquisition of a number of family-held stakes.

The Belgian Cigrang family would retain 20% under the plan, Musca said, under a partnership deal signed with them.

($1 = 0.9136 euros)
MILAN, Aug 4 (Reuters) - State-owned Monte dei Paschi di Siena (BMPS.MI) sees net income climbing to above 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) this year, after on Friday becoming the latest Italian bank to post above-forecast earnings with an over tenfold yearly rise in profit.

Like peers, Monte dei Paschi (MPS) reaped the benefits of higher rates which have allowed banks to charge more for loans while what they pay out on deposits lags.

It also succeeded in cutting non-staff costs by 8% quarter- on-quarter after shedding a fifth of its employees at the end of last year.

"Cost efficiency is at the heart of our strategy," CEO Luigi Lovaglio said, adding that would help to support operating profit when the boost from higher rates fade.

The bank's cost-to-income ratio was 49% at the end of June, versus 69% a year before.

To fund the voluntary staff exits by sending people into early retirement, Lovaglio oversaw a 2.5 billion euro ($2.7 billion) capital raise in tough markets last November.

By breaking the billion euro income barrier, the former UniCredit veteran would be a year ahead of schedule on the plan to 2026 he presented in June of last year.

STATE SEEKS WAY OUT

The state owns 64% of MPS following a 2017 bailout and Lovaglio is working to relaunch the bank and find a buyer to allow the state to exit.

Shares in MPS traded 3.5% higher by late morning at 2.568 euros each. In November MPS sold new shares at 2 euros each.

Bankers said MPS' improving performance makes it harder to clinch a deal because it makes it more expensive for any suitor, compared with when UniCredit (CRDI.MI) was being offered billions of euros in taxpayers' money to take over MPS.

That deal fell apart in late 2021 because UniCredit CEO Andrea Orcel demanded more than Rome was ready to pay.

Net income for April-June stood at 383 million euros, nearly 13 times the figure of a year ago and sharply above a 217 million euro consensus estimate provided by the bank.

Core capital strengthened to 15.9% of assets in June from 14.9% in March.

Core revenues jumped 10% on a quarterly basis to 941 million euros, leapfrogging expectations, with net interest income nearly doubling from last year and up 15% from the first quarter.

Net fees also edged higher from the previous quarter,

The bank said it had clinched on Thursday the sale of 230 million euros in bad debts, so that gross problem loans stood at 4% of total lending, from 4.2% at the end of December.($1 = 0.9129 euros)
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Russia said on Friday that U.S. bank JPMorgan (JPM.N) had this week stopped processing payments for the Russian Agricultural Bank as Moscow demanded action, not promises, from Washington to help Russian grain and fertilizer reach global markets.

Moscow has a list of demands it wants met before it will return to a deal, which it quit on July 17, that had allowed the safe Black Sea exports of Ukraine grain for the past year. Under a related pact - also brokered in July 2022 - U.N. officials agreed to help facilitate Russian food and fertilizer exports.

"As soon as this is done, this deal will immediately be renewed," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters on Thursday that Washington would continue to do "whatever is necessary" to ensure Russia can freely export food if the Black Sea grain deal was revived.

A key Russian requirement has been the reconnection of the Russian Agricultural Bank to the SWIFT international payments system. It was cut off by the European Union in June last year following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

As a workaround to that demand, JPMorgan had been processing some Russian grain export payments with reassurances from Washington. However, that cooperation stopped this week, Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

"The direct channel between the Russian Agricultural Bank and JPMorgan, which the West and the United Nations tried to present as a working alternative to SWIFT, was closed on Aug. 2," foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova was quoted by Russian media as saying.

The United Nations declined to comment. The U.S. State Department and JPMorgan did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

PREPARED TO HELP

While Russian exports of food and fertilizer are not subject to Western sanctions imposed after Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Moscow has said restrictions on payments, logistics and insurance have hindered shipments.

Top U.S. State Department sanctions official James O'Brien said earlier on Friday that Russia needed to be clear about what it was asking for and what constituted success, suggesting it should be how much food and fertilizer reaches the world.

"It has put forth a number of different demands and all of them having to do with various Russian institutions not getting services from the private sector," he told reporters. "We have made clear that we're prepared to help on any of these matters."

"Russia is exporting record amounts of grain," O'Brien said. "So if the measurement is food for the globe ... Russia's complaints amount to minor allegations about a system that is working very well."

Russia may export at least 55 million tonnes of grain in the 2023/24 marketing season, slightly less than the estimated record-breaking 57 million tonnes in the 2022/23 season, Russia's Grain Union said last month.

Ukrainian exports for the 2022/23 season were almost 49 million tonnes, according to Agriculture Ministry data. Nearly 33 million tonnes of that was shipped under the Black Sea deal.

Western countries have accused Russia of using food as a weapon of war by quitting the Black Sea deal, which had helped to bring down global food prices, and then carrying out repeated air strikes on Ukrainian ports and grain stores.

Russia has complained that not enough Ukrainian grain was getting to the poorest countries. The United Nations has argued that the deal helped everyone because it brought prices down 23% from a record high in the weeks following Russia's invasion.
We weighed the pros of the Chinese route (our girls would learn fluent Mandarin and, hopefully, a broadened worldview) and the cons (exposure to Communist Party propaganda and potential social isolation of being foreigners in a group of Chinese students). We took the plunge.

Our stringent government co-parent quickly made its presence felt. The girls Chinese kindergarten lectured us on everything, including how many hours our daughters should sleep, what they should eat and their optimal weight. Each morning all of the students performed calisthenics in straight rows and raised Chinas red flag while singing the national anthem. Classroom windows were usually kept open to increase air circulation and prevent contamination by airborne illnesses, even during winter, when the kids would attend class wearing their coats.

We sometimes felt as if our children were on loan to us for evenings and weekends, to be delivered back to school each weekday.

Over time, the benefits kicked in. Constantly served up moral, history and culture lessons on pulling together for the sake of the Chinese nation, our girls came home discussing self-discipline, integrity and respect for elders. With school instilling a solid work ethic and a total drive for academic excellence, my husband and I didnt need to push the girls to complete homework; the shame of letting their teachers and classmates down was enough to light their fires.

The prevailing student-centered American approach to education emphasizes the needs of the children and what engages them and promotes independent thought. China stresses that you can succeed  as long as you obey your teachers and work hard. To celebrate Chinese culture and offer an alternative to Western influences, government-funded events were always on offer, like traditional musical performances, operas and plays. At times, our girls would repeat propaganda or, concerned about keeping up with their peers, despair that we hadnt tutored them earlier in math. At the end of the day, our less demanding American family culture helped keep the balance.
U.S. District Judge Stephen Murphy III, faced with black defendent Leron Liggins, said that "this guy looks like a criminal to me" before presiding over Liggins' conviction on heroin charges and sentencing to 10 years' imprisonment. The verdict was thrown out today by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which described Murphy's remarks as "wholly incompatible with the fair administration of justice."

"I'm tired of this case. I'm tired of this defendant. I'm tired of getting the runaround. This has been going on since February 6, 2018," Murphy said in court. "This guy looks like a criminal to me. This is what criminals do," Murphy said. "This isn't what innocent people who want a fair trial do. He's indicted in Kentucky. He's indicted here. He's alleged to be dealing heroin, which addicts, hurts and kills people, and he's playing games with the court."

George Carlin: "Some people try to get out of jury duty by lying. You don't have to lie. Tell the judge the truth. Tell him you'd make a terrific juror because you can spot guilty people [snaps fingers] just like that."
stuff reports:

After iteratively nudging the door shut to any potential coalition deal involving New Zealand First, ACT Leader David Seymour has finally slammed the door shut, turned the key, fastened the deadbolt and latched the door chain. There's no room for Winston Peters in any Cabinet shared with David Seymour. When asked by Stuff if he categorically rules out working with Peters after the election, Seymour replied, Yeah, look, it's impossible to see us sitting around the Cabinet table. And Seymour left no room for doubt  no twerky wriggle room.

this is not surprising from ACT. It is worth looking at what this means in terms of potential Governments.

Let's look at first what happens if NZ First don't make 5%.

If they don't make 5%, then whichever bloc of National/ACT or labour/Green/Maori has 61 or more seats gets to form Government. There are basically just two options.

Four of the five most recent polls have shown that National/ACT would get a clear majority in an election. One showed a hung Parliament.

So if you want a National/ACT Government, it is more likely to occur if NZ First does not make 5%. If they make 5%, then basically each bloc would lose three seats to them making a majority harder.

But what if NZ First does make 5%. Here are the scenarios:

National/ACT have a majority without NZ First. NZ First would sit on the cross-benches. They might have a confidence and supply agreement with National in exchange for some policy gains. National/ACT make up the Cabinet. NZ First gets seats outside Cabinet as part of a confidence and supply agreement. National/ACT make up the Cabinet. NZ First sits on the cross-benches with a confidence and supply agreement with National in exchange for some policy gains. National solely makes up the Cabinet. Both ACT and NZ First have ministers outside Cabinet as part of a confidence and supply agreement National solely makes up the Ministry. They have confidence and supply agreements with ACT and NZ First, or NZ First abstain on supply and confidence.

The 1st scenario would be my preferred one if NZ First do make 5%. If National/ACT still manage a majority they can have a cohesive reforming Government.

Scenario 2 is unlikely. While Seymour only ruled out NZ First in Cabinet, I'm not sure whether he would be happy with them in the Ministry at all. Also more likely is Peters would not back a Cabinet with ACT in it, if he is not.

Scenario 3 is also unlikely. Will Peters want Seymour as Deputy PM? Also worth understanding that a confidence and supply agreement only applies to around two votes a year. Every other Government policy would be subject to the approval of NZ First, or getting an opposition party on side.

Scenario 4 is perhaps the least worst scenario of scenarios 2 to 5. Both parties having Ministers would give some incentive to try and make the Government cohesive. But again every law would need the support of both parties.

Scenario 5 is the most likely outcome. ACT and NZ First mutually veto each other and National governs alone. However this is a fairly weak Government that again needs both parties to agree to everything.

There is a sixth scenario where Winston gets pissed off with what he sees as a lack of respect from National and ACT, and does a deal with Labour. Now this is very unlikely. Winston has been far more explicit than normal in ruling Labour out, and his supporters would be outraged if he them put them back in. But you can't be 100% certain unless you get it in writing as a sworn affidavit!

As readers will know I'm not a fan of many NZ First policies. They are economically to the left of me. I would much rather have a clean National/ACT Government.

But if they are in Government, there is one area they could do some good in, and that is the area of co-governance and the insistence that the Treaty is about equal partnership and equity (as opposed to equality and property rights).

The blob tends to throw the racist label at anyone who opposes what has been a revolution in the last five years in our constitutional arrangements. In theory Winston Peters, Shane Jones and Casey Costello could be the most effective politicians to fight back against this interpretation of the Treaty. Yell racist at them all you like, and it won't get far.

But I did say in theory. I like a lot of the speeches that Peters and Jones have made in the last year in this area. But I also recall he made similar speeches in 2017 when he promised a referendum on the Maori seats. And according to numerous sources, this promise wasn't even raised in the coalition negotiations.

It's one thing to make speeches, but another to have the willpower to actually drive change. I do rate Casey Costello. She will want to actually change things, but even if elected she will be just one MP.

I think the best way forward is ACT's referendum policy. I'm somewhat hesitant as a referendum can be a blunt tool, and the debate could be challenging. But it is a debate that has to happen. We need certainty on whether or not NZ continues with equality of suffrage or not.

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Shenandoah, IA (51601)

Today

Sunny along with a few clouds. High around 85F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy in the evening followed by scattered thunderstorms after midnight. A few storms may be severe. Low 68F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
The Idaho Freedom Caucus, a group of Republican lawmakers in Idaho's House of Representatives, sent a threatening letter to hospitals in the state. The barely veiled threats suggest the hospitals are hiding abortion records and threaten jail time in addition to fines.

Jezebel:

In an especially chilling move, Idaho lawmakers have directly asked hospitals in the state for their abortion records, as the state continues to escalate its war on pregnant people and health care providers. A letter from legislators in the Idaho Freedom Caucus, obtained by Northwest Public Broadcasting this week, shows Republicans questioning the accuracy of abortion data that hospitals in the state have reported to the government, as is required by state law. The letter also chillingly reminds hospitals of the penalties for failing to report abortions: a misdemeanor charge, $1,000 fine, and imprisonment for up to a year.

"Has your hospital performed any of the induced abortions that are required to be reported?" the letter asks. "If so, has your hospital been in compliance with Idaho's induced abortion reporting law? If not, is there a reasonable explanation, and will you please provide your induced abortion data so we can make informed policy decisions?"



The discrepancy in abortion reporting from hospitals, alleged by Idaho Republicans, could actually be explained by a number of factorsnamely, that hospitals in rural counties or hospitals with fewer resources often refer abortion-seeking patients to hospitals in larger counties. But, of course, the state's anti-abortion lawmakers seem less interested in a logical explanation than another opportunity to intimidate, surveil, and possibly criminalize health care providers. And while Idaho's abortion ban doesn't explicitly criminalize abortion patients, abortion reporting laws can still put patients and pregnant people at criminal risk, too, given increasing cases of pregnancy-related criminalization.

Per a press release that the hospital, Bonner General Health, shared with Jezebel in March, "The Idaho Legislature continues to pass bills that criminalize physicians for medical care nationally recognized as the standard of care. Consequences for Idaho physicians providing the standard of care may include civil litigation and criminal prosecution, leading to jail time or fines." And, even more alarmingly, in June, Idaho ended its maternal mortality review committee. The U.S. maintains the highest maternal mortality rate among wealthy nations, and states with more abortion restrictions have disproportionately high maternal mortality rates.
The Columbia Police Department is asking for the publics help in finding Daniel Lee Thompson, 41, who was last seen on June 26, 2023.
The FCC has issued a $300m fine to robocall scammers calling about your auto insurance, not that they'll ever collect it: "We take seriously our responsibility to protect consumers and the integrity of U.S. communications networks from the onslaught of these types of pernicious calls," FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief Loyaan A. Egal was quoted saying in a press release.

The Federal Communications Commission today issued a record-breaking $299,997,000 fine for auto warranty scam robocalls made by the largest illegal robocall operation the agency has ever investigated. An international network of companies violated federal statutes and the Commission's regulations when they executed a scheme to make more than five billion robocalls to more than 500 million phone numbers during a three-month span in 2021, including violating federal spoofing laws by using more than one million different caller ID numbers in an attempt to disguise the true origin of the robocalls and trick victims into answering the phone. The enterprise violated a multitude of robocall prohibitions by making pre-recorded voice calls to mobile phones without prior express consent, placing telemarketing calls without written consent, dialing numbers included on the National Do Not Call Registry, failing to identify the caller at the start of the message, and failing to provide a call-back number that allowed consumers to opt out of future calls. The calls also violated spoofing laws by using misleading caller ID to disguise the enterprise's role and prompt consumers to answer.

The crooks at the heart of the scam were old hands, already banned from telemarketing.

Since at least 2018, this enterprise operated a complex scheme designed to facilitate the sale of vehicle service contracts under the false and misleading claim of selling auto warranties. Two of the central players of the operation, Roy M. Cox and Aaron Michael Jones, were under lifetime bans against making telemarketing calls following lawsuits by the Federal Trade Commission and State of Texas.

Previously: FCC fines Texas robocallers record $225m
Aflac (NYSE:AFL  Get Free Report) had its target price hoisted by equities researchers at Morgan Stanley from $71.00 to $74.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an overweight rating on the financial services providers stock. Morgan Stanleys price target suggests a potential downside of 3.96% from the companys previous close.

A number of other equities analysts also recently commented on AFL. 58.com restated a reiterates rating on shares of Aflac in a research note on Friday, June 9th. Wells Fargo & Company began coverage on shares of Aflac in a research note on Tuesday, April 25th. They set an equal weight rating and a $73.00 price objective for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Aflac from $72.00 to $74.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Wednesday. Citigroup cut their target price on shares of Aflac from $73.00 to $69.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 27th. Finally, Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Aflac from $79.00 to $86.00 in a research note on Wednesday. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $74.70.

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Aflac Trading Up 1.1 %

Insider Transactions at Aflac

Aflac stock opened at $77.05 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $69.53 and a 200-day moving average of $68.08. Aflac has a one year low of $56.03 and a one year high of $77.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 0.05 and a quick ratio of 0.05. The company has a market cap of $46.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.30, a P/E/G ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 0.94.

In other news, CFO Steven Kent Beaver sold 13,118 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.33, for a total transaction of $870,116.94. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 20,793 shares of the companys stock, valued at $1,379,199.69. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, VP June P. Howard sold 8,230 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.57, for a total transaction of $556,101.10. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 119,402 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $8,067,993.14. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Steven Kent Beaver sold 13,118 shares of Aflac stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.33, for a total transaction of $870,116.94. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 20,793 shares in the company, valued at $1,379,199.69. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 35,319 shares of company stock valued at $2,367,212. 0.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Aflac

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Aflac by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 48,816 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $3,407,000 after buying an additional 385 shares in the last quarter. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. raised its stake in Aflac by 44.5% during the second quarter. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. now owns 42,775 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $1,746,000 after acquiring an additional 13,168 shares in the last quarter. Dearborn Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Aflac by 20.9% in the second quarter. Dearborn Partners LLC now owns 5,993 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $418,000 after acquiring an additional 1,036 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC boosted its stake in shares of Aflac by 67.3% in the 2nd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,712,568 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $119,539,000 after purchasing an additional 689,173 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank Pictet & Cie Asia Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Aflac in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $1,379,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 66.56% of the companys stock.

Aflac Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Aflac Incorporated, through its subsidiaries, provides supplemental health and life insurance products. It operates in two segments, Aflac Japan and Aflac U.S. The Aflac Japan segment offers cancer, medical, nursing care, work leave, GIFT, and whole and term life insurance products, as well as WAYS and child endowment plans under saving type insurance products in Japan.

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BlackRock Sustainable American Income Trust plc (LON:BRSA  Get Free Report) announced a dividend on Thursday, August 3rd, Upcoming.Co.Uk reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 17th will be given a dividend of GBX 2 ($0.03) per share on Monday, October 2nd. This represents a yield of 1.07%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 17th. The official announcement can be accessed at this link.

BlackRock Sustainable American Income Trust Stock Performance

Shares of BRSA stock traded down GBX 1.25 ($0.02) during trading hours on Thursday, hitting GBX 187.25 ($2.40). The stock had a trading volume of 72,066 shares, compared to its average volume of 116,813. The firm has a market capitalization of 150.23 million, a PE ratio of 1,250.00 and a beta of 0.67. BlackRock Sustainable American Income Trust has a twelve month low of GBX 179.50 ($2.30) and a twelve month high of GBX 215 ($2.76). The stocks 50 day moving average is GBX 185.75 and its 200 day moving average is GBX 191.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.25, a current ratio of 0.45 and a quick ratio of 0.10.

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BlackRock Sustainable American Income Trust Company Profile

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BlackRock North American Income Trust plc is a closed-ended equity mutual fund launched by BlackRock Fund Managers Limited. The fund is managed by BlackRock Investment Management (UK) Limited. It invests in the public equity markets of the United States. The fund seeks to invest in stocks of companies operating across diversified sectors.

Receive News & Ratings for BlackRock Sustainable American Income Trust Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for BlackRock Sustainable American Income Trust and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.
CEMEX, S.A.B. de C.V. (NYSE:CX  Get Free Report) saw a significant drop in short interest in the month of July. As of July 15th, there was short interest totalling 5,820,000 shares, a drop of 6.1% from the June 30th total of 6,200,000 shares. Approximately 0.4% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 5,870,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.0 days.

CEMEX Stock Performance

CEMEX stock opened at $7.50 on Friday. The stocks 50 day simple moving average is $7.03 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $6.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a current ratio of 0.89. The stock has a market cap of $10.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.50, a PEG ratio of 0.61 and a beta of 1.45. CEMEX has a fifty-two week low of $3.20 and a fifty-two week high of $8.17.

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CEMEX (NYSE:CX  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 2nd. The construction company reported $0.15 EPS for the quarter. CEMEX had a return on equity of 5.14% and a net margin of 5.40%. The firm had revenue of $4.04 billion for the quarter. As a group, analysts expect that CEMEX will post 0.81 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On CEMEX

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. purchased a new stake in CEMEX during the 2nd quarter valued at $40,000. Engineers Gate Manager LP purchased a new stake in shares of CEMEX in the 4th quarter worth $41,000. Wedbush Securities Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of CEMEX in the 4th quarter worth $50,000. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. increased its stake in shares of CEMEX by 66.2% in the 1st quarter. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. now owns 12,349 shares of the construction companys stock worth $50,000 after purchasing an additional 4,920 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Clear Street Markets LLC purchased a new stake in shares of CEMEX in the 4th quarter worth $51,000. 29.88% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

CX has been the topic of a number of research reports. Bank of America downgraded CEMEX from a buy rating to a neutral rating and raised their price target for the company from $6.80 to $7.20 in a research report on Monday, May 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded CEMEX from a neutral rating to a buy rating and raised their price target for the company from $5.90 to $9.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on CEMEX from $8.00 to $9.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Friday, July 28th. Citigroup downgraded CEMEX from a buy rating to a neutral rating in a research report on Friday, May 5th. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on CEMEX from $8.00 to $9.00 in a research report on Friday, July 28th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $7.87.

Read Our Latest Analysis on CEMEX

About CEMEX

(Get Free Report)

CEMEX, SAB. de C.V., together with its subsidiaries, produces, markets, distributes, and sells cement, ready-mix concrete, aggregates, urbanization solutions, and other construction materials worldwide. The company also offers asphalt, concrete blocks, concrete block paving, rail sleepers, and flooring systems; architectural concrete products; and box culverts, bridges, drainage basins, barriers, and parking curbs.

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Tenet Healthcare (NYSE:THC  Free Report) had its price objective hoisted by Citigroup from $83.00 to $90.00 in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday, MarketBeat reports. The brokerage currently has a buy rating on the stock.

THC has been the subject of several other reports. Mizuho raised their price target on shares of Tenet Healthcare from $81.00 to $94.00 in a research note on Tuesday, July 11th. Truist Financial lifted their target price on Tenet Healthcare from $84.00 to $92.00 in a report on Tuesday, June 20th. Raymond James lifted their target price on Tenet Healthcare from $72.00 to $85.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 26th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on Tenet Healthcare from $65.00 to $81.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on Tenet Healthcare from $70.00 to $105.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Buy and a consensus price target of $81.88.

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Tenet Healthcare Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE:THC opened at $74.37 on Tuesday. Tenet Healthcare has a 12 month low of $36.69 and a 12 month high of $85.40. The companys 50-day moving average price is $77.40 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $66.76. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.79. The firm has a market cap of $7.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.35, a P/E/G ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 2.12.

Tenet Healthcare (NYSE:THC  Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Monday, July 31st. The company reported $1.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.26 by $0.18. The company had revenue of $5.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.91 billion. Tenet Healthcare had a net margin of 2.51% and a return on equity of 27.15%. The companys revenue for the quarter was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.50 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Tenet Healthcare will post 5.78 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Tenet Healthcare

In other news, EVP Thomas W. Arnst sold 21,178 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.12, for a total transaction of $1,548,535.36. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Tenet Healthcare news, EVP Paola M. Arbour sold 38,556 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.22, for a total transaction of $2,900,182.32. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 33,006 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,482,711.32. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Thomas W. Arnst sold 21,178 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.12, for a total value of $1,548,535.36. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 1.30% of the companys stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Tenet Healthcare

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. purchased a new stake in Tenet Healthcare in the 2nd quarter valued at $208,000. General American Investors Co. Inc. raised its position in Tenet Healthcare by 40.0% in the 2nd quarter. General American Investors Co. Inc. now owns 70,000 shares of the companys stock valued at $5,697,000 after buying an additional 20,000 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia bought a new position in Tenet Healthcare in the 2nd quarter valued at $220,000. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. grew its stake in Tenet Healthcare by 16.6% in the 2nd quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 539,902 shares of the companys stock valued at $43,938,000 after purchasing an additional 76,797 shares during the period. Finally, CWM LLC grew its stake in Tenet Healthcare by 17.0% in the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 963 shares of the companys stock valued at $78,000 after purchasing an additional 140 shares during the period. 96.07% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Tenet Healthcare

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Tenet Healthcare Corporation operates as a diversified healthcare services company. The company operates through three segments: Hospital Operations, Ambulatory Care, and Conifer. Its general hospitals offer acute care services, operating and recovery rooms, radiology and respiratory therapy services, clinical laboratories, and pharmacies.

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CTT  Correios De Portugal, S.A. (OTCMKTS:CTTPY  Get Free Report)s stock price reached a new 52-week low on Tuesday . The stock traded as low as $7.28 and last traded at $7.28, with a volume of 0 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $7.28.

CTT  Correios De Portugal Stock Performance

The firm has a 50-day moving average of $7.32 and a two-hundred day moving average of $7.08.

About CTT  Correios De Portugal

(Get Free Report)

CTT  Correios De Portugal, SA, together with its subsidiaries, provides postal and financial services worldwide. It operates through Mail, Express & Parcels, Financial Services & Retail, and Bank segments. The company offers courier and urgent mail transport services; postal financial services; and banking services.

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CVS HEALTH Corp lowered its stake in iShares Core High Dividend ETF (NYSEARCA:HDV  Free Report) by 23.6% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 476,836 shares of the exchange traded funds stock after selling 147,700 shares during the period. iShares Core High Dividend ETF makes up 28.9% of CVS HEALTH Corps portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest holding. CVS HEALTH Corp owned 0.44% of iShares Core High Dividend ETF worth $48,475,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Scissortail Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in iShares Core High Dividend ETF in the 1st quarter valued at about $1,624,266,000. NTV Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in iShares Core High Dividend ETF by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. NTV Asset Management LLC now owns 82,741 shares of the exchange traded funds stock valued at $8,411,000 after purchasing an additional 467 shares during the period. Phoenix Wealth Advisors bought a new stake in iShares Core High Dividend ETF in the 1st quarter valued at about $5,083,000. Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLC boosted its holdings in iShares Core High Dividend ETF by 3.2% in the 1st quarter. Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLC now owns 10,855 shares of the exchange traded funds stock valued at $1,104,000 after purchasing an additional 332 shares during the period. Finally, Regimen Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in iShares Core High Dividend ETF by 27.3% in the 1st quarter. Regimen Wealth LLC now owns 210,015 shares of the exchange traded funds stock valued at $22,224,000 after purchasing an additional 45,046 shares during the period.

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iShares Core High Dividend ETF Trading Up 0.4 %

NYSEARCA HDV traded up $0.46 during trading on Friday, reaching $103.35. The companys stock had a trading volume of 187,403 shares, compared to its average volume of 666,847. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.13 and a beta of 0.81. iShares Core High Dividend ETF has a 12 month low of $91.24 and a 12 month high of $109.01. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $100.73 and a 200 day moving average price of $101.48.

About iShares Core High Dividend ETF

The iShares Core High Dividend ETF (HDV) is an exchange-traded fund that is based on the Morningstar Dividend Yield Focus index. The fund tracks a dividend-weighted index of 75 high-yielding US equities, screened for high earnings potential and dividend sustainability. HDV was launched on Mar 29, 2011 and is managed by BlackRock.

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Want to see what other hedge funds are holding HDV? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for iShares Core High Dividend ETF (NYSEARCA:HDV  Free Report).

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Dana Incorporated (NYSE:DAN  Get Free Report) EVP Aziz Aghili sold 30,000 shares of the companys stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.19, for a total transaction of $575,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 14,975 shares of the companys stock, valued at $287,370.25. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink.

Dana Trading Down 1.4 %

Dana stock opened at $18.22 on Friday. Dana Incorporated has a 1 year low of $11.17 and a 1 year high of $19.75. The firms 50-day moving average is $16.65 and its 200-day moving average is $15.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.54, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a current ratio of 1.59. The company has a market cap of $2.63 billion, a P/E ratio of -12.48 and a beta of 2.45.

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Dana (NYSE:DAN  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, July 28th. The auto parts company reported $0.37 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.21. Dana had a negative net margin of 1.99% and a positive return on equity of 6.59%. The firm had revenue of $2.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.71 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.08 earnings per share. Danas quarterly revenue was up 6.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Dana Incorporated will post 0.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Dana Announces Dividend

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 1st. Investors of record on Friday, August 11th will be given a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 10th. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.20%. Danas dividend payout ratio is currently -27.40%.

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Dana from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Thursday, July 20th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Dana from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research note on Tuesday. StockNews.com raised shares of Dana from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report on Wednesday. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Dana from $15.00 to $18.00 in a research note on Monday, July 10th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on Dana from $16.00 to $19.00 and gave the company a sector perform rating in a report on Monday. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $19.00.

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Institutional Investors Weigh In On Dana

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Yousif Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Dana by 3.1% during the second quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 73,620 shares of the auto parts companys stock worth $1,252,000 after acquiring an additional 2,198 shares during the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc bought a new position in shares of Dana in the second quarter worth $26,000. Martingale Asset Management L P raised its stake in shares of Dana by 53.8% during the first quarter. Martingale Asset Management L P now owns 35,480 shares of the auto parts companys stock valued at $534,000 after purchasing an additional 12,405 shares in the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers raised its stake in shares of Dana by 0.3% during the first quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 462,809 shares of the auto parts companys stock valued at $6,965,000 after purchasing an additional 1,311 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Great Lakes Advisors LLC bought a new position in Dana in the 1st quarter valued at about $814,000. 93.67% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Dana Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Dana Incorporated provides power-conveyance and energy-management solutions for vehicles and machinery in North America, Europe, South America, and the Asia Pacific. It operates in four segments: Light Vehicle Drive Systems, Commercial Vehicle Drive and Motion Systems, Off-Highway Drive and Motion Systems, and Power Technologies.

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Farmers and Merchants Bancshares, Inc. (OTCMKTS:FMFG  Get Free Report) fell 2% during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as low as $24.00 and last traded at $24.00. 303 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 73% from the average session volume of 1,134 shares. The stock had previously closed at $24.50.

Farmers and Merchants Bancshares Stock Performance

The company has a fifty day moving average price of $21.72 and a 200 day moving average price of $21.80.

About Farmers and Merchants Bancshares

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Farmers and Merchants Bancshares, Inc, through its subsidiary, Farmers and Merchants Bank, provides commercial and retail banking services to individuals and businesses in Baltimore and Carroll counties in Maryland, and surrounding areas of northern Maryland. It offers checking, savings, money market, individual retirement, and sweep accounts, as well as certificates of deposit, remote check deposits, and repurchase agreements.

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Canadian Natural Resources Limited (TSE:CNQ  Get Free Report) (NYSE:CNQ) Director Stephen W. Laut sold 5,000 shares of Canadian Natural Resources stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$72.78, for a total value of C$363,895.00.

Stephen W. Laut also recently made the following trade(s):

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On Thursday, May 25th, Stephen W. Laut sold 60,000 shares of Canadian Natural Resources stock. The shares were sold at an average price of C$75.46, for a total value of C$4,527,600.00.

Canadian Natural Resources Trading Up 1.2 %

CNQ stock opened at C$80.00 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 35.14, a current ratio of 0.83 and a quick ratio of 0.54. The stock has a market capitalization of C$87.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.40, a P/E/G ratio of 0.53 and a beta of 2.04. The business has a fifty day moving average price of C$75.09 and a 200 day moving average price of C$76.80. Canadian Natural Resources Limited has a fifty-two week low of C$61.23 and a fifty-two week high of C$84.25.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Canadian Natural Resources ( TSE:CNQ Get Free Report ) (NYSE:CNQ) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 4th. The company reported C$1.69 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of C$1.62 by C$0.07. The company had revenue of C$8.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of C$8.48 billion. Canadian Natural Resources had a return on equity of 25.00% and a net margin of 23.94%. Analysts expect that Canadian Natural Resources Limited will post 6.6185567 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Desjardins lowered their price target on shares of Canadian Natural Resources from C$97.00 to C$95.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 25th. Scotiabank increased their price target on shares of Canadian Natural Resources from C$86.00 to C$87.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 13th. UBS Group set a C$90.00 price target on shares of Canadian Natural Resources and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 12th. CSFB dropped their target price on Canadian Natural Resources from C$93.00 to C$90.00 in a report on Thursday, April 6th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price target on Canadian Natural Resources from C$85.00 to C$82.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 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 data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of C$89.59.

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Canadian Natural Resources Company Profile

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Canadian Natural Resources Limited acquires, explores for, develops, produces, markets, and sells crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids (NGLs). The company offers light and medium crude oil, primary heavy crude oil, Pelican Lake heavy crude oil, bitumen (thermal oil), and synthetic crude oil (SCO).

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iShares Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Multisector ETF (NYSEARCA:IRBO  Get Free Report) shares fell 0.4% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $32.84 and last traded at $33.02. 93,565 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 22% from the average session volume of 120,558 shares. The stock had previously closed at $33.15.

iShares Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Multisector ETF Price Performance

The firm has a market cap of $482.09 million, a PE ratio of 11.56 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $33.04 and a 200-day simple moving average of $30.96.

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Hedge Funds Weigh In On iShares Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Multisector ETF

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Nelson Van Denburg & Campbell Wealth Management Group LLC grew its holdings in iShares Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Multisector ETF by 256.7% in the 1st quarter. Nelson Van Denburg & Campbell Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 1,202 shares of the companys stock worth $38,000 after acquiring an additional 865 shares during the last quarter. WFA of San Diego LLC purchased a new stake in iShares Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Multisector ETF in the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,000. Retirement Group LLC purchased a new stake in iShares Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Multisector ETF in the 1st quarter worth approximately $53,000. Sandy Spring Bank purchased a new stake in iShares Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Multisector ETF in the 1st quarter worth approximately $66,000. Finally, GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC purchased a new stake in iShares Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Multisector ETF in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $74,000.

About iShares Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Multisector ETF

The iShares Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Multisector ETF (IRBO) is an exchange-traded fund that mostly invests in stocks based on a particular theme. The fund tracks an equal-weighted index of global equities involved in robotics and artificial intelligence. IRBO was launched on Jun 26, 2018 and is managed by BlackRock.

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Meet Hunter Elward, Brett McAlpin, Jeffrey Middleton, Christian Dedmon, Daniel Opdyke, and Joshua Hartfield.

In January, these six white Rankin County, Mississippi Sheriff's Department officers entered a house without a warrant and sexually assaulted two black men.

The Associated Press reports that the victims were staying at a white woman's home in Braxton, where they had been invited to help care for her. The police arrived at the home following a complaint from a white neighbor about Black individuals at the residence.

During the incident, the officers used racist language and warned the men to avoid Rankin County and return to areas with a higher number of Black residents.

One of the victims, identified as Jenkins, sustained serious injuries when officer Elward fired a gun into his mouth, resulting in a lacerated tongue, a broken jaw, and a bullet wound on his neck.

The officers further subjected the two men to humiliating and abusive treatment, including handcuffing them, throwing eggs at them, forcing them to consume milk, alcohol, and chocolate syrup while lying on their backs, and making them strip and shower to erase the evidence.

The officers also used stun guns on the victims to compare the power of the weapons from their respective departments.

After having their fun, the officers then planned an elaborate cover-up. From The Philadelphia Inquirer:

As Jenkins bled on the floor, the officers devised a cover story for investigators: Elward brought Jenkins into a side room to conduct a staged drug bust over the phone and Jenkins reached for a gun when he was released from handcuffs. Middleton offered to plant an unregistered firearm, but Elward said he would use the BB gun. Dedmon volunteered to plant methamphetamine he had received from an informant. Jenkins was charged with a felony as a result, but the charges were later dropped. Opdyke put one of Elward's shell casings in a water bottle and threw it into tall grass nearby. Hartfield removed the hard drive from the home's surveillance system and later tossed it in a creek. Afterward, McAlpin and Middleton made a promise: They would kill any of the officers who told the truth about what happened.

The men, who are no longer working for the Rankin County Sheriff's office, are scheduled to plead guilty to an array of Federal charges including conspiracy against rights, obstructions of justice, deprivation of rights under color of law, discharge of a firearm under a crime of violence, and conspiracy to obstruct justice.. "U.S. District Judge Tom Lee said the men will be sentenced in mid-November. Dedmon and Elward each face a maximum sentence of 120 years plus life in prison and $2.75 million in fines," reports AP. "Hartfield faces a possible sentence of 80 years and $1.5 million, McAlpin faces 90 years and $1.75 million, Middleton faces 80 years and $1.5 million, and Opdyke could be sentenced to 100 years with a $2 million fine.
Shares of John Hancock Premium Dividend Fund (NYSE:PDT  Get Free Report) reached a new 52-week low on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $10.94 and last traded at $11.00, with a volume of 123581 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $11.02.

John Hancock Premium Dividend Fund Trading Down 0.2 %

The firms 50-day simple moving average is $11.39 and its 200 day simple moving average is $12.16.

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John Hancock Premium Dividend Fund Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a monthly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.0825 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 10th. This represents a $0.99 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 9.00%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

John Hancock Premium Dividend Fund Company Profile

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bridge Advisory LLC grew its position in John Hancock Premium Dividend Fund by 5.8% in the 1st quarter. Bridge Advisory LLC now owns 431,283 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock worth $5,344,000 after purchasing an additional 23,781 shares in the last quarter. Alpine Global Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of John Hancock Premium Dividend Fund during the 4th quarter valued at $223,000. Advisor Group Holdings Inc. raised its position in shares of John Hancock Premium Dividend Fund by 12.1% during the 4th quarter. Advisor Group Holdings Inc. now owns 240,492 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $3,111,000 after buying an additional 25,891 shares in the last quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. raised its position in John Hancock Premium Dividend Fund by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 50,179 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock worth $649,000 after purchasing an additional 1,034 shares during the period. Finally, LPL Financial LLC raised its position in John Hancock Premium Dividend Fund by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 182,784 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock worth $2,365,000 after purchasing an additional 3,547 shares during the period. 7.25% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

(Get Free Report)

John Hancock Premium Dividend 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. 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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Morgan Stanley restated their equal weight rating on shares of Nabors Industries (NYSE:NBR  Free Report) in a research report report published on Monday, Benzinga reports. Morgan Stanley currently has a $160.00 price target on the oil and gas companys stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also weighed in on the company. Barclays lowered their target price on Nabors Industries from $150.00 to $140.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 8th. Susquehanna lowered their target price on Nabors Industries from $110.00 to $91.00 in a research note on Friday, June 2nd. Benchmark upgraded Nabors Industries from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 19th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Nabors Industries from $124.00 to $140.00 in a research report on Thursday, July 27th. Finally, 888 reissued a maintains rating on shares of Nabors Industries in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $145.00.

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View Our Latest Analysis on NBR

Nabors Industries Price Performance

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Nabors Industries

Shares of NYSE NBR opened at $119.71 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $1.14 billion, a P/E ratio of -20.39 and a beta of 2.80. The company has a current ratio of 1.80, a quick ratio of 1.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.23. Nabors Industries has a 1-year low of $83.05 and a 1-year high of $190.90. The businesss 50 day moving average is $102.89 and its 200-day moving average is $121.98.

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of NBR. Quarry LP acquired a new stake in shares of Nabors Industries in the 1st quarter valued at $25,000. CWM LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Nabors Industries by 132.2% in the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 281 shares of the oil and gas companys stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 160 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE boosted its holdings in shares of Nabors Industries by 165.9% in the 1st quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 226 shares of the oil and gas companys stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 141 shares in the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Nabors Industries during the 1st quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, Tower Research Capital LLC TRC boosted its holdings in shares of Nabors Industries by 89.6% during the 3rd quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 565 shares of the oil and gas companys stock valued at $57,000 after acquiring an additional 267 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.81% of the companys stock.

Nabors Industries Company Profile

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Nabors Industries Ltd. provides drilling and drilling-related services for land-based and offshore oil and natural gas wells in the United States and internationally. The company operates through U.S. Drilling, International Drilling, Drilling Solutions, and Rig Technologies. It provides tubular running, wellbore placement, directional drilling, measurement-while-drilling (MWD), equipment manufacturing, and rig instrumentation services; and logging-while-drilling systems and services, as well as drilling optimization software.

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Helix Energy Solutions Group (NYSE:HLX  Free Report) had its price target boosted by Piper Sandler from $13.00 to $14.00 in a report published on Monday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the oil and gas companys stock.

Separately, StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Helix Energy Solutions Group in a report on Thursday, May 18th. They set a hold rating on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Helix Energy Solutions Group presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $12.33.

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Helix Energy Solutions Group Stock Performance

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Helix Energy Solutions Group

Helix Energy Solutions Group stock opened at $9.53 on Monday. The firms 50 day simple moving average is $7.66 and its 200 day simple moving average is $7.62. The company has a current ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.44 billion, a PE ratio of -119.06 and a beta of 2.80. Helix Energy Solutions Group has a 1-year low of $3.57 and a 1-year high of $10.03.

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Helix Energy Solutions Group by 3.4% during the 2nd quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 132,001 shares of the oil and gas companys stock valued at $974,000 after purchasing an additional 4,325 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC raised its holdings in Helix Energy Solutions Group by 21.4% in the second quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 106,989 shares of the oil and gas companys stock worth $788,000 after buying an additional 18,832 shares during the last quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Helix Energy Solutions Group in the second quarter worth approximately $113,000. Bank of Montreal Can bought a new stake in shares of Helix Energy Solutions Group in the second quarter worth approximately $306,000. Finally, Strs Ohio bought a new stake in shares of Helix Energy Solutions Group in the second quarter worth approximately $312,000. Institutional investors own 95.52% of the companys stock.

Helix Energy Solutions Group Company Profile

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Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, an offshore energy services company, provides specialty services to the offshore energy industry in Brazil, the Gulf of Mexico, the East Coast of the United States, North Sea, the Asia Pacific, and West Africa regions. The company operates through Well Intervention, Robotics, Production Facilities, and Shallow Water Abandonment segments.

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Teekay Tankers Ltd. (NYSE:TNK  Get Free Report) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, August 3rd, Zacks reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 14th will be given a dividend of 0.25 per share by the shipping company on Friday, August 25th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.26%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 11th. This is an increase from Teekay Tankerss previous quarterly dividend of $0.24.

Teekay Tankers Price Performance

NYSE TNK traded up $0.20 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $44.28. The company had a trading volume of 127,662 shares, compared to its average volume of 486,611. Teekay Tankers has a 52 week low of $22.38 and a 52 week high of $48.05. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $38.49 and a 200 day simple moving average of $38.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 2.42 and a current ratio of 2.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 3.69, a PEG ratio of 1.07 and a beta of -0.08.

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Teekay Tankers (NYSE:TNK  Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, August 3rd. The shipping company reported $4.38 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.28 by $0.10. Teekay Tankers had a return on equity of 39.74% and a net margin of 32.12%. The business had revenue of $370.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $242.67 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.76 EPS. The firms revenue was up 52.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Teekay Tankers will post 13.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Teekay Tankers

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of TNK. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in shares of Teekay Tankers by 18.4% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 259,382 shares of the shipping companys stock worth $3,590,000 after acquiring an additional 40,309 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Teekay Tankers by 27.5% in the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 105,429 shares of the shipping companys stock worth $1,459,000 after acquiring an additional 22,761 shares during the period. Rhumbline Advisers grew its holdings in shares of Teekay Tankers by 20.7% in the first quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 32,864 shares of the shipping companys stock worth $455,000 after acquiring an additional 5,639 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Teekay Tankers by 2.5% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 98,450 shares of the shipping companys stock valued at $1,363,000 after purchasing an additional 2,394 shares during the period. Finally, NewEdge Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Teekay Tankers in the first quarter worth about $159,000. Institutional investors own 48.81% of the companys stock.

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on Teekay Tankers from $51.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Thursday. StockNews.com upgraded Teekay Tankers from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 18th.

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Teekay Tankers Company Profile

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Teekay Tankers Ltd. provides marine transportation services to oil industries in Bermuda and internationally. The company offers voyage and time charter services; and offshore ship-to-ship transfer services of commodities primarily crude oil and refined oil products, as well as liquid gases and various other products.

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Western Alliance Bancorporation (NYSE:WAL  Get Free Report) has been given a consensus recommendation of Moderate Buy by the fourteen research firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and twelve have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $54.93.

WAL has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of Western Alliance Bancorporation in a research note on Tuesday, May 16th. They issued a buy rating and a $42.00 target price for the company. StockNews.com started coverage on Western Alliance Bancorporation in a research note on Thursday, May 18th. They set a sell rating on the stock. Hovde Group reduced their target price on Western Alliance Bancorporation from $65.00 to $55.00 in a report on Thursday, April 6th. TheStreet lowered Western Alliance Bancorporation from a b- rating to a c+ rating in a research report on Thursday, April 6th. Finally, DA Davidson boosted their price objective on Western Alliance Bancorporation from $52.00 to $64.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Thursday, July 20th.

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Western Alliance Bancorporation Stock Performance

WAL stock opened at $52.14 on Friday. Western Alliance Bancorporation has a twelve month low of $7.46 and a twelve month high of $86.87. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.20. The company has a market cap of $5.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.61 and a beta of 1.42. The businesss fifty day moving average is $40.71 and its 200-day moving average is $46.50.

Western Alliance Bancorporation (NYSE:WAL  Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 19th. The financial services provider reported $1.96 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.97 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $669.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $657.14 million. Western Alliance Bancorporation had a net margin of 24.19% and a return on equity of 20.47%. The companys quarterly revenue was up 8.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.39 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Western Alliance Bancorporation will post 8.08 EPS for the current year.

Western Alliance Bancorporation Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 25th. Investors of record on Friday, August 11th will be given a dividend of $0.36 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 10th. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.76%. Western Alliance Bancorporations dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 17.29%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Western Alliance Bancorporation

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC raised its position in Western Alliance Bancorporation by 5.2% during the first quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC now owns 4,984 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $413,000 after acquiring an additional 247 shares in the last quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund acquired a new stake in Western Alliance Bancorporation in the 1st quarter valued at about $504,000. MetLife Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Western Alliance Bancorporation during the first quarter worth about $374,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in Western Alliance Bancorporation by 0.4% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,071,776 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $88,776,000 after buying an additional 4,468 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sei Investments Co. increased its position in Western Alliance Bancorporation by 13.8% during the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 126,197 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $10,440,000 after buying an additional 15,297 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.15% of the companys stock.

Western Alliance Bancorporation Company Profile

(Get Free Report

Western Alliance Bancorporation operates as the bank holding company for Western Alliance Bank that provides various banking products and related services primarily in Arizona, California, and Nevada. It operates through Commercial and Consumer Related segments. The company offers deposit products, including checking, savings, and money market accounts, as well as fixed-rate and fixed maturity certificates of deposit accounts; demand deposits; and treasury management and residential mortgage products and services.

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StockNews.com downgraded shares of WPP (NYSE:WPP  Free Report) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report published on Monday.

WPP Stock Performance

Shares of WPP stock opened at $53.53 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $11.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.70, a PEG ratio of 3.87 and a beta of 1.34. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $54.04 and a 200 day moving average price of $56.02. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.91. WPP has a 12 month low of $39.67 and a 12 month high of $64.07.

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Institutional Investors Weigh In On WPP

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Spire Wealth Management grew its position in shares of WPP by 23.6% in the 1st quarter. Spire Wealth Management now owns 1,006 shares of the business services providers stock valued at $60,000 after buying an additional 192 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC boosted its position in shares of WPP by 4.4% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 4,930 shares of the business services providers stock valued at $249,000 after purchasing an additional 210 shares during the period. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. grew its stake in WPP by 3.5% during the 1st quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 6,453 shares of the business services providers stock worth $384,000 after buying an additional 217 shares during the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. grew its stake in WPP by 34.6% during the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 977 shares of the business services providers stock worth $63,000 after buying an additional 251 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CWM LLC grew its stake in WPP by 85.1% during the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 583 shares of the business services providers stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 268 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 4.10% of the companys stock.

About WPP

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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gettyimagesbank



By Yi Whan-woo



Insurance companies in Korea are bolstering efforts to expand their business activities in overseas markets in a bid to nurture growth engines as the domestic market has become saturated, according to industry sources.



The companies include both non-life insurers and life insurers.



They are especially interested in the Southeast Asian market as the region is undergoing rapid economic development and has a large young population which could serve as a potential pool of new customers.



Of the non-life insurers, Dongbu Insurance has been aggressively expanding its business in Vietnam with the acquisition of controlling stakes in three Vietnamese companies beginning in 2015.



The Seoul-headquartered company in June signed an agreement to acquire a 75 percent stake in Saigon-Hanoi Insurance (BSH), which is ranked ninth in the Vietnamese insurance market.



The deal comes after the acquisition of a 37.32 percent stake in PTI in 2015 and then a 75 percent stake in VNI in February this year.



PTI and VNI were ranked fifth and 10th respectively in the Vietnamese insurance industry, when their respective shares were purchased by Dongbu Insurance.



The series of acquisitions allowed Dongbu Insurance to emerge as the third-largest market player in Vietnam.



KB Insurance, a subsidiary of KB Financial Group, is focusing on Indonesia to create more synergy with other business arms of the banking group operating within the Southeast Asian country.



The corporate entity of KB Insurance in Jakarta swung into the black in 2021 after posting a net loss of 3.5 billion won ($2.67 million) in 2020. Additionally, it reported a net profit of 1.16 billion won last year.



Furthermore, KB Life Insurance, another KB Financial Group affiliate, is mulling over whether it should tap into the Southeast Asian market and accordingly launched a global business unit during its corporate restructuring in 2022.



Samsung Life Insurance, Korea's largest insurer by market capitalization, is ratcheting up efforts to generate profit in Thailand. The company first advanced into Thailand in 1997 but only began to turn aprofits in recent years.



Its corporate entity in Bangkok began accepting online subscriptions earlier this year for a retirement pension plan.



Hanwha Life Insurance is targeting Indonesia as its next business destination in Southeast Asia after it became the first Korean life insurer to set foot in Vietnam in 2009, and expanded its presence as a top 10-ranked market player thereafter.



In March, Hanwha Life Insurance acquired a majority 62.6 percent stake in Lippo General Insurance, an affiliate of Lippo Group, Indonesia's sixth-largest conglomerate.



To help Korean insurance businesses accelerate their respective overseas expansions, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) said that it will continue to ease its regulations, such as allowing the companies to own banks overseas.


Torch glass making will be demonstrated by the folks with Glass Park, Fort Wayne, during todays Angola Art Fest on the Public Square. The annual festival runs from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and will feature more than 60 artists and a variety of music.
Leah Remini has been branded a "bigot" and a "horrible person" by the Church of Scientology.

The 'King of Queens' actress filed a lawsuit against the organisation and leader David Miscavige earlier this week, in which she accused them of subjecting her to 17 years of

harassment, intimidation, surveillance, and defamation , and the church has now hit back at the 53-year-old star, branding her claims "ludicrous".

They said in a statement: "This lawsuit is ludicrous and the allegations pure lunacy. Remini spreads hate and falsehoods for a decade and is now offended when people exercise their right to free speech, exposing her for what she isan anti-free speech bigot.

"Reminis complaints are like an anti-Semite complaining about the Jewish Anti-Defamation League for exposing the anti-Semites bigotry and propaganda."

Leah quit the church in 2013 and has campaigned against the controversial religion since, and the organisation accused her of causing "threats of and actual violence" towards members, as well as circulating "false propaganda".

The statement continued: "Reminis obsession with attacking her former religion, by spreading falsehoods and hate speech, has generated threats of and actual violence against the Church and its members as evidenced by multiple criminal convictions of individuals poisoned by Reminis propaganda.

"All the while, Remini has profited handsomely from her fabrications, through the sale of hate books, hate podcasts and paid-for tabloid hate television.

"Now that Reminis propaganda has been exposed, Remini has spun entirely out of control by filing a frivolous lawsuit attempting to stop free speech exposing her false propaganda. Reminis decade of harassment and fabrications are all coming back to haunt her.

"If Remini can no longer get a job, she has nobody to blame but herself. Obviously everybody in Hollywood now knows what we already knew: That Remini is a horrible person and toxic to so many who have the misfortune to come in contact with her.

"While Remini was in the Church, she had to restrain her antisocial traits. She said so herselfthat Scientology was the only thing keeping her monster at bay.

"The Church is not intimidated by Reminis latest act of blatant harassment and attempt to prevent truthful free speech. If Remini does not believe in free speech, then she should consider emigrating to Russia."

The lawsuit alleges the Church of Scientology stalked, surveilled, harassed, threatened, intimidated Leah and allegedly and created intentional malicious and fraudulent rumours about her via hundreds of Scientology-controlled and -coordinated social media accounts that she said existed solely to intimidate and spread misinformation.

The former 'Talk' host added her family members, friends and colleagues allegedly have also been incessantly harassed, threatened, intimidated, and embarrassed.

In 2018, the actress alleged the church was sending her death threats because they try to destroy our lives.
Representative Justin Pearson of Memphis and Representative Justin Jones of Nashville will return to the Tennessee legislature. Kicked out of office in a giant show of racism, where a white legislator who joined them in protesting was not similarly punished, the pair easily won special elections in their home districts.

The voters have spoken. I sincerely double the Republicans will listen, but we can be sure Pearson and Jones will be there to keep them honest.

TPM:

The landslide victories came almost three months after Pearson and Jones  two young, Black Democrats  were expelled by Tennessee Republicans for participating in a peaceful gun protest on the House floor. During the April demonstration, Pearson and Jones, alongside Rep. Gloria Johnson of Knoxville  an older white woman, who survived the GOP-led attempt to oust the trio  joined a group of demonstrators, made up mostly of teachers, children and parents holding signs and protesting the Nashville school shooting that left three children and three school personnel dead. The group packed the state's Capitol building and the House gallery and chanted, calling for gun restrictions. Jones, Johnson and Pearson cheered on the protestors from the front of the House chamber, with two of them using a bullhorn. In response, state Republicans moved forward with efforts to oust them, claiming the three Democrats "did knowingly and intentionally bring disorder and dishonor to the House of Representatives through their individual and collective actions." The Republican House leadership also made bad faith and over-the-top comparisons, likening the trio's behavior to the Jan. 6 "insurrection."

Featured Image: Twitter
By Dean Murray via SWNS

A design has been chosen for the Las Vegas mass shooting memorial.

The 1 October Memorial Committee (10MC) has recommended a proposal featuring 58 pillars of light to represent those who died.

JCJ Architectures concept was picked from five finalists by the Clark County Commission-appointed board.

The deadliest mass shooting in American history happened on October 1, 2017 when Stephen Paddock, a 64-year-old man from Mesquite, Nevada, opened fire on the crowd attending the Route 91 Harvest music festival on the Las Vegas Strip.

The shooting claimed the lives of 58 and left hundreds more injured.

The 10MC was tasked with gathering input from the public and developing recommendations for the permanent memorial.

Their other stated goal was "to honor the many heroes who inspired the nation with their bravery and all those whose lives were changed forever, and to celebrate resiliency and compassion of our community."

The winning designers commented: "The JCJ Architecture team is extremely humbled that the 1 October Committee has expressed a preference for our design proposal on the Las Vegas Memorial.

"As members of this community ourselves, we deeply appreciate what an important milestone this is, and to have our design concept ranked highly is especially meaningful to us.

"Engaging in this design process as a team, on behalf of the city we call home, has been a wonderful, and, at times, an emotional experience.

"We look forward to continuing to do impactful work in support of Las Vegas and hope to have the opportunity to create a place that brings the community together around remembrance, reflection and healing."

JCJ Design Principal Derek Sola added: "This validation from the committee is extremely humbling. This design concept is one that obviously became very emotional for all of us, and to have that acknowledged by the committee and the broader community is the greatest recognition we could ask for."

JCJ explained the memorial will serve as a place for individuals to reflect, grieve, and remember those who lost their lives.

They say they drew inspiration from candlelight vigils and the expression of vertical shafts of light.

"We developed a concept of the 58 Candles located at the heart of the memorial, honoring the 58 victims," they said.

When viewed from above, the memorial will be seen as an infinity symbol representing the concept of perpetuity and limitlessness.

A 58ft tall tower of light will be highly visible from anywhere along the southern Las Vegas Strip. The prominent structure of colored glass rises from the center of the memorial in two intertwining spirals that taper up to the sky.

An area called The Surround is a 1,600-square-foot circular chamber that conveys the concept of infinite space through an expression of 22,000 points of light, the number of attendees at the concert.

JCJ said: "Being a concertgoer with an audience of 22,000 people can be an exhilarating and memorable experience."
Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer historically didnt prioritize diversity and had a confusing system for handling discrimination complaints.

And some hospital employees said they had little faith hospital leadership would properly address those claims, which included racial slurs and endemic hostility toward employees of color.

These are among the key findings of a diversity report prepared for Roswell Parks Board of Directors by the Cozen OConnor law firm and kept secret since its 2022 completion.

We conclude that substantial changes need to be made to Roswell Parks existing policies and procedures regarding the reporting process for discrimination and related complaints, the report states.

The hospital publicly shared the 43-page report on its website Thursday after rejecting two prior requests from The Buffalo News seeking the document.

Roswell Park leaders had argued the document was a privileged communication from its lawyers and stressed the need to keep confidential the statements made by hospital employees.

Officials said they decided to release the report to demonstrate transparency and to show their commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.

Bigotry, bias and bullying has no place at Roswell Park, Board Chair Leecia Eve said during a meeting Thursday with The News editorial board. It is not the Roswell way. And it cannot, and it will not, be tolerated. Full stop.

The board vote on the reports release took place in a lengthy executive session held during a special meeting Thursday morning.

Roswell Park has paid $4.67 million to settle discrimination lawsuits, faces more complaints Fifteen lawsuits claiming employment discrimination based on gender, race or disability have been filed against Roswell Park over the last eight years. To date, The Buffalo News has found the cancer center has paid at least $4.67 million to settle six of the cases.

Its not clear why board members reversed course. Any discussion on the question took place behind closed doors.

Eve declined to detail what changed but said every board member supported releasing the report.

The document posted to Roswell Parks website redacts the names of employees interviewed for or referenced in the report.

Cozen OConnor states in the opening pages that it interviewed 14 employees and reviewed thousands of pages of documents. Most pages of the report have the word Confidential stretched across them.

The lawyers call the system in place at the time a well-intentioned but ineffectual patchwork quilt of procedures for responding to discrimination complaints that wasnt easy to follow.

Further, the report states, several current and former employees who were interviewed cited a lack of commitment by Roswell Parks leadership to meaningfully confront issues of discrimination.

And, according to the report, the workers referred to a group of senior hospital employees, known as untouchables, whose members would not face consequences for reported misconduct.

The report described diversity and discrimination issues at Roswell Park as significant and pervasive and recommended a structural change to how the hospital handles them.

Roswell Park officials too often were quick to pursue mediation to address racial and gender complaints, Cozen OConnor wrote. This tactic, according to the report, likely led more employees to file lawsuits and other external complaints because they lacked confidence their internal complaints were being taken seriously.

This signals a lack of trust in the reporting system, the law firm wrote. Further, mediation does not always suit the case.

The second half of the report dives deeper into what Cozen OConnor described as an apparently historical, under-prioritization of diversity and inclusion matters.

Roswell Park spending up to $500,000 on PR firm focused on diversity, equity and inclusion Western New York's premier cancer institution is looking to hire a public relations firm to promote its diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, a contract with an estimated value of $50,000 to $500,000 over a term of three to five years.

Women employees and employees of color reported microaggression and bullying, among other forms of discrimination, and said they feared retaliation if they lodged a complaint.

They said Black employees were called animals; a biracial employee was deemed fake Black; and an anesthesiology technologist, spotted putting on a pair of gloves, was referred to as OJ.

Even Black physicians said they felt marginalized despite their higher status at the hospital.

Recent reporting by The News and other media outlets had focused attention on issues of diversity and treatment of workers of color at Roswell Park.

Former employees had filed at least 15 lawsuits over the past eight years accusing hospital officials of racial, gender and other discrimination, a News review of state and federal court records found.

The complaints were brought by doctors, nurses and support staff at the hospital. They raised allegations of a hostile workplace environment, careers that unfairly stalled and retaliation against anyone who raised concerns.

Roswell Park has paid at least $4.67 million to settle six of the lawsuits, according to legal filings obtained through a public records request.

Hochul accepts resignation of Roswell Park board chair after racism claims against his company Michael Joseph had been on Roswell Park's board for 19 years, including the last 16 as board chair, but had recently faced a growing chorus calling for his removal from that post after his development company was hit last week with a federal racial discrimination lawsuit.

The boards decision to seek the review of how the hospital handled discrimination complaints came in 2020, soon after the murder of George Floyd brought new attention to issues of racial justice.

Roswell Park hired Cozen OConnor in March 2021 and the firm finished its report in April 2022.

The board, which also established a diversity committee, discussed the report behind closed doors but refused to release it publicly.

The hospital issued a public statement last August that largely skirted concerns raised by employees of color.

Five directors  including all four Black members from the time  wrote to their board colleagues blasting Roswell Parks failure to publicly confront the issues raised in the Cozen OConnor report.

Hospital administrators resisted releasing the report through the spring and early summer even as community and statewide leaders called on Roswell Park to act with greater transparency. For example, Dr. James V. McDonald, the new state health commissioner, said on a visit to Buffalo last month the hospital should look long and hard at releasing the report.

His visit came one month after Eve replaced Michael L. Joseph, the longtime board chair. Joseph resigned from the board after his development company was named in a discrimination lawsuit.

A prominent lobbyist, Eve is the first woman and first person of color to serve as Roswell Park board chair.

On Thursday, she emphasized Roswell Park already has taken steps to act on the recommendations in the report.

She noted Roswell Park hired Crystal Rodriguez-Dabney, a former deputy mayor of Buffalo, for the newly created position of senior vice president and chief diversity officer.

Eve said Rodriguez-Dabney will have the boards full support in her work to boost diversity, equity and inclusion at the 125-year-old institution.

I believe we can do better. We must do better. And we will do better, Eve said.

Rodriguez-Dabney said she believes the hospital deserves credit for hiring Cozen OConnor to closely examine its diversity challenges.

Im not quite sure that I can name any other organization, locally, thats done the same, she said.

The report can be found at https://www.roswellpark.org/diversity. Visitors must watch a video from Rodriguez-Dabney before seeing the report, which cant easily be downloaded.
When movie production companies come to Buffalo to film, theyve had no problem finding volunteer extras in the City of Good Neighbors.

Buffalo FilmWorks gets $750K from new investor The Western New York Impact Investment Fund is investing $750,000 in Buffalo FilmWorks.

But finding local workers they can hire to assist on film crews requires a trained talent pool.

The need for those workers is expected to grow, thanks to state tax credits making it less costly to make movies in Buffalo than in most other locales, Buffalo Niagara Film Commissioner Tim Clark said.

And the regions smallest college, Villa Maria College in Cheektowaga, is prepared to play a big role in training that workforce.

For seven years, Villa has offered Western New Yorks only bachelors degree in digital filmmaking, investing in production and post-production equipment and training students in producing, directing, lighting, sound, set and costume design, graphic design and editing.

Now, with Buffalo attracting more and bigger movies, Villa has partnered with key players in its blossoming film ecosystem to create short-term certification programs, including weekend boot camps in grip and electric  rigging and equipment technicians who set up cameras and lighting  and production assistant, a job Villa film professor Sarah Mann calls the lifeblood of the film industry.

The college teamed up with Buffalo Filmworks to train students on its sound stages using camera and lighting equipment supplied by Buffalo Camera and Expressway Cinema Rentals. In the last two years, they have trained eight classes of 10 to 20 people each, Mann said.

Villa President Matthew Giordano has also cultivated relationships with Clark and two Buffalo natives working in Hollywood, actor and filmmaker Addison Henderson and actor Bill Fichtner, to devise programs that best serve students and filmmakers.

As the regions production and post-production infrastructure expands along with New Yorks film tax credits, Clark said the local film industry is about to explode after slowing during the pandemic.

The tax credits allow up to 40% of expenses to go back into moviemakers pockets, Clark said. Its creating a rush to come here, and we feel there will be a tsunami of activity.

Buffalo FilmWorks recently completed one of the longest sound stages in the world, and when Great Point Media completes its three sound stages on Niagara Street later this year, Buffalo will have seven sound stages, and every one of them will likely be packed, Clark said.

With the inquiries were getting, even during the writers and actors strikes, its going to be a busy time, and training a tech workforce is a primary goal, he said.

Sarah Mann, a longtime friend of Clarks, said Buffalo wasnt a film town when she left for Bowling Green University in Ohio to study film production in 2011. But when she returned for her masters at the University at Buffalo in 2015, WNY was becoming a destination on the movie map.

I could see things were on the up and up, Mann said.

By the time she started teaching at Villa in 2018, state tax credits were enabling Buffalo to win film projects over other cities  such as Atlanta, Austin and Baton Rouge  that didnt offer such generous incentives. The late Chadwick Boseman had just starred in Marshall, filmed mostly in Buffalo, Fichtner was filming the drama Cold Brook and a rash of others were booking Buffalo for 2019 and 2020.

Villas film program, launched in 2016, was gaining steam, and Mann wanted to boost its technical production offerings to make Villa stand out from other film programs in the area.

I wanted to have more of a hands-on program and have students come away with a really hard set of practical skills that they can apply to whatever job they go into, she said.

Buffalo FilmWorks co-owners Jennifer ONeill and George Pittas agreed to share their soundstages to help Villa train future film workers. Villas grip and electric and production assistant boot camps, taught by local filmmakers Chuck and Tracy Moran, run from 9 to 5 a.m. on weekends several times a year for about $500 each.

ONeill said Buffalo FilmWorks tries to accommodate the classes among its four sound stages to train students on a stage where movies are actually filmed.

The more film workers we have here, the better for Buffalo, she said.

Romone Reeves, who just graduated with his degree in digital filmmaking, took the grip and electric class this year. He spent four years honing his writing, filming and directing skills, but said the boot camp schooled him in setting up lighting and camera shots, problem-solving and collaborating with a crew.

Chuck taught us to problem-solve little scenarios like, Oh, we dont have the dolly. How are we going to get the shot? Or, We cant set the light up here. Where else can we put this light to make it look like sunrise?  he said.

Tracy Morans production assistant class teaches organizational skills to help filming move smoothly, from wrangling extras and helping them fill out paperwork, to helping scout locations, to ordering lunch for the entire cast and crew. Getting to work early is also a production assistant mantra, Mann said.

Reeves and other students also benefited from Villas courting of BillFitchner, who plays Leo Nicoletti in ABCs new crime drama The Company You Keep, and Henderson, whose last film, the 2022 apocalyptic thriller G.O.D. Givers of Death, was filmed entirely in Buffalo.

Giordano invited Fichtner to give Villas commencement address this year, along with Q&A sessions for its film students.

Henderson got a call from Giordano after he filmed G.O.D in Buffalo.

We ended up on the phone for an hour, he said.

On the call, Henderson expressed his love for his hometown and teaching aspiring filmmakers. Giordano said, Lets do something, he recalled.

I told him my film was coming out last August, and Villa sponsored the premiere screening, Henderson said.

While in town, Henderson gave workshops for Villa students on the nuts and bolts of independent filmmaking. He plans to come back for more sessions in the fall. He also plans to shoot his next movie, a horror mystery titled Blythe, in the Buffalo area, and plans to offer Villa students intern opportunities on set.

Clark said other producers who have filmed in Buffalo are also eager to return. He recently hosted Jonathan Sanger, who shot Marshall and the 2024 release Cabrini here, for a week of scouting locations.

Tax credits and sound stages may attract producers to Buffalo, but once here, filmmakers fall in love with its period architecture, ease of travel from city to natural settings and hospitable people, Clark said.

When they shoot in the big cities and call time is at 8 a.m., theyre lucky if theyre ready to shoot by noon, he said. Here, if you have an 8 a.m. call time, people are there at 7:15, getting their coffee and ready to work.

Thanks in part to Villa, the Film Office database of trained workers is growing, as is membership in the local chapter of the film crew union, International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Union (IATSE) 52, Clark said.

When we started, there were 12 members, and now there are about 200, he said.

Clark said a Hollywood company yet-to-be announced has plans to build a post-production hub in the area.

Mann has watched many film school colleagues move to New York or Los Angeles, but she said aspiring filmmakers can now stay in Buffalo to work in the industry.

I tell students, You are in the right place at the right time,  she said.
A state judge ordered a Genesee County man to pay $6 million to two women who filed Child Victims Act lawsuits alleging that he repeatedly molested them when they were young children.

In a decision issued Tuesday, Supreme Court Judge Mark J. Grisanti found that the allegations of multiple sexual assaults against Erik P. Roth, 53, of Elba, are credible.

The two women who filed the lawsuits were between 3 and 6 years old when Roth sexually assaulted them during the years 2003-2006, according to their attorney, Christopher J. OBrien.

Both women are relatives of Roth, and both have required physical and mental health treatment because of the effect that Roths actions had on their lives, OBrien told The Buffalo News on Thursday.

Grisanti heard the case during a three-day, non-jury trial in May.

These two young women understood that they would have to testify in public about horrific memories, and then be cross-examined about those events, OBrien said. They bravely stood up for themselves.

Jury awards $100 million in local Child Victims Act case 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.

OBrien said he has no idea if Roth, a home builder, has the ability to pay $6 million to the victims. This trial was about proving he did it and assessing the amount of the damages, the attorney said.

The case has a long and twisted history, and Roth, according to court papers, has repeatedly denied the allegations.

In July 2008, a Family Court judge found the allegations not credible and dismissed a petition filed against Roth. But eight months later, a panel of judges from the Fourth Department of the State Appellate Division reversed that decision, finding that the two children were sexually abused.

After Genesee County Sheriffs deputies charged Roth with sexually assaulting the two girls, a judge found him not guilty of criminal conduct, following a non-jury trial in 2012.

According to Grisantis written decision, Roth again denied the allegations while testifying during the latest trial in May. The judge quoted Roth as saying the charges were unfounded.

David Heffler, a mental health counselor who works with sex abusers and sex abuse victims, interviewed the two women and found their recollections of abuse to be credible, Grisanti wrote.

Plaintiffs are found to be credible and the testimony and exhibits show that the Plaintiffs experienced sexual assault at the hands of Defendant for two to three years, Grisanti wrote. The Court finds the Defendant liable.

The judge ordered Roth to pay $3 million in damages to each of the women.

A News reporter left email and telephone messages for Roths attorney Thursday but did not hear back from him.

A person who answered the phone at a number in Elba publicly listed for Roth said Roth does not live there. Roth did not respond to an attempt to reach him by social media.
SRV Media

New Delhi [India], August 4: Renowned brand in the copier and printer industry, Copier Bazar India Pvt Ltd recently announced the impressive expansion of its product portfolio with the introduction of high-quality toners imported directly from Japan. Since its establishment in 2020, Copier Bazar has become synonymous with excellence, offering a wide range of copiers, printers, inks, toners, and cartridges at competitive prices. The recent introduction of premium Japanese toners further strengthens Copier Bazar's commitment to delivering top-notch products to its valued customers.

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On recognizing the potential of online platforms to serve customers more effectively, Copier Bazar soon forayed into the e-commerce space. By embracing this approach, the company extended its presence across India, providing photocopier and printer spares, as well as other products, at remarkably low prices with convenient cash-on-delivery services.

What sets Copier Bazar apart from its competitors is its unwavering dedication to customer satisfaction. Before a product reaches the customers' hands, it undergoes rigorous testing and customization to meet specific requirements. The brand offers Compatible Toners, which deliver the same high-quality performance as OEM or original toners, ensuring optimal printing results.

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Commenting on the latest product launch, Keyoor Khandelwal, Director of Copier Bazar, said, "We are thrilled to introduce our latest range of high-quality toners to our esteemed customers. The overwhelming response from them motivates us to continuously elevate our product offerings.

Copier Bazar's commitment to excellence is driven by its core principles which include maintaining the highest levels of quality and authenticity. The brand ensures reliable and top-notch solutions that precisely meet its customers' needs. One of its key products is YK inkjet-compatible inks which are used in major inkjet printer brands present across India. Additionally, it offers a wide variety of copier and printer spare parts for businesses in different sectors. With an extensive product range, customers can find the perfect fit for their printing setups, be it any commercial printer points, or copier shops.

Driven by a customer-centric approach, Copier Bazar has established a user-friendly online platform that ensures a seamless and convenient shopping experience. Customers can easily browse, select, and order products from the comfort of their offices or homes. To further enhance customer satisfaction, the brand emphasizes Efficient Customer Support, promptly addressing inquiries and concerns to provide immediate assistance whenever required.

In line with its corporate responsibility, Copier Bazar places a strong emphasis on Sustainability, integrating eco-friendly practices into its operations to contribute to environmental preservation. The brand is dedicated to continuous improvement and innovation, constantly pioneering advancements to remain at the forefront of the industry. Additionally, Copier Bazar actively engages with local communities through community engagement initiatives, collaborating to make a positive social impact and give back to society. With a commitment to quality and sustainability, Copier Bazar further solidifies its position as a trusted partner for businesses seeking cutting-edge solutions.

Pushing the boundaries of innovation, Copier Bazar has firmly etched its name in the hearts of customers all across India. Serving their needs effectively and efficiently through its user-friendly online platform, Copier Bazar has become a renowned name in the copier and printer industry.

For more information about Copier Bazar and its product offerings, please visit www.copierbazar.com

(Disclaimer: The above press release has been provided by SRV Media. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same)

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PRNewswire

Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], August 4: India's groundwater crisis is a pressing concern, but The Art of Living is taking proactive measures to address it. Their commendable River Rejuvenation Project aims to revive desiccated rivers sustainably. A report highlights that 63% of Indian districts face declining groundwater levels, underscoring the situation's urgency. With a systematic and scientific approach, The Art of Living is working diligently to rejuvenate rivers and ensure water supply for rural India. Reviving rivers is crucial for the well-being of both rural and urban communities. The Art of Living's commitment to this sustainable approach showcases their determination to tackle India's water scarcity issue.

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The Solution & Methodologies

The Art of Living team uses a comprehensive approach to restore the hydrological cycle and revitalise water bodies. This involves restoring rivers, drains, lakes, and ponds to their natural state, enabling efficient rainwater capture. Local communities are actively involved, and capacity building through training is emphasised. Afforestation and soil conservation measures are implemented. Specialised structures designed by their scientists, hydrogeologists, and GIS experts maximise water percolation into groundwater aquifers. Some of these structures include :

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Implementing Boulder Checks proves to be a highly effective method for reducing water runoff velocity. These structures aid in increasing soil moisture and play a crucial role in preventing erosion. The successful implementation of this technique is evident in its application within the Bundelkhand watershed project.

Recharge Wells enhance groundwater recharge through stream network channels. These wells, typically 6-metre deep and 1-metre in diameter, constructed with concrete rings, are filled with jelly and gravel material. Recharge wells have proven to be a highly effective method of water conservation, successfully implemented in numerous projects.

Recharge Borewells or Injection Wells revitalise Deeper Aquifers through Groundwater Recharge. These borewells are typically drilled to depths ranging from 80 to 100 metres, serving as focused water recharge points. They are crucial in augmenting groundwater recharge within dried-up fracture horizons and lineament zones.

Recharge Shafts serve as essential recharge structures in ponds and play a crucial role in water conservation. These structures feature deep rectangular filter chambers that act as natural filters. These structures facilitate the natural recharge of groundwater levels by enabling water to penetrate up to 100 feet.

Gabion Structures are built along the stream flow using locally sourced boulders. These structures, known as boulder checks, effectively slow down the water flow and promote soil moisture recharge. This, in turn, facilitates the growth of natural vegetation.

A Subsurface Dyke is a barrier built below the ground in the permeable zone to prevent the base flow from flowing downstream and enhance the water level on the upstream side. Through obstruction of the natural flow of water, a subsurface dyke controls the amount of water stored in an aquifer.

Desiltation restores water-carrying capacity and harness nutrient-rich silt for soil enrichment. Desilting involves gradually removing accumulated silt from water bodies over the years. This crucial process aids in rejuvenating the water body's ability to carry water. At the same time, the extracted silt, abundant in nutrients, can be utilized as a valuable soil enhancer in agricultural practices.

Deep Contour Trenches work well in low rainfall regions mitigating soil erosion and enhancing soil moisture. Deep contour trenches are particularly suitable for areas experiencing rainfall below 750 mm per year, with up to 8% slopes. These purposeful channels are designed to effectively combat soil erosion while increasing the soil's moisture content.

Farm Ponds enhance surface water accessibility for livestock and local needs. Water reservoirs are strategically built at the confluence of streams to minimize evaporation losses and capture subsurface flow. Serving as micro eco-restoration cells, these ponds facilitate water availability while promoting ecological balance.

Implementing the aforementioned watershed projects can yield substantial outcomes in water conservation and reduction of soil erosion. Integrating these techniques makes it possible to prolong the lifespan of water streams and ensure sustainable water availability for diverse purposes.

Reflecting a significant impact on the drying up of rivers

The River Rejuvenation Project, led by The Art of Living, has significantly impacted the issue of rivers drying throughout the nation. Let's explore some notable achievements in various states:

The project is successfully rejuvenating twenty-two rivers and streams in Karnataka, including Kumudvathi, Vedavathi, and Palar. The Kumudvathi watershed spans over 200 villages and covers a catchment area of more than 460 square kilometres, positively influencing 1,90,000+ people. The Vedavathi project, which encompasses a larger area, has benefited numerous communities relying on river water for household and agricultural purposes. In the Karnataka State, desilting efforts have covered over 96,000+ square kilometres, with 155,000+ trees planted. These initiatives have directly impacted more than 13,000 villages in Karnataka.

In Tamil Nadu, an impressive achievement of rejuvenating 23 rivers and streams has been accomplished. This remarkable outcome was made possible by constructing over 6,500 structures, providing substantial benefits for over 1,400 villages. The positive impact of these initiatives spans a vast area exceeding 18,085 square kilometres.

In Uttar Pradesh, the river rejuvenation work has benefitted 41 villages and changed the status of 2 blocks - Chamraua and Saidnagar favourably, as per the reports by Central Groundwater Board.

In Andhra Pradesh, river rejuvenation efforts have commenced in the Cuddapah and Anantapur districts focusing on the Penna and Papagani river basins.

In Maharashtra, the River Rejuvenation Project has successfully restored 33 rivers and streams, significantly improving the lives of over 2,075,000 people.

The dedicated efforts of The Art of Living volunteers have played a crucial role in restoring and revitalising rivers and streams, positively impacting millions of people across the country.

About The Art of Living - Social Projects

The Art of Living, a non-profit, educational, and humanitarian organisation founded in 1981 by the world-renowned humanitarian and spiritual leader Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, aims to bring India out of its water scarcity through various social projects, one being the River Rejuvenation Project.

For more updates:

Follow us at: https://www.instagram.com/artofliving.sp/Like us at: https://www.facebook.com/artoflivingsocialprojectsTweet us at: https://twitter.com/artofliving_spMessage us at: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/artofliving-sp

Contact:

Shamika GandhiContact No.: +91-9986557389Mail ID: shamika.gandhi@projects.artofliving.org

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1979631/AOLSP_logo_Logo.jpg

(Disclaimer: The above press release has been provided by PRNewswire. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Chandigarh, Aug 4 (PTI) Punjab Director General of Police Gaurav Yadav on Friday held a law and order review meeting ahead of the Independence Day celebrations in the state.

According to an official statement, the DGP was in Hoshiarpur to hold the high-level meeting with the officers of police districts  Jalandhar Commissionerate, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala and Jalandhar Rural.

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The meeting was attended by Jalandhar Range Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Swapan Sharma, Hoshiarpur Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Sartaj Singh Chahal, Jalandhar (Rural) SSP Mukhwinder Singh Bhullar and Kapurthala SSP Rajpal Singh Sandhu.

Yadav said he has shared the security alerts received ahead of Independence Day and given a detailed briefing to the officers to keep Punjab safe and secure.

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He mandated all the officers to not let anyone take the law into their hands and if any person was found indulging in any unlawful activities, he should be dealt with firmly and FIR should be registered immediately.

He also warned those trying to disturb law and order situations of stern action.

The DGP directed police commissioners and SSPs to increase the police checkpoints in their respective jurisdictions and ensure the checking of a maximum number of vehicles at every 'naka'.

Meanwhile, Yadav dedicated a slew of police initiatives in Hoshiarpur district including inaugurating a seminar hall at Police Lines and laying the foundation stone for the officers' mess.

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New Delhi [India], August 4 (ANI): The central government aims to work towards achieving zero stubble burning in the current season, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said after a high-level inter-Ministerial meeting held yesterday.

The meeting was held to review the preparedness by Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and the NCT of Delhi in preventing paddy stubble burning in the current season.

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These are largely the states where leftover paddy stubble is burnt after the Kharif harvest to make way for the Rabi crop sowing. In the process, it leads to the deterioration of the air quality in the national capital region and beyond.

The meeting was co-chaired by Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar and Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav.

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During the meeting, the States presented their action plan and strategies for preventing stubble burning in the current season. The States were advised to utilize the funds provided for crop residue management, make Crop Residue Management (CRM) machinery available well before harvesting season, and bring awareness amongst farmers against paddy stubble burning.

Speaking on the occasion, Minister Yadav stated that efforts to prevent paddy stubble burning for the last five years are bearing good results. Due to the concerted efforts of agencies like the Commission for Air Quality Management, burning instances in the States of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and NCT of Delhi have come down. There is a need to encourage ex-situ management of paddy straw which will provide raw materials to the user industries like Power and biomass.

Minister Tomar said stubble burning also creates a detrimental effect on farmland by adversely affecting soil health and its fertility apart from air pollution. (ANI)

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New Delhi [India], August 4 (ANI): The Anusandhan National Research Foundation Bill, 2023 was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Friday by Union Minister of Science and Technology Dr Jitendra Singh.

The Bill, after being passed by both Houses of the Parliament, seeks to establish a research foundation that will seed, grow and promote Research and Development (R&D) and foster a culture of research and innovation throughout Indias universities, colleges, research institutions, and R&D laboratories.

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The bill, after approval in the Parliament, will establish the National Research Foundation (NRF), an apex body to provide high-level strategic direction of scientific research in the country as per recommendations of the National Education Policy (NEP), at a total estimated cost of Rs. 50,000 crore during five years (2023-28), a release from the Ministry of Science and Technology stated.

The Department of Science and Technology (DST) will be the administrative Department of NRF which will be governed by a Governing Board consisting of eminent researchers and professionals across disciplines.

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The Prime Minister will be the ex-officio President of the Board and the Union Minister of Science and Technology and Union Minister of Education will be the ex-officio Vice-Presidents. NRFs functioning will be governed by an Executive Council chaired by the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, the press note stated.

NRF will forge collaborations among the industry, academia, and government departments and research institutions, and create an interface mechanism for participation and contribution of industries and State governments in addition to the scientific and line ministries.

It will focus on creating a policy framework and putting in place regulatory processes that can encourage collaboration and increased spending by the industry on R&D, the press release stated.

The bill will also repeal the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) established by an act of Parliament in 2008 and subsume it into NRF which has an expanded mandate and covers activities over and above the activities of SERB. (ANI)

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Nobody knows for sure why a bird that hangs out in marshes, mangroves, mudflats and lagoons in southern Florida, Texas and South America has been hanging around Buffalo.

Could it be it just wanted to get away from the torrid heat and wound up in the temperate clime by the Great Lakes?

Whatever the reason, the visiting roseate spoonbill  with light pink plumage and a long, broad, spoon-shaped bill  has become a sought-after attraction for all sorts of nature lovers in Buffalo the last few weeks.

Its a rare sight here, and people have traveled from Seneca Bluffs Park to Tifft Nature Preserve to Cazenovia Park to see the bird roosting or hanging out with egrets.

But it's not a rare bird.

Like most birds, they're only rare when theyre in the wrong location, said David F. Suggs, president of the Buffalo Ornithological Society.

He said the plumage with light pink feathers reveals that the bird was hatched this year. The birds grow to be about 30 inches tall.

This is a juvenile bird that left the nest sometime this calendar year and flew off maybe in a different direction, and wound up in Western New York, Suggs said.

Paul and Becky Foster of Newfane have been to Texas, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington and other states to see birds. They've seen roseate spoonbills in Florida, and went to Seneca Bluffs Thursday after hearing one was in the area.

"To see one up here, like this here, in Buffalo is pretty unique," Paul Foster said. "He was sitting there with an egret and great blue heron, and were thrilled. It makes it worth getting up in the morning when you see something like this."

Its flight north could have been influenced by the weather or perhaps it was a successful breeding season with many young birds competing for food and habitat, he said.

Its the first spotting of a roseate spoonbill in the Western New York and Ontarios Niagara Peninsula study area in the 94-year history of the Buffalo Ornithological Society, he said.

Buffalo isnt the only Northern city to get a visit from the Southern bird this summer. One landed in Green Bay, Wis., in recent weeks, according to Smithsonian Magazine. Roseate spoonbills were seen in Maine and Minnesota in 2018, according to the American Bird Conservancy. And one camped out for several weeks two years ago at the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge in central New York, Suggs said.

Traffic is up about 20% at Tifft Nature Preserve since the bird arrived, according to Kimberly Adriannsen, program and experience manager. Visitors come in throughout the day asking where it is.

Weve generally let people know the last time we know it was spotted on the preserve, she said. We cant predict when or where it will be at Tifft, and wed hate to disappoint guests who make a special trip but dont get the opportunity to see it.

Roseate spoonbills feed on small fish and crustaceans in fresh or saltwater, scooping the food with their long bill. But even if it took a liking to cooler weather, this bird's food source would be unavailable here when the shallow water freezes in the winter.

Chances are changes in the fall weather will likely stimulate the bird to seek a warmer climate, Suggs said.

With many people trying to see the rare bird before it flies south, birders urge caution and calm.

Suggs said the bird is large and easy to observe from a distance that does not disturb its natural feeding and roosting.

The birding community understands the ethics of giving the bird its space, Suggs said. I guess its a good thing birds have wings, if they dont like it, theyll move.

An earlier version of this story misspelled David Suggs name.
New Delhi [India], August 4 (ANI): Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Thursday informed Rajya Sabha that Central Bureau of Investigation has registered 135 cases against various Civil Service Officers during the last five years, a press release said.

The cases were filed during the time periods starting from 2018-2022 and upto June 30, 2023.

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In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Jitendra Singh informed that out of these 135 cases, charge-sheets have been filed in 57 cases in the concerned Courts for trial.

The Minister also informed that in last five years ( 2018 to 2022), Central Vigilance Commission has recommended action against 12,756 officers during first stage advice and 887 Officers during second stage advice.

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"Out of this, grant of sanction of prosecution was advised in respect of 719 officers," the minister said in the Rajya Sabha.

The maximum number of cases against Civil Service Officers have been lodged in Maharashtra with 24 cases followed by Delhi with 15 cases.

Ten cases have been lodged against various Civil Service Officers in Jammu and Kashmir.

The least number of cases were lodged in West Bengal, Kerala, Meghalaya and Andhra Pradesh with one case each. (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, Aug 4 (PTI) Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday said his party's alliance with DMK remains strong in Tamil Nadu and urged leaders to reach out to the people to win their trust, as he chaired a Lok Sabha poll strategy meeting for the southern state.

Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, Tamil Nadu Congress chief K S Alagiri, AICC in-charge of state Dinesh Gundu Rao, senior leaders P Chidambaram, Mani Shankar Aiyar and MP Karti Chidambaram, among others attended the meeting at the AICC headquarters here.

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In a tweet after the meeting, Kharge said, "Lok Sabha Elections preparation meeting with @INCTamilNadu leaders reflected upon a number of critical issues."

"Our alliance with DMK and like minded parties remains strong. Our leaders must reach out to the people and strengthen their trust in us," Kharge asserted.

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"The people of Tamil Nadu always identify Congress party with the era of the great Kamarajar and we intend to follow his path of welfare and social justice," the Congress chief said.

In a Facebook post, Gandhi said he had a fruitful discussion with the leaders of Tamil Nadu Congress about the preparations for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in the meeting led by Kharge.

"Fostering a better future for all Tamilians is an integral part of the Congress party's vision for the country," Gandhi said.

The party is holding poll strategy meetings for every state in order to prepare for next year's Lok Sabha elections.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Srinagar, Aug 4 (PTI) Three militant associates of 'The Resistance Front' (TRF), an offshoot of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), were arrested here on Friday, police said.

They were identified as Imran Ahmad Najar, a resident of Bulbul Bagh Baramulla, Waseem Ahmad Matta, a resident of Qamarwari Srinagar, and Wakeel Ahmad Bhat, a resident of Pazalpora Bijbehara.

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The three were nabbed by a police team at a checkpost at Harnabal Natipora in the city following specific input, a police spokesman said.

He said three hand grenades, 10 pistol rounds, 25 AK-47 rounds and other incriminating material were seized from their possession.

Also Read | Manipur Violence: Police Launch High-Level Probe Into Arms Loot From Two Police Outposts in Bishnupur.

The spokesman said Bhat was earlier an active terrorist linked with proscribed terrorist outfit ISJK and was lodged in jail for two years. He was released recently from the Central Jail on bail.

During preliminary investigation, it came to the fore that the trio had collected the explosive substances and ammunition from active terrorists of the TRF for carrying out terrorist activities in Srinagar, police said, adding with their arrest, a terror threat has been averted.

A case was registered and investigation set into motion, they said.

(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], August 4 (ANI): Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) National President JP Nadda chaired a meeting with all the Whips appointed by the party in both houses, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha on Friday.

It is reported that during this meeting held on the Parliament premises, Nadda discussed the strategy to deal with the opposition unity during the parliamentary session with the whips of both houses.

Also Read | Navalny: Russia Opposition Leader Gets 19 More Years in Jail.

During the meeting, the BJP President also gathered information about the MPs who don't regularly attend the parliament sessions and the MPs who do. According to sources, Nadda emphasized ensuring the presence of all party MPs in the house during the session.

Also, in the Rajya Sabha, the government needs to push through several important bills, including those related to the rights and services of the Delhi government. Therefore, BJP aims to ensure the availability of all its MPs in the House.

Also Read | Andhra Pradesh: Violence in Chittoor and Annamayya Districts As Police Stops TDP President Chandrababu Naidu's Convoy (Watch Video).

Meanwhile, Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday issued a three-line whip to its Lok Sabha MPs asking them to be present in the House from August 7 to August 11 as some bills apart from the no-confidence is due to come in the House next week.

The debate on the no-confidence motion against the BJP-led government is likely to take place on August 8 and 9 in the Lok Sabha and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to give a reply on August 10.

The no-confidence motion moved by opposition parties belonging to I.N.D.I.A was accepted by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla last week.

The opposition had given notice for the no-confidence motion after days of protest over their demand for a detailed discussion on violence in Manipur and a statement from the Prime Minister.

Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi had given notice for a no-confidence motion on July 26 on behalf of opposition parties of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (I.N.D.I.A) alliance.

After the motion was admitted, the Speaker said that the day and time of the debate will be decided later.

The government has said it is ready for debate on the no-confidence motion. The monsoon session will conclude on August 11. (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], August 4 (ANI): Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will present the Inter-Services Organisations (Command, Control and Discipline) Bill,2023 on Friday in Lok Sabha.

The bill seeks to empower the Commander-in-Chief or the Officer-in-Command of Inter-services Organisations in respect of service personnel who are subject to the Air Force Act, 1950, the Army Act, 1950 and the Navy Act, 1957, who are serving under or attached to his command, for the maintenance of discipline and proper discharge of their duties, and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto, be taken into consideration.

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According to the legislative business listed for the day in Lok Sabha, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan will present the Indian Institutes of Management (Amendment) Bill, 2023.

Various Private members' bills will be introduced in both Houses.

Also Read | Manipur Violence: Mob Loots Weapons Including Assault Rifles and Hand Grenades From Police Armoury in Bishnupur District.

In Lok Sabha, BJP MP Poonam Mahajan will introduce a Bill further to amend the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, of 1960.

AIMIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi will introduce a bill to protect the right to the privacy of individuals by prohibiting technologies that use facial recognition and remote biometric surveillance for matters connected therewith.

DMK MP Kanimozhi Karunanidhi will introduce a Bill to provide for the establishment of a National Climate Change Authority for an efficient mechanism to plan, monitor and achieve the net zero emission targets by the year 2070 and for the effective mitigation and adaptation of Climate Change and for matters connected with.

Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi will move a Bill to amend the Commission for Air Quality Management in National Capital Region and Adjoining Area Act, 2021.

Meanwhile, in Rajya Sabha, CPI MP Binoy Viswam will introduce a Bill to prevent superstitious practices and bring social awakening and awareness in the society against such evil practices and create a healthy and safe social environment with mutual trust and understanding among the people.

JDU MP Manoj Jha, Congress MP Imran Pratapgarhi, and AAP MP Raghav Chadha gave a suspension of business notice under Rule 267 in Rajya Sabha seeking discussion on the situation in Manipur.

Congress MP Manish Tewari on Friday gave an adjournment motion notice in the Lok Sabha to discuss the border situation with China.

In his letter to the Secretary-General, Lok Sabha, Manish Tewari said, "I hereby give notice of my intention to ask for leave to move a motion for the adjournment of the business of the house for the purpose of discussing a definite matter of urgent importance, namely: That this House do suspend Zero Hour and relevant rules relating to Question Hour and other businesses of the day to have a discussion on the border situation with China."

Meanwhile, the party floor leaders of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (I.N.D.I.A) will hold a meeting today at 10 am in the office of the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in Rajya Sabha in Parliament to chalk out the strategy for the floor of the house.

Earlier the Lok Sabha on Thursday passed the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023, which will replace an ordinance promulgated for handling the transfers and postings of senior officers in the city government. The Bill sailed through the Lower House of Parliament easily as the BJP-led NDA has the majority.

Union Communications, Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw introduced Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2023, in the Lok Sabha on Thursday.

Opposition members strongly opposed the introduction of the bill and said that the bill violates the fundamental right to privacy. They demanded that the bill should be sent to the standing committee for scrutiny. They said the government had withdrawn a bill on data protection last year and the new bill needs more scrutiny.

The Parliament has been witnessing a logjam over a number of issues, including the violence in Manipur, since the beginning of the Monsoon Session on July 20.

The opposition leaders have been demanding a full-fledged discussion on the issue including a statement by the prime minister in the Parliament. Both houses -- Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha -- have seen repeated adjournments amid massive ruckus by the opposition leaders. (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, August 4: Opposition bloc INDIA is likely to hold its next meeting on August 31 and September 1 in Mumbai, sources said on Friday. They said it would be held on the format of the Bengaluru meeting with leaders first confabulating in an informal setting on August 31 before their main meeting the next day. "The opposition meeting will be a two-day affair and will take place on August 31 and September 1 with all leaders approving the dates," a source said.

The likely venue would be a hotel in Pawai and there will be a press conference on August 1 evening, the source said. There have been several dates that have been talked about earlier but those did not work out as all leaders were not available on those dates. Opposition Meeting: INDIA Bloc Third Meeting on August 25 and 26 in Mumbai, Say Sources.

The third meeting of the bloc is being hosted jointly by the Shiv Sena (UBT) and the NCP's Sharad Pawar faction, with support from the Congress -- the three constituents of the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance. The MVA constituents had been holding parleys to schedule the meeting.

The INDIA bloc's first meeting was held in Patna in June and the second in Bengaluru last month. The coalition is also likely to announce the composition of committees for specific actions such as communication and 2024 general election campaign in the run-up to the polls. Opposition Meet Ends: 26-Party Front Vows to Put United Fight Against BJP Under INDIA Banner as Second Opposition Meeting Concludes.

A joint secretariat for better coordination among the parties will also be announced soon, the sources said. During the meeting, the parties are expected to iron out their differences as much as possible, especially in states where they are in a direct poll battle.

At the Bengaluru meeting, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge had announced the name of the opposition bloc -- Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) -- after a nearly four-hour-long meeting of the 26 parties. He had said a committee of 11 members will also be set up for coordination, and a convenor will be selected at the next meeting in Mumbai.

The 26 opposition parties which are part of the opposition alliance are: the Congress, TMC, DMK, AAP, JD(U), RJD, JMM, NCP (Sharad Pawar), Shiv Sena (UBT), SP, NC, PDP, CPI(M), CPI, RLD, MDMK, Kongunadu Makkal Desia Katchi (KMDK), VCK, RSP, CPI-ML (Liberation), Forward Bloc, IUML, Kerala Congress (Joseph), Kerala Congress (Mani), Apna Dal (Kamerawadi), and the Manithaneya Makkal Katchi (MMK).

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Chandigarh, Aug 4 (PTI) Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit has expressed gratitude on behalf of people to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the allocation of more than Rs 5,000 crore for the redevelopment of railway stations in Punjab and Chandigarh.

In a letter addressed to the prime minister, the governor, who is also the Administrator of the Union Territory of Chandigarh, conveyed his sincere appreciation for the government's decision to invest in the comprehensive redevelopment of Chandigarh railway station and 22 railway stations in Punjab.

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He highlighted that this allocation will have a transformative impact on the railway infrastructure of Punjab and Chandigarh, thereby elevating significantly the amenities at these stations and facilitating improved facilities for the passengers and travellers.

The generous allocation to the tune of Rs 4,762 crore for 22 railway stations of Punjab and Rs 436 crore for Chandigarh Railway Station is expected to bolster the development process in the north of Delhi, he said, according to an official statement on Friday.

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He further added that Chandigarh already represents an important economic hub in the region and redevelopment of its railway station will improve the overall efficiency of economic operations and passenger traffic in a big measure.

"The fact that the Hon'ble Prime Minister will personally inaugurate both the projects online on August 6 fills the people of Punjab with immense pride and privilege," he wrote.

Besides Rs 436 crore for Chandigarh Railway Station, Rs 23.7 crore for Kotkapura Junction in district Faridkot, Rs 25.1 crore for Sirhind in Fatehgarh Sahib, Rs 27.6 crore for Ferozepur Cantt and Rs 21.1 crore for Abohar in district Ferozepur have been sanctioned, according to the statement.

Among other stations, Ludhiana junction has received the lion's share amounting to Rs 460 crore.

Dhandari Kalan station has been allocated Rs 17.6 crore, Mansa Rs 26 crore, Mohali Rs 23.2 crore and Patiala railway station Rs 47.5 crore, it stated.

(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, Aug 4 (PTI) Congress leader Rahul Gandhi or his representative will have to show the Lok Sabha Secretariat a copy of the Supreme Court order staying his conviction to set the ball rolling for revocation of his disqualification as a lawmaker.

Former Lok Sabha Secretary General P D T Achari said that once the secretariat gets the order, it would initiate the process to issue a notification revoking his disqualification.

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After being convicted and sentenced to two years in jail by a Gujarat court in a defamation case, Gandhi was disqualified as a Lok Sabha member on March 23. He represented Wayanad (Kerala) in the Lower House of Parliament.

The Supreme Court on Friday stayed his conviction in the 2019 defamation case over his Modi surname remark.

Also Read | Rahul Gandhi-Modi Surname Case: Congress Leader Welcomes Supreme Courts Decision, Says Sachai Ki Jeet Hoti Hai (Watch Video).

A three-judge bench of Justices B R Gavai, P S Narasimha and Sanjay Kumar said no reason was given by the trial court judge while convicting Gandhi except that he was admonished by the apex court in a contempt case.

Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla afer the Supreme Court relief to urge him to restore Gandhi's membership at the earliest.

(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, Aug 4 (PTI) In a significant relief to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, the Supreme Court on Friday stayed his conviction in a 2019 defamation case over his Modi surname remark, paving the way for revival of his Lok Sabha membership.

The Lok Sabha speaker can now revive his membership on his own or Gandhi, armed with the apex court order, can seek restoration of his status as an MP.

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A three-judge bench of Justices B R Gavai, P S Narasimha and Sanjay Kumar, while granting Gandhi the relief, said no reason was given by the trial court judge while convicting him except that he was admonished by the apex court in a contempt case.

It said the least the trial court judge was expected to do was give some reasons for imposing the maximum sentence provided under the defamation act that led to Gandhi being awarded a term of two years in jail, having attracted the provisions of the electoral law that envisages automatic disqualification of an MLA or MP sentenced to two years in jail.

Also Read | Manipur Violence: Police Launch High-Level Probe Into Arms Loot From Two Police Outposts in Bishnupur.

It said the appellate court and high court did not consider these aspects while passing orders denying Gandhi the relief.

The top court had closed the contempt proceedings against Gandhi for wrongly attributing to it his "chowkidar chor hai" remark against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in connection with the Rafale case, with a warning to be more careful in future, after the senior Congress leader tendered an unconditional apology.

The term of the 17th Lok Sabha ends in May 2024.

The top court said in so far as his conviction is concerned, it has considered that the sentence for an offence punishable under section 499 (defamation) of the Indian Penal Code is for a maximum period of two years imprisonment or fine or both, and the trial judge has awarded the maximum sentence of two years.

"Except the admonition by Supreme Court in a contempt case, no other reason has been granted for this (conviction) by trial judge. It is to be noted only on account of this maximum sentence imposed by trial judge, provisions of sub-section (3) of Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act have come into play.

"Had sentence been a day lesser, provisions would not have been attracted, particularly when an offence is non cognisable, bailable and compoundable. The least the trial court judge was expected was give some reasons to impose maximum sentence. Though appellate court and high court have spent voluminous pages rejecting stay on conviction, these aspects are not considered in their orders," the bench said.

Referring to its earlier order in a contempt case against Gandhi, the apex court said while filing his affidavit in the contempt petition, he ought to have been more careful and exercised a degree of restraint in making such remarks which are alleged to be defamatory.

The apex court said Gandhi's conviction and subsequent disqualification not only affected his right to continue in public life but also that of the electorate who elected him to represent their constituency.

"No doubt the utterances were not in good taste and a person in public life is expected to exercise caution while making public speeches. Taking into consideration these and that no reason has been given by the trial judge for imposing the maximum sentence, the order of conviction needs to be stayed pending final adjudication," the bench said.

The top court clarified that the pendency of the present appeal will not come in the way of the appellate court in proceeding further with the appeal, which would be decided on its own merits in accordance with law.

"The parties would be at liberty to approach the appellate court for expeditious disposal of the appeal, which request would be considered by it, on its own merits," the bench said.

As the hearing began, the bench asked senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for Gandhi, and senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, representing complainant Purnesh Modi, to complete their submissions within 15 minutes each.

Initiating his arguments, Singhvi submitted Modi surname is not an identifiable class within the meaning of sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code who are authorised under law to file a defamation complaint.

He said it is for the first time that an amorphous group of 13 crore people (the Modis) have purportedly held themselves to be suing class.

Singhvi, clarifying that he was not arguing on the merits of the case, said the Modi, who is the complainant in the case, belongs to Modh Vanika Samaj.

"The persons who are named in one sentence in three-take speech are not concerned by this. Interestingly, persons who are aggrieved in this very small community of 13 crores, are BJP office bearers," he said.

In that 13 crore, there is no uniformity, homogeneity, identifiability, no boundary line and, secondly, Modi himself said his original surname was not Modi but Bhutala, Singhvi said.

Contending that the necessary ingredient of 'intention' to attract defamation is missing, the senior lawyer said one of the witnesses has admitted in his deposition before the trial court that he is not aware of Gandhi's intention to defame all people with the 'Modi' surname.

Singhvi submitted that awarding the maximum sentence of two years for criminal defamation is an extreme rarity when its a non-cognisable, bailable and compoundable offence.

He stated that the maximum sentence has the effect of "silencing" Gandhi for eight years, as it will disqualify him from elections as per the Representation of the People Act.

At this juncture, the bench said the trial court judge also talks about your (Gandhi's) criminal antecedents.

Singhvi told the bench his client is not a hardened criminal and was never convicted despite several cases having been filed against him by BJP workers.

He said there was a contempt case in the top court in which Gandhi tendered an unconditional apology.

The senior lawyer also argued the consequence of Gandhi's conviction is that a by-election will have to be notified for the Wayanad constituency.

"Election for Kerala seat has not been notified yet. Perhaps they know that chances of victory are less..I (Gandhi) have already lost two sessions of Lok Sabha. If the Supreme Court says no, I will lose the entire term," Singhvi said.

The bench then asked Singhvi not to make the issue political.

Questioning the evidence of the speech submitted in the case, Singhvi said the complainant has not heard the speech on his own and his source of information is secondary which is a WhatsApp message and a newspaper article.

Countering his submissions, Jethmalani said there is a plethora of evidence against the former Congress president.

Jethmalani said the videos of the speech were produced as evidence before the court and a person who heard Gandhi's speech, spread over 50 minutes, was produced as a witness.

He said 'Modi' was an identifiable class and every person having the 'Modi' surname has the right to file the complaint.

The top court remarked the single judge of the high court says merely because one is an MP is not a ground to extend a concession.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta urged the bench to not make "off-the-cuff remarks" on the Gujarat High Court.

"Sometimes, the Supreme Court criticises the High Courts for not giving adequate reasons and hence, High Court judges pass detailed orders," he said.

The top court was hearing a plea by Gandhi challenging the Gujarat High Court verdict which dismissed his plea seeking a stay on his conviction in the defamation case filed by Purnesh Modi over his "Modi surname" remark.

Gandhi, who persistently refused to apologise for his remark, urged the Supreme Court to stay his conviction in the criminal defamation case stemming from his comment, asserting he is not guilty.

Purnesh Modi had filed the criminal defamation case in 2019 against Gandhi over his "How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname?" comment made at an election rally in Kolar in Karnataka on April 13, 2019.

The Congress leader was disqualified as a Member of Parliament on March 24 after a Gujarat court convicted him and sentenced him to two-year imprisonment for criminal defamation for comments he made about the Modi surname.

The high court had dismissed his petition for a stay on conviction, observing that "purity in politics" is the need of the hour.

A metropolitan magistrate's court in Surat had on March 23 sentenced the former Congress president to two years in jail after convicting him under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 499 and 500 (criminal defamation).

Following the verdict, Gandhi was disqualified as an MP under the provisions of the Representation of the People Act.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Chittoor (Andhra Pradesh), Aug 4 (PTI) Several policemen and supporters of TDP as well as the ruling YSRCP were injured in stone pelting and arson during N Chandrababu Naidu's tour of the district on Friday, police said.

Naidu is on a Yudha Bheri' tour to highlight the failure of the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government in completing irrigation projects in various districts that were started by him when he was the chief minister.

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According to preliminary information, over 20 policemen deployed to provide security were injured.

"The incident of fierce stone pelting was reported on the way to Punganur where over 20 police personnel were attacked, including the DSP," Chittoor district Superintendent of Police Y Rishant Reddy told PTI.

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He said that the altercation started following alleged derogatory remarks by Naidu while addressing a rally at Mulakalacheruvu in Annamayya district, where he called Thamballapalle MLA Peddireddi Dwarakanatha Reddy 'Ravan'.

Reacting to these remarks, the ruling party supporters blocked the way to Angallu in Chittoor where Naidu was heading. This allegedly led to stone pelting by TDP cadres, in which several supporters from either side were injured, said Reddy.

Amid this riot-like situation, police resorted to lathicharge and dispersed the crowd, said the official.

Anticipating further law and order problems at Naidu's next rally scheduled at Punganur, police barricaded the town's entrance and diverted the roadshow via bypass road.

TDP cadres waiting for Naidu's arrival there allegedly attacked the police and burnt a bus and a vajra vehicle. Police fired teargas shells to disperse the agitators, the official said.

Meanwhile, Naidu condemned the alleged attacks of YSRCP leaders on TDP activists.

He visited the lift irrigation works of Nayani lake in Annamayya district today and later addressed the gathering and expressed concern over the alleged atrocities of the local legislator.

"The state will remain in peace only if such persons are sent to jail. If you come with a stick, we will face you with several sticks," Naidu said.

There were some YSRCP workers at that meeting, waving black flags, which prompted Naidu to tell them that no power on earth could threaten him.

However, when the TDP leader was proceeding towards Angallu village, some YSRCP supporters allegedly tried to attack those who were present there, injuring them. Naidu then warned the ruling party leaders of serious consequences if such violence continues.

Later, Naidu asserted that he is a son of Chittoor soil and challenged YSRCP leaders to face him as he is ready to come to Punganur.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Paper chase

The case of the Lake View litterbug lives on.

For several years, readers will recall, Edward and Cheryl Patton woke up most days to find a used coffee cup or two on their front lawn, eventually collecting hundreds of the cups.

With the help of neighbors, Hamburg police caught Larry Pope, a disgruntled former co-worker of Cheryls, in the act in April 2021.

Pope was charged with harassment and cited for a traffic infraction. The charges were dismissed after he apologized to the Pattons, reimbursed them for their expenses and performed community service.

The saga drew widespread attention after The Buffalo News reported Popes arrest.

It came up again last week in this article on the Gothamist news site:

Greenpoint mystery solved: serial litterer was NYPD sergeant

In that similarly odd case, someone driving in a car in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn spread reams of paper along a single, tree-lined block nearly every Sunday morning for four years.

A serial litterer was precisely slicing pages from old Readers Digests, Bibles, junk mail and 1970s porn magazines before dumping them on the street, the Gothamist reported.

Surveillance video led investigators to a New York City police sergeant.

His motive remains unclear.

His punishment? Losing one vacation day.

A whole lotta Linda

The United States was crawling with people named Linda from the late 1930s to the close of the 60s, when the name began to fall out of favor.

It became trendy again two weekends ago in Niagara Falls, when 45 members of the Linda Club gathered on the American side of the mighty cataracts.

It was the latest annual gathering of a club started in 1987 by a woman named Linda who thought it would be fun to socialize with others who shared the moniker.

As the group grew, members decided 25 years ago to travel someplace different for annual gatherings.

Niagara Falls has been on several Linda bucket lists, and they begged me to organize this years convention, said Linda Morris, a Town of Tonawanda native who retired from the U.S. Department of Defense in 2010, after a career in military.

Lindas and Lyndas traveled to the Falls from Iowa, Nebraska, Connecticut, Florida, Ohio, Virginia, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Kansas, New York and Canada. Linda Johnson from Cheektowaga dropped in to meet the group.

Linda trips also involve bestowing a donation to a local nonprofit  in this case, $2,000 to Nickel City Canine Rescue.

Linda is the 1,138th most popular girls name this year, down 286 spots since last year, according to the Baby Center, a website that tracks name popularity using U.S. Social Security and birth data.

But for one day anyway, it was the most common name in Niagara Falls.

This is a lively bunch of ladies enjoying life, Norris said. Most of us are seniors now, yet have boundless energy on convention weekend.

 Scott Scanlon

Save the date

The legalization of marijuana in New York State means that newcomers to cannabis culture have a lot of catching up to do.

For instance, some have had to learn that the number 420 and the date April 20 (4/20) are surefire ways to attract rolled eyes or giggles. A Bills fan who got a vanity license plate that says 420FAN learned that the hard way.

But hes hardly alone in finding that a simple three-digit number can be hilarious.

Lockport native and State Capitol reporter  and friend of Off Main Street  Jon Campbell noted last month that the first legal marijuana dispensary in the Bronx, Statis Cannabis, had opened.

And what time did it open for business on July 6?

4:20 p.m.
Rudraprayag, Aug 4: Twelve people have gone missing after a flash flood in a waterfall swept away three shops near Gaurikund on the Kedarnath yatra route, officials said on Friday. The flash flood occurred on Thursday night following heavy rains, they said. Relief and rescue operations were launched by National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) personnel but none of the missing people have been found yet, Circle Officer Vimal Rawat told PTI from the spot. Uttarakhand Flood: SDRF Personnel Rescue Girl Whose House Submerged in Floodwater in Haridwar Village (Watch Video).

Heavy rains coupled with boulders falling intermittently from the hillsides are hampering relief and rescue efforts, they said. Information regarding the missing people, including some from Nepal, is being gathered, he said. India Monsoon Rain Forecast Update: Heavy to Very Heavy Rainfall Likely in Several States Till August 6.

Uttarakhand Flash Flood Video

raining heavily since last night. Around 13 Nepali labourers missing after a shop hit by a boulder was damaged at Gaurikund, en route Kedarnath. Amid rains, rescue teams are searching for survivors #Uttarakhand #Kedarnath #rain pic.twitter.com/tBpGy6AFgR  Preeti Sompura (@sompura_preeti) August 4, 2023

Those missing have been identified as Vinod (26), Mulayam (25), Ashu (23), Priyanshu Chamola (18), Ranbir Singh (28), Amar Bohra, his wife Anita Bohra, their daughters, Radhika Bohra and Pinki Bohra, and sons Prithvi Bohra (7), Jatil (6) and Vakil (3), officials said.

(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, Aug 4 (PTI) The Congress on Friday said the Supreme Court staying Rahul Gandhi's conviction in a defamation case is the victory of truth, democracy and the Constitution, with the former party chief asserting that he will continue to protect the 'idea of India'.

Party president Mallikarjun Kharge hailed the Supreme Court ruling as a "victory of the people" and said that while just 24 hours were taken to disqualify Gandhi from Lok Sabha after his conviction, it is to be seen how long will it take to reinstate him after the apex court relief.

Also Read | Andhra Pradesh Shocker: Woman Murders Cop Husband for Lover Over Extramarital Affair in Visakhapatnam, Three Accused Arrested.

Soon after the court ruling, Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury met Speaker Om Birla and urged him to reinstate Gandhi at the earliest.

"We have met the Lok Sabha speaker and have urged him to restore Gandhi's membership in Lok Sabha after the Supreme Court has granted him relief. We want that Rahul Gandhi should speak on the 'no-confidence motion' against the government in the Lok Sabha on August 8," he said.

Also Read | Mere Charo Taraf Bam Laga Hai, Elderly Woman in Legal Soup For Spreading Bomb Rumours At Pune Airport.

Gandhi, who was accorded a grand welcome by party workers at the AICC headquarters soon after the court ruling, briefly addressed the media saying, "Truth always triumphs, if not today then tomorrow or the day after. I thank people for their support."

"My path is clear to me (as to) what is my work, there is clarity in my mind about that. I thank the people who helped us and the people for their love and support that they extended," he told reporters.

"Come what may, my duty remains the same. Protect the idea of India," Gandhi said in a tweet.

Ecstatic party workers at the AICC headquarters danced to the beats of drums, distributed sweets and unfurled the Congress flag to welcome Gandhi.

The former Congress chief visited the party office along with his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who earlier tweeted citing a quote by Gautam Buddha - "Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth."

Congress spokesperson and Gandhi's counsel Abhishek Singhvi asserted that any delay in Rahul Gandhi's reinstatement as a Lok Sabha member on account of "excuses" by the government would be mala fide, unfair and "completely contrary to the heart and soul of parliamentary democracy".

The Opposition party said if the government delays his re-instatement by making excuses as the ones it made in the case of NCP MP Mohammad Faizal, it will have no alternative but to take legal recourse.

Kharge said it is a day of happiness and welcomed the Supreme Court ruling.

"It is a day of happiness, democracy has won, Constitution has won, Satymeva Jayate."

"This is the victory of the common people. This is not just Rahul Gandhi's victory, this is the victory of all the people of the country, victory of democracy and of constitutional principles," he said.

"Constitution is alive and this is an example that one can get justice. This is the victory of the common people and of constitutional principles," he added.

"The person who fights for truth, for the country's interest, to strengthen the country, for the youth of the country, against rising prices, the person who fights and makes people aware, who walked 4,000 km from Kanyakumari to Kashmir and met various people, I think their prayers are with us and it is, therefore, victory of the people," the Congress president said.

Congress' general secretary organisation K C Venugopal also hailed the verdict.

"We welcome the Hon'ble Supreme Court's verdict staying Sh. Rahul Gandhi ji's conviction. Justice has prevailed. No force can silence the voice of the people," Venugopal said on Twitter.

In a tweet in Hindi, the Congress said, "It is a victory of love over hate. Satyamev Jayate -- Jai Hind."

Party general secretary Randeep Surjewala said justice has prevailed.

"The roar of truth will be heard again the halls of democracy" he said.

"Congratulations India. Today, the power of truth, the courage and hopes of crores of countrymen has won at the altar of justice. Despite attempts and conspiracies..., the true custodian of the country's democracy and constitution won," Surjewala said.

Senior party leader P Chidambaram said, "We maintain that the case was manufactured with the sole intention of keeping Mr Rahul Gandhi from Parliament."

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said the judgment is a strong vindication of truth and justice.

"Despite the relentless efforts of the BJP's machinery, Rahul Gandhi has refused to bend, break or bow, choosing instead to place his faith in the judicial process," he said on Twitter.

Chowdhury also said that "we fear the government may create hurdles and have urged the speaker not to delay the revocation of Rahul Gandhi's disqualification".

Singhvi said everyone was now looking forward to hearing the former party president speak in Parliament.

"This entire country has heard and seen Rahul Gandhi in action inside and outside Parliament. His actions, his speech, his thought process, his abhiyaans (campaigns) are ultimately animated by his thinking -- Daro Mat. He has demonstrated time and again the courage of his convictions," Singhvi said.

"Rahul Gandhi has shown exemplary courage, restraint and faith in the judicial process. This entire incident has demonstrated the vital importance of an opposition which will not be backing down. Which is Rahul Gandhi's calling card -- 'don't backdown," he said.

"This has also demonstrated how the opposition, and principal voice among them is Rahul Gandhi, doesn't yield on important issues such as farmers' issues and unemployment," he said.

Asked what would be the course of action if there is a delay in the reinstatement of Gandhi as a Lok Sabha MP, Singhvi said, "You can find many excuses...I can find 10 more excuses...It will show mala fide, it will be unfair, it will be graceless and it will be completely contrary to the heart and soul of parliamentary democracy which requires certain etiquette and give and take."

Asked if the Speaker may need to seek the opinion of the law ministry, Singhvi said the answer was "an emphatic no".

"Just as we have faith in courts and justice, we have faith in democracy. I said I have hope and trust that will not have to do in this case what I had to do in the Lakshdweep case. That hope and trust remains for a couple of more days. Ultimately if that is belied and betrayed then as as law abiding citizens we will have to go to court," he said.

He said lower courts have repeatedly said that Gandhi should apologise but he asserted he is fighting on principles.

Earlier in the day, in a big relief to Gandhi, the Supreme Court stayed his conviction in the 2019 defamation case over his Modi surname remark, paving the way for the revival of his Lok Sabha membership.

The Lok Sabha speaker can now restore his membership on his own or Gandhi, armed with the apex court order, seek restoration of his status as an MP.

A three-judge bench of justices B R Gavai, P S Narasimha and Sanjay Kumar said no reason was given by the trial court judge while convicting Gandhi except that he was admonished by the apex court in a contempt case.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
New Delhi, Aug 4 (PTI) Logistics company Delhivery on Friday said its net loss has narrowed to Rs 89.5 crore in the June 2023 quarter, mainly due to higher income.

It had reported a net loss of Rs 3,99.3 crore during the April-June period of the preceding 2022-23 fiscal, the company said in a regulatory filing.

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The company's total income rose to 2,031.1 crore from Rs 1,794.5 crore in the year-ago quarter.

Loss after tax in the same period narrowed by 78 per cent on a year-on-year basis and 44 per cent on a quarter-on-quarter basis from Rs 159 crore in Q4 FY23, the company said in a separate statement.

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"We won important contracts in Q1, from marquee clients like Havells, TATA Motors, MamaEarth, which we expect to reflect in subsequent quarters," its MD and CEO Sahil Barua said in a statement.

Additionally, the company has appointed Anindya Ghose as an independent director. He currently holds the position of Heinz Riehl Chair Professor of Technology and Marketing at New York University's Leonard N Stern School of Business.

"He (Ghose) is an expert at helping companies on their AI transformation journeys..." the company said.

(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, Aug 4 (PTI) The Initial Public Offer (IPO) of non-banking finance company SBFC Finance was subscribed 7 times on the second day of subscription on Friday.

The Rs 1,025 crore-initial share sale received bids for 94,60,90,080 shares against 13,35,12,817 shares on offer, according to data available with the NSE.

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The quota for non-institutional investors received 12.95 times subscription while the portion for Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIBs) was subscribed 6.71 times. The category for Retail Individual Investors (RIIs) garnered 4.93 times subscription.

The IPO has a fresh issue aggregating up to Rs 600 crore and an offer for sale of up to Rs 425 crore.

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The IPO is in a price range of Rs 54-57 a share.

The SBFC Finance's IPO was fully subscribed on the first day of subscription on Thursday.

SBFC Finance Ltd on Wednesday said it has raised a little over Rs 304 crore from anchor investors.

The company will utilise the net proceeds from the issue towards augmenting the company's capital base to meet its future capital requirements arising out of the growth of its business and assets.

ICICI Securities, Axis Capital and Kotak Mahindra Capital Company are the managers to the offer.

The equity shares are proposed to be listed on NSE and BSE.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
According to EU climate observers Copernicus, the surface waters of the world's oceans were warmer than ever before this week: 20.96 degrees Celsius. This narrowly broke the previous record set in 2016.At first glance, the news published by the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) is disturbing: On July 31, 2023, the average temperature of the global ocean surface was exactly 20.9648 degrees Celsius (69.73664 degrees Fahrenheit), above the previous record set in 2016.

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However, compared to 2016, this is only an extremely small increase of exactly 0.0188 degrees. Back then, the highest value was 20.95 degrees Celsius (if rounded up).

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So is the new temperature record actually just much ado about nothing? Unfortunately not because it fits in with the general trend this year  a trend that is consistently pointing upwards.

World's oceans getting warmer and warmer

Since April, the global average daily surface temperature of the Earth's oceans (excluding the polar regions) has remained at record levels, which is simply far too warm for the time of year. For example, according to Copernicus analyses, daily average maritime temperatures had already reached 20.94 degrees Celsius on July 19.

In addition, record surface water temperatures have persisted in the North Atlantic. In June, they averaged 0.91 degrees Celsius, the warmest of any Copernicus record for that period.

And according to data from the US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), preliminary measurements show the sea surface in the North Atlantic actually reached an all-time high temperature of 24.9 degrees Celsius during the last week of July this year.

NOAA scientist Xungang Yin told the AFP news agency that sea surface temperatures are expected to "continue to rise in August." Normally, the North Atlantic reaches its maximum temperature in early September, according to the NOAA.

Highest category of heatwave in the North Atlantic

In June, the North Atlantic was already experiencing a maritime heatwave of the highest category, explained Samantha Burgess of C3S in an interview with DW. One can assume that this will lead to a further large-scale fish deaths. There was also a risk of more storms forming in the North Atlantic, she added.

"The ocean has absorbed 90% of the excess heat from extra greenhouse gases in the atmosphere," Burgess told DW. "The ocean is the proverbial enormous sponge that soaks up this extra heat when it gets hotter than what we have seen in the past."

This situation is extreme. "We've seen maritime heatwaves before, but this is very persistent and spread out over a large surface area" in the North Atlantic, Karina von Schuckmann of the Mercator Ocean International research center told AFP.

Record temperatures in the Mediterranean Sea

Water temperatures in the Mediterranean Sea also broke records this year. For example, Spanish researchers reported at the end of July that the daily mean sea surface temperature was 28.71 degrees Celsius.

The Mediterranean region, which experienced record heatwaves in July, has long been considered a climate change hotspot.

"Temperatures in the ocean are an absolute master switch," said Thorsten Reusch, a biologist at the Geomar Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research. The smallest changes could shake up the global climate system. "What we are seeing now is beyond any previously recorded water temperatures. That is definitely remarkable and alarming."

The high ocean surface temperatures also coincide with the development of El Nino conditions, a period of warmer-than-average sea surface temperature values in the tropical Pacific. This naturally occurring climate pattern, which began on July 4 according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), results in a higher likelihood of extreme heat in many regions and in the ocean.

A taste of what's to come

In general, this year's July was accompanied by extremes and records. According to UN figures, it is most likely the hottest month since weather records began and probably has seen temperatures "unprecedented" for thousands of years.

In particular, parts of Europe, Asia and North America were hit by heatwaves and devastating wildfires. These extreme weather occurances were simply a taste of what is to come for the world's climate, warned the WMO and the EU's C3S observation program.

"Man-made emissions are ultimately the main cause of this temperature rise," says Carlo Buontempo, director of C3S.

Science has shown that weather extremes such as heatwaves are increasing in intensity and frequency as a result of global climate change. The Earth has already warmed by about 1.2 degrees Celsius since the beginning of the industrial age. The Paris climate agreement aims to limit warming to well below two degrees, but preferably to 1.5 degrees. As it stands now, however, the Earth is heading for a dangerous warming of about four degrees.

This article was translated from German

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 04, 2023 10:40 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
San Diego, Aug 4: Two US Navy sailors were charged on Thursday with providing sensitive military information to China -- including details on wartime exercises, naval operations and critical technical material. The two sailors, both based in California, were charged with similar moves to provide sensitive intelligence to the Chinese. But they were separate cases, and it was not clear if the two were courted or paid by the same Chinese intelligence officer as part of a larger scheme. Federal officials at a news conference in San Diego declined to specify whether the sailors were aware of each other's actions.

Both men pleaded not guilty in federal courts in San Diego and Los Angeles. They were ordered to be held until their detention hearings, which will take place on August 8 in those same cities. US officials have for years expressed concern about the espionage threat they say the Chinese government poses, bringing criminal cases in recent years against Beijing intelligence operatives who have stolen sensitive government and commercial information, including through illegal hacking. Chinas Sweeping Foreign Policy Law: Beijing Unveils Fresh Law to Counter United States Amid Strained Relations With West.

The pair of cases also comes on the heels of another insider-threat prosecution tied to the US military, with the Justice Department in April arresting a Massachusetts Air National Guardsman on charges of leaking classified military documents about Russia's war in Ukraine and other sensitive national security topics on Discord, a social media platform popular with people playing online games. US officials said the cases exemplify China's brazenness in trying to obtain insight into US military operations. US, China Clash over International Fentanyl Coalition.

"Through the alleged crimes committed by these defendants, sensitive military information ended up in the hands of the People's Republic of China," said US Attorney Randy Grossman for the Southern District of California. He added that the charges demonstrate the Chinese government's "determination to obtain information that is critical to our national defence by any means, so it could be used to their advantage". Jinchao Wei, a 22-year-old sailor assigned to the San Diego-based USS Essex, was arrested on Wednesday while boarding the ship. He is accused of passing detailed information on the weapons systems and aircraft aboard the Essex and other amphibious assault ships that act as small aircraft carriers.

Prosecutors said Wei, who was born in China, was approached by a Chinese intelligence officer in February 2022 while he was applying to become a naturalised US citizen, and admitted to the officer that he knew the arrangement could affect his application. Even so, at the officer's request, Wei provided photographs and videos of Navy ships, including the USS Essex, which can carry an array of helicopters, including the MV-22 Ospreys, according to an indictment unsealed on Thursday. The indictment alleges Wei included as many as 50 manuals containing technical and mechanical data about Navy ships as well as details about the number and training of Marines during an upcoming exercise.

Wei continued to send sensitive US military information multiple times over the course of a year and even was congratulated by the Chinese officer once he became a US citizen, Grossman said. He added that Wei "chose to turn his back on his newly adopted country" for greed. The Justice Department charged Wei under a rarely-used Espionage Act statute that makes it a crime to gather or deliver information to aid a foreign government.

After pleading not guilty in San Diego, Wei was assigned a new public defender who declined to comment following the hearing. Assistant US Attorney Fred Sheppard told the judge that Wei had passed information to Chinese intelligence as recently as two days ago. He said Wei, who also went by the name Patrick Wei, told a fellow sailor in February 2022 that he was "being recruited for what quite obviously is (expletive) espionage".

Sheppard said Wei has made USD 10,000 to USD 15,000 in the past year from the arrangement with the unnamed Chinese intelligence officer. If convicted, he could face up to life in prison. The officer instructed Wei not to discuss their relationship, to share sensitive information and to destroy evidence to help them cover their tracks, officials said. The Justice Department also charged sailor Wenheng Zhao, 26, based at Naval Base Ventura County, north of San Diego, with conspiring to collect nearly USD 15,000 in bribes from a Chinese intelligence officer in exchange for US naval exercise plans, operational orders and photos and videos of electrical systems at Navy facilities between August 2021 through at least this May.

The information included operational plans for a large-scale US military exercise in the Indo-Pacific region, which detailed the location and timing of naval force movements. The Associated Press was unable to reach an attorney for Zhao, who pleaded not guilty in Los Angeles. The indictment further alleges that Zhao photographed electrical diagrams and blueprints for a radar system stationed on a US military base in Okinawa, Japan. Prosecutors say Zhao, who also went by the name Thomas Zhao, also surreptitiously recorded information that he handed over. It was unclear if federal officials were looking at other US sailors and if the investigation was ongoing.

At the Pentagon, Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters that, "I think we have clear policies and procedures in place when it comes to safeguarding and protecting sensitive information. And so, if those rules are violated, appropriate action will be taken." He declined to discuss any specifics of the cases. US Attorney Grossman said the charges reflect that China "stands apart in terms of the threat that its government poses to the United States. China is unrivalled in its audacity and the range of its maligned efforts to subvert our laws".

He added that the US will use "every tool in our arsenal to counter the threat and to deter China and those who have violated the rule of law and threaten our national security".

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Irbil (Iraq), Aug 4 (AP) Iraqi Christians have struggled since the Nineveh plains, their historic homeland of rolling hills dotted with wheat and barley fields, were wrested back from Islamic State extremists six years ago.

Although the threat from IS has receded, some towns are still mostly rubble. There are few inhabited homes or basic services, including water. Many Christians have given up and left for Europe, Australia or the United States. Others are trying to follow.

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Now the shrinking religious minority that was also violently targeted by al-Qaida before the rise of IS has been rocked by yet another crisis in the form of a political showdown between two influential Christian figures  a Vatican-appointed cardinal and a militia leader, with land and influence at the core of the drama.

The dispute adds to the woes of Iraqi Christians, who have often felt sidelined in the political order. A 2021 visit by Pope Francis provided a glimmer of hope that quickly faded.

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Meanwhile, the Christian population has plummeted. The number of Christians in Iraq today is estimated at 150,000, compared to 1.5 million in 2003. Iraq's total population is more than 40 million.

The political tension rose last month when Cardinal Louis Sako withdrew from his headquarters in Baghdad to northern Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region after Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid revoked a decree recognising his position as patriarch of the Chaldeans, Iraq's largest Christian denomination and one of the Catholic Church's eastern rites.

Sako said he will not return to Baghdad until his recognition is reinstated. His departure added to the feeling of helplessness among many Christians.

Of course, this affects us psychologically, said Sura Salem, a Christian social activist in Baghdad. You feel like a family without a father.

Christians staged a small protest in Baghdad over Sako's departure, but Salem said listening to the voice of the Christians is the last concern of Iraqi leaders.

Sako blames a campaign against him by Rayan al-Kildani, a fellow Chaldean Christian who formed a militia called the Babylon Brigades that fought against IS and still patrols much of the Nineveh plains.

The group is affiliated with the Popular Mobilization Forces, a collection of primarily Shiite, Iran-backed militias. Its associated political party, the Babylon Movement, won four of five Christian-designated seats in Iraq's 2021 parliamentary elections.

Sako believes al-Kildani is angling to take over Christian endowments and properties. Al-Kildani has made similar allegations about Sako.

I have stood up to this militia and others who wanted to take over what rightfully belongs to the Christians, Sako told The Associated Press, days after arriving in Irbil to a warm welcome from Kurdish officials. Of course, no one defends Christians other than the church.

In Baghdad's upscale Mansour neighbourhood, al-Kildani was busy building political alliances.

On a recent afternoon, several couches in the palatial lobby of his party headquarters were occupied by well-dressed women wearing hijabs, beneath a painting of the Last Supper and a portrait of al-Kildani.

One by one, the women entered the inner office, each one emerging with a gift bag. One of the visitors explained that they were political candidates interested in running on al-Kildani's list in Mosul in December's provincial elections.

After the visitors departed, a smiling and courtly al-Kildani made his entrance.

He insisted that he had no role in the withdrawal of the patriarch's decree and dismissed allegations that he was seeking to seize church lands.

I am the son of this church, and it is my duty to respect it, but it is unfortunate when a clergyman accuses someone without proof, he said.

Al-Kildani has accused Sako of selling off church properties, allegations the patriarch denies, and he has filed a lawsuit against Sako alleging slander. But al-Kildani said he is ready to meet with Sako to reconcile.

Sako rejected the suggestion. Al-Kildani has a militia, and his loyalty is not to the church, the patriarch said. He is not a respectable person."

The Iraqi president has downplayed his revocation of Sako's recognition as bureaucratic housekeeping, claiming it did not diminish the patriarch's legal or religious status.

The Vatican has remained largely silent. Its embassy in Baghdad said in a statement that the Iraqi Constitution guarantees that the heads of churches can administer church properties.

A senior Vatican official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment to the media, said the decree was unnecessary given the constitutional guarantees.

He said the Holy See did not want to get involved in the dispute but had invited Sako to tamp down tensions with the Iraqi authorities for the sake of Iraqi Christians.

The United States sided with Sako. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said last month that the US is concerned that Sako's position "is under attack by a militia leader who in 2019 was slapped with US sanctions for his alleged involvement in human rights abuses, including cutting off a captive's ear.

Al-Kildani denied the allegations and accused the international community of being ungrateful after his group's role in the fight against IS.

He accused the Kurdish Democratic Party  the ruling party in the Kurdish region and a rival of the Iraqi president's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan Party  and the United States of engineering Sako's withdrawal from Baghdad for political reasons.

For some Christians, the drama is overshadowed by more pressing problems.

As Baghdad resident Anan al-Dawi left a sparsely attended Mass on Sunday, her main concern was a recent power outage in the scorching summer heat. She struck a diplomatic tone regarding the feud between Sako and al-Kildani.

Although physically absent, she said, Sako lives in all of our hearts. As for al-Kildani's group, she said: I serve the country in my way. You serve it in yours, and they are also serving their country."

Back in the Nineveh plains, in the town of Batnaya, patrolled by members of Kildani's militia, Lawrence Sabah owns a small factory where he makes mop handles out of wood imported from Russia. Sabah did not share his opinion on Sako or al-Kildani, but he had other complaints.

There are no services, even the water sometimes doesn't come, and 70 or 80 percent of the houses were destroyed, he said. He is hoping to join his parents and siblings, who have resettled in California.

Some 8 kilometres to the north, in Kurdish-controlled territory, Raad Ekram owns an electrical supply store in the sparsely populated town of Telskof.

When his family was displaced from the village to the city of Dohuk, Ekram believes he got short shrift from both the Iraqi government and the church.

We never saw the patriarch, he said. Of course, I don't accept what happened to him ... and I don't accept for him to be harmed. But the patriarch "didn't do everything he should have done for us.

He is encouraging his children to seek their fortunes abroad.

There's nothing left in Iraq," he said, "especially for the Christians. (AP)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Parkland (US), Aug 4 (AP) Nine members of Congress began a tour of the blood-stained and bullet-pocked halls at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Friday, shortly before ballistics technicians reenact the massacre that left 14 students and three staff members dead.

Few have been inside the three-story building since the Valentine's Day 2018 shooting. The structure looms over the campus, locked behind a chain-link fence for use as evidence in last year's penalty trial for the shooter.

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There is broken glass on the floor, along with wilted roses, deflated balloons and discarded gifts. Opened textbooks and laptop computers remain on students' desks  at least those that weren't toppled during the chaos.

In one classroom, there is an unfinished chess game one of the slain students had been playing, the pieces unmoved. The Associated Press was one of five media outlets allowed to tour the building after shooter Nikolas Cruz's jury went through.

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The House members were led to the same door Cruz entered, then entered through an adjoining door. They will walk the same path he did during the six-minute attack.

The shooting, which sparked a nationwide movement for gun control, traumatized the South Florida community. Cruz, a 24-year-old former Stoneman Douglas student, pleaded guilty in 2021 and was sentenced to life in prison.

Florida Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz, who organized the tour with Republican Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, said he expects the event to have a profound impact" on the six Democrats and three Republicans who belong to the House School Safety and Security Caucus. They are being accompanied by Cruz's prosecutors and members of the victims' families.

This will be the first time a congressional delegation has toured the site of a mass shooting, Moskowitz said. The tour was suggested by Max Schachter, whose 14-year-old son, Alex, died in the shooting. Schachter is now a full-time school safety advocate.

When you watch something like this on TV, you're a thousand feet away  they show a picture of the building, said Moskowitz, who is a Stoneman Douglas graduate. You don't see the impact that the shooting had on the families ... or the impact on a community when a school becomes a war zone.

On Friday morning, the House members were led to the same door Cruz entered, then entered through an adjoining door. They are to walk the same path he did during the six-minute attack.

After the tour ends, the caucus members and families will go to a nearby hotel to discuss school safety issues. Moskowitz said he thinks it will take time for the congressional members to take everything in emotionally and intellectually.

You're not going to walk through this and then get out a pen and paper and start writing down your policy ideas, he said. But we have got to figure out how no other families become part of this exclusive club no one wants to belong to.

After the members leave, ballistics experts will fire up to 139 shots of live ammunition during a reenactment. The experts will fire from the same spots as Cruz, with an identical AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle, and the bullets will be caught by a safety device. The test at the school, which is closed for summer break, is expected to take several hours.

Technicians outside the building will record the sound of the gunfire, seeking to capture what the Broward County deputy assigned to the school, Scot Peterson, heard during the six-minute attack.

The reenactment is part of a lawsuit by the victims' families and the wounded that accuses Peterson of failing in his duty to protect them and their loved ones.

Peterson, who worked for the Broward County Sheriff's Office and is named in the lawsuit, said he didn't hear all the shots and could not pinpoint their origin because of echoes. He got within feet of the building's door and drew his gun, but backed away and stood next to an adjoining building for 40 minutes, making radio calls. He has said he would have charged into the building if he had known the shooter's location.

Families of the victims who filed the lawsuit contend Peterson knew Cruz's location, but retreated out of cowardice and in violation of his duty to protect their loved ones.

Peterson, 60, was acquitted in June of felony child neglect and other criminal charges for failing to act, the first US trial of a law enforcement officer for conduct during an on-campus shooting.

The burden of proof is lower in the civil lawsuit. Circuit Judge Carol-Lisa Phillips allowed the reenactment, but made clear she was not ruling on whether the recording will be played at trial. That will have to be argued later, she said. It is likely Peterson's attorneys will oppose the attempt.

No trial date has been set. The families and wounded are seeking unspecified damages.

After Friday, the Broward school district says it will begin demolishing the building. (AP)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Washington, Aug 4 (PTI) India has asked Pakistan to concentrate on addressing its internal matters rather than raising the Kashmir issue and indulging in frivolous allegations against New Delhi.

To best utilise this council's time, I suggest the concerned delegation concentrate on addressing their internal matters and restoring order within their own borders, rather than indulging in frivolous allegations against my country, R Madhu Sudan, a Counsellor in India's UN Mission, told members of the Security Council on Thursday.

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Madhu Sudan was responding to the issue of Kashmir raised by a Pakistani representative during the UN Security Council's Open Debate on Famine and Conflict-Induced Global Food Insecurity.

Unfortunately we saw one delegation misuse this forum yet again, to divert the attention of this council from the important topic of food security," he said in his remarks, adding that one delegation consistently sought to exploit various United Nations platforms to further its agenda.

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Emphasising that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India is non-negotiable, Madhu Sudan deemed it unnecessary to further engage in arguments or debates with those who resort to terrorism to advance their unlawful goals.

He advised Pakistan to address internal matters and restore order within its own borders rather than indulging in frivolous allegations against my country.

India and Pakistan have a strained relationship over a number of issues including Islamabad's continued support of cross-border terrorism and the Kashmir issue.

India asserts that Jammu and Kashmir "was, is and will" always be part of the country.

Bilateral relations between Islamabad and New Delhi have been tense since August 2019 when India changed the special status of Jammu and Kashmir.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Astana [Kazakhstan], August 4 (ANI): India and Kazakhstan on Thursday discussed bilateral, regional issues at the fourth Security Dialogue held in Astana

The two countries also discussed the situation in Afghanistan and international issues of mutual concern, according to an official release.

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The Indian delegation was led by Deputy National Security Advisor Vikram Misri and the Kazakhstan side was led by Deputy Secretary of the Security Council of Kazakhstan Nurzhan Kajiakbarov.

The two sides agreed on steps to be taken to further enhance bilateral security cooperation between the relevant organizations, including in the fields of counter-terrorism, combating radicalization, narcotics control, cyber security, connectivity and defence cooperation, as per the official release.

Also Read | Chicago Buildings Slowly Sinking Due to Underground Climate Change, Say Researchers in Alarming Study.

During the visit, Misri called on Aide to the President - Secretary of the Security Council of Kazakhstan Gizat Nurdauletov and held discussions with Deputy Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan Kanat Tumysh.

The Indian delegation also visited facilities of interest, considering the bilateral strategic relationship between the two countries.

Meanwhile, Kazakhstan's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Kanat Tumysh recently expressed optimism over India's Presidency of G20 and Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) this year, said that India's presidency will result in good outcomes, especially at a time when the world is facing a volatile and turbulent situation.

"We as a country are inspired by the leadership of India in G20 and SCO. We are also proceeding by the understanding that the motto of the Indian G20 Presidency is very important in each and every country on our planet especially in this volatile and turbulent situation," Kanat Tumysh said.

In an interview with ANI, he said, "We congratulate India on its SCO presidency, and it's very important to underline that it is conducted at a time of great changes to the world economy, especially like the conflicts in our planet, trade war and sanction war. But I do believe that it will result in a very good outcome."

Hailing India's innovation and Startup initiatives, Kanat Tumysh stated that such initiatives will create additional momentum and favourable conditions if India's ideas for startup and innovation are utilized.

"Initiative of India to create a working group on innovation and startup is also a very important idea. We fully support this idea. Because it is very important to create opportunities for our youth. We do believe the need to utilise this idea in the sectors such as Energy cooperation, environment cooperation which will be the priorities of Kazakhstan in its SCO presidency," Tumysh said.

"Both initiative of India and Kazakhstan will create additional momentum and will create favourable conditions if we utilise India's ideas for startup and innovation," he added.

On the bilateral trade relationship between India and Kazakhstan, the minister stressed the positive dynamics of bilateral trade turnover, which by the end of 2022 amounted to USD 2.4 billion, which is 16.67 per cent higher than in the previous year. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Daredevil Records has partnered with Rusty Nickel Brewing Company to create an American Ale that spotlights Niagara Falls and surrounding environments.

Niagara Falls Neighborhood American Ale will establishments across the Niagara Region in draft, as well as cans with artwork that features the landscape from parts of Niagara Street, Third Street and Pine Avenue in Niagara Falls, as well as portions of Lewiston.

Niagara County Community College illustration student Sheila Forbes created the artwork. Falls resident April Wheaton, assistant brewer at Rusty Nickel, made the ale at the West Seneca brewery.

Wheaton is chapter leader of the Pink Boots Society Buffalo, a global nonprofit that supports, inspires and encourages women and non-binary individuals in the fermented beverage industry.

The beer will be debuts Thursday night as part of a pub crawl aboard the Discover Niagara Shuttle, which will carry passengers for free and loop every hour through midnight and stop at the following sites:

In Niagara Falls: Daredevil Records, 324 Niagara St.; The GoldBar, 435 Third St.; The Archives Pub, 439 Third St.; Power City Eatery, 444 Third St.; The Craft Kitchen and Bar, 223 Ferry Ave.; Wine on Third, 501 Third St.; Judas Tree, 1507 Pine Ave.

Also at Battle Flag Tavern and Brewed and Bottled, both at 444 Center St., Lewiston and The Ontario House Stone Jug, 358 Main St., Youngstown.

There are great things happening here," organizers said in a statement, "and hopefully this collaboration shines a light on that."
New York [US], August 4 (ANI): India's permanent representative to the United Nations Ruchira Kamboj said that India supports the efforts made by the UN Secretary-General in continuing the Black Sea Grain Initiative.

While addressing the United Nations Security Council, Kamboj said, "India supports the efforts of the UN Secretary-General in continuing the Black Sea Grain Initiative and hopes for an early resolution to the present impasse."

Also Read | UN Security Council: Food Insecurity Tops Agenda.

She also showed appreciation to the United States for its presidency of the Security Council and for bringing to focus the crucial issue of conflict-induced food insecurity.

"We must work together to find common solutions through dialogue and diplomacy. Choosing peace, cooperation and multilateralism is essential for building our collective future. Strengthening the international architecture and governance systems to protect the global order. Global laws and global values must therefore be a shared responsibility," Kamboj suggested.

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"Addressing the growing food grain shortages requires us to go beyond current constraints. As far as India is concerned, we are fully committed to playing our part in addressing contemporary global challenges, as reflected in our membership of the Champions Group of the Global Crisis Response Group Number," she added.

Regarding the Black Sea Grain Initiative, India's permanent representative said, "Recent developments in this matter have not helped in securing the larger cause of peace and stability very quickly, Madam President, I would like to state that India has always been proactive in assisting our partners in times of distress."

Kamboj also recalled how even in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, India provided food aid in the form of thousands of metric tons of wheat, rice, pulses and lentils to several countries, including in our neighbourhood and Africa, to strengthen food security.

"In view of the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, india commenced the donation of 50,000 metric tons of wheat to the people of Afghanistan," she said.

"Similarly, India has continued its humanitarian support for Myanmar, including a grant of 10,000 tons of rice and wheat. We've also assisted Sri Lanka, including with food assistance, during its difficult times," she mentioned.

"All these were in keeping with our foreign policy priority of neighbourhood first and our firm belief in the abiding ethos of Vasudhev Kutumbakam, where India sees the world as one large interconnected family, leveraging our presidency of the G 20," she added.

She said that India has advocated for greater efforts to accelerate the achievement of the SDGs, including SDG Two, calling for zero hunger.

"The Indian presidency is committed to depoliticizing the global supply of food, fertilizers and medical products so that geopolitical tensions do not lead to humanitarian crises unquote," she added quoting Prime Minister Narendra Modi. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Tokyo [Japan], August 4 (ANI): Japanese ruling Liberal Democratic Party leader Masatoshi Akimoto resigned from his post of parliamentary Vice Foreign Minister on Friday. The announcement came after bribery allegations amounting to tens of millions of Yen from a wind power company were levelled against him, reported the Kyodo News.

Kyodo News is a nonprofit cooperative news agency based in Minato, Tokyo.

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The offices of the Japanese ruling Liberal Democratic Party Lawmaker in Tokyo and China were also searched on Friday, Kyoda News reported.

The company President was also questioned over the alleged payments made to Akimoto and the lawyer for the company's President denied the allegations, telling reporters separately that the money was for a racehorse cooperative and was not provided to Mr. Akimoto".

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The publication reported that "A lump sum was given at a certain period of time last year," the lawyer said, noting it was used to purchase horses and that the president and Akimoto are "acquainted through racehorse breeding."

Japan Wind Development said in a statement, "There is no proof whatsoever that our company paid bribes to a lawmaker or to any public servants. There is objective evidence to prove this point."

The report says that Akimoto did not respond to questions from reporters at Haneda airport in Tokyo on Thursday when he returned from an overseas trip.

Akimoto has also served as parliamentary vice minister at the Ministry of Land, infrastructure, transport and Tourism.

During his stint, he pushed for legislation setting uniform rules for the use of the sea by renewable energy operators, in a bid to promote offshore wind power. The legislation was enacted in November 2018, reported Kyodo News.

In June that year, he told a lower house committee on land, infrastructure, transport and tourism that "operators' expectations for the legislation are high."

Based on the legislation, the government designated three marine zones in Akita and Chiba prefectures for electricity generation for up to 30 years. The first round of bidding for development rights, held in December 2021, was won by a consortium led by major trading house Mitsubishi Corp, observed by Kyodo News.

Japan Wind Development sought to join that development project, the sources said.

Established in 1999, Japan Wind Development has developed 293 turbines within and outside Japan with a combined output of over 570 megawatts, according to its website, sums up the report by Kyodo News. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Islamabad [Pakistan], August 4 (ANI): Pakistan's cabinet has silently given its nod to the security pact with the US in a significant move that may pave the way for Islamabad to procure military hardware from Washington DC, The Express Tribune reported.

The cabinet through a circulation summary gave its seal of approval in signing the Communication Interoperability and Security Memorandum of Agreement, known as the CIS-MOA, between Pakistan and the US, official sources confirmed to The Express Tribune on Wednesday.

Also Read | UN Security Council: Food Insecurity Tops Agenda.

According to the website, the CIS-MOA is a foundational agreement that the US signs with its allies and countries with which it wants to maintain close military and defence ties. It also provides legal cover to the US Department of Defence for ensuring the sale of military equipment and hardware to other countries.

The CIS-MOA first was signed between the Joint Staff Headquarters of Pakistan and the US Department of Defence in October 2005 for 15 years.

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The agreement expired in 2020 but the two sides have now renewed that arrangement that covers joint exercises, operations, training, basing and equipment.

The signing of the agreement indicates that the US might sell some military hardware to Pakistan in the coming years, sources told The Express Tribune.

However, a retired senior army officer played down the development.

Pakistan's relationship with the US went downgraded after Pakistan's former Prime Minister Imran Khan claimed that Washington orchestrated a plan to remove him from office and brandished the cypher at a public rally to back his claims.

Notably, A cypher is a secret document that ambassadors in another country send to their country, if they speak wrongly about a country or a person, they have the right to ask for reasons. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Lisbon, Aug 4 (AP) Pope Francis visited a once-troubled and crime-plagued neighborhood in Portugal's capital on Friday to draw attention to the charitable side of the Catholic Church and to press his case for a church that goes to the peripheries and welcomes everyone.

Francis continued his busy schedule in Portugal, hearing confessions of some young people who were in Lisbon for World Youth Day, the big Catholic festival, and then having a festive pasta and steak lunch with others. Later Friday, he was presiding over the solemn Way of the Cross procession recreating Christ's crucifixion.

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Francis visited a community center in the city's Serafina neighborhood, which sits beneath a giant 18th-century aqueduct that is a symbol of the bounty of the bounty that gold from Portugal's Brazilian colony once afforded the country.

Two decades ago, drug and crime problems dogged the neighborhood, but Serafina has tried to put that past behind it, thanks in part to efforts by church charity groups, including one that was created to provide an alternative to parents considering abortions or who otherwise couldn't care for their children.

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Speaking off the cuff to young people and the charity organizers, Francis said true service must be done with concrete gestures that make an impact. He said he couldn't come to Lisbon to celebrate World Youth Day without visiting the center because this is also youth, in the sense that you generate new life continually.

With your conduct, your commitment and getting your hands dirty by touching the reality and misery of others, you are giving inspiration and generating life, he said.

Francis has long said that true service and charity has to hurt, and that it's not enough just to give a beggar a coin on the street. He has championed the charitable side of the Catholic Church, including boosting the Vatican's efforts by providing showers and medical care to area homeless people while also sending regular truckloads of aid to Ukraine and other places wracked by conflict or natural disasters.

Pedro Duarte, who works at the St. Vincent de Paul social center in Serafina, said Francis' visit was important because he was backing his words with action.

It is so important that the pope not only said that one should go to the peripheries, but that he actually came to the periphery, he said outside the center where other community members had gathered to cheer Francis as he came and left.

In Lisbon, Francis has also emphasized the inclusive message of the church that he has championed throughout his 10-year papacy, telling the World Youth Day opening ceremony on Thursday that in the church, there is room for everyone. He led the crowd of a half-million people in a chant of todos, todos, todos or everyone, everyone, everyone to make his point.

That message of inclusivity has resonated in particular with LGBTQ+ Catholics, who have long felt ostracized by a church that considers homosexual activity intrinsically disordered. Francis, though, has offered a message of welcome to LGBTQ+ Catholics, starting from his very first World Youth Day in 2013, when he famously said Who am I to judge, when asked about a purportedly gay priest.

Dignity USA, a group of LGBTQ+ Catholics, has a delegation in Lisbon and said overall the reception was positive, with a few moments of tension.

We've been able to trade our rainbow pens, our rainbow prayer cards, member Sam Barnes said Friday.

There was an incident in which protesters tried to disrupt an LGBTQ+ Mass, but it went ahead after police were called in, said one of the participants, who gave her name as Victoria and said she was a transgender Catholic.

It's important that everyone, independent of their sexuality, can have their faith and their relation with God, Victoria said, adding that despite such incidents she has felt very accepted in Lisbon.

The Mass had been organized by the Centro Arcoiris, an offshoot of a much larger Portuguese LGBTQ+ Catholic group called Sopro. They set up a Rainbow Center to welcome LGBTQ+ pilgrims to World Youth Day, outside the official organization.

In another incident captured on social media and broadcast on Portuguese television, two World Youth Day participants told a transgender participant to put away her flag.

In an interview published Friday by the Spanish Catholic magazine Vida Nueva, Francis referred to his frequent meetings with members of the transgender community and his message of welcome.

The first time a group of transsexuals came to the Vatican and saw me, they left weeping, saying I had given them my hand, a kiss, as if I had done something exceptional, Francis was quoted as saying. But they're children of God!

The Rev. James Martin, an American Jesuit who runs an outreach program for LGBTQ+ Catholics, said he had dined in Lisbon with the Arcoiris group the night before the Mass was disrupted. He said they had been looking forward to the liturgy, which he did not attend.

Recalling that the incident occurred on the same day as Francis' todos, todos, todos comment, Martin tweeted: LGBTQ people are part of todos. (AP)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Rome, Aug 4 (AP) An American woman was killed off the Amalfi Coast after the motorboat she and her family were travelling on crashed into a tourist sailboat, Italian state TV said Friday.

The crash occurred Thursday off the popular stretch of coastline near Naples in southern Italy.

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According to Italian media reports, the motorboat, rented through a skipper, slammed into the sailboat, which was carrying dozens of US and German tourists, including some celebrating a wedding.

The impact of the crash knocked the woman into the water, where she was struck repeatedly by the motorboat's propeller, the reports said.

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Italian state TV said the woman was pulled out of the water and brought to a dock, but she had died by the time a helicopter ambulance arrived.

The Italian Coast Guard office in Amalfi was investigating the crash. A call to its office wasn't answered, nor was there a response to an emailed request for details, including confirmation of the victim's name and age.

The dead woman was identified in news reports as the head of a US publishing company based in New York. Company officials said they couldn't comment until first reaching her family.

The victim's husband was hospitalised with a shoulder injury while the couple's two young children were uninjured, according to the reports.

No one aboard the sailboat, including more than 80 US and German tourists and crew, were injured.

A blood test for the skipper of the motorboat tested positive, reported Italian news agency ANSA, without indicating whether the result indicated alcohol or drug consumption.

The skipper, who is Italian and about 30 years old, suffered a broken pelvis and ribs, ANSA said.

There was no answer at the courthouse in the southern of port city of Salerno, where prosecutors were overseeing the investigation.

The family was on holiday in Italy, media reports said. When their motorboat crashed, it had been headed to Positano, one of the most popular destinations along the Amalfi coast, Italian media said. (AP)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Patna, August 4: In yet another incident of dowry deaths, a seven-month pregnant woman was beaten to death by her in-laws after failing to give a refrigerator in dowry in Bihar's Purnia. The reports coming to the fore of the killing have shocked and startled the state. After learning of the incident, the Bihar police reached the spot and, after scanning the crime scene, launched a probe into the matter.

As per the report published by India Today, the deceased woman was identified as Angoori Begum (30). Angoori married Mominat Alam in 2012 and was blessed with four children. At the time of the murder, Angoori was seven-month pregnant for the fifth time. Her dead body was found at her in-laws' house in Bela Prasadi Bhawanipur. Her relatives and the police arrived at the spot after being informed. The cops took the dead body into custody and sent it to Purnia Sadar Hospital and Medical College for post-mortem. Dowry Death in Bihar: Failed To Fulfil Demand for Bullet Bike, Woman Poisoned to Death by In-Laws in Buxor.

During the autopsy, it was found that the deceased woman was seven-month pregnant. After completion of the procedures, the body was handed over to the family members. The police, while briefing about the case, said the woman was beaten to death by the in-laws, who are absconding. A manhunt has been launched to nab the accused. Dowry Death in Jharkhand: 23-Year-Old Woman Strangulated to Death Over Dowry in Palamu District; Case Registered Against Seven People, Including Her Husband.

In another incident, a woman was allegedly poisoned to death by her in-laws for failing to give a bullet motorcycle as dowry in Bihar's Buxor. As per the reports, the couple got married last year, and the in-laws have been harassing her ever since. The brother of the deceased said that his sister was subjected to continuous torture for the two-wheeler since her wedding.On the basis of the complaint by the family members of the deceased, the police filed a complaint against two people and launched a detailed probe.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 04, 2023 04:29 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
The birth was the first for an endangered red panda at Baden-Wurttemberg's Karlsruhe Zoo. The male and female cubs were taken out of their den for their first check-up.An endangered red panda has given birth to two cubs in a zoo in southern Germany's Baden-Wurttemberg state.

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The Karlsruhe Zoo announced the birth of the male and female cubs on Friday in a Facebook post. It said the birth was the first for a red panda inside the zoo.

Also Read | Manipur Violence: Police Launch High-Level Probe Into Arms Loot From Two Police Outposts in Bishnupur.

What do we know about the offspring?

The two cubs were taken out of their den on Friday for their first checkup with a veterinarian, a zoo spokesman told the German DPA news agency.

The zoo added in the Facebook statement that they were both microchipped.

"The offspring of the red pandas are developing very well," the zoo said, adding that they were born on June 25. They currently weigh 410 and 500 grams.

"The cubs will spend the next weeks in the den and will be cared for by their mother Akuti," the statement added.

Only thousands of red pandas remain

Red pandas are among the world's endangered species, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) says fewer than 10,000 of them remain on Earth.

Only a little larger than a domestic cat, the pandas are also characterized by their bear-like physique and thick-russet fur.

Their name is believed to derive from the Nepali word "ponya," which means bamboo/plant-eating animals. Despite the name, they are not closely related to the bigger pandas.

The species mainly lives in the Himalayas, in countries including Nepal, India, Bhutan and Myanmar.

The German DPA news agency contributed to this article

Edited by: Wesley Dockery

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 04, 2023 08:40 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
New Delhi, Aug 4: Rajya Sabha was adjourned for the day on Friday amid an uproar in the House over the issue of law and order situation in Rajasthan. Soon after the House met at 12 noon, the ruling party members referred to the killing of a girl in Rajasthan and wanted the House to take up a discussion on the law and order situation in the state. A 14-year-old girl was allegedly murdered and later burned in a coal furnace in Rajasthan's Bhilwara district, with locals claiming that she was also gang-raped.

Leader of the House Piyush Goyal said the situation is "very bad" in Rajasthan and that the state government has failed on all counts to maintain law and order. Alleging that crimes against women were on the rise in the state, he said "our daughters and sisters in the state were not safe and urged the chairman to take up the matter for discussion". After the Chairman allowed the Leader of Opposition to raise his point, there was uproar in the House by treasury benches. Rajasthan Horror: 14-Year-Old Girl Murdered, Burnt in Coal Furnace in Bhilwara, Five Detained; Opposition BJP Slams Ruling Congress Government (Watch Video).

The chairman then adjourned the House for the day. While the ruling party members raised slogans of "Rajasthan pe charcha ho" (discussion on Rajasthan), the opposition members chanted "Manipur, Manipur" While seeking to discuss the violence in the northeastern state. House proceedings were earlier adjourned for about 30 minutes till 12 noon amid a ruckus between ruling and opposition benches as both sides insisted on taking up their respective issues. 'Am Not Required to Defend Anyone': Jadgeep Dhankhar Hits Back At Mallikarjun Kharge After LoP Alleges Rajya Sabha Chairman Defending PM Narendra Modi.

Leader of House Piyush Goyal demands a discussion on atrocities against women in Rajasthan under rule 176 in Rajya Sabha. Treasury Bench MPs sloganeer demanding discussion on Rajasthan in the House. pic.twitter.com/TJJpoJT7T7  ANI (@ANI) August 4, 2023

While BJP MPs wanted to raise the law and order situation in Congress-ruled Rajasthan, the opposition wanted a discussion on the Manipur situation by suspending the scheduled business of the day under Rule 267 of the House. Soon after the listed papers were tabled, Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar said he has received 48 notices to suspend the scheduled business and take up matters mentioned therein.
Law enforcement agencies have demolished more than 200 shanties of illegal immigrants, who were reportedly involved in the July 31 violent clashes in Haryana's Nuh district.
Ramesh and Shivani had fought over this many times. Ramesh had asked her to leave children and go with her lover but she told him that she wants children as well as lover. Ramesh, who joined the police force in 2009, was working at One Town police station. He had married Shivani in 2012. They had two daughters.
WASHINGTON  It was a routine part of a federal court hearing: The defendant was told not to discuss the case with any witnesses without lawyers present.

But there's nothing routine about this case.

The defendant is Donald Trump, accused of orchestrating a conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The potential witness pool is vast and includes members of the former president's inner circle deeply involved in his reelection campaign, including some currently on his payroll. His lies about the election  which form the basis of the charges  are repeated in nearly every speech he gives.

"The standard language may not work here, when you have thousands of Americans who could be witnesses and he continues to have daily contact with people who may be involved," said Laurie Levenson, a law professor at Loyola Law School of Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. "Everything is more complicated in this case because of who the defendant is, what he has done and that he wants to be president again."

The issue raised its head quickly. On Friday, just a day after his latest arraignment, Trump made this proclamation, in all capital letters, on his Truth Social site: "If you go after me, I'm coming after you."

Federal prosecutors alerted the judge overseeing the case to Trump's post. In a court filing, they sought a protective order limiting what sensitive information Trump and his legal team could share publicly about the case.

Such protective orders are common in criminal cases, but prosecutors said it's particularly important in this case because Trump issued public statements on social media regarding witnesses, judges, attorneys and others associated with legal matters pending against him.

Prosecutors said that if Trump were to begin posting about details from grand jury transcripts or other information handed over by the Justice Department, it could have have a harmful chilling effect on witnesses or adversely affect the fair administration of justice in this case.

Speaking Friday night at the Alabama Republican Party's annual Summer Dinner, Trump portrayed himself as the victim of political persecution, telling the crowd, "They want to take away my freedom because I will never let them take away your freedom."

He is set to deliver the keynote speech at the South Carolina GOP's 56th Annual Silver Elephant Gala on Saturday.

As his campaign unfolds, the potential witness pool in his latest case is very broad. The congressional hearings on the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot could offer some insight  those interviews spanned more than 1,000 people, and included some of Trump's closest advisers and family members, including his daughter Ivanka and his son Donald Trump Jr.

So it's possible he may already be talking about the case in front of witnesses.

Even as he traveled to Washington Thursday for his arraignment, Trump was accompanied by top aides including Jason Miller, a communications staffer who featured heavily in the Jan. 6 congressional hearings, and Boris Epshteyn, a longtime adviser who was part of the efforts to overturn the election results by organizing fake electors. The complications reflect the reality that Trump's campaign and his legal issues are now intertwined.

"The legal messaging is the political messaging and the political messaging is the legal messaging," Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said before the latest indictment. "It's part of what we're running on. Trump has made the legal issues a big focus of his campaign and from our standpoint, it's messaging that works."

Trump refers to the 2020 election in almost every speech, telling his supporters that he ran twice and won twice as he vows to do it again. Trump's speeches also often include discussion of the cases he faces as he tries to cast the investigations as part of a politicized effort to damage his candidacy.

Many close advisers are potential witnesses. His 2024 campaign includes some, like Miller, who worked for his 2020 effort.

The issue has come up before, after Trump was charged by federal prosecutors with illegally hoarding classified records at his Florida Mar-a-Lago estate and rejecting government demands to give them back.

In that case, there was a back-and-forth between the judge and Trump lawyers over whether he could speak to his co-defendant, valet Walt Nauta. Trump's attorney Todd Blanche noted Nauta and potential witnesses are people with whom Trump interacts daily.

The judge said he could speak with Nauta, just not about the case. Nauta was with Trump again in Washington on Thursday, holding an umbrella as the former president spoke to reporters before he boarded a plane back to Bedminster, New Jersey.

During his arraignment in Washington, where he pleaded not guilty to four counts, including conspiracy to defraud the United States, he agreed not to talk about the case with any witnesses without lawyers present, and not to attempt to influence any potential jurors or tamper with witnesses.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya told him that if he failed to comply with any conditions of his release, a warrant might be issued for his arrest. A formal witness list is usually presented closer to trial, though prosecutors often signal candidates earlier in the process.

The former president is not known to hold back or refrain from talking about off-limits subjects. He's also been accused of defying court orders before, and he's already been reprimanded by one judge overseeing a hush-money prosecution to refrain from comments that were "likely to incite violence or civil unrest."
Google Doodle is celebrating American sculptor, filmmaker and entrepreneur Altina Schinasi on her birth anniversary today on August 4. Altina Schinasi is best known for designing the 'Harlequin eyeglass frame' which is popularly known as cat-eye glasses. The window dresser, designer and inventor is fondly remembered for her contribution to eyewear fashion and design. Here's everything to know about Altina Schinasi whose birth anniversary Google Doodle is celebrating today. Google Doodle Celebrates Popular South Asian Street Food 'Pani Puri' With Unique Game.

Altina Schinasi Early Life

Altina Schinasi was born at the Schinasi Mansion on Manhattan's Upper West Side on August 4, 1907, and was the youngest child in the Schinasi family. Altina was tutored at home for the first few years of her life and further attended Horace Mann School. Altina left home at the age of twelve to board at Dana Hall School in Wellesley, Massachusetts.

Altina Schinasi Birth Anniversary:

#Altina Schinasi's 116th Birthday # Date: August 4, 2023 Todays Doodle celebrates the life of Altina Tina Schinasi, an American artist, designer, and inventor most known for designing the Harlequin eyeglass frame  known today as the widely popular cat-eye eyeglass fr pic.twitter.com/aqGbLK63Kz  Goggle Doddle (@GoggleDoddle) August 3, 2023

Altina Schinasi as a Designer

After her high school graduation, Altina Schinasi was studying painting in Paris where she found herself immersed in the world of art. To hone her artistic skills formally, Altina went on to attend The Art Students League in New York City while working as a window dresser for multiple stores along Fifth Avenue. The American artist got the groundbreaking idea of the 'cat-eye glasses' while working as a window display designer. Google Doodle Today: Search Engine Giant Celebrates Altina Schinasi, the Visionary Designer Behind Cat-Eye Glasses.

The shape of Harlequin masks worn during the Carnevale festival in Venice, Italy, inspired her as she envisioned the cat eyeglass frames with pointed edges. Schinasi persisted in her unique design pursuit despite facing multiple rejections from major manufacturers. The cat-eye glasses design by the American designer won her significant recognition and she is fondly remembered even today for her unconventional artistic abilities.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 04, 2023 09:12 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
Justice Rohit B Deo, Judge on the Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court, has tendered his resignation, publicly expressing his departure and extending apologies. Known for notable ruling, including the discharge of Professor GN Saibaba in a Maoist links case, Justice Deo's recent stay on a government resolution further highlighted his judicial stance. Having served as the State's Advocate General and Additional Solicitor General, his resignation has drawn attention as he was set to retire on December 4, 2025. Bombay High Court Says Reputation of Women Preserved Like a Jewel in Our Society; They Are Hesitant To Report Sexual Offences.

Justice Rohit B Deo Resigns from Nagpur Bench of Bombay High Court

[BREAKING] Justice Rohit B Deo of Bombay High Court resigns, declares resignation in open court Read more here: https://t.co/WIL7JNQgzg pic.twitter.com/rPfligDKVu  Bar & Bench (@barandbench) August 4, 2023

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San Francisco, Aug 4: Google has announced new features in Search to help users keep control of their personal information, privacy and online safety, which includes a new feature that alerts users when their private contact info appears online.

Last year, the tech giant had launched the Results about you tool to make it easy for users to request the removal of search results that contain their personal phone number, home address or email, right from the Google app or however they access Search. Google News Update: Tech Giant Adds 2 New Indian Languages to Expand Language Web and Support News Publishers.

Now, Google has significantly updated and improved the tool to help users keep track of their personal contact information in Search and alert them when it is found, so they can get it removed.

"In the coming days, well be rolling out a new dashboard that will let you know if web results with your contact information are showing up on Search. Then, you can quickly request the removal of those results from Google -- right in the tool," the company said in a blogpost on Thursday. iPhone 15 Launch Date: Apple's New iPhone Rumoured to Be Launched on September 13.

The tech giant also announced that explicit imagery, such as adult or graphic violent content, will now be blurred by default when it appears in Search results. This SafeSearch blurring setting is rolling out for all users globally this month.

The company is also making it easier to find parental controls directly in Search. Users just have to type in a relevant query like Google parental controls or Google family link and they will see a box with information on how to manage their parental controls.

On Wednesday, Google announced new updates to the AI-powered Search Generative Experience (SGE), which includes related videos within AI-powered overviews.
On 3 August Mexicos Presidentaccused the Texas state governor,, of acting in an inhumane manner with regards to migrants.

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Pope Francis is in Portugal for World Youth Day 2023. There, he told thousands of students to aim for inclusivity and economic justice, as well as help preserve the environment.

Hundreds of thousands of young people came to Lisbon, Portugal on Thursday for the event, and it showed that even after 10 years into his papacy, the former Cardinal of Buenos Aires remains as popular as ever.

As Pope Francis made his way through a downtown Lisbon park for the opening ceremony of the Catholic jamboree via the Pope Mobile, pilgrims lined up to catch a glimpse of the pontiff, according to the Associated Press.

The support seems to have rejuvenated Pope Francis, too, as he was hospitalized twice this year for health concerns due to his advanced age. The trip to Portugal is expected to last five days, though the country is currently suffering from soaring temperatures.

The event is currently being held at Eduardo VII Park in Lisbon, with over 500,000 pilgrims from around the world attending the music-and-dance-filled World Youth Day opening ceremony.

Pope Francis also spoke at Catholic University, one of Portugal's top institutions of higher learning. He urged students to take risks and reject the temptation of the "present global system of elitism and inequality."

"An academic degree should not be seen merely as a license to pursue personal well-being but as a mandate to work for a more just and inclusive - that is, truly progressive - society," he added.

He also urged the youth to protect the environment and stated, "It's important to walk together, resolve crises together and go forward, growing."

He also spread his message about inequality and called for more inclusivity.

READ MORE: Brazil President Lula Offers To Help Free Imprisoned Bishop in Nicaragua After Meeting With Pope Francis

Pope Francis To Visit Our Lady of Fatima While in Portugal

Vatican News reported that Pope Francis is scheduled to do a Way of the Cross with young people at the "so Imperio" square in Belem Friday. He will then head to the "de Serafina" parish center to meet with representatives of several charities before having lunch with the youth at the Apostolic Nunciature before presiding over a Station of the Cross himself at the Eduardo VII Park.

On Saturday, however, he will visit the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima. He will also go to the Fatima Stadium before returning to Lisbon for several meetings.

The pope will conclude his Portugal visit with a mass to end World Youth Day before heading back to Rome.

Pope Francis Urged Russia To Restore Black Sea Grain Deal

Before he left for Portugal to attend World Youth Day, Pope Francis called on Russia to reverse its decision to abandon the Black Sea grain deal.

According to Reuters, the deal allowed Ukraine to export grain from its seaports despite the war still going on. Russia backed out of the deal before saying the country's "demands to ease sanctions on its own grain and fertilizer exports had not been met."

"I appeal to my brothers, the authorities of the Russian Federation, so that the Black Sea initiative may be resumed and grain may be transported safely," said the Argentina-born pope during his weekly message.

READ MORE: Pope Francis Wants Cuba to Release Cuban Protesters Arrested in 2021

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: LIVE WYD Lisbon 2023 | Welcome ceremony with Pope Francis at World Youth Day | August 3rd, 2023 - EWTN
A suspect has been arrested in connection to a Florida murder case last month.

Court records reveal that the Florida man was charged with first-degree murder in connection with the discovery of human remains found in three suitcases, ABC News noted.

The grim discovery came to light after a concerned individual contacted emergency services to report a suspicious object in the Intracoastal Waterway on July 21.

A subsequent investigation by the Delray Beach Police Department revealed that the remains belonged to a woman of either white or Hispanic descent, in her middle age, with brown hair, and standing approximately 5'4" tall.

During the investigation, authorities uncovered crucial evidence, including a sticker affixed to one of the suitcases bearing the name "Latam, MIA, Barbosa," as detailed in the probable cause affidavit.

READ NEXT: Florida Plastic Surgeon Charged With Murder

Florida Murder Victim Identified

Authorities have released a photo rendering of the potential appearance of the murder victim before her tragic demise and subsequent placement of her remains in three suitcases.

The victim has been successfully identified as Aydil Barbosa Fontes, 80, through her dental records, per CBS News.

Investigators suspect that the woman was murdered sometime between July 17 and July 20.

In their efforts to identify the victim and apprehend the killer, authorities sought the public's assistance, releasing a written statement about the case.

According to reports from The Palm Beach Post, the victim's remains had already begun decomposing when a construction worker made the grisly discovery of the first suitcase containing her body.

Subsequently, police were alerted to the presence of two additional suitcases found floating in the waterway.

Investigators Identified Florida Murder Suspect Through Witnesses, Surveillance Video

Residents living along the waterway provided crucial information to investigators regarding a man who was seen near the floating suitcases on July 20, according to NBC Miami.

One witness recounted approaching the man and asking what he was doing.

The man responded that he was "waiting for the big boat to come into the harbor" before quickly leaving the area in an older model gold sedan, appearing nervous throughout the encounter.

Another witness observed a man using a dock ladder to access the waterway and pushing something into the water.

Surveillance footage from nearby corroborated these sightings, showing the same man climbing the dock ladder twice on July 20.

Detectives later found blood on a dock ladder near one of the discovered suitcases.

Witness testimonies from three roof workers revealed additional sightings of the man on July 21, standing on the seawall and appearing agitated before leaving the scene.

Based on the witnesses' descriptions of the man's car as a gold sedan or a Ford, a detective was able to locate a gold Ford Taurus nearby.

The vehicle's registration led the investigators to William Lowe and the apartment he shared with Aydil Barbosa Fontes.

During questioning on July 31, Lowe told detectives that Fontes was in Brazil and had been there for approximately three weeks.

However, he claimed not to know the details of her departure, including which airline she flew with and the last time they had spoken.

Subsequent searches of the couple's apartment yielded a disturbing discovery. Blood splatters were found throughout various areas.

Investigators also uncovered a black cover for a Ryobi chainsaw, a charger for the chainsaw battery, and multiple bottles of cleaning supplies.

Detectives also searched the storage unit, where they found a Ryobi chainsaw containing potential evidence, such as blood, bone matter, flesh, and human hair.

At a news conference, Delray Beach Police Chief Russ Mager highlighted the relentless efforts of investigators to solve this "heinous crime."

Lead Detective Mike Liberta stated that the motive for the killing remains unknown, as Lowe has hired a lawyer and stopped cooperating with authorities.

William Lowe was being held without bond as of the report's publication, and information about his attorney was not available.

READ MORE: Kidnapping, Rape Case Witness Found Dead

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Bert Hoover

WATCH: New renderings of woman found in suitcase in South Florida - From 10 Tampa Bay
Federal prosecutors made a significant announcement Thursday, revealing the arrest of two California Navy sailors on charges related to alleged spying for China, FOX News reports.

The accused individuals are separately charged with passing national defense information to Chinese intelligence officials in exchange for cash payments.

One of the arrested sailors is Jinchao "Patrick" Wei, a 22-year-old petty officer 2nd class, who was taken into custody on Wednesday. He faces espionage charges, specifically conspiracy to and committing the communication of defense information to aid a foreign government.

Wei served as a machinist's mate aboard the USS Essex, an amphibious ship currently undergoing maintenance at Naval Base San Diego.

The second sailor, Petty Officer Wenheng Zhao, aged 26 and from Monterey Park, California, was also apprehended on Wednesday by FBI and NCIS agents. He is charged with conspiracy and receipt of a bribe by a public official, as stated in his indictment.

Zhao worked at Naval Base Ventura County in Port Hueneme and held an active US security clearance, granting him access to classified information.

READ NEXT: Pentagon Leak Suspect Jack Teixeira Indicted

Charges to California Navy Sailors Reflect China Interest in the Navy's Pacific Fleet

The charges against the two US Navy sailors shed light on the China government's profound interest in the Navy's Pacific Fleet and other aspects of the American military's operations in the region.

This aligns with a broader pattern of Chinese efforts to illicitly obtain American corporate and national security secrets, according to NY Times.

The extent of Chinese espionage, including cyber breaches, has raised significant concerns among top national security officials, prompting them to sound the alarm about the threat posed by the Chinese government.

In his testimony before Congress, FBI Director Christopher A. Wray issued a stark warning, emphasizing that no other country poses a more substantial threat to American innovation, ideas, economic security, and national security than China.

California Navy Sailors Pleaded Not Guilty

Jinchao "Patrick" Wei and Wenheng Zhao, the California Navy sailors accused of spying for China, have pleaded not guilty in federal courts in San Diego and Los Angeles. AP reports. They will remain in custody until their detention hearings are scheduled to take place on August 8 in the respective cities.

US officials have long expressed concerns about the espionage threat posed by the Chinese government.

In recent years, criminal cases have been brought against Beijing intelligence operatives involved in stealing sensitive government and commercial information, including through illegal hacking.

Wei, who was born in China, was approached by a Chinese intelligence officer in February 2022 while he was applying for naturalized US citizenship, according to prosecutors. He allegedly admitted to the officer that he knew the arrangement could impact his application.

It is claimed that Wei received between $10,000 to $15,000 from this arrangement with the unnamed Chinese intelligence officer in the past year. If convicted, he could face a sentence of life in prison.

Zhao, who was stationed at Naval Base Ventura County, has been charged with conspiring to collect nearly $15,000 in bribes from a Chinese intelligence officer.

Zhao is accused of providing US naval exercise plans, operational orders, and photos and videos of electrical systems at Navy facilities in exchange. The information included operational plans for a significant US military exercise in the Indo-Pacific region, detailing the location and timing of naval force movements.

Zhao also allegedly photographed electrical diagrams and blueprints for a radar system on a US military base in Okinawa, Japan. If found guilty, Zhao could face up to 20 years in federal prison.

READ MORE: 2 Dead in Los Angeles Plane Crash

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Bert Hoover

WATCH: 2 US Navy sailors arrested for allegedly spying for China - From ABC News
There is no way to describe the stress and anxiety of preparing a grant application to someone who has not undertaken the task. Explaining complicated community problems within minuscule word counts, creating budgets in forms that dont work correctly, and finding out at the eleventh hour that some online platform is jammed  as a development professional, my blood pressure climbs at the thought of it.

But nonprofit life is wholly dependent on grants. And Buffalo, in particular, is one of the most philanthropically underserved regions of the country. That makes every dollar released to this sector more important than it would be in another city. Organizations like the Oishei Foundation and Western New York Foundation have recently entered into months-long strategic planning processes in order to determine how best to meet funding needs.

When the American Rescue Plan money landed in the lap of the Brown administration, their team held a responsibility to this sector. This funding was a chance to meet new needs, to pilot new ideas, and to emerge from a pandemic stronger and more vibrant.

I worked with organizations that help traumatized youth, organizations offering quality health care to underserved communities, and organizations forging paths to job readiness. for our most disenfranchised neighbors. Each felt that if ARP funding would launch the effort, the next year of funding would be easier to secure.

Altruism wasnt required. When Buffalo becomes a better place to live, it becomes easier to govern, and its tax coffers grow. The Brown administration frequently forgoes nonprofit banquets, galas, and press events. I see his staff less frequently than any other political staff members. Im no longer waiting for this team to become altruistic.

Then, what was required? Strategy. Listening to the sector and listening well. Learning from experts about what works in the process. Those of us who developed grant requests for ARP dollars experienced the most challenging process possible because the administration engaged no experts, utilized no best-practice tools, and provided no meaningful feedback to grant seekers.

In a process that is already glitchy and uncomfortable on its best day, the Brown administration managed to find a way to offer a migraine of a funding mechanism. But anyone who works in the grant world knows this is just a part of the process. The effort is worth it for the chance to fund vital community work. Nonprofits invest an average of $100 per hour preparing a grant at approximately an hour per page. That means that the preparation and submission of an average proposal costs over $3,000. Some nonprofits submitted several proposals each.

This money could have been used to heal, to feed, to care, to educate, to employ, to plant and to inspire. Instead, funds that should have supported the restoration of this sector will now be diverted to an ineffective system of government that continues to fail its most vulnerable constituents.

Despite a frustrating process, we were willing to abide. Were lean, and were scrappy, and were used to a challenge. But to pull the funding away, after all weve invested, and months of endless waiting with no communication, on something as fruitless as revenue replacement?

Brown, Common Council, you owe this city an apology.
Is it really Musikfest without fireworks? Or at least one ill-timed downpour?

Both traditions got their start in Musikfest 85. The thousand or so music lovers who endured a 15-minute drenching got rewarded with a 45-minute fireworks display.

The Allentown Symphony Pops played Stars and Stripes Forever with folks watching from Kunstplatz, the headliner stage on Lehigh Street, or listening over speakers from Americaplatz, outside the library.

You take a shower, dont you? Les Remaly, of Hanover Township, told The Express, sitting in a soggy lawn chair and poncho near the bandshell. This is the same thing.

Despite the rainy close, organizers hailed the overall success of Musikfests second year. Mayor Paul Marcincin said: This, to me, is Bethlehem.

More on Musikfest 85

Ashli Truchon | lehighvalleylive.com contributor

It was just the second year, but organizers at the Bethlehem Musikfest Association were already claiming records. We had a record crowd Saturday night, the festivals publicity chairman, Jeffrey Gordon, told The Express. He was touting opening weekend crowds, which, to be fair, at 72,000 people doubled the previous year.

Ashli Truchon | lehighvalleylive.com contributor

There was skepticism about Musikfests growth as hotels waited for visitors. Hotel Bethlehem, for example, was about 70% full. I do believe (Musikfest is) going to have to catch on with tour groups, the hotels sales manager said.

Headliners: The Association; Blood, Sweat & Tears; John Sebastian; Pete Seeger; Glenn Miller Orchestra; Lehigh Valley Chamber Orchestra; Pennsylvania Sinfonia Orchestra; Allentown Band; Koko Taylor; Arvell Shaw and The Louis Armstrong Legacy Band

Estimated attendance: 355,000

Ashli Truchon | lehighvalleylive.com contributor

MUSIKFEST 40 FOR 40

Musikfest 40 for 40 is a special series based on archived stories from The Express-Times and lehighvalleylive.com, one for each year of Musikfests four decades.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to lehighvalleylive.com.

Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@lehighvalleylive.com.
The first Musikfest was an ambitious undertaking.

In a quest to draw summer visitors to a city that thrived on tourists only at Christmastime, the Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce devised a nine-day music festival centered around the local German and Moravian heritage. It needed bands, of course, almost 300 of them, one of them coming direct from Germany. But also 500 volunteers. Six venues. Three dozen sponsors. Attractions. Publicity. It needed someone to manage all of it.

That someone was Roland Kushner. He got a business degree from Lehigh University, worked putting on shows and bookings, and consulted for Martin Guitars. The Express described the then-28-year-old Canadian transplant as tousle-haired and clad in sandals, slacks and open-necked shirt. He was in his office next to the Sun Inn, days before the inaugural Musikfest, trying to speak with a reporter as the phone rang off the hook.

Weve been getting calls from Massachusetts to Maryland, he told the newspaper. Its a big piece of work.

Kushner also played guitar, banjo and long-necked mandolin  and was scheduled for one of the platzes. He didnt just organize the first Musikfest, he was part of it. Instrumental, indeed.

More on Musikfest 84

Ashli Truchon | lehighvalleylive.com contributor

Did you know? Kunstplatz, the original Musikfest headliner stage, means art place. It was at the Community Arts Pavilion on Lehigh Street.

Ashli Truchon | lehighvalleylive.com contributor

Headliners: Don McLean; The Louis Armstrong All-Stars; The Rob Stoneback Big Band; Park Frankenfield & The Dixieland All-Stars; Lehigh Valley Chamber Orchestra; The Beethoven Male Chorus and The Beethoven Ladies Choir; Allentown Symphony Orchestra; The Polish-American String Band of Philadelphia; Johnson Mountain Boys and Skyline; Stadkappelle Berching; The American Legion Band of Bethlehem; Allentown Band

Estimated attendance: 182,000

Ashli Truchon | lehighvalleylive.com contributor

Musikfest 40 for 40 is a special series based on archived stories from The Express-Times and lehighvalleylive.com, one for each year of Musikfests four decades.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to lehighvalleylive.com.

Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@lehighvalleylive.com.
A Berks County man was convicted at trial Friday of driving drunk and causing a crash that killed a 26-year-old man in Upper Macungie Township, according to a news release.

The release from the Lehigh County District Attorneys office says 42-year-old Jonathan Richards of Shillington, Pa., caused the crash that killed Wadnor Jean Louis of York, Pa., on Jan. 17, 2021.

Richards was driving the wrong way at 4:41 a.m. on Hamilton Boulevard when he caused the crash at Farmington Road, the release says. His blood-alcohol level was 0.24%, which is three times the legal limit in Pennsylvania, according to the news release.
A Lehigh Valley business owner is named as a defendant in a federal lawsuit filed last month over an investigation that failed to turn up voting fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

A cybersecurity expert contracted for the work claims in the suit he and his firm did not receive full payment. He is seeking to recover $550,000 owed plus $10 million in damages, according to the suit.

The suit also alleges damage to the experts reputation stemming from the investigations findings that left the defendants furious. This led to the loss of a Pennsylvania Senate contract for investigating voting equipment used in the election, according to the claims.

Yaacov Apelbaum and his XRVision Ltd. cybersecurity firm based in New York City filed the suit July 18. It names as defendants Michigan attorney Stefanie L. Lambert, her law firm and Pennsylvania resident Bill Bachenberg.

Republican supporter Bachenberg owns Lehigh Valley Spring Clays in North Whitehall Township.

A call for comment Friday to the skeet-shooting business on a former quarry property led to a no comment. A brief call to Bachenberg was disconnected once a reported identified himself, and a request for comment via email did not lead to a response.

Lambert could not be reached for comment by phone or email.

Lambert is identified as one of three people facing criminal charges in Michigan in connection with accessing and tampering with voting machines. She pleaded not guilty Thursday. Efforts by The Associated Press to reach her for comment on the case were unsuccessful. On a conservative podcast appearance last week, Lambert said she had been notified of an indictment and claimed no wrongdoing.

According to the lawsuit filed by Apelbaum and XRVision, Lambert and her law firm promoted multiple claims that election fraud occurred in the 2020 Presidential Election. Bachenberg is identified in the suit as one of several investors from across the country that paid Lambert to participate in election fraud investigations and lawsuits, the suit states.

Contracted by Lambert and her law firm to analyze voting equipment from Fulton County, Pennsylvania, Apelbaum and his company reported back in June 2022 that while the elections systems were highly insecure, there was no evidence that they had been hacked internationally or domestically or were pre-configured to favor one candidate, according to the suit.

Lambert and her firm, however, requested a report stating that there were cheat codes in the software and that there was evidence of remote/local hacking of the elections systems, according to the suit.

Apelbaum refused to do this because it was not true, the suit states.

The Fulton County report filed by Apelbaum and his company did not find any evidence of election fraud in the 2020 election, and Defendants were furious, the suit alleges.

In written and verbal communications with state lawmakers in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Arizona  the suit alleges  Lambert and her firm then began a defamation campaign labeling Apelbaum and his company as incompetent; secretly working as malicious operatives of the federal government; and entirely lacking any ability in the fields of cybersecurity and forensic analysis.

The suit claims that campaign resulted in the Pennsylvania Senate terminating a contract with XRVision to perform forensic analyses of various Pennsylvania elections systems.

A jury trial is sought in the cybersecurity experts lawsuit.

Separately, Bachenberg was among a dozen people subpoenaed last year in a congressional probe into purportedly false Electoral College certificates declaring former President Donald Trump the winner of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. President Joe Biden won all seven states.

The role that fake slates of electors played in Trumps desperate effort to cling to power after his defeat in the 2020 election is at the center of a four-count indictment released against the former president Tuesday. Trump has pleaded not guilty.

These so-called alternate electors from the seven battleground states allegedly submitted to Congress fake slates of Electoral College votes for Trump. Several of Trumps advisers used those certificates to justify delaying or blocking certification of the election during the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, that was marred by an insurrectionist riot on the Capitol.

Five people died during the Jan. 6 attack and its aftermath. More than 1,000 people have been charged by the Justice Department, some facing serious sentences, including extremist group members convicted of sedition.

Michigans attorney general on July 18 filed felony charges against 16 Republicans who allegedly acted as fake electors for Trump in 2020. The news organization Votebeat this past week reported at spotlightpa.org that the alternate electors from Pennsylvania are unlikely to face criminal charges because of a caveat in their certificate saying their votes should be counted only if theyre legally found to be duly elected and qualified Electors.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to lehighvalleylive.com.

Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com.
Congress responded to the fiery train derailment in eastern Ohio earlier this year with bipartisan alarm, holding a flurry of hearings about the potential for railroad crashes to trigger even larger disasters. Both parties agreed that a legislative response was needed.

Yet six months after life was upended in East Palestine, little has changed.

While President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have praised a railroad safety bill from Ohio Sens. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, and JD Vance, a Republican, the Senate proposal has also encountered resistance. Top GOP leaders in Congress have been hesitant to support it, and the bill has faced some opposition from the railroad industry, which holds significant sway in Washington.

As a result, it remains an open question whether the derailment that shattered life in East Palestine will become a catalyst for action. And for Republicans, the fight poses a larger test of political identity, caught between their traditional support for industry and their desire to champion voters in rural America.

These rail lines pass frequently through Republican areas, small towns with a lot of Republican voters, Vance told The Associated Press. How can we look them in the eye and say, were doing a good job by you? If we choose the railroads over their own interests, we cant.

In East Palestine, a village of approximately 5,000 people near the Pennsylvania state line, the railroad has reopened both its tracks in the area but the cleanup continues. Norfolk Southern estimates that its response to the derailment will cost at least $803 million to remove all the hazardous chemicals, help the community and deal with lawsuits and penalties related to the derailment.

But residents still worry about the long-term health effects. Many are looking to Congress to act, hoping it will prevent another community from enduring the trauma, fear and upheaval they have endured.

Jami Wallace, who has lived in East Palestine for 46 years along with her extended family, has helped lead a community group called the Unity Council to represent residents concerns and push for government action.

If our legislators dont take East Palestine as an example of some of the reforms that need to be in the regulations that need to be put on, you know, the railroad industry, then theyre fools, Wallace said. Again, we dont want to suffer for nothing.

Rail labor groups say the widespread cuts the industry has made in the name of efficiency in recent years have made railroads riskier, so they believe reforms are needed to reduce the more than 1,000 derailments that happen every year because just one can be disastrous.

There have been more than 60 high-profile derailments since East Palestine, including multiple in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Montana, said the Transportation Trades Department coalition that includes all the rail unions. Through it all, freight rail companies have maintained their fundamental disregard for public safety. Safety is just a buzzword to the railroads.

Vance, a freshman senator who rose to conservative fame with his 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy, said he is counting on a few more Republican senators to back the bill before it comes to a vote. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has already placed the bill at the top of the agenda for the fall.

But both Vance and Brown acknowledge their legislation faces an even steeper climb in the Republican-controlled House. GOP leaders there want to wait until the National Transportation Safety Board completes its investigation of the derailment  which will likely not happen until next year  before taking action. The NTSB in a preliminary report found fault with an overheated wheel bearing.

But a contingent of Ohio House lawmakers, led by Democrat Rep. Emilia Sykes and Republican Rep. Bill Johnson, whose district includes East Palestine, want action now.

Lets hit while the iron is hot, Johnson said.

Both the House and Senate bills would increase fines for safety violations, require more inspections and increase the number of trackside detectors that monitor for overheated wheel bearings. In one significant difference, the Senate bill would require that most freight trains have two-person crews, while the House bill would not.

Railroads have spoken out against the two-person crew requirement and urged Congress to wait for the final NTSB investigation to pass any new regulations.

The industry has also stepped up its lobbying this year. In the first three months of 2023, industry groups spent a combined $7.1 million on lobbying  a roughly $1.8 million increase from the $5.3 million it spent in the previous three months.

The railroads say there isnt any data to show one-person crews are riskier than two-person crews. They also point out that the East Palestine train actually had three crew members aboard when it derailed.

Sen. John Thune, who is currently the Republican whip but in 2003 and 2004 worked as a lobbyist for Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad, said in a Senate committee debate that it was important to hold Norfolk Southern, whose train derailed on Feb. 3, accountable for the derailment. He also voiced support for pragmatic reforms. But Thune ultimately opposed the bill from Vance and Brown and cautioned against the cost of regulation on railroads.

There is not much in the proposed legislation that would address the derailment in East Palestine based on what we know so far, Thune said.

Railroads have a long history of resisting new regulations, and an industry group has already filed a lawsuit challenging some new state rules Ohio passed after the derailment. It maintains that any new regulations should be based on data that proves the rules would actually make railroads safer.

Weve always been encouraging members of Congress to take their time to make sure they have the facts and the data and the technical analysis coming from NTSB and other regulators so that we can have a fact-based conversation, CSX CEO Joe Hinrichs said. All of us want safety in the rail network and in our communities.

As the bill proponents make a push in the coming months, Brown said he was counting on help from residents directly impacted by the February derailment.

The area of the state this happened in is a very conservative, Republican part of the state. But I am their ally. They know it. Theyre my allies in this, said Brown, who is expected to face a tough reelection race next year. They put pressure. They dont care about partisan politics.

By STEPHEN GROVES and JOSH FUNK

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It is essential to support The Mental Health in International Development and Humanitarian Settings (MINDS) Act to focus on minimizing global poverty and improving mental health resources as we are rebuilding from the COVID-19 pandemic. The MINDS Act is legislation that promotes mental health and psychosocial support as a key component of U.S. foreign aid, which can ultimately help to break the cycle of poverty.

The MINDS Act is timely in light of our post-COVID-19 pandemic milieu. The pandemic exacerbated the risk factors for mental health conditions globally, with 75% of people with mental health conditions living in low and middle-income countries not having the means to receive treatment or resources. Consequently, there is a strong relationship between poor mental health and poverty. Further, hunger, discrimination, and displacement from conflict increase ones susceptibility to mental health disorders.

If you live in Pennsylvania, reach out to U.S. Sens. Bob Casey and John Fetterman, and your respective representative to express the importance of passing legislation focused on breaking this relationship between poverty and mental health.

As we are on the cusp of a new school year, consider that your action today even helps youth and strengthens the school environment as childhood poverty causes lower school achievement and higher rates of delinquency, anxiety and depression. This, in turn, contributes to higher rates of psychiatric disorders later in life. Your commitment to the MINDS Act breaks this cycle.

Emma McWilliams

Bethlehem
Prison staff are to be defined as 'civil servants' under a big change to the status of State entity that runs prisons in Portlaoise and the rest of Ireland that has been in the pipeline for more than 20 years.

The Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee, has announced that the Irish Prison Service (IPS) is to become a fully-fledged State body with a non-executive Board and other best-practice governance and support structures

The Irish Prison Service Bill 2023 will establish the IPS and its Director General on a statutory basis with defined functions including providing safe and secure custody, upholding human rights, and supporting prisoner rehabilitation.

The Departement of Justice said the IPS is currently a non-statutory executive office of the Department of Justice. At present, the IPS has over 3,500 staff, an annual budget of more than 420 million, and an average of approximately 4,700 prisoners in custody on a given day.

The Department said new structures will provide the IPS with expert guidance and oversight in implementing the Governments penal policy reform programme, in managing capital projects and in ensuring the highest standards of governance and accountability in the prison system.

A statment said this will complement the primarily human rights-focused oversight already provided by external entities such as the Inspector of Prisons, the Prison Visiting Committees, and the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT).

The Departtment added that the draft law also provides that the IPS will provide prisoners with services and activities to support the health, self-respect and spiritual, moral and mental well-being of prisoners. It also provides that provide prisoners with educational, training and other developmental opportunities to enable them to spend their time in prison constructively and preparing to lead law-abiding and purposeful lives following release.

As for the Prison Officers and other employees, the Department said the Bill provides that the IPS staff will be designated as civil servants of the Government, without any changes to their terms and conditions of service including remuneration, allowances or grading.

The Minister for Justice will retain the role of policy direction and will also approve overarching corporate strategy and capital investment.

The Bill will also formalise the Director Generals accountability to the Minister for the overall management of the prison system. This will include accountability for implementing the IPS multiannual strategic plan, annual business plan and governance framework, all of which will be placed on a statutory footing. The Minister will remain in charge of capital expenditure within the IPS, and any decision to open or close a prison will be made by the Minister.

Minister McEntee commented on what was described as an important milestone.

The Government has approved the drafting of a Bill to establish the Irish Prison Service on a statutory basis with new and enhanced governance and accountability structures.

A safe, secure and progressive prison system is a cornerstone of any well-functioning democracy. In Ireland we are fortunate to have a prison service with so many committed staff who work day-in, day-out to provide prisoners with opportunities for rehabilitation and self-development while also ensuring an orderly and disciplined prison environment. Through the provision of educational, training, employment and psychological services, we can reduce the level of re-offending and improve overall community safety.

The Bill will cement the position of the IPS as a State body with defined functions, provide it with best practice governance supports, and set out clear lines of authority and accountability for the management of the prison system. This will include establishing the position of IPS Director General as a statutory office with formal authority and accountability to match the responsibilities of the role.

This Bill will help to ensure that the IPS is best positioned to fulfil its mandate and to meet future challenges, including its role in the effective management of prison numbers, resources and penal policy reforms. Ultimately this will help to shape better outcomes for prisoners, staff and communities alike," she said.

As statement added that the Minister also intends to prioritise the need for additional prison spaces because of significant population growth in recent years, as well as planned population growth in the coming years. It also arises due to increases in judicial resources and increasing numbers of Gardai.

We are working on a plan to deliver 400 extra prison spaces across 4 different prisons. This will provide space for 620 additional prisoners across the prison estate. These additional spaces will be delivered in Castlrea, Cloverhill, the Midlands and Mountjoy prisons. It is important that the size of the prison estate keeps up with population growth, as well as increasing judicial and garda resources, she said.

The Irish Prison Service (IPS) was first set up under a 1998 Government decision which approved its establishment on an initial administrative basis to prepare the ground for an intended statutory Prisons Authority. However, the planned legislation was not brought forward at that time and the IPS has since remained as a non-statutory executive office of the Department of Justice with a large degree of operational autonomy but without legal personality or defined functions.

In January 2021 the Minister for Justice approved the establishment of a joint Departmental/IPS working group to develop detailed proposals for putting the agency on a statutory basis with a non-executive board. In December 2021 the working group reported back to the Minister, who drew on their recommendations in bringing initial proposals to Government in June 2022.

On 28 June 2022 the Government gave approval to draft the General Scheme of a Bill to place the IPS on a full statutory footing, and the Department commenced work on the Scheme.

On 11 July 2023, the Minister for Justice brought a Memorandum to Government for approval to draft the Irish Prison Service Bill 2023 on the lines of the General Scheme.

The proposed legislation will deliver on a range of strategic objectives including:

 Cementing the corporate identity of the IPS as a key pillar of the criminal justice system with defined functions and accountabilities;

 Bringing enhanced stability, certainty and accountability to the IPS operating environment, with all personnel and resources brought under the overall responsibility of the Director General who will be designated as Accounting Officer for the Prisons Vote;

 Providing, via an expert non-executive Board and committees (including an audit committee), dedicated oversight and support to the Director General in ensuring strong internal governance, implementing policy and institutional reforms, developing and implementing corporate strategy, and advancing major capital projects.



The Director General will be responsible to the Minister for the performance of his/her functions and will prepare statutory corporate and capital plans and governance frameworks for the Ministers approval. For its part, the Board will (among other functions) have a significant consultative, advisory, monitoring and appraisal role in the development and implementation of those plans and frameworks.

In line with the Code of Practice for the Governance of State Bodies, the Department of Justice will continue to exercise general oversight of the IPS through governance agreements, regular governance meetings and other ongoing engagement.
A Circuit Court Judge said Portlaoise has an enormous illegal drug problem thats worse than any of the other towns in the midlands.

Judge Keenan Johnson made the comments as he sentenced Ugnius Sakalis, 26, of Monastery Gate Close, Clondalkin Dublin. The defendant was sentenced to six years in prison with the final year suspended for possession of 120 kilos of cannabis herb valued at 2.42 million at a storage facility in Emo in August of 2021.

Having presided in Portlaoise for a number of days, Judge Johnson said the issue of illicit drug use in Laois and particularly in Portlaoise is enormous. Its by far the biggest problem of any of the towns I deal with in the midland district.

The use of illegal drugs creates crime, puts pressure on the health system and basically undermines society, he told the court.

I think it is very important that young people be educated as to the dangers of drugs, he added. Judge Johnson warned that cannabis is anything but a safe drug and he said it is linked to psychosis in users. He made the comments during the sentencing hearing and said society has to severely punish such crimes to reflect societys abhorrence of illegal drugs.

The Lithuanian defendant had admitted working for an eastern European organised crime group. He had been transporting the drugs for payment. The court heard he had been in custody since his initial arrest and was a model prisoner and had cooperated with gardai during their investigation.

Judge Johnson imposed a six year sentence which he backdated to August 30, 2021. He suspended the final 12 months for five years on condition that the man enter a bond and engage with the probation services.
Its not a silver bullet, but it is the continuation of long-needed improvements that will make Niagara Falls, N.Y., a robust tourist destination, not a one-hit wonder.

The Niagara Falls Aquariums ambitious expansion efforts, which started with the redevelopment of the former Schoellkopf Geological Museum, are continuing, with a third, brand-new structure to be built on an adjacent parcel.

The Aquarium, a relatively modest institution  its no Shedd or Monterey Bay  has always been a bit of an underdog, but soon it will command a sprawling campus of family-friendly attractions, not far from the brink of the falls. And the best part of all this growth is that it encompasses a wide range of long-planned enhancements that have always made sense. Using the Schoellkopf structure for a focus on the Great Lakes is an obvious choice  a Great Lakes aquarium was considered for Buffalo on several occasions. Western New York has always needed this, given our location, and its much better to have it join an existing aquarium, where scientists and researchers are ready to do the legwork.

The further addition of a 16,000-square-foot, double-level building solves a longtime problem. The existing aquarium lacks space for events and traveling exhibitions  such as those provided by Smithsonian Institution and National Geographic  to supplement what it already has. The new structure would double the aquariums size, creating space for new and traveling exhibits, as well as for events, a playground, gift shop, cafe and other services for visitors.

Up-to-date restrooms and easy access to food are essential for traveling families, one of the largest constituencies hosted at the Falls. Sometimes, families just need a space to rest and regroup before going on to the next thing  an amenity-filled indoor/outdoor campus provides just that.

And, apparently, a fourth structure is in the works. The vision to create all this, as well as the $18 million it will cost, is thanks, for the most part, to New York States renewed attention to a city that's been too long the poster child for missed opportunities. Under Gov. Kathy Hochuls leadership, the aquarium project is part of a larger strategy to tie together downtown Niagara Falls and the state park. A separate $12 million Niagara Falls Heritage Gateway is in the works for that purpose. The idea is to give visitors walking from downtown hotels to the falls an attractive park-lined path, rather than a stark wasteland with a casino in the middle of it, which is essentially what we have now.

Park improvements and an expanded aquarium will help keep those visitors here longer. Theyll also provide year-round recreation for every Western New Yorker, much as Canalside has done in Buffalo.

As the state park and the aquarium improve, sadly, the deteriorating condition of the rest of Niagara Falls comes into glaring focus. Directly to the east of these enhancements are 140 acres of shabby vacant structures and empty lots, property owned for more than two decades by the inappropriately named Niagara Falls Redevelopment Corp. Somehow, this crucially located property must undergo immediate development work or be taken away from NFR, which is controlled by New York City developer Howard Milstein.

There may be good news on this front. The city of Niagara Falls has won an initial round in its attempt to acquire 12 acres of this property under eminent domain. If the legal efforts are successful, a multipurpose park with an amphitheater, ice rink, indoor arena and other amenities is planned.

Last week the State Supreme Court Appellate Division ruled against NFR in the first round of this litigation. Now fair values for the parcels must be determined.

Its only a start  and certainly not as solid as the park and aquarium improvements  but it provides more hope. Niagara Falls has long needed that hope.

Whats your opinion? Send it to us at lettertoeditor@buffnews.com. Letters should be a maximum of 300 words and must convey an opinion. The column does not print poetry, announcements of community events or thank you letters. A writer or household may appear only once every 30 days. All letters are subject to fact-checking and editing.
One week after the military coup in Niger led by General Abdourahamane Tiani, France completed the evacuation of 600 French nationals on Wednesday, August 2. This uncertain political context is also beginning to raise economic concerns.

In France, fears are particularly focused on the exploitation of uranium from Niger, and the possible consequences of this energy independence. A natural resource essential to the operation of French nuclear power plants, uranium mined in Niger has been exploited for over four decades by the French nuclear fuel cycle group Orano (formerly Areva).

Three mines operating in Niger

The multinational, which is 90% owned by the French state, operates three mines in Niger, only one of which is currently in production:

The Air mines , whose operating company Somair is 63.4% owned by Orano, are based near the town of Arlit, in the desert to the north of Niger. Although the mine is nearing depletion, its operation has been extended until 2040.

, whose operating company Somair is 63.4% owned by Orano, are based near the town of Arlit, in the desert to the north of Niger. Although the mine is nearing depletion, its operation has been extended until 2040. The Akokan mining site , around ten kilometers from Arlit, has been closed since the end of March 2021. With reserves exhausted after four decades of mining, Compagnie miniere d'Akouta, 59%-owned by Orano, is now working on a project to redevelop its sites.

, around ten kilometers from Arlit, has been closed since the end of March 2021. With reserves exhausted after four decades of mining, Compagnie miniere d'Akouta, 59%-owned by Orano, is now working on a project to redevelop its sites. Finally, Orano holds a 63.52% stake in the Imouraren mine, located 80 kilometers south of Arlit, which is considered to be one of the world's largest uranium deposits. However, after an operating permit was issued in 2009, production at the site was suspended due to a lack of favorable market conditions.

For the time being, Orano has announced that it will continue its mining activities, despite the putsch in Niger. "To date, activities at the operational sites in Arlit and at the headquarters in Niamey are continuing with an adapted organization in the context of the curfew in place throughout Niger," the group announced on its website on Thursday, August 3.

Niger, one of France's top three uranium suppliers

To operate the fifty-six nuclear reactors in France's eighteen power plants, operator EDF requires an average of around 8,000 tons of natural uranium every year. Following the cessation of mining on French soil in the early 2000s, France turned to several countries simultaneously for its supplies. The diversification of suppliers is a source of security for EDF.

In 2022, France had five uranium suppliers Natural uranium imported into France Source: Comite technique Euratom

Over the last ten years, the 88,200 tonnes of natural uranium imported into France came mainly from three countries: Kazakhstan (27%), Niger (20%), and Uzbekistan (19%). Niger plays an important role in France's supplies, but its importance is overestimated by some politicians.

On a global scale, however, "Niger has become a secondary producer over the years, as production costs are high and prices slumped until 2016 after [the nuclear accident at] Fukushima," explained Teva Meyer, a lecturer at the University of Haute-Alsace and researcher at the French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs, to French newspaper Les Echos. By 2022, Niger accounted for just 4% of global production, well behind Kazakhstan (43%), Canada (15%), Namibia (11%), and Australia (8%).

Kazakhstan, the world's largest uranium producer With close to half of the world's uranium production (43%) coming from Kazakhstan in 2022, Niger accounted for just 4% of global production. Source : Source : World Nuclear Association

Read more Article reserve a nos abonnes After Niger coup, Orano activates crisis unit to watch over its uranium mines
A SIGNIFICANT reduction in chronic lung disease has been linked to the smokey coal ban, a Limerick university finds.

A new study from University of Limerick (UL) has found that the ban of smoky coal in Ireland led to a reduction in the probability of chronic lung diseases in older people.

Last year, the ban became nationwide, as the extension of smokey coal bans became gradual nationwide over the last 30 years. In Ireland, usage of solid fuels, including coal, is relatively high for western Europe.

According to the most recent census in 2022, nearly 9%of households used solid fuels as their main source of heating. In contrast, the percentage of households in the UK using solid fuels as their main source of heating is less than 2%.

Lead author of the study, Vincent OSullivan, Associate Professor of Economics UL, said: Our comprehensive analysis consistently showed that the bans reduced the incidence of lung disease among older people.

We tracked the health status of over 4,000 older people in Ireland, who were interviewed every two years between 2009 and 2018.

We calculated that extending the ban to towns with more than 15,000 inhabitants, which occurred during the 2010s, reduced the incidence of new cases of chronic lung disease by around 23%.

The greatest damage to health from air pollution is caused by exposure to particulate matter, primarily resulting from the combustion of fuels, such as for domestic heating, power generation, and in vehicle engines.

One of the studys co-authors, Dr Anne Nolan of the Economic and Social Research Institute added: Our study shows that even in Ireland, which has relatively good air quality and low levels of pollution by international standards, policy measures to reduce air pollution can still have positive effects on health.
A YOUNG man drove the wrong way on the M7 motorway and through the Limerick Tunnel to evade gardai just four months after he was released from prison for dangerous driving causing the death of a teenager in Ballyneety.

Anthony Curtin, aged 23, of no fixed abode but with a previous address at Crecora Avenue, Ballinacurra Weston in the city, was before Limerick Circuit Court on three counts of reckless endangerment.

Judge Tom ODonnell described the accuseds driving as outrageous, appalling and extremely, extremely dangerous.

Prosecuting barrister John OSullivan, instructed by State Solicitor Padraig Mawe, outlined the facts of the case with the assistance of Detective Garda Eoin Dillon.

Mr OSullivan said gardai had received a report at 1.35am on October 8, 2022 of a black Volvo being driven erratically in Moyross, St Marys Park and Garryowen.

The garda vehicle and the Volvo came nose to nose and gardai recognised the accused. Gardai activated the blue lights and siren but he failed to stop, said Mr OSullivan.

The court head Mr Curtin drove on a footpath, went through a red light on the Ballysimon Road, continued at speeds in excess of 140kms, failed to yield at the Garryglass roundabout before taking the exit for the M7 motorway against the flow of traffic.

Mr OSullivan said thankfully there was no collision on the motorway.

Gardai decided not to follow due to the risk of loss of life, said Mr OSullivan.

Det Garda Dillon and his colleague then drove towards the Hyde Road area of the city and waited.

They saw the black Volvo. It failed to stop. It went on the Childers Road, then the John Carew link road before driving on the wrong side of the motorway for a second time. It continued on the N18 on the wrong side of the road. He made his way to the toll bridge at Clonmacken on the wrong side of the complex. He went the wrong way through the tunnel, said Mr OSullivan.

Mr Curtin made good his escape and the Volvo was later found abandoned in Mallow.

Three days later Det Garda Dillon stopped a black Toyota which Mr Curtin attempted to alight from and was arrested.

The prosecuting barrister said Mr Curtin has a number of previous convictions including dangerous driving causing death in Ballyneety on March 20, 2018 where the vehicle vaulted into a field and Gearoid Sheehy, aged 17, lost his life.

Judge ODonnell asked Det Garda Dillon how long Mr Curtin was out of custody at the time of these offences.

Four months, said Det Garda Dillon.

Aaron Desmond, barrister for Mr Curtin, said his clients instructions are to apologise unreservedly. Mr Desmond said a psychological report outlines Mr Curtins difficult background and his poor impulsive control.

He wishes to break the cycle and draw a line in the sand. Admittedly it is late coming. He intends to move away from Limerick and a certain peer group, said Mr Desmond.

A letter from Mr Curtins partner and mother of his four year-old-daughter was also handed to the judge. The partner asked the judge for the opportunity for Mr Curtin to bond with his daughter.

Judge ODonnell said Mr Curtin has an appalling record. He described driving the wrong way on the motorway and through the Limerick Tunnel as outrageous, appalling and extremely, extremely dangerous.

He had only recently been released from a substantial sentence for dangerous driving causing death. Lessons have not been learned, said Judge ODonnell, who added that Mr Curtin was disqualified from driving at the time.

Mr Curtin was sentenced to three years in jail, backdated to October 11, 2022, when he was remanded in custody.
TWO LIMERICK men have been sentenced for their roles in an incident in which a man had his jaw broken and a garda was told f*** off or youll be dealt with.

Brendan Hennessy, aged 40, of High Street, Kilfinane was found guilty of assault causing harm following a trial in October 2021.

Thomas ORiordan, aged 49, of Lotteragh, Bruree, was found guilty at the same trial of impeding the apprehension of an offender. The offences occurred at Mr ORiordans address on October 29, 2017.

The State was represented by Lily Buckley, instructed by State Solicitor Aidan Judge, and the investigating garda, David Higgins at Limerick Circuit Court.

Judge Dermot Sheehan said the trial before Judge Patrick Meghan, who has since retired, finished a long time ago.

The judge said the victim, who lives abroad, returned to Bruree for a large family gathering in October of 2017.

After the pub they went to Mr ORiordans residence. There was a disturbance of some sort and a window was broken, said Judge Sheehan.

A female suffered a cut to her hand. The gardai had been called and Garda Higgins and the victim were giving her first aid, said the judge.

The victim was kneeling down when Mr Hennessy hit him one punch in the face. Garda Higgins said he witnessed this. The victim said he didnt know Mr Hennessy.

The victim said he met him at the party but could not think of anything to spark the assault, said Judge Sheehan, who described it as a one punch assault.

The victim suffered a fractured jaw and underwent an operation in UHL. Judge Sheehan said after the assault Mr Hennessy retreated into Mr ORiordans house.

Gardai went to follow Mr Hennessy. Mr ORiordan told Garda Higgins, No f****** way are you getting in, said Judge Sheehan.

The court heard Mr ORiordan also told gardai F*** off out and leave and fuck off or youll be dealt with.

Garda Higgins evidence at the trial was that the situation was extremely volatile and aggressive.

Judge Sheehan referred to the victim impact statement of the injured party who said the assault had significant negative psychological, physiological, social and emotional impact on my life.

The injured party said in the statement that it is ongoing as his jaw is poorly aligned, cant bite solid food and has pain in the right side almost every day.

The victim said he constantly worries about being assaulted when in an area he doesn't know or with people he does not know.

Judge Sheehan said neither of the defendants have previous convictions, are working, have families and are at a low risk of reoffending. The judge said Mr Hennessy assaulted a man who was operating as a rescuer.

I dont think society will benefit from having Mr Hennessy in custody. He is clearly needed by his family on the farm. He has come up with a substantial sum of money (25,000) by way of remorse, said Judge Sheehan, who imposed a three-year suspended sentence.

The judge said Mr O'Riordan has also lived a blameless life up to and after the incident where he behaved in an aggressive and threatening manner to gardai.

The judge noted Mr O'Riordan had 10,000 in compensation for the victim. An 18 month suspended sentence was handed down.
IN A BOOST to Limerick's rural communities, Minister for Rural and Community Development, Heather Humphreys TD, has unveiled additional funding of over 1 million for upgrading rural roads and laneways.

This substantial allocation to be specifically utilised in Limerick for the Local Improvement Scheme (LIS) comes following a 16 million countrywide funding announcement.

The Local Improvement Scheme aims to enhance the conditions of non-public roads and lanes not maintained by local authorities.

For rural residents, these roads are lifelines, providing access to their homes, farms, businesses, and beautiful outdoor amenities like lakes, rivers, and beaches.

The Local Improvement Scheme, reintroduced in 2017, has invested almost 130 million in rural communities throughout Ireland. This year alone, the funding stands at 30 million, which underscores the government's five-year rural development strategy, 'Our Rural Future.'

The minister acknowledged that many local authorities, including Limerick, have substantial backlogs of applications for road repairs.

With this additional funding, she urged the councils to expedite the repair works in collaboration with residents and landowners.

The Minister noted that since the Local Improvement Scheme was re-introduced, almost 4,000 roads across the country have been funded for repair works.

This infusion of funds is set to have a transformative impact on the lives of over 16,000 landowners and residents in rural Ireland, as well as visitors.

Making the announcement, Minister Humphreys said: Good roads are absolutely vital for our rural communities and this record investment under the Local Improvement Scheme will make a huge difference in terms of access and connectivity.

Eligible roads under the scheme fall into two categories: non-public roads facilitating access to agricultural land for multiple individuals or enabling harvesting activities like turf or seaweed, and non-public roads leading to significant community amenities such as graveyards, beaches, piers, and mountains.
Delhivery Limited on Friday reported revenue from services of Rs. 1,930 Cr in Q1 FY24, up 11% YoY from Rs. 1,746 Cr in Q1 FY23 and up 4% sequentially from Rs. 1,860 Cr in Q4 FY23. Adjusted EBITDA loss reduced by 89% YoY to Rs. 25 Cr in Q1 FY24 compared to Rs. 217 Cr in Q1 FY23. Loss after Tax in the same period narrowed by 78% on YoY basis to Rs. 89 Cr in Q1 FY24 from 399 Cr in Q1 FY23 and by 44% on QoQ basis from Rs. 159 Cr in Q4 FY23.

Express Parcel shipment volumes grew 19% YoY to 182 million in Q1 FY24 from 152 million shipments in Q1 FY23. Volumes grew by more than 2 million shipments over Q4 FY23 as well, despite Q1 traditionally being a seasonally weak quarter. Correspondingly, revenue from Express Parcel services grew 14% YoY to Rs. 1,202 crores in Q1 FY24 from Rs. 1,051 Cr in Q1 FY23.

Revenue from Part Truckload services grew 34% YoY to Rs. 347 Cr in Q1 FY24 from Rs. 259 Cr in Q1 FY23 due to increased volumes, achieved through consistently high service quality. Part Truckload volumes grew 44% YoY to 343K tons in Q1 FY24 from 239K tons in Q1 FY23.

Truckload and Supply Chain Services businesses saw a robust QoQ revenue growth of 20% and 10% respectively. We have won important contracts in Q1, from marquee clients like Havells,TATA Motors, MamaEarth which we expect to reflect in subsequent quarters", said Sahil Barua,MD & CEO.

Adjusted EBITDA margin stood at -1.3% in Q1 FY24 versus -12.5% in Q1 FY23 and versus 0.3% in Q4 FY23. In Q1 FY24, we expanded capacity and network footprint in line with our growth expectations for H2 of FY24." mentioned Sahil Barua.

Additionally, the company has appointed professor Anindya Ghose as an independent director.Prof. Ghose currently holds the position of Heinz Riehl Chair Professor of Technology and Marketing at New York University's Leonard N. Stern School of Business. He is an expert at helping companies on their AI transformation journeys. Prof.Ghose has consulted many leading firms including Apple, Google, Facebook, Samsung etc. in various capacities including litigation matters and realizing business value from their IT investments, internet marketing, business analytics, mobile marketing, digital analytics, social media, and other areas. He also serves as an

Advisor to start-ups in the US, India and Singapore.
Tech giant Alphabet is ending employment contracts for a majority of the Google Help workers who were trying to unionize. Alphabet Workers Union claims that the decision by Google's parent company is in violation of the federal labor law which protects the employees from retaliatory action by the employers for unionizing.

More than 70% of employees in the proposed bargaining unit were told in July that they would lose their jobs, Bloomberg reported, citing a National Labor Relations Board filing. The employees, based in Austin, Texas, the San Francisco Bay Area and other parts of the U.S., were informed of the job cuts in a live-streamed "town hall" that did not allow for questions or comments from employees.

"As discussed during the town hall, the account team has adjusted our support for this project to meet the needs of our client," said an email sent to employees.

The bargaining unit includes 118 writers, graphic designers and launch coordinators responsible for creating internal and external content for the search giant. The employees also reportedly worked on improving the quality of Google's search results and AI chatbot, and were hired through Accenture. However, the workers claim that Google is also legally their boss and have asked the NLRB to designate the search giant as a joint employer of the Accenture employees.

After announcing the job cuts in July, Accenture said it supported its employees' efforts to form or join unions. It added: As conveyed to our people recently, these workforce decisions were made prior to any notification to us of potential union activity."

The Bloomberg report noted that in 2018, the majority of Alphabet's contract workers became part of its global workforce. In another case, a group of Alphabet contract workers employed by Congnizant Technology Solutions Corp. had voted 41-0 to unionize in April this year. Later, on July 19, NLRB members upheld a regional director's ruling that Alphabet was the joint employer of those workers.

(With inputs from Bloomberg)
Reliance Industries on Friday said its annual general meeting (AGM) of shareholders will be held on August 28, 2023 through video conferencing.

The company in an exchange filing said,"This is to inform that the Forty-sixth Annual General Meeting (Post-lPO) ("AGM") of the Members of the Company wilI be held on Monday, August 28, 2023 at 2:00 p.m. (IST) through Video Conferencing ("VC") / Other Audio-Visual Means ("OAVM"), in accordance with the applicable circulars issued by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and the Securities and Exchange Board of India.

The Company has fixed Monday, August 21, 2023 as:

(a) the "Cut-off Date" for the purpose of determining the Members eligible to vote on the resolutions set out in the Notice of the AGM and to attend the AGM;

(b) the "Record Date" for the purpose of determining the Members eligible to receive dividend for the financial year 2022-23. The dividend, if declared at the AGM, will be paid within a week from the conclusion of the AGM.

Last month, Reliance demerged JFS, which was valued at around $20 billion after its stock price was set at a much higher than expected 261.85 rupees ($3.19)

The demerger, which was announced last October, is seen as the oil-to-retail conglomerate's way of expanding in the lucrative financial services sector, especially as it already has a non-bank financial company licence.

In the just-ended June quarter, Reliance reported a wider-than-expected drop in profit after weak demand and a steep fall in refining margins hurt its flagship oil-to-chemicals (O2C) business.

*With agency inputs
Qualcomm, the leading smartphone processor manufacturer, appointed Savi Soin as the President of Qualcomm India on August 3. He will be responsible for guiding the company's strategy in the Indian market . The statement said, Qualcomm Incorporated today announced the appointment of Savi Soin as senior vice president and president of Qualcomm India," reported PTI.

Savi Soin, who has been with Qualcomm for more than two decades, previously served as the head of strategy and business development at Qualcomm Technologies' semiconductor division.

Meanwhile, Rajen Vagadia, the outgoing Qualcomm India President who served as the President for the last five years, will move to the company's headquarters in San Diego. He will take on a new role as Vice President to lead Global Distribution and Global Carrier Strategy.

Also read: Qualcomm announces worlds first satellite-based two-way messaging solution

Savi Soin's appointment is effective immediately, and he will report directly to Jim Cathey, Chief Commercial Officer of Qualcomm Technologies. In his new role, Soin will focus on strengthening relationships with industry partners and the government across various sectors, including mobile, automotive, semiconductor, industrial, IoT, and communication infrastructure.

Soin will also be responsible for overseeing Qualcomm's strategy in India, a market that is increasingly becoming a focus for global players due to its emergence as an innovation hub. This appointment comes amid Qualcomm's warning of potential job cuts, as consumer spending on gadgets like smartphones remains sluggish, reported Reuters.

Also read: Laid off by Qualcomm, Indian techie on H1B visa seeks help finding new job

"India is a priority market for Qualcomm, and we remain committed to investing in it," said company's Chief Commercial Officer, Jim Cathey.

Savi Soin's appointment follows the recent appointment of a former Amazon.com executive by Microsoft as the Corporate Vice President of its India and South Asia arm.

(With inputs from PTI and Reuters)
Bengaluru-based startup on Wednesday announced that more than a dozen of employees will be sacked in the coming days. After laying off, the co-founders also urged recruiters to contact them to hire the fired workers. One of Yougotfam's founders, Sambhav Jain shared the update on X, formerly known as Twitter.

One of the most difficult things to do as a founder is to let people go. Today was a tough day as we had to let go 18 members of the Fam across functions. Parting ways is never easy, especially for a people-first organisation like ours, where everyone is emotionally connected," Sambhav Jain wrote on the microblogging site. He said the founders are super proud of their super passionate team that has been built over the years. Apart from all the things weve done and accomplished as a company, the thing that I and @iamkushtaneja are most proud of is the super passionate team that we have built over the years," Jain said.

Sambhav Jain asserted that the founders will not be able to offer any role in the company to sacked employees due to their shift in focus from hyper-growth to sustainability.

Given the shift in focus of the company from hyper-growth to sustainability, we wouldnt have been able to provide these people with a role in the company that could justify their personal growth, could fuel the fire to their passion, and most importantly joy at work," he said.

Wishing them luck for doing good in the future, the co-founder wrote, We have all the compassion for them and are confident that these people will build amazing things wherever they go, and wish everyone the best in life. If youre looking to hire people in EPD and Growth functions, please DM. Will be happy to share and refer relevant profiles."

Sambhav Jain's business partner, Taneja, also expressed his disappointment over their decision to sack 18 employees from the company.
Barts Cove Duel at Dunkirk results

In the Barts Cove Walleye Duel out of Dunkirk, 34 boats braved the wind, waves and waterspouts in Lake Erie to compete for cash prizes and some great trips. In an old-fashioned battle of wits and fishing skill, the winning team was Creative Woods and Water, led by Capt. Bryan Dusenbury of Derby. Total weight, based on three tournament fish (they must be a minimum of 22 inches long) each day, was 37.92 pounds. Just .06-pound behind was the Ship of Fools team, led by Kyle Kokanovich of Amherst with 37.86 pounds.

Saturdays weather conditions were difficult at best. Kokanovichs team of Charlie Klaus of West Seneca and Marvin Marner of Cochranton, Pa., took the early lead with a three-fish total of 21.49 pounds, thanks to the lunker fish of the tournament, a 10.69-pound fish they caught off Van Buren Point.

On Sunday, Creative Woods and Water crew had an 8.17-pound walleye, big fish for the day and caught off Van Buren Point. Dusenburys team included Dave Goodberry of Hamburg and Andy Goodberry of Lake View. Their three-fish total of 18.92 pounds Sunday, added to the 19-pound box Saturday gave them the victory by the smallest of margins.

On Sunday, we caught the big walleye on the first pass and then a 5--pound fish on the second pass, said Dusenbury. Then the fish shut down. We didnt know if we would come in with a three-fish limit for the tournament. At 1:15 p.m., we caught a 5-pound fish to seal the deal.

Third place, less than a pound out of first place, was the Little Ones team, led by Brad Milleville of Wheatfield with 37.05 pounds. Fourth place was Whos Your Uncle?, led by Ron Morcio of Cheektowaga with 35.75 pounds. Fifth place went to Scary Good, with Rob Ebersole as the captain with 35.41 pounds.

Ship of Fools also won the top prize for combined scores of Barts Cove and the Sunset Bay Shootout  a Panama fishing trip for two valued at more than $14,650.

The tournament ended on a sour note as the Reely Jerk team brought in what appeared to be the winning weight, but tournament officials found that at least one walleye had been stuffed with other fish and fish parts when the fish were opened for inspection per tournament rules. The team was disqualified, with the evidence handed over to Department of Environmental Conservation law enforcement. Tournament director Mark Mohr of Springville said there was a good chance that the team would have won outright.

Reelin for a Cure Aug. 18

The women are back at it on Lake Ontario out of the ports of Wilson and Olcott later this month. The Eighth Annual Reelin for a Cure is set to take place Aug. 18, with teams raising much needed funds for a local cancer charity while at the same time competing for cash prizes as part of a women-only salmon and trout fishing tournament. Experience is not a requirement, only a fishing license is needed for those 16 or older.

Teams of up to six women will pay a $250 entry fee and try to catch up to six salmon and trout. Bring your own boat or let the tournament pair you up with a local volunteer captain. A captain and mate can be men. Fishing will be from 6 a.m. to noon, with weigh-in and awards party to follow at Krull Park in Olcott.

This year, the fund-raising focus will be on Hope Chest. Last year, the group raised $11,438 in donations for the Ovarian Cancer Project. For more information, contact event organizer Stephanie Pierleoni at 481-6388. The website is www.reelinforacure.com.

August turkey survey

The states DEC is again soliciting the support of the public  hunters and non-hunters alike  to keep an eye out for wild turkeys and report your observations to DEC during the month of August. DEC has conducted the Summer Wild Turkey Sighting Survey to track statewide wild turkey productivity (the proportion of young of the year to adult hens) since 1996.

Weather, habitat conditions, and predators during breeding and brood-rearing seasons can significantly impact nest success, hen survival, and poult survival. This index allows DEC to gauge reproductive success and predict future turkey populations and harvest opportunities. Reproductive success (as measured by this survey) remains significantly lower than it was in the early 2000s. The estimated number of poults to hen in 2017, 2019, 2021, and 2022 were four of the six lowest productivity estimates since the survey began. To check out the results of last years survey, visit https://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/48732.html.

When you observe a flock, either jot down the number of adult females, adult males, and poults (young of the year) that you see. Then, when youre at a computer or on your phone, enter your observation through a link that can be found at the above website. Do not report the same group a second time. Make sure your report is accurate by using binoculars. Partially reporting a flock can affect the overall numbers of the survey.
Eleven Executive Directors (ED) of the World Bank Delegation, called on Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday to share their key takeaways from their visit to Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Lucknow.

The eleven EDs representing more than 95 countries of the world discussed different schemes and policies implemented by the government, said the Ministry of Finance. Also Read: Income Tax Day 2023: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to lead the celebrations of the day on July 24 "They appreciated the fast-paced development across all sectors enabled by transformational reforms and Private Sector participation in Indias ambition of becoming a Developed country by 2047," the Ministry of Finance said in a tweet. Also Read: Issue of tax notices has become predictable: Nirmala Sitharaman The Ministry further tweeted that the EDs also praised the success achieved by India on various fronts like digital technology and Startups, with a focus on the delivery of public goods, including water, electricity, road infrastructure etc.

In her discussion with the World Bank delegates, the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharman underlined India's focus on creating opportunities for the poor by empowering communities for Equitable Growth and stated that the reforms brought in India since 2014 have ensured decentralised planning in India.

Also Read: Govt sent 1 lakh notices for not filing income tax returns, misrepresentation of income: FM Nirmala Sitharaman

"The EDs appreciated the clarity of the vision of the political leadership of India. They were especially appreciative of efforts like GST, NariShakti and FastTags that are in line with the vision of fast-paced development," the Finance Ministry tweeted. The Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman emphasised the leading role India is playing in Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable, and MDB Public Infrastructure (DPI).

Nirmala Sitharaman also expressed that India would be happy to share its development experience and build the capacity of countries that can benefit from India's experiences.

The 11 Executive Directors (EDs) of the World Bank Group, represented 95 countries. In their visit to the country, they visited Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Lucknow.
India imposed import restrictions on laptops, tablets, and servers to establish the country as a hub for electronics manufacturing amid surging imports. Effective immediately, importers will need permits to bring in laptops, tablets, all-in-one personal computers, ultra-small computers, and servers, a notification by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) said. Personal computers (PCs) designated capital goods" may be exempt, the agency added.

The move, which is set to significantly hit companies such as Apple Inc., Dell Inc., Lenovo, and HP that are hugely reliant on imports, is part of broader Indian efforts to curb imports and promote local manufacturing under the governments Make in India programme. Imports of laptops have increased to $8 billion as of March 2023, according to official figures.

View Full Image Graphic: Mint

In May, the government introduced a revised 17,000 crore production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for IT hardware to attract makers of laptops, tablets, and other hardware to India.

India has also taken several other steps to curb imports from China by introducing quality control orders (QCO). Electronics imports from China was at $27.6 billion in FY23.

The latest decision to restrict imports of IT hardware appears part of a broader strategic push towards encouraging domestic manufacturing in key sectors, where India is hoping to increase its share in global supply chains. Incentivising domestic and foreign companies to manufacture these goods in India will be the likely next move," said Deepa Kumar, the head of Asia-Pacific country risk at S&P Global Market Intelligence.

A government official clarified that the restriction does not mean prohibition, and that imports are allowed but with a licensing condition. The official notification said that the imports would be allowed against a valid licence" and is outside the purview of Baggage Rules in case of international travel. This move is primarily to safeguard the security of the citizens. The internet is going to expand in a much faster way. Digital citizens should have an environment where they are not exposed to machines which might have security risks. Keeping in mind that some of the hardware could potentially have security-related risks and could compromise sensitive and personal data," the official said.

Without naming China, the official said sourcing from trusted and reliable partners will be the topmost priority. Securing Indias IT infrastructure from foreign cyber threats was another reason for the import restrictions, the official said. Under the current baggage rules, one old and new laptop is allowed, and the current restriction has kept the baggage rule out of its purview."

Computer makers said the decision will disrupt supplies.

No brands are happy with this decision, especially those that dont make anything here. It will disrupt supplies. And those that make a few models locally will have to expand their local manufacturing capabilities. Licensing means that for every consignment that a brand imports, they will have to take a licence; so it will be very cumbersome, time-consuming and will make product availability a problem for consumers. So, clearly, it is a push to make in India," an executive at a laptop maker said, requesting anonymity.

A second industry executive, part of the contract manufacturing ecosystem, said the move would benefit companies like Dixon Technologies and Optiemus Electronics Ltd that were already making laptops locally, as brands will have to look at local options instead of imports.

This decision has been very beneficial for us. Were already in talks with a few brands who want to begin local assembly or manufacturing of their laptops. We just have to plan how to scale up our capacities to meet the demand surge," said A. Gururaj, the managing director of Optiemus Electronics.

Another executive at a large e-commerce marketplace said the order could hurt consumers as there could be a short-term spike in the prices of laptops and personal computers.

While we dont expect an out-of-stock situation in the short term, we do expect a spike in prices, and consumers could get impacted. Maybe some high-end models that are anyway supplied in lower quantities could also be specifically impacted. Meanwhile, large sellers that list their inventory on online marketplaces could see a significant impact on business," the person cited above said on the condition of anonymity.

On apprehensions about disruptions in imports, the official said that the movement of goods would be in accordance with the new foreign trade policy, which has a transition provision.

The transition provision says that if the bill of loading is before the date of notification, those items can come in. For instance, if a shipment has started 10 days back, the bill of landing will be 10 days back, much before todays date. We are also making a provision that wherever LCs had been opened before todays date between two partners, they will be allowed to bring in their partners to India up to 31 August. And beyond that, they will have to bring in a licensing agreement," the official said.

The licensing portal is already active, but specifically for IT hardware, there will be a few more columns which might be required to be added. It will be up and running in a few days. Pre-requires will be that actual users will be allowed. Over and above, traders who have had experience in the past will be allowed," he added.

Queries sent to Apple, Dell, HP, and Lenovo did not elicit a response till press time.
Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain bail plea of Yes Bank founder Rana Kapoor in a money-laundering case against him. The apex court noted that this case rocked the entire financial system.

Last month, market regulator Sebi sent a notice to Kapoor, asking him to pay 2.22 crore in a case of mis-selling the private sector lender's AT1 bonds.

In the event of non-payment of dues within 15 days (that is by 8 August), Sebi warned it will recover the amount by attaching and selling his moveable and immovable property.

Kapoor has been in jail since March 2020 in connection with the DHFL money laundering case. Kapoor was first arrested in 2020 in a case pertaining to irregularities worth 900 crore in a loans sanctioned to Housing Development and Infrastructure Limited (HDIL) promoters Rakesh Wadhawan and his son Sarang. Later he was charged in several other cases related to money laundering.

What is a YES BANK scam case:

The case relates to mis-selling of the bank's AT1 (Additional Tier-1) bonds to retail investors by the bank's officials. It was alleged that the bank and certain officials did not inform investors of the risk involved while selling the AT-1 bonds in the secondary market. The sale of AT1 bonds started in 2016 and continued till 2019.

In its order, Sebi stated that Kapoor was overseeing the entire operation relating to the secondary sale of AT-1 bonds, taking regular updates from the team and giving them further instructions to increase the sales, thus creating pressure on the officials to ramp up the sales.

Sebi said that Kapoor was responsible for acts of misrepresentation or suppression of material facts, manipulation, and mis-spelling of AT-1 bonds of Yes Bank to individual investors.

Also, Kapoor pressured officials of the private wealth management team to devise a devious scheme to dump the AT-1 bonds on Yes Bank customers.case was pertaining to irregularities worth 900 crore in a loan given to
As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, the demand for fast, reliable, and low-latency communication has never been higher.

Everyday products and means of communication, whether visual, audio, or video, are all more reliant on high-speed, 24/7 internet connections.

To keep up with this ever-growing demand, operators around the world are rolling out fifth generation (5G) wireless technology, commonly known as 5G.

While 4G focused on delivering much faster mobile broadband services than 3G, 5G has proved to be even faster.

Moreover, 5G can natively support all spectrum types and bands (low, mid, high), a wide range of deployment models (from traditional macro-cells to hotspots), and new ways to interconnect.

India too has jumped on the bandwagon. The country now has the second largest 5G network in the world, on the back of the fastest 5G rollout with 300,000 sites set up in ten months.

The Department of Telecom is monitoring therollout of 5G networks in terms of districts. 5G networks have been rolled out in 717 districts across the country as of 7 July 2023.

So far, Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel have aggressively rolled out the network while Vodafone Idea has been struggling to raise funds.

The company along with, Adani Data Networks has nudged the Department of Telecom, to extend the 16 August deadline for meeting the minimum rollout obligations for 5G.

This could have a huge opportunity cost as the use of 5G will be used extensively across various socioeconomic sectors including education, agriculture, health, power, urban management, mining, logistics, resource management, tourism, sports, security, e-governance etc.

While the obvious gainers from the rollout will betelecom companies, many other companies, especially smaller players, will benefit from it as well. This is because the network requires an entire ecosystem to flourish.

Small-cap stocks operating in the 5G space will give investors a chance to participate in the industrys growth potential.

Read on to find out which smallcap companies have the ability to be game changers in the 5G space.

#1 HFCL

The first stock on our list is HFCL.

HFCL (Himachal Futuristic Communications Limited) is a diverse telecom infrastructure enabler with active interest spanning telecom infrastructure development, system integration, and manufacturing of high-end telecom equipment, optical fiber, and optic fiber cable (OFC).

The company has designed several new technology equipment products, including 5G products, which are scheduled to be launched during the current financial year.

It has also entered some crucial technology partnerships with Qualcomm, Microsoft, and Wipro for developing cutting-edge 5G products and solutions.

HFCL has an established track record with a strong association with Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJIL), being responsible for the execution of RJILs network expansion plans for the Northern region.

The company has been associated with RJIL since the start of network roll out and has been responsible for the network planning, design, and implementation for the northern region. It derived 43% of its revenue from RJIL in FY23.

Besides RJIL, the company has long-standing relationships with reputed corporate houses in both public & private sectors. It has also expanded its business and has become a leading material supplier and turnkey contractor for defence and railway communication projects.

Its order book (consolidated) is strong at 55 bn as of 31 March 2023. It has orders under release of 15.2 bn totalling 70.1 bn.

In the past five years, the companys revenue has grown at a CAGR (compounded annual growth rate) of 8% while net profit has grown at a CAGR of 12%.

Itsdebt-to-equity ratio stands at 0.25x. The debt will likely increase as it plans to avail term loans for the capex being planned by HFCL group.

The second stock on our list isSterlite Technologies.

The company, over the years, has grown, to become the largest optical fiber and optical fiber cables manufacturer in the country. It also has a sizeable presence overseas.

Sterlite has already launched cables and connectivity solutions for enabling 5G globally. It aims to play a significant role as operators start deploying these networks.

So far, the company has supported Indias 5G rollout with engagements worth 10 bn from telecom operators in FY23.

It has also partnered with companies such as Facebook as part of Evenstar program to build 5G macro radios. The optical fiber company will be shortly launching those products for global operators and India.

At IMC 2022, the company showcased its solutions that were specially designed for Indias 5G rollout. It unveiled 5G Cosmos, an optical solution to fiberise towers and small cells at scale.

It also showcased Gram Galaxy, a comprehensive solution to accelerate last mile rural connectivity and village digitalisation.

These integrated solutions took a 360-degree view of the rollout, spanning across network design, optical products, automation-led deployment.

Sterlite Technologies has seen revenue growth of 17% in the last five years. However, the company has seen a degrowth in net profit as expense have gone up.

Its debt-to-equity ratio is high at 1.8x as it has a stretched working capital cycle. However, this is expected to improve once the global services business (GSB) is carved out from STL.

#3ITI Technologies

The third stock on our list isITI Technologies.

The company is engaged in the manufacturing, trading and servicing of telecommunication equipment, and rendering other associated and ancillary services.

The company is a preferred contractor for Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL), and the Indian Defence Services.

ITI currently has executable projects worth more than 120 bn. Recently, it received an order from BSNL worth 40 bn.

Further, the company has been implementing projects such as BharatNet Phase I and Phase II.

It has also won three tenders, viz., MahaNet, GujNet, and West Bengal, under the BharatNet Phase II Project, worth 47.8 bn.

The company plans to manufacture equipment for the E and V band spectrum which are essential for 4G and 5G technologies. It has partnered with Tech Mahindra and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) for the same.

BSNL has issued advance purchase orders (APOs) worth 157 bn to both TCS and ITI for 100,000 4G sites. ITI will deploy a fifth of the number requested.

BSNL is planning a rapid rollout of 5G-based telecom sites by August 2023. The 4G equipment deployed by it will be quickly enhanced to 5G, requiring a software upgrade.

ITIs revenue and net profit have both seen a degrowth in the last five years. Further, due to increased material and other costs, the companys margins have remained negative.

Additionally, ITI has working capital-intensive operations, dominated by high receivables along with legacy debtors pertaining to earlier years. This increases the company's dependence on bank borrowings to fund its working capital requirements, adversely impacting its liquidity profile.

However, the government of India continues to hold more than 90% of the entity as of 31 March 2023 and has been supporting ITI financially as part of its revival plan for sick units.

Under the revival plan, DOT (the Department of Telecommunication) has been constantly monitoring ITILs performance and infusing funds through unsecured loans and grants.

The company, in total, has received around 11.3 bn as a part of capex grants as of FY23.

The fourth stock on our list is Tejas Networks.

The company is a global research and development (R&D) driven telecom equipment company headquartered in India.

It designs, develops and manufactures high-performance optical and data networking products that are used by telecom service providers, utilities, government, and defense networks.

Tejas is an active player in shaping India's 5G strategy and also contributes to the global 5G standards through its work in TSDSI - India's telecom Standards.

In 5G, the companys initial focus is on developing and commercialising world-class RAN (Radio Access Network) and Crosshaul products.

The company is partnering with leading system integration partners, core and OSS/BSS vendors both within and outside the Tata Group to deliver an end-to-end 5G stack.

With the software and SI (software integration) capabilities through Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Tejas helps to bring in the hardware capabilities and also leverage the incentives through theproduction-linked incentive (PLI) scheme.

In the previous two decades, the firm has grown to become a significant high-tech player, specialising in optical networks, 4G and 5G telecom equipment, as well as switches and routers.

In May this year, the company received purchase orders from BSNL, along with the ITI and TCS for the deployment of 4G network across the country.

Tejas Networks is part of the TCS-led consortium. It will supply and service the Radio Access Network (RAN) equipment to BSNL.

In the last three years, the companys revenue and net profit have grown at a CAGR of 33% and 23%, respectively. Despite its high working capital intensity, it continues to have no debt on its books.

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The last stock on our list is Skipper.

The company is engaged in manufacturing and selling of transmission and distribution (T&D) structures and pipes & fittings. It also undertakes EPC infrastructure projects.

As industries increasingly adopt 5G for diverse applications, this company's specialised offerings position it for growth. The company is the largest player in the telecom tower segment. It expects better opportunities in the telecom space, with margins in line with the overall company margin.

In December 2022, it received an order worth 27.5 bn from Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) for the rollout of its 4G network.

The order was for the supply and erection of ground-based telecom towers, infrastructure as a service provider (IaaSP) for supply, installation of Infrastructure Items and subsequent operation and maintenance (O&M) for five years.

The company said that the project will be executed using the homegrown 4G stack and will be funded through central government's USOF (Universal Service Obligation Fund), which has a strong cash reserve of 550 bn, meant for providing connectivity in rural and remote areas.

The same infrastructure will be used when BSNL will roll out its 5G network.

Skippers order book as of March 2023 stood at 455 bn and that company has orders booked fully for the next two years.

Through the BSNL order, it has diversified its order book to the non-transmission and distribution (T&D) segment, accounting for 62% in FY23, de-risking its exposure to the T&D segment.

Skippers revenue has grown at 13% CAGR in the last three years. The companys debt to equity ratio stands at 0.64x.

Why you should invest in 5G small-cap stocks

Investing in small-cap stocks with a strong foothold in the 5G space presents a compelling opportunity for growth-focused investors.

The top five 5G small-cap stocks mentioned in this article demonstrate the potential to capitalise on the revolutionary impact of 5G technology across various industries.

However, investors must approach smallcap investing with careful consideration, acknowledging the higher risk and volatility associated with this segment.

By closely monitoring these promising 5G smallcap stocks and conducting thorough due diligence, investors can identify opportunities that align with their investment goals and stand to benefit from the unfolding 5G revolution.

Disclaimer:This article is for information purposes only. It is not a stock recommendation and should not be treated as such.

This article is syndicated from Equitymaster.com
An Indian woman studying in Canada had to face internet fury after her video with 'dream to leave India' comment went viral on the internet. Unexpectedly, Truecaller CEO Alan Mamedi turned into her favour on Thursday and even offered her a job.

Also Read: Truecaller coming soon to WhatsApp: What is means for users and why it is a good news?

In the viral video, the student introduced herself as Ekta. Replying to a question on What brought her to Canada, she said that it was her dream to leave India.

She also added that after completing her degree in biotech in Canada, her future plan involves a career in business. Sharing her favourite thing about the country, Ekta said that she enjoys the 'scenery, sunrise and sunset'.

Also read: Delhi Police teams up with Truecaller to educate citizens on cyber frauds

Little did she know that the video is set to go viral and she will end up facing criticism for her statement about her home country. However, tables turned when Truecaller CEO Alan Mamedi showed up support for the young woman and urged her not to listen to the trolls. He also invited her to work with his company anywhere in the world after her studies. Alan Mamedi shunned the trollers for criticising her to work for her dreams.
Bombay High Court judge Justice Rohit Deo resigned in an open court on Friday. The judge cited personal reasons for his resignation. At the high court in Nagpur, Justice Deo also said that he could not compromise on self-respect, PTI reported.

Following the announcement, the matters listed before him for the day stood discharged.

"Those who are present in the court, I apologise to each one of you. I scolded you because I want you to improve. I don't want to hurt anyone of you because you all are like family to me and I am sorry to tell you that I have submitted my resignation. I can't work against my self-respect. You people work hard," Justice Deo was quoted as saying in the court in the PTI report.

Speaking to reporters later, the judge said he had quit due to personal reasons, and sent his resignation letter to the President of India.

In 2022, Justice Deo had acquitted former Delhi University professor G N Saibaba in an alleged Maoist links case, setting aside the life imprisonment awarded to him and noting that the trial proceedings were null and void in the absence of valid sanction under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

The Supreme Court later stayed the order and ordered the Nagpur bench of the High Court to hear the case afresh. Last week Justice Deo stayed the operation of a Maharashtra Government Resolution (order) of January 3 through which the state was empowered to cancel punitive proceedings initiated by the revenue department related to illegal excavation of minor minerals by contractors engaged in the construction of the Nagpur-Mumbai Samruddhi Expressway.

Deo was appointed as a judge of the Bombay High Court in June 2017 and was due to retire in December 2025. Before that, he had worked as Advocate General of Maharashtra in 2016.

(With inputs from PTI)
The Supreme Court of India on Friday adjourned hearing on interim bail pleas of AAP leader Manish Sisodia in two Delhi excise policy cases which are being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED), according to a report published by the news agency ANI.

The top court has granted more time to the federal agency to file a reply on Sisodia's bail plea. It has now deferred the hearing in this case for September 4. Sisodia has sought interim bail on grounds of his wife's ill health.

A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and SVN Bhatti perused the medical records of Sisodia's wife, and said she is "fairly stable" and, therefore, it will consider the interim bail pleas of former deputy chief minister along with regular bail pleas in the cases, PTI reported.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on March 9 arrested former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia in the liquor policy case, after hours of questioning at Tihar Jail. Sisodia, a former deputy chief minister of Delhi, was arrested by the ED in this case in March and he is currently in judicial custody.

Sisodia was arrested by the CBI earlier in its ongoing investigation of a case related to alleged irregularities in the framing and implementation of the excise policy of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD).

It is alleged by the ED and the CBI that the Delhi government's excise policy for 2021-22 to grant licences to liquor traders allowed cartelisation and favoured certain dealers who had allegedly paid bribes for it, a charge strongly refuted by the AAP.

The policy was subsequently scrapped and the Delhi lieutenant governor recommended a CBI probe, following which the ED registered a case under the PMLA.

(With inputs from agencies)
The health authorities in Tripura have issued a dengue alert for the entire state due to an unexpected outbreak of the disease in the villages near Sepahijala district.

As reported by UNI, Dr Supriya Mallik, the Director of Preventive Medicine, said 182 individuals have been admitted to hospitals for treatment as of Friday.

"There is no reason for panic, as the government has taken all efforts to prevent the disease," he assured, admitting the death of one Subhas Sarkar (72) of Dhanpur, Sonamura, in a private hospital after suffering from a high fever and loose motion three days ago but saying, "We are re-investigating the reports to ascertain whether he died of Dengue or other infections."

UNI noted that according to Dr Mallik, the experts visited the village and found the presence of Aedes mosquitoes in the house.

Meanwhile, the breeding of Aedes mosquitoes is on the rise because of the accumulation of water in open areas, leading to the detection of a significant number of larvae in stored water and rubber plantations.

"Necessary arrangements have been made to stop this breeding of mosquitoes to tackle the number of dengue cases. Dengue was first reported in the state in 2015 and, until now, has primarily affected travellers coming from Delhi, Kolkata, and Chennai. However, due to mutations in vectors in the changing environment, Dengue becomes a threat to Tripura," he pointed out.

According to Dr. Mallik, 37 Dengue patients from Dhanpur were admitted to the Agartala Govt Medical College hospital and later transferred to a designated Covid hospital. In Dhanpur, a total of 158 positive dengue cases were reported, and in the areas of Kanchanmala, Mohanpur, and Bamutia in West Tripura, approximately 24 cases were detected.

In response to the outbreak, the health department has taken several measures to tackle the situation. They have increased door-to-door testing, conducted awareness campaigns about dengue, and organized medical camps in the affected regions, UNI reported.

Additionally, the state government has stationed medical teams at all border land ports to monitor travellers coming from Bangladesh and implemented other preventive measures.



(With inputs from UNI)
Haryana Nuh Violence: Amidst communal clashes that broke out between two groups on July 31 during a religious procession in Haryana , Nuh SP Varun Singla has been transferred and posted as SP Bhiwani. In Nuh, IPS Narendra Bijarniya has now taken charge of the SP office, according to ANI reports.

Singla, at present SP Nuh, has been transferred and posted as SP, Bhiwani. Bijarniya, SP, Bhiwani, who was also functioning as OSD to Additional DGP (law and order), in addition to his present duties to assist her in maintaining the law and order situation in Nuh and surrounding areas, has been transferred and posted as SP, Nuh," the order read as quoted by PTI.

So far, six people have been killed so far in the violence, 176 people have been arrested, 90 detained, and 93 FIRs have been registered in connection with the clashes which also spread to the adjoining areas of Haryana including Delhi, Rajasthan's Bhiwani, etc.

Police said that the fight started after VHP's 'Brij Mandal Jalabhishek Yatra' was stopped by a group of young men near Khedla Mod in Nuh, and stones were pelted at the procession. Some police vehicles were also damaged. Cars were set on fire during the communal clashes in various districts of Haryana.

Apart from Gurugram, incidents of violence were also reported in the Palwal district, where a mob set more than 25 huts ablaze in Parshuram Colony. Fortunately, no injuries were reported, according to the police.

Similarly, in Bhiwadi town in Rajasthan, "two or three" shops on the highway were subjected to vandalism.

Following the communal clashes, former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda demanded a judicial probe by a high court judge into the government's "failure" to prevent the violence, ANI reported.

Speaking to media persons on Thursday, Hooda said, We demand a judicial inquiry headed by a high court judge into why the government failed to prevent the riots in Nuh and that will help bring out the truth into the incident."

The probe should ascertain the truth what led to the violent clashes and who instigated and why the government failed to take preventive steps on time to prevent a communal clash," he added.

(With inputs from agencies)
Speaking on Haryana violence, state home minister Anil Vij said that the government has formed a special committee which includes the members from the IT Cell.

As reported by ANI, Vij said, We are scanning every social media...We have made a special committee which includes the members from the IT Cell. It will scan the entire social media scene. During the scan, if it is revealed that someone has put out inciteful posts then action will be taken."

As reported by PTI, authorities in Nuh took action by bulldozing approximately 250 shanties that were reportedly occupying government land in Tauru town.

According to a police official, the demolition took place on Thursday evening, and the occupants of the Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP) land were allegedly illegal Bangladeshi immigrants who had previously lived in AsHindu organizationssam. This action comes in the wake of recent communal riots in the district.

On Friday, Hindu organizations organized a protest march in Gurugram's Pataudi area, condemning the violence in Nuh. They also called for a bandh, resulting in the closure of markets in Pataudi, Jatauli, and Bhora Kalan. During the protest, the organizations submitted a memorandum to the President, the Governor of Haryana, and the Chief Minister, urging them to take stringent action against the perpetrators responsible for the Nuh violence.

Over the past few days, clashes broke out in Nuh, resulting in the deaths of six individuals, including two home guards and a cleric. The violence initially started over an attempt to halt a Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) procession and subsequently spread to Gurugram, PTI reported.

Earlier on Thursday, BJP leader Anil Vij, stated that the police have filed 83 FIRs, and 159 individuals have been apprehended in connection with the violence that occurred in Nuh and Gurugram districts, ANI reported.

Former Chief Minister of Haryana, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, called for an investigation led by a high court judge to look into the government's "failure" in preventing the outbreak of violence.

(With inputs from agencies)
News / Local

by Staff reporter

A CITIZENS Coalition for Change (CCC) activist was yesterday stoned to death by a suspected Zanu-PF member near Tanaka grounds in Glen View, Harare, as political temperatures rise ahead of the August 23 elections.The CCC activist, Tinashe Chitsunge, from Glen View was hit with a stone while trying to flee from a suspected Zanu-PF mob which had gone on the rampage against opposition activists who had gathered at the ground to hold a rally.CapThis was despite police spokesperson Nyathi initially saying the case was not linked to political violence.tionThe attack came shortly before CCC party leader Nelson Chamisa's convoy was attacked with stones by suspected Zanu-PF activists yesterday evening in Mutasa, Manicaland province, after addressing a rally.Chamisa told NewsDay: "We had just finished addressing our supporters in Mutasa. As we were heading back, upon approaching the DC area, we found the road barricaded by stones. They were throwing stones at our convoy. We had to make a U-turn. But I am safe."In the Glen View attack, several other CCC supporters were injured.National police spokesperson, Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi confirmed the incident saying investigations were underway.CapThe matter was reported at Chisamba Police Station under reference RRB 5603622.tion"The Zimbabwe Republic Police confirms an incident of public violence in Riverside area, Glen Norah near Tanaka grounds, Harare on August 3, 2023 at 1300 hours," Nyathi said in a statement."One person is confirmed dead as a result of the clashes. The scene is being attended to by all relevant police stations."In a statement later last night, Nyathi said they had arrested two suspects in connection with the murder, but did not state which party they belonged to."Reference is made to the ZRP press statement on the violence which occurred in Riverside area, Glen Norah near Tanaka Grounds, Harare, on 03/08/23. The police have arrested two suspects as efforts to account for the remaining suspects continue. #notoviolence ."On the Chamisa convoy attack, Nyathi said: "On that case which you are referring, to as we speak police officers are on the ground, but no one has come forward to make an official report. We have not received any official report concerning the alleged violence."CCC spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere demanded the arrest of the violence perpetrators."We strongly condemn the violent attack by suspected Zanu-PF thugs on our members in Glen View," Mahere said."They assaulted and stoned our members who were peacefully marching heading to a rally. One of our members was murdered in the violent orgy. We demand peace and justice."CCC supporters, who were at the venue when the incident occurred, told NewsDay that they had to remove party regalia to evade attacks by the mob.Ahead of this month's polls, fears of violence abound with analysts and human rights watchdogs saying the March 26, 2022 by-elections were a precursor to the current violence.A CCC activist, Mboneni Ncube, was speared to death by suspected Zanu-PF supporters at a rally which was addressed by Chamisa in Kwekwe ahead of last year's March 14 by-elections.President Emmerson Mnangagwa is preaching peace ahead of the elections, but the country continues to record cases of political violence with Zanu-PF cited as the main perpetrator.Addressing a rally recently, Mnangagwa directed law enforcement agents to hunt down suspected CCC supporters behind an arson in the Hanke area of Shurugwi, where 10 houses were burnt down.This was despite police spokesperson Nyathi initially saying the case was not linked to political violence.Amid the escalating violence, Zimbabweans who are bearing the brunt of political violence and other human rights violations ahead of the August 23 polls are now banking on a knight in shining armour  social media.Several images and videos of people being beaten, campaign posters being torn and cars being damaged have surfaced in recent days as political temperatures continue to rise.In a video circulating on social media, Wilson Runopamwa, CCC's Chivi Central aspiring councillor for ward 18, says his car, house and shop were destroyed by alleged Zanu-PF supporters.CapSeveral images and videos of people being beaten, campaign posters being torn and cars being damaged have surfaced in recent days as political temperatures continue to rise.tionIn another similar incident, in Beitbridge, a police officer was caught red-handed tearing CCC posters.In a video which has since gone viral on social media, the police officer is seen being ordered by angry CCC supporters to put back the posters he had removed.In Mutare Central, pictures of 71-year-old Amos Madzitire, who was severely assaulted by alleged Zanu-PF supporters, are also circulating.The incident occurred when known Zanu-PF activists identified as Nyasha Mutenji, Sin'a Dhlakama, Cecilia Gambe, Pension Gwinyai, Chamunorwa Mutungwazi, Sydney and Grace, allegedly launched a brutal assault on Madzitire and fellow CCC activists, including ward 2 candidate Gift Kadozora.The matter was reported at Chisamba Police Station under reference RRB 5603622.In another incident, Taurai Mavhoko, CCC aspiring legislator for Mutoko North, posted on Facebook that he was robbed of his phone by a known Zanu-PF activist.Zanu-PF spokesperson Christopher Mutsvangwa, however, dismissed the social media videos linking the ruling party to political violence."President Emmerson Mnangagwa has been preaching peace, and we are glad that the majority of the people have heeded his call. This election has been the most peaceful. Zanu-PF is a peaceful party," he said.
NEW DELHI : The Madras High Court on Thursday dismissed 14 of 16 petitions against Alphabet Inc.s Google for its in-app payment billing policy on the Play Store mobile app marketplace.

Responding to appeals by startups such as Bharat Matrimony, audiobook platform Pratilipi, and ed-tech platform Unacademy, the high court ruled that the issue falls under the jurisdiction of the Competition Commission of India (CCI), and as such, any decision taken by the antitrust watchdog will be binding upon all parties.

Appeals filed by Disney+ Hotstar and edtech platform Testbook are yet to be decided upon.

Industry body Alliance of Digital India Foundation (ADIF), which led the appeals against Googles Play Stores billing policy, will appeal the high court decision to its division bench, said Ajay Data, secretary general of ADIF.

Startups who filed petitions against Google also confirmed plans to appeal the verdict.

A senior executive at one of the companies said if Google Plays billing policy is enforced in its present form, it will make a very significant hit on our bottom lines."

It isnt just about the financial hitGoogles Play billing interfaces user experience design is detrimental to recurring subscriptions. Internal experiments run by us have seen returns to subscriptions reduce 10x by using Googles own billing system, versus our own custom-designed payment interface," the executive said.

Another executive at a fellow appellant company said, The 4% discount on third-party billing has no significance, since Google is anyway collecting 26% as its own platform fee, and any third-party vendor would still collect at least 2% as their usage fee. This leaves us at a loss on all grounds."

All of the appellants claimed that Googles platform fee is high. Lawyers, however, said neither a civil court nor the CCI has jurisdictions to dictate the platform fee that a corporate firm may charge for providing a service. Google had earlier argued that startups earn significant profits by using the Google Play Store marketplaces user base with industry estimates pegging the Play Store to reach over 2.5 billion users.

Google also controls nearly 96% of the Indian smartphone market of nearly 700 million users as of June, as per a Counterpoint Research estimate.

This highlights the strong power Play Store holds for companies offering their services through apps on the Android platform.

On 10 April, industry body Alliance of Digital India Foundation (ADIF), along with a number of startups, approached the Delhi High Courtseeking an injunction against Googles new Play Billing policy. The companies had argued that Googles revised commission rates, as part of the companys new Play Store billing policy in the country, are in contravention to the Competition Commissions October 2022 verdict that fined Google a cumulative 2,337 crore.

In its Thursday verdict, a copy of which was seen by Mint, the Court said that companies must seek recourse from the CCI itself. A senior lawyer with knowledge of the matter said that the verdict was largely expected due to Section 61 of the Competition Act, which forbids civil courts from hearing any lawsuit that CCI is authorized to decide on.

Appeals filed by Hotstar and ed-tech platform Testbook are yet to be decided upon.

Two legal experts who spoke on condition of anonymity said that the verdict was largely expected.

The ADIF and startups appeal against Google got a temporary injunction since they involved the Reserve Banks payments policy, which misled the Court last month. The verdict is in line with what any civil court would adjudge, since the entire matter lies with the Competition Commission," one of the lawyers told Mint.

The second lawyer said that the verdict essentially represents a temporary defeat for the startups, further adding that a more favourable verdict would have been for the Court to have directed the CCI to expedite its process.

To be sure, the CCI said on 12 May that it is inquiring into Googles Play billing policy, in terms of whether the latter is not compliant with CCIs original order against Google.

A senior official with knowledge of the matter told Mint that while the CCI has conducted an examination of the matter, the verdict on compliance lies in balance due to administrative issues.

The CCI chairman was appointed after the Delhi HC ordered CCI to expedite its inquiry into the matter, and the three-member committee is also set to see two retirements in the coming months. This has raised administrative difficulties into executing the inquiry order, thus leaving multiple parties in the balance at the moment," the official said.
NEW DELHI : Mahindra & Mahindra Ltds decision to buy a 3.53% stake in private lender RBL Bank Ltd for 417 crore is not a sign of wavering capital allocation discipline, Anish Shah, managing director and chief executive of the Mumbai-based automaker said on Friday.

Explaining the rationale behind the surprise move, Shah said the company will make targeted investments to drive returns and focus on execution to show outperformance", unlike in the past where the execution of its capital allocation actions wasnt strong enough".

He, however, added that M&M doesnt have any plan to enter the banking business or raise its stake unless there is a compelling strategic reason in the future". It also wont invest in any other bank, he said on the sidelines of the June quarter results press meet.

M&M nearly doubled its standalone net profit to 2,773.73 crore in the three months ended June, from 1,403.61 crore a year ago. This included a one-time gain of 405 crore from the KG Mobility, formerly Ssangyong, after it was bought out of bankruptcy by Koreas KG Group.

Revenue from operations rose 22% from a year earlier to 24,056 crore.

Two weeks ago, M&M shareholders raised questions on the rationale behind investing in a bank as an industrial house and the prudence of its capital allocation decisions, with JP Morgan in a 26 July report, indicating that free capital allocation worries can cap stock re-rating even as earning trends remain robust".

The strategic rationale for this particular investment is its a core business in financial services. We have a very large entity in that space (Mahindra Financial Services) and therefore, we need to find ways to enhance the value of that entity. The second question is, can we execute in that? In this case, it is more for understanding the banking business, not for a business we run, but if we want to go out and acquire, lets say, a tractor business somewhere in the world, the question will be, can it be something that we can run? And can it give us results; can it help us grow much faster? And if the answer to that is yes, then we will go and acquire it," Shah said. We have enough cash. The main thing we want to do is not fall into that trap of we have enough cash and therefore we should invest; we do not want to fall into that trap. There is a very high bar on whatever we get into (18% return on capital employed). The execution narrative because very important, it is the results that finally matter. If we can show great results from an investment, that is when our investors will be happy with us," he added.

Shah stressed that M&Ms capital allocation discipline hasnt changed. This (RBL Bank) is an investment of 417 crore today, in a sector thats core to us and we want to grow a lot more in. We have an almost 40,000 crore market cap business in it already, with Mahindra Financial Services. This investment is for us to understand banking in a lot more detail, with a very long-term view of 7-10 years. There is no assumption on our part today whether we want to get into a bank or not, and at this point, there is no intention to raise our stake further. But it helps us to enhance the value of our business a lot," he said.

Shah explained that RBL Bank was very well-run with a strong management team and a strong foundation at a price-to-book (P/B) ratio of 1, and thats the reason weve taken a 3.5% stake in this bank." At this stage, we dont expect to go higher; at some point in time, if there is a very compelling strategic reason, we will evaluate it at that point in time. We will, in fact, enhance our capital allocation discipline," he said.

Investors, however, are unsure about M&Ms move to invest in RBL Bank.  The rationale is not adequately explained. Theyve currently picked up 3.5% stake and said at a point in the future, they may pick up more. We still dont know when theyll choose to increase their stake in the bank. Its (the investment) is not core to M&M in any way," said an analyst on condition of anonymity.
Modi surname remark: The apex court on Friday, stayed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's conviction in a criminal defamation case associated with Modi surname remak. After the stay, Rahul Gandhi's status as a Member of Parliament was successfully revived.

In its judgement, Supreme Court cited that there was no reasons given by trial judge in giving the maximum punishment of two years. While putting a stay on Rahul Gandhi's conviction, Supreme Court also cautioned the Congress leader to have been more careful in making the alleged remarks.

Here are the top reactions:

Mallikarjun Kharge

It is a very happy day for us, democracy has won, Constitution has won," said Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge after SC relief to Rahul Gandhi.

I welcome SC judgment; Victory not just of Rahul Gandhi, but of people of country and democracy," the senior leader further said.

This is victory of people and of voters of Wayanad," Cong chief Mallikarjun Kharge further said on SC stay on Rahul Gandhi's conviction in a defamation case.

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal

Welcome SC's intervention in unjust case against Rahul Gandhi; this reinforces people's trust in Indian democracy.

Ghulam Nabi Azad

On Supreme Court staying conviction of Rahul Gandhi in 'Modi' surname remark defamation case, Democratic Progressive Azad Party Chairman Ghulam Nabi Azad says, "It's a good thing...There was no effect of his disqualification. He was doing the same job which he was doing earlier as an MP."

Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury

After Supreme Court stays the conviction of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in 'Modi' surname defamation case, Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury says, "The SC's decision is a big relief for Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. The conspiracy against Rahul Gandhi has failed today...We met the Speaker & raised it in the Parliament that Rahul Gandhi should be allowed in the Parliament...Rahul Gandhi's disqualification must be revoked...I will also write to the Speaker..."

Truth alone triumphs, Justice has been delivered, democracy has won," said Mallikarjun Kharge on SC relief to Rahul Gandhi.

After the judgement, several congress leaders and politicians extended their support and greetings to Rahul Gandhi. The Indian National Congress called Supreme Court's judgement as Victory of love against hate.

Extending support to Rahul Gandhi, the grand old party tweeted from its official handle, It is a victory of love against hate. Satyamev Jayate - Jai Hind."
Amid ongoing communal clashes in Haryana , the Muslim community in Gurugram has been advised to observe Friday prayers at home.

As reported by NDTV, the clashes, which began in Nuh on Monday and have since spread to Gurugram and other districts, have resulted in the deaths of six people, including two home guards and a cleric.

The violence originated during a Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) rally, where a mob attacked the procession with stones, leading the participants to seek refuge inside a temple, the report noted.

As the evening advanced, the violence escalated further, with a mosque being set on fire after midnight. Mobs went on a rampage in Nuh and neighbouring Gurugram, torching and vandalizing more than a hundred vehicles. The situation remained tense and volatile as the clashes continued to unfold.

As reported by ANI, a total of 23 people arrested in connection to the recent incidents of violence in Haryana's Nuh were produced before the court, and were later sent to police remand for up to five days on Thursday.

"A total of 23 accused in 6 different cases were produced before the court today. Accused in FIR No. 261 sent to 4-day remand. One accused sent to 3-day remand, five accused sent to 4-day remand and the remaining sent to 5-day remand," said ANI citing the Counsel of the accused.

On Thursday, the Haryana government decided to partially lift the suspension of mobile internet services in several districts from 1 pm to 4 pm. The reason behind this decision was to enable candidates appearing for the CET/Screening test (Group C posts) to download their admit cards.

Meanwhile, internet restrictions will be partially lifted in certain areas of Haryana, including Nuh, Faridabad, Palwal, and the territorial jurisdiction of Sub Division Sohna, Pataudi, and Manesar in District Gurugram.

The decision comes in the wake of clashes between two groups in Nuh, triggered by an attack on a religious procession passing through the district. The violent incident resulted in the deaths of two home guards and left numerous people, including around 20 policemen, injured.

(With inputs from NDTV and ANI)
Speaking on rising fuel prices, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Friday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi personally monitored the situation and on two occasions - November 2021 and May 2022 and he reduced the central excise on petrol and diesel by a significant part.

As reported by ANI, Puri said, The PM personally monitored the situation and on two occasions - Nov 2021 and May 2022- he reduced the central excise on petrol and diesel by a significant part. The BJP-ruled states immediately reduced VAT. The only parts of our political system that talks about high fuel prices are the ones that have not reduced VAT."

Meanwhile, Union Government is set to get a significant stake in the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) as it plans to provide financial support to fuel retailers, which incurred losses by selling petrol and diesel at discounted rates last year, the officials said, Livemint noted on July 30.

This comes as the government asked fuel retailers like IOC and BPCL to launch rights issues. It advised HPCL to make a preferential share allotment to the government.

Earlier on July 5, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari said that if an average of 60% ethanol and 40% electricity is taken then petrol will be available at the rate of 15 per litre and the people will be benefitted.

While addressing the public here in Pratapgarh, Rajasthan, Gadkari said, If an average of 60% ethanol and 40% electricity is taken then petrol will be available at the rate of 15 per litre and the people will be benefitted. Pollution and import will reduce. The import is of 16 Lakh Crores, this money will go to the homes of farmers instead."

(With inputs from agencies)
Supreme Court on Friday stayed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's conviction in a criminal defamation case linked to "Modi surname" remark, and revived his status as a Member of Parliament.

The apex court cited, there was no reasons given by trial judge in giving the maximum punishment of two years Disqualification affects not only Gandhi but also the electorates of his constituency, it added. However, the top court also cautioned that Gandhi should have been more careful in making the alleged remarks. On Friday, SC heard a plea by Rahul Gandhi challenging Gujarat HC high verdict that declined to put on hold his conviction in a defamation case over his "Modi surname" remark. Earlier this year, Rahul Gandhi was disqualified as an MP for his comments linked to PM Modi

Read full argument here:

Abhishek Manu Singhvi , who appeared for Rahul Gandhi at the Supreme Court, said, No one was named by Rahul Gandhi in his speech

The trial court cites 13 cases, but where are the convictions. Where are the criminal anecdotes, he tell Supreme Court. Have no criminal antecedents, no conviction in cases filed by BJP workers

He adds, Rahul Gandhi has lost two Parliament sessions. He has been silenced for 8 years. For no other defamation cases, 2 years of suspension were pronounced

Singhvi also questions, Is it Rahul's last chance to get acquittal?

Supreme Court earlier in the day told Singhvi that he will have to make out an exceptional case today for a stay on conviction.

Meanwhile, Senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani appearing for complainant Purnesh Modi argues that the entire speech spanned over 50 minutes and there is plethora of evidence and clipping of the speech attached in Election Commission of Indias record.

Jethmalani says that Rahul Gandhi has defamed an entire class out of malice.

Responding to the arguments, SC said the conviction is also affecting the constituency.

Supreme Court says it wants to know why maximum sentence was given. Had the judge given a sentence of 1 year and 11 months, then he (Rahul Gandhi) would not have been disqualified, observes Supreme Court.
NEW DELHI : The Supreme Court on Friday stayed Congress leader Rahul Gandhis conviction in a criminal defamation case on the grounds that the trial judge failed to explain why he deserved the maximum two-year punishment under the law and held that the continuation of his disqualification from Parliament would deprive proper representation to the people of his constituency.

The decision paves the way for the revival of Gandhis status as an MP after being ineligible for 134 days and means that he could participate in the no-confidence motion debate against the Narendra Modi governments council of ministers in the Lower House next week.

Addressing a press briefing after the courts stay, Gandhi said the truth always triumphs".

My path is clear. I have clarity in my mind on what I have to do and what my work is. I thank the people who helped us. I also thank the people for their love and support," he said.

Gandhi was elected to the Lok Sabha from Keralas Wayanad in 2019. He was convicted on 23 March 2023 by a Surat trial court, which awarded him a maximum two-year jail term in a case relating to his comments on the Modi" surname at a poll rally. The sentence meant that the Lok Sabha secretariat declared his disqualification on 24 March. Gandhis appeal in the Gujarat high court was rejected on 7 July.

Even as a bench of justices B.R. Gavai and P.S. Narasimha said that Gandhi ought to have been more careful" in making remarks in the wake of his public standing, it stressed that he stood disqualified as an MP under the Representation of People Act (RPA) only because of the two-year-jail term and that even a day less would have saved his membership.

Therefore, the court held, it was imperative for the Surat trial court to specify the reasons for handing him out the maximum punishment under the charge of defamation in March this year when the offence has clearly been categorized as bailable, non-cognizable, and compoundable in the Indian Penal Code.

Calling the ramifications of the punishment wide", the top court pointed out that not only Gandhis right to continue in public life has been affected by virtue of the sentence awarded, but also that of the electorates of the constituency who elected him.

Considering the aforesaid circumstances and particularly that no reasons have been given by the trial judge for giving him maximum sentence which has incurred him the disqualification, order of conviction needs to be stayed during the pendency of proceedings before the appellate court," said the bench in its order.

It further emphasized that though the Surat sessions court and the Gujarat high court penned down voluminous judgments while rejecting Gandhis plea for a stay on his conviction, the aspects of maximum punishment, as well as its ramification, were not delved into. About Gandhis conduct, the top court recalled that in November 2019, he was admonished by the Supreme Court in a contempt case after he wrongly attributed certain remarks to it. At the time, Gandhi was asked by the Supreme Court to remain careful about his public utterances after he submitted affidavits tendering unconditional apology.

The court on Friday noted that while the alleged defamatory remarks, in this case, were made by Gandhi in April 2019, the top courts order in the contempt case came in November 2019.No doubt that alleged utterances are not in good taste. Persons in public life are expected to exercise a degree of caution while making public speeches. As observed by this court while accepting his affidavit in contempt petition (in 2019), he ought to have been more careful. Maybe if these observations came before the petitioner made these utterances, he would have been more careful before...He should have exercised a degree of restrain in making such remarks which are alleged to be defamatory," it added in the order.

The top court clarified that the stay on Gandhis conviction would operate until the Gujarat sessions court, where his appeal against the conviction order of the Surat trial court finally decides the matter. It also expedited the proceedings before the sessions court.

During the proceedings on Friday, senior counsel Abhishek Singhvi strongly disputed that Gandhis alleged offence can be categorized as an offence involving moral turpitude. This is not an offence against society. This is a non-cognizable, bailable, and compoundable offence, and without any reasoning, the trial court awards me the maximum punishment, leading to his disqualification. Can this man be silenced for eight years because of this? In a democracy, we have dissent," he contended.

Appearing for Purnesh Modi, senior counsel Mahesh Jethmalani opposed a stay on Gandis conviction. His intention was to defame every person with the surname Modi, just because it matches that of the Prime Minister. This is ex facie malice...and he has never denied saying it," Jethmalani argued.

Gandhi is eligible to return to Parliament as early as Monday, officials said, adding that the Lok Sabha Secretariat received a copy of the Supreme Courts order on Friday evening. The officials added that the Secretariat has to issue a notice before the revival saying Gandhis suspension has been removed following the courts decision. As of going to print on Friday, it was unclear if this had been issued.

In an affidavit on Wednesday, Gandhi submitted in the Supreme Court that he would not apologize to settle the criminal defamation case filed against him by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator Purnesh Modi over his remarks on Modi" surname at a poll rally in 2019, maintaining that his conviction by the Surat court is unsustainable and that he has an excellent" chance of success in his appeal.

Requesting the apex court to stay his conviction, the Congress leader said that he is an exceptional case", considering that the offence is a trivial one and that irreparable harm accrues to him as an elected MP because of continuing disqualification. The petitioner is a parliamentarian and a leader of the Opposition, and therefore it was necessary for him to critically evaluate the conduct and performance of the ruling establishment," he said in the affidavit.

On 21 July, the top court issued a notice on Gandhis appeal against the Gujarat high court order that declined to put on hold his conviction and a two-year jail term in the criminal defamation case. The appeal was filed on 15 July, a week after the high court dealt a blow to his endeavour to revive his Lok Sabha membership, ruling that the Congress leader breached modesty" and that his offence involved moral turpitude".

In his plea, Gandhi urged the top court to immediately stay his conviction to enable him to regain his MP status, arguing the conviction order would lead to throttling of free speech, free expression, free thought, and free statement.

It would contribute to the systematic, repetitive emasculation of democratic institutions and the consequent strangulation of democracy, which would be gravely detrimental to the political climate and future of India," the Congress leader said.

Gandhi complained that a political speech in the course of democratic political activity, critical of economic offenders and also of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has been held to be an act of moral turpitude inviting the harshest punishment.

Responding to the court notice, Purnesh Modi, MLA from Gujarats Surat-West, on 31 July said that Gandhis personal hatred towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi led him to cast grossly defamatory aspersions on persons who incidentally bore the same surname as the Prime Minister.

During the Congress press briefing on Thursday afternoon, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge said: Satyameva Jayate....we all are happy and welcome the judgement of the Supreme Court. It is not only the victory of Rahul Gandhi but a victory of democracy and the Constitution...Its a victory of people."

Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said, The conspiracy against Rahul Gandhi has failed today."

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal welcomed the SC stay and said it reinforced trust in Indian democracy.

I welcome Honble Supreme Courts intervention in an unjust defamation case against Rahul Gandhi ji. It reinforces peoples trust in Indian democracy and the judicial system. Congratulations to him and to the people of Wayanad," the AAP national convener said in a tweet.

The BJPs IT department head Amit Malviya tweeted, Rahul Gandhi may have survived this one, but for how long?"
The Supreme Court stayed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's conviction in the Modi surname case on Friday, paving the way for a reinstatement as MP. The former lawmaker thanked people for their support after the verdict, insisting that the truth would always win.

Aaj nahi toh kal, kal nahi toh parson sachai ki jeet hoti hai (Truth always triumphs, if not today then tomorrow or the day after), My path is clear. I have clarity in my mind that what I have to do and what is my work. I thank the people who helped us. I also thank the people for their love and support," the ousted MP said.

Come what may, my duty remains the same. Protect the idea of India," Gandhi had tweeted soon after the verdict.

Opposition leaders have hailed the SC verdict and efforts to reinstate Gandhi are already underway. The Congress leader had been disqualified as MP from Keralas Wayanad on March 24 following notification of the Lok Sabha Secretariat. The Lok Sabha speaker can now revive his membership on his own or upon Gandhi's call for restoration of status.

It's a happy day...I will write and speak to Lok Sabha Speaker today itself. This is the victory of truth. This will prove costly for Prime Minister," Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury told ANI soon after the verdict.

Party President Mallikarjun Kharge meanwhile dubbed it a victory of the people.

"The person who fights for truth, for the country's interest, to strengthen the country, for the youth of the country, against rising prices, the person who fights and makes people aware, who walked 4,000 km from Kanyakumari to Kashmir and met various people, I think their prayers are with us and it is, therefore, victory of the people," the Congress president said.

(With inputs from agencies)
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued a press release regarding the weather conditions in various parts of the country on August 3, 2023 predicting weather conditions and associated precipitation until August 9th.

The depression over north Chhattisgarh and its surrounding areas weakened and transformed into a Well Marked Low Pressure Area (LPA) over the same region. The system is expected to move gradually in a west-northwest direction towards northeast Madhya Pradesh and adjoining southeast Uttar Pradesh. During this movement, the low-pressure area is likely to weaken further and eventually dissipate into the atmosphere today. Hence its impact can be felt in Indian states of the region.

East Madhya Pradesh

Light to moderate rainfall expected at most places over East Madhya Pradesh with heavy to very heavy rainfall at a few places on 4th August. Heavy rainfall at isolated places is likely on 5th August.

Also read: August rainfall could be below normal

West Madhya Pradesh

Heavy rainfall at isolated places over West Madhya Pradesh is likely on 4th August.

Chhattisgarh

Heavy rainfall expected at isolated places over Chhattisgarh on 4th August.

South Uttar Pradesh

Light to moderate rainfall at most places over South Uttar Pradesh with isolated heavy rainfall until 6th August.

Weather Forecast and Warning for remaining parts of the country:

Northwest India

Light to moderate scattered to fairly widespread rainfall with isolated heavy rainfall is expected over Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh until 9th August; Punjab on 4th and 5th; Haryana and East Rajasthan until 5th August, 2023. Light to moderate isolated/scattered rainfall is likely over the rest of northwest India during the week. Isolated very heavy rainfall is also possible over West Uttar Pradesh on 5th and over Uttarakhand on 6th August.

Also read: Monsoon update: Very heavy rainfall predicted in these states for next 2 days. Check full forecast here

Northeast India

Light to moderate fairly widespread to widespread rainfall with isolated heavy rainfall is likely over Arunachal Pradesh, Assam & Meghalaya during the week and over Tripura on 4th August.

West India

Light to moderate fairly widespread to widespread rainfall with isolated heavy rainfall is likely to continue over Konkan & Goa and ghat areas of Madhya Maharashtra until tomorrow. Light to moderate isolated/scattered rainfall is likely over the rest of West India during the week.

South India

Subdued rainfall activity is expected over the region during the week. Hot and humid weather conditions are likely to prevail over Tamil Nadu on 4th August.
Andrew Tate, an influencer who has been waiting trial for human trafficking charges, won an appeal in the Bucharest Court to be released from house arrest. The divisive social media personality was placed under judicial control, a rather lighter restrictive measure.

Andrew Tate is awaiting trial on charges of human trafficking.

The Bucharest Court of Appeals said in a written ruling that it replaces the house arrest measure with that of judicial control for a period of 60 days from August 4 until October 2."

The decision at the Bucharest Tribunal comes a month after prosecutors formally indicted the 36-year-old social media star along with his brother Tristan and two Romanian women in the same case. All four defendants  who were arrested in late December near Bucharest and have denied the allegations against them  will remain under house arrest for 30 more days.

Outside the court on Monday, Tate told journalists that the moral arc of the universe bends towards justice in the end."

My brother and I are extremely resilient people.  In the end justice shall be served," AP quoted Tate said. Were feeling like things are going to work out perfectly in the end  and until then were going to follow the judicial process."

The Tate brothers, who are dual UK-US citizens, will likely appeal against Tuesday's ruling. The Tates lost their last appeal on July 6 against a prior house arrest extension.

Tate was indicted in June along with his brother Tristan and two Romanian female suspects for human trafficking, rape and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women.'

Andrew Tate, who has been accused of peddling conspiracy theories online and has amassed 7.2 million Twitter followers, has repeatedly claimed that prosecutors have no evidence against him and that there is a political conspiracy designed to silence him.

(With agency inputs)
News / Local

by Staff reporter

RELATIONSHIPS involve vulnerability, so if there's a betrayal of trust, sensitive information is sometimes used as retaliation.This was aptly at play when a man from Vokola area in Insiza South, Matabeleland South Province was left living in perpetual fear after his ex-girlfriend created a fake Facebook account posing as him before posting pictures of him and a string of women, some of them married as revenge for breaking up with her.Tawanda Mhlanga (28) said in a fit of anger his South Africa-based ex-lover Nozipho Sibanda created the fake account assassinating his character by posting obscene content while also labelling him a "womaniser".Mhlanga said he was now receiving threatening calls and death messages from husbands of those women that had been posted on the fake account claiming he was in love with them."My ex-girlfriend, who is just bitter for not being able to move on after our breakup created a fake Facebook account with my name and contact details."She is posting my pictures with a string of women, some of them married as a way of getting back at me for breaking up with her. The posts are now ruining my reputation and putting my life at risk," said a distressed Mhlanga.He said the relationship that is now haunting him started in March last year and ended in June of the same year.Mhlanga said he had on several occasions tried to engage Sibanda so that she could stop her evil mission but without success."I have tried to engage with her but without success. She is posting pictures and sensitive information of married women, some of them that I do not even know while alleging that I am in a relationship with them."I am now getting calls from their husbands. They are threatening me with death thinking it's me who is after breaking their marriages," said Mhlanga.One of the women that had been posted on the fake Facebook account and whose marriage was nearly severed was Mhlanga's ex-lover who has since married."That woman moved on with her life and is now married to someone else. Her husband threatened me over the phone, claiming that if I continued posting pictures of his wife he would kill me as it was an indication that I was still in love with her".Another woman whose picture was also posted on the fake Facebook account with a caption that alleges that she was madly in love with Mhlanga, Ntombiyethu Sibanda (24) expressed her anger saying it caused trouble in her marriage as her husband was now suspecting she was in love with Mhlanga."I don't even know those people and we even tried to get in touch with the person behind the Facebook account so that we can solve the matter but to no avail," she said.Contacted for comment, Sibanda could neither confirm nor deny the allegations levelled against her."I no longer want anything to do with him since we broke up some time ago. I have also moved on," she tersely said.When prodded to comment further Sibanda who would not entertain further questions quickly hung up her phone.
Former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiring to obstruct the 2020 presidential election and interfering with voting rights. His legal team is preparing to vigorously defend him.

The arraignment took place before US Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya at the federal courthouse in Washington. While the case progresses, Trump will remain free but is prohibited from communicating with witnesses except through his lawyers.

During the 30-minute hearing, Trump sat just a few feet from Special Counsel John Jack" Smith  who has indicted him twice. They didnt interact. Trump spoke little, as is typical for arraignments, though he made a point of stating his not guilty plea rather than have his lawyer, John Lauro, do it for him.

The former president faces his third criminal case, with the Fulton County district attorney in Georgia potentially pursuing a fourth indictment related to election interference, Upadhyaya said as reported by Bloomberg.

A hearing in Washington before US District Judge Tanya Chutkan is set for Aug. 28, during which Chutkan will schedule a trial date.

Trump's presence at the hearing is not required. Prosecutors have a week to propose a schedule, and Trump's legal team has another week to respond.

Trump's legal team seeks delay

Lauro, part of Trump's legal team, believes the case against Trump will take longer than prosecutors claim due to its complexity. He intends to seek a delay in the proceedings to vigorously defend against the charges, deeming a speedy trial "somewhat absurd."

All we would ask your honor is the opportunity to fairly defend our client, but in order to do that, were going to need a little time," Lauro said.

Prosecutor Thomas Windom said the government was prepared to swiftly turn over a substantial volume" of evidence, but said the Trump prosecution, just like every other case," would benefit from normal order."

Upadhyaya said that she could guarantee everybody" there would be a fair" process and trial.

Sad day for America: Trump

After the hearing, Trump briefly addressed reporters at the Washington airport, calling it a very sad day for America."

This is a persecution of a political opponent. This was never supposed to happen in America," he said.
Elected Niger President Mohamed Bazoum on Thursday appealed to the US government and the entire international community for help in restoring the country's constitutional order that is under attack from a military junta, according to a report published by AFP.

In a column in The Washington Post, Bazoum said, "If a coup attempt to depose him is successful, "it will have devastating consequences for our country, our region, and the entire world. I write this as a hostage"

"Niger is under attack from a military junta... and I am just one of hundreds of citizens who have been arbitrarily and illegally imprisoned. This coup must end, and the junta must free everyone they have unlawfully arrested," he wrote in the column as quoted by AFP.

Notably, this was Bazoum's first lengthy appeal since his presidential guard detained him on July 26 and took control of the Niger government. He came to power after the democratic elections in 2021.

He said that Niger had been a bulwark of hope in a region increasingly buffeted by extremism and ruled by military juntas, as per AFP reports.

"In Africa's troubled Sahel region, Niger stands as the last bastion of respect for human rights amid the authoritarian movements that have overtaken some of our neighbors," he wrote.

Further, Bazoum further warned that Niger's neighbors have increasingly invited in criminal Russian mercenaries including the Wagner Group at the expense of their people's rights and dignity.

The entire Sahel region. could fall to Russian influence via the Wagner Group, whose brutal terrorism has been on full display in Ukraine. Terrorist movements like Boko Haram will surely take advantage of Niger's instability, using our country as a staging ground to attack neighboring countries and undermine peace, safety and freedom around the world," he added.

(With AFP inputs)
Pakistan-US ties: In a significant move, the federal cabinet has silently given nod to the security pact with the United States that may pave the way for Pakistan to procure military hardware from Washington DC, according to a report published by The Express Tribune.

On Wednesday, official sources informed The Express Tribune that the Pakistan cabinet through a circulation summary gave its approval for signing the Communication Interoperability and Security Memorandum of Agreement, known as the CIS-MOA between Pakistan and the US.

The CIS-MOA first was signed between the Joint Staff Headquarters of Pakistan and the US Department of Defence in October 2005 for 15 years. However, the agreement expired in 2020, ANI reported.

The CIS-MOA is a foundational agreement that the US signs with its allies and countries with which it wants to maintain close military and defence ties. It also provides legal cover to the US Department of Defence for ensuring the sale of military equipment and hardware to other countries," the website read.

The security pact between Pakistan and the US indicates that the United States might sell some military hardware to Pakistan in the coming years, as per The Express Tribune reports.

In July this year, Pakistan and the United States agreed to enhance their bilateral ties in the defence field. A meeting was held between a top American general and Pakistan's army chief General Asim Munir to discuss the matter. They discussed matters of mutual interest, regional security situation and defence cooperation between the two nations.

The visiting dignitary acknowledged and appreciated Pakistan Armys successes in (the) fight against terrorism and Pakistans continued efforts for bringing peace and stability in the region," the statement said.

It stated that both sides reiterated the desire to further enhance bilateral relations in all fields.

(With ANI inputs)
Pakistan's Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Thursday declared the dissolution of the National Assembly, which is scheduled to take place on August 9.

As per a report by ANI, the announcement followed a meeting with parliamentary leaders during a dinner event held to honour the members of parliament.

The discussions during the gathering revolved around the current political situation in the country, as per The Express Tribune's report.

As reported by ANI, during the gathering, Prime Minister Shehbaz actively sought input from the attendees and engaged in discussions about the appointment of a caretaker prime minister and the caretaker setup. On August 9, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is set to formally advise the President on dissolving the National Assembly.

According to constitutional provisions, the President must sign the advice within 48 hours to effectuate the dissolution. If, for any reason, the President does not sign the advice, the Assembly will be automatically dissolved, The Express Tribune reported.

Additionally, Prime Minister Shehbaz provided reassurance that he would engage in three days of consultations with the opposition to finalize the appointment of the caretaker prime minister. Following this process, he will submit the chosen candidate's name to the President.

In the event of a failure to reach an agreement within the stipulated time frame, The Express Tribune reported that the responsibility will shift to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). The ECP will then take charge of nominating a caretaker prime minister from the proposed names.

Significantly, the Prime Minister emphasized the successful outcome of negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), stressing the crucial role of economic stability in driving the nation's advancement, according to ANI.

Earlier this week, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that the upcoming elections in Pakistan would be held on the basis of the 2023 digital census, Dawn reported.

The Prime Minister, whose government is anticipated to transfer power to a caretaker setup in August, made these remarks during a recorded interview on the Aaj News show 'Faisla Aap Ka,' which was broadcast on Tuesday.

We have to hold the elections on the basis of the new census  When a census has been conducted, the [polls] should be held on its basis unless there is an obstacle that cannot be overcome. But I dont see [any such hurdle]," Dawn quoted Sharif as saying.

Sharif added, A meeting of the Council of Common Interest (CCI)  the body that approves census results  was expected."

Sharif further noted the census results would be referred to the CCI as soon as they were finalised.

According to ANI report referencing Dawn, Prime Minister Sharif's statement differs from the previous assertions made by his ministers, who had stated that the upcoming election would be conducted based on the 2017 census.

When asked about the possibility of any delays in elections, he said that this should not be the case, however, adding that the ball will be in the election commissions court".

This decision, however, prompted a terse response from the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), one of the ruling allies in the coalition government in Pakistan that maintains Karachis population has been undercounted in the new census, as per Dawn.

Last week, PM Sharif held a meeting with its leaders in Karachi, in an apparent bid to appease the party, where he assured them that any decision on the matter would be made after consultation with all coalition partners, Dawn reported.

Earlier, PM Sharif had said that the National Assembly will be dissolved before August 12 with the consultation of the allied parties. In an interview at a Geo News programme, he said the tenure of the National Assembly will end on August 12 and before that, the assembly will be dissolved, ANI reported.

Sharif further said the decision about the caretaker PM will be taken in consultation with the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly and before that he would consult all the allied parties and Pakistan Muslim League(N) Quaid Nawaz Sharif.

(With inputs from ANI)
We are aware of the transformational economic impact of a cluster-led development model. Shenzhen over the last 40 years has transformed itself from a small fishing village near Hong Kong into a large metropolis with over 10 million people. In 2018 the Shenzhen SEZ region (around 300 sq km) was estimated to have contributed over $250 billion in exports, while GDP per capita in the region shot up from $122 in the early 2000s to over $28,000 in 2019.

Foxconn alone is estimated to employ over 400,000 people in its two campuses in Shenzhen. Similarly, the Northern Key Economic Region (KER) in Vietnam, comprising seven cities and provinces that total just 4.7% of the countrys land mass, contributed more than 33% of GDP and more than $115 billion in exports. Samsung alone is estimated to employ over 110,000 people in the Northern KER region.

While countries like China, South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam have been able to develop economic clusters that enable growth, India has failed. As of 2023, India has 272 operational SEZs with a combined employment of just 28 lakh people. These SEZs account for $133 billion in exports (of which around 60% is service exports) from India. In comparison, China has been able to achieve twice the value of exports and four times the employment from just the Shenzhen SEZ, which is about the same size as the combined area of all Indian SEZs.

Why is it that other countries have been able to develop globally competitive manufacturing regions while India has failed, and what can we learn from them?

The building blocks

While cluster-development policies in India have tried to emulate the success of clusters such as Shenzhen in China or Hsinchu Science Park in Taiwan, they have only managed to partially replicate these, and have completely failed to capture the functions that go into making a successful cluster. This tendency to mimic policies from other countries while not capturing the essence has become endemic, and is also the primary reason why India has struggled to build capabilities even after years of policy and reform engagement.

In this article, we lay out a simple framework that outlines the key building blocks of a successful cluster. In the following sections, we will use this framework to highlight challenges and identify strategies that we can adopt to overcome them.

R: Region (size & location)

I: Infrastructure

S: Strategic incentives & investment promotion

E: Enabling governance & regulations

The aim of every element in this framework is to help India attain global competitiveness, which is critical for it to deliver on its employment and growth potential.

R: Region (size & location)

Firstly, we need a fundamental shift in the way we identify and develop these clusters. Cluster development in India is highly fragmented. For example, the countrys 376 SEZs have a combined area of 39,762 hectares (about 400 sq km). For comparison, the size of Shenzhen SEZ at conception was around 150 sq km, and over time it has grown to over 300 sq km. This fragmented development in India hampers our clusters from realising the scale and ecosystem benefits of manufacturing in an industrial region, which in turn affects our global competitiveness.

Clusters in India have been developed with the intention of drawing manufacturers to areas with low levels of development. Thats because these clusters have been wrongly seen as tools to drive equitable growth across the country. This fragmented approach to cluster development is not conducive when it comes to enabling scale and network effects; which is critical to driving competitiveness. Most clusters in India are 1/100th the size of a successful international SEZ.

One may rightly argue that creating large clusters has serious budget implications, mainly driven by the cost of land acquisition. But there are a few tactical strategies that governments can adopt to solve the right size vs right cost dilemma.

Ensure that the improved governance and regulatory framework that it creates spills beyond the identified core region to a much wider region that would truly define the size of the SEZ.

Focus on expanding existing clusters rather than developing new clusters in undeveloped areas.

Dont focus on acquiring the entire piece of land but rather on building infrastructure and acquiring a critical core that can go to large anchor investors.

These strategies could help optimise budgets while ensuring there is a sufficiently developed core that allows private investment to develop the ecosystem in the rest of the region.

I: Infrastructure

Indias industrial parks are very basic, with minimal development and infrastructure, including substandard roads, an electric substation, and a rainwater drainage system. There is no plug-and-play infrastructure or housing for workers near factories. This leads to the creation of slums near factory areas, which are usually occupied by migrant workers while the local workforce struggles to find transportation. Additionally, most industrial clusters have become hubs for real-estate speculation, causing prices to shoot up in these areas.

This lack of planned infrastructure in industrial regions is why most large and medium plants prefer to stay away from these regions and build factories where they find land at the most competitive prices. This leads to fragmented development of large factories outside most Industrial regions and is the reason why most Industrial zones get converted partially or fully into IT service parks or office spaces (for example Okhla, Udyog Vihar, Gurgaon.)

By studying international parks, we realise that when it comes to creating enabling infrastructure in these regions, the focus should be on creating high-quality infrastructure across four key domains.

Basic infrastructure: Roads, water connection, electricity, gas, sewage and drainage lines, disposal facilities, network connectivity, etc.

Common industrial infrastructure: Effluent treatment plants, testing labs, integrated waste management, etc.

Export infrastructure: Fast, on-site customs clearance, multi-modal trade routes to the nearest port, bonded warehousing facility, etc.

Social infrastructure: Primary health infrastructure, hostels, banking services, schools, skill-training institutes, recreational facilities, hotels, etc.

It is critical to note that not all this infrastructure needs to be developed directly  much of it can be developed in partnership with private companies. Purely from the infrastructure perspective, Brandix Apparel Park in Andhra Pradesh stands out as a good example.

S: Strategic incentives and investment promotion

Incentives have become a necessary evil of Industrial policy. But the reality is that long-term investment decisions are not based purely on incentives. So while we can create subscale parks where we attract investors with incentives, these parks can never become sustainable ecosystems unless we solve for fundamental competitiveness.

Hence, we need to be strategic while offering incentives. They need to be targeted at sectors and regions where there is the highest probability of developing an ecosystem. Additionally, incentives should not be offered merely to offset costs but must be targeted at large players who could help achieve scale and build a long-term competitive ecosystem. This is the reason why the PLI scheme has been successful in attracting investment in sectors such as electronics but has failed in other sectors.

When it comes to offering large incentives, it is critical to ensure they are delivered on time. Far too often, this has not been the case. This causes mistrust amongst investors and hinders future investment.

In addition to offering large incentives, investment-promotion agencies play an integral role in driving investment in a region. But these agencies are often not consulted when the clusters are planned and are only involved in the downstream end of investment promotion (marketing). This has caused some agencies to become completely out of touch with the real challenges that influence investors decisions.

In many states these agencies are largely political marketing bodies with little to no direct investor relationships. This is because investors over time have also come to view them as mere marketing agencies and engage with them accordingly. The role of investment agencies should not be an afterthought and they should be consulted from the very start. This will allow us to co-create these regions based on investor requirements, giving us a higher probability of success.

For example, Li Kwoh-ting, once head of the Taiwan Industrial Development and Investment Center and later a key minister in the Taiwan government, played a critical role in crafting policies that led to the development of the Hsinchu Science Park in Taiwan, where TSMC is headquartered. This allowed the park to be developed around the needs of a key anchor tenant, who has gone on to become the worlds largest semiconductor manufacturer.

Also, the role of the investment manager does not end once the initial investment is made or the unit set up. It needs to be seen as a long-term engagement role with the goal of achieving scale and global competitiveness. This is the only way to enable future investment in the region. This full spectrum of service, right from ideation to expansion and beyond, is vital to making these parks successful.

E: Enabling governance and regulations

Indias regulatory landscape is plagued with excessive regulation and frequent ad-hoc changes. While efforts have been made to improve our regulatory environment, overbearing clauses in laws, and rules that are presented as necessary but are typically used for rent-seeking, continue to make manufacturing in India unattractive. Also, there is no real regulatory or governance benefit to operating within an industrial cluster. In contrast to the Indian experience, a very high degree of legal and regulatory freedom, along with strong commitment from the top leadership, is what has helped Chinese SEZs become successful.

The Brandix Apparel Park is a good example of where our regulations hurt investment. Its a 1,000-acre park with best-in-class infrastructure, but remains under-used due to regulatory cost overheads that are unique to India. The park has the potential to employ over 60,000 people but it continues to operate at sub-scale, employing just 22,000 people. Thats because it is less competitive than an apparel park in Bangladesh, even for markets like the US, where Bangladesh does not have any FTA advantage over India.

This is because the regulatory cost overheads in India continue to make manufacturing in our parks uncompetitive. For example, the minimum wage bill for any international apparel manufacturer operating in India is $110-120 per worker per month. But our regulatory overheads (high overtime rates, travel and night time work related requirements, shift restrictions, provident fund, etc) mean the real cost to the company is as high as $200 per worker at the entry level.

The labour cost at a comparative park in Bangladesh (which has a similar minimum wage) would be around $160, meaning our regulatory environment adds an additional 15-20% to the labour cost.

A poor regulatory environment coupled with a weak governance machinery has made doing business in India unattractive for most international investors, who prefer to operate out of Vietnam and Bangladesh rather than India.

While reducing this regulatory cholesterol will take time, it is important to take an experimental approach towards governance and regulations in our clusters. To achieve this, we need to leverage all the three arms of the state  the executive, legislature, and judiciary  to break down the barriers that stop the smooth flow of ideas, money and, most importantly, the entrepreneurial spirit. Only then will be able to spark innovation and create an ecosystem.

To give credit where it is due, states such as Gujarat are trying this approach in the financial-services sector with the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City Company Limited (GIFT City). GIFT City has an International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) which is governed by the International Financial Services Centers Authority (IFSCA) Act, 2019. Under this act, the powers of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) and Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) to regulate financial products and services have been vested in the IFSCA.

While it is still too early to assess the effectiveness of GIFT City in boosting employment and exports, we know from other countries' examples that if implemented well, the approach holds immense potential to drive growth. We now need to create a strong regulatory environment that enables growth in manufacturing. The long-awaited DESH Bill seems to have some of the provisions necessary for us to enable just that, but it must also allow states to provide flexibility in key areas.

Rahul Ahluwalia is co-founder of FED, and Ronak Pol is team lead, strategy, FED.
Delhi has for long been the subject of annual health-crisis alerts thanks to its dangerously polluted air. It routinely leads lists of global air-pollution hotspots for its high levels of particulate matter (PM) 10 and 2.5. These particles, spewed into the air from various sources, are tiny enough to sit in our lungs, enter our bloodstream and kill us. Indeed, by some credible accounts, foul air could be the number-one killer in Delhi, causing not only respiratory diseases such as asthma but also heart ailments and strokes.

Now, according to the ministry of environment, forest and climate change, Delhi has at last had clean air for an entire month. All days in July had good to moderate" air quality  unheard of for the capitals 32 million breathless people.

"The number of good to moderate air quality days for [July] was 26 in 2019; around 31 in 2020; 29 in 2021; 31 in 2022; and 31 in 2023. The monthly average AQI for Delhi during this period also remained satisfactory at 83.71. Delhi has recorded its lowest monthly average AQI during July of the current year compared to the corresponding period for the last four years from 2019 and the monthly average AQI of July 2023 is comparable with the monthly average AQI of July 2020," the ministry added.

Should we be rushing to pop the champagne bottle? Perhaps not yet. One swallow does not a summer make, and July isnt the whole year. There are reasons to take a more measured view.

For one, the AQI of a city is only the average of the readings at all its AQI measuring stations. And Delhi remains a sprawling city with uneven development. So, for instance, randomly accessed data on Sameer on 4 August showed the citys AQI was moderate" at 85, but the PM2.5 level, at 27, was 1.8 times the World Health Organizations recommended limit. To be sure, WHOs recommended limits, revised recently, are stringent and rightly so. But it does mean, according to the agency itself, that 99% of the world population lives with dangerous levels of ambient air pollution.

On 4 August, the measuring station at Anand Vihar showed an AQI level of 248 with an average PM2.5 level of 83 and a PM10 level of 248. Eight other stations showed levels of over 100. An average is not an accurate measure.

Also, accuracy is crucial when it comes to matters of health. How significant? An extensive study carried out by the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) and published in The Lancet Planetary Health shows that 1.7 million deaths in India were attributable to air pollution in 2019. Thats 18% of all deaths. In 2017, Delhi had the highest annual population-weighted mean PM2.5 in India at 209, as against a national average of 89.

State-specific policies such as the use of compressed natural gas by vehicles in Delhi, subsidies for alternative technologies to compost agricultural waste instead of burning it in Punjab could be expanded to other states to efficiently control particulate matter emissions," the study said.

Of course, Delhi is not the only Indian city that faces challenges posed by dirty air. But that shouldnt be an excuse not to do more. Years ago, the Delhi government forced transporters to switch to compressed natural gas (CNG) for autorickshaws, buses and taxis. Its time to take a similarly uncompromising position on electric vehicles. For this, charging infrastructure needs to be rolled out quickly. Subsidies for electric vehicles, which remain costly, need to be considered, too, rather than waiting for prices to fall.

Theres one more reason why the good news in July is no reason to be complacent: The real test will come in the winter months, especially December, when air pollution tends to peak. In short, nows not the time to celebrate.
New Delhi: Parliament this week passed two crucial pieces of legislation that will unlock enormous mining prospects for the private sector. One of these legislations will allow the extraction of critical minerals, including lithium, a key component in the manufacture of batteries for electric vehicles. The second will authorize the extraction of minerals from the expansive coastal regions of the country. Mint delves into these two transformative bills that will increase the scale and scope of mineral exploration and production.

What is the Offshore Areas Mineral (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2023?

The OAMDR Act, 2002 came into force in 2010. However, no mining activity has been undertaken in the offshore areas till date. Hence, the Central government brought the amendment Bill to bring several reforms in the offshore mining sector. The proposed amendment in the Act will bring major reform by introducing auction as the method of allocation of operating rights in offshore areas.

The offshore areas will be granted to the public and private sector for a period of 50 years. The rights to mine atomic minerals will, however, go to companies in the public sector.

An Offshore Areas Mineral Trust has also been created to ensure availability of funds for exploration, mitigation of adverse impact of offshore mining, disaster relief, research, interest and benefit of the persons affected by exploration or production operations, etc. This will be funded by an additional levy on the production of minerals, not exceeding one third of the royalty. The exact rate of additional levy will be prescribed by the Central Government.

Also, the proceeds of the mining in offshore areas will go to the Central government.

What is the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill?

The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2023 for making amendments to the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957.

This amendment gives the central government powers to auction mineral reserves, including the critical mineral reserves that are key to Indias self-reliance in making the energy transition to greener cars like electric vehicles, which are powered by batteries that have lithium in them. The auction of many such mines is stuck due to state governments not going ahead with it. With the new amendment, the state government to announce the auctions soon.

The second key benefit of the amendment is the opening of the exploration of mines to the private sector. The exploration of mines has been restricted to the government sector and that is one of the reasons behind Indias ranking low in terms of exploration of minerals.

This amendment will create an environment, where junior mining companies will thrive and explore Indias mineral potential. These mining companies will be funded through a revenue share mechanism once mining starts.

What do these bills mean for the industry?

First, the central government is set to start auctioning about 90 mines of critical minerals, including lithium, which have not been auctioned by the states for the past four years. Out of 107 mining opportunities presented to the states over this period, only 19 have been auctioned, leaving 88 mines for the central government to promptly put up for auction.

Second, this will allow exploration by the private sector and help create a cohort of junior mining companies.

The offshore act will throw open a range of mining opportunities for the private sector. The opportunities include about 1,53,996 million tonnes of lime mud, 745 million tonnes of construction-grade sand and 79 million tons of heavy mineral placers, phosphorite in the eastern and western continental margins and polymetallic ferromanganese nodules and crusts in Andaman Sea and Lakshadweep Sea.
In an advancing world of empowerment talk and increased awareness of personal rights, conversation around one topic has stayed largely hushed, restricted to admissions within close family at most: Sexual harassment at the workplace. Even if little is apparent amid cubicles and cafeterias, the murky truth thrives beneath a shroud of silence. A 2022 report by the International Labour Organization revealed that more than one in five people employedalmost 23%had experienced violence and harassment at work globally, physical, psychological or sexual. Gears are shifting against it, albeit slowly. An analysis by Mint found that Indias top publicly traded companies saw a 70% surge in sexual harassment complaints in 2022-23, up from 451 the previous year. The count of reported cases in this sample of 23 large-cap firms is topped by big employers of office workers in large sectors like infotech and banking. Last fiscal year saw many employees return to work on hybrid models after the pandemic home shift. Online stalkingand worsetaking in-person forms of harassment may possibly explain the higher case-load. On the other hand, given the hush over it, the rise could be explained by enhanced reporting in response to clearer codes laid down and greater confidence in redressal. Either way, whats undeniable is that the problem is all-pervasive and remains a menace at every level. Justice demands that it be stamped out. If doing this helps raise the participation of women in Indias workforce from dismal levels, that would be an economic bonus.

Across Indian work spaces, awareness of rights as well as grievance mechanisms has risen ever since the Supreme Courts so-called Vishaka guidelines of 1997 kicked off change. By codifying what was appropriate and what wasnt, those rules served as a basis for the law that succeeded it: the Sexual Harassment of Women in the Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition, and Redress) Act of 2013, better known as the PoSH Act. Keeping staff well informed of this law is a task that the HR departments of well-run companies take seriously, often by using train-and-test modules. Today, office employees are clearer about the scope of PoSH and the various ways in which individuals may be harassed. It could be a pattern of remarks, behaviours and deeds only someone who is subject to it can decode, and, as #MeToo cases revealed, large power gaps worsen the trauma. Globally, speaking up and exposing predators became a movement that had an impact on India Inc too. It drew into office chatter the Vishaka panels that employers had put in place to examine cases, even as their gender ratio and need for autonomy arose as talking points. Since then, covid has pushed firms to address both the emotional and physical safety of their people. At big-firm levels, violations cannot be out of ignorance. That it still happens at the top is an indicator of how endemic the menace is.

While properly managed companies have a PoSH apparatus in place to assure everyone dignity, in the larger context of our entire working population, they are plainly exceptions. The count of formal and informal organizations in the country that do not have any safety nets in place to speak of are far more numerous. This law was not aimed only at posh businesses, it was meant to protect everyone at every level of employment, no matter how modest or well-paid. A challenge it clearly is, but the cause needs to be taken up by every stakeholder. And yes, gender justice would boost GDP too.
Speaking on the 'Modi Surname' defamation case, Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Friday said that the world and the country know that this has been done to shut Rahul Gandhi in the Parliament, on the orders and directions of the ruling party.

As reported by ANI, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said, The world and the country know that this has been done to shut Rahul Gandhi in the Parliament, on the orders and directions of the ruling party. What was the fault of Rahul Gandhi that he will apologise?... Rahul Gandhi is not someone who will apologise. This is not because of the arrogance but because he has not done injustice..."

Earlier on Wednesday, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi refused to apologise over the Modi surname case, reiterating his innocence before the Supreme Court.

In his affidavit, Gandhi argued that he was being coerced or pressured ("arm-twisted") into issuing an apology. Rahul Gandhi said the apex court, The Congress leader told the apex court that using the criminal process and the consequences under Representation of Peoples Act to compel an apology was a gross abuse of the judicial process."

Meanwhile, the Bombay High Court on Wednesday extended till September 26 the interim relief granted to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi from appearance before a local court here in a defamation complaint pertaining to his alleged remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2018.

The complainant, who claims to be a BJP worker, had alleged that Gandhi's "commander-in-thief" remark in the context of the Rafale fighter jet deal amounted to defamation.

Purnesh Modi had requested the Supreme Court to reject Rahul Gandhi's appeal against his conviction in a criminal defamation case. Purnesh Modi claimed that Gandhi had defamed all individuals with the Modi surname, particularly those belonging to the 'Modh Vanik' caste in Gujarat, PTI reported.

As per the PTI report, on June 21, the Supreme Court had asked Purnesh Modi and the state government to submit their responses to Gandhi's appeal. In his appeal filed on July 15, Rahul Gandhi argued that if the July 7 judgment was not stayed, it would severely curtail freedom of speech, expression, thought, and statement.

Following a conviction by a Gujarat court for criminal defamation due to comments made about the Modi surname, Rahul Gandhi was disqualified as a Member of Parliament on March 24 and sentenced to two years in prison.

PTI reported that despite seeking a stay on his conviction, Rahul Gandhi's petition was dismissed by the high court. The court emphasized the importance of "purity in politics" at the present time. If the stay had been granted, it could have allowed Gandhi to be reinstated as a Lok Sabha Member of Parliament. However, his requests for relief were turned down by both the sessions court and the Gujarat High Court.

(With inputs from agencies)
The Supreme Court of India on Friday stayed the conviction of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in the Modi surname defamation case. The Supreme Court has said that there was no reason given by the trial court judge in Gujarat for imposing maximum sentence, order of conviction needs to be stayed pending final adjudication.

While the order was celebrated by through the Congress leadership and members, also the Opposition INDIA bloc, this does not mean the acquittal of the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi from the Modi Surname defamation charges.

Here's taking a look for the path ahead for Rahul Gandhi

Modi surname remark case against Rahul Gandhi

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 this the case was filed by Purnesh Modi, who is a member of Modis Bharatiya Janata Party in Gujarat state but is not related to the prime minister.

Modi Surname remark case in Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Friday noted that the utterances are not in good taste, person in public life is expected to exercise caution while making public speeches".

A Supreme Court bench comprising Justices BR Gavai, PS Narasimha, and Sanjay Kumar was hearing Rahul Gandhi's plea for stay on his conviction. The bench also observed that Rahul Gandhi ought to have been more careful.

The trial judge has awarded the maximum sentence of two years in the case, the top court observed in its judgement, adding that it would not have attracted disqualification if the sentence was a day lesser.

The Gujarat High Court had earlier refused to stay Rahul Gandhi's conviction in the criminal defamation case.

The Supreme Court bench has only stayed the conviction order passed by a trial court in Gujarat. The apex court has said that the conviction needs to be stayed pending final adjudication.

Rahul Gandhi to contest elections?

Rahul Gandhi will now be able to contest elections. Gandhi while maintaining that he was not guilty, on Wednesday requested the Supreme Court to stay his two-year conviction, enabling him to participate in the ongoing sittings of the Lok Sabha and sessions thereafter.

Therefore, right ahead of the crucial 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress leader who carved a path for himself as the people's leader through his famed Bharat Jodo Yara would now be able to contest further elections.

Rahul Gandhi to become MP again?

Rahul Gandhi had in April told a sessions court in Surat his conviction by a magistrate's court in the 2019 defamation case was erroneous, patently perverse, and he was sentenced in a manner so as to attract disqualification as a Member of Parliament.

A fierce critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his main challenger in 2024 polls, Gandhi was ousted from Parliament after his conviction by a magistrates court in March.

According to the Lok Sabha secretariat, Rahul Gandhi is entitled to return to Parliament from Monday. However, the Lok Sabha secretariat has to issue a notice.

The notice will say that his suspension from the Lok Sabha has been removed following the Supreme court decision. He can't come before the notification is issued", the Lok Sabha secretariat said.

Rahul Gandhi's lawyer, Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, had in Supreme Court argued that the former MP from Wayanad who had been disqualified due to the conviction order by the Gujarat Court has already lost two parliament sessions.

Notably, he also mentioned that this is Rahul Gandhi's LAST CHANCE at an acquittal in order to attend the Parliament and contest elections. The lawyer for Rahul Gandhi also added that the Gujarat High Court had reserved its judgement for 66 days, and due to conviction in the case, Gandhi has already lost two Parliament sessions.

"Interestingly, everybody who is aggrieved in this very 'small' community of 13 crores, the only people suing are BJP office-holders. Very strange," Singhvi had said.

Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has said that he will immediately write a letter to Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla, It's a happy day...I will write and speak to Lok Sabha Speaker today itself".
China opposes any visit by "Taiwan independence" separatists to U.S.: FM spokesperson

Xinhua) 08:08, August 04, 2023

BEIJING, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- China firmly opposes any visit by "Taiwan independence" separatists to the United States in any name or under whatever pretext, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said on Thursday.

The spokesperson made the remarks when asked to comment on the deputy leader of the Taiwan region Lai Ching-te's visit to Paraguay via the United States.

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities announced on Aug. 2 that Lai will leave on Aug. 12 for Paraguay to attend the president's inauguration. He will "transit" in New York and San Francisco in the United States on his way to and from Paraguay.

The spokesperson said China firmly opposes any form of official interaction between the United States and the Taiwan region, firmly opposes any visit by "Taiwan independence" separatists to the United States in any name or under whatever pretext, and firmly opposes any form of U.S. connivance and support for "Taiwan independence" separatists and their separatist activities.

The Taiwan question is at the core of China's core interests and a red line that cannot be crossed, the spokesperson said.

China urges the United States to abide by the one-China principle and the three China-U.S. joint communiques, act on its leaders' commitment of not supporting "Taiwan independence," stop official interactions with Taiwan, stop upgrading its substantive exchanges with the region, stop sending wrong messages to separatist forces seeking "Taiwan independence," and refuse to let Lai "transit" the United States, the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson noted that China will closely follow the developments and take firm and strong measures to safeguard our nation's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

"We would like to tell the DPP authorities seriously that 'Taiwan independence' is a dead end, fawning on the United States and selling Taiwan away will only harm the people of Taiwan, and any attempt to seek 'independence' and make provocation in collusion with external forces is doomed to failure." the spokesperson said.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
News / Local

by Staff reporter

Former Zimbabwean Minister of Information and professor of politics, Jonathan Moyo, who is now a critic of the CCC and its leader Nelson Chamisa, has sent out a congratulations message to party for winning a critical Supreme Court battle to have its parliamentary election candidates for Bulawayo restored in the poll after they were barred from the race by the High Court.Moyo, a former Zanu PF MP and minister, also paid tribute to CCC official Welshman Ncube, a professor of law, who put a tour de force in the court in defence of CCC candidates to secure a significant victory.Moyo writes:"CONGRATULATIONS...Indeed.Congratulations, Makorokoto, Amhlophe to the 17 parliamentary candidates from CCC and five others in Bulawayo whose nomination nullification by the High Court in Bulawayo has been overturned this afternoon by the Supreme Court in Harare.Here they say, hongera.Special congratulations to Professor Welshman Ncube for putting up one helluva legal fight for the ages, an instant locus classicus for the annals of Zimbabwe's electoral history.That is how it is; you lose some, win others, vice versa and life goes on and everything else move on.Meanwhile, the message and the truth that justice denied is justice delayed, remain. On this score, the 2023 election has made history for the wrong reasons.It's a notorious fact that the unprecedented high number of court battles over disputes arising from the outcome of the Nomination Court on 21 June 2023 have not only taken too long to resolve, but with only 20 days to go before polling day, the long delay has also put the integrity of the 2023 harmonised general election itself into serious question, with postal voting now in clear and present jeopardy.All nominated candidates gazetted by ZEC on 30 June 2023 should have been allowed to get on with it from the date of the Government Gazette.Today's Supreme Court decision no doubt makes this point and its ramifications more sharply,and its consequences invite urgent and very troubling questions about the justice or injustice of the decision of the same Supreme Court on the Saviour Kasukuwere's case, only last week.Not only is justice delayed justice denied, but justice must not only be done, it must also be seen to be done.Today's Supreme Court decision for which CCC and other parliamentary candidates in Bulawayo who won it deserve their celebrations and are to be congratulated without any reservations, does nevertheless leave uncomfortable and unsettling thoughts about the justice or injustice of the Kasukuwere case.It is for this troubling situation that the Constitutional Court has its work cut out, not least because section 23(3) of the Electoral Act, upon which the Kasukuwere case was decided is manifestly unconstitutional, particularly but not only in terms of sections 66 and 67 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, regarding the right to freedom of movement and residence, and the right to vote; which are both historic gains of the liberation struggle whose heroes Zimbabweans are commemorating this month, and on which a general election is taking place for the first time since independence in 1980!"
Rahul Gandhi got some relief on Friday when the Supreme Court of India stayed the conviction order by the Gujarat High Court in the Modi Surname Remark Case. While the apex court stayed the conviction order on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, it did not adjudicate the conviction yet.

The lawyer for the complainant Purnesh Modi, senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, on Friday told news agency ANI that though the Court stayed the conviction today, in the eyes of law he (Rahul Gandhi) is still a convict. A three-judge bench of Justices B R Gavai, P S Narasimha and Sanjay Kumar, while granting Gandhi the relief, said no reason was given by the trial court judge while convicting him (Rahul Gandhi) except that he was admonished by the apex court in a contempt case. ...Today the Court stayed the conviction. The Court said that insufficient reasons were given for the 2-year punishment that was earlier pronounced. It said that sufficient reasons should have been given for maximum punishment..." Jethamalani attested to the Supreme Court order.

Flagging the fact that Rahul Gandhi has not yet been acquitted of the allegation by Purnesh Modi in the Modi Surname remark case, Jethmalani said, "Stay' means that the consequences of conviction - like disqualification - will be stayed because, like I said, the reasons were not sufficient. But now, there will be appeal in sessions court. Ruling of the magistrates' court is correct for both sentencing and conviction but due to the 'stay', he can return to the Parliament."

After the Supreme Court's order, the Lok Sabha speaker can now revive Rahul Gandhi's membership on his own or Rahul Gandhi, armed with the apex court order, can seek restoration of his status as an MP.

The apex court on Friday had said that said the least the trial court judge was expected to do was give some reasons for imposing the maximum sentence provided under the defamation act that led to Rahul Gandhi being awarded a term of two years in jail, having attracted the provisions of the electoral law that envisages automatic disqualification of an MLA or MP sentenced to two years in jail.

The apex court said Gandhi's conviction and subsequent disqualification not only affected his right to continue in public life but also that of the electorate who elected him to represent their constituency.

Purnesh Modi had filed the criminal defamation case in 2019 against Gandhi over his "How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname?" comment made at an election rally in Kolar in Karnataka on April 13, 2019.

The Congress leader was disqualified as a Member of Parliament on 24 March after a Gujarat court convicted him and sentenced him to two-year imprisonment for criminal defamation for comments he made about the Modi surname.

The high court had dismissed his petition for a stay on conviction, observing that "purity in politics" is the need of the hour.

A metropolitan magistrate's court in Surat had on March 23 sentenced the former Congress president to two years in jail after convicting him under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 499 and 500 (criminal defamation).

Following the verdict, Rahul Gandhi was disqualified as an MP under the provisions of the Representation of the People Act.
The ongoing dispute over the Manipur issue has led to continuous disruptions in the Parliament's monsoon session for the past 12 days. The deadlock between the Centre and the opposition alliance INDIA is likely to persist for the next few days. Despite the logjam, crucial debates are anticipated in this week also, covering topics such as the Delhi Ordinance Bill, Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, and a possible no-confidence motion. The Parliament might also witness Rahul Gandhi 's active participation in these debates, which will undoubtedly be a significant moment for the legislative body. Here are a list of things that are expected in Parliament this week

Rahul Gandhi back in Parliament

The Supreme Court on Friday suspended Rahul Gandhi's conviction in defamation case linked to Modi surname remarks, enabling him to return to parliament and contest national elections due next year.

INDIA bloc MPs are confident that with Rahul Gandhi returning to Parliament, their voice against the PM Modi government will be much stronger regarding the Manipur issue. Rahul Gandhi is likely to spearhead the Manipur debate in the lower house this week if he is allowed to return to the parliament.

On process to reinstate Rahul Gandhi, Lok Sabha officials said the authenticated copy of the Supreme Court order will be reviewed and necessary action taken.

No confidence motion in Lok Sabha

The Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla is likely to take up the debate on no confidence motion for discussion on August 8,9 and 10.

Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi on behalf of opposition parties of I.N.D.I.A alliance filed the no confidence motion against PM Narendra Modi's government last week. After assessing the support it has, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla acknowledged the motion and accordingly, he allotted the dates.

However, opposition parties wrote to Birla, requesting an advanced schedule for the debate so that they can participate in it and put forward their opinion about how the situation needs to be dealt with.

Debate on Manipur in Rajya Sabha

Taking a middle path, the opposition alliance on Thursday dropped the demand for PM Narendra Modi's statement on Manipur violence and demanded a detailed discussion on issue under section 167.

Accordingly, the Parliament offered to take it up for discussion on August 11. However, refusing to it, the opposition parties demanded a debate on Tuesday.

Delhi Ordinance Bill

Delhi Ordinance Bill will be tabled in the Rajya Sabha this week.

Lok Sabha, on Thursday, approved the Delhi Services bill or Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023, with a voice vote. The bill empowers the Lieutenant-Governor (L-G) of Delhi to control Group A services and handle transfers of senior officers in the city government.

The BJP-led NDA's majority ensured the bill's smooth passage in the Lower House. However, its fate now rests on the Rajya Sabha, where the NDA lacks a majority. The YSRCP and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) also supported the bill in the Lok Sabha.

Digital Personal Data Protection Bill

Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw will tabled in Rajya Sabha this week.

As Vaishnaw introduced the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2023, in Lok Sabha, The opposition raised concerns, claiming the bill violates the right to privacy. They demanded scrutiny by the standing committee, citing the government's previous withdrawal of a data protection bill.

Vaishnaw clarified that it isn't a money bill and assured that all concerns will be addressed during the debate.

The bill aims to regulate digital personal data processing, recognizing individuals' right to protect their data while allowing lawful processing.

MPS More Information

ALLIANCE More Information
The Maharashtra government has decided to make medical tests and treatment at public hospitals free of cost. The decision was taken in the state cabinet meeting which gave its nod to the Right To Health. Free treatment will be available made available in Primary Health Centres, Rural Hospitals, Women's Hospitals, District General Hospitals, Upazila Hospital, Super Specialty Hospitals, and Cancer Hospitals.

"Primary health centres, rural hospitals, women hospitals, district general hospitals and super speciality hospitals will treat patients free of cost in the state," an official said, PTI reported. Cancer hospitals in Nashik and Amravati will also offer the treatment free of cost, the official added.

Free-of-cost facilities will be available at 2,418 hospitals and medical centers run by the state government under the scheme that is likely to be launched on August 15. More than 25.5 million people avail treatment in these facilities, officials said, news agency PTI reported.

However, the decision will not apply to hospitals and medical colleges under the Medical Education department.

Service Commissioner Dhiraj Kumar, Health Services Director Dr. Swapnil Lale, Law and Justice Department, Social Welfare Department Joint Secretary Ashok Atram, Smile Plus Foundation Founder President Yogesh Malkhare, and other officers of the Home Department and Health Department attended the meeting which was chaired by Health Minister Sawant

Amid coronavirus outbreak, the Maharashtra government announced a free health insurance scheme to all its citizens. It was the first state in India to take such an initiative.

-With agency inputs
Solid-state physics very rarely goes viral. But that is what happened when a group of researchers at Korea University, in Seoul, announced on July 22nd that they had discovered a room-temperature superconductor", a material dubbed LK-99. They published a pair of preliminary, non-peer-reviewed papers . If the researchers are right, it would be one of the biggest discoveries in physics in the past few decades. A Nobel prize would be a mere formality. But history provides plenty of reasons for caution. Labs around the world are rushing to test the results. What exactly is so exciting?

A superconductor is to electricity what a completely frictionless surface would be to mechanics. (For a detailed explanation of superconductivity, see this piece.) Unlike the conductors and semiconductors from which electrical devices are presently made, a superconductor would offer no resistance to a current flowing through it. That could mean, among other things, faster microchips, cheaper medical scanners, better electric motors, the ability to transmit electricity over long distances with no losses and more. If it uses electricity or magnetism, superconductivity can improve it.

And unlike frictionless surfaces, superconductors actually exist. The first to be discovered, more than 100 years ago, was mercurythough it only becomes a superconductor when chilled to within a few degrees of absolute zero, or -273C, the coldest temperature possible. Since then scientists have found a handful of materials that are superconductive at slightly higher temperatures. Even these high-temperature" superconductors, though, require cooling to far below freezing. That has limited their usability. The Korean researchers claim to have discovered a material that is a superconductor at room temperatureand, indeed, up to around 127C. Even better, the material is made by combining copper, lead, phosphorus and sulphur, all of which are relatively abundant and cheap. It has all the ingredients, in other words, of a breakthrough.

The only missing element in this happy story, at least at the time of writing, is replication. Some preliminary computer simulations by other researchers, including at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab in America and Shenyang National Laboratory in China, have suggested that there might be something to the claims (though the physics of high-temperature superconductors, unlike that of the ultra-cold sort, is not well understood). Some Chinese researchers have reported that LK-99 may be a superconductor, but only when chilled to far below 0C. Privately, some researchers express considerable scepticism. And the field has a chequered history. Even as the Korean claims were stirring up excitement, a paper published last year claiming a similar breakthrough was being retracted. It is thus too early to declare a revolution. But scientists around the world are racing to test LK-99. Confirmationor debunkingshould not be long in coming.

 2023, The Economist Newspaper Limited. All rights reserved. From The Economist, published under licence. The original content can be found on www.economist.com
Given the companys brewing battle with the Securities and Exchange Commission following the regulators lawsuit earlier this year, and the broader role of Washington in the future of digital assets, quarterly earnings might seem somewhat beside the point for Coinbase. That is especially the case during the current crypto winter, when little is expected from trading activity.

Still, Coinbases stock has found its footing of late, rising more than 150% so far this year, in large part because it has been able to use a surge of interest incomedriven by interest earned on customer cash and stablecoin reservesand a cost-cutting drive to improve profitability measures. The companys second quarter, reported on Thursday, showed a second consecutive positive reading for adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.

But even simply collecting interest is becoming harder. Coinbase has generated a lot of interest revenue from reserves backing the USD Coin stablecoin. That revenue had jumped sharply in recent quarters. But a 28% decrease in average USDC market cap in the second quarter helped drive a 16% quarter-over-quarter drop in interest income, to $201 million. Along with falling transaction revenue, that helped end a two-quarter streak of sequential companywide revenue increases, with net revenue coming in at $663 million, down from $736 million in the first quarter.

The company told analysts on Thursday that it was working with partner Circle Internet Financial to try to increase USDCs market cap again after the stablecoin broke its $1 peg during the banking crisis earlier this year.

Meanwhile, Coinbase continued to slash expenses, with second-quarter core operating costs down nearly 50% versus a year earlier, and down about 13% from the first quarter. It added $156 million to its cash resources. But against the backdrop of the revenue decline, adjusted Ebitda of $194 million was down from $284 million in the first quarter.

Meanwhile on the trading side, though retail transaction revenue continues to tumble, it at least beat analyst expectations, according to estimates compiled by Visible Alphabut perhaps for the wrong reasons. As crypto volatility dropped, there was a relative decline in activity among advanced traders, who pay smaller fees. This left a bigger portion of the volume for so-called simple traders that pay higher fees.

Coinbases take rateor transaction revenue as a percentage of volumefor retail trading has remained a lot higher than many investors might have expected a couple of years ago. At the time, that seemed likely to fall as the crypto market matured. In fact, the opposite is happening: In the second quarter it leapt to about 2.2%, nearly a percentage point higher than it was a year ago, at around 1.3%.

Being a go-to for crypto newbies and occasional users can still be a backbone for Coinbases business. Coinbase did increase the spread it earns on some retail transactions in the first quarter and said it hadnt seen an effect on customer behavior. But the question of the stability of these fees remains relevant. For example, though it might no longer have to compete with the likes of FTX for advanced traders, the likelihood of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds finally being approved means that Coinbase might have to compete with them for more casual ones.

At the same time, Coinbases institutional business could be bolstered by the market-making activity that a spot bitcoin ETF would entail. It can also be the crypto custodian to these funds, earning steady fees. But whether those ETFs will happen is a decision that remains in the hands of courts and regulators.

Perhaps Coinbase can help its own case with smart lawyering and lobbying. You just cant see that in a quarterly report.
Beware of Starlink, says the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA). The mega-constellation of satellites, designed to provide off-grid high-bandwidth internet access, is run by SpaceX, a private American firm. But officials in Washington are surely taking advantage of it, warns the Liberation Army Daily. When Starlink was made available to Ukraine last year, after Russias invasion of the country, the armys newspaper called it an accomplice" of the hegemony-obsessed US". Never mind that it was Ukraine that asked SpaceX for help.

Starlink has been vital to Ukraines war effort. The satellite links have allowed soldiers to communicate, identify targets and upload videos for the world to see. The system is hard to jam. From the perspective of China, this not only puts its friend Russia at a disadvantage, it also raises concerns about Taiwan, the self-governing island that China claims. If Taiwan were given access to Starlink, it would make a Chinese invasion that much more difficult.

But Chinas concerns go beyond that. It fears that America, through Starlink, is gobbling up territory in low-Earth orbit. China, too, wants to be a power in this domain. And it wants the capabilities offered by systems like Starlink. So it is working on a version of its own.

Cutting the cord

When it comes to Taiwan, analysts think China, were it to invade, might start by severing the 14 undersea internet cables that keep the island connected to the world. Taiwan is adding cables and planning how to defend their landing points. But it is also testing antennae in 700 locations, including some outside Taiwan. These would be able to send and receive signals by means of satellites in low orbit, like the ones Starlink uses. The goal is to make the antennae as mobile as possible" to survive an attack, says Tzeng Yisuo of the Institute for National Defence and Security Research, a think-tank in Taiwan.

China has the capability to shoot down satellites. But Starlink is made up of over 4,000 of them and aims eventually to have tens of thousands. China might have more success leaning on SpaceXs founder, Elon Musk, to deny Taiwan access to Starlink. Mr Musks other big firm, Tesla, has a large factory in Shanghai. Last year he suggested giving China some control over Taiwan in order to resolve their dispute. (SpaceX lists Taiwan as a place where Starlink is coming soon", but the firm has not applied to operate there on a commercial basis.)

Unsurprisingly, Taiwan is looking to reduce its dependence on others. Its space agency is developing its own low-orbit communication satellites. The first is expected to be launched in 2025.

Chinas low-orbit ambitions are much larger. In 2020 the government filed papers with the International Telecommunication Union, a UN body, for a 12,992-satellite constellation. A year later the government established China Satellite Networks Group Limited and tasked it with developing satellite internet. At least seven state-owned and private Chinese companies are building satellite factories, with the expectation that they will soon be able to produce several hundred small communications satellites per year.

Officials in Beijing have developed a space-race mentality. Specific orbits and radio frequencies are rare strategic resources" that Starlink wants to monopolise", warned the Liberation Army Daily in 2022. Last year Wu Yansheng, the chairman of Chinas main space contractor, said his country needed to move faster in becoming a space power". In April the prime minister, Li Qiang, toured three startups in order to highlight the importance of their industries. One was Galaxy Space, a maker of satellites, six of which were launched into low orbit last year.

Much of the recent activity stems from the desire of Xi Jinping, Chinas supreme leader, to modernise the PLA. His generals have long studied how America uses communications and information tools to move faster and see more clearly on the battlefield. Mr Xi wants to create a highly informatised" force, one that is able to use information technology to conduct joint operations across the ground, air and seanot to mention space and cyberspace.

The crowded sky

China will have plenty of neighbours in low orbit beyond SpaceX. The British government owns a stake in OneWeb, which is about to finish a constellation involving 650 satellites. Kuiper, a planned constellation bankrolled by Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, is due to launch its first test satellites soon. The EU is planning its own system, as is Russia. For the worlds powers, satellite internet may come to be seen as a strategic capability, much like satellite navigation, necessitating some level of sovereign control.

SpaceX has an important advantage. Satellites in low orbit dont last very long, so the company replaces them on a regular basis. That entails a large number of rocket launches (one is pictured here). SpaceX has the worlds best system for that, the partially reusable Falcon 9 rocket. Now it is working on a much larger, fully reusable spacecraft called Starship which could launch hundreds of satellites at a time. Some Chinese companies appear to be trying to build knock-offs.

All of the activity worries China. The Liberation Army Daily complains that there is only room for 50,000 satellites in low-Earth orbit and that Starlink may eventually take up more than 80% of that space. But the calculation is not that straightforward, says Juliana Suess of the Royal United Services Institute, a think-tank in Britain. Imagine low orbit as a highway, she says. What needs to be calculated is how many moving cars that highway can safely accommodate. Much will depend on the size of satellites and their trajectories.

In 2021 two satellites from Starlink were on a collision course with a Chinese space station, forcing it to move. So says China, at least. America denies the allegation. It is possible that the two powers use different methods to calculate orbits, says Benjamin Silverstein of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a think-tank in America. They might also have different views on what is too close for comfort. What is clear is that a lack of communication exacerbated the problem, as did a lack of norms surrounding traffic in low orbit. America and China used to talk about these things, but there have been no such meetings since 2017. Thats dangerous. As low orbit gets more crowded, the chance of a nasty collision is growing.

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 2023, The Economist Newspaper Limited. All rights reserved. From The Economist, published under licence. The original content can be found on www.economist.com
Dry conditions are expected to become more common across central North America and the U.S. Southwest as the planet heats up from climate change . However, periods of drought have been common throughout American history.

Medieval droughts

Mud cracking next to the Rio Grande River, which supplies much of the southeast with water (Image credit: Daniel A. Leifheit via Getty Images)

In 1994, Scott Stine , a professor emeritus in geography at California State University East Bay, discovered evidence of two medieval droughts that affected what is now California. Stine studied tree rings to determine that the first drought lasted 200 years before A.D. 1112, while the second endured for around 140 years before 1350. A series of megadroughts, from around 800 to 1400 , also devastated the American Southwest, which scientists think was caused by a combination of factors including a rise in the sun's energy that was absorbed by Earth, a warming of the North Atlantic Ocean, as well as harsh and recurring La Nina events. These droughts likely played a part in a number of civilizations collapse.

16th-century megadrought

Tree rings can reveal droughts from centuries ago. (Image credit: kyoshino via Getty Images)

In the 16th century, a decades-long drought spread across North and Central America that may have contributed to the deaths of the first colonists at Jamestown , Virginia. A lack of resources, caused by the megadrought, may have led to the Jamestown inhabitants suffering from malnutrition from 1607 to 1624, when 43% of the colonists died, David Stahle , a professor of geosciences at the University of Arkansas, told Forbes . The megadrought, which researchers identified through the study of tree rings , may also have contributed to the disappearance of Walter Raleighs Roanoke Colony in North Carolina and the abandonment of the Spanish settlement of Santa Elena on Parris Island, according to Ed Cook , director of the Tree-Ring Laboratory at Columbia Universitys Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, New York, who identified to Forbes that these events both coincided with the drought.

The dust bowl

Damage caused during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s (Image credit: Getty/PhotoQuest / Contributor)

Also known as the "dirty thirties," the Dust Bowl from 1930 to 1936 was arguably one of the worst environmental disasters the U.S. faced in the 20th century. According to the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska, swathes of land over south-central America were affected by the Dust Bowl droughts and the states of Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas and New Mexico were badly impacted. Poor soil management practices made matters worse, and the Great Plains quite literally turned to dust and blew away in enormous dust storms dubbed "dusters" or "black blizzards," according to the National Weather Service .

The dry 1950s

An aerial view of drought in Texas, 1953. (Image credit: Bettmann / Contributor via Getty Imaegs)

From 1950 to 1956, high temperatures and low rainfall plagued the Great Plains and the U.S. Southwest. In Texas, rainfall decreased by 40% between 1949 and 1951, according to the Texas Water Resources Institute (TWRI). In some places, crop yields fell by half.

The drought of the 1950s hit the rural communities of farmers in Texas particularly hard, as they could not feed their cattle. Some farmers resorted to burning the spines off of cacti in order to have something to feed their livestock. The dry conditions meant that water had to be rationed throughout the decade, and conservation efforts were put in place across 1,000 towns and cities.

Northeastern drought

Sprinklers work overtime during drought on Long Island watering the potato crops in Calverton, New York on July 8, 1964 (Image credit: Newsday LLC / Contributor via Getty Images)

Between 1962 and 1966, a widespread period of drought hit much of the northeastern U.S. This drought actually occurred in a period when temperatures were lower than average, but rainfall was also lower. With precipitation at abnormal lows, water conservation kicked into gear in New York City, journalist Robert Cantwell reported in August 1965 in Sports Illustrated magazine .

"[B]y this summer it was not surprising that a blimp bearing the ominous sign SAVE WATER was cruising over the otherwise cloudless skies about New York; that the city restaurants did not serve water unless patrons specifically asked for it; that fountains were turned off," Cantwell wrote.

Devastation in 1988

Dead trees from the 1988 wildfire are mostly still standing in a large burn area at Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. (Image credit: Tami Freed / Alamy Stock Photo)

The drought of 1987 to 1989 affected 36% of the United States. Estimates for the cost of dealing with this drought were pegged at about $39 billion, according to the NCDC. The impact was worst in the northern Great Plains, though the West Coast and Northwest were also hit. The drought was accompanied by forest fires . In 1988, 793,880 acres (321,000 hectares) of Yellowstone National Park burned, prompting the first complete closure of the park in its history.

Todays drought

US drought monitor for Aug. 1, 2023 (Image credit: National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the United States Department of Agriculture and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)

The present prolonged drought in the western U.S. is the driest 22-year period since at least [A.D.] 800, according to a report published by Nature Climate Change in February 2022. It is categorized as a megadrought as it has lasted for more than two decades. Every state in the western United States is experiencing some degree of drought, and though conditions have improved in regions such as Kansas and southern Texas, the drought has gotten worse in others like Oklahoma, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor .
The 41st Thailand Tourism Festival (TTF 2023) is taking place from August 2-6, 2023, at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre (QSNCC) in Bangkok. The event is a showcase of the best of Thailands tourism products and experiences, and is expected to attract over 100,000 visitors.

The theme of TTF 2023 is Inno-Cultural for Sustainable Tourism, and the event will feature a variety of activities and attractions that showcase Thailands rich culture, innovative tourism products, and commitment to sustainable tourism.

Activities

In addition to the many exhibits and attractions, there are also a number of free activities available at TTF 2023. These include:

Cultural shows featuring traditional Thai dances, music, and performances.

Food festivals featuring a wide variety of Thai cuisine.

Sustainability forums discussing the future of tourism in Thailand.

A variety of workshops and seminars on tourism-related topics.

Childrens activities such as face painting, games, and storytelling.

Highlights

Some of the highlights of TTF 2023 include:

The Inno-Cultural for Sustainable Tourism exhibition, which showcases Thailands innovative tourism products and its commitment to sustainable tourism.

The Northern Village zone, which features a traditional Northern Thai village and a variety of activities related to Northern Thai culture.

The Southern Village zone, which features a traditional Southern Thai village and a variety of activities related to Southern Thai culture.

The Eco-Tourism Village zone, which showcases Thailands eco-tourism destinations and activities.

The Adventure Tourism Village zone, which showcases Thailands adventure tourism destinations and activities.

Personal Reflection

As a journalist who attended TTF 2023, I was overwhelmed by the variety of activities and attractions on offer. I felt like I could have spent days exploring the festival and still not seen everything.

I particularly enjoyed the cultural shows, which were a great way to learn about Thai culture. Also, I found the food festivals to be very festive and the sustainability forums to be informative.

Overall, I thought TTF 2023 was a great event and I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about Thailands tourism products and experiences.

I felt an immediate immersion in Thai culture as the festival warmly welcomed me. The sheer amount of things to see and do overwhelmed me, but in a good way. There was something for everyone at TTF 2023, and I left feeling inspired to plan my next trip to Thailand.

Conclusion

The Thailand Tourism Festival 2023 is a great opportunity to learn more about Thailands tourism products and experiences, and to plan your next trip to the Land of Smiles. So come to TTF 2023 and see for yourself why Thailand is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world!

For more information, please visit the TTF 2023 website
Dusit International, one of Thailands leading hotel and property development companies, will continue its expansion in Japan this September with the opening of Dusit Thani Kyoto, a new luxury hotel in the citys vibrant Hanganji Monzen-machi district, only 850 metres from major transportation hub Kyoto Station, which offers seamless travel connections throughout Kyoto and to the rest of Japan.

Building and expanding on the foundation set by Dusits first hotel in the country, the lifestyle-oriented ASAI Kyoto Shijo, which opened in June, Dusit Thani Kyoto has been thoughtfully crafted to deliver distinctive and remarkable stay experiences for luxury travellers seeking authenticity, exclusivity, and enrichment in the utmost of comfort and convenience.

Located in a peaceful residential area, the hotel has been specially designed to reflect the rich cultural heritage and stunning architecture of Kyoto. Inside, the seamless design direction continues and includes references to another ancient capital  Ayutthaya, Thailand  with subtle nods to the magnificent chedis for which the city is renowned. This unique meeting of cultures further informs the interior design of the 147 meticulously appointed guest rooms, delivering a harmonious blend of timeless elegance and contemporary charm.

Set around a serene and beautiful courtyard, the hotel offers a wide range of facilities for business and leisure, including elegant event spaces for up to 240 guests, a well-equipped fitness centre, an indoor swimming pool, and a signature Devarana Wellness centre. Here, guests will find a unique fusion of ancient Thai massage therapies and traditional Japanese rituals, personalised wellness treatments, and bespoke well-being journeys specially created to help guests de-stress, detoxify, and enjoy deep restorative sleep.

Dining and imbibing at Dusit Thani Kyoto also promises to be an exceptional experience, with a range of enticing options, including a speciality Teppanyaki restaurant, a luxurious tea shop, a stylish basement bar, Den Kyoto, and extraordinary dining experiences crafted by acclaimed chefs Duangporn Bo Songvisava and Dylan Jones from Thailand.

Renowned for their commitment to authentic Thai cuisine created with seasonal and sustainable ingredients, Bo and Dylan earned global recognition, including a Michelin Star, at their former Bangkok restaurant, Bo.Ian. Their latest gastronomic concept, Ayatana, at Dusit Thani Kyoto, offers a one-of-a-kind, multi-sensory fine dining experience where the authentic flavours of Thai cuisine meet the finest Japanese traditions, creating unforgettable moments to savour. To complement this distinctive culinary journey, the couple has also created Kati, a unique dessert atelier that offers an innovative take on traditional Thai desserts.

To help guests connect with the culture and spirituality of Kyoto, Dusits team is on hand to help arrange memorable excursions to nearby attractions such as Nishi Honganji and Toji temples (both UNESCO World Heritage Sites), as well as other popular destinations and hidden gems throughout the city. Swift and efficient travel from Kyoto Station ensures guests can maximise their time and easily explore everything this remarkable destination has to offer.

With our commitment to impeccable service, exceptional wellness and dining experiences, and unique fusion of Thai and Japanese hospitality, Dusit Thani Kyoto is primed to be a haven for luxury travellers seeking a harmonious blend of cultural appreciation, culinary indulgence, and ultimate relaxation, said Mr Gilles Cretallaz, COO, Dusit International. Our prime location near Kyoto Station ensures our guests can effortlessly navigate and discover the rich cultural heritage, iconic landmarks, and hidden gems that Kyoto offers. Whether its visiting the revered Nishi Honganji Temple or venturing further to explore the serene bamboo groves of Arashiyama or the historic charm of the Gion district, were delighted to provide a luxurious base for a memorable exploration of Kyotos treasures, ensuring guests can make the most of their visit and enjoy a total Kyoto experience.

To celebrate its opening, Dusit Thani Kyoto is offering exclusive room rates for members of Dusits guest recognition programme, Dusit Gold, starting at JPY 56,925 (USD 400) per night, inclusive of JPY 5,000 hotel credit per person per stay. This offer is valid for booking until November 30th, 2023 for stay dates between September 1st to December 28th, 2023. Complimentary enrollment to Dusit Gold is available at dusit.com/signup. For more information and reservations, please visit www.dusit.com/thanikyoto.

About Dusit International

Established in 1948, Dusit International or Dusit Thani Public Company Limited (DUSIT) is a leading hospitality group listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand. Its operations comprise five distinct yet complementary business units: hotels and resorts, hospitality education, food, property development, and hospitality-related services.

The groups portfolio of hotels, resorts and luxury villas includes approximately 300 properties operating under a total of seven brands (Dusit Thani, Dusit Devarana, Dusit Suites, dusitD2, Dusit Princess, ASAI Hotels, and Elite Havens) across 19 countries worldwide. The group also operates culinary schools and hospitality colleges in Thailand, plus catering companies for the education sector in Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam.

Dusit Internationals diversified investments in real estate development, hospitality-related services, and the food sector are part of its long-term strategy for sustainable growth, which focuses on three key areas: balance, expansion, and diversification.

For more information, please visit dusit-international.com.
Opinion / Columnist

IN June 2023, the America-based National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) which organises arguably the most respected, well-known and much sought-after music awards in the world, the Grammy Awards (Grammys), introduced three new categories which included a new award, the "Grammy Award for Best African Music Performance", solely focused on recognising and awarding music from the African continent.This development was in part a response to music from the African continent and elsewhere (outside of US) being lumped together in the so-called "World Music", a category introduced in 1991.Through this, the academy will recognise the Best World Music Album award, awarded for musicians and performers deemed to fall outside the "non-European, indigenous traditions".In 2020, this award became known as the Best Global Music Album and has been won by the likes of Angelique Kidjo, Burna Boy, Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Soweto Gospel Choir, among others.For many musicians, academics, producers and other stakeholders especially those of African descent and the diaspora, this category was somewhat inadequate and not fit for purpose, as they felt it did not fully embrace the sheer diversity of music from the African continent and elsewhere.Given that the African continent is divided into mainly Anglophone, Francophone and Lusophone, it seemed the award did not pay sufficient attention to other countries and markets such as Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda whose primary language is Kiswahili.Other issues have also been raised and in response, the Grammy Award for the Best African Music Performance whose eligibility is in the main a "track and singles category that recognises recordings that utilise unique local expressions from across the African continent.Highlighting regional melodic, harmonic and rhythmic musical traditions, the category includes but is not limited to the Afrobeat, Afro-fusion, Afropop, Afrobeats, alte, amapiano, bongo flava, genge, kizomba, chimurenga, high life, fuji, kwassa kwassa, ndombolo, mapouka, Ghanaian drill, afro-house, South African hip-hop, and Ethio jazz genres.While this is commendable, for a country like Zimbabwe it presents several problems, the biggest one being that music from Zimbabwe is only mentioned from the point of "Chimurenga"  the revolutionary music best known as being the soundtrack to Zimbabwe's war of liberation which was also called Chimurenga.Though this genre remains popular in Zimbabwe, especially among the older generation  who still follow its biggest prophet and proponent, the legendary Thomas Mapfumo, who has been in exile in the US for decades, it does not seem that there have been any younger musicians who have taken up the sound, innovated with it to keep it relevant and popular among the "born-frees".What this means then is that though that genre has been included by the Grammys, it may take a while or perhaps not happen in a long time that a musician from Zimbabwe who sings in that genre, be considered let alone win a Grammy.The reality is that music from Zimbabwe has not been static or in a time warp but has evolved with the times, with the most popular being "sungura", known for its bands curiously called "orchestras", upbeat tempo and melodies which often speak of social issues.Musicians such as Alick Macheso and his Orchestra Mberikwazvo come to mind and many others.In the late 1990s and 2000s, the "Urban Grooves" genre emerged, which included among other things hip-hop, soul, R&B and dancehall and for a while dominated the airwaves.More recently, Zimdancehall, a popular genre among the "ghetto youths" has developed and alongside it Zim hip-hop, though there is contestation on which genre is more popular than the other.It is notable that in defining the parameters of the Grammy Award for the Best African Music Performance, genres such as amapiano, Afro-House, South African hip-hop are mentioned which obviously accommodate South Africa, while Nigeria and other parts of West Africa are represented by Afrobeat, Afro-fusion, Afropop, Afrobeats yet for Zimbabwe it is only Chimurenga which is mentioned.However, the issue is not for the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences to fix, but for all stakeholders in Zimbabwe who are part of the ecosystem from musicians, producers, music promoters, government, civil society and even consumers to advocate for recognition of the other elements of music from Zimbabwe omitted through this categorisation  but also ensure that the music and its industry continues to evolve and grow beyond the borders as amapiano and Afrobeats have done for South Africa and Nigeria, respectively.Investment in the development of the Zimbabwean music industry ecosystem is important not just from a "soft power" perspective, but also because music is a contributor to the country's gross domestic product and allows for young people to be active participants in the economy of the country among other things.Tonderai Chiyindiko, is a South Africa-based actor, arts writer, creative industries researcher and consultant. He holds a BA Hons Theatre Arts (UZ) and MA in Applied Drama (WITS) and founded and runs Artiate Africa, a creative industries research and consultancy company. He writes in his personal capacity.
FBI looks for more possible victims after woman escapes from cinder block cell in Oregon

Authorities say a man who posed as an undercover police officer kidnapped a woman in Seattle, drove her hundreds of miles to his home in Oregon and locked her in a cinder block cell until she bloodied her hands breaking the door to escape
Tennessee Reps. Justin Pearson and Justin Jones have reclaimed their legislative seats after they were expelled for involvement in a gun control protest on the House floor
Man accused of firing shots outside Jewish school in Tennessee charged with multiple crimes

A man suspected of trying to enter a Jewish school with a gun in Memphis, Tennessee, on Monday and firing shots outside the building has been charged with multiple crimes
Map of Burkina Faso

A poor country even by West African standards, landlocked Burkina Faso has suffered from recurring droughts and military coups.

A former French colony, it gained independence as Upper Volta in 1960. It has significant reserves of gold, but the country has faced domestic and external concern over the state of its economy and human rights.

In 2022, with at least 10,000 people killed and more than two million displaced to date in a prolonged jihadist insurgency that Burkina Faso has been facing from neighbouring Mali, the army seized control in two coups in a bid to combat the jihadists.

The coups have led to the country's suspension from the African Union and the regional Ecowas group.

In 2023, it expelled a small French force, cutting military relations with France and said it would develop links with Russia. The government has denied hiring Wagner mercenaries - who are operating in Mali and the Central African Republic - but says it will use "Russian instructors" to train its soldiers.

Read more country profiles - Profiles by BBC Monitoring

BURKINA FASO: FACTS

Capital: Ouagadougou

Area: 274,200 sq km

Population: 21.9 million

Languages: French, Mossi, Bissa, Dyula, Fula

Life expectancy: 61 years (men) 62 years (women)

President: Ibrahim Traore

Preisdent Ibrahim Traore

Capt Ibrahim Traore seized power in a coup on September 2022, ousting his predecessor Lt-Col Damiba, who had himself ousted President Marc Kabore in an earlier coup in January 2022. Traore was officially appointed as president of in October 2022.

The rationale given by Traore for the coup was the purported inability of Damiba to deal with the continuing Islamist insurgency in the north of the country. It was for the same reason that Damiba had ousted Kabore - the government's failure to halt the jihadist groups operating in northern Burkina Faso.

Mr Kabore had served as prime minister and speaker of parliament under veteran President Compaore before going on to win presidential elections in 2015 and 2020.

Story continues

But, like his neighbours, he found his domestic agenda undermined by the jihadist insurgency.

MEDIA

Newspaper vendor in Burkina Faso

TIMELINE

Some key events in Burkina Faso's history:

The 19th Century Grand Mosque of Bobo-Dioulasso: the majority of the country's population are Muslim

3600-2600BC - Agricultural settlements established in region.

800-700BC - Iron smelting and production.

3rd-13th Century AD - Bura culture: an Iron Age civilisation centred on the lower Niger River valley in Niger and Burkina Faso.

c.1000-1896 - Mossi Kingdoms or Mossi Empire: a group of kingdoms in Burkina Faso which dominate the upper Volta river region. The largest Mossi kingdom is that of Ouagadougou.

c.1700 - Mossi kingdoms increase their regional economic and military power, with significant connections to the Fula kingdoms and the Mali Empire.

1896 - France invades and make Burkina Faso a French protectorate. By 1898 France completes its conquest of the area.

1898 - Franco-British Convention creates Burkina Faso's modern borders.

1915-1917 - Volta-Bani War: an anti-colonial rebellion in modern Burkina Faso and Mali. At its peak the rebels muster 15,000-20,000 fighters. After initial setbacks the French army supresses the insurgency.

1919 - France creates French Upper Volta, separating the present territory of Burkina Faso from Upper Senegal and Niger.

1932 - After failed attempts to promote cotton as an export crop, the colony is dissolved and split between the French colonies of Ivory Coast, French Sudan and Niger.

1947 - Following intense anti-colonial agitation after World War Two, France reverses its previous decision and revives the colony of Upper Volta.

1958 - Upper Volta gains self-government and joins the Franco-African Community.

1960 - Upper Volta becomes fully independent with Maurice Yameogo as president.

1966 - Military coup deposes Yameogo, suspends the constitution and brings in military government under Lt Col Sangoule Lamizana.

1976 - New constitution establishes a four-year transition period toward civilian rule. Lamizana remains in power.

1978 - Sangoule Lamizana is re-elected in open elections.

1980 - Col Saye Zerbo overthrows President Lamizana in a bloodless coup and sets up military government.

1982 - Zerbo is overthrown by Jean-Baptiste Ouedraogo and the Council of Popular Salvation (CPS), ushering in a period of unrest and power struggles.

Thomas Sankara, also known as "Africa's Che Guevara", seized power in 1983 and tried to introduce major reforms. He was killed in a coup led by his successor Blaise Compaore

1983 - Infighting between factions in the CPS leads to another coup. Capt Thomas Sankara comes to power and begins a series of reforms including nationalisation of key industries, mass-vaccinations, infrastructure improvements, improving women's rights and anti-desertification projects. His government focuses on anti-imperialism and rejects foreign aid.

1984 - Upper Volta renamed Burkina Faso.

1987 - Sankara is killed in a coup organized by Blaise Compaore, who said one reason for the coup was that Sankara had jeopardised foreign relations with former colonial power France and neighbouring Ivory Coast. He reverses Sankara's previous economic policies.

1990 - Compaore introduces limited democratic reforms.

2014 - President Compaore resigns following massive protests against plans to extend his rule. A transitional government takes charge.

2015 - Coup attempt by a unit of the army fails, and elections take place.

2016 - 30 people killed in terrorist attacks in Ouagadougou: The attack signals the start of an Islamist insurgency in northern and eastern Burkina Faso by jihadist groups.

2022 - Two military coups in one year: a January coup led by Lt Col Damiba seizes power and deposes President Kabore. In September, he is ousted by Capt Ibrahim Traore, who said the second coup was necessary because Damiba was unable to to deal with the Islamist insurgency.

2023 - Burkina Faso expels some 400 French special forces cutting military relations with France. It says it will be developing military links with Russia to combat the jihadists, but denies hiring Wagner mercenaries.
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A Slovakian national who indicated he wishes to return home after he completes a prison term was handed a one month custodial sentence at Longford District Court.

Tomas Kurina (29) of 6 Chapel Lane Apartments Edgeworthstown was before the court on two charges.

The defendant was charged with entering Carrickboy Farms, Ballyglass, Edgeworthstown and stealing a Fujitsu laptop on July 16, 2023 and of stealing property (groceries to the value of 84.92) from Supervalu, Longford on March 27, 2023.

The Slovak national entered a plea of guilty to the charges before the court. Sergeant Mark Mahon said the defendant travelled in a car to the Edgeworthstown farm and entered offices at the premises where he took the laptop valued at 600.

After a Garda investigation officers searched the defendant's home where they recovered the stolen computer. Mr Kurina made a full admission. The court was told he has no previous convictions, however last week he received a one month custodial sentence in Cavan District Court.

Solicitor Brid Mimnagh told the judge her client has been living in Ireland for the last year and a half. Ms Mimnagh said the defendant had a job, but lost it.

Finding himself without income he stole the groceries in March and the laptop in July.

The legal representative said that at the Cavan court hearing Mr Kurina indicated he would like to return home after he has served his sentence.

Judge Bernadette Owens registered a conviction and imposed a sentence of one month for the theft of the computer and took the groceries theft into consideration. The judge directed that it be served concurrent with the sentence already in place. Legal aid was granted.
Local News, Crime

By Long Island Published: August 04 2023

Undercover raid on massage parlor results in arrests and building condemnation.

In response to a surge of complaints from concerned citizens, Suffolk County Police launched a targeted operation on Wednesday, August 2, at the New Day Spa located on Dawn Drive in Centereach. The operation, involving a collaborative effort by multiple law enforcement and regulatory agencies, resulted in the apprehension of two individuals and the condemnation of the spa building due to numerous violations.

Following a thorough investigation, law enforcement officials arrested Liu Bing, a 42-year-old resident of Centereach, on charges of unauthorized practice of a profession, which constitutes a felony offense. Additionally, Wendy Valencia Dorado, 26, hailing from Brooklyn, was taken into custody and charged with prostitution, categorized as a misdemeanor offense.

Both Bing and Dorado were promptly issued desk appearance tickets and are slated to appear at the First District Court in Central Islip on a later date, as scheduled.

The raid itself was meticulously executed by a team of dedicated professionals, including officers from the Suffolk County Police Sixth Precinct Crime Section, a Town of Brookhaven Building Inspector, a Brookhaven Town Fire Marshal, and a Brookhaven Town Investigator. The Town of Brookhaven's meticulous documentation uncovered a multitude of violations, culminating in the decision to declare the building unsafe and unfit for use.

These recent arrests bear striking similarity to a prior incident, wherein two women were apprehended and faced charges of unauthorized practice of a profession at the very same massage parlor several months ago. This alarming pattern underscores the need for ongoing vigilance and the enforcement of stringent regulations to protect the community and maintain the integrity of local businesses.
I could not be more excited about the way New York audiences have responded to Ike, says John Rubinstein. I had never before done a one-person play. I had often thought that I would like to it, but never found the person to portray or the piece to interpret -- until Peter Ellenstein sent me this inspiring play by Richard Hellesen. I think that people need to hear these profound, personal, and uplifting words from an actual U.S. President during these very trying times. I was so gratified by the overwhelming enthusiasm we were shown when we premiered in L.A. last fall, and now we are all extremely proud and happy to extend our Off-Broadway engagement through summer. With such division in the country today, I wanted to go back in our history and look at an individual who led with faith and optimism during a very crucial time, says playwright Richard Hellesen. Despite the Cold War, McCarthyism and the start of the Civil Rights movement, Eisenhower believed in Democracy. On our stage, Eisenhower says some days it feels like democracy is going to have a hell of a time persevering. But this piece of ground, that we all share...if we're going to leave our young people something better, then we just can't be complacent. We have to keep choosing the harder right instead of the easier wrong. Never be content with half-truth when the whole truth can be ours. I knew almost nothing about Eisenhower except that he was in charge of World War II and was President during the Leave it to Beaver years, says director Peter Ellenstein. My image of Ike was a somewhat kindly, stodgy, conservative figurehead. But after reading some of his speeches, I discovered that he really was one of the most fascinating and important people in American history. His life and career were packed with so many world-altering events. Richard Hellesen, has crawled inside Ikes skin to fashion this remarkable play that tells Eisenhowers story and speaks with profound hope to our own times. In John Rubinstein, we are so fortunate to have found an actor who could interpret the complexity of Ikes intellect, judgement, scope, humor and humanity.
Individual school districts or BOCES, a consortium of school districts or BOCES, or any combination of these entities may apply for the Mental Health Recover from COVID School Program (RECOVS) Grant and the Learning Loss RECOVS Grant. A total of $100 million in funding is available to support these RECOVS grants.

"The effects of the pandemic on our students were devastating and irreversible  that's why were making historic investments to address learning loss and expand mental health support in our schools, Governor Hochul said. By pinpointing where students have fallen behind and getting them the mental health resources they need, this funding will help put New York students back on the path towards success.

Governor Kathy Hochul has announced $108 million is available for school districts to support student well-being through expanding mental health supports. The new State matching fund, the $100 million Recover from COVID School Program, will provide funding to create or expand programs to help students address trauma caused by the pandemic, prioritizing school districts with the highest need. Additionally, a portion of the $100 million Recover from COVID School Program is available to address student learning loss exacerbated by the pandemic. Governor Hochul is also expanding school-based mental health clinics across the state through an $8.3 million investment within her historic $1 billion mental health plan. Todays announcement of funding advances one of Governor Hochuls State of the State priorities to expand mental health support for students and school staff.

Ensure financial stability and continuation of student access to evidence-based and evidence-informed school-based mental health interventions, programs services, and supports beyond the second and final year of the RECOVS Mental Health Grant Program

Ensure financial stability and continuation of evidence-based and evidence-informed school-based academic recovery opportunities for students continuing to experience learning loss beyond the second and final year of the RECOVS Learning Loss Grant Program

Funding will be awarded over two years ($50 million annually). Application submissions are due by August 18, 2023, at 5pm. More information and application details can be found here. Funding for RECOVS was included in New York States enacted budget for State Fiscal Year 2022-2023.

Additionally, $8.3 million is available for grants to create school-based mental health clinics. The New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH) today issued a Request for Applications to provide up to $25,000 in start-up costs for OMH-licensed providers to create new school-based mental health clinic satellites and to support recently established school-based mental health clinic satellites. An additional $20,000 ($45,000 total) will be available for clinics being established in high-needs districts where more than 50 percent of the students are economically disadvantaged. Application submissions are due by October 5, 2023 at 1pm. More information and application details can be found here.

Earlier this year, Governor Hochul directed OMH and the Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) to conduct a state-wide Youth Mental Health Listening Tour to receive direct input from middle and high school students on how their schools can better promote student wellness.

OMH and OCFS compiled information they gathered during the Listening Tour and presented a report to the Governor on their findings. School-based mental health clinics were frequently mentioned during the listening sessions by students, parents, caregivers and mental health advocates as a way to help young people struggling with mental health issues. The Governor released the report during the first-ever New York State Summit on Youth Mental Health which was attended by more than 1,000 mental health professionals, advocates and other stakeholders.

The Fiscal Year 2024 Budget provides a historic $34.5 billion to New Yorks schools, the highest level of State aid in history, to help give every student the tools to succeed through a high-quality education. The 2024 Budget also provides $30 million to expand mental health services for school-aged children throughout the state, including $20 million for school-based mental health services and $10 million to implement wraparound services training. The Budget also closes gaps in insurance coverage that have posed a barrier to New Yorkers needing mental health care and substance use disorder services. Among several critical changes outlined in the Budget, commercial insurance plans will be required to cover services provided in school-based mental health clinics.

New York State Office of Mental Health Commissioner Dr. Ann Sullivan said, OMH has developed more than 1,000 mental health clinics in schools across the state to date, and this investment continues our commitment to New York States young people. Providing services directly in schools increases access, promotes coordinated care, and helps reduce stigma, all of which lead to better health outcomes for young people. Governor Hochul has initiated a bold plan that will support and improve the mental health and wellness of all New Yorkers, especially for the children, youth and families who are facing greater challenges than ever before.

New York State Department of Education Commissioner Betty A. Rosa said, In partnership with Governor Hochul, these grants will supplement the efforts already underway in our schools to address the pandemic-related trauma and meet the needs of students still struggling with academic, attendance, and mental health issues. Traumatic experiences can affect all aspects of learning. Every child deserves access to a quality education and these funds will enable our educators to deliver critical support to the students most impacted by the pandemic.

New York State Board of Regents Chancellor Lester W. Young, Jr. said, We have come a long way since the pandemic's start; however, the long-term effects of COVID continue, especially among our most vulnerable students. This funding will allow schools and districts to address student well-being and strengthen school connectedness strategies to combat the adversities caused by the pandemic. Working with the Governor and our state government partners, we can provide resources for the children, families, and school communities that need them most.

State Senator Shelley Mayer said, I am so pleased that with the support of Governor Hochul, my Senate colleagues and I were able to designate $100 million in funding for schools to address student learning loss and mental health issues in last years state budget through the RECOVS program. With this funding announcement, we are now beginning to address these challenges head on and provide schools with the resources they desperately need. There is clear empirical evidence that the COVID pandemic imposed substantial learning loss and emotional challenges to New Yorks students, as a result of interruptions in learning and social/emotional development. Now, with the opportunity to access these funds, we can turn the corner and address these serious challenges in the coming year. I applaud Governor Kathy Hochul, the New York State Education Department, and my legislative colleagues for making this funding available, so that New York students can recover from the pandemic with the resources they need and deserve.

Assemblymember Michael R. Benedetto said, All studies have shown the students of New York State have suffered major learning loss and emotional trauma due to the COVID pandemic. My compliments to Governor Hochul for recognizing these issues and committing the necessary funds to create or expand programs to offset the learning and mental health disruptions that occurred in our schools.
Crime

By Chris Boyle Published: August 04 2023

Six Individuals Linked to Burglaries in 11 Counties Sentenced for Stealing More Than $3 Million Dollars in Cars, Merchandise, and Cash.

Several of the defendants posted photographs on various social media outlets posing with some of the stolen vehicles, and displaying large quantities of cash.

New York Attorney General Letitia James announced the convictions of six members of a crew responsible for over 200 burglaries of car dealerships, cellular phone stores, and ATM businesses located in the Lower Hudson Valley, New York City, and on Long Island. The crew of Willie Baines, Josepher Cartagena, Brandon Collazo-Rivera, Justin Herrera, Douglas Noble, and Alexander Santiago, all of Bronx County, allegedly stole cars, cellular phones, merchandise, and cash valued at more than $3 million, including at least 54 vehicles. The convictions were the result of a 13-month joint investigation by the Office of the Attorney Generals (OAG) Organized Crime Task Force (OCTF), the New York City Police Departments (NYPD) Auto Crime Unit, and 29 local and county police departments.

The six individuals convicted and sentenced went on a crime spree that impacted businesses and residents throughout downstate New York, said Attorney General James. These burglars left a trail of broken glass, smashed businesses, and dangerous high-speed chases in their wake. I thank my partners in local law enforcement for their coordination and support as we took down this dangerous crew. Our communities are safer now that these six individuals have been brought to justice.

This is one of those cases that highlights the extraordinary cooperation across multiple police departments and agencies in the New York Metropolitan area, said NYPD Police Commissioner Edward A. Caban. The NYPD Auto Crime Unit is proud to have worked with the New York State Attorney General and all the other departments involved in bringing this brazen burglary crew to justice.

During the 13-month investigation, the theft crew was connected to over 200 commercial burglaries in 11 downstate counties, including Nassau County, Suffolk County, Queens County, Kings County, Richmond County, Bronx County, Rockland County, Westchester County, Orange County, Putnam County, and Dutchess County, in addition to burglaries in Connecticut and New Jersey. The six individuals, Willie Baines, Josepher Cartagena, Brandon Collazo-Rivera, Justin Herrera, Douglas Noble, and Alexander Santiago stole cars, cellular phones, merchandise, and cash valued at more than $3 million, including at least 54 vehicles. The investigation revealed that members of the theft crew would travel to neighborhoods that contained several car dealerships and cell phone stores, often burglarizing several stores in one night. In the automobile dealership burglaries, members of the crew would smash the large windows at the front of the building, locate boxes in the dealership that contained key fobs, and then drive vehicles they were able to start right through the broken windows. In the cell phone and ATM store burglaries, members of the crew would smash the glass front doors, enter the stores showrooms and offices, and steal as much merchandise and cash as they could carry out.

The theft crew would often wait for the police to respond to a burglary alarm, and then engage in high-speed chases from the crime scene which posed additional risks for law enforcement and the surrounding community. This behavior led law enforcement to dub the investigation Operation Redline in reference to the redline on speedometers and the extreme speeds the burglars would achieve as they fled crime scenes. Investigators from OCTF and NYPD were able to identify the six individuals charged in the case through the review of video surveillance recordings, data from cellular telephones, license plate reader data, and information provided by numerous county and local police departments. A search of the residences of two of the individuals led to the recovery of thousands of dollars in stolen cell phones and key fobs from car dealerships. Additionally, several of the defendants posted photographs on various social media outlets posing with some of the stolen vehicles, and displaying large quantities of cash. Many of the social media posts occurred just minutes after the crimes, allowing investigators to connect the stolen property seen in the posts to specific burglaries and defendants.

The six defendants were charged with various counts of Grand Larceny in the Second Degree (Class C felony), Grand Larceny in the Third Degree (Class D felony), and Burglary in the Third Degree (Class D felony). All of the defendants have pled guilty to felony charges and all of the individuals received prison sentences. The defendants and their convictions are listed below:

Josepher Cartagena, 27, pled guilty to Grand Larceny in the Second Degree.

Brandon Collazo-Rivera, 26, pled guilty to Grand Larceny in the Second Degree.

Douglas Noble, 29, pled guilty to Grand Larceny in the Second Degree.

Alexander Santiago, 28, pled guilty to Grand Larceny in the Second Degree.

Justin Herrera, 23, pled guilty to Burglary in the Third Degree.

Willie Baines, 47, pled guilty to Attempted Burglary in the Third Degree.

The charges in the indictments were the result of a joint investigation by OAGs OCTF and NYPDs Auto Crime Unit. In addition, Attorney General James would like to thank Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly and U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut Vanessa Roberts Avery for their valuable participation in this investigation.

The investigation involved the cooperation of numerous local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies, and Attorney General James acknowledges the work of the Federal Bureau of Investigations Safe Streets Task Force, New Haven, Connecticut and Westchester County, New York Field Offices, and the Eastern District of New York and District of Connecticut U.S. Marshal Service. Attorney General James also thanks her partners in local law enforcement for their close coordination, including the Nassau County Police Department, Suffolk County Police Department, Westchester County Police Department, Amityville Police Department, Floral Park Police Department, Blauvelt Police Department, Village of Hempstead Police Department, Yonkers Police Department, Mount Pleasant Police Department, New Rochelle Police Department, White Plains Police Department, Greenburgh Police Department, Tarrytown Police Department, Mamaroneck Police Department, Orangetown Police Department, Clarkstown Police Department, Ramapo Police Department, Spring Valley Police Department, Ramsey Police Department, Newburgh Police Department, Washingtonville Police Department, Chester Police Department, New Windsor Police Department, and Poughkeepsie Police Department. Additionally, Attorney General James thanks police departments from New Jersey for their coordination in this investigation, including the Hackensack Police Department, Passaic Police Department, Denville Police Department, and Eatontown Police Department.

The investigation was jointly led by NYPD Auto Crime Units Detective Brian DeMasi and OCTF Detectives Luis Flores and David Walsh. Detective DeMasi is under the supervision of Sergeant John Hansen, and the overall supervision of Inspector Robert LaPollo. Detectives Flores and Walsh are under the supervision of Supervising Detective Bradford Miller and the overall supervision of Deputy Chief Andrew Boss. The OAG Investigations Division is led by Chief Investigator Oliver Pu-Folks.
Islamic State fighters in the Sahel recently pledging allegiance to Abu Bakr al Baghdadi.

The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for yesterdays complex assault on a Nigerien military base near the border with Mali. At least 18 soldiers were killed, while several more are still missing.

In a statement released by the Islamic State, the jihadist group said that the attack on a Nigerien base near the town of Inates began with two suicide car bombs before an assault team entered the fray. The suicide strike is a common tactic of jihadists, especially in the Sahel.

The jihadist group said that dozens [of Nigerien soldiers] were killed and wounded, while claiming that hundreds of Nigerien troops fled the base. The Nigerien military confirmed yesterday that 18 soldiers were indeed killed in the operation.

The Islamic State continues to claim that its forces briefly captured the base before withdrawing with 10 44 vehicles and large quantities of weapons and ammunition. However, independent reporting has painted a different picture.

According to RFI, French jets quickly arrived on the scene and assisted Nigerien forces in repelling the jihadists. Additionally, American aircraft were reported to have also taken part in the counter-offensive.

It was first reported that American aircraft engaged the militants, but an official from US Africa Command later said that only ISR (intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaisance) support via an unarmed drone was provided, as well as later assisting with medical evacuations.

Yesterdays assault marks the largest attack conducted by the group commonly known as the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) in two months. In May, at least 28 Nigerien troops were killed by the jihadists in an ambush near Tongo Tongo. However, yesterdays strike was the first to utilize two suicide car bombs.

The jihadist outfit has claimed numerous operations across the Sahel since its inception in 2015, including raids in Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, and against local Tuareg groups, and French and American troops.

Men under ISGS, which is now folded under the Islamic States West African Province, recently re-pledged their allegiance to Abu Bakr al Baghdadi and the Islamic State.

Security in the Sahel has rapidly deteriorated in recent years, as violence stemming from both al Qaeda and the Islamic State has rocked Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger. State responses, as well as actions taken by non-state actors against various ethnic communities, have also added to the perilous security situation across the region.

Caleb Weiss is an editor of FDD's Long War Journal and a senior analyst at the Bridgeway Foundation, where he focuses on the spread of the Islamic State in Central Africa.

Are you a dedicated reader of FDD's Long War Journal? Has our research benefitted you or your team over the years? Support our independent reporting and analysis today by considering a one-time or monthly donation. Thanks for reading! You can make a tax-deductible donation here.
By Stefanno Sulaiman

JAKARTA (Reuters) - TikTok told Reuters it is in early-stage talks with regulators to obtain a payments licence in Indonesia, a move that would further its e-commerce ambitions in a major market at a time when it is under intensifying scrutiny in the U.S. and elsewhere.

The news follows an announcement by TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew in June that the short video platform would invest billions of dollars in Indonesia and the rest of Southeast Asia.

Two sources briefed on the plan said TikTok, which is owned by Chinese tech giant ByteDance, was in discussions with Indonesia's central bank and that the application was being viewed favourably.

A spokesperson for TikTok confirmed on Friday that the talks were taking place, adding that an Indonesian payments licence would help local creators and sellers on its platform.

The sources declined to be identified as the negotiations were confidential. A representative for the central bank, Bank Indonesia, did not respond to a request for comment.

A payments licence would enable TikTok to benefit from transaction fees and put it more directly in competition with Southeast Asian e-commerce giants, Sea's Shopee and Alibaba's Lazada.

TikTok has 125 million Indonesian users per month - on par with its user figures for Europe and not too far behind the U.S., where it has 150 million.

Douyin, the Chinese counterpart to TikTok that is also owned by ByteDance, obtained a Chinese payments licence in 2020. It was not immediately clear if TikTok has obtained a payments license elsewhere in the world. ByteDance and TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment on licences.

Indonesia, with a population of more than 270 million, accounted for nearly $52 billion worth of e-commerce transactions last year, according to data from consultancy Momentum Works. Of that, 5% took place on TikTok, principally through live-streaming, it said.

TikTok plans to launch an e-commerce platform to sell China-made goods in the United States this month. It has told Reuters it does not plan to launch the service in Indonesia, where senior officials have expressed concern that the country could be flooded with Chinese-made imports.

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TikTok has faced growing concern in the U.S. about possible Chinese government influence over it. The White House and many U.S. state governments have banned its use on government devices and the state of Montana plans to ban it altogether from next year.

The company has stated it has not shared, and would not share U.S. user data with the Chinese government, and has taken substantial measures to protect the privacy and security of TikTok users.

Australia and Canada have also banned the use of TikTok on government devices.

(Reporting by Stefanno Sulaiman; Additional reporting by Josh Ye in Hong Kong; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)
Bill and Caleb are joined by expert James Barnett to make sense of the coup in Niger. They discuss the latest developments and implications.

James is a Lagos-based research fellow at the Hudson Institute.

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Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of The Long War Journal. Caleb Weiss is a research analyst at FDD's Long War Journal and a senior analyst at the Bridgeway Foundation, where he focuses on the spread of the Islamic State in Central Africa.

Are you a dedicated reader of FDD's Long War Journal? Has our research benefitted you or your team over the years? Support our independent reporting and analysis today by considering a one-time or monthly donation. Thanks for reading! You can make a tax-deductible donation here.
The Islamic State confirmed that its previous leader and self-styled caliph, Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Quraishi, was killed earlier this year. In doing so, it also disputes claims he was killed by Turkish intelligence.

After announcing Husseins death, the Islamic State also declared that Abu Hafs al-Hashimi al-Quraishi is its new leader. Much like the Islamic States previous two leaders, Abu Hafs true identity is shrouded in mystery. The Islamic State has suffered significant attrition of its top leadership; for instance, Abu al-Hussein is the fourth leader killed since October of 2019.

The Al Furqan Media Foundation, the official propaganda arm of the Islamic State, announced Abu al-Husseins death on Aug. 3, 2021, but denied he was killed by Turkeys National Intelligence Organization (MIT), which claimed responsibility for his death earlier this year.

Instead, the Islamic State claimed that Hayat Tahir al Sham (HTS), the current iteration of the former al-Qaeda branch in Syria and a rival of the Islamic State, killed Abu al-Hussein and turned his body over to MIT agents. Additionally, the Islamic State said that its previous spokesman, Abu Umar al-Muhajir, was captured and likely aided in the identification of Abu al-Hussein.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on April 28 that Abu al-Hussein blew himself up as the MIT raided his safehouse in the town of Jinderes in the northeastern Syrian province of Aleppo. However, Abu al-Husseins status was unclear and U.S. officials would not confirm Erdogans report.

It appears in actuality, however, it was the work of HTS, which only took over Jinderes from Turkish-backed rebel factions in March. Irony should not be lost in the fact that HTS is itself an offshoot of both al-Qaeda and even the Islamic State. In recent years, HTS has taken a more hardline approach against other jihadis in Idlib as it seeks to consolidate its power in a Taliban-like apparatus.

The Islamic State then announced Abu Hafs al-Hashimi al-Quraishi as the Emir of the Believers and Caliph of the Muslims. The Islamic States new spokesman, Abu Hudhayfah al-Ansari, issued the statement. Though Abu al-Hussein was killed in the April operation, it is unclear when Abu Hafs was actually appointed as the new leader.

Jihadist organizations, particularly the Islamic State, go through a period of mourning and then consultation in choosing the next leader before publicly announcing a successor in leadership.

The Islamic State has been intentionally vague about the identity of its last three emirs. Little is known about Abu Hafs, just as little was known about his last two predecessors, Abu al-Hussein and Abu al-Hassan.

Islamic State adapts to leadership attrition

The Islamic State has suffered significant attrition of its top leadership cadre since the groups founder and first emir, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was killed in a U.S. raid in October 2019. Abu Ibrahim, Baghdadis successor, served as emir for two and a half years before he was killed. Abu al-Hassan served just eight months, and Abu al-Hussein just six months.

Now add Abu Hafs al-Hashimi al-Quraishi (Spring/Summer 2023  present) //t.co/qlocDWBWUY  Caleb Weiss (@caleb_weiss7) August 3, 2023

The Islamic State continues to face leadership challenges due to ongoing counter-terrorism pressure, the United Nations Security Councils Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team noted in its latest report on the Islamic State and Al Qaeda, which is dated July 25.

This leadership attrition has caused the Islamic State to adopt a flat command and control structure; the role of the overall leader has become less relevant to the groups functioning, according to the Monitoring Team.

The Islamic State appears to have given more power and authority to the head of its General Directorate of Provinces (GDP).

The last leader of the General Directorate of Provinces, Ali Jasim Salman al-Juburi, who is also known as Abu Sara al-Iraqi, influenced [Islamic State] strategy, played a key role in personnel assignment, including the previous two [Islamic State] leaders, and directed external operations and finances.

Juburi, who was killed in an airstrike in February 2023, was described as the Islamic States shadow leader. It is the GDP that actually oversees and manages most of the Islamic States external affairs, including the coordination of various affiliates around the world through a system of so-called regional offices.

While member UN states described Juburis death as a significant blow to the Islamic State, his loss appears to have disrupted the group only for the short term. One state identified his possible successor as Ammar Mohamed Ibrahim al-Juburi.

According to the Monitoring Team, the Islamic State is relocating some of its leaders from Idlib to the Syrian province of Daraa and to the remote desert area known as the Badiya along the Syrian-Iraqi border area with Anbar governorate, where the group is increasing activities and exploiting the porous border. The Islamic States previous emir, Abu al-Hassan, was himself killed in Daraa, however.

So though another Islamic State leader and self-professed caliph has come and gone, this leadership attrition is unlikely to have any real impact on the groups worldwide activities as it learned to rely more on the GDP to run most of its affairs.

And the foot-soldiers on the ground around the world will still pledge bayah [allegiance] to yet another anonymous figurehead.

Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of The Long War Journal. Caleb Weiss is a research analyst at FDD's Long War Journal and a senior analyst at the Bridgeway Foundation, where he focuses on the spread of the Islamic State in Central Africa.

Are you a dedicated reader of FDD's Long War Journal? Has our research benefitted you or your team over the years? Support our independent reporting and analysis today by considering a one-time or monthly donation. Thanks for reading! You can make a tax-deductible donation here.
Deutsche Borse will acquire FundsDLT, a Luxembourg-based blockchain platform for the investment fund industry, the German stock exchange operator said on Friday.

Deutsche Borse will acquire all of the remaining shares in FundsDLT - a platform which uses so-called Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) to be used in the funds industry - through its Luxembourg subsidiary after previously holding a minority stake in the fintech firm.

The German stock exchange operator had acquired a minority shareholding through its Luxembourg subisidiary Clearstream, which employs more than 1,200 people at its headquarters in Kirchberg.

Clearstream was one of four initial funders of the project to develop a blockchain platform in March 2020, along with the Luxembourg Stock Exchange, Credit Suisse Asset Management and Natixis Investment Managers.

The DLT technology, best known for being behind cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, can also be used to store information on a single database, with users being able to see who has made a particular transaction and when, making processes such as fund distribution more transparent.

The acquisition, which is subject to approval by national regulators, is expected to be completed by the end of this year or early next year, Deutsche Borse said in a press release.

It comes just four months after Clearstream announced the creation of a Luxembourg-based bank for fund investors.
Surface temperature hit 28.7C last week, the highest median reading in four decades and a record which may soon be surpassed

This underwater photograph shows light penetrating the water surface in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Batroun in Lebanon on Tuesday  Photo credit: AFP

Add unprecedented sea temperatures in the Mediterranean to the grim list of heat-related records being smashed this summer.

The Mediterraneans surface temperature hit 28.7C (83.7F) last week, the highest median recording for any day since at least 1982, according to Spains Institute of Marine Sciences. Its a record that may soon be surpassed, with the sea typically at its hottest in late August.

The situation is crazy, said Melanie Juza, a researcher at the Balearic Islands Coastal Observing and Forecasting System, or SOCIB, a public consortium backed by Spains government. The Mediterranean Sea is responding very rapidly to climate change.

Spikes in the Mediterraneans surface temperatures may seem less dramatic than whats happening on nearby land - a scorching 48C was recently reported for Sardinia and local records have been broken this summer in Rome and Catalonia. But for marine life, these sorts of readings are extreme - and could be deadly.

Take Posidonia oceanica, a type of seagrass that grows in vast underwater meadows. Endemic to the Mediterranean, its both an enormous carbon sink and a vital nursery for fish.

But if the water gets too warm, its growth can be stunted or, even worse, it can die off. Recent temperatures in the Mediterranean have been high enough to potentially cause damage, according to Mauro Randone, a marine-focused scientist working at the World Wide Fund for Natures Mediterranean Marine Initiative.

Impact on marine life

Its a similar story for red gorgonians, a type of coral. Typically found at depths of below 25 meters (82 feet), its usually safe from swings in sea surface temperature. But marine heatwaves have killed them in the past, and the temperatures seen in recent weeks may also have had an impact, according to Randone.

A dead jellyfish and algae washed up on the shore of Pinedo beach in Valencia, on July 30, as the Mediterranean Sea hits record temperatures  Photo credit: AFP

Simon van Gennip, a research scientist at non-profit Mercator Ocean International, referred to recent sea surface temperatures as frightening and described the Mediterranean as sort of a lab for climate change - its one of the fastest warming parts of the ocean in the world.

Energy from the summer sun, along with the jet stream, have contributed to the Mediterranean Seas recent warm temperatures, according to Joel Hirschi, associate head of marine systems modelling at the UK-based National Oceanography Centre.

The jet stream is like a river of air flowing around the planet, from west to east, he said. The Mediterranean Sea was to the south of the jet stream and that opened the gate for very warm air pushing northward into the Mediterranean and southern Europe from North Africa.

Whats happening in the Mediterranean may be alarming scientists, but its not the only marine environment suffering from extreme heat. Approximately 44% of the global ocean recently experienced marine heat waves, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Extreme water temperatures are responsible for coral bleaching and harmful algal blooms, among other impacts.

Climate change 'hotspot'

One of the most notorious marine heat waves, known as The Blob, hit waters off North Americas west coast in the mid-2010s, decimating populations of Pacific cod, seabirds and salmon.

The most accurate image for marine heat is to imagine a forest fire, said Joaquim Garrabou, a senior scientist at the Spanish Institute of Marine Sciences. The trees and the plants, they cannot move. So they stand there and they suffer.

The Mediterranean Sea is a climate change hotspot, with temperatures rising about 1C between 1993 and 2021, according to Mercator. Its also a hub for biodiversity, hosting up to 18% of known marine species - many of which can only be found there - despite representing just 0.3% of the global ocean by volume.

Warmer water also helps open the door for invasive marine life. In the Mediterranean Sea, species that would have previously found it too cold, such as rabbit fish, can now be found in significant numbers, Randone said.

(Additional reporting by Laura Millan)

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
Manchester, VT (05254)

Today

Cloudy skies early will become partly cloudy later in the day. High 81F. Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Mainly clear skies. Low 58F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph.
Last month, around 80 Google Help subcontractors employed by Accenture  who recently voted to unionize with the Alphabet Workers Union-Communications Workers of America (AWU-CWA)  found out that they will be laid off. Now, the union has filed a complaint against Alphabet and Accenture with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) alleging retaliatory layoffs in violation of labor laws, the AWU-CWA wrote in a press release.

"When my coworkers and I announced our union with overwhelming support, Google and Accenture management refused to acknowledge us," said general writer at Accenture and Google, Anjail Muhammad, in a statement. "A few short weeks later they announced their response  that they would be laying off dozens of employees. These jobs arent going away though, were just being asked to train our replacements abroad."

Alphabet effectively washed its hands of the issue when the layoffs were first announced, saying that "Google does not control [the contractor's] employment terms or working conditions" and that the situation was "a matter between them and their employer, Accenture." It reiterated that position to Fortune, adding that the layoffs were for savings and efficiency and no other reason, and that it "chooses its partners and staffing agencies carefully and reviews their compliance with its Supplier Code of Conduct."

In their original union application, workers listed Google and Accenture as joint employers "due to the direct role both companies play in shaping working conditions," they said in the original unionization announcement. "We had exercised our right to organize as members of the Alphabet Workers Union-CWA in order to bring both Google and Accenture, a Google subcontractor, to the bargaining table to negotiate on several key demands, including layoff protections," said senior writer and union member Julia Nagatsu Granstrom back in July.

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The team, which largely works in content creation, will be reduced from 130 people to around 40. They were reportedly instructed to train replacements working from India and the Philippines. Since 2018, the majority of Google employees have been contractors.

As weve shared, Accenture is responsible for these workers' employment terms, including staffing," Google spokesperson Courtenay Mencini told Engadget. "We, of course, respect their right to join a union or not, but its a matter between the workers and their employer, Accenture.

In April, YouTube Music contractors voted unanimously to unionize, after winning a landmark legal victory with the NLRB forcing Google to the bargaining table to ratify their union contract. However, Alphabet indicated that it would still not negotiate with workers, saying it doesn't consider them as employees  meaning the issue is likely to wind up in a federal court.

Update 8/4 10:09AM ET: This post was updated with a statement from Google.
Fastfood chain operator Jollibee Foods Corp. said Friday it is bringing Singapores food and beverage brands Tiong Bahru Bakery and Common Man Coffee Roasters to the Philippines via a P250-million joint venture partnership.

JFC and Food Collective Pte. Ltd. formed a 60:40 joint venture company that will own and operate the two F&B brands in the country.

We are excited to enter this joint venture with FCPL to own and operate the Tiong Bahru Bakery and Common Man Coffee Roasters in the Philippines. These brands will be a strong addition to JFCs foreign franchised brands and will allow JFC to capture an even greater opportunity and strengthen JFCs position for further growth in the Philippine market, Jollibee chief executive Ernesto Tanmantiong said in statement to the stock exchange Friday.

Tiong Bahru Bakery is famous for its baked goods and coffee, while Common Man Coffee Roasters operates all-day dining cafe across Singapore and Malaysia.

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As part of Acer Philippines 20th anniversary and the celebration of Acer Day 2023, Popstar Royalty Sarah Geronimo and the phenomenal P-pop boy group SB19 are collaborating on a song titled Ace Your World.

Popstar Royalty Sarah Geronimo

The song, which will be available on online streaming platforms starting August 4, was written and composed by Radkidz, the duo of John Paulo Nase (Pablo) and his brother, Joshua Daniel Nase.

Phenomenal P-pop group SB19

This song is very different from other songs we have released. Ace Your World is more edgy and hype. We gave Pablo creative freedom to write this song, and it turned out exceptionally well. The song conveys Acers message to #AceYourWorld perfectly, said Princess Laosantos, Senior Marketing Manager at Acer Philippines.

Written in English and Filipino, it urges listeners to take control of their lives and Ace Your World no matter what they do. Through the song, Sarah G and SB19 encourage everyone to stay strong regardless of their challenges because their lives are their own destinies.

Listen to the powerful voices of Sarah G. and SB19 as they sing Ace Your World on Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Music, and Deezer. A music video will be released soon.

Follow Acer Philippines on its social media platforms: @AcerPH on Facebook, @acerph on Instagram, and @acerphils on Twitter, or go to www.acer.com for more details.

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Mobile services provider Smart Communications, Inc. is giving subscribers a chance to score tickets to TWICE 5TH WORLD TOUR READY TO BE at the Philippine Arena on September 30 and October 1.

Global group TWICE

The tour is the latest addition to this years stellar line-up for Smart Live, which gives subscribers access to exclusive perks and privileges to live concerts and events.

To secure tickets, simply go to these participating Smart Stores: August 18 to 19 at the Smart Storein Ayala Center Cebu and from August 25 to 26 at the Smart Store in SM Megamall.

Visit the TWICE booth at these participating Smart Stores and avail of Magic Data+ 649 or Magic Data+ 749 offers. Subscribers must top up Magic Data+ offers at said Smart Stores on the promo day to be considered valid. The required number of top-up varies based on your preferred ticket.

Next, present the GigaLife App to show proof of account or mobile number ownership, and proof of purchase ofthe Magic Data+ offers.

Subscribers may top up Magic Data+ to up to five registered Smart Prepaid numbers per ticket, as long as the required number of Magic Data+ top-up are met. Fans who will top up to more than one number must present proof of purchase on the GigaLife App or e-loading channels such as the subscribers number to whom Magic Data+ 649 or 749 was sent, and/or receipt of transaction.

Subscribers may claim one (1) ticket based on the Magic Data+ offer they availed of at the Smart Store. Ticket redemption is on a first-come, first-served basis.

Second concert in the Philippines

TWICEs upcoming concert is their second visit to the Philippines since 2019.

The Philippine leg is part of the TWICE 5TH WORLD TOUR READY TO BE that kicked off in Seoul early this year, which includes shows in Japan, Australia, the US, Singapore, Berlin, Thailand, Paris, and London.

The tour is in support of their 2023 EP  READY TO BE.

TWICE, the first Korean group to receive the coveted Breakthrough Award at the Billboard Women in Music Awards this year, is a nine-member group composed of Nayeon, Jeongyeon, Momo, Sana, Jihyo, Mina, Dahyun, Chaeyoung, and Tzuyu, who made their debut in 2015.

Fans can enjoy the best concert experience on-ground and instantly share their live moments with the rest of the world powered by Smart, the Philippines Fastest and Best Mobile Network as cited by Ookla, the global leader in mobile and broadband network intelligence.

Smart clinched this prestigious recognition for three consecutive semesters  Q1-Q2 2022, Q3-Q4 2022, and most recently in Q1-Q2 2023.

To know more, visit www.smart.com.ph/smartlive.

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The states police oversight board has suspended the certifications of four officers, including one accused of taking nude photographs of a minor and another  a police chief  accused of federal insider trading crimes.

The four suspended officers join a list of 35 others suspended in recent months by the Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission, or POST Commission, the still-developing state body charged with standardizing the training and certification of some 20,000 officers from public safety agencies across Massachusetts.

On Thursday, the commission announced the new suspensions of Joe Martinez, of the Boston Police Department; Shawn Cronin, who is on leave as police chief of the Dighton Police Department; Steven Amado, of the Duxbury Police Department; and Matthew Hubbard, of the Agawam Police Department.

Joe Martinez  Boston

Martinez, according to past news reports and court officials, was arrested in March of 2022 on 15 charges, including possessing explicit images of a minor. He was placed on administrative leave, the Boston Police Department said at the time.

Following his arraignment in Dedham District Court, Martinez was indicted by a grand jury, elevating the case to Norfolk Superior Court.

Citing a police report, the Boston Globe reported after Martinezs arrest that he was accused of filming a naked child without their knowledge in the shower.

An attorney listed for Martinez declined to comment.

Shawn Cronin  Dighton

In June, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced federal charges against Cronin as part of an insider trading investigation.

According to federal prosecutors, Cronin and two others collectively made more than $2.2 million in stock profits based on inside information they learned ahead of the sale of a pharmaceutical company in early 2020.

Cronin, then a Dighton police sergeant, learned of the pending deal from Joseph Dupont, an executive of a company involved in the sale. In addition to being a childhood friend of Cronins, Dupont also served as a Dighton reserve police officer, the U.S. Attorneys office said.

Cronin, 43 at the time of his arrest, was appointed Dightons police chief in 2022.

He faces eight federal fraud charges, including securities fraud. After his arrest, the Dighton Board of Selectmen placed Cronin on administrative leave.

An attorney for Cronin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Though not suspended by the POST Commission, Dupont, of Rehoboth, also faces three federal fraud charges. He has since been placed on leave by Dightons acting police chief.

Steven Amado  Duxbury

Amado, 52, is accused of falsifying a police report and intimidating a witness during an investigation, according to Plymouth County District Attorney Tim Cruz.

Amado, of Plymouth, was indicted in June on charges of misleading a police officer, intimidating a police officer and filing a false crime report. Prosecutors claim Amado, while investigating a May car crash, intentionally misidentified the driver and intimidated a colleague also involved in the investigation.

Amado, a Duxbury police officer of 24 years, is on administrative leave, Cruz said.

It was not clear whether Amado had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.

Matthew Hubbard  Agawam

Connecticut state authorities accuse Hubbard, 55, of illegally collecting $86,000 in workers compensation benefits while on disability leave.

After he was injured while working as a corrections officer for the state of Connecticut in August 2020, prosecutors believe Hubbard, of Agawam, Massachusetts, began working as a reserve police officer and real estate agent.

At the time, he was on temporary total disability leave, a status reserved for beneficiaries who have zero work capacity, the Connecticut Division of Criminal Justice said in a press release announcing Hubbards arrest last September. Hubbard was required to report any improvement in his injuries, as well as any other income he received.

He faces one count of larceny by defrauding a public community, one count of fraudulent claim or receipt of benefits, and one count of perjury, Connecticut officials said.

Reached for comment, Hubbards lawyer, Connecticut attorney Michael Georgetti, said his client had pleaded not guilty to the charges and that he expected a jury would determine his innocence in court.

Recent suspensions also include cop accused of sexual assault

The suspensions imposed by POST remain in effect until the commission revokes the suspension order or reaches a final determination on each officers policing license.

In past months, the commission has also suspended officers charged with rape, indecent assault, and bribery, among other charges.

By law, the commission  created by state criminal justice reform legislation in 2020  is required to suspend the certification of any officer charged with a felony.

Last month, the commission pulled the licenses of an Acton police officer and a former Gardner officer. The Acton cop, Steven Stalzer, 31, was accused of assaulting his pregnant wife, though court officials said last month that the charges had been dismissed. Dylan Bryant, 29, resigned his post in the Gardner Police Department after a New Hampshire grand jury indicted him on two charges of aggravated felony sexual assault earlier this year.

The POST Commission could ultimately decertify any of the suspended officers, a power granted to the body under the police reform law.

John Donnelly, a former Woburn officer accused of participating in the deadly 2017 white nationalist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, is to date the only officer decertified by the POST Commission.

Under internal investigation by the Woburn Police Department, Donnelly resigned from his position. He reached a voluntary decertification agreement with the commission earlier this year, though did not admit to the allegations that he participated in the Charlottesville march.

Massachusetts has more than 400 police departments comprised of roughly 20,000 officers, according to the commissions 2022 end-of-year report.

Under the 2020 police reform legislation, each officer must be recertified every three years. Cops who were active on July 1, 2021, were automatically certified by the law, and the commission has since steadily worked to process recertifications.

Last year the commission completed the first batch of recertifications, covering roughly 8,800 officers whose last names begin with the letters A through H. The commission is now tasked with recertifying officers whose last names begin with the letters I through P. The remaining officers will follow next year.
A New Hampshire nurse and her daughter are still missing more than a week after they were kidnapped while she was working in the small brick clinic in Haiti.

We are at the one-week mark of Alix and her daughters kidnapping. Many tears have been shed this week but we, together with our team, are working and praying continuously to bring them home safely, and we continue to hold onto hope, El Roi Haiti Outreach International, the nonprofit the woman worked for, wrote on its website Thursday.

Alix Dorsainvil and her daughter were kidnapped the morning of July 27 from El Roi Haiti Outreach Internationals campus near Port-au-Prince while serving in their community ministry, the nonprofits website states. She has been a nurse for the school, according to a video on the website. But she also provides services for the community.

Witnesses told The Associated Press that Dorsainvil was working in the small brick clinic when armed men burst in and seized her. Lormina Louima, a patient waiting for a check-up, said one man pulled out his gun and told her to relax.

When I saw the gun, I was so scared, Louima told the AP. I said, I dont want to see this, let me go.

Some members of the community said the unidentified men asked for $1 million in ransom, a standard practice of the gangs killing and sowing terror in Haitis impoverished populace.

The U.S. State Department confirmed to the Boston Globe that it was aware of reports of the kidnapping of two U.S. citizens in Haiti.

We are in regular contact with Haitian authorities and will continue to work with them and our U.S. government interagency partners, a department spokesperson told the newspaper.

The nonprofit said it was thankful for the team working to find Dorsainvil.

We are so thankful for the very knowledgeable and experienced professionals God has brought together to complete the task of securing their freedom, the website reads.

She first visited Haiti soon after the 2010 earthquake. She was still in college but fell in love with the people, the website reads. She continued taking trips back to Haiti during her breaks from school and during the summers.

Alix Dorsainvil, who is also the directors wife, and their child were kidnapped Thursday morning from El Roi Haiti Outreach Internationals campus near Port au Prince while serving in their community ministry. Dorsainvil is originally from New Hampshire.

Dorsainvil graduated from Regis College in Weston, Massachusetts, according to the Associated Press, where there is a program to support nursing education in Haiti. She then started working as a nurse.

It doesnt surprise me that Alix chose to get involved in this type of service work, Regis College president Toni Hays told WMUR. She [is] amazing. She [is] passionate, she [is] compassionate.

And she continued going to Haiti.

Once she started working as a nurse she would save money and then self-fund all of her trips to Haiti, going as often as she could, the website said. She had lived in Haiti for multiple years, showing love and care in a variety of ways before coming on staff with us, but has had a heart for the hurting since she was a child. She seeks people out to show them love and compassion, and no one is excluded from receiving her kindness.

In 2020, Dorsainvil became a staff member at El Roi Haiti as a school nurse.

Alix is a deeply compassionate and loving person who considers Haiti her home and the Haitian people her friends and family, the website states. Alix has worked tirelessly as our school and community nurse to bring relief to those who are suffering as she loves and serves the people of Haiti in the name of Jesus.

About a year later, she married the ministry director, Sandro Dorsainvil.

Sandro Dorsainvil grew up in the Cite Soleil area, a community in Port-au-Prince known for its poverty and violence, according to the website. He taught himself English and Spanish and had multiple translating jobs in Haiti, including a translating job by an adoption agency. He later attended high school in Montana and graduated from Liberty University in 2018.

He is now the founder and director of El Roi Academy.

The violence has stirred anger among Haitians, who say they simply want to live in peace.

Around 200 protesters, largely from the area around El Roi Haitis campus, echoed that call as they walked through the sweltering streets wielding cardboard signs written in Creole in red paint.

She is doing good work in the community, free her, read one.

Local resident Jean Ronald said the community has significantly benefitted from the care provided by El Roi Haiti.

Such groups are often the only institutions in lawless areas, but the deepening violence has forced many to close, leaving thousands of vulnerable families without access to basic services like health care or education.

Earlier this month, Doctors Without Borders announced it was suspending services in one of its hospitals because some 20 armed men burst into an operating room and snatched a patient.

As the protesters walked through the area where Dorsainvil was taken, the streets were eerily quiet. The doors to the clinic where she worked were shut, the small brick building empty. Ronald and others in the area worried the latest kidnapping may mean the clinic wont reopen.

If they leave, everything (the aid groups programs) will shut down, Ronald worried. The money they are asking for, we dont have it.

There is also a do not travel advisory issued for Haiti.

Do not travel to Haiti due to kidnapping, crime, civil unrest, and poor health care infrastructure, the advisory states.

It states kidnappings are widespread and that victims regularly include U.S. citizens.

Kidnappers may use sophisticated planning or take advantage of unplanned opportunities, and even convoys have been attacked, it reads. Kidnapping cases often involve ransom negotiations and U.S. citizen victims have been physically harmed during kidnappings. Victims families have paid thousands of dollars to rescue their family members.

Still, Massachusetts organizations said there have been security challenges for years and the latest update by the U.S. State Departments do not travel advisory is nothing new.

Weve already adapted to the security risks for some time, said Elizabeth Fischelis, program manager for the Haiti Development Institute, an initiative of The Boston Foundation.

Haiti Development Institute, a non-profit with an office in Boston, supports organizations in rural Haiti and provides funds and grants to grassroots organizations. Fischelis said many donors have stopped going, although some still do.

There are intrepid donors who still go, but many dont, she said, adding that she arrived on the island last week and planned to stay only for a few days.

Fischelis said that the non-profit intentionally set up offices outside of Port-au-Prince to promote development in rural areas before violence grew.

There are definitely security concerns and areas not to go, but there are some places you can go safely and there is work that is proceeding, she said.

El Roi Haiti Outreach International has also asked for prayers.

We continue to work diligently with authorities and partners in the United States and Haiti to secure their freedom. Many people are laboring for their return, but currently we cannot share more specific details. We are so thankful for all of the support that has been shown, the website reads. Please continue to pray with us for the protection and freedom of Alix and her daughter. As our hearts break for this situation, we also continue to pray for the country and people of Haiti and for freedom from the suffering they endure daily.

The Associated Press contributed to this reporting.
HOLYOKE  To improve coordination among the citys financial departments, a policy manual has been created at the request of Mayor Joshua A. Garcia.

The state Division of Local Services Financial Management Resource Bureau developed the manual, which provides a comprehensive set of policies and procedures for Holyoke.

The 99-page guide is divided into two parts. The first section targets financial planning policies, while the second outlines day-to-day operations.

Advice in the manual is based on municipal best practices. The policies draw on existing practices in Holyoke, incorporating them into one guide.

The guidelines, metrics, and benchmarks spelled out in the manual are drawn from state regulations and best practices. Once confirmed by the City Council, they will become municipal law enshrined in the city ordinances, read a joint statement by Garcia and Councilor at-large Kevin Jourdain.

The mayor said the council expressed a desire for consist fiscal management. Garcia campaigned on a promise to bolster internal financial controls and the citys bond rating.

Were keeping that promise, Garcia stated.

Jourdain, a Finance Committee member, will present the manual to the full City Council for review and consideration.

This is important for our future financial strength as a city that also gives our residents the type of government they deserve, Jourdain said in a statement.

The manual assigns responsibilities within the citys financial operation, including for the chief administrative and financial officer  a job that goes by the acronym CAFO. Under the supervision of the mayor, the CAFO would oversee financial matters.

The DLS has implored the city to create the position, including recently when the Massachusetts School Building Authority approved construction and funding for the new middle school.

The DLS suggested Holyoke unify financial management functions, including roles related to accounting and assessing. However, the council rejected a budget request by the mayor to create the position.

Without a CAFO, responsibilities would be divided among the citys financial departments, which work independently. Even without a new structure, the DLS believed Holyoke would benefit from the recommendations.

The public is invited to review the manual and offer comments. To read it online, visit https://tinyurl.com/DLSMANUAL.

Comments can be emailed to mayorsoffice@holyoke.org.
A 45-year-old Springfield man was arrested on Thursday, accused of raping a child over the course of several years after an investigation into the childs case was opened last month, according to Massachusetts State Police.

Joel Candelaria was arrested on 14 charges relating to what police say was years-long sexual abuse, including the statutory aggravated rape of a child and several counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14.

He was held on a $100,000 cash bail following his arraignment at Springfield District Court on Aug. 3, until his pre-trial hearing scheduled for Aug. 23, according to the court clerk.
SALEM, Ore. (AP)  For the first time in 72 years, Oregon motorists can grab a fuel nozzle and pump gas into their cars on their own, since a decades-old ban on self-serve gas stations has been revoked.

Gov. Tina Kotek signed a bill on Friday allowing people across the state to choose between having an attendant pump gas or doing it themselves. The law takes immediate effect.

That leaves New Jersey as the only state that prohibits motorists from pumping their own gas. A few countries also ban it, including South Africa, where attendants offer to check fluid levels and clean the windshield, with tipping expected.

Its about time. Its long overdue, said Karen Cooper, who lives in Salem, said shortly before the bill was signed.

Ive spent a lot of time in California, Cooper said. I know how to pump my own. Everybody should know how to pump their own gas.

Kacy Willson, 32, who has lived in Oregon her whole life, said she doesn't have much interest in pumping her own gas. She's only tried it a few times in her life.

Its kind of nice to have someone do that, she said at a Portland gas station Friday. I dont really leave Oregon very much, and when I do, I have to ask someone how to pump gas, and I feel weird.

When Oregon prohibited self-service in 1951, lawmakers cited safety concerns, including motorists slipping on the slick surfaces at filling stations subject to Oregons notoriously rainy weather. In recent years legislators relaxed the rule and allowed rural counties to have self-serve gas available at night. Then they extended it to all hours in eastern Oregons sparsely populated areas, where motorists low on gas could be stranded when theres no attendant on duty.

The COVID-19 pandemic labor shortage helped drive a renewed push to allow self-serve across the state.

We live in a small town in a large county and cant find employees to pump fuel, Steve Rodgers, whose community is at the base of the snow-capped Cascade Mountains, complained to lawmakers. We are paying top dollar and also offering insurance, paid time off and retirement benefits, and still cannot fully staff.

Story continues

Haseeb Shojai, who immigrated from Afghanistan in 2004 and owns gas stations in central Oregons high desert, also lamented the labor shortage and described how wildfires, with increased intensity and frequency due to climate change, are having a major effect. The state fire marshal lifted the self-serve ban during dangerous heat waves the past couple of summers.

Wildfires have been a factor in operating our business in the summer months, when it is hard for our gas attendants to stay for long periods outside in smoke and in heat, Shojai said. We dont know if we can stay open tomorrow or the next day or even next week due to the labor shortage.

A union representing workers at grocery store fuel stations in Oregon predicted job losses and called the the law a blatant cash grab for large corporations.

With over 2,000 gas stations in Oregon, laying off just one employee per location represents millions of dollars a year that giant corporations are not paying in wages, benefits and public payroll taxes, said Sandy Humphrey, the secretary-treasurer of UFCW Local 555.

Under the new law, there cant be more self-service pumps at a gas station than full-service ones. And prices for motorists must be the same at both types.

Still, opponents of the measure worry that it could lead to the demise of full-service pumps, depriving older adults and people with disabilities of that option.

I have some real concerns that we are progressively getting closer and closer to eliminating Oregons fuel service law entirely, Democratic state Sen. Lew Frederick said on the Senate floor in June before voting against the bill.

Brandon Venable, a service station manager, had urged lawmakers to reject the bill, saying some customers are careless and that attendants keep people safe.

I deal with many dangerous situations daily created by people smoking, leaving their engines running, getting in and out of their vehicles creating static electricity, trying to fill up random bottles and jugs, and driving off with the pump still in the vehicle, Venable said.

Others wonder if motorists who are now clamoring to pump their own gas might be less keen on doing so when they have to stand out in the rain, cold and snow instead of remaining in their warm, dry cars.

Republican state Sen. Tim Knopp, who leads the minority GOP caucus, downplayed safety concerns as he described being allowed to pump his own gas because he belongs to a commercial fueling cooperative.

I have yet to light myself on fire. I have yet to cause any problems whatsoever as it relates to self-serve gas, Knopp said during debate on the bill. So, colleagues, lets make New Jersey the only state in the country that has a law against self-serve gas.

The state Senate then approved the bill on a 16-9 vote. The House earlier passed it 47-10.

New Jerseys 1949 ban on self-service pumps remains a source of pride for some in a state where bumper stickers declare Jersey Girls Dont Pump Gas.

Since New Jersey has lower gas prices than New York and Pennsylvania, many drivers from neighboring states cross the state line to fuel up.

In 2015, lawmakers proposed ending the New Jersey ban, but the measure died because of opposition from the powerful state Senate president.

___

Associated Press reporters Michael Catalini in Trenton, New Jersey, and Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon, contributed to this report.

Andrew Selsky, The Associated Press
NORTHAMPTON  Just a few hours after former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to charges that accuse him of conspiring to overthrow the 2020 election, Jane Johnson stood on the steps of City Hall to sing traditional protest songs.

The Amherst resident and a member of the local chapter of the Raging Grannies joined with about 20 others Thursday on the steps of City Hall to call attention to the historic indictment of the former president and show her concerns about the vulnerability of the countrys democracy.

I see my country no longer working as a democracy and citizens who no longer care about the truth and the laws, Johnson said.

She said she sees it in attacks on libraries and schools. In the past, she said she has mostly been an activist for the sake of the future world that her grandchildren will live in but she is seeing the erosion of democracy and even the effects of climate change happening now.

The protest was one of more than 70 organized across the country as part of the Not Above the Law coalition that joined together different groups which planned to rally if and when Trump was indicted for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol that temporarily halted the certification of Joe Bidens victory, left one protester dead and many police officers injured.

I think it is important that people realize Trump is not above the law and the people who helped him are not above the law, said Debby Pastrich-Klemer, who organized the Northampton protest. We need to keep defending democracy and keep voting, she said.

After the Raging Grannies sang, Pastrich-Klemer stood up and opened her speech with happy arraignment day.

The indictment, which is the latest of Trumps legal woes, is especially concerning since he is running to recapture the presidential seat and is the Republican front-runner for the 2024 election.

Trump pleaded not guilty to four federal counts, including conspiracy to defraud the United States, in federal court in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. He was released on conditions, including that he not have contact about the case with any witnesses unless attorneys are present. The next hearing is scheduled for Aug. 28.

He is accused of brazenly conspiring with allies to spread falsehoods and concoct schemes intended to overturn his election loss to President Joe Biden.

Patrick Bukowski drove about 45 minutes from his home in Granville to attend the protest. He held a sign saying, Remember history. Defend democracy. Demand justice.

Everyone needs to be accountable for his actions and thus far he has not been held accountable, he said. I would like more but its a good first step.

Merriam Ansara, of Easthampton, also a member of the Raging Grannies, said when her grandparents came to the United States at the last turn of the century it was a country of laws. She said she is concerned that is being eroded along with democracy.

Nobody, especially a scammer like Donald Trump, has a right to take that away, she said.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this story.
SPRINGFIELD  A developer plans to turn a vacant lot along East Columbus Avenue into the citys first Panera Bread location.

The fast casual restaurant, known for its soups, sandwiches and salads, will be built between the summer and fall of next year, according to Paul C. Picknelly, head of 180 Redevelopment Inc., the company overseeing the project.

The restaurant location is planned for an unused lot on East Columbus Avenue between William and Wilcox streets. The land was where Albanos Market used to stand at 1167 East Columbus Ave., a building that was demolished in 2017 after it was found unsafe.

Picknelly added that its too early to determine the total cost of the project, but he expects the restaurant itself to offer around 35 jobs.

This will be the first Panera Bread to be located in the city. The closest Panera Bread locations outside of Springfield are in West Springfield, Chicopee and East Longmeadow.

Picknelly said representatives of Panera said they chose the location for its restaurant because its in the citys downtown region and is close to the highway, and can attract more customers.

On July 5, 180 Redevelopment received a special permit to install a drive-up service window for the restaurant from City Council. As of now, Picknelly said he has no other updates on the project.

Although the Office of Planning and Economic Development suggested some changes in its analysis of the request for a special permit, it cheered the plans to create the 3,500 square-foot restaurant as it redevelops a vacant parcel. The office highlighted the plans for an outdoor seating area.

The staff firmly believes that these outdoor seating areas add a significant amenity to these developments and are used frequently by the customers, reads the analysis submitted to City Council.

Less than a mile from East Columbus Avenue is Hot Table in Tower Square, similarly known for its sandwiches, soups and salads.

Picknelly said he does not consider the restaurant chain or other restaurants that sell similar products as competition and that Panera will be beneficial to Springfield.

Panera has a specific clientele thats loyal to the brand and wont take away from existing businesses, Picknelly said. The overall consensus is that we need more restaurants downtown. The more the merrier.

There are 2,121 Panera Bread and Saint Louis Bread Co. locations in the United States and Canada as of April 2023, according to Panera Brands. Its restaurant locations are independently operated.
SPRINGFIELD  A unique array of fashion designers and brands are taking center stage now during Springfields inaugural Fashion Week.

Attendees can expect an extraordinary lineup of talented designers and brands, presenting their collections that dazzle with a variety of styles and aesthetics. The main events include a series of runway shows, presentations, workshops, photoshoots and curated experiences, all of which put a spotlight the latest trends in fashion and design.

Fashion Week was established was to showcase the regions emerging and established designers, models and fashion brands, providing a platform for creativity, innovation and artistic expression.

Designers showcased include Klothes by K, AVADO, Sheldon Smith, Generational Drip, Ragz 2 Riches, Digital Boombox Network, Gypsy Clothes, Devin Davon, Level Up by India Anderson, Q Demigod, Savonne, SELF INVEST, Josefa da Silva, Sheldon Smith, Soul for Art, Stonington Clothing Co., Claude Russell-SHEIN and Designs by Dani Simone.

Earlier in the week at Make-It Springfields Sewing 101 and designer bag workshop and challenge, Sheldon Smith, membership and operations coordinator, helped participants with the basics of the sewing machine.

Make-It Springfield is a place for people to come and create, Smith said. People bring their own skill sets to the table and then show what they can do.

Of the 10 people that registered for the make-your-own-bag challenge was Wenting Jia and husband Nels Frye. Jia and Frye said they attended Tuesdays designer bag challenge to network and gain more skills.

Jia is the owner of J.W. Frye, which specializes in upcycled eco-friendly materials such as cotton, glass and plastic.

We are in the final stages of opening a 400-square-foot eco-friendly lifestyle and apparel store on the first floor of the MassLive building, Jia said; MassLive is the sister media outlet of The Republican.

The J.W. Frye storefront space is supported by the Latino Economic Development Corp. and will be among a group of Latina women-owned vendors on the first floor.

In Springfield, Jia hopes to make Springfield the J.W. Frye brands home.

The vision is to make collection items for boutique stores in Springfield and then ship it to New York, Jia said.

Jia hopes the skills and partnerships she makes at Fashion Week will lead to collaborations with local artists to create a Springfield city line. Eventually, she even hopes to collaborate with celebrities like Snoop Dogg.

Springfield Fashion Week kicked off on Tuesday with Sewing 101 and Manifesting Your Own Epic Life workshops, and the inaugural Fashion Night Out.

On Wednesday, the Designer Bag Challenge was held at Make-It Springfield, a designer meet and greet was hosted at the PROVEN pop-up shop, and a Fashions Finest Photoshoot party was held at Megaland Studios.

On Thursday, from 6 to 9 p.m., a Paparazzi at the Park fashion show was followed by a bar crawl at White Lion Brewing, Deweys Jazz Lounge, Del Ray Taqueria and Bar, and more.

On Friday, from 5:30 to 6 p.m., speed dating will be hosted at PROVEN, followed by a celebration of the Fabric of Mason Square, a fashion show and community block party. The Cosmic Cycles fashion show and block party also will be held at Ben Swan Way from 6 to 10 p.m.

Fashion Week will end on Saturday, with the Fashion Oasis fashion show at Nixon Studio Rental on Race Street in Holyoke from 7 to 9 p.m.

Additionally, for Fashion Week only, the PROVEN pop-up store at 813 State St. will feature pieces and merchandise from participating Springfield Fashion Week designers. The store is open daily from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

The Springfield Creative City Collective, Mason Square Transformative Development Initiative and Black and Brown Wall Street aim to help professionalize and organize the budding regional fashion industry, said Tiffany Allecia, executive director of the collective.

The Springfield Creative City Collective, which is supported by funding from MassDevelopments Transformative Development Initiative and TDI Creative Cities Program, awarded Bartell and Co. owner and Fashion Week founder Joron Stimage-Norwood with $1,000 for the initiative, as well as over $5,000 in additional funding for various events and experiences throughout the week.

Springfield Fashion Week is important because it allows the community to uplift each other through nontraditional means, while displaying alternative talents and interests of our region. Fashion affects us all directly or indirectly, and its nice to bring some focus to the subject, so we can all learn, share and grow, Stimage-Norwood said in a statement.
A new restaurant in downtown Worcester hopes to cater to the fast-food crowd, offering authentic Mexican food brought to customers by first- and second-generation Mexican-Americans.

Toro Loco Taqueria is tucked into a corner of the DCU Center in Worcester, offering burritos, tacos, quesadillas and Mexican street corn, all with the most authentic flavors.

The restaurant is an expansion of the Mexicali Mexican Grill in Spencer, according to both business co-owner, Miguel Perez.

Toro Loco is located at the corner of Foster and Commercial streets in the DCU Center building in downtown Worcester, where Glazy Susan doughnuts used to be, and is owned by Perez and his wife, Denise Medina.

This is a new project from what we normally do, explained Perez. Weve always wanted to do something separate, a menu totally different.

12 1 / 12 Toro Loco Taqueria in Worcester

Toro Locos menu offers a variety of lunch and dinner options such as tacos ($3.25-$4.50), burritos ($12-$15), quesadillas ($14-$16), desserts, such as flan and fried ice cream ($5), Mexican aqua frescas, including horchata ($4.50), soft drinks and more which Perez said was something youll find in any corner of Mexico.

Although Perez and Medinas family is from Southern California, their recipes tap into their families roots in Union de Tula, a small vibrant town in Jalisco, Mexico, a press release said.

Our flavor is like what we normally used at home, said Perez. Well make a cookout where instead of doing grilling we do tacos and stuff like that. Our food is like what we think people will enjoy for like a quick lunch to go and it would be enough during a hard-working day.

Assorted tacos at Toro Loco Taqueria in Worcester. (Liesel Nygard)

So far, Medina said business has been good. However, he added that the restaurant is short staffed and said hes looking to hire more employees to take on the register and help with other kitchen duties.

Yesterday and today has been a lot, said Medina. Im still short staffed so Im trying to run all over the place.

Toro Loco Taqueria will be opened seven days a week: Sunday through Thursday 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. The restaurant can be followed on Facebook and Instagram.
Transhealth, a Western Massachusetts-based organization that offers medical care for trans and gender diverse people and families, recently reached a milestone of serving 2,000 patients.

As a result of trans rights being politicized, many of those patients are coming from out of state, according to Dallas Ducar, the organizations chief executive.

Its been a constant, said Ducar. Were living in a time now where people are actively fleeing other states to Massachusetts, to ensure that they can get good medical care.

Although theyre located in Western Massachusetts, Transhealth, founded in 2021, has welcomed patients from other New England states such as Connecticut, New Hampshire, New York and Vermont, and has gotten inquiries from people looking to relocate to New England in order to get better gender-affirming care.

To prevent people from feeling like a box to be checked, Transhealth says they strive to make people feel seen, heard and cared for, including those who are not from Massachusetts.

Ducar said that the way health care is provided to transgender individuals has changed, but that gender-affirming care is being outlawed in a large part of the United States.

As of August, 21 states have a law or policy that bans gender-affirming care for anyone under the age of 18, according to the Human Rights Campaign.

Through these state bans, transgender youth will be prevented from accessing medically necessary, safe health care, according to the Human Rights Campaign.

This means that transgender youth will be unable to receive a range of services including mental health care, medical care and social services, which are all considered medically necessary for the well-being of many transgender and non-binary people who experience symptoms of gender dysphoria, or distress that results from having ones gender identity not match their sex assigned at birth, according to the Human Rights Campaign.

Due to these laws expanding across U.S. states, Massachusetts passed An Act Expanding Protections for Reproductive and Gender-Affirming Care Act also known as Chapter 127 in July 2022, which legally protects gender affirming health care services.

Read more: This UMass economist wants lawmakers to see beyond the gender binary

When Transhealth created a needs assessment, they found that about 30,000 transgender and gender diverse Massachusetts residents were in need of medically appropriate health care, according to Ducar.

We have many people from within the state that still need access to just basic health care, said Ducar. Theres a dire need right now.

There are other clinics in Massachusetts and the broader U.S. that provide gender-affirming care such as Mass. General Hospital and Fenway Health. But to Ducars knowledge, Transhealth is the only independent, sole provider for gender affirming care.

I dont know of another one, said Ducar. I dont know anyone else that has put their whole organization on the line and said, This is all were doing. We are going to provide affirming care.

One of the exam rooms at TransHealth in Western Mass. (Hoang 'Leon' Nguyen / The Republican)

Transhealth in Western Massachusetts has grown in the last two years, creating a larger staffing team of about 50 people including a primary care director, a mental health director, practice manager, nurse manager, community services manager, six primary care providers, three psychiatric providers and eight social workers.

Ducar said Transhealth is in the process of accepting new patients which means theyll be opening up care, pushing primary care and have already opened up their mental health waiting list for new patients.

I believe that this is really just the beginning, said Ducar. This is the opportunity for those who have been discriminated against, those who have been put in the boxes, when instead they should say this is what health care can be and should be, and to build a new health care system together.
Two New Hampshire men were arrested Friday morning after attempting to flee police officers, according to the Boston Police Department.

Isiah Calden, 20, from Manchester, New Hampshire, and Xavier Luis Morel 21, of Hillsboro, New Hampshire, were arrested following a vehicle crash where a firearm was found, police said in a press release.

At around 3:40 a.m. on Aug. 4 Boston officers assigned to the Dorchester and Mattapan area, were on patrol near Circuit Drive when they found a large group of around 150 people with about 50 vehicles. Police said that the officers attempted to disperse the large group when their attention was drawn to a motor vehicle that was driving through the grass on the opposite side of the road on Circuit Drive.

Officers followed the vehicle with their lights and sirens on, and tried to pull them over. However the vehicle fled from the officers, which caused the officers to stop following the vehicle, police said.

Police said the vehicle later crashed in a fence and hit a tree at 105 Glenway St. where Calden, whom police said was the passenger, abandoned the vehicle.

Morel, who police said was driving, stayed in the vehicle and reversed it, striking the officers marked cruiser as well as striking the officer with the drivers side door, according to the release.

Read more: George Legere of Springfield faces 25 years in prison for 1984 kidnapping

Calden was arrested after he was found in a backyard. Officers also found a Glock 22 .40 caliber handgun with a magazine which can hold 15 rounds, police said. The gun was loaded with one round in the chamber, and had 13 rounds in the magazine.

Several officers responded and searched the area with K-9 Cedric who found Morel under a blue tarp on Greenwood Street. Morel was then arrested, the release said.

Police said that Calden is charged with unlawful possession of a firearm, unlawful possession of ammunition, unlawful possession of a large capacity firearm, unlawful possession of a large capacity feeding device, unlawful possession of a loaded firearm and carrying a firearm without a license.

Morel is charged with driving to endanger and leaving the scene of a motor vehicle accident with property damage, according to the release.

Both Morel and Calden will be arraigned in the Dorchester District Court.
Six residents in Palmer have been displaced after their house caught fire from a propane grill, according to a press release from the Massachusetts Department of Fire Services.

The Palmer Fire Department was notified of the fire just before 4 p.m. They responded to the single-family house located at 321 Wilbraham St., and found it was well involved, with heavy smoke and flames showing on arrival.

Engine crews deployed attack lines and made an interior attack but were forced to leave the structure due to the intensity of the flames and deteriorating conditions found inside the home, said the press release. The fire went to two alarms, bringing in additional crews and water supply to the scene, which was outside the towns hydrant district.

The fire caused six people to be displaced, two of whom were hurt, said the press release.

Investigators discovered that the fire began on a deck near the back right of the structure and was accidental in nature, said fire officials. Specifically, they determined that it began with the grill, which had been used in that area.

Fire officials said that the Massachusetts Comprehensive Fire Safety Code generally prohibits grills and other cooking equipment on porches, balconies, and decks without an exterior stairway to the ground.

Additionally, the grills cant be under a roof or overhang, and cannot be within 10 feet of a structure unless otherwise listed by the manufacturer, the release said.

Read more: Boston cop accused of taking lewd photos of minor among 4 suspended by state

This home sustained heavy fire damage and six people were displaced, including two who were injured, said Palmer Fire Chief William J. Bernat Jr. If you use a grill, please be sure to use it safely ... Check that your connections are tight before turning on the gas, and clean the grease trap every time you grill.

The following departments helped Palmer: the Department of Fire Services, Three Rivers, Bondsville, Wilbraham, Ludlow, Ware, Belchertown, Monson, Warren, Brimfield, and Hampden, the release said. The Red Cross is helping the displaced residents.
Johanfran Garcia is only 18 years old and is currently in the middle of his first season of pro ball in the United States. But even at such a young age, hes caught the eye of rival evaluators.

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One National League scout who watched Garcia recently came away raving about his potential in our weekly MLB Notebook.

Strong, muscular, durable, with a highly agile body with quick feet, and a take-charge, confident defender. A plus arm to all bases, and runs well for a catcher. Bat can be a Gary Sanchez-type power producer, with sound hitting actions, and the type of strength to to drive the ball to the big part of the field. Projects as a above-average skill-position player, supplying a 5-hole bat.

Garcia was signed for $850,000 in January of 2022 as an international free agent out of Venezuela. His older brother, outfielder Jhostynxon Garcia, is also in the system.

The Red Sox, of course, recently selected Kyle Teel, another catcher, out of the University of Virginia, in the first round of last months draft, and have several other intriguing prospects in the system, including Nathan Hickey, a fifth-round pick out of Florida in 2021, now catching at Portland, and Brooks Brannon, a ninth-round choice in the 2022, currently on the IL at Low A Salem.

But Garcia looks to be the most promising international catching prospect in the organization since Daniel Flores, a 17-year-old phenom who was signed out of Venezuela for $3.1 million, but tragically passed away after a battle with cancer later that year. SoxProspects.com has Garcia as the organizations 14th best prospect in its latest rankings.
After Bidens victory in 2020, two Georgia poll workers, Shaye Moss and her mother, were accused by Giuliani and Trump of having suitcases full of Biden ballots as they worked the polls. They both received death threats. In her appearance before the January 6th Committee, Moss recounted the following threat: Be glad its 2020 and not 1920.

The 1920s were a time of overt racism and discrimination in the United States. Segregation was widespread, both by law and by fact. In November 1920, in Ocoee, Florida, a white mob lynched a Black man and burned down his neighborhood. In January 1923, in Florida, a white mob destroyed the Black town of Rosewood. In August 1928, 35,000 robed Klan members marched down Constitution Avenue in Washington, D.C. According to the University of Missouri, 301 Blacks were lynched in the United States between 1920 and 1930.

Popular culture is a reliable indicator of the spirit of the times. For example, the most technically advanced movie for the time (1915) was The Birth of a Nation, directed by D.W. Griffith. It was originally called The Clansman. Widely popular, it was even viewed by President Woodrow Wilson at the White House. It related the story of a white Southern family during the Civil War and the Reconstruction period that followed. It depicted white Southerners as being victimized by Northern carpetbaggers and newly freed Blacks. It depicted Blacks as ignorant and sexually desirous of white women. The Ku Klux Klan was depicted as the defender of the Southern way of life, white womanhood, and white superiority.
WESTFIELD  A Westfield police officer has filed a lawsuit against the city alleging it failed to pay officers that worked regular and overtime shifts.

The lawsuit was filed in Westfield District Court by officer Jason Perron, who has served on the force for nearly 24 years.

In the lawsuit, Perron alleges that he and other members of the force typically worked four consecutive eight-and-a-half-hour shifts during a seven-day work week.
You can listen to our podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify each week. Follow this link if you're listening on Apple News.

In a special mini episode of Women Who Travel, Lale gets on the phone with South Carolina-based listener Cinelle to hear about her recent, long-awaited trip home to the Philippinesand the food she was in search for once she got there.

Lale Arikoglu: Hello. Welcome to a special mini episode of Women Who Travel. I'm Lale Arikoglu. This month, we're taking a break from our typical episode schedule. Instead, you'll be hearing some phone calls between our listeners and me about travels they've taken in search of something. And this week, we start with Sinel, who called us from South Carolina.

Sinel: The South is its own country. But at the same time, there are parts of it that felt like home, the weather, the fauna, flora, so much rain, so many bugs. That felt like the Philippines.

LA: You may remember her from our Mother's Day episode, where she shared a story about taking her daughter to the annual Sinulog Festival in the Philippines for the first time. Sinel spoke to me about a reunion from that same trip, specifically a reunion with foods that she hadn't tasted in 20 years.

How did you even decide what you were going to eat first?

Sinel: I would say that, to all travels out there, always sign up for the breakfast buffet. [laughs] That way you don't have to make a choice.

LA: Wait. I love this tip.

Sinel: [laughs]

LA: Is this specific to the Philippines, I'm assuming?

Sinel: Yes. Especially in the Philippines. You know, we tend to have a very big breakfast. We eat rice with every meal. And breakfast usually comes with garlic rice, and many vines, you know, from dried fish to cured meats, to soup and noodles and broth to fried noodles, to sticky rice. But at our very first breakfast buffet, the thing I was most excited about was, and because the Philippines really is all about, you know, just being extra when it comes to celebrating, anything, every day is a celebration, um, in the Philippines. But, even breakfast is one big celebration. You know, after my fourth round around the buffet table, I thought I was done, until, you know, back of house rolls out this cauldron, this vat on a dolly. And, of course, my daughter's like, "What is that, mom?"

Story continues

Like, I'm like, "Oh, I don't know. It could be many, uh, number of things. But let's go check it out." And we walked over to where this cauldron was. And, of course, in it was this breakfast dish that I'd waited 20 years to eat. And it's called champorado. And it's, um, it roughly translates a chocolate rice porridge. But, um, it's kind of stickier, but also goopier than porridge. And, and it's not quite chocolate like you would get from a candy store. It's made of tablea, which are, you know, just blocks of chocolate nibs, basically. But we peered in-

LA: It sounds amazing.

Sinel: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But it was, it's like dessert for breakfast, after you've already had like four courses for breakfast.

LA: And so, God, it must have felt quite emotional to suddenly have those flavors on your tongue. I mean, did it taste like you remembered it? Because sometimes I think that there's foods from like my childhood that I remember as being one thing, and then you revisit it, and you realize it's something different. Not as, even a good or a bad thing, it's just different.

Sinel: I would say it was exactly what I had waited 20 years for it to be. And it brought me back to mornings at school, which a little background [laughs] is that, you know, the reason for my teenage adoption was that my birth parents could no longer take care of me. Um, specifically, my mother, at some point, could no longer feed me. And there were stretches of time when we lived in her van. And, you know, it's needless to say that there were days that we didn't have food. She was able to enroll me and keep me enrolled in this exclusive, private school that was just really, really competitive and that we couldn't afford.

But, um, I was able to keep my lot there, secure my lot there through writing and representing the school through writing contests, and debates, and all sorts of things that just, like, let me earn my keep there. Part of my keep there was that they would feed me breakfast. So my mother, out of shame, you know, would drop me off at school, before anyone else was there, really early in the morning, before the sun even was up. And she would leave me, she would, you know, leave me for the day. And I would be in the care of whoever was working at the school at the time.

And early in the mornings, they were be the lunch ladies doing prep work for lunch. And they would have their breakfast in the kitchen, and they would invite me in. And they would serve me this very dish called champorado. And that was the memory I came back to at this four star resort after my fourth round of breakfast. It brought me back to a very kind and loving memory, which was a great entry point after 20 years of being away. And, and I think the way I savored that bowl of, um, chocolaty good- goodness it all made it evident to my daughter what it was I was bringing her home to.

LA: I think that is the perfect note to finish on. I also need to try that dish. It sounds-

Sinel: You do.

LA: ... so delicious and comforting. And, you know, we need to wrap up, but I do want to ask have you managed to find it in Charleston anywhere?

Sinel: I have not. Um, there are a couple of Filipino pop ups here now, one is even a vegan pop up. Um, there's a, uh, former Thai restaurant that's been purchased by a Filipino family. And they've incorporated Filipino dishes into the menu. But it is the one dish they do not make. And you can buy instant packets, you know, from any Asian market, but it's just not the same.

LA: You've got to go to the Philippines.

Sinel: You have to go to the Philippines. Or, I guess, you have to have family nearby who can make it, which I don't have the privilege of, um, so, it's, it's good incentive to get back on a plane. [laughs]

LA: That it is.

Sinel: Its [laughs]...

LA: Thank you so much. This was so great.

I'm Lale Arikoglu, and you can find me on Instagram @LaleHannah. Our engineer this week is Gabe Quiroga. The show is mixed by Amar Lal. Jude Kampfner from Corporation for Independent Media is our producer. And special thanks to Jordan Bell for producing this episode. If you have a memorable travel story, write to us at WomenWhoTravel@CNTraveler.com. We'll back next week with a phone call from Jamie. We share some stories of camping gone awry.

Originally Appeared on Conde Nast Traveler
In recent years, the concept of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) has gained significant traction in the global business landscape. As countries strive to create a more sustainable future, the integration of ESG principles into financial strategies and corporate practices has become crucial.

This article explores the efforts made by Mauritius to promote sustainable finance and responsible business practices, drawing insights from various sources and highlighting the countrys commitment to ESG.

The Importance of ESG

ESG factors encompass a wide range of environmental, social, and governance issues that businesses need to consider in their decision-making processes. These factors are not only essential for mitigating risks but also for identifying opportunities that align with sustainable development goals. By integrating ESG into their strategies, companies can enhance their financial performance, reduce operating costs, improve brand reputation, and attract both customers and talented employees.

Company Benefits

Businesses that embrace ESG principles can reap numerous benefits. Improved financial performance, lower operating costs, enhanced brand image, increased sales and customer loyalty, greater productivity and quality, and the ability to attract and retain employees are just some of the advantages. Moreover, companies that prioritize ESG are more likely to have reduced regulatory oversight, access to capital, diverse workforces, and improved product safety and reduced liability.

Benefits to the Community and the General Public

The adoption of responsible business practices extends beyond the company itself and positively impacts the community and the general public. Through charitable contributions, employee volunteer programs, and corporate involvement in community education, employment, and homelessness programs, businesses can contribute to the well-being of the society they operate in. Additionally, ensuring product safety and quality further enhances the positive impact on the community.

Environmental Benefits

ESG principles play a pivotal role in addressing environmental challenges and promoting sustainability. Businesses that prioritize ESG can achieve greater material recyclability, better product durability and functionality, and increased use of renewable resources. By integrating environmental management tools into their business plans, such as life-cycle assessment and costing, environmental management standards, and ecolabeling, companies can actively contribute to the preservation of the environment.

Mauritius: Pioneering Sustainable Finance and Responsible Business

Mauritius, a small island nation off the coast of Africa, has demonstrated a strong commitment to driving sustainable finance and responsible business practices. Despite its unique topography and urban-centric banking sector, Mauritius has recognized the importance of inclusive and sustainable finance in achieving its stability-related goals. The country believes that every individual should have access to and be a part of the banking network, emphasizing the need for financial inclusion.

Financial Institutions Perspective

The financial sector in Mauritius acknowledges its role in the transition towards a more sustainable economic model. While a comprehensive regulatory framework regarding sustainability is still evolving, a significant portion of the banking sector is actively engaged in green banking and sustainability issues. Financial institutions recognize the importance of assessing the risks and opportunities associated with sustainability-related projects and welcome the guidance provided by financial authorities.

Collaboration with International Organizations

Mauritius has also collaborated with international organizations to enhance its sustainable finance practices. For instance, the country has embraced the Equator Principles, a financial industry benchmark for determining, assessing, and managing environmental and social risks in projects. By adopting these principles, financial institutions in Mauritius ensure that the projects they finance and advise on are developed in a socially responsible manner, reflecting sound environmental management practices.

Government Initiatives and Policies

The government of Mauritius has implemented several initiatives and policies to promote sustainable finance and responsible business practices. These include encouraging private investment, improving the investment climate, and fostering good governance, integrity, and accountability. The government recognizes that a sustainable global financial system is essential for long-term value creation and aims to create an enabling environment for businesses to thrive while considering environmental and social impacts.

The Role of the Central Bank

The Central Bank of Mauritius plays a crucial role in driving sustainable finance and responsible business practices. By collaborating with public and private sectors, the central bank contributes to the development of public policies that promote sustainable finance, ensuring social welfare and environmentally friendly growth. Through its leadership and regulatory oversight, the central bank guides financial institutions in integrating ESG topics into their strategies and improving social, environmental, and climate risk management in their operations.

Case Studies: ESG Initiatives in Mauritius

To illustrate the practical application of ESG principles in Mauritius, lets explore a few case studies highlighting the initiatives undertaken by businesses and financial institutions in the country.

Sustainable Energy Transition

We are setting ambitious energy targets and accelerates its transition towards renewable energy. Electric vehicles (EVs) are playing a significant role in achieving these targets, with zero-emission cars and buses leading the way. By embracing EVs and investing in sustainable energy infrastructure, we are demonstrating our commitment to ESG and reducing its carbon footprint.

Sustainable Development Projects

Mauritius has also witnessed the implementation of sustainable development projects across various sectors. These projects focus on integrating ESG principles into urban planning, infrastructure development, and waste management. By prioritizing sustainability, Mauritius aims to create a more resilient and environmentally friendly society, ensuring the well-being of its citizens and preserving its natural resources for future generations.

Financial Inclusion and Empowerment

Financial inclusion plays a vital role in achieving sustainable development goals. Mauritius recognizes the importance of providing access to financial services for all individuals, regardless of their socioeconomic status. By promoting financial literacy, empowering marginalized communities, and supporting entrepreneurship, Mauritius aims to create an inclusive financial system that fosters economic growth and reduces inequalities.

Future Outlook for Sustainable Finance in Mauritius

The future outlook for sustainable finance in Mauritius is promising. The government of Mauritius has set a target to achieve 35% of renewable energy in its energy mix by 2025. The countrys commitment to sustainable development, coupled with the proactive engagement of financial institutions and the support of financial authorities, creates a conducive environment for the growth of sustainable finance.

Mauritius pledged to cut its greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions by 40% by 2030, and estimates that this will cost USD 6.5 billion to accomplish. Government and the corporate sector will provide USD2.3 billion (35% of the expected need), while USD4.2 billion will have yet to be funded from the international community and donor organizations.

Conclusion

ESG integration is no longer just a trend; it has become a necessity for businesses and countries striving for long-term value creation and sustainable development. Mauritius, with its commitment to sustainable finance and responsible business practices, serves as a shining example of how ESG principles can be effectively implemented. By embracing ESG, Mauritius is not only mitigating risks and enhancing financial performance but also contributing to the well-being of its citizens and the preservation of its environment. As other nations follow suit, the vision of a sustainable global financial system becomes closer to reality.
The French Ambassador to the State of Libya H.E. Mostafa Mihraje today met with representatives of the Libya Energy & Economic Summit.

The 2023 edition of the summit will take place on 8-9 November in Tripoli, after a successful first edition that featured strong French participation. The Ambassador met with James Chester, Senior Director of organizing company Energy Capital & Power (ECP) , and Ahmed Al Ghazali, local partner of ECP and Vice President of AmCham Libya.

The Ambassador and the organizers discussed the promise of Libya as a market for French and European companies; the opportunities across multiple sectors beyond renewables and hydrocarbons; the importance of an enabling economic environment in Libya for international businesses; and Libyas critical relationship with Europe as an energy provider and investment destination. All these topics and more will be covered at the Libya Energy & Economic Summit 2023.

Businesses from France are invited to participate and explore Libyas opportunities in renewable energy, oil and gas, infrastructure, manufacturing and other sectors.
Le gouvernement a pris la decision le 4 aout 2023 dimplementer les recommandations de ces deux plans nationaux concernant la sante publique.

Cabinet has agreed to the implementation of the National Service Framework for Non-Communicable Diseases 2023-2028 and the National Integrated Non-Communicable Disease Action Plan 2023-2028 which have been prepared with the technical assistance of the World Health Organization. The strategic objectives of the National Service Framework aim to:achieve prevention of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs);control and manage NCDs by providing strategic direction and engaging in Multi-Disciplinary Teams and partnerships, shaping the service provision at the Primary Health Care level and referral at higher levels; andset norms and standards, monitor and conduct implementation research, articulate ethical and evidence-based service options, scale up proven technical interventions to improve health situation.

The purpose of the Action Plan was to provide a tool for identifying barriers and opportunities for combatting NCDs and scaling up proven interventions through an implementation roadmap.
As a child, I clearly remember the trip to a big retailer every year to buy the items on our supply list, and can nearly picture standing in the massive school aisle, which in the 80s in the US was chock full of kitschy designs on all kinds of plastic-covered items  markers, binders, pencil boxes, etc  that were not made to last a year. By the time summer break rolled around again, there were bins full of discarded goods, as many kids just dumped their items knowing they would get new ones in August.

In my journey to lower-waste living, I often think about the contrasts of the culture I was raised in and the choices I am making now, especially as I attempt to raise kids with a different relationship to stuff. I want my kids to understand that goods have a monetary and environmental impact and therefore need to be chosen well and cared for, and also that the things we own dont reflect on our personal worth.

This year in Ireland, the costs for primary-school students should be much lower, as the Department of Education is providing schools with funding for books and copies. That still leaves the costs of stationery, bags and lunch gear  as well as uniforms  for parents to cover. There are ways to keep these low.

The starting point for us is to do an audit of what we already have. On a recent rainy day we emptied the pencil cases and sorted everything. We keep a container for use at home of scrappy, short pencils and crayons, and nubs of rubbers  so we sharpened all the pencils that were still usable. We also bought a large pack of plain-wood coloured pencils and some loose regular pencils, rubbers and glue sticks (there are some brands that are in recycled plastic tubes) for the kids to share.

We washed the pencil cases and backpacks with a bar of soap and left them to dry for a few days. One of the kids asked for a new backpack, but we talked about how we bought one that would last for years, and how we could use the money saved for an activity instead. The kids are free to add buttons and keyrings to customise the bags, though.

Over the past several years, there has been a positive movement to normalise the secondhand first principle for school gear. Schools and community centres are operating uniform exchanges, allowing parents to turn in too-small tracksuits, tops and jumpers in good condition and get larger sizes that others have passed along. PAX will be offering a uniform exchange box in-shop throughout August for any Westport school uniforms.

There are also Freecycle Groups for nearly all counties and many towns, where you can post requests for specific items or post photos of what you have to give away. Schooly is an Irish app for pre-loved school items, and Adverts.ie is good for activity-related gear, like musical instruments and sporting equipment.

Ultimately, these steps can help ensure that back-to-school time doesnt cost the earth.



McKinley Neal is the owner of PAX Whole Foods & Eco Goods, a minimal-waste shop in Westport offering bulk organic foods, reusable goods, household products, eco-friendly personal-care items and gifts.
ALL six chambers of commerce in Mayo are hoping to meet to discuss the ongoing fallout over the lack of tourist accommodation in the county.

This comes amid a warning from Westport-based county councillor Peter Flynn that West Mayo is experiencing a very significant drop-off in footfall due to shortage of tourist accommodation.

Every time I go downtown there isnt a business owner that I dont meet that mentions the fact that their income is down, and their footfall is down, Cllr Flynn told The Mayo News.

At present approximately 30 percent of hotel, B&B and guesthouse accommodation in Mayo has been contracted over to the government.

A report from Failte Ireland earlier this year warned that the county was on track to significant revenue due to a shortage of hotel beds.

Speaking to The Mayo News, Westport Chamber CEO Geraldine Horkan said that Westport businesses have experienced a drop-off in tourist spending due to the lack of local accommodation.

Ms Horkan said that each chamber of commerce in Mayo would like to discuss a strategy to deal with the situation, which she said cant continue.

Certainly, some of the retailers in particular are saying that there is a drop-off, she said.

What they are saying is there is day trippers, but what theyre really noticing is the fact that people are not staying in the town because there isnt the accommodation to stay in the town, therefore they are not browsing as long. Its like passing trade.

I know that some of the businesses have said that they would really like to meet with the other chambers and actually have a strategy together with the local councilsand whoever else and see can they come up with a strategy really, because it cant continue, she added.

At present, Mayo is accommodating over 3,000 refugees from Ukraine as well as approximately 900 International Protection Applications.

Motion passed

IN light of this, elected representatives on Mayo County Council recently passed a motion calling on the councils Chief Executive to undertake a report to evaluate the impact on County Mayos ability to support employment, encourage enterprise, deliver critical services and maximise investment in the county.

The report will involve the work of professional consultants and will be presented to county councillors at their September meeting.

According to figures obtained by Cllr Flynn, at least 3.4 percent of Mayos population is now comprised of refugees, above the national figure of 2.1 percent.

Cllr Flynn said that Ireland had gone way beyond the call of duty in accommodating refugees.

I think it was the right thing to do, but we need to take a step back and figure out where are we going to go as a country, Cllr Flynn told The Mayo News.

Are we going to cause damage to a critical part of our economy which will ultimately create a divide amongst refugees and indigenous people? And thats the last thing we want to do. Because if we start shutting down businesses and people start losing jobs, you know the result and I know the result; its going to be a backlash against refugees.

More expense

THE Westport-based councillor said that staying in West Mayo had become more expensive due to a lack of accommodation.

It means people arent going to come back again because it feels like theyve been exploited as part of this whole process so the long-term consequences for West Mayo is very significant if we continue the way we are going.

Cllr Flynn said that Dublin should take in an extra 50,000 refugees to balance the number of refugees being accommodated in each county.

The Fine Gael councillor also labelled the accommodation of refugees in industrial estates as most inappropriate, accusing speculators and faceless opportunists of profiting from the refugee influx .

He cited the ongoing controversy surrounding an industrial unit in Ballina which is due to accommodate nearly 200 asylum seekers, a move which has been opposed by local representatives and businesses.

What theyre doing in counties like Mayo and Donegal is that they are looking at cheap accommodation, the basic standards, and they just fill in as many people as possible into these locations and they dont care about the actual refugees, Cllr Flynn said.

All they care about is maximising their revenue. So counties like Mayo and Donegal are ideal for that because you can buy substandard properties for relatively cheap money and let people into them. Thats whats the big issue in Mayo at the moment.
The continued absence of an Irish language secondary school in Castlebar was described as madness at a Municpal District meeting in the town recently. Frainc O Clochartaigh and Emer Mayock from Gaelcholaiste Mhaigh Eo addressed the meeting and outlined the support there is in the area for the establishment of an immersive Irish medium second level school in the town.

They left councillors in no doubt that no half measures will be accepted by the campaigners who have generated large support since hosting a public meeting in Castlebar in February. Currently, there is no second level Irish language secondary school in Mayo outside the Gaeltacht areas and the Castlebar group believe there is a huge need for one in the county town.

The speakers explained how Castlebar is home to Gaelscoil Raifteiri, a highly successful Irish language primary school established in 1983 as the first Gaelscoil in the county, but there has never been a follow-on option for students to continue their immersive Irish language education at secondary school level.

Such is the case too for pupils of Gaelscoil na Cruaiche in Westport, Gaelscoil Uileog de Burca, in Claremorris and Gaelscoil na gCeithre Maol in Ballina.

Children receive a wonderful education through Irish at primary level but after two years in a regular secondary school all the language skills are lost. It's so sad to see and so hard to understand.

We're very happy with Scoil Raifteiri, Ms Mayock told the meeting. It helps them become fluent speakers and they think in Irish as they're immersed in the language, but that all ends at 12. It's so hard to understand why that has been allowed continue to happen. The great work Scoil Raifeiri has been doing for 40 years falls to the ground after two years in secondary

school, she added.

Mr O Clochartaigh said the need for a gaelcholaiste is great in Castlebar and the campaigners will not settle for a 'watered-down' offering.

Sometimes the department looks to provide a half-way house where a gaelcholaiste exists in tandem with another secondary school. That's not for us because it's not a successful formula. We want a fully independent gaelcholaiste for Castlebar and there is great support in the community for it, O Clochartaigh stated.

We're looking for the school to be established in a visible location in the town centre initially and council support is crucial in this. Later, we would be looking to move to a greenfield on the outer limits of the town where access from Westport would be easier, but it's all about support from the community and the council.

That support was clearly evident around the council chamber as all elected representatives passionately welcomed the presentation and pledged all support possible.

Cllr Martin McLoughlin said his family were past pupils of Scoil Raifteiri and he saw at first hand the huge benefits of an Irish medium education. Cllr Blackie Gavin said the gaelcholaiste would be a huge boost to Castlebar life and would add to the vibrancy of the town where the social infrastrtucture was second to none. Cllr Donna Sheridan said there was a school in Tourmakeady offering an all-Irish secondary school experience but Castlebar needed one of their own.

The impact a Castlebar Gaalcholasite would have on the school in Tourmakeady would be a very positive one according to Emer Mayock. We wouldn't threaten their funding or well-being. Instead we would enhance many of the things already happening in Tourmakeady through sharing of resources because that's the way we think and operate.

Cllr Al McDonnell, cathaoirleach of the Municipal District, said the gaelcholaiste project had huge support in the community, even more than the campaigners realised and he pledged the council's support in the establishment of the school.
(Evening Standard)

The Edinburgh Fringe has always had the power to create comedy stars. The likes of Steve Coogan and Frank Skinner might never have made it big  and certainly not so quickly  without first winning the prestigious Edinburgh Comedy Award.

In a frenetic, fast-paced world of TikTok views and online clicks, talent still has to prove itself on stage and Edinburgh remains the place to do it. Below is our pick of this years contenders to break out and make it big.

Benji Waterstones, Pleasance Courtyard

(handout)

Someone, somewhere must surely be writing a PhD thesis on the overlap between the medical profession and comedy. From Jonathan Miller to Adam Kay, medics have regularly pivoted from stethoscopes to stand-up. There are at least seven medically-trained comedians in Edinburgh this year. Waterstones already has a book deal and television series in development. His specialism is psychiatry, hence the title of his autobiographical show, You Dont Have To Be Mad To Work Here

Larry Owens, Assembly Roxy

(Bridget Badore)

Larry Owens is destined to make a splash with his Edinburgh debut, POC - Proof of Concept. Owens is an all-round entertainer who already has a following back home in New York. He cut his teeth on the same club circuit as full-throttle star Catherine Cohen and gained further traction starring in the Broadway production of acclaimed hit A Strange Loop. This solo run is the perfect platform for his crowdpleasing versatility. Expect impressions of Oprah and Rugrats characters alongside virtuoso vocals.

Mary OConnell, Pleasance Courtyard

(handout)

You can usually tell who is going to be a next big thing by their regular appearances in comedy competitions. The likes of Jimmy Carr, Jack Whitehall and Greg Davies moved through the ranks via comedy finals and recently Mary OConnell has been figuring in laugh-offs too. She recently banked the biggest ever prize in comedy, 100,000 in the inaugural OnlyFans Creative Fund competition and is both funny and outspoken about being a queer woman of colour in an industry dominated by straight white males. Her show, Money Princess, is all about the conflict of loving money but hating capitalism.

Story continues

Mr Sister, Just The Tonic

Ever since French and Saunders stopped working together, the call has eternally sounded for the new French and Saunders. The fact that they have now started collaborating again has not stopped the search. The latest contender is Mr Sister, the alias of Holly Kellingray and Brooke Jones. Their upcoming Fringe show is a selection of barmy characters and deranged sketches exploring their relationship as besties forever. They have already clocked up over 15 million TikTok views but its as a live duo on stage that they truly come alive.

Kuan-wen Huang, Gilded Balloon

(Karle Gowlett)

South London-based Huang claims to be the only Taiwan-born stand-up on the English circuit. He makes his Fringe debut with Ilha Formosa, the story of how he traded sunny Taiwan  the title means beautiful island  for rain-sodden Britain. It is a timely piece, with Huang reflecting on identity as the threat of Chinese invasion hangs over his birthplace. A regular MC at LGBTQ+ events, he has an engagingly impish sensibility and is also a qualified accountant. Youll laugh and might even get advice on doing your tax returns.

Joe McTernan, Underbelly

(handout)

Local comedians are often overlooked during the Fringe but Joe McTernan could change that. The Edinburgh-based stand-up has over 30 million views and 170,000 online followers for his character-based sketches. He makes his debut with Life Advice That Wont Change Your Life, skewering inspirational quotes, self-help sermonising and motivational mumbo jumbo. His fame is certainly on the rise: McTernan recently shot an Instagram reel with Angie Harmon from TV series Law & Order after she saw his work and visited him in Scotland.

Tatty Macleod, Monkey Barrel

(handout)

This is the Edinburgh debut from a rising star whose online following has seen her dubbed The French TikTok lady, thanks to her viral clips about Gallic versus English culture. Macleod is well placed to comment. She was raised in France but in 2007 decided to return to the UK. In her show Fugue she excavates the nature of cultural identity and as someone straddling different cultures explores the divide between the two countries and their longstanding complex, sometimes dysfunctional, relationship.

Alexandra Haddow, Pleasance Courtyard

(Ella Kemp)

Corby-born Haddow was recently awarded a 500 bursary by Londons West End Comedy Club to support her Fringe run. The money might not be life-changing but the endorsement by the club confirms what the comedy world already suspected, that Haddow is going places. In Not Her Finest Hour, Haddow finds the funny side of the bad decisions she has made in her life regarding relationships, sex, feminism, kids, and even dancing. It looks, however, as if she has made a good decision by deciding to perform at the Fringe.

Megan Stalter, Gilded Balloon

(Alexa Viscius)

American whirlwind Stalter crossed the Atlantic for a brief run in London a couple of years ago, but this is her Edinburgh debut and it promises to be unmissable. The self-mocking stand-up, who appeared in the US comedy-about-comedy Hacks, calls her live show An Evening Of Mayhem and for once that might be an understatement. She sings, she tells jokes, she chats to the audience. If you want something predictable steer clear. Anything can happen when Stalter is in the room. The only thing for sure is that you wont have seen anything quite like this before.

Lachlan Werner, Pleasance Courtyard

(handout)

The Edinburgh Fringe is as renowned for discovering curveball acts such as Doctor Brown and Jordan Brookes as giving early shout-outs to stars who would go on to mainstream success such as Peter Kay and John Bishop. A potential offbeat breakthrough act this year is Lachlan Werner, who trained at clown school Ecole Philippe Gaulier (like the aforementioned Doctor Brown, and also Sacha Baron Cohen). Werner mixes comedy with puppetry and horror in the cartoonish Voices Of Evil and has been described as the demon love-child of The Muppets and The Exorcist  how can you resist that pitch?

Josh Jones, Pleasance Courtyard

(Jiksaw)

There is a lengthy tradition in comedy of gossipy, camp stand-ups becoming household names, from Alan Carr back to Larry Grayson and beyond. Chatty Mancunian Josh Jones could well be the next in line to be embraced by the mainstream. Jones was on the cusp of fame before the pandemic but has been making up for lost time since, picking up a Best Newcomer nomination in Edinburgh last year. He has the kind of oven-ready personality that is made for television. Catch him live now before he takes up residence on your screens.

Lorna Rose Treen, Pleasance Courtyard

(Will Hearle)

Ive never seen character comedian Lorna Rose Treen do the same thing twice. Ive seen her play a gothic vamp and a childlike girl scout on stage, two characters so different it is hard to believe they were played by the same person. Treen says that she has been pretending to be other people for fun since she could dress herself and it shows in her commitment to each unique creation. What they do have in common is that they showcase Treens off-kilter comic sensibility. Just when you think that every angle has been covered Treen takes things to another refreshingly original level.

The Edinburgh Fringe runs from August 4 to 28
LUMINELLE, a medtech company based in North Carolina, has developed a suite of endoscopic tools that allow clinicians to perform visually guided gynecological procedures right from their office. At present, the majority of uterine biopsies taken to investigate the cause of abnormal uterine bleeding are taken blind, with no visual guidance at all. This leads to suboptimal outcomes, and the frequent need to repeat the biopsy procedure because the first attempt did not yield an adequate sample.

To address this, LUMINELLE has developed the LUMINELLE SUSTAINE system and the LUMINELLE Bx (Biopsy) device. These technologies are designed to allow clinicians to visualize the biopsy process without the need for extra tools. The system includes an on-board camera and light, and it automatically adjusts viewing parameters such as image focus, light intensity, and exposure to enhance image quality.

Heres a short company video presenting the LUMINELLE Bx:

Medgadget had the opportunity to speak with Allison London Brown, CEO and co-founder of LUMINELLE, to get an overview of the technology.

Conn Hastings, Medgadget: Please give us an overview of uterine cancer, and its current prognosis and prevalence.

Allison London Brown, LUMINELLE: The latest data states that we have a growing prevalence of uterine cancer and other uterine disorders. In fact, since 2017, the prevalence of uterine cancer amongst African American women has increased 8% year-over-year and 5-6% in Hispanic women.

Now, uterine cancer is the fourth leading type of cancer in women and the sixth leading cause of death. And unfortunately, we have not changed how these disorders are diagnosed, despite an early warning sign of abnormal uterine bleeding (AUB) and the technology for diagnosis. Additionally, there is no blood test for uterine cancer  it must be diagnosed using actual tissue.

Medgadget: How are such cancers detected and diagnosed at present? How is this suboptimal?

Allison London Brown: Abnormal uterine bleeding (AUB) affects about one-third of women annually. It is the primary symptom and a great early warning sign of uterine disease and uterine cancer.

Diagnosis of the source of AUB is a significant clinical need, and can only be diagnosed using actual uterine tissue, not a blood test. A directed biopsy  visually guided, using an endoscope inserted into the uterus, through the vagina and cervix  is the standard of care to diagnose the underlying cause of AUB, yet over 70% of biopsies are completed blindly. A suction curette (straw-like device) is the most commonly used device primarily due to its convenience, cost, and ease of use. And this blind approach results in flawed outcomes.

A suction curette can only sample 4% of the uterus. A positive result is generally correct. However, if negative, the patient will require further evaluation. Unfortunately, according to recent data from lab groups, over 60% of all samples are inadequate  meaning that there is not enough tissue to even determine if there is disease present, and this results in additional costs, visits, and longer time to diagnose. Conversely, the use of a scope and instruments to take a biopsy sample, just like in a colonoscopy, produces an almost 100% accurate outcome (97% sensitivity and 100% specificity).

However, the cost and complexity of using a bulky endoscope system and large diameter scope can be prohibitive in the office setting. It takes extra staff and extra time, and certainly needs appropriate anesthesia for pain management. So, while physicians want to be able to accurately diagnose uterine disorders in the first visit, simply and cost-effectively, there is not the right technology solution that allows for this to easily occur in the office. Until now.

Medgadget: Please give us an overview of the LUMINELLE SUSTAINE System and its features.

Allison London Brown: The patented LUMINELLE SUSTAINE system offers a comprehensive endoscopic office solution that includes a reusable slim-line scope and the LUMINELLE Control Hub with smart-focus technology. The system allows physicians to perform uterine and urological procedures with superior HD visualization employing a novel algorithm that intelligently adjusts light intensity, exposure, and image focus to the specific cavity size  all with an integrated fluid flow system.

LUMINELLE SUSTAINE is customized to the procedure with a portfolio of interchangeable single-use operative and diagnostic RotoSheath including the LUMINELLE DTx (Operative), Dx (Diagnostic), and launching soon, the new LUMINELLE Bx (Biopsy) 360 RotoSheath platform. The LUMINELLE Bx allows a physician to see, diagnose and sample  all with one device, one cervical pass, and accurate diagnosis the first time.

Medgadget: How does the LUMINELLE Bx (Biopsy) work, and what are its advantages?

Allison London Brown: LUMINELLE Bx (Biopsy) device is our major foray into truly solving the challenges with endometrial cancer diagnosis. A directed biopsy (visually guided) is the standard of care to diagnose the source of AUB, yet over 70% of biopsies are completed blindly, using a suction straw-like device, primarily due to the challenges that physicians may face using biopsy instruments. Again, this blind approach results in flawed outcomes.

LUMINELLE Bx enables physicians to conduct a directed biopsy, while still employing the technique with which they are already familiar. This is the first and only device affording physicians an accurate method to simultaneously visualize and sample tissue without extra instruments (e.g., scissors, graspers). It has continuous flow and a small diameter that may minimize the anesthesia needed. The design allows a physician to actually see the tissue that they want to collect and watch while they are collecting it, plus allowing for visual confirmation that they did get adequate tissue. The LUMINELLE Bx allows a physician to see, diagnose and sample  all with one device, one cervical pass, and accurate diagnosis the first time.

Using our LUMINELLE System now with the simple LUMINELLE Bx RotoSheath allows physicians to meet todays standard of care and provides a prompt diagnosis of cancerous tissues while replacing the over 6 million inaccurate procedures.

Medgadget: What inspired you to develop this system?

Allison London Brown: I have worked in womens health since my early days at J&J, so over 25 yrs. I joke sometimes that I feel like I touched every single womans brand when I was there. But it was a great training ground and learning opportunity. It gave me the opportunity to learn about some of the greatest physicians out there, like Dr. Amy Garcia, Dr. Malcolm Munro, and Dr. David Robinson. And these relationships translated into our company today. In fact, Dr. Robinson is our chief medical officer, Dr. Garci is the chair of our medical advisory board, and Dr. Munro is on the advisory board. They were so gracious in their willingness to work with us in our startup.

I definitely think understanding the market is critical  what gynecologists are doing, what they are not doing, and what they want to do. Listening and observing, coupled with an understanding of epidemiology and recent data to see what should be seen today is really part of it.

However, what drives me is a deeper, underlying passion. I have felt since I was in college that there was a calling for me to do something significant to transform the lives of women. And it was just for a time such as this for us to understand what the true needs and gaps are. When you spend most of your time looking at the big glaring problems in health care and major surgical interventions, you can easily overlook the simplest but most important clinical gaps. I think it is truly the saying cant see the forest for the trees. There are numerous visual puns that we can make about this.

And of course, it also took the right team to get to where we are. My chief operating officer and partner, Erich Dreyer, is such an important piece of our puzzle. He has created a beautiful, elegant device, which is complex in design but so simple for the physician to use. And most importantly, it gives us an easy solution to an early diagnosis for women.

Medgadget: How do you see this type of technology progressing in the future? Do you have any plans to expand the capabilities of the system further, or any new technologies in development?

Allison London Brown: We are always looking for new ways to improve the current standard of care. Expansion of the LUMINELLE portfolio is intended to meet the needs of smaller or rural offices, offices with reprocessing restrictions, and situations that need immediate care. We will continue to listen to physicians and understand the needs of the office setting as well as urgent care or even trauma situations. So, I anticipate that we will continue to develop innovative solutions by looking at them with a more focused lens.

And I would say our ultimate goal is to provide clinical solutions to problems that need visualization. While the endoscopic system is a great tool, the real magic is in the Rotosheath portfolio and the simplicity of our devices.

Company homepage: LUMINELLE
Media Sector DRC Assessment

USAID/DRC Mission Strategic Support Program

Short Term Assignment

SoCha and MSSP Overview

SoCha is an international development company based in the United States with field offices in Kinshasa and Goma, the Democratic Republic of Congo. Our name is based on a combination of the words Social and Change. We provide a variety of professional services to multilateral and bilateral donors, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and global clients that need analytical and technical services. In the last decade, weve delivered 50 contracts to 17 clients in 28 countries that address global health, economic growth, agriculture and trade, education, biodiversity and climate change, urban programs, women in development, youth, and collaborative partnerships.

SoCha is contracted to provide technical and advisory services to the United States Agency for International Development in the Democratic Republic of Congo (USAID/DRC) on the 5-year Mission Strategic Support Program (MSSP). MSSP works to strengthen Mission strategic monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) systems; manage high quality data; provide geo-intelligence; produce rigorous analyses that inform decision making; institutionalize collaborating, learning, and adapting (CLA) practices; expand localization through targeted and deliberate capacity building; generate action-oriented data visualizations and communications; and provide Mission personnel with third-party monitoring in areas they cannot access.

Background

The current USAID Media Sector Development Activity (MSDA) implemented since July 2019 promotes citizen participation and engagement in the elections and political processes. It does so by i) Increasing accurate and reliable information on electoral and political processes to Congolese citizens; ii) Strengthening the capacity of journalists and community radio outlets to produce and air news and information on the electoral and political processes as the situation develops; iii) Strengthening the capacity of electoral CSOs to advocate for and communicate about electoral reforms and processes, and iv) Supporting existing youth movements and their online platforms to reduce disinformation on elections and political processes.

Among its major achievements in the past year, MSDA has a) developed the skills and knowledge of hundreds of journalists, civil society and political party representatives on fact-checking particularly in Kinshasa, Lubumbashi and Bukavu through trainings, b) held roundtable debates that provided an opportunity for citizens to access information on the elections, c) engaged with mostly youth and women audiences through a combination of radio program and rumor bulletins shared through social media platforms (thus creating a pathway for promoting active citizen participation in the electoral process), d) funded the ideas of several hackathons to create two major apps - on the electoral process and on electoral information (the latter for CSOs use only), e) launched a rumor-tracking dashboard that collected more than 300 election- related rumors and produced bulletins that identify and debunk rumors, f) identified 70 WhatsApp groups with around 17,000 members, 13 Facebook groups and 107 influencers popular on social media platforms that will be engaged when distributing social media content addressing hate speech, fake news and misinformation cases related to the electoral process.

USAID/DRC/DRG is looking at further support to this program that would enable the mission to respond to further advancing media freedoms in the DRC by overcoming or softening pending legal challenges, improving the capacity of traditional and new media outlets, and prevention of and resilience to disinformation. USAID/DRC/DRG is also looking forward to designing the next media program and activities where the recommendations of this Assessment will be used.

Scope of Work

Objectives Of The Assignment

The objective of this assessment will be to prepare a robust analysis of the media landscape in DRC, identifying the broader needs of the sector/s and provide recommendations on possible areas for USAID programmatic interventions that will advance the objective of defending and expanding independent media.

MSSP is seeking a local team leader with a strong background in the education sector and experience in conducting qualitative and quantitative studies to lead this study. The study aims to inform the future design of school funding programs that lead to improvements in education outcomes for low-income populations. The team leader will perform the following tasks during the assignment.

Specific Objectives

The specific objectives of this assessment include:

Assess the media landscape in the DRC including critical capacities and challenges to media effectiveness and development.

Identify lessons learned and persisting gaps from USAID past and ongoing media programs, including MSDA, to inform the design and implementation of USAID/DRCs future media program.

Purpose of the consultancy

MSSP is seeking a Team Leader with strong expertise in coordinating and leading studies to support the implementation of Media sector assessment in the DRC. The Team Leader will work with the Local Firm to ensure the effective implementation of the assessment across six provinces. The assessment findings will inform the development of USAID/DRCs future media program.

Task 1: Conduct preliminary consultations and desk review and develop an Inception Report

The Team Leader shall develop an Inception report with a detailed methodology of the assessment. This Inception report will be developed in collaboration with MSSP, and the Local Firm. The Inception report shall describe the methodology, the geographical scope, stakeholder mapping, data collection tools, data collection procedure; data management and analysis, implementation plan, quality assurance; potential limitations, risks, and mitigation measures etc.

Develop the data collection tool:

The Team Leader will develop an assessment matrix specifying for each assessment question and sub-question: the data source, data collection method, location, timeline, responsibility.

The team leader will also develop the data collection tools (roundtable discussion guide and reporting template, key informant interview (KII) and focus group discussion guides) during the inception phase.

Task 2: Conduct an in-depth desk review

The Team Leader will collate information already known to inform discussions during the Media Ecosystem Roundtable.

The desk review will aim to inform the consultation and will focus on key articles, reports, and publications of interest related to media development, media and democracy, and journalism-related topics in the national context. The consultant should select the existing publications, critically analyze them, and focus on explaining findings to a general audience.

Task 3: Conduct the Media Ecosystem Roundtable (MER)

The Consultant will lead the MER. This will be a two-day discussion session on key aspects of the media development situation in the DRC.

This meeting with civil society and media industry stakeholders will result in an overview of the media situation in the country, providing key information on the three main areas of the media sector assessment, namely: 1) the political economy of the media; 2) institutions, journalistic professionalism, and managerial professionalism; and 3) audiences: access and inclusion.

Findings from the MER will be summarized, used to refine the assessment methodology and capitalized in the assessment report.

Task 4: Collect data for the assessment across the targeted provinces

Prior to data collection, the team leader will participate in the pre-testing, oversee the adaptation and finalization of the KIIs and FGDs guides with the Socha MSSP team based on feedback from the pilots testing.

In collaboration with the local firm, the team leader will collect data in Kinshasa and remotely oversee all the data collection by the local firm in the other selected provinces.

An estimated 53 key informant interviews will be conducted with the main stakeholders identified. 12 FGDs will be conducted with selected stakeholders, 2 in each targeted province.

Task 5: Develop a PPT to present preliminary findings

Just at the end of the data collection phase, the Team Leader will make a brief presentation of the preliminary findings of the study to MSSP and the mission. This presentation will enable her or him to identify any aspects that require further investigation during the analysis phase.

Task 6: Analyze the data collected

The Team Leader will work with the Local firm to ensure that all qualitative data collected will be transcribed by converting audio-recordings of interviews and FGDs to text format and all recordings will be transcribed verbatim (i.e., word-for-word). To facilitate the process, at the end of each interview and FGD, data captured in the audio-recorder will be readily transcribed into a Word document. Written notes and transcripts will be analyzed using content analysis. During the analysis, emerging themes, ideas, and concepts that emerged from the data will be identified and interpreted.

To answer each quality question, the related data will be grouped into small items and categories to facilitate analysis. Data analyzed will be accurately interpreted and a report developed highlighting the key findings, conclusions, and recommendations.

The Team Leader will need to ensure continuous analysis of all data through regular team meetings, as this iterative process will allow emerging issues to be explored. Collecting data from a variety of sources will allow the team to triangulate findings to generate robust study results.

Task 7: Develop a draft Assessment Report

The final report of this assessment to be developed by the Team Leader and its team will describe the strength of the evidence on which the conclusions were drawn, in order to support the reliability and validity of the Assessment. The report will reflect a rigorous, methodological, and thoughtful approach, with conclusions and recommendations based on the Assessment findings. The executive summary will be prepared in English and French as a stand-alone section of the final report to communicate key findings and recommendations to external audiences. The Team Leader will forward the report to MSSP and USAID for comments and feedback.

At a minimum, the final assessment report will be made up of the following sections: Table of Contents; Acknowledgement; Acronyms & Abbreviation; List of Tables; List of Figures, Executive Summary, Introduction, Background and Purpose, Methodology; Main Findings; Conclusions; Recommendations; Bibliography; and Annexes. Annexes will include, but not limited to data collection instruments, bibliography; list of people interviewed; terms of reference etc. Two versions of the report will be published: an internal version and an external version.

Task 8. Organize a dissemination workshop.

The team leader will liaise with MSSP and USAID/DRC to organize a dissemination workshop at which the results will be presented. Participants in this workshop will include key media sector stakeholders, representatives of USAID-supported media outlets and organizations, USAID representatives, IPs supporting media and CSOs in the DRC and other relevant stakeholders. The workshop will provide an opportunity to discuss the assessments findings and address any factual errors or misunderstandings.

A maximum of 35 people representing the key stakeholder groups will participate in the workshop. The workshop will be an opportunity to validate the results and recommendations of the study and to reach a consensus on the study. A workshop report will be developed and will be fed into the final Assessment report.

Task 9. Revise and submit finalize the report/ Reporting.

The Team Leader will consider the comments received and feedback from the workshop, revise and resubmit a final Assessment Report. MSSP will share a draft template for the study Report with the Team Leader. Two versions of the report will be prepared: an internal and external version for publication (a version of the internal report with sensitive information redacted for stakeholders).

Deliverables and Timeline

The period of performance for this assignment is from September to November 2023. However, the exact number of days for this assignment will be determined based on the Assessment Teams implementation plan and the commencement date will be agreed upon in the contract.

The main deliverables of this assignment and timeline are summarized below. The final documents and reports shall be submitted to MSSP in English.

Deliverables Deadline Preliminary consultations, preliminary desk review and inception report September 8, 2023 Desk review summary report September 29, 2023 Media Ecosystem Roundtable Summary Report October 9, 2023 Conduct and supervise field data collection October 21, 2023 Preliminary findings presentation October 23, 2023 Data analysis October 31, 2023 Draft Report November 4, 2023 Final presentation November 22, 2023 Final Report November 28, 2023

Required Qualifications and Competencies

Advanced degree (Masters/PhD in Communication/Journalism, Social Sciences, international relations, human rights, media law, governance, Political Sciences, or a closely related field.

Demonstrated in-depth knowledge of the media sector in the DRC.

Previous experience in carrying out works or studies including analysis of the media sector is an asset.

Previous experience in managing a team and coordinating qualitative data collection.

Excellent organizational skills and ability to prioritize and manage multiple tasks.

At least 5 years experience leading studies and surveys and expertise in qualitative data analyses (familiarity with qualitative data analysis software: NVivo, Atlas.ti etc.)

Previous experience synthesizing and analyzing large amounts of qualitative data with the ability to produce high-quality reports in English.

Professional fluency in French, and English is required.

Strong writing and interpersonal communication skills.

How to apply:

Interested Consultants should submit their application which should contain:

Cover letter (1 page) explaining why you are the most suitable candidate for this assignment.

Updated CV to include qualifications/competencies.

Copies of similar studies the Consultant has authored.

To submit your application, please apply directly on our recruitment page on our website, using this link :

https://jobs.socha.net/media-sector-drc-assessment-usaid-drc-mission-strategic-support-program-short-term-assignment/08/04/2023/



Candidates will only be considered if they apply directly on our website. The deadline for submitting applications is August 11, 2023. Review of applications will be on a rolling basis.

Evaluation of Applications

Applications will be first screened and only candidates meeting the minimum criteria will progress to the pool for short listing. Shortlisted candidates will then be assessed and scored against the technical evaluation criteria and interviews will be conducted accordingly.
by Sarah Mahoney @mahoney_sarah, August 4, 2023

Both Etsy and Wayfair released quarterly financial reports that show progress, even as consumers continue to cut back on nest-feathering.

For its second quarter, Brooklyn-based Etsy posted a slight dip in gross merchandise sales, which declined 0.6%, while revenue rose 7.5% to $628.9 million. Net income slipped to $61.9 million, down from $73.1 million in the year-ago quarter.

The number of active buyers rose 3% to hit 91 million, a record growth accelerated 3% year-over-year.

The company is also flexing into new territory, like a celebrity collaboration with John Legend. And its introduced a wedding registry. That's gone so well that Etsy is fast-tracking registries for babies and universal gifting.

But while it has seen encouraging trends for May, June, and July, Etsy released lukewarm guidance for the months ahead, disappointing investors.

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Calling it a tough quarter, Sean Dunlop, an analyst who follows Etsy for Morningstar, see plenty of positives in the report. Those include important developments like continued growth in spending among new buyers on the platform, improvements in curation technology and the rollout of a new pricing tool.

"The artisanal marketplace has struggled to lap its commanding performance during the throes of COVID-19," he writes. But he is encouraged to see an uptick in active buyers and stabilization in Etsy's critical habitual buyer cohort. He predicts Etsy will return to above-market growth as economic pressures ease.

Over at Wayfair, second-quarter revenue slipped 3.4% to $3.2 billion, just 0.4% in the U.S., to $2.8 billion. And it lost just $46 million, compared to $378 million in the year-ago quarter.

Those numbers beat expectations, as the Boston-based company says its broad transformation efforts are beginning to show results. Significantly, earnings before income taxes -- a measure closely watched by investors -- moved into positive territory.

"This is how we ran the business for our first decade and how we'll continue to do so going forward," says Niraj Shah, chief executive officer and co-founder, in the announcement.

The number of active Wayfair customers fell 7.6% to 21.8 million. But revenue-per-active customers increased by 1.5%, and the number of orders placed by repeat customers grew by 6.4%.
by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, August 3, 2023

Vaccine critic Robert F Kennedy Jr., who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, claims in a new lawsuit that YouTube violated the First Amendment by removing videos in which he expressed controversial views about vaccinations.

One of those videos was of an event held in March at Saint Anselm College's New Hampshire Institute of Politics Kennedy, where Kennedy delivered a speech in which he questioned the pharmaceutical industry.

Manchester Public Television posted the speech to YouTube, but the platform removed it -- allegedly due to Kennedy's remarks regarding vaccines.

His complaint also alleges that YouTube removed clips of interviews he did with podcast hosts Jordan Peterson and Joe Rogan, due to remarks that violated the platform's policy regarding medical misinformation.

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This censorship campaign prevents Mr. Kennedys message from reaching millions of voters, his complaint alleges. It also makes it harder for groups that are supporting his campaign to amplify his message through public sources.

He alleges that YouTube took down the material as part of a partnership with the White House to censor dissenting views.

To support this contention, the complaint references a highly publicized July 2021 press conference at which former Press Secretary Jen Psaki and Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued recommendations aimed at curbing false information about COVID-19. At that event, Murthy said the government was asking tech companies to monitor and take action against misinformation super-spreaders, while Psaki said the government was flagging problematic posts for Facebook that spread disinformation.

He also contends his candidacy for office have made him an even bigger target for the public/private censorship regime that Google and YouTube are an integral part of.

Kennedy's complaint characterizes YouTube as the digital equivalent of the town square, and a public forum of some sort.

Whether it is a traditional public forum, a limited public forum or something else does not matter, the complaint alleges. It cannot exclude people from the platform based on their viewpoint.

The candidate is seeking a court order declaring that YouTube violated the First Amendment, and requiring the company to restore videos of his remarks.

A YouTube spokesperson says the claims are meritless, and that the company applies its content guidelines without regard to political viewpoint.

It's worth noting that federal judges have already ruled that private social media companies aren't bound by the First Amendment's prohibition against censorship. In those cases, judges have said private companies don't become state actors -- meaning agents of the government -- merely by agreeing to requests by government officials.

For instance in 2021, U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston in the Northern District of California dismissed claims that Meta Platforms violated the First Amendment rights of the group Children's Health Defense (an organization Kennedy founded) by allegedly deactivating a fund-raising tool it used on the platform, and demoting or banning material the organization posted.

Children's Health Defense unsuccessfully argued in that case that Meta changed its content policies due to coercion by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-California).

The organization referred to a letter sent by Schiff to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in February of 2019, blasting the company for enabling the spread of anti-vaccine propaganda on the service. Soon afterward, Facebook announced new policies aimed at cracking down on anti-vaxxers -- including removing access to fundraising tools for groups that spread false news about vaccinations.

Illston said in her ruling that those allegations, even if true, wouldn't show that the government coerced Meta or directed the company to suppress content.

The organization has appealed to the 9th Circuit, which hasn't yet issued a decision.

Kennedy isn't the only politician to argue that platforms violate the First Amendment by moderating content.

Former President Donald Trump brought similar claims against Meta, X Corp. (then named Twitter) and YouTube.

U.S. District Court Judge James Donato in the Northern District of California threw out Trump's complaint against X. Corp last year, ruling that the First Amendment only prohibits censorship by the government.

Plaintiffs only hope of stating a First Amendment claim is to plausibly allege that Twitter was in effect operating as the government, Donato wrote at the time. This is not an easy claim to make, for good reasons. Private entities are presumed to act as such.

Trump has appealed that ruling to the 9th Circuit, which has scheduled arguments in the case for October 4 in Pasadena.
by Tanya Gazdik , August 3, 2023

The tourism and visitors bureau for a suburban Columbus, Ohio town is taking a light-hearted approach in its efforts to attract young families looking for an easy weekend getaway.

This audience is more likely to travel within a days drive and desires off-the-beaten-path and novel experiences, says Sarah Blatnik, marketing director, Visit Dublin, a private, nonprofit organization.

The target audience for the paid media campaign is ages 25-44, Blatnik tells Marketing Daily.

"Historically, this age range has shown consistently higher engagement with Visit Dublin content," she says.

The challenge for Lexington, Ky.-based Cornett, the organizations new AOR, was, how do you get people talking about a mid-sized town with an Irish name in the middle of Ohio?

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Cornett won the creative and media business in March after a review. Blatnik declined to reveal the previous agency or financial details of the campaign or the groups annual budget.

The team at Visit Dublin came to Cornett looking for something new and werent afraid to take a light-hearted, playful approach, Blatnik says. When you rep a city that boasts a field of concrete corn statues, its hard to take yourself too seriously.

The video campaign Youre in Luck plays into early '90s sitcom nostalgia to position Dublin as a hidden gem.

The campaign includes three spots with 12 accompanying static executions and runs through August and again in October across Google and Meta platforms.

Dublin is a place filled with wholesomeness and charm, says Jason Majewski, creative director at Cornett.

We wanted a campaign that brought that forward and left a fun, lasting impression, says Majewski, an Ohio native who graduated from Dublin Coffman High School in 2005. We pretty much asked what if this town was a sitcom? and brought it to life with visuals and music.

Located 20 miles from Columbus, Dublin is best known for its Irish Festival and the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday, an official PGA tour event. But the city also offers downtown dining in Bridge Park, the Columbus Zoo and public art including giant cement corn, according to the campaign.

Humor and a little bit of kitsch felt right, to connect with busy parents looking for a quick little getaway, Blatnik says.

The work is the first from Cornetts new senior copywriter, Alexis Wilkinson, who previously was a TV comedy writer on HBO's Veep and Fox's Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

Wilkinson says she drew inspiration from her television roots.

Theres a real nostalgia for fun family shows set in these charming towns, so we wanted to create a modern version thats uniquely Dublin, Wilkinson says. Being funny and self-aware about the citys quirkiness felt right.

Cornett looked at performance media results from best practices case studies in the travel and tourism category to create aggressive KPI benchmarks across Google and paid social platforms.

Halfway into the campaign, our optimization efforts have far exceeded our initial estimates, with an average of 46% lower costs across all performance media tactics, says Chris Finnegan, vice president, director of brand connections at Cornett. To date, weve delivered 90% of the impressions and clicks and 60% more video views than we originally estimated.




Matthew Smith was a teacher at the Royal childrens school when he was arrested on suspicion of child abuse (National Crime Agency)

A former deputy head at Prince George and Princess Charlottes first school confessed I dont like the person I am when he was caught grooming children for sex online, a court has heard.

Matthew Smith, 35, instructed boys aged eight and ten to perform sexual acts on camera, sending money and promising to pay for school fees as rewards.

Smith was appointed as deputy head of pastoral care at Thomass prep school in Battersea in September last year, after a five-year stint teaching in Nepal.

But his work at the UK school came to an abrupt end in November last year, when he was arrested and charged with a catalogue of abuse of children in India, together with possession of more than 120,000 indecent images and videos.

Clearly I have an addiction, probably in this area, he said, during his police interview. I dont like the person I am. I would give anything to be normal. Anything.

Judge Martin Griffith, sitting at Southwark crown court, told a hearing on Friday that Smith is not accused of committing any crimes at the Battersea school.

He was arrested by National Crime Agency officers in a raid on his home in East Dulwich, southeast London, when he was caught red-handed on his computer speaking to a boy in India.

He had dark web forums dedicated to child sexual abuse open on his laptop, while evidence showed he had paid out more than 65,000 to abused children between 2017 and his 2022 arrest.

Details of the Smiths offending were revealed at Fridays hearing, as Judge Griffith told the former teacher faces a substantial prison term when sentence is passed next week.

Prosecutor Martin Hooper told the court: His history is important. At the time of his arrest in 2022, he was employed as a teacher. He was the deputy head of pastoral care at a preparatory school in Battersea, where pupils were aged between four and 14.

Prior to that, he was a teacher in Nepal between 2017 and 2022.

Smith lived in India between 2007 and 2014, and was volunteering in orphanage where children were aged from two to 15.

Story continues

The court heard Smith sent requests for photos and videos of a ten-year-old boy being abused, and transferred 7,500 in payment for the images and videos.

Other material indicated Smith had bathed naked and engaged in sexual activity with a boy in India.

When the boy was older, Smith  referred to as uncle  encouraged him to lure an eight-year-old boy away from his family with the express intention that he would be sexually abused, said Mr Hooper.

The defendant said he would pay their school fees in return

Images found on Smiths laptop show the boy being explicitly and repeatedly abused according to Smiths instructions. In one of the recovered messages, Smith asks if the young boy is ready for some fun.

Smiths barrister told the court he has written to relatives and close friends to explain to them exactly what has happened, to express to them the fact that he does not expect so much as a response, but to apologise to them for the distress that this news may well have caused them.

She said Smith has spent time in prison so far teaching reading, writing and maths to fellow inmates, and he has committed to seeing treatment for the causes of his offending.

He is keen indeed to make changes, and he understands that change cant be made simply by making verbal commitments, she said. He will continue to devote himself to searching for appropriate intervention wherever it is properly available to him.

Smith pleaded guilty to three counts of encouraging the rape of a child under 13, three charges of causing a boy under 13 to engage in sexual activity, arranging and encouraging the sexual abuse of a child, possession of an extreme pornographic image, and 11 charges relating to the possession, making, and distribution of indecent images of children.

After the guilty pleas were entered, Thomass prep school said in a statement: We have been shocked and appalled beyond measure by this matter and are grateful for the work of the police and courts in bringing this man to account.

Mr Smiths employment at the school, which commenced in September 2022, was terminated with immediate effect when the school first learned of the charges against him in November.

While the National Crime Agency has confirmed that none of the matters under investigation related to the school or its pupils, these deplorable actions constitute an unforgivable breach of trust and our thoughts are with those who have been impacted or damaged by them.

As always, we remain absolutely committed to the ongoing safety and wellbeing of our pupils and our whole school community.

Smith remains in custody ahead of sentencing on Wednesday.
by Les Luchter , August 4, 2023

Attention Walmart shoppers, heres some straight talk for you, announces actor/comedian Jim Gaffigan in a commercial debuting Aug. 4.

The spot marks Straight Talk Wireless expansion into multiline family plans -- or, as Gaffigan puts it, using your loved ones to save money.

Straight Talk, a Verizon-owned prepaid mobile brand, is available only at Walmart stores or online.

The ad, created by FCB NY in :30 and :15 versions, is running on broadcast networks (ABC, NBC, Fox), cable networks (e.g, TNT, ESPN, TBS, USA), streaming services, online video platforms and other media. Media was bought by The Collective, a Publicis Media agency. (Zenith is Verizons media agency of record.)

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Gaffigan's appearance marks the first time Straight Talk Wireless used a celebrity on-camera in its ads, although Ed O'Neill was the brands off-camera voice for several years.

Jim's comedy and work ethic embodies who our customer is: observant, hard-working, a little bit skeptical of something that might seem too good to be true, and loves to talk about their family, Cheryl Gresham, chief marketing officer, Verizon Value, said in a statement.

And the jokes come quickly in the new spot as Gaffigan roams the Walmart aisles interacting with customers.

Are you ready to commit?, he asks an astonished couple, who are then relieved when he finishes with, to two lines to save cash?"

Have you ever saved your parents anything? he asks a girl shopping with her family.

Congratulations on your future savings, he says as he passes a pregnant woman.

The spot launches a week after Gaffigans latest standup special, his tenth, debuted on Prime Video.

In addition to Straight Talk, Verizon Values portfolio of prepaid brands include Total by Verizon, Visible, Tracfone, Simple Mobile, SafeLink, Walmart Family Mobile, and Verizon Prepaid.

Correction:This post was corrected to reflect the fact that The Collective is a Publicis Media agency and not an offshoot of Zenith, as was originally stated.
by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, August 4, 2023

Google is urging a federal judge to reject web users' request for an injunction that would prohibit the company from collecting analytics data at sites operated by health care providers.

In paper filed Thursday with U.S. District Court Judge Vince Chhabria in the Northern District of California, Google argues that tools like Google Analytics only provide developers with information about how users use the developers own properties.

Google also say health care sites don't send it personally identifying information, or health details about any person in particular, and that it doesn't allow the use of sensitive health data for ad targeting.

The papers come in response to privacy lawsuits filed against the company in May, when users claimed that Google was collecting patients' sensitive health data from online sites. The first complaint was brought by an anonymous Jane Doe who alleged that she used Planned Parenthood's site to search for an abortion provider, and received treatment at the reproductive health care center's affiliate in Burbank, California.

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The complaint in that case referred to an investigation by the app Lockdown Privacy, which reported last June that Planned Parenthood's site used third-party analytics tools leaked extremely sensitive data" to third parties including Google, Meta and TikTok.

Soon after that case was filed, other anonymous plaintiffs later alleged in a separate lawsuit that Google collected health information from a variety of health care sites.

The matters were consolidated earlier this year and are pending in front of Chhabria.

Last month, the plaintiffs sought an injunction that would ban Google from collecting data from several specific health sites, and to refrain from using that data for advertising.

Among other material submitted to the court, the plaintiffs offered a declaration by Timothy Libert, a former Google employee who currently owns the consulting firm webXray.ai. He alleged that he used publicly available information to analyze several health sites -- including those operated by Kaiser Permanente, Gundersen and MD Mercy -- and found that Google's code was consistently present on pages that contain private and sensitive information.

The analysis of Kaiser Permanente, Gundersen and MD Mercy site maps reveals that Google is present on nearly all web pages, he alleged. The net effect is that Google does not get just a snapshot of an individuals interaction and communications, but rather an almost unrestricted view and access to the full navigation and browsing history undertaken by individuals with their health care providers.

Google counters in its new court papers that the plaintiffs haven't shown they're entitled to an injunction for several reasons.

Among other arguments, Google says it's likely to prevail in the litigation because it's simply a vendor of legal analytics tools.

This district has repeatedly recognized that website and app developers have the right to employ analytics tools, and that the providers of those analytics tools, like Google, serve as mere vendors that provide companies with information about how users use their own websites and apps, the company writes.

Google also argues that Libert's declaration only shows that some sites use Google tools to collect information about usage.

He does not show that Google received [personal health information], or that the data was used for anything other than the websites' own analytics," the company writes.



Google also filed a separate motion asking Chhabria to disqualify Libert on the grounds that he owes the company a continuing duty of confidentiality under the terms of his employment contract.

Libert, who was a privacy engineer at Google from May of 2021 until this March, worked hand-in-hand with Google in-house counsel to develop systems and policies relating to cookie privacy and compliance and received privileged and confidential information relevant to plaintiffs claims, the company says.

Google adds that Libert's knowledge of confidential information relevant to this case creates a constant risk that such information could be disclosed to plaintiffs, inadvertently or not.

Chhabria is expected to hold a hearing in the case on September 21.
by Colin Kirkland , August 4, 2023

In an effort to help advertisers target specific audiences while bypassing ongoing privacy regulations, TikTok is developing a privacy-tech product called PrivacyGo.

PrivacyGo will work similarly to a data cleanroom, which allows two parties to pinpoint overlaps in their audiences by comparing data sets.

It would effectively provide a strategic way to raise advertising revenue in the face of targeting and measurement challenges caused by the likes of Apple's privacy protocol.

For example, a car manufacturer might compare its own prospective customer data to a segment of TikTok users who have watched car videos, target them with ads, and measure whether those ads drove results, like visits to a website, explains Business Insider, which broke the story.

Advertisers will be able to match their CRM info with TikTok's audience insights without compromising regulations or accessing each others information. The company says it uses multi-party computation (MPC) that features a new way of finding commonalities in multiple data sets without sharing the original sources.

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TikTok, which is likely trying to ease tensions around its potential connection to China's Community Party, has pointed out that the U.S. government takes a similar approach to analyzing census data.

In addition, TikTok is promising transparency in its data-matching process by making PrivacyGo available open-source and posting information about its techniques on GitHub.

By offering its ad partners enhanced targeting abilities without violating protection protocols, TikTok could provide rare user insights into one of the worlds leading social networks while helping brands make more of their ad campaigns.
by Teresa Buyikian , August 4, 2023

Earlier this week Yum Brands, Inc. reported the results for its Q2 2023, with KFC seeing the highest increase in sales over the same time period last year.

For Yum overall, worldwide system sales grew 13%, with 9% same-store sales growth and a 6% per unit growth. Total revenues increased 3% year-over-year to $1.68 billion.

Per brand, the results show KFC leading, with KFC system sales up 19%, same-store sales up 13%, and revenue at $682 million. For Taco Bell, system sales were up 7%, with same-store sales up 4% and revenue at $621 million. Pizza Hut saw system sales up 7% and same-store sales up 4%, with revenue at $242M. Habit Burger Grill had system sales up 9%, same-store sales flat, with revenue at $142 million.

Yum added 1,025 gross new units in the quarter. The parent company hit a new high for digital sales at $7 billion.

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Yum Chief Executive Officer David Gibbs said on a post earning call that KFC saw the most growth with its lower-income consumers, with its offerings also appealing to new younger customers. Success was also fueled by product innovation such as the new Chicken Nuggets and value strategy.

KFC is also riding the massive popularity of chicken QSRs, with more than 600 new locations in 60 countries in Q2 2023.

Additionally, the report detailed Yum Brands exit from the Russian market. Yum sold off its KFC business in Russia to Smart Service Ltd., including all Russian KFC restaurants, operating systems, master franchise rights and the trademark for the Rostik's brand.
by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, August 4, 2023

Largely siding against Google, a federal judge rejected the company's bid to throw out some antitrust claims by federal and state authorities who alleged that the company monopolizes the market for search engines.

In a ruling unveiled late Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta in Washington, D.C. said claims stemming from Google's search agreements with Apple and Mozilla involve genuine disputes of material fact that warrant a trial.

The lawsuits, filed in late 2020, include claims that Google obtained dominance in search by arranging to be the default search engine in Mozilla's Firefox browser and Apple's Safari browser, and by arranging to have its search engine pre-installed on Android smartphones.

Earlier this year, Google argued in a motion for summary judgment that its agreements with Mozilla and Apple are not anti-competitive for several reasons, including that the deals don't prevent consumers from using other search engines.

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The Justice Department and states countered that default settings have an enormous impact in driving traffic to search engines.

Being the default search engine on a preinstalled and prominently placed app is by far the most efficient and effective way for a general search engine to reach users, attorneys for the government argued.

Mehta said in a 60-page ruling that there was a factual dispute regarding whether Google's agreements with Mozilla and Apple were at least, de facto exclusive.

Google is, of course, correct that its browser agreements do not prevent users from switching the default search engine, and do not prohibit browser developers from promoting and entering into revenue-share agreements with other search engines, he wrote.

In fact, developers have entered into such agreements ... But that is not dispositive, he added

Mehta also said claims regarding the pre-installation of Google's search engine on Android phones warranted a trial.

The judge threw out some other claims, including that Google designed its search results pages in a way that weakened companies devoted to particular industries -- such as Expedia for travel, or OpenTable for restaurant reservations.

Kent Walker, Google's president of legal affairs and chief legal officer, stated Friday that the company appreciates Mehta's "careful consideration and decision to dismiss claims regarding the design of Google Search."

He added that the company looks forward "to showing at trial that promoting and distributing our services is both legal and pro-competitive."

The trial is scheduled to begin on September 12.
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Being a part of the glamourous world of Bollywood comes with its fair share of attention and gossip, and actors often find themselves at the centre of relationship rumours. Ananya Panday is no exception.

Recently, rumours of her alleged relationship with actor Aditya Roy Kapur have been making headlines. Her father, Chunky Panday, shared his candid thoughts on these reports during an interview.

 Manish Malhotra

Chunky Panday, known for his humorous and honest take on matters, acknowledged that such rumours are part and parcel of being an actor. He told Bollywood Bubble, Nahi nahi wo toh hone wala hai (no no, this is bound to happen). They say na you live by the soul, you die by the soul. We are in the glamour profession, ye sab hone wala hai (and all this is bound to happen). This is collateral damage, hone wala hai (will be there). You cant prevent it."



When asked about his thoughts on Ananya's chemistry with different co-stars, Chunky was quick to praise his daughter's on-screen pairings. From her debut with Tiger Shroff in Student of the Year 2 to her pairing with Kartik Aaryan in Pati, Patni Aur Woh, Chunky expressed that all the actors looked "superb" with her.

 Eros International

He felt that Ananya always complimented her co-stars, and the journey has been great for her. "She is lucky," he added, beaming with pride.



The ever-supportive father also shared that he never felt the need to reject any of Ananya's or his younger daughter Rysa Panday's boyfriends. Instead, he has a simple condition for any potential partner  "Maine unko bola jo bhi hoga (I told them), he has to be better than me."

Last month, social media was abuzz with pictures and videos of Aditya Roy Kapur and Ananya Panday during their trip to Portugal. The duo was spotted enjoying each other's company while sightseeing and dining at a restaurant. Both Aditya Roy Kapur and Ananya Panday have remained tight-lipped about it so far.
The beardless youth does not foresee what is useful, squandering his money

That was said by Horace, a Roman Poet of lore. That its a sentiment still held shows that the battle waged between young and old-in spaces public and private-is a tale as old as time.

I was born in the early 90s towards the tail end of the Millennial train. Officially, Zoomers i.e Generation Z were born between 1997-2012. Boomers? All pre-1980.

In the vast landscape of intergenerational dynamics, of late, a new rivalry has spawned: the culture war between Millennials and Gen Z. Millennials, posed firmly at the frontlines, taking over the unwelcome mantle from our age-weary predecessors: Boomers.

Changing Focus

It wasnt too long ago when Millennials used to be the butt of all jokes; the target of its preceding generations ridicule. But the past few years, buoyed by a disruptive global pandemic, has seen my generation phased out of the conversation. Enter: Gen-Z.

While GenZ may have become everyones favorite new problem child, Millennials, in true elder-sibling fashion, have become that which they had once loathed. Playing to the stereotype, they dont waste a moment to pinpoint flaws at Zoomers. From their flakiness to their fashion sensibilities (or lack thereof), the weekly TikTok challenges to their general refusal to kowtow to authorities, the new-kids-on-the-block have been subjected to deja-vu-esque accusations by us Millennials.

Wasnt there a popular line from a popular comic-book franchise on living long enough to see ourselves becoming the villain?

Much like the clashes between Baby Boomers and Millennials, this latest generational conflict is characterized by persistent negging, where one generation incessantly criticizes and mocks the other. As the age-old adage goes, history tends to repeat itself, and it appears that the Millennials are now embodying the very traits that once defined their contentious relationship with Boomers.

Why The Hate?

A decade ago, it was the Millennials who caught flak for everything they did, and didnt do. Oh, youre not getting a job? Must not have tried hard enough,""These kids these days want everything served on a platter, they just dont want to hustle for it. They want the world to revolve around them. Delusional! There was really no winning, was there?

Now with Gen-Z caught in the crosshairs, disdain towards the kids-these-days comes in more flavors than your local Gianis.

But why do older generations like to persistently admonish their juniors? Well, as it turns out, its just how things have always been?

Brian Resnick of Vox writes about John Protzko, a University of California Santa Barbara psychologist, who along with his team studies the kids-these-days phenomenon.

It seems like there is a memory problem, says Protzko. A memory tic that just keeps happening, generation after generation.

In fact, he calls this phenomenon a form of prejudice and bias that isnt just untrue, but problematic too.

He explains, If people were to make the claims they currently make about young people and children, if instead, if they make the same claims about ethnic minorities, for example, people would be up in arms, saying Thats ridiculous, you have no objective evidence of this.

Researches also posited, the involvement of a person-specific self-comparison process whereby individuals compare themselves to todays youth and find them especially lacking on those domains on which they themselves excel.

I wont bore you with more details, you can read them here. But in a nutshell, this bias stems from a memory retrieval bug (or feature, depending on how you see it) in humans and a flawed assumption of shared universal experiences. Furthermore it also reveals more about the person holding said bias than theyd like.

The Boomer-Millennial Nexus

The parallels between the current Millennial-Gen Z conflict and the past tension between Baby Boomers and Millennials are striking. Millennials themselves were once on the receiving end of criticism, often labeled as the "entitled" and "lazy" generation by their Boomer predecessors. Now, having experienced the negative effects of such negging, Millennials seem to be perpetuating the cycle of generational critique.

Perhaps this generational pattern is rooted in the desire to differentiate oneself from the older generation and establish a distinct identity. Maybe, its got something to do with maintaining standards and norms that we grew up with. However, by adopting the very tactics that once frustrated us, Millennials risk antagonizing Gen-Z the same way we were.

Social Media and Digital Culture

We often refer to ourselves as the last generation to have played outside, as well as the first generation to get online. We went from dial-up internet to wi-fi, from landlines to iPhones, seemingly in the blink of an eye; from the rise and fall of chat messengers like AOL, MSN and Gmail, to navigating the ever-changing social media landscape on sites like Myspace, Hi5 and Orkut, to the eventual Facebook-Meta hegemony.

Its safe to say that despite having seen some of the most ground-breaking technological advancements we still managed to remain disconnected. Because of which, most Millennials grew up relatively unscathed by the clutches of the internet, social media and digital culture.

That may not necessarily be the case for Gen-Z though.They took to the internet like a duck to water. That early adoption has had a lasting impression on them. Research suggests that theyre the first generation to have grown up surrounded by digital communication. Furthermore, current findings on Gen Z show that they've been uniquely shaped by this digital environment, enough to acquire unique attributes.

Additionally, the study notes the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Gen-Z in comparison to other generations. Until the world is brought to a standstill, these youngsters enjoy the benefits of a relatively stable and peaceful environment with a robust economy relative to previous generations.

Alas, all this changed dramatically when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out. That stability was replaced by a looming sense of doom which raises multiple questions regarding its impact on the development of these young people and their future. And what did this lead to? Gen Z exhibited higher rates of depression and anxiety, and a need for emotional support, compared with previous generations, even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic (Schroth, 2019).

Now add to that the constant bickering and critiquing they receive from Millennials on social media, and youll begin to see why Gen-Z hates us so much. The rise of social media and digital culture has undeniably amplified generational conflicts and negging behaviors. Platforms like Twitter and TikTok provide a breeding ground for generational snark and mockery.

But how has Gen-Z responded?

Gen-Z Remain Unfazed

Despite the barrage of criticism, Gen Z has proven to be remarkably resilient and adaptive. Fueled by a desire for change and a willingness to challenge societal norms, Gen Z is reshaping the cultural landscape with their unique perspectives and values. Their embrace of digital technology and social media as tools for advocacy and self-expression sets them apart from previous generations and demonstrates their potential for positive impact.

In contrast to the negative stereotypes perpetuated by Millennials, Gen Z's adaptability and resilience have allowed them to navigate a rapidly changing world with an open mind and a willingness to learn from past generational struggles. Much to the chagrin of others.

At workplaces, tradition, rules and norms have been broken. Zoomers have shook things up in their professional lives with their refusal to bow down to authority figures. Many hustlers make this a chief complaint of Gen-Z employees.

They've experienced more insecurities and life-altering events in the formative years of their lives than Millennials. Which makes them less susceptible to gaslighting, manipulation. Atop that, merely being cogs in the corporate machine does not satisfy them.

Breaking the Cycle/Building Bridges

To break the cycle of generational negging, we need to reflect on our criticisms and consider the impact they have on Gen Z's identity and development. Embracing a more nuanced and empathetic perspective may just help us all.

Millennials started the conversation on mental health and work-life balance, but Gen Z has taken the application to new heights. While older generations may perceive this as a complaint, it aligns with what we have always soughta more balanced and fulfilling approach to life. We may be too deep into the rat-race to change the way things work, but thankfully, Gen-Z doesnt care about that.

Conclusion

The culture wars between Millennials and Gen Z are not simply a manifestation of generational differences but a reflection of larger societal shifts. The Zoomers have a long way to go. And they may go in directions were uncomfortable with, but let them mess up, get scrapped and make their own mistakes to learn their own lessons.
Four bat-eared fox cubs have been born at a zoo in Devon, one of only two in the UK with a breeding pair.

The birth of the puppies at Exmoor Zoo - three sisters and one brother - has been a closely-guarded secret for the last six weeks, but they are now old enough to have visitors.

The only other breeding pair in the country is at Africa Alive in Norfolk.

Bat-eared foxes are native to the African savannah where they use their large ears to help them hunt termites.

The curator at Exmoor Zoo, Derek Gibson said, "We have been carefully nurturing the puppies with extra feeds and lots of their parent's favourite food (mincemeat) and they are only now beginning to let the puppies have a share as they are starting to be weaned".

Zoo staff are now asking visitors to help name the cubs.

The pup's father is called Vuko and was born in Ogrod Zoo in Wroclaw, Poland.

Their mother is called Opal and was born in Opel-Zoo in Frankfurt,Germany.

Follow BBC News South West on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk.
A fight is bubbling up over competing proposals in Congress to address companies that charge fees to help veterans file disability benefits claims.

On the one side is a bipartisan group of lawmakers, veterans service organizations and the Department of Veterans Affairs that wants to impose criminal penalties on any unaccredited company that charges veterans to file claims on their behalf.

On the other side is another group of lawmakers and some unaccredited companies that argue a small number of bad actors charging outrageous fees is making the whole industry look bad and that veterans should be able to choose to hire someone to help them if they want. That side is pushing to change the accreditation process so companies can legally continue their operations, in addition to imposing criminal penalties on businesses that remain unaccredited.

Read Next: Niger Coup Forces Embassy Evacuation, But Marines Will Remain

It's unclear whether either proposal has enough momentum to pass in a Congress that has focused its attention on other issues. But with claims mounting after last year's passage of the PACT Act and concerns that fraudsters will take advantage of veterans desperate to get the expanded benefits, advocates on both sides of the issue say something needs to be done.

"This is the largest benefit expansion in generations, and people are viewing dollar signs on the backs of veterans," said Pat Murray, director of national legislative service at the Veterans of Foreign Wars, which supports the bill that only imposes criminal penalties on unaccredited businesses.

The VA has a process to accredit veterans service organizations, attorneys and independent agents to help veterans file benefits claims. Under VA rules, those helpers can't charge to file initial claims, but agents and attorneys can charge to assist with appeals.

It is already illegal for unaccredited agents to prepare, present or file claims on behalf of veterans. But in 2006, Congress removed criminal penalties for doing so -- contributing to a growing industry of companies offering to help veterans file claims for a fee.

The Governing Unaccredited Representatives Defrauding VA Benefits Act  known as the GUARD Act  would reimpose criminal penalties on those companies. The House version of the bill would levy fines, while the Senate version includes both fines and up to one year in prison.

The GUARD Act has been introduced in previous congressional sessions but has struggled to pass. But after it was reintroduced this year, both the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee and a House Veterans Affairs Committee subpanel held hearings on the bill.

In the House and Senate hearings, the VA and veterans service organizations testified in support of the legislation. About 40% of complaints to the VA's legal office over the last year were about unaccredited agents, but there is little the department can do about those complaints right now, testified Christa Shriber, deputy chief counsel at the VA.

"Our recourse there has been to inform the [agent] that they are doing something contrary to law, and then work with our partners, either federal enforcement agencies or state agencies, to see if there are state laws or consumer protection laws that they may have violated," Shriber said in March. "There is no direct link between doing what our law says is wrong and a punishment."

The bill, which was introduced by Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., also has the support of Senate Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Jon Tester, D-Mont., as well as 16 other Senate co-sponsors and 119 co-sponsors in the House.

Meanwhile, in March, Reps. Jack Bergman, R-Miss.; Lou Correa, D-Calif.; and Nancy Mace, R-S.C., introduced the Preserving Lawful Utilization of Services for Veterans Act  the PLUS Act. Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., introduced the Senate version in June. The bill has 10 other Republican House co-sponsors and no Senate co-sponsors.

"It's imperative that we close the loopholes that bad actors exploit and protect our veterans from abuse. At the same time, we must ensure that every veteran has the right to seek whatever private help they deem necessary when navigating their VA assistance," Bergman, a retired Marine Corps lieutenant general, said in a March statement.

The PLUS Act would give companies a way to become accredited while still charging fees to file initial claims. The fees would be capped at $12,500 and could be taken from veterans' monthly benefits payments.

A company would be automatically accredited if the VA does not make a decision on its application within 90 days. Companies that choose to remain unaccredited would be subject to fines or up to a year in prison.

In an interview with Military.com, Veteran Benefits Guide, one of the companies lobbying for the PLUS Act, argued the bill sets up guardrails to prevent wrongdoing while giving veterans the choice to hire help if they want to. While any company could get accredited now if it stops charging fees, Veteran Benefits Guide also argued that it needs to charge to provide quality service.

"We have an infrastructure in place that caters to the accuracy of the veterans exam and rating to get the correct evidence in front of the VA," said Michael Licari, Veteran Benefits Guide's chief legal officer. "It costs a lot of money to train everybody to understand the super complicated process and how to navigate the super complex bureaucracy that is deciding these ratings."

Since the House and Senate hearings on the GUARD Act earlier this year, there has been no public movement on either bill. But behind-the-scenes negotiations are ongoing.

"Right now, there are active, bipartisan negotiations between the House and Senate on this issue with the goal of protecting veterans from bad actors and fraudsters, while still allowing veterans to have a choice and choose the avenue they want to assist with filing their claim," House Veterans Affairs Committee spokesperson Kathleen McCarthy told Military.com in an email, adding that the issue is a "top priority" for committee Chairman Mike Bost, R-Ill.

A staffer for Tester, who opposes the PLUS Act, confirmed he is working with veterans service organizations and House and Senate colleagues on a bipartisan compromise.

"I'll always fight to protect veterans from scammers looking to prey on their hard-earned benefits," Tester said in a statement. "And I'm hopeful we can move swiftly on this bipartisan effort to hold these predatory actors accountable by reinstating criminal penalties that will protect the men and women who fought to protect our country."

The VFW would be open to a compromise in which accredited agents could charge to help file initial claims, said Murray, with the Veterans of Foreign Wars. But the PLUS Act as written contains "absolute nonstarters," he added, particularly the automatic accreditation after 90 days and the language that allows companies to structure fees to garnish monthly benefits payments.

The VFW supports "everybody playing in the sandbox with the same set of rules," Murray said. "The VFW will never charge a single penny for that, nor will the other veteran service organizations who do this stuff for free. But accredited agents and attorneys make good money representing veterans, but they do it following rules.

"The PLUS Act and some of the advocates who are pushing for that want to just change the whole framework essentially to legalize their fee structure and what they're currently doing," he added.

Other veterans organizations were more blunt.

"Our position is pretty clear," said Shane Liermann, deputy national legislative director at the Disabled American Veterans. "No veteran should have to pay anybody to file a claim."

Editor's note: This story was updated to clarify what services unaccredited agents are prohibited from performing under the law.

-- Rebecca Kheel can be reached at rebecca.kheel@military.com. Follow her on Twitter @reporterkheel.

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The Army was supposed to see a changeover in senior leadership this week -- a new chief of staff and sergeant major -- but in a highly unusual twist, the service is without a top officer due to a Republican senator's blockade of at least 300 senior officer promotions.

Gen. Randy George, the service's No. 2 officer, stepped in as acting chief of staff on Friday as Gen. James McConville retired. George was nominated to take McConville's place but is stuck in his role as vice chief of staff, making the Army the latest service branch with its highest uniformed position vacant.

The Marine Corps currently has no commandant, and the Navy will soon be without a chief of naval operations as Sen. Tommy Tuberville continues to block the Senate from confirming and promoting generals and admirals to fill the positions. The Alabama Republican is protesting the Pentagon policy of giving leave to troops who need abortion and other reproductive health services from civilian providers.

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George will be able to perform the duties of the chief of staff as he awaits confirmation from the Senate, but he'll be performing dual roles as the chief and vice chief -- as the officer in line for the vice position is also caught up in the ever expanding gridlock on Capitol Hill.

Both George and McConville declined interview requests ahead of this story.

Tuberville is eight months into his procedural blockade of senior officer promotions, a move that has been very publicly slammed by military leadership and caused some splintering within his own party. But the senator has shown no signs of backing down over the personnel leave policy.

"The failure to confirm our superbly qualified senior uniformed leaders undermines our military readiness," Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Friday. "It undermines our retention of some of our very best officers. And it is upending the lives of far too many of their spouses, children and loved ones. And this disruption is the last thing that America's military families deserve."

The Army vice chief traditionally runs the day-to-day administrative and policy work of the service, while the chief serves as the force's face and representative at the Pentagon and to allied nations. Now, both of those exhausting and time-consuming roles will fall onto George, spurring concern among Pentagon staff that the Army will be less efficient if the Senate blockade drags on.

Sergeant Major of the Army Michael Weimer, a career Green Beret, on Friday took his spot at the service's top enlisted leader, replacing retiring Michael Grinston. That senior enlisted position does not require Senate approval.

The Senate holds committee hearings and then typically confirms service chiefs along with bulk promotion approvals for hundreds of senior officers -- a routine function that allows the crucial decisions to move quickly and smoothly in the glacially slow chamber.

But Tuberville's hold blocks those routine bulk approvals, forcing the Senate either to just put off the work and go through the slow, arduous process of voting out each promotion separately on the Senate floor.

"We need the Senate to act not only on this nomination, but also on the 300 other general and flag officers across the armed services whose careers and lives are now in limbo because of this unprecedented hold," Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said. "We need these leaders in place to ensure the readiness of our force. And we need to end all of this uncertainty for our military families."

-- Steve Beynon can be reached at Steve.Beynon@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @StevenBeynon.

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The family of Army Pvt. Travis King -- the soldier who ran across the border into North Korea in mid-July -- say they've heard nothing from the military since they were first informed of the incident.

As the rest of the world watches perplexed, they are also left with questions about what the young soldier did in the months before he made the choice to run across the border from South Korea, a longtime U.S. ally, and into the hands of one of the world's most brutal and secretive regimes.

"It's now been 16 or 17 days, and they have no information and they feel like they've just been completely left to the wolves," Jonathan Franks, a newly appointed spokesman for the family, told Miltary.com in a phone interview Friday.

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"They are frustrated at the inability to get any information other than from reporters' articles," Franks added.

In the days leading up to his sudden flight to North Korea, King, 23, had just been released from a South Korean prison and was set to fly back to Fort Bliss, Texas, to face additional military discipline. Instead, he somehow ended up on a civilian tour of the border village of Panmunjom, a major tourist attraction, where he proceeded to dash into North Korea on July 18.

Franks said that the first -- and only -- contact the family had with the military was when an Army noncommissioned officer called King's mother to notify her of the incident. Franks said she remembered it being a sergeant, though he concedes that in the emotion of the moment, she may not have remembered accurately.

King's "mom was kind of distraught, understandably," he said, adding that "she can't remember exactly what was said" on the call.

Military.com reached out to the Army for a comment but did not receive a reply in time for publication.

On July 21, three days after news of King's run into North Korea broke, the family, through the Army, said they would not be doing interviews and asked for privacy.

Finally, on Aug. 1, the Pentagon announced that North Korea had acknowledged the United Nations Command's inquiries about King. But Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, the chief spokesman for the Defense Department, said he didn't have "any substantial progress to read out."

Franks announced that he is representing King's immediate family Thursday evening on social media and said they have had questions not only about the young soldier's condition but his behavior while stationed in Korea.

"He did not have these problems where he was stationed last," said Franks, who traveled to Kenosha, Wisconsin, to speak with the family in person. "The last time the family laid eyes on him prior to his deployment [to South Korea], he was happy, he was fine, he was talking about a long-term career in the Army."

According to Franks, "there was just a cluster of problems in the fall of '22" and "everything goes to hell."

But one person connected to King's family, who spoke under condition of anonymity in order to freely discuss family matters, said that this period roughly coincided with a time when everyone was deeply emotional over the death of King's little cousin.

However, even on top of those emotions, this person had preexisting doubts of whether King was stable enough for military life.

"I know Travis enough to personally say he should have never been accepted into the Army nor sent overseas," the person connected to the family said. "He is a quiet kid, but if he is triggered, he has a hard time self-controlling."

Franks said that the idea that King had a hard time exhibiting self control is "inconsistent" with what his mom and grandparents recall.

Regardless, no one is denying that King ran afoul of the South Korean legal system in the fall of 2022.

The military newspaper Stars and Stripes reported that King was accused of assault on Sept. 25, 2022, according to court records reviewed by the paper, and Seoul police alleged he pushed and punched a patron at a Mapo bar who refused to buy him a drink.

Franks said the family is "horrified" at the allegation, and part of their desire to know more about King's time in Korea is to offer an apology. However, King's mom also wants to know -- "was my son provoked?" he added.

Several outlets also reported that King was arrested just before 4 a.m. on Oct. 8, 2022, in Mapo and placed in a police car, where he proceeded to cause several thousand dollars worth of damage. He also went on an anti-Korean rant.

After he failed to pay a fine stemming from that incident, he was sent to prison. However, according to the family, that didn't cause the messages from him to stop.

Franks says that while the family was in touch with King throughout his time in South Korea, "his messages became ominous."

"Some of them were received while he's allegedly in South Korea in prison doing hard labor," Franks said, before noting that he's personally seen them.

The family now wonders whether all the messages they've received from King were indeed written by him, which is another reason they are frustrated over the lack of communication from the Army.

"We have information relevant to the investigation. ... These people would like to be good citizens and provide it  in exchange for real constructive, two-way engagement with the military," Franks said.

Franks says that former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson -- a man who has negotiated with North Korea on numerous occasions and helped arrange prisoner releases from other countries -- has agreed to help in their case.

-- Konstantin Toropin can be reached at konstantin.toropin@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @ktoropin.

-- Thomas Novelly can be reached at thomas.novelly@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @TomNovelly.

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NIAMEY, Niger  Nigers military junta says it is severing military agreements with France, its former colonial ruler, firing some of the previous governments key ambassadors and warning citizens of the West African nation to watch for foreign armies and spies. A regional delegation's efforts at negotiation quickly deadlocked.

The junta's announcement on state television late Thursday deepens the post-coup isolation for what had been the United States' and allies last major security partner in the Sahel, the vast region south of the Sahara Desert that various Islamic extremist groups have turned into the global center of terrorism.

With two days remaining before a deadline set by the West African regional bloc to release and reinstate President Mohamed Bazoum or face possible force, Bazoum in a plea published in a Washington Post opinion piece said, I write this as a hostage" and urged the U.S. and partners to help.

Nigers mutinous soldiers face a Sunday deadline set by the regional bloc known as ECOWAS, whose envoys arrived on Thursday for talks. But those discussions quickly stalled, with the delegation unable to meet the coup leader, Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, or go into the capital, Niamey, according to a person with close knowledge of the talks who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to comment.

The juntas announcement brought further skepticism about any deal. It said it was terminating the military agreements and protocols signed with France and announced the end of functions for Nigers ambassadors to France, the United States, Togo and neighboring Nigeria, which is leading ECOWAS efforts on dialogue.

All aggression or attempt at aggression against the state of Niger will see an immediate response and without warning, said a spokesman for the coup leaders, Col. Maj. Amadou Abdramane, with the exception of Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea, which have expressed support for the coup. Mali and Burkina Faso have said such an intervention would be a declaration of war against them.

France's Foreign Ministry said Paris only recognizes the legitimate Nigerien authorities, dismissing the move by coup leaders. France reiterated its call for the re-establishment of the democratic institutions of Niger, the ministry said.

Bazoum wrote that Nigers security situation had been improving before the coup, in contrast to neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso that are led by military juntas, but said that's now at risk because Niger would lose aid from foreign partners and extremist groups would take advantage of the countrys instability.

In our hour of need, I call on the U.S. government and the entire international community to help us restore our constitutional order, he wrote.

France has 1,500 military personnel in Niger, which had been envisioned as the base for counterterror operations in the region after anti-French sentiments grew elsewhere.

The U.S. has 1,100 military personnel in Niger, including at a key drone base, and indicates it's reluctant to leave, especially with the growing influence of the Russian private military group Wagner in the Sahel.

We are following this situation very carefully," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. "Of course, we are concerned about the tension that is now emerging in the region, and, as before, we stand for the speedy return of this situation to the constitutional track without any damage, without a threat, most importantly, to human lives.

ECOWAS has been unsuccessful in stemming coups and is trying to change course with Niger in a region that has seen five of them in the past three years  two each in Mali and Burkina Faso.

The ECOWAS delegation was led by former Nigerian head of state Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar. A second group led by Ambassador Babagana Kingibe has gone to engage with the leaders of neighboring Libya and Algeria, said Ajuri Ngelale, special adviser to Nigeria's president.

But analysts said theyre not putting much faith in talks.

I dont expect mediation efforts to bear fruit in the short term. The junta is digging in ... Seems like uncharted territory, said Alex Thurston, assistant professor of political science at the University of Cincinnati.

Nigers roughly 25 million people live in one of the poorest countries in the world, and any cuts in foreign aid could be disastrous. Already, citizens are feeling the effects after ECOWAS suspended all commercial and financial transactions between its member states and Niger and froze Nigerien assets held in regional central banks.

The blocs sanctions include halting energy transactions with Niger, which gets up to 90% of its power from Nigeria, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency. Earlier this week, power transmission from Nigeria to Niger was cut off, an official at one of Nigerias main electricity companies said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment.

There have been fears the junta could limit the export of uranium from Niger, which contributes 5% of the global share, according to the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Some residents in Niamey said things can hardly get worse.

Abdou Naif lives in a makeshift community on the side of a road with some 140 other people, unable to pay rent or find work. Our suffering is already enough, he said.

___

AP writers Chinedu Asadu in Abuja, Nigeria; Elaine Ganley in Paris and James Heintz contributed.
For two and a half years, a decision on where to locate U.S. Space Command's headquarters has languished amid a tug of war between Alabama and Colorado, between former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden, and between red state and blue state politics.

But caught in the middle of the floor speeches, government investigations and heated discussion are military families. For them, there was one looming question: "Am I moving to Huntsville, Alabama, or staying put in Colorado Springs?"

On Monday, when Biden announced his decision to keep the headquarters at Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado -- reversing a Trump-era announcement moving it to Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville -- those service members, spouses and children finally got an answer. But some military families are worried the fight in Washington isn't over, and their future could still be upturned.

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One military spouse who was previously stationed at Space Command said the political fallout from the basing decision this week is cause for concern, and still worries about families in Colorado Springs.

"It sounds like it is being permanently placed here in Colorado Springs, but we also have political pushes that are still saying it's not over. I don't know if the fight is over," said the spouse, who spoke on condition of anonymity to freely discuss a politicized issue. "I wish that our military members and families were not pulled into this."

In the days after the president's decision to keep Space Command in Colorado, Alabama's congressional delegation was preparing for another round in the years-long fight. Both Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville and Rep. Mike Rogers, the GOP chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, appeared poised to double down on their efforts to pressure the military.

On Thursday, Rogers demanded Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall and Gen. James Dickinson, the commander of SPACECOM, provide documents and interviews related to the headquarters decision to the Armed Services Committee.

"Your refusal to abide by the committee's repeated requests for responsive documents and transcribed interviews can only be considered obfuscation and purposeful delay, highlighted by the fact that the basing decision was decided while the committee's requests are outstanding," Rogers wrote in a letter to the leaders.

"This is unacceptable," said Rogers, who has blocked Pentagon transfers of money this summer to cause financial pain and force the department to declare Alabama the command's home.

Tuberville has blocked the confirmations of the Army chief and the Marine Corps commandant, as well as the promotions of hundreds of military officers -- approvals that are typically routine and passed in bulk in the Senate -- over his opposition to a Pentagon policy providing leave for troops who need an abortion or other reproductive health care.

The Alabama Republican accused Biden of politicizing the Space Command HQ decision on Monday.

"Once again, Joe Biden is injecting politics into the military," Tuberville said in a statement. "This sets a dangerous precedent that military bases are to be used as rewards for political support rather than for national security."

Dickinson said in a statement that he supports Biden's decision and added that taking care of service members remains a top priority.

"I welcome this final basing decision," he said. "Our priorities to ensure mission success and care for our people remain unchanged."

Dickinson was scheduled to appear next week at the Space and Missile Defense System Conference in Huntsville, Alabama, but canceled at the last minute, according to Bob English, a spokesman for the event. Another officer from U.S. Space Command is taking his place.

Katherine Kuzminski, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security think tank who researches military culture and family issues, told Military.com that Dickinson's comment is notable, especially in referencing "care for our people," adding that the basing decision does give clarity to Space Command service members and their families.

"You're trying to build a pipeline of individuals to have some predictability for military families," Kuzminski said. "It's good to know, it's good to just have a decision and stick by it."

Meanwhile, the Senate Armed Services Committee has estimated that Tuberville's hold has affected nearly 300 officers and, likely, their military families as well.

Sarah Streyder, the executive director of the Secure Families Initiative and the 2022 Armed Forces Insurance Space Force Spouse of the Year, told Military.com that if Tuberville decides to increase his efforts to pressure the Pentagon because of the Space Command basing decision, it could also affect military families more.

"The thing that these two things have in common is that they have nothing to do with the 300 families that he's put in limbo," Streyder said. "He's attacking the wrong people. He's holding the careers and the trajectories of 300 military families who have no control over these travel leave policies and who have no control over the location of Space Command Headquarters. And it makes me anxious, angry, all of the above."

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, praised the Biden administration's decision this week, which keeps 1,400 jobs and millions of dollars of defense money in his state, as an economic win. But he also mentioned it as a victory for military families, too.

"This is great news for Colorado and our national security -- keeping U.S. Space Command in Colorado Springs is an exciting outcome for our state, military families, jobs, and businesses," Polis said in a statement.

Moving Space Command from Colorado, where abortion access is unrestricted, to Alabama, where it is illegal with limited exceptions, was also seen as a negative for service members assigned to the command. It has raised a red flag for some Colorado lawmakers who believe it will hurt troops' quality of life, as well as harm the military's retention efforts. The same concerns were brought up about anti-LGBTQ+ legislation across conservative-leaning states.

In June, the Air Force denied the concerns. It told Military.com that "reproductive health care and state laws regarding the LGBTQ+ community are not currently part of the criteria considered in the Department of the Air Force strategic basing process."

Cassandra Williamson, the executive director of the Alabama-based Transgender & Diverse Veterans of America Action Group, said in a statement regarding Space Command's decision that it appeared those state laws may have played a role in Biden choosing Colorado Springs.

"Our state leaders bargained away potentially billions in state revenue simply because they are beholden to an extreme far-right ideology that does not truly represent the vast majority of conservatives," Williams said.

Both the White House and Pentagon have denied politics played a role and said in a statement that the decision to keep the HQ in Colorado Springs was "to avoid any disruption to its operational capability."

Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle was "deeply disappointed" by the Biden administration's reversal, according to AL.com, but was looking forward to collaborating with the military in the future.

"No matter where USSPACECOM resides, Huntsville will move forward and continue to be a good neighbor with our national military partners," Battle told AL.com. "We fully support our military and aerospace sectors and will work to ensure Huntsville remains a key component in furthering USSPACECOM's mission on the national and global stage."

But outside of the political debates and fights over military spending in Washington, D.C., Kuzminski told Military.com that most service members and their families just want to have a high quality of life, which could mean a good climate, school systems and economic opportunity. She added that, historically, Colorado has always been a more favored assignment than Alabama in the military.

"For military families, devoid of the political debates whatsoever, there's always a high demand for positions based in Colorado and a low demand for positions based in Alabama," Kuzminski said. "When we think about quality of life, it isn't just these heavily politicized issues; there are also just preferences that military families have."

-- Thomas Novelly can be reached at thomas.novelly@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @TomNovelly.

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The remains of a Special Forces veteran killed in Ukraine this spring appear to be finally headed back to the U.S., according to his family.

Nick Maimer, 45, a retired staff sergeant, was killed in the eastern city of Bakhmut in mid-May when the building he was in collapsed after an artillery strike. His death was broadcast around the world by Russian mercenary Yevgeny Prigozhin in a morbid propaganda video; a month later, Prigozhin would lead a failed rebellion against Moscow with his private military company, the Wagner Group.

Amid the chaos enveloping Russia, Maimer's family and friends were subjected to an arduous, months-long effort to reclaim his remains, a process that nearly 20 families of U.S. veterans have or will have taken during the war in Ukraine so far.

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"We've just kind of been in limbo," Amanda Weishaar, Maimer's sister, told Military.com in a phone interview Friday. "Waiting and not knowing -- it's prolonged the grieving process quite a bit."

She said that the transfer process was riddled with unknowns for her family.

Over the last three months, Weishaar recalled thinking "maybe it's going to happen this date, but then another month goes by and it still hasn't happened as far as when his body's going to be cremated, or where it's going to be cremated, or where it's going to be flown and who's involved in making that happen, and what the cost is going to be and if that cost is going to be covered."

Maimer's return to the U.S. was perilous and uncertain from the beginning. It was clear from Prigozhin's video that his body was in Wagner's hands. Complicating things further, Ukraine views the pro-Russian mercenaries as terrorists, and the U.S. recently referred to them as a "proxy force" for the Kremlin. Any exchange was going to be filled with tension.

Retired Army Lt. Col. Perry Blackburn, the founder of a nonprofit organization that Maimer volunteered with in Ukraine, told Military.com in May that he had attempted to reach Prigozhin to organize a transfer.

While it is unclear how and where the transfer occurred, Blackburn said that the Ukrainians were "pivotal" in its success. Friends of Maimer lauded Blackburn's efforts in helping them navigate the transfer process. By the end of the month, Maimer's body was in Ukrainian hands en route to Kyiv.

Karl Watts, who met Maimer through the Big Brothers Big Sisters program and knew him well over the last three decades, told Military.com that the initial news of his journey to Kyiv was elating.

"We didn't expect to recover his body for months because it was an active conflict area," Watts said. "Just the fact that they were able to recover his body so quickly was a huge relief."

That initial relief was short-lived. Uncertainty about when Maimer's remains would arrive back to the U.S. welled within his circle of friends and family as the process ground along slowly. Several Ukrainian and U.S. entities connected with Maimer's loved ones, according to Watts, who liaised with them amid a "whirlwind of chatter."

"Things moved a lot slower than expected," he said, adding that both Ukrainian and U.S. agencies like the Ukrainian military, State Department and FBI aided the effort.

"I was pleased that the State Department was quite involved in everything from beginning to end," Watts said. "I think they did the best they could in this situation trying to help coordinate the things, but there was no overriding agency or organization in it.

"No one had ultimate authority or [could] say, 'This is what's gonna happen, and this how it's gonna go,'" he said.

For its part, the State Department told Military.com on Friday that "the U.S. government takes its role in such a situation very seriously." It would not confirm that Maimer's remains are en route to the U.S. or detail its involvement in the process.

A particularly frustrating procedure involved getting DNA confirmation that the remains were indeed Maimer's. Watts said that samples from Maimer's parents had to be sent to a lab in Ukraine for analysis.

It would be another month before Maimer's circle received a positive DNA test. In the interim, friends and family had gone on to memorialize him with pictures and memories, Watts said. In June, Weishaar established a GoFundMe page with a $10,000 goal for Maimer's memorial, with any leftover proceeds going to veterans charities.

"I think it's important to honor veterans specifically with that," she said. "It's just important to offer that support in any way that we can, because it doesn't always seem like the government takes care of their own as they should."

Weishaar said she recalled four or five times when her family would get an update -- raising their hopes for his return -- only to have it postponed. Because of the delays, some of Maimer's loved ones remain uncertain about the latest news of his return.

Weishaar expressed frustration toward the presidential administration.

"President Biden is very vocal about his support for the war, but has shown zero support for Nick," Weishaar said.

In July, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence posted a video tribute to Maimer. In it, he said of Russia's invasion: "In recent history, it's one of the most clear-cut injustices, and I knew I would be able to help the Ukrainians."

Maimer was cremated in Kyiv early this week. Watts said he learned Friday from a Ukrainian funeral home he had been working with that Maimer's remains would start their route home from Warsaw, Poland.

"We should have him back in the States within the next week or two," Watts said. From there, he and family will drive to Salt Lake City, Utah, where Maimer is expected to arrive.

Watts said he expects a funeral service in September or early October.

Despite the uncertainty he felt over the last few months, Watts feels thankful to the State Department, Ukrainian military, the funeral home, Blackburn and others.

For some in Maimer's circle, the last three months -- and the frustrations associated with them -- have made it difficult to grieve.

"Nick was one of the most selfless people I've ever met," Weishaar said. "He would give his shirt off his back in an icestorm to make sure someone else was comfortable and cared for. It's disgraceful that his own government wouldn't care for him in that way."

-- Drew F. Lawrence can be reached at drew.lawrence@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @df_lawrence.

Related: 'That Was Nick': Special Forces Vet Killed in Ukraine Remembered as Big-Hearted Protector
The Marine Corps' acting chief issued a letter to the force this week pledging continuity as an unprecedented congressional blockade of his confirmation to commandant continues.

Gen. Eric Smith officially holds the title of assistant commandant; however, he assumed the additional role of acting commandant when Gen. David Berger stepped down nearly a month ago without a Senate-confirmed successor. For the first time in 164 years, the service does not have a confirmed chief.

Smith's appointment has been stopped by Tommy Tuberville, a Republican senator from Alabama who is holding up roughly 270 military nominations and promotions over his objections to the Pentagon's policy allowing troops and their dependents leave and travel reimbursement for reproductive care, including abortions.

Read Next: Chinese Agents Allegedly Paid 2 US Sailors for Info on Ships, Facilities, Exercises

"Until the Senate confirms our 39th Commandant, this guidance will serve as our reference point," Smith wrote to thousands of Marines via a letter dated Aug. 1. "I cannot predict how long this process may take, but waiting is not an option for Marines, so we will move out as a team -- just as we would in combat.

"We are always strongest as a team," he added.

In 2019, Berger issued a 26-page "Commandant's Planning Guidance" a week after he took command. Smith, whose hold has no clear end date, intentionally left his four-page letter "broad" to "leave space" for his future official planning guidance.

During Berger's retirement ceremony, Smith told reporters that he retains the authority of the office of the commandant despite the hold.

"So as far as budgetary, experimentation, changing formations," he said, "I can still do all that."

The opening volley of the letter centered around Force Design 2030, a sweeping restructuring and modernization plan for the Marine Corps that was implemented under Berger and will be continued under Smith.

A key ingredient to the redesign is its fervent desire to bolster the amphibious core and heritage of the service, even amid technological and structural changes. It was a clear thread in Smith's guidance.

"We are a naval force, biased towards the high-end fight, but capable of responding across the spectrum of conflict," he wrote. "We have a legacy of fighting ashore, from Belleau Wood to Helmand, but we are and must remain naval in nature -- always with an eye toward the sea."

Smith listed five priorities: accelerating modernization efforts and rapidly responding to crises; integrating with the Navy "at every level possible"; improving quality-of-life items like living conditions and child care; recruiting and retaining Marines; and providing resources for the reserve force.

"What I require is that when decisions are made, we move out as one to attack our problems together," he wrote. "Those decisions will be made after hearing from Marines and their leadership."

Smith said that he expects standards to be applied equally, no matter the rank; he said he owes Marines "a command climate where honest mistakes can be made" and expects troops to exceed standards set out before them. He warned that criminal activity, like DUIs and sexual assaults, "must be eliminated."

If, and more likely when, he is confirmed, Smith will take the commandant spot during a seismic shift for the U.S. defense apparatus as tensions with China simmer and the service enters what Sgt. Maj. Troy Black, who will assume duties as the senior enlisted adviser to the joint chiefs in November, described as an "interwar" period while talking with reporters Wednesday.

Sgt. Maj. Carlos Ruiz, the incoming top enlisted leader of the Marine Corps and Smith's counterpart upon confirmation, told reporters that Marines are "gonna get called somewhere."

"This is your time to prep," he said, addressing young Marines.

"Our profession of warfighting is unforgiving, with no margin for carelessness," Smith wrote. "Errors in combat lead to defeat, and Marines do not lose."

In June, Smith had a confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee where Tuberville lauded his background and offered the four-star general his support.

Smith's letter was focused on direction and guidance to the force and did not reference Tuberville's hold overtly. When asked about the blockade during the hearing, however, he said, in part, it "certainly compromises our ability to be most ready."

-- Drew F. Lawrence can be reached at drew.lawrence@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @df_lawrence.

Related: Marine Corps' Next Sergeant Major Talks About His Plans as Top Enlisted Leader
August 9th, August 9th, August 9th! If there is one thing you remember about this episode, it is that you should apply for your PACT Act benefits by August 9th.

August 9th  thats the date. If you are unsure what I am talking about, and why I am talking about it repetitively, I bet you have questions.

Today, our guest will help us answer those questions. Joshua Jacobs is the Under Secretary of Benefits for the Department of Veterans Affairs. He leads the Veterans Benefits Administration which provides disability compensation and benefits to millions of qualifying veterans, their loved ones and their survivors.

Main Topics

Drew F. Lawrence interviews Under Secretary of Benefits Joshua Jacobs about the PACT Act and the August 9th, 2023 milestone.

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Transcript:

Drew F. Lawrence

August 9th, August 9th, August 9th! If there is one thing you remember about this episode, it is that you should apply for your PACT Act benefits by August 9th. August 9th  thats the date. If you are unsure what I am talking about, and why I am talking about it repetitively, I bet you have questions. Almost exactly a year ago, Congress passed sweeping legislation aimed at providing veterans with health care and disability compensation who were sickened by environmental exposures during their time of service -- things like burn pits, agent orange, and other contaminants. The Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act of 2022 or, abbreviated PACT Act was one of the largest expansions of veterans benefits in U.S. history. Veterans fought hard for the legislation, some protested around the clock for days outside the U.S. Capitol Building after the initial bill failed in the Senate a week before it finally passed.

Prostester

We're going in right now!

Drew F. Lawrence

They protested alongside advocates  Jon Stewart  a long time supporter of veterans, stood by them for example. Jon, how do you -- now that we're walking in -- how do you feel going into the Capitol right now?

Jon Stewart

You know, it's either go in and accomplish what we came here to do, or it's, you know, I just hope it's the right. I hope it's the right answer. That's all.

Drew F. Lawrence

Burn pits were toxic fuming trash fires that incinerated everything from human waste to plastic, creating toxic fumes that caused a bevy of health issues for those exposed to them. And on August 2, 2022 legislation to address those health issues passed and was subsequently signed into law

Rosie Torres

And we did it for all of the fallen that are not here. This is for Wesley Black. This is for Heath Robinson, this is for Will Thompson. This is for Kate Thomas. This is for all of them.

Drew F. Lawrence

It included provisions to compensate veterans exposed to chemicals like Agent Orange, meaning veterans who served during the Vietnam War and after are eligible as well. The law added roughly two dozen presumptive medical conditions that qualify an affected veteran for medical care. And over the last year, nearly 330,000 veterans and survivors have completed PACT Act related claims. As of June, the VA says that nearly 80% of PACT Act Claims have been approved. How do veterans sign up for these benefits? How do families or survivors qualify? And whats up with August 9th? Today, our guest will help us answer those questions. Joshua Jacobs is the Under Secretary of Benefits for the Department of Veterans Affairs. He leads the Veterans Benefits Administration which provides disability compensation and benefits to millions of qualifying veterans, their loved ones and their survivors. For Military.com, my name is Drew Lawrence  it is August 4th and this is Fire Watch. Hi, Josh, thank you for joining us on Fire Watch, today, let's start with potentially the most timely piece of news, and that is August 9. What does this date mean? And what should veterans and families understand about it?

Joshua Jacobs

Well, veterans and families and survivors should understand that there is no deadline to submit a claim for PACT Act benefits. But there are some important milestones and dates to know about. And the August 9th date that you're referencing is one of those. The significance of August 9th is if veterans submit a disability claim, or at this point, what's more practical is that they submit something called an intent to file, they do it on or before August 9th, they may be eligible to have their benefits backdated to the date the PACT Act was signed into law, which is August 10th 2022. So we're trying to get the word out as best we can to make sure that all veterans, families, survivors know about this date, and that they submit a claim or an intent to file to preserve that earliest possible effective date.

Drew F. Lawrence

And I want to reiterate, because I appreciate you mentioning it but this is not a deadline. People can apply for these benefits after August 9th but it is in their best interest to do it by then. Is that correct?

Joshua Jacobs

That is absolutely correct. The PACT act is not going away. You know, many veterans, advocates, members of Congress and President Biden himself fought to get this law passed. And we've been doing everything we can to implement it and get the word out so that as many veterans as possible who might benefit are connected with these earned benefits. And so the reason we're, we're working so hard to get the word out on August 9th is we want every veteran who may be eligible to get as many benefits as possible. And so if a veteran files after August 9th, they file, you know, a year from now, you'll still be eligible for consideration, you just won't have the possibility of having your benefits backdated to the earliest possible date of August 10th 2022.

Drew F. Lawrence

And so let's talk about these benefits, if you could kind of tell us what they are and who qualifies for them.

Joshua Jacobs

Absolutely. So you know, that just at a high level, the PACT Act is perhaps the largest expansion of health care and benefits in VA history. It expands and extends eligibility for health care for veterans with toxic exposures. And it goes to veterans of the Vietnam War, Gulf War and the post-9/11 eras. And what the PACT Act does is it adds more than 20 different categories of health conditions that we now presume were related to exposure to burn pits to Agent Orange and other toxic exposures. So if you served in any of the countries that are covered in the PACT Act, that covers Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the Vietnam, some of the other surrounding areas, and other countries ranging from Djibouti. And beyond, and you served in one of the covered locations, if you have one of these conditions, we don't need to know more than that. We just need to...we need your military records to demonstrate you were there at the right time. We need a diagnosis. We need health records to demonstrate that you have those conditions, and then we assume your military service caused that condition. And then we can provide benefits. Now that's very different than the normal claims process where we need both of those things. But then we need to establish a connection to demonstrate that your military service contributed to exacerbated or created a secondary condition.

Drew F. Lawrence

And just generally, how can families and survivors sign up for benefits?

Joshua Jacobs

Well, there are multiple options to sign up for benefits. The first way you can walk into one of our 56 regional offices we have located across the country, and you can ask for help, you can visit us on our website va.gov/PACT, you can file a claim online, you can learn more about the PACT Act, you can submit an intent to file. You can also call us asking for help. 1-800-MyVA411. That's our national call center. And we can connect you with your earned benefits. And then the final way I'd suggest is working with an accredited representative like veteran's service organization, county VSOs, the State Departments of Veterans Affairs, these are all very knowledgeable, committed personnel who work to provide veterans with free access to benefits support

Drew F. Lawrence

We at Military.com have had a few articles about the PACT Act since it was passed. And as it was coming down the pipeline, and we often get some specific questions from our readers. And I thought I would pose a couple scenarios and questions to you here to help us better understand the process of applying for benefits and what these benefits are, and who can who can apply for them. So we had a family member, email us and I'm just gonna read you what she wrote us. My father is an 80 year old Vietnam veteran who has recently begun the process of enrolling in the VA for the first time. However, we hit a roadblock in registering when he realized he didn't have his service number. It has been a daunting process to just get him enrolled in the VA to receive benefits and we still have not heard anything. I recently read an article about the PACT Act benefits and I would greatly love my father to receive this. What does he need to do to register for the PACT Act benefits?

Joshua Jacobs

Well, first, if we can get the contact information for that individual, we'd love to follow up, I'd love to follow up personally to make sure we connect that veteran with earned benefits. You know, we have what's called the duty to assist. So even when veterans don't have their military records, you may not have access to the DD-214. We have a duty to go out and find that. So if you call us at 1-800-MyVA411. If you stop into one of our regional offices, if you work with a veteran service organization, we will help you track down those records and ensure you get the benefits that you've earned. So what I would suggest to that family member is to work with your father, submit an intent to file. If he has a condition like hypertension 70% of American males over the age of 70 have hypertension. If he has other conditions, diabetes, you can submit an intent to file for the conditions and we can work to see what we can provide. And the great thing about the PACT Act is it's not only expanding access to earn benefits, like disability compensation, but it's opening the door for other benefits. So it's opening the door for things like home loans or insurance or education benefits. It also has an ability to impact expanded eligibility for health care. So there's, it's not just disability compensation you're getting when you get...when you file these benefits. And the other thing I'd say is, beyond all of that, you're helping us help other veterans because the more information the more data we have, the better we understand the true lifelong impacts of war. And as we get more information, we can conduct additional research that's going to enable us to identify potentially other new presumptive service conditions that will help future generations of veterans as well.

Drew F. Lawrence

I want to throw another question that we received. And this is kind of about backdating, which is, I think, something that you had mentioned in the beginning, but we had a veteran email us that said I retired in January 2006 from the Army. I did tours in Kuwait, Afghanistan and Iraq and am eligible for a presumptive claim. In February 2017 I was awarded a claim for Sarcoidosis (30%). That respiratory disease has been added to the PACT Act list. In that same submission, I was denied claims for psoriasis (skin condition), chronic fatigue and joint pain which all have been added to the list. If I do a supplemental claim for those 2017 claims  which were denied, will the VA retroactively pay me from 2017 or from August 2022, the month and year the PACT Act was signed into law??

Joshua Jacobs

Yeah, that's a great question. If we have the ability to provide a direct service connection, which is using the normal process where we identify military service, the health condition, and then if we can create that connection, based on evidence, we can potentially backdate the claim. However, when a number of these conditions were added as presumptive service conditions, it enabled us to bypass those direct connections where we don't yet have enough evidence to make those types of decisions in favor of the veteran, but we're going to do so anyway. And in those cases where we aren't able to provide that direct service connection and say, 'Hey, your military service absolutely contributed to caused exacerbated condition.' We have the authority to provide that benefit going back to August 10 2022 when the law was enacted. So in some of those cases, we're just not going to have the ability to backdate pay. But if we always do look and if we have the ability to provide a direct service connection, we will do so with the potential to backdate pay.

Drew F. Lawrence

So for this scenario, they were talking about claims from 2017. Obviously you need to potentially need to know more about this person to make a determination but there is a potential to backdate to 2017 but likely it would be August 2022.

Joshua Jacobs

Yeah, likely and you're right, right every every particular claim is unique their individual circumstances. So you'd have to take a look at the individual details of the claim. More likely than not without knowing the details, my assumption is that we will be able to pay back to August 10 2022. But there may be something in this individual claim that could allow us to go further beyond that if we're able to establish a direct service connection. My guess though, is that we would have to go back to August.

Drew F. Lawrence

For our final scenario. This is from a survivor. I had been reading off and on about the PACT Act and in the past did not think it applied to me. I currently receive monthly [dependency and indemnity compensation] payments due to my husband's death being determined 100% service related from his time in Vietnam. His death certificate states the cause of death as "metastatic non-small lung cancer with brain metastasis. I accessed the PACT Act form and it really looked overwhelming to me to fill out so I thought I should ask someone first if I am entitled to more benefits than I am currently receiving and would therefore fill out the form.

Joshua Jacobs

Yeah, that's that's a great a great scenario. And first, my condolences on the loss of your spouse. You know, if you're a surviving family member of a veteran, you may be eligible for a monthly dependency and indemnity compensation payment. One time Accrued Benefits payment and a Survivors Pension. It really depends on the individual details. So what I would suggest this person do is reach out to us at 1-800-MyVA411 or work with an accredited veteran's service organization. The tragedy assistance program for survivors is a great program but you can also call the American Legion, DAV, VFW AmVets, Wounded Warrior Project, any number of those groups can also be helpful, so that we can provide the most appropriate, tailored response to meet the individual circumstances.

Drew F. Lawrence

Thank you. And just to clarify, you know, this person is receiving DIC payments. But I think they were on the fence of whether or not they should apply, because they're not sure if they're eligible. Would you recommend to people who are kind of on the fence about this to declare their intent or to apply anyway, even if they're unsure what benefits they may be eligible for?

Joshua Jacobs

Yes, even if you're not sure it does no harm to pursue those earned benefits, submit an intent to file and then we can work through to determine whether or not there is eligibility. What we want every veteran and survivor to know is, we're here to serve you. We want you to know about these benefits. And as we run up to the August 9th 2023, milestone, we want you to submit your claim and then we can work out the details of whether or not you may or may not be eligible.

Drew F. Lawrence

I want to get back to some some general questions here. Because this has been a really major lift for the VA. The VA hired 2000 new employees last year to help manage the surge of new claims and potential need for medical care. Was that enough? And have you seen any adverse impacts to wait times and care from having so many new veterans enter the system?

Joshua Jacobs

Yeah, so I would say this is perhaps the largest expansion of health care and benefits in VA history. What we've seen in this fiscal year is a almost 35-36% increase in the total number of claims we've received compared to last year. And to me, that's a good thing that tells me, one, the expansion of benefits in the PACT Act is opening up access to more benefits. And our outreach, which has been aggressive and sustained across the country over the past year, and will continue that way is having its desired impact. Now, with that impact comes an increased workload. And so what we've been doing to prepare for that workload is 1.) very aggressive hiring. You mentioned the hiring campaign, we started even before the PACT Act was enacted. We have grown by 22%, in the Veterans Benefits Administration over the last 18 months. And we're now over 30,000 employees. And largely as a result of that aggressive hiring, the onboarding and the training, we've been able to increase total production, while maintaining high quality. So we have delivered more benefits to more veterans than any other time in our history. In fact, we have produced 15, almost 16% more claims decisions this fiscal year than we did at the same point last year. And I think that's significant because last year, we produce more decisions for veterans than any other time in our history, we produced 1.7 million claims decisions in fiscal year 22. And we're on pace to blow that record out of the water. And so that has been an incredibly challenging, it has been taxing on the workforce. But it's the reason why we all wake up and do what we do. More than 50% of the people who work at VA are veterans, many more military families, and every single one of us is a veteran advocate. And so the opportunity to deliver more benefits to more veterans, families and survivors is incredibly exciting. And it also is what motivates us to continue to try to do better and do more.

Drew F. Lawrence

One aspect about the PACT Act that I think often gets underreported when we're talking about benefits and who can apply is a VA warning that came after the PACT Act was initiated about potential scams related to the legislation. And I'm wondering what you would tell veterans, their families, survivors to look out for and where should veterans go if they think they are being scammed?

Joshua Jacobs

Yeah. Well, thanks for raising that. It's a significant concern on our part. I think the major concern that we've identified is, we have veterans who are being charged to file a new claim. And these are companies that are saying, 'Hey, we promise we'll get you a good disability rating, just sign on the dotted line, and then you'll end up paying us 1000s of dollars.' And what we want veterans to know, we want families and survivors to know: you don't have to pay anything to file a disability claim. You can do it directly online, you can go to va.gov/PACT, you can call and seek assistance, 1-800-MyVA411. Or you can work with the 1000s of accredited representatives like veteran service organizations, county VSOs and State Department's of Veterans Affairs, whose sole mission or whose primary mission is to help you file your disability claim. These are very experienced, seasoned and knowledgeable people. And their job is to do this work for free on behalf of a grateful nation.

Drew F. Lawrence

And you mentioned it several times in this interview, but I really want to drive home to our listeners about where veterans and their families can go to get more information about PACT Act benefits.

Joshua Jacobs

Well, thank you so much for continuing to put that out there because I think this is one of the the most important things we can do. It took a lot to get this law passed. You may recall the legislative fight that took place with veteran advocates camping out in front of the Capitol. And it's incredible what this what PACT Act does, but it doesn't mean a thing if veterans and families and survivors don't know about it. So in order to get information, you can go online to our website, va.gov/PACT. And that website not only includes all sorts of information and frequently asked questions about the law, but it also has a link where you can apply for benefits or submit your intent to file. You can also call us at our call center, 1-800-MyVA411. And you can get more information or seek help for filing a claim. You can visit one of our 56 regional offices located all across the country or come to one of the many vet fest events that we're hosting all throughout July and into August trying to connect veterans with their benefits. Or you can work with American Legion, DAV, VFW AmVets, other VSOs, county VSOs and State Department's of Veterans Affairs to file your claim or ask questions about your earned benefits.

Drew F. Lawrence

Joshua Jacobs, Undersecretary for Benefits at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Thank you so much for joining us on Fire Watch. Especially, I know you're taking time off of your vacation to be with us. And I appreciate that. And I know our listeners will to.

Joshua Jacobs

Drew, thanks so much for having me. And thanks for helping us get the word out about the PACT Act and making sure that the millions of veterans who fought for this country get the benefits that they've earned. Really appreciate it.

Drew F. Lawrence

Thank you so much for listening to this special episode of Fire Watch. Thank you to our guest, Joshua Jacobs. Thanks also to executive producer Zachary Fryer-Biggs. If you liked this episode and want to let us know, give us a rating  wherever you get your podcasts. And as always, thanks for listening.


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DETROIT - Hell probably grab a coffee or two while hes in town. He will definitely be doing stand-up. Jerry Seinfeld has just announced hes returning to Michigan in 2023 with one show planned in the state.

The comedian and actor will be at the Fox Theatre in downtown Detroit on Saturday, October 28 to perform his newest stand-up routine. Tickets go on sale Friday, August 11 at 10 a.m.

Seinfeld can currently be seen all over Netflix with projects which include Jerry Before Seinfeld and 23 Hours to Kill. His web series, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee also has dozens and dozens of episodes on the streaming service.

He has also created a movie about the worlds most famous breakfast pastry which originated at Kelloggs in Battle Creek, Michigan. Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story is coming soon on Netflix with no release date yet announced.

Seinfeld wrote, directed and stars in this movie which also features Melissa McCarthy, Jim Gaffigan, Amy Schumer and Hugh Grant.

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ALPENA TOWNSHIP, MI  A man was arrested after he broke into a womans Northern Michigan home and choked her while she was sleeping, police said.

The victim, who was sleeping in her bed at home, woke up when the suspect got on top of her and started choking her, according to a news release from the Michigan State Police. The victim and suspect had argued over the phone earlier in the evening.

Troopers from the MSP Alpena Post responded to the incident around 12:23 a.m. Sunday, July 30, at a residence in Alpena Township.

When the troopers arrived, they spoke with the victim. She had visible injuries to her face and neck. The victim alleged that after she and Scott Roger Smith, 45, of Alpena, had argued over the phone, he began sending her text messages. She went to bed and was later awakened by Smith when he was on top of her and started choking her. The victim escaped from underneath Smith. The assault continued until the victim escaped the house. Smith fled on foot.

A canine team was called to assist in the search for Smith. He was found hiding in a hole in the backyard. He was arrested and lodged at Alpena County Jail.

Smith was arraigned this week in the 88th District Court in Alpena County on charges of first-degree home invasion, assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder, third-offense domestic violence, and resisting and obstructing police. His bond was set at $100,000. Hes due back in court on Aug. 16.

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Major technology companies in the Madison area and nationally, most of which had at one time embraced remote work, are increasingly requiring employees to get back in the office for at least part of the work week.

With the COVID-19 pandemic winding down, electronic health records giant Epic Systems Corp. in January 2022 began requiring workers to spend almost all of their time at the companys sprawling Verona campus.

Its policy requires nearly all of the privately held companys 13,000 employees work from the office every day, though they can take 10 half-days each year to work remotely.

Technical Services Division Lead Nate Bubb said Epics policy is its true North Star, enabling the company to execute its mission of helping nurses and doctors do their best work.

He said Epic has monitored hybrid work trends and has decided in-person work is its only viable path forward, making the company stand out as one of the earliest and most passionate advocates of in-person work since the beginning of the pandemic.

Bubb has been working at Epic for more than a decade and said that while the number of remote-work exception days may change, the intention wont: In-person work is here to stay for Epic workers.

He said most of the employees he spoke with when Epics current remote work policy was created agreed with his team, and that his team talked with a wide variety of workers.

Being able to walk down the hall and hop into a room, do complex things together, thats the majority of the time, Bubb said. That will be the way we continue to serve our community.

A survey of 4,500 companies by Scoop, a company that helps businesses navigate remote work, found that 75% of tech companies  more than in other industries  were either fully remote or allowing employees to choose when to be in the office. But more companies were requiring employees to be in the office at least some days, especially at larger technology companies.

About 8% were requiring employees to be in the office full-time. It found that larger tech companies were more often requiring hybrid or in-office work.

Just as collaborative

Some of Epics former employees say the companys push to get employees back into the office early in the pandemic propelled their departure.

Cassy Smithies said she worked full time on Epics design team from June 2020 to May 2022.

The (remote work) flexibility was one of the main reasons why I left because being there for my family was something really important to me, Smithies said. Now Im in another role where I can do that and can drop things and go fly out for a week and then come back and get back into the office and be just as collaborative as before.

Smithies now works a hybrid schedule as a senior product designer for Fetch, a Madison-based company behind a mobile app that helps consumers earn various rewards from retailers.

The argument since COVID restrictions began to ease in late 2020 has been that working from home eliminates the need to commute and provides workers with flexibility. The counter-argument is that in-person work makes for better employee collaboration and communication.

And Epic is not alone in requiring workers show up at the office.

Madisons Exact Sciences Corp., known for its at-home cancer-screening test, Cologuard, offers a hybrid-work model. The company has around 6,300 employees globally, including 3,000 in the Madison area.

We believe that remote work offers great convenience and is needed for certain positions, but its the in-person interactions that spark creativity, collaboration and innovation, said Sarah Condella, executive vice president of human resources at Exact Sciences. Remote work is an option for specific positions, based on the availability of the skill, type of work and the level of interdependence on others required for the role. However, most of our roles are performed on-site or hybrid.

Other tech companies, such as Salesforce, are reversing course after saying workers could work from anywhere, and recently began encouraging people to return to the office. Its gone so far as to donate to nonprofits of employees choice as an incentive to show up in person.

Dan Olszewski, director of the Weinert Center for Entrepreneurship at UW-Madison, said many important features of the workplace are difficult to replicate on Zoom. But Olszewski said some of the advantages of in-person work can be achieved with a hybrid schedule, especially if commuting is an issue.

Its hard to really engage new employees in the company and feel virtually, Olszewski said. The mentoring that goes along with that, a lot of that tends to be informal, running into people at the water cooler.

The consensus among employees about hybrid work is mixed, Olszewski said. Some crave in-person work and connection, while others prefer their own space. Many feel somewhere in between.

Hybrid work is here to stay, he said, pointing to a July report from the McKinsey Global Institute that office attendance in the country is 30% below pre-pandemic norms.

Life balance

Another former Epic employee, Aris Blevins, said he was the design director of clinicals and analytics at Epic between July 2020 and June 2022.

Blevins said he continually felt stuck trying to juggle demands around productivity, camaraderie, safety and the desires of his team  without feeling like he had an ultimate say in many decisions.

Blevins is now the director of user experience at Sonic Foundry Inc., a Madison company that makes software for distance learning and communication, where he works a hybrid schedule.

This is the right balance for me, Blevins said. Being able to come in, not every single day, with a family and kids.

Workers around the country are divided on whether to embrace hybrid work.

Among Americans who have the ability to work remotely, 65% prefer it all the time, compared to 32% of workers who want a hybrid model, according to a recent Forbes study.

Those who prefer an out-of-office lifestyle point to the need to balance their personal and professional lives, the study states.

Moving forward, it is predicted that 22% of the American workforce will be remote by 2025, the Forbes article said.

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Correction: This story incorrectly identified the person who appointed Foxs counsel. The Michigan Indigent Defense Commission appointed attorney Christopher Gibbons.

BELLAIRE, MI -- The Michigan Attorney Generals Office is using the threat of new charges to scare a witness from testifying at an upcoming criminal trial for three men accused of trying to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020, says one of the defense attorneys involved.

Adam Fox, whom the FBI called a mastermind of the plan, has already been convicted and is serving a 16-year sentence at a high-security federal prison in Colorado.

Defense attorney William Barnett, who is defending Eric Molitor of Cadillac, said he spoke to relatives of Fox who indicated the 39-year-old wanted to testify on Molitors behalf. Barnett believes Fox would say Molitor didnt want to kidnap the governor.

Related: FBI informant, others fear charges and refuse to testify in Gov. Whitmer kidnap plot trial

Barnett began making arrangements for Fox to be transported from the prison to Michigan, where Molitor and two other co-defendants, twin brothers Michael and William Null, face an Aug. 23 trial in Antrim County on charges of providing material support for terrorist acts and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. They each face up to 22 years in prison.

The plan to have Fox testify stalled.

Attorneys for the AG filed a motion requesting that the court order the appointment of an attorney for Fox prior to his transport. That motion included information that Barnett said is threatening.

The AGs motion called Fox one of the main terrorists, and said he hasnt been charged with any crimes under Michigan law -- only federal -- remains an uncharged co-conspirator and would not be granted immunity from future possible charges.

This is a threat that he and only he would be charged, Barnett told MLive. Thats a coercion and threatening of a witness.

Barnett said its a double-standard, and although legal, a big flaw that exists in the justice system.

Several witnesses declined to testify at previous kidnap plot trials over similar concerns that they could face future prosecution, and instead invoked their Fifth Amendment protections against self-incrimination.

Barnett said the threat of prosecution to quiet witnesses means juries dont hear all the evidence.

If I were calling up one of their witnesses and said, Oh, I have dirt on you, Im going to call the police if you try to testify, I would be meddling with a witness and subject to criminal charges.

The AGs Office did not respond to MLives request for a response to Barnetts claims.

We will address the matter at the appropriate time in court, AG spokesman Danny Wimmer said.

The U.S. Constitution forbids a defendant from being tried twice for the same crime; however, since state and federal courts are separate jurisdictions, the double jeopardy rule doesnt apply to state charges.

Barnett said the AGs Office never indicated the possibility of charging the kidnap plot defendants who were charged in federal court with state crimes, until the possibility of Fox testifying in Antrim County arose.

The Michigan Indigent Defense Commission appointed Christopher Gibbons to represent Fox. Gibbons previously defended Fox during his federal trials, the first ending in a mistral and the second in conviction.

A hearing was held in Antrim County Circuit Court on Aug. 2

The issue would be whether or not you would be willing to testify, knowing the potential consequences, Antrim County Circuit Court Judge Charles M. Hamlyn asked Adam Fox, who appeared via telephone from prison in Florence, Colorado.

I would invoke my Fifth Amendment, sir, said Fox, who was convicted of conspiring to kidnap the governor.

Related: The ties that bind accused kidnap plotters

Barnett admits another reason Fox was likely advised by his attorney not to testify is that his statement could be used against him in his ongoing attempt to appeal and overturn his federal conviction.

All attorneys would give that advice, he said.

MLive was unable to reach Foxs attorney for comment.

The AGs Office accuses Molitor of participating in the surveillance mission that involved scouting Whitmers vacation home on Birch Lake near Elk Rapids.

Barnett downplayed his clients involvement, indicating that while Molitor has prior militia involvement, he wasnt part of the Wolverine Watchmen, the militia that the AGs Office said the kidnap plotters belonged to.

Dont count on Barricade for any extreme (expletive), Barnett said Fox texted others as the plot evolved. Barricade, according to the attorney, is Molitors alias.

Fox wrote that for a reason and I was going to have him expand on why and how he knew (Molitors) intent was never to do anything extreme, Barnett said. If they have a great case, what is wrong with having an eyewitness come into the trial?

Molitor is also accused of providing the plotters a spy-detection device meant to locate potentially hidden cell phones or other covert surveillance equipment.

Theres some paranoia with militias, Barnett said. They always think the governments listening, whether theyre doing something wrong or not.

He called the spy-detection device a toy that costs $50, hardly works and should be advertised in the back pages of Mad Magazine.

So far, 14 men have been accused in the plot to kidnap the governor. Fox and Barry Croft Jr. were convicted in federal court; Brandon Caserta and Daniel Harris were acquitted in federal court; Kaleb Franks and Ty Garbin accepted plea deals related to federal crimes; Pete Musico, Joseph Morrison and Paul Bellar were charged and convicted in Jackson County; Shawn Fix and Brian Higgins accepted plea deals in Antrim County; and the Null brothers and Molitor face a joint trial later this month.

The sentences for the convicted plotters range from 2 1/2 years in prison received by Garbin up to nearly 20 years, received by Croft.

More on MLive:

FBI informant, others fear charges and refuse to testify in Gov. Whitmer kidnap plot trial

Five accused Michigan Gov. Whitmer kidnap plotters to face joint trial, judge rules

Michigan AG wants to seal evidence defendant in Gov. Whitmer kidnap plot threatened to expose

Kidnap plotter receives nearly 20-year sentence

Life sentences too severe for men in Gov. Whitmer kidnap plot, defense attorneys say
DIMONDALE, MI  A memorial was unveiled this week to honor the service and sacrifice of Michigan State Police K9s that died in the line of duty.

The K9 memorial sits alongside the Fallen Trooper Memorial on the lawn of the MSP Training Academy in Dimondale. It honors six canines that have died in the line of duty since 1998: Aiko, Bane, Eli, Max, Beck and Rex.

Our canines, and the work they perform, are critical to creating a Michigan where everyone feels safe and secure, Col. Joe Gasper, director of the MSP, said at the dedication ceremony Thursday. These six canines were true partners to their handlers and beloved members of the MSP. With the unveiling of this memorial, we finally have a fitting and permanent location to remember their contributions to policing and the communities we call home.

The memorial was fully funded through donations.

On Thursday, Aug. 3, 2023, the Michigan State Police unveiled a memorial honoring canines who have died in the line of duty. It's located next to the Fallen Trooper Memorial on the lawn of the MSP Training Academy in Dimondale. It honors six canines that have died in the line of duty since 1998: Aiko, Bane, Eli, Max, Beck and Rex.Michigan State Police

The MSP K9 Unit was established in 1960 by Tpr. Richard Abbott and Jocko. The department now has 43 canine teams throughout the state. The unit handles more than 7,000 requests for services annually.

We felt very strongly that our fallen canines deserved this recognition, said Sgt. Dave Cardenas, MSP Canine Unit Trainer and handler. Today is a special day and we are extremely grateful to those who contributed to make it possible.

On Thursday, Aug. 3, 2023, the Michigan State Police unveiled a memorial honoring canines who have died in the line of duty. It's located next to the Fallen Trooper Memorial on the lawn of the MSP Training Academy in Dimondale. It honors six canines that have died in the line of duty since 1998: Aiko, Bane, Eli, Max, Beck and Rex.Michigan State Police

Aiko

On Oct. 5, 1998, 4-year-old Aiko was the first MSP K9 to die in the line of duty.

Aiko was certified in tracking, building search, evidence search, area search, controlled aggression, obedience and narcotics detection. Aiko was partnered with Trooper Joel Service at the MSP Flint Post.

Aiko was fatally shot in the neck by a robbery suspect who was later sentenced to prison for crimes related to the incident.

Bane

During November 2010, 4-year-old Bane was the second MSP K9 to die in the line of duty.

Bane was certified in tracking, building search, evidence search, area search, controlled aggression, obedience and narcotics detection. He was partnered with Trooper Jamie Bullis at the MSP Alpena Post.

Bane went missing during a search of a wooded swamp area for the remains of a person who had gone missing three months earlier. It was later learned that he was fatally shot by a deer hunter and then buried. There was not enough evidence to pursue criminal charges.

All MSP K9s are now fitted with GPS trackers.

Eli

On June 28, 2016, 6-year-old Eli was the third MSP K9 to die in the line of duty.

Eli was certified in accelerant detection. Eli was assigned to Trooper Steven Escott at the MSP Bridgeport Post. During their tenure, they completed 622 accelerant searches, assisting investigators with determining causes of fires. They uncovered millions of dollars in insurance fraud, resulting in criminal prosecutions.

On June 27, 2016, Escott and Eli searched a fire scene at a laundry and dry-cleaning business. The next morning, 16 hours after the search, Eli was found dead in his kennel. His death was caused by inhaling hazardous chemicals at the fire scene.

Max

K9 Max, a 7-year-old German Shepherd, was the fourth MSP K9 to die in the line of duty.

Max was certified in tracking, building search, evidence search, area search, controlled aggression, obedience and narcotics detection. He was partnered with Harold Terry at the MSP Houghton Lake Post and later reassigned to Trooper Jim King at the MSP Jackson Post.

On June 15, 2018, King and Max were called to track a suspect who had rammed a patrol vehicle and fled on foot. King put Maxs tracking harness on him and gave the command to track. Moments later, Max yelped and fell to the ground. King could not find a pulse. Max had suffered a fatal heart attack and died at the scene.

Beck

K9 Beck, a 9-year-old German Shepherd, was the fifth MSP K9 to die in the line of duty.

Beck was certified in tracking, explosive detection, building searches, and property searches. He was partnered with Trooper Steven Escott at the MSP Bridgeport Post. Beck also assisted the U.S. Secret Service and U.S. Capital Police and performed explosive sweeps for dignitaries visiting the state of Michigan.

On June 20, 2018, after successfully completing an assignment, Beck collapsed in the back of the MSP patrol vehicle and died. It was determined that he died from hemangiosarcoma cardiac arrest.

Rex

K9 Rex, a 7-year-old German Shepherd, was the sixth MSP K9 to die in the line of duty.

Rex was certified in narcotics detection, tracking and apprehension. Rex was partnered with Trooper David Bellestri at the MSP Metro South Post. Rex was responsible for locating wanted felons, firearms and hundreds of pounds of narcotics.

On July 25, 2021, Bellestri and Rex were sitting in a patrol car blocking traffic at a freeway closure due to flooding. The patrol car was then struck by a drunken driver. Rex was rushed to a veterinary hospital where he was put to rest due to the severity of his injuries.

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LENAWEE COUNTY, MI  Two Ohio men accused of killing a man in Michigan and cutting off his head and hands are going to trial.

Richardo Sepulveda, 51, of Cincinnati, and Michael Sepulveda, 49 of Toledo, were bound over for trial Thursday, Aug. 3, on six felony charges in connection with a the slaying of an unidentified man found decapitated and maimed in a Blissfield cornfield in Lenawee County, according to the Michigan Attorney Generals Office.
Autumn Williams, 16, found herself in a pretty confusing situation when the Chick-fil-A she worked at sent her home in July because of the color of her hair.

The Chick-fil-A, located along Highway 49 in Harrisburg, N.C., told the teen that the blonde color in her braids was unnatural, according to WBTV.

Williams told news outlets that the experience left her feeling singled out and embarrassed and that she had only worked at the fast-food restaurant for three months. She said she was pulled aside for an apparent uniform violation but was totally caught off guard by what she heard next.

She was like, Hey, one of our supervisors came by and said they noticed blond in your hair, and he asked that you leave and come back when its taken out since its an unnatural color to you, Williams said to Queen City News.

I dont know what blond is in my hair because my braids were brown, and there wasnt blond in them, and my natural hair color is blond, Williams added. And the guy, when I had orientation, he never said anything about my hair color or it being an issue.

Williams also mentioned that other coworkers had unnatural hair colors.

Later, when Williams asked her human resources supervisor for clarification, she was referred to the employee handbook, which she said doesnt specify what hair colors are considered unnatural.

Youre being sent home because your hair color is not natural? I didnt understand what that meant, Williams mother, Nina Burch, said to WBTV.

Burch even tried speaking to management at Chic-fil-A about why her daughter was sent home, but claims they refused to talk to her about the incident.

The lack of information eventually led to Williams quitting the job.

When Queen City News asked for comment, Chic-fil-A responded, saying:

The operator reached out to (Autumn) Williams today and had a good conversation. In further detail, the operator explained that the policy was misinterpreted and said Williams was not terminated and shes more than welcome to come back and work at the restaurant.

Despite the restaurants open invitation to return, Williams declined to accept and has no desire to return back to work at that location.

I was glad that I didnt have to change myself to fit into someone elses idea image of what its like to be a Chick-Fil-A worker, Williams said to the news outlet. I was just glad that I was able to just stay true to myself and move on and find somewhere else to work; thats fine with how I look.

Burch added that the restaurant made no effort to contact her or Williams father about the matter.

I just hope that companies realize that no one fits in a box. People come in different colors, shapes, sizes and what you perceive to be natural based off someones ethnicity or race isnt necessarily true, Burch said to WBTV.

Burch added that they are considering all possibilities when it comes to potential legal action.
Jared Eno, president of the Graduate Employees Organization at University of Michigan, protesting in front of the Washtenaw County Courthouse in Ann Arbor as part of the union's strike. UM and GEO are in court on Tuesday, April 4.Sam Dodge | MLive.com
SALINE, MI -- A woman shot in Saline on Thursday has died, police said.

Amber Jo Thomas, 40, of Lenawee County, was fatally shot around 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 3, near the Linden Square Assisted Living Center, 650 Woodland Drive East, in Saline, police said.

Police believe her ex-boyfriend was the shooter.

Thomas and a male acquaintance had been walking to her car in the parking lot of the UAW Local 892 next to the assisted living center when the womans ex-boyfriend opened fire, said Saline Chief of Police Marlene Radzik.

Read more: Woman in critical condition after being shot by ex-boyfriend in Saline, police say

Thomas was initially taken to the hospital in critical condition, but later died of her injuries, police said. The man, a 67-year-old from the Saline area, has not been named and was previously reported to be in stable condition.

Police had originally identified the male victim as a 55-year-old.

The case is currently being investigated as a homicide, police said. Thomas death is the 15th homicide in Washtenaw County this year, although the first in Saline.

The womans ex-boyfriend, a 58-year-old man from Lenawee County, fled the scene in a car, then got into a head-on crash near South Ann Arbor Street and Willis Road, police said. A 38-year-old woman from Jackson County was taken to the hospital with injuries not believed to be life threatening.

A Good Samaritan...he actually saw the suspect trying to flee from the head-on crash and he got in front of him and actually stopped him from leaving, Radzik previously told MLive/The Ann Arbor News.

Police confirmed the woman had a PPO against the suspect.

Read more: 11 people have been killed in Washtenaw County since June 1. Whats behind the rise in homicides?

The suspect is currently in custody, police said. The weapon has been recovered.

The assisted living center is working with law enforcement, a representative from the Linden Square Assisted Living Center wrote in an email to MLive/The Ann Arbor News.

Our utmost priority remains the safety and well-being of our cherished residents, dedicated staff members, and valued visitors, the representative said. We stand united with the victim and their family during this challenging time and offer our thoughts and prayers.

The incident prompted a brief school lockdown, according to police. Saline police were assisted by crews from the Ann Arbor police, Pittsfield Township police, University of Michigan Department of Public Safety, Saline Area Fire Department, Huron Valley Ambulance, ATF Michigan State Police, the FBI, the Washtenaw County Sheriffs Office.

Want more Ann Arbor-area news? Bookmark the local Ann Arbor news page or sign up for the free 3@3 Ann Arbor daily newsletter.

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U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell visits Ann Arbor autonomous vehicle tech company

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FLINT, MI  The city may have finished some tasks related to its water service line replacement program, but groups that sued to force the completion of the work have renewed their request that Flint and Mayor Sheldon Neeley be found in contempt of court.

In a filing in U.S. District Court on Thursday, Aug. 3, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Concerned Pastors for Social Action, Flint water activist Melissa Mays, and the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan urged Judge David Lawson to make the contempt ruling to ensure the city follows through on remaining requirements of a settlement reached after the groups sued the city in 2017.

The settlement ultimately required the city to excavate water service lines across the city and to replace lead or galvanized steel lines by Tuesday, Aug. 1, and required progress reports as work was completed.

Plaintiffs do not presently contest the city of Flints representation that it has finally, after the evidentiary hearing, completed the work that prompted plaintiffs contempt motion, the new court filing says. Although this development moots plaintiffs request for a daily fine to coerce the citys compliance, it does not moot this motion.

The record is clear that the city did not make reasonable efforts to comply with this courts order and, absent judicial intervention, will likely fail to do so again, the newest brief by the groups says. The city has repeatedly missed deadlines, as it did here. The city has repeatedly failed to cure its violations until hauled into court, as happened here. And the city has repeatedly misinformed plaintiffs, the court, and the community as to its progress.

The city announced last week that it had achieved three areas of non-compliance with the settlement that the groups alleged in an initial contempt motion filed in May  visiting all homes where lawns and sidewalks must be restored after excavations, providing the information to the groups, and completing all required outreach to homes where homeowners hadnt given the city the OK to check service their lines.

Flint City Attorney William Kim said in a statement to MLive-The Flint Journal on Friday, Aug. 4, that the city remains opposed to any contempt finding against it or Neeley.

We are glad that the NRDC and Concerned Pastors have acknowledged that the city of Flint has completed the work that prompted their motion, Kim said. We still disagree that taxpayer money should pay their attorney fees, as that would violate the terms of the settlement agreement.

The brief filed by the groups says Lawson should impose a prospective remedy  the bite of which the city will never feel unless it violates this courts order  authorizing plaintiffs to seek attorneys fees and costs if another enforcement motion proves necessary.

That is the surest way to coerce the citys compliance and avoid further enforcement practice, the court filing says.

The city said in a statement to MLive earlier this week that it was reviewing records from all phases of the service line replacement project to confirm that all required excavations and replacements have been completed.

It says since 2016, the Flint contractors have completed 28,361 excavations of residential service lines, identified the composition of those service lines, and replaced 10,429 lead or galvanized service lines.

Our initial data shows that over 1,000 Flint residents declined or failed to cooperate with the citys service line excavation and replacement efforts, the statement says. The city is actively engaged in developing a process and securing funding to continue service line replacement for those addresses. Flint residents can continue to call 810-410-1133 to sign up for lead service line replacement.

There is still work to do to close out the service line program.

Flint officials have said they are focused on completing lawn and sidewalk restorations at 4,000 addressed. The city has not said when that work will be completed. Its statement says it looks forward to completing those efforts as soon as possible.

Want more Flint-area news? Bookmark the local Flint news page or sign up for the free 3@3 Flint daily newsletter.

Read more at The Flint Journal:

Flint says its finished required service line work in advance of Aug. 1 deadline

Florida real estate investor buys historic Dryden Building in downtown Flint

New audible crosswalks will help make downtown Flint a safer, more inclusive place
GRAND RAPIDS, MI  Grand Rapids is getting a new, authentic Mexican restaurant.

The new eatery, called El Cerrito, is opening Thursday, Aug. 10, in Grand Rapids Eastown neighborhood, at 1400 Lake Dr. SE. The building was formerly occupied by Bombay Cuisine and East West Brewing, which closed in October 2022 after its owners retired.

El Cerrito is owned by brothers Edgard Rocha, 27, and Juan Rocha, 24, both Hillsdale natives who moved to Grand Rapids two years ago.

Their family owns two other restaurants in Michigan under the same name  their parents, Adan and Delfina Rocha, opened the original El Cerrito in Hillsdale in 2005, and brothers Adam and Everardo Rocha opened a second location in Coldwater in 2015.

Edgard Rocha told MLive the new Grand Rapids location will have many of the same authentic Mexican menu items as the other two restaurants, including burritos, enchiladas, and a tender skirt steak that Rocha is most excited for visitors to try.

The restaurant also has its liquor license and will serve a variety of delicious drinks, including margaritas made with quality, premium ingredients like Milagro Tequila Reposado, Rocha said.

Were really trying to focus on authenticity and quality here, he said.

Inside, the 2,200-square-foot dining area has capacity to seat 95 people, with additional outdoor patio seating at the front of the building. Rocha described the eatery as a casual, sit-down restaurant that will be family-friendly, with an interior design that is both traditional and modern.

I did try to maintain that ma-and-pa kind of feeling, he said. Everyone loves that kind of feeling that you get when you walk into a traditional Mexican place.

Rocha said hes excited to be opening a restaurant in the Eastown area, which drew him in with its small town charm and welcoming community.

It really has that community feel, and thats what we really focused on trying to find: an area that has that feeling, he said. When you have a business in a place like this, you become a part of the whole community.

We just really loved the area, love the people here. Everyone seems to be really down-to-earth and welcoming.

The restaurant will be open Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Want more Grand Rapids-area news? Bookmark the local Grand Rapids news page or sign up for the free 3@3 Grand Rapids daily newsletter.

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KENT COUNTY, MI  A bicyclist was killed early Friday, Aug. 4, when she was struck by a vehicle on South Division Avenue, Wyoming police said.

The name of the bicyclist, a 39-year-old Grand Rapids woman, has not been released.

The crash was reported around 12:55 a.m. in the 2500 block of South Division near Plaster Creek Boulevard in Wyoming.

Police said that the victim was struck by a southbound vehicle. The driver remained at the scene and cooperated with police.

The critically injured victim was taken to a local hospital where she later died, police said.

Speed and alcohol are not considered factors in the crash. It remains under investigation. Grand Rapids police assisted Wyoming police officers at the scene.

Police asked anyone with information to contact investigators at 616-530-7300 or Silent Observer at 616-774-2345 or go to www.silentobserver.org

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KENT COUNTY, MI  The mayor of Wyoming has no intention of resigning after being accused, with 15 others, in an alleged 2020 false-election scheme intended to keep former President Donald Trump in office.

The attorney for Mayor Kent Vanderwood, 69, previously a long-time city council member, said his client would be vindicated.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said the 16 defendants were part of an effort to replace the states electoral college representatives with a pro-Trump slate.

She said that the pro-Trump group tried to go into the state Capitol and certify their slate while the states legal electors were certifying the 2020 election results. State police turned away the pro-Trump group.

Related: 16 people face felonies in 2020 Michigan false electors scheme

These false documents were then transmitted to the United States Senate and National Archives in a coordinated effort to award the states electoral votes to the candidate of their choosing, in place of the candidates actually elected by the people of Michigan, Nessel said.

Brian Lennon, Vanderwoods attorney, issued a statement on Friday, Aug. 4, disputing Nessels contention that his client intended to defraud the National Archives and U.S. Senate.

Based on the affidavit in support of the criminal complaint, the prosecutions theory is completely off base, attorney Brian Lennon wrote.

Related: Mayor of Wyoming among 16 charged in 2020 Michigan false electors scheme

The prosecution cannot prove an intent to defraud or conspiracy to do the same. Just because AG Nessel has charged eight different offenses does not make any of the charges, or the case as a whole, any better.

In fact, Mr. Vanderwood had no intent to defraud anyone or any organization when he signed the Certificate of Votes of the 2020 Electors from Michigan during the time when lawsuits challenging the 2020 presidential election were pending in Michigan. After we have reviewed the governments discovery, we fully expect that the weakness of the prosecutions case will begin to be exposed at the preliminary hearing, and in the end, Mr. Vanderwood will be fully vindicated.

Lennon said Vanderwood would not resign or recuse himself during the legal process in Ingham County.

Mr. Vanderwood is a lifelong community servant who has tirelessly dedicated himself to the various causes he supports in West Michigan and beyond. He has served various faith-based nonprofits and ministries in Michigan and throughout the country helping them to raise money to expand their impact and outreach. He is a man of integrity.

Vanderwood is charged with conspiracy to commit forgery, two counts of forgery, conspiracy to commit uttering and publishing, uttering and publishing, conspiracy to commit election law forgery, and two counts of election law forgery.

Vanderwood, who served on the city council for 16 years, won a three-way primary race for mayor last August.

In a Facebook post last month, the City of Wyoming said residents had asked about recalling or removing Vanderwood from office. The city said that recall petitions cannot be filed in Kent County until the elected official has been in office for a year. Under state law, the governor can remove an elected official for misconduct or a felony conviction, the city said.

The alleged misconduct would have to have happened while the elected official held the position.

Others charged are Kathy Berden, 70, of Snover; William (Hank) Choate, 72, of Cement City; Amy Facchinello, 55, of Grand Blanc; Clifford Frost, 75, of Warren; Stanley Grot, 71, of Shelby Township; John Haggard, 82, of Charlevoix; Mary-Ann Henry, 65, of Brighton; Timothy King, 56, of Ypsilanti; Michele Lundgren, 73, of Detroit; Meshawn Maddock, 55, of Milford; James Renner, 76, of Lansing; Mayra Rodriguez, 64, of Grosse Pointe Farms; Rose Rook, 81, of Paw Paw; Marian Sheridan, 69, of West Bloomfield; and Ken Thompson, 68, of Orleans.

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The Wisconsin Supreme Court liberal justices' appointment of a Milwaukee judge as interim director of the state court system is unconstitutional, Republican legislative leaders alleged Thursday in a letter to the court.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu allege the state Constitution prohibits interim director and Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Audrey Skwierawski from holding any office of public trust besides judge during her judicial term, which expires July 2025.

"Her appointment, effective August 3, 2023, was unlawful and should be rescinded," Vos, R-Rochester, and LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, say in the letter. "The constitution demands no less."

The letter marks the latest development in a saga that began when the new liberal majority fired the previous director earlier this week, a move that Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Annette Ziegler said was made without regard for the Constitution, case law or Supreme Court rules which address who can fill such a position of public trust.

In the letter, Vos and LeMahieu point to a section of the state Constitution that says, "No ... judge of any court of record shall hold any other office of public trust, except a judicial office, during the term for which elected."

The director of state courts is an office of public trust, the GOP leaders say, "because it is an office created by legislative act and is delegated authority that is exercised independently for public benefit."

The leaders don't say whether they're going to sue over the appointment. But since they're alleging a state constitutional violation, any legal case seeking to resolve the matter would have to go through state courts. Such a case would likely be decided by the same Wisconsin Supreme Court majority that appointed Skwierawski.

But Skwierawski's new position may be considered a judicial office, meaning her appointment would be constitutional, according to an opinion issued in 2008 by then-Republican Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen.

"The phrase 'judicial office,' as used in the Judiciary article of the Constitution, should be construed as referring to an office that is located within the judicial branch of government created by that article," Van Hollen stated.

The director of the state court system reports directly to the chief justice.

The state court director is responsible for a variety of tasks, from developing the court system's budget to organizing judicial education courses, hiring court personnel across the state, developing policy handbooks for court staff and providing technical assistance to district courts.

Randy Koschnick, the former court director fired earlier this week, worked to alleviate the court reporter shortage across Wisconsin and won a State Bar of Wisconsin award for moving courts online during the pandemic.

The liberal justices have yet to provide a reason for firing Koschnick. A former Jefferson County judge, Koschnick was known for being conservative, but he has said that his political ideology didn't factor into how he did his job.

Short letter

Justice Jill Karofsky declined to discuss the matter on Tuesday. Liberal Justice Ann Walsh Bradley, who sent Koschnick the letter firing him, also didn't respond to a request for comment this week.

We appreciate the contributions you have made to the Wisconsin Supreme Court and wish you the best in your future endeavors, states one of the three sentences in the letter.

On Friday liberal Justice Rebecca Dallet issued a letter accusing Ziegler of litigating the court's internal matters in public, but the letter didn't address why they fired Koschnick.

The fact that liberals haven't explained why they fired Koschnick has angered Republicans and government transparency advocates.

"Part of the obligation of the Wisconsin Supreme Court to the citizens of the state is to be transparent about the reasons that it does things," said Bill Lueders, president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council. "If there's a good reason for this decision, they need to bring it forward and tell the people what it is.

"If they don't give the public some reason ... for dumping Koschnick, the people are left to conclude that it was solely because he has a ideological perspective that they don't like, and that's not what they promised they would do," he said.

Interim director

Skwierawski, whose term began Aug. 3, is taking a leave of absence from her job as Milwaukee County Circuit judge to serve as interim director.

In their letter, Vos and LeMahieu refer to past case law stating that judges can't serve in other roles of public trust for the full length of their judicial term, even if they resign from the position in the middle of that term.

Skwierawski, who was appointed to the bench by former Republican Gov. Scott Walker in 2018, was previously a Milwaukee County prosecutor and a state Department of Justice prosecutor who served under two Republican attorneys general.

Im honored to have the trust of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, Skwierawski said in a statement Wednesday. I look forward to working with the justices, as well as judges and court staff across Wisconsin, to ensure that they have the tools and support to administer justice and serve the people of our state.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI  A Grand Rapids police tracking dog suffered serious injuries Friday, Aug. 4, in a hit-and-run crash, police said.

The officer was trapped in the patrol car but was not injured, police said. The other driver fled on foot.

The crash happened around 3 a.m. on Madison Avenue SE at Hall Street.

The officer was responding to a burglary in progress, with lights and siren activated, when the patrol car collided with a westbound vehicle. The westbound vehicle was traveling at a high speed, police said.

The driver ran from the scene, police said.

The officer had to be freed from his vehicle by Grand Rapids firefighters. He was not hurt. The dog suffered serious injuries and his condition is being evaluated, police said.

The crash is under investigation by the Traffic Unit. Police asked anyone with information to contact investigators at 616-456-3771 or 616-456-4282 or anonymously through Silent Observer at 616-774-2345 or www.silentobserver.org

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GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- A Kent County company that operates adult foster care homes is facing a lawsuit claiming that a resident was badly scalded in a bathtub and later died.

The lawsuit was filed Wednesday, Aug. 2, in Kent County Circuit Court against Thresholds Inc.

In it, an attorney for the estate of Robert Hoffman claims an employee drew his bathwater on Feb. 21, 2022.

Hoffman had severe autism, cerebral palsy, cognitive impairments and physical limitations and wholly depended on the homes staff for help with day-to-day activities, according to the lawsuit.

The employee later told others she checked the bath water and it was lukewarm, but she later found Hoffman in the tub in a fetal position and making choking noises. She called for help.

Emergency workers arrived and needed to do CPR on Hoffman.

At Corewell Health Butterworth Hospital, an intensive care unit doctor noted that Hoffman was severely burned on his legs, groin area, and buttocks, thought to be caused by hot water from the bathtub faucet, according to the lawsuit.

He died the next day.

The attorney for Hoffmans estate, Jon Marko, wrote in the lawsuit that police later checked the faucet water to get the maximum temperature. It registered at 128 degrees, above the standard of 105-120 degrees required by the Michigan Department of Regulatory Affairs (MDLRA) for adult foster care homes.

Marko also wrote that Hoffman, because of his disabilities, could not get in or out of the tub on his own.

The lawsuit claims Thresholds was negligent and alleged the employee was not adequately trained.

Thresholds released a statement to MLive about the lawsuit. Company officials said Thresholds has a good record with MDLRA and no outstanding violations.

For nearly 50 years, Thresholds has been a trusted provider of services to adults living with developmental disabilities throughout the greater Grand Rapids area. We are devoted to empowering these persons to lead meaningful, connected lives, the company stated.

All Thresholds Adult Foster Care homes are regularly inspected by the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, with none having outstanding violations. We care deeply about any loss of life and take these matters very seriously. It is unfortunate that these allegations are now the subject of litigation, as we were actively working toward a resolution as part of a formal mediation process, the statement read.

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GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- A man accused of bludgeoning his uncle to death represented himself during a key court hearing Thursday, telling a judge and others that his uncle must have committed suicide.

Sharieff Massey, 46, told a judge he wanted no lawyer because my experience with court-appointed counsel has been horrible.

Grand Rapids District Court Judge Michael Distel granted the request of Massey, who said he holds a 2001 bachelors degree in psychology.

Massey is accused in the death of 60-year-old Alevandro Williams at an apartment at 4130 Oak Park Drive SE. Massey was temporarily living there.

Grand Rapids police, in a probable cause affidavit, alleged Massey was the only other person in the apartment when Williams was fatally injured early April 7. Police responded to the apartment about 7:20 a.m.

During the Thursday, Aug. 3 preliminary exam, the judge listened to about 90 minutes of testimony before agreeing to adjourn the hearing to Aug. 15 so Massey could subpoena two other witnesses, including a detective.

The testimony included that of forensic pathologist Dr. David Start. He determined that Williams died of blunt-force trauma to his head. Williams had a skull fracture that extended into the base of his skull.

He said the injuries were multiple and in different areas of his head. They would not be consistent with a fall, Start said.

Massey, in proclaiming his innocence, explained that his uncle was despondent because his wife was in jail. The reason for her incarceration wasnt disclosed Thursday.

He theorized that Williams may have climbed onto a chair and tried to intentionally fall onto a table. Then he likely crawled or stumbled from there into a bedroom where he collapsed onto a bed.

During the death investigation, Massey told police he was in the shower and exited to find Williams on the bed and unresponsive.

Grand Rapids Police Officer Justin Copelin testified at Thursdays hearing that he arrived at the apartment April 7 to find a pool of blood on the living room carpet and a trail of blood leading to the bedroom, as if someone had been dragged.

There also were two pools of blood on the bed and a blood splatter pattern on a wall. He found washed clothing in the bathroom, hung over the tub to dry.

Grand Rapids Police Detective Sean Wolf testified that Massey had inconsistencies while recounting the events of early April 7. He said officers also found evidence of blood on a red hooded sweatshirt that Massey was seen wearing hours before the death. Massey was captured on surveillance camera at a store.

Massey pressed Wolf with questions about why police do not believe suicide was a possibility.

I can just say, based on our investigation, it was not a suicide, Wolf said.

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WEST MICHIGAN  Lisa Spaugh hadnt seen her waterfront deck in almost two decades when a 2020 storm system whipped the mountain of sand off them. Then Lake Michigan crashed in, swept up the deck and shredded it. The stairs followed, rolling with the waves and sailing down the lakeshore.

In the days that followed, Spaugh went looking for her stairs. Waders on and ropes strapped around her, Spaugh pulled her stairs out and down the beach a mile home. The wheels started turning for Spaugh, a real estate broker and sales director at World Class Prototypes.
KALAMAZOO, MI -- Using a purple pump at participating gas stations will help charities and schools by pumping funds into their coffers as drivers fill their vehicles.

All 66 of Johnnys Markets are taking part in the Shell Giving Pump program, a nationwide effort that gives customers the chance to make money flow from gas stations to charities and schools.

The event runs from Aug. 1 to Sept. 30. Johnnys has Shell gas station locations across Michigan, with a concentration in the western part of the state. Other Shell gas stations are also participating.

Some of the pumps at these stations are purple, and for every gallon sold at the purple pumps, the company will make a 1 cent donation. The price of gas at these special pumps is the same for customers as it is on the normal pumps at each station.

The customer has no extra steps, just pull up to the pump, pay for your gas and Johnnys Markets handles the rest, Johnnys Markets Advertising Specialist Aaron LaLonde told MLive/Kalamazoo Gazette.

Donations will flow from Johnnys to Kids Food Basket, Make-A-Wish Michigan, Make-A-Wish Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana, Southern Michigan Food Bank, and directly to schools.

The Southern Michigan Food Bank will use the funds for its backpack program, which helps fight food insecurity by sending kids home from school with a pack filled with several meals worth of food, South Michigan Food Bank Director of Development Lori Sunie said.

The organization covers the counties of Barry, Branch, Calhoun, Hillsdale, Jackson, Kalamazoo, Lenawee, and St. Joseph. It works to reach out to families to offer them resources to address food insecurity.

Our mission is to enrich lives in our community, Sunie said, and the backpack program has grown this year with support from donations and partners.

Donations help the organization do its work, to enrich quality of life for those struggling with hunger in South Michigan, she said.

Johnnys loves to connect with the communities we do business in, LaLonde said. Supporting kids and our education system to develop successful individuals is vital to the success of our communities we operate in.

In addition to the charities above, donations will also be made to these schools:

Bronson Community Schools

Coldwater Community Schools

Fremont Community Schools

Homer Community Schools

Lakewood Public Schools

Litchfield Community Schools

Marcellus Community School

Marshall Public Schools

Mendon Community Schools

Metropolitan School District

Niles Community Schools

Thornapple Kellogg Schools

Vandercook Lake Public Schools

Vicksburg Community Schools

Different locations pool their earnings together to donate to a specific school or organization. The company donates a minimum of $500 if less is earned.

Last year, Johnnys raised $48,000 through Giving Pumps at its locations. In 2021, the chain donated $9,100, with only 15 stores participating, Johnnys said.

Were aiming to raise the bar higher this year with the addition of one of our newest stores in Kalamazoo, Michigan, the company said. The store at 107 E. Cork St. reopened Nov. 11, 2022, after a remodel.

Johnny's Markets at 107 E. Cork St. in Kalamazoo.

Sunie said those at Southern Michigan Food Bank were excited to be included and to receive some of the money from about 30 of the pumps.

Thats a lot, Sunie said. It will add up.

The group says an $8 donation can help them provide a 20-pound box of food for a family, including other costs such as transportation of the food. In 2022, the Southern Michigan Food Bank distributed 11,688,200 pounds of food.

Thousands of Shell gas stations are participating nationwide, including other locations in Michigan. Visit shell.us/givingpump to look at a map of participating locations.

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BAY CITY, MI  Staff at the Bay City State Park are getting anxious to show off their newly renovated Saginaw Bay Visitor Center to the public.

The parks visitor center has been closed since the fall of 2022 for an intensive renovation project as crews worked to implement some much-needed upgrades to the aging facility.

The money for the renovations came from a $15.9 million funding pool from the American Rescue Plan Act that was allocated for 10 projects at Michigan state parks. Bay City State Park received an allocation of $1.5 million to renovate the interior and exterior of the Saginaw Bay Visitor Center.

To have a state park right on Lake Huron, its a pretty special thing, said U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee. Its something that we ought to protect.

Park manager Rich Fenner expects the parks visitor center to be open to the public within the next two to three weeks. Ahead of the opening, Kildee and members of the media were given a chance to see the sparkling new center on Thursday, Aug. 3.

The educational area in the center underwent a major renovation, including the installation of new interactive educational displays and an expanded wet lab for environmental and natural science lessons.

Long gone are the old boxy CRT monitors and the dark, cave-like lighting of the old center. The new center features upgrades such as bright, inviting warm lighting, modern touchscreen displays and engaging interactive exhibits.

A highlight is an interactive fishing display, which Kildee got a chance to enjoy while touring the new facility. There, visitors can use magnetic fishing poles to cast off of a steel boat into a pretend lake for fish. When they hook a stuffed fish, they get to take it to a special scanner that will tell them all about the species they caught. The fish are native to the area, including yellow perch, walleye, sunfish and pike.

The facilitys education lab also got a major overhaul. Work is currently wrapping up on this section of the project. When finished, it will feature spacious tanks of aquatic creatures that can be found in the Tobico Marsh as well as plenty of space for lab activities for students.

But the true centerpiece of the visitor center is a multi-layered depiction of the Tobico Marsh. The display features a bottom-to-top look at its ecosystem, showing fish and aquatic plants underneath the water layer up to the land-dwelling mammals and birds in their natural habitat. Real taxidermied animals help bring the feature to life, including a beaver, waterfowl, fish and aquatic friends like frogs and a painted turtle.

The Tobico Marsh display is located in the middle of the visitor center and offers guests, especially children, the chance to explore the marsh from all angles, which is important since Bay City State Park is a popular stop for field trips.

This is a chance to get school kids here, to expose them to science but also just to the natural beauty that the Great Lakes offers, Kildee said.

The park also serves as a place for many young Saginaw Bay-area children to have their first encounter with the Great Lakes. Kildee reflected on how his parents brought him to the park as a child.

The first time I ever saw the Great Lakes, I thought I was looking at the ocean, Kildee said. It was just so massive, and it was right here, right there, the first time I ever saw a water body that large, and I was just a few years old.

The centers overhaul is one of many projects set to help refresh the park as it celebrates its 100th anniversary this year.

Bay City State Park recently opened its new nature-inspired playground to the public for families to enjoy a safe and interactive place to play by the bay. The park is designed with nature in mind, with playful features such as decorative cattails, mushroom stepping stones, acorn-shaped seats and realistic-looking rock walls and logs for kids to climb on and play with.

Plans are in place to remove the old pavement and repave the parks eastern day-use parking lot. Currently, the pavement has significant potholes and cracks. The parking lot will also get some other upgrades, including additional parking spaces, a bus drop-off and turn-around at the playground/spray park area, a dual electric car charging station and sidewalks.

At the parks campground across the road, new individual electrical pedestals will be installed on every campsite with more than 50-amp sites. Full water and sewer hookups will be added to several sites and repairs will be made to the parks sewer system.

The park is also planning to add more ADA-accessible campsites, a third lane for the sanitation station, and a drainage system to tackle ongoing flooding issues at the park.

Both the campground and the eastern half of the day-use parking lot will close this fall so work can begin.

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MANISTEE, MI  A sheen of diesel fuel spilled from a damaged Lake Michigan freighter has dissipated north of Manistee after a storm, says the U.S. Coast Guard.

The freighter Manitowoc, which spilled diesel fuel while leaving Manistee on Wednesday, left its two-day anchorage off Fifth Avenue Beach on Friday, Aug. 4 about 2 p.m.

The ship is headed to Muskegon for repairs.

A cause of the spill remains under investigation.

Lt. Heather Stemmerman said a two-mile sheen the Coast Guard was tracking near Onekama on Thursday was not visible from the air Friday. Shoreline teams have not seen any fuel on the beach. There have been no reports of injured wildlife.

The multi-agency unified command which has been coordinating the response remains on duty, but I anticipate it wont be much longer, she said.

Company contractors were attempting to soak up the spilled fuel using sorbent boom but stopped Thursday after a storm rolled through northern Michigan.

That also probably helped break up the sheen that was remaining, Stemmerman said.

Marine diesel is denser and more oily than other refined petroleum-based fuels but does dissipate and evaporate when spilled on water. It can spread quickly in the wind.

The Coast Guard has not provided an official estimate on the total amount of dyed-red marine diesel fuel which leaked from the Manitowocs starboard tank on Wednesday.

The agency confirmed Thursday that the Manitowoc estimated it lost about 1,000 gallons out of a maximum spill potential of 45,174 gallons in tank capacity.

The actual spill volume is much lower, said Stemmerman. Specific estimates will be taken when the vessel docks.

Some news outlets have erroneously reported the ship spilled 45,000 gallons or more.

The spill was reported about 2:50 p.m. Wednesday. The Manitowoc was exiting the Manistee River channel after unloading coal in Filer City when the crew noticed the fuel gauges were increasing because the ship was taking on water.

The hull breach was plugged and the leak stopped Wednesday. The American Bureau of Shipping and the Coast Guard will oversee repairs in Muskegon.

As of 4 p.m. Friday, the District Health Department No. 10 had yet to rescind a skin contact advisory with Lake Michigan in Manistee County which had prompted closure of Fifth Avenue Beach.

The public should call (231) 723-6241 to report any diesel on the shoreline.

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A second human case of swine flu has been identified in Michigan this summer.

Health officials reported a positive case of Influenza A H1N1v (swine flu) in a Tuscola County resident who attended the Tuscola County Fair, which took place July 23-29 in Caro. The individual, who was not publicly identified, later developed flu-like symptoms.
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.

Mississippis Jim Crow-Era lifetime felony voting ban is no more, a three-judge panel of the United States 5th Circuit Court of Appeals decided Friday, claiming that the prohibition constitutes cruel and unusual punishment, violating the Eighth Amendment.

This is a tremendous victory for the state of Mississippi, Southern Poverty Law Center Mississippi State Office Director Waikinya Clanton said in a news release about the decision.

People have paid their debt to society and have been oppressed from exercising their voting rights for far too long.

Under the law, which was part of the Mississippi Constitution of 1890, individuals who had felony convictions for murder, rape, bribery, theft, arson, obtaining money or goods under false pretense, perjury, forgery, embezzlement or bigamy were no longer able to vote across the state.

The right to vote will now be restored to people with felony convictions in Mississippi, though its not clear when that would take effect.

State officials could still decide to appeal the decision to the entire 5th Circuit.

The judges, who passed the decision in a 2-1 ruling, argued that the law also violated the 14th and First Amendments, which guarantee rights to equal protection and freedom of speech, respectively.

The judges noted that 35 states and the District of Columbia do not have laws similar to the one in Mississippi. Some of those states overturned similar bans, but Mississippi remained an outlier bucking a clear and consistent trend in our Nation against permanent disenfranchisement, the ruling states.

By severing former offenders from the body politic forever, Section 241 ensures that they will never be fully rehabilitated, continues to punish them beyond the term their culpability requires and serves no protective function to society.

Section 241 was established in reaction to Black suffrage during the Reconstruction Era when state officials moved to create a new state Constitution, the ruling states.

As part of the ruling, the judges sent the case to the district court with instructions that it grant relief and find the law unconstitutional.

The decision comes almost two months after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review a case tied to the law.

It stemmed from a lawsuit filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center and Simpson Thacher and Bartlett, LLP in 2018, claiming that the states voting ban was intended to discriminate on the basis of race.

According to the American Civil Liberties Union, eight other states have laws prohibiting some people convicted of felonies from voting. They are: Arizona, Wyoming, Iowa, Alabama, Tennessee, Florida, Virginia and Connecticut.

The right to vote is the cornerstone of a functioning democracy, Co-Chair of Simpson Thachers Litigation Department stated in a news release. This is a major victory for Mississippians who have completed their sentences and deserve to participate fully in our political process.
The weekend forecast needs to be watched a little as we may have a spurt of rain coming in quicker than expected.

As of yesterday, I thought the next storm would start its rain on Michigan Sunday evening. Now it looks like there could be an initial few hours spurt of thunderstorms during the day Sunday.

The newest higher resolution model is starting to pick up on a southeast-to-northwest line of thunderstorms Sunday morning. This line of thunderstorms should be moving northeast during Sunday.

Heres the radar forecast from early Sunday morning to Sunday evening.

Radar forecast from 6 a.m. Sunday to 7 p.m. Sunday.

Instead of a totally dry Sunday and rain starting Sunday night, I think we better plan on a one to two hour period of thunderstorms in any one spot Sunday.

The Storm Prediction Center has even just added a severe weather chance for Sunday for the southwest quarter of Lower Michigan.

Severe weather chance for Sunday, August 6, 2023

Watch for an update tomorrow morning when the confidence will be higher. But for now plan on a few Sunday morning thunderstorms over southwest Lower Michigan, including the Grand Rapids area, Kalamazoo area, Muskegon and Jackson. Then plan on the few thunderstorms to move into Ann Arbor, Detroit, Flint, Saginaw and Bay City Sunday afternoon. Its possible the thunderstorms could be vigorous to severe for a short time.
The four liberal Wisconsin Supreme Court justices voted Friday to slash the power of the courts conservative chief justice, impose new filing deadlines and reopen administrative meetings.

The changes will make the court more inclusive, timely, and responsive and be a first step in making our court more accessible and more accountable to the people of Wisconsin, liberal Justice Rebecca Dallet said.

The moves drew immediate ire from conservatives, especially the chief justice, whose powers now appear to be largely diminished.

In a letter Friday, Chief Justice Annette Ziegler accused four rogue members of the court of gutting her power and altering the courts operating procedures in a secret, unscheduled, illegitimate closed meeting.

Separately, conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley tweeted that liberal Justice Ann Walsh Bradley and her cabal of extreme leftists, justices Dallet, Jill Karofsky and the newly sworn-in Janet Protasiewicz, were the justices who approved the changes.

Ann Bradley & her cabal of extreme leftists-Rebecca Dallet, Jill Karofsky & Janet Protasiewicz-met in secret, without their colleagues, to usurp the power the people gave the Chief Justice. They have no respect for the people they are supposed to serve or for the constitution 1/3 https://t.co/UDLVLJ9RF2  Rebecca Bradley (@JudgeBradleyWI) August 4, 2023

Ziegler said the four members are wrongfully conducting court operations outside the regularly scheduled business year from September to June.

The rogue justices attempt to go outside of this recognized procedure is an imposition of will and a raw exercise of overreaching power, she said in the letter. Any such attempted action is illegitimate and unenforceable.

In response, Dallet said she had made the chief justice aware of the pending changes and was disappointed that she declined to participate in a meeting to discuss them.

On behalf of a majority of justices on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, I want to express my disappointment that the Chief Justice, rather than collegially participate in a scheduled meeting of the court today, is litigating issues normally discussed by Justices either in conference or through email, through media releases, Dallet said.

It is not my intention, nor the intention of a majority of my colleagues, to continue to litigate internal issues through the media, she continued.

The latest actions cap off a tumultuous first week of the courts liberal majority that began with the firing of the state court system director, a former Jefferson County judge who ran unsuccessfully for the Supreme Court as a conservative in 2009. It followed with the liberals appointing their own administrative director, which led to GOP accusations that their appointment was unconstitutional.

Powers diminished

Along with her statement, Dallet attached more than 40 pages of changes to the Wisconsin Supreme Courts operating procedures and rules.

Perhaps most notably, administrative decisions that used to be made solely by the chief justice would now be made by the chief justice along with two justices chosen by a majority of the court. Given the newfound liberal majority, that rule would likely lead to two liberal justices outnumbering Ziegler on the new Supreme Court Administrative Committee.

Another change advanced Friday would impose deadlines for issuing concurrences or dissents on orders deciding whether to allow lawsuits to be filed directly with the Wisconsin Supreme Court, instead of a lower court.

Any concurrences or dissents from such an order shall be circulated within 7 business days of the circulation of the order granting or denying a petition to commence an original action, the new operating procedure states. Any late dissent or concurrence would have to be released separately under the new rule.

That change would likely hurry the process of a lawsuit that liberals filed Wednesday directly with the state high court that seeks to redraw the states legislative maps. The new rule would appear to prevent any justice from delaying a decision on whether to allow the lawsuit to proceed.

Open meetings

Other changes announced Friday include a provision to hold the courts administrative meetings in public.

The court used to have open meetings to consider rules and operating procedures, but in 2012 justices rolled back their open meetings policy and did so again five years later, drawing ire from the liberal bloc on the court.

In the previously public meetings, Wisconsin high court justices would discuss and vote on changing judicial policies across the state court system, including when they should recuse themselves from Supreme Court cases, rules regarding evidence and coming up with new ways to encourage lawyers to provide free legal services.

That policy allowed the public to tune in, for example, to the justices considering whether concealed weapons should be allowed in the court and whether they should recuse themselves from cases in which the litigants have donated to their campaigns.

For the past several years those meetings have been held behind closed doors. During her campaign Protasiewicz said she supported opening the court meetings again.

The court will be announcing a bipartisan task force to study the issue of recusal and present recommendations, Dallet said Friday.

In the past, justices and judicial candidates have varied significantly on when they feel recusing themselves from cases is appropriate.

Protasiewicz has said she would recuse herself from cases involving the Democratic Party of Wisconsin since it donated millions to her campaign. She said she wouldnt recuse herself from cases involving abortion or redistricting despite making clear her support for reinstating abortion rights and redrawing the states legislative maps.
UPDATE: Quick update to Sundays storm forecast.

There is a unique-for-August storm system moving through Michigan late this weekend and Monday. The unique part is the duration of the precipitation and how large of an area the storm system will soak.

So from the beginning of this short storm discussion I want you to know its not a storm you should worry a lot about. It may bring some isolated severe storms at the beginning of the storm Sunday afternoon. The main feeling youll have by Monday afternoon: Is this August or late September?

Most of our early August storm systems still have the characteristics of a summer storm system. Summer storm systems bring one to three hours of rain and occasional thunderstorms. Summer storm systems dont make an entire day a washout.

Monday could be mostly a washout for a large part of Lower Michigan. The Sunday night and Monday period could have 18 hours of rain at any one location, with more of those hours having rain falling than not having rain falling.

Heres the rain areas forecast showing six-hour increments of rain totals. So this isnt a radar forecast but it shows how rainy youll be in six-hour chunks.

Rainfall totals forecast in six-hour increments for the 30 hour period from 8 p.m. Sunday, August 6 to 2 a.m. Tuesday, August 8

What you get out of this is Sunday night turns wet. Monday morning is wet. Monday afternoon has rain ending from southwest to northeast across Lower Michigan. The rain pulls out of Michigan Monday evening.

Once the rain starts at your house, you should have more wet than dry times for 18 hours to possibly 24 hours.

Now the good thing about a storm system like this is the severe weather is limited to the very beginning of the storm arrival. At that time the temperatures will be hot Sunday afternoon and the humidity will be high. The first round of rain could be potent, short-lasting thunderstorms. The Storm Prediction Center has already placed southwest Lower Michigan into a 15% chance of severe thunderstorms Sunday afternoon. The brown shaded area has a lesser 5% chance of severe thunderstorms.

Storm Prediction Center's severe weather chance for Sunday, August 6, 2023

This chance of severe weather also brings to light a slight change in the weekend forecast I wrote yesterday. The line of thunderstorms coming from the southwest could bring a burst of rain into southwest Lower Sunday morning, southeast Lower Sunday afternoon and northern Lower by late Sunday afternoon. So the rain will be about nine hours earlier than what I indicated yesterday. Otherwise there are no changes to the rest of the weekend forecast.

Rainfall amounts with the Sunday night and Monday storm wont be extremely heavy like a flash flooding rain situation. But the rain will really mount up over time to over one inch at most spots with the higher end of rainfall probably at 2.5 inches. Id call it a possible general flooding situation where poorly-draining intersections could have standing water by Monday morning.

I hope you get a feel for the coming storm system. If you have outdoor plans Monday, I strongly think youll want to reschedule. Maybe wait one more day to see if anything changes, but I cant see a big change this close to the time.

Stay updated on our active Michigan weather pattern here and follow my posts this weekend here.
Renowned Ghanaian actress and activist Lydia Forson has blamed corrupt leadership and a struggling economy for separating families across the globe.

In an early morning tweet on Friday, August 4, Miss Forson shared a sombre reflection on the number of families torn apart as members leave their home countries in search of greener pastures abroad.

Im up thinking about all the families separated by distance because of greener pastures. Another effect of a corrupt and a poor economy, and how it destroys families," she wrote.

The filmmaker added that due to poverty and lack of opportunities back home, many people will never see their loved ones again after travelling abroad for better prospects.

"Most people will never see their families before they die in the search of a better life, her tweet concluded.

The actress frequently comments on social issues in Ghana, speaking out on corruption, gender rights and governance.

Ms Forson has consistently blamed corrupt leadership and mismanagement of Ghana's economy for the country's woes.

With high unemployment, poor wages and a struggling cedi, many citizens seek opportunities overseas.

This often split families sometimes permanently, with parents having to leave children behind in Ghana to advance abroad.
Great Ampong has bemoaned the rate at which murder cases are being recorded in Ghana.

"People kill freely," he lamented on Ayekoo Ayekoo on Accra 100.5 FM, Thursday, August 3, 2023.

"Today, someone has killed his girl[friend], [tomorrow] someone stabs his girlfriend because he bought her a phone and saw someone else on it while she doesn't call him - how much is a phone?" he asked, worrying: "So people are killing because there's no strict law that stipulates that what you do to someone will also be done to you."

Romeo brought up the Sharia Law of the Arab world "You can't try this there," Ampong reacted.

He warned that the youth of Ghana are agitated and wild, stating that: "If we don't get a strict law and someone [a leader] who is strong to tame things we'll soon not be able to freely and safely go out of our homes."

In the world he fears this is possible unless strict laws and enforcement are taken seriously, "people will be robbed in broad daylight," he posited.

Citing the recent bullion van attack in Ablekuma, he argued: "If an armed policeman can be shot and robbed, imagine what will happen to someone like me who has nothing on him and moves in a taxi."

"When the youth become agitated and wild, you need a strict law to calm them down and we need it now," he stressed.

He explained what he meant by a strict law. "A strict law like if you kill someone, you should also be killed," he stated. "Even God said it. The one who lives by the sword dies by the sword."

He wondered if "all the cries due to the pain and injustice" suffered by people whose loved ones have been slain will "augur well for the country".

He recalled "the taxi driver, a rasta, nice guy, who was shot by his landlord" and an incident "in Kasoa, where two policemen were killed".

"In the West, the news keeps citizens updated on murder cases in court on TV but have you seen such in Ghana before?" he quizzed.

He pressed his argument that with people groaning for justice, "no amount of money brought into Ghana [as foreign direct investment] will make it prosper".

"We all have to understand and accept that truth is the foundation God has built the world on," he said, positing: "All our suffering is because we lack truth. It is not a financial issue."

"If you like bring all the money [in the world] to Ghana," he challenged, "if we don't get someone who will be truthful and do with the money as he says he will - say providing toilets, factories, potable water - nothing will work."

Without this type of "truthfulness" and integrity, "Ghana will not progress irrespective of the party in power, be it NDC or NPP," Ampong said.

Furthermore, "we need someone who will, without compromise, jail you for financial corruption for everyone in Ghana to see," he said, citing: "This fellow spent public funds, he's been arrested and jailed. This fellow killed someone and he's also been killed. If not, you can even bring America to Ghana and still we will not prosper."

"I'm telling you the truth," the Style Bia Bi hitmaker asserted in conclusion.
03.08.2023 LISTEN

Nana Akufo-Addo, the president of the Republic of Ghana has said he has no favourite in the presidential aspirants of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

According to Akufo-Addo, contrary to rumors that he is supporting the Vice President, he noted the best way to win the presidential election on December 7, 2024 is to elect the best candidate who can unite the people to defeat 2024 flagbearer of the NDC John Mahama for the third time.

He said in a tweet I will cast that vote for an aspirant who, I believe, can best unite the party.

I have just one vote, the same as any polling station executive anywhere in the country, and I will cast that vote for an aspirant who, I believe, can best unite the Party, and, above all, who can win the presidential election of 7th December 2024, and inflict a third successive defeat on the perennial NDC Presidential Candidate, John Dramani Mahama, President Nana Akufo-Addo stated.

The Director of Communications for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Richard Ahiagbah has refuted claims that members are being whipped to support a particular candidate to become the flagbearer.

According to Mr. Ahiagbah, each candidate has an equal opportunity to represent the party.

On July 2, he wrote in a tweet,Ours is not a kasapreko party so, no president can foist a candidate on the party. People should not feel obliged to support a particular candidate if he/she is not their choice.
A Ghanaian nurse working in Birmingham has shared her remarkable journey and how her life has transformed since she left Ghanas health system for UKs National Health Service (NHS).

Nana Yaa  not her real name  decided to pursue her career in Britain to explore new opportunities and earn more to cater for herself and her family. Yaa said she always dreamt of making a difference in the healthcare field and providing better care to patients.

In an interview on the Citi Breakfast Show on Thursday, August 3, Yaa said the meagre salary made it difficult for her to fulfil her true potential.

Determined to change her life and make a meaningful impact in her profession, She took the bold step of relocating to the UK to create a brighter future for herself and her family.

According to her, she has been able to save enough money since relocating and urged other nurses who want to swap Ghanas hospitals for foreign ones to take the chance and leave.

You are paid based on shifts. So even if you are paid 15 pounds an hour and you work for 12 hours a day, four times a week, you multiply it thats how much you earn. If I make 2800 pounds a month and I pay a tax of say 500 and pay my rent, I can still save around 800 pounds.

Her comments come after the BBC reported that Ghanas health system was struggling due to the brain drain.

Many specialist nurses have reportedly left the West African country for better-paid jobs overseas.

In 2022 more than 1,200 Ghanaian nurses joined the UKs nursing register.

This comes as the National Health Service (NHS) increasingly relies on staff from non-EU countries to fill vacancies.

-Citi Newsroom
Some Members of Parliament (MPs) from the Upper East and Upper West Regions have raised concerns about the increasing influx of refugees from neighbouring Burkina Faso into their constituencies.

The refugees are fleeing from the Jihadist attacks that have been taking place in Burkina Faso, seeking safety and shelter in Ghana.

However, the lawmakers are expressing worries that some of the Burkinabes who have sought refuge in Ghana are engaging in unfavourable practices that could pose a security threat to their constituents and the nation as a whole.

In response to this situation, three MPs have taken the initiative to address the issue on the floor of Parliament. Albert Akuka Alalzuuga, the MP for Garu, Mohammed Adams Supkparu, representing Sissala West, and Lydia Lamisi Akanvariba, the MP for Tempane, have jointly called on the government to take immediate action in resolving this concern.

They believe that urgent measures need to be put in place to address the challenges posed by the refugee influx and ensure the security and well-being of their constituents.

The Jihadist attacks in Burkina Faso have caused a humanitarian crisis, forcing many innocent civilians to flee their homes and seek refuge in neighbouring countries like Ghana.

The Garu MP indicated that The influx of people from different backgrounds has the potential of creating cultural and social tension. Apart from the fact that these immigrants are seeking asylum those who came with their livestock are causing threats to these communities, raising concerns about the safety of their crops as we are in the farming season.

The disregard for community rules and careless attitude towards the environment is posing serious challenges to these communities where they live. For instance, these communities have forest reserves but since their coming into these communities, refugees have been engaged in indiscriminate cutting of trees and the clearing of forest reserves that can harm severely our forest reserves and the survival of the ecosystem, he stated.

Mr Alalzuuga further said that there were no proper places to shelter them so most of them were forced to sleep in the open.

Mr Supkparu also said There are several challenges as far as this situation is concerned. One is about the communication situation in the various communities that are sharing borders with the neighbouring Burkina Faso and many of these people come into our country through unapproved routes and it is very difficult to differentiate between a refugee and a Jihadist.

He, therefore, called on the government to establish destitute camps around those constituencies that are sharing a border with Burkina Faso.

The MP for Tempane, Lydia Lamisi Akanvariba on her part attributed the influx of refugees from neighbouring country Burkina Faso to the outbreak of Anthrax in the Upper East Region.
04.08.2023 LISTEN

Sammy Gyamfi, the National Communications Officer for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), accused the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government of misleading Ghanaians in the presentation of the mid-year budget review.

According to Sammy Gyamfi, the economy is still in the woods.

In an interview with Metro TV on July 3, he said, "According to the government that they have turned the corner and that we are out of crises. That is the operative or, if you like, the core topic of the presentation of the Finance Minister.

Now that statement turned the corner is not the invention of the NPP, it is an English language, it is an idiomatic expression, it has a meaning. What is the meaning of turning the corner? Anybody watching can google it, it means to pass the critical point of crises and begin to improve. It means to recover, to rebound, recuperate, to overcome, that is the meaning of that.

So what is the state of the Ghanaian economy today? Per the facts, do the facts show that we have recovered? That we have rebounded? That we are recuperating? That we have overcome our boundaries? That is the simple question that we are asking. The NPP castigated us, berated President Mahama and called us names, that is when we had one oil field.

They couldnt even produce oil because of an Act of God, they said 3.7% growth rate was abysmal, it was a mark of an incompetent government. Today you dont have one oil field, you have three oil fields, you have three and you dont have any Act of God, you are producing oil than has ever been produced in the history of Ghana. The international price of oil which has actually come down in recent times is far higher than it was in 2016.

Three oil fields, you are projecting to do GDP growth rate of 1.5% and you are saying that is good, you have turned the corner, you need free education on simple English language, is either you dont understand what you are saying or its either you dont understand the people, Sammy Gyamfi stated.

The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, has revealed that Ghana is currently making modest gains.

He said the government has turned the corner in its efforts to restore the economy.

During the 2023 Mid-Year Budget Review presented in Parliament on July 31, Mr Ofori-Atta highlighted that the governments plans and programmes are starting to yield positive results.

In his address, the Finance Minister urged the nation to acknowledge and appreciate the major milestones achieved in the past three years.

Despite facing various challenges, Ghana has been able to maintain peace, health, security, and a continuous supply of power, among other essential aspects of life.

Mr. Speaker, we have turned the corner and, more importantly, we are determined to continue down that path. Soon, we expect the measures taken to result in economic activity greater than anything experienced in the history of the Fourth Republic. Our plans and programmes should soon lead to a sustained increase in domestic production, including manufacturing and farming, replacing many of the products that we are used to importing, the Finance Minister stated.
04.08.2023 LISTEN

Chief Justice Getrude Sackey Torkornoo says justice delivery is key and must be done well if the nation is to thrive and survive.

She said for this to happen the law must also be applied to all and be policed by all.

The Chief Justice was speaking at the inauguration of the Denkyembour District Court at Akwatia in the Eastern Region.

The Court house is part of the nationwide construction of 100 Courthouses programme embarked upon by the government in 2020 to improve judicial infrastructure.

The facility has adequate office space for various Court functions, washrooms for Staff and Court Users, Male and Female Cells.

It also has solar power for essential load, standby generator and borehole to provide sustainable water supply and a dedicated space for Court Connected ADR, equipped with a Direct Transcription System to facilitate the adjudication process.

She commended the Denkyembour District Assembly for taken on the challenge in constructing the Court to address the justice needs of the people of Akwatia and its environs.

Mrs Torkornoo said it had long been the belief of the third arm of government that the administration of justice could not be left to the lawyers and judges alone, adding that the law was so important and so vital to nationhood that all must take a keen interest in its administration.

That is why all of you are here, today is evidence that here in Akwatia, all actors in the community are ready to do their part in justice delivery, she added.

She said the Judiciary accepted that justice delivery must be brought to the doors steps of the citizens, so that they would be able to have recourse to it with the minimum of effort.

The Chief Justice urged the citizens to take advantage of the Courts presence and powers to right wrong and correct offence.

As citizens, the Courts are our most potent avenue for the resolution of conflicts and it is the cornerstone of all modern societies, she said.

She said with the inauguration of the District Court, it was the expectation that the Justice needs of the Denkyembour District and its surrounding communities would be served in a stronger manner as cases would be disposed of with a greater sense of urgency.

The Chief Justice urged Staff who would be working in the new Court to exhibit a high level of professionalism in the discharge of their duties.

Mr Seth Birikorang Ofosu, the District Chief Executive of Denkyembour District Assembly, appealed to the Chief Justice to provide the required number of personnel to run the facility.

He also appealed to the Chief Justice to upgrade the District Court to a Circuit Court.

The DCE said in addition to the Court building was a three-bedroom fully furnished solar powered bungalow for the sitting judge.

GNA
On this ninth anniversary of the Sinjar massacre  nine years since Daesh initiated its genocidal campaign against Iraqs Yezidi ethnoreligious minority  we reflect on the strides made in support of survivors and acknowledge their persistent, pressing needs.

This year, between August 1st and 3rd, survivors and community groups across Iraq came together to organize commemorative events ranging from silent vigils to afforestation campaigns to panel discussions on the way forward for survivors. In Baghdad, the Office of the Prime Minister held a commemoration event attended by the highest levels of Government and UN representation. In Erbil, the Kurdistan Regional Government organized a commemoration together with the Yezidi civil society organization, Yazda. This breadth and richness of engagement underscores our collective commitment to honour victims, stand in solidarity with survivors and work together towards a future where such atrocities never happen again.

Yezidi children in their traditional dresses prepare to perform a folk dance celebrating their culture and heritage at an IOM-supported event in Sharya camp, Duhok in northern Iraq.

Photo: IOM 2021/Anjam Rasool



Returned Yezidi farmers cultivate their land to restart farming with support from IOM to rebuild their livelihoods.

Photo: IOM 2022/Anjam Rasool

Significant strides have been made in supporting survivors to rebuild their lives. The adoption of the Yezidi Survivors Law (YSL) in 2021  which aims to advance transitional justice and provides for monetary reparations, a plot of land, education and employment assistance and access to health and mental health services for survivors  and the subsequent establishment of the Directorate of Survivors' Affairs remain a testament to the commitment of the Government of Iraq to recognize and address the suffering endured by Yezidis and other minority groups under Daesh. As of this year, the Directorate has verified 900 survivors through its application process, distributed salary payments promised under the Law to 650 verified survivors and activated a formal referral system through which YSL beneficiaries can connect to mental health and psychosocial support services in their areas of residence.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has been working alongside the Directorate, Yezidi civil society, community-based groups and international partners to provide assistance and create conditions conducive to the return of displaced survivors. Last month, IOM supported the voluntary return of 89 Yezidi families from camps in Duhok back to Sinjar, where they were welcomed with tears, laughter and song by family, friends and neighbours long awaiting their return.

Still, significant challenges persist. Over 200,000 Yezidis still live in displacement, both within and outside camps in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Last months joyous homecoming notwithstanding, rates of return to Sinjar remain low. The destruction of infrastructure and homes in Sinjar City and surrounding areas has diminished the availability of basic services and limited access to running water, electricity, healthcare and education.

IOM continues to work to make durable solutions possible for survivors, including through basic service restoration, health care provision, economic assistance and small business support, memorialization efforts, peacebuilding activities and more.

The restoration of housing, land and property documentation is a critical aspect of supporting durable solutions to displacement  especially for the Yezidi population. Without these documents, returnees struggle to access government shelter support and compensation for their destroyed property. The lack of documentation also hampers livelihood prospects, particularly for the majority of the population who relied on agriculture-based livelihoods before 2014 and, without documentation to prove land ownership, are denied access to their own property on which to farm. Since 2021, IOM Iraqs legal team has assisted 1,490 Yezidis to acquire housing, land and property documents, alongside providing support to secure civil documentation and representation to apply for survivor status under the YSL.

Progress on these fronts has been made possible thanks to the relentless advocacy of the affected communities, the efforts of political and government leaders and the support of international partners. Still, it is essential to maintain momentum and address outstanding needs. The international community must continue to support survivor-led transitional justice efforts, promote accountability and advocate for increased access to quality public services for all community members.

Investment in capacity-building at the national and local levels  especially at the Directorate, which stands ready with the budget to provide substantive benefits to survivors, pending the institutional capacity  is crucial to meet the material, physical and psychological needs of survivors.

As we mark the ninth anniversary of the Sinjar massacre, we remember the lives lost and honour the resilience of the Yezidis targeted by ISILs genocide. The path ahead may be challenging, but with continued commitment and collaboration, we can work towards a future where the horrors of the past are never repeated  a future where survivors can heal and thrive in dignity and peace.
04.08.2023 LISTEN

The Police on Thursday could not produce Hope Osaze, the third accused person in the bullion van robbery, in court.

This is because he allegedly fainted this morning in cells and was rushed to the Police Hospital.

The police are, however, conducting fresh investigations into the matter in, which four persons have been nabbed for their involvement in the attack of a bullion van, which led to death of a police officer at Ablekuma Fanmilk in Accra.

At the Kaneshie District Court on Thursday, the prosecution, led by Chief Inspector Apewah Archana, said the Police needed to conduct fresh investigations after the arrest of two more suspects  Hope Osazae and Blessing Ijoma, weeks ago.

The police earlier arraigned Benjamin Ojogbe and Rashid Abdul, who were arrested days after the incident.

It said the police needed to complete their investigations and forward the duplicate docket to the Office of the Attorney-General for advice.

The prosecution, therefore, prayed for extension of the four accused persons remand.

The matter has been adjourned to September 27, 2023, by the court presided over by Nana Abena Asor Owusu Amenyo.

The accused persons and their accomplices are said to have bolted with GH145,163.08 following the robbery.

According to the Police, the accused persons were picked up at Circle Railways while they were enjoying themselves at about 1:30am.

The accused persons have been charged with conspiracy to commit murder and murder of Lance Corporal Calystus Amoah.

Their pleas are yet to be taken.

The police officer was said to have been shot multiple times in a suspected robbery attempt on occupants of the van at a fuel station at Ablekuma.

The Ghana Police Service in a statement said the suspected robbers followed the van, which went to refill at the fuel station, where the shoot-out occurred.

It said the policeman was seated in a passenger seat in front of the vehicle on security duties when he was shot at close range.

GNA
04.08.2023 LISTEN

Some 673 Ghanaians have benefitted from the National Rent Assistance Scheme (NRAS) since its operationalisation in April this year.

About 406 of the beneficiaries are from Accra, 120 from Kumasi, Techiman, 68 and Takoradi, 46.

Koforidua and Tamale have so far recorded 18 and 15 beneficiaries respectively.

Mr Richard Acheampong, the Chief Executive Officer of Rent Masters and Manager, NRAS, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview.

He said 95 per cent of the beneficiaries worked in the formal sector, while the remaining five per cent were the informal sector.

The NRAS is an initiative launched by Government in partnership with Rent Masters to provide rent loans to both formal and informal sector workers with verifiable and regular income.

The Scheme provides eligible Ghanaians with a mechanism to pay low monthly rent, which effectively removes the need for rent advance payment.

An eligible person must be a Ghanaian, with a valid Ghana Card, an adult of 18 years and above, have verifiable employment and earned income.

The beneficiary must also have a verifiable bank statement or mobile money statement, and rent payable must not exceed 30 per cent of the household income.

Mr Acheampong expressed satisfaction at the implementation of the Scheme so far.

He noted that all the beneficiaries were fulfilling their monthly financial obligations to the Scheme, contributing greatly to its smooth implementation.

Since we started, every single person that we have paid rent for has paid. Every month, everybody pays, the Scheme Manager said.

Challenges

Notwithstanding the success stories, Mr Acheampong enumerated some few hurdles that the Scheme is facing.

He indicated one of the biggest challenges the Scheme was encountering was applications with fictitious documents.

We have denied quite a number of applications, for fraud. There are instances where the bank statements that we request from people are edited, he revealed.

Speaking on the actions that would be taken against such persons, Mr Acheampong said his outfit would soon submit particulars of such persons to the Ministry for Works and Housing for legal actions to be instituted against them.

He said another major challenge was the difficulty people faced in getting rooms to rent.

The Manager said about 340 people had had their applications shelved because they were not been able to get a room of their choice.

Mr Acheampong said many people especially those in the informal sector were unable to benefit from the Scheme because they were not able to submit the appropriate documents.

Despite the challenges, the CEO said the Scheme was helping to ease the financial burden on many people and urged young people to take advantage of the initiative.

GNA
03.08.2023 LISTEN

Christianity is generally divided into Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant sects. Of these three sects, Roman Catholicism is by far the oldest with a membership of approximately 1.3 billion. The Catholic community of faith is the closest numerical rival of Islam which boast around 1.8 billion adherents. Protestantism, which was launched in the sixteenth century, Is the second largest Christian sect with about 800 million members. The Orthodox community is the smallest of the three Christian sects with an estimated 300 million followers.

It is largely through the efforts of Protestantism that Christianity today has so many different faces. Both Pew research Center and the Center for Global Christianity at Gordon- Conwell Theological Seminary puts the number of Protestant denominations in the thousands. The Association of Religious Data Archives is a little more circumspect than Pew and Gordon-Conwell but still manages to arrive at a hefty list of 188 Protestant denominations.

Notwithstanding the multiplicity of doctrines and theological nuances that exist among the many Protestant denominations and among the Catholic and Orthodox sects, it is fair to say that there is a high level of congruence about the historicity of Jesus and the inspired nature of the Christian scriptures. Today, Christians of all stripes generally believe in the historicity of the Christ story and in some version of the inspiration of the Bible.

Many people today may be shocked to hear that this was not always the case. From the first century to the beginning of the fourth century there were faith communities that challenged the accepted version of Christianity that has been passed down to us. These faith communities were referred to as Gnostics because they believed that the solution to the plight of humanity was knowledge rather than a vicarious blood sacrifice. Gnostics therefore busied themselves with acquiring the right kind of knowledge that would eventually help adherents discover the divine spark within themselves.

Gnostics like many so-called pagan philosophers understood that the Christ concept was not something unique to the Christian sect. Gnostic and so-called pagans were well aware of the existence of Christ-like figures down through the annals of human history who all acted as beacons pointing mankind to the potential existing in every human being. The end game for the Gnostics and the so-called pagans was to partake of the same wisdom and spirit of all the Christs who had appeared in history thus becoming Christ figures as well.

Scriptures for the Gnostics were nothing more than collections of allegories and metaphors that encapsulated the deeper gnosis or knowledge. Gnostics rejected the literal interpretation of the Bible and viewed its stories more as moral tales rather than as historical facts. The Bible, if it was to be of any value had to be view as a collection of stories and writings design to teach the hidden gnosis. Gnostics in the early history of the Christian movement were therefore scandalized by the efforts of the church fathers to make the Bible and the Christ story into actual historical events.

For much of the first three centuries of Christian history the Gnostics and the Bible literalists waged and ideological war against each other. It was a no-holds-barred contest in which deception and forgeries were used to advance the cause of the Bible literalists. In the early fourth century CE after Emperor Constantine supposedly found God and bequeathed the sword to the Bible literalists, both Gnostics and so-called pagans were extirpated with extreme prejudice.

In hindsight we can only wonder how the history of Europe would have been altered if European societies had been guided by the wisdom of the Gnostics and the so-called pagans who seemed genuinely interested in preserving the environment, uplifting women, promoting religious tolerance, encouraging intellectual inquiry, and were very opened to the idea that Africans were not simply hewers of wood and drawers of water.

Regrettably we will never know how much Europe, Africa, and the rest of the world lost when the Bible literalists approach to Christianity was enthroned as the only true face of Christianity in the early fourth century CE. Europe, happily, has smelt the rat and has decided to part ways with the Bible literalist face of Christianity. The African continent, notwithstanding the fact that it produced one of the most outstanding allegorical Biblical scholars in the person of Origen Adamantius, seems content to perpetuate Biblical literalism and all the abuses it encourages.

Lenrod Nzulu Baraka is the founder of Afro-Caribbean Spiritual Teaching Center and the author of The Black Paradigm: New Thinking for a New Age.
Niger's junta must "come to reason" and return power to ousted President Mohamed Bazoum before the country and the wider region collapse, Niamey's ambassador to Washington said Thursday.

"If Niger collapses, the entire Sahel will collapse, will be destabilized," Ambassador Kiari Liman-Tinguiri told AFP in an interview on Niger's independence day, as the future of Western economic and security aid hang in the balance for the landlocked West African country facing multiple conflicts with violent extremists.

"The junta should come to reason, realize that this affair cannot succeed, and prevent useless, inevitable suffering for our people and hand back power," said Liman-Tinguiri, who remains a recognized diplomat in Washington and considers himself a representative of the "legitimate" President Bazoum, detained by his guards since late last month.

Since officers seized power in the capital Niamey on July 26, the European Union and France have suspended security cooperation and aid, and Washington has suspended training with Niamey's security forces.

The West African regional bloc ECOWAS has imposed economic sanctions, and neighboring Nigeria has cut electricity that feeds 70 percent of Niger's grid, leading to rolling blackouts in the capital. Rice prices have shot up 40 percent, Liman-Tinguiri added.

Some 40 percent of the government's budget comes from outside aid, he pointed out.

"There will be devastating consequences if we let this situation continue," said the ambassador, wearing a traditional Nigerien kaftan and cap. "We have a lot of displaced people and refugees, how will we feed them tomorrow if all our partners refuse?"

Liman-Tinguiri also worried that Russia's Wagner paramilitary group -- already a security partner for the junta in neighboring Mali after ties between the putschists and France soured -- could take advantage of the situation.

A junta in Niamey, leading a country that was previously the West's key ally in a region facing threats from Islamic State and Al Qaeda-affiliated groups, could make it difficult to contain violence already spreading toward neighboring coastal states on the Atlantic Ocean.

"With this destabilization, there won't be any way to protect coastal African countries, countries on the West coast, and you will have Wagner and the jihadists control Africa from the coast to the Mediterranean," Liman-Tinguiri said.

"I don't wish my country to be taken by mercenaries, when we see the ravages, the crimes they've committed elsewhere" in Libya, Central African Republic and Mali, Liman-Tinguiri said.

'Help from our friends'

Washington has not officially referred to the events in Niger as a coup because doing so could force the United States to cut its economic and security aid to the country, seen as a vital Western ally in the volatile Sahel region.

"The day the wording 'coup' is legally applied,' it's vanished," Liman-Tinguiri said.

"We were successful in containing and defeating ISIS and Al-Qaeda because we have help from our friends," he added.

Though the putschists cited a deteriorating security situation in the country as a reason to revolt, Liman-Tinguiri pointed to recent drops in violence, calling the takeover "an attempted coup d'etat which has no reason, no justification."

ECOWAS meanwhile has threatened to use force if President Bazoum is not returned to power by Sunday, a prospect Liman-Tinguiri hoped would not be necessary.

"Nobody would be happy to see a war. Nobody would be happy to see our people suffering one more armed confrontation in addition to what we have already," he said.

But ECOWAS has made it clear if the soldiers don't cede power, "then there is no option," he added. "I hope we will not go that far."

Junta-ruled neighbors Burkina Faso and Mali, also in the depths of a shared jihadist crisis, have vowed that an ECOWAS attack on Niger would amount to a declaration of war on them as well.

Liman-Tinguiri declined to say whether he was optimistic that the military would hand back power to a civilian government, but added: "If this does not happen, what will unfold is a disaster, definitely."
Niger's newly installed junta has threatened an immediate response to any "aggression or attempted aggression", as the clock ticks down on a deadline given by its neighbours to reverse last week's coup.

It also made diplomatic swipes against international condemnation of the putsch, scrapping military pacts with France and pulling its ambassadors from Paris and Washington as well as from Togo and Nigeria.

On Sunday, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) gave the junta a week to reinstate democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum, who was toppled by his guard on July 26, or risk a possible military intervention.

Regional military chiefs are in Nigeria's capital Abuja to discuss the possibility of a such an intervention, but Nigerian President Bola Tinubu on Thursday told the bloc's delegations to do "whatever it takes" to reach an "amicable resolution".

Niger's junta warned it would meet force with force.

Niger: demonstrations in Niamey following a coup. By Valentin RAKOVSKY, Laurence SAUBADU (AFP)

"Any aggression or attempted aggression against the State of Niger will see an immediate and unannounced response from the Niger Defence and Security Forces on one of (the bloc's) members," one of the putschists said in a statement read on national television late Thursday.

This came with "the exception of suspended friendly countries", an allusion to Burkina Faso and Mali, neighbouring countries that have also fallen to military coups in recent years.

Those countries' juntas have warned any military intervention in Niger would be tantamount to a "declaration of war" against them.

Nigeria, West Africa's pre-eminent military and economic power, is the current ECOWAS chair and has vowed a firm line against coups.

The bloc has already imposed trade and financial sanctions on Niger.

Senegal said it would send soldiers to join ECOWAS if it decided to intervene militarily.

"It is one coup too many," said Foreign Minister Aissata Tall Sall.

One ECOWAS delegation headed by ex-Nigeria leader Abdulsalami Abubakar arrived in Niamey on Thursday, according to an airport source, and was due to meet the junta leaders later.

Another was due to hold talks with leaders in Algeria and Libya.

Bazoum, who has been held by the coup plotters with his family since his ouster, said Thursday that if the putsch proves successful, "it will have devastating consequences for our country, our region and the entire world".

In a column in The Washington Post, he called on "the US government and the entire international community to help us restore our constitutional order".

Nationwide protests

Across Niger on Thursday, thousands of people rallied to back the coup leaders on the anniversary of the country's 1960 independence from France, with some brandishing giant Russian flags and chanting anti-French slogans.

Anti-French sentiment in the region is on the rise, while Russian activity, often via the Wagner mercenary group, has grown.

Anti-French sentiment in the region is on the rise, while Russian activity, often via the Wagner mercenary group, has grown. By - (AFP)

A crowd in Niamey shouted "Down with France", "Long live Russia, long live (Vladimir) Putin".

Protester Issiaka Hamadou said it was "only security that interests us", irrespective of whether it came from "Russia, China, Turkey, if they want to help us".

"We just don't want the French, who have been looting us since 1960 -- they've been there ever since and nothing has changed," he said.

Several thousand people also took to the streets of other cities.

In a sign of the junta's displeasure with Paris, it also announced Thursday it was scrapping military pacts made between Niamey and France.

Paris was also among four capitals it is recalling its ambassadors from.

"The functions of the extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassadors of the Republic of Niger" to France, Nigeria, Togo and the United States "are terminated", it said.

Blaming France's "careless attitude and its reaction to the situation", it said it had "decided to scrap the cooperation agreements in the field of security and defence with this state".

Niger has had a key role in Western strategies to combat a jihadist insurgency that has plagued the Sahel since 2012, with France and the United States stationing around 1,500 and 1,000 troops in the country, respectively.

'Hard-earned democracy'

In response to the turmoil, Britain and the United States have announced the pulling back of embassy personnel.

Bazoum was feted in 2021 after winning elections that ushered in Niger's first-ever peaceful transition of power. By YVES HERMAN (POOL/AFP)

France said it has evacuated 1,079 people from the country, more than half of them French nationals.

The United States has chartered a plane to evacuate non-essential personnel and American citizens wishing to leave the country, the State Department said.

Bazoum, 63, was feted in 2021 after winning elections that ushered in Niger's first-ever peaceful transition of power.

He took the helm of a country burdened by four previous coups since independence and survived two attempted putsches before his ouster.

France refocused its anti-jihadist mission in Niger after pulling out of Mali and Burkina Faso last year.

After joining a regional revolt in northern Mali, armed Islamists advanced into Niger and Burkina Faso in 2015 and now carry out sporadic attacks on fragile states on the Gulf of Guinea.

The impact has contributed to army takeovers in all three Sahel countries and devastated some of the world's poorest economies.
Richard Ahiagbah, National Communications Director of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) has slammed the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) over claims that the nation's economy has not shown signs of recovering as indicated by Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta.

The ruling partys spokesperson noted that the opposition party is very much aware of the progress made so far but is just being overly political.

In a statement on Thursday, August 3, Mr Ahiagba said the NDC is only fond of perpetuating communication fraud with no alternative ideas.

"The NDC is perpetrating a communication fraud on us. They have taken a power-seeking position not to accept the reality of the global economy which is harsh everywhere and are denying the obvious progress being made toward recovery, part of his statement reads.

According to him, the NDC's position that the economy has not turned the corner is propaganda.

"I know in their hearts they know we have turned the corner given the reported macro-fiscal data," he said.

Mr Ahiagba pointed out that the cedi has only depreciated 1.84% since February compared to over 50% depreciation in 2022.

He accused the NDC of deliberately deceiving Ghanaians to make the government unpopular, calling it "unethical and extreme partisan behavior."

"The idea that the mid-year revision of the macro-fiscal projections means that we have not turned the corner is very laughable. It simply does not make sense and should not be taken seriously," Mr Ahiagba stated.

He further said, "The NDC has zero ideas to contribute to how we build back from the ruins of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine War. If the NDC were in power today, Ghana would have been worse off."

"As a party and government, we have acknowledged the difficulties Ghana is going through and are working very hard to restore 2017, 2018, and 2019, 7% average GDP growth performance or better," Mr Ahiagba added.

Mr Ahiagba appealed to Ghanaians to bear with the government as it sort out the impact of the crises.

"We have turned the corner, and we are en route to recovery so, let's work together to bring back our economy," he urged.
Niger's junta threatened an immediate response to "any aggression" as a deadline given by its neighbours to reverse last week's coup neared, while the country's ousted leader called for international help to "restore our constitutional order".

The putschists also made diplomatic swipes against international condemnation of the coup, scrapping military pacts with France and pulling ambassadors from Paris and Washington, as well as from Togo and Nigeria.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has given the junta until Sunday to reinstate democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum -- who was toppled by his guard on July 26 -- or risk a possible armed intervention.

Regional military chiefs are in Nigeria's capital Abuja to discuss the possibility of such an intervention, but Nigerian President Bola Tinubu on Thursday told the bloc's delegations to do "whatever it takes" to reach an "amicable resolution".

Niger's junta warned it would meet force with force.

"Any aggression or attempted aggression against the State of Niger will see an immediate and unannounced response from the Niger Defence and Security Forces on one of (the bloc's) members," one of the putschists said in a statement read on national television late Thursday.

This came with "the exception of suspended friendly countries", an allusion to Burkina Faso and Mali, neighbouring countries that have also fallen to military coups in recent years.

Niger: demonstrations in Niamey following a coup. By Valentin RAKOVSKY, Laurence SAUBADU (AFP)

Those countries' juntas have warned any military intervention in Niger would be tantamount to a "declaration of war" against them.

Nigeria, West Africa's pre-eminent military and economic power, is the current ECOWAS chair and has vowed a firm line against coups.

The bloc has already imposed trade and financial sanctions on Niger.

Senegal said it would send soldiers to join ECOWAS if it decided to intervene militarily.

"It is one coup too many," said Foreign Minister Aissata Tall Sall.

An ECOWAS delegation headed by ex-Nigeria leader Abdulsalami Abubakar arrived in Niamey on Thursday, according to an airport source, and was due to meet the junta leaders later.

Bazoum, who has been held by the coup plotters with his family since his ouster, said Thursday that if the putsch proved successful, "it will have devastating consequences for our country, our region and the entire world".

In a column in The Washington Post -- his first lengthy statement since his detention began -- he called on "the US government and the entire international community to help us restore our constitutional order".

Nationwide protests

Anti-French sentiment in the region is on the rise, while Russian activity, often via the Wagner mercenary group, has grown. By - (AFP)

Across Niger on Thursday, thousands of people rallied to back the coup leaders on the anniversary of the country's 1960 independence from France, some brandishing giant Russian flags and chanting anti-French slogans.

Anti-French sentiment in the region is on the rise, while Russian activity, often through the Wagner mercenary group, has grown.

In his letter, Bazoum had warned that Niger's neighbours had increasingly invited in "criminal Russian mercenaries such as the Wagner Group at the expense of their people's rights and dignity".

"The entire Sahel region," he said, "could fall to Russian influence via the Wagner Group, whose brutal terrorism has been on full display in Ukraine".

Such concerns did not seem to worry a crowd in Niamey, who chanted "Down with France", "Long live Russia, long live (Vladimir) Putin".

Protester Issiaka Hamadou said it was "only security that interests us", irrespective of whether it came from "Russia, China, Turkey, if they want to help us".

"We just don't want the French, who have been looting us since 1960 -- they've been there ever since and nothing has changed," he said.

Bazoum was feted in 2021 after winning elections that ushered in Niger's first-ever peaceful transition of power. By YVES HERMAN (POOL/AFP)

In a sign of the junta's displeasure with Paris, it also announced Thursday that it was scrapping military pacts between Niamey and France.

Blaming France's "careless attitude and its reaction to the situation", it said it had "decided to scrap the cooperation agreements in the field of security and defence with this state".

Paris was also among four capitals from which the junta is recalling its ambassadors.

"The functions of the extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassadors of the Republic of Niger" to France, Nigeria, Togo and the United States "are terminated", it said.

Niger has had a key role in Western strategies to combat a jihadist insurgency that has plagued the Sahel since 2012, with France and the United States stationing around 1,500 and 1,000 troops in the country, respectively.

'Hard-earned democracy'

In response to the turmoil, Britain and the United States have announced the pulling back of embassy personnel.

France said it had evacuated 1,079 people from the country, more than half of them French nationals.

The United States has chartered a plane to evacuate non-essential personnel and American citizens wishing to leave the country, the State Department said.

Bazoum, 63, was feted in 2021 after winning elections that ushered in Niger's first-ever peaceful transition of power.

He took the helm of a country burdened by four previous coups since independence and survived two attempted putsches before his ouster.

France refocused its anti-jihadist mission in Niger after pulling out of Mali and Burkina Faso last year.
Former Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar has called for diplomatic negotiations to resolve the crisis in Niger following a recent military coup.

In a statement on Thursday, August 3, Mr Abubakar said the military takeover "has created tension across the West Africa sub-region" and attracted international attention.

He stated that as a regional leader, Nigeria is expected to "ensure the restoration of democratic governance in that country."

"The crisis in the Republic of Niger requires diplomatic engagements, and that must mean that the channels for dialogue should be well sustained," Mr Abubakar remarked.

He commended the efforts of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) so far but warned against using military force which could "exacerbate the status quo."

Mr Abubakar, who is the Peoples Democratic Party's presidential candidate in Nigeria's 2023 elections, said the world cannot "afford to wait for too long before this crisis is resolved reasonably."

He noted that the world expects Nigeria to take a leading role in peaceful conflict resolution in Niger.

However, he said "any actions taken must prioritize democracy as the ultimate victor."

Soldiers detained Niger's President Mohamed Bazoum and announced overthrowing his government on July 26, in the country's fifth coup since independence and first in over a decade.

The takeover follow coups in other West African nations like Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso in recent years. Analysts have labelled the region a "coup belt."
Alhaji Salifu Mimina Osman has been granted a presidential pardon by President Nana Akufo-Addo based on ill-health and good behavior, according to a statement from the Presidency.

Alhaji Osman Mimina, who served as Deputy National Security Coordinator under former president John Mahama administration was jailed for 5 years in 2020 for causing financial loss to the state in the infamous National Communications Authority (NCA) scandal.

But in a letter dated August 1, 2023, Secretary to the President Nana Bediatuo Asante said the pardon was in consultation with the Council of State and in line with Article 72 (1) (a) of the Constitution.

"I am directed by the President of the Republic to inform you that pursuant to a petition...from the Paramount Chief of Kpembe Traditional Area...for presidential pardon and release of Alhaji Salifu Mimina Osman from lawful custody on grounds of ill-health and good behaviour, the President has exercised his prerogative of mercy in favour of Alhaji Salifu Mimina Osman," the statement said in part.

The Kpembewura is said to have petitioned for Osman's release on July 19, 2021 citing declining health.

Salifu Mimina was found guilty together with former NCA boss Eugene Baffoe-Bonnie and others for stealing over $4 million during the award of a contract to Israeli company NSO Group in 2016.

But after serving about 3 years of his sentence, he has been granted an early release by President Akufo-Addo.
Oliver Barker Mawuse Vormawor, lead convener of the #FixTheCountry movement has openly reiterated his intention to lead a "revolt" against the political establishment in Ghana.

Mr Vormawor, who is facing treason felony charges, in a tweet on Thursday, August 3, admitted committing the offense.

I am Guilty as Charged! For, I make it no secret that I intend to lead a revolt against the political class that calls us brethren in public and plots our demise in private, he wrote.

He was arrested in February 2022 after threatening to stage a coup if the controversial E-levy bill was passed.

Mr Vormawor described his call for an uprising as a "coup of the mindset" that requires overthrowing the greedy political class impoverishing Ghanaians.

"My weapon is the courage of urgency and the moral conviction of my pen. Not a gun or bullet but a pen and ink. For this resistance requires first a coup d'etat of the mindset! That is my charge!" he tweeted.

The activist urged Ghanaians to join the revolt in any means they can.

Wherever you are; whether you are another rank or an older rank, we all have a role to play. According to the strength of our weapons," he said.

The activist and Cambridge PhD student insists his call is for a revolution of ideas and mindsets, not violent overthrow.
Joyce Bawa Mogtari, Special Aide to former president John Mahama has said directors of the Bank of Ghana should have resigned following the central bank's huge reported losses.

She made the comments in a tweet on Thursday, August 3, after the Bank of Ghana (BoG) announced losses of GH60.8 billion for the first half of 2022.

The losses in its report were mainly due to impairments in the central bank's holdings of government bonds and securities.

This has raised concerns about BoG's financial health and governance.

Reacting to the development, Mrs Mogtari tweeted: "If it were a civilised democracy with high corporate ethics, directors of the Central Bank would have resigned or be sacked to allow for improved governance and management of the bank."

She accused the government and BoG of "scrambling to provide excuses for their mistakes" rather than fixing lapses in oversight of the bank.

Mrs Mogtari frequently criticizes the Akufo-Addo administration, blaming it for Ghana's current economic struggles.

With BoG losses eroding reserves and confidence in the cedi, the opposition NDC has questioned the government's management of the economy.

But BoG insists despite the losses, its balance sheet remains strong enough to meet its obligations.

The central bank has also outlined measures to stem further losses.

Mrs. Mogtari however believes heads should roll at BoG over the financial deterioration.
Breaches shouldnt end businesses.

Despite this being a fair statement of fact, breaches in cybersecurity continue to ravage businesses. One recent IBM report stated that:

The global average cost of a data breach is about $4.45 million , representing a 15% increase since 2020.

, representing a increase since 2020. 51% of organizations are currently planning to increase security investments as a result of increasing breaches, including their incident response (IR) planning and employee training, threat detection, etc.

of organizations are currently planning to increase security investments as a result of increasing breaches, including their incident response (IR) planning and employee training, threat detection, etc. The average savings for organizations that invest in extensive security is roughly $1.76 million (compared to organizations that dont).

This brings us to the vision of another company:

BreachRx.

BreachRx was founded because, as stated, breaches shouldnt end businesses. In 2023, it shouldnt matter whether its an SMB or a global corporation; businesses of every size should be able to reduce breach risks by automating their total incident readiness and response capabilities. They should be equipped to  when necessary  take back control and stay agile by assessing the impacts of consistently shifting regulatory, contractual, and compliance-centric requirements.

So, BreachRx has introduced a new purpose-built tool for enterprising automating new cybersecurity, privacy and data protection regulatory analyses:

Cyber RegScout.

Cyber RegScout helps automate privacy and data protection regulatory analysis. With its in-depth coverage of every regulation, actionable insights about each jurisdiction (and what is needed to accomplish by when), companies can proactively mitigate a growing risk," said Alexandra Ross, Senior Director, Senior Data Protection, Use & Ethics Counsel at Autodesk (News - Alert) and strategic advisor to BreachRx. The future of work demands solutions like this that combine automation and expertise.

No longer do businesses need to exclusively rely on generic spreadsheets and all-too-lengthy research summaries to determine which regulations apply at a given moment (and for whatever given incident). With Cyber RegScout, up-to-date research is made more available and a comprehensive library of regulations, actionable intel and insights are kept current and easily accessible.

Thus, regulations are made simpler and breach risks are eliminated more expeditiously.

Incident response is no longer just a security problem  with a whole minefield of new regulations popping up daily at the local, state, and national level, its quickly become a problem across the entire enterprise, said Anderson Lunsford, BreachRxs CEO. So, our mission is to help security, legal, and compliance teams take back control of privacy and cybersecurity incidents.

And Cyber RegScout does just that.

More info about it from BreachRx can be found here.

Edited by Greg Tavarez
A West African delegation has failed to secure the return to power of Niger's elected government as the junta moved to break military cooperation with former colonial power France.

The ECOWAS regional bloc's team had arrived Thursday in the capital Naimey "but did not spend the night" as scheduled, nor meet with coup leader Abdourahamane Tiani or detained President Mohamed Bazoum, a member of the delegation said on Friday.

Regional powerhouse Nigeria holds the rotating presidency of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which imposed sanctions and on Sunday gave the putschists a week to restore Bazoum to power or risk possible armed intervention.

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu however said the bloc would do its best to resolve the crisis amicably but ECOWAS said it could resort to military intervention as a last resort.

Regional military chiefs are in Nigeria's capital Abuja to discuss the possibility of such an intervention.

Niger's junta warned it would meet force with force.

"Any aggression or attempted aggression against the State of Niger will see an immediate and unannounced response from the Niger Defence and Security Forces on one of (the bloc's) members," one of the putschists said in a statement read on national television.

This came with "the exception of suspended friendly countries", an allusion to Burkina Faso and Mali, neighbouring countries that have also fallen to military coups in recent years.

Niger: demonstrations in Niamey following a coup. By Valentin RAKOVSKY, Laurence SAUBADU (AFP)

Those countries' juntas have warned any military intervention in Niger would be tantamount to a "declaration of war".

Bazoum, who has been held by the coup plotters with his family since his ouster, said Thursday that if the putsch proved successful, "it will have devastating consequences for our country, our region and the entire world".

In a column in The Washington Post -- his first lengthy statement since his detention -- he called on "the US government and the entire international community to help us restore our constitutional order".

Nationwide protests

Across Niger on Thursday, thousands of people rallied to back the coup leaders on the anniversary of the country's 1960 independence, some waving giant Russian flags and chanting anti-French slogans.

Anti-French sentiment in the region is on the rise, while Russian activity, often via the Wagner mercenary group, has grown. By - (AFP)

Anti-French sentiment in the region is on the rise, while Russian activity, often through the Wagner mercenary group, has grown.

Bazoum has warned that Niger's neighbours had increasingly invited in "criminal Russian mercenaries such as the Wagner Group at the expense of their people's rights and dignity".

"The entire Sahel region," he said, "could fall to Russian influence via the Wagner Group, whose brutal terrorism has been on full display in Ukraine".

Bazoum was feted in 2021 after winning elections that ushered in Niger's first-ever peaceful transition of power. By YVES HERMAN (POOL/AFP)

In a sign of the junta's displeasure with Paris, it announced Thursday that it was scrapping military pacts between Niamey and France, citing the former ruler's "careless attitude and its reaction to the situation".

Paris was also among four capitals from which the junta is recalling its ambassadors.

Niger has had a key role in Western strategies to combat a jihadist insurgency that has plagued the Sahel since 2012, with France and the United States stationing around 1,500 and 1,000 troops in the country, respectively.

France has evacuated 1,079 people from the country, more than half of them its nationals.

The United States has chartered a plane to evacuate non-essential personnel and American citizens wishing to leave the country, the State Department said.

Bazoum, 63, was feted in 2021 after winning elections that ushered in Niger's first-ever peaceful transition of power.
Private Legal Practitioner and known member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Gabby Otchere-Darko has issued a statement to address allegations against him by North Tongu Member of Parliament (MP) Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa.

The Minority MP this week started a new expose he titled the Kitchen Scandal.

In a post on Facebook, he fingered Gabby Otchere-Darko in the scandal involving West Blue and indicated that the scandal is valued at a stupendous GHS187,356,969.55.

He explained the Kitchen Scandal is a tale of betrayal, bravado, double standards, influence peddling, dishonesty, greed, collusion, atm-twisting, naked nepotism, and blatant rape of the public purse.

Having studied the contents of posts made by Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa in the past week, Gabby Otchere-Darko has finally issued a statement to address the allegations.

In his statement, he notes that the provision of legitimate and bonafide legal services by his firm Africa Legal Associates (ALA) to West Blue Ghana Limited is not wrong in any way.

ALA was engaged by West Blue Ghana Limited on 29 April 2021 to assist the company to recover outstanding payments due it from the Government of the Republic of Ghana under a contract dated 04 August 2015, executed between our client, on the one hand, and the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and the Ministry of Finance (MoF), on the other hand.

We have been on this matter for more than two years now and the MoF and GRA continue to dispute the claim in spite of what we consider to be the incontrovertibility of our clients case per the contract, Otchere-Darko explained in his release.

In his view, the private legal practitioner said it is intriguing that Ablakwa of all people see as a scandal lawyers engaged in their legitimate work of seeking to recover arrears owed to their clients, even when their claim, per the North Tongu MPs own leaked documents, is not, in principle, disputed by the Attorney General.

In the interest of the public, we are willing and ready as a firm to defend the integrity of our professional work in this matter before any appropriate forum and without prejudice to any cause of action we may wish to take in the interest of our client, the release from Gabby Otchere-Darko stressed.

Read the full release from Gabby Otchere-Darko below:

To Hon. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa

My attention has been drawn to a publication by you under the title The Kitchen Scandal. In this thrilling publication, you seek to castigate me and my firm, Africa Legal Associates (ALA), for our provision of legitimate and bonafide legal services to our client, West Blue Ghana Limited.

ALA was engaged by West Blue Ghana Limited on 29 April 2021 to assist the company to recover outstanding payments due it from the Government of the Republic of Ghana under a contract dated 04 August 2015, executed between our client, on the one hand, and the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and the Ministry of Finance (MoF), on the other hand. We have been on this matter for more than two years now and the MoF and GRA continue to dispute the claim in spite of what we consider to be the incontrovertibility of our clients case per the contract.

Our clients claim is to recover arrears owed by the MoF and GRA for services it rendered to the Government of Ghana under the National Single Window and Integrated Risk Management System Contract (NSW contract) dated 04 August 2015. Our clients claim is founded on clause 13.1 of the NSW Contract, which sets out without equivocation, the fees due to our client under the NSW Contract. It was a contract duly crafted and executed by the John Mahama administration, of which you were a key member.

Clause 13.1 of the NSW Contract provides that in consideration of its services, our client shall be paid a fee equivalent to 0.35% of the final invoice CIF (Cost, Insurance, and Freight) value of import consignments entering into Ghana through the seaports, airports and land borders from time to time. Going strictly by the express terms of the NSW Contract, our client calculates the arrears still left outstanding to be in the sum of GH187,356,969. Indeed, a demand letter providing details of the sum of GH187,356,969 owed, was submitted to the Ministry of Finance on 28 July 2020 by the previous lawyers of our client, Bentsi-Enchill, Letsa & Ankomah.

Contrary to your assertion of West Blues contract being terminated before the claim period, note that West Blue continued to render services to the Government under the contract, following an extension of the said contract post 31 December 2018, instructively, a period not included in the claim of GH187,356,969, which is set between 2015 and 2018.

The MoF and GRA deny the claim of our client and state that our clients fees were rather to be calculated on the total inspection fees, which is merely a constituent of the total CIF, paid on imports. This, if you like, constitutes the gravamen significado of the dispute.

ALA has written numerous letters to the MoF and GRA to explain the legal justification of our clients claim. Per a letter dated 05 August 2021, the Attorney General, who is the chief legal advisor to the Government, was requested to assist the parties (MoF, GRA, and our client) with a legal opinion that would clarify the legal operation of the key terms of the NSW Contract. This request was made pursuant to a mutual understanding between lawyers from ALA and representatives of GRA during a meeting held to discuss our clients claim.

On 13 December 2021, ALA wrote to the Attorney General for an update on the request for the legal opinion and our clients claim in general, as all our efforts to procure an update from the MoF and GRA had thus far proven futile. In the Attorney Generals response to us, we were advised to contact the MoF and GRA as they had been furnished with the legal opinion by the Attorney Generals office.

The MoF and GRA have consistently refused to share the legal opinion with us despite numerous requests for the same. They have also refused to meet with our client since 2021 to explore a possible settlement of our clients claim which, if not settled, could result in a hefty judgment debt against the country. It is imperative to emphasise that no money has been paid to our client since we made the demand on MoF and GRA on our clients behalf. Not a pesewa. Indeed, the MoF and/or GRA have not sat down with ALA or the client directly to even attempt a negotiation.

Until the release of your article, ALA had not been afforded notice of the content of the legal opinion of the Attorney General regarding our clients claim. If, as purported by you, the chief legal advisor to the Government is of the opinion that our clients claim is of merit, then this revelation by you is much appreciated by us, as it actually validates the legitimacy of our clients claim.

Further, a Notice of Intention to Sue was issued by ALA in a letter dated 01 March 2022. In a bid to further allow the Government ample opportunity to address our clients claim, ALA, per a letter dated 22 July 2022, issued a reminder to the Attorney General to respond to our Notice of Intention to Sue. It was only in October 2022 that ALA received an invitation from the Attorney Generals office, to attend a meeting together with MoF and GRA to discuss matters relating to our Notice of Intention to Sue. At the meeting, the parties rehashed their positions following which the Attorney General requested written submissions from all parties. ALA complied and submitted its clients position but has not received that of either the MOF or GRA. Indeed, until your generous release of the Attorney Generals opinion(s), as far as we were aware, no real progress had been made. We are, indeed, thankful.

If I may ask: is it the legitimacy of our clients claim or the quantum of the sum claimed by our client that bewilders you? Further, is this not a simple matter of a legitimate claim arising out of the specific performance of the terms of a contract mutually entered into by the parties? Again, has the MoF and/or GRA agreed to pay or to even sit down to negotiate it down? Would this have been a matter at all, in your reckoning, if any other qualified lawyer was handling this matter? Is it your point that as a cousin to the President it is unethical for me to represent a client who has a legitimate case against the state?

Be assured that there are numerous other top-tier firms in this country that are currently representing clients whose legitimate causes of action stem from quite similar issues, regarding contracts signed around the same period by the government in which you served.

Again, I wish to underscore the fact that our client has not been paid any part of the amount claimed to be owed to it under the NSW Contract. Our clients case is not a challenge to the termination of the NSW Contract. It is simply a dispute over arrears owed for work already done and a claim for monies due it in accordance with the express terms of the said contract between the parties.

It is intriguing that you, of all people, see as a scandal lawyers engaged in their legitimate work of seeking to recover arrears owed to their clients, even when their claim, per your own leaked documents, is not, in principle, disputed by the Attorney General. I wonder how you reconcile your stance against ALA with the claim against you by the then Attorney General when you were a member of government? See Peace FM website: https://www.peacefmonline.com//politics/201207/123769.php.

If a deputy minister at the Ministry of Education (and a non-lawyer at that) could gather the moral courage and see no wrong in lobbying to be paid, a contractor, whose very claim was being challenged in court at that material time by the Attorney General, then the world may be forgiven to see as extremely curious your description today of the West Blue claim as a scandal. Assuming, of course, the claim against you by your Attorney General is true.

Be assured that ALA is fully committed to pursuing our clients legal rights in respect of its claim under the NSW Contract, and that should the MoF and the GRA decide to give us audience, we are duty-bound to assist our client to negotiate a settlement with the Government on the payment of the claim. In the event that this does not happen, our client reserves its rights to resort to a lawsuit for the recovery of the debt.

In the interest of the public, we are willing and ready as a firm to defend the integrity of our professional work in this matter before any appropriate forum and without prejudice to any cause of action we may wish to take in the interest of our client.

Lastly, take note that I am a lawyer and Senior Partner of a corporate law firm and that I am entitled by the codes of my profession to provide legal services to clients who approach our firm, and will continue to do so without any other considerations, besides the legitimacy of the issues involved.

signed

Gabby Otchere-Darko,

Senior Partner, ALA
A West African delegation has failed to secure the return to power of Niger's elected government despite proposals to resolve the crisis as the junta curtailed military cooperation with former colonial power France.

The ECOWAS regional bloc's team arrived Thursday in the capital Niamey "but did not spend the night" as scheduled, nor meet with coup leader Abdourahamane Tiani or detained President Mohamed Bazoum, a delegation member said Friday.

At the same time, the junta announced that it was scrapping military pacts between Niger and France, citing the former ruler's "careless attitude and its reaction to the situation".

Niger has had a key role in Western strategies to combat a jihadist insurgency that has plagued the Sahel since 2012, with France and the United States stationing around 1,500 and 1,000 troops in the country, respectively.

Regional powerhouse Nigeria holds the rotating presidency of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which imposed sanctions and on Sunday gave the putschists a week to restore Bazoum to power or risk possible armed intervention.

But Niger's government newspaper Le Sahel reported that the visiting delegation had met junta representatives at the airport and discussed "proposals to resolve the crisis".

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu said the bloc would do its best to resolve the crisis amicably but ECOWAS said it could resort to military intervention as a last resort.

Russia, which has increased its footprint across the Sahel in recent years, warned that foreign intervention would not resolve the crisis.

"It is unlikely that the intervention of any extra-regional force can change the situation for the better," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists.

Regional military chiefs are in Nigeria's capital Abuja to discuss the possibility of such an intervention.

Niger's junta warned it would meet force with force.

Germany called for continued "mediation efforts" to defuse the situation.

Niger: demonstrations in Niamey following a coup. By Valentin RAKOVSKY, Laurence SAUBADU (AFP)

The juntas Burkina Faso and Mali have warned any military intervention in Niger would be tantamount to a "declaration of war".

Bazoum, who has been held by the coup plotters with his family since his ouster, said Thursday that if the putsch proved successful, "it will have devastating consequences for our country, our region and the entire world".

In a column in The Washington Post -- his first lengthy statement since his detention -- he called on "the US government and the entire international community to help us restore our constitutional order".

Nationwide protests

Across Niger on Thursday, thousands of people rallied to back the coup leaders on the anniversary of the country's 1960 independence, some waving giant Russian flags and chanting anti-French slogans.

Anti-French sentiment in the region is on the rise, while Russian activity, often via the Wagner mercenary group, has grown. By - (AFP)

Anti-French sentiment in the region is on the rise, while Russian activity, often through the Wagner mercenary group, has grown.

The European Union on Friday "strongly" condemned the blocking of French media broadcasts in Niger, where last week's coup sparked protests against the country's former colonial ruler.

"This step is a serious violation of the right to information and freedom of expression. The EU strongly condemns these violations of fundamental freedoms," EU spokeswoman Nabila Massrali said on Twitter, recently rebranded as X.

Bazoum has warned that Niger's neighbours had increasingly invited in "criminal Russian mercenaries such as the Wagner Group at the expense of their people's rights and dignity".

Bazoum was feted in 2021 after winning elections that ushered in Niger's first-ever peaceful transition of power. By YVES HERMAN (POOL/AFP)

"The entire Sahel region," he said, "could fall to Russian influence via the Wagner Group, whose brutal terrorism has been on full display in Ukraine".

Paris was also among four capitals from which the junta is recalling its ambassadors.

In a sign of normality returning in the aftermath of the coup, the putschists on Friday lifted a curfew in force since the July 26 coup.

France has evacuated 1,079 people from the country, more than half of them its nationals.

On Friday, a Spanish Air Force plane landed in Niamey to evacuate Spanish nationals -- estimated to number around 70, according to the Spanish Ministry of Defence.

The United States has chartered a plane to evacuate non-essential personnel and American citizens wishing to leave the country, the State Department said.

Bazoum, 63, was feted in 2021 after winning elections that ushered in Niger's first-ever peaceful transition of power.
Until One million dollars, three hundred thousand euros and millions of Ghana money were stolen from Mrs Cecilia Dapaahs home, did you know that she used 43 million dollars to clean the Odaw river? But dont we have opposition party in Ghana?

When NDC was in power, who didnt know Woyome allegedly collected fifty-two thousand cedis, which didnt belong to him? Did Ursula Owusu not go to Germany and composed a song called Woyome, Woyome?

When the issue of bus branding came up because the NPP suspected that the late Dzifa Attivor misused money out of the work done, wasnt Ghana on fire?

When Victoria Hammer dreamt of making $1 million and quitting politics, didnt Ursula Owusu call for lifestyle audit on her? Didnt John Boadu, former General Secretary of the NPP call for the seizure of her assets after she was fired?

When NDC was in power and Ibrahim Mahama was cleaning the Odaw river for free, didnt the NPP drag him into politics? Didnt that force him to stop cleaning the Odaw, just for the NPP to come to power and clean the same Odaw for $43 million?

You watch, now that the bogus budget review has been read, the rented media houses will not mention Cecilia Dapaahs name again and if an NDC communicator tries to mention it as they discuss the budget, the host will stop him/her with the explanation that they are not related.

Should NDC allow Cecilia Dapaahs name to die just like that? So, cant NDC do something about the name Cecilia Dapaah, so it can have an everlasting memory in the minds of Ghanaians? Cant we also compose songs for her and her party? Anytime someone mentions Woyome it is associated with corruption by the NDC. What is Cecilia Dapaahs name associated with?

Just within the same week, a presidential staffer, Lawyer Hamidu Nuhu, also had $114.000, 800 and millions of Ghana money stolen from her room: the government has written off half of GHC 776 billion it owed the Central bank and there is the revelation that the Bank of Ghana lost about GHC 60 billion in 2020.

Where are the Ghanaian Youth, the Arise Ghana Youth, Save Ghana Youth, and the Freedom Fighters? I think weve not raised the temperature in Ghana high enough, that is why they can tell us Cecilia Dapaahs money is a funeral donation and a family property.

By the way, has the 26 ambulances, of which one was found in Dubai, arrived or should we now confirm it as another scandal? I am just a messenger.

Lawrence Appiah-Osei
Kinshasa, August 3, 2023Politicians in the Democratic Republic of Congo and their supporters must respect journalists rights to report freely and safely in the lead-up to national elections on December 20, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday.

At least seven journalists reporting on political candidates were assaulted in three separate incidents last week, according to news reports and three of the journalists who spoke to CPJ.

Political leaders must set an example and ensure that the media can report freely and safely ahead of the DRCs parliamentary and presidential elections, said CPJ Program Coordinator Angela Quintal in Durban, South Africa. The police must ensure that those who attack journalists are prosecuted, and presidential candidates across the political spectrum must set an example by cultivating tolerance and respect for a free press in the DRC.

On July 25, Lich Nkele, the federal president of the Movement for the Liberation of the Congo (MLC), a party allied with President Felix Tshisekedi, and three MLC militants assaulted Jose Nkoso, director of the privately owned Radio Bomoko Mankanza, at his home in Mankanza town in northwestern Equateur province, according to Nkoso, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app.

Nkeles phone appeared to be switched off when CPJ called to request comment and he did not respond to text messages.

Nkoso told CPJ that his assailants were angry because an activist interviewed on Radio Bomoko said many of their MLC candidates would lose in the polls. Nkoso said the men broke his windows and doors and beat him with sticks, causing severe pain in his back, head and left ankle.

Rose Monkozo, deputy government administrator in Mankanza, told CPJ by phone on July 30 that the four alleged assailants were arrested but Nkele had since been released. She declined to give further details. Mankanza judicial police officer Patrick Zele told CPJ that he could not comment on an ongoing investigation.

In the second incident on Saturday, July 29, Frank Kalonji, a reporter with the private news website Actu7.cd, told CPJ that an unknown number of supporters of leading opposition presidential candidate Martin Fayuluwho claimed to have won DRCs 2018 presidential elections but lost a court case challenging the resultslapped and manhandled him and snatched his phone to prevent him reporting on their Engagement for Citizenship and Development (ECIDe) partys rally in the capital, Kinshasa.

The journalist told CPJ that the men accused him of being a spy for the ruling Union for Democracy and Social Progress party. The assault was also reported by his own media outlet.

Kalonji said another ECIDe member stopped the attack and returned his phone. ECIDe secretary general Devos Kitoko did not answer CPJs phone calls to request comment.

Government spokesperson Patrick Muyaya also did not answer CPJs calls and texts seeking comment.

On the same day, opposition presidential candidate Delly Sesanga of the Envol party and five reporters were assaulted while trying to attend a rally in Kananga, capital of Kasai-Central province, according to one of the reporters, Elysee Odia of the private news site Yabisonews.cd, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app. Suspected ruling party supporters set tires alight, barricaded the roads and threw stones to prevent the group from reaching the venue, according to Odia and news reports.

Sesanga and three of the journalistsOdia, Didier Kebongo of the private daily newspaper Forum des As, Tresor Kalafayi of Congo Web TVs programme Plateau des Veritessustained minor head injuries, according to Odia and 24 News Agency.

Jean-Pierre Kayembe of the private channel Non a la balkanisation TV and Danou Kefula of the private television station Canal Kin were unhurt, Odia added.

The governor of Kasai-Central province, John Kabeya Shikayi, did not answer CPJs phone calls. Government spokesperson Muyaya on Monday condemned the attack on Sesanga and said those responsible for the violence would be brought to justice, according to the news site Actualite.cd.

CPJ has repeatedly documented how journalists in the DRC have been arrested, accused of alleged crimesincluding defamation and sharing false informationand criminally prosecuted in connection with their work. The DRC was holding two journalists behind bars when CPJ conducted its latest annual worldwide census of imprisoned journalists on December 1, 2022.
Last year, Haitis interim government requested an international deployment, garnering support from United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the United States, according to sources.

However, other Haitian leaders, including Werley Nortreus, suggested that troops from Russia, African countries, Canada, France, and CARICOM should be included if they were interested.

Nortreus is a rising Haitian politician who considers the current Haitian agreement a good step forward for the country. The agreement offers the country and its people constitutional reform, proper security, and a general election for a new government and a President can be installed.

Nortreus stated that this agreement is a good step forward as he continues to ask the Haitian government to consider the constitutional amendment that he proposed by reducing the age limit for a candidate to run for the executive, the legislative, from 35 years to 25.

This week, on Thursday, Nortreus said that troops coming from Africa, CARICOM, and others are welcome in Haiti. He praises the efforts of Kenya, and the Bahamas which are ready to send their well-prepared military forces to the country to reduce violence and killings. He also said constitution reform before new elections should not be forgotten.

The news came out on July 29 from a source where the Kenyan government announced that they are ready to send 1000 soldiers to the Caribbean country to fight insecurity. Kenya is ready to lead a multinational force into Haiti, which is experiencing a surge in violence between police and gangs, its foreign minister Alfred Mutua said.

The Bahamian government on Tuesday welcomed Kenya's decision to lead a multinational force in Haiti and committed 150 people to support the effort. "The Bahamas has committed 150 persons to support the multi-national force once authorized by the United Nations Security Council," the ministry said in a statement.

Haiti appreciates this expression of African solidarity, Haitian Foreign Minister Jean Victor Geneus said in a statement on Sunday, and looks forward to welcoming Kenyas proposed evaluation mission.

Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry on Tuesday said he spoke with Kenyan President William Ruto to thank Kenyans for the demonstration of fraternal solidarity. Kenya plans to send a task force in the coming weeks to assess the mission's operational requirements.

Since the Haitian government asked the United Nations for international forces to join Haiti, the majority of Haitians did not accept this decision. There are still Haitians in the population who still do not accept it because the United Nations failed its mission in past years.
The Project Coordinator at the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA) Sanitation and Water Project, Ing. George Asiedu has expressed his excitement about the completion of the Ashaiman and Bankuman Sewerage Treatment Systems at Ashaiman TDC Quarters.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Wednesday, August 2, officially commissioned the ultra-modern Simplified Sewerage Facility and Treatment Plant at Ashaiman and also commissioned the rehabilitated and expanded Bankuman Simplified Sewerage Plant.

Speaking to the media on the sidelines of the commissioning, Ing George Asiedu assured that the two sewerage systems will promote a clean environment as the government continues in its efforts to make the country clean.

This is a state-of-the-art treatment facility and there will not be any contamination with decal matter because we are not going to have any interaction or any dislodging and this is one way of ensuring a clean environment, the GAMA Project Coordinator said.

Under the current government, the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources (MSWR) has been implementing the GAMA Sanitation and Water Project (GAMA SWP) in 30 metropolitan and municipal assemblies in Greater Accra and Greater Kumasi with the objective of increasing access to improved sanitation and water services in low-income urban communities.

The project has so far provided 49,200 household toilets benefitting over 393,000 low-income people and has improved water connection to 404,000 people. 419,537 people have also been provided with 437 gender-sensitive, disability-friendly school sanitation and health facilities across beneficiary institutions in GAMA and GKMA.

These interventions have contributed significantly to a drop in open defecation in the Greater Accra region according to the 2021 population census report.

The Ashaiman and Bankuman Sewerage Treatment Systems cover a total of 31.65km of conventional off-site simplified sewerage system to serve over 44,458 people in Ashaiman and Bankuman.

About Ashaiman Treatment System:

The Ashaiman Treatment System covers a 23.9km condominium and street sewer network with a treatment capacity of 1,800m3 per day to facilitate 5,455 household connections in the Ashaiman New Town and household connections in the TDC Quarters serving a total of 26,718 low-income beneficiaries of Ashaiman New Town and TDC Quarters in the Ashaiman Municipal Assembly.

About Bankuman Treatment System:

The Bankuman Treatment System covers a 7.75km sewer network with a treatment capacity of 1600m3 per day to facilitate 3,600 individual household connections to serve about 17,740 low-income beneficiaries of Bankuman community in the Tema Metropolitan Assembly.
04.08.2023 LISTEN

The Member of Parliament (MP) for North Tongu Constituency, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has swiftly clapped back at Gabby Otchere-Darko on the Kitchen Scandal expose.

The Minority MP this week started a new expose he titled the Kitchen Scandal.

In a post on Facebook, he fingered Gabby Otchere-Darko in the scandal involving West Blue and indicated that the scandal is valued at a stupendous GHS187,356,969.55.

He explained the Kitchen Scandal is a tale of betrayal, bravado, double standards, influence peddling, dishonesty, greed, collusion, atm-twisting, naked nepotism, and blatant rape of the public purse.

Having studied the contents of posts made by Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa in the past week, Gabby Otchere-Darko finally issued a statement to address the allegations.

In his statement, he noted that the provision of legitimate and bonafide legal services by his firm Africa Legal Associates (ALA) to West Blue Ghana Limited is not wrong in any way.

Gabby Otchere-Darko in defending his client said his firm is willing and ready firm to defend the integrity of its professional work in the alleged scandal before any appropriate forum and without prejudice in the interest of the public.

READ ALSO: Gabby Otchere-Darko replies Ablakwas GHS187 million Kitchen Scandal allegation

After going through the response of Gabby Otchere-Darko, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has made another post on Facebook, insisting that the NPP member deliberately failed to address the fundamental issue he raised in the Kitchen Scandal.

The North Tongu MP further dares Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko to step out of the shadows and proceed to court if he really believes in and is proud of his mysterious GHS187.3 million U-turn.

Read Ablakwas reply to the response to Gabby Otchere-Darko below:

Gabriel Asare Otchere-Darkos long-awaited response to the GHS187.3million Kitchen Scandal deliberately fails to address the fundamental issue.

A few years ago, Gabby & his NPP collaborators accused President Mahama of wrongly awarding a bloated contract to West Blue. They so much believed in their position that they raised hell and even proceeded to court in an attempt to stop the contract.

Now Gabby claims in sharp contrast to their earlier stance and infamous blistering attack that President Mahama didnt pay West Blue enough and therefore Ghana owes his latest client GHS187.3million plus interest. What has changed? What explains this U-turn of the century?

Strangely, Gabby is relying on the same 4th August 2015 contract which didnt come into effect because a value-for-money condition precedent was not satisfied; based upon which the Akufo-Addo administration disengaged with West Blue by a 25th January, 2018 letter signed by Deputy Finance Minister, Kwaku Kwarteng.

Meanwhile, the value-for-money audit submitted to this NPP administration reveals that West Blue rather owes Ghana and not vice versa.

I salute the Ghana Revenue Authority for standing firm in the face of Gabbys incessant threats and insisting that Ghana doesnt owe West Blue.

I trust Parliaments Finance Committee to do a great job in protecting the national interest following my formal discussions with its leadership.

This latest colossal GHS187.3million scheme (minus so-called interest) by Akufo-Addos Kitchen Cabinet shall not succeed.

The Ghanaian people, and the patriotic team of whistleblowers I am working with shall rise and protect what is left of the already battered public purse.

From PDS, Agyapa and Ameri; Ghanaians have suffered enough in the hands of this vampire unaccountable Kitchen Cabinet.

Gabriel Asare Otchere-Darko can step out of the shadows and proceed to court if he really believes in and is proud of his mysterious GHS187.3million U-turn.

In the mean time, shall we all help Gabby relocate his conscience and his memory.

For God and Country

Ghana First
BlackRock MuniYield New York Quality Fund, Inc. (NYSE:MYN  Get Free Report) declared a monthly dividend on Tuesday, August 1st, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 15th will be given a dividend of 0.0315 per share by the investment management company on Friday, September 1st. This represents a $0.38 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.82%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 14th.

BlackRock MuniYield New York Quality Fund Price Performance

NYSE:MYN traded down $0.19 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $9.90. The companys stock had a trading volume of 84,075 shares, compared to its average volume of 71,213. BlackRock MuniYield New York Quality Fund has a fifty-two week low of $8.89 and a fifty-two week high of $11.27. The firms 50 day moving average is $10.00 and its 200-day moving average is $10.07.

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Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of MYN. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in shares of BlackRock MuniYield New York Quality Fund by 7.6% in the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 16,215 shares of the investment management companys stock valued at $165,000 after buying an additional 1,139 shares during the period. NewEdge Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of BlackRock MuniYield New York Quality Fund by 13.7% during the first quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 14,150 shares of the investment management companys stock valued at $171,000 after acquiring an additional 1,700 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its stake in shares of BlackRock MuniYield New York Quality Fund by 15.5% in the 1st quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 16,120 shares of the investment management companys stock valued at $164,000 after purchasing an additional 2,165 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates raised its holdings in shares of BlackRock MuniYield New York Quality Fund by 24.9% during the 4th quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 14,039 shares of the investment management companys stock valued at $138,000 after buying an additional 2,800 shares during the period. Finally, LPL Financial LLC grew its position in shares of BlackRock MuniYield New York Quality Fund by 29.4% in the 4th quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 19,504 shares of the investment management companys stock worth $191,000 after acquiring an additional 4,430 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 21.73% of the companys stock.

About BlackRock MuniYield New York Quality Fund

BlackRock MuniYield New York 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 fixed income markets. It invests primarily in a portfolio of long-term investment grade municipal bonds exempt from federal income taxes and New York State and New York City personal income taxes.

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Partners Group Holding AG decreased its position in Apollo Global Management, Inc. (NYSE:APO  Free Report) by 22.5% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 290,425 shares of the financial services providers stock after selling 84,512 shares during the period. Apollo Global Management comprises approximately 1.5% of Partners Group Holding AGs portfolio, making the stock its 23rd biggest holding. Partners Group Holding AG owned about 0.05% of Apollo Global Management worth $18,343,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Wellington Shields Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Apollo Global Management by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Shields Capital Management LLC now owns 47,350 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $3,020,000 after purchasing an additional 159 shares during the last quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. increased its holdings in Apollo Global Management by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 5,709 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $364,000 after buying an additional 170 shares in the last quarter. Mcdonald Partners LLC increased its holdings in Apollo Global Management by 2.1% in the 1st quarter. Mcdonald Partners LLC now owns 8,575 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $542,000 after buying an additional 175 shares in the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI increased its holdings in Apollo Global Management by 1.0% in the 1st quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 19,740 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $1,250,000 after buying an additional 192 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Moors & Cabot Inc. increased its holdings in Apollo Global Management by 1.6% in the 1st quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 12,206 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $771,000 after buying an additional 197 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 59.15% of the companys stock.

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Insider Transactions at Apollo Global Management

In other news, insider James C. Zelter sold 3,010 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.51, for a total transaction of $233,305.10. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,776,159 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $447,710,084.09. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Apollo Global Management news, insider James C. Zelter sold 3,010 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Monday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.51, for a total value of $233,305.10. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 5,776,159 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $447,710,084.09. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider James C. Zelter sold 11,093 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Friday, June 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.53, for a total value of $860,040.29. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,779,169 shares in the company, valued at approximately $448,058,972.57. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 1,348,666 shares of company stock valued at $88,967,624 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 15.40% of the companys stock.

Apollo Global Management Price Performance

NYSE APO traded up $4.62 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $85.95. The companys stock had a trading volume of 3,102,012 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,634,240. The firms 50-day moving average price is $75.82 and its 200-day moving average price is $69.10. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94. Apollo Global Management, Inc. has a 1 year low of $45.62 and a 1 year high of $86.47. The company has a market capitalization of $48.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -35.54, a PEG ratio of 0.68 and a beta of 1.67.

Apollo Global Management (NYSE:APO  Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 9th. The financial services provider reported $1.26 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $1.39 by ($0.13). Apollo Global Management had a positive return on equity of 103.06% and a negative net margin of 8.66%. The business had revenue of $742.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $717.78 million. On average, equities research analysts predict that Apollo Global Management, Inc. will post 6.17 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apollo Global Management Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 22nd were issued a dividend of $0.43 per share. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.00%. This is a boost from Apollo Global Managements previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 19th. Apollo Global Managements dividend payout ratio is -71.07%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Bank of America reduced their price objective on Apollo Global Management from $78.00 to $72.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 5th. Citigroup boosted their price target on Apollo Global Management from $80.00 to $91.00 in a research note on Tuesday, July 18th. StockNews.com upgraded Apollo Global Management from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research note on Friday, June 16th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Apollo Global Management from $68.00 to $81.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 18th. Finally, TheStreet upgraded Apollo Global Management from a c+ rating to a b- rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 20th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $78.55.

Get Our Latest Analysis on Apollo Global Management

Apollo Global Management Company Profile

(Free Report)

Apollo Global Management, Inc is a private equity firm specializing in investments in credit, private equity and real estate markets. The firm's private equity investments include traditional buyouts, recapitalization, distressed buyouts and debt investments in real estate, corporate partner buyouts, distressed asset, corporate carve-outs, middle market, growth capital, turnaround, bridge, corporate restructuring, special situation, acquisition, and industry consolidation transactions.

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In a new cringe video advertising merchandise for his reelection campaign, President of the United States Joe Biden may have unwittingly become Bitcoins latest brand ambassador.

President Biden tweeted on August 3: A cup of Joe has never tasted better, alongside a video of himself sipping coffee from a mug.

The Bitcoin and crypto community was quick to notice the coffee mugs design, which features his visage with glowing red laser eyesa popular element for Bitcoin enthusiasts to include in their profile pictures.

Although the origins of the meme are obscure, the laser eyes phenomenon began as part of a social media movement to drive Bitcoins price to $100,000 by the end of 2021aa goal that did not materialize.

Tom Brady, Paris Hilton, and Elon Musk were formerly among the most notable laser-eyed personalities. Typically, it is used as a symbol to demonstrate their favorable outlook on Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general.

The crypto community has flooded Bidens post with responses, both delighted and amused by the apparent oversight.  Joe Biden is currently a Bitcoin maxi, including laser irises and everything else.

The haters are incredulous, declared one user. Other users chimed in, stating that Biden had just provided the biggest endorsement of Bitcoin in history and that he was attempting to win over Bitcoin maximalists.

The community has criticized the Biden administration for its anti-crypto posture, which includes controversial tax proposals for digital asset miners and other anti-crypto political initiatives.

Thus, it is doubtful that the coffee mugs design referenced Bitcoin. The name of the coffee mug is a reference to Dark Brandon, Bidens meme-based online alter ego.

The Dark Brandon meme depicts Biden as darker and harsher; his supporters frequently use it to highlight his policy successes.
PIMCO High Income Fund (NYSE:PHK  Get Free Report) announced a monthly dividend on Tuesday, August 1st, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 1st will be given a dividend of 0.048 per share by the investment management company on Friday, September 1st. This represents a $0.58 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 11.43%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 31st.

PIMCO High Income Fund has decreased its dividend by an average of 10.2% annually over the last three years.

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PIMCO High Income Fund Trading Up 0.4 %

NYSE:PHK traded up $0.02 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $5.04. The companys stock had a trading volume of 407,854 shares, compared to its average volume of 407,235. PIMCO High Income Fund has a 52-week low of $4.50 and a 52-week high of $5.41. The businesss 50-day moving average is $4.89 and its two-hundred day moving average is $4.91.

Institutional Trading of PIMCO High Income Fund

About PIMCO High Income Fund

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Morgan Stanley lifted its stake in shares of PIMCO High Income Fund by 91.3% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,172,498 shares of the investment management companys stock valued at $5,546,000 after purchasing an additional 559,537 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE raised its holdings in shares of PIMCO High Income Fund by 119.0% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 695,363 shares of the investment management companys stock valued at $4,019,000 after buying an additional 377,903 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of PIMCO High Income Fund by 524.1% during the 4th quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 302,834 shares of the investment management companys stock valued at $1,432,000 after buying an additional 254,311 shares during the period. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC increased its holdings in PIMCO High Income Fund by 64.4% during the 4th quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC now owns 514,874 shares of the investment management companys stock worth $2,435,000 after purchasing an additional 201,677 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Guggenheim Capital LLC increased its holdings in PIMCO High Income Fund by 29.2% during the 1st quarter. Guggenheim Capital LLC now owns 642,357 shares of the investment management companys stock worth $3,713,000 after purchasing an additional 145,220 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 11.81% of the companys stock.

(Get Free Report)

PIMCO High Income Fund is a closed ended fixed income mutual fund launched and managed by Allianz Global Investors Fund Management LLC. The fund is co-managed by Pacific Investment Management Company LLC. It invests in the public fixed income markets across the globe. The fund invests in U.S. dollar denominated high-yield corporate debt obligations.

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Altria Group (NYSE:MO  Get Free Report) issued an update on its FY23 earnings guidance on Tuesday morning. The company provided earnings per share (EPS) guidance of $4.89-5.03 for the period, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.99. Altria Group also updated its FY 2023 guidance to $4.89-$5.03 EPS.

Altria Group Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:MO traded down $0.27 during trading on Thursday, reaching $44.30. 9,880,039 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 7,789,634. Altria Group has a 1-year low of $40.35 and a 1-year high of $51.57. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $45.00 and a two-hundred day moving average of $45.59. The firm has a market cap of $79.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.59.

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Altria Group (NYSE:MO  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 1st. The company reported $1.31 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts consensus estimates of $1.31. The business had revenue of $5.44 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.43 billion. Altria Group had a negative return on equity of 222.55% and a net margin of 27.40%. Altria Groups quarterly revenue was up 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.26 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Altria Group will post 4.99 EPS for the current year.

Altria Group Announces Dividend

Analysts Set New Price Targets

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, July 10th. Investors of record on Thursday, June 15th were given a $0.94 dividend. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, June 14th. Altria Groups payout ratio is currently 98.69%.

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Stifel Nicolaus assumed coverage on Altria Group in a research report on Thursday, April 13th. They issued a buy rating and a $52.00 price target for the company. StockNews.com upgraded Altria Group from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 4th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their price objective on Altria Group from $49.50 to $47.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $46.00.

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Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in Altria Group by 6.4% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 36,302,349 shares of the companys stock worth $1,896,798,000 after acquiring an additional 2,178,596 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Altria Group by 1.9% in the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 35,856,051 shares of the companys stock worth $1,596,257,000 after acquiring an additional 671,929 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its holdings in Altria Group by 5.1% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 24,517,169 shares of the companys stock worth $990,002,000 after acquiring an additional 1,192,266 shares during the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Altria Group by 108,222.5% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 18,590,308 shares of the companys stock worth $849,763,000 after acquiring an additional 18,573,146 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley grew its holdings in Altria Group by 9.8% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 17,105,285 shares of the companys stock valued at $781,883,000 after buying an additional 1,531,337 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 58.38% of the companys stock.

About Altria Group

(Get Free Report)

Altria Group, Inc, through its subsidiaries, manufactures and sells smokeable and oral tobacco products in the United States. The company provides cigarettes primarily under the Marlboro brand; cigars and pipe tobacco principally under the Black & Mild brand; moist smokeless tobacco products and snus products under the Copenhagen, Skoal, Red Seal, and Husky brands; and on! oral nicotine pouches.

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Belden Inc. (NYSE:BDC  Get Free Report) has been given an average rating of Moderate Buy by the five analysts that are covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $101.80.

BDC has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Truist Financial upped their target price on shares of Belden from $107.00 to $118.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Friday, July 14th. StockNews.com raised Belden from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research report on Monday, July 24th.

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Insider Activity at Belden

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

In other news, EVP Brian Lieser sold 829 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $94.34, for a total value of $78,207.86. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 17,363 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,638,025.42. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink . In other Belden news, EVP Brian Lieser sold 829 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $94.34, for a total transaction of $78,207.86. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 17,363 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $1,638,025.42. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website . Also, CEO Ashish Chand sold 26,371 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $94.81, for a total value of $2,500,234.51. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 45,682 shares of the companys stock, valued at $4,331,110.42. The disclosure for this sale can be found here . In the last quarter, insiders sold 34,421 shares of company stock valued at $3,241,593. Corporate insiders own 1.42% of the companys stock.

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. BlackRock Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Belden by 8.0% during the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 5,317,303 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $461,382,000 after purchasing an additional 392,689 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Belden by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,398,989 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $243,704,000 after acquiring an additional 48,838 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its stake in Belden by 4.6% in the 2nd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,555,571 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $148,790,000 after acquiring an additional 67,942 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners raised its stake in shares of Belden by 1.9% during the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 1,494,778 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $128,332,000 after purchasing an additional 28,210 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Belden by 3.2% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,492,554 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $107,318,000 after purchasing an additional 46,655 shares in the last quarter.

Belden Trading Down 5.6 %

BDC stock opened at $88.79 on Friday. Belden has a 52 week low of $58.53 and a 52 week high of $99.13. The company has a quick ratio of 2.00, a current ratio of 2.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04. The company has a market cap of $3.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.85 and a beta of 1.32. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $94.24 and a 200-day simple moving average of $86.85.

Belden (NYSE:BDC  Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 3rd. The industrial products company reported $1.68 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.55 by $0.13. Belden had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 10.69%. The business had revenue of $641.79 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $624.46 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.31 earnings per share. The companys revenue was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that Belden will post 7.14 EPS for the current year.

Belden Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 6th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 15th were given a $0.05 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, June 14th. This represents a $0.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.23%. Beldens dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 3.12%.

Belden Company Profile

(Get Free Report

Belden Inc provides portfolio of signal transmission solutions in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific. It operates in two segments, Enterprise Solutions and Industrial Automation Solutions. The Enterprise Solutions segment offers copper cable and connectivity solutions, fiber cable and connectivity solutions, interconnect panels, racks and enclosures, and signal extension and matrix switching systems for use in applications, such as local area networks, data centers, access control, 5G, fiber, and home and building automation.

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Brookdale Senior Living Inc. (NYSE:BKD  Get Free Report) shares rose 4.5% on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $3.69 and last traded at $3.68. Approximately 1,116,704 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 44% from the average daily volume of 2,006,626 shares. The stock had previously closed at $3.52.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Brookdale Senior Living in a research report on Thursday, May 18th. They set a hold rating for the company.

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Brookdale Senior Living Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.38, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a current ratio of 0.94. The firm has a market cap of $726.49 million, a P/E ratio of -4.15 and a beta of 1.31. The businesss 50-day simple moving average is $3.86 and its 200 day simple moving average is $3.47.

Brookdale Senior Living (NYSE:BKD  Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Monday, May 8th. The company reported ($0.20) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of ($0.22) by $0.02. Brookdale Senior Living had a negative net margin of 6.31% and a negative return on equity of 34.26%. The business had revenue of $753.26 million during the quarter. As a group, equities analysts predict that Brookdale Senior Living Inc. will post -0.78 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of BKD. Inspire Investing LLC purchased a new position in shares of Brookdale Senior Living during the 4th quarter worth $27,000. Lazard Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Brookdale Senior Living during the 4th quarter worth $31,000. ExodusPoint Capital Management LP purchased a new position in shares of Brookdale Senior Living during the 1st quarter worth $33,000. Humankind Investments LLC purchased a new position in shares of Brookdale Senior Living during the 4th quarter worth $35,000. Finally, Point72 Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Brookdale Senior Living during the 1st quarter worth $35,000.

Brookdale Senior Living Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Brookdale Senior Living Inc owns, manages, and operates senior living communities in the United States. It operates in three segments: Independent Living, Assisted Living and Memory Care, and Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRCs). The Independent Living segment owns or leases communities comprising independent and assisted living units in a single community that are primarily designed for middle to upper income seniors.

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Keefe, Bruyette & Woods downgraded shares of Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO  Free Report) from an outperform rating to a market perform rating in a report published on Tuesday, Marketbeat reports. The firm currently has $76.00 price target on the financial services providers stock, up from their previous price target of $73.00.

Several other analysts have also issued reports on BRO. StockNews.com upgraded Brown & Brown from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 25th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Brown & Brown from $72.00 to $77.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 26th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on Brown & Brown from $69.00 to $68.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 10th. Raymond James increased their price target on Brown & Brown from $70.00 to $76.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 26th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Brown & Brown from $62.00 to $70.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 26th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat, Brown & Brown presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $71.50.

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Brown & Brown Stock Down 0.5 %

Shares of BRO traded down $0.34 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $70.28. 480,335 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,221,680. The company has a market cap of $19.93 billion, a PE ratio of 27.38 and a beta of 0.76. The firms 50 day moving average is $67.06 and its 200-day moving average is $62.10. Brown & Brown has a 52 week low of $52.82 and a 52 week high of $72.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 2.78 and a current ratio of 2.78.

Brown & Brown (NYSE:BRO  Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.68 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $1.05 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $997.51 million. Brown & Brown had a return on equity of 15.19% and a net margin of 18.34%. The companys quarterly revenue was up 24.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.51 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Brown & Brown will post 2.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Brown & Brown Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 16th. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 9th will be paid a $0.115 dividend. This represents a $0.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.65%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, August 8th. Brown & Browns payout ratio is currently 17.83%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Brown & Brown news, Director Bronislaw Edmund Masojada acquired 4,000 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 21st. The shares were acquired at an average price of $65.78 per share, for a total transaction of $263,120.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 4,000 shares in the company, valued at $263,120. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 17.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Brown & Brown

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. BlackRock Inc. grew its stake in shares of Brown & Brown by 1.3% during the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 16,764,258 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $962,604,000 after buying an additional 218,939 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Brown & Brown by 4.7% in the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 11,750,736 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $674,727,000 after purchasing an additional 528,096 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its position in shares of Brown & Brown by 187.2% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 9,491,448 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $540,728,000 after purchasing an additional 6,186,323 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its position in Brown & Brown by 1.7% during the 1st quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 5,761,173 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $330,807,000 after acquiring an additional 96,271 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Brown & Brown by 2.1% during the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,287,929 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $303,385,000 after buying an additional 108,521 shares during the last quarter. 69.90% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Brown & Brown

(Get Free Report)

Brown & Brown, Inc markets and sells insurance products and services in the United States, Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and internationally. It operates through four segments: Retail, National Programs, Wholesale Brokerage, and Services. The Retail segment provides property and casualty, employee benefits insurance products, personal insurance products, specialties insurance products, risk management strategies, loss control survey and analysis, consultancy, and claims processing services.

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Capital Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG  Free Report) in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm purchased 260 shares of the restaurant operators stock, valued at approximately $444,000.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Panagora Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill by 79.5% during the 1st quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 948 shares of the restaurant operators stock valued at $1,500,000 after buying an additional 420 shares during the last quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. boosted its stake in Chipotle Mexican Grill by 15.5% during the 1st quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. now owns 171 shares of the restaurant operators stock valued at $271,000 after acquiring an additional 23 shares during the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board grew its holdings in Chipotle Mexican Grill by 7.3% during the 1st quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 3,032 shares of the restaurant operators stock worth $4,796,000 after acquiring an additional 205 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers increased its position in shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill by 6.1% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 777 shares of the restaurant operators stock worth $1,229,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill by 38.9% in the 1st quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 218 shares of the restaurant operators stock worth $345,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares during the last quarter. 91.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Insider Activity

In other Chipotle Mexican Grill news, Director Robin S. Hickenlooper sold 105 shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $2,073.08, for a total value of $217,673.40. Following the transaction, the director now owns 853 shares in the company, valued at $1,768,337.24. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Chipotle Mexican Grill news, CEO Brian R. Niccol sold 1,063 shares of the companys stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,949.84, for a total transaction of $2,072,679.92. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 23,347 shares of the companys stock, valued at $45,522,914.48. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Robin S. Hickenlooper sold 105 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $2,073.08, for a total transaction of $217,673.40. Following the sale, the director now owns 853 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,768,337.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 3,332 shares of company stock worth $6,830,885. Corporate insiders own 0.96% of the companys stock.

Chipotle Mexican Grill Stock Down 1.7 %

NYSE CMG traded down $32.31 on Friday, reaching $1,890.61. 359,424 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 298,819. Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. has a 12 month low of $1,344.05 and a 12 month high of $2,175.01. The company has a market cap of $52.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.51, a P/E/G ratio of 1.67 and a beta of 1.31. The firms fifty day simple moving average is $2,058.99 and its 200 day simple moving average is $1,842.75.

Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE:CMG  Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 26th. The restaurant operator reported $12.65 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $12.25 by $0.40. The business had revenue of $2.51 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.53 billion. Chipotle Mexican Grill had a return on equity of 45.85% and a net margin of 12.00%. The companys revenue was up 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $9.30 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. will post 43.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CMG has been the subject of a number of research reports. UBS Group lifted their price target on Chipotle Mexican Grill from $2,050.00 to $2,250.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. Argus boosted their price target on Chipotle Mexican Grill from $2,200.00 to $2,400.00 in a report on Thursday, June 1st. BTIG Research raised their price objective on Chipotle Mexican Grill from $1,825.00 to $2,175.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. KeyCorp lowered their target price on shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill from $2,300.00 to $2,200.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 27th. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their target price on shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill from $2,000.00 to $2,100.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 26th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have assigned a buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat, Chipotle Mexican Grill currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $2,139.72.

Chipotle Mexican Grill Company Profile

(Free Report)

Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc engages in the development and operation of classically-cooked, real food with wholesome ingredients without artificial colors, flavors or preservatives. It offers a focused menu of burritos, tacos, burrito bowls, and salads prepared using classic cooking methods. The company was founded by Steve Ells in 1993 and is headquartered in Newport Beach, CA.

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Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT  Get Free Report) had its price target lifted by analysts at Credit Suisse Group from $279.00 to $334.00 in a research note issued on Wednesday, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has an outperform rating on the industrial products companys stock. Credit Suisse Groups price objective would suggest a potential upside of 20.94% from the companys previous close.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their target price on shares of Caterpillar from $228.00 to $225.00 and set a hold rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 12th. Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on shares of Caterpillar from $185.00 to $180.00 in a research note on Monday, May 8th. Tigress Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Caterpillar from $266.00 to $282.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 31st. Evercore ISI reduced their target price on shares of Caterpillar from $288.00 to $263.00 in a report on Tuesday, May 9th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on shares of Caterpillar from $273.00 to $275.00 in a report on Monday, May 1st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $267.00.

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Caterpillar Price Performance

Shares of Caterpillar stock traded down $5.29 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $276.16. 2,693,998 shares of the companys stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,256,307. Caterpillar has a 1 year low of $160.60 and a 1 year high of $293.88. The company has a market capitalization of $142.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.13. The business has a fifty day moving average of $245.49 and a two-hundred day moving average of $235.90. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 1.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.37.

Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT  Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, August 1st. The industrial products company reported $5.55 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.57 by $0.98. The company had revenue of $17.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.46 billion. Caterpillar had a net margin of 12.91% and a return on equity of 57.36%. Caterpillars revenue was up 21.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.18 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Caterpillar will post 17.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Lange Bob De sold 20,000 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.00, for a total transaction of $5,500,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 53,671 shares in the company, valued at $14,759,525. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, insider Lange Bob De sold 20,000 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.00, for a total transaction of $5,500,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 53,671 shares in the company, valued at $14,759,525. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Cheryl H. Johnson sold 6,415 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $260.00, for a total value of $1,667,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 16,362 shares in the company, valued at $4,254,120. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Caterpillar

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Stoneridge Investment Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Caterpillar by 2.9% during the second quarter. Stoneridge Investment Partners LLC now owns 12,545 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $3,087,000 after purchasing an additional 355 shares during the period. United Capital Management of KS Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Caterpillar during the second quarter valued at $6,335,000. U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Caterpillar by 28.2% during the second quarter. U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 13,759 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $3,385,000 after purchasing an additional 3,026 shares during the period. TCI Wealth Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Caterpillar by 0.8% during the second quarter. TCI Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 15,144 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $3,726,000 after purchasing an additional 116 shares during the period. Finally, REDW Wealth LLC increased its holdings in shares of Caterpillar by 6.0% during the second quarter. REDW Wealth LLC now owns 2,020 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $497,000 after purchasing an additional 114 shares during the period. 74.28% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Caterpillar Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Caterpillar, Inc engages in the manufacture of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines, and diesel-electric locomotives. It operates through the following segments: Construction Industries, Resource Industries, Energy and Transportation, Financial Products, and All Other.

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Credicorp Ltd. (NYSE:BAP  Get Free Report) reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $159.11 and last traded at $158.41, with a volume of 92035 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $157.05.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. TheStreet upgraded shares of Credicorp from a c+ rating to a b- rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 10th. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Credicorp in a report on Thursday, May 18th. They issued a hold rating for the company. Finally, Scotiabank raised shares of Credicorp from a sector perform rating to a sector outperform rating in a report on Friday, July 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $153.00.

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Credicorp Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 1.10 and a quick ratio of 1.10. The stock has a market cap of $12.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.06, a P/E/G ratio of 0.49 and a beta of 0.97. The stocks 50-day moving average is $147.06 and its 200 day moving average is $138.07.

Credicorp (NYSE:BAP  Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, May 5th. The bank reported $3.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $4.12 by ($0.27). Credicorp had a net margin of 23.23% and a return on equity of 16.39%. The company had revenue of $963.10 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.21 billion. As a group, analysts predict that Credicorp Ltd. will post 17.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Credicorp Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared an annual dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 9th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 19th were given a dividend of $6.7385 per share. This represents a dividend yield of 2.7%. This is an increase from Credicorps previous annual dividend of $3.94. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, May 18th. Credicorps dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 44.39%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. UMB Bank n.a. grew its stake in shares of Credicorp by 4,440.0% during the 2nd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 227 shares of the banks stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 222 shares during the period. Lindbrook Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of Credicorp by 288.9% during the 2nd quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 490 shares of the banks stock valued at $72,000 after buying an additional 364 shares during the period. Signaturefd LLC grew its stake in shares of Credicorp by 22.4% during the 2nd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 520 shares of the banks stock valued at $77,000 after buying an additional 95 shares during the period. 1832 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new position in shares of Credicorp during the 4th quarter valued at $81,000. Finally, State of Wyoming acquired a new position in shares of Credicorp during the 4th quarter valued at $97,000. 71.48% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Credicorp Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Credicorp Ltd. provides various financial, insurance, and health services and products primarily in Peru and internationally. Its Universal Banking segment includes granting various credits and financial instruments to individuals and legal entities; and various deposits and checking accounts. The Insurance and Pensions segment includes the issuance of insurance policies to cover losses in commercial property, transport, marine vessels, automobiles, life, health, and pensions; management services for private pension funds.

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Allison Transmission (NYSE:ALSN  Free Report) had its price objective hoisted by Credit Suisse Group from $49.00 to $57.00 in a research note released on Monday morning, FlyOnTheWall reports.

ALSN has been the topic of a number of other reports. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on shares of Allison Transmission from $53.00 to $67.00 in a research note on Friday, July 28th. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Allison Transmission from $40.00 to $44.00 in a research report on Friday, April 28th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Allison Transmission from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an underweight rating in a research report on Thursday, April 20th. StockNews.com raised shares of Allison Transmission from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research report on Saturday, July 15th. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of Allison Transmission from $55.00 to $52.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 21st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $52.86.

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Read Our Latest Stock Analysis on Allison Transmission

Allison Transmission Stock Down 1.1 %

Allison Transmission stock opened at $58.84 on Monday. Allison Transmission has a 1-year low of $32.63 and a 1-year high of $60.17. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.01. The firms fifty day moving average price is $55.27 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $49.21. The company has a current ratio of 1.98, a quick ratio of 1.49 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.53.

Allison Transmission (NYSE:ALSN  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 27th. The auto parts company reported $1.92 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $1.61 by $0.31. Allison Transmission had a net margin of 21.17% and a return on equity of 71.46%. The firm had revenue of $783.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $735.95 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.26 earnings per share. The businesss quarterly revenue was up 17.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Allison Transmission will post 6.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP John Coll sold 2,000 shares of Allison Transmission stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.89, for a total value of $113,780.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 18,788 shares in the company, valued at $1,068,849.32. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 1.10% of the companys stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Allison Transmission

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. AMI Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Allison Transmission by 7.1% during the first quarter. AMI Investment Management Inc. now owns 97,189 shares of the auto parts companys stock valued at $3,816,000 after acquiring an additional 6,438 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in Allison Transmission by 5.1% during the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 334,703 shares of the auto parts companys stock valued at $13,140,000 after acquiring an additional 16,209 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates grew its stake in Allison Transmission by 267.3% during the first quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 33,711 shares of the auto parts companys stock valued at $1,323,000 after acquiring an additional 24,534 shares in the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. grew its stake in Allison Transmission by 1.5% during the first quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 74,855 shares of the auto parts companys stock valued at $2,938,000 after acquiring an additional 1,127 shares in the last quarter. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its stake in Allison Transmission by 31.6% during the first quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 13,096 shares of the auto parts companys stock valued at $514,000 after acquiring an additional 3,142 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.67% of the companys stock.

About Allison Transmission

(Get Free Report)

Allison Transmission Holdings, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, and sells commercial and defense fully automatic transmissions for medium-and heavy-duty commercial vehicles, and medium-and heavy-tactical U.S. defense vehicles worldwide. The company offers transmissions for various applications, including distribution, refuse, construction, fire, and emergency on-highway trucks; school and transit buses; motor homes; energy, mining, and construction off-highway vehicles and equipment; and wheeled and tracked defense vehicles.

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Shares of CVC Credit Partners European Opportunities Limited (LON:CCPG  Get Free Report) traded down 2.7% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The stock traded as low as GBX 93.20 ($1.20) and last traded at GBX 93.20 ($1.20). 174,302 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 28% from the average session volume of 135,646 shares. The stock had previously closed at GBX 95.80 ($1.23).

CVC Credit Partners European Opportunities Stock Performance

The company has a 50-day moving average of GBX 93.20 and a 200-day moving average of GBX 93.20.

CVC Credit Partners European Opportunities Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

CVC Credit Partners European Opportunities Limited is a closed-ended fixed income mutual fund of fund launched by Goldman Sachs International. The fund is managed by CVC Credit Partners Investment Management Ltd. It invests in the fixed income markets of Western Europe. The fund seeks to invest in securities of companies across diversified sectors.

Further Reading

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As the newly re-formed David City Police Department gets back into the saddle as the communitys primary law enforcement agency, Chief of Police Marla Jo Schnell wants residents to know that their local officers care about the community and want to help in any way possible.

Those efforts, Schnell told the Banner Press in a recent interview, include vigorous outreach and educational opportunities such as an upcoming bike rodeo as well as self-defense classes the new chief hopes will empower women, teenagers and soon-to-be college students to be prepared for a possible attack or incident.

Schnell said the Bicycle Rodeo, which is scheduled for 2-4 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 5, at David City Park, was an idea that originated with David City Mayor Jessica Miller.

The mayor brought this idea to me and of course I said, yes. So, I have to thank her for getting this going. Her words were, we have to get the community involved and be a Police Department that is part of community, Schnell said in an email. Businesses and citizens have donated prizes or giveaway stuff. One citizen went door-to-door to businesses (both) with and for me asking for donations.

The Bicycle Rodeo is free and attendees should bring both their own bicycle as well as their own safety helmet to the park to participate. There will be a rodeo course and those who complete it will get a certificate of recognition. Attendees can also register and license their bicycles with the police department for theft-prevention efforts. Popsicles, Kool-Aid and other treats will also be available.

We really just want to get more involved in the community, Schnell said of the bicycle rodeo. Well have three (helmets) that well have to give away, along with other prizes. I have two little kids chairs. Ive got water bottles and Ive got bicycle locks and all sorts of stuff.

On the self-defense front, Schnell said a campus self-defense class for students headed to college will be presented by officials from Genesis House, from 6:30-7:30 p.m., Tuesday, Aug. 8, hosted at the David City Library.

A second self-defense class will conducted by Genesis House in collaboration with Ignite The Power. Schnell will herself teach that second class from 1-4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 9.

Ive done several in the past. It is for all ages. It is basic self-defense and safety tips. It will be hands-on. I will show them how to do it and then they can practice, Schnell said. These days, you never know why (a suspect) is following you or what they want. I will give tips like, always walk with your head up, look people in the eye so they dont think youre an easy target. Were hoping to just empower women, and men, to know what to do if they are grabbed or whatever.

Schnell said the Bicycle Rodeo and the self-defense classes are only the beginning of her efforts as chief of police to get to know the community, connect with residents and let people know that the police department is there for them.

We are also working on setting up a babysitting class taught by the National Safety Council for kids to learn basic first aid and CPR and how to stay safe while babysitting. I do not have a date, but I have a signup sheet at the city office for kids ages 11-15 to sign up, Schnell stated in an email. The City of David City is hosting this class and cost is $90 per person for this class and they will receive babysitting course completion card, handbook and safety items for babysitting.

After many years of receiving law enforcement services from the Butler County Sheriffs Office, Schnell said she is extremely grateful and thankful that the David City elected leaders opted to bring back a local, municipal police department.

A veteran law enforcement officer dating back to her first job in the late 1990s as an emergency dispatcher, Schnell previously worked as a patrol officer in David City before the prior department was disbanded. Now, she's returned home to the community she says she is dedicated to serving as best she and her department staff can.

I have a great team of officers. It is not just 'me' the chief its 'we' the team. I may have the title, but I first and foremost have a team and without a team I cannot be a leader, Schnell said. I cannot thank them enough for helping get our department going.
Destination Wealth Management grew its stake in iShares MSCI USA Min Vol Factor ETF (BATS:USMV  Free Report) by 14.0% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 3,627 shares of the companys stock after acquiring an additional 445 shares during the period. Destination Wealth Managements holdings in iShares MSCI USA Min Vol Factor ETF were worth $264,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in USMV. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in iShares MSCI USA Min Vol Factor ETF by 140,054.1% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 10,961,456 shares of the companys stock worth $790,321,000 after acquiring an additional 10,953,635 shares in the last quarter. Allstate Investment Management Co. acquired a new position in iShares MSCI USA Min Vol Factor ETF during the 4th quarter worth approximately $308,588,000. Alaska Permanent Fund Corp purchased a new stake in shares of iShares MSCI USA Min Vol Factor ETF during the 4th quarter worth approximately $234,835,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in shares of iShares MSCI USA Min Vol Factor ETF by 483.2% during the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,685,247 shares of the companys stock worth $121,507,000 after buying an additional 1,396,259 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted its position in shares of iShares MSCI USA Min Vol Factor ETF by 7.6% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 15,673,112 shares of the companys stock worth $1,130,031,000 after buying an additional 1,111,338 shares during the last quarter.

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iShares MSCI USA Min Vol Factor ETF Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of BATS:USMV opened at $74.73 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $73.72 and a 200-day simple moving average of $72.84. iShares MSCI USA Min Vol Factor ETF has a twelve month low of $47.44 and a twelve month high of $55.45. The company has a market capitalization of $28.67 billion, a PE ratio of 20.17 and a beta of 0.75.

iShares MSCI USA Min Vol Factor ETF Company Profile

The iShares MSCI USA Min Vol Factor ETF (USMV) is an exchange-traded fund that is based on the MSCI USA Minimum Volatility (USD) index. The fund tracks an index of US-listed firms selected and weighted to create a low-volatility portfolio subject to various constraints. USMV was launched on Oct 18, 2011 and is managed by BlackRock.

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Entergy (NYSE:ETR  Get Free Report) issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday. The utilities provider reported $1.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.69 by $0.15, Briefing.com reports. The company had revenue of $2.85 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.26 billion. Entergy had a net margin of 8.17% and a return on equity of 10.34%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.78 earnings per share. Entergy updated its FY23 guidance to $6.55-$6.85 EPS.

Entergy Stock Performance

NYSE:ETR traded down $3.12 on Thursday, reaching $98.28. 1,698,117 shares of the companys stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,469,016. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87, a current ratio of 0.90 and a quick ratio of 0.66. The firm has a market cap of $20.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.87, a P/E/G ratio of 2.67 and a beta of 0.64. Entergy has a 52 week low of $94.16 and a 52 week high of $122.46. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $99.87 and a 200-day simple moving average of $104.03.

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Entergy Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 1st. Investors of record on Friday, August 11th will be issued a dividend of $1.07 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 10th. This represents a $4.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.35%. Entergys dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 77.82%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Entergy

Analyst Ratings Changes

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Wetherby Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in Entergy by 2.7% in the first quarter. Wetherby Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,269 shares of the utilities providers stock valued at $382,000 after purchasing an additional 87 shares in the last quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust boosted its holdings in shares of Entergy by 15.5% during the 1st quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 739 shares of the utilities providers stock valued at $86,000 after buying an additional 99 shares in the last quarter. Smith Moore & CO. boosted its holdings in shares of Entergy by 3.1% during the 1st quarter. Smith Moore & CO. now owns 3,339 shares of the utilities providers stock valued at $360,000 after buying an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Lido Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Entergy by 5.8% during the 1st quarter. Lido Advisors LLC now owns 2,077 shares of the utilities providers stock valued at $242,000 after buying an additional 114 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Entergy by 3.5% in the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 5,189 shares of the utilities providers stock worth $605,000 after purchasing an additional 174 shares during the last quarter. 86.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

ETR has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. StockNews.com raised shares of Entergy from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research report on Friday, May 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of Entergy from $134.00 to $120.00 in a report on Tuesday, June 13th. Bank of America cut their target price on shares of Entergy from $119.00 to $107.00 in a research report on Sunday, May 21st. Guggenheim cut their target price on shares of Entergy from $124.00 to $110.00 in a research report on Friday, July 7th. Finally, TheStreet upgraded shares of Entergy from a c+ rating to a b- rating in a research report on Monday, April 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $117.58.

Read Our Latest Stock Analysis on ETR

About Entergy

(Get Free Report)

Entergy Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the production and retail distribution of electricity in the United States. The company operates in two segments, Utility and Entergy Wholesale Commodities. The Utility segment generates, transmits, distributes, and sells electric power in portions of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, including the City of New Orleans; and distributes natural gas.

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StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Flexible Solutions International (NYSE:FSI  Free Report) in a report issued on Monday morning. The firm issued a hold rating on the stock.

Flexible Solutions International Stock Down 0.3 %

Flexible Solutions International stock opened at $2.88 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 1.63 and a current ratio of 2.96. Flexible Solutions International has a 52-week low of $1.51 and a 52-week high of $3.70. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $2.77 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $2.97. The firm has a market cap of $35.83 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.65 and a beta of 1.69.

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Flexible Solutions International (NYSE:FSI  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 15th. The company reported $0.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.07. Flexible Solutions International had a net margin of 14.19% and a return on equity of 18.91%. The firm had revenue of $9.85 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.57 million. Equities analysts predict that Flexible Solutions International will post 0.41 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Flexible Solutions International

Institutional Trading of Flexible Solutions International

In other news, CEO Brien Daniel B. O sold 17,647 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $2.65, for a total transaction of $46,764.55. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 4,394,131 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $11,644,447.15. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link . Insiders sold a total of 41,133 shares of company stock valued at $111,888 in the last quarter. 37.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Flexible Solutions International by 81.7% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 274,858 shares of the companys stock valued at $454,000 after acquiring an additional 123,600 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in Flexible Solutions International by 22.4% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 60,122 shares of the companys stock valued at $186,000 after acquiring an additional 11,006 shares in the last quarter. Susquehanna International Group LLP bought a new position in Flexible Solutions International during the 4th quarter valued at $64,000. Advisor Group Holdings Inc. bought a new position in Flexible Solutions International during the 4th quarter valued at $38,000. Finally, James Investment Research Inc. bought a new position in Flexible Solutions International during the 4th quarter valued at $31,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 9.99% of the companys stock.

Flexible Solutions International Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Flexible Solutions International, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, develops, manufactures, and markets specialty chemicals that slow the evaporation of water in Canada, the United States, and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Energy and Water Conservation Products, and Biodegradable Polymers.

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John Bean Technologies Co. (NYSE:JBT  Get Free Report) was the target of a large drop in short interest in the month of July. As of July 15th, there was short interest totalling 774,500 shares, a drop of 7.6% from the June 30th total of 838,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 152,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 5.1 days. Approximately 2.5% of the companys shares are short sold.

John Bean Technologies Stock Down 2.5 %

JBT traded down $2.83 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $111.72. 212,582 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 154,288. The company has a market cap of $3.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.86, a PEG ratio of 6.69 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 0.83. John Bean Technologies has a fifty-two week low of $81.59 and a fifty-two week high of $125.88. The firms fifty day simple moving average is $117.53 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $110.19.

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John Bean Technologies (NYSE:JBT  Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 2nd. The industrial products company reported $0.97 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.18 by ($0.21). The company had revenue of $427.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $466.98 million. John Bean Technologies had a return on equity of 17.54% and a net margin of 6.08%. John Bean Technologiess revenue was up 8.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.13 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that John Bean Technologies will post 5.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

John Bean Technologies Dividend Announcement

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 8th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 25th were issued a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.36%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, May 24th. John Bean Technologiess dividend payout ratio is currently 9.98%.

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of John Bean Technologies in a research note on Thursday, May 18th. They issued a hold rating on the stock. 888 reissued a reiterates rating on shares of John Bean Technologies in a research note on Friday, June 30th. 58.com reissued a reiterates rating on shares of John Bean Technologies in a research note on Friday, June 30th. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed an outperform rating and set a $128.00 price target on shares of John Bean Technologies in a report on Friday, June 30th. Finally, TheStreet raised shares of John Bean Technologies from a c+ rating to a b- rating in a report on Monday, July 3rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $116.00.

View Our Latest Analysis on John Bean Technologies

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in JBT. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC grew its holdings in John Bean Technologies by 1,700.0% during the 4th quarter. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC now owns 270 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 255 shares in the last quarter. Money Concepts Capital Corp bought a new position in shares of John Bean Technologies in the 4th quarter worth about $29,000. Belpointe Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of John Bean Technologies by 124.0% in the 1st quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC now owns 392 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $43,000 after buying an additional 217 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd bought a new position in shares of John Bean Technologies in the 1st quarter worth about $59,000. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in shares of John Bean Technologies by 26.1% in the 1st quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 642 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $70,000 after buying an additional 133 shares during the last quarter. 97.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About John Bean Technologies

(Get Free Report)

John Bean Technologies Corporation provides technology solutions to food and beverage industry and equipment and services to air transportation industries in North America, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, and Latin America. The company operates through two segments: FoodTech and AeroTech. It offers value-added processing that includes chilling, mixing/grinding, injecting, blending, marinating, tumbling, flattening, foaming, portioning, coating, cooking, frying, freezing, weighing, and inspection.

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MGIC Investment (NYSE:MTG  Get Free Report) released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday. The insurance provider reported $0.68 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.55 by $0.13, Briefing.com reports. The business had revenue of $290.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $292.51 million. MGIC Investment had a return on equity of 17.43% and a net margin of 67.83%. The companys revenue was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.81 EPS.

MGIC Investment Trading Up 2.2 %

Shares of MTG stock traded up $0.39 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $18.04. The company had a trading volume of 810,597 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,587,849. The company has a 50 day moving average of $15.89 and a 200 day moving average of $14.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.69. The firm has a market cap of $5.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.82, a P/E/G ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.31. MGIC Investment has a 1-year low of $12.13 and a 1-year high of $18.04.

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MGIC Investment Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 24th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.115 per share. This is an increase from MGIC Investments previous quarterly dividend of $0.10. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 9th. This represents a $0.46 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.55%. MGIC Investments dividend payout ratio is currently 15.15%.

Institutional Trading of MGIC Investment

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MTG. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of MGIC Investment by 6.0% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 37,980,396 shares of the insurance providers stock valued at $486,909,000 after acquiring an additional 2,137,706 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. lifted its position in MGIC Investment by 0.5% during the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 27,872,353 shares of the insurance providers stock worth $377,670,000 after acquiring an additional 127,008 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its position in MGIC Investment by 450.2% during the first quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 14,943,450 shares of the insurance providers stock worth $200,541,000 after acquiring an additional 12,227,328 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in MGIC Investment by 2.3% during the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 14,350,838 shares of the insurance providers stock worth $192,588,000 after acquiring an additional 328,140 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp lifted its position in MGIC Investment by 0.5% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,524,110 shares of the insurance providers stock worth $134,919,000 after acquiring an additional 54,611 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.24% of the companys stock.

Several analysts have recently commented on MTG shares. StockNews.com started coverage on MGIC Investment in a research report on Thursday, May 18th. They issued a hold rating for the company. Compass Point raised their target price on MGIC Investment from $18.00 to $20.00 in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on MGIC Investment from $17.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock a sector perform rating in a research report on Friday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $17.00.

View Our Latest Analysis on MTG

MGIC Investment Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

MGIC Investment Corporation, through its subsidiaries, provides private mortgage insurance, other mortgage credit risk management solutions, and ancillary services to lenders and government sponsored entities in the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Guam. The company offers primary mortgage insurance that provides mortgage default protection on individual loans, as well as covers unpaid loan principal, delinquent interest, and various expenses associated with the default and subsequent foreclosure.

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Nuveen Arizona Quality Municipal Income Fund (NYSE:NAZ  Get Free Report) declared a monthly dividend on Tuesday, August 1st, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 15th will be paid a dividend of 0.031 per share by the investment management company on Friday, September 1st. This represents a $0.37 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 14th.

Nuveen Arizona Quality Municipal Income Fund Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of NAZ traded down $0.11 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $10.57. The stock had a trading volume of 13,688 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,872. Nuveen Arizona Quality Municipal Income Fund has a 12 month low of $10.42 and a 12 month high of $14.68. The companys 50-day moving average is $10.69 and its two-hundred day moving average is $11.07.

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Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of NAZ. UBS Group AG raised its position in Nuveen Arizona Quality Municipal Income Fund by 31.0% during the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 64,213 shares of the investment management companys stock worth $717,000 after purchasing an additional 15,207 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. bought a new position in Nuveen Arizona Quality Municipal Income Fund during the 2nd quarter worth $154,000. Bank of America Corp DE raised its position in Nuveen Arizona Quality Municipal Income Fund by 55.8% during the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 24,045 shares of the investment management companys stock worth $268,000 after purchasing an additional 8,608 shares during the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada raised its position in Nuveen Arizona Quality Municipal Income Fund by 25.8% during the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 26,106 shares of the investment management companys stock worth $355,000 after purchasing an additional 5,353 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LPL Financial LLC raised its position in shares of Nuveen Arizona Quality Municipal Income Fund by 2.7% in the 2nd quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 155,966 shares of the investment management companys stock worth $2,003,000 after acquiring an additional 4,063 shares in the last quarter. 9.72% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Nuveen Arizona Quality Municipal Income Fund Company Profile

Nuveen Arizona Quality Municipal Income Fund is a closed ended fixed income mutual fund launched by Nuveen Investments, Inc The fund is managed by Nuveen Asset Management, LLC. It invests in the fixed income markets of Arizona. The fund invests in municipal securities and other related investments the income, exempt from regular federal and Arizona income taxes that are rated Baa or BBB or better and having an average maturity of 18.66 years.

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StockNews.com cut shares of Primo Water (NYSE:PRMW  Free Report) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a report issued on Tuesday morning.

Primo Water Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE PRMW traded down $0.03 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $14.03. The stock had a trading volume of 1,506,311 shares, compared to its average volume of 933,705. Primo Water has a one year low of $12.15 and a one year high of $16.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a current ratio of 0.75. The stock has a market cap of $2.23 billion, a PE ratio of 52.08 and a beta of 1.05. The firms 50 day moving average price is $13.27 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $14.06.

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Primo Water (NYSE:PRMW  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 4th. The company reported $0.08 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $0.09 by ($0.01). Primo Water had a net margin of 1.88% and a return on equity of 7.46%. The firm had revenue of $546.50 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $534.04 million. On average, research analysts forecast that Primo Water will post 0.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

About Primo Water

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PRMW. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Primo Water by 7.5% during the second quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC now owns 78,428 shares of the companys stock valued at $983,000 after purchasing an additional 5,470 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia purchased a new stake in shares of Primo Water during the second quarter valued at $144,000. Mackenzie Financial Corp raised its position in Primo Water by 15.5% during the second quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 259,335 shares of the companys stock valued at $3,246,000 after buying an additional 34,833 shares during the period. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. raised its position in Primo Water by 37.6% during the second quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 14,266 shares of the companys stock valued at $179,000 after buying an additional 3,901 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can acquired a new position in Primo Water during the second quarter valued at $6,416,000. 82.98% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

(Get Free Report)

Primo Water Corporation provides pure-play water solutions for residential and commercial customers. It offers bottled water, water dispensers, purified bottled water, self-service refill drinking water, premium spring, mineral water, sparkling and flavored water, filtration equipment, and coffee. The company offers its products under the Primo, Alhambra, Crystal Rock, Mountain Valley, Deep Rock, Hinckley Springs, Crystal Springs, Kentwood Springs, Mount Olympus, Pureflo, Sierra Springs, Sparkletts, and Renu brands in the United States; Canadian Springs, Labrador Source, and Amazon Springs brands in Canada; and Decantae, Eden, Eden Springs, Chateaud'eau, and Mey Eden brands in Europe and Israel.

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Renasant Bank lowered its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT  Free Report) by 2.2% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 4,433 shares of the healthcare product makers stock after selling 102 shares during the quarter. Renasant Banks holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $449,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in ABT. Morgan Stanley increased its holdings in Abbott Laboratories by 14.3% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 38,966,499 shares of the healthcare product makers stock worth $4,278,132,000 after acquiring an additional 4,886,954 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 30,598,624 shares of the healthcare product makers stock worth $3,352,840,000 after purchasing an additional 537,808 shares during the period. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 104,649.4% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 30,247,436 shares of the healthcare product makers stock worth $3,320,866,000 after purchasing an additional 30,218,560 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Abbott Laboratories during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,893,715,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 12,089,085 shares of the healthcare product makers stock valued at $1,312,781,000 after acquiring an additional 197,018 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.08% of the companys stock.

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Abbott Laboratories Stock Down 1.0 %

NYSE ABT traded down $1.05 during trading on Thursday, hitting $107.57. The companys stock had a trading volume of 4,947,698 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,058,239. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 1.68 and a quick ratio of 1.22. The company has a market cap of $187.06 billion, a PE ratio of 37.07, a P/E/G ratio of 4.94 and a beta of 0.67. The businesss 50 day simple moving average is $106.80 and its 200-day simple moving average is $106.29. Abbott Laboratories has a fifty-two week low of $93.25 and a fifty-two week high of $115.83.

Abbott Laboratories Dividend Announcement

Abbott Laboratories ( NYSE:ABT Get Free Report ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 20th. The healthcare product maker reported $1.08 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.05 by $0.03. Abbott Laboratories had a return on equity of 20.60% and a net margin of 12.83%. The business had revenue of $9.98 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.71 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.43 earnings per share. The companys quarterly revenue was down 11.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Abbott Laboratories will post 4.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, August 15th. Investors of record on Friday, July 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.51 per share. This represents a $2.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.90%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 13th. Abbott Laboratoriess dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 69.62%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently weighed in on ABT shares. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price target on Abbott Laboratories from $132.00 to $133.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Thursday, April 20th. Citigroup increased their target price on Abbott Laboratories from $125.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 19th. Mizuho raised their price target on Abbott Laboratories from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Friday, July 21st. StockNews.com initiated coverage on Abbott Laboratories in a research note on Thursday, May 18th. They set a buy rating on the stock. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on Abbott Laboratories from $127.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Monday, July 24th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Abbott Laboratories presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $120.82.

View Our Latest Stock Report on Abbott Laboratories

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Daniel J. Starks sold 50,000 shares of Abbott Laboratories stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.76, for a total transaction of $5,688,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 6,775,316 shares of the companys stock, valued at $770,759,948.16. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 1.10% of the companys stock.

About Abbott Laboratories

(Free Report)

Abbott Laboratories, together with its subsidiaries, discovers, develops, manufactures, and sells health care products worldwide. It operates in four segments: Established Pharmaceutical Products, Diagnostic Products, Nutritional Products, and Medical Devices. The Established Pharmaceutical Products segment provides generic pharmaceuticals for the treatment of pancreatic exocrine insufficiency, irritable bowel syndrome or biliary spasm, intrahepatic cholestasis or depressive symptoms, gynecological disorder, hormone replacement therapy, dyslipidemia, hypertension, hypothyroidism, Meniere's disease and vestibular vertigo, pain, fever, inflammation, and migraine, as well as provides anti-infective clarithromycin, influenza vaccine, and products to regulate physiological rhythm of the colon.

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Rockwell Automation (NYSE:ROK  Get Free Report) had its target price upped by analysts at Morgan Stanley from $340.00 to $345.00 in a report released on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an overweight rating on the industrial products companys stock. Morgan Stanleys price objective indicates a potential upside of 15.45% from the stocks current price.

ROK has been the subject of a number of other reports. StockNews.com upgraded Rockwell Automation from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note on Saturday, July 15th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on Rockwell Automation from $272.00 to $273.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 12th. Barclays raised their target price on Rockwell Automation from $262.00 to $300.00 in a research report on Monday, July 10th. Wolfe Research raised Rockwell Automation from an underperform rating to a peer perform rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 11th. Finally, Mizuho raised their target price on Rockwell Automation from $260.00 to $270.00 in a research report on Friday, April 28th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $288.24.

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Rockwell Automation Price Performance

NYSE ROK traded down $3.23 on Wednesday, hitting $298.82. 737,027 shares of the companys stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 737,043. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $318.88 and a 200-day moving average of $295.33. The company has a current ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83. Rockwell Automation has a 52 week low of $209.27 and a 52 week high of $348.52. The stock has a market cap of $34.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.61, a P/E/G ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 1.43.

Insider Activity

Rockwell Automation ( NYSE:ROK Get Free Report ) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 1st. The industrial products company reported $3.01 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.19 by ($0.18). Rockwell Automation had a return on equity of 41.59% and a net margin of 16.51%. The business had revenue of $2.24 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.33 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.66 earnings per share. The firms revenue for the quarter was up 13.7% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Rockwell Automation will post 11.9 earnings per share for the current year.

In other news, VP Scott Genereux sold 500 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.00, for a total value of $140,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 3,376 shares in the company, valued at approximately $945,280. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other Rockwell Automation news, VP Scott Genereux sold 500 shares of Rockwell Automation stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.00, for a total transaction of $140,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 3,376 shares in the company, valued at approximately $945,280. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Cyril Perducat sold 645 shares of Rockwell Automation stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $289.23, for a total value of $186,553.35. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 2,491 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $720,471.93. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 14,661 shares of company stock worth $4,532,531 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.64% of the companys stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Rockwell Automation

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Keel Point LLC lifted its position in shares of Rockwell Automation by 3.1% during the 2nd quarter. Keel Point LLC now owns 1,111 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $366,000 after buying an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Rockwell Automation by 4.5% in the 1st quarter. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC now owns 836 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $245,000 after purchasing an additional 36 shares during the period. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC raised its stake in shares of Rockwell Automation by 3.6% during the 2nd quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC now owns 1,042 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $343,000 after purchasing an additional 36 shares during the period. Baystate Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Rockwell Automation by 2.4% in the 1st quarter. Baystate Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,572 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $462,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares during the period. Finally, Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund lifted its stake in Rockwell Automation by 0.4% in the 2nd quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund now owns 8,904 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $2,933,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.28% of the companys stock.

About Rockwell Automation

(Get Free Report)

Rockwell Automation, Inc provides industrial automation and digital transformation solutions in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, and Latin America. The company operates through three segments, Intelligent Devices, Software & Control, and Lifecycle Services. Its solutions include hardware and software products and services.

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Sampo Oyj (OTCMKTS:SAXPF  Get Free Report) was down 7.1% during trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as $41.75 and last traded at $41.75. Approximately 243 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 85% from the average daily volume of 1,661 shares. The stock had previously closed at $44.95.

Sampo Oyj Trading Down 7.1 %

The firms 50-day moving average price is $45.09 and its 200-day moving average price is $47.71.

Sampo Oyj Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Sampo Oyj, through its subsidiaries, provides life and non-life insurance products and services in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and the Baltic countries. It operates through If, Topdanmark, Hastings, Mandatum, and Holding segments. The company offers household, homeowner, motor, accident, travel, boat, forest, livestock, property, casualty, liability, car, van, bike, and cargo insurance.

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Indias biggest domestic airline in India, Indigo, crossed a significant milestone in its history by attaining 1,900 flights per day on its 17th anniversary. IndiGo's 17th anniversary is a testament to the unwavering support and trust that our consumers are placing in us, said Pieter Elbers, CEO of IndiGo. These achievements over the years have been made possible by the unwavering dedication and professionalism of our 6E stars, for which I would like to thank each and every one of them sincerely, he added.The airline has come a long way from launching its inaugural flight in 2006 to etching its name in history on June 19 this year by bagging the largest order in aviation history of 500 A320 aircraft. The order solidified the companys position as the airline with the biggest order in the industry. IndiGo unveiled its first A321, a longer version of the A320 aircraft, on December 27, 2018. Just a month before this deal, the airline had set a new record with the maximum number of 3 lac customers per day in May. The airline last year added Ras-Al-Khaimah, UAE as its 100th destination on September 22, shortly after launching Bahrain as the 99th destination. Inching a step closer to sustainability, the low-cost carrier operated its maiden (Sustainable aviation fuel) SAF fuel flight on February 18, 2022, from TLS to Delhi. India is trying to cut emissions from the aviation sector, oil minister Hardeep Singh Puri announced in May. The country plans to mandate the use of 1% of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) for domestic airlines by 2025.The airline ventured into the regional connectivity scheme Udan (Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik) scheme when it launched the Kochi to Hubballi route in January 2018, making air travel accessible to more regions. Under the Udan scheme, financial incentives from the Centre, state governments and airport operators are extended to selected airlines to encourage operations from unserved and underserved airports and keep airfares affordable. IndiGo is amongst the fastest-growing low-cost carriers in the world. The company has a simple philosophy: offer fares that are affordable, flights that are on time, and provide a courteous and hassle-free travel experience across its unparalleled network, says the company. With its fleet of over 300 aircraft, the airline is operating well 1900 daily flights and connecting 79 domestic destinations and will soon further grow its footprint to 32 international destinations.
Sculati Wealth Management LLC lowered its position in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO  Free Report) by 16.2% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 25,944 shares of the utilities providers stock after selling 5,027 shares during the quarter. Sculati Wealth Management LLCs holdings in Southern were worth $1,805,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Prudential PLC lifted its holdings in Southern by 23.4% during the 1st quarter. Prudential PLC now owns 19,438 shares of the utilities providers stock worth $1,409,000 after buying an additional 3,689 shares during the last quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust boosted its position in Southern by 33.5% during the first quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 1,727 shares of the utilities providers stock valued at $126,000 after purchasing an additional 433 shares during the last quarter. Covestor Ltd lifted its position in shares of Southern by 63.0% in the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,902 shares of the utilities providers stock worth $138,000 after buying an additional 735 shares during the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC increased its stake in Southern by 0.4% during the first quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 49,925 shares of the utilities providers stock valued at $3,621,000 after acquiring an additional 221 shares during the period. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp boosted its holdings in Southern by 35.8% during the first quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 907,132 shares of the utilities providers stock valued at $65,776,000 after purchasing an additional 239,325 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 63.25% of the companys stock.

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Southern Price Performance

NYSE:SO traded down $2.35 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $68.62. The stock had a trading volume of 5,393,347 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,220,280. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $70.84 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $69.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.51. The Southern Company has a one year low of $58.85 and a one year high of $80.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $74.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.14, a P/E/G ratio of 4.95 and a beta of 0.50.

Southern Dividend Announcement

Insider Activity

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 6th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 21st will be given a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.08%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 18th. Southerns dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 90.32%.

In related news, CEO Thomas A. Fanning sold 50,000 shares of Southern stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.16, for a total value of $3,758,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 847,592 shares in the company, valued at approximately $63,705,014.72. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,435 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.99, for a total transaction of $100,435.65. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 74,246 shares of the companys stock, valued at $5,196,477.54. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Thomas A. Fanning sold 50,000 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.16, for a total transaction of $3,758,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 847,592 shares of the companys stock, valued at $63,705,014.72. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 225,678 shares of company stock worth $16,334,121. 0.28% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SO has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Guggenheim lowered their price objective on shares of Southern from $79.00 to $77.00 in a research report on Friday, July 7th. VNET Group restated a maintains rating on shares of Southern in a research report on Friday, April 28th. StockNews.com cut shares of Southern from a hold rating to a sell rating in a report on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley reiterated an underweight rating and set a $60.00 price target on shares of Southern in a report on Friday, July 21st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Southern from a buy rating to a conviction-buy rating in a research note on Monday, July 3rd. Five analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Southern presently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $73.36.

Get Our Latest Analysis on Southern

About Southern

(Free Report)

The Southern Company, through its subsidiaries, engages in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity. It operates through three segments: Gas Distribution Operations, Gas Pipeline Investments, and Gas Marketing Services. The company also develops, constructs, acquires, owns, and manages power generation assets, including renewable energy projects and sells electricity in the wholesale market; and distributes natural gas in Illinois, Georgia, Virginia, and Tennessee, as well as provides gas marketing services, gas distribution operations, and gas pipeline investments operations.

Further Reading

Want to see what other hedge funds are holding SO? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for The Southern Company (NYSE:SO  Free Report).

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Equity LifeStyle Properties, Inc. (NYSE:ELS  Get Free Report) was the target of a large drop in short interest in July. As of July 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,220,000 shares, a drop of 7.9% from the June 30th total of 2,410,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,480,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.5 days. Currently, 1.3% of the companys stock are sold short.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Equity LifeStyle Properties by 0.8% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,685,594 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $1,887,954,000 after acquiring an additional 184,219 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Equity LifeStyle Properties by 1.7% during the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 15,004,695 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock worth $1,007,265,000 after buying an additional 251,778 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Equity LifeStyle Properties by 13.0% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 8,817,442 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $677,864,000 after buying an additional 1,016,542 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in Equity LifeStyle Properties by 10.8% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 8,572,482 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $575,474,000 after acquiring an additional 837,152 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in Equity LifeStyle Properties by 5.0% in the 2nd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 5,723,879 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock worth $382,870,000 after purchasing an additional 271,218 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.06% of the companys stock.

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Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ELS has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Equity LifeStyle Properties from $75.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 25th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on Equity LifeStyle Properties from $70.00 to $69.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 19th. Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on Equity LifeStyle Properties from $79.00 to $76.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 19th. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Equity LifeStyle Properties from $79.00 to $78.00 in a report on Thursday, July 6th. Finally, StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Equity LifeStyle Properties in a research report on Thursday, May 18th. They issued a hold rating for the company. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $74.21.

Equity LifeStyle Properties Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ELS traded down $0.14 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $70.40. 1,862,611 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,163,122. The company has a quick ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 0.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $67.34 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $67.59. Equity LifeStyle Properties has a twelve month low of $56.91 and a twelve month high of $77.36. The firm has a market cap of $13.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.01, a PEG ratio of 5.09 and a beta of 0.69.

Equity LifeStyle Properties (NYSE:ELS  Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 18th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.66 by ($0.32). Equity LifeStyle Properties had a return on equity of 18.82% and a net margin of 19.53%. The firm had revenue of $370.01 million for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $325.08 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.64 earnings per share. The companys revenue was up 1.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Equity LifeStyle Properties will post 2.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Equity LifeStyle Properties Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 13th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 29th will be issued a dividend of $0.447 per share. This represents a $1.79 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.54%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 28th. Equity LifeStyle Propertiess payout ratio is 116.99%.

About Equity LifeStyle Properties

(Get Free Report)

We are a self-administered, self-managed real estate investment trust (REIT) with headquarters in Chicago. As of April 17, 2023, we own or have an interest in 450 properties in 35 states and British Columbia consisting of 171,477 sites.

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Mueller Industries, Inc. (NYSE:MLI  Get Free Report) saw a large decline in short interest in the month of July. As of July 15th, there was short interest totalling 5,460,000 shares, a decline of 7.8% from the June 30th total of 5,920,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 430,600 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 12.7 days. Currently, 9.9% of the companys shares are sold short.

Mueller Industries Trading Down 0.8 %

MLI traded down $0.65 during trading on Thursday, reaching $78.56. 292,249 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 433,174. The stock has a market cap of $4.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.90 and a beta of 1.09. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $83.43 and a 200 day moving average of $75.69. Mueller Industries has a 52 week low of $57.10 and a 52 week high of $91.93.

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Mueller Industries (NYSE:MLI  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 25th. The industrial products company reported $3.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.40 by $0.72. Mueller Industries had a return on equity of 33.92% and a net margin of 17.46%. The company had revenue of $897.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $1.04 billion. The companys revenue was down 22.0% on a year-over-year basis.

Mueller Industries Announces Dividend

Insider Buying and Selling at Mueller Industries

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 1st will be issued a $0.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 31st. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.53%. Mueller Industriess dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 10.54%.

In other news, Director John B. Hansen sold 2,000 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.38, for a total transaction of $148,760.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 54,607 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,061,668.66. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Gregory L. Christopher sold 23,991 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.05, for a total transaction of $1,824,515.55. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 70,787 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $5,383,351.35. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director John B. Hansen sold 2,000 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.38, for a total value of $148,760.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 54,607 shares in the company, valued at $4,061,668.66. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 48,740 shares of company stock worth $3,771,541 in the last 90 days. 2.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Mueller Industries

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Mueller Industries by 0.4% in the second quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 67,115 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $5,858,000 after buying an additional 270 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Mueller Industries by 16.4% during the second quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 9,312 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $813,000 after purchasing an additional 1,313 shares during the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Mueller Industries by 187.0% during the second quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 22,045 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $1,925,000 after purchasing an additional 14,363 shares during the last quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S purchased a new stake in shares of Mueller Industries during the second quarter valued at $829,000. Finally, Premier Fund Managers Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Mueller Industries by 6.5% during the 2nd quarter. Premier Fund Managers Ltd now owns 90,000 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $7,808,000 after acquiring an additional 5,500 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.39% of the companys stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, StockNews.com downgraded Mueller Industries from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Monday, July 24th.

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Mueller Industries Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Mueller Industries, Inc manufactures and sells copper, brass, aluminum, and plastic products in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, South Korea, the Middle East, China, and Mexico. It operates through three segments: Piping Systems, Industrial Metals, and Climate. The Piping Systems segment offers copper tubes, fittings, line sets, and pipe nipples; PEX plumbing and radiant systems; and plumbing-related fittings and plastic injection tooling.

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The Aarons Company, Inc. (NYSE:AAN  Get Free Report) was the recipient of a significant drop in short interest during the month of July. As of July 15th, there was short interest totalling 998,000 shares, a drop of 7.6% from the June 30th total of 1,080,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 315,700 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.2 days. Approximately 3.3% of the companys shares are short sold.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AAN has been the subject of several recent research reports. Loop Capital downgraded shares of Aarons from a buy rating to a hold rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $15.00 to $14.00 in a research note on Monday, July 10th. Stephens restated an equal weight rating and issued a $18.00 price objective on shares of Aarons in a report on Tuesday. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Aarons from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a report on Wednesday. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on shares of Aarons from $15.00 to $17.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 11th. Finally, Truist Financial upped their target price on shares of Aarons from $12.00 to $15.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a research report on Wednesday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $14.36.

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Read Our Latest Stock Report on Aarons

Insider Buying and Selling at Aarons

Institutional Trading of Aarons

In other news, Director John W. Robinson sold 3,928 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $14.00, for a total value of $54,992.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 316,604 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,432,456. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link . Insiders own 3.50% of the companys stock.

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Citigroup Inc. raised its stake in shares of Aarons by 5.2% during the 1st quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 31,304 shares of the companys stock worth $629,000 after buying an additional 1,559 shares during the period. MetLife Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Aarons by 53.2% in the 1st quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 21,286 shares of the companys stock valued at $427,000 after purchasing an additional 7,394 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Aarons by 7.5% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 5,714,504 shares of the companys stock valued at $114,746,000 after purchasing an additional 398,527 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of Aarons by 3.2% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,421,931 shares of the companys stock valued at $28,554,000 after purchasing an additional 44,534 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sei Investments Co. lifted its stake in shares of Aarons by 7.3% in the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 70,161 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,452,000 after purchasing an additional 4,796 shares during the last quarter. 92.25% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Aarons Trading Down 7.6 %

AAN traded down $1.08 during trading on Thursday, reaching $13.15. The company had a trading volume of 294,308 shares, compared to its average volume of 314,741. The stock has a market cap of $405.94 million, a P/E ratio of -167.00 and a beta of 1.12. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $14.12 and a 200-day simple moving average of $12.96. Aarons has a 52 week low of $7.64 and a 52 week high of $16.16. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32.

Aarons (NYSE:AAN  Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 1st. The company reported $0.39 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.18 by $0.21. The business had revenue of $530.40 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $547.87 million. Aarons had a positive return on equity of 6.45% and a negative net margin of 0.10%. The businesss revenue for the quarter was down 13.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.79 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Aarons will post 1.23 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Aarons

(Get Free Report)

Headquartered in Atlanta, The Aarons Company, Inc (NYSE: AAN) is a leading, technology-enabled, omnichannel provider of lease-purchase solutions. Aarons engages in direct-to-consumer sales and lease ownership of furniture, appliances, consumer electronics and accessories through its approximately 1,300 company-operated and franchised stores in 47 states and Canada, as well as its e-commerce platform, Aarons.com.

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Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. (NYSE:RGR  Get Free Report) released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday. The company reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.80 by $0.11, Briefing.com reports. Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. had a net margin of 12.52% and a return on equity of 20.35%. The business had revenue of $142.80 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $137.91 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.17 earnings per share. Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc.s quarterly revenue was up 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year.

Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. Price Performance

Shares of RGR traded up $2.91 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $55.20. The stock had a trading volume of 146,296 shares, compared to its average volume of 110,438. Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. has a 1 year low of $49.50 and a 1 year high of $63.21. The firm has a market cap of $977.59 million, a PE ratio of 12.84 and a beta of 0.51. The stocks 50 day moving average is $52.67 and its 200 day moving average is $54.94.

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Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 30th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 15th will be paid a $0.36 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 14th. Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc.s dividend payout ratio is currently 31.45%.

Insider Activity

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

In other news, CEO Christopher John Killoy sold 10,105 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.02, for a total value of $535,767.10. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 50,827 shares of the companys stock, valued at $2,694,847.54. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink . Insiders own 2.30% of the companys stock.

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new position in Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. in the 2nd quarter worth about $26,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. increased its position in Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. by 44.7% during the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,139 shares of the companys stock valued at $79,000 after purchasing an additional 352 shares during the period. Morgan Dempsey Capital Management LLC increased its position in Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. by 23.0% during the 1st quarter. Morgan Dempsey Capital Management LLC now owns 1,341 shares of the companys stock valued at $93,000 after purchasing an additional 251 shares during the period. Captrust Financial Advisors increased its position in Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. by 27.5% during the 1st quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 2,118 shares of the companys stock valued at $147,000 after purchasing an additional 457 shares during the period. Finally, Fortis Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. during the 4th quarter valued at about $114,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 64.94% of the companys stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. in a research report on Thursday, May 18th. They set a buy rating for the company.

View Our Latest Research Report on RGR

About Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc.

(Get Free Report)

Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, and sells firearms under the Ruger name and trademark in the United States. It operates through two segments, Firearms and Castings. The company provides single-shot, autoloading, bolt-action, and sporting rifles; rimfire and centerfire autoloading pistols; single-action and double-action revolvers; and firearms accessories and replacement parts, as well as manufactures lever-action rifles under the Marlin name and trademark.

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Shares of The Charles Schwab Co. (NYSE:SCHW  Get Free Report) have received an average rating of Moderate Buy from the seventeen brokerages that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $72.09.

Several equities analysts have issued reports on SCHW shares. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of Charles Schwab from $77.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Monday, July 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on Charles Schwab from $86.00 to $85.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 18th. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Charles Schwab from $67.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Monday, July 24th. Argus increased their price target on shares of Charles Schwab from $70.00 to $81.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 19th. Finally, Wolfe Research decreased their price target on Charles Schwab from $62.00 to $60.00 in a report on Monday, June 26th.

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Insider Activity at Charles Schwab

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Charles Schwab

In other Charles Schwab news, Chairman Charles R. Schwab sold 72,047 shares of Charles Schwab stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.66, for a total transaction of $4,802,653.02. Following the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 59,748,538 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,982,837,543.08. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website . In related news, Chairman Charles R. Schwab sold 72,047 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.66, for a total transaction of $4,802,653.02. Following the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 59,748,538 shares of the companys stock, valued at $3,982,837,543.08. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website . Also, Chairman Charles R. Schwab sold 77,640 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.76, for a total transaction of $4,018,646.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now owns 59,771,278 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $3,093,761,349.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here . In the last 90 days, insiders sold 225,447 shares of company stock worth $13,866,915. 6.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in SCHW. Emfo LLC increased its holdings in Charles Schwab by 100.0% in the second quarter. Emfo LLC now owns 10,000 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $567,000 after buying an additional 5,000 shares during the last quarter. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. increased its position in Charles Schwab by 90.5% during the second quarter. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. now owns 98,712 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $5,595,000 after buying an additional 46,888 shares during the last quarter. PFG Investments LLC bought a new position in Charles Schwab during the second quarter valued at about $240,000. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Charles Schwab by 374.6% in the second quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 42,197 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $2,392,000 after buying an additional 33,305 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Paralel Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Charles Schwab by 114.3% during the 2nd quarter. Paralel Advisors LLC now owns 750,000 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $42,510,000 after acquiring an additional 400,000 shares in the last quarter. 82.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Charles Schwab Stock Up 0.8 %

SCHW opened at $65.86 on Friday. Charles Schwab has a 1-year low of $45.00 and a 1-year high of $86.63. The company has a current ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 0.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. The company has a market capitalization of $116.52 billion, a PE ratio of 19.20, a PEG ratio of 3.78 and a beta of 0.91. The firms 50 day simple moving average is $58.23 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $61.46.

Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCHW  Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 18th. The financial services provider reported $0.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $0.71 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $4.66 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.61 billion. Charles Schwab had a net margin of 33.15% and a return on equity of 27.81%. Charles Schwabs revenue for the quarter was down 8.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.97 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Charles Schwab will post 3.27 EPS for the current year.

Charles Schwab Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 11th will be issued a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 10th. Charles Schwabs payout ratio is 29.15%.

Charles Schwab Company Profile

(Get Free Report

The Charles Schwab Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a savings and loan holding company that provides wealth management, securities brokerage, banking, asset management, custody, and financial advisory services. The company operates in two segments, Investor Services and Advisor Services.

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The Hartford Financial Services Group (NYSE:HIG  Free Report) had its price objective trimmed by Piper Sandler from $94.00 to $93.00 in a report issued on Monday, Marketbeat reports. The brokerage currently has an overweight rating on the insurance providers stock.

Several other analysts have also weighed in on HIG. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on shares of The Hartford Financial Services Group from $78.00 to $77.00 in a research note on Monday, April 10th. Barclays cut their price objective on The Hartford Financial Services Group from $87.00 to $83.00 in a research report on Friday, July 28th. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of The Hartford Financial Services Group in a research note on Thursday, May 18th. They set a buy rating for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of The Hartford Financial Services Group from $86.00 to $94.00 in a report on Thursday, July 6th. Finally, Credit Suisse Group reaffirmed an outperform rating and issued a $104.00 target price on shares of The Hartford Financial Services Group in a report on Monday, April 17th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, The Hartford Financial Services Group presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $85.46.

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View Our Latest Stock Analysis on HIG

The Hartford Financial Services Group Stock Performance

NYSE HIG opened at $72.61 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 0.31 and a current ratio of 0.31. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $71.71 and a 200-day moving average of $72.11. The Hartford Financial Services Group has a 52-week low of $60.17 and a 52-week high of $79.44. The stock has a market cap of $22.21 billion, a PE ratio of 11.67, a P/E/G ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 0.85.

The Hartford Financial Services Group (NYSE:HIG  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 27th. The insurance provider reported $1.88 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $4.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.09 billion. The Hartford Financial Services Group had a return on equity of 17.54% and a net margin of 8.53%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that The Hartford Financial Services Group will post 7.8 EPS for the current year.

The Hartford Financial Services Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 1st will be paid a $0.425 dividend. This represents a $1.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.34%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 31st. The Hartford Financial Services Groups dividend payout ratio is currently 27.33%.

Institutional Trading of The Hartford Financial Services Group

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Penserra Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of The Hartford Financial Services Group by 8.4% in the 4th quarter. Penserra Capital Management LLC now owns 1,715 shares of the insurance providers stock valued at $129,000 after purchasing an additional 133 shares in the last quarter. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of The Hartford Financial Services Group by 3.9% in the 2nd quarter. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC now owns 3,734 shares of the insurance providers stock valued at $269,000 after acquiring an additional 141 shares during the last quarter. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of The Hartford Financial Services Group by 2.3% in the 2nd quarter. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,321 shares of the insurance providers stock valued at $455,000 after acquiring an additional 144 shares during the last quarter. HM Payson & Co. increased its holdings in shares of The Hartford Financial Services Group by 4.8% in the 4th quarter. HM Payson & Co. now owns 3,198 shares of the insurance providers stock valued at $243,000 after acquiring an additional 146 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Simplicity Solutions LLC increased its holdings in shares of The Hartford Financial Services Group by 2.7% in the 2nd quarter. Simplicity Solutions LLC now owns 5,711 shares of the insurance providers stock valued at $411,000 after acquiring an additional 148 shares during the last quarter. 90.24% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

The Hartford Financial Services Group Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc provides insurance and financial services to individual and business customers in the United States, the United Kingdom, and internationally. Its Commercial Lines segment offers insurance coverages, including workers' compensation, property, automobile, general and professional liability, package business, umbrella, fidelity and surety, marine, livestock, and reinsurance through regional offices, branches, sales and policyholder service centers, independent retail agents and brokers, wholesale agents, and reinsurance brokers.

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Two Harbors Investment Corp. (NYSE:TWO  Get Free Report) was up 3.5% during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $13.98 and last traded at $13.88. Approximately 447,077 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 61% from the average daily volume of 1,146,886 shares. The stock had previously closed at $13.41.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently commented on TWO shares. Credit Suisse Group restated a neutral rating and issued a $14.00 target price on shares of Two Harbors Investment in a research note on Wednesday. JMP Securities restated a market outperform rating and issued a $14.50 target price on shares of Two Harbors Investment in a research note on Friday, July 21st. TheStreet upgraded Two Harbors Investment from a d+ rating to a c- rating in a research note on Monday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on Two Harbors Investment from $15.00 to $13.50 in a research report on Monday, July 24th. Finally, Barclays lowered their price target on Two Harbors Investment from $16.00 to $14.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Two Harbors Investment presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $15.81.

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Read Our Latest Analysis on TWO

Two Harbors Investment Stock Down 3.3 %

Two Harbors Investment Cuts Dividend

The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $13.36 and a 200 day moving average price of $14.40. The company has a quick ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 1.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.98. The company has a market cap of $1.27 billion, a P/E ratio of -26.25 and a beta of 1.77.

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 28th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, July 5th were issued a dividend of $0.45 per share. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 13.68%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, July 3rd. Two Harbors Investments payout ratio is presently -352.94%.

Insider Transactions at Two Harbors Investment

In other news, Director Stephen G. Kasnet sold 6,863 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $12.28, for a total transaction of $84,277.64. Following the sale, the director now owns 80,035 shares in the company, valued at $982,829.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, General Counsel Rebecca B. Sandberg sold 4,175 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $12.33, for a total value of $51,477.75. Following the transaction, the general counsel now owns 93,691 shares in the company, valued at $1,155,210.03. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Stephen G. Kasnet sold 6,863 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $12.28, for a total value of $84,277.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 80,035 shares in the company, valued at approximately $982,829.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 23,534 shares of company stock worth $289,831. Insiders own 0.45% of the companys stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Two Harbors Investment

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. National Bank of Canada FI boosted its holdings in Two Harbors Investment by 129.6% in the second quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 1,830 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 1,033 shares during the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its holdings in Two Harbors Investment by 547.2% in the second quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,838 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 1,554 shares during the last quarter. Financial Management Professionals Inc. bought a new position in Two Harbors Investment in the first quarter valued at about $29,000. WealthPLAN Partners LLC acquired a new position in Two Harbors Investment in the first quarter valued at about $37,000. Finally, Global Retirement Partners LLC lifted its stake in Two Harbors Investment by 63.0% in the first quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 3,101 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 1,199 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 63.46% of the companys stock.

Two Harbors Investment Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Two Harbors Investment Corp. operates as a real estate investment trust (REIT) that focuses on investing in, financing, and managing residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS), mortgage servicing rights, and other financial assets in the United States. Its target assets include agency RMBS collateralized by fixed rate mortgage loans, adjustable rate mortgage loans, and hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARMs); and other assets, such as financial and mortgage-related assets, including non-agency securities and non-hedging transactions.

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Sitting 1100 ft above sea level atop Stone Head mountainside, is this luxurious and idyllic Chalet. This 2,537 sq ft, 3-bedroom, 2.5 bath home, sits atop a 100' rock face commanding a breathtaking showcase view as you make your way up the inviting driveway. This Chalet provides a unique and extraordinary opportunity you won't find anywhere else in South Central Pennsylvania. The mesmerizing living room with Brazilian cherry hardwood floors and floor to ceiling windows, reveal breathtaking 25+ mile views from your couch. The living room extends into the dining room and gourmet kitchen, designed with imported Italian ceramic tile flooring, custom cherry wood cabinetry and granite countertops throughout. The master bedroom with a large his and her bathroom, also rests on the main floor along with the convenient laundry room and additional 1/2 bath. The lower floor provides additional bedrooms, another full bath, and a large family room with a walk out patio. The home features several walk in closets along with a large 3 car garage with a walk-up second floor, providing an immense amount of storage. From the serene mountain views, cozy central air, both electric heat and outside wood furnace, you'll understand the true feeling of luxury no matter the time of year. The 108 acres is comprised of three parcels with the home resting on 18 acres and a 50-and 40-acre parcel combined. Trails throughout the property provide great opportunities for horseback riding, hiking, ATV use and more. The areas where the trails don't extend, the property lays secluded providing wildlife sanctuaries for both small and big game animals along with several different bird species. For hunters looking to chase whitetail deer and wild turkeys, this property will provide an incredible opportunity as it is well populated with them both. You won't find a home like this anywhere in the area and if you don't believe me, come, and sit on the large deck with a telescope and look for yourself! Don't miss this opportunity to own luxury with priceless views here in York County Pennsylvania.

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Air India Chief Executive Campbell Wilson has held talks with Indias antitrust head on its pending merger with sister airline Vistara, weeks after the watchdog raised concerns about market power, people familiar with the matter said.



The Competition Commission of India has been scrutinising the planned merger of Air India, which Tata Group took over last year, with Vistara, a joint venture between Tata and Singapore Airlines. The merged airline would challenge local rival and market leader, IndiGo.



Sharing new details of CCIs concerns, the first source said the watchdogs confidential notice to the airline has raised worries about the combined entitys market power on many international and domestic routes.



The CCI also said its initial review showed the market share of the Tata Group could be more than 50% in at least seven domestic markets, raising competition concerns, the person added.



Following a request by the company, CEO Wilson and the General Counsel of Tata Group, Sidharth Sharma, in recent days met Indias antitrust chief, Ravneet Kaur, to discuss the ongoing merger process, said two of the four sources.



Such meetings are typically held to find a way forward and assuage the CCIs concerns, sources said, declining to elaborate further or be named as the talks are confidential.



The CCI, Tata Group, Air India and Vistara did not respond to emails seeking comment.



Reuters reported in June that the CCI has been concerned that some Air India-Vistara merged routes and categories  such as business class travel  could have a monopoly.



The "CCI has asked how Tata plans to think about pricing strategies  The (market) power they will have, how will all this affect pricing," said the first person.



The CCIs scrutiny comes amid growing concerns within the industry about a duopoly, with a merged Air India-Vistara and IndiGo controlling more than 75% of the domestic market as smaller rivals such as SpiceJet and Go First struggle.



For the first half of 2023, IndiGos market share stood at 58%, while the Tata Group airlines, including AirAsia India, accounted for 25%.



Air India is yet to respond to CCIs concerns, two of the sources said. Once they do, the watchdog will review their submissions to decide on the merger or has the option to order a broader review if its not satisfied.



Vistara CEO Vinod Kannan said last month Air India-Vistara merger was expected to receive all regulatory approvals by April 2024.
Silicon Valley tech giants Apple and Amazon bettered markets expectations with their earnings reports on August 3. Here are the top highlights.



Beating market expectations



Apple reported modestly higher profits in the recently ended quarter despite another dip in revenues, as a record performance in services offset lower iPhone sales. Performance was however better than expected.



Executives spotlighted increased sales in China and several key emerging markets that helped compensate for declines in the United States, where the iPhone sales have ebbed in a saturated smartphone environment.



For Q3, Apple reported profits up 2.3 percent to $19.9 billion year-on-year (YoY); but revenues declined for the third consecutive quarter by 1.4 percent to $81.8 billion. It also showed an all-time high services revenue from Apple Pay, Apple TV and the Apple Store among other subscription services.



The record performance was offset by lower iPhone sales; with several emerging markets and China, compensating for declines in the saturated US market," AFP reported. The stock sank 3.2 percent in extended trading.



Amazon also reported profits of $6.7 billion for Q3, far beating market expectations. Strong sales and its yearly Prime Discount event in July helped push the results. The company said it continues work to optimise efficiency and lower costs of fulfilment centres. Numbers were also bolstered by Jassys 18,000 job cuts in January, followed by another 9.000 cuts laid out in March, AFP noted.



Revenue from cloud computing unit Amazon Web Services (AWS) jumped to $22 billion year-on-year (YoY), but high costs did knock some wind off in the YoY operating income. But costs climbed as well, resulting in a lower operating income than in the same period in 2022.



Amazon shares were up over 8 percent to $140.25 in after-market trades.



iPhone sales slumps



Apple reported revenue decline of 1.4 percent  also marking the longest streak of decline in two decades. Executive have blamed foreign headwinds, but admitted the major slowdown was in the US.



Notably, however, newer iPhone models are usually unveiled in September, invariably bringing in the bulk of the sales in the following Q1.



Executives said iPhone sales would improve in Q4, but did not specify numbers, Reuters reported.



"There is a real concern about when volume picks up and what the horizon is for iPhone sales growth," said Daniel Newman, chief executive and principal analyst at research firm Futurum Group told Reuters.



India & China, the saviours



Apple showed strong 8 percent revenue growth in China, and set a record for iPhone sales in India  both bright spots for the quarter, Bloomberg reported.



An industry-wide slump in demand for phones, computers, and tablets also hit Apple; while the iPad and Macbook showed better than expected 7.9 percent rise to $15.7 billion in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan combined. Wearables such as Apple Watch and AirPods also did particularly well, Cook said.



In India, iPhone sales jumped double-digits, as per the company, though numbers were not released. As per Bloomberg, Apples India revenues have grown close to 50 percent to $6 billion till March. CEO Tim Cook attributed the sales increase to more users switching over from Android.



The performance vindicates Apples renewed focus on the market, with expansion in the country posing a massive retail opportunity and production base, Bloomberg added.



The India import blow



The Indian government on August 3 announced restrictions on the import of laptops, tablets, personal computers, ultra-small form factor computers, and servers.



While the import of these items will be permitted against a licence, certain use cases have been exempted from the restrictions. These include the import of one laptop, tablet, personal computer, or ultra-small form factor computer through online portals, couriers, or post.



The restrictions are also not applicable to imports under baggage rules, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) said in a notification.



Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a commerce ministry official said the decision had been taken keeping national security in mind, with some hardware possibly posing risks to India's growing IT sector.



Electronic goods are India's largest import category after petroleum products. At the same time, the export of electronic goods by India surged 47.1 percent in April-June to $6.96 billion, the latest data shows.



The move is likely to hit companies such as Apple, Acer, Dell, LG Electronics, Lenovo, HP Inc., and Samsung and force them to boost local manufacturing, Reuters reported. The intent seems to be substitution of certain goods that are imported heavily, economist Madhavi Arora of Emkay Global told the agency.



"The move's spirit is to push manufacturing to India. It's not a nudge, it's a push," said Ali Akhtar Jafri, former director general at electronics industry body MAIT told Reuters.



AI in focus



Notably, both tech companies have also set their sights on the new kid on the block that is artificial intelligence (AI).



Analysts calls by Apple CEO Tim Cook and Amazon chief Andy Jassy had mentions of AI. While Cook was focused on machine learning as absolutely critical, adding that core fundamental technologies that are integral to virtually every product that we build; Jassy spoke about building generative AI applications that reinvent and enhance their customers' experience, AFP reported.



Cook outlined the uses as crash detection, emergency response and other iPhone features. "We're going to continue investing and innovating and responsibly advancing our products with these technologies, he added.



Jassy too seems keen; stating that Amazon is seeing more businesses shifting systems to cloud, where they can save money and tap into AI capabilities. He added that cloud computing business AWS is investing heavily in training AI models to work for businesses, calling the process democratisation of access to generative AI.



Spending chop, job cuts pay off



Under decidedly unsentimental Jassys two years in the drivers seat, Amazon axed 27,000 employees and seen dozens of projects hacked off, Bloomberg noted. Headcount is pledged to remain flat going forward too.



The Seattle-based company is increasing from services and independent merchants on its retail website. Case in point: Advertising sales increased 22 percent to $10.7 billion; and seller services revenue rose 18 percent to $32.3 billion in the quarter. Further AWS quarter sales rocketed 12 percent to $22.1 million.



Jassy has also noted that groceries present big growth opportunity, but the company needs to find the right mass grocery format worth expanding broadly, AP reported.



FTC a looming threat



The United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is finalising its antitrust lawsuit against Amazon as soon as this month, Politico reported quoting sources. The move could break up Amazon into multiple businesses.



Key issues of contention include fair competition via Amazon Prime and website and bundling of service sales through Amazons logistics and advertising services. Amazon Prime and digital advertising businesses will thus be targeted, the Politico report added.



Earlier, the FTC had flagged Amazon for enrolling customers into paid subscription without their consent and making cancellation difficult.



(With inputs from Bloomberg, AP and other wire agencies)
Blackstones "impending takeover" of Cipla seems to have not gone down well with Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh as he took to social media site X to express his 'sadness' over the deal. Sharing a media report on X, Ramesh said the pharma giant is an integral part of the country's political, economic, and social history and its "impending takeover" by Blackstone should sadden everyone.



It was painful to learn that Blackstone, the world's largest private equity fund, is negotiating to acquire the entire 33.47% promoter stake in Cipla, India's oldest pharmaceutical company. Cipla was established in 1935 by Khwaja Abdul Hamied who was profoundly impacted by Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru Sardar Patel and Maulana Azad. He also played an important role in creating CSIR, he tweeted.



Read the news here | Blackstone likely to buy out Hamieds stake from Cipla: Reports



Cipla soon emerged as a shining example of Indian nationalism and his son Yusuf Hamied made Cipla a global supplier of low-cost generic medicines and successfully challenged American, German and British monopolies and patent holders. He paved the way for many other Indian companies to establish themselves in different countries. He is one of the most charming and delightful businessmen I have had the privilege of knowing, he added.



https://t.co/tScdb3HjJA

It was painful to learn that Blackstone, the world's largest private equity fund, is negotiating to acquire the entire 33.47% promoter stake in Cipla, India's oldest pharmaceutical company. Cipla was established in 1935 by Khwaja Abdul Hamied who was



 Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) August 4, 2023





According to a report by Moneycontrol on July 27, the owners of Cipla, one of India's biggest generics companies, were discussing with top private equity firms about selling a portion of their overall stake in the business. The owners currently possess 33.47% of the shares in the company, and this development is considered to be part of their efforts to plan for the future of the company, according to sources cited by Moneycontrol.



On August 4, The Economic Times, citing people aware of the matter, reported that Blackstone buy out an entire 33.47% promoter stake of the pharma giant. The submission of the non-bidding bid will technically lead to the exit of the Hamied family  who established the company in 1935.



Post the buyout reports, shares of Cipla soared over 6 percent in early trade on August 4 to hit an all-time high and have zoomed 15 percent since the surfacing of the news on July 27.
Sterlite Power, which is backed by metals magnate Anil Agarwal's Vedanta Group, has embarked on an internal restructuring exercise to unlock value as part of which the firm seeks to carve out its solutions vertical and then induct Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC as a strategic partner for the power transmission business, multiple industry sources with knowledge of the matter told Moneycontrol.



"An internal rejig is underway at Sterlite Power. The plan is to demerge the solutions business and then list it later on the domestic bourses," said one of the persons above. The solutions business aids power utilities with strategic solutions for augmentation and upgrades.



This person elaborated, "GIC is not keen on exposure to the solutions business. Once the spin-off is done, GIC plans to invest around $300 million as part of a 51:49 joint venture with Sterlite Power for the power transmission business."



Two other persons confirmed the above rejig plans and added that talks between GIC and Sterlite Power are at an advanced stage.



A fourth person said that Avendus Capital is advising Sterlite Power on the overall deal and Deutsche Bank has also been roped in for the GIC funding leg of the transaction.



"The transaction is picking up pace and is expected to be finalized in the next two weeks," this fourth person added.



All the four persons above spoke to Moneycontrol on the condition of anonymity.



In response to an email query from Moneycontrol, a Sterlite Power spokesperson said, "As any growth-oriented company, we are always evaluating multiple options for financing our growth and maximize shareholder value. However, as a policy, we don't comment on market speculations."



Moneycontrol could not elicit an immediate response from Avendus Capital and Deutsche Bank. An email query sent on GIC's website remained unanswered at the time of publishing this article.



Incidentally, Sterlite Power is the sponsor of India's first power sector InvIT, India Grid Trust (IndiGrid) that is listed. Pratik Agarwal, the MD of Sterlite Power, is the nephew of Anil Agarwal.



In September 2022, the firm announced that it had withdrawn its DRHP and deferred its listing plans due to unfavourable market conditions.



Announcing the recent acquisition of Fatehgarh III Beawar Transmission Limited, a special purpose vehicle (SPV) from PFC Consulting Limited (PFCCL), Pratik Agarwal said, The development of green energy corridors is a critical part of Indias nation building effort. These corridors will help India achieve its renewable energy vision of 500 GW by 2030. With our unique capabilities and expertise, Sterlite Power is committed to contributing to this mega effort."



ALSO READ: States should privatise transmission network for quality power and renewable integration: Pratik Agarwal



Sterlite Power: Internal rejig underway



Under its solutions business, which is proposed to be demerged, Sterlite Power helps power utilities tackle their network congestion challenges by providing bespoke solutions for upgrade/uprate of brownfield transmission infrastructure projects. These strategic solutions through system design, application engineering, complete engineering procurement and construction as well as project management , commissioning and lifecycle services, are aimed at improved performance in the short and long term.



Sterlite Power has 34,000 km+ OPGW (optical ground wire) -based communication projects under live line condition completed or under execution with 108 critical corridors in 15 states.



The firm is also a leading manufacturer of power cables, conductors and OPGW, supplying to all major Indian states and private utilities besides exporting to 60+ countries. It has four manufacturing assets in Silvassa, Jharsuguda and Haridwar.



Under the convergence vertical, Sterlite Power acts as a provider of connectivity solutions for power and telecom companies in India. The business creates a data network by leveraging existing utility fibre infrastructure, either its own or through its partners assets.



What is GIC eyeing?



Sterlite Power's Global Infrastructure business line bids for, designs, constructs, owns and operates power transmission assets and currently has operations in India and Brazil. The firm has a portfolio of 31 completed and sold as well as under construction projects. This covers approximately 15,000 circuit kilometers (ckm) of transmission lines across Brazil and India. According to Crisil, it has a 31.5 percent market share, by tariff of inter-state projects awarded under competitive bidding in India.



In July, GIC announced that it was setting up a $2bn platform with listed smart meters maker Genus Power Infra.



According to a PTI report in March, the industry is expecting the government to invite bids for power transmission infrastructure projects worth Rs 1.50 lakh crore in the next 18 months.
Realty firm DLF's net debt has come down by 92 per cent to Rs 57 crore -- the lowest level -- at the end of the first quarter of this fiscal on better cash flow driven by strong housing sales.



According to an investors' presentation, DLF's net debt stood at Rs 57 crore as on June 30, 2023 as compare to Rs 721 crore at the end of 2022-23 fiscal. During the period under review, the company's gross debt also fell to Rs 3,068 crore from Rs 3,840 crore.



"We continue to focus on strengthening our balance sheet and cash generation. Strong collections led to a further reduction in net debt during the quarter. Consequently, our net debt now stands reduced to the lowest ever at Rs 57 crore," DLF's Group Chief Financial Officer Vivek Anand told investors.



As per the transcript of the investors' call, Anand said, "With these low levels of debt, we have almost achieved our commitment of being net zero and hopefully should end the year with a surplus cash position."



Recently, DLF reported a 12 per cent rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 527 crore in the first quarter of this fiscal and announced its re-entry into the Mumbai property market to develop a housing project. The company's net profit stood at Rs 469.57 crore in the year-ago period.



Total income rose marginally to Rs 1,521.71 crore in the April-June period of 2023-24 financial year from Rs 1,516.28 crore in the year-ago period, according to a regulatory filing. DLF's sales bookings remained flat at Rs 2,040 crore in the June quarter.



The company also announced it will invest Rs 400 crore as equity to develop a real estate project, comprising 35 lakh square feet of estimated saleable area, in Mumbai in partnership with NCR-based builder Trident group.



The company plans to launch the first phase of the Mumbai project, comprising 9 lakh square feet of residential space, by the end of this fiscal year.



DLF is India's largest realty firm in terms of market capitalisation. It has developed more than 158 real estate projects and an area of over 340 million square feet.



DLF Group has 215 million square feet of development potential across residential and commercial segments. The group has an annuity portfolio of over 42 million square feet.
The performance of most companies in the April-June quarter of FY24 has been good so far, especially of banks as they have posted better-than-expected earning numbers, Sunil Singhania of Abakkus Asset Management told CNBC TV18 in an interview.



"I think Q1 earnings so far have been pretty good... the earnings trajectory has been pretty robust", he said. "Obviously a sector like banking has done better than what was expected and one good thing is that the capital goods/infrastructure side of the segment has also done very, very well."



Also Read State Bank of India Q1 Results: Net profit grows 178% to Rs 16,884 crore, asset quality improves



Singhania also spoke about sectors like steel and cement, which performed 'exceedingly well' on the demand and volume front but not on the margin front, adding that the chemicals sector did not perform well enough given a demand slowdown as well as higher supply after China opened up.



"Except the consumption pack, where the demand has got deferred to the second half of the year for a multiple of reasons, I think, earnings have been pretty robust," he said.



Also Read: Cipla surges to record high on talk of Blackstone eyeing to buy out promoter's stake



Singhania said the current market conditions are challenging not only in terms of finding value but also in terms of execution. While there's great interest in the market currently, investors also need some patience and discipline. "In a trending up market, the time taken to research stocks reduces and the size increases," he said.



Singhania believes India has global leadership in the pharma sector in terms of competency and expects the same to continue. "It goes through the cycles, where there is always, in four or five years, a threat to the sort of business model," he said.



He also thinks that investors are now more interested in stocks that have stability and earnings growth.
Britannia Industries is expected to report a consolidated net profit of Rs 517 crore in the April-to-June quarter of financial year 2023-2024. This represents a 53 percent increase year-on-year and a 7.4 percent decline sequentially, according to average estimates of six brokerage firms. The company is scheduled to announce its financial results for Q1FY24 on August 4. Revenue is estimated to be around Rs 4101 crore, which is an 11 percent growth year-on-year and a 2.1 percent growth sequentially. Operating profit margins are expected to be at 18.2 percent, which is a 439 basis points increase on a year-on-year basis and a 199 basis points decline sequentially. Volume growth is expected to be at 4.6 percent in the April-to-June quarter. Costs of raw materials that Britannia uses have increased in the April-to-June quarter. Wheat prices have increased 4.9 percent and sugar prices have increased 4.1 percent year-on-year according to Incred Research. Milk powder prices have increased 1.2 percent year-on-year. Palm oil prices have fallen 39 percent year-on-year in the quarter. Britannia Industries uses palm oil for biscuits. Raw material correction, price hikes, and premiumization will help to improve margins year-on-year, said Systematix Institutional Equities. Kotak Institutional Equities expects margins to decline sequentially as margins in Q42023 were high on account of food processing Performance Linked Incentive scheme, and hence is said to normalise in Q1FY24. Rural is expected to do well for Britannia despite overall weakness as biscuits have remained more resilient than other segments, said Nuvama Institutional Equities. 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.

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Fortis Healthcare Ltd on Friday reported an 8.6 per cent decline in consolidated profit after tax to Rs 122.5 crore for the first quarter ended June 30.



The company, which posted a consolidated profit after tax of Rs 134.3 crore in the first quarter of the last fiscal, said its diagnostics business has been renamed as Agilus Diagnostics Ltd, and the boards of the two firms have granted approval for the latter to initiate an initial public offer (IPO) process.



Its consolidated revenues in the first quarter stood at Rs 1,657 crore against Rs 1,488 crore in the year-ago period, a growth of 11.4 per cent.



"We have witnessed a steady start in Q1 FY24 for both the hospitals and diagnostics business. Our hospital business revenues grew 13.6 per cent to Rs 1,354 crore while operating EBITDA was at Rs 206.4 crore, reflecting a margin of 15.2 per cent versus 16.2 per cent in Q1 FY23.



"This was in part due to a lower occupancy and a comparatively less favourable payor mix, both of which we expect should improve going forward," Fortis Healthcare MD and CEO Ashutosh Raghuvanshi said in a statement.



Fortis Healthcare Chairman Ravi Rajagopal said on the hospital side, the company's portfolio rationalisation strategy gained momentum with the divestment of its loss-making Arcot Road facility in Chennai in July 2023.



"With an impetus on inorganic growth, we acquired a 350 bedded hospital in Manesar, Gurugram, enabling us to further augment our presence in Delhi-NCR. This we expect to close shortly," he added.



Rajagopal further said the boards of Fortis and Agilus have granted approval for Agilus to initiate an initial public offer process by way of an offer for the sale of its equity shares, subject to receipt of requisite approvals, market conditions and other considerations.
CE Infosystems, which operates the MapmyIndia brand, on Friday said its consolidated net profit grew 32 per cent to Rs 32 crore for the June 2023 quarter. It had posted a net profit of Rs 24 crore in the year-ago period, according to a BSE filing. The revenue for the just-ended quarter increased 38 per cent year-on-year to Rs 89.4 crore, the company said. MapmyIndias revenue during the reported quarter was Rs 65 crore. Sequentially, the company recorded a 13 per cent rise in net profit against Rs 28 crore in the March 2023 quarter."We are delighted with our Q1FY24 results, wherein MapmyIndia achieved all-time highs in Revenue, EBITDA and PAT (Profit after tax). Revenue grew 37.5 per cent in the first quarter of financial year 2024 to Rs 89.4 crore. PAT also reached an all-time high of Rs 31.8 crore, growing 31.4 per cent YoY, MapmyIndia Chairman and Managing Director Rakesh Verma said. MapmyIndia CEO and Executive Director Rohan Verma said the growth during the reported quarter was broad-based, with A&M (Automotive and Mobility Tech) rising 24 per cent and C&E (Consumer Tech and Enterprise Digital Transformation) surging 51 per cent on the market side. "On the products side, Map and Data were up 41 per cent and Platform and IoT was up 35 per cent, he said. The company re-appointed Verma as their whole-time Director for five years from April 1, 2024, after the expiry of his term next year in March. He is the son of the Chairman and Managing Director of the company Rakesh Verma.

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PITTSBURGH  A consultant has recommended that Pennsylvania spend $44.4 million to demolish a former state prison in Pittsburgh and rehabilitate the site for industrial reuse and a riverfront park, despite the prisons popularity with television and film producers.

It wasnt clear when or if state officials would act on the recommendation made by Michael Baker International.

The consultants plan calls for razing all 42 buildings at the former State Correctional Institution Pittsburgh, including the main penitentiary. It also says 5.2 acres of the property along the Ohio River should be set aside as a public park, part of which would be integrated into the Three Rivers Heritage Trail that runs by the old prison.

If that is done, the site could then be sold to a private buyer or possibly conveyed to the Pittsburgh Urban Redevelopment Authority.

The consultant said tearing down the prison would end thriving filmmaking industry at the site, where six major productions have been done. However, it said that unless officials can get guaranteed commitments from the film industry to use the site, the buildings offer very little opportunity for reuse given their current physical condition.

The report found three viable options for the site, including the demolition plan it recommended. The consultant also considered a less intensive demolition plan  razing 39 structures while retaining the main penitentiary building, its North Wall and guard stations 1 and 2  and selling the entire property as-is to a private buyer. The latter option, though, had little support because it seems unlikely a buyer would be willing to assume the financial and environmental liabilities involved with preparing the site for reuse.
GAIL (India) Ltd is close to finalising a long-term liquefied natural gas (LNG) import deal with Qatar to buy at least 1 million metric tons per year, potentially for more than 20 years, three industry and trade sources said.



The deal would be part of GAIL's plans to lock in new supply contracts by 2030 to diversify its gas imports and hedge against supply disruptions like those seen after Russia's invasion of Ukraine last year, when LNG prices surged to a record high.



Neither state-controlled GAIL nor QatarEnergy responded to Reuters requests for comments.



GAIL had to cut gas sales to some local industries last year after supplies under its long-term deal with the German unit of Russia's Gazprom were hit when it was taken over by Berlin, which diverted volumes to its own market.



Qatar, the world's top LNG exporter, is looking to sign record volumes of long term sales contracts this year as it expands market share globally at the expense of Russia.



GAIL, India's largest pipeline operator, would be the second local company to sign a deal with Qatar. Petronet LNG, part owned by GAIL, is also negotiating an extension to beyond 2028 of its long-term LNG deal, under which Qatar supplies 8.5 million tons per year (tpy) of LNG.



A deal with GAIL would strengthen prospects for the renewal of Petronet's deal at better pricing, said one of the sources, adding India's target is to sign the two deals by end-September.



GAIL is looking to buy 1 million to 1.5 million tpy of LNG from QatarEnergy, the sources said.



Indian companies are investing billions of dollars to build gas infrastructure and scouting for long-term deals to raise the share of natural gas in the country's energy mix to 15% by 2030 from about 6.5% now.



GAIL plans to buy an additional 7 million to 8 million tpy of LNG by 2030 but does not intend to depend on one country for more than 1 million to 2 million tpy of that to avoid the risk of sudden disruption, its head of finance Rakesh Jain said on Monday.



The company has two existing contracts to buy a combined 5.8 million tpy of LNG from the United States and a 2.5 million tpy supply contract with SEFE, the former German Gazprom unit.



Asia has outpaced Europe in locking in long-term supply from Qatar's two-phase expansion plan that will raise its liquefaction capacity to 126 million tpy by 2027 from 77 million.



Qatar has so far signed three LNG supply deals with buyers in China and Bangladesh and is also in advanced talks with Thailand's state energy firm PTT.
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has sent the matter concerning the education-technology (edtech) startup Byju's to its disciplinary committee for further action, a report has said.



ICAIs Financial Reporting Review Board (FRRB), which was looking into Byju's financial statements, flagged certain issues, which the disciplinary panel would examine.



Some issues were felt to need further investigation. There are questions on three-four points, which will be examined by the disciplinary committee, a source told the Business Standard newspaper.



Also Read: White Knight? Ranjan Pai in talks to invest $80-90 million in Byjus-owned Aakash



Moneycontrol couldn't verify the report independently.



Byjus has been tackling a host of issues, including a tussle with its lenders, and resignations of its directors and its auditor, even as it has come under the scanner of government authorities like the EPFO and Enforcement Directorate.



In June, Deloitte Haskins & Sells resigned as the statutory auditor of Byjus. Deloitte, which audited the company for five years, cited the failure of the once Indias most-valued startup to release the audited statements for the financial year ending March 31, 2022 as the reason for its decision.



The delay led to the financial information coming under the purview of ICAI. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs, too, has reportedly opened an investigation against the company.



FRRB is empowered to review the general purpose financial statements and auditor's reports of enterprises. It has examined Byju's balance sheet, profit and notes on account among other things, the report said.



If the disciplinary panel discovers the auditor guilty of professional misconduct, it can impose a fine of up to Rs 5 lakh on the auditor and even ban them.



Also Read: Byju's biggest investor Prosus says poor corporate governance prompted board exit



ICAI can take action against the auditor under the Chartered Accountants Act but not against the audit firm.



Deloitte and Byju's didn't respond to queries sent by emails, the report said.



Also Read: Byju's, lenders agree to complete loan amendment by August 3



Byjus has assured investors that it will submit its audited earnings for FY22 by September 2023 and those of 2023 in December.



In FY21, the results of which too were submitted late, Byjus reported a loss of Rs 4,588 crore, 19 times more than the previous financial year. Its income was Rs 2,428 crore, the report said.
Apple CEO Tim Cook on August 3 said that India is a 'huge opportunity' for the company and they are putting all of their energies in growing their business here, as the country becomes increasingly important for the iPhone maker's future growth.



"It is the second largest smartphone market in the world. So, we ought to be doing really well there. We still have a very, very modest and low share in the smartphone market (in India)" Cook said during the company's earnings conference call.



Cook's comments come after Apple posted its third straight quarter of revenue decline on a yearly basis and predicted a similar performance in the ongoing quarter.



For the quarter ended June 30, Apple's revenue dipped 1 percent year-on-year (YoY) to $81.8 billion, pulled down by a 2.4 percent YoY decline in iPhone sales that came in at $39.7 billion for the quarter. Apple follows an October to September financial year.



Cook's statements however come on the back of Apple's significant retail expansion in the country earlier this year. He visited India in April after nearly seven years to launch two retail outlets both in Mumbai and Delhi.



During the call, Cook said that while these stores are still in their early days, they are currently beating the company's expectations for how well they are performing.



"We continue to work on building out the channel and putting more investment in our direct-to-consumer offers as well" he said.



Apple is benefiting from the growing premiumisation trend among Indian consumers, which has resulted in the company clocking record revenue growth in terms of iPhone sales in the country in recent quarters. Apple's India sales have reportedly jumped to nearly $6 billion in FY23 from $4 billion in FY22.



Cook said on the earnings conference call that the company hit a revenue record in India with "strong double digits" growth in the recently-concluded June quarter, without disclosing any specific information.



Also Read: Apple BKC store opens in Mumbai, signaling the iPhone maker's growing India ambitions



India has emerged as one of Apples top five markets, according to market research firm Counterpoint Research. The company clocked a 56 percent YoY growth in the April-June quarter and currently leads the country's ultra-premium smartphone market (above Rs 45,000) with a 59 percent share, it said.



In 2022, the iPhone maker clocked record shipments of over 6.5 million devices, registering a 16 percent YoY growth. That said, the company's overall market share in the country's smartphone market is still modest, at an estimated 6 percent.







Apple's Make in India push



Apple is also betting on India to become a key manufacturing hub in order to diversify its manufacturing capabilities beyond China, thanks in part to incentives provided by the government through its production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for smartphones.



The company currently manufactures iPhones in India, including the latest iPhone 14, through contract manufacturers such as Foxconn, Wistron, and Pegatron, with plans to expand into other products such as its wireless headphones AirPods.



Apple clocked iPhone exports of about $5 billion-$5.5 billion from India in FY23, accounting for nearly half of the country's mobile phone exports, as per industry estimates.



Foxconn is also planning to start manufacturing iPhone units by April 2024 at its Devanahalli plant in Bengaluru rural district, Moneycontrol reported in June 2023. It aims to make 20 million devices per year through this facility.
The Madras High Court has dismissed 14 of the 16 pleas from Indian startups and tech companies, including Bharat Matrimony, Shaadi.com and Unacademy, against Google's app billing policy, according to a court order seen by Moneycontrol.



The court gave the order stating that the issue falls under the jurisdiction of the Competition Commission of India (CCI). The two remaining pleas, one from streaming service Disney+ Hotstar and exam preparation app Testbook, are also likely to be dismissed, Moneycontrol has learnt.



According to the High Court, since the startups alleging abuse of dominant position by Google, the CCI has jurisdiction to adjudicate on the same. The high court held that CCI is empowered to direct any enterprise guilty of abuse of dominant position to discontinue such practices, hence any order passed by CCI under such circumstances would be applicable to all the businesses. However, in case of the present proceedings, such an order will be made applicable only to the company which has challenged Google's policy.



The court however rejected Google's contention that the cases should be filed in California. The court noted that "Competition Act enacted by Indian

legislature with the sole aim of preventing practices having adverse effect on competition will be of no use (if such a request is entertained). The preamble to Competition Act reads that it is an Act to ensure freedom of trade carried on by participants in Indian market. Freedom of trade is a fundamental right available to Indian Citizens under Article 19 of the Constitution of India."



The Madras HC passed the order after Google file an application under Order 7 Rule 11 of the Civil Procedure Code (CPC), 1908 contending that the suits filed by the startups were not maintainable. According to Google, the suits should have been filed in California as the company is headquartered there. Google also contended that a civil court cannot adjudicate upon these issues as it involves allegations of anti-trust violations.



Among other petitioners include startups such as KukuFM, TrulyMadly, QuackQuack, Pratilipi, Crafto, Tamil publisher Ananda Vikatan, streaming services like Altt, Stage and Aha and industry body Indian Digital Media Industry Foundation that represents prominent streaming services such as Zee5, SonyLIV and SunNXT.



The court had earlier provided an interim injunction to these companies, asking them to to pay a lower 4 percent fee to Google for using its in- app payments system. It also directed the tech giant not to delist any of them from the Play Store.



This was after petitioners had approached the state high court challenging Google's notice to either adopt its new app billing policy or face delisting from the app marketplace in recent months. Google had stated in May 2023 that it will start enforcing Play billing policy in India.



In February, Google had said that it will allow app developers to offer an alternate billing system for in-app purchases within India from April 26, 2023. This was announced in a bid to comply with CCI directives that had directed the tech major not to restrict app developers from using a third-party billing system among other things last year.



As per the new policy, if a user pays through the alternative billing system (also termed as User Choice billing system), the transaction will still be subjected to a service fee, but at a 4 percent rate reduction.



This effectively means that developers will have to shell out a service fee to Google ranging from 6-26 percent for in-app purchases and subscriptions, depending on the type of app/service and the annual revenue it generates on Google Play, as compared to the regular 10-30 percent service fee.



In April 2023, Alliance of Digital India Foundation (ADIF), a New Delhi policy think tank comprising prominent Indian internet companies such as Matrimony, Paytm, MapmyIndia, TrulyMadly and other local entrepreneurs, had termed it as an "abusive dominance practice" by the company and had requested the antitrust watchdog to look into Google's user choice billing system 'on an urgent basis'.



In May, Google however had claimed that its updated payment policy is compliant with CCI's order.



CCI stated on May 12 that it needed to inquire whether the policy complies with the antitrust watchdog's earlier directives. The case is yet to come up for hearing.




Not even the 'safest' investment is without some risk and some elements of speculation. - Bernard Baruch



Too much of anything is good for nothing, as the saying goes, and this is true of good news too in the stock market. Fitchs downgrade of the US, followed by Morgan Stanleys simultaneous upgrade of its India rating and downgrade of China rating make the India case even more compelling. But key indices extended losses on Thursday as the Street felt that Morgan Stanley was merely stating the obvious.



Second line shares fared better, bouncing from the days lows, thanks to purchases by small and equity midcap schemes of mutual funds which continue to see strong money inflows. Veteran traders are booking profits in small and midcaps, and putting that money in large-caps, not wanting to be caught in a liquidity squeeze if the correction persists.



Stock prices are beginning to look attractive, relative to the prices two weeks ago. This is a tricky phase of the market. The fundamental story looks good, but looking at the way prices have run up, there is no way of knowing if buyers will be catching bargains or falling prices.



Power Finance Corporation, REC



The stocks continue to be a roll, and were among a handful of gainers in Thursdays session. The big concern investors had about the these companies till a year ago was the poor financial health of its main







borrowers  power distribution companies (discoms). That has been addressed to a large extent following the introduction of the Late Payment Surcharge Scheme (LPSS) by the government last year, in which discoms were given favourable terms to clear their outstanding dues.



That led to a dramatic improvement in the asset quality of PFC and REC as non-performing loans fell sharply. At their peaks in 2010, PFC and REC were quoting at almost three times their book value. And, despite the recent run-up, they are available at less than one-time book value. Early birds who got into these stocks, the peak valuations of 2010 may not be seen again. That is because with discoms becoming more disciplined in their repayment, they are now being wooed by the public sector and even sector banks. PFC and REC were able to earn a net interest margin of 3 percent plus, because nobody was willing to lend to discoms. But with competition picking up, PFC and RECs net interest margins may not be as juicy as before, the early birds say.



Indiabulls Housing Finance



The stock surged 10 percent on heavy volumes on Thursday and has now gained 37 percent in over a week. Former co-head of Blackstones private equity business in India, Mathew Cyriac had picked up 1.49 percent in the company during the June quarter. Chatter is that he has been adding to his position over the last few weeks. Cyriacs calling card is that he along with a group of investors had bought out Blackstones stake in Gokaldas Exports at a throwaway price in 2017, booked huge profits in the stock over the following years, and still retains a sizeable position.



His other major holdings include Zim Technologies, Palred Technologies, PTC India, and Hindustan Media Ventures. Given Mathews track record for spotting bargains, long suffering investors in Indiabulls Housing Finance must be thinking that they may have finally found a messiah who is telling them: Come to me, all ye who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.



Not 6E enough



Strong first quarter numbers notwithstanding, and the fact that the airline sector is fast moving towards a duopoly structure, investors have been deboarding the Interglobe Aviation stock over the last couple of weeks. The stock had a good run from the March lows, but investors now seem hesitant. Firming up of oil prices could be one reason, but a bigger reason could be that they fear more shares coming into the market from the Gangwal family, which has been paring its stake over the last year.



With a ready seller available in the Gangwals, institutional investors seem in no hurry to buy from the open market. And that is holding back local traders from taking up big positions in the stock. The Gangwal family last sold stake in February this year. But HNIs and retail investors seem to be following the announcement that is heard when a flight reaches cruising altitude: The captain has switched off the seat belt sign, but for your own safety...



Mission critical



The US Department of Energy (DOE) this week officially added copper to its Critical Materials list, a strategy followed by European Union, Japan, India, Canada, and China, reports mining.com. This is the first time a US government agency has included copper on one of its official critical lists. The list focuses on key materials with high risk of supply disruption that are integral to clean energy technologies, and coppers inclusion means that US will step up domestic production of copper.



Counter attack



China has invested more than $10 billion in metals and mining in the first half of 2023 as part of the Belt Road Initiative, with an aim to defend its strong position in critical metal supply chains. According to a report by the Green Finance & Development Center (GFDC), China is investing in minerals and metals supply and processing in Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East.



Bullish on oil



Hedge funds are closing out their bearish bets on crude oil as they are becoming increasingly optimistic about a recovery in oil prices. Demand is not only resilient but headed for a record high in the coming months, according to analysts like Goldman Sachs and oil executives, including ExxonMobils CEO Darren Woods, said a report by oilprice.com.



Sell on the rise



The US and European funds are cutting back on their exposure to Chinese equities, as they are not convinced that the government will be able to revive the struggling economy, reports Bloomberg. This is despite Chinas key indices performing well in July, the best performance since January. But a section of fund managers also feel that it could be time to look for bargains as valuations have become attractive after a long spell of underperformance.



The MSCI China Index is right now at less than 11 time forward one-year earnings, below its five-year average multiple of over 12 times and at a 14 percent discount versus the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, compared with the average 4 percent discount since 2010, the report added.



Double dholki



The Bank of Japan intervened in the currency market for the second time this week as it tries to ensure that yields on the government bonds do not move up too sharply. That may sound confusing since the central bank is also trying to nudge yields higher, as seen from its recent move to let yields rise to as much as 1 percent, compared to 0.5 percent earlier. Through the intervention, BoJ is signalling that it wants interest rates to rise, but gradually. If Japanese interest rates rise and subsequently the currency strengthens, that could have implications for the carry trade.



In a carry trade global investors borrow in the yen, convert it into the dollar and deploy that in assets like emerging market equities, that offer better returns. If the yen strengthens beyond its comfort level, investors reverse those positions.
Drugmaker Sun Pharmaceuticals has not resumed supply from its Mohali plant, said company executives during the earnings call on August 3.



Further, the company clarified that it doesnt need any inspection to restart supply from the plant. The company did not give a timeline on when the Mohali or the Halol facility will be ready inspection and the supply will restart.



In April, the Mohali plant had received a letter titled Consent Decree Correspondence/Non-Compliance Letter" from the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA). The USFDA directed the company to take corrective actions at the Mohali facility before releasing further final product batches into the US.



Sun Pharma inherited the Mohali plant from Ranbaxy as a part of the merger in 2015. The plant supplied $100-150 million worth of products to the US. Major products manufactured in the plant include colon drug Pentasa, Protonix oral suspension (treats conditions that cause too much stomach acid, like heartburn and stomach ulcers) and Ranolazine (treats heart related chest pain).



The management also said that the subdued growth quarter due to the the national list of essential medicines (NLEM) impact. The full impact of NLEM (which was announced in Dec-Jan period), is visible in the Apr-Jun quarter. The company expects NLEM impact to subside in next 2 quarters said chief financial officer (CFO) CS Muralidharan to CNBC-TV18 in an interview on August 4.



The NLEM is a list released by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The medicines listed in the NLEM are sold below a price ceiling fixed by the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA). India formulation sales accounted for about 30 percent of total consolidated sales in the quarter. US accounted for over 33 percent of total consolidated sales.



The filing of Abbreviated New Drug Applications (ANDAs) moderated this quarter because of the ransomware attack (which happened in March) and this is expected to return to normal in the next quarters.



Also read: Sun Pharma Q1 results: Net profit down 1.9% to Rs 2,022.5 crore, lags estimate



Regarding the acquisition of Taro, the management didnt reveal any updates on timeline. However, they said Taro operates in a segment which faces increasing competitive pressuredermatology. It is hard for Taro to face the competition in this segment as an independent company. This was the primary reason cited for the pending acquisition of Taro by Sun Pharma.



Taro reported sales of US$ 159 million, in the quarter under review, up by 1.4 percent YoY and net profit of about US$ 10 million, lower by 28.9 percent over net profit of Q1 last year.



Muralidharan also said that the sales in US did well on account of speciality business doing well & Revlimid sales.



The management also spoke the product pipeline and that it is accelerating the pace of the phase-3 trial of Ilumya used to treat psoriatic arthritis. Another product in pipeline GL0034 was found to reduce body weight with a single dose in obese individuals without diabetes. The phase-1 trial of the drug has been completed.



The company also had a sequential decline in speciality biz due to seasonality in levulan (used to treat actinic keratosis), Muralidharan added.



Also read: Brokerages positive on Sun Pharma's growth but investors unimpressed



Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd reported a 1.9 percent year-on-year (YoY) fall in its consolidated net profit at Rs 2,022.5 crore for the April-June quarter on August 3. The drugmaker's net profit lagged Moneycontrol's estimate of Rs 2,119.4 crore. This was due to a one-time exceptional loss of Rs 322.87 crore. Excluding the exceptional loss, the net profit came around Rs 2,345.4 crore, up 13.8 percent year-on-year.




Bengalurus municipal corporation has ordered its ward engineers to monitor all building work in their wards and report violations to senior officials in a bid to streamline the process of curbing illegal construction.



The approved building plans have been made available to assistant engineers, executive engineers and ward engineers to inspect the under-construction sites from time to time," Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) said in an order dated July 27, 2023, reviewed by Moneycontrol.

"The violations have become so widespread that it is necessary to prevent them effectively.



BBMP has provided Rs 50 lakh as a fund to be utilised for complying with the instructions.



The corporation said in the order that the plinth line marking of a building, as per the plan, must be approved before construction starts. The plinth area is the built-up area covered and measured at the floor level.



According to the order, BBMP has set up a task force of the commissioner, joint commissioners, zonal chief engineers and officials from the urban planning department that will meet monthly and investigate complaints about construction violations.



The task force will identify unauthorised constructions within stipulated timelines and assign BBMP contractors to clear them. Ward engineers, according to the order, have been mandated to ensure that construction starts only after the order is issued by the town planning department.



"To date, we have been tracking violation cases only after a complaint was received. However, after trying out several models over the past years, we have come up with a streamlined process to tackle the situation. We have assigned the responsibility of tracking and identification of violations to individual ward engineers and executive engineers," BBMP officials told Moneycontrol.



Also Read | Living with floods: Bengaluru infrastructure cries for urgent reforms



Violations continue



According to a BBMP survey last year, about 200,000 buildings in the tech capital have deviated from sanctioned plans. In 2021, a survey revealed that more than 85 percent of the buildings constructed in 2020 and 2021 had violated building bylaws.



Illegal constructions and violation of building bylaws are said to have resulted in waterlogging in various parts of the city when rainfall is heavy. In September 2022, incessant rainfall several left parts of Whitefield, including the areas main road, waterlogged for days.



Only a month earlier, BBMP had identified encroachments on stormwater drains from prominent developments including Bagmane Tech Park, Purva Paradise, Wipro, and Ecospace. In April this year, heavy rainfall in Bengaluru inundated the same areas, including the new Whitefield Metro Station.



Also Read | MC Explains: The curious case of Bengalurus floods



Plagued by the violations, residents in Whitefield have initiated a campaign to crowdsource reports from the public via a Spot Violations campaign.



"We will upload the same on an interactive online map with GPS locations so that violations are exposed and everyone can see them. This campaign will be popularised by all the RWA groups and citizen federations in the area such as Namma Whitefield and Whitefield Rising," said Sandeep Anirudhan, an environmentalist.



However, a major challenge is the lack of transparency in the exchange of information between government bodies and residents. Anil Kalgi, an activist who filed a request under the Right to Information Act for details about a high-rise property in Bengaluru, said his application was rejected.



"It is still in appeal and accessing information like occupancy certificate status and building plan approval for projects I don't have ownership in is still a challenge," he said.
Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), the country's largest entity in terms of market capitalisation, will hold its 46th annual general meeting (AGM) virtually on August 28, as per a regulatory filing made by the company on August 4.



The oil-to-telecom conglomerate said it has fixed August 21 as the "record date" for the purpose of determining the members eligible to receive dividend for the financial year 2022-23.



The dividend, if declared at the AGM, will be paid within a week from the conclusion of the meeting, RIL informed the bourses.



August 21 has also been set as the "cut-off date" for the purpose of determining the members eligible to vote on the resolutions set out in the AGM, it added.



The announcement comes days after RIL demerged its financial services unit into a new entity - Jio Financial Services (JFS), and the spin-off was valued at $20 billion, above estimates. The share price of JFS was determined at Rs 261.85 apiece in the special hour-long pre-open call auction trading session held on July 20.



The demerger by billionaire Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance is being seen as a way of expanding in the lucrative financial services sector. This assumes significance as it has a non-bank financial company licence.



Also Read | Reliance Retail launches JioBook laptop priced at Rs 16,499



Highlights from RIL's last AGM



- At the 45th annual general meeting held last year, Reliance had made the landmark announcement of Jio's plan to roll out 5G services. The company also unveiled the AirFiber: a wireless plug-and-play 5G hotspot that doesnt require fibre cables, which offers a personal Wi-Fi hotspot at home or offices.



- Reliance had also announced its partnership with Meta for immersive technology, Google to develop ultra-affordable 5G smartphones and 'Google Cloud'; Microsoft for Azure ecosystem, vibrant ecosystem of cloud-enabled business applications and solutions; Intel for Cloud-scale data centres and 5G edge locations; and Qualcomm to broaden their joint collaborations.



- The company had said it would target to invest Rs 75,000 crore in the petrochemicals and textile business.



- RIL had noted that it would start production of natural gas from MJ field - the third and the last set of discoveries it is developing in the eastern offshore KG-D6 block - by the end of this year to raise the overall output by about two-thirds.



The company will continue to invest in O2C business to expand capacities in existing product lines as well as to add new value chains with the aim to maximise oil-to-chemicals conversion and create integrated streams of value.



- During FY22, RIL had said, it strengthened its own brands' presence by launching several new products across categories of staples, home, personal care and general merchandise, further expanding on the launch of WhatsApp-JioMart partnership.



Highlights from RIL's FY23 growth



- The company had registered a 9.9 percent growth in its consolidated profit at Rs 66,702 crore for financial year ended March 2023.



- The numbers remained robust for the year, with EBITDA growing 23.1 percent to Rs 1.54 lakh crore and revenue increasing by 23.2 percent to Rs 9.76 lakh crore compared to the previous fiscal.



- The digital services segment achieved 19.6 percent growth during the year, while retail business grew by 30.4 percent over the previous year, the company had said.



- The firm further said revenue of the O2C business improved by 18.7 percent, led by higher realisations on the back of 19 percent increase in average Brent crude price, while the oil and gas business revenue increased 120.3 percent due to a sharp increase in gas price realisation and 10.7 percent increase in KG D6 gas production.



In the first quarter of this fiscal (Q1FY24), the net profit had declined by 6 percent on-year to Rs 18,258 crore, as muted performance in the O2C business partly offset the strong growth in consumer-facing businesses. The conglomerates consolidated total revenue in the June quarter declined to Rs 2.31 lakh crore from Rs 2.42 lakh crore a year ago.



In the trading session on August 4, the shares of RIL edged higher and settled at Rs 2,510.50 on the BSE, which was 1.42 percent higher as against the previous day's close.



Disclaimer: Moneycontrol is a part of the Network18 group. Network18 is controlled by Independent Media Trust, of which Reliance Industries is the sole beneficiary.
JK Tyre and Industries shares hit a 52-week high on Friday after it reported strong earnings for the recently ended April-June quarter. The company reported a four-fold YoY (year-on-year) increase in the quarterly net profit at Rs 153.87 crore.



The increase in quarterly profit numbers seemed to have been driven by a consistent sequential rise in the topline numbers and an one-off exceptional item expense of Rs 34.50 crore, which was reported in the base quarter of Q1FY23.



At 2.15 pm, JK Tyre stock was quoting at Rs 283, up 6.79 percent or Rs. 18. The stock has witnessed a 48.95 percent rise in year-to-date terms. At both exchanges, nearly 57 lakh shares changed hands against the monthly average of 26 lakh shares.



In its results for Q1FY24 filed on August 4, the company reported a 2.1 percent YoY rise in its revenue from operations at Rs 3,718.1 crore as compared to Rs 3,643 crore in Q1FY23.



EBITDA (earnings-before-interest-taxes-depreciation and ammortisation) margins were up by 450 basis points at 12.3 percent in the quarter under review.



The company reported 3 percent volume growth over the previous quarter. Segment-wise, the tyre-maker reported a 3.7 percent decline in revenue from its major revenue generating 'truck and bus' segment. While the revenue figures for the 'passenger line and radial' segment grew by 7.4 percent.



JK Tyre and Industries, part of the larger JK Group, is engaged in the manufacturing of tyres for small, mid-sized, as well as heavy duty vehicles. The company derives a large chunk of its revenue from tyres produced for large vehicles such as buses and trucks. The tyre maker operates through its 12 plants, out of which 3 are based in Mexico. JK Tyre has a production capacity of 32 million tyres per annum.



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.
India's Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal met senior U.S.-based Tesla executives last week in a closed-door meeting to discuss the carmaker's plans to establish a manufacturing plant in the country, two people with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. Tesla has expressed an interest in building a factory in India that would produce a low-cost electric vehicle (EV) priced at $24,000, around 25% cheaper than Tesla's current entry model, for both the Indian market and export. Tesla's senior public policy and business development executive Rohan Patel, and a vice president for supply chain, Roshan Thomas, also met officials from the Invest India agency during their time in the country. Their meeting with Goyal, however, was the most high-profile one since Tesla CEO Elon Musk met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in June in New York, with the billionaire later saying he was keen to make significant investments in the country. The sources said the meeting with Goyal was held in a New Delhi hotel, where, according to one source, the Tesla executives met the minister privately along with at least one other government official. Tesla and India's commerce ministry did not respond to requests for comment. The sources declined to be named given the sensitivity of the discussions. Meetings between Tesla and Indian officials are being kept tightly under wraps, with Modi and his top officials closely tracking the progress of talks, sources said earlier. Reuters first reported on a planned meeting between Tesla and Goyal on July 24 with an agenda covering land allotment for a plant and the establishment of an EV supply chain. Tesla and Goyal discussed the company's plans during the meeting, said the first source, declining to elaborate further.

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Less than a week after getting sentenced in a criminal case, social media sensation Bryan Gratata Silva lost an eviction lawsuit waged against him this week.

The ruling comes days after Silva was sentenced to a year and a half behind bars after pleading guilty to charges of possession of ammunition and possession of drugs by a convicted felon.

Retired Judge William G. Barkley, presiding over a damages trial Monday in Charlottesville General District Court, found in favor of the landlord at the Downtown Mall building where Silva was renting an office. The judge said that Silva owes the full bill of about $27,000, the majority of which was legal fees.

There was a reasonable basis to evict the defendant, and the defendant resisted, concluded Barkley. It was necessary.

Mondays trial focused on Suite G at 223 W. Main St., a small, second-floor office on the Downtown Mall. Thats where Silva conducted an online business trading insignia goods on Depop, a peer-to-peer e-commerce site.

I sell hype items, Silva testified.

Silva complained that since his Nov. 14 arrest and incarceration he was unfairly denied access to such items as an $800 T-shirt, a $1,700 pair of Ben & Jerrys-branded Nike Dunks sneakers and a $6,000 chair. And his lawyer, Dale Jensen, accused the property manager, Bill Rice, of unfairly seizing the goods.

He wanted to take that personal property and hold it hostage, said Jensen.

While the lawyer conceded that Silva rightfully owed about $2,100 in rent and late fees for the $350-per-month office, he took issue with the amounts charged for packing and storing the goods, for post-tenancy repairs and for more than $18,000 in fees to two lawyers.

Whats at issue is the amount owed by my client, said Jensen. There are some things that are beyond the pale.

The landlords lawyer, Randall Purdue, disagreed.

This case is really about consequences, said Purdue. Bryan objected to the eviction which is his right to do. But that process has cost money, time and expenses.

Trial testimony indicated that there was a point at which another attorney, Doris Gelbman, acting in a court-ordered capacity, went to the local jail in December to get Silva to sign a form to let his older brother, Phillip, get the goods.

He told me that he absolutely refused to let his brother collect his property, Gelbman testified. He declined to sign.

I thought Id be able to get out and get them myself, the younger Silva said when he took the stand.

Trial testimony indicated there was a showdown in the hallway outside Suite G in late April, the day before a court-ordered eviction took effect. Silvas brother appeared with a rental truck and manpower to move the merchandise.

The locks were changed, Phillip Silva testified.

I dont issue keys to people who are in jail, testified Rice, the property manager.

One of the trials key issues was whether Rice had the right to change the locks to both Suite G and on the front door four days after Bryan Silvas Nov. 14 arrest on drug and ammunition charges.

That was five months before you can do that, said Bryan Silvas attorney.

Bryan Silva was targeted by police for social media statements made on Nov. 13, a few hours prior to the killing of three University of Virginia student-athletes. While Bryan Silva has no connection to their deaths, he was the subject of a protective order stemming from an alleged threat to a fellow office tenant and has prior criminal convictions including stalking. Concerned viewers online noticed that he illegally handled bullets in a Facebook post. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced last week to 1 1/2 years in prison as a felon in possession of ammunition.

The tenants in the building were very concerned for their safety, said the landlords lawyer. It was prudent for the landlord to change the locks. Typically, you dont have a situation where one of your tenants is incarcerated.

Legal analyst David Heilberg told The Daily Progress that the landlords move on lock-changing carried some risk.

As a practical matter, they had to replace the locks, said Heilberg. But they took a practical gamble that the guy wasnt coming back. If he got bailed out quickly and cured the default, they would have been obligated to give him the new key.

According to a bill of particulars, however, Bryan Silvas alleged default contained multiple infractions that went uncorrected for 30 days after the default notice. The landlord, the Joe H. Gieck Trust, claimed that Bryan Silva dirtied the bathrooms, misused the parking lot, refused to obtain insurance and impaired the quiet enjoyment of fellow tenants by smoking marijuana, playing loud music and making threats.

I sent two letters to him, Purdue argued. Bryan Silva did not change his behavior. Mr. Bryan Silva challenged this process every single step of the way.

In his ruling, the judge approved the invoices, including a bill amounting to $14,315 to cover Purdues 58 hours working the case against Bryan Silva.

Is $14,000 too much to spend on most landlord cases? Yes it is, said Judge Barkley. If he hadnt resisted it, there wouldnt be $14,000 in attorneys fees.

In contrast to his week-earlier criminal sentencing, where he appeared at ease, the 32-year-old Silva seemed distressed throughout Mondays 3.5-hour trial. His nearly shoulder-length hair was pulled back in a bun, high above his striped jail-issue jump suit.

During a break in the proceedings, Silva announced that hed be freed in two or three months.

After court, his brother expressed disappointment with the judgment and vowed an appeal. And he said that his brother is much more than that youthful expression of faux gangsterism suggested by his Gratata nickname.

Hes hurting, Phillip Silva told The Daily Progress. He lost his infant son.

Phillip Silva said that local people dont realize that his brothers angry online tirades against UVa were a reasonable reaction to the November stillbirth of his son shortly after a visit to UVa Medical Center. The ashes of the son were stored in Suite G and have not been returned, his brother alleges.

Nobody knows Bryan; nobody knows what hes actually gone through, said his brother. The only people Bryan has to express to are online.
Mining major Vedanta on August 4 announcement the appointment of John Slaven as the chief executive officer of the company's aluminum business, and Stephen Russel Moore as the deputy CEO of its subsidiary Cairn Oil & Gas.



The appointment of Slaven will come into effect on October 3, 2023, for a period of "3.5 years", Vedanta informed the stock exchanges, adding that he would also be designated as a "senior management personnel (SMP)" in effect from the same date.



Moore, on the other hand, has been elevated as the Deputy CEO of Cairn with immediate effect. He was currently positioned as the chief operating officer (COO) of the oil and gas exploration arm of Vedanta group.



The appointments were given the nod by the board of directors in the meeting held earlier in the day, Vedanta said.



Slaven "will be leading all aspects of the strategy of aluminium

business growth and strategy, including development of strategic alliances with global partners to fast-track business delivery", the company noted. Prior to joining Vedanta, he had worked in key executive roles in the Australian mining and metals major BHP Billiton, it added.



While elaborating on Moore's appointment as Cairn's Deputy CEO, Vedanta noted that he would be in-charge of the "growth strategy and strategic business alliances with global partners to fast-track business delivery".



Vedanta also stated that it is looking at setting up an advisory board for Cairn's business. "The aim is that Nicholas John Robert Walker who is currently the CEO of Cairn Oil & Gas will play a role in setting up this

Board and be part of it to provide oversight and advice to the management and create a long-term business strategy for unlocking the significant potential of Cairns assets," it added.



Vedanta's shares, in the trading session on August 4, traded in the red and settled at Rs 247.15 apiece on the BSE. This was 2.7 percent lower as against the previous closing price.
While emphasising the need to bring out a policy that restricts the import of laptops and personal computers (PC), Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar on August 4 said "there will be a transition period" for implementing the new norms.



"There will be a transition period for this to be put into effect which will be notified soon," Chandrasekhar tweeted, a day after the Union commerce ministry, via a notification, announced that computer manufacturers will now require a valid licence and would have to pay duty to import PCs, laptops, tablets, servers etc.



The exemption will be provided on the import licence only for up to 20 of such items per consignment for the purpose of research and development, testing, benchmarking and evaluation, repair and re-export and for product development, as per the notification.



A senior government official, who spoke to news agency Reuters on condition of anonymity, said the implementation of the curbs will be delayed by at least a month.



Chandrasekhar defended the policy, claiming that the government's objectives are to ensure that "trusted hardware and systems" are used in the Indian tech ecosystem "to reduce import dependence" and to increase "domestic manufacturing of this category of products".



"This is not at all about licence raj," the minister stressed. His clarification came shortly after reports said that Apple, Samsung Electronics and HP Inc are among the big names that are freezing new imports of laptops and tablets to India in response to the curbs.



Government sources who spoke to CNBC TV-18 clarified that the importers would be extended support, and goods in transit would not be impacted. The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) will provide for the issuance of licences within minutes, and clarify modalities for rejection of the licence applications, the persons privy to the development added.



The move taken by the government is unlikely to hike the prices in this segment of electronics, they further added. Experts who spoke to Moneycontrol, however, said there could be near-term price hikes even as the policy would boost the 'Make in India' initiative in the long run.



"There could be some price increase by enterprises in the short term for some of the products like by Apple whose products are 100 percent imported. But for Dell and HP, this could play up well as they already have manufacturing set-up here," Neil Shah, partner at Counterpoint Research, said.



According to IDC's Associate Vice President, Devices Research, Navkendar Singh, this should not be a surprise to the industry and the industry observers as this was bound to happen at one point. The government has been telling the industry to start manufacturing in India for a long time and the majority of them are assembling a lot of desktops here, he said.



India ships around 2 million laptops a quarter, and out of that, almost 1.5 million are imported. Every premium laptop is imported. The volumes are huge, there is also an import-export imbalance here. But currently, we dont have the capacity to actually expand manufacturing immediately, he said.
The Delhi High Court on Friday sought a response from the Centre, Election Commission of India, and 26 political parties on a petition seeking to restrain opposition parties from using the acronym INDIA for their alliance.



Opposition bloc INDIA (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) comprising 26 parties was announced at a meeting in Bengaluru, Karnataka on July 17-18 to take on the ruling NDA in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.



A bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Amit Mahajan issued notices to the ministries of Home Affairs and Information and Broadcasting, ECI and 26 political parties on the petition, saying that the matter needs to be heard. "



It has to be heard. It requires hearing. Notice issued," the bench said.



It, however, refused to grant any interim relief at this stage and said that no order can be passed without hearing the respondents. "We can't pass any order like this. Let the response of the other side come. We will definitely look into it," the bench said.



Petitioner Girish Bharadwaj said the prominent leaders and members of 16 of the 26 political parties mentioned in the memo of parties of the petition gathered at Patna in Bihar on June 23 to form an alliance for contesting the upcoming general election of 2024 and decided to meet again at Bengaluru to prepare a strategy and choose the name of alliance and its convenor.



The petition, through advocate Vaibhav Singh, said on July 17, these political parties gathered in Bengaluru to give shape to further strategies for the 2024 general election and the name of the alliance was announced to be INDIA.



These parties have said that they will contest the 2024 elections together against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), it said.



The plea has sought interim order staying the use of acronym INDIA by the political parties and to also prohibit the use of the national flag with the acronym INDIA by the respondent political alliance.



The plea referred to the statements of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. ".... by dragging the name of our Nation Mr. (Rahul) Gandhi very cunningly presented the name of their alliance as the name of our nation and tried to show that the NDA/ BJP and Hon'ble Prime Minister Mr. (Narendra) Modi is in conflict with our own nation, that is, INDIA and this attempt of Mr. Gandhi had created confusion in the mind of common people that the upcoming general election of 2024 will be a fight between political parties or between alliance and our country.



"That by creating this confusion the respondent political parties want to take undue advantage in the name of our country," the plea said. It said that the petitioner gave a representation to the ECI but no action was taken after which he approached the high court with the petition.



The political parties which have been arrayed as respondents are Indian National Congress, All India Trinamool Congress, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Aam Aadmi Party, Janata Dal (United), Rashtriya Janata Dal, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar), Shiv Sena (UBT), Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Lok Dal, Apna Dal (Kamerawadi).



Besides, the other political parties are the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference, Peoples Democratic Party, Communist Party of India (Marxist), Communist Party of India, Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Konganadu Makkal Desia Katchi (KMDK), Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi and Indian Union Muslim League.



Revolutionary Socialist Party, Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation, All India Forward Bloc, Kerala Congress (Joseph), Kerala Congress (Mani) and Manithaneya Makkal Katchi (MMK) have also been arrayed as respondent parties.
Central Drug Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) officials have nabbed two people for selling and storing counterfeit medicines worth Rs 2 crore. The seized medicines were fakes of many of the countrys leading pharma companies, including Sun Pharma, Alkem, Cipla, Glenmark, GSK, Abbott, Novartis, Dr. Reddys, and Aristo. In fact, the seizure, billed as one of the biggest, was possible because of a Sun Pharma complaint and call records of the accused, officials said.



A Health Ministry official said CDSCOs Kolkata office got a complaint from Sun Pharma Laboratories Limited on January 11 regarding the sale and storage of fakes of their products at a shop in Kolkatas Bagri Market.



Big catch



One of the drug inspectors on the investigating team spoke to Moneycontrol on conditions of anonymity and said, We conducted simultaneous raids on January 17 and 18 in Bagri Market and seized spurious/counterfeit drugs linked with top manufacturers. The quantity that we seized from one shop was worth Rs 10 lakhs, he said.



The official said one person was arrested under the provisions of the Drugs & Cosmetics Act, 1940.



Also read: Drug makers get a year for GMP implementation, Mandaviya warns action on defaults



During the investigation, the call details records assessment led the CDSCO officials to an unlicensed warehouse in Kolkatas Kolutala. We recced the warehouse for several days and finally conducted raids on July 7 and 8 and to our surprise we found huge consignments of counterfeit medicines worth Rs 2 crore having labels of almost all of the leading brands in the country, he added.



Another accused was arrested and sent to judicial custody for 10 days by Bankshall Court, Kolkata.



The official said the counterfeit medicines were mostly antibiotics, antacids, cardiac drugs, and pregnancy medicines.



Counterfeit medicines having labels of Sun Pharmaceutical, Alkem, Cipla, Glenmark, GSK, Abbott, Novartis, Dr. Reddys, Aristo and of reputed brands like Augmentin, Pan-D, Pantocid DSR, Urimax-D, Clavam etc. were seized from unlicensed premises situated at 82, Moulana Shaukat Ali Street, Kolkata, a Health Ministry official said.



Also read: Drug quality concerns take centre stage at pharma export councils global meet



Joint operation



We have conducted raids in Uttarakhand, Hyderabad, Sikkim and Bihar to nab the kingpin of fake medicine. Several places have been identified, where CDSCO officials will conduct raids, he added.



In April this year, a team of drug inspectors from Odisha, with the assistance of Bihar drugs control officials, seized spurious drugs worth Rs 10 Lakhs in Bihars Muzaffarpur.



The official said the ongoing investigation has shown that fake medicine makers target cities like Varanasi, Patna, and Kolkata. They try to smuggle the fake medicines through these cities to Odisha and then to different states in the country, he added.



We have written to the pharma companies, urging them to sensitize their marketing team about the fake medicine circulation. The medical representatives have to inform the department as soon as they find any abnormality in the labelling of medicine, he added.



The drug regulators from the eastern zone of CDSCO were felicitated by the Union Health Minister, Mansukh Mandaviya.
Forget the international shock of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunaks

about-turn on climate policies this week. The really consequential political reversal on global warming may be happening 8,000 kilometers (5,000 miles) to the east.



Beijing went from an antagonist in climate negotiations to an ally and even leader in recent years. It now appears to be getting cold feet. At a disastrous

Group of 20 climate ministers meeting in the southern Indian city of Chennai last week, Chinas negotiator teamed up with Saudi Arabia and refused to discuss a 2025 global emissions target, according to a report in the Financial Times. An unnamed person familiar with the talks was quoted as describing the negotiator as a one-man wrecking ball. I am leaving Chennai disappointed, the European Unions environment commissioner

Virginijus Sinkevicius wrote on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. We expect global solidarity. China accounts for nearly a third of the worlds emissions and 196 percent of the increase in global greenhouse pollution since 2019. Despite that, its vast investments in renewable power and desire to lift its prestige on the world stage have raised certain expectations. Namely, that Beijing may help push for a consequential outcome at this years COP28 UN climate meeting in Dubai in December.From the nadir of the 2009 Copenhagen United Nations climate summit (when China was widely blamed for the failure to reach an agreement), it rose to be a key ally in hammering out the Paris Agreement with the US in 2015, before further committing to net-zero emissions in 2020.



Any retreat from that status would be disastrous not just to the worlds climate trajectory, but also to President Xi Jinpings vision of Chinas global role. Xi wants to see the country move from the sidelines of international affairs to center stage, a position more befitting its status as the second-largest economy with the second-largest population.



Over the past decade, climate has worked as a sort of sandbox for Beijing to practice this so-called major-country diplomacy, demonstrating its responsible leadership to smaller and poorer nations and earning credibility that might support broader ambitions to reshape global institutions in its favor. The behavior in Chennai diminishes its status on that front.



At the same time, its not completely unexpected. China and India teamed up at the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow in 2021 to block a commitment to phase out fossil fuels, points out Thom Woodroofe, a former climate diplomat and founding director of the Asia Societys China Climate Hub.



A promised 2025 global emissions peak doesnt quite match Chinas plan for emissions to top out by 2030, he said, making it disappointing but less surprising that negotiators refused to consider the issue. The situation still bodes very badly for a historic outcome for Indias presidency at the G-20 leaders summit later this year, he said by e-mail. It narrows the playing field for COP28, reducing the probability of a diplomatic breakthrough: Long gone are the days when China can hide behind the bifurcation of the developed and developing world as an excuse not to do more.



China is in every sense now a major country in terms of its climate footprint. Even on a per-capita basis, its emissions are significantly larger than those in the EU, and not far behind Japan. It now has far more in common with major industrialised economies than those of the Global South.



As Sunaks reversal in the UK indicates, though, every nation faces domestic as well as international constraints on its climate policymaking. China remains attached to a carbon-intensive mode of development, from dirty heavy industries that account for more than half of its greenhouse pollution; to use of real estate and infrastructure spending as a tool of economic stimulus; to a grid that still depends on near-limitless coal expansion thanks to the inadequacy of market reforms that could lift renewables' share.



This helps explain the skepticism that often greets Beijings claims to climate leadership. While emissions from rich countries have fallen about 817 million metric tons since the Paris Agreement, Chinas have risen by 1.5 billion tons, equivalent to three-quarters of the overall increase globally.



Joining Saudi Arabia as a climate naysayer isnt the answer, however. The extraordinary pace of renewables growth means that power sector emissions are likely to hit a ceiling this year, especially if Chinas hydroelectric dams recover from the drought conditions that prevailed over the past 12 months. Oil consumption in 2023 has likely already maxed out

and will see muted growth in the years to come as electric vehicles and a slower economic pace eat into demand. Chinas own actions may be the reason the world hits the 2025 emissions peak its diplomats refused to discuss.



Xi and his senior officials speak often of the need to build an ecological civilisation domestically and play an exemplary role on climate issues internationally. The opportunity is within his grasp to turn the slowing and maturation of Chinas economy into a success story that can boost its global standing. The alternative is to become just another industrialised country, raining disasters on less wealthy nations and earning their distrust through its unchecked pollution.



If the wrecking tactics in Chennai are repeated in Dubai in December, the world will know which path Xi has chosen.



David Fickling is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering commodities, as well as industrial and consumer companies. Views are personal, and do not represent the stand of this publication.



Credit: Bloomberg
New statistics regularly pop up to illustrate the accelerating decline of Japans population. Last week, the first-ever drop of locals in all 47

prefectures made headlines. Numbers even began to decline in Okinawa, which has the countrys highest birthrate.



At this stage, its common knowledge that Japan isnt an outlier when it comes to low fertility rates, merely a frontrunner. The same demographic crunch is starting to hit other nations, notably South Korea and China.

Fertility in every European Union country is below replacement level. When the debate quickly turns to the benefits of immigration, Japan is often painted as hostile, if not downright xenophobic, and rejecting the choice of foreign workers.



Take a closer look at that data from last week, however. It shows the number of foreigners rose 11 percent from a year earlier to comprise 2.4 percent of the total population, or just under 3 million people; as the figures are from Jan. 1, that milestone has now likely already been passed. It often goes unremarked that the number of workers from overseas has more than doubled in the last decade alone, while the broader foreign community

(including students and families) has risen 50 percent.



Based on population projections, conversation has already been shifting to a future where foreigners will make up more than 10 percent of people in the country 50 years from now  similar to the current levels of the US, UK or France. Naturally, this creates some unease; what Japan may lack in economic dynamism, it makes up for in social cohesion. Civil unrest and large, no-go immigrant neighborhoods are basically unheard of.











Already, this change is tangible  one only needs to go into any of the ubiquitous convenience stores in Tokyo or other major cities. Not long ago, it was a novelty to see a foreigner behind the counter; these days, it feels more unusual to see a Japanese. (And given the range of tasks that convenience store workers are expected to handle, from paying bills to cooking fried chicken to sending parcels, I do not envy them.)



While some media have recently focused on the slight increase in Americans moving to Japan, seeking a country with cheap health care and free of active shooter drills in schools, the majority of the increase is attributable to Japans Asian neighbors  most prominently, Vietnam, whose nationals have surged 10-fold in the past decade to nearly half a million.



If you havent noticed this trend, dont be surprised. The government, treading a thin line between businesses complaining of labor shortages and a public that is broadly cautious over large-scale immigration, isnt exactly shouting about it from the rooftops. But with a post-COVID dearth of workers and retirees departing the labor force in droves, the crunch is growing tighter. Some 85 percent of eateries say they suffer from a lack of part-time employees, according to research firm Teikoku Databank; nearly an equal amount of hotels say the same about full-time workers.



Thats the main reason Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has expanded a visa that allows foreign laborers and their families to stay in Japan indefinitely from just two industries (construction and shipbuilding) to 11, including the extremely stretched service sector. We have to consider a society where we coexist with foreigners, Kishida said at a speech last month. A long-standing foreign trainee scheme that was criticised for enabling abuse will be scrapped and replaced. For white-collar professionals, initiatives include a fast track to permanent residency for high-earners. The government is also studying the introduction of a digital nomad visa to attract those who can live and work anywhere. Another goal is to attract 400,000 foreign students by 2033, from a little over 300,000 before the pandemic, with half staying on for employment; currently, only around 40 percent remain after their studies.



Theres not much time to lose. With Japans labor force set to drop by an average of 220,000 people a year, Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co. estimates the country needs to be bringing in 2.3 times the number of recent entrants just to keep up.



Large challenges are increasingly in the way. Many industries already say they cant attract enough workers as it is, much less afford to bring in more. Wages, which have stagnated for decades, look particularly miserly these days when measured in dollars due to the weak yen, even as pay is growing in the home nations of potential migrants. Japans health care and public safety are compelling, but comparatively high tax rates remain a barrier for encouraging high earners.



Next to other Asian destinations where English is more widely spoken, Japan certainly has a steeper learning curve. Smaller communities in particular can struggle to accommodate people who cant come to grips with the language, a problem that may only worsen amid growing concern over the level of spoken English. Potential residents need patience, as well as a willingness to learn Japanese, when the tourist honeymoon period ends if theyre to be accepted long-term.



There are broader issues of integration. Some quarters have a tendency to view foreign workers more as a disposable commodity rather than part of the community; infamously, Japan paid laid-off Brazilians, often employed in the auto industry, to go home after the Global Financial Crisis struck provided they agreed not to come back. Surveys show that most Japanese are broadly accepting of the need for more foreign workers, but many are given pause by footage of this years riots in France, or headlines on the failed integration of refugees in many parts of Europe. Japan must learn not just from its own failures, but also from countries that have avoided ghettoisation. And it must work harder to make Japan a home: Despite a famously strong passport, and acceptance rates of around 85 percent of applicants in 2021, the numbers of those seeking citizenship has declined from the 2000s. Some of that is due to the pandemic, but the trend predates it.



Many of these problems are less pressing than they were a few decades ago. Some 70 percent of those asked by public broadcaster NHK in 2020 agreed with the need to bring in more foreign workers, though that number drops to 57 percent when asked if they wanted that increase to be in their area. An expansive Pew Research Center survey in 2019 found Japan to be no international outlier on perceptions of migrants, with the same percentage (59 percent) agreeing with the proposition that immigrants make our

country stronger as in the US.



The change is most pronounced in cities, where residents are increasingly experienced in using the internet, smartphones and translation apps help bridge the communication gap. More than 10 percent of those in Tokyos

bustling Shinjuku City are now born outside the country; locals flock to the ethnic cuisines in Shin-Okubo, traditionally a Koreatown but with an increasing presence of Southeast Asian and halal food. The weak yen is a worry, but the country has overcome previous concerns thought to put immigrants off, such as the 2011 earthquake and nuclear disaster or the tight border policies of the pandemic. Japan remains a desirable destination  one thats more open than you might think.



Gearoid Reidy is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Japan and the Koreas. Views are personal and do not represent the stand of this publication.



Credit: Bloomberg




Separate incidents of the death of 66 children in The Gambia, 18 children in Uzbekistan, and a few others in Cameroon, Liberia, Marshall Islands and Micronesia in the past year have something in common  contaminated cough syrups manufactured in India.



The sequence of events that follows each such episode is now familiar  denial by Indian government agencies, setting up of a review committee, a few inspections here and there, allegations of conspiracy to tarnish Indias image as the pharmacy of the world and occasional stern warning to the industry on quality regulations.



This is the context of the latest statement of Mansukh Mandaviya regarding the Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) to be followed by the pharmaceutical industry.



Mandaviyas Tough Job



As both the health minister and the minister for pharmaceuticals, Mandaviya has a tough job at hand. This explains why he speaks in two tongues. As the minister for chemicals and fertilisers, he is supposed to promote the pharmaceutical industry and prevent any threats to pharma exports and Indias image as the pharmacy of the world.



And, in his role as the health minister, he is in the role of a regulator and is supposed to protect the interest of the public. How does he deal with incidents of Indian pharma products causing deaths and injury due to contamination or poor quality? Should he protect industry interests or should he be on the side of peoples health? He is doing both.



On July 11, Mandaviya, while speaking to industry representatives, talked about being alert to the quality of drugs and expeditiously moving towards GMP through self-regulation. He elaborated: Our global position in the pharmaceutical sector is created through the quality of our products. We must undertake all possible steps to ensure that we strengthen this position in terms of value and quality. Hence, the role of self-regulation becomes critical.



Concession Dressed As Warning



Any talk of self-regulation in the pharmaceutical sector undermines the role and mandate of the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) who is legally bound to regulate the drug industry under the laws laid down by Parliament. In the same meeting, Mandaviya assured the industry of reducing the compliance burden.



If Indias health minister thinks compliance with the national drug regulation is a burden, then we need to get worried. But then, he was speaking to the industry as the minister in charge of promoting the pharmaceutical sector. His latest statement, however, comes from the health ministry.



Here he is talking about warning and stern action against defaulters. He says pharma companies will have to implement GMP compulsorily within 12 months. This too is perplexing because GMP has been mandatory since 2005. In effect, the minister is not giving any warning to the industry but offering a concession in the form of time to comply with regulation which it should have done long ago.



Industrys Challenges



GMP has been a weak point of the Indian industry from the time it was made mandatory in 2005. It is an elaborate set of procedures  contained in Schedule M of the regulatory law - covering every part of the manufacturing process.



These straddle quality management, personnel, premises and equipment, documentation and records, sanitation and hygiene, raw materials (ensuring that all raw materials used in the manufacturing process are of the appropriate quality and sourced from approved suppliers), manufacturing process, packaging and labelling, comprehensive quality control system, storage and distribution, product complaints and recalls, self-Inspection and audits.



There are specific provisions to prevent contamination and mixing-up of chemicals  the kind of mixing with harmful chemicals that made some batches of cough syrups toxic in recent cases. The objective of GMP is to ensure the quality, safety, and efficacy of pharmaceutical products.



To be fair, the GMP norms are tough and need substantial investments by the industry. Given the structure of the pharma industry  80 percent of companies are MSME  it is a tall order to implement GMP. Even large companies, at times, falter with GMP as is often found in inspections of their manufacturing facilities done by the US FDA in India.



Political Will



The government has been lenient with compliance and has been nudging the industry to comply with GMP for the past two decades. Previous governments even offered incentives like the Credit Linked Capital Subsidy Scheme to the industry to help it implement GMP.



The industry strategy is to keep lobbying for more time for GMP compliance and dilution of specific clauses in it, and it has succeeded once again. It has got one more year from Mandaviya.



Making drug regulation a science-based, efficient, robust and transparent system needs political will. The system should be rid of all vested interests and lobbies. Its goal should be the health and well-being of people in India and wherever Indian drugs are exported to, and not industry promotion. India is yet to get this priority right.



Dinesh C Sharma is a science journalist and author based in New Delhi. Views are personal, and do not represent the stance of this publication.
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Hours after praising the AAP government's Mohalla Clinic initiative, Karnataka Health Minister and Congress leader Dinesh Gundu Rao on Friday said it is "overhyped" and he was left "disappointed" after a visit to one such facility.



The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), in a statement, alleged that Rao received a phone call after praising the mohalla clinic initiative and thereafter changed his stance.



Rao alone can clarify why his statement changed from praising the mohalla clinic to criticising it, the AAP said, adding it was "unfortunate".



The Congress and the AAP are members of the opposition INDIA bloc.



On Friday, Rao visited an 'Aam Aadmi Mohalla Clinic' at Panchsheel Park here. He was accompanied by Delhi Health Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj and Karnataka Bhavan medical officer Karthik, according to an official statement.



Almost four hours after praising the mohalla clinic initiative, Gundu Rao made a U-turn.



"Visited a mohalla clinic in Delhi with hardly any people there. Our clinics in Karnataka have more facilities, including a laboratory, to do immediate tests for patients," the Congress leader tweeted. "I guess it is overhyped and I came back feeling disappointed," he said on Twitter.



During the visit, the Karnataka minister saw the facilities at the mohalla clinic and enquired about the welfare of staffers.



Speaking to reporters during his visit to the Panchsheel Park mohalla clinic, Rao had praised the mohalla clinic model and said that it is functioning "very well".



"I had heard a lot about mohalla clinics and I wanted to see them personally. I wanted to discuss how they (AAP government) are implementing the health policies," he had told reporters.



"In southern states such as Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka, health has always been a priority. Every state has got something good that we can learn from. We have something similar (to mohalla clinics) we have 'namma clinics'. We wanted to see how we can improve our system. I saw the mohalla clinic and it is functioning very well People are also appreciating it," he had said.



The AAP said the comparison between the mohalla clinic and namma clinic is "unjust".



"Dinesh Gundu Rao received a phone call. Following the call, he mentioned an important meeting and left the location. A while later, he tweeted criticising the mohalla clinic. However, only Dinesh Rao can clarify why his statement changed from praising the mohalla clinic to criticising it after the phone call.



"In his tweet, he claimed that Namma Clinic in Karnataka had better infrastructure than Mohalla Clinic. To verify this claim, Aam Aadmi Party's Karnataka team visited a Namma Clinic in his constituency.



"They found that both Namma Clinic and Primary Health Centre were located adjacent to each other. People mentioned that the Primary Health Centre had been closed for a long time. Namma Clinic, in reality, is just a name. It was initiated by the BJP government. The clinic provides only primary treatment for some illnesses like fever. Patients are referred to other hospitals," the AAP said.



The comparison between Namma Clinic and Delhi's Mohalla Clinic is unjust, the AAP said, adding mohalla clinics are well-equipped and treatment is provided free of cost.



The claim made by Rao that Namma Clinic's infrastructure is superior to Mohalla Clinic is "false". Namma Clinic lacks good facilities, it alleged.



The Delhi government's mohalla clinic is a neighbourhood facility for providing free primary healthcare to residents. The mohalla clinic programme is among the flagship initiatives of the Arvind Kejriwal government to boost the primary healthcare system in Delhi.



In his interaction with reporters during his visit to the Panchsheel Park mohalla clinic, the Congress minister was also asked whether this visit was planned since they are allies now, to which he said this is a "department" matter and not a "political" one.



"Alliance is a different issue and a political one. We will go to other states. Rajasthan has a health policy. It can be a BJP state also (where we can visit). That is the concept of federalism," he said.



Slamming the BJP-led Centre, he said that it "is creating a situation where this approach of working together is getting lost".



"They look at opposition-ruled states as enemies. Politically they give trouble and they even trouble the state governments. The (services) ordinance is overruling people's issues. If you weaken an elected government it weakens democracy. Exchange of views is something that is good and should be done always. I have also extended invitation to Delhi health minister to see what is being done on various fronts (in Karnataka)," he told reporters.



Bharadwaj said his Karnataka counterpart told him about how good the hospitals are in the southern state. "We will also visit his state. All states should learn from each other. I am very happy that they have come here," he said.



Earlier in the day, quote-tweeting Bharadwaj's tweets on Gundu Rao's visit, Kejriwal had said Delhi will learn from the good work done by the Karnataka government.



"Karnataka health minister visits Delhi mohalla clinics. We welcome him and his team. We all have to learn from each other. Delhi will also learn from the good work done by Karnataka govt," he had tweeted.



Currently, there are more than 500 mohalla clinics in the national capital that offer free primary healthcare services to patients, including 212 different types of medical tests.
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Friday hailed the Supreme Court ruling staying the conviction of Rahul Gandhi in a 2019 defamation case and cited a quote by Gautam Buddha that "Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth". The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the conviction of Gandhi in the defamation case over his Modi surname remark. Reacting to the development. Priyanka Gandhi said on Twitter, "'Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth ~Gautama Buddha'." The Congress general secretary thanked the apex court for the decision and wrote "Satyameva Jayate". A three-judge bench of Justices B R Gavai, P S Narasimha and Sanjay Kumar said there is no doubt that the utterances were not in good taste and that a person in public life is expected to exercise caution while making public speeches. "No reason has been given by the trial judge for imposing maximum sentence, the order of conviction needs to be stayed pending final adjudication," the bench said. The top court was hearing a plea by Gandhi challenging the Gujarat High Court verdict which dismissed his plea seeking a stay on his conviction in a defamation case over his "Modi surname" remark. Former Gujarat minister Purnesh Modi had filed a criminal defamation case in 2019 against Gandhi over his "How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname?" remark made during an election rally in Kolar in Karnataka on April 13, 2019.

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A Louisa County woman was killed in a two-vehicle collision in Louisa County on Thursday afternoon.

Virginia State Police said Friday that 32-year-old Samantha Chisholm was driving a 2018 Chevrolet Traverse south on James Madison Highway when she lost control of her SUV in the wet conditions. She overcorrected and spun into the northbound lane, where she collided with a 2006 white Chevrolet work van, authorities said.

Chisholm died at the scene of the crash about 1.7 miles south of East Jack Jouett Road, police said. She was wearing a seatbelt.

Two juveniles who were in the SUV with her were taken to the hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries.

They were also wearing seatbelts.

The driver of the work van, a 34-year-old man from Charlottesville, and his passenger, a 31-year-old man also from Charlottesville, suffered minor injuries and did not require hospitalization.

The crash remains under investigation by state police. No charges have been filed at this time.
The Congress on Friday hailed the Supreme Court ruling staying the conviction of Rahul Gandhi in a 2019 defamation case, calling the judgment a strong vindication of truth and asserting that "no force can silence the voice of the people".



The Congress described it as a "victory of love over hate".



The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the conviction of Gandhi in the defamation case over his Modi surname remark.



Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said the Supreme Court judgment is a strong vindication of truth and justice.



"Despite the relentless efforts of the BJPs machinery, Rahul Gandhi has refused to bend, break or bow, choosing instead to place his faith in the judicial process," he said on Twitter.



"Let this be a lesson to the BJP and its acolytes: you can do your absolute worst but we will not back down. We will continue to expose and call out your failures as a Government and as a party. We will continue to uphold our Constitutional ideals and repose faith in our institutions which you so desperately want to destroy. Satyameva Jayate!" Ramesh said.



Congress' general secretary organisation K C Venugopal also hailed the verdict.



"We welcome the Hon'ble Supreme Court's verdict staying Sh. @RahulGandhi ji's conviction. Justice has prevailed. No force can silence the voice of the people," Venugopal said on Twitter.



In a tweet in Hindi, the Congress said, "It is a victory of love over hate. Satyamev Jayate -- Jai Hind Congress general secretary Randeep Surjewala also hailed the ruling, saying justice has prevailed.



"The roar of truth will be heard again the halls of democracy!" he said.



A three-judge bench of Justices B R Gavai, P S Narasimha and Sanjay Kumar said there is no doubt that the utterances were not in good taste and that a person in public life is expected to exercise caution while making public speeches.



"No reason has been given by the trial judge for imposing maximum sentence, the order of conviction needs to be stayed pending final adjudication," the bench said.



The top court was hearing a plea by Gandhi challenging the Gujarat High Court verdict which dismissed his plea seeking a stay on his conviction in a defamation case over his "Modi surname" remark.



Former Gujarat minister Purnesh Modi had filed a criminal defamation case in 2019 against Gandhi over his "How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname?" remark made during an election rally in Kolar in Karnataka on April 13, 2019.
Police in Bengaluru have arrested a man for biting off his wifes finger and eating it during a domestic row. The accused has been identified as one Vijay Kumar, a private firm employee who married a woman named Pushpa 23 years ago. Kumar would reportedly abuse his wife physically and verbally, because of which Pushpa left him and went back to her parents. The couple had a son together. Since their marriage, the accused used to torture his wife physically and mentally. Unable to take in the torture, the woman moved out of their house with their son and started living separately, a police officer said, according to Hindustan Times. On July 28, Kumar went to his in-laws house and asked Pushpa to return. When she refused, he flew into a fit of rage and assaulted her. During the fight, he bit off one of the fingers of her left hand and chewed it up, according to The New Indian Express. He also threatened his wife, saying he would kill her and eat her the same way he ate the finger. Pushpas family members rushed to help her after she screamed in pain. She was moved to a hospital where she received treatment. Meanwhile, Kumar fled the scene fearing consequences. Pushpa filed a complaint against her husband at Konanakunte police station. Police registered a case against the accused under charges of domestic violence, assault and criminal intimidation, and he was soon tracked down and arrested.

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India will participate in a two-day meeting hosted on Ukraine by Saudi Arabia in Jeddah from Saturday.



This is the second such event that India is attending after the June meeting in Denmarks capital, Copenhagen.



India has consistently called for respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all states and pushed for diplomacy and dialogue to end the Ukraine war.



Though 30 countries are expected to be present in Jeddah, Russia will be a notable absentee as it has not been invited.



The host was keen on Chinas participation but Beijing is likely to stay away as did in the Copenhagen event.



The Ministry of External Affairs spokesman Arindam Bagchi said, India will participate in this event and our participation is in consonance with our long-standing position that dialogue and diplomacy is the way forward.



News reports suggested that National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval will lead the Indian delegation in Jeddah.



The US NSA Jake Sullivan and senior and political advisers of other countries are also scheduled to join the talks on Ukraine in Jeddah.



Brazil, Chile, Mexico, South Africa, Turkey, and Zambia are among the countries attending tomorrows meeting.



The meeting comes at a time when the war has intensified as Kyiv has been supplied with enhanced and more sophisticated weapons by NATO. But it has not been able to achieve any significant breakthrough.



Russia has held on to its position without making fresh gains. Most experts see the war that began in February 2022 as heading for a stalemate.



The meetings are an attempt to isolate Russia on the international stage.



But despite Washingtons attempts, India and most countries in the developing world have refused to condemn Russia for the war or impose sanctions on it.



Sullivan will try to highlight how Moscows decision to walk away from the UN-brokered Black Sea grain deal has worsened the global food supply to win over the developing countries.



The West hopes the efforts could culminate in a peace summit later this year where global leaders would agree on shared principles for resolving the war.



They think those principles could frame the peace talks between Russia and Ukraine to Kyivs advantage.



Ukraine and other countries' peace plans



In Jeddah, the focus will be on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskys peace plan.



The 10-point peace plan includes the withdrawal of Russian troops, cessation of hostilities, restoration of Ukraines borders as existed before the war and return of all Ukrainian territories under Russian control.



It holds Russia accountable for atrocities and wants it to pay for the damage and destruction.



Predictably, Russia has rejected the plan.



Other countries also have peace plans for Ukraine. The African countries plan includes a Russian troops pullback, removal of Russian tactical nuclear weapons from Belarus, suspension of an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant against Putin and sanctions relief.



Russian President Vladimir Putin felt it can form the basis of peace talks with Ukraine.



In March this year, China proposed a 12-point plan that called for dialogue, respect for all countries' territorial sovereignty, end to economic sanctions and asked parties to avoid nuclear escalation.



There was no mention of the withdrawal of Russian forces.



Moscow welcomed it but Washington categorically rejected the proposal.



Pope Francis also proposed a peace plan



Russia said it acknowledged the Popes sincere desire to promote the peace process but pointed out that no practical steps have been taken by the Vatican so far to visit Moscow.



The Pope met Zelensky when he visited the Vatican. But the Ukrainian President was unhappy with the Popes reference to victims on both sides of the conflict.



Zelensky argued there can be no equivalence between victim and aggressor.



Importance of middle and neutral powers



The Jeddah meeting is an indication of the growing importance of middle and neutral powers.



Like India, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and many other Gulf countries have neither censored Russia nor imposed sanctions on it, though all are also close to the US.



Observers see Turkey and Saudi Arabia playing a bigger role in diplomacy on Ukraine.



Turkey took the initiative of getting 300 prisoners of war released in September and played a key role in the Black Sea Grain deal with the UN.



But it has also supplied Ukraine with sophisticated drones and other weapons that have been regularly used by Kyiv to attack Moscows assets.



Turkey has the second-largest army in NATO and controls the crucial Bosphorus Straitthe only entry point from the Black Sea into the Mediterranean.



The country has access to both Russia and the West.



Saudi Arabia had refused to follow the US advice to increase oil production to ease the energy crisis in Europe.



But it cut back on oil production to help Russia earn crucial revenue.



However, it has also hosted Ukraine and allowed it to address the Gulf Cooperation Council summit and has organised the Jeddah meet.



Countries like India, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, and South Africa with access to Ukraine and Russia could form a group and play a role to convince both nations to end the war.



But Russia and the US are also scheduled to hold their presidential elections in 2024.



In the run-up to the elections, it could be highly unlikely for a peace solution on Ukraine to emerge that would satisfy both Washington and Moscow.
As one gets older, one of the few things anyone desires is security. However, there are some who wish to pursue their dreams despite feeling secure.



In a recent example of someone belonging to that list, a man named Vikas Yadav from Delhi who studied at IIM Lucknow and then relocated to the United States to work, quit his job and returned to India to fulfill his dream of becoming an actor.



However, before making his foray into Bollywood, the 30-year-old Yadav became a well-known name in the content creation world and attracted fans with his funny videos on Instagram. He has 2.5 lakh followers on the platform thanks to his posts.



"I was always inclined towards acting and even attended a four-month theatre workshop at Shri Ram Centre for Performing Arts in 2015. I also acted in a play based on Vijay Tendulkars Khamosh Adalat Jaari Hai," Yadav told Indian Express in an interview.



Yadav said that his parents had expressed reluctance about his decision to leave a stable job to become an actor. But he opted to follow his dreams and received support from his wife.



"I come from a middle-class family. My father was in the government sector and retired recently. So they know the importance of a stable job. However, they have resigned to the fact of letting me do what I want," he said.



Yadav also revealed his earnings from social media posts were around Rs 1 lakh per month, which is less than what he was getting from his job in the United States. He further added the company was willing to give his job back and had currently put him on a six-month sabbatical.



"My company has given me the option of joining back in India as they have currently placed me on a six-month sabbatical. However, I dont plan on doing a 9-5 job anymore," Yadav said.



Prior to graduating out of IIM Lucknow, Yadav completed his bachelors in engineering from a Delhi college.



Also read: Bengaluru techie quits IT job to become a forest officer
Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez hosted another engagement party, this time on the Amazon billionaires $500 million superyacht, in Italy. Among those who attended the star-studded affair was fellow billionaire Bill Gates and his rumoured girlfriend, Paula Hurd, Page Six reported. Bill Gates and Paula Hurd were seen in a photograph sitting in the yacht and chatting with other guests. Last month, a representative of Gates, 67, denied rumours that he was engaged to Hurd, 60. The couple has reportedly been dating for a year but has managed to keep their relationship largely away from the public eye  although Hurd accompanied Gates to Sydney in January where Gates met with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. They were photographed together at the Australian Open too. Meanwhile, Jeff Bezos, 59 and Lauren Sanchez, 53, got engaged in May, shortly after which they made a grand entrance in Cannes, south of France, on the superyacht which is named Koru. They had been dating since 2018, but only went public with their relationship once his divorce from his first wife MacKenzie Scott was finalised in 2019. Other VIP guests at the extravagant party included American entrepreneur Wendi Murdoch, who is the ex-wife of media tycoon Rupert Murdoch. Bezoss luxury boat is believed to be the largest sailing yacht in the world. The vessel completed its construction five years after it was commissioned in 2018, and made its maiden voyage in April. The front of the superyacht reportedly features a mermaid figure that resembles Lauren Sanchez.

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The Supreme Court on August 4 stayed the conviction of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in a defamation case over his Modi surname remark during the campaign for the 2019 elections, clearing his way to return to the Lok Sabha and also keeping his hopes of contesting the next year's election alive.



The court said the judgment convicting Gandhi, who was elected to the Lok Sabha from Kerala's Wayanad constituency, did not state the reason why the maximum sentence of two years was imposed on him.



The offence was non-compoundable and bailable, the country's top court said, a decision hailed by Gandhi and his party colleagues as the victory of truth.



"Courts have spent a lot of pages while rejecting the application for stay of conviction, however, they have given no reasons," the court said, adding the ramifications of the judgment were not just for Gandhi but also the electorate of the constituency he represented.



Gandhi's utterances were not in good taste and he should have exercised a degree of caution, the court said.



In March 2023, the former Congress president was found guilty of defamation for his alleged "all thieves have Modi surname" remark in 2019. Gandhi was convicted by the chief judicial magistrate of Surat and sentenced to two years in prison. The next day he was disqualified from the Lok Sabha.



According to the Representation of the People Act of 1951, MPs and MLAs are disqualified the moment they are convicted of an offence punished by imprisonment of two years or more. They continue to be disqualified from the electoral process for six years after their release from prison.



In Gandhi's case, the conviction, if upheld, will disqualify him for eight years.



On July 7, the Gujarat High Court refused to stay Gandhi's conviction after which he moved the top court.
The Supreme Court on August 4 refused to hear the bail plea of former chairman and managing director of Yes Bank Rana Kapoor in a case of money laundering.



Justice Sanjiv Khanna said the allegations in the DHFL case had put Yes Bank through a lot of trouble, which even forced the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to intervene. The court advised the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to complete the investigation and the trial at the earliest.



On July 14, the Supreme Court orally observed that the allegations against Kapoor had "rocked the credibility of India's banking system".



Kapoor moved the Supreme Court against a Bombay High Court, which denied him bail in the DHFL money-laundering case. The high court said Kapoor was one of the main accused in the case, facing a "serious charge" of laundering public money.



Justice PD Naik of the Bombay High Court said Kapoor had misused his official position to gain undue financial benefits for himself, his family members and associates. It couldnt ignore Kapoor's role in the crime as well as the magnitude and seriousness of the offence, it said.



Kapoor had sought bail on the grounds that he had been in custody since March 2020. The trial in the case would take a long time to commence and his custody was not necessary.



In 2018, Yes Bank allegedly invested Rs 3,700 crore in short-term debentures of DHFL and sanctioned a loan of Rs 750 crore to a subsidiary of the non-banking finance company.



Kapoor is also alleged to have received Rs 600 crore in bribes by extending a loan to DOIT Urban Ventures (India) Pvt Ltd, a company wholly owned by RAB Enterprises, which in turn was owned by Kapoor's wife and daughters.



His first bail application was rejected by the High Court in February 2021.



Kapoor filed a second bail application, saying the maximum sentence under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) was seven years and since he had been in custody for three, he should be granted bail.
The Supreme Court on August 4 deferred to September 4 the hearing of former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia's bail plea, who is in custody over charges of corruption. Appearing for the Aam Aadmi Party leader, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi argued that Sisodia should be granted interim bail as his wife was ill and he also needed to take care of his aging mother. The court said it would hear the plea for interim bail along with the plea for regular bail, while asking the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to give it a clear picture of the money trail. Sisodia moved the top court for bail in the CBI and ED cases related to the alleged Delhi excise policy scam. He has been in custody since February 2023. Sisodia, who held the excise portfolio among others during his tenure as the deputy chief minister of Delhi, was arrested by the CBI on February 26 for his alleged irregularities in the excise policy. He resigned from the Delhi cabinet on February 28. The high court had on May 30 denied him bail in the case being probed by the CBI, saying having been the deputy chief minister and excise minister, Sisodia was a "high-profile" person who could influence witnesses. On July 3, the high court denied him bail in a money-laundering case linked to alleged irregularities in the excise policy, saying the charges against him were "very serious in nature".

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Dismissing Go First's claim that the aircraft lessors terminated the leases after it announced voluntary insolvency, the lessors of the grounded airline told the Delhi High Court on August 4 that the leases were terminated since the airline had defaulted in paying their dues.



Lawyers appearing for the lessors took the court through various correspondence between the airline and them to substantiate their claim. Lessors further argued that as per international conventions, the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had to deregister the aircraft by default when a lessor requests them to do so.



According to the lessors, the airline has no role to play in the process of deregistration as it is between DGCA and them. The lessors emphasised again that deregistration is an administrative action outside the jurisdiction of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 and the Delhi HC has the powers to hear the case. Lessors argued that the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) cannot revalidate the leases that have already been terminated.



Arguments were made on behalf of the lessors by senior advocates Rajiv Nayyar and Amit Sibal. Hearing of the case is likely to continue on August 7, when lessors are expected to finish arguing their side of the case.



On August 3, it was argued that no lessors will lease their aircraft to an Indian airline if their deregistration request is not processed by the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). The Resolution Professional (RP) of the airline informed the court that they have filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against the Delhi High Court division bench's order, which upheld the single judge's order allowing the airline's lessors the inspect their aircraft.



On July 12, the court allowed lessors to conduct inspections of 30 aircraft and their parts at regular intervals. The court upheld the decision of the single judge granting permission to the lessors to carry out inspections regularly. The court, however, permitted Go First to continue maintaining the aircraft.



On July 5, a single-judge bench of the Delhi High Court granted permission to the lessors to inspect and perform maintenance work on their 30 leased aircraft and their parts twice a month. The order also prohibited Go First's resolution professionals and employees from removing, replacing, or taking out any part or component of the leased aircraft without the explicit permission of the lessors.



The aircraft lessors, including Pembroke Aviation, Accipiter Investments Aircraft 2 Ltd, EOS Aviation, and SMBC Aviation, filed a writ with the Delhi High Court, seeking instructions to release the planes leased to Go First, which is currently facing financial distress.



On May 22, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) upheld the National Company Law Tribunal's (NCLT) order to admit Go First's plea for insolvency.



On May 10, the principal bench of the NCLT in Delhi accepted Go First's voluntary plea to initiate an insolvency resolution process. As a result, the tribunal appointed an Insolvency Resolution Professional (IRP), suspended the board and imposed a moratorium on the airline's financial obligations.
OTT platform Netflix released a new series on Friday, titled "The Hunt for Veerappan", which chronicles the journey of the Indian bandit who caused havoc for several decades. Veerappan was killed by Tamil Nadu police's Special Task Force in 2004 in an operation named "Operation Cocoon".



Here are six things to know about the Indian bandit:



Veerappan first killed an elephant when he was 10 years old. He would later poach more tuskers and is said to have reportedly killed 200 elephants and smuggled ivory, worth Rs 21.5 crore.

Seven years later, Veerappan committed his first murder at the age of 17 which began the series of killings by him for the next few decades. He is said to have killed 184 human beings that included forest officers and police officials.

In 1986, Veerappan was first taken custody for his crimes, but the bandit escaped and continued to cause trouble for others.

Veerappan abducted Kannada superstar Rajkumar in July 2000. He demanded ransom for his release and eventually let him go unharmed after keeping the actor in custody for 108 days. As per reports, Veerappan was given Rs 30 crore for his release.

Veerappan was 29 when he married Muthulakshmi, who was 16 at the time of the wedding. The couple gave birth to two girls- Vidya and Prabha. In 2020, the former joined the Bharatiya Janata Party at an event that was held in Krishnagiri.

In 2012, Veerappan's wife expressed displeasure about a Kannada movie released on him which she said was made without her consent and depicted the couple in bad light.



Also read: Netflixs The Hunt For Veerappan is informative but never quite insightful
A new children's clothing store is launching Saturday, Aug. 5 in Corvallis, just in time for back-to-school shopping.

Treefort, in the Sunset Shopping Center along Philomath Boulevard, will offer parents sustainable clothing, shoes and accessories for newborns up to tweens.

Owner Brittney Bryant grew up in a single-parent home, which meant that often there was not enough money for nice clothes. Bryant said she often felt self-conscious about this as a middle-schooler.

Years later, married with children of her own and able to afford it, buying nice clothing for her children has been a true joy, she said. But in Corvallis, where her family moved to in 2019, it has been nearly impossible to find kids' clothes.

I think its been a common complaint in the area that there simply aren't many choices nearby, Bryant said.

Jessica Wisor, mother to a 15-year-old and a resident of Corvallis for 16 years, says she has had to make trips to Woodburn, Portland and Eugene for even the most basic clothing over the years.

Back-to-school shopping meant either traveling to Portland or resorting to online shopping, which lacked the in-person experience where you can feel the fabric and hold it up to see how adorable it looks on your little one, Wisor said.

Until the Corvallis Kmart store closed in early 2019, she could access some necessities there.

But ever since that store closed, local shopping has been extremely limited, Wisor said.

In downtown Corvallis, the Kid Shop remains, but Bryant said one of the limitations of the store is the unavailability of sustainable fashion items.

I hear a lot of moms lamenting about the lack of kids' underwear and socks, Bryant said. Beyond that, its online or driving out of town to a big box store."

Last summer, Bryant decided to do something about this need. In addition to clothing, Treefort will offer raingear, books, natural wood or organic toys and accessories, and lots of socks and underwear.

The process of launching began with connecting with an advisor at the Small Business Development Center in Corvallis, then finding a trademark-able name  something neutral, childlike and nature-inspired to embody the region and target market.

I feel like 'Treefort' embodies a Pacific Northwest childhood perfectly, Bryant said.

Last August, Bryant began a process to trademark the name, and registered the business by November.

Location hunting led to the Sunset Shopping Center, a lease was signed last January, and Bryant began designing the space and putting in furniture.

I found a POS system that seamlessly integrates with the e-commerce website and began making orders to prepare for the launch, she said. Ive been making occasional social media posts and talking to other moms. We had three kids at three different schools last year, so it really gave us a wide network of families to reach out to.

With a background in graphic design and experience in retail, as well as launching and rebranding small businesses, Bryant believes she is uniquely positioned to be starting Treefort.

Aside from the community building potential of launching a local business  Bryant plans to host events such as weekly story times at the store  she is most excited about the sustainable aspects of the business.

I really think its important to take accountability for our waste and wear on the planet, Bryant said. Not only on a global scale, but even just what were putting on our children and using within our homes.

Patrons are very excited about this, according to feedback during the stores soft launch on July 27.

As a mom, Treefort's emphasis on sustainable fashion is essential to me, Wisor said.

There are a few paths that Bryant is looking to toe with the sustainability focus. One is to source clothing and accessories made from material such as bamboo.

Bryant was recently at the Playtime and Kidshub trade show in Manhattan, where she was able to source items from sustainable brands she's excited to bring to the Corvallis market. She said she also made connections with manufacturers to have bamboo onesies, sleepers, footless rompers and pajamas made in house-branded designs that will be offered at discounted prices.

Another path to sustainability, Bryant said, is to consider the working conditions in which the clothing is produced.

And, because there are often gray areas to how truly eco-friendly material such as bamboo can be, theres the fireproof path of ensuring that parents simply buy less. Some brands at the store, such as Shelk Wear, offer expandable clothing that lasts longer by spanning three sizes so the child can grow into the clothing item.

I have a number of friends who have younger children or are expecting babies. I appreciate having a local store to go to for quality gifts, Wisor said.

Not only am I proud to support a local business, but I absolutely adore the designs I've seen in the store. Treefort has paid attention to every detail, offering coordinated collections and unique accessories that you just can't find anywhere else, she added.
Researchers have uncovered evidence suggesting that ancient warriors utilised asteroids as weapons in battle. The discovery centres around a 3,000-year-old arrowhead unearthed in Switzerland, which was found to be crafted from meteorite material, proving that extraterrestrial weaponry existed in the ancient world.



"A single object made of meteoritic iron has been identified," the authors reported in the study, soon to be published in the Journal of Archaeological Science.



While previous instances of tools made from space rocks have been found, they remain exceptionally uncommon. According to archaeological experts, this meteor-based arrowhead is only the third ever discovered in Central and Western Europe.



The Bronze Age relic was one of several arrowheads discovered by archaeologists at the Morigen archaeological site near Lake of Biel during the 19th century.



Initially, the origins of the weapon remained a mystery as it was displayed at the Bern historical museum in Switzerland. The research team employed a range of advanced techniques, including electron microscopes, X-rays, and high-energy radiation, to confirm its meteorological makeup as an iron-nickel-aluminium alloy.



By cross-referencing the data with known space-rock samples, they confirmed its extraterrestrial origin.



Scientists deduced that the iron in the arrowhead likely came from the Kaalijarv meteorite, which fell to Earth in modern-day Estonia around 1500 BCE. This meteor splintered into debris fragments, which ancient craftsmen then utilized to forge weapons of war and other artifacts during the Bronze Age, predating the invention of iron smelting.



Before the advent of the Iron Age, meteoric iron was extensively utilised by ancient cultures to craft jewellery, weaponry, and figurines across the globe.



The recent discovery in Switzerland, along with two other alien metal items found in modern-day Poland, suggests a sophisticated trade network that spanned across Europe during that epoch.
In a society where menstruation is often regarded as a taboo subject and women are ostracized during their periods, one man from Uttarakhand decided to challenge these regressive practices in a groundbreaking way.



Jitendra Bhatt, a music teacher, organised a party to celebrate his 13-year-old daughter Ragini's first period. Breaking free from the norms, he invited family and friends to join the festivities, and even ordered a special red-coloured cake that proclaimed, "Happy Period Ragini."



"I was clueless. Finally, in the 10th grade, I found out the root cause for this was periods. It disgusted me  the way women were treated when they were menstruating. At 16, I promised myself  I will break this cycle,'" Bhatt recalled in a candid conversation with Humans of Bombay.



Growing up, he said he witnessed the women in his family being banished from their homes and forced to live in makeshift bamboo huts or cowsheds during their periods. The mere act of touching them or being near them was strictly forbidden, and if anyone dared to transgress, they would be subjected to rituals aimed at purifying them again.



Determined to challenge the age-old stigma, Bhatt resolved to create an environment for his daughter free from the shackles of such taboos. So, when Ragini got her first period, he saw it as an opportunity to celebrate rather than hide.



"On her 13th birthday, after I found out from my wife that Ragini had gotten her 1st period, I decided to throw a party for her! I invited close friends and family. Of course, I heard the Why is this a cause of celebration? or This isnt something you should tell everybody!" Bhatt said.















View this post on Instagram



A post shared by Humans of Bombay (@officialhumansofbombay)









At the party, Bhatt went even further, encouraging guests to bring sanitary napkins as gifts for Ragini. Despite initial awkwardness, the atmosphere soon lightened up, and Ragini felt more at ease. For her, it was just another day, unaware of the significance of the event.



"Its been a week since & she still doesnt understand why such a huge deal was made out of periods. I think thats a good thing. Shes growing up in a household where she can comfortably talk about it. Where she is not made to feel impure. Where she doesnt have to live in a tabela," Bhatt shared.



Many communities still view menstruating women as "impure" and force them to endure isolation during their cycles. Jitendra Bhatt wanted to confront these archaic beliefs head-on, and that's precisely what he did.
A 35-year-old woman in the United States died last month after drinking nearly two litres of water in 20 minutes. Ashley Summers was on a getaway with her family during the Fourth of July weekend.



After touring Lake Freeman in Indiana with her husband and two young daughters, Summers felt very dehydrated.

Someone said she drank four bottles of water in 20 minutes, New York Post quoted her brother Devon Miller as telling WRTV.



I mean, an average water bottle is like 16 ounces, so that was 64 ounces that she drank in a span of 20 minutes. Thats half a gallon. Thats what youre supposed to drink in a whole day.

On the last day of their break, Summers started feeling light-headed and had a headache. After returning home, she passed out in her garage and never regained consciousness though she was taken to hospital. She reportedly had brain swelling and according to her doctors, she died of water toxicity, WRTV reported.



Water toxicity is a condition caused by drinking excessive amounts of water, and can be fatal in the most extreme cases.



"It was a shock to all of us. When they first started talking about water toxicity. It was like this is a thing?" her brother told the media outlet.



In death, however, Summers saved five lives by donating her heart, liver, lungs, kidneys and some of her long bone tissue.



A similar incident was reported from Canada recently when a woman was hospitalised after drinking four litres of water for 12 days as part of a viral 75 Hard social media challenge, which involves drinking a gallon (about four litres) of water regularly for 75 days.



Michelle Fairburn talked about her experience in a TikTok video explaining how drinking excessive amounts of water made her feel unwell. The mother and real estate agent in Toronto suspected she had a case of water poisoning.
As investor interest in artificial intelligence sends shares of technology giants soaring, a little-known circuit board maker in South Korea is cashing in big.



Isu Petasys Co., which counts Alphabet Inc., Nvidia Corp. and Microsoft Corp. as customers of its multilayered boards, has seen its share price surge 487% this year  among the biggest gainers on South Koreas benchmark stock index. The companys recent boom has also helped boost the value of stakes held by Chairman Kim Sang-Beom and his family to more than $800 million as of August 3.



Kim, who controls 100% of holding company Isu Corp., is just the latest example of how soaring demand for AI investments is creating massive wealth. Jensen Huang, chief executive officer of leading AI company Nvidia, has seen his fortune surge almost three-fold this year to $39.9 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.







Hardly any local companies directly supply Nvidia and Google, but Isu Petasys got the job, said Baik Gil-hyun, an analyst at Yuanta Securities Korea Co. If the AI boom continues, so will the interest in the company.



Isu Petasys, founded in 1972, began distributing printed circuit boards, mainly for hard disk drives, in 1989. Its parent company, Isu Group, has businesses in industries including chemicals, construction and biopharmaceuticals.



Kim became the groups chairman in 2000 after his father, Joon-sung, stepped down after four years. Before joining Isu, the younger Kim worked at the now-defunct industrial conglomerate, Daewoo Group, which was founded by his father-in-law Kim Woo-choong, according to local newspaper Korea Joongang Daily.



On top of their 26% stake in Isu Petasys, Kim and his family also own stock in the groups other publicly traded units, including Isu Specialty Chemical and Isu Chemical. Company filings show that shares pledged for loans account for just under half of the total value of their stakes.



Diversifying Base

Isu Petasys didnt make Kim available for an interview. The company didnt respond to questions about their customers or the value of the familys stakes.



In recent years, Isu Petasys has leaned into the AI craze, diversifying its customer base from predominantly telecommunications manufacturers like Nokia Oyj, and adding technology giants such as Alphabet and Nvidia, according to Park Hyung-woo, an analyst at SK Securities Co. in Seoul.



Orders for its boards used for AI accelerators jumped almost eight-fold to 47.3 billion won ($36.4 million) in the first quarter from a year earlier, according to a June presentation.



Other prominent players in high-end printed circuit boards include Japans Ibiden Co., Taiwans Unimicron Technology Corp. and Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co.



While the companys revenue grew 3.9% to 172 billion won in the first three months of this year from the previous quarter, its operating profits fell 33% to 20.2 billion won, according to filings.



Obvious Beneficiaries

SK Securities Park said he expects a drop in operating profits for the year, partly because Isu Petasyss AI products are less lucrative than those sold for telecommunications devices. Despite that, he remains optimistic.



The company is one of the most obvious beneficiaries because its actually seeing a growing portion of its revenue from AI-related sales, Park said.



Increasing tensions between the US and China may have also contributed to Isu Petasyss expansion, as US companies prefer non-Chinese suppliers, according to analyst Baik. Park said he expects AI-related business to make up 20% of the companys revenue this year and at least 30% in 2024.



It doesnt look like AI is a temporary trend that will fade soon, he said. It could change the direction of the industry, like how PCs and smartphones did in the past. Then things look bright for Isu Petasys.
Former US president Donald Trump on Thursday pleaded not guilty to the charges that he tried to change the results of the November 2020 presidential election.



Appearing in a federal courthouse in downtown Washington DC, Trump entered the not guilty plea before Indian-American judge Magistrate Moxila Upadhyaya. Trump, who is seeking to contest the 2024 presidential election, arrived at the courthouse in a motorcade after he flew in from Bedminster in New Jersey.



As to counts one to four, how does Mr Trump plead? Judge Upadhyaya asked the former president in the courtroom. Trump, flanked by his lawyers, said: Not guilty. The judge told Trump that he would be released but there are certain conditions that he has to abide by and appear in the court as and when required. Trumps next scheduled appearance is on August 28 before US District Judge Tanya Chutkan. But he has the option not to appear in person.



The 45-page indictment was filed in Washington, DC earlier this week by Special Counsel Jack Smith, who has led investigations into the former president on behalf of the US Department of Justice. The four-count indictment charges the 77-year-old Republican with conspiring to defraud the US, conspiring to disenfranchise voters and conspiring and attempting to obstruct an official proceeding.



Despite having lost, the defendant was determined to remain in power. So for more than two months following election day on November 3, 2020, the defendant spread lies that there had been outcome-determinative fraud in the election and that he had actually won. These claims were false, and the defendant knew that they were false, the indictment reads.



The indictment was issued by a grand jury of citizens in the District of Columbia and sets forth the crimes charged in detail. It caps an inquiry into events surrounding the January 6, 2021 riot at the US Capitol. The attack on our nations capital on January 6, 2021 was an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy. As described in the indictment, it was fuelled by lies, Smith said.



The Trump campaign has charged that Smith has conducted a dirty, politically motivated investigation of President Trump to prevent him from winning back the presidency.



Smith sat in the courtroom throughout the proceedings.



At around 4 PM EDT, Bidens weaponised Department of Justice will once again have its leading opponent (me) ARRAIGNED despite having committed NO CRIME. It sounds like a chapter youd read out of an old history book on the Soviet Union or Maoist China. But sadly, its taking place right here in America, Trump wrote in an email before he left New Jersey for the court appearance in Washington DC.



So far, federal prosecutors have filed cases against 1,077 people for the January 6 riots at the US Capitol. This is Trumps third indictment but marks the first time that he has been formally held accountable for his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the run-up to the violent riot by his supporters at the US Capitol.



In April, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg indicted Trump on charges related to payments in 2016 to porn star Stormy Daniels. In June, Trump was indicted in Miami for allegedly retaining White House documents, including classified documents.
Amazon and Apple on Thursday reported earnings that topped market expectations, aiming for even better days ahead with the help of artificial intelligence (AI).



"Inside Amazon, every one of our teams is working on building generative AI applications that reinvent and enhance their customers' experience," chief executive Andy Jassy said during an earnings call.



Apple views AI and machine learning as "core fundamental technologies that are integral to virtually every product that we build," company boss Tim Cook told analysts while discussing the iPhone maker's quarterly earnings.



"It's absolutely critical to us," Cook said of AI.



He cited crash detection and other iPhone features as technologies that "wouldn't be possible without AI and machine learning." Crash detection presents a user with a prompt for an emergency call if a handset senses a collision.



"We've been doing research across a wide range of AI technologies, including generative AI for years," Cook said.



"We're going to continue investing and innovating and responsibly advancing our products with these technologies."



Apple reported modestly higher profits in the recently ended quarter despite another dip in revenues, as a record performance in services offset lower iPhone sales.



Executives spotlighted increased sales in China and several key emerging markets that helped to compensate for declines in the United States where the iPhone sales have ebbed in a saturated smartphone environment.



Profits for Apple's third fiscal quarter were $19.9 billion, up 2.3 percent from the year-ago period. Revenues again declined, this time by 1.4 percent to $81.8 billion, the third straight quarter with a year-over-year decline.



Bright spots for the tech giant included an "all-time high" in services revenue, comprised of the App store, Apple pay and Apple TV and other subscription services.



- AI for all? -



Amazon reported a quarterly profit that trounced market expectations, driven by strong sales helped by its annual Prime discount event.



The e-commerce giant said it made a profit of $6.7 billion in the recently ended quarter, eclipsing earnings forecasts.



"It was another strong quarter of progress for Amazon," the company's chief executive Andy Jassy said in an earnings release.



The e-commerce colossus boasted of having its "biggest Prime Day event ever" in July, with subscribers to the Amazon service worldwide ordering more than 375 million items.



Order delivery speeds in the US were the fastest ever, with Amazon continuing to work on optimizing efficiency and lowering costs at fulfillment centers, according to the company.



Jassy in March laid out a plan to cut 9,000 more jobs from the online retail giant's workforce, following the 18,000 that were axed in January.



Jassy told his workers at the time that the extra layoffs were necessary as the company seeks a way to downsize after years of sustained hiring by the Seattle-based company.



"The upturn in Amazon's commerce business is an encouraging sign for the back half of the year," said Insider Intelligence principal analyst Andrew Lipsman.



Revenue taken in by the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud computing unit increased to $22 billion in a year-over-year comparison, but costs climbed as well, resulting in a lower operating income than in the same period in 2022.



"Our AWS growth stabilized as customers started shifting from cost optimization to new workload deployment," Jassy said.



"AWS has continued to add to its meaningful leadership position in the cloud with a slew of generative AI releases."



AWS remains a concern, however, and pressure is on to show growth as the broader economy recovers and companies invest in cloud-based computing power, according to analyst Lipsman.



Amazon is seeing more businesses focus on shifting systems to the cloud, where they can save money and tap into AI capabilities, Jassy said on the earnings call.



AWS is investing heavily in being a place where AI models are trained and put to work for businesses, according to Jassy.



"What we're doing is democratizing access to generative AI; lowering the cost of training and running models," Jassy said.



"We think AWS is poised to be the longterm partner of choice in general AI."



Amazon shares were up more than eight percent to $140.25 in after market trades.
Imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is preparing to hear the verdict Friday in his latest trial on extremism charges. The prosecution has demanded a 20-year prison sentence, and the politician himself said he expects to receive a lengthy term. If the court finds Navalny guilty, it would be his fifth criminal conviction, all of which his supporters see as a deliberate Kremlin strategy to silence its most ardent opponent.



Navalny is already serving a nine-year sentence for fraud and contempt of court. He also was sentenced in 2021 to two and a half years in prison for a parole violation. The extremism trial has taken place behind closed doors in the penal colony east of Moscow where he is imprisoned. The 47-year-old Navalny is President Vladimir Putins fiercest foe and has exposed official corruption and organized major anti-Kremlin protests.



He was arrested in January 2021 upon returning to Moscow after recuperating in Germany from nerve agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin. The 47-year-old Navalny is President Vladimir Putins fiercest foe and has exposed official corruption and organized major anti-Kremlin protests.



The new charges relate to the activities of Navalnys anti-corruption foundation and statements by his top associates. His allies said the charges retroactively criminalize all of the foundations activities since its creation in 2011. One of Navalnys associates, Daniel Kholodny, is standing trial alongside him after being relocated from a different prison. The prosecution has asked to sentence Kholodny to 10 years in prison.



Navalny has rejected all the charges against him as politically motivated and accused the Kremlin of seeking to keep him behind bars for life. On the eve of the verdict hearing, Navalny released a statement on social media, presumably through his team, in which he said he expected his latest sentence to be huge a Stalinist term, referring to the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.



In the statement, Navalny called on Russians to personally resist and encouraged them to support political prisoners, distribute flyers or go to a rally. He told Russians that they could choose a safe way to resist, but he added that there is shame in doing nothing. "Its shameful to let yourself be intimidated. " The politician is currently serving his sentence in a maximum-security prison Penal Colony No. 6 in the town of Melekhovo, about 230 kilometers (more than 140 miles) east of Moscow.



He has spent months in a tiny one-person cell, also called a punishment cell, for purported disciplinary violations, such as an alleged failure to properly button his prison clothes, appropriately introduce himself to a guard or wash his face at a specified time. On social media, Navalnys associates have urged supporters to come to Melekhovo on Friday to express solidarity with the politician.



About 30 supporters gathered outside the colony in Melekhovo on Friday, one of them told The Associated Press in the messaging app Telegram. Yelena, who spoke on condition that her last name is withheld for safety reasons, said the supporters werent allowed into the colony but decided to stay outside until the verdict was announced: People think its important to be nearby at least like that, for moral support. We will be waiting.



The prosecution has asked the court, if it convicts Navalny, to order the politician to serve any new prison term in a special regime penal colony, a term that refers to the Russian prisons with the highest level of security and the harshest inmate restrictions.



Russian law stipulates that only men given life sentences or especially "dangerous recidivists" are sent to those types of prisons. The country has many fewer special regime colonies compared to other types of adult prisons, according to state penitentiary service data: 35 colonies for dangerous recidivists and six for men imprisoned for life. Maximum-security colonies are the most widespread type, with 251 currently in operation.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has decided to dissolve the Pakistan National Assembly on August 9, three days prior to its scheduled closure date, necessitating general elections within the next 90 days. According to a report in the Pakistani daily Dawn, Sharif made the announcement at a dinner reception at the Prime Minister's House on August 3. The dinner was hosted in honour of the Members of Parliament. The country's political environment was reviewed and discussed at the event. The prime minister said that the ruling PML-N party had zeroed in on consultations within the party and also mentioned that he will commence the final round of discussions with allies for setting up a caretaker government on August 4. Sharif reportedly updated his allies about the performance of the coalition government. He also highlighted that revenue collection in Pakistan had increased 13 percent in 15 months after the inclusion of over 1.3 million taxpayers. He claimed that recoveries in the power sector remained over 90 percent and said that the country has seen a substantial progress in the IT sector over the last four months, with the total volume of IT exports reaching $2.6 billion in the last one year. Pakistan's circular debt, however, witnessed an 18 percent rise to Rs 393 billion in the past 11 months. Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani, Speaker of National Assembly Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, PPP leaders Yousuf Raza Gilani, MQM Convener Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, JUI-F leader Asad Mehmood, Balochistan Awami Party leaders Khalid Magsi and Senator Ahmed Khan, Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP) Chairman Shahzain Bugti, Aslam Bhootani, Mohsin Dawar were among the dignitaries who attended the dinner reception on August 3.

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Reporter

Andrew Roberto was raised his whole life on Saipan. He graduated from Saipan Southern High School, holds a degree from Northern Marianas College, and a BA in English from the University of Guam. He once worked for KUAM, UNO Magazine, and the Guam Daily Post.
The Antonio B. Won Pat International Airport in Tamuning is shown July 26, 2023. On July 28, 2023, the airport's board of directors heard updates on the 2023 Airport Master Plan.
Rowena D.L. Baltazar, a certified nursing assistant with the Department of Public Health and Social Services, instructs incoming patients to wear masks Thursday, Aug. 3, 2023
Haitians express skepticism over Kenyas offer to UN to send police to confront gangs

Haitians express skepticism over Kenyas offer to UN to send police to confront gangs View Photo

PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI (AP)  Haitians are expressing skepticism over an offer by Kenya to lead an international police force aimed at combatting the gang violence that has wracked the Caribbean nation.

They say the sexual abuse and a devastating cholera outbreak that have accompanied foreign forces in past decades dont inspire much trust. But Haitians also say uncontrolled bloodshed in their country leaves them with few other options.

Florence Casimir, an elementary school teacher, said that while past international interventions have damaged Haiti, their abuses dont compare to the brutality of gangs, which kidnap her students and force parents to pay hefty ransoms.

It will never be better (than past interventions), but the Haitian people dont have a choice at this point, Casimir said. The Haitian people cant fight it on their own.

After Primer Minister Ariel Henry urged the world in October to deploy an armed force to fight the gangs, the United Nations has struggled to convince a nation to lead efforts to restore the order in the Caribbean country, in part due to past controversy over peacekeeping missions. Theres been little appetite for a U.S.- or U.N.-led force, and the United States unsuccessfullt tried to persuade Canada to lead a force.

As the search continued, gang warfare continued to worsen, leading to a wave of hundreds of kidnappings and the emergence of vigilante forces taking justice into their own hands. Today, armed groups control an estimated 80% of Haitis capital, Port-au-Prince.

Kenya has offered to send 1,000 police officers to help train and assist an overwhelmed Haitian police force, saying it hopes to restore normalcy in the country. This week, the United States said it will put forward a resolution to the U.N. Security Council to authorize the force.

This is not a traditional peacekeeping force, the U.S. ambassador at the U.N., Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said at a news conference.

Kenyas proposal has sparked debate among Haitians, many of whom distrust international interventions after the failures and abuses of U.N. peacekeeping missions over the decades.

Haitians saw rounds of foreign interventions throughout the 1900s, often a response by nations like the U.S. to political instability in Haiti. In some cases, such missions helped ease chaos and in the 1990s led to the creation of the Haitian National Police.

But successes are often overshadowed by scars that Haitians carry with them from abuses that came with those missions.

A U.N. peacekeeping mission from 2004 to 2017 was plagued with allegations of mass sexual abuse, including claims that peacekeepers raped and impregnated girls as young as 11. Investigations by The Associated Press found evidence of high levels of impunity.

In 2010, sewage runoff from a U.N. peacekeeper camp into the countrys biggest river started a cholera epidemic that killed nearly 10,000 people.

They left a bitter taste in the mouths of the Haitian people, said Valdo Cene, who sells cooking gas. Bringing in international forces could mean repeating our history.

This international police force would not be a U.N. force. So if deployed, Kenyan police would be in charge rather than answer to a U.N. force commander as they would be required to do in a U.N. peacekeeping mission.

Haitis prime minister said Tuesday that he spoke with Kenyan President William Ruto to thank Kenya for the demonstration of fraternal solidarity. Henry said Kenya plans to send a task force in the coming weeks to assess the missions operational requirements.

Haitians arent the only ones questioning the plan. Watch dog groups are raising alarms about the human rights track record of police in Kenya, saying the force may export their abuse.

Police in the East African nation have been long accused of killings and torture, including gunning down civilians during Kenyas COVID-19 curfew. One local group said officers fatally shot more than 30 people during protests in July, all of them in Kenyas poorest neighborhoods.

Louis-Henri Mars, head of the Haitian grassroots peacekeeping organization Lakou Lape, echoed those concerns.

People are puzzled about this, Mars said. It may just become just another big mess.

While Mars is among many who say a Kenyan force would be an important step to stabilizing Haiti, he expressed hope its deployment will be a temporary effort that paves the way to a longer process of untangling rampant violence in Haiti, such as the kidnapping of an American nurse and her daughter.

Haiti needs to build a stable and trustworthy police force and provide a pathway to restorative justice for victims and former gang members, often young men pulled into the violence around them, Mars said.

Others, like Jerthro Antoine, say Kenyas police cant come soon enough.

The cellphone repairman said he dreams of once again setting foot on one of Haitis beaches, but violence in his country has gotten so bad that even walking on the street is a risk.

I feel trapped in my home. Any foreign force in support of Haitian police is more than welcome, Antoine said. The Haitian people need it, we need a break and to have a life again.

___

Janetsky reported from Mexico City. Associated Press writer Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

By EVENS SANON and MEGAN JANETSKY

Associated Press
Ethiopias declaring a state of emergency in its Amhara region as local fighters clash with military

Ethiopias declaring a state of emergency in its Amhara region as local fighters clash with military View Photo

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP)  Ethiopias Council of Ministers is declaring a state of emergency in the countrys Amhara region after authorities pleaded for help as clashes intensify there between regional forces and the military.

The prime ministers office announced the decision on Friday after the regions leader said regular law enforcement was no longer able to contain the violence. The declaration needs approval from Parliament.

The threat the activity is imposing on national security and public peace is increasing day by day, the declaration said, noting severe economic damage as well and blaming armed extremist groups.

Ethiopias second most populous region has been gripped by instability since April, when federal authorities moved to disarm Amharas security forces following the end of the devasting two-year war in the neighboring Tigray region. Authorities last year also tried to dismantle the informal Amhara militia known as Fano.

This week, residents have reported fighting across the Amhara region as militia members attacked army units and protesters blocked roads. Flights to two popular tourist towns, Lalibela and Gondar, have been suspended. Internet access has been affected.

The state of emergency bans several activities including protests. Violators face up to 10 years imprisonment. The decree also grants authorities the ability to detain suspects without a court order, conduct searches and impose curfews.

The order says the powers apply to the Amhara region but may be extended to other parts of Ethiopia if deemed necessary.
China reopens trade in Australian barley in a new sign of improved relations

China reopens trade in Australian barley in a new sign of improved relations View Photo

CANBERRA, Australia (AP)  China is lifting a stifling 3-year-old tariff on Australian barley starting Saturday  a sign of an improving bilateral trade relationship since Australias government changed.

China effectively closed its door to Australian barley in May 2020 by imposing an 80.5% tariff after the previous Australian government angered Beijing by calling for an independent inquiry into the origins of, and responses to, the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Friday, both governments confirmed the resumption of trade in the grain that was worth 916 million Australian dollars ($602 million) in the year before China blocked imports.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese welcomed the breakthrough, which comes as he plans his first visit to Beijing as government leader before the end of the year.

This is a very positive decision, Albanese told reporters.

When Albaneses government was elected in May 2022, he demanded Beijing drop a series of official and unofficial trade barriers against Australian exports  including barley, wine, coal, beef, wood and seafood  that were costing producers $15 billion a year.

Chinas Ministry of Commerce said in a statement it ruled that in view of the changes in Chinas barley market, it was unnecessary to continue to impose anti-dumping duties and countervailing duties on imported barley originating in Australia.

The ministry gave no details of the decision, nor did it explain the market changes.

Australia has denied Chinas claims that it subsidized barley and wine to export it at artificially low prices, a process known as dumping.

In April, Australia suspended a complaint to the World Trade Organization in a bid to reopen the Chinese market to barley. In exchange, China had agreed to review its duties on the grain.

With the barley trade reopened, the Australian government said it expects China will lift its trade barriers to Australian wine.

Australias complaint over wine remains before the Geneva-based WTO.

China is Australias biggest trading partner, with two-way trade totaling $287 billion in 2022.

___

Associated Press reporter Joe McDonald in Beijing contributed to this report.

By ROD McGUIRK

Associated Press
Japans Kishida hopes to further strengthen strategic cooperation with US and South Korea at summit

Japans Kishida hopes to further strengthen strategic cooperation with US and South Korea at summit View Photo

TOKYO (AP)  Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Friday he hopes to discuss further strengthening of three-way strategic cooperation with leaders of the United States and South Korea at a summit hosted by U.S. President Joe Biden at Camp David later this month.

The Aug. 18 summit with Biden and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol is the first stand-alone summit among leaders of the three countries, not in connection with international meetings.

The summit is also the latest sign of warming ties between Tokyo and Seoul. Both governments have moved to set aside decades-long tensions over wartime history, while Washington seeks to deepen its commitment in the Indo-Pacific region.

I have high hopes that this summit meeting will further strengthen the foundation for strengthening ties with the United States and South Korea, which have been built up through multi-layered efforts including at the summit level, Kishida said, responding to a question about the summit, during a news conference Friday.

On top of that, I expect we will further reinforce our strategic cooperation among the three countries, Japan, the United States and South Korea as the three leaders discuss joint responses to North Koreas threats and maintaining and strengthening a rules-based, free and open international order, Kishida said.

He declined to provide more details, saying he should avoid prejudging the outcome of the summit ahead of time.

The Biden administration has been urging stronger economic and defense ties between South Korea and Japan as it looks to bolster the region against Chinas assertive territorial moves and economic influences, and to secure their cooperation in support of Ukraines fight against Russias full-scale invasion.

Japan and South Korea are both key U.S. allies and their cooperation is key to Washingtons security strategy in the Indo-Pacific as tensions grow with China, North Korea and Russia.

Ties between Japan and South Korea have rapidly thawed since earlier this year, largely because of Washingtons pressure and their shared sense of urgency over escalating regional security threats.

The improved ties between Tokyo and Seoul, and Japans new security and defense strategies are apparently making the stronger trilateral partnership possible. Under the new strategies issued in December, Kishidas government pledges a drastic military buildup with strike capabilities and doubling defense spending in a major break from Japans postwar self-defense-only principle.

Japan, the United States and South Korea have agreed to start sharing real-time data on North Korean missile launches by the end of this year, as their trilateral cooperation is increasingly important amid growing nuclear and missile threats from the North. Washington and Seoul have also agreed to step up their nuclear deterrence cooperation, and Japan also wants stronger extended deterrence by U.S. nuclear weapons.

After the White House announcement of the summit, the U.S. ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel, posted a message on Twitter that the upcoming summit promises to make history and will lead to a strategic paradigm shift as the three countries form a united front for a free and open Indo-Pacific.

By MARI YAMAGUCHI

Associated Press
Protests, poisoning and prison: The life of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny View Photo

LONDON (AP)  In a span of a decade, Alexei Navalny has gone from the Kremlins biggest foe to Russias most prominent political prisoner.

Already serving two convictions that have landed him in prison for at least nine years, he stands a new trial that could keep him behind bars for two more decades.

The verdict in the trial is due to be announced Friday in a makeshift courtroom in the Penal Colony No. 6, where Navalny is being held and where the trial took place behind closed doors, in the town of Melekhovo, about 230 kilometers (over 140 miles) east of Moscow.

Heres a look at Navalnys life, political activism and the charges he has faced through the years:

June 4, 1976  Navalny is born in a western part of the Moscow region.

1997  Graduates from Russias RUDN university, where he majored in law; earns a degree in economics in 2001 while working as a lawyer.

2004  Forms a movement against rampant overdevelopment in Moscow, according to his campaign website.

2008  Gains notoriety for alleging corruption in state-run corporations, such as gas giant Gazprom and oil behemoth Rosneft, through his blogs and other posts.

2010  Founds RosPil, an anti-corruption project run by a team of lawyers that analyzes spending of state agencies and companies, exposing violations and contesting them in court.

2011  Establishes the Foundation for Fighting Corruption, which will become his teams main platform for exposing alleged graft among Russias top political ranks.

December 2011  Participates in mass protests sparked by reports of widespread rigging of Russias parliamentary election, and is arrested and jailed for 15 days for defying a government official. March 2012  Following President Vladimir Putins reelection and inauguration, mass protests break out in Moscow and elsewhere. Navalny accuses key figures, including then-Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov and Chechnyas strongman leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, of corruption.

July 2012  Russias Investigative Committee charges Navalny with embezzlement involving Kirovles, a state-owned timber company in the Kirov region, while acting as an adviser to the local governor. Navalny rejects the allegations as politically motivated.

December 2012  The Investigative Committee launches another probe into alleged embezzlement at a Navalny-linked Russian subsidiary of Yves Rocher, a French cosmetics company. Navalny again says the allegations are politically motivated.

2013  Navalny runs for mayor in Moscow  a move the authorities not only allow but encourage in an attempt to put a veneer of democracy on the race that is designed to boost the profile of the incumbent, Sergei Sobyanin.

July 2013  A court in Kirov convicts Navalny of embezzlement in the Kirovles case, sentencing him to five years in prison. The prosecution petitions to release Navalny from custody pending his appeal, and he resumes his campaign.

September 2013  Official results show Navalny finishes second in the mayors race behind Sobyanin, with 27% of the vote, after a successful electoral and fundraising campaign collecting an unprecedented 97.3 million rubles ($2.9 million) from individual supporters.

October 2013  A court hands Navalny a suspended sentence in the Kirovles case. February 2014  Navalny is placed under house arrest in connection with the Yves Rocher case and banned from using the internet. His blog continues to be updated regularly, presumably by his team, detailing alleged corruption by various Russian officials.

December 2014  Navalny and his brother, Oleg, are found guilty of fraud in the Yves Rocher case. Navalny receives a 3 -year suspended sentence, while his brother is handed a prison term. Both appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.

December 2015  Navalnys Foundation for Fighting Corruption releases its first long-form video  a YouTube documentary called Chaika, which means seagull in Russian but is also the last name of then-Prosecutor General Yury Chaika. The 44-minute video accuses him of corruption and alleged ties to a notorious criminal group and has piled up 26 million views on YouTube. Chaika and other Russian officials deny the accusations.

February 2016  The European Court of Human Rights rules that Russia violated Navalnys right to a fair trial in the Kirovles case, ordering the government to pay his legal costs and damages.

November 2016  Russias Supreme Court overturns Navalnys sentence and sends the case back to the original court in the city of Kirov for review.

December 2016  Navalny announces he will run in Russias 2018 presidential election.

February 2017  The Kirov court retries Navalny and upholds his five-year suspended sentence from 2013.

March 2017  Navalny releases a YouTube documentary accusing then-Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev of corruption, getting over 7 million views in its first week. A series of anti-graft protests across Russia draw tens of thousands and there are mass arrests. Navalny tours the country to open campaign offices, holds big rallies and is jailed repeatedly for unauthorized demonstrations.

April 27, 2017  Unidentified assailants throw a green disinfectant in his face, damaging his right eye. He blames the attack on the Kremlin.

October 2017  The European Court of Human Rights finds Navalnys fraud conviction in the Yves Rocher case to be arbitrary and manifestly unreasonable.

December 2017  Russias Central Electoral Commission bars him from running for president over his conviction in the Kirovles case, a move condemned by the EU as casting serious doubt on the election. July 2019  Members of Navalnys team, along with other opposition activists, are barred from running for Moscow city council, sparking protests that are violently dispersed, with thousands arrested. Navalnys team responds by promoting the Smart Voting strategy, encouraging the election of any candidate except those from the Kremlins United Russia party. The strategy works, with the party losing its majority. 2020  Navalny seeks to deploy the Smart Voting strategy during regional elections in September and tours Siberia as part of the effort.

Aug. 20, 2020  On a flight from the city of Tomsk, where he was working with local activists, Navalny falls ill and the plane makes an emergency landing in nearby Omsk. Hospitalized in a coma, Navalnys team suspects he was poisoned.

Aug. 22, 2020  A comatose Navalny is flown to a hospital in Berlin.

Aug. 24, 2020  German authorities confirm Navalny was poisoned with a Soviet-era nerve agent. After he recovers, he blames the Kremlin, an accusation denied by Russian officials.

Jan. 17, 2021  After five months in Germany, Navalny is arrested upon his return to Russia, with authorities alleging his recuperation abroad violated the terms of his suspended sentence in the Yves Rocher case. His arrest triggers some of the biggest protests in Russia in years. Thousands are arrested.

Feb. 2, 2021  A Moscow court orders Navalny to serve 2  years in prison for his parole violation. While in prison, Navalny stages a three-week hunger strike to protest a lack of medical treatment and sleep deprivation.

June 2021  A Moscow court outlaws Navalnys Foundation for Fighting Corruption and about 40 regional offices as extremist, shutting down his political network. Close associates and team members face prosecution and leave Russia under pressure. Navalny maintains contact with his lawyers and team from prison, and they update his social media accounts.

Feb. 24, 2022  Russia invades Ukraine. Navalny condemns the war in social media posts from prison and during his court appearances.

March 22, 2022  Navalny is sentenced to an additional nine-year term for embezzlement and contempt of court in a case his supporters rejected as fabricated. He is transferred to a maximum-security prison in Russias western Vladimir region.

July 2022  Navalnys team announces the relaunch of the Anti-Corruption Foundation as an international organization with an advisory board including Francis Fukuyama, Anne Applebaum, and the European Parliament member and former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt. Navalny continues to file lawsuits in prison and tries to form a labor union in the facility. In response, penitentiary officials start regularly placing him in solitary confinement over purported disciplinary violations such as failing to properly button his garment or to wash his face at a specified time.

2023  Over 400 Russian doctors sign an open letter to Putin, urging an end to what it calls abuse of Navalny, following reports that he was denied basic medication after getting the flu. His team expresses concern about his health, saying in April he had acute stomach pain and suspected he was being slowly poisoned.

March 12, 2023  Navalny, a film about the attempt on the opposition leaders life, wins the Oscar for best documentary feature.

April 26, 2023  Appearing on a videolink from prison during a hearing, Navalny says he was facing new extremism and terrorism charges that could keep him behind bars for the rest of his life. He adds sardonically that the charges imply that Im conducting terror attacks while sitting in prison.

June 19, 2023  The trial begins in a make-shift courtroom in the Penal Colony No. 6 where Navalny is being held. Soon after it starts, the judge closes the trial for the public and the media despite Navalnys demand to keep it open.

July 20, 2023  The prosecution in its closing arguments asks the court to sentence Navalny to 20 years in prison, the politicians team reports. Navalny says in a subsequent statement that he expects his sentence to be huge  a Stalinist term, referring to the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.

___

Litvinova reported from Tallinn, Estonia.

By JOANNA KOZLOWSKA and DASHA LITVINOVA

Associated Press
Serbia to ignore US sanctions against Bosnian Serbs accused of undermining deal that ended the war

Serbia to ignore US sanctions against Bosnian Serbs accused of undermining deal that ended the war View Photo

BANJA LUKA, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP)  Serbia will ignore U.S. sanctions recently imposed on top Bosnian Serb officials for undermining a 1995 peace agreement that ended a war that left more than 100,000 dead and millions homeless, the Serbian president said Friday.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said that the sanctioned ethnic Serb officials from neighboring Bosnia will still be welcome in Serbia.

The Republic of Serbia will treat the sanctions as if they do not exist, Vucic said, during a visit to the Serb region of Bosnia. It is hard, but thats the only possible decision.

The four Bosnian Serb officials sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury on Monday include Zeljka Cvijanovic, a Serb member of the tripartite collective Bosnian presidency, as well as the prime minister of the Serb entity in Bosnia, Radovan Viskovic. The separatist leader of the Bosnian Serb entity, Milorad Dodik, has earlier been sanctioned by the United States.

The four are alleged to have taken part in drafting a law that U.S. and other international officials say undermines the unity of Bosnia by ignoring the decisions of the countrys constitutional court.

The Bosnian Serb parliament has passed the law to not recognize or implement any decisions by Bosnias multi-ethnic Constitutional Court, which is seen as another of the leaderships attempts to separate from the fragile Bosnian federation.

Dodik, the Bosnian Serb leader, mirrored Vucics allegations at a joint news conference, saying the U.S. sanctions are aimed against Serbs in general and that Washington has always led anti-Serb policies.

The U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo rejected such allegations, saying in a statement that they were a conspiracy theory about some imaginary anti-Serb policy.

The truth is that the United States Government sanctioned these individuals because their actions threatened the stability, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, not because of their ethnicity, the statement said.

The Bosnian War started in 1992, pitting mostly Muslim Bosniaks, Serbs, and Croats against each other. It ended with the U.S.-sponsored Dayton accords that created two regions, the Republika Srpska and the Bosniak-Croat Federation.

When the most powerful country in the world imposes sanctions against you, it is something that we should be worried about, Vucic said, adding that the inappropriate and underserved sanctions produce wrong effects.

The U.S. recently also imposed sanctions on the pro-Russian head of Serbias security agency, Aleksandar Vulin, accusing him of involvement in illegal arms shipments, drug trafficking and misuse of public office.

There are widespread fears that Serbia, an ally of Russia, could inflame tensions in the Balkans to divert at least some of the world attention from the war in Ukraine.

Serbian populist leader Vucic on Friday attended in the Bosnian Serb entity commemorations for tens of thousands Serbs who in 1995 fled Croatia after a Croatian military offensive that marked the end of the war.

The Croatian Operation Storm, which started on August 4, 1995, saw the Croatian Army liberate a large part of the Croatian territory that had been under the control of rebel Serbs since 1991.

Croatian forces achieved their military goals in just three days, ousting the rebel Serbs unrecognized statelet, the Republic of Serbian Krajina. The anniversary is marked each year in Croatia as a national triumph, with mainstream media echoing the celebratory patriotic theme.

Among Serbs however, the narrative is very different. Operation Storm is seen by Serbs and their officials as a tragedy because it caused a huge exodus of Serb civilians from Croatia; several hundred Serbs were killed in the operation.

Adding to the simmering ethnic tensions in Bosnia nearly 30 years after the wars ended, Serb officials have decided to hold the exodus commemorations in the northern Bosnian town of Prijedor, where thousands of Bosniaks and Croats were killed during the Bosnian war, many in infamous prison camps set up by the Bosnian Serbs.

In their fiery speeches later Friday in Prijedor, both Vucic and Dodik launched into an anti-Western narrative, saying the biggest exodus since World War II was the result of a joint criminal enterprise of the U.S. and Croatia, and pledged that Serbia would never allow such a tragedy to happen again.

By RADUL RADOVANOVIC

Associated Press
ROME (AP)  Italys justice minister has approved extraditing an Italian priest sought by Argentina on charges of murder and torture during that countrys last military dictatorship, but the priest has an appeal in Italian courts seeking to block extradition, a lawyer and rights groups said Thursday.

Attorney Arturo Salerni, who represents Argentina, told The Associated Press that Justice Minister Carlo Nordio on Wednesday signed off on the request to extradite the Rev. Franco Reverberi, an 85-year-old priest who served as military chaplain during Argentinas 1976-1983 military dictatorship.

However, according to an Italian human rights group monitoring the case, Reverberi is appealing his extradition to Italys top criminal court and a ruling isnt expected for weeks.

The Argentine Embassy in Rome issued a statement Thursday evening confirming the approval of the extradition as well as Reverberis appeal that has put the process on hold.

Due to a clerical error, the justice minister was unaware of the appeal when he issued his ruling Wednesday, explained Jorge Ithurburu, who represents the March 24 human rights advocacy group. Even if the top court rejects Reverberis appeal, the justice minister would have to rule again on his extradition, Ithurburu said.

The submission of the appeal by the defendant constitutes a legitimate exercise of their right to defense, and this embassy will continue to participate in the extradition trial to obtain the confirmation of the sentence, Argentinas embassy said.

The justice ministry didnt immediately respond to a request for details. There was no answer Thursday evening at the office of the Italian lawyer who filed the appeal.

Meanwhile, Reverberi must sign in every day at the local police station in Sorbolo, a small town in Italys Emilia-Romagna region where he was born and where he occasionally says Mass, Salerni said.

Reverberi, who holds Italian citizenship, is sought for trial in Argentina for charges including the 1976 slaying of 22-year-old Jose Guillermo Beron and the torture of several other men, Salerni said.

The alleged torture took place in the town of San Rafael, near Mendoza, Argentina, Salerni said.

Reverberi left Argentina in 2011 after the first trial for crimes against humanity carried out during the dictatorship took place in the western Mendoza province and the testimonies of survivors and family members began to point to his responsibility, according to Argentinas government.

Were interested (in) where the body was buried, Ithurburu said in a telephone interview. Were hoping the priest would know, so the family can be informed, he added.

Human rights activists say as many as 30,000 people were killed or disappeared during Argentinas military dictatorship.

The decision by Italys justice ministry reflects a shared vision by both countries regarding crimes against humanity and a joint commitment to fighting against impunity. Moreover, it sets an important precedent for the bilateral relationship in terms of commitment to memory, truth, and justice, the Argentine Embassy said.

The Catholic churchs hierarchy in Argentina has been widely criticized for being allied with Argentinas military regime that ran a campaign to illegally detain and kill people it deemed subversive. When Pope St. John Paul II visited the country in 1987, critics lamented his failure to decry church support for military rulers, especially since the pontiff had just arrived from Chile, where he had denounced the military dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

During the current papacy of Pope Francis, who is Argentine, the Vatican and bishops in his homeland finished cataloging their archives from the military dictatorship with the goal of making them available to victims and their relatives who have long accused church members of being complicit with the military dictatorship.

Reverberi emigrated from Italy to Argentina when he was about seven years old, said Ithurburu. The rights group he heads takes its name from the date March 24 in 1976, when a U.S.-backed coup in Argentina installed a military government.

___

Associated Press writers Daniel Politi and Almudena Calatrava in Buenos Aires, Argentina, contributed to this report.

By FRANCES DEMILIO

Associated Press
Mikheil Sarjveladze, the chairman of the Human Rights Protection Committee of the Parliament, stated that Georgia has consistently maintained a clear position regarding sanctions on Russia. From the beginning, the country has expressed its inability to unilaterally impose sanctions on Russia. However, it does not stand as an obstacle in relation to international sanctions.Sarjveladze emphasized that he diligently fulfills individual issues entrusted to him in the context of Georgia's international cooperation."When our opponents conduct an absolutely unfounded and premeditated campaign to tarnish Georgia, the decision of the Revenue Service angers the opposition, as they attempt to mislead the public by suggesting the presence of some malicious practices. In other words, the government of Georgia remains committed to the position it has chosen, which is connected with the possibility of complying with international sanctions without independently imposing them," Sarjveladze stated.Nikoloz Samkharadze, Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Parliament, highlights the end of disinformation campaigns and 'hysteria', particularly evident during the visit of sanctions coordinators from the USA, the European Union, and Great Britain to Georgia, where they praised the country's exemplary cooperation.Samkharadze firmly asserts that Russia cannot bypass international sanctions within Georgia's borders. He emphasizes that their policy, declared since the first day of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, is clear and purposeful. While Georgia refrains from imposing sanctions, it ensures that Russia cannot evade international sanctions on its territory. The recent decision by the Revenue Service aligns with this policy."We quite logically and purposefully implement the policy that we announced on the very first day of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. We do not impose sanctions, but in our country, Russia cannot bypass international sanctions. The decision of the Revenue Service is also a part of this policy," stated Samkharadze.
Tuolumne County District Attorney's Office Logo View Photo

Sonora, CA  A Modesto man convicted of killing a woman at her Pine Mountain Lake home and stuffing her body in a freezer has been found suitable for parole.

The unanimous decision was the result of a seventh parole hearing held last week for convicted murderer, 61-year-old Steve Karpan. Tuolumne County District Attorney Cassandra Jenecke reports that she appeared on behalf of the People of Tuolumne County and the victims daughter, Kelly Molohan.

In 1994, Karpan pled guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to fifteen years to life for the slaying of Dorothy Ostrom, who resided in Modesto and had a vacation home in Pine Mountain Lake. Following up on a tip after a missing person report was filed on Ostrom, Tuolumne County Sheriffs Deputies found her badly beaten body stuffed headfirst in a freezer with a toilet tank on top of the freezer lid in the homes utility room.

D.A. Jenecke added, Karpan was seen driving Ms. Ostroms car and attempted to use her credit cards after pawning her video camera. His fingerprints were found on the murder weapon, the toilet tank, and the utility room door.

Initially, Karpan claimed he did not remember the killing. At his second parole hearing, he admitted to the murder and subsequently shared more details about the slaying. It was for that reason and a lack of sufficient insight into why he murdered Ostrom, along with weak parole plans, that D.A. Jenecke argued against Karpans parole. The panel disagreed based on the positive influence of Karpanself-help programming and sobriety work, the lack of recent violent rule violations while incarcerated,s and a Comprehensive Risk Assessment that rated him at low risk of violent reoffending, according to D.A. Jenecke. Additionally, Karpan qualified for Californias Elderly Parole Hearing Law, whereby inmates who are 60 years of age or older and have served a minimum of twenty-five years of their sentence can be paroled by the panel.

While I disagree with the Panels findings, I appreciate their time and careful attention to this hearing. I am also incredibly honored to have attended five of Karpans seven parole hearings with Dorothys daughter, Kelly. She attended and spoke or provided comment at all of his hearings, even when doing so was incredibly traumatic and forced her to relive her mothers murder. At each hearing, she demonstrated the strength of her love for her mother and her determination that Karpan never again be allowed to hurt another person, stated D.A. Jenecke. She added, Our Office continues to attend parole hearings to support our victims and their survivors while working to ensure offender accountability that promotes public safety.

There will be a 120-day review of the boards decision unless Governor Gavin Newsom refers the decision for an en banc review (a special procedure where all judges of a particular court hear a case) by the Board of Parole Hearings.
Highway 120 Tioga Pass Yosemite entrance gate View Photo

Yosemite, CA  The federal government is celebrating the third anniversary of the Great American Outdoors Act.

In recognition, there is free admission today (Friday, August 4) at all national parks, including Yosemite, and there are no day-use fees at places like New Melones Reservoir.

It is one of five fee-free days this year at national parks. The others were January 16 (MLK Jr Day), April 22 (the first day of National Parks Week), and coming up September 23 (National Public Lands Day), and November 11 (Veterans Day).

The Great American Outdoors Act was passed with bipartisan support and signed by former President Donald Trump in 2020. It provides $ 1.9 billion per year, over a five-year period, for maintenance and infrastructure upgrades on public lands.

Those visiting public lands today still need to pay for activities like camping, boat launches, transportation, and special tours.
After 27 years, authorities identify woman whose remains were found along Gilgo Beach parkway View Photo

HAUPPAUGE, N.Y. (AP)  A woman whose remains were among discoveries that became known as the Gilgo Beach killings has been identified after 27 years, authorities said Friday, disclosing the latest in a series of recent revelations about the long-cold case.

Known until now to the public only as Jane Doe No. 7, she was Karen Vergata, 34, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney told a news conference.

Her family last heard from her on Valentines Day in 1996, when she called her father on his birthday, according to court papers he filed in 2015 seeking to have her declared presumptively dead.

The filing lays out years of relatives and attorneys efforts to find her and says Suffolk County police contacted the family as far back as 1997 about an unidentified womans death. It was not immediately clear whether that woman was indeed Vergata, whose then-unidentified remains had been found the prior year.

Tierney credited a recent reinvestigation and new DNA sampling with finally establishing who she was. Yet much remains unclear about the investigative turns of a case that bedeviled detectives for over a decade and was beset by clashes among law enforcement agencies and changes in their leadership.

Fridays development was part of a reinvestigation that, last month, spurred the first arrest in connection with the long-unsolved string of killings of 10 people whose remains were found over a decade ago along a coastal parkway in Gilgo Beach on New Yorks Long Island.

But it is unclear whether Vergatas death might ever be tied to the ongoing case against Rex Heuermann, an architect who has been charged with three of the killings and named the prime suspect in a fourth. Tierney declined to comment on what, if any, suspects were developed in Vergatas death.

Some of Vergatas remains were discovered in 1996 on Fire Island. More of her bones were found in 2011 near Gilgo Beach, more than 20 miles (32 kilometers) west of the original location.

A woman with a troubled lifestyle, in the words of father Dominic Vergata, she was living in a rented room in Manhattans then-gritty Hells Kitchen neighborhood.

Child-welfare officials had taken her two sons from her, and they had been adopted by a foster mother. She had not seen the young boys since 1992, but she visited her father and brother frequently, her father said in sworn statements in the court proceeding that sought to have her declared legally dead.

Karen Vergata had been arrested numerous times, according to documents in the court papers, which dont specify the charges or outcomes. Tierney said investigators believe she was working as an escort. Most of the other victims in the Gilgo Beach killings also were sex workers.

Vergata was behind bars again when she called her father for what would be the last time on Feb. 14, 1996, seeming very troubled, he said.

As the year began to progress, and no one in the family had heard from Karen, nor had been able to make contact with her, I became increasingly worried, he added.

The family learned she had never tried to reclaim bail money she had posted for a friend before February 1996, a police officer who frequently saw her around her neighborhood had not caught sight of her since then, and shed missed a March 1996 court date, the fathers court filing said.

Tierney said Friday that no missing persons report was filed when Vergata disappeared. But her father had said he tried to file a missing persons report with the New York Police Department in 1996 but was told he could not. A message seeking comment was left with the NYPD.

The family heard the next year, from a Suffolk County detective, that an unidentified womans body had been found, the father said. He said relatives gave DNA samples but were told they did not match.

Over the ensuing years, the family and attorneys canvassed law enforcement and social services agencies in the New York metropolitan area and hired a private investigator, according to the court filing. Yet they turned up no sign of her.

The investigator, Jacqueline Buda-Moss, declined Friday to detail her search for Vergata but said she determined that there were no records that she was still alive.

Vergatas father died in December, according to an obituary.

A new investigative task force, formed last year to investigate the Gilgo Beach killings, developed a DNA profile of the woman whom investigators called Jane Doe No. 7, Tierney said. Then the FBI used genetic genealogy techniques to identify her tentatively as Vergata and used a relatives DNA to cement the identification in October, he said.

Its important that we remember and honor not only Ms. Vergata but all the victims on Gilgo Beach, the prosecutor said. He declined to answer any questions at the news conference.

Tierney said authorities held off releasing Vergatas name while contacting her relatives and furthering their investigation, which led last month to Heuermanns arrest in the deaths of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Lynn Costello. Prosecutors say they also are working to charge him with the death of a fourth woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, but they have not yet done so.

Heuermann has pleaded not guilty, and his lawyer says the 59-year-old denies killing anyone.

Authorities have said he is unlikely to be responsible for all the deaths.

The case first drew headlines in 2010, when police began searching for a missing woman named Shannan Gilbert near Gilgo Beach. Instead, they discovered 10 sets of remains of other people, including eight women, one man and a toddler.

Gilberts body was found in December 2011 in a marsh about 3 miles (5 kilometers) from the other 10 sets of remains. Investigators have found she drowned accidentally; her relatives have long disputed that determination.

___

Peltz reported from New York. Associated Press writer Karen Matthews and researcher Jennifer Farrar in New York contributed to this report.

By JAKE OFFENHARTZ, JENNIFER PELTZ and BOBBY CAINA CALVAN
AMSTERDAM, N.Y. (AP)  A freight train derailed in upstate New York on Friday, disrupting Amtrak service and prompting authorities to close roads in the area.

About 17 cars of a CSX train hauling mixed freight derailed just before 8 a.m. northwest of Albany, a CSX spokesperson said in a statement.

No crew members were injured and there is no indication of any leak, the freight carrier said.

Montgomery County Undersheriff Carl Rust said the majority of the cars that derailed were empty oil tankers.

Visually, nothing is leaking from these tankers, Rust said at a news conference in the town of Amsterdam near the derailment site.

A spokesperson for Amtrak, which shares tracks with CSX, said all service west of Albany was suspended Friday. Amtrak was working to provide alternative transportation for passengers, spokesperson Jason Abrams said.

The service disruption affects riders headed toward Buffalo and Niagara Falls.

State Route 5 was closed in the area of the derailment.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said state personnel were assisting local emergency response officials.

Our top priority is ensuring all railroad workers and nearby motorists are safe and that Amtrak service is restored as quickly as possible, Hochul said in a statement.

The cause of the derailment was under investigation. A day ago, an unrelated commuter train derailed in New York City. Authorities said 13 people were injured in Thursdays Long Island Rail Road derailment near the Jamaica station.
BERLIN  Kaitlyn Green turned her love for makeup into a lash bar and spa, Intoxikated, in 2021. Her business, 1204 Farmington Ave., specializes in personalized services, including facials, lash extensions, brow, body and Brazilian waxing and makeup.

Green said she named her business Intoxikated, spelled with a k instead of a c, not only because its a unique way to incorporate her first name into her shops branding, but its the perfect way to describe how she feels when doing her services.

I feel totally consumed by what Im doing where I really focus on the client first so that they can relax, and I put my all into it, Green said. And thats what I felt like is the only way to describe it. So thats how the name came about. It is pretty much like the exhilaration that you get from, you know, taking care of your clients.

Green, who is Black and Puerto Rican, was born and raised in New Britain, a predominantly white city. However, Green prides herself in her biracial identity despite growing up in an environment without many biracial children.

It was kind of hard because its like, you know, I have darker skin, but I also speak Spanish, Green said. So a lot of people were like, Whats wrong with you? I was culturally raised Puerto Rican, which is kind of hard when you look a little bit different. But Im proud of both cultures for sure, now that I really understand what it means to be a woman of color but also Afro-Latina.

Green has never stopped pushing forward and being successful, continually freeing herself from focusing on the opinions of others.

You shouldnt worry about what everybody else thinks, Green said. And I know that sounds probably cliche. But once you start doing that, owning your power, you can really hone in on whatever business you want to run because you wont be worried about the opinions of others. I know its a fearful thing to do, but hone into that because it will motivate you to keep pushing forward.

Greens love for makeup artistry began in high school, when she did makeup for theater and productions. In addition, she would often do her friends and her own makeup, never foreseeing that she would make a career out of it. After high school, she figured doing makeup full-time would only be possible if she moved away from her hometown.

I didnt even think that even being where I am now was possible, Green said. But its a huge part of me. I always kept going. I always did fashion shows and photoshoots who would ask me to do it, so I just kept going with it. It was something that I loved to do.

She was the first person in her family to attend college and start her own business. She went to college for marketing because, at the time, she didnt believe she could turn her side makeup business into a full-time career, she said. However, after quitting her nine-to-five job after college, she decided to try her hand at doing makeup full-time and going to an esthetician school to specialize in skin beautification.

Green had left her nine-to-five job right before the COVID-19 pandemic, which meant trying to launch her business was complex, she said. However, she rented a small office place in the meantime but found her current location in 2021.

I had to learn that you must pave your way, Green said. Because being a woman-owned and minority-owned business in a predominantly white town is tough, that really doesnt happen often.

Green describes her business location as relaxing, serene and calm. Her space has green color on the walls to add to the peaceful atmosphere of her spa for her clients. She said one of her successful goals was that she wanted everyone, whether a client or an employee, to love the environment.

I think weve made a lot of progress in the goals of establishing ourselves here in town, she said. And really creating an ideal environment where you want to come to work where we have the ideal clients. That was pretty much the motivation. I wanted to be able to come into a job that I didnt hate. Because Ive done that for such a long time.

With the success of her business, Green plans to add more team members, expand her space and, at some point, open a second location either out of state or just out of the area.

This is not an easy road, Green said. I think a lot of people think being a business owner is easy; its all fun and games. But it is a lot; it takes a lot of work. I think that would be the biggest takeaway, that hard work and dedication is really what will push you forward even when you think you want to quit. I do it at least twice daily; its really what pushes you because then youre looking back like, wow, you know, I made significant strides to make it here.

Customer feedback

Local resident Jessica Chambers said she met Green right before the COVID-19 pandemic while she was working at another salon. The woman that normally did her lashes wasnt available, so Green covered for her. When businesses shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she searched for Green on social media and learned of her new business. From then on, they reconnected and Chambers became a regular customer.

Shes just an amazing person, Chambers said. She puts off such a great energy and vibe. She truly just makes you feel like you're the only one that matters, right? And she puts the hot mess back together. Shes just a great person. And with her starting her own business, I just wanted to support her.

Chambers described her spa as clean and comfortable. Chambers said whenever she gets a service from Green, she always leaves feeling like a different person.

We have long, busy weeks in our crazy worlds, right? And I walk in there and she just kind of washes everything away for me, Chambers said. And I feel just renewed when I leave her. Its kind of funny, because I was just with her this past week to get my lash extensions refilled and I came home and I had this sudden burst of energy. I don't know where it came from  She just re-energizes you.
The Town of Plainville is pleased to announce the commencement of an innovative six-month pilot program aimed at enhancing services for our residents while adopting a four-day work week schedule for our dedicated staff.

Beginning on Monday, Aug. 21, the Plainville Municipal Center, Recreation Department and Youth Services Department will be adjusting their hours of operation to provide extended accessibility to the community. The revised hours of operation will be as follows: Monday to Wednesday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. The Municipal Center, Recreation Department and Youth Services Department will be closed Fridays.

The Senior Center, an integral part of our community, will also be participating in this pilot program, offering the following hours: Monday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m; Tuesday to Thursday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Senior Center will be closed Fridays.

This pilot program has been designed with two key objectives in mind. First and foremost, it aims to provide our residents with extended hours of operation, ensuring ample opportunities to access and benefit from the diverse range of services offered by the town.

Additionally, the adoption of a four-day work week is a significant step toward innovative work practices in response to the evolving needs of our workforce. The four-day work week is widely recognized for its popularity nationwide and is considered a pivotal factor in remaining competitive in todays hiring environment. In Connecticut, towns, such as Vernon and Mansfield, have also successfully implemented similar schedules.

While many private companies and government entities, such as the State of Connecticut, have successfully implemented hybrid work environments, we recognized that this approach might not suit Plainville's unique circumstances due to the size of our staff and the importance of remaining accessible to the community.

We are thrilled to embark on this pilot program, offering extended hours to our community while adopting a four-day work week for our staff, Town Manager Michael Paulhus said. This forward-thinking approach reflects our commitment to better serve both our residents and employees, enhancing their experience with the Town of Plainville.

During the six-month pilot program, Town Administration will gather feedback from the community and employees to assess the impact of the extended hours and the four-day work week. For further information and updates about the pilot program, visit the municipal website, plainvillect.com.
Children in mental health crisis can now go to one of the states four urgent crisis centers to get help rather than risking an hours-long wait in the emergency room for care, officials said Wednesday.

Wednesday marked the grand opening of The Village for Families and Childrens urgent crisis center in Hartford. The centers are designed as walk-in, outpatient clinics for kids who are having behavioral health crises such as thoughts of suicide or self-harm, depression, anxiety or out-of-control behavior, among other mental health issues.

The openings, which have occurred over the past few weeks across the state, are the result of 2022 legislation that offered a wide range of support for childrens mental health. Mental health was a defining issue for that legislative session amid heightened reports of behavioral health problems among youths.

What were doing over here is transformative, not only for The Village. Its transformative for the state, said Galo Rodriguez, president and chief executive officer of The Village.

The other centers are at Yale New Haven Hospital in New Haven, The Child and Family Agency of Southeastern Connecticut in New London and Wellmore Behavioral Health in Waterbury.

At Wednesdays opening ceremony, Gov. Ned Lamont recalled the daily reports on the calls to the states 211 line over the early months of the pandemic. He noted a shift in questions to the center.

Those first couple of months, it was: Am I going to die?' Lamont said. And then as time went on, it was calls more likely to be from young people saying: How am I going to survive?

As the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic began in Connecticut, health care providers reported a growing crisis as more children began showing up at emergency departments. Many were suicidal, out of control, or were dealing with eating disorders.

This resulted in overwhelmed emergency departments and long waits for care for the kids who urgently needed help.

The pandemic exacerbated pre-existing mental health problems among the countrys youths. It was difficult for many to access care, and kids whose lives were disrupted with school closures struggled. In December 2021, the U.S. Surgeon General issued an advisory on a national youth mental health crisis exacerbated by the pandemic.

The state legislature passed three sweeping bills that aimed to address mental health care in schools and early childhood as well as fund mental health services in medical centers, educational facilities and in the community. In December 2021, the U.S. Surgeon General issued an advisory on a national youth mental health crisis exacerbated by the pandemic.

The Department of Children and Families has $141 million per year in recurring state and federal funding for behavioral health services and another $74 million in one-time funding allocated from the American Rescue Plan Act, DCF Commissioner Vannessa Dorantes said.

Other agencies such as the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services and the Department of Social Services manage additional money for behavioral health services, Dorantes said.

As a state, we are committed to making sure that the children that we serve are going to be happy, they are going to thrive, and that they are going to know that when they are experiencing crisis, and fear and anxiety, that were here to prop them up, Dorantes said.

Rep. Tammy Exum, D-West Hartford, noted that the centers need more than the one-time COVID relief funding to be effective.

The centers have up to 72 slots, according to a Wednesday press release.

The need is enormous, said Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin. And the gap to this point has been gaping.

Its hard to be on a list when your child is in crisis right in front of you. For me, this building today represents prevention, Exum said. It represents that if my child is having an issue, and I see that child is escalating, and I dont know what to do, I can bring my child here as a parent.

At the peak of the pandemic, Connecticut Childrens Medical Center was seeing up to 50 kids per day. Pre-pandemic, it was closer to 20 to 25 daily, but many of those would be best treated in the crisis centers, said James Shmerling, president and chief executive officer at the medical center.

Tenesha Oates, a Hartford-area resident, had to take her teenage son to the emergency room not long ago. He went from school, and Oates says she thinks he just needed de-escalation techniques that werent possible at the school.

After she spoke at the lectern, her son snaked an arm around his mothers shoulders for a quick hug while they waited for the ceremony to conclude so they could take a tour. Rather than the sparse, clinical feel of a hospital, the urgent crisis centers treatment rooms have brightly colored, soft furniture.

Theyre equipped with fidget toys and each room has its own mural  sunflowers in one, a jungle scene in another.

This would have been much better, Oates said.

If you or your child are experiencing a mental health emergency, help is available by calling 988.

This story originally appeared on the website of The Connecticut Mirror, www.ctmirror.org.
WALLINGFORD  At first glance, spotted lanternflies may appear beautiful, with gray, black, and red layers of spotted wings. However, this colorful creature holds the rank of one of Connecticuts most invasive species.

First appearing in the United States in Pennsylvania in 2014, the spotted lanternfly originates from China, India, and Vietnam and has since spread to 14 U.S. states, including Connecticut. Known as an invasive plant hopper, the insect damages trees by feeding on sap and can infect grapes, hops, lumber and other types of plants and trees.

The spotted lanternfly is a new plant pest to the United States and represents a threat to Connecticuts environment, residential areas, and agricultural interests, particularly forests, orchards, vineyards, and nurseries, the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection states on its website.

The first spotted lanternfly was discovered in Connecticut in 2018. Since then, several populations have developed around the state, notably in Cheshire. This year, spotted lanternflies have been reported in every county with the exception of Windham County, according to Victoria Smith, state entomologist at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. The insect poses the biggest threat to Connecticuts vineyards, which can die after a few seasons if infected.

Were not going to stop this insect despite all the efforts we make, Smith said. Its going to spread no matter what. The problem with this thing is that the egg masses are very difficult to spot. They look like mud or lichen or just nothing at all.

No vineyards in Connecticut have reported being affected by the spotted lanternfly, Smith said.

Lanternflies lay eggs on everything from vehicles and construction equipment to logs and more, with little discrimination. Because of where the eggs tend to be, people can unknowingly transport them to another town, city, or state. To manage the spread, Connecticut instituted a quarantine to restrict the movement of plants, construction materials and equipment, agricultural equipment and outdoor household items such as grills, lawn mowers and furniture.

Arborist Dan Dalton of Hamdens branch of the Davey Tree Expert Co., underscored the importance of the quarantine, which has been renewed until the end of the year.

When we look at how they move from place to place and were the ones moving them, then the idea behind the quarantine is to raise awareness about this movement and slow the spread, Dalton said.

The public can also help by reporting any sightings of either the insects or their egg masses.

We are encouraging people, if they find egg masses, to scrape the egg masses into some alcohol or even Purel or soapy water, which will kill the egg masses, Smith said. Theres about 30 to 90 eggs in each egg mass. If you get rid of one of those, youre getting rid of a lot of insects in the future.

At Paradise Hills Vineyard and Winery in Wallingford, the insect remains a top concern.

Founder Rich Ruggiero attended a training session held by the state a few months ago. As a prevention technique, he learned that removing the trees-of-heaven, a species which attracts spotted lanternflies, reduces the vineyards risk of having the insect. He also mentioned chemical sprays that can help protect the grapes in the event of spotted lanternflies appearing.

Other than getting rid of the tree-of-heaven, theres really nothing we can do, but we work out in the vineyard every day, so were intimate with the vines and can tell if somethings going on, Ruggiero said. Its a hazard that could happen. Well deal with it when it comes here, like with any weather event or disease.

Similarly, Gouveia Vineyards of Wallingford frequently checks their grapes to make sure no spotted lanternflies have appeared. Owner Joe Gouveia said that the vineyard has faced many natural obstacles.

When we first heard about spotted lanternflies, we were very concerned because they could wipe us out in no time, Gouveia said. If its not this, its the birds. If its not the birds, its the weather. This is farming, so we constantly have to adapt.

Spotted lanternflies also excrete a slippery liquid called honeydew that attracts bees and wasps and leads to sooty mold. The more spotted lanternflies in a given area, the more bees and wasps people may see, Smith explained.

Recent research points to the existence of natural predators that could keep the spotted lanternfly in check. Both parasitic wasps and a specific fungus called beauveria bassiana may kill the insects. Smith said researchers have gone to China to better understand the spotted lanternflies in their native environment and learn more about their natural predators.

With these exotic insects, in their home places theyre not a big deal, but here there are no ecological checks against them, so theres no natural production against them spreading, Dalton said.

The bottom line: Be vigilant when it comes to the spotted lanternfly.

So what should you look for?

At this time of the summer, the insects are becoming adults, between one inch long and half an inch wide. Their spotted wings, gray on the top with black and red layers, serve as a major identifier. Egg masses can appear as a gray substance like mud that looks dry or cracked the older it gets. Some old egg masses may even look like rows of brownish seeds.

To report a spotted lanternfly sighting, visit tinyurl.com/2ets97e6

For more information, visit tinyurl.com/yf5jjuvd

rwachman@record-journal.com
THE Shurugwi arson case in which 10 houses were burnt has taken a new twist, with police identifying the victims as ruling Zanu PF supporters.

This follows a statement by President Emmerson Mnangagwa at a rally which directed law enforcement agents to hunt down suspected Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) supporters behind the arson.

Police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi had initially said the case was not linked to political violence.

On Wednesday, Police Commissioner-General Godwin Matanga, however, issued a follow-up statement saying the victims were Zanu PF supporters.

May I point out that investigations are still in progress in connection with the 10 huts which were set on fire in Shurugwi, Midlands province on July 30, 2023, he said.

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The huts were owned by some Zanu PF officials and supporters, Eva Chitata (42), Munyoro Getrude (63), Nkazana Mhlanga (46), Tobias Saul (51), Anna Mangena (62) and Lot Chivese (46). Two suspects have been arrested for the incident.

The suspects Edson Madhuveko (28) and Edwin Madhuveko (21) have since appeared in court as police widen investigations.

Matanga said the political environment was peaceful and warned political activists the law would be applied without fear or favour.

The ZRP and other security arms of the government have intensified safety and security measures in the country to ensure that the public is free to conduct various social and economic activities in a serene environment, he said.

The country is certainly ready to host peaceful, free, fair and credible elections.

Matanga said police had recorded minor cases of political disputes, violence and malicious damages to property.

Police have asked government to avail funds for the acquisition of equipment in anticipation of increased political violence ahead of the August 2023 polls.

 NewsDay

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Harare man in hiding after sh0cking killing spree: one dead, three injured

A horrifying incident unfolded in Lonchinvar as a 26-year-old man from Harare went on a rampage, claiming one life and leaving three others injured, including a police officer. The suspect, Saratoga Masere, has since gone into hiding, evading authorities.

The injured policeman and another victim are currently receiving medical care at Sally Mugabe Hospital after being viciously stabbed by the assailant wielding a knife. Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi, the national police spokesperson, confirmed the distressing incident.

According to Asst Comm Nyathi, the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) is urgently seeking information leading to the arrest of Saratoga Masere, who is wanted in connection with one murder case and three attempted murder cases. The violent spree took place on August 3, 2023, at a residence along Cypress Road in Lochinvar, Harare.

Details of the incident reveal that the suspect, in a fit of rage, attacked 73-year-old Lameck Nguwo Mazvunara with an iron bar before locking himself inside the dining room. Deno Mpofu aged 40 broke into the room intending to apprehend the suspect before he was stabbed in the chest with a knife. Deno Mpofu died on admission at Sally Mugabe Hospital.

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Asst Comm Nyathi also disclosed that the suspect targeted Kim Mpofu, the son of the deceased victim, stabbing him as well. Additionally, a police officer who intervened to subdue the assailant also fell victim to a knife attack. Both victims are currently receiving treatment at a local hospital.

In a chilling revelation, it was discovered that the suspect had previously assaulted his own father, Count Munyaradzi Masere, aged 71, with a log on August 2, 2023. Count Munyaradzi Masere was subsequently admitted to Sally Mugabe Hospital for medical attention.

As the investigation continues, authorities are actively seeking any information that may lead to the arrest of Saratoga Masere. The motive behind the violent spree remains unclear, as the community grapples with the sh0ck and horror of the events that unfolded.

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Yves here. While the word fascism or fascist is deployed way too casually as an epithet, sometimes labels like this are apt. Robert Urie below argues why.

To add to Uries analysis, we have been calling the US a Mussolini-style corpocracy as early as 2008 (see Mussolini-Style Corporatism in Action: Treasury Conference Call on Bailout Bill to Analysts (Updated), and extended that observation, over time, such as in a 2015 post: Mussolini-Style Corporatism, aka Fascism, on the Rise in the US. Germane snippets:

The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their proper name. Confucius One of the distressing things about politics in the US is the way words have either been stripped of their meaning or become so contested as to undermine the ability to communicate and analyze. Its hard to get to a conversation when you and your interlocutors dont have the same understanding of basic terms. Now admittedly, the new neoliberal economic order is not a replay of fascism, so there is reason not to apply the f word wholesale. Nevertheless, there is a remarkable amount of inhibition in calling out the similarities where they exist.

Again, remember that this post was from 2015. Since then, we have had a rise of what Lambert has called authoritarian followership among liberals and Team Dem, and increased self and actual media/social media censorship, rising to the level of legislation in the EU and pending legislation in the US. Readers no doubt can provide more examples of the use of state power to curb dissent. Critically, thugs appearing in the middle of the night are less necessary for coercion; now making people near or actually unemployable via cancelling them or even worse, cutting them off from bank services, does the job without the risk of ugly photos.

By Robert Urie, author of Zen Economics, artist, and musician who publishes The Journal of Belligerent Pontification on Substack

Setting aside culture war animosities for the moment to consider the direction of politics in the US to the extent that doing so is psychologically and / or economically possible for dedicated culture warriors, recent revelations that the FBI and CIA were active participants in the 2016 and 2020 national elections run headlong into longer history. While American democracy has always been tenuous and abstract (representative), the US has now returned to a pre- and inter-War melding of state with commercial interests. The American political system now fits the Marxist-Leninist conception of the capitalist state.

How is this working for the people? Well, which people? The US has the largest military budget in the world by a factor of ten. But it is nevertheless apparently incapable of producing usable weapons and bullets. The US spends multiples of what the rest of the rich world does per person on healthcare while it has active genocide levels of people dying (graph below) who wouldnt be in a functioning society. The end of the agreement between capital and the state to forego predatory pricing (greedflation) on food and other necessities is increasing food insecurity for vast swaths of the West. And nuclear war with Russia is once again an implied possibility.

Graph: while inequality has received lip service of late, most Americans imagine rich to be the neighbor down the street who just bought a new car. In fact, the concentration of income in the US in recent years is beyond the imagination of most Americans. The graph illustrates the general case that the richest one percent of wage earners earns 84 times what the poorest quintile earns. In terms of dollar democracy, this means that the rich have 84 times as much political influence as the poor have. Source:inequality.org.

The recent shift from the soft power of trade agreements (NAFTA, TPP) to the hard power of military imperialism ties to the economic backdrop of a (US) corporate-state that exists to grab resources and market power for American capital. In opposition to capitalist free-trade logic, American liberals have chosen the path of economic nationalism in a low-probability effort to regain political legitimacy for the American state. As temporarily disgraced American idiot-prince George W. Bush put it, war is good for the economy. Of course, his war wasnt good for the million Iraqis that died in it, nor for the wider Middle East that was lit on fire by it, nor for the European and Scandinavian nations that faced the inexplicable surge in refugees that it produced. But for the titans of war, the benjamins are flowing again.

Graph: while it is well understood that the US military budget dwarfs those of other nations, the question of what we get for the money is never asked. That the Biden administration is pleading poverty with respect to supplying Ukraine with American weapons should bring this question to the fore. How can the US spend 10X as much as the rest of the world and not have the weapons and materiel to show for it? In fact, the neoliberal nature of military spending in the US has meant that the process is too corrupt to produce anything of value. Source: pgpf.org.

For analytical purposes again with culture war flashpoints set to the side, current US President Joe Biden was the prominent liberal advocate for conservative George W. Bushs resource-grab-war in Iraq. Mr. Bidens central selling point for that war, Iraqi WMDs, was a fabrication. It may have been Mr. Bushs fabrication, but Biden went beyond ordinary bipartisan warmongering to sell the American war against Iraq. This likely has bearing on FBI / CIA meddling in US elections for the benefit of national-security-state Democrats. Biden has been a consistent proponent of American empire since he entered Congress several centuries (five decades) ago.

The binaries used in American political discourse imply a distribution of political views that are mutually exclusive. Democrats versus Republicans is one such binary. Left versus Right is another. Racist versus anti-racist is another. Fascist versus anti-fascist is another. Analytically, this is to impose theoretical divisions onto American society, not to report them. They are assumed to describe the ideological motivations that lead us to act. But where do these binaries leave economic motives, the limits of what we know, and the point at which we exist in history?

To bring this down to earth, the practical distinction in the twentieth century was between political movements defined in terms of national boundaries, not individual beliefs. This left imperial competition global resource grabs to supply burgeoning industrialization, as the source of national competition. Like now, the sense was imparted that the first nation to control global industrial inputs would control the world. Industrialization was the perceived path to global domination via military production. The logical circle military production is needed to fuel imperialism because imperialism is needed to fuel military production, was created.

But this formulation is incomplete. Wars based on national competition end when a nation or group of nations capitulates to a foreign power. Wars based on ideological competition end only when an ideology is ended (as in never). This incongruity led to the Cold War practice in the US of anti-authoritarian authoritarianism, of using the techniques of authoritarianism to crush authoritarianism abroad, only done at home. But of course, the use of authoritarian techniques is by definition authoritarianism. The same is true in the present when politicians use propaganda and censorship to crush views that they find politically inconvenient.

American politics has long been premised in the conceit that this class collaboration via national interests preempts the class divisions created through capitalist exploitation. Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates may have made their fortunes via Federal contracts, labor exploitation, and legal privileges denied to others, but when the US attacked Iraq in 2003, we were united in being American, goes the logic. Never mind Orwells All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others. Through NAFTA, the American state helped Bezos and Gates lower the wages of their workers.

Making a few people obscenely rich and then maintaining that wealth, has taken precedence over providing workers with a living wage for most of the history of the US. From slavery through Joe Biden suppressing a railway strike after reneging on his promise to raise the minimum wage, the American perspective has always been the wish-list of the oligarchs. However, it is untrue that this bias has the consent of the governed. To paraphrase political writer Thomas Frank, every culture war in recent history has been a stealth class war. If the political and oligarch classes lived in the same country that the rest of us do, they would know this. But class divisions define the American experience. A different class means a different experience.

Public discourse in the US over recent years has been of a relatively stable political system that rests atop changing economic relations. This stability was proved in the eyes of urban liberals when Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election following the manufactured turmoil of the Trump years. Missing from this analysis to date has been the impact of changing economic relations on the stability of the political system. The shift from the New Deal to neoliberalism in the 1970s didnt just impact economic relations. It replaced the logic of a public realm with public support for private economic production.

Chart: having followed the healthcare impact of the ACA (Affordable Care Act), Obamacare, since the program was first introduced, the reporting has shifted from speculative based on the imagined healthcare benefits of insurance expansion, to stunned incredulity that any healthcare system could produce such relentlessly bad outcomes. The Commonwealth Fund (above) is interesting because it employed Liz Fowler, the health insurance lobbyist who wrote the ACA. The evolution of its coverage has shifted from quiet despair to absolute horror at how little the program has actually accomplished. As a bonus, its neoliberal logic is now being used to gut Medicare. Source: Commonwealth Fund

This difference is fundamental. The New Deal featured programs to ameliorate capitalisms tendency to produce too few jobs, insufficient public goods, and to create market power for connected capitalists. Its conception of the public realm was premised in social tension between state and private interests. In this formulation, the state balanced the provision of public goods like national defense, education, and healthcare, against the rent-seeking tendencies of private interests.

In a way that is conceptually analogous to the saw that science is good for analyzing everything except what is important in life, the missing public goods from capitalist production beg the question of the purpose of the economy. Another way to put this is that while capitalism can occasionally produce what some people want, it is incapable of producing what all people need. Ironically, having the Federal government pay capitalists to produce public goods makes them private goods. Their serial failures as public goods demonstrate this point (graph above).

The neoliberal turn ended the very conception of a public realm through private provision of all goods and services. Given the economists fantasy that capitalist production is efficient, local productive efficiency was imagined to be superior to the public production of public goods. In other words, while the government may no longer produce national defense, education, or healthcare, the additional profits earned by private producers for producing them could in theory be applied to producing more public goods. But they never are.

If this economics reads like a cynical farce, you may be onto something. The facts of the US in 2023 are of private military contractors setting US foreign policy, an education system set up to earn private profits for trade school type employment training, and a healthcare system that is the worst in the developed world. Given the American capitalist practice of playing legal games like patent scamming when doing so is more profitable than producing quality goods and services, why would the architects of the US healthcare system and military production not expect the same game-playing from these?

Graph: following from the Commonwealth chart above, child and maternal mortality, gun violence, suicide, and the health impact of the industrial food system, have now accumulated to have Americans live 6.2 years less than the citizens of functioning nations. This approximates the drop in life expectancy that took place during the dissolution of the Soviet Union. At the time, it was considered amongst the greatest tragedies in human history. American liberals elected Joe Biden to toss another trillion dollars into it. This is genocide. Source: OECD; World Bank.

Again, while GDP (Gross Domestic Product) measures P x Q (P = price and Q = quantity), it doesnt measure the social costs of production, the quality of what is produced, or the social utility (or lack thereof) derived from it. In this respect, the economy can rise while the economic circumstances of most people who exist within it decline. This has resulted in serial assertions that political dysfunction is the result of the little people being too stupid to know how good they have it. This was the liberal chide against the American Left in the 1960s and 1970s, as well as the implied Left charge against Donald Trumps supporters from 2016 forward.

Consider, the Great Recession wasnt a fantasy dreamt up by Right-wing malcontents. From the 1970s forward American oligarchs worked with their toadies in the political class to create the world imagined by what became the Reagan-Right. By 2016 Wall Street had been deregulated, private healthcare had been funded at public expense, and privately sourced public education was training children to sit down, shut up, and do what they are told for the benefit of their future employers. In other words, there is a material basis for widespread discontent.

In contrast to the fantasies of economists, the architects of the New Deal understood capitalism. The New Deal was based on knowledge of what capitalism does well, and what it doesnt do well. In contrast, the neoliberal turn was based on the forgotten history of the Great Depression. In other words, neoliberalism was / is a forgettingpurposeful or not, of why capitalism doesnt produce public goods without socially given reasons, like Federal programs, for doing so. In this sense, neoliberalism is the elimination of a public purpose to benefit private actors.

I recently spoke with a former analyst for a large and well-recognized agency of the Federal government who had participated in a project to rationalize Federal defense spending along neoliberal lines. However, s/he had no idea the project as it was conceived was neoliberal. The goal had been to make government as efficient as the so-called private sector. Missing from the analysis was any cognizance that the central point of post-WWII Federal defense spending had been to employ lots of people in stable industries at decent wages. It wasnt to turn defense contractors into oligarchs on the public dime.

Back in the day, the employment benefit of Federal defense spending was well understood. No capitalist enterprise had a direct interest in providing national defense, so theory had it that we, as in the people, must fund it collectively. As a consequence, between the end of WWII and today, American imperialism from Krugmanite trade twaddle to arming Ukraine to fight Russia, has been funded on the public dime. Additionally, Americans were employed to produce the munitions and materiel used to destroy Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Yemen, etc.

A few readers may recall that it was private equitys foray into national defense spending that placed former US President George H.W. Bush in a meeting with the Bin Laden family in Washington, DC on September 11, 2001. The purchase and control of national defense infrastructure by private equity changed the logic of the MIC from the quasi-public production of public goods to the private production of nominally public goods by rent-seeking corporations. The employment aspect of the public production of public goods was discarded in favor of private profits.

Now for the trillion-dollar question: given that the US spends more each year on its military than the next ten nations combined (graph above), why has it run out of weapons and materiel to supply to Ukraine in its (US) proxy war with Russia? To be clear, there is no suggestion here that doing so would either be a laudable goal or good public policy. But still, if Russia can fund its military at eight cents / dollar relative to the US and still field an army in Ukraine, why isnt the US, given its military expenditures, loaded to the rafters with weapons and materiel to sell to Ukraine?

A similar question faces the American healthcare industry. The US spends far more per person on healthcare than other rich nations, and yet has the worst healthcare outcomes amongst them (graph, chart, above). Excluding bonuses and stock options, the healthcare industry has the highest paid workers in the US who are producing the worst outcomes in the developed world. Like the defense industry, capitalists flipped the public purpose of the healthcare system on its head. The goal is now to extract maximum public payments while providing minimum goods and services in return.

With respect to both industries, American liberals continue to conflate public payments to private interests with a public purpose. There is no such confusion present when the Federal government purchases writing pens and paper. The goal is clear: to support private profits by contracting with private corporations to produce writing pens and paper. The Federal government could create a federal institution to produce these. Or it could pay extra to private contractors, as has been common with cost-plus Federal contracts, to pay higher wages to workers. But doing so would counter the neoliberal logic of economic rationalization.

Being American, with an internet now openly being managed by the FBI and the CIA, actual history is getting harder to find unless you know before-hand where to look for it. In this regard, Daniel Guerins 1939 materialist classic Fascism and Big Business provides detailed descriptions of the economic drivers of the rise of European fascism. To save the suspense, these details are eerily reminiscent of the US in recent decades. No, this isnt to revisit the liberal fantasy that Trump = Hitler. History is more interesting than that. The link between then and now can be found in the exigencies of capitalism, which Guerin details.

As the willingness of American liberals to subvert the freedoms that allegedly distinguish the US from authoritarian states grows, the Cold War irony of anti-authoritarian authoritarianism grows with it. As is illustrated through the public response to the official lies related to Hunter Bidens now infamous laptop, censorship undertaken in the public interest was more precisely to undermine the integrity of the 2020 election for the benefit of the Democrats. In so doing, the stated purpose of state propaganda and censorship was proved a lie. The revealed purpose has been to silence political opponents, not to protect the public.

Divested of its ideological and organizational paraphernalia, fascism is nothing more than a final solution to the class struggle, the totalistic submergence and exploitation of democratic forces for the benefit and profit of higher financial circles.

The sense has been imparted via the urban, bourgeois, press that normalcy was restored in the US through the election of Joe Biden in 2020, even though Biden has been consistently less popular with the American people than the relentlessly demonized Donald Trump. With recent revelations that the CIA and FBI actively interfered in the 2020 election on behalf of Democrats by putting forward the false allegation that Hunter Bidens computer contained Russian disinformation, what normalcy has been restored that the CIA runs American politics?

The question isnt rhetorical. There is an answer. From the House Judiciary Committee in April, 2023:

Former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morrell testified before the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees and revealed that (now current Biden Secretary of State Antony) Blinken was the impetus of the public statement signed in October 2020 that implied the laptop belonging to Hunter Biden was disinformation. A = inserted by Urie for clarity.

Mr. Blinken was acting as Joe Bidens campaign manager when he inspired former CIA Director Morrell to publicly mischaracterize the content of Hunter Bidens laptop as Russian disinformation. He also got fifty of his fellow spooksto do the same. And, lest you have forgotten, the public statement issued by Morrell and his fellow election fraudsters was reviewed by the current CIA and given a green light to be disseminated. Question: why havent these people been arrested for election interference and conducting dirty ops domestically?

Whatever, your political allegiances, getting the CIA to publicly lie in order to elevate Joe Bidens chances of being elected is as anti-democratic dirty, manipulative, dishonest, and corrupt, as any of the allegations yet made regarding the fascistic tendencies of other politicians and parties. Fighting fascism with fascism leaves fascism as the only possible result. It is therefore ironic that liberal fascism and left fascism, have since entered the lexicon to denote political repression undertaken to counter political repression.

Dan Guerins (above) central insight is that big business multinational corporations and Wall Street, is the central proponent of fascism in the same way that it is a central proponent of imperialism. It was the leaders of large industrial enterprises in the US that supported the rise of European fascism from afar. The only attempted fascist coup in the US, the business plot of 1933, was carried out by Wall Street in league with leading industrialists. Had the plotters not chosen the wrong General to lead the coup socialist gadfly Smedley Butler, it may well have succeeded.

Why might American industrialists and financiers favor fascism in the present? Well, the private provision of necessities like healthcare, education, and collective defense, isnt going that well for the consumers of these products. Why the rush to censor the internet? A bipartisan consortium of human snakes, lizards, and anal warts (apologies to snakes and lizards) has brokered the delivery of decidedly low-quality public goods and would find it distinctly inconvenient to have their names associated with their political products by the public. In fact, the goods are so low-quality that liberal largesse looks a lot like looting.

Amongst the largest contributors to Barack Obamas 2008 campaign were Wall Street and health insurers. We got consequence-free bailouts for Wall Street and four million excess deaths from a healthcare system that has gotten worse since the ACA was implemented. Health insurers were amongst the largest contributors to Joe Bidens 2020 presidential campaign as well, and he doubled down on Obamacare by shoveling another trillion dollars into it. Where is the accountability that requires that every mother in New Jersey piss in a jar (get a drug test) to get $15 per month in food assistance?

So again, the answer to the question is implied in the widespread failure of private contractors to produce functioning public goods. In the first, these producers are raking in profits and bonuses as things stand, so why should they change tactics? In the second, the Federal oversight process features future employees negotiating with current employees of revolving-door corporations. What incentive do they have to stir the pot? In the third, there is no not-corrupt political party in the US to compete with the two conspicuously corrupt parties of the present. With voting as the sole legitimate mode of changing politics, what choice is there?

My regulatory acquaintance mentioned above is a dedicated liberal Democrat. Their take on the neoliberal economic project that they were engaged in (rationalizing defense spending in terms favorable to capital) is that it was liberal because it featured government spending. In fact, the same claim could be made when fascist Italy and fascist Germany geared up war spending in anticipation of WWII. While I dont dispute that this spending could be considered liberal, few Americans liberals who took the time to think about it would likely agree.

Daniel Guerins book Fascism and Big Business (link above) should be required reading in public schools in the US. That they arent suggests why profit-seeking charter schools are such a bad idea. What is the incentive for committed capitalists to risk their profits by teaching political theory that is threatening to their business interests? Did the lightbulb just go off? Capitalism is no more ideologically neutral than any other economic system. That American liberals cant differentiate between their beliefs and fascist logic of the twentieth century should be telling
Why you want bats in your yard  and how to attract them WaPo. For the same reason you want humming birds, beneficial insects, pollinator-attracting plants, etc. The augmentation of the complexity and intensity of the field of intelligent life.

How unpredictable are economic conditions? The FRED Blog

Maersk forecasts long and deep contraction in global trade FT

Local Malls, Stuck in Death Spiral, Plunge in Value WSJ

Climate

#COVID19

China?

Myanmar

Africa

Syraqistan

US ready to deploy military personnel to safeguard Hormuz transits Splash 247. I hope they have enough ammo!

European Disunion

New Not-So-Cold War

2024

Mattels Barbie Playbook Is What Legacy Brands Should Follow Morning Consult. Joe?

Democrats en Deshabille

The Supremes

Spook Country

The Bezzle

Digital Watch

Superconductors

Sports Desk

Zeitgeist Watch

Imperial Collapse Watch

Class Warfare

The Worlds Largest Landowners Madison Trust Can Psychopathic Tendencies Help You Achieve Success? Smithsonian. The deck: New research is reframing this often sensationalized and maligned set of traits and finding some positive twists. No doubt!

Selfish, Virus-Like DNA Can Carry Genes Between Species Quanta

Sinead O Connor  Nothing Compares 2 U  Isolated vocals (video) YouTube:

Antidote du jour (via):

Bonus antidote:

Double bonus antidote from RM:

RM writes: I got photo from friends down in Missouri. Its my friend Gregg feeding Tilford the Turtle and it just makes me feel that I am missing the good things in life. I just got to pay more attention to the real life stories? Il faut cultiver notre jardin.

See yesterdays Links and Antidote du Jour here.
Todays topic is far too sprawling to address well in a single post; one can imagine future historians, assuming theres enough societal surplus to support serious academic inquiry then, will likely debate this and other issues related to the decline of US/Western hegemony. But it seems that theres been enough additional decline from the already deteriorating baseline of operational (or alternatively, managerial) capabilities in most advanced economies to spur more and more commentators to write about it. Aurelien has been describing this problem in passing but roused himself to write his stylish Reality Would Like a Word. John Michael Greer had a go at the question of why elites today seemed incapable of doing anything useful in a crisis (aside from grifting, which is personally useful) in Storm Trooper Syndrome.

This same week, Andrei Martyanov, who has an extensive, extremely well-documented description and analysis of the decline of the US military across several highly regarded books, warned that the pathology was getting worse. From his When I Talk About:

 inability to plan operationally and strategically on the part of Washington in general and Pentagon in particular, I do not mean it as a figure of speech. I really mean it in terms of actual planning. Six years ago I called the lack of this ability the myopia. The definition must be changed. With myopia one at least can see near oneself. This IS NOT the case with Washingtonit cannot see what is immediately in a front of its eyes and the issue is not myopia but what some people, yours truly included, begin to increasingly assertively statethere is NO strategic planning in Washington at all. It is not just the inability to strategically plan, it is a complete absence of such in principle. It is a systemic problem and it cannot be addressed without rebuilding the system from the ground up and the good first step would be throwing out all those Ph.Ds in strategy who infest US academe and think-tankdom while having no fucking clue about what they preach. Studying military and political history in and of itself does not represent strategic studies due to inherently complex nature of modern warfare and a required accuracy in description of the object of study, such as a country, in our particular caseRussia. The US in general, and combined West in particular, DO NOT have the tool kit to handle all that, we can say it now with confidence. So, the issue is multifaceted and pseudo-academe and experts who dominate decision-making chain in the US are incapable of correcting the course. It is too late now anyway. And that is my point, the US is so deep in lies, about itself, about the world, about history, about military et al, that I dont see how can one reasonably debate those people, those masters of discourse who pretend that learning several stratagems and abstract strategic constructs makes them masters of strategy. So, I can sit here and produce one example after another for days, but thats not the point. The point isUS strategic planning is non-existent category and anyone who pushes the idea that it exists today should be disqualified as a scholar, since doctrine and strategy-mongering is not strategic planning, especially when done by people who are lost in the complexities of the modern world. The existence of people here and there who do understand this fallacy does not change the issue that the problem is systemic and cannot be addressed from withinthe critical mass of thinkers with integrity and intellectual tool kit are simply not there. And even the US military is losing remaining ability extremely fastnot surprising considering a catastrophe in military education.

In other words, various commentators with very different backgrounds are seeing the same disease in different realms: all of us in top level governance, but also in our particular fields: Aurelien in the civil service and caliber of UK/EU decision-making; Martyanov in the military; yours truly in banking/finance and more general corporate management.

The first time I came across this syndrome, I didnt even recognize what I was seeing. It was in the 2015 Greece bailout negotiations, where we documented at some length that if Greece were to exit the Eurozone, a popular idea in some circles back then it would take war-level mobilization. And even then, it would be inconceivable to get the needed coding for payment systems in and outside Greece to handle a new currency in anything less than three years, and more likely five plus. Mind you, this was not just a matter of the depth and skill of coders working with Greek banks; it would take investment and cooperation by a very large number of parties all over the world, many of whom would not share Greeces sense of urgency.

We got a stunning amount of pushback, much of it angry. A bit came from people who worked in software at much smaller, non-banking companies and had no appreciation of how the huge transaction volumes banks run every day meant that a difference in degree from their environment was also a difference in kind.

No, most of it was a reflexive, knee-jerk It cant possibly be hard. You must be a pro-Troika stooge to be saying the plucky Greeks are stuck in the Eurozone roach hotel.

At first I thought this was due to something Mark Ames had pointed out long ago, that the left had given up on thinking about finance, and anyone who spoke with knowledge of that realm was automatically suspect. But a banking expert, Clive, described around that time that managerialism was rampant in the UK, and it took the form of dismissing anyone who pointed out that some cocakmamie new scheme would be hard and/or costly would be told they were not clever enough. The result was often hiring snake-oil consultants who coddled managements ego and inevitably made things worse.

Then there was Brexit. The short version was it was rife with delusional thinking on the UK side, to the degree that EU pols and commentators drily called it cakeism, as in wanting to have your cake and eat it too. And it didnt end when the deal was done. Even with the EU giving the UK lots of accommodations, the government did an utterly shambolic job of even recognizing, let alone managing, all the new tasks required by hard borders with the EU.

Aurelien, Greer, and Martyanov place a lot of emphasis on lousy acculturation, as in children and then adults in important positions being protected from the consequences of bad actions like plagiarism, as well as in general being poorly educated compared to say 50 years ago.

While these issues are certainly entrenching this bad situation, IMHO the roots go way bock. Some linked causes (this list obviously is not exhaustive but these factors are important).

The undermining of public education as part of the attack on unions. The various teachers unions were among the most powerful and cohesive. The conservative press demonized them regularly. One can concede that the unions should have been required to do more internal policing of lousy or lazy teachers if they were to keep their vaunted tenure. The result has been a decline in the status and relative pay of teachers, which has in turn made the profession less attractive to clever people (trust me, Ive seen a fair bit in the way of studies saying that teacher pay and standing are strongly correlated with test performance and other measure of learning in many countries)

The weird shift in parenting to give undue importance to esteem, which also undermined education. My impression is that it was in the 1980s that elite and even middle class parents started treating their kids precious egos as important. This also came along with the increase of helicopter parenting, children not being allowed much in the way of free play time, and even children no longer being allowed to walk home despite American suburbs being generally very safe (and sexual assault coming mainly from family members and others with existing relationships to the child).

One of the terrible consequences was the loss of teacher control over the classroom. Parents increasingly felt and acted as if they could second-guess teachers, and most schools and school boards backed the parents (I cannot find the article but even a mid 1990s piece in Forbes on the topic of why schools cost so much and werent performing attributed it significantly to adminsiphere bloat, as in a higher proportion of budgets going to non-teaching. That also served to reduce the standing of teachers within many systems). The idea that parents could complain about a pupil being put in detention or sent home for misconduct, or would attempt to renegotiate grades was simply unheard of in my day. Parents would nearly always side with the school and might impose additional disciplinary measures of their own, like a cut in allowance until grades improved.

The rise of the symbol economy. In the very early 1980s, management guru Peter Drucker lamented the rise of symbol economy, which using modern nomenclature would include finacialization, advertising, and the increasing importance of management consultants. Even though Drucker had celebrated the rise of managers, his sighting of a proto-professional managerial class made him leery.

I graduated from business school in 1981, at the tail end of the US manufacturing era. Over 40% of my classmates were engineers, as in electrical or mechanical or chemical engineers, or guys who made sure things worked. Hardly any software engineers. Hardly any bankers or investment bankers. Perhaps another 15% to 20% whod worked for manufacturing companies in other capacities, like sales or accounting.

The obvious needs to be said: in those environments, screw-up like not having enough raw materials on hand or botching scheduling, or accidents, could have a catastrophic impact on operations. So employees were attuned to the need to mind all sorts of nitty gritty details because they really did matter.

I went to Wall Street before the PC era. We did financial analysis on green ledger paper, finding data in copies of annual reports and entering it manually.

While it is correct to say that the adoption of the personal computer greatly reduced the amount of junior person donkey work, making the task cheaper also cheapened the task. Scriveners like me understood how financial statements worked and often had to dig into footnotes. The ones who came behind and grew up doing downloads from Compustat into pre-formatted spreadsheets had a much weaker grasp of corporate finance.

Much more important, making spreadsheeting vastly easier had perverse effects. When financial analysis was costly and time-consuming, bankers, investment bankers, and CFO thought hard about what analyses they would do because they could not run too many scenarios. That meant thinking hard in advance what mattered.

Making spreadsheeting cheap increasingly divorced the exercise from reality, most of all for consultants and deal-pushing M&A professionals. The spreadsheets increasingly became the deal, as in the focus of attention, as opposed to the businesses they represented. And anyone who has done financial forecasting and valuations knows you can make them tell pretty much any story you want to via the assumptions. They can look oh so reasonable but they only have to be all just a bit optimistic to produce wildly inflated resultswhich wont be sanity-checked into a sounder version if a top dog really wants to do the deal.

And dont get me started on PowerPoint. The fact that hired guns are allowed to use something that allows for only vague and incomplete presentations to be a widely-accepted end product is a testament to management incompetence. If you look at a slideshow months after the fact, you have only a sketchy record of what was said. And on top of that, the few words/few bullet points per page approach is awfully reminiscent of childrens books, except without the cute illustrations.

Due to the need to keep this post to a reasonable length, Ill add one more issue:

The rise of smartphones and social media. The problem with both these advances is due to profit motives, both the devices themselves and major social media platforms have been designed to be seductive and foster dependence. Its not hard to start on a litany of downsides, such less well socialized kids and now young adults, which means poorer negotiation skills, often aversion to dating, and encouragement of investing in online activities rather that the (generally) healthier pastime of seeing people in the flesh. I cant prove it but it seems intuitive that less engagement in the messy world of real relationships reinforces potentially unhelpful fantasies (an obvious case is porn. Playboy bunnies were bad enough in creating unrealistic expectations of what women looked like. Confirming my priors, one study found that the average man watches 70 minutes of porn a week, and watching more porn is correlated with performance issues (not surprising given how unrealistic a lot of porn is).

On that titillating note, well stop for now. But I hope readers will flag additional important factors in this sorry decline.
Philippines-based Now Group signed a memorandum of understanding with state-owned corporation the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA), to deploy telecoms infrastructure in the Cagayan province.

In a statement, the company detailed the agreement paves the way for subsidiary Now Telecom and Now Corporation to deploy fixed wired, fixed wireless, terrestrial, satellite, and other connectivity infrastructure in CEZAs territory ensuring reliable and quality broadband and other ICT services to the province.

The next step for the project will be the completion of technical studies.

CEZA is within the vicinity of two Philippine-American military bases which Now Group said is integral to the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) between the United States and the Philippines, amplifying its global security influence.

NOW Group chairman Mel Velarde (pictured) said: Our partnership with CEZA is a demonstration of our commitment to support the current administrations Digital Philippines. As we advance in this era of digital transformation, we prioritize reducing the digital divide region by region. Our strategic intent is to leverage the power of technology and telecom, presenting a growth potential that can captivate international investors and locators.

Now Group secured grants from the US government to construct its 5G network as the operator signed up for the Clean Network initiative, a US programme to ensure operators buy infrastructure equipment from vendors that do not pose a threat to national security.
Ousted by Republican House members in April, the Democrat will return to finish his first term as a state rep
Big stick diplomacy: 2 Employees at California 7-Eleven stop cigarette thief with the help of a wooden stick

Two employees at a 7-Eleven convenience store in California recently stopped a thief by immobilizing him and giving him repeated whacks of a huge cane

The incident  which occurred in a 7-Eleven location in Stockton, California  was captured on video by a customer. The suspect, a Black man, brazenly cleared out the store's cigarette section and dumped his loot into a trash can. He wore a dirty white T-shirt, jeans and a blue head covering.

One store employee confronted the thief, but the suspect threatened to "pull his strap"  implying he would shoot the staff member  and continued to loot the store.

The customer filming the video intervened, advising the employees to just "let him go" and wait for law enforcement to arrive. The customer also asked if the store was insured.

The thief tried to get past the employee who confronted him, but the 7-Eleven worker had none of it. The employee attempted to stop the thief and succeeded in doing so, managing to restrain the suspect to the floor. His fellow employee came to his aid, armed with a huge stick.

The second employee then hit the thief with the wooden stick, swinging it behind his back for more damage. Every strike of the stick caused the suspect to shout in pain as the hits targeted his torso, legs and back.

Meanwhile, the first employee snuck in a punch on the thief's upper back. The thief then gave up his heist and voiced out his intent to leave the store. At this point, the customer intervened once more and told the two employees to let the suspect go. The tandem did, but not before the second employee delivered two more blows.

Lululemon employees fired for accosting shoplifters

According to the Daily Mail, shoplifting in the U.S. "has reached unprecedented levels." The issue, which worsened during the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, had been characterized by brazen shoplifters walking out of stores with their arms full of stolen items.

The National Retail Federation (NRF) said retail theft cost the industry almost $100 billion in 2022. David Johnston, NRF's vice president for asset protection and retail operations, said of the matter: "These acts are occurring more openly and thieves have become more brazen and aggressive in stealing merchandise." (Related: Grocery stores hiring armed security teams to ward off rising thefts.)

While the two employees at the 7-Eleven in Stockton were lauded on social media for their efforts, two employees at a Lululemon in Georgia received the short end of the stick after they confronted shoplifters at their store.

The two employees, Jennifer Ferguson and Rachel Rogers, confronted the three thieves who tried to get away with stolen merchandise. The tandem also followed the thieves as they left the store, capturing footage of the scene. Ferguson and Rogers then reported the shoplifting to law enforcement, which led to the arrest of the suspects.

However, the two were fired for allegedly violating the sportswear store's "no-tolerance policy." A representative for Lululemon clarified that the termination stemmed from the two "knowingly violating [the] zero-tolerance policy related to physically engaging with the perpetrators, which put their lives and the safety of our guests and other employees at risk."

"We are grateful no one was hurt during this altercation. [Lululemon has] longstanding protocols in place to uphold a safe environment in our stores. No amount of merchandise in a store is worth our educators putting themselves at risk."

Lululemon CEO Calvin McDonald later defended the decision to terminate Ferguson and Rogers. He argued: "We take that policy seriously because we have had instances  where employees step in and are hurt, or worse, killed. The policy [serves] to protect them, [and] we have to stand behind the policy to enforce it."

Collapse.news has more stories about rising retail theft in various cities.

Watch the footage of the two 7-Eleven employees stopping the cigarette thief below.

This video is from the Slappy 27 channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Retail analyst: Theft is growing at a faster rate than sales.

Big-box stores closing down due to rising RETAIL THEFT.

BAD APPLE: NYC shoplifting reports hit record levels for second straight year.

Target on pace to lose $1.2 billion in profits over a two-year period due to organized retail crime (which is only getting worse.)

Armed guards and retail theft rings: America's streets now resemble a third world nation as organized crime ramps up, citizens buy ballistic armor.

Sources include:

DailyMail.co.uk

NYPost.com 1

11Alive.com

NYPost.com 2

Brighteon.com
They voted for it: Situation in New York City is starting to look apocalyptic

The scene in New York City is becoming increasingly apocalyptic, with hundreds of illegals sleeping on the streets. Instead of addressing the issue by sending these people back home, because the US is unable to care for then, we are allowing them to take over our cities and sidewalks. Joe Bidens America and Eric Adams New York City are descending into dystopian hellholes.

(Article republished from Revolver.news)

The New York Post:

Sobering video shows dozens of migrants sleeping on cardboard outside the iconic Roosevelt Hotel in Midtown Manhattan on Monday morning  as the makeshift processing center for asylum seekers hit capacity this weekend. The slumbering newly arrived migrants could be seen filling the sidewalks surrounding the historic hotel at 45th Street and Vanderbilt Avenue, stretching from the hotel door up East 47th Street. The group slept shoulder-to-shoulder across three full blocks while waiting to be processed at the site, which also houses migrant families, as NYPD officers monitored the situation. Heartbreaking images showed crowd-control ropes separating the migrants from passersby, as those waiting for access to proper shelter huddled under blankets with their belongings alongside them. Were all sleeping on the street, said Abderahim Mahamat Saleh, a 36-year-old married dad of three from the Central African Republic, to The Post  adding he hasnt been able to find a bed anywhere since he arrived in the Big Apple eight days ago. He said he has been waiting outside the Roosevelt now for two days after staff gave him a general referral form and placed him in the queue along with dozens of other migrants. We dont have blankets or pillows. They brought in vans for some people to sleep in, but theres not enough space in the vans, explained the migrant, who said he left behind his family to escape his countrys militia after they broke two of his ribs and collarbone.

There are homeless Americans  many vets  who sleep like this every night, and that is the real shame.

The situation in New York is starting to look apocalyptic. pic.twitter.com/OfXvRHpVwp  Ben Kew ????? (@ben_kew) August 2, 2023

New Yorkers voted for this. Eric Adams campaigned on keeping NYC as a sanctuary city, so this apocalyptic nightmare is their own making. However, now, Eric is upset because all these illegals were simply shipped over to his city without warning. Well, sounds like hes getting a taste of how border states feel.

13 WHAM:

New York City Mayor Eric Adams says he and New Yorkers are angry following the influx of migrants being sent to the city from border states. As the city anticipates surpassing the highest recorded shelter census in history, Adams said Friday this level of responsibility was never part of any agreement. This responsibility was simply handed to us without warning as buses began showing up, the Democratic mayor said while declaring a state of emergency in NYC. Theres no playbook for this, no precedent.

The only ones we should truly feel sorry for in this mess are the children being dragged to the US by selfish and irresponsible parents, along with the homeless Americans who Democrats seem to have conveniently forgotten about.

Read more at: Revolver.news
Biden beware: Obama warns Biden of Trumps political strengths during private lunch

Former President Barack Obama warned incumbent President Joe Biden of Donald Trump's political strengths in a private lunch back in June.

Two people familiar with the June 27 meeting at the White House attested to the remarks. According to the tipsters who spoke on condition of anonymity, the lunch was part of a regular catch-up between the two Democrats. Biden served as vice president under Obama in both the latter's terms from 2008 to 2016.

The former president clarified during the lunch that his concerns weren't about Biden's political abilities. Instead, he pointed out that the real estate mogul-turned-president maintains an "iron grip" on the Republican Party. Aside from this, Obama also noted that Trump has an intensely loyal following and that the conservative media ecosystem remains friendly to him.

These, alongside a polarized nation, underline Obama's worry that Trump could be a more formidable candidate than many in the Democratic Party realize. Despite this, the former president promised to "do all he can" for a second Biden term.

The lunch wasn't entirely all work and no play, per the tipsters. During lighter moments of their get-together, Obama and Biden discussed the current president's intent to vacation at Sunnylands in California. An insider disclosed that Biden had planned to stay there in August for part of his summer vacation, but the idea was scrapped because of concerns about extreme heat. (Related: Working hard or hardly working? Biden spent 39% of his presidency on VACATION.)

According to the White House, there was no specific agenda for the June 27 meeting. People briefed on the conversation said the two discussed a range of political, policy and personal matters  including updates about their families.

Before departing the White House that day, Obama completed his first task to help Biden's reelection campaign. He filmed a short video for the incumbent's fundraising, reminding viewers: "Giving five or 10 bucks  whatever you can  to Biden's campaign makes a real difference."

A party divided: Fractures in Obama, Biden camps remain

The 44th president remains highly popular among Democrats years after his stay at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue ended. While Obama's role in the 2024 election has not yet been determined, his aides say he is likely to reprise his playbook from recent polls  including large rallies in swing states and fundraisers for Biden and other Democratic candidates.

Obama senior advisor Eric Schultz declined to comment on the June 27 lunch, but said the former president will tailor his campaign activity to maximize its effect. He said in a statement: "We place a huge emphasis on finding creative ways to reach new audiences, especially tools that can be directly tied to voter mobilization or volunteer activations. We are deliberate in picking our moments because our objective is to move the needle."

Aides for the incumbent also welcomed Obama's early commitment to help in Biden's reelection. Biden campaign spokesman TJ Ducklo said in a statement: "Biden is grateful for his unwavering support, and looks forward to once again campaigning side-by-side with Obama to win in 2024 and finish the job for the American people."

However, some in Biden's circle harbor a lingering frustration over Obama's role ahead of the 2016 election. During that time, the then-president made it clear to his aides his belief of Hillary Clinton being the Democratic nominee to succeed him. The former first lady lost to Trump during that year's elections.

Aside from this, some Biden aides were frustrated over Obama's late endorsement in 2020. Others, however, claim that Obama worked behind the scenes to ensure his vice president secures the Democratic nomination before endorsing Biden.

Meanwhile, many senior Biden aides strongly rejected the notion of any tension between the two camps. They cited the heavy overlap among Obama and Biden staffers, alongside the 44th president's energetic involvement in the past two election cycles.

"There must have been an epic internal coverup operation because that supposed dynamic would be news to everyone who actually works for either person," said White House spokesman Andrew Bates. "No one has been a stronger supporter of the Biden administration and its agenda than Obama, his team and veterans of the Obama administration."

Visit BarackObama.news for more stories about the 44th president.

Watch Dan Bongino explaining that former President Barack Obama is aware of the Biden crime family's shady deals in Ukraine.

This video is from the Son of the Republic channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Biden is Obama's "useful Idiot." IABO  "it's always been Obama."

Former Obama-era official calls Joe Biden a criminal, says he has evidence first family compromised by China.

Leaked audio recording reveals Obama-Biden regime officials plotting coup against Ukrainian president in 2014.

Sources include:

MSN.com

Brighteon.com
Putin is setting up private armies for protection against Wagner-style rebellion

Russian President Vladimir Putin has reportedly been working on developing a network of private military companies throughout the country to offer him greater protection in the event of another Wagner Group rebellion or similar uprising.

The mercenary group, which had been helping Russia to fight Ukraine, launched a mutiny in June, seizing control of Rostov-on-Don and advancing on Moscow before ultimately working out a deal with the Kremlin and pulling back. The uprising took Putin by surprise and was very damaging politically.

Putin has not punished Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, but he has been looking to identify traitors in the Russian military and is growing increasingly concerned about the possibility of similar threats arising in the future.

Mysterious amendments attached to a new law raising the draft age for the Russian military outline the creation of new paramilitary companies known as special enterprises throughout Russia.

The militias Putin is setting up would operate at his behest and will be armed by the countrys Ministry of Defense but will fall under the command of their respective regional governors. They will be required to protect the state border, fight illegal armed groups and combat foreign sabotage and intelligence formations," in addition to addressing internal threats. It is not yet clear how they would interact with Russian intelligence and other branches of the military.

Although Putin is well-protected by extensive security and the country has a national guard, one Kremlin official said that the new law that put these private military companies in place is an effort to enhance his defenses.

Speaking to The Daily Beast, Nikolai Sokov noted: "They are a tool to enhance security [important given very active clandestine actions by Ukrainian military intelligence], and can, as necessary, help against any new mutiny."

They will also be tasked with providing defense against internal attacks. They can use force on crowds in cases where there is group resistance, and they will also be able to pursue unmanned drones and other types of attacks.

At the same time, however, Putin is likely trying to avoid setting up another Wagner Group-style private military company that could pose a similar threat to his regime. It appears the latest efforts are aiming to address some of the very security vulnerabilities that enabled the Wagner Group to carry out its revolt.

Therefore, there are checks on the new military groups that include a provision under which Putin can abolish them, which would require them to turn in their arms within days.

Putin needs to bolster his defenses as domestic unrest grows

Institute for the Study of War Russia Analyst Karolina Hird told The Daily Beast that Putin is likely attempting to strike a balance between establishing a militarized entity while avoiding setting up something with a structure that would be conducive to the type of activities Wagner ultimately attempted.

She added: They need these kind of entities to fill certain law enforcement and security roles in Russian regions, but these entities cannot be so centralized and powerful that they become their own Wagner group and then pose a threat to the Russian state akin to what Wagner posed during the rebellion.

She also pointed out that the Kremlin now understands that they might not be as well protected as they hoped and that this needs to be addressed before the growing unhappiness among Russians over the war reaches a breaking point.

Sources for this article include:

BusinessInsider.com

TheDailyBeast.com
RADIOACTIVE fish discovered near Fukushima renews concerns over plans to dump nuclear wastewater into the ocean

Japanese plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) studied a black rockfish in May and found that it contained levels of radioactive cesium that were 180 times over Japan's regulatory limit.

The radioactive fish was caught near drainage outlets at the TEPCO plant, where three nuclear reactors melted down amidst a tsunami in March 2011. Rainwater from areas near the reactors flows into the area where the fish was caught.

The alarming discovery reignited concerns over TEPCO's plans to start releasing 1.3 million tons of treated wastewater from the former Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant by August.

A report from July 23 showed that the problem is still unaddressed, prompting questions about how dangerous the company's plans are for the public.

Radioactive cesium health risks

Radioactive cesium has been detected in surface water and different kinds of food, such as breast milk and pasteurized milk. The amount of radioactive cesium in food and milk depends on several factors.

The most important factor is whether or not there has been a recent fallout from a nuclear explosion, like a weapons test or an accident at a nuclear power plant.

Depending on one's level of exposure, cesium can cause diarrhea, bleeding, nausea, vomiting, coma and death.

TEPCO wastewater has been mixed with rainwater and groundwater since the tsunami. The company admitted that fish near the drainage outlets are unsafe for consumption because the concentration of cesium in seabed sediment in the area has measured more than 100,000 becquerels per kilogram (Bq/kg). The maximum legal level is only 100 Bq/kg.

A TEPCO official explained that the company has regularly removed fish from inside the port since 2012 because contaminated water flowed into the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station port immediately after the accident.

In January 2022, a fish caught near Fukushima was found to have high levels of radiation. Authorities said that the fish had escaped from the drainage outlet.

Following the report, shipments of black rockfish caught off the coast of Fukushima prefecture were immediately suspended. As of writing, they have not been resumed.

More than 40 fish with cesium levels over the legal limit were caught in TEPCO's port between May 2022 and May 2023. At least 90 percent of the fish were from the inner breakwater, where water flows from the area surrounding the melted TEPCO reactors.

Wastewater release approved despite potential radiological impact

The Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) in Japan and the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have both approved TEPCO's plan to release wastewater into the Pacific Ocean. The company claims the move is necessary to "secure space for decommissioning the plant." (Related: Japan gets green light to release Fukushima radioactive water into Pacific Ocean.)

However, the process would take decades to complete using an Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS). Earlier in July, the IAEA said the plan would have a "negligible radiological impact" on people and the environment.

Paul Dorfman from Irelands Radiological Protection Advisory Committee warned that reports like the one about the contaminated rockfish are likely far from over.

Companies believing and pretending certain things are not harmful because it is convenient is "literally killing the planet," said Celine-Marie Pascale, an American University sociologist. She added that most of the time, corporate interests "triumph at global expense."

Meanwhile, officials in Hong Kong have declared that they will ban food imports from 10 prefectures in Japan if the release moves forward in August. Some Chinese wholesalers have already stopped accepting seafood imports from Japan.

Aside from concerns about cesium, TEPCO has admitted that ALPS, which it plans to use, may not be enough to eliminate isotopes such as cobalt, plutonium, ruthenium and strontium. The system is also unable to remove tritium, the radioactive isotope of hydrogen.

In June, Masanobu Sakamoto, president of JF Zengyoren, Japan Fisheries Cooperatives, said the group does not support the Japanese government's stance that "an ocean release is the only solution."

Watch the video below for the IEAA's report on the allegedly safe Fukushima water release.

This video is from the Cynthia's Pursuit of Truth channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Japan begins secret discharge of RADIOACTIVE WATER from Fukushima nuclear plant into the ocean.

IAEA says Fukushima nuclear plant plan to dump radioactive waste into Pacific Ocean is perfectly safe.

Radioactive Fukushima water to be released into the ocean.

Sources include:

ChildrensHealthDefense.org

CDC.gov

Brighteon.com
Berlin builds new, state-of-the-art 128-apartment social housing complex exclusively for ILLEGALS

A new social housing apartment complex is slated to finish being built and opened in May 2024, but the facility will only be available to non-German illegal aliens

The Wohnungsbaugesellschaft Berlin-Mitte (WBM) housing association is planning to make the 128-apartment complex on Askanierring in the Spandau borough of Berlin available to around 570 "refugees" who are expected to move in and live there indefinitely.

Any leftover units will eventually be made available to Berliners, but not until every last illegal has his fill of the free housing project.

Lars Dormeyer, the managing director of WBM, praised the project as "contributing to the integration of refugees," seeing no issue whatsoever with the fact that accommodations will only be available to non-Germans with brown skin.

Since the complex will eventually become a "long-term attractive living space for all Berliners," Dormeyer has no problem with it being unveiled as an illegals-only housing project.

(Related: Germany's top economist is trying to import 1.5 million migrants per year  no need to speak German.)

Meanwhile, poor and elderly Germans are being EVICTED from their apartments to make room for even more illegal migrants

It would be one thing if every last German was fully accommodated with adequate housing and all of their other needs met, but the fact of the matter is that there are thousands, if not millions, of Germans who are in dire straits just trying to make ends meet.

In the German town of Lorrach, for instance, 40 tenants, all of them poor and / or elderly, are being kicked out of their apartments to make even more room for migrants. It is a "brazen" move from the city's housing association, which has no legal ground to kick these Germans out of their own living spaces.

As for the Berlin project, a spokesperson said that "there is currently no date when the first Berliners can move in." This means that illegal migrants will have first pick and be able to stay for as long as they want.

"It is not possible to give an exact date," said building senator Christian Gaebler (SPD) to the local press about the matter. "That depends on how long the apartments are needed as refugee accommodation."

In a statement to the B.Z. newspaper, one member of the Christian Democrat (CDU) opposition party called the move "totally unbelievable," adding that the local government needs to make sure the apartment complex becomes available to needy Berliners "after three years at the latest."

In 2023 alone, the German government is spending nearly $40 billion on illegal migrants, even as Germany's elderly population especially faces crippling poverty and growing need.

As if this was all not bad enough, there is another 72-apartment complex slated to be built in Berlin "in the best inner-city location." That one will be exclusively reserved for female senior citizens who identify as either lesbian or bisexual.

Keep in mind that in some areas of Germany, the government has built entire living complexes that are still to this day empty because they are not in places where people actually live and work  talk about a total waste.

One hotel in Sipplingen, near Lake Constance in southern Germany, was supposed to have accommodated asylum seekers when the local government signed a nine-year lease back in 2015 with the goal of renovating it. Those renovations have not yet happened because apparently the government did not realize the extent of the renovations required and simply abandoned the project.

"There was no exit clause from the rental agreement," stated a spokesman from the Bild newspaper, adding that "the owners had more leverage at the time" in what was a "tight real estate market."

The white-majority West is being destroyed by the globalists and replaced with chaos and collapse. Learn more at Collapse.news.

Sources for this article include:

RMX.news

Newstarget.com
HALF of all UK children are PERMANENTLY DAMAGED by covid lockdowns, study finds

The Institute of Fiscal Studies has published a study showing that one in two parents in the United Kingdom has at least one child in the family showing serious deterioration in emotional and social skills ever since the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) lockdowns.

Children between the ages of four and seven were found to be more likely (52 percent) to be affected than 12- to 15-year-olds (42 percent) in terms of the damage caused by the stay-at-home orders that were enforced during the Fauci Flu.

Young people whose parents were either furloughed or forced to take a leave of absence during covid were also found to be "significantly more likely to experience a worsening in their socio-emotional skills than those whose parents had not been furloughed (51 percent versus 45 percent)."

In short, children whose families experienced any kind of hardship during the lockdowns  poor families, in essence  were significantly more likely than the rest of the general public to suffer serious developmental issues.

(Related: During the Chinese Virus scamdemic lockdowns, military spooks were spying on their critics.)

Covid lockdowns caused irreversible damage to the next generation

For the study, children were asked whether they had become "easily scared," were "constantly fidgeting or squirming," or were "generally disobedient" during covid. The poorest and the most down-and-out children reported the worst symptoms in these respective categories  though children of all social statuses suffered.

"During the Covid-19 pandemic, children from all backgrounds saw their social and emotional skills worsen considerably," commented study author Andrew McKendrick, an IFS research economist.

"Children lived through many changes during these years: school closures, lack of contact with friends and family, and potentially devastating severe illness or death among loved ones," McKendrick continued, adding that the covid lockdowns had "multi-generational impacts."

"Our research shows that another important driver of children's declining skills was the economic disruptions experienced by their parents, whether or not those disruptions led to a large income loss."

Another official by the name of Rachel de Souza, who serves as Children's Commissioner in the UK, added that she is "deeply concerned" about the findings of this latest research on children's social and emotional skills in the post-covid age.

"This study shows that the disruption the pandemic caused to children's development has been long-lasting," she added.

The terror that was inflicted on children in order to keep them "safe" from the Chinese Germ scare was so severe that it caused irreparable damage to most of them. This bodes ominous for the next generation, which will be ill-equipped to handle their affairs and responsibilities.

In many ways, children became "collateral damage" during the lockdowns, added Arabella Skinner, one of the parents from the campaign group UsForThem.

"There were many occasions when warnings were ignored," Skinner said about the matter.

"It is an unavoidable fact that many of our children's development has been negatively impacted by the pandemic restrictions. The government must take action now  they need to support all the services which support our children and ensure that this never happens again."

Related research out of Johns Hopkins University (JHU) similarly found that the covid lockdowns "imposed enormous economic and social costs" despite having "had little to no public health effects."

"What was done to kids in 2020 was nothing short of criminal," one commenter wrote about the latest findings.

"The lockdowns were a crime against humanity," wrote another. "Every single 'authority' and every single 'news' person who pushed the fear, the lockdowns, masks, and 'vaccine' mandates are all guilty of crimes against humanity."

The covid scamdemic destroyed countless lives. Keep up with the latest at Plague.info.

Sources for this article include:

Summit.news

Newstarget.com
Italy reveals ARSONISTS  not climate change  are responsible for wildfires across the country

Italy has pointed its finger at arsonists for the recent wildfires that broke out in the country, contrary to the United Nations' claim that "climate change" is the culprit.

According to the National Pulse, Italy's National Confederation of Direct Farmers (Coldiretti) suggests that up to 60 percent of the country's wildfires are man-made. Roberto Occhiuto, president of the southern Italian region of Calabria, put forward a much higher amount of 80 percent.

Coldiretti's Francesca Giardina said land takes around 15 years to fully recover from wildfires. But even after recovery, she warned that it becomes prone to landslides. Given the extreme temperatures and lack of rainfall in southern Italy, Giardina stressed that "petty pranks" easily turn into wildfires and properties turn into ruins.

Italian police recently arrested a 79-year-old man for allegedly setting fire to 30 hectares of olive groves in central Sicily. Meanwhile, Giada Nicolo said one such conflagration nearly destroyed her family home. The resident of Mosorrofa village in southern Calabria believes arsonists were responsible.

Calabria has been severely affected by wildfires, and the region's authorities have used drones to scan potential targets of arsonists. The drones have captured images of "organized arson squads," indicating intentional and premeditated actions behind some of the fires.

Not all man-made fires are necessarily the result of criminal intent, however. Farmers have also been found starting fires clumsily to clear weeds. Others point to either shepherds looking to convert woodland into grazing land or rural neighbors involved in disagreements. A number even suspect that firefighters might be starting the blazes to gain attention and increased funding from local authorities. (Related: Arson is the likely cause of Quebec wildfires, not carbon emissions.)

UN blames "global boiling" for the wildfires

Meanwhile, the UN has blamed "climate change" for the wildfires in Calabria.

During a press conference at its headquarters in New York City (NYC), UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that the planet is now "literally boiling" due to human activity. He stressed that the effects of climate change are no longer mere predictions, but are already visible in the form of wildfires and extreme weather events, rising sea levels and record-breaking temperatures worldwide.

"Climate change is here. It is terrifying, and it is just the beginning," said Guterres, who added that the world has entered an era of "global boiling" rather than just global warming. "The air is unbreathable, the heat is unbearable and the level of fossil fuel profits and climate inaction is unacceptable."

The UN head highlighted the consequences of "unchecked greenhouse gas emissions" and the "expansion of fossil fuel industries" as the main drivers of this crisis. He also pointed to a rising disparity in "climate vulnerability," where the most severe impacts are felt disproportionately by vulnerable communities in developing nations.

Guterres, a former prime minister of Portugal, called on global leaders for immediate action to combat the alleged crisis as part of his call for "climate justice." He demanded aggressive measures from different countries to slash emissions, halt oil and gas expansions and phase out coal power plants by 2030.

Visit ClimateAlarmism.news for more similar stories.

Watch this video about the Federal Aviation Administration grounding all flights at NYC's LaGuardia Aiport due to smoke from wildfires in Canada.

This video is from the Alex Hammer channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Canadian wildfire smoke continues to affect air quality in US cities.

Wildfire plumes worldwide are contributing to ozone pollution and harming air quality.

Canadian officials warn: Wildfire smoke spreading across North America could last all summer.

Canadian wildfire smoke blocking sun, causing solar panels to produce 50% less energy.

Global air pollution index calls Chicagos air quality the WORST IN THE WORLD due to Canadian wildfire smoke.

Sources include:

TheNationalPulse.com 1

BBC.com

TheNationalPulse.com 2
Miamis stinking problem: Growing trash piles and overflowing septic tanks test citys appeal to new residents

As the City of Miami tries to attract more out-of-state workers and wealthy residents, it must deal with a multi-billion dollar environmental problem caused by the city's growing trash piles and overflowing septic tanks

Miami has been a magnet for people fleeing cold weather, crime, crumbling infrastructure and high taxes in other cities. But according to a report from the office of Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, some of greater Miami's massive landfills  like the Mount Trashmore park, which already stands at more than 130 feet high  will run out of space by 2026.

More urgent are the septic systems that serve more than 100,000 businesses and homes and the citys 2.7 million residents. Many of those front-yard sewage tanks overflow when it rains  releasing fecal bacteria and other contaminants that end up transforming Miami's streets into toxic areas that can kill local fauna and make people sick. (Related: OCEANSIDE FILTH: More than 3,000 U.S. beaches found to contain dangerous levels of sewage.)

Cava's proposal is to pile the trash higher atop existing landfills and then build a $1 billion incinerator and power plant. This new infrastructure would replace the county's existing incinerator that burned down earlier this year. The old incinerator used to process one million tons of trash each year.

Even if this solves Miami-Dade's trash problem, keeping the toilets flushing is a more complex and expensive challenge as there are 108,000 homes and businesses with septic tanks in the county. Many bathe the ground with human waste within two feet above drinking water aquifers, falling short of minimum limits to avoid contamination. There are 50,000 more households in neighboring Broward County that are part of the county's metropolitan sprawl and affect the septic tank problem.

Under Cava, the county has already spent $1 billion on water and sewer lines and has allocated another $160 million. But according to government estimates, fully solving the problem by ridding or stripping the county of septic tanks would cost more than $4 billion and would require raising taxes to fund those efforts  as well as the expansion of landfills and other trash collection costs.

Homeowners already pay more than $500 a year in local taxes just for garbage collection, and under Cava's proposed $10 billion budget for the next fiscal year, could be charged another $36 in pickup fees. Homeowners will also likely cover the cost of connecting their properties to sewer lines, a task that could cost $20,000 on average.

Miami driving away more residents than it is attracting

The county recently reported its first population loss in decades in a trend that could continue as significant infrastructure problems, like the mounting garbage and sewage issues, threaten new development. Miamis status as the "favorite American city for the ultra-wealthy" is pushing out its middle class  and everyone else.

Between 2019 and 2022, Miami-Dade County's population dipped by approximately 79,535 people, marking the county's first recorded population decrease over multiple years since 1970.

This population decrease also marks a bigger loss as a share of the total population of the city than those recorded by places like Baltimore and Wayne County, Michigan  which includes Detroit  over the same period.

Apart from infrastructure concerns, residents note that the cost of living is rising while wages are stagnating and home prices are pricing out many middle-class talent that could have helped keep the county's economy booming.

"It's the middle class, it's our talent base, it's our college graduates moving out for better opportunities elsewhere," warned Maria Ilcheva, census information center lead at Florida International University's Jorge M. Perez Metropolitan Center. "We need to be a city that, below the skyline, can provide a good quality of living."

For more stories about pollution, head over to Pollution.news.

Watch this video discussing how Miamis overflowing septic tanks and trash pile test its appeal to the rich.

This video is from the Daily Videos channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Millions of gallons of untreated sewage from Mexico spilling into San Diego, forcing beach closures.

NYC hotel discarding TONS OF FOOD meant for illegals.

Electric garbage trucks in New York FAIL after just four hours  gas is what gets the job done.

Landfills seen as potential source of raw materials in the future.

Sources include:

Bloomberg.com

WSJ.com

Brighteon.com
Indonesian scientists claim to have discovered the MOST MUTATED COVID-19 variant

Researchers in Indonesia have announced that they have discovered " the most mutated version " of the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) ever recorded.

The mutant COVID-19 strain, a morphed version of the post-vaccine Delta variant, was collected from a patient swab in the Indonesian capital Jakarta. At least 37 of its staggering 113 unique mutations affect the spike protein, which the coronavirus uses to latch onto humans. Meanwhile, the post-vaccine Omicron variant carries an estimated 50 mutations.

Indonesian experts claim that this currently unnamed mutant strain could be the "most extreme" form of COVID-19 discovered to date.

Professor Lawrence Young, a virologist at the University of Warwick in England noted that the biggest fear of health experts is of a new variant like the mutant strain in Indonesia emerging quietly. But he hedged this statement by noting that this new variant will only become a concern if it spreads rapidly. Right now, it is unclear if the new strain has the potential to infect others widely.

A lack of proper genetic surveillance infrastructure to pick up emerging COVID-19 variants that could be resistant to established immunities was leaving many places in the world, like third world Indonesia, without the proper defenses to face new threats. He added that it could be difficult to predict if new COVID-19 outbreaks are because of a new and potentially more dangerous variant.

Countries like the United Kingdom have already substantially reduced the amount of genetic analysis they are conducting as the pandemic slows down. But COVID-19 continues to surprise the rest of the world and Young warned that "being complacent is dangerous." It also highlights the problem of "living with the virus."

As COVID-19 spreads and continues to mutate, it will eventually cause severe infections in the most vulnerable. The virus will also increase those suffering the burden of the "long-term consequences of infection."

Although COVID-19 mutates constantly, chronic infections had increased potential to encourage it to better adapt to slip past the human immune system. Experts are worried about chronic infections because the virus is mutating in someone who has already generated immunity. This means the virus "almost has to have mutations that can escape that immunity."

Professor Ian Jones, a virologist at the University of Reading, warned that the new variant was "unusually mutated." Despite this, he concluded that such extended mutation often came at a price for the virus itself  which means people shouldn't worry too much about the new COVID-19 strain.

No need for lockdowns despite possible severity of mutant COVID strain

Health experts say there is no reason to worry because data suggests there is no proof that the new variant will take off. But even if it did, it wouldn't be enough to trigger another round of lockdowns worldwide.

The new virus was submitted to a global COVID-19 genomics database early in July.

Experts think it could be produced by a case of chronic infection. This occurs when one patient, instead of beating the virus after several weeks, suffers an extended infection that can last up to months. (Related: New Arcturus strain of COVID-19 RESISTS antibodies, spreads rapidly across many countries.)

Chronic infections often spread to patients with a compromised immune system, such as people with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) or those undergoing chemotherapy for cancer, which makes them less able to successfully protect themselves against the virus.

Scientists are worried about these infections because they create the perfect conditions for COVID-19 to mutate, which could then allow it to get past the body's defenses. In theory, this could produce a strain that can easily sneak past the body's natural immunity or that from COVID-19 vaccines.

Mutations on the spike protein, like those on the newly observed COVID strain, are the ones researchers are worried about. This is because COVID vaccines are based on this portion of the virus.

Young explained that it remains to be seen if the newly discovered strain had any potential to infect others. He added that people shouldn't panic because the new strain from Indonesia must first beat other variants in circulation, like omicron descendants, to become established.

Visit Pandemic.news for more stories about COVID-19.

Watch Dr. Jane Ruby discussing the MERS COVID scare in the video below.

This video is from the High Hopes channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

VAX FAIL: Latest omicron variant more likely to infect the VACCINATED, CDC admits.

BUSTED: Those ER doctors on Twitter who claimed hordes of patients were dying from COVID every day were FAKE.

BIG PHARMA PAYDAY: US govt. mulls purchase of COVID vaccines that claim to target omicron.

Sources include:

DailyMail.co.uk

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Sen. Rand Paul has Fauci dead to rights, sends an official criminal referral to DOJ

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) announced that he has sent an "official criminal referral" to the Department of Justice (DOJ) over retired White House Chief Medical Advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci as he had the latter "dead to rights" on his major involvement on the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) gain of function research in China.

In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, the Republican senator pointed out that Fauci confirmed in a 2020 electronic correspondence that he knew "scientists in Wuhan University are known to have been working on gain-of-function experiments." The said email contradicts the former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) director's testimony in a committee hearing back in July 2021, when he denied they funded any gain of function.

"It's absolutely a lie. That's why I sent an official criminal referral to the DOJ," Paul tweeted.

This directly contradicts everything he said in committee hearing to me, denying absolutely that they funded any gain of function, and it's absolutely a lie. That's why I sent an official criminal referral to the DOJ. https://t.co/Y191SmMiIr  Rand Paul (@RandPaul) July 29, 2023

"Theres probably never been a government official caught more red-handed, lying to us," Paul told "Fox & Friends" hosts during his Monday appearance on the show. "He has proved the lie in his own words." (Related: Unearthed emails prove Fauci was aware of unnatural COVID-19 origins, WIV gain-of-function research.)

He further slammed Fauci saying that at first, he acted as if the Biden administration's "face of COVID-19 response" had nothing to do with the research in Wuhan and they have not funded it. But investigations found the actual scientific papers and the grant number proving it came from his agency.

In fact, a recent report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) shows the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) did receive funds from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). But it was not made clear that the funding contributed to the research Paul is pointing to, or that it had anything to do with the origins of COVID-19. However, Dr. William Schaffner, medical director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, told NewsNation: "The NIH has for years and years not only provided funding for research thats done within the United States but has collaborated and actually stimulated and catalyzed research in many other countries around the world."

So, Fauci finally admitted to funding it 'but it's not gain-of-function. My experts up and down have looked at this and it's not gain-of-function.'

We have contemporaneous documents, documents from February of 2020 in the height of the beginning of the pandemic, where he is saying privately 'We're suspicious that this virus could have come from the lab because they're doing gain-of-function research,'" Paul said in the interview.

The email Fauci sent to then-Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Garrett Grisby, indicated that Fauci talked with "highly credible scientists," who, "were concerned about the fact that upon viewing the sequences of several isolates of the nCov there were mutations in the virus that would be most unusual to have evolved naturally in the bats and that there was a suspicion that this mutation was intentionally inserted.

"Upon considerable discussion, some of the scientists felt more strongly about this possibility, but two others felt differently. They felt that it was entirely conceivable that this could have evolved naturally even though these mutations have never been seen in a bat virus before," Fauci wrote in the unearthed emails. "The reasons for each side of the argument are too complicated to bother you with."

Then when speaking to the public, Fauci claimed "There's nothing to see here." And then in the "secret correspondences," he admitted it was a gain of function. Paul pointed out that Fauci actually admitted they funded it and that it gave them suspicion to the possibility this pandemic came from the lab and then lied in the hearing again.

Fauci needs to go to jail for his crimes against humanity

Lying when testifying under oath in Congress can put someone into a five-year prison sentence.

"Senator Paul, I have never lied before the Congress and I do not retract that statement. This paper that you're referring to was judged by qualified staff up and down the chain as not being gain of function," Fauci had said in response, adding, "Senator Paul, you do not know what you are talking about, quite frankly."

And now real investigations are proving otherwise but Paul is highly skeptical Fauci will be jailed. "The problem is we have Merrick Garland who I think is a pure-rank partisan. I don't think he'll ever be prosecuted," Paul stated referring to the influence of the United States Attorney General.

"We also have a Democrat Party that is happy to have paid him more than the president, more than any president makes and he actually got a million dollars from a private foundation while he was still a public servant," the lawmaker said, lamenting how the government system has become rotten to the core that if Fauci gets away with this, "we'll never get the control we need on this type of research to try and prevent it from happening again."

Sources for this article include:

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Two sets of laws for two Americas

Two sets of laws now operate in an increasingly unrecognizable America.

(Article by Victor Davis Hanson republished from AmGreatness.com)

Consider the matter of unlawfully removing and storing classified papers.

Donald Trump may go to prison for removing contested White House files to his home.

So far Joe Biden seems exempt from just such legal jeopardy.

But as a senator and Vice President with no right, as does a president, to declassify files, Biden removed and, as a private citizen kept for years classified files in unsecure locations.

Bidens team strangely revealed the unlawful removals after years of silence.

It did so because the Biden administration found itself in the untenable position of prosecuting the former president for crimes that the current president committed as wellalbeit far earlier and longer.

Impeachable phone calls?

Donald Trump was impeached by a Democratic House for delaying foreign aid until the Ukrainian government guaranteed that Hunter Biden and his family were no longer engaged in corrupt influence peddling in Kyiv.

In addition, the Left charged that Trump was targeting Joe Biden, his possible 2020 rival.

Yet Biden, with impunity, bragged that he had fired a Ukrainian prosecutor looking into his own sons schemes by promising to cancel outright American foreign aid.

And the Biden administrations Justice Department is now targeting Trump, currently the frontrunning challenger to Biden in 2024.

Election denialism?

Trump was indicted by Special Counsel Jack Smith, in part for supposedly conspiratorially unlawfully discounting legitimate votes.

Will Smith then also indict Stacey Abrams? For years Abrams falsely claimed that she was the real governor of Georgia. She toured the country in hopes of discounting the state vote count.

Or maybe Smith was referring to the conspiracist and former president Jimmy Carter.

He alleged that Trump in 2016 lost the election, and he was put into office because the Russians interfered on his behalf.

Will Smith charge Hillary Clinton?

She serially libeled Trump as an illegitimate president.

Clinton hatched the Russian collusion hoax, and bragged she joined the Resistance to continue her attacks on an elected president.

Or maybe Smith meant the Hollywood crowd.

Lots of actors cut commercials after the 2016 electionbegging viewers to pressure the electors to ignore their constitutional duties to honor their states popular vote and instead swing their ballots to Hillary Clinton?

Was not that insurrectionary?

Or was Smith thinking of January 2005?

Then 32 Democratic House members and Sen. Barbara Boxer tried to nullify the legally certified vote in Ohioto thereby elect the loser John Kerry.

How about destroying evidence?

Trump was also indicted for allegedly attempting to erase video material from his own cameras in his own house.

Yet Hillary Clinton with impunity eliminated subpoenaed communication devices and thousands of emails.

Violations of security? Trump was indicted for supposedly loosely talking about classified material to visitors at his home.

So will prosecutor Smiths indictments also extend to Hillary Clinton? She sent classified documents illegally over her unsecure private server.

FBI Director James Comey memorialized a confidential president conversation.

Then he deliberately leaked what properly was a classified document to the media. It was all part of Comeys Machiavellian gambit to prompt the appointment of a favorable special prosecutor.

What about subversion of the electoral process?

Donald Trump was indicted for supposedly undermining the election of 2020 by questioning the integrity of the balloting.

In 2016, Hillary Clintons campaign illegally hired two foreign nationals Christopher Steele and Igor Danchenko to compile falsehoods about her opponent Trump.

Clinton hid her payments behind three paywalls.

Her team, along with the FBI, helped leak the counterfeit dossier to the media and high officials to undermine her opponentand thus subvert the election itself.

Lying and perjury?

Two Trump aides and Trump himself are indicted for supposedly stonewalling federal investigators by claiming either amnesia or ignorance.

That tact is exactly what James Comey did 245 times while under oath before Congress.

What do former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former Director of the CIA John Brennan, and former interim FBI Director Andrew McCabe all have in common?

All three admitted they flagrantly lied either under oath to Congress or to federal investigators.

The three were never indicted for their false and perjurious testimonies.

We have now serially devolved from the 2016 election Russian collusion hoax, to the 2020 election Russian disinformation laptop hoax, and down to the 2024 election weaponized indictments.

Out of pathological hatred or fear of Donald Trump, the Left has crafted one set of laws for themselves, and another for all other Americans.

They smugly believe their own moral superiority grants them such a right to apply laws unequallyor to ignore them altogether.

To retain power at all cost, and to destroy a political rival, leftwing Democrats are systematically dismantling the constitutional foundations of the United States as we once knew them.

Read more at: AmGreatness.com
Saudi Arabia and Kuwait reiterated that the natural resources in the divided portion of the Arabian Gulf, including the entire Al-Durra gas field, is jointly owned by the two nations.

Citing the Saudi state news agency (SPA), the Alarabiya News reported that the Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has declared that Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have sole and complete sovereign rights to exploit the region's wealth.

The two countries emphasized their calls for Iran to participate into negotiations over the eastern border of the submerged area.

Saudi Arabia and Kuwait will negotiate as one party, while Iran will act as the other party "in accordance with the provisions of international law."

Read Also: New Study: To Fight Climate Change, We Must Shut Down Fossil Fuel Production

The dispute

For many years, Kuwait and Iran have engaged in joint negotiations to resolve the Al-Durra gas field dispute. Both sides made repeated efforts to emphasize the significance of resolving the matter in adherence with international law.

But due to a lack of agreements, the Kuwaiti government signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia to jointly develop the field in March 2022.

Iran opposed the arrangement at the time and called it "illegal" and in violation of earlier discussions, claiming that Tehran must be involved in any effort to run or develop the field.

Last week, Iran said that if other parties refuse to cooperate, it will pursue its rights to the field.

"If there is no willingness to cooperate, Iran will pursue its rights and benefits, including the exploitation and exploration of the Arash gas field, and will not tolerate any violation of its rights," Iran's Oil Minister Javad Owji said, as reported by Reuters.

Both the Gulf nations vehemently oppose Iran's claims to the region and urged Tehran to talk on the demarcation of its maritime borders.

"We categorically and completely reject Iran's planned activities around the Durra offshore gas field facilities," Kuwait's Oil Minister Saad al-Barrak said

Al-Durra gas field

The Al-Durra gas field is an offshore natural gas field located in the neutral zone between the Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Iran.

The field's row dates back to 1967, when it was discovered by the Japanese business AOC.

Iran and Kuwait both granted an offshore concession, one to the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, predecessor to British Petroleum, and the other to Royal Dutch Shell.

It is believed to generate an estimated 1 billion cubic feet of gas per day, which equates to around 84,000 barrels of condensate per day, as reported by Atalayar.

The field operations have sparked debate since the CEO of the National Iranian Oil Company, Mohsen Khojsteh Mehr, disclosed last week that the country had committed major resources to the offshore field's exploration.

According to Mehr, who spoke to Iranian state media, "considerable resources have been allocated to the National Iranian Oil Company's board of directors for the implementation of the development plan for this field."

Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia's state oil corporation, and Kuwait Gulf Oil corporation inked a memorandum of understanding to develop the field in December of last year.

Related Article: Humanity Consumes More Renewable Resources Than What is Available: One Year Supply Gone

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The continuous extreme heat in Arizona has melted the homes of honeybees. Some also died from the scorching heat conditions, according to the latest reports.

Phoenix and Arizona recorded intense heat conditions even in early July. Forecasts warned of the possible impact on health conditions and sensitive species.

In the latest forecast, the National Weather Service (NWS) reported that oppressive heat could continue in portions of the country, especially in the Southwestern U.S.

Recently, Nature World News (NWN) reported the recent heat conditions in the country that harmed the coral reef system on the Florida coast, especially marine species that are sensitive to high temperatures.

Honeybees are not spared from the victims of extreme heat conditions in Arizona. Experts feared the potential impact on their colony and pollination.

According to the UN Environment Programme, bees are essential to biodiversity and food survival. However, their population is threatened by air pollution and habitat loss.

Impact of extreme heat on bees in Arizona

Based on the report published in CNN, Arizona's oppressive heat conditions affected the honeybee population in the region, increasing honeybee deaths.

In the U.S., the website of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reported that honeybees are essential due to their medicinal and nutritional contribution.

The report noted that honeybee pollination helped increase crops' added value, reaching $15 billion.

In an interview with CNN, entomologist Shaku Nair explained the major concern about the rising temperatures and increasing honeybees deaths.

The report noted that some honeybees' homes were melted due to extreme heat conditions.

Nair added the possible impact on food production.

Also Read: Rare Joshua Trees Suffer from Massive Wildfires in California, Nevada

Large cactus are also affected

The population of cactus is supposed to withstand the heat in the desert. However, the large cacti in the United States suffered from the scorching heat.

The latest report, the Associated Press (AP) reported the withering of popular saguaro cacti in Phoenix due to rising temperatures.

The prolonged heat in Phoenix caused the large cactus to reach its limits in surviving the intense heat.

Plans and animals can become victims of the hotter temperatures in the country. Experts monitored ocean temperatures' effect on aquatic animals and the coral reef system.

Recently, Nature World News (NWN) and the UN News reported that July became the hottest month on record.

Also Read: Largest Cactuses in US Die from Extreme, Record-breaking Heatwaves

Human-induced climate change and extreme heat

In the Nature Medicine and CNN report, at least 61, 672 people in Europe died from heat-related concerns last year. The researchers looked into the cases from May 30 and September 4.

People with medical conditions and older adults are mostly at risk of heat-related effects.

Furthermore, human-induced climate change is crucial in rising global temperatures due to continuous greenhouse gas emissions.

In the recent The Guardian report, the UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres explained the era of global heating, noting the urgent need for climate action.

Related Article: Dogs Die in Indiana After AC Fails; Phoenix Records Hotter Temperatures

For more similar stories, don't forget to follow Nature World News.
A man in British Columbia was found surfing amidst the raging wildfires in the region, according to a viral video. Fortunately, the man was safe.

The challenging dry conditions and erratic winds unleashed deadly and uncontrolled wildfires in Canada.

Recently, Nature World News (NWN) reported that the raging wildfires in Canada brought unhealthy levels of smoke to the Northeastern U.S. and Midwest.

According to CNBC News, the wildfires in Canada brought massive carbon emissions this year.

Europe's Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) noted the fires unleashed about 290 megatons of emissions. The report highlighted the unusual wildfires in the region due to dry and warm conditions.

British Columbia man surfing amidst the raging fires

Previously, CNN reported that the newest wildfire emerged at the US-Canada border.

People were immediately evacuated from Osoyoos, British Columbia, after the wildfires managed to reach the area.

According to reports, the warmer weather helped to unleash the fire that burned over 10,000 acres of land in the region.

Amidst a the raging chaos, a video went viral after a man in British Columbia was surfing amidst the threat of wildfires. According to AccuWeather's report, the man was recorded near Osoyoos Lake on July 29.

Brody Mcintosh, who captured the video, explained to Storyful that they thought the moment was a once-in-a-lifetime video, adding that they were in a safe location.

Also Read: U.S. Weather Forecast: Fire Risk, Dry Conditions to Hit Southwestern U.S. Late Week

Wildfires in California and Southern Nevada

On the other hand, the U.S. also experienced deadly wildfires. NWN and CNN reported that raging fires emerged in California and Nevada.

The reports showed that the major wildfire or York fire unfolded in California's Mojave National Preserve that managed to reach parts of Nevada. The fires burned at least 80,00 acres.

More than 400 fighters were immediately deployed in the area to extinguish the fire.

Due to the wildfire, a rare Joshua trees were also heavily affected by the fire.

According to Associated Press (A.P.), the rare Joshua tree was not spared, as fires threatened the vegetation in the region.

Joshua trees are also known as Yucca brevifolia and are vital to birds and insects in the area, the National Park Service reported.

Meanwhile, beavers are also tapped in California as natural engineers to address the problems and wildfires.

This late week, NWN latest forecast said that extreme heat and wildfire risk could likely be in Southwestern U.S., including California, Arizona and Nevada.

Also Read: Deadly Fire Whirls Hit California, Nevada; Central U.S. to Expect Hotter Weather This Week

Did you know? More facts about wildfires

Based on the website of the Natural History Museum of Utah, about 1.2 million acres of woodland suffer from burning yearly in the country.

The report added that humans can cause wildfires due to campfires and smoking., The smoke from fires is dangerous to health due to harmful particles, especially for children, older adults or people with medical conditions.

Related Article: Rare Joshua Trees Suffer from Massive Wildfires in California, Nevada

For more similar stories, don't forget to follow Nature World News.
Flash floods triggered by heavy rains caused a highway bridge in northern China to collapse, and two cars fell into the river.

Around 8:50 a.m. (0050 GMT) on Thursday, the bridge along the Harbin-Mudanjiang Highway in Heilongjiang province gave way.

In a video released by the Telegraph, a dashcam from another vehicle records the moment a white car falls under a collapsed bridge. The witnesses said the driver was rescued.

The footage also showed two cars floating into the river.

According to China Daily, the authorities conducted a rescue operation. As of this writing, the casualties of the incident have yet to be reported.

China recorded heaviest rainfall

The heavy rain brought by Typhoon Doksuri's remnants began Saturday night and was one of the strongest storms to hit northern China in years.

Beijing recorded 744.8 millimeters of rain, the largest quantity of precipitation recorded during the downpour, according to China's state-run news agency, Xinhua.

Authorities have reported 11 deaths in Beijing and 9 deaths in nearby Hebei Province.

One of the fatalities is a 47-year-old rescuer working for a nongovernmental organization focused on relief efforts. He fell into the water in Fozizhuang Township.

Another rescuer died when the rubber boat capsized in a swiftly running river.

Local residents described the extreme rainfall as unlike anything they had ever seen..

"This is not the first time I have seen such a heavy rain, but there has not been such a severe flood," said a man surnamed Qu who has lived in the Mentougou area, as quoted by NBC News.

Read Also: Stormy Rains In 140 Years Battered Beijing; Typhoon Khanun In Japan Leaves 160,000 Without Power

China speeds up post-disaster response

Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered "all-out" search and rescue efforts to minimize casualties.

The Chinese central government and local governments devote significant resources to disaster relief.

The CGTN reported that the government has provided 100 million yuan (approximately $13.9 million) to support emergency recovery and reconstruction, as well as 30 million yuan in emergency road repair subsidies to Beijing and Hebei Province in the aftermath of typhoon-caused rainstorms.

The Emergency Management Department and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs are also in charge of controlling flood storage areas and agricultural areas in order to prevent floods and epidemics.

According to data released on Tuesday, the disasters affected nearly 44,000 residents in Beijing, and 127,000 people were evacuated.

As of Wednesday, approximately 1.2 million people had been evacuated in Hebei.

In the port city of Tianjin, local authorities have evacuated approximately 66,000 people and

The districts of Mentougou and Fangshan in southern and western Beijing were the hardest damaged in the national capital. Flooding has closed highways, washed away vehicles, and destroyed a bridge at the Lugou Bridge.

The authorities created 28 emergency rescue teams, totaling 8,755 individuals, to assist with rescue and relief activities.

The armed police force has been deployed to also assist in rescue and relief operations.

Police helicopters are mobilized to deliver emergency relief supplies, such as food, medicine, and water to the affected residents of Beijing.

Related Article: Typhoon Doksuri Weather Update: Flooding Rain to Unload in China, Taiwan

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There has been an effort to reintroduce cheetahs in the Kuno National Park in India.

However, authorities are finding it hard to bring these cheetahs back following their reported deaths.

A report on the BBC stated that at least 20 cheetahs had been relocated in September of last year and in February of this year from South Africa and Namibia to India's 74,200-hectare national park that was situated in the central state of Madhya Pradesh.

Unfortunately, there were already six cheetahs that died in the national park since March.

Furthermore, three cubs that were born there also lost their lives.

These incidents are pressing authorities and cheetah experts to monitor more of their situation amid the relocation.

Read Also: Heatwave Kills Cheetah Cubs Said to End Extinction of Species in India

Poor management?

The number of cheetah deaths could continue to pile up, according to experts.

While they believe that it is common for some cheetahs to die during the first year of relocation, the number of deaths is expected to increase during the second year.

Initially, experts expressed belief that in the first 20 of the relocated cheetahs, only five to seven of them will remain prior to an initiation of population recovery.

Their first litters are expected to be born as well in 2024.

However, the supposed poor management of the cheetah's relocation makes it difficult for these animals to be reintroduced in the ecosystem.

The Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF), which is based in Namibia, said in a letter addressed to the Supreme Court of India that the deaths of the cheetahs could have been prevented if there was better monitoring of the animals as well as a more appropriate and timely veterinary care

The group noted that the deaths of the first eight cheetahs could have been avoided only if there were adequate supervision, monitoring and veterinary intervention, a report on Indian Express said.

Experts noticed that one of the cheetahs possibly died because of the lack of food for a specific period of time.

The group also received an information about another casualty wherein a male cheetah was supposedly attacked by a female one.

Based on the photos that they received, there was an inflammation on the cheetah's skin over the neck and its back.

A report on India Today said that some experts have speculated that radio collars, which are used to track and monitor the animals, could have led to skin infections because they are constantly wet amid the monsoon season.

They believed that the skin infections could have attracted flies and this later led to maggot infestations and septicaemia, or a blood infection that can be deadly for some cheetahs.

Meanwhile, Congress leader and former Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh pointed out that something is really not right at the Kuno National Park.

He said that the argument saying that all the deaths were expected mortality was completely nonsense and was already debunked by international cheetah experts.

"This is what happens when science and transparency take a backseat. This is what happens when one man's vanity and desperate need for self-glory takes over," Ramesh said in a tweet.

Something has really gone wrong at Kuno



The ninth cheetah death took place this morning. The argument that all these deaths are expected mortality is complete nonsense and has been debunked by international cheetah experts.



This is what happens when science and transparency  Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) August 2, 2023

India has to do better

Foreign experts have called for an immediate assessment of the cheetahs by the veterinarians, adding that their collars need to be checked as well.

They said the record-keeping in the park must be improved as well to easily monitor the conditions of the cheetahs.

The CCF also said more prey species should be added to Kuno National Park.

An earlier statement by India's National Tiger Conservation Authority disclosed that a team of officials are already in coordination with the Kuno National Park to address the situation.

Related Article: Cheetahs are About to Go Extinct, Scientists Confirm
Florida Keys are facing a marine crisis as a month-long string of fish kills has been reported along the island chain.

Scientists and fishing captains have observed dead fish of 13 species, including mojarras, grunts and toadfish, floating in the shallow waters from Key Largo to Key West.

The cause of the fish kills is the soaring sea surface temperatures that have reached record highs and are running some seven degrees above normal.

Climate change is the main culprit behind the lethal heat that threatens the world's third-largest barrier reef and its inhabitants.

Climate change is causing fish kills in the Florida Keys

As per Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, scientists and fishing captains have observed dead fish of 13 species, including mojarras, grunts and toadfish, floating in the shallow waters from Key Largo to Key West.

The cause of the fish kills is the soaring sea surface temperatures that have reached record highs and are running some seven degrees above normal.

Climate change is the main culprit behind the lethal heat that threatens the world's third-largest barrier reef and its inhabitants.

The fish kills are not only affecting the Florida Keys, but also other parts of the state.

In July, hundreds of tons of dead fish washed up on the shores of Tampa Bay, a result of an overgrowth of toxic algae, known as red tide, that came inland earlier this summer.

The algae, Karenia brevis, kills fish and other marine organisms by releasing toxins that affect their nervous systems.

The fish kill impacts have been seen from North Miami to Virginia Key, and some environmental groups warn that the Bay is suffering from a collapse in certain locations.

Also Read: Climate Change Leads To Mass Fish Death In UK

Ecological and economic impacts of fish kills on the reef and the bay

The Florida Keys are home to a rich biodiversity of marine life and a thriving tourism industry that depends on the health of the reef.

The reef also protects the coast from storm surges and erosion, as per Phys.org.

A major seagrass die-off caused by the deadly heat, according to some experts and fishing captains, might upset the balance of the entire bay for years.

Seagrass meadows are important habitats for many fish species, including snook, bonefish, and tarpon, as well as manatees and sea turtles.

Seagrass also helps filter pollutants, store carbon and stabilize sediments.

Fish kills have devastating impacts on local ecosystems, causing mortality and sickness in organisms across multiple trophic levels. It also results in economic loss and overall ecosystem degradation.

These occurrences have had an impact on wild populations as well as aquaculture stocks.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates that Florida's coral reefs produce 70,400 full- and part-time jobs and $2 billion in local revenue annually.

Actions and solutions to save the reef and its inhabitants

Some local groups have been taking action to save the reef and its inhabitants.

The Coral Restoration Foundation has been collecting samples of genetic strains of coral from ocean nurseries and placing them in cooler land-based tanks where they can be safeguarded, as per U.S. National Office for Harmful Algal Blooms.

The Bonefish & Tarpon Trust has been monitoring the water quality and fish populations in the bay and reporting any anomalies to the authorities.

The public can help by reducing their carbon footprint, using reef-safe sunscreen, avoiding anchoring on seagrass or coral, reporting any fish kills or bleaching events, and supporting conservation efforts.

Not all fish deaths are caused by toxins; in fact, a lot of them are brought on by the hypoxic (low oxygen) or anoxic (no oxygen) circumstances that blooms cause.

A hypoxic zone, which is lethal to fish and other organisms, is created when the nighttime respiration of big blooms exhausts the oxygen in the surrounding water.

Therefore, reducing nutrient pollution that fuels algal blooms can also help prevent fish kills.

Related Article: Thousands of Fish Found Dead in Parramatta River Prompts Investigation
The deforestation rate in the famous Amazon Rainforest was able to attain a low record for the last six years.

A BBC report cited information from the national space agency Inpe in which it stated that 500 square kilometers or 193 square miles of rainforest were cleared in Brazil as of July of this year. This translates to 66% less than in the figure during the same period of last year.

The space agency stressed that the area of forest that was cut down in the first seven months of 2023 was significantly smaller compared to what was razed in the same period in 2022.

Welcome boost

Based on the Deter satellite alert system, the practice of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell by 34% during the first six months of 2023. Other experts said in The Guardian report that the deforestation figures for July could even reach as high as 70 percent.

Forest Engineer Tasso Azevedo said experts are still figuring out this development; but he pointed out that what transpired could be considered as the sharpest drop since 2005.

Environment Minister Marina Silva, however, said that the figures for July should not be a sole basis for a downward trend on the deforestation rate. Silva said that a clearer picture on the Amazon Rainforest could be seen after a couple of years.

Still, Silva emphasized that she has been observing more encouraging signs on the status of the rainforest when compared with the last time that she served as environment minister from 2003 to 2008.

The minister expressed hope that this current development could be a "springboard" for a new cycle of prosperity in the Amazon Rainforest.

She said that this should be based on a sustainable utilization of resources, open markets to certified products, the development of bioeconomy, as well as a bigger financial aid and support from developed countries that are often the beneficiaries from the rainforest's role as a climate stabilizer and rainmaker.

Read Also: Deforestation, Degradation Turns 26% of Amazon Rainforest to Grassland, Report Reveals

Lula's tough stance in protecting environment

Experts attributed the fall of deforestation rate to the leadership of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who made a commitment to end deforestation by 2030 when he took office last January. Reports said that rainforest destruction had increased dramatically under his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro.

To recall, environmental and indigenous rights groups had blamed the administration of Bolsonaro regarding the increase in deforestation and illicit activities in the Amazon Rainforest, which include illegal gold mining.

Under Bolsonaro's leadership, there was also rise in the number of violent incidents against indigenous communities in the area.

An Aljazeera report said Lula had instituted tougher environmental policies, which include strengthening law enforcement against environmental crimes and green economic development.

Furthermore, Lula has been trying to persuade the richest nations across the globe to pay for initiatives designed to safeguard the Amazon Rainforest.

Lula and Marina have vowed to achieve zero deforestation as they will continue to push for continued reductions in time for the United Nations Climate Conference or the COP30, which is expected to take place in the Amazon city of Belem in 2025.

Related Article: Amazon Rainforest's Remaining 38% of Trees Degraded by Humans [Study]

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Heat fatigue has struck hundreds of participants in the World Scout Jamboree in South Korea.

The event, known as the world's largest youth camp, is attended by at least 43,000 young Scouts from 158 countries.

The outdoor event will take place on 8.8 square kilometers of reclaimed tidelands in the southern county of Buan, province of North Jeolla, which is under a heatwave alert with everyday temperatures reaching above 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit), Aljazeera reported.

A total of 108 people were rushed to the hospital after suffering from heat-related diseases and exhaustion during the jamboree's opening ceremony on Wednesday night.

Korea's president, Yoon Suk Yeol, as well as chief scout and celebrity survivalist Bear Grylls, attended the occasion.

Most of the patients experienced mild symptoms, such as headaches, dizziness, and nausea, but were able to return to their campsites

The heatwave is expected to linger through next week, according to South Korea's weather service. The scout event will conclude on August 12.

Read Also: Humans Responsible For Over a Third of Heat Deaths Due to Global Warming

Government intervention

According to local officials, at least 600 people have been treated for heat-related illnesses thus far.

"I'm exhausted. Shade is hard to find, and when you're in shade, it's still superhot; there is barely any wind here," one volunteer who spoke on the condition of anonymity told The Guardian.

The Korea Times reported that President Yoon Suk Yeol also directed the government to supply unlimited air-conditioned buses and refrigerator trucks to protect the participants.

"All government departments should make all-out efforts to immediately solve problems at the site," Yoon was quoted by presidential spokeswoman Kim Eun-hye.

At least 30 military physicians and 60 nurses are deployed to the camp to handle the medical crisis.

International concern

The camp organizers also face growing criticism for allegedly not being prepared for the event.

Kristin Sayers, a parent from Virginia, said her kid had to sleep on the ground at the camp at first because the tents were not ready.

"The Scout motto is 'Be Prepared'. How could the organizers be so unprepared? I'm disappointed my son's dream is looking more like a nightmare," she told Reuters.

A spokeswoman for the UK Foreign Office said that the situation was being closely monitored. The United Kingdom has the biggest contingent, with over 4,500 Scouts.

Another foreign consul from the participating countries has also expressed concern about the conditions of the participants through diplomatic channels.

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo was to preside over an extraordinary Cabinet meeting to approve the spending of reserve government funds to provide necessary assistance for the jamboree event.

"The government will review and approve a proposal to spend reserve funds as the jamboree situation is serious," an official said. "The amount has not been set yet."

The ruling People Power Party and the government also convened an emergency conference to discuss some safety measures, including the provision of various amenities to improve the site's condition.

The two parties agreed to immediately expand electrical power supply capacity and to provide self-cooling outdoor tents and air-conditioned buses.

Related Article: Europe Soaring Temperatures: 61,672 Died in Heat-Related Illnesses Last Year

Related Video:




According to information published by Tass on August 3, 2023, the Project 885M (Yasen-M) submarine Krasnoyarsk will conduct three training-combat test launches of "Kalibr-PL" and "Onyx" missiles during state trials in August-September 2023.

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Russian Yasen M class submarine Krasnoyarsk. (Picture source: m.103news)

The K-571 Krasnoyarsk is a Yasen-M class nuclear-powered cruise missile submarine, designed and built for the Russian Navy. As the third submarine in the Yasen-M class, the Krasnoyarsk represents a significant upgrade over the original Yasen class designs.

The Krasnoyarsk, with a length of 130 meters and a beam of 13 meters, is equipped with an OK-650KPM pressurized water reactor that delivers 200 MWt to the turbines, translating to 43,000 shp. This powerful propulsion system allows the submarine to achieve speeds of up to 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph) surfaced, and 35 knots (65 km/h; 40 mph) when submerged.

The submarine's displacement varies significantly when surfaced versus submerged, measuring 8,600 tons and 13,800 tons, respectively. The Yasen-M class has been engineered to operate at impressive depths, with a safe depth of 1,475 feet (450m), a never exceed depth of 1,804 feet (580m), and a crush depth of 2,160 feet (658m).

The submarine is designed to be manned by a crew of 64, and its endurance is limited only by the crew's food and maintenance requirements.

One of the most striking features of the Yasen-M class submarines is their powerful armament. The Krasnoyarsk, like its sister vessels, is equipped with vertical launching system (VLS) silos capable of housing 32 Oniks anti-ship cruise missiles or Kalibr anti-ship, anti-submarine, and land-attack submarine-launched cruise missiles.

The Oniks and Kalibr missiles provide the Krasnoyarsk with a potent offensive capability. The Oniks is a supersonic anti-ship missile with a range of up to 600 km, while the Kalibr is a versatile system with variants capable of anti-ship, anti-submarine, and land-attack roles.

These missiles can strike both naval and ground-based targets from significant stand-off distances, thereby enhancing the operational flexibility and combat potential of the Krasnoyarsk.

In addition to these cruise missiles, the Krasnoyarsk also possesses 10 torpedo tubes (533mm) equipped with Futlyar (UGST-M) heavyweight torpedoes for close-quarters combat and Igla-M surface-to-air missiles for defense against airborne threats.
According to information published by the Indonesian MoD on August 3, 2023, as part of the TNI TA.2023 Joint Military Exercise, the Navy managed to dominate the sea position by destroying the former KRI Slamet Riyadi using missiles and bombs dropped by the F-16 fighter aircraft of the Air Force

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Former Indonesian frigate KRI Slamet Riyadi. (Picture source: Indonesian MoD)

The Bung Tomo-class corvette KRI John Lie was one of the elements that fired the special Exocet MM40 B3 missile weapon. The missile was successfully fired and hit the target from a distance of 35 nm.

About the Indonesian ship

KRI John Lie (358) is a Bung Tomo-class corvette that serves with the Indonesian Navy. The ship was initially constructed for the Royal Brunei Navy and launched under the name KDB Nakhoda Ragam.

With a displacement of 1,940 tons, KRI John Lie measures 89.9 meters (or 294 feet and 11 inches) in length and stands 3.6 meters (or 11 feet and 10 inches) tall. Her propulsion system comprises four MAN B&W/Ruston Diesel engines and two shafts, delivering a total power of 11,400 horsepower (8,500 kW).

She can reach a maximum speed of 30 knots (56 km/h or 35 mph), and has an impressive range of 5,000 nautical miles (9,300 km or 5,800 mi). KRI John Lie can sustain operations for 21 days at a time.

In terms of auxiliary vessels, the corvette carries two patrol craft and has a complement of 103 personnel. For aerial operations, she can host a single helicopter on deck.

The ship is equipped with a sophisticated array of sensors and processing systems. These include the Ultra Electronics/Radamec Series 2500 electro-optic weapons director, the Thales Underwater Systems TMS 4130C1 hull-mounted sonar, the BAE Systems Insyte AWS-9 3D E- and F-band air and surface radar, BAE Systems Insyte 1802SW I / J-band radar trackers, the Kelvin Hughes Type 1007 navigation radar, the Thales Nederland Scout radar for surface search, and Thales Nederland Sensors Cutlass 242 countermeasures.

The ship is armed with an OTO Melara 76 mm gun and two DS 30B REMSIG 30 mm guns for close-quarters combat. For longer-ranged engagements, the ship has a 16-cell vertical launching system for MBDA (BAE Systems) Seawolf surface-to-air missiles, and two quad MBDA (Aerospatiale) Exocet MM40 Block II missile launchers. For anti-submarine warfare, the corvette features two triple BAE Systems Mark 32 Surface Vessel Torpedo Tubes.

Sinkex

A target ship, often an obsolete or captured military vessel, is used for naval artillery drills or weapons testing. It helps assess ammunition efficacy or serves for ongoing non-explosive ammunition practice. Due to risks like maritime pollution and navigation hazards from a drifting wreck, careful preparations are needed before using such a ship.


Bible-based escape room ready for Norfolk Bible-based escape room ready for Norfolk

Puzzle Pod, a new Bible-based portable escape room for 8 to 11 year olds, is ready to come to your school or church this autumn.


Blessings abound as Norfolk house church thrives

Liberty is a house church which meets in Frettenham, north of Norwich, every Sunday. They are seeing people encouraged and blessed every week, as the church continues to thrive. Founder Barrie Lawrence explains.

Hey, you dont have a collection in this church? said Mike.

Whose gone home wearing my shoes? bewailed John.

Wow - was that really God speaking through me? exclaimed Karen.



Ive changed the names, but the comments above are real. Lets briefly explore the contexts of these questions. A church not after your money, but where your shoes might get nicked? And God really - really? - speaking through ordinary, unordained people?



It all started with a dream. A vivid dream, in the early hours of a night in September 2008, caused me to sit up in bed and whisper to my wife, Are you awake?

Well, I am now, she groaned, and I told her of my riveting dream. It was of the cave of Adullam, as described in 1 Samuel 22, where an eclectic bunch of refugees gathered to David, and became a mighty army and viable community. It gripped us. What was God saying? We sat up in bed together, prayed for an hour, and went back to sleep around 4am.



We had been members of our church for 25 years, loved it, had family there, and did not want to leave. We tried to continue, but a few years later we found ourselves, just Wendy and I, sitting in our front room, strumming, singing, having communion, and praying, Lord, what is this new thing youre calling us to do?



Then others started joining us. They were usually those who had recently left their church, or were floating Christians. Those who were already members of churches were encouraged to stay where they were. Being in a small village, just north of Norwich, limited the number coming to us. So did the size of our sitting room. We called ourselves LIBERTY! Not Liberty Church, but a church called LIBERTY!



Vision is important, if not crucial. We try to avoid routine, and be real about allowing the Holy Spirit to lead us, without playing lets pretend. Life is too short, and Jesus is too important. Part of our ethos is to encourage people to identify the gifting God has given them, and we make space for them to use it. Likewise with the call of God on peoples lives. People are quietly encouraged to launch out, but there is no pressure to. Its ok to make mistakes, but we are accountable to one another.



Like the church described in the New Testament, we expect the Lord to make his presence known amongst us. People wanting to preach and teach are told to keep it short until they are recognised as being gifted. Those feeling called to heal the sick, prophesy, speak in tongues, work miracles, etc are told to go for it. But we emphasise accountability to one another. We have successes, failures, and mistakes. We love, we encourage, we praise loudly, we worship with awe, we forgive, we restore, we have fun, we sometimes eat together, we laugh together, and we are friends. Through active, Biblical participation, we grow and mature spiritually.



A few hundred people have passed through our sitting room during the last decade or so. The most we have gathered in it is 29, though around twice that when hiring a hall for outreach. People come and people go. Some stay. A committed core slowly builds up. We are currently between 12 and 25 on a Sunday morning.



We dont have the problems (or security) of tradition and rigidity. Our problems concern the person wanting to be a superstar, or thinking we are a discussion group, or refusing accountability. House churches can be too independent, or exclusive, so we fellowship with Christians from many other churches, and every month or so have an outside speaker.



Mike was surprised that there are no collections? There are no buildings to maintain, or ministers requiring salaries. The apostle Paul received financial gifts from churches, and also worked for pay as a tentmaker. We have occasional offerings for our occasional visiting speakers. Likewise if we hire a hall. Otherwise, people are seriously encouraged to be outrageously generous in giving to missions, responsible charities, and the poor. The Spirit will lead them, and show them where. We dont do that for them!



Getting your shoes nicked? We are informal, and most people take their shoes off and leave them in the hall while meeting here. People are chatting and laughing when they arrive, and when they go, and just once, someone put the wrong shoes (nice ones) on, and left theirs (tatty ones) behind. A genuine mistake. They swapped back a week later. No hard feelings. Forgiveness. Laughter.



God speaking through Karen? It was her first time with us. She loved the Lord, worshipped, and observed. She caught the vision. She quietly said to us, There are words in my mind, or heart, which I think are from the Lord. Can I share them? Of course. They were short, and described 3 challenging situations. 3 people said that through Karen, the Lord was speaking into their respective circumstances. We assumed the Lord therefore wanted to resolve their problems, and we gathered round each and prayed for them. A week later there were some encouraging testimonies concerning needs that had been met.



We see people truly healed. Not always. There have been other miracles. Not too often. We have received great teaching. Frequently. We see people encouraged and blessed. Every week.



We want to grow in numbers, and the power of God and in influence - yesterday! And so we pray for people, younger people, those with leadership ability, those wanting to join in the adventure of seeing the Spirit move in power; humble, accountable people. We pray the Lord will bring them in, and get them using their gifting and moving in the call on their lives. And our overall prayer - May your kingdom come, and may your will be done, here, in Norfolk, in our world, in our generation, as it is in heaven. Amen.



Barrie Lawrence is also Norwich branch president of Full Gospel Businessmen, and stepped down as the National Chairman of FGB UK & Ireland last year after three great years in the role. He has been an FGB member for over 40 years, president of Norwich FGB for over 10 years, and regional director for East Anglia for 7 years. Barrie is also an author, with seven published books. Big Blue Sky - A Celebration of Norfolk was published last year.



Liberty meets at Barries house in Frettenham every Sunday morning, and there are also Bible studies and prayer meetings in Frettenham and Catfield, mainly, and occasionally in Rackheath and Freethorpe.



If anyone wishes to join them, please phone Barrie on 07786 381344.



Read our previous story about Liberty here .



The photo above was taken at a gathering on Barries patio, and is courtesy of Barrie Lawrence.



Do you have a news story or forthcoming event relating to Christians or a church in North Norfolk?

If so, e-mail tony.rothe@networknorwich.co.uk with details and, if possible a suitable picture.

Tony Rothe, 04/08/2023
Five companies that manufacture semiconductors for smartphones, automobiles and more have announced that they will form a company designed to advance the open source RISC-V architecture, in a move widely seen as being designed to reduce their dependence on licensed technology from Arm.

The companies  Qualcomm, Robert Bosch, Infineon Technologies, NXP Semiconductors and Nordic Semiconductors  have yet to name this joint venture, but said in a statement issued Friday that the company will be registered in Germany, and that its focus will be on providing reference architectures and establishing industry solutions. The initial focus, according to the statement, will be on the automotive industry, but plans are in place to expand into mobile and IoT use cases.

The creation of a one-stop-shop ecosystem where customers can select turnkey assets will strengthen the adoption of RISC-V across many European industries, said NXP CTO Lars Reger, in the statement.

RISC-V is an open source instruction set architecture for processors, originally created at the University of California at Berkeley. The idea was to create a fully open source processor system, with clearly explained design choices, in contrast to proprietary designs. Its designed to be flexible, for the widest possible range of potential chip designs and applications, and is available royalty-free, which is a key consideration for companies used to licensing technology from companies like Arm.

At its core, RISC-V encourages innovation, allowing any company to develop cutting-edge, customized hardware based on an open-source instruction set, the companies joint statement said. Further adoption of the RISC-V technology will promote even more diversity in the electronics industry  reducing the barriers to entry for smaller and emergent companies and enabling increased scalability for established companies.

Arm's primacy in mobile chips

Arm's primacy in the world of mobile semiconductors hasnt endeared it to some of its customers, and the company has been embroiled in a legal battle with Qualcomm for roughly a year over a licensing dispute. (Qualcomm has also invested in a startup called SiFive, a chip designer looking to leverage RISC-V commercially.)

The creation of the as-yet-unnamed RISC-V venture is being widely seen as an effort to create an alternative to doing business almost exclusively with Arm, potentially using open source hardware designs to lessen costs. Moreover, even Arm's chief rivals in the silicon market have gotten involved with RISC-V, with Intel contributing $1 billion to foundry services supporting open source chips in 2022.
Namita Bajpai By

Express News Service

LUCKNOW: The scientific survey of Gyanvapi Mosque's premises resumed in Varanasi on Friday a day after the Allahabad High Court rejected the petition filed by the Muslim litigants seeking a stay on the Varanasi court's order for a scientific survey by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).

Heavy police and paramilitary forces, including an anti-riot squad and RAF, were deployed to fortify the area around Kashi Vishwanath Dham, especially, at gate no. 4.

According to Varanasi DM, besides the 37-member ASI team and lawyers of plaintiffs, a team of district administration also went inside the Gyanvapi mosque compound.

Meanwhile, the ASI on Friday moved an application in Varanasi district court seeking four weeks time from district judge Ajay Krishna Vishvesha to submit its report after completing the scientific investigation and survey of Gyanvapi mosque.

Standing government counsel (government of India) Amit Srivastava, who had moved the application to seek time for ASI, said, After going through the application court reserved its order on Friday and would deliver the order on Saturday.

Earlier, after conducting the initial probe which commenced at 7 am on the mosque premises, the Varanasi district administration asked the ASI to take a break of almost one and a half hours to facilitate the namaz at Gyanvapi mosque in the afternoon.

Following measuring and cleaning the premises each of the four teams of ASI remained busy scanning the walls and mapping of the compound to begin further exercises for scientific study. Meanwhile, expressing hope that no harm would be caused to the mosque as per SC order, AIM also appealed to the people of the community to not get misled by rumours and provocative statements and to maintain peace.

AIM boycotted the survey, which continued till a break was taken to facilitate people of the Muslim community in offering namaz as per the order of SC.

The survey concluded at 4.30 pm after which all members of the survey team, plaintiffs, and their lawyers came out of the Gyanvapi premises. The survey works had started by ASI by dividing its team into four parts.

Earlier, ASI had started the scientific study of Gyanvapi mosque on July 24 in compliance with the district judge courts July 21 order. However, it was halted on July 24 afternoon following a stay order from the Supreme Court.

The Anjuman Intezamia Masajid (mosque management committee) had boycotted the exercise and moved the Supreme Court against the HC order on Thursday which was slated for hearing on Friday. However, after hearing the AIM's plea, the apex court upheld the High Courts order refusing to stop the ASI probe.

LUCKNOW: The scientific survey of Gyanvapi Mosque's premises resumed in Varanasi on Friday a day after the Allahabad High Court rejected the petition filed by the Muslim litigants seeking a stay on the Varanasi court's order for a scientific survey by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). Heavy police and paramilitary forces, including an anti-riot squad and RAF, were deployed to fortify the area around Kashi Vishwanath Dham, especially, at gate no. 4. According to Varanasi DM, besides the 37-member ASI team and lawyers of plaintiffs, a team of district administration also went inside the Gyanvapi mosque compound.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); Meanwhile, the ASI on Friday moved an application in Varanasi district court seeking four weeks time from district judge Ajay Krishna Vishvesha to submit its report after completing the scientific investigation and survey of Gyanvapi mosque. Standing government counsel (government of India) Amit Srivastava, who had moved the application to seek time for ASI, said, After going through the application court reserved its order on Friday and would deliver the order on Saturday. Earlier, after conducting the initial probe which commenced at 7 am on the mosque premises, the Varanasi district administration asked the ASI to take a break of almost one and a half hours to facilitate the namaz at Gyanvapi mosque in the afternoon. Following measuring and cleaning the premises each of the four teams of ASI remained busy scanning the walls and mapping of the compound to begin further exercises for scientific study. Meanwhile, expressing hope that no harm would be caused to the mosque as per SC order, AIM also appealed to the people of the community to not get misled by rumours and provocative statements and to maintain peace. AIM boycotted the survey, which continued till a break was taken to facilitate people of the Muslim community in offering namaz as per the order of SC. The survey concluded at 4.30 pm after which all members of the survey team, plaintiffs, and their lawyers came out of the Gyanvapi premises. The survey works had started by ASI by dividing its team into four parts. Earlier, ASI had started the scientific study of Gyanvapi mosque on July 24 in compliance with the district judge courts July 21 order. However, it was halted on July 24 afternoon following a stay order from the Supreme Court. The Anjuman Intezamia Masajid (mosque management committee) had boycotted the exercise and moved the Supreme Court against the HC order on Thursday which was slated for hearing on Friday. However, after hearing the AIM's plea, the apex court upheld the High Courts order refusing to stop the ASI probe.
ENTERPRISE  Tears, laughter and applause filled Courtroom A at the Coffee County Courthouse as four graduates of the countys Drug Court Program were lauded by family, friends, co-workers, and court officials Thursday.

Words are inadequate to express how proud we  the judges, team members and your families  are of each of you, Twelfth Judicial Circuit Drug Court Judge Fred Stegall told Melissa Andrews, Jordin Fleissner-Straughn, Anthony Toney, and Dorian Pearson. Through Drug Court you have learned the importance of sobriety, but also this program has shown you the strength of community support and the significance of perseverance.

This is not the end of the journey but the beginnings of the new chapter, Steagall said. Embrace the opportunities that come your way. You now possess the tools and the insights to navigate lifes trials with newfound courage.

Drug Court in Alabama provides an alternative to jail time. Its is to keep the defendant as a contributing member of society rather than simply incarcerating them, said Donna Oates, who oversees the program for the Alabama Administrative Office of Courts. The first Drug Court in Alabama was in Mobile County in 1993. Since then they have exploded. We have 55 Adult Drug Courts, 28 Veteran Treatment Courts, and 14 Mental Health Courts, she said. Our goal to have enough so that every person in the state can have access to them.

Our ultimate goal is to make sure participants have the opportunity to live a life of sobriety, live a normal life within their families, and to just succeed. This is a huge step, Oakes added as she congratulated the graduates Thursday.

Stegall, who served more than three decades as Dale County district judge before retiring, was named Drug Court for Coffee and Pike Counties in August last year by Twelfth Judicial Circuit Presiding Judge Jeff Kelley, who initiated Drug Court in Coffee and Pike counties more than a decade ago.

Kelley said that he and the other judges had long discussed the need for such a court before naming retired Circuit Judge Bill Barr as the inaugural judge of the newly-created court a decade ago. Barrs retirement created the vacancy that Steagall said he is honored to fill.

We wanted a different method of helping individuals associated with drugs and drug usage, Kelley said about the program geared toward drug-rehabilitation. Drugs are deadly now. Were not just trying to improve the quality of life, were trying to save lives.

Steagall said that it is essential that eligible participants are identified early and promptly placed in the program.

We want this program to be a success and we want these people to overcome their additions and become successful taxpaying citizens, he said. Were going to do everything we can do to make this happen. We care about these people.

Coffee County District Josh Wilson agreed. The judges of this circuit are fully supportive of this program, he told the graduates. Your graduation here today is an example of what we can achieve through collective efforts.

Steagall commended Drug Court Team members James Tarbox, Jon Folmar, David White, Cheryl Leatherwood, Jordan Campbell, Eva Love, Ida Cooer, Gwen Downing, Hannah Smith, Randal Cornett, Tiffany Parker, Stephanie Morgan, Kayla McLendon, Robert Delner, Sharon Ealey, Clarissa Crawley, and Crystal McBroom for their part in making the program a success. They genuinely care about our participants. They are truly outstanding.
Shruti Kakkar By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: A plea has been filed in the Supreme Court, challenging the Patna High Courts verdict of upholding the Bihar governments move to conduct a caste-based survey for determination of backward communities.

The first phase of the survey, which was a household counting exercise, had begun on January 7 and was completed by January 21. The second phase, wherein the aim was to collect information on peoples caste and socio-economic conditions, started on April 15. It was to be completed by May 2023.

An HC bench ruled on August 1, 2023 that caste has been found to be an important indicator in order to understand backwardness as historically the deprivations visited on communities were based on their caste names. Challenging the HCs decision, the plea said that only the Union government is empowered to conduct the census.

The move had led to a high-profile fight between the ruling grand alliance - led by Rashtriya Janata Dal and Janata Dal (United) - and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party.

RJD has been at the forefront of parties pushing for a proper enumeration of people belonging to different sections and castes, arguing that gathering such information will help in advancing the cause of social development by proper planning. It will also help in better aligning the various positive discrimination programs run by the central and state governments.

BJP has been mostly against such a move. At a recent meeting of the party's OBC (Other Backward Classes) wing, party leaders explained that they opposed 'caste census' due to "administrative, legal and technical issues" involved in conducting it.

"There are several castes which are not in the central OBC list but under state OBC lists. Besides, there are several non-OBC castes that want to be included in the OBC category. All these make it difficult for the Centre to conduct a caste-based census," one of the party's OBC leaders was quoted as saying.

NEW DELHI: A plea has been filed in the Supreme Court, challenging the Patna High Courts verdict of upholding the Bihar governments move to conduct a caste-based survey for determination of backward communities. The first phase of the survey, which was a household counting exercise, had begun on January 7 and was completed by January 21. The second phase, wherein the aim was to collect information on peoples caste and socio-economic conditions, started on April 15. It was to be completed by May 2023. An HC bench ruled on August 1, 2023 that caste has been found to be an important indicator in order to understand backwardness as historically the deprivations visited on communities were based on their caste names. Challenging the HCs decision, the plea said that only the Union government is empowered to conduct the census.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); The move had led to a high-profile fight between the ruling grand alliance - led by Rashtriya Janata Dal and Janata Dal (United) - and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party. RJD has been at the forefront of parties pushing for a proper enumeration of people belonging to different sections and castes, arguing that gathering such information will help in advancing the cause of social development by proper planning. It will also help in better aligning the various positive discrimination programs run by the central and state governments. BJP has been mostly against such a move. At a recent meeting of the party's OBC (Other Backward Classes) wing, party leaders explained that they opposed 'caste census' due to "administrative, legal and technical issues" involved in conducting it. "There are several castes which are not in the central OBC list but under state OBC lists. Besides, there are several non-OBC castes that want to be included in the OBC category. All these make it difficult for the Centre to conduct a caste-based census," one of the party's OBC leaders was quoted as saying.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: A bill to set up a national agency to fund research across universities in the country was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Friday with the government eyeing at least 10 per cent of CSR monies for research and development.

Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh introduced the Anusandhan National Research Foundation Bill-2023 which seeks to set up a Rs 50,000-crore fund, with a sizeable contribution from the private sector by tapping into the corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds, to "seed, grow and promote" research and development (R&D) and foster a culture of research and innovation throughout India's universities, colleges, research institutions, and R&D laboratories.

VIDEO: Introduced the landmark Anusandhan National Research Foundation Bill in #LokSabha today. A historic initiative by Ministry of Science & Technology to launch India as a global player under PM Sh @narendramodi. pic.twitter.com/NmZOo8gkwu August 4, 2023

A senior official said the total CSR fund kitty in 2021 was Rs 24,860 crore with the largest chunk spent on social sector projects such as schools, healthcare and sanitation.

"Research and Development get a very minuscule part of the CSR fund. Through the National Research Foundation, we will encourage the corporate sector to contribute at least 10 per cent for R&D," the official said.

The official contended that money spent on research would ultimately benefit the industry and help businesses grow further.

"This bill intends to enhance India's national research infrastructure, knowledge enterprise, and innovation potential, for scientific pursuit," Singh said while introducing the bill in the Lok Sabha.

The bill seeks to set right the R&D funding which, presently, is skewed in favour of IIT and other elite institutes, while state universities get barely 11 per cent of the funds allocated for research.

"The NRF is meant to ensure that scientific research is funded equitably and greater participation from the private sector was forthcoming," the minister said.

The Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), which was set up through an Act of Parliament, will be subsumed in the NRF and provisions have been made in the bill to ensure that the sanctioned projects keep receiving funds.

The bill seeks to set up different funds. the Anusandhan National Research Foundation Fund, for the financing of activities under the Act; the Innovation Fund for supporting outstanding creativity in the areas supported by the Foundation; the Science and Engineering Research Fund for the continuation of the projects and programmes initiated under the Science and Engineering Research Board Act, 2008; and one or more Special Purpose Funds for any specific project or research.

According to the government, the National Research Foundation will be an apex body to provide high-level strategic direction of scientific research in the country according to the recommendations of the National Education Policy (NEP).

"The NRF will forge collaborations among the industry, academia, and government departments and research institutions, and create an interface mechanism for participation and contribution of industries and State governments in addition to the scientific and line ministries," Singh had said when the Union Cabinet approved the bill in June.

He said the NRF will focus on creating a policy framework and putting in place regulatory processes that can encourage collaboration and increased spending by the industry on R&D.

The NRF will have a governing board consisting of 15 to 25 eminent researchers and professionals, and it will be headed by the Prime Minister.

The Education Minister and the Science and Technology Minister will be the vice presidents of the NRF. The proposed foundation will also have an executive council under the principal scientific advisor.

NEW DELHI: A bill to set up a national agency to fund research across universities in the country was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Friday with the government eyeing at least 10 per cent of CSR monies for research and development. Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh introduced the Anusandhan National Research Foundation Bill-2023 which seeks to set up a Rs 50,000-crore fund, with a sizeable contribution from the private sector by tapping into the corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds, to "seed, grow and promote" research and development (R&D) and foster a culture of research and innovation throughout India's universities, colleges, research institutions, and R&D laboratories. VIDEO: Introduced the landmark Anusandhan National Research Foundation Bill in #LokSabha today. A historic initiative by Ministry of Science & Technology to launch India as a global player under PM Sh @narendramodi. pic.twitter.com/NmZOo8gkwugoogletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); });  Dr Jitendra Singh (@DrJitendraSingh) August 4, 2023 A senior official said the total CSR fund kitty in 2021 was Rs 24,860 crore with the largest chunk spent on social sector projects such as schools, healthcare and sanitation. "Research and Development get a very minuscule part of the CSR fund. Through the National Research Foundation, we will encourage the corporate sector to contribute at least 10 per cent for R&D," the official said. The official contended that money spent on research would ultimately benefit the industry and help businesses grow further. "This bill intends to enhance India's national research infrastructure, knowledge enterprise, and innovation potential, for scientific pursuit," Singh said while introducing the bill in the Lok Sabha. The bill seeks to set right the R&D funding which, presently, is skewed in favour of IIT and other elite institutes, while state universities get barely 11 per cent of the funds allocated for research. "The NRF is meant to ensure that scientific research is funded equitably and greater participation from the private sector was forthcoming," the minister said. The Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), which was set up through an Act of Parliament, will be subsumed in the NRF and provisions have been made in the bill to ensure that the sanctioned projects keep receiving funds. The bill seeks to set up different funds. the Anusandhan National Research Foundation Fund, for the financing of activities under the Act; the Innovation Fund for supporting outstanding creativity in the areas supported by the Foundation; the Science and Engineering Research Fund for the continuation of the projects and programmes initiated under the Science and Engineering Research Board Act, 2008; and one or more Special Purpose Funds for any specific project or research. According to the government, the National Research Foundation will be an apex body to provide high-level strategic direction of scientific research in the country according to the recommendations of the National Education Policy (NEP). "The NRF will forge collaborations among the industry, academia, and government departments and research institutions, and create an interface mechanism for participation and contribution of industries and State governments in addition to the scientific and line ministries," Singh had said when the Union Cabinet approved the bill in June. He said the NRF will focus on creating a policy framework and putting in place regulatory processes that can encourage collaboration and increased spending by the industry on R&D. The NRF will have a governing board consisting of 15 to 25 eminent researchers and professionals, and it will be headed by the Prime Minister. The Education Minister and the Science and Technology Minister will be the vice presidents of the NRF. The proposed foundation will also have an executive council under the principal scientific advisor.
By PTI

RANCHI: The opposition BJP legislators protested in the Jharkhand assembly on Friday over a host of issues, including the law and order situation in the state, disrupting the proceedings.

As soon as the Question Hour began around 11.05 am, the BJP MLAs began raising slogans against Chief Minister Hemant Soren and subsequently rushed to the Well, demanding a statement from him on the law and order situation.

They were also demonstrating over the Jharkhand Competitive Examination (Prevention and Redressal of Unfair Means in Recruitment) Bill, 2023, which was passed by the assembly through a voice vote on Thursday.

The bill is aimed at preventing plagiarism in competitive examinations and proposes a fine of up to Rs 10 crore and life imprisonment.

BJP MLA Biranchi Narayan stayed away from raising the question that he was supposed to in protest.

Speaker Rabindra Nath Mahto urged the demonstrating MLAs to go back to their seats and let the House function.

As the demonstrations continued, he adjourned the House at 11.28 am till 12 pm. The House reassembled again at 12.05 pm for the Zero Hour and Call Attention motion amid the uproar by opposition MLAs.

The House was adjourned for the lunch break around 12.35 pm.

After the lunch break, Jharkhand Health Sciences University Bill 2023 was tabled by Health Minister Banna Gupta. The bill envisages the setting up of the first health university in the state.

BJP MLAs raised objections over the chief minister being made the chancellor of it, instead of the governor. The BJP MLAs were joined by a CPI(ML) Liberation legislator, demanding that the bill be sent to the Select Committee.

"Governor happens to be the chancellor of universities. This is for the first time in Jharkhand when the tradition is being changed, and the chief minister is being made the chancellor. This will encourage the conflict between the CM House and Raj Bhavan," BJP MLA Amar Bauri said.

The opposition's demand was rejected and the bill was passed by voice vote.

Gupta said the university will strengthen the state's health sector and also contribute to the state's development.

The House also passed the Jharkhand Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill 2023 by voice vote.

Earlier in the day, a BJP delegation led by the party's state president Babulal Marandi met Governor CP Radhakrishnan and submitted a memorandum against the bill on competitive examinations.

" "                                       



          pic.twitter.com/dVyrwYLv3C  Babulal Marandi (@yourBabulal) August 4, 2023

The BJP urged the governor to review the bill seriously and give necessary directives to the state government in the interest of unemployed youths and the public.

Reacting to it, state minister Mithlesh Thakur said, "BJP doesn't want free and fair examinations. The law prevents paper leaks and cheating in examinations. Mafias from other states come here for malpractices in examinations. When the government is taking steps to prevent such corruption, it pinches BJP."

RANCHI: The opposition BJP legislators protested in the Jharkhand assembly on Friday over a host of issues, including the law and order situation in the state, disrupting the proceedings. As soon as the Question Hour began around 11.05 am, the BJP MLAs began raising slogans against Chief Minister Hemant Soren and subsequently rushed to the Well, demanding a statement from him on the law and order situation. They were also demonstrating over the Jharkhand Competitive Examination (Prevention and Redressal of Unfair Means in Recruitment) Bill, 2023, which was passed by the assembly through a voice vote on Thursday.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); The bill is aimed at preventing plagiarism in competitive examinations and proposes a fine of up to Rs 10 crore and life imprisonment. BJP MLA Biranchi Narayan stayed away from raising the question that he was supposed to in protest. Speaker Rabindra Nath Mahto urged the demonstrating MLAs to go back to their seats and let the House function. As the demonstrations continued, he adjourned the House at 11.28 am till 12 pm. The House reassembled again at 12.05 pm for the Zero Hour and Call Attention motion amid the uproar by opposition MLAs. The House was adjourned for the lunch break around 12.35 pm. After the lunch break, Jharkhand Health Sciences University Bill 2023 was tabled by Health Minister Banna Gupta. The bill envisages the setting up of the first health university in the state. BJP MLAs raised objections over the chief minister being made the chancellor of it, instead of the governor. The BJP MLAs were joined by a CPI(ML) Liberation legislator, demanding that the bill be sent to the Select Committee. "Governor happens to be the chancellor of universities. This is for the first time in Jharkhand when the tradition is being changed, and the chief minister is being made the chancellor. This will encourage the conflict between the CM House and Raj Bhavan," BJP MLA Amar Bauri said. The opposition's demand was rejected and the bill was passed by voice vote. Gupta said the university will strengthen the state's health sector and also contribute to the state's development. The House also passed the Jharkhand Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill 2023 by voice vote. Earlier in the day, a BJP delegation led by the party's state president Babulal Marandi met Governor CP Radhakrishnan and submitted a memorandum against the bill on competitive examinations. " "                                                  pic.twitter.com/dVyrwYLv3C  Babulal Marandi (@yourBabulal) August 4, 2023 The BJP urged the governor to review the bill seriously and give necessary directives to the state government in the interest of unemployed youths and the public. Reacting to it, state minister Mithlesh Thakur said, "BJP doesn't want free and fair examinations. The law prevents paper leaks and cheating in examinations. Mafias from other states come here for malpractices in examinations. When the government is taking steps to prevent such corruption, it pinches BJP."
By PTI

GURUGRAM: Nuh authorities bulldozed about 250 shanties allegedly encroaching upon government land in Tauru town, a police official said Friday, days after communal riots erupted in the district.

The official said the occupants of the Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP) land were illegal Bangladeshi immigrants who were earlier living in Assam and the shanties were demolished Thursday evening.

Nuh Deputy Commissioner Prashant Panwar however denied that the demolition was linked to the recent violence. He said it was part of a normal process of clearing encroachments.

The shanties were built over an acre of land and people have been living here for three years, police said.

Six people, including two home guards and a cleric, died in the clashes that erupted in Muslim-dominated Nuh when a Vishva Hindu Parishad procession was attacked by mobs on Monday.

The violence subsequently spread to neighbouring Gurugram as well.

According to the police, 141 people have been arrested and over 55 cases registered in Nuh in connection with the violence.

Hindu organisations meanwhile took out a protest march against the Nuh violence in Gurugram's Pataudi area on Friday and called for a bandh.

Markets of Pataudi, Jatauli and Bhora Kalan remained closed as a result of this.

The organisations submitted a memorandum through the Pataudi sub-divisional magistrate to the President, the governor of Haryana and the chief minister, demanding strict action against those behind the Nuh violence.

"Those who have tried to spoil mutual harmony and brotherhood in Nuh should be punished severely. This heinous act is condemnable," said Ajit Yadav, district president of the VHP.

GURUGRAM: Nuh authorities bulldozed about 250 shanties allegedly encroaching upon government land in Tauru town, a police official said Friday, days after communal riots erupted in the district. The official said the occupants of the Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP) land were illegal Bangladeshi immigrants who were earlier living in Assam and the shanties were demolished Thursday evening. Nuh Deputy Commissioner Prashant Panwar however denied that the demolition was linked to the recent violence. He said it was part of a normal process of clearing encroachments.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); The shanties were built over an acre of land and people have been living here for three years, police said. Six people, including two home guards and a cleric, died in the clashes that erupted in Muslim-dominated Nuh when a Vishva Hindu Parishad procession was attacked by mobs on Monday. The violence subsequently spread to neighbouring Gurugram as well. According to the police, 141 people have been arrested and over 55 cases registered in Nuh in connection with the violence. Hindu organisations meanwhile took out a protest march against the Nuh violence in Gurugram's Pataudi area on Friday and called for a bandh. Markets of Pataudi, Jatauli and Bhora Kalan remained closed as a result of this. The organisations submitted a memorandum through the Pataudi sub-divisional magistrate to the President, the governor of Haryana and the chief minister, demanding strict action against those behind the Nuh violence. "Those who have tried to spoil mutual harmony and brotherhood in Nuh should be punished severely. This heinous act is condemnable," said Ajit Yadav, district president of the VHP.
Shruti Kakkar By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the conviction which was awarded by a trial court in Gujarat to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his alleged remarks against the Modi surname.

It is now expected that the decision to disqualify the MP would be rolled back, and Rahul Gandhi's membership in the Lok Sabha would be restored.

On 24 March, one day after the conviction, Lok Sabha Secretary General Utpal Kumar Singh notified that Rahul Gandhi would stand disqualified as MP from Wayanad constituency from 23 March, the date of his conviction, under Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951

A bench led by Justice BR Gavai said that the trial court while granting him maximum sentence did not disclose its reasons. The bench was of the view that had the judge granted him a sentence of less than 2 years, the provisions of section 8(3) of the Representation of Peoples Act which resulted in his disqualification as Wayanad MP would not have been attracted.

Court says that trial court while granting him max sentence did not disclose reasons. No doubt that utterance were not in good taste and the person in pub life is expected to exercise caution in public speeches. He ought to have been more careful, SC says @NewIndianXpress https://t.co/Hv4idebYWD  Shruti Kakkar (@Shrutikakk) August 4, 2023

The trial judge, in the order passed by him, has awarded a maximum sentence of two years. No other reason has been granted why the trial judge has imposed the maximum sentence of two years. It is to be noted that it is only on account of the maximum sentence of two years that the provisions of section 8(3) of the Representation of Peoples Act have come into play. Had the sentence even been a day lesser, the provision would not have been attracted, the bench said in its order.

Trial judge has granted him (Gandhi) max sentence of 2 years. When uve to grant max sentence u giv some reasoning. Not a whisper by trial court, SC says as it hears Congress leader Rahul Gandhis plea seeking stay of conviction @NewIndianXpress @santwana99  Shruti Kakkar (@Shrutikakk) August 4, 2023

The court also said that the utterances made by Gandhi were not in good taste and said that a person in public life is expected to exercise caution in public speeches. The court said that Gandhi ought to have been more careful.

The bench, while granting him relief, said that the ramifications of his disqualifications were wide as it did not only affect his right but also the right of the constituency.

The ramifications of 8(3) are wide. It does not only affect the right of the petitioner to continue in public life, but the right of the electorate who have elected him to represent their constituency. We are of the considered view that taking into consideration the aforesaid, and particularly that no reasons have been given by the trial judge for imposing the maximum sentence  which results in incurring disqualification  the order of the conviction needs to be stayed. We stay the order of conviction, the bench said in its order.

Earlier this week, while maintaining his stand that he would not apologise to PM Modi for his alleged remarks on Modi surname, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi told SC that using the judicial process and its consequences under the Representation of Peoples Act to arm twist him into doing the same is an abuse of process of law.

The petitioner maintains, and has always maintained, that he is not guilty of the offence, and if he had to apologise and compound the offence, he would have done it much earlier. Using the criminal process and the consequences under the Representation of Peoples' Act to arm twist the petitioner into apologising for no fault is gross abuse of the judicial process and ought not to be countenanced, Rahul Gandhi said in the rejoinder affidavit submitted in response to the affidavit filed by complainant Purnesh Modi.

The Gujarat HC had in its order declined to stay Rahul's conviction in the criminal defamation case by Surat sessions court. After his conviction in the case, Gandhi was disqualified as MP from Keralas Wayanad on March 24.

Earlier in March, a magisterial court convicted Rahul Gandhi for his Modi surname remarks ahead of the 2019 national polls.

Gandhi had challenged the Gujarat High Courts July 7 order, passed by a bench of Justice Hemant M Prachchhak.

Upholding the Surat session courts July 7 verdict, the HC judge had said that the two-year jail term was just, proper and legal. Remarking that the need of the hour was to have purity in politics, the judge had said that a stay on conviction was not the rule but an exception to be reserved for rare cases only. He said that Rahuls case did not fall into that category.

Meanwhile, a debate on the no-confidence motion moved by the Opposition against the government in the Lok Sabha over the Manipur violence will be held from August 8 to August 10. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to reply to the Opposition's no-trust motion on August 10.

BJP leader and former Gujarat minister Purnesh Modi had filed a criminal defamation case against Gandhi in 2019 over his "How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname?" remark made during an election rally in Kolar in Karnataka on April 13, 2019.

What Rahul's counsel argued in court:

Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who appeared for Rahul Gandhi, said in his arguments that complainant Purnesh Modis original surname is not 'Modi' and he adopted this surname later.

"Not a single of the persons Gandhi had named during his speech has sued. This is a small community of 13 crore people and there is no uniformity or homogeneity. Who are aggrieved in this community are only people who are BJP office-holders and suing, Singhvi said.

Referring to the earlier verdict in the case by the lower court, Singhvi said the judge treats this as a serious offence involving moral turpitude.

This is a non-cognisable, bailable, and compoundable offence. The offence was not against society, not kidnapping, rape, or murder. How can this become an offence involving moral turpitude? he argued.

In a democracy, we have dissent, in a democracy we have a disagreement. What we call shaleen bhasha. Gandhi is not a hardened criminal. There are many cases filed by BJP workers, but there was never any conviction. Gandhi has already missed two sessions of the Parliament, he added.

Congress reaction:

Praising the ruling, Congress said that this was a "victory of love against hatred".

"It is a victory of love against hate. Satyamev Jayate - Jai Hind," Congress said in a tweet.

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the conviction which was awarded by a trial court in Gujarat to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his alleged remarks against the Modi surname. It is now expected that the decision to disqualify the MP would be rolled back, and Rahul Gandhi's membership in the Lok Sabha would be restored. On 24 March, one day after the conviction, Lok Sabha Secretary General Utpal Kumar Singh notified that Rahul Gandhi would stand disqualified as MP from Wayanad constituency from 23 March, the date of his conviction, under Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); A bench led by Justice BR Gavai said that the trial court while granting him maximum sentence did not disclose its reasons. The bench was of the view that had the judge granted him a sentence of less than 2 years, the provisions of section 8(3) of the Representation of Peoples Act which resulted in his disqualification as Wayanad MP would not have been attracted. Court says that trial court while granting him max sentence did not disclose reasons. No doubt that utterance were not in good taste and the person in pub life is expected to exercise caution in public speeches. He ought to have been more careful, SC says @NewIndianXpress https://t.co/Hv4idebYWD  Shruti Kakkar (@Shrutikakk) August 4, 2023 The trial judge, in the order passed by him, has awarded a maximum sentence of two years. No other reason has been granted why the trial judge has imposed the maximum sentence of two years. It is to be noted that it is only on account of the maximum sentence of two years that the provisions of section 8(3) of the Representation of Peoples Act have come into play. Had the sentence even been a day lesser, the provision would not have been attracted, the bench said in its order. Trial judge has granted him (Gandhi) max sentence of 2 years. When uve to grant max sentence u giv some reasoning. Not a whisper by trial court, SC says as it hears Congress leader Rahul Gandhis plea seeking stay of conviction @NewIndianXpress @santwana99  Shruti Kakkar (@Shrutikakk) August 4, 2023 The court also said that the utterances made by Gandhi were not in good taste and said that a person in public life is expected to exercise caution in public speeches. The court said that Gandhi ought to have been more careful. The bench, while granting him relief, said that the ramifications of his disqualifications were wide as it did not only affect his right but also the right of the constituency. The ramifications of 8(3) are wide. It does not only affect the right of the petitioner to continue in public life, but the right of the electorate who have elected him to represent their constituency. We are of the considered view that taking into consideration the aforesaid, and particularly that no reasons have been given by the trial judge for imposing the maximum sentence  which results in incurring disqualification  the order of the conviction needs to be stayed. We stay the order of conviction, the bench said in its order. Earlier this week, while maintaining his stand that he would not apologise to PM Modi for his alleged remarks on Modi surname, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi told SC that using the judicial process and its consequences under the Representation of Peoples Act to arm twist him into doing the same is an abuse of process of law. The petitioner maintains, and has always maintained, that he is not guilty of the offence, and if he had to apologise and compound the offence, he would have done it much earlier. Using the criminal process and the consequences under the Representation of Peoples' Act to arm twist the petitioner into apologising for no fault is gross abuse of the judicial process and ought not to be countenanced, Rahul Gandhi said in the rejoinder affidavit submitted in response to the affidavit filed by complainant Purnesh Modi. The Gujarat HC had in its order declined to stay Rahul's conviction in the criminal defamation case by Surat sessions court. After his conviction in the case, Gandhi was disqualified as MP from Keralas Wayanad on March 24. Earlier in March, a magisterial court convicted Rahul Gandhi for his Modi surname remarks ahead of the 2019 national polls. Gandhi had challenged the Gujarat High Courts July 7 order, passed by a bench of Justice Hemant M Prachchhak. Upholding the Surat session courts July 7 verdict, the HC judge had said that the two-year jail term was just, proper and legal. Remarking that the need of the hour was to have purity in politics, the judge had said that a stay on conviction was not the rule but an exception to be reserved for rare cases only. He said that Rahuls case did not fall into that category. Meanwhile, a debate on the no-confidence motion moved by the Opposition against the government in the Lok Sabha over the Manipur violence will be held from August 8 to August 10. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to reply to the Opposition's no-trust motion on August 10. BJP leader and former Gujarat minister Purnesh Modi had filed a criminal defamation case against Gandhi in 2019 over his "How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname?" remark made during an election rally in Kolar in Karnataka on April 13, 2019. What Rahul's counsel argued in court: Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who appeared for Rahul Gandhi, said in his arguments that complainant Purnesh Modis original surname is not 'Modi' and he adopted this surname later. "Not a single of the persons Gandhi had named during his speech has sued. This is a small community of 13 crore people and there is no uniformity or homogeneity. Who are aggrieved in this community are only people who are BJP office-holders and suing, Singhvi said. Referring to the earlier verdict in the case by the lower court, Singhvi said the judge treats this as a serious offence involving moral turpitude. This is a non-cognisable, bailable, and compoundable offence. The offence was not against society, not kidnapping, rape, or murder. How can this become an offence involving moral turpitude? he argued. In a democracy, we have dissent, in a democracy we have a disagreement. What we call shaleen bhasha. Gandhi is not a hardened criminal. There are many cases filed by BJP workers, but there was never any conviction. Gandhi has already missed two sessions of the Parliament, he added. Congress reaction: Praising the ruling, Congress said that this was a "victory of love against hatred".           -   pic.twitter.com/wSTVU8Bymn  Congress (@INCIndia) August 4, 2023 "It is a victory of love against hate. Satyamev Jayate - Jai Hind," Congress said in a tweet.
Jaison Wilson By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: A Delhi Court on Friday granted anticipatory bail to senior Congress leader Jagdish Tytler in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

The case relates to the Pul Bangash killings during the riots that broke out following the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Vikas Dhull, while allowing his plea, ordered Tytler to furnish a bail bond of Rs 1 lakh and directed him not to tamper with evidence.

On Wednesday, the court had reserved the order after hearing arguments of Tytler's counsel and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) which is probing the case.

Opposing the Congress leader's plea during the hearing, CBI argued the witnesses in the case have come forward to depose showing great courage, and the possibility of influencing them cannot be ruled out. "As per the statements of new witnesses, prima facie the role of Jagdish Tytler appears," the CBI argued.

Last week, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vidhi Gupta Anand summoned Tytler on August 5 for further proceedings in the CBI case following which the anticipatory bail plea was moved.

On Tuesday, the court issued notice to the CBI, directing the agency to file its reply and arguments by Wednesday.

As per the timeline of the case, no action was recommended against Tytler in the chargesheets filed on September 28, the first Supplementary Report on March 27, 2009, Second Supplementary Report submitted on December 24, 2014.

However, the prosecution of Tyter was recommended in the third Supplementary report filed by the probe agency on June 2, 2023.

The case goes back to four decades ago on November 1, 1984, when three persons--Badal Singh, Sardar Thakur Singh, and Gurbachan Singh were allegedly burnt to death in the area near Gurudwara Pul Bangah.

On September 28, 2007, a chargesheet was filed by CBI. However, with respect to Jagdish Tytler it was stated that no material

evidence was found.

What followed in the next decade and a half was filing of a series of closure reports by the CBI with respect to Accused Jagdish Tytler and opposing Protest Petitions filed by victim Lakhwinder Kaur, widow of deceased Badal Singh.

CBI earlier submitted statements of the eye-witnesses mentioned in the supplementary chargesheet stating that during the further investigation, they have specifically stated seeing the Accused at the spot of the incident whereby he was leading and inciting the mob carrying deadly weapons which committed the alleged offences.

ALSO READ | 1984 Anti-Sikh riots: Court summons Jagdish Tytler on August 5

The court had taken cognisance of the CBI's charge sheet against Tyter which was filed on May 20 under 148 IPC (rioting armed with deadly weapon), 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups) , and IPC 188 which imposes punishment on a person who disobeys an order which is promulgated by a public servant.

Offences under 147 (Punishment for rioting) 149 (unlawful assembly) 109 (abetment) r/w 302 (murder), 295, (damage to place of worship) 427 (mischief loss or damage to the amount of fifty rupees or upward) 436 IPC (mischief by fire or explosives) for which cognizance has already been taken by the court.

NEW DELHI: A Delhi Court on Friday granted anticipatory bail to senior Congress leader Jagdish Tytler in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. The case relates to the Pul Bangash killings during the riots that broke out following the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Vikas Dhull, while allowing his plea, ordered Tytler to furnish a bail bond of Rs 1 lakh and directed him not to tamper with evidence.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); On Wednesday, the court had reserved the order after hearing arguments of Tytler's counsel and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) which is probing the case. Opposing the Congress leader's plea during the hearing, CBI argued the witnesses in the case have come forward to depose showing great courage, and the possibility of influencing them cannot be ruled out. "As per the statements of new witnesses, prima facie the role of Jagdish Tytler appears," the CBI argued. Last week, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vidhi Gupta Anand summoned Tytler on August 5 for further proceedings in the CBI case following which the anticipatory bail plea was moved. On Tuesday, the court issued notice to the CBI, directing the agency to file its reply and arguments by Wednesday. As per the timeline of the case, no action was recommended against Tytler in the chargesheets filed on September 28, the first Supplementary Report on March 27, 2009, Second Supplementary Report submitted on December 24, 2014. However, the prosecution of Tyter was recommended in the third Supplementary report filed by the probe agency on June 2, 2023. The case goes back to four decades ago on November 1, 1984, when three persons--Badal Singh, Sardar Thakur Singh, and Gurbachan Singh were allegedly burnt to death in the area near Gurudwara Pul Bangah. On September 28, 2007, a chargesheet was filed by CBI. However, with respect to Jagdish Tytler it was stated that no material evidence was found. What followed in the next decade and a half was filing of a series of closure reports by the CBI with respect to Accused Jagdish Tytler and opposing Protest Petitions filed by victim Lakhwinder Kaur, widow of deceased Badal Singh. CBI earlier submitted statements of the eye-witnesses mentioned in the supplementary chargesheet stating that during the further investigation, they have specifically stated seeing the Accused at the spot of the incident whereby he was leading and inciting the mob carrying deadly weapons which committed the alleged offences. ALSO READ | 1984 Anti-Sikh riots: Court summons Jagdish Tytler on August 5 The court had taken cognisance of the CBI's charge sheet against Tyter which was filed on May 20 under 148 IPC (rioting armed with deadly weapon), 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups) , and IPC 188 which imposes punishment on a person who disobeys an order which is promulgated by a public servant. Offences under 147 (Punishment for rioting) 149 (unlawful assembly) 109 (abetment) r/w 302 (murder), 295, (damage to place of worship) 427 (mischief loss or damage to the amount of fifty rupees or upward) 436 IPC (mischief by fire or explosives) for which cognizance has already been taken by the court.
Jaison Wilson By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Friday permitted the Tihar Jail authorities to virtually present convicted Kashmiri separatist Yasin Malik before the court in the National Investigation Agency (NIA) probing case seeking the death penalty for Malik in a terror funding case.

A bench headed by Justice Siddharth Mridul said the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chief, who is presently serving a life term in the case, need not be produced in person and modified an earlier order seeking his physical presence while allowing an application by the jail superintendent citing security concerns.

"In view of the matter, the order dated May 29, 2023 is necessarily modified to the extent that the jail superintendent is directed to produce Yasin Malik in the present appeal through video conferencing alone on August 9 and not in person," ordered the bench, also comprising Justice Anish Dayal.

Earlier on May 29, the court issued warrants for the production of Malik, who is presently serving a life term in the case in Tihar jail, on August 9 when NIA's plea for enhancement of sentence is listed for hearing.

The Delhi government standing counsel informed the court there was an order by the President directing that Malik cannot be "moved from the Tihar Jail".

The Supreme Court also expressed its displeasure when he recently appeared before it in person, he added.

In the application, the jail authorities said Malik was a "very high-risk prisoner" and it was imperative to not physically produce him in court to maintain public order and safety.

Recently, the jailed separatist leader arrived at the Supreme Court in connection with a kidnapping case against him, prompting the Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta to flag the ''serious security lapse" to Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla.

Malik appeared before the top court bench on July 21 for the CBI's appeal against a September 20, 2022 order of a trial court in Jammu in the 1989 kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed, the daughter of the Union home minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. He was brought to the high-security apex court premises in a prison van escorted by armed security personnel without the court's permission.

On May 24, 2022, a trial court here awarded life imprisonment to Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front chief Malik after holding him guilty for various offences under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and the IPC.

Malik had pleaded guilty to the charges, including those under the UAPA, and he was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Friday permitted the Tihar Jail authorities to virtually present convicted Kashmiri separatist Yasin Malik before the court in the National Investigation Agency (NIA) probing case seeking the death penalty for Malik in a terror funding case. A bench headed by Justice Siddharth Mridul said the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chief, who is presently serving a life term in the case, need not be produced in person and modified an earlier order seeking his physical presence while allowing an application by the jail superintendent citing security concerns. "In view of the matter, the order dated May 29, 2023 is necessarily modified to the extent that the jail superintendent is directed to produce Yasin Malik in the present appeal through video conferencing alone on August 9 and not in person," ordered the bench, also comprising Justice Anish Dayal.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); Earlier on May 29, the court issued warrants for the production of Malik, who is presently serving a life term in the case in Tihar jail, on August 9 when NIA's plea for enhancement of sentence is listed for hearing. The Delhi government standing counsel informed the court there was an order by the President directing that Malik cannot be "moved from the Tihar Jail". The Supreme Court also expressed its displeasure when he recently appeared before it in person, he added. In the application, the jail authorities said Malik was a "very high-risk prisoner" and it was imperative to not physically produce him in court to maintain public order and safety. Recently, the jailed separatist leader arrived at the Supreme Court in connection with a kidnapping case against him, prompting the Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta to flag the ''serious security lapse" to Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla. Malik appeared before the top court bench on July 21 for the CBI's appeal against a September 20, 2022 order of a trial court in Jammu in the 1989 kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed, the daughter of the Union home minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. He was brought to the high-security apex court premises in a prison van escorted by armed security personnel without the court's permission. On May 24, 2022, a trial court here awarded life imprisonment to Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front chief Malik after holding him guilty for various offences under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and the IPC. Malik had pleaded guilty to the charges, including those under the UAPA, and he was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.
By PTI

MELBOURNE: A 22-year-old Indian student working as an Uber Eats driver in Australia was killed after his bike collided with an SUV in Sydney, a media report said.

Akshay Deepak Doultani, a Mumbai native pursuing a master's degree in Australia, died in a crash last week in New South Wales while working as a food delivery driver, the Australia Broadcasting Cooperation reported on Wednesday.

Doultani received a scholarship for a master's degree in finance at Macquarie University and came to Australia in February.

He worked as an Uber Eats delivery rider at least three times a week to cover his expenses.

He was taken to the Royal North Shore Hospital after the crash but died hours later, the report said.

"The only reason why he wanted to come abroad was not [just to] have a good life for himself but to provide more amenities for his family so they could live a lifestyle that was much better," his cousin Pratik Kamath was quoted as saying in the report.

With Doultani's death, the number of food delivery riders killed in Australia since 2017 rose to 12, according to the Transport Workers Union.

"Akshay's tragic loss is another reminder of how dangerous the gig economy can be. Where workers are forced to push themselves to the limit just to make ends meet," Labor senator for New South Wales Tony Sheldon posted on social media platform X.

22 year old Akshay Deepak Doultani is the 12th food delivery rider to be killed while on the job since 2017.



Akshay's tragic loss is another reminder of how dangerous the gig economy can be. Where workers are forced to push themselves to the limit just to make ends meet.



That's pic.twitter.com/M2NPvmIw2W  Senator Tony Sheldon (@TonySheldonNSW) July 31, 2023

In a statement, Uber Eats said it was committed to the safety of delivery workers and had policies in place to enhance road safety.

"In Australia, Uber Eats delivery people are covered by a support package designed specifically for them," a company spokesperson was quoted as saying in the report.

The fatal crash is being investigated by New South Wales Police and Safework NSW, the state work safety regulator.

MELBOURNE: A 22-year-old Indian student working as an Uber Eats driver in Australia was killed after his bike collided with an SUV in Sydney, a media report said. Akshay Deepak Doultani, a Mumbai native pursuing a master's degree in Australia, died in a crash last week in New South Wales while working as a food delivery driver, the Australia Broadcasting Cooperation reported on Wednesday. Doultani received a scholarship for a master's degree in finance at Macquarie University and came to Australia in February.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); He worked as an Uber Eats delivery rider at least three times a week to cover his expenses. He was taken to the Royal North Shore Hospital after the crash but died hours later, the report said. "The only reason why he wanted to come abroad was not [just to] have a good life for himself but to provide more amenities for his family so they could live a lifestyle that was much better," his cousin Pratik Kamath was quoted as saying in the report. With Doultani's death, the number of food delivery riders killed in Australia since 2017 rose to 12, according to the Transport Workers Union. "Akshay's tragic loss is another reminder of how dangerous the gig economy can be. Where workers are forced to push themselves to the limit just to make ends meet," Labor senator for New South Wales Tony Sheldon posted on social media platform X. 22 year old Akshay Deepak Doultani is the 12th food delivery rider to be killed while on the job since 2017. Akshay's tragic loss is another reminder of how dangerous the gig economy can be. Where workers are forced to push themselves to the limit just to make ends meet. That's pic.twitter.com/M2NPvmIw2W  Senator Tony Sheldon (@TonySheldonNSW) July 31, 2023 In a statement, Uber Eats said it was committed to the safety of delivery workers and had policies in place to enhance road safety. "In Australia, Uber Eats delivery people are covered by a support package designed specifically for them," a company spokesperson was quoted as saying in the report. The fatal crash is being investigated by New South Wales Police and Safework NSW, the state work safety regulator.
Namita Bajpai By

Express News Service

LUCKNOW: With the ongoing development of the six nodes of the UP Defence corridor, the state government has now shifted its focus to accelerating the industrial development of Chitrakoot and Jhansi nodes in the Bundelkhand region of the state. The details of the industrial plots falling under these two nodes have been issued afresh by the Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA).

It is mainly a short description of the available industrial plots in the industrial land banks of the two nodes, including the area and its estimated current price. The other four nodes of the ambitious defence corridor project included Agra, Aligarh, Lucknow and Kanpur.

With a focus on the development of the parched and backward Bundelkhand region of the state, CM Yogi has asked different departments including the Industrial Development Department, UPSIDA, UPEIDA and others to put their acts together for bringing about palpable change in the two districts identified as two nodes of the Defence Corridor.

UPEIDA is busy presenting the industrial plots listed under Industrial Land Banks in the Jhansi and Chitrakoot nodes to investors and industrialists afresh for auction. A total of 38 plots have been listed in the Chitrakoot node at the rate of Rs 433.57 per square meter and 45 in Jhansi at the rate of `362.28 per square meter.

In this way, 160.62 acres of land in Chitrakoot and 383.01 acres in Jhansi is currently being showcased by UPEIDA. UPEIDA has sought applications from interested investors and entrepreneurs for allotment of land on these nodes through the Nivesh Mitra portal.

Recently, in a significant move, UPEIDA denotified villages that were earlier notified as development areas under the proposed Greater Noida-Ballia 8-lane expressway project. In all 41 tehsils falling under 19 districts including Badaun, Lucknow, Kanpur Nagar, Gautam Budh Nagar, Aligarh, Ghazipur, Ballia, Mirzapur, Varanasi, Sant Ravidas Nagar, Bulandshahr, Prayagraj, Kasganj, Hardoi, Pratapgarh, Farrukhabad, Shahjahanpur, Rae Bareli and Unnao, were de-notified. With the de-notification of the tehsils and villages, their land will now be available for the investors interested in establishing units.

The Uttar Pradesh Defence Industrial Corridor (UP DIC) is an aspirational project that intends to reduce foreign dependency of the Indian Aerospace & Defence Sector. It will witness the manufacturing of drones, aircraft, Brahmos missiles and electronic warfare systems

At a glance

Uttar Pradesh Defence Industrial Corridor (UPDIC) is an aspirational project that intends to reduce the foreign dependency of the Indian Aerospace & Defence Sector

The corridor was announced by PM Narendra Modi during the first Investors Summit which took

place in Lucknow in February 2018

The Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA) is the nodal agency to execute this project in conjunction with various other state agencies

The project would witness the manufacturing of drones, aircraft, Brahmos missiles and electronic warfare systems

The six nodes across the UP Defence Industrial Corridor include Agra and Aligarh in western UP, Lucknow and Kanpur in Central UP and Chitrakoot and Jhansi in the Bundelkhand region

It aims to bring up the state as one of the largest & advanced Defence manufacturing hubs and put it on the world map

As per the Uttar Pradesh government sources, for UP Defence Industrial Corridor, 109 Memorandums of Understanding have been signed so far with industries worth potential investments of Rs 12,139 crore. Already, Rs 2,422 crore has been invested in the Corridor. Over 95% (1,608 hectare) of the 1,700 hectares of land required for the project had been acquired for the development of UPDIC

LUCKNOW: With the ongoing development of the six nodes of the UP Defence corridor, the state government has now shifted its focus to accelerating the industrial development of Chitrakoot and Jhansi nodes in the Bundelkhand region of the state. The details of the industrial plots falling under these two nodes have been issued afresh by the Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA). It is mainly a short description of the available industrial plots in the industrial land banks of the two nodes, including the area and its estimated current price. The other four nodes of the ambitious defence corridor project included Agra, Aligarh, Lucknow and Kanpur. With a focus on the development of the parched and backward Bundelkhand region of the state, CM Yogi has asked different departments including the Industrial Development Department, UPSIDA, UPEIDA and others to put their acts together for bringing about palpable change in the two districts identified as two nodes of the Defence Corridor.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); UPEIDA is busy presenting the industrial plots listed under Industrial Land Banks in the Jhansi and Chitrakoot nodes to investors and industrialists afresh for auction. A total of 38 plots have been listed in the Chitrakoot node at the rate of Rs 433.57 per square meter and 45 in Jhansi at the rate of `362.28 per square meter. In this way, 160.62 acres of land in Chitrakoot and 383.01 acres in Jhansi is currently being showcased by UPEIDA. UPEIDA has sought applications from interested investors and entrepreneurs for allotment of land on these nodes through the Nivesh Mitra portal. Recently, in a significant move, UPEIDA denotified villages that were earlier notified as development areas under the proposed Greater Noida-Ballia 8-lane expressway project. In all 41 tehsils falling under 19 districts including Badaun, Lucknow, Kanpur Nagar, Gautam Budh Nagar, Aligarh, Ghazipur, Ballia, Mirzapur, Varanasi, Sant Ravidas Nagar, Bulandshahr, Prayagraj, Kasganj, Hardoi, Pratapgarh, Farrukhabad, Shahjahanpur, Rae Bareli and Unnao, were de-notified. With the de-notification of the tehsils and villages, their land will now be available for the investors interested in establishing units. The Uttar Pradesh Defence Industrial Corridor (UP DIC) is an aspirational project that intends to reduce foreign dependency of the Indian Aerospace & Defence Sector. It will witness the manufacturing of drones, aircraft, Brahmos missiles and electronic warfare systems At a glance Uttar Pradesh Defence Industrial Corridor (UPDIC) is an aspirational project that intends to reduce the foreign dependency of the Indian Aerospace & Defence Sector The corridor was announced by PM Narendra Modi during the first Investors Summit which took place in Lucknow in February 2018 The Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA) is the nodal agency to execute this project in conjunction with various other state agencies The project would witness the manufacturing of drones, aircraft, Brahmos missiles and electronic warfare systems The six nodes across the UP Defence Industrial Corridor include Agra and Aligarh in western UP, Lucknow and Kanpur in Central UP and Chitrakoot and Jhansi in the Bundelkhand region It aims to bring up the state as one of the largest & advanced Defence manufacturing hubs and put it on the world map As per the Uttar Pradesh government sources, for UP Defence Industrial Corridor, 109 Memorandums of Understanding have been signed so far with industries worth potential investments of Rs 12,139 crore. Already, Rs 2,422 crore has been invested in the Corridor. Over 95% (1,608 hectare) of the 1,700 hectares of land required for the project had been acquired for the development of UPDIC
Preetha Nair By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Amid an Opposition walkout, the Lok Sabha on Thursday passed the Delhi Services Bill (The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023 after four-hour-long fiery exchanges between the Opposition and the treasury benches.

As Speaker Om Birla put the Bill to vote, the Opposition walked out. The controversial bill will replace an ordinance by the Centre to restore the Lieutenant Governors control over the transfer and postings of bureaucrats in Delhi.

Initiating the discussion, Union Home Minister Amit Shah asserted that Parliament has the power to make laws for the national capital. In a broadside on the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party, he said that AAP wanted to control the vigilance department to hide corruption and build bungalows.

The Oppositions priority is to save their alliance. They are not worried about Manipur. Delhi is not a state but a Union Territory... Parliament has the right to make laws for Delhi, he said. Opposing the Bill, Congress Lok Sabha leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said the bill was an attack on Indias federal structure. The Centre came up with an ordinance six days after the Supreme Court ruling. What was the hurry? The government will replicate this model in other states and UTs, Chowdhury said.

NCPs Supriya Sule accused the BJP of double standards for promising full statehood for Delhi in every election. Were you lying about it? The BJP government broke J&K into three UTs. Even after four years, no election has been held in the state, she said.

Congress MPs Shashi Tharoor and Karti Chidambaram said the Bill was an assault on democratic heritage. When a no-confidence motion is pending, how can you bring such a substantive policy change, asked Tharoor. DMKs Dayanidhi Maran said, BJPs allies are the ED, CBI and other agencies. Delhi has an elected government and BJP cannot digest it. They went to the SC for the ED directors extension. The Enforcement Directorate is their winning formula, he said.

NEW DELHI: Amid an Opposition walkout, the Lok Sabha on Thursday passed the Delhi Services Bill (The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023 after four-hour-long fiery exchanges between the Opposition and the treasury benches. As Speaker Om Birla put the Bill to vote, the Opposition walked out. The controversial bill will replace an ordinance by the Centre to restore the Lieutenant Governors control over the transfer and postings of bureaucrats in Delhi. Initiating the discussion, Union Home Minister Amit Shah asserted that Parliament has the power to make laws for the national capital. In a broadside on the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party, he said that AAP wanted to control the vigilance department to hide corruption and build bungalows.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); The Oppositions priority is to save their alliance. They are not worried about Manipur. Delhi is not a state but a Union Territory... Parliament has the right to make laws for Delhi, he said. Opposing the Bill, Congress Lok Sabha leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said the bill was an attack on Indias federal structure. The Centre came up with an ordinance six days after the Supreme Court ruling. What was the hurry? The government will replicate this model in other states and UTs, Chowdhury said. NCPs Supriya Sule accused the BJP of double standards for promising full statehood for Delhi in every election. Were you lying about it? The BJP government broke J&K into three UTs. Even after four years, no election has been held in the state, she said. Congress MPs Shashi Tharoor and Karti Chidambaram said the Bill was an assault on democratic heritage. When a no-confidence motion is pending, how can you bring such a substantive policy change, asked Tharoor. DMKs Dayanidhi Maran said, BJPs allies are the ED, CBI and other agencies. Delhi has an elected government and BJP cannot digest it. They went to the SC for the ED directors extension. The Enforcement Directorate is their winning formula, he said.
Scanning the vast green expanse of tropical rainforest surrounding his village, Mino Nente noticed a pair of branches twitch in the distant canopy.

The 58-year-old narrowed his eyes, raised a long wooden blowpipe to his lips, and fired a dart.

The rustling in the trees turned out to be a gust of wind rather than an intruder, but Nente and his Indigenous community on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi remain ever-vigilant to threats to their land from development.

"The forest is very important to us," said Nente, an elder of the Wana Posangke, an Indigenous people that inhabit the central valleys and hills of Sulawesi.

"It is our lifeblood and we will fight to protect it."

Mino Nente, an elder of the Indigenous Wana people, holding a wooden blowpipe in North Morowali Regency on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi on March 12, 2023. Photo by Reuters/Peter Yeung

Like much land across the richly-forested archipelago nation, the Wana's territory has come under increasing pressure in recent years as palm oil plantations and nickel mines have sprung up and expanded across the surrounding region.

But a government initiative is bolstering legal protections for Indigenous peoples such as the Wana, guarding them from land-grabbers and in turn helping to halt deforestation of the carbon-capturing rainforests inhabited by such communities.

In late 2016, Indonesia announced that it would return customary lands to Indigenous peoples - starting with 13,000 hectares (32,124 acres) granted to nine communities, including the Wana.

To date, the country has recognized about 153,000 hectares of customary forest for 108 communities, the government says.

However, some Indigenous leaders and analysts have voiced concerns about the land recognition process - saying it is cumbersome and prone to political interference - and questioned the government's overall commitment to Indigenous rights.

They said the customary forest initiative only came as a result of a 2013 Constitutional Court ruling that Indigenous peoples have the right to manage their ancestral lands, amending a law that had classified Indigenous forests as state-owned.

Separately, an Indigenous Peoples Bill, which was submitted in 2012 and aimed to fully recognize Indigenous communities' customary rights, has not yet been voted on. It faces opposition from major parties including President Joko Widodo's PDI-P.

"We're grateful the government is returning our lands," said Rukka Sombolinggi, secretary general of the Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN), a nonprofit that was involved in the Constitutional Court proceedings a decade ago.

"But it has not been given naturally or organically," she added. "We have had to fight very hard for this."

Protecting natural resources and reducing deforestation

Despite the challenges, "there has been a lot of progress in Indonesia over the years," according to Willem van der Muur, a Jakarta-based land tenure expert at the World Bank.

"The movement to secure land rights has been key. A lot of forest would have disappeared otherwise."

Indonesia's policy is spearheading a global surge in support for conservation led by Indigenous and local communities, who manage half the world's land and 80% of its biodiversity.

Their forests also store 37.7 billion tonnes of carbon - the equivalent of about 10 times the annual emissions generated by all industries and households in the European Union.

At the COP26 U.N. climate summit in 2021, several governments and private funders pledged $1.7 billion to support Indigenous communities in their role as "guardians of forests and nature," marking a significant shift from the past.

A 2021 report by the Rainforest Foundation Norway (RFN) found that over the previous decade, less than 1% of all climate adaptation and mitigation funding went towards projects to support Indigenous land rights and their management of forests.

Yet many studies have shown that when Indigenous peoples have land rights, they protect natural resources, and the forests under their care are less likely to be deforested.

Struggle for land recognition and rights

In the case of the Wana, who have inhabited central Sulawesi for generations, a traditional law called "lempa dua" - meaning "the balance of life" - forbids exploitation of most of the forest, other than small areas for subsistence.

"Nobody understands Mother Nature better than them," said Amran Tambaru, regional director of Merah Putih Foundation (YMP), a nonprofit that helped the Wana receive recognition.

A Wana man strolls through a field in one of the central valleys and hills of the Indonesian island of Sulawesi on March 13, 2023. by Photo by Reuters/Peter Yeung

In order to obtain customary forest recognition, communities must go through a years-long process of participatory mapping to avoid land conflicts - requiring the support of a local nonprofit - then enter negotiations with regional authorities.

But land tenure analysts say this gives regional politicians, prone to conflicts of interest, too much power - with no enforcement mechanism to regulate the process.

The Wana - whose application took several years to complete - requested 25,526 hectares of customary forest, but authorities recognized just less than a quarter of the land they sought.

"This local-national dynamic is partly why they (community-recognized forests) have not spread more," said Van der Muur of the World Bank.

There are 13.76 million hectares of potential customary forests across Indonesia - meaning that only 1% has been recognized to date, according to the Ancestral Domain Registration Agency (BRWA), a nonprofit.

"If you compare this to the number of palm oil, mining and logging permits given, its very small," said Sombolinggi of AMAN.

Indonesia has granted 23.8 million hectares of land to palm oil plantations, 18.8 million hectares to logging concessions and 9 million hectares to mining companies, according to Nusantara Atlas, an independent deforestation monitor.

Yet Yuli Prasetyo, deputy director of the countrys customary forest program, said he expects 50 other Indigenous communities to receive recognition over the next year, with the goal of all customary forest being recognized by 2030.

"We have been progressing too slowly," added Prasetyo, who has a team of just three people to process nationwide claims.

"But I have confidence we can achieve all of that."

'We hope that you listen to us'

The legal recognition push is making a difference - with companies having to win the approval of Indigenous peoples to operate on their land, said Agung Wibowo, executive coordinator of HuMA, a nonprofit working with such communities.

For example, Pamang, a Wana village chief, said his community rebuffed a surveyor for a nickel mine a few years ago.

"We are aware of our rights," said Pamang, who like many Indonesians has only one name.

"We know that this is a protected area."

In addition to recognizing customary land, Indonesia is making ground on its attempt to slow deforestation.

A report by Global Forest Watch in June found that Indonesia - home to a third of the worlds rainforests - lost 230,000 hectares of primary rainforest in 2022 - down from 930,000 hectares in 2016, and the second lowest level in two decades.

Elna Bastiansen, head of the Indonesia and Papua New Guinea program at RFN, said this was due to policies such as a moratorium on forest-clearing permits, palm oil concession revocations and customary forest recognition.

"It shows the policies are working to some extent," she said. "Indonesia is giving more voice to local communities."

Indigenous-led conservation received a boost in May when donors launched the Nusantara Fund - a multi-million dollar initiative managed by local nonprofits - that is the first direct funding mechanism for Indigenous peoples in Indonesia.

In Sulawesi, the Wana and many other Indigenous groups are set to receive that support for their forest stewardship.

"We are the people of the forest," said Indo Mboa, a 59-year-old Wana matriarch, sitting at the entrance of her bamboo home. "We see mountains as bodies and rivers as souls."

"We hope that you listen to us," she added.
Yeshi Seli By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: German Ambassador Dr Philipp Ackermann was summoned by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) this week over the fate of Baby Ariha who has been under forced German foster care since September 2021. The child was only seven months old when she was taken away from her parents.

The cultural rights of the child who is in German foster care, and as an Indian, her rights have been infringed upon and we have always taken a strong view about this. Our concerns were conveyed to the German Ambassador, who was summoned this week. We will continue to press for the childs return to India, said MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi on Thursday.

Baby Arihas mother Dhara

Shah outside Parliament on

Wednesday | PTI

The child has been away from her biological parents since she was seven months old (in September 2021). Her parents have continued to fight for her childs custody and the Indian government has urged Germany to send the child back to India.

Meanwhile, the Jain community has been taking out protest marches in Germany and India, in support of the child to return to her parents. They had earlier threatened to boycott German goods. On Wednesday, Samajwadi MP Jaya Bachchan introduced the childs mother, Dhara Shah, to a group of MPs. I am presenting Dhara Shah in front of everyone. Her daughter Ariha Shan has been taken by the German government for over two years now and she is seeking help from parliamentarians, said Samajwadi Party MP Jaya Bachchan, adding that the child was taken into foster care over cultural differences.

A strong stand has been taken by the Germans and we will put in a request to the External Affairs Minister and the German Embassy as well. We request the Indian government to bring the child and keep her at a foster home in India. The necessary judgment should be made by the Indian government, Jaya Bachchan added.

This is not the first time that MPs have come forward to extend support for the child. On June 3, 59 MPs from 19 political parties had written to the German Ambassador asking for the early repatriation of Ariha Shah. The MPs included Jaya Bachchan, Hema Malini, Shashi Tharoor, Farooq Abdullah and Priyanka Chaturvedi.

Cultural rights

The cultural rights of the child who is in German foster care, and as an Indian, her rights have been infringed upon and we have always taken a strong view about this. Our concerns were conveyed to the German Ambassador, who was summoned this week. We will continue to press for the childs return to India, said spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, Arindam Bagchi, on Thursday.



NEW DELHI: German Ambassador Dr Philipp Ackermann was summoned by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) this week over the fate of Baby Ariha who has been under forced German foster care since September 2021. The child was only seven months old when she was taken away from her parents. The cultural rights of the child who is in German foster care, and as an Indian, her rights have been infringed upon and we have always taken a strong view about this. Our concerns were conveyed to the German Ambassador, who was summoned this week. We will continue to press for the childs return to India, said MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi on Thursday. Baby Arihas mother Dhara Shah outside Parliament on Wednesday | PTIThe child has been away from her biological parents since she was seven months old (in September 2021). Her parents have continued to fight for her childs custody and the Indian government has urged Germany to send the child back to India.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); Meanwhile, the Jain community has been taking out protest marches in Germany and India, in support of the child to return to her parents. They had earlier threatened to boycott German goods. On Wednesday, Samajwadi MP Jaya Bachchan introduced the childs mother, Dhara Shah, to a group of MPs. I am presenting Dhara Shah in front of everyone. Her daughter Ariha Shan has been taken by the German government for over two years now and she is seeking help from parliamentarians, said Samajwadi Party MP Jaya Bachchan, adding that the child was taken into foster care over cultural differences. A strong stand has been taken by the Germans and we will put in a request to the External Affairs Minister and the German Embassy as well. We request the Indian government to bring the child and keep her at a foster home in India. The necessary judgment should be made by the Indian government, Jaya Bachchan added. This is not the first time that MPs have come forward to extend support for the child. On June 3, 59 MPs from 19 political parties had written to the German Ambassador asking for the early repatriation of Ariha Shah. The MPs included Jaya Bachchan, Hema Malini, Shashi Tharoor, Farooq Abdullah and Priyanka Chaturvedi. Cultural rights The cultural rights of the child who is in German foster care, and as an Indian, her rights have been infringed upon and we have always taken a strong view about this. Our concerns were conveyed to the German Ambassador, who was summoned this week. We will continue to press for the childs return to India, said spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, Arindam Bagchi, on Thursday.
By PTI

IMPHAL: In a fresh incident of arms looting, a mob comprising the majority community broke into a police armoury and stole weapons, including AK and 'Ghatak' series of assault rifles, and over 19,000 bullets of various calibres, officials said.

The incident took place at the battalion headquarters of the 2nd India Reserve Battalion (IRB) located at Naranseina in Bishnupur district. A crowd had gathered there to march towards Churachandpur where tribals were planning to carry out a mass burial of their people killed in ethnic clashes that broke out in the state on May 3, they said.

More than 19,000 rounds of bullets of different calibres, an AK series assault rifle, three 'Ghaatak' rifles, 195 self-loading rifles, five MP-5 guns, 16 9mm pistols, 25 bulletproof jackets, 21 carbines, 124 hand grenades among others were looted by the mob, officials said.

ALSO READ | 17 injured in fresh clashes in Manipur's Bishnupur; day curfew reimposed in Imphal valley

The mass burial programme by the tribals had sparked fresh tension in the strife-torn state with the majority community opposing the move.

More than 25 people were injured in clashes as the Army and RAF personnel fired tear gas shells in Kangvai and Phougakchao areas in Bishnupur district on Thursday to stop processions on their way to the proposed burial site in violation of restrictions on gatherings, officials said.

READ MORE | Mass burial put on hold as MHA intervenes, HC orders 'status quo ante' on proposed land

The majority community had also attempted to loot two other armouries located in the state capital but the attempts were foiled.

The Manipur High Court, in an extraordinary hearing held on Thursday morning, had stayed the proposed mass burial even though the Kuki community claimed that they had postponed the programme after discussions with the Union home ministry.

More than 160 people lost their lives and several hundred were injured since the ethnic clashes broke out in Manipur on May 3, after a 'Tribal Solidarity March' was organised in the hill districts to protest against the Meitei community's demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status.

Meiteis account for about 53 per cent of Manipur's population and live mostly in the Imphal Valley. Tribals -- Nagas and Kukis -- constitute little over 40 per cent and reside in the hill districts.

IMPHAL: In a fresh incident of arms looting, a mob comprising the majority community broke into a police armoury and stole weapons, including AK and 'Ghatak' series of assault rifles, and over 19,000 bullets of various calibres, officials said. The incident took place at the battalion headquarters of the 2nd India Reserve Battalion (IRB) located at Naranseina in Bishnupur district. A crowd had gathered there to march towards Churachandpur where tribals were planning to carry out a mass burial of their people killed in ethnic clashes that broke out in the state on May 3, they said. More than 19,000 rounds of bullets of different calibres, an AK series assault rifle, three 'Ghaatak' rifles, 195 self-loading rifles, five MP-5 guns, 16 9mm pistols, 25 bulletproof jackets, 21 carbines, 124 hand grenades among others were looted by the mob, officials said.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); ALSO READ | 17 injured in fresh clashes in Manipur's Bishnupur; day curfew reimposed in Imphal valley The mass burial programme by the tribals had sparked fresh tension in the strife-torn state with the majority community opposing the move. More than 25 people were injured in clashes as the Army and RAF personnel fired tear gas shells in Kangvai and Phougakchao areas in Bishnupur district on Thursday to stop processions on their way to the proposed burial site in violation of restrictions on gatherings, officials said. READ MORE | Mass burial put on hold as MHA intervenes, HC orders 'status quo ante' on proposed land The majority community had also attempted to loot two other armouries located in the state capital but the attempts were foiled. The Manipur High Court, in an extraordinary hearing held on Thursday morning, had stayed the proposed mass burial even though the Kuki community claimed that they had postponed the programme after discussions with the Union home ministry. More than 160 people lost their lives and several hundred were injured since the ethnic clashes broke out in Manipur on May 3, after a 'Tribal Solidarity March' was organised in the hill districts to protest against the Meitei community's demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status. Meiteis account for about 53 per cent of Manipur's population and live mostly in the Imphal Valley. Tribals -- Nagas and Kukis -- constitute little over 40 per cent and reside in the hill districts.
Ramashankar By

Express News Service

PATNA: Ahead of the Opposition leaders meeting in Mumbai, there is intense speculation over whether Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar will contest the 2024 Lok Sabha election from Phulpur in neighboring Uttar Pradesh. Last year too, there were rumors about Nitish contesting from Phulpur, but his party, the JD-U, rejected it. However, this time, JD-U has started a discussion on it.

Senior party leader and minister in the grand alliance government Shrawan Kumar said that party workers from various UP constituencies wanted Nitish to contest the Lok Sabha election from that state. Sharawan Kumar, who is the state rural development minister, said UP leaders wanted to meet Nitish to convey their feelings and have sought an appointment. Shrawan had gone on a two-day visit to Uttar Pradesh from July 31 to attend a meeting of party workers of the party.

Senior JD-U minister said that being in charge of UP JD (U), whenever he was on a tour to UP recently, people wanted Nitish to contest election from any constituency, either Phulpur, Pratappur, Jaunpur, Ambedkar Naga or any other place of his choice. However, no reaction has come from Nitish Kumar on the issue. The JD-U has given the responsibility to three party leaders to prepare the ground for Nitish in Phulpur, sources in the party said.

Besides senior JD-U minister Shrawan Kumar, Nalanda MP Kaushalendra Kumar and MLC Sanjay Singh had also been engaged in the work. Under this strategy, they are continuously camping in the area and creating an atmosphere.

Nitish who has been successful in bringing 15 political parties together in the first meeting of the Opposition parties in state capital is expected to play a greater role at the national level. There is also speculation that Nitish may be declared the coordinator of I.N.D.I.A. (the opposition conclave) at Mumbai meeting.

Earlier, JD-Uchief Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh had also given a hint about it although he had also claimed that no final decision on Nitish contesting LS election had been taken but there is a demand from JD (U) workers from Phulpur, Ambedkar Nagar and Jaunpur that Nitish should be fielded as a candidate from either of the seats. Former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru represented Phulpur in Lok Sabha in 1952, 1957 and 1962.

Demand from people

Senior JD-U leader and Bihar minister Shrawan Kumar said that being in-charge of UP JD-U, whenever he was on a tour to UP recently, people wanted Nitish to contest the election from any constituency, either Phulpur, Pratappur, Jaunpur, Ambedkar Naga or any other place of his choice

PATNA: Ahead of the Opposition leaders meeting in Mumbai, there is intense speculation over whether Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar will contest the 2024 Lok Sabha election from Phulpur in neighboring Uttar Pradesh. Last year too, there were rumors about Nitish contesting from Phulpur, but his party, the JD-U, rejected it. However, this time, JD-U has started a discussion on it. Senior party leader and minister in the grand alliance government Shrawan Kumar said that party workers from various UP constituencies wanted Nitish to contest the Lok Sabha election from that state. Sharawan Kumar, who is the state rural development minister, said UP leaders wanted to meet Nitish to convey their feelings and have sought an appointment. Shrawan had gone on a two-day visit to Uttar Pradesh from July 31 to attend a meeting of party workers of the party. Senior JD-U minister said that being in charge of UP JD (U), whenever he was on a tour to UP recently, people wanted Nitish to contest election from any constituency, either Phulpur, Pratappur, Jaunpur, Ambedkar Naga or any other place of his choice. However, no reaction has come from Nitish Kumar on the issue. The JD-U has given the responsibility to three party leaders to prepare the ground for Nitish in Phulpur, sources in the party said.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); Besides senior JD-U minister Shrawan Kumar, Nalanda MP Kaushalendra Kumar and MLC Sanjay Singh had also been engaged in the work. Under this strategy, they are continuously camping in the area and creating an atmosphere. Nitish who has been successful in bringing 15 political parties together in the first meeting of the Opposition parties in state capital is expected to play a greater role at the national level. There is also speculation that Nitish may be declared the coordinator of I.N.D.I.A. (the opposition conclave) at Mumbai meeting. Earlier, JD-Uchief Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh had also given a hint about it although he had also claimed that no final decision on Nitish contesting LS election had been taken but there is a demand from JD (U) workers from Phulpur, Ambedkar Nagar and Jaunpur that Nitish should be fielded as a candidate from either of the seats. Former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru represented Phulpur in Lok Sabha in 1952, 1957 and 1962. Demand from people Senior JD-U leader and Bihar minister Shrawan Kumar said that being in-charge of UP JD-U, whenever he was on a tour to UP recently, people wanted Nitish to contest the election from any constituency, either Phulpur, Pratappur, Jaunpur, Ambedkar Naga or any other place of his choice
By PTI

GURUGRAM: The investigation has revealed that there was no mastermind behind the clashes in the Nuh district, which was the doing of several disparate groups, a senior police officer said on Friday.

The officer's remarks in effect contradicted the state home minister's conjecture, according to which the violence was engineered and had a mastermind behind it.

"Somebody masterminded it but I don't want to reach any conclusions. We will investigate this and every single person responsible will be brought to justice," Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij had said on Tuesday, hours after the violence was first reported from Nuh.

Nuh SP Narendra Singh Bijarnia on Friday said police are already identifying and arresting people involved in the clashes.

The Superintendent of Police was addressing a press conference at the Nuh-based Camp Office (DC residence), which was also attended by Deputy Commissioner Prashant Panwar.

"No mischievous elements will be spared. Encroachment reports of buildings from where stones were pelted are also being prepared. Action will be taken against them according to rules," Bijarnia said.

The SP also said that a case has been registered against Goraksha Bajrang Force President Bittu Bajrangi in Faridabad in connection with the Monday clashes. Bajrangi alias Raj Kumar, 45, is a fruit and vegetables trader at the Gazipur market and Dabua market in Faridabad.

According to sources, Bajrangi, a Bajrang Dal member, has been running his cow vigilante group for the last three years. In the last one month alone, he has been booked in three cases of inciting religious sentiments.

ALSO READ | Days after communal violence, shanties of 'illegal immigrants' demolished in Nuh

Nuh Deputy Commissioner Prashant Pawar said normal life was returning on back on track in the district. No violent incident has been reported from anywhere in the Nuh district for the last four days, he said.

"As part of the process of restoring peace in the area, the district administration has held meetings with the peace committees of different areas of the district. Members of the committee have fully assured that they will not allow any kind of tension to arise in the area. As the situation is now returning to normal, the resumption of internet services is also being considered. Soon a positive decision will be taken on the basis of the intelligence report," Panwar said.

ALSO READ | Violence has no religion: 'Allahhu Akbar' in Nuh, 'Jai Shree Ram' in Gurugram

He also said the Haryana government has started a compensation portal to make up for losses suffered by people in looting and arson in the violence that went on for at least two days.

The SP said 55 FIRs have been registered so far, and 141 people have been arrested.

He said a strict vigil is being kept on social media to prevent the spread of fake news, rumour or inciting speech etc.

GURUGRAM: The investigation has revealed that there was no mastermind behind the clashes in the Nuh district, which was the doing of several disparate groups, a senior police officer said on Friday. The officer's remarks in effect contradicted the state home minister's conjecture, according to which the violence was engineered and had a mastermind behind it. "Somebody masterminded it but I don't want to reach any conclusions. We will investigate this and every single person responsible will be brought to justice," Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij had said on Tuesday, hours after the violence was first reported from Nuh.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); Nuh SP Narendra Singh Bijarnia on Friday said police are already identifying and arresting people involved in the clashes. The Superintendent of Police was addressing a press conference at the Nuh-based Camp Office (DC residence), which was also attended by Deputy Commissioner Prashant Panwar. "No mischievous elements will be spared. Encroachment reports of buildings from where stones were pelted are also being prepared. Action will be taken against them according to rules," Bijarnia said. The SP also said that a case has been registered against Goraksha Bajrang Force President Bittu Bajrangi in Faridabad in connection with the Monday clashes. Bajrangi alias Raj Kumar, 45, is a fruit and vegetables trader at the Gazipur market and Dabua market in Faridabad. According to sources, Bajrangi, a Bajrang Dal member, has been running his cow vigilante group for the last three years. In the last one month alone, he has been booked in three cases of inciting religious sentiments. ALSO READ | Days after communal violence, shanties of 'illegal immigrants' demolished in Nuh Nuh Deputy Commissioner Prashant Pawar said normal life was returning on back on track in the district. No violent incident has been reported from anywhere in the Nuh district for the last four days, he said. "As part of the process of restoring peace in the area, the district administration has held meetings with the peace committees of different areas of the district. Members of the committee have fully assured that they will not allow any kind of tension to arise in the area. As the situation is now returning to normal, the resumption of internet services is also being considered. Soon a positive decision will be taken on the basis of the intelligence report," Panwar said. ALSO READ | Violence has no religion: 'Allahhu Akbar' in Nuh, 'Jai Shree Ram' in Gurugram He also said the Haryana government has started a compensation portal to make up for losses suffered by people in looting and arson in the violence that went on for at least two days. The SP said 55 FIRs have been registered so far, and 141 people have been arrested. He said a strict vigil is being kept on social media to prevent the spread of fake news, rumour or inciting speech etc.
Preetha Nair By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: The stalemate in the Rajya Sabha over the Manipur situation is likely to end as the Opposition on Thursday offered a middle ground to initiate a discussion on the matter at a meeting with the governments floor leaders.

In a climbdown from its demand for a discussion only under Rule 267, the Opposition proposed the discussion under Rule 167, which involves a motion. According to experts, under Rule 167, a motion can be moved and a discussion held.

Security personnel block a road after

locals try to march towards a mass

burial site in Bishnupur district

Speaking to this newspaper, a senior Opposition leader who attended the meeting said that the parties have suggested debate under Rule 167 and the government appears to be in agreement with the idea.

Both sides were open to suggestions to end the impasse. A debate was held in 2002 under Rule 167 on the Gujarat riots, said the leader adding they will finalise their decision on Friday.

Once the decision on Rule 167 is taken, the ball will be in the governments court to decide on the dates for the discussion. While the Opposition hopes the discussion would begin on Monday, sources told this newspaper that the government may allow it only on August 11, the concluding day of the session.

While Union ministers Piyush Goyal and Pralhad Joshi represented the government, several Opposition leaders, including Leader of the Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge, Jairam Ramesh, Derek OBrien, Elamaram Kareem, and Binoy Viswam attended the meeting. Opposition leaders also are of the opinion that the parties should show some flexibility as crucial bills are getting passed without debate.

Taking to Twitter, Jairam Ramesh said, INDIA parties have offered a middle path solution to the Leader of the House to break the logjam and get a discussion on Manipur going in an uninterrupted manner in the Rajya Sabha. Hope the Modi government agrees.

Over 15 injured in fresh violence

In Manipur, over 15 people were injured in two separate incidents of fresh violence. In Bishnupur, security forces had to use force to quell a mob of protesters. In the other incident, two persons, including a jawan, were injured during a gunfight between two groups on the border of Imphal West and Kangpokpi districts

Universitys notification rapped

The Kuki Students Organisation criticised the Manipur University for issuing a notification on fresh admission in various PG programmes and integrated courses. They urged them to first address the issue of 400 displaced students, including 80 research scholars, who now cannot come to the Imphal valley

NEW DELHI: The stalemate in the Rajya Sabha over the Manipur situation is likely to end as the Opposition on Thursday offered a middle ground to initiate a discussion on the matter at a meeting with the governments floor leaders. In a climbdown from its demand for a discussion only under Rule 267, the Opposition proposed the discussion under Rule 167, which involves a motion. According to experts, under Rule 167, a motion can be moved and a discussion held. Security personnel block a road after locals try to march towards a mass burial site in Bishnupur district Speaking to this newspaper, a senior Opposition leader who attended the meeting said that the parties have suggested debate under Rule 167 and the government appears to be in agreement with the idea. Both sides were open to suggestions to end the impasse. A debate was held in 2002 under Rule 167 on the Gujarat riots, said the leader adding they will finalise their decision on Friday.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); Once the decision on Rule 167 is taken, the ball will be in the governments court to decide on the dates for the discussion. While the Opposition hopes the discussion would begin on Monday, sources told this newspaper that the government may allow it only on August 11, the concluding day of the session. While Union ministers Piyush Goyal and Pralhad Joshi represented the government, several Opposition leaders, including Leader of the Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge, Jairam Ramesh, Derek OBrien, Elamaram Kareem, and Binoy Viswam attended the meeting. Opposition leaders also are of the opinion that the parties should show some flexibility as crucial bills are getting passed without debate. Taking to Twitter, Jairam Ramesh said, INDIA parties have offered a middle path solution to the Leader of the House to break the logjam and get a discussion on Manipur going in an uninterrupted manner in the Rajya Sabha. Hope the Modi government agrees. Over 15 injured in fresh violence In Manipur, over 15 people were injured in two separate incidents of fresh violence. In Bishnupur, security forces had to use force to quell a mob of protesters. In the other incident, two persons, including a jawan, were injured during a gunfight between two groups on the border of Imphal West and Kangpokpi districts Universitys notification rapped The Kuki Students Organisation criticised the Manipur University for issuing a notification on fresh admission in various PG programmes and integrated courses. They urged them to first address the issue of 400 displaced students, including 80 research scholars, who now cannot come to the Imphal valley
Online Desk By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: The Congress on Friday hailed as 'strong vindication of truth' the Supreme Court ruling staying the conviction of Rahul Gandhi in a 2019 defamation case over his remarks on Modi surname.

The Opposition party said the Constitution has been upheld and the BJP's 'conspiratorial hounding of Gandhi has been thoroughly exposed

In a big relief to Gandhi, the Supreme Court stayed his conviction in the case over his Modi surname remark, paving the way for the revival of his Lok Sabha membership.

The Lok Sabha speaker can now revive his membership on his own or Gandhi, armed with the apex court order, seek restoration of his status as an MP.

Soon after the Supreme Court ruling, Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury met Birla and urged him to restore Gandhi's membership.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge hailed the Supreme Court ruling saying 'Truth alone triumphs'.

Truth Alone Triumphs!



We welcome the verdict by the Honble Supreme Court giving relief to Shri @RahulGandhi.



Justice has been delivered. Democracy has won. The Constitution has been upheld.



BJPs conspiratorial hounding of Shri Gandhi has been thoroughly exposed.



Time for  Mallikarjun Kharge (@kharge) August 4, 2023

"We welcome the verdict by the Hon'ble Supreme Court giving relief to Shri @RahulGandhi.

Justice has been delivered. Democracy has won. The Constitution has been upheld. BJP's conspiratorial hounding of Shri Gandhi has been thoroughly exposed," he said in a tweet.

"Time for them to stop their malicious targeting of Opposition leaders. It is high time they respect the mandate given by the people and start governing the country, on which they have miserably failed in the last 10 years," he said.

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra welcomed the Supreme Court ruling and cited a quote by Gautam Buddha - "Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth."

She thanked the apex court for the decision and wrote 'Satyameva Jayate'.

"Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth



~Gautama Buddha



         



   Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (@priyankagandhi) August 4, 2023

Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said the judgment is a strong vindication of truth and justice.

"Despite the relentless efforts of the BJP's machinery, Rahul Gandhi has refused to bend, break or bow, choosing instead to place his faith in the judicial process," he said on Twitter.

"Let this be a lesson to the BJP and its acolytes: you can do your absolute worst but we will not back down. We will continue to expose and call out your failures as a Government and as a party. We will continue to uphold our Constitutional ideals and repose faith in our institutions which you so desperately want to destroy. Satyameva Jayate!" Ramesh said.

The Supreme Court judgment is a strong vindication of truth and justice.



Despite the relentless efforts of the BJPs machinery, @RahulGandhi has refused to bend, break or bow, choosing instead to place his faith in the judicial process.



Let this be a lesson to the BJP and its  Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) August 4, 2023

As the news came in of the Supreme Court's ruling, Chowdhury, speaking in Lok Sabha, urged the Chair to allow Rahul Gandhi to attend the House.

When the House was taking up private members' business, Chowdhury urged Rajendra Agrawal, who was presiding over the proceedings, to allow Gandhi to attend the House.

Congress workers raise slogans in support of party leader Rahul Gandhi to celebrate after the Supreme Court stayed the conviction of Gandhi in the 2019 criminal defamation case. (Photo | PTI)

"Our leader Rahul ji got relief from the Supreme Court. I demand from the Chair to allow him to attend the House at the earliest," he said. Agrawal said the Speaker would naturally take cognisance of the development.

Congress' general secretary organisation K C Venugopal also hailed the verdict.

We welcome the Honble Supreme Courts verdict staying Sh. @RahulGandhi jis conviction.



Justice has prevailed. No force can silence the voice of the people.  K C Venugopal (@kcvenugopalmp) August 4, 2023

"We welcome the Hon'ble Supreme Court's verdict staying Sh.@RahulGandhi ji's conviction. Justice has prevailed. No force can silence the voice of the people," Venugopal said on Twitter.

(With inputs from PTI)

NEW DELHI: The Congress on Friday hailed as 'strong vindication of truth' the Supreme Court ruling staying the conviction of Rahul Gandhi in a 2019 defamation case over his remarks on Modi surname. The Opposition party said the Constitution has been upheld and the BJP's 'conspiratorial hounding of Gandhi has been thoroughly exposed In a big relief to Gandhi, the Supreme Court stayed his conviction in the case over his Modi surname remark, paving the way for the revival of his Lok Sabha membership.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); The Lok Sabha speaker can now revive his membership on his own or Gandhi, armed with the apex court order, seek restoration of his status as an MP. Soon after the Supreme Court ruling, Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury met Birla and urged him to restore Gandhi's membership. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge hailed the Supreme Court ruling saying 'Truth alone triumphs'. Truth Alone Triumphs! We welcome the verdict by the Honble Supreme Court giving relief to Shri @RahulGandhi. Justice has been delivered. Democracy has won. The Constitution has been upheld. BJPs conspiratorial hounding of Shri Gandhi has been thoroughly exposed. Time for  Mallikarjun Kharge (@kharge) August 4, 2023 "We welcome the verdict by the Hon'ble Supreme Court giving relief to Shri @RahulGandhi. Justice has been delivered. Democracy has won. The Constitution has been upheld. BJP's conspiratorial hounding of Shri Gandhi has been thoroughly exposed," he said in a tweet. "Time for them to stop their malicious targeting of Opposition leaders. It is high time they respect the mandate given by the people and start governing the country, on which they have miserably failed in the last 10 years," he said. Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra welcomed the Supreme Court ruling and cited a quote by Gautam Buddha - "Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth." She thanked the apex court for the decision and wrote 'Satyameva Jayate'. "Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth ~Gautama Buddha              Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (@priyankagandhi) August 4, 2023 Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said the judgment is a strong vindication of truth and justice. "Despite the relentless efforts of the BJP's machinery, Rahul Gandhi has refused to bend, break or bow, choosing instead to place his faith in the judicial process," he said on Twitter. "Let this be a lesson to the BJP and its acolytes: you can do your absolute worst but we will not back down. We will continue to expose and call out your failures as a Government and as a party. We will continue to uphold our Constitutional ideals and repose faith in our institutions which you so desperately want to destroy. Satyameva Jayate!" Ramesh said. The Supreme Court judgment is a strong vindication of truth and justice. Despite the relentless efforts of the BJPs machinery, @RahulGandhi has refused to bend, break or bow, choosing instead to place his faith in the judicial process. Let this be a lesson to the BJP and its  Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) August 4, 2023 As the news came in of the Supreme Court's ruling, Chowdhury, speaking in Lok Sabha, urged the Chair to allow Rahul Gandhi to attend the House. When the House was taking up private members' business, Chowdhury urged Rajendra Agrawal, who was presiding over the proceedings, to allow Gandhi to attend the House. Congress workers raise slogans in support of party leader Rahul Gandhi to celebrate after the Supreme Court stayed the conviction of Gandhi in the 2019 criminal defamation case. (Photo | PTI) "Our leader Rahul ji got relief from the Supreme Court. I demand from the Chair to allow him to attend the House at the earliest," he said. Agrawal said the Speaker would naturally take cognisance of the development. Congress' general secretary organisation K C Venugopal also hailed the verdict. We welcome the Honble Supreme Courts verdict staying Sh. @RahulGandhi jis conviction. Justice has prevailed. No force can silence the voice of the people.  K C Venugopal (@kcvenugopalmp) August 4, 2023 "We welcome the Hon'ble Supreme Court's verdict staying Sh.@RahulGandhi ji's conviction. Justice has prevailed. No force can silence the voice of the people," Venugopal said on Twitter. (With inputs from PTI)
By PTI

NEW DELHI: In a relief to TMC youth wing leader Kuntal Ghosh, an accused in the alleged teacher's recruitment scam in West Bengal, the Supreme Court on Friday set aside the Calcutta High Court order imposing a fine of Rs 25 lakh on him.

A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, meanwhile, said Ghosh can raise his plea of "custodial torture" before the special court hearing the matter.

Senior advocate Siddharth Dave, appearing for Ghosh, said the observations made by the high court on the merits of the case and the imposition of the fine of Rs 25 lakh were unwarranted.

"The order for the payment of costs of Rs 25 lakhs shall stand deleted," the bench said.

Justice Amrita Sinha of the Calcutta High Court had in May rejected the pleas by Abhishek Banerjee, TMC general secretary and a nephew of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, and Kuntal Ghosh seeking recall of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay's order to the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to interrogate the duo in the alleged school recruitment scam.

She had also imposed a fine of Rs 25 lakh on each of them for wasting the court's time in trying to have Justice Gangopadhyay's April 13 order set aside.

"The High Court has clarified that, at that stage, it was not expressing any opinion on the legality or correctness of the complaint in regard to custodial torture. In the circumstances, the impugned order of the High Court shall not preclude the petitioner from pursuing the complaint before the Special Court," the apex court said while disposing of Ghosh's petition.

Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay had in his April 13 order said in a speech by Banerjee, quoting Ghosh that he was under pressure from central agencies to implicate the lawmaker in the recruitment scam case should be within the ambit of CBI's investigation into the alleged recruitment scam.

NEW DELHI: In a relief to TMC youth wing leader Kuntal Ghosh, an accused in the alleged teacher's recruitment scam in West Bengal, the Supreme Court on Friday set aside the Calcutta High Court order imposing a fine of Rs 25 lakh on him. A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, meanwhile, said Ghosh can raise his plea of "custodial torture" before the special court hearing the matter. Senior advocate Siddharth Dave, appearing for Ghosh, said the observations made by the high court on the merits of the case and the imposition of the fine of Rs 25 lakh were unwarranted.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); "The order for the payment of costs of Rs 25 lakhs shall stand deleted," the bench said. Justice Amrita Sinha of the Calcutta High Court had in May rejected the pleas by Abhishek Banerjee, TMC general secretary and a nephew of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, and Kuntal Ghosh seeking recall of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay's order to the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to interrogate the duo in the alleged school recruitment scam. She had also imposed a fine of Rs 25 lakh on each of them for wasting the court's time in trying to have Justice Gangopadhyay's April 13 order set aside. "The High Court has clarified that, at that stage, it was not expressing any opinion on the legality or correctness of the complaint in regard to custodial torture. In the circumstances, the impugned order of the High Court shall not preclude the petitioner from pursuing the complaint before the Special Court," the apex court said while disposing of Ghosh's petition. Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay had in his April 13 order said in a speech by Banerjee, quoting Ghosh that he was under pressure from central agencies to implicate the lawmaker in the recruitment scam case should be within the ambit of CBI's investigation into the alleged recruitment scam.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the order of the Calcutta High Court suspending Andaman and Nicobar Islands Chief Secretary Keshav Chandra and imposing a fine of Rs 5 lakh on Lt.

Governor DK Joshi for not complying with an earlier order on releasing benefits to workers.

A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra took note of the submissions of Attorney General R Venkataramani, appearing for the chief secretary and the LG, and stayed the order of the Port Blair bench of the high court.

"We will stay these directions. You (the petitioners) must have gotten the judges really riled up to get this...We are keeping it on next Friday" the bench said.

In a significant development, the high court suspended Chandra and imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh on the LG (which he has to bear from his own fund) on Thursday for not complying with an earlier order on releasing benefits to workers.

An order passed on December 19 last year had awarded higher pay and DA to nearly 4,000 Daily Rated Mazdoors (DRMs) employed by the island administration.

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the order of the Calcutta High Court suspending Andaman and Nicobar Islands Chief Secretary Keshav Chandra and imposing a fine of Rs 5 lakh on Lt. Governor DK Joshi for not complying with an earlier order on releasing benefits to workers. A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra took note of the submissions of Attorney General R Venkataramani, appearing for the chief secretary and the LG, and stayed the order of the Port Blair bench of the high court.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); "We will stay these directions. You (the petitioners) must have gotten the judges really riled up to get this...We are keeping it on next Friday" the bench said. In a significant development, the high court suspended Chandra and imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh on the LG (which he has to bear from his own fund) on Thursday for not complying with an earlier order on releasing benefits to workers. An order passed on December 19 last year had awarded higher pay and DA to nearly 4,000 Daily Rated Mazdoors (DRMs) employed by the island administration.
By Express News Service

GUWAHATI: After fresh violence broke out in a few parts of strife-torn Manipur, the security forces stepped up search operations in vulnerable and fringe areas and destroyed seven illegal bunkers.

Security forces conducted search operations in the vulnerable and fringe areas of the state. Joint security forces conducted an operation in Koutruk hill range and destroyed 07 (seven) illegal bunkers, the Manipur Police tweeted on Friday.

Fresh gunfights, which erupted at Koutruk, Haraothel and Senjam Chirang areas on the border of Imphal West and Kangpokpi districts on Thursday morning, had left security personnel dead and a civilian injured. The illegal bunkers were destroyed following the gunfights.

Destruction of illegal bunkers:



Security Forces conducted search operations in the vulnerable and fringe areas of the State. Joint security forces conducted operation in Koutruk hill range and destroyed 07 (seven) illegal bunkers. pic.twitter.com/Zbc1aA6P08  Manipur Police (@manipur_police) August 4, 2023

In another incident on Thursday, over 20 people were injured when the security forces used force to quell a mob which was headed to a disputed site to prevent a mass burial of the bodies of tribals killed in the violence earlier.

Manipur Police have launched a probe into Thursdays looting of arms and ammunition by a mob. Director General of Police Rajiv Singh told journalists the culprits would not be spared.

We have taken the incident of arms looting very seriously. An IG (inspector general) has gone there to conduct a probe and find out how it happened despite security arrangements put in place, Singh said.

He said raids were conducted following the incident and some weapons were recovered. He did not share the figures of the arms and ammunition looted and recovered.

Such incidents will not be tolerated. The guilty will be nabbed, Singh said, adding that all central and state forces are working to ensure peace prevails in Manipur.

The police said an unruly mob stormed an India Reserve Battalion and two police outposts on Thursday and looted a huge cache of arms and ammunition from the armouries. The police did not share exact figures.

Another attempt was made to loot weapons from two Manipur Rifles battalions and two police stations but the security forces repelled the miscreants.

In the wake of the violence, a total curfew was reimposed in some vulnerable districts on Thursday. It was relaxed from 5 am to 12 noon in Imphal East and Imphal West districts on Friday.

Meanwhile, a delegation of the North East Students Organisation (NESO) visited some relief camps in Meitei as well as the Kuki areas and interacted with the inmates. The delegation also met the leaders of some civil society organisations.

ALSO READ | 'Covered my Kuki daughter-in-law with bed sheets': Jharkhand family's harrowing episode on fleeing Manipur

The NESO appealed to the Centre to take initiatives for restoring peace and normalcy through a continuous process of dialogues and discussions.

The Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum slammed Solicitor General Tushar Mehta for his alleged statement in the Supreme Court on August 1 that most of the bodies lying unclaimed were that of infiltrators.

For the second-highest law officer in the country to make such unwarranted comments in the Supreme Court shows his prejudice and reveals that his office is openly partial in its handling of the ethnic conflict, the tribal organisation said in a statement.



GUWAHATI: After fresh violence broke out in a few parts of strife-torn Manipur, the security forces stepped up search operations in vulnerable and fringe areas and destroyed seven illegal bunkers. Security forces conducted search operations in the vulnerable and fringe areas of the state. Joint security forces conducted an operation in Koutruk hill range and destroyed 07 (seven) illegal bunkers, the Manipur Police tweeted on Friday. Fresh gunfights, which erupted at Koutruk, Haraothel and Senjam Chirang areas on the border of Imphal West and Kangpokpi districts on Thursday morning, had left security personnel dead and a civilian injured. The illegal bunkers were destroyed following the gunfights.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); Destruction of illegal bunkers: Security Forces conducted search operations in the vulnerable and fringe areas of the State. Joint security forces conducted operation in Koutruk hill range and destroyed 07 (seven) illegal bunkers. pic.twitter.com/Zbc1aA6P08  Manipur Police (@manipur_police) August 4, 2023 In another incident on Thursday, over 20 people were injured when the security forces used force to quell a mob which was headed to a disputed site to prevent a mass burial of the bodies of tribals killed in the violence earlier. Manipur Police have launched a probe into Thursdays looting of arms and ammunition by a mob. Director General of Police Rajiv Singh told journalists the culprits would not be spared. We have taken the incident of arms looting very seriously. An IG (inspector general) has gone there to conduct a probe and find out how it happened despite security arrangements put in place, Singh said. He said raids were conducted following the incident and some weapons were recovered. He did not share the figures of the arms and ammunition looted and recovered. Such incidents will not be tolerated. The guilty will be nabbed, Singh said, adding that all central and state forces are working to ensure peace prevails in Manipur. The police said an unruly mob stormed an India Reserve Battalion and two police outposts on Thursday and looted a huge cache of arms and ammunition from the armouries. The police did not share exact figures. Another attempt was made to loot weapons from two Manipur Rifles battalions and two police stations but the security forces repelled the miscreants. In the wake of the violence, a total curfew was reimposed in some vulnerable districts on Thursday. It was relaxed from 5 am to 12 noon in Imphal East and Imphal West districts on Friday. Meanwhile, a delegation of the North East Students Organisation (NESO) visited some relief camps in Meitei as well as the Kuki areas and interacted with the inmates. The delegation also met the leaders of some civil society organisations. ALSO READ | 'Covered my Kuki daughter-in-law with bed sheets': Jharkhand family's harrowing episode on fleeing Manipur The NESO appealed to the Centre to take initiatives for restoring peace and normalcy through a continuous process of dialogues and discussions. The Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum slammed Solicitor General Tushar Mehta for his alleged statement in the Supreme Court on August 1 that most of the bodies lying unclaimed were that of infiltrators. For the second-highest law officer in the country to make such unwarranted comments in the Supreme Court shows his prejudice and reveals that his office is openly partial in its handling of the ethnic conflict, the tribal organisation said in a statement.
By Online Desk

CHENNAI: The Government of India has spent Rs 36,397 crore on 175.41 crore Covid vaccines till July 31, 2023, Minister of State for Health and family welfare Professor SP Baghel told Parliament on Friday.

The biggest payment has been to the Serum Institute of India, the makers of Covishield, who have been handed Rs 25,583 crores ($3 billion) to date. The world's biggest vaccine manufacturer has supplied over 130 crore Covishield doses to the government, implying a price of Rs 197 per dose.

Covaxin makers Bharat Biotech were paid Rs 7,301.28 crores for 35 million doses, while the makers of CorBEvax (a late entrant) -- Biological E Limited -- were paid Rs 1,500 crores for supplying 9.85 million doses. CorBEvax was the cheapest vaccine of the three and was priced at Rs 150.

CorBEvax was developed by the Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development and Baylor College of Medicine, while Covishield is the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine by another name.

CorBEvax is a protein sub-unit COVID-19 vaccine, while Covishield is a viral vector vaccine.

Interestingly, Corbevax is openly licensed and was not patented.

Covaxin, meanwhile, is a whole inactivated virus-based vaccine that Bharat Biotech themselves developed.

In all, 220 crore vaccinations were administered in India, including 45 crore by private hospitals.

Officially, India saw 44.5 million Covid cases with over 5.30 lakh people succumbing to the dreaded pandemic. But some unofficial reports put the death toll much higher - at almost 9.9x - or close to 5 million.

Statewise trends

Uttar Pradesh reported the highest number of administered doses of the vaccine against the coronavirus. The state administered 4.4 crore doses of Covid-19 vaccines and had a fallout of 8 per cent from the first dose to the second dose. In other words, against 2.3 crore who took the first shot of the vaccine, only 2.1 crore turned up to take the second shot.

But this was better than most Indian states. Next to UP, Bihar administered 1,92,80,377 doses of Covid-19 vaccines.

However, with 99 per cent follow-on rate, Andhra Pradesh stood first among Indian states in ensuring second-dose coverage. On the other hand, Meghalaya stood last with 54 per cent follow-up on the second shot coverage. Most of the Northeastern states also fared poorly in the follow-up percentage.

CHENNAI: The Government of India has spent Rs 36,397 crore on 175.41 crore Covid vaccines till July 31, 2023, Minister of State for Health and family welfare Professor SP Baghel told Parliament on Friday. The biggest payment has been to the Serum Institute of India, the makers of Covishield, who have been handed Rs 25,583 crores ($3 billion) to date. The world's biggest vaccine manufacturer has supplied over 130 crore Covishield doses to the government, implying a price of Rs 197 per dose. Covaxin makers Bharat Biotech were paid Rs 7,301.28 crores for 35 million doses, while the makers of CorBEvax (a late entrant) -- Biological E Limited -- were paid Rs 1,500 crores for supplying 9.85 million doses. CorBEvax was the cheapest vaccine of the three and was priced at Rs 150.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); CorBEvax was developed by the Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development and Baylor College of Medicine, while Covishield is the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine by another name. CorBEvax is a protein sub-unit COVID-19 vaccine, while Covishield is a viral vector vaccine. Interestingly, Corbevax is openly licensed and was not patented. Covaxin, meanwhile, is a whole inactivated virus-based vaccine that Bharat Biotech themselves developed. In all, 220 crore vaccinations were administered in India, including 45 crore by private hospitals. Officially, India saw 44.5 million Covid cases with over 5.30 lakh people succumbing to the dreaded pandemic. But some unofficial reports put the death toll much higher - at almost 9.9x - or close to 5 million. Statewise trends Uttar Pradesh reported the highest number of administered doses of the vaccine against the coronavirus. The state administered 4.4 crore doses of Covid-19 vaccines and had a fallout of 8 per cent from the first dose to the second dose. In other words, against 2.3 crore who took the first shot of the vaccine, only 2.1 crore turned up to take the second shot. But this was better than most Indian states. Next to UP, Bihar administered 1,92,80,377 doses of Covid-19 vaccines. However, with 99 per cent follow-on rate, Andhra Pradesh stood first among Indian states in ensuring second-dose coverage. On the other hand, Meghalaya stood last with 54 per cent follow-up on the second shot coverage. Most of the Northeastern states also fared poorly in the follow-up percentage.
National Assembly chairman Vuong Dinh Hue (L) shakes hands with Speaker of the Indonesian House of Representatives Puan Maharani at a meeting in Jakarta, August 4, 2023. Photo by Vietnam News Agency

National Assembly chairman Vuong Dinh Hue and his Indonesian counterpart Puan Maharani pledged to bring bilateral trade to over US$15 billion from last years figure of $14.1 billion.

During a meeting with the Speaker of the Indonesian House of Representatives in Jakarta on Friday, Hue emphasized the importance to Vietnam of developing its strategic partnership with Indonesia.

The two sides agreed to facilitate trade activities, reduce trade barriers, and promote the development of new and strategic supply chains, bringing into full play the potential and strengths of both countries.

Hue suggested that Indonesia open its market to Vietnamese agricultural products, especially Halal foods and fruits, and create favorable conditions for Vietnamese businesses to operate in the country.

Puan Maharani affirmed that Vietnam is a regional partner of strategic importance to Indonesia.

Both two leaders agreed to step up promotion and create conditions for businesses of the two sides to diversify their fields of investment cooperation, share legislative experiences, and create a legal corridor for cooperation in areas of global importance.

Both two leaders also agreed to increase the frequency of direct commercial flights and expressed their hopes of eventually opening a direct route between Hanoi and Jakarta.

Both pledged to strengthen cooperation in the sea and fisheries sectors, promote the settlement of issues related to regulations against illegal, undeclared and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

Vietnam and Indonesia reaffirmed the importance of peace, stability, safety, security and freedom of navigation in the East Sea, internationally known as the South China Sea, maintained ASEAN's solidarity and common stance on the East Sea issue, and promoted the implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) and speed up negotiations for a Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC) in line with international law and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982.

Both leaders then signed a cooperation agreement between the two legislative bodies.

Hue began his official visit to Indonesia on Friday and plans to attend the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA). Hue became the first Vietnamese National Assembly chairperson to officially visit Indonesia in 13 years. The visit took place on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the strategic partnership between the two countries.

During the four-day visit, which will last until Aug. 7, Hue is also expected to meet with Indonesian President Joko Widodo.

Vietnam and Indonesia became strategic partners in 2013. Indonesia is Vietnam's third largest trade partner in ASEAN, while Vietnam is the fourth largest trade partner for Indonesia within the bloc.

Trade turnover between the two countries reached $14.1 billion in 2022, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade. Within the first four months of 2023, bilateral trade turnover reached over $4.2 billion, and may reach $15 billion for the entirety of 2023.

Vietnam supplies the Indonesian market with rice, coffee, cell phones and metal. Vietnamese businesses often import Indonesian coal, cattle feed and metal.
By PTI

THANE: A day after a viral video showed National Cadet Corps (NCC) cadets being mercilessly thrashed by a senior at a college in Maharashtra's Thane city, student unions protested outside the institute, while in the state assembly, Deputy CM Ajit Pawar said the issue will be probed and necessary action taken.

The NCC also came out with a statement, saying what is seen in the viral video is "neither a reflection of NCC ethos nor a part of any organised training or activity."

Opposition leader in the assembly, Vijay Wadettiwar, on Friday, raised the issue in the House. Speaker Rahul Narvekar directed the government to take action. Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar assured the House that strict action will be taken against the culprits. Former CM Prithviraj Chavan also sought action against the person responsible under the anti-ragging law.

"The video being circulated on social media showing a cadet of NCC beating juniors, neither has any reflection of NCC ethos nor was it part of any organised NCC training or activity. We have no tolerance for such actions and strict action is being taken against the perpetrators," NCC tweeted.

Student groups affiliated with the Shiv Sena (UBT) and the Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, who is also from Thane, demonstrated outside the Joshi Bedekar College where the incident took place.

The college management said it has suspended the student, who can be seen beating NCC cadets during a physical training session on a rainy day. A fellow student is believed to have filmed the thrashing.

Nitin Landge of the Shinde group's student wing said the NCC cadets who were at the receiving end and their parents are under extreme pressure from the college management to not complain against the senior.

The college must take the incident seriously and lodge a police complaint, he said.

Members of the student wing of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) submitted a memorandum to the college management demanding strict action on the senior student.

Policemen were deployed at the spot to prevent the protesters from barging into the college.

The viral video, which sparked public outrage, showed eight cadets in a puddle amid rain, with their heads pinned in the muddy soil instead of using their hands for support.

The senior NCC cadet is seen standing behind them, holding a stick, and whacking each of them one by one for failing to execute his challenging drill.

The cadets are seen in a push-up position in a water-logged area with their feet and heads touching the ground and hands folded above the back.

When a cadet changes posture, the senior student is seen thrashing him with a stick and going on to thrash others too. The NCC instructor for this unit was transferred recently. Senior cadets taking over in the absence of teachers led to this incident, a university senate member said.

The Joshi Bedekar College in Thane operates the NCC unit along with two other sister concerns, Bandodkar College and VPM Polytechnic.

The student, who belonged to Bandodkar College, has been suspended.

THANE: A day after a viral video showed National Cadet Corps (NCC) cadets being mercilessly thrashed by a senior at a college in Maharashtra's Thane city, student unions protested outside the institute, while in the state assembly, Deputy CM Ajit Pawar said the issue will be probed and necessary action taken. The NCC also came out with a statement, saying what is seen in the viral video is "neither a reflection of NCC ethos nor a part of any organised training or activity." Opposition leader in the assembly, Vijay Wadettiwar, on Friday, raised the issue in the House. Speaker Rahul Narvekar directed the government to take action. Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar assured the House that strict action will be taken against the culprits. Former CM Prithviraj Chavan also sought action against the person responsible under the anti-ragging law.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); "The video being circulated on social media showing a cadet of NCC beating juniors, neither has any reflection of NCC ethos nor was it part of any organised NCC training or activity. We have no tolerance for such actions and strict action is being taken against the perpetrators," NCC tweeted. Student groups affiliated with the Shiv Sena (UBT) and the Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, who is also from Thane, demonstrated outside the Joshi Bedekar College where the incident took place. The college management said it has suspended the student, who can be seen beating NCC cadets during a physical training session on a rainy day. A fellow student is believed to have filmed the thrashing. Nitin Landge of the Shinde group's student wing said the NCC cadets who were at the receiving end and their parents are under extreme pressure from the college management to not complain against the senior. The college must take the incident seriously and lodge a police complaint, he said. Members of the student wing of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) submitted a memorandum to the college management demanding strict action on the senior student. Policemen were deployed at the spot to prevent the protesters from barging into the college. The viral video, which sparked public outrage, showed eight cadets in a puddle amid rain, with their heads pinned in the muddy soil instead of using their hands for support.    ,   !   NCC             .#ncc #ncccadet #thane #eknathshinde #chiefminister #maharashtra pic.twitter.com/8iWykLRI4V  Bhavana Ghanekar (@BhavanaGhanekar) August 3, 2023 The senior NCC cadet is seen standing behind them, holding a stick, and whacking each of them one by one for failing to execute his challenging drill. The cadets are seen in a push-up position in a water-logged area with their feet and heads touching the ground and hands folded above the back. When a cadet changes posture, the senior student is seen thrashing him with a stick and going on to thrash others too. The NCC instructor for this unit was transferred recently. Senior cadets taking over in the absence of teachers led to this incident, a university senate member said. The Joshi Bedekar College in Thane operates the NCC unit along with two other sister concerns, Bandodkar College and VPM Polytechnic. The student, who belonged to Bandodkar College, has been suspended.
The governments import restrictions on seven electronic products, including laptops, seem to be a resolute attempt to boost domestic manufacturing and reduce reliance on Chinese imports. The Directorate General of Foreign Trades new diktat appears like a gentle nudge to companies to make in India and sell in India, as global tech giants like Apple, Dell, HP and Samsung, who produce these products elsewhere, now cannot do business without an import licence. Incidentally, Apple recently chose Vietnam to make laptops in, passing over India, despite its $2-bn Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme tailored for hardware companies. Even though PLI 2.0 has higher incentives than PLI 1.0, it saw few takers, forcing the government to extend the deadline to apply for the scheme till August 30.

Industry associations claim the restrictions were imposed without prior consultations. They fear delays of new launches, product shortages and, importantly, raised prices ahead of the forthcoming festive season. At $8.8 bn worth of imports in FY23, the seven shortlisted products account for about 1.5% of Indias total annual imports. Data from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry shows that more than half, or $5.1 bn worth of imports, were sourced from China alone. On the other hand, domestic production remains negligible, and the government senses an opportunity to encourage local firms and, in the process, achieve the targeted $300 bn annual electronics production by 2026.

That said, the swashbuckling move of import restrictions is a departure from Indias often-used duty hikes to discourage imports and encourage domestic production. Its true that such decisions successfully altered the production landscape of mobile phones and TV sets. For instance, the high tariffs on mobile phones catalysed outputs, with domestic production jumping from Rs 18,000 crore in FY15 to Rs 2,25,000 crore in FY20. India is now emerging as a net exporter of mobile phones, specifically the high-end iPhones, which might touch 50% of Apples global iPhone production by 2027. Likewise, in 2020, the import restrictions on fully-built TV sets helped achieve 100% local assembling. But personal computers and laptops have complex components. Replicating the production success of TVs and smartphones may be possible in the long run, though not guaranteed. Efforts should be made to avoid disruptions as these products are critical parts of everyday life.

The governments import restrictions on seven electronic products, including laptops, seem to be a resolute attempt to boost domestic manufacturing and reduce reliance on Chinese imports. The Directorate General of Foreign Trades new diktat appears like a gentle nudge to companies to make in India and sell in India, as global tech giants like Apple, Dell, HP and Samsung, who produce these products elsewhere, now cannot do business without an import licence. Incidentally, Apple recently chose Vietnam to make laptops in, passing over India, despite its $2-bn Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme tailored for hardware companies. Even though PLI 2.0 has higher incentives than PLI 1.0, it saw few takers, forcing the government to extend the deadline to apply for the scheme till August 30. Industry associations claim the restrictions were imposed without prior consultations. They fear delays of new launches, product shortages and, importantly, raised prices ahead of the forthcoming festive season. At $8.8 bn worth of imports in FY23, the seven shortlisted products account for about 1.5% of Indias total annual imports. Data from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry shows that more than half, or $5.1 bn worth of imports, were sourced from China alone. On the other hand, domestic production remains negligible, and the government senses an opportunity to encourage local firms and, in the process, achieve the targeted $300 bn annual electronics production by 2026. That said, the swashbuckling move of import restrictions is a departure from Indias often-used duty hikes to discourage imports and encourage domestic production. Its true that such decisions successfully altered the production landscape of mobile phones and TV sets. For instance, the high tariffs on mobile phones catalysed outputs, with domestic production jumping from Rs 18,000 crore in FY15 to Rs 2,25,000 crore in FY20. India is now emerging as a net exporter of mobile phones, specifically the high-end iPhones, which might touch 50% of Apples global iPhone production by 2027. Likewise, in 2020, the import restrictions on fully-built TV sets helped achieve 100% local assembling. But personal computers and laptops have complex components. Replicating the production success of TVs and smartphones may be possible in the long run, though not guaranteed. Efforts should be made to avoid disruptions as these products are critical parts of everyday life.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); });
Yeshi Seli By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: India and Latin America Carribean (LAC) have registered impressive growth in bilateral trade. For the financial year 2022-23, the trade touched USD 50 billion.

"The increase in trade is a testament to both the strength and potential of our economic partnership. It is worth noting, that India's exports to Brazil, for example, stand at USD 10 billion, which is almost twice of actually what we export to Japan. Similarly, our exports to Mexico are in excess of USD 5 billion, which is actually more than our exports to Canada. With the Dominican Republic, our exports last year were USD 329 million, and there are some Asian countries which still haven't come to that level," said External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar at the 9th India LAC Conclave, which was attended by 17 representatives from 11 countries from LAC.

India is executing projects in the LAC region to develop critical infrastructure, including power transmission. There have been some notable contracts which were awarded in the last few weeks in this regard - roads, oil and gas and also connectivity, renewable energy, and now defence.

"Our development partnership is another expanding element of our relationship. The government of India has extended so far 35 lines of credit to our partners like Bolivia, Cuba, Guyana, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua and Suriname. Close to USD 900 million have been extended under these Lines and we have already completed 21 of these committed projects. Our development projects, certainly we are proud of this, that they have generated local employment," Jaishankar added.

Indian companies have played a significant role in this growth, with a strong presence in sectors like agriculture, energy including renewables, information technology, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, and automobiles among others in the LAC region. Indian companies have invested around USD 15 billion in the region. India is exporting refined products to the region.

"If we look at the automobile sector, the car exports to Latin America actually today constitute one-third of Indias global car exports, and Mexico is actually the second largest market for Indian cars. Other major markets are Chile, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama and Guatemala. Motorcycle exports also constitute one-third of Indias global exports, and Colombia here is the number one market for our motorcycles and two-wheelers. But again, I must acknowledge Mexico, Guatemala and Peru as other significant markets," said Jaishankar.

Meanwhile, the LAC region is a big source of gold, copper and other mineral concentrates, and also for wood. Indias gold imports from the region last year stood at, in excess of USD 6.5 billion and these were mainly from Bolivia, Peru, Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Argentina, Mexico and Ecuador.

"Chile was the main supplier of copper, and this too was in excess of USD 1 billion, followed by Peru, Panama and Brazil. We have had countries like Uruguay, Ecuador, Brazil, Argentina, Panama and Costa Rica, who have emerged as significant suppliers of wood and wood products, he added.

Fast-tracking growth

Exports to Latin America rise 19 per cent to USD 22.41 bn in FY23 from FY22.

Indias exports to Brazil at USD 9.9 billion are higher than those to traditional partners such as Japan at USD 5.46 billion.

Exports to Mexico at USD 5.2 billion are more than the exports of USD 3.15 billion to Russia.

Exports of USD 273 million to remote Honduras are more than outbound shipments of USD 220 million to Cambodia.

Car exports to Latin America account for one-third of Indias global car exports of 6.68 billion. India is the second-largest supplier of motorcycles to Latin America.

Mexico is the second-largest global market for Indian cars at USD 973 billion

NEW DELHI: India and Latin America Carribean (LAC) have registered impressive growth in bilateral trade. For the financial year 2022-23, the trade touched USD 50 billion. "The increase in trade is a testament to both the strength and potential of our economic partnership. It is worth noting, that India's exports to Brazil, for example, stand at USD 10 billion, which is almost twice of actually what we export to Japan. Similarly, our exports to Mexico are in excess of USD 5 billion, which is actually more than our exports to Canada. With the Dominican Republic, our exports last year were USD 329 million, and there are some Asian countries which still haven't come to that level," said External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar at the 9th India LAC Conclave, which was attended by 17 representatives from 11 countries from LAC. India is executing projects in the LAC region to develop critical infrastructure, including power transmission. There have been some notable contracts which were awarded in the last few weeks in this regard - roads, oil and gas and also connectivity, renewable energy, and now defence.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); "Our development partnership is another expanding element of our relationship. The government of India has extended so far 35 lines of credit to our partners like Bolivia, Cuba, Guyana, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua and Suriname. Close to USD 900 million have been extended under these Lines and we have already completed 21 of these committed projects. Our development projects, certainly we are proud of this, that they have generated local employment," Jaishankar added. Indian companies have played a significant role in this growth, with a strong presence in sectors like agriculture, energy including renewables, information technology, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, and automobiles among others in the LAC region. Indian companies have invested around USD 15 billion in the region. India is exporting refined products to the region. "If we look at the automobile sector, the car exports to Latin America actually today constitute one-third of Indias global car exports, and Mexico is actually the second largest market for Indian cars. Other major markets are Chile, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama and Guatemala. Motorcycle exports also constitute one-third of Indias global exports, and Colombia here is the number one market for our motorcycles and two-wheelers. But again, I must acknowledge Mexico, Guatemala and Peru as other significant markets," said Jaishankar. Meanwhile, the LAC region is a big source of gold, copper and other mineral concentrates, and also for wood. Indias gold imports from the region last year stood at, in excess of USD 6.5 billion and these were mainly from Bolivia, Peru, Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Argentina, Mexico and Ecuador. "Chile was the main supplier of copper, and this too was in excess of USD 1 billion, followed by Peru, Panama and Brazil. We have had countries like Uruguay, Ecuador, Brazil, Argentina, Panama and Costa Rica, who have emerged as significant suppliers of wood and wood products, he added. Fast-tracking growth Exports to Latin America rise 19 per cent to USD 22.41 bn in FY23 from FY22. Indias exports to Brazil at USD 9.9 billion are higher than those to traditional partners such as Japan at USD 5.46 billion. Exports to Mexico at USD 5.2 billion are more than the exports of USD 3.15 billion to Russia. Exports of USD 273 million to remote Honduras are more than outbound shipments of USD 220 million to Cambodia. Car exports to Latin America account for one-third of Indias global car exports of 6.68 billion. India is the second-largest supplier of motorcycles to Latin America. Mexico is the second-largest global market for Indian cars at USD 973 billion
Yeshi Seli By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: India will be attending a meeting that is being hosted by Saudi Arabia that will seek ways to find a way to end the conflict in Ukraine.

"Yes, India has been invited for a meeting hosted by Saudi Arabia in Jeddah on August 6th. India will take part in this meeting. It is in consonance with our mission that dialogue and diplomacy are the way forward to end the conflict," said Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Arindam Bagchi on Thursday.

There is no confirmation on who from India would attend this meeting.

Amongst the countries that are expected to take part include Ukraine, as well as Brazil, India, South Africa and several other countries. A high-level official from the US is expected to attend. The event has excluded Russia and is being overseen by Kyiv.

Ukraines 10-point peace plan will also be discussed. The peace plan includes punishing those responsible for war crimes withdrawing Russian troops from Ukraine and restoring their territorial integrity.

Saudi Arabias hosting of the talks comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in May attended an Arab League summit in Jeddah to press those nations to back Kyiv. Arab nations largely have remained neutral since the conflict began in February 2022, in part over their military and economic ties to Moscow.

Saudi Arabia also has maintained a close relationship with Russia as part of the OPEC+ group.

NEW DELHI: India will be attending a meeting that is being hosted by Saudi Arabia that will seek ways to find a way to end the conflict in Ukraine. "Yes, India has been invited for a meeting hosted by Saudi Arabia in Jeddah on August 6th. India will take part in this meeting. It is in consonance with our mission that dialogue and diplomacy are the way forward to end the conflict," said Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Arindam Bagchi on Thursday. There is no confirmation on who from India would attend this meeting.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); Amongst the countries that are expected to take part include Ukraine, as well as Brazil, India, South Africa and several other countries. A high-level official from the US is expected to attend. The event has excluded Russia and is being overseen by Kyiv. Ukraines 10-point peace plan will also be discussed. The peace plan includes punishing those responsible for war crimes withdrawing Russian troops from Ukraine and restoring their territorial integrity. Saudi Arabias hosting of the talks comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in May attended an Arab League summit in Jeddah to press those nations to back Kyiv. Arab nations largely have remained neutral since the conflict began in February 2022, in part over their military and economic ties to Moscow. Saudi Arabia also has maintained a close relationship with Russia as part of the OPEC+ group.
By AFP

NIAMEY: Niger's newly installed junta has threatened an immediate response to any "aggression or attempted aggression", as the clock ticks down on a deadline given by its neighbours to reverse last week's coup.

It also made diplomatic swipes against international condemnation of the putsch, scrapping military pacts with France and pulling its ambassadors from Paris and Washington as well as from Togo and Nigeria.

On Sunday, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) gave the junta a week to reinstate democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum, who was toppled by his guard on July 26, or risk a possible military intervention.

Regional military chiefs are in Nigeria's capital Abuja to discuss the possibility of such an intervention, but Nigerian President Bola Tinubu on Thursday told the bloc's delegations to do "whatever it takes" to reach an "amicable resolution".

Niger's junta warned it would meet force with force.

"Any aggression or attempted aggression against the State of Niger will see an immediate and unannounced response from the Niger Defence and Security Forces on one of (the bloc's) members," one of the putschists said in a statement read on national television late Thursday.

This came with "the exception of suspended friendly countries", an allusion to Burkina Faso and Mali, neighbouring countries that have also fallen to military coups in recent years.

Those countries' juntas have warned any military intervention in Niger would be tantamount to a "declaration of war" against them.

Nigeria, West Africa's pre-eminent military and economic power, is the current ECOWAS chair and has vowed a firm line against coups.

The bloc has already imposed trade and financial sanctions on Niger.

Senegal said it would send soldiers to join ECOWAS if it decided to intervene militarily.

"It is one coup too many," said Foreign Minister Aissata Tall Sall.

One ECOWAS delegation headed by ex-Nigeria leader Abdulsalami Abubakar arrived in Niamey on Thursday, according to an airport source, and was due to meet the junta leaders later.

Another was due to hold talks with leaders in Algeria and Libya.

Bazoum, who has been held by the coup plotters with his family since his ouster, said Thursday that if the putsch proves successful, "it will have devastating consequences for our country, our region and the entire world".

In a column in The Washington Post, he called on "the US government and the entire international community to help us restore our constitutional order".

Nationwide protests

Across Niger on Thursday, thousands of people rallied to back the coup leaders on the anniversary of the country's 1960 independence from France, with some brandishing giant Russian flags and chanting anti-French slogans.

Anti-French sentiment in the region is on the rise, while Russian activity, often via the Wagner mercenary group, has grown.

In his letter, Bazoum had warned that Niger's neighbours had increasingly invited in "criminal Russian mercenaries such as the Wagner Group at the expense of their people's rights and dignity".

"The entire Sahel region," he said, "could fall to Russian influence via the Wagner Group, whose brutal terrorism has been on full display in Ukraine".

Such concerns did not seem to worry a crowd in Niamey, who chanted "Down with France", "Long live Russia, long live (Vladimir) Putin".

Protester Issiaka Hamadou said it was "only security that interests us", irrespective of whether it came from "Russia, China, Turkey, if they want to help us".

"We just don't want the French, who have been looting us since 1960 -- they've been there ever since and nothing has changed," he said.

Several thousand people also took to the streets of other cities.

In a sign of the junta's displeasure with Paris, it also announced Thursday that it was scrapping military pacts made between Niamey and France.

Paris was also among four capitals from which it is recalling its ambassadors.

"The functions of the extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassadors of the Republic of Niger" to France, Nigeria, Togo and the United States "are terminated", it said.

Blaming France's "careless attitude and its reaction to the situation", it said it had "decided to scrap the cooperation agreements in the field of security and defence with this state".

Niger has had a key role in Western strategies to combat a jihadist insurgency that has plagued the Sahel since 2012, with France and the United States stationing around 1,500 and 1,000 troops in the country, respectively.

'Hard-earned democracy'

In response to the turmoil, Britain and the United States have announced the pulling back of embassy personnel.

France said it has evacuated 1,079 people from the country, more than half of them French nationals.

The United States has chartered a plane to evacuate non-essential personnel and American citizens wishing to leave the country, the State Department said.

Bazoum, 63, was feted in 2021 after winning elections that ushered in Niger's first-ever peaceful transition of power.

He took the helm of a country burdened by four previous coups since independence and survived two attempted putsches before his ouster.

France refocused its anti-jihadist mission in Niger after pulling out of Mali and Burkina Faso last year.

After joining a regional revolt in northern Mali, armed Islamists advanced into Niger and Burkina Faso in 2015 and now carry out sporadic attacks on fragile states on the Gulf of Guinea.

The impact has contributed to army takeovers in all three Sahel countries and devastated some of the world's poorest economies.

NIAMEY: Niger's newly installed junta has threatened an immediate response to any "aggression or attempted aggression", as the clock ticks down on a deadline given by its neighbours to reverse last week's coup. It also made diplomatic swipes against international condemnation of the putsch, scrapping military pacts with France and pulling its ambassadors from Paris and Washington as well as from Togo and Nigeria. On Sunday, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) gave the junta a week to reinstate democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum, who was toppled by his guard on July 26, or risk a possible military intervention.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); Regional military chiefs are in Nigeria's capital Abuja to discuss the possibility of such an intervention, but Nigerian President Bola Tinubu on Thursday told the bloc's delegations to do "whatever it takes" to reach an "amicable resolution". Niger's junta warned it would meet force with force. "Any aggression or attempted aggression against the State of Niger will see an immediate and unannounced response from the Niger Defence and Security Forces on one of (the bloc's) members," one of the putschists said in a statement read on national television late Thursday. This came with "the exception of suspended friendly countries", an allusion to Burkina Faso and Mali, neighbouring countries that have also fallen to military coups in recent years. Those countries' juntas have warned any military intervention in Niger would be tantamount to a "declaration of war" against them. Nigeria, West Africa's pre-eminent military and economic power, is the current ECOWAS chair and has vowed a firm line against coups. The bloc has already imposed trade and financial sanctions on Niger. Senegal said it would send soldiers to join ECOWAS if it decided to intervene militarily. "It is one coup too many," said Foreign Minister Aissata Tall Sall. One ECOWAS delegation headed by ex-Nigeria leader Abdulsalami Abubakar arrived in Niamey on Thursday, according to an airport source, and was due to meet the junta leaders later. Another was due to hold talks with leaders in Algeria and Libya. Bazoum, who has been held by the coup plotters with his family since his ouster, said Thursday that if the putsch proves successful, "it will have devastating consequences for our country, our region and the entire world". In a column in The Washington Post, he called on "the US government and the entire international community to help us restore our constitutional order". Nationwide protests Across Niger on Thursday, thousands of people rallied to back the coup leaders on the anniversary of the country's 1960 independence from France, with some brandishing giant Russian flags and chanting anti-French slogans. Anti-French sentiment in the region is on the rise, while Russian activity, often via the Wagner mercenary group, has grown. In his letter, Bazoum had warned that Niger's neighbours had increasingly invited in "criminal Russian mercenaries such as the Wagner Group at the expense of their people's rights and dignity". "The entire Sahel region," he said, "could fall to Russian influence via the Wagner Group, whose brutal terrorism has been on full display in Ukraine". Such concerns did not seem to worry a crowd in Niamey, who chanted "Down with France", "Long live Russia, long live (Vladimir) Putin". Protester Issiaka Hamadou said it was "only security that interests us", irrespective of whether it came from "Russia, China, Turkey, if they want to help us". "We just don't want the French, who have been looting us since 1960 -- they've been there ever since and nothing has changed," he said. Several thousand people also took to the streets of other cities. In a sign of the junta's displeasure with Paris, it also announced Thursday that it was scrapping military pacts made between Niamey and France. Paris was also among four capitals from which it is recalling its ambassadors. "The functions of the extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassadors of the Republic of Niger" to France, Nigeria, Togo and the United States "are terminated", it said. Blaming France's "careless attitude and its reaction to the situation", it said it had "decided to scrap the cooperation agreements in the field of security and defence with this state". Niger has had a key role in Western strategies to combat a jihadist insurgency that has plagued the Sahel since 2012, with France and the United States stationing around 1,500 and 1,000 troops in the country, respectively. 'Hard-earned democracy' In response to the turmoil, Britain and the United States have announced the pulling back of embassy personnel. France said it has evacuated 1,079 people from the country, more than half of them French nationals. The United States has chartered a plane to evacuate non-essential personnel and American citizens wishing to leave the country, the State Department said. Bazoum, 63, was feted in 2021 after winning elections that ushered in Niger's first-ever peaceful transition of power. He took the helm of a country burdened by four previous coups since independence and survived two attempted putsches before his ouster. France refocused its anti-jihadist mission in Niger after pulling out of Mali and Burkina Faso last year. After joining a regional revolt in northern Mali, armed Islamists advanced into Niger and Burkina Faso in 2015 and now carry out sporadic attacks on fragile states on the Gulf of Guinea. The impact has contributed to army takeovers in all three Sahel countries and devastated some of the world's poorest economies.
By PTI

MANILA: The bodies of a 20-year-old Indian student pilot and his Filipino trainer were retrieved on Thursday after their small plane crashed in the Philippines, authorities said.

The military has recovered the bodies of two persons, Capt. Edzel John Lumbao Tabuzo, 24, and student-pilot Anshum Rajkumar Konde who were killed in the two-seater Cessna plane crash on Tuesday in Luna, Apayao.

The Army 503rd Infantry Brigade has also identified the victims, the Manila Bulletin newspaper reported.

The body of Tabuzo, the pilot of the ill-fated RP-C8958 Cessna 152 plane, has been turned over to his family, and that of Konde, an Indian national, is currently undergoing processing before being turned over to the Indian Embassy, the report added.

The plane's black box was also recovered.

An Apayao Public Information Office (PIO) drone together with a group of uniformed personnel with assistance from a resident spotted the wreckage.

The Philippine Army (PA), Philippine National Police (PNP), and Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) conducted Search, Rescue and Retrieval Operations (SRR) to reach the wreckage after the exact location of the crash site was identified.

Apayao Gov.Elias C.Bulut Jr. and the province of Apayao have extended condolences to the families of the victims.

The Echo Air Cessna 152 aircraft was reported missing on Tuesday afternoon after departing from Laoag International Airport at 12:16 pm, local media reported.

It was to reach Tuguegarao Airport at 3:16 p.m.

However, it failed to land.

The wreckage of the plane was found in the province of Apayao on Wednesday afternoon.

MANILA: The bodies of a 20-year-old Indian student pilot and his Filipino trainer were retrieved on Thursday after their small plane crashed in the Philippines, authorities said. The military has recovered the bodies of two persons, Capt. Edzel John Lumbao Tabuzo, 24, and student-pilot Anshum Rajkumar Konde who were killed in the two-seater Cessna plane crash on Tuesday in Luna, Apayao. The Army 503rd Infantry Brigade has also identified the victims, the Manila Bulletin newspaper reported.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); The body of Tabuzo, the pilot of the ill-fated RP-C8958 Cessna 152 plane, has been turned over to his family, and that of Konde, an Indian national, is currently undergoing processing before being turned over to the Indian Embassy, the report added. The plane's black box was also recovered. An Apayao Public Information Office (PIO) drone together with a group of uniformed personnel with assistance from a resident spotted the wreckage. The Philippine Army (PA), Philippine National Police (PNP), and Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) conducted Search, Rescue and Retrieval Operations (SRR) to reach the wreckage after the exact location of the crash site was identified. Apayao Gov.Elias C.Bulut Jr. and the province of Apayao have extended condolences to the families of the victims. The Echo Air Cessna 152 aircraft was reported missing on Tuesday afternoon after departing from Laoag International Airport at 12:16 pm, local media reported. It was to reach Tuguegarao Airport at 3:16 p.m. However, it failed to land. The wreckage of the plane was found in the province of Apayao on Wednesday afternoon.
There is a critical need to protect Ukraines refugees, particularly the most vulnerable: the children. There is no question that Russias war of aggression against Ukraine has had a devastating impact on Ukrainian children, said Beth Van Schaack, U.S. Ambassador-At-Large for Global Criminal Justice.

The UN Secretary-General recently issued his annual report on Children and Armed Conflict, which tracks six violations against children, said Ambassador Van Schaack. The report verified that in 2022 alone, Russian armed forces and affiliated groups were responsible for the murder and maiming of hundreds of children, rape and sexual violence against girls, hundreds of attacks on schools and hospitals, the abduction of children, the military use of schools and hospitals, and the denial of humanitarian access.

Indeed, Russias military forces have been forcibly separating Ukrainian children from their parents by the thousands, and deporting them into Russia.

A report issued by the U.S.-funded Conflict Observatory details Russias vast network of sites and highly organized processes to relocate thousands of Ukraines children to areas under Russian government control, both within Ukraine and within Russia, and to subject them to political re-education and russification. We know from all of this research that officials at all levels of the Russian government are involved, from President Putin himself, on down through very local-level officials who are facilitating these movements, he said.

The United States is working hard to address the issue of crimes against Ukrainian children. For example, the Global Criminal Justice supports Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group, a mechanism established by the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union to coordinate support for Ukraines Office of the Prosecutor General on their accountability efforts in Ukrainian courts, said Ambassador Van Schaack. The Group brings together multinational and multidisciplinary experts to aid in the collection and preservation of evidence; the investigation of international crimes.

Other elements of the [State] Department are working with our partners and with members of civil society to reverse and to prevent Russian governments forcible deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia, to Belarus, and to parts of Russian-occupied Ukrainian. And we are deploying sanctions against individuals who can be identified who are a part of this vast system of abducting children, he said.

We understand that the work ahead of us in ensuring accountability for these atrocities is long and will require durable commitment from all elements of the U.S. government, said Ambassador Van Schaack. We are committed to that aim.
China aims to deploy its citizens in counter-espionageA

Beijing, August 3: The Ministry of State Security said that China should inspire its citizens to participate in counter-espionage work, as well as, reward and protect entities who report espionage to normalize the concept of people participating in such work, reported CNN.

China aims to deploy its citizens in counter-espionageA

"Enhance the mechanism for reporting espionage by legally commending, rewarding and protecting individuals and organizations who report espionage," it added, "so as to normalize the mechanism for the people to participate in counter-espionage work," it said.China's highly secretive civilian spy agency launched a public account on a social media platform and called on the people to join them against espionage, offering rewards and protection for the people who provide them with information.The Ministry of State Security is a lot secretive about its work and even its public website does not describe its activities, according to CNN.It launched an account on WeChat on Monday which has more than one billion users. The next day, the account published its first post with the title, "Countering espionage requires the mobilization of all members of society."The ministry added that the national security bodies should keep reporting channels like hotlines and online platforms which are open to handle reports of suspected espionage within China in a timely way.Moreover, it said that it is the mission of "national bodies, civic groups and commercial enterprises" to carry out anti-espionage measures. It further added that the government and the industry heads should take responsibility for that matter, CNN reported.Chinese authorities have been encouraging the public to inform about any suspected foreign spies as well as their Chinese collaborators through propaganda and incentive campaigns for years now.The officials and state media have been saying that China is under constant threat from "hostile foreign forces". These forces are trying to infiltrate and undermine the country, reported CNN.Earlier this year, the security ministry's debut WeChat post quoted new amendments to a counter-espionage law passed by China's rubber-stamp legislature.It further cited that news outlets, broadcasters, television stations, the culture sector and internet providers should also contribute to anti-espionage education.Under China's revised Counter-Espionage Law, all "documents, data, materials, and items related to national security and interests" are under the same protection as state secrets, according to Portal Plus.The law expands the definition of espionage to include cyber-attacks against state organs or critical information infrastructure.Earlier in June, China announced 'material awards' of up to and above USD 15,000 for providing tip-offs about people who plan to harm national security, according to CNN.ANI03 August 2023

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Haryana govt shifts 2nd IRB battalion headquarters to Nuh for law and order

Chandigarh, August 3: In the wake of violent clashes in parts of Haryana, the state government on Wednesday decided to immediately shift battalion headquarters of the 2nd India Reserve Battalion from Police Complex, Bhondsi to Nuh district.

Haryana govt shifts 2nd IRB battalion headquarters to Nuh for law and order

According to Haryana Government's Home Department order, "The State Government has decided to immediately shift the Battalion Headquarters of 2 IRB from Police Complex, Bhondsi to district Nuh to meet imminent operational exigencies of maintaining law and order, peace and security."As the conditions in Haryana's Nuh, Faridabad and Palwal districts and in three sub-divisions of Gurugram remain critical and tense, the state government on Wednesday announced that mobile internet services will remain suspended in these districts till August 5.The order passed by the Haryana Home Secretary stated that the conditions in these districts remain critical and tense."Whereas, it has been brought to my notice by Deputy Commissioners Nuh, Faridabad, Palwal and Gurugram that the law and order situation has been reviewed and Intimated that conditions are still critical and tense in their respective districts," the order said.Clashes between two groups broke out in Nuh on Monday afternoon after a religious procession passing through the district came under attack, leaving two home guards dead and dozens of people -- including around 20 policemen -- injured in the frenzy of violence that followed.The official notification further reads that the decision has been taken in view to stop the spread of misinformation and rumours through various social media platforms."In order to stop the spread of misinformation and rumours through various social media platforms, such as WhatsApp, Facebook Twitter, etc. on mobile phones and SMS, for facilitation and mobilisation of mobs of agitators and demonstrators who can cause serious loss of life and damage to public and private properties by indulging in arson or vandalism and other types of violent activities, Home Secretary, Haryana do order the suspension of the mobile internet services," the order reads.ANI03 August 2023

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VVDN launches end-to-end Private 5G Solution for Enterprises for SI, OEMs, Telcos

PRNewswire, Gurugram, August 3: VVDN Technologies, a global provider of product engineering, manufacturing and digital services and solutions, today announced the availability of reliable, secure, deployment ready end-to-end 5G Enterprise solution. The Private 5G solution comprises VVDN's indigenously designed ORAN Radio Units, customised CU/DU and 5G Core. The solution is completely designed, developed, integrated, and fully tested by VVDN.

VVDN launches end-to-end Private 5G Solution for Enterprises for SI, OEMs, Telcos

VVDN has robust production ready radio units for Private 5G Network for multiple countries and markets. VVDN has both Low Power and Mid Power radio units suitable for Private 5G deployments. VVDN's radio units support global requirements in Band 48 CBRS, Band n78/n77, and bandwidth up to 100Mhz, TDD duplex mode 4T4R and 2T2R for indoor and outdoor applications. These radios are full compliant with ORAN 7.0 and FCC/CE certified.VVDN 5G Radio Units are pre-integrated with enterprise grade VVDN CU/DU stack and 5G core. The solution is enabled by open standards-based architectures which support URLLC and eMMB and will be able to handle dense environments required for seamless indoor coverage.The cloud native 5G core, providing a reliable, scalable and distributed autonomous network solution which helps mobile network operators and system integrators build their own solutions to deploy IoT, Private/Enterprise Networks, MEC networks.The Private 5G Solutions from VVDN has been into R&D for the last 4 years. The solution has been thoroughly tested for various factors such as on time network launch, network performance, downtime prevention, and maintaining SLAs etc. With high-performance, security, and flexibility, the solution can be adopted for facilities as complex as warehouses, manufacturing, campuses, stadiums, airports, seaports, oil & gas etc.VVDN plans to work with global OEM's, Telecom Operators, System Integrators to adopt the Private Enterprise Wireless Solution. VVDN is already engaged with customers in North America, Europe, UK, Japan, S. Korea and India markets.VVDN has state of the art R&D, Testing and Manufacturing facilities for 5G Products and Solutions.Company is already into the design, development and manufacturing of various 5G RAN products for different markets including the US, Japan, Europe, India etc. VVDN has strategically partnered with OEMs and SI's globally for Private Enterprise deployments across multiple industries.Joseph George, 5G Business Unit Head, VVDN Technologies said, "Leveraging our capabilities, experience and infrastructure in developing and manufacturing 5G telco RAN solutions, we forayed into 5G enterprise space. Telecom Operators, SI's, OEMs are looking for simple ways to deploy private 5G networks which fundamentally starts with the right "Device" choice. VVDN, with ready to deploy "end-to-end device solution" that is tested and secure that will help accelerate 5G Enterprise deployment. VVDN's complete private networking solution is aimed at giving Telcos, SI's, OEM's new opportunities to grow their enterprise business."About VVDNVVDN is a Product Engineering & Manufacturing company focused on designing & manufacturing end-to-end products across several technology vertical markets . VVDN's India HQ is located at Gurgaon, India and its North America HQ's is located in Fremont, CA, USA. VVDN serves global customers across several regions including US, Canada, Europe, India, Vietnam, Korea, and Japan. VVDN has 11 advanced Product Engineering Centres in India and the world, which are fully equipped to design & test the complete hardware & software required to develop a complete product or solution. VVDN's 7 Manufacturing facilities are located at Manesar, Gurgaon, and Pollachi, Tamil Nadu, India, which includes in-house best-in-class SMT Factory, Molding & Tooling Factory, Die Casting, Antenna Assembly, Product Assembly Factory, and Product Certifications labs. VVDN's Engineering & Manufacturing facilities are fully compiled to develop & manufacture Enterprise, Consumer, Industrial, and Automotive-grade products.Media ContactKunwar SinhaKunwar.sinha@vvdntech.in+91-9971887719Logo https//mma.prnewswire.com/media/1531036/VVDN_Technologies_Logo.jpgANI03 August 2023

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Dubai Property Expo, a Grand Success in Chandigarh

PNN, Chandigarh, August 3: The highly anticipated Dubai Property Expo, organised by Census Consultant in association with Danube Properties, Dubai, concluded on a successful event on 29th & 30th July 2023 at Hotel Taj, Sector 17, Chandigarh.

Dubai Property Expo, a Grand Success in Chandigarh

The two-day event witnessed an overwhelming response from visitors, including influential individuals and potential investors, who explored a wide array of information, opportunities, and options available in the booming Dubai Property market.The expo proved to be a significant platform for individuals seeking valuable insights into the dynamic real estate landscape of Dubai. Attendees had the chance to interact with prominent developers, industry experts, and seasoned professionals, gaining first-hand knowledge about the current trends and future prospects in the region's property market.Dhruv Satya, Director of Census Consultant, expressed his delight over the Expo's success and the enthusiastic participation of visitors. He stated, "We are thrilled with the overwhelming response the Dubai Property Expo has received in Chandigarh. The event has provided an exceptional opportunity for people to explore the vast potential of the Dubai real estate sector and make informed investment decisions."With an extensive showcase of premium residential and commercial properties, the Dubai Property Expo became the go-to event for individuals aspiring to be a part of Dubai's thriving property market. The event concluded with numerous visitors expressing keen interest in exploring investment opportunities in the iconic city of Dubai.ANI03 August 2023

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BlackBerry Quarterly Threat Intelligence Report finds governments and public services facing 40 per cent more cyberattacks

BusinessWire India, Bangalore, August 3: BlackBerry Limited today released its latest Quarterly Global Threat Intelligence Report, highlighting a 40 per cent increase in cyberattacks targeting government agencies and the public services sector, with the company's AI-driven cybersecurity solutions stopping 55,000 individual attacks overall between March and May 2023.

BlackBerry Quarterly Threat Intelligence Report finds governments and public services facing 40 per cent more cyberattacks

"Governments and public services, such as public transit, electricity, water services, schools, and non-profit organizations, stand as unfortunate bullseyes for cybercriminals and other threat actors, whose attacks seek to wreak maximum havoc and who often times face very little resistance," said Ismael Valenzuela, Vice President of Threat Research and Intelligence at BlackBerry. "With limited resources and immature cyber defense programs, these organizations are struggling to defend against the double pronged threat of both nation states and cybercriminals. Now, more than ever, they need access to actionable cyber intelligence to direct and strengthen their security strategies, while safeguarding the vital services, institutions, and trust upon which our societies thrive."Other highlights from the latest BlackBerry Global Threat Intelligence Report include- Increase in Cyberattacks Per Minute Over the past 90 days, BlackBerry stopped over 1.5 million attacks. Threat actors deployed an average of 1.7 new malware samples per minute, a 13 percent increase from the previous reporting period's average of 1.5 new samples per minute, highlighting attackers' work to diversify their tooling to bypass defensive controls. - Healthcare and Financial Services Industries Are Most Targeted In healthcare, the convergence of valuable data and critical services presents a lucrative target for cybercriminals. BlackBerry stopped over 109,922 attacks across the healthcare sector over the past 90 days. As ransomware groups continue to target organizations in these industries with information-stealing malware, the report highlights the importance of securing patient data and safeguarding the delivery of essential medical services. - Mobile Malware on the Rise Financial services institutions are facing persistent threats through smartphone-centric commodity malware, ransomware attacks, and the rise of mobile banking malware targeting the growing trend of digital banking services. The report explores cybersecurity challenges for the financial sector as threat actors exploit an online-banking-first mindset. To learn more, download a copy of BlackBerry's Global Threat Intelligence Report at BlackBerry.com.ANI03 August 2023

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India triples organ donations over past decade: Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya

New Delhi, August 3: Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Dr Mansukh Mandaviya on Thursday informed that India has tripled the rate of organ donations over the past decade.

India triples organ donations over past decade: Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya

"Over 15,000 organ donations are now made annually in the country as compared to 5,000 in 2013," said Mandaviya, adding, "There cannot be a greater service to humanity than giving life to another person."Dr Mandaviya was addressing the 13th Indian Organ Donation Day ceremony in New Delhi on Thursday.The 13th IODD ceremony was held to felicitate deceased donor families for their brave decision of donating organs of their loved ones, to spread awareness on deceased organ donation and to recognize the contribution of medical professionals working in the field of organ donation and transplantation by awarding them.Addressing the gathering, Dr Mandaviya stated, that it is important to recognize and appreciate the contribution of all the people who have been a part of this endeavour. The Union Minister highlighted that "In 2013, around 5000 people came forward to donate their organs. Now there are over 15,000 organ donors annually".The Union Minister informed that the Union Govt has taken several steps towards increasing organ donations in the country. He said that the leave duration for organ donors has been increased from 30 days to 60 days, age limitations of 65 years have been removed and the process of organ donation has been further streamlined.He further stated that the Govt is committed to bringing in more policies and reforms to popularise organ donation in the country.Appreciating the contribution of organ donors, their family members and members of civil society, Dr Mandaviya applauded their motivation and dedication. In this context, the Minister also urged the organ recipients to promote this noble service and encourage others to also donate their organs for the service of mankind.Indian Organ Donation Day is observed annually since 2010, to augment awareness about brain stem death and organ donation, dispel myths and misconceptions associated with organ donation and motivate and encourage the citizens of the country to donate organs and tissues after death, as well as to imbibe the values of organ donation in their lives.To reduce the demand for organ transplantation campaign activities also promote healthy lifestyles & wellness.This year as part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, an awareness campaign for organ donation "Angdaan Mahotsav" has been kick-started.Angdaan Mahotsav is being observed all over the country reaching from city to village level with the involvement of Central Government Ministries, State/UT Government/Hospitals/Institutions and Medical Colleges, NGOs and other stakeholders.As part of the campaign, the month of July 2023 was observed as Organ Donation Month. Various activities towards the promotion of organ and tissue donation namely National Webinars, Cyclothon, Walkathon, Organ donation pledging and National Slogan competition through the Government of India's digital platform, MyGov have been initiated.ANI03 August 2023

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Winners of 1st edition of Quality Brand of India award 2023 announced by Blossom Media

Mumbai, August 3: The Quality Brand of India award aims to spotlight the achievements of MSME businesses spanning the entire country, commending their significant role in fostering India's development and economy.

Winners of 1st edition of Quality Brand of India award 2023 announced by Blossom Media

Conducted virtually on July 26, 2023, this event was expertly organized by Blossom Media Pvt Ltd, headquartered in Mumbai. The prestigious award was presented by Muallim Tours LLP while Alwan Products LLP, graciously co-sponsored the event.During this digital ceremony, special recognition was accorded to MSME businesses, which are rightfully acknowledged as the backbone of the Indian economy, for their unwavering dedication and support in bolstering the nation's economic landscape.Glimpse of winners of the esteemed Quality Brand of India Award 2023, listed in alphabetical order.Al-Ahmed - They prioritize purity, crafting their perfumes by hand. Meticulously blending elements to create captivating aromas, they maintain strict quality control throughout the production process. Offering premium collections at reasonable prices, they also distribute renowned international brands.Alathea Biotech Pvt. Ltd. - Alathea Biotec has got expertise in manufacturing pharmaceuticals and health care products mainly in neurology, joint pain and cardio specific problems. Their products like Colitec-P, Alshine D3, Dizisure have received a great response from health experts and got appreciation from several reputed organization. Their focus is on making available quality pharmaceutical products at affordable costs to all.Alpro Equipments And Technologies -This distinguished company stands out as a leading Manufacturer and Exporter, offering a wide range of products such as Granulation Section, Ointment Section, Liquid Section, and Soft Gelatin Section. Their exceptional contributions in Manufacturing and Exporting Pharmaceuticals, Cosmetics, Machineries, and Equipment have helped them earned the trust of their clients.Astrra Chemicals - Renowned for their top-tier products, they stand out as prominent manufacturers, suppliers, wholesalers, and exporters of a wide range of premium Industrial Chemicals, including Construction Chemicals, Antioxidants Chemicals, and Aromatic Chemicals. These chemicals are highly sought after for their precise composition, high purity, and extended shelf life.Bhagwati Hardware and Mill Store - They are one of renowned organizations engaged in manufacturing, importing, exporting and supplying of a wide range of Precision Measuring Instrument, Quality Control System and Testing Equipment. Their range of equipment is precision engineered and delivers accurate measurement result.Cosmos International Human resource LLP It started in 1984 and has grown exponentially in the last four decades and has become a reputed and renowned name because of their result-driven recruitment expertise in manpower recruitment solutions. The company has been actively involved in providing manpower to clients in the Middle East, particularly Saudi Arabia.Dr Shareefa Isa Chause - A highly esteemed independent Dermatologist and Cosmetologist, she serves as a visiting doctor at renowned medical institutions like Apollo Spectra Hospital, Criticare Asia Multispecialty Hospital, and Niramay Clinic. Sharing expertise on skin health through leading health portals, her exceptional dedication to Skin, Hair, and Nail Care earned her customer support.Ele ChemSystems Pvt. Ltd. - Recognized as a rising star in Power Cable Jointing Accessories, they offer top-notch products at competitive prices, ensuring optimal performance. Their clientele comprises Maharatna & Navratna companies, leading corporate brands, and multinational firms in the overseas market. Their dedication to innovation and practicality has earned them many laurels.Feminist Pen Foundation - Emerging from humble beginnings in India, the internationally renowned non-profit organization, Feminist Pen Foundation, is dedicated to promoting global gender equality among oppressed communities. With a presence in the USA, UAE, and the Netherlands, it has been recognized with the many Awards for its efforts in advocating for human equality, addressing issues of gender bias, racial discrimination, socio-economic structures, and legal systems.Galaxy International Travels Pvt. Ltd. - It is a fast-expanding travel company, focusing on tailor-made tours. Their offerings include airline ticket booking, hotel reservations, vacation packages, VISA assistance, transportation, and more. Through their expertise and commitment to excellence, they have established a prominent position in the industry and have been honored with the many awards.ILS Hospital Kolkatta, West Bengal - GPT Healthcare operates ILS Hospitals, a state-of-the-art Multispeciality tertiary care hospital. With 4 hospitals in total, including 3 in West Bengal and 1 in Agartala, their exceptional contributions to providing top-notch healthcare at affordable prices and ground breaking innovations in curative and preventive solutions have garnered them respectable position in healthcare industry.Master RV Designers LLP - They are specialised in PowerPoint presentations like investor deck, pitch deck, company profile, financial deck. They also create reports, financial reports, and guides in Word. They assist organizations with brand transformations, identity redesign and creating high impact marketing campaign.Meghraj Food Processing India Pvt. Ltd. Bangalore, Karnataka - Their brand Daadi's, a prominent ethnic food brand, offering traditional foods manufactured hygienically with modern, convenient packaging. Under exceptional leadership, it has become a renowned name in the ready-to-eat category, providing Kahkra, Ladoos, Fresh Chutney, and premium delights for festive occasions. Its achievements and milestones have earned Daadi's the a respectable position in the industry.Motiwale & Company -This esteemed company has established itself as a leading manufacturer, supplier, and exporter specializing in beads. Their expertise lies in crafting exquisite beads for various applications, including jewellery making and fashion accessories. The manufacturing process is carried out by their skilled craftsmen, ensuring each piece embodies sheer brilliance. They cater to clients across PAN India.Nexgen Inventive Information Technology Pvt. Ltd. - is a prominent MLM Software Development Service Provider. Their comprehensive solutions encompass web designing, technical support processes worldwide, ERP solutions, industry payroll systems, CRM solutions, Import-Export Management, Government sector projects, and customized software and web development.Nirmal Industrial Controls Pvt. Ltd. - Nirmal, a global leader, excels in manufacturing Self Actuated Pressure Control Valves, Pressure Safety Valves, Tank Blanketing Systems, Fuel Gas Conditioning, Regulating, and Metering Systems. They Cater to major industries like Oil & Gas, Petrochemical & Refineries, Pharmaceutical, Steel & Power, Nuclear Power, etc in India, the Middle East, Africa, and Southeast Asia.Organihome Foods Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi - It is reputable company engaged in the manufacturing and retailing of Cold Pressed Oil, marketed under the brand name Multano. They have ventured into the online market, offering their premium cold-pressed oils. These oils are meticulously prepared with supreme single press technique at their own manufacturing unit, using carefully selected and high-quality ingredients. Multano has earned its reputation as a trusted brand, catering to various needs such as skincare, hair care, and edible oil solutions.Pooja Machines Pvt. Ltd. - They are into manufacturing of Sewing Machines, Fans, Power Controllers, and Home Appliances. The Company follows stringent quality control measures for the selection of components to be used in manufacturing the products due to which their products have been a preferred choice with state governments, Corporate and other large institutional customers. They have customers in over dozen of overseas countries.Rajdeep Traders - Prominent distributor, stockist, and supplier of spare parts and accessories for two-wheelers in South India. At the forefront of this enterprise is Rakesh Jain, a visionary leader, who has successfully implemented an innovative, environmentally friendly technology in the automobile sector that not only saves fuel but also preserves carbon emissions. This ground breaking initiative has garnered widespread acclaim and recognition on both national and international stages.Remedial Healthcare India Pvt. Ltd. -Remedial Healthcare, a prominent ISO certified PCD company, is one among India's leading providers of comprehensive range of high-quality products such as injections, tablets, capsules, soft-gels, syrups, ointments, and more for both domestic and international markets.Rishiwar Logistics Pvt. Ltd. - Being one of the leading global cargo service providers, they offer a wide array of services, encompassing Ocean Freight Logistics, Air Freight Logistics, Roadways Cargo handling, Custom Clearance, Port Handling, Warehousing, and Import-Export Consultation. Their customised solutions at competitive rates have earned them the trust of clients.Rexine Centre - Founded in 2001 and currently led by the second generation's visionary, Mohammad Farhan Khan, Rexine Centre has distinguished itself as a trailblazer in the furnishing industry. Their area of expertise lies in crafting high-quality Sofa cover clothes, setting new trends in the market. With multiple branches in Mumbai, their products are readily accessible to customers across PAN India, showcasing their widespread presence and popularity.SK Ensure Machinery Pvt Ltd - They are a prominent manufacturer and exporter of exclusive range of Screen Printing Machine, Round Screen Printing Machine, Pad Printing Machine, Offset Printing Machine and many more. Offered machines are highly preferred by the clients, across the globe, USA, UK, Canada, Australia, Dubai, Middle East, etc, for their sturdy construction and optimum performance.SMSGATEWAYHUB Technologies Pvt Ltd - Founded in 2009, the company has grown exponentially to become one of the leading providers of digital media solutions to the clients spread across PAN India. They are specialised in providing, both personalised and customised, bulk SMS services, and have served individuals, various industries and some of the leading corporate companies in India.Softserv Solutions Pvt. Ltd. - Softserv is a forward thinking technology company that assists enterprises in reimagining their businesses for the digital age. Their expertise extends across key industries including healthcare, Oil & Gas, Automobiles, and Dental etc. Their integrated portfolio of products, solutions, and services provides clients with comprehensive offerings that address their unique business needs.UpRiser Pre School - It is an organization that aims to provide a holistic education for kids aged 2 to 7 years for their cognitive and academic development. Guruji Shri Rishi Prabhakar is the main inspiration behind Uprisers Preschool. It endeavours to evolve a unique way of learning that adopts an eclectic approach by selecting the best from renowned and established education systems.Blossom Media is venturing on organising realty exhibitions, titled as "Indian Property Show, Jeddah," in Saudi Arabia. This strategic step seeks to facilitate Indian real estate developers to establish connections with High Net Worth Individuals of Indian origin residing in Saudi Arabia. This initiative not only presents an investment prospect for the HNIs but also creates a platform for Indian developers to engage in a mutually advantageous collaboration.ANI03 August 2023

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The Authors Companion by Ranjan Mohapatra: An essential guide to literary success

New Delhi, August 3: It does not matter whether you are starting your publishing journey or you have already published your book.

The Author's Companion by Ranjan Mohapatra: An essential guide to literary success

There is still much to understand about the publishing industry to make your writing and publishing journey more fruitful. That is the essence of The Author's Companion, authored by Ranjan Mohapatra, the CEO and Founder of Clever Fox Publishing.Harnessing his years of experience, Ranjan has curated this book to guide writers to not only produce outstanding content but also provide them with the essential knowledge and skills to navigate the publishing landscape. Starting with an overview of the publishing industry, Ranjan outlines the various genres of book writing and also emphasises the importance of choosing the right title and making your book SEO-friendly.The Author's Companion also goes into the specifics of the pre-writing, writing and editing stages which are critical in making the book convey what the author wishes effectively. Understanding the vitality of visual impact, the book goes over how book covers and book interiors are designed. Writing is not simply pursuing a passion and Ranjan has delved into the financial and marketing aspects of publishing a book. These are of utmost importance to make your book a bestseller.The Author's Companion is an essential book to get a copy of because it does not stop at imparting industry-specific guidance but it provides you with practical techniques and a trove of exercises that have been designed to help you hone in your craft. The writing boot camp includes a variety of exercises to nourish your writing. The daily planner, cover design planner and checklists are specially crafted for writers, and last but not least are easy-to-implement methods to take care of yourself.Ranjan's drive to share his knowledge with the rest of the community has empowered writers from all walks of life to pursue their passion in the world of literature. He strives to lend a helping hand to authors, helping them see their stories come to life. Clever Fox Publishing has acquired a noteworthy name under Ranjan's leadership and commitment to growing the Clever Author Community.With your purchase of The Author's Companion, Ranjan Mohapatra's brainchild, you open up new doors to literary success. In addition to invaluable insights and guidance, you can now avail exciting offers on select publishing packages. And since no book is complete without a bookmark, you will get a complimentary one. Start your publishing journey by grabbing your copy of The Author's Companion.To know more https//bookwritingmastery.com/ANI03 August 2023

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Swiss entrepreneurs present investment ideas to Bhutanese businessmen

Thimphu, August 3: To boost the economic relations between Switzerland and Bhutan, a delegation of Swiss entrepreneurs met with local businesses of Bhutan in the capital Thimphu, reported The Bhutan Live. The team presented them with business investment ideas in different sectors ranging from health, tourism, infrastructure, agriculture, and energy.

Swiss entrepreneurs present investment ideas to Bhutanese businessmen

The team of Swiss entrepreneurs arrived in the capital on Wednesday.Nearly 30 representatives from 16 Swiss companies met with Bhutanese businesses and ministry officials for two days, according to The Bhutan Live.The business ideas incorporate various topics which include the latest health tools such as a drug to prevent postpartum haemorrhage among pregnant women to constructing railway tunnels in the country.Dr Ralf Heckner, Swiss Ambassador to Bhutan said, "I think after yesterday's and today's delegations, I see opportunities, especially in the areas of health, infrastructure, and agriculture. Those are the areas of opportunities I take away as the biggest potential here."Tandy Wangchuk, the Bhutan Chamber of Commerce and Industry President expressed delight and said that such investments in our country will boost our economic stability, The Bhutan Live reported."The business representatives have presented their investment ideas today and many have positive feedback on them. The Prime Minister and the ministers also said that if these companies invest in our country, it will strengthen our economic stability. BCCI is also looking forward to a good impact from it," Wangchuk said.Moreover, two Memoranda of Understanding were signed by the Bhutan Chamber for Commerce and Industry with the Swiss Asia Chamber of Commerce and the Geneva Chamber of Commerce as a token of friendship, reported The Bhutan Live.Swiss Business Representative Marika Pechr said that her company wants to help Bhutan with infrastructure projects and will contribute in terms of expertise and new technologies."Our company would like to help Bhutan build infrastructure projects such as railways, tunnels, and roads with Swiss experts. To bring in expertise and new technologies to build safe and technologically advanced infrastructures in Bhutan," she said.Another Swiss Business Representative Alexis Poulet said, "Ten days ago, we got approval from the Ministry of Health for a drug that will help Bhutanese mothers in the future. Every year, about seventy thousand women die of postpartum haemorrhage, and we can prevent that. We really want to collaborate with the Ministry of Health so that this product is available in Bhutan to prevent them from dying by giving birth."This marks the second such visit by business delegates from Switzerland with the first one having come in 2019.ANI04 August 2023

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India, Bolivia discuss avenues for strengthening trade and investments

New Delhi, August 3: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday met Bolivian Minister of Development Planning Sergio Armando Cusicanqui Loayza and discussed the avenues for strengthening trade and investment.

India, Bolivia discuss avenues for strengthening trade and investments

Taking to Twitter, the ministry said, "Union Finance Minister Smt. @nsitharaman met Bolivian Minister of Development Planning Mr. Sergio Armando Cusicanqui Loayza in New Delhi today. The two ministers discussed avenues for strengthening India-Bolivia #trade, #investment and economic cooperation. They agreed to encourage B2B linkages through respective chambers of commerce and industry."India and Bolivia enjoy friendly and cordial relations. In 2019, the then-President of India, Ram Nath Kovind visited Bolivia, becoming the first-ever visit by an Indian president to Bolivia. Bolivia also conferred the highest State Honour of Bolivia on the President of India.8 memorandum of understanding were signed between India and Bolivia concerning fields of culture, visa waiver for diplomats, the exchange between diplomatic academies, mining, space, traditional medicine, the establishment of the Centre of Excellence in IT and the Bi-Oceanic Railway project.Both sides also agreed to work together for the exploration and extraction of the vast Lithium deposits of Bolivia.Lithium is a key resource used in making batteries that India needs for its clean technology initiatives such as increased use of electric cars.Under the framework of South-South Cooperation, India also gave a USD 100 million Line of Credit to Bolivia for financing development projects.According to the Institute of Statistics of Bolivia, trade between India and Bolivia during the calendar year 2015 was USD 315.249 million - exports from India to Bolivia were US USD 118.893 million and imports by India from Bolivia valued at USD 196.356 million.During the same period in 2016, according to INEI statistics, the total trade was USD 228.791 million - exports from India to Bolivia were valued at USD 106.642 million while imports by India from Bolivia were valued at USD122.149 million .During the first four months of 2017, the total trade as per INEI figures is valued at USD 200.475 million .India mainly exports automobiles, iron and steel, pharmaceuticals, machinery, rubber and plastic products and yarns and textiles. It imports gold, leather, fertilizers and animal feed from Bolivia.ANI04 August 2023

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In Morogoro, Tanzania, a cup of soybean milk is triggering changes in nutrition.

In 2011, Professor Li Xiaoyun from China Agricultural University first set foot on Morogoro. In the following ten years, he and his colleagues worked with local technical partners to promote a reasonably higher maize plant density based on China's experience, causing the yields to triple over the period. A seemingly small technical advance eventually made a big difference.

However, experts from China Agricultural University found that protein deficiency was prevalent among local farmers who, relying on maize for income, could not afford meat and dairy products. Increasing farmers income and improving their living standards remained a huge challenge.

Over the past decade, China Agricultural University and Morogoro's technical team have worked closely to train a large number of agricultural technicians.

By June 2022, 109 people in four villages of Morogoro had received specialized training, and soybean yields grew over five times from about 100 kg to 533 kg per acre.

Soybean milk, invented in China about 2000 years ago, is an easy-to-make drink which is rich in vegetable protein and minerals.

Sprinkled with a local spice similar to cardamom, soybean milk becomes a popular substitute for milk. This is one of the ways of processing soybeans that are advocated among local villagers.

Since September 2022, the project team has worked with local farmers to produce soybean meal, flour, and other products. The team also provided guidance on how to transform small family-run businesses to large-scale food processing factories, so as to help develop a complete soybean industry chain.

Under the guidance of the team from China Agricultural University, soybeans grow well on the land of Tanzania, building a bridge towards nutrition and wealth for farmers.

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"The measures in this resolution are crucial to promoting peace and stability in the Central African Republic and broader region," said Ambassador Wood.
PM Modi held meeting with NDA MPs from Southern India

New Delhi, August 3: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday chaired a meeting with MPs of the National Democratic Alliance from Southern India.

PM Modi held meeting with NDA MPs from Southern India

"Last evening, I had a wonderful meeting with NDA MPs from Southern India, followed by a great dinner in which a variety of South Indian dishes were served including Paniyaram, Appam, Vegetable Korma, Pulihora, Pappu Charu, Adai Aviyal and more," PM Modi tweeted.JP Nadda and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari were also present in the meeting, while the host ministers are Pralhad Joshi and V Muraleedharan, the source said.PM Modi is holding meetings with groups of National Democratic Alliance MPs ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.The meeting is likely to be held between July 31 and August 10 with NDA 48 MP from West Bengal, Jharkhand, and Odisha meeting at the Parliament annexe building in the national capital.The BJP will also celebrate the 25th anniversary of the NDA, with the ruling alliance seeking to set the narrative for the 2024 poll battle.The BJP leadership has identified 160 relatively weak constituencies and the party is putting up extra efforts to turn around its prospects in those constituencies.With the opposition putting up a united front, the NDA led by the Bharatiya Janata Party, held a mega meeting on July 18. The BJP-led NDA has 38 parties under its fold.ANI04 August 2023

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UAE: National Centre of Meteorology hosts 'Early Warning for All' workshop

Abu Dhabi, August 3: The National Centre of Meteorology hosted a workshop titled "Early Warning for All," organised by the World Meteorological Organisation in partnership with local authorities, at its headquarters in Abu Dhabi.

UAE: National Centre of Meteorology hosts 'Early Warning for All' workshop

The workshop aimed to discuss the role of early warning systems in contributing to the goals of the World Meteorological Organisation and raising awareness among communities exposed to risks.The discussions in the workshop revolved around the significance of early warning systems in achieving the goals of the World Meteorological Organisation and the necessity of preparedness to face natural disasters. The workshop also addressed the objectives of providing early warning systems for everyone, regardless of location or financial capabilities, considering the increasing frequency of natural disasters and their adverse effects on humans and societies.In his opening speech, Omar Alyazeedi, Deputy Director-General of NCM, representing Dr. Abdullah Ahmed Al Mandous, Director-General of NCM and President of the World Meteorological Organisation, emphasised the importance of preparedness and collaboration to achieve the objectives of this initiative and enhance early warning systems. He also stressed the significance of strengthening strategic partnerships to improve preparedness for climate change and develop innovative solutions to address its consequences.He added, "The workshop reflects the commitment of the UAE to achieve the goals of the United Nations' programme for reducing the risks of natural disasters and enhancing our efforts in building strategic partnerships to strengthen early warning systems and harness data for innovative solutions that mitigate the impacts of climate change. The pivotal role of the UAE in protecting everyone from various risks is evident through our approach to implementing early warning systems. The National Centre of Meteorology will serve as a SOFF peer advisor providing technical assistance and Leveraging UAE knowledge and expertise to the deep dive countries and beyond."Representatives from the Ministry of Interior, the National Emergency, Crisis, and Disaster Management Authority, Abu Dhabi City Municipality, as well as the University of the Emirates, Khalifa University, the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, the Ministry of Defense, the General Civil Aviation Authority, the National Guard, and Abu Dhabi Development Fund participated in the workshop. The UNDRR and the World Meteorological Organisation representatives briefed and moderated the workshop. Representatives from COP 28 official Team, IRENA, and the UAE UN Resident Coordinator office also joined the discussion.It is worth mentioning that the "United Nations Early Warning for All" initiative has been officially recognised as the top priority of the World Meteorological Organisation since the end of 2027. It has garnered increasing attention from relevant meteorological authorities recently, as part of international efforts to address the consequences of climate change. This is in response to the call made by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, to establish early warning systems for all the world's inhabitants within five years, by adopting an action plan during COP-27 to activate early warning systems for all and oversee their implementation. This includes ensuring the existence of political, technical, and financial solutions capable of accelerating the implementation process, looking for funding support to the Multi-Donor Trust funds like SOFF is also a crucial step in the same direction.The Systematic Observation Financing Facility is an initiative launched by the World Meteorological Organisation in 2017 and funded by the World Bank. It aims to assist countries in collecting and using data to improve disaster risk management. The SOFF system provides technical support to countries to help them develop and implement strategies for collecting and using data related to disaster risks. It also conducts research on data for disaster risk management and disseminates knowledge about data for managing disaster risks.ANI04 August 2023

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UAE to host 8 countries for 'Middle East Start-Up Awards 2022-2023' in January 2024

Ras Al Khaimah, August 3: The Department of Entrepreneurship and Innovation of the American University of Ras Al Khaimah, UAE announced the participation of innovative technology start-ups and SMEs from the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan and Lebanon on 17-18 January 2024, for the Middle East Startup Awards 2022-23 conference and exhibition.

UAE to host 8 countries for 'Middle East Start-Up Awards 2022-2023' in January 2024

Prof. Hassan Hamdan Al Alkim, President of the American University of Ras Al Khaimah, said, "We support such international award programmes that bring visibility to the American University and contribute to the region's entrepreneurial ecosystem growth".Tarek Al Saman, Secretary of the Board of Emirates Angel Investors Association, stated, "The Middle East region is creating investment opportunities for new technologies and business models and they contribute via such events to the early stage investment ecosystem through their strong investors network."Dr Tahseen Anwer Arshi, Director of Associate Professor at AURAK, commented, "MESA is a reputed awards event in the Middle East. AURAK Centre for Entrepreneurship will leverage this opportunity to promote startup culture among students and the community".Sagarika Sahoo, Co-Founder of the Middle East Start-Up Awards, noted that the 2021 Launch Premiere was successfully carried out under the Patronage of the UAE Ministry of Economy and supported by Abu Dhabi Global Market and Emirates Angel Investors Association with over 400 final nominations. The regional finalists had the opportunity to showcase their solutions at the Global Start-Up Awards alongside some of the world's top entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and ecosystem enablers in Copenhagen, Denmark in April this year.Launched by Commerce Connect Events Exhibition and Management, the Middle East Startup Awards 2022-23 is a part of the single largest independent startup ecosystem in the world, Global Startup Awards. Being the second edition, this initiative aims to celebrate the region's tech-based startups with a sector-agnostic approach along with their renowned country ambassadors, experienced jury members and business partners.ANI04 August 2023

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Assam boy shortlisted for top US poetry fellowship

Guwahati, Aug 3: Abhijit Sarmah, an Assamese poet, has made the final list for the prestigious Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowships in the US.

Assam boy shortlisted for top US poetry fellowship

Five Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowships are given out each year by the Poetry Foundation.The $27,000 prize, which is arguably the biggest reward given to young poets in the US, is meant to promote outstanding US poets between the age of 21 and 31 years.Abhijit, a resident of Dibrugarh, is currently enrolled in the University of Georgia's Creative Writing Programme as a second-year PhD student."The Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship is arguably the biggest award granted to poets located in the US, including myself. I feel blessed to be shortlisted for this," Abhijit said.The list of the 12 finalists that was released on Wednesday, Abhijit is the only Indian.There has never been another person from the Northeast India featured there.In addition to receiving a grant, the five beneficiaries of fellowships, who will be announced in late August, will also be given the opportunity to publish in the Poetry magazine. Each of the 12 finalists will be given money to use towards their choice of professional development opportunities.Abhijit is a poet and scholar of indigenous literatures, with an emphasis on Northeast Indian and native American women writers. He completed his M.Phil degree from the Dibrugarh University.He graduated in English literature from the Jagannath Barooah College in Jorhat and did his masters in the Dibrugarh University.tdr/khzIANS04 August 2023

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Delhi minister calls for reduction in stubble burning

New Delhi, Aug 3: Delhi Development Minister Gopal Rai during a meeting of Central and state Agriculture Ministers on Thursday called for reduction of stubble burning incidences.

Delhi minister calls for reduction in stubble burning

In the meeting, held through video conferencing, issues related to stubble management were discussed.Rai said that every year, Kejriwal government develops winter action plan based on various factors to address the issue of escalating pollution in Delhi. In this scenario, the stubble burning during the winter season also contributes significantly to the pollution problem."To address this issue promptly, our government annually provides free distribution of Pusa Bio-decomposer in the paddy fields, which has yielded highly positive outcomes. This has resulted in the decomposition of stubble and an increase in the fertility of the fields. However, we have seen that numerous incidents of stubble burning are also reported in our neighboring states. As a consequence, the pollution problem in Delhi worsens considerably during the winter season," Rai said.He further claimed that as a result of the Winter Action Plan implemented by the Kejriwal government during the winter season, Delhi has registered a steady decline in the presence of PM 10 and PM 2.5.He said that the city's Air Quality Index (AQI) has shown a decline in the number of the most hazardous category between 2016 and 2022, which was 26 in 2016, and has now dropped to a mere 6 in 2022. "This indicates that as a result of the ongoing measures taken within Delhi, there has been a 30 per cent reduction in pollution levels over the past 8 years."Rai said that this year also the Delhi government will implement various action plans so that the pollution caused by stubble inside Delhi can be controlled.IANS04 August 2023

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Punjab Governor shuns tomato in his kitchen

Chandigarh, Aug 4: Amidst the alarming surge in tomato prices, Punjab Governor and Chandigarh Administrator, Banwarilal Purohit, on Thursday issued an order to temporarily halt the consumption of tomatoes in his kitchen.

Punjab Governor shuns tomato in his kitchen

The decision was taken as a gesture of solidarity with the citizens of Punjab who are facing the impact of rising food prices, an official statement said.Over the past few weeks, the people of state and the UT have been grappling with an unprecedented escalation in the cost of tomatoes, a staple in many households across the state.The price surge has been attributed to various factors, including supply chain disruptions, climatic conditions, and other market dynamics.Recognising the burden this situation places on ordinary citizens, the Governor has expressed his concern and empathy for the difficulties faced by the public due to soaring tomato prices, said the statement.By forgoing tomato consumption in his own residence, he aims to underscore the importance of empathy, frugality, and responsible use of resources during these challenging times."Stopping or reducing the consumption of an article is bound to have an effect on its price; reducing demand will automatically lower the price. I hope people will use alternatives in their household for the time being and help to curtail the surge in tomato prices," he said.IANS04 August 2023

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Why Pawan Kalyans Bro triggered a political storm in Andhra?

Amaravati, Aug 4: Actor-politician Pawan Kalyan's supernatural fantasy film Bro has kicked up a political storm in Andhra Pradesh with a state minister, who was allegedly mocked in the movie, demanding a probe into its funding.

Why Pawan Kalyan's 'Bro' triggered a political storm in Andhra?

Minister for Water Resources Ambati Rambabu was in Delhi, reportedly to complain to the Central agencies about the investment made in "Bro".Reiterating that there is a big scam in the making of "Bro", he met YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) parliamentary party leader V. Vijayasai Reddy on Thursday to discuss plans to lodge a complaint.Rambabu, who will also be meeting other YSRCP MPs, is likely to take up the aspects of tax evasion as well as the diversion of funds with the Central agencies like the Income Tax Department and Enforcement Directorate.Rambabu rushed to the national capital after launching a scathing attack on Pawan Kalyan, who is leader of Jana Sena Party, and makers of "Bro" for insulting and belittling him through a character called Shyambabu in the film.The minister alleged that funds for the film were routed from abroad and also made allegations of money laundering. He alleged that "Bro" producer T. G. Viswa Prasad paid remuneration to Pawan Kalyan from the money he got from Telugu Desam Party (TDP) supporter and owner of IT companies in the US.The minister also sought to know the Income Tax paid by the actor, who claims to have charged Rs 2 crore per day for shooting "Bro".Rambabu wondered why the filmmaker was silent on his questions like the investment made in the movie and its collections and remuneration to Pawan Kalyan.Meanwhile, Viswa Prasad denied the allegations. He, however, refused to divulge details like film's budget, remuneration to Pawan Kalyan and source of funds. He said he would provide those details if appropriate authorities seek to ask him."Bro" is a supernatural fantasy comedy directed by Samuthirakani and screenplay by Trivikram Srinivas. It is based on the 2021 Tamil film "Vinodhaya Sitham". The film stars Pawan Kalyan, his nephew Sai Dharam Tej, Ketika Sharma, Priya Prakash Varrier, and others.A brief role of a character Shyambabu and especially a dance sequence in the film has angered the minister. The dance scene is said to be an imitation of a viral video clip of the minister's dance during Sankranti.The minister targeted comedian and Jana Sena leader Prudhvi Raj, who played Shyambabu in the movie. He is seen dancing wearing clothes similar to what Rambabu wore while dancing during Sankranti celebration. The minister said that the comedian imitated his dance.Prudhiv Raj, who quit the YSRCP to join the Jana Sena last year, denied Rambabu's allegation. He clarified that neither the dance sequence nor the dress he wore in the film was a copy of the minister."Who is Rambabu? I don't know him and I don't have to imitate him," said the comedian. He said he was given the role of a wayward man who goes to clubs and runs around girls.The minister went to the extent of warning filmmakers and actors that they will have to face music if they try to belittle him. He told writer and director Trivikram Srinivas, who wrote the screenplay for "Bro" that if he keeps repeating this he will have to pay the price.Rambabu, who believes that Pawan Kalyan deliberately designed the role and dance sequence to insult and belittle him, launched a personal attack on the actor. "I will also make films on Pawan Kalyan and his multiple wives. I am looking for a suitable title," he said.Rambabu declared that his story will be about a man who enters the film industry with the help of his movie star brother and becomes a big star himself, and goes on to have a series of failed marriages. He claimed that the story is getting ready and stars will be finalised soon. He suggested the title "MRO" (Marriage Relations Offender) on the lines of "Bro".He also suggested some other titles targeting Pawan Kalyan over his marriages. The titles include "Nithya pelli koduku" (Forever a groom) and "Pellillu petakulu" (Broken marriages).YSRCP leaders including Chief Minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy have been attacking Pawan Kalyan over his three marriages. They also call him the adopted son of TDP President N. Chandrababu Naidu. Pawan Kalyan, an ally of BJP, is trying to forge an alliance of the TDP, the JSP, and the BJP. With all the political players gearing up for next year's elections, the war of words between YSRCP and Pawan Kalyan-led JSP may only get intense.IANS04 August 2023

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UNSC expresses concern over conflict-driven increase in hunger, calls for more help

United Nations, Aug 4: Expressing concern about countries facing hunger and the threat of famine due to conflicts, the UN Security Council has called for increasing assistance to ameliorate the problem.

UNSC expresses concern over conflict-driven increase in hunger, calls for more help

In a statement adopted under the presidentship of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday, the Council asked nations "to make all efforts to increase humanitarian and development assistance and funding to food assistance and humanitarian needs, including through UN agencies".Blinken said the Council "has unanimously put conflict, hunger, and famine, as well as climate change, at the centre of its agenda"."We simply cannot preserve peace and security without strengthening food security," he said.The statement said that the "Council expresses concern about insufficient humanitarian and development assistance and funding that is limiting efforts to address conflict-induced food insecurity and threat of famine".It asked countries the resources to do more "to support vulnerable countries in the sustainable transformation of agriculture and food systems including through agro-ecological approaches and other innovative approaches, making them more resilient".Blinken warned that by 2050 when the world's population could reach 10 billion, "climate change could cut output by as much as 30 per cent even as global food demand increases by over 50 per cent. So we have a planet that's heading in the current a in the coming decades to a population of as much as 10 billion people with demand going up in accordance, and yet supply is actually declining, not increasing".To meet the challenge in Africa, where the food crisis is acute, he said that the US has launched the Vision for Adapted Crops and Soils programme with the African Union and the Food and Agriculture Organisation."This focus on the quality of the seeds and the quality of the soil can have a powerful impact on sustainable agricultural productivity throughout Africa," he said."We'll be looking to governments, to companies, to philanthropies, to help us continue to improve nutrition and invest in sustainable and resilient food systems," he added.Blinken accused Russia of creating a global food crisis through the invasion of Ukraine and compounding it by withdrawing from the UN-sponsored agreement to allow exports from there and then bombing that country's granaries and ports. He said that food prices have soared 8 per cent after Russia withdrew from the agreement known as the Black Sea Grain Initiative that allowed ships carrying Ukrainian wheat to move through the waters.(Arul Louis can be contacted at arul.l@ians.in and followed at @arulouis)IANS04 August 2023

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Lebanon to begin exploratory drilling for energy deposits by end of August

Beirut, Aug 4: Lebanon will begin exploratory drilling in its territorial waters by the end of August to see if it has rich energy deposits, Public Works and Transport Minister Ali Hamieh announced.

Lebanon to begin exploratory drilling for energy deposits by end of August

An oil and gas exploration vessel will arrive in Lebanon's territorial waters on August 14 and start drilling operations in Block 9 there, the National News Agency quoted the Minister as saying on Thursday.The results of the exploration will be known before the end of this year to determine whether Lebanon is an oil-rich country, he added.Lebanon and Israel finalised a US-brokered maritime border demarcation deal in October last year after years of negotiations, opening up the possibility for both countries to explore energy deposits in the Mediterranean Sea, Xinhua news agency reported.Lebanon needs revenues from the oil and gas sector to facilitate its recovery from a protracted financial crisis that started in 2019.IANS04 August 2023

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Israel: Employment rate of ultra-orthodox men hits high of 55.5 per cent

Tel Aviv, August 3: Israel's Minister of Labor, Yoav Ben Tzur took credit for his government for the reported increase in the employment rate of ultra-orthodox men in 2023. Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics recently reported this.

Israel: Employment rate of ultra-orthodox men hits high of 55.5 per cent

The employment rate for ultra-orthodox men at this stage in 2023 was reported as 55.5%, up from 53.1 per cent at the end of 2022. However, the statistics show a steady increase in the employment rate since the end of the Covid crisis when it 50.6 per cent. While the current rate is still up from the previous high of 51.9% in 2016, there is no data on what kind of work is being done and how many are employed full-time."The Ministry of Labor promotes training and employment in the economy and emphasizes the integration of diverse populations, and this proves itself," commented Ben-Tzur. "The increase in the rate of ultra-Orthodox employment is the result of our efforts and thanks to extensive investment, and it makes a tremendous contribution to the economy.""From these data emerges the tremendous potential of the integration of the populations in the economy, when we benefit twice - once in training and quality employment for each person and a second time the economy is contributed by a diverse, skilled and quality workforce," he added.Minister Ben-Tzur is a member of the Sephardic ultra-orthodox Shas Party.ANI04 August 2023

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The United States promotes religious liberty abroad in three related ways: it exposes, counters, and prevents, explained Ambassador-at-Large Rashad Hussain in recent Congressional testimony:

First, we seek to shape a foreign policy that protects U.S. interests and security by engaging civil society and faith communities and addressing laws and policies that impact religious freedom around the world.

The Office of International Religious Freedom at the State Department often works on individual cases of repression with great success, noted Ambassador Hussain:

We welcomed the release of Shmuel Khachanov, an ailing Jehovah's Witness wrongfully imprisoned in Tajikistan. We have been deeply involved in working to address the Ortega Murillo's regime's increasing repression of Christians and churches in Nicaragua. On February 9th, when the United States welcomed 222 individuals who had been imprisoned by the government of Nicaragua for exercising their human rights and endured lengthy, unjust detentions.

The annual International Religious Freedom Report casts a light on persecution around the world. These are globally recognized as a gold standard on reporting on religious freedom, said Ambassador Hussain. If anyone in the world ever wonders whether the religious persecution of any group in any part of the world escapes our attention, the reports are our answer. The country by country reports go in a very go through the religious freedom conditions in every country in the world in a very detailed manner.

And finally, the Office of International Religious Freedom provides information and expertise on the status of international religious freedom to the Secretary of State as he determines which countries meet the threshold to be designated as countries of particular concern.

The United States remains uniquely dedicated to religious freedom as it was founded by individuals fleeing religious persecution themselves, noted Ambassador Hussain:

Our founders felt so strongly about this fundamental right that they enshrined it in the First Amendment, in our Constitutions Bill of Rights. And we are a country of immigrants.

In many ways, we are representatives of the rest of the world gathered right here in the United States, declared Ambassador Hussain. We are motivated by the unshakable commitment to the idea that saving even one person or even improving one life is well worth our effort.
We are going to win 20 out of 20 seats from Kerala: Congress MP Venugopal on upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha elections

New Delhi, August 3: After the meeting with leaders of Kerala Congress, General Secretary KC Venugopal said that in the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha elections, we will win all 20 seats in Kerala.

We are going to win 20 out of 20 seats from Kerala: Congress MP Venugopal on upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha elections

"We have 20 parliament seats in Kerala, last time we won 19 parliamentary seats out of 20... The Kerala leaders assured AICC that this time they'll win 20 out of 20 from Kerala. It will be a big push for INDIA," Venugopal said."Today, we had a very fruitful and successful discussion on the coming parliament elections related to the Kerala state," he added.He further mentioned that the entire Kerala people are very much annoyed with the present situation in Manipur."Entire Kerala people are very annoyed with the situation of Manipur. There is no statement from PM on this issue. PM is totally insensitive and intolerant of such issues. Congress have a brighter chance as people are fed up with both Center and state government," he added.There have been violent clashes in Manipur due to the Manipur High Court directing the State to pursue a 10-year-old recommendation to grant Scheduled Tribe status to the non-tribal Meitei community.Earlier today, Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge, party leader Rahul Gandhi and Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal held a meeting with leaders of Kerala Congress at party headquarters in the national capital.Meanwhile, on August 4, Tamil Nadu Congress leaders will meet Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi in Delhi to discuss the poll strategy for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.Congress General Secretary Organisation KC Venugopal and the AICC in charge of the state will be present also in the meeting tomorrow, party sources said.Earlier today several leaders from Telangana including former Telangana minister Jupally Krishna Rao joined the Congress party in the presence of Mallikarjun Kharge."We welcome several prominent leaders from Telangana in the Congress party. The political tide in Telangana is turning for the good and the people of the state want a Congress Govt at the helm for overall progress and prosperity. The entry of Former Minister, Jupally Krishna Rao, Former MLA, Gurunatha Reddy, K R Nagaraju and other grassroots leaders into the Congress party, shall further strengthen our endeavour to provide true social welfare in the state," Mallikarjun Kharge tweeted.Earlier the Congress on Wednesday appointed Screening Committees for election bounds states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Telangana.The opposition parties are coming together against the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.The 26-party opposition alliance was termed India National Developmental Inclusive Alliance or I.N.D.I.A during the second joint opposition meeting held in Karnataka's Bengaluru on July 18.The Opposition parties met to chalk out a strategy to put out a united front to take on the BJP ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections.ANI04 August 2023

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Arunachal Pradesh: Spear Corps Warriors conducts Job Readiness Program at Bordumsa

Bordumsa, August 4: Spear Corps Warriors conducted Job Readiness Programme in collaboration with Arunachal Pradesh Civil Administration at Bordumsa, Changlang district, Arunachal Pradesh.

Arunachal Pradesh: Spear Corps Warriors conducts 'Job Readiness Program' at Bordumsa

Spear Corp Warriors conducted the Programme from June 13 to August 2, 2023, with the aim to improve the selection rate of students from nearby areas of Bordumsa in various state government job vacancies, read an official statement by Public Relations Officer, Defence.The programme provided physical and academic training to all eligible and interested candidates from July 4, 2023, to August 2, 2023. A total of 145 students participated in the programme throughout the duration of seven weeks.The Job Readiness Programme was an initiative taken by the Lekhapani Battalion of the Assam Rifles to empower the youth of the region and equip them with the necessary skills and knowledge required to secure jobs in the state and central government competitive examinations.This Programme was a step towards building a better future for the youth of the region and creating a skilled workforce that can contribute to the development of the state. The initiative is a testament to the commitment of the Spear Corps toward the development of the region and its people.Spear Corps hopes to conduct more such programmes in the future to build an even stronger relationship with the community.ANI04 August 2023

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11 Executive Directors of World Bank called on Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in New Delhi

New Delhi, August 4: Eleven Executive Directors of World Bank Group representing 95 countries on Thursday, called on Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in New Delhi, while on their visit to India, the Ministry of Finance said.

11 Executive Directors of World Bank called on Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in New Delhi

The Executive Directors of the world bank shared their key takeaways with Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman from their visits to Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Lucknow."They appreciated the fast-paced development across all sectors enabled by transformational reforms and Private Sector participation in India's ambition of becoming a Developed country by 2047," the Ministry of Finance said in a tweet.The Ministry further tweeted that the EDs also appreciated the success achieved by India, especially in digital technology and Startups, with a focus on the delivery of public goods, including water, electricity, road infrastructure etc.The Finance Minister underlined the focus India is placing on creating opportunities for the poor by empowering communities for Equitable Growth and stated that the reforms brought in India since 2014 have enabled the decentralisation of planning in India, which enabled States to set ambitious development targets and perform to their potential, the ministry said."The EDs appreciated the clarity of the vision of the political leadership of India. They were especially appreciative of efforts like GST, NariShakti and FastTags that are in line with the vision of fast-paced development," the Finance Ministry tweeted.Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman emphasised the leading role India is playing in Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable, MDB Reforms, crypto regulations and Digital Public Infrastructure and stated that India would be happy to share its development experience and build the capacity of counties that can benefit from India's experience."Union Finance Minister Smt. @nsitharaman emphasised the leading role India is playing on Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable, #MDBReforms, #crypto regulations and #DigitalPublicInfrastructure #DPI and stated that India would be happy to share its development experience and build capacity of counties that can benefit from India's experience," the Ministry of Finance said in a tweet.ANI04 August 2023

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At UN, India tells Pakistan to concentrate on its own problems

United Nations, Aug 4: It is best to concentrate on its own problems instead of flinging allegations against others, India told Pakistan when it resorted to terrorism while being designated as one of the Hunger Hotspots by UN agencies.

At UN, India tells Pakistan to concentrate on its own problems

Responding to Pakistan bringing up the Kashmir issue while the Security Council was discussing food security on Thursday, R. Madhu Sudan, a counsellor in India's UN Mission, said "To best utilise this Council's time, I suggest the concerned delegation concentrate on addressing their internal matters and restoring order within their own borders, rather than indulging in frivolous allegations against my country."Unfortunately we saw one delegation misuse this forum yet again, to divert the attention of this Council from the important topic of food security."More relevant to the subject of the Council debate, but ignored by Pakistan's Deputy Permanent Representative Aamir Khan, was a report by Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Programme in May on "Hunger Hotspots" that issued "early warnings on food insecurity" and linked the situation in Pakistan to its political crisis.It warned that Pakistan's "acute food insecurity is likely to further deteriorate over the coming months, if the economic and political crisis further worsens, compounding the effects of the 2022 flooding".While exporting terror abroad, Pakistan has also been unable to deal with internal terrorism and political violence, in the most recent instance of which a suicide bomber killed 54 people at a political rally of a member of the ruling coalition last month.Sudan said that this "delegation has consistently shown a tendency to exploit various event platforms to further their own agenda"."It's unnecessary to engage in arguments or debates, particularly with those who resort to terrorism to advance their unlawful goals. I would like to emphasise that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India is non-negotiable," he said.He did not mention Pakistan by name while exercising India's right of reply to comments by Khan.Pakistan brings up Kashmir when speaking on any topic regardless of the relevance even though it ends up as a cry in the wilderness as hardly anyone pays heed.Khan acknowledged it saying that it has been "virtually abandoned by an indifferent international community".He tried the old ploy of linking Kashmir to the Palestine issue, asserting that they "suffered foreign occupation for seven decades".He said that the Council must ensure that a plebiscite is held in Kashmir and food insecurity is not utilised there.However, the 1948 Council resolution on the plebiscite in Kashmir demanded that first Pakistani withdraw its troops and people it sent in as "tribesmen".India could not hold a plebiscite because Pakistan refused to follow the Council directive on withdrawing its personnel and since then New Delhi maintains that by participating in the elections in the state the Kashmiri people have exercised their democratic rights integrating with India.After Sudan spoke, a second secretary in Pakistan's UN Mission, Rabia Ijaz, repeated Islamabad's claims about the Council resolution on a plebiscite but without mentioning its demand for Pakistan to first withdraw from Kashmir.(Arul Louis can be contacted at arul.l@ians.in

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India, Kazakhstan discuss bilateral, regional issues at fourth Security Dialogue held in Astana

Astana, August 4: India and Kazakhstan on Thursday discussed bilateral, regional issues at the fourth Security Dialogue held in Astana.

India, Kazakhstan discuss bilateral, regional issues at fourth Security Dialogue held in Astana

The two countries also discussed the situation in Afghanistan and international issues of mutual concern, according to an official release.The Indian delegation was led by Deputy National Security Advisor Vikram Misri and the Kazakhstan side was led by Deputy Secretary of the Security Council of Kazakhstan Nurzhan Kajiakbarov.The two sides agreed on steps to be taken to further enhance bilateral security cooperation between the relevant organizations, including in the fields of counter-terrorism, combating radicalization, narcotics control, cyber security, connectivity and defence cooperation, as per the official release.During the visit, Misri called on Aide to the President - Secretary of the Security Council of Kazakhstan Gizat Nurdauletov and held discussions with Deputy Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan Kanat Tumysh.The Indian delegation also visited facilities of interest, considering the bilateral strategic relationship between the two countries.Meanwhile, Kazakhstan's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Kanat Tumysh recently expressed optimism over India's Presidency of G20 and Shanghai Cooperation Organisation this year, said that India's presidency will result in good outcomes, especially at a time when the world is facing a volatile and turbulent situation."We as a country are inspired by the leadership of India in G20 and SCO. We are also proceeding by the understanding that the motto of the Indian G20 Presidency is very important in each and every country on our planet especially in this volatile and turbulent situation," Kanat Tumysh said.In an interview with ANI, he said, "We congratulate India on its SCO presidency, and it's very important to underline that it is conducted at a time of great changes to the world economy, especially like the conflicts in our planet, trade war and sanction war. But I do believe that it will result in a very good outcome."Hailing India's innovation and Startup initiatives, Kanat Tumysh stated that such initiatives will create additional momentum and favourable conditions if India's ideas for startup and innovation are utilized."Initiative of India to create a working group on innovation and startup is also a very important idea. We fully support this idea. Because it is very important to create opportunities for our youth. We do believe the need to utilise this idea in the sectors such as Energy cooperation, environment cooperation which will be the priorities of Kazakhstan in its SCO presidency," Tumysh said."Both initiative of India and Kazakhstan will create additional momentum and will create favourable conditions if we utilise India's ideas for startup and innovation," he added.On the bilateral trade relationship between India and Kazakhstan, the minister stressed the positive dynamics of bilateral trade turnover, which by the end of 2022 amounted to USD 2.4 billion, which is 16.67 per cent higher than in the previous year.ANI04 August 2023

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Microsoft faces backlash over irresponsible security practices

New Delhi, August 4: Microsoft is facing mounting criticism for their lack of transparency and irresponsible security practices.

Microsoft faces backlash over irresponsible security practices

In a blog post, Amit Yoran, the CEO of the cybersecurity company Tenable, said Microsoft's cybersecurity track record is "even worse than you think".Tenable Research discovered a critical flaw in Microsoft's Azure platform in March, allowing unauthorised access to steal sensitive data.Microsoft was also made aware of the vulnerability, but it took them more than 90 days to release a patch.The cybersecurity firm claimed that this security flaw has exposed several customers, including a bank, to cyberattacks.Cloud providers use a shared responsibility model, which is harmed when vendors fail to notify customers about issues as they arise and apply fixes as soon as possible."Last week, Senator Ron Wyden sent a letter to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) asking that they hold Microsoft accountable for a repeated pattern of negligent cybersecurity practices, which has enabled Chinese espionage against the US government," Yoran said.The CEO further said that Microsoft plans to fix the problem by the end of September, but the delay is "grossly irresponsible, if not blatantly negligent".He also pointed out data from Google's Project Zero, which showed that Microsoft products have accounted for 42.5 per cent of all discovered zero-day vulnerabilities since 2014.Responding to Yoran's criticism, Microsoft told The Verge "We appreciate the collaboration with the security community to responsibly disclose product issues. We follow an extensive process involving a thorough investigation, update development for all versions of affected products, and compatibility testing among other operating systems and applications."Ultimately, developing a security update is a delicate balance between timeliness and quality, while ensuring maximised customer protection with minimised customer disruption."Meanwhile, Microsoft took the top spot in the second quarter (Q2) of 2023 as the most impersonated brand for phishing scams, according to the report by Check Point Research.It climbed up the rankings last quarter, moving from third place in Q1 2023 to the top spot in Q2.The tech giant accounted for 29 per cent of all brand phishing attempts.IANS04 August 2023

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Swiss embassy denies suspending Schengen visa appointments for Indians

New Delhi, Aug 4: The Embassy of Switzerland in India has denied reports that it has suspended Schengen visa appointments for Indian tour groups until October due to high volume of applications.

Swiss embassy denies suspending Schengen visa appointments for Indians

"We have almost 800 daily appointments through the end of September 2023. These include 22 groups," the mission said in a statement released on Thursday.Asserting that people-to-people contact is at the core of Swiss-Indian relationship, the Embassy said that it has processed more visa applications in the current year than it did in 2019."We have surpassed our pre-pandemic times processing level. From January until June, we handled 129,446 applications, as against 120,071 during the same period in 2019 -- a 7.8 per cent increase."In addition, it said various measures have been implemented since the beginning of 2023 to further ease the visa application process for Indian applicants.As per these measures, it would now be possible for the applicants to apply for their visa six months before their date of travel, as against one month in the past.So, someone wishing to travel in June can already apply for a visa in January.Further, the Embassy has increased its overall capacity in India. With a new Visa Application Centre (VAC) in Lucknow, there are now 13 VACs all over India, where applications can be submitted.The mission also informed that at present it takes "no more than 13 working days between the appointment by our partner VFS Global and the Embassy's decision on the application".The statement of clarification came following media reports on Tuesday which said that Indian tour operators were informed by the Swiss embassy to reschedule group trips to allow ample time for visa processing."Swiss embassies are currently dealing with a lack of staff," several media reports had said, citing Simon Bosshart, Head of Markets East at Switzerland Tourism.A Schengen visa is a short-stay visa granting individuals an opportunity to travel to any member country within the Schengen Area for tourism or business purposes for up to 90 days.One Schengen visa application costs 80 euros or Rs 7,260 in India.India had the second-highest number of Schengen visa rejections worldwide in 2022, leading to an estimated loss of Rs 87 crore on canceled trips, according to SchengenVisaInfo.com.Indians spent a total of over Rs 487 crore on Schengen visa applications alone, for 6,71,928 applications in 2022.Out of Rs 487 crore, more than Rs 87 crore was lost on the 1,21,188 visa applications that were rejected.IANS04 August 2023

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Ritabhari Chakraborty chose Fatafati, gained weight to spread message of body positivity

Mumbai, Aug 4: Bengali actress Ritabhari Chakraborty, who has been getting a lot of positive response to her work in the Bengali film 'Fatafati', has shared that she chose the film out of all projects that she had at the time of signing because she wanted to send out a social message surrounding body positivity. The actress also gained weight for her role.

Ritabhari Chakraborty chose 'Fatafati', gained weight to spread message of body positivity

The actress said that she had two surgeries in 2020, after which she gained six kgs, though it's not a big number but for an actress, it's quite a lot because there are certain expectations from actresses of her age.She said, "Aritra Mukherjee (the director of the film) and I have done 'Brahma Janen Gopon Kommoti' together and when 'Fatafati' came to his mind, he wanted me to be part of it, however, the challenge was that I had to go from medium to XL for it which means gaining 15-20 kilos more."The actress shared that this character came to her when she had a couple of other projects underway. For one project, she had to lose all the extra kilos whereas for 'Fatafati', she had to go bulky.She further mentioned, "I have realised that if we are either skinny or bulky, the audience will comment on our bodies in either of these cases. As an actor, I chose 'Fatafati' because I wanted to spread a message about body positivity. For this role, I came back after two surgeries, hence my trainer made sure to add sweet potatoes and stuff like Ghee which would bulk me up but not harm my body"'Fatafati' also stars Abir Chatterjee and has been directed by Aritra Mukherjee.Talking about the film, Ritabhari said, "'Fatafati' weaves together a powerful narrative that holds a mirror up to the viewers. Unrealistic societal standards of beauty are detrimental to the self-esteem of women. No two bodies are the same, but all deserve respect and acceptance"."I have had my own struggles with body image over the years, so playing the character of Phullora was both a personal and liberating experience for me. It not only made me feel more comfortable in my skin but also helped me embrace my individuality. The film celebrates all the differences that make each of us uniquely Fatafati", she added.The film has been produced by Nandita Roy and Shiboprosad Mukherjee under the banner of Windows Productions.After getting good response at the box-office, the film dropped on Sony LIV on Friday.aa/svnIANS04 August 2023

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LS passes Inter-Services Organisations Bill & Indian Institutes of Management (Amendment) Bill

New Delhi, August 4: The Lok Sabha on Friday passed the Inter-Services Organisations Bill, 2023 and the Indian Institutes of Management Bill, 2023, within 40 minutes after short discussions through voice vote, amid protests by opposition members over the Manipur violence.

LS passes Inter-Services Organisations Bill & Indian Institutes of Management (Amendment) Bill

As the House convened at 12 p.m. opposition members arrived and stood in the Well of the House, displaying placards and shouting slogans.Rajendra Agrawal, who was officiating the proceedings, urged them to stop the protests and let the House function."Yesterday was good (as the discussion on Delhi services bill was held with opposition also participating in it). There should be discussion on the House like yesterday," Agrawal said.Amid protests, the House took up the two bills for discussion and passing.Even the Anusandhan National Research Foundation Bill, 2023 was introduced in Lok Sabha, which aims to set up the Anusandhan National Research Foundation.Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, while piloting the Inter-Services Organisations (Command, Control and Discipline) Bill, 2023, said that "it is an important step towards integration and jointness in the three wings of our armed forces so that they will be able to face the challenges of the future in a united and integrated manner".He said that he wanted to assure the House that this bill is an important step in the direction of military reforms and does not include any additional financial implications.Rajnath Singh urged the House to pass the bill as it has been cleared by the Parliamentary standing committee on defence without any changes."It will also help create an environment that will strengthen discipline in our Inter-Services Organisations," he said.The bill was later passed through voice vote after a short discussion. As of now members of the armed forces are governed by three separate laws, i.e the Army Act of 1950, the Air Force Act of 1950 and the Navy Act of 1957.Only officers from the same service have the authority to discipline those who fall under their respective Acts. This creates challenges in maintaining command, control, and discipline within groups that consist of members from different services.The lack of disciplinary authority for the commander-in-chief of a joint services command and the officer-in-command of other inter-services organisations is a significant issue.When any armed forces personnel is accused of a crime they must be sent back to their parent service unit for disciplinary or administrative action.Whenever there are disciplinary or administrative issues involving personnel from different military branches it becomes even more complicated. This leads to multiple sets of proceedings under each branch's rules, causing delays and affecting discipline.To address these issues, the new bill aims to make things easier and ensure maintenance of discipline and faster resolution of cases.Meanwhile, the Indian Institutes of Management (Amendment) Bill, 2023 was also passed in Lok Sabha after a short discussion through voice vote.The bill seeks to amend the Indian Institutes of Management Act, 2017, to upgrade the National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE) in Mumbai into an IIM. NITIE was set up by the government of India in 1963 with the help of the UN Development Programme and the International Labour Organization.The bill proposes amendments to the IIM Act of 2017, including increased presidential powers in IIMs which has raised concerns over the balance between accountability and autonomy of these eminent management institutes in the country.The amendment declares the 20 IIMs across the country as 'institutions of national importance'.The bill introduced in Lok Sabha by Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan proposes to appoint the President as the 'Visitor' to all the IIMs.As per the proposed changes, the 'Visitor' will have powers to conduct audits, and even appoint or remove the chairpersons of the board of governors and directors.The bill allows the President, as the 'Visitor', to appoint the chairperson of the coordination forums for each IIM.The coordination fora have been proposed for better coordination among all management insinuating common policy objectives.IANS04 August 2023

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Kerala HC wants govt to conduct study on legacy waste for road construction

Kochi, Aug 4: The Kerala High Court on Thursday raised a point if the state government could conduct an expert study to see if legacy waste at Brahmapuram can be used for the construction of roads.

Kerala HC wants govt to conduct study on legacy waste for road construction

According to the Ernakulam District Collector, N.S.K Umesh, seven lakh tonnes of legacy waste is lying at Brahmapuram, which hogged the media headlines after a fire broke out and raged for a few days before it was contained.The high court had initiated suo moto proceedings in the matter and the state had asked the presiding bench to constitute a Special Bench for consideration of issues relating to Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016.Accordingly, a special bench comprising Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas and Justice P. Gopinath took up the matter Friday, which orally asked the state government to see if an expert study be done to use the legacy waste for road construction.The District Collector also apprised the court of progress in the socio-economic health impact assessment study.The court was informed that a committee is already formed, institutions have been identified, questionnaires are being prepared and a survey will be conducted soon.The court stated that the report can be placed before it when the study is completed.Further, the court examined the scope of bio-mining of legacy waste for land reclamation at Brahmapuram.Regarding setting up of bio-mining at Brahmapuram, the court was informed that tenders have been invited from contractors.The court also asked if there is seepage of water into the wells from the legacy waste lying at Brahmapuram, and the officials informed that steps have already been taken to prevent seepage.The court pointed out that they will continue monitoring this issue and said that necessary statements and reports be filed and posted the case to August 18.IANS04 August 2023

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For seven decades the United States and Australia have worked together as allies. At the 33rd Australia-U.S. Ministerial Conference, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, Our relationship has never been stronger or more important for us and, I would argue, for the world.

At a press briefing with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong, and Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles, Secretary Blinken said that chief among the leaders discussion was their commitment to a free, open, secure, prosperous, resilient, and connected Indo-Pacific:

A region where countries are free to chart their own path and to choose their own partners  where issues are dealt with openly, transparently; rules are decided together; theyre applied fairly; goods, ideas, and people can flow lawfully and freely.

To advance that goal, the U.S. and Australia are working not only with one another, but also through revitalized and new coalitions; for example, with India and Japan in the QUAD; with the United Kingdom in AUKUS; and with elevated engagement with the Pacific Islands Forum. The work of these partnerships is manifold, including connecting more people to the Internet and telecommunications infrastructure; enhancing maritime domain awareness; promoting sustainable and inclusive economic growth; and making communities more resilient to climate change.

At the same time, said Secretary Blinken, our two countries are defending the international rules-based order:

Were doing that in part by engaging China, but also, as necessary, opposing its efforts to disrupt freedom of navigation and overflight in the South and East China Seas, to upend the status quo that has preserved peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, to pressure countries through economic coercion or threats to their citizens.

The United States and Australia are also united in supporting Ukraine against Russias brutal war of aggression. Australias assistance continues to be critical to the fight for Ukraines sovereignty, for its territorial integrity, for its future, said Secretary Blinken.

Quoting President Joe Biden, Secretary Blinken said the United States has no closer or more reliable ally than Australia. Today, he declared, builds on our successful past and guides our work together to build a stronger, more secure and more peaceful world for everyone.
Huma Qureshi on Tarla: Renu Dalal said you remind me of my mother (IANS Interview)

New Delhi, Aug 4: A cinematic masterpiece that defies age and inspires women of all stages in life to find their 'something', actress Huma Qureshi starrer 'Tarla' is a remarkable journey from an ordinary housewife to a visionary.

Huma Qureshi on 'Tarla': 'Renu Dalal said you remind me of my mother' (IANS Interview)

The biopic based on the life of late celebrity chef and cookbook author, Tarla Dalal, has received positive reviews, and the audience has praised the storytelling.Huma, who starred in and as Tarla, has revealed the 'best compliment' that she has received for her performance in the movie."The best compliment I have received was from Tarla Dalal's daughter- Renu Dalal. Renu told me that 'Oh my god you really remind me of my mother'. That was a very overwhelming thought for a daughter to say that, really means everything. And the love of course keeps coming from the fans," Huma told IANS.Huma said she is happy, and excited to get so much love for the film. "Just really happy with the response 'Tarla' is getting, also it's a totally different character from Monica Machado in 'Monica, O My Darling', which I last did, so I think that is getting a lot of appreciation, which is a good feeling."Tarla Dalal was a food writer, chef, cookbook author and host of cooking shows. Her first cookbook, 'The Pleasures of Vegetarian Cooking', was published in 1974. She also ran the largest Indian food web site, and published a bi-monthly magazine, 'Cooking & More'. Her cooking shows included 'The Tarla Dalal Show' and 'Cook It Up With Tarla Dalal'. She passed away on November 6, 2013.Q. Narrating the story of such a legendary person who is not with us anymore, how difficult was the filming process?A. Huma said "It is difficult, as you are playing a real life character. I would have loved to meet Tarla ji, but unfortunately it was not written in my destiny. I met her family, children and fans, who still listen to her so fondly and with love. So, I knew the responsibility... I have to play such a legend."The 37-year-old actress shared that she wasn't stressed to play the character, but was excitedly nervous."Because I didn't know how it was going to happen. For me half of my job is also like it involves other people's conviction. Piyush Gupta, my director, had a lot of faith in me, even on days when I did not have that conviction in myself. So that's a really nice feeling, to work with people who are backing you," she said.Praising her director, Huma said "I feel like Piyush really backed me on this one. So, I think we both shared that level of stress, responsibility. But we were very sure that if we will do our work properly, then the results would be there for everyone to see. So, we were not focused too much on the outcome of it, we were just focusing on our beats correctly. It was 'one step at a time' philosophy for us."The film stars Sharib Hashmi as Tarla's husband Nalin Dalal. The husband-wife equation shown in the movie is really endearing. Talking about the same, Huma said, "I think Sharib is an amazing actor. Everything he does, he brings so much grace and dignity, and authenticity to it.""I was so happy that we had him play Nalin. Tarla ji's husband Nalin also had a beautiful and difficult journey. He brings so much energy. It's a Tarla's story, but it is a husband wife relation too, where we both complement and support each other. People told me that they wished to have this kind of relationship with their spouses," shared Huma.Nalin passed away in 2005.She further said that Tarla ji has empowered women, and changed the rules of the game. "The film is a clutter breaker and conversation starter.""The movie will remind you of your childhood, and bring a smile on your face," added Huma.Produced by Ronnie Screwvala's RSVP Movies and Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari and Nitesh Tiwari's Earthsky Pictures, 'Tarla' is streaming on ZEE5.On the work front, Huma will be next seen in 'Pooja Meri Jaan'.IANS04 August 2023

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J-K female journalist Komal Minhas recognised at national level

Srinagar, August 4: Till five or six years ago, the number of women in the field of journalism in Jammu and Kashmir was negligible. Although a few women were associated with radio and television, you could see very few women in print and electronic media, and social media. One of the reasons for this was that women did not consider this profession safe for them.

J-K female journalist Komal Minhas recognised at national level

In the last few years, especially after 2019, a large number of women in Jammu as well as Kashmir have taken up journalism as a profession and they are happily performing these duties, including ground reporting. Rather, Kashmir has seen an unexpected increase in the number of female anchors on social media in recent years, who have left a deep impression in this sector with their professional skills and are also being liked a lot.There are many women in Jammu too who have a name in the world of journalism. Prominent among them are Anuradha Bhasin, Saroj Razdan and Benu Joshi, Sushmita Sen.Apart from this, the youngsters include Pallavi Sarin, Pragya Sagotra, photojournalist Shilpa Thakur, Rashmi Sharma and Komal Singh Minhas etc.Komal Singh Minhas is from Jammu and Kashmir. She is the first woman journalist to be honoured with the 'Invaluable of India' award. She was conferred with the award during a function held at Dr Ambedkar International Center Janpath, New Delhi.The former News 18 India's Jammu Bureau Chief was given the award for her continued reporting during her pregnancy and excellent coverage of conferences in Sudhra, Sanjawan, Poonch and Rajouri.'Bharat Ke Anmol' is a one-of-a-kind national award, given to eminent personalities in India who have not only excelled in their field of speciality but also served society and the underprivileged.The award ceremony is a prestigious initiative aimed at empowering visionaries and encouraging innovators. The event served as a symbol of recognition and appreciation for individuals and organizations who have made significant contributions to society, culture, arts, science, business and beyond.Dr Vijay Kumar Shah, Dr TS Rao, Dr SM Khan, Air Commodore Rashid Zafar Qureshi, Sunita Duggal MP Haryana, Mir Mutasim and Chandrakala Padia were also recognized.ANI04 August 2023

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Sharjah Press Club concludes 5th edition of Ithmar Programme

Sharjah, August 4: The Sharjah Press Club, an initiative of the Sharjah Government Media Bureau, successfully wrapped up the fifth edition of its Ithmar Media Training Programme on Thursday at Al Qasimia University in Sharjah.

Sharjah Press Club concludes 5th edition of Ithmar Programme

The Ithmar Media Training Programme targets children and youth, with the aim of inculcating in them nascent interest, skills, and awareness in the new generation, between the ages of ten to 17 years.Alya Al Suwaidi, Director of the Sharjah Government Media Bureau, accompanied by Asma Al Juwaied, Manager of the Sharjah Press Club, honoured the training partners, experts, and specialists from national and international media institutions in the presence of students' parents and representatives of schools taking part in the programme.The final component of the programme included a presentation of content and articles, prepared and presented by the participating students, showcasing their skills and the Ithmar's role in honing and developing their creative talents and capabilities.The fifth edition of the Ithmar Programme witnessed a remarkable turnout of students due to the tangible results it has produced in line with the objectives. The Ithmar Programme participants are annually selected by an external committee of specialists and experts, following personal interviews with students and evaluating them according to the criteria specified for joining the programme.Immensely useful training and insightful, interactive workshops conducted by leading media experts are provided to the students participating in the programme in cooperation with CNN Arabic, the Dubai Post news website, and the Job Shadow Programme by the Sharjah Government Media Bureau.The training programme included field visits to various media outlets in the country, including the Sharjah Broadcasting Authority, Dubai Media Corporation, Al Arabiya News Channel, AlHadath Channel, and CNN Arabic.The training workshops were held in various locations across the Emirate, including Al Qasimia University, the Sharjah Centre for Entrepreneurship, the Frisbee in Sharjah, and the Al Majaz Amphitheatre.The students presented graduation projects that were implemented within phases divided according to the timeframe of the programme to identify the students' knowledge, and skills, and to monitor the tangible outcome of the initiative leading to early identification of talents in young people in order to groom national media cadres supporting the UAE's march of progress.The training programme focused on building awareness of true and false information, addressing rumours, and protecting against social media intrusions. During the month-long training period, the participants had an opportunity to learn about the many media skills and technologies, including Artificial Intelligence journalism, and the opportunities and tools that technology provides in media content production processes.Students were armed with an essential understanding of various types of media and their impact, the various stages of news production, news research skills, steps to produce video and audio content, speaking skills, photography, mobile journalism, and the basics of preparing video reports.ANI04 August 2023

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edForce launches ElevateEdge to create Soft Skill Excellence in the Indian IT Industry

PNN, Bangalore, August 4: edForce, a leading workforce upskilling accelerator, today launched ElevateEdge, an initiative aimed at filling the huge gap between the demand and availability of Soft Skills in the Indian IT Industry.

edForce launches ElevateEdge to create Soft Skill Excellence in the Indian IT Industry

This groundbreaking initiative is set to reshape the landscape of professional development in India. Despite investing over Rupees 20,000 Crores annually to upskill its over 60 lakh employees, the Indian IT industry still faces the challenge of providing its employees with much-needed skills.As per Thirumala Arohi, CLO of Infosys, the increased adoption of new digital technologies and automation would require significant reskilling, and that is reflected in many firms' workplace transformation strategies.With over 100 Corporate customers, such as Walmart, Infosys, Sony, HP, Dell, Mercedes Benz, Tech Mahindra, Samsung, etc, edForce ElevateEdge has been backed by investors and it's pilot has been effective in building business communication, dynamic leadership, emotional intelligence, adaptability, and addressing the entire spectrum of business soft skills.According to Ravi Kaklasaria, Co-founder & CEO of edForce, "ElevateEdge is more than a product; it's an emblem of our commitment to empower individuals and organizations, transcending the boundaries of the upskilling industry. Our vision is to ignite a transformative journey for every participant, propelling India's soft skill ecosystem into an era of unparalleled excellence.ElevateEdge is a visionary leap into the future of professional excellence, designed to cater to diverse upskilling requirements across various sectors. It offers a holistic approach to soft skill upskilling, empowering workforce and organizations to navigate the dynamic corporate landscape with unmatched finesse. With this innovative leap forward, edForce is set to become a trailblazer, paving the way for a brighter, more skilled workforce.edForce is the premier Bengaluru-based Workforce Upskilling Accelerator, catering to enterprises of all sizes by providing comprehensive learning solutions, including training, certifications, learning paths, assessments, labs, and infrastructure. Trusted by industry leaders such as Infosys, Walmart, Siemens, Sony, Microsoft, and more, edForce delivers high-quality learning experiences in areas like cloud computing, agile, cyber security, project management, and IT service management. For more information, visit https//www.edforce.co.ANI04 August 2023

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India, Venezuela underline importance of business collaboration for mutual benefit

New Delhi, August 4: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met Executive Vice President of Venezuela Delcy Rodriguez on Friday and underlined the importance of business collaboration for mutual benefit.

India, Venezuela underline importance of business collaboration for mutual benefit

Taking to Twitter. Jaishankar said, "A good meeting with Executive Vice President @delcyrodriguezv of Venezuela during her visit for the 9th India-LAC Conclave. Exchanged perspectives on the global situation and noted our cooperation in multilateral domain. Spoke about our respective approaches to development challenges. Underlined the importance of business collaboration for mutual benefit."Earlier, Rodriguez arrived in India on Wednesday to participate in the ninth Confederation of Indian Industry India-LAC Conclave.In a tweet, Rodriguez said that on behalf of Nicolas Maduro, the President of Venezuela, she participated in the IX Economic Conclave between India, Latin America and the Caribbean."We reaffirm our commitment to a multipolar world, respectful of international law and without unilateral coercive measures. United, let's move forward!" she added.Last year, India and Venezuela held the fourth round of Foreign Office consultations in Caracas.During the meeting, the two sides reviewed bilateral ties and exchanged views on different sectors, including politics, trade, energy, health, pharmaceuticals, Ayurveda and Yoga, agriculture, culture and science and technology.India and Venezuela discussed regional and international issues of common interest, the Ministry of External Affairs said in the press release.According to the Ministry of External Affairs, India and Venezuela have maintained cordial relations. The two nations celebrated the establishment of diplomatic ties in 2009. Resident Embassies have been in Caracas and New Delhi for more than three decades and "there is mutual goodwill and cooperation between the two countries including in multilateral fora."ANI05 August 2023

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ELKO  U.S. Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nev., said we are off to the races for Elko Countys inclusion in his lands bill, and he reported to Elko County Commissioners on successful efforts to help Carlin prevent trains from blocking intersections.

Elko County hopes to acquire chunks of federal acreage managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management for recreational use in the Elko area and for the airport in Jackpot.

We are waiting for the maps to come back from the Elko BLM office and the state BLM office for the resolution that you folks sent to us about 27 days ago about the shooting range, Spring Creek and Jackpot, the congressman said during his Aug. 2 appearance before the county board.

His Northern Nevada Economic Development and Conservation Act of 2023 currently seeks to convey federal lands to Douglas and Pershing counties, the cities of Fernley and Sparks, and the Incline Village General Improvement District.

The bill also would remove the possibility of any oil and gas leasing on more than 300,000 acres of the Ruby Mountains just outside the current wilderness area and create 150,000 acres of wilderness in northern Nevada.

Commissioners had criticized Amodei in May because they thought they hadnt been properly consulted about the 2023 bill regarding the Ruby Mountains, but they didnt say anything publicly to him during his appearance Wednesday. Amodei had said the county was consulted when a similar bill was introduced the prior year.

About Carlins problems with trains blocking intersections, Amodei said weve been working on behalf of the City of Carlin talking to those fine folks in Omaha, Nebraska otherwise known as the Union Pacific Railroad about the kind of nasty habit of parking trains across the main street there overnight and having a major impact on what you do for public safety and how you respond to one part of town from another.

He said he would never say mission accomplished, but I would say we have the folks at the City of Carlin in contact with the 24-hour dispatch folks for Union Pacific for this reason, so if anyone leaves a train parked across whatever in their city or any other city for that matter, theyve got the ability to help themselves.

Amodei said he and his staff would keep the railroad on their radar screen.

Carlin City Manager Madison Aviles said in an Aug. 3 email that we are working with UP Dispatch, as well as their public affairs team directly. They have been a great help so far, and were going to continue keeping that line of communication open.

Aviles is continuing to work as city manager after moving out of state while Carlin advertises for a new manager.

Amodei also said he was in the process of supporting a bill that basically undoes a rule put into effect by the current administration to include conservation as part of multiple land uses that could block swaths of land from other potential uses.

Nobody should pick on your locals for that. It is coming from the national BLM, Amodei said.

He said nobodys opposed to conservation, nobodys anti-resources, but we are for letting the NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) process take its course through a transparent process and let the chips fall where they may.

He expects the bill to pass in the U.S. House but doesnt know how the Senate will vote.

Counties and communities also may qualify for special project funding that used to be called earmarks, such as the funding for DNA testing equipment for the Elko County Sheriffs Department last year, Amodei said, telling commissioners there is a request for an emergency operations center that came in this year.

I was shocked when I saw that request for an emergency operations center for Elko County. Its not something I would even support, said Chairman Rex Steninger. He told Amodei requests like that should come through the county commissioners first.

Commissioner Delmo Andreozzi asked Amodei if he had heard about a proposal from a ranch in Elko County to swap 84,939 private acres for more than 235,000 acres of BLM land. The congressman replied that we know its out there. Such a land deal would require a public process that would include environmental analysis.
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Champaign, IL (61820)

Today

Cloudy with occasional rain...mainly this evening. Low 63F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Locally heavy rainfall possible..

Tonight

Cloudy with occasional rain...mainly this evening. Low 63F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Locally heavy rainfall possible.
Vice Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Vo Van Hoan receives UK State Secretary of the Ministry of Energy Security and Net Zero Graham Stuart. (Photo: SGGP)

On August 2, Vice Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Vo Van Hoan had a meeting with Mr. Graham Stuart, on his business trip to Ho Chi Minh City.

Welcoming Mr. Graham Stuart back to visit Ho Chi Minh City, Vice Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Vo Van Hoan said that the contents of the Ministry of Energy Security and Net Zero in charge are also issues of great concern to Ho Chi Minh City.

Currently, Ho Chi Minh City is pursuing green development goals to achieve the national goal of green economy. Ho Chi Minh City has a plan to implement this goal covering all areas of life from green production, renewable energy use, organic agriculture, circular agriculture and clean agriculture, to health, culture and tourism, towards smart healthcare and smart education. All are on the basis of green technical infrastructure and green finance, including carbon credits that are being applied in the world.

He looks forward to Mr. Graham Stuart to share his experience on standards, legal frameworks, mechanisms and policies to build a financial center and attract investors.

In the field of education, he said that Ho Chi Minh City is ready to support the British Council's activities, implement training links in Ho Chi Minh City and support organizing the UK festival in Ho Chi Minh City.

On behalf of the delegation, Mr. Graham Stuart expressed his pleasure to be able to organize and attend events on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and the UK. He was also interested in the economic forum held in Ho Chi Minh City with the theme "Green Growth - A Journey towards Net Zero".

Regarding the cooperation exchanges of the leaders of Ho Chi Minh City, Mr. Graham Stuart expressed his agreement and willingness to support, coordinate and share experiences with Ho Chi Minh City to prepare for the next steps such as supporting the legal framework to build a financial center and smart healthcare. The ministry will also have a report on the UK's biomass strategy on energy transition and is ready to introduce British businesses to Vietnam's strategy to achieve zero carbon emissions./.
Champaign, IL (61820)

Today

Partly cloudy early. Thunderstorms developing this afternoon. Gusty winds and small hail are possible. High 82F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%..

Tonight

Thunderstorms early, then variable clouds overnight with still a chance of showers. Low 64F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%.
Champaign, IL (61820)

Today

Cloudy early, then thunderstorms developing this afternoon. Gusty winds and small hail are possible. High 82F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%..

Tonight

Thunderstorms early, then variable clouds overnight with still a chance of showers. Low near 65F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 80%.
As the climate changes, how doctors treat patients, and medical program curricula, are evolving

As extreme and slow onset weather events increase, so too are the public health issues that come with those changes
Over 150 members of AFSCME and the United Steelworkers District 7 gathered at the library on July 19 to present the petition to library Dean Claire Stewart, who gave them a firm no at the time.
Neurologist Beau Ances, MD, PhD, talks with his patient, Adam Kloppenberg, who has Down syndrome, at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. People with Down syndrome are at very high risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. Ances is involved in a project led by Jason Hassenstab, PhD, an associate professor of neurology, to develop tools to measure cognitive function in people with Down syndrome-associated Alzheimer's disease.

Nearly every person with Down syndrome eventually develops Alzheimer's disease, yet people with the syndrome routinely are excluded from Alzheimer's clinical trials, as the cognitive assessment tools designed for the general population often are inappropriate for people with developmental disabilities. Consequently, nobody knows whether the new Alzheimer's therapeutics hitting the market will work for people with Down syndrome. This puts this population at risk of missing out on potentially life-changing therapies.

Jason Hassenstab, PhD, an associate professor of neurology and of psychological & brain sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, is seeking to address this exclusion, with the help of an $11 million grant from the National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The grant will fund the Down Syndrome - Ambulatory Research in Cognition study, an international collaboration that aims to build and validate novel assessment technology for clinical trials of people with Down syndrome-associated Alzheimer's disease.

What we're trying to do is build an outcome measure for clinical trials that can work in a population with varying levels of intellectual ability. This is especially important for people with Down syndrome, since most are destined to develop Alzheimer's, but we don't have a good way of monitoring the clinical symptoms of the disease in this population. For example, many cognitive assessment tools depend on the ability to read and write. Not all people with Down syndrome can read and write." Jason Hassenstab, PhD, principal investigator of the international study

The first phase of research will involve developing a smartphone app designed to measure cognitive function in people with Down syndrome.

The app will randomly ping participants with the notification, "It's time to play a memory game!" By tapping the notification, the participants will be whisked to a gamified smartphone-based cognitive test that will take three to five minutes to complete. The notification will come multiple times a day over the span of a week.

"It's very hard to bring in everybody to be evaluated for Alzheimer's disease," said Beau Ances, MD, PhD, the Daniel J. Brennan, MD, Professor of Neurology and a professor of biomedical engineering and of radiology. "Some people don't like taking tests; some can't take tests at all. So, we have to evaluate in a new way. If you could take the test on your phone, we could get momentary assessments, free from the confounding factors you get in a lab."

Using a smartphone app to sample cognition so frequently will ensure that participant cognition is tested in a variety of natural environments and emotional states. It also will assess the environment, stress and distractibility of participants immediately after testing sessions, guaranteeing that these factors are accounted for. The results from these different tests will then be averaged, and the subsequent score will capture a more accurate picture of the natural variability of cognition.

"We expect to see fluctuations," Hassenstab said. "That's normal, that's how cognition works. We don't capture that when we measure cognition in a single session with participants taking pencil-and-paper tests across from a person in a white lab coat. That little snippet of your cognitive functioning is assumed to represent how your cognition works throughout your entire life, but that's just not true."

The researchers will follow participants for three years in anticipation of launching clinical trials in people with Down syndrome-associated Alzheimer's disease. The tools developed in the first years of the project will be evaluated for their utility at measuring changes in cognitive function over time. If the tools perform well, they could be used in clinical trials to determine the effectiveness of medications in slowing or preventing Alzheimer's in people with Down syndrome.

Down syndrome is biologically characterized by an extra copy of chromosome 21, which houses the gene responsible for producing amyloid, one of two proteins responsible for driving Alzheimer's development. This extra copy of the gene results in exorbitant amyloid production and is the reason why so many people with Down syndrome also develop Alzheimer's disease.

"A lot of people in the community still dont know that if you have Down syndrome, later on in life you have a very high risk of developing Alzheimer's disease," Ances said. "Developing functioning assessment measures for this population could help us start to conduct clinical trials in these populations. Finding better therapies for this community can translate to the larger community as well."

The study's international element makes it especially innovative, according to Hassenstab. It helps guarantee that a diverse population of participants will be included, and that any outcome measure can be used internationally. It also presents unique challenges in creating accurate assessment tools.

"Very few items exist in all places for all people, or if they do, they mean something quite different," Hassenstab said. "For example, here in the U.S., bread means a leavened loaf baked in the oven. In some other places, bread means something flat and round and cooked on a pan, like a tortilla. Developing assessment tools that are valid across languages and cultures is challenging, but it is necessary if we are going to be able to help people of all backgrounds."

The study includes six international sites: Washington University School of Medicine, Kings College London, Hospital Sant Pau in Barcelona, University of Gothenburg in Sweden, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, and Instituto Fleni in Buenos Aires.
In 2017, a road accident left Anna Nzioka with two fractures in her right leg. After a series of operations and physiotherapy, she has slowly learned to walk again, although with the aid of a crutch.

Nzioka cannot walk long distances and requires frequent breaks even when taking short paces.

The single 40-year-old, who runs a small tailoring shop in Viwandani, one of the many informal settlements in Kenya's capital city, Nairobi, where extreme poverty due to limited livelihood opportunities, was severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic as it became difficult for her to access healthcare services for her condition.

According to Kenya's 2019 national census, of the 918,270 people of at least five years old who lived with disability, 385,417 (almost 42 per cent) had mobility impairment.

"The hospital which I would go to is far [about 16.8 kilometers away]. I would first have to pass through the town center then take a matatu [public service transport] which goes to Westlands to drop me at APDK [Association for the Physically Disabled of Kenya] where the hospital is located," Nzioka told SciDev.Net.

She added: "It is not easy, and I would spend almost 350 [Kenya] shillings [about US$2.50] going there."

COVID-19's impacts on disabilities

In 2020, the government imposed a raft of measures to control the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Among these were a curfew and a temporary restriction of movement in and out of the county of Nairobi.

Many specialized clinics and lower-level health facilities were closed or converted into COVID-19 treatment centers as the government sought to shore up already stretched resources. This had a direct impact on access to health facilities and other basic amenities.

In the lead up to Kenya's 2022 general elections, the quality and accessibility of healthcare was a key component of many political parties' manifestos.

According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, 53 percent of the country's 50 million live below US$1.90 a day or are poor as defined by the World Bank's poverty indicator, meaning each day is a struggle harder than the last.

In Nigeria, as many as four out of every ten people lived below the poverty line as of 2022. The country's total population currently stands at 223 million, with 25 million living with a disability.

When the first cases of the COVID-19 virus were confirmed in both countries, a raft of mitigation measures were implemented. Nigeria implemented a lockdown gradually in late March 2020, starting with states of Lagos, Ogun, and the Federal Capital Territory, before rolling it out to the other 36 states. In Kenya, the lockdown was gradual and initially covered hotspot areas.

These sweeping movement restrictions forced many establishments out of business. For many persons with disabilities in many countries across Africa, environmental barriers, stigma and limitations in education mean their main sources of income stem from trading. The pandemic therefore meant that their livelihoods were reduced or cut off altogether.

Tom Okwiri, a resident of the Korogocho slum in Kenya's capital Nairobi knows this too well. The father of four was born with cerebral palsy, which affected the right side of his body and severely impeded his mobility. After completing his secondary education in 2001, his family was unable to finance his pursuit of further studies and he found work as an untrained teacher at a local low-cost private school, where he worked until he was let go in April 2020.

"When the pandemic struck and schools were closed, I was one of the first to lose my job. As if that was not enough, I contracted the virus twice. If it were not for the goodwill of friends, neighbors and a local chemist, I do not know where I would be today," he told SciDev.Net.

Five years ago, Mercy Wanjiru gave birth to a bouncing baby boy. Three months later, he had his first seizure, a precursor for a severe cerebral palsy diagnosis two years later.

When the pandemic struck, Wanjiru, a casual labourer and a single mother of two, had to give up her daily visits to a garbage dumpsite in Nairobi where she would scavenge for resalable items. This meant that she could not afford the daily anti-seizure medication that her son needs. His weekly physiotherapy sessions were also put on hold indefinitely as part of pandemic response measures and later on, due to her inability to pay for the cost.

During the pandemic, many health facilities became inaccessible and those that were still operational served greater numbers of people. This meant that there were often long queues of people, making it difficult to get treatment when needed, especially for those with mobility challenges or those who provide care." Mercy Wanjiru

The UN's Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights says that persons with disabilities are less likely than others to be employed and often when they are, it is more likely in the informal sector. Also, COVID-19 measures may have indirectly affected persons with disabilities by preventing breadwinners from working, negatively impacting incomes at the household level.

"When COVID-19 came, the city [Lagos] was put under lockdown. I used to make money during the night market near my home but after that I couldn't. Life became difficult for me and my children and we often had to beg the neighbours for a bit of food. It wasn't easy because they weren't making money as well," said Rafiat Adebajo, a food vendor based in Lagos.

Limited transport and food supplies flowing into the city also affected her business. As a person with mobility challenges living in a poorer part of the city, life as a widow and a mother of four became unbearable and she moved back to her home village as soon as the lockdowns were eased.

For a group that is often marginalized, the pandemic control measures were bound to disenfranchise slum residents even more, and at a very critical time.

Generating evidence for interventions

As part of Kenya-based African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) project on improving health in slums, a three-week series of telephone interviews was conducted with residents, local healthcare providers, religious leaders and key decision-makers in two of Nairobis slums.

This was part of a larger study conducted in Bangladesh, Kenya, Nigeria and Pakistan covering 1,000 households in each country study-site from 2017 to 2021. The main aim of the study was to explore the overall practices and impact of the COVID-19 mitigation measures on the lives of the urban poor in seven informal settlements across the four study-countries.

The common sentiment from all the communities surveyed was that residents were severely affected by the mitigation measures against COVID-19, owing to the reduced accessibility and availability of healthcare services and increase in cost of drugs.

"The study was informed by the need to generate evidence on healthcare provision and utilization in urban slums. This study aimed to enable the designing of a more inclusive health system that considers the uniqueness of populations in slum contexts," said Peter Kibe, a researcher at the APHRC and a member of the study team.

Part of the investigations sought to understand how the pandemic affected healthcare-seeking among disabled people living in these areas. Disabled people often face disparities in access to healthcare due to attitudinal, environmental and institutional barriers. The pandemic and the subsequent response measures intensified these challenges further.

Poor communication

In many countries across the continent, little consideration is given to persons with disabilities, especially those who cannot use conventional means of communication. This became more profound during the pandemic as many found themselves unable to receive official communication on the mitigation measures that were being rolled out by the respective governments.

According to Ndifreke Andrew-Essien, founder of the FAECARE Foundation based in Nigeria, one of the biggest challenges some of their beneficiaries encountered was lack of information.

"A lot of the messages that the government put out were often inaccessible to those we work with because they were mostly in print or audio-visual. This meant that some information was constantly out of reach for those with visual or hearing challenges," she said. "As an organization, we then had to tailor the messaging further to make it friendly and applicable to those living with these kinds of disabilities."

A call for action

Considering some of the challenges highlighted, governments are being called upon to be more inclusive, borrowing lessons from the pandemic for health systems reform.

"As the only adult in my home, it was very hard to care for both children, but especially my son. The hospital he attends is far but then again, I can't afford it. The government needs to try and bring these [healthcare] services closer to us [in the slums]," Wanjiru said.

Another suggestion would be to increase the capacity of community health workers to provide critical support services such as making home visits, delivering health promotion messages, and treating common diseases.

Andrew-Essien calls for equitable implementation of relief efforts, to include those in rural and far-flung places to prevent further exclusion.
The key to understanding proteins -; such as those that govern cancer, COVID-19, and other diseases -; is quite simple. Identify their chemical structure and find which other proteins can bind to them. But there's a catch.

"The search space for proteins is enormous," said Brian Coventry, a research scientist with the Institute for Protein Design, University of Washington and The Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

A protein studied by his lab typically is made of 65 amino acids, and with 20 different amino acid choices at each position, there are 65 to the 20th power binding combinations, a number bigger than the estimated number of atoms there are in the universe.

Coventry is the co-author of a study published May 2023 in the journal Nature Communications.

In it his team used deep learning methods to augment existing energy-based physical models in 'do novo' or from-scratch computational protein design, resulting in a 10-fold increase in success rates verified in the lab for binding a designed protein with its target protein.

We showed that you can have a significantly improved pipeline by incorporating deep learning methods to evaluate the quality of the interfaces where hydrogen bonds form or from hydrophobic interactions." Nathaniel Bennett, study co-author, post-doctoral scholar at the Institute for Protein Design, University of Washington

"This is as opposed to trying to exactly enumerate all of these energies by themselves," he added.

Readers might be familiar with popular examples of deep learning applications such as the language model ChatGPT or the image generator DALL-E.

Deep learning uses computer algorithms to analyze and draw inferences from patterns in data, layering the algorithms to progressively extract higher-level features from the raw input. In the study, deep learning methods were used to learn iterative transformations of representation of the protein sequence and possible structure that very rapidly converge on models that turn out to be very accurate.

The deep learning-augmented de novo protein binder design protocol developed by the authors included the machine learning software tools AlphaFold 2 and also RoseTTA fold, which was developed by the Institute for Protein Design.

Study co-author David Baker, the director of the Institute for Protein Design and an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, was awarded a Pathways allocation on the Texas Advanced Computing Center's (TACC) Frontera supercomputer, which is funded by the National Science Foundation.

The study problem was well-suited for parallelization on Frontera because the protein design trajectories are all independent of one another, meaning that information didn't need to pass between design trajectories as the compute jobs were running.

"We just split up this problem, which has 2 to 6 million designs in it, and run all of those in parallel on the massive computing resources of Frontera. It has a large amount of CPU nodes on it. And we assigned each of these CPUS to do one of these design trajectories, which let us complete an extremely large number of design trajectories in a feasible time," said Bennett.

The authors used the RifDock docking program to generate six million protein 'docks,' or interactions between potentially bound protein structures, split them into chunks of about 100,000, and assign each chunk to one of Frontera's 8000+ compute nodes using Linux utilities.

Each of those 100,000 docks would be split into 100 jobs of a thousand proteins each. A thousand proteins go into the computational design software Rosetta, where the 1,000 are first screened at the tenth of the second scale, and the ones that survive are screened at the few-minutes scale.

What's more, the authors used the software tool ProteinMPNN developed by the Institute for Protein Design to further increase the computational efficiency of generating protein sequences neural networks to over 200 times faster than the previous best software.

The data used in their modeling is yeast surface display binding data, all publicly available and collected by the Institute for Protein Design. In it, tens of thousands of different strands of DNA were ordered to encode a different protein, which the scientists designed.

The DNA was then combined with yeast such that each yeast cell expresses one of the designed proteins on its surface. The yeast cells were then sorted into cells that bind and cells that don't. In turn, they used tools from the human genome sequencing project to figure out which DNA worked and which DNA didn't work.

Despite the study results that showed a 10-fold increase in the success rate for designed structures to bind on their target protein, there is still a long way to go, according to Coventry.

"We went up an order of magnitude, but we still have three more to go. The future of the research is to increase that success rate even more, and move on to a new class of even harder targets," he said. Viruses and cancer T-cell receptors are prime examples.

The ways to improve the computationally designed proteins are to make the software tools even more optimized, or to sample more.

Said Coventry: "The bigger the computer we can find, the better the proteins we can make. We are building the tools to make the cancer-fighting drugs of tomorrow. Many of the individual binders that we make could go on to become the drugs that save people's lives. We are making the process to make those drugs better."
Vietnamese Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son and his counterpart Enrique Manalo hand over the minutes of the Vietnam - the Philippines joint commission on bilateral cooperation. (Photo: VNA)

The meeting was co-chaired by Vietnamese Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son and his Philippine counterpart Enrique Manalo.

Expressing his pleasure to visit Vietnam for the first time, Minister Manalo emphasized that Vietnam was the first country he visited officially as Minister of Foreign Affairs.

The Minister affirmed that the Philippines always attaches importance to consolidating and developing friendly, cooperative and multi-faceted relations with Vietnam, the Philippines' only strategic partner in ASEAN.

Minister Bui Thanh Son welcomed Minister Manalo for his official visit to Vietnam; and stressed the visit was of great significance, contributing to further promoting the strategic partnership between the two countries.

At the meeting, with the participation of representatives of relevant ministries and sectors of the two countries, the two sides conducted a comprehensive review and assessment of bilateral relations since the 9th meeting of the joint commission in Manila in March 2019 and on the implementation of the Vietnam-Philippines Action Program for the period of 2019-2024.

The two sides were satisfied with the good development of the Vietnam-Philippines Strategic Partnership over the past 4 years, even during the COVID-19 pandemic.

They agreed on many specific measures to further promote cooperation in various fields; including increasing delegation exchanges and high-level contacts, especially the visit to Vietnam by Philippine President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr. at an appropriate time; and effectively implement bilateral cooperation mechanisms, including the Joint Committee on Sea and Ocean Affairs, the Joint Sub-Committee on Trade, the Joint Working Group on Agriculture, and the Joint Working Group on the seafood industry.

They aimed to effectively carry out bilateral cooperation mechanisms; advance the building of an action programme implementing the Vietnam-Philippines strategic partnership for 2025-2030; and to strengthen defence and security cooperation. Moreover, they agreed to strive to bring bilateral trade turnover to USD10 billion at an early date, with a particular emphasis on rice trade.

They pledged to enhance maritime cooperation, share information and coordinate to promptly address arising issues at sea, and improve the effectiveness of cooperation in combating illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Additionally, they concurred to promote collaboration in other important areas such as agriculture, culture, tourism, education, transport, science-technology, environment, and people-to-people exchange.

Vietnam and the Philippines will continue coordinating and supporting each other at multilateral forums, especially in ASEAN and the United Nations; as well as working with other ASEAN member states to maintain ASEAN's solidarity and centrality and promote the blocs sub-regional cooperation, contributing to building a strong and prosperous community.

The two ministers also agreed to strengthen cooperation between their foreign ministries, regarding exchanges on international and regional issues of mutual concern, and joint works between their diplomatic academies.

The ministers signed an agreement and agreed to organise the 11th meeting in the Philippines at a suitable time in 2025./.
Liquid metals (LM) such as pure gallium (Ga) and Ga-based alloys are a new class of materials with unique physicochemical properties. One of the most prominent applications of LMs is photothermal therapy against cancer, in which functional LM nanoparticles convert light energy to heat energy, thus killing cancerous cells. LM-based phototherapy is superior to traditional cancer therapy owing to its high specificity, repeatability, and low side effects.

In a new cutting-edge study, Associate Professor Eijiro Miyako and his colleagues from Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST) synthesized multifunctional Ga-based nanoparticles that combine cancer phototherapy with immunotherapy. The synthesized novel LM nanoparticle (PEG-IMIQ-LM) contains a eutectic gallium-indium (EGaIn) LM alloy and an immunological modulator imiquimod (IMIQ), both embedded inside a biocompatible surfactant DSPE-PEG 2000 -NH 2 . The detailed findings of their study were published in Advanced Functional Materials.

We believe that the convergence of nano-immuno engineering and LM technology could provide a promising modality to trigger ideal immune responses for advancing cancer immunotherapy. In this study, we report light-activatable multifunctional LM nanoparticles with immunostimulants to combine photothermal therapy with immunotherapy." Eijiro Miyako, Associate Professor, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology

Dr. Miyako discusses the team's motivation to conduct this study.

First, the research team prepared water-dispersible LM nanoparticles through a simple one-step sonication process using DSPE-PEG 2000 -NH 2 to introduce IMIQ. This is considered a huge breakthrough, as EGaIn LM is inherently a water-immiscible material. Further investigations confirmed that LM disintegrates to ensure IMIQ delivery to the target. Moreover, the prepared nanoparticle displayed a linear increase in absorbance in the near-infrared (NIR) region at 808 nm, confirming its optically activatable nature.

When the aqueous solution of the LM nanoparticle was irradiated by the NIR laser (808 nm), the team observed a notable increase in the temperature of the solution, which was proportional to the increase in the nanoparticle concentration. These findings confirmed that PEG-IMIQ-LM nanoparticle was a robust and stable photothermal drug carrier, suitable for immunotherapy.

Further experiments revealed that LM nanoparticles were extremely safe and did not cause cytotoxicity in human fibroblast (MRC5) and mouse colon cancer (Colon26) cells. To assess the degree of internalization and distribution of the particles, a fluorescent dye known as indocyanine green (ICG) was introduced into the particle through sonication resulting in PEG-ICG-IMIQ-LM particle. Fluorescent (FL) microscopy equipped with a laser beam demonstrated that the LM particle displayed strong fluorescence at various NIR wavelengths and immediately destroyed the Colon26 cells. Thus, LM particles could not only efficiently deliver the immunomodulant, but could also enable their real time tracking and eliminate specific cancer cells.

Finally, the team developed a multifaceted LM immune nanostimulator for cancer theranostics. To do so, they added anti-programmed death ligand-1 antibody (Anti-PD-L1), one of the most promising immune checkpoint inhibitors, to the existing fluorescent LM nanoparticle. The modified particle, Anti-PD-L1PEG-ICG-IMIQ-LM, was dispersed efficiently with significant fluorescence. With increasing time post irradiation, the tumor surface temperature increased linearly, indicative of the antitumor effect of the nanoparticle.

Addition of Anti-PD-L1 onto the nanoparticle enabled binding of the LM particle to PD-L1 on the cancer cells, marking them for phagocytosis by macrophages and dendritic cells (DC). Laser-induced Anti-PD-L1-PEG-IMIQ-LM particles exhibited the highest and complete cancer removal, along with faster healing and recovery.

Moreover, when the tumor recurred, mice treated with laser-induced Anti-PD-L1-PEG-IMIQ-LM particles displayed sustained antitumor effectiveness and prolonged survival.

While discussing the future implications of the study, Dr. Miyako muses, "We believe that these synergistic immunological effects and optical nanofunctions of LMs have wide therapeutic applications and might contribute to innovative cancer theranostic technologies. We are hopeful that this technology will be available for clinical trials in 10 years."

We cannot wait to see how the team's findings contribute to novel and effective treatments against cancer.
In a recent review published in BJC reports, a group of authors assessed the opportunities and challenges brought on by the swift transition to virtual consultations (VC) in the United Kingdom (UK) cancer genetics services during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, promoting an integrated approach to optimize patient outcomes.

Study: The role of virtual consultations in cancer genetics: challenges and opportunities introduced by the COVID-19 pandemic. Image Credit: PopTika/Shutterstock.com

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the UK's National Health Service (NHS) genetic services transition to VC.

The move was propelled by increasing waiting time for cancer care, worsened by the pandemic. Virtual care, tested before but implemented sporadically, aimed to prevent further delays in cancer genetics services.

Despite initial concerns, high patient satisfaction was observed. Pre-COVID, the NHS aimed for universal VC access by 2024. However, the pandemic-induced lockdown led to a rapid uptake of virtual platforms across NHS, funded by a 20,000 grant, fulfilling the aim earlier than planned.

Opportunities

Geographical inequalities

VC could help alleviate geographical inequalities in accessing cancer genetics services, particularly for rural patients. Travel costs and inconvenience to patients, often located far from these specialized centers, typically in metropolitan areas, can be significant.

Considering more households have internet access than cars, VC may be a more feasible alternative to distant, in-person appointments.

Economics and efficacy

A 2016 study in the Netherlands showed that virtual genetic counseling for cancer genetics appointments saved 7.6% time and 10.2% cost.

These savings were mainly due to reduced travel time. Additionally, the flexibility of virtual services could result in efficiencies in other areas, such as managing urgent work or accommodating self-isolating clinicians.

Meeting patient expectations

As technology becomes more integrated into daily life, patients may expect healthcare to adapt similarly. VC can help mitigate the financial impact of cancer treatment by reducing time off work or school.

They also offer the comfort, safety, and privacy of home, which is particularly beneficial for immunocompromised patients. Acceptance for virtual appointments has significantly increased post-COVID-19, with patients often appreciating the rapport built during virtual interactions with clinical genetics professionals.

Carbon footprint

Virtual healthcare models have been proven to lessen the carbon footprint by minimizing transport, aligning with the NHS's long-term carbon net zero plan to provide care at or near home.

Family approach

VCs can enable a family-centric approach to genetic testing by allowing relatives to participate in sessions from disparate locations.

Platforms like Attend Anywhere merge VCs, enabling family counseling irrespective of geographical boundaries.

While privacy and confidentiality must be upheld and appropriateness considered, this capacity to connect family members can prove beneficial under certain circumstances.

Challenges

VC to genetics services

The 2019 UK Consumer Digital Index found 22% of the population lacks the necessary digital skills. This proportion is projected to shrink to 8% by 2030 but may impede virtual healthcare access among disadvantaged groups.

Digital literacy relies on internet access, skills, confidence, and motivation. About one in four patients have reported technical issues during VC.

Therefore, while virtual care may ease geographical constraints, patient collaboration is necessary to minimize digital barriers, suggesting a need for a mixed approach of physical and virtual appointments.

Digital literacy among clinicians

Clinicians, like patients, exhibit varying degrees of digital literacy. While some find VC helpful for visually explaining genetic concepts, others might feel limited by the format.

The NHS has been slow in adopting digital technology, often using outdated hardware and software, and unreliable internet connections can disrupt consultations. Over half of the genetic counselors reported technical issues during VC.

Therefore, providing adequate information technology (IT) resources and infrastructure is essential.

Regular updates to data handling procedures must ensure legislative and guideline compliance. Many current platforms were designed for videoconferencing rather than medical consultations, so services must assess their chosen platforms' limitations and consider alternatives if necessary.

Clinical examination

VC limits the clinician's ability to conduct physical examinations, sometimes required in cancer genetics services for detecting physical manifestations of predisposition syndromes. While self-measurements or emailed photographs can provide some information, an in-person assessment may be necessary for certain cases.

Triage and clinical discretion can determine which cases are suitable for VC. Secure integration of patient-submitted photographs via mobile apps, as used in dermatology, may offer further possibilities.

Coercion and confidentiality

In telehealth consultations, clinicians must navigate the patient's environment, which can impact confidentiality and cause distractions or coercions.

A patient's setting, such as a busy workplace or home with others present, can inhibit open communication and decision-making.

Clinicians need to remain aware of these surroundings and ensure that information isn't accidentally shared with third parties present in the room.

Digital counseling

Delivering sensitive news digitally can limit empathetic responses, affecting patient and provider experiences. Some may prefer receiving such information at home, surrounded by their support system. However, conveying empathy virtually presents challenges.

A study indicated no significant difference in anxiety and depression reduction after in-person or video genetic counseling, implying that virtual platforms may not inherently hinder empathy or emotional outcomes.

The decision for subsequent appointments should be a collaboration, allowing for provider discretion and patient preference.

Telephone versus video consultations

Phone and video calls are both used for virtual doctor visits. Sometimes, tech problems can make video calls turn into phone calls.

In a phone call, the doctor can't see the patient's body language. Studies show that patients feel the same amount of comfort and understanding in both types of calls.

Even though video calls might be better for doctors, some patients prefer phone calls because they are easier to use. The use of new tech, like chat robots, is growing, which can be both good and bad.

Workload management

Managing the workload in VC is vital. Flexibility in appointments can be beneficial but may also lead to issues, requiring clear patient information to manage expectations.

Ensuring clinicians' balanced workload is critical and shouldn't be increased due to saved travel time. Studies suggest flexible scheduling doesn't increase professional burnout and reduces work-related stress.

Additionally, online training tools developed during lockdowns may help in workload management when accessed remotely.
Honda finally made a move into the mid-sized SUV segment with the Elevate to compete with heavyweights like Hyundai Creta, Kia Seltos, and Skoda Kushaq. The aforementioned SUVs have been on sale for so many years and already offer a myriad of advanced and up-market features. Hence, by no means, it is going to be easy for Honda to topple these SUVs and become the leader of the segment. Recently, we got the opportunity to get behind the wheel of Honda Elevate in the picturesque city of Udaipur in Rajasthan.

We drove the Honda Elevate, flaunting an Radiant Red Metallic paint shade, with a manual transmission for 70 odd km. The car comes only with petrol engine option with no diesel and hybrid powertrains on offer. Though besides the manual gearbox, one can also avail a CVT transmission option. We will talk in detail about the engine and performance later in this article.

It is important to note that Honda Elevate also comes with Level-2 ADAS safety features. Honda Elevate price has not been announced yet but we believe that it should start from somewhere around 9.50 lakh (ex-showroom). So, before making you all wait for more, lets start with our first drive review of the latest mid-size SUV in town from Honda.

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Honda Elevate Design and Colors

Based on Hondas Man Maximum, Machine Minimum design philosophy, Honda Elevate measures 4312 mm in length, 1790 mm in width and 1650 mm in height.

Honda Elevate gets an upright front with a partially covered large grille that houses the Honda logo. Partially covered because, within a few years, we will get an electric SUV based on the Elevate with almost similar styling. The SUV features LED projector headlamps with LED DRLs. The rear profile boasts of LED tail lamps that appear to be connected but actually are not.

The Elevate rides on 17-inch allow wheels as standard. The side profile of the SUV carries forward the boxy stance. From the sides, it looks no different than a regular mid-sized SUV. The SUV is available in six paintworks namely Phoenix Orange Pearl, Obsidian Blue Pearl, Radiant Red Metallic, Platinum White Pearl, Golden Brown Metallic, Lunar Silver Metallic and Meteoroid Gray Metallic.

The appearance of Honda Elevate is subjective to taste but it does look big and bold for sure. It has that classic SUV charm that people will certainly feel good about.

Honda Elevate Interior and Features

Let me start with ingress and egress which is rather smooth. Another advantage is the amount of space and storage capacity this SUV has to offer. There is optimum space for four adults and their belongings in the Elevate.

The dual-tone interior and leather upholstery are on offer to give you a sense of premium comfort.

The automatic climate control of the SUV works perfectly to cool the cabin in no time. We also appreciate how smartly Honda has integrated the wireless charging pad. There are two USB ports to charge the smartphones but one USB and one C-Type port would have been a smarter choice. The Elevate misses out on a C-Type port inside the cabin. Electric Sunroof is there but a panoramic sunroof would have made much more sense.

Honda Elevate has a 7-inch TFT Meter that houses all the information including the ADAS alerts. There is a 10.25-inch HD touchscreen infotainment system with a few buttons. However, there is wireless Android Auto and Apple Car Play on offer but we couldnt connect with the music system via Bluetooth. Later, we came to know that in order to connect with Bluetooth  the SUV not only has to be stationary but the hand-brake also has to be engaged. Hence, we will share more about the infotainment screen and 8-speaker setup later in our detailed review of the SUV.

Honda Elevate carries a sense of space towards the rear seats and boot. It has a boot capacity of 458 L. The rear occupants get a centre armrest just as the front passengers. The AC vents are also present at the rear. Furthermore, the floor of Honda Elevate is a little reclined to offer comfortable sitting for the rear seat passengers. There is no issue of legroom thanks to the long wheelbase of 2650 mm. Under thigh support could have been better, rest everything is pretty passable when we talk about the second row of Honda Elevate.

Honda Elevate Handling and Drivability

The handling of Honda Elevate is decent. Despite being a big SUV, it is quite easy to maneuver in thick city traffic. The SUV has a small turning radius of 5.2 meters.

Honda Elevate has a high ground clearance of 220 mm which makes driving through the rough surfaces easier. The braking is good, even though the car comes equipped with ventilated disk brakes at the front and drum brakes at the rear.

The suspension setup (McPherson Strut with Coil Spring towards the front and Torsion beam with Coil Spring at the rear) has been tuned to offer comfortable drive experience. The bad patches of the road will not bother you inside the cabin as this suspension setup absorbs most of the potholes. Overall, we feel the SUV is good to drive within the city and even on the highways but one might face some difficulties climbing hills due to lack in power.

Honda Elevate Engine and Performance

Honda Elevate comes with a 1.5L i-VETC petrol engine. This is the same engine that is used in the 2023 Honda City and is well-known for its reliability. Honda says that the engine has been tuned differently for the Elevate to yield combustion efficiency and lower emissions.

Performance is decent as the car produces 119 bhp of power and 145 Nm of torque. These figures are the same as the 2023 Honda City. One can expect to get a mileage between 12-14 kmpl. Honda Elevate is available with 6-speed manual and 7-speed CVT gearbox options.

Honda Claims that they are confident about the built quality of the Elevate. The Japanese manufacturer adds that the SUV has performed well, in the internal safety tests.

Honda Elevate Safety Features

Talking about safety, Honda Elevate features ADAS Level 2. Honda fondly calls it Honda Sensing. However, we drove it around the hills of Udaipur and the roads were not well marked hence couldnt experience the ADAS quite properly but there were a few alerts now and then. We believe that all these safety features are here to help you stay safe and for the safety of people around us but do not solely rely on them. ADAS is on offer but it seems Honda forgot to include the 360-degree camera with the SUV.

Honda Elevate Pros and Cons

Honda Elevate Pros:

Upmarket Features

Superior Driving Experience

Honda Elevate Cons:

Late Entry

Low Mileage

Honda Elevate Review: Verdict

No doubt, Honda Elevate is a late arrival by nearly five or so years in the mid-sized SUV segment in the Indian market. The brand Honda has a strong legacy behind it and the trust of the people that holds the brand intact among the people. Entering late into the market isnt the problem but you have to be completely ready to carry forward the legacy and to maintain that trust. Identical to it foes, Honda Elevate too offers top-notch quality, comfort, and a long list of features to attract buyers in this segment. Hence, too little yet worth the wait.

We believe Honda will price the Elevate sensibly and aggressively in an attempt to cover the lost ground in the Indian market. As clearly evident these days by the sales trends, only brand name alone isnt important to win the customers in this highly crowded segment of stalwarts.
MG Motor India has launched the highly anticipated Gamer Edition of the Comet EV, setting a new benchmark in the electric vehicle segment.

The automaker has teamed up with the renowned gamer, MORTAL (Naman Mathur), the OG MVP, to curate a one-of-a-kind custom car that will undoubtedly appeal to the gaming community.

Furthermore, this exclusive gaming-inspired masterpiece is available at an additional price of Rs 64,999 over the existing car cost. Interested buyers can either book it online through the official website of MG or at MG dealerships across India.

Inspired by the adrenaline rush of gaming, this edition offers dark and light themes, creating a sense of zaniness that gamers will absolutely love. Furthermore, it is available across all Comet EV variants  Pace, Play, and Plush.

The Comet EV Gamer Edition features a futuristic external design made of recycled plastic and finished in a mesmerising black chrome and metal shade that is illuminated with an attractive texture. Its distinct exteriors have a striking appeal that draws attention on the highways.

The interior of the Comet EV Gamer Edition features neon elements derived from glowing materials, exuding a captivating ambiance that appeals to both gamers and fans. The cabins ambient light and tactile patterns on the key further enhance the overall appeal, making it a perfect fit for the gaming tribe.

The collaboration between MG Motor India and MORTAL goes beyond just designing a car. It represents MGs commitment to staying at the forefront of technology and innovation. The automaker has been a pioneer in the industry with groundbreaking initiatives like MG Xpert, Epay, MG VPhy NFT, and MGVerse.
The feud over fees hike by the school authorities has deepen after administration issued transfer certificates to the students whose parents were protesting. The incident is of Bengalurus Daffodils English School Association where some parents alleged that administration has hiked the fee without receiving nod from the Karnataka Education Department. The school administration has thus issued transfer certificates to seven students from class 9 and 10, whose parents have not given fees since last four years.

Since February, parents have been unable to enroll their children in the school for the academic year 202324 due to infractions such the lack of government clearance for the fee structure, which is required by the Karnataka Education Act. The dispute started in 2018, but the schools response came after some parents allegedly skipped four years of fee payments since the price structure lacked official approval.

Since February, about 10 students have been detained at the entrance. The parents complained of rights abuses and retaliation for raising concerns to the Karnataka State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (KSCPCR). As warnings to pay fees went unheeded, the school made the decision to issue TCs to the seven students, citing that authorities had rejected the parents claims. The school has made a definitive decision to award TC to the children of these 7 chronic defaulters and has done so with the support and strong advice of the School Parents Teachers Association," said the school in the communication. Further the release targeted the parents of showing irresponsible behavior and failure on there part to fulfill their responsibility for their childrens education.

The school administration has further alleged that these parents are actively depriving their kids of their right to an education and thereby mentioned that no service is provided for free. Issues like unqualified teachers, nepotism in hiring, capitation fees, and a lack of fee transparency have been brought up by parents. However, according to the school, 18 of the 25 protesting parents issues have been handled by paying fees or accepting TCs without payment.
Haryana Education Minister Kanwar Pal on Thursday said students of the state government schools who will plant a tree when they are in class 9 and nurture it till class 12 would receive an additional 15 marks in their 12th class. A detailed proposal in this regard will soon be notified, he added. He said these marks are to be awarded on the basis of the health of the planted tree.

According to an official statement, the minister said this practice aims to foster social responsibility among students towards the environment. The minister was presiding over a meeting of school education officers at Shiksha Sadan in Panchkula. He further directed Forest Department officers to ensure the availability of the plants at the schools.

He said the Director School Education Department should appoint liaisoning officers in each school to coordinate with forest department officers. He informed that there are around 1.93 lakh students studying across the state in class 9. During the meeting, the minister was apprised regarding the few cases of mobile device management software violation in tablets given to students by the Haryana government.

Pal was informed that by breaking this software, a student gets access to all websites and contents, which was prior restricted to education-based websites. He directed officers to identify these students and take stringent action and instructed officers to withdraw tablets from their possession at the earliest.

The minister further said that though the cases of software breaking in tablets are less than 0.5 per cent to the overall distributed tablets, still a strong message should reach among students in order to avoid any mishandling in future. He also appealed to the parents to keep a check on their wards while they are using tablet. He directed the officers to keep strict vigil on such cases so that these numbers do not increase in future.

Pal said our aim is to bridge the gaps in digital learning for the majority of students studying in government schools who hail from economically weaker and deprived sections and cannot afford devices like smartphones and tablets. The Haryana government has distributed free tablets to students of classes 10-12 of government schools.
The Indian Institutes of Management (Amendment) Bill, 2023 which seeks to make the President of India Visitor to the premier business schools was cleared in the Lok Sabha on Friday, amid the Opposition raising concerns that the move may limit the autonomy of these top institutions.

Following a short debate on the provisions, the proposed bill, which was tabled by Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, was passed by the Lower House of Parliament. The bill was first introduced in the Lok Sabha on July 28, when it could not be discussed amid disruptions in the House over the Manipur situation.

Pradhan, while responding to the Oppositions concerns, said that the government doesnt have any intention of encroaching upon the autonomy of the IIMs. The IIMs have been declared institutions of national importance. The President of India is the Visitor to all the other top-ranking institutes, including the IITs and the NITs, and never has a question been raised on the academic autonomy of these institutions. Similarly, in case of IIMs as well, we dont have any intention of encroaching upon their autonomy, we promise that in this House, the minister said.

He further said that it was in 2017 that, under the IIM Act, the Union government empowered the institutions to grant degrees for various courses, as until then these institutes could only offer diploma and certificate courses. However, over the past four years, the local board of management observed that the IIMs didnt comply with several constitutional obligations such as providing reservations for Backward categories during the appointment of teachers; being accountable to the governments General Financial Rules (GFRs) as well as its service conduct rules, said Pradhan.

The new bill, which amends the IIM Act, 2017, makes the President a Visitor to the IIMs while having powers to conduct an audit of their functioning, order inquiries as well as appoint or remove the director as well as chairpersons to its Board of Governors  a move that even faculty members feel could dilute the autonomy of the institutions and have raised their concerns on the same.

The existing Act allowed these business schools greater autonomy to be run by its Board of Governors, with each institute having 19 members, including just one representative each from the central and state governments. The Board nominates its own chairperson as well as has the powers to appoint the director of the institute.

The IIMs and the central government have been locked in a tussle over several issues. In 2020, the IIMs ran into a conflict with the Centre over awarding one-year executive MBA degrees, as the latter red-flagged the granting of such a degree citing the University Grants Commission (UGC) rules, according to which, there is no provision to grant a degree for a course length of a year.

Following this, several meetings were held between the IIM heads and the government to discuss the flashpoint, but the institutes continued to grant one-year degrees despite the governments reservations on the same. Foreign universities following the 4+1 education model offer one-year Masters degree for many programmes after the four-year undergraduate course.

Another instance where the two were in disagreement was when IIM-Rohtak reappointed its director for the second time last year, despite a controversy over the officials academic credentials while the Education Ministry had been opposing it.

Last year, the Ministry had informed the institutes about a new procedure being worked out to form search-cum-selection committees for the appointment of chairpersons. The Board of Governors of the institutes were asked to extend the tenure of the existing chairpersons till the new procedure comes into place. This, however, did not go down well with the administration of the IIMs with several board members describing it as interference in their matters.
A Symbiosis College of Arts and Commerce teacher, identified as Ashok Dhole, was arrested in Pune for allegedly making disrespectful comments about Hindu deities, police said. A video purportedly showing the teacher making certain remarks in the classroom had emerged earlier. The Hindi professor who taught at the college for 18 years has now been suspended, the institute authorities said. The police arrested Dhole, 43-year-old, on Thursday.

The professor had allegedly made offensive statements about Hindu deities, which hurt religious sentiments. The college principal, Dr Hrishikesh Soman, said that a student shot the video during a class. Later, some members of an outfit approached us with the video and sought action against him. We have suspended him, and this being a government-aided college, the process of initiating inquiry has started, he said.

Members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), a student organisation affiliated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), staged protests on Thursday outside the college seeking action against the teacher. A professor in Symbiosis College tried to spread hatred among students by making offensive remarks about Lord Shriram and Hindu deities. Against this incident, ABVP activists staged strong protests in front of the college today," tweeted the students association. (sic)

Senior inspector VV Hasabnis of Deccan Gymkhana police station said the Symbiosis College teacher was arrested under section 295 (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings) of the Indian Penal Code. He will be produced before a court on Friday.

 with PTI inputs
The Rajasthan Police has recently unveiled a promising opportunity for eligible candidates by announcing the recruitment of 3578 Constable posts across various categories. Interested individuals can apply for these vacancies starting from August 7, 2023, through the official website police.rajasthan.gov.in. The last date for submitting applications is August 27, 2023. The Constable recruitment drive encompasses categories like General, Band, Driver, Mounted, and Location Police Telecom.

Who Can Apply?

The eligibility criteria for the different Constable posts vary as follows:

For the post of Constable in District Police, candidates must have completed Class 12th.

For the post of Constable in RAC and MBC Battalion, candidates should have passed Class 10th.

Constable in Police Telecom vacancy requires candidates to have passed Class 12th with Mathematics and Physics.

For Constable Driver posts, candidates must possess a driving license issued at least one year ago.

Application Fees

Candidates falling under the General, BC, and candidates from other states categories are required to pay an application fee of Rs 600, while candidates belonging to SC, ST, BC (NCL), and EWS categories are required to pay Rs 400. The payment can be made online.

Age Limit

The age limits for candidates applying for various Constable positions are as follows:

Male candidates of the General category applying for General, Band, and Telecommunication vacancies should be born between January 1, 2000, and January 1, 2006.

Female candidates of the General category applying for the aforementioned vacancies should be born between January 1, 1995, and January 2, 2006.

For the role of Constable (Driver) in the General category, candidates should be born between January 1, 1997, and January 2, 2006. Female candidates should have a birthdate between January 1, 1995, and January 2, 2006.

Physical Qualification

Candidates need to meet specific physical qualifications for the Constable positions. Female candidates should have a height of 152 cm or more and a minimum weight of 47.5 kg. Male candidates should have a minimum height of 168 cm and a chest width of 81 cm, which can be expanded up to 86 cm.

How to Apply for Rajasthan Police Constable Recruitment 2023

To apply for the Rajasthan Police Constable Recruitment 2023, candidates need to follow these steps:

Visit the official website of Rajasthan Police Recruitment - www.rajasthanpolice.gov.in.

Look for the Recruitment or Careers tab on the homepage.

Click on the Rajasthan Police Constable Recruitment 2023 link under the Recruitment tab.

Read the official notification carefully, including the eligibility criteria, application fee, and important dates.

If eligible, click on Apply Online or Register Now to access the application form.

Fill out all the required details in the application form and submit it.

Proceed to pay the application fee through the provided payment options.

Keep all relevant documents ready for uploading during the application process.

After successful submission, take a printout of the application form for future reference.

This recruitment drive by the Rajasthan Police offers a great opportunity for candidates aspiring to serve the state. Interested individuals are encouraged to carefully review the eligibility criteria and submit their applications before the deadline. The vacancies across various Constable categories provide a diverse range of career paths within the police department.
Studying abroad can be financially challenging for many meritorious students who often opt out due to the expensive course fee, visa charges, accommodation and food expenses. Therefore, scholarships help many to pursue their dreams. News18 Scholarship Guide brings the best and most prestigious grants for Indian students to study in emerging destinations, with most of them covering flight tickets, accommodation and course fee; and some also providing stipend.

After the Covid-19 pandemic, Indian students are choosing destinations that are closer home and offer similar opportunities like in the US, UK, Canada and Australia, but at a cheaper cost.

Therefore, there is an influx of Indian students, especially from Tier II and Tier III Cities, in Europe, Philippines, Russia, and Singapore to pursue their higher education.

The preferences among students regarding their desired study destinations have undergone a gradual shift throughout the pre-pandemic, pandemic, and post-pandemic periods. Other than popular destinations, Indian students have started to explore New Zealand and Ireland since they offer similar quality opportunities while being cost-friendly. As we move into the post-pandemic era, every nation is striving to make up for the lost time by implementing favourable policies and enhancing post-study work rights, among other incentives, to entice students, said Piyush Kumar, Regional Director, South Asia and Mauritius, IDP Education,  a consultancy body, which also conducts IELTS.

If you aim to study abroad with a budget, here are few options you can look at:

New Zealand

Covid-19 Relief Scholarship, Otago International Excellence Scholarships, and Wellington International Excellence Scholarship are some of the popular grants offered by New Zealand to Indian students.

With 100% tuition fee waiver, New Zealands Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) offers Commonwealth scholarship for students from all commonwealth nations to pursue PhD or PhD MS courses. The scholarship covers full tuition fee as well as allowance for living expenses. It also covers medical and travel insurance. The scholarship was temporarily closed due to pandemic and will be reopening soon.

Who can apply: Students with a Masters degree can apply for scholarship to pursue a doctoral degree.

Selection Procedure: Candidates will be assessed based on academic performance, age limit, commitment, and selection of courses, and adaptation

Where to apply: www.mfat.govt.nz

New Zealand Excellence Award, a special scholarship award only for Indian students for undergraduate and postgraduate students will restart from February 2024. This scholarship offers a unique opportunity to immerse oneself in a welcoming, multicultural community while receiving high-quality education.

ALSO READ: Scholarship Guide | Studying in UK Can Be Affordable, Less Daunting; News18 Brings You Top 10 Grants

Ireland

Ireland offers several scholarships including The Government of Ireland International Education Scholarship, The Walsh Fellowship, and the Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship. The Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship supports research-based masters and doctoral programs in Ireland.

Ireland receives more US investment than the BRIC counties combined, claims education in Ireland  the nations official study portal.

The Government of Ireland offers International Education Scholarships Programme under which it funds 100% tuition fee of students for one year and grant an amount up to 10,000 for other expenses. The scholarships are offered to 60 students from across the world to study in Ireland.

Who can apply: To be eligible to apply, students need to have admission (conditional or final) from their respective college.

Selection Procedure: The documents required for admission, includes recommendations, reference letters, essays, English language test. Students also have to submit application for the scholarship including the admission letter. The Higher Education Authority (HEA) will shortlist students based on their portfolio including but not limited to academic merit, extra-curricular activities, rationale for pursuing their study in Ireland, and communication skills.

Where to apply: https://hea.ie/2022/12/14/government-of-ireland-international-education-scholarships-2023/

ALSO READ: Scholarship Guide | Top 8 Govt & University Grants That Will Help Fulfil Your Dream to Study in US

Spain

Compared to other European countries, Spain has relatively lower tuition and living costs. Popular study fields include a broad range of study areas, including business, engineering, humanities, social sciences, art, design, and architecture", said Lakshmi Iyer, Managing Director, India, SI-UK.

While there are many scholarships offered to study, research, and work in Spain, the most famous one which covers all costs is Erasmus Mundus.

The Erasmus+ funding scheme is an umbrella scheme funded by the European Commission. It has a series of highly competitive scholarships, which are available to foreign students to study in Europe. The list of masters and joint masters degrees sponsored under the list are updated yearly.

Who can apply: Candidates with bachelors degree or those in their final year can apply for the scholarship. Applicant needs to have 180 credits or 180 ECTS or equivalent in their first degree.

Selection Procedure: Candidates will be shortlisted based on their academic score, English proficient, motivation letter, CV, and recommendation among others.

Where to apply: https://www.emhrpp.com/how-to-apply

Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE) also offers many other scholarships and grants. To study in Spain, students can also apply at university-offered grants. Some of the famous scholarships also include Spanish Studies Abroad Merit-Based Scholarship, Global Experiences Generation Study Abroad Scholarship, UIC Barcelona Scholarship and European University of the Atlantic.

Japan

Famous for its technological advancement, Japan has become a new favourite destination for students to study, especially science and technology related courses. While there are several partially funded scholarships, the most famous option for Indian students is the ADB-JSP grant, which covers the entire tuition fee.

Asian Development Bank (ADB) sponsored Japan Scholarship Program (JSP) offers scholarship to 135 students each year from across countries including India. The highly competitive scholarship is for students who have pursued bachelors in economics, business and management, science and technology, and other development-related fields. It covers full tuition fees, offers monthly subsistence allowance including housing. The scholarship also covers expenses towards books and instructional materials as well as medical insurance and travel expenses. For scholars engaged in research, a special grant may be available for thesis preparation. In special circumstances, computer literacy, preparatory language and other similar courses may be covered under the scholarship.

Who can apply: Candidates who hold a bachelors degree or its equivalent with superior academic record and have at least two years of full-time professional working experience can apply. The applicants will have to agree to return to their home country after completion of studies. Further, the upper age to apply is capped at 35 years, however, there are some exemptions. Applicant also need to obtain admission to an approved masters course at a designated institution.

Selection Procedure: Applicants need to first apply for admission. Those who secure admission will be shortlisted by the institute based on their profile, application forms, and documentations as submitted by students. The selected profiles will be evaluated by ADB.

Where to apply: https://www.adb.org/work-with-us/careers/japan-scholarship-program

Singapore

The global financial centre, Singapore, is also gaining traction as one of the most popular study destinations for Indian students, thanks to its multi-cultural societies. The nation offers several scholarships among high-ranking institutes with the most famous being Dr. Goh Keng Swee Scholarship and Science & Technology (S&T) Undergraduate Scholarship.

The Science & Technology Undergraduate Scholarship is for Asian students who wish to study undergraduate courses at the National University of Singapore (NUS). As part of the scholarship, students get a living allowance of S $6,00 and a one-time computer allowance of S $1,750. Students also get a settling-in allowance of up to S $200. The scholarship covers tuition fees and one-way airfare for students.

Who is eligible: Students applying for admission to full-time undergraduate degree programmes in Computing, Engineering or Science are eligible for the scholarship. Students need to be citizens of Asian countries (other than Singapore).

Selection Procedure: Scholars need to have exceptional academic qualifications to achieve the scholarship. Further to sustain the same, students need to maintain a 3.5 GPA and good conduct. Students applying for admission to NUS for UG courses will be automatically considered. Selected candidates will be called for interviews.

Where to apply: www.nus.edu.sg
Vietnam produces has two types of ASF vaccines. (Photo: thanhnien.vn)

Mr. Nguyen Van Long, Director of the Department of Animal Health under Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that the Philippines has imported 300,000 doses of ASF vaccine from Vietnam and is using them.

According to Mr. Nguyen Van Long, vaccine manufacturing enterprises in the country are also coordinating with localities to deploy vaccination for pig herds. Livestock households, farms, and businesses have been using ASF vaccines for pigs.

He evaluated the ASF vaccines have not only been for domestic consumption but also for export to markets. When exported to many countries with good results, it will be a favorable opportunity for the commercial expansion of Vietnams ASF vaccines.

Previously, after using 600,000 doses of vaccine with the supervision of the Department of Animal Health in more than 40 provinces and cities, with safe and effective results, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development sent a document to the provinces and centrally-run cities on the use of vaccines on a large scale.

Businesses guide localities on technical criteria, selecting pigs that meet the conditions for vaccination against African swine fever. At the same time, actively and continuously monitoring the quality of vaccines and taking responsibility for the quality of vaccines when supplied in the market.

Besides, at the request of some countries, Vietnam has supported, sent experts and coordinated to organize vaccination against ASF.

The Ministry of Agriculture of the Dominican Republic has sent a letter of gratitude, appreciating the support of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Vietnam, professional units and Vietnamese businesses, and looking forward to continuing to receive the support and proceeding to sell vaccines for use in the Dominican Republic.

The AVAC ASF LIVE vaccine of AVAC Vietnam Joint Stock Company has been used for vaccination in pig herds and evaluated with caution in the Philippines. The competent authority of the Philippines has announced the results of evaluating the vaccine to be safe, 100% of pigs vaccinated with AVAC ASF LIVE vaccine have antibody-producing immune responses.

Currently, Vietnam has two types of ASF vaccines, namely NAVET-ASFVAC of NAVETCO Central Veterinary Medicine Joint Stock Company and AVAC ASF LIVE of AVAC Vietnam Joint Stock Company, which are researched, produced and issued with Certificates for circulation./.
A Bengaluru-based private ed-tech firm faced a major backlash as students from various states accused the company of cheating. The city witnessed a wave of protests as students alleged that the company, CareerLabs had cheated them by availing loans in their names but failed to fulfill their promise of providing job opportunities after completing the internship-based hiring programme, reported The Indian Express.

The edtech organisation had introduced an internship-based hiring initiative aimed at training candidates in different skills, followed by employment opportunities after the completion of six months. To be a part of the programme, students were required to pay a refundable security deposit of Rs 3,000.

The students claim that the company borrowed funds from multiple financial institutions in their names, supposedly to cover training and stipend costs. They were also asked to sign an agreement for the EMI (Equated Monthly Instalments) process to repay the loans. The students were allegedly asked to pay Rs 2,239 EMIs. The amount was then deducted from their stipend during the training period.

However, matters became troubling when certain students were asked to sign another agreement, stating that they would have to pay Rs 50,000 plus the stipend received till that month if they chose to leave during the training period. The students further claimed that the security deposit of Rs 3,000 would not be refunded if they discontinued the internship.

A protesting student voiced their grievances, saying that Pratian Technologies, a partner company in the programme, did not provide them proper training. They claimed adding that students only receive a few debugging tasks and recorded videos on their website, Skillassure, without any feedback on assessments.

The news outlets report quoted another student who said that they just want the edtech organisation to bail us out of the crisis. The protesting student said that they cannot pay back the loan as they have not gotten the promised jobs. Apparently, the students have been receiving messages from the banks asking them to repay the EMIs.

A police complaint was also filed by the students against the firm at Koramangala police station. In response to the allegations and protests, the edtech assured the students that they would help them by approving the cancellation of loans obtained from multiple financial institutions.

The firm has requested two days time to finalise the cancellations of loans. Director, P N Santosh, even claimed to have initiated the process with the loan vendor and asked the students to sign an agreement stating that there will be no issues from either side in exchange for loan cancellation. Santosh further stated that they had selected around 500 students through campus placements, with close to 150 of them secured jobs after completing the internship.

We agree that we have taken the onus upon us to train the students. As part of training certain tuition/training fees were charged to the students. This was paid to us on behalf of the student by the educational loan-providing company which has entered into an independent loan agreement with the student," said Poornima Shetty, the finance head of CareerLabs.

As a commitment to the students, we have proposed that we are willing to assign and take over the loan from eligible students and support them. We understand the fast-paced nature of journalism and the challenges that can arise in accurately capturing and representing statements. We believe that a correction in this matter will serve the best interests of your readers, our stakeholders, and the principles of fair and accurate reporting," added Shetty.

On the other hand, the edtech organisation clarified internally to the portal that the cancellation of programme loans was subject to agreement from NBFC (Non-Banking Financial Company) partners. The firm said that they were working towards resolving the issue and emphasized that there was no intention to cheat or scam students.
To celebrate Indias street dancing culture, Amazon miniTV recently launched Indias firstever Hip Hop based dance reality show - Hip Hop India. The streaming service, in collaboration with Metas Born on Instagram program, has invited creators to compete as contenders in the show. The aim is to give creators another stage to showcase their talent and grow their following, and for the show to reach a wider audience.

Collaborating with eminent content creators like Funcho, Adil Khan and Cuty Beauty Khan, Hip Hop India judges Remo DSouza and Nora Fatehi created significant buzz for the reality show, urging the talents to participate and showcase their groovy dance moves. As a part of this, the streaming service has set the stage for 6 creators from Metas Born on Instagram program to extensively participate in the show, surpassing the basic auditions round. As part of this partnership, Amazon miniTV earlier had collaborated with the Norwegian dance group Quickstyle for its Suniel Shetty starrer action series Hunter - Tootega Nahi Todega and also for its much-adored series Gutar Gu.

Commenting on this creative endeavor, Aruna Daryanani, Director & Business Head, Amazon miniTV said Social media content creators have a unique way of connecting with their audience with relatable and innovative content. With our strong partnership with Meta, we have been able to get such talented creators to participate in Indias biggest Hip Hop dance reality show  Hip Hop India on Amazon miniTV. This partnership will hopefully also inspire more street dancers in India to come at the forefront to display their raw talent.

As part of our investment in the creator economy, were working with several partners to find opportunities for creators to grow and be discovered. The stage set by Amazon miniTV will help those creators whore already showcasing their talent in hip-hop. Furthermore, this is a classic case of a partner finding more use cases for our suite of products & programs, and were glad for the partnership with Amazon for it. said, Paras Sharma, Director and Head of Content and Community Partnerships, Facebook India (Meta).

Helmed by Amazon miniTV with the aim of promoting and preserving the urban street culture, Hip Hop India is streaming exclusively on Amazon miniTV, for free within the Amazon shopping app and on Fire TV.
August 5 marks fourth year since the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution of India, that gave special a status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.

In August 2019, the central government passed a resolution in the Parliament for revoking Article 370 that had far-reaching political and constitutional ramifications.

Four years later, the Supreme Court is hearing a clutch of petitions challenging the Centres 2019 decision to abrogate Article 370.

The abrogation was effectuated through four legal documents namely: (1) Constitution Order 272, issued by the President of India, dated August 5, 2019 (2) Resolution passed by the Rajya Sabha, dated August 5, 2019 (3) Resolution passed by the Lok Sabha, dated August 6, 2019 (4) Constitution Order 273, issued by the President of India, dated August 6, 2019.

The government claimed that following the abrogation of Article 370 the Union territories of Jammu-Kashmir and Ladakh have been fully integrated into the mainstream of the nation. As a result, all the rights enshrined in the Constitution of India and benefits of all the Central Laws that were being enjoyed by other citizens of the country are now available to the people of Jammu-Kashmir and Ladakh".

However, in the backdrop of the transformation" of the Union territories of Jammu-Kashmir and Ladakh, a legal battle challenging the governments decision was waiting to start.

Following the revocation of the special status, more than 20 petitions were filed challenging the constitutional validity of the Centres decision to abrogate Article 370.

Now, after four years, since the first petition was filed, the Supreme Court has started hearing the petitions and some important legal questions are being raised in context to the governments decision to abrogate Article 370 and challenge made to it.

In this regard, the SC constitutional bench led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, while hearing the case, questioned whether Article 370 was a provision that lay beyond the amending powers of the Constitution. Echoing similar concerns, Justice BR Gavai asked if Article 370 can be perceived to be unamendable especially since the Constitution is a living document, according to The Hindu.

One of the arguments that have been put forward in defense of the abrogation is that the Article 370 was a temporary" provision. The title of Article 370 is Temporary provisions with respect to the State of Jammu and Kashmir" and Clause 3 of the Article states that Notwithstanding anything in the foregoing provisions of this article, the President may, by public notification, declare that this article shall cease to be operative or shall be operative only with such exceptions and modifications and from such date as he may specify: Provided that the recommendation of the Constituent Assembly of the State referred to in clause ( 2 ) shall be necessary before the President issues such a notification".

The fact that it is considered a temporary" provision buttresses the claim of the government that abrogation of the Article was well within its constitutional rights.

However, the petitioners have interpreted the word temporary" differently. According to petitioners as suggested by Clause 3 of Article 370, no change or modification in Article 370 can be made without the recommendation of the Constituent Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir.

The fact is that after the adoption of the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir on November 17, 1956, which came into effect on January 26, 1957, the Constituent Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir ceased to exist.

Does this mean that with the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly in 1957 destiny of Jammu and Kashmir was sealed forever?

Kapil Sibbal, arguing for the petitioners, argued that Indian Constitution was adopted in 1950, and Jammu and Kashmir Constituent Assembly came into existence in 1951 and got dissolved in 1957 and seven-year period during which the Constituent Assembly was given the power to recommend changes to Article 370 is why the provision is called temporary".

This was one of the questions that even the apex court pondered over. Justice SK Kaul reportedly asked, The Constitution is a live document and it is not static. Can you say that there is no mechanism to change it (Article 370) even when everyone wants to change it? Then you are saying that this cant be changed even if all of Kashmir wants it".

The apex court also raised another pertinent question that by shielding Article 370 from any legislative interference, even constitutional amendment are we creating a separate and new category apart from the basic structure. It is pertinent to note here that through the famous Kesavananda Bharati Case and the doctrine of basic structure, the apex court had made certain features of the constitution like fundamental rights, federalism, secularism, etc immune to the constitutional amendment power of the government.

This simply means that at no cost, any brute majority of Parliament can take away or deform these features.

Now, if Article 370 is also made immune to the constitutional amendment, either it can be done by marking it too as a basic structure or creating a new category.

It will be interesting to watch how the court interprets the four documents and Article 370 itself.
The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) began working on a scientific survey of the Gyanvapi premises at 7am on Friday to determine whether the 17th-century mosque was constructed over a pre-existing structure of a Hindu temple.

The ASI team members, along with the representatives of the Hindu petitioners to a legal dispute involving the mosque, were present inside the complex amid tight security. Members of the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid committee have boycotted the survey.

The survey began after the Allahabad High Court on Thursday upheld a Varanasi district court order and ruled that the proposed step is necessary in the interest of justice" and will benefit both sides.

The order came after the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid committee, representing the Muslim side to the legal dispute, moved the Supreme Court against the Varansi district court order. The mosque stands next to the Kashi Vishwanath temple.

What Will the ASI Do?

The ASI will survey, document and photograph the premises without harming the executing structures.

It will conduct a detailed survey in accordance with the law and will prepare a list of antiquities found in the building. It will then try to determine the age and nature of the structure.

NON-DESTRUCTIIVE TECHNIQUES TO BE USED

Ground Penetrating Radar: (GPR) is a geophysical locating method that uses radio waves to capture images below the surface of the ground in a minimally invasive way. The advantage is that it allows the crew to pinpoint the location of underground utilities without disturbing the ground.

(GPR) is a geophysical locating method that uses radio waves to capture images below the surface of the ground in a minimally invasive way. The advantage is that it allows the crew to pinpoint the location of underground utilities without disturbing the ground. GPS: Centimetre precision topography with differential GPS involves the generation of cartographies in archaeological sites, location of excavations areas and geo-referencing of the information obtained by geo-radar. These navigation systems are based on radio-frequency satellites that provide a space-time frame of reference with global coverage continuously anywhere on Earth, and available for any number of users.

Centimetre precision topography with differential GPS involves the generation of cartographies in archaeological sites, location of excavations areas and geo-referencing of the information obtained by geo-radar. These navigation systems are based on radio-frequency satellites that provide a space-time frame of reference with global coverage continuously anywhere on Earth, and available for any number of users. Drones: Drones or unmanned aerial vehicles are designed to perform field tasks such as documentation, coordination, exploration, prospecting, communication, inspection and observation. Drones have been used in archaeological documentation for videos, orthophotos and digital elevation models, as well as in the environmental study of erosive processes when equipped with the multispectral camera.

DATING EXERSICE

Dating is the practice of providing a historical incident with a sequential value. The two types of dating are relative dating (typology, stratigraphy, fluorine dating) and absolute dating (fission-track dating, radio carbon dating, archaeomagnetic dating).

Of these, carbon dating is popular method used to establish the age of organic material. The dating method makes use of the fact that a particular isotope of carbon called C-14, with an atomic mass of 14, is radioactive, and decays at a rate that is well-known. Developed by American chemist Willard Libby in 1946, Radiocarbon dating or carbon-14 dating compares the three different isotopes of carbon. The most abundant carbon isotope is carbon-12 which remains stable in the environment, as per The Conversation, while the other isotope carbon-14 decays over time.

Once the living being dies, the carbon intake from the atmosphere stops. Carbon-14, which is radioactive, disintegrates to one-half of itself in around 5,730 years and this constant decay can be measured to get an estimate of when the organism died.

Carbon dating is used to determine the age of objects younger than 50,000 years and cannot be used to determine the age of non-living things, for example, rocks. However, it can be used indirectly in certain circumstances. If there are organic materials, dead plants or insects trapped beneath the rock, they can give an indication of when that rock, or any other thing, had reached that place.

WHO CLAIMS WHAT

Hindu activists claim that a temple existed earlier at the site and was demolished in the 17th century on the order of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. They claim:

The Gyanvapi Mosque is standing on the pillars of a Hindu Temple

Sanskrit shlokas are engraved on pillars of tehkhana on both southern and northern side

Vigrah of Maa Shringar Gauri is on the western side

Hollow sound comes from the central dome which indicates that artificial construction has covered the original character

Artefacts and signs of a Hindu temple are present on the western wall

Hindu petitioners had during a court-mandated videography survey of the mosque premises claimed that a Shivling" was found close to the wazookhana", a small reservoir used by Muslim devotees to perform ritual ablutions before offering the namaz. The claim was disputed by the Muslim side, which said the object was part of a fountain".

The Muslim side also said the original case is about the worship of Shringar Gauri while the structure in the mosque has nothing to do with it.

The wazookhana" will not be part of the survey following an earlier Supreme Court order protecting that spot in the Gyanvapi complex.
Parliament is the temple of democracy and parliamentary procedures the rites by which the will of the people is translated into practice. But the terms and jargon involved in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha processes can be difficult to grasp. The News18 series, House Talk, brings you a ready reckoner to make sure that none of it is Greek to you.

After claims that the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill may be introduced as a financial bill, Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Thursday refuted the charge and termed it a normal bill".

The government introduced the bill in the Lok Sabha which aims at making entities such as internet companies, mobile apps, and business houses more accountable and answerable about the collection, storage and processing of data.

Congress leader Manish Tewari had claimed the government might get the Digital Data Protection Bill classified as a money bill and added that it should be considered a regular bill. However, Vaishnaw rejected the claims and clarified that it was a normal bill".

In view of the claims made by the opposition and the clarification from the government over Data Protection Bill, here is all you need to know about the two types of bills and their differences.

What is an Ordinary Bill and How is it Passed?

According to Articles 107 and 108 of the Indian Constitution, the ordinary bill is concerned with matters other than financial property. Ordinary Bill is a draft legislation that can be introduced in both the houses of the parliament and can be introduced by Minister or a Private member.

The Bill has to be pass through both the houses of the Parliament and the upper house has the authority to neglect and change the bill.

There is no recommendation of President in case of ordinary bill. But the President has the power to send back the bill for the purpose of reviewing. In case of a deadlock on the bill, there is a provision for a joint sitting.

What is Money Bill?

A money bill is defined by Article 110 of the Constitution, as a draft law that contains only provisions that deal with the following:

Imposition or regulation of a tax

Regulation of the borrowing of money by the government

Custody of the Consolidated Fund of India or the Contingency Fund of India and the payment.

Receipt of assets for the Consolidated Fund of India or the public record of India.

Withdrawal of money from the Consolidated Fund of India

Money bill can be introduced only in Lok Sabha and can be introduced only by a Minister on the recommendation of the President.

Article 110 further clarifies that in cases where a dispute arises over whether a bill is a money bill or not, the Lok Sabha Speakers decision on the issue shall be considered final.

How is Money Bill Different from an Ordinary Bill?

While an Ordinary Bill can be introduced in both houses of parliament, a Money Bill can only be introduced in the Lok Sabha.

Rajya Sabha can recommend changes to the Money Bill, however it cannot amend or reject the bill. However, it can be detained by Rajya Sabha for the maximum period of 14 days. The Lok Sabha can pass the bill with or without the recommendations of the Rajya Sabha.

Is Financial Bill different from Money Bill?

Any bill that relates to revenue or expenditure can be referred to as a financial bill. While all money bills come under financial bills, the former can only deal with matters specified under Article 110.

Money bills are those bills which are concerned with financial matters like taxation, public expenditure, etc. On the other hand, financial bills are those bills which are concerned with financial matters but different from money bills.

The Article 117 of the Constitution deals with the financial bills. A financial Bill can only become a money bill when it falls under one of the seven heads listed under Article 110(1), which defines the money bills, according to The Indian Express.

Another major difference between the money and financial bills is that while the financial bill has the provision of including the Rajya Sabhas recommendations, the money does not make their inclusion mandatory.
The number of leopards has grown in Uttarakhand since 2015, reveals the population estimates of the felines released on Friday. This comes a week after tiger numbers were shared for Uttarakhand and other states. The data released by the forest department suggests leopard population estimates stand at 3,115 in Uttarakhand.

The last estimates for 2015 counted 2,335 leopards in the Himalayan state. In mathematical terms, the growth has been around 29% in the past eight years. The figures are critical since Uttarakhand is one of the states that witnesses frequent man-leopard conflicts.

Data collected by the forest department underlines that between January 2000 and June 2023, a total of 508 people were killed in leopard attacks and more than 1,800 were injured. However, a total of 1,658 leopard deaths were also reported from June 2001 to date, many due to accidents or mutual fights, among other reasons.

Chief wildlife warden Samir Sinha expressed concern about the growing incidents of conflict. The leopard population estimates will help us understand the problem areas and we will try to mitigate the situation," he told News18.

Elaborating on the methodology, Sinha said the estimation was conducted jointly by the Wildlife Institute of India and the forest department. The team used trap cameras and kept a record of the physical sightings.

Of late, on the growing man-leopard conflict, the experts have been divided on whether the urban population is venturing close to forest areas or the growing number of leopards is forcing them to move close to human habitations for food.

Anup Sah, an expert on the big cats and member of the state wildlife board, feels it is urbanisation that has to be blamed for conflicts. Saving human lives is a concern, at the same time, and much more challenging, as far as saving leopards and tigers are concerned," he said.

In recent weeks, leopard conflict incidents have been reported from Almora, Pauri, Uttarkashi, Pithoragarh, and Tehri districts.

Besides leopards, the numbers of monkeys and langurs were also released. The numbers of monkeys fell by 26% between 2015 and 2021, and those of langurs by 44% in the same period.

(With inputs from Sunil Navprabhat in Dehradun)
A 40-year-old man died on Friday after he allegedly jumped onto the tracks at the Delhi Metros AIIMS station here, police said.

The incident took place around 10 am, a senior police officer said.

He said the police were informed and the body was shifted to the AIIMS trauma centre.

The deceased was identified through his Aadhaar card as Amit Singh, a resident of Bihar, the officer said.

According to police, a preliminary probe revealed that as the victim allegedly jumped, he hit his head and died on the spot. Further investigation is underway, they said The situation at the spot is normal, crime and forensics teams have been called and proceedings under section 174 of the CrPC are going on, police added.

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The Haryana government is now bringing out bulldozers to showcase some tough action post the communal riots in Nuh but it has some difficult questions to answer on the apparent complacency showed by it ahead of these riots.

The inputs with the Centre indicate that the state police did not take the impending events of Monday seriously and adequate security preparations were not done despite enough giveaways of the trouble lying ahead. Similar moderate security arrangements as earlier years during the Yatra existed this time too despite grave provocation from both sides on social media. So much so that Nuhs Superintendent of Police was on leave last Monday and has now been replaced on Friday.

A central official told News18 that home minister Anil Vij calling Nuh as a well-planned conspiracy is an admission of the fact that the state intelligence mechanism failed to grasp the simmering tensions. The political inconvenience over the riots has also reflected in the ruling faction through statements made by Haryanas deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala and Union minister from the state Rao Inderjit Singh who have in fact questioned the attitude of the VHP-led organisers of the Yatra.

This is not the first time that an area of the state has been plunged into chaos with the police caught napping. In February 2016, Haryana had seen chaos in Rohtak and elsewhere during the Jat reservation protests when shops were looted, burnt and violence erupted in many areas. The Army had to be deployed in the state to control the situation.

Then, in 2017, huge violence broke out in Panchkula in Haryana when supporters of Ram Rahim went on a rampage after he was convicted by a court. Forty-one people were killed in this violence, including 32 by police firing. Central paramilitary forces had to be rushed in to control the situation.

In the case of Nuh too, the Centre had to rush in paramilitary forces to get a grip over the situation after hundreds of vehicles were burnt and a police station was attacked. Vij, who has also admitted to lapses at the administrative level, has stayed put in Ambala so far.

In fact, even the VHP has now turned around to say that if they were made aware by the state administration of the dangers that lay ahead of the Nuh Yatra, they would have cancelled the programme.

Monu Manesar Factor

Though the wanted murder accused Monu Manesar was not present in the VHP Yatra and the violence over his alleged presence by the other community is unjustifiable, the fact remains that Manesar not being arrested for the last six months has been a big issue in Nuh.

The three Congress MLAs from the area raised the issue strongly in the Haryana assembly in February and one of them even threatened to teach Monu a lesson if he came to Nuh. Monu was charge-sheeted this June by the Rajasthan Police for the murder of two alleged cow smugglers from Rajasthan earlier this year. He has been freely giving media interviews from undisclosed locations, purportedly in Haryana, even this week but the state police have not been able to trace his whereabouts. Rajasthan Police efforts to raid locations in Haryana in his search have been unsuccessful.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has alleged non-cooperation from the Haryana side and said his police team saw an FIR lodged against it by the Haryana Police during an earlier raid to nab Monu Manesar. Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has now promised full cooperation in this regard to Rajasthan.
The director of a company that was entrusted to scan OMR sheets of candidates who appeared for the Haryana Public Service Commission (HPSC) recruitment exam has been arrested under the anti-money laundering law, the Enforcement Directorate said on Friday.

Ashwani Kumar alias Ashwani Sharma was taken into custody on August 2 and a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court located in Panchkula sent him to five days of ED custody on Thursday, it said in a statement.

The case relates to alleged fraud in the selection of candidates through the HPSC exam.

Ashwani Kumar is the director and controller of Paru Data Solutions Pvt. Ltd. which, according to the agency, was handling the scanning work of OMR sheets of the candidates who appeared for the HPSC exam held in 2021.

He "withheld relevant information and was misleading the investigation," the ED alleged.

"Ashwani Sharma was instrumental in getting candidates selected fraudulently in various examinations of HPSC including Haryana dental surgeon examination and Haryana civil services (HCS) pre-examination in lieu of bribes through middlemen." "He used to fill in the circles left blank in the original copies as well as the carbon copies of the OMR sheets of the candidates from whom bribes were taken for getting them fraudulently qualified in the said exams," the ED said.

The money laundering case stems from an FIR of the Haryana anti-corruption bureau (ACB) that was registered on November 17, 2021, followed by a chargesheet.

The agency has attached assets worth Rs 3.29 crore in this case earlier.
ASI will conduct a detail survey in accordance with law and will prepare a list of the antiquities which are found in building and carry out detail survey and under take the exercise to found age and nature of the structure.

This will include conducting survey, documentation, photography, detail description, GPR survey and full studies without harming the executing structures.
This aerial photo taken on Aug. 3, 2023 shows the Libo Railway Station in Libo, southwest China's Guizhou Province. The construction for the building of Libo Railway Station on the Guiyang-Nanning high-speed railway line has been completed. Featuring a style of Yao ethnic group residential building, the railway station has a construction area of 10,000 square meters.

The Guiyang-Nanning high-speed railway, with a designed speed of 350 kilometers per hour, will provide Libo with access to railway services for the first time in history. It is expected to shorten the travel time between Guiyang of Guizhou Province and Nanning of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region from more than 5 hours to about 2 hours. (Xinhua/Liu Xu)

This aerial photo taken on Aug. 3, 2023 shows the Libo Railway Station in Libo, southwest China's Guizhou Province. The construction for the building of Libo Railway Station on the Guiyang-Nanning high-speed railway line has been completed. Featuring a style of Yao ethnic group residential building, the railway station has a construction area of 10,000 square meters.

The Guiyang-Nanning high-speed railway, with a designed speed of 350 kilometers per hour, will provide Libo with access to railway services for the first time in history. It is expected to shorten the travel time between Guiyang of Guizhou Province and Nanning of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region from more than 5 hours to about 2 hours. (Xinhua/Liu Xu)

This photo taken on Aug. 3, 2023 shows a platform of the Libo Railway Station in Libo, southwest China's Guizhou Province. The construction for the building of Libo Railway Station on the Guiyang-Nanning high-speed railway line has been completed. Featuring a style of Yao ethnic group residential building, the railway station has a construction area of 10,000 square meters.

The Guiyang-Nanning high-speed railway, with a designed speed of 350 kilometers per hour, will provide Libo with access to railway services for the first time in history. It is expected to shorten the travel time between Guiyang of Guizhou Province and Nanning of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region from more than 5 hours to about 2 hours. (Xinhua/Liu Xu)

This aerial photo taken on Aug. 3, 2023 shows the Libo Railway Station in Libo, southwest China's Guizhou Province. The construction for the building of Libo Railway Station on the Guiyang-Nanning high-speed railway line has been completed. Featuring a style of Yao ethnic group residential building, the railway station has a construction area of 10,000 square meters.

The Guiyang-Nanning high-speed railway, with a designed speed of 350 kilometers per hour, will provide Libo with access to railway services for the first time in history. It is expected to shorten the travel time between Guiyang of Guizhou Province and Nanning of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region from more than 5 hours to about 2 hours. (Xinhua/Liu Xu)

This photo taken on Aug. 3, 2023 shows an interior view of the Libo Railway Station in Libo, southwest China's Guizhou Province. The construction for the building of Libo Railway Station on the Guiyang-Nanning high-speed railway line has been completed. Featuring a style of Yao ethnic group residential building, the railway station has a construction area of 10,000 square meters.

The Guiyang-Nanning high-speed railway, with a designed speed of 350 kilometers per hour, will provide Libo with access to railway services for the first time in history. It is expected to shorten the travel time between Guiyang of Guizhou Province and Nanning of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region from more than 5 hours to about 2 hours. (Xinhua/Liu Xu)

Editor: JYZ
Four officials of the Karnataka Police, including an inspector, were detained by their Kerala counterparts after they were caught accepting bribes from an accused in a cheating case. According to police sources, a Karnataka police team arrived in Kochi on August 1 to make two arrests in a cheating case related to cryptocurrency, which was lodged in Karnataka. They managed to track down the two accused named Nikhil and Akhil, and detained them. After making the arrest, the policemen allegedly demanded and took Rs 4 lakh from both of them to let them go. The fiancee of one of the accused then lodged a complaint against the policemen. The Kalamassery police in Kochi detained the four on Wednesday night, based on a complaint in this respect.

Chandaka Srikanth, a Bengaluru-based software developer, reported alleged cyber fraud at the Whitefield police station. Issac, a suspect in the crime, was questioned by the Whitefield CEN police who had travelled to Madikeri to conduct their investigation. According to reports, the police discovered transactions of Rs 2 crore from Isaacs account, which helped them identify another suspect named Naushad from Kochi, Kerala.

CEN police inspector Shivaprakash and three of his associates nabbed Naushad in Kochi and then asked for a bribe to clear their names from the case. He initially asked for Rs 10 lakh but then settled ultimately at Rs 3.95 lakh. One of the suspects paid Rs 2.95 lakh, while the other paid Rs 1 lakh. After the Karnataka cops were detained by Kerala police, the entire amount of Rs 3.95 lakh was recovered from their vehicle.

The crime is still being investigated, and a top officer from the Karnataka Police has arrived in Kochi to look into it.
A speeding truck in Kolkatas Behala area killed a seven-year old boy and has left his father critically injured at around 7 a.m on Friday morning. The accident took place at the Diamond Harbour road when the child, who was a class 2 student was on his way to school with his father on a bicycle.

Following the incident, a police van and a motorcycle was set on fire by an agitated mob. Several buses have also been ransacked in the area. The locals have said that the father and son were crossing the road when the accident took place.

A corporation truck hit the bicycle from the opposite side and crushed the head of the child. The child, identified as Souryanil died on the spot and the father was rushed to the hospital on being seriously injured. The father is currently undergoing treatment at the SSKM hospital. After the accident, the police allowed the corporation truck to leave the spot.

The locals blocked the main road in Behala and pelted stones at the police. The irate mob refused to handover the body of the child to the police and alleged negligence, bribery and lack of proper action on their part. A large police force was deployed in the area where the accident took place with cops resorting to lathi charge and firing tear gas shells to disperse the mob.

The police said that the truck is yet to be traced, however fire tenders have been deployed to douse the flame from the vehicles that were set on fire.
The Manipur police on Friday said stringent action will be taken against those involved in snatching arms and ammunition from security forces in the violence-hit state. Manipur DGP Rajiv Kumars order came after a recent incident took place at the second IRB stationed at Narenseina in the Bishnupur district.

Emphasising the efforts to restore peace in the state, the DGP urged the people of Manipur to cooperate with the security forces. He also commended the combined efforts of state and Central security forces in gradually reducing the loss of life.

He was attending a ceremony of the late Tourangbam Rishikumar Singh of the 6th Manipur Rifles battalion held at the Manipur Police Memorial pillar, in the 1st Manipur Rifles battalion campus in Old Lambulane in Imphal West. Singh, 43, was deployed at Senjam Chirang when he suffered a bullet injury in his head, suspected to be from a sniper rifle on Thursday evening.

The incident took place when he was attempting to evacuate villagers to safety from a militant attack. A village defence volunteer also sustained a minor bullet injury to his ear.

Expressing condolences, the DGP said that it is unfortunate that security personnel have lost their lives during the ongoing clashes. He assured that the police department has initiated an inquiry and investigation to hold the perpetrators accountable for creating violence.

During the wreath laying ceremony, garlands and floral tributes were paid to honor late Singh, along with gun salutes from the Manipur Rifles personnel.

Following the ceremony, the mortal remains of Singh were taken to his birthplace for the last rites.

Ministers K Govindas and Heikham Dingo, MLAs Khongbantabam Ibomcha and Surjakumar Okram, high-ranking officers, and family members of the deceased were among those who participated in the ceremony.
The central governments ambitious wildlife experiment to revive the cheetah population in India is under fire from all sides. A quarter of the founder-population is already lost as three of the big cats succumbed to septicaemia over the past month, forcing forest department officials to dart and recapture the remaining felines.

A total of 14 cheetahs, including a lone cub, are now confined in enclosures yet again with their radio collars removed to monitor their health. Five of the big cats, who were found to be infected with similar conditions, were treated with a drug that is likely to protect them from such infections for the remainder of the monsoon.

According to the forest department, all the cheetahs are now healthy even as experts are now divided over when to release the animals into the wild again. While scientists are waiting for the humid weather conditions to subside, international experts have cautioned against holding them captive for a long duration that can further put their health in peril.

News18 exclusively spoke to South African cheetah expert Vincent van dan Merwe, who is on the consulting panel of the Cheetah Project Steering Committee. A conservation biologist and manager of South Africas Cheetah Metapopulation Project, he has been monitoring the growth of cheetahs in African reserves since 2011. Excerpts from an interview:

The 14 cheetahs (including one cub) at Kuno have been confined to enclosures again following infection concerns. Could this extended captivity be a problem for the felines?

The question is very valid. Because of the extreme pressure on people implementing this project on the ground, there is always an overreaction when something goes wrong. For instance, all the cheetahs were darted and brought back to enclosures for monitoring, even those that did not have a winter coat problem (skin infection). This is unsettling for the cheetahs. This is a high-profile project and the response is natural. But its certainly not helpful to put them into bomas, if they are found to be healthy.

The constant mobilisation, moving and capturing is extremely stressful. So the cheetahs find it difficult to settle into the new habitat. It prevents them from breeding and, so, extended captivity should be avoided. If the cheetah is found to be compromised because of the skin infection, then relocation to the bomas is justified. But if the animal is darted in the wild and found to be healthy, then there is no reason to put it into bomas.

One of the female cheetahs died during a mating attempt, and three others due to septicaemia. Do you think any of these deaths could have been avoided?

It is rare that a male kills a female during mating. It almost never happens. But, we were extremely unlucky. Yes, that was an incorrect decision on behalf of all the role players involved. We were also involved in that decision.

What about the deaths due to septicaemia? Another Namibian cat Tbilisi died on August 2 due to a similar cause when it was still in the wild.

That is something that we did not foresee. The winter coat issue eventually caused septicaemia (cheetahs tend to develop a thicker coat in anticipation of the winter in Africa in May/April, which became problematic at Kuno due to extreme humidity). The cheetahs that died due to septicaemia  all three were extremely wild cheetahs. You could only view them from 60 metres. Its impossible to notice that the animal is compromised, especially in the thick lush bush in the wild. You cannot blame anyone for this.

Are there any concerns about not being involved in the decision making process in India?

It is a tough situation. The Namibians have a stronger background in cheetah husbandry inside enclosures, while ours is in management of wild cheetahs. We then give conflicting advice. Sometimes, it can be incorrect  as was the case of that female getting killed by two males. So the Indian officials have naturally huddled together. They have become distrusting of outsiders and they make their own decisions. And, by now, they know about their cheetahs more than anyone else because they have been working with them for almost a year.
National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval on Friday left for Jeddah to attend the Ukraine peace talks over Russias war organized by Saudi Arabia on August 5 and 6, said top government sources.

We have been invited and we will go. Our view is neutral and balanced. We will give our views, whether its the Saudi forum or an American forum. We have always batted for peace, said the source.

ALSO READ | Need to Raise Voice Together Against Unilateral Attempts to Change Status Quo: PM Modi at G7 Summit

India has strategic interest in Russia in oil, defence and other sectors. Russia wont be upset if we attend the meet, added the source.

NSAs from China, the United States of America (USA )and United Kingdom (UK) are attending the talks.

WHY SAUDI?

Saudi Arabias hosting of the talks comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in May attended an Arab League summit in Jeddah to press those nations to back Kyiv. Arab nations largely have remained neutral since Russia launched the war on Ukraine in February 2022, in part over their military and economic ties to Moscow.

Saudi Arabia also has maintained a close relationship with Russia as part of the OPEC+ group. The organizations oil production cuts, even as Moscows war on Ukraine boosted energy prices, have angered US president Joe Biden and American lawmakers.

Hosting such talks will also help raise the profile of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has sought to reach a detente with Iran and push for peace in the kingdoms years-long war in Yemen.

However, ties also remain strained between Riyadh and the West over the 2018 killing and dismemberment of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, which the US intelligence agencies assess that Prince Mohammed ordered.

INDIA-UKRAINE TIES

Prime Minister Narendra Modi in May said he viewed the current situation in Ukraine as an issue of humanity and human values and not of politics or economy even as he called for respecting international law, sovereignty and territorial integrity of all nations.

ALSO READ | Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy Writes to Prime Minister Narendra Modi

In an address at a G7 session in Hiroshima, Modi also strongly pitched for raising voice collectively against unilateral attempts to change the status quo, asserting that any tension and dispute should be resolved peacefully through dialogue.

The prime minister also referred to his talks with Zelenskyy and reiterated that India will do whatever is possible to resolve the conflict.

Modis comments came after Zelenskyy addressed the G7 leaders seeking global support for Ukraines efforts to defend itself against Russian aggression.
Karnataka minister Dinesh Gundu Rao came back disappointed from a visit to a Delhi mohalla clinic in Panchsheel Park on Friday, calling it overhyped". His reaction came hours after he first heaped praise on the pro-people initiative introduced by the Aam Aadmi Party in the national capital.

Rao said he wanted to see for himself how mohalla clinics were working in Delhi as the recently started Namma clinic service in Karnataka is similar. Mohalla clinic is a neighbourhood facility providing free primary healthcare to residents and is one of the flagship initiatives of the Arvind Kejriwal-led government.

I wanted to visit a mohalla clinic myself to see how it is working In Karnataka, too, we have Namma clinic similar to this (mohalla clinic) So, we can make changes to them after examining the model here, thats why I came here," said Rao, who visited the facility with AAP minister Saurabh Bharadwaj and Karnataka Bhavan medical officer Karthik.

But, the Karnataka health minister was left unimpressed and said the mohalla clinic initiative was not a game-changer", and that there were many such models in his state as well as Tamil Nadu and Kerala. It is not that impressive. We have such models in our state as well. There were not many people. It is not a game-changer. I am not saying it is bad, but it is not like the way it is made out to be There are many models in the south  Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Karnataka  from primary to super-specialty hospitals So, its not a game-changer" he said.

Rao went onto say that such clinics in Karnataka have more facilities, including a laboratory to do immediate tests for patients. I guess it is overhyped and I came back feeling disappointed," he added.

Hours earlier, when the minister was visiting the clinic, he praised the model and said it is functioning very well" but later made a U-turn.

Comparison with namma clinics unjust, says AAP

Reacting to this, the AAP said Rao changed his stance after he received a mysterious phone call". The party said during the visit, he received a phone call and left the location citing an important meeting" and, a while later, tweeted criticising the mohalla clinic.

According to the Kejriwal-led party, a comparison between namma clinic and mohalla clinic is unjust. Rao said the namma clinics in Karnataka were better equipped, but the AAP said it sent a team to one of these clinics from its Karnataka unit to verify the ministers claims.

The AAP team visited the namma clinic located in Ward 94 of Gandhi Nagar in Raos constituency, and found deficiencies in healthcare facilities. The party said the clinic provides only basic medicines for some illnesses; patients are referred to larger hospitals, informed a doctor.

The team also found that both the clinic and the primary health centre (PHC) were located adjacent to each other and people said the PHC had been closed for a long time. Namma clinic, in reality, is just a name, the party said.

The AAP further said it is unfortunate situation that Karnataka health minister Dinesh Gundu Rao visited Delhis mohalla clinic and later criticised the facilities. Dinesh Rao should visit Ward 94s namma clinic in his constituency and assess the quality of healthcare services being provided. Namma clinic has hygiene issues, while the operations of mohalla clinics are monitored by a private agency. The claim made by the health minister that namma clinics infrastructure is superior to mohalla clinics is false," the AAP said.

The party said mohalla clinics are well-equipped and treatment is provided for free. Numerous tests are conducted these clinics and MBBS doctors are available here, providing medicines for different illnesses.

What Karnataka minister said earlier

During the visit earlier, Rao saw the facilities at the clinic and enquired after the staff. I had heard a lot about mohalla clinics and I wanted to see them personally. I wanted to discuss how they (AAP government) are implementing the health policies," he had told reporters.

In southern states such as Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka, health has always been a priority. Every state has got something good that we can learn from. We have something similar (to mohalla clinics) we have namma clinics. We wanted to see how we can improve our system," he had said.

Even Bharadwaj praised the hospitals in Karnataka and said he was very happy" that his counterpart is visiting Delhis mohalla clinics. We will also visit their state. All states should learn from each other," he had said.

In fact, Kejriwal tweeted about the ministers visit: Karnataka health minister visits Delhi mohalla clinics. We welcome him and his team. We all have to learn from each other. Delhi will also learn from the good work done by Karnataka govt."

Delhi, at present, has more than 500 mohalla clinics offering free primary healthcare services to patients, including 212 different types of medical tests.
In a major win for Congress, the Supreme Court on Friday stayed Rahul Gandhis conviction in the Modi surname case enabling him to return to the Parliament and also fight elections. Appearing for the senior Congress leader, advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi argued before the court that the senior Congress leaders comments on the Modi surname are not an offence against society.

Its neither rape nor murder and yet maximum punishment?" Singhvi asked.

Last month, the Gujarat High Court had dismissed Gandhis plea seeking a stay on his conviction in the case.

Heres a timeline of the defamation case against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his remark on the Modi Surname during a speech during an election rally at Kolar in Karnataka -
The Supreme Court relief to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in the Modi surname case has spiced up the no-confidence motion fight coming up in Parliament next week, with Congress leaders pressing for his immediate re-instatement as a Member of Parliament (MP) in the Lok Sabha.

Gandhi was disqualified from the Lok Sabha on March 24, a day after he was convicted by a Surat court in a 2019 criminal defamation case for his remarks on the Modi surname. The Gujarat High Court (HC) had in July dismissed his plea for relief.

A look at all the reactions on Supreme Court staying Rahul Gandhi's conviction in 2019 defamation case;News18's @Elizasherine gets you a sense of the mood at Congress headquarters after SC order @ToyaSingh | #RahulGandhi #DefamationCase #SupremeCourt #Parliament pic.twitter.com/z4qkGPGQWj  News18 (@CNNnews18) August 4, 2023

Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Choudhary said the party wants Gandhi to speak during the no-confidence motion debate. Choudhary said the Speaker has told him that he will take the decision soon and is waiting for the court order.

The discussion on the no-confidence motion will start on August 8, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will reply on August 10.

It remains to be seen if Gandhi will speak on the motion, as he did in 2018, the last time a no-confidence motion was brought in. Gandhi had then also gone and hugged PM Modi post his speech.

It is the prerogative of the Speaker of the Lok Sabha to restore the membership of Gandhi. The Lok Sabha Secretariat will await the certified copy of the SC order before proceeding in the matter.

In an earlier case, the Lok Sabha Secretary General had restored the membership of Mohammad Faizal P.P. after a long delay, after the Kerala High court suspended his conviction in a murder case.

While the Kerala High Court had suspended his conviction on January 25 this year, his membership was restored only on March 29 after he moved the Supreme Court questioning the delay.

The restoration had, in fact, come a day before his matter was to be heard by the Supreme Court.

Congress leaders namely P Chidambaram and Sachin Pilot said the Speaker should immediately restore his membership. Karti Chidambaram said if the Speaker delays his decision, the Congress move the SC again.
As many as 13 Nepali labourers have gone missing after a flash flood swept away three shops near Gaurikund on the Kedarnath yatra route as heavy rains lashed parts of Uttarakhand on Thursday night, officials said on Friday.

Quoting Circle Officer Vimal Rawat, a PTI report said the relief and rescue operations were launched by National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) personnel. None of the missing persons, however, have been found yet.

According to a PTI report, the missing persons have been identified as Vinod (26), Mulayam (25), Ashu (23), Priyanshu Chamola (18), Ranbir Singh (28), Amar Bohra, his wife Anita Bohra, their daughters, Radhika Bohra and Pinki Bohra, and sons Prithvi Bohra (7), Jatil (6) and Vakil (3).

Heavy Rain Likely in Himachal, Uttarakhand

Meanwhile, heavy rainfall continued in several states including Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Assam, Meghalaya, and Maharashtra. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted heavy rainfall in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand during the next 4 days from August 4 to August 8.

Heavy Rains to Lash Uttar Pradesh

The weather office also predicted heavy rainfall in Uttar Pradesh during the next 4 days and very heavy rainfall in West UP on August 5.

Light Rainfall Likely in Delhi-NCR

According to the Met department, the sky will be generally cloudy for the next 4-5 days in Delhi-NCR and light rainfall accompanied by thundershowers over the national capital is likely over the next couple of days.

Heavy Rainfall to Continue in Maharashtra

According to IMD, isolated heavy rainfall is likely over the Konkan, Goa, and Ghat areas of Madhya Maharashtra during the next 24 hours. A yellow alert has been issued in Pune and Satara districts.

Rains Likely Over Coastal Karnataka

The weather office said rain is likely over Coastal Karnataka and at isolated places over Interior Karnataka on August 5.

The weather office has also predicted heavy rainfall at isolated places in East Rajasthan, Punjab, and Haryana on August 4 and August 5.
Actor Aamir Khan attended the funeral of National Award-winning art director Nitin Chandrakant Desai on Friday. He was one of the few Bollywood celebrities who attended the last rites in Karjat. Nitin died by alleged suicide on Wednesday at the age of 57. He had worked on popular films like Lagaan and Devdas. When asked about the low turnout for the funeral, Amir said that everyone must have had their own reasons.

He said, Shayad kuch log nahi aa paae hoge alag wajah se. I am sure sabke liye unke dil mein unke liye ek bahut hi khaas jagah hai. Unki family ko main dhairya rakhne ko kahunga (Maybe some people could not attend for some reason. I am sure he has a special place in everyones heart. I would offer my condolences to his family)."

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Varinder Chawla (@varindertchawla)

Offering his condolences to Nitins family, Amir said, This is very shocking news. I am unable to understand how did this happen. I cant believe it. I wish he did not do this and reached out for help instead. But what can we say in such a tragic situation, it is very difficult to understand what has happened. It is very sad. We have lost someone who was very talented."

Besides Aamir, directors Ashutosh Gowariker, Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Madhur Bhandarkar also attended the last rites ceremony. Actors Sonali Kulkarni and Subodh Bhave also attended the funeral to offer their condolences to the grieving family.

Madhur Bhandarkar told PTI, It was very sad. Its unfortunate that he is not with us. I cant believe this news. It was shocking. He has always supported all kinds of films, big, small, regional. He elevated things for art directors. He will always be remembered for his great body of work."

The last rites were held at ND Studios in Karjat in Raigad district, in the presence of Nitins family and colleagues.

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Yaroslavsky's Dniprovsky Metallurgical Plant cuts output of rolled products by 3.3% in July compared to June, coke by 8.7%

PrJSC Dniprovsky Metallurgical Plant (formerly Dniprokoks), a member of DCH Steel of the DCH group of businessman Oleksandr Yaroslavsky, produced 13,600 tonnes of rolled products in July this year, reducing production by 3.3% compared to previous month.

According to the company's press release on Friday, the plant also produced 30,400 tonnes of coke in July, compared to 33,300 tonnes in the previous month (a decrease of 8.7%).

Production of rolled products in July this year grew 2.8 times compared to the same period last year, and coke production by 65.8%.

In general, in the first seven months of 2023, the production of rolled metal products amounted to 70,000 tonnes, which is 2.5 times more than for the seven months of 2022.

The output of coke in January-July 2023 grew by 27.5%, to 172,400 tonnes.

At the same time, it is recalled that the plant resumed the production of rolled products after a three-month downtime in April 2022. Last year, the plant reduced the production of rolled products compared to 2021 by 74.2%, to 58,400 tonnes, coke  by 56.3%, to 211,300 tonnes.

Dniprovsky Metallurgical Plant specializes in the production of steel, cast iron, rolled products and products from them. On March 1, 2018, the DCH Group signed an agreement on the purchase of the Dniprovsky Metallurgical Plant from Evraz.
Bhumi Pednekar recently took to her Instagram handle and dropped a series of gorgeous pictures. Among others, Anil Kapoor also reacted to Bhumis casual clicks and complimented the actress. He asked about who clicked these pictures and further wrote, Looking really cool, relaxed and beautiful." The Govinda Naam Mera actress also responded to Anil Kapoors comment and replied, @anilskapoor sir its this atmosphere that Im in thats made me look all of the above:)))))"

Check out Bhumi Pednekars post here:

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Bhumi Pednekar (@bhumipednekar)

Interestingly, Bhumi Pednekar and Anil Kapoor will soon be sharing the screen for a yet-to-be-titled movie which will be produced by Rhea Kapoor. Shehnaaz Gill will also feature in this film. However, not much details about the project are known as of now.

Meanwhile, Anil Kapoor was recently seen in The Night Manager. It is an official adaptation of the 2016 thriller show of the same name which was released in the UK. While the remake starred Aditya Roy Kapur, the original show starred Tom Hiddleston in the lead.

In an interview, The Night Manager director Sandeep Modi called Anil Kapoor directors actor and appreciated his hard work and dedication. He can tell me while reading a script, Sandeep, the scenes are going to give us a tough time. His experience and knowledge of conserving energy and determining the right time to shoot with everyone were invaluable. It was a tremendous learning experience for everyone involved, not just me. Anil Kapoor is like a film school in himself, he told India.com.
Anurag Kashyaps daughter Aaliyah Kashyaps engagement party was a star-studded event. Held on Thursday night in Mumbai, the engagement was attended by several celebrities including Suhana Khan, Kushi Kapoor, rumoured lovebirds Palak Tiwari and Ibrahim Ali Khan, and Meezaan Jafri among others. However, one guest that caught everyones attention was Anurag Kashuaps former wife Kalki Koechlin.

Kalki Koechlin also attended her step-daughter Aaliyahs engagement. She was snapped by the paparazzi with her daughter and current boyfriend. She sported a pastel-toned saree and looked prettiest as she posed for the cameras. Check out her pictures here:

For the unversed, Kalki Koechlin was previously married to Anurag Kashyap. The two tied the knot in 2011 but parted ways just four years after their wedding. Me and Kalki are separating, we are taking time off from each other to figure things out. We are not divorcing. We request the media to please respect our privacy and give us our space and not speculate. Thank you, Kalki and Anurag," their joint statement before the divorce read.

In 2019, Kalki opened up about her divorce from Anurag and revealed that she needed therapy after separation. I have been through a divorce, and also needed therapy. Its important to [be mindful of] your mental health, and get the perspective of one who is not a family member or a friend, sometimes," the actress had said as quoted by India Today.

Kalki also clarified that she shares a cordial relationship with Anurag and added, We are still friends and chat and meet. He is a good guy who wears his heart on his sleeve."
During a recent book launch event in New Delhi for her brother RK Chakravartys autobiography, Galloping Decades, Hema Malini shared her thoughts on husband Dharmendras much-discussed on-screen kiss with co-star Shabana Azmi in Karan Johars Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani. In the romantic-comedy drama directed by Karan Johar, Dharmendra and Shabana play long-lost lovers reunited by their grandchildren, played by Alia Bhatt and Ranveer Singh.

Asked about the viral kiss, Hema said with a laugh, according to Times Now, I am sure people have loved the film. I am so happy for Dharam ji, because he loves to be in front of the camera all the time. He loves it.

It was on the same day in Mumbai that Dharmendra discussed the kiss during the success meet of the film, where Karan and other cast members were present. Encouraged by Ranveer to talk about the specific scene, Dharmendra said, Unfortunately, I couldnt attend the premiere, but Ive received a lot of messages from people. Maine bola, Yaar, yeh toh mere daaye haath ka kaam hai (Its no big deal for me). As the rest of the cast of the film laughed, Dharmendra added, Baaye haath se karwana hai, woh bhi karwa lo (I can do it effortlessly).

Karan had earlier discussed the scene in a chat with Film Companion. Shabana ji is a trooper. She is a master actor, she is a baap actor as they say. There was no debate, no question (about the kiss scene). Dharam ji was like, haan theek hai karna hai, fine. (It was) two great veterans, performing with absolute aplomb, no questions asked. It was glorious to see them, he had said.

In an interview with Zoom, Shabana said that shooting the scene was never a problem for her, mentioning that audiences have been laughing and cheering in theaters during that particular scene. It is true that I havent kissed much on screen before. But who wouldnt want to kiss a man as handsome as Dharmendra? she said.

Dharmendra and Hema Malini made headlines recently when Hema and her daughters, Esha and Ahana, refrained from attending their grandson Karan Deols wedding. Dharmendra has children from his first marriage and two daughters with Hema. Despite the lack of interaction between the families, Esha Deol congratulated Karan on his wedding and cheered for her father Sunny Deols upcoming movie, Gadar 2.
Maharashtrachi Hasya Jatra is one of the most popular Marathi comedy shows. It was off-air for two months. As the fans awaited updates about the show, some recent reports suggested that it will resume soon and the shoot has also begun. The makers of the show earlier announced that it is all set to launch on August 14.

Recently, a new promo has also been unveiled for the audience. The promo featured Dattu More, Esha Dey, Shivali Parab, Priyadarshini Indalkar, Sameer Chaugule and Vanita Kharat, treating the audience with their comedy skits. Its caption read, Your favourite comedians are back to make you laugh your heart out! Maharashtrachi Hasya Jatra.welcomes your family. Watch Maharashtrachi Hasya Jatra and Laugh with the family! Maharashtrachi Hasya Jatra will premiere from Monday to Thursday at 9 pm. It will be available to watch on Sony Marathi channel.

The new season is titled Maharashtrachi Hasya Jatra  Sahakutumb Hasu Dya. Going by its promo, it can be said that the upcoming season will leave the audience enthralled with new skits. Maharashtrachi Hasya Jatra judges Sai Tamhankar and Prasad Oak, along with the host Prajakta Mali, will reunite for the show.

Sai Tamhankar recently fulfilled her promise to her fans and went LIVE from the set of the show during the shoot. On her LIVE chat, she informed, I am back after a long gap on the set of Hasya Jatra. We have begun shooting for the new episodes of the show. We are so thrilled to shoot and begin the fun."

She went on to share glimpses of Prajakta Mali, who was seen getting ready for the shows shoot. She also congratulated Prajakta for buying a new farmhouse with her hard-earned money. Notably, during the break, the entire team of the show went on an international tour in the USA and Canada, where they entertained the audience with their comic timing and undeniable skills.
In a heartwarming gesture, Pashmina Roshan, took to her social media platform to mark the 20th anniversary of the sci-fi blockbuster KoiMil Gaya". The image she shared was a delightful snapshot from her childhood, revealing her sheer joy while posing with Jadoo and her cousin Suranika, the lovable alien who captured the imagination of millions with his innocence and extraordinary abilities.

She captioned her post , When we were just little girls, our family went on an adventure, and although @suranika and I were just bystanders in their adventures, it felt as thrilling as if it was happening to us. For a beautiful time, our days were filled with KoiMil Gaya. From waking up and hearing my dad work on the songs, to visiting the set and seeing tutu papa create magic. We drank more bournvita because Rohit liked it. We cried when duggu bhaiya got hit, and cheered when he stood up. We wanted to dress up like Nisha. We wanted to dance whenever it rained, we ran around the set imagining we were residents of Kasauli, lucky enough to meet with the lovable Jaadoo. Jaadoo became all our friend too.

Now after so many years, we get to relive the adventure on a big screen and Im filled with more than just nostalgia- Im filled with pride, wonder and empowerment, because here is what imagination, perseverance, unity and hard work can achieve we reach the stars "

The magic of KoiMil Gaya is being rekindled with it rereleasing in theatres today. In the throwback picture shared by Pashmina, the adorable child version of the actress can be seen wearing a beaming smile while standing beside the enchanting Jaadoo. The photograph serves as a touching tribute not only to the film but also to the memories and joy it brought to her as a child.

To mark 20 years of Koi Mil Gaya,

makers have re-released the film in 30 cities on August 4. Directed by Rakesh Roshan, Koi Mil Gaya was released in theaters on August 8, 2003. The science-fiction drama struck a chord with both young and old audiences alike.

In an exclusive conversation with Pinkvilla, Rakesh Roshan said, The team at PVR Inox reached out to us to celebrate 20 years of Koi Mil Gaya. I was very happy to know of their plans and we have jointly decided to re-release the film on August 4th across 30 cities in India. The idea is to relive the nostalgia of the film and re-release it in PVR Inox cinemas. We hope the re-release marks to be a family outing with parents taking their kids to cinema halls and introducing the new generation to Jaadoo, while the parents reminisce memories of watching the film 20 years ago."

We set out to make Koi Mil Gaya as a childrens film that would be enjoyed by the kids and also entertain their families. It was a risk I was taking as a filmmaker introducing a Sci-fi film with an alien, but the audience response was my biggest reward. It was satisfying and strengthened my belief as a film maker to keep making films on different genres, storylines and keep experimenting, he shared.

The film also starrez Rekha, Johnny Lever, Rajat Bedi, Prem Chopra and child artists Hansika Motwani, Anuj Pandit Sharma in pivotal roles.
Raveena Tandon became the proud recipient of Padma Shri this year. The evergreen actress along with the Oscar winning composer MM Keeravani had received the fourth highest civilian award from President Droupadi Murmu during an auspicious ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Since Raveena Tandon likes to step out in impeccable outfits, it wasnt unusual for the actress to be papped on Friday and like always, she was dressed to impress.

On Friday, popular paparazzo handle Viral Bhayani shared a clip of the actress getting out of her car and briefly interacting with the paps. Its interesting to note that the KGF actor looked gorgeous and cute in a pink tie-dye hoodie, pink cargos and shimmering pair of silver footwear. Striking some poses for the camera, Raveena Tandon certainly channeled her inner-Barbie before thanking the paps and exiting the scene. Check out the video here:

Fans couldnt believe their eyes as several of them took to the comment section to compliment the evergreen actress. One of them wrote, She is looking so cute. It seems she is ageing in reverse!" Another one commented,"Still looking so young!" Someone else said, Hi barbie. Dress is so attractive and captivating. I just cant put my eyes off. And you are looking so charming, fascinating, bewitching, winsome and what not." A fan also stated, She still looks pretty!"

Back in June, Raveena Tandon made shocking some revelations about her personal as well as professional life. After spilling the beans on her broken engagement" with Akshay Kumar, Raveena had recalled shooting for the 1994 popular song Tip Tip Barsa Paani with him. Raveena Tandon revealed that she had put forth multiple conditions before the makers for doing the song. I was very clear that my saree will not come off, this will not happen, that will not happen, therell be no kissing, therell be no nothing. So, there were a lot of cross marks rather than tick marks on that song, and eventually we came up with something that was Tip Tip, which was a correct balance of sensuality, more than anything else," Raveena reportedly told The New Indian, according to Bollywood Shadis.com.

She continued, They were sensuous songs, yes, there was nothing overtly sexual about it. I always believed there is a thin line between in-your-face sexuality and sensuality.

Raveena Tandon was said to be in a serious relationship with Akshay Kumar in the late 1990s. However, the Bollywood actress recently revealed that she still shares a good bond with Akshay despite their breakup. She said that they both have immense respect for each other. Akshay and I are still friends. You need to respect it and move on. I think of him very highly. I think he is one of the strongest pillars of our industry," Raveena told ETimes.

Raveena Tandon and Akshay Kumar reportedly began dating in 1995, after starring together in the 1994 hit film Mohra. According to Raveena, they got engaged in the late 90s. Later, they called it quits. The two exes reunited at a fashion event in Mumbai last month and sent their fans into a frenzy after multiple videos of them sitting together and sharing a hug went viral on social media.
Actor Samantha Ruth Prabhu took to Instagram on Friday evening to share a photograph of her enjoying a relaxing pool. The actor donned a beautiful, white, floor-length dress with yellow flowers printed on it  reminiscent of her recent tropical vacation in Bali. Samantha looked like a summer dream, standing in front of lush fruit trees and Birds of Paradise flowers.

Samantha had earlier announced that she will take a break from acting to focus on recovering from myositis. The autoimmune disease can cause inflammation in the muscles, leading to pain, weakness and swelling. A source had told Hindustan Times earlier that she will be going to the US in August for at least a year to get the treatment and therapy required for her recovery. The source added that she might also visit South Korea for the same.

India Today quoted a source as saying, She will take a year-long break from work and will not sign any new Telugu or Bollywood films. She plans to use this time to regain her health and seek additional treatment. Samantha has returned advanced payments to producers she had previously taken."

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Samantha (@samantharuthprabhuoffl)

The actor had also confirmed her break in an Instagram post that she shared after wrapping the Indian spin-off of the spy-thriller Citadel. She captioned the post, And its a wrap on #CitadelIndia. A break doesnt seem like a bad thing at all when you know whats coming. @rajanddk @mensit The family I didnt know I needed. Thank you for helping me fight every single battle and never ever giving up on me. I wish more than anything in the world to make you proud.. Thank you for the role of a lifetime.. i.e until you write me the next."

Samantha is using her time off work to live her best life. The actor recently took a girls trip to Bali. The actor looked visibly glowing and happy in the multiple glimpses that she had shared from the vacation.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Samantha (@samantharuthprabhuoffl)

While Samantha will not be filming any new projects soon, her film Kushi opposite Vijay Deverakonda is set to release in September this year. She will next be seen in Citadel opposite Varun Dhawan.
The world is on fire and July 2023 has set an alarming precedent  the hottest month ever recorded in human history, and potentially the hottest in 120,000 years  sending an unequivocal signal that immediate and drastic global climate action is not just necessary, but an existential imperative. The planet is heating up at an alarming pace, and the consequences are already devastating.

Asia, a region both vibrant and diverse, faces the brunt of the climate crisis. It is not just a major contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for over 50 percent of the worlds total, but also houses 13 of the 30 countries most susceptible to climate change impacts. As the recent Climate Central report reveals, over 6.5 billion people across the globe experienced high temperatures, at least three times more likely, due to human-caused climate change in the month of July this year. This alarming reality demands urgent action at both the policy and individual levels.

The evidence of global warming is undeniable, and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has aptly stated that the era of global warming has ended and the era of global boiling has arrived. The time for rhetoric has passed, and the consequences of inaction are dire. Guterress call for dramatic, immediate climate action holds true for Asia, where the impact of climate change is already felt in extreme weather events, heat waves, and rising sea levels.

In this critical fight, however, there is a growing lack of consensus among nations. While scientific evidence overwhelmingly supports the urgent need for collective action, political divisions often hinder progress.

Sample these. In July 2023, which was the hottest July ever on earth, the G20 leadership participated in Energy Transitions Ministerial meeting in Goa, to address the climate crisis. However, the outcome of the meeting highlighted the stark absence of global consensus. Russia and Chinas objections led to a failure to reach a joint communique, underscoring the immense challenge of rallying nations together to decarbonize.

It may be noted that the G20, responsible for over three-quarters of global emissions and gross domestic product, holds immense potential to spearhead the global fight against climate change. Yet, the lack of agreement on phasing down fossil fuels, critical to curbing emissions, reflects the disunity in tackling this existential threat.

Earlier, the United Nations Climate Conference, COP27, held in Egypt last year, also faced considerable disagreements among nations, emphasizing the lack of global consensus. Key issues like the establishment of a loss and damage fund and integration of human rights in climate actions sparked divisions among participating countries. Moreover, the failure to decisively address the urgent need to transition away from fossil fuels underscored the ongoing challenge of reaching a global consensus on this crucial aspect of climate action.

So, while world leaders acknowledge the scientific evidence, there remains frustrating inertia when it comes to implementing concrete measures. The consequences of inaction are evident in the lives lost, ecosystems destroyed, and livelihoods shattered by extreme weather events. The time for rhetoric and incremental actions is over. The urgency of the climate crisis demands a united and decisive response. This lack of consensus is a wake-up call for all stakeholders, from governments to corporations and individuals.

John Kerry, the US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, visited India in July to foster collaboration on climate action and clean energy initiatives. His decision to visit India reinforces the importance of global partnerships in confronting the climate crisis and reminds the world that the future of humanity hinges on collective action.

Moving further, the upcoming COP28 climate summit in Dubai presents a crucial opportunity for Asias major polluters to unite and embrace tougher targets to break free from fossil fuel dependency. Policymakers must prioritize global interests over short-term gains and commit to decarbonization with utmost resolve.

At the same time, individual action is equally vital in the fight against climate change. As governments and industries work to implement climate-friendly policies and invest in renewable energy, every individual can contribute to this global effort. Energy conservation, waste reduction, and supporting eco-conscious initiatives are simple yet impactful steps that everyone can take.

Fiscal policy can play a significant role in driving climate action in Asia, but that is not enough. Governments must prioritise investments in renewable energy, sustainable infrastructure, and green technologies, steering the region towards a resilient and sustainable future.

The urgency for climate action in Asia cannot be overstated. Collaboration among nations is essential to confront this existential crisis, and developed nations must support vulnerable countries in their quest for resilience and adaptation. The challenge may be enormous, but the potential for transformation is equally significant.

As the era of global boiling unfolds, Asia faces an unparalleled opportunity to lead the charge against climate change. The choice lies before us  a united global front or a fractured world grappling with the consequences. Together, we can shape a sustainable and prosperous future for Asia and the world, where the scorching reality of climate change is met with strength, resolve, and collective action.

The author is with Climate Trends, a research-based consulting and capacity-building initiative that aims to bring greater focus on issues of environment, climate change and sustainable development. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18s views.
The ruling party of Tamil Nadu, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), along with its ally Manithaneya Makkal Katchi (MMK), has come under scrutiny due to a controversial banner displayed in Batlagundu. The banner depicts Hindu Gods Rama, Lakshmana, and Sita in a derogatory manner and targets the Modi government in connection with the Manipur violence. The banner portrays Prime Minister Narendra Modi as Lord Rama and Amit Shah as Lord Lakshmana, holding bow and arrows, with a naked woman representing Goddess Sita. This seemed to allude to the disturbing incident in Manipur where a woman was paraded naked and sexually assaulted.

While the controversy surrounding the first banner is still ongoing, another offensive banner has emerged on social media, allegedly erected by an Islamist party in Chennai and Coimbatore. The banner derogatorily depicts Bharat Mata (Mother India). The image in the tweet shows the Manipur violence victim portrayed as Bharat Mata alongside her perpetrators, one of whom is wearing a saffron-coloured mask. Jawahirullah MH, the leader of MMK, claimed that the MMK district office bearers in Dindigul promptly responded by removing all the digital banners as soon as they were placed, even before any demonstrations occurred.

We wont say bharat mata ki jai but would be the first one to use her for political propaganda.Another derogatory poster by MMK (an I.N.D.I. Alliance). Pc - Coimbatore local portal SimpliCity pic.twitter.com/1JS4TiTHJs  The Hawk Eye (@thehawkeyex) July 31, 2023

Moreover, more than 300 individuals, primarily affiliated with the youth wing of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) were charged for allegedly chanting provocative anti-Hindu slogans during a march in the northern Kerala district. The incident occurred during a rally organised by the Youth League in Kanhangad, expressing solidarity with the victims of violence in Manipur. The individuals have been booked under Section 153A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which pertains to promoting enmity between different groups based on religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and engaging in acts that could disrupt social harmony.

In sharp contrast to the mainstream leftist narrative of Muslims being perennially oppressed and scared, Akbaruddin Owaisi, the brother of the self-proclaimed saviour of the Indian constitution, Asaduddin Owaisi, did not vacillate while spewing venom not only against the Hindu deities but also inciting violence against the Hindu majority. His infamous 15-minute remark also echoed during the recent provocative slogans raised during the rally.

On the other hand, in a shocking video from Delhi, a right-wing organisation protestor was seen issuing an open threat to Muslims outside Nangloi Police Station. The man seen in the video also asks for Uttarakhand-like boycott of Muslims in Delhi. The crowd can be heard raising slogans of khoon bahega sadko pe (blood will flow on the streets). All those living on rent in our area who are Islamic and fundamentalist, we will throw them out. In 1947 Pakistan came into existence and it was said that others would go and stay there. To live in this country, the appeal was to live in peace. Whoever has disturbed peace, will you throw them out like Uttarakhand or not?

The communal violence in Nuh district has spread to neighbouring areas, including Gurugram, leading to a series of clashes which resulted in the unfortunate death of a cleric and the mosque in Sector 57 being destroyed. Six people including two home guards and four civilians also died in the incident.

Communal tensions in India have reached an alarming rate, posing a significant threat to social harmony and stability. It is crucial for the government to address this issue effectively and promptly to maintain law and order. While it is essential to recognise that anti-social elements exist in all communities, it is vital to remember that they do not represent the sentiments of the larger community. The government must focus on promoting dialogue, fostering inter-community understanding, and implementing strict measures against those who attempt to instigate violence or disrupt communal harmony. By nurturing an environment of inclusivity, tolerance, and respect for diversity, India can work towards mitigating communal tensions and fostering a sense of unity among its citizens. Effective governance and unbiased law enforcement will play a pivotal role in achieving these goals and ensuring a peaceful and cohesive society for all.

From the northern valleys to the southern peninsulas, and from the western deserts to the eastern deltas, Indias rich tapestry is woven with threads of diversity and pluralism. The unity in this diversity lies at the core of Indias identity, and it is imperative for all its inhabitants to be respectful of each others religious sentiments to ensure continued harmony.

In this vast and diverse country, it is essential for people of all cultures and religions to understand and appreciate one anothers beliefs. Respect and empathy should form the cornerstone of our interactions. We should celebrate the differences that make us unique while cherishing the common threads that bind us together as Indians. Open dialogue, understanding, and the willingness to learn about each others customs and traditions can foster an environment of inclusivity.

However, some advocate free speech absolutists claim that everyone should have the right to say whatever they want. While free speech is a fundamental human right, it comes with responsibilities. In the Indian context, this debate can be seen as somewhat elitist when pressing issues like hunger, unemployment, and poverty demand our immediate attention. Prioritising constructive discussions and addressing real-world challenges should be the focus, while ensuring that free speech does not lead to communal discord or violence. Indeed, there is no country in the world where free speech is entirely unrestricted. Even in developed nations like the United States, laws governing speech exist to maintain public order and protect the rights of all citizens. It is essential to strike a balance between safeguarding individual liberties and maintaining social harmony.

When provocative slogans or actions aimed at creating unrest surface, strict action should be taken against the perpetrators. The government must deal with such elements firmly, ensuring that they face the consequences of their actions. Upholding the rule of law is crucial in safeguarding the unity and stability of the nation. Every member of society must recognise that provocative behaviour or inflammatory statements tarnish the image of their respective communities. These actions do not represent the sentiments of the entire community but can lead to misconceptions and stereotyping. It is in everyones interest to promote a positive image and to work towards fostering goodwill and understanding among all communities.

The Muslim community, often portrayed as an oppressed minority, is, in fact, the second-largest majority in India. This community has long been an integral part of the nations fabric and plays a significant role in its growth and progress. With this influence comes the responsibility to uphold the values of peace, harmony, and cooperation. By being proactive in maintaining law and order, the Muslim community can actively contribute to Indias continued success as a diverse and inclusive nation.

By tackling real-world challenges, addressing provocations with firmness, and promoting a positive image of our communities, we can ensure that India remains a shining example of coexistence, tolerance, and progress on the global stage.

The author takes special interest in history, culture and geopolitics. He is a proponent of religious reform and identifies himself as an Indic Muslim exploring Vedic knowledge and cultural heritage through music. When he is not writing columns, he enjoys playing drums and performing raps. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18s views.
Those who left NDA fold was because of their selfish reasons, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is said to have told MPs during a meeting on Wednesday night as he met state in charges and other office bearers from Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Union Territories of Jammu Kashmir, Ladakh and Delhi.

In the meeting, the PM highlighted the achievements of the NDA government in the last nine years and how the coalition has become stronger in the last 25 years, nurtured by leaders such as former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

While hitting out at certain quarters, who alleged that under the Modi regime, the close and long-term allies left the NDA fold, PM Modi said, Those who left the NDA did so because of their own selfish, political interests. This was also the case with long-term ally Akali Dal.

It may be remembered that during the passage of the farm bills, Harsimrat Kaur Badal, who was a Cabinet minister in the Modi government, resigned as a minister and the Akali Dal, which was in alliance with the BJP for over 25 years, quit the NDA.

PM Modi also slammed the opposition alliance  INDIAfor being an alliance of the corrupt.

During the meeting of other clusters at Garvi Gujarat complex in New Delhi, the Prime Minister suggested that the MPs should constantly stay in touch with the people on the ground and work to improve social media presence. BJP national president JP Nadda and Union minister Nitin Gadkari were present in this meeting.

He further stressed on the central government schemes and ensuring last mile delivery should be the top focus of all NDA MPs.

An array of traditional food from all the states and UTs was served to the guests. Sea Buckthorn Juice from Ladakh was the welcome drink. Main course served to the guests included traditional Nadru Yakhni from Jammu and Kashmir, Sepu Vadi from Himachal Pradesh, Amritsari Chole Kulche from Punjab, Bajra Khichadi & Roti from Haryana and Garhwal Ka Fannah from Uttarakhand.

For the sweet and dessert section  Ghewar from Old Delhi, Chena Murki from Chandigarh and Walnut Fudge from Srinagar was part of the menu.

Modi has so far been present in all the six cluster meetings covering states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana Karnataka, Kerala, Punjab, Haryana, Jammu Kashmir, Ladakh and Delhi.

Five more such meetings of the NDA are slated to take place next week across three days. States from the west, central and north-eastern region are likely to attend the meetings next week.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a meeting on Thursday to prepare the Crimea Platform summit.

"The meeting on the Crimea Platform  the content of the summit, the international presence at the summit, its impact on our ability to keep up the pressure for the liberation of Crimea  we are working on the details," he said in a video address on Thursday.

According to Zelenskyy, "we are already preparing not only the Crimea Platform Summit at the level of leaders in August, but also the parliamentary dimension of the Crimea Platform, which will be held in the autumn."
The government has informed the Rajya Sabha chairman about Union Home Minister Amit Shahs availability only on the last day of the ongoing Monsoon Session, top sources have told News18. With the Opposition demanding a discussion on Manipur, Shah is ready to reply on August 11.

On Monday, the home minister will be talking on the Delhi Services Bill in Rajya Sabha. From Tuesday to Thursday, he will be busy as there will be a discussion on the no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha in which he will be intervening. So the only available date is August 11, a senior minister in the government told News18.

The Opposition, which has been demanding a discussion on Manipur under rule 267 and a statement by the prime minister since the beginning of the Monsoon Session, was seen softening its stand when the leaders spoke on the floor of the House, noting that Manipur was a crucial issue and needed to be discussed. Therefore, they were ready to compromise on the rule and hold a discussion under rule 176.

On Thursday, Union parliamentary affairs minister Pralhad Joshi and Leader of the Rajya Sabha Piyush Goyal had an informal chat with the floor leaders of opposition parties about the same.

This was after Goyal had said on the floor of the House that the Union government was not running away from a discussion on Manipur. However, he stressed that the Opposition needed to listen to the reply of the home minister without causing any disturbance. Goyal had also told Parliament that he would check about the availability of the home minister before confirming a time for the reply on the debate, given the hectic schedule next week.

After demanding a discussion on Manipur in both houses of Parliament, opposition parties had been adamant on a reply by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the violence in the north-eastern state. After failing to convince the government about the same, they filed a notice of no-confidence against the Modi government. This notice was submitted by Congress Member of Parliament Gaurav Gogoi.

Just this week in the business advisory committee, the Lok Sabha Speaker had given time for discussion of the no-confidence motion. Sixteen hours have been set aside for discussion starting on August 8, which will conclude with a reply by the prime minister on August 10.
Violent clashes occurred in Andhra Pradesh that injured several policemen as well as supporters of TDP and the ruling YSRCP on Friday. Stones were pelted and vehicles were set on fire during a rally of Telugu Desam Party chief N Chandrababu Naidu.

According to the police, at least 20 policemen deployed to provide security were injured in the rally at Mulakalacheruvu in Annamayya district.

The incident of fierce stone pelting was reported on the way to Punganur where over 20 police personnel were attacked, including the DSP," Chittoor district Superintendent of Police Y Rishant Reddy told news agency PTI.

#WATCH | Andhra Pradesh | A clash broke out between TDP and YSRCP workers during a rally of TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu in Annamayya earlier today. Stone pelting was also reported from both sides. pic.twitter.com/73Bd3KJDUv ANI (@ANI) August 4, 2023

What triggered this?

This started happening after Naidu allegedly made some derogatory remarks hile addressing a rally where he called Thamballapalle MLA Peddireddi Dwarakanatha Reddy Ravan.

In retaliation to the remark, the ruling party supporters blocked the way to Angallu in Chittoor where Naidu was heading. Soon after this, the stone pelting commenced by TDP cadres, in which several supporters from both side were injured.

Lathi charge, teargas to disperse people

As the issue soon became a riot-like situation, police resorted to lathi charge and started dispersing the crowd.

Naidus next rally scheduled at Punganur saw police barricades along with the authorities diverting the roadshow via bypass road.

However, on this road the TDP cadres were waiting for the rally and they allegedly attacked the police and burnt a bus and a vajra vehicle. Police had to fire teargas shells to disperse them, according to PTI.

Naidu condemns the attacks

Naidu has condemned the alleged attacks of YSRCP leaders on TDP activists.

The state will remain in peace only if such persons are sent to jail. If you come with a stick, we will face you with several sticks," Naidu said.

There were some YSRCP workers at that meeting, waving black flags, which prompted Naidu to tell them that no power on earth could threaten him.

However, when the TDP leader was proceeding towards Angallu village, some YSRCP supporters allegedly tried to attack those who were present there, injuring them. Naidu then warned the ruling party leaders of serious consequences if such violence continues.

Naidu is on a Yudha Bheri tour to highlight the failure of the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government in completing irrigation projects that were started during his reign.

with PTI Inputs
Parliament Monsoon Session LIVE: The opposition and the government are likely to arrive at a middle path over discussion on Manipur violence, ending days of deadlock. Dropping their demand for a statement from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Opposition leaders have reportedly agreed for a discussion on situation in the northeastern state in Rajya Sabha on August 11, and a reply on the same by Union home minister Amit Shah.

According to a report in Hindustan Times, the change in stance came after both sides engaged in talks on Thursday morning when the government reached out. The report also stated that the Opposition decided to climb down after its delegation met President Droupadi Murmu on Wednesday.

Here Are Latest Updates on Parliament:

 Defence Minister Rajnath Singh tabled the Tri-Service Bill in Lok Sabha on Friday, which allows commanders to give full administrative and disciplinary powers.

 Leader of House Piyush Goyal demands a discussion on atrocities against women in Rajasthan under rule 176 in Rajya Sabha.

Leader of House Piyush Goyal demands a discussion on atrocities against women in Rajasthan under rule 176 in Rajya Sabha. Treasury Bench MPs sloganeer demanding discussion on Rajasthan in the House. pic.twitter.com/TJJpoJT7T7  ANI (@ANI) August 4, 2023

ALSO READ | 12-yr-old Girl Raped, Burnt Alive in Rajasthan Coal Furnace; Villagers Say More Bodies Could Be Inside

 The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023 was passed on Thursday after a nearly four-hour-long debate which was replied to by Union Home Minister Amit Shah. The bill replaced an ordinance promulgated for handling the transfers and postings of senior officers in the Delhi government. It was passed amid a walkout by opposition parties.

 A parliamentary committee has stressed on the need to introduce chapters on drug addiction, its consequences, and de-addiction measures in school and college curricula with proper counselling and awareness programmes. The panel said the country aims to foster a society that understands drug abuse as a public health concern rather than a character flaw.
Police here registered an FIR against senior BJP leader and former Karnataka Home Minister Araga Jnanendra for his objectionable comments on Congress national President Mallikarjun Kharge. The FIR was registered on Thursday based on a complaint lodged by Congress worker Rajiv Jane, in the Ashok Nagar police station in Kalaburagi, Karnataka, a police official told PTI.

Jnanendra has been booked under Section 504 of IPC (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), and the case will be transferred on Friday to Thirthahalli in Shivamogga district, where the incident occurred, the official said.

The senior BJP MLA made an objectionable reference to the complexion of Kharge and people of the region he hails from, during a protest in Thirthahalli on August 1.

Targeting Forest Minister Eshwar Khandre  who also hails from the Kalyana Karnataka region to which Kharge also belongs  for his statement regarding the implementation of the Kasturirangan report, Jnanendra said, people from the region, who hardly know anything about trees, plants or shade are speaking about decisions that impact the lives of people living in the Western Ghats region.

The government should make its stand clear (regarding implementation of the Kasturirangan report), Mr Siddaramaiah! It is our misfortune that the Forest Minister is from that region (Kalyana-Karnataka), which doesnt have a forest. They dont know what plant, tree or its shade is, under the scorching heat people there turn black (dark), we will know it by looking at our Kharge. Because of the hair cover, he is saved, it (hairs on the head) is the shade for them," Jnanendra said.

Addressing a gathering at the protest, he said, Such people who dont know about the lives of people living in Malnad or Western Ghats region are speakingso I urge the government to give clarity." Congress workers had on Wednesday held demonstrations in Bengaluru against Jnanendra, shouting slogans against him, while the party leaders hit out at him questioning his mental fitness.

However, as the issue snowballed into a controversy, Jnanendra had clarified maintaining that he never spoke about Kharge, but said he will express regret if anyone is hurt.

I never spoke against Mallikarjun Kharge, I dont think Im big enough to criticise him. I always speak with respect for his seniority and experience. My intention was not to hurt Mallikarjun Kharge or Khandre. I have seen reactions in the media. My intention was not to hurt anyones feelings, but if anyone is hurt, I express regret," he had said, maintaining he had never taken Kharges name.
Stung by raging attacks and widespread criticism from various quarters over Assembly Speaker A N Shamseers recent remarks about Lord Ganesha, the ruling CPI(M) in Kerala on Saturday clarified that he never said that the Hindu deity is a myth and that the party has always stood with the true believers in society.

While the Marxist party leaders sought to play down the issue even as they continued to justify Shamseer, the opposition Congress reiterated its demand that the Speaker retract his statement.

During an event organised at a school in Ernakulam district recently, Shamseer allegedly accused the Centre of trying to teach children Hindu myths instead of accomplishments in science and technology.

Putting more pressure on the ruling party, the influential Sivagiri Mutt, a major spiritual centre of the states numerically strong Ezhava community, said that the Speakers remarks had hurt the sentiments of the faithful and urged him to tender an unqualified apology in this regard.

Talking to reporters in New Delhi, CPI(M) state secretary M V Govindan said that neither he nor Shamseer ever said that Lord Ganesha is a myth, and alleged that a false campaign" is being unleashed by political opponents and a section of the media on the issue.

Besides the speakers remarks, an explanation given by Govindan at a press conference in Thiruvananthapuram two days ago to justify Shamseers words also didnt go down well with his political opponents. The BJP-affiliated Sangh Parivar has already begun a campaign against Govindan as well.

When journalists asked about some of his reported controversial statements, Govindan said both Lord Ganesha and Allah are part of the faith of their respective religious faithful, and there is no need for him to state that they are just myths.

I have never said that You please see the video of the press conference again. If you listen to the explanation (given for myths), you can understand it clearly," said Govindan, who is also a politburo member of the CPI(M).

His statement comes amid growing protests from Hindu organisations, including the influential Nair Service Society (NSS), over Shamseers alleged recent remarks about the Hindu deity during a speech in a school in Ernakulam district while criticising the education policy of the Narendra Modi-led BJP government at the Centre.

Govindan said the CPI(M) has always stood with true believers, and that Kerala society  which has always upheld history and science together on its path to social development  is well aware of its stand.

Both Lord Ganesha and Allah are part of the faith. So then why should he say that they are just myths," the senior Marxist leader asked.

Commenting on the actions of political opponents targeting the CPI(M) on the issue, Govindan clarified that neither he nor Speaker Shamseer had said anything like that, and that all these are part of a false campaign unleashed by a section of the media and the opposition parties.

He also said he had explained in detail during the Wednesday press conference held in Thiruvananthapuram what a myth was by citing the story about Parasurama creating Kerala by hurling his axe into the sea.

Coming down heavily on the opposition parties allegations against the ruling CPI(M) and Shamseer over his remarks on the Hindu deity, the leader said the Marxist party is with the real believers in society and not with those who pretend to be believers and communalists who use faith as a tool for political purposes.

Senior CPI (M) leader and former health minister K K Shailaja also came out to justify Shamseer.

She said the Speaker did not mention anything about beliefs or believers, and cautioned that there are attempts being made to create divisions among people.

Without evidence or proof, one cannot say something is science, she added.

What is the need to compel a person to believe things We are not denying anythingsome myths, some people are believing What is the need for this kind of shouting," she asked, speaking at a briefing in the national capital.

However, the opposition Congress reiterated its demand that Shamseer withdraw his statement.

Refusing to buy CPI(M) state secretarys explanation, Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly V D Satheesan insisted that Govindan had indeed said in Thiruvananthapuram that Lord Ganesha is a myth, and that he changed his stand when he reached New Delhi.

If the Speaker also changes his stand in the same manner, the issue would be over, the LoP said, indicating that Shamseer should withdraw his remarks.

Meanwhile, Sachchidananda Swamy, president of Sree Narayana Dharma Sangham Trust, which manages the renowned Sivagiri Mutt, said the Speaker should have handled the matter carefully.

Virtually extending support to the recent protest demonstrations organised by the Nair Service Society against Shamseer, he said no one can blame them as the remarks might have hurt their sentiments.

Addressing a press conference in Sivagiri, Swamy said the Speaker might not have made the controversial remarks deliberately, but if it has hurt the faithful community, Shamseer should tender an unqualified apology. It is part of our social life." The BJP and right wing outfits like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) have already launched a campaign against Shamseer, saying they are aggrieved over the Speakers comments regarding Lord Ganesha and the mythical pushpaka vimanam.

The ruling CPI(M) had on Saturday strongly condemned the campaign by the Sangh Parivar against Shamseer over his reported controversial remarks.

Misinterpreting myths and beliefs and portraying them as scientific thoughts would only lead to the backtracking of the progress of society and checking the development of science, the CPI(M) had earlier said in a statement.
An armed separatist movement by the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front sparked a phase of insurgency in the erstwhile state in July 1988. The immediate impact: massacres and the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley, and thousands of civilian deaths each year in the next wave of violence.

According to data obtained from the ministry of home affairs and terror data website South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), from 1988 to 2000, there were 44,000 terror and violent incidents in Jammu and Kashmir resulting in the deaths of 10,000 civilians and over 3,500 security personnel. More than 12,300 terrorists were killed in counter-terror operations.

On average, this translates to 3,400 terror incidents a year, killing 790 civilians and 271 police officers and soldiers. It was clearly a situation akin to a graveyard.

But increased security measures by the central government led to a sharp drop in terror incidents in the next decade, but fatalities were still enormous. From 2001 to 2010, J&K reported an average of 1,954 violent incidents each year, resulting in the deaths of 487 civilians and 229 security personnel. In these 10 years, 9,851 terrorists were killed in counter-terror operations.

The scale of violence and fatalities significantly decreased during this period. Terror incidents saw a drop of 48 percent, while civilian deaths decreased by 43 percent. The security in the Valley was much tighter, leading to fewer security personnel being killed in terror strikes and anti-terror operations  15 percent reduced fatalities.

The next decade clearly established a security dominion for the Indian forces in the Valley against Pakistan-perpetrated terror networks, with incidents and fatalities reporting a downward spiral from 2011 to 2020. On average, terror incidents decreased by 86 percent and civilian fatalities came down by 94 percent. Compared to the previous decade, less than 75 percent of security personnel were killed.

The increased security situation greatly reduced terror activities and fatalities while consistently weakening the terror network in the Valley, resulting in the elimination of around 24,000 terrorists.

While the security situation had improved, Jammu and Kashmir remained unstable. The situation was under the control of the dominion of India, but tension and possibility of a hostile future situation was not unexpected.

What was the root cause behind this?

The root cause was pro-Pakistan political voices in the Valley. While the political class claimed to be with India, it was always soft on Pakistan. Parallel networks of separatist organisations like the JKLF, Hurriyat Conference and Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) worked as support networks for terrorists.

These outfits faced allegations of being involved in terror financing and pushed for an extensive network of overground workers (OGWs) that provided shelter and logistics to terrorists. Radicalisation, terror recruitment and anti-India propaganda were the mainstay of their day-to-day activities.

With an increasing crackdown on the terror network, the Valley witnessed an alternate terror trend in the form of mobocracy. Few, but still in thousands and helped by OGWs, radicalised civilians were part of this.

Starting from the 2008 Amarnath land row agitation in Kashmir, stone pelters slowly became a part of the anti-India mob culture in the Valley. In just three years, between 2016 and 2018, the state witnessed over 5,500 violent stone-pelting incidents. If not clamped down on, many had the potential to become future terrorists emerging from mob culture.

Path to peace

The need was to address the root cause, to eliminate the anti-India network in the state that colluded with Pakistan in financing, recruiting and sheltering terror activities. On August 5, 2019, Article 370 was abrogated ending the special status of J&K. Separated from Ladakh, it became a union territory directly governed by the Union of India until conditions became favourable to establish a legislative body.

All parties and separatist leaders working for Pakistan were apprehended. Terror financing was effectively crushed and a massive operation was launched to arrest OGWs.

According to a report from the think tank, Observer Research Foundation, over 900 OGWs have been arrested so far. The result: a sharp drop in terror incidents after the abrogation of Article 370. Stone-pelting incidents have also stopped.
In India, not so long ago, politics and elections were relatively simple. Based on an ideology, political parties assembled their teams, mobilised cadres, announced their candidates and took to the campaign trail. Now, the quest involves having a book or a series of books on the partys ideology. It is now about dominating the national narrative, controlling intellectual spaces, especially the ecosystem of books, which has mostly been occupied by the Left and its ideas.

As a part of decolonisation and to counter Left-centric and western influences, the RSS and like-minded organisations are building the new right-wing ecosystem of books. Multiple publishing units, which are directly linked or affiliated or indirectly associated with them through their ideology, have been a part of this movement.

Prajna Pravah, the specialised unit of the RSS that generates nationalist content, has taken a lead role in this movement; and there are units like Bharatiya Itihas Sankalan Yojana Samiti that generate content on Indian history. The RSS has 21 publishing units, including six by Prajna Pravah.

Apart from several pro-nationalism and, as RSS calls them, pro-Bharat and deshi publishers coming in to publish such books, the ecosystem has also developed its own platform for such books  Hindu eShop. It works like Amazon or Flipkart, where books can be ordered and delivered at home. There are some more such small startups that promote pro-Hindu books. But Hindu eShop is the biggest, with books on topics ranging from ghar wapsi to love jihad to dharma yoga and Hindus in Hindu Rashtra to Indias strategies for information war & cyber deterrence to Indias nuclear titans.

Movement to generate nationalist content

Dattatreya Hosabale, RSS general secretary, while addressing a book launch programme in Delhi last week said, The British left India, but their agents are still here. Education spaces like universities and the likes of academics, professors, authors, historians, judiciary are still dominated by the same western/European thought process and ideas. To decolonise peoples minds, we need to free the space for books that will have nationalist content.

The idea and concept of decolonisation has been discussed through various RSS programmes and campaigns. In the pre-Independence era, there was a lot of nationalist content. Books like A History of Hindu Chemistry by Prafulla Chandra Ray, Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times by KP Jaiswal, History of Hindu Mathematics by Bibhutibhushan Datta and Awadhesh Narayan Singh, The Surgical Instruments of the Hindus: With a Comparative Study by Girindranath Mukhopadhyay and finally Hind Swaraj or Indian Home Rule by (Mahatma) Gandhiji  all had one common thing, that is Hindu or Hind. They were not associated with RSS or Hindu Mahasabha. They were all eminent personalities. The word Hindu or Hind used a prefix or adjective in the titles because of its cultural connect. But post independence, specifically post 1960, all these books disappeared from public discourse and libraries. Strangely, they went out of print or became unavailable, said J Nandkumar, senior RSS functionary who heads Prajna Pravah.

Western dominance came to the fore. The books I mentioned were written by them as a reaction to British dominance over our intellectual space. However, from 1960, that dominance started ruling the roost. Ideas like India was intellectually poor and never had any contribution to science and literature, were promoted. It took 60 years to get it back on track. The intellectual churning has started as people want to know, Nandkumar said.

Pro-right ecosystem, Pro-Bharat space

Hundreds of books in the last two years, mostly in Hindi, which deal with Indias culture, eminence, science, history and tradition have been published, as part of an effort by the RSS to decolonise Indian minds. Apart from senior functionaries like Nandkumar, Ram Madhav, Sunil Ambekar among others, who wrote such books, the organisation has directly or indirectly been involved with like-minded senior academics, economists, scientists and journalists to write books highlighting Indias ancient glory and tradition.

In pre-independence India, there was a vibrant space for nationalist thinkers and authors. There was a rush of ideas coming from non-Left intellectuals ranging from Aurobindo Ghosh and Swami Vivekananda to Lajpat Rai and Mahatma Gandhi. However, the non-Left space was wiped out after Independence. From the mid-1950s, the countrys narrative was controlled by the Nehruvian Left and Marxist Left. The whole range of non-Left historians, thinkers, writers, academics, scientists were hounded out. Historians like RC Majumdar, economists like BR Shenoy were sidelined and then thrown out of the system. It was only in the late-1980s that a few rebels like Arun Shourie and Swapan Dasgupta began to push against the Left-dominated system," said economist and historian Sanjeev Sanyal.

Economic liberalisation happened in India because of a crisis and not a change in the intellectual landscape. However, even as economic thinking started to change in the 1990s, the cultural space was still dominated by the Left. Non-left writers like us still faced great difficulty finding a publisher. In 2006-07, when I wrote Indian Renaissance: Indias Rise after a Thousand Years of Decline, it was still one of a handful of unapologetically Right-oriented books. The cultural Right took time to gather steam. In fact, the Ram Janmabhoomi movement did not happen in the cultural or intellectual space, but in the political space. The tide only turned after 2010," said Sanyal, who is a member of the Economic Advisory Council to the prime minister.

Rising curiosity

The RSS has now started online and offline libraries for pro-Bharat books. They are building more such sites and spaces for nationalist content. Books that went out of print or are unavailable are being brought back in PDF formats, while some are being reprinted.

Ratan Sharda, author and RSS ideologue, said: Even as there is a portrayal of non-Leftist books or ideas as non-intellectual, now there is enough curiosity on the ground. People want to understand and know about the RSS. There was a time before 2010-12, when we never found a publisher to print our books or to reprint some of the old books written about India, tradition and culture. Those books were not banned, but were made to systematically vanish from public discourse. This was the time when authors like Amish Tripathi and others started self-publishing. Now, we have authors queuing up for commissioning books about the Hindu way of life, Bharat and about RSS.

There are multiple platforms and publishers that have stocked pro-Hindu or, as people call them, right-wing books. The ecosystem is functional. However, during that era we are talking about, the folklores survived. That is how Indianness survived among the people, he added.

The RSS also has its own publication houses, while some are indirectly associated through ideological belief. We have published about 50 books in the last two years that showcase Bharatiya history, culture and tradition. These books by eminent authors bring to light the unknown facts about our glorious past and infuse a feeling of pride in every Bharatiya, said Prabhat Kumar of Prabhat Prakashan.

Multiple books have been written in regional languages, where some have been translated into Hindi, said a senior functionary of the RSS, elaborating on how the organisation is working diligently to build a stock of Indias literature as it believes Indias academia, literature and institutions have been influenced by the Left or Left liberals or by motivated and agenda-driven people.

In India, people who cannot speak in English are not considered intellectuals. English books, which are sold in Khan Market, are believed to be the epitome of intellect and knowledge. We need to break this colonised mindset. The process might be slow, but we need to be systematic. Many senior economists, bureaucrats, scientists and academics have agreed to our requests to write books that bring back the nationalism in us and make us proud of our country, said the senior functionary.

Apart from books in Hindi and other regional languages, some books have also been translated in Urdu like the Urdu translation of Samaveda by Bollywood writer, director and producer Iqbal Durrani. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat launched this book early this year in Delhi.
As the Supreme Court passed an order to stay the conviction of Rahul Gandhi in a 2019 defamation case over his Modi surname remark, several Congress and Opposition leaders on Friday welcomed the verdict and called it a victory of truth and justice" and a joyous moment". The reactions came soon after the apex court revived his position as the Member of Parliament.

A three-judge bench of Justices BR Gavai, PS Narasimha, and Sanjay Kumar said no reason was given by the trial court judge while convicting Gandhi except that he was admonished by the apex court in a contempt case. The top court had closed the contempt proceedings against Gandhi for wrongly attributing to it his chowkidar chor hai" remark against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in connection with the Rafale case, with a warning to be more careful in future after the senior Congress leader tendered an unconditional apology.

Welcoming the top court ruling, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said while just 24 hours were taken to disqualify Gandhi from Lok Sabha after his conviction in a defamation case, it is to be seen how long will it take to reinstate him after the Supreme Court relief.

Addressing the media alongside Gandhi, he, It is a day of happiness, democracy has won, Constitution has won, Satymeva Jayate." He said the Constitution is alive and this is an example that one can get justice.

This is the victory of the common people. This is not just Rahul Gandhis victory, this is the victory of all the people of the country, victory of democracy and of constitutional principles. The person who fights for truth, for the countrys interest, to strengthen the country, for the youth of the country, against rising prices, the person who fights and makes people aware, who walked 4,000 km from Kanyakumari to Kashmir and met various people, I think their prayers are with us and it is therefore victory of the people," Kharge said.

Another Congress leader Sachin Pilot told CNN-News18, We had full faith in our judicial system. The Supreme Court has lived up to our belief. The SC has showed that the lower courts were not right and that the matter was politicised."

Taking to Twitter, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said, Satyamev Jayate" (Truth alone triumphs).

Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth~Gautama Buddha              Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (@priyankagandhi) August 4, 2023

Calling it a joyous" day, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury told news agency ANI, Khushi ka din hai. I will write to the Lok Sabha Speaker today itself and on Monday I will demand. If I am in Parliament Ill visit the Speaker or at least I will speak over the phone."

Speaking to CNN-News18, Congress MP KC Venugopal said, Today we got relief from SC and now we will see how much time it will take for the Speaker to reinstate Rahul Gandhis membership."

We welcome the Honble Supreme Courts verdict staying Sh. @RahulGandhi jis conviction.Justice has prevailed. No force can silence the voice of the people.  K C Venugopal (@kcvenugopalmp) August 4, 2023

Meanwhile, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav expressed elation over the apex court judgement that paved Gandhis way for the revival of his Lok Sabha membership. Yadav, whose RJD has been an ally of the Congress, expressed his delight through a tweet, in Hindi, ending with the Sanskrit saying: Satyamev Jayate (Truth shall triumph)" and the hashtag INDIA", denoting the recently formed coalition of parties opposed to the BJP.

Honourable Supreme Courts judgement on Rahul Gandhi ji is commendable. But for this shock, the BJPs network thriving on slander would have continued with the conspiracy to eject many other opposition leaders from the legislature," he tweeted.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee hailed the court order and tweeted, I am happy with the news about the MP-ship of @RahulGandhi. This will further strengthen the resolve of the INDIA alliance to unitedly fight for our motherland and win. A victory of the judiciary!"

TMC MP Mahua Moitra retweeted her party leaders comments, adding: The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice. United INDIA @RahulGandhi.

I am happy with the news about the MP-ship of @RahulGandhi This will further strengthen the resolve of the INDIA alliance to unitedly fight for our motherland and win. A victory of the judiciary! Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) August 4, 2023

Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar also hailed the court decision saying that justice has prevailed".

#WATCH | On Supreme Court staying conviction of Rahul Gandhi in 'Modi' surname remark defamation case, Karnataka Deputy CM DK Shivakumar says, "Justice has prevailed. The highest court of the country has given a message that small internal issues can't be blown up and vendetta pic.twitter.com/GoMixpg60j ANI (@ANI) August 4, 2023

Meanwhile, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also welcomed the courts stay on Gandhis conviction in a 2019 defamation case saying it reinforces peoples trust in democracy and judicial system. I welcome Honble Supreme Courts intervention in an unjust defamation case against Rahul Gandhi ji. It reinforces peoples trust in Indian democracy and the judicial system. Congratulations to him and to the people of Wayanad," the AAP national convener said in a tweet.

BJP Reacts

After the apex courts verdict, the BJP said Parliament can do with some levity for now" but the Congress leader continues to be on thin ice as several other criminal defamation cases are pending against him.

Reacting to the development, BJP IT department head Amit Malviya said in a tweet, Rahul Gandhi may have survived this one but for how long?" There are several other criminal defamation cases pending against Gandhi, including the high profile case of mudslinging the venerable Veer Savarkar", filed by the freedom fighters family, Malviya wrote on Twitter, recently rebranded as X.

Rahul Gandhi is also an accused, along with his mother Sonia Gandhi, in the National Herald scam, and currently out on bail, the BJP leader added.

Conviction in any of these cases can lead to Gandhis disqualification again, he added.

Rahul Gandhi is on thin ice here. But, for now the Parliament can do with some levity, Malviya said.

On an earlier occasion, no less than the Supreme Court had pulled Gandhi up for attributing wrongly to them an observation (that) they had not made, the BJP leader said.

About 2019 defamation case over Modi Surname remark

Former Gujarat minister Purnesh Modi had in 2019 filed a criminal defamation case against Gandhi over his How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname?" remark made during an election rally in Kolar in Karnataka on April 13 of the same year.

Earlier this year, Gandhi was disqualified from the Lok Sabha following his conviction by a Surat Court in a 2019 criminal defamation case in regard to his remarks against the Modi surname. The Gujarat High Court dismissed his plea for relief in July.

The term of the 17th Lok Sabha ends in May 2024.

(with inputs from PTI)
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) organised a grand induction programme on July 24 in which it announced the names of 18 bigwigs from opposition parties in order to expand its vote base in politically crucial Uttar Pradesh, which sends 80 MPs to Lok Sabha.

In politics, every move is backed by a reason and the saffron partys mass induction has raised eyebrows. Political pundits in UP are calling it a part of BJPs game plan ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election to woo Other Backward Caste (OBC) and Scheduled Caste (SC) voters who constitute the largest bloc in the state.

The trend started on July 17 when Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) chief Om Prakash Rajbhar announced his partys decision to join the BJP-led NDA. The development came a day after Rajbhar met Union Home Minister and poll strategist Amit Shah in New Delhi  months after he broke ties with Samajwadi Party with which it contested UP assembly polls and managed to win six seats. Rajbhar himself had won from Zahoorabad assembly seat in Ghazipur district.

Soon after, former UP MLA Dara Singh Chauhan switched sides to join the BJP from the SP. Within days, BJP struck again and announced the induction of around 18 bigwigs from different political parties, including 11 from rival SP, five from Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), one from Congress and one from Rashtriya Lok Dal. These special 18 include two ex-MPs and two former SP ministers.

Most importantly, it includes Shalini Yadav who had contested against Prime Minister Narendra Modi from SP in the 2019 general elections. In her first parliamentary election, Yadav had contested for the Varanasi seat against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and was defeated by a margin of over 4.75 lakh votes. She had joined the Samajwadi Party in 2019.

UPs political analysts described these frequent inductions as BJPs game plan to increase its OBC and SC vote base in UP, especially east UP where the groups often play a deciding role.

Since Rajbhar was the first to switch sides, lets start with Rajbhar. With a sizeable chunk of population in East UP districts belonging to OBC and SC, the Rajbhar community often plays a deciding factor for candidates contesting from around two dozen Lok Sabha Seats. Undoubtedly, Rajbhars induction will help BJP bolster its hold on non-Yadav OBCs, said Shashikant Pandey, HoD, department of political science, at Lucknows Bhimrao Ambedkar University.

Pandey added that the list of the new joinees included six OBC leaders and three SC leaders. Satyapal Yadav, Sunita Yadav, Sahab Singh Saini, Rajpal Saini and Sushma Patel are from the OBC category whereas Anshul Verma, Jagdish Sonkar and Gulab Saroj are from the Schedule Caste (SC) category.

Among the OBCs, Rajpal Saini started his career with BSP, was elected MLA in 2002 and sent to Rajya Sabha in 2010. However, Saini later joined RLD and was posted as national president of Samajik Nyay Manch. Sahab Singh Saini was a two-time SP MLA and former minister in the Akhilesh Yadav government. He joined BJP and formed the Rashtriya Krantikari Morcha in 2022 in Uttarakhand before returning to active politics in UPs Saharanpur. Sushma Patel started her career with BSP and was elected MLA from Mungra Badshahpur seat in Jaunpur district in 2017. She joined SP in 2022.

Sonkar, meanwhile, was denied a ticket by the SP for the 2022 UP elections, leading to protests and resignations from his loyalists. He had earlier won the Shahganj assembly seat twice in 2002 and 2007, and later went on to win the Machhlishahr constituency in 2012 and 2017.

Verma, a BJP member till 2019, had made news for handing over his resignation to a security guard deployed at the BJPs Lucknow office. He joined SP ahead of the general elections that year after being denied a ticket by the BJP for the same. Verma had in 2014 won the Lok Sabha election for the BJP from Hardoi seat.

SK Dwivedi, professor and former HoD of political science at the University of Lucknow, said BJPs performance in six seats  Ambedkarnagar, Azamgarh, Ghazipur, Ghosi, Lalganj and Jaunpur  was not satisfactory in 2019. In Azamgarh, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav bagged the seat, defeating BJPs Dinesh Lal Yadav Nirahua with a sizeable margin of 2,59,874 votes. In other seats, BJP candidates suffered a massive defeat from Bahujan Samaj Party candidates.

However, the mass induction of opposition leaders, especially the ones belonging to the OBC and SC category will certainly benefit BJP in the coming Lok Sabha Polls, he added.
Even as Maharashtras Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis government tabled a white paper on the loss of the Vedanta Foxconn and other mega projects on Friday, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) UBT leader and former Minister Aaditya Thackeray slammed it as a chronology of their failure".

Industries Minister Uday Samant, who was cornered by the opposition last week, had assured that the government would bring in a white paper to clear the air. On Thursday evening, the state tabled the 12-page report, which focuses on the factors that led to the Vedanta-Foxconn project being relocated outside of Maharashtra.

OPPN ALLEGATIONS FALSE: WHITE PAPER

The white paper tabled by the state government talks about four projects  Vedanta Foxconn, Tata Airbus, Saffron and the Bulk Drug Park projects. It blames the previous Mahavikas Aghadi (MVA) government for the loss, claiming they didnt take the decision in the time which caused the delay.

The white paper also alleges the MVA government didnt see projects such as Tata Airbus and Saffron project from the point of view of investment. The high-powered committee of the MVA didnt take decisions regarding the concessions to be given to all these projects.

The white paper states: The high-powered committee of the MVA government didnt make any decision regarding concessions to the Vedanta Foxconn project in its meeting on March 17, 2022, while the Shinde-Fadnavis government in its meeting on July 15, 2022 offered several concessions, including tax rebate and then invited the Vedanta group twice for signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). However, since the MOU was never signed, it would be wrong to say that the project went out of the state.

The white paper release today on the 4 mega industries going out of Maharashtra is nothing but a chronology of the failure of the Khoke Sarkar and the industrys absolute lack of trust in its leadership. It proves how during the MVA, an industry that had gone into advance  Aaditya Thackeray (@AUThackeray) August 3, 2023

The white paper also states that in case of the Tata Airbus company, neither was an MoU signed with the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC), nor was an application demanding land for the project in the state filed. Hence, there was no correspondence made from the industries department with the company. The allegations levelled by the opposition are false that the project was lost due to the incumbent government. Same is the case with the Saffron project, as the company had not moved any application seeking land with the MIDC or had any discussion or correspondence with the industries department.

It stated: On July 5, 2022, after his meeting with defence minister Rajnath Singh in Delhi, CEO Olivier Andries had announced in Delhi that the company would be setting up its facilities in Hyderabad. The MIDC had not discussed the project with the company or the defence ministry.

Regarding the Bulk Drug Park, the industries department, in the white paper, said, Thirteen states had submitted a proposal for this project, but Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh states were selected by the Centre. Now, the State Government of Maharashtra will complete the Bulk Drug Park project by utilising its own funds.

THE ATTACK

In a series of tweets, Thackeray said, The white paper released on the four mega industries going out of Maharashtra is nothing but a chronology of the failure of the Khoke Sarkar and the industrys absolute lack of trust in its leadership. The white paper, while mentioning most dates and facts, compels one to read the most evident fact, the Mindhe-BJPs hatred for Maharashtra and how industries were sent to another state, once the khoke sarkar was formed. The industry has no confidence in the politically unstable state that gang of gaddars wanted to make it into."

ALSO READ | Maha Announces Probe into Purchase of Medicines by Mumbai Civic Hospitals, White Paper on Services

The state unfortunately has an absolutely incapable illegal CM, who has pushed away industry after meeting them. It proves how during the MVA, an industry that had gone into advance level talks with the @midc_india, shifted its base as soon as it met the leadership of the illegally formed khoke sarkar. All in all, I wonder whether this report was released to rub salt on the wounds of the unemployed youth in Maharashtra, or to simply prove that the state has an incapable CM and a clueless industries minister. Looking at their record as placed officially now, both would have no place in a cabinet that works for Maharashtra. This engine of GoM, taken over with hostility is a failed one, he said.
By LI XIAOYUN

JIN DING/CHINA DAILY

Narrowing urban-rural income divide is imperative to advance Chinese modernization and achieve common prosperity

Since the reform and opening-up policy was launched in China, driven by economic and social development, the impoverished population in rural areas has been decreasing year-by-year, and China has achieved the goal of eradicating extreme poverty in rural areas and farmers' incomes have increased along with the country's rapid economic growth.

That said, the income disparity between rural and urban residents had widened as a result of economic growth and urbanization, becoming a focus of the government.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012, by virtue of a range of policies and measures aimed at narrowing the gap, the urban-rural income divide has been shrinking. The per capita income of urban households was 2.5 times that of rural households in 2021, down from 2.71 times in 2017. Narrowing the gap has become imperative to advance Chinese modernization and achieve common prosperity.

Farmers' incomes cannot be raised within a short period of time, but should be gradually raised alongside the modernization process. In 2020, in the per capita income of rural residents, 40.1 percent was from income of wages and salaries, with 35.5 percent from net business income, 2.4 percent from net income from property and 21.4 percent from net income from transfers. This income structure remains largely unchanged.

On the one hand, China needs to advance agricultural modernization through reforms and innovation to raise the income of farmers that is generated by farming, and create new room for the development of rural economy. On the other hand, China should develop more farmer-led institutions and mechanisms to increase their income. Only by doing so can the income of farmers be raised and their ability to secure wealth be promoted in tandem with China's modernization process under institutional guarantee.

Increasing the income from nonagricultural sectors is a key measure for raising the income of farmers. With the urbanization rate over 60 percent, China's rural population is decreasing year-by-year. The agricultural sector currently accounts for around 20 percent of China's total employment. The role of villages has transformed from agricultural production toward an integration of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries. In particular, new types of comprehensive rural economy have been growing such as the rural leisure tourism industry. The trend of people going back to the villages to set up businesses and staying there for work has created new room for farmers' employment in non-agricultural sectors and a new way for raising the income of farmers in many regions across China.

Currently, various sorts of cooperatives are the major form of business operation entities in rural areas. By the end of 2022, there were 2.23 million farmers' cooperatives nationwide. However, making sure that farmers play a dominant role in business operations is a challenging task.

During my own investigations, I have found that although there exist all sorts of cooperatives across the nation, many cooperatives face the aforementioned challenge. For instance, one village established a farmers' cooperative for developing the strawberry industry with funding support from the government. With help from organizations designated by the state to engage in fixed-point poverty alleviation efforts, the cooperative could bring each member villager over 10,000 yuan ($1,397) in additional income every year. However, after the help left, village cadres were incapable of managing the cooperative and outsourced it to a company, which only pays the village 50,000 yuan in contracting fees every year. Village cadres' limited energy and a lack of professionals specialized in business operations and professional management personnel have made many rural cooperatives "empty shells".

Thus, cultivating market operation entities in rural areas with farmers as the mainstay provides the institutional guarantee for keeping the farmers' profits from village operations.

Currently, aside from ensuring food security, ensuring a stable increase in rural residents' income is a priority in rural development and rural vitalization. Meanwhile, villages shoulder the responsibility of protecting the ecology and preserving the farming culture. Therefore, rural development and rural vitalization must focus on farmers.

In addition, China also needs to improve the interest allocation mechanism to better benefit farmers. The rural areas have long provided talent, capital and raw material support for the country's industrialization and urbanization. But they have been left behind during the process. Many resource-abundant villages are faced with a severe shortage of capital and talent. Even when capital flows to the villages to develop the local resources, the majority of profits do not stay to benefit the villages.

Thus, improving the interest allocation mechanism for rural resources is of great significance to increasing farmers' income. For instance, in an ethnic Miao village in Yiliang county, Zhaotong city, Yunnan province, where people just got lifted out of poverty, local government authorities invested 12 million yuan to improve infrastructure and 5 million yuan to develop agricultural tourism businesses. To ensure that profits generated from developing local resources stay in the village, the village has established a cooperative and hired professional managers. The village has turned government investment into the collective assets of villagers and combined such assets with farmers' idle houses to develop rural homestays, restaurants and coffee shops. The village collective and villagers share the earned profits 65/35. Apart from the professional management team's salary, the operational cost and salary for farmers taking part in the daily operations, the rest goes to a village dividend.

China's economic and social development has determined that rural development has entered a new period of rural-urban integrated development, wherein the industrial sector back-feeds the agricultural sector and the urban area supports the rural area. As the country beefs up its support for rural areas, rural infrastructure and social public services will substantially improve, creating unprecedented opportunities for increasing the income of farmers and promoting their ability to secure wealth.

The author is lead chair professor of China Agricultural University and honorary dean of the College of International Development and Global Agriculture. The author contributed this article to China Watch, a think tank powered by China Daily. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

Contact the editor at editor@chinawatch.cn.

China Daily July 31th, 2023
An inspection of the military commissars revealed many abuses, frankly disgusting ones, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address on Thursday.

"All the facts revealed by law enforcement officers will be presented to the public and investigated in the framework of criminal proceedings. The conclusion is obvious: the recruitment system needs people who understand the value of defending Ukraine. The value, not the price of decisions," the head of state said.

"People who have seen the war and gone through it should work in the 'military enlistment offices.' There are those who, unfortunately, lost their limbs, but did not lose their dignity and did not lose Ukraine," the president said.
The Indian government has decided to push the timeline for restricting laptop and PC imports on Friday. According to Rajeev Chandrashekar, Union Minister of Electronics and Technology, the companies will get a transition period for the importing license to come into effect. He doesnt give a timeline, and mentions that will be notified soon.

This move comes less than 24 hours after the Ministry announced that all importing of PCs, laptops and tablets have now been restricted. The reason behind this move was to encourage local manufacturing and reduce dependence on imports from countries like China and Vietnam in the PC sector.

Q: Why has the @GoI_MeitY finalized new norms for import of IT hardware like Laptops, Servers etc?Ans: There will be a transition period for this to be put into effect which will be notified soon. Pls read  https://t.co/u5436EA0IG  Rajeev Chandrasekhar  (@Rajeev_GoI) August 4, 2023

In an earlier post, Chandrashekar explains the reasoning behind the restricting PC imports. He claims the governments objective is to ensure trusted hardware and systems and made available in the country, and like we mentioned, reduce the dependence on imports and look to increase domestic manufacturing of products in these categories.

The decision to restrict imports raised a lot of questions, and definitely caused some kind of panic in the industry this week. But the fact that the rollout has been deferred for now, should give companies like Apple, Asus, HP and more the time to implement the changes and seek the import license that will allow them to do business in the regular manner. The decision also brings relief to the consumers who would have feared the impact of the restriction, which could have limited their access to the latest products, and also invariably impacted on the price of these categories as well.
In a significant ruling, the Supreme Court on Friday dismissed Chinese smartphone brand OPPOs plea against a Delhi High Court order which directed the company to deposit 23 per cent of the amount generated from its sales in the country for infringing upon Nokias patent.

A division bench of the Delhi High Court passed the order in July, after it found that the Chinese smartphone brand was using Nokias technology without the requisite consent.

The HC had reached the 23 per cent penalty figure after taking into account OPPOs sales in India which is around 23 per cent of its global sales.

A Nokia Technologies spokesperson said in a statement that they welcome the Supreme Court decision. OPPO has been unwilling to renew its license on fair and reasonable terms or resolve the matter amicably and has used our technology without making any royalty payments for two years," a Nokia spokesperson said.

Courts in India, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, and Brazil have all given their verdicts in Nokias favour. Once again, we encourage OPPO to play by the rules, and like its competitors, agree to a license on fair and reasonable terms, rather than continue to operate without one," said Nokia.

OPPO had secured a license from Nokia in 2018 for using some of the Finnish telecom gear companys technology for three years. Nokia alleged that after the expiry of the pact, OPPO sold around 77 million devices in India without paying a single rupee in royalty, according to reports.

In July 2022, a German court decided a suit in favour of smartphone brand Nokia in its 4G/5G patent dispute against OPPO.

According to GizmoChina, the suit had resulted from the breakdown in discussions between Nokia and OPPO over 4G (LTE) and 5G patents. Nokia had sued OPPO over nine Standard Essential Patents (SEPs) and five implementation patents in three regional German Courts.

Nokia is the standard-bearer in the 5G SEPs segment with huge investments of about $130.3 billion.
Tamil Nadu government appointed Bellie, known for her work in the documentary The Elephant Whisperers, as the first permanent woman elephant caretaker at Theppakadu elephant camp in the Nilgiris region. Bellie, who was previously working as a temporary caretaker, has now earned this prestigious position in recognition of her skills and dedication, as acknowledged by the state Forest Department.

Bellie and her husband Bomman gained global acclaim through the Oscar-winning Netflix documentary The Elephant Whisperers, which highlighted their remarkable efforts in nurturing and caring for abandoned elephant calves, Raghu and Amu.

Additional Chief Secretary Environment Climate Change & Forests, Supriya Sahu shared the good news on Twitter and wrote, Fabulous News. Bellie our very own Elephant Whisperer has become the first woman to be appointed as a permanent woman Cavady (Elephant Care Taker) by the Government of Tamil Nadu, for her selfless & dedicated service in saving precious elephant calves at Theppakau Elephant Camp in Mudumalai Tiger Reserve.

What an icon she has become. Bomman and Bellie are truly inspiring. Thank you CM Stalin for this recognition which she truly deserves, she added.

Fabulous News. Tmt. Bellie our very own Elephant Whisperer has become the first woman to be appointed as a permanant woman Cavady ( Elephant Care Taker) by the Government of Tamil Nadu, for her selfless & dedicated service in saving precious elephant calves at Theppakau Elephant pic.twitter.com/Gz6fVMsGZo Supriya Sahu IAS (@supriyasahuias) August 2, 2023

Bellie was honoured in a special ceremony, in the presence of Forest Minister M Mathiventhan, Chief Secretary Shiv Das Meena and Supriya Sahu. Chief Minister MK Stalin presented the appointment order to Belli.

Meanwhile, Sahus Twitter post received an overwhelming response. The post garnered over 42,000 views, with social media users expressing their admiration and appreciation for the Tamil Nadu governments recognition of Bellies dedication and hard work

A user highlighted the importance of such recognition for those who dedicate their lives to wildlife.

Another Twitter user praised the governments move and wrote, Empowerment delivered

 Great recognition and empowerment delivered. Wish you and your family the best in life.  https://t.co/TDQpEJu6CN Jothi Ramalingam (@jothiram) August 3, 2023

Thats what progressive administration looks like  well deserved and a giant step in ensuring welfare of our elephant caretakers! https://t.co/CKlVAPYSrJ Pravin Shanmughanandam (@shanmughanandam) August 2, 2023

Bellies hard work was well-recognised after her appearance in The Elephant Whisperers, directed by Kartiki Gonsalves. The documentarys success was undeniable as it went on to win an Oscar in the Best Documentary Short Film category at the 95th Academy Awards in March. Bellies remarkable achievements did not go unnoticed, as in July, President Droupadi Murmu honoured her at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. During the ceremony, the President praised Bellie and her husbands unwavering dedication to looking after the orphaned elephants.
Vikas Yadav, a former IIT Lucknow graduate with a high-paying job in the US, decided to chase his true passion for acting, leaving behind the comforts of his corporate career. Taking a leap of faith, he returned to India to follow his dream of becoming an actor. Before venturing into Bollywood or OTT shows, Vikas Yadav became a prominent name in the content creation community, attracting audiences with his relatable and humorous videos on Instagram. In a conversation with Indian Express, he acknowledged that content creation has provided him with a platform to showcase his talent and connect with audiences.

Talking about his passion, he said, I was always inclined towards acting and even attended a four-month theatre workshop at Shri Ram Centre for Performing Arts in 2015. I also acted in a play based on Vijay Tendulkars Khamosh Adalat Jaari Hai.

Vikas Yadav revealed that his parents were reluctant about his decision to leave his stable and high-paying job in the US to become a full-time actor. Coming from a middle class family, his parents understood the value of a secure career, especially since his father had a government job and recently retired. However, despite their concerns, they eventually accepted his choice. He is also fortunate to have the support of his wife, which provides him additional confidence.

He made a notable mark as a content creator before venturing into acting. While talking about his earnings from social media, he disclosed that he is making around Rs 1 lakh a month, which is comparatively less than what he used to earn in the US.

My company has given me the option of joining back in India as they have currently placed me on a six-month sabbatical. However, I dont plan on doing a 9-5 job anymore, he said.

Armed with a strong educational background, including a B Tech from the prestigious Netaji Subhas University of Technology, Dwarka, and a degree from IIM Lucknow, Vikas Yadav has a solid backup plan in case his acting career takes an unexpected turn. His academic achievements provide him with the reassurance that he can fall back on a successful career at any time.
A Canadian student from India faced a wave of online backlash when a video of her expressing her desire to leave India went viral. Unexpectedly, Alan Mamedi, the CEO of Truecaller, stepped in to show support. He praised her and extended a job offer, turning the tide in her favour.

People really want to misunderstand her to make fun of her. This is not OK!! Ekta, dont listen to all these clowns making fun of you. I think youre cool and living the dream! When youre done with school, youre welcome to work at Truecaller in any of our offices around the (world), he replied to the trending video.

The video portrayed what appeared to be a casual interview, where Ekta, the student, introduced herself. In response to a query about her decision to come to Canada, she mentioned her dream to venture there and leave her home country. When asked to elaborate, she revealed that belonged to India.

Furthermore, she disclosed her future ambitions after completing her biotech degree in Canada, expressing a desire for a business career. When sharing her most cherished aspect of the country, Ekta mentioned her appreciation for the landscape, sunrise, and sunset. Little did she anticipate that the video would go viral, subjecting her to criticism for her remarks about her homeland.

People really want to misunderstand her to make fun of her. This is not OK!! Ekta, dont listen to all these clowns making fun of you. I think youre cool and living the dream! When youre done with school, youre welcome to work at Truecaller in any of our offices around the  https://t.co/PuotNAMwKK Alan Mamedi (@AlanMamedi) August 3, 2023

However, Mamedis positive reaction generated a mixed bag of responses from the public. Thats a wonderful gesture, Alan," one user expressed, while another quipped, Yes, shes perfect for true caller. Thatll be the perfect sunset for the company!

Conversely, a critic weighed in, So you dont need to know any of her qualifications and skills to hire her? A biotech grad at Truecaller? How people got jobs in the 60s. Just knowing each other was enough and youve taken a step further. No interview, no CV. Coz she left India (like millions), she gets a job!To this, Mamedi retorted, A well educated person is a person with high ambitions to learn new things. Thats all you need. PS. Our CFO is a space physicist.

Also Read: Woman Brutally Trolled on Twitter for Showing Off Zero Fare Bus Ticket in Karnataka

Deserving or not? Subject to opinions!
Hyderabad recently witnessed a fascinating natural phenomenon known as Zero Shadow Day for the second time this year on Thursday at 12.23 pm. Similar to other major Indian cities like Bengaluru and Kolkata, Hyderabad had already experienced its first Zero Shadow Day earlier in the year on May 9. During this phenomenon, the mid-noon Sun positioned itself directly above Hyderabad for the second time this year, causing all vertical objects on the ground to momentarily stop casting their shadows. This unique occurrence was shared by people on Twitter, offering glimpses of the spectacle.

Take a Look:

Zero Shadow Day occurs twice a year in regions near the equator, specifically between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Tropic of Cancer. It happens when the Sun aligns directly over the Earths equator, resulting in the absence of shadows for objects and living beings. This phenomenon is due to the Earths rotation around the Sun on its tilted axis, which causes variations in the angle of Sun rays throughout the year, leading to different shadow lengths and directions.

To witness this remarkable event, one needs to be in an open space where the Sun is directly overhead, without any obstructions like tall buildings or trees casting shadows.

Yearly, on Zero Shadow Days, students and astronomy enthusiasts located between the two Tropics set up vertical poles and various objects or even stand outside to witness this cosmic marvel firsthand.

Bengaluru also observed its Zero Shadow Day this year in April, precisely on April 25, at 12.17 pm, when all vertical objects in the city became shadow-less for a brief period.

Read More: Bengaluru Witnesses Zero Shadow Day, Residents Share Surreal Photos and Videos

Have you experienced it yet?
India has called for collective global action to address food insecurity around the world, as UN estimates reveal that 362 million people in 62 countries require humanitarian aid. This appeal was made during a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) debate on Famine and Conflict-Induced Global Food Insecurity." Delivering Indias statement, Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Ruchira Kamboj, raised concern about the global food insecurity situation, saying that an increasing number of people facing acute food shortages over the past four years.

In a world ridden with ongoing armed conflicts, food, fertilizer, and energy crises pose significant challenges, especially for countries in the Global South. The solutions lie in collective global action, as no single country can handle these challenges alone," she said during the Security Council open debate in New York on Thursday.

Urging for common solutions through dialogue and diplomacy, Kamboj said that choosing peace, cooperation, and multilateralism is essential for building a collective future. Addressing the growing food grain shortages requires us to go beyond current constraints. India is committed to playing its part in addressing contemporary global challenges, as reflected in our membership in the Champions Group of the Global Crisis Response Group," she said.

Indias Permanent Representative once again backed the efforts of the UN Secretary-General in continuing the Black Sea Grain Initiative and hoped for an early resolution to the present impasse.

Calling for a multi-stakeholder approach, Kamboj said, Food assistance alone surely cannot be a long-term sustainable solution to food insecurity. Peacebuilding and development are paramount and must include livelihood support, social protection programmes, and community-based approaches including investment in agriculture infrastructure and capacity-building in rural development, especially in conflict areas."

During her address, the Permanent Representative also highlighted how India has always been proactive in assisting its partners in times of distress. Even in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic, India provided food aid in the form of thousands of metric tonnes of wheat, rice, pulses, and lentils to several countries, including in our neighborhood and Africa, to strengthen food security."

In view of the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, India commenced the donation of 50,000 Metric tonnes of wheat to the people of Afghanistan. Similarly, India has continued its humanitarian support for Myanmar, including a grant of 10,000 tons of rice and wheat. We have also assisted Sri Lanka including with food assistance, during its difficult times," she stated while underlining Indias foreign policy priority of Neighbourhood First and the ethos of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam.

Ambassador Kamboj lastly noted how India has advocated for greater efforts to accelerate the achievement of the SDGs by leveraging its Presidency of the G20. The Indian Presidency is committed to in our Prime Ministers words, depoliticizing the global supply of food, fertilizers and medical products, so that geopolitical tensions do not lead to humanitarian crisis," she concluded.
Australia on Thursday announced its decision to withdraw a case against China at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) following Beijings removal of significant tariffs on Australian barley exports. We welcome this outcome, which paves the way for our barley exporters to re-enter the Chinese market  benefiting Australian producers and Chinese consumers," Foreign Minister Penny Wong said in a statement.

In 2020, China imposed tariffs on significant Australian exports, including barley, beef, and wine, as part of an assertive display of its economic power during a contentious dispute with Australias former conservative government.

In response, Australia initiated a case with the WTO. Recently, negotiations between the countries trade ministers led to the temporary suspension of the WTO case. According to AFP, Canberra is currently urging Beijing to remove trade barriers affecting the export of Australian wine, which remains a subject of a separate WTO complaint.

We will continue to press for all trade impediments affecting Australian exports to be removed, which is in the interests of both Australia and China," Wong said.

Since May 2020, Chinas duties on Australian barley have effectively blocked exports to that market, worth about USD 916 million in 2018-19. The removal of these duties means that Australia will now discontinue legal proceedings at the WTO," the statement added.

This resolution comes after the Australian government in April this year had said a pathway agreed with China to temporarily suspend our WTO dispute while China conducted an expedited review of the measures.
US magistrate judge Moxila Upadhyaya reminded former US president Donald Trump on Thursday during his arraignment on charges related to trying to overturn the 2020 election that he cannot bribe or influence witnesses, the Hill said in a report.

The Gujarat-born judge reminded Trump that during the arraignment proceedings any act of bribing, influencing or retaliating against witnesses is a crime.

The warning is noteworthy because the House committee that probed the 2021 January 6 Capitol Hill riots found out that Trump and his associates tried to contact and influence a witness in that probe, the Hill said in its report.

Judge Moxila Upadhyaya on Thursday presided over the former president Trumps first appearance before a magistrate in the case over his alleged bid to overturn the 2020 election.

She recited each count against Trump, with the latter sat motionless with his head turned toward her, looking attentively, news agency AFP said.

Trump pleaded not guilty. I can guarantee everybody that there will be a fair process and a fair trial in this case, Moxila Upadhyaya replied when Trumps legal team said they would need more time to look at the discovery presented before them by prosecutors, with the prosecutors demanding a trial without delay.

Who Is Moxila Upadhyaya?

Moxila Upadhyaya was born in Gujarat and raised near Kansas City, Missouri

Upadhyaya was appointed as a United States Magistrate Judge in September 2022. She won plaudits for her trial work representing clients in the Criminal Justice Clinic and was a member of the Administrative Law Review during her graduation, a PTI report said.

She served a two-year term as a law clerk to former Chief Judge of the DC Court of Appeals Eric T Washington after she graduated from the American University, Washington College of Law.

She completed her bachelors from Bachelor of Journalism, magna cum laude, from the Missouri School of Journalism and Bachelor of Arts, with honours in Latin, from the University of Missouri.

She worked with Venable LLP in Washington where she practised complex commercial and administrative litigation. She was a partner there and represented impoverished clients in post-conviction proceedings. The firm named her Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year in 2006 and the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project awarded her the Defender of Innocence Award in 2009.

She is also a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and served on the board of directors for the DC Access to Justice Foundation and Council for Court Excellence.
A self-confessed serial killer convicted of murdering his wife and another woman was executed by lethal injection in the southern US state of Florida on Thursday, local media reported.

James Barnes, 61, who did not seek to halt his execution, was put to death at 6:00 pm (2200 GMT) at Florida State Prison, local television stations said.

Barnes was serving a life sentence for the 1997 murder of his wife, Linda, when he confessed to the 1988 rape and murder of Patricia Miller, a 41-year-old nurse.

He was sentenced to death in 2007 for Millers murder.

Barnes was interviewed by German director Werner Herzog for a 2012 television series called On Death Row" and confessed to two other murders for which he has never faced charges.

In late July, the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops urged Governor Ron DeSantis to stay Barnes execution.

Mr. Barnes willing acceptance of death does not absolve the state from bringing it about," they said in a letter. Simply put, no one should be executed in our modern penal system, even if they willingly accept it."

DeSantis, a candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, signed Barnes death warrant and declined to stay his execution.

Barnes was the fifth inmate executed in Florida in 2023.

There have been 17 executions in the United States this year.
Ukraine has started negotiations with the United States on a bilateral agreement on the provision of security commitments, as envisaged by the Joint Declaration of Support for Ukraine, which is the basis for the development of relevant bilateral agreements, the presidential press service said on Thursday evening.

"It is symbolic that the United States of America - our largest strategic partner - became the first country with which Ukraine starts this process. Thus, we are creating a successful model for other partners," Head of the President's Office Andriy Yermak said.

He also said "these security commitments will reinforce Ukraines progress towards future membership in the Euro-Atlantic community, including the EU and NATO, which is the ultimate goal and the most reliable guarantee of security."

It is specified that Yermak headed the Ukrainian delegation in negotiations with the United States.
Former US President Donald Trump on Tuesday pleaded not guilty to criminal charges accusing him of conspiring to overturn the 2020 US Presidential election results and defraud American citizens, news agency AFP reported.

Judge Moxila Upadhyaya read the four criminal counts and the potential maximum jail sentences Trump could be facing in the 45-page indictment brought forth by special counsel Jack Smith. Trump responded by saying, Not guilty.

The courtroom proceedings took place in the same courthouse where hundreds of supporters of the former president were convicted for their roles in the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol. The hearings went for nearly 30-minutes.

The billionaire has been charged in two other cases and the new charges mean that he will be caught in between a hectic legal fight while campaigning for the 2024 US elections.

Trump said the cases against him are an example of persecution of a political opponent. This is a very sad day for America. This is the persecution of the person thats leading by very, very substantial numbers in the Republican primary and leading (President Joe) Biden by a lot, Trump was quoted as saying by news agency AFP.

So if you cant beat him, you persecute him or you prosecute him. We cant let this happen in America," he further added.

Moxila Upadhyaya, the Indian-American judge, who presided over the case, set the next hearing in the case for August 28. It will be held in the court of District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan, who will preside over the eventual trial.

I can guarantee to everybody there will be a fair process and a fair trial," Upadhyaya said, according to AFP.

Outside the court both sets of supporters gathered. Security was tight around the E. Barrett Prettyman federal courthouse where the hearing was held and cops patrolled the area while blocking access with metal barricades.

The White House and the Biden administration have refrained from commenting on the arraignment. Biden said he would not follow the arraignment when asked by reporters during his vacation in Delaware.
Islamic State on Thursday confirmed the death of its leader Abu Hussein al-Husseini al-Quraishi and named Abu Hafs al-Hashimi al-Quraishi as his replacement, the groups spokesperson said in an undated recording published on its Telegram channel.

It appeared to be the militant groups first official announcement on his fate since Turkeys President Tayyip Erdogan said in April that Turkish intelligence forces had killed him in Syria. Erdogan said the Turkish national intelligence organization had pursued Quraishi for a long time.

Quraishi was killed during a gun battle with Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS), the main Islamist group that holds sway in the last opposition bastion in northwest Syria, the spokesman said.

The Sheikh (Quraishi), may God have mercy on him, was killed after they (HTS) tried to take him captive. He clashed with them with his arms until he died of his wounds," the spokesman said, accusing the rival Islamist group of acting as agents of Turkish intelligence.

Islamic State, a shadow of the organisation that once ruled a third of Iraq and Syria, gave no details about the new leader. The movement reached its peak in 2014 when its then head, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, declared the territory it controlled a caliphate. It was beaten back by adversaries in both countries including a U.S.-led coalition, and Baghdadi was killed during a U.S. military operation in Syria in 2019.

Abu Hussein al-Husseini al-Quraishi took over in November 2022 after his predecessor was killed, also in Syria. Islamic State militants continue to wage insurgent attacks in both Syria and Iraq.

Its remaining thousands of militants have in recent years mostly hid out in remote hinterlands of both countries, though they are still capable of carrying out hit-and-run attacks.

The U.S.-led coalition alongside a Kurdish-led alliance known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) is still carrying out raids against Islamic State in Syria.
Most Americans are against US Congress authorising more funds to support Ukraine in its war with Russia, as per a recent poll by CNN. According to the survey, the American public is divided over whether the US has already done enough to help Ukraine. Overall, 55 percent believe Congress should not authorize extra funding for Ukraine, while 45 percent support such funding.

As many as 51 percent think the US has already done enough to assist Ukraine, whereas 48 percent believe it should do more. Since the start of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022, the Biden administration through the US aid agency (USAID) alone, has provided more than $23 billion in humanitarian, economic, and development assistance to Kyiv.

A poll conducted in February last year, during the early days of the conflict, showed that 62 percent of respondents felt Washington should have been more proactive. Partisan divisions have widened since the previous poll, with most Democrats and Republicans taking opposing stances on the US role in Ukraine.

Among those who believe the United States should do more to support Ukraine, 68 percent favor additional funding, while 23 percent of those who think the US has already done enough also support more funding.

The poll reveals that a majority of Americans (56 percent) are concerned that Russias war in Ukraine poses a threat to US national security, but this number has decreased since February 2022 (72 percent were worried then).

Another major worry among respondents, regardless of party affiliation, is that the war in Ukraine may continue without a resolution for a long time.

Vivek Ramaswamy, the prominent India-American Republican candidate for President, was quick to react to the survey on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

The absolute worst ideas in Washington D.C. are bipartisan. Shame on the GOP for going along with Biden repaying his familys Burisma bribe by blindly pouring $ into Ukraine which fails to advance U.S. interests while driving Russia into Chinas hands & raising the risk of https://t.co/uWk2OIUKH3 Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) August 4, 2023

Slamming the US aid to Ukraine, he said The absolute worst ideas in Washington D.C. are bipartisan." Now the public is finally coming to its senses. In March, pollsters told me I was on the wrong side of this with voters, but the tides are shifting: TRUTH wins in the end," he added.

The survey shows broad partisan and ideological divides over how much the US should assist Ukraine in pushing back against the Russian military campaign.

Republicans are broadly against authorizing new funding (71 percent) and believe the US has done enough to support Ukraine (59 percent). On the other hand, most Democrats favor additional funding (62 percent) and believe the US should do more (61 percent).

The CNN poll, conducted by research company SSRS from July 1 to 31, included a random national sample of 1,279 American adults.
At least 18 people died in western Mexico when a passenger bus plunged off a highway into a ravine early on Thursday, state officials said, adding the passengers were mostly foreigners and some were heading for the U.S. border.

En route to the northern border town of Tijuana, the bus had been carrying around 42 passengers, including citizens from India, Dominican Republic and African nations.

The bus driver has been detained, the Nayarit state government said in a statement, with authorities suspecting him of speeding round a bend in the road.

Officials said they were still working to identify those who had died on Thursday afternoon.

Around 20 people have been taken to hospital to treat injuries, with one womans condition described as delicate," the state government said.

The bus, part of the Elite passenger line, crashed near Barranca Blanca on the highway outside the state capital Tepic, officials said.

The rescue has been extremely difficult", said Jorge Benito Rodriguez, security and civil protection secretary for Nayarit, as the ravine was some 40 meters (131 ft) deep.
Nigers junta revoked a raft of military cooperation agreements with France on Thursday (August 3) - a decision that could drastically reshape a fight against Islamist insurgents in the region after the ouster of President Mohamed Bazoum last week.

In view of Frances casual attitude and reaction to the internal situation prevailing in our country, the National Council for Safeguarding the Homeland has decided to denounce Frances security and defense cooperation agreements," said Niger military spokesman, Amadou Abdramane.

The National Council for Safeguarding the Homeland calls on the people of Niger to be vigilant against spies and foreign armed forces. It urges them to pass on to the nearest authorities any information relating to the entry or movement of suspicious individuals," he added.

Like recent coups in neighboring Burkina Faso and Mali, last weeks military takeover in Niger came amid a growing wave of anti-French sentiment with some locals accusing the former colonial ruler of interfering in their affairs.

France has between 1,000 and 1,500 troops in Niger, helping to fight an insurgency by groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State that has destabilized West Africas Sahel region.

A decision about the revocation of five military deals with France dating between 1977 and 2020 was read out on national television late on Thursday by junta representative Amadou Abdramane.
Refuting allegations levelled by Pakistan in the wake of the Bajur suicide blast, the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan has asserted it does not allow anyone to use Afghan territory against another country.

Some Pakistani officials are making baseless accusations regarding security against Afghanistan, which we completely reject. The Islamic Emirate does not allow any group to use Afghan lands against any country, Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

                .           ./ Zabihullah (..   ) (@Zabehulah_M33) August 3, 2023

The concern in this area must be shared with the Islamic Emirate face to face, and useless claims should not be spread in the media and confuse public opinion. Allegations like this do not benefit either country or people," it added.

The response from the radical Islamic group comes after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that militants behind a spate of suicide attacks in Pakistan were being helped by Afghan citizens" across the border

Shehbazs statement came in the wake of a deadly bombing at a political gathering near the countries shared frontier that killed more than 50 people and wounded dozens more at a gathering of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-F (JUI-F) political party workers in the Bajur district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

The Pakistan prime minister refrained from directly accusing Afghanistans Taliban government of complicity in attacks, but he stated that militants were operating from sanctuaries in the neighboring country.

Islamabad has previously said fighters from the Pakistan Taliban were operating freely from Afghanistan  a charge that the Islamic regime refutes. The recent attack in Pakistan was claimed by the Pakistan chapter of the Islamic State group, which has a violent rivalry with the Taliban.

In the wake of suicide blasts in Pakistan, Sharif expressed worry about hostile elements operating from sanctuaries across the border to plan and execute such cowardly attacks on civilians.

Pakistan has witnessed a significant increase in militant attacks, especially in its western border regions, since the Talibans takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021.

A UN Security Council report in May highlighted that the Taliban perceives the Pakistan Taliban not as a domestic threat but as part of the emirate, acknowledging its safe operating base in Afghanistan.
Former US President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty on Thursday to charges of overturning the results of the 2020 US Presidential Election and defrauding the people of the US. US district court judge Moxila Upadhyaya presided over the case led by special counsel Jack Smith.

The US Justice Department said that Trump tried to stay in power and raised an insurrection fueled by lies, referring to the 2021 January 6 Capitol Hill riots.

Here Are the Key Takeaways and Reactions Following Thursdays Case:
Two serving members of the US Navy have been arrested on suspicion of spying for China, the Department of Justice said Thursday.

The men are suspected of selling secret information to Beijing that included manuals for warships and their weapons systems, as well as blueprints for a radar system and plans for a huge US military exercise.

These arrests are a reminder of the relentless, aggressive efforts of the Peoples Republic of China to undermine our democracy and threaten those who defend it," said Suzanne Turner of the FBIs Counterintelligence Division, which was involved in the sting.

China compromised enlisted personnel to secure sensitive military information that could seriously jeopardize US national security."

In a press release, the Department of Justice said sailor Jinchao Wei, who served on the amphibious assault ship the USS Essex in San Diego, had handed over dozens of documents, photos and videos detailing the operation of ships and their systems.

These included technical and mechanical manuals that dealt with the weaponry of his own vessel.

The 22-year-old, who is alleged to have been paid thousands of dollars for the information, faces possible life in jail if convicted.

In a separate case, the DoJ said Petty Officer Wenheng Zhao, 26, had spied for China for nearly two years from his perch at Naval Base Ventura County, north of Los Angeles.

Zhao is alleged to have been paid almost $15,000 by a Chinese intelligence agent for information about a large-scale US military exercise in the Indo-Pacific, including details on the timing and location of amphibious landings.

He is also alleged to have handed over electrical diagrams and blueprints for a radar system at a US military base in southern Japan, where the United States has a large military presence.

By sending this sensitive military information to an intelligence officer employed by a hostile foreign state, the defendant betrayed his sacred oath to protect our country," US Attorney Martin Estrada said.

Unlike the vast majority of US Navy personnel who serve the nation with honor, distinction and courage, Mr. Zhao chose to corruptly sell out his colleagues and his country."

If convicted, Zhao faces up to 20 years in jail.
Russia wants to use the Wagner PMC to draw Belarus into a full-scale war  a sabotage and reconnaissance group of Russian military personnel under the guise of Wagnerites is preparing a provocation at Mozyr Oil Refinery, the State Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said.

"The SBU has established that Russia wants to use the Wagnerites to draw Belarus into a full-scale war against Ukraine. The State Security Service of Ukraine has received intelligence indicating that the Russians are preparing a large-scale provocation 'under a false flag' at the strategic facility of Belarus  Mozyr Oil Refinery," the SBU said in the statement in the Telegram channel on Friday.

As reported, according to available data, a sabotage and reconnaissance group of regular military personnel of the Russian Armed Forces and employees of Russian special services, who were sent to the territory of Belarus under the guise of Wagner private military company, are engaged in the preparation of the terrorist act.

"This Russian sabotage and reconnaissance group should commit a provocation at the refinery, posing as 'Ukrainian saboteurs.' Russia plans to blame Ukraine for the deed, in order to once again try to drag Minsk into a full-scale war against our state," the SBU said in a statement.

As reported, "the information about the planned terrorist attack in Belarus was received by the Security Service from several sources. In particular, from the testimony of a serviceman of the Russian Armed Forces, who was captured by Ukrainian defenders in Zaporizhia direction. SBU cyber specialists also restored and analyzed the information on the cell phone of the captured Rashist."

Among other things, it was established that he had previously participated in hostilities against the Defense Forces in southern Ukraine, and recently he was instructed to redeploy to Belarus as a member of the Wagner private military company.

Already at the stage of changing the place of service, the Russian military received information about the "special mission" at the Mozyr Oil Refinery. In his phone, SBU cyber specialists found remote correspondence with other perpetrators, pictures of the object and some information about the operation.

"The security service warns the army of Belarus against participating in a full-scale war against Ukraine. Every invader who crosses the border of our state will be destroyed by our Security and Defense Forces," the SBU said.
We simplify procedures for our defense enterprises as much as possible  Zelenskyy following HQ results

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a meeting of the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief on Friday.

"A tense three-hour Headquarters. Many issues that required special attention. Front. Reports in all directions. Commander-in-Chief Zaluzhny, commanders Syrsky, Tarnavsky. Offensive and defensive operations, support, logistics," the president said in his Telegram.

The participants of the Headquarters also considered the issues of continuation of the grain corridor.

"Reports by Deputy Prime Minister Kubrakov, Minister Kuleba, Commander Neizhpapa and our intelligence services. We understand our responsibility to the world. We involve the maximum number of countries in the region to ensure global food stability," Zelenskyy said.

In addition, Zelenskyy said, based on the results of the discussion of the development of the military-industrial complex, the procedures for its work will be simplified as much as possible.

"Development of the military-industrial complex. Report by Minister Kamyshin. We simplify the procedures for our defense enterprises as much as possible so that they deal with weapons, shells, and not papers," the head of state said.

"Analysis of the use of high-precision weapons. Now is not the time to voice details. But we are satisfied with the results," he said.
New Hampshire has brought out the tough talker in Florida Gov. Ron DeSantisor maybe it's his rapid decline in the polls . Since he began campaigning there this summer, the Republican presidential candidate's rhetoric has become more violent, New Hampshire Public Radio reports. He's told voters there that Mexican drug cartels would be "shot stone cold dead" once he takes office. At a barbecue on Sunday, DeSantis told diners how he'll deal with federal employees, per the Hill . "We're going to have all of these deep state people, you know, we are going to start slitting throats on Day One," he said.

DeSantis said he'd use the same strategy when talking about keeping retired officers out of the Defense Department hierarchy last month, suggesting "they may have to slit some throats." The bloody imagery isn't a hit with everyone. "If I was in charge of his PR, I would have said, 'Don't use that terminology,'" one Republican at the barbecue tells NHPR. Social media posters didn't find the threat amusing, either. DeSantis reportedly is rebooting his struggling campaign organization, and one writer tweeted that "Re-booted DeSantis is as clueless about tone as pre-boot DeSantis was." Another poster said, "This isn't a Clint Eastwood movie," per the Wrap, and asked the FBI, "Why are presidential candidates allowed to threaten to murder people?"

Federal employees took the threat personally, per Government Executive. The president of the American Federation of Government Employees, which has endorsed President Biden, called the threat "dangerous, disgusting, disgraceful, and disqualifying." Everett Kelly added: "These public servants deserve respect and commendation from our nation's leaders. No federal employee should face death threats from anyone, least of all from someone seeking to lead the US government." He called for the candidate to retract his statement; the DeSantis campaign has not commented. Several federal agencies increased security last year and put workers on alert after a rash of threats against workers. (Read more Ron DeSantis 2024 stories.)
Dianne Feinstein turned 90 last month, but the Democratic senator is still punching in for duty on Capitol Hill, despite not-so-subtle whispers about her cognitive abilities and overall health . Now, a new revelation has emerged via the New York Times , which reports that Feinstein's only child, 66-year-old daughter Katherine Feinstein, holds power of attorney over her mother's legal affairs, and that she has filed two lawsuits against the elder Feinstein's co-trustees. That information emerged amid a larger narrative in the Times on a dispute between the Feinsteins and Dianne Feinstein's three stepdaughters over the estate of her late husband, Richard Blum.

The complaints filed on Dianne Feinstein's behalf argue that the senator's two co-trusteesa Blum lawyer and the CFO of his private equity firmweren't properly appointed; that they held back funds from Blum's insurance to take care of Feinstein's medical needs; and that Feinstein has the right to sell a summer beach house that's fallen into disrepair. Steve Braccini, an attorney for the co-trustees, notes his clients are "perplexed" they've been sued. He adds that he's seen no proof that the younger Feinstein has power of attorney, "nor has Katherine made it clear, either in this filing or directly to my clients, why a sitting United States senator would require someone to have power of attorney over her." A Feinstein rep, meanwhile, tells the Times: "This is a private legal matter. Senator Feinstein and her office won't have any comment."

Insider notes the "incredible power" Feinstein still wields in the Senate, including a seat on the Intelligence Committee, which she once chaired, and the Appropriations Committee. On Twitter, now known as X, online pundits debated the import of someone else wielding control over Feinstein's affairs, reports Newsweek. "Oh hell no way. If she is not [of] sound mind to make decisions for herself then she can't make decisions for her constituents either," one commenter wrote. Another observer, however, noted, "Power of Attorney just means if Feinstein can't make health or legal decisions for whatever reason, her daughter can. She's 90 years old, it'd be irresponsible not to have a document on what happens if she is nonresponsive." (Feinstein has said she won't seek reelection in 2024, but some want her to resign sooner.)
UPDATE

Aug 10, 2023 12:26 AM CDT

Two Navy sailors in California have been indicted and arrested on suspicion of turning over sensitive military information to Chinese intelligence officers, federal prosecutors announced Thursday. Jinchao Wei worked at Naval Base San Diego, and Petty Officer Wenheng Zhao worked at California's Naval Base Ventura County, CNN reports. The charges demonstrate China's "determination to obtain information that is critical to our national defense by any means, so it can be used to their advantage," Matt Olson, the Justice Department's assistant attorney general for national security, said at a news conference in San Diego.

Aug 3, 2023 6:40 PM CDT

Wei, 22, was charged with spying under the Espionage Act, per the New York Times. His job as a machinist's mate the Essex, which is moored in San Diego, included clearance that provided access to sensitive information, investigators said. At the news conference, US Attorney Randy S. Grossman said Wei is a naturalized citizen who decided to "betray his newly adopted country" rather than report contact from a Chinese operative. In one transaction, the court filing says, Wei was paid $5,000 for providing 30 technical and mechanical ship manuals.
For the members of the jury that will decide whether to hold former President Trump criminally responsible for his actions to remain in office after the end of his term, the attack on the Capitol hit close to home. When rioters charged the building after listening to Trump's instructions outside the White House, it wasn't a distant crisis, the New York Times reports. It was a local story, affecting District residents and people they knew. "I don't think you will find a DC resident who is not aware of what happened on Jan. 6 and was not impacted by some way, either that day or in the days following," said Christina Henderson, a member of the DC Council.

Some were worried about friends and family who worked at the Capitol, including police defending the building and members of Congress inside it. Three of the officersDaniel Hodges, Aquilino Gonnell, and Harry Dunnwere in the courtroom Thursday when Trump was arraigned. Hodges and Gonnell were injured doing their job on Jan. 6. "All I have wanted from day one is accountability," Dunn said in a statement, per PBS. District judges not involved in the Trump case sat in the courtroom to watch the arraignment, per CBS News.

People who didn't work at the Capitol or know anyone who did still were affected by the attack and the aftermath. They saw Humvees patrol neighborhoods, 8-foot metal fencing go up around the Capitol grounds, streets blocked, and more than 20,000 armed National Guard troops arrive in their city. It felt like a military occupation, some told the Times. "There are so many layers of emotion here, when you think about it," Henderson said. "I don't think anybody in America experienced it the same way as those of us who live closest to the Capitol," council member Charles Allen told Axios a year after the attack.

Trump said he wants the trial moved out of heavily Democratic DC, but the Constitution says criminal defendants should be tried in the jurisdiction where the presumed offense occurred. An aide to DC's congressional delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton, said she barricaded her Capitol office in terror that day. Sharon Eliza Nichols said she could nevertheless be fair in Trump's trial. She thinks other DC residents could, too. Many of them are civil servants, she pointed out, who've worked their entire careers to uphold government values and principles, including a defendant's rights. "I don't think it's any different than any other criminal trial," she said. (Read more Donald Trump stories.)
Bryan Kohberger's lawyers suggested the suspect in the stabbing murders of four University of Idaho students had an alibi, and prosecutors demanded to know what it was. Now Kohberger's attorneys are responding, but they're not saying much: They filed an objection to the prosecutors' request that they produce an exact alibi, and in that objection, they said their client "has a long habit of going for drives alone," which is what he claims to have been doing when Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen, and Kaylee Goncalves were being murdered in November of last year, but that he is "not claiming to be at a specific location" at that time, nor are there any witnesses to corroborate his specific location. "The defense has stated all that can firmly be stated at this time," the filing states, per KTVB.
Hours before former President Trump's arraignment in Washington, DC, on Thursday, a couple dubbed cryptocurrency's "Bonnie and Clyde" appeared in back-to-back hearings in the same federal courthouse. New York tech entrepreneur Ilya Lichtenstein and his wife Heather Morgan both pleaded guilty to charges of money laundering conspiracy under an agreement with prosecutors, CNN reports. The money they conspired to launder came from the 2016 theft of $71 million in bitcoin from the Bitfinex exchange. The value of the stolen cryptocurrency had ballooned to more than $4.5 billion when they were arrested early last year. The $3.6 billion recovered by the Justice Department was the largest seizure of funds in its history.

Lichtenstein, who was born in Russia and grew up in the US, unexpectedly admitted that he was behind the Bitfinex hack, though under the plea deal, he is unlikely to face additional charges, the Wall Street Journal reports. Prosecutors said he used sophisticated tools to steal more than half the Hong Kong-based exchange's inventory and cover his tracks. Morgan said Thursday that her husband didn't tell her about his role in the hack until 2020, but after that, she "did help him launder funds at his direction to conceal his involvement in the hack." Morgan, who also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the US, faces up to five years in prison on each of the two charges. Lichtenstein faces a maximum sentence of 20 years.

Morgan played a lesser role in the crimes but she was the more high-profile of the pair, the Washington Post reports. She rapped under the name "Razzlekhan," calling herself the "Crocodile of Wall Street" in one song. She also wrote for business publications including Forbes, where her column addressed issues including fighting cybercrime. According to court documents, the couple only attempted to launder a fraction of the stolen funds, some of which was used to buy gold coins, which they buried in California. Lichtenstein has been in jail since his arrest last year and Morgan has been under house arrest. The Journal reports that the couple haven't seen each other in more than a year and a request from Lichtenstein's lawyers for a brief meeting between their separate hearings was denied. (Read more cryptocurrency stories.)
The first World Scout Jamboree since the pandemic is being held amid South Korea's hottest summer in yearsand the on-site hospital has been very busy. The Guardian reports that 138 people were treated for heat-related illness on Thursday alone, bringing the total to more than 700 in the first few days of the event, which began Tuesday and runs until Aug. 12. Officials say hundreds more visited the hospital Thursday with ailments including skin rashes and bug bites, CNN reports. The AP describes the campsite on land reclaimed from the sea as a "vast, treeless area lacking refuge from the heat"not ideal when temperatures are regularly approaching 100 degrees.

A Reuters reporter saw several scouts being stretchered into a treatment area in the severe heat. Organizers say more than 43,000 boys and girls from 155 countries, most of them between 14 and 17 years old, are at the event. Some countries, including the UK, have sent consular staff to the site in the country's southwest amid complaints of "hospital bed shortages, waterlogged conditions caused by earlier heavy rains, rotten food, swarms of mosquitoes and flies, and poor sanitation," per the Guardian. South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said Friday that millions of dollars are being spent to improve conditions.

Officials said "unlimited" air-conditioned buses are being sent to the site, along with trucks with cold water. Organizers said the military is helping set up shaded areas, food supplies are being improved, and the number of cleaning staff has been increased from 70 to more than 500. Jacob Murray, events director at the World Organization of the Scout Movement, said most attendees are having a good time and a poll found that 62% are satisfied or very satisfied with the experience, with only 8% very unsatisfied. "Scouts are resilient, resourceful, and have come prepared for different weather conditions," he said. (Read more Boy Scouts stories.)
In 2018, the American Academy of Pediatrics took a firm stance in supporting that youth who are transgender and gender diverse "have access to comprehensive, gender-affirming, and developmentally appropriate health care." Now, nearly five years later, the medical group, which represents 67,000 US physicians, is re-upping that position, though it's also calling for a "systematic review" of research on how individuals who receive such treatment farean in-depth process deemed "the gold standard for evaluating medical research," per the New York Times .

The paper reports that all 16 members of the AAP's board voted Thursday to reaffirm the 2018 guidelines. "The board has confidence that the existing evidence is such that the current policy is appropriate," says AAP CEO Mark Del Monte. "At the same time, the board recognized that additional detail would be helpful here." The Wall Street Journal notes that while it's not clear what the review will encompass, it's "expected to include an evaluation of medical interventions such as puberty blockers and hormones." The AAP's statement comes against a backdrop of GOP-driven bans against gender-affirming care, which can also include therapy and, in rare cases involving youth, surgery.

Critics argue that children and teens aren't able to consent to such treatments, which they call experimental. The AP notes that at least 21 states now have laws in place to restrict or ban gender-affirming medical care for minors who are transgender, although "most of those states face lawsuits," and some judges have even temporarily blocked the bans or stricken them down entirely, deeming them unconstitutional. Early evidence has indicated that gender-affirming care can be beneficial to trans teens who suffer from anxiety and depression, and the AAP says such roadblocks to gender-affirming care amount to a "dangerous intrusion" by the government "into complex medical decisions between doctors and families," per the Times.

The American Medical Association and other major medical groups have also decried the bans against care. However, in Europe, five nations, including the UK and Sweden, have urged more caution on using puberty blockers and other medical treatments after their own systematic evidence reviews, the Journal notes. Del Monte says that after its research review, which will be carried out by an external organization, is complete, the AAP will likely update its recommendations on this kind of care, as well as issue more clinical guidance for doctors in the field, per the Times. (Read more American Academy of Pediatrics stories.)
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with a member of the U.S. Republican Party, Governor of New Jersey in 2010-2018, Christopher Christie, who arrived on a visit to Ukraine.

The head of state thanked Christie for starting his visit to Ukraine with a visit to Bucha, the presidential press service said.

"I would also like to sincerely thank you and your colleagues, in particular the Congress. We are grateful for the bipartisan support, which is extremely important to us. We are very grateful to President Biden and his administration. It is extremely important that your entire country, all Americans, are on the side of truth and democracy, and they are convinced of Ukraine's victory," Zelenskyy said.

The President emphasized the importance of increasing assistance from partners for reliable protection against Russian missile terror and successful liberation of the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories.

"The United States is a leader, providing us with the greatest support on the battlefield for our Armed Forces. And, of course, in the financial sector, which is also a powerful support," he said.

For his part, Christie said that he wanted to see what was happening in Ukraine with his own eyes and share the information with the American public, which is extremely supportive of Ukraine.
For almost 20 years, Ed Mullins served as the head of one of the largest police unions in America. Now, the former president will spend two years behind bars for perpetrating fraud against the Sergeants Benevolent Association, which represents the 13,000 active and retired sergeants of the New York Police Department, reports CBS News . Mullins was sentenced Thursday in a Manhattan federal court for stealing $600,000 from a union fund between 2017 and 2021, after prosecutors laid out a case on how he'd taken the money and used it to pay for luxury personal items and meals at fancy restaurants, among other things, per the AP .

NY1 reports that Mullinswho took in a salary of about $250,000 before retiring in late 2021, per his attorneywas able to siphon off the funds by filing hundreds of fake expense reports. "Mullins publicly vowed to protect the interests of the thousands of active and retired sergeants that he represented," US Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement. "But behind the scenes, Mullins stole from the SBA and its members, treating the SBA as his personal piggy bank." "Behind closed doors, he was a thief, a liar," added Assistant US Attorney Alexandra Rothman, per the AP. Mullins' home and office at SBA headquarters were raided by the FBI in October 2021, and he resigned from the SBA and police force soon after.

"My regret cannot be put into words," Mullins, 61, said in court Thursday. "I make no excuses. I made an incredibly bad decision." Prosecutors had asked for a sentence of 3 1/2 years. "While we firmly believe the goals of this sentence could have been achieved without incarceration, we are pleased that the court sentenced Mr. Mullins well below the 41 months the government sought," his attorney said in a statement, per NY1. Mullins, who pleaded guilty in January to the charges, was also sentenced to three years of supervised release, and will have to not only forfeit $600,000, but also pay the SBA that same amount, per a release from the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. (Read more Ed Mullins stories.)
The overthrown president of Niger, detained by soldiers at the presidential palace in Niamey for the past week, is speaking out via the Washington Post . "I write this as a hostage""one of hundreds of citizens who have been arbitrarily and illegally imprisoned," reads the message from Mohamed Bazoum, who argues the July 26 coup by a military junta "has no justification whatsoever" and could have "devastating consequences for our country, our region, and the entire world." The junta claimed power, citing a security crisis and poor economic and social policies. According to Bazoum, "they allege that our war against jihadist terrorists is failing and that my economic and social governance, including partnerships with the United States and Europe, has hurt our country."

But since Bazoum's 2021 election, the security situation "has improved dramaticallyfacilitated by the very partnerships the junta opposes," he writes. Indeed, "Niger is now the safest it has been in the past 15 years" and "stands as the last bastion of respect for human rights amid the authoritarian movements that have overtaken some of our neighbors." There is now a six-nation "coup belt" across the African continent. The military rulers of Burkina Faso and Mali have embraced Russia, "employ[ing] criminal Russian mercenaries such as the Wagner Group at the expense of their people's rights and dignity," Bazoum writes, warning Niger could follow suit. On Wednesday, one of the Nigerien coup leaders visited Mali, prompting concerns about a potential alliance, CNN reports.

"With an open invitation from the coup plotters and their regional allies, the entire central Sahel region could fall to Russian influence via the Wagner Group," writes Bazoum. At the same time, Boko Haram and other terrorist groups are likely to take advantage of the instability. He calls on the international community to "help us restore our constitutional order," adding, "Nigerien people will never forget your support." The US has joined the African and European Unions and the Economic Community of West African States in calling for an end to the coup. But its leaders have so far refused to give up power. Bazoum notes Niger, the world's third poorest country, is therefore set to lose 40% of its national budget, which comes from foreign aid. (ECOWAS has threatened the use of force.)
Leaders of the Islamic State group, aka ISIS, use "al-Qurayshi," the name of the Prophet Mohammed's tribe, as a nom de guerreand the group is now on its fourth al-Qurayshi since early last year. The group's spokesman said in a recording on Telegram on Thursday that Abu Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurayshi had been killed in a battle with a rival militant group in northwest Syria, Reuters reports. In April, the group denied Turkey's claim that its intelligence agents had killed the leader. The group named Abu Hafs al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi as its new leader but didn't provide any further information on him.

The spokesman said Abu Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurayshi, its leader since his predecessor was killed in November last year, was "martyred" when members of the al-Qaeda-linked group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham tried to detain him. The spokesman said other ISIS members are still in the rival group's custody. ISIS is a "shadow" of the organization that once ruled around a third of Iraq and Syria, Reuters notes, but it still has thousands of fighters hiding out in remote areas of both countries. Earlier this month, the US said its drones killed a high-ranking ISIS member in northwest Syria. (Read more ISIS stories.)
After blocking the Advanced Placement course on African American Studies, Florida has now "effectively banned" AP Psychology, too, according to the College Board, which oversees the AP program. It says the Florida Department of Education instructed superintendents on Thursday "that teaching foundational content on sexual orientation and gender identity is illegal under state law," namely the Parental Rights in Education Act, which bans instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity from kindergarten through 12th grade. The state said classes could continue if those topics, included in curriculum for the last three decades, were excluded, per USA Today . But in that case, the courses couldn't be called Advanced Placement or used to earn college credit, the College Board said.

The Education Department argues it "didn't 'ban' the course" and the board is simply refusing to comply with state law as it relates to a unit focused on gender and sexuality, including gender roles and stereotypes. "Other advanced course providers (including the International Baccalaureate program) had no issue providing the college credit psychology course," a rep says, per NBC News. Yet high school senior Noah Summerlin, one of more than 28,000 Florida students who took the course last year, says he's "beyond pissed off" at the state. "By excluding the fields of psychology which they deem 'inappropriate,' Ron DeSantis and other Republicans place their personal beliefs above the rights of public school students across Florida to a full and free education," he says, per USA Today.

Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson called the state's decision a "disturbing" attempt to rewrite history by disrupting a "science-driven" curriculum backed by experts. Arthur C. Evans Jr., CEO of the American Psychological Association, previously said that "requiring what is effectively censored educational material does an enormous disservice to students across Florida, who will receive an incomplete picture of the psychological research into human development." It's just the latest battle in the College Board's feud with the state, which previously rejected the AP African American Studies course, claiming it "lacks educational value" and violates state law banning the teaching of critical race theory. (The board has lately blasted Florida's new history standards related to enslavement.)
A Russian court convicted imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny of extremism charges and sentenced him to 19 years in prison on Friday. Navalny is already serving a nine-year term on a variety of charges that he says were politically motivated. The new charges against the politician were related to the activities of Navalny's anti-corruption foundation and statements by his top associates. It was his fifth criminal conviction, all of which his supporters see as a deliberate Kremlin strategy to silence its most ardent opponent. The prosecution had demanded a 20-year prison sentence, and the politician himself said beforehand that he expected to receive a lengthy term, per the AP . Navalny's current nine-year sentence is for fraud and contempt of court. He also was sentenced in 2021 to 2 1/2 years in prison for a parole violation.

The extremism trial took place behind closed doors in the penal colony east of Moscow where he's imprisoned. Navalny appeared in the courtroom Friday afternoon, wearing prison garb and looking gaunt, but with a defiant smile on his face. As the judge read out the verdict, Navalny stood alongside his lawyers and his co-defendant with his arms crossed, listening with a serious expression on his face. The 47-year-old Navalny is President Vladimir Putin's fiercest foe and has exposed official corruption and organized major anti-Kremlin protests. He was arrested in January 2021 upon returning to Moscow after recuperating in Germany from nerve agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin. Navalny's allies said the extremism charges retroactively criminalized all of the anti-corruption foundation's activities since its creation in 2011.

In 2021, Russian authorities outlawed the foundation and the vast network of Navalny's offices in Russian regions as extremist organizations, exposing anyone involved to possible prosecution. Navalny rejected all the charges against him as politically motivated and accused the Kremlin of seeking to keep him behind bars for life. On the eve of the verdict hearing, Navalny released a statement on social media, presumably through his team, in which he said he expected his latest sentence to be "huge ... a Stalinist term," referring to the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. In the statement, Navalny called on Russians to "personally" resist and encouraged them to support political prisoners, distribute flyers, or go to a rally. The politician is currently serving his sentence in a maximum-security prison, Penal Colony No. 6, in the town of Melekhovo, about 150 miles east of Moscow.

He's spent months in a tiny one-person "punishment cell" for purported disciplinary violations, such as an alleged failure to properly button his prison clothes, appropriately introduce himself to a guard, or wash his face at a specified time. The prosecution asked the court to order Navalny to serve any new prison term in a "special regime" penal colony, a term that refers to the Russian prisons with the highest level of security and the harshest inmate restrictions. Russian law stipulates that only men given life sentences or "especially dangerous recidivists" are sent to those types of prisons. The nation has many fewer "special regime" colonies compared to other types of adult prisons, per state penitentiary service data: 35 colonies for "dangerous recidivists" and six for men in prison for life. Maximum-security colonies are the most widespread type, with 251 currently in operation.

(Read more Alexei Navalny stories.)
President Biden could announce as soon as next week his decision to set aside more than a million acres near the Grand Canyon as a national monument, a move that would protect it from uranium mining. A coalition of tribes, environmental groups, and elected officials have been calling for the creation of the Baaj Nwaavjo I'tah Kukveni Grand Canyon National Monument. Biden hasn't made the decision final yet, the Washington Post reports, but he'll be in Arizona next week, and involved parties have been told to prepare for the announcement then. The move would be part of an effort to promote the president's proposals to combat global warming.

The 1.1 million-acre plan would double the protected land around the canyon. The monument designation, which would be made under the 1906 Antiquities Act, is partly to honor Native American peoples' ties to the Grand Canyon. Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs wrote Biden in May in support of the idea, per the AP, calling the Grand Canyon a "culturally sacred place stewarded by Indigenous Peoples for centuries." Opponents include uranium mining industry and ranchers in southern Utah who until now have been able to graze cattle on public lands that would become part of the national monument.

Environmental groups and tribes say allowing uranium mining in the area could damage aquifers and water supplies. The current water crisis has led them to focus more on protecting vulnerable streams that would be included in the area. The ban in place on new mining on federal land in the area is due to expire in 2032, which also has led to increased pleas to make safeguards permanent. "This monument will show that we are beginning to protect the lands of the world," Dianna Sue WhiteDove Uqualla, a member of the Havasupai Tribal Council, said last month. (Read more Grand Canyon stories.)
A cyberattack has disrupted hospital computer systems in multiple states, forcing some emergency rooms to close and ambulances to be diverted, and many primary care services remained closed on Friday as security experts worked to determine the extent of the problem and resolve it. The data security attack began Thursday at facilities operated by Prospect Medical Holdings, which is based in California, and has hospitals and clinics there and in Texas, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania, the AP reports. "Upon learning of this, we took our systems offline to protect them and launched an investigation with the help of third-party cybersecurity specialists," the company said in a statement Friday.

In Connecticut, the emergency departments at Manchester Memorial and Rockville General hospital were closed for much of Thursday, and patients were diverted to other medical centers. "We have a national Prospect team working and evaluating the impact of the attack on all of the organizations," Jillian Menzel, chief operating officer for the Eastern Connecticut Health Network, said in a statement. The FBI in Connecticut issued a statement saying it is working on the case but did not comment further, saying it's an ongoing investigation.

Elective surgeries, outpatient appointments, blood drives, and other services were suspended, and while the emergency departments reopened late Thursday, many primary care services were closed on Friday, according to the Eastern Connecticut Health Network.Similar disruptions were reported at other facilities. In Pennsylvania, the attack affected services at facilities including the Crozer-Chester Medical Center in Upland, Taylor Hospital in Ridley Park, Delaware County Memorial Hospital in Drexel Hill, and Springfield Hospital in Springfield, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. In California, the company has seven hospitals in Los Angeles and Orange counties.

(Read more cyberattack stories.)
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis did not give Donald Trump the kind of fellow-Republican support the former president is looking for after his arraignment Thursday on federal criminal charges. While campaigning in Iowa on Friday, DeSantis made his most direct statement yet about his rival's accusations that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him, the Washington Post reports. "I've said many times: The election is what it is," DeSantis told reporters. "All those theories that were put out did not prove to be true."

DeSantis didn't mention Trump by name, and he added his own baseless accusations about the election, criticizing its administration and saying unnamed election officials were guilty of "ballot harvesting." The governor specifically reject one of the theories, that Venezuela, now led by President Nicolas Maduro, hacked voting machines, per the New York Times. "It was not an election that was conducted the way I think that we want to, but that's different than saying Maduro stole votes or something like that," DeSantis said. "Those theories, you know, proved to be unsubstantiated."

Before, DeSantis has said Trump shouldn't be charged, and he's called his prosecution politically motivated while avoiding taking a chance on alienating the former president's supporterseven as he solicits their support. DeSantis called the attack on the Capitol "unacceptable" on Jan. 6 but later said the issue was "a dead horse" and an obsession of the media, per the Post. He shifted to criticizing Trump's actions on Jan. 6 but still called the Justice Department biased in its investigation. DeSantis nevertheless hedged his bets on Friday by indicating that he'd pardon Trump if convicted. (Read more Ron DeSantis 2024 stories.)
Now, more than ever, the world needs trustworthy reportingbut good journalism isnt free. Please support us by subscribing or contributing today.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said the participation of the Global South countries in a meeting of the advisers to heads of states and representatives of the Foreign Ministries in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, is very important.

"A meeting of the advisers to heads of states and representatives of the Foreign Ministries on the Peace Formula will start in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, tomorrow. Many countries, various continents, including the Global South countries, will be represented there. This is very important because when it comes to food security, the fate of millions of people in Africa, Asian, and other parts of the world directly depends on how fast the world will implement the Peace Formula," he said in a video address on Friday.

Zelenskyy expressed gratitude to Saudi Arabia for providing a platform for the talks.

"Recently, we had a meeting in the same format in Copenhagen. We are moving toward the Global Peace Summit step by step," he said.

According to the Ukrainian president, "it is very important that the world can see  a just and fair ending of Russia's aggression will bring benefit to the entire world. The liberation of the Ukrainian land from the occupiers is the restoration of full respect for the international law and UN Charter. The elimination of all created by Russia threats to Ukrainian and global security is the return of safety, international relations and stability to global life."

"I am grateful to everyone who supports the Peace Formula and has joined common efforts for full implementation of the formula," the president said.
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Alaska Air National Guard Tech. Sgt. Robert Neff, an engineering craftsman from the 176th Civil Engineer Squadron, cuts a tree as part of an Innovative Readiness Training project at Shepard Point near Cordova, Alaska, July 26, 2023. Twelve 176th Wing Guardsmen are clearing a 5.5-acre site for the Shepard Point Marine Tribal Transportation Oil Spill & Marine Casualty Response Facility.
U.S. Army photo

The U.S. Army Reserve Command and the U.S. Army Security Force Assistance Command sponsored booths and exhibits July 26-27 at the Association of the U.S. Army Warfighter Summit and Exposition in Fayetteville, N.C.
Agencies | Washington

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Foxconns venture attempting to build a standardised electric vehicle platform is targeting India or Thailand for the production of a small battery-powered car under development, the units chief executive said.

The Taiwanese companys EV platform unit Mobility in Harmony (MIH) would be willing to work with its parent or another company to build the new three-seat EV priced below $20,000 and tailor-made for a corporate delivery fleet, MIH CEO Jack Cheng told Reuters in an interview.

MIH has been in talks with convenience stores, car rental companies and courier companies ahead of unveiling its first prototype EV at Japans largest auto trade show in October, Cheng added.

He declined to name the companies in talks with MIH, but said the car would be priced between $10,000 and $20,000. India and Thailand are likely contenders for production sites, he said, adding that he expected India to be crucial to MIHs longer-term growth.

You build where the potential market is... In India or Southeast Asia, you have a huge volume opportunity right now, Cheng said, calling India a potential emerging power for the next generation in the EV sector.

MIH had not previously described its manufacturing strategy or the potential customers for its new vehicle. Since 2021, Foxconn has had a joint venture with Thailands state-energy company PTT centred on EVs, an area of focus for the Southeast Asian countrys government.

MIH plans to start production of the three-seat EV about 18 to 24 months after the prototype is unveiled in October, Cheng said. A six-seat EV is scheduled to follow in 2024 and a nine-seat model in 2025. Based on its timeline, it would take MIH four years or more from its founding to first sales in a best case scenario.
Agencies | Washington

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Armed US military personnel are being considered to guard commercial ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz. The unprecedented step comes as Iran seized a series of ships in the strait, The Associated Press reported quoting five American officials.

The US expects that putting troops on commercial ships could further deter Iran from seizing vessels  or escalate tensions further. While officials offered few details of the plan, it comes as thousands of Marines and sailors on both the amphibious assault ship USS Bataan and the USS Carter Hall, a landing ship, are on their way to the Gulf.

Those Marines and sailors could provide the backbone for any armed guard mission in the strait, through which 20% of the worlds crude oil passes. The officials stressed no final decision had been made and that discussions continue between US military officials and Americas Gulf Arab allies in the region.

Officials said the Marines and Navy sailors would provide the security only at the request of the ships involved. One official described the process as complex, saying any deployment likely also would require approval of the country under which the ship is flagged and the country under which the owner is registered.

So far, that has yet to happen and it might not for some time, the official said. Earlier yesterday, Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of the Navys Mideast-based 5th Fleet, met with the head of the Gulf Cooperation Council.

The six-nation bloc includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. A statement from the GCC about the meeting did say that Cooper and officials discussed strengthening GCC-US cooperation and working with international and regional partners.
The Ukrainian Defense Forces continue conducting offensive operations in Melitopol and Berdiansk directions in the south of the country, are consolidating on the achieved borders, carrying out counter-battery measures, according to operational information on the Russian invasion as of 18:00 of Friday, published on the Facebook page of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

At the same time, in five directions in the east of Ukraine, the Armed Forces of Ukraine are holding back the attacks of the occupiers. ""In Bakhmut direction, the defense forces are holding back the enemy in the areas of Klischiyivka and Kurdiumivka  In Avdiyivka direction, under heavy enemy aviation and artillery fire, our defenders successfully repelled the attacks of Russian troops in Avdiyivka area," the report says.

"In Maryinka direction, the defense forces continue to restrain the offensive of Russian troops in the areas of Maryinka and Krasnohorivka  In Shakhtarsk sector, the enemy made unsuccessful attempts to restore the lost position in Blahodatne area  In Zaporizhia direction, the enemy conducted unsuccessful offensive actions in the area of Novopokrovka," the report says.

According to the General Staff, 30 military clashes took place during the day.
The Japanese word bushido simply means the way of the warrior, and gained traction through Nitobe Inazos seminal work Bushido: The Soul of Japan of 1899.

During this late nineteenth century period, with Western aggression in China and European colonial ambitions throughout Asia, Japan faced a national identity crisis. Politicians, journalists and public intellectuals alike vividly debated bushido, some explaining bushido as analogous to European chivalry while others highlighted its connotations with loyalty, martial power and military growth.

This talk will explore these debates and their significance. It will highlight how, critically, the rise of bushido was directly linked to literature imported from the United States and Europe, as well as Western ideas on masculinity and gentlemanliness. It will further demonstrate Japanese self-perception through the eyes of outsiders. In the context of exhibitions, arms and armour on display outside of Japan became a vital component of this invention of an archaic way of the samurai.
Japanese ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Masatoshi Akimoto resigned as parliamentary vice foreign minister Friday amid allegations he received bribes amounting to tens of millions of yen from a wind power company.

Tokyo prosecutors on Friday searched the offices of Japanese ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Masatoshi Akimoto over allegations he received bribes amounting to tens of millions of yen from a wind power company.

They have also questioned the president of the company, Japan Wind Development Co., on a voluntary basis regarding the alleged payments to Akimoto, a prominent LDP advocate of renewable energy who is currently serving as a parliamentary vice foreign minister, sources close to the matter said. ...continue reading
Japan has millions of abandoned houses in the countryside, and the country is struggling to fill them.

With the population in Japan shrinking and Japanese buyers vastly preferring new over used homes, older homes are often abandoned when owners die or younger generations refuse to inherit them. Sitting empty, these homes can fall into disrepair.

In an effort to revitalize rural areas and attract buyers, some regional governments are subsidizing renovations and offering these akiya  the Japanese term for "empty house"  for around $25,000 for sale or auction, and sometimes for as little as $500.

These houses can be found listed in "akiya banks," pages operated by local governments as part of a program launched by Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT). The Japanese government estimated in 2018 that there were nearly 8.5 million abandoned homes in the country. Akiyabanks.com, a website with information in both English and Japanese, provides a collective directory of all known municipal akiya banks in Japan. ...continue reading
Enabling Seasteading Through Space and Lunar Development

By Joseph Friedlander

Previous related articles by Joseph or myself 

Setting up an lunar industrial village on the moon using the nuclear cannon.

A summary of the original idea of a project Orion pulse propulsion variant of a nuclear cannon. A system using existing technology of nuclear bombs and a deep hole to launch cargo and materials into space for about $10-50 per pound.

Sea based launch version of the nuclear cannon.

After setting up the lunar industrial village, creating a solar sail loom at L4/L5 and progressing to a solar empire.

Why not use the lunar materials, then, to create what Friedlander calls a gigantic solar sail loom, one that would stretch reinforcement wires in loom fashion over a framework that could reach 10 by 10 kilometers in size. The idea for this space shipyard is to create vast solar sails, spreading a volatile material on the framework, vaporizing thin amounts of aluminum onto it, then removing the volatile and support structure to create an ultra-thin, 100-square kilometer sail.

Use Al Globus idea of an asteroid-retrieval project called AsterAnts. Globus and colleagues Bryan Biegel and Steve Traugott (all working with MRJ Technology Solutions at NASA Ames) came up with the notion back in the late 1990s, presenting it as a NASA technical report and developing its ideas in a presentation at Space Frontier Conference 8. The notion is to retrieve small (1/2 to 1-meter) Near Earth Objects for orbital processing, and to do all this with solar sails that could be constructed and tested near the International Space Station.

Centauri Dreams discussed the article on setting up a solar empire.

A Strategy Of Liberty and Prosperity In Our Lifetime 

Dr. David Criswell has written extensively about the prospect of developing a Two Planet economy, urging us to see the Moon and Earth as part of a unified industrial system. Specifically he advocates lunar surface generated solar power beamed to Earth (using the Moon as, essentially, a big powersat) which saves enormous expense in launching and stationkeeping, yet gains the advantage of constant output (given the fact that some part of the Moon is always in sunlight, and that the rotating Earth below can be beamed to (with the aid of geosynchronous relay satellites) at all times. (Excepting the polar regions)

In this scenario, the only real export of space industry would be non-material. Information via satellites today already is one such. Professor Criswells plan would add energy exports. Real space colonization might be enabled by the plan (industrial parks on the Moon with 1c kilowatt hour electricity!) but per se is not part of it.

Interview on the Criswell plan (Dr. David Livingston of The Space Show conducting)

Testimony on the plan

Pages on Dr. Criswell at a university and at wikipedia

Dr. Criswells speculations served as the foundation for my ownsuppose other, material exports are not only possible but cheap from the Moon?

And suppose the peculiar nature of these exports encouraged seasteading and formed a synergy with it?

As Dr. Eric Drexler has pointed out, when it comes to space, down is much cheaper, energetically and in terms of ease, than up.

Consider for a moment a hypothetical lunar electrical launch system.

There are three things to remember here:

1. Hurling a payload into space is 22 times easier from the Moon than the Earth. It is essentially the difference between a Thor sized hydrogen-oxygen missile (60-90 tons) and a Saturn V (3000 tons) when you consider the fact that most of the payload of the initial fuel is the later fuel. Roughly speaking, each could hurl 45 tons to an escape trajectory. Another way of saying this is a fully fueled Saturn V third stage (S-IVB) on the lunar surface would not use all its fuel to accomplish this task. Remember that this 22 times easier figure neglects gravity and drag losses, it is simply the square root energy requirement, so the moon launch comes off even better. A 154 ton Titan II GLV http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_II_GLV was necessary to orbit 2 Gemini astronauts from the Earth, but the 4.7 ton ascent stage of the Lunar Module did the job on the Moon.

It takes about the energy equivalent of half an objects weight in TNT to blow it clear off the Moon and when it falls to Earth it will generate the equivalent of 14 times its weight in TNT in thermal energy. (If you could tap that lunar energy of position this itself would be an energy source)

1. Natural rentry bodies are possible and cheap to make for hundreds of dollars.

I was quite disappointed that NASA never held a contest, during all the years of the Shuttle program, to give school ceramics classes the chance to make sample reentry bodies and let them be released from the Shuttle in a contest to see which survived (they could have, for example, had letters inside which if undamaged could be recovered). It would have been a spectacular release of say 1000 many-colored reentry bodies.

A sample natural reentry body a Tektite

Caption from Wikipedia: Aerodynamically shaped Australite; the button shape caused by ablation of molten glass in the atmosphere

Basically, you could make a small one of these in a ceramics class with a turntable. A larger one with the kind of turntable they use to cast 8 meter telescope mirrors.

1. Uncorrected ballistic transfers may be accurate to say 1 part in 10,000 or about 25 miles CEP at the Moons distance. (An assumption, but not a gross one) as 155 millimeter artillery can often achieve 50 m CEP (circular error probable) from 30 km. The ratio in that case is 1 part in 600, but in vacuum there are no cross winds or friction. Even if 1 part in 600, the miss radius is around 400 miles, an easy voyage of 24 hours to retrieve and tug the floating conical reentry barge and bring it back to a fixed seasteading site.

If we can imagine ballistic deliveries from Lunar Industry to Earth, what would be the products of greatest comparative advantage?

Consider that Earth and near-Earth space each are optimized for different functions from the human viewpoint of what I call a Two-World Industrial Bootup.

Consider that the Earth is ideal for sustaining life. Cynics who doubt the ability of mankind to colonize space often point out that it would be cheaper to colonize the Sahara or Antarctica than space and in a way they are quite correct. (The unanswered question would be, how would people sustain themselves there, and what would they do for a living with enough comparative advantage to pay their way through trade? But more on that below.)

What adds to the expense of space colonization is duplicating the living conditions of Earth. The heaviest thing of a space colony is the 90% of its mass that is radiation shielding (1 million tons is the actual colony hull and contents in one design, 9 million tons the shielding) These numbers are comparable to 900 tons of moved earth per inhabitant, and 100 tons of manufactured goods (the colony hull and its systems)

On Earth water is available easily, air, even food. And of course there is easy import of manufactured products. (At a shipping cost of less than 1/8th cent a ton mile by large ship!)

In advanced societies the amount of earth (rock, ore) moved per inhabitant is on the order of 10-30 tons per person per year. (The work of a generation in that earth-moving effort would correspond to the shielding mass)

The amount of manufactured goods is on the order of 300 kg to a few tons per person per year (over the whole society not everyone buys a new car every year, part of this is supporting government, industry, medicine, etc in ways not obvious in your everyday life but you would feel its lack if this share was not there).

Put the numbers together and again it corresponds to a generation of manufactured goods to create the colony hull and kit. This is the chicken and the egg problem of starting a colony before you have a colony.

In contrast, on Earth you can get a new living location going with a fraction of that massand even buy existing infrastructure. Nomads and campers obviously make do with less than a ton apiece. These numbers appear impossible to duplicate in space without nanotech.

In space on the other hand, you have free solar power, free vacuum, access (with great amounts of radiating surface) to passive cryogenic cold. Vast industrial operations are possible there that could only be carried on in sealed small chambers on Earth. (Vacuum deposition, for one)

Thin film at wikipedia

Vacuum deposition at wikipedia

In contrast to the scenario of settling the Sahara or Antarctica (what would you do there once you got there? If you could not raise crops the logical industry would be mining) we can imagine an alternative scenario, with teleoperated, automatic and otherwise unmanned Lunar industry exporting large amounts of materials to earth with relatively precise accuracy (an hour to a days cruise by boat to recover the floating entry body).

The more I have thought of this, the more I have seen the possibilities in relation to seasteading. (seasteading.orgcentral thesis is that freedom to move will bring competition to governments and better behavior to citizens.

Seasteading at wikipedia

Design of a seastead at the Millennial Project 2.0 Wiki

Seasteading is a phrase evoking homesteading at sea. It basically involves the concept of people building floating units which can serve as housing and places of work, and using them as places to life free. (The most convenient ones would be near big cities for the amenities, but supplying remote seasteads is a considerable problem.)

Timothy Blee has written a column dismissing the dynamic geography advantage of seasteading that depends on proximity to urban areas dynamic geography being the fact that you can move around seasteading units so only those who want to be neighbors are. (Counter on a strategic mobility level yes, I am paying extra say for a seastead near Silicon Valley or Manhattan because I need to work there. But tactically, no, I am not hostage to any fool who moves next to me and will not stop activities I simply cannot tolerate. I can move. )

Blees column

Blees basic thesis is that:

1. Once established, you would not be able to separate modular seasteads because of entwined human relations between the residents of one large subunit to another (My counter would bedesign single residences that plug and unplug and use the large subunits only as housings to hold these single residences, not as units that most vote. Once the decision goes down to the family level, it is a private affair not a public one)

2. Certain infrastructure hubs or spines (he uses the examples of utility lines) are not separatable in a practical way(My counter would be so what? If single units are, move them and not the spine they plug into.)

3. High-tax, high regulation cities have an attraction despite their disadvantages hardly anyone chooses isolation in the Montana woods because cities are more conducive to business, building families (social cultural and other opportunities). (My counter would be, just because city governments have turned parasitical in the last hundred years is no reason to tolerate their present form by saying seasteading is no alternative. If I were a beer drinking man (I am not) and a snake was coiled around my favorite keg, I would remove the snake and enjoy the keg, not drink in fear and imagine there was nothing I could do. The snake is not an inevitable condition of life, and neither is overly intrustive/taxing city government. Once substantial numbers of taxpayers leave their jurisdiction, they may learn better manners.)

4. People who live close together for long periods of time need a system of mechanisms for resolving disputes, which is to say they need a government.  (Counter: No real argument except this they need a government of courts and enforcement of verdicts which is to say a two office (arbitration and enforcement) arbitration service, by private arbitration, by clergical arbitration or by (last alternative) a respected judge. They do not need hundreds of city offices and bureaus which spend their tax money on unwanted street festivals, or on celebrating things best left unfunded, or pensioning the last generation of looting politicians etc. A government throughout history has meant an army against the outside, and a judge against the inside, and not much more if the taxpayers wanted to stay happy. Someday we will learn that again and seasteading can put the economic pressure on those who refuse to learn.)

Of course as seasteading spreads, revenue-hungry and Constitutionally unheeding local authorities may attempt to restrict commerce to non-cooperating (ie tax-collecting) seasteads. Which brings us to the point of this article

The central concept of space-enabled seasteading is it gives you an extra trading partner the sky.

Consider what an enabler and aid having a Two-World Industrial System would be for seasteading.

It should be obvious that having satellite communications and internet, navigation (GPS) already are enormous logistics easers for remote seasteads. (And beamed energy supplies would enormously extend this aid since a beam of energy costs no more to deliver to the Central Pacific than a major port!) Consider the alternative of hiring a small freighter for a custom supply missionelectricity from imported generator fuel can typically cost 3 to 5 times as much at remote island sites for this reasons. The demise of small load, flexible destination packet boats has only worsened the shipping cost differential between major port to major port on major ship rates and what a remote seastead is likely to have to pay. )

But consider also the advantages of having the ability to plunk down cargoes where they will be most of use. It takes not noticeably more effort to divert a reentry body cargo barge to the remote Maldive Islands, say, than offshore of a major container port. A seastead there could retrieve and tow (probably with lunar electricity-charged batteries like diesel subs use) the capsule to its dock and unload it with ease.

If sufficiently large the reentry bodies might even become seastead modules or parts for them. Consider that Titanium is an ideal material for sea useand it typically constitutes 3% of the lunar maria the flat dark plains that cover ~1/6 the Moons surface around 6 million km2. . In fact, if the Moon has one exportable commodity of greatest comparative advantage it is titanium (there is also aluminum and calcium in great abundance relative to the cosmic abundancesbut those are more common on Earth).. You would coat the titanium with ablative rock to boil off during entryprobably waste from the basalt which contains the titanium being mined!

This site advertises titanium boat parts.

 Our titanium boat hardware will NEVER corrode or rust. Its 40% stronger and lighter than stainless steel.  

Industry sources indicate continuing usage of the original Titanium equipment after 30 years of constant saltwater immersion has produced no measurable corrosion. Other saltwater applications with water temperatures as high as 500F has produced the same result: no measurable corrosion. 

So we see that the exhaustive maintenance needed for a boat made of almost any other substance may not apply to titanium seasteads.

(Incidentally, for appearances sake, Titanium is one of the few metals which can be anodized for brilliant colorslike aluminum. As seen on the below page, particularly vivid purples, greens salmons blues and yellows are available.

Titanium anodizing.

Consider the amount of titanium on the maria (seas) of the Moon to a depth of 1 kilometer (the maria have a thickness of 1-4 km). Basalt typically has a density of about 3. To a depth of 1 kilometer, each square kilometer contains 3 billion tons of mass, of which 3% is 90 million tons of titanium. This times 6 million square kilometers, and the amount of easily accessible lunar titanium is 540 trillion tons of titanium. If we imagine million ton. 100,000 person seasteads (massive enough for great stability in the worst storms, especially in catamaran footed form) there is sufficient titanium to build 540 million of them, and there are only 335 million square kilometers of ocean (and counting seas and lakes, only 361 million square kilometers). Clearly, there is sufficient lunar titanium to sustain considerable seastead development for the foreseeable future.

And if there is one metal just made to process in vacuum with near free solar power, it is titanium, which is hideously reactive with oxygen at high temperatures though non-reactive at low ones (because of surface skin oxide layer protection, like aluminum). Molten titanium will rapidly dissolve all known oxide-based refractories. But in vacuum it is much easier to work with and produce quality metal productsif need be by direct deposition from a hot metal source to a cool target.

Right now near- Earth space is an industrial wilderness. Other than communication satellites, there is nothing there than vacuum and rock. But there are immediate and obvious industrial advantages to sunlight touching rock in vacuum. The cost of thermal energy on the Moon should be very low, because a foil mirror not being destroyable in minutes by wind, as would happen on Earth can work for decades, and provide solar heat in high concentration.

If we can plop down fully worked titanium structures into the oceans, bearing cargoes that pay the way, and use those structures as components of seasteads, and supply these floating assemblies with lunar solar power then we have solved the problems of energy and materials supply, as well as that of jobs. Because traditionally commerce flourishes where trade routes cross. And if living at sea becomes cheaper than living on landeven without tax considerations, then people will migrate there. Enough migration and the logistics have a momentum of their own and the seastead cluster itself becomes a trading destination.

This is a cheaper and safer form of space colonization but on Earth, the Earth providing the life support functions and the colony possibly directly operating the lunar industries that send down the goods they need. Their food could be grown in floating greenhouses and fish farm corrals. They might process the resources of the seabed crust directly below the colony, and move the colony itself down the length of a mineral deposit, using beamed lunar solar power to work the materials. In fact this vision of seasteading not as political escape (that will come in its own time) but enabler of logistics and cheapener of expenses at remote deep ocean mining sites would give a place to be a reason to be there and a long term goal in sightas in Marshall Savages vision-book, The Millennial Project

Later version, Millennial Project 2.0 Wiki training toward true space colonization at sea without the vast logistic difficulties of true space colonization, wherein every job in space must be done by someone living in space no remote help centers, no teleoperated robot arms, no on-Earth mission control/backoffice! Because of lightspeed delays such remote aids would be largely useless much beyond the Moon but in the Two-World Industrial System bootup process they are powerful leverage tools, enabling us to avoid paying for entire generations of non-optimal space barracks and only art the wealthy end of the process pay for formal colonies.

Deep seabed mining, especially near ocean ridges, gives access to hitherto untouched deposits of industrial metals on the unseen 2/3 of the Earth. Just by random distribution, (yes, geology is not all random distribution but there are always surprises) we could argue there should be at least 2 times more of high concentration deposits of desirable minerals. This could put off Peak (fill in the blank), what I call Peak Everything, off for a crucial century or so.

1. As long as we have cheap energy (and better still, supercheap energy, around 1c per kilowatt hour, electricity as cheap as the thermal energy of coal, 1/5 the current cost)materials for growth should not be a problem on Earth. The solution to Peak Everything is supercheap space solar power (under 1 cent US per kWh) and rock reduction mining. We need it even on Earth for garbage reclamation, so we might as well develop it for space as well. The idea with garbage is to use plasma-recycle technologies to make a melt and a gas output. The gas is mostly CO2 and steam. (In the absence of oxygen it can be a fuel gas, but we are postulating energy cheaper than that fuel would be worth). The melt, if dropped into water and crumpled, will make a rock like substance. (If left to cool from the glowing orange state it becomes hardened brittle glassy rock) To this we apply the same comprehensive chemical reduction techniques of rock reduction (properly, rock analysis on an industrial scale) and through various chemical steps refine out everything that is in it take away the oxygen, sort out the solid elements, extract what we need. With supercheap electrical power it works. (Plasma torches generate the high temperatures needed to dissociate the oxygen from the rock) Today it would be uneconomical. But with that abundant cheap power, we can mine the 1/1000th of typical rock that is phosphorus, and the similar portion that is potassium, for fertilizers. We can obtain essentially unlimited amounts of the useful metals. Typical crustal rock is 1/400th chromium, a comparable amount of vanadium and manganese, 1% titanium, and 8% aluminum (and we need not mine typical crustal rock. There are huge amounts of intermediate richness rocks far poorer than the ores we mine today that return far more trace elements than the average. Typical rock for example, might contain 29 parts per million copper. Not too good a deal unless you are simultaneously going for say 30 other industrial elements, at which point it becomes economical with cheap electricity. There are very large amounts of rock richer than average crustal rock, and often it would make sense to mine rocks far poorer than ore, but far richer than normal rock. We will have Peak Ore and perhaps even Peak 10 Times Richer Than Average Rock but we will probably, while Man lives upon the Earth, never have Peak Rock because the Earth, when you get right down to it, is made of rock. Peak Rock, Peak Seawater, Peak Air Peak Sunlight dont think so. With unlimited penny a kilowatt hour power from space we can power our two-world economy on those..

Note that specific materials may still be easier to produce on the Moon than Earth, noticeably titanium as mentioned above.

The Earth is ideal for sustaining life, and many will not care to risk vacuum and radiation. For them space import-sustained seasteading would be an ideal way to be part of that lunar backoffice They could operate remote tractors, bulldozers, backhoes and walking draglines. They could monitor rock refineries and plot capsule launches. And the benefits would come, literally and figuratively, to the very seastead where they lived.

In time those seasteads might grow quite elaborate. One can imagine catamaran (or other immersed floats supporting pillars sticking above the water) hulls suspending plains of greenhouses at sea, for land vegetables, besides the many possibilities involving floating perimeters and sacks isolating pockets of sea in which to grow secure mariculture crops such as algae, seaweed and fish.

Links on seabased platforms and their uses.

Pneumatic stabilized platform

Very large floating structure at wikipedia

Mobile offshore bases

I have imagined a world where everyone lives on million ton cruise ships. (gigawatt thorium reactor or lunar solar powered, with 100,000 people on each) These are more like huge platformed catamarans than traditional ocean liners

List of ten great Atlantic ocean liners

Queen Mary 2 at wikipedia

Quoting Wiki:

Queen Mary 2s facilities include fifteen restaurants and bars, five swimming pools, a casino, a ballroom, a theatre, and the firstplanetarium at sea. There are also kennels onboard, as well as a nursery.

Queen Mary 2 has 14,164-square-metre (3.500-acre) of exterior deck space, with wind screens to shield passengers as the ship travels at high speeds. Four of the ships five swimming pools are outdoors (although one of these is only one inch deep for use by small children). One of the pools on Deck 12 is covered with a retractable magrodome. The indoor pool is on Deck 7, in the Canyon Ranch Spa Club.[20]

In total, 300,000 pieces of steel were assembled into 94 blocks off of the drydock, which were then stacked and welded together to complete the hull and superstructure.

The ships final cost was approximately $300,000 US per berth, nearly double that of many large passenger ships. This was due to the size of the ship, the high quality of materials, and that, having been designed as an ocean liner, she required 40% more steel than a standard cruise ship

A seasteading structure will similarly have to be overbuilt compared to a good weather cruise ship that can simply avoid bad weather by following announcements. Spend enough time at sea and rogue waves will occur, and stuff just happens.

The Queen Mary 2 masses around 150,000 tons and has over 85 mw of power.

She has 3000 passengers and around 1200 crew. (A passenger/crew model might not be the best for seasteading unless it were done subtly. Also, the crew/served ratio of a luxury hotel is not sustainable without robotics into the middle-range future for economic reasons)

Imagine six of these babies as catamaran footings for about a square kilometer of growing surface on a parklike farming plain/jogging path



You can imagine that the amenities of a million ton ship would rival those of a major resorts downtown luxury shopping district but really, if EVERYONE lives on a seastead there would be no more than a per-capita share of these things because there are only so many upscale customers relative to your society (Those numbers may change but so will expectations, so upscale gets redefined yet again. The wealthy of 1930 may have had a private orchestra and private movie theatre on call. The poor of today have CD-quality music and movies on demand from a cheapo I-pod clone holding the equivalent of thousands of songs and a few dozen movies.. Redefining poverty up (and cultural decline down) happens all the time, and we hardly know it till it is pointed out. In the future everyone may live on a seastead and have luxuries we would ache for today but it will seem normal to them.

You can imagine that with nuclear electricity, heat, distillation (from waste heat) liquid fuel consumption would be quite minimal and those small quantities could be synthesized at sea from atmospheric carbon dioxide and distilled water. Most of their food would come from lower mass farm pots embedded in sea water at largely nonmobile locations, but these more mobile seasteads would grow their own vegetables and fruits where freshness was important and receive food shipments periodically. Such a world saves greatly on the difficult logistics of supporting import-dependent cities at high altitude (think Mexico City) because nearly all shipping is done at large quantity at sea for 1/50th the cost of a railroad, which itself is 1/10th the cost of a truck. It can bein the future more economical than land-steading!

And one of the best features of seasteading would be freedom to pick what you wanted for an environment and leave the environment you dont want behind. I am thinking of climate (my wifes Minnesota winters!) but the statement may equally apply to crime, and to a local degree, bothersome business regulations. One may imagine running a business on a seastead and importing and exporting around the world (while touring it!) and perhaps manufacturing you product locally from a combination of sea-bottom and lunar-maria-mined materials as you move about your course, so that we not merely have an economy that is of two worlds, but products whose mixed molecules literally were mined on two different orbs circling our one common Sun.

If you liked this article, please give it a quick review on ycombinator or StumbleUpon. Thanks

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Voyager Space is joining forces with Airbus Defence and Space on a joint venture for the development of the Starlab commercial space station.

Aug. 2, they announced the creation of a joint venture, also called Starlab, that will be responsible for the development and operation of the station. The joint venture builds upon an agreement announced in January where Voyager selected Airbus to provide technical support for the proposed station.

51% of the company will be owned by U.S. entities like Voyager Space. Lockheed Martin is working on the inflatable habitat for the Starlab space station.

Voyager will be the first continuously crewed, free-flying, commercial space station to serve NASA and space agencies around the globe. Leveraging innovative technologies, Starlab is designed with accessible infrastructure tools to conduct investigations, advance scientific discovery, and foster industrial activity in microgravity.

The main structure of Starlab consists of a large inflatable habitat to be built by Lockheed Martin and a metallic docking node. The station is being designed to support 4 persons in 340 cubic meters of volume. The station also features a 60 kW power and propulsion element, a large robotic arm for servicing cargo and external payloads. The station is supposed to be operational in 2027.

Voyager Space, through Nanoracks, received a $160 million Space Act Agreement from NASA in December 2021 to support initial design work on Starlab, one of three such awards NASA issued through its Commercial LEO Destinations initiative. The Starlab team recently completed a system requirements review for the station with NASA.

Starlab will focus on research applications, rather than tourism. The station is designed to fit on a single launch, outfitted on the ground with all the research equipment needed for its customers. All the things that ISS does is what were focused on being able to continue, but with more modern equipment, technologies and capabilities.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has recommended that local authorities create Councils on internally displaced persons (IDPs).

The decision taken at the government meeting on Friday approved a model regulation on the Council on Internally Displaced Persons, representative of the Cabinet of Ministers in the Verkhovna Rada Taras Melnychuk said on Telegram.

Regional, Kyiv city, district state (military) administrations are recommended to create Councils on internally displaced persons by September 1, 2023 and approve the regulations on these Councils, taking into account the model provision.




Big Brother Naija All Stars housemate, CeeC, has criticized her colleague, Whitemoneys Chieftaincy title.





Her criticism started when Whitemoney confronted her on Thursday night after the pool party.





Complaining to Venita and Frodd about Ceecs uncultured words towards him, Whitemoney said he has never insulted Ceec but she is always quick to use what he termed as the F word on him.





The Enugu State born further stated that he has two chieftaincy titles and should be respected.





The statement, however, didnt sit well with CeeC, who berated him and asked him to shut up





In his reaction to CeeCs insults, Whitemoney claimed she would not have been able to talk to him in such a manner outside the house.
President Bola Tinubu has sent a letter to the Nigerian Senate, seeking approval for military action and other sanctions against the military officers who have seized power in the Niger Republic.

President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, read the letter on the floor of the Upper Chamber on Friday.

The letter read, Political situation in Niger.

Following the unfortunate political situation in the Niger Republic culminating in the overthrow of its President, ECOWAS under my leadership condemned the coup in its entirety and resolved to seek the return of the democratically elected govt. in a bid to restore peace, ECOWAS convened a meeting and came out with a communique.

Closure and monitoring of all land borders with the Niger Republic and reactivating of the border drilling exercise.

Cutting off Electricity supply to the Niger Republic

Mobilizing international support for the implementation of the provisions of the ECOWAS communique

Preventing the operation of commercial and special flights into and from Niger Republic

Blockade of goods in transit to Niger especially from Lagos and eastern seaports

Embarking on sensitization of Nigerians and Nigerians on the imperative of these actions, particularly via social media

Military build-up and deployment of personnel for military intervention to enforce compliance of the military junta in Niger should they remain recalcitrant

Details soon




Apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council Worldwide has faulted claims by the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, that Governor Peter Mbah is militarising Enugu State.





IPOB made the allegation in a statement issued by its spokesman, Emma Powerful.





Powerful said militarising and humiliating the people of Enugu State in the guise of ending the sit-at-home order was a wrong approach and unacceptable.





However, the National President of Ohanaeze Youth Council Worldwide, Mazi Okwu Nnabuike told journalists on Friday that there has been no reported case of intimidation or humiliation of Enugu residents by the security agencies deployed to checkmate the activities of hoodlums.





Okwu, who said Governor Mbah should be commended rather than vilified, noted that the presence of security agencies at strategic locations in the State had built the confidence of residents.





According to him, a few weeks back, criminals were on a rampage in Enugu, attacking and robbing residents unchallenged. Kidnappers were also on the prowl, instilling fear in the minds of residents.





But the Executive Governor of Enugu State, Dr Peter Mbah rose to the occasion and this resulted in the huge deployment of security agencies, including the police and the military.





Every Enugu resident can attest to the fact that normalcy has returned to the State, with criminals now having it rough. It is therefore, totally unjustifiable to now turn and accuse the Governor of militarising the State.





May we ask: should Enugu continue to be left at the mercy of non-state actors? If the security agencies are after sit-at-home enforcers, why should be a worry to the IPOB, having disowned the sit-at-home order?





Okwu declared that Enugu people were happy with the Governor for restoring their confidence, which he said is responsible for the failure of the two weeks sit-at-home declared by Simon Ekpa.





Enugu people are comfortable with the presence of security agencies; those not comfortable with it might have something up their sleeves.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 4. The leaders of religious confessions of Azerbaijan issued a joint statement on the provocation of Armenia on the Lachin road, the Department of Muslims of the Caucasus told Trend.

According to the statement, recent prejudiced claims have been made around another provocative spectacle with trucks intentionally created by Armenia on the Lachin-Khankendi road, Azerbaijan's acknowledged sovereign territory.

"Despite the fact that the topic under discussion is not religious in nature, our task as every person who wants to establish peace in the Caucasus region and as religious figures who make great efforts on this path is to approach what is happening according to the criteria of law and justice," the religious leaders said.

The dispatch of trucks to the Lachin border gate under the cover of "humanitarian aid" from Armenia is part of an anti-Azerbaijani provocative campaign. Azerbaijani officials have frequently asked Armenians living in Azerbaijan's Karabakh to hold talks, but the suggestion was dismissed.

The fact that trucks purposefully cause problems in the direction of the Lachin border checkpoint, as well as Armenia's description of the incident as a "policy of ethnic cleansing" and a "humanitarian crisis," demonstrates the Armenian side's ability to systematically distort the facts.

The information disseminated by Armenia about the "policy of ethnic cleansing" is false and slanderous. The international community should not forget that for almost 30 years, as a result of the policy of ethnic cleansing carried out by Armenian extremists, more than a million Azerbaijanis were forced to leave their native lands, becoming refugees and internally displaced persons.

It was during the aggression of Armenia against Azerbaijan that mosques, temples, cemeteries, and historical monuments were destroyed and looted in the occupied territories; Christian and Russian Orthodox churches belonging to Caucasian Albania were Gregorianized; animals were kept in mosques.

Despite the end of the war, hundreds of Azerbaijani citizens are still dying and becoming disabled as a result of the explosions of mines left by Armenians along the Lachin road.

The Azerbaijani people, under the leadership of President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, restored their territorial integrity and saved their ancestral lands, officially recognized by the UN and international law, from the aggression of Armenia. Today, paying attention to the restoration and reconstruction of religious and spiritual monuments along with civilian objects in the liberated territories at the state level once again confirms the tolerance of Azerbaijan, which is one of the leading centers in the process of intercultural and interreligious dialogue.

"President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, known for his global thinking and humanistic ideas, as the leader who determined the fate of the region and rewrote its history, calls on the Armenian side for solidarity based on political thinking and humanistic logic, for peace and coexistence for the sake of the future of peoples," the statement says.

The Armenian revanchists continue to carry out slanderous campaigns against Azerbaijan from various international organizations and even abuse the religious platform, especially the World Council of Churches, for their insidious political purposes. The Armenian Apostolic Church takes a leading position in the Armenian revanchism, conducts propaganda against Azerbaijan at the international level.

The World Council of Churches issued three statements against Azerbaijan during the year, this indicates that one of the presidents of the World Council of Churches, Head of the Armenian Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia Aram I and Representative of the Armenian Apostolic Church in the executive management of the Central Committee of the World Council of the churches, Archbishop Vigen Haykazyan, play the main role in organizing this series of threat campaigns.

The destructive position of the organization, which, instead of making calls for reconciliation, brings the current situation to an interreligious level and provokes a Christian-Muslim conflict under the guise of "Christian compassion", as well as the anti-Azerbaijani propaganda carried out by this organization does not correspond to the goals of a religious institution seeking to serve the world, and contradicts the principles of justice of religions.

The letters sent earlier on behalf of the Caucasus Muslim Board to Secretary General of the World Council of Churches Jerry Pillay and moderator of the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches, Bishop Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, as well as at the 11th Assembly of the Council and in the final document of the last meeting of the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches, protested against statements serving the interests of on the Armenian side, and along with the international community, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan officially recognized that there is no administrative unit called "Nagorno-Karabakh" - "Artsakh" on the territory of Azerbaijan.

Despite this, the word "Artsakh" was deliberately repeated several times in the text of the statement of the World Council of Churches on July 31, 2023. This demonstrated a clear disrespect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

The current position of the World Council of Churches, which does not express "concern" about the genocide committed by the Armenians against the Azerbaijani population during the first Karabakh war, is based on double standards and politicization.

We strongly condemn such cases and call on Armenia, especially the Etchmiadzin and Cilician Armenian Catholicosates, to abandon military rhetoric, not to support calls for hatred between peoples and ideas of revanchism. Such a policy will eventually aggravate the situation in the region and will not benefit the Armenian people, the leaders said.

We have witnessed how, under the influence of the Armenian lobby, a number of European states, especially France, which incites genocide, violence and conflicts in Africa and Oceania, as well as some Western organizations, make biased, anti-Azerbaijani decisions, they added.

The goal of Yerevan, the Karabakh separatists and their supporters, who received the "blessing" from Etchmiadzin, in this new provocation is to disrupt the signing of a peace agreement.

The activities of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in the region are of particular concern. Earlier, Baku proved by facts that the ICRC is engaged in smuggling on the Lachin road, and exposed the direct involvement of the ICRC in the crossing of the border by Armenian war criminals and terrorists.

We, the leaders of religious denominations of Azerbaijan, call on the world community, especially the World Council of Churches, not to follow the Armenian provocative propaganda that hinders peace in the region, and to pay attention to information based on facts. Let's not forget that the main task of the clergy is to observe the commandments, to take a conciliatory position in the name of the peace of mankind," the statement says.

The statement was signed by Chairman of the Caucasus Muslims Department Sheikh Ul-Islam Allahshukur Pashazade, Head of the Community of Mountain Jews in Azerbaijan Milikh Yevdayev, Secretary of the Baku and Azerbaijan Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church, Archimandrite Alexy Nikonorov, Head of the Baku religious Community of European Jews Alexander Sharovsky, Chairman of the Albanian-Udi Christian Community of Azerbaijan Robert Mobili.
The Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association (MACBAN) has asked President Bola Tinubu to give its members appointments.





According to Allhaji Gidado Siddikki, Southeast zonal leader of MACBAN: We are demanding appointments from Tinubus government. Even if it is as office sweepers, we are okay with it. All we want is for us to be part of the government at the center.





During the election, to my knowledge, my people voted for President Tinubu because his predecessor, President Muhammadu Buhari, told my people to vote for him and they all did so.





We prayed, supported, endorsed and did everything politically possible to ensure his victory. So he should not abandon us.




Members of the Lagos State House of Assembly have expressed their dissatisfaction over the commissioner nominees list transmitted to the House last Friday by the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu.





The lawmakers, who spoke during plenary on Thursday, said the list did not reflect their expectations and those of their constituencies.





The Clerk of the Assembly, Mr. Olalekan Onafeko, who read the letter of the governor accompanying the list of nominees, read out the names of the 39 nominees as sent by the governor to the House.





Reacting to the governors letter, the lawmakers lamented the exclusion of some local governments and constituencies from the list.





While some urged the governor to take another look at the list, others urged that the nominees local government areas should be attached to the list.





Raising a Matter of Urgent Public Importance, the lawmaker representing Ikorodu II constituency, Aro Abiodun, told his colleagues that despite contributing to the success of the All Progressives Congress in the last election, Ikorodu got one slot in the list.





The Deputy Majority Leader of the House, Ademola Kasunmu, lamented the absence of any nominee from Ikeja.





His colleague, Nureni Akinsanya from Mushin, noted that the list did not come with the local government areas of the nominees. He also pointed out that the APC had technocrats who were not considered in the nomination.





His position was supported by Kehinde Joseph (Alimosho II), who noted that loyalists and party members deserved to be nominated as much as technocrats.





Joesph added that those who sacrificed their ambitions for the party or lost during the last election could also be nominated as commissioners and special advisers as they could still serve the people in other capacities.





Reacting to the matter, Femi Saheed said, as a former secretary of the APC in Lagos, he was aware that the party had technocrats who could be nominated.





The House must thoroughly look at the nominees to make sure they are worthy of the nomination, Saheed added.





While the Deputy Chief Whip, David Setonji, lamented that Badagry was not represented in the nomination, Ladi Ajomale observed that the list was heavily one-sided in terms of religious consideration.





Setonji added, It seems like we have not learned our lesson. In one of the wards in my constituency, it was hard (during the election), but in the end, we proved ourselves, and here is the list, and not a single name from my LGA (was included).





Adewale Temitope in his submission noted that Ifako Ijaye LGA which, according to him, delivered in the last election to the success of the governorship did not get a nomination in the list.





However, the Speaker of the House, Mudashiru Obasa, implored his colleagues to see reasons with the governor over his choice of individuals in the list.





Obasa asked them to understand that all local government areas in the state could not produce two commissioners each.





He noted, The law gives room for the governor to decide who he wants to choose; the House also has the power to deliberate on his decisions.





The Speaker, however, agreed that the list of nominees needed to include the LGAs they come from for the benefit of the state and the general public.





He directed the Clerk of the House, Onafeko, to write to the governor requesting the nominees local government areas.





The House also set up a committee chaired by the Chief Whip, Fatai Mojeed, to screen the nominees and report back.




Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar has warned the leadership of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) against the engagement of the military to restore democratic order in Niger Republic.





Atiku, in a statement signed by himself in Abuja on Thursday, insisted that the crisis in Niger required sustained diplomatic engagements.





According to him, the military intervention in Niger had created tension across the West Africa sub-region, a development that has caused international attention to the neighbouring country, Nigeria.





Atiku said, Of course, the world expects Nigeria to take up leadership in ensuring that the crisis of political leadership in the Republic of Niger is not just curtailed but also ensuring the restoration of democratic governance in that country.





As the ECOWAS continues to work towards reinstating democracy in the Republic of Niger, it must be reinforced that the regional body should not travel the road of military hostilities that may exacerbate the situation.





The crisis in the Republic of Niger requires diplomatic engagement, and that must mean that the channels for dialogue should be well sustained.





The political tension in Niger started July 28, after the head of the countrys presidential guard, General Abdourahamane Tchiani, overthrew President Mohammed Bazoum and declared himself head of state.





ECOWAS, under the new leadership of President Bola Tinubu of Nigeria, has promised to go hard on the coup plotters and has slammed heavy sanctions on the Republic of Niger.





But the likes of Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea have now taken sides with the Niger military junta, warning against any military action.




Former lawmaker Shehu Sani has urged the Senate not to approve President Bola Tinubus request for military action against the Republic of Niger.

In a post via his X social media platform on Friday, Sani urged Tinubu not to allow himself to be misled by foreign powers.

Recall that the President sent a letter to the Senate seeking approval for military action and other sanctions against the military junta in Niger.

However, Sani is of the view that senators should weigh the implications and consequences of their decisions, especially those senators representing states that have borders with Niger.

He wrote: The Nigerian Senate should NOT approve any military action against Niger Republic. This country should not be plunged into war and eventually stuck in war in the Sahel.

President Tinubu shouldnt allow himself to be misled by foreign powers. Saudi in Yemen, America in Afghanistan, and now Russia in Ukraine should teach us a lesson that war doesnt end in days, weeks, or months.

Senators should weigh the implications and consequences of their decisions, especially those senators representing states along the Niger border. Weaponising electricity supplies to Niger is also condemnable.

President Tinubu should continue to explore diplomatic channels and save the lives of those who will be sacrificed. Thats my view.
The ousted President of Niger Republic, Mohamed Bazoum has called for an end of the coup that removed him from office.

Describing himself as a hostage, Bazoum said he is part of the hundred Nigeriens illegally imprisoned by the junta.

In a column in The Washington Post, Bazoum lamented that the Sahel region may fall to Russia.

He called on the US government and the entire international community to help restore the countrys constitutional order.

Bazoums government was ousted by his presidential guard on July 26.

However, the former president wrote: I write this as a hostage.

Niger is under attack from a military junta and I am just one of the hundreds of citizens who have been arbitrarily and illegally imprisoned.

This coup must end, and the junta must free everyone they have unlawfully arrested.

In Africas troubled Sahel region, Niger stands as the last bastion of respect for human rights amid the authoritarian movements that have overtaken some of our neighbours.

The entire Sahel region could fall to Russian influence via the Wagner Group, whose brutal terrorism has been on full display in Ukraine.

Bazoum noted that terrorist movements like Boko Haram will surely take advantage of Nigers instability, using the country as a staging ground to attack neighbouring countries and undermine peace, safety and freedom around the world.
President Bola Tinubu, on Thursday, dispatched a delegation led by a Nigerian diplomat, Babagana Kingibe, to engage with the leaders of Libya and Algeria on the crisis in Niger Republic, where a military junta overthrew democratically-elected President Mohamed Bazoum.





This was as he sent another delegation, headed by former Nigerian Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, to Niger to speedily resolve the current political impasse in the country.





Briefing the two delegations, Tinubu, who is Chairman of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government, charged them to engage all stakeholders robustly to do whatever it takes to ensure a conclusive and amicable resolution of the situation in Niger for African peace and development rather than a move to adopt the geopolitical positions of other nations.





We dont want to hold brief for anybody. Our concern is democracy and the peace of the region, the Nigerian President said.





Speaking after the meeting, Abdulsalami said the delegation would meet the coup leaders in Niger to present the demands of the ECOWAS leadership.





We have just been given our marching orders to go to Niger and convey the feelings of our Heads of State in the region that they are not happy with what happened.





And then gave them an ultimatum that the coupists should desist from what they are doing and give back power to an elected President.





We are going there to convey this message to them and hear their response and report back what they have said, Abubakar explained.





On his part, Kingibe said talking with Libya and Algeria, two countries bordering Niger to the North, would stimulate the solidarity required for peaceful talks.





Of course, this kind of situation requires solidarity. It requires coordination with all parties that are relevant to the situation.





In that regard, Libya and Algeria are also very important neighbours of Niger. So, my mission is to go there with a message from President Tinubu; to brief them on the ECOWAS position and solicit solidarity and cooperation, Kingibe said.





He expressed optimism that the talks would avert a possible military intervention.





We hope to find a diplomatic solution. Nobody wants to go to war, especially with neighbourly, brotherly people across the border with whom we share a common language, culture and religion, he said.





On the Abdusalamis delegation is the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammad Saad Abubakar III, and the President of the ECOWAS Commission, Omar Touray.





The delegations are expected back at the State House before the one-week ultimatum given by ECOWAS to the Niger coupists to restore power to the ousted President.





The ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government had met in Abuja on Sunday to take a position on the Niger coup.





As part of the resolutions of the extraordinary summit of the regional bloc, ECOWAS said it would explore all measures necessary to restore democratic governance in Niger, including the use of force.





The ECOWAS Authority also imposed immediate sanctions on Niger, including closing land and air borders between member-states and Niger.





The bloc said it could authorise using force if the coup leaders do not reinstate elected President Bazoum within a week from last Sunday.





The military option is the very last option on the table, the last resort, but we have to prepare for the eventuality, said Abdel-Fatau Musah, ECOWAS commissioner for political affairs, peace, and security.





The bloc said it would send a delegation to the country to communicate its demands.





Meanwhile, Former Nigerian Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has called for diplomatic engagement to resolve the Niger crisis.





In a statement he personally signed, Atiku commended ECOWAS role, urging the sub-regional body not to take military action against the coupists in order not to worsen the situation.





The statement read, The crisis in the Republic of Niger requires diplomatic engagements, and that must mean that the channels for dialogue should be well sustained, he said.
The Niger military has announced that it has terminated the duties of its ambassadors in four countries.

The countries are Nigeria, France, the United States and Togo.

Abdourahamane Tiani, a general and former head of Nigers presidential guard, overthrew democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum to declare himself as the new head of state.

Tiani said the decision was taken to rid Niger of bad governance and worsening insecurity.

In a statement read on national television on Thursday by Tiani, the junta said it has put an end to the function of the extraordinary ambassadors and plenipotentiaries of the Republic of Niger in four countries.

The ambassadors include Aishatou Boulamakane, Niger ambassador to the French Republic; Alad Magaskia, Niger ambassador to the Federal Republic of Nigeria; Sidi Zakari, Niger ambassador to the Togolese Republic; and Limon Tingiri Mohamadou Tiari, Niger ambassador to the United States.

There have been several calls from countries and bodies for the military to reinstate Bazoum, all of which have been ignored.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), in an extraordinary session on Sunday presided by President Bola Tinubu, its chairperson, reached a resolution to impose several sanctions on Niger over the coup.

ECOWAS also issued a one-week ultimatum for the coup plotters to hand over power to the democratically elected government.

On Thursday, a delegation of the commission led by Abdulsalami Abubakar, former military head of state, visited Niger to negotiate with the countrys military junta.

Abdulsalami was accompanied by Muhammadu Abubakar, the Sultan of Sokoto, and Alieu Touray, president of the ECOWAS commission.

But the delegation was said to have only met with representatives of the junta.
The three Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) senators say Ademola Adeleke, governor of Osun, is in support of Gboyega Oyetolas nomination as minister.

Lere Oyewumi, who represents Osun west, said they have confidence in the capacity of the former governor to deliver.

Oyewumi spoke on behalf of his colleagues from Osun, while Oyetola was being screened by the upper legislative chamber as one of President Bola Tinubus ministerial nominees, on Friday.

Lere said he and two other senators representing the state held a meeting with Adeleke on Thursday.

He added that they all agreed to back Oyetolas nomination as a representative from the state.

The man standing before us here has many accolades, Lere said in reference to Oyetola.

The three of us representing Osun state in this hallowed chamber met with the executive governor of Osun, Ademola Adeleke, yesterday.

And speaking on Adelekes behalf, we give our total support for the nominee standing before you  Mr Gboyega Oyetola as the next minister from Osun. We believe in him.

So speaking on his behalf and on behalf of two other senators from Osun state, we have no objection to his nomination and we believe that he is going to perform.

ITS GOOD FOR DEMOCRACY

Godswill Akpabio, president of the senate, said the position of the senators bodes well for the nations democracy.

I think this is very good for Nigerias democracy. When you hear members of the opposing party speaking on behalf of a nominee from the majority party, he said.

That is why the senate is very different. We speak across party lines. We are not interested in the party when we come here.

I am very delighted to hear what you have just said. Your people have sanctioned that you represent them. Your governor who is from a different party has sent emissaries here.

Adeleke of the PDP defeated Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2022 governorship election in Osun, thereby ending Oyetolas re-election bid.

Oyetola challenged Adelekes victory up to the supreme court.
President Bola Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima on Thursday attended the All Progressives Congress (APC)s national executive committee (NEC) meeting.

Senate President Godswill Akpabio was also at the meeting.

At the sit-down which was held in Abuja, Abdullahi Ganduje, former Kano governor, was elected as the partys national chairman while Ajibola Basiru, former senate spokesperson, became the APC national secretary.

Present at the NEC meeting were members of the progressive governors forum (PGF) and lawmakers from the national assembly, among others.

Below are photos.








Dr. Maryam Shetty has reacted to the withdrawal of her ministerial nomination by President Bola Tinubu.





Shetty said she remains grateful for Tinubus unrelenting support and thankful for any decision from him.





Shetty also thanked the Vice President, Kashim Shettima for his support.





In a series of posts on her X social media platform on Friday, she said grateful and thankful for any decision from the President.





She wrote, I was just informed now at todays plenary session that President Bola Ahmad Tinubu has withdrawn my ministerial nomination and replaced me with Dr Mariga Mahmoud.





Im grateful and thankful for any decision from you My President!





However, Shetty had earlier written, My Dear President @officialABAT, Vice President @KashimSM I greatly appreciate. I am indeed grateful for your unrelenting support on each and every occasion. For your rainbow of support and courage in the face of intimidation. I Thank You all.





It was reported that Tinubu on Friday withdrew her nomination for a ministerial position and replaced her with Dr. Mariga Mahmoud, another nominee from Kano State.





The Presidents communication was addressed to the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, who read it during plenary.





Tinubu, however, did not give any reason for Shettys replacement as a ministerial nominee.
details added, first published at 11:58

BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 4. The leaders of religious confessions of Azerbaijan issued a joint statement on the provocation of Armenia on the Lachin road, the Department of Muslims of the Caucasus told Trend.

According to the statement, recent prejudiced claims have been made around another provocative spectacle with trucks intentionally created by Armenia on the Lachin-Khankendi road, Azerbaijan's acknowledged sovereign territory.

"Despite the fact that the topic under discussion is not religious in nature, our task as every person who wants to establish peace in the Caucasus region and as religious figures who make great efforts on this path is to approach what is happening according to the criteria of law and justice," the religious leaders said.

The dispatch of trucks to the Lachin border gate under the cover of "humanitarian aid" from Armenia is part of an anti-Azerbaijani provocative campaign. Azerbaijani officials have frequently asked Armenians living in Azerbaijan's Karabakh to hold talks, but the suggestion was dismissed.

The fact that trucks purposefully cause problems in the direction of the Lachin border checkpoint, as well as Armenia's description of the incident as a "policy of ethnic cleansing" and a "humanitarian crisis," demonstrates the Armenian side's ability to systematically distort the facts.

The information disseminated by Armenia about the "policy of ethnic cleansing" is false and slanderous. The international community should not forget that for almost 30 years, as a result of the policy of ethnic cleansing carried out by Armenian extremists, more than a million Azerbaijanis were forced to leave their native lands, becoming refugees and internally displaced persons.

It was during the aggression of Armenia against Azerbaijan that mosques, temples, cemeteries, and historical monuments were destroyed and looted in the occupied territories; Christian and Russian Orthodox churches belonging to Caucasian Albania were Gregorianized; animals were kept in mosques.

Despite the end of the war, hundreds of Azerbaijani citizens are still dying and becoming disabled as a result of the explosions of mines left by Armenians along the Lachin road.

The Azerbaijani people, under the leadership of President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, restored their territorial integrity and saved their ancestral lands, officially recognized by the UN and international law, from the aggression of Armenia. Today, paying attention to the restoration and reconstruction of religious and spiritual monuments along with civilian objects in the liberated territories at the state level once again confirms the tolerance of Azerbaijan, which is one of the leading centers in the process of intercultural and interreligious dialogue.

"President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, known for his global thinking and humanistic ideas, as the leader who determined the fate of the region and rewrote its history, calls on the Armenian side for solidarity based on political thinking and humanistic logic, for peace and coexistence for the sake of the future of peoples," the statement says.

The Armenian revanchists continue to carry out slanderous campaigns against Azerbaijan from various international organizations and even abuse the religious platform, especially the World Council of Churches, for their insidious political purposes. The Armenian Apostolic Church takes a leading position in the Armenian revanchism, conducts propaganda against Azerbaijan at the international level.

The World Council of Churches issued three statements against Azerbaijan during the year, this indicates that one of the presidents of the World Council of Churches, Head of the Armenian Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia Aram I and Representative of the Armenian Apostolic Church in the executive management of the Central Committee of the World Council of the churches, Archbishop Vigen Haykazyan, play the main role in organizing this series of threat campaigns.

The destructive position of the organization, which, instead of making calls for reconciliation, brings the current situation to an interreligious level and provokes a Christian-Muslim conflict under the guise of "Christian compassion", as well as the anti-Azerbaijani propaganda carried out by this organization does not correspond to the goals of a religious institution seeking to serve the world, and contradicts the principles of justice of religions.

The letters sent earlier on behalf of the Caucasus Muslim Board to Secretary General of the World Council of Churches Jerry Pillay and moderator of the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches, Bishop Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, as well as at the 11th Assembly of the Council and in the final document of the last meeting of the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches, protested against statements serving the interests of on the Armenian side, and along with the international community, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan officially recognized that there is no administrative unit called "Nagorno-Karabakh" - "Artsakh" on the territory of Azerbaijan.

Despite this, the word "Artsakh" was deliberately repeated several times in the text of the statement of the World Council of Churches on July 31, 2023. This demonstrated a clear disrespect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

The current position of the World Council of Churches, which does not express "concern" about the genocide committed by the Armenians against the Azerbaijani population during the first Karabakh war, is based on double standards and politicization.

We strongly condemn such cases and call on Armenia, especially the Etchmiadzin and Cilician Armenian Catholicosates, to abandon military rhetoric, not to support calls for hatred between peoples and ideas of revanchism. Such a policy will eventually aggravate the situation in the region and will not benefit the Armenian people, the leaders said.

We have witnessed how, under the influence of the Armenian lobby, a number of European states, especially France, which incites genocide, violence and conflicts in Africa and Oceania, as well as some Western organizations, make biased, anti-Azerbaijani decisions, they added.

The goal of Yerevan, the Karabakh separatists and their supporters, who received the "blessing" from Etchmiadzin, in this new provocation is to disrupt the signing of a peace agreement.

The activities of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in the region are of particular concern. Earlier, Baku proved by facts that the ICRC is engaged in smuggling on the Lachin road, and exposed the direct involvement of the ICRC in the crossing of the border by Armenian war criminals and terrorists.

We, the leaders of religious denominations of Azerbaijan, call on the world community, especially the World Council of Churches, not to follow the Armenian provocative propaganda that hinders peace in the region, and to pay attention to information based on facts. Let's not forget that the main task of the clergy is to observe the commandments, to take a conciliatory position in the name of the peace of mankind," the statement says.

The statement was signed by Chairman of the Caucasus Muslims Department Sheikh Ul-Islam Allahshukur Pashazade, Head of the Community of Mountain Jews in Azerbaijan Milikh Yevdayev, Secretary of the Baku and Azerbaijan Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church, Archimandrite Alexy Nikonorov, Head of the Baku religious Community of European Jews Alexander Sharovsky, Chairman of the Albanian-Udi Christian Community of Azerbaijan Robert Mobili.
President Bola Tinubu has withdrawn the nomination of Maryam Shetty as a minister.

The president communicated his decision to the senate as screening of ministerial nominees resumed on Friday.

Godswill Akpabio, senate president, read the letter from the president during plenary.

Mariga Mahmoud will replace Shetty on the list.

The president has also added Festus Keyamo, former minister of state for Labour, to the nomination list.

Shetty was a nominee from Kano state. Mahmoud, her replacement, also hails from Kano.

On Wednesday, Tinubu added 19 more names to the list of ministerial nominees sent to the senate for screening, six days after dispatching the first 28 names to parliament.

Keyamos addition now takes the total number of ministerial nominees to 48.

As of the time of filing this report, Gboyega Oyetola, former governor of Osun; Ibrahim Gaidam, former governor of Yobe and incumbent senator representing Yobe east; Sabi Abdullahi, a former senator; and Heineken Lokpobiri, another ex-lawmaker, have been screened and asked to take a bow and go.

The senate is taking a break so that lawmakers of Muslim persuasion can observe the Friday prayers.
The Senator representing Kwara Central District at the National Assembly, Saliu Mustapha, has described the two months of President Bola Tinubus administration as very wonderful.

Mustapha said Tinubu has exhibited the highest level of democratic principles within his short time in office.

He made the assertion on Friday while speaking as a guest on Arise Televisions Morning Show programme.

The senator believes that the president has done very well managing the country and his party, the All Progressives Congress, APC.

He said, He ( Tinubu) has exhibited the highest level of democratic principles. For me the last two months have been very wonderful. He has done very well in managing both the country and the party. And we are not complaining. Like I said, every party, every house comes up with a strategy as to how best it suits its situation.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has warned Nigeria and other African countries to prepare for higher food prices.

Speaking at a media briefing on Thursday, Isobel Coleman, USAIDs deputy administrator for policy and programming, attributed the development to Russias recent decision to abandon the Black Sea Grain Initiative.

Established in July 2022, the Black Sea Grain Initiative is aimed at abating a global food crisis after Russia invaded Ukraine  a neighbouring country and fellow key grain exporter.

The deal allowed for commercial food and fertilizer (including ammonia) exports from three key Ukrainian ports in the Black Sea  Odesa, Chornomorsk, and Yuzhny/Pivdennyi.

Coleman said the impact of the hike in food prices would be more felt in developing countries that were import-dependent, and had conventionally relied on grain imports from Ukraine.

She said just in the last few weeks since pulling out of the initiative, the government of Ukraine estimated that Putins missiles and drone attacks have destroyed 180,000 metric tons of Ukrainian grains sitting in storage.

According to her, the grain is sufficient to feed almost 12 million people for a month.

It is very, very important to keep in mind is that countries that import grains, those grains are global commodities and they are priced globally. And taking off from the market one of the worlds largest breadbaskets  Ukraine  by doing that, Russia is increasing global food prices, Coleman said.

Weve seen already how when the Black Sea Grain Initiative deal came into place, global food prices came down over time, and since Russia has pulled out of the agreement, food prices have again been on the rise.

And this affects every country around the world, but it affects most acutely large importing developing countries that have to spend much more of their precious foreign exchange resources to purchase food to feed their populations.

Coleman said Russias withdrawal from the initiative, which in principle, prevented Ukraine from exporting grain to Nigeria and other developing countries, would have dire consequences for food security.

She said 65 percent of the grains from the Black Sea Grain Initiative have gone to developing countries and 20 percent have gone directly to the least developed countries.

Coleman recalled that in the wake of the last food crisis that rocked global food security in 2008, the US government launched Feed The Future  an approach to invest in food security and making countries more resilient to food crises.

And today we invest in more than 40 countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, really around the world, and we have 20  sorry, 20 target countries that have very high levels of poverty and hunger, and also a strong potential for agriculture to drive economic growth and to transform food systems, she said.

Coleman said USAID was currently exploring alternate routes  via the Danube, via road, via rail for exporting Ukraines grains.
A Bergen County man was sentenced Friday to 35 years in prison for stalking and fatally stabbing a woman in her Leonia apartment in 2022.

Nile Diakos, 36, of Leonia, will not be eligible for parole under terms of the sentence imposed by Judge Susan Steele in Bergen County Superior Court, the prosecutors office said.

Diakos in April pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the stabbing death of Alicia A. Arnone, 35, who was found dead in her apartment on Grand Avenue on the morning of March 26, 2022. Diakos was described as Arnones boyfriend at the time of the murder.

The prosecutors office had first arrested another man  Arnones ex-boyfriend  but days later named Diakos as their prime suspect and let the other man go. Criminal charges against the ex-boyfriend were dismissed.

Detectives said in court documents that after arresting the first suspect, they became aware of phone recordings in which Diakos would confess to stabbing Arnone multiple times, specifically stating that he stabbed Arnone in the neck and chest. Diakos also implicated himself in text messages to at least one other person, according to detectives, who detailed the allegations in affidavit of probable cause.

Diakos was charged with murder, weapons possession, and hindering his own apprehension. During pre-trial motions, his attorney, Kathleen Theurer, sought to suppress the phone recordings and texts, arguing that Diakos suffered major depression and schizophrenia. The motion was denied.

As part of a plea deal, Diakos accepted the states offer that he serve a the mandatory minimum sentence for first-degree murder, which is 30 years in prison without parole. In addition, the judge tacked on a five-year sentence for illegal weapons possession. Diakos was also given 18 months for stalking, a sentence that will run concurrently.

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Richard Cowen may be reached at rcowen@njadvancemedia.com.
A 21-year-old man has been charged with punching Fox 29 reporter Bob Kelly at a bar in Sea Isle City on Sunday during an apparent TikTok challenge.

Patrick Iannone, of Sea Isle City, was charged with third-degree aggravated assault, according to municipal court records.

SeaIsleNews.com was the first to report the name of Kellys alleged assailant.

Kelly, a traffic anchor who often does features highlighting Jersey Shore towns in the summer, confirmed on Good Day Philadelphia Tuesday that a man threw water at him at Oar House Pub moments before the assault. He had a swollen eye during the television appearance.

Kelly said the attack was part of a TikTok challenge.

A criminal complaint obtained by CrossingBroad.com alleges Iannone punched Kelly in the left side of his face and that the television personality briefly lost consciousness. Kelly suffered lacerations to his eye socket.

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Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com.
After Eagles offensive lineman Josh Sills was acquitted by an Ohio jury of accusations that he raped and kidnapped a woman in 2019, he appears to be headed back to the team.

A Guernsey County jury found Sills not guilty Friday of felony rape and kidnapping charges from an alleged December 2019 incident in which Sills was accused of engaging in sexual activity that was not consensual and held a victim against her will.
More than 1,700 nurses at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick went on strike Friday morning as negotiations over a new contract remained at an impasse.

Hundreds of nurses in blue T-shirts and carrying signs are picketing in front of the hospital, which said Friday it is still operating on a normal schedule.
Send out an S.O.S. because Ticketmaster Verified Fan presale registration is over for the Jonas Brothers newly added shows.

The Jonas Brothers have announced 50 new tour dates to their world tour, and fans are antsy to see them live.

The Jonas Brothers will perform at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. on Dec. 6 and in Philadelphia at Wells Fargo Center on Sept. 21.

The brothers will also perform at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. on Dec. 9.

However, if you missed registration for Ticketmasters Verified Fan presale, a limited number of tickets will be available during the general onsale beginning on Aug. 4 at 10 a.m.

Because the tour is in such high demand, you can assume that fans will snatch up tickets fast. Those who did not receive a presale code can find tickets on secondary market websites, such as StubHub, Vivid Seats, TicketNetwork and TicketCity.

First-time Vivid Seats users can save $20 on ticket orders over $200 by entering promo code NJ20 at checkout.

You can find a full calendar of the Jonas Brothers tour dates here.

Concerts heading to the Prudential Center in 2023

The Jonas Brothers are not the only artists heading to the Prudential Center this year.

Here are a few more tours you do not want to miss.

RELATED STORIES ABOUT LIVE EVENTS:

Taylor Swift tour 2023: Full schedule, dates, where to buy tickets

Bruce Springsteen tour 2023: Cheapest tickets for when he returns to N.J.

Eagles final tour 2023: How to get tickets for just-added N.J. show

Jonas Brothers tour 2023: How to get tickets to 50 new tour dates

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A Mercer County man was arrested and charged with murder a day after breaking into a 71-year-old womans West Windsor home and beating her to death, authorities said.

Denzel Whitmore, 24, of Hamilton, is charged with felony murder, burglary and tampering with evidence, the Mercer County Prosecutors Office said Friday.

Elaine Murray was found bleeding from the back of her head in a second-floor bedroom of her home on Galston Drive shortly after 8 p.m. on Wednesday, officials said. Neighbors had earlier gone to check on Murray, who lived alone, and found evidence of a break-in, investigators said.

Murray also had visible signs of injury to her face, the prosecutors office said.

Whitmore was arrested Thursday afternoon.

Mercer County officials said the Harford County Sheriffs Office in Maryland assisted in the investigation, but didnt immediately explain how.

The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Jacob Schor of the prosecutors office at 609-989-6406 or Sgt. Roberto Reyes at 609-256-0997. Information can also be emailed to mchtftips@mercercounty.org.

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Authorities have dismissed the murder case against a former New Jersey man they believe killed his second wife in Mercer County in 1991, but they learned he disposed of her body shortly after her vanishing.

John Smith - who is serving life in prison in Ohio for killing his first wife there in the 1970s - has long been suspected of murder in the vanishing of Fran Gladden-Smith from her West Windsor condo 32 years ago. He is now 73 years old.

The Mercer County Prosecutors Office obtained an indictment against him in late 2019, despite the absence of Gladden-Smiths body, and had been striving to bring closure to one of the countys enduring mysteries.

Last month, though, they dismissed the case after mulling a courtroom setback from last year  which would have allowed prosecutors to raise at trial the fact that he killed his first wife.

Although the case is now over legally, the effort yielded a partial answer to the puzzle, a family member of the victim said.

Smith, in a deal to have the case dropped, admitted to the prosecutors office he discarded his wifes body in Middlesex County, according to Sherrie Gladden-Davis, the victims sister.

John Smith told the office that two days after his wife died, he put her in a dark blanket and discarded her body in an industrial dumpster at the Carborundum facility in Keasbey, Woodbridge Township, where he worked at the time, Gladden-Davis told NJ Advance Media Thursday.

Smith admitted no guilt about his wifes demise, and said a prison head injury prevented him from remembering other details, Gladden-Davis said.

That was his tale, Gladden-Davis said.

Gladden-Davis, of Indiana, discussed the case with NJ Advance Media after being informed by the prosecutors office of the official conclusion.

The prosecutors office declined to discuss details of the Smith case, other than confirming the office dismissed the case last month after determining they could not overcome their burden of reasonable doubt.

Despite learning a possibly new nugget about her sisters death, Gladden-Davis remains disappointed overall, and said shell never trust John Smith.

I still do not believe him, Gladden-Davis said. He would lie when then truth would serve him better.

She said it was telling that Smith talked about disposing the body, since the statute of limitations on that had run out. (Smith was also indicted on fourth-degree tampering with evidence charge.)

Gladden-Davis said the Mercer prosecutors office, namely Assistant Prosecutor Kathleen Petrucci, did a valiant job of trying to get a conviction after all these years. I have to really admire them. They did everything they could. They did their best and they gave their best, she said.

Smith, who was moved to the Mercer County jail in early 2021, has since been moved back to the Ohio prison system to continue serving the sentence for killing his wife Janice Hartman.

John Smith appears from the Mercer County jail during a Superior Court of Mercer County hearing on Oct. 25, 2021.

Fran Gladden-Smith disappeared from her West Windsor condominium in September 1991. She went by Betty Fran and was 49.

Smith was 40 at the time and an engineer. The couple had moved earlier that year from Florida to the Canal Pointe condo neighborhood, just across from Princeton, because Smith had a new job at Carborundum.

Smith himself reported his wife missing to West Windsor police on Oct. 4, 1991, saying she was last seen alive about a week earlier and left a note: Going away for a few days. Dont forget to feed the fish.

He said his wife had packed a suitcase and he theorized to police shed gone on a trip. But police found the suitcase, and investigators and Gladden-Smiths family grew increasingly suspicious of John Smith, since his wife was recovering from hip surgery at the time.

The investigation cooled for a few years, and John Smith later moved away.

Although not officially a homicide, West Windsor police never stopped giving it the weight of a murder investigation, and in 1999, it paid off.

John Smiths brother, Michael Smith, confessed to West Windsor detectives that hed seen a mummified body in a box in the family home in Ohio, in 1979, which their father had found. Michael Smith said hed called John Smith about it, and he came and took the box away.

Indiana authorities had found the box in 1980, dumped along a highway there, and 20 years later the body was identified as Hartman, Smiths first wife.

Shed disappeared in 1974, just days after their divorce.

Wayne County, Ohio, authorities charged Smith with murder and found him living outside San Diego, where they arrested him in 2000. They also found hed married a third time and that woman later annulled their marriage and testified at his murder trial.

After his conviction in 2001 for Hartmans murder, a judge sentenced Smith was sentenced to 15-years to life in prison. The case then became true crime topic in two books, crime shows and a television movie. Gladden-Davis also wrote a book about the case.

In 2017, knowing Smith was eligible for parole in 2019, Mercer police and prosecutors turned again to the FBI for assistance, which theyd done before.

Specifically, they met with FBI Special Agent Robert Hilland, whod been rising in the agencys ranks. He had a special interest in the case too, as he started his career as a patrol officer in West Windsor in the 1990s.

In 2019, Mercer prosecutors took the case to a grand jury and obtained an indictment.

Privately, they said it was a long shot, a homicide charge without a body, much less other evidence. But they had to try.

In early 2021, the 71-year-old Smith was moved to New Jersey and in the fall of 2021, Petrucci said in court the office had offered Smith a plea bargain for 20 years in prison, which would run consecutive to his Ohio term.

Smith declined.

West Windsor police Lt. Dave Mansue with the Fran Gladden-Smith case file at the police station in West Windsor on Friday, February 01, 2008.Martin Griff | Times of Trenton

Petrucci then moved to introduce Smiths Ohio murder conviction at trial. Doing so requires a judges approval of a multi-pronged test during rule 404b hearing, commonly called prior bad acts.

For hours during the hearing, in August 2022, Petrucci laid out the states case, based largely on the testimony of Hilland, who gave an hours-long rundown of investigations of Smith in the two states.

Mercer County Judge Peter Warshaw ruled in October 2022 the jury would not hear about the Hartman case, saying one spousal murder does not prove another and introducing it as evidence would prejudicially tilt a jury against Smith.

The judge said he saw no way to introduce the Hartman conviction with jury instruction, or to sanitize it. Such a jury would struggle against the thoughts that Smith must have acted similarly with Gladden-Smith as he did with Hartman, Warshaw said.

Simply stated, that the defendant killed his first wife in 1974 does not prove he killed his second in 1991, the judge said.

The ruling proved fatal to the case, the prosecutors office said.

A significant part of the states evidence in the case included the disappearance of Smiths first wife in Ohio ... the discovery of her body, and his conviction in 2001 of her murder in Ohio. Smiths relationships with both wives and their disappearances bore striking similarities, the office said in a statement.

Citing the prior bad acts ruling, the office concluded: The state determined we could not sustain our burden beyond a reasonable doubt without that evidence.

Gladden-Davis said she understands the hurdles the Mercer case had to overcome, and reiterated her appreciation for the office giving it a try.

Were disappointed that Fran is not going to get her day in court, she said.

She said she and her family have made a number of friends from the case during the past 30 years, namely West Windsor detectives Mike Dansbury and Dave Mansue, who never gave up on the case and continue to travel on their own dime to Smith parole hearings in Ohio.

Overall, were in no worse shape, Gladden-Davis said, since Smith is in prison until at least until his next parole hearing, in 2029.

And our family will just continue to fight.

Sherrie Gladden-Davis, the sister of Fran Gladden-Smith, hugs her niece Deanna Weiss after John Smith was sentenced in Ohio in this 2001 file photo.The Plain Dealer

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Kevin Shea may be reached at kshea@njadvancemedia.com




On August 1 2023, Ambassador Wang Qing went to the 34th Military Hospital of Sierra Leone to extend greetings to the 7th Chinese Military Medical Experts Group, together with Major General Christian Fahim Marah, Chief of Staff of the Ministry of Defence and Colonel Dr. Stephen Sevalie, Head of the 34th Military Hospital of Sierra Leone, on the occasion of the 96th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA).

In his speech, Ambassador Wang warmly congratulated the 96th anniversary of the founding of PLA and wished the military medical experts group a happy holiday. Ambassador Wang commented that the military medical experts group has overcome many difficulties and assisted Sierra Leone in epidemic prevention and control, technical training, etc., which is fully demonstrated the good characteristics of PLA and effectively promoted China-Sierra Leone relations and cooperation between the two militaries.

Maj. Gen. Marah and other gusestsextended their best wishes on the 96th anniversary of the founding of the PLA, expressing their willingness to work with China to continuously strengthen exchanges and cooperation in the military field between the two countries, so as to promote the relationship between the two nations and the two militaries to a new level.

On the same day, the 7th military medical expert group also donated a batch of medical supplies to the 34th Military Hospital.




BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 4. The Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan has expressed condolences to the families and relatives of those killed in a landslide near the resort area of Shovi in Georgia, the ministry tweeted, Trend reports.

"We hope that people who are still missing will be found alive and unharmed. We are with the government and people of Georgia," the ministry said.

The landslide occurred in the resort area of Shovi in western Georgia on August 3.

Currently, the bodies of six victims have been found. More than 200 people were evacuated from the territory by helicopter.
A group of men from New Jersey have been charged after they were identified as suspects in a string of burglaries that were committed around Christmas 2022 using stolen luxury cars, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said.

Detectives arrested Olajawan Davis-Fleming, 27, and Shaquan White, 20, both of Newark, and Khyree Lawrence, 19, of East Orange, on Wednesday after searching their homes. Charges were also filed against three men who are currently incarcerated  David Cureton, 20, Tysean Ware, 20, and Ali Hall, 21.

Police in Alpine received a report of a stolen BMW SUV on Christmas Day. The vehicle was later determined to have been used for crimes, including attempted burglaries, in the affluent communities of Cresskill, Montville and Rumson, officials said.

Two days later, Alpine Police responded to a 911 call reporting that a group of unknown men were on the first floor of a home while the homeowners were upstairs. Officers arrived as the alleged burglars were fleeing in a Mercedes Benz that had been reported stolen out of New York, authorities said.

The Mercedes Benz was also determined to have been used during an attempted burglary in Old Tappan on the night of December 26, officials said.

The charges against the men include burglary, armed burglary, theft and receiving stolen property, prosecutors said.

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Nicolas Fernandes may be reached at nfernandes@njadvancemedia.com.
It was an honor to meet with President @ZelenskyyUa in Ukraine and see firsthand the heroism Ukrainians have displayed in their fight against Russia.



America has never moved forward by ignoring the rest of the world. We cant start now. https://t.co/3Diajbs4Lc
WASHINGTON  Donald Trump pleaded not guilty Thursday to trying to overturn the results of his 2020 presidential election loss, answering for the first time to federal charges that accuse him of orchestrating a brazen and ultimately failed attempt to block the peaceful transfer of presidential power.

Trump appeared before a magistrate judge in Washingtons federal courthouse two days after being indicted on four felony counts by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith. The charges accuse him of trying to subvert the will of voters and undo his election loss in the days before Jan. 6, 2021, when supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in a violent and bloody clash with law enforcement.

Trump, the 2024 Republican presidential primary front-runner, is facing charges including conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstruct Congress certification of Democrat Joe Bidens victory. His appearance Thursday, and the rest of the court case, will unfold in a courthouse blocks in clear view of the Capitol and in a building where more than 1,000 of the Capitol rioters have been charged.

Trump has said he is innocent, and his legal team has characterized the latest case as an attack on his right to free speech. The case is part of an ongoing set of escalating legal troubles for the ex-president, coming nearly two months after Trump pleaded not guilty to dozens of federal felony counts accusing him of hoarding classified documents and thwarting government efforts to retrieve them.

Smith himself was in the courtroom and sat in the front row behind the prosecutors handling the case. Three police officers who defended the Capitol that day were also seen entering the courthouse.

The indictment from Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith charges Trump with four felony counts related to his efforts to undo his presidential election loss, including conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding. The charges could lead to a yearslong prison sentence in the event of a conviction.

The former president was the only person charged in the case, though prosecutors referenced six unnamed co-conspirators, mostly lawyers, they say he plotted with, including in a scheme to enlist fake electors in seven battleground states won by Biden to submit false certificates to the federal government.

The indictment chronicles how Trump and his Republican allies, in what Smith described as an attack on a bedrock function of the U.S. government, repeatedly lied about the results in the two months after he lost the election and pressured his vice president, Mike Pence, and state election officials to take action to help him cling to power.

This is the third criminal case brought against Trump in less than six months.

He was charged in New York with falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment to a porn actor during the 2016 presidential campaign. Smiths office also has charged him with 40 felony counts in Florida, accusing him of illegally retaining classified documents at his Palm Beach estate, Mar-a-Lago, and refusing government demands to give them back. He has pleaded not guilty in both those cases, which are set for trial next year.

And prosecutors in Fulton County, Georgia, are expected in coming weeks to announce charging decisions in an investigation into efforts to subvert election results in that state.

Trumps lawyer John Lauro has asserted in television interviews that Trumps actions were protected by the First Amendment right to free speech and that he relied on the advice of lawyers. Trump has claimed without evidence that Smiths team is trying to interfere with the 2024 presidential election.
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As white supremacy continues to disempower communities of color, Black revolutionaries are on the frontlines dismantling the systems attempting to keep Black minds and bodies in bondage.

Black August is an annual, month-long commemoration of the freedom fighters and movement workers who mapped out the blueprint of Black resistance and those who are continuing the fight. This tradition was created after activist and author George Jackson was killed by a San Quentin Prison guard in California on August 21, 1971. Jackson, along with fellow inmates Fleeta Drumgo and John Cluchette, were accused of killing a white prison guard in January 1970. In March 1972, Drumgo and Cluchette were acquitted of the charges because the state failed to prove its case.

Jacksons imprisonment occurred during a time when Black people were becoming more vulnerable to the criminal justice system due to political campaigns to be tough on crime and take on the war on drugs. He was just 19 years old when he was sentenced to one year to life after being convicted of stealing $70 from a gas station. The majority of his years in prison was spent in solitary confinement. Despite the isolation, racism and oppression of the prison system, Jacksons voracious love of reading revolutionary works and connections to other Black power activists who were also incarcerated in the same prison, transformed him into a prison rights leader and a revolutionary. His writings from prison continue to inspire and empower Black activists and abolitionists today.

Civil rights activist and writer Julius Lester wrote about how Jackson preserved and strengthened his well being despite existing within an oppressive environment in a 1970 New York Times column.

He began to discipline his mind and his body toward one end: revolution, Lester wrote of Jackson. His commitment could be seen in his face, in the way he walked, in the way he talked, and though he was never the instigator of trouble, he never failed to defend himself when trouble came. It did; it had to, for prisons do not rehabilitate. They destroy and call it rehabilitation. George Jackson refused to be destroyed.

The first Black August was held in 1979. Those who participated strengthened their minds and discipline through fasting, reading revolutionary works, which included Jacksons writings, and abstaining from radio, controlled substances and television. Here are a few ways you can honor Black August today.

Fleeta Drumgo, left; John W. Cluchette, middle; and George Jackson, right, were known as the Soledad Brothers.

Amplify messages from abolitionists and incarcerated individuals

Mass incarceration is like slaverys cousin. Although the 13th amendment is known for abolishing slavery, it makes an exception for those who are punished for a crime. While there have been successful efforts to remove the language in some state constitutions, a few U.S. Congress members are pushing for change on a federal level.

The Sentencing Project reports a 500 percent prison population increase since 1973. The majority of incarcerated individuals are Black. While freedom fighters first started Black August behind prison walls more than 40 years ago, those imprisoned today are still dealing with inhumane conditions, practices and inadequate mental and physical care. Thousands of people incarcerated in Alabama went on strike in September 2022 to call out the deplorable conditions of the states overcrowded prisons, which are some of the deadliest in the nation. About 300 men in Texas started a hunger strike to bring attention to their experiences in solitary confinement, a practice that has been proven to cause irreparable harm. Joshua Allen Sweeting, who is housed at a prison near Palestine, Texas, has been in solitary confinement since 2004 and has witnessed the mental and physical deterioration of other incarcerated folks.

This is not about us trying to run the prison, its about humanity, Sweeting told The Texas Tribune via email. Its about us being treated as humans and given a chance to prove we deserve to be treated as such.

Learn about and honor other Black uprisings and revolutionaries

August is marked with multiple rebellions and revolts. Its the same month when Nat Turner, empowered by a prophecy from God to bring his people out of bondage, led a slave revolt in Virginia 1831. Its when the enslaved in Haiti started the fight for their own independence in 1791. Its also when a six-day uprising in Los Angeles pushed back against police brutality during the Watts Rebellion in 1965.

James Baldwin, Marcus Garvey and Marsha P. Johnson have birthdays in August. Research and learn about the importance of these rebellions and activists.

Read Black literature

You can empower your mind by studying the literary works of Black revolutionaries on the Black Joy Black August reading list:

Soledad Brother: Prison Letters of George Jackson and Blood In My Eye by George L. Jackson

Assata: An Autobiography by Assata Shakur

Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Davis

Fire This Time: The Watts Uprisings and the 1960s by Gerald Horne

Revolutionary Suicide by Huey P Newton

Connect with Black organizers in your area

Although the roots of Black August are in prison abolition work, its not the only work highlighted during this month. Ask yourself what social justice issues you are passionate about and see if there are any local, Black-led organizations that are doing the work in those areas. These grassroot groups could use your time and support. Here are a couple of organizations Black Joy has highlighted:
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BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 4. Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Jeyhun Bayramov held a telephone conversation with Georgian Foreign Minister Ilia Darchiashvili in connection with the disaster that occurred as a result of a mudslide and landslide near the resort of Shovi in the mountainous region of Racha (Georgia), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan told Trend.

Bayramov expressed his deep condolences to the friendly Georgian government and people, the families and loved ones of those killed in the disaster, and wished the injured healing.

The minister also expressed hope that the missing persons would be found soon.

The Azerbaijani FM pointed out that Azerbaijan has always been close to Georgia and is ready to provide any assistance in carrying out rescue operations and eliminating the consequences of a natural disaster.

Darchiashvili expressed gratitude for the solidarity and support.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 4. Prime Minister of Azerbaijan Ali Asadov has sent a letter of condolences to Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili, Trend reports.

The PM expressed regret and deep condolences for the reported loss of life as a result of a landslide in western Georgia.

"I wish recovery to the wounded and speedy elimination of the consequences of the natural disaster," he said.

The landslide occurred in the resort area of Shovi in western Georgia on August 3.

Currently, the bodies of six victims have been found. More than 200 people were evacuated from the territory by helicopter.
MONROE  With each sweep of the ultrasound wand across Amber Daviss protruding belly, her diagnosis grew more dire.

She was less than six months pregnant.

Now, suddenly, she faced a risky, immediate birth.

If Davis delivered right away, her daughter would be so premature she would weigh no more than a loaf of bread, with a low chance of survival. But waiting much longer also could prove fatal.

Im real concerned about what Im seeing here, Dr. Edward "Ted" Veillon said as he examined her.

Davis was his 21st patient of the day.

All were women with high-risk pregnancies. And all lived far from maternal-fetal medicine specialists such as Veillon, who flies around the state in a four-seat plane to see them.

Davis, 31, had been admitted to St. Francis Medical Center in Monroe after feeling pressure on her cervix. It was at least 2 centimeters dilated. If her water broke, her baby might die. Her babys umbilical cord was positioned improperly, beneath her head.

Its not a good situation to be in, Veillon told her. You didnt do anything to cause this.

Davis opted to deliver on the spot.

Madison Harper Davis was born at 1 pound, 2 ounces. She was too fragile for her parents to hold her.

Instead, they prayed over her, read to her and watched as she kicked her feet inside a hospital incubator.

She lived for 19 days.

Her loss, one of nearly 200 such deaths that occur every year in Louisiana, reflects a much larger, unrelenting crisis across the state of babies being born too early, too tiny, or from complications their mothers experienced in pregnancy.

See more data, graphics here.

Louisiana has one of the highest rates of infant mortality in the developed world  and it's not getting any better.

In the decade before the pandemic, Louisiana's infants were 65% more likely to die from being born too early or too small than babies in the rest of the country, an analysis by The Times-Picayune | The Advocate of data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows. About 458 babies would still be alive had Louisiana had the same rate as the rest of the country during that time.

By 2020, Louisiana infants were dying at nearly twice the rate of those in other states, a disparity that cost about 47 lives that year.

Their mothers frequently fare no better. Nationally, Louisiana has the fifth highest maternal mortality rate. And 4 of 5 pregnancy-related deaths here are preventable, according to the findings of a state committee that reviews them.

See more data, graphics here.

The toll is bleak across all demographics, but Black people feel a disparate impact. Black infants in Louisiana are 3.6 times more likely to die from premature birth and low birth weight than their White counterparts. And Black mothers are more than twice as likely to die from pregnancy-related causes as White mothers.

While chronic disease and poverty seed the problem, theres also stark evidence that the state is failing on many fronts to address it.

Other states, such as New Jersey and Oregon, are doing far more, offering for example free home visits from nurses for all families with newborns.

In Louisiana, such care is only available for a small percentage of first-time mothers in poverty.

And across the state, a quarter of parishes lack obstetricians or other providers who can handle routine pregnancy care, let alone more specialized clinicians.

Louisiana has the nations highest percentage of births financed by Medicaid, yet pregnant women struggle to find providers who will accept Medicaid because of the states low reimbursement rates.

Louisiana has done little to attract health professionals vital to pregnant women, from maternal and fetal specialists to certified nurse midwives who could fill gaps in care.

Meanwhile, women in the state are not guaranteed paid time off once they give birth.

And amid the national opioid scourge, large parts of Louisiana lack specialized treatment for pregnant women who want to quit using drugs. Overdose is the top cause of death among pregnant women in Louisiana, according to the states most recent review.

Dr. Rebekah Gee, a former state health secretary and a specialist in obstetrics and gynecology, said the plight of pregnant women in Louisiana is far from the norm in the developed world.

We need to have an attitude, she said, that this is shocking and inhumane and unacceptable.

Blitzing across the state as high-risk pregnancies rise

Veillon, 48, started his trip to Monroe one day last month with a sunrise flight and his usual from the St. Francis cafeteria: four slices of bacon, one egg, a biscuit and a Java Monster energy drink.

It was his second blitz across the state that week. He had visited Lake Charles two days earlier.

His team is based at Womans Hospital in Baton Rouge. They take turns flying and driving around the state, from Lake Charles to Monroe, to treat patients who lack access to maternal-fetal medicine specialists. Only a few regions in the state have such providers based in them: Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Shreveport and Lafayette.

Those who live in Louisianas maternity care deserts have significantly higher risks of death during and after pregnancy compared to those with more access.

Veillon hadnt envisioned enjoying obstetric care when he started medical school, but he immediately took a liking to his OB-GYN rotation. Once he delivered a baby, he was hooked.

But the problems he first saw decades ago  while training in Mississippi, the only state that rivals Louisianas poor birth outcomes  have only seemed to worsen.

Maternal mortality rates here have shot up by 135% for White mothers and 93% for Black mothers over the past two decades, according to a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Interactive: Compare infant mortality rates in different parishes, states Louisiana is in the grips of an infant mortality crisis. Babies born here are far more likely to die before their first birthday than those in

Both state and national preterm birth rates, which often portend bigger problems, have been trending upward. Louisianas rate, which already exceeds the national rate by nearly a third, increased by 9% over the last decade. Among Black women, preterm birth rates are 55% higher than those among others in Louisiana. The state has struggled to narrow that gap.

By the time Veillons patients get to him, they have often dealt for years with hypertension, diabetes and other chronic conditions. Two in 5 Louisianans are obese, and a similar share have hypertension. One in 7 has been diagnosed as diabetic.

Until you make a dent in that stuff, I dont see it getting better, Veillon said.

Veillon also sees patients who are at high risk of pregnancy complications because they are so young. Some of his patients are teens or even younger  Veillon has treated pregnant girls as young as 11.

The rate of pregnant women abusing drugs has been rising as well, which often triggers concerns of high-risk pregnancy.

This crisis manifests long before pregnancy starts

When Gov. John Bel Edwards embraced Medicaid expansion in 2016, one hope was that the additional coverage would help ensure women had regular checkups  and thus prevent or control chronic conditions  before conception.

But so far, it hasnt improved Louisianas birth outcomes.

There are many potential explanations. One is that expecting mothers still have trouble finding providers: Many physicians will not take Medicaid patients because they receive far less money for treating them than they do for patients with private insurance or Medicare.

Stacey Langston, 39, was burdened with that reality. She told Veillon her hyperthyroidism had been throwing her off, giving her headaches, panic attacks and overwhelming anxiety. But she hadnt been able to treat it because the only endocrinologist who accepted her Medicaid plan was 90 minutes away in Shreveport.

If you have uncontrolled hyperthyroidism, the odds of you getting pre-eclampsia and needing to deliver early are almost 100%, Veillon told her.

He ordered her medicine.

The sorts of crises that Veillon treats daily  and the tragedies that often go along with them  have not gone unnoticed in Louisiana. Many of his colleagues serve on statewide committees to study perinatal care and infant mortality, while others review all pregnancy-related deaths.

But those efforts have not been enough to cure Louisianas profound infant mortality crisis  or to even bring the state's rates close to national averages.

Lawmakers took some modest steps to improve birth outcomes in their most recent legislative session. They increased reimbursement rates for midwives who can deliver low-risk pregnancies and added doulas, who provide physical and emotional support during pregnancies, to insurance plans.

The state also has expanded postpartum Medicaid, allowing mothers to stay on the health plan for up to a year after giving birth. Previously, mothers who qualified for Medicaid while pregnant were kicked off the rolls 60 days after delivery.

But elected officials have passed up many chances to do more, said Frankie Robertson, who runs the Amandla Group consulting firm and often lobbies lawmakers on maternal and infant health issues.

For example, Louisiana perennially receives an F grade on a report card from March of Dimes, a national nonprofit that advocates for better maternal and infant health outcomes.

People think of this crisis as something thats happening when people are pregnant, but this crisis manifests long before pregnancy starts, said Robertson, whose daughter was born at 28 weeks.

Louisiana simply does not provide enough support for families, she said. Too many employers do not offer paid maternity leave, too many jobs do not pay a living wage and too many families cannot find affordable child care, she said. The cumulative stress and combined effects of those problems show in the states pregnancy outcomes, she said.

For years, lawmakers have questioned why Louisiana fares so poorly. Robertson said the answers have been sitting in front of them.

This is not something thats not within your reach, she said.

Window of danger still open after birth

While the state tracks maternal and infant deaths, near-misses that can result in lifelong damage like hysterectomies and the need for a ventilator are exponentially more common.

Research shows for every maternal death in the country, there are 70 to 80 cases of severe maternal illness at the time of birth, said Dr. Veronica Gillispie-Bell, an Ochsner OB-GYN and the medical director for the state panel that reviews maternal deaths.

In 2018, Louisiana health officials created a program to cut the rates of maternal hemorrhage and severe hypertension in hospitals, and to reduce the disparities among racial groups. Hemorrhages fell by more than 30%, surpassing the programs goal, and there was some success in narrowing racial disparities. But the hypertension initiative was less successful, with rates of hypertension actually rising among Black women.

State officials have also tried to incentivize hospitals to improve their practices. They award a special designation called birth ready to facilities that meet criteria for safe, equitable and dignified births. Out of 45 birthing hospitals in Louisiana, 32 have since received the title.

Gee, the former state health secretary, said theres often too much focus on the short window of time around birth, rather than the periods before and after. She created a startup called Nest Health to provide home visits to families, having seen how many mothers struggle to return for post-birth checkups, both for themselves and their little ones.

The bigger problem we have is the postpartum care access and not going to that, Gee said. Thats where youve got untreated hypertension that leads to stroke and cardiomyopathy and death. Thats where you have violence against women thats not picked up. And thats where you have diabetes thats not picked up and depression thats not picked up.

Tiny babies, massive societal ills

As Veillon treated patients, Dr. Marc de Soler strolled through the unit where many high-risk pregnancies end. He donned a yellow gown and gloves as he reached into an incubator to check on twins whod been born at 28 weeks. They had spent three weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit, or NICU.

De Soler, a neonatologist and the NICU medical director, cannot understand how the infant mortality rates in the U.S. remain twice as high as those in his home country of Spain, which spends far less on health care.

As he sees it, his NICU  which provides the highest level of care in northeast Louisiana  is often simply the landing place for societal ills that are more difficult to cure than intubating a preemie. Newborns are born in the throes of drug addiction; they are born without the benefit of prenatal care; they are born into generational poverty.

Theres always something to do, de Soler said. Theyre not sick just from 7 oclock to 7 oclock.

His team tries its best to keep the babies alive, but there are few resources for the infants they treat once they leave the security of their hospital bassinets.

Babies on Medicaid often cannot get home health visits, though many need extra care once they leave the hospital. De Soler tries to encourage mothers to breastfeed, but organizations that once supplied them with free breast pumps have stopped doing so. For mothers who cannot breastfeed, finding enough donor breast milk for NICU babies is a constant challenge.

Meanwhile, the cost of NICU stays for babies is exorbitant. De Soler constantly fears his department is running over budget.

Even for the babies de Soler and his team are able to keep alive, the danger persists after they leave the NICU. Louisiana has the second-highest rate in the nation of death for infants who are past 27 days old.

Nearly half of those deaths are classified as Sudden Unexplained Infant Death. Such deaths can happen when babies accidentally suffocate in their sleep, though the causes are not always known.

Low birth weight is a risk factor for such deaths, though the state says many can be prevented with safe sleep practices. Those include putting infants to sleep on their backs on a firm, flat surface without any objects like blankets or pillows alongside them.

As de Soler strolled the hallway, Jasmine Sims, 26, cradled her son, Israel. The baby was finally going home after being delivered at just 23 weeks and staying in the NICU for over three months.

Sims bled heavily during her pregnancy and went to two other hospitals before she delivered, with providers at both suspecting she was miscarrying.

The team at St. Francis told her that Israel had just a 30% chance of survival when he was born. He made it, though he needed help: They were sending him home with oxygen and several orange medicine bottles.

His two older siblings had been asking when their baby brother was coming home.

'Our story doesn't stop here'

Madison Harper Davis would wind up in de Solers NICU during her struggle to survive.

She needed several medications to control bleeds, an insulin drip and a drain for pressure around her brain. She was considered both extremely preterm, a title for babies delivered before 28 weeks, and extremely low birthweight, which describes babies under 2 pounds, 2 ounces.

She was barely half that size, and right at the line of viability, having been born at 23 weeks. In the end, the challenges were too much.

Davis said her daughter was a fighter who gave strength to her parents. She said she was determined to turn their pain into purpose.

Our story doesnt stop here, she said. With faith, our story is still being written and in Jesus name, we will have another baby.

Such losses are both a painful and regular occurrence for specialists like Veillon. Not a week goes by, he said, without him or his partners having to tell parents that their baby will not survive or will have a lifelong disability.

The most difficult cases, he said, are those where a pregnancy appears to be OK before taking a sudden turn at the end.

Windy Bosely, a maternal-fetal medicine nurse, who screens Veillons patients before he sees them, takes those cases hard, too. She sends sympathy cards to families who will be delivering stillborn babies, or whose babies will die shortly after birth, telling them shes thinking of them.

Last month, as Veillon peered at his screen during an ultrasound for 18-year-old Kenneday Jackson, he had to deliver two blows. Jackson had come in over concerns from previous imaging. Veillon grazed the ultrasound wand over her and confirmed he saw a bilateral cleft lip.

But as he continued to look, Veillon discovered a second abnormality: The baby had a club foot. He assured Jackson that both conditions were highly treatable, though her baby would require multiple surgeries.

With the foot curved in and the cleft lip, Im just worried theres some kind of syndrome going on with the baby, Veillon said, suggesting genetic testing.

For patients like Jackson, trying to coordinate surgeries for a newborn could be especially difficult. Medicaid would determine which surgeons could reconstruct her babys lip.

Veillon tried to help another patient, Lauren Matthews, avoid a three-hour drive to Baton Rouge for a cystic fibrosis screening. Matthews, 34, and her husband are both carriers for the gene, and they have a 2-year-old with the condition. Veillon explained that with both parents being carriers, their child has a 25% chance of having cystic fibrosis as well.

But Matthews lived in Dodson  an hour from Monroe  and screening kits were sometimes only available in Baton Rouge. Veillon called a provider to line one up for her in Monroe the next week.

Veillon especially enjoys counseling patients, and his own personal experiences help him to understand what theyre going through. He pulled up a chair next to 24-year-old Savannah Gee as she recounted three miscarriages, two at 5 weeks and another at 10 weeks.

Veillon told her that he and his wife had also experienced multiple miscarriages, but went on to have four children. He assured her that nothing in her medical history concerned him about her ability to conceive and carry a baby to term.

While patients often want to know why theyve miscarried, Veillon told Gee that answers can be hard to come by, though he offered to order genetic testing for her and her husband. He encouraged her to keep trying for a baby.

Good luck to you, he said.

Veillon returned to his office and spoke into a recording device attached to his computer, updating his notes on each patient.

No reason to alter timing or mode of delivery, period ... new paragraph, I did express concern about something more global going on, period ... orbits appeared normal, period.

He slung his black backpack over his shoulder and followed Bosely out of the hospital. They climbed into her SUV and rode back to the airport. The clouds in the sky were getting darker, and the little plane was waiting.

Veillon climbed on board at 4:54 p.m. and buckled his seat belt.

He had five days before his next flight. Patients would be expecting him in Lake Charles.

And he had more waiting in Baton Rouge.

Data Editor Jeff Adelson contributed to this report.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 4. The upper limit of the ratio of public debt to gross domestic product for the medium-term period in Azerbaijan has been changed, Trend reports.

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev signed a relevant decree in this regard.

According to the decree, the upper limit of the ratio of public debt to gross domestic product for the medium-term period was increased from 20 to 30 percent.

The "Framework for Updating the Medium- and Long term Public Debt Management Strategy of Azerbaijan for 2022-2025" was defined, following the relevant decree of President Ilham Aliyev in December 2022.
Torridge District Council is shelving its local plan and going back to the drawing board in a bid to come up with something that better fits the needs of residents.

The council wants to change to contend with demands for housing, the rise of home working, and to respond to climate change. It says it will look forward to regeneration and employments prospects which could see an end to deprivation in Torridge.

The current Torridge and North Devon local plan, which guides decisions on future development proposals, runs until 2031 and is due to be revised, but councillors voted to rip it up and start again at their full council meeting this week.

But they will have to convince North Devon District Council to come on board, or they will have to go it alone.

Council leader Ken James (Ind, Milton and Tamarside) said he didnt want to tinker around the edges of the current plan and not be able to change its strategies, but wants to start again completely.

Things have changed since we started work on the current local plan in 2008. We never thought there would be covid, we never thought there would be home working. We have a housing crisis and a climate emergency. This is our chance to deliver a local plan which takes into consideration what our community wants, and not a power down document.

He said things were looking up for Torridge with the new marine innovation centre at Middle Dock, Appledore which had secured 16 million of government funding and Torridge selected as one of 20 locations in the country to get a share 400 million from the new Levelling Up Partnership Programme.

The Northern Devon Futures partnership, which includes the council and Petroc College, is also working to improve the lives of those who live and work in Northern Devon and develop well paid jobs in the marine and renewable energy sector.

Cllr James said Petroc College hopes to become a university in the next 10 years.

We want to keep our young people here to get a first class education and work. At the moment, they have to go away to study and work and come back when they can afford to live here.

With the local plan we can be on the front foot. We know this is a deprived area and wages are low but we want to lift it out of that. We could go it alone but my aim is to ensure we dont and we have a joint local plan with North Devon District Council.

With the Futures project and the Levelling Up funding, there will be some overlapping with North Devon and it will drive the whole area forward. If we are going to succeed we need to work together.

The 'green economy' is expected feature heavily in a new plan, with the evolution of agriculture, green hydrogen, marine technologies, aquaculture, onshore wind, and solar/battery storage.

Cllr Chris Leather (Ind, Northam) said: I have been on the plans committee for the last four years and we have really struggled in certain aspects with some of the policies. There is no point spending thousands of pounds doing a partial review of the joint local plan when we cannot change the policies. We have award winning planning officers here in Torridge  lets get on a make a new one.

Cllr Stephen Harding (Con, Hartland) said: I think we should lead North Devon District Council into the future rather than follow them.

Work on the new local plan will begin this autumn and take 30 months to complete.

Office for National Statistics census data for 2021 shows 54 per cent of households in Torridge are deprived in at least one of the four 'dimensions,' above the average in England and Wales, although there had been an improvement since the previous census. The dimensions of deprivation relates to education, unemployment, long term health problems and overcrowded accommodation. The most deprived areas are Bideford North, Appledore and Northam North, Holsworthy, Bradworthy and Welcome.

Regeneration will begin with Torridge District Councils Appledore Clean Maritime Innovation Centre, the largest ever amount of funding and project investment undertaken in Torridge, which has already received support from globally innovative partners and government agencies such as the National Shipbuilding Office.

The development, due to open in 2025, is expected to establish Torridge and wider northern Devon as a research and development destination for clean maritime technology and support industries.

In addition, government departments will work with Torridge District Council and Torridges Conservative MP Geoffrey Cox to identify ways of facilitating growth and regeneration through the Levelling Up Partnership Programme, which will unlock tens of millions of pounds of investment.

Members of Torridge District Council were told this week that a meeting with Sir Geoffrey is imminent.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 4. Azerbaijan has always supported Pakistan on the Kashmir issue, Pakistani ambassador to Azerbaijan Bilal Hayee said, Trend reports.

The ambassador made the remark during an event dedicated to Kashmir Solidarity Day (marked August 5).

"We highly appreciate Azerbaijan's position on this matter," said Hayee. "Azerbaijan is among the countries, which have openly supported the just cause of Jammu and Kashmir disputes."

"President of Azerbaijan, the government of Azerbaijan have always extended very strong public support. And I want to mention that during the visit of Pakistan's PM in June to Baku, President Ilham Aliyev expressed and reiterated his support, the support of Azerbaijani government for the just cause of Jammu and Kashmir dispute, and we always value that," he expanded further.

He went on to note that today, one of every eight people in Kashmir is a serviceman.

This [Kashmir] is the most unstable territory in the world, he said.

Over the past three decades, Azerbaijan and Pakistan have developed strong interstate relations, which have grown into a strategic partnership. This partnership is based on mutual understanding and cooperation on various international issues.

Relations between Azerbaijan and Pakistan are characterized by close political, economic and cultural ties. Warm and friendly relations between the two countries are based on common values, interests and mutual respect.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 4. President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree on amendments to the decrees of the President of Azerbaijan dated December 30, 2022, No. 3702 "Framework for updating the Public Debt Management Strategy in the Republic of Azerbaijan for medium and long-term periods from 2022 through 2025, Trend reports.

According to the decree, in order to ensure the sustainability of public debt both in the medium and long term, taking into account the needs of the country's economy, until the end of 2025, it is planned to maintain the ratio of public debt (direct domestic and direct external public debt) to GDP at a level below 30 percent of GDP. This requirement has been below 20 percent so far.

In addition, according to the decree, it is stipulated that the ratio of external debt (direct external public debt) to GDP by the end of 2025 should not exceed $10 billion. This requirement was 15 percent (until the end of 2025) before that.

The priority is also to ensure that by the end of 2025 the external public debt does not exceed $10 billion. In order to accelerate the pace of socio-economic development of the country, foreign debt in the amount of up to $5 billion can be attracted to finance investment projects in priority directions, in addition to the return of external public debt.

The indicator of the ratio of this debt to GDP, which is the upper limit of the external public debt, is replaced by the indicator of the upper limit of the external public debt in nominal terms.

The external public debt will amount to $7.1 billion, or 10.7 percent of GDP by the end of 2025. In addition, since along with the repayment of the existing external public debt, external debt can be attracted to finance investment projects in priority sectors in order to accelerate the pace of socio-economic development of the country, these indicators may change.

Moreover, the external public debt will amount to $7.1 billion, or 10.7 percent of GDP by the end of 2025. In this case, the ratio of external public debt to GDP would be maintained at a level below 15 percent by the end of 2025.

It was planned to achieve the goal of reducing the ratio of external public debt to GDP below 10 percent under the next strategy, covering the period from 2025 through 2030.
Migrants wait to be taken by Border Patrol to a processing facility to begin their asylum-seeking process in Eagle Pass, Texas on June 25, 2023. (Suzanne Cordeiro/AFP via Getty Images)

A U.S. appeals court on Aug. 3 decided that a Biden administration regulation for people seeking asylum at the U.S.Mexico border can remain in effect for now.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in San Francisco, voted 2-1 to put a temporary stay on a ruling by a district court judge.

The district court judgeJon Tigar, an Obama appointeeon July 25 found the Biden administration, by cutting off asylum for some illegal border crossers, had violated federal law and international treaties that require the United States to allow anyone crossing the U.S.Mexico border to request asylum.

The judge had stayed his injunction of the asylum policy for 14 days to allow for a possible appeal, which the Biden administration pursued quickly.

The 9th Circuit said on Aug. 3 that the Biden administration can implement the asylum restrictions pending the outcome of the appeal.

The three-judge appellate panel added it would expedite the consideration of the case, with both sides expected to send in their arguments to the court by mid-September and a hearing to be held at an unspecified date.

The Biden administration had argued that its policy was integral to its efforts to maintain order along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Groups Challenge Asylum Policy

The new regulation, which took effect on May 11, denies asylum to illegal immigrants in the United States if they passed through another country without seeking protection there first or if they failed to use other legal pathways to the United States, including by applying online via a government app called CBP One.

The policy does not apply to children traveling alone. It also has some other exceptions.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other groups challenged the Biden regulation, arguing that the asylum policy unlawfully denies asylum to some illegal border crossers. The groups argued that people are allowed to seek asylum regardless of where or how they cross the border.

They also argued that the Biden administrations asylum rule mirrored two previous rules that sought to limit asylum put forward by former President Donald Trump. Those two rules were previously also blocked in court. Judge Tigar had previously ruled against the previous Trump policies.

They also argued that the CBP One government app is faulty and that the migrants are being endangered by being left in northern Mexico as they wait to secure an appointment on the app, which grants migrants a chance to come to the border and seek asylum.

The groups have furthermore argued that the Biden administration is overestimating the importance of the new rule in controlling migration. They said that when the United States ended the use of Title 42 on May 11, it transitioned to Title 8 immigration law, which has much stronger repercussions. Under Title 8, illegal border crosses can be expeditiously removed and banned from entering the United States for five years. Those consequencesnot the new asylum rulewere more important in stemming migration after May 11, the groups argue.

Trump Appointee Dissented

Circuit Judge Lawrence VanDyke, a Trump appointee on the panel, dissented from the panels decision and criticized his two colleagues for keeping President Joe Bidens border policy in place even though the 9th Circuit ruled against the similar Trump-era policies years earlier.

The Biden administrations Pathways Rule before us in this appeal is not meaningfully different from the prior administrations rules that were backhanded by my two colleagues, Judge VanDyke said in his dissent.

This new rule looks like the Trump administrations Port of Entry Rule and Transit Rule got together, had a baby, and then dolled it up in a stylish modern outfit, complete with a phone app, he said.

I wish I could join the majority in granting a stay. It is the right result. But that result, right as it may be, isnt permitted by the outcome-oriented mess weve made of our immigration precedent, Judge VanDyke added, noting, Its hard to shake the impression that something other than the law is at work here.

The other two on the panelJudges William Fletcher and Richard Paez, both appointees of President Bill Clintondidnt issue an explanation of their decision. They only briefly referred to the courts standards for stays pending appeal.

The ACLU could choose to appeal the latest ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, where conservative-leaning justices outnumber liberal-leaning ones by 6-3.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

From The Epoch Times
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BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 4. Azerbaijan condemns Armenias efforts to abuse issues humanitarian assistance for malign purposes, Permanent Representative of Azerbaijan to the United Nations Yashar Aliyev said, addressing the open debate in connection with "Famine and conflict-induced global food insecurity" under the agenda item "Maintenance of international peace and security" of the UN Security Council.

"I would like to start by thanking the USA Presidency for convening this important meeting on the topic, to which Azerbaijan attaches particular importance.

Back in 2021, Azerbaijan contributed to the Councils open debate on Conflict and hunger, by submitting a written statement of the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

The Security Councils relevant resolution 2417 (2018) recognized that conflict can impact food security both directly and indirectly, inter alia by displacing people from land, livestock grazing areas, and fishing grounds, or by destruction of agricultural assets and disruptions to food systems.

Azerbaijan experienced first-hand conflict-driven threats to its food security during nearly 30 years of occupation of some 20% of its territory by Armenia. The aggression caused long-term and severe damage to the food production capacity, with widespread land degradation, pillaged and destroyed water infrastructure and polluted water resources.

In particular, the mismanagement by Armenia of the Sarsang water reservoir, the centerpiece of the water supply network in the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, provoked a humanitarian crisis, as 400,000 Azerbaijanis living in the downstream regions were deprived of water for both domestic and agricultural purposes, as well as caused severe environmental impacts such as soil erosion, dehydration, and desertification.

Those negative impacts remain ongoing to date, along with the continued severe pollution of transboundary rivers, in particular Okchuchay and Araz, flowing from Armenia into Azerbaijan.

Substantial areas of Azerbaijans farmland were spoiled and fragmented by the construction of trenches, tunnels and other defensive fortifications by Armenia.

The decades-long military engineering activities of Armenia have caused significant land disturbance impacting vegetation cover, water infiltration, and surface water flows.

Most disturbingly, Armenia planted over 1.5 million landmines on our territories, contaminating over 3000 sq miles of Azerbaijans land, half of which are previously arable territories.

The refusal by Armenia to disclose the exact location of landmines has already claimed 57 innocent lives and severely injured 247 persons. In addition, this obstructs reconstruction, re-integration, and rehabilitation of those areas, delaying the safe reclamation of the highly fertile agricultural lands vital for food security.

In her message to the Second International Conference on Mine Action held this May in Azerbaijan, UNMAS Director qualified Azerbaijan as one of the countries most densely contaminated by landmines and explosive remnants of war.

As in its resolution 2417, todays Security Council Presidential Statement particularly expressed its deep concern over the serious humanitarian threat posed to civilians by landmines, explosive remnants of war and improvised explosive devices in affected countries, which has serious and lasting social and economic consequences, including regarding food security for the populations of such countries.

Therefore, Armenia must provide, without any delay, the precise and complete information on the minefields.

With regard to the allegations made by representative of Armenia earlier today, Azerbaijan condemns Armenia's consistent efforts to abuse the issue of humanitarian assistance for its malign purposes.

The establishment of the Lachin border checkpoint is an undeniable sovereign right of Azerbaijan, the same as the right of any other State to secure and protect its borders and to guarantee the security of persons, vehicles and cargo movement along the road.

In fact, on 6 July 2023, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has unanimously rejected Armenias request for provisional measures with respect to the checkpoint, essentially ruling that Armenias claims are groundless.

Since the checkpoint began its operation, civilian traffic between the Karabakh Region of Azerbaijan and Armenia in both directions increased significantly. Armenia consistently resorted to provocations to disrupt the functioning of the road and on 15 June opened sniper shooting, as a result of which Azerbaijani border officer was wounded.

Moreover, Armenia has recklessly exploited ICRC-hired vehicles for smuggling of goods, such as electronic devices, micro-chips and other dual-use technologies to supply its illegally deployed armed forces in the sovereign territory of Azerbaijan. This is a blatant violation of international humanitarian law and a serious blow on humanitarian mandate and reputation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Azerbaijans consistent calls on Armenia for cooperation through the border and customs entities to ensure smooth functioning of the road for the movement of persons, cargo and services have remained unanswered.

Azerbaijan has also proposed the ICRC to use the Aghdam-Khankendi route for its humanitarian activities. This proposal was reiterated by Azerbaijan at the meeting between the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia in Brussels organized by the President of the European Council, who in his public remarks encouraged the use of the Aghdam-Khankendi route as an important part of ensuring that the needs of the Karabakh residents are met. The issue was also discussed between the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia in Moscow at the end of July.

However, the road is currently closed with concrete blocks installed by Armenian side not allowing cargo and vehicles, including the ICRCs, to pass.

Such arbitrary denial of humanitarian assistance reveals Armenias sinister intention to create a false narrative of so-called humanitarian crises in the region.

Instead, Armenia has to abide by its international obligations, completely withdraw its armed forces from the territory of Azerbaijan, cease and desist from territorial claims, illegal activities and disinformation, put an end to mine terrorism, shed light on the fate of some 4000 Azerbaijanis who went missing during the conflict, redress the harm caused to Azerbaijan, including to its food security systems and engage faithfully in negotiations on a peace treaty and the delimitation of the border between the two States.

Azerbaijan is firm in its determination to protect its people, sovereignty, and territorial integrity, and is fully committed to the objectives of a peaceful, secure, stable and prosperous region," the statement said.
Catholic Charities Diocese of Gary and Notre Dame Federal Credit Union in Whiting will give out food at Each Chicago Central High School this weekend.

They will provide lunch food and snacks in reusable insulated lunch bags to hundreds of area school children in the Back to School Rally from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday in the gymnasium of the high school at 1100 W. Columbus Drive in East Chicago.

Catholic Charities reached out to us to ask if we would provide the reusable lunch bags for students to use throughout the year, said Jesse Hunt, Director of Commercial Lending for Notre Dame FCU. Feeding bodies and minds of young people is a good investment. We couldnt say no.'"

Catholic Charities Food Pantry volunteers have been packing nonperishable food and snacks for students, Manager Tina Gunnum said.

Catholic Charities Diocese of Gary also provides other services such as homeless prevention, affordable housing, a pathway to U.S. citizenship, emergency assistance, parenting education, financial workshops and a women's care center. The nonprofit is active in Lake, Porter, La Porte and Starke Counties in Northwest Indiana.

For more information, visit Catholic-Charities.org.
HAMMOND  A 41-year-old man convicted in 2021 of firearm and drug-related crimes was sentenced Thursday to 20 years in prison by a federal judge, according to United States Attorney Clifford D. Johnson.

Lamont Coleman, of Gary, was sentenced by United States District Court Senior Judge Jon E. DeGuilio for conspiring to distribute heroin, possessing a firearm as a felon and possessing with intent to distribute heroin. His sentencing hearing was rescheduled numerous times.

In addition to his prison time, Coleman will have three years supervised release, Johnson said.

Coleman ran a heroin trafficking operation out of an apartment building that he owned in Gary, Johnson said. He also owned the house next door, with both properties sharing a common courtyard. During the execution of a search warrants, law enforcement located three loaded firearms, heroin, cocaine, and approximately $19,000 in cash from his residences, according to federal court documents.

Colemans sentence was enhanced for his career offender status based on prior felony convictions for making and delivering cocaine and aggravated battery.

This case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Porter County Multi-Enforcement Group. This case was prosecuted by Special Assistant United States Attorney Patrick D. Grindlay, and former Northern District of Indiana Assistant United States Attorneys Jennifer Chang and Molly Kelley.
The Franciscan Health Center for Bariatric Surgery Olympia Fields in the south suburbs has been recertified as a Center of Excellence.

The Clinical Sciences Institute of Optum designated the health care facility at at 3700 W. 203rd St. as a Center of Excellence bariatric center to reflect that it's "proven to deliver quality specialty care based on objective measures developed with input from the medical community for improved patient safety and health outcomes."

Health care facilities must earn national accreditations at both the facility level and bariatric care levels, demonstrate success with patient safety and attain bariatric-specific quality measures to earn certification. They must meet standards for complications and readmissions for bariatric procedures.

"Franciscan Health Olympia Fields is proud to again be recognized by Optum for meeting the rigorous selection criteria for bariatric surgery," Franciscan Health Olympia Fields Bariatric Medical Director Gerald Cahill said. "We are grateful for the hard work, dedication and untiring commitment of the entire team at Franciscan Health Olympia Fields that has made this achievement possible."

Specialty Physicians of Illinois Director of Operations Sheree Boyd had a gastric band procedure years ago. She learned leaving it in place for too long can cause health problems. Cahill removed the gastric band and performed gastric bypass surgery in a single procedure..

"I was 243 pounds and now I'm down to 134, exceeding my goal of 145," Boyd said. "Now the only pill I take is a vitamin."

For more information or to schedule a consultation, call 708-855-8073.
GARY  Earth Charter Indiana's annual climate leadership summit is coming to Northwest Indiana this fall.

Started in 2016, the summit brings together mayors, city, town, county and community leaders from across the state to discuss climate resiliency. This year's conference will take place Sept. 8 at Indiana University Northwest in Gary.

According to an Earth Charter news release, this year's focus will be on creating regional climate resiliency plans and finding federal funding opportunities. Last year the summit was in Richmond, this is the first time the event will be held in Northwest Indiana. The event is being cohosted by Earth Charter, the city of Gary, the city of Portage, the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission, the Michigan City Commission on Sustainability and IUN.

"As we witness the devastating impacts of the climate crisis unfolding around us, it can be easy to be discouraged. Heat waves, droughts, floods and other extreme weather events are becoming frequent, affecting us all in one way or another," Earth Charter's news release states. "The Climate Leadership Summit is an annual statewide conference specially designed for mayors, city, town, county and community leaders to strengthen our climate resiliency at the local level."

The 2023 climate summit will begin at 9 a.m., Sept. 8 and will end around 5 p.m. The busy day will be broken into multiple different sessions including a youth leader's session and a mayor's panel.

Tickets to the summit are $40 and must be purchased by Aug. 25. The summit is free for all city and county officials and for youth/ students; register at earthcharterindiana.org/cls8.

The night before the summit, Earth Charter and NWI Green Drinks will co-host a free screening of two short environmental documentaries. The films "Shifting Sands: On the Path to Sustainability" and "Liminal: Indiana and the Anthropocene," will be shown at the IUN Savannah Center. Doors open at 6 p.m. and the film starts at 7 p.m., register for the first-come-first-served tickets at earthcharterindiana.org/climate-leadership-summit.

PHOTOS: Restoration efforts at Hatcher Park
Animal rights organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, known as PETA, sent a letter Wednesday to Lake Station Mayor Bill Carroll and the Lake Station City Council in response to the death of eight K-9 dogs that overheated in a truck last Thursday, calling for the Lake Station police to recuse themselves from the investigation into the incident due to a purported conflict of interest between the Lake Station chief and the man who was driving the pups before the incident happened.

The letter alleges Lake Station police hindered staff from the Humane Society of Hobart from immediately tending to the nearly 20 dogs who were being transported from Chicago O'Hare International Airport to a facility in Michigan City when an air conditioning unit in the truck failed. Temperatures rose inside of the truck, causing the dogs to go into distress.

"We understand that under normal circumstances, the Humane Society of Hobart would have taken charge of the scene to ensure appropriate triage, emergency aid, and a professionally conducted criminal investigation," PETA wrote. "However, we were told that the Lake Station Police Department interfered with the Humane Societys efforts, apparently because of an existing relationship between the owner of the dogs and Chief of Police James Richardson."

Police said the driver, who was stuck in traffic, was alerted to the situation when many of the dogs started barking. He exited the interstate and pulled into a Road Ranger gas station parking lot, where he discovered the dogs. Many of the dogs were transported to the Hobart Animal Clinic and Crossroads Animal Hospital in Joliet, Ill. to receive medical care.

According to a press release, a PETA representative who went to the Lake Station Police Department Wednesday was refused police records about the case by the order of Chief Richardson.

Desperate dogs slowly baked inside a death trap box truck, and authorities were apparently more concerned about damaging a personal relationship than about getting them lifesaving care, PETA Senior Vice President of Cruelty Investigations Daphna Nachminovitch said. PETA is calling for the Lake Station police department to step aside and submit to an external investigation into this incident, which failed dogs who relied on them for help.

The Hobart Humane Society released a statement Wednesday, echoing the sentiments made by PETA. They requested an independent investigation and ask that their contract with the city be re-evaluated "immediately." Executive Director Jennifer Webber said in the statement that the Humane Society has a meeting with the City to discuss the requests this week.

Lake Station fire and emergency medical services also responded to the scene. Numerous people stopped at the scene to try and help cool down the dogs.

Nicole Lubarski and her fiance left their house around 8 p.m. for dinner when they saw the commotion in the Road Ranger parking lot. When they passed by the area again, slightly after 9:10 p.m., they could see several dogs inside the gas station's convenience store, so they stopped to check it out.

"I saw all the kennels lined up, and I knew it had to be something bad that happened to the dogs," Lubarski said.

She said people were tending to the dogs inside of the convenience store.

"If they were K-9 dogs for police units, you'd think they'd be handled with a little more care," Lubarski said.

Lake Station police did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday evening.

The Region was under a heat advisory last Thursday as temperatures moved into the early and mid-90s. The National Weather Service warned of heat exhaustion and illness due to high humidity.
Richard O. Simpson, a self-made Republican businessman who as the first chairman of the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission aggressively protected the American public from buying millions of risky goods, died on July 21 in DeLand, Fla., north of Orlando. He was 93.

His death, in a hospital near his home, was confirmed by his daughter Karen Simpson Tweedie.

Mr. Simpson was appointed to the commission by President Richard M. Nixon in 1973, shortly after it was created by a Democratic Congress. He immediately made the agencys work broadly transparent to the public.

He was so assertive that when the surgeon general declared that smoking was a health hazard, Mr. Simpson proposed banning the sale of cigarettes altogether, a prerogative that he later acknowledged was beyond the commissions jurisdiction.

Still, during his three-year tenure, the commission declared some 25 million items unsafe and demanded that they be recalled, repaired or replaced. They included flammable mattresses, TV antennas that could lead to electrocution and pill bottles without child-resistant caps.
For a couple of years after the pandemic struck, there was considerable buzz to the effect that much of the financial industry might leave New York for Miami. After all, state and local taxes on the richest 1 percent are much lower in Florida than in New York  about nine points lower as a percentage of income, according to the most recent report of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (and taxes on the rich are even higher in New York City than in the state as a whole).

With Covid disrupting normal urban life, it seemed much of the big money might focus on the financial advantages and leave the Big Apple.

Some wealthy finance types did move. But the buzz around finance moving to Miami seems to have died down. In fact, the population of Miami-Dade County actually fell between 2019 and 2022.

What happened? Part of the answer is that while New York has lost some population, it is not, despite what many non-New Yorkers appear to believe, a dystopian hellhole. Its homicide rate is only half as high as Miamis, while it has other advantages, such as an extensive mass transit system that Miami lacks.
The College Board announced on Thursday that Florida school districts should no longer offer Advanced Placement Psychology, one of the most popular A.P. courses, the latest skirmish in its battle with the states Department of Education over how to teach race, gender and sexual orientation.

The College Board, the nonprofit that oversees advanced placement courses and the SAT, revoked its support for A.P. Psychology in Florida, saying it would not abide by the states demand to remove a longstanding section on gender and sexual orientation.

The Florida Department of Education has effectively banned A.P. Psychology in the state, the College Board said in a statement.

The Department of Education fired back, accusing the College Board of playing games with Florida students one week before school starts.
The Biden administrations asylum ban is illegal and dangerous, said Anne Peterson, a senior staff attorney at the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies. The courts have repeatedly struck down these policies as unlawful. We urge the administration to stop defending the ban, accept the district courts ruling, and immediately reinstate a fair and lawful asylum process for all people seeking refuge at our nations doorstep.

Still, the decision is a victory for President Biden and his immigration officials, who have argued that the tough new rules are a necessary response to recent surges of people fleeing from countries in Central and South America.

We will continue to apply the rule and immigration consequences for those who do not have a lawful basis to remain in the United States, said Erin Heeter, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security. The rule has significantly reduced irregular migration, and since its implementation on May 12 we have removed more than 85,000 individuals. We encourage migrants to ignore the lies of smugglers and use lawful, safe and orderly pathways.

The two judges in the majority in the ruling  Judge William A. Fletcher and Judge Richard A. Paez, both appointees of President Bill Clinton  did not explain their reasoning. Judge Lawrence J.C. VanDyke wrote that he agreed with their decision but objected because his two colleagues had been harsher when dealing with cases involving former President Donald J. Trump.

In a five-page dissent, Judge VanDyke, a Trump appointee, wrote that the other judges did not give the former presidents administration the same deference when they were considering several challenges to his immigration policies.
Former President Donald J. Trump appeared before a federal magistrate judge in Washington on Thursday, the third time in four months he has stood to face criminal charges.

He pleaded not guilty to allegations that he illegally tried to hold on to power and overturn President Bidens victory in the 2020 election. In June, he was arraigned in Miami on federal charges of mishandling government documents after he left the White House and seeking to block investigators. In April, he appeared in Manhattan to address accusations that he orchestrated a hush-money scheme. He pleaded not guilty to more than 70 charges.

Thursdays appearance was mostly straightforward. Here are some key takeaways:

The conditions of his release will not prevent Mr. Trump from campaigning, but could limit his communications.

It was no surprise that Mr. Trump pleaded not guilty. As in the Miami case, the government did not request bail and did not place restrictions on his travel as a condition of his release. He was not asked to surrender his passport.

Mr. Trump agreed to not discuss the case with anyone he knows to be a witness, except through counsel or in the presence of counsel. The same order was imposed in the documents case.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 4. More 30 conflict-affected Ukrainian children have been delivered to Azerbaijan, Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population of Azerbaijan told Trend.

The children sent to the camp organized by the Social Services Agency under the ministry will be engaged in 14-day rehabilitation activities in Baku, Shamakhi, Gabala, and Shaki.

Professional psychologists will provide emotional stabilization and social integration for the children through individual consultations, group therapy, meditation and yoga sessions, psychosocial training, and master classes.

In addition, English language classes and guided tours of Azerbaijan's historical monuments and museums will be provided for them.

Previously, in June of this year, students from the Irpin Linguistic Humanitarian Lyceum named after Zarifa Aliyeva visited Azerbaijan.

As part of their stay in the capital of Azerbaijan, Ukrainian schoolchildren were taken on a tour of the Old City of Baku - Icherisheher.

They experienced the unique aura of Icherisheher, a place of great historical and architectural significance that impressed the guests from Ukraine with its unmatched beauty and history.
Former President Donald J. Trump returned to Washington on Thursday, rose to full height, lifted his right hand and swore an oath. This time it was not to assume power, but to promise that he would abide by a bond agreement that would allow him to leave the federal courthouse without paying bail or agreeing to any travel restrictions.

Mr. Trumps second federal arraignment seemed on the face of it to be more routine than the first one: last month in Miami after he was indicted on charges of mishandling classified national security documents and obstructing the governments efforts to reclaim them.

He seemed a bit more at ease. And so did the man who has led the investigation that resulted in his indictments, Jack Smith, the normally stony-faced special counsel, who allowed himself a few smiles as he shook hands with F.B.I. agents when the half-hour hearing ended.

But if his second federal arraignment was less novel in a been-there-done-that way, the gravity of the four charges the government has leveled against him gave the proceedings a sense of historical weight not present in the Florida case.
Allies of former President Donald J. Trump have rushed to his defense since he was charged on Tuesday in connection with his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

They inaccurately attacked the judge assigned to oversee the trial, baselessly speculated that the timing of the accusations was intended to obscure misconduct by the Bidens and misleadingly compared his conduct to that of Democratic politicians.

Heres a fact check.

What Was Said

Judge Chutkan was appointed to the D.C. District Court by Barack Obama, and she has a reputation for being far left, even by D.C. District Court standards. Judge Chutkan, for example, has set aside numerous federal death-penalty cases, and she is the only federal judge in Washington, D.C., who has sentenced Jan. 6 defendants to sentences longer than the government requested.

 Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, in a podcast on Wednesday

This is exaggerated. Mr. Cruz is correct that Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, the trial judge overseeing Mr. Trumps prosecution in the case, was appointed by President Barack Obama. While she has gained a reputation for handing down tough sentences to people convicted of crimes in the Jan. 6 riot, she is not the only federal judge who has exceeded prosecutors sentencing recommendations.
Texas A&M University acknowledged on Thursday that top university officials, fearing criticism from conservatives, had made significant mistakes in their failed effort to hire a prominent Black professor to run the universitys journalism program. It said it had reached a $1 million settlement with the professor, Kathleen McElroy.

The university released a report by its general counsel that casts an unfavorable light on the behind-the-scenes discussions over Dr. McElroys hiring, revealing that university officials had pushed for a delay in Dr. McElroys hiring until after the state legislative session adjourned, fearing a possible backlash from conservative lawmakers. Then, following complaints about her hiring from university regents, they changed the terms of her contract.

What had started as an offer of a full faculty position with tenure was reduced to a one-year appointment with no tenure, the universitys report says.

Dr. McElroy, who had run the journalism program at the University of Texas and was formerly an editor at The New York Times, announced in July that she would not take the job, less than a month after Texas A&M had held a public signing ceremony to welcome her, complete with balloons.
The Australia Letter is a weekly newsletter from our Australia bureau. Sign up to get it by email. This weeks issue is written by Natasha Frost, a reporter based in Melbourne.

When Mete Erdogan, 35, first visited New York City as a tourist more than 10 years ago, he was stunned by the number of fellow Australians who seemed to be thriving there.

I remember them talking about how easy it was, he said. I was so impressed that they made it over there, and were able to make a life for themselves, and rent an apartment, and have a whole setup there.

In 2013, he made the leap, moving from Melbourne to New York City to seek his fortune as an illustrator, less than a year after graduating from university.

Mr. Erdogan eventually spent nearly five years in the city, mostly working in advertising, before the draw of his family and of an easier, more Australian life brought him back to Melbourne, where he now lives. (His partner, a fellow Australian, also spent multiple years living in the United States.)
Arthur Dantchik, the American multibillionaire who provided millions to the think tank behind Israels highly polarizing judicial overhaul plan, announced on Friday that he would no longer donate to the organization.

Mr. Dantchik, 65, said in a statement that he would part ways with the Kohelet Policy Forum, which conceived a series of measures to transform Israels judicial system. The proposal has divided the country and led to weeks of protests. Critics of the plan say it will eliminate crucial checks on executive power and move the government in an autocratic direction.

When a society becomes dangerously fragmented, people must come together to preserve democracy, Mr. Dantchik said in the statement, posted to Calcalist, an Israeli news site. I stopped donating to think tanks in Israel, including the Kohelet Policy Forum. I believe what is most critical at this time is for Israel to focus on healing and national unity.

Kohelet did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday. A spokesman for Mr. Dantchik said he would have no further comment.
The companies had also applied for approval to use the drug for major depressive disorder (also called M.D.D.), a much larger potential market. Sage and Biogen said in a statement late Friday night that the F.D.A. had told the companies that the application did not provide substantial evidence of effectiveness to support the approval of zuranolone for the treatment of M.D.D. and that an additional study or studies will be needed, and it added that Sage and Biogen are reviewing the feedback and evaluating next steps. Several psychiatric experts have said the data for the drugs use in treating that disorder is less convincing.

The only other drug approved for postpartum depression is brexanolone, also developed by Sage and marketed as Zulresso. But brexanolone, approved in 2019, requires a 60-hour intravenous infusion in a hospital, carries risks of loss of consciousness and costs $34,000. Sage says only about 1,000 patients have received it so far.

Taking a pill for two weeks is much easier, not requiring a mother to leave her baby for several days. However, the F.D.A. did require the label to include warnings about possible suicidal thoughts and behavior, sleepiness and confusion. The label will also include a so-called black box warning that patients should not drive or operate heavy machinery for at least 12 hours after taking the pill. The pill should be taken in the evening with a fatty meal, the agencys announcement said.

Doctors said Zurzuvae would not be appropriate for everyone experiencing postpartum depression. For those with mild to moderate depression, talk therapy can work well. Dr. Kimberly Yonkers, chairwoman of the psychiatry department at University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, said she would probably not recommend Zurzuvae for patients with longstanding recurrent depression or for somebody who has a severe episode with a suicidal attempt or hospitalization because you dont give them a treatment for two weeks and then stop it.

Appropriate patients, she said, might include people who have not had a complete response to another antidepressant.
Jess Search, a producer on dozens of important documentaries and a catalyst on many more as one of the directors of Doc Society, a nonprofit organization she helped found in 2005 that supports documentary filmmakers, died on July 31 in London. She was 54.

Doc Society said in a statement that the death, in a hospital, was caused by brain cancer. Search had announced last month that she was stepping away from the organization because of her illness.

Search had been a central figure in the documentary scene in Britain and beyond for years. She was gender nonconforming (she used the pronouns she and her but preferred not to use the gendered courtesy title Ms.), and she had a special interest in promoting work by filmmakers from underrepresented populations or that dealt with out-of-the-mainstream subjects.

She was a producer or executive producer on some of those films, like Matthew Barbatos Alexis Arquette: Shes My Brother (2007), about a sex reassignment surgery, and Agniia Galdanovas Queendom, which was released earlier this year and is about a queer Russian performance artist.
In this Arcana Studios 2023 production directed by Sean Patrick OReilly, an orphan named Charlie (voiced by Kiefer OReilly) is trying his best to survive on the mean streets of his city. Just as Charlie is about to get nabbed by the cops for another petty crime, a door opens and a strange figure offers him a quick escape in the form of a magic portal. Charlie hops through, and hes transported to an ancient Chinese kingdom called Sanxingdui. He meets an unlikely group of golden-masked superheroes who tell Charlie they need his help defeating a ruthless enemy set on conquering the kingdom. At first Charlie schemes to help the heroes with the secret intention of taking the golden masks, but lessons are learned and Charlie discovers that money and greed arent the most important things in life. The animation looks a little like a low-budget video game, and the writing and performances are definitely not awards-season worthy, but Patton Oswalt voices a blue ogre named Aesop, Ron Perlman voices Kunyi, and Christopher Plummer, before his death, voiced the character Rizzo. Its a bit of a mishmash, but if your kid is craving swordplay, winged tigers and dragons that look like they mated with a moose, give this one a try.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

Watch it on Disney+.
As the group dined on a vegetarian menu of homegrown squash Parmesan and beet salad, they strategized over how to harness festering discontent and assemble a coalition capable of beating the mayor in the 2025 Democratic primary  an unusual pushback to a party incumbent, especially this early in his tenure.

This is a room full of people who truly believe in the ability to go up against Adams and win, said Cristina Gonzalez, one of the hosts, on Thursday, after word of the meeting leaked.

Mr. Adams will most likely be a heavy favorite to capture a second term.

He remains broadly popular with the coalition of Black and Latino voters outside of Manhattan that sent him to Gracie Mansion. He has already built a campaign war chest that is expected to hit $4.6 million with matching funds, and barring a dramatic reversal, the incumbent mayor would likely enjoy the support of the citys most powerful labor unions.

Evan Thies, a spokesman for the Adams campaign, said in a statement that the mayor had lowered crime and invested billions of dollars in working people and that polls showed he had strong support from New Yorkers.

The fact that these folks would rather play politics in some back room two years before the election, instead of help the mayor help working people, tells you all you need to know about what they really care about: their own power, he said.
Even when fear seems entirely justified, its expression can be hard to understand, inspired by so many variables. This is one of several resonant lessons from Leon Neyfakhs excellent new podcast, Fiasco: Vigilante, which revisits the 1984 case of Bernhard Goetz, who shot and wounded four Black teenagers (leaving one paralyzed) on the subway after one of them demanded money from him and he concluded that he was about to be mugged.

An early episode of the series cites the research of the criminologist Dennis Kenney, who, during those years when violence was so commonplace in the city, surveyed riders across four sectors of the transportation system. What he found was that riders were not afraid in the moment. In fact, a persons chance of being victimized during any single ride was almost nonexistent  .001 percent.

But many assumed they would be mugged or assaulted at some point, and this feeling of inevitable victimization' stemmed from the sense that no one was in charge, that the city was in free fall, which in turn created a kind of incubation space for vigilantism. Three percent of those interviewed in 1984 said that they were carrying a gun, a striking statistic given the strict gun laws of the time.

A poll conducted by The New York Times in January 1985, a few weeks after the Goetz shootings, found that half the citys residents believed that crime was the worst thing about living in New York. Nearly as many felt that it was sufficiently terrible to justify taking matters into their own hands. A majority expressed support for what Mr. Goetz had done. He was ultimately acquitted on charges of assault and attempted murder and sentenced to six months in prison for carrying an illegal concealed pistol.

In the days after the shootings, while Mr. Goetz was at large and the tabloids pumped out day after day of panic-feeding content, the subway vigilante emerged as a folk hero to New Yorkers. After he surrendered to police in New Hampshire and was returned to the city, Joan Rivers sent him a message of love and support at Rikers. Some offered to cover his $500,000 bail (he refused); others suggested that he run for mayor.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 4. The flora and fauna of the Topkhana Forest are being re-examined in Azerbaijan, Vice President of the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan Irada Huseynova said at a meeting of the Working Group on Environmental Issues held in Shusha, Trend reports.

"Preliminary data show that over 2,000 oaks and other valuable tree species were cut down and exported to Armenia during the occupation," she said.

The meeting of the Working Group on Environmental Issues of the Interdepartmental Center operating under the Coordination Headquarters established for the centralized resolution of issues in the territories of the Republic of Azerbaijan liberated from Armenian occupation after the second Karabakh war is held in Shusha.

Along with the work done and current issues, the meeting will also discuss biodiversity in Shusha, management of solid household waste, construction and landfill waste in liberated territories, protection and expansion of green spaces, environmental assessment of Shusha projects, and other issues.

The previous meeting of the Working Group on Environmental Issues was held in the Zangilan district on June 2, 2023.
Karen Pendergrass kept seeing the lanky boy walk by the lunchroom where she taught dance twice a week to eighth grade students in North Philadelphia. He would peer inside, then run away as soon as Ms. Pendergrass made eye contact.

You come peeking in my door one more time and youre coming in my class, Ms. Pendergrass told him. From there, he never left.

For the next 15 years, OShae Sibley danced, working on the side as a delivery man, waiter and cleaner between auditions and performances in Philadelphia and New York, where he moved to further his career. At 28, he was preparing to audition for The Lion King, one of his favorite Broadway musicals.

But on Saturday, Mr. Sibley and his friends made a quick stop at a Brooklyn gas station as they came back from a beach day. They were blasting Beyonce and dancing around the car when a group of about three young men told them to stop and hurled gay slurs at them.
To the Editor:

Re Trump, in Shadow of Capitol, Issues a Not Guilty Plea (front page, Aug. 4):

So, Donald Trump pleads not guilty to fraud and obstruction charges that resulted in violence, death and utter chaos on Jan. 6.

He truly doesnt know what guilt means. Nor responsibility. Nor having an honest reckoning with himself over the conduct he chose leading up to and on that infamous day. He knows only lies, blaming others and outrage.

These are not traits that serve a president of a local board, never mind a chief executive of a large and complex nation battling sophisticated economic, diplomatic and social problems crying out to be addressed.

I hope we never again have enough citizens who fall for a presidential candidate with these major character deficiencies.
Most voters, as weve seen repeatedly, want abortion to be legal. Last August, a Kansas measure declaring that abortion isnt protected by the states Constitution was defeated by an overwhelming 18 percentage points. In the midterms, there were abortion-related initiatives on the ballots in five states, including Kentucky and Montana, and the pro-choice side won all of them. Encouraged by these victories, activists are planning ballot measures to restore reproductive rights in states including Arizona, Florida, Missouri and, of course, Ohio.

Ohio has been trending right for years, but gerrymandering ensures that the State Legislature is far more extreme than the population. As The Statehouse News Bureau, a news organization devoted to Ohio politics, has reported, Ohios voter preference over the past 10 years splits about 54 percent Republican and 46 percent Democratic. Yet under Ohios highly gerrymandered maps, Republicans control 67 of 99 State House seats and 26 of 33 State Senate seats. The Ohio Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled these maps unconstitutional, but before the last election, federal judges appointed by Donald Trump ordered the state to use them.

This August election is sort of a final vote that gives the people any chance to say, at some point we still exert power here, said David Pepper, former head of the Ohio Democratic Party and author of Laboratories of Autocracy, a book about undemocratic right-wing statehouses.

Ohio, you might remember, is the state that forced a 10-year-old rape victim to flee to Indiana for an abortion. Its prohibition on abortion once fetal cardiac activity is detectable  usually at around six weeks of pregnancy  has no exceptions for rape or incest. The Republican governor, Mike DeWine, told The Statehouse News Bureau that even though he signed the law, he thinks it goes farther than voters want, and he urged lawmakers to amend it, though he didnt specify how. But with Republicans in gerrymandered districts more worried about primary challenges from the right than about general election challenges from the center, they have little incentive to respond to public sentiment. Instead, some anti-abortion lawmakers want even stricter anti-abortion laws, and one, Representative Jean Schmidt, has said shed consider a ban on birth control.

The November ballot initiative to make abortion a constitutional right is a chance for Ohio voters to circumvent their unrepresentative representatives. With this August initiative, the Republicans are working to head off the voters by essentially asking them to disenfranchise themselves. Because most people are unlikely to give up their rights quite so easily, Republicans scheduled the vote at a time when few are paying attention. Just last December, Ohio Republicans voted to effectively eliminate August special elections because of their expense and low turnout. But for this election, they reversed themselves.
So the point of reading McMeekins book is to give early Cold War anti-communism its due. What were all those hawks on about, with their fears about Soviet espionage and the influence of communist sympathizers, their desire to have the bomb as a potential weapon against our then-ally Stalin, their dismissive attitude toward Oppenheimers vision of nuclear power as something shared and tamed by international cooperation?

Just this, Stalins War suggests: They saw Stalin clearly. The Soviet leader had always been as predatory as Hitler, invading the same number of countries as Nazi Germany in 1939 and 1940, encouraging fascist aggression against the Western democracies while building his own brutal empire under the cover of neutrality. (That encouragement extended to Japanese as well as German aggression: McMeekin argues that Stalins diplomacy with Tokyo in 1941 helped pushed Japan toward its war in the Pacific.)

Nor was Stalin any kind of naive, unsuspecting victim of Hitlers Barbarossa onslaught, as some historical cliches would have it. McMeekin makes an extended case that Stalin was preparing to attack Nazi Germany when Hitler attacked him, that the two dictators were basically in a race to see who could mobilize to betray the other first  and that the initial Soviet debacle in 1941 happened in part because Stalin was also pushing his military toward an offensive alignment, and they were caught in a mid-mobilization limbo.

Once the German invasion made him an ally first of Britain and then of the United States, the book argues, Stalin consistently had his way with a naive Franklin Roosevelt and a frustrated but weakened Winston Churchill in their negotiations over military strategy and postwar dispositions. And these Soviet machinations benefited from the same mixture of philo-communism among New Deal liberals and outright Soviet espionage that shaped Oppenheimers milieu. The result was a postwar arrangement that gave communism a vast new empire in Eastern Europe and soon enough East Asia, all undergirded by a deep, rapacious cynicism that made the Cold War inevitable.

As I said, McMeekins account is polemical, written as a corrective to other histories and open to counterarguments in turn. I dont think he quite succeeds in displacing Hitlers pride of place as the evil protagonist of 1939-45, and many of the choices that Western nations made in temporarily allying with Stalin seem retrospectively inevitable. Its not surprising that the British and the French in 1939 would fear the dictator with troops on the French border more than the dictator poised to swallow the Baltic States, or that America would prefer a resilient Soviet Union to an all-conquering Nazi Germany in 1941.
I do not wish to idealize the contemporary Supreme Court. It is still a human institution and, as such, subject to human flaws. The recent ethics controversies at the court  whether they involve private airplane flights with wealthy friends or other conduct that is technically legal or was within existing ethics rules  are not the subject of this essay. But my thoughts broadly mirror those of Judge Michael Ponsor, who critiqued the justices sometimes casual approach to potential conflicts thus in The Times: You dont just stay inside the lines; you stay well inside the lines.

I have attempted to describe what the court is not. But to understand how the court can sometimes enrage both liberals and the Trump right, we have to understand what the court is. If the MAGA approach to the law can be summed up as reward friends and punish enemies, consequences be damned, this courts jurisprudence is better summed up as apply the text and original public meaning of the law, consequences be considered.

This is the approach to the law I learned as a young member of the Federalist Society in law school in 1991. It is the approach thats dominated the conservative legal movement since the Federalist Society was founded in 1982. And by taking that approach, the court has made itself one of the last remaining strongholds of pre-Trump conservative philosophy on the American right.

In other words, the best way to analyze the current court isnt through a partisan lens, but rather through one grounded in legal theory, specifically by understanding the tension between originalism and incrementalism. A purely originalist approach (the term textualist is closely related) might interpret the law based solely or principally on its text  or the original public meaning of the text, which often involves a historical inquiry into the understanding of the law when it was passed  and impose a ruling with little regard to broader context or practical consequences.

An incrementalist (sometimes called institutionalist or consequentialist) approach, by contrast, seeks to make narrow rulings and thus avoid disruption; it is respectful of precedent and prefers the nudge to the shove. There is no hard and fast line between these philosophies, of course. Incrementalists can also be originalists, but the former tendency will mean that they prefer to move more slowly, and are more apt to let respect for precedent influence their rulings, even if there is a potential conflict between the courts current jurisprudence and the plain meaning of the text.
It is precisely this behavior, unconcerned with guardrails or rules, unmindful of cause and effect, all according to his momentary whim  an overwhelming, almost anarchic instinct to try to invert reality  that prosecutors and much of the political establishment seem to most want to hold him accountable for. The chaos he creates is his crime; there is, however, no statute against upsetting the dependable order. Breaking the rules  often seemingly to no further purpose than just to break the rules as if he were a supreme nihilist or simply an obstreperous child  is not much of a grand criminal enterprise, even though for many, its infuriating coming from someone charged with upholding the rules.

Many Democrats have come to assume that the dastardly effect of Mr. Trumps political success must mean that he has an evil purpose. During his trials, prosecutors will try to establish that precise link. But that might not be such a trivial challenge. He is being pursued under several broad, ill-defined statutes like the Espionage Act, RICO, conspiracy and obstruction of justice. Without an exchange of money or quid pro quo, proving his crimes will largely come down to showing specific intent or capturing his state of mind  and with Donald Trump, thats quite a trip down the rabbit hole.

His prosecutors will try to use his words against him: among them, his exhortations that arguably prompted the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, his admission  on tape!  that he still had classified documents, his various, half-baked plots about how to game the Electoral College system, his relentless and unremitting insistence that he won his lost election and his comments to his bag man, Michael Cohen, before he paid off Stormy Daniels.

For Democrats, its an explosion of smoking guns.

And yet the larger pattern, clear to anyone who has had firsthand experience with the former president, is that he will say almost anything that pops into his head at any given moment, often making a statement so confusing in its logic that to maintain ones own mental balance, its necessary to dismiss its seriousness on the spot or to pretend you never heard it.

Jack Smith, Fani Willis and Alvin Bragg will try to prove that the former presidents words are nefarious rather than spontaneous, that there has been a calculated effort to deceive rather than just idle talk, a series of crowd-pleasing gestures or cuckoo formulations and that his efforts to obstruct the investigations against him were part of a larger plan rather than just the actions of a bad boy. Id guess that the Trump opposition doesnt much care which it is  nefarious or spontaneous  but are only grateful that Mr. Trump, in his startling transparence, has foolishly hoist himself with his own petard.
We dont know exactly what Trump planned to do if his schemes to overturn the election were successful. We dont even know if he had a plan. But the fact that he surrounded himself with people like Clark suggests that if Trump had actually stolen power, he might well have tried to use the Insurrection Act to suppress the inevitable protests and resistance, which could have killed hundreds (perhaps even thousands) of Americans in an attempt to secure his otherwise illegitimate hold on power.

That this was even contemplated is a testament to Trumps striking contempt for representative self-government itself, much less the Constitution. With his self-obsession, egoism and fundamental rejection of the democratic idea  that power resides with the people and isnt imbued in a singular person  Trumps attempt to subvert the American constitutional order was probably overdetermined. And its not hard to imagine a world in which his defeat was a little less decisive and key Republicans were a little more willing to bend to his will. There, in that parallel universe, Jan. 6 might have gone in Trumps favor, if it was even necessary in the first place.

The thin line between Trumps success and failure is why, despite the protests of conservative media personalities and Republican politicians, this indictment had to happen. There was no other choice. Even if his opponents must ultimately defeat him at the ballot box, it would have been untenable for the legal system to stay quiet in the face of an effort to put an end to the American experiment in republican self-government. Trump is the only president in the history of the United States to try to nullify an election and prevent the peaceful transfer of power. Extraordinary actions demand an extraordinary response.

The criminal-legal system is now moving, however slowly, to hold Trump accountable. This is a good thing. But as we mark this development, we should also remember that the former presidents attempt to overthrow our institutions would not have been possible without those institutions themselves.

Most people who cast a ballot in the 2016 election voted against Trump for president. But in the American system, not all votes are equal. Instead, the rules of the Electoral College gave a small fraction of voters in a few states decisive say over who would win the White House. The will of a majority of the people as a whole  or at least a majority of those who went to the polls  meant nothing compared with the will of a select few who, for reasons not too distant from chance, could decide the election.
He murdered a 97-year-old great-grandmother, but he did not get us all.

ANDREA WEDNER, who had hidden under pews of Tree of Life synagogue with her mother, and was among the survivors who confronted the gunman in a Pittsburgh courtroom on Thursday before a judge sentenced him to death. Page A10.
This transcript was created using speech recognition software. While it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it may contain errors. Please review the episode audio before quoting from this transcript and email transcripts@nytimes.com with any questions.

kevin roose

Im sweaty. Is my sweat showing up on cam?

casey newton

Yeah. The live chat is going wild about it.

kevin roose

[LAUGHS]:

casey newton

Theyre saying, somebody cool this guy down.

kevin roose

Gang, gang. Mmm, ice cream so good.

casey newton

Did you see somebody sent me a video yesterday? Its just like an old German man saying that. Anyways.

kevin roose

I really hope that we become MPC streamers.

casey newton

Oh, lets 

kevin roose

How funny would that be?

casey newton

Mmm, Hard Fork so good.

kevin roose

Hard Fork so good. [MUSIC PLAYING] Im Kevin Roose, tech columnist at The New York Times.

casey newton

Im Casey Newton from Platformer.

kevin roose

And youre listening to Hard Fork.

casey newton

This week on the show  the hunt for the mythical room-temperature superconductor, then the Kids Online Safety Act. It might make teens safer, but will it break the internet in the process? And finally, our favorite game returns  its time for HatGPT.

kevin roose

So Casey.

casey newton

Mhmm.

kevin roose

Its sort of a slow news week out there. Not going to lie.

casey newton

We cant start the opening block of the show by saying its been a slow news week.

kevin roose

Id like to be honest with our listeners.

casey newton

I hope youre just trying to lower peoples expectations so that you can overdeliver.

kevin roose

Yes.

casey newton

OK.

kevin roose

Well, so what I was going to say is that it has been a pretty slow news week in tech except for the possible discovery of room-temperature superconductors. Lets get into it. So Casey, I dont know if youve noticed, but tons of tech people, basically the same people who have been very into crypto and very into AI and tweeting about both of those topics for years, have been obsessing over the past week with this possible maybe discovery of something called a room-temperature superconductor. What do you know about this story?

casey newton

OK. What I know about it is very little. I would not describe myself as a science person. When it comes to matters of material science usually I just think, well, thats none of my business. And if it becomes important to me, someone will tell me about it. But it seems like maybe weve arrived at that point.

kevin roose

Well, we might have arrived at that point.

casey newton

OK.

kevin roose

So I want to bracket all of this discussion that were about to have with a disclaimer that there is still a chance that all of this is garbage, is not real, but 

casey newton

By the way, big theme on Hard Fork big chance that all of this is garbage, but go on.

kevin roose

[LAUGHS]: But I think its really fascinating that this has attracted so much interest in the tech world. People like Sam Altman have been tweeting about it, all these science hobbyists and venture capitalists. A surprising chunk of the internet seems to be suddenly obsessed with superconductors. So I feel like we should talk about what is going on and why these people are so fired up. So, OK, lets start with a little science lesson, Casey. So what do you know about electrical transmission?

casey newton

What I know about electrical transmission is that when you transmit electricity, you lose some of it as it gets from place to place.

kevin roose

Correct. So if you think about electricity moving through a wire, theres a current flowing that experiences friction because electrons bump into vibrating atoms.

casey newton

Yeah, like you know when youre making wine and some of the wine evaporates, and they call that the angels share?

kevin roose

They do?

casey newton

They do. Thats what they call it.

kevin roose

Thats very poetic.

casey newton

Isnt that very poetic? Well, so what youre saying is that theres an angel share of electricity transmission.

kevin roose

Exactly. So some amount of the electricity that you put through a wire is lost. When your phone gets hot when you use it a lot, that is because there is resistance. There is an imperfect transmission of electricity happening, and some of that electricity is being wasted as heat.

casey newton

You know what else its like? Its like, youre ever having a conversation with a romantic partner, and theyre sort of not getting it? Its because 5 percent to 10 percent of what youre trying to say has actually been lost in transit. So theres a lot of parallels for this in our world.

kevin roose

Exactly. So for more than a century, scientists have been very interested in what we call superconductors, which are materials that conduct electricity perfectly with no loss or waste whatsoever. And we have actually discovered some  I say we because I play a huge role in this discovery, based on reading several thousand tweets about it and some Wikipedia articles. So basically, there are materials that if you take them down to minus 320 degrees Fahrenheit, or even colder than that sometimes, they can become superconductors. They transmit electricity with no loss. But thats not really that useful because how many situations do you have where you have the ability to cool something down to these extremely cold temperatures?

casey newton

The only thing that cold in 2023 is the crypto industry. So, very limited use cases for that.

kevin roose

So for the past several decades, scientists have been chasing this dream of a superconductor that works at room temperature, where you could just sort of make a wire out of something and have it be in a device or on a power line, and it would just work and you would have no waste, no loss, in the system.

casey newton

So its like if Silly Putty turned out to be a superconductor. That would be great because its shelf stable. You dont have to do anything to protect it. You just sprinkle a little bit of it on whatever you want.

kevin roose

Out of all the materials you could have chosen as your example, Im fascinated that Silly Putty made it at the top of the list.

casey newton

Well, because thats what I think of as like a vaguely scientific space age material. You know? Its like that was sort of the last great advance in material science was Silly Putty.

kevin roose

Its true. OK, so here is what is happening in the world of material science. Last week, these two academic articles showed up on Archive, which is a platform for what they call preprints, which are basically things that have not been peer reviewed, but that people can go and look at. And one of them had the sort of offputting and academic title, Superconductor PB10XCUXP0460

casey newton

Wait, Kevin, thats my Hulu password.

kevin roose

[LAUGHS]: Showing Levitation at Room Temperature and Atmospheric Pressure and Mechanism. The other one had a much better  some social media editor got their hands on this one. And it had an attention grabbing title called, The First Room Temperature Ambient Pressure Superconductor. There we go.

casey newton

Now thats a preprint title.

kevin roose

Now were cooking.

casey newton

Yeah.

kevin roose

So both of these preprints came from a group of researchers at the Quantum Energy Research Center in Seoul, who claimed to have identified what they call LK-99, which is a room temperature ambient pressure superconductor, basically a material that can work as a superconductor not only at room temperature, but in sort of normal pressure situations. This is this holy grail that researchers have been chasing for decades. And whats also really unusual about this is that their sort of process seems strangely simple. Scientists have sort taken for granted for many years that if we ever did discover one of these room temperature superconductors, it would involve some crazy rare earth metal or some process that made it very hard to produce.

casey newton

Yeah, its like whenever they discover a new element of the periodic table, its like theyre bouncing 45 lasers off of these  or met inside of a super collider, right? And it only exists for 0.1 seconds. Thats how we make new things in this world.

kevin roose

Totally. And actually, a funny story. So do you remember the first Avatar movie?

casey newton

Ill never forget it.

kevin roose

There was this thing called unobtainium. Unobtainium was a room temperature superconductor. And it cost trillions of dollars. It was the most valuable material on the Earth, which is why they had to go to Pandora to get it.

casey newton

And wipe out the Navi.

kevin roose

Yes.

casey newton

Yeah. Wait, I mean, how far ahead is James Cameron thinking?

kevin roose

That man is living in the year 3,000.

casey newton

What a year hes having, between the superconductor and the submersible stuff.

kevin roose

Yeah, so we assumed that this would be very expensive to produce if we ever found it. These Korean researchers, they appear to have done this with very conventional processes. It seems almost too simple.

casey newton

Now can you say anything about what these materials are or what the process  like, Im trying to imagine this LK-99. Can I hold it in my hand? Is it in a vial of some sort? Is a Bunsen burner involved? Whats happening here?

kevin roose

Well, Im glad you asked, Casey. So it turns out that this recipe that they basically put in this paper includes fairly common chemical elements, things like lead, sulfate, copper, and phosphorous. They go through the step-by-step process. It involves mixing things in a ceramic crucible, heating things in a furnace at 725 degrees Celsius.

casey newton

Now that is hotter than your oven will typically go at your home.

kevin roose

It is, yes. Yeah, youre going to need one of those fancy pizza ovens to replicate this in your home. Youve got to mix some lanarkite with some CU3P, things that I definitely know what they are. And eventually, you sort of mix all this stuff together, bake it at a really high temperature, do a few more steps like this, and then it turns into a superconductor. So the other fun thing about this is that these researchers, in addition to putting up this paper with this sort of recipe in it, they also show off a video. Now, can I show you this video?

casey newton

Yeah, Ill see it.

kevin roose

Can you see this video? OK. Ill play this video for you. And I want you to describe what youre seeing in this video.

casey newton

OK. There is a sort of metallic disk, and some sort of material has been placed onto it. It looks kind of like a little  like a chip, almost.

kevin roose

And its floating.

casey newton

Oh, it is floating.

kevin roose

Its floating. A little bit of it is touching, but its floating.

casey newton

Yeah, it looks almost like a magnet. And so what were looking at, that is LK-99.

kevin roose

That is LK-99. So 

casey newton

OK, so it is actually something  you could hold it in your hand.

kevin roose

Yes, so its a little complicated, but basically, if something is a superconductor, it produces something called the Meissner effect. Now were getting into 

casey newton

Can I just say, every week youre asking me about, have I ever heard of this effect or this conundrum or this postulate? And its become one of my favorite things of the show. So anyway, yeah, please tell me about the Meissner effect.

kevin roose

So when something is a superconductor, basically, it levitates. When exposed to a magnet, when exposed to a magnet, it hovers above the magnet. And this is the principle behind sort of Maglev trains and things like that. So this video that these South Korean researchers put out shows a little pellet of LK-99 kind of expelling a magnetic field, which they say is sort of a telltale sign of superconductivity. So that is the claim, that these Korean researchers have figured out this holy grail in material science. And these papers, this claim by this group of Korean researchers, has totally lit this particular corner of the internet that I am in on fire. Theres a subreddit called r/Singularity, which is usually talking about AI and scientific progress and stuff, which has just been totally taken over by posts about LK-99 and videos of people claiming to replicate these findings and discussions of what the implications could be if this is real. Theres actually been a prediction market about whether this experiment will be replicated.

casey newton

And what are people saying?

kevin roose

Well, right now, on Manifold Markets, so the question that people are betting on is, will the LK-99 room temp ambient pressure superconductivity preprint replicate before 2025? And right now, the market says that there is a 36 percent chance that this will happen.

casey newton

OK, so a significant chance, but the betting money is still against it.

kevin roose

Well, yes. Researchers are sort of  Im saying researchers, but most of the people betting on this stuff 

casey newton

Degenerate gamblers.

kevin roose

Degenerate gamblers believe that there is a 36 percent chance that this will replicate in the next two years. In addition to the degenerate gamblers, there are also just a ton of Discord channels and Telegram channels where this is being discussed. And on Twitter, these people with previously very small presences have just been gaining tons and tons of followers because theyre doing all these threads about how LK-99 will change everything, and heres the investment strategy that you need.

casey newton

Heres how you can use LK-99 to advance in your career.

kevin roose

Right, right, exactly.

[laughing]

Right, the LinkedIn thread boys have arrived. Its sort of just this vigilante science movement that has cropped up online, not only to follow along with whats going on, but just to speculate about what it all means. And Im sure youve seen these sort of experiments where people are trying to recreate this thing, to replicate the results of this experiment. Theres at least 

casey newton

Wait, wait, wait. Is there like a viral TikTok challenge or something?

kevin roose

[LAUGHS]: Sort of, almost. There is a guy who has been live streaming his attempt to replicate LK-99 on Twitch.

casey newton

Thats amazing.

kevin roose

Theres another  this one, Im really obsessed with. There is an account on Twitter, Iris_IGB, who is like a Russian scientist with an anime girl avatar, who claims that she is making her own samples of LK-99 in her kitchen.

casey newton

Wow. So she does have an oven hot enough.

kevin roose

Well, it may be that she has actually modified her oven in some way that is extremely unsafe to be able to get it to these high temperatures. And shes not following along with the exact instructions laid out in this Korean preprint.

casey newton

Well, look, if youre making LK-99 at home, part of the fun is putting your own spin on it.

kevin roose

Exactly.

casey newton

A little cumin, a little garlic powder here. You know, who needs to measure?

kevin roose

Basically, this has become like a folk science project that the sort of internet scientists and sleuths are throwing themselves into because in their minds, this would be a game changing innovation if it were actually real. And it has sort of become a moment where the buttoned up world of white lab coat material science sort of merges with the weird fandoms of the internet and makes this weird and crazy thing.

casey newton

I mean, material scientists must be so excited that the spotlight is shining on their industry, and theres now a wellspring of people rising up to learn about what they do.

kevin roose

I would say yes and no. I mean, the materials scientists that I have seen reacting to this are sort of like, we have a process for replicating things like this. There is a scientific method. Like, we need to 

casey newton

Theres a woman in Russia shes got an oven. We got to get some time with her.

kevin roose

[LAUGHING]:: So theyre basically like, lets just before we get too excited, before we start proclaiming that our new technological utopia of superconductors has arrived, lets actually check out the science and make sure it works. Now you may be asking yourself, why does this matter?

casey newton

That was exactly what I was asking myself.

kevin roose

So if this is true, it is a potentially transformative innovation because what you could do, if you actually had a room temperature ambient pressure superconductor, is, you could replace all the power lines in the world with this material, and all of a sudden, your whole energy grid gets more efficient. You could also have vastly better things, like charging. Your devices could charge almost instantaneously. They wouldnt get hot when you use them too much. It would also, apparently, be a very big deal for things like quantum computers, which Ive been on the record on this show saying, I think quantum computers are fake.

casey newton

But maybe this will make them real.

kevin roose

But maybe this can make them real. And basically, this would be a huge breakthrough that would mean that essentially all of our electrical infrastructure could be rebuilt in a much more efficient way.

casey newton

Wow. So that would be, obviously, hugely consequential. Im sure we would be talking about that a lot more on the show, but my assumption is because  well, everything that you described, Kevin, it frankly sounds a little bit too good to be true.

kevin roose

It does. And so one of the interesting things is that even though these preprints are going viral on the internet, and actually, there are some scientists who do think that we should be pursuing trying to confirm these findings, there are scientists in some of the relevant fields who are not as excited. Theyve got misgivings about the data, the way it was presented. Ive seen some going as far as to say that these preprints are not serious. And basically, we shouldnt be paying attention to them. So in general, I would say that the scientific community is approaching these findings with curiosity, but also a lot of skepticism, which is understandable because there hasnt been a successful replication of these findings from a reputable lab. And there have been several other instances in recent years, including one just this year, of scientists claiming to have identified a room temperature superconductor, and then later having to walk their claims back.

casey newton

Now heres a question. Have we asked ChatGPT whether this is a real superconductor?

kevin roose

[LAUGHS]: I did ask ChatGPT and Claude to analyze the LK-99 research and tell me whether they thought it was legitimate or not. They have no idea. Theyre just making stuff up. So lets just stipulate what weve stipulated, which is that this may be bogus. This may not be real. It is fascinating to me how the internet has latched onto this.

casey newton

And look, I mean, I like this part of the internet, right? Like, people coming together around something that could be positive, you love to see it. There was a time when average people did not have access to preprint papers on the internet, right? You had to have an academic library access, something like that. Now, with Archive, there is so much research available to people. And yes, it is not peer reviewed, which means theres a lot more stuff out there that isnt going to hold up under scrutiny. But it gives access to average people who might have an interest or a background in it to say, you know what? Lets tear this apart. Lets see what we can make of this.

kevin roose

Yeah, lets crank up the old oven, and lets start making some LK-99 in the kitchen.

casey newton

Now, is it dangerous to make LK-99? Do we need to put like a content advisory on this?

kevin roose

Yeah, I mean I would say, I am not going to be trying to fabricate my own LK-99. I cant even bake sourdough. So Im not going to be attempting this in my own kitchen. I would also recommend that our listeners, unless you are a material scientist or Russian anime girls, not try to do this at home. But I also think this is exciting. I hope this is real. I want to believe. I think it would be very exciting. I think we do need scientific breakthroughs. And I actually think it is good for people to be sort of interested in this stuff at a citizen level, right? I want kids growing up thinking, I want to discover a superconductor, because that is the kind of thing that actually could make our world better. At the same time, the other side of this that makes me slightly nervous is that when you do have all of these sort of citizen scientists on the internet looking at preprints and doing experiments in their kitchens, I also think that undermines trust in the scientific establishment. And Im old enough to remember the long ago year of 2021, when a bunch of people on the internet got really excited about these bogus miracle cures for COVID, right? They were looking at the preprints, showing that maybe ivermectin was the cure for COVID. Maybe hydroxychloroquine was the magic bullet that was finally going to prevent this awful pandemic. And the same kind of phenomenon emerged where, on very little evidence, with very little support from the scientific establishment, these sort of renegade Twitter scientists just started getting all kinds of clout for making these outlandish  and it turns out completely false  claims about these COVID cures. And it just really did set us back as a country and as a society. So Im wondering, do you think that the positives of this kind of citizen engagement with science outweigh the negatives?

casey newton

I think so. I mean, maybe we need to develop better filtering mechanisms. I dont think the issue was necessarily that people wanted to study whether ivermectin could be helpful. It was more that after there started to be evidence that it wasnt, Joe Rogan still had on a controversial doctor saying, actually, it cured my COVID or whatever. So I think its much more about how we direct attention to people after we have learned that what they were saying was probably not true. The scientific process is always going to be full of people getting things wrong, right? The whole scientific journey is this very iterative path. And theres just going to be a lot of stuff that isnt true that we learn along the way. So what I would say is, basically, no, Im not worried about a bunch of people getting really interested in science and doing experiments and doing analysis, because the alternative is watching Bravo or playing Fortnite. You have some spare time? You want to do science? Do some damn science.

kevin roose

I dont know. See, I want to agree with you because I want to open up science to the masses. I want people to be interested in it. I even want people to be trying weird stuff, as long as its safe, in their own homes. But I would just say, ask the immunologists and the public health officials during COVID if they would rather have done their response in a world with no social media. And the answer that you may have gotten from them is yes, that they actually do feel like social media and the citizen interest and the preprints and the mass availability of not only good information about the virus and the responses to the virus, but a lot of bad information, actually did make their jobs and their lives harder, so.

casey newton

Thats true, but there was also a point where that same establishment was saying, hey, dont bother wearing a mask  its not going to help. Right? And it was people on social media saying, this doesnt make any sense to us.

kevin roose

Right. So Casey, weve been very careful and sort of responsible in talking about this. But 

casey newton

Incredibly responsible.

kevin roose

I just want to ask you the question. Do you think this is real? Do you think the rocks float? Do you think LK-99 is real? And do you think that we are all going to be riding around in Maglev trains and charging our phones in two minutes?

casey newton

Kevin, I have no idea. Like, absolutely not. People probably wonder, why do people start a podcast? Its so they can sound smart talking about things. I cannot sound smart talking about this. Like, everything that youve just said, I would have probably gotten a C minus in if I had to take an exam in it in high school physics.

kevin roose

Yeah, I mean, I feel the same way. I am by no means an expert on this topic. But I did spend the vast majority of the past couple of days learning about superconductors, which is not something 

casey newton

So after your two days of research, youre a materials expert.

kevin roose

Yeah, I am now an expert. Im ready to be a thread boy. I am 

casey newton

I like that youre like, its so dangerous when the public embraces these new scientific trends and spouts off at the mouth, but that said, after 48 hours of Wikipedia, Im prepared to make my statement.

kevin roose

Except for me.

casey newton

Yeah, except for you.

kevin roose

My favorite tweet about this, by the way, was from someone called India Venom, who said, if LK-99 proves to be a replicable superconductor, then it may become possible to have two or more tabs open in Chrome without plugging your laptop in. [CHUCKLING]

casey newton

And my favorite tweet about it was the person who said that the only superconductor they knew was Lydia Tar.

kevin roose

[LAUGHING]: [MUSIC PLAYING]

casey newton

When we come back, the controversy around a new bill that backers say will protect kids, critics say could break the internet. Kevin, its time to talk about a bill sitting up on Capitol Hill. Have you heard of the Kids Online Safety Act?

kevin roose

Well, I had not. And then you told me that you wanted to talk about it on the show this week so I studied up. So I now know just enough to be dangerous about the Kids Online Safety Act. And Im excited to talk about it because I think it actually is quite important.

casey newton

Yeah, well, one of the things weve talked about over the past few months is how nervous we ought to be about the effects of the internet on children and mental health. There is a mental health crisis among young people in this country. And this year, the surgeon general issued an advisory saying that social media use can lead to bad mental health outcomes for some kids. So when you have a finding like that, the general thing you want to see is Congress to do something about it, right? You want the lawmakers to come together and figure out, OK, well, if theres some sort of harm here, how can we mitigate it? And one of the things that Congress is trying is this Kids Online Safety Act, KOSA. KOSA is, I think, how people are referring to it online. You may see that if youre browsing the internet. And what makes it interesting for our purposes is, one, last week, lawmakers voted to send it to the floor, but two, unlike almost all of the other attempts to regulate big tech over the past half a decade or so, this one has a lot of co-sponsors, I believe 43 co-sponsors in the Senate.

kevin roose

So this could actually happen. This could actually become law.

casey newton

It is a bipartisan group that is rooting for it. And so I think its just kind of time to take a look at what it does because in the end  and well get into this  I think this bill could stop us from being able to use the internet in the ways we want to.

kevin roose

Right, and I wanna also say that KOSA, this bill, appears to have crossed some threshold where people actually know what it is and care about what it is. Ive been seeing TikToks where people are talking about their takes on this bill and how it would affect the internet. And it sort of feels like  do you remember when FOSTA and SESTA, and before that, SOPA and PIPA were these other bills that were like, lots of people started caring about them all of a sudden and writing angry letters to their congresspeople. And it sort of became a mainstream-ish concern. And that feels like its happening with KOSA.

casey newton

Also, dont FOSTA, SESTA, SOPA, and PIPA sound like a Norwegian family? Just like a beautiful, beautiful family.

kevin roose

[LAUGHING]:

casey newton

But anyway, so what would this bill do? One of the big pillars is that the bill says that platforms will now have what they call a duty of care to prevent and mitigate various harms. And those harms include mental health disorders, eating disorders, bullying, harassment, sexual exploitation, drugs, deceptive marketing practices  all things that we can agree are bad, right? Like we dont want minors to be exposed to these things.

kevin roose

Correct, yeah. But what does duty of care actually do? It sounds good, and you want the platforms to feel a duty to care about this stuff. But is that like a legal phrase?

casey newton

It is, but youve hit on what is the real challenge here, which is that what this law would ask platforms to do is to guess in advance which speech on their platforms might harm people in the future. And thats just extraordinarily difficult to do, right? Some kids might see eating disorders content and develop an eating disorder. Other kids might see that content and think, oh, gosh, that seems like a really bad thing. Ive been educated about this thing, and I am going to avoid it. The platform is not going to be able to predict that in advance. And one of the real issues here is the way that this law takes this one size fits all approach to trying to protect teens when kids are individuals, and they have all sorts of circumstances that may inform how they react to content they see online.

kevin roose

So it basically opens up legal liability for platforms. They can be sued if minors encounter certain types of harmful content on their service that leads them to do harmful things.

casey newton

Yeah, thats right. It empowers the Federal Trade Commission to take action against these platforms by forcing them to change in some way. And then it also lets state attorneys general sue these platforms if they feel like any of their residents have been harmed.

kevin roose

So lets put a pin in that because I think that is really important. And thats something that I imagine well come back to because that is one of the pieces about this that worries me. But theres also other stuff in this KOSA bill. So what else does this bill do?

casey newton

So the other big thing is that, well, if youre going to try to hold platforms accountable for their effects on young people, you need to know who on the platform is a young person. And you need to mandate somehow that platforms identify young users on their platform, right? If you want to protect them, you have to know who these users are. When this bill was first being discussed, it required the platforms to verify the ages of their users. And this has a lot of privacy harms for average people, right? Because teenagers and adults use the same websites, in many cases. And so that doesnt just mean that if youre a kid, youre going to have to prove that youre 17 in order to access some website. It means that all adults are going to have to prove that they are adults to access the websites that they are already using. And how are they going to do that? Well, we only have so many easy ways to verify our identity. We have drivers licenses, but then how many private companies do you want to have to upload a full copy of your drivers license to? So Congress gets a lot of criticism for this measure, and they come back and essentially, they just make it more vague. And they say, essentially, well, to the best of your ability, platforms, you need to guess a users age. But the very strong implication is that were going to put pressure on you to know the ages of your users. And if youre serving up content that we think is inappropriate for younger users to see, then you are legally liable. So they moved from this very explicit thing, which was bad, to this kind of vague, wink, wink, nudge, nudge.

kevin roose

Right. Another piece of the KOSA bill that I found interesting is this idea of parental controls. From what I understand, and correct me if Im wrong, but the bill basically says that if you are a platform that is used by minors, you have to build in parental controls so that parents can say, my child can only interact with this app or this service in these ways. You can turn off things like messaging. You can limit their time in the app. Basically, the controls that you would get over something like Netflix for your kids account. All services with minors on them have to have those built-in protections. And to me, that actually sounds like a reasonable idea, but there are people who are very upset about this. So why is that?

casey newton

Well, I think the main reason is that there are going to be some kids, particularly in minority groups, who are going to be seeking content that they dont necessarily want their parents to know about. And look, I agree with you. I think parents should obviously have a lot of control over what their kids are seeing, particularly at younger ages. But once youre 14, 15, or 16, I do think you have some right to autonomy. And if you are a young LGBT person, you want to connect with other folks like you online. And you have parents who are very anti-LGBT. That could potentially put you at risk. And one of the points in that Surgeon Generals advisory was that a lot of these same kids can benefit greatly from finding that community online. It can actually improve their mental health. And so the danger is that were going to overpolice what is on the phones of teenagers in a way that will make some of them less safe.

kevin roose

I can see that. That makes sense. So lets go back to this piece about the FTC and state attorneys general being able to go after platforms and content providers on the internet over this sort of harmful content because this is an area where I actually do think the criticisms of this bill make a lot of sense to me. So just explain what that means and how this could be weaponized.

casey newton

Sure. So let me tell you a scenario that I think is extremely likely to happen if this law were to be passed. The Heritage Foundation is this right-wing group. They will essentially lobby for someone to sue the platforms for exposing minors to content involving transgender people. And in the view of the Heritage Foundation, that is a harm for a young person to know that trans people exist. And so they will go out and they will find a Republican attorney general. And that attorney general will sue the platforms, saying you have exposed the children of this state to this harmful content. And then that will become a big legal case, right? And well, you might be saying that will probably be thrown out. This clearly seems like an unconstitutional restriction on speech rights. But you have to remember just the chilling effect that this sort of thing has on these platforms. These are corporations. They are incentivized to avoid litigation, to avoid negative headlines. They want to avoid being in these kinds of fights. So it might not take that many of these attorneys general to come forward and to file these lawsuits before these platforms just really start cracking down on the kinds of things that you can say online, right? So the overall effect of this, even though I do think that there are some good intentions here to protect children, to address this mental health crisis, I really do think that the end result of it is, its going to be harder for you and me to discuss things online. Its going to be a restriction on our speech rights. And there are just a lot more of us adults than there are of children.

kevin roose

Right, and I also think theres a big difference between a 13-year-old and a 16-year-old. I remember when I was 16, yeah, I was interested in looking at stuff on the internet, some of which my parents probably wouldnt have approved of, right? It was not all puppies and rainbows and homework assignments. And I think thats OK. And I think that if I had lived in a world where this bill was in effect, it still would have been possible for  I would have found a way around it because I was a little hacker kid, and I loved finding ways around the restrictions on my schools internet, for example. But I think it would have just been a deterrent. And I think ultimately, that would have been bad for me. I do think there is a difference in emotional maturity between a 13-year-old and a 16-year-old. At the same time, you and I have talked on this show many times about how much of a minefield social media especially is for young people and how harmful it can be. And I do want Congress to do something about that. The problem is, when you allow the government to police speech on internet platforms or to go after tech companies for making certain types of content available, you also enable the kind of speech restriction and chilling effects on other types of content. Its hard to come up with a bill that allows for education about eating disorders on social media that does not also allow attorneys general to try to take down content about what they called, quote, gender ideology, or trans people, essentially.

casey newton

Yeah, I agree with you. One place I would like to see the government act is just to invest in more research about this. I think that while there is a growing body of research around the questions of teens and social media, I dont think that we have much that is particularly conclusive. And it just makes me worried that we dont fully understand the problem here. It also definitely seems the case that some kinds of content are harmful for some people and just totally innocuous to others. And I just think its really hard to design laws around that. And I dont want to be the person that says like, well, because this bill has one flaw in it, we have to all throw up our hands and do nothing. But I dont know. Take a step back. There is a real war on speech in this country. Look at what is happening in the libraries of this country. Look at what is happening in the school curriculums in this country, right? Republicans are trying to just eliminate vast amounts of speech from the public square. And so when Democrats team up with those same Republicans to try to protect kids and Im sort of putting that in air quotes, but the main effect of that is its just going to be harder to talk politics online. I think you want to be really, really careful about that and ask whether theres any other path to get to protecting those kids.

kevin roose

I mean, I think what the designers of this bill did right is call it the Kids Online Safety Act.

casey newton

Oh, yes.

kevin roose

I mean, if you just say that something is protecting the children, its very hard to argue with that. And actually, Joe Biden himself came out recently and urged Congress to pass this bill because something called the Kids Online Safety Act, if youre a congressperson or a lawmaker who doesnt study this stuff for a living, you just say, yeah. Whos against protecting kids on the internet? I will say, after reading the full text of the proposed bill, there are a couple parts of it that I actually thought were good ideas. And so I think we should call that out in the interest of fairness. I dont think this is all bad. There was a part about transparency and allowing researchers access to data from the platforms about how minors are using their products.

casey newton

Im very into that.

kevin roose

I think thats a good idea. I think limiting data collection and ad targeting aimed at minors is a good idea. And I do like this parental controls thing. I mean, one of the things, my kid is not of internet using age yet, but when he is, I will want to know what he is doing on the internet for some amount of time. When hes 16, maybe Ill care less. But when hes 11, 12, 13, 14, that is going to be information that I want, and I will want easy and sort of intuitive ways that are built into the systems themselves to be able to see and control what hes able to do. So I actually think that is a good idea. I think that should be limited to platforms above a certain size. I mean, one thing that you typically see in internet regulation bills is that there are sort of rules that kick in only after you have 50 million users or 100 million users. To my knowledge, this KOSA bill does not do that. So a platform with 50,000 users would have to follow the same rules as Facebook and Instagram, which just seems burdensome for the smaller companies.

casey newton

Mike Masnick has this great blog called Techdirt, actually profiled in the past week in The New York Times by Kashmir Hill  really great story. And hes been writing a ton about KOSA. It very much shaped my own thinking. And one of the things hes written about is, I dont want to have to collect age verification information from everyone who wants to come read my blog, you know? But that is the risk here, that just people, honest entrepreneurs like Mike and myself, just trying to run little websites, its like, well, you got to prove that youre 14 to read my little blog about tech policy? It just feels silly.

kevin roose

But when Platformer does hit 100 million subscribers, I think that should be subject to just excruciating amounts of regulation and compliance. And 

casey newton

Look, I already have to deal with the California Franchise Tax Board, and trust me, thats more than enough torture for any one person.

kevin roose

[LAUGING]:: OK, so in conclusion, I think were both agreed that KOSA, as it is currently written, is not a great example of internet regulation, and that it actually poses some real risks if it were to be passed.

casey newton

And I want to say one more thing, which is there is a kind of magical thinking, and it goes something like this. If we could just pull the plug out of the back of Facebook and TikTok and YouTube and all these other social platforms, the world would be restored to a pristine state. Our politics would be healed. Mental health issues would disappear. And wed just sort of be living in utopia. And I just think that the evidence shows thats probably not the case. In the past week, we saw four big studies released, and this was a bunch of researchers whod gotten access to data from Facebook during the 2020 election. And they tweaked peoples newsfeeds in various ways to show them more politics or less politics, or were going to show you reshares or were not going to show you reshares. And the big question that they took into that was, well, can you affect peoples political beliefs based on what theyre seeing in the newsfeed, right? And thats the spirit of so many of these regulations, is that what is in your timeline is destiny. What do they find? Very small effects, for the most part. Now, these studies are limited in some ways. They have their flaws. We need to see more of them, and thats kind of a separate conversation. But when I see that sort of thing, I apply the lesson to something like KOSA, which is do not believe for a second that if you just change the content on TikTok, that the teen mental health crisis is going to disappear. These are situations that there are just so many connected systems here. And while I hate that argument, because it feels like what Im really telling people to do is to throw up their hands and do nothing, I also dont want people to get away with getting rid of a bunch of speech on the internet in this phony pursuit of a utopia that is just never going to arrive.

kevin roose

See, I disagree. I dont think it is a phony pursuit of utopia. I think it is people who are freaking out about something that is really, really affecting kids and their mental health. I think that the problem is real. I think that there are probably solutions that are more narrow and specific and less sweeping and broad than the ones proposed in KOSA. But I dont think this is a fake problem. I think that when I see the tech companies lobbying to kill stuff like this, it actually makes me think, well, maybe theres something there because they wouldnt be worried if it was just a total garbage bill.

casey newton

Well, theyre worried about the massive legal bills that are going to stem out of it.

kevin roose

Of course, but I want these companies worrying about that. Companies that are building products that are aimed at kids  and lets be real  a lot of these companies have made explicit attempts to recruit teens and even preteens onto their services.

casey newton

Absolutely, yep.

kevin roose

They have been treating those teens historically as just a gold mine of engagement, of money to be made, of habits to be formed. Its been almost a predatory system. That is not how I want companies to approach their teenage users, as just a source of growth, a source of engagement, and a potential future customer base. I want them to be a little scared when they design a platform that they know is going to be inviting to teens. And I want them to be more careful than they would be if they were just doing normal engagement hacking, growth hacking, for their adult users.

casey newton

So I totally agree with that. I just also believe that 16-year-olds have speech rights. And I believe they have the right to consume a really wide array of content. And I dont always think that they should have to provide an ID because they want to read or watch something. And that is the tension between those two things, is its very hard to square that circle.

kevin roose

Yeah. Well, in conclusion, put us in control of Congress. We will write better bills than this.

casey newton

In conclusion, its easier to build LK-99 at home than it is to write a good internet regulation.

kevin roose

[LAUGHS]: So true. So true. [MUSIC PLAYING] When we come back, were bringing back the hat. Its time for HatGPT. Casey, it is time again to play HatGPT.

casey newton

Oh, finally. Ive been waiting for this. [MUSIC PLAYING]

kevin roose

As a reminder, this is our segment where we put a bunch of tech news stories into a hat, mix them up, pick them out one by one, and generate some plausible sounding language about them. And as a reminder to you, if one of us gets bored by the other persons talking, we can just say stop generating.

casey newton

Beautiful. All right.

kevin roose

I have an actual hat today. I did remember to bring one. And we have our little slips of paper here with our stories.

casey newton

Here, Ill show you, Kevin. All right, so if you do this, then reach in, and then lets see. First story, the BBC launches an experimental Mastodon server. So this is from The Verge, which lets us know that the BBC has launched its own experimental Mastodon server, marking one of the first major news outlets to establish an instance on the Twitter alternative. So Kevin, are you optimistic about the prospects of the BBC Mastodon server?

kevin roose

No. And no offense to the BBC. Love the BBC. Mastodon has zero juice. Im sorry. I know you are a Mastodon head. Youre a tooter, whatever the hell you guys are calling yourselves over there. I spent one day trying out Mastodon. I was like, this thing has zero juice. I think Mastodon, I appreciate that they have blazed a path for decentralized social media.

casey newton

It really did, yep.

kevin roose

I appreciate that they came out with some ludicrous terms for what it is called to post on their platform, which is I believe toot.

casey newton

Its a toot.

kevin roose

Its a toot. But Mastodon has zero juice, never has, and in my opinion, never will. I think right now, every media company in the world is trying to figure out what replaces Twitter. What replaces the role that Twitter used to have in our newsroom, as a place where we could distribute our stories, as a place where our journalists could talk about their stories and build their own audiences and direct people back to our website? I do not think Mastodon is that place. I dont think Threads or Bluesky are either. And I just think media companies are going to be spending the next couple of years trying to figure out what comes after Twitter, and the answer may be nothing.

casey newton

OK, well, you could not be more wrong about any of this. And heres why. So Mastodon uses the ActivityPub standards, and ActivityPub, within a couple of years, is going to be powering a huge part of digital media. So Tumblr, WordPress already are working on integrations with this. So in the future, media organizations are going to be able to have their own owned and operated little piece of the web. And it all starts with building your own little slice of the social media sphere. So is Mastodon full of very tedious and pedantic people? Yes, it is. Is it fun to use? No, but is the idea of a digital media organization trying to build its own part of the social web a good idea? Yes, its a good idea.

kevin roose

Its a theoretical yes and an actual no 

casey newton

Well 

kevin roose

 is what youre saying.

casey newton

Were going to have to see how this all shakes out. But I can tell you, the BBC is not the only media organization that is thinking about how can we use ActivityPub to take advantage of all the best parts of the social web, which are essentially promoting your stuff to a big audience in real-time while getting rid of the walled garden nonsense that has infuriated so many people for so long.

kevin roose

I just love imagining the BBC journalist who has spent their career like climbing the rungs of the UKs media world. And you finally make it to the beeb, as they call it, and prestigious and respected outlet. And then the first day of your job, you get told that you have to toot. And its just like, well, why did I climb that ladder? If tooting is at the top of the ladder, thats not a ladder I want to be on anymore.

casey newton

Yeah, Im going back to one of those Rupert Murdaugh newspapers where you just spy on celebrities.

kevin roose

All right, pass the hat! Mr. Beast sues his food delivery partner over inedible burgers.

casey newton

Oh, my God, I love this story.

kevin roose

This story was so good. So OK, James Donaldson, a YouTube star better known as Mr. Beast, who weve talked about on the Hard Fork podcast very recently, has sued his partner in a food delivery business, saying the company sacrificed quality in its bid for rapid expansion. So this is a lawsuit that was recently filed by Jimmy Donaldson, a.k.a. Mr. Beast 

casey newton

James to the court.

kevin roose

 against something called virtual dining concepts, which is one of these ghost kitchen businesses. What they do is they essentially  like if you run, lets say, a Chinese restaurant, but youre looking for a little extra revenue, and you have all the equipment that you would need to make burgers and sort of open up a virtual storefront, you could go to this Mr. Beast Burgers virtual restaurant and say, hey, I would like to start selling Mr. Beast Burgers on DoorDash and Uber Eats. And they would send you all the ingredients and the packaging. And you, as the owner of the Chinese restaurant, could essentially open up a stealth, secret storefront to sell Mr. Beast Burgers to your customers.

casey newton

And now if you were going to ask me what is the worst way to make a hamburger, I think thats actually what I would tell you.

kevin roose

And there have been some amazing just online roasts of these Mr. Beast Burgers. And some of them were actually in the complaint, which is one of the funniest legal complaints Ive ever read, because its just like the headlines on the complaint are all like, revolting, worst burger Ive ever eaten. So there have been these sort of attempts to track down where these Mr. Beast Burgers are actually being made because to be clear, these Mr. Beast Burgers are not being made at restaurants that Mr. Beast owns or has any real connection to.

casey newton

No, Mr. Beast has absolutely no idea what is going on with this empire of restaurants that he built under his own name.

kevin roose

Right, and so that would be fine if these burgers were actually good, but it turns out that a lot of them are actually quite horrible. Theres very little quality control at these restaurants. And some of them are actually  one was someone who actually googled the address that his Mr. Beast Burger came from, and it was a 7-eleven. So 7-eleven is making Mr. Beast Burgers in some places.

casey newton

Theyre making them on thats the same rotisserie where they just have that hot dog thats been spiraling for 16 years.

kevin roose

Right, so Mr. Beast is now trying to get out of this contract with virtual dining concepts so that he no longer has to slap his name and likeness on these terrible burgers.

casey newton

Let me say something. We have a lot of celebrities and influencers that listen to this podcast, Kevin. And one thing that happens when you get famous is that people come to you with these moneymaking schemes. And they say, youre going to about to make the easiest money youve ever made in your entire life. All you have to do is sign away your name and likeness, and the money will start rolling in. And I hope all of you fellow influencers and creators and celebrities out there take the lesson of the Beast Burger, which is, you have to have the quality control standards in place, or otherwise, people are going to have diarrhea.

kevin roose

[LAUGHING]: Wise words. And I will say that if you are interested in opening up a Hard Fork burger, I mean, the fork is right there in the name. Were interested in partnerships and sponsorship opportunities. Please get in touch, but also have a certificate from the Health Department, please, and know how to make food.

casey newton

Stop generating.

kevin roose

OK.

casey newton

Now its my turn. OK, Meta prepares chat bots with personas to try to retain users  this is from the Financial Times. Facebook owner Meta is preparing to launch a range of artificial intelligence powered chat bots that exhibit different personalities as soon as next month in an attempt to boost engagement with its social media platforms. These people said some of the chat bots, which staffers have dubbed personas, take the form of different characters. The company has explored launching one that emulates Abraham Lincoln and another that advises on travel options in the style of a surfer. So I guess my question, Kevin, is, who are you more excited to talk about on Facebook  Abraham Lincoln or someone who advises on travel options in the style of a surfer?

kevin roose

I wish that I could combine them and get travel advice from Abraham Lincoln.

casey newton

Yeah. Its like, well, Im going to tell you one theater in the Washington area to avoid.

kevin roose

Do not go to the Ford Theater. Avoid. Zero stars. [LAUGHING] Is it too soon? Its too soon.

casey newton

Its too soon.

kevin roose

Oh, God.

casey newton

Its too soon.

kevin roose

So I read about this story in a little newsletter called Platformer this week.

casey newton

Yeah, its a good one.

kevin roose

You had a good post about this. And it is really interesting to me that Meta is sort of plowing ahead with this plan that, from what I can tell, zero actual people have expressed an interest in this. Like, I understand that they are trying to jam generative AI into as many of their products as they can. Theyre also doing this open source strategy with their language model, LLaMA, which is very interesting, and weve talked about. But I do not get this personas thing at all. So can you just explain to me what they think the appeal of this is going to be and why they think this is going to boost engagement on their product?

casey newton

Yeah, so the big theory here is that you are going to interact with many different kinds of generative AI personas in the future. So you might have an AI Spanish tutor. You might have an AI fitness coach. You may have an AI therapist. And Meta wants to get to work building some of those now. But those things arent really ready for prime time. And so what we have instead are these chat bots that can mimic Abraham Lincoln or a surfer with travel tips. And so thats what theyre rolling out. There is some evidence that people want things like this. So you know the company, Character AI. This is essentially what they do. You can go to character.ai right now, log in with your account, and you can start chatting with any number of fictional or non-fictional people. And there is a pretty vibrant community on Reddit of people sharing their conversations that theyre having there. So its clear to me that there is some kind of appetite for this, but I dont know. When Ive used the character AI bots, it just feels like a total passing fad to me. There is not a lot of long-term benefit to me there. I was writing in the newsletter this week, like, what is the long-term value of an Abraham Lincoln? But I get it if youre writing a school report or something, and you want to ask him, like, hey, who killed you or whatever? But beyond that, I dont really get it.

kevin roose

I would like an Abraham Lincoln bot that could give me the weather, but using Abraham  like, its going four score and two degrees out today. You might want to put on sunblock.

casey newton

So, look, I think Meta has a lot of technology and not a lot of idea about what to do with it at the moment. I think one reason why theyre giving all this stuff away is that its not clear to them what exactly are you going to put in it right now.

kevin roose

Right, they dont make office productivity software that can be augmented with AI to make workers more productive or save businesses a lot of money. They make social media products. I guess my curiosity around this is for many years, social media companies have been trying to get bots off their services, right? Its not good for them if some percentage of their engagement is coming from these artificial sources. So why is this different than that?

casey newton

Well, because those bots are created by others. Theyre like, we want to own the bots.

kevin roose

Yeah, exactly. Meta wants to own the bot. I mean, what Meta wants is eyeballs to be on Meta products, and if bots bring eyeballs to Meta products, then it will build them. OK, next one. Stop generating.

casey newton

Greg Rutkowski was removed from Stable Diffusion, but AI artists brought him back. This is from Decrypt. So theres this digital artist that we are both familiar with his work, Kevin, Greg Rutkowski.

kevin roose

Yeah, weve talked about him on the show before.

casey newton

Yeah, he is one of the most popular artists in the AI world because he makes these sort of sweeping fantastical creations. And so when people are using these text to image models, they love to invoke his name because they will get such cool images back.

kevin roose

Right. This was sort of like a hack or a cheat code, almost, that people figured out when these sort of mid-journey Stable Diffusion Dall-E image generators were in their infancy, is like, if you wanted to create a very cool image of a dragon, all you had to do was like insert Greg Rutkowskis name into the prompt, because he was the best person out there at making these fantasy drawings, and so it would just make it look like one of his things, which is great if youre trying to make cool art. Its not so great if youre Greg Rutkowski.

casey newton

Yeah, and so, Greg, which Ill just call him Greg for ease of pronunciation, doesnt want anything to do with any of this. And so he says, hey, take me out of your image generator. And so Stable Diffusion, one of the companies that makes these text to image generators, responds by removing his work from their data set. But the community has now created a tool to mimic Rutkowskis style against his wishes. And since Stable Diffusion is open source, theres nothing he or Stability AI can do about it, says Decrypt. So Kevin, what do we make of the fact that even when youre an artist, and you say, I dont want to be part of this, and the company that makes the AI image generator takes you out of it, eh, it doesnt matter. Youre still going to be in it.

kevin roose

It sucks, man. I mean, Im thinking about this from Greg Rutkowskis perspective. He was just a normal, working artist, doing his job, making great art that people loved, had a good, solid career as an artist, which is like a hard thing to pull off in any era, but especially this one. And now, his reward for that is that when these new AI image generators get invented, he sort of becomes this ghost in the machine that people are just of using to conjure up these things that look exactly like the stuff that he drew on his own. And on one hand, a lot more people know about Greg Rutkowski now than did a few years ago. Were talking about him. So it clearly hasnt been all bad for his career. But I do sympathize with his frustration, which is like, I dont want to be the test case guinea pig for all these AI image generators. And I worry about his ability to make a living when, now, anyone can just put his name into an image generator and pull up something that looks vaguely like he might have done it. So I do think that concern is real. At the same time, I think this sort of exposes the futility of these artists and content creators trying to get removed from the training sets of these things. Yeah, I agree with that. I would also say were early enough in this journey that it would be great if companies could build tools that effectively do remove artists or creators or journalists who do not want their work to be part of the training set. I do think that people should have the right to remove themselves from the training data. All that said, my curiosity is, if we talk to Greg Rutkowski five years from now, is he making more money than he did before he became one of the big stars of AI text image generation? I bet he will be, but I bet he will still be pissed off that all this is happening.

casey newton

Wow, that sounds like you know him personally.

kevin roose

Yeah, Greg, call a guy. All right, stop generating. OK, next one. Twitter removes X on headquarters. This is from The New York Times. Workers on Monday dismantled a giant X sign that was only briefly displayed on the roof of Twitters headquarters in San Francisco after residents complained, and the city issued a violation notice for lacking proper permits, according to local officials. The sign was installed on Friday to reflect the companys new branding and spurred immediate concern. Over the weekend, the city received 24 complaints, which included concerns about its structural safety and flashing lights. One complaint described extremely intense white stroboscopic light that was causing distress and nausea. Casey, what do you make of the giant X being taken down from Twitters roof?

casey newton

I mean, I love this story because it goes to show you what the actual most powerful force in all of San Francisco is, which is NIMBYs. If you want to build something in this town, and you dont have the proper permitting, you are about to experience the full force of the state, OK? Youre going to have more people beating a path down your door than you thought was possible. And so Elon Musk, who has been able to wield his authority over so many people and get everything that he wanted, ever since he marched into Twitter headquarters with that sink, finally found the one force that he could not overcome. And it was the San Francisco NIMBYs.

kevin roose

Yes, Elon Musk is the most powerful man in the world, except when it comes to building things in San Francisco, at which point his powers cease to become meaningful.

casey newton

But if I could say one more serious thing, its that last week, I talked about my theory that Elon Musk is a cultural vandal. And to me, this is more cultural vandalism. Its like, Im literally just going to put a giant, flashing, disgusting X on the top of this historic building as a kind of symbolic middle finger to the entire city. Ha-ha. LOL. Like, it is just so in keeping with his character.

kevin roose

Did you actually see it during the brief period when it was actually up?

casey newton

No, and heres why. This thing was so tall, and it was held down by sandbags. Or at least, they appeared to be sandbags from the overhead photography. And I thought, Im willing to sacrifice a lot to cover the story of Elon Musk, but I am not going to die when a stiff wind blows that thing off Market Street and onto my head.

kevin roose

[LAUGHS]: It did look not that stable. It was also like, it was a choice to make it flash stroboscopic lights. It was a choice to not have it just be a lit up X, but to have it be the most annoying version of an X possible.

casey newton

Yeah, the only thing it didnt do was like sound an air horn every time the lights flashed, but they probably just didnt have the time to install that yet.

kevin roose

[LAUGHS]: Dont give him any ideas.

casey newton

Stop generating.

kevin roose

All right, your turn. Last one.

casey newton

A-ha. Uber turns its first ever operating profit. This is from The Wall Street Journal. The results for the three months through June were driven by solid growth in both of Ubers core businesses, as the number of rides in the US and Canada surpassed pre-pandemic levels for the first time and demand for delivery stayed strong, despite restaurant reopenings. This was the first quarter that Uber was profitable since it was founded in 2009. So, Kevin, in the very early days of this show, we did a segment where we wondered whether Uber would ever turn a profit. And I dont know at the time that either of us thought that it would have been like in 2023.

kevin roose

Yeah, I mean, this is sort of a fascinating story to me because for so long, we have heard so much about these venture funded startups that just sold products or services at a loss, essentially used their venture funding to subsidize prices to flood the market and drown out competition, and did that very successfully, but also lost billions and billions of dollars in the process. And for many years, Uber was one of those companies. And there was a huge question about whether it actually would ever be able to turn a profit. And now it has and may keep turning profits into the future. So do you think this is sort of like a vindication of this strategy that all these companies had, of like getting your prices as low as possible by pouring venture capital money into the market and then sort of jacking up your prices later so that you can actually turn a profit?

casey newton

Basically, I do, because even when it was at its most unprofitable, no part of me ever thought that Uber or something like it was going to go away because it is just unimaginable to me now that you wont be able to be in a relatively big city and tap a button on your phone, and a car appears. People desperately want that. And as weve learned over the past year, they will pay higher prices in order to get that service maybe than they were used to paying when there was all that venture capital money in it. So I think its a pretty big achievement for the Uber folks that they were able to get there. Well see if they can keep it up. I would say that surprising to me, a large part of their business is Uber Eats. And I think to the extent that there are actual profits there, it is much more about being a delivery business than a rideshare business. But one thing that they always said at Uber was if they could get you a car at the touch of a button, they could get you a lot of other things. And so Im just curious to see whether there is more money for them in delivery and related businesses.

kevin roose

Its a little depressing to me, though, honestly, because part of what the strategy was all along, I believe  and Ive talked to a lot of the venture capitalists who funded a lot of these businesses in the 2010s that were of using this model of subsidize the prices of the goods and services, a part of that strategy was always to kill the competition, right? If youre Uber, you want to get your prices so low that you drive every taxi company out of business. If you are Airbnb, you want to make your prices low enough that you kill the hotels, so that your only choice is to go with Uber or Airbnb, even if your prices go up. And that is what is happening with Uber. We now have Ubers that are so  I dont know if youve looked at your Uber receipts recently. Theyre so expensive. Its so expensive to get an Uber. Its more expensive than taxis were. But its not like were going back to taxis. Like, are you actually going to call up a taxi company and say, please meet me on this corner? No, absolutely, youre not going to do that.

casey newton

No, also taxis were horrible. The entire system was rigged, and it was bad. Im sorry for a lot of the individual cab drivers, but my God, Im not sorry to see the taxi industry be disrupted.

kevin roose

Right, so now it seems like the lesson of what is happening at Uber is that this sort of subsidy strategy where you lower your prices, you flood the market, you drive your competitors out of business, and then when you have a monopoly, you jack up your prices again to turn a profit, it actually does work if youre willing to wait like 14 years and also burn hundreds of billions of dollars in venture capital in the meantime.

casey newton

Yeah, so dont be surprised when in 14 years, Hard Fork starts charging you a monthly subscription fee.

kevin roose

[LAUGHING]:

casey newton

Why do you think its free now? Its all part of the plan. I want to say one more thing about Uber, which is I think that theres another secret to their profitability, which is that no company has ever sent more push notifications in the history of the world, OK? You have to leave the notifications on to know when the driver is at your house.

kevin roose

Its true. They text me more than my wife.

casey newton

Seriously! Every time I look down at my phone, its like, hey, want to rent a car this weekend?

kevin roose

Would you like a Mr. Beast Burger?

casey newton

All right, stop generating! Woo! Wow! That was HatGpt.

kevin roose

And that was HatGPT. [MUSIC PLAYING]

casey newton
It took an interstellar shout across the solar system. But NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory said on Friday that it re-established full communications with Voyager 2, an aging probe exploring the outer edges of the solar system.

After two weeks of not hearing anything, were back to getting unique data from the interstellar medium, said Linda Spilker, a planetary scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the lead mission scientist for Voyager 2.

The space agency lost contact with Voyager 2 on July 21 when the mission team accidentally sent a command that pushed the spacecrafts antenna two degrees away from Earth. On Tuesday morning, officials from the Deep Space Network, a worldwide system of radio dishes NASA uses to communicate with various space probes, detected a carrier signal known as a heartbeat from Voyager 2. It was too faint to extract any data, but enough to confirm that the mission was still operating.

Nonetheless, being able to pick up only the heartbeat was upsetting and worrisome, said Suzanne Dodd, the project manager for Voyager 2.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 4. The ecology of Azerbaijan's Shusha city and other territories suffered significant damage during their Armenian occupation, the Deputy Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Vugar Karimov said, Trend reports.

He made the remark at a meeting of the Azerbaijani working group on environmental issues of the Interdepartmental Center under the Coordination Headquarters established for the centralized solution of issues in liberated territories in Shusha.

"After liberating the territories from occupation [in the 2020 second Karabakh war], restoration work began." Efforts to enhance and reconstruct these regions have been ongoing for the past two years. The ministry monitors the work, and the observable outcomes reflect the main purpose of restoring and rehabilitating these lands," the source stated.

Participants in the meeting are discussing the work progress and current issues, biodiversity in Shusha, solid waste management, construction and landfill waste on liberated territories, greenery protection and expansion, environmental assessment of city projects, and other related issues.

The previous meeting of the working group on environmental issues was held on June 2nd, this year in Zangilan.
After exchanging a few pleasantries, Katherine Roberts Maher and Ashutosh Upreti got down to business over drinks in April 2019 at the now-shuttered Bond Bar in San Franciscos Mission District.

I thought he was more interested in being my general counsel than my date, Ms. Maher, 40, said. At the time, she was the chief executive at Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit organization that operates Wikipedia, where she stayed until 2021.

So one question followed another.

How do you think about organizational risk, and what does a strategic legal function look like? asked Ms. Maher, who graduated magna cum laude with a bachelors degree in Middle Eastern and Islamic studies from N.Y.U. She is the chair of the board of directors at Signal Foundation, the nonprofit behind the secure messaging app, and is a nonresident senior fellow for democracy and technology at the Atlantic Council, a nonpartisan research center.

Mr. Upreti, who is 42 and a lawyer, politely played along for about an hour. Do you ask all your dates these questions? he finally asked. As far as he was concerned, he was staying put as the legal director for autonomous vehicles at Lyft, the ride-share company. He is now the chief legal officer at CareRev, a technology company that focuses on health care staffing.
Over the next few months, we went on a series of dates throughout the state of Wisconsin as we worked through our different clinical rotations. When I finished days on the general surgery service in Madison, I would meet Jillian outside the medical school library, and we would talk about our patients. The days were long, waking up at 3 a.m., but I always looked forward to seeing her. It was in these moments that I thought I could do this for the rest of my life.

At the start of our fourth year of medical school, it was decision time for us. To continue being together, we would need to apply for a couples match to ensure we would be in the same city for residency. I wasnt going to continue our relationship if we were in different states. To me, that was near impossible, especially given how busy medical training is. When Jillian brought up the idea of matching together, I hesitated.

Im not a devout Muslim  I dont have the discipline to pray five times a day. Im not even sure I could take medications twice a day if my life depended on it. But I believe in God and fast during Ramadan.

Jillian is agnostic but was raised by an evangelical father who refers to Islam as a religion of the sword. My father is a conservative Muslim. I could see the trains colliding from the moment she brought up the idea of matching together. Before even thinking of getting our families involved, I needed to think solely about my relationship with Jillian and if we were compatible for the long haul.

On paper, we were so different. She was from a small town in Wisconsin. I was born in Bangladesh. Raised in America with other Muslims, I believed that I was destined to marry a Muslim woman. I was told stories of marriages that crumbled because a Muslim married someone outside their faith.
Olivia Grace Amitrano and Nicholas Ryan Vazquez were only teenagers when they met. Still, they somehow had the sense to take it slow, which allowed their relationship to go the distance.

They met on Oct. 5, 2009 at Ginos Pizzeria in Yonkers, N.Y., where both had grown up, when Ms. Amitrano was 16 and Mr. Vazquez was 18. She was with her best friend at the time, who occasionally dated his brother.

Ms. Amitrano had heard Mr. Vazquez was quite the ladies man, so she did her best to play it cool, though she found him charming. Both Ms. Amitrano, now 29, and Mr. Vazquez, 31, were seeing other people on and off at the time. They would see one another at parties and, he tried pursuing me, Ms. Amitrano said, but they remained friends.

Their connection grew nonetheless. They would spend late nights parked in front of her house in his 1990 champagne-colored Volvo and take turns playing their favorite R&B songs on their iPods. We slowly fell in love over many nights venting and bonding in his car, Ms. Amitrano said.
A federal judge said this week that the Justice Department and a group of states could not move forward with some claims in antitrust complaints against Google, narrowing the scope of what is set to be the most significant federal monopoly trial against a tech giant in decades.

In the decision, which was unsealed on Friday, Judge Amit P. Mehta of U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed four claims in the lawsuits and allowed government lawyers to move forward with three.

Judge Mehta wrote that a trial was warranted to assess whether Googles exclusivity deals for web browsers and preloading its services on Android devices illegally helped the internet company maintain a monopoly. But he said the government had not demonstrated the requisite anticompetitive effect to prove that Google broke the law in other ways, such as by boosting its own products in search results over those of specialized sites, like Amazon and Yelp.

The decision sets the stage for the first major tech monopoly trial since the federal government took Microsoft to court in the 1990s, amid a renewed backlash over the power of tech giants. In recent years, American regulators have filed lawsuits and tried to block the acquisitions of companies such as Google, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, as they have grown in reach and size.
That has thrust Mr. Chang, and the company he created, into the spotlight. And at the twilight of his career, a man who has preferred to remain in the shadows reflected on what he has built and what it means to no longer be able to stay under the radar.

It doesnt make me feel particularly good, said Mr. Chang, who retired in 2018 but still appears at TSMC events. I would rather stay relatively unknown.

Over a recent three-hour discussion in his office, Mr. Chang made it clear that he identifies as American  he obtained his U.S. citizenship in 1962  at a time when the company he founded is at the center of a technological Cold War between the United States and China. Even as the rivalry for tech leadership intensifies, he does not give China much of a chance for semiconductor supremacy.

We control all the choke points, Mr. Chang said, referring collectively to the United States and its chip-making allies such as the Netherlands, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. China cant really do anything if we want to choke them.

More than a dozen people familiar with Mr. Chang, many of whom knew him as a colleague at TSMC, said he built the company  and outmaneuvered giants like Samsung and Intel  by being meticulous, stubborn, trusting his best people and, crucially, having boundless ambition and making daring moves when justified. When TSMC stumbled after the 2008 financial crisis, he returned as chief executive at age 77 to take over again.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, which is manufacturing the worlds most advanced microchips, conducts business on the island of Taiwan, dead center in one of the most geopolitically volatile places on the planet.

That makes people in Washington very nervous. TSMC dominates the semiconductor industry; its a company that the United States cant do without, 80 miles off the coast of China.

The U.S. government has appropriated tens of billions of dollars to strengthen Americas own semiconductor sector and help fund TSMCs nascent operations in the United States, far from China, which has never renounced the use of force to absorb Taiwan.

But TSMC has invested billions of its own over nearly four decades growing deep roots in Taiwan. There, it employs a small army of engineers, research and development scientists, technicians and production workers in the exquisitely complex task of producing chips, etching electronic pathways smaller than a cell on plates of silicon.
Realize Your Beauty isnt packed with aspiring Audra McDonalds, Billy Porters and Sutton Fosters. At least not exclusively. Its not theater kids, necessarily, Merkl said over coffee a few days before camp began. Some of the kids love theater. Some of them are maybe mildly interested. Some of them are totally new to the theater, but their parents think that they could benefit from this. We are doing theater, but this is not a camp for them to come and learn Shakespeare.

Elise Arndt, a veteran theater camp counselor who flew in from Orange County, Calif., said: Not all of them are going to be gung-ho theater people. But theres something about it that intrigues them. Arndt and Kirkland joined Realize Your Beauty early on, performing in the workshops and plays about body positivity and eating disorder awareness that the organization takes to schools in New York City, as well as to the Girl Scouts of America.
Harness the power of light

Bright light helps keep our internal clock in sync with the outside world, traveling through specialized cells in the retina and signaling the part of the brain that sets the bodys master schedule. So, for longer trips, seek out or avoid bright light at specific times, said Dr. Olson. Starting a few days before your trip, gradually shift the light and dark times of your origin toward that of your destination, using dark glasses, sunlight or other light sources.

In the first few days of your trip, figuring out the best times to get light can be tricky. Lets say you take an overnight flight from New York to London, arriving at 7 a.m. Your brain may still feel as if its 2 a.m., and getting bright light right away could confuse your internal clock. In this case, you may want to put on dark glasses for a few hours, then go out in the sun when it is closer to your waking time at home, extending your London day.

On long trips to Asia  when day and night are reversed  it is often easier to shift your cycle backward, said Mickey Beyer-Clausen, chief executive of Timeshifter, which makes a jet lag app of the same name. For example, when flying nonstop from New York to Tokyo, which is 13 hours ahead, think of it as being 11 hours behind (jet lag does not consider the international date line). That means if you land at, say, 2 p.m. in Japan  1 a.m. in New York  you need to counter the fact that your New York brain is winding down for sleep. This means seeking out bright light all afternoon, especially in the evening, until bedtime in Japan. You can also get a head start on adapting to Japanese time if you go to bed and seek out light later than normal for two nights before you leave New York.

Online tools like Jet Lag Rooster and Timeshifter help create a customized schedule based on variables like time zone differences, departure and arrival times, and other factors.

Consider melatonin

If you are having trouble getting to sleep earlier in anticipation of traveling east, Dr. Kapur suggests taking one milligram of over-the-counter melatonin about four hours before bed, up to three days before the trip. (Melatonin is a substance that is produced naturally in the body as night falls, signaling that it is time to go to sleep.) This small dose is best for reducing jet lag, Dr. Olson said, because studies show a larger dose doesnt necessarily work better and is more likely to produce side effects. Travelers should be aware that as a dietary supplement, melatonin is not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration.
A 23-point deficit is still a daunting gap for Mr. DeSantis. But unlike the national poll, our Iowa poll has revealed a few cracks in Mr. Trumps armor. If Mr. DeSantis (or another challenger) could ever pry those cracks open and win the Iowa caucuses  the first nominating contest of the race  one wonders what kind of effect that might have on Republican voters.

After all, the only time Republicans were prepared to move on from Mr. Trump was the one time he and his supporters had to accept that he lost, after the 2022 midterm election.

Will Hurd, the former Texas congressman, narrowly missed the qualifying threshold for the first G.O.P. debate on Aug. 23 in our national poll earlier this week. He had the support of 0.57 percent of Republican primary voters, near the 1 percent needed to help him qualify for the event (Mr. Hurd has not yet qualified for the debate; The Times is tracking who has qualified, here). Usually, 0.57 percent would be rounded to 1 percent, but while the poll was being conducted we decided that wasnt appropriate for this survey. Republicans had set a 1 percent threshold to winnow the debate field; rounding to the nearest whole number didnt seem like it was in the spirit of the cutoff for candidates in this case.

Vivek Ramaswamy also had cause to be disappointed in our polls. He received 2 percent of the vote in our national survey, compared with about 6 percent in the FiveThirtyEight polling average and over 10 percent in some online polls. Ill offer two basic theories for why he did worse in our poll. One is that its about survey administration: In an online survey, you see a long list of candidates, read them over, and then you choose one. In our phone survey, you either immediately volunteered your preference after hearing the question, or you heard a list of more than a dozen candidates and chose an answer at the end. If youre an undecided voter, the online setting might help you find and choose someone youre not especially familiar with. You may be overwhelmed on the phone, and even if you liked Mr. Ramaswamy when he was mentioned 20 seconds earlier, you could forget by the time the interviewer is done asking the question. A second possibility is that its about the kind of voters who participate in the big online panels that power so many polls today. Maybe theyre, shall we say, a little too online  and perhaps unusually likely to be aware of Mr. Ramaswamys campaign. My guess is that this is probably a factor: Online polls recruited by mail and by YouGov, the gold standard of this kind of polling, dont show Mr. Ramaswamy doing so well, even though they were also conducted online.

This Times/Siena national poll used an elaborate model of the likely Republican primary electorate, but its hard to say it made any difference in the result. Mr. Trump would have held a commanding lead with at least 50 percent of the vote no matter how we defined G.O.P. primary voters.

The Democratic primary, however, is a case where more sophisticated modeling of the primary electorate might make a huge difference. While President Biden leads Robert F. Kennedy Jr. by a wide margin, 64 percent to 13 percent, among Democratic leaners, he enjoys a far wider lead  74 percent to 8 percent  among those Democratic leaners who have ever actually voted in a primary, including 92 percent to 4 percent among those who voted in a Democratic primary in 2022. My guess: if we had done an elaborate Democratic primary poll  and we did not, in the absence of a competitive race  Mr. Bidens lead would have grown.
When a 2-year-old beagle named Fin was carried out in September from the Envigo breeding and research facility in Cumberland, Va., his exit marked the end of a nearly 60-day operation to rescue almost 4,000 dogs that had been living in highly distressful conditions.

Beagles that were among those kept there were underfed, had fallen ill or were injured, inspections of the research facility found, and some had been euthanized.

Nearly a year later, many of the beagles are thriving in new homes, their new housemates said. They roll on the grass, enjoy long walks and lick birthday cake to celebrate the anniversary of their rescue.

He was the last one. I cant imagine what that mustve felt like for him, said Suzanne Brown-Pelletier, who adopted Fin within weeks of his rescue. To make up for the lost years of love, I give him all kinds of kisses on his nose and tell him Im playing the beagle bugle, she said.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 4. The State Committee of Azerbaijan for Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons held a draw among the families who will be resettled in the village of Aghali in the Zangilan district on August 4, the State Committee told Trend.

Representatives from the Special Representative Office of the President of Azerbaijan in the Zangilan region, which is part of the East Zangezur Economic Region, and the Zangilan region's executive power attended the ceremony.

In total, 22 families (106 people) took part in the drawing. In accordance with the family composition, nine families received three-room, nine families received four-room, and four families received five-room private residential dwellings. These family lived in Baku and Sumgayit, in sites of temporary settlement on the Absheron district's land.

The lotteries are intended to ensure objectivity and transparency in the process of relocating former internally displaced persons.

Moreover, the participants in the draw noted that they feel great joy in connection with returning to their native places. They expressed their deep gratitude to President Ilham Aliyev and First Vice President Mehriban Aliyeva for the conditions created in the territories liberated from occupation and the care given to the former internally displaced persons.

The families participating in the draw, according to the schedule, will be sent to the village of Aghali on August 12.

Furthermore, the population of Aghali is being returned under the auspices of the Great Return. Before the occupation, this administrative district linked three communities. Aghali I was made up of 40 families (154 people), Aghali II was made up of 60 families (245 people), and Aghali III was made up of 161 families (675 people). The total number of families in these settlements is currently 352 (1,504 people).

The victory in the 44-day Second Karabakh War led by victorious Supreme Commander Ilham Aliyev allowed our compatriots, internally displaced people who had been yearning for their native land for nearly 30 years, to return to their native lands in the territories liberated from occupation.

During the period of their status as displaced persons, the Azerbaijani government has constantly paid special attention and care to them. The strategic line, defined by the great leader Heydar Aliyev and continued by President Ilham Aliyev, is aimed at improving the living conditions, ensuring social protection, and ensuring the employment of internally displaced persons and is currently being consistently implemented. First Vice President Mehriban Aliyeva also always treats issues related to internally displaced persons with special sensitivity and provides assistance in solving their problems.
A Northern California judge has ruled that a former college student is not mentally competent to stand trial for a series of stabbings that killed two people and terrorized the community around the University of California, Davis, this spring.

Judge Samuel McAdam of Yolo County Superior Court concluded this week that the former student, Carlos Reales Dominguez, 20, was severely mentally ill and must be treated in a state psychiatric facility before murder charges against him could proceed.

The series of stabbings shocked residents of Davis, a city of about 70,000 people west of Sacramento, this year. Killed were David Breaux, 50, a local pacifist who slept on a park bench near downtown Davis, and Karim Abou Najm, 20, a computer science major at U.C. Davis and the son of a professor at the university. Another person, Kimberlee Guillory, also was stabbed but survived.

Mr. Reales Dominguez has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and attempted murder, but his mental condition has been an issue since the outset of the case. At a court appearance in May, his public defender, Daniel Hutchinson, urgently requested a competency hearing, saying he did not believe that Mr. Reales Dominguezs mental fitness met the legal standard.
A federal appeals court on Thursday overturned the sentence and the conviction of a Black man after a white federal judge in Michigan had said during a court proceeding that the man looks like a criminal to me.

The remarks were made in 2020, two years after the man, Leron Liggins, was charged in Michigan with possession and distribution of heroin.

The judge, Stephen J. Murphy III of the Eastern District of Michigan, later apologized and attributed his remarks to his frustration with Mr. Liggins for repeated procedural delays that included repeated changes of lawyers and indecision over whether he intended to plead guilty.

Such remarks are wholly incompatible with the fair administration of justice, Judge Eric L. Clay of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit wrote in the opinion released on Thursday.
Two Michigan Republicans charged with purporting to be electors for President Donald J. Trump in 2020 appeared before a state judge on Friday, adding to a flurry of court action this week tied to efforts to overturn the last presidential election.

The hearings for the two pro-Trump electors  Meshawn Maddock, a former co-chair of the Michigan Republican Party, and Mari-Ann Henry, who was active in Republican politics in suburban Detroit  came a day after the former president pleaded not guilty to conspiracy charges in federal court in Washington. Earlier in the week, a grand jury in another part of Michigan indicted prominent Republicans on charges connected to improper access to voting machines.

The hearing on Friday was largely procedural. Judge Kristen D. Simmons of the State District Court in Lansing agreed to give defense lawyers until October to review voluminous discovery materials in the felony case.

From her small wood-paneled courtroom in Lansing City Hall, across the street from the State Capitol, Judge Simmons spoke over a video conference link with Ms. Maddock, Ms. Henry and their lawyers. She agreed to allow each defendant, who could face lengthy prison sentences if convicted, to take a trip out of state before trial.
Mississippis lifetime ban on voting for people convicted of a range of felonies is cruel and unusual punishment that violates the Eighth Amendment and is at odds with societys evolving standards of decency, a federal appeals court ruled on Friday.

In an emphatic 2-to-1 opinion, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upbraided Mississippi officials for what it called a pointless denial of the democratic core of American citizenship."

Mississippi denies this precious right to a large class of its citizens, automatically, mechanically, and with no thought given to whether it is proportionate as punishment for an amorphous and partial list of crimes, the judges wrote.

They added: It is an especially cruel penalty as applied to those whom the justice system has already deemed to have completed all terms of their sentences. These individuals, despite having satisfied their debt to society, are precluded from ever fully participating in civic life. Indeed, they are excluded from the most essential feature and expression of citizenship in a democracy  voting.
The stillness felt eerie on Friday outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. Roads were closed. News crews waited across the street. A police helicopter thrummed overhead.

Everyone present  and all the surrounding neighbors  knew what was about to happen. At noon, it began. Two loud sounds. Pop, pop!

Gunfire. The rare re-enactment of a deadly mass shooting was underway.

More than five years after a former student killed 17 people and injured 17 others at Stoneman Douglas High on Feb. 14, 2018, ballistics experts and technicians were reconstructing the massacre, gunshot by gunshot. The sounds were recorded for possible use in a civil trial against a former sheriffs deputy who failed to rush into the building as the shooting unfolded.

In a separate criminal trial in June, a jury acquitted the deputy, Scot Peterson, who was the resource officer assigned to the school that day, of child neglect and other charges. But a survivor and the families of four victims are seeking to hold him liable for not doing more to try to stop the gunman.
Former Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey made an unannounced visit to Ukraine on Friday to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky, offering full-throated support for the nation in its war with Russia while staking out a clear position on an issue that has divided his party and his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination.

Mr. Christies whirlwind one-day trip had the feel at times of an episode from an alternate-universe G.O.P. primary: one in which former President Donald J. Trump had not wrenched the party loose from decades of its foreign-policy history, and in which Mr. Christies more traditionally hawkish vision of Americas place in the world might win over voters.

Escorted by a Ukrainian security detail, Mr. Christie visited sites near Kyiv that were devastated during Russias drive toward the Ukrainian capital in the first months of the invasion, including Bucha, a Kyiv suburb where Russian soldiers massacred more than 400 people.

You feel the cruelty, and you feel the inhumanity, Mr. Christie said later. You look at this, and I dont think theres anyone in our country who would come here and see this and not feel as if these are the things that America needs to stand up to prevent.
On Friday, Mr. DeSantis was dealt another blow: Robert Bigelow, the biggest individual donor to Never Back Down, the super PAC supporting Mr. DeSantis, told Reuters he would stop giving money to the group unless Mr. DeSantis took a more moderate approach and got other major donors on board.

As he has courted Mr. Trumps voters, Mr. DeSantis has blasted the prosecution in the election case as politically motivated and has said that he did not want to see Mr. Trump charged. His new comments suggest that Mr. Trumps legal peril may have altered his political calculation.

Mr. DeSantis also suggested on Friday that he would pardon Mr. Trump, should the former president be convicted in the election case.

I dont think its in the best interest of the country to have a former president thats almost 80 years old go to prison, he told reporters at a campaign stop in Waverly, Iowa. It was an answer that, by invoking Mr. Trumps age, also served to highlight the contrast with Mr. DeSantis, who is 44.

And just like Ford pardoned Nixon, sometimes youve got to put this stuff behind you, and we need to start focusing on things having to do with the countrys future, Mr. DeSantis said, and added: This election needs to be about Jan. 20, 2025, not Jan. 6, 2021.
Nigers coup leaders on Thursday said that they had severed military ties with France, their countrys former colonial ruler, throwing into uncertainty the future of 1,500 French troops based there, in a region of West Africa plagued with coups and Islamist insurgencies.

The leaders of the coup also dismissed Nigers ambassadors to France and the United States, another military partner, as well as the ambassadors to Togo and Nigeria, an essential trade partner.

In an extraordinary move, the elected president of Niger, who has been locked up in the presidential palace by his own guards for ten days, wrote an opinion column published in The Washington Post calling on the United States and other allies to help restore constitutional order.

I write this as a hostage, President Mohamed Bazoum said in his opinion essay, published on Thursday evening. Niger is under attack from a military junta that is trying to overthrow our democracy.
For days, the rain came down in sheets, pounding Beijing and areas around it in what the government said was the heaviest deluge Chinas capital had seen since record keeping began 140 years ago.

When the extreme downpour finally stopped on Tuesday, most of Beijing had been spared the worst  but partly because officials made sure the floodwaters went elsewhere.

Officials in Hebei Province, which borders Beijing, had opened flood gates and spillways in seven low-lying flood control zones to prevent rivers and reservoirs from overflowing in Beijing and the regions other metropolis, Tianjin, state media said. The Communist Party leader of Hebei, Ni Yuefeng, said he ordered the activation of flood storage and diversion areas in an orderly manner, so as to reduce the pressure on Beijings flood control and resolutely build a moat for the capital.
The online influencer Andrew Tate and his brother were released from house arrest in Romania on Friday but must remain in the country while they await trial on charges of human trafficking, after an order from a court in Bucharest.

The Bucharest Court of Appeals said in a statement that Mr. Tate and his younger brother, Tristan Tate, must stay in Romania under probation for 60 days while awaiting trial. The Tate brothers and two Romanian women were indicted in Romania in June on charges of engaging in human trafficking across Romania, Britain and the United States, of rape and of forming an organized criminal group in 2021.

Andrew Tate, 36, a former kickboxer, is known for sharing misogynistic views to his millions of mostly young male followers on social media. A citizen of both the United States and Britain, he established Romania as his base around 2016. He and his brother were arrested in December, were held for three months in a jail in Bucharest, and had been under house arrest since the end of March.

Mr. Tate told reporters at his home outside Bucharest on Friday that he and his brother were innocent. I have to give absolute faith to the Romanian judicial system for finally making the right decision and letting us free, he said. Im sure at the end well be absolutely exonerated.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 4. The leaders of a number of non-governmental organizations operating in Azerbaijan have addressed an appeal to the international community with a call to use the potential of humanitarian demining efforts in the process of peace building.

Trend presents the appeal.

We, representatives of Azerbaijan's civil society, are appealing to UN Secretary-General Mr. Antonio Guterres, President of the UN General Assembly Mr. Csaba Korosi, President of the UN Human Rights Council Mr. Vaclav Balek, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mr. Volker Turk, Director of the UN Mine Action Service Ms. Ilene Cohn, leaders and member countries of the European Union and Council of Europe institutions, and the leadership of Great Britain, calling on each of them to strongly support the elimination of the mine threat created by Armenia in the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan as soon as possible.

Today, more than 60 countries around the world are facing the threat of landmines. Azerbaijan is in one of the first places among countries most contaminated by mines and unexploded military ordnance. According to preliminary estimates, during the years of occupation, Armenia planted more than a million landmines on Azerbaijani territory.

We are feel the real danger posed by mines and unexploded ordnance in our daily activities. Since the 44-day war in 2020, a total of 303 people have become victims of landmines in the liberated territories of Azerbaijan. Fifty-five of them were killed, while others received injuries of varying degree of severity. Among the injured, nine are children and young people and two women. Since 1991, the total number of victims of mines planted by Armenia is approaching 3,400 people.

The government of Azerbaijan is using all the resources available to carry out demining operations in the territories freed from occupation. Nearly a million internally displaced people are eagerly awaiting a safe return to their homeland. In order to return, those areas must be cleared of mines as soon as possible, and there is a great need for international donor support of mine clearance work and victims of mine explosions.

Despite the use of state-of-the-art equipment in demining work, the massive contamination of areas with mines, the geography of planted mines and the lack of accurate minefield maps provided by Armenia are still creating enormous difficulties in identifying and clearing their locations.

Based on our research, we can note that approximately 71 percent of landmine incidents occurred outside the areas that used to be called the line of contact. This is further proof that they are intended to target civilians. Landmine incidents were also recorded in destroyed settlements, cemeteries, water springs, road crossings, forests and village paths.

The refusal of the Armenian side to provide accurate minefield maps, the path of deceiving the world community and the imitation of an alleged disclosure of minefield maps do not serve to eliminate the humanitarian disaster. This is also evidence of indifference to the establishment of peace and harmony, sustainable development between the two countries in the future.

The fact that Armenia continues to mine Azerbaijan's territories even after the 44-day war and the discovery of mines produced in 2021 in various areas is yet another in a series of Armenias crimes against humanity.

Demining is also one of the key conditions for achieving the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. It is for this reason that Azerbaijan has itself formulated the Sustainable Development Goal of demining and taken it upon itself as a national goal. Azerbaijan proposed a special 18th Sustainable Development Goal on humanitarian demining in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals on a global scale, to establish international partnership in the fight against mines and unexploded ordnance, to mobilize resources, and to pay special attention to mine-affected countries. We believe that this can attract the attention of the world community to the global mine threat.

We, as representatives of civil society organizations, urge you to support the elimination of the mine problem in Azerbaijan, to put pressure on Armenia, and to demonstrate a fair position in the elimination of the mine threat.

We believe in the great potential of humanitarian demining in the peace building process.

At the same time, we count on your valuable partnership, goodwill and support in eliminating the threats posed by mines and unexploded ordnance.

Signed by:

1. Hafiz Safikhanov, Chairman of the Azerbaijan Campaign Against Landmines Public Union

2. Rey Gasimov (Rey Karimoglu), Azerbaijan Mine Victims Association

3. Davud Rahimli, Chairman of the Union of Disabled People's Organizations

4. Azer Allahveranov, Chairman of the Eurasian Platform for Migration Initiatives Public Union

5. Zaur Ibrahimli, Chairman of the Priority Socio-Economic Research Center Public Union

6. Umud Mirzayev, Chairman of the International Eurasia Press Fund

7. Nadir Jafarov, Chairman of the Chirag Humanitarian and Development Public Union.
A Russian court on Friday handed Aleksei A. Navalny, the jailed opposition campaigner, a new, 19-year sentence on charges of supporting extremism and ordered him imprisoned under the harshest conditions. The sentence demonstrated the widening scope of repression under President Vladimir V. Putin and threatened to further isolate his most cutting domestic critic.

Mr. Navalny was already serving a 9-year sentence east of Moscow on fraud charges when Russian authorities added additional cases against him, in what his supporters have characterized as a savage campaign to banish him from Russias public sphere and erode his health in confinement.

In the case that ended Friday, Mr. Navalny, 47, was sentenced for creating an extremist organization and other crimes, and was ordered imprisoned in one of Russias special regime colonies, known for their harsh treatment of inmates. His supporters have warned that confinement in that environment for such a long sentence represents a significant threat to his life.

The new 19-year sentence can be served concurrently to Mr. Navalnys existing sentences, according to his spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh. Mr. Navalny has said that he soon could receive yet another sentence, of 10 years, on a separate terrorism charge that Russian authorities have brought against him during his imprisonment.
The Ukrainian drone attack on Friday on a Russian warship in Novorossiysk, Russia, served as another blow for the Russian Navy, which operates a base in the Black Sea port city.

It also signaled that Moscows economy is ever more squarely in Ukraines cross hairs, bringing the war to one of Russias most critical commercial ports.

Here is a look at the port and its significance for Moscow:

What is Novorossiysk?

The Novorossiysk commercial seaport is one of Russias largest by volume and among the biggest in Europe  a major node in the export of Russian grain, oil, and other products to countries around the world.

It has been a hub of international commerce for Russia since the 19th century and the city was also the site of the first Pepsi factory in Russia, opened in the Soviet Union in the early 1970s during the Cold War detente.
A Ukrainian maritime drone damaged a Russian warship on the Black Sea on Friday, the most serious strike on Moscows navy since last year, demonstrating both the escalating conflict at sea and the growing range and capability of Ukraines uncrewed vehicles.

The drone slammed into the ship and detonated its explosive payload near the Russian port of Novorossiysk, a key naval and shipping hub on the northeastern shore of the Black Sea, hundreds of miles from the nearest Ukrainian-controlled territory.

The New York Times verified multiple videos and photographs of a Ropucha-class landing ship listing to its port side, both being guided into the harbor and at a dock. The same type of ship is seen in a video taken by a naval drone speeding toward the ship and apparently striking it on the port side.

The Black Sea has been a vital theater of the war since Russias full-scale invasion almost a year and a half ago, with Russian warships there firing cruise missiles at Ukraine, including at targets hundreds of miles inland, and enforcing a blockade of Ukrainian ports. Moscows fleet keeps a more cautious distance from Ukraines coast since Ukrainian forces sank the cruiser Moskva, the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet, in April 2022, using missiles fired from shore.
One summer evening as the sun sank behind the Dnipro River, the mammoth waterway that bisects Ukraine, Anatolii Volkov walked along a river beach, head down.

A Ukrainian archaeologist, Mr. Volkov looked as if he was just taking a stroll. But he was actually examining the mostly dried-up ground of a former reservoir that has revealed a treasure trove of artifacts after a catastrophic explosion at the Kakhovka dam sent 4.8 trillion gallons of water gushing downstream, emptying the reservoir and scraping away the sand and silt that had covered the objects for centuries.

Look at this, he said.

He bent down and picked up an object about two inches long. He rubbed his fingers over the grooves.
The group of teenage pilgrims traipsing through Lisbon during this weeks big meeting of Catholic youth from all over the world seemed to have taken to heart Pope Francis call for them to shake things up.

It would be better, one girl said, if the church were more inclusive of all relationships, gay rights and all that. A boy holding a portable speaker playing pop hits added he would be all for girls being priests. Another girl, with an Irish flag draped from her shoulders, said that she would like to hear women say Mass.

More people would then practice the Catholic faith, said Alexandra Beattie, 17, who, like the others, was a student at St. Ciarans College, in Ballygawley, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. Yeah, said Niamh Quinn, also 17, people would come in and it would only produce good things because the message is good  love one another.

Francis, 86, has sought to breathe fresh air into the church during his decade as pontiff, and at the World Youth Day celebrations this week in Portugal he has stressed that the church has room for everyone.
View the surveys cross-tabs and results among the national likely Republican electorate.

The Siena College Research Institute will guarantee your anonymity, [an-a-nim-a-tee] however: If you would be open to commenting on the issues in this survey, would you like to be contacted by a reporter?

(If Protestant, Christian, Mormon, Greek/Russian Orthodox or some other religion) Do you consider yourself an evangelical or born-again Christian? (Without combination)

(If Protestant, Christian, Mormon, Greek/Russian Orthodox or some other religion) Do you consider yourself an evangelical or born-again Christian? (Combined with religion question)

Do you consider yourself Catholic, Protestant, Mormon, Jewish, Muslim, some other religion, or do you have no religious affiliation?

Which of the following general income categories is your total household income before taxes? [IF NEEDED: I just want to remind you that you are completely anonymous. We only use this information in aggregate form to ensure we have a representative group of people.]

Do you consider yourself politically liberal, moderate or conservative? [FOLLOW UP: (If liberal or conservative) Is that very or somewhat?]

Would you consider yourself: [IF biracial or multiracial ask: What races would that be?]

Now just a few questions for demographic purposes ... Are you of Hispanic origin or descent, such as Mexican, Dominican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, or some other Spanish background?

Was it a Democratic caucus or a Republican caucus, or have you attended both caucuses?

Which of these two Republicans would you be more likely to support in a Republican primary for president: [READ LIST]

A Republican whom you agree with most on the issues

Which of these two Republicans would you be more likely to support in a Republican primary for president: [READ LIST]

Which of these two Republicans would you be more likely to support in a Republican primary for president: [READ LIST]

Which of these two Republicans would you be more likely to support in a Republican primary for president: [READ LIST]

A candidate who says that the government should stay out of deciding what corporations can support

Which of these two Republicans would you be more likely to support in a Republican primary for president: [READ LIST]

A candidate who focuses on restoring law and order in our streets and at the border

Which of these two Republicans would you be more likely to support in a Republican primary for president: [READ LIST]

He went so far that he threatened American democracy

He was just exercising his right to contest the election

What comes closer to your view about Donald Trump's actions after the 2020 election? [READ LIST]

A comprehensive immigration reform bill that provides a pathway to citizenship for all undocumented immigrants currently living in the United States [IF NEEDED: Tell me whether you support or oppose the policy. FOLLOW UP: Is that strongly or somewhat?]

Providing additional economic and military support to Ukraine [IF NEEDED: Tell me whether you support or oppose the policy. FOLLOW UP: Is that strongly or somewhat?]

Allowing gay and lesbian people to marry [IF NEEDED: Tell me whether you support or oppose the policy. FOLLOW UP: Is that strongly or somewhat?]

A federal law banning abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy [IF NEEDED: Tell me whether you support or oppose the policy. FOLLOW UP: Is that strongly or somewhat?]

A state law banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy [IF NEEDED: Tell me whether you support or oppose the policy. FOLLOW UP: Is that strongly or somewhat?]

For each of the following items, tell me whether you support or oppose the policy.

Do you think abortion should be always legal, mostly legal, mostly illegal or always illegal?

Fun [IF NEEDED: Do you think this word or phrase better describes Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis  FOLLOW UP: Is that a lot better or somewhat better?]

Gets things done [IF NEEDED: Do you think this word or phrase better describes Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis  FOLLOW UP: Is that a lot better or somewhat better?]

Able to beat Joe Biden [IF NEEDED: Do you think this word or phrase better describes Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis  FOLLOW UP: Is that a lot better or somewhat better?]

Likable [IF NEEDED: Do you think this word or phrase better describes Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis  FOLLOW UP: Is that a lot better or somewhat better?]

Moral [IF NEEDED: Do you think this word or phrase better describes Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis  FOLLOW UP: Is that a lot better or somewhat better?]

Strong leader [IF NEEDED: Do you think this word or phrase better describes Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis  FOLLOW UP: Is that a lot better or somewhat better?]

Thinking about the candidates for the Republican nomination for president, please tell me if you think this word or phrase better describes Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis 

Tell me whether you have a very favorable, somewhat favorable, somewhat unfavorable or very unfavorable opinion of Governor Kim Reynolds.

Tell me whether you have a very favorable, somewhat favorable, somewhat unfavorable or very unfavorable opinion of Nikki Haley.

Tell me whether you have a very favorable, somewhat favorable, somewhat unfavorable or very unfavorable opinion of Chris Christie.

Tell me whether you have a very favorable, somewhat favorable, somewhat unfavorable or very unfavorable opinion of Vivek Ramaswamy [Viv-AKE Rahm-uh-SWAM-ee].

Tell me whether you have a very favorable, somewhat favorable, somewhat unfavorable or very unfavorable opinion of Tim Scott.

Tell me whether you have a very favorable, somewhat favorable, somewhat unfavorable or very unfavorable opinion of Mike Pence.

Tell me whether you have a very favorable, somewhat favorable, somewhat unfavorable or very unfavorable opinion of Ron DeSantis [Duh-SAN-Tis].

Tell me whether you have a very favorable, somewhat favorable, somewhat unfavorable or very unfavorable opinion of Donald Trump.

(Recoded to age) In what year were you born? [IF NEEDED: This is just used to compute your age.]

What is the highest educational level that you have completed? [READ LIST]

(If not voting for Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis) And if the only choices were Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis, who would you be more likely to vote for? (Without combination)

And if the only choices were Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis, who would you be more likely to vote for? (Combined with primary vote choice)

(If NOT voting for Donald Trump) Are you considering supporting Donald Trump in the primary or are you not considering supporting Donald Trump in the primary?

(If voting for Donald Trump) Are you considering other candidates in the primary or are you only considering Donald Trump in the primary?

Would you say you support [candidate in previous question] strongly or not too strongly?

If the Iowa party caucuses were being held today, which candidate would you be most likely to vote for? [DO NOT READ LIST] [IF RESPONDENT DOES NOT PROVIDE A NAME, READ LIST AND STOP WHEN RESPONDENT GIVES A NAME. (You do not have to read the entire list.)] [IF NEEDED: If you had to decide today ...]

Thinking ahead to Januarys Iowa Republican Party presidential caucuses, would you say youre almost almost certain to attend the caucus, very likely to attend the caucus, somewhat likely to attend the caucus, not very likely to attend the caucus or not at all likely to attend the caucus?

I know it's a very long way away, but thinking about the Iowa presidential caucuses [cawk-ah-sis] in 2024, do you think you're more likely to participate in the Democratic Party caucus [cawk-is] or the Republican Party caucus [cawk-is], or do you think you won't attend a party caucus [cawk-is]?

Do you think the United States is on the right track, or is it headed in the wrong direction? [IF NEEDED: Based on anything you may have seen or heard, if you had to pick, would you say right track or wrong direction?]

Methodology

The New York Times/Siena College poll of 432 likely Iowa Republican caucusgoers was conducted in English on cellular and landline telephones from July 28 to Aug. 1, 2023. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 5.9 percentage points.

Sample

The survey is based on a response-rate-adjusted stratified sample of non-Democratic registered voters on the L2 voter file. The sample was selected by The New York Times in multiple steps to account for differential telephone coverage and nonresponse.

First, registered Democrats were excluded from the Iowa voter file. Iowa Republican caucus rules allow registered Democrats to re-register as Republicans at a caucus site, so excluding Democrats does introduce noncoverage bias. However, less than 2 percent of the likely Democratic caucus electorate were registered Republicans in Times/Siena polling of the Iowa caucus in 2020.

Second, records were selected. To adjust for noncoverage bias, the L2 voter file was stratified by statehouse district, party, race, gender, marital status, household size, turnout history, age and home ownership. The proportion of registrants with a telephone number and the mean expected response rate, based on prior Times/Siena polls, were calculated for each stratum. The initial selection weight was equal to the reciprocal of a stratums mean telephone coverage and modeled response rate. For respondents with multiple telephone numbers on the L2 file, the number with the highest modeled response rate was selected.

Fielding

The sample was stratified by party, race and region and fielded by the Siena College Research Institute, with additional field work by ReconMR, the Public Opinion Research Laboratory at the University of North Florida and the Institute of Policy and Opinion Research at Roanoke College. Interviewers asked for the person named on the voter file and ended the interview if the intended respondent was not available. Overall, 73 percent of respondents were reached on a cellular telephone.

Weighting

The survey was weighted by The Times using the R survey package in multiple steps.

First, the sample was adjusted for unequal probability of selection by stratum.

Second, the sample was weighted to match voter file-based parameters for the characteristics of non-Democratic registered voters, including targets for the self-reported educational attainment based on previous Times/Siena polls.

The following targets were used to weight the sample:

 Party x primary participation (NYT classifications based on L2 voter data)

 Age (Self-reported age, or voter file age if the respondent refuses)

 Gender (L2 data)

 Race or ethnicity (L2 model)

 Education (four categories of self-reported education, weighted to match NYT-based targets derived from Times/Siena polls, census data and the L2 voter file)

 Marital status (L2 model)

 Home ownership (L2 model)

 Metropolitan area (2013 National Center for Health Statistics Urban-Rural Classification Scheme for Counties)

 State region (NYT classifications)

 Turnout history (NYT classifications based on L2 data)

 Vote method in the 2020 elections (NYT classifications based on L2 data)

 Census block group density (A.C.S. 5-Year Census Block Group data)

 Home value (L2 data)

Likely caucusgoers

The sample of registered voters was screened to the Republican caucus universe, based on a question asking whether respondents were likely to participate in the Republican caucus, the Democratic caucus or wouldnt attend a caucus. Only respondents who said they were likelier to participate in the Republican caucus were included in the potential caucus universe. All other respondents were excluded.

Next, respondents in the Republican caucus universe received a probability of caucusing, based on the relationship between self-reported intention to vote and validated turnout in prior Times/Siena polls. This probability includes a penalty based on the tendency for survey respondents to overreport voting; in this survey, that penalty was approximately twice as large as in a typical Times/Siena survey, based on the disparity between the implied and actual level of turnout in the Times/Siena survey of the Iowa Democratic caucus in 2020, which was conducted using the same likely voter screening questions. The probability of caucusing does not include a voter file-based turnout score, as the Iowa voter file does not contain the vote history of previous Republican caucusgoers.

The final weight was equal to the registered voter weight, multiplied by the respondents probability of voting in the Iowa caucus.

The margin of error accounts for the surveys design effect, a measure of the loss of statistical power due to survey design and weighting. The design effect for the full sample of non-Democratic registered voters is 1.15. The design effect for the likely Republican caucus electorate is 1.57, which includes the added variance due to incorporating the probability that a respondent will participate in the Republican caucus.
A Hungarian man temporarily became a rich man, after the company he worked for accidentally paid him 367 times more than he had actually earned. And when the employer asked for the money back, he refused to pay.

The unnamed man, who hails from Hungarys Somogy County, briefly worked for a company in Kaposvar but his employment was terminated during the trial period. For his short stint at the company, he stood to earn 92,549 forints, which amounted to 238 euros ($260), but in a feat of incredible generosity, his employer wired him 367 times that amount. Actually, it was just a huge mistake caused by the fact that the man had provided an Austrian bank account, so the salary had to be paid in the local currency, euros. Only instead of converting the forints to euros, they sent the lucky man 92,549 euros instead

Photo: Markus Spiske/Unsplash

Soon after realizing the mistake, the Hungarian company contacted its former employee and asked him to return the money that had been accidentally wired to his bank account. However, the man said that he did not have access to the Austrian bank account anymore, so he couldnt wire them the money back. Only that obviously wasnt the end of it, and a subsequent police investigation found that the man had extracted some 15,500 euros in cash from his Austrian account through an ATM in southern Hungary and transferred it to another bank account.

With the help of the Kaposvar District Prosecutors Office, the company managed to freeze the Austrian bank account of the accused and arranged for the money to be transferred back to its own bank account. According to Hvg.hu, it has recovered around 72,000 euros so far, but hopes to eventually receive the full amount wired to its former employee.

Photo: Eduardo Soares/Unsplash

As for the accused, he has been charged with unlawful appropriation and risks a huge fine.

Last year, we featured the similar story of a Chilean man who accidentally received 268 times his salary and vanished without a trace to avoid paying it back.
An Indonesian woman is lucky to be enough after surviving a crocodile attack for 90 minutes before finally being rescued and taken to a hospital.

On July 27, Falmira De Jesus, a 38-year-old palm oil plantation from Indonesias West Kalimantan Province, was collecting water from a shallow, greenery-covered stream in Ketapang Regency when she was suddenly attacked by a crocodile lying in wait. As the woman approached the body of water, the giant reptile leaped up from the foliage, grabbed her leg, and dragged her into the water. Somehow, Falmira managed to cry for help and fight the crocodile long enough for her plantation co-workers to arrive and help her. Viral footage shows the brave woman with only her head above water as she literally tries to hang on for her life to wooden poles extended in the water by her co-workers, while others prod the water with sticks to discourage the crocodile.

Photo: Thomas Couillard/Unsplash

I was in pain from where the crocodile was holding me. I couldnt break free, Falmira recalled. Then I started to feel like I was becoming weaker. I just thought I was going to die, because I was falling below the water.

Eyewitnesses said that the crocodile gripped Falmira for 90 minutes and repeatedly tried to pull her down into the water. Luckily for her, the water wasnt deep enough, and, over time, more people arrived to help. Eventually, the reptile decided to let go of its prey and retreat. The bravest of her co-workers ventured into the water to get her out, and she was rushed to the nearest hospital.

I lie in the hospital and can still see the crocodile in my mind, and feel it on my body, the 38-year-old survivor said. I am very grateful for people that helped me to escape. They saved my life.

Doctors told Indonesian reporters that the mother-of-two suffered deep puncture wounds on her right arm, thigh, and lower leg, but is scheduled to make a full recovery, which many consider nothing short of a miracle.



Local police praised both Falmira for bravely fighting the crocodile for over 90 minutes, as well as the people who helped her through the ordeal, but also warned workers and residents around the plantation to be more vigilant when approaching bodies of water. After all, Indonesia is home to 14 different species of crocodile.
Its in the bag Donald Trump says he needs one more indictment to secure his election.

Georgia will soon deliver the goods, indicting the former president for his role in attempting to overturn the Peach States 2020 election.

Trump cant wait. Hes excited about receiving a PR bonus from Georgias law enforcement squad.

Fulton County sheriff Pat Labat expects Trump will have to take a mug shot. "Unless somebody tells me differently, we are following our normal practices, and so it doesnt matter your status, well have a mugshot ready for you," Labat told WSBTV.

The mug shot would be PR gold for Trump. It would play into his whining about victimhood.

Team Trump will plaster the mug shot all over its never-ending pleas for campaign cash. The mug shot will adorn Trump flags. Even Biden supporters would kick in for a mug shot of Trump.

Labat should think twice about boosting Trumps campaign.

Hitting those country roads. Trump wants to move the trial for the storming of the Capitol to an impartial Venue, such as the politically unbiased nearby State of West Virginia! according to his post on Truth Social.

Trump claims its impossible to get a fair trial in Washington because it is over 95% anti-Trump, & for which I have called for a Federal TAKEOVER in order to bring our Capital back to Greatness, he posted.

He is limiting himself. West Virginia only gave 68.6 percent of its vote to Trump in the 2020 election. Why not seal the deal and move the trial to the more-friendly confines of Mar-a-Lago?

Trump isnt exactly winning over potential jurors in DC. He posted that Washington is filthy, dirty, falling apart and unsafe.

The fact remains that DC is where Trumps alleged criminal activity took place. He was also based in DC on that Jan. 6 day when Americas democracy was on the brink.

Trump can always visit West Virginia after he gets out of prison. The good people of the Mountain State will roll out a very deep red carpet for him.

DeSantis scores a mighty win. The Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, which the Florida governor installed to go after Walt Disney Co. has abolished DEI programming.

The so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives that were advanced during the tenure of the previous board were illegal and simply Un-American, said administrator Glenton Gillian. Our district will no longer participate in any attempt to divide us by race, or advance the notion that we are not created equal.

The previous board, Reedy Creek Improvement District, of course, used DEI to level the playing field because as George Orwell wrote: All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

Assuming DeSantis hasnt banned Animal Farm from Floridas public libraries, Gillian should take out a copy.

Kudos to Apple CEO Tim Cook as the company amasses more than 1B subscribers to its Apple TV+, Apple Music and iCloud. That drove Apple to an all-time high in revenues during the June quarter.

Cook, though, should keep the champagne bottle corked. Apples robust 8.2 percent in services growth to $21.2M could not overcome the 4.4 percent profit dip to $60.3M in product (Macs, iPhones, iPads) sales. Apples overall revenues fell 1.4 percent to $81.8B.

Apple expects a revenue shortfall in the September period, which would make four straight quarters of revenue drops.

Cook claims Apples quarterly June results were strained due to heavy spending on the R&D front, especially in the AI sector.

Wall Street wants to see how Apple applies its AI expects to juice the sales of its high-margin product business.
THE death has occurred in Florida of Derrycooley native Michael (Mike) Byrne at the age of 93.

Mike, a beloved husband, father, grandfather, and skilled mechanic, passed away peacefully at his Palm Harbor home on July 24th, at the age of 93.

Born in Derrycooley, County Offaly, on May 31st, 1930, Mike lived a wonderfully full life, characterised by his creative, and gentle nature.

In his professional life, Mike's exceptional skill and passion for mechanics led him to a remarkable career that spanned across several countries. His journey began at GN Walsh in Tullamore, before moving on to Cavan town, and later London.

He emigrated to the United States in 1957 and continued his mechanical journey with a trucking company in Elmsford, New York, before moving back to Ireland as a Fitter at Bord Na Mona in Derrinlough.

He later worked at Northern Westchester Hospital in Mt. Kisco, New York before culminating his career as a 'Tin Knocker' for Metro North in New York. During his professional career, he was honoured to work on projects that included London Bridge and Heathrow Airport in the UK, Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, and Grand Central Station in New York.

Mike returned to Ireland with his family in 1976 for a number of years to work in Bord na Mona and owned and managed with his wife Frances, the Lawrence apartments in Church Street/Market Square, Tullamore. His children attended school in Tullamore, and made life-long friendships that endure to this day.

Mike was treasured by his employers and co-workers, not just for his mechanical prowess but also for his witty sense of humour, his ability to tell a great story, and his inventive spirit. He was a man who could always find a way to mend what was broken - a co-worker once stated that he was the only man he knew that could take out a diesel engine, rebuild it, and put it back, all in the same shift! His laughter and originality brought joy to those around him, making even everyday moments memorable. Always ready with a joke or a story, he lived his life with grace, humour, and gratitude.

Beyond his work and unique interests, Mike's greatest joy was his family. He is survived by his loving wife of 62 years, Mary Frances Byrne (new McGowan, a Tullamore native), and their four cherished children - Frances Byrne Keefe, Karen Byrne Ondash, Kevin Byrne, and Deirdre Byrne Glynn. His legacy lives on in his children, their spouses: Darla Darlin and Stephen Glynn, and his adored grandchildren: Fionn and Rory Keefe, Kiley and Mark Ondash Jr., Kaela and Ciara Byrne, and Jilian and Ellie Glynn. Each one of them was a source of immense pride and joy for Mike.

Mikes funeral took place in Palm Harbour on Monday July 31. He is fondly remembered by a generation of visiting Tullamore people whom he and his family welcomed into their home in Yorktown Heights, New York.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 4. Yerevan's silence on the fate of missing Azerbaijanis testifies to its crimes, Deputy Chairman of the Organization of Veterans of War, Labor and the Armed Forces, Colonel Jalil Khalilov told Trend.

"Armenia's silence regarding the fate of nearly 4,000 missing Azerbaijanis is a gross violation of international laws and conventions," he said.

"Armenia's silence on the fate of nearly 4,000 missing Azerbaijanis violates international law and conventions." Despite all of Azerbaijan's efforts, Armenia has yet to resolve the problem of the fate of 3,890 of our compatriots who went missing during the first Karabakh war. "There are 3,171 military personnel and 719 civilians (71 children, 267 women, and 326 elderly people)," Khalilov stated.

"The fact that Armenia refuses to provide information about the fate of missing Azerbaijani citizens demonstrates that it disregards international laws and conventions and places little value on humanistic values," he added.

According to him, Azerbaijan's concern about the fate of its citizens who went missing during the first Karabakh war was repeatedly expressed from the highest tribunes by President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and brought to the attention of the international community and organizations.

Khalilov expressed regret that no international organization has yet pressed Armenia on this issue, adding that international organizations voicing claims against Azerbaijan in connection with the Lachin border checkpoint remain silent on the issue of Armenia's failure to provide information on the fate of 3,890 Azerbaijanis.

"All of this demonstrates double standards and a bias toward our country." "However, everyone should be aware that Azerbaijan will resolve the issue of its citizens who went missing during the first Karabakh war," he stated.
Gardai have seized approximately 100,000 worth of suspected drugs and arrested one man during an operation targeting the sale and supply of drugs in the Dublin Metropolitan Region (DMR) North.

A total of seven premises were searched in the Dublin 5 and Dublin 13 areas yesterday afternoon.

The searches were conducted by the District Drugs Units in Raheny and Coolock, with assistance from the Community Policing Unit, Street Crime Unit and National Dog Unit.

During the course of the searches, quantities of suspected cannabis herb and cocaine were seized.

The estimated value of drugs seized is approximately 100,000.

The drugs are subject to analysis by Forensic Science Ireland (FSI).

One male (aged in his 20s) was arrested during the course of the operation, and detained under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984 at a Garda station in North Dublin.

He has since been charged and is due to appear before the Criminal Courts of Justice this morning, Friday August 4 at 10.30am.

Investigations are ongoing.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has defended Fingal County Councils decision to issue an enforcement order on Dublin Airport requiring it to reduce the number of night-time flights.

Mr Varadkar said he did not think there would ultimately be any disruption to flights and expressed confidence a resolution would be found.

The council has told the airport to reduce the number of flights between 11pm to 7am to 65 a night within six weeks.

The order comes after the council ruled the airport was in breach of planning conditions for operating late-night flights.

Ryanair has branded the enforcement order stupid, and called on the sledgehammer measures by the council to be reversed.

Ryanair boss Michael OLeary said that most first wave flights depart between 6am and 7am, and the measure would destroy their schedule.

He also suggested that opening the second runway at the airport could be a solution.

The easiest way to comply with these planning restrictions would be to open the second runway between 6am and midnight, he told RTE Radio.

We have a ridiculous situation at the moment in Dublin Airport where the second runway is closed in the early morning, all the aircrafts are taking off the one runway, and what this enforcement notice by Fingal County Council would do is reduce the overall number of flights at Dublin Airport, below the number we had when there was only one runway.

He said that he was asking for the transport minister Eamon Ryan to get involved, stating: Access to and from the island of Ireland, on the periphery of Europe cant be regulated by a local council or a couple of local residents at St Margarets.

Speaking to reporters in Dunleer, Co Louth, Mr Varadkar said: Fingal County Council has to enforce the law.

And if planning conditions have been breached, well, then Fingal County Council has no choice but to enforce the law, so I dont criticise the council for doing its job.

But I think theres a number of further steps that are yet to play out in this regard.

There is an appeal before An Bord Pleanala (planning appeals body) at the moment and I think theres also likely to be a court case.

So I dont anticipate that there will be disruption to peoples flights.

If people are worried about their flights in the next few weeks, whether its for holidays, or visiting relatives or businesses, I dont think they need to be because this will play out, both in An Bord Pleanala and in the courts.

But ultimately, Fingal County Council has to enforce the existing planning permission and they are right to do so.
A CALL on Offaly County Councils Regeneration Team to prioritise Rahan village for upcoming rounds of funding available for regeneration from a number of Government departments has been made by Cllr Neil Feighery.

For some time now, I have been working with Tullamore Municipal District staff and the Regeneration Team to promote the delivery of funding for specific schemes in Rahan. Last year in conjunction with Rahan Community Alert an application was made under the Department of Rural and Community Developments Outdoor Recreation Infrastructure Scheme (ORIS) for a new scheme in Rahan that would open up the Clodiagh River to local residents and visitors and provide a valuable amenity site. Regrettably the scheme was unsuccessful under the most recent ORIS funding announcements.

I contacted the Minister for Rural and Community Development, Heather Humphreys TD to obtain feedback from her Department on the application. Minister Humphreys officials provided very constructive feedback to me which I have forwarded to officials with a view to resubmitting a new application when the scheme reopens.

Offaly has received 29 million in recent years from Minister Humphreys Department allowing the completion of schemes in the Tullamore District like the Brocca Road project in Mucklagh, Killeigh, Mountbolus, Clara Bog footpath link and Ballycumber. Full credit goes to the commitment of the Regeneration Team and the Municipal District staff for this.

Last week, Minister Humphreys announced the opening of the 15 million Town and Village Renewal Scheme which will continue to fund the revitalisation of towns and villages across the country. In this council term, I along with my colleagues in the Tullamore Municipal District rejected proposals to declassify Rahans village status under the County Development Plan deliberations. As a result, Rahan continues to be eligible for the TVR scheme.

It is hugely important that the Council prioritises Rahan village under the 2023 TVR scheme. I have been in discussions with residents in recent weeks and I would encourage anyone with ideas in the Rahan area to contact me and I will make every effort to ensure that all views and ideas are considered during this process.
Offaly hurler and member of the Gaelic Players Association (GPA), Ben Conneely, is urging people to become charitable All-Stars for a great local cause this summer and go Up the Hill for Jack and Jill.

Going Up the Hill for Jack and Jill is easy! Simply identify a local hill or mountain to suit your fitness and ability, and invite your family, friends, neighbours, or colleagues to join in the fun. Each 18 registration fee will help fund one hour of in-home nursing care and end-of-life support for children with highly complex and life-limiting medical conditions, up to the age of six years.

There are families in communities across the country being cared for right now by the Jack and Jill Childrens Foundation, including five families in Offaly. In fact, a total of 39 families have been supported by Jack and Jill in Offaly since the charitys foundation in 1997.

2023 will be the ninth annual Up the Hill for Jack and Jill, kindly supported this year by the global healthcare company, Abbott. Organisers are hoping to raise over 75,000 for Jack and Jills vital services  equivalent to 4,167 hours of in-home nursing care and respite support  which is a lifeline for over 400 families currently availing of the service across the country.

Three Simple Steps to Go Up the Hill for Jack and Jill!

Step 1  On your Marks! Register your Up the Hill fundraiser at www.jackandjill.ie for just 18 per adult participating

Step 2  Get Set! Organise your Up the Hill fundraising event and rally family, friends, neighbours and colleagues to team up with you, or to lend their support, by making a donation

Step 3  Go! Take aim at a local hill, choose a day and time to suit, grab your eco-friendly #UptheHill23 banner, and Go!

For Offaly hurler and GPA member, Ben Conneely, every game is an endurance test. But the endurance capacity of Jack and Jill families in supporting their children day in, day out, is next-level:

Jack and Jill is a gift of time for so many families who face very tough challenges in their home life. These families have a massive amount of resilience, but they need, and deserve, a break to enable them to recharge and face the next challenge. As a proud member of the Gaelic Players Association, Im inviting our wonderful community of players and supporters to go Up the Hill with Jack and Jill, and the GPA, this summer, as we support these inspiring families who just need a helping hand every once in a while, from their Jack and Jill nurse.

According to Carmel Doyle, CEO of the Jack and Jill Childrens Foundation, going Up the Hill for Jack and Jill is a really valuable way to support the uphill challenge faced by Jack and Jill families in their daily lives.

We are delighted to have the support of Ben Conneely in encouraging people to go the extra mile for this years Up the Hill for Jack and Jill campaign. As with the GAA, Jack and Jill is all about community. We know there is no care like home care for a Jack and Jill child, and we want to do everything that we can to support parents in caring for their child at home in their communities, where they belong. Every 18 raised helps to provide one hour of in-home nursing care and it really is a lifeline to so many families who face an uphill challenge every day. I hope people will come together for our extra-special Jack and Jill children to show them how much they care and to help make parents feel a little less isolated and alone in raising a child with highly complex medical needs.

Partnering with the Jack and Jill Childrens Foundations Up the Hill 2023 campaign is Abbott. For Conor Murphy, a Site Director with Abbott, the partnership reflects a shared commitment to helping local communities:

Abbott are proud to be partnering with Jack and Jill and supporting their Up the Hill campaign. We have been inspired by Jack and Jills commitment to providing compassionate care to children and their families right across Ireland. We are excited to contribute to their vital work once again this year.

For more information or to register for Up the Hill for Jack and Jill 2023, visit www.jackandjill.ie, email info@jackandjill.ie or call 045 894538.

Follow on social media at:

Facebook @JackandJillFoundation

Twitter @JackandJillCF

Instagram @JackandJillCF

LinkedIn @The Jack and Jill Children's Foundation

#SupportLocal #DonateLocal #CommunityMatters #UptheHill23
BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 4. A group of Ukrainian children and teenagers, affected by the war, visited Azerbaijan, Trend reports.

The visit was organized by the Social Services Agency under the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population of Azerbaijan.

Ukrainian children and teenagers arrived in Azerbaijan for rehabilitation purposes. They will have an exciting and rich program for two weeks. They will take walks, get acquainted with historical places and sights of Baku, Gabala, Shaki and Shamakhi. In addition, various events will be organized for them, including English language courses, national dance lessons, personal consultations with professional psychologists, etc.

In general, 30 Ukrainian children and teenagers aged 11 to 17 arrived in Azerbaijan, accompanied by teachers.

As part of the program of stay in the capital, a tour of the Old City of Baku  Icheri sheher was organized.

The children were informed about Icherisheher during the tour. They took a walk through the significant places, and got acquainted with the sights, including the Maiden Tower, the Palace of Shirvanshahs and others. The historical and architectural monuments of the ancient part of Baku aroused great interest among children.

It is very interesting for children to get acquainted with the sights, historical and architectural monuments of Azerbaijan, the group leader of Ukrainian children and teenagers Lyudmila Korniaka told Trend.

"We were invited to Azerbaijan so that the children would have the opportunity to relax and get positive emotions. The program that has been prepared for us is very rich and interesting. This is the first visit to Azerbaijan for the children and the leaders of the group, so I want to learn as much as possible about the country, about traditions and culture. We were very warmly welcomed in Azerbaijan. I express my gratitude to the organizers of our visit," said Korniaka.

According to Ukrainian schoolboy Maxim Tsitsarkin, he wants to walk along the Baku boulevard, go to the sea.

"This is my first visit to Azerbaijan. I am grateful to the organizers for the program they have made for us. Despite the fact that this is only the beginning of our visit, there are already a lot of impressions. I really liked the architecture of Baku, historical monuments, and hospitable residents of the city. The environment here is extremely positive," he said.

Moreover, Olena Lytvynenko, a 14-year-old Ukrainian schoolgirl, said that she liked the Azerbaijani national cuisine.

"We have already tasted dishes of national cuisine, it was very tasty. During the visit, many excursions will be organized for us in the capital and regions of Azerbaijan. I want to visit the Carpet Museum, where rare exhibits are kept. Our visit is organized wonderfully, and I think it will leave positive impressions for many years to come," she said.
Gruha Lakshmi Scheme Application WhatsApp Number: How To Submit The Link Using Chatbot?

Bengaluru

oi-Madhuri Adnal

The Karnataka government has introduced a chatbot to facilitate applications for the Gruha Lakshmi scheme, resulting in over seven lakh women successfully submitting applications for the monthly subvention of Rs 2,000 for female heads of households.

Developed by the Centre for e-Governance, the chatbot communicates with applicants and provides guidance throughout the application process. Officials claim that women heads of households can complete the application in less than three minutes if they have all the required documents ready.

To interact with the chatbot, women can use text messages on WhatsApp, connecting to the chatbot through the phone number 8147500500. This user-friendly approach is currently employed at BangaloreOne, KarnatakaOne, and GramaOne offices to accept applications. This innovative use of chatbot technology marks the government's first application of chatbots, typically utilized by companies for customer support.

How Gruha Jyothi Scheme's Zero Electricity Bill Looks Like? See Here

The Gruha Lakshmi scheme, one of five flagship schemes launched by the Congress government, offers eligible women heads of households a monthly subvention of Rs 2,000 from the government. As of last week, more than 94 lakh women have applied for the Gruha Lakshmi scheme, with over seven lakh of these applications being received through the chatbot. This scheme reportedly incurs an annual cost of Rs 17,500 crore for the government.

Furthermore, the government is reportedly planning to extend the use of chatbots to receive applications for the smart cards project under the Shakti scheme. This scheme enables women residents of Karnataka to travel for free on state-run ordinary buses.
Manarkeni App: CM Stalins push to revolutionise school curriculum

Chennai

oi-Oneindia English Desk

The transformation of the education sector under the Dravidian model of government is exponential. Apart from books, practical learning and practical knowledge was given more magnitude. CM Stalin in a way of walking the talk introduced many schemes such as the midday meal scheme, Pudhumai Penn scheme etc. and established the fact that education is a basic right of everyone.

In an effort to digitalise the school curriculum in this technology-driven world, CM Stalin has introduced an application called "Manarkeni" and dedicated it to students. CM Stalin said, "Education is a hard-earned right which is significant for the development of world knowledge, rational thinking etc. Education is the only treasure in life which cannot be stolen." Indian educationist and activist Vasanthi Devi said, "Education is a public good which should be made accessible and affordable to all. The objective of the Manarkeni application is to democratise the opportunity for learning."

Manarkeni will serve as one of the aids that teachers employ to simplify subjects for students. The speciality of the app is that it contains videos explaining complex topics in subjects like physics, chemistry etc. The duration of the videos in the app ranges from 8 to 40 minutes. The videos in the app are made interesting with aids like brain teasers. And also has videos for civil service aspirants and other competitive exams.

The significance of the app lies in its usage for the understanding of basics. For instance, a 12th-standard student initially will find it difficult to understand the advanced portions taught in the class. To overcome this issue, the app contains videos of the basics taught in class 6th to 11th which can be used by the student to build his/her foundation again. "The app is made with Related Basic Concepts for the benefit of students", said educationist Madasamy.

The Manarkeni app is not a platform that is blindly overloaded with all education-related videos. It is a platform that contains carefully selected videos of subjects that need detailed explanations, and it will be updated regularly. The app has the option of free download of videos which can be saved on laptops by students for revision later. The rating feature on the app will also help the developers to modify and better the multiple features. Manarkeni is not exclusively for students, teachers can also use it to enhance their skills.

The Manarkeni app was released in Selaiyur Tambaram Higher Secondary School. Education Minister Anbil Mahesh tweeted, "Tamil Nadu is a pioneer state in the country for its efforts in digitising education in the times of technological development." The Manarkeni app was released by Ibrahim Thiaw, the Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. "I am visiting Tamil Nadu and attending a meeting in Chennai for the 1st time. I feel elated that the app can be accessed from any corner of the world and it is free of charge. The Tamil Nadu government has done a commendable job in providing information free of cost", said Ibrahim.

Clearly, data is health in the digital world.

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Story first published: Friday, August 4, 2023, 9:09 [IST]
Bengaluru Police Arrests Cab Driver Over Extortion

India

oi-Sushmita Halder

The Bengaluru Police arrested a 35-year-old cab driver in connection with extortion and blackmailing a woman. The accused has been identified as Kiran Kumar, a resident of Bhoothaiah Layout in Hesaraghatta.

According to the sources, Kiran extorted a woman passenger by blackmailing her on social media claiming to be an acquaintance of her male friend and threatening to expose her secrets to her husband.

The incident came to light when Police Sub-Inspector Mounesh Doddamani from the Ramamurthy Nagar police station on July 24 spotted a parked cab with several men inside seemingly having a party.

Initially, the police interrogated the men for consuming alcohol on a public road and that's when SI Mounesh noticed that the men were having Glenlivet whisky, a premium Scotch brand priced at around Rs 9,900 a bottle in Bengaluru and this seemed to be unusual.

"When I asked his name, he said his name was Praveen. I asked for his ID. Then, when I checked his purse, his name was Kiran. It was clear that there was something fishy," said Mounesh.

During interrogation, he revealed that he had been involved in a blackmailing scheme that helped him pocket Rs 40 lakh over the past five months.

It all began with a cab ride in November 2022. The woman had hired a cab via an app. Speaking to a male friend during the ride, she shared her marital issues, including her plans for a divorce, not realizing that the cab driver, Kiran Kumar, was eavesdropping.

Despite receiving the extortion money, Kumar continued to harass and torment her, the police said. Desperate to protect her reputation and that of her husband, the woman borrowed 960 gm of gold ornaments from her mother and grandmother and handed them over to Kumar. The gold was worth Rs 20 lakh, the police said.

The police reached out to the woman and persuaded her to file a complaint. "She did not want to file a complaint initially as she feared her family's reputation might be affected. We convinced her and her husband and gave full assurance that we would be with them. Eventually, they filed the complaint," a police officer said.

Kumar was finally arrested on July 28. While the police managed to recover the gold that he had pawned, Kumar had squandered the Rs 20 lakh in online betting, officials said.

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Story first published: Saturday, August 5, 2023, 0:05 [IST]
India's stand on Rohingyas gracious so far but housing them would be risky

Indias population imbalance and how Mullahs across the border are fuelling it

Days After Violence In Nuh, Haryana Govt Bulldozes Shanties Of Illegal Bangladeshi Immigrants

India

oi-Prakash KL

Days after violence in Nuh, the Haryana government on Thursday razed down 250 shanties of illegal immigrants, NDTV reported.

Reportedly, illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, who had previously resided in Assam, were found to have established makeshift settlements on Haryana Urban Authority land in ward number one along Mohammadpur road in Tauru town, Nuh district. They have been reportedly living here for four years, the report said.

However, this is seen as an action against the accused involved in the recent communal violence, according to a report in The Tribune. The majority of the people who pelted stones and attacked shops along with people were from the settlement, it reported citing police sources.

It is reported that the cops recognised the people through the CCTV footage and videos and then carried out the demolition act on the illegal encroachments.

Haryana Violence: Nuh SP Varun Singla Transferred, Narendra Bijarniya To Replace Him

As per police sources, the authorities are planning to conduct similar drives at various locations, including Nalhar village, where a VHP yatra was attacked by mobsters. Over 50 properties in different areas of Nuh have been identified for these operations.

It has to be noted that the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal had demanded "bulldozer" action against the accused involved in the violence. It is similar to what Yogi Adityanath's government in Uttar Pradesh has been doing against the people who are involved in the violence that result in damage to public properties.

However, the Haryana government too had adopted Yogi Adityanath's bulldozer "justice" system in the past. In 2022, state police with the civil administration razed several illegal structures built on government land in Sonipat district by notorious gangster Sandeep alias Kala Jatheri. Previously, the Nuh police seized and demolished illegal properties belonging to infamous criminals, encompassing cattle smugglers, illegal miners, extortionists, arms dealers, and cyber criminals.

Six people, including two home guards and a cleric, died in the clashes that erupted in Nuh over an attempt to stop a Vishva Hindu Parishad procession and spread to Gurugram. Over 176 people have been arrested so far and a total of 93 FIRs have been filed.

Meanwhile, three motorcycles were set on fire on Thursday night in Pataudi area, police said. The motorcycles were parked outside Rashid Auto Works near Chungi no. 4 while a mechanic was sleeping inside the shop. Firefighters doused the flames and rescued the mechanic, police said.
Manipur Violence: SC Sets Up Panel Of 3 Former HC Judges To Look Into Relief, Rehabilitation

Haryana Violence: Nuh SP Varun Singla Transferred, Narendra Bijarniya To Replace Him

India

oi-PTI

Nuh Superintendent of Police Varun Singla, who was on leave when the communal clashes broke out in the district, has been transferred, an official order said on Friday.

Singla has been made the superintendent of police, Bhiwani, it said. Narendra Bijarniya, who was holding the additional charge in Singla's absence, will be the new SP of Nuh, according to a government order issued on August 3 by Additional Chief Secretary (Home) T V S N Prasad. The order said, Singla, at present SP Nuh, has been transferred and posted as SP, Bhiwani.

IPS Narendra Bijarniya, SP, Bhiwani, who was also functioning as OSD to Additional DGP (law and order), in addition to his present duties to assist her in maintaining the law and order situation in Nuh and surrounding areas, has been transferred and posted as SP, Nuh.

Nuh Violence: How It All Started?

Six people, including two home guards and a cleric, died in the clashes that erupted in Nuh over an attempt to stop a Vishva Hindu Parishad procession and spread to Gurugram over the last few days.

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Story first published: Friday, August 4, 2023, 10:48 [IST]
How Rahul Gandhi's Advocate Argued Today In SC In Defamation Case? Highlights

India

oi-Prakash KL

Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, representing Gandhi in the 'Modi' surname case, told the Supreme Court that his client is not a hardened criminal and has not been convicted in any of the cases filed against him by BJP workers.

The three-judge bench comprising Justices B R Gavai, P S Narasimha, and Sanjay Kumar on Friday stayed his conviction in a 2019 defamation case over his Modi surname remark, paving the way for revival of his Lok Sabha membership.

How He Argued The Case?

The senior advocate said complainant Purnesh Modi's original surname is not 'Modi' and he adopted this surname later. "Not a single of the persons Gandhi had named during his speech has sued. This is a small community of 13 crore people and there is no uniformity, or homogeneity. Who is aggrieved in this community are only people who are BJP office-holders and suing, Singhvi said.

Rahul Gandhi's Conviction Paused: 6 Key Points Made By Supreme Court In Modi Defamation Case

Referring to the earlier verdict in the case by a lower court, Singhvi said the judge treats this as a serious offence involving moral turpitude. "This is non-cognisable, bailable, and compoundable offence. The offence was not against society, not kidnapping, rape, or murder. How can this become an offence involving moral turpitude?" he argued.

"In a democracy we have dissent, in a democracy we have disagreements. What we call 'shaleen bhasha'. Gandhi is not a hardened criminal. There are many cases filed by BJP workers, but there was never any conviction. Gandhi has already missed two sessions of the Parliament," he added.

He argued that the maximum sentence would silence Gandhi for eight years, as it would lead to his disqualification from elections according to the RP Act.

Subsequently, Singhvi pointed out that the conviction's consequence would necessitate the notification of a bye-election for the Wayanad constituency. He expressed concern over having already lost two sessions of Lok Sabha due to the case. If the Supreme Court were to rule against him, he would lose his entire term.

Additionally, he raised doubts about the evidence presented in the case. The complainant did not hear the speech firsthand, and the only sources of information were a WhatsApp message and a newspaper article. The lack of direct evidence of the speech was emphasized. Furthermore, he highlighted that the complainant had previously approached the High Court to suspend the trial, stating the need for gathering evidence. Surprisingly, one year later, the complainant himself got the stay lifted, and shortly after that, the conviction was handed down.

Rahul Gandhi To Be MP Again As SC Stays His Conviction In 'Modi Surname' Case

SC Stays Rahul Gandhi's Conviction

After hearing the argument, the three-judge bench said no reason was given by the trial court judge while convicting Gandhi except that he was admonished by the apex court in a contempt case.

The top court had closed the contempt proceedings against Gandhi for wrongly attributing to it his "chowkidar chor hai" remark against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in connection with the Rafale case, with a warning to be more careful in future after the senior Congress leader tendered an unconditional apology, according to a report in PTI.

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Story first published: Friday, August 4, 2023, 15:44 [IST]
Is BJP Ally Giving Ticket To Pak Woman Seema Haider To Contest 2024 Polls? Here Is The Truth

India

oi-Prakash KL

Amid rumours of Pakistani woman Seema Haider getting a ticket to contest the next Lok Sabha polls from BJP ally the Republican Party of India (A), its chief on Friday clarified that his party has no links with the woman, who illegally entered India to be with her Indian boyfriend Sachin Meena.

"Our party has no relations with Seema Haider. She has come from Pakistan to India...There is no question of including her in our party...If after all, we have to give her a ticket then it will be a ticket from India to Pakistan," ANI quoted him as saying.

As per an earlier report in Aaj Tak, the RPI had given an invitation to Haider to join it. Party official Masoom Kishore claimed that she will be made the head of the party's women's wing.

Also, she would be made the official spokesperson of the RPI after taking her fluency in Hindi and English languages into consideration, he told the channel.

In addition to it, she will be given a ticket to contest the next Lok Sabha poll while the party awaited security agencies' clean chit for her in the ongoing investigation to find out whether she has links with the Pakistani military.

#WATCH | Delhi: On Pakistani national Seema Haider, Ramdas Athawale, President, Republican Party of India (Athawale) & Union Minister says, "Our party has no relations with Seema Haider. She has come from Pakistan to India...There is no question of including her in our party...If pic.twitter.com/o735VvRh4u  ANI (@ANI) August 4, 2023

Seema Haider, a married Muslim woman from Pakistan and mother of four, came across 22-year-old Sachin Meena on PUBG during the pandemic in 2020. After falling in love, she left her country and married him in Nepal. She then went back to her country, sold her property for flight tickets and a Nepal visa from where she illegally entered India with her four children to stay with the man whom she married in May.

She took a bus from Delhi to Noida to meet her lover.

More than one-and-a-half-month later, local police got a whiff of a Pakistani woman and her children's illegal presence in their area. Sachin, Seema and her children tried to evade police arrest and fled, but were caught in Ballabhgarh in Haryana. Police then questioned them and officially arrested them on July 4.

Seema hailed from Sindh province in Pakistan and was settled in Karachi after her marriage in 2014. She has embraced Hinduism and vowed to not go to Pakistan. On the other hand, her husband Ghulam Haider pleaded with her and the Indian government to send her back to his country.

She has written a letter to President Draupadi Muru seeking Indian citizenship as she desires to settle in India with her Hindu husband along with her four children.
K'taka Health Mnister First Praises Delhi's Mohalla Clinic Initiative, Then Calls It 'Over-Hyped'

India

pti-PTI

Hours after praising the AAP government's Mohalla Clinic initiative, Karnataka Health Minister and Congress leader Dinesh Gundu Rao on Friday said it is "overhyped" and he was left "disappointed" after a visit to one such facility. There was no immediate reaction from the Arvind Kejriwal government on the Karnataka minister's change of statement.

The Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) are members of the opposition INDIA bloc.

On Friday, Rao visited an 'Aam Aadmi Mohalla Clinic' at Panchsheel Park here. He was accompanied by Delhi Health Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj and Karnataka Bhavan medical officer Karthik, according to an official statement. Almost four hours after praising the mohalla clinic initiative, Gundu Rao made a U-turn.

"Visited a mohalla clinic in Delhi with hardly any people there. Our clinics in Karnataka have more facilities, including a laboratory, to do immediate tests for patients," the Congress leader tweeted. "I guess it is overhyped and I came back feeling disappointed," he said.

During the visit, the Karnataka minister saw the facilities at the mohalla clinic and enquired about the welfare of staffers. The Delhi government's mohalla clinic is a neighbourhood facility for providing free primary healthcare to residents.

Delhi Metro To Facilitate Lockers To Commuters, Read Inside Story

The Mohalla clinic programme is among the flagship initiatives of the Kejriwal government to boost the primary healthcare system in Delhi. Speaking to reporters during his visit to the Panchsheel Park mohalla clinic, Rao had praised the mohalla clinic model and said that it is functioning "very well". "I had heard a lot about mohalla clinics and I wanted to see them personally. I wanted to discuss how they (AAP government) are implementing the health policies," he had told reporters.

"In southern states such as Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka, health has always been a priority. Every state has got something good that we can learn from. We have something similar (to mohalla clinics)... we have 'namma clinics'. We wanted to see how we can improve our system," he had said. Bharadwaj said his Karnataka counterpart told him about how good the hospitals are in the southern state. "We will also visit his state. All states should learn from each other. I am very happy that they have come here," he said.

Earlier in the day, quotetweeting Bharadwaj's tweets on Gundu Rao's visit, Kejriwal had said Delhi will learn from the good work done by the Karnataka government.

"Karnataka health minister visits Delhi mohalla clinics. We welcome him and his team. We all have to learn from each other. Delhi will also learn from the good work done by Karnataka govt," he had tweeted. Currently, there are more than 500 mohalla clinics in the national capital that offer free primary healthcare services to patients, including 212 different types of medical tests.
No Force Can Silence Voice Of People: Cong On Court Stay On Rahul's Conviction

India

oi-PTI

The Congress on Friday hailed the Supreme Court ruling staying the conviction of Rahul Gandhi in a 2019 defamation case, calling the judgment a strong vindication of truth and asserting that "no force can silence the voice of the people".

The Congress described it as a "victory of love over hate". The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the conviction of Gandhi in the defamation case over his Modi surname remark. Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said the Supreme Court judgment is a strong vindication of truth and justice. "Despite the relentless efforts of the BJPs machinery, Rahul Gandhi has refused to bend, break or bow, choosing instead to place his faith in the judicial process," he said on Twitter.

"Let this be a lesson to the BJP and its acolytes: you can do your absolute worst but we will not back down. We will continue to expose and call out your failures as a Government and as a party. We will continue to uphold our Constitutional ideals and repose faith in our institutions which you so desperately want to destroy. Satyameva Jayate!" Ramesh said. Congress' general secretary organisation K C Venugopal also hailed the verdict.

How Rahul Gandhi's Advocate Argued Today In SC In Defamation Case? Highlights

"We welcome the Hon'ble Supreme Court's verdict staying Sh. @RahulGandhi ji's conviction. Justice has prevailed. No force can silence the voice of the people," Venugopal said on Twitter. In a tweet in Hindi, the Congress said, "It is a victory of love over hate. Satyamev Jayate -- Jai Hind Congress general secretary Randeep Surjewala also hailed the ruling, saying justice has prevailed.

"The roar of truth will be heard again the halls of democracy!" he said. A three-judge bench of Justices B R Gavai, P S Narasimha and Sanjay Kumar said there is no doubt that the utterances were not in good taste and that a person in public life is expected to exercise caution while making public speeches. "No reason has been given by the trial judge for imposing maximum sentence, the order of conviction needs to be stayed pending final adjudication," the bench said.

Rahul Gandhi To Be MP Again As SC Stays His Conviction In 'Modi Surname' Case

The top court was hearing a plea by Gandhi challenging the Gujarat High Court verdict which dismissed his plea seeking a stay on his conviction in a defamation case over his "Modi surname" remark. Former Gujarat minister Purnesh Modi had filed a criminal defamation case in 2019 against Gandhi over his "How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname?" remark made during an election rally in Kolar in Karnataka on April 13, 2019.

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Story first published: Friday, August 4, 2023, 15:53 [IST]
Details added (first version published at 16:20)

BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 4. The leaders of a number of non-governmental organizations operating in Azerbaijan have addressed an appeal to the international community with a call to use the potential of humanitarian demining efforts in the process of peace building.

Trend presents the appeal.

We, representatives of Azerbaijan's civil society, are appealing to UN Secretary-General Mr. Antonio Guterres, President of the UN General Assembly Mr. Csaba Korosi, President of the UN Human Rights Council Mr. Vaclav Balek, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mr. Volker Turk, Director of the UN Mine Action Service Ms. Ilene Cohn, leaders and member countries of the European Union and Council of Europe institutions, and the leadership of Great Britain, calling on each of them to strongly support the elimination of the mine threat created by Armenia in the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan as soon as possible.

Today, more than 60 countries around the world are facing the threat of landmines. Azerbaijan is in one of the first places among countries most contaminated by mines and unexploded military ordnance. According to preliminary estimates, during the years of occupation, Armenia planted more than a million landmines on Azerbaijani territory.

We are feel the real danger posed by mines and unexploded ordnance in our daily activities. Since the 44-day war in 2020, a total of 303 people have become victims of landmines in the liberated territories of Azerbaijan. Fifty-five of them were killed, while others received injuries of varying degree of severity. Among the injured, nine are children and young people and two women. Since 1991, the total number of victims of mines planted by Armenia is approaching 3,400 people.

The government of Azerbaijan is using all the resources available to carry out demining operations in the territories freed from occupation. Nearly a million internally displaced people are eagerly awaiting a safe return to their homeland. In order to return, those areas must be cleared of mines as soon as possible, and there is a great need for international donor support of mine clearance work and victims of mine explosions.

Despite the use of state-of-the-art equipment in demining work, the massive contamination of areas with mines, the geography of planted mines and the lack of accurate minefield maps provided by Armenia are still creating enormous difficulties in identifying and clearing their locations.

Based on our research, we can note that approximately 71 percent of landmine incidents occurred outside the areas that used to be called the line of contact. This is further proof that they are intended to target civilians. Landmine incidents were also recorded in destroyed settlements, cemeteries, water springs, road crossings, forests and village paths.

The refusal of the Armenian side to provide accurate minefield maps, the path of deceiving the world community and the imitation of an alleged disclosure of minefield maps do not serve to eliminate the humanitarian disaster. This is also evidence of indifference to the establishment of peace and harmony, sustainable development between the two countries in the future.

The fact that Armenia continues to mine Azerbaijan's territories even after the 44-day war and the discovery of mines produced in 2021 in various areas is yet another in a series of Armenias crimes against humanity.

Demining is also one of the key conditions for achieving the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. It is for this reason that Azerbaijan has itself formulated the Sustainable Development Goal of demining and taken it upon itself as a national goal. Azerbaijan proposed a special 18th Sustainable Development Goal on humanitarian demining in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals on a global scale, to establish international partnership in the fight against mines and unexploded ordnance, to mobilize resources, and to pay special attention to mine-affected countries. We believe that this can attract the attention of the world community to the global mine threat.

We, as representatives of civil society organizations, urge you to support the elimination of the mine problem in Azerbaijan, to put pressure on Armenia, and to demonstrate a fair position in the elimination of the mine threat.

We believe in the great potential of humanitarian demining in the peace building process.

At the same time, we count on your valuable partnership, goodwill and support in eliminating the threats posed by mines and unexploded ordnance.

Signed by:

1. Hafiz Safikhanov, Chairman of the Azerbaijan Campaign Against Landmines Public Union

2. Rey Gasimov (Rey Karimoglu), Azerbaijan Mine Victims Association

3. Davud Rahimli, Chairman of the Union of Disabled People's Organizations

4. Azer Allahveranov, Chairman of the Eurasian Platform for Migration Initiatives Public Union

5. Zaur Ibrahimli, Chairman of the Priority Socio-Economic Research Center Public Union

6. Umud Mirzayev, Chairman of the International Eurasia Press Fund

7. Nadir Jafarov, Chairman of the Chirag Humanitarian and Development Public Union.
No Mastermind Behind Nuh Violence, Culprits Being Identified, Arrested: Nuh SP

India

pti-PTI

The investigation has revealed that there was no mastermind behind the clashes in the Nuh district, which was the doing of several disparate groups, a senior police officer said on Friday.

The officer's remarks in effect contradicted the state home minister's conjecture, according the which the violence was engineered and had a mastermind behind it.

"Somebody masterminded it but I dont want to reach any conclusions. We will investigate this and every single person responsible will be brought to justice," Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij had said on Tuesday, hours after the violence was first reported from Nuh.

Nuh SP Narendra Singh Bijarnia on Friday said police are already identifying and arresting people involved in the clashes.

The Superintendent of Police was addressing a press conference at the Nuh-based Camp Office (DC residence), which was also attended by Deputy Commissioner Prashant Panwar.

"No mischievous elements will be spared. Encroachment reports of buildings from where stones were pelted are also being prepared. Action will be taken against them according to rules," Bijarnia said. The SP also said that a case has been registered against Goraksha Bajrang Force President Bittu Bajrangi in Faridabad in connection with the Monday clashes. Bajrangi alias Raj Kumar, 45, is a fruit and vegetables trader at the Gazipur market and Dabua maket in Faridabad.

According to sources, Bajrangi, a Bajrang Dal member, has been running his cow vigilante group for the last three years. In the last one month alone, he has been booked in three cases of inciting religious sentiments. Nuh Deputy Commissioner Prashant Pawar said normal life was returning on back on track in the district. No violence incident has been reported from anywhere in Nuh district for the last four days, he said.

Nuh Violence: Over 200 Arrested, 102 FIRs Lodged, Says Haryana Minister Anil Vij

"As part of the process of restoring peace in the area, the district administration has held meetings with the peace committees of different areas of the district. Members of the committee have fully assured that they will not allow any kind of tension to arise in the area.

"As situation is now returning to normal, resumption of internet services is also being considered. Soon a positive decision will be taken on the basis of the intelligence report," Panwar said.

He also said the Haryana government has started a compensation portal to make up for losses suffered by people in looting and arson in the violence that went on for at least two days. The SP said 55 FIRs have been registered so far, and 141 people have been arrested. He said a strict vigil is being kept on the social media to prevent spread of fake news, rumour or inciting speech etc.
Idol of Ram Lalla to be installed on Makar Sankranti next year at Ayodhyas Ram Mandir

If our Temples have been desecrated, we must restore them on lines of Ram Mandir: Yogi Adityanath

Ram Mandir Consecration Ceremony To Take Place Over 3 days Beginning Jan 21

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

The temple trust will hold the consecration ceremony at Ram Mandir in Ayodhya on January 21, 22, and 23 next year, a trust member said on Friday.

The trust members had earlier said they would be sending an official invite to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the event. ''The consecration ceremony of Ram Janmabhoomi will take place in the third week of January next year. Three dates - 21, 22, and 23 of January have been fixed for the consecration ceremony. We will invite Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the ceremony which will also be attended by prominent sadhus and other dignitaries,'' Ram Mandir Trust General Secretary Champat Rai told PTI. ''The main event would be kept non-political. Guests from different political parties will also be invited, provided they have the intention to come. There will be no stage in the programme nor any public meeting,'' he said.

The trust plans to invite over 25,000 Hindu religious leaders of 136 Sanatan traditions for the ceremony.

A list of such saints is being prepared by the temple trust and soon an invitation letter will be sent to them with the signature of trust president Mahant Nritya Gopal Das, he said. ''The trust has planned to accommodate all prominent saints in the big monasteries of Ayodhya,'' Rai said.

These 25,000 saints will be separate from 10,000 ''special guests'' who will attend the consecration ceremony inside the premise of Ram Janmabhoomi The Bhoomi Pujan programme for temple was held on August 5, 2020 on a very limited scale due to the COVID-19 guidelines.

Ram Mandir Trust Invites PM Modi For Idol Consecration

''The sanctum sanctorum of Ramlala is nearing completion. Now in the month of January the preparation for the grand event of 'Pran Pratishtha' is on in full swing,'' said Anil Misra, a temple trust member.

The trust is planning to provide free food for about a month to the devotees coming for the consecration ceremony in Ayodhya.

According to Rai, the trust would be feeding 75,000-1,00,000 people every day for the whole month of January.

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Story first published: Friday, August 4, 2023, 17:29 [IST]
How Soon Can Rahul Gandhi Regain His Membership In Parliament? Can He Attend No-Confidence Motion Debate?

Manipur Violence: SC Sets Up Panel Of 3 Former HC Judges To Look Into Relief, Rehabilitation

Rahul Gandhi To Be MP Again As SC Stays His Conviction In 'Modi Surname' Case

India

oi-Prakash KL

The Supreme Court in an interim order stayed the conviction of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in the criminal defamation case over the 'Modi surname' remark on Friday.

There is no doubt that utterances are not in good taste, the person in public life is expected to exercise caution while making public speeches, said a three-judge bench of Justices B R Gavai, P S Narasimha and Sanjay Kumar.

While granting relief to the Congress leader, the apex court observed that the ramifications of the trial court's order are wide. "Not only was Gandhi's right to continue in public life affected but also that of the electorate who elected him," it noted.

Rahul Gandhi's Surprise Visit to Azadpur Mandi Amid Soaring Vegetable Prices | Watch

It further stated that no reason has been given by the trial court judge for imposing maximum sentence, the order of conviction needs to be stayed pending final adjudication. The Lok Sabha speaker can now revive his membership on his own or Gandhi, armed with the apex court order, seek restoration of his status as an MP.

SC told Purnesh Modi's original surname is not Modi

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi told the Supreme Court that the original surname of former Gujarat minister Purnesh Modi, who filed a defamation case against him, is not Modi and he belongs to the Modh Vanika Samaj.

Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for Gandhi, told a three-judge bench of Justices B R Gavai, P S Narasimha and Sanjay Kumar that his client is not a hardened criminal and there is no conviction in any case despite several cases filed against him by BJP workers.

Woman Farmer Tells Sonia Gandhi to Get Rahul Gandhi Married. Watch Congress Leader's Amusing Reply

The top court was hearing a plea by Gandhi challenging the Gujarat High Court verdict which dismissed his plea seeking a stay on his conviction in a defamation case over his "Modi surname" remark.

Purnesh Modi had filed a criminal defamation case in 2019 against Gandhi over his "How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname?" remark made during an election rally in Kolar in Karnataka on April 13, 2019.

In March, the Parliament disqualified Gandhi as a lawmaker after a Surat court found him guilty of defamation and sentenced him to two years in prison, according to a parliament notice.
Truecaller CEO Offers Job To Woman Who Was Trolled For Her 'Dream To Leave India' Comment

India

oi-Prakash KL

Truecaller CEO Alan Mamedi has come forward to offer a job to a woman who was attacked by netizens for claiming that it was her "dream to leave India".

"People really want to misunderstand her to make fun of her. This is not OK!! Ekta, don't listen to all these clowns making fun of you. I think you're cool and living the dream! When you're done with school, you're welcome to work at Truecaller in any of our offices around the ," he tweeted.

In the viral clip, the woman said that her name was Ekta. When asked, "What brought her to Canada?", she said was her "dream to leave India".

She desires to pursue a career in business after completing her biotechnology degree in Canada. On asking what she liked best about the nation, she claimed that it was the beautiful scenery, sunrise, and sunset.

As the clip went viral and many trolled her for her "dream to leave India".

People really want to misunderstand her to make fun of her. This is not OK!! Ekta, don't listen to all these clowns making fun of you. I think you're cool and living the dream! When you're done with school, you're welcome to work at Truecaller in any of our offices around the  https://t.co/PuotNAMwKK  Alan Mamedi (@AlanMamedi) August 3, 2023

"Ekta, nature and its beauty are hamare desh ki visheshta. Why do people feel they're so elite just because they went abroad for studies or job? Top Global Institutes don't have even 1% of the competition that top Indian Colleges have. While I appreciate the fact that you're in Canada or US for your studies, always mention to folks that you couldn't make it to good colleges here and hence your rich dad asked you to go outside," a user slammed her.

Manipur Viral Video Case: CBI Arrests 10 Accused, 6 FIRs Filed

Another netizen said, "Sad , she went to Canaddda to see sunset and sunshine  , she could have just gone to her building terrace."

"It's called study-tourism. When you can't get into any good college in US or Europe, you choose low-hanging Canada, because that would be an ego-pumping thing. One of my cousins went to study microbiology in Canada, he's working at a gas station now doing accounts. Lol," third netizen said.

"I lived in Canada for a year and moved back. That one year was the most depressing year. The summers are good but winters are a nightmare. Trust me India is far better than Canada if you are well educated," one user explained.

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Story first published: Friday, August 4, 2023, 13:30 [IST]
Will He Or Won't He? Uncertainty Over Rahul Gandhi's No Confidence Debate Speech

What Is Digital Personal Data Protection Bill 2023? 15 Things To Know

India

oi-Prakash KL

The government on Thursday tabled the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill 2023 in the Lok Sabha with an aim to protect the privacy of Indian citizens while proposing a penalty of up to Rs 250 crore on entities for misusing or failing to protect digital data of individuals.

The bill which comes after six years of the Supreme Court declaring "Right to Privacy" as fundamental right has provisions to curb misuse of individuals' data by online platforms.

What is the bill all about?

It is a legislation that intends to regulate the processing of digital personal data while respecting individuals' right to protect their data and the legitimate purposes for data processing. However, it aims to exempt the central government and specified entities in certain cases concerning India's sovereignty, security, foreign relations, public order, court orders, research, etc.

The bill aims to impose stricter regulations on entities, particularly online platforms like mobile apps and social media companies such as Facebook, Twitter, and Telegram. These regulations pertain to the collection and processing of users' personal data, whether it occurs within the country or overseas.

Draft Of Digital Personal Data Protection Bill 2023 Approved By Cabinet

The bill moots the creation of Data Protection Board of India to handle grievances of individuals around personal data privacy if data fiduciaries or firms using personal data fail to address individuals' complaints.

The bill proposes protection for the Centre, the board and its members, on "action taken in good faith".However, any person aggrieved by an order or direction made by the board under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 can appeal before telecom tribunal TDSAT and thereafter before the apex court.

Provisions under the bill enable the Centre to block access to content in the interest of the general public on getting reference in writing from the board.

The bill proposes exemption for the Centre or entities authorised by it in special cases from key compliances like giving notice to data principal (a person to whom data belongs) and sharing personal data with other entities without need to inform data principal, provide information about summary of personal data processing.

The bill neither has a provision that differentiates between sensitive and non-sensitive personal data nor does it restrict the processing of data overseas unless any restricted geography is notified under the proposed norms. "The bill will not overwrite any sectoral laws, especially around data processing," a government source told PTI.

The large online platforms will be required to appoint a data protection officer who will act as point of contact for grievance and redressal mechanisms of their users. Large online entities will also need to appoint independent data auditors to carry out data audit, evaluate the compliance of the firms in accordance with the provisions of DPDP Bill 2023.

The bill proposes to exempt centres from appointing both data protection officer and data auditors in special cases.

The provisions under the bill enables the Centre to block access to content in the interest of the general public on getting reference in writing from the board. The bill has included a mechanism to process data of children defined as individuals below the age of 18 years.

In the case of children, entities will need to take the consent of the guardian. Under the proposed norms, the Centre may notify the age above which the data fiduciary will be able to process data if it is done in a verifiably safe manner.

Under the proposed bill, a maximum of Rs 250 crore and a minimum Rs 50 crore can be imposed on every instance an entity is found violating the norms proposed under the bill.

Personal data can be processed only for a lawful purpose for which an individual has given consent and for certain legitimate uses.

Consent of the individual needs to be a clear affirmative action, agreeing to the processing of personal data only for the specified purpose. This means that even if consent is for other purposes, say giving access to contact list while downloading a telemedicine app, the consent will be seen limited only actual and real purpose of data being collected.

Concerns

One of the major concerns raised by rights groups is the extensive exemptions granted to the government and its agencies. These exemptions could potentially weaken the law's effectiveness. Furthermore, there are worries about the dilution of the data protection board's powers and the proposed amendments to the Right to Information Act, which critics argue will have negative implications for people's rights.

Additionally, concerns have been raised about potential uncertainties in cross-border data flows and the negative impact on people's rights. The group warned that the bill's provisions could lead to mass surveillance and serious privacy violations.

Some say that the legislation fails to adequately address data protection concerns and instead seems to facilitate data processing activities of both state and private actors. The organization raised particular concerns about the broadening of exemptions for government instrumentalities, which could potentially enable increased state surveillance.
Annoyed Over Flight Diversion, Lufthansa Pilot 'Draws' Huge Penis In The Sky

International

oi-Madhuri Adnal

An incident involving a Lufthansa pilot has made headlines as it is claimed that the pilot created a 24 km long shape resembling a penis in the sky after being asked to divert the flight.

The pilot, who remains unnamed, was originally scheduled to fly from Frankfurt to Sicily on July 28. However, due to reduced operations at the Fontanarossa airport, he was instructed to land in Malta instead. It is believed that the pilot grew irritated over the sudden change in schedule, leading to the controversial sky drawing.

The inbound flight from Frankfurt had to be informed that landing at the Fontanarossa airport was not possible due to a terminal fire that occurred in July. As a result, the aircraft was redirected eastward towards the Sicilian coast with instructions to divert its course towards Malta.

VIDEO: Angry Mob Beat Up Delhi Pilot, Husband For Torturing Minor Domestic Help

According to reports, the pilot allegedly became agitated over the need to stall the aircraft during the diversion process. Subsequently, while heading towards Malta, the plane accidentally flew in a manner that formed the shape of male genitalia in the airspace. This unintended maneuver took approximately 16 minutes to complete before the pilot redirected the aircraft back over Sicily and south towards Malta.

Lufthansa has responded to the incident, stating to La Repubblica that the penis shape was created unintentionally. The pilot had to circle in the airspace before receiving instructions to divert, and the sudden change in wind patterns is said to have contributed to the unintended drawing.
Trump Pleads Not Guilty To Charges Over Attempts To Change 2020 Election Results

International

pti-PTI

Former US president Donald Trump on Thursday pleaded not guilty to the charges that he tried to change the results of the November 2020 presidential election. Appearing in a federal courthouse in downtown Washington DC, Trump entered the not guilty plea before Indian-American judge Magistrate Moxila Upadhyaya.

Trump, who is seeking to contest the 2024 presidential election, arrived at the courthouse in a motorcade after he flew in from Bedminster in New Jersey. "As to counts one to four, how does Mr Trump plead?" Judge Upadhyaya asked the former president in the courtroom.

Trump, flanked by his lawyers, said: "Not guilty." The judge told Trump that he would be released but there are certain conditions that he has to abide by and appear in the court as and when required. Trump's next scheduled appearance is on August 28 before US District Judge Tanya Chutkan.

But he has the option not to appear in person. The 45-page indictment was filed in Washington, DC earlier this week by Special Counsel Jack Smith, who has led investigations into the former president on behalf of the US Department of Justice.

The four-count indictment charges the 77-year-old Republican with conspiring to defraud the US, conspiring to disenfranchise voters and conspiring and attempting to obstruct an official proceeding.

"Despite having lost, the defendant was determined to remain in power. So for more than two months following election day on November 3, 2020, the defendant spread lies that there had been outcome-determinative fraud in the election and that he had actually won.

These claims were false, and the defendant knew that they were false," the indictment reads. The indictment was issued by a grand jury of citizens in the District of Columbia and sets forth the crimes charged in detail. It caps an inquiry into events surrounding the January 6, 2021 riot at the US Capitol.

"The attack on our nation's capital on January 6, 2021 was an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy. As described in the indictment, it was fuelled by lies," Smith said. The Trump campaign has charged that Smith "has conducted a dirty, politically motivated investigation of President Trump to prevent him from winning back the presidency".

Smith sat in the courtroom throughout the proceedings. "At around 4 PM EDT, Biden's weaponised Department of Justice will once again have its leading opponent (me) ARRAIGNED despite having committed NO CRIME. It sounds like a chapter you'd read out of an old history book on the Soviet Union or Maoist China.... But sadly, it's taking place right here in America," Trump wrote in an email before he left New Jersey for the court appearance in Washington DC.

So far, federal prosecutors have filed cases against 1,077 people for the January 6 riots at the US Capitol. This is Trump's third indictment but marks the first time that he has been formally held accountable for his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the run-up to the violent riot by his supporters at the US Capitol.

In April, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg indicted Trump on charges related to payments in 2016 to porn star Stormy Daniels. In June, Trump was indicted in Miami for allegedly retaining White House documents, including classified documents.
In the 21st century, politicians can speak to voters directly  and raise money off them  leaving parties with far less influence on their behaviour.
China's trillion-dollar infrastructure plan is meant to improve trade between Asia and Europe. Rome is now trying to withdraw from the deal, saying the previous government made an "atrocious" decision to join.
The UN nuclear watchdog has finally been granted access to the Russian-held plant in Ukraine after a monthlong wait. There have been accusations that Russia placed explosive mines near the facility.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 4. Georgian media has reported that Azerbaijan was the first country to extend condolences and offer assistance in response to the devastating landslide that occurred in the resort area of Shovi, western Georgia, leading to human casualties, Trend reports.

Numerous information portals in Georgia shared news about Azerbaijan's prompt response.

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov personally contacted the Georgian Foreign Minister to express heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims, the government, and the people of Georgia. He also conveyed his wishes for a speedy recovery for the injured and expressed hope for the swift discovery of the missing individuals. Bayramov emphasized Azerbaijan's unwavering solidarity with Georgia and full preparedness to provide all necessary assistance for rescue operations and to address the aftermath of this tragic natural disaster.

As a result of the devastating landslide, 11 people lost their lives, and the search continues for dozens of missing individuals.
Saudi Arabia is hosting peace talks about Ukraine in the city of Jeddah this weekend. Representatives from about 30 countries will attend, but Russia won't be there.
Martin Kilger sought compensation for five gigs that were cancelled due to lockdown restrictions in 2020. He said he brought his case on behalf of all musicians who suffered during the pandemic.
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The former president appeared in federal court in Washington after being indicted over his efforts to overturn his defeat in 2020. His first pretrial hearing was set for Aug. 28.
Here's the latest for Friday August 8th: Trump pleads not guilty; Two US Navy sailors accused of providing military information to China; Woman says police pointed guns at her son, while his hands were up; Two expelled Tennessee lawmakers reelected.


The key date to keep in mind is January 20, 2025. Trumps main legal defense will be to stall the start of any trial until after that date.



Hell argue that it is impossible for him to get a fair trial as the leading Republican candidate for president.



If U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan rejects Trumps...
Indian-American tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, a candidate in the 2024 Republican Party's presidential primaries, has courted several controversies in a short span of time.

Ramaswamy, who has his origins in Vadakkencherry of Palakkad district, is a staunch Trump supporter. His remark that the US government hasn't been entirely honest about the 9/11 attacks has invited a major backlash.

Ramaswamy was born to a Malayali couple on August 9, 1985, in Cincinnati, Ohio. His parents migrated to the United States from Kerala before he was born. His father, V G Ramaswamy worked at a General Electric plant in Ohio. His mother Geetha is a geriatric psychiatrist.



He graduated from Harvard College and has a law degree from Yale Law School. He worked as an investment banker in the first phase of his career.

He made his wealth from the biotech company he founded in 2014 -- Roivant Sciences. Ramaswamy also co-founded Strive Asset Management, an investment firm in 2022. Strive has positioned itself as an 'anti-woke' and 'anti-ESG' ( environmental, social, and corporate governance) fund.

Ramaswamy's wife Apoorva Ramaswamy, is a physician. They have two sons.

A devout Hindu and vegetarian, Ramaswamy understands both Tamil and Malayalam.

In his 2021 book Woke, Inc.: Inside Corporate Americas Social Justice Scam, he critiques the so-called work culture in American companies. He claims companies putting their weight behind campaigns against social inequalities is anti-American and would eventually hurt the country's democracy.

His other books are Nation of Victims: Identity Politics, the Death of Merit, and the Path Back to Excellence (2022) and Capitalist Punishment: How Wall Street Is Using Your Money to Create a Country You Didn't Vote For (2023).

Primary campaign

According to a Reuters-Ipsos poll, Ramaswamy has the support of 9% of leaders within the Republican party.

Donald Trump is dominating the US Republican presidential nomination contest followed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Ramaswamy and former vice-president Mike Pence remain well behind the two front-runners.

The reason the people dont trust the government is that the government doesnt trust the people. Im here at the courthouse where Trump will be arraigned later today & Im making a demand to our government: tell us the truth about whats really driving this flurry of pic.twitter.com/Ro6SRzy7qC  Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) August 3, 2023

Trump supporter

Ramaswamy has vowed to "promptly" pardon indicted former President Donald Trump if elected to the White House next year.

The remarks by Ramaswamy, who is campaigning on 'anti-woke' credentials, came after the Department of Justice (DOJ) charged Trump with a 37-count indictment, accusing the former President of risking sensitive security secrets after leaving office in 2021.

In an interview to The New York Post, Ramaswamy also heaped praises on Trump, saying that the former president "sets a high bar". "He's a friend. I know him. I genuinely believe he cares about national unity," Ramaswamy said.

Do I believe our government has been completely forthright about 9/11? No. Al-Qaeda clearly planned and executed the attacks, but we have never fully addressed who knew what in the Saudi government about it. We *can* handle the TRUTH.  https://t.co/Q4fY0D83N4  Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) August 2, 2023

9/11 attack

During a televised interview, Ramaswamy remarked that the US government may not have been entirely honest about the involvement of Saudi Arabia in the 9/11 attacks.

"Do I believe our government has been completely forthright about 9/11? No. Al- Qaeda clearly planned and executed the attacks, but we have never fully addressed who knew what in the Saudi government about it. We *can* handle the TRUTH," he wrote.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 4. The participation of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) in the development project of Azerbaijan's Absheron gas field will help to reduce possible risks in capital investments, energy expert Ilham Shaban said, Trend reports.

TotalEnergies and the State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) have agreed to sell ADNOC 15% of their stake in the Absheron gas field. After the completion of this transaction, which is subject to approval by the necessary authorities, TotalEnergies will own a 35 percent stake in the Absheron gas field, alongside SOCAR (35 percent) and ADNOC (30 percent).

According to Ilham Shaban, this will provide new viewpoints and perspectives on Azerbaijan's programs. According to him, Azerbaijan has inked 40 production sharing and risk management agreements with virtually no Arab companies.

The Absheron gas field, according to Shaban, has the same complicated geological structure as Shah Deniz 2.

"However, the Absheron gas field is even deeper than the Shah Deniz 2 field." As a result, production at the Absheron gas field will be carried out in a variety of technological ways. This is an extremely costly project. As a result, both companies sold 15% of their stake to an Arab corporation. This will result in an additional reduction of potential hazards when investing in the Absheron 2 project," he stated.

JOCAP (Joint Operating Company Absheron Petroleum) operates the Absheron gas field in the Caspian Sea.

TotalEnergies and its partner SOCAR (State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan) recently announced the start of production at the Absheron gas and condensate field in the Caspian Sea, approximately 100 kilometers south-east of Baku.

Initial estimates place the field reserves at around 300 billion cubic meters.
Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh has said India is ready to cross the Line of Control (LoC) to maintain its honor and dignity. The Line of Control (LoC) is currently the demarcation line between Indian- and Pakistani-administered Kashmir.

"We can go to any extreme to maintain the honor and dignity of the country... if that includes crossing the LoC, we are ready to do that... if we are provoked and if the need arises, we will cross the LoC," Rajnath said.

"India is a peace-loving nation which believes in its centuries-old values and is committed towards international laws, but to safeguard our interests, we will not hesitate in crossing the LoC," he said.

Rajnath Singh was speaking on Wednesday at the Kargil War Memorial on the occasion of the 24th Kargil Vijay Diwas (Kargal Victory Day).

The Kargil War, also known as the Kargil conflict, was fought between India and Pakistan from May to July 1999 in the Kargil district of Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere along the LoC.

Rajnath Singh said the Kargil war was imposed on India.

"We were backstabbed by Pakistan... the war was imposed on India. I salute our brave sons who put the country first and sacrificed their lives," he said.

Responding Rajnath's statement Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson said, "Pakistan strongly condemns the provocative statement made by Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh on July 26, 2023, in Ladakh, boasting India's readiness to cross the Line of Control. These unwarranted and totally unacceptable remarks reflect India's hostility against its neighbors, Pakistan in particular."

Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said, "Pakistan is fully capable of defending itself against any aggression as demonstrated in its forceful response to India's misadventure in February 2019."

She said this was not the first time that India's political leaders and senior military officers had made such highly irresponsible and delusional remarks about Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.

"They routinely engage in jingoistic rhetoric for political ends by stoking hyper-nationalism and anti-Pakistan sentiment. This practice of dragging Pakistan into Indian political discourse must end."

Mumtaz said, "These highly irresponsible statements also constitute a threat to regional peace and security and aim to destabilize the strategic environment in South Asia. While fully prepared to respond to India's provocations and irresponsible behavior, Pakistan will continue to act responsibly and contribute to all efforts for promoting peace, security, and stability in the region."

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Nickelfox Technologies, a leading IT company based in Noida, is excited to announce the launch of Car Lease Policy for its employees in collaboration with Mahindra's Quiklyz, one of the country's leading automotive leasing solutions providers. This unique initiative aims to empower the company's workforce with enhanced mobility options. The new policy will enable Nickelfox employees to lease vehicles through Quiklyz, providing them with a hassle-free and cost-effective way 
Vipin Khutail continues to inspire and empower the youth of India to embrace the Digital Revolution and take their businesses and careers to New heights in his mission is to bridge the digital skills gap in the country. New Delhi, Delhi Jun 7, 2022 - Being Topper organized an international conference on Education Excellence & Appreciation Award ceremony at the Constitutional Club of India. The event was a celebration of excellence 
A driver crashed a car into a house in Vancouver on Thursday, killing a woman and a pet in the house, the Vancouver Fire Department said.

Vancouver Fire and Vancouver police responded to the scene in the 2600 block of Unander Avenue around 6:40 p.m. to find a car inside a house. A specialized rescue team arrived to make sure the house did not collapse on emergency responders, the fire department said.

The driver was taken to a nearby hospital with injuries that are not life-threatening, officials said.

The driver appears to have hit a curb at a high rate of speed, sending the car through a fence and into the house, police said in a statement.

Officials have not released the name of the driver, who faces pending charges of driving under the influence and vehicular homicide, police said.

The name of the woman who died also has not been released. Two other people who live in the house have been displaced from the residence, Vancouver Fire said.

Police said the investigation into the crash is ongoing.

-- The Oregonian/OregonLive
Oregon gasoline stations are officially free to let drivers pump their own gas.

Gov. Tina Kotek signed House Bill 2426 into law Friday morning, reversing a decades-old ban on self-serve gasoline that set Oregon apart from nearly every other state. She issued an accompanying signing letter, which described her hesitation in approving the bill even as a narrow majority of the 5,000 people who wrote to her supported the request.

Kotek previously expressed ambivalence about the policy approved by the Oregon Legislature and asked Oregonians to weigh in before she decided whether to sign or veto the bill.

In her letter on Friday, Kotek said she was worried gas stations might not provide adequate staffing now that self-serve is legal, even though most stations are still required to staff at least half of their pumps. She said that could affecting people who want or need assistance, like elderly or disabled drivers.

She said the bill puts the onus on those users to report violations of the new law, and the enforcement process for the law is unclear.

Widespread violation of the service attendant provision would undermine the intent of the law, which is to provide Oregonians with options at the gas pump, she wrote.

The law will allow gas station owners statewide to open some unattended pumps, permitting drivers to to pump their own gas and skip the wait for an attendant if they choose.

Prices must be the same at both self-serve and staffed gas pumps.

Fuel companies have claimed they wont lay off employees in response to the new law because of ongoing staff shortages that have stretched their attendant crews thin already.

Attendant Joe Cooper, who has worked for two years at a Chevron station in Southeast Portland, said he worries his hours could be cut. Mark Graves/The Oregonian

The bill had bipartisan support, but its long been one of the most polarizing issues in Oregon. While some drivers have pushed for the chance to skip the wait and fill up their own tanks, others have argued that the state should maintain the convenience of full-service gas stations  and the jobs of attendants.

In 2021, 60% of Oregonians polled said they were in favor of self-serve gas. And in 2022, lawmakers introduced a similar bill, which died before reaching a vote.

Some rural and coastal Oregon counties legalized self-serve gas at night starting in 2015. And every summer since 2020, Oregon has temporarily allowed self-serve gas due to heat waves and wildfires. The new law will simplify all those rules, legalizing self-serve gas everywhere in Oregon.

Related coverage
Editors note: This week, were celebrating the pizza in all its modern glory, highlighting everything from a refined Neapolitan spot downtown to new pizzas with globe-trotting toppings, leading up to our guide to Portlands best new pizzerias of 2023. Stay tuned to oregonlive.com/dining.

For the past 12 years, Mucca Osteria has held it down in downtown Portland, serving burrata-filled prosciutto roses, leaning towers of caprese and other refined Italian fare on a Southwest Morrison Street block better known for affordable Mexican and Indian (and the many rumbling MAX trains).

About three months ago, Rome-born chef Simone Savaiano and wife Katherine Chaya quietly opened a new restaurant with a familiar name in the former Persian House space next door to Mucca. The new restaurant  Mucca Pizzeria  specializes in Savaianos take on Neapolitan pizza, as well as house-made gelato and suppli al telefono, the Roman-style rice croquettes known for the telephone wires of melted cheese formed when you break them apart.

Inside, the space is all mirrors and marble, with fresh-cut flowers at the host stand and a Kramer-esque painting of a chef holding a wicker basket of produce in one hand, his face in the other. (We found it on the Amalfi coast, Savaiano says. I feel that it describes the life of a cook, so much beauty that comes only with hard work and sometimes struggles.)

A painting of a chef holding vegetables in one hand and his face in the other hangs on the wall at Mucca Pizzeria, a new Neapolitan pizza spot downtown.Courtesy of Mucca Pizzeria

Like many Portland pizzerias, including Apizza Scholls, Lovelys Fifty Fifty, Pan Con Queso, Mucca uses an electric PizzaMaster oven, a brand prized for its efficiency and high heat. Savaiano and his team  including sous chefs Susan Yang and Nikolas Lula and maitre d Monika Deliova  have played around with Shepherds Grain flour from Washington State and other local ingredients, and lean on a poolish to kick-start the fermentation process.

That rules out being named a true Neapolitan pizzeria by the major certification organizations, which require the use of wood-fired ovens, Italian ingredients and more. But in most other respects, Mucca sticks fairly close to the Neapolitan style. The margherita is classically topped with tomato sauce, good mozzarella and wispy basil, the green-white-red color scheme created to resemble the Italian flag. And theres a mortadella pie with plush pink folds of meat, pistachios and a pesto that  nitpick alert  I wished were a little less processed (a fresher salsa verde with a little more lemon kick would better offset the salty meat). We still enjoyed it.

Even in these early days, Mucca belongs in the top tier of Neapolitan-style pizzerias in Portland, including Otto, Reeva, Vancouvers La Sorrentina and of course Kens. Its significantly better than the pizza I had at Nostrana in May. Our service at Mucca was friendly and attentive.

Compared to fellow newcomers Hapa and Pan Con Queso, Mucca Pizzeria is more traditional when it comes to toppings. But that doesnt mean theres no experimentation. On a recent visit, one pizza was inspired by amatriciana pasta, with guanciale, red sauce and pecorino romano. The plain tomato-cheese suppli was joined by a pepper-spiked cacio e pepe version, while a third was stuffed with nduja, the spreadable Calabrian sausage.

A mortadella, pistachio and pesto pizza from Mucca Pizzeria in downtown Portland, a sister restaurant to neighboring Mucca Osteria.Michael Russell | The Oregonian

Savaiano and his team are also making their own gelato, with an impressive lineup of flavors such as chocolate-hazelnut, amaretto folded with amaretti cookies and a classic fior di latte available with strawberry compote or lemon curd served in squat martini glasses. The flavors arent quite as distinct as Southeast Division Streets great Pinolo Gelato yet, but the texture is right.

Given its location two blocks from the central library, you might not be surprised to learn that Mucca has spent the past three years dealing with broken windows (and worse). We were curious, then, why Savaiano and Chaya chose to double down on downtown, rather than pulling up stakes and moving to the suburbs, where Mucca and its new pizzeria would surely be met with open arms.

Dont remind me, Savaiano says with a laugh. When all these crazy things happened, I was thinking, This is the time, Im going, Im leaving, Im just going to close everything. But then something clicked. I put my head down again, and I saw the reaction of my regulars: Please dont give up. And then I realized, this is my passion, this is my business, this is my place in the world.

According to Savaiano, that commitment has paid off.

You know how many restaurants have closed, Savaiano said. Were busier now than we were before. And I used that momentum to open this new place, which I hope helps the area in a way. It is sad, but Im optimistic. I can see that we are getting out of the dark side, little by little.

Next up? Savaiano is scouting for a location for a stand-alone gelateria.

Hes looking downtown.

Visit Mucca Pizzeria from 5 to 9 p.m. (or slightly later) Wednesday-Saturday at 1026 S.W. Morrison St., 503-841-5062, muccapizzeria.com

 Michael Russell; mrussell@oregonian.com

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The Oregon Ducks are joining the Big Ten Conference, leaving behind the crumbling Pac-12 Conference for bigger revenues and tougher competition in a move UO athletic director Rob Mullens called a transformational opportunity.

UOs board of trustees unanimously approved the move Friday, the same day the Pac-12 continued to fracture elsewhere. Washington joined Oregon in bolting for the Big Ten in the afternoon and by dusk Arizona, Arizona State and Utah had joined the Big 12 Conference.

That whittled down the Pac-12 to just Oregon State, Washington State, Stanford and Cal, with the future of the conference and its four schools in limbo.

The Big Ten provided a lifeline to the Ducks and Huskies, with that leagues presidents and chancellors unanimously voting to add Oregon and Washington beginning in August 2024.

By inviting the University of Oregon to be a member of the Big Ten, we have opportunity to accelerate our extraordinary record of innovation and success on the playing fields, as well as to enhance significantly the academic reputation of the university, UO president John Karl Scholz said.

Oregons trustees held an emergency virtual meeting to vote on the move, with board chair Steve Holwerda leading the proceedings while traversing a golf course.

Oregon and Washington bring the Big Ten to 18 schools, and they join USC and UCLA to give the league four members on the West Coast. The Big Tens footprint now spans 15 states from New Jersey to Washington. The Ducks and Huskies will compete against such football powerhouses as Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State. They will go up against basketball powers Indiana, Purdue and Michigan State.

We are excited to welcome the University of Oregon and the University of Washington to the Big Ten Conference, Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti said in a statement. We look forward to building long-lasting relationships with the universities, administrators and staff, student-athletes, coaches and fans. Both institutions feature a combination of academic and athletic excellence that will prove a great fit for our future.

Oregon and Washington are each receiving a partial share of the Big Tens revenue distribution from its upcoming media rights deal, which runs through 2029-30. The payouts to UO and UW remain significantly higher than what the Northwest rivals would have been guaranteed to receive from a proposed Pac-12 media rights deal centered around Apple.

We think these shares are more generous than what was available to the University of Oregon as our new media deal was being negotiated (in the Pac-12) and we will be full share members upon the media negotiations for the Big Ten, Scholz told UOs board of trustees. We are confident that this will provide the resources for Rob and our fantastic athletic teams to continue to compete.

Scholz said UO will receive a full share of Big Ten revenue distribution when the league negotiates its next media rights deal starting in 2030-31.

Over the 10 years of the deal, we anticipate averaging over $50 million just from direct media rights, Scholz said.

The Action Network first reported the Ducks and Huskies move, while The Oregonian/OregonLive reported late Thursday night that UO would accept an invitation to the Big Ten if offered.

UOs move will bring an end to a 109-year history of the Ducks and Beavers competing in the same athletic conference. UO, OSU, Washington and Cal were the four founding members of the Pacific Coast Conference in 1915.

Washington president Ana Mari Cauce said the Huskies were committed to maintaining the Apple Cup rivalry with Washington State in all sports going forward. Similarly, Oregon said it intends to continue playing rival Oregon State University in all sports.

Obviously we have a rich tradition with our in-state competitors and that was something that well try to work out in every sport to continue those rivalries, Mullens said.

The move was the culmination of a process that began in the immediate aftermath of UCLA and USC announcing on June 30, 2022, that they were leaving the Pac-12 for the Big Ten in August 2024.

Nike founder and UO booster Phil Knight was heavily involved in Oregons conference affiliation plans over the past year, sources told The Oregonian/OregonLive.

Navigate, a data and media consulting firm that works extensively in sports and entertainment, assessed the valuation of Oregon athletics over the past year. Mullens said the television ratings, social media reach and demographic information of Ducks fans was among the information the firm provided so Oregon could make the best decision when the Pac-12 eventually proposed its media rights deal.

We had a really strong sense of ourselves, understand everything about ourselves so that we could make a good decision, Mullens said. All along weve done everything weve could to find an opportunity forward with the Pac-12. We worked hard all along and then Id say over the last few days, obviously the opportunity presented itself with the Big Ten, and we appreciate that opportunity. And we appreciate our colleagues in the Pac-12. I would say in the last 24 hours is when it really, really intensified and it wasnt done until early, early hours of the morning.

Shortly after 6:20 p.m. PT, Arizona, Arizona State and Utah were officially bound for the Big 12, capping a historic day in major college athletics that might spell the end of the Pac-12.

Todays news is incredibly disappointing for student-athletes, fans, alumni and staff of the Pac-12 who cherish the over 100-year history, tradition and rivalries of the Conference of Champions, the Pac-12 said in a statement. We remain focused on securing the best possible future for each of our member universities.

While UO leaders celebrated its move, Oregon State athletic director Scott Barnes decried it.

The great history and tradition of this conference has been severely damaged, Barnes said. The best interest of the student-athlete hasnt been served. Traveling to the Eastern seaboard multiple times a year is not in the best interest of student-athletes.

Im furious because it puts this university in harms way and our student-athletes in harms way. Theres some damage done that were going to have to mitigate.

Scholz acknowledged that UO is simultaneously phenomenally excited about the opportunities ahead and also feeling real pain for our colleagues across the Pac-12 and recognize that this is both a difficult and a joyous day.

-- James Crepea reported from Eugene.

-- Nick Daschel contributed to this report, with reporting from Corvallis.
An open-source curriculum developed in Beaverton to educate tweens and teens about the ferocious risks of opioid abuse could soon be a model for schools around the country.

Congress member Suzanne Bonamici, D-Ore., said Friday that she plans to introduce legislation this fall to create a pilot program for schools to develop fentanyl-oriented prevention education programs modeled upon Beavertons Fake and Fatal lesson plan.
An accused kidnapper who federal agents say sexually assaulted a woman and locked her in a cinderblock cell in his Klamath Falls garage appeared on Judge Judy five years ago in a dispute with the mother of his children.

The episode is now circulating on Facebook since Negasi Zuberis arrest and indictment on charges of interstate kidnapping and transportation with intent to engage in sexual activity.

In the show, Zuberi goes by the name Justin Hythe -- one of several aliases he has used, according to the FBI, and he also mentions two of the states among 10 where investigators said he has lived in the last 10 years.

FBI agents said this week they believe Zuberi may have attacked women in other states and have set up a website to seek information.

The woman who faced off with Zuberi on Judge Judy -- Alycia Westfall -- is the same woman who was living with Zuberi at the Klamath Falls home when the alleged kidnapping occurred last month, according to a neighbor and court records.

Westfall, now 32, hasnt been charged with any crimes but FBI investigators said she and at least one of the couples young boys were with Zuberi when police in Reno, Nevada, arrested Zuberi on July 16 in a Walmart parking lot.

The day before, Zuberi, now 29, had solicited a woman in Seattle for sex, federal agents and prosecutors allege. He then posed as an undercover police officer, placed handcuffs and leg irons on the woman in a sham arrest and then drove her 450 miles to his Klamath Falls rental home, investigators said in a federal affidavit filed Wednesday in Oregon.

He locked her in a soundproof cell in the homes garage for hours before she escaped and flagged down a passing motorist for help, according to the affidavit. At some point, Zuberi and the rest of his family left Oregon.

In the 2018 episode of Judge Judy -- the long-running reality court show that settled small claims disputes -- Zuberi was 24 and said he and Westfall lived separately but shared custody of their first son.

Zuberi had taken Westfall to court, alleging she threw a glass bottle at him and later damaged his suits with bleach in a fight. She countersued for a smashed phone and what she called a false restraining order he obtained against her.

Judge Judy Sheindlin ruled in favor of Zuberi, ordering Westfall to pay Zuberi $2,500 for damaging his suits and computer.

According to their statements during the show, Zuberi and Westfall had moved together from California to New York in February 2018 but were living separately.

Both states are among the 10 where FBI investigators said Zuberi had lived since August 2016. The others are Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Utah, Florida, New York, New Jersey, Alabama and Nevada.

Federal investigators said they have linked Zuberi to sexual assaults in at least three other states, though they released no details and Zuberi hasnt been charged in any of those at this time.

In a KPTV interview in Klamath Falls, Westfall said she doesnt know anything about the allegations against Zuberi, that she did not see or hear anything unusual at the Klamath Fall home she shared with him on July 15 and thought he had gone to Seattle to look at potential rental properties. She said Zuberi asked her to meet up with him in Nevada the next day. She also said what the FBI called a cinderblock cell in the garage was a room Zuberi had built to sublease.

Alycia Westfall is not related to Klamath Falls Mayor Carol Westfall and her husband Kevin Westfall, who own the home on North El Dorado Avenue where she and Zuberi were living with their two young sons.

-- Maxine Bernstein

Email mbernstein@oregonian.com; 503-221-8212

Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian

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Two days after Negasi Zuberis arrest in Nevada on an interstate kidnapping charge, the landlords of his Klamath Falls home -- who happen to be the citys mayor and her husband -- filed an eviction notice against the 29-year-old.

The notice, posted and mailed on July 18, said Zuberi and all others must leave the rental home by July 31 for recklessly endangering someone on the property and creating a serious risk of substantial personal injury.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 4. State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) and Microsoft have signed a memorandum of understanding, Trend reports.

According to SOCAR, under the agreement, cooperation in the areas of digitalization, innovation, improvement of information technology infrastructure, human capital development, as well as exploration, production, processing, marketing, transport, and cybersecurity is planned. Therefore, the parties will create a favorable basis for the creation of an innovative center of excellence.

In addition, SOCAR's corporate strategy provides for the implementation of purposes on energy security, digitalization, business sustainability, efficiency and optimization, and energy transition until 2035.

Moreover, the memorandum is also part of the company's long-term strategy and is aimed at modernizing the operating model through the use of clean, digital and innovative technologies at the state oil company's enterprises, as well as aimed at more efficient execution of technical and technological operations, strengthening the business.

SOCAR and the CISCO Systems Inc have previously reached an agreement on cooperation in the field of digital transformation, network solutions and software for the introduction of new technologies.

Cooperation provides for the implementation of projects between the parties in the areas of technological infrastructure, secure digital transformation, sustainable IT systems, as well as creating a convenient user experience.
I laud Portland City Commissioners Rene Gonzales and Dan Ryan for their recent initiative to consider amendments to the city charter reforms, (Editorial: A shared goal toward a better city government, July 23). Portlanders voted for the charter reform last November because they wanted city government to be a model of representative democracy and because they wanted to address structural dysfunctions in how Portland is run. Portlanders voted in reform; they expect demonstrable improvements to the delivery of city services.

Weve learned a lot since the reform package was adopted last November. Changes are needed to avoid failure. A beneficial amendment - one that could be put before voters on the May 2024 ballot - is to give the mayor veto power over the new 12-member legislative council. Proponents of charter reform initially touted that it included a strong mayor form of city government. However, the all-or-nothing package put before voters merely gives the mayor a tie-breaker vote and weak oversight in the hiring of the professional city administrator. Without a veto amendment, beginning in 2025, Portlands only representative whose election requires a majority vote will not have the executive power commonly provided in governance models used in numerous other U.S. cities.
Portland weather will finish off the work week and go into the weekend much as it spent the bulk of this week  with sunny skies and temperatures climbing into the low 90s.

The National Weather Service says all the weather action will be over the Cascades this weekend with continued chances of thunderstorms and possible lightning over the bulk of the central and southern mountains.

Portland may see some clouds Friday, but the majority of the day will be sunny, and temperatures should climb to about 90 degrees.

Increasing coverage of thunderstorms will keep fire danger in the high category Friday and Saturday along the Cascades. Early morning satellites were showing showers in the Lane County mountains as of about 4 a.m., according to the weather service.

Though activity will peak this evening, a slight chance of thunderstorms will continue into Saturday afternoon. Chances of high mountain thunder are at about 20-30% through Saturday. A red flag warning of high fire danger is in place over a good portion of Oregon. If youre traveling this weekend, be aware of dry ground fuels and check with area fire agencies for any restrictions on campfires and other heating sources.

Red flag warning maps as of Aug. 4, 2023 courtesy of NOAA

Red flag warning maps as of Aug. 4, 2023 courtesy of NOAA

Portland will see a mostly sunny Saturday with high temperatures of about 89 degrees.

The weekend will end with another mostly sunny day Sunday. Highs will reach the low 90s.

The extended forecasts are showing a change finally arriving in the Portland/Vancouver area by Monday. Clouds will increase and temperatures should drop a few degrees by Monday. Forecast models are showing good chances of a Pacific frontal system bringing in even more clouds and better chances of some rain Tuesday-Wednesday. Temperatures are expected to drop into the high 70s or low 80s during the same period.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 5. More than 1 million tons of non-oil products worth $537 million were exported through Irans Mehran customs in the Ilam Province (western Iran) during the first four months of the current Iranian year (March 21 through July 22, 2023), Director General of Ilam Province Customs Office Rouhollah Gholami said, Trend reports.

The director general also said that the countrys non-oil exports via Mehran customs for the reporting period increased by 9 percent in value compared to the same period last year.

Gholami added that the main exported goods were ceramics, metal products, vegetables, petrochemical products, cement, glass, cars, spare parts, etc.

According to him, the goods mentioned were exported to various countries, mainly Iraq.

The customs official noted that the income of Mehran Customs for 3 months amounted to 216 billion rials (about $5.36 million). This shows a 47 percent increase compared to the same period last year.

Irans Mehran Customs is on the border with Iraq. The customs office is located approximately 230 kilometers from Baghdad.

Overall, Iran exported 35.5 million tons of non-oil products worth $12.5 billion within the first three months of the current Iranian year.

This is a decrease of 8.84 percent in value and an increase of 24.4 percent in volume compared to the same period last year.

---

Follow the author on Twitter:@BaghishovElnur
Abuja, Nigeria (PANA)  The Committee of Chiefs of Defence Staff (CDS) of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) ended their three-day meeting in Abuja on Friday with a resolution that there should be comprehensive approach that encompasses political, security and diplomatic dimensions in addressing the aftermath of the coup in Niger
Photo: (Photo : Ian Hutchinson on Unsplash)

Healthcare providers and an abortion rights group have taken legal action against Alabama, seeking to halt the state's efforts to criminally prosecute individuals who assist others in traveling out of state to obtain abortions.

In a lawsuit filed in a federal court in Montgomery, the West Alabama Women's Center, the Alabama Women's Center, and medical director Yashica Robinson contend that such prosecutions would infringe upon the constitutional right to interstate travel in the United States. Simultaneously, the Yellowhammer Fund has filed a separate, similar lawsuit, adding its voice to the legal challenge.

Abortion Rights and Access to Reproductive Healthcare in the Spotlight

According to MSN, the legal battle follows the enactment of Alabama's Human Life Protection Act in 2019, a law that imposed near-total bans on abortions. Subsequently, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned its landmark decision in Roe v. Wade, which had previously guaranteed abortion rights nationwide.

Before the Supreme Court's decision, the healthcare providers involved in the lawsuit had been providing abortion services in Alabama, while the Yellowhammer Fund had been assisting individuals in raising funds to access abortions in states where they are legal.

According to Reuters, both lawsuits cited comments made by Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall in an August 2022 radio interview, during which he suggested that individuals aiding others in traveling to states with legal abortion access could face prosecution as criminal accomplices.

The healthcare providers argue that the threat of prosecution has hindered their ability to provide comprehensive counseling to patients about out-of-state abortion options. Similarly, the Yellowhammer Fund stated that it had been forced to suspend its abortion funding initiatives in Alabama due to the potential legal ramifications.

Robin Marty, the operations director at the West Alabama Women's Center, stressed the negative impact, stating, "When we cannot share information with patients about all of their options during pregnancy, including those options that are legal and available outside Alabama, the physician-patient relationship is put in jeopardy, and our patients are harmed."

In response, Amanda Priest, a spokesperson for Attorney General Marshall, reiterated the state's commitment to enforcing laws protecting unborn life, including the Human Life Protection Act. Priest added that this also includes taking legal action against abortion providers allegedly involved in conspiracies to violate the Act.

The lawsuits have reignited the heated debate over abortion rights and access to reproductive healthcare in the United States. Abortion rights advocates argue that restrictions on abortion services infringe on personal and bodily autonomy. Conversely, proponents of stricter abortion laws believe these measures are necessary to safeguard the sanctity of life.

The outcomes of these legal challenges could significantly impact reproductive rights in Alabama and may have broader implications for similar abortion-related legal battles across the United States. As these cases progress through the courts, both pro-choice and pro-life advocates are closely watching, eagerly anticipating the resolution of this pivotal legal confrontation.

Alabama's Human Life Protection Act, enacted in 2019, represents a notable escalation in the fight over abortion rights. The law effectively bans almost all abortions, with very limited exceptions, such as cases where the pregnant person's life is at risk. It also imposes severe penalties on doctors who perform abortions, including up to 99 years in prison.

Read Also: Wyoming Judge Blocks Law Banning Abortion Pills; Lawsuit Continues

Potential Implications of the Lawsuits on Reproductive Rights Nationwide

The law came into effect in 2022 after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene. This decision was met with concern from abortion rights advocates, who interpreted it as a potential signal that the court may be open to reconsidering or overturning Roe v. Wade.

The lawsuits brought by healthcare providers and an abortion rights group against Alabama aim to challenge the criminal prosecution of those who assist others in traveling out of state to access abortions. The legal battle revolves around protecting the right to interstate travel, a fundamental constitutional right, and ensuring access to abortion services for those in need.

The right to travel between states is considered a fundamental right under the U.S. Constitution, protected by the Privileges and Immunities Clause of Article IV. This clause ensures that citizens of one state are entitled to the same rights and privileges as citizens of another state. Therefore, the healthcare providers and the Yellowhammer Fund argue that any efforts to criminalize assistance for out-of-state abortions infringe upon this constitutional right.

Furthermore, the threat of criminal prosecution has tangible effects on healthcare providers and patients alike. The fear of legal consequences prevents providers from fully informing their patients about all available options, limiting their ability to provide comprehensive and accurate healthcare services. Patients, in turn, may face significant obstacles in accessing the care they need, leading to potential harm to their health and well-being.

The legal challenges brought forth by the West Alabama Women's Center, the Alabama Women's Center, and the Yellowhammer Fund are part of a broader nationwide effort to protect and expand abortion rights in the face of restrictive state laws. The outcome of these cases will not only impact reproductive rights in Alabama but also have implications for similar abortion-related legal battles across the United States.

The lawsuits filed by healthcare providers and an abortion rights group against Alabama seek to challenge the criminal prosecution of those who assist others in traveling out of state to access abortions. The legal battle revolves around protecting the right to interstate travel, a fundamental constitutional right, and ensuring access to abortion services for those in need. As the cases unfold, they will undoubtedly contribute to the ongoing national discussion about reproductive rights and the scope of state-level abortion laws. Both sides of the abortion debate await the resolution of this critical legal confrontation with great anticipation.

Related Article: Revised North Dakota Abortion Laws Challenged: Physicians, Clinics Say It Is Unconstitutional and Violates Patients' Rights
Photo: (Photo : George Frey/Getty Images)

The National Park Service has issued a warning after detecting toxic cyanobacteria in multiple water bodies within Utah's picturesque Zion National Park.

As per the National Park Service, the presence of cyanotoxins in the North Fork of the Virgin River, North Creek, and La Verkin Creek has raised concerns among park officials and visitors alike.

Cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae, can pose serious health risks to humans and animals, prompting the NPS to advise against swimming or consuming water from the affected areas.

The alarming blooms are attributed to prolonged periods without floods, combined with the impact of climate change and pollution, allowing these dangerous bacteria to proliferate rapidly and unchecked.

The Dangers of Cyanobacteria and Their Effects on Health

Cyanobacteria, commonly found in ponds and lakes, are generally harmless. However, under favorable conditions, they can form large blooms that produce cyanotoxins, posing a significant threat to public health.

According to the Review-Journal, exposure to cyanotoxins can lead to various symptoms in humans, including irritation of the eyes, nose, throat, and skin, as well as more severe effects such as headaches, seizures, vomiting, and diarrhea.

For animals and pets, symptoms may include drooling, lethargy, loss of appetite, paralysis, and vomiting, which can sometimes prove fatal.

NPS Safety Advisory and Impact of Climate Change

In response to the detected cyanobacteria, the National Park Service has taken the necessary precautions to safeguard visitors. The NPS has prohibited swimming and submerging heads in affected Zion waterways and issued a warning against drinking water from any source within the park.

Popular destinations like The Narrows and Emerald Pools have also been included in the safety measures.

In cases of exposure, immediate medical attention is crucial, and individuals are advised to contact poison control or call 911.

Experts and researchers point to climate change and pollution as significant factors contributing to the proliferation of cyanobacteria.

According to NBC News, Ramesh Goel, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Utah, explained that human activities such as water pollution through nitrogen and phosphorus runoff from fertilizers and wastewater treatment plants create nutrient-rich environments that fuel the growth of blue-green algae.

Additionally, rising temperatures, possibly linked to climate change, provide ideal conditions for these bacteria to thrive and spread.

Read Also: Federal Judge Blocks Arkansas Law Criminalizing Librarians, Booksellers: ACLU Applauds Ruling

Cyanobacteria Growth and Impact on Water Quality

Cyanobacteria growth manifests differently depending on the body of water. Lakes and reservoirs may exhibit blue-green paint-like blooms on the water surface, while in rivers like the Virgin River in Utah, the bacteria often form on rocks, appearing as slimy mud. Surprisingly, even getting clothing wet in affected water can lead to exposure, emphasizing the need for caution.

David Stevens, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Utah State University, highlighted the escalating presence of cyanotoxins due to increasing human settlements along lake shores and the discharge of septic systems into water bodies, leading to murky and algae-infested lakes. Livestock and wildlife waste can also contaminate water, contributing to the problem.

As cyanobacteria are ancient microorganisms that have survived under various conditions for millions of years, humans must take responsibility for creating conditions that do not foster toxic blooms.

Preserving water quality, preventing pollution, and minimizing the impact of climate change are crucial steps in safeguarding natural environments like Zion National Park.

By heeding the NPS's safety advisory and practicing responsible water management, visitors can continue to enjoy the beauty of Utah's wilderness while ensuring their well-being and the preservation of this cherished national park.

Related Article: Tydemy Birth Control Pills Recall: Lupin Pharmaceuticals Identifies Effectiveness Issue, FDA Warns Thousands at Risk
Photo: (Photo : James A. Molnar on Unsplash)

In a controversial move, the state of Florida has effectively banned the Advanced Placement (AP) Psychology class due to its inclusion of content related to sexual orientation and gender identity. The College Board, a nonprofit organization responsible for overseeing AP courses, revealed that the Florida Department of Education informed them about the course's violation of the state's Parental Rights in Education Act, commonly referred to as the "Don't Say Gay" law. This law restricts the instruction of sexual orientation and gender identity in classrooms across the state.

Florida's "Don't Say Gay" Law Sparks Controversy, Accusations of Censorship

According to NBC News, the decision to ban the AP Psychology course has stirred heated debates, with the College Board expressing its concern that it deprives parents and students of choice in their education. Additionally, the move disrupts the college readiness and affordability plans for thousands of Florida students who were already registered for the popular AP Psychology class.

Critics argue that excluding LGBTQ topics from the course would amount to censorship and compromise the integrity of college-level standards. The College Board emphasized that lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity have been an integral part of AP Psychology for over three decades.

Interestingly, this is not the first time Florida's education system has faced controversy regarding course restrictions. Just months before this latest decision, the state faced backlash for blocking AP African American Studies courses, drawing criticism from academics and civil rights activists.

The American Psychological Association, the largest organization of psychologists in the nation, has been vocal in its opposition to stripping LGBTQ topics from the curriculum. They argue that understanding human sexuality is essential to psychology, and omitting decades of scientific study on sexual orientation and gender identity would hinder students' education and success.

LGBTQ advocates are also condemning the ban, stating that it erases the existence of LGBTQ individuals from the curriculum and disrupts educational pathways for those interested in pursuing psychology and mental health professions. Kelley Robinson, the president of the Human Rights Campaign, emphasized that psychology revolves around all people and that ignoring LGBTQ+ individuals denies students comprehensive, culturally competent mental healthcare in the future.

Read Also: US Supreme Court Ruling Allows Businesses To Refuse LGBTQ Customers

Florida's Educational Policies Draw Scrutiny Amid Ongoing Debates over Inclusivity

The controversy surrounding Florida's educational policies does not end there. In recent years, the state has enacted a series of laws targeting LGBTQ rights. Last year, Governor Ron DeSantis signed the "Don't Say Gay" law, which prohibits discussions of sexual orientation or gender identity by school personnel or third parties in kindergarten through eighth-grade classrooms. Subsequently, the law expanded to include restrictions on reproductive health education in sixth- through 12th-grade classrooms.

Moreover, DeSantis signed other measures, one of which prohibits transgender individuals from using public restrooms that align with their gender identity and another restricting drag performances in front of minors. The governor's actions have drawn criticism and sparked an ongoing feud between him and The Walt Disney Co., Florida's largest employer.

As the debate continues to unfold, the College Board, LGBTQ advocates, and civil rights activists are standing firm against what they perceive as an erosion of rights and censorship. The battle over educational content and inclusivity in Florida's classrooms is likely to remain a contentious issue as the state's educational policies continue to be scrutinized by various stakeholders.

Related Article: Increasing Anti-LGBTQ Legislation Triggers Human Rights Campaign To Declare State of Emergency
Photo: (Photo : Brandon Bell / Getty Images)

A devoted father in New Jersey lost his life attempting to save his three children, who found themselves in peril while swimming in the Millstone River.

Rolando Camarillo-Cholula, 42, tragically drowned after successfully getting his children to safety. The tragic event occurred on Wednesday afternoon, leading to a desperate search and recovery operation by local authorities.

This unfortunate incident adds to the list of recent drownings in the region, raising concerns about water safety and the need for awareness about hidden dangers in natural waterways.

A Father's Ultimate Sacrifice

According to CBS, Rolando Camarillo-Cholula was faced with every parent's nightmare when his three children, aged 13, 11, and 8, became "distressed" while swimming in the 39-mile-long Millstone River, a tributary of the Raritan River.

Acting quickly, the father waded into the waters and managed to pull his kids to shallow waters, but he lost his balance and drowned.

The call to Franklin Township Police came at 2:15 p.m. with a report of "a man in the water, with three children on shore."

According to People, Alexie Rae Siu, the wife of Rolando Camarillo-Cholula, recounted the terrifying moment when both of them were thrown from their jet ski into the water.

"We were separated suddenly, and my only thought was to reach him," Alexie shared with the media. "I could see signs of panic in him."

Emergency responders swiftly arrived on the scene and plunged into the river, striving to find and rescue the children's father.

Their efforts were in vain, and it wasn't until 5:28 p.m., nearly three hours later, that divers from the Somerset County Prosecutor's Office managed to recover Camarillo-Cholula's lifeless body.

Local authorities have made it known that the three children were attended to by emergency medical personnel at the location and were released in good health.

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A Rising Concern for Water Safety in New Jersey

The drowning of Rolando Camarillo-Cholula marks the third reported fatal drowning in New Jersey in as many months.

NBC News reported that in May, a 15-year-old boy drowned at Sandy Hook Beach B, and in June, a heroic firefighter lost his life while trying to save his teenage daughter at the Jersey Shore.

These incidents highlight the importance of being aware of water-related risks and exercising caution around natural waterways.

Nationwide, there are more than 4,000 fatal drownings each year, with New Jersey reporting a relatively lower rate of 0.77 unintentional drowning deaths per 100,000 people, as per CDC data.

While swimming is not prohibited in the Millstone River, authorities urge residents to remain cautious and heed warning signs indicating dangerous areas and activities.

In the aftermath of this tragic incident, Franklin Township authorities emphasize the need for heightened awareness about water safety.

Authorities continue to investigate the incident, stressing the importance of being mindful of hidden dangers in waterways.

Rolando Camarillo-Cholula's courageous act serves as a poignant reminder of a father's love and the unforeseen risks that can occur in even the most familiar environments.

The incident has led to a renewed focus on water safety and a collective reflection on what it means to be a protective parent in the face of danger.

Hidden currents, sudden depths, and cold shocks can pose significant dangers in causeways, lakes, and all waterways.

Education and adherence to safety guidelines can save lives and prevent further heartache.

Related Article: Camp No Limits at Quinnipiac University: Empowering Kids with Limb Differences to Thrive
BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 4. The price of Azeri LT CIF Augusta brand totaled $88.9 per barrel on August 3, increasing by $1.57 compared to the previous price, Trend reports, referring to the source from the country's oil and gas market.

Azeri LT FOB Ceyhan brand currently costs $87.96 per barrel, which is $1.6 more than the previous price.

Additionally, Azerbaijan sells its URALS oil through the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline from the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk. URALS cost $71.24 a barrel when shipped from the port, a growth of $3.07 from the previous price.

Meanwhile, the price of a barrel of Brent Dated oil produced in the North Sea rose by $1.62 from the previous day on August 3 to $85.8 per barrel.

(1 USD = 1.7 AZN on August 4, 2023)
To start the week, Patently Apple posted a Ming-Chi Kuo based report titled "Apple's demand for Sony's increased CMOS image sensor capacity for the iPhone 15 has Android OEMs scrambling for new suppliers." To end the week, Kuo posted another round of research notes regarding Sony's Contact Image Sensor (CIS) technology for iPhone 16 as follows:

Following two 2H23 iPhone 15 standard models, two 2H24 iPhone 16 Pro models will also adopt stacked-designed CIS, so Sonys high-end CIS capacity will continue to be tight in 2024, benefiting Will Semi to continue to obtain more orders for high-end CIS from Chinese smartphone brands (design- in & design-win).

Will Semis CIS shipments declined YoY in 1H23 due to inventory corrections, but due to inventory restocking and market share gains, the company will bottom out ahead of smartphone (end device) and resume growth from 2H23. Will Semi CIS shipments will improve significantly in 2023, growing by about 8% YoY (vs. a decline of about 40% YoY in 2022), which is better than smartphones and most components.

As Sonys high-end CIS capacity remains tight, Will Semis high-end CIS (48MP+) market share will continue to grow rapidly. It is expected that 2H23 high-end CIS shipments will increase by about 50% HoH (Half-on Half) to 36 million units, and shipments in 3Q23 and 4Q23 will be about 16 million and 20 million units, respectively. Benefiting from the significant increase in orders in 2H23, Will Semis high-end CIS shipments in 2023 will grow by about 35% YoY.

Among Will Semis high-end CIS, the main contributions come from OV50A, OV50E, OV50H and OV64B. The above mentioned CIS replaced many orders from Sony.

Looking forward to 2024, thanks to the tight capacity of Sonys high-end CIS, Will Semis total CIS and high-end CIS shipments are expected to grow by about 1520% YoY and 4050% YoY, respectively. With the continued improvement in total shipments and product mix, sales and profit are expected to grow significantly from 2H23.

Will Semiconductor is owned by the Omnivision group. In late December 2020 we posted a report titled "Rumor claims that Apple may have signed on with Win Semiconductor's new Business Model for Future RF Components."
The first presentation at todays FAIR Conference was BYU-Pathway: Serving the Hidden Many from Brian K. Ashton, the president of BYU-Pathway Worldwide. It was absolutely thrilling. BYU-Pathway Worldwide (obviously yet another horror drawn from the Christopher Hitchens Memorial How Religion Poisons Everything File) is something of which, I think, all members of the Church  in the developed world and beyond, ought to be aware. (There are more students currently enrolled with BYU-Pathways Worldwide than there are at the Provo and Rexburg campuses of Brigham Young University combined.)

It was a fascinating presentation and I recommend it to you. In fact, I expect that more than a few Latter-day Saints will want to contribute to this effort and perhaps even to offer their services. Im already trying to think of ways that I might become involved in it, and even (where and if possible) involve the Interpreter Foundation.

Among many other things, President Ashton helped me to see 1 Nephi 21:8-16 in a fresh way, and to regard BYU-Pathway and the Churchs vast and expedited temple-building program (high places) as a literal fulfillment of Isaiahs prophecy:

Thus saith the Lord: In an acceptable time have I heard thee, O isles of the sea, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee; and I will preserve thee, and give thee my servant for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages; That thou mayest say to the prisoners: Go forth; to them that sit in darkness: Show yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in all high places. They shall not hunger nor thirst, neither shall the heat nor the sun smite them; for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall he guide them. And I will make all my mountains a way, and my highways shall be exalted. And then, O house of Israel, behold, these shall come from far; and lo, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim. Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; for the feet of those who are in the east shall be established; and break forth into singing, O mountains; for they shall be smitten no more; for the Lord hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted. But, behold, Zion hath said: The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten mebut he will show that he hath not. For can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee, O house of Israel. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me. (1 Nephi 21:8-16)

The second presentation of the morning, a very interesting one indeed, was given by George Mitton, who will celebrate his ninety-sixth birthday next week. George has been a friend and a valued colleague now for many years, having served as an associate editor of the late FARMS Review and having, thereafter, been present at the creation of the Interpreter Foundation. His remarks were titled Joseph Smith and the Magical Context, and Im pleased to now realize that they have already been published in what looks to be a very good new book entitled Steadfast in Defense of Faith., edited by Shirley S. Ricks, Stephen D. Ricks, and Louis C. Midgley. Yesterday morning, I saw the very first copy of that book in Utah, and Im told that it will arrive tomorrow (Friday) at the FAIR bookstore here at the conference, hot from the press. I look forward to reading Georges paper as soon as Im able. (The presentation by Mike Ash and Ugo Perego from Wednesdays conference meeting, The Apparent Genetic Discrepancy between Mormons Narrative and the Origin of Native Americans, also appears in the new book.)

Neal Rappleyes presentation, Material Plates, Spiritual Vision: Martin Harris, Divine Materiality, and Seeing with Spiritual Eyes, was also drawn from a more expansive and annotated paper that has just been published in Steadfast in Defense of Faith. I liked it very much; it deals with the issue of the nature of the experience of the Book of Mormon witnesses with the ancient Nephite plates  a topic that has interested me for many years and that is reflected in Witnesses, Undaunted: Witnesses of the Book of Mormon, and the short Insights videos.)



I recently read Janiece Johnsons book Convicting the Mormons, which appeared in May  see my 7 July article for Meridian Magazine, Searching Out the Truth about the Mountain Meadows Massacre  and so I really appreciated the chance to hear her FAIR presentation on Convicting the Mormons: The Mountain Meadows Massacre in American Culture. As she said in her opening remarks, her book is about the Massacre but, really, not about the Massacre at all. She shared a number of images from the non-LDS press and spoke about how Latter-day Saints were depicted as un-American, non-white, unmanly, not civilized, and so forth. Its a valuable discussion.

After lunch  during which we heard news of the hospitalization of Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, which, sadly, did not much surprise me  we heard from LaJean Carruth, who is a historian for the Church History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, and a well-nigh legendary transcriber of nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century documents written in Pitman, Taylor, and Pernin shorthands. What she presented, under the title of His Accuracy was not What it Ought: Comparing George D. Watts Original Shorthand Record to his Published Transcripts in the Journal of Discourses, is extremely important. She illustrated ways in which, for example, Brigham Youngs statements were rendered as more authoritarian than his real words actually indicate. He would not, she suggested, have liked the title American Moses. Instead, he was more of an Enoch. According to the shorthand record, Sister Carruth argued, Brigham was a much more caring person than he has sometimes appeared to be in the Journal of Discourses.

Jen Yorgason Thatcher spoke next, to the topic of Fostering Resilient Faith In the Midst of Questions, Doubts, and Loved Ones Leaving. She used a powerful image: Apparently many drownings occur while other family members are right nearby, even when they are looking on without understanding (until its too late) what is happening. I liked a lot about her talk, including her advice that we always recall that members of the Church arent perfect, and that, when we face a challenge, we seek a vertical relationship with God and build horizontal relationships through service.

Michaelbrent Collings gave a lively, entertaining, and unexpected talk on Finding Light in the Darkness: The Necessity of Horror in the Gospel. I got a kick out of it, and found it extremely interesting. And I think that many of you will, too.

The closing presentation, given by my friend of many decades John W. Welch, was entitled The Seven Seals in the Apocalypse of John: Possible Cultural, Legal, and Imperial Contexts. Unfortunately, I was obliged to spend much of the duration of it on a conference call with some other leaders of the Interpreter Foundation, the Foundations financial advisor, and a lawyer. Fortunately, though, Jacks paper, too, has been published in Steadfast in Defense of Faith.



***

You might enjoy this, newly posted by the Interpreter Foundation: Preview Video  Not By Bread Alone: Stories of the Saints in the DR Congo
How Catholic professor and papal nitpicker (as I have called him) Ed Feser (who regards Pope Francis as one of the worst popes ever) recently referred to the dubia controversy is instructive:

To be sure, there may nevertheless be particular cases where the suspended Magisterium characterization is plausible. Consider the heated controversy that followed upon Amoris Laetitia, and in particular the dubia issued by four cardinals asking the pope to reaffirm several points of irreformable doctrine that Amoris seems to conflict with. As Fr. John Hunwicke has noted , because Pope Francis has persistently refused to answer these dubia, he can plausibly be said at least to that extent to have suspended the exercise of his Magisterium. Again, this does not mean that he has lost his teaching authority. The point is rather that, insofar as he has refused to answer these five specific questions put to him, he has not, at least with respect to those particular questions, actually exercised that authority. As Fr. Hunwicke notes, he could do so at any time, so that his teaching authority remains.

I reply that Pope Francis has in effect replied, in choosing to let the Cardinal who headed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith exercise the very purpose of his office and clarify Amoris, four months before he was asked the questions. Why isnt that sufficient? Were now to believe that the pope is wrong to ever let Cardinals clarify something that he has taught? Its ludicrous. To claim that these things havent been clarified, and by Cardinals, is a lie. And if we are to believe Dr. Robert Fastiggi, the pope himself already answered the five dubia in Amoris itself. Hence, he is well within his prerogatives to believe that the teachings are already out there.

Dr. Feser in this article cites Fr. John Hunwicke, a known reactionary. This supports my point as to the nature of many of the popes most virulent critics. Fr. Hunwicke has written things like the following:

So much, then for Bergoglianist autocracy, . . . if the hyperuebersuperultrapapalism of Bergoglianity will not serve Gods People, what will? Conciliarism? You just have to be joking. After the fiasco of Vatican II (yes; genuine, valid, canonical Ecumenical Councils can be disasters for the Church, . . .), . . .

Fr. Hunwicke wrote on his own blog (9-19-17): Clearly, we have now definitively (irreversibly?) moved out of the dark shadow of Vatican II.  He wrote (2-17-07): Vatican II, like so many of its predecessor councils, is obsolete or, at the very least, obsolescent. On 9-23-17, Fr. Hunwicke compared Pope Francis to Pope Honorius: the most notorious example of an actually or allegedly [Catholic historians and theologians differ] heretical pope in history. Note the outright disrespect of the Holy Father and his office in these comments:

The current pope is neither learned nor intelligent. . . . Given a world so sadly unappreciative of eccentricity, in most other organisations this side of North Korea the Men in White Coats would have been sent in to hustle such a CEO out of public view. ( 8-29-17 )

The time has surely come for the Four Cardinals who intervened last year with their Dubia to revisit the question. And the time for Bishops, Successors of the Apostles according to the teaching of Leo XIII and of Vatican II and not mere vicars of the Roman Pontiff, to speak with courage, clarity and unanimity. And for clergy, laity, and academics to do the same. Remember that, at the height of the Arian Crisis, it was not among the Bishops or even in Rome that the Faith was most conspicuously preserved and defended.

Having compared Pope Francis to Honorius, he then analogizes todays situation ( on 6-19-17 ) to the Arian crisis (in which the divinity of Jesus was denied):

It is also my view that a mortal sin is a mortal sin is a mortal sin is a mortal sin. And Mortal Sin is the area into which, like several fair-sized and unstable bulls in a very tiny china shop, Bergoglio and his cronies have strayed. And by sanctioning what Fr Aidan Nichols has neatly called tolerated concubinage, I do not think they will bring a single murdered Jew back to life or even save a single victim in future genocides. In fact, quite the contrary. Do we save lives  or marriages  by chipping away at the Decalogue, or by shoring it up when it comes under threat? . . . Bergoglios jesuitical campaign to circumvent Veritatis splendor paragraph 80, as well as Familiaris consortio, is both a moral and an ecclesial disaster. If Bergoglian moral principles prevail, then, as Fr Aidan Nichols has accurately put it, no area of Christian morality can remain unscathed.

Ed Feser (as far as I know) thinks Vatican II is perfectly orthodox. For example:

My view is that Vatican IIs teaching on religious liberty can and should be reconciled with the teaching of the pre-Vatican II popes on the subject. (My favored way of doing so is the one developed by Thomas Pink.) (7-23-21)

So why would Feser want to cite an extremist reactionary like Fr. Hunwicke on his blog and in The Catholic World Report? Is he even aware that the illustrious priest has characterized Vatican II as a disaster and a fiasco and obsolete and obsolescent and that it cast a dark shadow? In charity, I will assume that he wasnt aware. But if he reads this article, he will be.

I shall now move on to a second and different defense of the Holy Father; what I described above as an appeal to legitimate biblical and spiritual reasons for not directly answering the particular critics in play in the present instance. A strong biblical argument can be made from many examples in the behavior of Our Lord Jesus Himself. Many times He did answer critics. But other times He did not, in at least four different ways:

1) By giving no answer at all. 2) By appealing to His past teachings, heard by the people. 3) By replying with another question, a la Socrates. 4) By replying in a deliberately cryptic or parabolic or deflecting way, in conjunction with His knowledge that any answer would not be accepted anyway by the ones asking. They didnt have ears to hear: as Jesus mentioned five times.

Ill now provide plain and undeniable examples of all four approaches from Jesus.

Matthew 26:62-63 (RSV) And the high priest stood up and said, Have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you? [63] But Jesus was silent. . . . (cf. Mk 14:61) *** John 18:19-21 The high priest then questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching. [20] Jesus answered him, I have spoken openly to the world; I have always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where all Jews come together; I have said nothing secretly. [21] Why do you ask me? Ask those who have heard me, what I said to them; they know what I said. *** Matthew 12:1-5 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the sabbath; his disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. [2] But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the sabbath. [3] He said to them, Have you not read what David did, when he was hungry, and those who were with him: [4] how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? [5] Or have you not read in the law how on the sabbath the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are guiltless? Matthew 12:10-11 And behold, there was a man with a withered hand. And they asked him, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath? so that they might accuse him. [11] He said to them, What man of you, if he has one sheep and it falls into a pit on the sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out? Matthew 21:23-27 And when he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching, and said, By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority? [24] Jesus answered them, I also will ask you a question; and if you tell me the answer, then I also will tell you by what authority I do these things. [25] The baptism of John, whence was it? From heaven or from men? And they argued with one another, If we say, `From heaven, he will say to us, `Why then did you not believe him? [26] But if we say, `From men, we are afraid of the multitude; for all hold that John was a prophet. [27] So they answered Jesus, We do not know. And he said to them, Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. Matthew 22:41-45 [esp. 22:42] Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, [42] saying, What do you think of the Christ? Whose son is he? They said to him, The son of David. [43] He said to them, How is it then that David, inspired by the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying, [44] `The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, till I put thy enemies under thy feet? [45] If David thus calls him Lord, how is he his son? *** Matthew 13:10-13 Then the disciples came and said to him, Why do you speak to them in parables? [11] And he answered them, To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. [12] For to him who has will more be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away. [13] This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. Luke 8:9-10 And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, [10] he said, To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God; but for others they are in parables, so that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand. Luke 10:21 In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes; yea, Father, for such was thy gracious will. Luke 22:67-68 If you are the Christ, tell us. But he said to them, If I tell you, you will not believe; [68] and if I ask you [some versions: . . . a question], you will not answer. John 2:18-21 The Jews then said to him, What sign have you to show us for doing this? [19] Jesus answered them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. [20] The Jews then said, It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days? [21] But he spoke of the temple of his body.

But is it the case that Pope Francis consciously thinks about why he has chosen not to answer his most virulent critics; that he has some spiritual reason for not doing so? It can be plausibly argued that he does. Catholic apologist and defender of this pope and popes in general, Dr. Pedro Gabriel (who is an oncologist in his day job), wrote two articles, entitled, Silence according to Pope Francis (12-5-18) and Silence: the shield against Suspicious Man (12-10-18). He lays out his case. I cite the first article:

Pope Francis, as the Vicar of Christ, can help us better understand the depths of meaning conveyed by the concept of silence. In fact, Francis has produced some impressive theological reflections on this topic. On the other hand, it is interesting, also regarding Pope Francis, that silence can be viewed as a source of scandal for those who do not understand him. After all, his critics attack him for his silence, ranging from not answering the dubia, to not answering Archbishop Viganos testimony against him. However, if Pope Francis keeps silent in those situations, maybe we can better understand why by studying his reflections on silence. Hence the question: what does silence mean to Pope Francis? . . . [I]f we really try to understand Francis, instead of playing gotcha with the Pope in order to trap him in his words (a strategy first undertaken against Christ by the Pharisees,) we should, in charity, assume that Francis is not being inconsistent. Maybe there are alternative explanations as to why Francis has chosen the silent route to address these charges. . . . The answer lies in a silence that is also a part of Francis theology, but which I have yet to talk about: the silence used to resist the accusations of what he terms the suspicious man.

Dr. Gabriel goes on to explain the second aspect in his follow-up article:

I believe that Francis silence is a dignified silence too. Even if it scandalizes people, it is sadly needed in order for him not to be manipulated as well. For such is the intention of many of those who are sowing scandal by (among other things) accusing the Pope of silence in the face of great evils. They want him to break his silence in order to ensnare him and, in doing so, force him to comply with their ideas for the Church. . . . The format of the dubia, demanding yes-or-no answers, does not take into account the nuance demanded by this document, and the way the questions are framed tries to force Francis to chose between open heresy or forfeiting his manifest will. In this way, answering the dubia on their own terms would actually cause more harm than good. . . . As for Archbishop Viganos testimony, it is even more egregious. Vigano accuses the pope of mishandling a serious case of sexual abuse, and in a shameful display of inversion of the burden of proof, tries to force Francis to prove his innocence by telling him to release documents allegedly proving his point instead of substantiating his accusations himself. Release the documents has become an anti-Francis mantra, just like answer the dubia. It is meant to shut Francis up whenever he says something his critics disagree with. But even here we see an urge to control. Interspersed with Viganos charges regarding the sexual abuse crisis, we also see accusations of doctrinal laxity and ambiguity. These are codewords for Pope Francis clear and magisterial teachings which are utterly rejected by his critics. . . . However, just like the dubia, Francis reacted to Viganos accusations with silence. On a plane interview in the aftermath of the testimonys release, the pontiff said: I read the statement this morning, and I must tell you sincerely that, I must say this, to you and all those who are interested: Read the statement carefully and make your own judgment () I will not say a single word on this. Nevertheless, how can we understand Francis silent reaction in the face of these crises? Is there something in his theology or history that may give us a clue? Yes, in fact, there is. Before his election to the papacy, Jorge Mario Bergoglio had already experienced the effects of being publicly calumniated. As reported by Austen Ivereigh here, back in the 1970s, Father Bergoglio was accused by left-wing Catholics of being a collaborationist with the Argentinian dictatorship. In the 1980s, such accusations resurfaced again against the background of widespread shock and indignation at revelations of bishops failures to protect their flocks from the armys torture chambers. In fact, these accusations also resurfaced fleetingly at the time of his election as Pope Francis. At the time, as in today, Fr. Bergoglios answer to these baseless accusations from a backdrop of anxiety and anger verging at times on hysteria was silence. Denying those charges to people who were hell-bent on their truthfulness would not convince anyone. On the contrary, it would only give credibility to those allegations and stoke the flames of gossip. But if Francis was innocent, then time would vindicate him, for truth cant be hidden for long. And in fact, thats exactly what happened. This life experience surely inspired Bergoglio later when, in the 1990s (during a time period Ivereigh dubs as one of his desert periods) he wrote a reflection called Silencio y Palabra (Silence and Word). I have taken the opportunity to read it in full and was taken aback at the striking (prophetic?) parallels between what Fr. Bergoglio wrote then and what we are seeing today. Only by reading that essay can we truly grasp the meaning of Pope Francis silence today. Silencio y Palabra talks mostly about internal strife within religious orders (what Bergoglio calls internas in Spanish.) Those internas are the result of individual sins, when the brothers of the order fall into common temptations Fr. Bergoglio expounds throughout the essay. For the purpose of this article, I will talk mostly about the temptations of Self-Sufficiency and Suspicion. In my last article, I wrote about how silence can become rotten when it turns into an excuse for self-centeredness. But Fr. Bergoglio goes to further lengths to teach us what a self-centered religious man looks like, juxtaposing his image to the one of Our Lady, Untier of Knots (all quotes from now on are from Silencio y Palabra and have been translated by me from the original Spanish): . . . The other temptation is also evident in todays insurgence against St. Peter: the temptation of suspicion (emphasis from now on is always mine): Suspicion is an old bug. It creates in the heart a certain uneasiness toward any behavior of my brother that I do not fully understand. This uneasiness grows in intensity and ends by seeing as a menace everything that it doesnt understand and control () The suspicious man sins against the light, he has enamored himself of this attitude of wanting everything clarified, because his life consists in confusing the conspiracy for reality. There is always, in the suspicious man, an area that resists Gods light. If such light would come, he could not have suspicions any longer. He manipulates half-truths, as truthful lies. The ambiguous is his field of action and he imposes it on others as if it was clarity. () Suspicion is the clinging to an area of penumbra, feeding the man who has opted for the partiality of the internas over the totality of the institution as a body. This is so appropriate to what were experiencing right now, its scary. We see this in the way some Catholic media outlets have been propagandizing sensationalistic pieces about major conspiracies in the Vatican, from the St. Galen mafia to the lavender mafia, in a way that mimics any other conspiracy theorist. No wonder so many have embarked on the Vigano bandwagon: he validates their conspiratorial suspicions. And no debunking will be sufficient: for them, the refutations are part of the conspiracy. More striking even, is the way the above quote is worded. The way papal critics manipulate the concepts of ambiguity, clarity, and confusion correspond exactly with the patterns described by Fr. Bergoglio. They will claim, even to the point of irrationality, that AL (a magisterial document they disagree with) is ambiguous, even when it is not. They will then demand clarity over and over and over, while ignoring every single clarification that doesnt appeal to them. Confusion is a codeword for everything they disagree with (even if it is the Popes manifest will) and clarity means the predefined answer they want (which has already been proven, its not the Popes manifest will.) When they decry confusion and demand clarity, they are actually requiring the Church to do what they want it to do. Ambiguity is a way for them to avoid facing the reality of their dissent, and so they will cling to it no matter what. . . . Bergoglios words in this astonishing reflection clarify in an amazing way what Pope Francis is getting at with his silence. It is true that feeding the controversy has not helped to quell it, quite the contrary. So, for instance, when Pope Francis clarified the meaning of his apostolic exhortation AL, by publishing the Buenos Aires guidelines as the only possible interpretation, both in the Vatican website and in the Acta Apostolicae Sedes, the dissenters just doubled down on their narrative that the Pope was ambiguous and still needed to clarify, playing games to avoid the reality staring them in the face. Only answering the dubia would do, since they were framed in their own terms, as I have explained before. Also with Viganos testimony, which has been completely discredited to any objective onlooker, we see that each successive debunking is followed by another letter, uncritically cheered by papal critics. When Catholics showed that Viganos letters were full of inconsistencies  like showing allegedly sanctioned McCarrick in a gala being complimented by Vigano, or appearing in Rome to greet Pope Benedict  the papal critics just doubled down and, surprisingly, declared that those inconsistencies actually proved Viganos point. When Vigano asked Cardinal Ouellet to testify, and he issued a vocal refutation of Viganos charges, the papal critics just doubled down and, surprisingly, declared that Ouellet actually was proving Viganos point. Of course, this happened after a kneejerk reaction where Ouellet was accused of lying, since he contradicted Vigano. . . . The dubia and Viganos letter are not meant to achieve truth, no matter how much lip-service anti-Francis critics pay to the love of truth. No. The dubia and Viganos testimony are not instruments of truth, they are pretexts. They are used as excuses to feed the suspicions of the suspicious men. If light was allowed to shine in their suspicions, they would have to come to terms with a painful reality: that they are dissenters, just like all those sinners they have, for years, catalogued as CINOs and Cafeteria Catholics. In other words, clarifying wont help. This is why Pope Francis strategy is different: To the sectarian, after one or two admonitions, leave him be. Do not indulge in internas. In there, enmity flourishes. In there, it is enmity that sets the rhythm. . . . Is it not true, however, that people keep going on and on and on with the dubia and with Viganos testimony? Indeed, they do. However, these are the people under the temptations of self-sufficiency and suspicion. Those are the ones who were already convinced in the first place, since they disliked Francis from the beginning. And there is no evidence that anything will make them budge, either way. So, they are not going to change, except through a supernatural grace that may make the scales fall off from their spiritual eyes. But, no matter how much racket they gather inside their limited virtual turf, Pope Francis silence speaks more eloquently and more forcefully than their constant nagging. And, just as he predicted, their flashy light gradually dims away as the light of the Holy Spirit shines through the passing of time, vindicating St. Peters successor.

A year and a half later, Dr. Gabriel wrote similarly in his article, Why the Vatican is silent on Vigano (7-7-20):

When a person is attacked in a way that cannot be clarified, then that persons best response is to keep silent. Truth will eventually come to the surface, because the weakness shown by this person inevitably emboldens the Devil, who will then manifest himself, revealing the evil motivations he had concealed until that time. In other words, by letting the accuser talk, the person who suffers in silence will give this accuser enough rope to hang himself. Let him talk. Sooner or later he will reveal the inconsistencies and lies in his accusations. This is precisely what happened with Vigano. [JD] Flynn correctly notes that the archbishop has changed his topic, from the McCarrick affair to conspiracy theories about the coronavirus pandemic, the Marian apparition at Fatima, and the Second Vatican Council. In other words, Vigano is letting it all out now. His accusations do not serve the legitimate aim of doing justice for the McCarrick victims anymore, as they once appeared to do. Viganos accusations now seem to be ends in themselves; they seek to transform the Church according to the agenda of certain Catholics who pit themselves as the guardians of orthodoxy against the Vicar of Christ and an ecumenical council. Not only that, but Viganos missives have become so unhinged, conspiratorial, and detached from reality, that at this moment, there is no excuse for a Catholic to follow him. By now, it is as clear as day: Viganos best refutation is Vigano himself. This is a much stronger argument than if Pope Francis had issued a point-by-point refutation of every single one of his claims. If someone is still following Vigano at this point, then I dont know what the Vatican could say that would convince them. They are simply too far off. I believe that for this subset of our Church, only prayers, not arguments, will help. . . . The answer to JD Flynns question, Why is the Vatican silent on McCarrick? is to begin to know Francis. I answered this very same question in October 2018, in fact, when I wrote: Viganos testimony is accepted at face value, no matter how many inconsistencies and denials contradict it. If someone with authority and knowledge states Vigano is wrong, then it must be because that person is lying. If someone categorically rejects the existence of sanctions, then what that person said is spun in order to prove the sanctions existed. And so there were sanctions, even when they were not sanctions, but they were still sanctions insofar as they validate Viganos testimony. Vigano can invert the burden of proof and demand that Francis prove his innocence by releasing documents whose existence is uncertain, apart from Viganos own testimony (in other words, circular reasoning and petitio principii). If those documents are not released, then that is proof that Vigano is right (the archbishop states so in his second testimony). If they are released but do not prove what Vigano says they prove, then this is because the documents were tainted. In other words, Viganos testimony is non-falsifiable. To this, I can only once again commend Pope Franciss wisdom in maintaining silence before this crowd. All those who have asked for years that the Pope would clarify his teachings have now shown what they would have done if Francis had given them a clear answer (as Ouellet did) that they disagreed with. They would just spin the popes clarifications in a way better suited for their ideological narrative, just as they have done now. And all those insistent cries for an investigation are paradoxical, since they have proven they are not open to be led to wherever truth may lead them (as the Vatican statement puts it), but are rather searching for an investigation that will corroborate their pre-made conclusions. Above all, if Pope Franciss guilt has already been proven in their minds in a non-falsifiable way, why should Francis waste his time answering them? Silence is the appropriate answer. Whatever Francis might say in response to Viganos accusations would just feed the controversy, without satisfying his detractors in the least.

So there you have it, folks. I have provided several distinct arguments as to why the pope usually chooses not to directly answer his most severe, relentless, never-satisfied critics. Yet he does answer in his own way, just as Jesus various techniques of deflecting questions asked in bad faith were indeed also answers of a sort. They were simply deeper than the naysayers could comprehend. And so it is also the case today with this pope (the Vicar of Christ, after all) and his disturbingly numerous worst critics: whose miserable, ultra-uncharitable, unCatholic and impious spirit Dr. Gabriel, in my opinion, has correctly diagnosed and analyzed.

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For more about Archbishop Viganos continuing descent into madness and lunacy and arguably even schism, see:

Bishops Vigano & Schneider Reject Authority of Vatican II [11-22-19]

Abp. Vigano Descends into Fanatical Reactionary Nuthood (. . . Declares Pope Francis a Heretical Narcissist Who Desacralized & Impugned & Attack[ed] Mary) [12-20-19]

Dr. Fastiggi: Open Letter Re Abp. Vigano, Pope Francis, & Mary [2-22-20]

Is Archbishop Vigano in Schism? [Dr. Robert Fastiggi, Where Peter Is, 6-13-20]

Abp. Vigano: Fanaticism, Extremism, and Conspiratorialism (Summary from August 2019 Until July 2020: Alarming, Increasingly Quasi-Schismatic Spirit) [7-13-20]

Whats So Bad About Abp. Vigano? (Traditionalists Ask) [7-14-20]

A Response to Archbishop Viganos Letter about Vatican II (Fr. Thomas G. Weinandy, OFM., Cap., The Catholic World Report, 8-13-20)

Archbishop Vigano got so ridiculous and conspiratorial that I simply stopped writing blog papers about him three years ago. I figured that anyone gullible and uninformed and closed-minded enough to accept his reactionary nonsense and endless inanities was beyond all reason to reach.

Pope Francis apparently knew this all along, and Archbishop Vigano is a rather spectacular Exhibit #1 in the effort to understand why the pope chooses silence in the face of ill-willed, never satisfied opposition.

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Or you may believe my work is worthy to support for the purpose of apologetics and evangelism in general. If so, please seriously consider a much-needed financial contribution. Im always in need of more funds: especially monthly support. The laborer is worthy of his wages (1 Tim 5:18, NKJV). 1 December 2021 was my 20th anniversary as a full-time Catholic apologist , and February 2022 marked the 25th anniversary of my blog.

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Photo credit: Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano (3 December 2013) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons]

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Summary: I lay out three distinct arguments with regard to Pope Francis and the five dubia, and explain why he is not obliged to interact with every virulent critic in every case.
An estimated 500,000 gathered at Parco Eduardo VII, renamed Colina do Encontro during World Youth Day 2023, to welcome Pope Francis to Lisbon, Portugal.

I arrived with the fourteen pilgrim group from the Diocese of Savannah at around 3:45pm for a Welcoming Ceremony scheduled at 6pm. The Park was packed already. Arriving involved getting on a train followed by riding on two subway lines, during which our small group got separated. I have traveled much, but have never ridden trains so packed, or seen train platforms so crowded. At the same time, I have never ridden trains so filled with joyful people, singing songs, greeting each other, exchanging gifts, and all keeping a cheery attitude despite the miserable circumstances (it was very hot).

The Pope said to the half million assembled, Dios nos quiere como somos, sin maquillaje, translated, God loves us as we are, without any makeup. He made the crowd repeat the words todos, todos, todos, after emphasizing that in the Church, there is room for all, todos. En la Iglesia nadie sobra, he asserted, which means, nobody is an extra in the Church. He stressed the fact that God has called us each by name, and that the Church is mother to all. The Lord opens his arms to all, in the same way he opened his arms on the cross. He finished his address stating, Be not afraid, God loves us.

It was powerful to be part of the immense crowd. There were so many young people singing and chanting, dancing. Flags from so many countries  including unexpected ones such as China (I saw three separate groups today), Qatar, UAE, and Iraq. We met 50 pilgrims from Alaska, and others from the Marshall Islands. There are hundreds of Australians staying at our same hotel. As a Catholic, it is powerful to experience how our faith has reached all corners of the world as Jesus asked us to do.

World Youth Day began by Pope John Paul II as an event to gather young people from all corners of the world to encourage them in the faith. The day has evolved into days where young people gather for various events, including catechesis on various topics. It is a worldwide gathering of Catholic organizations: I have run into numerous priests, and met new people from all over. I visited the City of Joy where many organization had booths  I ran into familiar faces, and met people who know people I know. I even ran into and chatted with a fellow Georgian who is the president of Lifeteen. I met the President of Portugal and got my picture taken with him! He was at our hotel last night greeting pilgrims in the lobby with his security detail. In Fatima, I got a selfie with the nephew of two of the seers of the 1917 apparitions there  Francisco Marto, nephew of Jacinta and Francisco, the two younger shepherds.

Tomorrow evening the Pope will lead Stations of the Cross at Parco Eduardo VII, and on Saturday evening he will be present at a Vigil that will take place in a large park outside the city. Pilgrims will walk several miles to the site and sleep over that night. On Sunday morning, the Pope will celebrate a closing Mass at that same park. If half a million were present tonight, I estimate the closing Mass will hit one million faithful!

Here the official prayer for World Youth Day Lisbon:

Our Lady of the Visitation,

you who arose and went with haste into the hill country to meet Elizabeth,

lead us also to encounter all those who await us

to deliver them the living Gospel: Jesus Christ, your Son and our Lord!

We, too, will go in haste, without distraction or delay,

but with readiness and joy.

We will go with peace because those who bring Christ bring peace, and well-being comes from being generous and loving in our deeds.

Our Lady of the Visitation,

through your inspiration, this World Youth Day

will be a shared celebration of Christ, whom we bring to others, just as you did.

Please make this a time of testimony and sharing, of fraternity and thanksgiving,

with each of us looking for opportunities to give to those who are waiting to receive.

With you, we will continue on this path of encounter so that our world will join us, too, in fraternity, justice, and peace.

Help us,

Our Lady of the Visitation,

to bring Christ to everyone, in obedience to the Father and in the love of the Holy Spirit!

Amen
Much to the chagrin of students everywhere in the United States, back-to-school season is in full swing. Whether youre shopping for an elementary student or a college freshman, the number-one item on your list is (most likely) a good laptop. HP produces some of the most lightweight and portable laptops around, as well as some powerful gaming machines.

Fortunately, HP is holding its back-to-school sale right now, where you can save up to 67 percent off of specific laptops. Theres no better time than now to dive in and take advantage of those scrumptious deals. Weve applied all our laptop expertise to hand-pick the very best machines and discounts from HPs offerings.

Looking for the best of the best? Check out PCWorlds roundup of the best laptops available today.

Best back-to-school everyday laptop deals

Sometimes all you need is a basic laptop for day-to-day tasks like writing papers and doing research on the web. If your college major doesnt require a very powerful system (hey, English majors!), then you should pick up one of these everyday HP laptops listed below.

My top pick: The HP Pavlion Laptop 15t offers reliable performance at a reasonable price. This thing is rocking a 1080p display, 16GB of memory, and a powerful Intel Core i7-1355U CPU. For just $599.99, thats a very good buy.

Best back-to-school gaming laptop deals

Many students often moonlight as serious (sometimes competitive) gamers when they leave the classroom (myself included when I was in school). Thats why its always important to take hobbies into account when shopping around for a student, whether theyre in high school or college.

HP Omen Transcend Gaming Laptop, Intel Core i7-13700HX CPU/Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 GPU/16GB RAM/512GB SSD/16-inch 1200p display, $1,199.99 ($500 off at HP)

OMEN Gaming Laptop 16t, Intel Core i7-13700HX CPU/Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 GPU/16GB RAM/512GB PCIe NVMe SSD/16.1-inch 1080p display, $1,199.99 ($300 off at HP)

My top pick: If you consider yourself a casual gamer on a strict budget, the HP Omen Transcend gaming laptop is the one to pick. This laptop should zip right through most games on medium to high graphics thanks to the Intel Core i7-13700HX CPU and the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 GPU. The 16-inch display also features a refresh rate of 165Hz, which means you can expect smooth visuals.

Best back-to-school Chromebook deals

Here at PCWorld, we have some serious Chromebook fans on staff (hi). Its easy to see why, as Chromebook battery life is crazy long and theyre largely virus-free. Although theyve been popular in the education market for quite some time, theyve gotten powerful enough to attract mainstream appeal.

HP Chromebook 15a, Intel Pentium Silver N6000 CPU/UHD graphics/8GB RAM/64GB eMMC/15.6-inch 1080p display, $319.99 ($80 off at HP)

HP Chromebook x360, Intel Pentium Silver Silver N6000 CPU/UHD graphics/8GB RAM/128GB eMMC/14-inch 768p touch display, $329.99 ($160 off at HP )

) HP Elite Dragonfly Chromebook, Intel Core i3-1215U CPU/UHD graphics/8GB RAM/128GB SSD/13.5-inch 1504p touch display, $999 ($150 off at HP)

My top pick: Out of all the deals above, the best bang is the first option, the HP Chromebook 15a. The Intel Pentium Silver N6000 isnt the fastest CPU weve ever played around with, but its good enough for everyday tasks like responding to email and researching topics. Plus, the 1080p display is plenty sharp for watching your favorite Netflix shows and YouTube channels.

Best back-to-school 2-in-1 deals

If portability is at the top of your priority list, these machines are for you. Most older students will likely take their laptop to classes with them, so its important to travel light, and 2-in-1 laptops are your best bet. Convertibles make such versatile machines because you can swing the screen around 360 degrees.

HP Spectre x360, Intel Core i7-13700H CPU/Intel Iris Xe graphics/16GB RAM/512GB SSD/16-inch 1920p touch display, $1,099.99 ($600 off at HP)

HP Pavilion x360 Convertible, Intel Core i5-1235U CPU/Intel Iris Xe graphics/8GB RAM/256GB PCIe NVMe SSD/15.6-inch 768p touch display, $499.99 ($300 off at HP)

HP Envy x360 2-in-1 Laptop 15z, AMD Ryzen 5 7530U CPU/AMD Radeon graphics/8GB RAM/256GB PCIe NVMe SSD/15.6-inch 1080p touch display, $549.99 ($350 off at HP)

My top pick: If youre in the market for a convertible laptop with a really nice display, the HP Spectre x360 is one hot ticket. It lives at the top of the bulleted list above. According to HP, the touch display has a maximum brightness of 400 nits and a sharp resolution of 30721920, which is impressive given the price and hardware. This machine also comes with an HP Rechargeable MPP2.0 Tilt Pen.

Best back-to-school content creation laptop deals

If youre studying to become a photo editor or graphic designer, youll need a powerful laptop with a good screen and plenty of storage. For content creation laptops, we always recommend ones with discrete graphics, which is important for editing (trust me you definitely want more oomph in the graphics department). We found a great deal on a laptop with a beastly RTX 4070 GPU inside.

HP Omen Laptop 17, Intel Core i7-13700HX CPU/Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 GPU/16GB RAM/1TB SSD/17.3-inch 1440p display, $,1,549.99 ($400 at HP)

My top pick: Sure, if you want to get technical, the HP Omen Laptop 17 is a straight-up gaming rig. However, given the powerful components inside, its actually perfect for content creation. The RTX 4070 GPU is more than capable of handling photo or video editing tasks as well as running modern titles on the High or Ultra graphics preset. The display is also quite spacious at 17.3-inches, which is important for getting those minute details just right.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is passionate about integrating mental health coverage into the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) Benefits Package.



According to the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Chief Executive, plans are far advanced to offset the cost of mental health treatment and make it more affordable for individuals suffering from that disease condition.



Dr. Bernard Okoe-Boye was addressing the Western North Regional Minister as part of his working visit to that part of the country.



He said there was a dramatic improvement in Claims payments to credentialed healthcare service providers for which reason they have no excuse for collecting illegal monies (Copayments) from NHIS members at the point of need.



"Presently, we make monthly payments to service providers whose Claims have been vetted and approved. On July 31st, we paid additional Ghs186 million cedis to our hardworking credentialed healthcare providers, reducing the previous piled-up debt just to one month."



"As a result of the rapid Claims payments, we launched a platform known as the 'Sunshine policy' to deepen accountability, transparency, and social auditing. Since its launch, suppliers of drugs to healthcare facilities and other stakeholders are able to log onto the NHIS website with privileged access to view payments made to deserving facilities."



He talked about the expansion of the NHIS Benefit Package.



"The Benefits Package has successfully been expanded over the years. We have recently added the Free Elderly Healthcare policy for people 70 years and above, the four commonest childhood cancers and a very expensive drug called Herceptin for breast cancer treatment."



The Western North Regional Minister, Mr. Joojo Rocky Obeng commended Dr. Okoe Boye's administration for transforming the NHIS.



In a related development, Dr. Okoe Boye paid homage to the Omanhene of Sefwi Wiawso Traditional Council, Katakyie Kwasi Bumagama II, where he called for collective efforts to sustain the NHIS.



"We have a duty to ensure that the NHIS is enlarged, made robust and sustainable. Everybody should get on board and together we can sustain the NHIS."



Katakyie Kwasi Bumagama II, praised the NHIA Chief Executive's transformational leadership.



He urged Dr. Okoe Boye's administration to keep doing its best which he noted would not go unnoticed.



The NHIA's ultimate goal is to fully drive the national agenda of attaining Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by the year 2030.



The Authority has taken initiatives and accomplished the same in the light of contributing to the overall growth and development of the Ghanaian economy.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The Attorney-General, Godfred Yeboah Dame has tasked the Criminal Investigation Department of the Ghana Police Service to investigate the ownership of the US$200,000 and 300,000 stolen from the home of the Former Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Abena Dapaah.



In a statement cited by DGN Online, the Attorney-General says the former Minister, Abena Dapaah did not mention the owner of the cash.



The A-Gs observation is coming after the Police forwarded a docket to his office on July 24, 2023 for review and advice after the former Ministers two house helps were charged alongside other accomplices.



The charge sheet stated the pair, 18-year-old Patience Botwe and 30-year-old Sarah Agyei have allegedly stolen US$1 million, 300,000 and millions of Ghana cedis between July and October 2022.



However, the AG was to consider amongst other things the charges levelled against the persons accused of stealing the monies, and issues about the investigation into the source of the money considering the quantum reported to have been stolen from the former Ministers home.



The A-G also called on the police to conduct an investigation into the ownership of the US$200,000 and 300,000 said to have been stolen, and the source of the money.



The A-G further called for an investigation into the $800,000 belonging to Madam Dapaahs deceased brother and the GHS300,000 contribution towards her mothers funeral contained in a box, and a bag that was stolen to ascertain the following:



i. The true ownership of the amount of US$800,000.



ii. The source(s) from which the established owner of the amount of US$800,000 acquired the money.



iii. Whether the accused stole the full amount of US$800,000 from the house of the complainants.



It was also established that Madam Cecilia Dapaah did not indicate who the amounts of $200,000 and 300,000 stolen from the room belonged to.



Additionally, the total of all the sums retrieved from the accused together with the value of properties acquired does not appear to amount to the sum reported by the complainants as having been stolen.



The police need to conduct estimations into i. The ownership of the US$200,000 and 300,000. ii. The source(s) from which the established owner(s) of the amounts of US$200,000 and 300,000, acquired the money. iii. Broaden the investigations on money laundering and other financial crimes to cover the complainants the A-G stated.

Source: dailyguidenetwork.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The Members of Parliament for Abirem constituency, Hon. John Osei Frimpong, and the District Chief Executive for Birim North District Assembly together with the Chief of Abirem, Obrempong Kwasi Amoh Tweretwie I, were joined by the Chief Justice of the Republic of Ghana, Her Ladyship Gertrude Torkonoo to inaugurate the newly constructed Circuit Court in New Abirem on Tuesday, August 1, 2023 at New Abirem.



The New Abirem Circuit Court forms part of the number of Courts project being executed by the Akuffo-Addo administration.



The Member of Parliament for the constituency. Hon. John Osei Frimpong, addressing the gathering at the inauguration ceremony used the occasion to thank the President of the Republic of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwah Akuffo-Addo, The Chief Justice, District Assembly Common Fund Secretariat and the Judicial Service for their commitment and collective efforts in bringing the project to fruition within a stipulated time.



Hon John Osei Frimpong, also entreated management of the edifice to ensure regular maintenance to keep it in good shape all times.



It is our expectation that this beautiful edifice will help to promote the administration of Justice in our constituency The MP advised



A number of dignitaries were present at the occasion and these included: Nana Kwasi Amoh Kyeretwie, Chief of New Abirem and Nananom, Divisional Police Commander, District Commanders of all Security Agencies, Officials from the Judicial Service of Ghana, District Coordinating Director and Heads of Departments in Birim North District Assembly, Constituency Executives of the Ruling NPP , Party Faithfuls and Representatives of other political parties.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Senegal has said it would be prepared to send troops into Niger if regional bloc Ecowas decided to do so.



At the weekend, Ecowas heads of state threatened the use of force if elected President Mohamed Bazoum is not reinstated by next Sunday. He was overthrown in a military coup last week.



Ecowas has also imposed economic sanctions.



Niger is the fourth country in the region to have experienced a coup since 2020.



Senegal's Foreign Minister Aissata Tall Sall told reporters that there had been "one coup too many" in the region, the AFP news agency quotes her as saying.



"Senegalese soldiers, for all these reasons, will go there," she added.



Meanwhile, thousands of people have demonstrated in Niamey, Niger's capital, to show their support for the junta.



A coalition of civil society organisations opposed to the French military presence in the country called the protest.



Correspondents say there are also many people in Niger who are opposed to the coup.

Source: BBC









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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Minister of Digital Development and Transport of Azerbaijan Rashad Nabiyev and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Italian company Leonardo Stefano Pontecorvo discussed possibilities of cooperation, Azernews reports, citing Ministry.

Minister Rashad Nabiyev wrote about it on social networks,

The minister said in the publication that the sides discussed potential opportunities for cooperation in cyber security, space activities, and transport.

It should be noted that Leonardo is Italy's largest defense production company. Leonardo has technologies in the civil sector as well, including technologies of "smart cities", in the production of artificial satellites and aerospace services, and management of transport systems of large cities.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug.4. TotalEnergies and its partner SOCAR (State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan) have signed an agreement to sell a 15% participating interest each in the Absheron gas field to ADNOC (Abu Dhabi National Oil Company), Trend reports.

After completion of this transaction, which is subject to the approval by the relevant authorities, TotalEnergies will own a 35% interest in Absheron gas field, alongside SOCAR (35%) and ADNOC (30%).

Absheron gas and condensate field is located in the Caspian Sea and operated by JOCAP (Joint Operating Company of Absheron Petroleum).

TotalEnergies is pleased to welcome ADNOC, one of its strategic partners, into the Absheron gas field, where production of the first phase started in early July, and which offers a significant further development potential to meet the growing gas demand, said Nicolas Terraz, President, Exploration & Production at TotalEnergies.

TotalEnergies has been present in Azerbaijan since 1996, where it is a 50% partner of SOCAR in the Absheron gas and condensate field and holds a 5% stake in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline.

TotalEnergies and its partner SOCAR (State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan) have recently announced the start of production of the first phase of development of the Absheron gas and condensate field in the Caspian Sea, around 100 km south-east of Baku.

This first phase connects a subsea production well to a new gas processing platform, itself linked to SOCARs existing facilities in Oil Rocks. It has production capacity of 4 million cubic meters of gas per day and 12,000 barrels a day of condensate.

Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn
After setting new industry benchmarks in Premium Economy travel, Emirates is celebrating a banner first year of full-service operations with the highly popular cabin class. Over 160,000 customers have traded up to fly in Emirates Premium Economy since it was introduced in August 2022, with strong demand momentum forecasted in the coming months. The airline is providing travellers more opportunities to experience its highly-acclaimed Premium Economy product which is currently available on flights to 11 cities, with the list growing to 13 cities by the end of the year, as more retrofitted aircraft with refreshed cabins roll into scheduled service.



Since Emirates debuted its Premium Economy Class, customer response has been overwhelmingly positive with demand exceeding expectations and bookings growing month on month, demonstrating its appeal to a broad range of traveller segments who want to try out its understated luxury and meticulously elevated experience at great value. Nearly half of customers flying in Emirates Premium Economy are solo travellers venturing off for holidays, while couples and families constitute the other half. More than 60% of customers who booked to fly in Premium Economy in the last year were also loyal Emirates Skywards members and regular customers of the airline.



Emirates currently flies its A380s with the latest Premium Economy cabins to London Heathrow, Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland, Christchurch, Singapore, Los Angeles, New York JFK, Houston, San Francisco and Dubai, with flights regularly registering full seat loads in Premium Economy. The airline plans to make Premium Economy available to customers flying to/from Mumbai and Bengaluru from 29 October, and additional cities will be announced soon. Emirates currently operates 20 aircraft fitted with Premium Economy, 14 of which were retrofitted in-house by the Emirates Engineering team in Dubai over the course of the last nine months.



Since August 2022, the airline has operated close to 4,500 flights with Premium Economy, traversing more than 36 million kilometres around the globe. On those flights, over 192,000 meals from its carefully curated menus which include the finest ingredients were served to customers who enjoyed regionally inspired, generously portioned dishes. Unique touches include indulgent desserts garnished with edible gold leaf, among other signature offerings.



Premium Economy menus are updated every month to ensure a diversity of flavours and dishes, especially for well-travelled customers. Over 126,000 pieces of chocolates were served to round off meals for Premium Economy customers. Emirates also served 6,700 kilograms of mixed nuts and 8,650 litres of complimentary fresh lemon and mint juices in Premium Economy. The airlines robust beverage selection in Premium Economy includes a global exclusive for Emirates customers, Australian sparkling wine, Chandon Vintage Brut 2016, alongside a choice of a unique white and red wine.



The airlines philosophy to constantly innovate and redefine service excellence through the introduction of Premium Economy has earned it numerous top placings and accolades in the cabin category at the 2023 Skytrax Awards, Business Traveller awards, Airline Ratings Excellence Awards, and 2022 Business Traveller Middle East awards.



In May, Emirates launched a global campaign with Academy Award winning actor and philanthropist Penelope Cruz, which also featured her enjoying the spacious seats in Premium Economy. The airline has also provided a glimpse of its Premium Economy offering through guided tours of the new cabin class to media and influencers, trade partners, airport, tourism and government officials across cities like Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland, Christchurch, Singapore, New York JFK and San Francisco.



The Premium Economy roll-out is a core component of the airlines multi-billion-dollar retrofit programme which will see the interior upgrade on 67 Emirates A380 cabins, as well as 53 Boeing 777 cabins. By the end of the programme, over 4,000 Premium Economy seats will be installed, along with over 700 First Class suites and 5,000 Business Class seats refurbished with the latest interiors



Tickets in Premium Economy can be booked on emirates.com , the Emirates App, or via both online and offline travel agents.



To explore Emirates Premium Economy further, visit: Premium Economy | Cabin Features | The Emirates Experience | Emirates

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The history of the NPP tells us that no President can foist a candidate on the Party against its wishes. The NPP is not that kind of Party. We have never subscribed to a cult of personality. Indeed, our highly-respected former President, the 1st NPP President, His Excellency John Agyekum Kufuor, in the aftermath of my election as NPP Presidential Candidate, by the 2007 National Congress, told the Congress that the Party has its spirit, a spirit that cannot be ignored.



These were the words of the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, when he met with communicators of the New Patriotic Party, who called on him at Jubilee House, the seat of the nations presidency, on Wednesday, 2nd August 2023.



In a response to an appeal by the NPP Director of Communications, Mr. Richard Ahiagbah, in relation to the Partys conduct in next years election, President Akufo-Addo stated that the Party cannot afford to allow what happened to it in 2008 to reoccur in 2024.



We are all witnesses to the derailing of the achievements chalked by President John Agyekum Kufuor by the successor NDC Government, from 2009 to 2017, in which John Dramani Mahama featured so prominently, the President noted.



According to him under 8-years of the successor NDC Government, we became famous for all the wrong reasons. Four successive years of dumsor, the mismanagement of the economy, wrong and dangerous energy contracts, and wanton corruption dissipated any hope the Ghanaian had for sustained economic development. Never again should we allow this to happen.



With the start of the final leg of internal contests of the NPP, President Akufo-Addo noted that some actions by a few members of the party are making the front pages for the wrong reasons.



We are expending some of our energies hurling invectives at each other, instead of at our opponents, and, in the process, taking digs at our own Government. It has been an anxious time for all who love our party, and who see us as the party that can bring progress and prosperity to our nation, he said.



President Akufo-Addo continued, It is for this reason that, as President of the Republic and de-facto leader of the Party, I want to ensure that certain actions of yesteryear, which contributed to our loss in 2008, are not repeated. We cannot afford an internal campaign based on ethnic or religious considerations.



Describing the NPP as the Party of Ghanas unity, the President rejected forcefully the assertions being made by a few in our party who, because of internal party politicking, are accusing my government of allegedly intimidating and coercing party faithful to throw their support behind one of the presidential aspirants, that is the Vice President. It is a false and malicious narrative.

He told the Communicators of the Party that he beat my chest and say, without any fear of contradiction, that there is no one in the Party who can say that he, President Akufo-Addo, has asked him or her to support this or that aspirant.



I have not set out to dismiss any MMDCE or political appointee from office for supporting any particular aspirant; no Minister or Deputy Minister has lost their job or been threatened for openly campaigning for their preferred presidential aspirant; neither has any caveat emanated from Jubilee House to the Party across the length and breadth of the country demanding that Candidate A be supported over Candidate B. I, better than anyone in the Party, know that this is not the way to go, he stated.



Whoever becomes Presidential Candidate, according to the President, will be chosen freely and transparently by an Electoral College of some two hundred and fifty thousand (250,000) people, and not by President Akufo-Addo. I have just one vote, the same as any polling station executive anywhere in the country.



He indicated, however, that he would cast that vote for an aspirant who, I believe, can best unite the Party, and, above all, who can win the presidential election of 7th December 2024, and inflict a third successive defeat on the perennial NDC Presidential Candidate, John Dramani Mahama.



President Akufo-Addo reassured the gathering that victory for the NPP in election 2024, and handing over to an NPP Presidential Candidate so elected as President by the Ghanaian people, are what he is working for, and he expects all members of the NPP to share the same goals.



I assume that we all want our party to win the 2024 elections decisively, our parliamentary candidates to win, again, the majority of seats in Parliament, and our flagbearer to become the President of the Republic. I expect and accept arguments on how we prosecute this agenda. But I do not expect and do not accept that party members would do anything to jeopardise the goal we have set ourselves of winning the 2024 elections, and I will work with all who seek this objective, he added.



Touching on the economy, President Akufo-Addo stressed that, but for the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with the effects of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ghana would have witnessed an economic boom, following three (3) successive years when the country was one of the fastest growing economies in the world, recording an annual GDP growth rate of seven percent (7%), up from three-point four percent (3.4%), the lowest in a generation, the NPP inherited from the Mahama-led NDC Government at a time when there was no global turbulence.



By the Grace of Almighty God, together with appropriate policy and hard work, we are seeing a turnaround in our fortunes, and this turnaround will be sustained. We are not about to throw this away, and no machinations are going to weaken us. We will work hard the next sixteen (16) months to finish strongly our current mandate, and merit again the trust and confidence of the Ghanaian people, Break the Eight, and make history together, he added.

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A 19-year-old has been charged after being seen on video surveillance performing lewd acts on the property of a Franklin County elementary school.

The incident involving a group of people took place on July 30 at St. Thomas Elementary School, a Pennsylvania State Police

School officials contacted state police in Chambersburg on Wednesday.

According to the story, the video showed one of the people leaving the group and masturbating on the schools property by himself around 7:15 p.m.

The individual then interacted with a group of four people  who were all under the age of 16, according to police documents  and exposed himself and openly masturbated in front of the group, according to the CBS21 story.

Police documents say the victims have not been identified or interviewed, but the video clearly showed that individual to be Michael Moats.

Moats is being charged with four counts of unlawful contact with a minor  sexual offenses, four counts of unlawful contact with a minor  open lewdness, four counts of indecent assault of a person less than 16 years of age, four counts of indecent assault of a person less than 13 years of age, four counts of indecent exposure, four counts of indecent assault without consent of other, and four counts of open lewdness.

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Dauphin County man arrested for child porn, planning to meet with minor: police
By Sally Krutzig, Idaho Statesman (TNS)

BOISE, Idaho  Bryan Kohberger, the Pennsylvania man charged with murdering four University of Idaho students in November, said he was going for a drive on the night of the killings, according to a new court filing.

The filing is the first time Kohberger has given any explanation about his whereabouts the night of the fatal stabbings. Kohberger has been charged with first-degree murder in the slayings of University of Idaho seniors Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, both 21, junior Xana Kernodle and freshman Ethan Chapin, both 20, at an off-campus home on King Road in Moscow.

Mr. Kohberger has long had a habit of going for drives alone. Often he would go for drives at night, the document stated.

The defense said Kohberger, 28, was on one of these habitual drives late Nov. 12 and into the early morning of Nov. 13  the same date as the killings.

The defense said Kohberger is not claiming to be at a specific location at a specific time at this time and noted he does not have a specific witness to say precisely where Mr. Kohberger was at each moment.

The document, filed Wednesday night, was part of Kohbergers objection to the states motion to compel him to provide an alibi. The defense called this motion an attempt to force the defense to open its work product files and let the state peek inside and said the state was trying to push Kohberger to waive his right to a speedy trial.

The defense has stated all that can firmly be stated at this time, the filing said. This is not trial by ambush from the defense. This is the defense requesting information as quickly as possible yet in some instances face the delay of requesting a court order to obtain information.

Kohberger previously declined to provide a pretrial alibi in response to the states demand. The defendant chose to exercise his right to remain silent on the issue and possibly to testify on his own behalf at trial, according to the filing signed by lead public defender Anne Taylor.

Corroborating evidence showing Kohberger was not at the students home that day may come later in the forms of cross-examination of the states witnesses and expert witness presentation, according to Wednesdays defense filing.

At the time of the homicides, Kohberger was a graduate student in the criminal justice and criminology department at Washington State University in Pullman, roughly nine miles from the border of Idaho. He was arrested in late December in eastern Pennsylvania while visiting his parents home while on break from school.

Kohberger also previously chose to stand silent at his arraignment in May, which led Judge John Judge of Idahos 2nd Judicial District in Latah County to enter a plea of not guilty.

Kohberger also faces one count of felony burglary. Prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty if he is convicted.
LAS VEGAS  The microphone Cardi B threw at a fan Saturday on the Strip can be yours  if the price is right.

Vegas tech professional Scott Fisher of The Wave audio production company has put the Shure-brand mic up for auction on the online commerce platform eBay, with the money going to charity. As of this writing, the item is approaching $100,000  and climbing fast  after 99 bids.

The mic is worth $1,000. The auction began at 8:15 a.m. Tuesday and runs through next Tuesday.

Fisher said Wednesday morning he would not be surprised to see the top bid come from a rep of Cardi B herself.

From a layman, gaining some positive publicity would not be a horrible idea, Fisher said. Obviously, it she or anyone who is the top bidder wanted to organize an event with a giant check, we could try to arrange that.

Who knows where itll end up? Fisher said. The piece that Im auctioning off is going to cost $1,000 to replace, and I was concerned I wouldnt even get to $1,000. The tech pro opened the bidding himself at $500, just because he didnt want potential buyers to see a zero.

Fisher plans to split the proceeds between Friendship Circle of Las Vegas, which helps children, teens and young adults with special needs; and the national organization Wounded Warriors, which helps wounded vets return to independent living.

Cardi B is the subject of a battery report to Metro police after the fan standing next to the woman who threw the drink claimed to be hit. The rap star hit the woman who tossed the liquid on stage. The mic then ricocheted to a fan next to her. The woman who threw the drink is seen in a clip shouting, Im sorry! Im sorry!

The Wave provides audio equipment to several Vegas clubs, including Drais at the Cromwell, where the incident took place. The company has been supplying equipment every week since the rooftop club opened a decade ago. Tao Group and Wynn Nightlife are also among Fishers biggest customers.

The description of the mic posted on eBay reads: This is the mic that has been seen all over the country, flying into the crowd after Cardi was splashed with some liquid.

This microphone, with MAIN written on white tape at its base, has evidently been used in many shows. Fisher said Wednesday morning he was working Shure tech support, trying to recover the serial number.

I just wanted to add that to the piece of paper given to the winner of the auction, saying this is the actual serial number, he said.

Fisher mused that the mic might end up displayed under glass, similar to the famous items presented at the old Hard Rock Hotel (HRH is currently in the process of a changeover from The Mirage on the Strip).

Fisher has a signed guitar from the rock band Train, and also one from Bruno Mars, when Mars played New Years Eve at the late Bank nightclub at Bellagio in 2016.

I sometime bring guitars for artists to sign, Fisher said. When Bruno signed mine, he said, This isnt going on eBay, is it? And I said, Nope! This is coming home with me.

John Katsilometes of the Las Vegas Review-Journal wrote this story.

2023 Las Vegas Review-Journal. Visit reviewjournal.com.. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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Lou Baverso, the president of UPMC in Central Pa. has accepted a job in Alabama.

Baverso, who has worked for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center for 28 years will join the University of Alabama at Birmingham Health System as chief operating officer on Sept. 18. His last day with UPMC will be Sept. 8.

Baverso relocated to central Pennsylvania in 2019 to assist with the integration of PinnacleHealth into UPMC. He became president of UPMC in Central Pa. last year. He previously served as vice president of operations for UPMC Magee-Womens and UPMC Presbyterian Shadyside.

David Gibbons, regional president, and senior vice president of the UPMC Health Services Division, will serve as interim president of UPMC in Central Pa.

Baverso will have responsibility for management of UAB Hospital, Ambulatory Services (the clinical component of UAB Medicine), and UAB Callahan Eye Hospital and related support services.

UAB Medicines reputation for high-quality, top-ranked programs and excellence was a key factor in wanting to serve in this position, Baverso said in a UAB news release. The mission of this organization is second to none, and I am looking forward to the opportunity to continue to help the Health System grow and serve its patients and the state.
Editors note: Welcome to the world of Paranormal PA, a PennLive series that delves into Pennsylvania-grown stories of spirits (like the ghost of a murdered girl whose cries can be heard in one of Penn States libraries); cryptids (Bigfoot); oddities and legends; and the unexplained. Sign up here to get our Paranormal PA newsletter delivered to your inbox.

Did you know that August is Romance Awareness Month?

Well, now that youre aware, what better way to cozy up to that someone special than taking a tour together thatll scare the bejeezus out of you?

U.S. Ghost Adventures  which offers entertaining, historic, and authentic ghost tours of the United States most haunted cities  sent out a few suggestions via press release of different tours lovebirds could take to reignite the spark in their dead relationship.

Not one, but two places in Pennsylvania were named as suggested spots for those in relationships to check out  Gettysburg and Philadelphia  both of which are home to their own tragic stories of love that reach beyond the grave.

Jennie Wade is the only civilian killed in the Battle of Gettysburg, reads the release with regards to the former location. She was shot by a stray bullet while in the kitchen baking bread for the Union army, which included her fiance, Johnston Jack Hastings Skelly Jr. She had a photo of him tucked away in her pocket when she was shot.

Had she known that he was wounded in battle two weeks before the Battle of Gettysburg, she may have tried to go see him instead of staying to bake bread for Union soldiers. Jack died just a week after she was killed, and the news that Jennie had died never made it to him. The lovers are buried near each other at Evergreen Cemetery in Gettysburg. Jennies sprit is said to be seen wandering the house where she was shot, and sometimes in the surrounding countryside.

Philadelphia, on its other-side of things, is said to be haunted by famous seamstress Betsy Ross, whos sobs are said to still be heard from inside her old house mourning the loss of her three husbands.
A single-family house in Atlantic County, N.J., was destroyed Thursday morning after catching fire. Witnesses reported a ground-shaking explosion.

The fire broke out at the home in Buena around 11 a.m. and triggered a massive multi-county response, 6abc.com reported.

Two bodies were recovered from the rubble on Thursday evening, and investigators were searching for another two missing people, Franklin Township Police Chief Matthew DeCesari said in a video of a press conference held Thursday afternoon.

A 1-year-old girl and 16-year-old girl were rescued from the home and taken to St. Christophers Hospital for Children in Philadelphia, the police chief said in the video. The toddler is in critical condition, while the teen is in stable condition, he said in the video.

Investigators confirmed that an explosion occurred, and it is being treated as a crime scene, the police chief said in the video.

Police and firefighters were called to the single-family house near the 300 block of Northwest Boulevard at 10:35 a.m. on Thursday, DeCesari said in the video posted by Fox 29 Philadelphia. Multiple area fire agencies put out the blaze.

Overhead video of the property earlier Thursday showed a pile of rubble where the home stood and debris strewn about. Video from a witness driving through the area showed flames pouring from the area and spreading to neighboring homes.

Authorities have not responded to requests for comment.

Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Nicolas Fernandes may be reached at nfernandes@njadvancemedia.com.

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Explosions, cries for help heard during fire that killed 4 family members

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By SUDHIN THANAWALA, Associated Press

ATLANTA (AP)  Authorities in Alabama said Friday they filed criminal charges against a woman who confessed to fabricating a story that she was kidnapped after stopping to check on a toddler she saw walking on the side of an interstate highway.

Carlee Russell was charged with false reporting to law enforcement and falsely reporting an incident, both misdemeanors that carry up to a year in jail, Hoover Police Chief Nick Derzis said. Russell turned herself in to jail Friday and was released on bond, he said.

Her decisions that night created panic and alarm for citizens of our city and even across the nation as concern grew that a kidnapper was on the loose using a small child as bait, he said. Numerous law enforcement agencies, both local and federal, began working tirelessly not only to bring Carlee home to her family but locate a kidnapper that we know now never existed. Many private citizens volunteered their time and energy in looking for a potential kidnapping victim that we know now was never in any danger.

Derzis said he was frustrated that Russell was only being charged with two misdemeanors despite the panic and disruption she caused, but he said the law did not allow for enhanced charges.

Russell, 25, disappeared after calling 911 on July 13 to report a toddler wandering beside a stretch of interstate. She returned home two days later and told police she had been abducted and forced into a vehicle.

Her disappearance became a national news story. Images of the missing woman were shared broadly on social media.

We dont see this as a victimless crime, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said at a Friday news conference. There are significant hours spent, resources expended as a result of this investigation.

Marshalls office was asked to handle the prosecution because of the attention the case received, Derzis said. Marshall said he intends to fully prosecute Russell and said his office will take into account the police investigation to see whether additional charges are warranted.

Russell, through her attorney, Emory Anthony, acknowledged earlier that she made the story up.

In a statement read by police on Monday, Anthony said Russell was not kidnapped, did not see a baby on the side of the road, did not leave the city and acted alone. He said Russell apologized and he asked for prayers and forgiveness as she addresses her issues and attempts to move forward, understanding that she made a mistake in this matter.

A message left Friday at Anthonys office was not immediately returned.

Russell told detectives she was taken by a man who came out of the trees when she stopped to check on the child, put in a car and an 18-wheel truck, was blindfolded and was held at a home where a woman fed her cheese crackers, authorities said at a news conference last week. At some point, Russell said she was put in a vehicle again but managed to escape and run through the woods to her neighborhood.

This story opened wounds for families whose loved ones really were victims of kidnappings, Derzis said.

He said police have not determined where Russell went during the 49 hours she was missing. They plan to talk to the attorney generals office about recovering some of the money spent on the investigation.
The last time anyone saw Mekenna Reiley, 40, was when she drove to a construction site at 6 a.m. April 5, naked, with no phone, pleading for help and saying she was not safe.

Police sent Reiley home, which is only a few miles away, after they determined she was sober and able to drive. Video surveillance showed Reiley driving away from the construction site on April 5, but she has not been seen since.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 4. Azerbaijan and the French TotalEnergies company have discussed the possibilities of cooperation in the field of renewable energy production, Minister of Economy of Azerbaijan Mikayil Jabbarov tweeted, Trend reports.

"We met with TotalEnergies President of Exploration and Production Nicolas Terraz, along with SOCAR President Rovshan Najaf." "We discussed the fruitful partnership between the company and our country during the meeting," Jabbarov said.

"Our conversation covered the successful energy projects that have been implemented and explored opportunities for cooperation in renewable energy production," he added.

The French TotalEnergies company will build wind and solar power plants with a capacity of 250 MW each in Azerbaijans Nakhchivan, as well as energy storage systems.
Fresh off signing the $45.5 billion state budget, Gov. Josh Shapiro on Friday announced he would end state funding for a group that runs several dozen crisis pregnancy centers in Pennsylvania.

The Shapiro administration said the contract with Real Alternatives, which operates 27 crisis pregnancy centers in Pennsylvania, will be terminated by the end of the year.
A woman wanted for a killing that occurred in July was injured in a crash caused by a police pursuit in Philadelphia, as were her boyfriend and two children, according to NBC10.

Now, 27-year-old Tiana Johnson faces charges in the death of 35-year-old Michael Gillian.

Both Johnson and her boyfriend, 31-year-old Jabreel Butler, are hospitalized in critical condition, while the two children  a 16-year-old girl and a 1-year-old boy  were injured in the crash and are in stable condition.

The crash occurred around 7 p.m. Aug. 2 at Oxford and 57th streets, where Johnson and Butler were seen operating a Lincoln MKX with the two children, according to reports.

Surveillance video captured the incident, where the vehicle crashed into a light pole and a wall near Overbrook High School. The vehicle was speeding in an attempt to get away from officers who were trying to capture Johnson, according to reports.

Gillian was shot to death July 29. Authorities identified Johnson and Butler as two persons of interest.

At the time of the crash, Johnson had a warrant for her arrest in the shooting case, while Butler had an active warrant over prior offenses.

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Police in western Pennsylvania said charges are likely to be filed against a dog owner who abandoned the pet at Pittsburgh International Airport and hopped on a flight rather than put the dog in a crate.

Allegheny County police said in posts on X, formerly Twitter, and Facebook that they were called to the airport at 5:30 a.m. Friday for a dog that was found in a stroller on airport property.

Dont leave your pets behind! police wrote.

A state Department of Agriculture spokesperson told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that the dog was a licensed French bulldog and police said it was male.

The department said officers found a microchip in the dog but attempts to reach the owner were unsuccessful. Police learned that airline officials told the owner that the dog needed to be in a crate to fly.

Instead, police said the owner abandoned the dog near the short-term parking lot and boarded a flight. The state dog warden took custody of the dog, police said.

Police said the dog warden will likely file animal abandonment charges against the owner, who was not identified.
The latest shot in the cross-state rivalry between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh is a western Pennsylvania state senators male genitalia-themed insult aimed at a City of Brotherly Love firefighter.

Yes, you read that correctly.
An Easton mother was killed and her three children were injured following a drunken driving crash this week in Montgomery County, Maryland, police said.

Maryland State Police said the accident happened around 11:45 p.m. Tuesday along Interstate 270 in Rockville, Montgomery County. Elizabeth Velez, 36, was driving a Nissan Pathfinder north when the SUV was was struck by a Mercedes CLS, driven by 23-year-old Jayleen Hannor of Georgia, heading south in the north lane, according to police.

Hannor allegedly continued driving in the wrong direction along I-270  onto the outer loop of I-495  when he then crashed into a Lexus SUV. The crash with the Lexus happened at exit 34, near Route 355, police said.

Hannor then left his Mercedes and ran into the area of Connecticut Avenue, police said. Hannor was eventually taken into custody and to the Maryland State Polices Rockville barracks for processing before being transported to the Adventist HealthCare Shady Grove Medical Center.

Hannor was under guard at the hospital, police said.

Velezs children  ages 2, 5, and 15  were passengers in the vehicle and were injured, police said. Also injured was 36-year-old John Tejada of Pennsylvania, a front seat passenger in the Nissan, according to police.

Velez, Tejada and the 15-year-old girl were taken to Adventist HealthCare Shady Grove Medical Center, while the two younger children were taken to Inova Hospital in Virginia. Velez was pronounced dead at another hospital, according to police.

The driver and four adult passengers of the Lexus were injured.

The conditions of the passengers were unavailable Thursday afternoon. A Maryland State Police public information officer told lehighvalleylive.com she didnt have any updates.

Hannor is facing multiple charges, including DUI and failure to immediately return and remain at the scene of a crash involving death. Additional charges are pending as the case remains under investigation by Maryland State Polices Crash Team and the Montgomery County States Attorneys Office.

Those with information about the accident are asked to call Maryland State Polices Rockville barracks at 301-424-2101. Callers can remain anonymous.

Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached at pholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com.

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Suhail Shafis letter from the July 27 issue is full of wrath, and, even without all the emotion, justly so. But Shafi and other critics of Israel keep forgetting the fact that Israel has been attacked, raided, and terrorized by the Muslim nations of the Middle East since it was formed in 1948.

For example, the illegally occupied West Bank was seized during the Six-Day War, when Jordan, Syria, and Egypt attacked Israel, determined to wipe it from the map, as usual. The West Bank was part of Jordan then, and would therefore be counted as spoils of war.

Maybe Israel should have let the West Bank go back to Jordan, as it let the Sinai Peninsula go back to Egypt. But would that have stopped terrorist attacks, such as the kidnapping and murder of the Israeli athletes during the Munich Olympic Games by the Palestinian Liberation Organization?

Israel is making it difficult to gain sympathy with its crack downs on Palestinians, and now its own people, as well. But maybe if the surrounding Muslim nations didnt keep starting - and losing - wars to destroy Israel completely, Israel might not have become so big and powerful to shove its weight around. And the world might have welcomed an independent state of Palestine, right next to the independent state of Israel, with the free and open Holy City of Jerusalem between them.

Kevin Dermody, Harrisburg, Pa.
Dorothy Tinning, a former Penticton mayor and the youngest woman ever elected to city council here at age 33, is shown in a Herald file photo on the walking path behind Braid Ave.
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ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP)  The state of Alaska wants the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down a federal agencys rejection of a proposed copper and gold mine in southwest Alaskas Bristol Bay region.

Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor in a statement last Wednesday said having a case heard directly by the Supreme Court rather than first in the lower courts is an extraordinary ask, but its appropriate given the extraordinary decision being challenged.

The EPAs order strikes at the heart of Alaskas sovereignty, depriving the State of its power to regulate its lands and wa...
BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 4. The growth rate of Turkmenistan's GDP from January through June 2023 remained at the level of 6.2 percent, Trend reports.

According to official data, this was announced by the President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov at an expanded meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers.

Berdimuhamedov stressed that large-scale construction of industrial and social facilities continues in the country, and also added that in accordance with the National Rural Program, capital investments in the amount of over 1.4 billion Turkmen manats ($400.7 million) were disbursed during the reporting period.

Furthermore, he stated that residential buildings with an area of about 1.4 million square meters have been commissioned in the regions, cities and districts of the country, and industrial facilities, kindergartens, schools and other structures are being built on a planned basis.

During the meeting, the government reviewed the outcomes of its economic efforts for the first six months of 2023, deliberated on draft documents, and discussed the key objectives for the socio-economic development of the country.
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Joy Reid called out the arrogance of Trump and his supporters for thinking that they had the right to overturn an election that they lost.

Joy Reid talked about the arrogance of Trump and his supporters:

The arrogance of the people who felt that they just didnt like the outcome, you know. Im going to try to believe people. I dont believe him when he says he think that he won. The only reason as a pretext to feel the election. He said it over and over because he was told he did it by Barr and all sorts of other people. So the arrogance of people who went to that Capitol, that citadel of American democracy, and said only can I take a number two all over the floor of this building, literally, not only can I beat police officers, Im going to live stream it. I am going to put it on my socials. I am so arrogant that you cannot choose who is the president. I choose who is the president, we choose. T

The Oath Keepers and the people who are sitting in prison were waiting for the Insurrection Act to be used. They had the arrogance to believe they choose who with the president. They will commit violence and wait for Donald Trump to call out the militia, them, in order to install himself in power. The arrogance of Donald Trump and his people to say we dont have even the right to vote and have our votes respected at all. They choose who is the president. It is their decision. If we dont like it, too bad. Were going to call the military on you. I think that it is really late and it is not sullen for me. This is finally the first time I feel Donald Trump is being treated like a normal American.

Video of Joy Reid:

Joy Reid on the arrogance of Trump and his supporters, "The arrogance of Donald Trump and his people to say we don't have even the right to vote and have our votes respected at all. They choose who is the president." pic.twitter.com/ct9Rsne2e4  Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) August 3, 2023

Joy Reid was right. Trump and his followers committed crimes that were rooted in arrogance. Reid didnt say this, but it was the arrogance of white entitlement. Black people dont get to pick the next president. We conservative white people do. Women in the cities and suburbs dont get to pick the next president. That is a power reserved for rural white men, which is the demographic where Trump draws his most dedicated supporters from.

The crimes that Donald Trump and his followers have been charged with and in many cases convicted of, were crimes of arrogance. Today, those arrogant Americans were told that their leader is not above the law, and they dont get to pick which elections they deem to be valid. They dont get to attack the Capitol if they dont like an election result.

America is a country for all, not just them.

On this historic day in 2023, the majority of Americans took their country back.
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Today, August 3, 2023 is the first time Donald J. Trump has been held accountable for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election after he lost to Joe Biden by over 7 million votes.

The Judge in Donald Trumps arraignment for four felony criminal charges related to his efforts to defraud the U.S. and disenfranchise voters warned the former president that if he doesnt comply with the conditions of release, he may be imprisoned.

Rachel Maddow explained the conditions of release for the defendant Donald J Trump,  Not communicate about the facts of this case with any individual known to be a witness except through counsel. The Judge said to Trump at 4:26 pm, You have heard your conditions of release. It is important you comply you comply to your conditions of release. You may be held pending trial in this case if you violate conditions of release. Now again, that is the judge speaking directly to Donald Trump. And when she says you may be held, shes saying you may be imprisoned if you do not comply with the conditions.

The Judge told Trump that he must not speak with witnesses in this matter except through counsel or in the presence of counsel.

Watch:

Judge tells Trump, To Trump at 4:26 pm, you have heard your conditions of release. It is important you comply. You may be held pending trial in this case if you violate conditions of release. pic.twitter.com/imC0rJLq0K  Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) August 3, 2023

Donald Trump has a penchant for trying to influence witnesses, so the judge is letting Trump know that if he tries that here, he may be imprisoned.

Where this gets sticky is the fact that Trump is paying for the legal counsel of many allies and aides, the costs of which have risen to over $40 million in the first half of the year. It would be very difficult to prove he was speaking to those witnesses and he wouldnt even have to speak to them in order to influence them. That is the point of paying for their legal fees.

The Judge also warned Trump not to tamper with jurors, The judge then says the most important condition is that you not commit a crime while you are release and then the judge says that one moment later, or excuse me, two minutes later, it is a crime to try to influence a juror.

Judge warns Trump not to tamper with jurors, The judge then says the most important condition is that you not commit a crime while you are released and then the judge that one moment later or excuse me, two minutes later it is a crime to try to influence a juror. pic.twitter.com/NaGx3gMxsg  Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) August 3, 2023

Trump has denied all wrong doing and plead not guilty today at 4:25 PM.

Rachel Maddow: At 4:25 PM, Trump pleads not guilty to all counts. pic.twitter.com/wkZApof97Y  Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) August 3, 2023

Although Donald Trump and his Republican entourage dont seem inclined to embrace the fact that people are innocent until proven guilty in this country when the people are Black or other darker melanin skinned people, this is the foundation of our legal system and it applies to Donald Trump as well.

Let this be a warning to all that Donald Trump is on notice. If he does get caught speaking to a witness, tampering with a juror or committing any crime, he may be imprisoned.

Given Trumps history, he has shown zero respect for the law and thinks he is above it. He spit in the face of a subpoena and tried to get his lawyer to lie to the federal government for him in the documents case. The Judge is apparently very familiar with Trumps modus operandi and is having none of it.

Interfere with justice, and he may well end up behind bars.
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Kari Lake responded to Trumps arraignment by claiming that Biden isnt the real president, 1/6 was staged, and that House must decertify the 2020 election and reinstall Trump.

Lake said on Steve Bannons podcast, This is a guy who already won. He won in 2016. He won even bigger in 2020. All that January 6th was was a staged riot to cover up the fact that they certified a fraudulent election, I agree with a lot of Kash said about impeachment. If we just go back and deal with the fraudulent election, and what happened in 2020, we dont have to impeach him, because he really isnt in my opinion and my others when you look at the evidence the true president. Why dont we decertify 2020, and that is the way we deal with this?

Video:

Kari Lake says instead of House Republicans trying to impeach Biden, they should just decertify the 2020 election and reinstate Trump to the presidency now. pic.twitter.com/aEId63z7R9  Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) August 4, 2023

At one point in time, Democrats might have been worried that Kari Lake might be able to flip Arizonas Senate seat in a three-way race, but Lake just couldnt hold it together. She was one Qanon conspiracy theory away from the royal flush of right-wing crazy. A bigger question is does Kari Lake ever stop trying to overturn elections?

It may disappoint the fascist hologram, but there is no mechanism for decertifying an election. Presidential elections are 50-state elections, and there is no device in any state constitution that allows for the decertification of the results.

All of the talk about how great indictments and arraignments are for Trump is designed to hide the complete and total MAGA freakout that is happening just beneath the surface.
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Former Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin is very concerned that Donald Trumps indictment is injust and like Orwells 1984 is making people afraid of their thoughts.

Sarah Palin says former President Donald Trumps D.C. indictment is injust and making people afraid of their thoughts.

Watch:

Sarah Palin says former President Donald Trumps D.C. indictment is injust and making people afraid of their thoughts: They [are attempting] to jail him for expressing his opinion! pic.twitter.com/bL3pQOOyrJ  Heartland Signal (@HeartlandSignal) August 3, 2023

Ms. Palin said, Its surreal whats going on. Its injust. My other word for this though is Orwellian.

The Republican compared it to Orwells dystopian masterpiece of 1984, Remember, the book 1984. We saw freedom of speech in that book once it was thwarted, people began then to be afraid of their thoughts, of thinking something, because they were afraid to articulate it or they were going to be busted by the government.

We can probably understand why Sarah Palin is afraid of her own thoughts, but one is not forced into articulating their thoughts aloud unless one chooses to do so. If one does choose to do so, one is accountable for those words, especially if one is in public office.

But also, 1984 warned about a government run a lot like Trump tried to run the U.S., a government that had the power to determine what is real, what comprises history and what the facts are. Right now in the U.S., Republican governors are trying to seize control of history. 1984 warns about the power of Big Brother to control information. Orwell repeatedly warned about the dangers of propaganda.

That is what is happening to Donald Trump, Palin continued. He expressed his opinions on the elections. A whole lot of Americans expressed their opinions on the elections. Democrats for years have denied election results.

This is not actually true. The indictment actually addressed Trumps right to freedom of speech. Hes being indicted for his actions, not his thoughts.

And now, what has that resulted in? The head honcho, the attempt to jail him for expressing his opinion. That is Orwellian, and it leads a slippery slope and into much more than controlling speech.

This talking point, however mangled, about Trumps free speech being prosecuted originated from Trumps lawyer John Lauro announcing on Fox News that Trump was being indicted for what he believed in and the policies and the political speech that he carried out as president.

Vox has an excellent breakdown of exactly why trying to overturn an election and disenfranchise voters is not free speech:

One is that Smith repeatedly accuses Trump of pressuring other government officials to commit criminal acts of election fraud, and it is well established that soliciting another individual to commit a crime is not protected by the First Amendment. As the Supreme Court held in United States v. Williams (2008), offers to engage in illegal transactions are categorically excluded from First Amendment protection.

But also, The First Amendment does not protect the kind of lies Trump is accused of telling. Additionally, the First Amendment provides much weaker protections for people who knowingly make false statements than it does for other speakers.

Then theres the issue of the RIGHT to vote and have it counted, which is essential in a democracy.

Its absurd to argue that Trumps free speech is being prosecuted, but then it doesnt take much to convince his supporters that he is God almighty and can do no wrong. Theyll even tell reporters as much.

Its kind of perfect that Palins comments on Trumps indictment include a vintage Palinism like injust.

Before Trump brought us covfefe, big-league as an adverb (also known as bigly), and Nambia two times at an event with African leaders, Sarah Palin was elevating American political discourse with words like refudiate and who can forget when she tweeted cackle of rads on the anniversary of womens suffrage.

Palin defended herself by comparing herself to William Shakespeare, Refudiate, misunderestimate, wee-weed up. English is a living language. Shakespeare liked to coin new words too. Got to celebrate it!

Sarah Palin ushered in Trumpism before Donald Trump did. She was the OG of Pugnacious, Willful Ignorance Meets Autocratic Entitlement. The half-term governor believed God had chosen her to be President, for example, and so she ignored her top-of-the-ticket running mate Senator John McCains instructions not to give a concession speech and rushed the stage. She long believed she had been chosen by God to be president, and no one was going to keep her down.

Palin then became the Queen of the Tea Party, riding a wave of whitelash racist rage at President Obamas White House win into a high profile Fox job and tons of media attention. But then Palin made the mistake of crying it was Blood Libel to hold her even somewhat accountable for the gun sights she put over Democrat Rep. Gabby Giffords district, after Giffords and 18 others were shot during a constituent meeting outside in a parking lot.

Ms. Palin was unable to reclaim her former glory and has since lost two elections for a House seat in Alaska, where they know her best.

Sarah Palin walked so Donald Trump could run. And isnt that just so injust.
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After arguing that Donald J Trump couldnt be impeached for the attack on the Capitol, Republicans are now arguing that indictment of Trump might not be legitimate as impeachment is the proper remedy.

Remember when Republicans argued that a former President couldnt be impeached? That was after they argued that an election should decide instead of an impeachment. The goalpost is always being moved like a slippery little eel that somehow manages to escape the medias notice.

And today, I bring you: Is the Trump indictment constitutionally legitimate?

Yes, youll be *shocked* to read that Republicans (of the Newsmax/Fox variety) think the president (if his name is Trump) is immune from indictment, given their heretofore absent calls to apply the law equally to all, including their own side of the aisle.

It has long been thought that the president enjoys immunity for his acts while in office  at least for those acts connected with his official duties. The DOJ has historically agreed with this and has repeatedly endorsed the position that they cannot indict a sitting president, Katie Cherkasky and Andrew Cherkasky opined in The Hill.

This should be embarrassing to even posit, because it comes down to: Hes ours so the law doesnt apply and we think that your votes, especially those majority Black cities Trumps team tried to disenfranchise, shouldnt count when they dont go our way.

To be clear, trying to overthrow the government one is leading is not an act connected to a presidents official duties. Nor is the crime of conspiring to prevent citizens from their right to vote and have it counted. Nor is the crime of pressuring officials to overturn an election.

The big tell here is that other presidents have all left office peacefully.

Many did not want to leave, but leave they did, because the peaceful transfer of power is the bedrock of this democracy. So no other president has ever interpreted their duties to include disenfranchising a majority of U.S. voters in order to hold on to power, inciting their supporters to threaten their own Vice President with a noose if he didnt violate the constitution to keep the president in power, threatening the Speaker of the House, on and on it goes.

Yet, the writers are quite sure that actually, these were Trumps official duties and proving otherwise will be quite difficult!



In the present case, this is precisely the issue that has arisen. In order for a prosecution of this sort to even arguably move past the jurisdictional bar, the government would need to establish  maybe even beyond a reasonable doubt  that the acts in the indictment fall outside the scope of the presidents official duties. That will be tough for prosecutors.

And hey, lol, joke is on you democracy, because you should have impeached him when you could have  now its too late. This opinion is brought to you by the same party that argued Trump shouldnt be impeached because hed already left office, by the way.



The Constitution, though, seems to go much further. As a remedy for the commission of high crimes and misdemeanors, by a president, the Constitution calls for impeachment. The remedy of impeachment is the only one delineated in the Constitution. The indictment in this case, of course, follows a failed impeachment for the same acts.

Yes, that impeachment didnt fail, though. It passed. The House passed the impeachment of Donald J Trump for incitement of insurrection.

Trump was impeached. He was not convicted in the Senate, because die-hard Trump Republicans, who had days before fled for their own lives during the deadly Trump attack on the Capitol, locked arms and refused to convict. While the evidence against Trump was undeniable and in fact they were present during the attack and knew that Trump had lost by 7 million votes to Joe Biden, they argued that the impeachment was not valid because Trump was no longer in office.

Courage is not a word we will ever be able to use about those lawmakers who betrayed their constituents and the most fundamental rights we have on this day. Those Republicans are guilty of giving Trump a pass after he incited what Wray labeled a domestic terrorist attack. Law enforcement officers died as a result of this attack.

A bipartisan majority voted to find Trump guilty, including seven Republicans. That number is the largest number of a presidents own party to ever vote to convict on an impeachment. Why did they do this if Trump trying to instigate a self-coup is part of a presidents duties?

The Senate ultimately fell 10 votes shy of the needed 2/3 to convict, and that is why Donald Trump is able to run for office again.

Theres more, but its along the lines of arguing, The executive has a direct interest in and obligation to ensure fairness in the outcome of elections.

The 81,282,916 voters who voted for Joe Biden would like a word about fairness.

They have a right to have their vote counted, and Donald J Trump tried to steal that right, even though he lost every relevant court case and was repeatedly told by his own people that he had lost the election.

Steve Vladeck said it best, Nor is the impeachment is the constitutionally proper remedy argument remotely persuasive coming from the same crowd that argued that a President couldnt be impeached once he had left office. Its basically heads we win; tails you lose. Except that you is the rule of law.

He also pointed out (my bold), The basic flaw in this pieceand this argumentis the unsupported assertion that the absolute presidential immunity #SCOTUS recognized in Nixon v. Fitzgerald extends to criminal prosecution. The Court was clear, repeatedly, that the immunity it recognized was from damages *only.*

You will be again shocked to discover these same people who wrote this about the president not being indicted also argue that The evidence seems to be mounting against Biden for bribery. Time will tell where this goes, but this host seemed to incorrectly think the claims have been debunked. Weird editorial decision for Fox.

It was Donald J Trump who was impeached the first time for trying to extort Ukraine into manufacturing dirt on Joe Biden to help Trump in 2020. There is no evidence that Joe Biden has done anything remotely like what this author suggested, and in fact yesterday a report was released in which the very witness against Biden whom Republicans were touting to the rooftops admitted that he had NO KNOWLEDGE of Joe Biden doing anything wrong.

The facts are awkward for this crowd not because they are Republicans, but because being a Republican right now involves justifying the indefensible while trying to accuse Joe Biden, sans evidence, of the same things that Donald Trump actually did.

Something tells me that when it comes to President Biden, these same arguments put forward in defense of the most egregious allegations against Donald Trump will suddenly evaporate. After all, this party impeached Bill Clinton for lying about a sexual act but refused to convict Donald Trump (who lied about many sexual acts and was just found liable by a jury of his peers for sexual assault) in an impeachment over his attack on the United States.

The rule of law is the foundation upon which democracy rests, and when it is battered consistently like this it becomes clear that the only rule this one side abides is that they have all of the power to decide what is legal and what is not legal.

Heads we win, tails you lose, democracy!

Photo of what Republicans argue falls in the line of the presidents duties
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Fabian Marta is one of many financiers of the Christian anti-child trafficking film Sound of Freedom, but he has been arrested and charged with child kidnapping.

Fabian Marta was charged with felony child kidnapping in July, while since-removed Facebook posts appear to show the same person revealing their pride in funding the film. Martas name appears in the movies credits among the investors [who] helped bring Sound of Freedom to theaters, Newsweek reported Friday.

The publication pointed out that in the state of Missouri, child kidnapping is a class A felony. If found guilty, Marta could face 10 years to life in prison.

The film itself is based on the supposedly true story of Tim Ballard, who is a former Department of Homeland Security agent, and the charity organization he founded called Operation Underground Railroad (OUR). The film has been widely promoted by conservative media and surprised movie professionals by performing so well after having trouble getting distribution after Disney acquired 21st Century Fox.

However, some of its success has been brought into question as fans reported entering sold out shows to empty theaters. But some of the patterns of sales are raising accusations the people buying these seats arent real, the Daily Dot reported.

In the theatre to see Sound Of Freedom. The movie has started Seating chart says its sold out and wont allow ticket purchases Theater is half full. pic.twitter.com/ujFVK7n9uy  Unacceptable Canadian Girl (@AreOhEssEyeEe) July 14, 2023

But supporters of the movie claim that AMC is deliberately keeping the movie down with tactics like the air conditioning malfunctioning and other obstacles they report encountering while trying to view the movie.

AMC has denied these claims. The movie has an odd Pay it forward scheme where the studio encourages people to buy tickets for others, which in July was up to $7 million dollars. There isnt a lot of transparency about where the money is going, but they admit it could fund future endeavors if there is money left over, and given why people are supporting it, it doesnt seem like they would be bothered if the money was even just pocketed.

The studio also encourages people to buy tickets for their employees, Every ticket counts. Your business can help reach the goal of 2 million seats by providing tickets to your employees. Complete this form and we will send you a quote.

Sound of Freedom already courted controversy with the hero played by Jim Caviezel, who has espoused QAnon conspiracy theories. The movie itself, due to its themes, has been accused of catering to QAnon beliefs, although the studio denies any connection.

The film is based on a man whom experts say actually has little to do with the international fight against human trafficking. Vice, which points out that hero Ballard was appointed by President Donald Trump to a council meant to guide federal anti-trafficking policymaking, found in Ballards charity of OUR not outright falsehoods but a pattern of image-burnishing and mythology-building, a series of exaggerations that are, in the aggregate, quite misleading.

Vanity Fair reported, But according to Erin Albright, an attorney and longtime adviser to anti-trafficking task forces, Ballard and OUR arent actually central to the international fight against human trafficking. The majority of the [anti-trafficking] field views them as fringe, she tells me. They peddle sensationalismand they fundraise off it.'

Marta is mentioned in the credits as part of the crowd-funding source for the film.

His arrest for child-kidnapping is more relevant than it might seem given the theme of the movie and the way it caters to QAnon conspiracy theories, a movement that claims to be concerned about child sex trafficking while sometimes publicly embracing people accused of sex trafficking. QAnon, huge supporters of Donald J Trump, only sees human trafficking as real if it involves a Democrat, but of course, human trafficking is sadly a bipartisan affair.

It is not that surprising that someone who helped fund a narrative about a hero going after child sex traffickers is himself arrested and charged with child kidnapping. The psychological need to see oneself as a hero of the most vulnerable can mask true horrors.
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Trump suggested that money that was supposed to go to paying for ads and rallies for his presidential campaign is instead being spent on legal bills.

The former president posted on Truth Social:

CRAZY! My political opponent has hit me with a barrage of weak lawsuits, including D.A., A.G., and others, which require massive amounts of my time & money to adjudicate. Resources that would have gone into Ads and Rallies, will now have to be spent fighting these Radical Left Thugs in numerous courts throughout the Country. I am leading in all Polls, including against Crooked Joe, but this is not a level playing field. It is Election Interference, & the Supreme Court must intercede. MAGA!

Trump confirmed the various reports that his campaign coffers are being drained by the legal bills that he is incurring from all of the criminal cases. Since he isnt going to stop running for president, Trumps insistence on trying to drag out all of the criminal trials is creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The former president might be better off trying to settle the criminal cases, because the longer he drags them out, the more money they cost him, which makes his campaign less effective, and more likely to lose in November.

Or, Trump could stop committing crimes.

Donald Trumps campaign money woes are great news for Democrats and another signal that Republicans will be in big trouble if they nominate Trump.
TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, August 4. Kazakhstan imported 2,500 tons of apples from January through May this year from Uzbekistan, Trend reports.

According to official information, during the reporting period, Kazakhstan became the leader in the import of apples from Uzbekistan.

In general, Uzbekistan exported 4,400 tons of apples to seven countries in the first five months of this year, worth $ 1.8 million, while reducing exports by 702 tons compared to the same period in 2022.

Furthermore, Kazakhstan (2,500 tons), Russia (764 tons), and Turkmenistan (649 tons) are among the leading countries in the purchase of apples from Uzbekistan.

The export of apples from Uzbekistan brings significant economic benefits to the country, contributes to the development of the agricultural sector and the creation of jobs in rural areas.
The Savannah River National Laboratory will play a role in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor's effort to demonstrate the feasibility of nuclear fusion as a carbon-free source of energy.

Vahid Majidi, Savannah River National Laboratory director, said at the Aiken Chamber of Commerce First Friday breakfast the national lab is responsible for designing, fabricating and testing the reactor's exhaust system.

The Savannah River National Laboratory, the nation's newest national lab, is located at the Savannah River Site south of Aiken. Battelle Savannah River Alliance  Majidi is also president of the alliance  is the manager and operator of the lab.

The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or ITER (pronounced eater), is a multinational effort to construct a fusion reactor in France. The reactor's fusion process is planned to be similar to the process within stars like the sun. Construction is expected to be complete by 2025 and fusion experiments are to begin in 2035.

In the sun's process, two protium atoms combine to form a deuterium atom.

Protium is the most common isotope of hydrogen. It includes one proton and one electron. Deuterium, also an isotope of hydrogen, contains one proton, one neutron and one electron.

An additional protium atom is added to the deuterium atom to make an isotope of helium. That helium atom combines with another helium atom to form a more stable isotope of helium. Two protium atoms are also released to begin the process anew.

In the sun, this reaction is uncontrolled and it generates a tremendous amount of heat and energy. As such, researchers at ITER must control the reaction and the temperature.

But, ITER plans to use a reaction between extremely hot deuterium and tritium atoms  so hot, they become plasma  to generate the more stable helium atom produced in the sun.

Tritium, like deuterium, is a hydrogen isotope. It has one proton, two neutrons and one electron. It is also radioactive and will decay into the less stable helium isotope produced in the sun's process.

Majidi said the Savannah River National Laboratory was selected for the $70 million exhaust contract because of its experience with tritium.

The Savanah River Site is the only place in the United States producing tritium to replace the tritium used in nuclear weapons.

"Ultimately, when that's done, there's going to be a piece of Aiken in France that every time they fire up that machine, it will hark back to what we do here today," Majidi said.
On just the eighth day of classes, police descended on Aiken High School in the wake of a large fight that left several injured  including one who was hospitalized  and led to six arrests.

A resource officer notified the Aiken Department of Public Safety at 12:35 p.m. Thursday about a fight, Capt. Marty Sawyer told the Aiken Standard.

Police recovered a knife but did not believe it was used in the fight, according to a media release from Aiken Department of Public Safety.

Lt. Jennifer Hayes with Public Safety said in a media release that six juveniles were taken into custody and charged with misdemeanor affray.

"There are no weapons and no guns involved in this. There has not been a shooting," Sawyer said, responding to rumors to the contrary.

One student was taken to a local hospital with a possible arm fracture, while other students sustained minor injuries and were treated on the scene, according to an Aiken Department of Public Safety media release.

The school is no longer on lockdown.

"Situations of this nature threaten the sense of safety and security that students and staff deserve to have on our campus, and we know that is necessary for teachers to teach and students to learn," read a post on the high school's website.

It said the school was investigating the matter and encouraged anyone with information to come forward.

The post also cautioned that people might experience delays in the coming days as the school will have a heightened police presence and said counselors will be available for students.

One parent left work during the police response to pick up her daughter, who is a senior at the school.

"I am very worried because my daughter suffers from depression," she said. "She was very nervous when I called her."

The parent asked if her daughter was OK. Her daughter's response: "No."

Catherine Herring, who was waiting to pick up her grandchild, said she didn't expect something like this to happen since school started last week.

"It's very scary," Herring said.
Plans are in place for a new equestrian offering for local kids this month, with Langley Pond Park as the host site for Mustang Camp, a weekly offering on Saturdays in August, with the blessing of Aiken County Parks, Recreation and Tourism.

Sisters and equestrian professionals Bethany Mauchly and Emma Higgins are continuing a tradition that they started in Nottingham, a small town in southeastern New Hampshire. The South Carolina version, promoted as a nature-based horsemanship camp, is to be on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon and from noon to 3 p.m., and the target audience is kids from ages 6 to 15, with a limit of 16 students per session.

Activities, Mauchly noted, will be in such areas as trail riding, basic horsemanship, hiking, crafts, group play and an introduction to such topics as horse tack, horse terminology, wilderness basics, common hazards and identification of common plants and trees.

Mark van der Linden, the county's PRT director, issued a statement on the camp. We do a good job at offering unique, niche programming in our parks. Although Aiken County is known for equestrian activities, there are a lot of people that may not know where to get started. With the Mustang Camp, folks can get the introduction right here at Langley Pond Park, ride on our horse friendly loop trails, and then decide if they want to continue learning more," he wrote.

The program "uses horses and natural elements to create an environment for each child to explore and grow new skills," Mauchly wrote. "We focus on helping campers build skills that will serve them for a lifetime by weaving the development of tangible and intangible personal and interpersonal skills into each and every activity."

The goal, she added, is for each camper to develop in terms of teamwork, communication, thankfulness, stewardship, awareness, patience, common sense, self-confidence, self-respect, respect of others and problem solving.

The camp rate is $50 per half day, and 20-minute mounted lessons are also available for $35 each. Call 803-642-7559 during business hours for more information.
WINNSBORO  After five years of planning and rising housing prices, the Fairfield County School District Education Foundation is finally building a 22-acre, 30-home affordable housing community designed to recruit and retain teachers in the rural Midlands school district.

Fairfield County School District officials said one of their hopes is for the three-bedroom, two-bathroom homes to attract teachers to the area, roughly 25 miles north of Columbia. The residences will be offered at below-market-rate rent prices.

But schools Superintendent J.R. Green said filling staff vacancies is not the main goal, because the small district of just over 2,600 students does not have that problem. Rather, the goal is retain current district employees  an increasing number of whom are living farther and farther away from work after being priced out of the community.

"How can you focus on reading, writing and arithmetic when you're really struggling to figure out where you'll lay your head?" Green said on Aug. 3. "We have to take care of those basic life needs for teachers the same way we have to take care of those basic life needs for students."

Dubbed "The Village at Winnsboro," the future housing complex will be the first of its kind in South Carolina. The property, just off of U.S. Highway 321 behind the Fairfield School District office, likely will have 16 homes available by the start of the 2024-25 school year, Green said.

The village will feature two styles of home: one-story, 1,158-square-foot homes with three bedrooms and two full bathrooms for $700 a month; and two-story, 1,428-square-foot homes with three bedrooms and 2 bathrooms for $900 a month.
LEXINGTON  "Out of order" was the phrase of the night at a Lexington County Republican Party meeting as factions within the party grew increasingly hostile toward each other, and some members, including elected party lieutenants, called for the chairwoman to resign.

During a special-called meeting Aug. 3, screaming matches between party members dominated the two-hour-long gathering. Without a clear agenda, Pamela Godwin attempted to give a "chairman's report." Just elected in April, party members and some of Godwin's own lieutenants called for her to step down.

Over and over she yelled back, "You're out of order."

Disgruntled party members and county residents murmured in the crowd, "We look ridiculous," and called the meeting a "weaponization of Robert's Rules of Order."

The meeting adjourned with no successful votes.

During the Lexington County Republican Convention in April, attendees chose Godwin as chair. The former county party grassroots director won automatically after her sole opponent, former state Rep. Todd Atwater, withdrew from the race. Godwin and her lieutenants ran as a part of the SaveSC slate, a group of hardline conservatives.

The new wave of leadership in the county party quickly adopted a purist approach to conservatism, censuring several prominent Republican elected officials, including state Sen. Katrina Shealy, a Lexington Republican who chaired the county party from 2006-08.

Last month, the party censured Lexington-Richland Five school board chairwoman Rebecca Blackburn Hines, citing dissatisfaction with how she responded to a district teachers halted lesson on a book about race.
GREENVILLE  Through the Greenville County Sheriffs Office Foundation, $90,000 in funding will go to buy five new forensic computers for the agency's efforts to fight crimes against children.

The funding announced Aug. 2 comes entirely from a donation from couple Robert and Kelly Castellani.

Our kids grew up very safe, and we make the donation so that for days and weeks and maybe years to come, well be able to help one little girl and one little boy, said Robert Castellani, who is founder of North American Rescue, LLC and a recipient of the Order of the Palmetto, the highest honor given to a South Carolina citizen.

The sheriff's office's Internet Crimes Against Children Unit has been operating in the Upstate for 20 years, and is constantly trying to keep up with the curve of technological advancement. The ICACU's computers look for evidence in seized devices and comb through data from service providers.

The people that work in this arena have to face a lot of bad things and images and negativity and just some horrific stuff. I want to acknowledge them and their bravery and their commitment to make this world better, Kelly Castellani said.

The new Talino computers are capable of a much higher processing speed than a typical computer.

Sheriff Hobart Lewis said the old systems were overworked and outdated. He highlighted the necessity of a more powerful machine by sharing that since 2020, over 1,400 devices have been examined by the ICACs old computers, with 132 being examined this year.

The difference between the new and old technology was likened to the change to upgrading from a slingshot or a BB gun to a firearm.

Like anything, things get outdated pretty quickly," Lewis said. "The sad thing is that we could use five more. Thats how much information comes into this unit that they have to work through."
Documents from the Summerville Police Department confirm a local grandmother has been charged with unlawful conduct toward a minor, in connection with her 2-year-old grandsons July 8 death by drowning in a Summerville retention pond at 107 Hemingway Circle. Read moreSummerville grandmother charged in childs drowning
FLORENCE  A Marion County man who kidnapped, carjacked and murdered a South Carolina grandmother was sentenced to life in prison Aug. 3 in federal court.

Dominique Brand entered Mary Ann Elvingtons Nichols home on March 28, 2021, and kidnapped her. He forced her to drive him over 80 miles in her 2012 Buick Lacrosse. He then took her behind an abandoned grocery store and shot her in the back of the head.

"All he had to do was let Momma go," Elvington's daughter Margol said as she addressed U.S. District Judge Sherri Lydon. "He didn't have to kill her. He chose to. I firmly believe that man is the devil."

Elvington's family members and friends packed the courtroom for the sentencing. They described her as a loving grandmother, mother and friend who did volunteer work and attended church. Elvington was a teacher for over 30 years before she retired.

"She was my best friend," Margol Elvington said. "She was my partner. It's been 858 days since I last heard her voice, and I miss her."

Brand faced two consecutive life sentences for his crimes. He was convicted Sept. 14 after a multiday bench trial.

Brand has the opportunity to appeal, though Lydon told his attorneys that an appeal would likely be difficult to grant, due to the nature of the crimes and the statutes dictating the punishments for those offenses.

After sentencing him, Lydon told Brand that one of the most "haunting" aspects of the case is not knowing how long he stayed with Elvington in her house before he kidnapped, carjacked and killed her.

"It's important to understand how long the victim feared for her life," Lydon said. "She was with you for hours while you were in her home and controlling her with a gun."

Lydon noted how Brand had a history of burglaries, larcenies and property damage, but he had not committed any crimes for a decade prior to 2021.

"The court is left wondering how things might have been different if you had stuck with hard work and effort instead of stealing from others," Lydon said.

About three days before kidnapping Elvington, Brand stole a 12-gauge shotgun, a .22 caliber rifle and food from a hunting cabin in Nichols.

He also broke into the Little Bethel Baptist Church and stole the church van, which was found across from Elvingtons home after her murder.

On the day of the kidnapping, Brand went into Elvington's house, fired a 12-gauge shotgun into the floor and stole documents from a safe. He also left behind both a water bottle and partially eaten pizza with his DNA on them.

Elvington and Brand left her house around 6:11 p.m. that day. He forced her to drive him in to Lake Waccamaw, N.C., and back to Lake View in Dillon County.

Family members and friends tried to reach Elvington numerous times that evening, but they were unable to locate her or get her to pull the car over. Her son contacted OnStar in an attempt to find her, according to court documents.

At 8:28 pm, OnStar called into the car and made contact with Elvington. Harold and the OnStar operator tried to get Elvington to pull her car over. At one point, Elvington said she had crossed back into South Carolina. OnStar located the car in Lake View.

"Brand knew her family was concerned and looking for her," U.S. Attorney Adair Boroughs said in court documents. "He could have ended his crime spree and left her unharmed. Instead, he chose to take her life."

After killing Elvington, Brand drove her car to Marion, where he hid it behind an abandoned club. Elvingtons body was found the next day. After learning he was a suspect, Brand turned himself into authorities on March 31, 2021.

"The defendant targeted an elderly woman who was home alone, unable to protect herself from a young man wielding a loaded shotgun," Boroughs said in court documents. "At every turn, he chose violence and escalation, and his sentence must reflect the choices he made."

A wrongful death lawsuit has been filed by attorneys for Elvington's estate against OnStar and Brand. The lawsuit alleges the vehicle communication operator failed to share Elvington's location with police in the last moments of her life.

In court filings, OnStar has denied all wrongdoing.

Elvingtons estate has requested a jury trial.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug.4. The Government of Adjara (Georgia) will submit a revised budget for 2023 to the Supreme Council of the region, that will debut exceeding 600 million lari ($233.9 million), Chairman of the Government of Adjara Tornike Rizhvadze said at a government meeting, Trend reports.

Rizhvadze noted that the increase in the budget is the result of positive trends in the economy, increased confidence, and increased activity in tourism and business both in the country and in the region.

"The budget of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara was just over 300 million lari ($116.9 million) five years ago (in 2018), and we will submit very soon to the Supreme Council of Adjara a revised budget for 2023," he added.

He said that the almost doubled budget of the region will allow the government to implement even more social and medical programs, build additional schools, finance the education of young people, including abroad, build new roads and pay more attention to the development of Adjara and its population.

As part of the adjustment of the budget of Adjara for 2023, the volume of transfers to municipalities increases by more than 32 million lari ($12.4 million) and will amount to 150 million lari ($58.4 million).

Rizhvadze emphasized that there is every reason to believe that by 2025 it will amount to at least 1 billion lari ($389.9 million) based on the current possibility of increasing the budget.
ST. GEORGE  A young child is accused of shooting four horses, one fatally, at Shangri-La Sanctuary on July 28, according to Dorchester County authorities.

The child has not been charged and will not face time behind bars, according to Solicitor David Pascoe, who prosecutes cases in the First Judicial Circuit that includes Dorchester County.

The Dorchester County Sheriff's Office said earlier this week that a juvenile was facing a charge of animal cruelty in the case.

Marcy Hippey, who runs the animal sanctuary, said she knows the child, who lives in the area. She continues to worry for the safety of the nearly 200 animals, many of which came to the farm to escape abuse or neglect, and those who work there.

She said the injured horses continue to recover, though one, Hucks Downtown Girl is struggling. The 3-year-old horse has nerve damage from being shot in the right chest and shoulder preventing her from putting weight on her right leg. But that is taxing her left leg, which recently healed from a break and could re-break.

Criminal cases involving juveniles are handled differently than those against adults, and largely, outside of the public eye.

The Sheriffs Office does not identify juvenile suspects, unless they have been charged as an adult, spokesman Lt. Rick Carson said.

Under South Carolina law, law enforcement cannot detain a child under the age of 11, Pascoe said when asked if the child could face time in jail.

"Due to the child's age and very sensitive nature, our office can't release more at this time," the solicitor said.

Unlike adults, minors aren't served with an arrest warrant, which require police show probable cause before a magistrate judge. Instead, a solicitor files a petition in family court alleging that a child has committed a crime, which hasn't happened in this case so far.

Aldwin Roman, vice president of operations and strategy at the Charleston Animal Society, said it's not uncommon for young children to be involved in animal abuse. They can lack empathy or compassion for animals, he said.

"The concern for us is not that just animals are being harmed, the concern is that research kind of indicates that typically those who hurt people usually start with animals," Roman said.

Early intervention is key, Roman said.

Because criminal proceedings against children are often kept secret, it's difficult to say what options for rehabilitation are available, and how effective they are at preventing future harm.

"We don't know what usually happens with these resolutions because it happens in family court, because they're minors," he said. "The way that we try and get involved, or at least prevent it or hope to prevent it, is through our humane education program, offering classes for kids, visiting schools and teaching about compassion and empathy for animals. To try and at least make kids aware that animals are living beings and feel pain."

An adult can face a felony for animal cruelty, punishable by up to five years in prison.

If the child is found delinquent in family court, there is often a request for a psychological evaluation, said Shawn Barfield, an assistant solicitor in the Ninth Judicial Circuit, which includes Charleston. He manages the office's family court caseload, and has handled several animal abuse cases.

The evaluation is conducted by the Department of Juvenile Justice to determine if there are any mental health or other issues that need to be addressed by the court, Barfield said. After an evaluation, the juvenile will usually be placed on a period of probation, supervised by DJJ.

Since January, Charleston Animal Society has investigated 56 cases of animal cruelty. It has launched a fundraising campaign this month to "end cruelty", which has already raised $21,000 four days into the 31-day effort. The society is not affiliated with Hippey's sanctuary, nor is it involved in the Dorchester County investigation.
The filing period opens at noon Aug. 7 to officially become a candidate in local elections across South Carolina, including for marquee races in the Charleston area.

Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg is running for a third term in a field that's shaping up to have seven candidates.

In North Charleston, as many as nine candidates have announced bids to fill the seat to be left open by retiring Mayor Keith Summey, who was first elected in 1994.

Mount Pleasant does not have a mayoral race this fall, but half of Town Council is up for election. Candidates are elected to at-large seats rather than district seats. There are eight seats total on council, with four up for election.

Summerville will see a race for mayor and three council seats in districts 2, 4 and 6. Mayor Ricky Waring is not running for reelection.

Half of the Charleston City Council is up for election this November. It will also be the first time the city will use its newly redistricted maps. The maps were re-drawn using 2020 census data, but the COVID-19 pandemic caused delays both in collecting the information and using it to re-draw seat boundaries.

With the new maps, the city peninsula will shift from being represented through four districts to three. Johns Island will get its own district for the first time.

Charleston residents can find their council district by searching their address at gis.charleston-sc.gov/interactive/mapnet/ and selecting the "City Council Districts Fall 2023" map layer.

North Charleston also will be electing council members to new districts. All 10 single-member district seats are up. Residents can search their district at arc.northcharleston.org/citycouncil/council.html.

Candidates in Charleston and North Charleston must pay a $1,000 filing fee to run for mayor and a $150 fee to run for city or town council. The filing period closes at noon Aug. 21.

Filing for Charleston municipal races will be held at the city's legal offices at 50 Broad St.

Filing for the North Charleston and Mount Pleasant races will be at the new Charleston County Board of Elections headquarters, located at 4340 Corporate Road, in North Charleston.

Other local municipalities holding elections this year include Moncks Corner, Isle Palms and St. George, among others.

The last day to register to vote is Oct. 8. Mailed-in registration forms must be postmarked by Oct. 10.

Election day is Nov. 7.

Charleston voters will also see a $70 million citywide parks bond on the ballot this fall.

For more information on local towns holding elections or to review your voter registration status, visit the S.C. Election Commission online at scvotes.gov.

Kenna Coe contributed to this report.
LaToya Anderson and her two children love to go fishing, especially in the North Santee River and its estuaries near their home in Georgetown.

They find red drum. They hook a few catfish.

But weve got to worry, is the fish contaminated? Anderson said. We eat what we catch.

What they catch swims very near the Winyah Generating Station, a coal-fired power plant run by Santee Cooper and authorized by the Department of Health and Environmental Control to discharge treated wastewater into Turkey Creek and the North Santee River.

So Anderson is worried about flooding. What if it causes the toxic coal ash retention ponds to spill over? The two problems cant be untangled in the era of climate change.

Storms produce more rain now. They get supercharged by elevated ocean temperatures and increased humidity. Scientists say that 2018's Hurricane Florence dumped 10 percent more rain on the North Santee River region because of climate change. After Florence, nearby Waccamaw River flooded within inches of coal ash ponds at another power station, also run by Santee Cooper.

These dangers will only increase as the planet continues to warm. This has environmental watchdogs, community advocates and some public officials concerned about weather-related impacts that can pose acute dangers to residents like Anderson.

Black residents of South Carolina often are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. They are the ones who tend to live in neighborhoods adjacent to industrial sites or subject to government policies and projects that degrade the fabric of the community. They are the ones who often are underinsured and have the least amount of disposable income  or time  to repair the damage to their lives.

Some community leaders, though, are taking matters into their own hands, working with municipalities, nonprofits and advocacy groups to identify risks and find ways to make their neighborhoods more climate resilient.

Take Charlestons Rosemont neighborhood, located on the Neck Area of the peninsula between Interstate 26 and marshland. Rosemont is vulnerable to water inundation because of its proximity to the Ashley River and the barrier that the highway creates, so residents are working with the Lowcountry Alliance for Model Communities and the city on a resiliency plan.

Severe weather events pose risks; so does the contamination that results when floodwaters rise. And its not only coastal communities like Georgetown and Charleston that face an increasing threat. Rain bombs, stronger and more sustained storms, cresting rivers, drought, wildfires, and intense heat and cold are growing inland problems, often exacerbated by failing infrastructure, industrial waste and rural isolation.

Anderson said living near a coal plant has attuned her to the dangers.

My home church is less than a mile from the site, she said. I remember traveling down there when I was younger, and any time I passed by the plant I would get an empty-stomach feeling. I knew something was in the air.

Many industrial sites such as the Winyah plant cause two problems at once: they generate CO2 and other greenhouse gasses that worsen global warming and they leave behind dangerous byproducts that can leach into nearby communities, especially when the heavy rains come.

But Anderson remained unaware of the potential severity of the risks until, a few years ago, she joined the Sierra Club, educated herself about the issues and became a community advocate.

Youd think the people (running the power plant) would try to protect the people in the surrounding area, Anderson said. But that doesnt seem to be the priority, she said.

The plant, with its four power-generating stations, is scheduled to close by 2028, and the huge quantities of residual coal ash  which contains lead, arsenic, mercury and other poisonous contaminants  will get buried, then covered, like a landfill, Anderson said.

This has her concerned about whether the ash will leach toxins into the groundwater, and whether flooding caused by heavy rains will worsen the risks.

I have elderly family members in the vicinity, she said. Im worried about carcinogens and overall health.

Paying a 'fair share'

Xavier Boatright, South Carolina-based deputy legislative director of clean energy and electrification at the Sierra Club, said low-income communities and minorities contribute far less to climate change in the form of greenhouse gas emissions than wealthy groups and industry, yet often are affected disproportionately.

Legacy contributors dont pay their fair share in recovery efforts, while marginalized communities pay a big price, Boatright said.

Part of the injustice is economic, part is historical, he said. Centuries of discrimination weakened the ability of African Americans to combat pollution, food deserts, housing problems and climate impacts. Severe rainy weather can result in the spread of black mold, causing thousands of dollars in damage that poor families cant afford to fix, Boatright said. They cant afford to move away from areas prone to flooding, or neighborhoods adjacent to industrial plants.

Climate-induced migration, which already has begun in South Carolina and elsewhere on the East Coast, can add pressure to real estate markets, driving up prices and making it difficult for poor people to find a new home, he said.

When residents of Horry County moved to Greenville after severe flooding along the Waccamaw River and Intracoastal Waterway near Socastee caused by Hurricane Matthew in 2016, some struggled to get on their feet, Boatright said. They had no support network in the more expensive Upstate city.

He thinks the big contributors to climate change  the large corporations with deep pockets  need to partner with local leaders to come up with solutions, and regular people dealing with the impacts should have a seat at the table.

If you live near a coal plant, you know a lot about coal plants, he said.

The average minimum temperatures along South Carolinas coast are up about 5 percent since the early 1990s, according to government data. And warmer Atlantic ocean temperatures are fueling wetter hurricanes and tropical storms. This makes urban cities in the Southeast increasingly susceptible to both severe heat and extreme flooding.

The risk of flooding also is increasing because of sea level rise. A 2020 study by University of South Carolina researchers showed that the pace of sea level rise is accelerating along South Carolina's coastline. Scientists used to think that the regions sea levels rose at a steady pace  a straight line on the graph  but now they see an upward curve.

Given this acceleration, the city of Charleston has installed a new series of check valves across the peninsula  at least 55 so far  that stop tidal waters from rising up through the storm drains. It is also build new pumping stations that will protect low-income communities on the East Side of the peninsula.

Charleston's elected officials are in a race against time and left with a hefty bill. But who will pay?

The countrys largest climate contributors, the oil and gas companies, are being sued by over 40 municipalities nationwide, including the city of Charleston, for monetary damages that could force companies to help pay for engineering projects and community solutions. If successful, these payouts  which could top out at $1 trillion or more  would take years to work through the courts. Frontline communities need solutions now.

"Im hopeful," Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg said about the possibility of the city winning its lawsuit against two dozen oil companies. "But we cant bank on that oil money.

'How to stay here'

In Charleston, climate change has prompted new thinking. Local leaders contend that the city can no longer engineer its way out of frequent flooding. While storm drains and pump stations always will be necessary in the fight against rising waters, officials admit that some residents will have to get out of harm's way.

In the future, how do we figure out how to stay here? Thats how I describe my job, Charleston Chief Resilience Officer Dale Morris said.

Federal grants might be used for voluntary home buyouts in frequently flooded neighborhoods. Some of those properties can be transformed into rehabilitated wetlands that help absorb stormwater naturally.

A new policy, initially approved by city council, bans slab-on-grade home construction in the 100-year floodplain, a building practice known to worsen flooding.

And Charleston could adopt a city-wide zoning ordinance that correlates density with land elevation. If approved, a new zoning code would limit most new construction in low-lying areas.

We have some high ground in the city. We wont say you need to stop development, but we will say you need to stop development in low places, Morris said.

Some of the citys flooding issues stem from errors of the past and, in some cases, racial discrimination.

The city has a long history of filling in marshes to create more developable land. As recently as the 1950s, more than 100 acres of marshland at Gadsden Creek became a garbage dump and landfill.

Now residents are dealing with the toxic consequences and asking the city to not only fix current flooding problems, made worse by the alteration of Gadsden Creek, but to address sins of the past.

Activist group Friends of Gadsden Creek filed a lawsuit to stop development that would require the filling in of whats left of the creek, demanding restoration instead. The city has argued that the damage to the tidal channel is beyond repair and the new developments flood management features will greatly improve drainage in the neighborhood.

To address similar problems, the city is devising a comprehensive water plan. The plan will prioritize flood mitigation projects that complement each other and protect as many residents as possible.

The plan also will map environmental justice communities, neighborhoods that have been neglected or harmed by past actions of the city.

Sometimes projects need to be tailored to the desires of a community. The $1.1 billion 8-mile-long seawall proposal stops short of Rosemont, the low-income neighborhood in the Neck Area of the Charleston peninsula thats susceptible to flooding.

But extending the seawall farther north would cut off neighborhood access to the adjacent marsh and require the use of eminent domain to seize properties by the water to make room for the wall and associated pumping stations  work residents decided they should reject in favor of less-intrusive solutions.

So the city is hoping to secure funds to elevate homes in the neighborhood above projected storm surge levels. Other projects could help, such as oyster beds to help revitalize the shoreline and reduce surge impacts, and the construction of berms that can both keep water out and add usable greenspace.

It doesnt have to be a zero-sum game, said Omar Muhammad, executive director of the Lowcountry Alliance for Model Communities. Communities can be protected, and they can benefit from added amenities, he said.

'A different way'

LAMC began as a grassroots organization focused on economic development in low-income areas, but extreme weather events in the mid-2010s prompted the group to factor in climate change, which exacerbates existing social and economic injustices, Muhammad said.

Members of the alliance joined the U.S. Climate Action Network and engaged in conversations about disinvested communities, urban and rural, and the need to introduce green solutions, infrastructure and policies designed to mitigate the impacts of global warming. They connected the dots between climate and health, climate and employment, climate and social services.

We began to think about our work in a different way, he said.

Essentially, LAMC relies on neighborhood residents to communicate problems and needs, and to set the tone. The organization responds by crafting customized grant proposals and by collaborating with community leaders to foster better engagement, Muhammad said.

Rosemont is a case in point. The sea wall discussion led LAMC to apply for a $300,000 matching grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to help Rosemont develop a climate resiliency plan. The city pitched in $100,000, which helped LAMC secure a Mosaic grant, bringing the total funding for Rosemont to more than $700,000.

LAMC has relied on strategic partnerships and training programs to extend its reach. Typically, it will lead community-based efforts to conduct hazard, vulnerability and capacity assessments, then devise an action plan.

In this way, the alliance can help prepare many community leaders to face the challenges of climate change. Already, LAMC has taken its template to communities in the Upstate, North Carolina, Mississippi, Georgia and Arkansas.

Rosemont offers hope, Muhammad said. Even the historically disenfranchised can find allies and develop solutions. And their concerns don't always fall on deaf ears.

In Georgetown, Anderson has become a community advocate, something she never envisioned for herself. She had to learn a lot about the human impacts of pollution and climate change. It changed her life, she said.

Now I will always defend the environment and the people, Anderson said.

She will continue to attend meetings, to collaborate with the Sierra Club, to argue for responsible community-oriented policies, she said.

Others are in the same boat as me, not knowing all the facts, Anderson said. But she has begun to learn the facts, and they terrify her. I can bring more awareness.

Raising awareness is urgent since extreme weather brought by climate change isnt going away anytime soon.
Town Square Olive Oil & Wine, the family-owned gourmet grocer with olive oil and wine bar that got its start in Covington, Ga., is opening in downtown North Augusta by early fall.

Im ready to get going on this, said Tia Harville, whos one half of the husband-and-wife duo opening the store at 509 Georgia Ave. It was husband Joey Harvilles aunt who opened the Covington store about eight years ago.

The hope, Tia said, is that the North Augusta location will start decanting its oils and vinegars by Aug. 17  this months Third Thursday.

Beyond the 30 or so varieties of specialty olive oils and vinegars, Town Square stocks gourmet grocery items: stuffed olives, pastas and pasta sauces, charcuterie items, local dairy, cheeses and cured meats.

Some of it  the stuffed olives  is private label. Our little recipes, Tia said. Other items  the oils and vinegars  are imported by a Greek supplier, Laconiko.

They actually press the garlic with the olives when they press them. Its all naturally infused with real ingredients. Same with their vinegars. They take fresh fruit  Greece has great fruit  and they press that with the grapes, Tia said. They put a lot of heart and soul into it, and you can tell."

The Harvilles arent new to business. The two opened the Shuckin Shack Oyster Bar in Summerville in 2015 and then sold it to a business partner when they moved from the Charleston area to North Augusta.

And opening Town Square has been comparatively easy. We kind of went into this just like, if its meant to happen then it will happen, and well just trust God and Hell provide, Tia said, contrasting the venture to the oyster bar, where we were nickel-and-diming everything. It was a very tight budget.

Were both very entrepreneurial, she added. And honestly, my husband would like to have a small restaurant again.

The small kitchen in back isnt a full commercial kitchen, but it does give the Harvilles and their staff the chance to make their charcuterie boards to order, to freshly slice the meats, or for Joey  hes the cook; Tias the baker  to make a dish that throws into relief the flavor in one of those specialty vinegars.

Part of the plan for Town Square is to partner with local restaurants to offer their olive oils wholesale. Another part of the plan is to offer tastings and put together tutorials for how to incorporate, say, an olive oil infused with blood orange or a balsamic vinegar that has notes of blackberry and ginger.

I hired some really awesome girls that know way more than I do," Tia laughed. Its those three whom Tia said will be integral to guiding shoppers through their visit to Town Square.

I want people to come in here and kind of feel like they're at home [] Im hoping that is just becomes part of the community and people like coming in just feel comfortable, she said. And we want to kind of be that middle ground where people can, instead of driving to Publix or Kroger thats just past this, to stop here instead.

That's a big reason why the Harvilles will carry some of the grocery basics, like dairy and take-and-bake bread. And locally-sourced honeys and syrups.

Tia said the store will curate its wine selections over time, trying out different varieties to see whats popular here in North Augusta.

Its about having and doing what people want, she said. Its a philosophy thats carried over from when she and Joey owned the Summerville oyster bar.

Our thing was, if we can do it, were going to do it for you, she said. If you want something off the menu and we have the ingredients, well do it. Thats the same philosophy well have here. If we can do something, why not? Why say No when its so easy just to say Yes?

Town Square Olive Oil & Wine is expected to open at 509 Georgia Ave. late August or early September. Hours will be Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.; and Sunday, 1-7 p.m. Get updates on opening day by visiting the Facebook page, Town Square Olive Oil & Wine  North Augusta."
Food products can be not only useful but also very harmful and cause poisoning. Experts urge to be very careful when choosing fish, dairy products and eggs especially in summer.

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The FoodOboz editorial team shares a list of 10 foods that can be poisonous.

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Fish, canned fish and fish dishes

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Eggs

Bread that has been stored improperly

Meat dishes

Confectionery with cream

Ice cream

Perishable sausages, burgers, cooked chicken and kebabs

Marinades

Ready-to-eat food that has been stored improperly without refrigeration

What to pay attention to when buying food in stores and markets:

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3 The taste, color and smell of the product have changed.

4. Heterogeneous consistency, broken transparency and traces of sediment.

First symptoms of poisoning are fever, strong salivation, vomiting, nausea, abdominal pain, signs of dehydration due to fluid loss, malaise and loss of appetite. You need to seek help from a doctor urgently!

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OBOZREVATEL also reported what to eat before bedtime if hunger does not let you sleep.
So a Democratic Party operative has once again indicted Donald Trump on transparently foolish grounds. The result of the Democrats seeming obsession with Trump is that he continues to dominate headlines and suck up oxygen nearly three years after he lost the presidential race in 2020. This is truly extraordinary.

Did Jimmy Carter dominate headlines in 1983, years after he was thrashed by Ronald Reagan? Was Walter Mondale a fixture in the press in 1987, after being clobbered by Reagan in 1984? Were the papers full of commentary on Michael Dukakis in 1991, three years after he was obliterated by George H.W. Bush? How about John McCain and Mitt Romney? Did the conventional (liberal) press obsess over their every move years after they lost their presidential bids?

No. We are seeing something unprecedented. A presidential loser has been elevated to the front rank by a combination of Democratic Party apparatchiks like Alvin Bragg and Jack Smith and Democratic Party newspapers like the New York Times and the Washington Postand, to be fair, pretty much all the others, along with the Associated Press. These outlets delight in putting Trump on their front pages, in tall headlines, whenever he is indicted or otherwise makes news.

Why? Why is Trump being treated so differently from all other losing presidential nominees? Is it because the Democrats are afraid of him, as some Republicans like to say? It doesnt seem so. The Democrats are not so stupid that they dont understand that the more they attack Trump, the more Republicans rally around him. Indeed, that seems to be the point: the Democrats are keeping Trump in the forefront, and they use him as an excuse not to cover the serious Republican candidates: Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy, Nikki Haley and the others.

Unless you think the Democrats are too dumb to foresee the obvious consequences of their actions, their strategy is evident: keep Trump in the limelight, freeze the other Republican candidates out of news coverage, do everything they can to make Trump the Republican nominee, and then crush him in the general election.

When is the last time a presidential nominee lost his race, then was re-nominated and came back to win? I believe the only such instance is Grover Cleveland. OthersWilliam Jennings Bryan, Adlai Stevensonhave failed. I think the Democrats are happy to take their chances on a Cleveland-like resurrection and run against Donald Trump.

The chief advantage of running against Trump is that the failures of the Biden administration, which are both legion and catastrophic, will be almost irrelevant, because Biden will not be the Democrats nominee. They will run a fresh face, most likely Gavin Newsom but perhaps someone else, against the retread Trump. The election, on that scenario, will be a referendum on Trump, and Trump will not come close. It will be a Democratic sweep, a remarkable achievement following one of the most pitiful administrations in American history.

That, I think, is the Democrats plan. Keep Trump in the headlines of friendly newspapers, indict him, attack him. Make him the central issue in the 2024 campaign. And then reap a victory that is entirely foreordained, since Trump lost in 2020 and cant possibly win in 2024.

In my opinion, many leading Democrats are evil. But lets be fair: they didnt take control over virtually every American institution by being stupid. When it comes to politics, they know what they are doing. And what they are doing is trying to make Donald Trump the Republicans sacrificial lamb in 2024. That said, I cant explain why Republicans would want to go along with the Democrats plan.
PR-Inside.com: 2023-08-04 15:16:05

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Unique Luxury Property Unveiled by Sharon Bergman, William Raveis Real Estate: 17 Ferolbink Way, Little Compton, RILITTLE COMPTON, RI / ACCESSWIRE / August 4, 2023 / Never before available, this serene property and home set amidst the enchanting landscapes of Little Compton, Rhode Island, boasts 17 acres of waterfront property with unobstructed views up and down the Sakonnet River and out to the Atlantic Ocean, complete with a private beach. The property encompasses 11, 17 and 21 Ferolbink Way (Lot 11/10, 11/8, 11/6, respectively) being sold together and has been in the same family for generations.Aerial View The 3,574- sq.-ft . home built by premier builder Dennis Talbot provides expansive breathtaking water views from virtually every room, including the spacious living room with fireplace, formal dining room, fully equipped kitchen with cozy eat-in area enhanced by a gas fireplace, sunroom, den and light-filled master bedroom with ensuite on the first level. Three additional guest bedrooms and a full bath are located on the second level. The gleaming hardwood floors, built-in cabinetry & cedar-lined closets in every room speak to the quality and design of the home. The expansive stone patio or the relaxing balcony on the second floor are perfect spots to enjoy the morning sunrise or incomparable sunsets."The current owners have had years of family memories made here with their annual clambakes on their private beach and get-togethers to watch the sunset," said Sharon Bergman of William Raveis Real Estate. "Tremendous potential exists for this property." The Peckham Family, current owners, has a remarkable lineage that traces back to the earliest settlers of Little Compton. William Peckham was the first of the family to arrive in the area, establishing roots in the late 17th century. Over the years, the Peckhams became deeply entwined with the town's growth and development, accumulating vast land holdings and playing pivotal roles in local affairs.Little Compton, RI, offers a sense of tranquility and understated elegance, while still being conveniently connected to metropolitan centers and cultural hotspots. With awe-inspiring views and private beach access, this property delivers an unparalleled opportunity to enjoy a coastal lifestyle.Prospective buyers are invited to experience the splendor of 17 Ferolbink Way during an exclusive tour by appointment only. For inquiries, please contact Sharon Bergman, William Raveis Real Estate, at 401-862-3272.About William Raveis: William Raveis is the number one family-owned real estate company in the Northeast and Florida, and the eighth-largest independent real estate brokerage in the United States, according to Real Trends. William "Bill" Raveis, Jr., CEO & Chairman, founded the company 49 years ago and has turned it into a real estate powerhouse with more than 4,500 talented sales associates across 145 offices in Connecticut, Florida, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island & Vermont. WR is the only privately held firm offering real estate, mortgage and insurance services under one roof, thereby creating a seamless, end-to-end customer experience. For more information, visit raveis.com Contact InformationDyan GrantMarketing Manager401-829-7279SOURCE: William Raveis Real Estate
PR-Inside.com: 2023-08-04 23:20:11

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Second Quarter 2023 Highlights:Total assets grew to $615.3 million, or 6%, compared to the previous quarter and 11% compared to one year earlier.Total deposits increased $45 million, or 9%, compared to the previous quarter, and $62 million, or 12%, compared to one year earlier. Total deposits at second quarter end were $562.3 million.Non-performing assets remained well managed at a low level of .42%, down from .51% one year earlier.Interest income remained favorable at $6.6 million, with a 47% increase year-over-year.Non-interest income increased 43% compared to one year earlier.Leverage ratio of 9.73% and a total capital ratio of 14.21%. All capital ratios were above well-capitalized regulatory requirements.Announced full systems upgrade, including enhanced digital banking and debit card features, to take place in August 2023.Announced new loan production office in Gig Harbor, Washington, and hiring of new team, previously with Columbia/Umpqua Bank.TACOMA , WA / ACCESSWIRE / August 4, 2023 / Commencement Bancorp, Inc. (OTCQX:CBWA) reported quarterly net income of $723 thousand, or $0.18 per share, for the quarter ending June 30, 2023, compared to $1.1 million and $0.27 per share for second quarter 2022. Second quarter 2023 recorded net interest income of $4.5 million. This represents an increase of 4% compared to one year prior.Total assets ended the quarter at $615.2 million, an increase of 6% from first quarter 2023 and 11% compared to one year prior. Total loan balances were $435.3 million at quarter end, an increase of 12% compared to second quarter 2022. Total deposits increased 9%, to $562.3 million, compared to first quarter 2023, with a notable increase in core deposits of 12%. Core deposit growth can be attributed to the increase in new client acquisitions.Due to the notable increase in deposit balances, the Bank had the ability to further reduce higher cost brokered and eliminate borrowed funds and invest in overnight Fed Funds. This resulted in a positive shift in net interest income and an improved liquidity position. Borrowing capacity is secure and ample."While competitors, and the banking industry in general, experienced volatility in deposits, Commencement recognized a significant increase in balances during second quarter supported by existing customer growth and new client acquisitions," said John E. Manolides, Chief Executive Officer.New client relationships increased steadily during second quarter and the Bank continued to execute its marketing strategy by focusing on opportunities from the Columbia/Umpqua Bank merger. To further capitalize on this disruption, a team of local bankers joined Commencement to lead a loan production office in Gig Harbor, which is a new market area for the Bank. Allisha McVay and her hand-selected team were previously with Columbia/Umpqua Bank and will occupy a former Umpqua branch in downtown Gig Harbor. The office is scheduled to open in early August, with the intent of converting to a full-service branch upon regulatory approval. The added salary, benefits, and operational costs associated with this expansion resulted in a calculated increase in expenses and is anticipated to remain elevated while production ramps."The expansion into Gig Harbor has been on the Bank's strategic roadmap for several years. The recent merger of the area's largest local bank left an opening to carry out the initiative and allowed us the opportunity to hire Allisha McVay, a trusted and well-known banker. She and her team have deep roots in the community and are thrilled to help establish the Commencement brand in Gig Harbor," said Nigel L. English, President, and Chief Operating Officer.At the end of second quarter, the Bank announced a full systems upgrade designed to improve customer experience and enhance operational efficiencies. The transition will take place in August 2023 and includes a new remote deposit capture platform, a robust and seamless online and mobile banking application, additional debit card features, and new payment options. The new technology will keep the bank in line with its bigger competitors."The effort of our team and their ability to execute is evidenced by the retention and growth of our banking relationships. Marketing, through sponsorships of local venues and non-profits, solidified the Bank's commitment to support our residents and businesses. The fact that Commencement is the largest community bank headquartered in Pierce County is humbling, and I am so proud of the time and dedication our team has put into serving our communities. While expenses remain elevated with the opening of the new location and full systems upgrade, we are confident these investments will position the Bank for increased market share and economies of scale in the coming years," said Manolides.###About Commencement Bancorp, Inc.Commencement Bancorp, Inc. is the holding company for Commencement Bank, headquartered in Tacoma, Washington. Commencement Bank was formed in 2006 to provide traditional, reliable, and sustainable banking in Pierce, King, and Thurston counties and the surrounding areas. Their team of experienced banking experts focuses on personal attention, flexible service, and building strong relationships with customers through state-of-the-art technology as well as traditional delivery systems. As a local bank, Commencement Bank is deeply committed to the community. For more information, please visit www.commencementbank.com . For information related to the trading of CBWA, please visit www.otcmarkets.com For further discussion, please contact the following:John E. Manolides, Chief Executive Officer | 253-284-1802Nigel L. English, President & Chief Operating Officer | 253-284-1801Thomas L. Dhamers, Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer | 253-284-1803Forward-Looking Statement Safe Harbor: This news release contains comments or information that constitutes forward-looking statements (within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995) that are based on current expectations that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements describe Commencement Bancorp, Inc.'s projections, estimates, plans and expectations of future results and can be identified by words such as "believe," "intend," "estimate," "likely," "anticipate," "expect," "looking forward," and other similar expressions. They are not guarantees of future performance. Actual results may differ materially from the results expressed in these forward-looking statements, which because of their forward-looking
PR-Inside.com: 2023-08-04 21:35:11

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DETROIT, MI / ACCESSWIRE / August 4, 2023 / In "From Pepperdine to Prison," a former criminal defense attorney exposes the violence and hypocrisy in the soft white underbelly of the most corrupt county in the U.S.FBI investigations into political corruption are exploding throughout the US., and are currently #1 on their hit list. According to to US Attorney Matthew Schneider, 2019, Michigan was the most corrupt state in the U.S. According to the FBI, Macomb County Michigan is generationally corrupt.Research indicates that Cook County and Los Angeles Counties, both with longstanding histories of police brutality and corruption, are a close second: while New York City, New Orleans, Las Vegas, and Miami are in the top ten.Paul Zyburski, aka Paulie Z, was born and raised in lower working class on the east side of Detroit. At 19, he was savagely beaten while handcuffed in a violent case of police brutality. The incident set Paulie Z on a global educational journey from Michigan State University, Pepperdine Law School in Malibu, California, and the University of London, UK.Following law school, Paul dedicated his life as a criminal defense attorney to help those less fortunate and built a reputation as "the courtroom fixer." However, his success was plagued with personal demons, and he soon found himself the target of an FBI corruption scandal that ultimately landed him in federal prison.After serving his time, Paul began rebuilding his life, starting by telling his story. In his riveting new memoir "From Pepperdine to Prison," the former criminal defense attorney breaks the code of silence within the innermost criminal underbelly and exposes the hypocrisy of our judicial system. This amazing true story details his personal experience with police brutality. political corruption, judicial misconduct, drugs, the mob, the FBI, and the realities of imprisonment."From Pepperdine to Prison" is written with brutal honesty and comedic satire. Zyburski has been the lead story on WXYZ-TV Detroit and was recently featured in The Macomb Daily. He is soon to be a guest on The Gangster Report: Uncovering the Underworld, hosted by Scott Burnstein.Contact Information:Zyburski PublishingPaul F. ZyburskiPaulzyburski2020@ gmail.com (810) 824-3000SOURCE: Zyburski Publishing LLC
PR-Inside.com: 2023-08-04 15:10:07

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SAN FRANCISCO, CA / ACCESSWIRE / August 4, 2023 / Hagens Berman urges SentinelOne, Inc. (NYSE:S) investors who suffered substantial losses submit your losses now.Class Period: June 1, 2022 - June 1, 2023Lead Plaintiff Deadline: Aug. 7, 2023Visit: www.hbsslaw.com/investor-fraud/S Contact An Attorney Now: S@ hbsslaw.com 844-916-0895SentinelOne, Inc. (S) Securities Fraud Class Action:The complaint alleges Defendants made false and misleading statements and failed to disclose that: (1) SentinelOne lacked effective internal controls over accounting and financial reporting; (2) as a result, the company's key reported business metric annualized recurring revenue or "ARR" was overstated; and (3) as a result, the company's guidance was overstated.Investors learned the truth on June 1, 2023, when after the market closed, SentinelOne published a press release titled "SentinelOne Announces First Quarter Fiscal Year 2024 Financial Results." Therein, the Company disclosed that "[a]s a result of a change in methodology and correction of historical inaccuracies, which we further describe in our letter to shareholders, we made a one-time adjustment to ARR of $27.0 million or approximately 5% of total ARR." The Company also revised its fiscal year 2024 revenue guidance downward to a range of $590 million to $600 million from a range of $631 million to $640 million.In a shareholder letter published the same day, SentinelOne further explained that "we . . . discovered historical upsell and renewal recording inaccuracies relating to ARR on certain subscription and consumption contracts, which are now corrected" and that "[w]e are applying a comparable estimated adjustment to the remaining quarters in fiscal year 23, which we believe is a reasonable approximation of the impact in those periods." On this news, SentinelOne's stock price fell $7.28 per share, or more than 35%, to close at $13.44 per share on June 2, 2023."We're focused on investors' losses and proving SentinelOne first became aware of the historical inaccuracies in ARR and the decline in customer usage well before the company's disclosures," said Reed Kathrein, the Hagens Berman partner leading the investigation.If you invested in SentinelOne 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 SentinelOne 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 S@ 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: 2023-08-04 15:13:02

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SAN FRANCISCO, CA / ACCESSWIRE / August 4, 2023 / Hagens Berman urges Xponential Fitness, Inc. (NYSE:XPOF) investors who suffered substantial losses to submit your losses now.Visit: www.hbsslaw.com/investor-fraud/xpof Contact An Attorney Now: XPOF@ hbsslaw.com 844-916-0895Xponential Fitness, Inc. (XPOF) Investigation:The investigation focuses on Xponential Fitness' past claims that "[t]he foundation of our business is built on strong partnerships with franchisees" and "[w]e are highly focused on providing franchisees with extensive support to help maximize their performance and enhance their return on investment." But, on June 26, 2023, analyst Fuzzy Panda Research published a scathing report based in part on interviews with former business partners, franchisees, and employees of Xponential Fitness' CEO (Anthony Geisler), concluding "the XPOF house of cards is beginning to fall." With respect to Geisler, Fuzzy Panda's research reveals: (1) Geisler was "previously CEO of a reverse merger, pink sheets, pump & dump called Interactive Solutions (INSC) that used Bangkok boiler rooms" and (2) "former franchisees, and colleagues of Geisler's described him as a crook' and detailed his many scams' and illegal business practices[.]'"Fuzzy Panda also found that over 50% of the company's average studios are losing money, 80% of its brands have unprofitable business models, franchisees are giving their studios back to XPOF for $1, more of the worst loss-making transition studios are on XPOF's balance sheet and they have become harder for XPOF to re-sell, and XPOF has closed lots of studios despite management's claim to never closed a single studio.In response, the price of Xponential shares crashed as much as 42% lower on June 27, 2023."We're focused on investors' losses and whether Xponential lied about its business model and financial metrics," said Reed Kathrein, the Hagens Berman partner leading the investigation.If you invested in Xponential Fitness 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 Xponential Fitness 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 XPOF@ 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: 2023-08-04 22:01:19

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BROOKLYN, NY / ACCESSWIRE / August 4, 2023 / IEH Corporation (OTC:IEHC) announced today that John Spiezio has joined its board of directors, and Sonia Marciano has resigned from the board.Dave Offerman, President and CEO of IEH Corporation commented, "We're very excited to welcome John Spiezio to IEH's board of directors. John has extensive experience in the aerospace and defense industries. After studying Economics, Computer Science, and Mathematics at Marquette University, John returned to New York and began his thirty-three-year career as the third-generation leader at Hicksville Machine Works, a supplier to prime aerospace & defense contractors throughout North America and Europe as well as the Department of Defense directly. Over that time John gained extensive experience in operations, business development, and governance of a business operating in this specialized industry. After selling HMW in 2019, John worked for a private equity firm engaged in building a vertically integrated company that could produce and supply entire integrated systems to the A & D industries. This allowed him to expand his knowledge in the field of mergers and acquisitions. John gained valuable insight into corporate valuation, strategic analysis, and the integration of acquired firms into existing operations and corporate culture. John serves on several corporate boards, both as a director and in an advisory role. John also serves as the Chairman of ADDAPT, an industry group focused on defense and aerospace suppliers based in New York state. We look forward to John's contributions and insight.After seven years as a member of the board of directors, Sonia Marciano has decided to step down from the board. We thank her for her efforts and wish her the best of luck going forward." About IEH CorporationFor 80 years and 4 generations of family-run management, IEH Corporation has designed, developed, and manufactured printed circuit board (PCB) connectors, custom interconnects and contacts for high performance applications. With its signature Hyperboloid technology, IEH supplies the most durable, reliable connectors for the most demanding environments. The company markets primarily to companies in defense, aerospace, space and industrial applications, in the United States, Canada, Europe, Southeast and Central Asia and the Mideast. The company was founded in 1941 and is headquartered in Brooklyn, New York.Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995Certain statements contained in this press release, and in related comments by the Company's management, include "forward-looking statements." All statements, other than statements of historical facts, including, without limitation, statements or expectations regarding our financial condition, statements or expectations regarding our revenues, cash and backlog, expectations regarding future cash requirements, revenue and revenue recovery, including for fiscal year 2024, projected timelines for making our SEC filings or successfully preventing our registration from suspension or revocation and expectations regarding our efforts and ability to resolve our inventory accounting issues are forward-looking statements. These statements often include words such as "believe," "expect," "estimate," "plan," "will," "may," "would," "should," "could," or similar expressions, although not all forward-looking statements contain such identifying words. These statements are based on certain assumptions that the Company has made on its current expectations and projections about future events. The Company believes these judgments are reasonable, but you should understand that these statements are not guarantees of performance or results, and you should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. The Company's actual performance or results could differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements due to a variety of important factors, both positive and negative, as they will depend on many factors about which we are unsure, including many factors beyond our control. Among other items, such factors could include: any claims, investigations or proceedings arising as a result of our past due Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") periodic reports, including changes in the proceedings related to the SEC's Order Instituting Administrative Proceedings and Notice of Hearing pursuant to Section 12(j) of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, as amended; our ability to remediate our inventory accounting issue; our ability to reduce costs or increase revenue; changes in the macroeconomic environment or in the finances of our customers; changes in accounting principles, or their application or interpretation, and our ability to make accurate estimates and the assumptions underlying the estimates; our ability to attract and retain key employees and key resources; and other risk factors discussed from time to time in our filings with the SEC, including those factors discussed under the caption "Risk Factors" in our most recent annual report on Form 10-K, filed with the SEC on June 22, 2023, and in subsequent reports filed with or furnished to the SEC. Additional information concerning these and other factors can be found in our filings with the SEC. All forward-looking statements attributable to the Company or persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the foregoing cautionary statements. Except as may be required by applicable law, we do not undertake or intend to update or revise our forward-looking statements, and we assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this press release as a result of new information or future events or developments. Thus, you should not assume that our silence over time means that actual events are bearing out as expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements. You should carefully review and consider the various disclosures we make in our filings with the SEC that attempt to advise interested parties of the risks, uncertainties and other factors that may affect our business.Contact:Dave OffermanIEH Corporationdave@ iehcorp.com 718-492-4448SOURCE: IEH Corporation
PR-Inside.com: 2023-08-04 18:00:43

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CLEVELAND, OH / ACCESSWIRE / August 4, 2023 / The Prosper Fund, the real estate investment fund focused on the Greater Metropolitan Cleveland area, which is seeing massive tech and med-tech investment, has announced the establishment of their new fund to leverage their time-tested experience in identifying and acquiring properties in this hot market.Interested investors are invited by co-founders Kelly Stumphauzer and Jordan Ruben to contact them directly to learn more about Prosper's strategy, history of successfully securing off-market deals, deep industry relationships and forward roadmap.Cleveland, Ohio is making real estate news both for its stable and swiftly growing young professional population, attracted by the technology and medical-technology sectors as well as for its uniquely affordable housing options.The Prosper Fund offers this investment opportunity for a highly curated portfolio in both single-family and multi-family properties, strategically located near what is known as the booming "health-tech corridor".Both Stumphauzer and Ruben will deploy their decade-long, in-depth knowledge of the local real estate market and its participants (officials, builders, suppliers, etc.) to provide investors participation in properties with the greatest upside potential."Now is the time," emphasized Stumphauzer, because Cleveland is beginning to attract more attention from new investors, Zillow recently naming it the #2 best city to invest in real estate in the United States."Outside money is just waking up to the outsized opportunity in Cleveland, although they will take years to learn this city the way we do, literally building-by-building. Our goal is to continue delivering consistent returns to our investors, targeting a double digit IRR," shares Stumphauzer."As of right now, the fund's projected acquisition schedule includes deploying $25 million of equity and $25 million of debt, with a focus on assets that can generate cash returns and provide opportunities for development turnaround or rehab. We have successfully managed a portfolio of over 1,000 properties in various stages of renovation and stabilization, with an estimated 92% occupancy rate in more than 985 units. So we are confident both in our block-by-block knowledge of this city, as well as our ability to continue to identify and acquire the best possible properties. "With the Prosper Fund now open to investors, Stumphauzer and Ruben can be contacted so that new investors can learn detailed insights into the Cleveland real estate market, the enormous growth potential in the health-tech corridor, and specifically, the list of benefits of investing with The Prosper Fund."At Prosper, we believe that success in entrepreneurship is the art of recognizing opportunities, taking calculated risks, and continually adapting to the dynamic business landscape," says Stumphauzer. "It's about having a vision and the determination to turn that vision into tangible reality, even in the face of challenges. And true success," she continued, "is not merely measured by financial gains, but by the positive impact we create in the lives of our investors, partners, and the communities we serve. The Prosper team and I are committed to continue optimizing the stability and growth of the Cleveland markets, improving properties and helping to create a city attractive to new professionals and long-time locals alike." About The Prosper FundCo-Founders of The Prosper Fund, Kelly Stumpauzer and Jordan Ruben, are both seasoned professionals who work within the realm of property identification, acquisition, financing, construction, leasing, sales, management and financial dynamics. Stumphauzer has founded and managed companies such as Greater Metropolitan Management, a prominent property management firm, making her a trusted figure in Cleveland's real estate landscape. Ruben is an experienced land developer who specializes in identifying underperforming residential and commercial properties, working to implement effective strategies that lead to equity acquisition, rapid growth, and solid investment returns. Together, they run The Prosper Fund, which targets single-family and multifamily properties, with a strategic emphasis on locations near the "health-tech corridor" and areas undergoing significant development.To learn more about The Prosper Fund and Co-Founders Kelly Stumphauzer and Jordan Ruben, check out their website, or contact:Kelly Stumpauzer & Jordan Ruben, The Prosper Fundinvest@ theprosperfund.com (216) 677-4245SOURCE: The Prosper Fund
PR-Inside.com: 2023-08-04 12:50:13

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UPPSALA, SWEDEN / ACCESSWIRE / August 4, 2023 / Biovica International (STO:BIOVIC-B) (STO: BIOVIC.B) (FRA:9II) The shareholders of Biovica International AB, reg. no. 556774-6150, (the "Company") are hereby invited to the annual general meeting to be held on Tuesday 5 September 2023, at 10.00 CET in Conference Hubben's premises on Dag Hammarskjolds Vag 38 in Uppsala.Right to attend the general meetingShareholders wishing to attend the annual general meeting must:i. on the record date, which is Monday 28 August 2023, be registered in the share register maintained by Euroclear Sweden AB; andii. notify their participation at the general meeting no later than Wednesday 30 August 2023. Notice of participation at the general meeting shall be sent by regular mail to Baker & McKenzie Advokatbyra, Attn: Elsa Sefastsson, Box 180, 101 23 Stockholm, Sweden (please mark the envelope with "Biovica annual general meeting 2023") or by e-mail to elsa.sefastsson@bakermckenzie.com . Upon notification, the shareholder should state their full name, personal identification number or corporate registration number, address and telephone number, and, where applicable, details of representatives, proxy holders and advisors.Nominee sharesShareholders, whose shares are registered in the name of a bank or other nominee, must temporarily register their shares in their own name with Euroclear Sweden AB in order to be entitled to participate in the general meeting. Such registration, which normally is processed in a few days, must be completed no later than on Monday 28 August 2023 and should therefore be requested from the nominee well before this date. Voting registration requested by a shareholder in such time that the registration has been made by the relevant nominee no later than on Wednesday 30 August 2023 will be considered in preparations of the share register.Proxy etc.A shareholder who wishes to be represented by proxy shall issue a written and dated proxy to the proxy holder. If the proxy is issued by a legal entity, a certified copy of the registration certificate or corresponding document ("Registration Certificate") shall be enclosed. The proxy must not be more than one year old, however, the proxy may be older if it is stated that it is valid for a longer term, maximum five years. The proxy in original and the Registration Certificate, if any, must be available at the general meeting and a copy should well before the meeting be sent to the Company by regular mail to Baker & McKenzie Advokatbyra, Attn: Elsa Sefastsson, Box 180, 101 23 Stockholm (please mark the envelope with "Biovica annual general meeting 2023"), Sweden or by e-mail to elsa.sefastsson@bakermckenzie.com , and should, in order to facilitate the entrance to the general meeting, be at the Company's disposal no later than on 30 August 2023. A proxy form will be available for downloading on the Company's website www.biovica.com Draft agendaOpening of the meeting.Election of chairman of the meeting.Preparation and approval of the voting list.Election of one or more persons to certify the minutes.Examination of whether the meeting has been properly convened.Approval of the agenda.Presentation of the annual report and the auditors' report and the group annual report and the group auditor's report.Resolution regarding:adoption of income statement and balance sheet and the group income statement and the group balance sheet,the profit or loss of the Company in accordance with the adopted balance sheet and group balance sheet, anddischarge from liability of the board of directors and the managing director.Determination of the number of directors and auditors.Determination of fees to the board of directors and to the auditors.Election of the board of directors and auditors.Resolution regarding adoption of principles for the nomination committee.Resolution regarding authorization for the board to issue shares, warrants and/or convertibles.Resolution regarding share savings program for senior executives and key personnel within the Company and the Group in Sweden and Denmark.Resolution to adopt share savings program.Resolution to issue warrants and approval of transfer of warrants.Resolution regarding share savings program for the Company's board of directors.Resolution to adopt share savings program.Resolution to issue warrants and approval of transfer of warrants.Resolution regarding employee stock option program for senior executives, other employees and key individuals within the Company's American group.Resolution to adopt employee stock option program.Resolution to issue warrants and approval of transfer of warrants.Resolution regarding performance share program for senior executives, employees and key personnel within the Company and the group in the United States..Resolution to adopt performance share program.Resolution to issue warrants and approval of transfer of warrants.Closing of the meeting.Proposed resolutionsItem 2: Election of chairman of the meetingThe nomination committee proposes that Lars Holmqvist is appointed as chairman of the general meeting.Item 8b: Resolution regarding decision regarding the profit or loss of the Company in accordance with the adopted balance sheetThe board of directors proposes that all funds available for the annual general meeting shall be carried forward.Item 9-11: Determination of the number of directors and auditors, determination of fees to the board of directors and to the auditors, and election of the board of directors and auditorThe nomination committee proposes that the board shall consist of seven directors. The nomination committee further proposes that the number of auditors shall be one registered accounting firm.The nomination committee proposes that the remuneration is to be SEK 1,675,000 in total, including remuneration for committee work, and shall be paid to the board of directors and the members of the established committees in the following amounts:SEK 200,000 (SEK 200,000 last year) for each of the non-employed directors and SEK 450,000 (SEK 450,000) to the chairman provided that the chairman is not an employee.The nomination committee further proposes that remuneration for committee work shall be paid in the following amounts:SEK 75,000 (SEK 50,000) to the chairman and SEK 37,500 (SEK 25,000) to the other members of the audit committee and the remuneration committee.The nomination committee proposes that the auditor shall be entitled to a fee in accordance with approved invoice.The nomination committee proposes the re-election of the current directors Annika Carlsson Berg, Marie-Louise Fjallskog, Maria Holmlund, Lars Holmqvi
PR-Inside.com: 2023-08-04 22:15:14

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NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / August 4, 2023 / GRI in North AmericaThere is no pathway to achieving the needed progress in sustainable development to produce a more stable and just world that does not require the involvement of the business community. For businesses to succeed and be a contributor to positive impact, they need not an isolated sustainability strategy, but rather a sustainable business strategy that embeds sustainability throughout their entire value chain. This involves more departments and personnel with different disciplines and functions to incorporate elements of sustainability into their work. This is particularly needed in the identification, measurement, management, and disclosure of the organization's environmental, social, and economic impacts and the risks and opportunities associated with them.Given the need to incorporate sustainability throughout organizations, GRI produces resources that help professionals of assorted backgrounds increase their subject matter expertise in sustainability and familiarity with the GRI Standards. This enables personnel from various areas of the organization to play a key role in fostering more transparency, informed decision-making, and action that leads to better performance.The GRI Academy is an accessible online platform that offers asynchronous, on-demand courses on the GRI Standards, including Sector Standards and Topic Standards such as Tax, Waste and Oil & Gas, as well as a pathway to gain the GRI Certified Sustainability Professional credential. The certification can be earned via the GRI Academy through a self-paced learning path of four fundamental courses and an exam, or through a blended instructor-led experience through Certified Training Partners.As of July 2023, 517 GRI Sustainability Professional Certifications have been achieved in North America, 82.5% of which are from the US. The interest in sustainability reporting know-how and the credential's relevance in North America continue to grow with more stakeholders demanding increased transparency and accountability. Regional Sustainability and ESG reporting proficiency is strengthening as a result of these accessible courses and the certification program.Individuals in all stages of their career, across various management levels, disciplines and industries are enrolling in the courses and certification program and making their role a sustainability role. Certified GRI Sustainability Professionals are helping their organizations take steps to strengthen their sustainability practices while enhancing their career prospects, and contributions to sustainable development.Visit GRI's directory to view GRI Certified Sustainability Professionals and the Professional Certification Program to learn more about the credential.View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from GRI in North America on 3 blmedia.com Contact Info:Spokesperson: GRI in North AmericaWebsite: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/gri-north-america Email: info@3 blmedia.com SOURCE: GRI in North America
In Russia, anti-Russian slogans have recently started to appear on the streets. The city of St Petersburg has not been spared from this movement, with signs reading "Caucasus without Russia".

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This text was written at several public transport stops in the city of one million people. The relevant footage was published on the Telegram channel "Morning Dagestan" (to see the photo, scroll to the bottom of the page).

"Peter!!! Alhamdulillah!" ("Praise be to Allah" - Ed.), the caption on the public page reads.

The graffiti on the glass was made with black paint using stencils. These inscriptions are being spread in the second largest city in Russia by unknown activists.

ADVERTISIMENT

Earlier, similar anti-Russian slogans appeared in the Republic of Dagestan. There, unknown activists have been spreading the slogan "North Ossetia without Russia".

Dagestan is considered to be the most rebellious republic within the aggressor country of Russia.

As OBOZREVATEL previously reported, in Moscow, the owner of a large company specialising in the production of tanks and reservoirs for industry severely beat a taxi driver from Kyrgyzstan. The reason for the beating was the taxi driver's request not to drink beer in the car.

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Only verified information is available on our Obozrevatel Telegram channel, Threads and Viber. Don't fall for fakes!
PR-Inside.com: 2023-08-04 07:45:18

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Do you, or did you, own shares of SentinelOne, Inc. (NYSE:S)?Did you purchase your shares between June 1, 2022 and June 1, 2023, inclusive?Did you lose money in your investment in SentinelOne, Inc.?Do you want to discuss your rights?NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / August 4, 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 securities of SentinelOne, Inc. ("SentinelOne" or the "Company") (NYSE:S) between June 1, 2022 and June 1, 2023, inclusive (the "Class Period"). The lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California and alleges violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 against the Company and certain of its officers (the "Complaint").If you purchased or acquired SentinelOne securities, and/or would like to discuss your legal rights and options please visit SentinelOne, Inc. Shareholder Class Action Lawsuit or contact Peter Allocco at (212) 951-2030 or pallocco@ bernlieb.com If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than August 7, 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.The Complaint alleges that Defendants made materially false and misleading statements throughout the Class Period. Specifically, Plaintiff alleges that Defendants failed to disclose that: (1) the Company lacked effective internal controls over accounting and financial reporting; (2) as a result, the Company's ARR was overstated; and (3) as a result, the Company's guidance was overstated.On June 1, 2023, after the market closed, SentinelOne published a press release titled "SentinelOne Announces First Quarter Fiscal Year 2024 Financial Results." Therein, the Company disclosed that "[a]s a result of a change in methodology and correction of historical inaccuracies, which we further describe in our letter to shareholders, we made a one-time adjustment to ARR of $27.0 million or approximately 5% of total ARR." The Company also revised its fiscal year 2024 revenue guidance downward to a range of $590 million to $600 million from a range of $631 million to $640 million. In a shareholder letter published the same day, SentinelOne further explained that "we . . . discovered historical upsell and renewal recording inaccuracies relating to ARR on certain subscription and consumption contracts, which are now corrected" and that "[w]e are applying a comparable estimated adjustment to the remaining quarters in fiscal year 23, which we believe is a reasonable approximation of the impact in those periods." On this news, SentinelOne's stock price fell $7.28 per share, or more than 35%, to close at $13.44 per share on June 2, 2023.If you purchased or acquired SentinelOne securities, and/or would like to discuss your legal rights and options please visit SentinelOne, Inc. 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 sixteen 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: 2023-08-04 04:51:10

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NEW ORLEANS, LA / ACCESSWIRE / August 3, 2023 / Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC ("KSF") and KSF partner, former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., remind investors that they have until August 7, 2023 to file lead plaintiff applications in a securities class action lawsuit against SentinelOne, Inc. (NYSE:S), if they purchased the Company's securities between June 1, 2022 and June 1, 2023, inclusive (the "Class Period"). This action is pending in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.What You May DoIf you purchased securities of SentinelOne 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-s/ to learn more. If you wish to serve as a lead plaintiff in this class action, you must petition the Court by August 7, 2023.About the LawsuitSentinelOne and certain of its executives are charged with failing to disclose material information during the Class Period, violating federal securities laws.On June 1, 2023, the Company disclosed that "[a]s a result of a change in methodology and correction of historical inaccuracieswe made a one-time adjustment to ARR of $27.0 million or approximately 5% of total ARR" and that the Company had slashed its fiscal year 2024 revenue guidance from a range of $631 million to $640 million to a range of $590 million to $600 million, due to the discovery of "historical upsell and renewal recording inaccuracies relating to ARR on certain subscription and consumption contracts, which are now corrected." On this news, shares of SentinelOne fell $7.28 per share, or more than 35%, to close at $13.44 per share on June 2, 2023.The case is Johansson v. SentinelOne, Inc., et al., No. 23-cv-02786.About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLCKSF, whose partners include former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is one of the nation's premier boutique securities litigation law firms. KSF serves a variety of clients - including public institutional investors, hedge funds, money managers and retail investors - in seeking recoveries for investment losses emanating from corporate fraud or malfeasance by publicly traded companies. KSF has offices in New York, California, Louisiana and New Jersey.To learn more about KSF, you may visit http://ksfcounsel.com/ Contact:Kahn Swick & Foti, LLCLewis Kahn, Managing Partner1-877-515-18501100 Poydras St., Suite 960New Orleans, LA 70163SOURCE: Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC
PR-Inside.com: 2023-08-04 15:35:24

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SEATTLE, WA / ACCESSWIRE / August 4, 2023 / Taiwan Minister of Agriculture CHEN Chi-Chung led a delegation to the United States to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Food Security Ministerial Meeting held in Seattle. On August 2nd, Minister Chen presided over the "Taiwan Agri-Food Press Conference". He introduced high-quality Taiwanese agricultural and seafood products such as grouper, edamame, mangoes, teas, dried fruits, and orchids to US officials, importers, distributors, and media. In his speech, Minister Chen pointed out that Taiwan's agricultural exports to the US reached 920 million US dollars in 2022, representing a 5.1% increase from 2021. The US has now surpassed China to become Taiwan's largest export market for agricultural products. He expressed hope to recommend even more Taiwanese agricultural and food products to American consumers and deepen agricultural trade between Taiwan and the US.Minister of Agriculture Chen Chi-chung met with Washington state senators, Washington state representative, and Seattle senior deputy mayor to promote Taiwan agri-food. (Photo provided by Taiwan Ministry of Agriculture) The "Taiwan Agri-Food Press Conference" was attended by dignitaries, including Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Seattle Director General Daniel K.C. Chen, Washington State Senators Keith Wagoner and Ann Rivers, Washington State Representative Cindy Ryu, Seattle Senior Deputy Mayor Monisha Harrell, DNC Member Sharon Mast, Greater Seattle Partners President Brian Surratt, Congressman Adam Smith's office District Director Glenn Carpenter, Congresswoman Suzan DelBene's Office District Director Kelly Marquardt, Governor Inslee's King County Director Chris Esh, as well as retailers, importers and leaders of Taiwanese Chamber of Commerce. Their presence demonstrated the friendly and close Taiwan-US relations and support for furthering agricultural trade and cooperation between the two nations. During the event, Minister Chen specially recommended Taiwanese grouper, edamame, and mangoes, and collaborated with a five-star hotel chef to create delicious dishes and desserts using Taiwanese agricultural ingredients, receiving unanimous praise from the attendees. The event showcased high-quality Taiwanese products, such as tea, dried fruits, processed foods, and orchids. These products generated considerable interest from US importers and distributors, who expressed their willingness to collaborate with Taiwanese businesses, with the assistance of Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECO) and Taiwan Trade Center in the US.The Ministry of Agriculture pointed out that the United States has always been Taiwan's most important agricultural trade partner. In 2022, 22.8% of Taiwan's imported agricultural products came from the US, totaling approximately$4.67 billion US dollars. Taiwan is the 7th largest overseas market for US agricultural products, with major imports from the US including soybeans, wheat, corn, beef, chicken, and apples. On the other hand, the US is Taiwan's largest export market for agricultural products. In 2022, Taiwan's agricultural exports to the US amounted to around 860 million US dollars, including products such as orchids, tea, edamame, baked goods, noodles, as well as tilapia and other frozen fish. Taiwanese agri-food products are well-received in the US, and Taiwan is actively seeking US approval for exporting pineapple and processed pork products, hoping to introduce even more high-quality and delicious Taiwanese agricultural products to consumers of the US.Despite the global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in recent years, Taiwan's farmers, agricultural organizations, exporters, and the government's joint efforts, along with the strong support from domestic and international consumers, have successfully stabilized the prices of related agricultural and fishery products and ensured farmers' revenue. Additionally, the global value of agricultural exports and exports to markets beyond China reached historical highs in 2021 and 2022, while the proportion of exports to China decreased from the highest of 23.2% in 2018 to 12.9% in 2022. The share of fruit exports to China also declined from 80.1% in 2019 to 1.6% in 2022. The US and Japan have surpassed China, becoming the top two markets for Taiwan's agricultural exports, indicating significant achievements in the government's efforts to expand agricultural exports and reduce over-reliance on the Chinese market. The Ministry of Agriculture will continue to adopt diverse marketing strategies, develop new products, and explore new markets and channels to increase the export value of domestic agricultural products and enhance farmers' revenue.Minister of Agriculture Chen Chi-chung and executive chef Brian of Grand Hyatt Seattle collaborated to promote Taiwan Agri-food. (Photo provided by Taiwan Ministry of Agriculture) Taiwan Minister of Agriculture Chen Chi-chung had lunch with guests, sharing delicious food from Taiwan. (Photo provided by Taiwan Ministry of Agriculture) Crispy golden-fried Taiwanese grouper fillet with pineapple tartar sauce. (Photo provided by Taiwan Ministry of Agriculture) Taiwanese-style tropical salad with imported bamboo shoots, baby corn, and edamame from Taiwan. (Photo provided by Taiwan Ministry of Agriculture) Media Contacts:Taiwan Ministry of AgricultureSophia Hunghchung@ moa.gov.tw SOURCE: Taiwan Ministry of Agriculture
PR-Inside.com: 2023-08-04 12:00:31

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MUMBAI, INDIA / ACCESSWIRE / August 4, 2023 / TendersOnTime, a leading aggregator of procurement opportunities across the globe, marked a significant milestone on July 22, 2023, as the company completed a successful decade of operations. To commemorate this achievement, employees, vendors, and service providers gathered for a joyous get-together. TendersOnTime is a domain owned and managed by Global Tenders Services Pvt. Ltd. (GTS).The celebration was graced by the presence of Mr. Sanjay Vyas, Founder, and CEO of TendersOnTime, who reflected on his remarkable 25+ years in the tenders aggregation industry and his inspiring journey as the founder of the company. Expressing gratitude, Mr. Vyas acknowledged the pivotal role played by his Parents, Spiritual Guru, and dedicated employees in reaching this momentous milestone.During his speech, Mr. Vyas highlighted the immense potential of the public procurement spend, which is worth 26 Trillion USD, based on IMF's estimation of the global economy worth 175 Trillion USD (on PPP basis). He emphasized that TendersOnTime is a cut above its competitors, boasting an impressive YoY growth rate of over 85%. The company also stands out with its extensive Google indexed pages, numbering 750,000, in contrast to the nearest competitor with only 100,000 indexed pages.Understanding TendersOnTime's expertise, Mr. Vyas mentioned the company's possession of the largest count of country-specific tender domains and unique proprietary search tools for quick information dissemination. On a daily basis, TendersOnTime processes 55,000+ tenders by scanning more than 600,000 purchasers, showcasing its comprehensiveness in the industry.Mr. Vyas took pride in TendersOnTime's employee-centric Human Resource policy, which rewards employees with promotions and increments every six months. Further, few employees were felicitated on this special day for their dedicated service of 7+ years with the company.Highlighting the company's success mantra, Mr. Vyas outlined TendersOnTime's commitment to providing clients with public procurement information based on Relevancy, Comprehensiveness, and Timeliness, ensuring utmost satisfaction for the customers. By embracing innovation, TendersOnTime is actively implementing the use of Artificial Intelligence and is well on its course to deliver tenders information every two hours, enhancing customer satisfaction.Mr. Rakesh Verma, Co-Founder and Director of the company, also addressed the gathering, expressing his gratitude to the staff for contributing towards the company's growth and outlining the company's expansion plans through its offices in Noida, Ahmedabad, Pune, and Mumbai. Looking towards the future, he shared the company's ambitious plan to expand the organization to 200 people by March 2024 from the current strength of 100 employees. TendersOnTime plans to establish offices in the USA, Europe, UK, and UAE to further strengthen its global presence. The company's target is to achieve a consistent YoY growth rate of 50%. By adding 300+ satisfied customers month on month.The celebration was not just about accolades; it also focused on recognizing the hard work and dedication of TendersOnTime's employees. The event saw employees showcasing their unique talents through singing, dancing, and performances, adding vibrancy and positivity to the 10-year celebrations.As TendersOnTime looks back on a decade of success, the company remains committed to providing top-notch public procurement information and fostering a culture of growth and innovation. With their eyes set on a promising future, TendersOnTime is poised to make even greater strides in the global procurement landscape.About TendersOnTime:TendersOnTime, owned and managed by Global Tenders Services Pvt. Ltd. (GTS), is a prominent aggregator of procurement opportunities worldwide. Through innovative programs and dedicated contributions, TendersOnTime addresses critical societal issues and uplifts the lives of those in need. To learn more about their initiatives and involvement opportunities, visit https://www.tendersontime.com/ CONTACT:Official Email: info@ tendersontime.com SOURCE: TendersOnTime
PR-Inside.com: 2023-08-04 10:00:16

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ROTHERHAM, UK / ACCESSWIRE / August 4, 2023 / The Black British Business Awards (BBBAwards) proudly announce the finalists for the 2023 ceremony, celebrating a decade of excellence in recognizing Black professionals and entrepreneurs in the United Kingdom. Among the distinguished nominees is Gail Waterman the founder of the renowned hair growth brand Watermans, shortlisted for the prestigious "Entrepreneur, Senior Leader of the Year" award.The BBBAwards have long been acknowledged as the premier UK awards ceremony, honouring the exceptional contributions and achievements of Black talents across various industries. This year marks their 10th Anniversary, and the awards ceremony will take place at the InterContinental London, Park Lane, on 13th October.Since its inception, the BBBAwards have spotlighted over 370 individuals and 80 organizations that epitomize Black excellence in business. The 2023 edition celebrates both rising stars and seasoned leaders across six categories, representing influential companies such as Netflix, Accenture, Sky, Farfetch, ASOS, LinkedIn, KPMG, and outstanding startups spanning diverse sectors, including publishing and healthcare.Under the theme of #WeAre, the BBBAwards this year highlight the collective power of the Black community and their Allies, working together to drive racial equity within British companies. The event serves as a testament to the remarkable journey of Black Britain, reflecting on their progress and envisioning a future of individual and collective growth.Gail Waterman's nomination as a finalist in the "Entrepreneur Senior Leader of the Year" category is a testament to her tenacity and entrepreneurial spirit. Coming from humble beginnings in a UK south Yorkshire pit village called Elsecar, Gail encountered racism and narrow-mindedness as the community's only young girl of colour. Despite the challenges, Gail persisted, overcoming obstacles to rise as a successful entrepreneur.As the visionary behind the globally acclaimed hair growth product Grow Me shampoo, Gail's dedication and hard work have transformed Watermans into a multimillion-dollar international brand. With sales occurring every 30 seconds worldwide, Watermans Hair Growth brand has become a symbol of triumph over adversity and a beacon of hope for aspiring entrepreneurs of colour.Gail's inspiring journey exemplifies the resilience and determination of Black business leaders, breaking barriers and challenging stereotypes. She recalls her experiences in business meetings, where she faces astonishment when people discover her position as the owner of an international brand. Despite these encounters, Gail remains steadfast in her commitment to driving change and proving that success knows no boundaries.The BBBAwards ceremony in 2023 promises to be a grand celebration of achievements, marked by its significance as a cornerstone of Black History Month in the UK. The event will be attended by esteemed business leaders, government officials, and influential figures of all races from across the nation.Join us on 13th October at the InterContinental London, Park Lane, as we celebrate the outstanding contributions of Black professionals and entrepreneurs and honour Gail Waterman's remarkable journey as a finalist for the "Entrepreneur Senior Leader of the Year" award. More info about the Meet the BBBAwards finalistsLearn more about how Gail started and see the good Watermans do for others. Click HereContact:Waterman Corporate Enterprises LtdMatt Watermanpr@ wceltd.com SOURCE: Waterman Corporate Enterprises Ltd
PR-Inside.com: 2023-08-04 15:30:21

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Progress on Sagaliam Acquisition Corp TransactionALLEN, TX / ACCESSWIRE / August 4, 2023 / Enzolytics, Inc. (OTC PINK:ENZC) ( https://enzolytics.com/) Virogentics, Inc. ("VIRO"), a wholly owned subsidiary of Enzolytics, Inc. (the "Company" or "ENZC"), a drug development biotech company, updated the progress being made on the permit application with the European Medicine Agency (EMA) for the patented immunotherapy ITV-1 treatment of HIV/AIDS virus, for use by patients after receiving chemo and radiation treatment to facilitate recovery from the treatments and those with immunodeficiency.A report has been prepared by the Bulgarian Academy of Science Institute of Organic Chemistry, describing the module 3 clinical trials to be conducted using the Company's ITV-1 therapeutic. The report consists of a description of the research to be performed, the methods for pharmaceutical development of ITV-1 immunotherapy, a technical report of the production process, production control procedures used, analytical procedures, process validation, batch analysis guidelines, characterization of impurities, opening and closing system description and stability expectations. The documentation for the clinical trial will be prepared by Kiwi Farma. A meeting is scheduled in Sofia, Bulgaria on September 19 with the Director of Business Development of CCDR and Development Company, the German company Cooperative Clinical Research and Development (Korporativ Klinik Drug Research and Development) engaged by VIRO to perform the Pharmacokinetic study on the porcine pepsin. Professor, Doctor and Doctor of Medical Sciences, Lachezar Ivanov, will represent the Company in these discussions to identify the specific dates and details regarding the start of clinical trials for the European Medicine Agency.Professor, Doctor and Doctor of Medical Sciences, Lachezar Ivanov, is a valuable member of the VIRO ITV-1 team. Born on August 13,1962 in Sofia Bulgaria, he graduated from Sofia Medical Academy with a medical degree in 1989, obtaining the first specialty of AG. After graduation Dr. Ivanov worked at the Military Medical Academy, where he completed an internship (in all clinical specialties), followed by a specialty in internal medicine. He has also completed courses in ultrasound of abdominal areas and specialty pulmonology. Dr. Ivanov presented his first dissertation in 2005, graduating with degrees in management and administration in healthcare. He is working on additional presentations in the healthcare field. He currently holds a position as a faculty member at the Medical University of Sofia. Since 2005, Dr. Ivanov has represented the people of Bulgaria in the Parliament of Bulgaria. For 18 years he has been a member of the Health Commission, having held the position of Chairman of the Commission, and currently holds the Deputy Chairman office of the Commission. Dr. Ivanov is a consultant to the largest hospitals in Bulgaria, VMA and Lozenetz Hospital. Throughout his career, Dr. Ivanov has had numerous papers published in medical journals on a variety of topics.In the second and third quarters of 2023, VIRO will continue meetings with Director Iseness in connection with the launch of pharmacokinetics studies to submit documents and begin the preparation of the investigators' brochure. The studies are being performed on volunteers in anticipation of the start of module 3 clinical trials administering ITV-1 later this year. Once the trials are completed, the findings will be included in the EMA permitting application which has been prepared by Kiwi Farma in close association with EMA assigned representative member of its Regulatory Science & Innovation Task Force, who has given the Company invaluable methodical help and guidance.Included in the analytical procedures of the clinical trials for module 3 are the following: 1) analysis of 8 samples of the hydrolyzed pepsin preparation, 2) spectrophotometric analysis with UV-Vis spectrophotometer SHIMADZU of 8 samples, 3) determination of the protein concentration by the Bradford method, 4) electrophoretic analysis of 8 samples by one-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and reading the degree of hydrolysis, 4) analysis using the ImageQuant TL8 software program determining the distribution of proteins based on their molecular weight and concentrations, and 5) analysis of the peptides obtained after hydrolysis in 2 samples using UHPLC-Q-TOF mass spectrometer which includes the Bruker Impact HD Q-TOF system. The interpretation of the results from these studies will be used to prove the effectiveness and preservation of the action of hydrolyzed pepsin.VIRO and Dr. Ivanov have completed conversations with R & D Services, LTD, ("RDS") a specialized provider of onsite operational and administrative support of clinical trials at state funded, municipal and private health facilities. RDS is certified under the international standards ISO 14001:2015, ISO 27001:2013 and ISO 14001:2015. RDS has a well-developed patient referral network enabling the inclusion of a maximal number of patients in a minimal amount of time, once the centers are established and the clinical trial is launched. RDS will provide a designated software platform for tracking patients participating in clinical trials.VIRO has also moved forward preparing preliminary studies from data received and processed from volunteers, who have been taking insulin for years to control their type 2 diabetes, to determine the impact ITV-1 has on the volunteer's blood sugar levels. The initial results have been extremely encouraging and show great promise. Clinical studies for diabetes are expected to begin in October 2023, including documentation, reports, and the selection of a principal investigator.In addition to the EMA, VIRO's African project is progressing in August with the initial administration of ITV-1 to HIV/AIDS infected volunteers at the HEAL Africa Hospitals, GOMA, PRC and Panzi Hospital, Bukavu, DRC under the supervision of Neuro Pharma Ltd - RwandaThe Company has also received notice from the U.S. Trademark Office that its application for the federal registration of the IPF trademark has been approved. The application for registration will now be published for a 30- day period and absent any opposition, the mark will be federally registered.Finally, ENZC has negotiated additional compensation in the form of a monthly management fee to be paid by Sagaliam Acquisition Corp (SAGA) to ENZC over a 30-month period following the close of the purchase of BGEN and VIRO. The funds will be used to facilitate the continued compliance of ENZC's OTC Market filing requirements, administration of the dividend payment of the 45 million SAGA share iss
Nollywood veteran actor Pete Edochie has expressed shock at the rate of failed marriages in his industry.

Edochie, 76, in a recent interview with media personality Chude Jideonwo, said he was surprised to learn that some of his female colleagues have either been separated or divorced from their husbands.

During the interview, he also revealed likely reasons behind the increased rates of divorces among Nollywood acts.

The father-of-six, who has been married to his wife Josephine for over 50 years, said,  If you come to our industry today, most of our girls who got married some 23 years ago have all left their husbands, from beginning to end. I am even shocked to hear that Chioma Chukwuka also left her husband, Ireti Doyle, and Tonto Dikeh; theyve all left their husband.

You know a vow is taken when you get married, for better for worst, not for better for us; for better for worst. You would always think that it is greener on the other side, and that is the mistake they all made.

Chioma, Ireti and Tonto

Of the actresses Edochie mentioned, Chiomas divorce surprised Nollywood fans, as she is one celebrity who has managed to keep her personal life private.

Chioma married Franklyn Akpotha in 2006. After 15 years of their union, in 2022, it was rumoured that they parted ways. She reverted to her maiden name and often refers to herself as a single mum in several Instagram posts.

Ireti, on the other hand, married actor Patrick Doyle in 2004 and in January 2023, the actress confirmed their divorce.

Her ex-husband is now in a romantic relationship with a lady known as Funmilayo.

Tonto and Olakunle Churchill called it quits in 2017, two years after they married

Favourite colleague

The Anambra-State-born veteran actor also revealed his favourite colleague, whom he enjoys working with.

He said, Of all the girls who have played my daughter in films, somehow its Genevieve Nnaji that I think I love the most. I have come to look at her as a daughter, and she sees me as a father. She is a very exceptionally brilliant lady.

Although I have not heard from her lately, ever since I heard that she was a little disturbed, I dont know how true, but I hope one day she calls me and says I am okay. I have tried calling her.

The veteran actor, whose career has spanned over 43 years, was recently featured in Genevieve Nnajis 2018 Netflix movie,  Lion Heart.

Acting career

Aside from marriage, the actor, who began his career as a professional journalist in 1967, spoke about his foray into acting, albeit Nollywood.

Speaking about how he transitioned into acting, he said he broke the news to his wife, who in turn encouraged and reaffirmed her confidence in his abilities and talents.

I was sitting down with my wife in the parlour. Somebody came from Lagos, gave me a bank cheque of N50,000, and said, come to Lagos and act in a film for me; then my salary as a director in a media house was N9,000 monthly.

 I landed in Lagos, I was doing the film, and then Chico Ejiro gave me a script and N100,000. I got into his set, and then his brother Zeb brought another script,  Close Chapter, and he gave me N150,000. By the end of that year, I had earned N750,000, whereas my salary as a director then was N9,000 monthly.

Near-death experiences, politics

The veteran, the father of controversial Nollywood actor Yul, also narrated how he had escaped death twice in a road accident.

He said, On the 14th day of March 1977, at Agwali road, I drove under a stationary trailer in the night and by the grace of God, I came out alive. There was a time when I was coming from Nsukka, and I fell asleep on the wheel and I ran into a trailer, but I came out alive. 

He was also kidnapped in August 2009, but he was later released unharmed.

The revered actor, known for his iconic movie roles, also spoke about the 2023 elections.

READ ALSO: Nollywood actress Juliet Mgborukwe divorces husband

He said, Overseas observers used one word to describe the elections; it lacked transparency. When a white man tells you that something lacks transparency, it simply means such a thing is not clear.

There is something that Peter Obi said; he said,  I am not querying whosoever was proclaimed the president, no, I am bothered about the process that made the person the president, that is how a brilliant man talks.

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The Nigerian government has directed the management of federal tertiary hospitals to commence the enforcement of the no work, no pay policy against the striking resident doctors.

The striking doctors, members of the National Association of Resident Doctors, have, however, remained adamant, insisting the government has no moral justification for its action.

This policy means that the doctors who participate will not receive their regular salaries during the strike.

The directive was contained in a letter dated 1 August and titled Re: Incessant Strike Action by the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors: Implementation of No work, No pay policy of the Federal Government.

Directives

In the letter, the government expressed disappointment that the doctors initiated the strike despite attempts at conciliatory meetings involving various stakeholders, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, and the National Assembly, all of which proved unsuccessful in reaching an agreement.

It instructed the hospitals to implement the no work, no pay policy and also keep an attendance register for resident doctors who are willing to continue working despite the strike.

I am directed to inform you that the Federal Ministry of Health has instituted the policy of No work, No Pay against the striking resident doctors in line with circular Ref. No.58598/8.1/II/182 dated June 22, 2016, the letter read in part.

I am further directed to request you to maintain an attendance register for all residents willing to work and furnish the ministry of such names on a monthly basis.

No work, No pay policy

Under Nigerian law, workers unions on strike are typically entitled to their full salaries. However, the government can invoke the no work, no pay rule if it deems the strike illegal or unjustified.

Historically, this rule has been rarely enforced and has often been reversed once the strike is called off or suspended.

Adamant NARD

Speaking with PREMIUM TIMES on Thursday night, the President of the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), Emeka Orji, said the doctors are going to escalate the strike beginning next week.

Mr Orji said the health ministry has failed to resolve the issues.

Well its unfortunate that the federal ministry of health that has done a very poor job is trying to shift blame for their failures to other ministries and trying to say that because they dont have a substantive minister they cant do anything, he said.

They are now developing the capacity to think that the best thing to do is to start implementing punitive measures.

He said the association held its national leadership committee meeting Friday and NEC will also meet over the weekend.

Things are going to escalate by next week, people are really angry, doctors are angry. They are angry that the government has not resolved any of the issues placed on the table and then the Ministry of Health is thinking along the line of punitive measures, he said.

Mr Orji said From Monday there will be a level of escalation that they will not imagine. its unfortunate that we have gotten to that point. But they called for it and, I know our members will respond.

Doctors strike

The resident doctors embarked on an indefinite industrial action on 26 July following what they described as the failure of the Nigerian government to meet their demands.

The doctors are demanding, among other issues, the immediate payment of the 2023 Medical Residency Training Fund (MRTF), tangible steps on the upward review of the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS), and payment of all salary arrears owed its members, since 2015.

The doctors also want immediate massive recruitment of clinical staff in the hospitals and abolishment of the bureaucratic limitations to the immediate replacement of doctors and nurses who leave the system.

They also want the immediate review of hazard allowance by all the state governments as well as private tertiary health institutions where any form of residency training is done.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how the strike is disrupting health services in health facilities in Lagos and Abuja, Nigerias capital city.

The resident doctors comprise the bulk of medical personnel in Nigerias tertiary hospitals; hence health activities are mostly crippled when they are on strike.

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The Senate will reconvene today to screen the second batch of the ministerial nominees transmitted to it by President Bola Tinubu.

Mr Tinubu, in a correspondence delivered by his chief of staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, to the upper house on Wednesday, presented a list of 19 nominees for confirmation. This brings the total number of ministerial nominees to 47.

The president had on Thursday last week submitted a list of 28 nominees drawn from 25 states of the federation.

Among those on the list who will appear before the lawmakers today are five former governors, three former federal lawmakers, two women and a host of others.

The former governors are Simon Lalong (Plateau), Ibrahim Geidam (Yobe), Bello Matawalle (Zamfara), Atiku Bagudu (Kebbi) and Adegboyega Oyetola (Osun).

Also to be screened are former lawmakers, namely Sabi Abdullahi (Niger), Alkali Saidu (Gombe), Zephaniah Jisalo (FCT), and Heineken Lokpobiri (Bayelsa), who is also a former minister of state for agriculture and rural development.

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They were picked from the remaining 11 states excluded from the earlier list of 28 nominees the president submitted to the Senate on 27 July.

Remarkably, for the first time in the last 30 years or thereabout, an Abuja indigene is nominated as a minister. Mr Jisalo is a two-time chairman of the Abuja Municipal Area Council and a former member of the House of Representatives for the AMAC/Bwari federal constituency.

Their nomination came the same day the lawmakers concluded the screening of the first batch of the ministers-designate.

The 28 nominees screened earlier this week for three days (Monday to Wednesday) have yet to be confirmed by the senators.

It is speculated that the lawmakers have elected to conclude the screening of the second batch before confirming or rejecting any of the 47 nominees.

In accordance with their rules, the senators will conduct todays exercise, which commences at 11 a.m. at the Committee of the Whole presided over by the senate president whose designation is chairman while the exercise lasted.

During the screening, the nominees will be ushered into the hallowed chamber of the Senate one after the other by the special assistant to the president on National Assembly matters (Senate). Once a nominee mounts the podium, he will first introduce themselves, based on the resumes submitted and then field questions from the senators as directed by the senate president.

Also, former and sitting lawmakers, whether a member of the Senate or House of Representatives, enjoy the privilege of taking a bow and go. Nominees in this category are not usually asked questions after introducing themselves except senators want some clarity on certain issues.

However, in conducting the screening of the first batch of the nominees, this privilege was extended to some former governors including Nyesom Wike of Rivers, David Umahi of Ebonyi and Abubakar Badaru of Jigawa as well as some female nominees.

After the exercise, the 109-member will revert to the plenary where the senate president will report progress made at the Committee of the Whole.

It is not certain if the senators will conclude the screening of the 19 nominees today. If they do, there is the likelihood that it will confirm or reject any of the nominees as the case may be to enable them to proceed on their annual recess. The Senate did not only postpone its recess, but it also extended the sitting days and period beyond 2 p.m. to screen the ministers-designate.

PREMIUM TIMES will bring you LIVVE UPDATES of the screening from the Senate chamber. Also, follow us on our Facebook, YouTube and Twitter channels.

Below is a list of 19 ministers-designate to be screened today. They are grouped by geopolitical zones.

South-south Zone

1. Heineken Lokpobiri  Bayelsa

North-east Zone

1. Tahir Mamman  Adamawa

2. Alkali Ahmed Saidu  Gombe

3. Uba Maigari Ahmadu  Taraba

4. Ibrahim Geidam  Yobe

North-west Zone

1. Maryam Shetti  Kano

2. Abdullahi T Gwarzo  Kano

3. Yusuf Tanko Sununu  Kebbi

4. Atiku Bagudu  Kebbi

5. Bello Matawwalle  Zamfara

South-west Zone

1. Tunji Alausa  Lagos

2. Lola Ade John  Lagos

3. Ishak Salako  Ogun

4. Bosun Tijjani  Ogun

5. Adegboyega Oyetola  Osun

North-central Zone

1. Zephaniah Bitrus Jisalo  FCT

2. Shuaibu A Audu  Kogi

3. Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi  Niger

4. Simon Lalong  Plateau

11:40 a.m,: The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, has just entered the Senate chamber. He arrived in company of his deputy, Barau Jibrin and other principal officers. With their arrival, the screening of the nominees will commence.any moment from now.

The Senate President Godswill Akpabio is exchanging pleasantries with other senators

At 11:45 a.m, the senate president is leading the opening prayer.

The senate president has ended the prayer and sat down on his chair

Votes and proceedings of the last legislative day, Wednesday 2 August adopted.

The Senate is about to commence todays business.

The senate president announced that the Senator representing Ogun Central, Shuaibu Salisu is celebrating his birthday. The Senate felicitated with the celebrant.

All the 19 fresh nominees are listed for screening today according to the Order Paper for the session.

The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio read a letter from President Bola Tinubu replacing the ministerial nominee from Kano State, Mariam Shetty with Mairiga Mahmood Bongunu.

The letter also indicated that the president has appointed Festus Kenyam (SAN), from Delta State.

The Senate leader Opeyemi Bamidele raised a point of order to continue with the screening of the nominees.

Former Osun State governor and ministerial nominee from the state, Adegboyega Oyetola, is about to be screened. Mr Oyetola is addressing the Senate.

Citing Order 42, the Leader of the Senate, Bamidele Opeyemi, moved a motion on personal explanation on the controversy over taking a bow and go practice. He said the essence of what we are doing is for nominees to be able to appear. We now go back as a Senate to look at the details, petitions and security reports.

He added that It is important for members of the public to understand what happens at the screening.

When nominees are asked to take a bow, it is because we already have their record. The fact that we have asked a parliamentarian or former parliamentarian to take a bow and go, does not stop us from looking at their CV, Mr Bamidele said. He said taking a bow is not a privilege that only Nigerian lawamkers enjoy but that it is a global practice.

Mr Akpabio ruled that point of order is sustained.

Mr Oyetola, while introducing himself, said he is an accomplished businessman, accountant and politician. He did his NYSC in Potiskum, Yobe State after which he joined an insurance firm. In 1991, he established his own insurance firm and has run it for about 30 years. He was later appointed the chief of staff to the Osun State governor. He won and became the Osun State governor in 2018.

Speaking on his administration as governor, Mr Oyetola said the N4 billion was being deducted from the state allocation on a monthly basis. He noted that he was able to stabilise the economy and meet its obligations.

The former Osun State governor noted that through the use of the mining sector, he was able to open up the economy of the state.

Francis Fadahunsi (PDP, Osun)

He commended President Tinubu for picking a nominee from Osun State. He stated that Mr Oyetola, as a student in Unilag, fought against the Ali Must Go policy in 1978.

Despite being from different political parties, he noted that the nominee is a good manager of men and resources that has helped Osun State.

Mr Fadahunsi urged the Senate to approve the nomination.

Also speaking on the nominee, Lere Oyewumi (PDP, Osun) said the three senators from Osun met with the state governor, Ademola Adeleke, on Thursday and that the governor has given the Osun Senate Caucus the approval to support the nominee despite the political differences.

The senate president commended the caucus for the maturity displayed by senators and the governor who are members of a different party, PDP, and asked the nominee to take his leave.

Former Yobe governor, Ibrahim Geidam, is the next nominee to face the Senate. Mr Geidam, also a serving senator, for Yobe East, is introducing himself to the senators.

The Senate President has asked Mr Geidam to step down from the podium and enjoy the privilege of taking a bow and go as a senator.

Before he left, Mr Geidam also told the Senate that he was governor for more than eight years because he completed the tenure of his principal, Mamman Ali, who died in office in 2009 before he was elected to serve for four years and then re-elected.

The former governor was then asked by the senate president to take his privilege and leave.

The next nominee is Senator Sabi Abdullahi from Niger. He was a member of the 9th Senate. He is addressing the Senate.

Mr Abdullahi has finished addressing the Senate. The Senate president cited provisions of the constitution and the senate rule on the privilege lawmakers enjoy. He said on the strength of the provisions, the nominee should take a bow and go.

The next nominee is former Senator Heineken Lokpobiri from Bayelsa State. He was also a minister of state for agriculture and rural development.. He is addressing the Senate.

He said he was speaker of Bayelsa State House.

The senate president asks him to take a bow since he enjoys the privilege as a former senator.

The Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, moved a motion to adjourn the sitting until 2.30pm to enable the Muslims to observe the Jumat prayer. The motion was seconded by the Minority Leader, Simon Mwadkwom.
Meeting a new person is always a lottery. Almost everyone tries to smile and appear friendly and helpful during the meeting. Which is right, because the first impression is extremely important. But you often want to understand what's behind that smile, to understand the stranger as quickly as possible. Psychologists say that just one question can help with this.

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As OBOZREVATEL has learned, it will reflect a person's inner world like a mirror. It will show his or her attitude to the world and the environment, the way of thinking and perception.

To find out more about a stranger, just ask them to tell you what they think about a third party. According to the findings of researchers from the University of Nebraska, people tend to see in others the traits they have in themselves. Thus, a selfish person will definitely notice the selfishness of another person, while a kind person will notice someone else's gentleness and inner peace.

As part of a related experiment, scientists asked participants to evaluate the characteristics of other people, both positive and negative. It turned out that the higher the subjects rated third parties, the happier and more emotionally stable they were. Conversely, those who rated others negatively tended to be selfish and more antisocial.

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The researchers emphasised that this behaviour does not mean that people with a negative outlook have a poor self-esteem. Similarly, people with personality disorders may notice hostile and evil intentions of others and not recognise such behaviour in themselves.

Another disturbing pattern discovered by scientists is that people who tend to see the bad in others are more prone to depression and other psychological disorders.

Earlier, OBOZREVATEL told how scientists explained the attraction of people to each other.

Subscribe to OBOZREVATEL's Telegram, Viber and Threads channels to keep up with the latest developments.
Nigers democratically elected president, Mohamed Bazoum, who was last Wednesday toppled by his guards, spoke on Friday, after nine days of being held hostage.

Mr Bazoum said there there is no justification for the coup that led to his ouster and detention.

This coup, launched against my government by a military faction on 26 July, has no justification. If it succeeds, it will have devastating consequences for our country, our region and the whole world, he wrote in a statement shared on the official X (former Twitter) handle of the Nigerien president.

The X handle, though not verified, is followed by verified handles of the African Union, World Bank, Bill Gates and others. The handle had also, before the coup, been used to distribute activities of the Nigerien president.

Mr Bazoum said any attempt to overthrow a legitimate government must be resisted, while thanking the international community for the strong and unequivocal condemnation of this cynical effort to undermine Nigers remarkable democratic progress.

The security situation in Niger has improved considerably, facilitated by the partnerships that the junta opposes. Foreign aid makes up 40 per cent of our national budget, but it will not be delivered if the coup succeeds, he said in response to claims by the putschists and their apologists that the economic and security situation in Niger has worsened and partnerships with the US and Europe has damaged the West African country.

Mr Bazoum said Niger is the safest it has been in 15 years, thanks to its development partners who he said the putschists are opposed to.

Noting the dangers the coup posed for the troubled Sahel region, he said its success would have devastating consequences far beyond Nigers borders.

Boko Haram and other terrorist movements will certainly take advantage of Nigers instability, using our country as a staging ground to attack neighbouring countries and undermine peace, security and freedom around the world, Mr Bazoum said.

They will intensify their efforts to target our young people with hateful anti-Western indoctrination, turning them against the very partners who are helping us build a more hopeful future, he added.

He noted that the entire Sahel could fall under Russian influence via the Wagner group, whose brutal action was on full display in Ukraine, following an open invitation by the putschists.

The detained president also condemned Mali and Burkina Faso military for pledging their support for the coup in Niger.

Notably, Nigers security situation is far better than that of our neighbours, Mali and Burkina Faso, whose governments, both installed by military takeovers, support the illegal coup. Rather than address security concerns by building their own capacity, they employ criminal Russian mercenaries such as the Wagner Group, to the detriment of the rights and dignity of their people.

Mr Bazoum called on the US government and the international community to help Niger restore constitutional order. Fighting for our shared values, including democratic pluralism and respect for the rule of law, is the only way to make lasting progress in the fight against poverty and terrorism. The people of Niger will never forget your support at this pivotal moment in our history.

Read the full statement below.

I write this as a hostage. Niger is under attack by a military junta trying to overthrow our democracy, and I am just one of hundreds of citizens who have been arbitrarily and illegally imprisoned. This coup, launched against my government by a military faction on July 26, has no justification. If successful, it will have devastating consequences for our country, our region and the whole world.

Our government came to power through democratic elections in 2021. Any attempt to overthrow a legitimate government must be resisted, and we appreciate the strong and unequivocal condemnations of this cynical effort to undermine the remarkable progress Niger has made in the framework of democracy. The United States, the African and European Unions and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have said loud and clear: this coup must end and the junta must release all those they illegally arrested.

The coup plotters falsely claim that they acted to protect Nigers security. They claim that our war against jihadist terrorists is failing and that my economic and social governance, including partnerships with the United States and Europe, has harmed our country.

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In fact, Nigers security situation has improved considerably, facilitated by the partnerships the junta opposes. Foreign aid constitutes 40 per cent of our national budget, but it will not be delivered if the coup succeeds.

In the south, where we face the terrorist group Boko Haram, there have been almost no attacks for two years, and the refugees are returning to their villages. To reflect this reality, our partners, including the U.S. Agency for International Development, are shifting from humanitarian assistance to development initiatives such as building sustainable energy, improving agricultural productivity, and education. of the next generation of Nigerian leaders.

The north and west of the country have also not suffered major attacks since I took office in 2021. Thanks to the support of our allies and the training of our partners, including the National Guard of Indiana, Niger is now the safest it has been in the past 15 years.

Notably, Nigers security situation is markedly better than that of our neighbours, Mali and Burkina Faso, whose governments, both installed by military takeovers, support the illegal coup. Rather than addressing security concerns by building their own capabilities, they employ criminal Russian mercenaries such as the Wagner Group to the detriment of the rights and dignity of their people.

My government has also succeeded in economic and social governance. After a slow recovery from covid-19 in 2021, our per capita growth rate more than tripled to 7.4 per cent last year.

2022 was Nigers first year without a single day of school lost to teacher or student strikes. Workers did not go on strike in a major sector, and my administration signed historic agreements with unions to create a safer and more stable working environment across the country.

We cannot afford to lose this momentum. Recognizing the threat the potential fall of Niger poses to the region, our ECOWAS neighbours have announced unprecedented sanctions, including a ban on oil exports and imports, and a suspension of cross-border financial transactions.

These measures already show what a future would look like under an autocratic junta without vision or reliable allies. The price of rice rose by 40 per cent between Sunday and Tuesday, and some neighbourhoods began to report shortages of goods and electricity.

In Africas troubled Sahel region, Niger is the last bastion of respect for human rights amid authoritarian movements that have taken over some of our neighbours. While this coup attempt is a tragedy for Nigeriens, its success would have devastating consequences far beyond our borders.

With an open invitation from coup plotters and their regional allies, the entire central Sahel region could fall under Russian influence via the Wagner Group, whose brutal terrorism has been on display in Ukraine.

Boko Haram and other terrorist movements will certainly take advantage of Nigers instability, using our country as a staging ground to attack neighbouring countries and undermine peace, security and freedom in the world. They will step up their efforts to target our young people with hateful anti-Western indoctrination, pitting them against the very partners who help us build a more hopeful future.

At a time when we need it, I call on the American government and the entire international community to help us restore our constitutional order. Fighting for our common values, including democratic pluralism and respect for the rule of law, is the only way to make lasting progress in the fight against poverty and terrorism. The people of Niger will never forget your support at this pivotal moment in our history.

HE MOHAMED BAZOUM

PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF NIGER

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Personnel of the Nigeria Immigration Service are on alert to stop any Nigerien from crossing into Nigeria through official or unofficial borders.

Personnel of the service have also been ordered to stop Nigerians from going into Niger Republic through the Katsina border with Niger Republic as part of the Services efforts to impose an ECOWAS sanction against the military junta in Niger Republic.

Nigerians should stay at home and not attempt to go to the Niger Republic until the embargo is lifted. And we are determined to return any Nigerien we catch who is planning to come to this country, Mustapha Sani, the Immigration comptroller in charge of Special Border Command told journalists in Jibia, Katsina State on Thursday.

Jibia is one of the four areas in Katsina State sharing an expansive border with the Niger Republic. The others are Kaita, MaiAdua and Zango.

Seven northern Nigeria states, including Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina Jigawa, Yobe and Borno share a 1,608 kilometres long border with five regions in the Niger Republic and the immigration official said all commands have been put on alert to ensure compliance with the border closure order.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is sanctioning Niger Republic after presidential guards toppled Mohamed Bazoum and announced Abdrahmane Tchiani as the new president.

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Mr Sani said people of the two countries, especially on the border, share a lot of identities like culture and religion but it would not be a reason to disrespect the governments order of border closure.

We have already put our officers on alert and we have already deployed some to go and man the orthodox routes through which some of the foreigners use to enter into Nigeria and from what we have on the ground, we know it will be impossible for them to enter into Nigeria.

We have already stationed our officers at strategic places for stop and search as usual, he said.

The comptroller said since the special border command received a signal that all borders with the Niger Republic should remain closed, officers of the command have been active in enforcing the sanction.

Residents of major cities like Niamey, Maradi and Zinder lamented the lack of electricity supply which was cut off by Nigeria last week as part of the sanctions.

Expert speaks on sanctions

An economist and university lecturer, Bashir Achida, said the coup in the Niger Republic and the subsequent ECOWAS sanctions would hurt the economic and social activities of residents of the border communities.

Nigeria and Niger have a long-standing socio-economic and political relationship so a coup like the one we have now is detrimental to businesses, political and other engagements. For us in the northern part of the country, youll see that residents of these communities (border) are always engaged in businesses going in and out of the countries.

With the order on border closure, youll see that these people are cut off from both activities. The two countries from this side rely heavily on each other for the supply of goods and services required, Mr Achida said.

Mr Achida, a senior lecturer at the Usmanu Dan Fodiyo University in Sokoto, said residents of border communities in Illela (Sokoto/Nigeria) and Konni (Tahou/Niger) are a clear example of booming business activities between the two countries.

This is the major route (Illela  Konni border) for states like Sokoto, Kebbi and even Zamfara to convey goods like onions, garlic and other goods to Ghana, Burkina Faso, Mali and Cote dIvoire. They also bring back other commodities. So, this will lead to a loss of millions of Naira. This is really a setback to our relationship and economic activities in the two countries, he said.

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The Nigerian government on Friday said the use of force as proposed by ECOWAS should coup plotters in Niger refuse to back down, is the last resort as mediation is ongoing.

Briefing members of the diplomatic corps in Abuja, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Adamu Lamuwa, said the use of force is the last resort and we hope we do not get there.

ECOWAS last Sunday at an emergency meeting convened by its chair, Nigerias President Bola Tinubu, said it would deploy every available tool to restore democracy including the use of force.

Since then, there have been several concerns about what a military intervention in Niger will mean for the subregion.

The subregions bloc also asked Chiefs of Defense Staff to meet immediately. The meeting commenced on Wednesday and is expected to end today (Friday).

Nigeria, Africas largest economy and West Africas largest military, will be expected to provide the bulwark of soldiers should ECOWAS decide to use force in Niger.

After its meeting last weekend, ECOWAS has sent two separate delegations to Niger. The most recent, led by former military head of state Abdulsalami Abubakar, left for Niamey on Thursday.

Sources familiar with the visit said the delegation is back in Nigeria and would brief the president on their visit.

When asked to confirm if indeed Nigerias ambassador to Niger had been sacked from Niger as widely reported, Mr Lamuwa said he had not been briefed.

On Niger opening its borders to some countries of the region who are supportive of them, Mr Lamuwa said it is within Nigers prerogative to open its borders to anyone.

As part of its sanctions on Niger, following the coup, ECOWAS had ordered a blockade, asking nations bordering Niger to shut their air and land borders.

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President Bola Tinubu wants to, at least, double the minimum wage Nigerian workers earn, spokesperson Ajuri Ngelale has said.

Mr Ngelale stated this in an interview on Channels Television Thursday night, according to a statement by the presidency.

I dont want to preempt the president or the work of the minimum wage committee that is getting it down in those states but what I would say is this: the president will want nothing less than a doubling. I mean doubling the current minimum wage, he said.

Nigeria currently has a N30,000 minimum wage. However, many states do not currently pay up to the minimum wage.

The Nigerian workers union has demanded an increase in the minimum wage since the rise in the cost of living following the removal of subsidy on petrol by the Tinubu administration.

Protests

Many workers in Abuja, Lagos and other parts of the country staged a protest on Wednesday to express their displeasure over the hardship they are facing as a result of the high cost of transportation and food occasioned by the increase in price of fuel.

The presidents pledge to review the workers salary as communicated by his aide came about 24 hours after the workers protest on Wednesday, with the Nigerian Senate demanding seven days to resolve all concerns put forward by the workers.

During the protest on Wednesday, the National Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero, said minimum wage is a law that will be taken to the National Assembly to legislate and that the current law will expire next year.

If we believe what the president is saying, that means we have to wait till next year, many people will die, he said in an interview with PREMIUM TIMES.

However, Mr Ajaero explained that for the Wage award, the unions proposed and a committee was set up but the government has failed to inaugurate the committee.

So which progress are we making? If it will take months before inaugurating a committee, how long will the committee work?, he queried.

Aside from the minimum wage increase, other demands by the workers union include a call for the adoption of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) as an alternative to fuel, reduction in school fees and taxes, among others.

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As part of the sanctions on the Niger military junta, the Nigerian government has closed all its land borders with the country.

The acting comptroller general of the Nigeria Customs Service, Bashir Adeniyi, while visiting the Niger  Nigeria border in Jibia, Katsina State on Friday, said security agents would ensure total compliance with the order.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is meting sanctions on Niger Republic after its presidential guards toppled President Mohamed Bazoum and announced Abdrahmane Tchiani as the countrys new leader.

Electricity supply to Niger Republic was also cut off by Nigeria as part of the sanctions.

Mr Adeniyi said President Bola Tinubu is the champion of economic integration in the region and would continue to take the right decisions to ensure stability in West Africa.

He said the Nigerian president had shown he had the might to be in charge of the regional economic bloc, ECOWAS.

Now, we have a situation in our hands where there is instability and insecurity. This situation does not allow for trade to flourish.

We cannot have any meaningful trade in an atmosphere of insecurity and instability that we presently have in Niger Republic. That is why the ECOWAS, through the Authority of the Heads of States, had taken the decision to suspend and close all land borders with the Republic of Niger.

It is the responsibility of the Nigerian Customs Service, working with other agencies of government, to implement the decision in its entirety.

I have gone round some border stations and I am happy with what I have seen in terms of compliance, Mr Adeniyi said.

Mr Adeniyi, who commended the synergy among security agents at the borders, said the implementation of the closure must be 100 per cent.

The compliance had to be 100 per cent which means that all in-bound and out-bound cargoes, in and out of Nigeria will not be allowed during the period of border closure, he said.

Mr Adeniyi also addressed the joint border patrol and met with the economic community in the area.

He told the residents that the decision to shut down borders with Niger Republic is in the best interest of both Nigeria and Niger Republic.

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The Ondo State Government has announced comprehensive palliative measures to cushion the effects of the removal of the petrol subsidy on residents of the state.

The Commissioner for Finance, who also chairs a committee set up by the state government on palliatives, Wale Akinterinwa, announced the measures on Thursday.

They include free rides for students on shuttle buses from when schools resume in September until 31 December.

Thereafter, affordable rates will be charged from January 2024, he said.

We announce the immediate suspension of hospital registration and consultation fees.

Government will reimburse the hospitals directly based on existing data.

In like manner, free shuttle boats equipped with life jackets for students in riverine areas starting at resumption in September, till December 31st. Thereafter, affordable rates will be charged from January 2024.

We will immediately deploy all existing buses in all MDAS to serve as free shuttle buses to public servants till December 31st.

Mr Akinteriwa said additional CNG buses would be purchased to convey public servants to and from work at no cost to them, till the end of December.

Also, the state government would also make an unconditional cash transfer of N10,000 for selected vulnerable persons in every local government for three months.

Pensioners in the state, including local government or state government retirees, would get N10,000 each from August to December.

The state government will also distribute food packages to one million households across the state, and make farm inputs available to farmers at subsidized rate, just as poultry and other livestock farmers will get free drugs, maize and feed for their birds and fishes.

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Agrochemicals, seeds, drip lines, farm tools and power tillers will be given at subsidized rates. In riverine areas, free fishing nets and subsidized kilns will be made available, Mr Akinteriwa said.

To ease the movement of farm produce, tricycles will be given free to farming communities. This will be supervised by officially recognised, community-based stakeholder groups.

The state government has authorised immediate suspension of haulage fee collection on all non-graded agricultural produce. These are produce that are consumed locally and not for export.

The commissioner further said there will be immediate payment of the 2020 leave bonus to public servants. It should be noted that the state government has already paid leave bonuses for 2021, 2022 and 2023.

Small and Medium Enterprises

Various categories of small and medium enterprises will also benefit from the palliative, Mr Akinterinwa said.

Students who are engaged in nano businesses on campus, according to the commissioner, will also get financial support. He said the money to nano, small, and medium enterprises will be disbursed through existing government channels.

The presidency had earlier got the National Assemblys approval to disburse N500 billion as palliatives over the removal of subsidy on Nigerians.

President Bola Tinubu, in a broadcast, said he would spend N200 billion of the sum on boosting agriculture and food production.

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President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on Friday, declared that despite the nations current rate of energy supply, his administration is poised to address all the obstacles militating against a stable electricity supply in the country.

He said his administration will bring solutions to the multifarious challenges across the electric power sector value chain which will significantly relieve longstanding problems of suppressed demand and improve the steadiness of peak supply for Nigerians, affirming that improved energy generation and distribution is an imperative for accelerated national growth.

President Tinubu spoke at the groundbreaking ceremony of the new 350MW Gwagwalada Independent Thermal Power Plant (Phase 1) where he urged the NNPC and its partners to deliver the landmark project within the promised three years completion timeline, insisting that, three years must be three years.

Although the Nigeria Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) is currently characterized by huge supply-gap deficits owing to dilapidated power infrastructure and poor distributions networks, amongst others, this administration is poised to address every power value chain challenge that will significantly relieve the suppressed demand, enhance the generation, and improve national peak growth & sustainability far above the hitherto abysmal and unacceptable 5,300MW for over 200 million Nigerians, the president declared.

President Tinubu noted that a swift improvement in the stability and quantum of energy supply will enhance national economic development, which remains a cardinal priority of his administration.

During my electioneering campaign, I made a commitment to Nigerians on providing stable electricity. This is to be achieved by ensuring that we use all available energy sources to boost power generation beyond the current installed capacity of 12,000 megawatts, strengthening the integrity of our transmission infrastructure and ensuring that all distribution bottlenecks are removed. We can not form the productive and industrialised economy we need in order to conclusively tackle poverty, and create thousands of high-paying manufacturing jobs for our teeming young people, whose creativity and talent we must harness for national development, without reliable electricity, the president stated.

President Tinubu affirmed that adequate energy, broadly, and electricity, specifically, is to be treated as the topmost national economic imperative, if Nigeria must develop and maximise her human and natural resources, stating that to accelerate our economic growth, we must work hard to remove every obstacle that has slowed down our progress. I have often said that electricity is the greatest human invention of the last 1,000 years.

We cannot advance and join the rest of the developed world if we remain stuck with our current electricity supply situation and unable to supply the energy our country requires to power a doubling of the size of our Gross Domestic Product within the next decade.

The president expressed his excitement that the landmark project was commencing at the onset of his administration.

The groundbreaking for the Gwagwalada thermal power plant (Phase 1) is highly significant to the nation, as it marks the first bold step and the beginning of the administrations concerted efforts to entrench a strong and virile energy foundation for uninterrupted power supply to boost the economy and accelerate industrial growth.

The Gwagwalada 350MW (Phase 1) project is part of an incremental 3,600MW cumulative power project that is based on market-driven designs along the Abuja, Kaduna and Kano (AKK) gas pipeline corridors, which will further underpin the projects economic viability while generating multiple foreign direct investments (FDIs) for the nation, President Tinubu further stated.

The president promised to harness the nations gas resources, assuring that this administration will latch onto the global declaration of gas as a transition fuel and the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) to enhance investments in the oil and gas sector to fully harness the more than 200 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of proven gas reserves which are expected to deepen domestic gas utilization through improved power generation, establishment of gas-based industries, petrochemical firms, as well as liquified/compressed natural gas (auto-gas) development to catalyze sustainable economic development while creating millions of jobs for the teeming Nigerian populace.

President Tinubu pledged his administrations commitment to addressing the power challenges and gas utilisation with a clear focus on advancing the diversification of its energy mix.

Nigeria will continue to vigorously pursue the implementation of other low-Carbon energy options as part of a larger mix, such as Solar, Hydro, Wind, Thermal and biofuels (for both on-grid and off-grid power systems) to help shore up our national energy supply to meet the growing domestic demands and ensure that adequate energy penetrates the homes of our people with a view to improving the standard of living of our people in the rural areas, the president assured.

While commending the NNPCL for leveraging on the established AKK Gas pipeline through this laudable project, President Tinubu charged the NNPCL to ensure the prompt and early completion of the project saying, While planning this project, the prudent use of resources has been given top priority, as by this endeavour, Nigeria will strategically underpin the commerciality of the multi-billion dollar AKK gas pipeline, even as we evolve a competitive low-power tariff structure and revitalize numerous industries that will create millions of direct and indirect jobs.

I would like to commend the efforts of the NNPC Ltd, alongside General Electric and CMEC, for this business partnership initiative and I hereby charge the team to ensure that this three-year project is successfully implemented on the agreed scope, time, and budget, the president charged.

President Tinubu further applauded the NNPCL for its proactive initiative in this direction, saying The recent strategic partnership between the NNPC Ltd and NIPCO Gas Limited to deploy Compressed Natural Gas stations across the country is another excellent example. The landmark collaboration will expand Nigerias CNG infrastructure, improve access to CNG, and accelerate the adoption of a cheaper and cleaner alternative fuel for buses, cars, and kekenapep nationwide.

According to the president, Under this NNPC-NIPCO partnership, 35 state-of-the-art CNG stations will be constructed nationwide, including three Mother stations. Once fully operational, the stations will have the ability to service 200,000 vehicles daily.

READ ALSO: Nigeria electricity market operators set to review performance

Similarly, the Group Chief Executive Officer of the NNPC Ltd, Mele Kyari, stated that the NNPC Ltd will leverage the nations endowment of gas resources to power the nations industrial growth and stimulate ubiquitous job creation, adding that, through the project, the NNPC Ltd would be providing a huge boost to the national grid.

Mr Kyari assured the president that NNPC Ltd will continue to execute power projects to enhance energy security, noting that several of such have already been completed. These, according to the NNPCL Group CEO, include the 50MW Maiduguri Power Plant, and the 900MW and 1,300MW power plants in Kaduna and Kano, respectively.

The colourful event was witnessed by many dignitaries and senior government officials, including the Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum, Governor of Nasarawa State, represented by his deputy, Royal Fathers, the Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, among others.

Ajuri Ngelale

Special Adviser to the President

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Residents of Ikot Ambang, a community in Ibiono Ibom Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, were in a jubilant mood on Thursday as they thronged the scene where the corpse of a slain robbery suspect, Wisdom Akpan, was displayed in public.

The police spokesperson in Akwa Ibom, Odiko Mcdon, on Friday, said Mr Akpan was one of the deadliest armed robbers in the state and that he was on the police wanted list for the murder of about 13 people and the shooting of about 22 others.

A Facebook user did a live video of the scene at Ikot Mbang. An ecstatic crowd was seen shouting and clapping as they rushed to glimpse Mr Akpans corpse.

Wisdom is dead-oo! A background voice is heard screaming in the video.

They have killed him, a small rat like him, said another voice.

Drivers honked their horns to celebrate the killing. Residents lining up on both sides of the road waved at and praised the police operatives inside their operational vehicles.

I wanted to behold this (the killing) with my eyes; I didnt want to wait for anyone to tell me this, a voice is heard saying in the video.

He is a notorious armed robber; he killed many people. Today was his day, another voice is heard saying.

The camera moved closer to where some people lifted the corpse and put it atop the roof of a car which later drove off.

How he was killed  Police

The police spokesperson, Mr Mcdon, said Mr Akpan was shot dead during a shootout between him and some operatives from the Special Weapons and Tactics Team during an operation to arrest him.

Mr Mcdon, a superintendent of police, said Mr Akpan was a remnant of a dreaded armed robbery gang, led by the late Malachi Uwem Friday.

The police spokesperson narrated Mr Akpans criminal past and those he allegedly murdered.

On 22nd July, he murdered one Nsikan Vincent Udo of Ikot Inua Village at Ikot Efun Junction and drove away with his new Q-link motorcycle.

On the 8th of July, he shot and injured one Jesse Johnson and two others in a POS Shop at Ikot Ambang Junction, while on the 5th of the same month, he shot and maimed one Agustina Dominic at her Supermarket.

Many POS operators, filling stations, supermarket owners, market men and women have been dispossessed of millions of naira by Wisdom, who succeeded in spreading a lot of fear before meeting his Waterloo, he said.

The police said they recovered from the slain robber a locally reconstructed pump action rifle that looks like an AK-47, cartridges, a Q-link motorcycle, assorted charms, and a mask.

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A former minister of education in Nigeria, Oby Ezekwesili on Friday celebrated her 35th marriage anniversary to her husband, Chinedu Ezekwesili, whom she has described as the rarest Gold of a man God ever created.

Were 35! Mrs Ezekwesili said on her Twitter page, Friday afternoon.

God loves me so much and gave me the wisdom to say I do to the rarest Gold of a man He ever created. I am thankful unto eternity for my #EndlessLove. Our purposeful union will forever glorify our Lord in whose Love weve grown ours. Loving you all the way! she said on the microblogging platform, alongside photos of herself with her husband.

She showered her husband with praises: Through the years.you never let me down. You turned my Life around. The sweetest days I found, I found with you through the years. Ive never been afraid. Ive loved the Life weve led. Ill stay with you. Through the years.

She uploaded old and memorable photos she and her husband took together.

Mrs Ezekwesilis husband, Chinedu is a pastor with the Redeemed Christian Church of God.

The former minister used the moment of her anniversary to offer marriage advice to young Nigerians.

It will not always be smooth but I want every purposeful young woman with a vision to thrive in her profession, occupation or entrepreneurship to know she can do all that and still have a meaningfully beautiful marriage.

I started being more public about mine to help encourage more of our younger generation of women to not feel they have to trade-off marriage for career or career for marriage.

You can have both. May God always help you to make meaningful choices before and in marriage, in Jesus name, she said.

Obasanjos beautiful words for Ezekwesili

Mrs Ezekwesili, a former vice president of World Bank, is an ardent advocate for democracy and good governance, and a co-founder of the #BringBackOurGirls group which has been advocating for the release of the abducted Chibok girls in North-east Nigeria.

Obiageli (Oby) Ezekwesili is like a daughter to me. Even when she was a minister, I treated her the same way I treated my biological daughters. She is a dynamic young woman who is competent, reliable, and very enterprising, former President Olusegun Obasajo wrote in April in celebration of the former ministers 60th birthday.

Mrs Ezekwesili served as minister under Mr Obasanjo.

Without any doubt, Oby was one of the best talents I had working with me. On a lighter note, when Oby worked with me, she was quite young, but very intelligent. There were three of them at that time who used to drag age, and I enjoyed their banters: Oby, Frank Nweke and Nenadi Usman. The three of them were under 40 and then in council. They were always arguing among themselves about seniority of age, and Ngozi used to treat them as juniors. But it was all fun, the former president said.

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President Bola Tinubu has said part of the resolution of the Economic of West African Countries (ECOWAS) against the Niger coup is that the Nigerian government should close all land borders leading to Niger Republic.

Another resolution of the African leaders is to stop electricity supply to Niger Republic, mobilise international support to stop the coup and prevent operation of commercial and special flights into and from Niger Republic.

Others are blockage of goods in transit to Niger especially from Lagos and eastern seaports, embark on sensitisation of Nigerians on effects of the coup and deployment of military to Niger Republic to stop the coup.

Mr Tinubu who is the chairman of the ECOWAS made this known in a letter sent to the Senate and read by the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio at the plenary on Friday.

In the letter, President Tinubu explained that the resolutions of the ECOWAS were considered after a meeting with African leaders.

The letter reads Following the unfortunate political situation in Niger Republic culminating in the overthrow of its President, ECOWAS under my leadership condemned the coup in its entirety and resolved to seek the return of the democratically elected government in a bid to restore peace, ECOWAS convened a meeting and came out with a communique.

Closure and monitoring of all land borders with Niger Republic and reactivating of the border drilling exercise.

 Cutting off Electricity supply to Niger Republic

 Mobilising international support for the implementation of the provisions of the ECOWAS communique

Preventing the operation of commercial and special flights into and from Niger Republic

Blockade of goods in transit to Niger especially from Lagos and eastern seaports

Embarking on sensitization of Nigerians and Nigerians on the imperative of these actions particularly via social media

Military build-up and deployment of personnel for military intervention to enforce compliance of the military junta in Niger should they remain recalcitrant.

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The OIC General Secretariat, which recognizes the legitimate decisions by Azerbaijan to establish border checkpoints on its territory, in response to security threats and in line with principles and norms of International Law, welcomes the facilitation provided by Azerbaijan to use the Lachin road for medical purposes by the Armenian residents and its proposal to use Aghdam-Khankendi route for the transportation of larger cargo, Azernews reports, citing OIC official website.

According to the organization, such initiatives would further contribute to the reintegration of the residents into Azerbaijani society.

The General Secretariat calls on Armenia to refrain from any provocative actions, and support the utilization of Aghdam-Khankendi as well as other routes proposed by Azerbaijan to meet the needs of the Armenian population.

The OIC General Secretariat underscores the need to move forward on the path of peace and to take necessary steps to strengthen security and stability in the region.
A Russian landing ship was hit during a nighttime drone attack on Novorossiysk, Russia. One of its compartments flooded, causing it to capsize.

ADVERTISIMENT

The ship is currently being towed to the shore. This was reported by the media, publishing the relevant footage.

Explosions and sounds of shooting were heard in the harbor area in Novorossiysk on the morning of August 4. The Defense Ministry of the aggressor country said that the reason for this was the "drone attack of the AFU" on the naval base and that all targets were destroyed.

Propagandists claimed that unknown aquatic drones were fired from gunboats. As a result, one drone burst into flames, followed by an explosion.

The port of Novorossiysk introduced a temporary ban on the ship movement. It was issued by the CPC company, stating that "the terminal is not damaged and continues to load oil onto moored tankers."
Democracy appears to be in regression in West Africa where soldiers have toppled four elected governments in three years. The 48-year-old sub-regional bloc, ECOWAS, is under pressure to stop the trend but both opportunities and danger lay on its path.

There have been successful military coups in Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea and Niger from 2020 to date. On Tuesday, the police in Sierra Leone arrested several persons, including senior military officers, in connection with a suspected coup plot. President Julius Bio, himself a former coup leader, was elected to a second term only in June.

The putschists have cited the harsh economic conditions of citizens in some of the poorest countries in the world to justify their coups. The latest development is an opportunity for ECOWAS to demonstrate it is not a toothless barking dog and Nigerias President Bola Tinubu, who is the chairman of the body, has tried to rally the leaders to action.

ECOWAS has threatened to use force to reinstate the deposed President Mohamed Bazoum if the coup plotters refuse to do so within seven days. But their fellow coup plotters in Burkina Faso and Mali, have warned against the use of force and pledged their solidarity with the junta in Niger.

Niger is one of the largest countries in the Sahel and plays a vital role in the fight against jihadists in the region. Its fall under military rule will have a cocktail of implications for the fight against terrorism and insurgency in the region, including for Nigeria, should the situation in the country escalate.

For ECOWAS, the success of the coup in Niger will undermine the power of the bloc and reinforce the sentiments that it is toothless. It will also indicate that coups have become normal and acceptable.

But Jibrin Ibrahim, a professor of Political Science, warned that the use of force in Niger will be a real crisis for ECOWAS, Nigeria and the Sahel because the risk of the major sustained crisis is real.

He added that the size of Niger with its scattered population and land mass will make a military campaign perilous.

Also, Mr Ibrahim fears that Nigeria and ECOWAS risk becoming puppets in the hands of the West which is pushing them to attack Niger in the pursuit of its own interest.

The Western countries are actually encouraging Nigeria to get into this fight, not for our own sake but for their own sake, he told PREMIUM TIMES.

Another dimension is geopolitics, Mr Ibrahim said. With the war between Ukraine and Russia has been intense with Ukraine acting as a proxy for the West. The Russians have made it very clear that they will support the Niger military in this fight, so, we may have a fight that is really a fight between Russia and America and we are simply puns in that fight. That for me is the biggest risk for West Africa.

With the US and France having their bases in Niger, and Russia posturing as the ally Africa so desperately needs, Niger may become a theatre for the show of power between the West and the East.

The just concluded Russia-Africa summit and the juicy promises President Vladimir Putin made to African leaders may also offer Russia a soft landing in the region.

However, Russia said it opposes a military solution to the conflict and that it has no plans to send its forces to Niger. But the Wagner mercenary group is already active in the region and has expressed support for the plotters in Niamey.

Mr Ibrahim noted that Niger has been a good friend to Nigeria, recalling the Nigerian civil war period when despite being pressured by France to support Biafra, Niger refused and stayed with Nigeria.

We have a lot of good relations, not just with the government but with the people of Niger, including commercial and migration relations, Mr Ibrahim noted.

Military action in Niger will also cause a humanitarian crisis which Nigeria is not prepared for. If there is a war, a significant part of the population will move to Nigeria, we have a lot of reasons not to engage in a military attack on Niger, Mr Ibrahim said.

The unfolding crisis, if not addressed, will exacerbate the deteriorating security situation in the region. It will also negatively impact the development and lives of the population in a country where 4.3 million people need humanitarian assistance, Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS), Leonardo Simao, said, speaking from Accra, Ghana.

He said if measures are not taken, or the situation is not reversed, the spread of terrorism in the region may increase. But no one wants to see regional conflict happening, he added.

Wilson Ijide, a retired colonel and lecturer at the Department of Psychology and Institute for Peace and Strategic Studies, University of Ibadan, noted that the implication is that the Sahel and West Africa region is headed for a cataclysm.

The fragility of ECOWAS on one hand and of AU on the other would be exposed for all to see. Already there is division among the two bodies with AU giving 15 days ultimatum to the putschists while ECOWAS is giving only seven days, he said.

Mr Ijide warned that ECOWAS use of force in Niger would worsen insecurity in the Sahel and Nigeria would see an influx of various insurgent groups from the Sahel.

It will be wise for ECOWAS to face reality and negotiate a peaceful transition of power to an elected government in Niger, within a feasible timetable, he added.

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President Tinubu is right to show strong leadership in this struggle against terrorism and the return of the military. His actions, however, need to be carefully considered as the threat is against not just one but four countries  Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea, which have all already announced that they will fight together if Niger is attacked. Algeria has also put out a statement that it would not allow a repeat of the dismantling of the state and subsequent chao that was allowed to happen to Libya.

Last Sunday, at its 51st Extraordinary Summit in Abuja, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) announced a series of resolutions that would guide its action towards the restoration of constitutional order in Niger, following the coup. The most spectacular was as follows:

In the event the Authoritys demands are not met within one week, take all measures necessary to restore constitutional order in the Republic of Niger. Such measures may include the use of force; To this effect, the Chiefs of defense staff of ECOWAS are to meet immediately.

This type of threat worked effectively in ousting President Jammeh of The Gambia in 2017 because there was unity of purpose in the entire region and the military threat against such a small country was credible. The situation in Niger and in West Africa today is significantly different after a fourth coup in the region. It is important to think carefully before taking a risky path. I am however confident that it is possible to reverse the current trend of the return of the military in Africa.

It would be recalled that on the 9th of July, President Bola Tinubu was elected chairman of ECOWAS. In his acceptance speech, he warned that the threat to peace in the region had reached an alarming proportion, with terrorism and an emerging pattern of military takeovers that ECOWAS must take concerted action addressing, with the urgency the matter demands. This decision of Nigeria to retake its leadership position in West Africa is positive. His first action point as ECOWAS Chairman was establishing the Presidential Troika + 1 (Talon  Benin, Embalo  Guinea Bissau and Bazoum  Niger and Umar Tourray, President of ECOWAS Commission) to develop an immediate action plan to address terrorism and coups detats in West Africa. The four presidents met in Abuja on 18th July and drew up plans to engage Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea on the expeditious return to constitutional rule, credible and inclusive elections.

Nigeria, on whose neck a lot of action will rely on has to consider the long history of amical and fraternal relations it has had with both the state and people of Niger. During the civil war, in spite of a lot of pressure, Niger resisted French solicitations to support Biafra. When they wanted to dam the river Niger, they accepted Nigerias appeal not to, so that Nigeria could fully benefit from its own hydroelectric dams on the River Niger.

Shortly thereafter, President Bazoum himself became the next victim of a coup. President Tinubu is right to show strong leadership in this struggle against terrorism and the return of the military. His actions, however, need to be carefully considered as the threat is against not just one but four countries  Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea, which have all already announced that they will fight together if Niger is attacked. Algeria has also put out a statement that it would not allow a repeat of the dismantling of the state and subsequent chao that was allowed to happen to Libya. Niger itself is not completely isolated, as its borders with Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, Libya and Algeria have already been reopened. The only closed borders it has today are with Nigeria and Benin.

Nigeria, on whose neck a lot of action will rely on has to consider the long history of amical and fraternal relations it has had with both the state and people of Niger. During the civil war, in spite of a lot of pressure, Niger resisted French solicitations to support Biafra. When they wanted to dam the river Niger, they accepted Nigerias appeal not to, so that Nigeria could fully benefit from its own hydroelectric dams on the River Niger. In compensation, we have been providing them electricity until the current sanctions regime went into force and the supply was stopped. What would be the implications of this measure for future bilateral relations?

The most important concern I have for the threat of war is the current geopolitical dynamics in which France and the United States are determined to keep a foothold in Niger, where they have stationed their solders and have a major drone base in Agadez covering the entire region. As France has already been booted out of Burkina Faso and Mali, and their place taken over by the Russian Wagner Group, the risk of a proxy war between world powers could easily replace the ECOWAS objective of the restoration of the democratic order. Already, there are reports that the Niger putschists have gone to Mali for meetings with the Wagner Group. For Nigeria, the implications of a military confrontation could be the inflow of millions of refugees into our territory.

Public opinion in Niger and indeed much of the Sahel is very deeply anti-French. ECOWAS needs to be careful and ensure that the people do not see its actions as being teleguided by French and American imperialism. The ECOWAS Vision 2050 is for a West Africa of the peoples and the organisation must conduct itself in a way and manner that does not alienate the said peoples.

I believe that ECOWAS must maintain its principle of zero tolerance for unconstitutional changes of government, as enshrined in the ECOWAS and African Union Protocols and other instruments, but the sanctions regime currently being implemented should be enough to force the hands of junta. These include:

Closure of land and air borders between ECOWAS countries and Niger; Institution of an ECOWAS no-fly zone on all commercial flights to and from Niger; Suspension of all commercial and financial transactions between ECOWAS member states and Niger; Freezing of all service transactions, including utility services; Freezing of assets of the Republic of Niger in ECOWAS Central Banks; Freezing of assets of the Niger state and the state enterprises and parastatals in commercial banks; Suspension of Niger from all financial assistance and transactions with all financial institutions, particularly ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID) and West African Development Bank

(BOAD); Travel ban and asset freeze of the military officials involved in the coup attempt. The same applies to their family members and the civilians who accept to participate in any institutions or government established by these military officials.

It is also important to maintain and indeed intensify the current mediation efforts. In this regard, I strongly support the dispatch of a mediation team to Niamey yesterday by the Chairman of the ECOWAS, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, with a mandate to expeditiously resolve the current political impasse in the country. The delegation is headed by former Nigerian head of state, General Abdulsalami Abubakar (rtd). Other members are the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Saad Abubakar III and the President of the ECOWAS Commission, Omar Alieu Touray. President Tinubu has also sent a separate delegation led by Ambassador Babagana Kingibe to engage with the leaders of Libya and Algeria on the Niger crisis.

Public opinion in Niger and indeed much of the Sahel is very deeply anti-French. ECOWAS needs to be careful and ensure that the people do not see its actions as being teleguided by French and American imperialism. The ECOWAS Vision 2050 is for a West Africa of the peoples and the organisation must conduct itself in a way and manner that does not alienate the said peoples.

A professor of Political Science and development consultant/expert, Jibrin Ibrahim is a Senior Fellow of the Centre for Democracy and Development, and Chair of the Editorial Board of PREMIUM TIMES.

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More intriguingly, would the West look away if we were just to go the whole hog and fold Niger into Nigeria? This would mean that Nigeria can take over the countrys vast mineral riches. It bears repeating that Niger is highly resource rich. The country has a critical stock of natural resources, including uranium (one of the largest in the world), coal, gold, iron ore, tin, phosphates, petroleum, molybdenum, salt, and gypsum.

A (perhaps not so) crazy musing on what a military invasion of Niger by Nigeria-led forces might mean.

Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.  Groucho Marx

As the Nigerian government, clearly being prodded by Western powers, continues to talk up the possibility of embarking on a military expedition into Niger to restore democracy, it ought to be reminded of the dictum that if you break it, then you own it.

It is clear that a military intervention in the unfortunate event in Niger would not only put the final nail in the coffin of the democratically elected government of President Mohamed Bazoum, it would also throw that country into a major socio-political upheaval that would make the subsequent extraction of our forces hard to justify. Think of the US and its Afghanistan adventure.

Of course, ECOWAS is right to insist on a return to civilian rule in Niger and it has deployed a variety of tools to impress it on the junta in Niamey that it does not belong to any decent society. But I find the threat of military intervention in the country worrisome. A military approach would turn ECOWAS into that proverbial frog in slowly boiling water: It is doing OKuntil it is no longer doing OK and has become boiled meat.

Play around with a revolving door long enough and you will get smacked by it in the face. How long would it take ECOWAS leaders to realise that the voodoo doll they are gathering needles to stab probably looks like themselves.

The junta in Niamey is nobodys fool. One of the things it did was to put Bazoum and hundreds of his associates in detention. If the Nigerian-led armed forces move into Niamey to uproot the junta, it is debatable if it would still feel obliged to keep these people alive. So, for all practicable purposes, the Bazoum government would be permanently over and the fight would then be about what comes after.

A disbanded Nigerien military will just melt into the country, where its members would join forces with the various terror gangs already operating in Niger and neighbouring countries, and they would be reinforced by outside powers intent on deepening the chaos. The ex-soldiers might even decide that they need to return Nigeria the favour by teaming up with Boko Haram or ISWAP terror groups to stage attacks.

Without doubt, ECOWAS forces would be able to subdue the junta and evict it from the presidential palace in Niamey. ECOWAS would also have to appoint a (non-democratically elected) transition team to govern the country. Thats when the real fun would start.

The first task would be how ECOWAS intends to sell this new government to Nigeriens and the international community? But that would still be a walk in a well-lit park in comparison to how it would get this new government to enforce its authority on the country. The reason for this is simple: will a militarily victorious ECOWAS dissolve the Nigerien military or get its chastened leaders to rally the demoralised troops (still licking their wounds from a drubbing by invading forces) behind the new interim administration?

Both options are tricky. A disbanded Nigerien military will just melt into the country, where its members would join forces with the various terror gangs already operating in Niger and neighbouring countries, and they would be reinforced by outside powers intent on deepening the chaos. The ex-soldiers might even decide that they need to return Nigeria the favour by teaming up with Boko Haram or ISWAP terror groups to stage attacks. Our troops have struggled to pacify the terrorists operating in Borno and Yobe for so long, how then do we ever hope to defeat them in a country the size of Mali?

A grateful West would not leave us alone to deal with such insurgency and instability, after all we are fighting for democracy and the rule of law? Could that be right? Well, one can only hope so. That was the same expectation when we went into Liberia and Sierra Leone years ago. Till date, the West is yet to redeem any of its pledges of support to Nigeria back then, even though their companies  not ours  have been the ones reaping the benefits of peace in those countries since then.

A grateful West would not leave us alone to deal with such insurgency and instability, after all we are fighting for democracy and the rule of law? Could that be right? Well, one can only hope so. That was the same expectation when we went into Liberia and Sierra Leone years ago. Till date, the West is yet to redeem any of its pledges of support to Nigeria back then, even though their companies  not ours  have been the ones reaping the benefits of peace in those countries since then. The same situation would surely re-occur in Niger. The West has poured close to $190 billion into Ukraine over the past one year in the  so far failing attempt to push Russia back. That war is likely to remain their main focus for the forseeable future. Can they provide us with a minimum of $1 billion to take over and stabilise Niger, so that their companies can continue to operate there, or are they going to push us to the IMF and the World Bank for loans to prosecute this war?

More intriguingly, would the West look away if we were just to go the whole hog and fold Niger into Nigeria? This would mean that Nigeria can take over the countrys vast mineral riches. It bears repeating that Niger is highly resource rich. The country has a critical stock of natural resources, including uranium (one of the largest in the world), coal, gold, iron ore, tin, phosphates, petroleum, molybdenum, salt, and gypsum. It even has a sparkling functional refinery. We could use this to offset our immediate expenses for the conquest and assimilation  as well as for the future development of what would then be new states of Nigeria.

Niger would then transform from a landlocked, struggling francophone nation into another state (or two or three) in a richer (better governed) Anglophone Nigeria that would not only become one of the largest countries in the world, but one that could emphatically pronounce itself as truly the giant of Africa. Of course, the French might have to remove their troops and US might also have to shut down its drone base (Nigeria does not permit foreign bases in its soil), and this means reduced expenses by these countries. So, it is a win-win situation all round. What is there not to like about this?!

Kayode Ogunbunmi is a journalist and development communications consultant.

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Indigenous oil and gas companies must instill principles of corporate governance in their operations if they are to grow and achieve sustainability, the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Mr Simbi Kesiye Wabote has said.

Speaking virtually on Friday at the ceremony marking the rebranding of the Niger Delta Exploration and Production (NDEP) into Aradel Holdings, Wabote, an engineer, said that many local oil and gas companies have died because they do not adhere to corporate governance principles.

He lauded the management of Aradel Holdings for setting high standards of corporate governance, stating that one of the incredible things the Chairman, Chief Ladi Jadesimi; the former Managing Director, Dr Layi Fatona and their team have done is instilling the spirit of corporate government. That is why the company is succeeding The owners of the business are not contractors; they do not engage contractors and they do not engage in round tripping. That has led to their success.

Speaking further, Wabote described Aradel Holdings as a good example, noting that they have made significant returns to their joint venture partners. They are one of the local companies that NNPC Limited is proud to associate with. NCDMD is also proud of their success and we will continue to support them, he assured

The NCDMB boss charged indigenous producers to emulate Aradel Holdings and to take corporate governance seriously, recommending that owners of businesses should detachthemselves from the daily operations of their organizations.

Dwelling on local content development, Wabote challengedAradel Holdings to champion the development of local content, stressing that the implementation of the Nigerian Content initiative and the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act enabled indigenous producers to exist and thrive. He insisted that it is the responsibility of Aradel Holdings and other local producers to support local content, protect and enhance it, with a view to creating jobs, growing technology, and developing the nations natural resources.

He remarked that the percentage of unemployed Nigerians was about over 30%, warning that it would be a grave mistake if the oil industry were to de-emphasise local manufacturingand local production. He also challenged Aradel Holdings to play an active role in the acquisition of assets being divested by some international operating oil companies.

Earlier in his speech, the chairman of Aradel Holdings, Chief Ladi Jadesimi traced the history of the firm, noting that it had operated in the past three decades and pioneered several initiatives, including marginal field operations, one of which is the Okpele Field, which it has grown the daily production from about 1,000 barrels of crude oil per day to 13,000 barrels. The company is also a fully integrated oil and gas company, and also pioneered modular refinery initiatives with the first train of 1,000 barrels per day, which has since expanded to 11,000 barrels per day.

In his comments, the Managing Director of Aradel Holdings, Mr Adegbite Falade described the new name as an acronym of the founding Chairman, late Chief Aret Adams, and the firms original name and area of operations, which is the Niger Delta region. The new name also signified the companys resilience and preparedness to meet the challenges of energy transition and security as well as become the leading energy company in the country, he added.

Falade also announced that the companys modular refinery will soon begin to refine premium motor spirit, alongside other major projects the firm plans to embark on.

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Terrorists have abducted a Catholic priest, Paul Sanogo and a seminarian, who was identified as Melchior, from St Lukes Catholic Church, Gyedna, in Paikoro Local Government of Niger State.

Both clerics were abducted from the parish residence on Thursday morning.

The Catholic bishop of Minna, Martins Uzoukwu, confirmed the abduction in a memo sent to all parishes across Niger State. He asked them for prayers for the abductees.

On behalf of my Auxiliary Most Rev Sylvester Luka Gopep, the Priests and Religious of the Catholic Diocese of Minna. I request your prayers for Fr Paul Sanogo (M.Afr) and Seminarian Melchior, who were kidnapped by bandits in the early hours of August 3, 2023, at the priests residence at Gyedna, Niger State, the memo reads.

The Catholic Bishop prayed the abductees are brought back unharmed.

Efforts to get the reaction of the Niger State Police Command were abortive as Abiodun Wasiu, the commands spokesperson, declined calls made to his mobile number.

READ ALSO: Catholic priest kidnapped in Kaduna

Abduction for ransom by bandits has been going on for some years in some parts of the country.

While some abductees are lucky to come alive after ransom payment, some are not so lucky, as they may die in the process. They are those still in kidnappers then months after their abduction.

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The Edo State Government has resumed the payment of outstanding gratuities to its pensioners 17 years after it stopped the exercise.

Crusoe Osagie, special adviser on Media projects to the Edo State Government, disclosed this in Benin on Thursday.

He told reporters that one of the reasons for the resumption of payment was to cushion the effect of fuel subsidy removal on pensioners.

Mr Osagie said the government was working out modalities to ensure that all outstanding gratuities were paid.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the last time Edo paid gratuities was in 2006 during Governor Lucky Igbenedions administration.

Mr Osagie described Governor Godwin Obaseki as a performing governor who had also kick-started the provision of 24-hour free Wi-Fi service in some public places in the state.

READ ALSO:

He listed such areas to include the kings square (Oba Market) in Benin, Oredo Local Government Area, Eki-Osa (Osa Market) in Ikpoba-okha Local Government Area and parts of Egor council area.

Governor Obaseki has done all these for residents to have easy communication through social media without paying a penny.

The governor started with various Ministries, Departments and Agencies and other public places to ensure unlimited internet access for workers in the wake of the three-day weekly work schedule for civil and public servants, Mr Osagie said.

He said the provision of free internet was also part of efforts to cushion the effect of the fuel subsidy removal.

(NAN)

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The deputy governor of Edo State, Philip Shuaibu, has filed a suit at the Federal High Court in Abuja to stop alleged plots by the state governor, Godwin Obaseki, to remove him from office.

In court filings dated 28 July, Mr Shuaibus lawyer, Ogwu Onoja, prayed the court to restrain Mr Obaseki, the State Security Service, the Inspector General of Police, Speaker of the Edo State House of Assembly and the State Chief Judge, who are defendants in the suit from preventing harassing him.

Mr Onoja also urged the court to stop the defendants from intimidating, embarrassing and preventing Mr Shuaibu from carrying out the functions of his office as deputy governor of Edo State, including attending the state executive council meeting.

In a motion ex parte, he further prayed to the court for an interim injunction restraining the defendants from initiating impeachment proceedings against Mr Shuaibu.

In an affidavit of urgency, Mr Shuaibu accused Mr Obaseki of preventing him from carrying out the duties of his office as deputy governor.

He said the governor was using the SSS and police to harass, intimidate and embarrass him.

The deponent averred that the Speaker of the state House of Assembly and Chief Judge of the State are acting in cahoots with Mr Obaseki to remove him from office as deputy governor.

The 3rd defendant (Mr Obaseki) has hatched plans to impeach me, and the court needs to urgently intervene in restraining him and all the other defendants acting in concert with him, Mr Shuaibu urged the court in the affidavit.

In an originating summons, the deputy governor urged the court to determine whether Mr Obasekis alleged action of using the SSS and police to prevent him from performing the duties of his office does not violate the Nigerian constitution.

Whether the 3rd defendant (Mr Obaseki) has the powers to instigate the parliament and state Chief Judge to commence impeachment proceedings against the plaintiff (Mr Shuaibu) with a view to removing him from office as the deputy governor of Edo State.

The suit has not been assigned to a judge for a hearing.

Background

With the governorship election due next year in Edo, Messrs Obaseki and Shuaibu appear to be locked in a succession battle.

Governor Obaseki, serving his second term, succeeded Adams Oshiomhole, now senator.

The pair, in their first term, were elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) but fell out with their political godfather and former governor of the state, Mr Oshiomole.

In 2020, Messrs Obaseki and Shuaibu defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), where they ran on the Partys platform and defeated APCs Osagie Ize-Iyamu of APC.

With Mr Obaseki due to relinquish power in November 2024, there are speculations that Mr Shuaibu intends to succeed his principal.

Impeachment of deputy governors by state parliaments in Nigeria is often induced by the governors.

In February 2022, the Zamfara State House of Assembly impeached the states deputy governor, Mahadi Ali, despite a court order stopping the exercise.

Mr Ali was at loggerheads with the then governor, Bello Matawalle, who had defected from the PDP to the APC.

The deputy governor had declined to cross with Mr Matawalle to the APC. Many believed Mr Matawalle orchestrated his deputys removal from office.

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Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Edo State, has suspended the payment of July salaries to some of its principal officers whom it accused of negligence.

The university stated on Friday in Benin that the decision was informed by the non-compliance of some Deans of Faculty and Heads of Departments to submit result files of the 2020/2021 sessional examination results.

It is also informed by the slow pace of other affected officers to upload the 2020/2021 examination results to the universitys portal.

The implication of this failure or slow pace, as it were, is that the current 2022/2023 academic session cannot be activated on the portal.

The university management has also suspended all financial requests from Deans of Faculties and Heads of Departments with immediate effect, according to a statement from its Acting Registrar, Ambrose Odiase.

The Head, Corporate Communication and Protocol of Ambrose Alli University, Mike Aladenika, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the decision was to allow for student advancements.

He said management was disturbed by the backlog of results yet to be uploaded to the varsitys portal since the action was affecting the progress of students.

It is no longer acceptable, hence the need to be firm to get things done positively the way they should be done, he said.

READ ALSO:

On the issue of processing transcripts in the university, Mr Aladenika said: Management is aware of the scandalous delay in the processing of transcript applications in the institution.

As such, it has directed that the Information Communication Technology Directorate should digitise all students academic records that are not uploaded on the portal.

A cartel of transcript racketeering has been smashed in the university with suspects currently before a disciplinary committee with a view to determining the level and depth of their operations within the institution.

I can confidently tell you that it is no longer business as usual for recalcitrant elements in and outside the system.

We are more determined than before to wipe them out and return the university to the path of glory, he told NAN.

(NAN)

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A 56-year-old man has allegedly raped his 11-year-old daughter in Fegge, an urban community in Onitsha South Local Government Area of Anambra State, Nigerias south-east.

The suspect, identified as Mr Okpara, is from Adazi-Enu in Anaocha Local Government Area of the state.

Chidinma Ikeanyionwu, a media aide to the Commissioner for Women and Social Welfare in the state, Ify Obinabo, who disclosed this in a statement on Thursday, said the suspect has been arrested.

Ms Ikeanyionwu said the incident went public after an unnamed resident of the area noticed that the victim (name withheld) was limping, which prompted the resident to interrogate her.

READ ALSO:

The victim, upon interrogation, revealed that her father usually raped her every night and that she had not raised any alarm because the father had threatened to kill her if she told anyone, according to the statement.

Continuing, the victim said her father started raping her after her mothers death in 2020.

She recalled that before her father began raping her, he first became over protective of her by not allowing her to associate with other family members and friends.

Suspects claim

The media aide said the suspect denied the allegation, claiming that his daughters inability to walk properly was because she fell from their refrigerator.

She, however, said test results from the hospital where the victim was taken to, showed that the victim was raped.

The Commissioner for Women and Social Welfare in the state, Mrs Obinabo, has promised to investigate the matter and ensure that justice prevails, Ms Ikeanyionwu said.

The commissioner said the suspect will be arraigned before the Children and Gender Based Violence Magistrate Court in Awka, the state capital, on Wednesday.

Prohibited in Nigeria

Nigeria, in 2015, enacted the Violence against Persons (Prohibition) Act, which outlawed all forms of violence against women and girls, including rape, female circumcision and forceful ejection, among others.

Offenders, on conviction, face life imprisonment or maximum of 14-year jail term, depending on the age of the offender and type of violence committed.

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Lagos State lawmakers are dissatisfied with the list of commissioner nominees sent to them by the governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, for screening and confirmation.

The lawmakers lamented the exclusion of some local government areas and constituencies from the list; the information officer of the House, Bisola Branco-Adekoya, said in a statement on Thursday.

The governor had on 28 July sent 39 names to the state lawmakers.

A lawmaker representing Alimosho constituency 2, Kehinde Joseph, said government loyalists and ruling party members deserve to be nominated as much as the technocrats named in the list.

He argued that those who sacrificed their ambitions for the party or lost during the last elections should also have been nominated as commissioners and special advisers, as they could still serve the people in other capacities.

His colleague, Femi Saheed, representing constituency 2 in the Kosofe area of the state, explained that he had the opportunity to serve as secretary of the Lagos chapter of the All Progressive Congress (APC) for seven years and was aware that the party has technocrats who can be nominated.

READ ALSO:

The House must thoroughly look at the nominees to make sure they are worthy of the nomination, he said.

In his reaction, David Setonji, representing Badagry Constituency 2, said that It seems like we have not learnt our lesson. In one of the wards in my constituency, it was hard but in the end, we proved ourselves and here is the list and not a single name from my LGA.

Another lawmaker, Adewale Temitope, in his submission, noted that the Ifako Ijaye area of the state which delivered in the last election to the success of the governor was not accommodated in the list.

The speaker, Mudashiru Obasa, however, implored the members to see reasons with the governor over his choice of commissioners.

The law gives room for the governor to decide who he wants to choose; the House also has the power to deliberate on his decisions, he said.

Mr Obasa also agreed that the list of nominees needs to also include the local government area they come from for the benefit of the state in particular and the general public.

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Almost UAH 190 million of assets of Russian oligarchs, which were collected by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), have been seized in Ukraine. Sanctions have also been imposed on more than 4,000 companies. Information about such businesses will be used at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

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This was reported by the SBU. "Every sponsor of Russian terrorism should sit in the dock next to Putin. Because they are full-fledged accomplices in the crimes. Russia is using their money to launch missiles and drones," said SBU Head Vasyl Malyuk.

The agency is investigating all business chains leading to the financing of the war. And the seized Russian assets should work for the benefit of Ukraine.

"Already today, the SBU is actively "derussification" businesses that work for the enemy, adhering to a strict line on sanctions, arrest and confiscation," Malyuk said. Thus, in 2022-2023, the SBU seized business assets of Russian oligarchs based on the SBU's materials.

This includes corporate rights and real estate of dozens of companies whose ultimate beneficiaries are Russian corporations such as Rosneft, Rosatom, Gazprom, Rostec, RusAl, GMS Group, Tatneft, banks, etc.

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According to Malyuk, the special service has compiled a list of Russian businesses financing the war and is comprehensively checking each person involved. All information will be included in criminal proceedings for consideration by an international tribunal.

As OBOZREVATEL previously reported, the EU and the US want to make Russia pay for the restoration of Ukraine. However, there are problems with the organisation of this process.

Only verified information is available on our Obozrevatel Telegram channel, Threads and Viber. Don't fall for fakes!
Art of Play Founders to Attend The First International Puzzle Party in Jerusalem: Driving Innovation Through Collaboration

JERUSALEM, Aug. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Art of Play (www.artofplay.com), a leading curator and producer of high-quality puzzles, playing cards, and games, is excited to announce its participation in the upcoming International Puzzle Party (IPP). This annual gathering fosters a vibrant community of puzzle designers and collectors from around the globe, with a specific emphasis on tactile and mechanical puzzles.

The Wavelinks Puzzle created by Rod Bogart was first discovered at IPP in 2019 and went on to raise over $500,000 dollars on Kickstarter becoming the most successful mechanical puzzle in Kickstarter history.

Art of Play embodies a deep fascination for magic and the intricate design of puzzles. Their active participation in the puzzle community has been pivotal to the company's success in this unique market. Although IPP is a private event not open to the public, opportunities for media coverage are welcome.

"Art of Play is not just a business, but a team of passionate creators, curators, and connoisseurs in the fascinating world of puzzles," stated Dan Buck, Co-founder of Art of Play. "Our presence at IPP goes beyond sourcing the latest designs for our shop or showcasing our creations. It is about being integral to this vibrant community, forging relationships, and facilitating collaborations that bring prototypes to life."

Art of Play's productive engagement at the IPP in 2019 led to the discovery of the Wavelinks Puzzle, a captivating design that later raised over $500K on Kickstarter. This triumph illustrates the immense potential and value that the IPP brings to creators and curators within the puzzle community.

Another founder, Adam Rubin, underscored their participation's importance: "The IPP is more than a convention; it's a congregation of minds where creators can push design boundaries and challenge the norm. We are thrilled to contribute to and learn from this dynamic ecosystem."

About the Art of Play:

Art of Play, co-founded by esteemed puzzle enthusiasts DAN & DAVE, and co-founder Adam Rubin, is a testament to the enduring allure of puzzles, playing cards, and brain-teasing games. With a diverse collection of unique puzzles, playing cards, and fun, Art of Play inspires, engages, and preserves the awe-inspiring world of puzzles in popular culture.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2168615/Art_of_Play_IPP.jpg

SOURCE Art of Play
The Bulat Utemuratov Foundation allocated $5 million for a five-year Young Leaders program in Kazakhstan

The annual Young Leaders Forum took place in Almaty with more than 500 students and teachers in attendance

Students from three schools will get financial support for their innovative projects

ALMATY, Kazakhstan, Aug. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Bulat Utemuratov Foundation has allocated $5 million for its five-year Young Leaders program to develop leadership skills among school students in Grades 5-11 in Kazakhstan.

The Bulat Utemuratov Foundation funded the 2023 Young Leaders Forum.

Throughout the school year, the students attend elective classes, and participate in monthly mini-conferences and specialised training sessions. They also learn to use their soft skills, including leadership, critical thinking, communications, public speaking, teamwork, project management and negotiation. To date, more than 24,000 students from 110 participating schools have completed the Foundation's leadership training courses.

Held in Almaty, the annual Young Leaders Forum was attended by more than 500 students and teachers. The students had the opportunity to present and discuss the projects that they have been working on and the Bulat Utemuratov Foundation announced the three winners which will receive support from its dedicated fund.

The winning projects were selected from nearly 1,500 entries. This year's winners aim to provide valuable learning experiences and include a pottery workshop, a history of Kazakhstan in comic book format and a project facilitating access to career advice services.

Marat Aitmagambetov, Director of the Bulat Utemuratov Foundation, commented: "I am proud to see the Young Leaders Forum program continue to grow and inspire students across Kazakhstan. The three winning projects from this year's Forum showcase the creativity and innovative thinking of our young leaders and demonstrate the impact that this program can have on their education and personal development. We are committed to supporting the next generation of leaders in Kazakhstan and look forward to seeing the continued success of the program in years to come."

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2169006/Bulat_Utemuratov_Foundation_2023.jpg

SOURCE The Bulat Utemuratov Foundation
AUSTIN, Texas, Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ --1st Commercial Credit, LLC is delighted to announce the resounding success of its referral program, which has attracted a diverse range of factoring companies and small asset-based lenders. With over 12 participants benefiting from the program, the total referral commissions have reached an impressive milestone of over $1 million. Notably, a single factoring company has achieved an exceptional sum of over $600,000 in earned commissions, underscoring the program's potential for ongoing growth and partnership expansion. This remarkable achievement is greatly attributed to the leadership of Raul Esqueda, President of 1st Commercial Credit, LLC, and Managing Partner of four other factoring companies including a purchase order finance company, collectively known as the 1st Commercial Credit Factoring Group.

Factoring companies must refer clients to each other in today's market due to rising customer acquisition costs. Tweet this Referral Marketing

1st Commercial Credit proudly celebrates two decades of excellence as it reaches its 20-year milestone in the business. Established in 2001 as a referral/broker agency, the company quickly built enduring partnerships with factoring companies across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. In 2008, 1st Commercial Credit took a significant leap by establishing direct lending relationships, a move that has propelled its growth exponentially. Today, the company has expanded to encompass four factoring companies throughout the United States, successfully managing over $600 million annually in accounts receivable factoring transactions.

Raul Esqueda highlights the win/win potential of the company's factoring referral program. Addressing concerns that some factoring companies may have reservations about referring clients to competitors, Esqueda emphasizes the mutual benefits for all parties involved.

According to Esqueda, each factoring company has unique approval parameters that cater to specific industries, sales volumes, concentration limits, debtor credit risk exposures, applicant credit quality, merchant cash advance exposure, and invoice verification processes. As such, certain clients may not align with a particular company's criteria. By participating in the referral program, factoring companies can confidently refer these clients to 1st Commercial Credit without any financial burden to the applicants. The referral commissions offered are drawn from the company's marketing budget and do not incur additional charges to the clients.

Esqueda highlights the advantages for clients, as they can swiftly access funding through the most suitable finance company. This collaborative approach fosters a win/win situation, ensuring smooth transactions and optimal outcomes for both factoring companies and their clients. In today's factoring market, the cost of customer acquisition has nearly tripled compared to a decade ago, making it crucial for factoring companies to seize opportunities by reciprocating and referring clients to other factors. 1st Commercial Credit has reciprocated to other factoring companies and lenders since its inception.

Over the years, 1st Commercial Credit has established itself as a leading player in the factoring industry, driven by its commitment to delivering unparalleled financial solutions and fostering enduring relationships with clients and partners alike.

For more information about 1st Commercial Credit's factoring referral program and financial services, please visit https://www.1stcommercialcredit.com/about

SOURCE 1st Commercial Credit, LLC
SCRANTON, Pa., Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- AARP Pennsylvania State Director Bill Johnston-Walsh issued the following statement:

"After years of advocacy on behalf of Pennsylvanians 50 and older, AARP Pennsylvania's State Advocacy Director Teresa Osborne was present as Governor Josh Shapiro signed House Bill 1100 into law at the United Neighborhood Center's Healthy Aging Campus in Scranton, Lackawanna County.

AARP commends the Pennsylvania General Assembly for supporting Governor Shapiro's proposal to amend the taxpayer relief act, which modernizes the Commonwealth's Property Tax Rent Rebate Program.

Since the Property Tax Rent Rebate Program's inception in 1971, more than $8 billion in property tax and rent relief has been delivered to older Pennsylvanians and adults with disabilities, among those most burdened by their property tax bills and rent payments.

With the program's tax and rent rebate formula not being updated in 17 years, the passage of House Bill 1100 and Governor Shapiro's signing of the bill into law, the maximum rebate will go from $650 to $1,000 and raise the income cap to $45,000, tying it to the consumer price index.

AARP's mission is to empower people to choose how they live as they age, and an important part of choosing how we live is being able to choose where we live. The Property Tax Rent Rebate Program has been a lifeline for hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians. With this expansion, hundreds of thousands more older Pennsylvanians will be able to remain in their homes and communities  where they want to be.

AARP Pennsylvania will never stop fighting for all Pennsylvanians' health and financial security. We look forward to continued work with the Governor and the General Assembly to ensure a better Pennsylvania for everyone."

AARP is the nation's largest nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to empowering Americans 50 and older to choose how they live as they age. With nearly 38 million members and offices in every state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, AARP works to strengthen communities and advocate for what matters most to families, focusing on health security, financial stability and personal fulfillment. AARP also works for individuals in the marketplace by sparking new solutions and allowing carefully chosen, high-quality products and services to carry the AARP name. As a trusted source for news and information, AARP produces the nation's largest circulation publications, AARP The Magazine and AARP Bulletin. To learn more, visit www.aarp.org or follow @AARP and @AARPadvocates on social media.

MEDIA CONTACT: TJ Thiessen | [email protected] | (202) 374-8033

SOURCE AARP Pennsylvania
aelf, a high-performance layer 1 blockchain network, is dedicating grants of up to US$150,000 per studio to foster the integration of Web2 gaming studios into the Web3 space

SINGAPORE, Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- aelf, a leading layer-1 blockchain for decentralised applications, launches aelevate. The inaugural program is designed to facilitate Web2 gaming studios to seamlessly transition into the Web3 space. Aelevate will support the transition of studios and the development of blockchain games by providing grants of up to US$150,000 per studio to help developers integrate, build, and launch their games on the aelf network.

aelevate aelf's gaming programme

Given the industry forecasts, the growing interest of traditional Web2 gaming studios in the Web3 space is unsurprising. Naavik and MarketsandMarkets project a substantial growth trajectory for blockchain gaming, with the market size expected to reach US$50 billion in 2025, a tenfold increase from 2022's US$10 billion. Additionally, the number of daily users in blockchain gaming is projected to grow tenfold, from 1 million in 2022 to 10 million by 2025. Drakestar's 2022 report also noted that gaming and blockchain VC funds raised over US$13B in 2022, and US$4B was invested in approximately 400 blockchain gaming companies.

Structured to pave the way for this growth, aelevate will jump-start participating studios into Web3's foray through monetary grants, and technological and business support. Through aelf's ecosystem partners and network, successful applicants will be provided with industry guidance and insights into key areas spanning blockchain technology, interoperability, user acquisition and retention, game publishing, and cloud and AI.

Studios will also receive support for utilising aelf's high-performance, scalable, secure blockchain infrastructure. This is made accessible as aelf provides lightweight and open-sourced software development kits (SDKs) for aelf's mainnet, which enables games to interact with aelf's mainchain and sidechains, as well as SDK for aelf's native contract account (CA) wallet  Portkey, which supports the transaction and management of in-game digital assets (NFTs/Tokens). Studios can also design and deploy their smart contracts on aelf to govern their game mechanics, store and display cross-chain non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as well as fungible tokens (FTs), and enjoy interoperability through aelf's cross-chain bridges to access different assets from other chains.

Tavia Wong, Head of Commercial, aelf, shares, "Aelevate is aelf's pioneering initiative to empower Web2 gaming studios to transition into the Web3 space seamlessly. Our goal is to break the daunting barriers studios face in integrating blockchain technology into their games, particularly in the current uncertain and challenging crypto climate. Through aelevate, we are pledging our support for the Web3 gaming space as we provide crucial infrastructural support and expert industry guidance for our participants to thrive and succeed in this new Web3 frontier."

Open to all game developers, regardless of their experience level, successful applicants of aelevate will receive end-to-end support on two major fronts:

1. Technological Ecosystem

Developers will be provided with technological support to upgrade and transit to a blockchain-enabled gaming ecosystem through asset integration, tokenisation, and smart contract and side-chain development.

Developers will have access to a suite of dApps housed in aelf's ecosystem. This includes Portkey , aelf's native contract account (CA) wallet; eBridge , aelf's cross-chain bridge; and Forest , aelf's NFT marketplace. Developers can also utilise on-off ramp solutions available on aelf and embed fiat- crypto conversion features into their projects.

housed in aelf's ecosystem. This includes , aelf's native contract account (CA) wallet; , aelf's cross-chain bridge; and , aelf's NFT marketplace. Developers can also utilise on-off ramp solutions available on aelf and embed fiat- conversion features into their projects. Through aelf's ecosystem partners and network, developers can access industry insights and guidance spanning blockchain technology, interoperability, game publishing, and cloud and AI.

2. Business Ecosystem

Developers will be provided mentorship in tokenisation, go-to-market strategies, and user acquisition advisory.

Developers can tap into aelf's fund-raising initiatives, as well as aelf's venture capitalists and investor relations.

The aelevate program application is now open and will close on 30 September 2023 . Aelevate's first round of grants is scheduled to be awarded in October 2023.

For more information about Aelevate, visit aelevate's website:

http://bit.ly/aelevateyourgame

Stay updated on aelf's news and engage with the aelf community on:

Website: https://aelf.com

Telegram: https://t.me/aelfblockchain

Discord: https://discord.gg/bgysa9xjvD

About aelf

aelf is a high-performance layer 1 blockchain designed to power the development of Web3 and support its continuous advancement into the future. Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Singapore, aelf is one of the pioneers of the mainchain-sidechain architecture concept. Incorporating key foundational components, including AEDPoS, aelf's variation of a Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPoS) consensus protocol; parallel processing; peer-to-peer (P2P) network communication; cross-chain bridges, and a dynamic side chain indexing mechanism, aelf delivers a highly efficient, safe, and modular ecosystem with high throughput, scalability, and interoperability.

aelf facilitates the building, integrating, and deploying of smart contracts and decentralised apps (dApps) on its blockchain with its native C# software development kit (SDK) and SDKs in other languages, including Java, JS, Python, and Go. aelf's ecosystem also houses a range of dApps to support a flourishing blockchain network. aelf is committed to fostering innovation within its ecosystem and remains dedicated to driving the development of Web3 and the adoption of blockchain technology.

For media enquiries: Joel Tan, PR Lead aelf, [email protected]

Disclaimer: The information provided in this press announcement is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, financial, or investment advice. Aelevate's details and terms outlined here are subject to change without notice, and aelf reserves the right to modify or discontinue the program at its discretion. aelf makes no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of the information provided in this press announcement. Any reliance you place on such information is strictly at your own risk. Participation in aelevate does not guarantee the successful funding of any gaming studio or the completion of any game development project. The selection of grant recipients will be subject to a rigorous evaluation process based on predefined criteria established by aelf. Blockchain technology and cryptocurrency involve inherent risks, including but not limited to market volatility, regulatory changes, and potential security vulnerabilities. Participants in aelevate must conduct their own due diligence and seek independent advice before engaging in any blockchain-related activities. By accessing and using the information provided in this press announcement, you agree to indemnify and hold aelf, its officers, directors, employees, and agents harmless from and against any and all claims, liabilities, damages, losses, or expenses arising out of or in connection with your use of the information or participation in aelevate. aelf reserves all rights not expressly granted in this press announcement.

SOURCE aelf
HONG KONG, Aug. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the Future Technology: AI Empowering Bioprocessing Development summit hosted by Great Bay Bio (hereinafter referred to as "GBB") was successfully held at the Suzhou International Expo Center, where industry players gathered to celebrate the feast of technological innovation. At the summit, Great Bay Bio announced the official launch of its self-developed AI-enabled, no-screening culture media development platform, AlfaOPA. The platform innovatively integrates AI to optimize culture media, replacing the blind screening process in traditional culture media development. The launch of the AlfaOPA platform symbolizes a new milestone for Great Bay Bio's fast, high-yield, and generalized CMC platform construction  taking its AI-enabled cell engineering platform to new heights. It also signifies the complete implementation of a business development system that centers on "cell engineering" and integrates "cell line construction" and "culture media development".

AI-enabled No-screening Cell Culture Media Development Platform, AlfaOPA, officially launched

The AlfaOPA platform integrates the dry and wet experimental platforms of Great Bay Bio to establish a key component metabolic model for multiple cell lines. By comparing and simulating with the optimal metabolic model, it generates optimized supplements. The culture media development work can be completed in a single step by adding these to the existing culture media. The platform is applicable for various cell lines without the need of replacing customers' existing current media. Within 2 months of optimization, data from customers indicate that the protein expression level of formulas optimized by the AlfaOPA platform has increased by more than 30% on average, and the protein quality is consistent with the control.

Mr. Kingsley Leung, chairman and co-founder of GBB, expressed his pleasure at discussing the industry's new future with many bioprocess peers in Suzhou. With the goal of enhancing the productivity of drug development, the driving force of technological innovation, and the guidance of market demand, Great Bay Bio has always been a steadfast practitioner. The AlfaOPA platform uses AI technology to precisely optimize customers' existing culture media, achieving high-quality culture media optimization in one step. Paired with the company's AI-enabled, site-specific integration cell line platform, it can fully unlock the products' maximum potential and effectiveness. The no-screening style of culture media development is a market-oriented technological outcome. The launch of AlfaOPA signifies the beginning of a new stage in AI-driven culture media development technology."

SOURCE Great Bay Bio
Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council Oleksiy Danilov said that the Verkhovna Rada should ban the UOC-MP as soon as possible. According to him, since Russia has no success on the frontline, it may use its church to destabilise the situation in Ukraine.

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Danilov said this during an all-Ukrainian telethon. According to him, the Kremlin has been trying to divide Ukraine into two parts for years.

"Unfortunately, religious institutions that are subordinate to the Russian Federation are involved in this," he said.

The NSDC Secretary added that he negatively assesses the fact that the Parliament has not yet adopted a law concerning the activities of the UOC-MP.

"It is a pity that the deputies of the Verkhovna Rada have not yet adopted laws that would put an end to this issue. We need to do this, because if we leave this problem unresolved, it is only a matter of time before they will use people, some in an open and some in a closed format, to achieve their goal," he explained.

However, when asked if this meant a complete ban on the UOC-MP, Danilov explained that it is necessary that the activities of this church comply with the laws of Ukraine and the Constitution.

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"This is how it should be interpreted. We are not banning anyone, we are saying that if you have a registration centre in Muscovy, then keep in mind that this is not acceptable at a time when we are at war with Russia," the NSDC Secretary concluded.

It should be noted that 66% of Ukrainians support a complete ban on the activities of the UOC-MP in Ukraine. Another 19% support an approach that does not involve a complete ban, but they support the idea of establishing state control.

On Friday, 9 June, deputies of the Kyiv Regional Council supported a historic decision to ban the activities of the UOC-Moscow Patriarchate in the region. The deputies of the Kyiv Regional Council voted to appeal to the Verkhovna Rada to legislate the ban on the activities of religious organisations of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), which has ecclesiastical and canonical ties with the Russian Orthodox Church and is in a relationship of subordination with it.

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As OBOZREVATEL previously reported, the activities of the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate were also banned in Zakarpattia. The decision was made on 1 June 2023 at a meeting of the Transcarpathian Regional Council.

Earlier, deputies of the Chernivtsi Regional Council banned the activities of religious organisations and associations that have a proven ecclesiastical and canonical connection with the aggressor state of Russia. The deputies voted for this decision on 16 May.

Only verified information is available on our Obozrevatel Telegram channel, Threads and Viber. Don't fall for fakes!
MEXICO CITY, Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- albo , a leading neobank in Mexico, has announced its acquisition of delt.ai for US$20 million.

With this strategic acquisition, albo has strengthened its position in Mexico's financial services sector, becoming the only neobank to offer debit and credit products for both consumers and SMBs. This is in addition to its existing portfolio, including commission-free debit and savings accounts, personal loans, cash advances, crypto trading, management tools, and other services.

albo acquired delt.ai for US$20 million,becoming the only neobank in Mexico with credit and debit products for consumers Tweet this Angel Sahagun, CEO and founder of albo with Jose de la Luz, new Chief Operating Officer of albo.

delt.ai is a Y-Combinator fintech company with experience in the Mexican market, specializing in financial services and management tools for SMBs. Its product portfolio includes business loans, credit cards, and a financial platform for SMBs. Currently, delt.ai has completed more than 130,000 transactions through its platform, granting over US$90 million in business loans and credit lines.

"This acquisition strengthens our value proposition for SMBs, as the only neobank in Mexico, offering an end-to-end platform for consumers, SMBs, and their employees," said Angel Sahagun, CEO and founder of albo. "Imagine having a 360-degree solution on a single platform, where any company has access to a corporate bank account with a credit line and a payroll and payment dispersal platform. At the same time, their employees can obtain a payroll account and a personal loan. That, and more, is what we will be able to offer to customers and companies with the integration of delt.ai. As a result, we will create a perfect network effect that will minimize CAC, increase revenue per customer, and reduce churn due to the use of all services in one place."

The acquisition of delt.ai aligns with albo's strategic vision to offer high-quality financial products and services to promote healthy financial habits. albo's existing SMB customers will benefit from delt.ai's loan products, while delt.ai's customers will be able to access albo's products and services easily, including payroll and debit products.

Another important development is the appointment of delt.ai's current Founder and CEO, Jose de la Luz, who joins albo as their COO (Chief Operating Officer). "I am thrilled to embark on this new journey as the COO of albo, a company whose business vision resonates with mine. Together, we will combine our strengths and expertise in finance and technology to continue innovating and growing, and above all, to continue creating value for our shareholders and customers."

Both companies are working together to ensure a seamless transition and minimize any disruption to customers. The acquisition is expected to provide significant value to retail and SMBs customers, creating a more robust and comprehensive financial services offering in the Mexican market.

Despite the current global financial situation, albo's outlook and growth potential remain highly favorable. Since albo became a regulated financial institution in May 2022, and thanks to its extraordinary results in the same year, achieving 2 million users, with annual transactions exceeding US$5 billion and a 3x increase in revenues, albo has achieved profitable unit economics and contribution margin, positioning itself as a leading neobank in the region. Looking ahead, albo's projections indicate continued growth and a path towards becoming cashflow positive by 2024.

About albo

albo is the platform where you have everything you need for your personal and business finances, debit, credit, payroll, savings, cryptocurrencies and more. albo offers you a personal debit account, a business account for your business, credit for individuals and businesses, all at no cost and with no commissions. albo's goal is to provide financial freedom for people everywhere in the world.

For more information, visit https://www.albo.com

Community:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AlboApp/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/albomx

LinkedIn: https://mx.linkedin.com/company/albomx

SOURCE albo
DUBLIN, Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- 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

, 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/vsxeiw

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]

For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

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SOURCE Research and Markets
Sale Ends Tuesday, August 8th

HOUSTON, Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- To celebrate the start of fall, Avelo Airlines announced today a 50% off* sale for all flights in the month of September. The sale commemorates the end of summer and start of fall travel. Avelo serves 47 destinations spanning 25 states and Puerto Rico.

The 50% off* sale is available on travel between September 1 and September 30, 2023, and must be booked by August 8, 2023. Customers can make reservations by applying the promotion code "Sept50" at AveloAir.com.

Avelo Airlines Chairman and CEO Andrew Levy said, "Enjoying a family vacation or long weekend getaway in the fall is now more affordable than ever. Our purpose is to Inspire Travel, and nothing makes visiting one of Avelo's popular destinations easier than 50% off our already very low fares. With dozens of beautiful and relaxing destinations to choose from, September is the perfect time to explore somewhere new or revisit a familiar favorite."

America's Affordable, Convenient and Reliable Airline

Avelo was founded with a vision to help its Customers save money and time. Since taking flight on April 28, 2021, Avelo has flown nearly three million Customers on over 20,000 flights.

In addition to offering Customers everyday low fares on every route, Avelo Customers can always change or cancel their itineraries with no extra fees. Avelo also offers several unbundled travel-enhancing options that give Customers the flexibility to pay for what they value, including priority boarding, checked bags, carry-on overhead bags and bringing a pet in the cabin.

Additionally, the American-made Boeing 737 jets Avelo flies offer a more spacious and comfortable experience than the small regional aircraft currently operating at most of the airports Avelo serves. Customers who value an advance seat assignment can choose from several modestly priced seating options, including seats with extra leg room, as well as pre-reserved window and aisle seating. One third of seats on Avelo aircraft are available for Customers who appreciate the comfort of extra legroom.

At Avelo, every flight is also nonstop. This connection-free travel experience not only provides Avelo Customers with faster and simpler travel, but also minimizes delays, cancellations and lost bags. In fact, Avelo has established itself as one of America's most reliable airlines. In the first six months of 2023, Avelo has achieved the lowest flight cancellation rate and the second best on-time performance in the U.S. airline industry.

Avelo is distinguished by its Soul of Service culture. The culture is grounded in Avelo's One Crew Value which promotes a welcoming and caring experience. By caring for one another and owning their commitments, Avelo Crewmembers focus on anticipating and understanding Customer needs on the ground and in the air.

About Avelo Airlines

Avelo Airlines was founded with a simple purpose  to Inspire Travel. The airline offers Customers time and money-saving convenience, low everyday fares and a refreshingly smooth and caring experience through its Soul of Service culture. Operating a fleet of Boeing Next-Generation 737 aircraft, Avelo serves 47 popular destinations across the U.S. states, including its five bases at Los Angeles' Hollywood Burbank Airport (BUR), Southern Connecticut's Tweed-New Haven Airport (HVN), Orlando International Airport (MCO), the Philadelphia and Delaware Valley region's Wilmington Airport (ILG) and Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU). Avelo will open a sixth base at Las Vegas' Harry Reid International Airport (LAS) in September. For more information visit AveloAir.com or the Avelo Newsroom at AveloAir.com/Newsroom.

Media Contact:

Avelo Airlines

Courtney Goff

[email protected]

* 50% off SEPT50 promo code discount applies to travel completed between 9/1/23-9/30/23. Must be purchased by 11:59 p.m. PT on 8/8/23. Expiration date cannot be extended. To receive promo savings, enter promo code on aveloair.com when you begin your search. Per the Department of Transportation (DOT), advertised fares must include all government taxes and fees. Please note, this discount applies to base fare only, and does not apply to taxes or fees. Discount applies to one way or round trip bookings. Promo code is not redeemable for cash, and in the case of reservation cancellations, the promo savings will be forfeited. Seats are limited. Fare rules, routes and schedules are subject to change without notice. Restrictions may apply. Not valid on previously purchased itineraries. A $20 charge per seated traveler applies to all bookings or changes made through Avelo's Customer Support Center. Additional fees for carry-on and checked bags, assigned seats and other optional services may apply. For full terms and conditions, please visit Contract of Carriage.

SOURCE Avelo Airlines
NEW YORK, Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) security market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 11.13% between 2022 and 2027. The market size is forecast to increase by USD 36,747.11 million, according to Technavio. North America is estimated to contribute 56% to the growth of the global market during the forecast period. The increasing number of cyber threats and security breaches targeting financial institutions in the region has increased the demand for security solutions. The US plays a key role in the market with its advanced technological infrastructure and strong regulatory framework. Additionally, government initiatives for more efficient security solutions have contributed to the strong growth of the BFSI security market in the region. For Comprehensive details on the market size of the historical period(2017 to 2021) and forecast period (2023-2027) - View Sample report

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global BFSI Security Market

Companies Landscape

The BFSI security market is fragmented; the companies are competing with competitors and are trying to get a greater market share. The market is growing, and the chances of new entrants cannot be overlooked. The major companies have well-established economies of scale and market presence and generally rely on positioning technological advances, and the price of the products -The report provides a full list of key companies, their strategies, and the latest developments. Buy Now

Market Dynamics

Key Drivers & Challenges

The rise in cyber data breaches is a key factor driving market growth. This is due to the increasing number of cyber data breaches, especially in the financial services industry, which is more vulnerable to cyberattacks than other industries. With advances in technology and the shift to digital platforms, the threat of cyberattacks is becoming more and more common. In addition, the expanding economies of developing countries also provide an opportunity for BFSI Security to expand its offerings, as increasing internet penetration drives the growth of connected devices and demand for secure payment gateways. Hence, these factors are expected to drive market growth during the forecast period.

The huge cost of implementation of technological securities is a significant challenge restricting market growth. Technological advances have transformed the BFSI industry but also introduced new security risks. Financial institutions invest heavily in advanced security solutions to protect sensitive data and prevent unauthorized access. However, this implementation comes at a significant cost due to the highly regulated environment and the need for robust security measures. In addition, regular updates, and investments in advanced technology are essential to combat new hacking techniques, increasing the overall cost of implementation. Hence, these factors are expected to restrict market growth during the forecast period.

Major Trends

The rise in the adoption of the Internet in the BFSI sector is a major trend in the market. This is due to the widespread adoption of security products like intrusion detection, surveillance cameras, and firewalls, which ensure secure financial transactions. Furthermore, these advancements create promising opportunities for market growth in the banking, financial services, and insurance sectors. However, as most BFSI security firms are third-party service providers, concerns about data management and potential security breaches. Therefore, these factors are expected to drive market growth during the forecast period.

Technavio has identified key trends, drivers, and challenges in the market, which will help clients improve their strategies to stay ahead of their competitors. - View Sample Report

Company Profiles

The BFSI security market report includes information on the product launches, sustainability, and prospects of leading companies including Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp., Broadcom Inc., Canon Inc., Check Point Software Technologies Ltd., Cisco Systems Inc., Dell Technologies Inc., DXC Technology Co., Fortinet Inc., Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co., Honeywell International Inc., Intel Corp., International Business Machines Corp., LogRhythm Inc., McAfee LLC, Microsoft Corp., Robert Bosch GmbH, Securonix, Sophos Ltd., Trend Micro Inc., and Seico Inc.

Competitive Analysis

The report includes competitive analysis, a proprietary tool to analyze and evaluate the position of companies based on their industry position score and market performance score. The competitive scenario categorizes companies based on various performance indicators. Some of the factors considered include the financial performance of companies over the past few years, growth strategies, product innovations, new product launches, investments, and growth in market share, among others.

Market Segmentation

The market is segmented by delivery mode (service and solution), type (physical security and cyber security), and geography (North America, Europe, APAC, Middle East and Africa, and South America).

The market share growth by the service segment will be significant during the forecast period. The BFSI area of services covers a wide range of products that help detect, prevent, and mitigate security risks and threats. These services enable banks and insurers to make informed decisions about security investments and ensure compliance with industry regulations. Additionally, outsourcing security operations to MSSP allows the financial organization to focus on its core competencies while ensuring continuous protection against evolving threats. Hence, these factors are expected to drive segment growth during the forecast period.

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BFSI Security Market Scope Report Coverage Details Base year 2022 Historic period 2017-2021 Forecast period 2023-2027 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 11.13% Market growth 2023-2027 USD 36,747.11 million Market structure Fragmented YoY growth 2022-2023 (%) 9.87 Regional analysis North America, Europe, APAC, Middle East and Africa, and South America Performing market contribution North America at 56% Key countries US, Canada, China, UK, and Germany Competitive landscape Leading Companies, Market Positioning of Companies, Competitive Strategies, and Industry Risks Key companies profiled Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp., Broadcom Inc., Canon Inc., Check Point Software Technologies Ltd., Cisco Systems Inc., Dell Technologies Inc., DXC Technology Co., Fortinet Inc., Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co., Honeywell International Inc., Intel Corp., International Business Machines Corp., LogRhythm Inc., McAfee LLC, Microsoft Corp., Robert Bosch GmbH, Securonix, Sophos Ltd., Trend Micro Inc., and Seico Inc. Market dynamics Parent market analysis, Market growth inducers and obstacles, Fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID-19 impact and recovery analysis and future consumer dynamics, and Market condition analysis for the forecast period. Customization purview If our report has not included the data that you are looking for, you can reach out to our analysts and get segments customized.

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 Delivery Mode



Exhibit 06: Executive Summary  Chart on Market Segmentation by Type



Exhibit 07: Executive Summary  Chart on Incremental Growth



Exhibit 08: Executive Summary  Data Table on Incremental Growth



Exhibit 09: Executive Summary  Chart on Companies 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 companies 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 BFSI security market 2017 - 2021

Exhibit 18: Historic Market Size  Data Table on global bfsi security market 2017 - 2021 ($ million)

4.2 Delivery mode Segment Analysis 2017 - 2021

Exhibit 19: Historic Market Size  Delivery mode Segment 2017 - 2021 ($ million)

4.3 Type Segment Analysis 2017 - 2021

Exhibit 20: Historic Market Size  Type 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 Delivery Mode

6.1 Market segments

Exhibit 30: Chart on Delivery Mode - Market share 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 31: Data Table on Delivery Mode - Market share 2022-2027 (%)

6.2 Comparison by Delivery Mode

Exhibit 32: Chart on Comparison by Delivery Mode



Exhibit 33: Data Table on Comparison by Delivery Mode

6.3 Service - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 34: Chart on Service - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 35: Data Table on Service - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 36: Chart on Service - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 37: Data Table on Service - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

6.4 Solution - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 38: Chart on Solution - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 39: Data Table on Solution - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 40: Chart on Solution - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 41: Data Table on Solution - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

6.5 Market opportunity by Delivery Mode

Exhibit 42: Market opportunity by Delivery Mode ($ million)



Exhibit 43: Data Table on Market opportunity by Delivery Mode ($ million)

7 Market Segmentation by Type

7.1 Market segments

Exhibit 44: Chart on Type - Market share 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 45: Data Table on Type - Market share 2022-2027 (%)

7.2 Comparison by Type

Exhibit 46: Chart on Comparison by Type



Exhibit 47: Data Table on Comparison by Type

7.3 Physical security - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 48: Chart on Physical security - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 49: Data Table on Physical security - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 50: Chart on Physical security - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 51: Data Table on Physical security - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

7.4 Cyber security - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 52: Chart on Cyber security - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 53: Data Table on Cyber security - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 54: Chart on Cyber security - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 55: Data Table on Cyber security - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

7.5 Market opportunity by Type

Exhibit 56: Market opportunity by Type ($ million)



Exhibit 57: Data Table on Market opportunity by Type ($ million)

8 Customer Landscape

8.1 Customer landscape overview

Exhibit 58: Analysis of price sensitivity, lifecycle, customer purchase basket, adoption rates, and purchase criteria

9 Geographic Landscape

9.1 Geographic segmentation

Exhibit 59: Chart on Market share by geography 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 60: Data Table on Market share by geography 2022-2027 (%)

9.2 Geographic comparison

Exhibit 61: Chart on Geographic comparison



Exhibit 62: Data Table on Geographic comparison

9.3 North America - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 63: Chart on North America - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 64: Data Table on North America - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 65: Chart on North America - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 66: 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 67: Chart on Europe - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 68: Data Table on Europe - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 69: Chart on Europe - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 70: Data Table on Europe - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.5 APAC - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 71: Chart on APAC - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 72: Data Table on APAC - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 73: Chart on APAC - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 74: Data Table on APAC - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.6 Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

and - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 75: Chart on Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

and - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 76: Data Table on Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

and - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 77: Chart on Middle East and Africa - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

and - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 78: Data Table on Middle East and Africa - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.7 South America - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 79: Chart on South America - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 80: Data Table on South America - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 81: Chart on South America - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 82: Data Table on South America - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.8 US - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 83: Chart on US - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 84: Data Table on US - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 85: Chart on US - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 86: Data Table on US - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.9 Canada - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 87: Chart on Canada - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 88: Data Table on Canada - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 89: Chart on Canada - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 90: Data Table on Canada - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.10 UK - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 91: Chart on UK - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 92: Data Table on UK - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 93: Chart on UK - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 94: 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 95: Chart on China - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 96: Data Table on China - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 97: Chart on China - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 98: Data Table on China - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.12 Germany - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 99: Chart on Germany - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 100: Data Table on Germany - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 101: Chart on Germany - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 102: Data Table on Germany - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.13 Market opportunity by geography

Exhibit 103: Market opportunity by geography ($ million)



Exhibit 104: 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 105: Impact of drivers and challenges in 2022 and 2027

10.4 Market trends

11 Companies Landscape

11.1 Overview

11.2 Clandscape

Exhibit 106: Overview on Criticality of inputs and Factors of differentiation

11.3 Landscape disruption

Exhibit 107: Overview on factors of disruption

11.4 Industry risks

Exhibit 108: Impact of key risks on business

12 Company Analysis

12.1 Companies covered

Exhibit 109: Companies covered

12.2 Market positioning of companies

Exhibit 110: Matrix on company position and classification

12.3 Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp.

Exhibit 111: Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp. - Overview



Exhibit 112: Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp. - Product / Service



Exhibit 113: Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp. - Key offerings

12.4 Broadcom Inc.

Exhibit 114: Broadcom Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 115: Broadcom Inc. - Business segments



Exhibit 116: Broadcom Inc. - Key news



Exhibit 117: Broadcom Inc. - Key offerings



Exhibit 118: Broadcom Inc. - Segment focus

12.5 Canon Inc.

Exhibit 119: Canon Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 120: Canon Inc. - Business segments



Exhibit 121: Canon Inc. - Key offerings



Exhibit 122: Canon Inc. - Segment focus

12.6 Cisco Systems Inc.

Exhibit 123: Cisco Systems Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 124: Cisco Systems Inc. - Business segments



Exhibit 125: Cisco Systems Inc. - Key news



Exhibit 126: Cisco Systems Inc. - Key offerings



Exhibit 127: Cisco Systems Inc. - Segment focus

12.7 Dell Technologies Inc.

Exhibit 128: Dell Technologies Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 129: Dell Technologies Inc. - Business segments



Exhibit 130: Dell Technologies Inc. - Key news



Exhibit 131: Dell Technologies Inc. - Key offerings



Exhibit 132: Dell Technologies Inc. - Segment focus

12.8 DXC Technology Co.

Exhibit 133: DXC Technology Co. - Overview



Exhibit 134: DXC Technology Co. - Business segments



Exhibit 135: DXC Technology Co. - Key news



Exhibit 136: DXC Technology Co. - Key offerings



Exhibit 137: DXC Technology Co. - Segment focus

12.9 Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co.

Exhibit 138: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. - Overview



Exhibit 139: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. - Business segments



Exhibit 140: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. - Key news



Exhibit 141: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. - Key offerings



Exhibit 142: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. - Segment focus

12.10 Honeywell International Inc.

Exhibit 143: Honeywell International Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 144: Honeywell International Inc. - Business segments



Exhibit 145: Honeywell International Inc. - Key news



Exhibit 146: Honeywell International Inc. - Key offerings



Exhibit 147: Honeywell International Inc. - Segment focus

12.11 Intel Corp.

Exhibit 148: Intel Corp. - Overview



Exhibit 149: Intel Corp. - Business segments



Exhibit 150: Intel Corp. - Key news



Exhibit 151: Intel Corp. - Key offerings



Exhibit 152: Intel Corp. - Segment focus

12.12 International Business Machines Corp.

Exhibit 153: International Business Machines Corp. - Overview



Exhibit 154: International Business Machines Corp. - Business segments



Exhibit 155: International Business Machines Corp. - Key news



Exhibit 156: International Business Machines Corp. - Key offerings



Exhibit 157: International Business Machines Corp. - Segment focus

12.13 McAfee LLC

Exhibit 158: McAfee LLC - Overview



Exhibit 159: McAfee LLC - Product / Service



Exhibit 160: McAfee LLC - Key news



Exhibit 161: McAfee LLC - Key offerings

12.14 Microsoft Corp.

Exhibit 162: Microsoft Corp. - Overview



Exhibit 163: Microsoft Corp. - Business segments



Exhibit 164: Microsoft Corp. - Key news



Exhibit 165: Microsoft Corp. - Key offerings



Exhibit 166: Microsoft Corp. - Segment focus

12.15 Robert Bosch GmbH

Exhibit 167: Robert Bosch GmbH - Overview



Exhibit 168: Robert Bosch GmbH - Business segments



Exhibit 169: Robert Bosch GmbH - Key news



Exhibit 170: Robert Bosch GmbH - Key offerings



Exhibit 171: Robert Bosch GmbH - Segment focus

12.16 Sophos Ltd.

Exhibit 172: Sophos Ltd. - Overview



Exhibit 173: Sophos Ltd. - Product / Service



Exhibit 174: Sophos Ltd. - Key offerings

12.17 Trend Micro Inc.

Exhibit 175: Trend Micro Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 176: Trend Micro Inc. - Product / Service



Exhibit 177: Trend Micro Inc. - Key offerings

13 Appendix

13.1 Scope of the report

13.2 Inclusions and exclusions checklist

Exhibit 178: Inclusions checklist



Exhibit 179: Exclusions checklist

13.3 Currency conversion rates for US$

Exhibit 180: Currency conversion rates for US$

13.4 Research methodology

Exhibit 181: Research methodology



Exhibit 182: Validation techniques employed for market sizing



Exhibit 183: Information sources

13.5 List of abbreviations

Exhibit 184: List of abbreviations

About Us

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provide actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

Contact

Technavio Research

Jesse Maida

Media & Marketing Executive

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UK: +44 203 893 3200

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.technavio.com

SOURCE Technavio
First and only AFib ablation products to receive approval for use in a workflow without fluoroscopy from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration

Enables workflows with zero fluoroscopy during catheter ablation procedures

Approval based on data from REAL AF Registry, demonstrating value of real-world evidence

IRVINE, Calif., Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Biosense Webster, Inc., a global leader in cardiac arrhythmia treatment and part of Johnson & Johnson MedTech,i today announced that several products in its market-leading cardiac ablation portfolio have received approval for a zero fluoroscopy workflow from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The products that can be used in this workflow include: THERMOCOOL SMARTTOUCH SF catheter -- the most commonly used ablation catheter in the world for RF ablation, THERMOCOOL SMARTTOUCH Catheter, CARTO VIZIGO Bi-Directional Guiding Sheath, PENTARAY NAV ECO High Density Mapping Catheter, DECANAV Mapping Catheters, and Webster CS Catheter. The updated workflow indicates that direct imaging guidance, such as ultrasound, may be used as an alternative to fluoroscopy.

Fluoroscopy is a type of medical imaging that shows a continuous X-ray image on a monitor, and is used in a variety of examinations and procedures to diagnose or treat patients.1 Fluoroscopy can result in relatively high radiation doses, especially for complex interventional procedures which require fluoroscopy be administered for a long period of time.1 Reducing fluoroscopy lowers radiation exposure, which may minimize long-term cancer risk, and can reduce the risk of musculoskeletal pain due to extensive wear of heavy personal protective equipment, such as lead aprons.2

"Cardiac ablation procedures for the treatment of atrial fibrillation (AFib) usually require fluoroscopy to guide the advancement and positioning of intracardiac catheters, resulting in considerable radiation exposure for patients, operators, and support medical staff as well as a high orthopedic burden from protective equipment such as lead aprons,"2 explained Jose Osorio, MD, FHRS, President of Heart Rhythm Clinical and Research Solutions.ii "Eliminating or reducing radiation exposure is beneficial to patients as well as physicians and staff working every day in the electrophysiology lab."

"The label change approved by the FDA underscores that the Biosense Webster integrated ecosystem, anchored by the CARTO 3 mapping and navigation system, together with our diagnostic and treatment catheters, enables workflows with zero fluoroscopy, which improves safety, and efficiency of cardiac ablation procedures," said Jasmina Brooks, President, Biosense Webster. "As a result of this update, our teams can now proactively discuss the fluoroscopy alternative workflow with our customers to reinforce the benefits of the Biosense Webster portfolio of products."

The company received the label change based on an observational, prospective, multicenter registry that assesses real-world catheter ablation clinical outcomes, including procedural efficiency, safety, and long-term effectiveness in a broad group of patient populations with novel radiofrequency (RF) technologies in paroxysmal AFib patients. The REAL AF Registry is a first-of-its kind real-world evidence registry in the electrophysiology field, led by physicians and supported by Biosense Webster since 2019.

"At Biosense Webster, we are committed to advancing innovative technologies that enable safe, effective, and efficient cardiac ablation procedures, as well as expanding the body of evidence supporting how our technologies are used to improve patient lives," said Anthony Hong, Vice President, Preclinical & Clinical Research and Medical Affairs, Cardiovascular & Specialty Solutions, Johnson & Johnson. "Our novel approach to evidence generation, utilizing real-world evidence from the REAL AF Registry, has helped us secure regulatory approval for our fluoroscopy alternative workflow, and I'm looking forward to utilizing this approach in the future to lower study costs and achieve faster regulatory milestones."

Cardiac arrhythmias are a growing epidemic. AFib alone is the most common type of cardiac arrhythmia and impacts nearly 37.5 million people worldwide, and 6 million people in the U.S.3,4 AFib is a progressive disease, and if left untreated can get worse over time or lead to other serious complications like heart disease or stroke.5,6 Catheter ablation is a safe and effective procedure to restore the heart's incorrect electrical signals, which causes an abnormal heart rhythm.7

About Biosense Webster

Biosense Webster is the global market leader in the science and technology behind the diagnosis and treatment of cardiac arrhythmias. Part of Johnson & Johnson MedTech, the specialized medical-technology company is headquartered in Irvine, California, and works across the world to advance the tools and solutions that help electrophysiologists identify, treat, and deliver care. Learn more at www.biosensewebster.com and connect on LinkedIn and X, formerly known as Twitter.

About Johnson & Johnson MedTechi

At Johnson & Johnson MedTech,i we unleash diverse healthcare expertise, purposeful technology, and a passion for people to transform the future of medical intervention and empower everyone to live their best life possible. For more than a century, we have driven breakthrough scientific innovation to address unmet needs and reimagine health. In surgery, orthopaedics, vision, and interventional solutions, we continue to help save lives and create a future where healthcare solutions are smarter, less invasive, and more personalized. For more information, visit https://www.jnjmedtech.com.

Cautions Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 regarding the FDA Approval for Multiple Atrial Fibrillation Ablation Products to be Used Without Fluoroscopy. These statements are based on current expectations of future events. If underlying assumptions prove inaccurate or known or unknown risks or uncertainties materialize, actual results could vary materially from the expectations and projections of Biosense Webster, Inc., any of the other Johnson & Johnson MedTech companies and/or Johnson & Johnson. Risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: uncertainty of regulatory approvals; uncertainty of commercial success; challenges to patents; competition, including technological advances, new products and patents attained by competitors; product efficacy or safety concerns resulting in product recalls or regulatory action; changes to applicable laws and regulations, including global health care reforms; changes in behavior and spending patterns of purchasers of health care products and services; and trends toward health care cost containment. A further list and descriptions of these risks, uncertainties and other factors can be found in Johnson & Johnson's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 1, 2023, including in the sections captioned "Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements" and "Item 1A. Risk Factors," and in Johnson & Johnson's subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Copies of these filings are available online at sec.gov, jnj.com or on request from Johnson & Johnson. None of Biosense Webster, Inc., Johnson & Johnson MedTech nor Johnson & Johnson undertakes to update any forward-looking statement as a result of new information or future events or developments.

Important Information: For product details such as indications, contraindications, warnings and precautions please consult the IFU. Johnson & Johnson MedTech bears no responsibility for the accuracy, legality or content of the external site.

The THERMOCOOL SMARTTOUCH SF Catheter is indicated for the treatment of drug refractory recurrent symptomatic paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (AF) and for drug refractory recurrent symptomatic persistent AF (continuous AF > 7 days but < 1 year), refractory or intolerant to at least 1 Class I or III AAD, when used with the CARTO 3 System.

254970-230726

 Biosense Webster, Inc. 2023

Biosense Webster, Inc.

31 Technology Drive, Suite 200

Irvine, CA 92618 USA

Tel: +1-909-839-8500

Tel: +1-800-729-9010

www.biosensewebster.com

i Johnson & Johnson MedTech comprises the surgery, orthopaedics, vision and interventional solutions businesses within Johnson & Johnson's MedTech segment.

ii Heart Rhythm Clinical and Research Solutions, LLC has received research funding from Biosense Webster Inc. for REAL AF Registry conduct and for supporting medical writing and statistical analysis of study related publications under the direction of the authors. Dr. Jose Osorio and the authors were not compensated for their effort in the publications.

1 FDA. Fluoroscopy: FDA. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. https://www.fda.gov/radiation-emitting-products/medical-x-ray-imaging/fluoroscopy

2 Canpolat, U. et al (2020). State of Fluoroless Procedures in Cardiac Electrophysiology Practice. J Innov Cardiac Rhythm Management. 11(3), 40184029.

3 Lippi, G., Sanchis-Gomar, F., & Cervellin, G. (2021). Global epidemiology of atrial fibrillation: An increasing epidemic and public health challenge. International journal of stroke : official journal of the International Stroke Society, 16(2), 217221.

4 Kornej J, Borschel CS, Emelia J. Benjamin EJ, Schnabel RB. Epidemiology of Atrial Fibrillation in the 21st Century. Circulation Research. 2020 June;127(1):4-20. doi: 10.1161/CIRCRESAHA.120.316340

5 Calkins, H., et al (2017). 2017 HRS/EHRA/ECAS/APHRS/SOLAECE expert consensus statement on catheter and surgical ablation of atrial fibrillation. Heart rhythm, 14(10), e275e444.

6 Odutayo, A. et al (2016). Atrial fibrillation and risks of cardiovascular disease, renal disease, and death: systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ (Clinical research ed.), 354, i4482.

7 Natale, A. et al (2014). Paroxysmal AF catheter ablation with a contact force sensing catheter: results of the prospective, multicenter SMART-AF trial. Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 64(7), 647656.

SOURCE Biosense Webster, Inc.
LOS ANGELES and SAN DIEGO, Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Emjay, the preeminent California-based cannabis retailer and delivery service, is thrilled to announce an exciting giveaway where lucky customers have the chance to win floor seat tickets to Beyonce's highly anticipated Renaissance Tour at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. The much-anticipated concert is set to take place over Labor Day Weekend on Saturday, September 2, 2023.

Emjay is giving away floor seat tickets to Beyonce's Renaissance Tour in Los Angeles.

Emjay aims to create a buzz among both its devoted and new customers by offering the opportunity to attend one of California's most coveted events this fall. The retailer invites participants to visit their stores or shop online for a chance to enter the giveaway and secure their spot at the extraordinary event.

To participate, customers can either mail in their free entry or shop at any of Emjay's locations or through their website, heyemjay.com . For every dollar spent on the Emjay platform, customers automatically earn an entry into the contest. Learn more by checking out their blog here . Adding to the excitement, Emjay will host double entry weekends in-store & online, allowing members of the Beyhive even more chances to win the tickets.

"Who wouldn't want to win Beyonce tickets?" said Chris Vaughn, CEO of Emjay. "We're excited to provide a truly local incentive to our California community, encouraging them to shop with us."

Emjay eagerly awaits the winner's announcement, expecting an overwhelming response from the enthusiastic Beyonce fans across California.

Eligibility to enter the giveaway opens on August 1, 2023, and closes on August 28, 2023.

For more information about Emjay's offerings in the Los Angeles area, please visit https://heyemjay.com/cannabis-delivery-los-angeles : for San Diego, please visit https://heyemjay.com/cannabis-delivery-san-diego .

About Emjay:

Emjay, the premier California-based cannabis delivery and retail platform, was launched in early 2019 with a mission to redefine the cannabis shopping experience for consumers. Boasting retail locations in West Hollywood and La Mesa, California, Emjay distinguishes itself by offering an unparalleled selection of products that surpasses its competitors. Emjay's commitment to customer satisfaction is exemplified by their immediate and scheduled delivery services, providing customers with convenience at prices that surpass those offered by competing dispensaries and services.

SOURCE Emjay
Natural Harvest Announces a new Vertical added to their New Product Lines

MINNEAPOLIS, Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- N H Corp dba Natural Harvest https://nhmn.co, a leading cannabis lifestyle brand company, today  announced the launch of its new product lines. The new lines include a variety of products, including high quality cannabis seeds. The full digital catalog of cannabis seeds that are available for purchase in Minnesota is online.

Prices range for genetics and package size, cannabis seeds typically come in packages of 1, 3, 5 and 10, as well as others from certain breeders.

"We are excited to launch our new product line," said a PR Rep of Natural Harvest. "We believe that these products offer a unique and innovative way for consumers to experience the benefits of cannabis."

The new product lines will be available beginning August 1, 2023 available now at Natural Harvest retail locations online. Natural Harvest has partnered with the top rated breeders in the cannabis industry to bring the best genetics to the Minnesota market. Breeders include Barney's Farm, Fast Buds, Dutch Passion, Sweet Seeds, Ace Seeds, Humboldt Seed Co., along with many others. All seeds ship in original breeder packaging to ensure trusted results.

Natural Harvest is a licensed seed labeler in Minnesota, all seeds are Lab tested and labeled in accordance with the Minnesota Department of Agriculture requirements.

N H Corp. https://nhmn.co Headquartered in Minnesota, the company is actively involved in advocacy and social impact initiatives to enrich communities and individuals disproportionately impacted by cannabis prohibition.

Contact:

Natural Harvest

***@nhmn.co

Photos:

https://www.prlog.org/12971387

Press release distributed by PRLog

SOURCE Natural Harvest
The event highlighted the visionary leadership of Fundacion Banorte and Fundacion Gruma in joining the U.S. Embassy in Mexico, the Office of Western Hemisphere Affairs of the U.S. Department of State, and Partners of the Americas to work together to increase crucial access to innovative and inclusive student exchanges and training programs.

The collaboration between Fundacion Banorte, Fundacion Gruma, and the U.S. Embassy in Mexico resulted in eleven new 100K Strong partnerships between Mexican and American universities. These partnerships enabled approximately 300 students and professors to acquire technical, linguistic, and intercultural skills in the areas of financial inclusion, entrepreneurship, agricultural sustainability, natural resource conservation, and business administration.

Mexico is a regional leader in the 100K Strong educational initiative, due to a decade of work in the public, private, and academic sectors of the US and Mexico. With over 130 partnerships between universities and colleges in 29 states across the U.S. and 23 states across Mexico, Mexico's devotion to this important cause has impacted 2,100 students and professors.

Ambassador Ken Salazar highlighted, "The 100,000 Strong in the Americas Innovation Fund embodies what we can achieve when our nations work together and invest in the talent and potential of our people through educational exchanges. I acknowledge the Banorte and Gruma Foundations for their commitment to this successful initiative that fosters the leadership and work of our students, professors, and academic institutions to transform our common challenges into shared opportunities. We promote the #Bicentennial200EducationChallenge so students from both countries live the experience international education and continue building their future and the future of North America."

Carlos Hank Gonzalez, President of Banorte, said, "Today, as we witness the culmination of three years of collaboration, research, and dedication on topics such as financial and economic inclusion, let's celebrate the great achievements that have been possible thanks to the joint efforts of all of us. As part of the Bicentennial 200 Challenge for Education, we join this incredible program and are pleased to have contributed together to the commitment of the U.S. Embassy in Mexico to promote education."

Juan Gonzalez Moreno, President of Gruma, emphasized, "At Gruma, we congratulate ourselves on the achievements of the 100,000 Strong in the Americas Innovation Fund because it aligns with our company's vision and commitment to drive research that improves sustainable agriculture and rural development globally, and particularly in the United States. It was also an opportunity to demonstrate that Mexico and the United States work together to create more and better opportunities for our countries, companies, and people."

The Hemispheric Initiative 'The 100,000 Strong in the Americas', between the Office of Western Hemisphere Affairs, the U.S. Embassies, and Partners of the Americas, together with the regional private sector, governments, and higher education institutions create innovative and inclusive student exchange programs. The 100K Strong Innovation Fund creates interregional networks between governments, businesses, and academia to support this flagship educational initiative throughout the hemisphere to build partnerships, strengthen institutional capacity, and increase access to innovative and inclusive exchange programs for students and professors from the Americas. As of June 2023, after 34 contests, the 100K Strong Innovation Fund has awarded 315 grants (USD $25,000-$45,000 each) to 578 higher education institutions working in teams in 25 countries and 49 U.S. states, impacting more than 9,800 students and professors. Currently, more than 4,000 members have joined the 100K Network, including professors, administrators, U.S. embassies, and others.

JOIN the 100K Strong Network: www.100kstrongamericas.org

Follow: #100KStrongAmericas

About Partners of the Americas

The mission of Partners of the Americas is to connect people and organizations across and within borders to serve and change lives through lasting partnerships. These partnerships create opportunity, foster understanding, and solve real-life problems. Inspired by President Kennedy and founded in 1964, under the Alliance for Progress, Partners is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization with international offices in Washington, D.C. Learn more at www.partners.net or via Twitter @partnersamerica.

About Banorte

Grupo Financiero Banorte (GFNorte), led by Carlos Hank Gonzalez, is the largest Mexican financial institution. It offers financial services to individuals and corporations through its banking, brokerage, fund operator, insurance, pensions, leasing and factoring, warehousing, portfolio management, and the remittance company Uniteller. GFNorte also integrates Afore XXI Banorte, the largest Afore in the country by asset management. GFNorte is a public company listed on the main indicator of the Mexican Stock Exchange, and has more than 31,000 employees, 1,159 branches, 10,144 ATMs, 179,989 Point of Sale Terminals, and 19,800 correspondents.

About Carlos Hank Gonzalez

Carlos Hank Gonzalez is a seasoned professional in both the business and banking sectors, has amassed a wealth of experience through his numerous high-ranking roles within the industry and his membership on the boards of several notable corporations.



He ascended to the position of Board Chairman for Grupo Financiero Banorte in January 2015, having been a board member since October of the previous year.



In addition to his corporate responsibilities, Carlos Hank Gonzalez also heads the Banorte Foundation. This non-profit organization is dedicated to providing support to underprivileged communities and promoting progress in various sectors including education, science, medicine, technology, and economic and sustainable development.



He holds a bachelor's degree in business administration with a focus on finance, which he obtained from Universidad Iberoamericana.



For further information about Carlos Hank Gonzalez:

Official website - www.carloshankgonzalez.com/

LinkedIn: - www.linkedin.com/in/carloshankgonzalez/

Twitter: www.twitter.com/CarlosHankG

Facebook: www.facebook.com/CarlosHankGonzalezBanorte/

About GRUMA

Since 1949, GRUMA, S.A.B. de C.V., is one of the world's leading tortilla and corn flour producers. With leading brands in most of its markets, GRUMA has operations in the United States, Mexico, Central America, Europe, Asia and Oceania. GRUMA is headquartered in San Pedro Garza Garcia, Mexico, and has approximately 25,800 employees and 74 plants. In 2022, GRUMA had net sales of US$5.6 billion, of which 75% came from non Mexican operations. For further information, please visit www.gruma.com.

Media Contact:

Victor Palma Villarreal

Public Affairs Manager at Banorte

Cell: +52 55 8471 7481

SOURCE Banorte

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BEIJING, Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- China Life Insurance Company Limited (the "Company") (NYSE: LFC; SSE: 601628; HKSE: 2628) announced today that due to the adjustment of work arrangements, Mr. Zhao Peng tendered his resignation as the President, an Executive Director and a member of the Strategy and Assets and Liabilities Management Committee of the Company on August 4, 2023, which took effect on the same day. Mr. Zhao Peng has confirmed that he has no disagreement with the board of directors (the "Board") of the Company and there are no other matters relating to his resignation that need to be brought to the attention of the shareholders of the Company. The Company would like to express its gratitude to Mr. Zhao Peng for his contribution to the Company during his tenure of service.

The Company further announced that at the twenty-seventh meeting of the seventh session of the Board of the Company held on August 4, 2023, Mr. Li Mingguang has been appointed as the President of the Company and his qualification as the President of the Company is subject to the approval of the National Administration of Financial Regulation. Prior to obtaining such approval, the Board has appointed Mr. Li Mingguang as the person temporarily in charge of the Company.

The biographical details of Mr. Li Mingguang are set out below:

Mr. Li Mingguang, born in July 1969, has been serving as the Secretary to the Party Committee of the Company since July 2023, an Executive Director of the Company since August 2019, and a member of the Party Committee of China Life Insurance (Group) Company since April 2023. Mr. Li Mingguang joined the Company in 1996 and subsequently served as the Deputy Division Chief, the Division Chief, an Assistant to the General Manager of the Product Development Department, the Responsible Actuary of the Company, the General Manager of the Actuarial Department, the Chief Actuary, the Board Secretary and the Vice President of the Company. He was the Chief Actuary of China Life Pension Company Limited and a Director of China Life Asset Management Company Limited. He graduated from Shanghai Jiao Tong University with a bachelor's degree in computer science in 1991, Central University of Finance and Economics majoring in monetary banking (actuarial science) with a master's degree in 1996 and Tsinghua University with an EMBA in 2010. Mr. Li Mingguang is a Fellow of the China Association of Actuaries (FCAA) and a Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (FIA). He was the Chairman of the first session of the China Actuarial Working Committee and the Secretary-general of both the first and the second sessions of the China Association of Actuaries. He is currently the Vice Chairman of the China Association of Actuaries. Mr. Li Mingguang receives a special government allowance from the State Council.

China life insurance

SOURCE China Life
DUBLIN, Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Chinese Passenger Car OEMs' Overseas Layout Research Report, 2023" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



OEMs' overseas layout research: automobile exports are expected to hit 7.18 million units in 2025.



China's automobile export market bucked the trend.



During 2021-2022, the global economy suffered an overall slump amid the severe outbreak inside and outside China, tense international geopolitical situation, a big rise in prices of bulk commodities, and imbalance between supply and demand. In this context, China's automobile exports bucked the trend, and hit 3.111 million units in 2022, a year-on-year upsurge of 54.4%, of which 679,000 new energy vehicles were exported, soaring by 120%, a growth far higher than in the domestic market.



China's passenger car exports will still gain momentum in the next three years, and are expected to reach 7.18 million units in 2025.



The overseas layout path of Chinese automakers: localize globally and enhance differentiation.



Energy transition is an established fact, and electric vehicles are undoubtedly the top priority in Chinese automakers' overseas layout plans in the years to come. In the face of the electric vehicle red sea market competition that already starts, increasing automakers are carrying out the concept of "thinking globalization, implementing localization".



From the overseas strategy of automakers, it can be seen that ever more of them make a transformation from simple product exports to industrial exports, work hard on an expansion in overseas markets, and establish R&D/design centers, overseas regional headquarters, and automobile factories, so as to achieve localized production, localized supply chain, localized management, and localized sales and services.

Furthermore, in their efforts to gain a foothold in market segments, they adopt strategies tailored to local conditions and strengthen differentiated competitive edges, for example, they create hot products, global flagship models, and a unique global brand image; they develop targeted products according to regional characteristics and needs to meet customer demand quickly and accurately.



Yet as the competition in the automotive industry intensifies, automakers going overseas will face more uncertainties and more complicated situations. Facing the stringent data security review overseas, Chinese automakers that take intelligence and connectivity as the selling points of their intelligent products need to systematize compliance management as soon as possible, build a compliance review platform, and provide professional compliance support. Additionally, political, social, cultural and technological risks cannot be ignored as well. Establishing a sound risk control and right protection mechanism can best serve the automakers that are going overseas.



Key Topics Covered:



1 Status Quo of Chinese Automobiles Going Overseas

1.1 History of Chinese Automobiles Going Overseas

1.1.1 Development History of Chinese Automobiles Going Overseas

1.1.2 Development History of Chinese New Energy Vehicles Going Overseas

1.2 Environment for Overseas Layout of Chinese Automakers

1.2.1 Macro Environment

1.2.2 Policy Environment

1.2.3 Tax Environment

1.3 Overseas Sales of Chinese Automobiles

1.3.1 China's Automobile Exports

1.3.2 China's Passenger Car Exports

1.3.3 China's New Energy Vehicle Exports

1.4 Overseas Sales of Chinese Automakers

1.4.1 Top Chinese Automakers by Vehicle Exports

1.4.2 Top Chinese Vehicle Models by Exports

1.5 Summary on Overseas Production Capacity Layout of OEMs

1.6 Overseas Layout Models of Chinese Automakers

1.6.1 Overseas Layout Models of Chinese Automakers

1.6.2 Summary on Overseas Layout Strategies of Chinese Automakers

1.6.3 Summary on Overseas Layout Models of Emerging Carmakers

1.7 Main Overseas Markets Laid out by Chinese Automakers

1.7.1 China's Automobile Exports by Continent

1.7.2 Main Destinations of China's Automobile Exports

1.7.3 China's Automobile Exports to Each Continent/Market Share of Each Continent

1.7.4 China's Automobile Exports to Major Countries by Continent

1.7.5 China's New Energy Vehicle Exports to Major Countries by Continent



2 Main Overseas Markets

2.1 Automobile Incentive Policies and Certification in Various Countries

2.2 TOP 5 Overseas Markets by China's Automobile Exports

2.2.1 Mexico

2.2.2 Saudi Arabia

2.2.3 Chile

2.2.4 Belgium

2.2.5 Russia

2.3 European Market

2.3.1 Germany

2.3.2 Norway

2.4 North America Market

2.4.1 United States

2.4.2 Canada

2.5 Asian Market

2.5.1 Japan

2.5.2 South Korea

2.5.3 Thailand



3 Overseas Business Layout of Chinese OEMs

3.1 SAIC

3.2 Chery

3.3 Changan

3.4 Dongfeng

3.5 Geely

3.6 Great Wall Motor

3.7 BYD

3.8 NIO

3.9 Neta Auto

3.10 Xpeng



4 Summary on Overseas Layout of Chinese Automakers and Development Trends

4.1 Development Trends of Overseas Layout of Chinese Automakers

4.2 Opportunities for Chinese OEMs to Go Overseas

4.2.1 New Global Opportunities for Chinese Automakers to Go Overseas in A New Window Period

4.2.2 Automakers Improve Brand Positioning and Carry out Global Strategy

4.3 Brief Analysis of the Risks for Automakers in Overseas Layout

4.3.1 Major Risks Faced by Chinese Automakers

4.3.2 Data Security and Compliance Risks

4.3.3 Automakers of Differing Countries Establish A Good Stable Market Position

4.4 Suggestions for Chinese Automakers in Overseas Layout

4.4.1 Risk Response Considerations for Automakers in Overseas Layout

4.4.2 Correctly Judge Overseas Market Demand



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/ddrqj5

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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Bulgaria will donate a hundred armoured personnel carriers to Ukraine. They are in the reserve of the Bulgarian Ministry of the Interior, but are not used by the agency.

ADVERTISIMENT

A month ago, the decision to transfer the APCs to Ukraine was made by Bulgarian MPs, and on 4 August, the Bulgarian government approved a draft agreement between the Bulgarian Interior Ministry and the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine. This was reported by Novinite.com.

According to the publication, on 4 August, the Bulgarian government approved a draft agreement between the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine on the free provision of armoured vehicles. Now Interior Minister Kalin Stoyanov is to hold talks with the Ukrainian side and sign the agreement.

The decision to transfer the armoured personnel carriers, which are in the reserve of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, to Ukraine was agreed during the visit of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Sofia last month. It was supported by Bulgarian MPs: 148 MPs voted in favour of the allocation of the vehicles to support Ukraine, while 52 MPs voted against.

ADVERTISIMENT

We are talking about a hundred armoured personnel carriers made in 1960-70. They are the property of the Bulgarian Ministry of Internal Affairs, but have never been used. In addition to the armoured personnel carriers, according to one of the initiators of the transfer, Bulgarian MP Ivailo Mirchev, it is planned to transfer additional spare parts and weapons.

Mirchev also stated that over the past 16 months, Ukraine has purchased 5 billion Bulgarian leva (about 2 billion 822 million US dollars) worth of weapons from Bulgaria. At the same time, he said, Bulgaria remains one of the countries that provided the least assistance to Ukraine. He said this when discussing the possible transfer of armoured personnel carriers in the Bulgarian parliament.

"Part of the reason for providing armoured vehicles with the weapons and spare parts for their maintenance to Ukraine is that over the past 25 years, the maintenance and storage of the vehicles in question has required significant financial costs from the budget. Also, the equipment in question would hardly be applicable in the performance of the main tasks of the National Gendarmerie Service. For these reasons, most of this equipment is recognised as obsolete for the needs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but it can be a serious support for Ukraine," Bulgarian media wrote at the time.

ADVERTISIMENT

In early August, it became known that the United States had signed an agreement with Bulgaria and South Korea to supply Ukraine with ammunition. According to the Financial Times, the deal is to increase the supply of 155mm ammunition, which is essential to support Ukraine in its counter-offensive against Russian troops along the entire front line.

It was also reported that Bulgaria had nationalised a port leased by Russia's Lukoil. Bulgarian MPs who supported the decision believe that this initiative will stop Russia from using Bulgarian infrastructure to finance the war.

Only verified information is available on our Obozrevatel Telegram channel, Threads and Viber. Don't fall for fakes!
CHICAGO, Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- In the near future, the Cleanroom Technologies industry is poised to witness a remarkable transformation, driven by rapid advancements in technology and the growing emphasis on stringent quality standards across various sectors. With the increasing demand for contamination-free environments in pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, electronics, aerospace, and healthcare, cleanroom facilities are expected to experience substantial growth and sophistication. Innovative solutions like state-of-the-art air filtration systems, nanotechnology-based cleaning agents, and advanced monitoring tools will revolutionize the way cleanrooms are designed, operated, and maintained. Furthermore, the integration of automation, artificial intelligence, and robotics will enhance efficiency and minimize human intervention, ensuring even higher levels of cleanliness and precision. As sustainability becomes a key priority, eco-friendly cleanroom materials and energy-efficient practices will gain prominence, aligning the industry with global environmental goals. The cleanroom technologies industry is destined to play a pivotal role in shaping the future of various sectors, enabling safer, more reliable, and cutting-edge products and services while fostering a cleaner and healthier world.

Cleanroom Technologies Market in terms of revenue was estimated to be worth $8.2 billion in 2023 and is poised to reach $11.4 billion by 2028, growing at a CAGR of 6.8% from 2023 to 2028 according to a new report by MarketsandMarkets.

The cleanroom technologies market is mainly driven by factors such as the stringent government regulations for effective infection control, growing demand for medical devices, advancements in cleanroom technology, and rising demand for parenteral & injectable pharmaceutical formulations growth of the biological sector, rising demand for parenteral, growing demand for medical devices, and increasing R&D spending in the pharmaceutical industry. However, the high operational costs associated with cleanrooms is expected to restrain market growth to a certain extent.

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Browse in-depth TOC on "Cleanroom Technologies Market"

289 - Tables

41 - Figures

302 - Pages

Cleanroom Technologies Market Scope:

Report Coverage Details Market Revenue in 2023 $8.2 billion Estimated Value by 2028 $11.4 billion Growth Rate Poised to grow at a CAGR of 6.8% Market Size Available for 20212028 Forecast Period 20232028 Forecast Units Value (USD Billion) Report Coverage Revenue Forecast, Competitive Landscape, Growth Factors, and Trends Segments Covered By Product, Type, End User & Region Geographies Covered North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa Report Highlights Updated financial information / product portfolio of players Key Market Opportunities Increasing demand for cleanrooms in developing economies Key Market Drivers Stringent regulatory framework

The consumables segment has accounted for the largest market share during the forecast period.

Based on Product, the cleanroom technologies market is segmented into equipment, controls, and consumables. The consumables segment accounted for the largest share of the cleanroom technologies market. Consumables segment is also estimated to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. The high and growing number of biotech, pharmaceuticals and medical device companies facilitating the use of disposable protective clothing drives the growth of the consumables segment in the cleanroom technologies market.

The modular cleanrooms segment has accounted for the largest share of the global cleanroom technologies market

Based on type, the cleanroom technologies market has been segmented into standard cleanrooms, modular cleanrooms and mobile cleanrooms. The standard cleanrooms segment accounted for the largest share of the cleanroom technologies market in 2022. The high demand for cleanrooms that are more design-flexible than standard cleanrooms, quick and easy to install, freestanding for easy portability, and easy to expand or reconfigure has incaresed the adoption of modular cleanrooms among end users.

Pharmaceutical industry segment was the largest end user segment of the cleanroom technologies market.

Based on end user, the cleanroom technologies market is segmented into medical device manufacturers, hospitals, pharmaceutical industry, the biotechnology industry, and other end users. In 2022, pharmaceutical industry was the largest end user segment of the cleanroom technologies market. The manufacture of various pharmaceutical formulations across the globe and high adoption of cleanrooms during the development of pharamceuticals fuel the adoption of cleanroom technologies among this end user segment.

North America accounted for the largest share of the cleanroom technologies market

North America, followed by Europe, held the largest market share in 2022. North America accounted for the largest share of the cleanroom technologies market. This is due to the stringent regulatory standards for product approvals in the US and Canada. Also, a large number of major global players are based in the US, because of which the country is a center for innovation in the cleanroom technologies market.

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Cleanroom Technologies Market Dynamics:

Drivers:

Stringent regulatory framework

Restraints:

High operational costs associated with cleanrooms

Opportunities:

Increasing demand for cleanrooms in developing economies

Challenges:

Customization of cleanroom designs per requirements

Key Market Players:

Some of the prominent players operating in the cleanroom technologiesmarket include Kimberly-Clark Corporation (US), Illinois Tool Works, Inc. (US), Taikisha Ltd. (Japan), Angstrom Technology (US), Octanorm-Vertriebs-GMBH (Germany), Camfil (Sweden), Azbil Corporation (Japan), Bouygues Group (France), Clean Air Technology, Inc.(US), Weiss Technik (Germany), Atlas Environments, Ltd. (UK) Exyte AG (Germany), Terra Universal, Inc. (US).

Recent Developments:

In 2023, ABN Cleanroom Technology launched the first ready-to-use low dewpoint cleanroom solution in Europe .

. In 2022, Bouygues Energies & Services, a subsidiary of Bouygues Construction, has successfully installed a cutting-edge manufacturing cleanroom facility to Novanta (US) in Taunton.

In 2022, ABN Cleanroom Technology launched the first off-the shelf cleanroom solution, INTEGRA that can reach cleanliness classifications up to ISO Class 4 and cGMP grade B.

In 2022, Clean Rooms International launched Flow-Thru Light Troffer suitable for Class 10  Class 100,000 environments for for cleanroom, pharmaceutical, laboratory, hospital, and other environments.

In 2021, Exyte Group and Wynnchurch Capital reached an agreement for the acquisition of the Critical Process Systems Group (CPS) by Exyte. CPS is a group of manufacturing and design companies with USD 150 million in annual sales in 2020. The acquisition will allow the company to further enhance its services to existing and new customers in semiconductor, biopharma, and life sciences businesses.

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Cleanroom Technologies Market Advantages:

Contamination control: Cleanroom technologies provide highly controlled environments that effectively prevent the ingress of contaminants such as dust, microbes, and particles. This is crucial in industries like pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and electronics manufacturing, where even minor impurities can lead to product defects or compromised safety.

Product quality and reliability: By maintaining stringent cleanliness standards, cleanroom technologies ensure consistent and superior product quality, reducing the risk of defects and costly recalls. This is especially important in critical applications like medical devices, aerospace components, and semiconductors.

Regulatory compliance: Many industries are subject to strict regulatory requirements concerning cleanliness and contamination control. Cleanroom technologies facilitate compliance with these regulations, helping businesses avoid penalties and maintain a positive reputation in the market.

Enhanced safety for workers and consumers: Cleanrooms protect both workers and end-users from exposure to hazardous substances, pathogens, and contaminants. This creates a safer working environment and boosts consumer confidence in the safety and reliability of the products.

Increased productivity and efficiency: The precise control of cleanroom environments reduces the occurrence of errors and unplanned interruptions during the manufacturing process. This leads to higher productivity, lower rework rates, and optimized operational efficiency.

Advanced research and development: In research laboratories and facilities, cleanroom technologies enable scientists and researchers to work with sensitive materials and conduct experiments with high accuracy, reproducibility, and reliability.

Facilitation of emerging technologies: Cleanrooms play a critical role in the development and production of cutting-edge technologies such as nanotechnology, microelectronics, and biopharmaceuticals, where the smallest contaminants can significantly impact results.

Customizability and scalability: Cleanroom technologies offer flexibility in design and can be tailored to suit specific industry needs and applications. Additionally, they can be easily expanded or modified to accommodate growing demands and changing requirements.

International market access: Compliance with cleanroom standards enhances a company's international competitiveness by facilitating access to global markets, where high-quality and contamination-free products are increasingly in demand.

Environmental sustainability: With the rising focus on sustainability, cleanroom technologies are evolving to incorporate eco-friendly practices, such as energy-efficient systems and the use of environmentally friendly materials, further aligning the industry with responsible environmental practices.

Overall, the advantages of cleanroom technologies make them indispensable for industries seeking to maintain high product quality, safety, and efficiency while adhering to stringent regulatory and environmental standards.

Related Reports:

Particle Counters Market - Global Forecasts to 2027

Sterilization Services Market - Global Forecasts to 2027

Infection Control Market - Global Forecasts to 2027

Particle Size Analysis Market - Global Forecasts to 2026

Hospital Acquired Infection Control Market - Global Forecasts to 2026

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CHICAGO, Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Due to continued cloud use, the market for cloud security appears to have a bright future. The incorporation of AI, zero trust models, improvements to IAM, and a focus on container and serverless security are among the trends. Data security, compliance, and cooperative threat intelligence sharing will also be important areas for improvement.

The global Cloud Security Market size is projected to grow from USD 40.7 billion in 2023 to USD 62.9 billion by 2028 at a CAGR of 9.1% during the forecast period, according to a new report by MarketsandMarkets. The Cloud Security Market experienced substantial growth due to the rising adoption of multi-cloud environments, the expansion of DevSecOps practices, increased utilization of AI and ML for cloud security, and the growing trend of BYOD and CYOD, which led to an increased demand for cloud security solutions.

Browse in-depth TOC on "Cloud Security Market"

371 - Tables

46 - Figures

312 - Pages

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Scope of the Report

Report Metrics Details Market size available for years 2017-2028 Base year considered 2022 Forecast period 20232028 Forecast units Value (USD Million) Segments Covered Offerings, Service Model, Type, Verticals, and Regions Geographies covered North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, and Latin America Companies covered Major vendors in the global Cloud Security Market include IBM (US), Broadcom (US), Check Point (Israel and US), Google (US), AWS (US), Zscaler (US), Akamai Technologies (US), Forcepoint (US), Fortinet (US), F5 (US), Qualys (US), TrendMicro (Japan), Palo Alto Networks (US), Proofpoint (US) and many more.

By vertical segment, the retail & eCommerce vertical will grow at the highest CAGR during the forecasted period.

The retail and eCommerce industry is experiencing the highest CAGR in the Cloud Security Market due to the increased adoption of cloud technologies for digital transformation. Data protection has become a priority, with more sensitive customer data and financial transactions being processed in the cloud. Retailers also face a higher risk of cyberattacks and data breaches, leading to the demand for advanced cloud security solutions. The COVID-19 pandemic has further accelerated the shift towards online shopping, boosting the adoption of cloud technologies in this sector. To tap into this growth opportunity, cloud security providers are customizing their solutions to meet the specific needs of retail and eCommerce, ensuring seamless integration and compliance with industry regulations. Thus, the retail and eCommerce segment is projected to have the highest CAGR during the forecast period.

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By Type, Visibility and Risk Assessment holds the largest market size during the forecast period.

By type, Visibility and Risk Assessment hold the largest market size in the Cloud Security Market due to their critical role in enhancing overall cloud security. As cloud environments grow in complexity and scale, organizations face challenges in effectively identifying and managing potential security risks. Visibility solutions provide real-time insights into cloud assets, configurations, and activities, enabling businesses to monitor and detect any suspicious behavior or vulnerabilities proactively. On the other hand, risk assessment tools help organizations assess the security posture of their cloud infrastructure, applications, and data. By conducting thorough risk assessments, businesses can prioritize security measures, allocate resources efficiently, and proactively address potential threats. These capabilities are essential as they empower organizations to stay ahead of evolving cyber threats and maintain a robust security posture in their cloud deployments. The need for comprehensive visibility and risk assessment solutions has grown exponentially as businesses recognize their critical role in safeguarding sensitive data and maintaining compliance with industry regulations.

By region, the Asia Pacific market is to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period.

The Asia Pacific region demonstrates solid technological adoption, with a mix of developed and growing economies like China, Japan, India, Australia and New Zealand, and Singapore. Additionally, the governments in the region actively promote internet accessibility, driving demand for cloud security solutions. Also, policy improvements and regulatory enhancements, such as strengthened privacy regulations in Australia, boost adoption. Moreover, unique cybersecurity risks and rising data protection awareness accelerate the demand for cloud security in the region. Furthermore, collaborative initiatives and the adoption of SASE solutions reinforce the region's position as the fastest-growing market for cloud security. Thus, Asia Pacific has the highest CAGR in the Cloud Security Market.

Top Key Companies in Cloud Security Market:

IBM (US), Broadcom (US), Check Point (Israel and US), Google (US), AWS (US), Zscaler (US), Akamai Technologies (US), Forcepoint (US), Fortinet (US), F5 (US), Qualys (US), TrendMicro (Japan), Palo Alto Networks (US), Proofpoint (US), Tenable (US), Netskope (US), Microsoft (US), Cisco (US), Imperva (US), Trellix (US), Rapid7 (US), Skyhigh Security (US), FireMon (US), Sysdig (US), LookOut (US), Fidelis Cybersecurity (US), DataTheorem (US), OpsCompass (US), Tufin (US), Menlo Security (US), Tigera (US), Orca Security (US), Ascend Technologies (US), Secberus (US), Ermetic (Israel), Sonrai Security (US), Wiz (US), Caveonix (US), Banyan cloud (US), and AccuKnox (US) are the key players and other players in the Cloud Security Market.

Recent Developments

In May 2023 , AWS introduced a new service, Amazon Security Lake, a cloud security offering that automatically centralizes an organization's security data from multiple sources into a purpose-built data lake. It helps customers improve their security posture, respond faster to security events, and simplify security data management across hybrid and multi-cloud environments. With Amazon Security Lake, organizations can aggregate, normalize, and store security data, enabling faster threat detection, investigation, and response. It gives customers greater visibility into potential security threats and allows them to leverage their preferred analytics tools for comprehensive security insights.

, AWS introduced a new service, Amazon Security Lake, a cloud security offering that automatically centralizes an organization's security data from multiple sources into a purpose-built data lake. It helps customers improve their security posture, respond faster to security events, and simplify security data management across hybrid and multi-cloud environments. With Amazon Security Lake, organizations can aggregate, normalize, and store security data, enabling faster threat detection, investigation, and response. It gives customers greater visibility into potential security threats and allows them to leverage their preferred analytics tools for comprehensive security insights. In May 2023 , Check Point (US & Israel ) expanded Harmony Endpoint protection solutions to include vulnerability assessment and automated patch management capabilities. It helps organizations address the growing number of cyberattacks that exploit unpatched system vulnerabilities.

, Check Point (US & ) expanded Harmony Endpoint protection solutions to include vulnerability assessment and automated patch management capabilities. It helps organizations address the growing number of cyberattacks that exploit unpatched system vulnerabilities. In April 2023 , IBM (US) introduced a new platform, IBM Security QRadar Suite, a comprehensive cloud security offering that combines EDR/XDR, SIEM, SOAR, and cloud-native log management capabilities. It is designed to unify and streamline the security analyst experience in hybrid cloud environments. With advanced AI and automation, the suite empowers analysts to detect, investigate, and respond to threats faster and more efficiently. It is delivered as a service on AWS and provides simplified deployment, visibility, and integration across cloud environments and data sources.

, IBM (US) introduced a new platform, IBM Security QRadar Suite, a comprehensive cloud security offering that combines EDR/XDR, SIEM, SOAR, and cloud-native log management capabilities. It is designed to unify and streamline the security analyst experience in hybrid cloud environments. With advanced AI and automation, the suite empowers analysts to detect, investigate, and respond to threats faster and more efficiently. It is delivered as a service on AWS and provides simplified deployment, visibility, and integration across cloud environments and data sources. In September 2022 , Google (US) acquired Mandiant (US). Integrating Mandiant's capabilities will enhance Google Cloud's security operations suite, providing organizations with improved threat intelligence, incident management, and exposure management. The addition of Mandiant will enable organizations to monitor assets for exposures, validate security controls, and enhance their security posture. The acquisition reinforces Google Cloud's commitment to providing comprehensive security solutions to its customers.

, Google (US) acquired Mandiant (US). Integrating Mandiant's capabilities will enhance Google Cloud's security operations suite, providing organizations with improved threat intelligence, incident management, and exposure management. The addition of Mandiant will enable organizations to monitor assets for exposures, validate security controls, and enhance their security posture. The acquisition reinforces Google Cloud's commitment to providing comprehensive security solutions to its customers. In November 2021 , Qualys (US) partnered with TD SYNNEX (US). The partnership enables TD SYNNEX's resellers to access Qualys' cloud-based security and compliance solutions, including the VMDR app and Patch Management. It simplifies security operations, enhances threat detection, and reduces business compliance costs. This partnership strengthens Qualys' presence and extends its access to TD SYNNEX's partner ecosystem.

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Cloud Security Market Advantages:

As the demands of the organisation change, cloud security solutions can scale up or down. Cloud security services may quickly adapt to changes in demand or corporate growth without requiring significant hardware or infrastructure modifications.

The requirement for significant upfront investments in hardware and software is eliminated by cloud security. Instead, companies can pay-as-you-go for cloud security services, which lowers capital costs and offers predictable operational costs.

Authorised users can use any internet-connected device from any location at any time to access vital security resources and data thanks to cloud security. By allowing for remote work, this flexibility boosts productivity.

Traditional on-premises security solutions cannot compare to the speed at which cloud security solutions may be deployed. Organisations can respond rapidly to new security risks and effectively secure their assets thanks to this rapid deployment.

Software upgrades and security fixes are frequently handled automatically by cloud security companies. This minimises the danger of exploitation by cyber attackers by ensuring that the security measures are current and that potential vulnerabilities are swiftly fixed.

Reputable cloud security vendors have a solid architecture with redundancy and backup features to guarantee high availability and dependability of security services. This lessens downtime and improves the organization's general security posture.

AI and machine learning techniques are widely used in cloud security systems to quickly identify and address new threats. Potential security incidents can thus be identified and mitigated more quickly.

Centralised management consoles are frequently offered by cloud security systems, enabling IT personnel to oversee and control security across numerous locations and endpoints from a single interface. As a result, visibility is improved and security procedures are streamlined.

Report Objectives

To define, describe, and forecast the Cloud Security Market based on offerings, service models, types, verticals, and regions:

To predict and estimate the market size of five main regions: North America , Europe , Asia Pacific , Middle East & Africa , and Latin America

, , , & , and To analyze the subsegments of the market with respect to individual growth trends, prospects, and contributions to the overall market

To provide detailed information related to the primary factors (drivers, restraints, opportunities, and challenges) influencing the growth of the Cloud Security Market

To analyze opportunities in the market for stakeholders by identifying high-growth segments of the Cloud Security Market

To profile the key players of the Cloud Security Market and comprehensively analyze their market size and core competencies.

To track and analyze competitive developments, such as new product launches; mergers and acquisitions; and partnerships, agreements, and collaborations in the global Cloud Security Market.

Browse Adjacent Market: Information Security Market Research Reports & Consulting

Browse Other Reports:

Cyber Insurance Market - Global Forecast to 2028

Digital Identity Solutions Market - Global Forecast to 2028

Quantum Cryptography Market - Global Forecast to 2028

SASE Market - Global Forecast to 2028

Identity Verification Market - Global Forecast to 2027

About MarketsandMarkets

MarketsandMarkets is a blue ocean alternative in growth consulting and program management, leveraging a man-machine offering to drive supernormal growth for progressive organizations in the B2B space. We have the widest lens on emerging technologies, making us proficient in co-creating supernormal growth for clients.

The B2B economy is witnessing the emergence of $25 trillion of new revenue streams that are substituting existing revenue streams in this decade alone. We work with clients on growth programs, helping them monetize this $25 trillion opportunity through our service lines - TAM Expansion, Go-to-Market (GTM) Strategy to Execution, Market Share Gain, Account Enablement, and Thought Leadership Marketing.

Built on the 'GIVE Growth' principle, we work with several Forbes Global 2000 B2B companies - helping them stay relevant in a disruptive ecosystem. Our insights and strategies are moulded by our industry experts, cutting-edge AI-powered Market Intelligence Cloud, and years of research. The KnowledgeStore (our Market Intelligence Cloud) integrates our research, facilitates an analysis of interconnections through a set of applications, helping clients look at the entire ecosystem and understand the revenue shifts happening in their industry.

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Seeking to empower the INGO behavioural change sustainability platform, the partnership aligns to support UN SDGs and promote healthy and sustainable living among consumers in GCC

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- CME, a premium technology consulting firm, has announced a strategic partnership with the ENTERTAINER business, a leading global loyalty and rewards solutions provider in the GCC, to empower its behavioural change sustainability platform, INGO. This groundbreaking collaboration seeks to introduce a wealth of lifestyle offers from across the GCC directly to the INGO platform, thereby revolutionising the way individuals engage with their health and the environment.

CME collaborates with the ENTERTAINER business to revolutionise health, green engagement in GCC CME collaborates with the ENTERTAINER business to revolutionise health, green engagement in GCC

By joining forces, CME and the ENTERTAINER business aim to achieve a tangible impact, making healthy and eco-friendly living more accessible and enjoyable for individuals across the GCC region. The partnership is designed to enable INGO to provide its users with direct access to a wide array of enticing offers on the said platform, to promote and encourage better daily choices.

Wissam Youssef, CEO of CME, commented, "Our partnership with the ENTERTAINER business aligns perfectly with our mission to leverage technology for impactful solutions. Combining the sustainability-focused benefits of INGO with the money-saving advantages of the ENTERTAINER enhances the value proposition for INGO members and extends our impact in the long term. This venture is a game-changer for the sustainability sector in the GCC, as it empowers individuals to prioritise their own well-being and the environment while enjoying exclusive benefits and incentives."

As INGO users achieve their personalised health goals or engage in eco-friendly actions, they will be able to unlock a world of exclusive offers made accessible through the INGO rewards system. This pioneering approach provides individuals with an unparalleled experience, seamlessly intertwining sustainability and wellness with tangible rewards and savings, fostering a lasting behavioural change in a distinct and engaging manner.

Julian Morbidelli, Director of B2B  KSA and Egypt at the ENTERTAINER business said, "This is a fully integrated marketplace and an earn-and-burn collaboration with CME that positions INGO as a revolutionary ecosystem with healthier habits and eco-conscious choices. The unique concept of incentivising INGO members to adopt and maintain more sustainable lifestyles with exclusive rewards across the GCC is not only innovative but also an effective way of facilitating engagement in the sustainability sector."

Mahmoud Taymour, General Manager - KSA & Egypt at the ENTERTAINER business, stated, "Through this strategic partnership, our goal is to promote sustainability, support the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and provide innovative, tailored solutions that benefit our society and the environment. We are fully committed to uncovering more opportunities for a greener and more sustainable future."

The strategic partnership between CME and the ENTERTAINER business is poised to revolutionise the sustainability and development landscape in the GCC. By synergising their expertise and resources, both organisations are committed to inspiring individuals to adopt more sustainable lifestyles, empowering companies to create innovative employee engagement initiatives, and encouraging governments to promote healthier and greener citizen engagement.

About CME:

We are a premium technology consulting firm. We have helped 100+ global clients, including renowned Fortune 500 companies, become leaders in their fields. Our end-to-end solutions and comprehensive enterprise services cover Staff Augmentation, Custom Software Development, Smart Devices Engineering, Customer Experience, IoT, AI, Data & Analytics, and Process Automation. With a multinational team across 8 locations, we deliver innovative and impactful projects, contributing to 8 US Patents, and serving 80 million users daily.

About the ENTERTAINER business :

The ENTERTAINER business creates easy-to-use and cost-effective app platforms that leverage incentives to help connect businesses with their customers and employees. Each platform can be adapted to suit any business, and clients can choose from a variety of features that best serve their brand and budget. The app solutions are fully customizable and may be white-labelled, co-branded or even embedded into any business's existing app. The business division works with more than 250 partners globally and offers our clients loyalty solutions that allow them to leverage the ENTERTAINER model, venues, offers and more as a means of rewarding and delighting their employees and/or customers.

Media Contact:

Reem Masswadeh, M: +971 (05)0 583 9330, E: [email protected]

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SOURCE CME
Tips For Avoiding A Dead Battery In Any Weather And Get Peak Performance Out Of Your Vehicle Battery

CHICAGO, Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- June and July saw record heat worldwide according to the World Meteorological Organization, and August is trending to be just as hot. As the summer heat intensifies, it's not just our bodies that need extra care and attention; our vehicle batteries also require special consideration to ensure optimal performance and reliability. With scorching temperatures and extended road trips on the horizon, it's important to understand the unique charging needs of your vehicle battery in the extreme heat.

CTEK Shares How To Avoid Battery Drain In Record Heat

Temperature always plays a significant role in the life expectancy and performance of 12V batteries. Exposing a 12V battery to high temperatures, such as those experienced this year, can lead to accelerated aging. Heat increases the rate of chemical reactions inside the battery, causing the electrolyte to evaporate more quickly and accelerating internal corrosion.

"It's a common misconception that 12V batteries last longer in warm weather than they do in the cold, believe it or not it's actually the other way round," says Bobbie DuMelle, President, CTEK North America. "Batteries rely on chemical reactions to produce and store electrical energy. The rate of discharge is higher with heat that means we need to charge more often."

Temp compensation will actually reduce charge going into the battery to protect against over-heating the battery that can cause something called desiccation: If a battery becomes overcharged, due to too high voltage being used during the charging cycle, the battery loses water due to evaporation. As a result of this, the batteries charging plates become exposed and begin to dry out, causing permanent and irreparable damage.

Sulphation, a process where sulphate crystals accumulate on the battery plates, can occur when the battery is left in a discharged state for an extended period. In the winter, the battery needs to work harder and you won't be able to start with a discharged battery. That's why many of you proactively charge and maintain your vehicle battery during the winter, to avoid breakdowns and a discharged battery. In the summer however, your vehicle will probably be able to start even if the battery is discharged. You'll think your battery is doing okay when in reality, it's dying. When your battery falls below 12.4V the sulphation process begins, and you won't notice it until it's too late.

CTEK has some top tips to help maintain your 12V vehicle's performance, reliability, and safety during the hot weather conditions.

Check the battery. Hot weather puts a strain on your battery, so it's essential to check its condition. Prolonged exposure to high temperatures can significantly shorten the overall lifespan of a 12V battery. It can lead to internal damage, increased self-discharge, and a decline in the battery's ability to hold a charge over time. Regularly checking the battery's condition and addressing any issues instantly can help ensure reliable starting power and prevent unexpected breakdowns. Understand how heat affects your battery: As temperatures outside heat up, so does the temperature under the hood of your car, truck, or SUV. This creates an atmosphere that can be harmful to your battery. This built-up heat can increase the chances of battery failure, as corrosion can speed up and intensify. In addition, water inside the battery in the form of electrolytes can evaporate. Battery related service calls tend to increase over the summer months for these very reasons. Be sensitive to changes. Be aware of any changes in the way your car starts, or the operation of the electrical system in general. Do the lights dim considerably when you try to start the car? Does the starter seem to be turning slower than normal? Any changes can indicate a weak battery or problems in the electrical system. Charge before you go. Make sure your battery is fully charged and in tip-top condition before you leave home. Driving around in your vehicle will only ever charge your battery to around 80 percent capacity so, to top it up to 100 percent, you'll always need an efficient battery charger. When plugged into the outlet or another power source, a smart battery charger like CTEK's MXS 5.0 will check how much charge you have in your battery and get you fully charged for your trip. Carry emergency supplies: Traveling off-grid during the summer can be wonderful, until breakdowns happen! Prepare for any unforeseen situations by keeping emergency supplies in your vehicle. These may include a spare tire, a portable battery charger and adaptive booster like the CTEK CS FREE, flashlight, extra water, and a first aid kit. CTEK's CS FREE is a portable adaptive booster that can start a dead battery in only 15 minutes, without damaging your vehicle's sensitive electronics. It's actually a 4-in-1 unit that is a portable battery charger, smart maintainer, adaptive booster and a hi-tech power bank! Time to Replace Your Battery  Depending on where you live, how you drive and how you look after your battery, the lifespan of your vehicle battery could be greatly impacted one way or another. Extreme temperatures, frequent short trips and general everyday use could shorten the life of your battery to as little as two-three years, or the lifespan could be tripled by proper battery care. Pay attention to all the proactive ways you can prolong your battery life, and you could save time, money and the hassle of a dead battery at the most inopportune time. Invest in a Battery Charger/Maintainer  Charging your battery at least once a month prolongs its life up to three times, turning regular battery maintenance with a reliable battery charger into a smart routine for savvy motorists. When you consider that battery failure can damage or compromise a vehicle's electronics, a charger makes a worthwhile investment for the long haul. The MXS 5.0 Charger/Maintainer from CTEK has an automatic temperature sensor to ensure the duration and rate of charge is exactly the amount needed. The MXS 5.0 with built-in functionality for both maintenance and troubleshooting offers a patented technology that can recondition your battery and remove sulphation to restore battery health for greater longevity and efficiency.

To find out more, visit www.smartercharger.com. CSFREE is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

About CTEK

Established in Dalarna, Sweden, CTEK is the leading global brand in battery charging solutions, most specifically vehicle charging. CTEK offers products ranging from 12V and 24V battery chargers to charging solutions for electrical vehicles. CTEK's E-mobility solutions range from individual EV chargers to larger corporate and commercial installations with multiple charging stations that require load balancing and integrate seamlessly with monitoring and payment equipment. CTEK's products are sold via a carefully selected network of global distributors and retailers: as original equipment; supplied to more than 50 of the world's leading vehicle manufacturers; and through charge point operators, property owners and other organizations/individuals providing EV charging infrastructure. CTEK takes pride in its unique culture based on a passion for innovation and a deep commitment to supporting the transition to a greener mobility, by adhering to industry leading ESG standards.

Press Contact:

Michelle Suzuki

3104447115

http://www.smartercharger.com

SOURCE CTEK
CHICAGO, Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- With an emphasis on sustainability, adoption of AR/VR, AI-powered personalisation, and mobile commerce, the market for e-commerce platforms appears to have a bright future. Other significant developments affecting the market include omnichannel integration, voice commerce, data security, and cross-border e-commerce.

The Ecommerce Platform Market size is projected to grow from USD 7.1 billion in 2023 to USD 13.5 billion by 2028, at a CAGR of 13.8% during the forecast period, according to MarketsandMarkets. The usage of eCommerce systems will rise in response to the growing demand to improve worldwide visibility. Without being constrained by the limitations of traditional store locations, e-commerce platforms enable businesses to engage with a large and diverse global audience. Through the expansion of their customer base and exploration of unexplored markets, firms are free to operate anywhere in the world. SMEs have begun to make use of eCommerce's potential and recognize that its adoption could hasten the expansion of their business in both home and foreign markets.

Browse in-depth TOC on "Ecommerce Platform Market"

249 - Tables

50 - Figures

255 - Pages

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Scope of the Report

Report Metrics Details Market size available for years 2018-2028 Base year considered 2022 Forecast period 20232028 Forecast units Value (USD) Million/Billion Segments Covered Offering, eCommerce Model, and Industry Region covered North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa, Latin America Companies covered Shopify (Canada), eBay (US), Etsy (US), Square (US), BigCommerce (US), Amazon (US), Adobe (US), Wix (Israel), Oracle (US), Squarespace (US), WooCommerce (US), SAP (Germany), Salesforce (US), StoreHippo (India), Trade Me (New Zealand), and many more.

By offering, the service segment is expected to grow with the highest CAGR during the forecast period

Services play an important role in implementing, deploying, and integrating eCommerce solutions. Services are crucial for the effective functioning of any software. The services segment comprises integration and deployment, support and maintenance, and training and consulting services related to the eCommerce platform. As the Ecommerce Platform Market grows, the service demand is also expected to increase. Hence, the service providers deliver dedicated services by understanding customers' demands and needs. Furthermore, services are sometimes provided by channel partners who strengthen the geographical reach of online sellers.

By eCommerce Model, the B2B segment is expected to grow with the highest CAGR during the forecast period

B2B eCommerce defines the exchange of goods and services between companies via an online platform. Operators undertake business between companies and are not related directly to end users or consumers. The credit for the booming Indian B2B eCommerce marketplace goes to new enterprises that paved a new path for growth. Having access to finance and capital investment, the B2B firms got fueled with a new and broad spectrum of opportunities. The unprecedented growth of the B2B marketplace can be given a hand-down to several start-ups that fueled B2B commerce by providing an online marketplace on their websites.

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Asia Pacific is expected to have the highest growth rate during the forecast period

Asia Pacific exhibits a notable propensity for technology adoption and is poised to achieve the highest growth rate in the Ecommerce Platform Market in the coming years. Boasting a substantial share of the global population, this region is poised to be significantly influenced by major technological shifts. It encompasses robust economies such as China, Japan, India, and South Korea, contributing to the surging demand for IoT, analytics, cloud computing, AR, VR, and software, particularly in the commercial sector. The market's growth is driven by the increasing adoption of eCommerce in the region, the growing middle class, and the rising penetration of smartphones.

Top Key Companies in Ecommerce Platform Market:

The major players in the Ecommerce Platform Market are Shopify (Canada), eBay (US), Etsy (US), Square (US), BigCommerce (US), Amazon (US), Adobe (US), Wix (Israel), Oracle (US), Squarespace (US), WooCommerce (US), SAP (Germany), Salesforce (US), StoreHippo (India), Trade Me (New Zealand), Ecwid (US), OpenCart (China), Volusion (US), PrestaShop (France), Shift4Shop (US), FastSpring (US), Shopware (Germany), VTEX (UK), Nuvemshop (Brazil), Tray.io (US). To increase their market share in the eCommerce platform industry, these competitors have used a variety of growth methods, including partnerships, agreements, collaborations, new product releases, product enhancements, and acquisitions.

Recent Developments

In April 2023 , Square announced a major product release in April 2023 , which included over 100 new features across its entire product ecosystem. The new features are designed to help businesses automate their operations, increase revenue, and provide a better customer experience. Square is committed to providing businesses with the tools they need to succeed, and this release is a significant step in that direction.

, Square announced a major product release in , which included over 100 new features across its entire product ecosystem. The new features are designed to help businesses automate their operations, increase revenue, and provide a better customer experience. Square is committed to providing businesses with the tools they need to succeed, and this release is a significant step in that direction. In July 2022 , Shopify partnered with YouTube, enabling Shopify vendors to sell their full range of products on YouTube Shopping with videos, live streaming, and store tab.

, Shopify partnered with YouTube, enabling Shopify vendors to sell their full range of products on YouTube Shopping with videos, live streaming, and store tab. In May 2022 , Shopify acquired Deliverr, a fulfillment technology provider, to eliminate the complexity of the supply chain for merchants of all sizes and deliver millions of orders per month across the US.

, Shopify acquired Deliverr, a fulfillment technology provider, to eliminate the complexity of the supply chain for merchants of all sizes and deliver millions of orders per month across the US. In May 2023 , Cardinal Health introduced new payment solutions in collaboration with Square to support independent pharmacies. These modern payment solutions aim to enhance operational efficiency, keep up with customer payment preferences, and provide integrated software tools for business management. Through this partnership with Square, Cardinal Health can offer independent pharmacy customers access to cutting-edge products that facilitate seamless business operations management.

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Ecommerce Platform Market Advantages:

By removing geographical obstacles and extending their consumer base beyond local marketplaces, e-commerce platforms allow companies to access a worldwide audience. This creates fresh chances for development and income generation.

E-commerce systems enable firms to operate online and remain available round-the-clock, giving customers the freedom to shop whenever it's convenient for them. The sales potential and client happiness are both increased by this constant availability.

E-commerce platforms typically have reduced operational costs compared to conventional brick-and-mortar stores. Physical storefronts are unnecessary, which lowers costs for rent, utilities, and in-store staff. Higher profit margins for businesses may result from this cost-effectiveness.

A physical store can be established more slowly and inefficiently than an online business on an e-commerce platform. Businesses can launch new products or services faster, responding to market trends and customer demands promptly.

E-commerce platforms offer useful information on consumer behaviour and preferences, enabling companies to run focused marketing efforts. Customer engagement and conversion rates can be greatly increased by using personalised suggestions, email marketing, and remarketing techniques.

E-commerce platforms are adaptable and scalable, allowing companies to swiftly expand their operations and respond to changes in demand. With minimal disturbance, businesses may easily add new goods, functions, or payment methods.

E-commerce platforms give businesses access to useful data and analytics that help them better understand the behaviour, interests, and buying habits of their customers. This information can be utilised to improve product offers, marketing initiatives, and customer satisfaction.

Credit cards, virtual wallets, and other online payment mechanisms are all supported by e-commerce platforms. Businesses can also interface with numerous shipping companies to give clients a variety of delivery alternatives for added convenience.

Live chat, chatbots, and FAQ sections are frequently seen on e-commerce sites. Customers' buying experiences are improved because to these solutions, which allow businesses to offer quick support.

Report Objectives

To determine, segment, and forecast the global Ecommerce Platform Market by offering, location type, application, vertical, and region in terms of value.

To forecast the size of the market segments to five main regions: North America , Europe , Asia Pacific , Middle East & Africa , and Latin America

, , , & , and To provide detailed information about the major factors (drivers, opportunities, threats, and challenges) influencing the growth of the Ecommerce Platform Market

To study the complete value chain and related industry segments and perform a value chain analysis of the Ecommerce Platform Market landscape.

To strategically analyze the macro and micro markets to individual growth trends, prospects, and contributions to the total Ecommerce Platform Market

To analyze the industry trends, pricing data, patents, and innovations related to the Ecommerce Platform Market.

To analyze the opportunities for stakeholders by identifying the high-growth segments of the Ecommerce Platform Market

To profile the key players in the market and comprehensively analyze their market share/ranking and core competencies.

To track and analyze competitive developments, such as mergers & acquisitions, product launches & developments, partnerships, agreements, collaborations, business expansions, and Research & Development (R&D) activities.

Browse Adjacent Markets: Software and Services Market Research Reports & Consulting

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About MarketsandMarkets

MarketsandMarkets is a blue ocean alternative in growth consulting and program management, leveraging a man-machine offering to drive supernormal growth for progressive organizations in the B2B space. We have the widest lens on emerging technologies, making us proficient in co-creating supernormal growth for clients.

The B2B economy is witnessing the emergence of $25 trillion of new revenue streams that are substituting existing revenue streams in this decade alone. We work with clients on growth programs, helping them monetize this $25 trillion opportunity through our service lines - TAM Expansion, Go-to-Market (GTM) Strategy to Execution, Market Share Gain, Account Enablement, and Thought Leadership Marketing.

Built on the 'GIVE Growth' principle, we work with several Forbes Global 2000 B2B companies - helping them stay relevant in a disruptive ecosystem. Our insights and strategies are molded by our industry experts, cutting-edge AI-powered Market Intelligence Cloud, and years of research. The KnowledgeStore (our Market Intelligence Cloud) integrates our research, facilitates an analysis of interconnections through a set of applications, helping clients look at the entire ecosystem and understand the revenue shifts happening in their industry.

To find out more, visit www.MarketsandMarkets.com or follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

Contact:

Mr. Aashish Mehra

MarketsandMarkets INC.

630 Dundee Road

Suite 430

Northbrook, IL 60062

USA: +1-888-600-6441

Email: [email protected]

Research Insight: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/ResearchInsight/ecommerce-platform-market.asp

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CHICAGO, Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Elks National Foundation is proud to announce the start of the 2024 Elks Most Valuable Student scholarship contest. The MVS scholarship is available to high school seniors who are United States citizens. Applicants do not need to be related to a member of the Elks. The judging criteria is based on academics, leadership, service, and financial need.

Elks Most Valuable Student scholarship application open; 500 scholarships totaling $2.52 million to high school seniors. Tweet this Step into your future. The Elks Most Valuable Student scholarship provides 500 scholarships totaling $2.52 million for high school seniors. Applications due November 13.

The application is completed online and must be submitted by the November 13, 2023, deadline. The 500 national winners will be announced in April 2024. The top 20 national finalists will participate in the Leadership Weekend in Chicago and receive $30,000 scholarships. The remaining 480 runners-up will receive $4,000 scholarships.

This year, the Elks National Foundation is investing more than $4 million in college scholarships. MVS scholarsall of whom demonstrate outstanding leadership skills and a commitment to serviceare graduating from college at a rate of 90 percent, 30 percent higher than the national average.

Since 1931, the Elks National Foundation has awarded life-changing scholarships to thousands of students like William Jones, a 2023 top winner. Jones' scholarship will help him attend Texas A&M University to study agricultural engineering.

"My ultimate career goal encompasses working as an agricultural problem solver through mechanical development and usage education," says Jones. "This goal centers around creating or improving efficient machines to feed today's world as well as the world of my children, their kids, and the generations beyond."

Applications for the 2024 contest are available on the Elks National Foundation's website. For complete Most Valuable Student scholarship contest details, including the application, visit enf.elks.org/MVS.

Contact: Elks National Foundation

Abbey Knupp | Communications Manager

2750 N. Lakeview Ave. | Chicago, IL 60614-2256

773/755-4864 | [email protected]

Helping Elks Build Stronger Communities

With more than 750,000 members and 1,800 Lodges nationwide, Elks are providing charitable services that help build stronger communities across the United States. The Elks National Foundation, the charitable arm of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, helps Elks build stronger communities through programs that support youth, serve veterans, and meet needs in areas where Elks live and work. To learn more, visit elks.org/enf.

SOURCE Elks National Foundation
In 2023 thus far, Embraer has delivered 24 commercial and 38 executive jets

Firm order backlog reached US$ 17.3 billion in 2Q23

SAO JOSE DOS CAMPOS, Brazil, Aug. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Embraer (NYSE: ERJ; B3: EMBR3) delivered a total of 47 jets in the second quarter of 2023, of which 17 were commercial aircraft and 30 were executive jets (19 light jets and 11 midsize jets). During the year, the company delivered a total of 62 aircraft (24 commercial and 38 executive). The second quarter deliveries were 47% higher than in the same period from 2022. In the first half of 2023, the volume has increased 35% compared to 2022, when 46 jets have been delivered. Compared to the second quarter of 2022, deliveries volume increased by 55% in Commercial Aviation and 43% in Executive Jets. The firm order backlog ended the period at US$ 17.3 billion.

Deliveries by Segment 2Q23 2023





Commercial Aviation 17 24 E175 10 12 E195-E2 7 12





Executive Aviation 30 38 Phenom 100 1 3 Phenom 300 18 22 Light Jets 19 25 Praetor 500 6 6 Praetor 600 5 7 Midsize Jets 11 13





TOTAL 47 62

In Commercial Aviation, American Airlines signed a firm order with Embraer for seven new E175s. The aircraft will be operated by the subsidiary Envoy Air. With deliveries to begin 4Q23, Envoy's fleet of E-Jets will grow to over 141 aircraft by the end of 2024.

Embraer also received a firm order from Binter for six E195-E2s, which will bring Binter's E2 fleet to 16 jets when deliveries are completed. This order will be included in Embraer's backlog once all contractual contingencies are cleared.

Malaysia's SKS Airways closed an agreement to add ten E195-E2 jets to its fleet. In addition, SKS joined the Pool Program to support aircraft to be operated in Southeast Asia. Scoot, a low-cost subsidiary of Singapore Airlines, is also adding nine E190-E2s to its portfolio. And Royal Jordanian Airlines reached an agreement to introduce eight E190-E2 and E195-E2 jets into its operations, with deliveries starting in the 4Q23. All three agreements involved contracts with the leasing company Azorra.

Four E175s began to operate with Star Air, an Indian airline that already operates E-Jets. Star Air has also extended its Pool Program contract to include the E175s in its fleet.

Backlog - Commercial Aviation (June 30, 2023) Aircraft Type Firm Orders Deliveries Firm Order Backlog E170 191 191 - E175 822 740 82 E190 568 568 - E195 172 172 - E190-E2 34 18 16 E195-E2 236 63 173 Total 2,023 1,752 271 Note: Deliveries and firm order backlog include orders for the Defense segment placed by State-run airlines (Satena and TAME).





In addition to Star Air and SKS Airways, Embraer Services & Support signed Pool Program contract extensions with Rex Group (Australia) and Amelia (France). Another highlight of the quarter for the business unit was the announcement of 20 E-Jets P2F for the Lanzhou Group. This is the first Embraer P2F agreement in China.

In Executive Aviation, NetJets signed a contract with Embraer for the acquisition of up to 250 Praetor 500 jet options. The deal is valued at more than US$ 5 billion, and deliveries are expected to begin in 2025.

For Embraer Defense & Security, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed with Saab to position the C-390 Millennium as the preferred solution for the tactical air transport requirements of the Swedish Air Force and in the search for opportunities for potential Gripen customers in Latin America.

About Embraer

A global aerospace company headquartered in Brazil, Embraer (NYSE: ERJ; B3: EMBR3) completes 50 years of operations in the Commercial Aviation, Executive Aviation, Defense & Security, and Agricultural Aviation segments. The Company designs develops, manufactures, and markets aircraft and systems, in addition to providing after-sales Services & Support to customers.

Since it was founded in 1969, Embraer has delivered more than 8,000 aircraft. On average, every 10 seconds an aircraft manufactured by Embraer takes off from somewhere in the world, transporting more than 145 million passengers annually.

Embraer is the leading manufacturer of commercial jets with up to 150 seats and the main exporter of high value-added goods in Brazil. The company maintains industrial units, offices, service centers, and parts distribution, among other activities, in the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Europe.

SOURCE Embraer S.A.
Value-Based Care Enabler Expands Services for Independent Primary Care Practices Supporting Diverse and Underserved Communities in New Orleans and Baton Rouge

PHOENIX, Aug. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Equality Health, a national leader in value-based care, today announced its latest expansion into the state of Louisiana with an initial focus on the 17 counties surrounding Baton Rouge and New Orleans-Metairie. Equality Health will equip participating independent primary care practices (PCPs) with its proven platform -- including tools, technology and financial support necessary to deliver enhanced services to vulnerable Medicaid members. Equality Health's care model also augments care enablement with direct, community-based clinical services that extend the reach of primary care practice into the places where the most clinically complex members live and work.

According to the Louisiana Department of Health June 2023 online reporting, approximately 2 million -- 42 percent -- of Louisiana's residents are currently on Medicaid with a large contingent of women and children covered by the program.

"We're here to help make the transition to value-based care more effective  for both healthcare providers and payers," said Hugh Lytle, Equality Health founder and CEO. "Navigating the complexities of alternative payment models can be daunting  especially for those serving historically underserved populations, like Medicaid beneficiaries. By focusing on whole-person care, we can make a dramatic difference in the health of our communities."

In Louisiana and across the U.S., independent PCPs face unprecedented pressure from the compounding demands of traditional fee-for-service business models. While value-based models offer relief in concept, implementing alternative payment models at the practice level has been perceived at times as adding administrative burden rather than relieving it.

By partnering with Equality Health, PCPs can consolidate multiple value-based contracts from different payers into a single integrated technology platform, dramatically simplifying value-based workflows and lightening the administrative burden of outreach, scheduling, pre-visit care planning and supplemental data submissions. Further, Equality Health offers financial support for practices that successfully execute on identified value-based workflows.

Additional practice-facing benefits of joining the Equality Health Network include:

Dedicated Performance Practice Managers who deliver in-office training on Equality Health technology, workflows, incentive program and practice transformation initiatives;

Extended support from Equality Health community-based care teams led by Community Health Workers and Nurse Practitioners to support the practice's most complex members; and

Access to Equality Health's proprietary Cultural Care curriculum, which provides CME-eligible training for providers and practice staff on various factors most directly affecting whole-person care.

Louisiana-based independent PCPs interested in learning more about how they can help address these inequities, as well as the benefits of joining Equality Health's Network can visit this website. Health plans interested in more details about Equality Health's comprehensive value-based care model can learn more at the health plan resource page .

This latest expansion follows Equality Health's November 2022 entry into Tennessee and extending its community-based solution set offered to PCPs through its Equality Health at Home care program  an innovative initiative through which a culturally responsive team including community health workers, nurse practitioners, and chaplains deliver in-person and virtual care at home to patients facing complex medical issues and experiencing barriers to managing their health. In addition, the Equality Health Foundation will expand its reach of health and well-being services into Louisiana to address health disparities and advance health equity among diverse, underserved communities in the state.

About Equality Health

Equality Health is a technology-enabled primary care platform that leverages the proven capabilities of value-based payment models to transform healthcare for diverse and often marginalized populations. From predictive modeling to advanced care-tracking tools, utilizing Equality Health's proprietary software, participating PCPs can streamline value-based administration and stay one step ahead of a patient's journey. Equality Health's care model is Medicaid-first in design, partnering with over 3,500 PCPs and 700,000 lives across AZ, TX, TN and now LA. Equality Health partners with practices to close care gaps, optimize performance, increase compliance, and improve profitability. Members engage with holistic and personalized programs delivered through the lens of social and cultural needs. Equality Health is revolutionizing how care is delivered by establishing critical linkages with payers, providers, members, and community resources.

For more information about Equality Health, visit www.equalityhealth.com or follow @EqualityHealth on Facebook, @EqualityHealth on Twitter, and @EqualityHealth on LinkedIn.

Media Contact:

Mardi Larson, Amendola Communications for Equality Health, [email protected]

SOURCE Equality Health
AUGUSTA COUNTY, Va., Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- ESA's Fishersville Road Solar Farm Community Grant Program has awarded funding to three community-based organizations who are making positive impacts locally in community revitalization, environmental sustainability, education support or healthy living.

The organizations awarded were Blue Ridge CASA for Children, Magnolia Rose, and Arc of Augusta.

"Cultivating relationships with local organizations and amplifying their impact is core to our ethos as a company. We are humbled to support such phenomenal organizations who work tirelessly every day to make Augusta County an even better place," said Justin Vandenbroeck, executive vice president at ESA. "We are inspired by their work and look forward to doing our part to ensure that low-to-moderate income community members have pathways to economic relief from rising electricity costs."

The first recipient of the Fishersville Road Solar Farm Community Grant is Blue Ridge CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates), a non-profit organization that recruits, trains, and empowers volunteers to advocate for abused and neglected children who cannot safely remain in their homes. CASA Advocates build relationships, review records, and provide detailed court reports based on the child's best interests. Supported by knowledgeable Advocate Managers, these volunteers improve the children's physical and mental health, address trauma, and increase their chances of a healthy life.

CEO of the Blue Ridge CASA for Children said "ESA's $2,500 grant enables Blue Ridge CASA for Children to expand its services and support additional children in the foster care system, providing them with crucial advocacy and resources to ensure their safety and well-being during challenging times. With this funding, the organization can recruit and train more volunteer advocates, conduct outreach efforts, and offer essential services to a greater number of vulnerable children in need."

Magnolia Rose, another grant recipient, is a non-profit organization in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia dedicated to providing hope and healing to victims of human trafficking. They offer an emergency shelter with fully furnished apartments, ensuring a safe and nurturing environment for survivors to begin their transformative journey. Through a partnership with Augusta Health's medical mobile unit, they provide on-site detox recovery and comprehensive healthcare services. With a storefront in downtown Waynesboro, they generate funds to sustain their impactful programs. Their commitment extends to street outreach and the future establishment of a Healing Center for at-risk teen girls, offering counseling, tutoring, and mentorship. Magnolia Rose is deeply committed to empowering survivors and making a lasting impact on their lives.

Jessica Garcia, secretary of Magnolia Rose, said "This grant will have a great impact on our local community by ensuring Magnolia Rose can continue our mission of bringing hope and healing to women and girls that have survived human trafficking in the Shenandoah Valley. Thanks to ESA and their generous grant, we are able to provide safe housing, detox and recovery services, advocacy, and a neighborly support system for vulnerable women and their families."

The final recipient of the Fishersville Road Solar Farm Community Grant Program is Arc of Augusta, a non-profit organization dedicated to serving individuals with developmental disabilities in the Staunton, Waynesboro, and Augusta County areas. Established in 1960 by a group of parents who wanted their children to have access to education, the organization has since provided a range of services including summer camps, holiday parties, day programs, and legal advocacy. Currently, the focus is on promoting socialization and providing education on healthy living for individuals with developmental disabilities.

"With the grant, we can plan fun community events and workshops that bring everyone together, creating an inclusive and welcoming environment. It'll open up opportunities for people of all abilities to make meaningful friendships and community connections," said Tosha Berry, Executive Director for the Arc of Augusta.

ESA is in the process of developing a small community solar farm on approximately 8 acres of land in Augusta for low-to-moderate income residents who are currently Dominion Energy customers. They will be able to "subscribe" to the Fishersville Road Solar Farm as part of the Virginia Shared Solar Program and save money on their electric bill.

About ESA

ESA is a prominent clean energy development and decarbonization platform. Over the past decade, ESA has successfully transacted over 6 GW of operating solar energy projects and pre-construction development assets. Our diverse portfolio spans a broad array of asset classes, including installations at corporate headquarters, commercial and industrial facilities, community solar portfolios, and multi-100 MW utility-scale solar projects. ESA's influence extends across 22 states, where projects have interconnected with 27 distinct utilities. ESA operates with the freedom and flexibility inherent in a privately owned and managed corporation. To learn more about ESA, please visit our website at esa-solar.com. You can also stay up to date with our latest developments by following us on LinkedIn.

SOURCE ESA Solar Energy
DUBLIN, Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Europe Green Ammonia Market - Industry Size, Share, Trends, Opportunity, and Forecast, 2018-2028 Segmented By Production Method, By End Use, By Region and Competition" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

Europe Green Ammonia market is anticipated to grow appreciably to 2028

The European ammonia sector plays a crucial role in ensuring food security by utilizing nearly 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually as a feedstock to produce fertilizers.

However, with the growing emphasis on sustainability and reducing carbon emissions, the emergence of green ammonia presents a transformative solution for the energy and agriculture industries. Green ammonia, produced through electrolysis using renewable electricity, offers a clean and efficient energy source that aligns with the European Union's ambitious targets for increased adoption.

Unlike conventional ammonia, green ammonia is free from carbon dioxide emissions, making it an eco-friendly fuel for transportation and electricity generation. Additionally, its role as a nitrogen-rich fertilizer offers a greener alternative to conventional fertilizers, benefiting agricultural practices while minimizing environmental impact.

With easy transportation and storage, the green ammonia market is set to flourish in the coming years, shaping a sustainable future for Europe's energy and agriculture sectors.

Growing technological Efforts to lessen Climate Change Effects are Market Driving factors

Climate change is one of the most significant challenges facing the world today, and Europe has been a leader in addressing this challenge by setting ambitious climate targets and promoting the development of clean energy technologies such as green ammonia. Green ammonia is used in different technology for the processing or production of fuels and products.

During production, green ammonia emits no carbon dioxide, unlike conventional ammonia production, which is responsible for significant greenhouse gas emissions. By replacing conventional ammonia with green ammonia, Europe can significantly reduce its carbon footprint and help combat climate change.

Hence, European Union has also recognized the potential of green ammonia and has set ambitious targets to increase its production and use. The European Union's Green Deal aims to make Europe climate-neutral by 2050 and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030.

To achieve these goals, the European Union has placed a target of producing 10 million tons of renewable hydrogen by 2030, which will be used to produce green ammonia in Europe. Therefore, the Europe Green Ammonia Market is going to hold an impressive market share to fulfill their sustainability goals.

Growing Demand for Renewable Energy Based Products is Driving the Market Growth

Renewable energy and green ammonia are closely linked in Europe, as the production of green ammonia requires renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power.

The development of renewable energy has played a critical role in making green ammonia production more feasible and cost-effective. For the production of green ammonia, wind power is one of the most common sources of renewable energy. Wind turbines can be used to generate electricity to power the electrolysis process used to produce green ammonia.

In Europe, countries such as Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands are leading the way in wind energy production, making them well-positioned to produce green ammonia using wind power. Solar power is another key source of renewable energy used in green ammonia production.

Solar panels can be used to generate electricity to power the electrolysis process, and concentrated solar power (CSP) can be used to generate high-temperature heat for the Haber-Bosch process used to produce ammonia. Europe has a significant solar energy potential, particularly in Southern Europe, which could be harnessed for green ammonia production.

Rising Sustainable agriculture and Products are Driving the Market Demand

Sustainable agriculture and the green ammonia market are closely connected, as green ammonia can be used as a sustainable fertilizer to support sustainable agriculture practices.

Sustainable agriculture aims to reduce the environmental impact of agricultural practices while promoting the long-term viability of the agricultural sector. Conventional fertilizers used in agriculture are often produced using fossil fuels, which results in significant greenhouse gas emissions.

Green ammonia, on the other hand, is produced using renewable energy and waste streams such as carbon dioxide, resulting in significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions. By using green ammonia as a fertilizer, sustainable agriculture practices can reduce the carbon footprint of the agricultural sector. Furthermore, sustainable agriculture practices aim to maintain and improve soil health, which is critical for crop growth and long-term agricultural sustainability.

Green ammonia can contribute to soil health by providing essential nutrients such as nitrogen, which is essential for plant growth. By using green ammonia as a fertilizer, sustainable agriculture practices can improve soil health and promote the long-term viability of agricultural production.

Apart from these, green ammonia can be produced using renewable energy and waste streams, creating a closed-loop system that reduces waste and promotes resource efficiency. Sustainable agriculture practices also aim to promote closed-loop systems by reducing waste and promoting resource efficiency.

By using green ammonia as a fertilizer, sustainable agriculture practices can contribute to the development of a circular economy in which resources are used more efficiently. Hence, the green ammonia market and sustainable agriculture practices are interconnected, with the growth of one supporting the growth of the other.

By promoting the development of sustainable agriculture practices and the green ammonia market, Europe can play a leading role in promoting sustainable development and addressing the global challenges of climate change and resource depletion. Therefore, the Europe Green Ammonia Market is going to hold an impressive market share in the coming period to fulfill the demand for sustainable fertilizer and products by farmers.

Favorable Government Efforts are Driving the Demand for Europe Green Ammonia Market

The EU's plan for green ammonia includes several initiatives, such as they will support the development of renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar power, which will be used to power the electrolysis process. Second, it will provide funding for research and development to improve efficiency and reduce the costs of green ammonia production.

Moreover, European Union will promote the use of green ammonia in the agriculture and transport sectors. Apart from these, the European Union is committed to making green ammonia a key component of its energy and climate policies. By investing in research and development and supporting the development of renewable energy sources, the EU is paving the way for a cleaner, more sustainable future.

As green ammonia technology continues to evolve and improve, it is likely that it will play an increasingly important role in meeting Europe's energy and climate goals as the strong will of the governments is expected to increase the production and demand of green ammonia in Europe for the forecast period and in the future.

Recent Developments

In February 2023 , CEPSA EP SA and Fertiberia SA formed a tactical alliance to boost green hydrogen production and decarbonize the industry in Huelva. This collaboration will help Fertiberia SA to accelerate the growth of its green ammonia production.

, CEPSA EP SA and Fertiberia SA formed a tactical alliance to boost green hydrogen production and decarbonize the industry in Huelva. This collaboration will help Fertiberia SA to accelerate the growth of its green ammonia production. The consortium of companies led by ThyssenKrupp is planning to build a new plant in the city of Duisburg, Germany , and is expected to begin operations in 2025. The plant will have a production capacity of 1,000 tons of green ammonia per day, making it one of the largest green ammonia plants in Europe . The green ammonia will be produced in the plant using renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar power, and will emit significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions compared to traditional ammonia production methods.

Competitive landscape

Company Profiles: Detailed analysis of the major companies in Europe Green Ammonia market.

Yara international ASA

Haldor Topsoe Holding A/S

Thyssenkrup AG

Siemens Energy AG

BASF SE

ACME Group

GKN Ammonia Ltd.

Fertiglobe plc

NEL Hydrogen AS

Green Hydrogen Systems A/S

Report Scope:

Europe Green Ammonia Market, By Production Method:

Alkaline Water Electrolysis

Proton Exchange Membrane

Solid Oxide Electrolysis

Europe Green Ammonia Market, By End Use:

Power Generation

Transportation

Fertilizers

Others

Europe Green Ammonia Market, By Country:

France

Germany

United Kingdom

Italy

Spain

Finland

Greece

Portugal

Bulgaria

Netherland

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/6w67k0

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]

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SOURCE Research and Markets
Russian President Vladimir Putin is counting on the defeat of his American counterpart Joe Biden in the 2024 US presidential election. The Kremlin dictator is betting that a change in the US president will lead to a reduction in support for Ukraine and an improvement in Russia's position in possible negotiations.

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In particular, Putin is counting on Biden's predecessor in the White House, Donald Trump, to come to power and help him, so there is a danger that the Kremlin will do its best to delay the war against Ukraine until after the US elections. This was reported by CNN with reference to four senior US officials.

"Senior U.S. and European officials are concerned that Russian President Vladimir Putin is factoring the 2024 U.S. presidential election into his military plan for Ukraine, hoping that President Joe Biden's defeat next year will force the United States to reduce its support for Ukraine and improve Russia's bargaining position," the publication writes.

According to one of CNN's sources, there is "no doubt" that Putin is "trying to hold on" until the 2024 elections. Another source familiar with the intelligence noted that the Kremlin dictator hopes for Trump to come to power.

ADVERTISIMENT

"Putin knows that Trump will help him. Therefore, although we have not seen anything explicit about this, I believe that everyone thinks so," the official said.

One of the European diplomats interviewed by CNN shared this view. He stressed the widespread belief in Europe that Russia's attempt to "wait out" the war in Ukraine until after the US elections "is exactly Putin's plan".

The publication stressed that the United States currently has no accurate information that Putin is deliberately delaying the war in the hope of Trump's victory.

"But next year's elections remain a key factor that senior Western national security, intelligence and diplomatic officials believe will influence Putin's decisions in Ukraine, making it even less likely that the war will end by the end of next year," the journalists said.

ADVERTISIMENT

As reported earlier, Trump is leading the GOP presidential primaries by a wide margin.

According to the GOP primaries, 54% of the population is ready to vote for the odious former president, while his rival, Republican Ron DeSantis, is supported by about 17% of conservatives.

It has also been reported that the ICC may issue new arrest warrants for Putin and Russia's top leadership. The reason for this may be the investigation of war crimes by the private military company Wagner. It is noteworthy that the Kremlin dictator actually gave himself up red-handed, as after the mercenaries' attempted mutiny, Wagner admitted that the PMC was fully funded from the Russian budget.

Only verified information is available on our Obozrevatel Telegram channel, Threads and Viber. Don't fall for fakes!
Entrepreneur Of The Year celebrates ambitious entrepreneurs who are building a better world

SAN DIEGO, Aug. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Ernst & Young LLP (EY US) today announced that Shahab Elmi, CEO and Founder of Cymbiotika was named an Entrepreneur Of The Year 2023 Pacific Southwest Award winner. The Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards program is one of the preeminent competitive awards for entrepreneurs and leaders of high-growth companies. Elmi was selected by an independent judging panel made up of previous award winners, leading CEOs, investors and other regional business leaders. The candidates were evaluated based on their demonstration of building long-term value through entrepreneurial spirit, purpose, growth and impact, among other core contributions and attributes.

"I am honored and humbled to be named an Entrepreneur Of The Year 2023 Pacific Southwest Award winner," said Shahab Elmi. "This award further validates our mission and serves as a reminder of the positive impact we are making. I am grateful for this recognition and excited about the opportunities that lie ahead as we continue to innovate and drive positive change."

For nearly four decades, EY US has honored entrepreneurs whose ambition, courage and ingenuity have driven their companies' success, transformed their industries and made a positive impact on their communities. Entrepreneur Of The Year Award winners become lifetime members of a global, multi-industry community of entrepreneurs, with exclusive, ongoing access to the experience, insight and wisdom of program alumni and other ecosystem members in over 60 countries  all supported by vast EY resources. Since 1986, the Entrepreneur Of The Year program has recognized more than 11,000 US executives.

As a Pacific Southwest award winner, Elmi is now eligible for consideration for the Entrepreneur Of The Year 2023 National Awards. The National Award winners including the Entrepreneur Of The Year National Overall Award winner will be announced in November at the Strategic Growth Forum, one of the nation's most prestigious gatherings of high-growth, market-leading companies. The Entrepreneur Of The Year National Overall Award winner will then move on to compete for the World Entrepreneur Of The Year Award in June 2024.

The Entrepreneur Of The Year program has honored the inspirational leadership of entrepreneurs such as:

Andreas Bechtolsheim and Jayshree Ullal of

Arista Networks

Daymond John of FUBU

Hamdi Ulukaya of Chobani, Inc.

Holly Thaggard and Amanda Baldwin of

Supergoop!

Howard Schultz of Starbucks Coffee Company James Park of Fitbit

Jodi Berg of Vitamix

Joe DeSimone of Carbon, Inc.

Kendra Scott of Kendra Scott LLC

Reid Hoffman and Jeff Weiner of LinkedIn

Corporation

Joe Kudla of Vuori

About Entrepreneur Of The Year

Entrepreneur Of The Year is the world's most prestigious business awards program for unstoppable entrepreneurs. These visionary leaders deliver innovation, growth and prosperity that transform our world. The program engages entrepreneurs with insights and experiences that foster growth. It connects them with their peers to strengthen entrepreneurship around the world. Entrepreneur Of The Year is the first and only truly global awards program of its kind. It celebrates entrepreneurs through regional and national awards programs in more than 145 cities in over 60 countries. National Overall Award winners go on to compete for the World Entrepreneur Of The Year title. Visit ey.com/us/eoy.

About Cymbiotika

Cymbiotika is an innovative wellness brand based in San Diego. Cymbiotika is driven by the higher purpose of inspiring everyday people to achieve their optimal health. Founded in 2018, Cymbiotika uses the most advanced bioavailable absorption technology and sources only the highest quality plant-based nutrients to resolve specific nutritional deficiencies and support healthy aging, detoxification, and longevity. Cymbiotika never uses synthetics, GMOs, fillers, chemicals, preservatives, or additives in its products. For more information, visit www.cymbiotika.com.

SOURCE Cymbiotika
Alexander joins Firefly with more than 30 years of aerospace experience, including senior advisor and leadership roles at NASA, the White House, and NewSpace companies

CEDAR PARK, Texas, Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Firefly Aerospace, Inc., an end-to-end space transportation company, today announced it named Bretton "Brett" Alexander as its Chief Revenue Officer to accelerate growth and foster new and existing customers across Firefly's launch, lunar, and on-orbit services. Alexander has more than 30 years of civil, national security, and commercial experience in the aerospace industry, most recently serving as Blue Origin's Vice President of Government Sales.

Bretton Alexander Headshot

"We're incredibly fortunate to have Brett join the Firefly leadership team," said Bill Weber, CEO of Firefly Aerospace. "Brett's global reputation, network, and experience in the space transportation market will be invaluable as we continue to ramp up production of Firefly's launch, lunar, and on-orbit vehicles and manifest a growing number of government and commercial missions."

Based out of Washington D.C., Alexander will oversee all sales and customer relationships for Firefly in support of the company's business strategy. In this position, he will lead business development planning and execution to drive significant revenue growth and achieve Firefly's long-term market share, revenue, and profit objectives.

"Firefly's rapid innovation is setting a new standard in the aerospace industry, and I'm proud to join this passionate, hardworking team," said Brett Alexander. "Firefly's accomplishments, including their orbital Alpha flight, facility expansion, and development progress on their landers and orbital vehicles, are very real and just the beginning. I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to build on Firefly's momentum and help accelerate the company's growth."

Prior to joining Firefly, Alexander led Blue Origin's government sales across civil and national security space sectors for more than 10 years. Previously, Alexander served in leadership roles at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, as well as senior advisor roles on the NASA Advisory Council and the Federal Aviation Administration's Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee. Alexander's former experience also includes senior policy analyst roles at the Federal Aviation Administration's Office of Commercial Space Transportation, the Aerospace Corporation, and ANSER Corporation.

About Firefly Aerospace

Firefly is an end-to-end space transportation company with launch, lunar, and in-space services. As an all-American company headquartered in central Texas, Firefly is focused on delivering responsive, reliable, and affordable space access for government and commercial customers. Firefly's small- to medium-lift launch vehicles, lunar landers, and orbital vehicles provide the space industry with a single source for missions from low Earth orbit to the surface of the Moon and beyond. For more information, visit www.fireflyspace.com.

Media Contacts

Firefly Aerospace

[email protected]

SOURCE Firefly Aerospace, Inc.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- For the second year in a row, Florida Realtors, the largest professional trade association in Florida, has been named one of Florida's "Best Companies To Work For."

The annual "Best Companies To Work For In Florida" list, featured in a special August issue of Florida Trend magazine, ranks 100 companies in small, medium and large employer categories. Florida Realtors ranked 33rd in the mid-size employer category.

"At Florida Realtors, we invite our employees into the discussion for our mission to be the 'Voice for Real Estate in Florida'  they're as important to our brand as any of our products, tools or services," says Florida Realtors CEO Margy Grant. "Creating a culture of trust and empowerment is an everyday process. When given the opportunity to do the right thing at the right time, employees will choose to do so when they feel trusted and empowered."

Florida Realtors has 146 employees and two Florida offices: its headquarters in Orlando and a public policy office in Tallahassee. As the state Realtor association, it provides programs, services, continuing education, research and legislative representation to 238,000 members in 51 local Realtor boards and associations.

To participate in the "Best Companies To Work For In Florida" program, companies or government entities were required to have at least 15 workers in Florida and to be in operation at least one year. Those that chose to participate underwent an evaluation of their workplace policies, practices, philosophy, systems and demographics. The process also included a survey to measure employee satisfaction. The combined scores determined the top companies and the final ranking.

"It's clear the nature of the workplace has fundamentally changed, not only in hybrid work becoming a permanent part of the business landscape but in the expectations of employees when they do come to the office," says Florida Trend Executive Editor Vickie Chachere. "What remains unchanged is that companies who listen to their employees and create workplaces that enhance the quality of life for their teams are rewarded with productivity, stability and a thriving work environment."

Florida Trend Publisher David Denor adds, "Innovative, inspirational and visionaries ... these Florida companies continue to set trends for others to follow. This group of impressive companies continues to recruit, retain and deliver unique workplace environments for their employees and clients alike. Not afraid to takes chances or step outside the norms, the 'Best Companies To Work For In Florida' are risk takers that provide us with a glimpse of what tomorrow's workforce and workplace environments could look like."

The "Best Companies To Work For In Florida" program is managed by Florida Trend and Workforce Research Group and is endorsed by the HR Florida State Council. Workforce Research Group handled the registration, survey and analysis and determined the final rankings. Check out Florida Trend's list of 100 Best Companies To Work For In Florida online.

Florida Trend business magazine is read by 270,000 business executives, civic leaders and government officials each month. It covers regional and statewide business news, industry executives and the business sectors they represent, as well as Florida's lifestyle, arts and culture scene.

Florida Realtors serves as the voice for real estate in Florida. It provides programs, services, continuing education, research and legislative representation to 238,000 members in 51 boards/associations. Florida Realtors Newsroom website is available at http://floridarealtors.org/newsroom.

SOURCE Florida Realtors
Award Recognizes Young Leaders on Personal and Professional Accomplishments

ROCHESTER, N.Y., Aug. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Foundry Digital LLC ("Foundry"), a digital asset mining and staking company focused on empowering a decentralized infrastructure, announced that the Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce honored Foundry's Director of Economic and Community Development Adrian Hale with the IGNITE Award. The award celebrates young professionals who strive toward the highest levels of personal and professional accomplishment, who excel in their chosen field, devote time and energy to their community in a meaningful way, and forge paths of leadership for others to follow.

With Adrian Hale's community-focused mindset, Foundry's Mining Engineers Fellowship program is empowering recent Rochester City School District (RCSD) graduates to become contributing members of the blockchain community through education, exposure, expertise, and employment. The pathway program encourages recent RCSD graduates to join a two-year industry-based curriculum within Foundry, providing hands-on training, competitive salaries, and benefits.

Before entering the crypto industry, Adrian worked to improve educational outcomes for the community's youth and enhance the quality of the Rochester regional workforce. He was the youngest Greater Rochester Chamber executive in the organization's history, creating its talent, workforce development, and education initiatives office. Hale was also nominated for and awarded various leadership and community-focused awards throughout his professional career, including the Center for Teen Empowerment Award, Champion for Youth Leadership Award, two ROC Black Men Achieve Awards, and 40 Under 40 recognitions.

Hale said, "I am honored and humbled to be nominated for the IGNITE Award for the second year. When I serve our community, I don't think about awards or recognition, but to be acknowledged for the way I contribute is an honor all on its own. I wish all my fellow finalists a hearty congrats, and I'm encouraged about our future  looking at the young leaders and my fellow nominees who are in the trenches working to make Rochester better!"

Foundry's VP of Human Resources Stephanie Marchioni stated, "I've had the privilege of witnessing Adrian's unwavering commitment to the Rochester community, both within and beyond Foundry, and I'm eager to see his ongoing efforts in placing the community at the heart of our mission to empower a decentralized infrastructure. By embracing the power of community engagement, Adrian is paving the way for a more inclusive and collaborative future where individuals come together to drive meaningful change."

About Foundry Digital LLC

Headquartered in Rochester, NY, Foundry Digital LLC is a digital asset mining and staking company focused on empowering a decentralized infrastructure. The DCG subsidiary leverages its industry relationships and market intelligence to empower institutions with the tools they need to mine and stake digital assets. For more information, please visit foundrydigital.com.

SOURCE Foundry Digital LLC
DUBLIN, Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Folding Furniture Market - Global Industry Size, Share, Trends, Competition, Opportunity, and Forecast, 2018 - 2028F Segmented By Product Type, By End User, By Distribution Channel, By Region" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global folding furniture market is experiencing robust growth, driven by several key factors such as an increasing number of millennials residing in rental spaces and seeking versatile and compact furniture solutions, the demand for folding furniture has surged.

Co-living trends, which have become popular due to shrinking house sizes, have also contributed to the market's growth. Furthermore, the convenience of purchasing folding furniture from online platforms has added to its popularity. Folding furniture, including tables, chairs, and stools, provides a practical solution for compact living spaces where optimizing room space is crucial.

As the global population continues to grow, housing sizes are decreasing to accommodate more citizens, creating a need for space-saving furniture.

Increasing Residential Construction is Propelling the Market Expansion



The global folding furniture market is witnessing high demand owing to the rising number of residential constructions across different countries. As per the data provided by Oxford Economics, the global construction market was valued at USD 10.7 trillion in 2020 and is expected to reach USD 15.2 trillion by 2030.

Moreover, the rising government initiatives to provide houses to their citizens are contributing to the expansion of the global folding furniture market.



The Rising Trend of Tiny Homes is Driving the Market Growth



Owing to the rising prices of residential buildings, individuals have started preferring tiny homes, which are not only compact in size but also reduce the expenditure of consumers on house maintenance. Tiny homes are usually under 400 square feet, providing an effective solution to the housing affordability crisis, the harmful environmental effects of development, and the emissions from operating large homes.

For instance, it is estimated that more than 10,000 tiny homes and 700 new houses are built every year in the United States. Thus, owing to the smaller size of these houses, consumers prefer to use folding furniture instead of traditional furniture as it not only efficiently fits in the house but also saves space for other household essential products.



Increasing Trend of Eco-Friendly Furniture in Fueling the Market Growth



One of the most prominent trends in the market is the increasing emphasis on environmentally friendly foldable furniture. Global environmental issues, such as global warming and environmental preservation concerns, etc., are driving the production as well as sales of eco-friendly plant-based items, including furniture.

Deforestation and the burning of trees account for around 20% of greenhouse gas emissions. During the forecast period, it is projected that the proliferation of environmental restrictions in regions such as North America and Europe will promote the usage of eco-friendly furniture.



Moreover, most luxury outdoor furniture firms use raw materials that are biodegradable, recyclable, or approved by environmental organizations such as the Forest Stewardship Council in their manufacturing processes (FSC). Thus, one of the primary trends that are projected to significantly impact the market during the forecast period is the increased emphasis on environmentally friendly foldable furniture.

Market Dynamics

Drivers

Shifting Trend Towards Small Sized Apartments

Growing Demand for Compact and Multi-Functional Furniture

Rising Construction in Residential Sector

Market Trends & Developments

Rising Demand for Eco-Friendly Products

Increasing Trend of Tiny Homes

High Demand from Online Channels

Increasing Trend of Co-living Among Millennials

Growing Demand for Foldable Beds

Challenges

High Cost of Raw Material

Supply Chain Constrains

Voice of Customer Analysis (B2C Model Analysis)

Sample Size Determination

Respondent Demographics

By Gender

By Age

By Occupation

Brand Awareness

Factors Influencing Purchase Decision

Customer Satisfaction

Competitive Landscape

Company Profiles: Detailed analysis of the major companies present in the global folding furniture market.

Bush Industries, Inc.

Inter IKEA Systems B.V.

Murphy Wall Beds Hardware Inc.

Ashley Furniture Industries Inc.

Kestell Furniture LLC

Murphy Wall Beds Hardware Inc.

Lifetime Products Inc.

Flexsteel Industries, Inc.

Dorel Industries Inc.

Haworth Inc.

Report Scope:



Global Folding Furniture Market, By Product Type:

Chairs

Tables

Sofas

Beds

Global Folding Furniture Market, By End User:

Residential

Commercial

Global Folding Furniture Market, By Distribution Channel:

Direct Sales

Furniture Retail Outlets

Supermarket & Hypermarket

Home Decor Shops

Others

Global Folding Furniture Market, By Region:

North America

United States

Canada

Mexico

Europe

France

Germany

Spain

Netherlands

United Kingdom

Asia-Pacific

China

India

Japan

Vietnam

South Korea

Indonesia

Middle East & Africa

& Saudi Arabia

South Africa

UAE

Turkey

South America

Brazil

Argentina

Colombia

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/8sy8sj

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]

For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900

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Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/539438/Research_and_Markets_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Research and Markets
DUBLIN, Aug. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Pipeline Construction - Industry Report" has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the Pipeline Construction market on a global scale, focusing on the top 860 companies in the industry.

The "Global Pipeline Construction - Industry Report" covers key aspects of the pipeline construction sector, including pipe manufacturing, building, and water-related projects. The report offers valuable insights into the financial trends of the past four years, making it an indispensable resource for industry stakeholders.

Market Projections

Using an exclusive methodology, the report presents a quick overview, indicating that 103 companies have a declining financial rating, while 161 companies have shown good sales growth. The top 860 companies in the Pipeline Construction sector are meticulously analyzed using the most up-to-date financial data.

Key Features

Each business is thoroughly examined, focusing on:

The Publisher's Chart: A graphical assessment of a company's financial performance

Four-year assessment of profit/loss and balance sheet

A written summary highlighting key performance issues

The "Global Pipeline Construction - Industry Report" offers a comprehensive 100-page market analysis, including:

Best Trading Partners

Sales Growth Analysis

Profit Analysis

Market Size

Rankings

Key Players

The report profiles major players in the industry, including A Evangelista Sa, All About Fine Construction Co.,Ltd, and Asahi Industry Co.,Ltd, among others.

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/rzfvik

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/539438/Research_and_Markets_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Research and Markets
DUBLIN, Aug. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Overview of the Spray Polyurethane Foam (SPF) and One Component Foam (OCF) Markets - 8th Edition " report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

Spray polyurethane foam (SPF) is a versatile building material that can be applied to a range of surfaces and irregular shapes in situ to provide thermal and acoustic insulation. Global SPF production grew by 0.4% in 2022 to reach 756,000 tonnes. This modest growth was mainly due to the significant decline in production in China, caused by the country's ongoing pandemic restrictions and zero-COVID policy, which impacted the construction projects in the country. There were also contractions in other key markets, such as Poland, Russia and Spain, which contributed to this.

The US remains, by far, the largest SPF manufacturer in the world, with China in second place. There is, however, a stark contrast between the performance of the SPF market in the two countries, with strong growth in the US, driven by the ongoing demand for efficient insulation, and stagnation in China, caused by a slowdown of the economy and construction sector, as well as stricter fire regulations. In the past five years, China's share of global production has halved, whereas the US's has increased steadily.

Western Europe continues to possess the largest SPF production in EMEA. In recent times, growth in Western Europe has been slower than Central and Eastern Europe due to the region's maturity and saturation. However, political instability in Turkey from 2018 and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict have caused Central and Eastern Europe's markets to suffer.

The Middle East's production has developed rapidly in recent years, owing to the performances of both Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Saudi Arabia has one of the fastest-growing construction industries in the world due to its array of mega projects, which has resulted in strong growth for the SPF market, and this is anticipated to continue over the forecast period. Africa has shown steady growth, with most production coming from North Africa.

Global SPF demand increased by 0.4% in 2022, following an increase of 6.2% in 2021 as the market began to recover from the pandemic. As with SPF production, the US and China have the largest demand. China's demand has been declining every year and this is anticipated to persist over the forecast period.

Report Scope

The 8th edition of this report provides historical production and demand data from 2018 to 2021, along with the 2022 base year. It also includes forecasts from 2023 to 2027. The data is analyzed based on regions, countries, and product types, such as SPF and OCF. Additionally, the report covers raw materials used in the production of SPF and OCF, including PMDI, Polyols (Polyether and Polyester), and other materials.

The report highlights the key findings, including the global production and demand for SPF and OCF in 2022 and forecasts up to 2027. It also provides insights into major geographic regions and countries with the highest demand for SPF and OCF.

The report provides an overview of the technical background of Spray Polyurethane Foam (SPF) and One Component Foam (OCF). It also examines the raw materials used in their production, such as PMDI and Polyols.

Global Supply & Demand

The report reviews the global trends and issues in the SPF and OCF industries, including the production and demand data for SPF and OCF in various regions and countries. It explores the growth and challenges faced by key markets like Western Europe, Central & Eastern Europe, Middle East & Africa, Americas, and Asia-Pacific.

Profiles of Major Manufacturers

The report features profiles of major manufacturers in the SPF and OCF industries including:

Carlisle Polyurethane Systems

Achilles Corporation

Akkim Construction Chemicals

Arkema

BASF Polyurethane Foam Enterprises LLC

Covestro

Dow Chemical

Huntsman Corporation

Grupo Plasfi Sl

Henkel

Huntsman Building Solutions

Jihua Chemical Ltd.

Nestaan

North Carolina Foam Industries

Polypag

Selena Group

Shanghai Fengjing Building Material Ltd.

Shanghai Haohai Chemical Co. Ltd.

Soudal Nv

Synthesia Technology

Wolf Group - Krimelte

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/7u5a6i

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.



Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716



Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/539438/Research_and_Markets_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Research and Markets
GLENDALE, Ariz., Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Hiru Corporation would like to announce its financial performance for the 2nd Quarter ended June 30, 2023.

For the three months ended June 30, 2023, the Company generated gross revenues of $7,769,288 USD with net income of $2,474,622 USD. This is a 415% increase in top line revenue when compared to the three months ended June 30, 2022, of $1,872,514 USD. Additionally, this is a 263% increase in net income when compared to the three months ended June 30, 2022 of $942,728 USD.

For the six months ended June 30, 2023, the Company has generated gross revenues of $12,681,584 USD with net income of $2,855,220 USD. This is a 271% increase in top line revenue when compared to the six months ended June 30, 2022, of $4,687,871 USD. Additionally, this is a 24.04% increase in net income when compared to six months ended June 30, 2022 of $2,301,733 USD

The Company retired $968,251 USD in long term debt during the 2nd quarter ended June 30, 2023. Since FYE December 31, 2022 to end of the 2nd Quarter ended June 30, 2023, the Company has lowered its long-term debt liabilities from $2,914,692 USD to $1,328,853 USD (a total lowering of $1,585,839 USD), a 54.41% decrease in long term liabilities.

The Company has purchased 25,000,000 shares of Common Stock during the 2nd Quarter ended June 30, 2023. This block of Common Stock and ongoing monthly buyback will be returned to treasury during the third quarter ended September 30, 2023.

Ms. Kathryn Gavin (President and CEO of the Company), states"The Company continues to perform each quarter on all financial metrics related to top line revenue and net income as predicted by management. Additionally, we have made a concerted effort to reduce our long-term liabilities during the ongoing fiscal year in an effort to strengthen our balance sheet for future growth. We will continue to make progress each quarter ongoing to retire long term debt and increase top line revenue. As we have announced each quarter, our top line revenue each quarter has been better than the previous and we do not foresee that stopping for the foreseeable future as we continue to meet the expectations of our growing client base and our shareholders. The Company is still on target to hit our projected top line revenue mark of between $30,000,000 USD and $40,000,00 USD by the end of FYE 2023."

Disclaimer Regarding Forward Looking Statements

Certain statements that we make may constitute "forward-looking statements" under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include information concerning future strategic objectives, business prospects, anticipated savings, financial results (including expenses, earnings, liquidity, cash flow and capital expenditures), industry or market conditions, demand for and pricing of our products, acquisitions and divestitures, anticipated results of litigation and regulatory developments or general economic conditions. In addition, words such as "believes," "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "estimates," "projects," "forecasts," and future or conditional verbs such as "will," "may," "could," "should," and "would," as well as any other statement that necessarily depends on future events, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees, and they involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Although we make such statements based on assumptions that we believe to be reasonable, there can be no assurance that actual results will not differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements. We caution investors not to rely unduly on any forward-looking statements.

ABOUT US

Hiru Corp. is a Georgia corporation, is a public quoted Pink Sheet OTC issuer under the ticker symbol "HIRU" (the "Company"). The Company reports as an alternative reporting issuer with OTC Markets Group, Inc. and is current in its mandatory required filings (e.g., Pink Sheet Current). Currently, the Company has one wholly owned, operational subsidiary, AZ Custom Bottled Water, Inc., a Nevada corporation ("AZ Water"), which owns and operates a commercial water bottling and labeling facility based in Phoenix, Arizona. AZ Water operates a B2C website at https://azcustombottledwater.com/.

CONTACT:

Web Site: www.waterandiceshop.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Hirucorpnew

SOURCE Hiru Corporation
TAIZHOU, China, Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- When planning a trip to China, people must have a lot of imagination and expectations for the colorful experiences that this ancient country with vast territory and abundant resources can offer:

They might want to visit the scenic mountains and rivers and feel the poetic vibe depicted in traditional Chinese ink paintings;

A fairyland-like part of Shenxianju scenic area & Guoqing Temple in Tiantai Mountain

They might want to trace the origins of traditional Chinese culture and learn more about the oriental philosophy that values harmony while cherishing diversity;

They might want to wander in the quaint old streets to get a glimpse into the historical sites that are not overshadowed by the bustling modern city;

Or They might want to go on a gourmet tour of China, eating all the best local delicacies along the way.

The advice is 'Come to Taizhou!' This city, located in east China's Zhejiang Province, can almost single-handedly fulfill the bucket list of global travelers for a satisfying trip to China.

Taizhou has both coastal and mountainous regions. It's home to three national 5A-level tourist attractions, namely Tiantai Mountain, Shenxianju scenic area and Taizhou's ancient city, 17 national 4A-level tourist attractions, one world geological park, three national wetland parks and four national scenic spots. Besides, it has a beautiful coastline of 726 kilometers connecting three beautiful bays, which offers diverse impressive scenery, according to Global Communication Center of Hehe Culture.

This is a city full of oriental romance.

For one thing, Taizhou's name is closely related to China's long-standing and sophisticated star culture. In ancient China, people divided the corresponding areas on the ground according to the positions of the stars in the sky, and the place where Taizhou is located corresponds to Tai Star in the traditional Chinese 28 stars, hence its name.

For another, Tiantai Mountain, located in north Taizhou, is an important cradle of Chinese harmony culture as well as the birthplace of Tiantai sect of Buddhism and southern sect of Taoism in China.

Three different philosophical schools of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism have learned from each other here since ancient times, forming a unique cultural harmonious symbiosis, which is still evident today in the echoing bells of Buddhism and Taoism temples in the mountain.

During the Tang Dynasty, Han Shanzi, a poet, and Shi De, a monk of Guoqing Temple, once lived in seclusion here. The former's poems were translated into many languages and were once a hit in Japan, Europe and America.

Although they are not from a family, they have developed brotherly relations, leaving many moving poems and legends. They have been named Hehe Gods by a Qing Dynasty emperor, which later became the symbol of the Hehe culture with far-reaching influence at home and abroad.

Meanwhile, Taizhou is known for a rich poetry legacy. In the Tang Dynasty (618-907), one of the peaks of Chinese poetry culture, more than 300 poets came here, either asking for meditation or seclusion. They sang their aspirations and expressed their feelings by depicting local scenery, leaving behind more than 1,400 majestic poems, leaving a historic "Tang Dynasty poetry corridor" in eastern Zhejiang.

Li Bai, probably the best-known Chinese poet, is one of the literati who lingered in Taizhou.

"Clad in rainbow garments, riding on the wind, come the queens of all the clouds, descending one by one. With tigers for their lute-players and phoenixes for dancers. Row upon row, like fields of hemp, range the fairy figures."

These fantastic and colorful scenes are not just in Li Bai's dreams, but could well be found in Taizhou's Shenxianju scenic spot. With a unique geological structure, Shenxianju is the largest volcanic rhyolite landform cluster in the world, which can offer a feeling of being in a fairyland as its Chinese name suggests.

If people prefer to explore ancient buildings and street life, Taizhou's ancient city, which has a history of more than 1,600 years, will definitely impress them.

A 5,000-meter-long Taizhou ancient city wall meanders along the lush green trees and a winding river, representing a beautiful style different from the Great Wall in Beijing.

Under the city wall, Ziyang Street, an ancient street running through the ancient city, boasts time-honored charm and buzz. It used to be the most prosperous commercial district, and has maintained the street pattern and the architectural style in ancient times. Various old-fashioned shops are interspersed among them, and walking through them makes one feel like walking into ancient China.

And of course, food is an indispensable element of travel.

Taizhou is one of the emerging best food destinations of China's top online travel agency Trip.com in 2022. There are not only glutinous snacks such as black rice sesame cake, rice cake roll and plum-shape cake and sweet fruits like Yongquan Township's tangerine, Yuhuan County's grapefruit and Xianju County's bayberry to replenish energy for travelers at any time, but also fresh delicacies from mountains and seas to satisfy picky taste buds.

In recent years, Taizhou cuisine has gained reputation and popularity among diners all over the country and even the world thanks to its unique local fresh and sweet tastes. The first three-star Michelin Chinese restaurant in Chinese mainland was born here, and Taizhou restaurant Xinrongji with 49 Michelin stars and 72 black pearls and diamonds has become the top-rated Chinese restaurant, and it is so popular that it's often difficult to grab a seat.

In addition, Taizhou is also a unique and charming health resort. The city offers poetic, scenic, romantic and even educational stays thanks to its diverse culture and landscape, and all these stays will bring both mental and physical comfort and pleasure.

A sound China trip should not only offer a taste of local beautiful scenery, nice food and charming culture, but also a tempo of modernization. Taizhou is one of the cities with the most economic vitality and innovative steam in China, an excellent tourist city in China and a national civilized city, and has been rated as one of the happiest Chinese cities for seven times.

Taizhou's "No.1 Highway" under construction is a highly recommendable route for a road trip into China. This beautiful road with a total length of about 270 kilometers passes through 6 cities, counties and districts, offering a view of natural coastal landscape, island parks, pastoral villages, and cultural sites.

Home to mountains and seas, cultural relics and industrial clusters, ancient traces and modern spots, Taizhou is a perfect combination of China's scenic beauty, culinary pleasure, cultural charm and economic development. Travellers just won't regret paying a visit to Taizhou for a dream China trip.

Image Attachments Links:

Link: https://iop.asianetnews.net/view-attachment?attach-id=441727

Caption: A fairyland-like part of Shenxianju scenic area & Guoqing Temple in Tiantai Mountain

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2169614/Tiantai_Mountain.jpg

SOURCE Global Communication Center of Hehe Culture
SHENZHEN, China, Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- July 2023 is likely to be recorded as the hottest month on record, and possibly the warmest in 120,000 years. The climate is warming, and as a result, the likelihood of extreme weather events is increasing. Traditional weather prediction requires huge amounts of computing power to work. Now a new AI-powered weather model is being released to the public that transforms the way weather is predicted.

ECMWF website showing weather forecasts made by Pangu-Weather (Source: ECMWF)

Pangu-Weather, an AI model for weather prediction developed by HUAWEI CLOUD, enables more accurate weather forecasts to be made with a 10,000x improvement in prediction speeds, reducing global weather prediction times to just seconds. This facilitates the early prediction and preparation of extreme weather. These results were published in the peer-reviewed scientific publication Nature on July 5, 2023.

Pangu-Weather is the first AI prediction model with higher precision than traditional numerical prediction methods and is being released to the public for the first time, for free on the ECMWF (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts) website. This provides global weather forecasters, meteorologists, weather enthusiasts, and the general public with a platform to view Pangu Weather Model's 10-day global weather forecasts.

A "game-changer" for traditional weather forecasting

In addition to making 10-day weather forecasts available, the ECMWF has also released a report comparing the forecasts made by Pangu-Weather and the ECMWF IFS (a leading global NWP system) from April to July 2023.

According to the report, the uptake of machine learning (ML) methods like Pangu-Weather could be "a game-changer for the incremental and rather slow progress of traditional numerical weather prediction (NWP) methods" whose forecast skill has been increasing by about one day per decade (according to the World Meteorological Organization, or WMO). This can be attributed to the high computational cost of running a forecast with standard NWP systems. ML models are poised to revolutionize weather forecasting with forecasts that require much lower computational costs and are highly-competitive in terms of accuracy.

Dr. Tian Qi, Chief Scientist of HUAWEI CLOUD AI Field, an IEEE Fellow, and Academician of the International Eurasian Academy of Sciences, explained "Weather forecasting is one of the most important scenarios in the field of scientific computing because meteorological prediction is a very complex system, yet it is difficult to cover all aspects of mathematical and physical knowledge. At present, Pangu-Weather mainly completes the work of the forecast system, and its main ability is to predict the evolution of atmospheric states."

Proven high accuracy in predicting extreme weather

Pangu-Weather model's prediction capabilities have been tested in extreme situations such as Storm Eunice which hit north-western Europe in February 2022 and the first time the UK hit 40C in the summer of 2022. These two examples show that data-driven models are capable of forecasting extreme weather situations and of providing guidance for medium-range forecasting.

Pangu-Weather prediction covers geopotential, specific humidity, wind speed and temperature. All of this information is critical to predicting the development of weather systems, storm trajectories, air quality, and weather patterns. Pangu-Weather has also been used in predicting the trajectory of Typhoon Khanun, the sixth typhoon this year.

The ECMWF has long called for more efforts from the global weather forecasting community to use AI models as additional components of their forecasting systems and to further explore the strengths and weaknesses of such models to assist management of weather.

Dr. Tian Qi said, "Our ultimate goal is to build next-generation weather forecasting framework using AI technologies to strengthen the existing forecasting systems."

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2169705/1.jpg

SOURCE Huawei
The Armed Forces of Ukraine continue to conduct a counter-offensive against the Russian occupation forces. Ukrainian defenders in the south have in some places broken through the first line of defence of the invaders.

ADVERTISIMENT

This statement was made by Deputy Minister of Defence of Ukraine Hanna Maliar. She said this during a nationwide telethon.

"Our forces continue to persistently carry out offensive actions (in the south - ed.), making their way through very serious enemy resistance. There is continuous artillery shelling and mining. But our troops in the south have already broken through the first line of defence in some places and moved to the intermediate line. There they are facing the fact that the enemy has built concrete fortifications on key heights, and this certainly complicates the movement of our forces and combat operations," said Maliar.

She clarified that for the enemy, the epicentre of the fighting is the east, because the Russians are placing their military stake on this direction.

"Their goal is to reach the borders of Luhansk and Donetsk regions. They want to seize the initiative, so our main offensive direction is the south, and for them it is the east," the deputy minister added.

ADVERTISIMENT

Most of the Russian occupiers' forces are concentrated in the Kupyansk direction. They are also sending large forces to the Bakhmut direction. Very fierce fighting is taking place there. In addition, fierce fighting is taking place near Avdiivka and Maryinka. The enemy cannot advance, but is using all available weapons.

In addition, according to Maliar, the enemy is pulling up its reserves, including professional units, both in the south and in the east.

As reported by the General Staff, the Ukrainian Armed Forces repelled Russian occupants' attacks near Avdiivka, Maryinka, Blahodatne and Novopokrovka. There were 30 combat engagements in the area over the last day.

ADVERTISIMENT

Ukraine's defence forces eliminated another 640 Russian occupants and 89 pieces of their equipment and weapons at the frontline over the last day. In particular, they burned a number of artillery systems and tanks and neutralised 27 drones that the aggressor had intended to use to attack our cities.

As OBOZREVATEL previously reported, Ukraine's defenders destroyed the occupiers' aerial reconnaissance point in the Lyman sector. The position from which the invaders launched their drones was discovered by the State Border Guard Service and passed the data to the Armed Forces artillery.

Only verified information is available on our Obozrevatel Telegram channel, Threads and Viber. Don't fall for fakes!
MISSION VIEJO, Calif., Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- International humanitarian charity, Human Appeal, has opened a new permanent healthcare center in Al Zohoor town, Northwest Syria, thanks to the generous support of Americares, the health-focused relief and development organization.

A baby receives a medical check-up by a doctor at Human Appeal's new clinic in northwest Syria.

Recognizing the critical need for basic health services in Al Zohoor following the devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck the region on February 6, 2023, Americares provided Human Appeal with $300,000 in emergency funding to establish a health clinic for earthquake survivors, including displaced women, children and the elderly.

The new center provides facilities spanning first aid, in-patient treatment, children and women's clinics, a laboratory, pharmacy, and dental clinic, offering free healthcare to families displaced by the earthquake. It also includes a psychological support clinic, offering invaluable psychiatric aid to children who have been affected by the crisis.

"This new clinic will increase access to critical health services in a region where health care is needed now more than ever," said Americares Director of International Emergency Response Cora Nally. "We're proud to be part of this effort."

Americares responds to more than 30 natural disasters and humanitarian crises worldwide each year, establishes long-term recovery projects and brings preparedness programs to communities vulnerable to disasters. Since its founding more than 40 years ago, Americares has provided more than $22 billion in aid to 164 countries, including the United States.

Since recently opening its doors in June 2023, the facility has already treated over 2,000 people, and has the capacity to serve 225 patients per day.

Dr. Nihat Kashoor, a Medical Coordinator for Human Appeal in northwest Syria, comments: 'It's been an incredibly difficult year for the people of Syria. Millions are still trying to piece their lives back together following the devastating earthquake earlier this year. We quickly recognized the importance of Al Zohoor as a refuge for those displaced by the quake. In the initial aftermath, we prioritized offering shelter and food security. Once established, it was a vital priority to provide free medical care to those who lost everything in the natural disaster. We're proud to have opened the healthcare center in Al Zohoor in collaboration with one of our longstanding partners, Americares, and hope to provide a stable future for all those affected by the earthquake.'

In the aftermath of the deadly earthquake, which killed just over 8 thousand people in Syria, Human Appeal began moving families who lost their homes in the earthquake into the 1,000 brick homes it recently built in the town it named Al Zohoor or the floral town. Now in conjunction with Americares, the new clinic is serving these families with a wide range of healthcare.

About Human Appeal USA

Here for Every Human. Human Appeal is a non-profit organisation working across the globe to strengthen humanity's fight against poverty, social injustice and natural disaster. Through the provision of immediate relief and the establishment of self-sustaining development programmes, we aim to invest in real, effective solutions.

Human Appeal USA is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization.

Tax ID # 87-2410117. Your donations are tax deductible.

Human Appeal Inc. 26050 Acero, Suite 415, Mission Viejo, CA 92691, USA.

Tel: +1 949 569 9060.

Email: [email protected]

For more information visit: www.humanappealusa.org

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2169762/Human_Appeal.jpg

SOURCE Human Appeal
IEM contributes nearly $90,000 in supplies for pediatric care, disaster response and training

MORRISVILLE, N.C., Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- IEM and IEM Health are honored to donate emergency medical kits, automated external defibrillators, and other medical supplies to Texas Children's Hospital, the largest pediatric hospital system in the nation.

The items, valued at nearly $90,000 and originally purchased in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, will now be used for first responder training, emergency response, preparation, and planning.

IEM Donates Medical Supplies to Texas Children's Hospital

"Equipping medical centers with the proper resources could provide a lifeline for the communities they serve," said IEM Health Chief Medical Director Dr. Rashid Chotani. "These items will be invaluable tools to be used in emergency situations, educate first responders, and ultimately to save lives. We hope the pediatric doctors, staff, patients, and their families benefit greatly from IEM's donation."

In November 2022, Texas Children's Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine announced plans to lead the Gulf 7  Pediatric Disaster Network (G7). This regional pediatric disaster network provides specialized care during widespread crises in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Puerto Rico, and Texas. G7 works to improve regional capacity to provide pediatric care in large-scale crises and serves as a hub for disaster-focused education, training, and resource deployment.

Chotani and Deputy Director of IEM Health Dr. Lori Van Wagenen presented the items to Dr. Brent Kaziny, Medical Director of Emergency Management and Attending Physician, Emergency Center at Texas Children's Hospital.

"As health care professionals and providers, we have a responsibility to our hospital, our city, and our community to prepare for disasters and to respond to them as quickly and effectively as possible," said Dr. Kaziny. "We are so grateful for IEM's generous donation, which will enhance our preparedness by providing us with the tools we need to train our staff and to educate first responders."

Kaziny also serves as Co-Director, Disaster Preparedness Domain, EMS for Children Innovation and Improvement Center and Department of Pediatrics, Section of Emergency Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine.

"Coordinating attainable medical care for children from an expansive network of experts in times of crisis aligns with IEM's mission," Chotani added. "IEM Health is proud to have had the opportunity to deliver highly specialized and efficient, quality supplies that will help people of all ages, including the youngest survivors of disasters and emergencies."

About IEM

As the largest woman- and minority-owned crisis management firm in the world, IEM's 1,200+ consultants are at the forefront of building a safe, secure, and resilient world. Founded in 1985, IEM integrates science, technology, and real-world experience to provide our clients with innovative solutions and outcomes that matter. Our services encompass emergency management, homeland security long-term disaster recovery, project and grants management, logistics, infrastructure security and resilience, public health, digital citizen services, innovative technologies for national security and law enforcement, and public engagement and outreach. For information, visit www.iem.com.

ABOUT TEXAS CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL

Texas Children's, a nonprofit health care organization, is committed to creating a healthier future for children and women throughout the global community by leading in patient care, education and research. Consistently ranked as the best children's hospital in Texas and among the top in the nation, Texas Children's has garnered widespread recognition for its expertise and breakthroughs in pediatric and women's health. The system includes the Texas Children's Duncan NRI; the Feigin Tower for pediatric research; Texas Children's Pavilion for Women, a comprehensive obstetrics/gynecology facility focusing on high-risk births; Texas Children's Hospital West Campus, a community hospital in suburban West Houston; and Texas Children's Hospital The Woodlands, the first hospital devoted to children's care for communities north of Houston. The organization also created Texas Children's Health Plan, the nation's first HMO for children; Texas Children's Pediatrics, the largest pediatric primary care network in the country; Texas Children's Urgent Care clinics that specialize in after-hours care tailored specifically for children; and a global health program that's channeling care to children and women all over the world. Texas Children's Hospital is affiliated with Baylor College of Medicine. For more information, visit www.texaschildrens.org.

SOURCE IEM
DUBLIN, Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Saudi Arabia: Existing & Upcoming Data Center Portfolio" database has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

This Excel-based solution covers a vast portfolio analysis, providing crucial information on both existing and upcoming colocation data centers in the region.

Key Features of the Database:

Detailed Analysis of Existing Data Centers: The database contains an in-depth examination of 21 operational data centers in Saudi Arabia . This includes essential details such as location, operator/owner name, core & shell area (white-floor area), core & shell power capacity (IT load capacity), rack capacity, year of operations, and power/cooling redundancy. Insightful Overview of Upcoming Data Centers: Additionally, the database covers 32 upcoming data centers, shedding light on investment details, location, investor name, area (white-floor area), power capacity (IT load capacity), and projected investment across electrical infrastructure, mechanical infrastructure, and general construction services. Geographic Coverage: The data centers covered in this database are spread across prominent cities in Saudi Arabia , including Al Ahsa , Al Qassim , Dammam , Jeddah , Medina, and Riyadh . Colocation Pricing Analysis: The database offers valuable information on retail colocation pricing, with details on Quarter Rack (1/4), Half Rack Cabinets (1/2), and Full Rack Cabinet (42U/45U/47U/etc.) rates. Furthermore, it includes wholesale colocation pricing per kW.

Market Highlights:

Saudi Arabia's data center market is experiencing a surge in investments from colocation operators and enterprise data centers alike. This unique proposition places the country in a favorable position for substantial growth in the upcoming years.

Notably, Quantum Switch Tamasuk (QST), a Joint Venture (JV) between Quantum Switch and Tamasuk, signed a significant deal with the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT). The partnership aims to develop new data centers across the country, with a projected power capacity of around 300 MW by 2026.

Geographically, the cities of Jeddah and Riyadh contribute to over 50% of the existing white floor area in the Saudi Arabia Data Center Market. Additionally, Mobily and Saudi Telecom Company together account for more than 75% of the rack capacity in the market.

Target Audience:

This database is tailored to meet the needs of various industry stakeholders, including:

Data Center Real Estate Investment Trusts (REIT) Data Center Construction Contractors Data Center Infrastructure Providers New Entrants in the Market Consultants, Consultancies, and Advisory Firms Corporate and Government Agencies

Investors/Operators Covered:

The database provides detailed information about key players in the Saudi Arabia data center market, including:

Detecon Al Saudia Co. Ltd

GO Telecom (Etihad Atheeb Telecom Company)

Gulf Data Hub

Mobily

NourNet

Saudi Telecom Company

For more information about this database visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/imott6

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



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Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/539438/Research_and_Markets_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Research and Markets
MIAMI, Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- NTM Info & Research (www.ntminfo.org), a pioneering global organization committed to addressing NonTuberculous Mycobacterial (NTM) and improving respiratory health, proudly announces the first-ever World NTM Awareness Day, to be held on August 4, 2023. This significant milestone celebrates the organization's 20-year anniversary, paying tribute to its founders' Fern and Philip Leitman's unwavering commitment to advancing knowledge, support, and treatment options for individuals affected by NTM.

World NTM Awareness Day :60 Join us in raising awareness about nontuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) infections and the impact they have on individuals worldwide. Did you know NTM organisms are in the environment, including water & soil? Together, let's work towards early detection, improved treatment options, and better support for those affected. Visit https://worldntmday.org for more info on NTM lung disease #NTMAwareness #NTMAwareness #FightNTM #worldntmday

Experience the full interactive Multichannel News Release here: https://www.multivu.com/players/English/9188151-non-tuberculous-mycobacterial-awareness-day/

World NTM Awareness Day is the ideal platform to raise global awareness about NTM, a complex and often misunderstood group of bacteria that cause chronic infections, predominantly affecting the respiratory system. With this observance, NTMir honors the vision and dedication of its founders, who embarked on this journey two decades ago with a mission to transform the lives of those impacted by NTM.

Nearly all NTM patients have bronchiectasis, either before or as a result of NTM. "There hasn't been enough emphasis on the connection between NTM lung disease and the underlying lung damage, bronchiectasis, but the two go hand-in-hand, and impacts millions of people worldwide, costing tens of thousands of dollars per year for each patient," said Amy Leitman JD, President of NTMir and daughter of Fern and Philip Leitman. "Understanding and managing both conditions gives patients the chance for improved quality of life and better outcomes." Throughout the years, NTM Info & Research has partnered with global organizations that have been at the forefront of advocacy, research, and collaboration, driving positive change in the NTM and bronchiectasis community.

NTM awareness and treatment options have made great strides. This anniversary celebration underscores the organization's continued commitment to its founding principles and recognizes the remarkable progress made in NTM awareness, diagnosis, and patient care."We are thrilled to announce the first World NTM Awareness Day as we commemorate our 20-year anniversary," said Leitman. "This special day not only celebrates the achievements of our organization but also shines a spotlight on the global NTM community, honoring the resilience and strength of individuals impacted by this challenging condition.We'd like to thank all our sponsors for helping make this event a reality, especially our platinum sponsor, Insmed."

The inaugural World NTM Awareness Day will feature a virtual webinar and panel discussion featuring renowned experts, researchers, and advocates, providing valuable insights into the latest advancements in NTM diagnosis, treatment, and support. However more awareness and research is needed for earlier detection and treatment options that will support NTM patient's quality of life. Visit worldntmday.org to learn more on how to take concrete steps towards supporting those affected by NTM, promoting early detection, and improving treatment outcomes.

NTM Info & Research (NTMir) is a national 501(c)(3) non-profit organization formed on behalf of patients with pulmonary nontuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) disease for patient support, medical education and research. The organization serves patients, healthcare providers and researchers dealing with bronchiectasis and NTM. It advocates a broad agenda to promote early diagnosis, improved treatments, and research. The mission is to bring a voice to the concerns of all our constituents with government officials and agencies that guide, research, and regulate therapies developed to treat these diseases. NTM Info & Research recognizes the need for advancement in education and treatment of bronchiectasis.

NTMir was founded by Fern Leitman, an NTM patient, and her husband Philip. During treatment at National Jewish Health in Denver, they met many patients from different parts of the country, who had experienced delayed diagnoses and were frightened for being unfamiliar with many aspects of NTM disease.

SOURCE NTM Info & Research
DUBLIN, Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The "India Oleochemicals Market By Type, By Application, By Sales Channel, By Region, Competition, Forecast & Opportunities, 2018-2028F" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The India oleochemicals market is poised for significant growth in the coming years, fueled by a multitude of factors that have set the stage for expansion.

The increasing demand from various end-user industries and the implementation of favorable government policies are key drivers behind this growth. Notably, the market's rapid rise can be attributed to the growing consumer awareness of environment-friendly products, which has spurred the adoption of oleochemicals in various applications.

Moreover, the Indian government's initiatives to promote the use of bio-based products have further boosted the market's momentum. India's position as a major producer of vegetable oils, crucial raw materials for the oleochemicals industry, further strengthens its market potential.

Additionally, the country's focus on increasing production of renewable feedstocks, such as castor oil, presents an alternative and sustainable source for oleochemicals.

As these chemicals derived from natural fats and oils find widespread application in soaps, detergents, personal care products, and various industrial sectors, the India oleochemicals market is expected to continue its growth trajectory throughout the forecasted period.

Growing Demand from End-Use Industries is a Key Driver for Oleochemicals Market Growth



The growing demand from end-use industries is a key driver of the India oleochemicals market. Oleochemicals are used in a wide range of industries, including personal care, food and beverage, household cleaning, and pharmaceuticals, among others.

In the personal care industry, oleochemicals are used in the production of soaps, shampoos, and other personal care products. As the Indian middle class continues to grow, with the increase in consumer spending power, the demand for personal care products is also increasing, ultimately driving the demand for oleochemicals.



In the food and beverage industry, oleochemicals are used in the production of food additives, emulsifiers, and other ingredients. Furthermore, oleochemicals are used in the production of detergents, cleaning agents, and other household products that are produced by household cleaning industries. As more and more Indian households switch to using cleaning agents that are more environmentally friendly, the demand for oleochemicals is increasing.



In the pharmaceutical industry, oleochemicals are used in the production of a range of drugs and medicines. As the Indian healthcare industry continues to grow and the demand for pharmaceuticals increases, the demand for oleochemicals is also increasing. Generally, the growing demand from end-use industries is expected to continue to drive growth in the India oleochemicals market in the approaching years as these industries continue to expand and develop new products that require oleochemicals as key ingredients.

Rising Consumer Awareness of Environmentally Friendly Products is Driving Market Demand



The rising consumer awareness of eco-friendly products is another key driver of the India oleochemicals market. Oleochemicals are more environmentally friendly than traditional petroleum-based chemicals because they are derived from natural fats and oils and are biodegradable in nature.



As consumers become more aware of the impact of traditional chemical-based products on the environment, they are increasingly seeking out products that are made from natural and sustainable sources.

This trend is driving the demand for oleochemicals in India, as manufacturers of personal care products, household cleaning products, and other consumer goods are looking to meet consumer demand for more sustainable and eco-friendly products. Hence, the rising awareness towards eco-friendly products is propelling the demand for India oleochemicals markets in projected periods.

Availability of Raw Materials is Driving the Oleochemicals Market Growth



The availability of raw materials is a key driver of growth in the oleochemicals market, including in India. Oleochemicals are derived from natural oils and fats, which can be obtained from a variety of sources such as palm, coconut, and soybean.

The availability and cost of these raw materials play a crucial role in determining the growth of the oleochemicals market. Referring to the media sources, India has exported nearly 631,000 tons of soybean-based products in the first quarter of the 2022/23 marketing year, which is 65% more than last quarter and equivalent to the total export of last year.



In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the production of oilseeds such as soybean, rapeseed, and sunflower in India. This has led to a steady supply of raw materials for the oleochemicals industry, which in turn has supported the growth of the market.



Moreover, there has been a growing focus on sustainable production methods in the oleochemicals industry, which includes the use of raw materials from renewable sources. This has led to the development of new sources of raw materials, such as jatropha, a plant that can grow in arid regions and produces oil that can be used as a feedstock to produce oleochemicals.



In addition, government initiatives such as subsidies and tax incentives have encouraged the production of raw materials for the oleochemicals industry, leading to increased availability and lower costs. Hence, the availability of raw materials is generally considered to be favorable for the India oleochemicals market having a significant impact on the India oleochemicals markets.

Key Trends that are Going to Impact the Demand of India Oleochemicals Markets Growth



The Indian oleochemicals market was expected to see steady growth in the coming years, driven by the different key trends such as:



Focus on sustainable production methods: There was an increasing focus on sustainable production methods in the Indian oleochemicals market, with manufacturers adopting practices such as the use of renewable energy sources and reducing waste.



Use in new and innovative applications: Oleochemicals were being used in new and innovative applications, such as the production of bio-based plastics and feedstocks to produce biofuels.



Government initiatives: The Indian government was promoting the use of renewable resources and supporting the development of the oleochemicals industry through various initiatives, such as subsidies to produce biofuels.



Growth of the personal care industry: The personal care industry was a key driver of growth in the Indian oleochemicals market, with increasing demand for natural and eco-friendly ingredients in personal care products.



Increasing awareness about the benefits of using natural products: There was growing awareness among consumers about the benefits of using natural and eco-friendly products, which was driving demand for oleochemicals in various applications.

Efforts by Key Players are Driving the Demand for the Oleochemical Market in India



Different players are keenly working on different activities and development to target a new customer base that reflects the growing importance of the oleochemical industry in India and the increasing focus on sustainability and innovation in the industry.



Investments in production capacity: Several companies in India have announced plans to expand their production capacity for oleochemicals. For example, in 2020, Adani Wilmar Limited announced plans to invest in a new complex of 400 TPD to be built in Mundra, Gujarat, India, and expand its production capacity for fatty acids, glycerin, and other oleochemicals.



Partnerships and collaborations: Companies in the Indian oleochemical industry are forming partnerships and collaborations to develop new products and technologies. At the same time, companies in India are investing in research and development to develop new oleochemical products and technologies.



Increasing use of renewable feedstocks: Companies in India are increasingly using renewable feedstocks, such as castor oil and palm kernel oil, as alternatives to traditional vegetable oils. This is driven by concerns about sustainability and the environmental impact of palm oil production.



Government support for the industry: The Indian government has introduced several initiatives to support the development of the oleochemical industry. For example, the government has announced plans to set up a dedicated research and development center for the oleochemical industry, as well as tax incentives for companies that use bio-based products in their production processes.

Competitive landscape



Company Profiles: Detailed analysis of the major companies in India oleochemicals market.

VVF ( India ) Limited

) Limited Godrej Industries Limited (BSE:GODREJIND)

3F Industries Limited

Jocil Limited (NSE:JOCIL)

Indo Amines Ltd. (INDOAMIN.BO)

Universal Biofuels Limited

Oil Base India

Oleochem India Private Limited

Olivia Impex Pvt. Ltd.

Bharat Jyoti Impex

Report Scope:



India Oleochemicals Market, By Type:

Fatty Acid Methyl Esters

Fatty Alcohol

Glycerine

Fatty Acid

Other

India Oleochemicals Market, By Application:

Pharmaceuticals & Personal Care

Soap & Detergents

Food & Beverages

Polymers

Others

India Oleochemicals Market, By Sales Channel:

Direct

Indirect

India Oleochemicals Market, By Region:

East

West

North

South

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/shgi8y

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

Media Contact:



Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/539438/Research_and_Markets_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Research and Markets
DUBLIN, Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The "India Outbound Tourism Market Size, Share, Analysis, Opportunity, Growth, Insights, Trends, Demand and Forecasts (2023-2031)" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The India outbound tourism market report offers a comprehensive and detailed analysis of the factors driving, restricting, and shaping the market's growth from 2015 to 2031.

With historical data from 2015 to 2022 and forecasts up to 2031, the report presents a thorough understanding of market dynamics, trends, and future prospects. By utilizing data-driven insights and thorough analysis, the report delves into potential lucrative opportunities, current and upcoming trends, spending patterns, purposes of visits, and key target markets for outbound travel from India.

Moreover, the study employs a country-specific approach, examining the India outbound tourism market across 32 countries, providing a holistic view of the market landscape and identifying key driving forces and constraints for better comprehension and identification of future growth avenues.

Rising personal income levels and greater accessibility will enable international travel for a greater proportion of India's population. India's sizable global diasporas and international student body will continue to be a pull factor for visiting friends and relatives. In addition, affluent Indian travelers will seek first-class, personalized experiences that exude cachet.

Business travel will expand in line with commercial interests, with the meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions segment (MICE) offering the greatest prospects. The next generation of Indian travelers will be younger, more gender-specific, and less likely to travel in multigenerational family groups. By 2031, an estimated 50 million Indians will travel overseas.

After conducting thorough research on the historical and current growth parameters, the growth prospects of the Indian outbound tourism market are obtained with maximum precision.

The Report Analyses the Market on the Basis of Countries and Presents the Forecast in Terms of Value and Volume for the Next 8 Years.

This Well-Versed and Comprehensive India Outbound Tourism Market Research Report 2023 Delivers:

Comprehensive Research Methodology of the India Outbound Tourism Market

Detailed and Extensive Market Overview with Key Analyst Insights

Insights about Market Determinants that are Stimulating the India Outbound Tourism Market

To Analyze the Historical Growth in the Market Size of the India Outbound Tourism from 2015 to 2022

To Estimate and Forecast the Market Size of the India Outbound Tourism Market from 2023 to 2031 and Growth Rate until 2031

The Market Size of the India Outbound Tourism with Eight Years Forecast

Provides Comprehensive Insights on the Latest Indian Outbound Tourists Going Abroad with Eight Years Forecast

Detailed Market Share Assessment of the India Outbound Tourism Market with Eight Years Forecast

Includes a Detailed Analysis of the India Outbound Tourism Spending in the Top 32

Most-Visited Foreign Countries

Detailed Insights of the India Outbound Tourists Going to the Top 32

Most-Visited Foreign Countries

Delivers a Complete Overview of the Indian Tourists Purpose of Visits (Holiday, Visit Friends / Relatives, Business and Others) to the Top 32 Most-Visited Foreign Countries

Delivers an In-Depth Analysis of Evolving Market Trends, Drivers, and Restraints of the United States Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) Market

The Report Helps Answer the Following Questions:

What is the current size of the overall India outbound tourism market?

outbound tourism market? How much will this market be worth from 2023 to 2031?

How many outbound tourists are there in India ?

? Which foreign country is best for Indian to travel?

What are the top outbound destinations from India ?

? What are Indian outbound tourism trends?

How many Overall Indian tourists visit globally?

Which country has the highest tourists visit by the Indian people?

What are the market shares of the India outbound tourism visitation and market?

outbound tourism visitation and market? What is the main purpose of visits for the Indian outbound tourists?

What are the main drivers and restraints in the India outbound tourism market?

outbound tourism market? How will the industry evolve during the forecast period 2023 - 2031?

The Top 32 Countries Included in the Report are:

Singapore

Thailand

United States

Australia

China

Japan

New Zealand

Sri Lanka

Taiwan

Bhutan

Nepal

Cambodia

Mauritius

United Kingdom

Canada

Maldives

Switzerland

Philippines

Myanmar

Malaysia

Turkey

Oman

Qatar

United Arab Emirates (UAE)

(UAE) Bahrain

Saudi Arabia

Kuwait

Egypt

Germany

Italy

Netherlands

France

Key Topics Covered:

1. Introduction

2. Research Methodology

3. Executive Summary

4. India Outbound Tourism Market Analysis and Forecast (2015-2031)

4.1 India Outbound Travelers' Visitation and Forecast

4.2 India Outbound Travelers' Spending and Forecast

5. India Outbound Tourism Market Share and Forecast (2015-2031)

5.1 India Outbound Travelers' Visitation Share and Forecast

5.2 India Outbound Travelers' Spending Share and Forecast

6. Key Market Drivers and Challenges of the India Outbound Tourism Market

6.1 Market Drivers

6.2 Market Challenges

7. India Outbound Tourism Market - Top 32 Countries In-Depth Analysis (2015-2031)

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/oj6fsi

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]

For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900

U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/539438/Research_and_Markets_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Research and Markets
Kansas Fine Wine & Spirits to operate store as Total Wine Spirits Beer & More and bring best in class service, price, and selection to the greater Kansas City marketplace

OVERLAND PARK, Kan., Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Kansas Fine Wine & Spirits LLC, owned by Robert Trone, announced today it has acquired Lukas Fine Wine & Spirits in Overland Park, located at 12100 Blue Valley Parkway.

The store will operate as Total Wine Spirits Beer & More and will remain open while it undergoes renovations expected to be completed in 2024. The 40,000 sq. ft. store will offer a full assortment of more than 8,000 wines, 3,000 spirits, and 2,500 beers. The store will feature the most comprehensive and unique shopping experience for consumers looking for the best value, expert service and highest quality in wines, spirits, and beers.

Once remodeled, the store will feature a climate-controlled wine cellar for high-end wines and rare selections plus a walk-in humidor for fine cigars. Additionally, the store will have a high tech "wine education center" classroom that is fully equipped with A/V capabilities that allows the store team to offer in-store wine, beer, and spirits classes as well as community meetings and events.

"I am thankful for the opportunity to serve Overland Park and the greater Kansas City area," said Robert Trone. "I am committed to offering our customers a best-in-class store and great customer service, a wide selection, and low prices. I am delighted to provide a significant investment in the store and community. In addition, I look forward to continuing to deliver to the many restaurants that are serviced by the store today and expand our level of service to these restaurants and to others."

Current Lukas store employees will join the Kansas Fine Wine & Spirits team. "We are pleased this transaction has been completed in a manner that provides continued employment and expanded opportunities for our current store employees" said Karen Heller and Jerry Miller, the current owners of the Overland Park store.

Harry Lukas, founder of the Lukas store brand and advisor to existing store owners, stated "I am pleased Robert Trone and Kansas Fine Wine & Spirits have acquired the Overland Park store. I am confident they will continue to provide excellent value to customers and effectively serve the local community."

SOURCE Kansas Fine Wine & Spirits LLC
Kellogg donates $35,000 to support Freestore Foodbank

CINCINNATI, Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Kellogg Company and Kroger have teamed up to tackle hunger in the communities they serve by donating $35,000 to Greater Cincinnati's Freestore Foodbank, whose vision is to create a hunger-free, healthy, and thriving community.

"Kroger is committed to ending hunger in the communities in which it operates by improving access to fresh food for everyone," said Jenifer Moore, Corporate Affairs Manager of the Cincinnati-Dayton Division, Kroger. "With the generosity of brands like Kellogg Company, Kroger is able to partner with Feeding America and local food banks to support hunger-relief programs that are making a difference in the neighborhoods Kroger calls home."

Food insecurity exists in every county in the United States.1 In 2021, 53 million Americans utilized food banks.1

"With 34 million people in America not knowing where their next meal will come from, the need to help feed and fulfill continues," said Carrie Sanders, General Manager of Portable Wholesome Snacks, Kellogg Company. "Kellogg's Better Days Promise is committed to feeding people in need, and we're proud to partner with Kroger to support those facing hunger in our communities."

In addition to the donation, activities like planting seeds and nutrition education will be available for families to participate in.

Kellogg's donation is part of its Better Days Promise strategy, which aims to create better days for 3 billion people by 2030. Since 2015, Kellogg has fed more than 252 million people facing hunger and reached more than 5 million children through feeding programs.

1 https://www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america

About Kellogg Company At Kellogg Company (NYSE: K), our vision is a good and just world where people are not just fed but fulfilled. We are creating better days and a place at the table for everyone through our trusted food brands. Our beloved brands include Pringles, Cheez-It, Special K, Kellogg's Frosted Flakes, Pop-Tarts, Kellogg's Corn Flakes, Rice Krispies, Eggo, Mini-Wheats, Kashi, RXBAR, MorningStar Farms and more. Net sales in 2022 were over $15.3 billion, comprised principally of snacks as well as convenience foods like cereal, frozen foods, and noodles. As part of our Kellogg's Better Days Promise ESG strategy, we're addressing the interconnected issues of wellbeing, climate and food security, creating Better Days for 3 billion people by the end of 2030 (from a 2015 baseline). Visit www.KelloggCompany.com.

SOURCE Kellogg Company
SEOUL, South Korea, Aug. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The largest hotel group in South Korea, LOTTE HOTELS & RESORTS announced the soft opening of L7 HOTELS BY LOTTE WEST LAKE HANOI on July 28, the first overseas hotel of the L7 HOTELS BY LOTTE brand, located in Hanoi, Vietnam.

In the heart of the Tay Ho area in Hanoi, L7 HOTELS BY LOTTE WEST LAKE HANOI is situated within Lotte Mall West Lake Hanoi, the largest mall complex in Vietnam totaling 353,700 sq.m in area.

L7 HOTELS BY LOTTE WEST LAKE HANOI

Built as a complex of two 23-story towers, L7 HOTELS BY LOTTE WEST LAKE HANOI features 264 hotel rooms and 192 serviced residence rooms overlooking West Lake and the Red River. All rooms at the hotel have a terrace providing a tropical retreat experience in harmony with beautiful nature.

Given that West Lake area is an age-old and wealthy village and the region is a popular, bustling area for foreign residents and tourists, the hotel is branded as a full-service 5-star lifestyle hotel with various auxiliary amenities and services. A lifestyle hotel is a boutique hotel showcasing trendy interior designs and services, introducing guests to a new lifestyle reflecting local culture.

Lake Salon is an exclusive lounge for guests staying in premium rooms with access to the Club Lounge, providing various food and beverage services such as afternoon tea and happy hour.

The rooftop infinity pool on the 23rd floor overlooks West Lake having a circumference of 16km, and provides panoramic views for a wide-open feeling.

There are new endeavors to be noted in the F&B area. Lush Salon is a lounge where guests can enjoy specialty coffee menus, desserts, as well as light beers. With the high demand and popularity of co-working spaces among local millennials, its design is based on a communal lounge concept that can function as a shared office.

Additionally, there are various on-premise restaurants, such as Layered, a buffet restaurant where you can savor a variety of dishes at seven live cuisine stations, including sushi & sashimi and BBQ & live carving corners, Tim Ho Wan, a Michelin-starred dim sum franchise in Hong Kong, and Hedonist, a cocktail bar with a lavish vibe overlooking West Lake.

L7 HOTELS BY LOTTE WEST LAKE HANOI Official Website: https://www.lottehotel.com/westlakehanoi-l7/en.html

SOURCE LOTTE HOTELS & RESORTS
Surpasses 5000 Listed Categories as the One-stop Comparison Platform for Industrial Product Manufacturers and Suppliers since 2022 Launch

MIYOSHI, Japan, Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Metoree , founded in 2017 and operated by ZAZA, Inc., is a one-stop comparison website for manufacturers, suppliers, and distributors. The platform currently features information on various industrial products such as Laser Marker , 3D Printer , and Laser Diode . It encompasses over 5000 product categories, enabling users to compare manufacturers, suppliers, and distributors, and facilitates the digitization of product selection for users.

Since its launch in 2022, Metoree has been accelerating its expansion into the American market, surpassing 5000 listed categories of industrial products. This milestone marks a significant step forward for the platform's growth.

The Value that Metoree Offers to Engineers and Researchers in the Manufacturing Industry.

Metoree revolutionizes the process of product selection and transactions in the manufacturing industry. Previously, researchers and engineers had to inquire, request quotes, and place orders with individual companies when purchasing industrial products. Now, with Metoree, they can seamlessly perform all these actions on a single platform, as it digitizes every aspect of transactions and actively shapes the future of the industry.

Benefits of Utilizing Metoree

Metoree offers unparalleled advantages not found on other platforms, including the acquisition of high-quality information and the ability to compare products based on well-organized data:

Access to High-Quality Information about Suppliers and Manufacturers



Previously, researchers and engineers had to gather scattered information from various websites. However, by utilizing Metoree, they can easily obtain the desired information about manufacturers and suppliers, saving valuable time on information gathering and enabling more focus on product comparison and essential processes.





Previously, researchers and engineers had to gather scattered information from various websites. However, by utilizing Metoree, they can easily obtain the desired information about manufacturers and suppliers, saving valuable time on information gathering and enabling more focus on product comparison and essential processes. Simplified Comparison of Industrial Products



Until now, providing information about products from different manufacturers and suppliers has been challenging due to varying formats, making it difficult to compare. However, Metoree addresses this issue by internally collecting and processing information from each company and presenting it in a user-friendly format for easy comparison. This streamlined approach enables engineers and researchers to make more informed choices when selecting industrial products.

Future Outlook for Metoree

Metoree is currently operating in countries such as Japan, Spain, Germany, and France, and the company is now on a path of global expansion. Upholding the mission of "Making the World a Better Place," the platform aims to create an environment where engineers and researchers worldwide can easily find manufacturers and suppliers. To achieve this, Metoree plans to continuously increase the number of listed companies and product categories.

Feedback from Metoree Users

Engineers and researchers who have already experienced Metoree have provided positive feedback, citing the following points:

Easy and efficient comparison of manufacturers and suppliers using Metoree.

Successful purchase of products that meet their specific requirements.

Quick identification of ideal products with the help of Metoree.

About Metoree

Metoree, established in 2017 and operated by ZAZA, Inc., is a one-stop comparison platform for manufacturers and suppliers, offering an extensive range of industrial product information, and digitizing product selection for users worldwide.

Metoree USA

https://us.metoree.com/

Metoree Spain

https://es.metoree.com/

Metoree Germany

https://de.metoree.com/

Metoree France

https://fr.metoree.com/

Metoree Japan

https://metoree.com/

SOURCE ZAZA, Inc.
In September this year, thousands of Russians in Latvia will receive letters from the Citizenship and Migration Board asking them to leave the country. In three months, those who do not comply with the request may be deported from Latvia.

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This is reported by the Latvian edition of LSM, citing the head of the Saeima Commission on Citizenship, Migration and Social Cohesion Ingmars Lidaki. He explained that these are Russians who did not even try to pass the test for permanent resident status in the European Union.

They did not appear for the Latvian language exam and did not extend their temporary residence permit in the country. According to Lidaki, there are about six thousand such people.

The Latvian Ministry of the Interior confirmed that such letters to Russians asking them to leave the country are being prepared. After receiving the document, they will lose the right to stay in Latvia and will have three months to leave the country.

According to Deputy Secretary of State of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Vilnis Vitolins, if such a Russian continues to stay in Latvia after three months, he or she may be fined. He also assured that the police would not hunt anyone down.

ADVERTISIMENT

At the same time, the newspaper notes that despite the statements of the Interior Minister, it is unclear how things will actually happen.

The head of the Seimas Citizenship Commission, Ingmar Lidaka, believes that the fine will not be enough.

"The law provides for expulsion," he said.

However, Russians can obtain any other type of residence permit in Latvia, such as a visa or temporary residence permit.

Along with the loss of a residence permit, a person will also lose the ability to receive a number of services in Latvia, such as pensions.

For their part, Russia's supporters in Latvia are already calling on politicians and NGOs to reconsider the amendments to the Immigration Law.

As reported by OBOZREVATEL:

Back in the summer of 2022, Latvia supported the initiative to ban the issuance of visas to the European Union to Russian citizens. At the time, it was a manifesto against the country that unleashed a bloody war in Ukraine.

ADVERTISIMENT

Then, in September, Riga refused to issue humanitarian visas to Russian citizens who avoided mobilisation for security reasons. Nor will the restrictions on the entry of Russians with Schengen visas, which were adopted earlier, be lifted.

Only verified information is available on our Obozrevatel Telegram channel, Threads and Viber. Don't fall for fakes!
SEATTLE, Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Seattle-based fashion retailer Nordstrom, Inc . (NYSE: JWN) announced plans to open a new Nordstrom Rack in Queen Creek, Arizona.

"We look forward to opening this new Nordstrom Rack location in Queen Creek, strengthening our network of stores and introducing new customers to Nordstrom Rack's unique product offering," said Carl Jenkins, Senior Vice President of Nordstrom Rack Stores. "In addition to shopping great brands at great prices, our customers in Queen Creek can take full advantage of this convenient new location to pick-up online orders and make returns."

The 28,000 square-foot store will be located in Queen Creek Marketplace, a popular shopping center that includes Target, Trader Joe's, Harkins Theatres, Dave & Buster's and Total Wine. Queen Creek Marketplace is owned and managed by Vestar and is located off the southwest corner of Rittenhouse and Ellsworth Loop Roads. With the addition of this new location, Nordstrom will operate ten Nordstrom Rack stores and one Nordstrom store in Arizona. The store is scheduled to open in spring 2024.

"We are thrilled to welcome Nordstrom Rack to Queen Creek Marketplace. They are the perfect addition to our well blended tenant mix and expect they will be well received by our growing community. Queen Creek Marketplace is positioned well in terms of overall traffic and activity and continues to expand and grow, seeing 7.6 million visits to the center annually. Retailers recognize the continued growth in housing and development within the Town of Queen Creek and are enthusiastic about the future," said Angela Manca, Property Manager at Queen Creek Marketplace.

Nordstrom Rack is the off-price retail division of Nordstrom, Inc. and plays a critical role in the company's Closer to You strategy, which focuses on delivering customers a more convenient and interconnected experience across its stores and digital platforms. Nordstrom Rack offers customers up to 70 percent off on-trend apparel, accessories, beauty, home and shoes from many of the top brands sold at Nordstrom stores as well as core services like online order pickup for Nordstrom.com and NordstromRack.com, easy returns and alterations at select stores. Nordstrom Rack is the largest source of new customers to Nordstrom.

Nordstrom is committed to giving back to the diverse communities where it operates. Since 2019 along with its customers, Nordstrom has donated more than $1.7 million in support of its long-term partnership with Big Brothers Big Sisters of the United States. These proceeds support the recruitment, training and engagement of adult mentors and mentorship moments between Bigs and Littles, including preparing for an interview, learning to tie a tie and helping with homework.

About Vestar

Vestar has over 30 million square feet currently under operation and management. Vestar is responsible for creating many of the largest and most successful open-air retail centers with a conscientious approach to developing community-oriented and environmentally sensitive properties.

About Nordstrom

At Nordstrom, Inc. (NYSE: JWN), we exist to help our customers feel good and look their best. Since starting as a shoe store in 1901, how to best serve customers has been at the center of every decision we make. This heritage of service is the foundation we're building on as we provide convenience and true connection for our customers. Our digital-first platform enables us to serve customers when, where and how they want to shop  whether that's in-store at more than 350 Nordstrom, Nordstrom Local and Nordstrom Rack locations or digitally through our Nordstrom and Nordstrom Rack apps and websites. Through it all, we remain committed to leaving the world better than we found it .

MEDIA CONTACT:

Lauren Herrin

Nordstrom, Inc.

[email protected]

SOURCE Nordstrom, Inc.
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Persist AI, the AI-driven pioneer in drug formulation, announced today the close of an oversubscribed $4M financing round following their completion of YCombinator, the prestigious San Francisco based startup accelerator. The funding round was led by 2048 Ventures with the participation of Innospark Ventures, Fellows Fund, YCombinator, Pioneer Fund, and others.

Pharmaceutical companies typically take up to five years to develop long-lasting drug injections to treat chronic conditions such as cancer and diabetes. Enter Persist, leveraging AI-driven automation to slash formulation development time by a staggering 50% - to just two years. "We complete microsphere pre-formulation for clients in weeks, not years," stated CEO Karthik Raman."

Over the past 6 months, Persist AI has developed cutting- edge robotics that enables automated development of long-acting injectable formulations. Coupled with AI models, they are able to rapidly predict which formulations will release drugs in the body for a long time and reduce the number of injections that patients need.

"Drug formulation has long been overlooked despite being a crucial part of drug development. Persist's technology allows them to rapidly screen formulations, develop AI models that optimize the formulations, and then scale up formulations for human clinical use. We're excited to invest in this groundbreaking technology," said Alex Iskold, Managing partner of 2048 Ventures.

"Persist AI's disruptive approach to drug formulation holds immense promise for the future of drug development." Their AI-driven technology is set to revolutionize how we develop and optimize formulations for therapeutics of all kinds. We are proud to support their vision and contribute to their success," said Matt Fates, Partner, Innospark Ventures.

About Persist AI

Persist AI specializes in building and optimizing long-acting injectable formulations, offering high-throughput formulation screening, automated drug release testing, method transfer and manufacturing scale-up. This helps drug manufacturers solve problems with drug clearance in the body, formulation instability, acute toxicity, shelf life and many other drug formulation related problems.

SOURCE Persist AI Formulations
NEW YORK, Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The polyurethane foam market size is estimated to grow by USD 6.84 million tons from 2022 to 2027. The market will progress at a CAGR of 7.63% according to Technavio. Download a sample report now!

Polyurethane foam market Insights -

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Polyurethane Foam Market 2023-2027

Vendors : 15+, Including All Foam Products Co., Armacell International SA, Changzhou Sanhe Plastic Rubber Co. Ltd., Clark Foam Products Corp., Dafa AS, FoamPartner Switzerland AG, Hira Industries LLC, INOAC Corp., Johnson Controls International Plc., JSP Ltd., Mitsui Chemicals Inc., Orlando Products Inc., Palziv Inc., PAR Group Ltd., Pregis LLC, PTI Rubber and Gaskets Inc., Rogers Foam Corp., Sealed Air Corp., Wisconsin Foam Products, and Zotefoams Plc, among others

: 15+, Including All Foam Products Co., Armacell International SA, Changzhou Sanhe Plastic Rubber Co. Ltd., Clark Foam Products Corp., Dafa AS, FoamPartner Switzerland AG, Hira Industries LLC, INOAC Corp., Johnson Controls International Plc., JSP Ltd., Mitsui Chemicals Inc., Orlando Products Inc., Palziv Inc., PAR Group Ltd., Pregis LLC, PTI Rubber and Gaskets Inc., Rogers Foam Corp., Sealed Air Corp., Wisconsin Foam Products, and Zotefoams Plc, among others Coverage: Parent market analysis; key drivers, major trends, and challenges; customer and vendor landscape; vendor product insights and recent developments; key vendors; and market positioning of vendors

Parent market analysis; key drivers, major trends, and challenges; customer and vendor landscape; vendor product insights and recent developments; key vendors; and market positioning of vendors Segments: Application (Furniture and bedding, Building and construction, Transport, Appliances, and Others), Type (Flexible PU foams, Rigid PU foams, and Molded PU foams), and Geography (APAC, Europe , North America , Middle East and Africa , and South America )

To understand more about the polyurethane foam market, request a sample report

Polyurethane foam market - Company Insights

The growing competition in the market is compelling vendors to adopt various growth strategies such as promotional activities and spending on advertisements to improve the visibility of their services. Technavio report analyzes the market's competitive landscape and offers information on several market vendors including All Foam Products Co., Armacell International SA, Changzhou Sanhe Plastic Rubber Co. Ltd., Clark Foam Products Corp., Dafa AS, FoamPartner Switzerland AG, Hira Industries LLC, INOAC Corp., Johnson Controls International Plc., JSP Ltd., Mitsui Chemicals Inc., Orlando Products Inc., Palziv Inc., PAR Group Ltd., Pregis LLC, PTI Rubber and Gaskets Inc., Rogers Foam Corp., Sealed Air Corp., Wisconsin Foam Products, and Zotefoams Plc

Polyurethane foam market  Market Dynamics

Major Drivers -

Increasing demand for PU foam in furniture and bedding is driving the market growth.

PU foam is used in a variety of applications, including furniture and bedding, construction, and the automotive industry. They are used to make office chairs, stadium seats, spectator stands, carpets, luxury beds, and other furniture.

Flexible PU foam is soft, durable, dimensionally stable, and provides support. They are widely used as cushioning materials and have many desirable physical properties such as low odor, lightweight, elasticity, and ability to recover quickly after compression.

This is why flexible PU foam is often used in upholstered furniture and bedding.

Significant Trends -

An emerging trend in the polyurethane foam market is the growing use of methylal and HFOs as alternatives to HFCs and HCFCs.

Methylal is a clear, colorless, flammable liquid with a sweet smell and a relatively low boiling point.

It is moderately soluble in water and miscible with the most common organic solvents. It is commonly used as a solvent in the manufacture of adhesives, resins, paint strippers, perfumes and protective coatings.

Hence, the growing use of methylal and HFOs are examples of trends driving the growth of the polyurethane foam market during the forecast period.

Key Challenges -

A primary challenge impeding the growth of the market is regulations on the use of blowing agents.

HFCs, HCFCs, and HFOs. It is used as a blowing agent during the production of PU foam.

The use of HFCs and HCFCs in the production of PU foam is prohibited. Many emerging economies, including China , India and Brazil , are seeking to ban ozone-depleting substances under the Montreal Protocol. Protocols vary by region.

, and , are seeking to ban ozone-depleting substances under the Montreal Protocol. Protocols vary by region. In the US, the Montreal Protocol is strictly enforced to protect the ozone layer from depletion by using toxic blowing agents such as HFCs and HCFCs. In addition, the Japanese government has implemented the Kyoto Protocol to make PU foam environmentally friendly.

Similarly, in China , the ongoing HCFC phase-out has led to the use of low-GWP alternatives such as methylal and HFO. These protocols pose challenges for PU foam manufacturing companies and adversely affect the global PU foam market during the forecast period.

Drivers, Trends, and Challenges have an impact on market dynamics, which can impact businesses. Find more insights in a sample report!

The polyurethane foam market report provides critical information and factual data, with a qualitative and quantitative study of the market based on market drivers and limitations as well as future prospects.

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What are the key data covered in this polyurethane foam market report?

CAGR of the market during the forecast period

Detailed information on factors that will drive the growth of the polyurethane foam market between 2023 and 2027

Precise estimation of the size of the polyurethane foam market and its contribution to the market with a focus on the parent market

Accurate predictions about upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

Growth of the polyurethane foam market across APAC, Europe , North America , Middle East and Africa , and South America

, , and , and A thorough analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information about vendors

Comprehensive analysis of factors that will challenge the growth of polyurethane foam market vendors

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Polyurethane foam market scope Report Coverage Details Base year 2022 Historic period 2017-2021 Forecast period 2023-2027 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 7.63% Market growth 2023-2027 6.84 million tons Market structure Fragmented YoY growth 2022-2023 (%) 7.14 Regional analysis APAC, Europe, North America, Middle East and Africa, and South America Performing market contribution APAC at 46% Key countries US, China, Japan, Germany, and UK Competitive landscape Leading Vendors, Market Positioning of Vendors, Competitive Strategies, and Industry Risks Key companies profiled All Foam Products Co., Armacell International SA, Changzhou Sanhe Plastic Rubber Co. Ltd., Clark Foam Products Corp., Dafa AS, FoamPartner Switzerland AG, Hira Industries LLC, INOAC Corp., Johnson Controls International Plc., JSP Ltd., Mitsui Chemicals Inc., Orlando Products Inc., Palziv Inc., PAR Group Ltd., Pregis LLC, PTI Rubber and Gaskets Inc., Rogers Foam Corp., Sealed Air Corp., Wisconsin Foam Products, and Zotefoams Plc 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, Market condition analysis for the forecast period. Customization purview If our report has not included the data that you are looking for, you can reach out to our analysts and get segments customized.

Table of Contents

1 Executive Summary

1.1 Market overview

Exhibit 01: Executive Summary  Chart on Market Overview



Exhibit 02: Executive Summary  Data Table on Market Overview



Exhibit 03: Executive Summary  Chart on Global Market Characteristics



Exhibit 04: Executive Summary  Chart on Market by Geography



Exhibit 05: Executive Summary  Chart on Market Segmentation by Application



Exhibit 06: Executive Summary  Chart on Market Segmentation by Type



Exhibit 07: Executive Summary  Chart on Incremental Growth



Exhibit 08: Executive Summary  Data Table on Incremental Growth



Exhibit 09: Executive Summary  Chart on Vendor Market Positioning

2 Market Landscape

2.1 Market ecosystem

Exhibit 10: Parent market



Exhibit 11: Market Characteristics

3 Market Sizing

3.1 Market definition

Exhibit 12: Offerings of vendors included in the market definition

3.2 Market segment analysis

Exhibit 13: Market segments

3.3 Market size 2022

3.4 Market outlook: Forecast for 2022-2027

Exhibit 14: Chart on Global - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (million t)



Exhibit 15: Data Table on Global - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (million t)



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 polyurethane foam market 2017 - 2021

Exhibit 18: Historic Market Size  Data Table on Global polyurethane foam market 2017 - 2021 (million t)

4.2 Application Segment Analysis 2017 - 2021

Exhibit 19: Historic Market Size  Application Segment 2017 - 2021 (million t)

4.3 Type Segment Analysis 2017 - 2021

Exhibit 20: Historic Market Size  Type Segment 2017 - 2021 (million t)

4.4 Geography Segment Analysis 2017 - 2021

Exhibit 21: Historic Market Size  Geography Segment 2017 - 2021 (million t)

4.5 Country Segment Analysis 2017 - 2021

Exhibit 22: Historic Market Size  Country Segment 2017 - 2021 (million t)

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 Application

6.1 Market segments

Exhibit 30: Chart on Application - Market share 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 31: Data Table on Application - Market share 2022-2027 (%)

6.2 Comparison by Application

Exhibit 32: Chart on Comparison by Application



Exhibit 33: Data Table on Comparison by Application

6.3 Furniture and bedding - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 34: Chart on Furniture and bedding - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (million t)



Exhibit 35: Data Table on Furniture and bedding - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (million t)



Exhibit 36: Chart on Furniture and bedding - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 37: Data Table on Furniture and bedding - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

6.4 Building and construction - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 38: Chart on Building and construction - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (million t)



Exhibit 39: Data Table on Building and construction - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (million t)



Exhibit 40: Chart on Building and construction - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 41: Data Table on Building and construction - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

6.5 Transport - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 42: Chart on Transport - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (million t)



Exhibit 43: Data Table on Transport - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (million t)



Exhibit 44: Chart on Transport - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 45: Data Table on Transport - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

6.6 Appliances - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 46: Chart on Appliances - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (million t)



Exhibit 47: Data Table on Appliances - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (million t)



Exhibit 48: Chart on Appliances - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 49: Data Table on Appliances - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

6.7 Others - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 50: Chart on Others - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (million t)



Exhibit 51: Data Table on Others - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (million t)



Exhibit 52: Chart on Others - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 53: Data Table on Others - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

6.8 Market opportunity by Application

Exhibit 54: Market opportunity by Application (million t)



Exhibit 55: Data Table on Market opportunity by Application (million t)

7 Market Segmentation by Type

7.1 Market segments

Exhibit 56: Chart on Type - Market share 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 57: Data Table on Type - Market share 2022-2027 (%)

7.2 Comparison by Type

Exhibit 58: Chart on Comparison by Type



Exhibit 59: Data Table on Comparison by Type

7.3 Flexible PU foams - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 60: Chart on Flexible PU foams - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (million t)



Exhibit 61: Data Table on Flexible PU foams - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (million t)



Exhibit 62: Chart on Flexible PU foams - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 63: Data Table on Flexible PU foams - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

7.4 Rigid PU foams - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 64: Chart on Rigid PU foams - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (million t)



Exhibit 65: Data Table on Rigid PU foams - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (million t)



Exhibit 66: Chart on Rigid PU foams - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 67: Data Table on Rigid PU foams - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

7.5 Molded PU foams - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 68: Chart on Molded PU foams - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (million t)



Exhibit 69: Data Table on Molded PU foams - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (million t)



Exhibit 70: Chart on Molded PU foams - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 71: Data Table on Molded PU foams - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

7.6 Market opportunity by Type

Exhibit 72: Market opportunity by Type (million t)



Exhibit 73: Data Table on Market opportunity by Type (million t)

8 Customer Landscape

8.1 Customer landscape overview

Exhibit 74: Analysis of price sensitivity, lifecycle, customer purchase basket, adoption rates, and purchase criteria

9 Geographic Landscape

9.1 Geographic segmentation

Exhibit 75: Chart on Market share by geography 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 76: Data Table on Market share by geography 2022-2027 (%)

9.2 Geographic comparison

Exhibit 77: Chart on Geographic comparison



Exhibit 78: Data Table on Geographic comparison

9.3 APAC - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 79: Chart on APAC - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (million t)



Exhibit 80: Data Table on APAC - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (million t)



Exhibit 81: Chart on APAC - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 82: Data Table on APAC - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.4 Europe - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 83: Chart on Europe - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (million t)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (million t)

Exhibit 84: Data Table on Europe - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (million t)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (million t)

Exhibit 85: Chart on Europe - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 86: Data Table on Europe - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.5 North America - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 87: Chart on North America - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (million t)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (million t)

Exhibit 88: Data Table on North America - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (million t)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (million t)

Exhibit 89: Chart on North America - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 90: Data Table on North America - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.6 Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

and - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 91: Chart on Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (million t)

and - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (million t)

Exhibit 92: Data Table on Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (million t)

and - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (million t)

Exhibit 93: Chart on Middle East and Africa - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

and - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 94: Data Table on Middle East and Africa - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.7 South America - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 95: Chart on South America - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (million t)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (million t)

Exhibit 96: Data Table on South America - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (million t)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (million t)

Exhibit 97: Chart on South America - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 98: Data Table on South America - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.8 China - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 99: Chart on China - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (million t)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (million t)

Exhibit 100: Data Table on China - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (million t)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (million t)

Exhibit 101: Chart on China - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 102: Data Table on China - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.9 US - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 103: Chart on US - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (million t)



Exhibit 104: Data Table on US - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (million t)



Exhibit 105: Chart on US - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 106: Data Table on US - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.10 Germany - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 107: Chart on Germany - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (million t)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (million t)

Exhibit 108: Data Table on Germany - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (million t)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (million t)

Exhibit 109: Chart on Germany - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 110: Data Table on Germany - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.11 Japan - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 111: Chart on Japan - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (million t)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (million t)

Exhibit 112: Data Table on Japan - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (million t)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (million t)

Exhibit 113: Chart on Japan - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 114: Data Table on Japan - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.12 UK - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 115: Chart on UK - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (million t)



Exhibit 116: Data Table on UK - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (million t)



Exhibit 117: Chart on UK - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 118: Data Table on UK - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.13 Market opportunity by geography

Exhibit 119: Market opportunity by geography (million t)



Exhibit 120: Market opportunity by geography (million t) - Volume

10 Drivers, Challenges, and Trends

10.1 Market drivers

10.2 Market challenges

10.3 Impact of drivers and challenges

Exhibit 121: Impact of drivers and challenges in 2022 and 2027

10.4 Market trends

11 Vendor Landscape

11.1 Overview

11.2 Vendor landscape

Exhibit 122: Overview on Criticality of inputs and Factors of differentiation

11.3 Landscape disruption

Exhibit 123: Overview on factors of disruption

11.4 Industry risks

Exhibit 124: Impact of key risks on business

12 Vendor Analysis

12.1 Vendors covered

Exhibit 125: Vendors covered

12.2 Market positioning of vendors

Exhibit 126: Matrix on vendor position and classification

12.3 All Foam Products Co.

Exhibit 127: All Foam Products Co. - Overview



Exhibit 128: All Foam Products Co. - Product / Service



Exhibit 129: All Foam Products Co. - Key offerings

12.4 Armacell International SA

Exhibit 130: Armacell International SA - Overview



Exhibit 131: Armacell International SA - Business segments



Exhibit 132: Armacell International SA - Key news



Exhibit 133: Armacell International SA - Key offerings



Exhibit 134: Armacell International SA - Segment focus

12.5 Clark Foam Products Corp.

Exhibit 135: Clark Foam Products Corp. - Overview



Exhibit 136: Clark Foam Products Corp. - Product / Service



Exhibit 137: Clark Foam Products Corp. - Key offerings

12.6 Dafa AS

Exhibit 138: Dafa AS - Overview



Exhibit 139: Dafa AS - Product / Service



Exhibit 140: Dafa AS - Key offerings

12.7 FoamPartner Switzerland AG

Exhibit 141: FoamPartner Switzerland AG - Overview



Exhibit 142: FoamPartner Switzerland AG - Product / Service



Exhibit 143: FoamPartner Switzerland AG - Key offerings

12.8 Hira Industries LLC

Exhibit 144: Hira Industries LLC - Overview



Exhibit 145: Hira Industries LLC - Product / Service



Exhibit 146: Hira Industries LLC - Key offerings

12.9 INOAC Corp.

Exhibit 147: INOAC Corp. - Overview



Exhibit 148: INOAC Corp. - Product / Service



Exhibit 149: INOAC Corp. - Key offerings

12.10 Johnson Controls International Plc.

Exhibit 150: Johnson Controls International Plc. - Overview



Exhibit 151: Johnson Controls International Plc. - Business segments



Exhibit 152: Johnson Controls International Plc. - Key news



Exhibit 153: Johnson Controls International Plc. - Key offerings



Exhibit 154: Johnson Controls International Plc. - Segment focus

12.11 JSP Ltd.

Exhibit 155: JSP Ltd. - Overview



Exhibit 156: JSP Ltd. - Product / Service



Exhibit 157: JSP Ltd. - Key offerings

12.12 Mitsui Chemicals Inc.

Exhibit 158: Mitsui Chemicals Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 159: Mitsui Chemicals Inc. - Business segments



Exhibit 160: Mitsui Chemicals Inc. - Key offerings



Exhibit 161: Mitsui Chemicals Inc. - Segment focus

12.13 Orlando Products Inc.

Exhibit 162: Orlando Products Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 163: Orlando Products Inc. - Product / Service



Exhibit 164: Orlando Products Inc. - Key offerings

12.14 Palziv Inc.

Exhibit 165: Palziv Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 166: Palziv Inc. - Product / Service



Exhibit 167: Palziv Inc. - Key offerings

12.15 Pregis LLC

Exhibit 168: Pregis LLC - Overview



Exhibit 169: Pregis LLC - Product / Service



Exhibit 170: Pregis LLC - Key offerings

12.16 Wisconsin Foam Products

Exhibit 171: Wisconsin Foam Products - Overview



Exhibit 172: Wisconsin Foam Products - Product / Service



Exhibit 173: Wisconsin Foam Products - Key offerings

12.17 Zotefoams Plc

Exhibit 174: Zotefoams Plc - Overview



Exhibit 175: Zotefoams Plc - Business segments



Exhibit 176: Zotefoams Plc - Key offerings



Exhibit 177: Zotefoams Plc - Segment focus

13 Appendix

13.1 Scope of the report

13.2 Inclusions and exclusions checklist

Exhibit 178: Inclusions checklist



Exhibit 179: Exclusions checklist

13.3 Currency conversion rates for US$

Exhibit 180: Currency conversion rates for US$

13.4 Research methodology

Exhibit 181: Research methodology



Exhibit 182: Validation techniques employed for market sizing



Exhibit 183: Information sources

13.5 List of abbreviations

Exhibit 184: List of abbreviations

About Us

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provide actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

Contact

Technavio Research

Jesse Maida

Media & Marketing Executive

US: +1 844 364 1100

UK: +44 203 893 3200

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.technavio.com

SOURCE Technavio
The addition of new vendors solidifies RE/MAX Marketplace as the ultimate hub for premium real estate business services.

DENVER, Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, RE/MAX, LLC one of the world's leading franchisors of real estate brokerage services worldwide, made an exciting announcement regarding the expansion of the RE/MAX Approved Supplier program. The addition of six new companies to the program expands the array of valuable resources for affiliates, including marketing tools, merchandise distributors, networking solutions, and more, all designed for easy implementation.

These carefully curated vendors empower real estate agents to focus on their core expertise  assisting buyers and sellers. To access these top-notch resources, affiliates can conveniently purchase services and materials directly through the RE/MAX Marketplace. This exclusive online portal is available solely to RE/MAX agents in the United States and Canada, often offering negotiated rates for added savings.

New members of the RE/MAX Approved Supplier program in the U.S. include:

ReminderMedia: ReminderMedia is a one-stop shop for real estate agents who need help marketing their business. Its products include branded magazines, postcards, email marketing, social media marketing and lead generation. ReminderMedia helps agents stay top-of-mind with their clients, generate leads and close more deals. Unlike other marketing platforms that require users to create the content, ReminderMedia delivers a finished product. Its team creates high-quality, informative content that is personalized to send out. This saves time and effort, so agents can focus on what they do best: helping clients.

CubiCasa: CubiCasa is revolutionary technology that empowers agents to produce highly reliable and detailed floor plans for their listings using only a 5-minute smartphone scan of a property. With CubiCasa, anyone can produce Floor Plans easily and deliver an enhanced listing experience that creates more transparency and efficiency for consumers. RE/MAX agents will enjoy CubiCasa benefits provided via the RE/MAX Approved Supplier program, including free trial periods to create floor plans at no cost, and access to an extensive directory of real estate photographers who are already using CubiCasa's platform. CubiCasa will help elevate the quality of RE/MAX agents' listings.

New members of the RE/MAX Approved Supplier program in Canada include:

GENUMARK: Genumark is a family-owned, award-winning branded merchandise distributor headquartered in Toronto with satellite offices and showrooms in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Ottawa and Halifax. In 2023, Genumark became a Certified B Corporation and has been named Canada's National Distributor of the Year numerous times. Genumark provides a full suite of end-to-end merchandising solutions, with inventory and warehousing based in Canada.

Just Sell Homes: Just Sell Homes helps the real estate industry do better marketing, from Facebook and Instagram ads, to email marketing, and all the way to building a cohesive online strategy. Just Sell Homes is a Canadian company helping Canadian REALTORS every day.

RankMyAgent.com: As the industry-leading platform in Canada, RankMyAgent.com connects real estate professionals to the public using the power of verified, credible, online ratings and reviews. RankMyAgent.com delivers a review management system with local geo-farming and reputation-marketing tools including the ability to display your RankMyAgent.com reviews on remax.ca and REALTOR.ca. Exclusive benefits to RE/MAX include the best pricing in the industry for individuals, teams and offices.

A new member of the RE/MAX Approved Supplier program in both the U.S. and Canada is:

HomeTagz: HomeTagz is game-changing solution that will transform how buyers interact with property listings. HomeTagz was developed in response to a genuine need for improved communication between sellers, agents and prospective buyers. With HomeTagz, users can access innovative tools that enable them to easily and efficiently share vital information including features, disclosures and interesting facts, in an intuitive way. By keeping buyers engaged and informed, HomeTagz creates a more transparent and fair process that benefits everyone involved.

Many of the companies in the RE/MAX Approved Supplier program offer exclusive discounts to RE/MAX agents. With everything from yard signs to legal services, clothing to technology, these companies provide powerful tools to help RE/MAX affiliates run a successful business.

To learn more about becoming a RE/MAX Approved Supplier, email [email protected].

About the RE/MAX Network

As one of the leading global real estate franchisors, RE/MAX, LLC is a subsidiary of RE/MAX Holdings (NYSE: RMAX) with more than 140,000 agents in almost 9,000 offices and a presence in more than 110 countries and territories. Nobody in the world sells more real estate than RE/MAX, as measured by residential transaction sides. RE/MAX was founded in 1973 by Dave and Gail Liniger, with an innovative, entrepreneurial culture affording its agents and franchisees the flexibility to operate their businesses with great independence. RE/MAX agents have lived, worked and served in their local communities for decades, raising millions of dollars every year for Children's Miracle Network Hospitals and other charities. To learn more about RE/MAX, to search home listings or find an agent in your community, please visit www.remax.com. For the latest news about RE/MAX, please visit news.remax.com.

SOURCE RE/MAX, LLC
DALLAS, Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Argent Trust Company, as Trustee of the Sabine Royalty Trust (NYSE: SBR), today declared a cash distribution to the holders of its units of beneficial interest of $0.298580 per unit, payable on August 29, 2023, to unit holders of record on August 15, 2023. Sabine's cash distribution history, current and prior year financial reports and tax information booklets, a link to filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission and more can be found on its website at http://www.sbr-sabine.com/. Additionally, printed reports can be requested and are mailed free of charge.

This distribution reflects primarily the oil production for May 2023 and the gas production for April 2023. Preliminary production volumes are approximately 44,365 barrels of oil and 1,120,435 Mcf of gas. Preliminary prices are approximately $70.80 per barrel of oil and $1.68 per Mcf of gas.

This month's distribution is lower than the previous month's primarily due to decreased oil and gas pricing offset by increases in both oil and gas production.

The production from all the new horizontal gas wells in Panola County, Texas, has contributed approximately $290,000 reflecting April production including the recent new wells. All volumes and pricing are included in the tables below.

Additionally, for the other three horizontal wells, also in Panola County, there was one month of receipts totaling $80,000 posted for this month's distribution.

As more regular monthly receipts are made in the months to come, additional information will be made available.

The table below compares this month's production and prices to the previous month's:





Net to Trust Sales







Volumes

Average Price



Oil (bbls)

Gas (Mcf)

Oil (per bbl)

Gas (per Mcf)

















Current Month

44,365

1,120,435

$70.80

$1.68

















Prior Month

44,123

992,651

$76.22

$2.20









































Revenues are only distributed after they are received, verified, and posted. Most energy companies normally issue payment of royalties on or about the 25th of every month, and depending on mail delivery, a varying amount of royalties are not received until after the revenue posting on the last business day of the month. The revenues received after that date will be posted within 30 days of receipt.

Due to the timing of the end of the month of July, approximately $416,633 of revenue received will be posted in the following month of August in addition to normal receipts during August. Since the close of business in July and prior to this press release, $2,526,238 in revenue has been received.

The 2022 Annual Report with Form 10-K and the January 1, 2023 Reserve Summary are available on the Sabine website at http://www.sbr-sabine.com/.

SOURCE Sabine Royalty Trust
NEW YORK, Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Danaher Corporation ("Danaher" or the "Company") (NYSE: DHR), and certain officers. The class action, filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, and docketed under 23-cv-02055, is on behalf of a class consisting of all persons and entities other than Defendants that purchased or otherwise acquired Danaher securities between April 21, 2022, and April 24, 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 Danaher securities during the Class Period, you have until September 15, 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]

Danaher designs, manufactures, and markets professional, medical, industrial, and commercial products and services worldwide. The Company is comprised of more than 20 operating companies organized under four segments: Biotechnology; Life Sciences; Diagnostics; and Environmental & Applied Solutions.

In 2020 and 2021, Danaher's diagnostic tests and life sciences research tools were widely used in the effort to combat the COVID-19 virus. Specifically, Danaher's diagnostics segment included Cepheid, a leader in molecular testing, and its life sciences segment included a variety of companies that worked to develop COVID-19 vaccines and therapies. As a result, Danaher experienced a significant upswing in revenue growth over the course of this period.

The complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Company's business, operations, and prospects. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) as the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic subsided, revenue growth associated with Danaher's COVID-19-related businesses was declining; (ii) contrary to the Company's prior representations to investors, revenues associated with Danaher's non-COVID-19-related businesses were insufficient to compensate for the foregoing negative trend; (iii) accordingly, Danaher overstated the Company's ability to sustain the growth it had experienced in 2020 and 2021; (iv) as a result, it was unlikely that Danaher would be able to meet its 2023 revenue forecasts; and (v) as a result, Defendants' public statements were materially false and/or misleading at all relevant times.

On April 25, 2023, Danaher issued a press release announcing its financial results for the first quarter of 2023. Among other items, Danaher reported that "[r]evenues decreased 7.0% year-over-year to $7.2 billion, with a 4.0% non-GAAP core revenue decrease, due to the impact of lower COVID-19 revenue, and 6.0% non-GAAP base business core revenue growth." The Company also projected that "[f]or the second quarter and full year 2023, . . . non-GAAP base business core revenue growth will be up mid-single digits year-over-year", down from an earlier projection of high-single-digit growth. Notably, this announcement appeared to be at odds with Danaher's prior reassurances that revenues associated with the Company's non-COVID-19-related businesses would compensate for the foregoing negative results.

On this news, Danaher's stock price fell $22.36 per share, or 8.79%, to close at $231.99 per share on April 25, 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, Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC Corp. ("TriplePoint" or the "Company") (NYSE: TPVG), and certain officers. The class action, filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, and docketed under 23-cv-02980, is on behalf of a class consisting of all persons and entities other than Defendants that purchased or otherwise acquired TriplePoint securities between March 4, 2020 and May 1, 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 TriplePoint securities during the Class Period, you have until August 15, 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]

TriplePoint is a business development company specializing in investments in venture capital-backed companies at the growth stage. It also provides debt financing to venture growth space companies, including growth capital loans, secured and customized loans, equipment financings, revolving loans and direct equity investments.

The Complaint alleges that, throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Company's business, operations, and prospects. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) TriplePoint had overstated the strength of its various portfolio companies and loan book, as well as the viability of its overall investment strategy; (ii) the foregoing, once revealed, was likely to have a material negative impact on the Company's financial position and/or prospects; and (iii) as a result, the Company's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.

On May 2, 2023, the Bear Cave released a report titled "Problems at TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC (TPVG)" (the "Bear Cave Report"). The Bear Cave Report highlighted significant issues at TriplePoint, alleging that "TriplePoint is encumbered by high fees, weak management, and a weaker loan book saddled by portfolio company bankruptcies and upside-down startups," and asserting that "the Bear Cave believes TriplePoint's equity may be severely impaired, if it has any value at all."

On this news, TriplePoint's stock price fell $1.19 per share, or 9.98%, over the following two trading sessions, to close at $10.73 per share on May 3, 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, Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of NatWest Group plc ("NatWest" or the "Company") (NYSE: NWG). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at [email protected] or 888-476-6529, ext. 7980.

The investigation concerns whether NatWest and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices.

[Click here for information about joining the class action]

On July 26, 2023, NatWest Chief Executive Officer ("CEO") Alison Rose resigned from that role after acknowledging a "serious error of judgment" in discussing former Brexit party leader Nigel Farage's relationship with Coutts, a NatWest-owned private bank, with a BBC journalist. Although CEO Rose initially informed the BBC that Coutts had closed Farage's account because he was not a profitable customer, Farage subsequently obtained a 40-page document setting forth Coutts' view that association with Farage created "significant reputational risks" for the bank, citing Farage's "xenophobic and racist" political views and the widespread perception of Farage as "a disingenuous grifter." Following Rose's resignation, NatWest's American Depositary Receipt price fell sharply, damaging investors.

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, Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of Party City Holdco ("Party City" or the "Company") (OTCMKTS: PRTYQ). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at [email protected] or 888-476-6529, ext. 7980.

The investigation concerns whether Party City 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 January 17, 2023, Party City abruptly filed for bankruptcy, with the Company's bankruptcy filings citing its ongoing liquidity shortfall, its need for additional loans beyond the credit lines available to it, and its inability to locate lenders willing to provide additional loansissues previously undisclosed to investors.

On this news, Party City's stock price fell $0.253 per share, or 67.72%, over the following two trading sessions, closing at $0.121 per share on January 19, 2023.

Then, on June 9, 2023, Party City revealed in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that Ernst & Young LPP had resigned as its auditor due to a disagreement over the Company's decision not to include a "going concern" warning in its quarterly report for the third quarter of 2022, which would have alerted investors that there was substantial doubt about the Company's ability to continue as a going concern for the next twelve months.

On this news, Party City's stock price fell $0.01 per share, or 21.52%, over the following three trading sessions, to close at $0.036 per share on June 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 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
STOCKHOLM, Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Skanska has finalized a contract with Seagen to construct a 25,000 square meter biomanufacturing facility for the global biotechnology company. The facility will include manufacturing, storage, shipping, office, and cafe space in Everett, Washington, USA. The contract is worth USD 215 M, about SEK 2.25 billion, which will be included in the U.S. order bookings for the third quarter, 2023.

Seagen announced their plans to build the project in April 2022. Construction is underway and completion is anticipated for Q4, 2024.

For further information please contact:

Daniela Arellano, Communications Director, Skanska USA, tel +1 213 317 4977

Olof Rundgren, Media Relations Manager, Skanska AB, tel +46 (0)10 448 67 94

Direct line for media, tel +46 (0)10 448 88 99

This and previous releases can also be found at www.skanska.com.

The following files are available for download:

https://mb.cision.com/Main/95/3813361/2214563.pdf 20230804 US Seagen Washington

SOURCE Skanska
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said that some fighters of the PMC "Wagner" were deployed near the Lithuanian state border. The head of the country emphasized that the presence of Wagner fighters in Belarus creates an additional risk factor for the security of his country.

ADVERTISIMENT

Nauseda also urged partners to be on guard and prepare for all scenarios. This is reported by LRT.

According to Nauseda, the total number of PMC "Wagner" fighters in Belarus already exceeds 4 thousand people. At the same time, some of them are located close to the border of Lithuania. Nauseda emphasizes that their number in Belarus may increase and reach 10 thousand people.

"Part of the Wagner soldiers has approached our border, taking a position in the area of Gardina, which means that this situation is very convenient for organizing provocations both on the border of Poland and Belarus, as well as on the border of Lithuania and Belarus," Nauseda said.

Lithuanian President emphasized that his country had already taken appropriate measures. Border security has been strengthened. Moreover, plans for border protection, which provide for reinforcement of the army, have been prepared and updated. In addition, Nauseda said that the country's borders with Russia (Kaliningrad region) and Belarus should be strengthened further.

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According to the president, Lithuania is monitoring the situation closely and is ready to take steps to counter all threats to its security, including the one coming from the militants of PMC Wagner.

"We can assess the intentions of their group in Belarus in different ways, but one thing is absolutely clear: it would be too tempting for both Putin and Lukashenko to use their presence nearby for possible provocations against NATO states," Nauseda said.

Two Belarusian helicopters, which were conducting exercises near the border, violated Polish airspace on August 1. They crossed the border near the Polish village of Belovezh. The helicopters were moving at a very low altitude, which made it difficult to detect them by radar systems.

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Earlier OBOZREVATEL reported that propagandists from the "Russia-1" TV channel often speculate about hypothetical success on the front with NATO countries. State Duma deputy Kartapolov assessed the prospect of seizing control of the Suwalki corridor, which connects the borders of Lithuania and Poland.

Only verified information from us on Telegram-channel Obozrevatel, Threads and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!
DUBLIN, Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The "US Orphan Drugs Market, Drugs Sales, Price, Dosage & Clinical Trials Insight 2028" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

Explore the Global Advanced High Strength Steel Market, estimated at USD 28.13 Bn in 2023 and projected to reach USD 50.96 Bn by 2028, with a steady growth rate of 12.62%. This comprehensive report analyzes industry dynamics, key players, and strategies to help businesses strengthen their market foothold.

Report Highlights:

US Orphan Drugs Market Opportunity: > USD 150 Billion By 2028

By 2028 Orphan Drugs Dosage, Price and Treatment Cost: > 350 Orphan Drug

Annual and Quarterly Sales Insight (2019 - Q1'2023):> 100 Orphan Drugs

US Orphan Drugs Reimbursement Scenario: Medicare, Medicaid, Private Insurers

Active Clinical Trials Insight By Company, Indication and Phase: 1000 Orphan Drugs

Marketed Orphan Drugs Clinical Insight By Company and Indication: > 400 Orphan Drugs

Competitive Landscape: 75 Companies

Considering the increasing burden of patients suffering from rare and orphan diseases, the US FDA has taken several steps to increase the interest of the research and pharmaceutical companies to these forgotten diseases. One of the fundamental actions taken by the FDA is the assignment of the orphan drug designation, which gives developers benefits in the course of the research and development, clinical assessment, and marketing of the drug.

The orphan drug designation has been granted to over 6500 drugs and compounds, and around 100 of these have received regulatory approvals. Therefore, though the number is less, these drugs have been essential for improving the treatment outcomes of patients suffering from rare orphan diseases. Taking into account the continued success of several drugs in the US pharmaceutical market, it is evident these therapeutic products are faring well in spite of the small patient base, which makes it an interesting domain to explore.

Earlier rare diseases were neglected due to low profitability feasibility, but the enactment of FDA's Orphan Drug Act 1983, succeeding regulatory reforms, government funding support, and extensive research by pharmaceutical companies led to exponential growth in the US orphan drugs market. These favorable parameters resulted in more than 1000 orphan-designated drugs in clinical trials and more than 400 orphan-designated drugs being commercially available in the market.

This number is further expected to surpass 500 orphan-designated drugs in the market by 2028 driven by the increasing focus of pharmaceutical companies on rare diseases.

Many drugs that were given the orphan designation for rare indications have already gained US FDA approval for a different, non-orphan indication. Observation studies, anecdotal evidence, or unexpected clinical results from clinical trials involving patients with unrelated indications are what lead researchers to the conclusion that the same drug may also be utilized for a rare indication.

As a result, it frequently happens that pharmaceutical companies are unaware of the potential of their products as therapeutic treatments for rare diseases. On the plus side, completing clinical trials for uncommon diseases, and subsequently being given the orphan drug designation, can aid in growing the patient base for the company and the drug, which will later boost revenues.

For instance, Eylea, which was initially approved in 2011 for the treatment of wet age-related macular degeneration, was given its first orphan drug designation for the treatment of retinopathy of prematurity in February 2023, and was immediately approved for the same indication. Eight approvals for Eylea have been received since 2011 before this recent new approval, which supports the fact that many pharmaceutical companies are unable to foresee the potential of their products in orphan indications. This only emphasizes the importance of conducting clinical trials for orphan indications that have underlying characteristics similar to more prevalent diseases.

It has been observed that the majority of orphan drugs were developed by modest-scale biotechnology firms and then acquired by prominent pharmaceutical companies. When it comes to exploring understudied diseases and disorders, smaller biotechnology companies have some distinct benefits. Their founders often have better knowledge and experience conducting research and developing medicines for rare diseases.

Additionally, these companies do not have the complex bureaucracy found in larger companies, which simplifies decision-making. In addition, they stand to lose less money if the project does not work out. Therefore, if their therapeutics are successful, the majority of these small biotechnology companies are bought by larger ones, greatly enhancing their credibility in the orphan drug market. On the same vein, larger companies are also known to purchase orphan drug candidates in exchange for royalties and milestone payments.

For instance, Amgen and Horizon Therapeutics reached a deal in December 2022 for Amgen to buy the company and add Horizon's orphan drugs Actimmune, Ravicti, Tepezza, and Uplizna to its pipeline. Although the deal has not yet been finalized, it presents Amgen with the chance to expand its assembly of orphan drugs for rare diseases.

In the past couple years, number of clinical candidates receiving the orphan drug designation have increased drastically, which can be attributed to the benefits offered by the FDA. Temferon, RAG-17, INB-400, Batiraxcept and ZYIL1 are only a few candidates that received the orphan drug designation in 2023 for a variety of rare diseases.

It is expected that as more companies understand the unmet needs of patients suffering from rare diseases, more drug candidates for these indications will enter the pipeline. The US currently leads the sale and development of orphan drugs due to the existence of numerous companies dedicated to treating rare diseases, favorable government regulations, such as Medicare/Medicaid reimbursements, and the extensive network of patient advocacy groups that work to support those with rare diseases.

Key Topics Covered:

1. US Orphan Drugs Market Overview

2. Partnerships & Collaborations Concerning Orphan Drugs

3. US Orphan Drugs Market Trends By Indication

4. US Orphan Drugs Reimbursement Scenario

5. US Orphan Designated Drugs Dosage, Price & Treatment Cost Insight

6. US Orphan Designated Drugs Sales Insight (2019 - Q1'2023)

7. US Orphan Designated Drugs Clinical Trials Insight

7.1 By Company

7.2 By Indication

7.3 By Patient Segment

7.4 By Phase

7.5 By Priority Status

8. US Orphan Drugs Clinical Trials By Company, Indication & Phase

8.1 Research

8.2 Preclinical

8.3 Phase-I

8.4 Phase-I/II

8.5 Phase-II

8.6 Phase-II/III

8.7 Phase-III

8.8 Preregistration

8.9 Registered

9. Marketed Orphan Drugs Clinical Insight By Company & Indication

10. Competitive Landscape

10.1 AbbVie

10.2 Alexion (AstraZeneca Rare Disease Group)

10.3 Alnylam Pharmaceuticals

10.4 Amgen

10.5 Amicus Therapeutics

10.6 Array BioPharma

10.7 Astellas Pharma

10.8 AstraZeneca

10.9 Bayer HealthCare

10.10 Beacon Therapeutics

10.11 BioMarin Pharmaceutical

10.12 Bioverativ

10.13 Boehringer Ingelheim

10.14 Bristol-Myers Squibb

10.15 Celgene Corporation

10.16 Chiesi

10.17 Chugai Pharmaceutical

10.18 Collaborations Pharmaceuticals

10.19 CSL

10.20 Daiichi Sankyo Company

10.21 Eisai Co Ltd

10.22 Eli Lilly & Company

10.23 Emergent BioSolutions

10.24 Ferring Pharmaceuticals

10.25 Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center

10.26 Flavocure Biotech

10.27 Genentech

10.28 Genmab

10.29 Gilead Sciences

10.30 GlaxoSmithKline

10.31 GSK

10.32 Hanmi Pharmaceutical

10.33 Horizon Therapeutics plc

10.34 Incyte Corporation

10.35 Ionis Pharmaceuticals

10.36 Ipsen

10.37 Janssen Biotech

10.38 Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc

10.39 Johnson & Johnson

10.40 Kamada

10.41 Krystal Biotech

10.42 Kyowa Kirin

10.43 Leadiant Biosciences

10.44 Ligand Pharmaceuticals

10.45 Lundbeck A/S

10.46 MeiraGTx

10.47 Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center

10.48 Merck

10.49 Moderna Therapeutics

10.50 Nationwide Children's Hospital

10.51 Nonindustrial Source

10.52 Novartis

10.53 Novo Nordisk

10.54 Omeros Corporation

10.55 Onyx Pharmaceuticals (Amgen)

10.56 Otsuka Pharmaceutical

10.57 Pfizer

10.58 PTC Therapeutics

10.59 Recordati

10.60 Regeneron Pharmaceuticals

10.61 Roche

10.62 Sanofi

10.63 Servier

10.64 Shionogi

10.65 Spark Therapeutics

10.66 Sumitomo Pharma

10.67 Sutro Biopharma

10.68 Swedish Orphan Biovitrum

10.69 Takeda

10.70 Teva Pharmaceutical Industries

10.71 UCB

10.72 UniQure

10.73 Vertex Pharmaceuticals

10.74 XOMA

10.75 ZymoGenetics (BMS)

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/odq5je

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The global smart door locks market is driven by several factors, such as an increase in concern for safety and security, a rise in demand for smart locks, a surge in the popularity of the Internet of Things (IoT) for smart homes, and an increase in demand for smartphone connectivity.

PORTLAND, Ore., Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research published a report, titled, "Smart Doors Locks Market by Product Type (Deadbolts, Lever Handles, Padlocks, and Others), Technology (Bluetooth and Wi-Fi), and End-User (Single Family and Multi-Family): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2020-2032." According to the report, the global smart door locks industry generated $1.8 Billion in 2020, and is anticipated to generate $12.5 Billion by 2032, witnessing a CAGR of 17.6% from 2023 to 2032.

Download PDF Sample: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/67519

Prime Determinants of Growth:

The global smart door locks market is driven by several factors, such as an increase in concern for safety and security, a rise in demand for smart locks, a surge in the popularity of the Internet of Things (IoT) for smart homes, and an increase in demand for smartphone connectivity. However, high investment costs are restraining the growth of the market. On the contrary, rapid urbanization and industrialization in emerging countries are expected to offer lucrative opportunities for the growth of the market.

Report Coverage & Details:

Report Coverage Details Forecast Period 2020 - 2032 Base Year 2020 Market Size in 2020 $1.8 Billion Market Size in 2032 $12.5 Billion CAGR 17.6 % No. of Pages in Report 242 Segments Covered Product Type, Technology, End User, and Region Drivers An increase in concern for safety and security A rise in demand for smart locks A surge in the popularity of the Internet of Things (IoT) for smart homes An increase in demand for smartphone connectivity Opportunities Technological advancements Restraints High initial investments High-security threats

COVID-19 Scenario:

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on the global smart door locks market, owing to a downfall in construction activities during the lockdown.

Not only the smart door locks market but also the production of other types of smart products and traditional locks had been hampered due to the closure of manufacturing units across the world during the pandemic.

However, as the global situation has improved, the production of smart door locks is growing rapidly.

Buy This Research Report (242 Pages PDF with Insights, Charts, Tables, Figures):

https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/checkout-final/84fc546b7a6820d6be895fd222c18e1f

The deadbolts segment to maintain its leadership status throughout the forecast period-

Based on product type, the deadbolts segment held the highest market share in 2020, accounting for nearly half of the global smart door locks market revenue, and is expected to maintain its leadership status throughout the forecast period. Because it is designed to replace traditional deadbolt locks and provide keyless entry options. It also offers various features such as PIN code entry, remote access control, and integration with smart home systems. However, the lever handles segment is projected to manifest the highest CAGR of 17.9% during the forecast period. Growth in the adoption of smart devices and technological advancements are expected to further supplement the growth of lever-handle smart door locks in the market.

The Bluetooth segment to maintain its leadership status throughout the forecast period-

Based on technology, the Bluetooth segment held the highest market share in 2020, contributing to nearly three-fifths of the global smart door locks market revenue, and is expected to maintain its leadership status throughout the forecast period. Owing to the increasing adoption of Bluetooth smart door locks, which offer convenience, keyless entry, proximity-based unlocking, guest access management, integration capabilities, enhanced security, energy efficiency, and affordability, it is anticipated to boost the growth of the market during the forecast period. However, the Wi-Fi segment is projected to manifest the highest CAGR of 17.9% from 2020 to 2032. The increasing popularity of smart home technologies and the growing market for connected devices have also contributed to the adoption of smart Wi-Fi door locks.

The single-family segment to maintain its lead position during the forecast period-

Based on end-user, the single-family segment accounted for the largest share in 2022, contributing to nearly three-fifths of the global smart door locks market revenue, and is projected to maintain its lead position during the forecast period. The growing market for smart home technologies and the increasing adoption of connected devices in single-family homes are expected to boost the smart door locks market. However, the multi-family segment is expected to portray the largest CAGR of 17.8% from 2023 to 2032. Due to the rise in the global population, residential building construction is a major driving factor for the smart door locks market.

Asia-Pacific to maintain its dominance by 2032-

Based on region, Asia-Pacific held the highest market share in 2020, accounting for nearly half of the global smart door locks market revenue, and is likely to maintain its dominance during the forecast period. The same region would also exhibit the fastest CAGR of 18.7% during the forecast period. The rise in construction activities, government initiatives, and smart city developments are driving the growth of the market. In addition, several countries in the Asia-Pacific region, such as China, India, and Japan, are actively investing in smart city development and promoting the adoption of smart technologies. These initiatives often include incentives and policies that encourage the use of smart home technologies, including smart door locks.

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Leading Market Players: -

ASSA ABLOY Group

Honeywell International Inc.

Haven Lock Inc.

Panasonic Corporation

Samsung Group

Salto Systems

Schlage

Spectrum Brands Holdings Inc.

Vivint Smart Home Inc

Xiaomi Corporation

The report provides a detailed analysis of these key players in the global smart door locks market. These players have adopted different strategies to increase their market share and maintain dominant positions in different regions. The report is valuable in highlighting business performance, operating segments, product portfolios, and strategic moves of market players to showcase the competitive scenario.

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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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XUZHOU, China, Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- XCMG Machinery ("XCMG", SHE:000425) ranks 212th in the 2023 Fortune China 500 List released by Fortune China on July 25 in Beijing, the highest among all Chinese construction machinery companies, with a total revenue of USD 13,946.8 million and a profit of USD 640.3 million in the fiscal year of 2022.

As a globally leading provider of construction machinery and sustainable development solutions, XCMG now exports to 191 countries and regions, with a market share increase of 2.42 percent. XCMG is seeing continued success in 2023, as the first quarter reported a revenue of 23.9 billion yuan, among which the overseas revenue exceeded 10.6 billion yuan, setting a record in the history of a single quarter and accounting for 45% of operating revenue.

XCMG is pivoting through an economic downturn that is affecting the industry by prioritizing technological innovation and internationalization to grow with resiliency. In 2022, XCMG invested 5.75 billion yuan into R&D, a 6.13 percent increase year over year. By the end of 2022, XCMG held 9,742 legally licensed patents, including 2,458 innovation patents and 183 overseas patents.

The construction machinery industry is at the turning point of its intelligent and sustainable transition and transformation. According to Counterpoint, one in three construction machines sold in 2022 had embedded connectivity, and the market sector is expected to see an annual growth rate of 11 percent over the next eight years. XCMG was one of the top five players that together captured 60 percent of connected construction machine shipments in 2022.

Promoting new industrialization as the foundation of digital transformation, XCMG has focused on building the digital and intelligent infrastructures for product development as well as services.

At the 2nd Hurun China Metaverse Summit held on July 20 in Guangzhou, XCMG was named a Top 200 enterprise on the list of "Hurun China Metaverse Companies with the Greatest Potential 2023" for its potential in the field of metaverse.

"XCMG is committed to providing advanced, sustainable solutions for our global customers, leveraging our leading advantages of innovative technology R&D, a comprehensive supply chain, and a global operation network, as well as intelligent manufacturing capabilities, to create greater value for our global customers," said Yang Dongsheng, CEO and Chairman of XCMG.

SOURCE XCMG Machinery
Fairs held in San Antonio, Uvalde and Waco will connect students and their families with wellness checkups, vaccinations and school supplies at no cost

SAN ANTONIO, Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- As millions of children in Texas prepare for another school year, Superior HealthPlan, a managed care company that delivers quality health care in Texas and a subsidiary of Centene Corporation, is enabling parents and caregivers to make health and wellness a priority ahead of the new school year. This includes sponsoring back-to-school fairs that facilitate access to vital resources, offering opportunities to renew Medicaid benefits, and connecting families with additional resources in their community.

Back-to-School Fairs

Texans are encouraged to attend back-to-school fairs in their area, many of which offer wellness checkups, vaccinations, and school supplies at no cost. Superior HealthPlan is sponsoring or participating in several events across the state, including three in Central and South Texas:

San Antonio : August 5  Superior is one of several sponsors for the 2 nd Annual Back-to-School Bash held at AT&T Center in San Antonio , home of the San Antonio Spurs. The event, scheduled from 2  5 p.m. on Saturday, August 5 , will feature back-to-school items and a lot more.

 Superior is one of several sponsors for the 2 Annual Back-to-School Bash held at AT&T Center in , home of the San Antonio Spurs. The event, scheduled from 2  5 p.m. on , will feature back-to-school items and a lot more. Waco : August 5  Superior is sponsoring Family Fest, held exclusively for Waco Independent School District students and their families. Attendees can receive school supplies, immunizations, food and more, from 9 a.m.  noon on Saturday, August 5 , at University High School.

 Superior is sponsoring Family Fest, held exclusively for Waco Independent School District students and their families. Attendees can receive school supplies, immunizations, food and more, from  noon on , at University High School. Uvalde : August 11  As a primary sponsor, Superior is joining the 22nd Annual Wellness Fair hosted by Community Health Development, Inc. Attendees can receive back-to-school supplies, health checkups, and other items. It's from 4  7 p.m. on Friday, August 11 , at the Uvalde County Fairplex.

Renew Medicaid Benefits

As part of these back-to-school fairs, Superior will help families understand how to renew their Medicaid benefits, an important process that can help children get access to the healthcare resources they need when starting the new school year.

On April 1, 2023, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission began reaching out to Medicaid recipients to renew their eligibility through a process called Medicaid redetermination. When it's time to renew, members will receive a yellow envelope in the mail that says Action Required in red. They can also log in to their account at YourTexasBenefits.com and click "Select Details" to renew their coverage.

"The beginning of the school year is an exciting time for children and their families and is also the perfect time to complete health checkups or catch up on vaccinations," said President and CEO of Superior HealthPlan, Mark Sanders. "By renewing Medicaid coverage, parents can ensure their children have access to the comprehensive physical and behavioral health services they need to start the school year."

Additional Resources

At any time, Texans can also find the resources they need to receive the best possible care and support through Superior's partnership with "findhelp," which connects individuals to resources in their community such as food, transportation, education, and health. Visit SuperiorHealthPlan.com/findhelp to learn more.

For additional support, Superior members who may need assistance or resources for their children this school year can call Member Services at the number on the back of their ID card.

About Superior HealthPlan

Founded in 1999, Superior HealthPlan is a managed care company that delivers quality health care throughout Texas. Committed to transforming the health of the community, one person at a time, Superior supports active local involvement in all 254 Texas counties with 3,100 employees throughout the state. Superior is a wholly owned subsidiary of Centene Corporation, a leading healthcare enterprise that is committed to helping people live healthier lives. More information on Superior can be found at www.SuperiorHealthPlan.com.

SOURCE Superior HealthPlan
NEW YORK, Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The assisted reproductive technology market is expected to grow by USD 8,232.63 million during 2023-2027, progressing at a CAGR of 5.79% as per the latest Technavio market research report. Europe is going to have lucrative growth during the forecast period. About 32% of the market's overall growth is expected to originate from Europe. The increasing elderly population facing infertility issues, particularly due to declining egg quality in women, is a significant factor driving the demand for assisted reproductive technology (ART) in Europe. Countries like Italy, the UK, Germany, France, and Spain are key contributors to this trend. Additionally, favorable reimbursement policies and the availability of advanced ART techniques further support the growth of the fertility treatment market in the region. Hence, these factors are expected to drive segment growth in the market during the forecast period. For more insights on the market share of various regions- Download a sample report in MINUTES

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Assisted Reproductive Technology Market

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Assisted Reproductive Technology Market: Market Dynamics

Key Drivers

The growing awareness of ART is a key factor driving the growth of the market. The increasing use of assisted reproductive technology (ART) can be attributed to several important factors, including changing public perceptions, increasing infertility rates, and advances in ART technology. As awareness of the benefits of ART has grown, barriers have been removed, and social stigma has decreased fertility treatment has become more accessible to individuals and couples. Therefore, these factors are expected to drive market growth during the forecast period.

Major Trends

The increasing number of single-parent families is a major trend in the market. The increasing acceptance of single-parent families and rising divorce rates have led to a significant increase in the use of fertility clinics by single women around the world. Counseling and other initiatives have helped the single parent overcome obstacles such as finances and stress and facilitated access to health insurance and choice of ART procedures to build a family. Hence, these factors are expected to drive market growth during the forecast period.

Significant Challenges

The side effects of infertility treatment are a significant challenge restricting the market growth. As the use of assisted reproductive technology increases, there is growing concern about potential side effects on the patient's overall health. Women undergoing IVF and related treatments may experience stress, complications, and risk of multiple pregnancies. Additionally, these procedures can cause side effects such as nausea, vomiting, shortness of breath, and severe abdominal pain after procedures. Hence, side effects are expected to restrict market growth during the forecast period.

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Some of the key Assisted Reproductive Technology Market Players:

The assisted reproductive technology market is fragmented, and companies are deploying organic and inorganic growth strategies to compete in the market.

Cook Group Inc., CRITEX GmbH, Cryolab Ltd., Esco Micro Pte. Ltd., Ferring BV, FUJIFILM Holdings Corp., Hamilton Thorne Ltd., IMV Technologies, Instituto Bernabeu SL, INVO Bioscience Inc., KITAZATO Corp., Merck KGaA, Monash IVF Group Ltd., Pantec Engineering AG, Smiths Group Plc, The Cooper Companies Inc., Virtus Health, Vitrolife AB, XiltriX International, and Genea Ltd.

Assisted Reproductive Technology Market: Segmentation Analysis

This market research report segments the assisted reproductive technology market by application (fertility clinics, hospitals, and others), type (IVF and artificial insemination), and geography (Europe, North America, Asia, and the Rest of the World (ROW)).

The fertility clinics segment is estimated to witness significant growth during the forecast period. The growth of the fertility clinics segment is being driven by factors like the increased number of fertility centers to meet the unmet demand and the rising number of fertility patients seeking treatment. Hence, the success of such fertility clinics is expected to drive segment growth in the market during the forecast period.

For additional information on the market contribution of each segment - Grab an Exclusive Sample Report

Company Landscape

Companies covered.

Company classification

Market positioning of companies

Competitive scenario

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Assisted Reproductive Technology Market Scope Report Coverage Details Base year 2022 Historic period 2017-2021 Forecast period 2023-2027 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 5.79% Market growth 2023-2027 USD 8,232.63 million Market structure Fragmented YoY growth 2022-2023 (%) 4.37 Regional analysis Europe, North America, Asia, and the Rest of the World (ROW) Performing market contribution Europe at 32% Key countries US, UK, Germany, China, and Japan Competitive landscape Leading Companies , Market Positioning of Companies , Competitive Strategies, and Industry Risks Key companies profiled Cook Group Inc., CRITEX GmbH, Cryolab Ltd., Esco Micro Pte. Ltd., Ferring BV, FUJIFILM Holdings Corp., Hamilton Thorne Ltd., IMV Technologies, Instituto Bernabeu SL, INVO Bioscience Inc., KITAZATO Corp., Merck KGaA, Monash IVF Group Ltd., Pantec Engineering AG, Smiths Group Plc, The Cooper Companies Inc., Virtus Health, Vitrolife AB, XiltriX International, and Genea Ltd. Market dynamics Parent market analysis, Market growth inducers and obstacles, Fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID-19 impact and recovery analysis and future consumer dynamics, and Market condition analysis for the forecast period. Customization purview If our report has not included the data that you are looking for, you can reach out to our analysts and get segments customized.

Table of Contents

1 Executive Summary

1.1 Market Overview

Exhibit 01: Executive Summary  Chart on Market Overview



Exhibit 02: Executive Summary  Data Table on Market Overview



Exhibit 03: Executive Summary  Chart on Global Market Characteristics



Exhibit 04: Executive Summary  Chart on Market by Geography



Exhibit 05: Executive Summary  Chart on Market Segmentation by Application



Exhibit 06: Executive Summary  Chart on Market Segmentation by Type



Exhibit 07: Executive Summary  Chart on Incremental Growth



Exhibit 08: Executive Summary  Data Table on Incremental Growth



Exhibit 09: Executive Summary  Chart on Company 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 companies 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 assisted reproductive technology market 2017 - 2021

Exhibit 18: Historic Market Size  Data Table on global assisted reproductive technology market 2017 - 2021 ($ million)

4.2 Application Segment Analysis 2017 - 2021

Exhibit 19: Historic Market Size  Application Segment 2017 - 2021 ($ million)

4.3 Type Segment Analysis 2017 - 2021

Exhibit 20: Historic Market Size  Type 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 Application

6.1 Market segments

Exhibit 30: Chart on Application - Market share 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 31: Data Table on Application - Market share 2022-2027 (%)

6.2 Comparison by Application

Exhibit 32: Chart on Comparison by Application



Exhibit 33: Data Table on Comparison by Application

6.3 Fertility clinics - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 34: Chart on Fertility clinics - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 35: Data Table on Fertility clinics - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 36: Chart on Fertility clinics - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 37: Data Table on Fertility clinics - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

6.4 Hospitals - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 38: Chart on Hospitals - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 39: Data Table on Hospitals - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 40: Chart on Hospitals - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 41: Data Table on Hospitals - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

6.5 Others - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 42: Chart on Others - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 43: Data Table on Others - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 44: Chart on Others - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 45: Data Table on Others - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

6.6 Market opportunity by Application

Exhibit 46: Market opportunity by Application ($ million)



Exhibit 47: Data Table on Market opportunity by Application ($ million)

7 Market Segmentation by Type

7.1 Market segments

Exhibit 48: Chart on Type - Market share 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 49: Data Table on Type - Market share 2022-2027 (%)

7.2 Comparison by Type

Exhibit 50: Chart on Comparison by Type



Exhibit 51: Data Table on Comparison by Type

7.3 IVF - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 52: Chart on IVF - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 53: Data Table on IVF - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 54: Chart on IVF - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 55: Data Table on IVF - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

7.4 Artificial insemination - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 56: Chart on Artificial insemination - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 57: Data Table on Artificial insemination - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 58: Chart on Artificial insemination - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 59: Data Table on Artificial insemination - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

7.5 Market opportunity by Type

Exhibit 60: Market opportunity by Type ($ million)



Exhibit 61: Data Table on Market opportunity by Type ($ million)

8 Customer Landscape

8.1 Customer landscape overview

Exhibit 62: Analysis of price sensitivity, lifecycle, customer purchase basket, adoption rates, and purchase criteria

9 Geographic Landscape

9.1 Geographic segmentation

Exhibit 63: Chart on Market share by geography 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 64: Data Table on Market share by geography 2022-2027 (%)

9.2 Geographic comparison

Exhibit 65: Chart on Geographic comparison



Exhibit 66: Data Table on Geographic comparison

9.3 Europe - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 67: Chart on Europe - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 68: Data Table on Europe - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 69: Chart on Europe - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 70: Data Table on Europe - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.4 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 (%)

9.5 Asia - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 75: Chart on Asia - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 76: Data Table on Asia - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 77: Chart on Asia - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 78: Data Table on Asia - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.6 Rest of World (ROW) - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 79: Chart on Rest of World (ROW) - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 80: Data Table on Rest of World (ROW) - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 81: Chart on Rest of World (ROW) - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 82: Data Table on Rest of World (ROW) - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.7 US - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 83: Chart on US - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 84: Data Table on US - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 85: Chart on US - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 86: Data Table on US - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.8 UK - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 87: Chart on UK - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 88: Data Table on UK - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 89: Chart on UK - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 90: Data Table on UK - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.9 China - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 91: Chart on China - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 92: Data Table on China - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 93: Chart on China - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 94: Data Table on China - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.10 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 (%)

9.11 Japan - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 99: Chart on Japan - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 100: Data Table on Japan - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 101: Chart on Japan - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 102: Data Table on Japan - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.12 Market opportunity by geography

Exhibit 103: Market opportunity by geography ($ million)



Exhibit 104: 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 105: Impact of drivers and challenges in 2022 and 2027

10.4 Market trends

11 Company Landscape

11.1 Overview

11.2 Company Landscape

Exhibit 106: Overview on Criticality of inputs and Factors of differentiation

11.3 Landscape disruption

Exhibit 107: Overview on factors of disruption

11.4 Industry risks

Exhibit 108: Impact of key risks on business

12 Company Analysis

12.1 Companies covered

Exhibit 109: Companies covered

12.2 Market positioning of companies

Exhibit 110: Matrix on company position and classification

12.3 Cook Group Inc.

Exhibit 111: Cook Group Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 112: Cook Group Inc. - Product / Service



Exhibit 113: Cook Group Inc. - Key offerings

12.4 CRITEX GmbH

Exhibit 114: CRITEX GmbH - Overview



Exhibit 115: CRITEX GmbH - Product / Service



Exhibit 116: CRITEX GmbH - Key offerings

12.5 Cryolab Ltd.

Exhibit 117: Cryolab Ltd. - Overview



Exhibit 118: Cryolab Ltd. - Product / Service



Exhibit 119: Cryolab Ltd. - Key offerings

12.6 Esco Micro Pte. Ltd.

Exhibit 120: Esco Micro Pte. Ltd. - Overview



Exhibit 121: Esco Micro Pte. Ltd. - Product / Service



Exhibit 122: Esco Micro Pte. Ltd. - Key offerings

12.7 Ferring BV

Exhibit 123: Ferring BV - Overview



Exhibit 124: Ferring BV - Product / Service



Exhibit 125: Ferring BV - Key offerings

12.8 FUJIFILM Holdings Corp.

Exhibit 126: FUJIFILM Holdings Corp. - Overview



Exhibit 127: FUJIFILM Holdings Corp. - Business segments



Exhibit 128: FUJIFILM Holdings Corp. - Key offerings



Exhibit 129: FUJIFILM Holdings Corp. - Segment focus

12.9 Genea Ltd.

Exhibit 130: Genea Ltd. - Overview



Exhibit 131: Genea Ltd. - Product / Service



Exhibit 132: Genea Ltd. - Key offerings

12.10 IMV Technologies

Exhibit 133: IMV Technologies - Overview



Exhibit 134: IMV Technologies - Product / Service



Exhibit 135: IMV Technologies - Key offerings

12.11 Instituto Bernabeu SL

Exhibit 136: Instituto Bernabeu SL - Overview



Exhibit 137: Instituto Bernabeu SL - Product / Service



Exhibit 138: Instituto Bernabeu SL - Key offerings

12.12 INVO Bioscience Inc.

Exhibit 139: INVO Bioscience Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 140: INVO Bioscience Inc. - Product / Service



Exhibit 141: INVO Bioscience Inc. - Key offerings

12.13 Merck KGaA

Exhibit 142: Merck KGaA - Overview



Exhibit 143: Merck KGaA - Business segments



Exhibit 144: Merck KGaA - Key news



Exhibit 145: Merck KGaA - Key offerings



Exhibit 146: Merck KGaA - Segment focus

12.14 Monash IVF Group Ltd.

Exhibit 147: Monash IVF Group Ltd. - Overview



Exhibit 148: Monash IVF Group Ltd. - Business segments



Exhibit 149: Monash IVF Group Ltd. - Key offerings



Exhibit 150: Monash IVF Group Ltd. - Segment focus

12.15 The Cooper Companies Inc.

Exhibit 151: The Cooper Companies Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 152: The Cooper Companies Inc. - Business segments



Exhibit 153: The Cooper Companies Inc. - Key offerings



Exhibit 154: The Cooper Companies Inc. - Segment focus

12.16 Virtus Health

Exhibit 155: Virtus Health - Overview



Exhibit 156: Virtus Health - Business segments



Exhibit 157: Virtus Health - Key news



Exhibit 158: Virtus Health - Key offerings



Exhibit 159: Virtus Health - Segment focus

12.17 Vitrolife AB

Exhibit 160: Vitrolife AB - Overview



Exhibit 161: Vitrolife AB - Business segments



Exhibit 162: Vitrolife AB - Key offerings



Exhibit 163: Vitrolife AB - Segment focus

13 Appendix

13.1 Scope of the report

13.2 Inclusions and exclusions checklist

Exhibit 164: Inclusions checklist



Exhibit 165: Exclusions checklist

13.3 Currency conversion rates for US$

Exhibit 166: Currency conversion rates for US$

13.4 Research methodology

Exhibit 167: Research methodology



Exhibit 168: Validation techniques employed for market sizing



Exhibit 169: Information sources

13.5 List of abbreviations

Exhibit 170: List of abbreviations

About Technavio

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provide actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions.

With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

Contacts

Technavio Research

Jesse Maida

Media & Marketing Executive

US: +1 844 364 1100

UK: +44 203 893 3200

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.technavio.com

SOURCE Infiniti Research, Inc.
A roundup of the week's most newsworthy culture press releases from PR Newswire, including the first Indigenous fashion week and promotions for National Black Business Month.

NEW YORK, Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- With thousands of press releases published each week, it can be difficult to keep up with everything on PR Newswire. To help journalists covering different cultural groups stay on top of the week's most newsworthy and popular releases, here's a roundup of stories from the week that shouldn't be missed.

The list below includes the headline (with a link to the full text) and an excerpt from each story. Click on the press release headlines to access accompanying multimedia assets that are available for download.

PR Newswire Weekly People & Culture Press Release Roundup, July 31-Aug. 4, 2023. Photo provided by Southwestern Association for Indian Arts. https://prn.to/3OHqJ3V

Read more of the latest culture-related releases from PR Newswire and stay caught up on the top press releases by following @PRNmltcult on Twitter.

Helping Journalists Stay Up to Date on Industry News

These are just a few of the recent press releases that consumers and the media should know about. To be notified of releases relevant to their coverage area, journalists can set up a custom newsfeed with PR Newswire for Journalists.

Once they're signed up, reporters, bloggers and freelancers have access to the following free features:

Customization: Create a customized newsfeed that will deliver relevant news right to your inbox. Customize the newsfeed by keywords, industry, subject, geography, and more.

Create a customized newsfeed that will deliver relevant news right to your inbox. Customize the newsfeed by keywords, industry, subject, geography, and more. Photos and Videos: Thousands of multimedia assets are available to download and include with your next story.

Thousands of multimedia assets are available to download and include with your next story. Subject Matter Experts: Access ProfNet, a database of industry experts to connect with as sources or for quotes in your articles.

Access ProfNet, a database of industry experts to connect with as sources or for quotes in your articles. Related Resources: Read and subscribe to our journalist- and blogger-focused blog, Beyond Bylines, for media news roundups, writing tips, upcoming events, and more.

About PR Newswire and PR Newswire for Journalists

For more than 65 years, PR Newswire has been the industry leader with the largest, most comprehensive distribution network of print, radio, magazine, television stations, financial portals and trade publications. PR Newswire has an unparalleled global reach of more than 200,000 publications and 10,000 websites and is available in more than 170 countries and 40 languages.

PR Newswire for Journalists (PRNJ) is an exclusive community that includes over 20,000 journalists, bloggers and influencers who are logging into their PRNJ accounts specifically looking for story ideas. PR Newswire thoroughly researches and vets this community to verify their identity as a member of the press, blogger or influencer. PRNJ users cover more than 200 beats and verticals.

For questions, contact the team at [email protected].

SOURCE PR Newswire
A roundup of the week's most newsworthy technology industry press releases from PR Newswire, including plans for Starlab and an AI webinar for small businesses.

NEW YORK, Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- With thousands of press releases published each week, it can be difficult to keep up with everything on PR Newswire. To help journalists covering the business technology industry stay on top of the week's most newsworthy and popular releases, here's a roundup of stories from the week that shouldn't be missed.

The list below includes the headline (with a link to the full text) and an excerpt from each story. Click on the press release headlines to access accompanying multimedia assets that are available for download.

PR Newswire Weekly Technology Press Release Roundup, July 31-Aug. 4, 2023. Photo provided by Quantinuum. https://prn.to/43QofEJ

Read more of the latest business technology releases from PR Newswire and stay caught up on the top press releases by following @PRNtech on Twitter.

Can't-Miss Earnings

In addition to these popular releases, several must-read earnings reports crossed the wire this week, including the quarterly results for Match Group, Cognizant, and Silicom.

Catch up on all the latest earnings reports here.

Helping Journalists Stay Up to Date on Industry News

These are just a few of the recent press releases that consumers and the media should know about. To be notified of releases relevant to their coverage area, journalists can set up a custom newsfeed with PR Newswire for Journalists.

Once they're signed up, reporters, bloggers and freelancers have access to the following free features:

Customization: Create a customized newsfeed that will deliver relevant news right to your inbox. Customize the newsfeed by keywords, industry, subject, geography, and more.

Create a customized newsfeed that will deliver relevant news right to your inbox. Customize the newsfeed by keywords, industry, subject, geography, and more. Photos and Videos: Thousands of multimedia assets are available to download and include with your next story.

Thousands of multimedia assets are available to download and include with your next story. Subject Matter Experts: Access ProfNet, a database of industry experts to connect with as sources or for quotes in your articles.

Access ProfNet, a database of industry experts to connect with as sources or for quotes in your articles. Related Resources: Read and subscribe to our journalist- and blogger-focused blog, Beyond Bylines, for media news roundups, writing tips, upcoming events, and more.

About PR Newswire and PR Newswire for Journalists

For more than 65 years, PR Newswire has been the industry leader with the largest, most comprehensive distribution network of print, radio, magazine, television stations, financial portals and trade publications. PR Newswire has an unparalleled global reach of more than 200,000 publications and 10,000 websites and is available in more than 170 countries and 40 languages.

PR Newswire for Journalists (PRNJ) is an exclusive community that includes over 20,000 journalists, bloggers and influencers who are logging into their PRNJ accounts specifically looking for story ideas. PR Newswire thoroughly researches and vets this community to verify their identity as a member of the press, blogger or influencer. PRNJ users cover more than 200 beats and verticals.

For questions, contact the team at [email protected].

SOURCE PR Newswire
A roundup of the week's most newsworthy travel industry press releases from PR Newswire, including a return to Hogwarts and a Mythbusters-themed cruise.

NEW YORK, Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- With thousands of press releases published each week, it can be difficult to keep up with everything on PR Newswire. To help journalists covering the travel industry stay on top of the week's most newsworthy and popular releases, here's a roundup of stories from the week that shouldn't be missed.

The list below includes the headline (with a link to the full text) and an excerpt from each story. Click on the press release headlines to access accompanying multimedia assets that are available for download.

PR Newswire Weekly Travel Press Release Roundup, July 31-Aug. 4, 2023. Photo provided by White Claw. https://prn.to/44RIK5r

Read more of the latest travel-related releases from PR Newswire and stay caught up on the top press releases by following @PRNtravel on Twitter.

Can't-Miss Earnings

In addition to these popular releases, several must-read earnings reports crossed the wire this week, including the quarterly results for Spirit Airlines, SeaWorld, and Marriott.

Catch up on all the latest earnings reports here.

Helping Journalists Stay Up to Date on Industry News

These are just a few of the recent press releases that consumers and the media should know about. To be notified of releases relevant to their coverage area, journalists can set up a custom newsfeed with PR Newswire for Journalists.

Once they're signed up, reporters, bloggers and freelancers have access to the following free features:

Customization: Create a customized newsfeed that will deliver relevant news right to your inbox. Customize the newsfeed by keywords, industry, subject, geography, and more.

Create a customized newsfeed that will deliver relevant news right to your inbox. Customize the newsfeed by keywords, industry, subject, geography, and more. Photos and Videos: Thousands of multimedia assets are available to download and include with your next story.

Thousands of multimedia assets are available to download and include with your next story. Subject Matter Experts: Access ProfNet, a database of industry experts to connect with as sources or for quotes in your articles.

Access ProfNet, a database of industry experts to connect with as sources or for quotes in your articles. Related Resources: Read and subscribe to our journalist- and blogger-focused blog, Beyond Bylines, for media news roundups, writing tips, upcoming events, and more.

About PR Newswire and PR Newswire for Journalists

For more than 65 years, PR Newswire has been the industry leader with the largest, most comprehensive distribution network of print, radio, magazine, television stations, financial portals and trade publications. PR Newswire has an unparalleled global reach of more than 200,000 publications and 10,000 websites and is available in more than 170 countries and 40 languages.

PR Newswire for Journalists (PRNJ) is an exclusive community that includes over 20,000 journalists, bloggers and influencers who are logging into their PRNJ accounts specifically looking for story ideas. PR Newswire thoroughly researches and vets this community to verify their identity as a member of the press, blogger or influencer. PRNJ users cover more than 200 beats and verticals.

For questions, contact the team at [email protected].

SOURCE PR Newswire
CHENGDU, China, Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- On August 2, the 2023 Fortune Global 500 list was officially released. Tongwei Group made its debut on the list with a revenue of CNY 2148.82 billion and ranked 476th, becoming the first photovoltaic company in the world to enter the Fortune Global 500. At the same time, Tongwei Group ranked 34th on the Return on Equity (ROE) list with a net asset return rate of 42.9%, making it the only mainland Chinese company among the top 50 companies with the highest ROE. The inclusion of Tongwei Group in the Fortune Global 500 marks its formal entry into the "club" of global giant enterprises and signifies the firm commitment to comprehensive internationalization.

Tongwei Group Made its Debut on Fortune Global 500 List

Over the past 41 years, Tongwei Group has achieved steady development. As a global leader in high-purity polysilicon and solar cells, Tongwei Group currently holds the largest global market share in high-purity polysilicon production and sales. Its solar cell shipments have remained at the top globally for six consecutive years. In 2022, Tongwei expanded to the Module sector and its Module shipments entered the top ten globally. Its photovoltaic products are exported to more than 40 countries and regions worldwide. Tongwei also pioneered the "Fishery & PV Integration" development model, with 52 "Fishery-PV Integration" bases established, achieving a cumulative grid-connected capacity of 3.4 GW. The high-quality and clean photovoltaic power has been benefiting countless households.

From its foundation in China to its global expansion, from deepening Chinese manufacturing to leading Chinese innovation, Tongwei Group, as a Fortune Global 500 company, will seize opportunities, utilize every technological innovation and quality product to contribute to the global response to climate change, promote green energy transformation, and achieve carbon neutrality goals. It will provide China's solutions and contribute the strength of the Tongwei Group.

SOURCE Tongwei Group
MADISON, Wis., Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Underground Printing, a leading provider of custom printed apparel, accessories, and promotional items, is excited to announce a move to a new storefront in Madison, near downtown, located at 409 N. Lake Street.

The new store, between State Street and University Ave., will feature official Sconnie apparel and merchandise while supporting the community with their custom printing needs.

Underground Printing Madison

"We're excited to relocate to this new storefront right next to campus in downtown Madison," commented Rishi Narayan, co-founder, and CRO. "While only a few blocks from our former location, we feel that our new store is more welcoming and accessible, allowing us to do what we do best, offer the best customer experience through custom t-shirts & more!"

Centrally located, minutes from the University of Wisconsin - Madison, Underground Printing is looking forward to all of the local businesses, community members, faculty, staff, and students the new location will support.

"I'm thrilled to be working in downtown Madison," noted UGP Madison's new Store Manager, Cal Mazzara. "Madison is my hometown and I can't wait to work with my friends and family while expanding my network to others within the community! I'm eager to work with some of my favorite local businesses and events in the greater Madison area."

About Underground Printing:

Underground Printing, www.undergroundshirts.com, is a national custom printed apparel provider, offering screen printing, digital printing, and embroidery on a wide variety of apparel and promotional products to groups, businesses, and organizations of all sizes. The company is headquartered in Southeast Michigan with retail locations throughout the country and has been in the industry for over 20 years. Underground Printing has been proud to be an active and growing member of the communities they are a part of and has made the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies 9 times.

Date: 08.04.2023

Media Contact: Allyson Sprague

email: [email protected]

SOURCE Underground Printing, LLC
The Polish Embassy in Minsk provided the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus with evidence that on 1 August Belarusian helicopters violated Polish airspace. It is noted that this data contradicts the position of the Republic of Belarus expressed in official statements.

ADVERTISIMENT

They also called on Belarus to stop provocations. This was reported by the press service of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

"On 4 August, the Polish Embassy in Minsk provided the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus with detailed information that undoubtedly confirms the violation of Polish airspace on 1 August 2023 by two Belarusian military helicopters," the statement said.

The Polish Foreign Ministry noted that "the data contradicts the position of the Republic of Belarus, set out in the official statements of its Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Defence".

"We call on the Belarusian side to urgently investigate the incident, reconsider its position on this matter and stop all provocations on the Polish-Belarusian border," the ministry summed up.

On 1 August, two Belarusian helicopters violated Polish airspace. They crossed the border near the Polish village of Biaowieza. The Belarusian helicopters were flying at a very low altitude, which made it difficult to detect them by radar systems. However, they were recorded by local residents who shared the footage online.

ADVERTISIMENT

Poland has announced that the number of military personnel, additional forces and means, including combat helicopters, will be increased on the border with Belarus.

As reported by OBOZREVATEL:

The US State Department responded to the incident with Belarusian helicopters in Poland. The US department stressed that the security of NATO, of which Poland is a part, is taken very seriously.

NATO is closely monitoring the situation in the so-called Suwalki Corridor, where Belarusian military helicopters flew overhead. The incident has caused concern among the members of the North Atlantic Alliance.

Only verified information is available on our Obozrevatel Telegram channel, Threads and Viber. Don't fall for fakes!
The global utility communications market is driven by the growing adoption of distributed energy resources (DERs) coupled with rise in demand for smart grid infrastructure.

PORTLAND, Ore., Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research published a report, titled, "Utility Communications Market By Technology (Wired, Wireless), By Utility (Public, Private), By Component (Hardware, Software), By Application (Oil And Gas, Power Generation, Others), By End-Use (Residential, Commercial, Industrial): Global Opportunity Analysis And Industry Forecast, 2023-2032". According to the report, the global utility communications industry generated $21.3 Billion in 2022, and is anticipated to generate $37.0 Billion by 2032, witnessing a CAGR of 5.7% from 2023 to 2032.

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Prime determinants of growth

The global utility communications market is driven by the rising adoption of distributed energy resources (DERs) along with surge in demand for smart grid infrastructure. However, vulnerability to cybersecurity threats is anticipated to hinder the growth of the market. Nevertheless, technological advancement is expected to offer lucrative opportunities for market growth in the coming years.

Report Coverage & Details:

Report Coverage Details Forecast Period 20232032 Base Year 2022 Market Size in 2022 $21.3 Billion Market Size in 2032 $37.0 Billion CAGR 5.7 % No. of Pages in Report 400 Segments Covered Technology, Utility, Component, Application, End-Use, Region. Drivers Rise in demand for smart grid infrastructure Surge in adoption of distributed energy resources (DERs) Opportunities Technological advancement Restraints Vulnerability to cybersecurity threats



Russia-Ukraine War Impact Analysis on the Utility Communications Market

Infrastructure Damage: During periods of conflict and military operations, critical infrastructure, including communication networks and utility facilities, was damaged or destroyed. This damage disrupted utility communications, causing service outages and difficulties in monitoring and controlling utility infrastructure.

Interruption of Cross-Border Communications: The Russia - Ukraine conflict involved both countries, and this resulted in restrictions on cross-border communications. Utility companies that rely on cross-border communication links or international connectivity for their operations experienced disruptions or limitations in their communication networks.

- conflict involved both countries, and this resulted in restrictions on cross-border communications. Utility companies that rely on cross-border communication links or international connectivity for their operations experienced disruptions or limitations in their communication networks. Cybersecurity Concerns: During times of heightened geopolitical tensions, there was an increased risk of cyberattacks targeting critical infrastructure, including utility communications networks. Utility companies needed to strengthen their cybersecurity measures to protect their communication systems and prevent unauthorized access or disruptions.

Regulatory and Policy Changes: In response to the conflict, governments introduced regulations and policies related to utility communications. Utility companies needed to adapt their communication systems and processes to comply with these new regulations.

Shift in Investment Priorities: The Russia - Ukraine war and its aftermath led to a shift in investment priorities within the utility sector. Utility companies prioritized investments in infrastructure restoration, resilience, and security, including their communication networks. This led to increased spending on upgrading and modernizing utility communications infrastructure.

- war and its aftermath led to a shift in investment priorities within the utility sector. Utility companies prioritized investments in infrastructure restoration, resilience, and security, including their communication networks. This led to increased spending on upgrading and modernizing utility communications infrastructure. Increased Demand for Redundancy and Resilience: The conflict highlightd the importance of redundancy and resilience in utility communications. Utility companies increased their investments in backup systems, redundant networks, and disaster recovery capabilities to ensure continuous communication and minimize the impact of any disruptions.

The wired segment to maintain its lead position during the forecast period.

Based on technology, the wired segment accounted for the largest share in 2022, contributing to nearly three-fifths of the global utility communications market revenue, and is projected to maintain its lead position during the forecast period. Wired communication systems are known for their reliability and consistent performance. These systems are commonly used by utility companies to manage and monitor critical infrastructure such as power grids, water distribution networks, natural gas pipelines, and other essential services. The wireless segment is projected to grow at a CAGR of 5.9% from 2023 to 2032. With rise in complexity of utility infrastructure and the need for seamless communication between different components, wireless communication provides a reliable and efficient way to connect devices and systems. It allows utilities to gather data from diverse sources and enable real-time monitoring and control.

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The public segment to maintain its lead position during the forecast period

Based on utility, the public segment accounted for the largest share in 2022, contributing to more than two-thirds of the global utility communications market revenue, and is projected to maintain its lead position during the forecast period. The utility industry has become more complex with the integration of advanced technologies and the rise of smart grids, smart meters, and other innovative systems. These technologies require robust communication networks to enable data exchange, remote monitoring, and control of utility assets. The surge in demand for public utility communications is driven by the need to manage this increase in complexity effectively. The private segment is projected to grow at a CAGR of 6.0% from 2023 to 2032. Utility companies deal with critical infrastructure and sensitive data, such as power generation, transmission, and distribution systems. Private utility communications provide a higher level of security compared to public networks, reducing the risk of cyber threats and unauthorized access.

The software segment to maintain its lead position during the forecast period

Based on component, the software segment accounted for the largest share in 2022, contributing to more than two-thirds of the global utility communications market revenue, and is projected to maintain its lead position during the forecast period. The same segment is projected to grow at a CAGR of 5.9% from 2023 to 2032. Software platforms enable utilities to gather real-time consumption data, monitor energy usage patterns, and provide accurate billing information to customers. Software utilities enable efficient data management, storage, and analysis, allowing utilities to derive valuable insights, optimize operations, and make informed decisions.

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Asia-Pacific to maintain its dominance by 2032

Based on region, Asia-Pacific held the highest market share in terms of revenuein 2022, accounting for more than half of the global utility communications market revenue and is likely to dominate the market during the forecast period. The same region is projected to grow at a CAGR of 5.9% from 2023 to 2032. The rise in demand for utility communications in the region is driven by rapid urbanization, infrastructure development, renewable energy integration, energy efficiency initiatives, the need to serve remote areas, the digitalization of utilities, and supportive government policies.

Leading Market Players: -

GENERAL ELECTRIC

OMICRON

HITACHI, LTD.

RAD

SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC SE.

CISCO SYSTEMS, INC.

ABB

MILSOFT UTILITY SOLUTIONS

MOTOROLA SOLUTIONS, INC.

ITRON INC.

The report provides a detailed analysis of these key players in the global utility communications market. These players have adopted different strategies such as new product launches, collaborations, expansion, joint ventures, agreements, and others 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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SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Varo Bank, N.A. , the U.S.'s first nationally-chartered consumer techbank, announces it has been named to CNBC's 2023 list of the top 200 global fintech companies.

Presented by CNBC and partnered with Statista Inc., the world-leading statistics portal and industry ranking provider, Statista analyzed over 1,500 individual firms across nine market segments to determine the top fintech companies across digital payments, lending, financing, and other banking sectors. Varo Bank was honored with a spot on the inaugural list under the Neobanking category.

"We are using our position within the regulatory system to provide Americans living paycheck to paycheck with banking safety and lower fees." Tweet this

"We are delighted to be placed on CNBC's list of the World's Top Fintech Companies, and this is the perfect way to celebrate the third anniversary of our bank charter," shared Pepe Porrata, COO of Varo Bank. "We are using our position within the regulatory system to provide Americans living paycheck to paycheck with banking safety and lower fees. Varo is truly a 'category of one' bank for all of us."

The Varo Believe credit-building offering launched in 2021 can help participants increase their credit scores. Additionally, by allowing customers to instantly borrow up to $250 with a very low fee, Varo Advance has helped customers bridge paycheck gaps to maintain positive cash flow without paying high fees and a high yield savings rate that is one of the highest in the country.

About Varo Bank, N.A.

Varo Bank is a new kind of bank  the first nationally-chartered consumer techbank in the U.S., built from the ground up with a focus on the needs of Americans living paycheck to paycheck. From credit building to savings to faster payments, Varo has a complete solution to help hard working people make progress in their financial lives. Varo combines the capabilities and nimbleness of a technology company with the security and oversight of a regulated financial institution, enabling agile product design that provides technology-first solutions such as Varo Believe , a secured card to help build credit; Varo Advance , to help stretch hard-earned dollars between paychecks; and a high-yield savings account , offering rates up to one of the nation's highest APY rates. Varo has been named on CNBC's 2023 list of the World's Top Fintech Companies, one of Forbes' World's Best Banks in 2022, Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies, and is on the Inc 5000 fastest-growing growing companies for 2022. For more information on Varo Advance, Varo Believe, and other offerings such as Perks, visit www.varomoney.com , like Varo Bank on Facebook , and follow us on Instagram and Twitter @varobank. 2023 Varo Bank, N.A. Member FDIC.

Media Contact: Audrey Jacobson, Consort Partners

[email protected]

SOURCE Varo Bank
Wiz expands its leadership in cloud security by developing an innovative CNAPP offering and by disrupting new markets to maintain its competitive advantage, making its platform extremely marketable.

SAN ANTONIO, Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Frost & Sullivan assessed the cloud security industry and, based on its findings, recognizes Wiz with the 2023 Global Entrepreneurial Company of the Year Award. The company consolidates cloud security capabilities for better risk management and security protection of the cloud and cloud-native applications throughout their lifecycle. Wiz simplifies and automates the compliance and security checking process to reduce the reliance on error-prone human intervention and to make security outcomes more effective and impactful by allowing security teams to prioritize their efforts. The company provides full visibility into infrastructure requirements, security risks, and business priorities to enhance collaboration, and it operationalizes cloud security effectively for greater business value so that organizations can embrace a new cloud operating model.

Wiz Award Logo

The one-of-a-kind Wiz Security Graph provides a simple visualization that enables customers to focus on critical risks from different attack vectors and toxic combinations of multiple risk factors, proactively reducing their attack surface. Wiz is the first cloud security platform provider to leverage a security graph at the core of its product, enabling customers to triage and correlate critical attack paths and produce high-fidelity results that any security or development team can interpret and respond to immediately. The company strengthens organizations' risk assessment and threat detection capabilities for better business decision making, differentiating Wiz in the market and allowing it to make a huge impact on the industry.

Anh Tien Vu, Industry Principal, Frost & Sullivan, noted, "Wiz has disrupted the traditional agent-based cloud security model with its agentless approach that focuses on cloud risk. Its cloud security platform scans every layer of cloud environments without agents, providing complete visibility into every cloud technology and risk without blind spots, differentiating Wiz in the market."

Wiz supports accurate and comprehensive risk assessment while eliminating noise, leading to a lower total cost of ownership for customers. The company has earned the trust of over 35% of Fortune 100 companies since its inception, opened offices in Denver, and Washington DC in addition to its New York headquarters, and plans to increase its geographic footprint in the United States and worldwide. Wiz has hit several key milestones, becoming the fastest company to gain $100 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) in 2022 and becoming the largest cybersecurity unicorn in 2023 after its latest fundraising round, Wiz is helping more organizations build their cloud applications faster and more securely and has its sights set on the public sector (Wiz announced FedRAMP "in process" status earlier this year).

"We're thrilled to receive this recognition from Frost & Sullivan because the research highlights what we at Wiz prize most: customer value," said Raaz Herzberg, VP Product Strategy, Wiz. "As Frost & Sullivan notes, companies worldwide are moving to the cloud as part of their digital transformation journey. Wiz has pioneered a new approach to cloud security that grants security teams the ability to harness the power of the cloud to drive their business forward."

"Wiz stands out in the cloud security industry based on its true cloud-native approach and ability to provide a unified single pane of glass across various cloud security use cases, transforming cloud operating models and democratizing security," added Vu. With its strong overall performance, Wiz earns Frost & Sullivan's 2023 Global Entrepreneurial Company of the Year Award in the cloud security industry.

Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has demonstrated excellence in devising and implementing a strong growth strategy. The recipient has shown strength in terms of innovation in products and technologies, leadership in customer value, and speed in response to market needs. The award looks at the emerging market participants in the industry and recognizes their best practices that are positioned for future growth excellence.

Frost & Sullivan Best Practices Awards recognize companies in various regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analyses, and extensive secondary research to identify best practices in the industry.

About Frost & Sullivan

For six decades, Frost & Sullivan has been world-renowned for its role in helping investors, corporate leaders, and governments navigate economic changes and identify disruptive technologies, Mega Trends, new business models, and companies to action, resulting in a continuous flow of growth opportunities to drive future success. Contact us: Start the discussion.

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The venture capital fund invited speakers and guests from around the world

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Ethereum Community Conference, better known as EthCC, is an event circled on many calendars as a 'must attend' for the blockchain and web3 communities. After ETH Denver it is considered the most important Ethereum conference in the world, and the largest such event in all of Europe.

Yida Gao and his team at Shima Capital, known for putting on their own must-attend gatherings during major conferences around the globe, hosted an exclusive side-conference during EthCC in Paris. The event consisted of a breakfast networking event followed by three panel sessions with several dignified guest speakers taking part as moderators and panelists, including some from Shima's own portfolio companies.

"We've always viewed Eth.CC as one of the top web3 conferences to attend," said Yida Gao, Founder and Managing General Partner of Shima Capital. "Over the past year or so we've become known for our breakfast events, and adding a highly curated educational component seemed like a natural evolution. One of our core tenets is that we back strong founders, and putting them on stage, in front of a knowledgeable and keen audience, is a great opportunity to let them shine as individuals."

Shima Capital's breakfasts are among the most highly anticipated events by conference attendees and offer curated networking events for diverse groups of communities within web3. The firm and its founder Yida Gao plan to continue hosting events like this at future conferences in 2023 and beyond.

Throughout 2023, Shima has maintained its standing as an industry leader in terms of deals made by web3 venture capital funds, and they will continue to invest in strong projects with strong founders.

For more on Yida Gao and Shima Capital, visit https://shima.capital.

About Shima Capital

Shima Capital is a leading early stage VC firm, founded by Yida Gao in 2021, investing in disruptive blockchain companies. The fund is deeply focused on taking a hands-on approach and working closely with its portfolio companies to provide the most sweat equity per dollar invested. As teams in Web3 push the frontier of innovation, Shima helps hire talent, build community, amplify narratives, and foster the acceleration of technical research and development. Shima is composed of seasoned investors, accomplished operators, and former founders who align on a mission to support all-star teams with building and scaling generational companies. For more information, visit https://shima.capital/.

Contact:

***@shima.capital

Photo(s):

https://www.prlog.org/12977552

Press release distributed by PRLog

SOURCE Shima Capital
The fate of millions of people in Africa, Asia and other parts of the world directly depends on how quickly the Ukrainian peace formula is implemented. Ukraine's victory over the aggressor and a just and fair end to the war will benefit everyone, as it will restore calm to international relations and stability to global security.

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This was stated by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy in his evening video address. He explained the importance of the summit in Saudi Arabia.

The Head of State reminded that tomorrow, 5 August, a meeting of advisers to the heads of state and representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Ukraine's peace formula would begin in the "economic capital" of Saudi Arabia, Jeddah.

"It is very important that the world sees that a just and fair end to Russian aggression will benefit everyone in the world. The liberation of Ukrainian land from the occupiers means restoring full respect for international law and the UN Charter. Elimination of all threats to Ukrainian and global security created by Russia is the return of calm to international relations and stability to global life," the President said.

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Zelenskyy thanked Saudi Arabia for providing a platform for the talks.

"Recently, a meeting in the same format was held in Copenhagen. We are moving step by step towards the Global Peace Summit," the President stressed.

He also thanked international leaders for their support.

"I am grateful to everyone who supports the Peace Formula and has already joined joint efforts to fully implement the Formula," Zelenskyy said.

As reported by OBOZREVATEL:

On 5-6 August, peace talks on Ukraine will be held in Saudi Arabia, with the participation of Ukraine, Western countries and key developing countries, including India and Brazil. The aim of the meeting is to strengthen international support for Ukraine's demands for peace.

Representatives of leading countries will discuss Ukraine's security without the Kremlin at the summit. The main goal is to try to bring the positions of neutral, non-Western countries closer to the Ukrainian peace plan.

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The US supported a peace summit without Russia in Saudi Arabia and stressed that Ukraine should play a leading role in any potential diplomatic solution to the war. The State Department said that representatives of the US government would attend the summit.

Only verified information is available on our Obozrevatel Telegram channel, Threads and Viber. Don't fall for fakes!
Kalaburagi : , Aug 3 (IANS) Karnataka Congress MLA and senior leader Basavaraj Rayareddy, who stirred a controversy by saying that Siddaramaiah went on to become the Chief Minister twice after joining the Congress, has clarified that he only meant to say that "luck is more important than the experience or seniority in politics".

Earlier on Thursday, Rayareddy said, "Look at our Siddaramaiah, he joined Congress and became Chief Minister twice. What would the senior leaders in Congress think of this man's luck? People like L.K. Advani built the BJP, but then Narendra Modi came and became the Prime Minister."

He had made the remarks in a public meeting in Kukanur town of Koppal district on Wednesday.

Reacting to the controversy over his remarks, the Karnataka Congress MLA said that in the public meeting one of the workers asked him why he is not a Minister even as he is a senior politician.

"I told him that in politics there is no question of senior or junior. Late L.K. Advani built the BJP and Narendra Modi went to become the Prime Minister," he reiterated.

"I was a cabinet Minister during former Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai's father S.R. Bommai. Basavaraj Bommai went to become Chief Minister before me. Likewise, Siddaramaiah came from JD (S) and became the Chief Minister. Referring to these developments, I have said that in politics, more than seniority, luck is important," Rayareddy added.

The Congress MLA demanded that there should be a coordination committee between the Ministers and legislators.

"This is not wrong. Chief Minister is the leader of the Legislature Party. He should conduct district-wise meetings twice in a month. This will help to discuss problems of the constituency and district."

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has agreed to conduct district-wise meetings, he said, adding that it is not that cabinet ministers are wrong but a few of them are not taking party MLAs into confidence.

"Congress MLA B.R. Patil had prepared a letter addressed to the Chief Minister and I had signed it," he said.

"The Minister's performance should be evaluated once in a year. It has to be observed who is doing a good job. Like how IAS officers work is evaluated, Ministers' work should also be reviewed," he added.

Such statements have again stirred controversy and said that all is not well within the ruling Congress government in Karnataka.
United Nations, Aug 4 : To fight the global threats of food shortages and famine, India has declared that it is committed to leveraging its presidency of the G20 to depoliticise global food supplies.

Speaking on Thursday at the Security Council, India's Permanent Representative to UN Ruchira Kamboj quoted Prime Minister Narendra Modi's statement that India's presidency of the G20 is committed "to depoliticising the global supply of food, fertilisers and medical products so that geopolitical tensions do not lead to planetary crisis".

Leading the G20, India has advocated for greater efforts to accelerate the achievement of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, especially the one calling for 'Zero Hunger', Kamboj said during the Council meeting presided over US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on famine and conflict-induced global food insecurity.

"As far as India is concerned, we are fully committed to playing our part in addressing contemporary challenges," she added.

India offered a discreet criticism of Russia for dumping the UN-sponsored agreement that allowed Ukraine to export foodgrains through Black Sea ports.

Without naming Russia, Kamboj said, "Recent developments in this matter have not helped insecurity, the larger cause of peace and stability."

"India supports the efforts of the UN Secretary-General (Antonio Guterres) in continuing the Black Sea Green Initiative and hopes for early resolution on to the present impasse," she added.

To meet the global food crisis threat, she said, "We must work together to find common solutions through dialogue and diplomacy" and "choosing peace, cooperation and multilateralism is essential for building our collective future, strengthening the international architecture and governance systems to protect the global order".

"Addressing the growing food shortages requires us to go beyond current extremes," she added.

Guided by the ethos of 'Vasudaiva Kutumbakam', India sees the world as one interconnected family motivating to help countries in distress, India's Permanent Representative said.

Even during the Covid pandemic, India worked proactively to strengthen food security by providing thousands of tonne of wheat, rice, pulses and lentils to several countries in the neighbourhood and in Africa, Kamboj added.

With its policy of "Neighbourhood First", India has provided food aid to Sri Lanka and Afghanistan in recent time, she said.

The representative of the Order of Malta, a Catholic charitable organisation that has permanent observer status and was invited to address the Council, Paul Beresford-Hill, recalled the humanitarian crisis in Bangladesh between 1970 and 1974 when, he said, nearly two million people died due to starvation and malnutrition, and warned that it could be repeated.

A colony of Pakistan in 1970, Bangladesh was hit by a devastating cyclone and it was followed by a violent crackdown by Islamabad's military on the independence movement from which it took years to recover.

It illustrates "how environmental and man-made factors can combine to have significant repercussions to the civilian population" and the "collapse of the Black Sea initiative raises concerns about the potential for a similar humanitarian disaster, particularly in vulnerable parts of Africa," he added.

(Arul Louis can be contacted at arul.l@ians.in and followed at @arulouis)

-- Except for the title, this story has not been edited by Prokerala team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed
China's central bank pledges further support for private enterprises

Xinhua) 08:15, August 04, 2023

Photo taken on Oct. 19, 2020 shows an exterior view of the People's Bank of China in Beijing, capital of China. (Xinhua/Peng Ziyang)

BEIJING, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- The People's Bank of China (PBOC), the central bank, has pledged to increase financial support for the country's private enterprises.

The PBOC will strengthen coordination between financial, fiscal and industrial policies, and will guide more financial resources into the private economy, said Pan Gongsheng, the bank's governor, at a symposium Thursday on enhancing financial support for private enterprises.

The financial sector is obliged to support the development of private enterprises, as the private economy is an important outcome of the development of the socialist market economy, as well as a key force for promoting economic and social development, Pan said.

Pan said the scale of instruments to support private enterprises in debt financing will be expanded, and work will be done to strengthen the financial market's support for private enterprises.

He called on financial institutions to create a favorable environment for the development of private enterprises, enhance their willingness, capacity and sustainability in terms of taking loans, and provide them with reliable, efficient and convenient financial services.

Pan also pledged to precisely implement differentiated housing credit policies, meet the reasonable financing needs of private real estate enterprises and promote the sound development of the real estate sector.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
Within the framework of the Great Return program, Azerbaijan continues to implement large-scale infrastructure projects, build smart villages and smart cities, as well as the return of residents to their homelands after 30 years of occupation. After the Second Karabakh War, the great victory of the Azerbaijani army under the leadership of Commander-in-Chief President Ilham Aliyev healed the pain that once Azerbaijan's internally displaced people have gone through.

However, the provocations of Armenian separatist "leaders" are still going on, both globally and regionally, which serve for interest of their patrons.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, in a recent interview with Euronews, made it clear that Azerbaijan is interested in peace with Armenia, and Armenian minority in Garabagh is offered the chance to accept Azerbaijani citizenship and live in peace, or return to Yerevan and continue to nurture their revenge.

"The President of Azerbaijan has made it clear that it matters to Azerbaijan who the mediator is, but it is not fundamentally important, as Azerbaijan has its own agenda and goals, and whichever mediator satisfies the Azerbaijani agenda, through this mediation a peace treaty will be reached," Azerbaijani political analyst Farhad Mammadov said in a comment for AZERNEWS.

The expert noted that the topic of the peace treaty was not a priority for either Russian or Western mediation. According to him, the parties tried to prioritize the Garabagh issue in the old way using the OSCE Minsk Group and Madrid Principles, while Azerbaijan insisted on the priority of the peace treaty, namely inter-state relations".

The political analyst also touched on President Aliyev's message addressed to the Armenian society, concerning the reality that the Armenian society in Garabagh has the only choices to make - either to continue the struggle, but on the territory of Armenia, or to continue living in Garabagh, as citizens of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

According to the expert, the Armenian minority living in Garabagh is in a confused state. Because the OSCE Minsk Group, which led the peace process for 30 years, and its co-chairs, representatives of the European Union, as well as a number of institutions, are now instructing Armenia to recognize the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

Even they turn their faces to them and ask: 'why didn't you punish us if we made a mistake all this time, on the contrary, you always supported us?'

Yes, indeed, after 30 years, Azerbaijan breaks this stereotyped ring, and as a result, the anger of Armenians is directed towards both the West and the members within that organisation that misled them over the time.

"Of course, it is not our problem that the Armenian society has this opinion. Even Azerbaijan has not much expectation from them. It would be good if they make a more rational decision and change their position on the positive trend. But unfortunately, when following the latest developments, no positive situation is observed, on the contrary, we still hear some groundless allegations from Khankandi. Such provocative actions, of course, affects the peace process and aggravates the relations," Mammadov said.

In his comment, Farhad Mammadov also mentioned the ICRC's co-operation with Armenians against Azerbaijan. He emphasized that the committee acts in accordance with the full requirements of the Armenian side, especially in smuggling and other activities, and also drew attention to President Ilham Aliyev's criticism on subordination of the ICRC office in Azerbaijan's Khankendi to Yerevan.

"On the subject of ICRC, President Ilham Aliyev noted the clear position of the Republic of Azerbaijan based on the principles of international law and norms, this vicious practice of subordinating the office in Garabagh to the Yerevan office is completely illogical, there should be either parallel subordination, for a certain period of time, until the reintegration process goes to an extent that the Armenian minority living in Garabagh will go to Azerbaijan, to the same hospitals, schools, etc., or full subordination to the Baku office, so that everything is regulated for Azerbaijan, as the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan should not, in any case, be challenged by such bureaucratic regimes," the expert added.
Egypt has welcomed the Australian government announcement that Canberra would officially resume using the term Occupied Palestinian Territories when referring to East Jerusalem and other land occupied by Israel in 1967 and the term illegal when referring to Israeli settlements.
Jaipur, Aug 4 : Former Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje has said that amid reports of 20 rapes on an average each day, the incident of an innocent girl being gang raped and burnt alive in a furnace in Narsinghpura village of Bhilwara district has once again proved that Rajasthan has become the most unsafe state for women.

Raje asked that for how long will current Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot hide such incidents under the guise of statistics?

"Everyday their (Congress government) shamelessness is being recorded in the statistics of their achievements full of failures due to which the image of Rajasthan is getting tarnished continuously," the former Chief Minister said.

aChief Minister, follow morality. Save the dignity of sisters and daughters. Get them justice. Now, even words are falling short to express grief over the increasing crimes against women," she added.
5 cops acquitted after 37 yrs in an illegal levy case in Bihar's Bhagalpur. Image Source: IANS News

Patna, Aug 4 : A special vigilance court in Bihar's Bhagalpur has acquitted five police personnel in connection with a case of illegal levy of two rupees after 37 years.

The alleged police personnel are identified as Ramratan Sharma, Kailash Sharma, Gyani Shankar, Yugeshwar Mahto and Ram Balak Rai.

The court acquitted all the alleged police officers citing a lack of evidence.

The alleged police personnel were deployed at the Lakho police post in Begusarai district. They have made a checkpost and were allegedly taking illegal levy from truck drivers to the tune of Rs 2 from every truck.

When the former Superintendent of Police Arvind Verma learnt about the illegal levy at the checkpost, he visited there on June 10, 1986, and gave a Rs 2 note to a truck driver.

The Rs 2 note has a signature of SP Verma which the driver had given to the police personnel at the checkpost.

The money was received by Ramratan Verma.

After giving the levy, the driver informed SP Verma who immediately raided there.

The police team of Verma searched the pockets of every police personnel and found Rs 8, including that signed Rs 2 note from the pocket of Raratan Verma.

Besides him, a total of Rs 354.50 recovered from all five police personnel.

An FIR was registered against them and they were taken into custody.

The alleged police personnel soon got bail and resumed their duties.
Gurugram, Aug 4 : One labourer died and two others were injured in Gurugram after shuttering of an under-construction underpass collapsed, police said.

The incident took place at around 5 p.m. on Thursday near the Dhanwapur village railway crossing in Gurugram.

It is being said that eight workers were buried under the shuttering, of which one has died and two suffered injuries.

The deceased was identified as 21-year-old Guddu. All eight workers are residents of Sambhal and Badaun in Uttar Pradesh.

The workers were pulled out by a crane on the spot. Both the injured have been sent to the hospital for treatment.

Irked workers created ruckus on the spot for several hours by accusing the contractor of alleged negligence.

"It seems that the shuttering to support entry was weak which caused the incident. We are probing the matter to ascertain the actual reason behind the mishap," Pradeep Kumar, Station House Officer of Rajendra Park police station, said.
Congo : At least six people were killed in a suicide bomb explosion late Saturday, in the middle of Christmas celebration, in the northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. (Photo by Produced by Xinhua Global Service). Image Source: IANS News

United Nations, Aug 4 : UN humanitarians and partners have appealed for $1.57 billion to help 5.5 million people in three violence-wracked eastern provinces of Congo.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Thursday that halfway through this year, the $2.3-billion 2023 humanitarian response plan for Congo is only one-third funded.

OCHA added that more than 3.3 million people have been internally displaced since March, bringing the total number of internally displaced in Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu provinces to a staggering 5.6 million, Xinhua news agency reported.

The humanitarian office said the number of civilian protection incidents reported, particularly gender-based violence cases, was an alarming 33,000 cases in the first quarter of the year, surpassing the number of cases reported in all of 2022.

"The funds will focus on providing food assistance, nutrition, protection and support for victims of gender-based violence," OCHA added.

"The funds will also go toward addressing epidemics in these three provinces until the end of the year."

The office said humanitarian organisations have already strengthened their operations and response, reaching more than 900,000 people with emergency assistance.

The eastern Congo has been a target for raids by various rebel groups, some allegedly from neighbouring countries.
Seoul, Aug 4 : At least 14 people were injured, including two in critical condition, during a stabbing spree at a department store in Bundang, south of Seoul, authorities said on Friday.

On Thursday evening, the suspect identified as Choi, rammed a vehicle into pedestrians outside of the store and then attacked shoppers with a knife inside the establishment, which is connected to the nearby Seohyeon Station and draws many commuters and shoppers, reports Yonhap News Agency.

Of the total injured persons, nine were wounded in the stabbing attack and five in the car crash.

Police quickly apprehended the suspect, and a rapid drug test conducted on him was negative.

According to fire authorities, two of those wounded were being treated at an intensive care unit as of 6 a.m. on Friday and were in critical condition, which could lead to brain death.

A woman in her 20s was taken to a hospital in an unconscious state, and another woman in her 60s was in a state of cardiac arrest after the car crash, with both at risk of brain damage, according to officials.

Among the three others hurt from the car crash, two sustained severe injuries in the knee and head, respectively, while another victim received treatment on site with a slight wound.

The nine stabbed victims suffered knife wounds in the abdomen, side and back, but three of them are no longer in life-threatening conditions after going through surgery.

Conditions of five others were not immediately known.

One person was treated with a minor lacerated wound in the elbow.

Police plan to conduct another round of questioning of Choi on Friday to determine the exact motive of his crime and seek an arrest warrant for him.

Authorities will also look into the history of his mental illness and treatment.
A visitor poses for a photo with Microsoft's at Microsoft's corporate headquarters in Redmond, Washington State, the United States, Sept 19, 2015 (Xinhua/Yang Lei/IANS). Image Source: IANS News

San Francisco, Aug 4 : Microsoft has denied reports that revealed the potential Xbox ban exploit.

Recently, several YouTubers expressed concerns about the potential Xbox ban exploit, which involves the use of third-party tools to get accounts banned, reports The Verge.

However, Kim Kunes, Xbox GM of trust and safety, has reassured that such third-party apps or tools cannot impact "player enforcements."

"Third party apps or tools cannot impact player enforcements, and no volume of inaccurate reports result in an enforcement," Kunes said in a statement to The Verge.

"Only reports that have been reviewed by the Xbox Safety Team and determined to be accurate and in violation of our Community Standards result in an enforcement action such as suspension or an account ban."

In July, the tech giant had confirmed that it will replace the 'Xbox Live Gold' subscription with the 'Xbox Game Pass Core' plan on September 14.

The new Game Pass Core will cost the same as the Live Gold subscription, which means that users have to pay Rs 349 per month to subscribe to the plan.

Moreover, existing Xbox Live Gold members will automatically get Game Pass Core when it arrives.

The company also announced that it will "end" the 'Xbox Game Pass Friends & Family' preview program on August 15.

Starting August 15, the tech giant will send Xbox Game Pass Ultimate codes as a thank-you for participating in the preview program to both Primary and Secondary members.

This preview program allows users to add up to four friends and family members, whether they live under the same roof or not.

Each person uses their own account and Xbox profile to save their games, track their achievements and receive personalised recommendations.

--IANS

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Stockholm, Aug 4 : More than 50 people were injured as violent clashes broke out at an Eritrean cultural festival in the Swedish capital of Stockholm with at least 100 detained, according to local authorities.

Fifteen of the injured have been taken to hospital, including eight in serious condition, Swedish broadcaster SVT reported, citing Region Stockholm, the healthcare and public transport authority in Stockholm County.

Three police officers were also injured, Xinhua news agency quoted SVT as saying.

Around 1,000 anti-Eritrean government protesters on Thursday stormed the festival event and threw stones at police officers, according to local media.

The Eritrea-themed festival is an annual event held since the 1990s to mark the cultural heritage of the African country, which gained independence from Ethiopia three decades ago.

Yet it has been criticised for gathering people who support the Eritrean administration.

At present, tens of thousands of people of Eritrean origin are reportedly living in Sweden.

Police said that an investigation has been launched into violent riots, arson, and sabotaging of emergency services, and that they remained at the scene in a suburb northwest of Stockholm.
Baltal: Pilgrims at Railpathri on their way to the holy cave shrine of Amarnath. Image Source: IANS News

Srinagar, Aug 4 : Pilgrims continued to perform the ongoing Amarnath Yatra as another batch of 1,181 Yatris left Jammu for Kashmir on Friday.

Officials said the Yatra was continuing smoothly even though a comparatively lesser number of pilgrim arrivals have been reported during the last few days.

So far, more than four lakh have performed this year's Amarnath Yatra which started on July 1.

"Of these 1,181 Yatris who left Bhagwati Nagar Yatri Niwas today in an escorted convoy for the Valley, 897 are male, 233 female, 10 children, 35 Sadhus and six Sadhvis", officials said.

Since it started on July 1, six pilgrims have lost their lives.

Pilgrims approach the Himalayan cave shrine either from the traditional south Kashmir Pahalgam route, which involves an uphill trek of 43 kilometres from Pahalgam base camp or from the north Kashmir Baltal base camp, which involves 14 Km uphill trek.

Those using the traditional Pahalgam route take 3-4 days to reach the cave shrine while those using the Baltal route return to the base camp the same day after having 'darshan' inside the cave shrine situated 3888 metres above the sea-level.

Helicopter services are also available for Yatris on both routes.

The cave shrine houses an ice stalagmite structure that devotees believe symbolises mythical powers of Lord Shiva.

The ice stalagmite structure wanes and waxes with the phases of the moon.

This year's 62-day long Amarnath Yatra started on July 1 and will end on August 31 on Shravan Purnima coinciding with Raksha Bandhan festival.

To protect the pilgrims from high altitude sickness, authorities have banned all junk food at the free community kitchens called the 'langars' that have been set up along both the routes of the Yatra.

The banned items include all bottled drinks, halwai items, fried foods and tobacco based products.
London, Aug 4 : The University of Cambridge has created the first ever visiting fellowship into the study of indentureship, under which a record number of Indians were transported to labour in harsh conditions in British colonies.

Following the abolition of slavery across the British Empire in 1834, Indians travelled from India to the Caribbean, South Africa, Mauritius and Fiji to work on sugar plantations between 1838 and 1917.

While many of them returned home, several thousands remained in those countries, forming the Indian community abroad.

In a bid to understand their lives, the University of Cambridge's Selwyn College has appointed Guyana-born professor Gaiutra Bahadur as the Ramesh and Leela Narain visiting bye-fellow in Indentureship Studies.

A bye-fellow is a position in academia and post-secondary education at several British and Commonwealth universities for a Fellow who is not a member of the foundation of a college.

"I am honoured and delighted to be the inaugural visiting bye-fellow in indentureship studies," said Bahadur, an associate professor in the department of arts, culture and media at Rutgers University in Newark.

"When I first began doing research in this area, the funding just wasn't there, so it was in many ways a labour of love. That's why I'm so happy to see there's now visibility and funding like this to help future researchers," Bahadur said in a university statement.

Bahadur is the author of 'Coolie Woman: The Odyssey of Indenture', which was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize, and is a major study of the lives of Indian women who became indentured labourers to colonial plantations in the nineteenth century.

For the fellowship, Selwyn College has collaborated with the London-based Ameena Gafoor Institute in setting up the programme which allows a scholar to spend eight weeks at the University, conducting research.

The programme will run for an initial five years.

Professor David Dabydeen, director of Ameena Gafoor Institute, said that the "valuable" study and documentation of indentureship has barely been included in the history syllabi of British and European Universities.

According to him, this is a "staggering omission" considering the millions of individuals, and indeed entire cultures, irrevocably shaped by indentureship and its legacies.

"That is why this fellowship, and hopefully eventually establishing a professorship, is so important. Cambridge has created an academic subject, bringing it from the margins to the very centre," Dabydeen said.

The study of indentureship and its legacies was one of the recommendations made in the report of the Legacies of Enslavement at Cambridge Advisory Group.

The University said in a statement that it hopes that enough funding will eventually be raised to establish a permanent professorship in the subject, based at the University.

--IANS

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New Delhi, August 4 : FPIs have been continuous sellers in the last six trading sessions with a cumulative sell figure of Rs 7,990 crore, says V.K. Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

In the two-day correction in the market, Nifty has lost 350 points. More importantly, higher corrections have happened in the large-caps with the broader market holding on, he said.

With the 10-year US bond yield spiking to 4.16 per cent, the FPIs may continue to sell or at least refrain from buying aggressively. The positive factor is that the DIIs are buying aggressively more than compensating for FPI selling, he said.

During the last six sessions, DIIs have bought stocks for around Rs 9,000 crore.

Investors may take cues from Warren Buffet's response to the Fitch downgrade that, " There are some things that people should not be worried. This is one".

This is the time to nibble at high quality large-caps, particularly in banking, capital goods, construction and autos, he added.

BSE Sensex is up 252 points in Friday trade at 65493 points. IT stocks are leading the gains with Wipro up more than 2 per cent, Tech Mahindra, HCL Tech, TCS are all up more than 1 per cent.
The Suez Canal Authority (SCA) announced on Tuesday the successful recovery of the sunken tugboat Fahd, while ensuring navigation operations remained unaffected by the recovery efforts.
Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 4 : Poll strategist Sunil Kanugolu and his team are likely to help the Congress party in Kerala in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, sources have said.

The sources said that this was discussed during the brainstorming session in Delhi by the top Congress brass, both national and Kerala leaders.

In the 2019 general elections the Congress-led UDF had won 19 of the 20 Lok Sabha seats in Kerala.

Sources in the party said that at the meeting Rahul Gandhi asked all the party leaders to ensure that there is unity in the party and nothing should be created to spoil the peace in the party.

One reason why Gandhi was specific about unity is that the party in Kerala has been riddled with factions.

party general secretary K.C. Venugopal, who is also the Organizational secretary, told the meeting that with the second term of the Pinarayi Vijayan governmentas popularity is at its worst, the party is in a position to win all the 20 seats and all should strive towards that.

Itas reliably learned that Kanugolu and his team is expected to visit Kerala shortly for a preliminary study to chart out the strategies that should be exercised while campaigning and for that he will have to do a complete study on the performance of the Vijayan government.

Incidentally even though the Congress-led UDF won 19 out of the 20 Lok Sabha seats, midway the Kerala Congress (Mani), the erstwhile ally of the UDF, moved over to the ruling Left Front.

The Congress party in the past contested in 17 seats, the Indian Union Muslim League in two and the Kerala Congress (Mani) in one seat.

Now all eyes are on if the IUML gets one more seat, likewise the faction of the Kerala Congress (Mani), which remained with the UDF under veteran legislator P.J.Joseph, has already send feelers they should be given one seat.

Even though itas early days, Rahul Gandhi informed the meeting that the party is placing high hopes on Kerala and all leaders should ensure to put in their best.
Nehas initiative to bring forth conversation on breastfeeding with Bipasha, Soha and Dia. Image Source: IANS News

Mumbai, Aug 4 : Actress and mother Neha Dhupia is set to make a significant impact with her inspiring initiative 'Freedom To Feed', aiming to break the stigma around breastfeeding. Joining her will be actresses and mothers Bipasha Basu, Soha Ali Khan and Dia Mirza.

"As a mother of two wonderful kids, Guriq and Mehr, I have personally experienced the challenges and joys of breastfeeding. It's an incredibly empowering journey, but it's also essential to recognise that every mother's journey is unique and should be celebrated without judgement or shame," Neha said.

She added: "Through my initiative, 'Freedom To Feed,' I aim to shed light on this crucial aspect of motherhood and break the barriers that prevent mothers from openly embracing this natural process. This cause is incredibly close to my heart, and I am determined to educate, dispelling the myths, and fostering a more supportive and inclusive environment for all mothers".

In honour of Breastfeeding Awareness Week (first week of August) and Breastfeeding Awareness Month (August), Neha is spearheading a series of initiatives under 'Freedom To Feed' to promote education, support, and empowerment for mothers.

The initiative, which started as an idea to normalise breastfeeding, has turned into a strong community of over 55,000 mothers, parents, experts. The initiative has become a voice for topics beyond including the topics of parenting, Co parenting and other such children led issues and topics.

As a devoted mother to two wonderful kids, Guriq and Mehr, Neha Dhupia intimately understands the challenges and joys of motherhood.

Through the power of social media, Neha will be hosting live sessions with prominent celebrity mothers, including Bipasha Basu, Gauhar Khan, Masoom Minawala, and Dia Mirza.

These live discussions will shed light on their personal breastfeeding journeys, sharing insights, and addressing common misconceptions related to nursing. Neha has receoved support from people like Kalki Koechlin, Kajal Aggarwal, Surveen Chawla, Neeti Mohan and others.

Moreover, 'Freedom To Feed' will reach beyond the virtual realm as Neha Dhupia plans to host an in-person conversation on August 7.

This event will feature renowned personalities such as Soha Ali Khan and Geeta Phogat.
London, Aug 4 : A group of 20 Indian crew members, onboard a cargo ship off the Dutch coast that had caught fire last week, has been successfully rescued and returned home.

"20 Indian crew rescued from ship Fremantle Highway have safely returned to India over the past week. Thank Dutch authorities for their support & assistance as well as our sailors for their fortitude & courage through this difficult time," the Indian Embassy in the Netherlands tweeted on Thursday.

An Indian died and several others jumped off to save themselves from the fire that erupted late on July 25 on the 199-metre Panama-registered Fremantle Highway as it was en route from Germany to Egypt.

The Embassy said that the "mortal remains of one crew member who unfortunately passed away are being repatriated".

The embassy had earlier said that all possible assistance, including medical attention, was being extended to the Indian sailors in coordination with the Dutch authorities and the shipping company.

According to the BBC, the ship, carrying almost 4,000 cars in the North Sea, has been towed into port in the north-east of the Netherlands.

The Dutch coast guard stressed the cause of the fire on the 11-deck ship was unknown but an audio recording of one rescue worker said it had started in the battery of an electric vehicle and "it appears an electric vehicle exploded too".

The fire started on an upper deck and while four of the ship's decks were relatively undamaged in the hull, the eighth deck had partly collapsed because of the intensity of the fire, the BBC said quoting salvage experts.

For almost a week the fire burned aboard the ship, raising fears of an environmental disaster in the waters of the Wadden Sea, a World Heritage site.

--IANS

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Madrid, Aug 4 : Members of the Catalan regional police force (Mossos d'Esquadra) arrested two men in Spain after a Russian family reported a robbery with value over 8 million euros.

On Thursday, the Mossos d'Esquadra confirmed that the robbery took place on Wednesday evening close to the city of Girona as the family of Russian tourists were waiting in the check-in area at Terminal 1 at Barcelona's El Prat airport, reports Xinhua news agency.

According to the police, the suspected thieves made off with a Louis Vuitton designer handbag containing a haul of jewelry and high-value watches belonging to the family, which in terms of value is thought to be the biggest robbery of its kind in Spain.

Among the items in the handbag were a golden ring weighing 47 carats, which is estimated worth over $5 million, and 20,000 euros in cash.

The family immediately notified the Mossos of the robbery and quickly identified the 41 and 54-year-old thieves after scanning footage from security cameras.

The police also discovered the type of car the thieves were travelling in, its registration and the direction it took upon leaving the airport.

That allowed the police to block their attempted escape, make the arrests and recover the bag and its contents within a couple of hours after the robbery.
New Delhi, Aug 4 : Apple has crossed 1 billion paid subscriptions across the services on its platform, up 150 million during the last 12 months and nearly double the number of paid subscriptions it had only 3 years ago.

According to the iPhone maker, its installed base of over 2 billion active devices continues to grow at a nice pace and establishes a solid foundation for the future expansion of its ecosystem.

"We see increased customer engagement with our services. Both our transacting accounts and paid accounts grew double digits year-over-year, each reaching a new all-time high. Our paid subscriptions showed strong growth," said Luca Maestri, Apple's CFO, during the company's June quarter earnings call.

"From 20 new games on Apple Arcade, to brand-new content on Apple TV+, to the launch of our high-yield savings account with Apple Card, our customers are loving these enhanced offerings," he added.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said that the company logged all-time revenue record in Services driven by more than $1 billion paid subscriptions.

He said that the company is pleased to share the revolutionary Apple Vision Pro with the world, a bold new product unlike anything else created before.

"Apple Vision Pro is a marvel of engineering, built on decades of innovation only possible at Apple. It is the most advanced personal electronic device ever created, and we've been thrilled by the reaction from press, analysts, developers and content creators who've had the chance to try it. We can't wait to get it into customers' hands early next year," he told the analysts.

Priced at $3,499, the Mixed Reality (MR) headset will be available early next year, beginning with the US.

In the June quarter, iPhone revenue came in at $39.7 billion for the quarter, down 2 per cent from the year ago quarter's record performance.

In Mac business, Apple recorded $6.8 billion in revenue while for iPads, the revenue was $5.8 billion. Across wearables, home and accessories, revenue was $8.3 billion.

During the quarter, Apple returned over $24 billion to shareholders, including $3.8 billion in dividends and equivalents and $18 billion through open market

repurchases of 103 million Apple shares.

--IANS

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New Delhi : MPs at Parliament House during the Monsoon Session. Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi, Aug 4 : Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Anurag Thakur on Friday launched a fresh attack on the Opposition over the Manipur issue, accusing it of running away from a discussion.

"A discussion on Manipur should have happened on the first day (of Parliament session). But, the Opposition is running away from it," Thakur told reporters here.

"So far what the Opposition has done is only to 'mislead' the country. The Opposition leaders should not mislead the country. They should leave their arrogance and take part in discussions in the House."

The Opposition, which is being spearhead by the Congress, has been demanding a statement by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Parliament regarding the violence in the northeastern state.

But the ruling BJP has been accusing the Opposition of politicising the issue.

On Friday morning, AAP MP Raghav Chadha and RJD MP Manoj Kumar Jha gave suspension of business notice in the Rajya Sabha over the Manipur situation.

Ethnic clashes erupted in Manipur on May 3 and since then hundreds of people have lost their lives whereas thousands have been forced to take refuge in the relief camps.
Bengaluru, Aug 4 : Following his return from a trip to Europe, former Karnataka Chief Minister and JD (S) leader, H.D. Kumaraswamy on Friday attacked the ruling Congress government in the state over fixing commissions for contractors.

"The contractors are being told to shell out commissions for Ministers. I got the tip off during my tour of Europe. The contractors are asked to shell out commission in Bengaluru. The ministers and their stooges are asking for the commission from contractors," Kumarswamy told reported following his return late Thursday night.

Levelling a serious allegation, Kumaraswamy said that "officers of the Bengaluru Development Authority (BDA) have been told to collect Rs 250 crore. They have been also told on how to reach the money to New Delhi as well. The officers in BDA have shared this information with me".

The Congress alleged 40 per cent commission charges against the previous BJP government and launched big agitations in the state. It was also projected as the main issue in the elections along with guarantee schemes.

"These persons are discussing corruption with Rahul Gandhi. At the outset, they talk about eradication of corruption. However, the Congress party which has been ruling the country since independence, is always for minting public money.

"The East India Company exited from India after giving power to the Congress party. The Congress has continued the tradition of looting money like the East India Company in the country. I will not release the pen drive now. Let people know about it," he stated.

Kumaraswamy had announced that possesses a pen drive containing the conversation of a prominent minister in the Karnataka government asking Rs 10 crore for a transfer.

The JD(S) had maintained that the pen drive will be released at an appropriate time.

Referring to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah indirectly, he charged that the big person who claims to have presented 14 budgets in Karnataka, why did he present a deficit budget?

"They have raised Rs 86,000 loans, on the other hand they are claiming that Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000 crore would be collected by increasing the taxes. And, after all this they are claiming that there is no money for development.

"When I was the Chief Minister for 14 months, Rs 25,000 crore was allotted towards waiving loans of farmers. Along with this, I ensured that no development programme was halted. The Congress leaders repeatedly blamed me that since I did not meet MLAs, the coalition government of Congress and JD (S) collapsed.

"What is happening now? Why did 35 MLAs write a letter to the CM? There was an additional tax collection last year. There is no dearth of money here, just the drama that was created," Kumaraswamy added.
Hyderabad: Telangana Assembly Speaker Pocharam Srinivas Reddy has announced that a COVID-19 test is mandatory for all MLAs and staff and only those who test negative will be allowed to attend the monsoon session of the state Assembly beginning from S. Image Source: IANS News

Hyderabad, Aug 4 : Tension prevailed near Telangana Assembly building when Congress workers on Friday tried to lay siege demanding compensation for flood victims.

The protesters holding placards and raising slogans were stopped by police as they managed to reach close to the building. Police arrested the protesters and shifted them to a nearby police station.

The protesters were demanding that the state government pay Rs 50 lakh compensation each to the families of those killed in recent floods. They also demanded Rs 20 lakh compensation each for those whose houses were damaged.

More than 40 people were killed in the recent heavy rain and floods, which wreaked havoc in the north Telangana region.

The Congress party workers tried to lay siege to the Assembly for a second consecutive day. Youth Congress workers had staged a protest on Thursday, demanding the government to fill vacancies in all the departments and also pay allowance to the unemployed as was promised by the state government.

Meanwhile, Auxiliary Nurse Midwives (ANMs) also tried to lay siege to the Assembly building. They were also arrested by police.

ANMs were also taken into preventive custody in different parts of the state. Several second ANMs were taken into custody in undivided Nalgonda district.

ANMs are demanding regularization of their services. They have been working on contract basis for the last 16 years.
New Delhi, Aug 4 : The Embassy of Switzerland in India has denied reports that it has suspended Schengen visa appointments for Indian tour groups until October due to high volume of applications.

"We have almost 800 daily appointments through the end of September 2023. These include 22 groups," the mission said in a statement released on Thursday.

Asserting that people-to-people contact is at the core of Swiss-Indian relationship, the Embassy said that it has processed more visa applications in the current year than it did in 2019.

"We have surpassed our pre-pandemic times processing level. From January until June, we handled 129,446 applications, as against 120,071 during the same period in 2019 -- a 7.8 per cent increase."

In addition, it said various measures have been implemented since the beginning of 2023 to further ease the visa application process for Indian applicants.

As per these measures, it would now be possible for the applicants to apply for their visa six months before their date of travel, as against one month in the past.

So, someone wishing to travel in June can already apply for a visa in January.

Further, the Embassy has increased its overall capacity in India. With a new Visa Application Centre (VAC) in Lucknow, there are now 13 VACs all over India, where applications can be submitted.

The mission also informed that at present it takes "no more than 13 working days between the appointment by our partner VFS Global and the Embassy's decision on the application".

The statement of clarification came following media reports on Tuesday which said that Indian tour operators were informed by the Swiss embassy to reschedule group trips to allow ample time for visa processing.

aSwiss embassies are currently dealing with a lack of staff," several media reports had said, citing Simon Bosshart, Head of Markets East at Switzerland Tourism.

A Schengen visa is a short-stay visa granting individuals an opportunity to travel to any member country within the Schengen Area for tourism or business purposes for up to 90 days.

One Schengen visa application costs 80 euros or Rs 7,260 in India.

India had the second-highest number of Schengen visa rejections worldwide in 2022, leading to an estimated loss of Rs 87 crore on canceled trips, according to SchengenVisaInfo.com.

Indians spent a total of over Rs 487 crore on Schengen visa applications alone, for 6,71,928 applications in 2022.

Out of Rs 487 crore, more than Rs 87 crore was lost on the 1,21,188 visa applications that were rejected.

--IANS

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Jalgaon : , Aug 4 (IANS) An 8-year-old girl was allegedly raped, murdered and then dumped into a barn by a 19-year-old neighbourhood boy, officials said here on Friday.

The incident -- which took place on July 30 -- came to light this week and hundreds of shocked citizens on Friday trooped out in a silent procession in protest against the crime.

Taking strong note of the incident, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde called up the victim girl's family and consoled them while assuring that the culprit would not be spared.

Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, making a statement in the Assembly this morning said that the accused -- Swapnil V. Patil, alias Sonya, of Gondgaon village -- has been arrested and he would be liable for stringent punishment.

According to Police, on July 30 afternoon, the girl was alone at her home when the accused lured her to a nearby shed reportedly owned by him.

Taking advantage of the situation, Swapnil allegedly forced himself upon her ignoring her cries, protests and threats to "inform her family".

Panicking, he grabbed a stone nearby and smashed her at least twice on the face and head, and the profusely bleeding girl succumbed soon afterwards in the shed.

Swapnil then hid her body under a haystack there and decamped from the scene, even as her family and neighbours launched a massive search for her, and later lodged a 'missing' complaint with the Bhadgaon Police.

A couple of days later, some villagers complained of a stench emanating from the barn, and when they searched it, stumbled across the girl's decomposing body there and summoned the police.

The victim's parents identified her body and along with other villagers staged a sit-in protest demanding arrest of the culprit and strong action.

Swinging into action, police finally caught Swapnil on August 3 (Thursday) from his village, and the matter was raised in the legislature on Friday.

According to police and the government, the accused has confessed to his heinous deeds, after which he was arrested.

Besides the police, the local Crime Branch and forensic experts have launched investigation into the shocking case.
The Public Prosecution's decision to release 33 pre-trial detainees, including political activists Youssef Mansour and Ahmed Hassanein and economist Omar El-Shenety, was highly welcomed by Egyptian political parties and MPs.
Houston, Aug 4 : Two people were found dead in the southern part of the Rio Grande river bordering the US and Mexico, authorities said.

The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) has confirmed that a body was found stuck in the southern lines of the floating barriers the US state installed recently, reports Xinhua news agency.

"Preliminary information suggests this individual drowned upstream from the marine barrier and floated into the buoys. There are personnel posted at the marine barrier at all times in case any migrants try to cross," DPS Director Steven McCraw said.

A second body was discovered separately in the area of the buoys by the Beta Group of Piedras Negras, ABC News reported, citing a statement from the Mexican government.

"So far, the cause of death and nationality of the person is unknown," the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement, which repeated its condemnation of the buoys, calling them a "violation of our sovereignty", according to the ABC News report.

"We express our concern about the impact on the human rights and personal safety of migrants that these state policies will have, which go in the opposite direction to the close collaboration between our country and the federal government of the US," the Ministry reportedly said in the statement.

The identities of the two bodies remained unknown.

In the wake of the end of Title 42 in May, Republican-led Texas planned to install a floating water barrier, making up of buoys, so as to deter migrants from crossing the border in heavily trafficked areas of the river.

The first 1,000-foot stretch had been placed by July 7 in Eagle Pass, western Texas, which shares the border with the Mexican city of Piedras Negras.

In late July, the Joe Biden administration filed a lawsuit against Texas over deploying water barriers in the Rio Grande, alleging that Texas and its Republican Governor Greg Abbott violated the Rivers and Harbors Appropriation Act by building a structure in US water without permission from the Army Corps of Engineers.
Juba, Aug 4 : South Sudan's media regulator has lifted the suspension of Radio Miraya, the UN-owned radio station.

Michael Makuei Lueth, minister of Information and Communication, Technology and Postal Services, said journalists working for the UN radio service are now free to cover government activities, reports Xinhua news agency.

The radio station was shut down in March 2018 over non-compliance with local media laws.

"We are members of the UN, we will definitely abide by whatever is done in the UN but people should conform to the laws of the country in which you are operating," Makuei told journalists in Juba.

Elijah Alier Kuai, managing director of the South Sudan Media Authority, said Radio Miraya has been granted an operational license valid for one year.

Nicholas Haysom, the special representative of the Secretary-General and head of UNMISS, said the registration was done without prejudice to UN rights under the Status of Forces Agreement signed in 2011 between the government and the UN.

"The resolution is based on the registration of this radio without prejudice of UN rights under the status of forces agreement; it allows and confirms the radio frequency in compliance with domestic communication legislation," Haysom said.

He added the radio will now continue to serve the people of South Sudan better with independent, impartial and peaceful podcasts.

Deng Dau Deng, acting minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, commended the important role played by the UN radio in disseminating vital information during the referendums in 2011.
New Delhi, Aug 4 : In a big win for Rahul Gandhi, the Supreme Court on Friday stayed conviction of the former Congress President in the 'Modi surname' defamation case, which cost him his Lok Sabha membership, saying that no reasons were given by the trial judge for imposing the maximum punishment of two years in the case.

"If a constituency in Parliament goes unrepresented, is it not a relevant ground (to suspend conviction)? No whisper by the trial judge for the need to impose the maximum sentence. Not only the right of one individual is being affected, but the entire electorate of the constituency," observed a bench comprising of Justices B.R. Gavai, P.S. Narasimha, and Prashant Kumar Mishra during the hearing.

Further, the bench remarked that had Gandhi been awarded a sentence of 1 year, 11 months and 29 days, he would have been not disqualified as a Member of Parliament.

Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Gandhi, termed the conviction as "strange" while referring to many other judgements of the Supreme Court to justify that Gandhi's conviction in the case deserves to be suspended. "Everybody aggrieved is a BJP office-bearer or a karyakarta (party worker)," he said.

On the other hand, senior advocate Jethamalani, appearing for the complainant BJP MLA in the defamation case, said that Gandhi's intention was to defame every person with the surname 'Modi' just because it is the same as that of a Prime Minister.

"You (Rahul Gandhi) have defamed an entire class out of malice," he said. He also referred to the admonition awarded to Gandhi by the Supreme Court in 2019 in contempt proceedings over his remarks on the Rafale case.

The Supreme Court was hearing the plea filed by former Congress president against the Gujarat High Court's verdict refusing a stay on his conviction in the 'Modi surname' defamation case.

On July 15, the Congress leader had approached the Supreme Court challenging the Gujarat high court's order where a bench of Justice Hemant Prachchhak had observed that granting a stay on his conviction would be an exception, and not a rule.

Gandhi was disqualified as an MP in March, after a Surat court convicted him and sentenced him to two years in prison for his "How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname" remark made during an election rally in Karnataka in April 2019. Gandhi's remark was interpreted as an attempt to draw an implicit connection between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and fugitive businessmen Nirav Modi and Lalit Modi.

In March, the sessions court in Surat had dismissed Gandhi's plea seeking suspension of his conviction by the magistrate court, stating that his disqualification will not result in an irreversible loss to him. The Congress leader was disqualified under a rule that bars convicted MPs from holding the Lok Sabha membership.

According to legal experts, after the stay has been granted by the top court on Rahul Gandhi's conviction, it will be sufficient to restore his Lok Sabha membership.
Chennai, Aug 4 : The 60-year-old Tamil actor Mohan was found dead under suspicious conditions on a street in the Thiruparankundram locality in Madurai city of Tamil Nadu, sources said on Friday. Mohan shot to fame after his role of best friend of superstar Kamal Haassan in 'Apporva Sagodharangal', a massive hit in 1989.

The movie was dubbed into all prominent languages and received rave appreciation. Mohan bagged opportunities and earned a good name as a comedian and also enacted supporting roles in the movies.

Mohan, unable to get opportunities for work was pushed into deep poverty and forced to beg for livelihood. The actor allegedly used to beg on the main chariot road. He was found lying dead on the street by local people on July 31. Police were informed about it and he was found in an unrecognisable state.

Mohan, who acted in 'Naan Kaduvul' featuring Arya in the main role shifted his base to Thiruparankundram in Madurai as he couldn't get roles. His wife passed away 10 year ago and since then, he had taken to begging on the streets for livelihood, sources explained.
Mexico City, Aug 4 : A passenger bus plunged into a ravine in Mexico's Nayarit state, killing 18 people, local authorities said.

Among the dead were three minors, with 22 others injured, local media said, citing Jorge Benito Rodriguez, Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection of Nayarit, reports Xinhua news agency.

According to local reports, the bus was traveling from Mexico City to Tijuana on the border with the US.

It fell into the ravine about 50 meters deep along the north bypass of Tepic.

Rescue efforts were "extremely" complicated due to the location, said Rodriguez, adding that state police and firefighters, in coordination with the Mexican Red Cross and other agencies, were on the scene.

The cause of the accident remains unknown, he said.
New Delhi, Aug 4 : After the Supreme Court on Friday stayed the conviction of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in 'Modi surname' defamation case, the grand old party hailed the judgement saying "no force can silence the voice of the people".

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh in a tweet said, "The Supreme Court judgment is a strong vindication of truth and justice. Despite the relentless efforts of the BJPs machinery, Rahul Gandhi has refused to bend, break or bow, choosing instead to place his faith in the judicial process."

"Let this be a lesson to the BJP and its acolytes: you can do your absolute worst but we will not back down. We will continue to expose and call out your failures as a Government and as a party. We will continue to uphold our Constitutional ideals and repose faith in our institutions which you so desperately want to destroy," Ramesh added.

Congress general secretary (Organisation) K.C. Venugopal hailed the decision and in a tweet said, "We welcome the Supreme Courtas verdict staying Rahul Gandhi jias conviction. Justice has prevailed. No force can silence the voice of the people."

Randeep Singh Surjewala, the Congress general secretary, also hailed the judgement and said, "Justice has prevailed. The roar of truth will be heard again in the halls of democracy. Satyamev Jayate."

In a big win for Rahul Gandhi, the Supreme Court on Friday stayed conviction of the former Congress President in the aModi surname' defamation case, which cost him his Lok Sabha membership, saying that no reasons were given by the trial judge for imposing the maximum punishment of two years in the case.

Party leader and noted lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi, senior advocates Rajinder Cheema, Harin Raval, and advocates Tarannum Cheema, and Prasanna Advocates appeared for Rahul Gandhi.

Rahul Gandhi was disqualified as an MP in March, after a Surat court convicted him and sentenced him to two years in prison for his "How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname" remark made during an election rally in Karnataka in April 2019. Gandhi's remark was interpreted as an attempt to draw an implicit connection between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and fugitive businessmen Nirav Modi and Lalit Modi.

In March, the sessions court in Surat had dismissed Gandhi's plea seeking suspension of his conviction by the magistrate court, stating that his disqualification will not result in an irreversible loss to him. The Congress leader was disqualified under a rule that bars convicted MPs from holding Lok Sabha membership.

According to legal experts, after the stay has been granted by the top court on Rahul Gandhi's conviction, it will be sufficient to restore his Lok Sabha membership.

--IANSaks/dpb
New Delhi, Aug 4 : Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Friday thanked the Supreme Court for staying the conviction of her brother and party leader Rahul Gandhi in the 'Modi surname' defamation case by quoting Gautama Buddha's lines that three things cannot be long hidden -- the sun, the moon, and the truth.

In a tweet, Priyanka Gandhi said, "Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth' -- Gautama Buddha. Thanks to the Supreme Court for the justified order. Satyamev Jayate."

Her remarks came after the Supreme Court stayed the conviction of Rahul Gandhi in the 'Modi surname' defamation case, which cost him his Lok Sabha membership, saying that no reasons were given by the trial judge for imposing the maximum punishment of two years in the case.

Party leader and noted lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi, senior advocates Rajinder Cheema, Harin Raval, and advocates Tarannum Cheema, and Prasanna Advocates appeared for Rahul Gandhi.

Gandhi was disqualified as an MP in March this year after a Surat court convicted him and sentenced him to two years in prison for his "How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname" remark made during an election rally in Karnataka in April 2019. Gandhi's remark was interpreted as an attempt to draw an implicit connection between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and fugitive businessmen Nirav Modi and Lalit Modi.

In March, the sessions court in Surat had dismissed Gandhi's plea seeking suspension of his conviction by the magistrate court, stating that his disqualification will not result in an irreversible loss to him. The Congress leader was disqualified under a rule that bars convicted MPs from holding Lok Sabha membership.

--IANSaks/dpb
Istanbul, Aug 4 : Turkish counterterrorism police have foiled two plots to launch terror attacks in the biggest city of Istanbul, local media reported.

Police arrested two suspects who entered a shopping centre in the Bayrampasa district with explosives, reports Xinhua news agency.

One of the suspects carried a bag that suddenly caught fire while they were walking through the shopping centre, the daily Hurriyet reported.

The two suspects, affiliated with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), listed as a terror group by Turkey, admitted that they planned to leave the bag with explosives in a store.

In another operation, police detained 11 suspects for plotting to start a forest fire by placing three devices susceptible to the heat in a forest area in the Sultangazi district of Istanbul, the Hurriyet reported.
New Delhi, August 4 : The Lok Sabha on Friday passed the Inter-Services Organisations (Command, Control and Discipline) Bill, 2023 and the Indian Institutes of Management (Amendment) Bill, 2023, within 40 minutes after short discussions through voice vote, amid protests by opposition members over the Manipur violence.

As the House convened at 12 p.m. opposition members arrived and stood in the Well of the House, displaying placards and shouting slogans.

Rajendra Agrawal, who was officiating the proceedings, urged them to stop the protests and let the House function.

"Yesterday was good (as the discussion on Delhi services bill was held with opposition also participating in it). There should be discussion on the House like yesterday," Agrawal said.

Amid protests, the House took up the two bills for discussion and passing.

Even the Anusandhan National Research Foundation Bill, 2023 was introduced in Lok Sabha, which aims to set up the Anusandhan National Research Foundation.

Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, while piloting the Inter-Services Organisations (Command, Control and Discipline) Bill, 2023, said that "it is an important step towards integration and jointness in the three wings of our armed forces so that they will be able to face the challenges of the future in a united and integrated manner".

He said that he wanted to assure the House that this bill is an important step in the direction of military reforms and does not include any additional financial implications.

Rajnath Singh urged the House to pass the bill as it has been cleared by the Parliamentary standing committee on defence without any changes.

"It will also help create an environment that will strengthen discipline in our Inter-Services Organisations," he said.

The bill was later passed through voice vote after a short discussion. As of now members of the armed forces are governed by three separate laws, i.e the Army Act of 1950, the Air Force Act of 1950 and the Navy Act of 1957.

Only officers from the same service have the authority to discipline those who fall under their respective Acts. This creates challenges in maintaining command, control, and discipline within groups that consist of members from different services.

The lack of disciplinary authority for the commander-in-chief of a joint services command and the officer-in-command of other inter-services organisations is a significant issue.

When any armed forces personnel is accused of a crime they must be sent back to their parent service unit for disciplinary or administrative action.

Whenever there are disciplinary or administrative issues involving personnel from different military branches it becomes even more complicated. This leads to multiple sets of proceedings under each branch's rules, causing delays and affecting discipline.

To address these issues, the new bill aims to make things easier and ensure maintenance of discipline and faster resolution of cases.

Meanwhile, the Indian Institutes of Management (Amendment) Bill, 2023 was also passed in Lok Sabha after a short discussion through voice vote.

The bill seeks to amend the Indian Institutes of Management Act, 2017, to upgrade the National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE) in Mumbai into an IIM. NITIE was set up by the government of India in 1963 with the help of the UN Development Programme and the International Labour Organization.

The bill proposes amendments to the IIM Act of 2017, including increased presidential powers in IIMs which has raised concerns over the balance between accountability and autonomy of these eminent management institutes in the country.

The amendment declares the 20 IIMs across the country as ainstitutions of national importancea.

The bill introduced in Lok Sabha by Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan proposes to appoint the President as the aVisitora to all the IIMs.

As per the proposed changes, the aVisitora will have powers to conduct audits, and even appoint or remove the chairpersons of the board of governors and directors.

The bill allows the President, as the aVisitora, to appoint the chairperson of the coordination forums for each IIM.

The coordination fora have been proposed for better coordination among all management insinuating common policy objectives.

--IANS

ans/ksk
New Delhi, August 4 : The contribution of bulk drug imports from China has increased in terms of value and volume from 64 per cent and 62 dper centuring FY14 to 71 per cent and 75 per cent during FY23, respectively, CareEdge Ratings said.

In terms of value, during FY14 to FY23, the total bulk drug imports increased at a CAGR of about 7 per cent as against 9 per cent from China.

When it comes to bulk drugs, a substantial dependency on a single country -- China, raises concerns due to existing geopolitical tensions, the report said.

China accounts for approximately 43 per cent of the total pharma imports in India, making it the primary source of bulk drugs for the country's pharmaceutical industry.

While imports of other pharmaceutical products are diversified across multiple countries, the reliance on China for bulk drugs stands out as a critical point of vulnerability.

The contribution of bulk drug imports from China has exhibited significant growth in both value and volume terms, increasing from 64 per cent and 62 per cent during FY14 to 71 per cent and 75 per cent during FY23, respectively.

Notably, the total bulk drug imports have grown at a CAGR of about 7 per cent in terms of value from FY14 to FY23, compared to a higher CAGR of 9 per cent from China over the same period, the report said.

The implications of such reliance on China for bulk drugs are far-reaching, particularly for life-saving drugs, where the dependency on Key Starting Materials (KSM) from China exceeds 50 per cent. This situation raises legitimate concerns about the availability, cost, and uninterrupted supply of crucial medicines in India's healthcare landscape, the report said.

India continues to rely heavily (>50 per cent) on some of the critical KSM from China.

Commissioning of bulk drug projects under the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme along with backward integration projects undertaken by various Indian companies is expected to play a critical role in reducing our dependence on China to an extent, the report said.
Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said Sunday that Russian air defence had destroyed a drone nearing the capital, which had been rarely targeted throughout the conflict in Ukraine until several attacks this year.
Los Angeles, Aug 4 : A wildfire raging across the US states of California and Nevada since July 28 has so far spread to 94,009 acres of land.

The fire, dubbed York Fire, was first reported on private property in the New York Mountain Range inside California's Mojave National Preserve (MNP) and crossed the state border lines into Clark County of Nevada on Sunday, reports Xinhua news agency.

It is California's largest fire of the year.

According to InciWeb, an interagency all-risk incident information management system available to the public and media, the fire was estimated at 63 per cent containment and the full containment was expected by August 14.

Containment had been steadily increasing over the past days, thanks partly to monsoon rains that slowed the fire's advance, local media reported, adding that containment lines had been built and reinforced by over 400 firefighters.

Since the incident occurred in a rural area, there is no evacuation order currently, but the local ecosystem was threatened by the blaze.

MNP was best known for its biodiversity, especially iconic Joshua trees and desert tortoises.

Joshua trees only grow in the Desert Southwest and far northwestern Mexico.

One of the densest Joshua tree forests is within the burning area.

It's unclear exactly how many Joshua trees and other plant and animal life had been lost to the blaze, an MNP spokesperson told CNN on Thursday.

Firefighters had to suppress the fire while carefully protecting resources such as cultural histories, threatened wildlife, and rare plants commonly found in the region, InciWeb noted in its latest report Thursday.

It added they had collaborated with natural and cultural resource specialties including wildlife biologists, plant ecologists, archaeologists and geologists.
Celebrations breaks out in Wayanad after SC gives relief to Rahul. Image Source: IANS News

Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 4 : Celebrations broke out in Wayanad on Friday soon after the Supreme Court stayed Rahul Gandhi's conviction in a criminal defamation case.

It was on March 23 that the lower court in Surat convicted Gandhi in the criminal defamation case, which dates back to the 2019 Lok Sabha election campaign, revolving around Gandhi's comment, "How come all thieves have the common surname Modi."

This remark was interpreted as an attempt to draw an implicit connection between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and fugitive businessmen Nirav Modi and Lalit Modi.

Congress supporters at a few places in Wayanad took to the streets expressing their joy and the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee has asked all the 14 district units of the party to celebrate the apex court verdict later in the day.

Incidentally, Wayanad expressed its full support to Gandhi when he arrived in the hilly district on April 11 when he addressed a mammoth meeting of his supporters, which was his first after being disqualified.

Three time Congress legislator and Youth Congress president Shafi Parambil said, "This is going to be a huge boost and people of Wayanad will certainly rejoice.

"We all saw how the people reached out to him when he came to 'his' constituency after he was disqualified," said Parambil.

Meanwhile, the state party headquarters in the capital city has started getting crowded as the news came that top leaders, including veteran legislator Ramesh Chennithala will be arriving and sweets will be distributed.

Now all eyes are on how quickly Gandhi's Lok Sabha membership is be restored as it took several weeks for the Lakshadweep NCP MP Mohammed Faizal after the Kavaratti Sessions Court sentenced him in a criminal case that was stayed by the Kerala High Court.

Rahul Gandhi won the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from Wayanad with a staggering over four lakh-vote margin.
Mumbai, Aug 4 : Punjabi-Canadian rapper of Indian descent Shubhneet Singh, popularly known as Shubh, is gearing up for his first-ever live performance with the much anticipated multi-city 'Still Rollin India Tour'.

Shubh said: "India is home for me in more ways than one, and this is an extremely special moment for me as it's my homecoming tour. I get to kick off my debut in the live arena domain in a country that has been instrumental in the evolution of my creativity and my growth as an artist. I can't wait to step on that stage and interact with all my amazing desi fans."

The three-month long tour, starting September, will see the viral artist perform across 12 cities including Bengaluru, Hyderabad, New Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Ludhiana, Chandigarh, Gurgaon, Mumbai, Kolkata, Pune and Jaipur.

The 'Still Rollin India Tour' is part of the 24-year-old artist's World Tour that will see him travel to the UK, the UAE, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the US.

The tour is presented under the banner of Bollyboom and produced by Percept Live, Spacebound and Team Innovation.

Joji George, CEO, Percept Live states, "The endeavor at Bollyboom has always been to provide a platform to South Asian artists from the burgeoning Indian music industry and be a torchbearer towards fostering Indian sounds and promoting desi artists."

In 2021, Shubh became an overnight internet sensation, courtesy his breakout single 'We Rollin' which went on to garner over 201 million views on YouTube. This was followed by the release of his singles 'Elevated', 'Offshore' and 'Baller' which made it to the Billboard Canadian Hot 100.

Earlier this year, he released his debut four-track album titled 'Still Rollin'. His dominance as one of the highest streamed Indian artists continues with over 12 lakh monthly listeners on Spotify to his credit.

In the recent past, celebrities such as Virat Kohli, Ranveer Singh among many others have endorsed Shubh's music over social media which is a seamless blend between western and eastern influences.

Shubh is known for the tracks 'Elevated', 'We Rollin', 'No Love', 'Still Rollin', 'OG' and 'Dior' among many others.
Kolkata, Aug 4 : A Trinamool Congress councilor on Friday approached the Enforcement Directorate (ED) office here accusing actress-turned-politician and BJP Lok Sabha member Locket Chatterjee of being a beneficiary of the chit-fund entity Rose Valley Group.

The complaint has been filed by Tulsi Sinha Roy, a councilor and member (mayor-in- council) in Kolkata adjacent Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation.

The complainant has claimed to be a social worker and an advocate.

The development is viewed as a counter to the recent complaint by the BJP at ED against actress-turned-politician and Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha member Nusrat Jahan, of being a director and beneficiary of a corporate entity Seven Sense Infrastructure Private Limited, which has been accused of duping people promising them residential flats at affordable rates.

In the complaint to ED, the Trinamool Congress councillor has demanded that the central agency should investigate the issue of Chatterjee's assets which are disproportionate to her income.

"Recently ED has taken up several investigations in the state on financial irregularities. So we want the central agency to conduct an impartial probe in the matter of a BJP Lok Sabha member being a beneficiary of Rose Valley Group. We have definite information on this matter. If necessary we will assist the central agency with the information available with us," Sinha Roy told newspersons.

Reacting to the complaint, Chatterjee claimed that she is ready to face any kind of investigation in the matter as she is confident of coming out clean in the matter.

Meanwhile, BJP leader Shankudeb Panda, who had filed the complaint against Nusrat Jahan, claimed that this complaint against Chatterjee was a clear attempt to divert attention from the wrongdoings of Nusrat Jahan.

"Locket Chatterjee cannot be maligned through it. But I am happy that Trinamool Congress is having faith on ED," Panda said.
4 astronauts set to reach ISS via Space X rocket on Aug 25. Image Source: IANS News

Washington, Aug 4 : A group of four astronauts is set to fly to the International Space Station (ISS) on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket aboard the company's Dragon spacecraft on August 25.

NASAas SpaceX Crew-7 mission to the International Space Station is set to depart at 3.49 am EDT (1.19apm India time) on Friday (August 25).

Additional time was required for teams to complete pad readiness after SpaceXas recent Falcon Heavy mission lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at NASAas Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the US space agency said in a statement.

The adjustment also takes advantage of consecutive launch opportunities and deconflicts the stationas cargo spacecraft traffic schedule.

NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Andreas Mogensen, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov will launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to the ISS.

Crew-7 is scheduled to dock to the orbiting laboratory on Saturday (August 26), to the space-facing port of the stationas Harmony module.

aIf needed, Crew-7 has additional launch opportunities on August 26-27, said NASA.

Meanwhile, two cosmonauts are scheduled to begin the yearas 10th spacewalk next week.

Commander Sergey Prokopyev and Flight Engineer Dmitri Petelin are due to exit the Poisk airlock on August 9 to install micrometeoroid orbital debris shields and relocate hardware.
New Delhi, Aug 4 : The Supreme Court on Friday refused to grant bail to YES Bank co-founder Rana Kapoor in a money laundering case registered against him by the Enforcement Directorate.

"Normally, we consider (for grant of bail) the period already undergone (in custody), but here he (Kapoor) rocked the entire financial system. Did not YES Bank go into difficulty?" queried a bench comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna and S.V.N. Bhatti to senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing the former CEO of YES Bank.

"He has been behind bars since 8th March 2020," told Singhvi, while urging the top court for expeditious disposal of the case.

In view of the bench's disinclination to entertain the bail plea, Singhvi sought permission of the court for withdrawal of the special leave petition.

The Supreme Court granted liberty to Kapoor to avail remedies under Section 436-A CrPC (Code of Criminal Procedure) which provides release of an under-trial prisoner, who has been detained for a period up to one-half of the maximum imprisonment provided for the alleged crime.

The Bombay High Court had in January 2021 rejected the first bail application filed by Kapoor and also rejected the subsequent bail application on May 4 this year.

In the FIR, it was alleged that during 2018-2019, Rana Kapoor entered into a criminal conspiracy with Kapil Wadhwan and others for extending financial assistance to DHFL.

During April-June in 2018, YES Bank invested Rs 3,700 crore in short term debentures of DHFL. Around the same time, Kapil Wadhwan paid a kick back of Rs 600 crore to Kapoor and his family members.

The ED alleged that Kapoor misused his position as MD of YES Bank to gain financial benefits for himself and family members, through companies controlled by Kapil Wadhwan and others for sanctioning huge loans through YES Bank.

He received kick-back over bogus loans extended by YES Bank to DHFL company, which was owned by Kapil Wadhwan and Dheeraj Wadhwan and to its Group companies and those kick back amounts were misused by Kapoor for purchasing properties in the name of his family members.
Pune, Aug 4 : Adopting an aggressive stance, the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) on Friday called upon Prime Minister Narendra Modi to prove his multiple allegations against Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) President Sharad Pawar or tender an apology.

VBA President Prakash Ambedkar had said that at a BJP booth workers' meeting in Bhopal last month, the Prime Minister had levelled several allegations against the 83-year-old NCP supremo, sparking a furore after which the party split vertically and the breakaway faction led by his nephew Ajit Pawar joined the ruling Shiv Sena-BJP government in Maharashtra.

"They included the scams in the irrigation sector, the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank and illegal mining. The allegations made by Modi were broadcast, played multiple times on television channels and reverberated on social media," said Ambedkar, the grandson of the Chief Architect of Indian Constitution, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar.

If the Prime Minister of the country is making such allegations publicly, then it must be coming from concrete information and proof, which he may have authenticated with the probe agencies -- ED, CBI, I-T -- available at his disposal, Prakash Ambedkar Ambedkar argued.

"Therefore, we request the Prime Minister, that within 10 days, he should file criminal cases against the said person (Sharad Pawar) involved in the corruption and initiate the recovery process for the said allegations involving Rs 70,000 crore."

He also said that either the Prime Minister should prove the allegations or apologise to Sharad Pawar for defaming him as slandering a senior leader, without concrete evidence, for electoral gains is not ethical and should not be done in politics.

Addressing mediapersons here, the VBA President warned that if Modi does not apologise to Sharad Pawar within 10 days, the party will launch strong agitations on this issue.

"Sharad Pawar is part of the political front INDIA, and therefore, we appeal to Congress leader Sonia Gandhi and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray also to participate in the agitations," he urged.
Bengaluru, Aug 4 : Four Karnataka policemen, who were taken into custody by Kerala police on the charges of extorting money from a cyberfraud accused, were suspended on Friday.

The suspension order was given by Bengaluru Police Commissioner B. Dayanand who took the decision following a report in this regard by the ACP.

The suspended policemen were identified as Inspector Shivaprakash, head constables Vijay Kumar, Shivanna and constable Sandesh. All of them were attached to the Cyber Crime, Economic Offences and Narcotics (CEN) police station in Bengaluru.

The accused police officers had gone to Kerala in connection with an online fraud case in which one Chandak Shreekanth was duped of Rs 26 lakh. Shreekanth was contacted by one Neetha Sampath on Telegram who lured him by offering a part time job. The victim was asked to give product reviews and earn money.

Sampath, offering huge returns, got Rs 26 lakh transferred to the account and disappeared after which Chandak registered a police complaint.

The Whitefield CEN police investigated the case, tracked one Issac in Madikeri in Karnataka and found Rs 2 crore transferred to his account.

After tracking the movements of Issac, the police were led to one Naushad in Kerala.

The accused police team went to Kallemchery in Kerala and took Naushad into custody and allegedly demanded Rs 3 lakh bribe from him. Naushad had lodged a complaint against the Karnataka police in Kalamassery police station alleging that he was threatened to be fixed in a crypto currency case if he failed to give money.

Naushad's accusation had put the Karnataka police department into a major embarrassing situation.

The Bengaluru Police Commissionerate had sent an ACP ranked officer to Kerala to investigate and ascertain the details.
Malvika Raaj, young Poo from 'K3G', is set to tie the knot with long-time partner. Image Source: IANS News

Mumbai, Aug 4 : The Actress Malvika Raaj, who played the role of younger Pooja in the Karan Johar directorial 'Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham...', is ready to walk down the aisle as she is all set to tie the knot with her long-time partner Pranav Bagga at the end of this year.

Malvika was in a long-term relationship with her husband-to-be before the two decided to make it official. Pranav is a successful entrepreneur. The romantic proposal took place in hot air balloons against the stunning backdrop of skies in Turkey.

The actress took to her Instagram on Friday and shared the news with her followers. She shared a picture from the picturesque proposal.

She wrote in the caption: "Here we are, we've just begun. And after all this time, our time has come. Here we are, still goin' strong. Right here in the place where we belong."

Born to filmmaker Bobby Raaj and Reena Raaj, Malvika got her big break in Karan Johar's blockbuster film, 'Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Ghama'. Actor Jagdish Raaj Khurana was her grandfather, and holds a Guinness World Record for being the most typecast actor, having played a police inspector in 144 films.

In 'Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Ghama', she essayed the younger version of Kareena Kapoor Khan's character.
Chennai, Aug 4 : The sleuths of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) continued their searches at the residence and office of Kaliyappan, an aide of jailed Tamil Nadu minister Senthil Balaji, on Friday.

According to sources, a 12 member team from the ED has been conducting raids at the house and office of Kaliyappan a.k.a Tyre Mani since Thursday. The raids were conducted in Chakranagar in Paramathi Velur town in Namakkal district. Kaliyappan is a relative of Swaminathan, an influential DMK leader. His family ran a tyres business. The sleuths have found details of his assets, documents and bank accounts. On Friday, the officers took a cash counting machine and jewellery expert to assess the value.

The ED teams have been conducting raids at Kaliyappan's residence since yesterday evening. ED officials had conducted raids on properties at seven places in Coimbatore and Karur as part of the investigation into the money laundering case.
Saudi Arabia's embassy in Tehran has resumed operations, state media in Iran reported Wednesday, following a thaw in ties seven years after the mission was closed.
Jaipur, Aug 4 : The Rashtriya Loktantrik Party convenor and Nagaur MP Hanuman Beniwal, opening a front against the government in the gang rape and murder case in Bhilwara, said Rajasthan has become the crime capital of the country.

In such a situation, the government should take strict action to curb the criminals. Beniwal was talking to the media at his Jalupura residence in Jaipur. The accused who commit rape-like incidents should be punished publicly. The government should issue an order to encounter such accused. Only then people with this kind of perverted mentality will be stopped, he added.

Along with the mining mafia, incidents of robbery, theft, murder and rape are also increasing in Bhilwara. At the same time, the stigma of the rape and murder of a minor girl is on Rajasthan. It is very difficult to remove it. In such a situation, the government needs to introspect and take strict action against the criminals. Beniwal said that the alliance of Congress and BJP is going on in Rajasthan for a long time because of which the situation has turned from bad to worse.
Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 4 : Veteran Congress leader A.K.Antony on Friday said that the stock of the Supreme Court has rises with its verdict staying the lower court's order convicting party leader Rahul Gandhi in a defamation case.

"Just imagine if the apex court had not given this verdict, thousands of peopleas representatives would have been in trouble for what they would have said during election campaigns. This is a clear victory of truth and justice has been restored," he said.

Congress MP and veteran leader K. Karunakaran's son K.Muraleedharan said they had absolute faith in the apex court.

"We are extremely delighted to have got Gandhi back in the parliament as we were short of an appropriate leader to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi," he said.

And on when Gandhi will be able to return to Lok Sabha, former Lok Sabha Secretary General P.D.T. Acharaya said propriety demands that the Lok Sabha Secretariat should immediately issue a notification restoring the membership of Gandhi, as the verdict has come from the apex court.

Incidentally, Gandhi was disqualified by the Lok Sabha Secretariat the very next day after he was convicted by a Surat court.

--IANS

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Will not allow AAP-Congress conspiracy to levy power bills on tubewells, says Badal. Image Source: IANS News

Faridkot : , Aug 4 (IANS) Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) President Sukhbir Badal on Friday said that's SAD will not allow the AAP-Congress 'alliance conspiracy' to levy electricity bills on tubewell connections to succeed at any cost.

He warned the newly formed alliance not to try to discriminate against the peasantry which was already reeling due to the destruction caused by the AAP government's manmade floods.

Addressing the media here, the SAD president said: "Now that AAP and the Congress have got together at both the national and state levels, they think they can take any decision they wish. I want to tell them that SAD will not allow any dilution in the free power subsidy given to farmers by former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal. We will launch an agitation in case this subsidy is tinkered with any manner whatsoever."

Badal said AAP-Congress joint conspiracy to target farmers had been unleashed by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Vidhan Sabha which was headed by Congressman Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa and included several AAP legislators.

"The AAP government is keen to withdraw the free power facility being enjoyed by farmers on one pretext or another as it has mismanaged the state finances and is unable to give the due subsidy to the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL).

"With the new electricity Act making it mandatory to give the subsidy amount in advance to PSPCL, the AAP government has involved the Congress in a conspiracy to do away with the free power subsidy completely."

When asked about the upcoming local body elections, Badal said: "SAD will contest the elections against the AAP-Congress combine. We will highlight the complete stoppage of all development work in all major towns and cities as well as the AAP government's failure to even maintain basic services."

He said all towns and cities were suffering because the AAP government was spending hundreds of crores on advertisements and expanding AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal's footprint across the country.

"We will call for an end to this wasteful expenditure and demand that due money be earmarked for development of towns and cities."

The SAD President also highlighted how people were also "suffering" due to disruption and dilution of social welfare schemes.

He said while the 'shagan' scheme had been stopped completely, the government had diluted lakhs of blue cards which entitled people to subsidized flour which had affected the poor severely.
New Delhi, Aug 4 : A Delhi court on Friday allowed Congress leader Jagdish Tytler's plea seeking anticipatory bail in connection with the anti-Sikh riots in 1984 in the national capital's Pul Bangash area.

While Special Judge Vikas Dhull granted him anticipatory bail, he also imposed certain conditions like not leaving the country without the court's permission, and not to tamper with the evidence in the case.

Tytler on Tuesday moved the Rouse Avenue Court, which had issued a notice to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the case.During the hearing on Wednesday, the probe agency took an objection to his request saying that the witnesses have come forward showing great courage and the possibility of influencing them cannot be ignored.

On July 26, the court summoned Tytler for August 5 in the matter. Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Vidhi Anand Gupta of a special MP-MLA court had passed the order after taking cognisance of a CBI charge sheet in the case.

Gurdwara Pul Bangash at Azad Market was set on fire by a mob on November 1, 1984 and three persons, namely Sardar Thakur Singh, Badal Singh and Gurcharan Singh, were burnt to death.

The incident took place a day after the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards.

In its charge sheet filed before the court, the CBI has said that Tytler incited, instigated and provoked the mob that had assembled at the gurdwara on November 1, that resulted in the burning down of the gurdwara and killing of three persons of the Sikh community.

Charges under Sections 147 (rioting), 109 (abetment) read with 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), among others, have been invoked against Tytler by the probe agency.

On June 2, the Rouse Avenue Court approved a supplementary charge sheet filed by the CBI against Tytler in the riots case and also transferred the case to the special MP-MLA court for trial.

The court had earlier also instructed the CBI to expedite the process of obtaining the forensic report of Tytler's voice sample.

The Congress leader was named in the charge sheet following fresh evidence against him.

In April, the central probe agency had collected Tytler's voice sample in connection with the violence in Pul Bangash. Tytler was accused of inciting a mob that murdered the victims.

--IANSspr/dpb
New Delhi, Aug 4 : The Supreme Court on Friday refused to stay the Allahabad High Court's recent order allowing the ASI to survey the premises of Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi, except for 'wuzu khana'.

A bench, headed by CJI D.Y. Chandrachud and Justices J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Mishra recorded the undertaking given by the Archaeological Survey of India that it will not make any excavation at the site during the survey.

It further directed that ASI will complete the survey process using non-invasive methodology without causing any damage to the existing structure.

The bench refused to entertain the request made by senior advocate Huzefa Ahmadi, appearing for the mosque management committee, that the ASI report be kept in a sealed cover until another pending plea pertaining to maintainability is decided by the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear today the plea filed by the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee after the matter was mentioned for urgent listing.

The Allahabad High Court on Thursday had dismissed the plea moved by the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee challenging the order passed by Varanasi district court directing the ASI to survey the barricaded area of the mosque premises, barring the sealed area.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Pritinkar Diwakar of the high court brushed aside the Mosque Committeeas apprehensions that the survey may result in damage to the structure. "The survey is required to do justice. Survey needs to be done with few conditions. Do survey, but without dredging," it had said. Earlier, the high court had directed the ASI not to carry out the survey until hearing in the case is completed. The Mosque Committee had told the high court that the historic structure may fall during the ASI survey. On the other hand, the ASI had maintained that radar mapping will not affect the structure of the mosque.

In an interim relief passed on July 24, the Supreme Court ordered that Varanasi courtas direction allowing an extensive survey of the Gyanvapi Masjid by the ASI will not be enforced till 5 p.m. on July 26. It asked the Masjid Committee to move the Allahabad High Court to challenge the order passed by the Varanasi district court. On July 21, the district court directed the ASI to ascertain whether the mosque was built over a pre-existing Hindu temple, holding that the scientific investigation is "necessary" for the "true facts" to come out.

The Varanasi court order sought a report from ASI up to August 4 when the matter was to be taken up next. The court, however, ordered the exclusion of the section which had remained sealed since the Supreme Court order in May 2022. The area under seal is where Hindus insist a Shivling has been found, while Muslims claim it is part of a fountain.

The district court order came on applications moved by four of the five Hindu plaintiffs who filed a suit in August 2021, demanding the right of unhindered worship at the Maa Shringar Gauri Sthal. The mosque management committee, in its reply, refuted that the mosque was built over a temple, maintaining the structure at the spot was always a mosque. It opposed the survey, saying such an exercise cannot be ordered to collect evidence.

In another plea filed under Article 136 of the Constitution, the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee has challenged the order of the Allahabad High Court upholding maintainability of Hindu worshipperas suit filed before the Varanasi court.

The Supreme Court recently restored this plea, which was inadvertently disposed of while an order staying survey of the Gyanvapi Masjid till 5 PM on July 26 was passed. It directed for revival of the pending appeal after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta also acknowledged the inadvertent error.

In its order passed on May 31, the High Court had dismissed the revision application filed against rejection of application under Order VII Rule 11 of the Code of Civil Procedure (CPC) by the District Judge. The district court had held that the suit seeking relief of the right to worship the deities located in the disputed property is maintainable and is not barred under the Places of Worship Act, 1991, Waqf Act, 1995, or the Uttar Pradesh Sri Kashi Vishwanath Temple Act.

--IANS

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Islamabad, August 4 : Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday told his coalition partners that the summary to dissolve the National Assembly would be moved on August 9, Geo News reported.

The assurance was given by the premier during a dinner he hosted for his coalition partners during which the political situation of the country and general elections was discussed.

Officials, who were privy to the meeting and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that the premier informed his coalition partners that he would begin consultations with Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Raja Riaz on a caretaker prime minister from today.

The premier added that he is hopeful that the consultation would end within two to three days, Geo News reported.

The current assemblyas tenure will end on August 12 and if it completes its stipulated time then elections will be held within 60 days. However, the Constitution states that the polls must be held within 90 days if the assembly is dissolved before the completion of its tenure.

If the summary is moved to dissolve the lower house of parliament on August 9 that it would be liable to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to hold polls within 90 days.

However, before the assembly dissolution the government and the opposition need to agree on a name for a caretaker prime minister, Geo News reported.

Last month, PM Shehbaz constituted a five-member committee of the PML-N to hold consultations on the selection of a caretaker premier and dissolution of the National Assembly, The News had reported.

Though the provincial assemblies of Sindh and Balochistan will also be dissolved along with the National Assembly next month, the panel has no members from outside Punjab.
Bhopal, August 4 : Jubilant Congress workers in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh hailed the Supreme Court's decision about defamation case against former AICC president Rahul Gandhi.

Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) office bearers along with party workers and leaders celebrated, at Roshanpura Chowk in Bhopal, the court verdict terming it as 'justice'.

Former chief minister and state Congress president Kamal Nath expressed his happiness soon after the top court granted relief to Rahul Gandhi.

Kamal Nath, who is considered to be close to the Nehru- Gandhi family, congratulated Rahul Gandhi calling him "favorite of the people and the respected leader of the Congress."

"Congratulations to the voice of democracy in the country - Rahul Gandhi , the favorite of the people and the respected leader of the Congress for getting relief from the Supreme Court.

"With this decision, both the respect and trust of the people of the country towards the judiciary will increase. I am sure that the final verdict will also come in favor of Rahul Gandhi and democracy will be strengthened in the country. Satyameva Jayate," the former chief minister tweeted.

Former two-time Chief Minister and Rajya Sabha MP Digviajya Singh also posted a message on his official twitter handle saying: "Congratulations and best wishes to our respected leader Rahul Gandhi on getting judicial relief from the Supreme Court. May truth always shine."

Senior advocate and Rajya Sabha MP Vivek Tankha called the Friday's development historic and said that the maximum punishment was never given in the history of Indian Penal Code's 200 years and also there was no solid reason to give maximum punishment.

He said that this decision would boost up a new energy and new confidence in the Opposition  INDIA.

He said that Rahul Gandhi will now be in the Parliament in the next couple of days.

"The Supreme Court has found several loopholes in the judgment of the lower court in Rahul Gandhi's case. Stay on conviction will restore his membership. A new energy for the opposition alliance INDIA," he said.

SC on Friday stayed the conviction of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in a 2019 defamation case over his Modi surname remark, restoring his status as an MP.

A three-judge bench of Justices B R Gavai, P S Narasimha and Sanjay Kumar said no doubt that the utterances were not in good taste and that a person in public life is expected to exercise caution while making public speeches.

"No reason has been given by the trial judge for imposing maximum sentence, the order of conviction needs to be stayed pending final adjudication," the bench said.

The top court was hearing a plea by Rahul Gandhi challenging the Gujarat High Court verdict which dismissed his plea seeking a stay on his conviction in a defamation case over his 'Modi surname' remark.
Truth prevailed at last, says Himachal CM on conviction stay of Rahul Gandhi. Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi, Aug 4 : Welcoming the Supreme Court's decision to grant stay on the conviction of senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Sukhu while reposing faith in the judiciary on Friday said the 'truth has prevailed at last'.

The Chief Minister said that Rahul Gandhi was continuously raising his voice in Parliament against the anti-people policies and divisive politics of the Central government.

"For this very reason, the Central government hatched a conspiracy to target him politically and to prevent his presence in Parliament and restrain him from contesting election of Lok Sabha in 2024," Sukhu, who met Rahul Gandhi, said in a statement.

The Chief Minister said an attempt was made to suppress the voice of Rahul Gandhi, who had become the voice of the people after the success of Bharat Jodo Yatra.

"His parliamentary membership was suspended at the behest of the Union government, but now the Supreme Court has given him relief and the Congress welcomes the apex court's decision," he said.

The Chief Minister wished Rahul Gandhi would be back in Parliament soon to raise the voice of the people of Bharat.

"This decision will pave the way for the entire Opposition to unite under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi," said Sukhu.
New Delhi, Aug 4 : The American Center in the national capital is hosting an art exhibition titled 'Interrogations and Ideologies: A Quest for Equality' (till August 7) which brings together artists Savi Sawarkar and Poonam Grover, who have used different installations as an expression of social equality and justice.

Curated by Prof. Y.S. Alone, the exhibition highlights the principles of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar and questions social prejudices and discrimination.

The art displays the social fabric of marginalized communities, which speaks of the shared vision of the US and India.

Ambedkarian aesthetics seeks to subvert the narrative of the status quo, calling for the dismantling of deeply ingrained inhibitions nurtured over time.

Drawing inspiration from historical trajectories, both ancient and modern, the exhibition presents a vivid exploration of contradictions that have shaped lives, including those of artistic creations.

It serves as a constant engagement to break free from the shackles of 'protected ignorance'.

The exhibition also highlights the intriguing realm of performance art, an innovative genre where artwork is brought to life through actions performed by the artist or other participants.

Witnessed live or through documentation, these artistic actions integrate time, space, body, and the artist's presence, creating an immersive experience for the audience.

Transcending traditional fine art contexts, the exhibition offers an interdisciplinary mode that breaks the boundaries of art galleries and museums. The performances can unfold in any setting, be it a street, an unconventional space, or during any period.
Congress will again form govt in Rajasthan, says Gehlot after SC verdict on Rahul Gandhi. Image Source: IANS News

Jaipur, August 4 : : After the Supreme Court stayed the conviction of Rahul Gandhi, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said that everything is going in the right direction and Congress will return to power in Rajasthan.

"Under fascist forces, there is a worrying trend in the nation. Even in defamation cases, post independence, Rahul Gandhi is the first person who got a full sentence of two years.

"Today, the Supreme Court rejected the verdict of the lower court. Everything is going in the right direction now... Congress will return to power in Rajasthan," he said.

SC on Friday stayed the conviction of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in a 2019 defamation case over his Modi surname remark, restoring his status as an MP.

A three-judge bench of Justices B R Gavai, P S Narasimha and Sanjay Kumar said no doubt that the utterances were not in good taste and that a person in public life is expected to exercise caution while making public speeches.

"No reason has been given by the trial judge for imposing maximum sentence, the order of conviction needs to be stayed pending final adjudication," the bench said.

The top court was hearing a plea by Rahul Gandhi challenging the Gujarat High Court verdict which dismissed his plea seeking a stay on his conviction in a defamation case over his 'Modi surname' remark.
New Delhi, Aug 04 : On International Beer Day, there is no better destination to indulge in the craft of brewing and savouring exceptional beers than New Zealand. Renowned for its breathtaking landscapes and vibrant culture, this island nation also boasts of a flourishing craft beer scene. From Auckland's bustling corners to the serene landscapes of the South Island, New Zealand offers a diverse array of craft breweries, each with its unique flavours and stories to share.

Embark on a journey of exploration and appreciation, as you sample a wide range of locally brewed beers all crafted with passion and precision. The warm hospitality of the Kiwis and the friendly atmosphere in these breweries make every visit an unforgettable experience. So, whether you're a seasoned beer enthusiast or a curious traveller looking to savour the essence of New Zealand through its vibrant craft beer culture, here is a list of breweries and tours that promises a delightful and enriching adventure.

Brewbus, Auckland

On a Brewbus craft beer tour, you can easily explore Auckland's urban craft beer culture. Join other craft beer enthusiasts for lunch, which will include local beer pairings. Visit Garage Project, Urbanaut Brewing Co, Good George, and Brothers Beer to meet the brewers. Do you want to try some more beer? Continue the night with Auckland craft beer recommendations from your Brewbus guide.

Looking to indulge in tantalizing craft beers and scrumptious food? Heyday Beer.co is the place to be. They also offer brewery tours that will help you learn more about the various varieties of beers produced by Heyday Beer.co. Their Brewery tour will take you through the ins and outs of manufacturing beer over the course of an hour and will include a guided sampling of four distinct Heyday brews.

Tui Brewery, Mangatainoka

Producing one of New Zealand's original beers, the Tui brewery in Mangatainoka runs brewery tours. The famed Tui Brewery can be found in the little village of Mangatainoka, about 30 minutes south of Palmerston North, with its unique brick tower, brew house, cafe, free museum, quirky shop, and, of course, top-notch Tui beer. Enjoy lunch at the restaurant after a sample paddle of Tui pale ale, Mangatainoka Magic, and Mangatainoka Dark, Brew 1889.

On Emerson's brewery tour, you can see the entire brewing process from the malt room to fermentation, bottling, and tasting. After the 45-minute tour, visit Emerson's taproom to sample pale ales (including the tropical "Orange Roughy"), New Zealand pilsner, English porter, and other beers. The onsite restaurant serves shared platters and refreshments to round out the day.

Monteith's Brewery, Greymouth

Monteith's Brewery is located on the West Coast in the little town of Greymouth. The Monteith's Brewery adventure begins in the Beertopia Room, which also houses the intriguing Monteith's Museum. Here you'll learn about the history and colourful stories of Monteith, which began in 1868 right here on the West Coast. You'll next enter the brewery to see, touch, taste, and smell the New Zealand grown ingredients used to make Monteith's craft beers. Then cosy up with a beer and some hearty food in front of the fire at the onsite restaurant.

IANSlife can be contacted at ianslife@ians.in

--IANS

IANSlife/lh/tb
17 dead as bus with 6 Indians onboard plunges into ravine in Mexico: Report (Lead). Image Source: IANS News

Mexico City, Aug 4 : Six Indians were onboard a passenger bus, which plunged into a 164-foot-deep hillside in the western Mexican state of Nayarit early Thursday, killing 17 people and injuring 23 others.

A source from Nayarit's firefighting service said six Indian citizens had been aboard the bus, part of the Elite passenger line, which departed from Mexico City on Wednesday, the Daily Mail reported.

The bus's destination was Tijuana, the border town across from southern California.

An official list with the names of survivors published by Mexican newspaper El Financiero identified four of the India nationals as Rajan Singh, 21; Mandip Kumar, 22; Adama Kane, 46; and Hanidou Kane, the British daily reported.

The driver, identified as Francisco, survived the crash and was taken into custody as part of the investigation. He told investigators that he fell asleep behind the wheel and eventually lost control of the vehicle before it crashed through a guardrail.

Footage showed first responders trekking down the slope in search of survivors.

Jorge RodrAguez, the security and civil protection secretary for the state of Nayarit, told reporters that the rescue mission was "extremely difficult" because of how deep the ravine was, the Mail reported.

Last month, another bus crash in the southern state of Oaxaca left 29 people dead, and in February, a bus carrying migrants from South and Central America crashed in central Mexico, killing 17 people.
Nagpur, Aug 4 : In an unexpected development, Bombay High Court's Nagpur bench judge, Justice Rohit B. Deo resigned in the open court here on Friday noon.

Announcing his decision to quit, the second senior-most judge of the bench, he said that he "couldnat work against his self-respect".

At the time, he was heading a division bench along with Justice M. W. Chandwani, apologised to the lawyers and called them his family.

Apologising to every lawyer present in the court, Justice Deo said: "I scolded you because I wanted you to improvea You people work hard."

He added how he never intended to hurt anyone as all were like a family to him, and "I canat work against my self-respect".

On October 14, 2022, a division bench of Justice Deo and Justice Anil Pansare had discharged Prof. G. N. Saibaba, a former Delhi University faculty, and five others accused in an alleged Maoist links case, and also ordered their immediate release.

However, after the verdict was challenged by the Maharashtra government, the Supreme Court stayed the release order. On April 19, 2023, the apex court set aside the verdict and remanded the case back with specific directions to assign it to another bench for hearing it afresh.

Justice Deo was born in December 1963 and had served as the Advocate-General of Maharashtra, and Additional Solicitor-General in Nagpur, before he was elevated as a judge in June 2017. He was due to retire in December 2025.
Islamabad, Aug 4 : Pakistan government under the premiership of Shehbaz Sharif has decided to announce dissolution of the National Assembly (Lower House of Parliament) on 9th August 2023, three days before completion of its five-year term, moving towards a caretaker setup and general elections within the next 90 days.

The announcement comes in the backdrop of farewell meetings and fast paced discussions between coalition partners over the selection of a caretaker prime minister and the interim setup.

Earlier on Friday, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif conducted the first round of discussions with leaders of coalition political parties, calling on all members to nominate their respective leaders for the position of interim prime minister.

"This will ensure transparency, fairness, and impartiality during the transitional period," Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said.

A caretaker government would be brought in place for at least 90 days, mandated to ensure fair elections and a smooth transition of power. Under the given circumstances and challenges of economic commitments to the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and the security situation; getting a caretaker prime minister, who would carry forward the policies of the government and see through the democratic transition as per the political aspirations of the current political contenders, gives pivotal value to the ongoing selection of the interim setup.

As per procedure, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will be sending ahead an advice to the Pakistan President Arif Alvi for the dissolution of the National Assembly on August 9. And as per the Constitution of Pakistan, the assembly will stand dissolved as soon as the President would sign the advice.

However, if the President does not sign the advice, the assembly will automatically dissolve after 48 hours of the receiving of advice from the PM office.

As far as the consultation on the interim Prime Minister is concerned, government sources have confirmed that there would be at least three rounds of consultation between the coalition political partners and the opposition. After completion of three rounds, Shehbaz Sharif will submit the name to the president.

Moreover, if for any reason, the government fails to reach a consensus over a name for interim prime minister; the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) would step in and nominate a candidate from the proposed names.

Pakistan is now on its way towards a political transition process, gearing up for increased political temperatures, rallies, marches, public meetings and political engagements by all parties, in a race to establish themselves as the worthy political force to lead the country for the next five-years tenure.
New Delhi, Aug 4 : Keeping in focus to enhance the experience of passengers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone for redevelopment of 508 railway stations across the country on August 6 worth Rs 24,470 crore.

Sharing the details of the historic initiative, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said, "Improving passenger experience is a major focus of our government."

The Railway Minister said, "Our Prime minister is personally monitoring the progress of Railways from time to time and he has given excellent inputs in the design of stations. He will be laying the foundation for the redevelopment of 508 stations across the country."

Vaishnaw said that railways has kept a target of completing the redevelopment project in a time of two years.

The railway ministry, meanwhile, said that the Prime Minister has often laid stress on provision of state-of-the-art public transport.

Noting that railways is the preferred mode of transport of people across the country, he has emphasised on the importance of providing world class amenities at railway stations.

"Guided by this vision, the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme was launched to redevelop 1309 stations across the country," the ministry said.

As part of this scheme, the foundation stone for redevelopment of 508 stations is being laid by the Prime Minister via video conferencing.

These stations will be redeveloped at a cost of more than Rs 24,470 crore and the work is expected to be complete in two years.

The ministry said that master plans are being prepared for development of these stations as 'City Centres', with proper integration of both sides of the city.

"This integrated approach is driven by the holistic vision of overall urban development of the city, centred around the railway station," the ministry said.

"These 508 stations are spread across 27 states and union territories, including 55 each in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, 49 in Bihar, 44 in Maharashtra, 37 in West Bengal, 34 in Madhya Pradesh, 32 in Assam, 25 in Odisha, 22 in Punjab, 21 each in Gujarat and Telangana, 20 in Jharkhand, 18 each in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, 15 in Haryana, 13 in Karnataka among others," it said.

The redevelopment will provide modern passenger amenities along with ensuring well designed traffic circulation, inter-modal integration and well designed signage for guidance of passengers. The design of the station buildings will be inspired by local culture, heritage and architecture, the ministry said.
Kolkata, Aug 4 : Calcutta High Court single judge bench of Justice Tirthankar Ghosh on Friday questioned the Enforcement Directorate (ED) over the custodial trial of Satarupa Bhattacharya, the wife of TMC legislator and former president of West Bengal Board of Primary Education (WBBPE) Manik Bhattacharya, in connection with the multi-crore school job case in West Bengal.

TMC legislator's son Souvik Bhattacharya also been arrested by ED sleuths in connection with the school job case. They are presently in judicial custody.

On Friday Justice Ghosh, despite admitting that there are chances of attempts to tamper with evidence if Satarupa Bhattacharya is released on bail, questioned the progress in the investigation of ED after she had spent days in judicial custody.

"What is the necessity of such a custodial trial?" Justice Ghosh questioned.

The ED's counsel Phiroze Edulji, pointed out that instead of seeking bail at any lower court she had directly moved the Calcutta High Court, which raises the questions about the technicalities of the bail plea.

The matter will be heard again on August 7.

In a previous hearing, the ED had informed the court that both Satarupa Bhattacharya and Souvik Bhattacharya were aware of the former WBBPE president's involvement in the scam and they were also partners in the process.

ED counsel also referred to a joint account held by Satarupa Bhattacharya with a deceased person and said the investigation official doubts that this account might have been used for diversion of scam proceeds.
New Delhi, Aug 4 : Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday welcomed the Supreme Court (SC) verdict staying the conviction of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in 'Modi surname' defamation case saying it will reinforce people's trust in democracy and the judicial system.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal wrote on twitter, "I welcome Supreme Court's intervention in an unjust defamation case against Rahul Gandhi ji."

"It reinforces people's trust in Indian democracy and the judicial system. Congratulations to him and to the people of Wayanad," Kejriwal said referring to the Apex Court's judgement.

AAP Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha said: "The Supreme Court's intervention in an unjust defamation case against Rahul Gandhi reinforces people's trust in our democracy and judicial system. Criminal Defamation has become a tool to suppress the voice of the opposition, which holds the government accountable.

"Soon, I will be introducing a Private Bill titled 'The Decriminalisation of Defamation Bill, 2023' to repeal Sections 499 and 500 of the India Penal Code to bring it in line with international jurisprudence on defamation and repeal these relics of colonial past to ensure fearless discourse," Chadha wrote in a tweet.

SC on Friday stayed the conviction of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in a 2019 defamation case over his Modi surname remark, restoring his status as an MP.

A three-judge bench of Justices B R Gavai, P S Narasimha and Sanjay Kumar said no doubt that the utterances were not in good taste and that a person in public life is expected to exercise caution while making public speeches.

"No reason has been given by the trial judge for imposing maximum sentence, the order of conviction needs to be stayed pending final adjudication," the bench said.

The top court was hearing a plea by Rahul Gandhi challenging the Gujarat High Court verdict which dismissed his plea seeking a stay on his conviction in a defamation case over his 'Modi surname' remark.
Greater Noida, Aug 4 : Everyone, be it the common man or an industrialist, seems to have a wish to own a shop or industry in the areas near Jewar airport in Uttar Pradesh's show window Gautam Budh Nagar ever since the land was allotted for the international airport.

In a exclusive interview with IANS, Yamuna Authority CEO Arun Veer Singh answered queries related to Jewar airport.

Q: So many industries are being set up, so much development is taking place, how much employment will it provide?

A. Industry and infrastructure have a direct relation with employment....In the airport, 50,000 direct employment will be made, while indirect employment will be around 1.5 to 2 lakh. All the industries that are coming up, will employ 5.50 lakh people.

Right now four industries are running here, 69 have got their papers approved.

Q: Till date, which companies of the country and abroad have applied for land here?

A. Many big national and international companies are constantly applying for land in the Yamuna Authority to set up their industries. Sify Data Park is being built. There are a lot of Fortune 500 companies that want to come here. Many national and international companies including Mitsubishi Oil, Tata, Smith, Samson, Siemens have applied for land, and many of them have been allotted the land. There are many Japanese companies who want to invest here, the allotment work is going on continuously for them too.

Q: When will the flight operations begin at Jewar Airport. Any deadline?

A. As per the concession agreement, which is binding on both the parties, the developer as well as the government, the airport has to be operational before October 1, 2024. Test flights will start from the last week of February and the first week of March next year...

There are DGCA norms on how many cargo and commercial flights should be operated. These norms are followed which takes almost six months.... After the successful run of the test flight, it is possible that commercials flights might be operational from August or September.

Q: Was any meeting held with the Aviation Ministry for the security arrangements and other facilities at the airport?

A. For this, a Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) has been constituted by the Union government, which holds a meeting at the Chief Secretary level in every quarter on the construction of every airport. All the agencies involved in this JCC, be it security agencies, customs department, animal husbandry, plant quarantine or animal quarantine, all the departments coordinate with each other and their meetings are held continuously. All the land required by all these departments has been allotted to them, there is no pendency.

Q: What are the works being done on connectivity and transport mode from Jewar Airport?

A. As per the concession agreement, we have to provide two types of connectivity to Jewar airport. We have to provide a connectivity from airport to expressway at 750 meters and the other four interchanges are to be made there, work for which is underway. The NHAI has granted the work for it to Afcons.

If we talk about transport, then it is not mentioned in the concession agreement. However, we will be introducing many different means of transport for the people living here, for the industries set up here for Jewar Airport. But its connection and deadline is not related to the construction of Jewar Airport.

In the mode of transport, we are making a 31 km green field from Ballabhgarh to Jewar Airport for which land has been acquired and work for it is underway from both sides -- Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.

This green field will connect to Mumbai Delhi Expressway. Along with this, work is underway on the project of connecting a high speed rapid train from Sarai Kale Khan to Jewar, and a report has been submitted to NCRTC. Global bed of pod taxi has been proposed.

Q: Around 55 villages have been included in the Yamuna Authority, what is the action plan for them, how they will be developed?

A. Fifty-five villages of Khurja Development Authority and Bulandshahr Development Authority which used to fall in Bulandshahr Development Authority have been notified. The outline of for development is being prepared under the master plan 2041.

Q: How do you see organisation of events like Formula One and MotoGP in future?

A. Motor bike racing and car racing is a huge sector worldwide and has a huge score, it also plays a huge role in the economy. This racing event is conducted in 66 countries of the world. Once Formula One racing was conducted in India, we did not get this opportunity again. So MotoGP is associating with us with whom we have signed a seven-year contract.

Due to the presence of this track of Formula One in the area of aaYamuna Authority, Formula One will also be organised in the near future. This track has been converted in such a way that both car racing and bike racing can be done here. This in itself is a big deal as it will be only the fifth track in the world to have both these facilities.

Q: When did Yamuna Authority start earning profits?

A. Yamuna Authority started earning profit in 2016, even before the Jewar airport came into existence. In 2015, this authority was running in loss. Its profit is increasing every year since 2016. Last year, this authority pegged a profit of Rs 406 crore. After the announcement of Jewar Airport, not only Yamuna Authority but both Noida and Greater Noida authorities have got its benefit. It is India's largest airport, Asia's second largest airport and the world's fourth largest airport, so many nearby districts are getting its benefit.
New Delhi, Aug 4 : The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a plea challenging appointment of former bureaucrat Arun Goel as an Election Commissioner.

A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and S.V.N. Bhatti declined to entertain the public interest litigation (PIL) after noting that a Constitution Bench had already examined the files relating to appointment of Goel earlier.

"You should have pressed for it when hearing was on," the bench told advocate Prashant Bhushan, representing NGO Association for Democratic Reforms, who argued that Goelas appointment was arbitrary as made in haste during hearing of the case by the Constitution Bench.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, defended Goelas appointment and said the Constitution Bench "could have quashed it but it did not".

The bench refused to entertain the plea and dismissed the PIL. Before the Constitution Bench, Bhushan had argued that Goel, who was Secretary to the Union government, applied for voluntary retirement and was immediately appointed as Election Commissioner (EC) thereafter.

He had also filed an application in connection with the appointment saying that though the Constitution Bench was hearing the matter, yet the government made the appointment. The Constitution Bench had then called for files relating to Goelas appointment and asked the Union government to show the mechanism as to how "he was picked up" as the Election Commissioner.

It had asked Attorney General R. Venkataramani about the "tearing urgency, haste" and questioned the "same day process, same day clearance, same day appointment".

The post of one Election Commissioner in the three-member commission went vacant after Sushil Chandra had retired as the CEC. The five-judge Constitution Bench passed the judgment on a batch of petitions seeking a collegium-like system for the appointment of the ECs and the Chief Election Commissioner. It had held that the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and Election Commissioners (ECs) would be appointed by a panel of the Prime Minister, the Leader of Opposition, and the Chief Justice of India.

The Constitution Bench also had said that it is desirable that the grounds of removal of the ECs should be the same as that of the CEC like a Supreme Court judge through the impeachment process.

--IANS

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Chandigarh, Aug 4 : Former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Friday welcomed the decision of the Supreme Court verdict about Rahul Gandhi in the defamation case against him for "mocking" Prime Minister Narendra Modi's surname.

"It is expected that the final verdict will also come in favour of Rahul Gandhi as such a verdict has never come in the case of defamation. There is a clear message from this decision that Rahul Gandhi's voice cannot be suppressed," Hooda said in a statement here.

He said Rahul Gandhi had already said, "We have full faith in the judicial process."

About the violence in Haryana's Nuh district, he said this was the result of the failure of the BJP-JJP government.

"Had the government taken timely steps, this violence would not have happened. The Congress has demanded a judicial inquiry under the supervision of the high court."

"BJP leader and Union minister Rao Inderjit Singh has himself accepted that there is a government lapse. The government proved to be a complete failure in understanding the sensitivity and condition of the matter and taking precautionary measures. Even the local police had already reported the tense situation to the government.

"Despite this, appropriate steps were not taken by the government. But now the law should take all necessary steps. Instigators and rioters should be punished severely," Hooda added.
The number of people diagnosed with severe malnutrition in Ethiopia's war-scarred Tigray region has increased sharply, with conditions set to worsen following a recent halt to food aid, the United Nations said in its latest update.

The UN's World Food Programme and USAID suspended food aid to Africa's second most populous nation last month, citing the widespread diversion of supplies from those in need.

In a situation report released Monday, the UN's humanitarian agency OCHA said an estimated 8.8 million people in northern Ethiopia were in need of food assistance, in addition to millions of others in the country's drought-hit south and southeastern regions.

A peace deal signed in November last year between Ethiopia's government and Tigrayan rebels ended a two-year war, allowing aid flows to gradually pick up pace, but the region has reported "a sharp increase in cases" involving patients diagnosed with medical complications due to acute hunger.

"Compared to (the) same month last year (April 2022): severe acute malnutrition cases admissions increased in Tigray by 196 per cent," the report said, pointing out that the figures could also be "partly attributable to better access to health facilities and data collection".

Across the country, OCHA noted an increase of 15 per cent in "severe acute malnutrition admissions" between January and April this year, compared to the same period in 2022.

"In Tigray, there is a concern on worsening food insecurity among the vulnerable population groups, following the pause of food distributions due to reports of significant diversion of humanitarian food assistance," OCHA said.

The "temporary pause for food aid in Tigray (is) negatively impacting already high malnutrition rates", it added.

Prior to the nationwide suspension, USAID and WFP said in May that they would freeze food aid to Tigray after the agencies discovered that shipments were being diverted to local markets.

Neither agency has identified those responsible for taking the aid and reselling it.

A region of six million people, Tigray has been in the grip of food shortages for over two years, with residents telling AFP last month that they were struggling to feed their families, sometimes consuming just one meal every 24-48 hours.

During the war, UN investigators accused Ethiopia's government of deliberately starving civilians by imposing a de facto blockade on the northern region.

Aid deliveries slowed to a trickle and humanitarian organisations warned of famine-like conditions.

The Ethiopian government denied the allegations, accusing Tigray's rebel authorities of commandeering food aid for their war effort.

A temporary pause in fighting between March and August last year allowed some supplies to reach the stricken region before fresh clashes erupted, with the guns finally falling silent in November after the peace deal was signed.

Around 20 million people in Ethiopia depend on food aid, according to OCHA.

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When Rahul can go to Manipur, why PM can't, asks Tejashwi after disturbing video from state goes viral. Image Source: IANS News

Patna, Aug 4 : Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav on Friday welcomed the Supreme Court verdict staying the conviction of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in the Modi surname criminal defamation case.

"This is a big jolt to the propaganda and compromised system of the BJP. If this would not happen, they would continue their conspiracy against lawmakers of opposition parties and make them stay outside the parliamentary system. Satyamev Jayate," he said.

Congress MLA Ajit Sharma said: aWe welcome the decision of the Supreme Court. It is not only a victory of Rahul Gandhi but it is a victory of the people of the country."
Imphal, Aug 4 : The Manipur Police are undertaking a high-level probe into the loot of a large amount of arms and ammunition from two police outposts in Bishnupur district, Director General of Manipur Police Rajiv Singh said on Friday.

He said that the probe of arms looting is now underway under the supervision of Inspector General of Police-level officer.

"Before completion of the probe, we are unable to disclose the details of the arms looted," the police chief told the media.

A Manipur Police statement late on Thursday night said that a mob ransacked Keirenphabi Police outpost and Thangalawai Police outposts of Manipur Armed Police's 2nd Battalion in Bishnupur and took away a huge cache of arms and ammunition.

The mob, comprising men and women, also attempted to snatch arms and ammunition from Heingang police station and Singjamei police station in the same district but security forces repelled them.

Reports said that the mob looted sophisticated weapons, including AK and 'Ghatak' series of assault rifles, many self-loading rifles and over 19,000 bullets of different calibres.

Meanwhile, a big crowd of around 600 people had gathered at Phougakchao Ikhai in Bishnupur o march towards Churachandpur where tribals were planning to carry out a mass burial of their people killed in ethnic clashes. Clashes took place when the security forces prevented the mob. The security forces fired tear gas shells to disperse the mob in which around 25 persons sustained injuries.

Before the clashes, the mass burial of 30-35 Kuki-Zomi victims, which was scheduled to take place in Tuibuong in Churachandpur, on Thursday, was postponed after the Manipur High Court had earlier in the day ordered to maintain status quo at the proposed burial site.

In a letter to the Indigenous Tribal Leaders' Forum (ITLF) and the Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI), an umbrella body of the Meitei community, Union Minister of state for Home Nityanand Rai on Thursday appealed to maintain peace and communal harmony.

--IANS

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Patna, Aug 4 : The 14 year-old minor son of strongman Hulas Pandey committed suicide by shooting himself in Patna on Friday.

The victim committed suicide by using a licensed revolver by firing himself in head.

Police said that the victim was taken to the nearby Paras hospital where doctors declared him dead.

"We are investigating the incident and waiting for the medical report and postmortem. The actual reason of death will be ascertained after that," said Ramashankar Singh, SHO of Shastrinagar police station Patna.

Hulas Pandey is a former MLC and state vice president of Lok Janshakti Party Ram Vilash.

Pandey resides in MLC flat in Shastri Nagar locality of Patna along with his son.

Hulas Pandey is a known face in Bhojpur and Buxar districts as he is involved in sand mining business in the region.

In June 2020, the NIA conducted simultaneous raids on the premises of Hulas Pandey in Patna, Arrah and Buxar and recovered huge amounts of cash and 1.5 kg gold jewelry.

He is also facing charges over smuggling illegal arms and ammunition.

Strongman Pandey's brother Sunil Pandey is also a gangster. Sunil was also a former MLA of Bhojpur.
New Delhi, Aug 4 : The ongoing hearings over the abrogation of Article 370 vis-A -vis Jammu and Kashmir are predicated on senior advocate Kapil Sibal challenging the validity of the revocation of special status of Jammu and Kashmir.

Advocate Kapil Sibal cites that since Jammu and Kashmir Constitution of 1957 had no provision to alter the special status of Jammu and Kashmir as Parliament cannot assume the role of the state legislature to recommend truncation of the said provision and moreover divide the state into two Union Territories.

The argument being that once the Constituent Assembly lapsed in 1957 without providing any mechanism in the J&K Constitution to amend, alter or abrogate Article 370, it assumed a permanent character which the Union government was aware of since 1957 till August 5, 2019 when it was abrogated.

Kapil Sibal went on to say for the petitioner that this was done through an amazing piece of handiwork containing a mosaic of illegalities that deserve to be junked by the SC.

Equally, it is well established that morally, legally and constitutionally the state of Jammu and Kashmir acceded to India and has since been an integral part of the Union of India.

For the uninitiated on February 15, 1954, the Jammu and Kashmir Constituent Assembly members who were present cast a unanimous vote ratifying the state's accession to India.

The Constituent Assembly was later dissolved in 1957 and a Constitution was drafted which came into force on January 26, 1957 based on the Syed Mir Qasim resolution which had been adopted and ratified on November 17, 1956.

Part II, section 3 of the Constitution stated that the State of Jammu and Kashmir is and shall be an integral part of the Union of India.

Let us look at the facts and timelines as they unfolded. The Instrument of Accession itself, executed on October 26, 1947 under which Maharaja Hari Singh handed over the State to India, had three specific clauses which remain relevant today:

Clause 3: I accept the matters specified in the schedule hereto as the matters with respect to which the Dominion Legislature may make laws for this State.

Clause 5: The terms of this Instrument of Accession shall not be varied by any amendment of the Act or of the Indian Independence Act, 1947, unless such amendment is accepted by an instrument supplementary to this instrument.

Clause 7: Nothing in this Instrument shall be deemed to commit me in any way to acceptance of any future Constitution of India or to fetter my discretion to enter into arrangements with the Government of India under any such future Constitution.

It should become clear that we are taking the position that our autonomy should be consistent with this document that is, autonomy should be in consonance with the Instrument of Accession.

It is pertinent to note that in October 1949, Drafting Committee member Gopalaswami Ayyangar said before the Constituent Assembly:

"We have also agreed that the will of the people through the Instrument of the Constituent Assembly will determine the Constitution of the State as well as the sphere of Union jurisdiction over the State.You will remember that several of these clauses provide for the concurrence of the Government of Jammu and Kashmir State. Now, these relate particularly to matters which are not mentioned in the Instrument of Accession, and it is one of our commitments to the people and Government of Kashmir that no such additions should be made except with the consent of the Constituent Assembly which may be called in the State for the purpose of framing its constitution. In other words, what we are committed to is that these additions are matters for the determination of the Constituent Assembly of the State."

In 1951, when the Constituent Assembly of J&K state was convened, Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah addressed the members and said:

"You are no doubt aware of the scope of our present constitutionalities with India. We are proud to have our bonds with India, the good will of whose people and Government is available to us in unstinted and abundant measure. The constitution of India has provided for a federal Union and in the distribution of sovereign powers has treated us differently from other constitutional units, with the exception of the items grouped under Defence, Foreign Affairs and Communication in the instrument of Accession. We have complete freedom to frame our constitution in the manner we like. In order to live and prosper as good partners in a common endeavour for the advancement of our people, I would advise that while safeguarding our autonomy to the fullest extent so as to enable us to have the liberty to build our country according to the best traditions and genius of our people, we may also by suitable constitutional arrangements with the Union establish our right to seek and compel federal co-operation and assistance in this great task, as well as offer our fullest cooperation and assistance to the Union."

The Delhi Agreement of July 1952 was supposedly an agreement between two individuals, Sheikh Abdullah and PM Nehru. After being signed, the Delhi Agreement was debated in the Lok Sabha on July 24, 1952 by Nehru. It was then adopted. The Rajya Sabha then discussed the agreement on August 5, 1952 and approved it.

On August 11, 1952, Sher-e-Kashmir Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah presented it before the Jammu and Kashmir Constituent Assembly, which also gave its approval. It was, clearly, backed and authorised by the legislatures of both India and Kashmir giving it a stamp of finality. The salient points of the Delhi Agreement also need to be reiterated thus:The decision to abolish the hereditary Dogra dynasty was accepted by New DelhiThe Indian Citizenship Act was made applicable to the state, but the state legislature was empowered to regulate the rights and privileges of permanent residents, specially over acquisition of immovable property and appointment to servicesThe right of state nationals who had gone to Pakistan or Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in 1947 or earlier, to return to their homes was acknowledgedThe President of India was empowered to declare a state of emergency in case of external danger, but in case of internal disturbance the power could be exercised only at the request, or the concurrence of, the state governmentThe President of India was empowered to grant reprieve and commute death sentencesIndia's agreement to the confiscation of jagirs without compensation shall permanently standThe state was allowed its own flag, which was the flag of the National Conference partyThe jurisdiction of the Supreme Court was extended to certain matters; andIt was agreed that Jammu and Ladakh should have cultural and regional autonomy.

Autonomy demand

As Sheikh Abdullah wrestled with the pros and cons of the concept of 'full integration' through the Delhi Agreement, he quickly realised that his dream of limited autonomy was slipping away.

His actions thereafter belied his nationalist character and in a silent coup d'etat, Director of Intelligence Bureau, B N Mullick's dramatic operation saw Abdullah being arrested in Gulmarg.

By the mid-1990s, the demand for autonomy had grown and most people agreed that if there was a solution to the problem, it was the restoration of autonomy.

In a 1994 resolution, the National Conference (NC) clearly stated that: "At this sensitive moment we want to remind the Government of India that the people of the State had joined Indian Union on the basis of some shared principles. The Constitution got stability when the State of Jammu and Kashmir and the Indian Union entered into an agreement in 1952 which is commonly known as Delhi Agreement. After that, the relations got disrupted because the Union of India did not stand by its assurance which resulted in the loss of Autonomy."

The State Autonomy Committee Report of 2000, after long hours of angry deliberation in the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly, is itself vague on specifics.

It points to the 42 constitutional application orders that were issued making Union legislation applicable to the State between 1954 and 1986, as visible evidence of an "erosion of autonomy". It then enters the plea that "not all of these orders can be objected to," though "it is the principle that matters."

At the level of principle, the Central government may have found it difficult to accept that the Constituent Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir ceased to have any legal validity after Sheikh Abdullah was dismissed from his post as Wazir-e-Azam and imprisoned in 1953.

It was on this account that the accord negotiated between Sheikh Abdullah and Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1975 laid down strict limits on the scope of constitutional review.

It allowed for a review of the constitutional provisions that had been applied to Jammu and Kashmir in a modified form, but affirmed that all provisions applied "without adaptation or modification" would be "unalterable".

The July 4, 2000 meeting of the Union Cabinet called Farooq Abdullah's autonomy demand "unacceptable" and threw it out.

Instead, the 'Autonomy for Jammu and Kashmir and the Restructuring of Indian Federalism' was spelt out alliteratively by Narendra Modi, the then party general secretary in-charge of Jammu and Kashmir: development, democracy, dialogue, and the use of the defence forces.

Now the same party official, Modi is the PM and has the chance to make game-changing decisions.

The following section examines some facts pertaining to Kashmir and autonomy:

What is 'greater autonomy', or the Pre-1953 position? The debate in the Jammu and Kashmir Legislature expanded on this theme:

Congress leaders, especially Nehru, created an impression that it was essential to grant special status to Jammu and Kashmir due to its peculiar position.The term 'peculiar position' led communal elements to interpret that Congress had accepted in principle that the 51 Muslim-majority character of the State shall be maintained at all cost.The State was accorded 'Special Status' under Article 370 of the Indian Constitution with hardly any discussion in the Constituent AssemblyIn 1952, Delhi Agreement was concluded between Nehru and Sheikh to give practical shape to the 'Special Status'Under the agreement, the State was given a separate Constitution and its own flag. The Head of the State and Government were given the nomenclature of Sardar-i-Riyasat and Wazir-i-Azam, respectivelyThe people who wished to enter the State of Jammu and Kashmir or go out were required to seek 'Permit' from state authoritiesThe accession of Jammu and Kashmir with the Indian Union was accepted only in terms of three subjects, vis-a-vis defence, foreign affairs and communicationsUnder the circumstances, the Jammu and Kashmir Praja Parishad launched a movement demanding Ek Pradhan, Ek Vidhan and Ek Nishan. More than a dozen workers sacrificed their lives at Hiranagar, Jourian, Sunderbani and Ramban and thousands were arrestedBharatiya Jan Sangh under Shyama Prasad Mookerjee launched a nationwide satyagrah in support of the movement. Mookerjee entered the State on May 8, 1953 without 'Permit'. He was arrested and sent to jail at Srinagar, where he died on June 23, 1953 under mysterious circumstancesSheikh Abdullah, who had succeeded in achieving maximum possible autonomy for the State, was found conspiring with American and Pakistani agents to separate J&K from the Indian Union. He was arrested on August 9, 1953, thus ending one phase of the separatist movement in Jammu and Kashmir

An erosion in the State's autonomy set in between 1953-1975 as pliant governments in Kashmir did the Centre's bidding. During this period, 13 steps were taken systematically, sometimes surreptitiously, to extend various provisions of the Indian Constitution to the Jammu and Kashmir State. The following are some of them:By 1954 Presidential Order the operations of Customs, Central Excise, Civil Aviation, Post and Telegraphs were extendedIn 1958 All India Services  IAS, IPS was introduced and the functions of Comptroller and Auditor General were extendedIn 1959 the legislative entry relating to Census was applied, making way for the conduct of Census of 1961 under Central LawIn 1960 J&K was brought under the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. The jurisdiction of the Election Commission of India was extendedIn 1964 Articles 356 and 357 of the Constitution were applied, making way for the introduction of President Rule in emergenciesIn 1965 a number of legislative entries relating to Welfare of Labour, Trade Unions, Social Security and Social Insurance, were appliedIn 1966 provisions related to direct elections to Lok Sabha were appliedSince 1953 about 337 laws were extended to Jammu and Kashmir State, including those related to Chartered Accountants Law, Coinage Act, Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggler Activities Law, Contempt of Courts Law, Customs law, CopyRight Act, Dangerous Drugs Act, and DelimitationThe visa-type 'Permit System' was abolished

A general sense of ennui soon drifted into the Valley, with the people getting the sense that they had become more weak, as Delhi continued to push the envelope and enfeeble Article 370 and even the Delhi Agreement which, in itself, was the first such attempt at paving the way for full integration rather than limited autonomy.

The bottomline was that Sheikh Abdullah signed off on the Delhi Agreement and then realised that his idea of an autonomous, even semi-independent Kashmir, was merely a delusion, an unreachable pie in the sky.

What were the dangers implied in the recommendations of the State Autonomy Committee? Why did the Union cabinet trash it completely?One of the recommendations of the Committee was that Article 370 which has been incorporated as 'Temporary' be made 'Special' ArticleThe Committee recommended that J&K's accession with the Indian Union be reverted to only three subjects, vis-a-vis Defence, External affairs and Communication. In all other matters, the State will remain independentThe nomenclature of the 'governor' and 'Chief Minister' changed to 'Sadar-i-Riyasat' and 'Prime Minister', respectivelyThe said Sadar-i-Riyasat was to be elected by the State Assembly, making him responsible not to the President of India but to the State AssemblyAnother recommendation provided for the repeal of jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, Election Commission of India, and Comptroller and Auditor General of IndiaThe Committee had also recommended the deletion of Articles 12 to 35 relating to Fundamental RightsThe report had provided for the withdrawal of Central Services such as the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and the Indian Police Service (IPS)It provided that Articles 356 and 357 be made non-applicable to the State of J&K

What would have been the state of affairs in 1989, when Pakistan-sponsored 'death by a thousand cuts' militancy had engulfed the whole Kashmir Valley, had the President of India not declared President's rule in J&K?

Furthermore, National Conference did not exactly cover itself with glory in the first flush of achieving autonomy in 1950. The following are some facts relevant to today's examination:The September 1951 election to the State Constituent Assembly was conducted under State's Election Law. The NC elected all the 75 members rejecting the nomination papers of opposition candidatesThe Kashmiri leaders have grossly misused powers they got under special status to deprive the people of Jammu and Ladakh (more than 50 percent of the population) of their legitimate rights. These people have lived as second-class citizens for the last 50 yearsThe NC government is lending full support (overtly and covertly) to plans of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to convert Jammu and Ladakh to Muslim-majority provinces. During the last few years, about 25,000 Muslim families from Kashmir Valley have constructed their houses in Jammu Province, encroaching on government landsAfter coming to power under the Indra-Sheikh accord of 1975, the NC government passed the Resettlement Bill which provides for the return of thousands of families who left J&K for Pakistan in 1947. The Supreme Court has ordered the withholding of the said bill. What would have been the fate of J & K had the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court not extended to the State?Granting autonomy to J&K has miserably failed to bring the State closer to India as is claimed by the propounders of the idea of 'Greater Autonomy'. On the contrary, it has become a major factor in converting J&K into a breeding ground for ISI and giving rise to militant Muslim separatismIn the 1996 Assembly election the NC obtained less than 15 percent of the total votes. In those elections people had voted for the restoration of democracy. Moreover, it was not a referendum on greater autonomy as is claimed by NCBarring a few, almost all sections of Kashmiri society have expressed their opposition to NC's demand for more autonomy. They include people of the Jammu and Ladakh regions, as well as the Gujjars, Shias, Sikhs and Kashmiri HindusAfter coming to power in 1975, Sheikh Abdullah had also appointed a similar committee under D.D. Thakur, a senior NC Minister, to review various laws extended to J&K from 1953 to 1975. The D.D Thakur Committee recommended that all the legislative entries made during that period are in the interest of the people of the State and thus should not be touched. Sheikh Abdullah had accepted the findings of the Committee

Failed four-point formula

In 2006 the world came close to witnessing the forging of what would be known as the four-point formula for Kashmir which was negotiated between then Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and then Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.

The formula had sought a non-territorial solution for Kashmir. The LoC would become a line on a map that facilitated free and easy travel to Kashmir on both sides; the State would be demilitarised; both parts of the State would receive an agreed quantum of self-rule or 'azadi'; there would be a "joint mechanism" of representatives from both parts, with no executive powers, to supervise the working of the accord and consult on matters of common interest. The solution included free trade and movement across LoC.

WikiLeaks had revealed a US embassy cable, dated April 21, 2009, where Singh had confirmed this 'formula' to a visiting US delegation. Singh told the US delegation that Delhi and Islamabad had made great progress prior to February 2007, when President Musharraf ran into trouble.

"We had reached an understanding in back channels," Singh related, according to the cable.

Singh went on to add that India wanted a strong, stable, peaceful, democratic Pakistan and made no claim on "even an inch" of Pakistani territory.

It is noteworthy that this formula did not incorporate the aspirations of the Kashmiri people, including the Dogras, Kashmiri Pandits, Ladakhis, Sikhs, Christians. The Kashmiri Muslims of all hues including Sunnis, Shias, Gujjars, Bakarwals and Pahadis.

After all, the call for 'azadi' is primarily among the Sunni Kashmiri-speaking Muslims who inhabit the Valley who continue to reject the very idea of being integrated into the Indian Union. Without this crucial input, the Four-Point Formula obviously could not succeed.

Historian and Kashmir expert, AG Noorani, once said as he weighed in on the Singh-Musharraf formula:

"No Indian government can possibly accept Kashmir's secession from the Union and survive; no Pakistani government can possibly accept the LoC [Line of Control] as an international boundary and survive; the Kashmiris will not acquiesce to the partition of their State or the persistent denial of self-rule and human rights."

The four-point formula seemed to have passed Noorani's test: It did not spell Kashmir's secession; did not make the LoC an international boundary; and reunited the State de facto while granting an agreed measure of human rights for east as well as west Kashmir.

There is no difference of opinion with respect to the accession of State with India on two main issues that is -- the Instrument of Accession and the Delhi Agreement.

The rest of the powers, including residual sovereignty, were vested with the State under Article 370. All the Princely States were authorised to frame their own constitution in their respective constituent assemblies.

At that time only four States namely, Saurashtra, Travancore and Cochin, Mysore and J&K chose this option and set up their own Constituent Assemblies. Three of these States did not frame their Constitution, and only J&K formed its own Constituent Assembly and framed its Constitution.

A note of October 26, 1947 to Hari Singh's Prime Minister, Mehar Chand Mahajan, was explicit.

"The Government of India will accept this accession provisionally subject to their declared policy that such matters should be finalised in accordance with the will of the people. Any reference to the people can only take place when law and order have been fully established."

The word 'provisional' occurs in most official documents of the time including the Government of India's White Paper of 1948; at some places the word 'conditional' was used.

Few know that on January 31, 1948, even while the war was on, Hari Singh threatened to 'withdraw the accession that I have made to the Indian Union' (Sardar Patel's Correspondence; page 162). Vallabhbhai Patel overlooked that. He was less generous to Abdullah.

Historian A.G Noorani writes: "In 1953, Nehru concluded an accord with Muhammad Ali Bogra on a regional plebiscite that he did not intend to carry out. It was a tactic to keep the UN out and get time for Bakshi Ghulam Muhammad. Sheikh Abdullah realised too late in the day the wisdom of the advice his colleague Pandit Prem Nath Bazaz gave him in 1947 - decide the issue of accession according to the people's wishes. On the accession, the people were not with him. Both Nehru and Abdullah were opposed to Kashmir's accession to Pakistan. But Nehru was opposed also to its autonomy, except in name. He fought on both fronts and created a mess. Had he fought on one, he might have pulled it off.

Sheikh Saheb could not ignore Nehru's moves, nor the growing popular alienation and his own isolation from the people. He decided to follow the people's mood, not Nehru's, and was jailed.
New Delhi, Aug 4 : The government is likely to slash the import duty on wheat due to rising domestic prices of the staple commodity, official sources said.

Wheat prices have gone up to Rs 2,500 per quintal and with the festival season round the corner, if the government cuts duty now, then it will take imported wheat around 30 to 40 days to reach India, and the landing cost would then be equal to Rs 2,500 per quintal, sources said.

In June, the government had imposed stock limit on wheat to bring down prices.

Government sources, however, ruled out any move to import wheat from Russia.
New Delhi, Aug 4 : The ongoing hearings over the abrogation of Article 370 vis-A -vis Jammu and Kashmir are predicated on senior advocate Kapil Sibal challenging the validity of the revocation of special status of Jammu and Kashmir.

Advocate Kapil Sibal cites that since Jammu and Kashmir Constitution of 1957 had no provision to alter the special status of Jammu and Kashmir as Parliament cannot assume the role of the state legislature to recommend truncation of the said provision and moreover divide the state into two Union Territories.

The argument being that once the Constituent Assembly lapsed in 1957 without providing any mechanism in the J&K Constitution to amend, alter or abrogate Article 370, it assumed a permanent character which the Union government was aware of since 1957 till August 5, 2019 when it was abrogated.

Kapil Sibal went on to say for the petitioner that this was done through an amazing piece of handiwork containing a mosaic of illegalities that deserve to be junked by the SC.

Equally, it is well established that morally, legally and constitutionally the state of Jammu and Kashmir acceded to India and has since been an integral part of the Union of India.

For the uninitiated on February 15, 1954, the Jammu and Kashmir Constituent Assembly members who were present cast a unanimous vote ratifying the state's accession to India.

The Constituent Assembly was later dissolved in 1957 and a Constitution was drafted which came into force on January 26, 1957 based on the Syed Mir Qasim resolution which had been adopted and ratified on November 17, 1956.

Part II, section 3 of the Constitution stated that the State of Jammu and Kashmir is and shall be an integral part of the Union of India.

Let us look at the facts and timelines as they unfolded. The Instrument of Accession itself, executed on October 26, 1947 under which Maharaja Hari Singh handed over the State to India, had three specific clauses which remain relevant today:

Clause 3: I accept the matters specified in the schedule hereto as the matters with respect to which the Dominion Legislature may make laws for this State.

Clause 5: The terms of this Instrument of Accession shall not be varied by any amendment of the Act or of the Indian Independence Act, 1947, unless such amendment is accepted by an instrument supplementary to this instrument.

Clause 7: Nothing in this Instrument shall be deemed to commit me in any way to acceptance of any future Constitution of India or to fetter my discretion to enter into arrangements with the Government of India under any such future Constitution.

It should become clear that we are taking the position that our autonomy should be consistent with this document that is, autonomy should be in consonance with the Instrument of Accession.

It is pertinent to note that in October 1949, Drafting Committee member Gopalaswami Ayyangar said before the Constituent Assembly:

"We have also agreed that the will of the people through the Instrument of the Constituent Assembly will determine the Constitution of the State as well as the sphere of Union jurisdiction over the State.You will remember that several of these clauses provide for the concurrence of the Government of Jammu and Kashmir State. Now, these relate particularly to matters which are not mentioned in the Instrument of Accession, and it is one of our commitments to the people and Government of Kashmir that no such additions should be made except with the consent of the Constituent Assembly which may be called in the State for the purpose of framing its constitution. In other words, what we are committed to is that these additions are matters for the determination of the Constituent Assembly of the State."

In 1951, when the Constituent Assembly of J&K state was convened, Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah addressed the members and said:

"You are no doubt aware of the scope of our present constitutionalities with India. We are proud to have our bonds with India, the good will of whose people and Government is available to us in unstinted and abundant measure. The constitution of India has provided for a federal Union and in the distribution of sovereign powers has treated us differently from other constitutional units, with the exception of the items grouped under Defence, Foreign Affairs and Communication in the instrument of Accession. We have complete freedom to frame our constitution in the manner we like. In order to live and prosper as good partners in a common endeavour for the advancement of our people, I would advise that while safeguarding our autonomy to the fullest extent so as to enable us to have the liberty to build our country according to the best traditions and genius of our people, we may also by suitable constitutional arrangements with the Union establish our right to seek and compel federal co-operation and assistance in this great task, as well as offer our fullest cooperation and assistance to the Union."

The Delhi Agreement of July 1952 was supposedly an agreement between two individuals, Sheikh Abdullah and PM Nehru. After being signed, the Delhi Agreement was debated in the Lok Sabha on July 24, 1952 by Nehru. It was then adopted. The Rajya Sabha then discussed the agreement on August 5, 1952 and approved it.

On August 11, 1952, Sher-e-Kashmir Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah presented it before the Jammu and Kashmir Constituent Assembly, which also gave its approval. It was, clearly, backed and authorised by the legislatures of both India and Kashmir giving it a stamp of finality. The salient points of the Delhi Agreement also need to be reiterated thus:The decision to abolish the hereditary Dogra dynasty was accepted by New Delhi

The Indian Citizenship Act was made applicable to the state, but the state legislature was empowered to regulate the rights and privileges of permanent residents, specially over acquisition of immovable property and appointment to services

The right of state nationals who had gone to Pakistan or Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in 1947 or earlier, to return to their homes was acknowledged

The President of India was empowered to declare a state of emergency in case of external danger, but in case of internal disturbance the power could be exercised only at the request, or the concurrence of, the state government

The President of India was empowered to grant reprieve and commute death sentences

India's agreement to the confiscation of jagirs without compensation shall permanently stand

The state was allowed its own flag, which was the flag of the National Conference party

The jurisdiction of the Supreme Court was extended to certain matters; and

It was agreed that Jammu and Ladakh should have cultural and regional autonomy.

Autonomy demand

As Sheikh Abdullah wrestled with the pros and cons of the concept of 'full integration' through the Delhi Agreement, he quickly realised that his dream of limited autonomy was slipping away.

His actions thereafter belied his nationalist character and in a silent coup d'etat, Director of Intelligence Bureau, B N Mullick's dramatic operation saw Abdullah being arrested in Gulmarg.

By the mid-1990s, the demand for autonomy had grown and most people agreed that if there was a solution to the problem, it was the restoration of autonomy.

In a 1994 resolution, the National Conference (NC) clearly stated that: "At this sensitive moment we want to remind the Government of India that the people of the State had joined Indian Union on the basis of some shared principles. The Constitution got stability when the State of Jammu and Kashmir and the Indian Union entered into an agreement in 1952 which is commonly known as Delhi Agreement. After that, the relations got disrupted because the Union of India did not stand by its assurance which resulted in the loss of Autonomy."

The State Autonomy Committee Report of 2000, after long hours of angry deliberation in the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly, is itself vague on specifics.

It points to the 42 constitutional application orders that were issued making Union legislation applicable to the State between 1954 and 1986, as visible evidence of an "erosion of autonomy". It then enters the plea that "not all of these orders can be objected to," though "it is the principle that matters."

At the level of principle, the Central government may have found it difficult to accept that the Constituent Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir ceased to have any legal validity after Sheikh Abdullah was dismissed from his post as Wazir-e-Azam and imprisoned in 1953.

It was on this account that the accord negotiated between Sheikh Abdullah and Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1975 laid down strict limits on the scope of constitutional review.

It allowed for a review of the constitutional provisions that had been applied to Jammu and Kashmir in a modified form, but affirmed that all provisions applied "without adaptation or modification" would be "unalterable".

The July 4, 2000 meeting of the Union Cabinet called Farooq Abdullah's autonomy demand "unacceptable" and threw it out.

Instead, the 'Autonomy for Jammu and Kashmir and the Restructuring of Indian Federalism' was spelt out alliteratively by Narendra Modi, the then party general secretary in-charge of Jammu and Kashmir: development, democracy, dialogue, and the use of the defence forces.

Now the same party official, Modi is the PM and has the chance to make game-changing decisions.

The following section examines some facts pertaining to Kashmir and autonomy:

What is 'greater autonomy', or the Pre-1953 position? The debate in the Jammu and Kashmir Legislature expanded on this theme:

Congress leaders, especially Nehru, created an impression that it was essential to grant special status to Jammu and Kashmir due to its peculiar position.The term 'peculiar position' led communal elements to interpret that Congress had accepted in principle that the 51 Muslim-majority character of the State shall be maintained at all cost

The State was accorded 'Special Status' under Article 370 of the Indian Constitution with hardly any discussion in the Constituent Assembly

In 1952, Delhi Agreement was concluded between Nehru and Sheikh to give practical shape to the 'Special Status'

Under the agreement, the State was given a separate Constitution and its own flag. The Head of the State and Government were given the nomenclature of Sardar-i-Riyasat and Wazir-i-Azam, respectively

The people who wished to enter the State of Jammu and Kashmir or go out were required to seek 'Permit' from state authorities

The accession of Jammu and Kashmir with the Indian Union was accepted only in terms of three subjects, vis-a-vis defence, foreign affairs and communications

Under the circumstances, the Jammu and Kashmir Praja Parishad launched a movement demanding Ek Pradhan, Ek Vidhan and Ek Nishan. More than a dozen workers sacrificed their lives at Hiranagar, Jourian, Sunderbani and Ramban and thousands were arrested

Bharatiya Jan Sangh under Shyama Prasad Mookerjee launched a nationwide satyagrah in support of the movement. Mookerjee entered the State on May 8, 1953 without 'Permit'. He was arrested and sent to jail at Srinagar, where he died on June 23, 1953 under mysterious circumstances

Sheikh Abdullah, who had succeeded in achieving maximum possible autonomy for the State, was found conspiring with American and Pakistani agents to separate J&K from the Indian Union. He was arrested on August 9, 1953, thus ending one phase of the separatist movement in Jammu and Kashmir

An erosion in the State's autonomy set in between 1953-1975 as pliant governments in Kashmir did the Centre's bidding. During this period, 13 steps were taken systematically, sometimes surreptitiously, to extend various provisions of the Indian Constitution to the Jammu and Kashmir State. The following are some of them:By 1954 Presidential Order the operations of Customs, Central Excise, Civil Aviation, Post and Telegraphs were extended

In 1958 All India Services  IAS, IPS was introduced and the functions of Comptroller and Auditor General were extended

In 1959 the legislative entry relating to Census was applied, making way for the conduct of Census of 1961 under Central Law

In 1960 J&K was brought under the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. The jurisdiction of the Election Commission of India was extended

In 1964 Articles 356 and 357 of the Constitution were applied, making way for the introduction of President Rule in emergencies

In 1965 a number of legislative entries relating to Welfare of Labour, Trade Unions, Social Security and Social Insurance, were applied

In 1966 provisions related to direct elections to Lok Sabha were applied

Since 1953 about 337 laws were extended to Jammu and Kashmir State, including those related to Chartered Accountants Law, Coinage Act, Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggler Activities Law, Contempt of Courts Law, Customs law, CopyRight Act, Dangerous Drugs Act, and Delimitation

The visa-type 'Permit System' was abolished

A general sense of ennui soon drifted into the Valley, with the people getting the sense that they had become more weak, as Delhi continued to push the envelope and enfeeble Article 370 and even the Delhi Agreement which, in itself, was the first such attempt at paving the way for full integration rather than limited autonomy.

The bottomline was that Sheikh Abdullah signed off on the Delhi Agreement and then realised that his idea of an autonomous, even semi-independent Kashmir, was merely a delusion, an unreachable pie in the sky.

What were the dangers implied in the recommendations of the State Autonomy Committee? Why did the Union cabinet trash it completely?One of the recommendations of the Committee was that Article 370 which has been incorporated as 'Temporary' be made 'Special' Article

The Committee recommended that J&K's accession with the Indian Union be reverted to only three subjects, vis-a-vis Defence, External affairs and Communication. In all other matters, the State will remain independent

The nomenclature of the 'governor' and 'Chief Minister' changed to 'Sadar-i-Riyasat' and 'Prime Minister', respectively

The said Sadar-i-Riyasat was to be elected by the State Assembly, making him responsible not to the President of India but to the State Assembly

Another recommendation provided for the repeal of jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, Election Commission of India, and Comptroller and Auditor General of IndiaThe Committee had also recommended the deletion of Articles 12 to 35 relating to Fundamental Rights

The report had provided for the withdrawal of Central Services such as the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and the Indian Police Service (IPS)

It provided that Articles 356 and 357 be made non-applicable to the State of J&K

What would have been the state of affairs in 1989, when Pakistan-sponsored 'death by a thousand cuts' militancy had engulfed the whole Kashmir Valley, had the President of India not declared President's rule in J&K?

Furthermore, National Conference did not exactly cover itself with glory in the first flush of achieving autonomy in 1950. The following are some facts relevant to today's examination:The September 1951 election to the State Constituent Assembly was conducted under State's Election Law. The NC elected all the 75 members rejecting the nomination papers of opposition candidates

The Kashmiri leaders have grossly misused powers they got under special status to deprive the people of Jammu and Ladakh (more than 50 percent of the population) of their legitimate rights. These people have lived as second-class citizens for the last 50 years

The NC government is lending full support (overtly and covertly) to plans of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to convert Jammu and Ladakh to Muslim-majority provinces. During the last few years, about 25,000 Muslim families from Kashmir Valley have constructed their houses in Jammu Province, encroaching on government lands

After coming to power under the Indra-Sheikh accord of 1975, the NC government passed the Resettlement Bill which provides for the return of thousands of families who left J&K for Pakistan in 1947. The Supreme Court has ordered the withholding of the said bill. What would have been the fate of J & K had the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court not extended to the State?

Granting autonomy to J&K has miserably failed to bring the State closer to India as is claimed by the propounders of the idea of 'Greater Autonomy'. On the contrary, it has become a major factor in converting J&K into a breeding ground for ISI and giving rise to militant Muslim separatism

In the 1996 Assembly election the NC obtained less than 15 percent of the total votes. In those elections people had voted for the restoration of democracy. Moreover, it was not a referendum on greater autonomy as is claimed by NC

Barring a few, almost all sections of Kashmiri society have expressed their opposition to NC's demand for more autonomy. They include people of the Jammu and Ladakh regions, as well as the Gujjars, Shias, Sikhs and Kashmiri Hindus

After coming to power in 1975, Sheikh Abdullah had also appointed a similar committee under D.D. Thakur, a senior NC Minister, to review various laws extended to J&K from 1953 to 1975. The D.D Thakur Committee recommended that all the legislative entries made during that period are in the interest of the people of the State and thus should not be touched. Sheikh Abdullah had accepted the findings of the Committee

Failed four-point formula

In 2006 the world came close to witnessing the forging of what would be known as the four-point formula for Kashmir which was negotiated between then Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and then Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.

The formula had sought a non-territorial solution for Kashmir. The LoC would become a line on a map that facilitated free and easy travel to Kashmir on both sides; the State would be demilitarised; both parts of the State would receive an agreed quantum of self-rule or 'azadi'; there would be a "joint mechanism" of representatives from both parts, with no executive powers, to supervise the working of the accord and consult on matters of common interest. The solution included free trade and movement across LoC.

WikiLeaks had revealed a US embassy cable, dated April 21, 2009, where Singh had confirmed this 'formula' to a visiting US delegation. Singh told the US delegation that Delhi and Islamabad had made great progress prior to February 2007, when President Musharraf ran into trouble.

"We had reached an understanding in back channels," Singh related, according to the cable.

Singh went on to add that India wanted a strong, stable, peaceful, democratic Pakistan and made no claim on "even an inch" of Pakistani territory.

It is noteworthy that this formula did not incorporate the aspirations of the Kashmiri people, including the Dogras, Kashmiri Pandits, Ladakhis, Sikhs, Christians. The Kashmiri Muslims of all hues including Sunnis, Shias, Gujjars, Bakarwals and Pahadis.

After all, the call for 'azadi' is primarily among the Sunni Kashmiri-speaking Muslims who inhabit the Valley who continue to reject the very idea of being integrated into the Indian Union. Without this crucial input, the Four-Point Formula obviously could not succeed.

Historian and Kashmir expert, AG Noorani, once said as he weighed in on the Singh-Musharraf formula:

"No Indian government can possibly accept Kashmir's secession from the Union and survive; no Pakistani government can possibly accept the LoC [Line of Control] as an international boundary and survive; the Kashmiris will not acquiesce to the partition of their State or the persistent denial of self-rule and human rights."

The four-point formula seemed to have passed Noorani's test: It did not spell Kashmir's secession; did not make the LoC an international boundary; and reunited the State de facto while granting an agreed measure of human rights for east as well as west Kashmir.

There is no difference of opinion with respect to the accession of State with India on two main issues that is -- the Instrument of Accession and the Delhi Agreement.

The rest of the powers, including residual sovereignty, were vested with the State under Article 370. All the Princely States were authorised to frame their own constitution in their respective constituent assemblies.

At that time only four States namely, Saurashtra, Travancore and Cochin, Mysore and J&K chose this option and set up their own Constituent Assemblies. Three of these States did not frame their Constitution, and only J&K formed its own Constituent Assembly and framed its Constitution.

A note of October 26, 1947 to Hari Singh's Prime Minister, Mehar Chand Mahajan, was explicit.

"The Government of India will accept this accession provisionally subject to their declared policy that such matters should be finalised in accordance with the will of the people. Any reference to the people can only take place when law and order have been fully established."

The word 'provisional' occurs in most official documents of the time including the Government of India's White Paper of 1948; at some places the word 'conditional' was used.

Few know that on January 31, 1948, even while the war was on, Hari Singh threatened to 'withdraw the accession that I have made to the Indian Union' (Sardar Patel's Correspondence; page 162). Vallabhbhai Patel overlooked that. He was less generous to Abdullah.

Historian A.G Noorani writes: "In 1953, Nehru concluded an accord with Muhammad Ali Bogra on a regional plebiscite that he did not intend to carry out. It was a tactic to keep the UN out and get time for Bakshi Ghulam Muhammad. Sheikh Abdullah realised too late in the day the wisdom of the advice his colleague Pandit Prem Nath Bazaz gave him in 1947 - decide the issue of accession according to the people's wishes. On the accession, the people were not with him. Both Nehru and Abdullah were opposed to Kashmir's accession to Pakistan. But Nehru was opposed also to its autonomy, except in name. He fought on both fronts and created a mess. Had he fought on one, he might have pulled it off.

Sheikh Saheb could not ignore Nehru's moves, nor the growing popular alienation and his own isolation from the people. He decided to follow the people's mood, not Nehru's, and was jailed.
New Delhi, Aug 4 : The ongoing hearings over the abrogation of Article 370 vis-a-vis Jammu and Kashmir are predicated on senior advocate Kapil Sibal challenging the validity of the revocation of special status of Jammu and Kashmir.

Advocate Kapil Sibal cites that since Jammu and Kashmir Constitution of 1957 had no provision to alter the special status of Jammu and Kashmir as Parliament cannot assume the role of the state legislature to recommend truncation of the said provision and moreover divide the state into two Union Territories.

The argument being that once the Constituent Assembly lapsed in 1957 without providing any mechanism in the J&K Constitution to amend, alter or abrogate Article 370, it assumed a permanent character which the Union government was aware of since 1957 till August 5, 2019 when it was abrogated.

Kapil Sibal went on to say for the petitioner that this was done through an amazing piece of handiwork containing a mosaic of illegalities that deserve to be junked by the SC.

Equally, it is well established that morally, legally and constitutionally the state of Jammu and Kashmir acceded to India and has since been an integral part of the Union of India.

For the uninitiated on February 15, 1954, the Jammu and Kashmir Constituent Assembly members who were present cast a unanimous vote ratifying the state's accession to India.

The Constituent Assembly was later dissolved in 1957 and a Constitution was drafted which came into force on January 26, 1957 based on the Syed Mir Qasim resolution which had been adopted and ratified on November 17, 1956.

Part II, section 3 of the Constitution stated that the State of Jammu and Kashmir is and shall be an integral part of the Union of India.

Let us look at the facts and timelines as they unfolded. The Instrument of Accession itself, executed on October 26, 1947 under which Maharaja Hari Singh handed over the State to India, had three specific clauses which remain relevant today:

Clause 3: I accept the matters specified in the schedule hereto as the matters with respect to which the Dominion Legislature may make laws for this State.

Clause 5: The terms of this Instrument of Accession shall not be varied by any amendment of the Act or of the Indian Independence Act, 1947, unless such amendment is accepted by an instrument supplementary to this instrument.

Clause 7: Nothing in this Instrument shall be deemed to commit me in any way to acceptance of any future Constitution of India or to fetter my discretion to enter into arrangements with the Government of India under any such future Constitution.

It should become clear that we are taking the position that our autonomy should be consistent with this document that is, autonomy should be in consonance with the Instrument of Accession.

It is pertinent to note that in October 1949, Drafting Committee member Gopalaswami Ayyangar said before the Constituent Assembly:

"We have also agreed that the will of the people through the Instrument of the Constituent Assembly will determine the Constitution of the State as well as the sphere of Union jurisdiction over the State.You will remember that several of these clauses provide for the concurrence of the Government of Jammu and Kashmir State. Now, these relate particularly to matters which are not mentioned in the Instrument of Accession, and it is one of our commitments to the people and Government of Kashmir that no such additions should be made except with the consent of the Constituent Assembly which may be called in the State for the purpose of framing its constitution. In other words, what we are committed to is that these additions are matters for the determination of the Constituent Assembly of the State."

In 1951, when the Constituent Assembly of J&K state was convened, Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah addressed the members and said:

"You are no doubt aware of the scope of our present constitutionalities with India. We are proud to have our bonds with India, the good will of whose people and Government is available to us in unstinted and abundant measure. The constitution of India has provided for a federal Union and in the distribution of sovereign powers has treated us differently from other constitutional units, with the exception of the items grouped under Defence, Foreign Affairs and Communication in the instrument of Accession. We have complete freedom to frame our constitution in the manner we like. In order to live and prosper as good partners in a common endeavour for the advancement of our people, I would advise that while safeguarding our autonomy to the fullest extent so as to enable us to have the liberty to build our country according to the best traditions and genius of our people, we may also by suitable constitutional arrangements with the Union establish our right to seek and compel federal co-operation and assistance in this great task, as well as offer our fullest cooperation and assistance to the Union."

The Delhi Agreement of July 1952 was supposedly an agreement between two individuals, Sheikh Abdullah and PM Nehru. After being signed, the Delhi Agreement was debated in the Lok Sabha on July 24, 1952 by Nehru. It was then adopted. The Rajya Sabha then discussed the agreement on August 5, 1952 and approved it.

On August 11, 1952, Sher-e-Kashmir Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah presented it before the Jammu and Kashmir Constituent Assembly, which also gave its approval. It was, clearly, backed and authorised by the legislatures of both India and Kashmir giving it a stamp of finality. The salient points of the Delhi Agreement also need to be reiterated thus:

The decision to abolish the hereditary Dogra dynasty was accepted by New Delhi

The Indian Citizenship Act was made applicable to the state, but the state legislature was empowered to regulate the rights and privileges of permanent residents, specially over acquisition of immovable property and appointment to services

The right of state nationals who had gone to Pakistan or Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in 1947 or earlier, to return to their homes was acknowledged

The President of India was empowered to declare a state of emergency in case of external danger, but in case of internal disturbance the power could be exercised only at the request, or the concurrence of, the state government

The President of India was empowered to grant reprieve and commute death sentences

India's agreement to the confiscation of jagirs without compensation shall permanently stand

The state was allowed its own flag, which was the flag of the National Conference party

The jurisdiction of the Supreme Court was extended to certain matters; and

It was agreed that Jammu and Ladakh should have cultural and regional autonomy.

Autonomy demand

As Sheikh Abdullah wrestled with the pros and cons of the concept of 'full integration' through the Delhi Agreement, he quickly realised that his dream of limited autonomy was slipping away.

His actions thereafter belied his nationalist character and in a silent coup d'etat, Director of Intelligence Bureau, B N Mullick's dramatic operation saw Abdullah being arrested in Gulmarg.

By the mid-1990s, the demand for autonomy had grown and most people agreed that if there was a solution to the problem, it was the restoration of autonomy.

In a 1994 resolution, the National Conference (NC) clearly stated that: "At this sensitive moment we want to remind the Government of India that the people of the State had joined Indian Union on the basis of some shared principles. The Constitution got stability when the State of Jammu and Kashmir and the Indian Union entered into an agreement in 1952 which is commonly known as Delhi Agreement. After that, the relations got disrupted because the Union of India did not stand by its assurance which resulted in the loss of Autonomy."

The State Autonomy Committee Report of 2000, after long hours of angry deliberation in the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly, is itself vague on specifics.

It points to the 42 constitutional application orders that were issued making Union legislation applicable to the State between 1954 and 1986, as visible evidence of an "erosion of autonomy". It then enters the plea that "not all of these orders can be objected to," though "it is the principle that matters."

At the level of principle, the Central government may have found it difficult to accept that the Constituent Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir ceased to have any legal validity after Sheikh Abdullah was dismissed from his post as Wazir-e-Azam and imprisoned in 1953.

It was on this account that the accord negotiated between Sheikh Abdullah and Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1975 laid down strict limits on the scope of constitutional review.

It allowed for a review of the constitutional provisions that had been applied to Jammu and Kashmir in a modified form, but affirmed that all provisions applied "without adaptation or modification" would be "unalterable".

The July 4, 2000 meeting of the Union Cabinet called Farooq Abdullah's autonomy demand "unacceptable" and threw it out.

Instead, the 'Autonomy for Jammu and Kashmir and the Restructuring of Indian Federalism' was spelt out alliteratively by Narendra Modi, the then party general secretary in-charge of Jammu and Kashmir: development, democracy, dialogue, and the use of the defence forces.

Now the same party official, Modi is the PM and has the chance to make game-changing decisions.

The following section examines some facts pertaining to Kashmir and autonomy:

What is 'greater autonomy', or the Pre-1953 position? The debate in the Jammu and Kashmir Legislature expanded on this theme:

Congress leaders, especially Nehru, created an impression that it was essential to grant special status to Jammu and Kashmir due to its peculiar position.

The term 'peculiar position' led communal elements to interpret that Congress had accepted in principle that the 51 Muslim-majority character of the State shall be maintained at all cost

The State was accorded 'Special Status' under Article 370 of the Indian Constitution with hardly any discussion in the Constituent Assembly

In 1952, Delhi Agreement was concluded between Nehru and Sheikh to give practical shape to the 'Special Status'

Under the agreement, the State was given a separate Constitution and its own flag. The Head of the State and Government were given the nomenclature of Sardar-i-Riyasat and Wazir-i-Azam, respectively

The people who wished to enter the State of Jammu and Kashmir or go out were required to seek 'Permit' from state authorities

The accession of Jammu and Kashmir with the Indian Union was accepted only in terms of three subjects, vis-a-vis defence, foreign affairs and communications

Under the circumstances, the Jammu and Kashmir Praja Parishad launched a movement demanding Ek Pradhan, Ek Vidhan and Ek Nishan. More than a dozen workers sacrificed their lives at Hiranagar, Jourian, Sunderbani and Ramban and thousands were arrested

Bharatiya Jan Sangh under Shyama Prasad Mookerjee launched a nationwide satyagrah in support of the movement. Mookerjee entered the State on May 8, 1953 without 'Permit'. He was arrested and sent to jail at Srinagar, where he died on June 23, 1953 under mysterious circumstances

Sheikh Abdullah, who had succeeded in achieving maximum possible autonomy for the State, was found conspiring with American and Pakistani agents to separate J&K from the Indian Union. He was arrested on August 9, 1953, thus ending one phase of the separatist movement in Jammu and Kashmir

An erosion in the State's autonomy set in between 1953-1975 as pliant governments in Kashmir did the Centre's bidding. During this period, 13 steps were taken systematically, sometimes surreptitiously, to extend various provisions of the Indian Constitution to the Jammu and Kashmir State. The following are some of them:

By 1954 Presidential Order the operations of Customs, Central Excise, Civil Aviation, Post and Telegraphs were extended

In 1958 All India Services  IAS, IPS was introduced and the functions of Comptroller and Auditor General were extended

In 1959 the legislative entry relating to Census was applied, making way for the conduct of Census of 1961 under Central Law

In 1960 J&K was brought under the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. The jurisdiction of the Election Commission of India was extended

In 1964 Articles 356 and 357 of the Constitution were applied, making way for the introduction of President Rule in emergencies

In 1965 a number of legislative entries relating to Welfare of Labour, Trade Unions, Social Security and Social Insurance, were applied

In 1966 provisions related to direct elections to Lok Sabha were applied

Since 1953 about 337 laws were extended to Jammu and Kashmir State, including those related to Chartered Accountants Law, Coinage Act, Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggler Activities Law, Contempt of Courts Law, Customs law, CopyRight Act, Dangerous Drugs Act, and Delimitation

The visa-type 'Permit System' was abolished

A general sense of ennui soon drifted into the Valley, with the people getting the sense that they had become more weak, as Delhi continued to push the envelope and enfeeble Article 370 and even the Delhi Agreement which, in itself, was the first such attempt at paving the way for full integration rather than limited autonomy.

The bottomline was that Sheikh Abdullah signed off on the Delhi Agreement and then realised that his idea of an autonomous, even semi-independent Kashmir, was merely a delusion, an unreachable pie in the sky.

What were the dangers implied in the recommendations of the State Autonomy Committee? Why did the Union cabinet trash it completely?

One of the recommendations of the Committee was that Article 370 which has been incorporated as 'Temporary' be made 'Special' Article

The Committee recommended that J&K's accession with the Indian Union be reverted to only three subjects, vis-a-vis Defence, External affairs and Communication. In all other matters, the State will remain independent

The nomenclature of the 'governor' and 'Chief Minister' changed to 'Sadar-i-Riyasat' and 'Prime Minister', respectively

The said Sadar-i-Riyasat was to be elected by the State Assembly, making him responsible not to the President of India but to the State Assembly

Another recommendation provided for the repeal of jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, Election Commission of India, and Comptroller and Auditor General of India

The Committee had also recommended the deletion of Articles 12 to 35 relating to Fundamental Rights

The report had provided for the withdrawal of Central Services such as the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and the Indian Police Service (IPS)

It provided that Articles 356 and 357 be made non-applicable to the State of J&K

What would have been the state of affairs in 1989, when Pakistan-sponsored 'death by a thousand cuts' militancy had engulfed the whole Kashmir Valley, had the President of India not declared President's rule in J&K?

Furthermore, National Conference did not exactly cover itself with glory in the first flush of achieving autonomy in 1950. The following are some facts relevant to today's examination:

The September 1951 election to the State Constituent Assembly was conducted under State's Election Law. The NC elected all the 75 members rejecting the nomination papers of opposition candidates

The Kashmiri leaders have grossly misused powers they got under special status to deprive the people of Jammu and Ladakh (more than 50 percent of the population) of their legitimate rights. These people have lived as second-class citizens for the last 50 years

The NC government is lending full support (overtly and covertly) to plans of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to convert Jammu and Ladakh to Muslim-majority provinces. During the last few years, about 25,000 Muslim families from Kashmir Valley have constructed their houses in Jammu Province, encroaching on government lands

After coming to power under the Indra-Sheikh accord of 1975, the NC government passed the Resettlement Bill which provides for the return of thousands of families who left J&K for Pakistan in 1947. The Supreme Court has ordered the withholding of the said bill. What would have been the fate of J & K had the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court not extended to the State?

Granting autonomy to J&K has miserably failed to bring the State closer to India as is claimed by the propounders of the idea of 'Greater Autonomy'. On the contrary, it has become a major factor in converting J&K into a breeding ground for ISI and giving rise to militant Muslim separatism

In the 1996 Assembly election the NC obtained less than 15 percent of the total votes. In those elections people had voted for the restoration of democracy. Moreover, it was not a referendum on greater autonomy as is claimed by NC

Barring a few, almost all sections of Kashmiri society have expressed their opposition to NC's demand for more autonomy. They include people of the Jammu and Ladakh regions, as well as the Gujjars, Shias, Sikhs and Kashmiri Hindus

After coming to power in 1975, Sheikh Abdullah had also appointed a similar committee under D.D. Thakur, a senior NC Minister, to review various laws extended to J&K from 1953 to 1975. The D.D Thakur Committee recommended that all the legislative entries made during that period are in the interest of the people of the State and thus should not be touched. Sheikh Abdullah had accepted the findings of the Committee

Failed four-point formula

In 2006 the world came close to witnessing the forging of what would be known as the four-point formula for Kashmir which was negotiated between then Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and then Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.

The formula had sought a non-territorial solution for Kashmir. The LoC would become a line on a map that facilitated free and easy travel to Kashmir on both sides; the State would be demilitarised; both parts of the State would receive an agreed quantum of self-rule or 'azadi'; there would be a "joint mechanism" of representatives from both parts, with no executive powers, to supervise the working of the accord and consult on matters of common interest. The solution included free trade and movement across LoC.

WikiLeaks had revealed a US embassy cable, dated April 21, 2009, where Singh had confirmed this 'formula' to a visiting US delegation. Singh told the US delegation that Delhi and Islamabad had made great progress prior to February 2007, when President Musharraf ran into trouble.

"We had reached an understanding in back channels," Singh related, according to the cable.

Singh went on to add that India wanted a strong, stable, peaceful, democratic Pakistan and made no claim on "even an inch" of Pakistani territory.

It is noteworthy that this formula did not incorporate the aspirations of the Kashmiri people, including the Dogras, Kashmiri Pandits, Ladakhis, Sikhs, Christians. The Kashmiri Muslims of all hues including Sunnis, Shias, Gujjars, Bakarwals and Pahadis.

After all, the call for 'azadi' is primarily among the Sunni Kashmiri-speaking Muslims who inhabit the Valley who continue to reject the very idea of being integrated into the Indian Union. Without this crucial input, the Four-Point Formula obviously could not succeed.

Historian and Kashmir expert, AG Noorani, once said as he weighed in on the Singh-Musharraf formula:

"No Indian government can possibly accept Kashmir's secession from the Union and survive; no Pakistani government can possibly accept the LoC [Line of Control] as an international boundary and survive; the Kashmiris will not acquiesce to the partition of their State or the persistent denial of self-rule and human rights."

The four-point formula seemed to have passed Noorani's test: It did not spell Kashmir's secession; did not make the LoC an international boundary; and reunited the State de facto while granting an agreed measure of human rights for east as well as west Kashmir.

There is no difference of opinion with respect to the accession of State with India on two main issues that is -- the Instrument of Accession and the Delhi Agreement.

The rest of the powers, including residual sovereignty, were vested with the State under Article 370. All the Princely States were authorised to frame their own constitution in their respective constituent assemblies.

At that time only four States namely, Saurashtra, Travancore and Cochin, Mysore and J&K chose this option and set up their own Constituent Assemblies. Three of these States did not frame their Constitution, and only J&K formed its own Constituent Assembly and framed its Constitution.

A note of October 26, 1947 to Hari Singh's Prime Minister, Mehar Chand Mahajan, was explicit.

"The Government of India will accept this accession provisionally subject to their declared policy that such matters should be finalised in accordance with the will of the people. Any reference to the people can only take place when law and order have been fully established."

The word 'provisional' occurs in most official documents of the time including the Government of India's White Paper of 1948; at some places the word 'conditional' was used.

Few know that on January 31, 1948, even while the war was on, Hari Singh threatened to 'withdraw the accession that I have made to the Indian Union' (Sardar Patel's Correspondence; page 162). Vallabhbhai Patel overlooked that. He was less generous to Abdullah.

Historian A.G Noorani writes: "In 1953, Nehru concluded an accord with Muhammad Ali Bogra on a regional plebiscite that he did not intend to carry out. It was a tactic to keep the UN out and get time for Bakshi Ghulam Muhammad. Sheikh Abdullah realised too late in the day the wisdom of the advice his colleague Pandit Prem Nath Bazaz gave him in 1947 - decide the issue of accession according to the people's wishes. On the accession, the people were not with him. Both Nehru and Abdullah were opposed to Kashmir's accession to Pakistan. But Nehru was opposed also to its autonomy, except in name. He fought on both fronts and created a mess. Had he fought on one, he might have pulled it off.

Sheikh Saheb could not ignore Nehru's moves, nor the growing popular alienation and his own isolation from the people. He decided to follow the people's mood, not Nehru's, and was jailed.
Kathmandu, Aug 4 : At least 11 Nepali nationals have gone missing after they were swept away by a landslide that struck the Indian state of Uttarakhand, the media reported.

The landslide struck Gauri Kund town in Uttarakhand at around 11.30 p.m. on Thursday night.

The Nepalese-origin people are feared to be buried after the landslide washed away three hotels in Gauri Kund -- the town that serves as a base camp for the trekkers to Kedarnath, according to the Kathmandu Post.

Most of those missing in the mudslide are from Patarasi Rural Municipality of Jumla, a remote mountain district of Karnali Province.

Citing the media reports, Nepal's Ministry of Foreign Affairs is likely to take up the matter with the Indian government of India for the search and rescue of Nepalese-origin people.

It is believed that those Nepali and Indian nationals who went missing were on their way to Kedarnath.

Three bodies have been recovered till now.

Those who went missing were staying in three local hotels.

"Most of these Nepali nationals belonged to Jumla district. As of now, we have received information that around 12 people have gone missing," Purna Chanda Bohora, chairman of the Patarashi Rural Municipality of Jumla district said, the number of missing Nepali citizens could go up.
New Delhi, Aug 4 : Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday said that it carried out searches at multiple locations in Mumbai and Kerala, including the residential of Puthenveettil Joseph Mathew aka P.J. Mathew Proprietor of Mathew International, Mumbai in connection with illegally and dishonestly collecting crores of rupees from emigrants by indulging in criminal activity.

The ED said that the agency carried out searches at multiple locations on August 2 and 3 in Mumbai and Kerala on the premises linked to Mathew and multiple other business and residential premises.

The ED in a statement said that during searches, several bank accounts with cumulative balance of Rs 76 lakh have been freezed and documents of immovable properties at a total market value of Rs 12 crore have been seized.

The ED registered a case of money laundering investigation on the basis of CBI FIR Mathew and others.

The financial probe agency said that during the probe it was revealed that during the year 2015, Mathew along with his son, Thomas Mathew aka Tom Mathew, hatched a criminal conspiracy with Mahmood Naina Prabhu, Proprietor, Munavarra Associates, Mumbai to recruit nurses for Ministry of Health, Kuwait by using the license fraudulently obtained by Munavarra Associates from the Government of India.

It said that Mathew further obtained demand letters and authorisation letters from Jezan International and Al-Amar Company, Kuwait in the name of Munavvara Associates, Mumbai for recruitment of nurses for the Ministry of Health, Kuwait. Adolphus, then Protector of Emigrants, Cochin also joined the conspiracy.

"Subsequently, they conducted the above recruitment of nurses at Cochin by collecting exorbitant service charges (to the tune of approximately Rs 20 lakh) from each candidate as against the maximum prescribed limit of Rs 20,000. Mathew and his associates thus, thereby cheated the nursing emigrants, and derived proceeds of crime to the tune of Rs. 205.71 crore," it added.
New Delhi, Aug 4 : Philosopher and former Union minister Dr Karan Singh stressed the importance of inter-faith harmony and the relevance of the inclusive philosophy of Vedanta at a time when the world is experiencing unrest and strife from Ukraine to Sudan to Manipur.

In a message that acquired relevance in the light of the communal violence in neighbouring Nuh, Haryana, Dr Singh, a well-known commentator on Hinduism and chairperson of the Dharmarth Trust of Jammu and Kashmir, emphasised that "Hinduism is a tolerant religion with multi forms of the one divine. It is very important to respect each other's faiths and accept each other in our different beliefs."

Dr Singh was speaking at an international conference in the Capital to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission. He was joined by stalwart swamis of the Mission as well as Dr Kazi Nurul Islam, Founding Chair, Department of World Religions and Culture, Dhaka University, Swami Satyamayananda, Head, Vedanta Society, Seattle (USA), and Dr Liliana Malkova from the Ramakrishna Mission Society Vedanta Centre, Moscow.

The Ramakrishna Mission New Delhi, which is 96 years old, now plans to follow up on the international conference with a youth meet and a national-level seminar in September and October this year.

Swami Vivekananda founded the Ramakrishna Math and Mission at Belur on the outskirts of Kolkata on May 1, 1897, with funds he raised from his western followers.

Wedded to its central principle of worshipping God by serving humanity, the Mission has been engaged in relief activities during natural calamities, health care, education, empowerment of women as well as rural and tribal uplift (from the Maoist belt of Chhattisgarh to Arunachal Pradesh). Today, it is spread across 270 branches in India and overseas (from Fiji and Mauritius to the US).
Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on Thursday vowed to dismantle all paramilitary forces in the country, saying the rise of these illegal groups posed "a significant risk" to national unity.

In April, the government began a surprise operation to disarm and dismantle the myriad state-based "special forces" units that exist outside the national army and the law in Africa's second-most populous country.

The push to integrate paramilitary fighters into the national army or state police has provoked strong resistance and violent demonstrations in Amhara, with Addis Ababa accused of trying to weaken the region.

"The disbanding of these special forces is based on a demand from parliament and the public interest," Abiy told the lower house of parliament.

"They pose a significant risk to national unity. We have seen that in Sudan."

Sudan has been in chaos since mid-April, when fighting erupted between a powerful paramilitary force and the national army.

"There will be no armed military other than defence and police and other regular security forces (in Ethiopia). We will continue this operation until we ensure this," Abiy said.

"It is not selectively targeted Amhara as claimed. It focuses on all regions."

Ethiopia is split into states drawn along linguistic and ethnic lines and the constitution affords these regions some autonomy, including their own institutions and a regional police force.

In recent years, however, some states have slowly raised their own armed forces under regional control, which have been quietly tolerated though operating outside the law.

The special forces in Amhara, backed by a local militia, proved a crucial ally to the national army during the two-year war against the Tigray region's rebellious leadership and their fighters.

A peace deal ended the conflict in November but the agreement was not welcomed by many in the Amhara community, the second largest ethnic group in Ethiopia, and once its economic and political elite.

Disputes over territory have for years pitted the Amhara against Tigray's ruling elites, who long dominated Ethiopia's federal government until Abiy came to power in 2018.

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New Delhi, Aug 4 : The Supreme Court has held that witnesses from West Bengal are expected to convey their version in Hindi before a motor claims tribunal in Uttar Pradesh, as Hindi is the "national language".

A bench of Justice Dipankar Datta was hearing an application filed by a vehicle owner seeking transfer of a claim petition pending before a Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (MACT) in Uttar Pradesh's Fatehgarh to West Bengal's Darjeeling.

It was argued that the accident had taken place at Siliguri in Darjeeling district and, therefore, it would be expedient for the MACT at Darjeeling to decide the claim petition. Also, it was said that since all the witnesses of the petitioner (owner of offending vehicle) are from Siliguri, the Hindi language in Uttar Pradesh could be a barrier in the claim procedure.

However, the apex court dismissed the transfer petition, filed under Section 25 of the Code of Civil Procedure Code, 1908, saying that if the case is transferred to Siliguri, the claimants would be "seriously prejudiced" not being in a position to communicate and convey their version in Bengali.

"In a country as diverse as India, it is no doubt true that people speak different languages. There are at least 22 official languages. However, Hindi being the national language, it is expected of the witnesses who would be produced by the petitioner (vehicle owner)to communicate and convey their version in Hindi," the Supreme Court said.

Presently, the law provides that claimants can lodge an application for compensation at the place where the accident has occurred or at a place where claimants reside or carry on business or the defendant resides.

--IANS

puneet/vd
New Delhi, Aug 4 : The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday said that it has arrested Shahshikant Kumar and a court sent him to six day agency's custody in connection with the case of Kotak Mahindra Bank fraud in Bihar's Patna.

The financial probe agency in a statement said that Kumar was arrested on August 2 after his return from Dubai at the Bhubaneswar airport as a look out circular was opened against him. A Special PMLA court in Patna on Friday sent him to ED custody for six days. On August 2, the court had sent him to judicial custody till August 7.

The ED said that Kumar was arrested under the sections of Money Laundering under PMLA, 2002 in the case of Kotak Mahindra Bank fraud.

The ED case is based on the FIR registered by Patna Police under various sections of IPC 1860.

In its chargesheet the police alleged that 13 fraudulent transactions totaling to Rs 31.93 crore from the bank account of Competent Authority for Land Acquisition (CALA) cum District Land Acquisition Officer (DLAO) were executed and funds were siphoned off using bank accounts of various shells or dummy entities causing huge loss to government exchequer.

The ED said that during ED probe, Sumit Kumar, the then bank manager, Kotak Mahindra Bank posted at Boring Road Branch in Patna was arrested by ED on July 10 this year.

The ED said, "Probe revealed that Kumar was one of the close associates of Sumit Kumar in siphoning of government funds and he arranged entities and their bank accounts for routing of funds and subsequently facilitated conversion of the same into cash."

"He assisted Sumit Kumar and his associates in transfer of funds using hawala channels," it added.
Raigad : , Aug 4 (IANS) National Award winning art director Nitin Chandrakant Desai was cremated with full state honours in a corner of his famous shooting studios in Khalapur on Friday evening, but few from Bollywood turned up for his last rites.

Desai, 57, died by hanging at one of his studios in the N. D. Art World Pvt. Ltd. - which he had nurtured for nearly two decades a" on the morning of August 2. After the autopsy in Sir J. J. Hospital in Mumbai, his body was kept briefly for people to pay their last respects at the hospital this morning.

Prominent among those who reached there included Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Deputy CM Ajit Pawar, Minister M. P. Lodha, Bharatiya Janata Party Mumbai chief Ashish Shelar and others. Later it was taken in an ambulance to his studio in Khalapur, near Karjat in Raigad and kept for two hours to enable his legion of fans and admirers to take a final adarshana.

Among the prominent personalities from Bollywood and Marathi film industry who turned up for the funeral were actor Aamir Khan, Manoj Joshi, Ashutosh Gowarikear, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Avinash Narkar, Aadesh Bandekar, Amol Kolhe, Subodh Bhave, Mansi Naik, while Salman Khan represented by his make-up artist Rajubhai and others.

Several politicians from different political parties also turned up including Chhatrapati Udayanraje Bhosale, Vinod Tawade, Mahendra Thorve and others. From the immediate family were his shocked mother Meenatai C. Desai, Nitinas grieving wife Neha, their children a" son Kant, daughters Tanvi and Mansi with her husband, and his paternal uncle Shrikant Desai a" who worked and encouraged him for decades in the film industry and at the Raigad studios.

Nearly all the 75-odd staffers of the studios, many of whom were local villagers and enjoyed a great personal rapport with Nitin Desai, close friends like Motiram Thombare, Sudhir Thombare and their entire group, several among them seen weeping after his last glimpse, also paid their tearful homage.

Breaking traditions, daughter Mansi with tears streaming down her cheeks, lent a shoulder to her fatheras body for a short stretch to the funeral pyre within the studio complex as per Desaias wishes.

After the police gun salute and other official formalities, the gathering also saluted Desai, while some rent cries of aNitin Desai Amar Rahea as the pyre was lit under a grey atmosphere with a cloudy sky.

In a brief interaction with the media, Aamir later said it was "tragic and difficult to believe that Desai was no more, and wished that he had tried to reach out for help with his financial problems". "I knew him for many years, last we met around 8 months ago for a couple of hours. He did a lot of brilliant and amazing work. We have lost a very special persona We had no inkling of his troublesa" he said.

The Thombares - who were with Desai and helped even with the studio construction work - said that he will be sorely missed by the people of surrounding villages for whom he had done a lot over the years.

Earlier on Friday, a stoic Neha Desai filed a complaint with Khalapur police station accusing the ECL/Edelweiss group and is executives of harassment and mental torture which drove her husband to take the extreme step that has shaken Bollywood.

(Quaid Najmi can be contacted at: q.najmi@ians.in)
Melbourne, Aug 4 : The Supreme Court in Australia's Queensland state has overturned a law banning Sikh religious dagger (Kirpan) on school grounds calling it "unconstitutional".

The ruling by the state's highest court came after Kamaljit Kaur Athwal took the state government to court last year, claiming that the ban discriminated against the kirpan -- one of five religious symbols that Sikhs are supposed to carry at all times as part of their faith.

Ruling in Athwal's favour, the state's highest court found the legislation to be unconstitutional under the Racial Discrimination Act, ABC News reported on Thursday.

An initial court ruling last year had dismissed the suggestion that the ban on carrying knives was discriminatory. But this week, three judges in the Court of Appeal found that a section of the Queensland Weapons Act of 1990 -- which bans carrying knives in public places and schools -- is inconsistent with Section 10 of the Commonwealth Racial Discrimination Act of 1975.

In response, the Queensland Education Department said it is considering the implications of the court decision. "As this legal decision has just been handed down, the department will now consider any implications."

Athwal's lawyer was cited as saying by the ABC News that the court had a difficult task "to balance the human rights of individuals to practice their religion and express their faith with the human rights of student and teacher safety".

"Today marks the day that members of the Sikh faith can practice their faith and positively participate without discrimination as proud members of their local school communities," the lawyer said, adding that her client is pleased with the court's decision.

--IANS

mi/vd
Bengaluru, Aug 4 : Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Friday welcomed the decision of the Supreme Court in connection with issuing a stay on Rahul Gandhi's conviction.

CM Siddaramaiah said that the Supreme Court has upheld the freedom of expression as stated in the constitution. Rahul Gandhi has got justice and it is a victory for democracy.

He was speaking to the media after inaugurating a flower show at Lal Bagh today.

Meanwhile, the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin took to social media to welcome the decision.

"Justice prevails! Wayanad retains Rahul Gandhi! Welcome the Hon'ble Supreme Court's decision staying the conviction of dear brother Thiru Rahul Gandhi in the defamation case. This decision reaffirms our belief in the strength of our judiciary and the importance of safeguarding democratic values," he wrote.

SC on Friday stayed the conviction of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in a 2019 defamation case over his Modi surname remark, restoring his status as an MP.

A three-judge bench of Justices B R Gavai, P S Narasimha and Sanjay Kumar said no doubt that the utterances were not in good taste and that a person in public life is expected to exercise caution while making public speeches.

"No reason has been given by the trial judge for imposing maximum sentence, the order of conviction needs to be stayed pending final adjudication," the bench said.

The top court was hearing a plea by Rahul Gandhi challenging the Gujarat High Court verdict which dismissed his plea seeking a stay on his conviction in a defamation case over his 'Modi surname' remark.
Eligible candidates can apply in online, offline modes for management quota in GGSIPU-affiliated colleges: Delhi HC. Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi, Aug 4 : The Delhi High Court on Friday said that candidates seeking admission to colleges affiliated with Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University (GGSIPU) under the Management Quota seats will be eligible to apply in both online and offline modes.

Justices Suresh Kumar Kait and Neena Bansal Krishna directed the university to establish an online portal displaying available seats under the Management Quota for various branches and colleges to enable prospective students to apply online or offline for these seats.

The court upheld the university's circular from September 22, 2022, which allowed prospective students to apply online for Management Quota seats. However, the court modified this directive, allowing applications in both online and offline modes.

The appeal by the Vivekananda Institute of Professional Studies (VIPS), a private institution affiliated with the university, was disposed of.

It instructed the university and the Delhi Government to issue the necessary orders to comply with these directions within two weeks.

The court clarified that these directives wouldn't apply to the 2022-23 session and wouldn't disrupt seats filled until that point under the Management Quota.

VIPS had challenged a single judge's order from May 17, which had upheld the validity of circulars issued by the Delhi Government and the university in September and October in 2022.

The court noted that the opinion rendered by the single judge of fair and transparent admission regulations, remains valid.
New Delhi, Aug 4 : IndiGo and Air India on Friday faced double trouble when their aircraft, on different routes, encountered engine snags shortly after takeoff.

The IndiGo flight was on the domestic Patna-Delhi route, while the Air India aircraft was en route from Mumbai to London.

Fortunately, both planes safely returned to the airports they had taken off from.

"IndiGo flight 6E-2433 operating from Patna to Delhi returned to origin due to a technical issue. Standard operating procedures were followed to prioritise the landing and the aircraft landed safely at Patna," said the airline spokesperson.

"The aircraft is currently at Patna airport and undergoing inspection," the IndiGo spokesperson added.

As per sources, there was an inflight shutdown of one of its CFM LEAP engines, however, IndiGo's Airbus A320 safely returned and landed back in Patna.

The aircraft was carrying approximately 190 passengers at the time of the incident.

Air India, in a statement, said that AI-131, operating from Mumbai to London, air-returned and made a safe precautionary landing at Mumbai due to a suspected technical glitch.

"As Air India gives top priority to safety issues, the aircraft is undergoing thorough checks. Arrangements for flying the passengers to their destinations at the earliest are in process," said the airline spokesperson.
New Delhi, Aug 4 : With former Congress president Rahul Gandhi set to return to Parliament after his conviction in a defamation case was stayed by the Supreme Court, a question that has been making rounds in political circles is whether he would be able to initiate the Opposition's no-confidence motion discussion in the House against Prime Minister Narenda Modi-led government.

According to sources, Rahul Gandhi's Lok Sabha membership is likely to be restored by Monday or Tuesday.

A copy of the Supreme Court verdict would also be sent to the Lok Sabha Secretariat following which the necessary procedures would be followed as well. A notification is also likely to be issued regarding the restoration of Rahul Gandhi's Lok Sabha membership.

The discussion on no-confidence motion against the Narendra Modi government is likely to be taken up on August 8 over the notice submitted by Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi on July 26.

According to rules, as the notice has been submitted by Gogoi, he will have to initiate the discussion on behalf of the Opposition.

Also, it is being said that the Congress strategists would not want to miss an opportunity to attack the government after Gandhi returns to the House.

According to sources aware of Parliamentary rules, if Gandhi wants to start the discussion on the no-confidence motion on behalf of the Opposition he can do so, but it would be possible only in two scenarios.

First -- Rahul Gandhi's membership should be restored by Monday or Tuesday morning, and second -- when Gaurav Gogoi's name is called out by the Speaker, he will have to propose Rahul Gandhi's name to speak in his place.

A discussion on the no-confidence motion against the Modi government is likely to start on August 8. PM Modi would reply to the debate on August 10.
Hubballi, Aug 4 : The Karnataka police have launched a hunt for a college student who is putting up vulgar posts on Hindu girls and has also challenged the police to catch him, the police said on Friday. The incident took place in Hubballi city.

Following the development, the Vidyanagar police in Hubballi visited a college and started an investigation. His posts have gone viral and raised concern among parents and the general public in Hubballi.

A preliminary probe has revealed that the accused is a student of a private college. He edited the photos of Hindu college girls to make them look vulgar and posted them on Instagram. He also challenged the police to catch him.

The police spoke to the Principal of the college and recorded statements of the students.

--IANS

mka/kvd
New Delhi, Aug 4 : The Supreme Court on Friday affirmed the bail granted to Preeti Chandra, wife of Unitech promoter Sanjay Chandra, by the Delhi High Court in connection with a money laundering case.

A bench, headed by CJI D. Y. Chandrachud and comprising Justices J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, refused to interfere with the order of the Delhi High Court granting her bail as it disposed of the plea filed by the ED.

It noted that Preeti Chandra has undergone over 620 days of custody and considerations relevant to the adjudication of an application for cancellation of bail are distinct from those which weigh in the grant of bail.

In addition to the terms and conditions which have been imposed by the High Court, the top directed that Chandra will not leave the limits of the NCR region. It added that she will report once every two weeks to the Investigating Officer and will not dispose of any property without specific permission of the special court.

"She has already applied for relinquishing her Dominican Republic citizenship," the court was told by senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who appeared for Chandra.

The Supreme Court had directed her to unconditionally undertake to relinquish her Dominican citizenship and to apply for Indian citizenship. On June 16, a vacation bench of the Supreme Court had stayed the direction of the Delhi High Court granting bail to Preeti Chandra.

The bench of Justice Jasmeet Singh, however, had said that the high court order will not take effect till June 16, after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) sought time to challenge the order. The money laundering investigation was initiated by the ED in 2021 on the basis of various FIRs filed by the Delhi Police and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against Unitech Group and its promoters on home buyers' complaints.

The probe agency had arrested founder of Unitech Group Ramesh Chandra, Preeti Chandra, and Rajesh Malik of Carnousite Group in 2021. It has been alleged that the Unitech Ltd, where the accused Ramesh Chandra is the Chairman, the co-accused Ajay Chandra and Sanjay Chandra are the Directors, collected funds from home buyers, for housing projects.

However, according to the ED, the fund was not used for the purpose for which it was collected. The accused persons diverted this amount into several other accounts, the agency alleged, adding that the accused persons transferred over Rs 2,000 crore to Cyprus and the Cayman Islands.

According to the ED, accused Preeti Chandra received proceeds of crime Rs 107.40 crores in her company Prakausli Investments Pvt Ltd.
Ethiopia's Deputy Prime Minister Demeke Mekonnen said he was worried by the escalation of violence in northern Amhara region after clashes between federal troops and local fighters prompted Britain and Spain to issue security warnings.

Related Ethiopian PM vows to dismantle all paramilitary forces in country

The federal government's decision in April to dismantle regional forces established by some states prompted violent protests in Amhara, with Amhara nationalists claiming the move would weaken Ethiopia's second most populous region.

Late Wednesday, Deputy PM Demeke said that "the security problems that are seen in different areas of Amhara region are becoming worrisome".

"We are at a historical time where we should be mindful of the fact 'If you don't have peace you will lose everything'," he posted on Facebook, without identifying the parties involved in the clashes.

Ethiopian army spokesman Getnet Adane told a press conference this week that fighters claiming to be from the local militia Fano were responsible for the violence.

"We will take measures against those who in any way attacked our army or facilitated the attack on our army," he said, denouncing fighters "who trade on the name of any force", including Fano.

Britain's Foreign Office warned its citizens against travelling to certain parts of Amhara, citing "increased violence in these areas characterised by Fano taking control of these areas".

"Most recently Lalibela Airport has been taken over by Fano militias," it said, referring to the tourist town which is home to 12th and 13th century rock-cut churches listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

No Ethiopian media has reported on any incidents in Lalibela, but the Spanish Embassy in Addis Ababa on Tuesday also urged its nationals not to travel to Amhara, citing "instability" in the region.

"Spaniards who are in Lalibela are advised not to leave their hotels or homes and contact the Embassy in Addis Ababa," it said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Amhara's regional forces and local militias backed federal troops in their two-year war against Tigrayan rebels, until a peace deal was signed in November 2022, angering Amhara nationalists.

Despite the peace agreement, Amhara "special forces" and Fano fighters continue to control Western Tigray, an area claimed by both the Amhara and Tigrayans.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said in April that the decision to disband regional forces and integrate them into the national army or regional police would bolster multi-ethnic Ethiopia's "unity".

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Amaravati, Aug 4 : Violence broke out in Andhra Pradesh's Chittoor and Annamayya districts on Friday after the police denied permission for Telugu Desam Party (TDP) President N. Chandrababu Naidu's visit to Punganur town.

Police reportedly opened fire in the air after a baton charge and tear gas shells failed to bring the situation under control.

Some TDP workers and policemen were injured while two vehicles were set afire.

Police used the force after TDP workers staged a protest demanding the police to allow Naidu to visit the town and allegedly indulged in violence.

The former Chief Ministeras convoy was stopped by police at Beemaganipalli on the outskirts of Punganur as the permission was denied for his visit to the town. Police even parked a truck in the middle of the road to stop the TDP leader.

TDP workers accompanying Naidu demanded that police remove the hurdle and allow him to visit the town. There was a heated argument between the protestors and police officials. Some protestors allegedly indulged in stone pelting.

Police undertook a baton charge and fired tear gas shells to bring the situation under control. When this failed, the police opened fire in the air.

Earlier, there was a clash between supporters of TDP and ruling YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) at Angallu in Annamayya district. Trouble broke out when YSRCP workers tried to remove banners put up for Naiduas visit. TDP activists tried to stop them, leading to a clash between the two sides. The groups fought pitched battles with stones and sticks.

More violence was reported after Naiduas convoy passed through Angallu. Some YSRCP workers allegedly attacked TDP men. Few people were injured and about 20 vehicles were damaged in the violence. The TDP alleged that police acted in a biased manner.

Meanwhile, Chandrababu Naidu blamed state minister Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy and police for the violence. He appealed to police personnel not to allow themselves to be used by the ruling YSR Congress Party (YSRCP).

Addressing people from an open-top jeep at bypass road on the outskirts of Punganur, he demanded an inquiry into the incidents and action against the guilty.

The Leader of the Opposition said he would never forget these incidents. YSRCP leaders had threatened to disrupt Naiduas visit to the town. Apprehending the law and order problem, the police had denied permission.

The TDP President is on a state-wide visit to "expose the YSRCP governmentas failure in handling and completing various irrigation projects". He is visiting key irrigation projects during his 10-day tour covering a distance of 2,500 km.
Mumbai, Aug 4 : Actor Vijay Varma, who is known for 'Gully Boy', 'Pink', 'Dahaad' and others, is on cloud 9 with the response to his recent releases like 'Lust Stories 2', 'Dahaad' and 'Kaalkoot'. The actor says that the connection that he has established with the audience gives him the motivation to make bold choices.

With each project, Vijay has effortlessly demonstrated his versatility as an actor, garnering accolades and applause from critics and fans alike.

Reflecting on his recent string of successes, Vijay said, "It feels awesome to have back to back successes and to receive this magnitude of love and compliments. Wherever I go I keep hearing about 'Dahaad', 'Lust Stories 2' and now 'Kaalkoot'".

He further mentioned: "I've realised that there's a strong connection that the audience has with me and that gives me motivation to make bolder choices and work harder. I am on cloud 9 and want to thank everyone who applauded for me.. like any performer would do on stage. Taking a bow."

Looking at Vijay Varma's upcoming projects, the actor has a very interesting lineup. He will be next seen in 'Mirzapur 3' and 'Devotion of Suspect X', in which he will share the screen with Kareena Kapoor Khan and Jaideep Ahlawat. He also has 'Murder Mubarak' in the pipeline in which he will be seen opposite Sara Ali Khan.
Agartala, Aug 4 : Tension gripped Tripura's border Sepahijala district on Friday and a huge contingent of security forces was deployed after a student belonging to the minority community was brutally attacked by a group of "outsiders", belonging to a different community.

Police said that the incident occurred after Mohammad Illyas Sarkar, a class 10 student of a government-aided Higher Secondary School in Bishalghar sub-division protested against "outsiders" for preventing Muslim girl students wearing hijab.

Police and Fire and Emergency Service Personnel immediately rushed to the school and rescued the injured boy and shifted to the hospital.

The incident sparked outrage among the locals leading to a road blocked in protest against the attack.

The Sepahijala district police in a Facebook post said : "An incident of assault upon a student of Karaimura Higher Secondary School under Bishalgarh PS, Sepahijala District has been reported to Bishalgarh PS.

"Police immediately rushed to the spot and brought the situation under control. A specific case in this regard has been registered and investigation is in progress.

"It is clarified that the incident is in no way related to any religious issue as circulated in some platforms. We request all to maintain peace and tranquility in the area. Pls avoid any kind of rumour. Rumour mongers will be booked and strict action will be taken against them."

A group of students later ransacked the headmaster's room in protest against the attack by the outsiders.

The locals alleged that Sarkar was dragged out of the school premises and beaten in front of the school, while no teacher, including the headmaster, came to his rescue.

Priyatosh Nandi, the headmaster of the Karaimura Higher Secondary school, later said that a week ago, a group of former students, all affiliated with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), met him to raise concerns about allowing Muslim girl students to wear hijab in the school premises and requested him to enforce a ban on it.

They asked the headmaster to ask all students to wear the common school uniforms.

Nandi, however, said that he was not aware about the state governmentas norms about the wearing of hijab by the students in the school premises.

As Muslim girls continue to come to school wearing hijab, a group of Hindu students also attended school in saffron-coloured kurtas on Thursday.

As a precautionary measure, classes have been suspended on Friday in an effort to deescalate the situation.

A huge contingent of Central Reserve Police Force were deployed in and around the school premises.

Authorities are closely monitoring the situation, and efforts are being made to resolve the issue and restore peace in the district, bordering Bangladesh.

The main opposition CPI-M condemned the attack on the minority student and demanded action against the VHP members.

Local BJP MLA Sukanta Deb also condemned the attack.

A similar controversy erupted in Karnataka early last year after a college barred wearing Hijab inside educational institutions.

The issue rocked the state soon and a case is currently pending in the Supreme Court on this matter.
Kolkata, Aug 4 : Calcutta High Court single judge bench of Justice Tirthankar Ghosh on Friday extended protection to TMC National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee against coercive action by central investigative agencies in the West Bengal school job case till August 17.

The next date of hearing has been scheduled on August 17 and the verdict is expected to be delivered on the next day.

On Friday, the counsel for Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Additional Solicitor General S.V. Raju claimed in the court that Banerjee was summoned by ED for the purpose of securing information about the school job case.

The investigative agency wants to interrogate him, he added, and claimed that if anyone is not named as accused till date will also not be named as accused in future.

However, Justice Ghosh, not satisfied with the logic of the ED counsel, questioned the success rate of ED in West Bengal. He also observed that if any accused had to be granted bail because of the delay in investigation it is surely not a factor of satisfaction for the court. "This sends a bad signal about the agency concerned," Justice Ghosh observed.

After Banerjee's counsel approached the bench of Justice Ghosh with the plea for dismissal of the case in the matter, the ED's counsel objected to the matter being heard at this particular bench.

Thereafter, Justice Ghosh recused from hearing the matter. However, later Calcutta High Court Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam referred the matter back to the court of Justice Ghosh.
Govt imposes anti-dumping duty on optic fibre imports on three countries. Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi, August 4 : Government has imposed anti-dumping duty on optic fibres from countries like China, Korea and Indonesia, aiming to insulate domestic industries from cheap imports, which are capturing the markets.

Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) has imposed the anti-dumping duty.

It was issued through a gazette notification issued on August 3.

"The anti-dumping duty imposed under this notification shall be effective for a period of five years (unless revoked, superseded or amended earlier) from the date of publication," the notification said.

Local manufacturers have been complaining that cheap imports, particularly from China, are hurting their business, thus resulting in the imposition of anti-dumping duty.

Investigation by the DGTR found that dumping did have a significant impact on Indian manufacturers.
Trump pleads not guilty in election case, his third criminal case yet. Image Source: IANS News

Washington, Aug 4 : Former US President Donald Trump is the front runner for the GOP nomination for the 2024 presidential election showing the three indictments handed down to him by courts and juries have had little impact on his growing public popularity.

US media recalls the National NBC News poll conducted after the 1st indictment in the hush money case and now after the arraignment in DC other polls shows the party is split over whether Trump should remain the leader of the GOP or not, but most other surveys conducted in the wake of the indictments show his popularity has not dwindled, media reports say.

Trump has actually expanded his lead over his nearest rival Florida Govenor Ron DeSantis and the rest seeking the GOP nomination, since the ex-president's indictment on federal criminal charges, according to the NBC news poll.

Trump has emerged as the front runner as most of his supporters in the GOP and the public feel greatly influenced by his statement soon after his arraignment in the courts in DC: "This is a political persecution against an opposition candidate."

Trump had pleaded not guilty to all four charges of felony in the federal jury's indictment of trying to overthrow the 2020 verdict, by deceit and fraud, influencing his V-P to decertify the verdict and the climax of January 6 insurrection on capitol, all of which smacked of a conspiracy.

To defeat former President Trump in the Republican primary, close rivals such as Ron DeSantis and former Vice President Mike Pence, they have to overcome the significant advantages he has with key pillar GOP voter groups, the latest NPR/PBS Newshour Maris poll finds.

In spite of his legal problems, Republican primary voters continue to say they like Trump -- better than anyone in the field.

Former President Barack Obama had also warned Joe Biden of Trump's political strengths in polarising voters and his pull with GOP elders.

Almost two-thirds say they would rather have a candidate who stands on principle than that has the best chance to defeat President Biden.

Republican primary voters say they believe the indictments and investigations Trump faces are politically motivated. And they would not consider another candidate other than Trump.

Ron DeSantis leads the table of opponents as the alternate face of the Republican party and donors with former VP Mike Pence, besides others such as Nikki Haley, former South Carolina governor and Trump appointee as UN ambassador, Vivek Ramaswamy, an entrepreneur and former governor Christie.

One more Indian has thrown his hat into the ring. Besides two other Republicans are in the field, an author and a businessman.

One needs 40,000 donors to show muscle as a candidate to be able to face off Trump or Ron DeSantis in a presidential debate.

Some 51 per cent of the national Republican primary voters pick the former president as their first choice in the race for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, followed by 22 per cent who choose DeSantis, 7 per cent who select former Vice President Mike Pence and 5 per cent who want former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

No other Republican candidate gets more than 4 per cent support, NBC indicated. Republican voters' choice over the presidential face of the GOP for 2024 has just narrowed down to Trump and Ron DeSantis -- Trump gets support from 60 per cent of Republican primary voters, while DeSantis gets 36 per cent.

About 77 per cent of GOP primary voters say the federal charges against Trump in the classified document case give them either minor concerns (14 per cent) or no real concerns at all (63 per cent).

Compare this with 55 per cent of all registered voters who say the charges give them either major concerns (47 per cent) or moderate concerns (8 per cent).

Some 64 per cent of Republican primary voters believe that the multiple indictments and investigations Trump faces are politically motivated, and they say they must support him to stop his opponents from winning -- although that's down slightly from the 68 per cent registered in April this year.

On the flip side of the Democratic presidential hopefuls, Biden is significantly better liked than the token opposition he faces with his approval ratings stabilising within the party.

He still faces challenges with independents and younger voters, however -- key groups for his re-election fortunes, PBS said.

Trump and DeSantis are the most liked in the GOP primary

Trump gets a 76 per cent to 19 per cent favorability rating, topping the field. DeSantis is not far behind with a 67 per cent to 15% rating.

The voter base of Trump and DeSantis presents a vast difference, with the former pulling his weight with rural voters, mainly in the south and west, Christians and women, and youth without college degrees and the latter attracting college-educated Republicans, GOP men and voters who live in cities and suburbs.

Half of Republicans want Trump to continue as party leader

About 50 per cent of Republican primary voters say that Trump should continue as the party's leader.

These voters overwhelmingly pick Trump as their first choice on a primary ballot.

Only 21 per cent said it was time to consider another leader over Trump.

Another 21 per cent say it is time to consider other leaders.

A majority of these voters pick DeSantis as their first choice, And 29 per cent say the GOP needs a new leader with better personal behavior and an approach different from Trump's.

This group's support is spread among DeSantis, Pence, Christie and other candidates.
New Delhi, Aug 4 : In the Friday session of the Lok Sabha, the Union Law Ministry provided answers to several questions raised by Members of Parliament including number of habeas corpus pleas in Jammu and Kashmir post Article 370 abrogation, and the total seats available in law schools across India.

Anantnag Lok Sabha MP Hasnain Masoodi inquired about habeas corpus petitions filed in Jammu and Kashmir after Article 370 was revoked.

The ministry revealed that from August 2019 to June 2023, a total of 2,165 petitions were filed in the Jammu and Kashmir High Court and the Supreme Court.

Responding to concerns about delays in disposing of habeas corpus petitions challenging detention orders under the Public Safety Act, the ministry said that proper steps were being taken to ensure timely hearings and proceedings.

"The Government/Detaining Authorities file requisite pleadings and ensure timely production of available records in the Hon'ble Courts besides ensuring the presence of Counsels on the date of hearings. All other requisite steps, wherever, required, are being taken well within time to ensure early disposal of such petitions by the Hon'ble Courts," it replied.

Machhlishahr Lok Sabha MP BP Saroj sought information about the number of seats available in law colleges.

According to the All India Survey on Higher Education, there are a total of 3,09,656 seats across various law schools in India. Of these, 71,140 seats are for five-year integrated LL.B. courses, 2,11,763 seats for three-year LL.B. courses, and 26,753 seats for LL.M. courses.

The ministry also said that there has been establishment of 311 new law universities and colleges from January 2019 to 2022, with a significant number located in states like Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana, and Assam.

MPs Shardaben Patel and Rameshbhai Patel sought details about cases pending in courts for over 50 years.

The ministry informed that, based on the Supreme Court's Integrated Case Management Information System, there are no such cases pending before the top court.

However, as of July 31, 2023, the National Judicial Data Grid revealed that various High Courts and lower courts have 1,063 and 1,134 long-pending cases respectively, involving both criminal and civil matters.
Bengaluru, Aug 4 : Karnataka BJP leaders on Friday met Karnataka Governor Thawar Chand Gehlot and asked for Special Investigation Team (SIT) investigation in case related to recording of Hindu girls while using restroom in Udupi college.

The delegation highlighted the alleged connection of accused Muslim girls with the banned outfit Popular Front of India (PFI).

BJP MLC Kota Srinivas Poojari while talking to reporters after meeting Governor said that it is unfortunate that a Dy SP ranked officer is investigating the matter.

"That is why we have pressed for SIT investigation," he said.

He said that even the Union Home Minister has spoken about the case however the Chief Minister is not taking the case seriously.

"We have met the Governor and requested for a SIT investigation. It has been brought to his notice about the connection of accused students with banned Popular Front of India (PFI). We have pressed for a comprehensive investigation," he said.

The BJP has been demanding legal action against three Muslim girls and has said that it is an organised crime against Hindu girls.The BJP has also accused the Congress government of appeasement politics by trying to hush-up the case.

BJP has also alleged that Karnataka police is harassing the woman activist Rashmi Samanth for raising voice regarding the issue. However, the para-medical college has maintained that the victim is not willing to lodge the complaint against the Muslim girls. The police have maintained that they could not take up the case as there is lack of evidence.

However, the Karnataka Police has taken a suo-moto cognisance regarding the case and initiated the probe. Khushbu Sundar, famous actress and politician had arrived in Udupi as a member of National Commission for Women to look into the matter.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has said that an FIR has been registered by the police. The investigation is being done by a Dy SP level officer and there is no question of handing over the case to SIT.

He said that the members of the Central Commission for Women have visited and conducted an investigation. They have said that there was no camera installed in the college toilet.
Guwahati, Aug 5 : Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has criticised Congress leader Rahul Gandhi after the Congress leader was given relief by the Supreme Court in the 'Modi surname' defamation case.

"Heights of duplicity! You abuse the judiciary when you get convicted, and when the same judiciary grants you bail, you say justice has prevailed," the Chief Minister tweeted.

The Assam Chief Minister has been critical of Rahul Gandhi since he parted ways with Congress and joined the BJP in 2015.

Sarma launched a veiled attack on the Congress leader during the party's much ambitious "Bharat Jodo" yatra also and said: "Our Country doesn't need a 'Bharat Jodo' because we live in a united India in present times. India was divided only once in 1947 when a new country Pakistan was born and it was Rahul Gandhi's party Congress that allowed this partition to happen."

Sarma advised the former Congress president that he should instead travel to Pakistan and do the yatra there so that people get an India that was undivided before the partition.

The Assam Chief Minister had also termed the Bharat Jodo yatra as a comedy of the century.
New York, Aug 5 : Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, makers of blockbuster anti-obesity drugs, have been sued in the US over stomach paralysis or gastroparesis.

Novo Nordiskas Ozempic and Lillyas Mounjaro, given as once-weekly injections, helps lower diabetes as well aids in weight loss.

However, the companies have been accused by 44-year-old Jaclyn Bjorklund, a Louisiana resident, of failing to warn patients of gastroparesis risk.

While the labels for both medications note that they delay gastric emptying and can cause a variety of stomach problems -- including nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, abdominal pain and constipation -- they do not explicitly warn of gastroparesis as a risk.

In the lawsuit, Bjorklund said the use of Ozempic and Mounjaro resulted in "severe vomiting, stomach pain, gastrointestinal burning and loss of teeth".

Bjorklund alleged that use of the drugs left her "hospitalised for stomach issues on several occasions including visits to the emergency room, teeth falling out due to excessive vomiting, requiring additional medications to alleviate her excessive vomiting and throwing up whole food hours after eating".

The US National Institutes of Health defines gastroparesis, also called delayed gastric emptying, as a disorder that "slows or stops the movement of food from your stomach to your small intestine, even though there is no blockage in the stomach or intestines".

According to Morgan & Morgan, a personal injury law firm, representing Bjorklund, it has signed up 400 clients who claim that after taking these drugs they contracted gastroparesis, Financial Times reported.

"Many people are experiencing constant vomiting. I donat mean once a week, I mean every day, all the time. I mean, so bad that these people are going to the emergency room for their vomiting," Paul Pennock, a lawyer at Morgan.

Meanwhile in a statement, Novo said: "Patient safety is of utmost importance to Novo Nordisk. We recommend patients take these medications for their approved indications and under the supervision of a healthcare professional."

Lilly also stated that patient safety is a top priority. "We actively engage in monitoring and reporting safety information for all our medicines," it said.

--IANS

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Egypt assumes the presidency of the 20th session of the Ministerial Council of the Regional Organization for the Conservation of the Environment of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden (PERSGA) in a meeting held in Egypt's Red Sea city of Hurghada on Thursday.

Egyptian Minister of Environment Yasmine Fouad attended the meeting alongside environment ministers of the organisation's member states.

During the meeting, Fouad took over the presidency of the session from Djibouts environment and sustainable development minister, who represented his country as the president of the 19th session of PERSGA.

In her speech to the meeting, she said that Egypt, which focuses on aligning climate change and biodiversity preservation, aims to use its presidency of the 27th session of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP 27) to introduce initiatives for marine conservation and sustainable development in the region.

COP27 will serve as a platform to introduce a range of initiatives related to biodiversity and nature-based solutions, furthering PERSGA's commitment to marine conservation, the minister said.

Established in 1995 in Saudi Arabia, the PERSGA includes seven member states: Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen.

The PERSGA plays a vital role in marine conservation by developing policies, monitoring sensitive marine ecosystems and pollution sources, acting as a focal point for regional reporting, conducting capacity-building training, and coordinating environmental activities among member states.

Fouad also expressed gratitude for Egypt's selection to lead PERSGA for the second time since its first presidency of the 16th session in 2015, pledging to strengthen cooperation among member states in safeguarding the marine environment and biodiversity.

The council's efforts will focus on raising awareness about environmental issues, particularly among the youth, and engaging the private sector and civil society in safeguarding the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden's marine ecosystem, she said.

Furthermore, Fouad highlighted the significance of collective action in protecting the marine environment in the region against environmental challenges.

Key challenges include addressing potential consequences of climate change, managing land-based pollution, and mitigating impacts of urban expansion and economic development, she said.

The minister also stressed the importance of tackling pollution from oil and chemical spills from ships.

Fouad indicated that the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden hold international importance since they represent not only vital trade routes but also home to unique marine biodiversity.

The participants in the meeting also discussed PERSGA's financial status and approved the project plan and budget for 2023/2024.

Furthermore, the council explored ways to transform the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden into a special area by 2025 and efforts to prohibit ships from disposing of solid waste in the sea. It also discussed enhancing waste management infrastructure in ports.

In addition, the participants in the meeting addressed mechanisms to enhance marine ecosystem services and transition towards a sustainable blue economy in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

The environment ministers further discussed the technical cooperation between the Mediterranean Action Plan Secretariat and PERSGA.

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Bhopal, Aug 5 : Enraged with the suicide of a 27-year-old doctor Bala Saraswati at Bhopal's Gandhi Medical College (GMC) and alleged inaction from the state government, junior doctors, along with others from the medical fraternity, have threatened a state-wide protest from Saturday.

Dr. Bala, a resident of Hyderabad, was pursuing her post-graduate (PG) degree in gynecology from GMC. She died due to an overdose of anesthesia on July 31.

During the investigation, Bhopal police had recovered a note on her mobile phone which revealed that she took the extreme step because of "harassment and toxic working culture" in the GMC.

Her husband has lodged an FIR, alleging that she was under acute pressure as she was regularly harassed by Dr. Aruna Kumar - Head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in the GMC.

In a fresh development on Friday, a group of medical teachers of gynaecology also wrote to the Madhya Pradesh Medical Teachers Association, unanimously blaming Dr Aruna Kumar for her rude behaviour.

"Dr. Aruna Kumar, who is HoD of gynaecology, behaves very badly with all of us. We all are fed up with regular harassment by her. Because of her our entire gynecology department of GMC is affected. Due to her bad behaviour, many teachers and doctors have opted to leave the department and we all are demanding that Dr. Aruna Kumar should be removed from this department," a letter of teachers of the Gynaecology Department of GMC read.

Bhopal District Collector Ashish Singh on Friday visited the GMC to express his condolence on the death of Dr. Bala and also held a discussion with doctors and medical teachers protesting at the site.

Meanwhile, Congress MP from Kerala, Benny Behanan, who is said to be a relative of Dr. Bala's family, wrote to Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and has sought his attention on this matter. "You are aware about the suicide of Dr. Bala Sarswati at Bhopal's GMC on July 31. In her suicide note, she alleged that she was taking this extreme step due to harassment at the hands of her college faculty. It was alleged by several students that Dr. Aruna Kumar, head of the department, had a role to play in the young doctor's suicide," Behanan wrote.

Notably, Dr. Bala was the second female junior doctor, who died by suicide within a period of seven months at the GMC. On January 24, Akanksha Maheswari, 27, a resident of Gwalior, had died by suicide after consuming overdose of anesthesia at her hospital room in the campus. Also, two days after DR. Bala's suicide, a male trainee doctor Prateek Parasar, who completed his MBBS course this year, attempted suicide on August 2.

--IANS

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New Delhi, Aug 4 : Delhi Police on Friday said that it arrested two men and recovered 300 Chinese manjhas from the accused.

The police have identified the accused as Mohd Faizan (22) and Yaman (19).

The police officials said that Faizan has disclosed that he had purchased a total of 300 rolls for Rs 54,000 from Meerut in Uttar Pradesh and was going to sell them to Yaman for Rs 1,10,000, earning double profit.

The Special Commissioner of Police (Crime), Ravindra Singh Yadav, said that specific input was received that two persons involved in the illegal business of sale/purchase of nylon-based banned Chinese manjha would come near the outer ring road, Sarai Kale Khan.

"A raid was conducted, and the duo was apprehended while they were in possession of five cartons containing 300 rolls of prohibited 'Chinese manjha'," said the Special CP.

The official said that Faizan, who was working as a salesman in a pharmacy shop near Jama Masjid, had come in contact with Zeeshan and learned that selling Chinese manjha yielded double profit.

"Accordingly, he started selling Chinese Manjha in Delhi after procuring it from Meerut. Yaman is pursuing B.A from Anglo Arabic School, Ajmeri Gate, and to earn easy money, he used to sell Chinese Manjha every year at the time of Independence Day from his house," the official added.

--IANS

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Kolkata, Aug 5 : The Supreme Court's verdict staying the lower court's order convicting Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in a defamation case will further strengthen the resolve of the opposition Indian National Development Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) to fight against the BJP-led NDA, West Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee said on Friday.

In a tweet after the apex court verdict came, Banerjee, who expressed her happiness over the development and also described the development as the victory of the judiciary.

"I am happy with the news about the MP-ship of @RahulGandhi. This will further strengthen the resolve of the INDIA alliance to unitedly fight for our motherland and win. A victory of the judiciary!" she posted.

In the past, Banerjee had been critical of Congress a number of times over the latteras alliance with the CPI-M-led Left Front. She even went to the extent of saying that it will not be possible for her party to back the Congress if the latteras state unit in West Bengal continues with its attack against her Trinamool.

On the other hand, the Congress state President Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury too had made it clear that both the BJP and the Trinamool are the Congressas opponents in West Bengalas perspective.

Political observers feel that by welcoming the apex court verdict, Banerjee has given a subtle message to Congress to end the enmity in the state perspective and develop a bigger anti- BJP alliance in the national perspective.
New Delhi, Aug 5 : The Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) has issued a notice to the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northwest) seeking action-taken report in connection with the alleged sexual assault of an eight-year-old girl by a minor boy in northwest Delhi.

"DCW has received information regarding brutal rape with an eight-year-old girl. The Commission has been informed that an the victim was kidnapped and raped in Adarsh Nagar area of Delhi. Allegedly, the girl was going from a nearby community toilet to her home when the accused tried to lure her," the notice read.

"When the girl refused to go with him, he forcibly took her to a nearby park. Therein, the accused brutally raped her and escaped. The girl reached her home in tom clothes and she was bleeding profusely. The girl is presently admitted in a hospital where she has been operated for serious injuries inflicted in her private parts during the incident. This is a very serious matter," it added.

A DCW official said that the commission had sought a copy of the FIR registered in the matter, details of the accused arrested and detailed action-taken report in the matter.

"A 8-year-old girl was raped in Delhi. She has suffered severe internal injuries. The family brought the bleeding daughter to the DCW Women's Council office. We immediately filed an FIR (First Information Report). The girl underwent surgery, and we met her in the hospital. When will the government wake up?," the DCW chief Swati Maliwal wrote on twitter.

According to police, the incident occurred on Wednesday afternoon. "We received a police control room call regarding the incident on Wednesday afternoon following which a police team was dispatched for the spot in Adarsh Nagar area," said a senior police official.

"The medical of the victim was conducted after which a case under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and POCSO act was registered. The accused, who is also a minor, has been apprehended," said the official.

"During the initial probe, it was revealed that the boy and the girl were known to each other. aBoth used to play in a park. On Wednesday afternoon, the alleged boy took her to a place near railway tracks where he sexually assaulted her," he added.

--IANS

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New Delhi, Aug 4 : National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday arrested Islam Chowdhury, a key conspirator and facilitator in the supply of the explosives in connection with the West Bengal electric detonators and explosives seizures case.

The fresh arrest took the total arrests to eight in the case.

A NIA spokesperson said that Chowdhury was arrested from his Baralipara house in West Bengal's Birbhum district.

The anti-terror probe agency also seized Rs 1.5 lakh in cash, bank transaction documents, paper slips with mobile numbers, SIM cards, three mobile phones and various incriminating documents.

The official said that his arrest came after thorough interrogation of two other accused was done by the agency.

The official said that during their questioning, Merajuddin Ali Khan aka Meraj Khan and Mir Mohammad Nuruzzaman aka Romeo led to today's arrest.

The NIA had arrested Meraj and Prince on June 28 this year.

The official said that during the probe it was found that Chowdhury was a key conspirator and facilitator in the supply of the explosives in the case registered by NIA in September last year after the seizure of cache of electric detonators, Nonels (non-electric detonators) and explosives.

The official said that initially, around 81,000 electric detonators were seized from a vehicle in the Mohammad Bazar Police Station area in Birbhum by a team of STF, West Bengal and the vehicle's driver, Ashish Keora, was arrested.

"Subsequent searches led to the seizure of another 2,525 electric detonators, 27,000 kg ammonium nitrate, 1,625 kgs of gelatin sticks, one Pistol with magazine and 4 live rounds of ammunition, 16.25 kgs of gelatin sticks (total of 130 in number) and one bag containing 50 kg of ammonium nitrate from illegal godowns," the official said.

The NIA then arrested some more people in the course of these searches.

--IANS

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Mumbai, Aug 5 : Veteran actor M. Nassar, who is awaiting the release of his upcoming streaming show, 'The Jengaburu Curse', he shared that he would like to spend some quality time with his family in the state of Odisha where the show has been shot.

With a focus on showcasing the actual people, culture, and locations of the state, 'The Jengaburu Curse', which is touted to be a Cli-fi thriller series, has been extensively shot in Odisha. And the lead stars of the series, M. Nassar and Faria Abdullah, who spent months away from the comforts of a familiar city and their homes, cannot seem to get over the spell bounding experience they had while filming in the deep forests of Odisha.

Talking about the experience of shooting in Odisha, Nassar who plays the character of Ravichandran Rao in the series, said: "My visit to Odisha for the shoot took me to the heart of India. I was absolutely in awe. When we were shooting there, I realized why it is called the best hidden secret of India, it is so beautiful and extremely meditative to be in Odisha. The place is like heaven."

He further mentioned: "It makes you feel as if you are in the lap of mother nature. In all honesty, I had a very shallow knowledge about Odisha, but once I got to live there, spend time with the locals and native people, and got familiar with their art and culture, I was amazed at how little we know. The people are so innocent and filled with humility. I have travelled all over India, but Odisha is different, so calm and content. It was such a surreal and riveting experience. I would definitely like to spend some quality time with family there and soak in everything that the nature has to offer in all its abundance that is available in this beautiful state."

In agreement with her co-star, Faria Abdullah said: "Being in the heart of Odisha was a transformative journey. Staying in the forests and real locations allowed me to connect with the simplicity of the Odia people's lifestyle. It felt like a detox for my mind and body, stepping away from the hustle of everyday life. The natural surrounding beauty was not only awe-inspiring but also provided the perfect canvas to bring our characters to life. The show truly is a heartfelt tribute to the enigmatic charm of Odisha, and I am glad I got to be a part of it."

Set in a small town in Odisha, 'The Jengaburu Curse' delves into the repercussions of mankind's never-ending need for nature. Produced by Studio Next, the show is created and directed by Nila Madhab Panda.

The series also stars Makarand Deshpande, Sudev Nair, Deipak Sampat, and Hitesh Dave in pivotal roles.

The show will be available to stream on Sony LIV from August 9.
Aeroflow Warns, Recent Changes To Medicaid Impact CPAP Users Sleep apnea coverage in Medicaid isnt just about treating a condition; it is about promoting healthier lives and preventing complications like heart disease, diabetes, and other potentially lethal health issues.

With the end of COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE) insurance coverage, more than 15 million Americans are left without access to the sleep apnea therapy they need. Aeroflow Sleep, the nations fastest-growing PAP supplier, takes an interest in how these changes impact CPAP users who are no longer covered through Medicaid.

Many sleep apnea patients received financial support through Medicaid during the pandemic butas of July 31stno longer qualify for the same coverage. The power to approve or deny PAP supplies being covered has returned to the individual state governments, and several have opted to thin the herd. For example, NPR reported, Texas dropped more than 500,000 Medicaid enrollees (82% of its recipients) overnight.

Mindi Walker, leader of Aeroflows new Government Relations program, advocates, Sleep apnea coverage in Medicaid isnt just about treating a condition; it is about promoting healthier lives and preventing complications like heart disease, diabetes, and other potentially lethal health issues. Removing this coverage could mean sacrificing the well-being of vulnerable Americans and more significant health costs in the future.

Aeroflow strongly encourages anyone with Medicaid to speak with your insurance provider to ensure you continue to have access to the medical care, services, and resources you deserve. If your coverage has changed, you can call your dedicated Aeroflow Sleep Specialist at 866-616-1687 to update your account.
Christmas in July @ Colossal "Our team members are the best in the business, and we are excited to expand the Colossal family with talented and passionate individuals who want to make a change in the world," says Colossal CEO, Mary Hagen.

Colossal Management, LLC, the world's largest provider of online competitions, proudly announces the launch of its highly anticipated Internship Program. Colossal is committed to providing rising college seniors and recent graduates with unparalleled opportunities to gain real-world experience in professional fundraising while emphasizing lifestyle verticals. With philanthropy as its driving force, the company aims to foster personal and professional growth, strengthen its future workforce, raise awareness, and make a positive impact within the worlds most charitable organizations.

Considered one of the best places to work in Phoenix, AZ, Colossal offers an abundance of opportunity for aspiring young professionals. The Colossal Internship Program is seeking bright, creative, and dedicated individuals to fill four distinct internship roles:

1. Public Relations Intern: Colossal is searching for someone well-versed in media relations, press release creation, SEO, and digital innovations. The successful candidate will play a vital role in executing the company's PR strategy, curating engaging content, and supporting the overall brand awareness campaign. This internship offers the opportunity to work with professionals in the fundraising domain, build national media relationships, and contribute meaningfully to the organization's success.

2. Social Media Intern: This individual will have an innovative and creative mind, unafraid to explore new approaches. Working alongside the Social Media Manager, the intern will gain firsthand experience in managing and implementing social media strategies. The role will involve contributing to dynamic campaigns and leveraging social media platforms to engage with our community and drive brand presence.

3. Graphic Design Intern: Colossal seeks an independent problem-solver with a flair for design excellence to fill the role of Graphic Design Intern. This intern will work closely with the Senior Graphic Designer in branding new campaigns and providing graphic support to various creative departments. This is an excellent opportunity for hands-on experience in crafting visually stunning content for a wide audience.

4. Video Production / Multimedia Intern: This person will be a key player in video content creation for Colossal campaigns, working directly with the Senior Video Producer, celebrities, and influencers. The role offers a unique chance to learn new skills, expand knowledge, and contribute significantly to our content production pipeline.

"Our team members are the best in the business, and we are excited to expand the Colossal family with talented and passionate individuals who want to make a change in the world, help us grow our impact, and create once-in-a-lifetime opportunities while supporting charitable causes," says Colossal CEO, Mary Hagen.

Interested candidates are encouraged to apply with their resumes and work samples, such as portfolios or relevant work examples, for consideration. To be eligible for the Colossal Management Internship Program, applicants must be rising college seniors or recent graduates and have reliable transportation. For more information about the program and application details, please visit Colossal on Indeed.

Colossal is the global leader in online competitions and one of the most effective fundraising platforms available for charities that lack the bandwidth to operate large-scale campaigns. While offering extraordinary opportunities to men and women around the world, each online fundraising competition operated by Colossal has become a successful method of fundraising for nonprofits, designed to raise money for important causes. To learn more, visit colossal.org.
David Faye_CEO Visionary "I am deeply honored to receive this award, which truly reflects the dedication and talent of our team, our unwavering values, and the incredible support of our partners, said David Faye.

David Faye, CEO and founder of Faye, has been honored for the second time in the Los Angeles Times B2B Publishing C-Suite Magazine as one of Los Angeles County's "CEO Visionaries." This prestigious recognition highlights his exceptional leadership and commitment to driving innovation in the industry.

Since starting Faye in late 2009, David's direction has propelled the company to unprecedented heights, achieving steady growth and securing a place on the Inc. 5000 for nine consecutive years. With a strong global presence and a dedicated team of 120 employees across the US, Canada, Europe, and South America, Faye serves clients in over 25 countries.

Under Davids leadership, Faye has completed numerous strategic acquisitions and established partnerships with leading global brands. They were recognized as the 2023 SugarCRM Presidents Club Partner of the Year and the 2022 North America Zendesk GTM Partner of the Year.

"I am deeply honored to receive this award, which truly reflects the dedication and talent of our team, our unwavering values, and the incredible support of our partners, said David Faye, My heartfelt congratulations to all the other visionary leaders driving their organizations forward."

"I am immensely proud of David for being recognized as a "CEO Visionary" for the second consecutive year," said Jason Green, President at Faye. "His remarkable strategic vision has not only driven our organization's growth but has also enabled us to forge meaningful partnerships and deliver exceptional results to our clients. David's leadership inspires our team every day, and his commitment to our company culture and values sets the foundation for our continued success. This award is a testament to David's dedication and the collective efforts of our entire team at Faye.

To learn more about David and see the full list of award recipients, please view the Los Angeles Times C-Suite Webpage. David can be found under the CEO Visionaries section: https://www.latimes.com/b2b/c-suite

About David Faye

David Faye is a lifelong entrepreneur with broad experience in building businesses and helping businesses grow primarily through the effective use of information technology. In late 2009, he founded Faye Business Systems Group (Faye) where he remains the CEO today. Faye is a global software & services company that resells software, delivers professional services, builds and sells software products and provides managed services supporting the leading brands in the CRM, CX, and productivity software environments.

Learn more here: https://www.latimes.com/2023-c-suite-trends-updates-and-the-cfo-leadership-awards-recap/david-alan-faye

About Faye

Faye is a global leader in software strategy, deployment, integrations, and ongoing management for mid-market to enterprise organizations, working with customers in over 25 countries to integrate SugarCRM, Freshworks, Zendesk, Salesforce, HubSpot, Asana, and more into complex tech stacks.

An Inc. 5000 award winner nine years in a row, Faye is an experienced CRM, CX, and bot advisor, trusted by customers and channel partners alike. They were recognized as the 2023 SugarCRM Presidents Club Partner of the Year and the 2022 North America Zendesk GTM Partner of the Year.

The Faye Teams depth of expertise is showcased through a library of custom-built software enhancements, tools, and integrations utilized by thousands of users every day. Faye helps their customers leverage the full, hidden potential of their software stack, driving software returns of up to 10x.
Visit Temecula Valley released the results of its Resident Sentiment Tourism Survey, which found that 8 in 10 residents support tourism in the region. We want to know what Temecula residents think about tourism because their opinions matter," said Scott A. Wilson, CEO and President of Visit Temecula Valley.

Visit Temecula Valley issued the results of its 2023 Resident Sentiment Tourism Survey, which examines how the residents of Temecula feel about various aspects of tourism. Survey results show that more than three quarters (76 percent) of those surveyed support and care about the success of tourism, while 14% were neutral. Eight in 10 residents think it is good for the region and 75 percent stated they care about the success of the tourism industry in Temecula Valley.

The majority of respondents said they are proud to live in Temecula, with eight in 10 reporting that they look forward to showing the area to visiting family and friends. Conducted by Longwoods International, the Resident Sentiment Tourism Survey is comprised of data collected in spring 2023 from 1,333 adults* residing in Temecula.

We want to know what Temecula residents think about tourism because their opinions matter, said Scott A. Wilson, CEO/President of Visit Temecula Valley. We are committed to maintaining a healthy balance between quality of life for our residents and quality experiences for our visitors as we continue to welcome visitors and support tourism-related businesses while promoting responsible tourism.

Temecula Valley welcomed more than 3.2 million tourists in 2022, a 28 percent increase over 2021. More than half said they are aware that the Visit Temecula Valley tourism bureau is funded by tourists who stay in a Temecula lodging facility.

Over the past few years, the Temecula Valley has grown to include approximately 50 wineries, hundreds of restaurants, a variety of outdoor recreation and equestrian activities, a historic Old Town District, and Pechanga Resort Casino. The hospitality industry is the fastest growing sector in Temecula Valley, with an estimated 9,160 hospitality workers servicing guests. There were 1,320 hospitality jobs added in 2022, a 16.9 increase over 2021.

Three quarters of the Temecula residents surveyed agree that tourism encourages investment in the local economy. Seven in 10 assert that tourism attracts new businesses. Sixty-four percent support welcoming new tourism businesses that will attract visitors.

City of Temecula Mayor Zak Schwank said, The City of Temecula recognizes tourism as a significant driver of local economic growth and prosperity. The positive impact of visitor spending and the valuable contribution of visitor tax dollars emphasize the vital role tourism plays in benefiting the City's economy and enhancing the overall quality of life for our residents."

Half of the residents surveyed also report they understand that without tax revenues from visitors, they would pay higher state and local taxes for government programs and services.

According to the Economic Impact of Travel in Temecula Valley 2022 by Dean Runyan Associates, Travel spending contributes to an annual tax savings of $156 for each residential household. In addition, 50 percent of the Citys sales tax revenue is generated from non-residents. These funds are used for public safety, road improvements, infrastructure, and other services and amenities that enhance the residents quality of life.

Seventy-two percent of residents who completed the survey indicate that they are proud of what Temecula offers tourists and 59 percent believe they have more recreational opportunities (places to go and things to do) because of tourism. The top tourism activities of interest to residents are restaurants, wineries/breweries, special events, and shopping in Old Town.

Additional findings:



Half agree that the quality of life in Temecula has improved because of tourism.

74 percent believe the growth in Old Town has benefited tourism.

65 percent agree that tourism has positive benefits that outweigh negative impacts.

Of those surveyed, 80 percent resided in Temecula 10 years or more. The average distance between home and a tourist attraction (Temecula Valley Wine Country, Old Town Temecula, Pechanga Resort Casino) is 3.2 miles. Most participants' ages range evenly from 35-65+. Nineteen percent are between the ages of 18-34.

About Visit Temecula Valley

Visit Temecula Valley (VTV) is a nonprofit 501 (c)(6) destination marketing organization dedicated to promoting tourism-related businesses including wineries, restaurants, breweries, retail and specialty boutiques, hotels, and more. It is a popular destination that includes Southern California Wine Country, Old Town Temecula, and Pechanga Resort Casino. In 2019, Wine Enthusiast named Temecula Valley a 10 Best Wine Travel Destination, in the world. For more information go to VisitTemeculaValley.com.

*It should be noted that 90 percent of survey respondents had no one in their household employed in the local hospitality industry.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan approved an agreement on cooperation in the mining industry between Azerbaijan and Turkiye, Azernews reports with reference to Turkish government newspaper Resmi Gazete

The agreement provides for the expansion of cooperation in the mining industry.

Besides, in accordance with the agreement the working group is being created. Thus, the working group will consist of one representative, who will be appointed from both sides and their assistants. They will be able to attend meetings along with consultants and experts. The Parties shall inform each other of the appointment of a representative and assistant through diplomatic channels.

Working group meetings and protocol costs will be covered by the host country where the meeting is held. Other expenses associated with the work of the representative and his assistants, such as transportation and accommodation, will be paid by the parties.

To recall that the 12-point document was signed on December 22, 2021, in Baku.

On behalf of the Turkish government, the document was signed by Fatih Donmez, who at that time was the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, and on behalf of the Azerbaijani government, by the Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Mukhtar Babayev.
During the commemoration of World Hepatitis Day, Dr. Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar, the minister of health and population, announced that Egypt has taken a significant step towards becoming a hepatitis C-free country.

During the commemoration of World Hepatitis Day, Dr. Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar, the minister of health and population, announced that Egypt has taken a significant step towards becoming a hepatitis C-free country.

The ministry has submitted a file to the World Health Organization, which is currently under examination at the regional office.

This momentous milestone signifies the successful campaign against hepatitis C in Egypt, made possible by the 100 Million Healthy Lives initiative led by the president, aiming to combat hepatitis C and proactively identify noncommunicable diseases, he added.

During a televised address on World Hepatitis Day, the minister highlighted the comprehensive attention dedicated to liver patients, unveiling the outcomes of the liver cancer early detection initiative, which received the invaluable support of Bayer International under the auspices of the 100 Million Healthy Lives campaign.

The liver cancer early detection initiative, which was launched in September 2019, offers periodic screenings, including ultrasound examinations and tumour marker tests, every four months, completely free of charge.

This initiative has established 75 examination centres and integrated them with 93 advanced diagnostic facilities and 47 state-of-the-art treatment centres dedicated to the management of malignant tumours, all available at no cost and bolstered by a multidisciplinary approach. So far, it has included nearly 116,000 patients from high-risk demographic groups.

He elaborated on the imperative need for collaborative efforts between governmental and non-governmental entities to ensure comprehensive care for patients. The Ministry of Health and Population, renowned for its commitment to progress, has established a remarkable track record in fostering and promoting such collaborations with all stakeholders within the medical realm.

Dr. Abdel-Ghaffar acknowledged that Egypt has endured the burdens of the medical, social, and economic impact resulting from the widespread prevalence of the hepatitis C virus for decades. However, Egypt has triumphantly confronted this challenge with unparalleled success.

Through unwavering determination and resilience, the country has remarkably transformed its classification from being the nation with the highest prevalence rates worldwide to becoming the frontrunner in attaining certification from the World Health Organization for the elimination of hepatitis C.

This milestone is the culmination of relentless efforts undertaken by the state since the 21st century. It is a testament to the initiative of the president of the republic to eradicate hepatitis, which has facilitated the screening of over 63 million citizens within seven months only.

This momentous achievement was hailed by the director-general of the World Health Organization as the most extensive and impactful health survey in human history, in terms of both its high quality, meticulous execution, and remarkable speed.

He stressed that this day signifies a milestone in establishing a sustainable model for delivering exemplary services to patients affected by hepatitis viruses, aligning with the forefront of scientific advancements.

It is a moment of great pride as Egypts triumph in achieving fairness and equality in access to top-tier healthcare services and global treatments is witnessed.

Moreover, the development and enhancement of national capabilities and their continuous access to the highest standards are ongoing endeavours.

Egyptian experts, in collaboration with partners from leading universities and centres specialized in liver and liver cancer treatment worldwide, have been diligently working together to construct a comprehensive and standardized diagnostic and treatment system. This collective effort aims to ensure seamless integration and deliver optimal care to patients.

During the World Health Organization's commemoration of World Hepatitis Day, the minister of health and population emphasized the unparalleled Egyptian experience, which has emerged as an inspiring model for nations worldwide. This model encompasses various aspects, including prevention strategies, expediting the pace of diagnosis and treatment, and diligently monitoring disease complications.

In collaboration with the African Union and the African Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, the Ministry of Health and Population has undertaken a sustainable programme to train healthcare professionals from African member states of the African Union. The programme covers all facets of managing hepatitis viruses.

By mid-month, the programme is set to welcome 30 doctors from the first three African countries. This initiative is a natural extension of the president's commitment to treating one million Africans affected by hepatitis C. Egypt, as is customary, exemplifies the finest examples of international solidarity and human cooperation in safeguarding global health security.

Furthermore, the minister highlighted Egypt's remarkable capabilities in the production of modern medications. This proficiency has enabled Egypt to achieve this global milestone, supported by extensive capacities and a commitment to excellence. Consequently, the cost of treatment has significantly declined from $64,000 per patient in 2013 to less than $40 at present, resulting in savings exceeding $2.5 billion in the pharmaceutical import expenditure.

He noted the returns on investment resulting from the president's initiative, estimating it at an impressive 359 percent. Additionally, the initiative has yielded substantial health benefits, estimated at one million life-saving years, and economic savings amounting to approximately EGP 23 billion.

Building upon the programme's success, Egypt has taken a step further by launching a global initiative for the early detection and comprehensive care of liver cancer patients. This initiative is supported by an interconnected network of early detection centres, as well as a network of diagnostic and treatment centres catering to the needs of thousands of targeted patients. Egypt once again exemplifies excellence in providing comprehensive and integrated services.

Leveraging the databases and analysis of the early detection and treatment of hepatitis c initiative, the ministry has extended its efforts to launch early detection programmes with clear objectives. These programmes encompass not only primary liver cancer but also breast, colon, prostate, lung, and cervical cancers.

By maximizing the role of primary care units across all governorates of the country, millions of Egyptians gain access to early examination and detection services. This crucial step aims to alleviate the burden of cancer in Egypt and achieve improved health outcomes for all citizens.

Dr. Mohamed Hassani, assistant minister of health and population for Public Health Initiatives Projects and executive director of the National Committee for Combating Hepatitis, provided further insights into the initiative for the early detection of liver cancer.

He explained that Egypt's success in addressing hepatitis C led to subsequent achievements in the care of liver patients. The country launched two parallel programmes, with the first being the Early Detection of Primary Liver Cancer initiative.

This initiative focuses on conducting regular screenings for individuals at the highest risk of infection, such as those with cirrhosis and patients with the hepatitis B virus. The screenings involve ultrasound examinations and tumour marker tests, which are conducted every four months and provided free of charge.

A total of 75 examination centres have been established to facilitate these screenings, and they are closely linked to 93 advanced centres for comprehensive diagnostic services. In addition, 47 advanced centres specialized in the multidisciplinary treatment of cancerous tumours have been established. Since its launch, this programme has successfully included nearly 116,000 patients from the targeted groups.

Egypt has also made significant advancements in the treatment of liver cancer. In March 2022, the country introduced advanced oral treatments for advanced cases of primary liver tumours. This treatment programme is implemented in 47 liver cancer treatment centres affiliated with the Ministry of Health and Population and the General Authority for Health Insurance. Through a successful partnership with the international company Bayer, the programme has been able to provide treatment to nearly 2,100 patients with primary liver cancer.

Moreover, Egypt has taken a groundbreaking step by introducing the latest global treatment protocols using immunotherapy drugs for liver cancer since May of the same year in six oncology centres across the country, expanding the range of treatment options available to patients.

To ensure the success and effectiveness of these programmes, a comprehensive training and capacity-building initiative has been undertaken. This programme aims to train healthcare professionals, including doctors, nurses, technicians, and data entry operators.

Dr. Adel Adawy, former minister of health, acknowledged Egypt's rich history filled with success stories across various fields. The Egyptian people take pride in their country's leadership in science, arts, literature, and other domains, both in the past and in the present.

Dr. Adawy highlighted that Egypt's leadership in the field of treatment dates back to ancient times, and this legacy continues to shine in the 21st century. Egyptians have consistently demonstrated their determination and resilience in overcoming challenges and tackling epidemics that threaten their well-being.

In the late 20th century, Egypt achieved a significant milestone by successfully eradicating an endemic disease, schistosomiasis, which had plagued the country for centuries, greatly impacting the health of its population. Many individuals present during that time might have personally experienced the devastating effects of the disease on the liver and overall quality of life.

However, by the end of the 20th century, a new health concern emerged in Egypt: the hepatitis C virus. A survey conducted as part of the 2008 Demographic and Health Survey, which analyzed blood samples, revealed that approximately one in 10 Egyptian adults aged 15-59 years suffered from chronic hepatitis C infection.

Until 2007, Egypt did not have a specific programme dedicated to the diagnosis and treatment of the hepatitis C virus, despite the widespread prevalence of this dangerous disease and its significant contribution to mortality rates. The virus is a major cause of liver cirrhosis and an increased incidence of liver cancer among those infected.

From an economic standpoint, the World Bank estimated that the financial burden of the hepatitis C epidemic in Egypt amounted to approximately $3.8 billion annually, which accounted for 1.4 percent of the country's gross national income.

However, by the end of 2011, statistics revealed that only 2.8 percent of diagnosed patients received regular treatment, and just over half of them responded positively to the treatment, representing a response rate of 1.6 percent. In 2013, a significant breakthrough occurred with the introduction of direct antiviral drugs. However, their cost was relatively high, reaching $1,000 for a single treatment course, consisting of 84 pills taken over a period of 12 weeks.

The Egyptian Ministry of Health, in conjunction with the innovative manufacturers of Sovaldi, has made significant progress in reducing the cost of the drug to one percent of its price, bringing the cost of a patient's treatment (84 tablets) to less than $900. The Ministry of Health has further reduced the cost of treatment by producing Sovaldi in Egypt, bringing the price down to $84. This is a major advancement in patient care for those infected with hepatitis C virus.

The 100 Million Healthy Lives campaign was launched as a presidential initiative to demonstrate the political leadership's commitment to providing the highest level of healthcare to Egyptian citizens and eliminating the hepatitis C epidemic, regardless of the cost. The campaign has also created training and educational activities for thousands of healthcare workers.

Dr. Adawy expressed his sincere thanks and gratitude to the partners for the unprecedented success in controlling the deadly epidemic, namely Drs. Wahid Doss, Manal Hamdy El-Sayed, Gamal Esmat, Imam Waked, Ayman Yousry, Magdi El-Serafi, Khaled Qabil, as well as the assistant team, Mohamed Al-Qassas, Mohamed Hassani, and Radi Hammad.

Dr. Ahmed El-Sobky, chairman of the board of directors of the Public Authority for Healthcare, assistant minister of health and population, and general supervisor of Comprehensive Health Insurance, explained that World Hepatitis Day is an opportunity to enhance national and international efforts to combat hepatitis, encourage action and participation from individuals, partners, and the public, and highlight the need to maximize the global response.

Dr. El-Sobky pointed out that the date of 28 July coincides with the birthday of Nobel Prize-winning scientist Dr. Baruch Blumberg, who is credited with discovering the hepatitis B virus and developing a test for its diagnosis and a vaccine.

He noted that the 100 Million Healthy Lives initiative to eliminate hepatitis C in Egypt has achieved great successes. The state has set a higher goal of declaring Egypt free of hepatitis C. Ministry of Health teams have been deployed throughout Egypt with a presidential mandate to screen more than 60 million citizens. This will make Egypt the first country in the world to be certified by the World Health Organization as having eliminated hepatitis C.

He further remarked that the Egyptian state confronted a myriad of challenges in the provision of medicine, particularly innovative medications. The most salient of these were the exorbitant cost of medicine, lengthy patient waiting lists, and the lack of knowledge among those infected with the virus. In response, the state made significant efforts, such as negotiating with pharmaceutical companies to secure lower treatment prices, encouraging domestic firms to produce the drug, and eliminating waiting lists.

He noted that the German company Bayer was one of the first contributors to the 100 Million Healthy Lives campaign, particularly in the early detection and treatment of liver cancer patients.

Bayer provided the necessary oral drugs to treat liver cancer patients, and as part of its sustainable capacity building project, the company worked with the Ministry of Health and Population to train Egyptian and international healthcare professionals using the latest training methods. Bayer also helped to raise awareness of the need for early detection of disease.

He added that this integration and partnership with successful partners from the private sector is part of achieving the dream of integrated healthcare, especially in the era of restructuring the healthcare system, with the comprehensive healthcare insurance project at the forefront.

Hugo Hagen, chairman of Bayer Pharmaceuticals in the Middle East, indicated that the slogan for World Hepatitis Day 2023, "We are not waiting for change...we are striving to achieve it," is a source of pride. He said that the Egyptian Ministry of Health and Population, in cooperation with the international company Bayer, which he has the honour to represent, took the lead two years ago in achieving the slogan of the day.

This was done by launching the initiative for early detection and treatment of liver cancer under the umbrella of the presidential initiative 100 Million Healthy Lives under the supervision of the Ministry of Health and Population and with the participation of German Bayer in Egypt.

Hagen said: On this occasion, I feel even more proud of the remarkable progress that Egypt has made at all levels, especially in strengthening health and healthcare services provided by the state. This progress is truly unprecedented in recent years.

During the launch of the presidential initiatives by President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, the state took the lead in launching an initiative to treat citizens from hepatitis C, which was described as an endemic epidemic. The initiative has achieved remarkable results, with 2-6 percent of all people with cirrhosis due to hepatitis C now cured.

Today, we are all proud of the minister of health and population announcing the actual results achieved by this initiative for infected patients. What we are seeing on the ground today is nothing but the achievement of the lofty goal of providing comprehensive healthcare for patients with liver cancer.

The liver cancer initiative, in collaboration with the Egyptian Ministry of Health and Population, is part of Bayer's Global Oncology Sustainability initiative. This initiative focuses on creating equitable ecosystems for cancer care in low- and middle-income countries around the world that experience disparities in cancer outcomes.

The sustainability initiative for early detection and treatment of liver cancer, under the umbrella of the presidential initiative 100 Million Healthy Lives, under the supervision of the Ministry of Health and Population, and with the participation of the German pharmaceutical company Bayer in Egypt, is based on five main axes: developing unified national protocols for the treatment of liver cancer patients in line with international guidelines; covering the needs of liver cancer patients for oral treatments for the first time; building the necessary capacities in cooperation with international experts for early diagnosis and detection of liver cancer patients.

This includes developing local trainers, educating healthcare providers, and establishing platforms to disseminate data through the initiative centres. The other two axes are enabling patients to know about diseases and medicines to improve treatment; and launching national awareness campaigns for liver cancer patients and providing them with a group of patient care and follow-up through call centres and providing consultation.

Hagen noted: I am very proud and honoured that this collaboration between Bayer and the Egyptian Ministry of Health and Population was announced at the US White House Cancer Moonshot as the embodiment of a public-private partnership to improve cancer treatment outcomes in Africa.

In light of the successful cooperation with the Egyptian Ministry of Health and Population and the achievements that have been made, in line with Egypt's Vision 2030 to transform the healthcare system and Bayer's vision of "Health for All, No Hunger," our future vision is now to "Expand into Africa to save millions of lives." Egypt is the gateway to Africa and the meeting point of the civilizations of the ancient and modern world.

He praised the significant transformation in the field of healthcare in Egypt, at all levels, from legislative to organizational to executive. These achievements are in line with Egypt's Vision 2030, which aspires to provide universal healthcare coverage and integrated care to all Egyptians.

The first stage of this plan has already begun with the implementation of the comprehensive health insurance system in six cities. He expressed optimism about the continued cooperation between Bayer, the Ministry of Health and Population, and all other stakeholders to serve the Egyptian patient.

He also highlighted the importance of Egypts presidential initiatives, which reflect the long-term strategic plan to achieve the principles and goals of sustainable development in all sectors, especially healthcare, as part of the new republic under the umbrella of 100 Million Healthy Lives.

Dr. Naima Al-Qaseer, the World Health Organization's representative and head of mission in Egypt, said that globally, an estimated 58 million people are living with hepatitis C infection. About 1.5 million people are infected with the virus each year, and an estimated 3.2 million adolescents and children have chronic hepatitis C infection.

She added that the World Health Organization estimated that in 2019, approximately 2.9 million people died of hepatitis C, most of them from cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. In the past, Egypt was one of the countries with the largest burden of hepatitis C virus globally.

The results of the 2015 Egyptian Demographic and Health Survey revealed that the prevalence rate of hepatitis C was 7 percent among the population aged 15-59 years. During the period 2016-2021, Egypt led the response to viral hepatitis in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, especially with regard to the eradication of hepatitis C. The country implemented a model based on primary healthcare, which has had a significant role in treating one third of the 12 million people with hepatitis C in the region.

Dr. Al-Qaseer added that since the beginning of the first phase of the initiative for early detection and provision of treatment, the strategy was implemented, which was based on an institutional application of health services and public health, based on the global primary healthcare model. There was complete coordination, at the highest level, between the World Health Organization and the Ministry of Health.

She alluded to Egypt's submission of a draft report on the elimination of hepatitis C in 2021, followed by an amended version in 2023, both based on the World Health Organization's (WHO) temporary guidelines to verify the elimination of hepatitis.

She affirmed that they are presently working hand-in-glove with the Egyptian Ministry of Health to update the third iteration of this crucial file in preparation for submission to the regional verification committee, and subsequently, the international one. They are fully committed to working together to ensure that Egypt meets the criteria required to obtain the organization's certification for the elimination of hepatitis C, she pointed out.

Dr. Al-Qaseer reiterated her congratulations to Egypt for making progress towards the global goals of eliminating hepatitis C as a threat to public health. She commended Egypt for accelerating the pace of early detection and treatment through the 100 Million Healthy Lives campaign, and for its sustainability in early detection of the disease and provision of free treatment to Egyptians and non-Egyptians. She also congratulated Egypt for its intensive trend in improving the documentation and coding of deaths, developing and automating information systems, and investigating and following up cases of complications.

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We are honored to welcome Delvin Joyce as our keynote speaker, and we are confident that his insights will provide attendees with valuable knowledge and inspiration to thrive in this ever-evolving industry.

The National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA) - New York is thrilled to announce the highly anticipated State Conference on September 20, 2023, in Bryant Park in New York City. This premier event will bring together insurance and financial professionals from across the state for a day of learning, networking, and inspiration.

NAIFA is renowned for its commitment to advancing the professional growth and success of its members, and the 2023 State Conference promises to uphold this tradition. Attendees can expect a day filled with thought-provoking discussions, expert insights, and opportunities to connect with industry leaders.

Highlighting the event will be the esteemed keynote speaker and NAIFA member, Delvin Joyce. As a recognized authority in the fields of financial planning and leadership, Delvin Joyce's expertise and charisma have earned him a reputation as a sought-after speaker and advisor. Attendees can look forward to an empowering address that will undoubtedly leave a lasting impact on their production and personal development.

"This year's NAIFA-New York State Conference is set to be a momentous occasion for insurance and financial professionals in the state as we come back together in Manhattan after many years," said Gary Cappon, CLU, LUTCF, RICP, FSCP, CLTC, NAIFA-NY State President. "We are honored to welcome Delvin Joyce as our keynote speaker, and we are confident that his insights will provide attendees with valuable knowledge and inspiration to thrive in this ever-evolving industry."

The conference will feature a diverse lineup of workshops and panel discussions led by industry experts. Topics will cover a wide range of issues pertinent to today's insurance and financial landscape, including market trends, regulatory updates, digital transformation, and innovative client engagement strategies.

In addition to the enriching educational content, the conference will provide ample networking opportunities for attendees to connect with peers, potential collaborators, and industry-leading organizations.

"We encourage all insurance and financial professionals, whether they are new to the industry or seasoned veterans, to join us at the NAIFA-New York State Conference," said Neil Himmelstein, Program Chair. "This event promises to be an invaluable experience that will help attendees elevate their careers and stay ahead in this competitive field."

Registration for the NAIFA-New York State Conference is now open, and attendees are encouraged to secure their spots early due to limited availability.

Event Details:

Date: September 20, 2023

Location: Bryant Park, Manhattan

Keynote Speaker: Delvin Joyce

For more information and to register for the conference, please visit the NAIFA-New York website at http://www.naifany.org.

About NAIFA-New York:

NAIFA-New York members differentiate themselves by belonging to a professional association that sets them apart from the competition by serving Main Street USA, voluntarily investing & participating in a performance-driven networking group while serving their industry through advocacy and community service. It operates as a state chapter of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA), the preeminent membership association for the multigenerational community of financial professionals in the United States. NAIFA members subscribe to a strong Code of Ethics and represent a full spectrum of financial service practice specialties. They work with families and businesses to help Americans improve financial literacy and achieve financial security. NAIFA provides producers with a national community for advocacy, education, and networking along with awards, publications, and leadership opportunities to allow NAIFA members to differentiate themselves in the marketplace. NAIFA members in every congressional district advocate on behalf of producers and consumers at the state, interstate, and federal levels.


Egypt has launched three new diving sites off the coast of the Red Sea in the city of Hurghada to protect coral reefs and boost diving tourism, the Ministry of Environment announced on Thursday.

The sites, created by sinking old military equipment, are located at depths 30 to 50 metres off the coast of Hurghada.

Minister of Environment Yasmine Fouad and Governor of Red Sea Amr Hanafy, along with environment ministers from five Arab countries (Jordan, Somalia, Djibouti, Sudan, and Yemen), attended the inauguration.

According to the ministry, the new sites aim to protect the natural coral reefs and promote diving tourism by creating an unforgettable experience that combines the allure of history with the beauty of the underwater world.

This initiative was carried out in collaboration with the armed forces, the Environment Ministry, the Tourism and Antiquities Ministry, and the Hurghada Environmental Protection and Conservation Association (HEPCA).

The project implements a protocol signed between the Red Sea Governorate and the armed forces to submerge ancient military equipment and vehicles at various locations and secure them on the seabed.

Fouad stated that the coral reefs in the Red Sea are among the most resilient in the world and are capable of withstanding rising temperatures caused by climate change.

She noted that Egypt had declared these reefs protected before the COP27 climate conference held in November in the Red Sea city of Sharm El-Sheikh, adding that a clear plan was developed to protect these reefs from pollution and harmful practices.

The environment minister explained that constructing the new diving sites involved deliberately sinking 15 pieces of ancient military equipment in carefully chosen locations. Fouad added that it took seven years of meticulous planning and careful preparation to sink the ancient equipment without causing long-term harm to the ecosystem.

Egypt assumed the presidency of the 20th session of the Ministerial Council of the Regional Organization for the Conservation of the Environment of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden (PERSGA) in a meeting held on Thursday in Hurghada.







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Three major news outlets are reporting that the sale of Simon & Schuster will likely be announced as soon as next week. A Reuters report said that the final three bidders are HarperCollins, the private equity firm KKR, and Richard Hurowitz of the investment firm Octavian & Company, who has the backing of the Abu Dhabi-based sovereign wealth manager Mubadala Investment Co. The New York Times has the final bidders as HC and KKR, while the Wall Street Journal said KKR was in advanced talks to buy the publishers. (One rumor that was making the rounds was that Barnes & Noble owner Elliott Advisors was making a bid. If that was true, they did not make the final cut based on the new reports). The second round of bids was due by the end of July.

The purchase prices is reported to be roughly $1.65 billion, a steep decline from the $2.175 billion Penguin Random House had agreed to pay before its acquisition was blocked by the Justice Department last year. S&S parent company Paramount walked away with a $200 million breakup fee, something that will sooth the pain if indeed the new price stays in the $1.65 billion range. That the price PRH was willing to pay was that high shocked the industry, and was reflective of both PRHs determination to acquire the company and the better economic conditions publishing enjoyed in late 2020 as the pandemic resulted in a surge in book buying. Sales have cooled since the pandemic highs, and higher costs have put pressure on publishers profits.

S&S has had a record year fiscally, with sales of $1.18 billion, and posted a record first quarter for 2023, when sales increased 19% and operating income rose 16%. As impressive as those numbers are, it will be difficult for S&S to match last years performance given the challenges of slowing industry sales, which includes lower book sales of mega-selling author Colleen Hoover, whose books, which are mostly published by S&S, are seeing sales slow from last years sky-high figures. Paramount is scheduled to report second quarter financial results on Monday, August 7, at which executives may provide an update on the S&S sale process in addition to an update on S&S financial performance.

Industry members, particularly agents and authors, seem to be favoring that one of the investment firms turn out to be the S&S winner, since that would keep the Big 5 intact, albeit with a new S&S owner. Paramount executives are also said to be wary of the HC bid, wanting nothing to do with another government investigation of selling S&S to a major competitor. There are mixed signals about how the government would react to the sale. The size of the company that the merger of PRH and S&S would have formed was clearly a concern for judge Florence Pan, who eventually ruled against the deal, and she suggested that other bidders would emerge to buy the company. But industry consolidation was also a factor in blocking the PRH and S&S merger, and there was sympathy for the argument that publishing needs more large players, not fewer.

Even within S&S, fear of what an acquisition by a private equity firm may mean for the company has eased. During the PRH trial, which was taking place last August, a few executives outlined the cost-cutting measures PRH would take if the S&S deal was approved, testimony that was eyeopening for S&S employees. If HC becomes the winner for S&S, there is little doubt executives would look for similar ways to improve efficiencies, as it has in its acquisitions of Harlequin and Thomas Nelson. The publisher has also cut 5% of its North American workforce this year, as its financial performance has suffered in the face of declining sales and higher costs.

Among KKR and Richard Hurowitz, KKR has more familiarly with the publishing industry. Late last month, it reached an agreement to sell the audiobook publisher RBMedia for what was reported as more than $1 billion. It also owns OverDrive. Moreover, KKR media chief Richard Sarnoff is well-known in publishing circles, having served in a number of executive roles with Random House. Former PRH CEO Madeline McIntosh is known to have served as a consultant to KKR, leading to speculation that she might have some role in a KKR-owned S&S. Finally, in its deal to sell RBmedia, KKR said it would give RBmedia employees a cash payout based on their tenure with the company. Long-term employees will earn up to two times their annual salary.
Concord Law School to become Purdue Global Law School in late 2023

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.  The Purdue Global Board of Trustees voted Friday (Aug. 4) to change the name of its law school to Purdue Global Law School, effective in November.

Currently known as Concord Law School, the renaming to Purdue Global Law School will better position the law schools long-term marketing and accreditation efforts and align the school with Purdue Globals overall branding. It will also meet an expectation of the Indiana Supreme Court, which is reviewing a bar licensure petition to allow the online law schools graduates to be eligible to sit for the Indiana bar exam and become licensed to practice law in the state.

While the outcome of that petition is still undecided, the court has made it clear from the beginning that one of its prerequisites would be changing the name of the law school to better align with Purdue, said Martin Pritikin, dean and vice president of the law school. It is clear that having Purdue Global more prominent in the name and logo would be advantageous in the long term. Plus, given Purdue Globals recent rebranding efforts, this is an ideal time for the law school to better align itself with the rest of Purdue Global.

Several faculty bodies, including the Purdue Global Faculty Senate and the Academic Administrative Council, have approved the name change. Following approval from the Board of Trustees, Purdue Global leadership and staff can begin making the change and submit paperwork to various higher education and accrediting groups.

The rebranding from Concord Law School to Purdue Global Law School builds upon Purdue Globals overall strengths and commitment to help working adults, in this case those who want to pursue a law degree, Purdue Global Chancellor Frank Dooley said. The law schools strength is helping those who live in rural or underserved areas become lawyers without having to leave their community. This helps us in that next step.

The law school is celebrating its 25th anniversary as the nations first online law school. One of the schools goals is to expand access to legal education to increase the availability of legal services, particularly in areas and populations that are underserved.

The Purdue system is excited to officially welcome a law school to be associated with our name: Purdue Global Law School, Purdue President Mung Chiang said. In the age of online learning, Americas first online law school will continue to grow in scale, excellence and impact.

In additional business, trustees approved the annual ratification of vice presidents and academic officers and received annual census and financial reports.

About Purdue Global

Purdue Global is Purdues online university for working adults who have life experience and often some college credits. It offers flexible paths for students to earn an associate, bachelors, masters or doctoral degree, based on their work experience, military service and previous college credits, no matter where they are in their life journey. Purdue Global is a nonprofit, public university accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and backed by Purdue University. For more information, visit https://stories.purdue.edu/purdue-global/.

Sources: Frank Dooley

Martin Pritikin
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.  In action needed before bringing commercial air service for Greater Lafayette to Purdue University Airport, the Purdue University Board of Trustees on Friday (Aug. 4) gave approval to plan, finance, construct and award construction contracts for a new terminal.

This is a significant next step in Purdue serving the state through ABC: Airport for the Greater Lafayette region, Broadband for rural counties and (hard tech) Corridor for central Indiana.

The university has been actively exploring the return of commercial air service to the Purdue University Airport, and the data shows that Purdue University and the Greater Lafayette communitys travel volume could support this service offering, said Rob Wynkoop, Purdue vice president of auxiliary services. We have more work to do, but the approval of this project helps ensure the needed infrastructure will be in place when the time comes.

The approximately 8,000-square-foot facility  to be located west of the existing terminal  will include restrooms, a waiting area, baggage claim, ticketing and passenger screening. It will be constructed to comply with Transportation Security Administration and Federal Aviation Administration requirements.

We considered a number of possible terminal solutions, including a renovation of the existing building, and determined the construction of this new facility is the most cost-conscious approach that meets federal requirements, Wynkoop said.

Existing airport hangar T-1 will be demolished, and new short-term parking will be created in its place. Safety improvements will be made to the railroad track pedestrian crossing.

Construction is scheduled to start in May 2024 and be completed in May 2025. The estimated cost of the project is $11.8 million, to be funded by state funds via the Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative ($7 million), gift funds ($3.3 million) and a federal grant ($1.5 million).

In June, trustees gave approval for the rehabilitation of a Purdue University Airport runway.

About Purdue University

Purdue University is a public research institution with excellence at scale. Ranked among top 10 public universities and with two colleges in the top 4 in the United States, Purdue discovers and disseminates knowledge with a quality and at a scale second to none. More than 105,000 students study at Purdue across modalities and locations, with 50,000 in person on the West Lafayette campus. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdues main campus has frozen tuition 12 years in a row. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap, including its first comprehensive urban campus in Indianapolis, the new Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business, and Purdue Computes, at https://www.purdue.edu/president/strategic-initiatives.

Writer: Tom Schott

Sources: Jay Wasson

Rob Wynkoop
Denmark's Foreign Minister Lars Rasmussen affirmed in a phone call on Friday with Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry that his government is studying several measures and legislations to prevent the recurrence of Quran burning incidents.

Rasmussen told Shoukry that the recent incidents involving the burning and desecration of the Quran in Denmark were regrettable and contradicted Denmark's societal values, according to a statement by the Egyptian foreign ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid.

For his part, Shoukry reaffirmed to Rasmussen Egypts strong condemnation of the burning of the Holy Quran, stressing that such incidents provoke Muslims worldwide.

He also affirmed that these incidents violate human rights, threaten peaceful coexistence, and fuel extremism, according to Abu Zeid.

Furthermore, Shoukry stressed to Rasmussen that countries should take effective measures to forestall these incidents and prevent them from recurring, calling on governments to refrain from underestimating what people hold sacred, to counter hate speech, and to foster peace in society, Abu Zeid added.

Egypt has condemned a recent series of Quran-burning incidents in Denmark and Sweden where extremists burned and desecrated copies of the Quran in front of the embassies of Muslim-majority countries.

Bilateral cooperation



The two top diplomats also discussed the relations between the two countries, focusing on the opportunities for cooperation in several fields, including economy, culture, and parliament.

Shoukry praised Denmark's private sector for its contribution to ongoing Egyptian projects, particularly in transportation and infrastructure, asserting that he expected this contribution to the Egyptian economy to increase, stated Abu Zeid.

For his part, Rasmussen conveyed his nation's gratitude for the diverse cooperation initiatives with Egypt.

He added that the Danish Prime Minister looks forward to hosting Egypts President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi in Copenhagen.

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This week, we discuss why European host countries shouldnt treat Ukrainian refugees like short-term visitors; how to reverse the erosion of U.S. and allied power and influence; Washington's concerns over Taiwans defense spending; addressing the mental health crisis in U.S. jails; tackling existential threats from artificial intelligence; and how the conflict in Sudan is creating a rift among U.S. security partners.

Photo by Thilo Schmuelgen/Reuters Don't Treat Ukrainian Refugees Like Short-Term Visitors Since February 2022, more than 6 million Ukrainians have been recorded as refugees. They mostly fled to Poland, Germany, and other European Union countries, where they will likely remain for a few years or more. Many are highly skilled workers, and one-third of Ukrainian refugees in the EU are children. Drawing lessons from recent RAND research on the refugee crisis in Syria, our experts say European host countries should work to truly support and integrate Ukrainian refugeesmost of all by educating and employing them. Helping young refugees could start with developing school-enrollment initiatives, pathways to high-school graduation, and opportunities for further education. At the same time, host countries can improve labor market access for adult refugees through investment in language training, job matching, and other programs. Helping Ukrainian refugees in such ways will help them enrich their host communities. They may also eventually return home as entrepreneurs who can invest, transfer knowledge, and create jobs. Thus, Ukraines refugee diaspora could turn into a motor of the country's postwar reconstruction.

Photo by Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Jacob Mattingly/U.S. Department of Defense How to Reverse the Erosion of U.S. and Allied Power and Influence Since the Cold War, U.S. defense strategy has been predicated on military forces that were superior in all domains to those of any adversary. But the nature of warfare has evolved, and that superiority is gone. In a new report, RAND's David Ochmanek and colleagues recommend a new approach to address the shortcomings of U.S. and allied forces. It focuses on prioritizing key aspects of force modernization, including technology and weapons upgrades, as well as building solidarity among allies and partners.

Photo by EyePress News/Reuters To Defend Taiwan, 'Make Every Dollar Count' Washington and Taipei agree on the goal of protecting Taiwan against a potential invasion by China. But even as U.S. security ties with Taiwan grow stronger, Washington is bristling over how much Taiwan's leaders are spending for defenseand what they're spending it on. RAND's Michael Lostumbo says these long-simmering differences can be addressed if the United States works with Taiwan to review its spending and discuss how its capabilities can complement American investments and support.

Photo by Lucy Nicholson/Reuters Addressing the Mental Health Crisis in U.S. Jails In the United States, people with mental health concerns are disproportionately jailed at a staggering rate. The situation in Los Angeles is especially dire: 41 percent of the jail population has a diagnosed mental illness, is experiencing mental health symptoms, or is taking psychiatric medication. According to RAND's Stephanie Brooks Holliday, eliminating cash bail and implementing pretrial diversion programs could help. The goal shouldn't just be to release people from jail, she says, but to make sure they don't end up there in the first place.

Photo by dem10/Getty Images Tackling Existential Threats from AI Artificial intelligence poses numerous and potentially world-altering risks. RAND experts say that tackling these dangers could start with a few simple steps. First, identify appropriate risk-management approaches. Second, determine how AI can better meet the intents of its designers. And third, respond to racism, sexism, and other biases in AI systems. After all, if an AI system cannot be designed to be safe against racism or sexism, then how can it possibly be designed to align with humanity's long-term interests?
Michael Allio / Instagram

By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 08/03/2023



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Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.

alum Michael Allio has addressed speculation he and Danielle Maltby have broken up.Amid speculation the couple has split, Michael appeared on the August 2 episode of the "She's All Bach" podcast and dodged questions about his relationship status."I'll say this. Being in a public relationship, it isn't fun," Michael reluctantly shared."Danielle and I, like, both agree that the only people that should be in our relationship are us two. So we think just the healthiest way to have a relationship is to keep it private."Michael insisted, however, that he and Danielle "both love each other, like, very much.""But we just kind of want to keep things private," Michael reiterated."I think when you start having a relationship and bringing people into it, people have opinions, you know, and it's just not the right way to run a relationship, so that's just something we've decided."Michael and Danielle sparked breakup rumors last month when fans noticed their social-media activity had little to do with each other.Michael's last Instagram post with Danielle, whom he met on 's eighth season last summer, was on June 13, and Danielle last mentioned Michael on Instagram on June 18, when she wished him a happy Father's Day.The Instagram account @Deuxmoi also posted a blind in late July claiming two Paradise fan-favorites were in trouble."Fan favorite moved to be closer to her final pick... might have to move back?" an anonymous person wrote, seemingly referring to Danielle's move from Tennessee to Ohio to be closer to Michael and his son James."Did her final pick struggle to be truthful about his journey for love? Seems that both have split as they have not been spotted together in over a month, have not interacted online with each other even though they live in the same city! She clearly deserves better."Prior to the breakup rumors, Danielle and Michael had been posting about each other all the time. In fact, they were very lovey-dovey on social media, and Danielle even shared how she was freezing her eggs Danielle -- who lost her late fiance Nick Haag to a drug overdose in 2011 -- moved to Cleveland for Michael in February. Prior to the move, the nurse had lived in Nashville for 12 years.Michael, originally from Akron, OH, welcomed James during his marriage to his late wife Laura Ritter-Allio, who passed away from breast cancer in 2019.On last summer, Michael was romantically interested in Sierra Jackson , but he ultimately determined something was "missing" between them and he was unable to let his walls down due to grief.But when Danielle stepped foot on the Paradise beach in Mexico, Michael seemed ecstatic and affectionately called her "Dani."The pair had spoken via DMs on Instagram and become friends prior to filming the show, but Paradise marked the first time they were meeting in-person.Michael and Danielle were able to connect quickly over their similar losses and traumas. The pair slowly got to know each other and never expressed interest in dating anyone else on the show.Michael and Danielle chose to leave together as a couple before overnight Fantasy Suites. They both determined they weren't ready to get engaged, especially because Danielle had yet to meet James.However, Michael revealed on the reunion show in November that James quickly came to adore Danielle and never wanted her to leave when she was visiting.Danielle also confirmed that she felt the same way about James and couldn't wait to be a bigger part of his life.Michael also announced on the reunion show that he's "in love" with Danielle and she had changed his life for the better. Danielle is only the second woman whom Michael ever said, "I love you," to.While Danielle had no reservations about moving to Ohio in order to progress her relationship with Michael naturally, she explained how they don't want to live under the same roof -- at least not yet -- as to not rush things or disrupt James' comfortable routine."I'm just so excited," Michael said on social media in December of Danielle's decision to uproot her life for him."Long distance is difficult, but we've made the best of it and this next chapter and upcoming year is one I am so looking forward to. She's the best!"Interested in more The Bachelor news? Follow our Bachelor Nation News Page on Facebook or join our The Bachelor Facebook Group
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Egypt and Greece affirmed the consistency of their positions in the Eastern Mediterranean region, noting that the Eastern Mediterranean Gas Forum (EMGF) represents one of the most important tools in this respect.

This came during a meeting held in New Alamein city on Thursday between Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and Greece's Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

"The talks witnessed an exchange of visions and viewpoints on regional files of common interest, [in line with] the consistency of the positions of the two countries in the eastern Mediterranean region," read a statement released by the Egyptian presidential spokesman.

"The Eastern Mediterranean Gas Forum represents one of the most important tools in this context," added the statement.

The Cairo-based EMGF was established in 2020, comprising eight countries including Egypt and Greece, with the aim of boosting gas trade among regional states.

El-Sisi and Mitsotakis voiced their keenness to promote bilateral ties and speed up the activation and implementation of the agreements and memorandums of understanding recently signed between the two countries.

They also urged continued cooperation in the fields of military, economic, and cultural fields, as well as in energy, natural gas, and power connectivity and green transformation sectors, added the statement.

President El-Sisi also expressed his appreciation for Greece's position towards Egypt, whether at the bilateral level or within the framework of the European Union. He also praised the "fruitful" trilateral cooperation with Cyprus.

The three countries have intensified their trilateral cooperation mechanisms over the past decade, signing several agreements in several fields, including a major deal to link their power grids in October 2021.

For his part, the Greek prime minister said the recent years have seen "remarkable" progress in cooperation with Egypt, expressing his country's keenness to continue deepening these relations.

He also noted that Egypt plays a "prominent" role in facing the current challenges in the Mediterranean region, according to the statement.

The Greek prime minister expressed his appreciation for Egypt's efforts to confront irregular migration in the Mediterranean basin, especially in light of the burdens it shoulders due to hosting millions of refugees.

In addition, the talks dealt with a series of issues of mutual interest, including the global repercussions of the Russian-Ukrainian crisis and the developments in Libya.

In this respect, El-Sisi reiterated Egypt's position of supporting the political track in Libya as well as calling for presidential and parliamentary elections, the exit of all foreign forces and mercenaries from Libyan lands, and the restoration of Libya's sovereignty, territorial integrity, and stability.

Both sides agreed during their meeting to press ahead with coordination to face the various common challenges facing the region to achieve the aspirations of its peoples to live in peace, security, and stability.

Mitsotakis's visit is the first to the region after his re-election and the formation of his new government.

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In one of the largest potential transactions this year, private-equity majors Blackstone and Baring have initiated talks with the Hamied family, the promoters of pharmaceutical firm Cipla, to acquire up to 20 per cent in the company.

Photograph: Danish Siddiqui/Reuters

The family owns 33.47 per cent and may become minority owners if the talks succeed, said a source close to the development.

It has appointed bankers to seek bids from potential investors, and Blackstone and Baring PE have responded.

There is 15-20 per cent which is on the block by the family and a decision is expected soon, said the source, asking not to be quoted.

Taking into account Ciplas market valuation of Rs 94,572 crore, 20 per cent of the company will be worth Rs 18,914 crore.

Blackstone declined to comment. Baring PE did not respond to an email message while the Hamied family was unavailable for comment.

In a statement, Cipla said: The (firm) will make appropriate disclosure in compliance with the Listing Regulations as and when any such requirement arises.

A source said the Cipla promoters were likely to invest their wealth in philanthropic activities and hence they planned to sell part of their stake.

If Cipla succeeds in selling its stake, it will join a growing club of Indian promoters exiting their businesses.

In June 2021, A Velumani and family sold their 66 per cent stake in Thyrocare for Rs 4,546 crore.

In June 2008, Ranbaxys founders, the Singh family, sold their 34.8 per cent stake for close to $3 billion to Daiichi Sankyo.

In recent times, private equity companies led by Blackstone are increasingly focusing on investing in health care, consumer retail, and technology companies.

Singapore-based Temasek invested $2 billion in April this year to raise its stake in Manipal Hospitals to 59 per cent.

Blackstone has a dry powder of close to billions of dollars to invest across the world, its top leaders said in February this year.

It is one of the largest global investors in India with $50 billion of investment across real estate ($20 billion) and a portfolio of other companies ($30 billion).

India is the top-performing market globally for Blackstone Private Equity with investment in Mphasis, VFS, TaskUs, IBS Software, Xpressbees, and Simplilearn.

It sold Aakash Education to Byjus last year.

The sale of stake by Cipla comes when it recorded its highest ever revenue and Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation) in FY23 of Rs 22,753 crore and Rs 5,027 crore, respectively, with a resulting Ebitda margin of 22.1 per cent.

It has the largest trade generics business among big pharma players in India, with an estimated 8-10 per cent share of this market. (Trade generics are medicines not pushed through doctors but directly through trade channels.)

Cipla is the second-largest player in the chronic branded-prescription business in India and has been increasing its focus on chronic therapies.

It is the leader in respiratory therapies in the country.

It is also among the top 10 players by prescription in the US market, where it is a late entrant.

Now it draws 13 per cent of its revenue from international markets, and has 3 per cent contribution from active pharmaceutical ingredients.
Mobile phone manufacturer Oppo has lodged an appeal with the Supreme Court against an order from the Delhi high court.

Photograph: Edgar Su/Reuters

The order requires Oppo to submit a security payment related to the India portion of the last-paid licence fee to Nokia in an ongoing patent infringement case.

The case is slated to appear before the bench of the Chief Justice of India, D Y Chandrachud, on August 4.

Although the precise sum remains confidential, the security payment will comprise 23 per cent of the amount paid by Oppo under the 2018 Licence Agreement.

This percentage mirrors Oppo's Indian market, which contributes 23 per cent to its global sales.

The Delhi high court's order, dated 3rd July, took into account Oppo's status as an ex-licensee, its admission to using Nokia's patents, its willingness to renew the 2018 Agreement and make interim payments as late as June 2021, its request to a court in China to ascertain a Fair, Reasonable, and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) rate, as well as Oppo's financial standing.

The dispute was sparked by Nokia's appeal against an order issued on November 17 of the previous year, which dismissed Nokia's application.

Nokia had sought for Oppo to deposit an interim security based on either Oppo's most recent counter-offer for a global licence of Nokia's Standard Essential Patents portfolio or an amount equivalent to the royalty paid under the 2018 Agreement.

This sum was proportional to the number of devices Oppo sold in India compared to its global sales.

Nokia informed the court that Oppo had procured a licence for Nokia's Standard Essential Patents in 2018, valid for three years (expiring on 30th June 2021), under the 2018 agreement.

The agreement served as a cross-licence pact for the patents of both parties.

Nokia maintained that the 2018 Agreement did not include patents relating to 5G standards.

Considering that 52 per cent of Oppo's sales in India and 64 per cent of its global sales are 5G devices, any new licence fee is likely to be considerably higher.

Nokia contended that, following the expiry of the 2018 Agreement, Oppo experienced a remarkable surge in device sales.

Between July 2021 and December 2022, Oppo sold approximately 77 million devices in India without paying any royalties to Nokia.

Despite Nokia's attempts to initiate discussions on technical and economic fronts, Oppo reportedly declined to forge a new licence agreement.

In response to Oppo's refusal, Nokia lodged a case with the Delhi high court, alleging that Oppo had infringed upon its three Standard Essential Patents.

The alleged infringement stems from Oppo's unlicensed manufacture and sale of cellular devices compliant with 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G telecommunication standards.
Younger cheetahs that are habituated to management vehicles and human presence are preferred candidates for relocation to India, international experts involved in Project Cheetah have told the government based on lessons learnt from the initial experience in Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park.

Photograph: Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters

In a status report submitted to the government recently, the experts emphasised that younger cheetahs are more adaptable to their new environments and have higher survival rates compared to older cheetahs.

Younger males display 'lower aggression' towards other cheetahs, reducing the risk of intraspecific competition mortality, commonly known as cheetah infighting.

Considering the costs associated with relocating cheetahs to India, the experts highlighted that younger cheetahs have a longer life expectancy post-release, offering higher conservation value and breeding potential.

The experts said younger cheetahs 'habituated to management vehicles and humans on foot' allow easier monitoring of health-related issues, simplify stress-free veterinary and management intervention, which is crucial considering the recent cases of radio collar-induced infections in some cheetahs. Additionally, they will enhance tourism value.

Kuno, where two batches of cheetahs from Namibia and South Africa have been introduced, is set to open for tourism and these qualities in cheetahs can enhance the park's appeal to visitors, they said.

The African experts have also shortlisted 10 young, suitable cheetahs aged between 19 months and 36 months that can be made available for relocation to India in early 2024.

They emphasised that although the cheetah mortalities recorded at the Kuno National Park are unfortunate and have attracted negative media attention, they are within the normal parameters for wild cheetah reintroduction.

Six of the 20 adult cheetahs relocated to Kuno from Africa have died since March this year -- the latest being on Wednesday.

The experts drew the government's attention to the initial difficulties faced during cheetah reintroduction attempts in South Africa, where nine out of 10 attempts failed. These experiences led to the establishment of best practices for wild cheetah reintroduction and management.

"In South Africa, it took us 26 years to perfect the cheetah reintroduction and we lost 279 wild cheetahs in the process. We cannot expect India to get this right with just 20 cheetahs. Although such high losses are unlikely in India, Project Cheetah will undoubtedly experience similar growing pains," South African wildlife expert Vincent van der Merwe said.

Based on previous reintroduction experiences in Africa, the India founder population of 20 individuals will further decline to approximately five to seven individuals before population recovery is initiated, the report read.

The experts said the first litters with realistic prospects of survival to adulthood are likely to be born in 2024.

However, cheetah cub mortality is expected to be high initially as reintroduced female cheetahs adapt to the different birthing intervals in Asia.

The report also underscored the importance of "supermoms" -- highly successful, fit and fertile female cheetahs that sustain wild cheetah populations in Southern Africa.

Out of the seven wild females relocated to India, only one is likely to be a 'supermom', the experts said.

They also said the natural process of cheetahs developing thick coats of fur in anticipation of African winter appears to be proving fatal in India's wet and hot conditions and suggested treatment with long-acting medicine to deal with fatal infections and prevent any more death.

The experts said that the thicker coats, high parasite load and moisture create a perfect recipe for dermatitis with fly strike on top of it compounding the infection and compromising the skin's integrity.

Infections can spread and the contaminated fluids can run down the spine when the cheetahs sit up on their haunches.

The experts said that adapting on an 'evolutionary timescale' might be the only permanent solution if there's a genetic link to the development of winter coats.

They emphasised that the relocation of at least 50 more founder cheetahs from the South African metapopulation over the next decade will be crucial for stabilising the Indian population.

Continuous swaps between the Southern African and Indian metapopulations will also be necessary for long-term genetic and demographic viability.

The experts strongly advised Indian authorities to identify alternative sites for reintroduction, suggesting that Kuno may be a sink reserve.

Sink reserves are habitats that have limited resources or environmental conditions that are less favourable for the survival or reproduction of a species.

Sink reserves are reliant on dispersing animals from source reserves -- habitats that provide optimal conditions for population growth and reproduction of a particular species -- to maintain their population numbers.

The experts recommended having at least two additional reintroduction sites available by the end of 2024, with an area of above 50 square kilometres and preferably fenced as unfenced systems worldwide have not seen successful cheetah reintroduction.

Talking to PTI, Union environment ministry officials had earlier rejected the idea of having fenced reserves, saying it goes against the basic tenets of wildlife conservation.

In a letter to the Supreme Court last month, the international experts had expressed serious concerns about the management of the project.

The experts expressed frustration that they were not being given timely information and were excluded from decision-making processes.

They claimed that their involvement has been minimised since a key project leader, Y V Jhala, retired.

Some of the cheetah deaths could have been prevented with better monitoring and timely veterinary care, they had told the apex court.

The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) told the Supreme Court that there is no reason to believe that cheetah deaths were caused by any inherent unsuitability at Kuno.

According to the NTCA, cheetahs, in general, have low survival rates, with only 50 per cent of adult cheetahs surviving even in non-introduced populations. For introduced populations, the survival rates are even lower.

While the mortalities are troubling, the NTCA assured that they are not unduly alarming.

Sharing its plans with the apex court for the introduction of cheetahs in other areas, the NTCA said it is preparing the Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary and the Nauradehi Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh for this purpose.

On the Mukundra Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan, the NTCA said it is not suitable for accommodating cheetahs at the moment.

The reserve witnessed the deaths of five tigers in 2020 within a short span of time with some of them attributed to tick and parasitic infections.

The NTCA expressed concerns about the low prey density and a large number of feral cattle carrying a significant amount of parasitic load, which could pose challenges to the survival of cheetahs at Mukundra.
The Congress on Friday said the Supreme Court staying Rahul Gandhi's conviction in a defamation case is the victory of truth, democracy and the Constitution, with the former party chief asserting that he will continue to protect the idea of India.

IMAGE: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi waves to supporters as he leaves the AICC headquarters, New Delhi, August 4, 2023. Photograph: Mohammed Zakir/ANI Photo

Party president Mallikarjun Kharge hailed the Supreme Court ruling as a "victory of the people" and said that while just 24 hours were taken to disqualify Gandhi from the Lok Sabha after his conviction, it is to be seen how long will it take to reinstate him after the apex court relief.

Soon after the court ruling, Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury met Speaker Om Birla and urged him to reinstate Gandhi at the earliest.

"We have met the Lok Sabha speaker and have urged him to restore Gandhi's membership in the Lok Sabha after the Supreme Court has granted him relief. We want that Rahul Gandhi should speak on the 'no-confidence motion' against the government in the Lok Sabha on August 8," he said.

Gandhi, who was accorded a grand welcome by party workers at the AICC headquarters soon after the court ruling, briefly addressed the media saying, "Truth always triumphs, if not today then tomorrow or the day after. I thank people for their support."

"My path is clear to me (as to) what is my work, there is clarity in my mind about that. I thank the people who helped us and the people for their love and support that they extended," he told reporters.

"Come what may, my duty remains the same. Protect the idea of India," Gandhi said in a tweet.

Ecstatic party workers at the AICC headquarters danced to the beats of drums, distributed sweets and unfurled the Congress flag to welcome Gandhi.

The former Congress chief visited the party office along with his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who earlier tweeted citing a quote by Gautam Buddha -- "Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth."

Congress spokesperson and Gandhi's counsel Abhishek Singhvi asserted that any delay in Rahul Gandhi's reinstatement as a Lok Sabha member on account of "excuses" by the government would be mala fide, unfair and "completely contrary to the heart and soul of parliamentary democracy".

The Opposition party said if the government delays his reinstatement by making excuses as the ones it made in the case of NCP MP Mohammad Faizal, it will have no alternative but to take legal recourse.

IMAGE: Congress workers and supporters celebrate after the Supreme Courts stay on Rahul Gandhi's conviction in a defamation case, Mumbai, August 4, 2023. Photograph: ANI Photo

Kharge said it is a day of happiness and welcomed the Supreme Court ruling.

"It is a day of happiness, democracy has won, Constitution has won, Satymeva Jayate."

"This is the victory of the common people. This is not just Rahul Gandhi's victory, this is the victory of all the people of the country, victory of democracy and of constitutional principles," he said.

"Constitution is alive and this is an example that one can get justice. This is the victory of the common people and of constitutional principles," he added.

"The person who fights for truth, for the country's interest, to strengthen the country, for the youth of the country, against rising prices, the person who fights and makes people aware, who walked 4,000 km from Kanyakumari to Kashmir and met various people, I think their prayers are with us and it is, therefore, victory of the people," the Congress president said.

Congress's general secretary organisation K C Venugopal also hailed the verdict.

"We welcome the hon'ble Supreme Court's verdict staying Sh. Rahul Gandhi ji's conviction. Justice has prevailed. No force can silence the voice of the people," Venugopal said on Twitter.

In a tweet in Hindi, the Congress said, "It is a victory of love over hate. Satyamev Jayate -- Jai Hind."

Party general secretary Randeep Surjewala said justice has prevailed.

"The roar of truth will be heard again the halls of democracy," he said.

"Congratulations India. Today, the power of truth, the courage and hopes of crores of countrymen has won at the altar of justice. Despite attempts and conspiracies... the true custodian of the country's democracy and constitution won," Surjewala said.

Senior party leader P Chidambaram said, "We maintain that the case was manufactured with the sole intention of keeping Mr Rahul Gandhi from Parliament."

IMAGE: Congress party president Mallikarjun Kharge shows the victory sign with Rahul Gandhi during a press conference at the Congress hq, New Delhi, August 4, 2023. Photograph: ANI Photo

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said the judgment is a strong vindication of truth and justice.

"Despite the relentless efforts of the BJP's machinery, Rahul Gandhi has refused to bend, break or bow, choosing instead to place his faith in the judicial process," he said on Twitter.

Chowdhury also said that "we fear the government may create hurdles and have urged the speaker not to delay the revocation of Rahul Gandhi's disqualification".

Singhvi said everyone was now looking forward to hearing the former party president speak in Parliament.

"This entire country has heard and seen Rahul Gandhi in action inside and outside Parliament. His actions, his speech, his thought process, his abhiyaans (campaigns) are ultimately animated by his thinking -- daro mat. He has demonstrated time and again the courage of his convictions," Singhvi said.

"Rahul Gandhi has shown exemplary courage, restraint and faith in the judicial process. This entire incident has demonstrated the vital importance of an opposition which will not be backing down. Which is Rahul Gandhi's calling card -- 'don't back down," he said.

"This has also demonstrated how the opposition, and principal voice among them is Rahul Gandhi, doesn't yield on important issues such as farmers' issues and unemployment," he said.

Asked what would be the course of action if there is a delay in the reinstatement of Gandhi as a Lok Sabha MP, Singhvi said, "You can find many excuses... I can find 10 more excuses... It will show mala fide, it will be unfair, it will be graceless and it will be completely contrary to the heart and soul of parliamentary democracy which requires certain etiquette and give and take."

Asked if the speaker may need to seek the opinion of the law ministry, Singhvi said the answer was "an emphatic no".

"Just as we have faith in courts and justice, we have faith in democracy. I said I have hope and trust that will not have to do in this case what I had to do in the Lakshdweep case. That hope and trust remains for a couple of more days. Ultimately if that is belied and betrayed then as law abiding citizens we will have to go to court," he said.

He said lower courts have repeatedly said that Gandhi should apologise but he asserted he is fighting on principles.

Earlier in the day, in a big relief to Gandhi, the Supreme Court stayed his conviction in the 2019 defamation case over his Modi surname remark, paving the way for the revival of his Lok Sabha membership.

The Lok Sabha speaker can now restore his membership on his own or Gandhi, armed with the apex court order, seek restoration of his status as an MP.

A three-judge bench of justices B R Gavai, P S Narasimha and Sanjay Kumar said no reason was given by the trial court judge while convicting Gandhi except that he was admonished by the apex court in a contempt case.
The Manipur government relaxed the curfew in Imphal East and West districts for seven hours from 5 am on Friday to facilitate common people to purchase essential items, officials said.

IMAGE: People stage a protest against the mass burial of Kuki-Zomi people killed in Manipur's ethnic violence, in Imphal on Thursday. Photograph: ANI Photo

Following fresh violence in various parts of the ethnic strife-torn state, the administration had on Thursday imposed a total curfew in the two districts as a precautionary measure, withdrawing relaxations announced earlier.

The curfew was relaxed on Friday from 5 am to 12 pm 'to facilitate the general public to purchase essential commodities, including medicines and food items', according to orders issued by districts magistrates of Imphal East and West.

Over 25 people were injured in clashes as Army and RAF personnel fired tear gas shells in Kangvai and Phougakchao areas in Bishnupur district on Thursday to stop processions from proceeding to a proposed burial site, violating restrictions on gatherings.

A Manipur Rifles policeman was killed and one person injured in a gunfight at Senjam Chirang in Imphal West district on Thursday morning, police said.

In another development, a mob looted arms and ammunition from the 2nd Indian Reserve Battalion outpost at Naransena in Bishnupur, official sources said.
The Delhi high court on Friday sought a response from the Centre, Election Commission of India, and 26 political parties on a petition seeking to restrain opposition parties from using the acronym INDIA for their alliance.

IMAGE: The Opposition conclave in Bengaluru, July 18, 2023. Photograph: Shrikant Singh/ANI Photo

Opposition bloc INDIA (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) comprising 26 parties was announced at a meeting in Bengaluru, Karnataka on July 17-18 to take on the ruling NDA in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

A bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Amit Mahajan issued notices to the ministries of home affairs and information and broadcasting, ECI and 26 political parties on the petition, saying that the matter needs to be heard.

"It has to be heard. It requires hearing. Notice issued," the bench said.

It, however, refused to grant any interim relief at this stage and said that no order can be passed without hearing the respondents.

"We can't pass any order like this. Let the response of the other side come. We will definitely look into it," the bench said.

Petitioner Girish Bharadwaj said the prominent leaders and members of 16 of the 26 political parties mentioned in the memo of parties of the petition gathered at Patna in Bihar on June 23 to form an alliance for contesting the upcoming general election of 2024 and decided to meet again at Bengaluru to prepare a strategy and choose the name of alliance and its convenor.

The petition, through advocate Vaibhav Singh, said on July 17, these political parties gathered in Bengaluru to give shape to further strategies for the 2024 general election and the name of the alliance was announced to be INDIA.

These parties have said that they will contest the 2024 elections together against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), it said.

The plea has sought interim order staying the use of acronym INDIA by the political parties and to also prohibit the use of the national flag with the acronym INDIA by the respondent political alliance.

The plea referred to the statements of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.

".... by dragging the name of our Nation Mr (Rahul) Gandhi very cunningly presented the name of their alliance as the name of our nation and tried to show that the NDA/BJP and hon'ble Prime Minister Mr (Narendra) Modi is in conflict with our own nation, that is, INDIA and this attempt of Mr Gandhi had created confusion in the mind of common people that the upcoming general election of 2024 will be a fight between political parties or between alliance and our country.

"That by creating this confusion the respondent political parties want to take undue advantage in the name of our country," the plea said.

It said that the petitioner gave a representation to the ECI but no action was taken after which he approached the high court with the petition.

The political parties which have been arrayed as respondents are Indian National Congress, All India Trinamool Congress, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Aam Aadmi Party, Janata Dal-United, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar), Shiv Sena (UBT), Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Lok Dal, Apna Dal (Kamerawadi).

Besides, the other political parties are the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference, Peoples Democratic Party, Communist Party of India-Marxist, Communist Party of India, Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Konganadu Makkal Desia Katchi (KMDK), Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi and Indian Union Muslim League.

Revolutionary Socialist Party, Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation, All India Forward Bloc, Kerala Congress-Joseph, Kerala Congress-Mani and Manithaneya Makkal Katchi (MMK) have also been arrayed as respondent parties.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday said while just 24 hours were taken to disqualify Rahul Gandhi from the Lok Sabha after his conviction in a defamation case, it is to be seen how long will it take to reinstate him after the Supreme Court relief.

IMAGE: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge exchanges sweets with Rahul Gandhi after the latter's conviction in a defamation case was stayed by the Supreme Court, at the AICC hq, New Delhi, August 4, 2023. Photograph: ANI Photo

Addressing a press conference alongside Gandhi soon after the apex court stayed the conviction in a 2019 defamation case over his Modi surname remark, Kharge, "It is a day of happiness, democracy has won, Constitution has won, Satymeva Jayate."

Welcoming the Supreme Court ruling, Kharge said the Constitution is alive and this is an example that one can get justice.

"This is the victory of the common people. This is not just Rahul Gandhi's victory, this is the victory of all the people of the country, victory of democracy and of constitutional principles," he said.

"The person who fights for truth, for the country's interest, to strengthen the country, for the youth of the country, against rising prices, the person who fights and makes people aware, who walked 4,000 km from Kanyakumari to Kashmir and met various people, I think their prayers are with us and it is, therefore, victory of the people," Kharge said.

"To disqualify him everything happened in 24 hours, now let us see in how many hours he is reinstated," he said.

After being convicted and sentenced to two years in jail by a Gujarat court in the case, Gandhi was disqualified as a Lok Sabha member on March 23. He represented Wayanad (Kerala) in the Lower House of Parliament.

The Congress president said that while the Gujarat court was hundreds of kilometres away, still the government took not more than 24 hours to disqualify Gandhi. The Supreme Court, he pointed out, is just a few kilometres from Parliament.

Kharge said that in the heart of hearts the Modi government must be regretting what they did and why they did it.

The Supreme Court's stay on Gandhi's conviction, paves the way for revival of his Lok Sabha membership.

The Lok Sabha speaker can now revive his membership on his own or Gandhi, armed with the apex court order, can seek restoration of his status as an MP.

A three-judge bench of Justices B R Gavai, P S Narasimha and Sanjay Kumar said no reason was given by the trial court judge while convicting Gandhi except that he was admonished by the apex court in a contempt case.

The top court had closed the contempt proceedings against Gandhi for wrongly attributing to it his "chowkidar chor hai" remark against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in connection with the Rafale case, with a warning to be more careful in future after the senior Congress leader tendered an unconditional apology.

The term of the 17th Lok Sabha ends in May 2024.
In a fresh incident of arms looting, a mob comprising the majority community broke into a police armoury and stole weapons, including AK and 'Ghatak' series of assault rifles, and over 19,000 bullets of various calibres, officials said.

IMAGE: A paramilitary personnel fires tear gas to disperse people protesting against the mass burial of Kuki-Zomi people killed in Manipur's ethnic violence, in Imphal on Thursday. Photograph: ANI Photo

The incident took place at the battalion headquarters of the 2nd India Reserve Battalion (IRB) located at Naranseina in Bishnupur district.

A crowd had gathered there to march towards Churachandpur where tribals were planning to carry out a mass burial of their people killed in ethnic clashes that broke out in the state on May 3, they said.

More than 19,000 rounds of bullets of different calibres, an AK series assault rifle, three 'Ghaatak' rifles, 195 self-loading rifles, five MP-5 guns, 16 9mm pistols, 25 bulletproof jackets, 21 carbines, 124 hand grenades among others were looted by the mob, officials said.

The mass burial programme by the tribals had sparked fresh tension in the strife-torn state with the majority community opposing the move.

More than 25 people were injured in clashes as the Army and RAF personnel fired tear gas shells in Kangvai and Phougakchao areas in Bishnupur district on Thursday to stop processions on their way to the proposed burial site in violation of restrictions on gatherings, officials said.

The majority community had also attempted to loot two other armouries located in the state capital but the attempts were foiled.

The Manipur high court, in an extraordinary hearing held on Thursday morning, had stayed the proposed mass burial even though the Kuki community claimed that they had postponed the programme after discussions with the Union home ministry.

More than 160 people lost their lives and several hundred were injured since the ethnic clashes broke out in Manipur on May 3, after a 'Tribal Solidarity March' was organised in the hill districts to protest against the Meitei community's demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status.

Meiteis account for about 53 per cent of Manipur's population and live mostly in the Imphal Valley.

Tribals -- Nagas and Kukis -- constitute little over 40 per cent and reside in the hill districts. -- PTI
The Manipur Police on Friday said joint forces have conducted search operations in vulnerable and fringe areas of the strife-torn state and destroyed seven illegal bunkers after fresh violence broke out across various districts.

IMAGE: A Paramilitary personnel fires tear gas to disperse people who are protesting against the mass burial of Kuki-Zomi people killed in Manipur's ethnic violence, in Imphal on Thursday. Photograph: ANI Photo

The state government, however, relaxed the curfew in Imphal East and West districts for seven hours from 5 am to facilitate common people to purchase essential items, officials said.

'Security Forces conducted search operations in the vulnerable and fringe areas of the State. Joint security forces conducted operation in Koutruk hill range and destroyed 07 (seven) illegal bunkers,' the state police said on Twitter.

Following the violence in several districts of the ethnic riot-hit state, the administration had on Thursday imposed a total curfew in the twin districts of Imphal as a precautionary measure, withdrawing relaxations announced earlier.

The curfew was relaxed on Friday from 5 am to 12 pm 'to facilitate the general public to purchase essential commodities, including medicines and food items', according to orders issued by district magistrates of Imphal East and West.

A 35-year-old woman was injured late on Thursday in an exchange of fire between unidentified gunmen and state forces at Terakhongsangbi in Bishnupur, a district official said.

The woman, identified as Aribam Wahida Bibi, suffered a bullet injury on his hand and she has been undergoing treatment at a hospital in Imphal, he said.

Earlier on Thursday, a mob looted the armoury at the headquarters of the 2nd India Reserve Battalion (IRB) located at Naranseina in Bishnupur district, officials said.

More than 19,000 rounds of bullets of different calibres, an AK series assault rifle, three 'Ghaatak' rifles, 195 self-loading rifles, five MP-5 guns, 16 9mm pistols, 25 bulletproof jackets, 21 carbines, 124 hand grenades among others were looted by the mob, they said.

Over 25 people were injured in clashes as Army and RAF personnel fired tear gas shells in Kangvai and Phougakchao areas in Bishnupur on Thursday to stop processions from proceeding to a proposed burial site, violating restrictions on gatherings.

The Kuki-Zomi organisation, Indigenous Tribal Leaders' Forum, had planned the burial of 35 people, who were killed in ethnic riots in the state at a site in Haolai Khopi village of Churachandpur, resulting in tension in many districts.

The high court of Manipur had ordered that the status quo be maintained at the proposed burial site.
Raigad police in Maharashtra on Friday registered a criminal case against five persons including Edelweiss Group chairman Rashesh Shah for alleged abetment of art director Nitin Desai's suicide.

IMAGE: Nitin Chandrakant Desai. Photograph: Courtesy nitinchandrakantdesai/Instagram

The accused allegedly harassed Desai, 57, for loan repayment, the police said, citing the complaint filed by his wife.

Edelweiss ARC, in a statement, denied that any undue pressure was brought to bear on Desai for loan recovery.

A First Information Report was registered under Indian Penal Code sections 306 (abetment of suicide) and 34 (common intention) at Khalapur police station based on a complaint filed by Desai's wife Neha Desai, an official said.

The FIR named Edelweiss chairman Rashesh Shah, company official Smit Shah, another person named Keur Mehta, R K Bansal of Edelweiss Asset Reconstruction Company, and Jitender Kothari who has been appointed by the NCLT as an interim resolution professional, the police official said.

The accused will be asked to join the probe, he added.

Her husband was facing repeated mental harassment in connection with the loans his company had taken and he committed suicide because of it, Neha Desai alleged in the complaint.

Desai, who had worked for acclaimed Bollywood films such as "Lagaan" and "Jodhaa Akbar", allegedly hanged himself at his studio at Karjat in Raigad district on Wednesday.

His company had defaulted on a Rs 252 crore loan repayment to creditors and the Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal had initiated insolvency proceedings against it.

Desai's company ND's Art World Pvt Ltd had borrowed Rs 185 crore through two loans from ECL Finance in 2016 and 2018, and troubles with repayments started from January 2020. ECL Finance is a non-banking finance arm of the Edelweiss Group.

Rashesh Shah and others "tortured and mentally harassed" Desai for the recovery of loans, Neha Desai alleged in her complaint.

She lodged the complaint after listening to the voice notes which her husband had recorded before allegedly hanging himself, said the police official.

Shah tried to usurp the studio which her husband had built with hard work, Neha Desai alleged in the complaint.

Shah did not respond to his calls and harassed Nitin Desai "with the help of EOW, NCLT, DRT", she claimed.

"Shah did not cooperate though there were two or three investors who were ready to invest in the studio," Nitin Desai purportedly mentioned in his audio notes, as per the FIR.

"A Marathi artist is being killed by these persons. They are hatching a conspiracy, suppressing me and finishing me off," Desai purportedly said in the audio recordings.

As per Neha Desai's complaint, Rashesh Shah approached them in 2016 and offered them a loan.

The land on which the studio stands was mortgaged with the company for the two loans Desai took.

Desai was repaying the loan amount from time to time but in April 2019 ECL Finance demanded six months instalments in advance, Neha Desai claimed.

Her husband sold his office in Hiranandani scheme in Powai (Mumbai) to arrange repayment, she said.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, film shootings stopped, affecting the business and leading to delay in repayment, she added in the complaint.

Her husband was ready for a one-time settlement of the loan but the accused did not respond to his offers, she alleged.

Kothari had threatened to send "bouncers" and take possession of the studio on Sunday, she claimed.

Nitin Desai allegedly suffered a loss of nearly Rs 100 crore due to the actions of the accused, the FIR said.

Edelweiss ARC, meanwhile, in a late evening statement, denied that it put any undue pressure on Desai for repayment. It followed the RBI-mandated procedure, it said.
Members of the Family and Community Cohesion Committee at National Dialogue discussed proposals for a new personal status law and other thorny divorce-related issues.

In a session held on Thursday, the committee members  which included lawyers, women, activists, and representatives from Al-Azhar and Dar Al-Ifta  discussed divorce-related issues such as alimony and financial compensation for divorced women.

During the discussion, Nesrine El-Baghdadi, the committee's rapporteur, highlighted that current divorce rate calculations yield inaccurate results. Instead, she suggested that any correct calculation of divorce rates should consider not only the annual rate of marriages but also the total rate of marriages in previous years.

According to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS), Egypt recorded daily an average of 243,583 divorces in 2021, a 14 percent increase in daily divorce rates compared to 2020.

Ahmed Fatouh, the Secretary of Fatwa at Dar Al-Ifta in Egypt, said Islamic jurisprudence does not force wives, in case of a marital dispute, to live with their husbands under the same roof, stressing that marriage in Islam is a contract that includes rights and obligations for both parties.

Fatouh emphasized the need to conduct more studies about the impact on society of financial compensation for divorced women.

The session also discussed other divorce-related issues such as the need for digitalizing court proceedings, and considered proposals for creating a specialized committee to study divorce-related matters.

The participants recommended ensuring financial support to women after divorce and enhancing the legal system to protect children's interests.

They also emphasized the importance of educational initiatives to raise awareness about the harmful effects of divorce on society and family cohesion.

A draft for a new personal status law has been the subject of debate in Parliament since 2019.

In 2022, President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi instructed the Ministry of Justice to form a legal and judicial committee to draft a new balanced personal status law.

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Fresh speculation of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar contesting Lok Sabha polls from adjoining Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Uttar Pradesh have left the ruling Mahagathbandhan in Bihar and the saffron party, in opposition in Patna, at each other's throat.

IMAGE: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Photograph: PTI Photo

The speculation was triggered after Shravan Kumar, a Bihar minister, who is also the Janata Dal-United's in-charge for UP, said there were 'demands' that the party boss enter the fray from the adjoining state.

"I was recently in Jaunpur and there are very strong demands that honourable chief minister consider fighting Lok Sabha polls from UP," Shravan Kumar had told a regional news channel on Wednesday.

Bijendra Yadav, the most senior member of the cabinet and a former state JD-U president, told reporters at the party office, "Not just Uttar Pradesh, but our units in many other states want the chief minister to contest from there. Of course, it is a decision for the leader to take."

Notably, shortly after Kumar had quit the National Democratic Alliance last year, vowing to defeat the BJP-led coalition in 2024, intense speculation had arisen that he could fight elections from Phulpur, famous in history as the seat of Jawaharlal Nehru.

The seat, which covers a major part of the city of Prayagraj, earlier known as Allahabad, has a sizeable population of Kurmi caste, to which Kumar belongs, and is just about a 100 km from Varanasi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's constituency.

Shravan Kumar, however, said, "It is not just Phulpur. During my recent UP visit, I got the sense that there are many other seats, including Fatehpur and Pratapgarh, where our party wants the CM to fight. They feel it will create a buzz across the state."

The JD-U's allies in Bihar seem to have little problem.

Congress legislature party leader Shakil Ahmed Khan said, "Why not? When a person from Gujarat can contest and win from Varanasi, then we are so close to Uttar Pradesh."

Notably, despite the seat's association with Nehru, and after his death Vijaylaxmi Pandit, Phulpur has slipped from the grip of Congress which last won it in 1984, riding the wave generated by Indira Gandhi's assassination.

Rashtriya Janata Dal spokesman Shakti Yadav, when asked about what he thought of Kumar contesting from UP, said, "If the people of that state so wish, he must. It is a matter of pride for Bihar that our leader's popularity transcends Bihar's boundaries."

Interestingly, while Kumar has denied any prime ministerial ambitions, his efforts to galvanise the entire opposition notwithstanding, the prospects of his playing a 'national role' enthused not just the JD-U but also the RJD, which views it as deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav's pathway to the highest seat of power.

Meanwhile, the BJP was predictably annoyed at the talk of Kumar making a foray into UP, which not just sends the PM to Lok Sabha and has the highest number of seats, but is also ruled by Yogi Adityanath, seen as the party's rising star.

Leader of the opposition in Bihar assembly Vijay Kumar Sinha and state unit chief Samrat Choudhary came out with separate, strongly worded statements, alleging that Kumar had lost his popularity on his home turf and would face humiliation if he moved to the adjoining state.

The two BJP leaders, who have been miffed at Kumar scoring a point with Patna high court's thumbs up to the caste survey ordered by his government, accused his party of thinking in terms of 'caste arithmetic' in UP where JD-U has never been a force to reckon with.
The investigation has revealed that there was no mastermind behind the clashes in the Nuh district, which was the doing of several disparate groups, a senior police officer said on Friday.

IMAGE: Paramilitary personnel stand guard after Section 144 was imposed in Haryana's Nuh, August 4, 2023. Photograph: ANI Photo

The officer's remarks in effect contradicted the state home minister's conjecture, according the which the violence was engineered and had a mastermind behind it.

"Somebody masterminded it but I don't want to reach any conclusions. We will investigate this and every single person responsible will be brought to justice," Haryana home minister Anil Vij had said on Tuesday, hours after the violence was first reported from Nuh.

Nuh SP Narendra Singh Bijarnia on Friday said the police are already identifying and arresting people involved in the clashes.

The superintendent of police was addressing a press conference at the Nuh-based camp office (DC residence), which was also attended by deputy commissioner Prashant Panwar.

"No mischievous elements will be spared. Encroachment reports of buildings from where stones were pelted are also being prepared. Action will be taken against them according to rules," Bijarnia said.

The SP also said that a case has been registered against Goraksha Bajrang Force President Bittu Bajrangi in Faridabad in connection with the Monday clashes.

Bajrangi alias Raj Kumar, 45, is a fruit and vegetables trader at the Gazipur market and Dabua maket in Faridabad.

According to sources, Bajrangi, a Bajrang Dal member, has been running his cow vigilante group for the last three years.

In the last one month alone, he has been booked in three cases of inciting religious sentiments.

Nuh deputy commissioner Prashant Pawar said normal life was returning on back on track in the district.

No violence incident has been reported from anywhere in Nuh district for the last four days, he said.

"As part of the process of restoring peace in the area, the district administration has held meetings with the peace committees of different areas of the district. Members of the committee have fully assured that they will not allow any kind of tension to arise in the area."

"As situation is now returning to normal, resumption of internet services is also being considered. Soon a positive decision will be taken on the basis of the intelligence report," Panwar said.

He also said the Haryana government has started a compensation portal to make up for losses suffered by people in looting and arson in the violence that went on for at least two days.

The SP said 55 FIRs have been registered so far, and 141 people have been arrested.

He said a strict vigil is being kept on the social media to prevent spread of fake news, rumour or inciting speech etc.
A 10-year-old dyslexic girl was allegedly raped by her principal inside the school premises in Bengaluru, police said on Friday.

Image used only for representation. Photograph: Pixabay.com

The accused, aged 65, who is also the owner of the school, was arrested in connection with the incident, they said.

The incident took place on Thursday at around 11.30 am inside an empty classroom of the school located in the Varthur police station limits.

According to police, the girl was lured and taken to the classroom by her principal who then allegedly raped her.

After returning home, the victim narrated her ordeal to her mother who then took her to a nearby hospital for medical examination.

Based on the complaint filed by the victim's mother, a case under relevant sections of the Protection of Children Against Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) and 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code was registered in connection with the incident, a senior police officer said.

"Our team picked up the school principal and arrested him on Thursday," he said.

The victim's mother is a housewife and her father passed away in 2020 due to health-related issues, police said.
The Kuki-Zomi organisation, the Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum, had planned the burial of 35 people, who were killed in ethnic riots in the state, on Thursday at a site in Haolai Khopi village in Churachandpur, resulting in tension in many districts of Manipur.

Hours before the planned mass burial, the state's high court ordered that the status quo be maintained at the proposed burial site in Churachandpur district. The ITLF said it was postponing the funeral service plans by seven days following requests from the Union home ministry.

Meanwhile, over 25 people were injured in clashes as Indian Army and Rapid Action Force personnel fired tear gas shells in Kangvai and Phougakchao areas in Bishnupur district on Thursday to stop processions from proceeding to the proposed burial site violating restrictions on gatherings, officials said.

The district magistrates of Imphal East and Imphal West withdrew curfew relaxations earlier announced, imposing a day curfew as a precautionary measure, throughout the Imphal valley.

IMAGE: Meitei protestors block an army vehicle in Imphal during a protest against the mass burial. All Photographs: ANI Photo

IMAGE: A paramilitary trooper fires tear gas to disperse protestors in Imphal, here and below.

IMAGE: Troops on the march to ensure that protestors don't create more trouble.

IMAGE: Metei women block roads in Imphal against the mass burial, here and below.

Photographs curated by Anant Salvi/Rediff.com

Feature Presentation: Mahipal Soni/Rediff.com
Several vehicles were torched and a few policemen were injured, as violent protests rocked Kolkata's Behala area on Friday after a speeding truck crushed a six-year-old boy and left his father battling for life in hospital, officials said.

Image used for representational purpose only. Photograph: ANI Photo

The accident took place around 6.30 am when the Class-2 student and his father were crossing the Behala Chowrasta, they said.

The father of the deceased boy, Souranil Sarkar, is undergoing treatment at state-run SSKM Hospital.

Souranil was a student of Class 2 at Barisha High School.

Locals and parents of other children immediately took to the streets following the incident, protesting against the lack of proper policing of the major road intersection in the southern part of the city.

A number of police vehicles and private buses were set on fire, prompting the administration to deploy RAF personnel in large numbers, the officials said.

The police baton-charged protesters and fired tear gas shells to bring the situation under control, they said.

A few policemen, including Kolkata police joint CP (traffic) Rupesh Kumar, suffered injuries, the officials said.

The truck driver has been apprehended from Santragachi and the vehicle was impounded, a police officer said, adding, traffic was disrupted on the busy Diamond Harbour Road for at least two hours.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has sought a report about the incident from Kolkata police commissioner Vineet Goyal.

Meanwhile, the accident triggered a political row, with the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party accusing a section of the state police of turning a blind eye to blatant traffic violations by heavy vehicles.

A section of police and civic volunteers is busy collecting money from truck drivers, ignoring traffic violations... The chief minister is responsible for this situation, Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari told reporters.

Countering him, Trinamool Congress spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said the BJP was indulging in dirty politics over the death of a child.

"Adhikari's convoy had recently mowed down a man in Ram Nagar of Purba Medinipur, and he did not even bother to get down from his car," Ghosh claimed.

Headmaster of Barisha High School Arjun Roy alleged that there is no presence of traffic police personnel in front of the educational institution, which is not the case for other private schools in the area.

"Had police been more vigilant to control the traffic outside our school, we would not have lost the child, a sobbing Roy said.
After the Supreme Court stayed Rahul Gandhi's conviction in a defamation case, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday said Parliament "can do with some levity for now" but the Congress leader continues to be on thin ice as several other criminal defamation cases are pending against him.

IMAGE: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi meets RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, as Bihar deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav and Congress general secretary incharge (organisation) KC Venugopal look on, in New Delhi, August 4, 2023. Photograph: ANI Photo

In a big relief to Gandhi, the apex court stayed his conviction in the 2019 defamation case over his Modi surname remark, paving the way for the restoration of his Lok Sabha membership.

The Lok Sabha Speaker can now revive his membership on his own or Gandhi can seek restoration of his status as an MP.

Reacting to the development, BJP IT department head Amit Malviya said in a tweet, "Rahul Gandhi may have survived this one but for how long?"

There are several other criminal defamation cases pending against Gandhi, including "the high profile case of mudslinging the venerable Veer Savarkar", filed by the freedom fighter's family, Malviya wrote on Twitter, recently rebranded as X.

"Rahul Gandhi is also an accused, along with his mother Sonia Gandhi, in the National Herald scam, and currently out on bail, the BJP leader added.

Conviction in any of these cases can lead to Gandhi's disqualification again, he added.

"Rahul Gandhi is on thin ice here. But, for now the Parliament can do with some levity, Malviya said.

On an earlier occasion, no less than the Supreme Court had pulled Gandhi up for attributing wrongly to them an observation (that) they had not made, he the BJP leader said.

The apex court had in 2019 closed a contempt proceedings against Gandhi for wrongly attributing to it his "chowkidar chor hai" remark against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in connection with the Rafale case, with a warning to be more careful in future after the senior Congress leader tendered an unconditional apology.

BJP national spokesperson Shahzad Poonawalla said the Supreme Court has only stayed Gandhi's conviction in the defamation case, not given him "a clean chit".

"He is still guilty of making comments against the OBC community.... His conviction has not been overturned," Poonawalla told PTI.

The BJP spokesperson said the judiciary has been vindicated today.

"Otherwise till yesterday, the Congress party was making all kinds of accusations against the judiciary, saying that the judiciary is controlled by the BJP, he charged.

"If the judiciary passes an order against their (Congress) convenience, the judiciary is compromised. If it passes an order which serves their convenience, the judiciary is fine, he added.
Rajya Sabha was adjourned for the day on Friday amid an uproar in the House over the issue of law and order situation in Rajasthan.

IMAGE: Proceedings in Rajya Sabha. Photograph: SansadTV/ANI Photo

Soon after the House met at 12 noon, the ruling party members referred to the killing of a girl in Rajasthan and wanted the House to take up a discussion on the law and order situation in the state.

A 14-year-old girl was allegedly murdered and later burned in a coal furnace in Rajasthan's Bhilwara district, with locals claiming that she was also gang-raped.

Leader of the House Piyush Goyal said the situation is 'very bad' in Rajasthan and that the state government has failed on all counts to maintain law and order.

Alleging that crimes against women were on the rise in the state, he said 'our daughters and sisters in the state were not safe and urged the chairman to take up the matter for discussion'.

After the Chairman allowed the Leader of Opposition to raise his point, there was uproar in the House by treasury benches.

The chairman then adjourned the House for the day.

While the ruling party members raised slogans of 'Rajasthan pe charcha ho' (discussion on Rajasthan), the opposition members chanted 'Manipur, Manipur'.

While seeking to discuss the violence in the northeastern state.

House proceedings were earlier adjourned for about 30 minutes till 12 noon amid a ruckus between ruling and opposition benches as both sides insisted on taking up their respective issues.

While Bharatiya Janata Party MPs wanted to raise the law and order situation in Congress-ruled Rajasthan, the opposition wanted a discussion on the Manipur situation by suspending the scheduled business of the day under Rule 267 of the House.

Soon after the listed papers were tabled, Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar said he has received 48 notices to suspend the scheduled business and take up matters mentioned therein.

Lok Sabha



Meanwhile in Lok Sabha, proceedings were adjourned till 12 noon following protests by opposition members demanding a statement from Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the Manipur issue.

As soon as the House met, opposition members came to the well of the House seeking a statement from the prime minister on the Manipur issue. They also demanded a debate.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi told opposition members that there are important bills listed for Friday's business like that on Thursday.

On Thursday, when the House had taken up the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill 2023 for discussion, most of the opposition members had participated in it.

Not only yesterday's bill, even today's bills are equally important. We are ready for even private members' bills today. Please take part in the proceedings, he said.

As the opposition MPs ignored the pleas and continued their protests, Speaker Om Birla allowed the members to ask questions related to different ministries as per the schedule.

Despite the protests, the proceedings continued for about 20 minutes after which the speaker appealed to the protesting members to go back to their seats and take part in the proceedings.

Question Hour is important. The House has taken up the farmers' issue today but you are not interested to take part in it. I will given enough opportunity to all of you on any issue that you would like to raise, he said.

As the opposition members did not pay any heed to Birla's appeal, he adjourned the proceedings till 12 noon.

The Delhi bill was related to handling of senior officers of the city government.

Delhi's Aam Aadmi Party government has vehemently opposed the bill.

Most of the opposition parties had supported the AAP in its opposition to the bill and took part in the debate on Thursday before staging a walk out when it was getting passed through voice vote.

The Manipur violence has rocked proceedings in both Houses of Parliament ever since the Monsoon session began on July 20, with the opposition demanding a statement from Prime Minister Modi and a discussion on the situation in the northeastern state.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Union Home Minister Amit Shah had said that the government was ready for a debate on the Manipur issue.

The speaker also had said that the opposition can't decide who would reply, on behalf of the government, to the debate.

The opposition subsequently moved a no-confidence motion against the Modi government.

The session started a day after a video of two women being paraded naked by a mob on May 4 in a Manipur village went viral, triggering a nationwide outrage.
The Supreme Court on Friday set aside an order of the Calcutta high court which had said that the West Bengal police can register an FIR against Bharatiya Janata Party leader Suvendu Adhikari if it is satisfied that offence was made out, on a complaint accusing him of promoting enmity between different groups.

IMAGE: Eight winning candidates in the West Bengal panchayat elections from Jajangram, Bharatpur 1 and Murshidabad join BJP in presence of Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari (second from right), in Kolkata, August 4, 2023. Photograph: ANI Photo

Observing that it would have been appropriate for the high court to grant Adhikari the opportunity to file a counter affidavit to the petition, a bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud requested the chief justice of the high court to hear the plea afresh.

It said the chief justice-led bench of the high court shall be at liberty to pass appropriate order in the petition after hearing all the objections, if any, of Adhikari both on the merits and maintainability of the plea.

"In our view, it would have been appropriate for the high court to grant the petitioner (Adhikari) some opportunity to file a counter affidavit to the writ petition before issuing interim directions of the nature which effectively grant the relief which has been sought in the petition itself," said the bench, also comprising justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra.

"We request the chief justice of the high court of Calcutta to hear the... afresh and to facilitate this, the order dated July 20, 2023 shall stand set aside," the bench said.

The top court order came while hearing a plea by Adhikari, who is the Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, challenging the July 20 order passed by a division bench of the high court.

In its order, the apex court noted that counsel representing West Bengal has stated that in pursuance of the July 20 order of the division bench of the high court, an FIR has been registered and a report will be submitted to the high court as directed.

The bench observed that it was not necessary for the apex court to express any view on the submissions which have been urged by Adhikari's counsel with regard to the manner in which the plea was taken up for hearing on July 20 in the high court.

It also referred to the two orders passed by a single judge of the high court on September 6, 2021 and December 8, 2022 which had said that no FIRs shall be registered and no coercive steps can be taken against Adhikari.



Adhikari had claimed that frivolous cases were being filed against him ever since he quit the state's ruling TMC and joined the BJP.

On July 20, a division bench of the high court had dealt with a plea which alleged that Adhikari has committed an offence under section 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

In its order, the division bench had said the petition be treated as a complaint to the police authority and the state police shall exercise powers in accordance with the law and carefully examine whether the acts narrated in it disclose any offence under section 153-A of the IPC.

"If they are so satisfied they will register the first information report under section 154 of the Criminal Procedure Code," the high court had said.

In its order, the division bench of the high court had said, "The first information reports so registered, if any, along with his views and result of investigation, if any, shall be embodied in a report to be prepared by the Director General of Police and to be furnished before this court on the returnable date of this application."

It had said Adhikari's arrest or any other coercive action against him can only be made in terms of the report if leave is granted by the high court.

The plea before the high court had said the state police authority was not registering any complaint or FIR against Adhikari because of the orders passed in September 2021 and December 2022 by a single judge in two separate writ applications.

Adhikari's counsel had earlier told the top court that the BJP leader was protected by the September 6, 2021 and December 8, 2022 orders of the high court according to which no further FIRs could be registered against him.
Without naming his predecessor Uddhav Thackeray, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Friday launched a scathing attack on him, stating that it must be found out who betrayed the people's mandate, Bal Thackeray's ideology and an ally of 25 years.

IMAGE: Eknath Shinde with Uddhav Thackeray. Photograph: Courtesy, Eknath Shinde on Facebook

He was replying to the opposition-sponsored last week's debate in the legislative assembly.

"For the last one year, we have been termed "khoke" and "gaddar". It is time to settle this once and for all. People who accuse us of being gaddar and khoke, wrote to us, asking us to return Rs 50 crore. I have instructed that it should be returned. I don't claim your property. My property is the ideology of Balasaheb Thackeray," Shinde said.

He was apparently referring to a dispute over party funds after he split the Thackeray-led Shiv Sena last June.

"It is time to find out who is Maharashtra's maha gaddar (big traitor)," he added.

After Shinde split the Sena and toppled the Uddhav Thackeray-led government, the Thackeray faction accused the rebels of having received khoke or cartons of money and being traitors. The Shinde group, in turn, accused Thackeray of betraying his father's ideology and the old ally Bharatiya Janata Party by joining hands with the Nationalist Congress Party and Congress.

The chief minister also said that the opposition was a confused lot and failed to provide constructive criticism during the monsoon session.

Irregularities committed during the Covid-19 pandemic will not be overlooked and the guilty will be punished, Shinde said, adding that the Enforcement Directorate was probing how old oxygen plants were used because of which "patients lost their eyes" (due to resultant fungal infection) and body bags which cost Rs 300 were sold for Rs 6,000.

During the Maha Vikas Aghadi government (led by Thackeray), the level of education, ideology, economic investment fell and jibes were in abundance, he said.

"We are rectifying what was lost," he said.

His was a government of like-minded parties with a strong support of the Centre, Shinde said, adding that from 170, "our number in the assembly is now 215."

The Ajit Pawar-led NCP faction joined the Shiv Sena-BJP government last month.

India has become the fifth biggest economy, rising from the tenth position, and now Prime Minister Narendra Modi is aiming for the third position, Shinde said.

During the MVA rule, Maharashtra had slipped to the third position in the country behind Karnataka and Gujarat, but his government got Rs 1.17 lakh crore-worth investment and the state's top position was restored, he said.
Donald J Trump's opponents and supporters gathered near the US district court in Washington, DC as the former American president, who is facing federal charges related to attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat, appeared before the judge on Thursday, August 3, 2023.

IMAGE: 'Trump Is Over' says his placard while his t-shirt proclaims, 'Arrest Trump'. Photograph: Jim Bourg/Reuters

IMAGE: That's a Trump supporter for sure. Photograph: Sarah Silbiger/Reuters

IMAGE: 'Save our Democracy' says the sign held up by Nicky Sundt, a DC resident.

Despite his many legal battles, Republican voters still prefer Trump to the other Republicans in the 2024 presidential race. Photograph: Kevin Wurm/Reuters

IMAGE: Domenic Santana in prison uniform holds a sign with a morphed picture of a shaven head Trump, which says 'You Do The Crime You Pay The Crime, Your Time Is Up'.

Many Americans are worried about the possibility of another 4 years in the White House for Donald J Trump if he wins the 2024 election. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

IMAGE: What's Baby Trump saying? Photograph: Joshua Roberts/Reuters

IMAGE: 'Trump Duped America, says this protestor's placard, referring to Trump's many attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, which Joe Biden clearly won. Photograph: Jim Bourg/Reuters

IMAGE: 'Traitor', declares this placard, alluding to the events of January 6, 2021 when mobs held the US Capitol, home of America's federal legislature, hostage for several terrifying hours, allegedly provoked by Trump's repeated denunciations of the 2024 election as a fraud. Photograph: Joshua Roberts/Reuters

IMAGE: A Trump supporter tried to cross the street. Photograph: Kevin Wurm/Reuters

IMAGE: That's The Donald in prison stripes. Photograph: Kevin Wurm/Reuters

IMAGE: Members of Herndon-Reston Indivisible hold letters spelling 'Justice' outside the court. Photograph: Kevin Wurm/Reuters

IMAGE: 'Blacks For Trump' gather outside the court. Photograph: Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters

IMAGE: It was a difficult day for police officers who anticipated trouble if Trump's opponents and supporters clashed. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

Photographs curated by Manisha Kotian/Rediff.com

Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff.com
A delegation from the West African bloc ECOWAS arrived in Niger on Thursday for talks in a bid to resolve a crisis following last week's military coup, an airport source told AFP.

The source said the delegation landed in the capital Niamey at 6:11 pm (1711 GMT). ECOWAS on Sunday had given the junta a week to reinstate elected leader Mohamed Bazoum or risk a possible military intervention.

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu urged the representatives to do "whatever it takes to ensure a conclusive and amicable resolution of the situation in Niger", his office said in a statement.

The delegation headed by former Nigerian leader Abdulsalami Abubakar is due to "meet the coup leaders in Niger to present the demands of the ECOWAS leadership", Tinubu's office added.

Tinubu also sent another delegation led by Nigerian ambassador Babagana Kingibe "to engage with the leaders of Libya and Algeria" on the crisis.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has already imposed trade and financial sanctions on Niger, with Nigeria cutting its electricity supply.

West African military chiefs are meeting in Nigeria's capital Abuja to discuss the possibility of military intervention if diplomacy fails, but ECOWAS has said the use of force would be "the last resort".

Junta-ruled Mali and Burkina Faso have warned any military intervention in their neighbour would be tantamount to a "declaration of war" against them.

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Former US president Donald Trump has pleaded not guilty before an Indian-American judge to four charges that he plotted a criminal conspiracy to remain in power despite losing the November 2020 election.

IMAGE: Former US President Donald Trump, who was arraigned on federal charges related to attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat, faces reporters as he departs Washington, DC at Reagan Washington National Airport in nearby Arlington, Virginia, on August 3, 2023. Photograph: Pool via Reuters

Trump, 77, entered his plea on Thursday before Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya at a Washington, D.C., federal courthouse not far from the US Capitol, where the alleged conspiracy he's accused of orchestrating turned violent on January 6, 2021.

Wearing a dark blue suit and a red tie, Trump arrived at the courthouse in a motorcade after he flew in from Bedminster in New Jersey.

It was Trump's third court appearance in four months. The former president is seeking to contest the 2024 presidential election as the Republican Party's candidate.

After he arrived at the court, Trump was arrested and arraigned on four felony counts outlined in special counsel Jack Smith's indictment: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, attempting to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.

Upadhyaya read the charges to Trump accusing him of conspiring against the United States to overthrow his election loss to Democrat Joe Biden, now the US president, and listed the lengthy prison terms he would face if convicted.

The 45-page indictment was filed in Washington, DC earlier this week by Smith, who has led investigations into the former president on behalf of the US Department of Justice.

"As to counts one to four, how does Mr Trump plead?" Judge Upadhyaya asked the former president in the courtroom. Trump, flanked by his lawyers, said: "Not guilty."

Trump spoke little during the hearing, answering questions about his name and age, while rarely glancing at prosecutors. When asked whether he understood that his words could be used against him, he replied in the affirmative.

The judge told Trump that he would be released but there are certain conditions that he has to abide by and appear in the court as and when required. Trump's next scheduled appearance is on August 28 before US District Judge Tanya Chutkan. But he has the option not to appear in person.

"Despite having lost, the defendant was determined to remain in power. So for more than two months following election day on November 3, 2020, the defendant spread lies that there had been outcome-determinative fraud in the election and that he had actually won. These claims were false, and the defendant knew that they were false," the indictment reads.

The indictment was issued by a grand jury of citizens in the District of Columbia and sets forth the crimes charged in detail. It caps an inquiry into events surrounding the January 6, 2021 riot at the US Capitol.

"The attack on our nation's capital on January 6, 2021, was an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy. As described in the indictment, it was fuelled by lies," Smith said.

During the tense 27-minute proceeding, Trump was seated just 20 feet from Smith.

A significant point of tension during the proceeding was how soon will Trump stand trial.

Thomas Windom, the prosecutor helming the trial team for Smith, said the case should move quickly.

This case will benefit from normal order, including a speedy trial, Windom told the magistrate judge overseeing the arraignment.

But John Lauro, an attorney for the former president, said Trump's legal team might need a long time to go through the evidence that prosecutors are required to hand over to the defence.

These are weighty issues, he said, adding that the Justice Department has had years to investigate the case. All I'm going to ask, Your Honour, is the opportunity to fairly defend our client. But in order to do that, we're going to need a little time.

Magistrate Judge Upadhyaya replied: I can guarantee everybody that there will be a fair process and a fair trial in this case.

The Trump campaign has charged that Smith "has conducted a dirty, politically motivated investigation of President Trump to prevent him from winning back the presidency".

Smith sat in the courtroom throughout the proceedings.

'At around 4 PM EDT, Biden's weaponised Department of Justice will once again have its leading opponent (me) ARRAIGNED despite having committed NO CRIME. It sounds like a chapter you'd read out of an old history book on the Soviet Union or Maoist China.... But sadly, it's taking place right here in America,' Trump wrote in an email before he left New Jersey for the court appearance in Washington DC.

So far, federal prosecutors have filed cases against 1,077 people for the January 6 riots at the US Capitol.

This is Trump's third indictment but marks the first time that he has been formally held accountable for his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the run-up to the violent riot by his supporters at the US Capitol.

In April, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg indicted Trump on charges related to payments in 2016 to porn star Stormy Daniels.

In June, Trump was indicted in Miami for allegedly retaining White House documents, including classified documents.
Rediff.com's Utkarsh Mishra visits the Kashi Vishwanath temple-Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi, which is fast being turned into another mandir-masjid dispute.

All photographs: Utkarsh Mishra/ Rediff.com IMAGE: The Gyanvapi mosque inside the Kashi Vishwanath temple complex in Varanasi.

It was a bright hot day in August, and the clocks were striking thirteen.

If you think that I'm using this corrupted version of the opening line of Eric Arthur Blair's 1984 to begin this feature because I believe that each day we find ourselves a step nearer to the Orwellian dystopia, then you are thinking too much.

It's simply that the clocks were indeed striking 13, okay 13.02 to be precise, when I reached Gyanvapi M... Err sorry, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh doesn't want it to be called a mosque. So, I will say that the clocks were indeed striking 13 when I reached in front of the sprawling Gate No. 4 of the Kashi Vishwanath temple, behind which I could see the structure which, according to the roadside signage, was the Gyanvapi mosque.

A few years ago, you could not see the mosque from where I was standing. But after the construction of the Kashi Vishwanath corridor, during which the entire area was cleared, it is now fully visible.

Standing here, you're in the heart of Varanasi. As early as the year 1700, the area, as per Professor Madhuri Desai's book Banaras Reconstructed, was already a 'significant urban space and an essential node in a vibrant commercial zone' in the city.

IMAGE: The road leading to the Kashi Vishwanath-Gyanvapi area.

From the vibrant and insanely crowded Godowlia square, you make your way north on a curved, slightly uphill road towards the Kashi Vishwanath-Gyanvapi area. Further ahead is Chowk, where French explorer Jean-Baptiste Tavernier saw 'trading of silk and cotton fabrics between Muslim artisans and Hindu traders', during his visit here between 1660 and 1665.

Three years later, in 1669, Aurangzeb ordered the dismantling of the Vishweshwur, or Vishwanath temple, writes Professor Desai. 'Built on the plinth of the dismantled Vishweshwur temple', the Gyanvapi mosque 'abuts its lone standing wall'.

Originally named the Alamgiri mosque, it subsequently came to be known as the Gyanvapi mosque as it stood next to the sacred Gyan Vapi, or the well of wisdom which, according to ancient texts, is 'said to have been here in Kashi long before the Ganges came to earth'.

In her 1983 book Banaras: The City of Light, Harvard Professor Diana L Eck writes about the famous legend that 'a provident priest' of the Vishwanath temple threw the 'linga of Vishveshvara into the deep waters of' Gyan Vapi, before the temple was 'desecrated by the armies of Aurangzeb'.

Professor Eck also wrote about 'communal clashes' that happened in 1809 when 'Hindus attempted to erect a small shrine on the narrow strip of neutral ground' between the mosque and the temple. Later, citing the 1831 drawing of the area by James Prinsep, she wrote that a platform had been erected for Gyan Vapi 'on that contested ground'.

About the mosque, Prinsep wrote in his Benaras Illustrated that 'it is so close to the well that there might be some fear of serious collision between the zealots of the two religions, were they not effectually checked by a third, ruling and impartial, party'.

IMAGE: The sprawling Gate No. 4 of the Kashi Vishwanath temple complex.

Today, this entire area is part of the Kashi Vishwanath temple complex. The mosque is surrounded by iron grills on all sides, and pilgrims entering the temple from Gate No. 4 walk past it to reach the temple.

Earlier, this stretch was simply a narrow lane within surrounding structures, but now it has been widened after the construction of the mega corridor. It has always served as the common entry point of the temple as well as the mosque.

So, I got here with an aim to reach the mosque and talk to a few people there if I could. Since this is the month of Shravan, the sight of saffron-clad kanwariyas is common, alongside the regular rush of pilgrims. Nonetheless, the flow of pilgrims was less than I expected.

As I reached near the gate, enquiring if I could go to the mosque, the security person standing there with a gun told me hitherto shalt thou come, but no further! "Even we can't go," he told me. I asked him if devotees are allowed to offer namaaz in the mosque daily, he replied in the affirmative. But said that it requires one to obtain "permission".

I was coming here for the first time after the construction of the corridor, which has significantly changed the geography of the area that I had in my mind. So, I decided to go inside the temple complex and see if there's a way to go to the mosque. As I entered, I found a staircase which I thought could take me near the mosque. However, it was barricaded and guarded by another security person with a gun.

I enquired if I could go up and see. "No," he said, "not allowed from this side." I tended to insist, but was told that "senior officers would be sitting upstairs and they would first scold you and then me". It was the most polite 'no' I ever had from a man in uniform, so I complied.

Perhaps if it were a Friday, I could have seen Muslim devotees gathering for the afternoon prayers. But on a Wednesday, it was very difficult. I waited outside while herds of temple goers kept coming from the other side.

Devotional music was being played on the loudspeakers placed all along the road. Frequently interrupting it were the announcements by pilgrims looking for their loved ones who got separated from them while getting darshan inside the temple. The different languages in which these announcements were made made it evident that people from every corner of India were here.

IMAGE: Kanwariyas and other devotees make their way to the Vishwanath temple.

Respecting the weather department's 'very heavy rainfall alert', the bright hot day of August soon turned cloudy and it started to drizzle. I sipped tea at a stall right beside the entry gate. The chaiwala said he sees namaazis only on Fridays. "You could see only one or two on other days of the week," he said.

All along the road leading to the gate, there are shops selling prasad, garlands, milk, flowers and other offerings to be made inside the temple. They also serve as lockers where you can deposit your phones and other prohibited items. You walk on this road and they would assume that you are going for a darshan, and pull you inside, while seizing your phone.

One such shopkeeper was amazed when I told him that I want to go to the mosque. "But you can't go there. The matter is in court," he exclaimed, and dissuaded me further.

I walked further towards the Chowk area, where there is a small Muslim shrine. And finally managed to get a Muslim man who was willing to talk to me on the issue.

He told me that prayers are offered daily inside the mosque. When asked if one needs permission to offer namaaz, he said, "No, anybody can go. If anyone is telling you that you can't go, then he's scaring you unnecessarily."

"Well, I tried," I said.

Asked about Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's remark that 'there will be a dispute if we call Gyanvapi a mosque', and that 'there should be a proposal from the Muslim society' to correct this 'historical mistake', he said, "Who am I to speak for the whole community? It is for the leaders of the community to decide if they want to give up the claim on the mosque or not. But my faith will always be attached to it. How can I let go of my faith?"

He signed off by suggesting that attempts are being made to turn it into a dispute, adding that the issue was not so big, and it will give rise to unnecessary dissension in the society which is not good for the country.
Brattleboro, VT (05301)

Today

Showers developing during the afternoon with the possibility of a thunderstorm. High 81F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%..

Tonight

Partly to mostly cloudy skies with scattered thunderstorms before midnight. Low 61F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%.
Niger junta lifts curfew in place since coup

AFP , Friday 4 Aug 2023

Niger's coup leaders have lifted the curfew they imposed after taking power and toppling the elected president on July 26, plunging the country into crisis.
Hundreds of mourners gathered on Friday for the funeral of a Palestinian teenager killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank earlier that day.

In a statement, the Palestinian health ministry said 18-year-old Mahmoud Abu Saan was "killed this morning by live bullets from the occupation (Israel) in Tulkarm".

Abu Saan's head was shrouded in the Palestinian flag as his body was paraded through the town's streets ahead of the burial, according to an AFP photographer.

The Israeli army said that while forces were patrolling "suspects fired and hurled explosives and stones at the soldiers, who responded with live fire".

"Hits were identified," the statement added, specifying that no soldiers were hurt.



Mourners carry the flag-draped body of Mahmoud Abu Saan, a Palestinian teenager shot dead by Israeli forces early on Friday in the occupied West Bank town of Tulkarm, during his funeral in the same town on August 4, 2023. AFP

The official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, reported that Abu Saan was "shot in the head by the occupation soldiers at zero distance".

Israel has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Six-Day War and its forces regularly conduct armed incursions into areas of the territory which are nominally under the control of the Palestinian Authority.

Friday's killing comes three days after a Palestinian gunman wounded six people at an Israeli settlement in the West Bank with gunfire before being shot dead.

Violence linked to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has this year killed at least 206 Palestinians, 27 Israelis, one Ukrainian and one Italian, according to an AFP tally compiled from official sources on both sides.

They include, on the Palestinian side, combatants as well as civilians and, on the Israeli side, three members of the Arab minority.

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In a significant breakthrough, the Special Task Force (STF) of Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) apprehended Ahmed Raza, a member of the notorious terrorist organization Hizbul Mujahideen. Raza, a resident of Muradabad, was arrested while he was on his way to attend a training camp operated by Hizbul Mujahideen.

Raza's arrest followed meticulous intelligence work carried out by the ATS which revealed his deep-rooted connections with the extremist outfit. He had been in direct contact with the handlers from Pakistan, maintaining sustained communication through social media channels. The authorities uncovered extensive photographic and chat evidence of his association with terrorist operatives.

During interrogation, Raza confessed to his extremist ideologies and his unwavering commitment to establishing Sharia law in India, displaying a clear disregard for the Indian Constitution. He had embarked on a perilous journey to Pakistan and subsequently Afghanistan, seeking training from militant outfits. Subsequently, he aimed to orchestrate a major terrorist incident within India's borders.

Special DG Law and Order, speaking exclusively to Republic TV, underscored the gravity of Raza's intentions and the danger he posed. "Raza's arrest prevented a potentially catastrophic event on Indian soil. His indoctrination and extensive communication with handlers reflect a determined effort to disrupt peace and harmony," he said.

The STF's relentless efforts in tracking online and offline radicalization have proved crucial in curbing the growing threat of terrorism. The authorities are actively investigating Raza's involvement in recruiting local youth from regions such as Moradabad, Saharanpur, and Deoband.
INS Sahyadri and INS Kolkata have arrived at Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea (PNG), as part of their mission deployment in the Eastern Indian Ocean Region (IOR). The visit aims to enhance maritime partnership and cooperation between India and PNG, fostering closer ties in the maritime domain.

During the port call, the crew members of INS Sahyadri and INS Kolkata will participate in a diverse array of activities with personnel from the PNG Defence Forces. These activities include professional interactions, cultural exchanges, yoga sessions, and ship visits, with the objective of strengthening the bond of friendship and cooperation between the two nations.

Cutting-edge warships at the forefront

INS Sahyadri, commanded by Capt Rajan Kapoor, represents the third ship of the indigenously designed and built Project-17 class multirole stealth frigates. On the other hand, INS Kolkata, under the command of Capt Sharad Sinsunwal, stands as the first ship of the indigenously designed and built Project-15A class destroyers. Both these technologically advanced warships, constructed at Mazagon Dock Ltd, Mumbai, are equipped with a formidable arsenal of modern weapons and sensors capable of addressing threats in all three dimensions.

The visit by Indian Navy ships to Papua New Guinea serves as a testament to India's unwavering commitment to fostering friendly and cooperative relations with nations in the Indian Ocean Region. This strategic engagement underscores the significance of strengthening maritime security and cooperation, ultimately promoting peace and stability in the region.

Promoting regional maritime security and cooperation

India and Papua New Guinea share deep-rooted historical and cultural ties. The naval engagement further solidifies the bilateral relationship, paving the way for joint activities and interactions that allow naval personnel from both nations to exchange knowledge, expertise, and best practices in maritime operations.

The port call at Port Moresby plays a pivotal role in promoting regional maritime security and cooperation. This platform enables India and Papua New Guinea to work collaboratively in countering common challenges and threats at sea, ensuring the safety and stability of their maritime domains. According to the Indian Navy, India's engagement with Papua New Guinea signifies its commitment to being a responsible maritime power. By fostering stability and security in the Indian Ocean Region, India contributes to maintaining peace and tranquillity in the broader Indo-Pacific region.

As the crews of INS Sahyadri and INS Kolkata actively participate in joint activities during their stay in PNG, they are set to create lasting impressions and strengthen the bonds of friendship, trust, and cooperation between India and Papua New Guinea. This naval visit is a reflection of India's growing maritime influence and its dedication to ensuring peace and security in the Indo-Pacific region.
In a recent development, authorities have suspended an inspector and a jawan from the 43rd Battalion of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) for alleged negligence in checking the bus on which Pakistani national Seema Haider entered India at the India-Nepal border. The alleged oversight allowed Haider to enter India and reach Greater Noida near Delhi along with her four children.

Full inquiry of the suspended officials pending

The incident took place on May 13 in the border district of Siddharth Nagar in Uttar Pradesh. Inspector Sujit Kumar Verma and Head constable Chandra Kamal Kalita were responsible for checking the passenger vehicle as it crossed over to India from Nepal. Following reports of Haider's arrest in Greater Noida, the SSB initiated a preliminary investigation, leading to the suspension of the two officials pending a full inquiry. The full court of inquiry will investigate all aspects of the incident and examine the roles of other personnel on duty that day.

The SSB, a paramilitary force under the Union home ministry, is tasked with guarding the open 1,751-km-long Indo-Nepal international border on the country's eastern flank. However, due to the nature of the open border, it gets challenging to check and verify the credentials of each individual crossing over to India from Nepal, say officials.

Haider, a 30-year-old from Pakistan's Sindh province, claimed that she entered India to live with her 22-year-old Indian lover Sachin Meena in the Rabupura area of Greater Noida. While Haider was arrested for illegally entering India, Meena was jailed for giving shelter to illegal immigrants. The duo, who met on the virtual gaming platform PUBG in 2019, was, however, granted bail by a local court on July 7. They are now residing together with Haider's four children in Rabupura.

Although Haider has expressed her desire to live with Meena and claims to have converted to Hinduism, the situation has raised concerns over the border security and the need for more robust checks on those crossing the Indo-Nepal border.
International pressure mounted Thursday against leaders of the coup in Niger as the American secretary of state said the United States stands very much in support of West African leaders who have threatened to use force to restore the nation's democracy, and Senegal offered troops to help.

As hundreds of anti-French protesters rallied in the Nigerien capital in support of the ruling junta, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken offered general support for the regional bloc known as ECOWAS, though he did not specifically refer to its threat of military action. Blinken told reporters in New York that the U.S. believes the bloc's efforts to reinstate toppled President Mohamed Bazoum are important, strong and have our support.

Senegal's foreign affairs minister said her country would participate in a military intervention if ECOWAS decides to act. Senegalese soldiers have to go  these coups detat must be stopped," Aissata Tall Sall said.

Meanwhile, Niger's military leaders sought to exploit anti-Western sentiment to shore up their takeover. The junta suspended broadcaster RFI and France 24 television from broadcasting in the country, according to the French foreign affairs ministry. The suspensions were part of the junta's authoritarian repression, the ministry wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

Last week's coup toppled Bazoum, whose ascendency was Nigers first peaceful, democratic transfer of power since independence from France in 1960. The coup stirred strident anti-French sentiment and raised questions about the future of the fight against extremism in Africa's Sahel region, where Russia and Western countries have vied for influence.

The coup has been condemned by Western countries and the ECOWAS bloc, which has threatened to forcibly remove the junta if it does not hand back power to Bazoum. As tensions have grown in the capital of Niamey and the region, many European countries have moved to evacuate their citizens.

At Thursday's protest organized by the junta and civil society groups on Nigers independence day, protesters pumped their fists in the air and chanted support for neighboring countries where militaries have also taken power in recent years. Some waved Russian flags, and one man brandished a Russian and Nigerien flag sewn together.

For more than 13 years, the Nigerien people have suffered injustices," protester Moctar Abdou Issa said. The junta "will get us out of this, God willing  they will free the Nigerien people.

Were sick of the French, he added.

It remains unclear whether a majority of the population supports the coup, and in many parts of the capital, people went about their lives as normal Thursday.

U.S. President Joe Biden used the occasion of Nigers independence day to call for Bazoum to be released and democracy restored.

The Nigerien people have the right to choose their leaders. They have expressed their will through free and fair elections  and that must be respected, he said in a statement.

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the administration was still focused on diplomacy.

We still believe theres time and space for that. The window is not going to be open forever, Kirby said.

In an address to the nation on Wednesday, the new military ruler, Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, lashed out at those who have condemned the coup and called on the population to be ready to defend the nation. He said harsh sanctions imposed last week by ECOWAS were illegal, unfair and inhuman.

ECOWAS has set a deadline of Sunday for the junta to reinstate Bazoum, who remains under house arrest.

In an opinion piece in The Washington Post, Bazoum described himself as a hostage who was one among hundreds of citizens arbitrarily arrested. He said his nation's security situation was improving before the coup but was now at risk because Niger would lose foreign aid and terrorist groups would take advantage of its instability.

In our hour of need, I call on the U.S. government and the entire international community to help us restore our constitutional order, Bazoum wrote in the piece posted online late Thursday.

After the deadline set by ECOWAS expires, the bloc is expected to decide by consensus on the next step as recommended by its defense chiefs.

At a bloc meeting in Abuja, Nigeria's capital, Brig. Gen. Tukur Ismaila Gusau, a Nigeria defense spokesman, said the defense chiefs have been asked to come up with a military solution, which they hope will be "the last option.

The bloc's sanctions include halting energy transactions with Niger, which gets up to 90% of its power from neighboring Nigeria, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency.

France has 1,500 soldiers in Niger who conduct joint operations with its military against jihadis linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group. The United States and other European countries have helped train Niger's troops.

Niger was seen as the Wests last reliable partner in the region, but some in the country see Russia and its Wagner mercenary group, which operates in a handful of African countries, as a powerful alternative.

The new junta has not said whether it intends to ally with Moscow or stick with Nigers Western partners, but that question has become central to the unfolding political crisis. Neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso  both ruled by juntas  have turned toward Moscow.

Ahead of Thursday's demonstration, the French Embassy in Niamey asked Niger's government to ensure the security of its premises after it was attacked by protesters and a door was set on fire.

The president of Nigeria, Bola Tinubu, dispatched two delegations Thursday to deal with Nigers crisis.

A group from ECOWAS headed by former Nigerian head of state Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar was on its way to Niger. A second group led by Ambassador Babagana Kingibe went to engage with the leaders of Libya and Algeria, said Ajuri Ngelale, special adviser to the president.
As the race for the White House started getting intense, an interesting factor that came to the forefront was the rise of the prominence of Indian-American politicians in the United States. The wave that started with Vice President Kamala Harris in 2020 is getting wider as three-Indian origin candidates announced their bids for the White House. Things become even more compelling as they fight for the Republican nomination posing a major challenge to former US President Donald Trump.

The Grand Old Party, which is known for its conservative values and propagating the American spirit, witnessed three Indian-Americans bid to the White House. From the war against big pharma to taking a strong stance against China, these candidates have given strong manifestos to an ultra-conservative crowd. Heres a look at the three prominent Indian-origin candidates who are running for the White House.

Nikki Haley

The former Governor of South Carolina and ex-US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, was one of the first to announce her bid to the White House. With the proclamation of bringing the new generation to the forefront, Haley decided to challenge his erstwhile boss, Donald Trump. I dont think you need to be 80 years old to go be a leader in D.C., she told Fox News in January. Its time for a new generation of leadership, said in her campaign message.

Nimarata Nikki Randhawa, the 51-year-old conservative politician, is the daughter of Indian immigrants parents who came from Punjab. She started off as an ardent critic of Trump, later became his appointee to the UN and is now touted as one of his strongest rivals in the race to the White House. Calling herself the New sheriff in town, she is known for his strong persona. I wear heels, but its not a fashion statement, she once said. I kick with a smile, she added.

Get excited! Time for a new generation.



Lets do this!   pic.twitter.com/BD5k4WY1CP  Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) February 14, 2023

Vivek Ramaswamy

In February this year, American entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy announced his bid to gain the Republican nomination. The 37-year-old is an ex-biotechnology executive and hedge fund partner who rose to prominence in right-wing circles by lambasting corporate efforts to boost social, political, and environmental causes. Ramaswamy was born in Cincinnati to Indian immigrant parents and graduated from Harvard College with a bachelor's degree in biology. The Indian-American young blood was praised by Trump himself. "I am pleased to see that Vivek Ramaswamy is doing so well in the most recent Republican Primary Poll, CBS YouGov," Donald Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social in May.

Weve celebrated our diversity so much that we forgot all the ways were really the same as Americans, bound by ideals that united a divided, headstrong group of people 250 years ago. I believe deep in my bones those ideals still exist. Im running for President to revive them. pic.twitter.com/bz5Qtt4tmm  Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) February 22, 2023



Hirsh Vardhan Singh

Indian-American politician from New Jersey, Hirsh Vardhan Singh announced his candidacy last month. The 38-year-old businessman-turned-politician sought the Republican nomination in the 2024 presidential election by calling himself a pure blood" candidate. The self-proclaimed life-long Republican ran for the office of the Governor of New Jersey in 2017. According to the New Jersey Globe, Singh also ran for US Senate and Congress in 2018, U.S. Senate in 2020, and governor in 2021, but never made it out of the Republican primaries.

In his campaign message, the New Jersey politician called himself a pure-blooded candidate since he did not take any COVID vaccines. He recalled Democratic politicians from New Jersey have labelled him Trump on Steroids. Today I am the only pure-blood candidate for the president because I never gave into the COVID vaccination. Even New Jerseys democrat politicians labelled me the Trump on steroids, Singh asserted in his speech. It's time to move past outdated politicians of the bygone era, I have the energy and technical know-how. To lead America to the future we deserve, he concluded.

Overall, Indian-origin politicians are touted as the new face of a diverse GOP. It will be interesting to see how these candidates will manage to navigate the evangelical Christian electorate, which forms the major religious group for the party. As Trump and Biden navigate through their share of legal battles, what the future holds for these candidates is still unknown.
A leading human rights group called Friday on the United States and the United Nations to impose further sanctions on the Sudanese individuals responsible for the atrocities in Darfur, as evidence of scorched-earth attacks mount. The northeast African country plunged into chaos in April when monthslong tensions between the military, led by Abdel Fattah Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, commanded by Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, exploded into open fighting in the capital of Khartoum, and elsewhere.

In Darfur, the scene of genocidal war in the early 2000s, the conflict has morphed into ethnic violence, with RSF and allied Arab militias targeting African communities in the western region, U.N. officials say. In a press release, Human Rights Watch said Washington should impose targeted sanctions to ensure that the UN Security Council finally acts to protect civilians and to hold those responsible for the atrocities to account. The U.S. is set to take over the presidency of the U.N. Security Council later this month.

The New York-based watchdog group said at least seven villages and towns have been almost completely burned to the ground or destroyed in West Darfur alone, according to satellite footage and testimonies analyzed by the group. These include Habilla Kanari, Mejmere, Misterei, Molle, Murnei, Gokor, and Sirba.

The world should not stand by as town after town in West Darfur is burned to the ground, sending tens of thousands of civilians fleeing for their lives, said Tirana Hassan, executive director at HRW.

In June, the US imposed sanctions against four key companies either linked to or owned by the warring factions. The White House also placed visa restrictions on army and RSF officials and leaders from the former government led by Omar al-Bashir. It did not specify which individuals were affected. Last Month, Karim Khan, a prosecutor from the International Criminal Court, told the United Nations that he would be investigating alleged new war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Darfur.

HRWs call for sanctions comes just days after Amnesty International separately accused both warring parties of committing extensive war crimes including deliberate killings of civilians and mass sexual assault. Amnesty said almost all rape cases were blamed on the RSF and its allied Arab militias.

In its 56-page report, HRW said the RSF abducted 24 women and girls  as young as 12 -- and held them for several days during which they were raped by several RSF members. The nearly four month conflict in Sudan has killed more than 3,000 people and wounded more than 6,000 others, Health Minister Haitham Mohammed Ibrahim said in televised comments in June. The true tally is likely much higher, according to doctors and activists.

Meanwhile, the fighting has forced another 4 million people to flee their homes either to safer areas inside Sudan or to neighboring countries, according to figures from the U.N. migration agency. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization, or FAO, said Thursday that 20.3 million people in the country now face severe hunger, double what the figure was this time last year.
A video of a ship has been shared in news reports and social media posts that claim it shows a floating prison for illegal immigrants built by the U.K.

But the claim is false. The video in fact shows a barge, which the U.K. will use to temporarily shelter undocumented asylum seekers, not a prison.

Hong Kong news outlet Tong Media posted on Twitter on July 24: The U.K. constructed a floating prison to detain illegal immigrants and eliminate the possibility of escape.

It was shared alongside a 23-second clip that shows a ship sailing on the water.

Similar videos and claims were also shared by several influential users on the popular Chinese social media platform Weibo.

The claim began to circulate online amid the British governments move to create offshore accommodation for asylum seekers. According to the BBC, the government says it currently spends $6 million a day accommodating 51,000 asylum seekers in hotels, and it wants to reduce the cost.

Through a keyword search on Google, AFCL found the ship seen in the posts in fact shows a barge named Bibby Stockholm, which the U.K. will use to temporarily house asylum-seeking migrants awaiting approval of their request.

The British government has faced domestic criticism for its treatment of asylum seekers, and in particular its efforts to deter them from arriving in Britain. Asylum seekers can potentially face deportation if their applications are rejected after a legal process by British authorities.

But AFCL found that the asylum seekers to be housed on the barge, moored on the southern coast of England, will have some freedom of movement and are not classed as prisoners.

Social media users in China claim the U.K. government has built a floating prison. (Screenshots taken from Weibo and Twitter)





What is Bibby Stockholm?

Bibby Stockholm, an engineless barge, is an accommodation vessel owned by a British shipping and marine operations company Bibby Line.

An influx of migrants and subsequent backlog of asylum applications has caused the British government expenditures on housing migrants to rise considerably in recent years, and using Bibby Stockholm instead of a hotel is one step in the U.K.s effort to lower housing costs. It is the first vessel secured under its cost-cutting move on asylum accommodation.

Exterior of Bibby Stockholm. (Photo/AP)





The initial plan was to load people onto the ship in Portland, Dorset, beginning the first week of August, with the number expected to increase over the following months until the ship contained approximately 500 men. However, the plan was delayed due to checks.

The three-story ship is 93 meters (306 feet) long and equipped with game rooms, a restaurant and a bar as well as a gym, a TV lounge and a multi-faith prayer room. The British government has installed bunk beds in all 222 single-occupancy rooms and converted several communal rooms into dormitories.

Bibby Marine, the shipping company which owns Bibby Stockholm, officially introduces the layout of the ship. (Photo taken from Bibby Marine's official website)





While housed on the vessel, the migrants are permitted to exit and move about in designated dockside areas. In addition, they will be able to ride hourly buses through port security to certain shops and areas on the mainland. The British government has not issued a curfew, but they are encouraged to return to the yacht each night by 11 p.m.

In order to increase the number of people that Bibby Stockholm can accommodate, the British government turned the beds into bunk beds. (Photo/AP)





Why are netizens referring to Bibby Stockholm as a floating prison?

AFCL discovered that Chinese netizens likely misappropriated criticisms and concerns over Bibby Stockholm that appeared in recent Western media reports.

The New York Times reported on July 18 a criticism from residents of Weymouth, a working-class seaside community confronting the Isle of Portland, over the provision of free transportation and easy healthcare access to unemployed asylum seekers.

These residents are also concerned that the migrants may prove a risk to public order if allowed to regularly congregate and idle in Portland harbor during the lengthy wait for their application to be approved, according to the paper.

Residents of Portland protest the planned docking accommodation of asylum applicants next to their town. (Photo/AP)

Some human rights activists also oppose the plan, with more than 40 organizations and individuals writing an open letter in early July calling on Bibby Marine to withdraw from the charter agreement with the U.K. government, according to a BBC report. The letter claims that housing traumatized migrants on Bibby Stockholm would be cruel and inhumane.

Concerned about fire safety, the Fire Brigades Union of the U.K also wrote to the Home Office, stating that the vessel is a potential deathtrap. The union said that there are no lifejackets on board the barge, and that closed gates could result in a crush in the event of an emergency.

In response, the department stated that it is confident in the barges fire safety and that all necessary steps have been taken to ensure the safety of those who will be living on board.

Translated by Shen Ke. Edited by Taejun Kang and Mat Pennington.

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.
At the beach in Beidaihe, where senior leadership enjoy a chance to discuss policy away from the public eye.

A soldier stands guard at a private beach reserved for government officials in the resort of Beidaihe, north China's Hebei province on August 11, 2007.

The Chinese Communist Party annual summer holidays are underway, despite the worst flooding in more than 140 years in northern China.

The floods have left at least 20 dead and millions displaced. In Hebei Province over 1.2 million people have been evacuated to safety, with some officials coming under fire for suggesting that Hebei and other surrounding areas were sacrificed to alleviate flooding in the Chinese capital, as well as to save pet leadership development projects.

In keeping with traditional low-key signaling, on Thursday, the head of the Partys central secretariat Cai Qi met with experts in Beidaihe.

The two-week holidays in Beidaihe  a coastal resort on Bohai Bay, about 300 kilometers (186 miles) east of Beijing  are usually announced by a senior Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader meeting with experts.

Cai Qi is No. 5 in the CCP hierarchy.

President Xi Jinping and other senior Politburo members have already disappeared from the spotlight for several days  Xi was last seen in public on Monday. Neither Xi nor Premier Li Qiang have spoken in public on the flooding.

State broadcaster CCTV continues to report on their directives but not on their whereabouts.

Routine government and policy activities will slow down, as they regularly do in the first two weeks of August. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs suspended its daily press conference for two weeks on Monday.

A general view shows holiday-makers on a beach at the seaside town of Beidaihe on August 6, 2012. Credit: Ed Jones/AFP





Jeremy Goldkorn, editor in chief of The China Project, said in an emailed newsletter: Beidaihe is like the Hamptons for Chinese communists.

@MacroPolo, a Paulson Institute think tank, called Beidaihe Chinas Camp David.

Just like we never know what New Yorks financial elite and some of their political friends discuss during their summer breaks at the Hamptons, what happens at Beidaihe stays at Beidaihe, said Goldkorn.

Some, including @MacroPolo, would argue that is not entirely correct. Famously, Chinas disastrous Great Leap Forward  a failed attempt to recast China overnight as a manufacturing giant by melting saucepans and cutlery (leading to mass famine)  was allegedly conceived and launched by the beach in 1958, or at least hastened into being there.

In the same year, Mao decided to shell the Kuomintang-held island of Quemoy, now better known as Chinmen, or Jinmen. Attempts to take the island were repelled by KMT troops.

In 1971, Lin Biao, a Peoples Liberation Army general and one of Mao Zedongs most trusted allies is believed to have fled the beach resort, destination the Soviet Union. His plane crashed amid one of the biggest purges in the history of the Peoples Republic of China.

New recruits of the People's Liberation Army march in their swimming trunks after a morning training session at the seaside beach resort of Beidaihe on June 17, 1998. Credit: Reuters

The Beidaihe summer retreat was the brainchild of Mao Zedong in 1953, and it grew in importance in the years that followed.

Interrupted during the Cultural Revolution, Beidaihe wasnt restored until 1983 under Deng Xiaoping, writes @MacroPolo. Under the Deng [Xiaoping] era, the seaside retreat continued to play an important role in Chinese elite politics, where reform decisions and personnel choices were made.

Beijings moat

This years Beidaihe gathering takes place against a background of pointed criticism of government officials over the extensive flooding in northern China.

Bloomberg reports that a hashtag playing off a comment by Ni Yuefeng, the Communist Party boss of Hebei province, had more than 80 million views on Chinas Twitter-like Weibo on Thursday.

Ni riled Chinese netizens by calling for cities in the province bordering Beijing to resolutely play a good role of moat for the capital.

The Hebei head official even went so far as to say that the Xiongan area  a project that Xi has described as being of millennial significance  represented the top priority of flood control in our province.

An aerial view shows flooded farmlands and houses near Tazhao village, following heavy rainfall in Zhuozhou, Hebei province, China on August 1, 2023. Credit: cnsphoto via Reuters

Local Hebei residents have publicly posted accusations on social media that towns such as Zhuozhou, which has a population of 630,000, and Baoding City, with a metropolitan population of more than 2 million suffered due to flood discharges aimed at protecting Beijing.

One Weibo user posted a photo of a museum in Baoding with a sign [that] lists the objectives of the citys flood-control efforts, reported Bloomberg: First, protecting Beijing and Tianjin. Second, protecting Xiongan. Third, protecting Baoding itself.

If local leaders dared to put this slogan on a board and showed the public, they should also dare to face peoples questioning, said the Weibo user in a post that later disappeared.

A middle school teacher in Hebei Province who only provided the surname Tian told the RFA Mandarin service that while natural disasters caused suffering and many deaths in China, man-made disasters should not be ignored.

I saw on the Internet that the flood was caused by the water reservoir being opened to protect Xiongan and Beijing, Tian told RFA. This natural disaster was mainly caused by man-made disasters. I believe that many people must have died [as a result]."

Edited by Mike Firn and Taejun Kang.
Kuwait's top diplomat has been invited to visit Iran, state media said, amid a dispute over a gas field to which Kuwait and Saudi Arabia say they have exclusive rights.

The dispute over the field -- known as Arash in Iran and Dorra in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia -- dates back to the 1960s when Iran and Kuwait awarded overlapping offshore concessions.

Last year Kuwait and Saudi Arabia signed an agreement to develop the field, despite objections from Iran which in July said it was preparing to start drilling there.

On Thursday, Kuwait's official KUNA news agency said Foreign Minister Salem al-Sabah had "received a letter from his Iranian counterpart... which included an invitation for an official visit to Iran".

It did not say if the invitation had been accepted.

The dispute over the field -- whose recoverable reserves are estimated at some 220 billion cubic metres (seven trillion cubic feet) -- has long been a bone of contention between the three countries.

Iran and Kuwait have held unsuccessful talks for many years over their disputed maritime border area, which is rich in natural gas.

Recent attempts to revive negotiations have failed, and Iran's oil minister on Sunday said Tehran may pursue work at the field even without an agreement.

The Kuwaiti and Saudi authorities said in a joint statement published on Thursday that "they alone have full sovereign rights to exploit the wealth in that area".

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Residents guard local levees for fear officials will inundate their homes in the middle of the night.

Rescue workers and boats congregate along a flooded road at an industrial development zone, following heavy rainfall in Zhuozhou, Hebei province, China, Aug. 2, 2023.

Residents of northern China's Hebei province have been taking to the levees protecting their homes to prevent excavation teams from breaching them, amid criticism that official decisions about who gets flooded are highly political.

Video clips of scuffles, lengthy altercations and clashes with police have emerged on social media in recent days, showing embattled rural residents facing off with officials who want to flood their homes and farmland to protect Beijing, as well as ruling Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping's pet project -- Xiong'an New Area.

In one Aug. 2 clip posted to X by the citizen journalism account "Mr Li is not your teacher" residents of Ci village in Hebei demand an official letter from a demolition team leader getting ready to breach a dyke to allow floodwaters to inundate their village.

"This guy was trying to dig through our dyke sneakily," one villager says on the video. "We've been sitting out here protecting it through the night," says another.

Another adds: "You don't actually have an official document, right?"

"On whose orders are you digging a hole here?" says another resident. "Who ordered this?"

They also complained they haven't been able to eat anything lately, and that they lack drinking water.

Scuffle over dyke

A later video from the same dispute showed villagers piling aboard a police bus, shoving and shouting.

In a similar dispute near worst-hit Zhuozhou city, a video clip shows a number of police vehicles on a road in the dark and rain, with the commentary: "The police have suppressed the villagers who were trying to stop them from breaching the dyke  they say that the dyke has to be breached."

"They're about to breach it now," the person shooting the clip, also dated Aug. 2, says.

People stand on a front loader as theyre evacuated from a flooded residential compound after flooding brought by remnants of Typhoon Doksuri, in Zhuozhou, Hebei province, China, Aug. 3, 2023. Credit: Tingshu Wang/Reuters

Another social media video showed a similar dispute in Zhuzhuang village near Zhuozhou.

"We are here watching the levee so they can't come here and dig through it," one villager says on the clip. "If they do, it will destroy several villages."

"The excavator is parked right there, so we villagers have to protect ourselves."

A Hebei resident who gave only the surname He for fear of reprisals said public trust in the authorities is at a low ebb.

"We've seen so many disasters in our lives, whether it be earthquakes or floods, and nobody trusts them any more," he said. "Anyone with any sense knows [what they're like]."

"Somebody could just breach the dykes at any time with no regard for danger to people's lives," he said.

Buffer for Beijing

The disputes came as China's water resources minister Li Guoying called for flood control measures to prioritize protecting Beijing, Daxing Airport and Xiong'an New Area, while Hebei provincial Communist Party secretary Ni Yuefeng called on officials to treat the province as a buffer zone for Beijing.

A water conservation expert who gave only the surname Sun for fear of reprisals said both statements were political rather than based on best practice.

"The second flood peak is hitting Zhuozhou now, and the water is nearly up to the level of the traffic lights at its deepest point," Sun said. "Basically [allowing the city to flood] will ... put pressure on the Haihe River basin downstream, around Tianjin."

"They should just come out and say why they want to protect Beijing at all costs," he said.

A man sits on a partially submerged vehicle in Zhuozhou, Hebei province, China, Aug. 3, 2023. Credit: Tingshu Wang/Reuters

A compilation of clips from Zhuozhou showed the city and surrounding farmland under water on Friday, with residents walking along railway tracks from which the embankment had been washed away, and hundreds of residents of a tower block stranded, awaiting rescue.

The flooding of Zhuozhou comes after China's water resources minister Li Guoying called in an emergency meeting for the protection of Beijing, Daxing Airport and Xiong'an New Area to be prioritized, according to the official China.com news website.

"As the flood peaks in the Daqing and Yongding rivers ... move downstream, some designated flood storage areas have already been flooded, and some river embankments are in danger," Li was quoted as saying. "This is a critical moment for our flood defenses."

"We must take all necessary measures to ensure the safety of the capital Beijing (including Daxing Airport), Xiong'an New Area, and the safety of those living in the flood storage areas," he said.

Politics in command

Meanwhile, Sun said there is still ongoing pressure on reservoirs upstream of Beijing's flooded western districts, and Zhuozhou, further downstream.

"The Shisanling Reservoir in Changping started raising the sluice gates this morning to free up storage capacity and protect Beijing," he said.

"Everything in this flooding crisis is being decided first and foremost by political considerations," he said.

Germany-based water conservation expert Wang Weiluo said the flooding that hit the western Beijing suburb of Mentougou earlier this week had barrelled down the Yongding River, while the flooding that hit Zhuozhou had come down the Juma River from the western Beijing district of Fangshan.

"It was set up this way because the highest priority is to protect Beijing, and it also protects Tianjin," Wang said.

Rescue teams work in a flooded village after heavy rains in Zhuozhou, Baoding city, in northern Chinas Hebei province on Aug. 2, 2023. Credit: Jade Gao/AFP

Social media comments have complained in recent days that the Communist Party secretary and mayor of Zhuozhou haven't been seen in public for days.

"Desperately seeking the mayor and party secretary of Zhuozhou city," said a satirical "missing persons notice" circulating on social media.

"Someone needs to take charge of the situation and the people need to know what's really happening," it said.

Repeated calls to the volunteer flood hotline went unconnected, while repeated calls to the Zhuozhou municipal government hotline and flood control headquarters rang unanswered on Thursday.



Translated with additional reporting by Luisetta Mudie.
The Pillar of Shame, seen at the University of Hong Kong in Oct. 2021, was created by Danish sculptor Jens Galschit [right].

The Danish sculptor whose "Pillar of Shame" statue commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen massacre was seized by Hong Kong authorities said he is saddened by a report that he faces arrest if he tries to return to the city to retrieve his work.

Hong Kong police have declined to comment on a report in a pro-China newspaper Wednesday that they are taking steps to arrest sculptor Jens Galschit under a national security law forbidding criticism of the authorities.

Asked about the report in the Sing Tao Daily, Galschit told Radio Free Asia on Thursday that he hadn't heard of any arrest warrant, but didn't believe such a warrant would be enforceable.

The "Pillar of Shame" statue is removed from the University of Hong Kong, Dec. 23, 2021. Credit: Lam Chun Tung/The Initium Media via AP

He said he was "sad" that he wouldn't be able to return to the city he loves, despite wanting to collect his original artwork and bring it back to Europe.

I know Hong Kong has really changed a lot, he said, adding that almost all of his Hong Kong friends are now in prison amid an ongoing crackdown on dissent.

He said of the Pillar of Shame: I want it back  its my private property.

The Sing Tao Daily quoted a source as saying that "the national security department has formulated plans to arrest Jens Galschit for intending to use the 'Pillar of Remembrance" to come to Hong Kong to cause a political disturbance."

Asked to confirm the report, a police spokesperson replied: "We will act based on the situation, and take action according to law."

'Color revolution'

The Sing Tao Daily report also said that if Galschit did come to Hong Kong to retrieve his artwork, he could be sent to face trial in mainland China under Article 55 of the law.

"They have decided to activate Article 55 of the Hong Kong National Security Law, meaning that the case will be handed over to [Beijing's] National Security Office in Hong Kong, which can exercise jurisdiction to transfer it to the mainland for trial."

Article 55 of the law, which was imposed on Hong Kong from July 1, 2020 in a bid to crack down on the 2019 pro-democracy movement, allows for national security cases deemed to be of a "serious" nature to be transferred to mainland China for trial.

Hong Kong security chief Chris Tang claimed in a video uploaded to Facebook on Thursday that waves of mass protests against the erosion of the city's freedoms dating back to 2003 were the result of "foreign forces" trying to foment a "color revolution" in Hong Kong.

"The intention of foreign forces to make use of Hong Kong to endanger our national security didn't happen overnight," Tang said in the video. "National security incidents have occurred repeatedly in Hong Kong over the past two decades."

"External forces were already cultivating certain local opposition groups in Hong Kong as early as 2003, organizing large-scale anti-government demonstrations," he said, over footage of a protest by half a million people against national security legislation, known as Article 23. "The anti-Article 23 protests were a trial run for them."

Students clean the "Pillar of Shame" statue at the University of Hong Kong, June 4, 2019. Credit: Kin Cheung/AP

Tang went on to blame the mass protest campaign in 2012 by students -- some of them still in secondary school -- against patriotic education in Hong Kong's schools, the 2014 Occupy Central movement for fully democratic elections, the 2016 "fishball revolution" in Mong Kok and the 2019 movement against extradition to mainland China on the actions of "foreign forces."

"Many young people had been radicalized," said Tang, who was chief of police during the 2019 protests. "External forces were up to the same old tricks again."

His comments were in stark contrast to the reaction of then chief executive Tung Chee-hwa at the time, who said in a statement: "The ... government fully understands that citizens value human rights and freedoms. The government's position is consistent with that of the citizens."

Massive, ongoing crackdown

The first public reference to "foreign forces" came from former chief executive Leung Chun-ying in 2014, when he claimed that "foreign forces have always been involved in Hong Kong politics," without giving specific details.

But the rhetoric around foreign forces and alleged foreign funding didn't become baked into official statements until after the 2019 protest movement. Even during those protests, police made no claims of foreign involvement or funding during their attempts to quell the mass movement, despite such claims being prominent in the political crackdown that followed.

The crackdown has seen senior journalists, pro-democracy media magnate Jimmy Lai and 47 former lawmakers and democracy activists charged with offenses from "collusion with a foreign power" to "subversion."

The national security law applies to speech and acts committed anywhere in the world, and has been used to issue the leaders of the London-based rights group Hong Kong Watch with a takedown order for its website.

Copenhagen-based regional council member Thomas Rohden said via his X account: "So China has found yet another Danish citizen whom they want imprisoned."

"This time it is about the artist Jens Galschit. His crime is to draw attention to the Tiananmen Square massacre, through his artistic sculptures. #dkpol," Rohden wrote.

According to Sing Tao, the arrest warrant for Galschit is linked to the prosecution of Zeng Yuxuan, a doctoral student from mainland China found in possession of posters depicting the "Pillar of Shame," under colonial-era sedition laws.

Zeng stands accused of conspiring with U.S.-based democracy activist Zhou Fengsuo to "commit acts with seditious intent" ahead of the June 4 massacre anniversary.

Zhou has said he bears full responsibility for creating the materials found in Zeng's possession.



Translated with additional reporting by Luisetta Mudie.
The two are accused of passing on sensitive defense information for cash.

US Naval Base San Diego, California, U.S., March 19, 2020. Jinchao Wei was arrested Wednesday on his way to work there.

Two U.S. Navy sailors have been arrested for allegedly spying for China, federal prosecutors announced Thursday.

Accused of passing on naval secrets to Chinese agents for cash, Jinchao Patrick Wei, 22, and Wenheng Zhao, 26 were arrested on Wednesday in separate cases.

Wei, a petty officer 2nd class aboard the amphibious ship USS Essex, currently stationed in San Diego, was arrested and charged with espionage  specifically, providing defense information to aid a foreign government.

Zhao, who worked at the U.S. Naval Base in Port Hueneme, California, has an active U.S. security clearance and was charged with conspiracy and receipt of a bribe by a public official.

Weis indictment alleges that in June 2022, he sent a Chinese intelligence officer approximately 30 technical and mechanical manuals.

The manuals detailed the operations of multiple systems aboard the Essex and similar ships, including power, steering, aircraft and deck elevators, as well as damage and casualty controls.

The indictment alleges that Wei was paid U.S.$5,000.

USS Essex arrives at Sihanoukville town, 230 km (143 miles) west of Phnom Penh November 26, 2007. Credit: Reuters/Chor Sokunthea

Zhaos indictment alleges he passed on sensitive U.S. military information to an individual posing as a maritime economic researcher  actually a Chinese intelligence officer.

Zhao, who held a U.S. security clearance, beginning in August 2021 and continuing through at least May 2023, allegedly recorded military information, photographs and videos, before transmitting to the maritime economic researcher.

The Chinese intelligence officer paid Zhao approximately $14,866, the indictment alleges.

Both men pleaded not guilty in federal courts in San Diego and Los Angeles, according to reports. They are being held until their detention hearings, which will take place on August 8 in the same cities.

Through the alleged crimes committed by these defendants, sensitive military information ended up in the hands of the People's Republic of China, Matthew Olsen, the Justice Departments assistant attorney general for national security, said on August 3 at a press conference in San Diego.

The charges demonstrate [Chinas] determination to obtain information that is critical to our national defense by any means so it can be used to their advantage, said Olsen.

The alleged conduct also represents a violation of the solemn obligation of members of our military to defend our country to safeguard our secrets and to protect their fellow service members.

Assistant Director Suzanne Turner of the FBIs Counterintelligence Division said, These arrests are a reminder of the relentless, aggressive efforts of the Peoples Republic of China to undermine our democracy and threaten those who defend it.

The PRC compromised enlisted personnel to secure sensitive military information that could seriously jeopardize U.S. national security. The FBI and our partners remain vigilant in our determination to combat espionage, and encourage past and present government officials to report any suspicious interactions with suspected foreign intelligence officers.

China has yet to comment.

Edited by Mike Firn and Taejun Kang.
Park Eun Mi was sold in China at the age of 16 and suffered six years of exploitation.

When Park Eun Mi and Son Hye Young fled North Korea and stepped into China, they thought their troubles would be over. They were escaping widespread hunger, and expected that in China they could find decent jobs and piece their lives together away from the oppressive regime that had failed to provide for them and their families.

Instead they stepped into a world where they, like many others before them, were to be bought and sold like possessions, and their lives were under the control of the brokers who had promised them freedom.

About 150,000 to 200,000 North Koreans live in China in areas close to the North Korean border and as many as 70% to 80% could be victims of human trafficking, a report released in March by the Dutch law firm Global Rights Compliance said.

The report said North Korean women are sold for hundreds of U.S. dollars, and the criminal organizations selling them collectively earn more than $100 million each year.

North Korean refugees who have fled to China without formal immigration status are especially vulnerable to trafficking, the U.S. State Departments Trafficking in Persons report said.

Traffickers lure, drug, detain, or kidnap some North Korean women upon their arrival in the PRC and compel them into commercial sex in brothels and bars, through internet sex sites, or in relation to forced marriage, it said.

Now both living in South Korea, Park and Son shared their experience as trafficking victims to Radio Free Asias Korean Service.

You are just one of my possessions.

Park Eun Mi was born in Hyesan, a city on the Chinese border in Ryanggang province. In 2007, during one of the worst food shortages in North Korea since the 1994-1998 famine, then 16-year-old Park crossed over into China with the help of a broker.

My familys financial life had become very difficult, so I sought a way out and that was defecting from North Korea, she said. I heard from people around me that there would be no problem making a living if I defected.

The broker also promised her that she could also send money back from China to help her family.

He said, there are many elderly couples without children in China, so when young girls go there, they are usually adopted as daughters. Then, through the work they give you, you can make a living and earn money to help your parents, said Park. I didnt even know the word human trafficking back then.

She said she trusted the brokers, believing them to be kind people who helped poor North Korean children, but they turned out to be criminals who handed people over for money. She didnt realize she had been trafficked until she arrived in China.

I felt it when I arrived at my destination and I was handed off to another broker in the countryside, said Park. From then on, people came and saw me, and suddenly took my friend next to me out early in the morning and went out to sell her.

Park said she feared retribution if she were to protest being sold when it was her turn.

When people are too shocked, people become speechless. I felt like something terrible would happen to me if I said a word, so I was rather calm, she said.

The day came when she was sold to a man seeking a wife. For the next six years her life consisted of sexual exploitation and constant threats from her buyer.

He told me that if I ran away he would report me to the Chinese police, she said.

She had no choice but to comply with the demands of her buyer and his family.

I think I waited a long time to earn their trust because its pretty obvious what theyd do to me if Id have given them any sign of running away, she said.

There were times when they went beyond my tolerance and insulted my personality. The most common insult I heard was, You are one of my possessions. I can discard you when you'er no longer useful, she said. It was hard to live hearing those words on a daily basis.

My body is being sold

Son Hye Young was born in the city of Tanchon in the northeastern province of North Hamgyong. Her parents died in the 90s famine and she found herself living on the streets as a kotjebi, a beggar child with no permanent place to live.

Eventually, in 2007, while in China, she and several other kotjebi were rounded up by a trafficker.

When I was taken away, the woman said things like, How much will you charge for it? And how much will you sell it for? So, I said to this woman, Please dont talk like that in front of us. I know my body is being sold, but this doesnt seem right.

Son Hye Young, a North Korean refugee who was living as a kotjebi (homeless street beggar), was sold for 36,000 Chinese yuan. Credit: RFA

The trafficker sold her for 36,000 yuan (about $5,000).

What followed was a life of misery, she said, living in a rat-infested hut with an incompetent husband who spoke a language she didnt understand and who came from a culture she hadnt yet adapted to.

I got pregnant and gave birth to a baby but there was no formula. I had no money to buy formula, so I thought of an idea of buying a goat and mixing goat milk to make it, she said. So, I worked at a construction site for a month despite not being able to speak Chinese. I bought a goat and then I said I had to learn Chinese. So, I didnt go out anywhere, locked myself up and watched TV at home.

Son said that there are still many North Korean women who are involved in human trafficking scams in China.

The reality is that North Korean refugees cannot earn money, so they are sold to families. Then they run away, said Son. There are many cases where the seller and the broker coordinate and instruct the North Korean refugee to live in the house of the buyer for 10 days and then come back. There are some caught doing that by the Chinese police.

By 2012, Son had made a life for herself in China as the caretaker of her 3-year-old daughter and a 2-year-old son. But she was forcibly repatriated to North Korea one day after someone reported her to the Chinese police.

Back in her homeland, she was severely beaten and tortured by North Korean authorities, she was sent to a prison.

Two paths

Park explained that for North Korean women who escape to China, there are only two paths for them to avoid being trafficked.

First  is getting a job through connections such as relatives. The second is that if you dont have any connections, you literally have to sleep out in an open place you dont know, but that itself doesnt make sense, she said. The moment you are on the street, you are caught by the police and sent back to North Korea. In the end, you have no choice but to go through with being trafficked.

Park, now in South Korea, works to help other victims like herself. She has learned English so she can discuss human trafficking with an international audience. She explained how she used to think that her situation was her own fault.

I felt guilty. Its as if Id done something wrong to have this happen, she said. But now thinking rationally, its not my fault.

Park said that she was afraid to speak about her situation because human trafficking involves sexual assault, and victim blaming is rampant.

I thought that if I talked about it, everyone would point fingers at me.  But when I saw someone else [talking about it] I thought a lot  Its not your fault. And isnt it the right thing to have a little courage?

Park says that without help from the international community to ensure the safety of North Korean refugees in China, many more will become human trafficking victims.

There are probably North Korean refugees still waiting for their repatriation date in Chinese prison, she said. I think the ultimate goal is for all residents of North Korea to enjoy the freedom and human rights we enjoy now. In order to do that, wouldnt it be right to take steps to save North Korean refugees who are living in a third country right now?

She said she will continue to advocate for undocumented North Koreans in China.

All I can do is speak up for those people, and if someone says they will save them, Ill be willing to join in as well.

Translated by Claire Shinyoung Oh Lee. Edited by Eugene Whong.
She was beaten and taken to a second location, though her whereabouts were unknown.

Trafficked Lao youths are seen after gaining their freedom from a Chinese-run casino in Myanmar, April 2023.

A missing Lao teenager trafficked to Myanmar to work and who was beaten by Chinese men in a Chinese-owned casino in Myanmar earlier this week has been found alive, her mother told Radio Free Asia on Thursday.

The girl, whose name is being withheld to protect her from further harm because she is still in Myanmar, is one of dozens of teenagers and youths from Luang Namtha province in Laos who have been trafficked to neighboring Myanmar.

Many have ended up in a place the workers call Casino Kosai in an isolated development near the city of Myawaddy on Myanmars eastern border with Thailand, where they are held captive in nondescript buildings and forced to participate in cyber-scams for criminal groups.

One scheme involved pretending to be a lonely heart in Thailand looking for love, striking up a conversation and establishing a phony online relationship, RFA reported in April. Laotians, along with Filipino, Chinese and young people from African countries, were forced to work up to 16 hours a day.

Lao authorities say efforts to help the youths have been hampered by a lack of access due to heavy fighting in Myanmars Kayin state, one of the epicenters of intense conflict between pro- and anti-junta forces.

But anti-trafficking experts and Lao youths who have been trafficked accuse Lao authorities of complicity.

One mother whose son is still trapped at the casino told RFA that authorities she contacted made no progress at all after receiving her request for help freeing him.

Following the beating, the men took the girl, 17, to work in a nearby casino, where she believed she was the only Asian worker. The girl still had her own cell phone, so she texted her parents about her whereabouts.

After they received news that their daughter was still alive, the parents informed Lao government officials and asked them to intervene, but so far, they have done nothing, the parents said.

Photos of the girl obtained by RFA show her thighs and lower legs covered in purple bruises.

Her mother requested that RFA not publish the photos so as to not put the girl in further jeopardy.

A 17-year-old Lao girl working at the Chinese-owned 'Casino Kosai' (shown) in Myanmar near the Thai border was beaten, according to her mother. Credit: Citizen journalist

Workers' parents file complaint

Eight parents of trafficked Laotians signed and submitted a two-page complaint on July 31 to the Anti-Trafficking Department, Office of the Peoples Council, both in Luang Namtha province where they reside, and to Lao police headquarters in the capital Vientiane.

The girl's situation came to light on Aug. 1, when RFA received text messages from a Lao workers parents in Luang Namtha province saying that seven Lao workers had been harassed, beaten and subjected to electrical shocks by Chinese men on July 25 because they failed to meet their work quotas.

The Chinese men beat the 17-year-old more than the others and until she collapsed because they found out she had sent a text message to her mother on the bosss cell phone while working. The other workers didnt know what had happened to the girl after the men took her away, so her parents feared she was dead.

On July 25, her daughter sent a text message to her using the bosss telephone, said another parent of one of the casino workers. When he found out, he beat her and [subjected her] to electrical shocks many times until she collapsed.

The men then told casino security personnel to carry her outside, the woman said.

But at that time, the Laotians who worked with her didnt know where they were carrying her to, making them concerned for her life, she said.

The woman also said she wanted the Lao government to help her child leave the Myanmar casino as soon as possible and that all other parents who have their children stuck there also need help.

All of the parents of the workers want the government to help because we dont know what to do to help them out of there now, the person said. We sent all the documents they needed in order to get them out from there almost a year ago already but nothing [has been done].

After other Lao parents in Luang Namtha province who have sons or daughters trapped at the casino in Myanmar heard about the beatings, they submitted written requests for help to various Lao authorities.

Another parent of a Lao worker at the casino told RFA that the group of adults delivered another letter to authorities in Luang Namtha province in northern Laos as well as sent a copy to police in Vientiane on Tuesday.

An official from the Anti-Trafficking Department in Vientiane who is aware of the situation told RFA on Wednesday that authorities in Myanmar informed his office that they tried to search for the Lao workers, but could not access the casino due to ongoing armed conflict in the area.

Translated by Sidney Khotpanya for RFA Lao. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Matt Reed.
They beat 31 political prisoners and locked them in narrow, dark cells.

Prison guards at Myanmars Thayarwady (Tharyawaddy) Prison have beaten 31 inmates for marking the countrys Martyrs Day and four are being treated for their injuries in the prison hospital, sources told RFA Friday.

Prisoners held a saluting ceremony on July 19, while women inmates wore black ribbons, said the sources close to the prison who didnt want to be named for security reasons.

They said 16 men and 15 women have been locked up since then.

Martyrs Day marks the July 19, 1947 assassination of nine Myanmar independence leaders, shot dead by members of a rival political group while holding a cabinet meeting in Yangon. The victims were Prime Minister Aung San, Minister of Information Ba Cho, Minister of Industry and Labor Mahn Ba Khaing, Minister of Trade Ba Win, Minister of Education Abdul Razak, and Myanmars unofficial Deputy Prime Minister Thakin Mya.

Less than six months after the end of British rule, the date of their assassination was designated a national holiday. It is marked annually by both the military regime and pro-democracy groups.

The prison ceremonies are thought to have been organized by Than Toe Aung, head of Yangon regions Thanlyin township Youth Group of the National League for Democracy, the party which won a landslide victory in 2020 elections before being ousted by the military.

Than Toe Aung was hospitalized after interrogation, along with three others, Thaik Tun Oo, an official of the Myanmar Political Prisoners Network told RFA.

Three days after Than Toe Aung was admitted to the hospital, three more were also admitted, he said.

We can confirm that they were severely beaten. Than Toe Aung is in critical condition. I heard he would be put in a locked cell after medical treatment.

He added other political prisoners who have been locked in dark, cramped cells after interrogation include male dormitory inmates Yan Naing Soe; Hla Soe; Sote Phwar Gyi; Tarmwe Ko Zwel; Dr Joe; O Be; and a Letpantan township Civil Disobedience Movement captain who wasnt named.

Womens dormitory inmates who are still locked up after interrogation include Hnin Lae Nanda Lwin; Shun Ei Phyu; Nilar Sein; Su Yi Paing; Wut Yi Lwin; Aye Thida Kyaw; Yi Yi Swe; Lwin Lwin Nyunt; Sandi Nyunt Win; Aye Thet San; Shwe Yi Nyunt; Ya Min Htet; Htoo Htet Htet Wai; Myo Thandar Tun; and Moe Myat Thazin, according to the prisoners network official.

Another source close to the Tharyawady Prison told RFA other political prisoners are protesting against the locking up of their fellow inmates by boycotting the prison shop.

RFA contacted the Naypyidaw-based Prison Department by phone to get its comments on the case but there was no response.

The entrance to Tharyawady Prison is seen in this file photograph. Credit: RFA





There has been a series of brutal beatings and killings by prison guards since a jail break three months ago at the prison housing Myanmars ousted president, Win Myint.

On May 18, nine inmates escaped from Bago regions Taungoo Prison, grabbing guns from prison guards and escaping into the jungle where they were met by members of a local Peoples Defense Force.

Since then, political prisoners at Bagos Thayarwady and Daik-U Central prisons and Myingyan Prison in Mandalay region have been beaten to death during interrogation or killed during prison transfers, according to family members and sources close to the prisons, who all requested anonymity to protect prisoners and their relatives.

More than 24,000 people, including pro-democracy activists, have been arrested since the Feb.1, 2021 coup, according to the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma). It says almost 20,000 are still being detained across Myanmar.

On August 1, 254 prisoners, including some political prisoners in Tharyawady Prison were released by the juntas amnesty. But sources close to the prison say as many as 900 political prisoners are still being held there, awaiting trial.

Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn and Taejun Kang.
Evicted residents, who can't afford to buy new houses, have been forced to rent places or return to their villages.

Pyinmabin village in Yangons Mingalardon township, seen in this April 2022 image [left], was razed on orders from Myanmars junta on Nov. 25, 2022. The area is seen at right on April 29, 2023. Credit: Maxar Technologies [left] and Airbus





Myanmars military junta has evicted families and destroyed more than 16,500 homes and other buildings in large cities and towns across the Southeast Asian country, claiming that the structures encroached on land owned by the state, according to data compiled by Radio Free Asia.

The data is based on residents testimonies and notices from local authorities, compiled since the military seized control of the country from the elected civilian-led government in a February 2021 coup. The actual figure may be higher, however.

The junta has removed the buildings under the pretext of encroachment, claiming the land belongs to the railway department, the irrigation department, or the military, or that it has been zoned for municipal infrastructure.

The junta also has forcibly evicted people living in informal settlements as part of a bid to increase its land holdings, RFA reported in February.

Families who have lost their homes say they are now facing hardship.

The remains of homes demolished by Myanmar junta forces are seen in Ward 3 of Mayangon township in Yangon region, Nov. 19, 2022. Credit: Citizen journalist

The military has leveled nearly 11,700 houses and buildings in Yangon region, home to Myanmars largest city and former capital, and the area with the greatest concentration of buildings.

Of that figure, the junta has demolished more than 4,100 houses and buildings in Mandalay, the second-largest city by population, while smaller cities and towns, such as Magway, Naypyidaw, Taungoo, Sittwe and Ann have seen between 75 to 200 demolitions each.

The military removed residential houses in Magway, saying they were too close to an Air Force base, demolished civilian homes and buildings in Mandalay on the grounds that the inhabitants were squatting on regional government-owned land, private land or land too close to a railway, and tore down homes in Naypyidaw, claiming they were situated too close to the Yan Aung Myin Forest Reserve.

Enter the bulldozers

A resident of Myo Thit Ward No. 4 in Mandalay who had lived in a home there for 17 years, said the junta leveled 200 homes in the ward, including his.

There was no deadline in the notice that the authorities sent to us, he said. It just said that we must move out as soon as possible, so we started collecting our property and disassembling our homes.

But yesterday bulldozers arrived and started bulldozing our houses around noon, said the resident who declined to be identified out of fear of retribution. Right now, I have rented a house to live in.

A resident who was evicted from Manadalays Pyigyitagun township told RFA that he could not afford to buy another dwelling because of high commodity prices.

We had to pinch pennies with a lot of difficulty to save up and buy our house, he said.

The location of a razed neighborhood (light brown in center of image) in Myanmars Mandalay region is seen on April 16, 2023. Credit: Airbus

Patheingyi township administrators under the control of the military issued notices this June to nearly 10,000 households that their homes would be removed on the grounds that they had been built on farmland without permission.

Similarly, in Yangon region, the junta demolished homes it claimed were built on lands owned by public parks, the regional government or the military.

In November 2022, soldiers knocked down about 100 houses in Yangons Mayangon township they claimed was on land owned by a stadium, forcing nearly 300 people into homelessness.

A resident who refused to be named for safety reasons told RFA he had to rent a house to stay on the outskirts of the city because he could not afford to buy a new one.

No one could buy another house again after the evictions, he said. All of them have to live as tenants now. Some had to go back to their villages.

Human rights violation

Rights activist Zaw Yan of the Yangon Peoples Welfare Network told RFA that the juntas demolition of civilian homes under the pretext of encroachment is a violation of human rights.

From a human rights standpoint, it is a violation of Article 13 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, he said. Also, theyve violated [Myanmars] constitution which says that every citizen has the right to live in any region within the country according to the law.

In a statement issued on Dec. 2, 2022, U.N. human rights officials said the juntas act of removing houses by force was a violation of basic human rights and a war crime.

Homes demolished by Myanmar junta troops are seen in Pyigyitagon township in Mandalay region, Feb. 28, 2023. Credit: Citizen journalist

Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, spokesman for Myanmars State Administration Council, the official name of the regime, told RFA in March 2022 that the junta had to focus on encroachment issues because previous governments did not resolve them.

A Yangon-based attorney who knows about the demolitions told RFA that previously the removal of homes was usually suspended or postponed through negotiations with administrative officials, though thats no longer possible under current military rule.

Translated by Myo Min Aung for RFA Burmese. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Matt Reed.
Thuzar Maung, a Malaysia-based refugee from Myanmar, gives a talk in Kuala Lumpur, in a photo posted on her Facebook page, March 9, 2023.

Updated at 4:20 p.m. EDT on 2023-08-04

Malaysian police have posted photos of a missing Myanmar democracy activist and her family online to ask the public to help in finding the five who, human rights advocates allege, were kidnapped from their Kuala Lumpur home a month ago.

Police said they were investigating it as a missing persons case but had no updates on activist Thuzar Maung and her family, who are U.N. refugee-card holders, while Human Rights Watch criticized the police for not circulating the photographs to the public sooner.

Our focus remains on areas where the missing individuals could possibly be, Selangor Police Chief Hussein Omar Khan told BenarNews on Friday.

The chief said police had recorded statements from 20 people, including neighbors, acquaintances and members of the Myanmar refugee community.

But, no significant developments at this point in time, he said.

Late Thursday, Ampang district police posted photographs of the family on its Facebook page.

Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watchs Asia division, urged the Malaysian police to investigate all possible angles that led to the disappearance as he criticized the delay in seeking assistance from the public.

Its about time the Malaysian police started investigating this case seriously. Releasing the photo of the family and their vehicle is something that should have been done weeks ago, Robertson told BenarNews on Friday.

All possibilities need to be explored, including who could have pulled off such a professionally conducted abduction that moved so quickly and efficiently to spirit Thuzar Maung, her husband, three children and the two family cars away.

Robertson said police must investigate the motives behind Thuzars abduction, considering her support for the shadow and civilian National Unity Government, which comprises former elected Myanmar legislators and junta opponents.

How this operation was conducted should be an important clue since the abilities demonstrated seem well beyond what ordinary Malaysians could do, Robertson said.

In a news release issued last month, HRW said that unidentified men abducted Thuzar Maung, 46, her husband Saw Than Tin Win, 43, their 16-year-old daughter and two sons aged 17 and 21, on July 4 from their Kuala Lumpur residence, citing witness accounts and CCTV footage.

The footage showed a car entering their gated community on the said date, with the driver claiming to be the police. Later that evening, the same car and two cars belonging to the family were seen leaving the compound, HRW said.

Thuzars colleagues who entered the house on July 5 said there were no signs of robbery, HRW said.

Ko Thet, a Malaysia-based Burmese volunteer with the Lovely Heart Charity group, said fellow activists were "out of clues" about what happened to Thuzar, who he said had helped Myanmar nationals on labor issues and was active in a Muslim organization.

"Her colleagues didn't hear anything. I don't understand why," he told Radio Free Asia.

James Bawi, a refugee and activist with the Chin community  a mostly Christian ethnic group  said he had met recently with the Malaysia Home Ministrys press secretary and urged the ministry to initiate investigations into the disappearances.

He [the press secretary] has promised to provide updates on the disappearance of Thuzar Maung and her family, he said.

The Myanmar Embassy in Kuala Lumpur and Malaysias foreign and home affairs ministers did not immediately respond to BenarNews requests for comment.

In Malaysia, Thuzar heads the Myanmar Muslim Refugee Community and has been a staunch critic of Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaings junta, which toppled the elected Myanmar government of Aung San Suu Kyi in a coup in February 2021.

She fled to Malaysia from Mandalay to escape growing violence against Muslims. Thuzar and her family members hold refugee cards issued by UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency.

"Her sudden disappearance demonstrates that the lives of (Myanmar) human rights campaigners (and) womens rights campaigners are not safe, not only in Myanmar but also in foreign countries," said Aung Kyaw Moe, Myanmar's shadow National Unity Government's spokesman. He urged Myanmar's neighbors to provide adequate security for exiled rights activists.

Updated with reaction.

BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated news service.
Nguyen Hoang Nam is accused of Facebook posts that oppose the government and undermine religious unity.

Nguyen Hoang Nam, a member of the dissident Hoa Hao Buddhist Church, is seen in this 2017 photo.

A former religious prisoner of conscience in Vietnam has been arrested on an anti-state charge related to his social media activity, just two years after his release from prison following a conviction for disturbing public order, local media reported.

Nguyen Hoang Nam, a member of a dissident Hoa Hao Buddhist Church in An Giang province, is accused of posting documents, images, videos and live broadcasts that oppose authorities and undermine the policy of religious and national unity, according to Vietnamese state media, which cited government investigators.

Nam is charged under Article 117 of Vietnams penal code, a vaguely written set of rules that rights groups say is Hanois favorite tool for silencing dissenting bloggers and journalists.

The churchs deputy chief secretary, Nguyen Ngoc Tan, told Radio Free Asia that he was shocked by the arrest.

I dont see those videos (against the government), but only videos of Hoang Nam doing social charity work. he said, referring to Nams Facebook account.

Nam and his family cook free meals for poor people about twice a month, according to church member Vo Van Buu, who added that Nam also sometimes reposts articles on Facebook written by people who criticize the government.

Previous arrest

Nam was arrested in 2017 on the disturbing public order charge while traveling to the house of another church member to join in worship services, sources told RFA at the time. Nam was sentenced the following year to a four-year prison term and was released in 2021.

Vietnams government officially recognizes the Hoa Hao religion, which has some 2 million followers across the country, but imposes harsh controls on dissenting Hoa Hao groups  including the sect in An Giang  that do not follow the state-sanctioned branch.

Rights groups say that An Giang authorities routinely harass followers of the unapproved groups, prohibiting public readings of the Hoa Hao founders writings and discouraging worshipers from visiting Hoa Hao pagodas in An Giang and other provinces.

Online newspaper Vietnam Plus reported on Friday that An Giang police coordinated with the Ministry of Public Securitys Department of Cybersecurity and High-Tech Crime Prevention and Control in arresting Nam in Chau Doc city on July 24.

Authorities searched his home and seized seven mobile phones, two USB sticks, a laptop, 307 pages of documents and 10 videos allegedly containing propaganda against the Party and the state, Vietnam Plus reported.

The arrest is another attack by the Vietnamese government on freedom of speech, as well as freedom of religion and belief, according to Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch.

By arresting Nguyen Hoang Nam, the government shows how it is doubling down on its campaign to silence outspoken advocates of religious freedom, he told RFA in an email. The previous accusations and prosecution of Nguyen Hoang Nam are bogus, and so is this latest arrest.

Edited by Matt Reed.
Our reporter made contact with a Wagner mercenary via a dating app. She did not reveal that she was a journalist. The fighter spoke about the recent Wagner mutiny in Russia, being on "vacation" in Belarus, and "trophy cars" stolen in Ukraine.
The United Nations warned Friday of a dramatic rise in West Bank settler attacks on Palestinian people and property, with nearly 600 such incidents registered so far this year.

The UN humanitarian agency OCHA said it had recorded 591 settler-related incidents in the occupied territory in the first six months of 2023 resulting in Palestinian casualties, property damage, or both.

"That's an average of 99 incidents every month, and a 39-percent-increase compared with the monthly average of the whole of 2022, which is 71," spokesman Jens Laerke told reporters in Geneva.

And that comes after "the number of such incidents in 2022 was already the highest since we started recording them in 2006," he said.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since the Six-Day War of 1967.

Excluding annexed east Jerusalem, the territory is home to nearly three million Palestinians and around 490,000 Israelis who live in settlements considered illegal under international law.

Since early last year, the territory has seen a string of attacks by Palestinians on Israeli targets, as well as violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinian communities.

Laerke warned that Palestinian Bedouin and other herding communities were particularly vulnerable.

Since the start of 2022, he said that OCHA had documented the displacement of at least 399 people from seven Palestinian herding communities amid settler violence.

Three of those communities had been completely emptied out, while there were only a few families remaining in the others, he said.

"The reason for leaving cited most often is settler activities, including violence and settlement expansion which results in the loss of the herders' access to grazing land," Laerke said.

The threat of demolition of homes and other property by Israeli authorities was also cited, he said.

While some of the displaced communities managed to stay together, many are dispersed.

OCHA has launched an urgent assessment of the humanitarian needs of sixty Palestinian herding communities directly affected by the worsening situation, Laerke said.

He stressed that "Israeli settlements are illegal under international law".

"They deepen humanitarian needs due to their impact on livelihoods, food security and access to essential services."

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MEDJUGORJE, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- In the darkness before dawn on August 4, Viktoria Marynina and more than 100 other Ukrainians from the city of Ivano-Frankivsk gathered at the base of Medjugorje's Cross Mountain, preparing to pray for an end to war in their country.

The group of Catholics, which included several children, clambered for more than an hour over stones worn smooth by millions of pilgrims' feet to get to the historic mountaintop cross in time for sunrise. The arduous journey was worth it, Marynina said afterward, "because we felt God's grace up there," adding, "We believe he can help."

The Ukrainians are some of the many pilgrims heading for the once-obscure Bosnian town of Medjugorje this summer after Pope Francis officially authorized pilgrimages there.

The rise of Medjugorje from an obscure Yugoslav village producing tobacco and wine to one of the world's foremost Christian pilgrimage sites began in June 1981, when a group of children claimed to have seen several apparitions of the Virgin Mary on a rocky hillside above their village. As news of the claimed sightings spread, pilgrims began to arrive. First from elsewhere in Yugoslavia, then from abroad.

Amna Jusufovic, a tour guide from nearby Mostar, recalls the pull the site was beginning to have within a few years of the claimed apparitions. In 1992, with war raging in Mostar, she passed through Medjugorje to attempt to reach her besieged, elderly parents. "I'm here in Medjugorje, then I reach [Mostar] and everything is in flames. It's just a half-hour away!" she said. "You would never think pilgrims would be in Medjugorje then, but there were many." She says most wartime pilgrims came from Italy.

As Medjugorje began to be transformed by growing numbers of religious travelers coming from around the world in the 2010s, the Vatican sent out research teams to investigate the reported sightings. Pope Francis was initially dismissive of the alleged appearance of Mary, saying in 2017 that the claims were "not worth much."

Then the pope apparently softened his stance. In May 2019, he officially authorized Catholic organizations to arrange pilgrimages there, while saying that the claimed apparitions needed further investigation. But just as Medjugorje was gearing up for a massive influx of Catholic pilgrims, the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

Ivo, a waiter in the popular Pivnica Medugorje restaurant, says the pandemic hit the town especially hard given its almost total reliance on tourism. "We seat 500 people in our restaurant and almost no one was coming, you can imagine," he said. "Usually, we have 10 waiters on staff here. That was cut down to three. It was really bad." Today, he says, the town is busier than it has ever been.

Mario Vasilj, the head of Medjugorje's tourism association, told RFE/RL that precise numbers of tourists to the town are difficult to know since many people stop in only briefly en route elsewhere in the Balkans. But he says a youth festival this year attracted some 30,000 pilgrims, more people than the town, with its 20,000 beds, is capable of handling.
A Ukrainian naval drone carrying 450 kilograms of TNT struck the Russian Navy base at Novorossiisk in the Black Sea, causing extensive damage to a Russian warship docked there, sources in the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) told RFE/RL.

Russia's Defense Ministry said earlier on August 4 that its forces had repelled two Ukrainian naval drone attacks on the Novorossiisk base, while Krasnodar regional Governor Veniamin Kondratyev told the RIA Novosti news agency that no casualties or damage were reported from the attacks.



But SBU sources shared a video with RFE/RL purportedly showing the Russian landing ship Olenegorsky Gornyak from the perspective of a camera mounted on a naval drone that ceases its video feed at the moment of the alleged impact. The sources said some 100 crew were on board the ship.

"The special operation was carried out together with the navy," one of the sources told RFE/RL.



"As a result, the Olenegorsky Gornyak incurred a large hole and is currently unable to perform its combat tasks. Therefore, all the Russians' statements about the 'repulsed attack' are fake," the source said.



The claim could not be independently verified.



Some posts on social media -- which could not be verified -- showed a ship reported to be the Olenegorsky Gornyak listing severely while being towed.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he had received a report from the head of the SBU but would not comment on its contents.



"I will only say that we are all grateful to the Security Service of Ukraine for returning the war to the aggressor state. What you bring to the world is what you end up with," Zelenskiy said in his evening address.



The attack has reportedly prompted a temporary halting of ship movements in Novorossiisk, one of Russia's main commercial ports.

The Caspian Pipeline Consortium that operates an oil terminal in Novorossiisk said the port authorities have temporarily halted all ship movement, although installations were not damaged and oil loading continued.



The Defense Ministry also said that it had shot down 13 drones over Crimea but that no damage or casualties were reported.

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's full-scale invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war in Ukraine, click here.

However, social media posts said that an oil depot in the port of Feodosia caught fire and triggered some explosions.



Following the Novorossiisk and Crimea drone attacks, an air-raid alert was declared for the entire territory of Ukraine around noon.

Attacks in and around the Black Sea have increased since Russia refused to extend a Turkish- and UN-sponsored deal that allowed the shipping of Ukrainian grain by sea.



Russia earlier in the week attacked Izmayil, one of the two Danube ports used by Ukraine to export grain. Izmayil is located just 15 kilometers from the Romanian port of Tulcea.

British intelligence said on August 4 that Russia appears to prefer striking targets close to NATO territory with Iranian-made drones rathar than cruise missiles to avoid the risk of military confrontation with the alliance.



"There is a realistic possibility that Russia is using OWA UAVs (drones) to strike this area in the belief they are less likely to risk escalation than cruise missiles: Russia likely considers them as acceptably accurate, and they have much smaller warheads than cruise missiles," the British Ministry of Defense said in its daily intelligence report.



Zelenskiy said that "very cruel" fighting was under way on the battlefields in the east.



"The occupiers are trying to stop our guys with all their might. The attacks are very cruel," Zelenskiy said, adding that "it is hard everywhere. But whatever the enemy does, it is the Ukrainian force that dominates."



The Ukrainian General Staff on August 4 recorded about 40 battles at the front over the past day, with Ukrainian forces continuing their offensive in the south.

Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said on August 4 that Ukrainian forces in southern Ukraine had already broken through the first line of defense in some places and moved to the intermediate line.



"And there they face the fact that the enemy has actually built engineering fortifications on...key commanding heights. This, of course, complicates the movement of our troops and combat operations," she said.



Malyar also noted that Russia was shifting reserves both to the south and east, saying these are "mostly professional soldiers."

Pavlo Kyrylenko, the governor of Donetsk, said on August 4 that Russian shelling killed two civilians over the past 24 hours in the region.

Serhiy Lysak, the governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, said early on August 4 that two civilians were wounded by intense Russian shelling overnight.

Meanwhile, the bodies of 44 Ukrainian soldiers were returned to Ukraine, the Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories reported on August 4. The bodies were repatriated from Russian-occupied territories, the ministry said in a statement.

The bodies will be identified and then handed over to relatives for burial, it said. Last month, the ministry announced the return of 62 bodies of Ukrainian soldiers.

With reporting by Reuters and AFP
YEREVAN -- The ethnic Armenian leader of the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, Arayik Harutiunian, has issued an urgent appeal to the international community, asking for immediate action to lift a de facto blockade imposed by Azerbaijan and prevent what he called "the genocide of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh."

Both Armenia and separatist authorities in the enclave have said that Azerbaijan has blockaded Nagorno-Karabakh since December, resulting in shortages of food, medicine, and energy.

Yerevan and international aid groups have warned that a dire humanitarian situation has been unfolding in the breakaway Azerbaijani region with convoys of food and medicine blocked.



"With this urgent address I am signaling that right now the people of the Republic of Artsakh" -- ethnic Armenians' name for Nagorno-Karabakh -- "are being subjected to genocide and face a real threat of destruction and deprivation of their homeland," Harutiunian said in a video address published late on August 8.

WATCH: Armenian police detained more than a dozen protesters outside a government building in Yerevan on August 8 after they demanded authorities take steps to unblock the Lachin Corridor.



He said a humanitarian crisis had been created by what he described as a 240-day blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh, charging that "in a situation like this manifestation of inaction or indifference is nothing but acquiescence in the crime of genocide."



Tensions escalated after Azerbaijan last month completely suspended traffic through the checkpoint pending an investigation after it said "various types of contraband" had been discovered in the Red Cross vehicles coming from Armenia. Access was previously blocked amid a series of protests and accusations emerging from Baku.



Azerbaijan says it can only allow supplies to reach Nagorno-Karabakh over a road from Agdam, a town controlled by Azerbaijan in the east of the region.



Ethnic Armenian authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh reject that offer, saying Azerbaijan's blockade is a violation of the Moscow-brokered 2020 cease-fire agreement that placed the 5-kilometer-wide strip of land under the control of Russian peacekeepers.

A delegation led by staff members of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee on August 8 visited the site in Armenia's southern Syunik Province where a 19-truck convoy of humanitarian aid has been stranded for two weeks.



"The international community must take effective personal and collective steps in order not to allow Azerbaijan to fill the history of mankind with another page of mass famine and genocide," said Harutiunian, the heavily ethnic Armenian region's de facto president.



He said Stepanakert called on Armenia to "immediately submit to the UN Security Council for discussion the humanitarian disaster that has emerged as a result of Azerbaijan's blockade of the Lachin Corridor and the illegal blockade" of Nagorno-Karabakh, and he urged Yerevan to be careful in its public statements and assessments of the situation.



He urged UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres "to show moral and political responsibility and leadership, involving the entire UN system" on the issue.



Baku routinely brushes aside accusations of ethnic cleansing against Karabakh Armenians.



In 2020, Azerbaijan regained control of territories held by ethnic Armenian forces outside the borders of Nagorno-Karabakh as well as a chunk of the former autonomous oblast itself.



Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has repeatedly warned the local population to integrate into Azerbaijan or leave.



The United States and the European Union have urged Azerbaijan to allow humanitarian supplies to reach Nagorno-Karabakh via the Lachin Corridor.



A group of UN experts issued a statement on August 7, expressing alarm over the ongoing blockade of the Lachin Corridor by Azerbaijan, which they said had led to a dire humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh.



"By lifting the blockade, the [Azerbaijani] authorities can alleviate the suffering of thousands of people in Nagorno-Karabakh and allow for the unimpeded flow of humanitarian assistance to the civilian population," the experts said. "It is essential to ensure the safety, dignity, and well-being of all individuals during this critical time."



They also called on Russian peacekeeping forces deployed in the region to protect the corridor under the terms of the cease-fire agreement.



Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry criticized the UN experts for what it described as their biased statement that it claimed had been influenced by "Armenia's manipulations."
I'm Steve Gutterman, the editor of RFE/RL's Russia/Ukraine/Belarus Desk.

Welcome to The Week In Russia, in which I dissect the key developments in Russian politics and society over the previous week and look at what's ahead. To receive The Week In Russia newsletter in your inbox, click here. Russian President Vladimir Putin says hes not against negotiations for peace in Ukraine. Analysts say that, despite setbacks in the more than 17 months since he launched Russias large-scale invasion, he is still bent on destroying and subordinating that country and determined to redraw the world map.

Here are some of the key developments in Russia over the past week and some of the takeaways going forward.

'Fatal Mistakes'

Headlines can be misleading, miss the point, or highlight a remark that -- while it may arguably be technically accurate -- skews the relevance of what was said.

Example: After Putin met with African leaders at a summit in St. Petersburg last week, several news stories appeared under headlines citing Putin as saying that Russia does not oppose holding peace talks with Ukraine.

Putin can say what he wants, but there are so many caveats that the statement itself is almost meaningless.

For one thing, Putin immediately blamed Ukraine for the absence of peace talks, also saying that calls for a cease-fire made little sense amid a Ukrainian counteroffensive.

We cant cease fire when we are under attack, he said, neglecting to mention that Kyiv would not be mounting a counteroffensive if it were not under attack -- if Russia had not launched a large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

And then theres this detail: Putin may not have mentioned it specifically in his comments to media outlets on July 29, but he and other Russian officials have repeatedly said that Ukraine and other participants in any negotiations on the war in Ukraine would have to accept the new realities.

That term is shorthand for Kremlin claims that do not reflect reality: Last September, Putin asserted that Ukraines Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhya, and Kherson regions are now part of Russia. In fact, Russian forces do not hold any of those regions in their entirety, and the claim is based on little or nothing beyond so-called referendums deemed illegitimate by most of the world.

Based on those statements, regardless of Ukraines position and whats happening on the long front line, Russia has strongly suggested that it is unwilling to negotiate without a guarantee that it would end up with even more Ukrainian territory than it currently controls.

Meanwhile, theres a broader issue, and a more far-reaching one: The widespread suspicion that Putin still wants more than those regions -- that despite a series of setbacks, starting with Russian forces failure to take Kyiv and push President Volodymyr Zelenskiy from power in the first weeks of the invasion, he is still determined to seize Ukraine, subjugate it, or both.

Pointing to factors including legislation adopted last week to raise the maximum age for mandatory military service for men to 30 from 27, analyst Alexander Gabuev wrote that, Far from seeking an off-ramp from his disastrous war in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin is preparing for an even bigger war.

Putin has made plenty of fatal mistakes, Gabuev, who is director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin, wrote in The Financial Times. But as long as he is in charge, Moscow will dedicate its still vast resources to achieving his obsession with destroying and subordinating Ukraine.

'Powerful Lessons'

Putin prefaced the full-scale invasion by repeatedly stating or suggesting that Ukraine has no right to exist unless it is closely tied to Russia.

In remarks since the invasion, he has said more of the same, giving no indication that his goals -- which go beyond Ukraine -- have changed.

Putins mission is to redraw the world map with the borders that he and his ideologists call historical Russia, Andrei Kolesnikov, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, wrote in Novaya Gazeta Europe.

No wonder Kyiv is wary of negotiations -- and might remain so if Putins rule were to come to an end.

Powerful lessons from Ukraines own past, as well as its neighbors history and present, have taught Ukrainians that Moscow cant be trusted, Andreas Umland, an analyst at the Stockholm Center for Eastern European Studies at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs, wrote in Politico. And according to their experience and comparative analysis, if the Russian state exists in its current form, it will not engage in sincere negotiations, or sign a peace deal in good faith.

Of course, its impossible to say for sure how a country will act in the future, even the very near future. But in the present, since the full-bore invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, there have been plenty of signs that Putin is not ready to scale down his goals.

For one thing, when it comes to the parts of Ukraine that it does currently control, Russia is trying to turn what it calls the new realities into actual realities  with devastating consequences for the Ukrainians who have not fled or been killed.

In his Novaya Gazeta Europe article, Kolesnikov wrote that in Putins Russia, the Soviet-era state ideology of Marxism-Leninism has been replaced by so-called traditional values and a glorious, mythologized history of Russia.

Historical politics is also acquiring a practical political application -- it is becoming an instrument for the rule of the country, he wrote.

And if there are few signs that Putin is willing to give up his most aggressive goals when it comes to Ukraine, there may be even fewer indications that the state is preparing to let up on its clampdown on all forms of dissent.

That impression may be reinforced by the verdict and sentence that is to be handed down to Putins most prominent foe, Aleksei Navalny, at a hearing scheduled to start on August 4, wrapping up a trial on extremism and other charges that he and supporters dismiss as politically motivated and absurd.

Navalny is already serving prison sentences of nine years and 2 1/2 years on charges that he also rejects, and a conviction is a foregone conclusion in a country where the acquittal rate is well below 1 percent.

A 'Stalinist' Sentence

Last month, in a trial held behind closed doors, the state prosecutor asked the court to sentence Navalny to another 20 years in prison.

Analyst Kolesnikov wrote that while post-Soviet Russia has ditched Marx and Lenin, Putin has increasingly turned to narratives from the ideological arsenal of the Stalin era -- such as the claim that Russian invasions of other countries are not attacks but missions of liberation.

In a comment on the eve of the verdict hearing, Navalny also made reference to the Soviet dictator and his terror-filled times, saying he expects a Stalinist sentence -- a long one, that is.

In another prominent case that has served as a sign of the times, an appeals court upheld the guilty verdict and 25-year prison sentence against Kremlin opponent Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was convicted of treason and other crimes in a trial he and his supporters say was politically motivated punishment for his criticism of Putin and the war on Ukraine.

The still-spiraling state clampdown has also claimed many lesser-known critics of the war.

On August 3, a court convicted a 19-year-old man, Danil Berdyugin, of treason and sentenced him to six years in prison. Berdyugin had taken part in anti-war protests in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk and signed several petitions demanding that Russia halt its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

That's it from me this week. The next edition of The Week In Russia will appear on August 18.

If you want to know more, catch up on my podcast The Week Ahead In Russia, out every Monday, here on our site or wherever you get your podcasts (Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts).

Yours,

Steve Gutterman
Head of the Press Service Department of Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry, Aykhan Hajizada, informed journalists from the United States about the situation in the region, Azernews reports, a tweet by Aykhan Hajizada.

The tweet reads that glad to meet in Azerbaijan with a group of journalists and media representatives from the United States, including the members of the UN Correspondents Association, accredited UN. We had an interactive discussion on the current state of affairs in and around our region.
Lebanon marked three years since one of history's biggest non-nuclear explosions rocked Beirut with hundreds of protesters marching alongside victims' families Friday to demand long-awaited justice.

Nobody has been held to account for the tragedy as political and legal pressures impede the investigation.

On August 4, 2020, the massive blast at Beirut port destroyed swathes of the Lebanese capital, killing more than 220 people and injuring at least 6,500.

Authorities said the disaster was triggered by a fire in a warehouse where a vast stockpile of ammonium nitrate fertiliser had been haphazardly stored for years.

Three years on, the probe is virtually at a standstill, leaving survivors still yearning for answers.

Protesters, many of them wearing black and carrying photographs of the victims, marched towards the port shouting slogans including: "We will not forget".

"Our pain inspires our persistence to search for the truth," said protester Tania Daou-Alam, 54, who lost her husband in the explosion.

Lack of justice "is the biggest example of rampant corruption in Lebanon, and we can no longer bear it," she said.

The blast struck amid an economic collapse which the World Bank has dubbed one of the worst in recent history and which is widely blamed on a governing elite accused of corruption and mismanagement.

Some protesters waved a Lebanese flag covered in blood-like red paint while others carried an enormous flag covered in a written pledge to keep fighting for justice.

"I have the right to know why my fellow Lebanese were killed," said protester Jad Mattar, 42.

"It's like living on top of a volcano, not knowing were it will explode. We want safety," he added.

- 'We will get the truth' -

Since its early days, the probe into the explosion has faced a slew of political and legal challenges.

In December 2020, lead investigator Fadi Sawan charged former prime minister Hassan Diab and three ex-ministers with negligence.

But as political pressure mounted, Sawan was removed from the case.

His successor, Tarek Bitar, unsuccessfully asked lawmakers to lift parliamentary immunity for MPs who were formerly cabinet ministers.

The powerful Iran-backed Hezbollah group has launched a campaign against Bitar, accusing him of bias and demanding his dismissal.

The interior ministry has refused to execute arrest warrants which the lead investigator has issued.

In December 2021, Bitar suspended his probe after a barrage of lawsuits, mainly from politicians he had summoned on charges of negligence.

But in a surprise move this January, Bitar resumed investigations after a 13-month hiatus, charging eight new suspects including high-level security officials and Lebanon's top prosecutor, Ghassan Oueidat.

Oueidat then charged Bitar with insubordination and "usurping power", and ordered the release of all those detained over the blast.

Bitar has refused to step aside, but has not set foot inside Beirut's justice palace for months.

"Work (on the investigation) is ongoing," said a legal expert with knowledge of the case, requesting anonymity due to its sensitivity.

Bitar is determined to keep his promise to deliver justice for victims' families, the expert added.

Rima al-Zahed, whose brother was killed in the explosion, said: "The judiciary is shackled, justice is out of reach and the truth is shrouded.

But, "the truth does not die so long as there is someone to demand it," she added. "We believe that we will get the truth."

- Accountability -

French President Emmanuel Macron, told Lebanese: "I am thinking of you.

"Lebanon was not alone then, and it isn't alone now. You can count on France," he posted.

Washington condemned the long delay in holding those reponsible to account.

"The lack of progress towards accountability is unacceptable and underscores the need for judicial reform and greater respect for the rule of law in Lebanon," said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.

On Thursday, 300 individuals and organisations, including Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International, renewed a call for the United Nations to establish a fact-finding mission -- a demand Lebanese officials have repeatedly rejected.

"If those responsible are not held accountable, it will put the country on a trajectory that allows this kind of crime to be repeated," HRW's Lama Fakih told AFP at the protest.

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7 In this photo from 2016, Korac displays a golden amulet that was discovered at the ancient city.



Excavations at Viminacium have been going on since 1882. However, archaeologists estimate they have only scoured 5 percent of the site, which they say is 450 hectares (bigger than New York's Central Park) and unusual in not being buried under a modern city.
The latest reported naval drone attack in the Black Sea is not the first time that Ukraine has allegedly deployed such weapons. A naval expert told Current Time how Ukraine appeared to be using domestically produced naval drones to strike Russian ships in the Black Sea.
A Russian court on Friday sentenced jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny to 19 additional years behind bars on extremism charges, his spokesperson said.

The heavy sentence against Navalny, who had mobilised massive protests, is the latest in a string of lawsuits against high-profile activists and ordinary Russians who have protested Russia's intervention in Ukraine.

Germany immediately called the ruling "pure injustice", the EU's chief slammed the verdict as "unacceptable", and the UN rights chief called on Russia to release Navalny "immediately".

"Alexei Navalny was sentenced to 19 years at a maximum security penal colony," spokesperson Kira Yarmysh said in a statement on social media.

AFP journalists watching the court session in a press centre at Navalny's prison said the 47-year-old smiled as the judge read the verdict and hugged another defendant before the grainy transmission cut.

A masked law enforcement officer in grey camouflage gear and flak jacket stood in front of the audience room.

The trial has been held behind closed doors at the IK-6 penal colony, a maximum-security prison some 250 kilometres (155 miles) east of Moscow, where Navalny is jailed.

"Thank you to everyone who came" his team said on Telegram, posting footage of two dozen people, seemingly outside the court.

Navalny is already serving a nine-year sentence in a maximum-security prison for "embezzlement", a charge that his supporters say was trumped up in retaliation for challenging President Vladimir Putin.

This is the first formally political case against the opposition leader, his team has said.

'Trying to intimidate'



Navalny had said he expected the court to hand him a lengthy, "Stalinist" prison sentence and called on his supporters to resist Putin's rule in a statement Thursday.

"Please consider and realise that by jailing hundreds, Putin is trying to intimidate millions," he said.

Navalny has built a huge following on social media, where he has posted videos exposing alleged corruption among Russia's elite and mobilised massive anti-government protests.

Prosecutors said that Navalny created an organisation that undermined public security by carrying out "extremist activities".

His Anti-Corruption Foundation, that investigates graft among Russian officials, was banned for extremism in 2021.

Most of his close allies have fled the country.

Since launching full-scale hostilities against Ukraine last year, Russia has further cracked down on dissenting voices, pushing most of the country's beleaguered opposition movement abroad.

Navalny's last days before the verdict were spent in a punishment cell where he has been regularly sent over minor infringements of prison rules, according to his team.

In all, he has spent almost 200 days in the cell, according to his team, which has repeatedly accused prison authorities of harassing him.

He was arrested in 2021 after arriving in Moscow from Germany, where he had been recovering from a poisoning attack he blames on the Kremlin, sparking international condemnations.

Severe penal colony



Navalny said prison officials forced him to share a cell with a sickly inmate and subjected him and other prisoners to "torture by Putin", making them listen to the Russian president's speeches.

He has also complained of health problems and major weight loss since being jailed in a strict regime penal colony.

The judge said he would serve his additional sentence in an even more restrictive special prison.

In April, Navalny said he could be separately judged over terrorism charges and face life in prison.

His campaign offices around the country were declared extremist organisations in 2021 by authorities, putting employees, volunteers and supporters at greater risk of prosecution.

Over the summer two heads of regional offices, Lilia Chanysheva and Vadim Ostanin, were sentenced to seven-and-a-half and nine years respectively on extremism charges.

Thousands of Russians have been detained for protesting against Moscow's offensive in Ukraine, and some of the highest-profile activists including Vladimir Kara-Murza and Ilya Yashin are now behind bars.

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CARE home residents are set to benefit from bespoke musical performances delivered by the latest interactive technology thanks to a new partnership.

The 500 sponsorship deal between Rotherham-based Yorkshire Windows and Lost Chord UK will see selected residents at Richmond Care Home in Sprotbrough who are no longer able to leave their beds enjoy a series of interactive iPad/tablet/laptop sessions.

Professional musicians of the Maltby-based charity provide a range of interactive musical activities in care homes, day centres and other venues across the region and nationally.

The new deal will enable them to provide bespoke online individual performances tailored to the needs of the four selected residents who all have dementia and are receiving palliative care.

Lost Chord UK chief executive Clare Langan said: This is a new concept for us and one that allows us to take our musicians right to a persons bedside and we believe it is a service that will re-open a window on the world to them.

Music has been proved to unlock memories in a way nothing else can and over the ten weeks of the sessions we will be monitoring how the residents respond and progress.

She added: We are confident that, as a result, we will be unrolling these sessions to many more care homes across the region.

Yorkshire Windows managing director Ian Chester said: As a Yorkshire business, we are very keen to support Yorkshire charities and Lost Chord UK is doing brilliant work in an area that touches so many lives.
A NEW play about a Victorian doctor who could have been Britains first serial killer is coming to the Civic  and giving audiences the chance to turn detective.

True-crime murder mystery Whats Your Poison? is the first play by journalist and author Steve Orme.

It features 19th-century medic William Palmer, who allegedly poisoned several people, including his wife, his alcoholic brother, his mother-in-law and four of his children.

Playwright Orme said: Ive been captivated by this story for more than a decade.

Theres no doubt he was a rogue, a gambler and a womaniser who defrauded his mother out of thousands of pounds - but was he a serial killer?

The play is seen from two perspective - the atmospheric Victorian era with the doctor, his family and his trial, and a contemporary viewpoint with a young couple eager to explore whether Palmers conviction for murdering a close friend was a miscarriage of justice.

I used to work in television and ten years ago I produced a trailer for a documentary, Orme added.

I turned this into a stage play and sent it to Rumpus Theatre Company whose work I was familiar with.

They lapped it up and decided to mount a tour.

Director John Goodrum said: It fitted in with my fascination for everything to do with Victorian gothic horror, both fictional and factual.

Its certainly in the Rumpus tradition and has a delicious final twist.

Orme, who is now working on his second crime novel, explained he had become intrigued with the story of the man known as the Prince of Poisoners, when a friend alerted him to it.

A wax effigy of Palmer was displayed in the Chamber of Horrors at Madame Tussauds for more than 120 years, he said.

When Palmer was on trial Charles Dickens described him as the greatest villain that ever stood in the Old Bailey.

But where is the evidence? Palmer was hanged for the murder of John Parsons Cook, who was supposed to have been poisoned with strychnine. But at the post-mortem examination, no strychnine was found in his body.

Audiences can finally make up their own minds as to how many people William Palmer poisoned  if any.

Whats Your Poison will be at Rotherham Civic Theatre on October 25.
THE founding director of a literacy charity said she was overwhelmed to be appointed to the prestigious post of Deputy Lord Lieutenant of South Yorkshire.

Deborah Bullivant, chief executive officer and founding director of Rotherham-based Grimm & Co, is one of five new deputies line up to work under His Majestys Lord Lieutenant, Prof Dame Hilary Chapman, who was appointed to the role in November 2021.

She said: "Im so delighted to have joined the team of Deputy Lord Lieutenants, as one of five newly appointed across South Yorkshire.

I was overwhelmed to be asked to join this wonderful group of people, and I am so excited to have been given this opportunity to support HM Lord-Lieutenant Prof Dame Hilary Chapman in celebrating and recognising the good work that takes place across our region.

Deborah started her career in community education, leading to headteacher positions, before going on to national educational leadership and policy advisory roles.

Specialising in literacy, she champions arts-based learning approaches to narrow the gap for marginalised children, young people, and adults.

Last year, Deborah achieved a doctorate in education from the University of Sheffield and was awarded an MBE in the Queens Jubilee Honours List for her dedication to children and young peoples literacy in Rotherham.

Lord-Lieutenants are the Kings representative in the county and in her role as Deputy Lieutenant, Deborah will support and deputise for Prof Dame Chapman.

Duties may include attending royal visits to the county, representing the Lieutenancy at ceremonial events and ceremonies and any other duties that the HM Lord-Lieutenant may ask to be undertaken on her behalf.

She will undertake the voluntary role in addition to her work at Grimm & Co, which is currently in the final phase of a two-year building project to create a new permanent home on Ship Hill.

The town centre building is on its way to being transformed into a new enhanced and accessible offering and is expected to open in the autumn.

Also picked for the role is Lt-Col Mac McPherson, a former army officer and Rotherham Hospital public governor.

The chairman and proud supporter of Rotherham Military Community Veterans Centre, Mac served in several operational theatres.

He was an Arctic and Mountain Warfare Instructor, the youngest Regimental Sergeant Major in the army and served in the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst as a chief instructor.

Since leaving the army he has been a director and trustee in a number of charitable organisations, with an emphasis on veterans groups and those in and around the criminal justice system.

He was awarded an MBE in 2009 birthday honours list and was the High Sheriff of South Yorkshire in 2022/23.

Sheffield chartered account Bookey Oshin, who has worked closely with Sheffield Theatres is also among the newcomers, as are Mark Storey, chief Executive officer of Sheffield-based charity Sheffield Churches Council for Community Care, and Reverend Canon Keith Farrow, Vicar of West Barnsley

Prof Dame Chapman said described the five new Deputy Lieutenants as outstanding servants of South Yorkshire.

In their different fields they have contributed to making life better for the rest of us and, as Deputy Lieutenants, will continue to do so.
A SCHOOL had its uplifting atmosphere praised during a visit from a leading figure in the world of education.

Teachers at Brookfield Junior Academy welcomed Rebecca Underwood to the school's early years foundation stage unit to discuss ideas for adapting the provision throughout the year, including enhancing the outdoor area further.

The popular blogger, known online as Mrs Underwood, has been a teacher, assistant head teacher and co-head teacher throughout her career and is currently head of professional learning for The Avanti Schools Trust UK.

Speaking after the visit, she described it as an amazing day" and praised the team's passion and commitment to creating a nurturing environment as truly inspirational.

The setting was simply wonderful and they are all geared up for September, the blogger said.

I'm grateful for the opportunity to visit and be part of such a positive and uplifting atmosphere.

Lisa Crook, EYFS, KS1, DSL & early reading lead at the school in Swinton, said: Our principal Daisy Dunning invited Rebecca in to work with the EYFS team after networking over Facebook with myself for some time.

All staff enjoyed meeting Mrs Underwood.

I felt star-struck as Ive admired her work for many years!

It was an absolute pleasure to hear how inspired she was by the work we had done at Brookfield.

Mrs Underwood said that the provision, planning and our team work was inspirational.

She is due to return in October and we look forward to welcoming her back to meet our children next term.
Ludhiana Petrol Pump

Bold Robbery at Ludhiana Petrol Pump: Miscreants Steal Rs 22 Lakh from Range Rover During Puncture Repair

LUDHIANA: In a daring daylight heist, miscreants managed to steal a bag containing Rs 22 lakh from a Range Rover parked at the Shivalik petrol pump near South City. The incident took place when the driver had stopped to get a puncture fixed. While the driver's attention was on the puncture, an opportunistic thief snatched the bag from the rear of the vehicle and quickly made his escape with the help of an accomplice on a motorcycle.

The victim, identified as Bahadur Singh, narrated the incident, stating that he had dropped off the car's owner, Karan Arora, at his real estate office. Upon parking the vehicle, he noticed that one of the tires had been punctured with a needle. Concerned about the safety of the vehicle, Singh immediately headed to the nearby petrol pump to get the puncture repaired.

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While Singh was engrossed in discussing the puncture with the mechanic, an unidentified miscreant slyly swiped the bag containing a substantial amount of Rs 22 lakh from the back of the Range Rover. The thief then made a swift getaway with his partner, who was waiting on a motorcycle at a safe distance from the scene of the crime.

As soon as Singh discovered the theft, he promptly informed the owner, Karan Arora, about the unfortunate incident. Authorities were notified, and a team led by CIA-1, ADCP Shubham Aggarwal, and ACP Mandeep Singh quickly arrived at the petrol pump to assess the situation. The police are currently examining the CCTV footage from the vicinity to identify the culprits.


Singapore will on Friday release June figures for retail sales, highlighting a light day for Asia-Pacific economic activity.

Sales are expected to be flat on month and rise 2.7 percent on year after slipping 0.2 percent on month and adding 1.8 percent on year in May.

Japan will see June numbers for average cash earnings; in the previous month, earnings were up 2.5 percent on year.

Finally, the Reserve Bank of Australia is scheduled to release its regular monetary policy statement.

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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 World Health Organisation will soon announce that Egypt has become the first country to eliminate Hepatitis C.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) will soon officially certify Egypt as the first country to fully eradicate HCV.

The certificate, to be presented to Egypt in September, is considered the first granted to a country for eliminating the virus.

Egypt used to have the highest prevalence rate of the virus in the world.

According to Minister of Health and Population Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar, Egypt has developed a comprehensive plan where all bodies involved in screening, prevention and treatment of the illness were involved.

The ministry has set up around 6,000 units to examine more than 60 million people over only seven months. This is in addition to 200 medical units to treat those who were proven positive for HCV, Abdel-Ghaffar said.

During World Hepatitis Day on 28 July, Hossam Abdel-Ghaffar, the spokesman for the ministry, said that the presidential initiative 100 Million Healthy Lives formed the foundation for getting rid of HCV.

The campaign was launched under the initiative and after the screening of 62 million Egyptians, we treated more than five million people in less than five years, the minister noted.

He added that locally-produced drugs were used to treat patients, achieving a treatment rate of 98 per cent.

According to the spokesman, African nations benefited from Egypts progress as, in accordance with the presidential plan, Egypt agreed to provide medical care for one million Africans.

Additionally, Egypt took part in the global effort to eradicate HCV last year by helping to develop the first set of international standards for doing so.

For the second year in a row, Egypt recently sent 11 medical aid shipments to Uzbekistan in an effort to eradicate HCV.

The WHO has been providing technical assistance to the Ministry of Health and Population, Ahmed Al-Kurd, a hepatologist and expert on gastroenterology, noted. WHO has served as an independent verification agency, visiting screening locations across the country and conducting extensive patient surveys to ensure compliance with WHO guidelines and high-quality services.

Al-Kurdi pointed out that Egypt has the highest rate of Hepatitis C prevalence in the world.

The government has made significant efforts to strengthen hepatitis prevention since the early 1990s with programmes aimed at eliminating schistosomiasis, a parasite carried by water snails and which is mainly responsible for the disease, and to end the unhealthy practice of sharing or reusing needles and syringes resulting in the accidental transfer of infection.

It also focused on harm prevention activities and on increasing public awareness.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 3 August, 2023 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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Factory orders and construction Purchasing Managers' survey results from Germany are the top economic news due on Friday.

At 2.00 am ET, Destatis is scheduled to issue Germany's factory orders data for June. Orders are forecast to fall 1.5 percent on month, in contrast to the 6.4 percent increase in May.

At 2.45 am ET, France's statistical office INSEE publishes industrial production data. Economists expect production to drop 0.3 percent on a monthly basis in June, reversing a 1.2 percent gain in May.

At 3.00 am ET, Spain's INE publishes industrial output figures for June.

Half an hour later, S&P Global is scheduled to issue Germany's construction Purchasing Managers' survey data.

At 4.00 am ET, Italy's statistical office ISTAT is set to release industrial production figures for June. Economists forecast output to drop 0.4 percent on month after a 1.6 percent rise in May.

At 4.30 am ET, UK S&P/CIPS construction PMI survey data is due. The construction index is expected to drop to 48.0 in July from 48.9 in June.

At 5.00 am ET, Eurostat publishes euro area retail sales data for June. Economists expect sales to grow 0.2 percent on month after staying flat in May.

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The Minority Business Development Agency has announced the first awardees under the Capital Readiness Program. funded by the Treasury Department's State Small Business Credit Initiative, this will support small businesses applying for government small programs.

The CRP enables small businesses to access critical technical assistance, including by supporting incubators and accelerators that provide services to underserved businesses. The Treasury Department has increased its previously announced support for the CRP, to a total of $125 million in SSBCI funding.

In addition, the Treasury Department has announced the approval of the first awards under the SSBCI Technical Assistance Grant Program to 12 states, totaling more than $57 million. These awards will be used to provide legal, accounting, and financial advisory services to very small businesses and underserved small businesses applying for the SSBCI capital program and other government small business programs.

"The investments through the State Small Business Credit Initiative are a key part of the Biden-Harris Administration's efforts to fuel the small business boom by providing small businesses and entrepreneurs the resources they need to succeed," said Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo.

The expanded SSBCI includes funding for technical assistance to help small businesses apply for the SSBCI Capital Program and other government small business programs.

The California Office of the Small Business Advocate (CalOSBA) has been awarded $25.3 million. It will oversee regionally-based legal, accounting, and financial advisory services to help small businesses apply for support from state and/or federal small business programs, and will also help connect companies directly with its SSBCI-supported capital programs. The CalOSBA anticipates reaching 113,000 small businesses with these financial services and supporting 40,000 small business loans for underserved and very small businesses using the technical assistance award.

The Ohio Department of Development (ODD) will receive $5.2 million. It will connect underserved businesses to regional financial advisory, accounting, and/or legal services, as well as non-traditional financing sources like the state's SSBCI-funded capital programs. By the fourth year of the program, ODD's Minority Business Development Division (MBDD) anticipates reaching up to 360 businesses annually to provide these services for the remainder of the program.

The Nevada Governor's Office of Economic Development is approved for up to $2 million. It will work with the Nevada Small Business Development Center (Nevada SBDC) to provide training - including a 10-week bootcamp - and networking opportunities as well as one-on-one counseling to connect underserved and very small businesses directly with support for legal, accounting and financial advisory services.

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With Seltos getting thoroughly updated, Hyundai India is getting ready to launch a new Adventure Edition of Creta

Hyundai is currently leading the compact SUV space with its best-seller Creta. A tier above, Hyundai sells Alcazar which sells fairly well as opposed to its rivals. But pushing sales ahead of the festive season could prove beneficial for the brand and cash in with soaring sales.

To boost sales, Hyundai is taking a special edition route that has worked wonders for other manufacturers like Tata Motors. Hyundai already offers the Knight Edition with Creta. But a new special edition is inbound. Now, teased officially, say hello to Hyundai Adventure Edition with Creta and Alcazar.

Hyundai Adventure Edition  Both Creta & Alcazar?

Hyundai will launch Adventure Edition with both Creta and Alcazar. In the official teaser, Hyundai has only shown the essence of what to expect, rather than diving into specifics. There are three images shared by Hyundai on its social media handles.

One image shows an Adventure badge on its front right fender. The Adventure lettering sits on what looks like a faux air vent. A horizontal element extends from the Adventure badge and runs into the front door as well. Second image is that of the grill. We should get a fully blackened grille along with black Hyundai logo too.

Third image shows Alcazars 18 alloy wheels with a dark finish. Creta could get the same wheel too, considering Alcazar is basically a stretched Creta. There is a red brake caliper at the front. Same treatment with the rear brake caliper is likely too. There is a matte green shade which reminds me of Tatas Camo Edition.

Along with wheel arch claddings, side running board cladding is similar to stock Creta. But the running board now gets interesting brown or beige highlights. Also, there is extra cladding on doors that a stock car doesnt have. Think Renault Duster Adventure Editions additional side body cladding.

Creta Adventure AWD?

Chances of Creta and Alcazar getting AWD is close to zero and Adventure Edition is highly likely to be a styling exercise only. So, both Creta and Alcazar will remain identical to non Adventure Edition variants mechanically. Powertrains will remain the same too. Adventure Edition vehicles will sport Apollo Apterra tyres. Probably an HL series and not more off-road-worthy HT or AT types.

The 1.5L NA petrol with Creta and 1.5L turbo petrol with Alcazar will remain as is. Both vehicles get the same 1.5L diesel engine. Hyundai Adventure Edition will grace multiple trim levels and will command a slight premium over them. Launch should happen very soon.
With the facelift version, Tata Nexon will have more firepower to take on the likes of Brezza, Venue and Sonet

Ahead of its launch later this year, new details continue to emerge about Nexon facelift. Along with cosmetic touch-ups, Nexon facelift packs in a comprehensive range of premium equipment. This should fix complaints about Nexon lacking in features in comparison to other popular sub-4m SUVs.

With the updates, Nexon facelift should be able to maintain its dominance. The sub-4m SUV segment is highly competitive, with close fight between rivals. Nexon currently enjoys a market share of around 15%. It is possible that the facelift could drive this number higher.

Nexon facelift to have new trim names  Discontinue current names

Tata Motors is looking to simplify the trim nomenclature for Nexon facelift. As of now, Nexon trims have the usual code-style names such as XE, XM, XM+, XZ+, and XZ+ Lux. This tends to be a bit confusing, especially for new car buyers. Good news is that these will be discontinued soon. With the facelift version of Nexon, a more simplistic trim naming terminology will be used.

It can be something similar to Tata Punch that has trim levels of Pure, Adventure, Accomplished, Creative and Camo. Users can also choose from various custom packs such as Rhythm, Dazzle and iRA. Such trim names are more relatable and can establish a better emotional connect in comparison to the codified trim names.

At the time of launch, Nexon facelift will be offered in only the core trim levels. Special editions such as the Dark, Jet, Kaziranga and Red Dark will be launched in a phased manner. These will continue to be available with only the top-spec trims. Tatas focus on launching special editions of its SUVs has been hugely successful. Often, they contribute around 15% of the overall sales of the respective model.

Tata Nexon facelift new features revealed

New info reveals that Nexon facelift will have features such as a 360 camera with HD display, sequential turn indicators and front parking sensors. In sub-4m SUV segment, front parking sensors are currently available with only Mahindra XUV300. It is to note that upcoming XUV300 facelift is also working on some major transformations. It includes a panoramic sunroof, which will be a first-in-segment feature. In case of Nexon facelift, it is likely to continue with the existing single-pane sunroof.

Other updates for Nexon facelift include a new 10.25-inch touchscreen, borrowed from updated Harrier and Safari. The digital instrument console will also be a 10.25-inch unit. There will be a new 2-spoke steering wheel, featuring a backlit Tata logo in the centre. Safety kit will include 6-airbags as standard for all trims. Higher trims of Nexon facelift will have features such as ventilated seats, wireless charger, Tatas new patented touch-based HVAC control panel, LED DRL welcome signature and leatherette upholstery.

In an earlier sighting of Nexon facelift test mule, it was revealed that the SUV will be getting a new 7-speed DCT gearbox. This will be a major upgrade over the existing AMT unit. Nexon facelift is also expected to get a new 1.2-litre petrol motor that makes 125 PS and 225 Nm. The existing 1.2-litre unit makes 120 PS and 170 Nm.

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Al-Ahram Weekly reports on Bidens attempt to revive the grand bargain in his last few months as president.

The perceived cure-all for the Middle East is normalisation between Saudi Arabia and Israel, or so the US administration will have us believe. That alone would bring peace, prosperity, and security to the region.

In recent months, senior US officials from the State Department, the National Security Council, and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) visited the Middle East to explore the prospects for a grand bargain to normalise relations between the two countries.

Last week US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan held talks with the Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman and other senior Saudi officials in Jeddah to explore the possibility of diplomatic breakthroughs in the region. After the meetings, the White House said that Sullivan and the crown prince discussed bilateral and regional matters including initiatives to advance a common vision for a more peaceful, secure, prosperous, and stable Middle East region interconnected with the world.

Last June US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Saudi Arabia with the objective of promoting normalisation with Israel after declaring it a national security interest of the US. The exact details of that grand bargain remain unclear, but the New York Times reported that exploratory talks involved a US-Saudi security pact and normalising diplomatic relations in exchange for an Israeli pledge to stop settlement expansion in the occupied Palestinian territories and enter negotiations to improve the conditions of Palestinians.

Another facet of the grand bargain involves supporting Saudi ambitions to establish a peaceful nuclear programme under the supervision of the Atomic Energy Agency and providing Riyadh with advanced US weapons systems.

US President Joe Biden does not have many achievements to brag about before the US presidential elections in 2024, and any diplomatic breakthrough in the Middle East will be a great gain for him. But in contrast to the American enthusiasm for the idea of a grand bargain Saudi Arabia, Israel, the Palestinians, and other regional powers, including Iran have given the initiative a cautious, lukewarm welcome.

Biden would like to have a major foreign policy success. And in his view having a grand deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia would certainly help going into the elections in 2024. So I think there is a motivation to build on the Abraham Accords and to expand it. However, I think that there is resistance to doing this within the Middle East itself because what we are seeing now is an extremely vicious far-right Israel coalition that is building settlements faster than ever with record levels of settler violence, aided and abetted by the army. And this is not the right moment as far as most Arab states are concerned, Chris Doyle, the director of the London-based Council for Arab-British Understanding (Caabu), told Al-Ahram Weekly.

Any major agreement for the Middle East requires full US involvement and difficult, long, and complex negotiations in which Washington must play all its cards and use its leverage to influence all concerned parties.

Doyle believes that such full US involvement may be difficult, noting that since former US president Barack Obama, all US administrations have sought to reduce their involvement in the Middle East.

There is of course a desire in Washington to reset the relations between the United States and Saudi Arabia which have been going through a rocky period. Nevertheless, I think the US is just being somewhat unrealistic. I think that even if there was a grand deal, it wont resolve the core of the conflicts between Israel and the Palestinians, he said.

Another obstacle facing Bidens effort is how willing Saudi Arabia is to give his administration such a spectacular diplomatic achievement. It is no longer a secret that there is no chemistry between the officials in Riyadh and the current Democratic administration in the White House.

Even if that diplomatic breakthrough occurred before the 2024 presidential election, it is not certain that it would have the support of the US Congress, especially giving Riyadh a permanent US security umbrella or a joint defence agreement along the lines of NATO, or supporting a Saudi civil nuclear programme. Without these guarantees, Saudi Arabia has no interest or incentive to normalise relations with Israel.

As for Benjamin Netanyahus hard-right Israeli government, it is difficult to see them making promises such as never annexing the West Bank or freezing new settlements. Relations between Biden and Netanyahu are also tense due to US criticism of the changes introduced by the Israeli government in the way the Supreme Court in Israel operates.

Seeking more details regarding issues that could affect Israeli security, including possible US support for a Saudi nuclear programme and potential US arms sales to Riyadh, the US news website Axion reported that Mossad Director David Barnea secretly visited Washington two weeks ago for talks with senior White House and CIA officials about the issue.

Two US sources told Axion that Barnea met with Sullivan at the White House before the trip Bidens adviser made to Saudi Arabia last week. Barnea also met with Brett McGurk, the White House Middle East czar, and Amos Hochstein, Bidens senior adviser for energy and infrastructure.

McGurk and Hochstein, who have been working on improving US-Saudi relations for the last 18 months, joined Sullivan on his recent trip to Jeddah according to Axion. Barnea and CIA Director Bill Burns also discussed the Saudi initiative as well as Iran, one US source said.

The CIA refused to comment on the meetings, while a White House National Security Council spokesperson refused to comment specifically on the talks between Sullivan and Barnea, emphasising, We continue to support normalisation with Israel, including with Saudi Arabia, and continue to talk to our regional partners about how more progress can be made.

Nonetheless, the noises from Israel are not encouraging. Israeli National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi told public broadcaster Kan on Monday that the road to normalising ties with Saudi Arabia is still long, ruling out concessions to Palestinians as part of any deal, adding that Israel is not involved in the US-Saudi discussions. I can say that Israel will not give in to anything that will erode its security, he said.

Orit Strock, the minister of Settlements and National Missions in Netanyahus government, also rejected any concessions to the Palestinians as part of a pact. We certainly wont agree to such a thing. We are done with withdrawals. We are done with freezing settlements in Judea and Samaria, Strock said, referring to the occupied West Bank.

Talk of a major diplomatic breakthrough in the Middle East leading to the normalisation of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel has been on the table since 2020 when the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain launched full diplomatic relations with Israel.

At that time, there was an American-Israeli desire to benefit from that momentum by bringing about closer relations with Saudi Arabia. But there has been much water under the bridge since then.

On the one hand, there is dissatisfaction in Abu Dhabi with the policies of the Netanyahu government towards the Palestinians. On the other hand, Emirati and Bahraini officials have expressed frustration in high-level contacts with Israel about the commitment to implement all aspects of the 2020 Abraham Accords.

For its part, Iran is watching recent US moves with the conviction that they will not yield positive results. Normalising relations with Israel is a Saudi decision in the first place. Iran does not interfere in the sovereign decisions of neighbouring countries, and yet we believe that this is difficult to achieve in light of the policies of the current Israeli government, an Iranian diplomat in London told Al-Ahram Weekly.

He added: However if any Saudi-American-Israeli understandings are reached, this will not affect the significant improvement in relations between Tehran and Riyadh, nor the deepening of relations in all fields.

This is an assessment that Chris Doyle agrees with, explaining that he does not believe that the recent US efforts will negatively impact the Iranian-Saudi rapprochement: I think there are very good reasons why Iran is happy with the deal with Saudi Arabia, especially after the improvement of the situation in Yemen. I think that probably both Iran and Saudi Arabia see it in their mutual interest to have relations. Theres not a huge trust between Tehran and Riyadh. Its not a perfect relationship. Nobody is suggesting that, but Im not sure that it would necessarily fall apart just because Saudi Arabia and Israel reached a deal.

For decades, many US administrations, Democratic and Republican, have tried to achieve a grand bargain that will end all the problems of the Middle East and normalise relations between Israel and its Arab neighbours, to no avail.

Biden is trying to do the same in the last few months of his presidency but from a much weaker position compared to previous US presidents, for America has never been more vulnerable in the Middle East than it is today.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 3 August, 2023 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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Parents and students from Smythe Elementary School stood outside the San Ysidro School District office to show support for the school principal Joel Tapia.

The San Ysidro school board voted 3-2 Thursday night to release the principal of Smythe Elementary School after the current school year.

Joel Tapia has been absent from Smythe Elementary since Jan. 16, relocated to the school districts office while school district administrators investigate a personnel matter.

It is unclear if he will keep working at the school districts office until the school year is over, when his current contract ends.

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The school board decision  with members Antonio Martinez and Irene Lopez voting against it  was made following dozens of comments from the public in support of Tapia.

Tapia, joined by his wife and toddler son, received a standing ovation from almost everyone in the filled auditorium at Sunset Elementary School when he arrived. Supporters cheered his name, with children running to him and embracing him.

I feel the love, Tapia said at the start of the meeting. I dont think Im anybody special. I think whats special is that people stand up for what they believe in.

Tapia has found himself in similar scenarios before, either reassigned or placed on leave in two previous jobs as principal in Chula Vista and Solana Beach. Both times, he resigned.

Following the vote, Tapia said the personnel matter San Ysidro school district administrators were looking into involved his work history, which included allegations that were found to be unsubstantiated either by the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing or the districts administration.

School district officials have remained tight-lipped about the personnel issue and investigation into Tapia.

Daniel Zummo, the San Ysidro School Districts human resources executive director, said reference checks are part of the hiring process, but declined to say if that was a step the San Ysidro district took before hiring Tapia.

On Thursday morning, as some parents dropped off their children for school, other parents and students stood near the entrance to the Smythe Avenue campus to rally for Tapia. They held signs that read, We want our principal back and God bless you, Mr. Tapia. We are praying for your return.

Honestly, were like a family, and family sticks together, said Noemi Jimenez, whose third- and sixth-grade sons attend Smythe. Were here to show that we want (Tapia) back. And even if wherever mistakes might have been made, we all make mistakes. We deserve the chance to work together and to make things happen in the right way.

She and other parents said they also turned out to voice concerns about the districts lack of transparency. Parents were not notified of Tapias relocation, a step that should have been taken out of respect for our school and our students, Jimenez said.

That would have been good for all of us, she said. Just to give us some peace of mind, instead of wondering what happened.

She said Tapia was relocated, in a way, deceptively.

Just before the school bell rang, Tapias supporters headed to the school districts office on Otay Mesa Road, about a mile away. San Diego police officers escorted the group.

We support the freedom of speech, but we encourage our kids to be at school, and thats our main concern, school district spokesman Francisco Mata said.

Jimenez said it was unfortunate some children like hers skipped classes but said it was important to turn out to support Tapia.

Its more important for them to stand up for whats right and whats good and whats fair, she said.

Not every parent who turned out supports Tapia.

Olga Espinoza said her son, a third-grader at Smythe, has been bullied repeatedly and that Tapia has taken few actions to protect children like hers.

I dont think hes capable, she said.

Tapia resigned as principal from the Chula Vista Elementary School District in June 2015, then from Solana Beach School District in June 2016.

In a statement, interim Superintendent Mary Willis said, in part, that any staffing changes we make are based on what is best for students. We are working with parents to ensure they know we are listening.
Despite recent claims to the contrary, there is little evidence that the ancient Egyptian queen Nefertiti is buried behind the walls of the tomb of Tutankhamun.

Many questions have been raised lately about the idea that the tomb of Nefertiti is located behind the walls of Tutankhamuns Burial Chamber. The aim of this article is to investigate and examine this theory.

I intend to focus on radar technology and its previous uses in locating tombs, referring to the opinions of scholars who have used radar technology in archaeological fieldwork as well as to general radar experts. I personally believe that it is highly unlikely that we will locate Nefertitis tomb using the recent study carried out with Japanese radar.

Instead of relying on this study, I propose carrying out another radar study and appointing an expert committee to analyse and interpret the results.

The hypothesis of British Egyptologist Nicholas Reeves holds that there are chambers behind the walls of the Tomb of Tutankhamun that may house the burial of Nefertiti. Using shadowy lines that he imagines he can see in the high-resolution photographs of the burial chamber taken by the art conservation company Factum Arte, Reeves has constructed a theory that Tutankhamun took over several chambers within a larger tomb, that there is an undiscovered annex behind the west wall and a corridor behind the north wall of the tomb, and that these belong to the undiscovered tomb of Nefertiti.

I believe that there is very little evidence for this theory and that the likelihood that there is another tomb beyond the walls of Tutankhamuns burial chamber is very low.

Reeves has proposed that the northern and western walls of Tutankhamuns burial chamber conceal the tomb of Nefertiti. According to his hypothesis, KV62, the tomb now used for Tutankhamun, was originally made for her and was later converted into a tomb for Tutankhamun. He published his argument in 2015, and it may be summarised as follows.

The furnishings found in KV62 include a group that was originally intended for the burial of the Pharaoh Akhenaten, and a larger group of items prepared for the use of Akhenatens coregent, Ankhkheperure Neferneferuaten, as attested by their inscriptions, iconography, and the feminine form of the human figure of the king.

On the west wall of the burial chamber of the tomb, high-resolution scans made by Factum Arte for the creation of a replica of KV62 seem to show traces of straight, unnatural edges, specifically, from their matched heights, the twin jambs of a door frame. Natural traces in the wall seem to disappear exactly where the lintel of this hypothetical doorway would be. This shows that the original rock formation in the area of this doorway was no longer there, having been removed and replaced with artificial blocking.

Traces of this sort exist elsewhere in the tomb, such as in the entrance from the burial chamber into the treasury, and also between the Antechamber and the annex. KV22, the tomb of Amenhotep III in the nearby Valley of the Monkeys, also has similar traces at the entrance to a room that archaeologists call Jbb.

Reeves also proposes that the traditional orbital side rooms of 18th-Dynasty royal burial chambers were four in number, arranged at the positions of 2, 4, 8, and 10 oclock. KV62 features only two side rooms, not four. If one combines the burial chamber and the antechamber of the tomb into a single room, one of these orbital side rooms, the annex, is at the 8 oclock position, while the other, the treasury, is at 2 oclock. At 4 oclock is the entrance corridor.

This leaves one room, that which should be at 10 oclock, missing. This happens to be exactly the position of the seemingly blocked and hidden door in the north wall of the burial chamber.

The orbital side rooms were usually used for storage. However, that was not always the case, such as the example demonstrated in Amenhotep IIIs tomb, where one of the side rooms was enlarged... with the evident intention of receiving an interment  that of Sitamun. Therefore, the hypothesised hidden 10 oclock side room in KV62 might have been made for the burial of additional members of the royal family.

Reeves also noticed six traces of features on the western side of the north wall that line up precisely with the Antechambers west wall, suggesting that both the Antechamber and the burial chamber at one time were a single space in the form of a corridor. That these were once a corridor would mean that KV62 was formerly a corridor-tomb with a rightward axial turn, a feature of a queens tomb, such as tomb WAD, which was intended for Hatshepsut before she became king.

Reeves suggests that the original KV62 corridor was narrow (about the width of the Entrance Corridor), and that it was widened to the current width of the Antechamber when Nefertiti became king so that a nest of large, gilded shrines, like those the British Egyptologist Howard Carter found around Tutankhamuns sarcophagus, could be brought into the tomb.

When the tomb was used for Tutankhamun, the area now known as the burial chamber was further enlarged in a westward direction. Reeves explains that the north wall traces numbers 4 to 6 show the outlines of a doorway, including doorjambs and an approximate location of a lintel made evident by a rough layer of plaster applied in the area where he believes the lintel to be.

He also cites the painted decoration of the burial chamber as evidence for his hypothesis. Based on analyses done by the Getty Conservation Institute in the US, Reeves says that the decoration on the north wall differs from that on the other three. On the south, east, and west walls, the base white paint layer was covered with a yellow background over which the ancient artists painted the figures. However, on the north wall, the artists painted the figures onto the white background. They then painted a yellow background around the figures. Also, unlike on the other walls, here the artists incised guidelines for the figures into the layer of plaster.

The proportions of the figures on the north wall are also very different from those on the other three. More than three decades ago, Gay Robins of Emory University in the US compared the grids used to draw human figures in the Tombs of Tutankhamun and Ay with those in the Tombs of Horemheb and Ramesses I. This revealed that the figures on the north wall of KV62s Burial Chamber were done with a 20-square grid system that developed during the Amarna Period, rather than the traditional 18-square grid system.

She interpreted this to indicate that the north wall and its decoration pre-date Tutankhamuns burial and were already in existence before the kings shrines were installed and the other walls were subsequently painted.

Consequently, Reeves concludes, the purpose of the burial chambers north wall was as a blind to hide the existence of other chambers from robbers. The early 19th-century Egyptologist Giovanni Belzoni identified such a blind in the corridor of Seti Is tomb (KV17) in 1817. In a wall that looked like any other wall of the tomb, with painted figures of gods, he found a hole, beyond which the corridor continued. Such blinds concealed, and thus protected, the rest of a tomb and its precious contents.

Based on the sum total of these many arguments, Reeves concludes that KV62 was originally intended for the burial of an Amarna Period queen. He sees evidence for this queen to have been specifically Nefertiti.

PROBLEM OF IDENTIFICATION

It is important to note that Carter worked in the Tomb of Tutankhamun for about 10 years, and it was then and is now common practice for archaeologists to investigate tomb walls in the hopes of finding hidden chambers behind them.

Carter removed gypsum from five niches in the walls that contained magical bricks and would certainly have examined the northern and western walls carefully at that time.

I find it very unlikely that Tutankhamuns tomb was put inside Nefertitis for a number of reasons. For one thing, it is more likely that the Tomb of Tutankhamun was originally a small tomb intended for Ay. However, because of Tutankhamuns sudden death, as demonstrated by the Egyptian Mummy Project, the Tomb of Ay might have been given to Tutankhamun because his own tomb was unfinished.

One piece of evidence that supports this theory is the similarity between the scene on Tutankhamuns tomb western wall depicting the first hour of the night of the Imy-duat and the scene in Ays tomb in the Valley of the Monkeys.

Other evidence is the floor level of the burial chamber in KV63. The doorway into the treasury was originally created at a height of 60 or 75 cm above the current floor level. It was lowered, along with the floor level of the entire room, to accommodate the height of Tutankhamuns shrines. The traces of the doorway in the north wall remain at the higher level. This indicates that the architect who prepared Tutankhamuns tomb, knowing that the shrines would have to fit here, changed the height of the room.

If, as some scholars argue, these shrines had been made for Nefertiti, these should have fit in a tomb prepared for her. Lowering the floor (and widening the entrance corridor) would have been unnecessary, and the proposed doorway in the north wall thus would have been at the same level as the floor, rather than higher. I think that the tomb was originally unfinished and was never intended to hold any such huge funerary equipment. So, when the architect needed to adapt it for Tutankhamun, he naturally needed to adjust its dimensions for the enormous shrines made for the king.

Reeves also suggests that the scene on the north wall of Tutankhamuns tomb showing Tutankhamuns successor Ay wearing the blue crown and the costume of a sem priest as he performs the Opening of the Mouth ritual on Tutankhamuns mummy originally showed Nefertitis ceremony, with Tutankhamun as the priest. He notes that the figure of Tutankhamun has the so-called ornamental groove, a line that extends downward on either side of the mouth. This is a feature found on sculptures of Nefertiti. The figure representing Ay in the Opening of the Mouth scene also has a double chin, a feature artists gave to Amarna children.

Furthermore, Reeves observes that the image of Ay here differs from those found anywhere else. Thus, he deduces that the figure of Tutankhamun is actually an image of Nefertiti, and the figure of Ay is actually Tutankhamun, an Amarna child and Nefertitis successor.

I do not find his reasoning at all convincing. If Reeves is correct, the names in the inscription above the figures would have been altered from Nefertiti and Tutankhaten to Tutankhamun and Ay. There is no evidence for such modification.

We know that Tutankhamun, whose original name was Tutankhaten, was raised in Amarna, based on an inscription from two blocks found at Ashmonein that refers to Tutankhaten as the Kings Son of his Body, His Beloved, Tutankhaten. These blocks also seem to refer to Ankhesenpaaten, who became Tutankhamuns queen, as the daughter of the king.

This title confirms that Tutankhaten was a direct descendant of a king and quite probably the son of Akhenaten, but there is no evidence that he was the son of the kings Great Wife, Nefertiti. It is also possible that Tutankhaten was married to Ankhesenpaaten before he ascended to the throne. It is strange that there is not a single scene of Tutankhamun at Amarna, although some scholars believe that the child held by a woman in a scene in the Alpha Room in Akhenatens Tomb could be Tutankhaten. Nefertiti appears at Amarna with her daughters, but never with Tutankhamun.

DNA analysis carried out as part of the Egyptian Mummy Project indicates that the Younger Lady found in KV35 was the daughter of Amenhotep III and Queen Tiye and was Tutankhamuns mother. There is no evidence that Nefertiti was the daughter of Amenhotep III and Tiye, and, as mentioned above, it is very unlikely that she was Tutankhamuns mother, since she never appears with him at Amarna (or anywhere else). We should also note that it is very unlikely that the priests of Amun would have allowed Nefertiti to build an elaborate tomb in the Valley of the Kings.

Reeves also suggests that the holes in the ears of Tutankhamuns gold mask indicate that it was made for Nefertiti, because during that period ear piercing was only common among women.

But in fact, the practice of ear piercing was very common among both genders, as shown by the fact that the mummy of Thutmose IV had pierced ears.

There is no reason to assume that the earrings found in Tutankhamuns tomb (at least six pairs) were worn by Tutankhamun only when he was a child, as concluded by Reeves. In addition to the holes in the mask, which are used by Reeves to suggest that the mask was originally made for Nefertiti, there are holes, not just depressions, in the ears of the mummy.

In addition, Reeves has attempted to confirm that the mask actually belonged to Nefertiti by arguing that the cartouche of Tutankhamuns throne name, Nebkheperure, was written over an earlier name, faint traces of which may be seen in high-resolution images. Reeves claims that he was able to see, merely from the high-resolution images of the mask, little traces of ankh, mer, and nfr signs. Thus, the erased traces of the name would only correspond to Ankhkheperure mr Neferkheperure, or beloved of Neferkheperure (Akhenaten), the predecessor of Tutankhamun.

However, Christian Eckmann, who recently restored the mask at the Egyptian Museum, indicated in his talk at the annual Tutankhamun conference that took place in May 2016 that there are no traces of the name of Nefertiti on the mask.

Another theory suggested by Reeves is that because Tutankhamuns Tomb is entered from the east and thus oriented towards the west, it was originally made for a queen, because in his opinion tombs belonging to queens are oriented towards the west. It is true that KV32, which belonged to a queen from the 18th Dynasty, is directed towards the west. However, in contrast KV42, which was originally made for Hatshepsut Meryet-Re, wife of Thutmose III, is accessed from the north, so oriented to the south, with her sarcophagus chamber oriented to the east.

In addition, the tomb of Ay, KV23, is, like KV62, entered from the east, as is the tomb of Amenhotep II (KV 35). Overall, there does not seem to be any real consistency to the orientation of 18th-Dynasty tombs for either kings or queens, so this point does not provide convincing support for Reeves theory.

RESEARCH RESULTS

Let us take a look at the research results that have been assembled over the last few months.

I agree completely with the recent statement by Khaled El-Enany saying that this matter needs more research, since none of the reports to date has confirmed the presence of anything behind the walls of Tutankhamuns burial chamber. So how can we compare this statement with previous accounts that assumed a 70 per cent chance of finding Nefertitis tomb behind the northern wall of Tutankhamuns tomb, and other more recent reports that have stated that there is a 90 per cent chance of a magnificent discovery?

The latest press conference about the radar results from Reevess Japanese partners announced that the Japanese radar had found organic material and metal behind the north wall. This announcement cannot be considered reliable, because radar cannot distinguish organic material. This should raise questions concerning the accuracy of this result.

Abbas Mohamed, who is a radar scientist and was present during the Japanese investigation, stated that the expert who designed the equipment is the only one who can interpret the data. As we know, scientific protocol requires that all data should be able to be read and interpreted by a number of specialists. Thus, from a scientific standpoint, the Japanese radar results cannot be considered to confirm any major discovery. I do not think that we have yet used any credible scientific method to prove or disprove Reeves theory. On the contrary, we have exposed the tomb to extensive photography and camera flashes, and many additional people have been in and out of the tomb, raising the humidity and endangering the decoration. Using this theory to publicise Egypt and promote tourism is not, in my opinion, a good thing at all.

An incident that took place a few years ago in 2008 demonstrates how radar can create speculation. Reeves and the same Japanese radar expert who is working with him now in the Valley of the Kings had announced in 2000 that their investigation had located a tomb in front of Tutankhamuns tomb. Reeves put this on his personal website and called it KV63, and also identified another tomb that he called KV64.

When we began working in the Valley of the Kings in 2008, we decided to excavate the area in front of the tomb of Tutankhamun. We excavated there thoroughly and what Reeves and his radar expert had assumed to be a tomb turned out to be a crack in the solid rock.

When the late Otto Schaden found the actual KV63 in 2005-2006, Reeves announced that he had made the discovery earlier, even though the KV63 he had identified was not the KV63 discovered by Schaden.

Unfortunately, Reeves claim that he had discovered KV63 was so widely disseminated that recently some antiquities authorities were able to be convinced that the discovery originally belonged to Reeves. These authorities did not consider any of Schadens publications, or the verifications that were given to him by the Egyptian Permanent Committee. The real KV64 also was later discovered in another location in the Valley, not where the Japanese radar had suggested.

Back in Tutankhamuns tomb, the US radar that was used by National Geographic after the Japanese radar neither confirmed nor refuted the results of the Japanese radar study. The radar survey that was planned to be done from above the Tomb would have been pointless, since we already have data from radar operated by Glen Dash, who made a survey in this area from 2008-2009 and did not find anything new, although he surveyed about 10,000 km in the valley.

Dash, who in 1996 established the Glen Dash Foundation for Archaeological Research, is an electrical engineer who applies remote-sensing technologies to archaeological problems. Regarding the present theory, Dash has emphasised that the best target for radar examination is not the proposed new annex or chamber, but the possible sealed doorways leading into them, which would produce distinctive images.

Dash has published an academic article explaining the theory and the evidence provided by the recent Japanese radar survey. I will use two illustrations to demonstrate his point of view.

The first is what the Japanese team put into the computer based on the theory that suggests that there is an annex behind the west wall of the tomb. If there is any sort of masonry making up a doorway or partition wall, the radar signal should be scattered. If Reevess proposed new annex and new corridor exist, they should be readily detectable.

The best targets are therefore not Reeves proposed hidden spaces themselves, but the walls and doorways blocking them. The masonry in blocked doors and making up partition walls scatters the radar signal and leaves a distinctive signature. Walls one cubit thick should show up distinctly. No doorways or partition walls mean no hidden tomb.

I think that we should also consider the opinion of Egyptologist Christian Leblanc and take his advice into consideration, as he has worked extensively in the Valley of the Queens and has advised us not to pursue hallucinations regarding Tutankhamun. Leblanc, who was excavating in the Valley of the Queens during his early career, found a shaft and inside it was a sealed door. When he opened it, there was nothing behind it. This should be a lesson for us, so that we do not unduly speculate before we carry out extensive archaeological work.

Some people asked for my opinion before the radar investigation was carried out. I told them that we should test the Japanese radar by taking it to the tomb of Ramses II, where we know there are still sealed chambers, and only if the radar located hidden chambers there should we permit its use inside Tutankhamuns tomb. Then we should use a second radar for a second opinion. After that, we should appoint a committee of experts on the 18th Dynasty and other radar specialists, and only they should have a say on what to do next, either to end discussion on the subject or continue with research.

Unfortunately, the antiquities authorities who permitted the investigation entered KV5 (the tomb of the sons of Ramses II) instead of Ramses IIs tomb. After one hour the radar was moved to KV62, and an hour later a press conference was held announcing a 70 per cent possibility of finding a chamber behind the north wall of Tutankhamuns tomb.

Many people raised questions regarding how we should proceed if the experts agreed that there was a chamber behind the north wall. The antiquities authorities were granted permission from the Egyptian Permanent Committee to drill from the treasury but were told to keep this confidential. The authorities said that because Zahi Hawass had drilled in the Great Pyramid, they could do the same.

However, there is a big difference between the Great Pyramid, where the Abbasid caliph Maamoun, son of Haroun Al-Rashid, moved thousands of blocks, and the Tomb of Tutankhamun, which has painted scenes that any drilling could damage. In fact, I think that before asking for permission from the Permanent Committee to drill, we should first be sure that the drilling would not affect the painted scenes in the Burial Chamber.

After the Japanese expert Mr Watanabe delivered a presentation at the second Tutankhamun Conference, he conveyed his conclusions from his radar investigation. He believes that his scan has revealed an area of void. However, his radar data has not been made available for independent review and processing.

On the other hand, the radar scanning that was conducted did not find any evidence for voids behind any of the tomb walls. The data of the second radar survey was made available to the international community. Because we have two contradictory results, I propose that further investigation be conducted to use a third radar system specially designed for archaeology and this particular site.

A committee of both foreign and Egyptian experts in Egyptology and remote-sensing should review the new data and the future of this research project.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 3 August, 2023 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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A man identified by forensic analysis as the suspect in a series of grisly murders in Hwaseong south of Seoul during from 1986 to 1991 lived in the area where they were committed at the time.

Lee Chun-jae (56), who is serving a life sentence for another murder that followed a similar pattern, was born and raised in Hwaseong.

Residents in Jinan-dong, Hwaseong said Lee lived in the city until the early 1990s, when he was in his late 20s. Out of 10 rape-murders of women that terrorized the town, six were committed in the Jinan-dong area. One was later discovered to have been committed by a copycat.

Lee, who has been behind bars for the last 20 years for raping and murdering his sister in law, has been considered a model prisoner, so prison officials were shocked to learn that he was the key suspect of the unsolved serial killings. One prison source said, "If he hadn't been given a mandatory life sentence, he would have been released on parole by now."

Even convicts serving life sentences are eligible for parole if they are model inmates for more than 20 years. But prison authorities in Busan said they never considered the option. Lee denied the fresh charges when police visited him in prison but has now been transferred to a solitary cell.

Seo Joong-seok, a former head of the National Forensic Service, said, "If Lee's DNA matches samples collected from three of the crime scenes, he is practically certain to be the killer since the evidence was discovered by analyzing preserved samples in a series of crimes that occurred over an extended period."

When asked about the possibility of DNA evidence being tampered with, Seo said, "DNA extraction is still possible even if evidence has long gone, and while some genetic information may be missing or untraceable, there is no chance of confusion with others'."


Seoul Metro's Line No. 2 has the highest crime rate of any subway line in the capital, a report suggests, with many being sexual molestation of one kind or another.

According to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency on Sunday, 5,284 crimes have occurred on Lines No. 1 through 8 since 2020. Some 2,249 cases occurred in 2020, 2,260 last year, and 775 from January to April this year.

Sexual molestation like upskirt videos and inappropriate touching took up the largest proportion at 1,751 or 33.1 percent, followed by pickpocketing with 1,387 cases or 26.2 percent.

Line No. 2 was the worst with 1,778 cases or 33.6 percent, followed by Line No. 5 (653 cases), Line No. 7 (617), Line No. 4 (590), and Line No. 3 (575).

Line No. 2 is also the most crowded, followed by Lines No. 7 and 5, which suggests that the crush of a full rush-hour train enables opportunists.

Seoul Metro warns that crimes in the subway are constantly evolving with new technologies.

"Someone was even caught taking upskirt pictures using a minicam attached to a shoe," a spokesman said. "We can respond rapidly if you report to police or call out for security officers on the subway app when you witness a crime."
A man went on a rampage in a department store in the southern suburb of Bundang on Thursday, plowing his car into pedestrians and stabbing strangers with a knife.

Twelve of the victims are in critical condition.

According to police, five people were injured when the man rammed his car into a bus stop outside the AK Plaza department store near Seohyun subway station at around 5:40 p.m.

The assailant, wearing a mask and a hoodie, then ran into the building where he began stabbing people at random, injuring another nine.

One 64-year-old man who was hit by the car suffered cardiac arrest and is in a coma.

Police rushed to the scene and arrested the assailant, a 22-year-old man identified as Choi.
The thymus gland -- which produces immune T cells before birth and during childhood -- is often regarded as nonfunctional in adults, and it's sometimes removed during cardiac surgery for easier access to the heart and major blood vessels. New research led by investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and published in the New England Journal of Medicine has uncovered evidence that the thymus is in fact critical for adult health generally and for preventing cancer and perhaps autoimmune disease.

To determine whether the thymus provides health benefits to adults, the team evaluated the risk of death, cancer, and autoimmune disease among 1,146 adults who had their thymus removed during surgery and among 1,146 demographically matched patients who underwent similar cardiothoracic surgery without thymectomy. The scientists also measured T cell production and blood levels of immune-related molecules in a subgroup of patients.

Five years after surgery, 8.1% of patients who had a thymectomy died compared with 2.8% of those who did not have their thymus removed, equating to a 2.9-times higher risk of death. Also during that time, 7.4% of patients in the thymectomy group developed cancer compared with 3.7% of patients in the control group, for a 2.0-times higher risk.

"By studying people who had their thymus removed, we discovered that the thymus is absolutely required for health. If it isn't there, people's risk of dying and risk of cancer is at least double," says senior author David T. Scadden, MD, director of the Center for Regenerative Medicine at MGH and co-director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. "This indicates that the consequences of thymus removal should be carefully considered when contemplating thymectomy."

In an additional analysis involving all patients in the thymectomy group with more than five years of follow-up, the overall mortality rate was higher in the thymectomy group than in the general U.S. population (9.0% vs. 5.2%), as was mortality due to cancer (2.3% vs. 1.5%).

Although Scadden and his colleagues found that the risk of autoimmune disease did not differ substantially between the thymectomy and control groups as a whole in their study, they observed a difference when patients who had infection, cancer, or autoimmune disease before surgery were excluded from the analysis. After excluding these individuals, 12.3% of patients in the thymectomy group developed autoimmune disease compared with 7.9% in the control group, for a 1.5-times higher risk.

In the subgroup of patients in whom T cell production and immune-related molecules were measured (22 in the thymectomy group and 19 in the control group, with an average follow-up of 14.2 postoperative years), those who had undergone thymectomy had consistently lower production of new T cells than controls and higher levels of pro-inflammatory molecules in the blood.

Scadden and his team now plan to assess how different levels of thymus function in adults affect individuals' health. "We can test the relative vigor of the thymus and define whether the level of thymus activity, rather than just whether it is present, is associated with better health," he says.

Additional co-authors include Kameron A. Kooshesh, MD, Brody H. Foy, DPhil, David B. Sykes, MD, PhD, and Karin Gustafsson, PhD.

This work was supported by the Tracey and Craig A. Huff Harvard Stem Cell Institute Research Support Fund, the Gerald and Darlene Jordan Professorship of Medicine, and a grant (U19AI149676, to Dr. Scadden) from the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Kooshesh received support from the American Society of Hematology. Dr. Gustafsson received support from the Swedish Research Council and the John S. Macdougall Jr. and Olive R. Macdougall Fund.
Sometimes, the best place to hide a secret is in broad daylight. Just ask the sun.

"The sun is more surprising than we knew," said Mehr Un Nisa, a postdoctoral research associate at Michigan State University. "We thought we had this star figured out, but that's not the case."

Nisa, who will soon be joining MSU's faculty, is the corresponding author of a new paper in the journal Physical Review Letters that details the discovery of the highest-energy light ever observed from the sun.

The international team behind the discovery also found that this type of light, known as gamma rays, is surprisingly bright. That is, there's more of it than scientists had previously anticipated.

Watching like a HAWC

Although the high-energy light doesn't reach the Earth's surface, these gamma rays create telltale signatures that were detected by Nisa and her colleagues working with the High-Altitude Water Cherenkov Observatory, or HAWC.

Funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Council of Humanities Science and Technology, HAWC is an important part of the story. Unlike other observatories, it works around the clock.

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"We now have observational techniques that weren't possible a few years ago," said Nisa, who works in the Department of Physics and Astronomy in the College of Natural Science.

"In this particular energy regime, other ground-based telescopes couldn't look at the sun because they only work at night," she said. "Ours operates 24/7."

In addition to working differently from conventional telescopes, HAWC looks a lot different from the typical telescope.

Rather than a tube outfitted with glass lenses, HAWC uses a network of 300 large water tanks, each filled with about 200 metric tons of water. The network is nestled between two dormant volcano peaks in Mexico, more than 13,000 feet above sea level.

From this vantage point, it can observe the aftermath of gamma rays striking air in the atmosphere. Such collisions create what are called air showers, which are a bit like particle explosions that are imperceptible to the naked eye.

The energy of the original gamma ray is liberated and redistributed amongst new fragments consisting of lower energy particles and light. It's these particles -- and the new particles they create on their way down -- that HAWC can "see."

When the shower particles interact with water in HAWC's tanks, they create what's known as Cherenkov radiation that can be detected with the observatory's instruments.

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Nisa and her colleagues began collecting data in 2015. In 2021, the team had accrued enough data to start examining the sun's gamma rays with sufficient scrutiny.

"After looking at six years' worth of data, out popped this excess of gamma rays," Nisa said. "When we first saw it, we were like, 'We definitely messed this up. The sun cannot be this bright at these energies.'"

Making history

The sun gives off a lot of light spanning a range of energies, but some energies are more abundant than others.

For example, through its nuclear reactions, the sun provides a ton of visible light -- that is, the light we see. This form of light carries an energy of about 1 electron volt, which is a handy unit of measure in physics.

The gamma rays that Nisa and her colleagues observed had about 1 trillion electron volts, or 1 tera electron volt, abbreviated 1 TeV. Not only was this energy level surprising, but so was the fact that they were seeing so much of it.

In the 1990s, scientists predicted that the sun could produce gamma rays when high-energy cosmic rays -- particles accelerated by a cosmic powerhouse like a black hole or supernova -- smash into protons in the sun. But, based on what was known about cosmic rays and the sun, the researchers also hypothesized it would be rare to see these gamma rays reach Earth.

At the time, though, there wasn't an instrument capable of detecting such high-energy gamma rays and there wouldn't be for a while. The first observation of gamma rays with energies of more than a billion electron volts came from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope in 2011.

Over the next several years, the Fermi mission showed that not only could these rays be very energetic, but also that there were about seven times more of them than scientists had originally expected. And it looked like there were gamma rays left to discover at even higher energies.

When a telescope launches into space, there's a limit to how big and powerful its detectors can be. The Fermi telescope's measurements of the sun's gamma rays maxed out around 200 billion electron volts.

Theorists led by John Beacom and Annika Peter, both professors at Ohio State University, encouraged the HAWC Collaboration to take a look.

"They nudged us and said, 'We're not seeing a cutoff. You might be able to see something," Nisa said.

The HAWC Collaboration includes more than 30 institutions across North America, Europe and Asia, and a sizable portion of that is represented in the nearly 100 authors on the new paper. That includes three additional Spartans: graduate student Daniel Salazar-Gallegos, Professor Emeritus James Linnemann and Kirsten Tollefson, a professor of physics and astronomy and associate dean in the Graduate School at MSU.

Now, for the first time, the team has shown that the energies of the sun's rays extend into the TeV range, up to nearly 10 TeV, which does appear to be the maximum, Nisa said.

Currently, the discovery creates more questions than answers. Solar scientists will now scratch their heads over how exactly these gamma rays achieve such high energies and what role the sun's magnetic fields play in this phenomenon, Nisa said.

When it comes to the cosmos, though, that's part of the excitement. It tells us that there was something wrong, missing or perhaps both when it comes to how we understand our nearest and dearest star.

"This shows that HAWC is adding to our knowledge of our galaxy at the highest energies, and it's opening up questions about our very own sun," Nisa said. "It's making us see things in a different light. Literally."
A subpolar species associated with Atlantic water expanded far into the Arctic Ocean during the Last Interglacial, analysis of microfossil content of sediment cores reveals. This implies that summers in the Arctic were ice free during this period. The findings are published in Nature Geoscience.

Arctic sea ice, an important component of the Earth system, is disappearing fast under climate warming. Summer sea ice is anticipated to vanish entirely within this century. To gain a deeper understanding of the climate dynamics in a world without Arctic sea ice, researchers have turned to analogues from the geological past.

"The Last Interglacial, between 129,000 and 115,000 years BP, is an interesting period to study because it is the last time in Earth's history when global average temperatures were similar or perhaps higher than currently and sea levels were considerably higher, up to +6 to +9 m," said Flor Vermassen, postdoctoral researcher at Stockholm University.

However, the extent of sea ice during this period has been intensely debated and there is no consensus, limiting understanding of this period and the ability of researchers to simulate it in climate models. To address this, a team of marine geology researchers from the Department of Marine Geological Sciences at Stockholm University analysed the microfossil content of an array of sediment cores from sites that today lie directly beneath the thickest parts of the modern Arctic ice pack. In these cores, they investigated the variability in the occurrence and composition of planktonic foraminifera, a type of free-floating, shell-building unicellular zooplankton that is sensitive to changes in oceanographic and environmental conditions.

The researchers found high abundances of the typically subpolar, Atlantic-water species Turborotalita quinqueloba, documenting a large-scale expansion of the species far into the central Arctic Ocean. The ecological preference of T. quinqueloba for predominantly ice-free, seasonally productive waters typically present in the Atlantic Ocean suggests that it was following similar conditions that had spread to the central Arctic Ocean. The absence of summer sea ice and increased influence of Atlantic currents in the Arctic domain during the Last Interglacial are analogous to ocean transformations being observed today in parts of the Arctic, and collectively referred to as 'Atlantification' of the Arctic Ocean.

"The finding that the Arctic Ocean was seasonally ice-free during the Last Interglacial is worrying because this period would have been only around 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, comparable to the targets of the Paris Agreement. Yet the global sea level is estimated to have been several meters higher than at present," said Flor Vermassen.

Hence, the researchers propose the Last Interglacial as the most recent and potentially most relevant geological epoch for investigating a seasonally ice-free Arctic Ocean, particularly if the objectives of the Paris Agreement are not exceeded.

"To fully comprehend the physical conditions and environment of this unfamiliar Arctic during the Last Interglacial, additional quantitative proxy reconstructions of sea-surface temperature and other water mass parameters are needed, along with targeted climate and oceanographic model studies of the same period," said Flor Vermassen.
When we think of soil, most of us think of dirt on the ground. But a surprising amount of the planet's soil thrives in the treetops of old-growth forests, high above terra firma.

This organic matter, composed of decaying leaves and branches, airborne particulates and moisture, is called canopy soil or arboreal soil. Its study is relatively new, says Utah State University ecologist Jessica Murray. She's among researchers unraveling mysteries of the dense, mossy humus that provides rich habitat for insects, birds, fungi, worms and plants, as well as a generous reservoir for carbon storage.

Murray and colleagues from Texas A&M University, the University of Toronto Scarborough and Imperial College London published new information about the enigmatic resource in the July 27, 2023, online edition of Geoderma. The team's research was supported by USU, the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture, and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

"In this study, we sought to understand where canopy soils are found, where they are most abundant, and if their properties -- and thus, soil development processes -- differ as a function of climate or other small-scale factors," says Murray, a doctoral student in USU's Department of Biology and Ecology Center. "This is the first study to look at the distribution patterns of canopy soils across forests and one of very few studies that have sought to examine canopy soil properties."

Murray collected much of the data for the study some 80 feet above the ground at six primary forest sites across Costa Rica's Cordillera de Tilaran and Cordillera Volcanica Central, encompassing both Caribbean and Pacific slope mountain ranges. Her field gear includes climbing gear, ropes, a safety harness and helmet.

"I climbed about 30 trees to collect data," she says. "And getting to one of those sites was the hardest hike of my life."

Murray is referring to a site designated "Puesto 1070," located along a contiguous tract of primary forest, which required a steep trek from about 1,970 feet in elevation to 3,608 -- in thick mud.

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"It took eight hours to complete the hike just to the study site," she says. "We were carrying all of our climbing gear, food for eight days, sleeping bags and sampling equipment. Thank heavens we finished that site early, because, with our hard-earned appetites, we also nearly finished our food supply ahead of schedule."

Murray says tree canopies in the tropical montane forest systems are especially dense, with thick moss, soil and an abundance of epiphytes -- plants that grow on other plants -- often referred to as "air plants" -- that are not parasitic and have little or no attachment to other obvious nutrient sources.

"It's like another world in the air -- canopies teeming with plant, insect and animal life," she says. "I initially conducted surveys to assess canopy soil abundance from the ground with binoculars. But it was really necessary to climb up into the trees to get an accurate picture of what was going on."

Murray asserts forest canopies store much more carbon that generally assumed.

"It's kind of a back-of-the-envelope calculation on my part, but one I'm ready to defend and eager to investigate further," she says. "I think canopy soil stores 0.4 to 4 percent of total soil carbon in the forests where it is found, which is not being counted in ecosystem carbon budgets."

Mentored by USU Biology Professor John Stark and former USU faculty member Bonnie Waring, the latter now with Imperial College London and an author on the paper, Murray says the team's results indicate both climate and tree size play an important role in canopy soil abundance, carbon stocks and chemistry.

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"Climate, particularly fog and temperature changes, appear to drive canopy soil abundance across forests, while tree size determines canopy soil abundance within a forest," she says. "Our findings reveal canopy soil's vulnerability to climate change, and its decline, could cause a significant decrease in carbon storage resources."

Further, she says, those resources could take longer than expected to restore.

"When we talk about reforestation, we don't stop to consider the time needed for forest regrowth plus canopy mat regrowth," Murray says. "It may take decades longer for recovered forests destroyed by wildfire or development to regenerate robust canopy soil mats."

A 2022 recipient of the Ecological Society of America's Katherine S. McCarter Graduate Student Policy Award, Murray is among a number of Aggies presenting at the ESA's 2023 Annual Meeting Aug. 6-11, in Portland, Oregon. She presents the talk, "The Persistence of Metabolically Protected vs. Mineral-Associated Soil Organic Carbon in the Presence of Organic Inputs," on Thursday, Aug. 10 at the Oregon Convention Center.

"For that meeting, I'll be presenting on research different from, but related to, the study published in Geoderma, including work about the basic mechanisms of soil carbon sequestration that uses canopy soils from my sites in Costa Rica," she says.
Thursday's rampage in a department store in Bundang, Gyeonggi Province that injured 14 people came just two weeks after a man went on a rampage stabbing people at random in Sillim-dong in southern Seoul.

Cho Sun, the 33-year-old assailant in the Sillim-dong stabbings, prowled the neighborhood carrying a knife and looking for victims on July 21. One person died and three were hospitalized.

Since then, at least 12 threats of knife attacks have been posted online, according to police. The first was posted three days after the Sillim-dong attack saying, "I will kill 20 Korean women at Sillim subway station" with a photo of a knife. A 20-year-old man confessed to posting the message.

On Thursday night, right after the Budang incident, two similar messages were posted -- one threatening to kill people at Jamsil subway station and the other Hanti station in southern Seoul.
The residence of most defectors is Hanawon, the halfway house in Anseong, Gyeonggi Province that helps North Korean defectors adjust to life in South Korea, while their birth certificate shows a location in North Korea. Lee's document shows that he was born in North Hamgyong Province in North Korea.

One defector surnamed Lee who lives in Gunsan, North Jeolla Province, went to a travel agency some time ago to apply for a visit visa to China. Besides the application form, passport, residence registration card and vaccination certificate, the travel agency asked him to bring or attach an ID certification form, a birth certificate and a marriage certificate.

Using a more complicated visa process than before the pandemic, China now demands more private information, including the place of birth, from visa applicants, in an apparent attempt to screen out North Korean defectors.

China appears to be denying visas to North Korean defectors who are now South Korean citizens.

The ID certification form requires visa applicants to fill in the date when they acquired South Korean nationality and residence registration number. Defectors can be distinguished because, unlike ordinary South Koreans, their birth date is different from the date they become South Korean citizens.

After looking at his form, a travel agency staffer refused to help him get a visa to China. "Ah, you're a defector. We've been asked by the Chinese Embassy not to help applicants like you get a visa," he was told.

China also requires applicants to fill in their education all the way back to high school.

Kim, another defector who has been trading with China for over 10 years, said, "I had to fill in an education section on the application form when I was applying for a visa to China right after lockdown was lifted in June. In the end I just gave up because there were too many required documents to attach."

China has long tried to screen out North Korean defectors. In the early 2000s, China did not issue multiple-entry visas to North Korean defectors and demanded a family register copy to find whether applicants were defectors or not.

Once that changed and an increasing number of defectors were able to travel to China with multiple-entry visas, China often rejected visa applications by identifying them based on the first three digits of their residence registration number -- 125 or 225, the numbers based on the Hanawon address.

In 2009, the Lee Myung-bak administration revised the law so that defectors can have residence registration numbers based on the place where they live instead of Hanawon, making it more difficult to identify them.

Prof. Joo Jae-woo of Kyunghee University said, "North Korea must have asked China to prevent defectors from entering China." He said China is now trying to ferret out defectors with other documents as it's impossible to spot them based on their residence registration number.
(photo: Eric van den Brulle)

Brando Skyhorse was born and raised in Echo Park, Calif., and has degrees from Stanford University and from the MFA Writing Program at UC Irvine. He is an associate professor of English at Indiana University in Bloomington. His debut novel, The Madonnas of Echo Park, received the 2011 PEN/Hemingway Award and the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Take This Man: A Memoir was named a Best Nonfiction Book of the Year by Kirkus. Skyhorse also co-edited the anthology We Wear the Mask: 15 True Stories of Passing in America. His dystopian novel My Name Is Iris was published by Avid Reader Press on August 1, 2023.

Does a novel like this begin with story or character?

I tell my students: it always begins with character. But not this one. It actually started with an image. I think you can guess: it started with this wall, just kind of growing out of the ground. I was finishing up my last project, an anthology of original essays on ethnic and racial passing, and it was summer of 2016, and let's just say there was a certain word that was getting bounced around, this relentless drumbeat. I started thinking about it. I remember talking to my agent, and she said that's interesting, but seems kind of topical. When Clinton is elected president, who's going to be there to buy it? And I said, I'm going to keep thinking about it.

The more I thought about it, the more I had questions. That word, wall--the most banal thing imaginable, became coded. It was a very specific kind of reference, and a relentless barrage. Where is this wall? Who is attached to it? What's the situation? I said, I'll finish this in a year. Because I didn't start with character, but with an image, it took me another five years to figure out the specifics of character and situation. Iris is trying to take care of herself, to take care of her child. She has a community that she's estranged from, and she's doing the best she can. Once that part of the story got laid out--it's about safety for her. Her American dream is safety. That's it for her. And that's something a lot of readers can relate to, I hope.

What is it that makes Iris a compelling protagonist?

Based upon the experiences Iris has had, she decided early on, I want to be safe above all. I want to protect myself and my family--that's the trade-off that I'm making, and if that makes me brusque or unlikable, I'm rolling with it. But what does that leave for Iris in the life that she's attempting to live? Has it been fulfilling; has it been satisfying? What kind of reckoning is afoot for her?

Once you get the totality of her situation, she becomes very easy to understand. I realize it's a bit of an authorial risk to put this character out there and have her say the things that she says, and put up her own wall. She has lived a very structured and specific life. My family, my daughter, my household. Very intentional. The idea of what it means to be a woman of color at this time, in this place, at this part of American history, what's that experience like? At least as I see it, there's probably a sense of guardedness, apprehensiveness. I'm not sure what the next day is going to bring me so I have to be on guard. What's out there waiting for me?

I didn't want to turn it into a Twilight Zone episode where this is a character who is being punished because she's bad. What's her backstory? Where's she from, what kind of life is she trying to live? I had to move that character development forward while at the same time pressing her from all sides. Every chapter, another bad thing happens. How to create a character who isn't solely reactive? If it's not the wall, it's the bands; if it's not the bands, it's what's going on with her family or with her daughter. She needs to take some control, some agency, but each time she does, there's something else another step ahead of her. Thinking about the lived experience that all of us have had over the last few years, I think this book is what it was like for me.

And the technology. Oh look, it's this cool little thing from Silicon Valley, and it'll track how much garbage you throw away. And very suddenly it becomes this whole other thing altogether. We have a collective embracing of certain technologies, if we feel there's going to be a benefit, and sometimes there's a flipside, unintended or intended consequences. Iris has traded away an essential part of her identity for the convenience of being American. Her community has traded away the idea of citizenship because there's a little thing that can tell them how many steps they take in a day. What does that mean for us? I don't know. But I don't know if it means anything good.

Are there heroes or villains in this story?

I don't think so. If there's a villain here, it's just fear. It's very simple. Fear leads to paranoia leads to a series of decisions... everybody in this universe in this novel is living under a perpetual dark cloud of fear.

Do you feel your readers need knowledge of Spanish to follow this novel?

My goal is not to confuse or alienate anybody. When you write a book, you're trying to connect with as many readers as possible. What I ask myself is, what's most important for this character in this situation? English, Spanish, switching back and forth? When she's with her mom, at the house, having dinner... it flows freely, and I wanted to capture that. I wanted it to be correct for that experience.

So much of the conversational nature of this book was influenced heavily by my family. My biological father left me when I was three, and I found him in my 30s. I was accepted into this family I didn't know, and all of a sudden, I had three sisters. When I hang out with them the conversation varies based on who I'm talking to, the context, what's being discussed. My Spanish is not great, but I can get what's being said if they speak really slowly, like to a child. Part of this is trying to mimic that experience for me. That sense of what would it be like to have a relationship with this language, which is important for communicating with your family, your community--lose it, and then work your way back. I hope that's one of the themes in the book. Our main character goes through this journey--if I've done it correctly--with the Spanish language. If I'm going to take the readers on that journey it has to be correct. --Julia Kastner
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Neo Opens Tokyo GAS Station Registration; The Token Trades at $8.98

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Enjin Coin (ENJ) Talks About Matrixchain; The Token Trades at $0.3123

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Here are the top stocks that could be in focus in today's trade:

Zomato: Food aggregator platform Zomato turned profitable for the first time ever in the first quarter (Q1) of 2023-24 (FY24). The firm reported a consolidated profit after tax of Rs 2 crore compared to a loss of Rs 186 crore in the year-ago period. Revenue from operations grew 71 percent year-on-year.

Bharti Airtel: Leading telecom operator Bharti Airtel touched the magical ARPU figure of Rs 200 a month for the first time in a decade. Meanwhile, it reported a flat consolidated net profit of Rs 1,612 crore in Q1FY24.

Lupin: Pharma major Lupin recorded a consolidated net profit of Rs 453.33 crore for the June quarter of FY24, as against a consolidated net loss of Rs 86.8 crore reported in the same period a year ago. While revenue surged nearly 29 percent YoY, Ebitda's margin jumped to 18.5 percent, up 1,190 basis points from last year.

Eicher Motors: The two-wheeler maker reported a 50 percent surge in consolidated net profit at Rs 918.34 crore for Q1FY24. The company claimed that this is its best-ever Q1 performance and is also the fourth consecutive quarter of highest-ever revenue from operations and PAT.

Paytm: Fintech company Paytm said its average monthly users rose by 19 percent on-year to 93 million. Merchant subscriptions stood at 8.2 million, with 4.1 million new subscriptions over the year, according to the filing. The fintech platform doled out 4.3 million loans in the month of July, making the total value of loans distributed in the month to Rs 5,194 crore, at a whopping yearly growth of 148 percent.

CDSL: The company has informed the exchanges that a warning letter, dated July 31, 2023, has been issued by Sebi against the company, which was received on August 3.

Torrent Power: Torrent Power Ltd (TPL) has entered into an agreement with subsidiaries of Shapoorji Pallonji & Company Private Limited (SPCPL) for the supply of 132 MW of solar power in Gujarat. The estimated project cost is Rs 700 crore. Separately, Torrent Power has forayed into the electric mobility infrastructure segment with four charging stations in Gujarat. The first set of charging stations has been installed in Ahmedabad.

GAIL (India): GAIL (India) is close to finalizing a long-term liquefied natural gas (LNG) import deal with Qatar to buy at least 1 million metric tons per year, potentially for more than 20 years, Reuters has reported. The deal would be part of GAIL's plans to lock in new supply contracts by 2030 to diversify its gas imports and hedge against supply disruptions like those seen after Russia's invasion of Ukraine last year when LNG prices surged to a record high.

Vedanta: S&P Global Ratings revised the credit outlook for Vedanta Resources Ltd to negative, citing increased funding risks. The agency has affirmed the 'B-' rating for the company.

Piramal Pharma: The company's revenue from operation grew by 18 percent YoY in Q1FY24 to Rs 1,749 crore, driven by broad base performance across all three businesses  CDMO, CHG, and ICH. Meanwhile, It narrowed its net loss to Rs 99 crore from Rs 109 crore YoY. Ebitda's margin climbed to 10 percent relative to 6 percent in Q1FY23.

LIC Housing Finance: LIC Housing Finance reported a 43 percent YoY rise in net profit at Rs 1,324 crore for the June quarter, while it clocked 28 percent YoY growth in interest income at Rs 6,304 crore. LIC HF has appointed T Adhikari as the managing director for five years, effective August 3.

Mahanagar Gas: MGL reported a two-fold increase in consolidated net profit to Rs 368.4 crore in Q1FY24 on account of a decline in domestic gas and LNG prices. Revenue from operations increased marginally to Rs 1,690 crore, while Ebitda came in at Rs 560.22 crore. MGL's total gas sales volume for the quarter slipped to 3.412 mmscmd from 3.448 mmscmd in Q1FY23.

Deepak Nitrite: The company reported a 36.1 percent YoY decline in net profit to Rs 149.9 crore for Q1FY24. Ebitda declined 41.1 percent YoY to Rs 209.7 crore, while Ebitda's margin shrank to 11.9 percent vs in 17.3 percent YoY.

HCC: The Board has approved raising funds up to Rs 300 crore via Rights Issue.

NBCC: The company won a contract worth Rs 301 crore to construct a hostel-cum-residential block at the University of Delhi.

JM Financial: The board approved the appointment of Nishit Shah as the Chief Financial Officer in place of Manish Sheth, effective October 1.
Swiss impact investor responsAbility Investments AG signed a $15 million funding deal with non-bank lender Electronica Finance to promote green financing in India in line with its sustainability goal, two people aware of the development said. The Pune-headquartered non-banking finance firm, which is a part of the SRP Electronica group, would use the funding for financing energy-efficient machines and promoting rooftop solar installation, managing director Shilpa Pophale.

The NBFC already received $7.5 million from responsibility last month while it plans to draw the remaining part later in the year, she said. The fund was raised at 11.4%. Supported by the Small Industries Development Bank of India, Electronica Finance grew its assets under management threefold in the past half a decade. Its AUM surpassed Rs 3000 crore mark as compared with Rs 1033 crore six years back. It earned Rs 42 crore net profit in FY23.

The company provides machine loans, business loans, loans against property, as well as working capital loans and loans to micro-enterprises. Business loans and machine loans comprise two-thirds of its book.
Pink has taken over the world. The marketing campaign for the premiere of the Barbie movie, directed by Greta Gerwig, is truly one of the best ever, as Barbies vibrant pink covered the globe. Its no wonder that this iconic doll has been bringing happiness to children, young people and adults worldwide for over 64 years. Claudia Lopez, at the age of 30, has been an avid collector for a decade now. Her passion began when she stumbled upon four of her childhood Barbie dolls that she had long forgotten about. You know, when I was little, I wasnt a fan of them at all. I didnt even ask for the ones I had  they were just given to me, said Lopez. Its a different story now  Lopez has over 500 Barbies on her shelves.

Barbie made her debut in 1959, heralding a revolution that would shape the world. In an era when dolls were usually babies for little girls pretending to be mothers, the famous blonde embarked on a mission to show children they could be anything they wanted to be. Barbie has played a significant role in the history of toys. She brought about a whole new set of values for boys and girls, something that was quite groundbreaking at the time. Nowadays, theyre coming out with Barbies that are inclusive, orthopedic, even Barbies with hearing aids and Down syndrome. Its all about making sure every child feels represented and can relate to their dolls, says Lopez. Her passion for everything pink has garnered her over 800,000 TikTok followers, where she is known as Chicle de Fresa (Strawberry Gum) and talks about her Barbie collection and latest acquisitions. I buy stuff I like without overthinking it. It doesnt matter if its cheap or expensive because if I get tired of it, I can always sell it for more than I paid.

The first Barbie doll she bought for her collection was the one inspired by Beatrix Potters The Tale of Peter Rabbit, which sparked a wave of doll craziness and collecting. Thats when I thought, Thats it! I gotta start collecting them. I just totally fell in love! Because of Barbie, Lopez has formed friendships with other collectors like 41-year-old Jonatan Nunez, who has been a Barbie fan since childhood. You know, even though the toys I had were always labeled as for boys, I was actually into playing with dolls. I loved styling their hair, dressing them up... Its been about 11 years since I started collecting them, and now I even go to conventions where I design clothes for these events. The Madrid Fashion Doll Show, held every September and organized by Monica Nunez del Castillo, brings together dozens of Barbie enthusiasts from all over Spain. Jonatan not only collects Barbies made by Mattel, but also designs his own dolls and buys models from other creators that he showcases on social media. His impressive collection numbers over 300 Barbies.

Claudia Lopez with her Barbie collection. Claudia Lopez

When his shelf space runs out, Jonatan has a straightforward solution  he just sells the items with less sentimental value or that lack uniqueness. The hobby of collecting Barbie dolls thrives on the global buying and selling of these iconic toys. Its a market characterized by soaring prices, particularly for the most unique and sought-after pieces, with an ever-increasing demand. According to a recent press release by Milanuncios (a Spanish website for online classified advertisements), there has been a 75% surge in searches for the original or oldest Barbies in the past year, leading to a notable increase in demand of 28%. The most Ive ever paid for one was 150 [$165], says Jonatan.

Monica Nunez del Castillo is an expert in all things Barbie-related, and also in the art of buying and selling. I stopped counting after I had 500 Barbies in my collection. I honestly dont know how many I have, and I dont even care. All I know is the ones Im missing and really want to get my hands on, she says. Monica has acquired rare and sought-after pieces from websites and conventions she regularly attends. Some dolls you can only get by sheer luck. Even though Barbies are collectible items, some sellers are unaware of their true value and sell them at significantly lower prices. Sometimes people sell things cheap because they dont know better. Ive seen ads before and thought: They have no clue what theyre selling or its probably just a scam. Monica was able to purchase dolls for 150 ($165) even though their actual market value was 2,000 ($2,200).

The special Barbie collection issued for the movie starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling. Anadolu Agency (Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

The turning point for Monica was when Mattel decided to release more special dolls. Those were actually pretty fascinating because they took inspiration from historical and movie models. I see them as dolls geared towards adult collectors. Monica says her most special and hard-to-find doll is the Moschino Barbie. Mattel actually gave away this rare doll at the front row of the Moschino fashion show in Milan. There were only like 50 or 100 of them, but you couldnt buy them anywhere because they werent being sold. Then in 2022, someone put one up for sale on Wallapop! Turns out it used to belong to their mother who worked at Moschinos store. I managed to get it for 250 [$275]. The last one auctioned off in Milan went for 3,000 [$3,300]!

The success of Barbie and her movie owes much to Mattel, the company that manufactures and distributes the doll. Andre Moreira, Head of Consumer Products at Mattel Iberia, told EL PAIS: 2023 has been all about work, commitment and dedication. We want to make sure fans can have an awesome experience beyond just the big screen. Their strategy has been tremendously successful, with over 100 brands partnering with Mattel to offer Barbie-related products. Predictably, these products sell out within hours of hitting the market.

Jonatan Nunezs Barbie collection. Jonatan Nunez

Barbie is 64 years old now. She started as a simple doll, but shes become so much more. Shes not just a toy anymore  shes an idea, a movement. And its amazing to see how society has evolved along with her. Weve worked hard to make Barbie the most diverse and inclusive brand in the world, says Moreira. Barbie embodies a rich history, as a cherished doll that has been handed down through generations and will continue to be cherished in the future. The grandmother first played with Barbie, then her daughter and now her granddaughter plays with Barbie too. Mattel recognizes the value and significance Barbie holds in peoples lives, which is why the company is so committed to fostering a connection that endures. We want people to really connect with the brand.

Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling have reignited feelings that seemed to have faded away, but never truly disappeared. In just two weeks, the vibrant and colorful movie raked in an impressive $811 million worldwide. The captivating legacy of Barbie will continue to enchant us for years to come, whisking us away to the enchanting realm of Barbie Land.

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Tesla India Motor & Energy Pvt Ltd, the Indian arm of the electric car giant, has made its first move towards establishing a physical presence in the country. The company has leased office space at Panchshil Business Park in Pune for a period of five years. The 5,850 square feet space, located on the first floor, has been leased from Tablespace Technologies, and the rent starts at 11.65 lakh per month.

The registration details, made available by data analytics firm CRE Matrix, reveal that the lease has a lock-in period of 36 months, with an annual rent escalation of 5 percent. The lease is set to commence on October 1, after which the space will undergo fit-outs. We are just trying to figure out the right timing I am confident that Tesla will be in India and will do so as soon as humanly possible, said Tesla founder Elon Musk during his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month, expressing his plans for an India entry and investing in a car-making facility.

The Indian government has been encouraging Tesla to emulate Apples model in India and collaborate with local partners who can work with Chinese suppliers. However, India is cautious about wholly-owned Chinese auto component companies setting up in the country, as certain critical parts for electric car production are currently unavailable locally and have to be sourced from China.

Teslas registration in Bengaluru took place earlier in 2021, and since 2019, Musk has been expressing interest in setting up operations in India. Although there were previous reports of the company setting up an office in Mumbais Lower Parel area and opening a retail showroom, no concrete developments have materialized.

Musk has also been in discussions with the Indian government to lower import duties on electric cars to facilitate Teslas import and sale in India and gauge its potential success in the market. With the recent lease of office space, Teslas presence in India takes a significant step forward, indicating its commitment to entering the Indian market in the near future.
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STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  The possibilities of the $4.2 billion Environmental Bond Act, a massive borrowing pool the state will draw from to complete a range of projects  from improving climate change resiliency and maintaining open spaces to electrifying school buses and protecting water quality  is beginning to come into focus on Staten Island.

Elected officials, environmentalists, community advocates and others gathered at the College of Staten Island Wednesday morning for a state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) presentation on the opportunities presented by the funding and a conversation surrounding the most effective ways to use the money on the borough.

As major environmentally-oriented infrastructure projects begin to rise on Staten Island, and with others nearing their start dates, the infusion of state money should grow momentum to bolster protections on a borough greatly at risk to the insidious effects of human-induced climate change.

This is sort of a once-in-a-generation opportunity to protect many things across Staten Island as it relates to sensitive natural areas, open space  projects that basically could improve the environment and preserve and protect many places that we would not want to see developed, said Borough President Vito Fossella, whose office organized the event.

The meeting offered officials the opportunity to understand the process of the bond act and the types of projects it can support across a wide range of sectors. The state is also seeking feedback on the allocation of the funding.

BUILDING CONSENSUS ON PRIORITIES

Some expressed concerns over potential projects that could damage the existing environment or offer less benefits than already-in-place natural resources, while others raised specific areas that could be targeted to maximize benefits.

Fossella expressed the need to consider the unique qualities of Staten Island compared to other parts of New York City when assessing projects, specifically in light of the states mandate to ensure at least 35% of the acts benefits are directed to recently-declared disadvantaged communities. A total of 36 census tracts on Staten Island  mostly on the North Shore  are considered disadvantaged by the state.

I think one of the takeaways from here is were going to have to have some type of working group with the elected officials, some of the environmental groups and anybody whos got a stake in this to begin to build a consensus on the most important projects, said Fossella.

Councilman David Carr (R-Mid-Island) echoed those sentiments, noting the borough should learn from its previous experience with resiliency projects and prioritize efforts that are more likely to be completed.

I think this information-gathering session was a good first step in the process of determining what potential environmental projects should be prioritized on Staten Island, and how we can make the case to our partners in city and state government to fund them, said Carr in a statement. I also think its important that we remember one of the lessons we learned in the aftermath of Sandy - that we are most likely to be successful if we focus on turnkey, ready to go projects rather than aspirational ones.

The Mayors Office of Climate and Environmental Justice (MOCEJ) said it would pursue every available federal and state dollar to protect New Yorkers from the impacts of climate change, especially as 59% of disadvantaged communities in the state are located within the five boroughs. Vicki Cerullo, acting executive director of the agency, and Jordan Salinger, senior advisor for climate ready infrastructure, were on hand at the Staten Island forum.

We will get our fair share of state funding, said an MOCEJ spokeswoman. That includes funds for bluebelts, our voluntary housing mobility program and Climate-Strong Communities in Port Richmond.

Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis (R-Staten Island), who was an assemblywoman for the boroughs East Shore when it was ravaged by Superstorm Sandy and a powerful force in the Islands recovery, said decision makers will need to focus on innovation and clean energy to harden our shoreline, protect our environment and improve efficiencies.

But we also need to make sure we are being good shepherds of taxpayer money and not incurring more debt to pay for unnecessary projects, which government has oftentimes done, said Malliotakis in a statement. Having these discussions early so the administration understands Staten Islands priorities, which include sewer expansion, coastal resiliency and the seawall project, is necessary.

Residents taking action to prevent flooding in their basements. This house in Westerleigh lines its driveway with sandbags to help barricade it from the rainwater after the rain on Tuesday, Oct. 26, 2021. (Staten Island Advance/Jason Paderon)

LARGEST BOND ACT IN NEW YORKS HISTORY

The bond act was passed convincingly as a ballot measure in 2022 and represents the first bond act in the state since 1996, when it included $1.75 billion in spending and was passed under former Republican Gov. George Pataki.

The most recent measure was initially proposed by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2019, but it was later pulled from the budget during the struggles caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Hochul subsequently increased the footprint of the bond act and rallied legislators, advocates and others to push for voter support.

A total of $650 million within the act is set aside for water quality and resilient infrastructure, $650 million for open space conservation and recreation, $1.1 billion for flood risk reduction and $1.5 billion for climate change mitigation.

Well-established state programs are already beginning to tap into the funding, but there are a range of new programs that will have to be put into effect to handle individual project categories, like flood risk, resiliency and climate mitigation. When draft versions of those programs are created, there will be a 30-day public comment period to allow the community to weigh in on the projects included under each program.

We had a productive conversation about funding for clean water, green jobs and new parks  all would be a green sweep for Staten Island, said Ed Burke, senior advisor to the borough presidents office. The next step is building consensus on specific projects eligible under the Bond Act.

The DEC is in the midst of a statewide listening tour to get a clearer picture at what those programs may need to encompass, and the latest visit to Staten Island is part of the broader effort to avoid a haphazard rollout of the largest bond act in New Yorks history.

Its really about making sure that we set ourselves up for success across the state, said Susanna Randall, the DECs chief resiliency officer. We want to make sure we get the money out at a reasonable pace. We want to get projects in the ground, but we also want to make sure that were doing so in a way that we can get money out fast and do it successfully.

Multiple breakwaters just below Staten Island's coast. (Staten Island Advance/Joseph Ostapiuk)

STATEN ISLANDS FAIR SHARE

Assemblyman Mike Reilly (R-South Shore), whose district includes multiple bluebelts and the $107 million Living Breakwaters resiliency project, commended the insights shared by community advocates, some of whom have been working to protect natural spaces on the Island for years, and highlighted some concerns brought up during the conversation.

Ensuring Staten Island receives its fair share of funds for supporting bluebelts and other infrastructure and resiliency projects is of utmost importance, said Reilly. During the conversation, we collectively raised concerns about the lack of priority in remediating the impacts of the dump, which disproportionally affected Staten Island for decades.

When the bond act money will first begin to make an impact on Staten Island remains to be seen. There is not a specific timetable to use the funding, and the state is currently keen to ensure it is rolled out effectively, especially as a demand for construction increases.

Balancing the urgency posed by risks of extreme weather and maintaining the prudence of doling out the states purse responsibly will be a major element of the bond acts ultimate effectiveness.

The Environmental Bond Act is a much needed investment to work towards resiliency for our coastal district, said State Sen. Jessica Scarcella-Spanton (D-North Shore/South Brooklyn). Im looking forward to working with the Borough President and our other elected and community partners to ensure that significant and much deserved funding comes to Senate District 23.

Councilwoman Kamillah Hanks (D-North Shore) said the forum shed light on promising opportunities the bond act holds for Staten Island. We are excited to see how these funds can be used to benefit the residents of District 49, she said.

This 2018 file photo shows the sun setting over Butler Manor Woods on Staten Island. (Staten Island Advance / Shira Stoll)Shira Stoll

MONEY FROM PAST BOND ACT HAD LASTING IMPACT

For many, the money is seen as integral in both the short and long term, providing a surge of possible funding to face a myriad of environmental concerns.

The Bond Act serves as a pivotal means to distribute essential funds for climate justice, said Sarah Blas, consultant for the New York City Housing Authoritys Clean Energy Academy. This event organized by the Borough Presidents Office allows organizations like The Public Housing Community Fund to continue initiatives like The Clean Energy Academy and actively tackle environmental challenges and their impact on the Staten Island Community.

Jose Ramirez-Garofalo, manager for Science and Research Development for the Freshkills Park Alliance, said the funding will be absolutely critical to ensuring Staten Islands future is secure, for public health, resiliency and the environment.

The previous bond act, passed more than a quarter-century ago, was the driving force behind multiple Staten Island conservation efforts, said Patrick Foster, DEC director of region 2, which includes New York City.

The St. Francis Woodlands, the Bridge Creek complex and the Mount Loretto Unique Area are among the spaces that benefitted from earlier funding.

We love Staten Island and we are constantly working with elected officials and with community based organizations to make sure that the amazing green resources here on the island are protected and conserved and improved, said Foster. So, I was super happy to hear about both specific parcels of land that people are focused on for protection, and also ideas for broader programs and ongoing programs that are looking for support.

New Yorkers looking to engage with the bond act can visit the states dedicated website and email Bondact@dec.ny.gov to be added to a distribution list detailing the latest information.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- An alleged Genovese crime family associate was sentenced to federal prison Wednesday over a racketeering conspiracy that also landed his father behind bars, according to multiple media reports.

Michael Poli, 37, will serve a 31-month prison term for the illegal gambling and extortion scheme he ran with his father and four mobsters, prosecutors said, according to the New York Post.

His father, Thomas Poli, 66, was sentenced to 22 months in prison a few weeks ago, according to report.

The father and son were part of a six-man crew arrested in April 2022 for allegedly collecting money through extortion and illegal gambling, prosecutors said.

Two co-defendants, alleged Genovese capo Nicholas Calisi, 54, and alleged soldier John Campanella, 48, were sentenced to 24 months and 13 months, respectively, in June.

According to prosecutors, the 37-year-old is accused also of threatening debtors.

The elder Poli is set to start serving his sentence on Sept. 29, while his son is expected to report to prison on Oct. 27, the New York Post reported.

He could have gotten a minimum of 41 to 51 months sentence before getting a two-and-a-half year prison term, plus three years supervised release and a $15,000 fine from Judge John Koetl.
The former face of the NYPD Sergeants Benevolent Association was sentenced Thursday to two years in prison for stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from members, according to multiple media reports.

Ed Mullins, 61, pleaded guilty in January to stealing $600,000 in illegal reimbursements from 2017 to 2021. Authorities said he billed members for expensive meals at high-end restaurants, designer clothing, jewelry, home appliances, college tuition and other personal expenses, the announcement said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexandra Rothman said Thursday in Manhattan Federal Court that a law enforcement officer and leader who picks the very pockets of the men and women he is supposed to protect warranted strict punishment to deter others in positions of power from similarly abusing it, the Daily News reported.

Rothman noted that Mullins stole his members dues while on a $250,000 salary as SBAs outspoken leader, including billing for meals without receipts, which he warned members against doing.

Behind closed doors, he was a thief, a liar, she said, describing the $600,000 he admitted to stealing as part of his plea to wire fraud as extremely conservative.

The ex-union chief in a statement to the court said he lost more than just a revered title following his arrest, the outlet reported.

Although I regret everything that has led me to this day, I remain motivated to make this right, to correct my flaws, and to restore to all those who Ive injured, Mullins said in court Thursday.

I make no excuses. I made an incredibly bad decision, he continued. However, no experience has changed me more than to be the accused of the criminal charge to which I stand here before you, now awaiting judgment.

Judge John Koetl handed down the sentence Thursday.

Any sentence is tragic, said Koetl, but the tragedy of the sentence is certainly caused by the defendants actions.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- When Amethyst House shuttered its doors unexpectedly in February 2022, it left Staten Islands recovery community with a gaping hole. The borough no longer had a dedicated womens substance use treatment facility.

The 40-year-old safe haven for sober women closed in February 2022. Soon after, multiple whistleblowers told the Advance/SILive.com a tragic death happened in the facility amid allegations of missing medications and operating issues by its former CEO.

Shortly after its abrupt closure, new board members from Camelot of Staten Island were elected and those members, along with Camelots CEO Luke Nasta, were given control over the governance and business operations of Amethyst House with the goal of reopening the facility.

Board member Forbes Irving and future board member Helene Irving, Camelots CEO Luke Nasta and Mary McBrian, compliance consultant, stand outside the former Amethyst House location at 220 Heberton Ave. in Port Richmond, which reopened after renovation. August 3, 2023 (Staten Island Advance/Jan Somma-Hammel) - . Jan Somma-HammelJan Somma-Hammel

This week, Amethyst House reopened its former temporary 10-bed facility at 220 Heberton Ave. in Port Richmond after being renovated. It is now fully-staffed and has welcomed its first two residents, said Nasta. He said he expects the 10 beds to fill up by the end of August. Nasta noted that those residents living in Amethyst House when it shuttered were placed in a Brooklyn-based program.

A permanent location for Amethyst House is being constructed at 280 Richmond Terr., New Brighton, with an expected opening date in mid-2024.

Nasta told the Advance/SILive.com he had received operational money from the state to reopen the facility.

Staten Island has had no residential services for women for over a year since Amethyst House suspended its operations in February 2022, said Nasta, who has for 47 years help run an array of programs via Camelot to help those recovering from substance use disorder.

Camelots CEO Luke Nasta and Carl Feren, chief operating officer at Camelot Counseling's tour of the temporary 10-bed facility, at the former Amethyst House location at 220 Heberton Ave. in Port Richmond ,which reopened after renovation. August 3, 2023 (Staten Island Advance/Jan Somma-Hammel) - . Jan Somma-HammelJan Somma-Hammel

The reintegration programs goals are to provide a safe, supportive, monitored environment for women to gradually reenter the community as they establish employment, education/vocation, safe housing and a network of positive and healthy relationships. ... Camelot Board members, staff, and Office of Addiction Services and Supports (OASAS) worked diligently in partnership to restore the critically needed services to Staten Island, he added.

Nasta noted that Camelot of Staten Island and Amethyst House will remain separate entities.

Of the reopening of the temporary facility, Evan Frost, spokesman for OASAS, which oversees sober living facilities in New York, said:

The reopening of this program will provide lifesaving help and support to women on Staten Island who have been impacted by addiction, and we are pleased to see this program begin offering services again, he said. OASAS assisted Amethyst House with efforts to re-establish services after operations were discontinued last year, through an Management Services Agreement with Camelot. With the reopening of this program, Amethyst House is again operating as its own entity, and Camelot is transitioning out of its supportive role for this program.

Jo Jina Mitchell is the chef at the temporary 10-bed facility, at the former Amethyst House location at 220 Heberton Ave. in Port Richmond, which reopened after renovation. August 3, 2023 (Staten Island Advance/Jan Somma-Hammel) - Jan Somma-HammelJan Somma-Hammel

NEW BOARD OF DIRECTORS FOR AMETHYST HOUSE

After Amethyst House shuttered in February, Nasta said Amethyst Houses Board of Directors elected three members who are also on Camelots Board. After that, the Amethyst House Board resigned, leaving those three people who were newly-elected in charge, said Nasta.

Weve worked very hard to establish a presence on Staten Island, not only through Camelot, but with Amethyst House, said Camelot and Amethyst House Board President Ruth Mingoia.

Camelots CEO Luke Nasta stands in the dining room of the temporary 10-bed facility, at the former Amethyst House location in Port Richmond, which reopened after renovation. August 3, 2023 (Staten Island Advance/Jan Somma-Hammel) - Jan Somma-HammelJan Somma-Hammel

They had been in business for a long time. And when they dissolved, they called Luke and asked him if he would oversee reconstituting it with OASAS. So thats what we did. ...[Amethyst House] has been doing really good work with their clients. So putting them into a facility that we just had renovated, is a great way to continue that. Its very needed on Staten Island. We have a really big drug and alcohol problem out here.

Camelot and Amethyst House Board Member Angel DeRuvo said her son is a product of Camelot. She said she is grateful for Nasta and all the services that were provided to her son, who now has been drug-free for three years.

Donating my services is the least I could do. Luke is the guru of nonprofits that save peoples lives. Hes one of the angels, she said.

Future board member Helene Irving stands in the recreation room at the temporary 10-bed facility, at the former Amethyst House location at 220 Heberton Ave. in Port Richmond, which reopened after renovation. August 3, 2023 (Staten Island Advance/Jan Somma-Hammel) - Jan Somma-HammelJan Somma-Hammel

Reopening Amethyst House is setting an example for the community, and also for rehabs because it puts women in a much better position. An isolated facility specifically geared to women where they can feel comfortable and their needs are met is so important. ...C amelot and Amethyst House are setting the stage so future facilities can emulate this.

Said Nasta: Im proud to be able to say that I accomplished what was asked of me, and Ill be providing through] Camelot Board of Directors and Amethyst House Board of Directors critical services that Staten Island needs, and this will be a precedent setter.

Amethyst House referrals can be made by contacting admissions at (718) 448-1900 for an assessment interview.

RELATED STORIES:

>>Questions mount, amplifying devastation after young mother dies in recovery

>>Artistic mom with huge heart died seeking recovery on Staten Island

>> Exclusive: Long-standing NYC safe haven for women shutters amid tragic death, allegations of abrupt resignation, missing meds

>> Staten Island safe haven for women, shuttered under controversy, on its way to reopening under new leadership

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A religious procession held in honor of Santo Domingo de Guzman, on July 28, 2023, in Managua, Nicaragua. Jorge Torres (EFE)

Photos of Nicaraguan cardinal Leopoldo Brenes welcoming the Sandinista mayor of Managua, Reyna Rueda, to Las Sierritas parish have sparked controversy in Central Americas largest country. The photos show the Catholic prelate smiling and conversing with functionaries from the government of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, a regime that continues to pursue a fierce campaign of religious persecution against Catholicism. The mayor and the priest had convened to celebrate the Feast of Santo Domingo de Guzman (Saint Dominic de Guzman), Managuas patron saint, venerated every August in one of the most well-attended and passionate religious festivals in the country.

In 2018, after the outbreak of nation-wide protests and the campaign of brutal state repressed that followed, the Catholic Church stopped granting Managuas mayors the privilege of presiding over the annual celebration as mayordomos de Santo Domingo. While neither Mayor Rueda nor Vice Mayor Enrique Armas were allowed to serve as mayordomos this year either, their mere presence at Las Sierritas Church, which was widely publicized across official media channels, was nonetheless surprising. In the months since Semana Santa, the Catholic Holy Week celebrated every April, the Sandinista regime has denied thousands of permits for various church-related events, but in recent weeks, the government has apparently reversed course, allowing certain religious and traditional processions to take place in the country.

But the lifting of the ban has been selective and partial. In towns and cities across Nicaragua, the Ortega-Murillo regime has allowed dances, bull running, horse riding and other traditional activities held as part of each communitys patron saint festivities, but the government has denied permission for some devotional processions, such as those held in honor of Saints Santa Ana and San Joaquin in the communities of Nandaime and Chinandega. But this year, for the first time since 2018, the regime allowed Managuas historic procession for the Feast of Santo Domingo, which prior to the ban would descend from the mountains to the eastern neighborhoods of Nicaraguas capital city every August. The event is not only a religious tradition, but a media spectacle as well, and the presidential couple, according to researcher Martha Patricia Molina, author of the study Nicaragua, una Iglesia Perseguida [Nicaragua: A Persecuted Church], has decided to take full advantage of it.

The Santo Domingo processions  and Im sure this is true for the La Merced festivities taking place next month in Leon as well  have been permitted for cultural and touristic reasons, not because the Sandinistas are suddenly religious, Molina says. Then they bring in the police and city officials to send a message to the rest of the country that there is no religious persecution in Nicaragua. Meanwhile, there are standing orders to expel foreign religious leaders from the country.

Speaking to EL PAIS, Molina argued that all processions and religious expressions should be allowed without restriction, because they are a constitutional and human right. But, she says, the dictatorship has already banned more than 3,200 processions in 2023, because the government sees these activities as having the potential to turn into protests, and because they hate everything religious. Its an act of revenge against the Catholic community.

Persecution continues

The Sandinista government maintains an open investigation into the Catholic Church, including against Cardinal Brenes himself, for alleged money laundering. Five priests are currently imprisoned in Nicaragua, and three others are under investigation. Bishop Rolando Alvarez has been in custody since August 2022, and was sentenced to 26 years in prison this February after he refused to join 222 of his fellow political prisoners who were freed and sent into exile in the United States.

Less than a month ago, the presidential couple revoked the legal status of the Fundacion Fraternidad Pobres de Jesucristo, a religious nonprofit dedicated to serving the countrys poor through the provision of food, clothing and prayers. The government then ordered the expropriation of the institutions assets. The nuns of the fraternity were immediately forced to leave Nicaragua, and fled to nearby El Salvador. Meanwhile, five days ago, Nicaraguas General Directorate of Migration and Foreign Affairs (DGME) cancelled the residency of the Italian friar Domingo Pepe, who was also expelled from the country.

Despite the fact that this August 1st, as we speak, Managua is enjoying the dancing, laughter and fireworks typical of the Santo Domingo festivities, the repression against the Church continues, Molina says. The procession in Managua last week may not have been as large as it was in years prior to 2018, but that did not stop several thousand people from accompanying the pilgrimage in a carnivalesque explosion of dancing and drinking.

Rosario Murillo: A pilgrimage of joy

In the midst of this repressive context, Ortegas co-president, Rosario Murillo, announced last Friday that a series of traditional and religious festivities would be held across the country, including for the Feast of Santo Domingo in Managua, and the Feast of Santa Ana in Chinandega, Nindiri and Niquinohomo. In addition, Murillo said that the Feast of Santiago (Saint James) would be celebrated in the communities of Boaco, Nagarote, Santo Tomas, Jinotega, Sebaco and Somoto. Murillo boasted that, as part of this great celebration, Nicaragua would enjoy a total of 13 bullfights as well as numerous horse races and other equestrian events.

Here, from one feast to the next, grateful to God, celebrating peace. Because peace is our victory... Celebrating life, celebrating love and kindness, celebrating brotherhood and solidarity, celebrating our cultural identity, Murillo said during her daily address, after listing the activities the government was promoting, which would include rodeos, bull rides, and the traditional Palo Lucio festival in Managua.

Cardinal Brenes has not said a word about his meeting with Sandinista officials in Managua, but a few days ago, the parish priest of Las Sierritas Church, Boanerges Carballo, said that the Feast of Santo Domingo had been possible this August thanks to the ability to have dialogue. In 2017, the Ortega-Murillo regime appointed Carballos sister, Esther Margarita Carballo, as Nicaraguas ambassador to The Vatican. In the eighties, the priests other sibling and another important religious leader in the country, Monsignor Bismarck Carballo, was the victim of a Sandinista government intelligence operation, but in 2004, he reconciled with the regime and has been close to the presidential couple ever since.

On August 1, Murillo presided over the Santo Domingo celebrations in Managua, as the tiny saint descended from the mountains on the shoulders of his devoted pilgrims: Today we celebrate with joy our traditional festivities, this pilgrimage of joy, this dance, the dance that cries out, that beseeches, that we devote to the saint of all Managuans, the dance that asks, as always, for peace and wellbeing. Because peace is our victory, peace is what our work, and our stability, depend on. Peace is what our prosperity depends on, announced the co-president, who together with her husband is accused of committing crimes against humanity.

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The magic portal would typically materialise on the bus. Too imposing to fit in a schoolbag, it would arrive under a careful arm: some gatefold conundrum by Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin or someone stranger. This is how music announced itself in the 1970s. A heavy, 12-inch-square head-trip foreshadowing unknown pleasures.

The poor mans art collection, is how Noel Gallagher describes the tactile wonders of the vinyl era in Squaring the Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis). It was later LP sleeves by the Smiths and the Jam he recalls turning his own bus trips to reveries. But youll find little debate from him or anyone else about who defined the golden age of album art.

Filmmaker Anton Corbijn Credit: Stefan Vanfleteren

The importance of Hipgnosis is obvious, states Anton Corbijn, Zooming in from a remote corner of Ibiza. The Dutch photographer and filmmaker (Control, The American) made the documentary about the seminal London design duo premiering at MIFF next week as a pandemic project.

Its not that I like all the stuff they do, but some of the stuff theyve done I absolutely love and admire and [it was] very significant for me when I grew up, he says. On a technical level they were amazing. The way they connected visuals to music  on something like Houses of the Holy or Wish You Were Here, I mean, these are pretty amazing sleeves.
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Eating outBest of How Bellingen became a foodie mecca in regional NSW Bianca Hrovat August 5, 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

Restaurant group Three Blue Ducks has opened a new farm-to-table restaurant in Bellingen, a town on the Mid North Coast of NSW whose fast-growing food scene has made it a thriving travel destination. The Ducks fifth restaurant, helmed by head chef Julien Vasseur, draws on local, sustainable producers such as Levenvale Farm (Bello Beef) and The Patch Organics to produce Asian-inspired dishes such as dirty duck, roasted with citrus fruit and Davidson plum. Three Blue Ducks Bellingen head chef Julien Vasseur and co-founder Darren Robertson. Steven Woodburn It joins more than eight new restaurants, cafes, specialist food stores and bakeries to open across the Bellingen Shire since COVID-19  not bad for a region with a population of about 13,000. Some of the most interesting and awesome food offerings in Australia are now happening regionally, and Bellingen is a big part of that movement, says Three Blue Ducks co-founder and chef Darren Robertson.

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Its a quaint little town, but the standard is incredibly high, whether youre going to the local bottle shop (Libertine Liquor), the brewery (Bellingen Brewing Co) or the restaurants. Located just outside town at The Lodge, a converted roadside motel, Three Blue Ducks has already become a destination restaurant for out-of-towners, particularly from nearby Coffs Harbour, since opening in mid-July. The new Three Blue Ducks restaurant in Bellingen. Steven Woodburn Bellingen Shire has welcomed more than 311,000 domestic visitors in the 12 months to March, a number not seen since 2018, and research by Destination NSW reveals that eating out is the most popular activity. Ask a local for a restaurant recommendation, and theyll invariably direct you to Brunos, a Mediterranean restaurant in a weatherboard cottage on Oak Street, where chef Jesse Dolman, formerly of two-hatted Brunswick Heads restaurant Fleet, heads the kitchen.

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It is the first hospitality venture from brothers Joshua and Oliver Gluck, who moved to the region from Melbourne and Byron Bay during the pandemic. Brunos in Bellingen has become a local favourite. Supplied We opened it for the community in the middle of COVID, when there was no way to target tourists. It was all about what we wanted to experience in Bellingen, Joshua Gluck says. Gluck says their arrival coincided with a boom in local eateries. Since Brunos opened, the former logging town has welcomed restaurants such as Osteria Fiume and Charlies at Church, alongside cafes like Eden and Habitat Coffee House. It has always had a wonderful food scene, but theres definitely an increasing number of venues opening, focusing on quality local produce and a slightly higher end of dining, Gluck says.

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A spread meant for sharing at Brunos in Bellingen. Supplied Its become a destination for dining. Where Bellingen restaurants used to fly under the radar, now theyre put on the map. Outside interest has spread up Waterfall Way to nearby Dorrigo, where Peaches Patisserie opened last year. The small shop is the fulfilment of a childhood dream for owner Beth OLoughlin, who returned to Bellingen Shire after honing her pastry skills in Melbourne. Locals appetite for her seasonal pastries, such as Davidson plum doughnuts and butterscotch and brown butter pie, means OLoughlin has had to step up her working hours, and she has found a strong food culture in the region.

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People are happy to spend money on food, but they do have high expectations. Blackcurrant and raspberry eclairs at Peaches Patisserie in Dorrigo. Supplied OLoughlin suggests it is the regions dense rainforests, waterfalls and creeks (with names like Promised Lands and Diehappy) that attract skilled hospitality workers to the area. Think of Bangalow, or Byron Bay. With beautiful landscapes come creative types, and with creative types come hospitality workers, she says. Thats the case for Gabriel Gutnik and Nathalie Poludniewski, who moved to Bellingen last year after discovering its natural beauty. Operating under the name Ziggys Wildfoods, the pair forage the surrounding landscape for native ingredients and wild invasive species to create a range of condiments, ferments and shrubs, drinks combining fermented plants, vinegar and a sweetener.

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A selection of miso pastes made by Ziggys Wildfoods using foraged ingredients. Supplied In February, they opened their first brick-and-mortar store on the towns main street, and in July, their products were featured at Maaemo, when the Michelin three-star Norwegian restaurant held a weekend-long pop-up at the two-hatted Berowra Waters Inn. The hospitality industrys success is underpinned by a community of growers and producers who draw on the shires rich soil and subtropical climate to supply everything from black truffles to native Dorrigo pepper. For a foodie, Bellingen is like the ultimate dream, Gutnik says. People bring bucketloads of fruit they find or grow on their property. Often we show up at the door and there are buckets of Davidson plums. The yuzu eclair at Three Blue Ducks in Bellingen uses miso made by Ziggys Wildfoods. Steven Woodburn

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To repay their kindness, Gutnik transforms the plums into ferments, or works with family-run gelateria Bellingen Gelato to create small-batch flavours. We want people to be able to fully experience and taste the ingredients growing in the valley and the mountains, he says. There are so many foodies here that care about the land theyre on, and its created a real foodie mecca.

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Review Eating outHaberfield This egg-yolk yellow cafe and its Happiest Meal is a sunny way to start to the day Callan Boys August 4, 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

This story is part of the August 5 Edition of Good Weekend. See all stories .

1 / 6 Inside the ridiculously popular Happyfield cafe in Haberfield. Jennifer Soo 2 / 6 The Happiest Meal comprises two hash browns, a McLovin Muffin with egg, cheese and chicken sausage, and three pancakes. Jennifer Soo 3 / 6 Italian beef sandwich. Jennifer Soo 4 / 6 Inside the cheerful cafe. Jennifer Soo 5 / 6 Old Bay grilled cheese with Niks tomato soup. Jennifer Soo 6 / 6 Wedge salad. Jennifer Soo Previous Slide Next Slide 14 / 20 How we score Cafe$$$ Im certain that Sydneysiders have lined up at Happyfield more than at any other cafe or restaurant this year. The queue for ramen can be longer at North Strathfields Kosuke, and the midday rush at Malay-Chinese Noodle Bar in Circular Quay is reasonably mad, but for perpetual customer turnover across breakfast and lunch, Happyfield leaves all other joints that dont take bookings for dead. This naturally begs the question, why? The Haberfield cafe opened in late 2020 and specialises in pancakes, eggs, hash browns and sausage-filled muffins. That sounds an awful lot like a McDonalds breakfast, you might say, which is exactly the point. The Golden Arches has spent half a century fine-tuning North American diner classics to provide the best crowd-pleasing breakfast of all the fast-food giants. Elevating that menu with better produce and technique is hardly a new chef trick, but Ive rarely seen it done with so much polish. Of course Happyfield is ridiculously popular!

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Go-to dish: The Happiest Meal comprises two hash browns, a McLovin Muffin with egg, cheese and chicken sausage, and three pancakes. Jennifer Soo The Happiest Meal, especially, is a humdinger for all ages. Thirty-five dollars buys you a silver tray sporting two outrageously crunchy hash browns, a McLovin Muffin overflowing with velvety folded egg, yellow cheese and chicken sausage, and three pancakes of maximum sponginess ready to absorb as much butter and maple syrup as you want to throw at them. Did you ever see those towering piles of pancakes in the John Candy film Uncle Buck and think, Gee, I wish I could order a stack like that in Australia? Well, at Happyfield you can: up to 15 of the oversized pikelets for $5 each. You could also add a few strips of precision-grilled Canadian bacon ($5.50) at this point, but I often find this is a step too far. Start the day with bacon, butter and maple syrup, and where can you go? Foie gras for lunch and a schooner of caviar for dinner? That sounds an awful lot like a McDonalds breakfast, you might say, which is exactly the point.

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Mercifully, you can avoid the queue for all this by giving your phone number to co-owner Chris Theodosi on the door, wholl call when your table is ready. Maybe 20 minutes, maybe an hour, but always enough time to pick up the weeks salami and pasta from delicatessen-lined Ramsay Street. Most soon-to-be customers choose to huddle near the entrance regardless, and weekend mornings are a broad congregation of dads in trucker caps, mums in all-day sweatpants and young couples just keen for a reliable brunch. A quick survey of tables tells me that eggs your way on toast ($13) is a popular order bolstered by $5.50 sides, such as dukkah-spangled avocado and house-cured salmon. Old Bay grilled cheese with a cup of tomato soup. Jennifer Soo After the pancakes, Im most drawn to the soup and sandwich ($23): a classic American combination of salty-sweet tomato soup and toasted cheese rarely seen in Sydney. Owner-chef Jesse Orleans loads his toasted sanger with smoked scamorza, cheddar, mozzarella and Old Bay-spiced bechamel; its most definitely cheesy, but not to the point where your nose starts sweating and you need to worry about weird dreams.

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Theres also a cheeseburger ($25) fat with miso-glazed onions and two smashed patties dripping meat juices and 1950s nostalgia. Love it. A heavy prawn katsu sandwich ($23) is punched up with fermented yuzu aioli on a squishy potato roll. Full marks; would order again. Fried egg-topped sirloin ($34) is cooked well beyond medium-rare as requested, but my negroni is a competitive $16. You win some, you lose some. Wedge salad. Jennifer Soo Orleans was born and raised in Toronto, Canada, which means he also knows his way around that steakhouse staple, the wedge salad ($21). Cold, crisp iceberg is doused in bacon fat and apple cider vinaigrette thats so delicious and silky it feels indecent. Radishes, green beans and baby cucumbers provide extra crunch, and the whole shebang might be good for you if it werent for the big lug of ranch dressing. In early July, Theodosi and Orleans increased Happyfields capacity by 50 per cent after taking over the site next door. The new dining room is decked out in the same banquettes, exposed brick and egg yolk-yellow paint job as the rest of the place.

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Theoretically, more space should mean shorter wait times, but I sense the brunch spot is set to become even busier. The branding is slick, word-of-mouth is strong, and the staff are warm and engaged and know how to make everybody feel like somebody. On one visit, a syrup-drenched pancake stack is placed in front of a boy celebrating his fifth birthday and a whole-room sing-a-long of Happy Birthday ensues. You dont get that at McDonalds every day; heck, I dont think Ive seen it at another Sydney cafe. The low-down Vibe: American diner meets Australian cafe Go-to dish: The Happiest Meal ($35) Drinks: First-rate coffee from flat whites to batch brews, plus juices and well-priced cocktails Cost: About $60 for two, excluding drinks This review was originally published in Good Weekend magazine

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Indooroopilly State High School has trucked in demountable classrooms and will refuse most out-of-catchment enrolments next year as it scrambles to find room for hundreds of students it accepted above its official capacity.

Last year, the inner-west school had 2688 students enrolled but room for 2140, meaning it was at 125 per cent capacity.

Indooroopilly State High School had 2688 students enrolled in August 2022  only 54 per cent of whom lived in the catchment area  despite having capacity for 2140 students. Credit: Dan Peled

Only about half its students lived within its local catchment zone, despite its enrolment management plan (EMP) requiring the principal to restrict out-of-catchment enrolments.

Earlier this year, principal Michael Hornby told parents the school had rapidly outgrown its built capacity and it was highly unlikely that out-of-catchment enrolments would be accepted in 2024.
Members of the group sought to take control of the council meeting through calling a point of order or to dictate to the mayor what topics were to be debated in the meeting, Hilsens affidavit states. He also recounted other scenes including a member of the public was witnessed sitting in the mayoral chair and taking selfies with the national flags, and, another meeting in April, in which someone [in the public gallery] was using a flashlight which created a spotlight effect on councillors while they were speaking as others in the group filmed proceedings. The plaintiff in the case, Darren Dickson, was at pains during the one-day trial to assert that the council had overreacted by taking council meetings online. He was adamant no one at the meetings posed a serious physical threat and were merely frustrated citizens who felt they werent being heard by councillors. Council were putting tables up as barriers in between them in the gallery. There was no danger  theres a demographic of 50 to 60-year-olds attending the meeting, he said.

No one was there to get aggressive or to threaten, or to hurt or to follow [councillors] after meetings late at night. There was none of that. That was projected by the council. Loading Brimbank, Hobsons Bay, Latrobe City, Monash and Yarra Ranges all confirmed to The Age they had council meetings or events disrupted in some way in recent months. The Municipal Association of Victoria  the peak body for Victorian councils  estimates about 40 of the states 79 councils had seen members of the My Place network attend meetings but not all had seen meetings or events derailed. Among councils that confirmed they had installed security guards at meetings recently were Banyule, Baw Baw Shire, Darebin, Hume, Knox, Monash, Mornington Peninsula, Nillimbuk, Whittlesea, City of Yarra and Yarra Ranges. A spokeswoman for the Shire of Baw Baw, in Victorias high country, confirmed officers had been given duress alarms during meetings, while Hobsons Bay and Yarra Ranges now require pre-registration and tickets to attend the public gallery.

Other councils, such as Maribyrnong and Merri-bek, have had security guards in place for many years. But Merri-bek, in Melbournes inner north, has increased the number of security guards after an incident in June. Greens councillor Adam Pulford says he was the subject of really hateful homophobic remarks from the public gallery during debate on a motion about the council standing in alliance with the LGBTQ community.



At the Coburg Civic Centre, where council holds its meetings, the public gallery area is behind glass, meaning councillors cant clearly hear comments from the public. But Pulford said council was alerted by community members that some in the gallery were directing threats at Pulford and other queer-identifying councillors behind the glass. Yarra Ranges Mayor Jim Child had to halt a council meeting and call police in January after the public gallery became unruly. Credit: Eddie Jim They were reportedly saying things like, they wanted to snap our bones like chicken bones, Pulford said. These are meant to be welcoming places. Since then, the council has implemented a security text line for attendees to report behaviour that is offensive, abusive or threatening to council staff in real time during meetings.

Meanwhile, in Gippsland, Latrobe City became the second council to close its public gallery last month, after CEO Steven Piasente flagged behaviour in the public gallery had raised concerns for the psychological welfare of council staff and councillors. Loading Piasente justified taking the councils July and August meetings online and out of the public chamber because of a number of incidents, including an alleged altercation between gallery members, interjections during council debate from the gallery, mass walkouts and councillors being shown the middle finger by members of the public. I need to make a call about whether things might escalate at the next meeting, and whether Ive got in place appropriate controls in terms of providing a safe workplace, not just for the councillors, but also my staff, and also other community members who might be attending, he told The Age. I do acknowledge that some people will experience that differently... [some may] feel safe in that environment, and some may not.

Latrobe City councillors confirmed tensions were high in the area in May after the Andrews governments surprise announcement to bring forward the end to native logging from 2030 to the end of this year. Despite the councils announcement to take the July meeting online, about 250 people  including logging workers and trucks  peacefully rallied outside the council chambers in Traralgon while the meeting was underway. A similar rally is due to take place outside the chambers during the councils meeting on Monday evening. A timber industry rally in July outside Latrobe City Councils meeting, which was heard online. Both the Traralgon Community Development Association and My Place Traralgon promoted the events. At least three councillors, Dale Harriman, Melissa Ferguson and Sharon Gibson, who have aligned themselves with the plight of timber industry workers, say they believe the shift to online meetings was unjustified.

I cop more at the local footy match than what we cop at the council meetings, said Harriman, whose unsuccessful motion in June urging council to lobby for a state government reversal on the logging decision caused a stir in the public gallery. Loading My view is that if you sign up to be a representative for your local council, youre not always going to have the support of local community  but it goes with the territory. There are no standard governance rules between councils on how they conduct meetings. Even before the spate of council disruptions, there have been long-held complaints about certain councils vetting public questions days out from meetings or denying the public the ability to ask questions in person. The president of the Municipal Association of Victoria, councillor David Clarke, said the sector had set up a taskforce with the state government over security issues at council meetings.
We will no longer be able to use this street with my young children. [They] learnt to ride their bikes up and down this street, Rush said, adding she was also disappointed to not be consulted. Loading I would be more comfortable with it attached to a hospital in some sense. Im not a policymaker, all I know is I dont think its great for our street and  our community. The centres operator, cohealth, and the City of Yarra were both only informed of the governments decision on Thursday. The centre is expected to open before public drunkenness is decriminalised on November 7, which is Melbourne Cup Day. When asked about residents concerns, cohealth deputy chief executive Christopher Turner said people who were taken to the centre from across metropolitan Melbourne would be supported by staff and would not leave until they were sober, part of a health-first approach to public drunkenness.

A police cell is not the right place for a drunk person, Turner said. Yarra councillor Stephen Jolly said the sobering-up centre was badly needed, but that residents felt they had been kept in the dark. They just woke up to this announcement, he said. They want to know why they were not consulted about the sobering-up centre. They want to know why [it] was not placed at St Vincents [Hospital] just down the road. Jolly said it was helicopter policy by the state government, which had failed to consult the local community.

Loading Theyre good people. No one in their right mind could argue against this idea. Its just handled so secretively, so amateurishly, they are just absolutely guaranteed people will get their pitchforks out. Police Association Victoria secretary Wayne Gatt said it did not fill you with confidence that the centres operator had only just found out about it. They are going to need a good builder, he said. Good luck to them if they can get it up and running in 95 days. Turner said the service would be ready in time.

We have experience during COVID of setting up vaccination clinics over a weekend, he said. Mental Health Minister Gabrielle Williams on Friday dismissed concerns the centre would not be ready to open its doors in three months. Collingwood is a government-owned site that simply requires some fit out and refurbishment, so were confident that we can get that construction work done in time and the builder has been appointed and that work will very soon be underway, she said. Gatt said the sobering-up centre still left police with many drunk people to deal with because it required people to agree to go.

For those that say no, that remain a risk to themselves or their community and are not committing criminal offences, police wont have the power to deal with them as they did in past days or previous times. Thats the gap, he said. Loading Williams said the service would have more of a homey feel than a clinical feel. There are places for people to obviously sleep and get the rest they need, but I believe that theres also coffee and tearooms and shared kitchen spaces ... facilities like that. The principal of the Collingwood English Language School, which is directly across the road from the site of the sobering-up centre, declined to comment.

Williams said the government was in discussions with providers as it prepared to roll out similar services across regional Victoria. But were confident that well be ready to decriminalise [public drunkenness] in November this year and to provide people the support that they need in those circumstances. The location for the governments first sobering-up centre at 3 Cambridge street in Collingwood. Credit: Joe Armao The government said a dedicated sobering-up service for First Nations people would also be established. The sobering-up centre is part of the Victorian governments move to decriminalise public drunkenness after it passed landmark legislation in 2021, a reform triggered by the death of Yorta Yorta woman Tanya Day, and an acknowledgement the laws disproportionately impacted Indigenous people.
While trying to advocate for her, he felt ignored, powerless and like I was treated as a nuisance. Australias first inquiry into birth trauma has kicked off in NSW parliament and the Clarks are among those speaking up about the lasting mental and physical impact of birth trauma. Despite their ordeal, daughter Maia, now 3, was born healthy. Tara Clark has sought trauma-informed midwives to support her during her second birth, due this year. Credit: Paul Jeffers The inquiry, which started last month, was triggered after 30 mothers made complaints about Wagga Wagga Base Hospital, including allegations some were forcibly held down, given inadequate pain relief or told they would be induced to free up beds. It follows Australias largest study of womens birth experiences, which found in December that one in 10 women felt violated disrespected or abused during birth.

Now the Australasian Birth Trauma Association (ABTA) and maternal health academics are calling for a national investigation to address what experienced midwifery educator-researcher Professor Hannah Dahlen describes as a national shame. I think the Commonwealth needs to take this seriously; NSW is leading the way ... but we absolutely need to make this national because its a national shame, said Dahlen, the head of midwifery at Western Sydney University. This will start to lift the lid on something thats gone on for far too long. Heidi Lipson experienced long-lasting chronic symptoms after the birth of her first child, Hugo. Credit: Brook Mitchell Dahlen and Dr Hazel Keedle will soon publish further papers on birth trauma from a national study of more than 8800 women. Dahlen was part of a team that in 2022 examined mode of birth on the incidence of post-traumatic stress disorder in mothers after six months and beyond. Dahlens research supports previous findings that about 30 per cent of Australian mothers say they had a traumatic birth experience. PTSD is much more common in women who have had a traumatic birth.

ABTA chief executive Amy Dawes said a survey of 1002 women, commissioned by her organisation in 2023, found one-third of respondents said they had a traumatic birth in the past five years, and 12 per cent reported it was extremely traumatic. Loading The sample included Australian parents who had either experienced physical injuries (27 per cent), mental health challenges (44 per cent) or both (28 per cent) as a result of childbirth. The research uncovered a staggering 79 per cent of birthing parents reported experiencing at least one symptom of postpartum post-traumatic stress disorder after giving birth, Dawes said. Nearly one in three reported anxiety, one in five had vivid flashbacks or nightmares, and a similar number felt overwhelming feelings of sadness, anger, guilt or shame.

Despite the prevalence of symptoms and the immense impact that they can have on all facets of life, less than half (41 per cent) of birthing parents surveyed had heard of postpartum PTSD prior to the delivery of their child, the survey found. Loading In June, University of Sydney research described birth-related PTSD as strangely overlooked and found the majority of women who displayed symptoms remained undiagnosed. We know that it has a profound ripple effect not just on women, but their infants and the infants development. And not just emotional, also cognitive, as well as on the partners of the women, said psychologist and researcher Alysha-leigh Fameli. We dont have postnatal services to support these women to prevent this happening and no clear guidelines. Dawes also wants a national birth trauma inquiry and the introduction of trauma-informed maternity care. She called for more education to help parents make informed decisions about interventions, and better screening to ensure mothers with mental health challenges received correct diagnosis and treatment.

The NSW inquiry has so far received 50 submissions. One woman said she had been bullied into a forceps delivery without consent ... I didnt even know what forceps were with no anaesthetic, which resulted in a third-degree tear and caused daily flashbacks for two years. Loading Another said she had such poor pain relief and treatment that she developed PTSD and postpartum depression, and never wants to have another child. Fiona Reid, who had been employed as a hospital clinical midwife consultant, wrote that her hospitals complaint system was designed to mitigate the risk of litigation and for the organisation to take no responsibility for a womans traumatic experience that resulted in either or both psychological harm and physical injury. [Women] were not offered any ongoing support and they were not provided with a plan of care for their next pregnancy that was motivated to ... improve her experience and outcome. Women felt humiliated by the process, Reid wrote.

Tara Clark said she found trauma-informed midwives to support her and Andrew during her second pregnancy. Melbourne midwife and researcher Robyn Matthews said her research showed 33 per cent of midwives who said they were thinking of leaving the profession cited witnessing or being involved in a traumatic event as a reason. Heidi Lipson wants more honest conversations between medical staff and parents about the potential complications of birth interventions. Credit: Brook Mitchell Birth trauma is definitely having an impact; 12 per cent said they took sick leave in the 12 months prior to our survey because of a perinatal traumatic experience, Matthews said. Dawes said she did not want medical workers targeted, as birth trauma resulted from system-wide issues.

We see birth trauma occur under all models of care and birth modalities, which is why we want more research and evidence into the causes of birth trauma, more data collected on maternal outcomes, and investment in referral pathways and support systems, she said. Loading We want to see investments in the whole maternity care system to ensure it is truly woman-centred/person-family-centred and that it prioritises choice and informed consent. Sydney mother of two Heidi Lipson said she experienced long-lasting chronic symptoms after the birth of her first child, describing the forceps birth as dangerous, horrible and traumatic.

It made it difficult for us as a family for one or two years afterwards, Lipson said.
In those days, the influence of the Catholic Church was everywhere to be seen, at least in the world I lived in: crusty clerics were forever pontificating about how we should live our lives, sour-faced old men defending the status quo. And Jenny, of course, was a senior agent of the Church, a position that gave her a tangible moral authority. The unmistakable message from Jenny was to let sleeping dogs lie. The unsaid instruction was to bury my emotions.

I had no inkling of it at the time, but I later discovered I was being treated very differently from everyone else. Jenny and I discussed my desire for contact for some time; reluctantly, she concluded, Well, all right  if thats your wish  the best way forward is to have me make contact on your behalf. I felt I had no choice, that this was my only option.

I wasnt told if my mother held me after I was born. I wasnt told how much I weighed or what time I was born. I didnt learn how long Maggies labour was or if mine was an arduous birth. Closed adoptions were shrouded in layers of secrets. I knew many adoptees received at least some of these answers in meetings like these.

And my birth father? There was an empty box on the form that should have contained his name. The counsellor, an abrupt woman named Jenny Abbott*, told me it was common for the fathers name to be missing from birth records. And there was more: Maggie had actually named me. Paul Becker. A solitary bon voyage gift. Learning this name, Paul Becker, was the beginning of a second identity that I would pursue for the next 30 years.

The certificate showed that Maggie had been born in South Australia and was 27 when she gave birth. That made her much older than most mothers whod put their children up for adoption.

After brief introductions, the counsellor unceremoniously handed me my original birth certificate. As my hands shook with adrenaline, I could only focus on two unfamiliar words printed on the certificate. I slowly scanned each letter: M a g g i e B e c k e r.

I learnt my birth mothers name close to 30 years after the severing of our umbilical cord. In 1990, I was sitting in the office of a counsellor from the Catholic Family Welfare Bureau in Melbourne. It was cold in the room. A box of tissues had been placed on the table next to where I sat.

Intentionally or not, Jennys disapproving tone and expression made me feel like what I wanted  contact with my mother  was selfish. My mind accelerated into overdrive. I knew she might have been left high and dry by my father, and that a black hole of guilt was likely to have accompanied the decision to relinquish me. Assuming she was a believer, the Church would have added its own layer of existential angst to the storm  hell and damnation awaited the mothers of the illegitimate.

After several weeks, Jenny called and asked me to meet her again. But the moment I entered her office and noted her demeanour  unnervingly grim  I knew the news wasnt going to be good. Without fanfare, Jenny announced that shed spoken with my mother. My heart skipped  shes alive! I was told my request for contact was stressful for Maggie. Shed spent her entire life believing communication with me would never occur.

I left Jennys office and returned home to brood. At night, before drifting off to sleep, I would fabricate fabulous fantasies of family reunions with my forebears, wonky-eyed like me. And sometimes, well before the dawn, I woke with stomach-churning nightmares of rejection.

Despite Jennys urging, I told her I wanted her to call this Maggie Becker straight away and tell her that her son wanted to talk. I had so many questions, too: do I have brothers and sisters? Who is my father? What were the circumstances of my birth? Why couldnt she keep me?

I couldnt gather my thoughts. How could I be rejected a second time? Jennys next instruction scythed into my core: You need to go home and forget about Maggie Becker forever.

The words pinged in my head. She cant ever. No contact. Maggie is a very intelligent, determined and devout woman, Jenny continued. Its not that she doesnt love you  in fact, she prays for you every day 

Brendan, she has told me she cant ever meet you. There will be no contact.

Over the next six months, Brendan sent two letters to Maggie, which met with no response, and a third to a different address in a beachside suburb of Sydney.

I wrestled with my conscience, though. What right did I have to stick my nose in when the almighty Catholic Family Welfare Bureau had warned me to stay away?

Id been driven by a certainty that knowing my ancestry would make me whole, and I just couldnt let go of the idea of meeting my birth mother. I decided to make contact. I knew it could go horribly wrong, but she hadnt shared a single thing, not even basic health information. It was unjust; we knew everything about our cocker spaniels pedigree, but nothing about mine.

Over the coming days, Kate and I pondered possible explanations. Maybe Maggie was married and her husband didnt know about me? Or was there a traumatic secret she was protecting me from? But if that was the case, what was it? Maybe I was the result of rape or incest. Is there anything worse? Whatever the truth, it now seemed that I was shame personified. My appetite vanished; I slept poorly. Like a dog hit by a car, I lay low. Months passed.

My brain became white noise. Discarded, I trudged home to my girlfriend Kate, unaware that a match had been struck, igniting an anxiety that would smoulder within me for decades.

Jigsaws advice was to have a less emotionally invested person make first contact, so I asked Kate to make the call. We agreed that we had little choice but to fabricate a story. Kate would say she was an old friend of Maggie Beckers from Sydney whod lost contact and was trying to get back in touch. The next day, during her lunch break at work, Kate called my birth uncles home number and asked his wife for help.

After stewing over matters for weeks, I decided I wasnt compelled to follow Jennys orders. With the help of adoption search agency Jigsaw, I established that Maggie was from a large family in Port Augusta in South Australia. Some of her brothers and sisters were alive and had children of their own. A brother, Barry, ran a building business in South Australia.

I called Jenny Abbott, but her response was icy. She advised that there was no further information she could give me and firmly instructed me to curb my enthusiasm. (Many years later, a church insider told me that the Catholic Family Welfare Bureau saw its role at the time as protecting relinquishing mothers from their surrendered children.) While it wasnt the response I wanted, at least I had Maggies letter. This was the closest Id been to someone who shared my DNA. It was evidence that I had ancestors, and they were within reach.

Maggie said that she and I would never have a face-to-face meeting. This was not a rejection, she added, but a result of the secret she and I shared. She said she loved me. But she still wanted nothing to do with me.

Maggies letter was to the point. She said she was happy to hear that I was well-adjusted and healthy, and she acknowledged that, while stressful for her, I had a right to some information about the circumstances of my birth. Maggie told me she had been in a serious relationship with a man in Sydney but then had been abandoned by him when she became pregnant. To avoid the judgment of society, she had come to Melbourne to have me by herself and then put me up for adoption, because she thought it would be for the best. She still believed that shed done the right thing, but asked my forgiveness for any hurt that decision may have caused me.

Two weeks later, I received an envelope with M. Becker written on the back in a tight and efficient script. I tore it open and saw a full page of my birth mothers handwriting for the first time. Maggie had a steady hand, with understated flourishes. I took a deep breath and sat down to read.

Yes, of course, Barrys wife replied. You mean Maggie the nun?

As soon as she hung up, Kate rang me at work.

Are you sitting down? My stomach dropped, blood pulsing in my ears. I still have the studio notepad page where Id written Barrys home phone number, Maggies name, and in large, bold letters: NUN!!!

Christ, I thought. My mother is a nun.

Maggies second rejection instantly became easier to comprehend. How could a nun ever tell anyone that shed surrendered a child? A pregnant nun! It sounded like something from The Dave Allen Show. In the world I was brought up in, nuns were revered. They were also virgins.

I wrote again and enclosed a photo of Kate and me: maybe shed see something of herself in me. What about my father? Id love to know more about him  Love, Brendan.

There was no reply. It was clear I was an object of some industrial-strength shame. It appeared that my mothers sole priority was to protect her reputation. But what about me?

In the world I was brought up in, nuns were revered. They were also virgins.

Id hoped that by now Id be impervious to these repeated disappointments, but it wasnt any easier this time. The struggle for an adoptee is to convince yourself of the paradoxical notion that your parents loved you so much that they gave you away. To mourn in public is to be ungrateful; the only place for grief is within. I marinated in angst for too long, and months passed as I struggled to accept that the hunt was over. But I just couldnt get past it.

Over the next 25 years, Brendan and Kate tried to track down his father. In 2018, with the help of ancestry.com and after a painstaking slicing and dicing of family trees, they established that he was linked to a large, Sydney-based family called Shiel; further research narrowed the field of possible fathers to four. Kate then used electoral roll data to discover several overlapping addresses for Maggie Becker and one of these men: Vincent Bede Shiel. A phone conversation with a DNA-matched cousin confirmed that Maggie and Shiel had known each other for decades and had even lived together for several years: she was his housekeeper. Vincent Shiel immediately became their number one person of interest.

Brendan with his girlfriend Kate, who made many phone calls in an attempt to discover his birth mothers whereabouts. Credit: Courtesy of the Shiel, Meaney & Watkins families

On July 16, 2018, Kate called Maggie, who was now 84 and living in Brisbane, and explained how Id submitted my DNA and what wed found. She went through the convoluted steps that led us to believe that a man we now knew shed been close to for decades was, in fact, my birth father. But was it likely? That man had been 30 years older than her. And he had also been a Catholic priest.

As Kate talked, Maggie did not utter a word. Proceeding with care, Kate stepped through lists of the Shiel family  relatives with whom wed just learnt Maggie had shared decades of her life.

Maggie, Brendan is a Shiel. The DNA is irrefutable. We just need to know which Shiel. Please, Maggie, we believe that Father Vincent Shiel is Brendans father.

Sitting next to Kate on our kitchen bench, I remained silent, leaning in, trying to make out the response down the line from Brisbane. How could she deny the identity of my father now?

Maggie umm-ed and ahh-ed, rolled the question around like a riddle: Noooo  No, I dont think Father Vincent could be Brendans father. Kate left a long pause. My mother didnt fill it.

I understand this is hard to talk about  but please, Brendan is owed the truth. Id prefer to not contact the other three mens families, Kate pleaded. Maggie evaded again. They went round in circles, but as there was no progress the call was wound up.

At work the next morning, Kate answered her mobile, and my mother finally made her confession.

Kate called me at work to relay the long-awaited truth; my journal notes record Maggies response. Yes, Father Vincent Shiel is Brendans father. Yes, he was a priest. A good man  but long dead. The lifting of this weight is an enormous relief for me, although I am anxious Brendan will think poorly of me and be angry  but more than anything I feel so much better that this troubling secret is finally out. Im sorry for lying to Brendan over all of these years.

Maggie had revealed that Vincent, who had died in April 1993, aged 91, was a kind and decent man, though he was older than me. Shed known him since she was a teenager, and their friendship had endured until the day he died.

She shared some surprising details. He went to university and had been an architect before becoming a priest late in life. He designed and oversaw the building of a number of churches in the outback. Hed travelled the world. She described him as a great dancer  a charmer.

When shed discovered the pregnancy, Father Vincent arranged for Maggie to travel to Melbourne and stay with a Catholic family in the months before my birth and adoption. He made her promise to keep me a secret forever: You must tell no one.

Maggie had stressed that the truth must remain a secret between the three of us. She reiterated that she had been raised in poverty, her family had rarely shown kindness or love, and without saying it, she was asking for mercy.

The next morning, my mother finally made her confession  I am anxious Brendan will think poorly of me.

Once my father was found, Id thought Id feel somehow complete, but it was a shuddering anticlimax. I wanted to quit my job and lie low for several weeks or months. The knowledge that my birth parents were a couple [Maggie had gone to live with Vincent after she left the convent in the 1980s until his death] and yet still chose to shun me to preserve their holy reputations was such a gut-punch. They were the worst kind of frauds: religious hypocrites. From that day on, I claimed ownership of my story. I would be my own narrator. I was 57 years old and, for the first time in my life, I knew for certain who both of my birth parents were. I exhaled as though Id been holding my breath for years.

Nobody knows the precise number of children of priests, but surveys have suggested that about half of all Catholic priests have had sexual relationships, mostly with adults, and there are currently about 400,000 Catholic priests globally. The most extensive empirical research into priestly celibacy is a longitudinal study of 1500 Catholic priests conducted over 25 years by ex-priest Richard Sipe. His startling conclusion was that less than half of Catholic priests in the United States attempt celibacy.

Given these statistics and the Catholic view on clerical celibacy, contraception and abortion, its reasonable to conclude that many thousands of children have been born  and mostly abandoned  by their priest fathers. A UN Rights of the Child report from 2014 noted that the mothers may obtain a plan for regular payment from the Church until the child is financially independent only if they sign a confidentiality agreement not to disclose any information about the childs father or the plan.

Michael Rezendes, the Pulitzer Prizewinning journalist from The Boston Globes Spotlight team (renowned for exposing systemic child sex abuse by Catholic priests), calls the children of priests an invisible legion of secrecy and neglect. A National Catholic Reporter article on August 21, 2017, stated that Depression, suicidal thoughts, excessive drinking and ritual cutting habits have all been a part of the residue of being the child of a priest and that many of these children struggle with lifelong familial secrecy, suffer a crisis of identity and faith, and have often been brought up in financially deprived situations.

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My research made for awful reading. I already knew that the Catholic Churchs standard response to reports of priest child abuse had been to move the priest to a new parish; it seemed its response to a priest fathering a child was the same. What followed was permanent estrangement of child and father.

The fate of the mother often seemed to be considered not worth reporting. She was left holding both the infant and the secret of paternity. While some women had abortions (sometimes at the priests behest), most appear to have surrendered their child for adoption or placement in a foster home. The paternity of children who did remain with their mothers was always shrouded in lies and half-truths. Overwhelmingly, the mothers blamed themselves. Religion, sexual taboo and the authority of the priest insidiously shifted the guilt onto the woman.

What was painfully obvious was that most children of priests had battled a diverse range of silencing behaviours from the Church, their birth mothers, Catholic adoption agencies and often, by association, their wider communities.

David Weber, the founder of the Frankfurt-based organisation Human Rights for Children of Priests, explained in an article in Luomo Vogue, Orphans of God, how the church views priests children as a threat to its authority, and therefore nothing less than an enemy. Hence, he says, the need to conceal the fathers true identity at all costs, severing, when possible, his ties with the child and parents  a crime.

Weber adds: Highly problematic, also, is having to deal with a mother who lies about your fathers identity or, even worse, asks you not to reveal it to anyone  an inhuman pressure that shapes a whole life. Not surprisingly, many of the priests children I know have developed chronic diseases, often of psychosomatic origin. Even as adults, the sense of fear is so ingrained in them that they often hide being a child of a priest even to their closest friends.

Through research and social media communities I was also led to other children of priests. In one-on-one conversations, I was honoured to be told many painful secrets by complete strangers, sometimes secrets never shared with their own families. In turn, I shared my own intimate secrets  talking lightened the load.

Betty and Roy Watkins, Brendans adoptive parents. I was saved by the kindness of strangers, he says. Credit: Courtesy of the Shiel, Meaney & Watkins families

I was surprised to learn only a few had been adopted, like me. Some had been raised in orphanages or foster care. A number had been raised by their birth mother, usually without a father-figure. For those, often it was a DNA test that revealed that their priest uncle, guardian or godfather (who sometimes visited) was, in fact, their father. Some had been raised by grandparents and told that they were the parents of the child. In one instance, the child had lived their whole life believing that their mother was their elder sister. More than one had been baptised by their priest father, usually only discovering the truth after his death. Some had ended up in the Catholic foster system, or orphanages, where they were raped by clergy.

Most, like me, had never met their father. One had been offered cash to keep the mans identity secret. The common denominator was deception. Virtually everyone had lived much, or most, of their lives in the shadow of lies told by parents, family, church and community. These lies in some instances were also told by legal practitioners, hospital staff and adoption agencies. I discovered that the knee-jerk inclination of the children of priests on learning the truth was to hide it.

Shame is sticky. Shame is contagious, and if you are the embodiment of your mothers greatest shame you must be hidden. If you are the result of rape, incest or a relationship with a priest, you are the secret. This is ancestral trauma.

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Maggies scenario was typical. When I was conceived, she was 27 and my father 57. She was poor, uneducated and had been a member of Vins congregation. In her eyes, my father was literally the hands of God. I began an ongoing dialogue with Queensland academic Dr Stephen de Weger, a specialist in clergy sexual misconduct against adults. His research confirmed much of what I was piecing together from the anecdotal, that priests took advantage of both vulnerable adult women and men. He found that those who became involved with a priest were often dealing with a marital or wider family crisis, or were seeking spiritual or emotional guidance. Some were disabled, others bereaved, isolated, unwell or poor. This insidious nexus of the spiritual and sexual, whereby a priest uses his religious authority as a grooming strategy, goes to the heart of the issue. Power imbalances and the vulnerability of the woman are disturbingly common within these scenarios.

Though my own faith had long lapsed, I realised that I still behaved like a member of the Church that formed me. Taught by experts, Id evaded making public the truth about who I really was. Years of my life had been interrupted as I searched for answers. Trauma is a thief of time. There is also the often unacknowledged opportunity cost of life prospects not pursued. That is a price Maggie and I have both paid, my mother by far the most dearly.

But in the final reckoning, my story is one of love. I was saved by the kindness of strangers. While the largest religious institutions in the world, professing compassion and charity to all, callously annulled my heritage, it was Roy and Bet Watkins, my adoptive parents, people with whom I shared not a drop of blood, who rescued me.

* Name has been changed.

This is an edited extract from Tell No One: A Memoir, by Brendan Watkins (Allen & Unwin; $35), out August 8.

To read more from Good Weekend magazine, visit our page at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and Brisbane Times.
Greenpeace activists sit on the roof of Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's house in Richmond, North Yorkshire, England, after covering it in black fabric, Thursday Aug. 3, 2023.

Five Greenpeace demonstrators were arrested Thursday after they draped the country estate of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in black fabric to protest his plan to expand oil and gas drilling in the North Sea.

Video posted by the group showed a crew dressed in bright red jumpsuits, helmets and safety harnesses carrying ladders and climbing onto the roof of the house in Yorkshire, in the north of England. They slowly unfurled long black sheets of fabric over the front of the home and held a yellow sign on the roof that read No New Oil.

The prime minister was not home because he is vacationing with his family in California. Greenpeace said the group chose to stage the peaceful protest at a time when no one was home at the mansion, and that the activists were trained to ensure no damage was caused to the property.

Sunak announced Monday that Britain will grant hundreds of new oil and gas licenses in the North Sea to gain energy independence. The move was widely criticized by environmental groups that have accused the government of backsliding on its pledge to eliminate net carbon emissions by 2050.

As four Greenpeace members were on the roof of the British leaders country house, two others stood on the front lawn holding a banner with the words Rishi Sunak  Oil Profits or Our Future?

We desperately need our prime minister to be a climate leader, not a climate arsonist, said Philip Evans of Greenpeace. Just as wildfires and floods wreck homes and lives around the world, Sunak is committing to a massive expansion of oil and gas drilling.

U.N. scientists and environmental groups have called on global leaders to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels after a summer of record high temperatures, drought and floods linked to man-made climate change. Burning oil and gas to power vehicles, factories and electricity generating stations releases huge amounts of carbon dioxide, the main driver of global warming.

A statement from Sunaks office defended the prime ministers climate policies.

We make no apology for taking the right approach to ensure our energy security, using the resources we have here at home so we are never reliant on aggressors like (Russian President Vladimir) Putin for our energy, the statement said.

The protest is one of dozens of high-profile demonstrations in the U.K. and across Europe by groups that have disrupted sporting events, caused massive traffic jams and performed shocking stunts to draw attention to the climate crisis and try to stop production of fossil fuels.

Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden said protesters should stop the stupid stunts.

Two men and two women were arrested on suspicion of causing criminal damage and a public nuisance after they climbed down from the roof. A man involved in the incident was arrested on suspicion of causing public nuisance.

Assistant Chief Constable Elliot Foskett said there was never a threat to the public and the protest ended safely.

A former deputy chief constable in North Yorkshire called for an investigation into how the group was able to get to the prime ministers house.

Peter Walker, who retired from the force in 2003, told LBC radio that he was absolutely astonished by the major breach of security.

If free access is being granted to that property, people who wanted to do much more serious things would be able to leave devices or booby traps or something like that, he said. This is a major failing, and it grieves me to say it because its my old police force that has failed.

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Heading for Bora Bora? Your luggage tag will say BOB. DAD is Vietnams Da Nang while BRR is Burra in Scotlands Shetland Islands. Every commercial airport around the world has a unique three-letter code assigned by the International Air Transport Association. Its a convenient form of shorthand. Nobody wants to grapple with Governador Andre Franco Montoro International in Sao Paolo, but the airports acronym, GRU, is easy. SYD, MEL and PER need no explanation but what about ODD? Thats Oodnadatta. And VAG? Youre heading for Varginha, Brazil. Why is a table for four considered unlucky in China? In Mandarin, the number four is considered unlucky since the word four sounds like the word for death. For the same reason, some buildings in China dont have a fourth floor and in some high-rise buildings the floor above level 39 is 50. The superstition is similar to the Western aversion to the number 13, but that doesnt mean its cheaper to fly on the 13th day of the month, even if its a Friday. The only numbers the airlines really care about is the ticket price, and that has nothing to do with superstition. Why are there still ashtrays in aircraft toilets? Weird as it seems, it comes from an appreciation of human foibles. If a passenger lights up, disregarding the sign right next to the ashtray and the smoke detector in the bathroom, better to have them break the rules and stub out in the ashtray than toss their smouldering butt in the wastepaper bin. Aircraft have crashed and passengers have died from fires caused by careless smokers butting out in the toilet bin.

Why are Australian passports so expensive? Australian passports are so expensive due to the security measures they feature ... according to the Australian Passport Office. Credit: Arsineh Houspian The reason our passport, at $325, is the worlds most expensive, is that it has sophisticated security features. Well, thats according to the Australian Passport Office. However, other countries have similar security measures in their passports and the cost is far less. In 2022 an Australian passport cost $308. That $17 increase in 2023 means the Australian Government will earn an additional $47.6 million from the 2.8 million passports expected to be issued this year. How can a large passenger jet keep flying on one engine? The Airbus A350XWB is certified to fly for more than six hours on a single engine.

Each engine must develop sufficient thrust to allow the aircraft to operate safely on just that engine. Without that proof, an aircraft cannot be certified to carry passengers. Twin-engine aircraft have an extended twin-engine operations (ETOPS) rating, the maximum time that aircraft type is certified to continue flying with one engine out. The Airbus A350XWB has an ETOPS rating of 370 minutes, which means it can operate on any overwater route apart from flights over a small part of Antarctica. So, when should I really start to worry during a flight? Turbulence is usually not something to worry about. Credit: iStock Oxygen masks tumbling down could mean a loss of cabin pressure or a leak. The pilot will probably descend to a lower altitude where more oxygen is available. Turbulence may shake you up like a milkshake but as long as youre wearing a seatbelt its not as much of a problem. If the head steward comes down the aisle glancing anxiously out the windows, that could be in response to a request from the cockpit to check on an engine. Engine on fire? Spectacular, yes, especially at night, but not really a problem unless its the only engine turning, in which case its a big problem. Stay calm, statistically youre much safer up here than behind the wheel of a car. Why is tipping so frowned upon in Japan?

The reason is partly down to incomes. Service workers are paid a sufficient wage that does not require tips to supplement meagre pay, but the reason is also cultural. Whether its a waiter, a taxi driver or a hotel employee, Japanese workers take pride in their work. Self-esteem comes from doing their job well, not from tips. Tipping is not expected, and even impolite. The fact you are paying for their service is enough. If you want to show gratitude, Arigato (thank you) will do. America, please take note. Why cant I take a coconut on a passenger aircraft? Coconuts are one of the items listed on the International Air Transport Associations Dangerous Goods Register. The problem is copra, dried coconut meat, which is flammable. But the ban applies to coconuts generally, apart from retail packaged coconut products. In India, where flyers sometimes carry coconuts, either as food or as a sacred item, security screening staff might require a coconut to be broken apart before it can be carried onboard. There has never been an incidence of fire on an aircraft caused by a flaming coconut but better safe than sorry. Why do cruise lines still waste a good bottle of champagne when launching ships? It remains a nautical tradition, and since its a big occasion its worth celebrating, and that deserves a bottle of fine champagne. Its also a good photo op, with a celebrity on the podium and rousing cheers all around guaranteed to make the news. Its not an exact science and a couple of royals, among them Camilla, at the time the Duchess of Cornwall, and Princess Anne, have had champagne bottles fail to break against shops hulls. There was no champagne bottle smashed against the hull when the Titanic was launched, it wasnt part of the White Star Lines tradition.

Why do pilots seem immune from jet-lag compared to passengers? Jet lag - pilots are not immune. Credit: iStock Theyre professionals, so they look crisp and wide awake, but they suffer like the rest of us. Imagine a pilot flying Sydney-London. The time difference is 10 hours. Theyll probably spend a day or two in London during which time theyll adjust by about two hours (adjustment for jet-lag is about one hour per day) so theyll be eight hours out of synch when they start to fly home. Then, when they get to Singapore (with a time difference from Sydney of two hours) theyll have recovered in the sense that their body clock is more or less on local time. Why do you always board a passenger aircraft from the left side? Passengers on the left, cargo on the right. Credit: Paul Rovere

In the early days of aviation, aircraft would taxi close to the terminal building to load and unload passengers. Since the captain sits in the left-hand seat of the aircraft its much easier for him or her to judge wing clearance on that side. The loading of cargo and passengers baggage and refuelling happens on the right side and therefore left-side doors make it safer for passengers to transit between aircraft and terminal. Once air bridges became common, the convention of loading via left-side doors was set in concrete. Why is coffee in America almost always awful? To anyone used to a full-strength espresso, the brownish brew that Americans call coffee is weak, insipid and pointless, But, hey, thats the way most Americans like it. The proportion of ground beans to water in their filtered coffee is far less than just about anywhere else. That allows them to drink multiple cups of coffee per day. The same quantity of Australian-strength coffee and theyd be twitching and banging down toilet doors. There are exceptions, of course, mostly in cities where people know how to pronounce and define crema, such as San Francisco, New York City and Portland, Oregon. Oh, and where Australian baristas and Australian-owned and run cafes and chains are in evidence. Why is my jet-lag worse on the way back from Europe than on the way over? West is best, east is a beast, as the saying goes, and its a fact that we are more affected by jet-lag when we return from Europe than on the way over. Our internal body clock works to a cycle slightly longer than 24 hours. We find it easier to stay up a couple of hours longer at night than we do to rise two hours earlier in the morning. In effect thats what we are asking our bodies to do when we fly west. Therefore, the theory goes, travelling to Europe and waking and sleeping at a later hour comes more naturally than the early wake-up when you travel east.

Why does the Australian government still make us fill out those Incoming Passenger Cards? Although outgoing passenger cards were scrapped years ago, we still have to fill out these cards on arrival back in the country. It wants to know where youre coming from, what youre bringing in and where youll be staying. Some of that information  such as the question about alcohol or tobacco products or whether youre carrying more than $10,000 in cash  require further investigation before you leave the airport. Questions 6-10 on the Incoming Passenger Cards ask if we are bringing in any food items, animal products or whether weve been in wilderness areas, and thats crucial information that protects our orchards, farmyards and herds. Why is global roaming still so expensive? The cost comes from inter-operator charges. Once you leave our shores, unless directed otherwise, your phone will log onto the network of an overseas telecom provider. You can use their network to make calls and download data, but there is no cap on their data charges. They bill your telecom provider for any data you use, and the charge can be as high as $1000 a GB. The simple solution is to select a plan that allows global roaming at a fixed daily cost, such as from Telstra or Optus, or buy a SIM that gives you low-cost data roaming.

Why do the rules around what type of liquids you can take on aircraft change all the time? The rule that restricts liquids, aerosols and gels in carry-ons to containers no greater than 100 millilitres is gradually being wound back as Computed Tomography (CT) scanners are deployed at airports. The high-resolution 3D images these scanners produce allow operators to make a more accurate assessment of a bags contents, and airports are progressively increasing the limit for liquids in carry-ons to up to two litres. Whats that barking dog-like sound when an Airbus passenger jet starts up all about? The noise, described as a grinding or drilling sound, is typically heard on some Airbus aircraft during pushback from the terminal and in the initial stages of departure. That noise is caused by a hydraulic pump known as the Power Transfer Unit (PTU). The PTU maintains pressure in the aircrafts hydraulic systems. When pressure drops below a specified level, the PTU is activated. Nothing to worry about, enjoy your flight. Why do cafes in Italy charge extra for sitting at a table?

If you want to sit down in Italy, expect to pay more. Credit: Bloomberg That requires table service, and so it costs more, at least according to the Italian mindset. A cafe in a popular tourist spot, such as the iconic Caffe Florian in St Marks Square in Venice, might charge 16 ($26.40) for a small tart and 15 ($25.70) for a coffee with whipped cream. Have the same at the bar, and youll pay half, but you wont get to sit outside in the sunshine and listen to the orchestra, and you can sit for as long as you like. Why do I still need an International Driving Permit (IDP) when Im driving overseas? In most countries its a legal requirement. The UK and New Zealand are two of the only countries that allow Australians to drive without an IDP. While your car hirer is unlikely to ask to see your IDP, if youre involved in an accident and dont have one you could be charged with driving illegally. This could mean youre driving uninsured, and that could end up costing a lot more than a $49 IDP. Why do hotels ask for a pre-authorisation when I check in?

A pre-authorisation is a hold against your credit or debit card to cover any expenses you might incur during your hotel stay. If you depart with a bathrobe in your luggage or empty the minibar without fessing up, the hotel is covered. The daily amount can be as high as $200, and while the hold is not converted to a charge until checkout, its better to hand over a credit card rather than a debit card since the funds will be unavailable to you. After expenses are deducted the balance will be returned to your account, but it can take up to 14 days to happen. Why do aircraft wings have winglets? Winglets, those small, upturned tips at the end of an aircrafts wings, are now standard on large commercial aircraft. At the tip of a conventional flat wing, a vortex creates drag, reducing the lift generated by the wing. A winglet offsets the drag effect by reducing the passage of high-pressure air from below the wing to the low-pressure upper surface. Winglets increase an aircrafts range and reduce fuel consumption by as much as five per cent, and thats a big plus for an airlines balance sheet. Why does nearly every hotel bed and bathroom have all-white sheets and towels? All white, alright. Credit: Bloomberg

Theyre reassuring, a sign of cleanliness. White linen and fluffy white towels come with a high feel-good factor, theyre crisp and fresh and that inspires confidence in the hotels cleanliness. Dark sheets, no thanks, who knows what that could be hiding. Also, white items can all be washed together, without any risk of bleeding colours. Another plus is that white sheets are ideal for packing. Pull back the covers, lay out your goods and chattels on a white bottom sheet and theres little chance of leaving stuff out. Why does food taste different in an aircraft cabin? Taste buds get jet lag too: sweet foods taste less so, and you may find you add more salt in the air. Credit: iStock The dry air in a pressurised aircraft cabin numbs your olfactory receptors by as much as one third according to Lufthansa, and that changes the way we perceive flavours. Sweet flavours taste less sweet, and were more inclined to add salt to the meal that comes off the trolley. Wine also tastes different in an aircraft, and subtleties are lost. Some flyers find tomato juice, overly sweet and salty at ground level, tastes deliciously fruity and refreshing in-flight. Why dont we have supersonic flights anymore?

The Concorde - too expensive to fly. Credit: iStock The Anglo-French Concorde and Russias Tu144 were the worlds only supersonic passenger aircraft. The Tu144 only made about 50 flights while Concorde flew on a limited number of overwater routes, carrying passengers prepared to pay first-class prices to sit in a basic economy seat and travel at phenomenal speed. They also cost British Airways and Air France far more to operate than they earned in revenue and when an Air France Concorde crashed soon after takeoff from Paris, killing all on board, their fate was sealed. Why cant the world agree on a common electrical plug? Different countries have different ideas about what a plug should look like. Back when the question was being decided, people didnt travel across borders much, and not with electrical equipment, so this wasnt an issue. Why is Ayers Rock Airport not called Uluru Airport?

Ayers Rock Airport is the airports official name. In deference to the wishes of the traditional owners, the name Uluru applies solely to Australias most famous monolith. The local township is known as Yulara, and the village where most of the accommodation and services are located is known as Ayers Rock Resort. Why does airline food cause flatulence? Once certain foodstuffs hit the large intestine, fermentation begins and your insides become a gas balloon. Also, since the cabin air pressure is lower than on the ground, gas inside the bowel expands and seeks its natural exit point. Why dont Japanese streets have names? Japanese addresses are identified by blocks, not by streets. Each block has a number, and that number will likely apply to three or four streets that make up a block. Confusing, but a GPS will usually sort it out.
London: Police have come under fire after a major security breach at Rishi Sunaks constituency home, where a group of environmental activists were able to drape the house in fabric and climb onto the roof.

Greenpeace protesters entered the grounds of British prime ministers listed manor house in North Yorkshire early on Thursday, using ladders and ropes to scale the building. Sunak announced hundreds of new licences for North Sea oil and gas extraction on Monday.

Greenpeace activists sit on the roof of Britains Prime Minister Rishi Sunaks house in Richmond, North Yorkshire, England. Credit: AP

After staging a five-hour protest on the roof, in which they draped part of the house in black cloth, the activists climbed down and were arrested by officers from North Yorkshire Police.

Assistant Chief Constable Elliot Foskett said there had been no threat to the wider public and the incident had been brought to a safe conclusion.
Is there a better country to be in during the months of June and July than my homeland? Glastonbury. Wimbledon. The Boss in Hyde Park. Blur at Wembley. King Charles making his debut, on horseback no less, in the Trooping of the Colour. Even May Week is in June, as the great Clive James once reminded us, with joyous graduation ceremonies held not just in Cambridge, his ridiculously beautiful alma mater, but across the land.

This year, we also had the added frisson of an Ashes series, made all the more thrilling when brawny Bazball gave way to brainy Bazball  the style of play pioneered by England, which in the second half of the series combined devastating hitting with greater circumspection about which balls to hit.

Britains most famous tea-towel epigram is in danger of becoming a looping incantation. Credit: Bloomberg

Britain was having a blockbuster summer long before Barbenheimer crashed the party. With a glass of rose in hand, or better still a pint of room-temperature best bitter, the UK in midsummer can seem not just idyllic but Edenic.

However, this has also been a summer of British discontent, partially shrouded from view on international front pages by the smoke from the wildfires of southern Europe and the protest flames on the streets of France. With wage rises outstripped by stubbornly high inflation, the UK has witnessed its second summer of strikes  a continuation of the most widespread industrial action since the late-1980s. In recent days, train drivers have brought much of the rail network to a halt. Doctors, junior and senior, have downed stethoscopes. University lecturers have refused to mark end-of-year exams.
New York: Police struggled to control thousands of people who filled Manhattans Union Square on Friday afternoon for an internet personalitys hyped giveaway that got out of hand, with some in the crowd clambering on vehicles, hurling chairs and throwing punches.

Aerial TV news footage showed a surging, tightly packed crowd running through the streets and scaling structures in the park. Shouting teenagers swung objects at car windows, and some people climbed on top of a moving vehicle, falling off as it sped away. Others pounded on or climbed atop city buses.

Police officers use a shield to take cover as they respond to a giveaway event announced by popular live streamer Kai Cenat that grew chaotic in New York, Credit: Reuters

By 5.30pm, police officers in growing numbers had regained control of much of the area, but small skirmishes were still breaking out, with young people knocking over barricades and tossing bottles and even a flower pot at officers. Police were seen wrestling people to the ground and chasing them down the street.

Police didnt immediately have information on injuries or arrests. Numerous people were in hand restraints, sitting on the sidewalks, and at least one young man was led away by two officers. Police formed lines in the street to try to direct the crowd.
Heliostar Advances Underground Mining Scenarios at the Ana Paula Project, Mexico

br />The Ana Paula measured and indicated resource contains an average of 5,350 ounces of gold per vertical metre between 725-950 metres of elevation (immediately below surface)

The deposita?s favourable orientation, width, and shallow depth make the resource amenable to underground mining configurations

Heliostar is currently reviewing undergound mining scenarios at multiple cut-off grades and potential throughput rates

Potential underground mining scenerios take advantage of the existing 412 metre long, production sized, portal and decline

Heliostar Metals Ltd. (TSX.V: HSTR, OTCQX: HSTXF, FRA: RGG1) (aHeliostara or the aCompanya)  https://www.commodity-tv.com/ondemand/companies/profil/heliostar-metals-ltd/  is pleased to report progress on re-scoping of the current Pre-Feasibility Study ( the aPFSa) at the Companya?s Ana Paula Project in Mexico (aAna Paulaa or the aAna Paula Projecta) to evaluate potential underground mining scenarios.A The Company is evaluating three underground mining scenarios, with different cut-off grades and mining rates, that are being advanced for more detailed evaluation and comparison.A All three demonstrate the potential to deliver high grades early and throughout the mine life.A

Heliostar CEO, Charles Funk, commented, aWe are quickly advancing the re-scoping of Ana Paula towards an underground mine. The High Grade Panel is shallow and wide with a favourable orientation for productive underground mining.A The Company is refining three scenarios to choose the approach that maximises the profitability of mining and shortens the timeline to production.A One of the keys to achieving this is mining high grades early in the mine life, as compared to the open pit scenario. We will choose the best outcome and work through the Feasibility Study in 2023.A We expect further improvements to the mine economics as current analysis does not include the excellent results from Heliostara?s 2023 drill program.a

Gold Distribution within the Resource

Ana Paulaa?s 2023 PFS measured and indicated resource contains an average of 5,350 ounces of gold per vertical metre between 725-950 metres of elevation (immediately below surface).A The zone ranges between a maximum of 8,540 ounces per vertical metre at 775 metres of elevation and a minimum of 1,080 ounces per vertical metre at 925 metres of elevation. The ounce distribution in the open pit portion of the resource is constrained by the 2023 PFS open pit shell and in the underground portion by a 1.6 gram per tonne (g/t) gold cutoff resource shell.

Figure 1 shows a graphical representation of the contained measured and indicated ounces by elevation within the 2023 PFS resource.

Underground Mining Scenarios

Multiple potential mining scenarios are in review for Ana Paula. The project re-scoping is assessing the most applicable mining scenario with a focus on increasing project economics (NPV and IRR) while reducing initial CAPEX when compared to the open pit mining scenario proposed in the 2023 PFS.

The Company contracted JDS Energy & Mining Inc., who completed the existing decline on the property, to evaluate the options.A Currently, the engineers are assessing three scenarios with different cutoff grades and throughput rates for the Ana Paula deposit using the 2023 pre-feasibility study resource model.A The Company will refine the options upon receipt of an updated resource model and metallurgical program results, both of which rely on drilling completed in 2023.A Metallurgical results will be reported in October and an updated resource model is expected in November 2023.A

The best outcome will then be selected and taken through Feasibility Study in 2024.A

Statement of Qualified Person

Samuel Anderson, CPG., a Qualified Person, as such term is defined by National Instrument 43-101 a Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects (aNI 43-101a), has reviewed the scientific and technical information that forms the basis for this news release and has approved the disclosure herein.

About Heliostar Metals Ltd.

Heliostar is a junior mining company with a portfolio of high-grade gold projects in Mexico and Alaska.

The Company is focused on developing the 100% owned Ana Paula Project in Guerrero, Mexico. In addition, Heliostar is working with the Mexican federal and local government to permit the San Antonio Gold Project in Baja Sur, Mexico. The Company continues efforts to explore the Unga Gold Project in Alaska, United States of America.

The Ana Paula Project deposit contains proven and probable mineral reserves of 1,081,000 ounces of gold (630,000 proven and 451,000 probable ounces) at 2.38 grams per tonne (ag/ta) gold and 2,547,000 ounces of silver (1,322,000 proven and 1,226,000 probable ounces) at 5.61 g/t silver. Ana Paula hosts measured and indicated resources of 1,468,800 ounces of gold (703,800 measured and 765,000 indicated ounces) at 2.16 g/t gold and 3,600,000 ounces of silver (1,637,000 measured and 1,963,000 indicated ounces) at 5.3 g/t silver. The asset is permitted for open-pit mining and contains significant existing infrastructure including a portal and a 412-metre-long decline.

References

An updated prefeasibility study titled aAna Paula Project NI 43-101 Technical Report Preliminary Feasibility Study Updatea was filed on SEDAR on April 6, 2023, with an effective date of February 28, 2023, prepared for the Company by Daniel H. Neff, PE, Art S. Ibrado, PhD, PE, Richard K. Zimmerman, RG, SME-RM, Craig Gibson, PhD, CPG, Andrew Kelly, P.Eng., Gordon Zurowski, P.Eng., Paul Daigle, P.Geo., Gilberto Dominguez, PE and James A. Cremeens, PE, PG.

For additional information please contact:

Charles Funk

Chief Executive Officer

Heliostar Metals Limited

Email: charles.funk@heliostarmetals.com

Rob Grey

Investor Relations Manager

Heliostar Metals Limited

Email: rob.grey@heliostarmetals.com

In Europe:

Swiss Resource Capital AG

Jochen Staiger & Marc Ollinger

info@resource-capital.ch

www.resource-capital.ch

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This news release includes certain \ForwardaLooking Statements\ within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and \forwardalooking information\ under applicable Canadian securities laws. When used in this news release, the words \anticipate\, \believe\, \estimate\, \expect\, \target\, \plan\, \forecast\, \may\, \would\, \could\, \schedule\ and similar words or expressions, identify forwardalooking statements or information. These forwardalooking statements or information relate to, among other things: the exploration, development, and production at the Companya?s properties; permitting at the San Antonio project; the release of exploration results; future resource and reserve estimates; and the completion and timing of a feasibility study for the Ana Paula Project.

Forwardalooking statements and forwardalooking information relating to any future mineral production, liquidity, enhanced value and capital markets profile of the Company, future growth potential for the Company 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 metals; no escalation in the severity of public health crises or ongoing military conflicts; costs of exploration and development; the estimated costs of development of exploration projects; and the Company\-s ability to operate in a safe and effective manner and its ability to obtain financing on reasonable terms.

These statements reflect the Company\-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 forwardalooking statements or forward-looking information and the Company has made assumptions and estimates based on or related to many of these factors. Such factors include, without limitation: precious metals price volatility; risks associated with the conduct of the Company\-s mining activities in foreign jurisdictions; regulatory, consent or permitting delays; risks relating to reliance on the Company\-s management team and outside contractors; risks regarding exploration and mining activities; 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 public health crises; the economic and financial implications of public health crises, ongoing military conflicts and general economic factors to the Company; operating or technical difficulties in connection with mining or development activities; employee relations, labour unrest or unavailability; the Company\-s interactions with surrounding communities; 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 aRisk Factorsa in the Companya?s public disclosure documents. Readers are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forwardalooking statements or forward-looking information. Although the Company has attempted to identify key factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be other factors that cause results not to be anticipated, estimated or intended. The Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forwardalooking 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.
Maple Gold reports final assays from first phase of deep drilling at Douay and provides corporate updates

Maple Gold Mines Ltd. (TSX-V: MGM) (OTCQB: MGMLF) (FSE: M3G)A (\Maple Gold\ or the \Company\)  https://www.commodity-tv.com/ondemand/companies/profil/maple-gold-mines-ltd/  is pleased to report complete gold assay results from the first phase of deep drilling at the Douay Gold Project (\Douay\) located in QuAbec, Canada, which is held by a 50/50 joint venture (the \JV\) between the Company and Agnico Eagle Mines Limited. The Company is also pleased to announce the appointment of Jocelyn (Josh) Pelletier, M.Sc., P.geo. as its Chief Geologist. Mr. Pelletier is both a structural geologist and a specialist in metallogeny who brings more than 20 years of progressive exploration experience primarily focused on the formation of gold deposits and porphyry copper-gold systems. The Company also announces that Joness Lang and Fred Speidel have left the Company to pursue other opportunities.

At Douay, the JV completed a total of 5,793 metres (\m\) in three new holes and two extension holes during the first half of 2023. Four drill holes were designed as deep conceptual exploration holes to test for mineralization extensions at greater depths (up to ~1,600 m vertical depth) beneath Douaya?s currently defined Mineral Resources, and the fifth drill hole was a shallower step-out hole to the east of the NW Zone (see Figure 1 for a plan view map depicting drill hole locations and key results, Figure 2 for a composite longitudinal section and Table 1 for a detailed summary of assay results). This first phase of widely spaced (from ~500 m to ~3,000 m between holes) deep drilling returned 10 separate intercepts >2.5 gold grams per tonne (\g/t Au\) and four broad intervals (from 59 to 221 m in length) of low-grade (mostly >0.1 g/t Au) gold mineralization, demonstrating that a deep-rooted gold system is present to the current limits of drilling. Pending multi-element assays from the first phase of deep drilling will be incorporated into ongoing vectoring efforts to develop follow up targets to continue testing the depth potential at Douay from successful proof-of-concept towards potentially economic gold intercepts in undrilled zones over more than six kilometers of strike length.

Highlighted Results and Key Takeaways:

All five drill holes intersected gold mineralization >1 g/t Au, with 10 intercepts >2.5 g/t Au and several broad (59 m to 221 m in length) low-grade intervals (averaging 0.1 to 0.3 g/t Au), demonstrating continuity of the gold system down to at least ~1,600 m vertical depth.

DO-23-332 and DO-23-326X both tested beneath the Porphyry Zone and returned the most compelling visual core observations with broad intervals of alteration and elevated fine grained pyrite mineralization. Such broad low-grade haloes, with multiple >1 g/t Au intercepts, are typical of the more peripheral parts of the Porphyry Zone.

DO-23-332 intersected 10 distinct intercepts of >1 g/t Au over at least 1.0 m. A broad (121 m) mineralized envelope with anomalous gold (0.31 g/t Au average) included intercepts of 3.6 g/t Au over 1 m, and 1.2 g/t Au over 10 m, including 3.3 g/t Au over 2 m. Additional 4.9 and 2.5 g/t Au intercepts over 1 m were obtained further up hole.

DO-23-326X returned eight intercepts grading at least 1 g/t Au over at least 1 m. Furthermore, this hole did not appear to intersect the full width of the potential zone and, importantly, bottomed in mineralization (see cross section in Figure 3). Visible gold (VG) was also identified at 1,826 m down-hole.

DO-23-331 was collared ~500 m south of the 531 Zone conceptual pit and returned 2.85 g/t Au over 1.6 m, including 6.2 g/t Au over 0.7 m, with a broader interval of 0.25 g/t Au over 50.8 m further up-hole.

aThis deep drilling program was developed to test the potential for a much larger gold system at Douay while also demonstrating continuity of mineralization beneath currently defined Mineral Resources,a stated Matthew Hornor, President and CEO of Maple Gold. aThe average vertical depth of all previous drilling at Douay is roughly 300 m, with limited data below 500 m, so this first pass of deeper drilling was discovery-focused with the aim of bringing us one step closer to uncovering a new zone at depth. The program was successful from a proof-of-concept standpoint in demonstrating mineralization continuity up to four times deeper than Douaya?s currently defined Mineral Resources. Given what wea?ve encountered in the JVa?s first deep drill holes, the Company remains highly encouraged and confident that our detailed interpretation and vectoring work will lead to promising follow-up targets to incorporate into future drill campaigns at Douay. To support these ongoing initiatives, I am delighted to welcome Josh Pelletier as the Companya?s new Chief Geologist and believe that his strong structural geology and metallogeny background will help unlock value at our strategically located and district-scale project portfolio within Quebeca?s Abitibi greenstone belt.\

Technical Observations, Key Takeaways and Next Steps

The JVa?s first phase deep drilling program delivered several key geological findings related to the potential depth continuity of gold mineralization at Douay:

From top-to-bottom (~2,000 m vertical depth), gold mineralization appears to be spatially associated with a porphyry-style intrusive complex and also appears in quartz-carbonate veins associated with shearing in the Casa Berardi Deformation Zone (\CBDZ\) that may be related to a separate orogenic gold system along this E-W regional structure.

Gold mineralization was identified within the contact zone between the two main lithologic sequences (Cartwright Hills Grp. volcanic sequences and Taibi Grp. sedimentary rocks) located along the crustal-scale CBDZ North structural corridor.

There are key structural corridors that appear to crosscut the auriferous porphyry-style mineralization, which provides potential for gold remobilization and reconcentration.

At Douay, two types of gold mineralization have been recognized: 1) gold that is spatially associated with porphyritic intrusive phases and 2) gold that is spatially associated with shear zones in the CBDZ. Both styles of mineralization may have formed in different conditions and time frames. The porphyry-style gold displays similarities to low-grade gold zones formed in magmatic-hydrothermal systems, while the gold related to shear zones is similar to other orogenic gold deposits that represent the majority of gold mines in the Abitibi gold belt. Therefore, it is important to distinguish both mineralization events, and to define their spatial distributions and orientations. The JV will be completing additional metallogenic interpretations and analysis to generate optimal targeting at Douay for future drill testing.

The next steps at Douay include:

Multi-element analysis to define geochemical zonation and possible tracers to gold mineralization in order to improve vectoring within the mineralized system.

Paragenesis of gold mineralization based on mineralogical studies of the alteration patterns, gold deposition phases and other hydrothermal events.

Structural controls study to better constrain the geometry of known zones and improve targeting of structural traps.

Lithological studies to distinguish the different intrusive phases and evaluate their relationship with gold mineralization.

The Company will continue its vectoring work to refine the next set of priority drill targets at Douay, including follow-up on the first phase of deep drilling, as well as revisiting areas where the JV previously had successes (e.g. 531 and Western Porphyry zones). The Company is concurrently refining targets along its 100%-controlled Eagle Mine Project and in the Telbel Mine area within the JVa?s Joutel Gold Project in preparation for anticipated fall and winter drilling campaigns, which are expected to be announced in the coming weeks. The Companya?s VMS-focused exploration work is also ongoing with the aim of defining new drill targets, which are anticipated to be tested in early 2024.

Corporate Updates

Maple Gold is pleased to announce the appointment of Jocelyn (Josh) Pelletier as the Companya?s new Chief Geologist. Mr. Pelletier is a structural geologist and a specialist in metallogeny with over 20 years of exploration experience primarily focused on the formation of gold deposits and porphyry copper-gold systems. He holds an M.Sc. degree in geology (UQAM a Montreal), a BSc in management and is a Fellow of the SEG as a Professional Geologist (OGQ). Mr. Pelletier has significant experience exploring Canadaa?s greenstone belts, including the Abitibi, Timmins, Red Lake, Beardmore and Rankin Inlet. He will work closely with the Companya?s geological team, highly experienced Technical Committee and the JV to support the next phase of drill targets across the Companya?s project portfolio.

The Company also announces that Joness Lang and Fred Speidel have left the Company to pursue other opportunities. The Company wishes both Mr. Lang and Mr. Speidel every success in their future endeavors.

Option Issuance

The Company has approved the grant to an employee and officer of stock options (\Options\) to purchase an aggregate of 400,000 common shares of the Company at an exercise price of $0.17 per common share. The Options have a 5-year term and vest 1/3 immediately, 1/3 in 12 months and 1/3 in 24 months from the date of grant until fully vested.

Qualified Person

The scientific and technical data contained in this press release was reviewed and prepared under the supervision of Jocelyn Pelletier, M.Sc., P.geo., Chief Geologist of Maple Gold. Mr. Pelletier has verified the data related to the exploration information disclosed in this press release through his direct participation in the work performed. Mr. Pelletier is a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Control (QC)

The Company implements strict Quality Assurance (\QA\) and Quality Control (\QC\) protocols at Douay and Telbel covering the planning and placing of drill holes in the field; drilling and retrieving the NQ-sized drill core; drill hole surveying; core transport; core logging by qualified personnel; sampling and bagging of core for analysis; transport of core from site to the Val d\-Or, QuAbec ALS laboratory; sample preparation for assaying; and analysis, recording and final statistical vetting of results. Check assays for gold will be done on a sample subset at AGAT laboratory in Val da?Or. For a complete description of protocols, please visit the Company\-s QA/QC webpage at www.maplegoldmines.com.

About Maple Gold

Maple Gold Mines Ltd. is a Canadian advanced exploration company in a 50/50 joint venture with Agnico Eagle Mines Limited to jointly advance the district-scale Douay and Joutel gold projects located in QuAbec\-s prolific Abitibi Greenstone Gold Belt. The projects benefit from exceptional infrastructure access and boast ~400 km2 of highly prospective ground including an established gold resource at Douay (SLR 2022) that holds significant expansion potential as well as the past-producing Eagle, Telbel and Eagle West mines at Joutel. In addition, the Company holds an exclusive option to acquire 100% of the Eagle Mine Property.

The district-scale property package also hosts a significant number of regional exploration targets along a 55 km strike length of the Casa Berardi Deformation Zone that have yet to be tested through drilling, making the project ripe for new gold and polymetallic discoveries. The Company is well capitalized and is currently focused on carrying out exploration and drill programs to grow resources and make new discoveries to establish an exciting new gold district in the heart of the Abitibi. For more information, please visit www.maplegoldmines.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 PRESS RELEASE.

Forward Looking Statements:

This press release contains \forward-looking information\ and \forward-looking statements\ (collectively referred to as \forward-looking statements\) within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation in Canada, including statements about exploration work and results from current and future work programs. Forward-looking statements are based on assumptions, uncertainties and management\-s best estimate of future events. Actual events or results could differ materially from the Company\-s expectations and projections. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. For a more detailed discussion of such risks and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, refer to Maple Gold Mines Ltd.\-s filings with Canadian securities regulators available on www.sedar.com or the Company\-s website at www.maplegoldmines.com. The Company does not intend, and expressly 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.
On August 3, 2022, 10 miners were buried underground when the Pinabete coal shaft in Sabinas, Coahuila, Mexico, collapsed. A year later, their bodies remain there. In the first days after the collapse, the mission was a frantic and desperate struggle to rescue the workers alive, but now the sole objective is to recover the remains. The miners relatives are experiencing an interminable deferred mourning period, and the goal is to find the dead so that their families can finally bury them in graves marked with names and surnames, where they can mourn the dead, bring flowers, and get some closure after the traumatic experience.

Recovering the bodies has been a slow process. After four months of apparent inactivity, last December the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) began to use dynamite at the Pinabete mine. The objective was to open a huge pit to access the miners remains, which are about 197 feet (60 meters) underground. The main obstacle to doing so is that the tunnels were flooded with water as a result of their proximity to the Sabinas River.

Now, the salvage teams are a little closer to achieving their goal. Family members hope to recover the bodies in one or two months. In February, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador estimated that the bodies would be found in December, but official estimates have already been wrong more than once: at the end of August, after weeks of insisting that the rescue was imminent, Civil Protection gave a proposed time frame of between six and 11 months.

It has been a difficult process, [one thats involved] going to appointments with psychologists. My children arent getting over it; it is very different when they tell you that a person died and you see him, he is in a casket, you bury him, you know where he is buried. We know where he is, but we dont have access to that part of the pit, explains Carolina Alvarez, the widow of Jorge Luis Martinez, one of the buried miners. [Recovering the bodies] is something we all need to be at peace, calm. There are moments of anguish, of loneliness, when you start to think about many things, and you want it to be over. Not because of the fatigue of going [to work] every day; its not that. Its no longer the heart [that aches]; its the soul that hurts so much. More so for my children, it seems to me that they need [closure] to be at peace.

SABINAS, COAHUILA, MEXICO. 11/08/2022. Family and friends of the miners trapped in the "El Pinabete" mine walk with candles to the mines access point. ANTONIO OJEDA

From hope to anger

Last August, the area around the El Pinabete mine was an adrenaline-filled scene of soldiers, rescue teams, family members refusing to go home and neighbors dropping off supplies. Despite the unlikelihood of rescuing the miners, there was a certain hope in the air, a belief that the 10 men would be seen alive again. Every minute was important, each small piece of news was seen as an opportunity for progress. But time went by, and hope gave way to a state of agony, frustration and anger.

On August 29, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador subtly declared that the miners were dead. In his daily morning speech, which at the time was plagued with questions about the condition of the 10 men, he stopped talking about a rescue effort and referred to the response to the tragedy as an operation to recover the bodies. The news did not go over well with the mens relatives, who grudgingly had to accept the obvious: that no human being can survive for a month in a cave 196 feet underground without drinking water or food, in absolute darkness.

It would be inaccurate to call the collapse an accident. Rather, it was a tragedy waiting to happen. The Pinabete mine was unusual in that the shafts through which the precarious elevator that the miners used to descend barely fit. It lacked even the most basic safety conditions, such as a list of who had entered and exited the mine. Pinabete was also located next to the old Las Conchas mine, which was abandoned decades ago. The Sabinas River, just a few hundred meters away, had flooded the abandoned Las Conchas tunnels for years.

On August 3, a deep, dry rumble shook the ground around the Pinabete mine as the miners were working in the shafts. The cause was the accumulated water at Las Conchas, which had finally made its way through the cracks in the subsoil and was sweeping through the tunnels, where the workers were cutting, at full speed. A few miners managed to escape. The 10 unluckiest ones remained below.

This Thursday, the victims relatives will hold a mass where the shafts used to be to honor the miners. The widows have continued to check that the operations are continuing. We despaired because we saw no progress. Our hands are tied, and we can only wait for them to do their work, but for a few months now, we have been seeing progress. That has calmed us down; [its] not like [it was] at the beginning when we saw so much water everywhere, says Alvarez.

She says that Civil Protection (PC) has promised to tour the pit on the 15th: There is very little water left; they hope that there wont be any water left over the next few days to begin the rescue. A team of forensic anthropologists will begin to search the terrain to exhume the remains. This newspaper contacted Laura Velazquez, the PC coordinator in charge of dealing with the relatives, but there was no response before this article was published.

Work to locate the miners remains continues at El Pinabete mine in 2023. Cortesia

Compensation and arrests

A two-pronged struggle began for the families in August. On the one hand, they were mourning the death of a loved one. On the other, they were fighting for compensation. The government provided each widow with 4.7 million pesos (about $250,000). Alvarez explains that, in her case, she has also been receiving a widows pension and an orphans pension for her two children, a total of 12,000 pesos ($700) a month. The El Pinabete mining company responsible for the extraction has declared bankruptcy. After the mine collapsed, the company started to pay the wives their husbands salaries  or at least a percentage of it  until the miners remains were recovered. At first, the company provided a salary of about 4,000 pesos ($23.11) a week, but the money stopped coming in October and has not resumed.

For the moment, two people have been arrested for the collapse. The first was Cristian Solis Saavedra, a sort of foreman, who was arrested in September. The families consider him to be a mere figurehead who only appeared in the contracts as the legal representative in case there were any problems. In May, Luis Rafael Garcia Luna Acuna, one of the presumed owners of the company, was also arrested and charged with the crime of illicit exploitation of an asset belonging to the nation. A third person, Arnulfo Garza Cardenas, is at large, and Interpol has issued an international warrant for his arrest.

The Attorney Generals Office believes that Garcia Luna Acuna, Solis Saavedra and Garza Cardenas incurred criminal liability by allowing coal mining activities to be illegally carried out in the shaft. However, the El Pinabete company had a contract with the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) for 75 million pesos ( around $4.3 million). According to an investigation by the Animal Politico website, the CFE described the extraction as safe and agreed to purchase all minerals extracted between 2020 and 2024.

Mining experts and the victims families point to CFE as another culprit in this tragedy. The agency is the key player in Lopez Obradors electricity reform, and 99% of the coal it buys comes from the Coahuila coal region.

But since the collapse, the mining company has not adopted new safety measures; the activity in Coahuilas mines continues as usual. This July, two men died in another shaft accident, also in Sabinas. Year after year, victims continue to mount. According to the records kept by the victims families, over 3,100 miners have died in this region since coal mining began at the end of the 19th century.

Coahuila is a poor area, and the only employment opportunities are in the mines or in the maquilas, the factories, which are safer but far more precarious. Experts warn that if new economic outlets are not provided and safety conditions in the mines are not regulated, more miners will die in Coahuila.

The 10 miners who died at El Pinabete 1. Jose Rogelio Moreno Morales (22 years old), Jose Rogelio Moreno Leijas son. 2. Ramiro Torres Rodriguez (24 years old) 3. Hugo Tijerina Amaya (29 years old) 4. Jorge Luis Martinez Valdez (34 years old) 5. Sergio Gabriel Cruz Gaitan (41 years old) 6. Jose Rogelio Moreno Leija (42 years old), Jose Rogelio Moreno Moraless father. 7. Mario Alberto Cabriales Uresti (45 years old) 8. Jose Luis Mireles Arguijo (46 years old) 9. Margarito Rodriguez Palomares (54 years old) 10. Jaime Montelongo Perez (61 years old)

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T here are few cities on earth better than London  but a lot of our rivals are catching up fast. That was my feeling as I walked the streets of Montreal and Toronto on a recent visit to Canada.

Walking was much easier  huge chunks of Montreal are pedestrianised in the summer months, leaving locals and tourists to roam free and enjoy alfresco dining. Yet remarkably, vehicle traffic has not come to a standstill.

The culinary scene was fantastic. I was stunned by the diversity of the food on offer, from indulgent Korean street food, to the Thai-Hungarian fusion restaurant I visited, to my personal favourite: Rasta Pasta, an Italian-inspired Jamaican joint.

Thats a far cry from whats available in London, where high streets are bloated with Five Guys, Honest Burgers, Nandos, Yo Sushis and Itsus. Its a damning indictment of our great city that in some quarters youre more likely to see two Prets on the same street than two independent restaurants.

And if you fancy an after-dinner drink at a bar in Toronto, theres no fear of being kicked out at 10.30pm.

Oh, and did I mention all the public transport has air-conditioning as standard? And thats not even a new thing, its been true for years. The threat of sweaty armpits on the 7am commute has long since been extinguished.

Citizens are trusted to look after themselves, and they do

Marijuana is legal there, too, and you can get your fix from licensed stores on the high street, rather than a dark alley. And yet civilisation has not collapsed, addiction rates arent skyrocketing and the citys youth is not roaming the streets in a daze, drool hanging from their mouths, as some here would have us believe. Citizens are trusted to look after themselves, and they do.

What frustrates me about all the great assets of these two cities is they are all things London could so easily emulate. They dont require billions of pounds of investment. A few new policies would do it: more pedestrianisation, less corporatisation, more liberalisation, and a couple more air-conditioning units. Job done. London massively improved.

These two Canadian cities are far from perfect, but if we here dont soon have what they have, our claim to being one of the worlds best cities will become a fantasy.

Simon Hunt is a business and technology correspondent.
M y flight shame, or flygskam in the original Swedish, has grown so intense of late that Ive started to feel guilty while sitting at home watching aviation YouTubers (no sniggering in the back) review their trips. Because they are making money out of the adverts Im watching.

Weve all become somewhat desensitised to rising temperatures and tumbling records, so much so that it takes something quite spectacular

to rouse us from our carbon-intensive slumbers. Perhaps that is wild heatwaves in the South American winter or most recently, record-breaking ocean temperatures at the wrong time of the year.

Mammals left the oceans to start a new life on land roughly 400 million years ago, and I show my solidarity by refusing to enter the water whatever the temperature. Still, it strikes me as a little alarming that the average daily global sea surface temperature has hit a new all-time high of 20.96 degrees Celsius, according to the EUs Copernicus climate change service.

This is bad for a number of reasons. The oceans are home to 80 per cent of life on what is, as far as we know, the only place in the visible universe that can support even single-celled organisms, let alone a YouTube algorithm. Warmer temperatures drive marine life to search for cooler climes, disturbing delicate food chains.

But this is about more than fish, fond as I am of smoked salmon. Warmer waters melt sea ice, leading to higher sea levels. They are also less able to absorb carbon dioxide, leaving more of it to build up in the atmosphere, further fuelling climate change.

Yet the truly frightening part is that this record fell when it did. Ocean temperatures should be at their highest in March, not August. Meanwhile, water temperatures around the UK were 3C to 5C higher than average in June, though nothing on Florida, where surface temperatures hit a little over 38C.

We ask a lot of our oceans. To provide navigation, reliable weather systems and a source of food, particularly protein. But the seas also act as something of a climate shield, having absorbed 90 per cent of the warming that has occurred in recent decades from greenhouse gasses, according to Nasa. Meanwhile, and I learned this today, the top few metres of the ocean store as much heat as the Earths entire atmosphere.

Theres no grand lesson from todays newsletter or pay-off witticism. Its Friday, its nearly four oclock, the world is hot, its getting hotter, and a rubbish British summer provides no evidence to the contrary.

In the comment pages, Sarah Baxter warns us to prepare for a referendum on Donald Trump that may split the United States. Paul Flynn says Netflixs Heartstopper offers queer youth what theyve always missed: their own fairytale. While Simon Hunt thinks London would be better if it were more Canadian.

And finally, with new openings, a Fringe to rival the Scots and a south London music festival, Mike Daw has everything you need to get up to in London this weekend.

Have a good one.

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.
Review at a glance









T he world of childrens entertainers has been a fruitful source of inspiration for comedians in recent years. Character actor Justin Edwards created perpetually sozzled party clown Jeremy Lion and Funz And Gamez won an Edinburgh Comedy Award Panel Prize in 2014 for its mix of treats for kiddies accidentally in the crowd and asides about existential angst for the adults.

Now here comes posh Sylvester Silly String pairing with SPITTA, the Stormzy of the balloon animal set, for Anastasias sixth birthday in Chelsea. It is an inspired show that functions on multiple levels. A simple send-up of ice cream and jelly japes for grown-ups but also a subtle rumination on double act dynamics.

Kiell Smith-Bynoe, best known as non-dead Mike in sitcom Ghosts, plays SPITTA, who has built his following via TikTok, while Ed MacArthur plays upper crust jester Sylvester. As they trade barbs in rap battles or simply bitch at each other, punchlines fly thick and fast. The one thing they have in common is that they both grew up on estates, although you could only see deer roaming from Sylvesters boudoir.

This is an energetic immersive work that quickly draws in the audience. One fan becomes Anastasia, everybody else becomes a party guest. A positive vibe permits the protagonists to indulge in painful dad gags. If you can get a laugh out of whats brown and sticky? a stick you can get a laugh out of anything. Youd have to have a heart of pure granite not to join in when they ask everyone to do the big fish, little fish dance, thankfully seated.

Occasionally there is a splash of satire. When String is asked to improvise he replies: last time somebody in my family improvised it triggered a recession. Will they be reconciled or go their separate ways, forever fighting over West Londons rich pickings? Youll have to buy a ticket to find out. Or maybe not, as there is talk of a TV pilot in the pipeline.

After the finale last night Smith-Bynoe and MacArthur paid tribute to director/producer Adam Brace, who died suddenly earlier this year aged 43. An award is planned in Braces name to support emerging creatives. In the meantime his influence lives on in this immensely enjoyable piece that, to borrow from a musical highlight, is heads, shoulders, knees and toes above the rest.

Soho Theatre, to August 10; at Edinburgh Fringe, Pleasance, Aug 18-28
T he one-inch-tall barrier of subtitles has never seemed like such a small obstacle to discovering great films.

Ever since Bong Joon-Hos Parasite won Best Picture back in 2020, more people than ever, it seems, have been looking to discover foreign-language films.

Streaming services are great places to discover new movies, with plenty of hidden gems tucked away just waiting to be discovered, which is why we have rounded up 20 of our favourites.

This is by no means a guide to the greatest foreign-language films ever made  there are plenty of favourites weve missed out here. Instead, these are the best movies available for subscribers to enjoy right now on streaming services without having to rent them at extra cost.

These are our picks of the best foreign-language films to watch now.

Drive My Car  MUBI

Winning Best International Feature Film at the Oscars in 2022, the three-hour-long Japanese drama Drive My Car tells the story of a widowed theatre director who begins working on a new play. He is driven to and from the theatre every day, which means he starts to form a relationship with his young driver.

All Quiet on the Western Front  Netflix

All Quiet on the Western Front / AP

Last year All Quiet on the Western Front was nominated for nine Oscars, including Best Picture. It won Best International Feature Film, Best Original Score, Best Production Design and Best Cinematography. An adaptation of Erich Maria Remarques 1929 novel, Edward Bergers epic war film is a grizzly look at life on the German front lines during the First World War.

Return To Seoul  MUBI

Return to Seoul / Handout

Davy Chous acclaimed drama stars Ji-Min Park as Freddie Benoit, a French woman who was adopted from Korea as a baby. Now, aged 25, Freddie finds herself in Seoul after her flight is diverted, and so decides to reconnect with her birth parents.

Roma  Netflix

Alfonso Cuarons Roma is a stunning ode to Mexico, following a young housekeeper and the middle-class family that employ her in the early Seventies. Its vast in scale, exploring both intimate relationships, family dynamics and expansive geopolitical themes. Theres a timeless beauty to the film, and its deeply moving and heartbreaking in parts.

Close  MUBI

Close / MUBI

Last year French-language film Close picked up the Grand Prix at Cannes, and was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars. Lukas Dhonts moving coming-of-age tale follows two young boys who are best friends whose relationship starts to change as they enter their teenage years.

Betty Blue  Amazon Prime Video

This 1986 French film from Jean-Jacques Beineix is often heralded as one of the sexiest films ever made. Zorg (Jean-Hugues Anglade), a handyman and writer, and Betty (Beatrice Dalle), a feisty 19-year-old, start a love affair which ends up causing more harm than good.

The Quiet Girl  BFI Player

Set in 1981, Colm Baireads Irish Gaelic, Oscar-nominated coming-of-age story follows nine-year-old Cait who is sent to a farm in the Irish countryside for a summer. The young girl starts to settle into her new life, but reality calls.

Atlantics  Netflix

Mati Diop's Cannes prize-winning debut tackles a challenging subject matter  the tragic deaths of migrants at sea  in a surprisingly life-affirming way, following a love story at the very edges of human capabilities. It has found an audience online after debuting in 2019.

The Platform  Netflix

High-concept Spanish sci-fi The Platform is one of the more recent films on the list, having arrived on Netflix earlier this year. The movie takes place inside a prison, referred to as a "Vertical Self-Management Centre with more than 300 floors. Its occupants are fed by a platform, which is filled with food and slowly lowered from floor to floor. If you like your dramas dark and nihilistic, this is for you.

Toni Erdmann  MUBI

German comedy, anyone? This film, directed, written and co-produced by Maren Ade, became a surprise international hit in 2016 after winning over audiences around the world. It tells the story of Peter Simonischeks Toni, a divorced father with a penchant for practical jokes, who makes a concerted effort to reconnect with his daughter.

The Hunt  Amazon Prime Video

In this unsettling Danish movie Mads Mikkelsen plays a kindergarten teacher who is falsely accused of sexually abusing one of the children in his class. The film proves Mikkelsen as one of the finest actors of his generation, analysing how one lie can cause an entire life to unravel.

Divines  Netflix

Multi-faceted French drama Divines from first-time director Houda Benyamina is part thriller and part romance, telling the story of two young women in love. Their relationship plays out against the tough streets of inner city Paris and the banlieues, with the couple harbouring dreams of making a life elsewhere.

The Raid  Netflix

The Raid is a curious thing  an Indonesian action movie directed by a Welsh filmmaker, Gareth Evans  which features some of the most unforgettable action sequences of the past decade. The entire movie is essentially one extended fight sequence, following an elite team as they infiltrate a high-rise building run by a notorious drug lord. The incredible set-pieces hark back to Bruce Lee and the martial arts movies of the Sixties and Seventies, with added nastiness and visceral violence.

The Salesman  Amazon Prime Video

This Iranian drama follows married couple Emad and Rana, whose lives are irrevocably changed after Rana is assaulted during a performance of Arthur Millers Death of a Salesman. It won the Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards in 2017, beating the likes of Toni Erdmann.

Under the Shadow  Netflix

A mother and a daughter are haunted by a shapeless evil force in Eighties Tehran in this strange and inspired supernatural horror. The threat of air raids during the Iraq-Iran war looms large over the film, which is claustrophobic, affecting and unforgettable.

8   Amazon Prime Video

The first movie Fellini released after the monumental success of La Dolce Vita saw him embrace touches of the surreal, as he focused on the life of protagonist Guido Anselmi  an acclaimed director struggling with a creative drought.

I Lost My Body  Netflix

Animated French fantasy film I Lost My Body takes a sideways look at immigrant life in Paris with a unique narrative, focusing on a severed hand which escapes from a laboratory to be reunited with a young boy. The movie, which became the first-ever animation to win the Nespresso Grand Prize at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, tackles themes of alienation and identity in a truly original way.

A Fortunate Man  Netflix

Danish drama A Fortunate Man, set in the 19th century, focuses on a young man who turns away from his familys deeply religious life to follow a career in engineering and marry a Jewish woman against their wishes. Its well worth watching, even if for the resplendent choreography and period costume alone.

Portrait of a Lady on Fire  Netflix

This stunning movie has emerged as one of the most compelling romances of 2020, with director Celine Sciamma creating something truly special. Noemie Merlant and Adele Haenal both deliver inspired performances as a young painter and her unruly subject, who enter into a passionate relationship.

Sheherazade  Netflix

Zachary, a 17-year-old French boy, is released from prison and falls into the ganglands of Marseille  the crime capital of France  in this hard-hitting drama. The film sees him endure a life living on the streets, falling for a young prostitute, played by Kenza Fortas.
T he Church of Scientology has described claims made against it by actor Leah Remini as allegations of pure lunacy.

Remini, known for US sitcoms including The King Of Queens and Kevin Can Wait, has filed a lawsuit against the organisation and its leader David Miscavige.

In a statement, the actor said she had endured 17 years of psychological torture, defamation, surveillance, harassment, and intimidation which had significantly impacted her life and career.

This lawsuit is ludicrous and the allegations pure lunacy. The Church is not intimidated by Reminis latest act of blatant harassment and attempt to prevent truthful free speech.

Her statement read: I believe I am not the first person targeted by Scientology and its operations, but I intend to be the last.

On Thursday, the Church of Scientologys response described Remini as an anti-free speech bigot and a horrible person.

The statement read: This lawsuit is ludicrous and the allegations pure lunacy.

The Church is not intimidated by Reminis latest act of blatant harassment and attempt to prevent truthful free speech.

The statement also accused Remini of profiting from her fabrications.

I believe I am not the first person targeted by Scientology and its operations, but I intend to be the last.

In her lawsuit, filed on Wednesday, the actor accused the Church of mob-style operations and attacks on her and other victims and survivors.

The complaint alleges attacks on Remini were activated by the Churchs Office of Special Affairs (OSA) and their operatives meant to totally restrain and muzzle, obliterate, and ruin her.

She said: With this lawsuit, I hope to protect my rights as afforded by the Constitution of the United States to speak the truth and report the facts about Scientology.

I feel strongly that the banner of religious freedom does not give anyone license to intimidate, harass and abuse those who exercise their First Amendment rights.

High-profile figures known to have been associated with the Church of Scientology include John Travolta and Tom Cruise.
E dgar Wright has a new film in the works with Simon Pegg and were absolutely thrilled about it. Why? Nearly every film that Wright has ever put out has been pretty fantastic.

From his Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy of British comedies, to his action thriller Baby Driver, to his most recent psychological thriller Last Night in Soho, Wright has a proven track record of hits that indicates that the arrival of his next project is something to make a note of.

Speaking to Discussing Film, Pegg revealed that the duo are working on a new film together, but it wont be a continuation of their well-loved trilogy, which comprised Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and The Worlds End.

With what do next, we want to be completely different from that, said Pegg. We dont want to do a take on action movies or a take on sci-fi or a take on horror. We want to make a movie that is totally its own thing, existing outside of the Cornetto trilogy. My desire, really, is to do something super different.

Edgar came over to my house last year and we started kicking ideas around, the Mission Impossible actor said. The real problem now is about syncing our diaries up at a time when we can both sit down and write a film. And then obviously shoot it.

While theres clearly a long time to wait until the collaboration lands on our screens, the news has nevertheless reminded us just how much we have enjoyed Wrights films over the years.

With that in mind, heres our ranking of the acclaimed directors films, from worst to best (and weve left off Wrights 1995 debut, A Fistful of Fingers, which he directed when he was 21 and looks like it).

Last Night in Soho (2021)

Last Night in Soho is our least favourite Wright film, which doesnt mean for a second that its a bad film. In fact, the 2021 flick was highly acclaimed by the critics, and received two BAFTA nominations.

It tells the story of contemporary aspiring fashion designer, Ellie (Thomasin McKenzie), who gets transported to the Sixties and meets Sandie (Anya Taylor-Joy). Ellie finds herself entangled in a dangerous plot when Sandie is seemingly killed. For those looking for a Wright comedy, Last Night in Soho is not it: the film is a dark and stylish psychological mystery, a thrilling slow-burner.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (2010)

As with all of Wrights films, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World was eccentric, clever and played with a film genre format. This time Wright adapted the Noughties graphic novel, Scott Pilgrim, for the screen and used a series of neon graphics to bring the story to life. The story follows 22-year-old Scott (Michael Cera) who goes head to head against the exes of his crush Ramona Flowers in order to prove his love for her. When Pilgrim battles the various boyfriends, he enters into a recognisable video-game arena.

The film had a cast packed full of stars including Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Kieran Culkin, Chris Evans, Anna Kendrick, Brie Larson, Jason Schwartzman and Aubrey Plaza, and was generally loved by the critics. Given the sounds and the graphics, the film mostly speaks to a specific audience, making it less of a universal hit than some of Wrights other projects.

The Worlds End (2013)

The Worlds End was the third film of Wrights cornetto trilogy, following on from Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. With much of the same energy, tone and sense of humour, in The Worlds End, Wright hijacked the sci-fi genre. The story follows five friends, played by Pegg, Nick Frost, Paddy Considine, Martin Freeman and Eddie Marsan who return to their rural hometown, Newton Haven, to redo a pub crawl that they first attempted 23 years ago. The last stop is the pub called The Worlds End.

But peculiar things start happening, which at first get overlooked because of all the beers and friendly argy-bargy. After several stops at various drinking holes, it soon dawns on the group that half the people in the establishments are robots. Now they have much bigger issues to think about than how their lives have turned out after two decades apart.

Baby Driver (2017)

Baby Driver was an absolute humdinger: an Oscar-nominated action film about a young getaway driver (Ansel Elgort) who is trying to leave his life of crime behind him. The film is less comedic than some of Wrights earlier works, but has just as much joyous momentum, bolstered by a fantastic soundtrack full of energising songs from artists like T.Rex, The Commodores, Danger Mouse and Simon & Garfunkel.

Film critic Mark Kermode gave the film five stars, describing it in The Guardian as Wrights most thrillingly cinematic romp.

Shaun of the Dead (2004)

Shaun of the Dead was the film that introduced Wright to an international audience, and for good reason: his comedy spin on zombie movies was a stroke of genius. The film follows the standard zombie film format: a sleepy town, strange happenings, people acting bizarrely, the creeping realisation that the behaviour is due to a deadly virus which is turning people into the undead, and society quickly shutting down.

But at every turn Wright surprised audiences with hilarious flourishes, somehow digging deeper into the genre, while at the same time turning expected tropes on their head, making for a treat of a film.

Pegg is Shaun, a shop manager who fails to do basic things like book a restaurant for his anniversary with his girlfriend, Liz (Kate Ashfield). But as the zombie apocalypse intensifies he ends up proving hes not such a loser after all.

Hot Fuzz (2007)

Hot Fuzz goes straight to the top of our list. Easily one of the best British comedies ever made, it stars Jim Broadbent, Frost, Timothy Dalton, Paddy Considine, Bill Nighy and Olivia Colman, and its lines, such as Any luck catching them killers, then? Its just the one killer actually live rent-free in our heads, as they have done from the first day we watched it.

The story follows Sergeant Nicholas Angel (Pegg), a London Met police officer who has been sent to the country by his colleagues because hes so good at his job that hes making everyone else look bad. Now stationed in the Village of the Year award-winning Sandford, in Gloucestershire, Angel goes about patrolling the town with the same vigour as he would the capital  which seems wildly unnecessary until people start getting killed under suspicious circumstances.
H eartstoppers highly anticipated second instalment has finally landed on Netflix on Thursday, August 3.

As fans of the show will already know, the LGBTQ+ teen drama based on graphic novels is a coming-of-age story.

Season one introduced the viewers to an openly gay teenager named Charlie Spring and the friend he had a crush on, Nick Nelson. The audience saw them navigate their sexualities, get to know one another more intimately, and deal with the bullies at their school.

When the trailer for the second season dropped, many fans noticed the introduction of new filming locations.

If youre one of them, here is everything we know about Heartstoppers set locations.

Where is Heartstopper filmed?

The first season of the Netflix series was mostly filmed in Herne Bay which is located on the coast of Kent.

Those who are familiar with the area were quick to recognise the Bay Pier at Central Parade, the beach, and the seaside towns high street.

As for the school scenes, the production created the Truham Grammar School using the Herne Bay High School as a backdrop.

While the second will season also features Herne Bay, the storyline of the series meant that there were a lot of scenes filmed across Paris, France.

The scenes in the Northern Parisian region of Montmartre feature the Roman Catholic church Sacre Couer Basilica, where Charlie and Nick are seen enjoying some ice cream sitting on the steps, and Musee de Montmartre, where Tao and Elle attempt to go on their second date.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, viewers will also spot the famous Arc de Triomphe, the iconic Eiffel Tower, and the Louvre Museum.

The scene where Nick and Charlie are encouraged by another LGBTQ+ couple walking hand-in-hand down a Parisian street is set in Le Marais, and the bookshop the Heartstopper gang visits on the final day of their trip is the Shakespeare and Company bookshop that used to be a favourite of famous names like F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway.

And, if youre wondering where the students of Truham and Higgs tried some authentic French cuisine, you will be pleased to know that it was a real restaurant that fans can visit, too. Named LEscalier, the eatery is located in Montmartre.
Smoke rises over Khartoum, Sudan, on June 8, 2023, as fighting between the Sudanese army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces continues.

Sudans warring parties have committed extensive war crimes in the ongoing conflict, including deliberate killings of civilians and sexual assault, a leading rights group said Thursday.

The east African country plunged into chaos in mid-April when monthslong tensions between the military and a powerful paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces, exploded into open fighting in the capital of Khartoum, and elsewhere in the country.

Amnesty Internationals 56-page report said civilians were killed and wounded in targeted attacks. The group also reported women being raped, with some held in conditions amounting to sexual slavery mostly in the capital, Khartoum, and the western region of Darfur.

Sexual violence has been a defining element of this conflict since the beginning, Donatella Rovera, co-author of the report, told The Associated Press. Civilians really have no good options. Its difficult for them to leave. Its incredibly dangerous for them to stay.

Almost all rape cases were blamed on the RSF and its allied Arab militias. The report said the RSF abducted 24 women and girls - as young as 12- and held them for several days during which they were raped by several RSF members.

Rovera said that war crimes such as sexual assault are happening, on what seems to be a large scale.

The RSF, which evolved from the notorious Janjaweed militias, was also blamed for most of the deliberate attacks, Amnesty said. Some members of the military were also accused of the crimes, the report said.

Responding to the report, the military said it had established a unit to try to minimize civilian harm while the RSF denied allegations of sexual violence, as well as carrying out violent acts in West Darfur.

The conflict has turned Khartoum and other urban areas into battlefields. Darfur  which had been the scene of genocidal war in the early 2000s  saw some of the worst bouts of violence with the current fighting turning into ethnic clashes.

The fighting forced about 4 million people to flee their homes, either to safer areas inside Sudan or to neighboring countries, according to the U.N. migration agency.

The violence in Darfur was mostly blamed on the RSF and its allied Arab militias which the group said targeted the African Masalit community in the region. The group said armed men from the Masalit allegedly also targeted Arabs suspected of siding with militias.

Amnesty detailed waves of violence in West Darfur province one of five constituting the Darfur region  including the killing of civilians, looting and destruction of homes and facilities such as the main hospital and markets.

The killing of West Darfur Gov. Khamis Abdalla Abkar on June 14  following his detention by the RSF  promoted an exodus of many members of the Masalit community to eastern Chad, which turned into an open camp for those who fled the fighting in Darfur, Amnesty said.

Civilians throughout Sudan are suffering unimaginable horror every single day, said Agnes Callamard, the groups secretary general. She called on the warring sides and their affiliated groups to end their targeting of civilians, and guarantee safe passage for those seeking safety.

On April 20, an attack in Khartoums southern neighborhood of Kalakla killed three children from the same family as they tried to escape the gunfire, the group said, adding that it was not able to determine which side was responsible for the killing.

Amnesty quoted Kodi Abbas, a 55-year-old teacher, whose two sons and nephew were killed, as saying they were small and couldnt run away fast enoughI dont know who shot them. The war killed them.

The group said it also documented an attack by the RSF on the complex of the Mar Girgis Coptic church in Khartoums Bahri district. RSF members in a pick-up vehicle stormed the church, shooting five members of the clergy, and stole money and a gold cross, the report said citing witnesses.

They were shouting and insulting us  saying things like, Egyptian dogs and sons of dogs  and asking for money and gold, an unidentified survivor was quoted by the human rights group.

Amnestys report was the latest one documenting atrocities in Sudans conflict.

Last month, Human Rights Watch called for the International Criminal Court to investigate atrocities in Darfur, including summary executions of around three dozen non-Arab tribesmen in a Darfur town.

The U.N. Human Rights Office said a mass grave was found outside the town of Geneina with at least 87 bodies, citing credible information. And the International Criminal Courts prosecutor, Karim Khan, told the U.N. Security Council in July he was investigating alleged new war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur.

There are allegations that this could be ethnic cleansing, said Rovera, The situation is a very difficult one, is a very dangerous one because it can escalate further.

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There are few guarantees on holidays but even the most lacklustre break can be rescued by taking along something riveting to read. And even a brilliant time away can be crystallised in the moments you spend glued to a paperback. The happiest reading experience of my adult life was in Seville a few years ago, when I barely spoke for the first 36 hours as I sat, in 40-degree heat, tearing through an advance copy of Sally Rooneys Normal People.

You may prefer something more outre  Hanya Yanagiharas A Little Life is not my idea of a fun holiday read but I have a friend for whom the most memorable part of her stay in a French gite was when she lost all composure and began sobbing and pacing round the courtyard during a crucial point in the narrative.

Each to their own but we hope you find something in the list below to transport you, however the rest of your holiday turns out.

Everythings Fine

By Cecilia Rabess

Everythings Fine / PR handout

This is set to be the smash hit novel of the summer, endorsed by everyone from Nick Hornby to Meg Mason. The author has previously worked for Google and Goldman Sachs and says the book was part-inspired by her reading an article entitled Donald Trump Is Destroying My Marriage, which featured couples with opposing political views explaining how they did or didnt discuss politics with their spouses. This is a love story  between Jess, a liberal black woman, and Josh, a conservative white man, but one which Rabess has said she hopes asks more questions than it answers.

14.99, waterstones.com

Behind These Doors

By Alex South

Behind These Doors / PR handout

The memoir of a former prison officer may not be everyones idea of holiday escapism but this is an eye-opening account of life in Britains prisons from a woman who worked in many of them during a 10-year career. And let us not pretend that some of us, on holiday, dont want to read about characters who are definitively having a worse time than us. While occasionally horrifying, Souths writing is insightful rather than voyeuristic and she offers an important overview of the many things wrong with the prison service as well as the extraordinary humanity of many on the frontline  not least the social workers who visit prisoners on their day off.

13.20, amazon.co.uk

Ordinary Human Failings

By Megan Nolan

Ordinary Human Failings / PR handout

This much-hyped second novel from the journalist Megan Nolan has an engaging premise: set in the Nineties, a tabloid journalist begins to probe long-held secrets of an Irish family on a London council estate, implicated in a shocking crime. The Greens emigrated from Ireland to the UK following a scandal but their reclusive existence is interrupted when a child goes missing and they are immediately suspected. Carmel, at the centre of the family, must unravel decades of trans-generational haunting to confront the truth. One critic called it politically astute, furious and compassionate.

14.99, waterstones.com

I, Julian

By Claire Gilbert

I, Julian / PR handout

The fictional autobiography of a 14th-century anchoress, Julian of Norwich, who walled herself into a cell to live a life of prayer and quiet contemplation, may not initially sound promising but this is a beautiful account of the life of the first woman to author a book in English. It is not lost on Gilbert that there was no way for a woman who was not an anchoress to have the freedom to become an author, and reading about Julian, it soon becomes clear why she proved such an inspiration to so many during the lockdowns of the recent pandemic. Julians life is far from charmed  it is full of bereavement and physical pain  but this lovely, meditative book is the ideal novel to make like Greta Garbo and hide away with during a noisy group holiday.

14.99, amazon.co.uk

A House for Alice

By Diana Evans

A House for Alice / PR handout

The wonderfully talented Diana Evans has said she wants to create visibility and truthful representation for people of colour in her work. A laudable aim but this would be pointless if her novels werent so engaging. In her latest, she dares to ask what happens when Alice  an immigrant from Nigeria who has lived in London for 50 years  rejects integration and wants to return to the country of her birth. This is a rich family saga which touches on the Grenfell Tower fire, masochistic sex, Croydon nightclubs, eating disorders and what it means to raise a black son. For fans of Bernardine Evaristo and Charlotte Mendelson.

9.99, amazon.co.uk

Pineapple Street

By Jenny Jackson

Pineapple Street / PR handout

Anyone whose appetite for observing the lives of the super-rich was left unsated by watching Succession and The White Lotus should be packing Pineapple Street in their suitcase. It centres on the Stockton family, whose wealth comes from real estate and, in particular, focuses on the sisters Darley and Georgiana as well as their sister-in-law Sasha. How much you enjoy the book may be influenced by your tolerance for dialogue such as Oh no! I left my Cartier bracelet in Lenas BMW and shes leaving soon for her grandmothers house in Southampton! (Southampton in this context is a village on Long Island, rather than the birthplace of Rishi Sunak). A juicy treat if you have the stomach for wealth signifiers aplenty.

14.99, waterstones.com

The List

By Yomi Adegoke

The List / PR handout

The hype surrounding Yomi Adegokes first adult novel makes us suspicious. The co-author of Slay In Your Lane: The Black Girl Bible has already sold the TV rights to The List to HBO Max, the BBC and A24 and the book has been heralded as the novel of the summer. But then Bernardine Evaristo  who is nobodys fool  has said this is a topical, important and probing novel that thrashes out the moral issues around social media outrage and personal culpability. Adegoke captures an impressive array of voices and vernaculars with such supple verisimilitude, it feels as if her vividly realised characters are in the room with you and who are we to argue with Mz Evaristo? The bright lilac cover will be seen in airport lounges and Airbnbs everywhere this month  read it before everyone starts talking about the TV series.

14.99, waterstones.com

A Thread of Violence

By Mark OConnell

A Thread of Violence / PR handout

If you are coming to Mark OConnell, author of To Be a Machine, hoping for a salacious serving of true crime, then you need to keep looking. This is nonetheless a scrupulous and compelling account of a double murder that took place in Ireland in 1982 and was described by the then Irish Prime Minister Charles Haughey as Grotesque. Unbelievable. Bizarre. Unprecedented. OConnells interest in the case was fuelled by the fact that Malcolm Macarthur, the murderer, was arrested while he was staying in an apartment next to the home of OConnells grandparents. After this jumping-off point however, OConnell works hard to get out of the way of the story but is never unthinking about his own desire to pursue it. A Thread of Violence will not offer you sunny escapism but its the kind of book which you can only read with time and space to think. For fans of Camuss The Stranger and Capotes In Cold Blood.

10.99, amazon.co.uk
E ast London Islamist preacher Anjem Choudary is facing a trial next May for alleged terror offences.

The 56-year-old was arrested in a dawn raid at his home in Ilford on July 17 while a second suspect, Khaled Hussein, was detained at Heathrow having arrived on a flight the same day.

Choudary is charged with directing a terrorist organisation, being a member of the proscribed organisation Al-Muhajiroun (ALM) and addressing meetings to encourage support for the group.

Hussein, 28, who lives in Canada, was charged with membership of ALM.

On Friday the defendants appeared at the Old Bailey for a preliminary hearing by video link from custody.

Choudary, father of five, was at HMP Full Sutton in Yorkshire and Hussein appeared from HMP Wandsworth in south London.

Mr Justice Jeremy Baker set a plea hearing for January 5 and a provisional trial at Kingston Crown Court from May 20 next year.

The court was told the trial of up to eight weeks would be heard before a High Court judge. During the hearing, the defendants spoke only to confirm their identities and dates of birth.

Grey-bearded and bespectacled Choudary wore a white robe and Hussein appeared in a grey and black checked shirt.

Choudary could be seen on the video link scribbling notes as defence barristers in court discussed the timetable for the case.

Mr Justice Baker told the defendants: The trial in this case  if it is to take place  will take place at Kingston Crown Court before a High Court judge on May 20 of next year and you will appear at either that court or this court on January 5 for a plea and trial preparation hearing. In the meantime, you will remain in custody.

Court artist sketch of Anjem Choudary appearing by video link from HMP Full Sutton in Yorkshire at the Old Bailey / Elizabeth Cook/PA Wire

Last month prosecutor Warren Stanier said the banned organisation Al-Muhajiroun involves an extreme form of Islam.

That is reflected in the ideology of Al-Muhajiroun, a proscribed organisation in this country in Janaury 2010, he told Westminster magistrates court on July 24.

It is said Al-Muhajiroun has been reborn under a different name, the Islamic Thinkers Society (ITS), and Choudary is accused of giving a series of lectures to ITS.

Mr Stanier said Hussein is accused of being a member of the banned group for around two years, and has been working for (Choudary) in the online space to provide a platform for the words and messages of the organisation.

Nick Price, from the CPS Counter Terrorism Division, said at the July hearing: The CPS has authorised charges in relation to Anjem Choudary and Khaled Hussein under the Terrorism Act.

The charges relate to the proscribed organisation Al-Muhajiroun, also known as the Islamic Thinkers Society.

Criminal proceedings against Mr Choudary and Mr Hussein are now active and they each have the right to a fair trial.

It is extremely important that there should be no reporting, commentary or sharing of information online which could in any way prejudice these proceedings.

The function of the CPS is not to decide whether a person is guilty of a criminal offence, but to make fair, independent and objective assessments about whether it is appropriate to present charges for a criminal court to consider.
T he convictions of two British Rail worker who were jailed 46 years ago on the evidence of a corrupt police officer are set to be reviewed as potential racially-motivated miscarriages of justice, it has been announced.

Basil Peterkin and Saliah Mehmet were both sentenced to nine months in prison in 1977 after they were convicted of stealing from the Bricklayers Arms Goods Depot in Southwark, south London, and they died with their convictions still in place.

The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) has now sent their cases to the Court of Appeal, in the latest potential miscarriage of justice involving disgraced British Transport Police Detective Sergeant Derek Ridgewell.

Ridgewells evidence was pivotal in the convictions of Mr Peterkin and Mr Mehmet, but in 1980 the officer himself along with two colleagues  DC Douglas Ellis and DC Alan Keeling  admitted a plot to steal 364,000 worth of property from the same depot.

Enquiries into the activities of Ridgewell, who died in prison in 1982, have revealed a pattern of corrupt behaviour, fabricating evidence, and deliberately framing black men for crimes they did not commit.

The CCRC has now referred 11 cases involving Ridgewell to the Court of Appeal, including four black men known as the Oval Four who were framed by the corrupt officer over muggings on the Tube. Their convictions were overturned in 2019, nearly 50 years after they had been convicted and jailed.

Ridgewell was also behind the conviction of the Stockwell Six, another group accused of attempting to rob on the underground who had been framed.

Mr Mehmet died in August 2021 and Mr Peterkin passed away in August 1991. They were two of 12 people who stood trial at the Old Bailey in April 1977 over the alleged theft from the rail depot. They were accused of stealing by re-labelling parcels to direct them to alternative addresses, and then selling the goods that were inside.

Basil Paterkin is believed to have been wrongly convicted on the evidence of a corrupt British Transport Police officer / CCRC

Mr Mehmet was convicted of conspiracy to steal, handing stolen goods, and two counts of theft, and Mr Peterkin was convicted of conspiracy to steal. Eight defendants were convicted in total and four were found not guilty, having all argued that evidence against them was planted.

In a joint statement, Mr Peterkins children Basil, Janice and Lileith said: Our fathers conviction was devastating for him and our whole family. He never got over it. He felt such shame that he left his home in the UK to try to start afresh.

We now know that the officer who arrested our father was found guilty of the very crime he had accused our father and others of committing. That officer was corrupt. We want justice and we want our fathers name cleared.

Mr Mehmets children Regu, Arda and Onur said: After fleeing war in Cyprus, our father started a family in this country. This conviction left him a changed man who never again trusted the police.

It had a traumatic effect on our mother and our whole family for decades, including making us homeless.

The convictions of Saliah Mehmet and Basil Peterkin have been referred to the Court of Appeal / CCRC

We are pleased and relieved that this case is going to the Court of Appeal. The behaviour of Ridgewell was atrocious, and we are hopeful that our fathers name will finally be cleared.

The CCRC said it is challenging the credibility of DS Ridgewell in its reference to the Court of Appeal. Helen Pitcher OBE, Chair of CCRC issued an appeal for other possible Ridgewell victims to come forward.

On top of considering more than 1,400 applications per year, our case review managers have used their investigative powers to track down family members of two men who may have died with unsafe convictions, she said.

We are continuing work to identify other potential applicants, I urge anyone else who believes that they or a loved one, friend or acquaintance was a victim of a miscarriage of justice to contact the CCRC - particularly if DS Derek Ridgewell was involved.

In 2021, BTP Chief Constable Lucy DOrsi sent a letter to black activists, apologising for Ridgewells actions.

On behalf of the British Transport Police (BTP), I am sincerely sorry for the trauma suffered by the British African community through the criminal actions of former police officer DS Derek Ridgewell, who worked in BTP during the 1960s and 70s, she wrote.

In particular, it is of regret that we did not act sooner to end his criminalisation of British Africans, which led to the conviction of innocent people. This is simply inexcusable and is something that my colleagues and I are appalled by.
A murder investigation has been launched after a man who was stabbed in south London died in hospital.

Metropolitan Police officers were called to Kender Street, at the junction with Queens Road, in New Cross just before 1am on Friday.

A man, 20, was found with knife injuries and paramedics from the London Ambulance Service rushed him to hospital in a critical condition.

Despite the efforts of medics to save him, he died on Friday afternoon, prompting a murder probe, the Met said in an update.

Detective Chief Superintendent Trevor Lawry, leading the Mets South East Command said: I know that local people will be shocked by this incident and I would like to reassure the community that, alongside our Specialist Crime colleagues, we are working hard to establish the full facts of this incident and to identify those responsible.

My officers remain at the scene and will be conducting enhanced patrols in the coming days to ensure that anyone with information, or concerns can approach them.

If you do have information that could assist the investigation, but dont want to speak directly to police, I urge you to contact Crimestoppers who will not even ask for your name.

I am saddened to see another young life lost needlessly to knife crime in our city, another family devastated by loss - my thoughts are with the young mans loved ones.

The mans next of kin have been notified and a post-mortem examination will be scheduled.

There have been no arrests so far. A police cordon remains in place at the scene on Kender Street.

Homicide detectives from the Mets Specialist Crime Command have been notified.

Anyone who has information or footage relating to this incident should call 101 or Tweet @MetCC quoting 265/4AUG. To remain 100% anonymous call the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or visit crimestoppers-uk.org.
A former deputy head at Prince George and Princess Charlottes first school confessed I dont like the person I am when he was caught grooming children for sex online, a court has heard.

Matthew Smith, 35, instructed boys aged eight and ten to perform sexual acts on camera, sending money and promising to pay for school fees as rewards.

Smith was appointed as deputy head of pastoral care at Thomass prep school in Battersea in September last year, after a five-year stint teaching in Nepal.

But his work at the UK school came to an abrupt end in November last year, when he was arrested and charged with a catalogue of abuse of children in India, together with possession of more than 120,000 indecent images and videos.

Clearly I have an addiction, probably in this area, he said, during his police interview. I dont like the person I am. I would give anything to be normal. Anything.

Judge Martin Griffith, sitting at Southwark crown court, told a hearing on Friday that Smith is not accused of committing any crimes at the Battersea school.

He was arrested by National Crime Agency officers in a raid on his home in East Dulwich, southeast London, when he was caught red-handed on his computer speaking to a boy in India.

He had dark web forums dedicated to child sexual abuse open on his laptop, while evidence showed he had paid out more than 65,000 to abused children between 2017 and his 2022 arrest.

Details of the Smiths offending were revealed at Fridays hearing, as Judge Griffith told the former teacher faces a substantial prison term when sentence is passed next week.

Prosecutor Martin Hooper told the court: His history is important. At the time of his arrest in 2022, he was employed as a teacher. He was the deputy head of pastoral care at a preparatory school in Battersea, where pupils were aged between four and 14.

Prior to that, he was a teacher in Nepal between 2017 and 2022.

Smith lived in India between 2007 and 2014, and was volunteering in orphanage where children were aged from two to 15.

The court heard Smith sent requests for photos and videos of a ten-year-old boy being abused, and transferred 7,500 in payment for the images and videos.

Other material indicated Smith had bathed naked and engaged in sexual activity with a boy in India.

When the boy was older, Smith  referred to as uncle  encouraged him to lure an eight-year-old boy away from his family with the express intention that he would be sexually abused, said Mr Hooper.

The defendant said he would pay their school fees in return

Images found on Smiths laptop show the boy being explicitly and repeatedly abused according to Smiths instructions. In one of the recovered messages, Smith asks if the young boy is ready for some fun.

Smiths barrister told the court he has written to relatives and close friends to explain to them exactly what has happened, to express to them the fact that he does not expect so much as a response, but to apologise to them for the distress that this news may well have caused them.

She said Smith has spent time in prison so far teaching reading, writing and maths to fellow inmates, and he has committed to seeing treatment for the causes of his offending.

He is keen indeed to make changes, and he understands that change cant be made simply by making verbal commitments, she said. He will continue to devote himself to searching for appropriate intervention wherever it is properly available to him.

Smith pleaded guilty to three counts of encouraging the rape of a child under 13, three charges of causing a boy under 13 to engage in sexual activity, arranging and encouraging the sexual abuse of a child, possession of an extreme pornographic image, and 11 charges relating to the possession, making, and distribution of indecent images of children.

After the guilty pleas were entered, Thomass prep school said in a statement: We have been shocked and appalled beyond measure by this matter and are grateful for the work of the police and courts in bringing this man to account.

Mr Smiths employment at the school, which commenced in September 2022, was terminated with immediate effect when the school first learned of the charges against him in November.

While the National Crime Agency has confirmed that none of the matters under investigation related to the school or its pupils, these deplorable actions constitute an unforgivable breach of trust and our thoughts are with those who have been impacted or damaged by them.

As always, we remain absolutely committed to the ongoing safety and wellbeing of our pupils and our whole school community.

Smith remains in custody ahead of sentencing on Wednesday.
S ix women have been rescued from a north London modern slavery ring after being lured from Romania by fake boyfriends.

Human traffickers used the loverboy tactic to act as a boyfriend before controlling them and forcing them into sex work in the capital.

Met officers in partnership with Europol, Eurojust, and Romanian Police arrested a 24-year-old man for being wanted on a UK court warrant in a dawn raid on Friday.

It came as Scotland Yard simultaneously executed 12 warrants with authorities in Romania and three in Colindale, north London.

Five people have been detained for questioning around the city of Iasi in North Eastern Romania for human trafficking offences.

The six women are now being supported by specialist officers and the charity Justice and Care.

As part of the warrants large quantities of cash, and high value watches and vehicles as well as firearms were seized in Romania. / Met Police

DI Melanie Lillywhite, from the Mets modern slavery unit, said the raid has significantly disrupted the organised criminal network.

She said: Unfortunately, this type of exploitation is still happening across London and the UK. The Mets modern slavery team works around the clock to identify people involved in human trafficking and forced labour, and we play a role in protecting and supporting hundreds of victims each year.

DI Lillywhite believes that victims of modern slavery can be found in every single London borough and urged the public to report any suspected victims to her elite unit.

She added: Often those affected do not see themselves as potential victims of sexual exploitation and many will have been coerced into this life to make money for an organised crime network. Victims are often told the police and authorities in the UK are not to be trusted and with limited English are unable to seek help, even if they want to.

As well as being sexually exploited, victims have been found working in construction, domestic servitude, agriculture, cannabis factories and in places you use yourself, such as car washes, barbers and nail bars.

If you suspect that you, or someone you have come into contact with, may be a victim of modern slavery or trafficking and require support, please call The Salvation Armys 24 hour confidential referral helpline on 0800 808 3733. This is the best way to get support to anyone you suspect might be a victim.

You can also report a suspicion or seek advice through the Modern Slavery Helpline confidentially on 08000 121 700. This is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

You can also report to the police online at www.met.police.uk or by calling 101, in case of an emergency dial 999. Alternatively, you can contact the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or online at crimestoppers-uk.org.
A senior Metropolitan Police officer who was convicted of possessing a child abuse video has pleaded not guilty to claims she broke the rules applying to sex offenders.

Superintendent Novlett Robyn Williams, 58, appeared via videolink at the Old Bailey on Friday to face seven charges relating to her alleged conduct between November 2019 and December 2021.

It is said she failed to declare Capital One and HSBC credit cards as well as a bank account with Santander, and she allegedly failed to notify authorities of a trip to Kenya in December 2021.

Williams, the only black female Superintendent in the Met, has been highly decorated during his policing career, including a commendation for her work in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower disaster.

In November 2019 she was convicted of possession of an indecent image of a child after footage was sent to her via WhatsApp. The clip was not viewed by Williams but she did not report it.

As a consequence of her conviction, Williams was placed on the Sex Offenders Register for five years, and was subject to strict notification requirements.

Williams sat alongside her solicitor on the videolink as she entered not guilty pleas to the seven charges of failure to comply with notification requirements.

Judge Mark Lucraft KC, the Recorder of London, did not set a trial date and adjourned the case for a further hearing on September 29.

Williams, who lives in Pimlico, remains on unconditional bail.
T he devastated family of a man shot dead in Tottenham say they need to know what happened as police renew their appeal to find his killers.

Talip Guzel, 33, was gunned down metres from the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on White Hart Lane at 11.30pm on Sunday.

A post-mortem examination held at Haringey Mortuary gave the cause of death as a gunshot wound.

Police arrived to the shooting at the junction with Pretoria Road, to find Mr Guzel with multiple bullet wounds.

Despite the efforts of emergency services, he died a short time later.

Homicide detectives from the Mets Specialist crime team are investigating.

DCI Dave Whellams, said: We need to hear from anyone who was in the area of Pretoria Road last Sunday night and is yet to come forward.

Talips family has been left devastated, and they need to know what happened.

Did you see or hear anything suspicious? Did you capture the shooting on dashcam? Please contact us urgently.

Anyone who has information that could help police should call police via 101 quoting reference CAD 7377/30Jul. To remain 100% anonymous contact the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or visit crimestoppers-uk.org
D ownpours, thunderstorms, high winds, and low temperatures are continuing to be forecast for parts of England and Wales this week before the wet weather will potentially let up.

Last year, the UK saw record-breaking temperatures of more than 40C recorded, igniting wildfires that destroyed houses and melting train tracks.

However, this July was the UKs sixth-wettest July on record.

Here are some answers on what is causing the rain and whether there is a chance the weather will improve.

Why has July been so wet and cold?

Met Office spokesman Oli Claydon said the changeable weather is down to the UK being an island that is more exposed to the Atlantic along with the position of wind pressure.

He said: Its being driven by the position of the jet stream that sort of has been steering low pressures towards the UK through July.

Of course, dont forget, June was an exceptionally dry and warm month for many, so weve had both ends of it this year.

How wet has July been compared with previous years?

Last month was the UKs sixth wettest July on record, and the wettest ever July in Northern Ireland, according to provisional figures from the Met Office.

The UK saw an average of 140.1mm rain across the month, the sixth-highest total for July since records began in 1836.

The record for the UKs wettest ever July was 1988, with an average of 150.5mm of rain, followed by 2009 (145.5mm), 1939 (143.5mm), 1936 (142.6mm), 1888 (142.2mm), and now 2023.

Northern Ireland had an average of 185.4mm of rain last month, just above the previous record of 185.2mm set in 1936.

This figure could be revised once all rainfall data for July is collected and reviewed, the Met Office said.

What about temperatures?

Met Office figures show July was slightly cooler than usual, with a mean temperature across the month of 14.9C  0.3C below average for the period 1991-2020.

By contrast, the previous month was the warmest UK June on record, with a mean temperature of 15.8C  2.5C higher than average.

The mercury this July has failed to hit the heights of last year, when a UK record temperature of 40.3C was found in Coningsby, Lincolnshire on July 19, 2022.

When will the rain end?

Forecasts by the weather agency point to an easing of downpours later in August but conditions are unlikely to reach anywhere near the sweltering temperatures of last year.

The west of England is likely to see more settled conditions on Friday before the downpours return, Mr Claydon said.

He added: There are some early signs, there could be some potentially more settled or warm weather by the end of next week, so theres a lot of uncertainty around that because of the movement of the various low-pressure systems across the Atlantic that would lead to that.

Looking further ahead, the current forecasts suggest there will be warmer and drier conditions in the second half of August, with some spells of rain.

Is climate change to blame?

When asked whether the changeable UK weather was down to climate change, Mr Claydon said: I dont think therell be necessarily a link to climate change driving the unsettled nature of the weather here.

He pointed instead to the position of the jet stream which has brought low pressure to the UK.

In contrast, strong winds above the Earths surface have caused exceptionally high temperatures of more than 40C and wildfires in Europe.

Mr Claydon said these high temperatures were down to the jet stream but had been exacerbated by climate change.
Riot police fire tear gas grenades at demonstrators during protests in the capital Nairobi, Kenya on July 7, 2023.

As the U.S. government was considering Kenya to lead a multinational force in Haiti, it was also openly warning Kenyan police officers against violent abuses. Now 1,000 of those officers might head to Haiti to take on gang warfare.

Its a challenging turn for a police force long accused by rights watchdogs of killings and torture, including gunning down civilians during Kenyas COVID-19 curfew. One local group confirmed that officers fatally shot more than 30 people in July, all of them in Kenyas poorest neighborhoods, during opposition-called protests over the rising cost of living.

We are saddened by the loss of life and concerned by high levels of violence, including the use of live rounds during those protests, the U.S. said in a joint statement with 11 other nations in mid-July.

Now the U.S., as this months president of the U.N. Security Council, is preparing to put forward a resolution to authorize a mission in Haiti led by Kenyan police, who have relatively little overseas experience in such large numbers and dont speak French, which is used in Haiti.

This is not a traditional peacekeeping force, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said Tuesday.

For more than nine months, the U.N. had appealed unsuccessfully for a country to lead an effort to restore order to the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere.

Kenyas interest was announced on Saturday, with its foreign minister saying his government has accepted to positively consider leading a force in Haiti and sending 1,000 police officers to train the Haitian National Police, restore normalcy and protect strategic installations.

Kenya stands with persons of African descent across the world, Alfred Mutua said. A ministry spokesman didnt respond to questions about the force or what Kenya would receive in return.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday praised Kenya for simply considering to serve, a sign of the difficulty in mustering international forces for Haiti, where deadly gang violence has exploded since the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise.

Some organizations that have long tracked alleged police misconduct in Kenya are worried.

We had some consultations with Kenyan (civil society organizations) last week and there was general consensus that Kenya should not be seen to be exporting its abusive police to other parts of the world, Otsieno Namwaya, Kenya researcher with Human Rights Watch, told The Associated Press.

Kenyas security forces have a yearslong presence in neighboring Somalia to counter Islamic extremists  a deadly threat that some Kenyans say should keep police at home  and troops have been in restive eastern Congo since last year. Past U.N. peacekeeping deployments include Sierra Leone.

But while other African nations including Rwanda, Ghana and Egypt have thousands of personnel in U.N. peacekeeping missions, Kenya has less than 450, according to U.N. data. Just 32 are police officers. The U.S. has a total of 35 personnel in U.N. peacekeeping missions.

I have no knowledge of any complaints raised by the U.N. during those deployments, hence no concern on my end, the executive director of the watchdog Independent Medico-Legal Unit, Peter Kiama, told the AP. Remember, the major challenges regarding policing practices in Kenya include political interference with police command and independence, inadequate political will to reform the institution, culture of internal impunity and criminality, and inadequate internal and external accountability.

With the Haiti deployment, Kenyan police would likely be in charge instead of answering to a U.N. force commander as in traditional peacekeeping missions.

Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry on Tuesday said he spoke with Kenyan President William Ruto to thank Kenyans for the demonstration of fraternal solidarity. Kenya plans to send a task force in the coming weeks to assess the missions operational requirements.

We have to find someone who can help us, one Port-au-Prince resident, Benice Pierre, said Wednesday.

At home, Kenyas police force has received millions of dollars in training and support from the U.S., European Union and other partners in recent years, with Washington focusing on promoting police accountability and professionalism.

But last week, Kenyas National Assembly saw a shouted debate, along with demands for a moment of silence, over police actions during the recent protests.

The kind of brutality that has been meted out on innocent and unarmed civilians in the last couple of months has been unprecedented, minority leader Opiyo Wandayi said. Those youth that you are killing require jobs, not bullets.

Kenyas leading opposition party has threatened to gather evidence to submit to the International Criminal Court.

In response, Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki said that police have remained neutral, impartial and professional. The ministry referred questions about alleged abuses to the police, who havent responded.

Ruto, elected president a year ago, at first praised police for their conduct during the protests, but later warned officers against extrajudicial killings as a public outcry grew.

Problems with Kenyas police force have long been acknowledged, even by officials.

The National Police Service does not have a shoot to kill policy, its inspector general, Hilary Mutyambai, said in a submission to a parliamentary inquiry on extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances released in late 2021.

But the government-created Independent Policing Oversight Authority told the inquiry it had received 95 cases of alleged deaths because of police action in the previous seven months alone, noting continuous abuse of force and firearms occasioning deaths.

A commissioner with the authority said last month that police werent even reporting deaths to the body as required, which is illegal.

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A big-spending gambler who claimed he wasnt liable for 600,000 of debt he ran up at an exclusive Mayfair club in just one night because he was blackout drunk has lost his case.

The case was brought by ultra-exclusive casino Aspinalls after Lester Hui blew 589,724 playing double chance baccarat and then refused to pay up.

The nightclub owner told the court that he wasnt liable for the debt because the casinos staff had plied him with drinks, including Chinese liquor Mao Tai - often dubbed firewater.

But in a ruling on Friday, High Court judge Mr Justice Cotter ruled that Mr Hui was in fact liable for the debt and ordered steps to be taken for it to be repaid.

The court heard that Mr Hui, a member of the private members club on Curzon Street since 1998, was part of an elite tier of heavy-spending customers who would be given a concierge service with complimentary food and drink.

On February 9 2016, Mr Hui attended a special meal at the club for Chinese New Year with guests where they ordered 11 bottles of complimentary high-end wines and champagne.

He then racked up eye-watering losses, losing some 400,000 in just over 20 minutes and nearly 600,000 in total.

He alleged that he had drunk three-and-a-half bottles of champagne and wine, and five to ten shots of 53 per cent proof Mao Tai, the rough equivalent of a litre of vodka. He also alleged staff had ignored a self-imposed request to only gamble 30,000.

But Aspinalls launched claim for recovery in September 2019 demanding he pay up, insisting Mr Hui was sober enough to make clear decisions and even drove himself home across London afterwards.

It said that its staff would not have encouraged any gamblers to continue gambling or ply them with additional drinks if they were already too drunk.

In the ruling on Friday, Mr Justice Cotter said Mr Hui significantly exaggerated the amount of alcohol he consumed and had in fact not been plied with Mao Tai by staff.

He also noted that Mr Hui later accepted a trip to Finland offered by Aspinalls to drive a Bentley on a frozen lake, suggesting he did not then feel wronged by the casino.

He added that Mr Hui drove 20 miles home on the night in question - meaning he likely was not that drunk.

I am satisfied that whatever Mr Hui did drink (which is probably very significantly less than he claims he drank), it did not have a readily observable effect upon him such that members of staff noticed, or should have noticed, he ruled.

The parties must now agree a draft order for repayment between them.
T he Government withdrew 31 million in recruitment funding from the Met, despite warnings that the force could be 2,000 officers short by next year.

Ministers earmarked funding to forces across the country as part of a manifesto commitment to recruit 20,000 new police officers in five years by March 2023 under the Police Uplift Programme.

As the Met was the only force in the country not to meet its recruitment targets, it lost 30.8m in Home Office grant funding in 2022-23 earmarked for the scheme, according to newly-filed accounts.

A spokesperson for the Mayor said it was ill-judged and deeply regrettable that the Government withdrew the pot of ring-fenced funding.

But a Home Office spokesperson insisted that it has provided more year-on-year funding for the Met overall for the 2023-24 financial year, saying the force would actually receive an additional 102m compared to last year.

Against the backdrop of devastating Government cuts, the Mayor is doing everything he can to support the Met to recruit and retain the best officers to serve Londons communities, said a spokesperson for the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan.

This includes investing a record 1billion to help elevate police officer numbers in the Met to their highest and most diverse levels ever.

Even so, both the Mayor and Commissioner are clear that London needs more officers and it is deeply regrettable that the Government has decided to withdraw funding.

We are continuing to call on the Government to work with us and support the action being taken by the Mayor to provide London with the number of officers required to help build a better, safer city for all.

But a Home Office spokesperson said: We have delivered on the promise we made to the British people to recruit 20,000 additional officers, which means more police on the beat, preventing violence, solving burglaries and cracking down on antisocial behaviour.

We are keen to ensure that the Metropolitan Police has the resources it needs which is why it will receive up to 3.3 billion in 2023-24, an increase of up to 102m when compared to 2022-23 and now have more officers than the pre Police Uplift Programme peak in 2010.

Under the Police Uplift Programme, the government provided funding for an additional 4,557 officers over five years to 2023, but the Met missed its recruitment targets by around a thousand officers. As of March, the Met had 34,503 officers.

Met chief Sir Mark Rowley has previously said the target was missed in part due to the forces scandal-hit reputation.

The force, however, believes it needed 6,000 more officers, and is calling for additional Government funding to make up that gap.

It comes after policing minister Chris Philp called on Sadiq Khan to take more action to prevent the Met being short of up to 2,000 officers by 2024.

In a leaked letter, Mr Philp said there was a missed opportunity for the Met to recruit more officers, and that the problem was due to a shortfall in police constable applications over a sustained period of years.

The Mayor of London is the capitals police and crime commissioner, meaning he is responsible for the totality of policing in the capital outside the Square Mile.

But the majority of the Mets funding originates from central Government.
S adiq Khan has announced a major widening of the scrappage scheme for the expanding Ultra low emission zone (Ulez), by opening it up to all Londoners with non-compliant cars.

The Labour mayor said the scheme will become more generous in several different ways - some of which will take effect immediately.

The changes, described by Mr Khan as a huge expansion, are being introduced alongside the addition of 50m to the existing 110m fund, drawn from City Halls reserves.

The scrappage scheme, which provides drivers with grants to replace their vehicles with less polluting models, has until now only been open to Londoners in receipt of certain benefits, as well as businesses with fewer than 50 employees, and charities registered in the capital.

Mr Khan has come under significant pressure in recent weeks from within his own party to reflect on his plan to expand the Ulez into outer London - but he said he remained committed to the policy, due to be implemented on August 29.

I have always said that expanding the Ulez to the whole of London was a difficult decision, and not one I took lightly  but its a decision I remain committed to seeing through, said the mayor.

Im not prepared to step back, delay or water down vital green policies like Ulez, which will not only save lives and protect childrens lungs by cleaning up our polluted air, but help us to fight the climate crisis.

I have continued to listen to the concerns of Londoners over recent months, and today I can announce a huge expansion to the scrappage scheme that means that all Londoners with non Ulez-compliant cars will now be able to get financial support to switch to greener, less polluting vehicles.

The alterations to the scheme are being made in two stages, with the first stage coming into force with immediate effect (on Friday, August 4):

Grants awarded to small businesses and charities with a non-compliant van will increase from 5,000 to 7,000

Grants for wheelchair accessible vehicles will increase from 5,000 to 10,000

Grants for scrapping minibuses will increase from 7,000 to 9,000

Grants to replace a non-compliant van with an electric van will increase from 7,500 to 9,500

Grants to replace a non-compliant minibus with an electric minibus will increase from 9,500 to 11,500

Retrofit grants will increase from 5k to 6k, typically enough to cover the whole cost of retrofitting

Then on Monday, August 21:

Every Londoner with a non Ulez-compliant car or motorcycle will be eligible for a 2,000 grant (or 1,000 for a motorcycle), or a higher value package of up to two bus and tram passes plus a lower grant (no change to the payment level)

Small businesses and sole traders will be able to scrap as many as three vans (up from one)

As of July 23, some 10,562 applications had been made to the scrappage scheme, with some 38.5m allocated to date. With the 50m addition to the scheme now having been made, around 120m is therefore thought to still be available.

The changes come after Mr Khan said he would carry on listening to Londoners concerns about the Ulez, following Labours failure to win the Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election in July.

The Conservatives, who succeeded in holding the west London seat, focused their campaign around opposition to the Ulez expansion, telling voters that they can send a clear message to Sadiq Khan by voting Tory.

The result caused senior figures in Mr Khans party to express concern over the expansion plan, with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer urging the mayor to reflect on the policy.

Commenting on the latest changes to the scrappage scheme, Susan Hall - Conservative candidate for mayor in 2024 - said: "This is too little, too late from Sadiq Khan, who is facing mounting pressure from Londoners and his own party.

Thousands of families, small businesses and charities face financial ruin because of Sadiq Khan's Ulez expansion, which will do next to nothing to improve air quality.

Susan Hall, Conservative candidate for Mayor of London in the 2024 City Hall election / PA Wire

If I am elected mayor, I will reverse this disastrous policy and replace it with a 50m fund to reduce air pollution without taxing people."

According to City Hall, since its launch in 2019, the Ulez has helped to reduce levels of harmful nitrogen dioxide by 46 per cent in central London and by more than 20 per cent in inner London. Particulate matter levels have also continued to reduce across London, City Hall said, with a 41 per cent reduction in central and inner London since 2017.

Transport for London maintains that nine out of ten cars seen driving in outer London on an average day are already Ulez-compliant and will not have to pay the charge.

The Ulez requires all non-compliant vehicle drivers to pay a daily charge of 12.50.
M ayors from cities around the globe have praised Sadiq Khan as he vowed he would not delay or water down the extension of the ultra low emission zone later (Ulez) this month.

The Mayor of London insisted he was pressing ahead with the controversial expansion as he announced a major widening of a vehicle scrappage scheme.

City Hall is set to add a further 50 million from reserves to a 110 million fund to help drivers upgrade their cars, vans and motorbikes.

All Londoners, rather than just those in receipt of certain benefits, as well as small businesses and charities, will also have access to payments between 2,000 and 11,500 to make their vehicles compliant.

Drivers of the most polluting cars will have to pay a daily 12.50 charge anywhere in Greater London from August 29.

The announcement has been supported by the mayor of Oslo, Raymond Johansen, Montreals mayor Valerie Plante, and the mayor of Milan Giuseppe Sala.

Mr Johansen told the Guardian: I see the establishment of the Ulez and its expansion as a sign of bold leadership from Mayor Khan.

If you really want to tackle poor air quality in a large city like London, you need to introduce measures that are substantial enough to make a real difference, even if it meets resistance from parts of the city. This serves as an inspiration to other cities.

He said he faced criticism for a similar scheme in the Norwegian capital, where a total diesel ban is in place during winter, and drivers have to pay an increased toll to enter the city on days with bad pollution.

But Mr Johansen said residents on the lowest incomes are the most frequent users of public transport, and the service is improved with the toll revenues.

Meanwhile Ms Plante, mayor of Candas Montreal where wildfiles have raged this summer, told the Guardian that she supports Mr Khan and the expanded Ulez scheme because it has shown its efficiency to reduce air pollution.

She added: Many cities across the world are already looking at the Ulez in London and getting inspiration to elaborate similar schemes.

Milans mayor, Giuseppe Sala, said he was inspired by Ulez and will look at the policy to help inform part of Milans own strategy to reduce congestion and air pollution.

REUTERS

But back in the UK, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves and shadow health secretary Wes Streeting have all said they do not want the expansion to go ahead as planned.

They urged the Mayor to reassess the timing after the policy was blamed for the partys by-election defeat in Uxbridge last month.

Mr Khan said on Friday: I have always said that expanding the Ulez to the whole of London was a difficult decision, and not one I took lightly  but its a decision I remain committed to seeing through.

Im not prepared to step back, delay or water down vital green policies like Ulez, which will not only save lives and protect childrens lungs... but help us to fight the climate crisis.

Asked whether he was disappointed by the Labour frontbench briefing against him, Mr Khan said it was important for people to be honest and candid about any concerns they have.

Londoners have been candid to me about the concerns theyve had, and weve responded, he added.

City Hall analysis found that nine out of ten cars in London are already Ulez compliant.

Mr Khan encouraged drivers to apply to the scrappage scheme straight away. Around 50million of the 160millon available has already been allocated.

The sooner they drive a compliant vehicle, the sooner theyre breathing in cleaner air, he said.

The scrappage announcement was welcomed by some boroughs set to be included in the Ulez expansion.

Clyde Loakes, deputy leader of Waltham Forest council, said: Waltham Forest has long argued that the Government should give financial support to the scrappage scheme to help with the delivery of this world- leading policy, as they have done in other cities with similar schemes such as Birmingham.

We are grateful that the London Mayor has stepped in to fill the gap left by the Government.

But Mr Khan still faces fierce opposition from Conservative-run town halls, as well as the home counties whose residents are not eligible for the scrappage scheme.

Just one of the seven councils bordering the capital has granted permission for City Hall to erect Ulez signs warning motorists they will be entering the zone.

Buckinghamshire town hall told the Standard it would not enter into an agreement to install Ulez road signage until adequate mitigation for its residents and businesses that face being affected was in place.

Tory Mayoral candidate Susan Hall this morning said the expansion hurts so many people not just Londoners and would make virtually no difference at all to air quality in outer London.
C omedian Suzy Eddie Izzard is back on the campaign trail for Labour. After missing out on the chance to be the partys candidate in Sheffield Central earlier this year, Izzard is now seeking selection in the Brighton Pavilion seat. It is currently held by Caroline Lucas, the Green Partys only MP, but she is stepping down at the next election. Izzards campaign features a Trump-ish call to action: Lets make Brighton Pavilion Labour again. She has previously expressed a wish not only to be an MP, but to serve in a Labour government as a Cabinet minister, touting possible Treasury credentials as an accounting and financial management graduate.

I grew up in this county, and Im proud of my roots, Izzard, who went to school in Eastbourne, said in a slick campaign video. Her geographical focus seems to have shifted. Earlier this year, she said: Id still love to be an MP for Sheffield, anywhere up North. If there is a North/South divide, I wanna fight for the North. Now she is rushing to the South Downs.

Rishi racing ahead in glam holiday stakes

Rishi Sunak and family in Santa Monica / AP

Politicians are taking off for their summer holidays. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has bagged the most glamorous trip of the lot, flying out to his beach-side apartment in California with the family. Labour politicians cant match the PMs jet-setting  Sir Keir Starmer is limiting himself to a staycation with the family this year while shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves has taken a holiday in rainy Cornwall. She shared a selfie of herself in a red mac walking a coastal trail. Slightly more adventurous was Emily Thornberry, Labours shadow attorney general, who is on a girls road trip through Europe. She started off with a round of 11 per cent beers in Bruges, Belgium, and is now hurtling through Germany. Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, below, managed to get abroad for business, not pleasure. He is in Zambia.

Rachel Reeves and James Cleverly /

It seems the producers on BBC Radio Fours Today programme have also taken a holiday. This morning presenters Justin Webb and Martha Kearney were at a loose end when they had no prompter to read from. And the headlines this morning ... well be hearing about those shortly, said Kearney, saving face. What a pro.
B ritain has demanded Russia releases Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny after he was sentenced to a further 19 years imprisonment on charges he rejected as politically motivated.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said on Friday evening that Moscows abuse of the opposition leader shows a complete disregard for even the most basic of human rights.

Mr Navalny, who is already serving prison time in Russia, was handed 19 years more on Friday following a behind-closed-doors trial at the IK-6 penal colony east of Moscow.

Following the hearing Mr Cleverly tweeted: Alexei @Navalny has been sentenced to an additional 19 years in a Russian prison.

His abuse shows Russias complete disregard for even the most basic of human rights.

Dissent cannot be silenced. The UK calls for his immediate release.

He was tried on six separate criminal charges, including inciting and financing extremist activity and creating an extremist organisation.

Mr Navalny denied the charges, and warned ahead of the verdict he would be handed a Stalinist prison term to ward off other dissenters.

Appearing gaunt in court but displaying a defiant smile, the 47-year-old was convicted of extremism charges relating to his anti-corruption foundation.

The opposition leader is already serving a nine-year sentence for fraud and contempt of court. He also was sentenced in 2021 to two and a half years in prison for a parole violation.

One of president Vladimir Putins loudest critics, his arrest in 2021 came after he returned to Moscow following a period of recuperation in Germany after being poisoned by the Novichok nerve agent.

He is being held at a maximum-security penal colony at Melekhovo and appeared in court last month, facing new allegations of creating an extremist organisation. If found guilty, he could be jailed for up to 30 years.

In a ruling earlier this year, the European Court of Human Rights found that Russia had notably failed to investigate Mr Navalnys 2020 poisoning.

The court said Russia had failed to explore the allegations of a possible political motive for the attempted murder, as well as possible involvement of state agents.
A group of Greenpeace activists arrested following an anti-oil protest on the roof of Rishi Sunaks constituency manor house have been released while inquiries continue, police have said.

North Yorkshire Police, who have come under criticism following the security breach at the Prime Ministers grade II-listed mansion in Kirby Sigston on Thursday, said their investigation remains ongoing.

The campaigners draped his home with an oil-black fabric to protest against the Governments plans to allow licences to be granted for further development of North Sea oil and gas.

They scaled the roof of his home about 8am on Thursday, while Mr Sunak, his wife and children were on holiday in California, and stayed up until around 1.15pm, when they were arrested.

The force said: All five suspects who were arrested following the protest in Kirby Sigston on August 3 have been released on conditional police bail to allow for further inquiries to be carried out.

The investigation remains ongoing.

Assistant Chief Constable Elliot Foskett said: There was no threat to the wider public throughout this incident, which has now been brought to a safe conclusion.

But a former deputy chief constable from the force said it was a major breach of security, as he called for an investigation into how this has been allowed to happen.

Following the incident, Areeba Hamid, co-executive director of the organisation said the protest was a proportionate response to a disastrous decision by the Prime Minister to grant more than 100 new licences for oil and gas extraction in the North Sea.

Speaking to Sky News, she added: It was an empty home, the fact that he wasnt there was actually national news, everybody knows that he wasnt there.

We made sure, in fact we wouldnt have done it if he was there because our intention was to draw attention to the fact that what hes doing on climate is actually a big disaster, rather than to talk about his family or where he lives, so that was the entire point.

Security is a big part of whatever we do, we planned it carefully and meticulously, we knew he wasnt going to be there.

We knocked on the door to make sure that there was nobody there, initially there was no response, then we got a response, we told them who we were. So this was quite a peaceful, calm thing to make a very important point.

Mr Sunak, the MP for nearby Richmond, this week announced plans to max out the UKs oil and gas reserves by granting more than 100 new licences for extraction in the North Sea.

Protester Alex Wilson, who lives in Newcastle with her partner, who was also on the roof, released a video message from the scene of the protest, saying: Were all here because Rishi Sunak has opened the door to a new drilling frenzy in the North Sea while large parts of our world are literally on fire.

This will be a disaster for the climate.

On the ground, Greenpeace UK climate campaigner Philip Evans defended the action at the Prime Ministers family home.

He told the PA news agency the group had knocked on the door when they arrived and said this is a peaceful protest, but there was no answer.

Asked whether it was intrusive to target someones home, Mr Evans said: This is the Prime Minister. He is the one that was standing in Scotland going to drill for every last drop of oil while the world is burning.

Peter Walker, who stepped down as North Yorkshire Polices deputy chief constable in 2003, said he was absolutely astonished the protesters gained access to the house, as he called for an investigation.

He told LBC radio: It is clearly in my view a major breach of security.
R ishi Sunak could become the first prime minister in a decade to skip the UN General Assembly gathering of world leaders next month.

Mr Sunak has yet not confirmed whether he is going, and could skip the summit to instead focus on preparing for the Tory party conference, the Telegraph reported.

The conference in October is seen as a moment to relaunch Mr Sunaks political priorities, with the Conservatives languishing around 20 points behind Labour in the polls.

The move has not been confirmed by Downing Street.

Labours shadow foreign secretary, David Lammy told the paper: Rishi Sunak becoming the first Prime Minister to dodge the UN General Assembly in a decade would mark a low ebb of the Conservative Partys isolationist foreign policy.

Liz Truss attended the summit during her brief stint as prime minister last year, while Boris Johnson attended in 2019 and 2021, with the summit being virtual in 2020 as a result of Covid.

Theresa May also attended every year of her premiership, while David Cameron missed the summit in 2013.

Mr Sunak is separately due to attend the G20 leaders summit in New Delhi on September 9 and 10, with a potentially extended trip on the cards.

Officials hope it could focus minds on achieving a post-Brexit trade deal, talks of which have stalled over disagreements around migration and visas.

The prime minister, shortly after taking office last year, suggested he would not attend the Cop27 climate summit because he was too focussed on the domestic economy, but later U-turned and did attend.

Mr Sunak is currently on holiday in California with family, during which time protesters from Greenpeace scaled his Yorkshire home and draped it in black fabric.

A group arrested following the anti-oil protest have been released while inquiries continue, police have said.

North Yorkshire Police, who have come under criticism following the security breach at the Prime Ministers grade II-listed mansion in Kirby Sigston on Thursday, said their investigation remains ongoing".
A family is making a really difficult return to an East Sussex holiday park to hold a vigil, one year on from a father-of-sixs death.

Michael McDonagh, who was living in London, was on holiday with his family at the Parkdean resort in Camber Sands when he died aged 53 in August last year, following an altercation with a group of people.

Sussex Police arrested seven people after the incident, with six bailed and one released with no further action, and the investigation is continuing.

His daughter Stephanie McDonagh, 31, told the PA news agency that her family thought they would never be able to return to the area, and said the gathering in his memory at 1pm on Saturday outside the park will be really difficult.

She said: Its probably the worst year of our lives, as anyone could imagine, and its been an extremely difficult year for everyone.

Obviously, we know whats happened to dad, we know that hes not with us any more, but understanding that and processing that is completely different.

You still expect to see him, you still expect to see him walk through the door, you still pull out your phone and try to call him.

Ms McDonagh, a solicitor, described Mr McDonagh as the glue that held their family together and an upbeat father who had a sense of adventure that saw him zip-line and cliff dive a few months before his death.

She said: Dad was such a family man and he always put his family first and sort of every decision he made was for his family.

Hes the one that pushed us to achieve things, that we thought we could never achieve.

Ms McDonagh also said it was really hard to come to terms with the fact that her father would miss out on grandchildren being born and family celebrations.

She said: It feels like were going through the biggest thing in our lives and the biggest problem in our lives and the one person you want to talk to about it, hes not there for it.

The family hopes the candlelit vigil, described as a peaceful gathering that will be open to the public, will raise awareness and encourage any witnesses to help the police with their investigations, as well as honour him.

She said: Dad had his wife and six children and his two grandchildren but the effect he had on his extended family and friends is massive.

Its not just his family that were affected by his death. Theres so many other people that still want answers.

Ms McDonagh also said communication with the holiday park following her fathers death has been minimal and extremely insensitive.

She added that the company could have worded things a bit better for her grieving family.

A spokesman for Camber Sands Holiday Park said: We recognise that this a difficult time for the McDonagh family and we will continue to assist the authorities in this matter.

Sussex Police Detective Chief Inspector Emma Vickers said: We have been conducting a thorough, complex investigation into the death of Michael McDonagh since the tragic events of August 6 2022.

Our thoughts remain with Michaels family, who are being supported by specialist officers while we search for the answers they deserve.

A dedicated team has completed a painstaking review of CCTV footage and taken more than 150 statements as we look to establish the full facts of what happened that evening.

Six people arrested on suspicion of Michaels murder have been released under investigation, while a seventh person who had been arrested has been released with no further action.

We continue to appeal for any witnesses, or people with relevant video footage, to contact police online or via 101, quoting Operation Molton.
S cientists raised the alarm on Friday that record ocean temperatures could rise even higher after a new peak was recorded this week.

The average daily global sea surface temperature hit 20.96C, according to the EUs Climate Change Service Copernicus, narrowly beating the previous high in March 2016.

But this new record is expected to be surpassed in coming months as global ocean temperatures tend to be warmest in March because it is the end of the southern hemisphere summer.

Samantha Burgess, deputy director of Copernicus, told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: That is the concern. Warmer sea surface temperatures lead to a warmer atmosphere and more evaporation, and both of these lead to more moisture in the atmosphere which can also lead to more intense rainfall events...and warmer sea surface temperatures may also lead to more energy being available for hurricanes.

She also highlighted the biological and chemical impact of warmer seas, particularly marine heatwaves.

Professor Helen Findlay, biological oceanographer at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory, warned that many marine creatures are unable to regulate their own temperatures so they rely on the water temperature around them.

She emphasised: We are seeing changes already in terms of species distributions, prevalence of harmful algae blooms popping up maybe where we would not necessarily expect them, and the species shifting from warmer southern locations up into the colder regions as well which is quite worrying.

She stressed that changes in the food chain around Britains waters were happening, with key nutrients not being replenished.

She added: We are also seeing more species coming up from the south, things like European anchovy or recently examples of Mediterranean octopus coming up into our waters and that is having a knock-on impact for the fish that we catch. and consequences of economics.

Oceans act as a vital climate regulator as they soak up heat, generate half the worlds oxygen and drive weather patterns. But as they warm they lose their ability to absorb carbon dioxide, exacerbating climate change.

Waves are also getting bigger and surf at least 13ft (about four metres) tall is becoming more common off Californias coast as the planet warms, according to innovative new research.

Oceanographer Peter Bromirski analysed seismic records dating back to 1931 to measure the change in wave height.He found that average winter wave heights have grown by as much as a foot since 1970, when global warming is believed to have begun accelerating.
Men a hold a child dressed in military uniform as they gather with thousands of anti-sanctions protestors in support of the putschist soldiers in the capital Niamey, Niger August 3, 2023.

Nigers military junta says it is severing military agreements with France, its former colonial ruler, firing some of the previous governments key ambassadors and warning citizens of the West African nation to watch for foreign armies and spies. A regional delegations efforts at negotiation quickly deadlocked.

The juntas announcement on state television late Thursday deepens the post-coup isolation for what had been the United States and allies last major security partner in the Sahel, the vast region south of the Sahara Desert that various Islamic extremist groups have turned into the global center of terrorism.

With two days remaining before a deadline set by the West African regional bloc to release and reinstate President Mohamed Bazoum or face possible force, Bazoum in a plea published in a Washington Post opinion piece said, I write this as a hostage and urged the U.S. and partners to help.

Nigers mutinous soldiers face a Sunday deadline set by the regional bloc known as ECOWAS, whose envoys arrived on Thursday for talks. But those discussions quickly stalled, with the delegation unable to meet the coup leader, Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, or go into the capital, Niamey, according to a person with close knowledge of the talks who spoke on condition of anonymity because they werent authorized to comment.

The juntas announcement brought further skepticism about any deal. It said it was terminating the military agreements and protocols signed with France and announced the end of functions for Nigers ambassadors to France, the United States, Togo and neighboring Nigeria, which is leading ECOWAS efforts on dialogue.

All aggression or attempt at aggression against the state of Niger will see an immediate response and without warning, said a spokesman for the coup leaders, Col. Maj. Amadou Abdramane, with the exception of Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea, which have expressed support for the coup. Mali and Burkina Faso have said such an intervention would be a declaration of war against them.

Bazoum wrote that Nigers security situation had been improving before the coup, in contrast to neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso that are led by military juntas, but said thats now at risk because Niger would lose aid from foreign partners and extremist groups would take advantage of the countrys instability.

In our hour of need, I call on the U.S. government and the entire international community to help us restore our constitutional order, he wrote.

France has 1,500 military personnel in Niger, which had been envisioned as the base for counterterror operations in the region after anti-French sentiments grew elsewhere.

The U.S. has 1,100 military personnel in Niger, including at a key drone base, and indicates its reluctant to leave, especially with the growing influence of the Russian private military group Wagner in the Sahel.

ECOWAS has been unsuccessful in stemming coups and is trying to change course with Niger in a region that has seen five of them in the past three years  two each in Mali and Burkina Faso.

The ECOWAS delegation is led by former Nigerian head of state Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar. A second group led by Ambassador Babagana Kingibe has gone to engage with the leaders of neighboring Libya and Algeria, said Ajuri Ngelale, special adviser to Nigerias president.

But analysts said theyre not putting much faith in talks.

I dont expect mediation efforts to bear fruit in the short term. The junta is digging in ... Seems like uncharted territory, said Alex Thurston, assistant professor of political science at the University of Cincinnati.

Nigers roughly 25 million people live in one of the poorest countries in the world, and any cuts in foreign aid could be disastrous. Already, citizens are feeling the effects after ECOWAS suspended all commercial and financial transactions between its member states and Niger and froze Nigerien assets held in regional central banks.

The blocs sanctions include halting energy transactions with Niger, which gets up to 90% of its power from Nigeria, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency. Earlier this week, power transmission from Nigeria to Niger was cut off, an official at one of Nigerias main electricity companies said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment.

Some residents in Niamey said things can hardly get worse.

Abdou Naif lives in a makeshift community on the side of a road with some 140 other people, unable to pay rent or find work. Our suffering is already enough, he said.

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C limate activist Greta Thunberg has pulled out of an appearance at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, accusing one of the events sponsors of greenwashing.

Ms Thunberg, 20, was due to speak at an event on August 13, but has pulled out in protest over sponsors Baillie Gifford, an investment management firm she claims invests heavily in fossil fuels.

The firm, however, rejected the accusation, saying 2 per cent of its clients money was invested in the sector.

The event organiser said he respects the decision made by the activist, but said he believes Baillie Gifford to be part of the solution to the climate emergency.

In a statement released through the Festival, Ms Thunberg said: I am unfortunately unable to attend the Edinburgh Book Festival.

As a climate activist I cannot attend an event which receives sponsorship from Baillie Gifford, who invest heavily in the fossil fuel industry.

Greenwashing efforts by the fossil fuel industry, including sponsorship of cultural events, allow them to keep the social licence to continue operating.

I cannot and do not want to be associated with events that accept this kind of sponsorship.

Baillie Gifford is one of the main sponsors of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, with a number of events  including one with former prime minister Gordon Brown  taking place at venues carrying the firms name.

A spokesperson for the company rejected the accusations from Ms Thunberg, saying: Only 2% of our clients money is invested in companies with some business related to fossil fuels.

This compares to the market average of 11%. Of those companies, some have already moved most of their business away from fossil fuels, and many are helping to drive the transition to clean energy.

We are investing on behalf of our clients to grow their savings and retirement funds.

When we invest in companies on their behalf, we do so over long time periods  typically 10 years or more  so this has naturally led us away from traditional fossil fuel firms. Currently, 5% of our clients money is invested in companies whose sole purpose is to develop clean energy solutions.

We believe in open debate and discussion which is why we are long-term supporters of the Edinburgh International Book Festival.

Festival director Nick Barley said he was disappointed, but added: I fully respect her decision.

Mr Barley also sought to defend the event sponsors, saying: However, in applauding Greta for standing by her principles, we too must stand by ours.

The Book Festival exists to give a platform for debate and discussion around key issues affecting humanity today  including the climate emergency. As a charitable organisation, we would not be in a position to provide that platform without the long-term support of organisations such as Baillie Gifford.

We strongly believe that Baillie Gifford are part of the solution to the climate emergency.

They are early investors in progressive climate positive companies, providing funds to help them grow.

While they acknowledge there is still work to do, we have seen them make rapid progress throughout our 19-year relationship.

The director apologised to those who had bought tickets to the event at the Edinburgh Playhouse, and promised refunds.
T he Duke and Duchess of Sussex enjoyed a date night to celebrate Meghans 42nd birthday amid reports the couple have been snubbed from events marking the first anniversary of the death of the Queen.

The couple were spotted out and about in Montecito, California, and pictured leaving upmarket Italian restaurant Tre Lune last night. The spot is favoured by a number of celebrities, with Kourtney Kardashian and Ellen DeGeneres said to be fans.

Meghan, who turns 42 on Friday, and Harry were seen laughing and smiling as they left the restaurant with their friend Matt Cohen, who is married to the Duchesss friend Heather Dorak. The birthday girl wore a black and white striped dress by Posse, accessorised with the Cult Gaia bag and flat strappy sandals.

The date night came amid claims the Sussexes have not been invited to events marking the first anniversary of Queen Elizabeths death.

Her Majesty died on September 8 at her home in Balmoral, aged 96. According to the Sun, the couple have not been invited to attend a family gathering to mark the anniversary  despite being in Europe at around the same time. The Duke and Duchess are expected to be in Germany as they launch the Invictus Games in Dusseldorf on September 9.

King Charles and the Queen will reportedly host the Prince and Princess of Wales along with their children George, 10, Charlotte, eight, and Louis, five. Prince Andrew, 63, and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson are also expected to attend. But sources told the Sun there hasnt been any outreach to the Sussexes.

Palace sources on Friday denied that the Royal Family is snubbing Harry and Meghan and said the King is not expected to undertake any public engagements during the week of the anniversary of the Queens death.

A source close to the couple said that Harry and Meghan would still mark the death of the Dukes grandmother.

If they are not included in any of those plans they will find a way to mark the significance in their own way, they said.

Meghan was expected to celebrate her birthday privately at their Montecito home with her family, including children Archie, four, and Lilibet, two.

Sarah, Duchess of York, has named her reconstructed left breast Derek following her cancer diagnosis. She told her podcast: Hes very important because he saved my life adding that she was getting much better.
S uzy Izzard is aiming to stand as a Labour MP for Brighton Pavilion  the only seat currently held by the Green Party.

The comedian has announced her intentions although Labour is yet to confirm who its candidate will be for the constituency.

Caroline Lucas has previously announced she will not stand and the Green Party has put forward Sian Berry, its former leader, as its new candidate.

It is not confirmed when the next general election will take place, but it is likely to be in 2024 and cannot be any later than January 2025.

Suzy Izzard  previously known as Eddie Izzard, whose family is from East Sussex  is a long-term supporter of the Labour Party and has attempted to become the name on the ballot before but is yet to formally run.

Izzard has been donating to the party since the 1990s and has appeared at Labour events as well as featuring in party publicity.

These are her attempts to hold an elected position:

2023

Izzard has set her stall out early and announced her intention to win the seat  using her website to attack the local Green council as well as criticise the Conservative government.

She said: Im standing to be the next Labour MP for Brighton Pavilion, to support this brilliant city and its diverse and vibrant community.

Suzy Izzard wants to stand for Labour / Jordan Pettitt / PA Wire

Whilst the Tories stoke fear and encourage culture wars, Brighton has shown the country another way; open-minded and welcoming to all, with a thriving arts, creative and cultural scene.

But for 13 years the Tories have tried to drag us down It will take practical action and not protest to fix what has been broken.

It remains to be seen if she will be chosen by Labour as its candidate for the seat.

Izzard has been supporting Labour since the 1990s / Dave Benett/Getty Images for Sky

2022

Last year, Izzard missed out on representing Sheffield Central, with local councillor Abtisam Mohamed being put forward.

Ms Mohamed won 433 votes to Izzards 175.

Afterwards, Izzard tweeted: We have faced huge amounts of abuse, racism, or transphobia throughout this campaign. It has been very difficult to sift through this and continue to run positive campaigns. Yet, we all managed it.

Izzard has tried multiple times to get into office / Arturo Holmes / Getty Images

2020

Izzard had said several times she would run to be Mayor of London but put herself forward in 2020 for the following years vote. Sadiq Khan was chosen instead of her for the candidacy.

2016 and 2018

In 2016, Izzard attempted to gain election for the National Executive Committee of Labour, and again in 2018, but failed both times.

However, she was eventually temporarily selected by default later in 2018, when Christine Shawcroft resigned in an antisemitism row. Izzard was then defeated in an election later in 2018 to find a permanent successor for Ms Shawcroft.
T he cabinet office has released new data that shows the likelihood of another pandemic. The "national risk register" helps the public prepare for "worst-case scenarios" that could strike the country.

Other threats addressed in the register include the malicious use of drones to disrupt transport and other key bits of infrastructure, and potential disruption to undersea transatlantic telecommunications cables that are used for internet and communications.

Deputy National Security Advisor, Matt Collins, said: A comprehensive understanding of the risks we face is critical to keeping the UK safe.

This edition of the NRR, based on the Governments internal, classified risk assessment offers even more detail on the potential scenarios, response and recovery options relating to the risks facing the UK; ranging from terrorism to conflicts and natural disasters.

Will there be another pandemic?

According to the National Risk Register, the likelihood of another pandemic sits between 5% and 25% and would be "catastrophic" to the UK. Weather events such as heatwaves and storms range from "significant" to "moderate", with a likelihood of between 1% and 25%.

Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden told Sky News: "The first duty of government is to keep people safe. And I think one of the things we can do to help keep people safe is to identify the range of risks facing the country.

"My whole experience, for example, during the COVID pandemic was the more open and transparent you were with people about the risks were facing, the better people could plan. And thats precisely what this document is about.

"Its for businesses, its for voluntary organisations, like the Red Cross and others, to see for the first time in such a high level of detail, the risks facing us and then the government is taking action to address those risks."

What is the National Risk Register?

The National Risk Register was created to measure the likelihood of an event happening, with above 25% being the highest score.

The register features 89 threats that would have a significant impact on the UKs safety, security or critical systems at a national level. This version of the register is described as "more transparent than ever before" and also shares previously classified information about a number of potential risks. These include:

Disruption to energy supplies following Russias full-scale invasion of Ukraine

Malicious uses of drones to disrupt transport and other critical operations

Threats to undersea transatlantic telecommunications cables used for internet and communications

The government has said that it has "robust plans" in place for each risk and is also urging businesses, local government and voluntary groups to play their part in helping plan for them.
O n August 3, a group of Greenpeace activists were arrested after spending hours on the roof of the Rishi Sunaks mansion in North Yorkshire in protest.

They held the protest, which saw an oil-black cloth being draped over the Prime Ministers mansion, to highlight the dangers of going ahead with the PMs planned Rosebank oil field licences in the North Sea.

The next day, on August 4, the activists were released on conditional police bail while further inquiries are carried out.

The incident has prompted many to wonder what exactly Greenpeace is. Here is everything we know.

What is Greenpeace?

Greenpeace defines itself as a movement of people who are passionate about defending the natural world from destruction. They say their vision for our planet is greener, healthier and more peaceful and one that can sustain life for generations to come.

Greenpeace is not affiliated with any governments, political parties, or corporations.

The independent global campaigning network funds itself through donations made by the public, so they are classed as a charity.

Greenpeace says being an independent charity allows them to confront governments and corporations freely when they threaten to destroy the natural world, because they dont depend on these governments and corporations to survive.

Greenpeace was founded in Canada back in 1971 when the US was planning to test nuclear weapons near Amchitka Island, off the coast of Alaska, and a group of concerned individuals wanted to stop it. While the protests werent able to stop the bomb test, it was the beginning of the activist network.

Today, Greenpeace has hubs in more than 40 countries across the globe. The issues they focus on range from saving the whales and getting rid of air-polluting cars to fighting deep-sea mining and addressing the climate crisis.

What has Greenpeace said about the activists who covered the PMs mansion?

Greenpeaces UK website has published a blog post about the protest explaining why four Greenpeace climbers covered Sunaks mansion in fabric.

They explained: Theyre protesting major government plans for more North Sea oil and gas drilling, during a summer of escalating climate impacts.

Sunaks government has come under heavy criticism for pushing ahead with plans to hand out around 100 new oil and gas licences in the North Sea.

The Government is also deciding whether to approve oil drilling at Rosebank  the largest undeveloped oil field in the North Sea. And Rishi Sunak has said he thinks it should go ahead.

The article goes on to say that drilling for more oil in the North Sea will not only see UK taxpayers pay huge subsidies for oil companies to get set up but the consequences of the move will be catastrophic for our planet.

It explains that burning all of Rosebanks oil and gas would create more CO2 pollution than the combined yearly emissions of all 28 of the lowest-income countries in the world, according to World Bank data.

They explained: The International Energy Agency is clear there must be no investment in new oil and gas fields (not already in development in 2021) if the world is to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement.

The IPCC has also said that existing fossil-fuel projects are enough to take us over the internationally agreed threshold of 1.5C.

Adding new oil supplies from the North Sea will push us closer to parts of our world becoming uninhabitable.

Plus, Greenpeace added, the project will do nothing to increase our energy security or lower peoples bills as 80 per cent of the oil will be exported and the UK will have to buy it back at the international market price.
D iscount home store and domestic saviour Wilko is closing down, with 12,000 jobs at risk.

The chain has 400 shops around the UK but on Thursday announced it would be appointing administrators having previously taken advice from PwC on how to find a buyer.

Mark Jackson, the chief executive of Wilko - which was previously called Wilkinsons, said that no satisfactory deal had been worked out.

While we can confirm weve had a significant level of interest, including indicative offers that we believe would meet all our financial criteria to recapitalise the business, at present, we dont today have an offer that provides the necessary liquidity in the time we have available, given the mounting cash pressures that were faced with, a statement read.

Unfortunately, with this in mind, today were having to take the difficult decision to file a [notice of intention to appoint administrators].

This is what it might mean for the brand.

Why is Wilko closing stores?

Wilko has reportedly struggled in the economic climate and last year borrowed 40million to stay afloat, changed its leadership team and sold a distribution centre.

It also faced problems of how it struggled to pay suppliers and this led to shoppers noticing gaps appearing on its shelves.

Last year, the owners of the brand took 3million in dividends despite falling almost 37million into the red before the injection of 40million.

Wilko could continue to trade while in administration but overall control will change to the administrator rather than the former management.

However, it is understood multiple Wilko shops have now closed for good.

Which stores are closing

The full list of those that have had their closure confirmed are:

Bournemouth Stockton The Fort, Birmingham Shipley Scunthorpe Narborough Road, Leicester Grantham Redditch Rotherham Skegness Llanelli Merthyr Tydfil Cleethorpes Woolwich

How many Wilko stores are in London?

There are at least 26 Wilko shops in London. These are:
A skipper involved in a boat crash off Italys Amalfi Coast that killed the head of Bloomsbury USA is being investigated for suspected manslaughter.

The skipper, an Italian national who hasnt been identified, is also being investigated on suspicion of causing a shipwreck after the motorboat he was driving with an American family on board collided with a tourist sailboat holding 70 guests on Thursday afternoon.

President of the US arm of publishing company Bloomsbury, Adrienne Vaughan, 45, was killed and her husband was injured in the incident, while her two young children on board escaped injury.

The skipper was also injured. No charges have so far been filed against him, and the investigation is still ongoing.

The motorboat slammed into a chartered sailboat, where some 70 guests aboard were enjoying a wedding reception. Blood samples were taken from the skipper to determine alcohol and drug levels.

But Salerno Chief Prosecutor Giuseppe Borrelli said for now the results were inconclusive.

The results are being evaluated by a consultant of the prosecutors office since the data per se arent necessarily significant,Mr Borrelli told reporters on Friday.

He added that more evaluation was needed to determine the incidence of the levels on the ability of the subject to pilot the boat.

On Friday, Italian news reports said that the blood toxicology tests had found traces of cocaine.

Investigators have questioned the skipper, who remains hospitalised with what Italian media said are pelvis and rib fractures.

The victims husband, Mike White, is being treated at another hospital for a shoulder injury, according to reports.

Authorities have spoken to him and plan to do so again, Mr Borrelli said.

The couples children are now in the care of one of the their grandfathers who travelled to Italy to help while their father is recovering, the prosecutor said.

Mr Borrelli said when the crash happened, Mrs Vaughan was tanning herself on the bow of the boat and bounced into the water at the moment of impact.

She was then was repeatedly struck by the motorboats propeller, according to Italian news reports.

Mr Borrelli declined to detail her injuries, saying the results of an autopsy are still pending.

Two doctors who were among the passengers on the sailboat dived into the sea to to help Mrs Vaughan, while a nearby vessel brought her to shore, Italian state radio said, quoting the sailboats captain.

Mr Borrelli said the woman died before a medical helicopter and local ambulance could take her to hospital.

The sailboats captain has told Italian media that the motorboat was speeding when it smashed into the stationary sailboats bow.

The motorboat had set sail from the town of Amalfi, Mr Borrelli said. According to Italian media, the family was headed to Positano, another popular coastal town when the crash happened.

Mrs Vaughan was the president of Bloomsbury USA based in New York. - the publishing company behind J K Rowlings Harry Potter series.

She had been promoted to the top role in 2021 after first joining as executive director and COO in September 2020. Her husband posted photos of the family enjoying their summer holiday in Rome on Wednesday.

Mrs Vaughan, who had a masters degree in business from New York University, had worked at the Disney Book Group and Oxford University Press among other companies before joining Bloomsbury.

She was promoted to president a year later and also served on the board of the industry trade group the Association of American Publishers.

Adrienne Vaughan was a leader of dazzling talent and infectious passion and had a deep commitment to authors and readers, said the associations board chair, Julia Reidhead, and its president and CEO, Maria Pallante, in a joint statement.

Most of all she was an extraordinary human being, and those of us who had the opportunity to work with her will be forever fortunate.
A ndrew Tate has been released from house arrest following a successful appeal at a court in Romania.

The controversial social media influencer was charged in June with human trafficking, rape and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women. His brother Tristan and two Romanian women are also charged in the case.

They are alleged to have formed a criminal group in 2021 to commit the crime of human trafficking in Romania, as well as in the UK and US. All four deny the allegations.

The suspects were held in police custody from December until March before a Bucharest court put them under house arrest.

In a written ruling on Friday, the Bucharest Court of Appeals said that it replaces the house arrest measure with that of judicial control for a period of 60 days from 4 August until 2 October.

via REUTERS

After 10 months. 3 in jail, 7 at home. After 15 million euro of asset seizures. After an inditement [sic] based on nothing. The file was passed to a Judge who has ruled it weak and circumstantial. I have been released from house arrest but must remain within Romania, Tate posted on Twitter after the ruling.

Speaking outside his home in Bucharest, Tate later told reporters: In January when I was thrown into a jail cell the media reported and told the world that I was a terrible person, they said that I hurt people and that I make a lot of money from a criminal enterprise.

Here we stand seven or eight months later and I have not seen a single victim on the news, I have seen lots of girls sticking up for me, lots of people defending me, Ive not seen a single person stand up and say that I have hurt them, not one.

Its very exhausting to continue to perpetuate lies, its very hard to keep lies afloat when you have no actual evidence, weve been completely innocent since the beginning of this and I have to give absolute faith to the Romanian judicial system for finally making the right decision in letting us free.

Tate, 36, who has lived in Romania since 2017, has repeatedly claimed prosecutors have no evidence and alleged their case is a political conspiracy designed to silence him.

Investigators said the seven alleged victims were recruited following false claims of love, and were taken to Ilfov in Romania where they were forced to take part in pornography.

The women were allegedly controlled by intimidation, constant surveillance and claims that they were in debt, prosecutors said. They have ordered the confiscation of assets from the Tate brothers including 15 luxury cars, luxury watches and about 2.9million they held in cryptocurrency.
D onald Trump, engulfed in his most serious legal storm yet, turned to whipping up support among his diehard supporters but faced a fresh battle on Friday over the timeline for his federal trial in Washington.

The former president pleaded not guilty in a court for the third time in four months when he appeared before a Washington magistrate on Thursday, facing federal counts that could land him in jail for up to 20 years.

He is accused of trying to overturn his defeat by Joe Biden in 2020 through lies, plotting and intimidation of state officials - and the timing of the federal trial could well hamper his campaign for the 2024 election.

The federal indictment lists a series of inflammatory tweets as evidence that Trump was fomenting a plot to thwart the will of the voters - and to stoke up anger among his supporters, culminating in the deadly storming of Congress in January 2021.

Arraignment of former US President Donald Trump | US Courthouse in Washington, DC | 3rd August 2023 1 / 33 Arraignment of former US President Donald Trump | US Courthouse in Washington, DC | 3rd August 2023 AP REUTERS AP AP AP REUTERS Getty Images REUTERS AP REUTERS AP AP AFP via Getty Images AP AP AP AP AP Getty Images AP Getty Images AFP via Getty Images US-JUSTICE-POLITICS-TRUMP AFP via Getty Images Former President Trump Attends Arraignment In Washington, D.C. Federal Court After His Indictment Getty Images US-JUSTICE-POLITICS-TRUMP AFP via Getty Images

But the prosecutorial dossier, and warnings by judges not to commit contempt of court, have not stopped him from again using social media to amplify his claims that the election was stolen by the Democrats and that the legal troubles are all part of a plot.

CONSIDERING THE FACT THAT I HAD TO FLY TO A FILTHY, DIRTY, FALLING APART, & VERY UNSAFE WASHINGTON, D.C., TODAY, & THAT I WAS THEN ARRESTED BY MY POLITICAL OPPONENT, WHO IS LOSING BADLY TO ME IN THE POLLS, CROOKED JOE BIDEN, IT WAS A VERY GOOD DAY! Trump posted on his own platform Truth Social late on Thursday.

Shortly earlier, as he boarded a plane following his arraignment, Trump said he was the victim of persecution and described it as a very sad day for America.

The next hearing in the federal case was scheduled for August 28 - five days after the leading Republican candidates for 2024 are due to appear in their first televised debate, hosted by Fox News.

The hearing is meant to set a date for the trial. Special Counsel Jack Smith is pressing for a speedy process, but Trumps lawyers are pushing back, with their client keen to extend any court showdown past the November 2024 election.

That raises the prospect that should he win the election, Trump could pull the US constitution even deeper into uncharted territory by seeking to pardon himself of any federal crimes.

His Republican rivals for 2024 have mostly stepped warily around Trumps legal troubles, reluctant to rile up his impassioned supporters.

But a new opinion poll by Reuters/Ipsos, which concluded just before the Washington arraignment, found that Trump faces trouble with voters if he is "convicted of a felony crime by a jury".

Among Republicans, 45 per cent said they would not vote for him, compared to 35 per cent who said they would. The rest said they didnt know.

The federal indictment also describes Trump as berating his vice president, Mike Pence, as being too honest for refusing to go along with his plan to block the certification of the 2020 vote in Congress.

Mr Pence is now using the same words on merchandise as a selling point for his flagging 2024 campaign - a race that his former boss is dominating well ahead of the Republican field including Florida governor Ron DeSantis.

As the then vice president presided over a session of Congress on January 6, 2021 to sign off on Bidens victory, some Trump supporters outside chanted Hang Mike Pence and set up a makeshift gallows.

They then stormed into the building, leading to the loss of five lives over the coming months. Three police officers who defended the Capitol that day were seen entering the courthouse when Trump appeared at his arraignment.

One of them, Aquilino Gonell, who had to retire from the Capitol Police force after suffering injuries in the riot, noted the symbolism of the hearing taking place in "the same court in which hundreds of rioters have been sentenced.

The Washington case will be overseen by US District Judge Tanya Chutkan, an appointee of Barack Obama who has slapped tough sentences on some of the January rioters.
S ix former Mississippi police officers have pleaded guilty to a racist assault on two Black men that ended with an officer shooting one man in the mouth.

The officers, who are all white, entered a house without a warrant on January 24, assaulting the men with a sex toy and using stun guns and other objects to abuse them over a roughly 90-minute period, court documents show.

After one victim was shot and wounded in a mock execution that went awry, documents say the officers conspired to plant and tamper with evidence instead of providing medical aid.

The Justice Department launched its civil rights probe in February.

The Mississippi attorney generals office announced on Thursday it had filed state charges against the six former officers, including assault, conspiracy and obstruction of justice.

Five former Rankin County Sheriffs Department employees pleaded guilty, including Christian Dedmon, Hunter Elward, Brett McAlpin, Jeffrey Middleton and Daniel Opdyke.

Joshua Hartfield, a former Richland police officer who was off duty when he participated in the raid, also pleaded guilty.

Court documents say some of the officers called themselves The Goon Squad - a nickname used because of their willingness to use excessive force and not to report it.

The victims, Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker, filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Rankin County in June seeking $400 million in damages.

The officers initially went to the property on January 24 because a white neighbour complained Black people were staying with a white woman who owned the house.

The documents say Mr Parker was a longtime friend of the homeowner and was helping care for her.

Officers used racist slurs against the two men during the raid and warned them to stay out of Rankin County and go back to Jackson or their side of the Pearl River  areas with higher concentrations of Black residents, according to the court documents.

Elward shoved a gun into Mr Jenkins mouth and fired, court documents say. The bullet lacerated Mr Jenkins tongue and broke his jaw before exiting his neck.

Before the raid, the officers agreed to enter without a warrant if they could avoid being spotted by the homes security cameras. They also planned to use excessive force but not to cause visible injuries to the mens faces so there would be no bad mugshots, the documents say.

The deputies threw eggs on the handcuffed victims and forced them to lie on their backs while pouring milk, alcohol and chocolate syrup down their mouths.

They forced the men to strip naked and shower to remove the evidence.

The officers also repeatedly electrocuted the victims with stun guns to compare whether the sheriffs department or police department weapons were more powerful.

The defendants in this case tortured and inflicted unspeakable harm on their victims, US Attorney General Merrick Garland said, adding they egregiously violated the civil rights of citizens who they were supposed to protect.

The civil rights charges come after an investigation by The Associated Press linked the deputies to at least four violent encounters with Black men since 2019 that left two dead and another with lasting injuries.

US law enforcement brutality has come under increased scrutiny following the 2020 killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police and the January beating death of Tyre Nichols after a traffic stop in Memphis, Tennessee.

Dedmon, Elward and Opdyke have also pleaded guilty to three federal felony offences, in relation to a separate incident that took place on December 4.

Prosecutors said Dedmon beat a white man, used a Taser on him and fired a gun near his head to coerce a confession, while Elward and Opdyke failed to intervene.

Kristen Clarke, who heads the Justice Departments Civil Rights Division, said the Mississippi officers caused harm to the entire community who feel that they cant trust the police officers who are supposed to serve them.

The former officers, shackled at their wrists and feet, walked into the courthouse with family members on Thursday and all six were taken into custody by federal marshals.

The defence attorneys did not comment on their clients behaviour during the court appearance.

They became the criminals they swore to protect us from, US Attorney Darren LaMarca said. Now, theyll be treated as the criminals as they are.

US District Judge Tom Lee said the men will be sentenced in mid-November.

The men are scheduled to plead guilty to the state charges on August 14, said Mary-Helen Wall, a deputy state attorney general.
Theres a saying in Colombia that theres no worse enemy than a friend in the same line of work  a saying that is rarely so accurately illustrated as by the case of President Gustavo Petros eldest son, who participated in his fathers election campaign and who has just informed the Attorney General that it was financed in part by dirty money.

Under arrest following allegations by his ex partner, Daysuris del Carmen Vasquez, Nicolas Petro decided to collaborate with the prosecution and admit that the campaign which put his father in office depended on money from dubious sources. Now the president himself may face charges that will undoubtedly affect his remaining three years in power.

How election campaigns are funded has been a recurrent problem in Colombia. Only a month and a half ago, the Attorney General charged Oscar Ivan Zuluaga, a presidential candidate in the 2014 elections, for receiving dirty money from the corrupt Brazilian company Odebrecht. His son David, who ran his election campaign, was also charged. Almost 30 years ago, President Ernesto Samper saw his four years at the helm overshadowed by charges that his campaign had received money from the notorious Cali drug cartel; he spent most of his time in power trying to defend himself against the accusations. His case affected an entire generation of politicians, with a number ending up in jail and the country plunged into crisis. This time, it is the actual son of the president who has put his presidency in jeopardy and not, as in the case of Samper, a political rival, lending the scandal an unexpected twist.

This was spelled out on August 3 by the opposition politician Jotape Hernandez, from the Green Alliance, who denounced Petro before the legislative entity in charge of investigating presidents, the Chamber of Representatives Commission for Allegations.

Hes not being denounced by the opposition, but by his own son, he said. Meanwhile, the president himself made it clear that it was important to note who was making the allegations. The President has never asked any of his sons or daughters to commit the crime to win or finance campaigns, or for anything that has to do with power, he said. He also added that he had not been responsible for his sons upbringing.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro, his son Nicolas and Daysuris del Carmen Vasquez.

Despite this, Nicolas Petro has been seen as his fathers political heir apparent, the only one of his children who has been at his fathers side in the race for votes and power. After the political campaign in 2018, when Petro lost to the conservative candidate Ivan Duque, Nicolas joined the demonstrations, drummed up support in various areas and acted as head of the campaign in Barranquilla, where he lives. The closeness between father and son was such that in the following regional elections in October 2019, Nicolas stood as his fathers candidate in Atlantico province, one of the richest and most densely populated provinces in Colombia, which was dominated by the right.

In the end, Nicolas failed to win the vote in 2019 but, like any good father, Petro applauded his sons efforts and made him head of his Colombia Humana party in the entire Colombian Caribbean.

In a tweet in response to his sons ex-wife expressing pride in her then-husband, Petro wrote, Nicolas Petro ran the campaign he was meant to. Atlantico has chosen to remain under [Alejandro] Char, launching them as rivals of Colombia Humana in the immediate future. Nicolas now has the enormous job of leading Colombia Humana in the entire Caribbean.

Nicolas became a deputy in the Atlantico assembly. From there, he was entrusted with the electoral campaign of his father in 2022 in the Caribbean and Petro was voted president. Then, last March, Vasquez  upset because Nicolas had an affair with her best friend, who is now his partner and carrying his child  leaked what has become a major scandal, telling the magazine Semana that Nicolas had received money for the campaign from a former drug trafficker, the son of a questionable contractor and other dubious sources  money that he also used to finance a luxurious lifestyle.

Father and son had already distanced themselves before this revelation when Petro asked that Nicolas and his brother Juan Fernando be investigated for another scandal. But Vasquez had planted a timebomb which went off on August 3 when, after five days behind bars, Nicolas confessed.

The confession has overshadowed his fathers launch of the ceasefire with the National Liberation Army (ELN), as well as the issuing of the shortlist for female candidates for the Prosecutors Office and the end of the interim period for the Culture Ministry, all events that promised to provide a boost to Petro in the days running up to his first anniversary as president. Petro was once again on the defensive. He dedicated his recent trip to Sincelejo to maintaining his innocence and reiterated his intention not to stand down.

The solid evidence behind Nicolas admission is yet to be established, as is the extent to which it will hamper Petros presidency. Samper, for example, managed to hang on to power but his policies, which were similar to those of Petro, lost impetus. Given that Petro recently said that a politician voted in on the back of money from narcos was illegitimate and very fragile, his position is far from strong. Having side-stepped damage from his political rivals, his potential downfall has been orchestrated from the least expected quarter  a confession from his heir apparent.

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V ladimir Putins jailed political opponent Alexei Navalny has had an extra 19 years added to his jail term, in his latest trial on extremism charges.

Navalny received the additional jail term on Friday, in a criminal case he and his supporters said was trumped up to keep him behind bars and out of politics for even longer.

Navalny, 47, President Vladimir Putins fiercest domestic critic, is already serving sentences totalling 11 and a half years on fraud and other charges that he says are also bogus. His political movement has been outlawed and declared extremist.

A court at the IK-6 penal colony in Melekhovo, around 145 miles east of Moscow where he is serving his sentences, tried him on Friday on six separate criminal charges, including inciting and financing extremist activity and creating an extremist organisation.

The audio feed from the court was so poor that it was almost impossible to make out what the judge was saying, according to news agency Reuters.

Dressed in his dark prison uniform and flanked by his lawyers, Navalny smiled at times as he listened to the judge.

Navalnys team said the judge had added 19 years to his sentences as a result of the new charges. State prosecutors had asked the court to hand him another 20 years in a penal colony.

In a message posted on social media a day earlier Navalny had predicted he would get a long jail term, but had said it did not really matter because he was also threatened with separate terrorism charges that could bring another decade.

Its going to be a long sentence. What is called Stalinist, said Navalny, who is able to post on social media via his supporters and lawyers, ahead of his hearing.

In the statement, Navalny called on Russians to personally resist and encouraged them to support political prisoners, distribute flyers or go to a rally.

He told Russians that they could choose a safe way to resist, but he added that there is shame in doing nothing. Its shameful to let yourself be intimidated.

Navalny is already serving a nine-year sentence for fraud and contempt of court. He also was sentenced in 2021 to two and a half years in prison for a parole violation. The extremism trial has taken place behind closed doors in the penal colony east of Moscow where he is imprisoned.

He was arrested in January 2021 upon returning to Moscow after recuperating in Germany from nerve agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin.

The opposition leader is being held at a maximum-security penal colony at Melekhovo and appeared in court last month, facing new allegations of creating an extremist organisation. If found guilty, he could be jailed for up to 30 years.

In a ruling earlier this year, the European Court of Human Rights found that Russia had notably failed to investigate Mr Navalnys 2020 poisoning.

The court said Russia had failed to explore the allegations of a possible political motive for the attempted murder, as well as possible involvement of state agents.
V ladimir Putins risk appetite for launching attacks near Nato territory is increasing with a drone strike on a port just 200 metres from the Romanian border, British defence chiefs warned on Friday.

They also stressed that his military may be using drones rather than cruise missiles to limit the risk of escalation if one of these more powerful weapons went astray and hit Nato land.

In its latest intelligence update, the Ministry of Defence in London said: In the last two weeks, Russia has conducted several waves of strikes against Ukrainian ports on the Danube River using Iranian-produced one-way attack uncrewed aerial vehicles (OWA UAVs).

It is highly likely attempting to coerce international shipping into stopping trading via the ports.

OWA UAVs have struck targets as close as 200 metres from the Romanian border, suggesting that Russia has evolved its risk appetite for conducting strikes near NATO territory.

The briefing added: There is a realistic possibility that Russia is using OWA UAVs to strike this area in the belief they are less likely to risk escalation than cruise missiles: Russia likely considers them as acceptably accurate, and they have much smaller warheads than cruise missiles.

Putins military attacked a major inland port in Ukraine in the early hours on Wednesday seeking to hinder exports as the price of grain rose on global markets.

A grain silo and other infrastructure were reported to have been damaged in the Danube port of Izmail in the Odesa region.

The port, across the river from NATO-member Romania, has served as the main alternative route out of Ukraine for grain exports since Russia sought to reimpose a blockade of Ukraines Black Sea ports after pulling out of a deal, agreed with Kyiv and Turkey, which had allowed ships to use them.

Ukraines president Volodymyr Zelensky stressed that Russia had unleashed nearly 2,000 Iranian-manufactured drones against his country, including on the capital Kyiv, other cities, towns and ports.

He tweeted: In total, the terrorists have already launched at least 1961 Shaheds against Ukraine, and a significant number of them have been shot down. Unfortunately, not all of them.

We are working to shoot down more  to shoot down as many as possible.

We are working to have more air defence systems. In particular, this is a task for each of our ambassadors, all representatives of Ukraine. Everyone must work for the victory, for the protection of life. The lives of people and the protection of our beautiful Ukraine!

Ukrainian sea drones attacked a Russian navy base near the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, a major hub for Russian exports, early on Friday and were destroyed by Russian warships, the defence ministry in Moscow claimed.

Russian air defences downed ten Ukrainian drones over Crimea on Friday morning and suppressed three more with electronic countermeasures, according to defence officials in Moscow.

Meanwhile, Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu has visited the frontline headquarters of the "Centre" army group involved in the Ukrainian conflict, Russian news agencies cited the defence ministry as saying on Friday.

Shoigu was briefed by a group commander and thanked officers and troops for "conducting successful operations" near Lyman, Interfax reported.

He was also shown a Swedish CV-90 infantry fighting vehicle that was reportedly abandoned by retreating Ukrainian soldiers after being hit by a hand-held anti-tank grenade, and Shoigu was briefed about the "shortcomings" of the Swedish model, Interfax said.

The report was in line with Russian efforts to play down the effectiveness of weapons and equipment that NATO members and other Western countries have supplied to Ukraine.

Shoigu's trip came days after a visit to the front line by General Valery Gerasimov, chief of the general staff and overall commander of Russia's war effort in Ukraine.

Both men had been savagely attacked by Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the Wagner mercenary group, who repeatedly accused them of incompetence and remoteness before launching a brief mutiny against the defence establishment in June.
A Ukrainian drone strike has left a Russian ship severely damaged following a shock overnight attack.

Video on social media appeared to show the drone colliding into what is thought to be the Russian Olenegorsky Gornyak vessel on Friday.

The ship had been based at Russias Black Sea navy base at Novorossiysk which is a key export hub.

Ukrainian sources told Reuters the ship was seriously damaged following the attack, while a separate video on social media appeared to show the vessel being towed as it listed on its side.

Russias defence ministry, however, claimed it had repelled the Ukrainian attack on its naval base.

Tonight, the armed forces of Ukraine attempted to attack the Novorossiysk naval base with two unmanned sea boats, it said in a statement.

In the course of repelling the attack, the unmanned boats were visually detected and destroyed by fire from the standard weapons of the Russian ships guarding the outer waters of the naval base.

Russian officials did not say the Olenegorsky Gornyak or the port itself were damaged, although the Caspian Pipeline Consortium which operates an oil terminal there, said exports had been temporarily halted before being resumed.

The civilian port handles two per cent of the worlds oil supply and also exports grain. It is also an important naval base for the Russian navy.

The attack comes after Russian missile strikes have targeted Ukrainian ports, most recently Odesa and Chornomorsk where authorities said 60,000 tonnes of grain were destroyed.

The Russian defence ministry also said on Friday that its forces had repelled an attempted Ukrainian attack on Crimea.
F our thousand British scouts will leave the World Scout Jamboree and move into hotels after soaring temperatures in South Korea left hundreds of children ill with heat exhaustion.

At least 600 people at the World Scout Jamboree have been treated for heat-related illnesses since Tuesdays start of the conference in southwestern Buan.

The UK Scouts Association said on Friday its delegation of more than 4,000 scouts and volunteers would leave the conference and move into hotels in Seoul as South Korean ministers drafted in medics to the event. The British delegation was the largest in attendance.

In a statement it said: We will start moving our people to hotel accommodation over the next two days.

As we are the largest contingent, our hope is that this helps alleviate the pressure on the site overall.

We know that may be a disappointment for some and we will continue the Jamboree experience in Seoul, working with Korean authorities on a programme of activities so our young people still get the most from their time in Korea.

South Korean ministers earlier ordered water trucks, and the provision of air-conditioned spaces at the event amid temperatures of 38C in some parts of the country.

The government will use its all resources to ensure that the jamboree can end safely amid the heatwave," Prime Minister Han Duck-soo told a cabinet meeting approving a 3.6m package to support the jamboree.

Bear Grylls sweats as he addresses crowds at World Scout Jamboree

Among those in attendance is adventurer Bear Grylls who called for people to remain calm.

He posted a clip of his speech at the opening ceremony on Instagram with the caption: Its super hot in Korea. To all @Scouts there, remember the mantra: Shade & hydrate act early if struggling buddy buddy always.

Around 39,000 participants, most of them scouts aged between 14 and 18, are at the event.

Several scouts were seen being stretchered off into a treatment room as temperatures climbed to 34C in Saemangeum, the area of reclaimed land in Buan where the scouts are camping.

Emergency services said most of those who fell ill due to the heat had mild symptoms.

Some activists and parents have questioned the viability of the jamboree, the first global gathering of the scouts since the pandemic.

Organisers said they were modifying the schedule depending on the temperature, adding that the scouts remained resilient.

Despite the heat and the difficulties and the challenges that they are facing, only 8% reported that they were very unsatisfied with the experience so far," Jacob Murray, the director for World Events at the Scouts, told reporters.

We are grateful to the Korean government and provincial government for providing additional resources."

The jamboree comes a few weeks after the President Yook Suk Yeols government was criticised for its handling of floods which killed over 40 people.

Some residents of Buan said the government should have been better prepared for the heat.

Earlier on Friday, Yoon called for an unlimited" air-conditioned buses and water trucks to be sent to the jamboree.

A day earlier, he ordered dozens of military doctors and nurses to go to the campsite to provide emergency care.

The event is due to run until August 12.
T onight Hackney Wick will be amass with party goers. Beers will be frothing from the taps, the speakers will be shaking. Headlining is Vanessa Maria from Boiler Room and Warehouse Project, alongside Me Gusta Collective, a group with roots from Ecuador, Togo, Bermuda, Kenya and Norway, Mancunian electronic artist NIIX, and London-based Solar Sisters, who jump from grime to funk to reggaeton, mixing  in their words  the sweetest pop with the saltiest beats and sexiest bass. Whats not to like?

But this is not a night like the others bouncing across town, and the crowd is likely more climate conscious here than anywhere else. And besides the music and the locally-brewed IPAs, there are eco tarot readings offered. This is Club Sol  Londons new sustainable club night. Where, as it happens, you literally eat your cup after youve finished your drink. But more on that later.

It comes from Imogen Malpas, one half of DJ Collective Solar Sisters, whose imagination was sparked by a nightclub she came across in Glasgow  which, somewhat astonishingly, harnesses energy from the body heat of partygoers. The Bodyheat system at the citys SWG3 captures heat from the audience and funnels it 200 metres below ground to a layer of bedrock, which acts like a thermal battery.

Feeling inspired, in October 2022, Malpas entered a competition called #SavetheNight, funded by Jagermeister, which aimed to revitalise nightlife across the world. It seems to have been successful, spawning a number of exciting projects, including the Lesbian Bar Project, which works to preserve the remaining lesbian bars in the US, and X-S, whose goal is to make clubs more inclusive and accessible to people with disabilities in Berlin.

Malpas was a winner too, and used the 25,000 prize money to create her community-minded clubbing experience with legitimate green credentials.

Grow, where the club night is held / Press handout

When it comes to the environmental cost of the average club, each emits around 100 tonnes of CO 2 every year  or roughly 20 times what a UK home produces annually. An exorbitant amount of energy is needed to power the lights, DJ decks and speakers, often in huge spaces and over multiple floors. So for Malpas, the question was: why is no one talking about the carbon footprint of clubbing?

Club Sol is a feat of green ingenuity. Tonight, electronic and world music will be played on a solar-powered sound system, in a venue powered by renewable electricity. The venue is Hackneys Grow, which spills out onto the canal  an independent, creative space for live music and an experiment in ethical and sustainable business. Its somewhere worthy of national and international recognition, says Hackneys mayor, Philip Glanville.

Still, Malpas is the first to admit that nothing is perfect. For instance, solar-based sound systems require 20 per cent less energy than conventional systems depending on their size, and their very nature means they can be unreliable; they rely on the intermittency of the sun. But its a step in the right direction.

Still, Malpas says, "We cant sit back and do nothing  when it comes to climate action, we must champion progress over perfection.

Apart from the soundsystem, what else is there? Well, you can literally eat your cup after youve finished a drink, as its made from a seaweed alternative to plastic. The company behind it, Notpla, makes edible bubbles, designed to be consumed whole. There will also be solar-powered phone charging stations, recycled ocean plastic earplugs and a virtual party bag when you leave, full of discount codes from eco-friendly brands.

People in the industry want to change, but they dont know where to start, says Malpas. She hopes shes providing a starting point, alongside the likes of Music Declares Emergency, Earth/percent and Julies Bicycle.

We cant sit back and do nothing  when it comes to climate action, we must champion progress over perfection

Great work on climate and sustainability is already happening in the music space, but theres much more that can be done, says Greg Cochrane, music and climate journalist, who co-hosts the Sounds Like A Plan podcast.

Perhaps it hasnt been talked about as much in the past as sustainability or action on climate has been viewed as a science, environment or technology concern. But the climate crisis is also a culture and communications crisis, he says, adding: To raise the profile of the conversation, we need to get better about communicating the can-do and celebrating our wins. That storytelling is a huge part of driving change.

There is power in grassroots initiatives like Club Sol, which celebrate connection and community spirit. For Malpas, community is the key starting point for climate action.

If you cant see the change directly, its hard to understand it. Extreme weather events are already happening across the world, but here in this rainy London summer it can be hard to engage when that feels far away, she explains.

The thing is, we evolved to be in community with each other  thats how our ancestors existed and survived, by looking out for each others interests. And a huge part of that is gathering together, dancing and singing in a musical context.

There is a place for anger and for protest in the fight for climate, but there is also a place for joy and coming together.

Tonight is not a one-off. There will be more opportunities to attend Club Sol, with the next venue on the cards is a bouldering and climbing space in Brixton  and there are plans for a listening party to reconnect city dwellers with the sound of the natural world, too. Heres to saving the planet, one solar-powered, shuddering bassline at a time.
T he climate crisis is transforming the way that humans across the globe function on a day-to-day basis, whether through intentional behaviours or necessary adaptations to a changing environment.

As disturbing heatwaves continue to hit Europe, with countries such as Greece and Italy only just recovering from a series of raging wildfires  there isnt a news day that goes by in which we arent reminded of the ever-present and overwhelming effects of climate change.

Sea levels are rising steadily as polar ice caps continue to melt, and its increasingly difficult to not feel as though were already drowning. However, getting caught up in the very real doom and gloom associated with the climate crisis is not  for the vast majority of the population  a productive means of engaging in environmental activism and making meaningful changes to our lives and those surrounding us.

Likewise, scaremongering only alienates citizens from better understanding the nature of the climate crisis, what has caused and continues to sustain it, as well as learning about the practical steps we can take to make the earth a hospitable planet for many more billions of years to come. Rather than triggering a fight or flight instinct with climate activism, its important first to understand the rational, science-backed argument behind the cause before moving on to positive, intentional action.

To do so, many environmental activists and climate change scientists will encourage you to get reading. As such, weve rounded up a selection of the best books to help you better understand the climate crisis, and what the world can do to stop it.

From holistic, philosophical texts to practical solutions, keep scrolling for the best books about climate change.
J ay Blades and his team of Repair Shop experts are asking the public for cherished items in need of restoration to feature in the Christmas edition of the popular BBC show.

The team are looking to perform some festive magic for the episode and are looking for objects of historical or social interest in need of repair with a festive feel to them.

It will be the fourth Christmas special of The Repair Shop, which first aired on BBC Two in 2017.

We are looking for items that make us remember Christmases of yester-year. It can be absolutely anything, the items dont have to be antique, but it must mean something to you and have a sentimental value which a repair would make a difference.

This year has already seen two special episodes, marking the 75th anniversary of both the arrival of the Empire Windrush to the UK and the birth of the NHS.

Presenter Blades said that, with a wide-ranging team of experts, they hoped to provide the solution for any fix.

We are looking for items that make us remember Christmases of yester-year, he said.

It can be absolutely anything, the items dont have to be antique, but it must mean something to you and have a sentimental value which a repair would make a difference.

The team here are incredible, and we have experts in pretty much every craft so hopefully we have the solution for any fix.

Ceramics expert, Kirsten Ramsay said the Christmas specials were some of her favourite episodes.

Theres always a magic about the barn but theres something about Christmas that makes The Repair Shop even more magical, she said.

Wed love to try and add that little bit of magic to your Christmas so do get in touch with your suggestions.

Dominic Chinea, metalwork expert, added: This year has been full of specials (and) wed love to finish off this year with another very special episode.

In previous Christmases weve fixed a whole host of items, from instruments to a wartime Teddy Bear to a chopper bike  I cant wait to see what comes through the door this year.

The next series of The Repair Shop is currently filming and due to transmit later in the autumn.
H ave you ever Googled yourself? You may be surprised at what you find.

Searching your name online is no longer a novelty or a lark. In fact, it can be a crucial part of managing your online reputation at a time when an ill-judged tweet or inappropriate photo can cost you your livelihood.

If you do come across personal  or even sensitive  content about yourself in a web search, dont panic. Google can wipe any unwanted personal info that others have uploaded. This can include bank account details, your home address, phone number, and explicit photos.

Whereas you currently have to scour the web for these undesirable results yourself, and then submit a takedown request form, Google will soon take a more proactive approach to the cleanup process.

To make things less cumbersome, the company will release a new dashboard for the Google app that alerts you when your contact info appears in Search. Then, you can quickly request the removal of those results from within the same tool.

The update is now available in the US and will come to more countries soon, Google announced on Thursday (August 3). Its worth bearing in mind that removing info from Google Search doesnt mean it will completely vanish from the internet or other search engines.

According to Google, the change is part of a broader shakeup of its privacy and online safety tools. Going beyond existing takedowns of non-consensual explicit imagery, one of the new features lets users remove explicit content that they uploaded themselves.

For example, if you created and uploaded explicit content to a website, then deleted it, you can request its removal from Search if its being published elsewhere without approval, Google wrote in a blog post. This policy doesnt apply to content you are currently commercializing, it added in a nod to adult video subscription services such as OnlyFans.

Google is also going to blur explicit images in search results by default around the world. The company introduced the change earlier this year following pressure from US lawmakers to safeguard families and children from adult or graphic violent content.

In addition, the company is making it easier to access parental controls from within search. Instead of rifling through your settings, you can find info on the limits for children by typing a relevant query like google parental controls or google family link.
T he atmosphere was out of this world as a Nasa astronaut returned to her old university to receive an honorary doctorate.

US Army Colonel Anne McClain  helicopter test pilot, US national team rugby player and former resident of the International Space Station  spoke movingly to engineering students graduating from the University of Bristol.

As she received the honorary Doctor of Engineering degree, she said: Your graduation today is a product of your own ambition.

And I want you to take a minute to think back, reflect back, on the goal that you set three, four, five, six maybe even more years ago, when you decided you wanted to be sitting here today.

Think about all the decisions that you made to get from there to here, all the effort you spent, all the sacrifices you and your loved ones made. I want you to think for a minute why you made that choice.

Did you want to make a bigger impact on the world? Did you seek knowledge beyond that which you already had?

I would offer to you that much of the pride you feel today is as much about your reasons why as it is about the actual accomplishment.

Dont forget to live your life while you plan for the future

My challenge to you is to stay ambitious but to remember that why. To remember that your goals and your accomplishments are more than just a moment in time, they are a whole set of reasons.

Perhaps most importantly, dont forget to live your life while you plan for the future. Its going to be behind you before you know it and one of you is going to be on this stage having your biography read.

The journey will be your life, make it a good one.

By the time Col McClain had arrived at pre-school in her home city of Spokane, Washington, she had already decided she wanted to become an astronaut.

She later studied for a masters in International Relations at the University of Bristol, before joining the army as a pilot, where she flew more than 20 types of aircraft.

While training at the US Naval Test Pilot School, she was picked by Nasa to join the 21st Nasa astronaut class. Her first space mission was 204 days aboard the International Space Station.

Introducing Col McClain to the students, Professor Lucy Berthoud said we can draw inspiration from Col McClains extraordinary journey.

Prof Berthoud added: We are here to celebrate someone extraordinary, someone who has ventured beyond the boundaries of our planet, someone who has embraced the unknown with courage and determination.

Your achievements will inspire generations to come, and your example of excellence guides us all towards a brighter future.

Over the past two decades Col McClain has accumulated an array of medals, not least for serving in Iraq, where she flew on 216 combat missions.

She has degrees from the US Military Academy at West Point, the University of Bath and the University of Bristol, and has played rugby in the UKs premier league and for the US national side.

She was selected for Nasa training in 2013 and served on the ISS from December 3 2018 to June 24 2019. She currently serves as the Mission Support Branch Chief and is eligible for flight assignment.
The murder of a well-known local businessman last weekend. The body of a young woman abandoned in a garbage bag on a highway on Monday. A cab set on fire and its driver burned on Tuesday. Narco-blockades with more than a dozen vehicles burned on Wednesday. A ministerial agent killed on Thursday. There is no respite from a growing wave of violence in Acapulco. The Mexican Pacific resort, a former jewel of international tourism, is in the grip of a new reign of terror at the hands of organized crime groups. The State Police, the Army, the Navy, and the National Guard have announced that they will reinforce security and support municipal authorities to restore order in the coastal city in the middle of the summer holiday season.

The state of Guerrero has been plagued for over a decade by a war between criminal organizations that erupted after the dismantling of the Beltran Leyva Cartel, which controlled the area until the beginning of the last decade, security sources explained to this newspaper. The end of the Beltran Leyva Cartels dominance has left behind a complex criminal map and an ongoing battle for control of the main towns in the southern Mexican state, as well as frequent confrontations between the cartels and smaller groups involved in crimes such as drug dealing and extortion.

The murder of Henner Thomas, a 38-year-old ministerial agent, was the latest event to rock Acapulco and brought the situation under the spotlight of the national press. Thomas, who worked for the Special Prosecutors Office for Enforced Disappearances, was kidnapped by a group of armed men who broke into his house in the town of Tres Palos, some 15 kilometers (nine miles) from the tourist area of the municipality. The body of the official was found in broad daylight in the trunk of an abandoned pickup truck on the Viaducto Diamante, which leads to one of the most affluent parts of the city.

Citizens are asked to ignore false information spread on social networks that only seeks to generate anxiety, the Guerrero Public Security Secretariat said. The statement was issued around four hours after the body of the ministerial agent was found and a day after members of criminal groups cut off the Acapulco-Zihuatanejo highway, one of the citys main arteries, with burning vehicles including vans, private trucks, and a municipal bus. Narco-blockades usually occur  according to the modus operandi of organized crime in other parts of the country  in retaliation for the arrest of members of their organizations or following operations against them by the authorities.

The State Police indicated it would undertake coordinated operations with federal entities, such as the Secretariat of National Defense, the Navy and the National Guard, as well as with the State Attorney Generals Office, as well carrying out patrols and security checks to ensure that the population could move safely along the busiest streets.

The apparent common thread of the latest wave of violence is the visibility of the attacks: they have all been made in plain sight and on some of the main roads connecting the port with other cities and surrounding areas. Harumi Montalvo, an 18-year-old student, was found on the Mexico-Acapulco highway earlier this week after her relatives reported her missing. Like Thomas, armed men forced their way into her home and kidnapped her. A day later her remains were identified.

Soldiers on patrol in Acapulco, where armed groups set fire to vehicles including municipal buses during a wave of violence in the city. Carlos Alberto Carbajal (CUARTOSCURO)

Security to the fore on presidential campaign trail

Over the weekend, the murder of Jose Fuentes Brito, an Acapulco businessman with ties to former Secretary of Foreign Affairs Marcelo Ebrard, and his son, as well as of a truck driver, were reported on the so-called Autopista del Sol, as the highway that connects Acapulco with Mexico City is known. The first hypotheses of the investigation points to an assault, although there are also versions that suggest it was a targeted attack. Sources consulted stated that the homicide was reckless as it was carried out on a stretch of the highway known for having a high incidence of robberies, but which is also heavily guarded by federal forces such as the National Guard.

Ebrard, who stepped down from his position at the Foreign Ministry to run in the 2024 presidential elections, said he would provide a report on the progress of the investigation Friday. The presidential candidate visited Acapulco on Thursday during his campaign tours for the leadership of Morena, Mexicos ruling party. Both Ebrard and Claudia Sheinbaum, his main rival for the candidacy, have brought the issue of security to the campaign trail this week.

Ebrard presented Plan Angel, his security proposal, at an event in the port and he was not the only presidential candidate to visit the city this week. Senator Ricardo Monreal stated on Tuesday that citizens in Guerrero do not deserve to live in a state ravaged by crime. The most serious thing in Mexico is that its authorities become accomplices or protectors [of criminal organizations], Monreal said of the controversy generated by a meeting reportedly held by Norma Otilia Hernandez, the mayor of the state capital Chilpancingo, with a high-ranking drug trafficker.

Governor Evelyn Salgado stated that she is working on the pacification of the state, which has been engulfed by violence for almost two decades, with a frontal attack on organized crime and an investigation into to the structural causes of insecurity. A city under permanent siege by criminal groups, Acapulco is once again under national scrutiny.

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A vehicle and several 'carabinieri' officers. Claudio Furlan (LaPresse)

Mahmoud Abdalla, 19, arrived in Italy from Egypt as an unaccompanied minor a couple of years ago; he dreamed of becoming a hairdresser and helping his family back home. He worked as an apprentice at a hairdressers shop in the province of Genoa run by his fellow countrymen. Clients appreciated his work and requested that he be the one to style their hair. But the salary was low, the working hours were too long and he was always on his feet, so Mahmoud decided to look for better working conditions elsewhere. He found another barbershop that offered him a better contract and planned to leave his previous job.

But he never got the chance. This week, his mutilated and decapitated body washed up in the sea. The owner of the salon, Abdelwahab Ahmed, and another employee, Mohamed Abdelghani, have confessed to the crime. They feared that when Mahmoud left, he would take clients with him. The young men, aged 26 and 27, are charged with voluntary manslaughter aggravated by trivial reasons and destruction of a corpse. According to the prosecutor in the case, the men are extremely dangerous and may destroy evidence, since they initially tried to convince the police that the killing was an accident.

Investigators have confirmed that Abdalla wanted to change jobs because of the poor conditions in which he was working. After talking with several witnesses, they concluded that the young Egyptian went with his killers to the apartment that Mahmoud shared with other employees of the hairdressers shop in the Genoese neighborhood of Sestri Ponente. According to the investigators theory of the crime, once in the apartment, the boy reiterated his desire to change jobs, despite his bosses threats. At that point, according to the Italian press, the older men attacked Mahmoud with a knife and an awl. They then stuffed his body into a suitcase and transported it by cab to the mouth of the Entella River. There, they dismembered Mahmouds body, cutting off his head and hands, and threw the corpse into the sea.

The case has shaken Italy for what it says about the precariousness of the labor market and the issue of immigration. Murdered because he wanted to switch jobs is the most common headline in the Italian press coverage of the case. Some media, including Il Corriere della Sera, have pointed out that the victim had complained to the police that his bosses were exploiting him and that he was working without a contract.

Videos showcasing Mahmouds talent

The owner of the new barbershop where Mahmoud wanted to start working posted videos on Instagram showing the boy during a test to demonstrate his hairdressing talent. The man explained that after Mahmoud left, the two men arrested for his murder went there to express their opposition to letting Mahmoud go, because his leaving would have caused them to lose customers. The owner of the shop where Mahmoud wanted to work also said that he had received a threatening phone call in which he was warned not to hire Mahmoud.

The crime has shocked the local Muslim community. We said a collective prayer for Mahmoud with some of his friends, who are all very sad and angry. Our law forbids disfiguring a deceased person; it is an offense to him and his relatives. What happened is terrible and for something so trivial no less, said Hussein Salah, a representative for the Muslims of Genoa.

Italy has certain labor problems, such as inadequate wages for some occupations and for irregular work. According to the National Institute of Statistics, about 3 million workers in Italy receive their wages irregularly, and the underground economy exceeds 10% of the countrys GDP.

Debate over the minimum wage

Italy is one of the few European countries that does not have a minimum wage. The political opposition is calling for a minimum wage of 9 ($9.92) per hour, but the government rejects this proposal.

The exploitation of workers in the agricultural sector, most of whom are immigrants, and elsewhere, is a problem that affects the entire country, despite the fact that such exploitation has been a crime since 2011; it has carried a punishment of up to six years in prison since 2016. Trade unions estimate that the practice affects over half a million workers; in the countryside alone, this generates about 5 billion ($5.5 billion) and accounts for lost taxes in the amount of 1.8 billion ($1.9 billion).

Several welcome cooperatives that help immigrants find housing, employment and education, such as the ones that helped Mahmoud when he arrived in Italy as an unaccompanied minor, have decried societys indifference to these cases in which precarity and immigration go hand in hand. He deserved a different future. The real question we should be asking ourselves as a society is whether we are doing enough; I dont think we are. I just hope that the time will come when we give these young people who are looking for a better future the respect they deserve in all areas, said Marco Montoli, the president of the il Ce.Sto immigrant welcome cooperative.

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Tennessee Reps. Justin Pearson, D-Memphis, left, and Justin Jones, D-Nashville, speak to reporters outside the West Wing after meeting with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, April 24, 2023.

Tennessee Reps. Justin Pearson and Justin Jones, who became Democratic heroes as members of the Tennessee Three, are hoping to once again reclaim their legislative seats Thursday after they were expelled for involvement in a gun control protest on the House floor.

The young Black lawmakers were both reinstated by local officials, but only on an interim basis. To fully take back their positions, they must advance through a special election. Both easily cleared their primary election in June, and now face general election opponents for districts that heavily favor Democrats.

Jones, who lives in Nashville, is up against Republican candidate Laura Nelson. Meanwhile, Pearson, from Memphis, faces independent candidate Jeff Johnston.

Lets send a clear message to everyone who thought they could silence the voice of District 86, Pearson tweeted earlier this month. You cant expel a movement!

Jones and Pearson were elected to the GOP-dominated Statehouse last year. Both lawmakers flew relatively under the radar, even as they criticized their Republican colleagues policies. It wasnt until this spring that their political careers received a boost when they joined fellow Democrat Rep. Gloria Johnson in a protest for more gun control on the House floor.

The demonstration took place just days after a fatal shooting in Nashville at a private Christian school where a shooter killed three children and three adults. As thousands of protesters flooded the Capitol building to demand that the Republican supermajority enact some sort of restrictions on firearms, the three lawmakers approached the front of the House chamber with a bullhorn, and joined the protesters chants and cries for action.

Republican lawmakers quickly declared that their actions violated House rules and moved to expel their three colleagues  an extraordinary move thats been taken only a handful of times since the Civil War.

The move briefly left about 140,000 voters in primarily Black districts in Nashville and Memphis with no representation in the Tennessee House.

Ultimately, Johnson, who is white, narrowly avoided expulsion while Pearson and Jones were booted by the predominantly white GOP caucus.

House Republican leaders have repeatedly denied that race was a factor in the expulsion hearings. Democrats have disagreed, with Johnson countering that the only reason that she wasnt expelled was due to her being white.

The expulsions drew national support for the newly dubbed Tennessee Three, especially for Pearson and Jones campaign fundraising. The two raised more than $2 million combined through about 70,400 campaign donations from across the country. The amount is well beyond the norm for Tennessees Republican legislative leaders and virtually unheard of for two freshman Democrats in a superminority.

Meanwhile, more than 15 Republican lawmakers have funneled cash to fund campaign efforts of Jones Republican opponent, Laura Nelson. Nelson has raised more than $34,000 for the race. Pearsons opponent, Jeff Johnston, has raised less than $400 for the contest.

Thursdays election will also influence two other legislative seats.

In Nashville, community organizer Aftyn Behn and former Metro Councilmember Anthony Davis are currently vying to advance to the general election for a House seat in a district in the citys northeastern region that opened after Democratic Rep. Bill Beck died in June.

Meanwhile, in eastern Tennessee, Republican Timothy Hill will face Democrat Lori Love in a general election for Republican-leaning District 3. The seat was left empty when former Republican Rep. Scotty Campbell resigned following a finding that he had violated the Legislatures workplace discrimination and harassment policy.

Hill served in the state House from 2012 until 2020 and rose to the position of majority whip. He later left his seat to run for an open U.S. House seat in 2020, but lost in a crowded primary to current Republican U.S. Rep. Diana Harshbarger.

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Damen Holding BV terminates agreement on Mangalia Shipyard

The legal framework for the association between Damen Holding BV and the Romanian government on the Mangalia Shipyard has been cancelled, according to Damen group, a minority shareholder in the Mangalia Shipyard, told Agerpres.

Damen Holding BV (Damen) is said to be a strategic player in the shipbuilding industry in Romania, owning and investing in the largest shipyards in the country (Galati and Mangalia) and operating the largest naval design company in Romania.

At the same time, Damen provides over 3,500 local jobs, having completed over 400 projects in Romania and built over 30 vessels for 14 navies and coast guards around the world, including NATO and EU countries.

In 2018, Damen decided to invest in Mangalia and agreed to transfer to the Romanian government a 2% stake in the company that operates the Mangalia Shipyard, allowing the Romanian government to become a majority shareholder in this company with a 51% stake, in exchange for receiving and keeping operational and managerial control of the shipyard.

Under the existing partnership, Damen provided financing, know-how, specialised resources, as well as clients and contracts in order to transform the site in Mangalia into a competitive one in Europe. That was possible as a result of the approval of government emergency ordinance 73/2018, amending emergency ordinance 109/2011 on corporate governance of state-run companies.

According to Damen, with the adoption of Law 187/2023, the legal framework under which the association operated with regard to the Mangalia shipyard was cancelled. The legal framework that currently applies violates the conditions offered, agreed and guaranteed in favor of Damen by the Romanian government in 2018, completely invalidating the principles that were the basis of Damen's decision to invest in the Mangalia shipyard. In addition, this fact comes after more than three years of other blockages in the decision-making process, no other type of help, involvement or funding from the Romanian partner.

Over the past four months, Damen has repeatedly tried to prevent any negative impact on the shipyard, workforce and customers.

Damen is said to have insisted on a genuine dialogue and a quick solution to be implemented before the entry into force of the law, in order to minimise any disruption to the shipyard's activity and to resolve the current difficult situation.

According to Damen, following an already difficult collaboration and now facing these unilateral changes, it is thus faced not only with a breach of the contract, but also with the breach of the relationship of trust in the Romanian state.

After a previous notice of breach of contract by which Damen expressed for the last time its readiness to find a possibility for the continuation of the association, to which no solution was offered by the Romanian side, Damen had no other option than to issue the notice of termination of the Association Agreement concluded in 2018 with the Romanian partner.

Damen also says that by taking this step, provided for in the contractual framework of the association, Damen, as a foreign investor, protects its rights, investment, customers and projects at the Mangalia shipyard.
The governing is more important than the political tussle, prime minister Marcel Ciolacu said on Friday, assuring that he will not engage "in any conflicts unrelated to citizens' priorities."

"A responsible party is at the helm of the country to show that it is capable of making decisions for the people, not to expose their political frustrations in the public square. I will not engage in any conflicts unrelated to citizens' priorities. I will fight only for measures related to the lives of ordinary people, their standard of living and their daily problems," Ciolacu wrote on Facebook, Agerpres reports.

He added that, as prime minister, he has the duty to come up with concrete solutions to the realities in the country.

"And the reality is that very large loans have been made in previous years, and the pandemic has demonstrated an incredible thirst for waste. My job is to balance the situation. Inaction and political blah blah actually mean blocking much-needed European funds for development. And I will never allow that! I don't run away from responsibility or look for blame in the past. Romanians know the culprits better. My role is to come up with solutions, to ensure Romania's political and economic stability, to respond to citizens' problems and to protect those affected by rising prices. That's what I'm going to do. I leave the scandals and disputes pertaining to the political menagerie to others," the head of the Executive said.
Prime minister Marcel Ciolacu congratulated the Romanian rescuers who ended their mission in Greece on Friday for their "selflessness, courage and efforts" and conveyed much success to the Romanian firefighters who, starting Friday, replace them to continue the mission of helping the population and authorities to extinguish fires in Greece.

"Romania and Europe stand in solidarity with the Greek people, who are in need of support, and we hope that, together, we will bring things back to normal as soon as possible!" said Marcel Ciolacu on Friday in a post on the government's Facebook page, Agerpres reports.

Romania sent on Friday to Greece a new specialized module for extinguishing forest fires, in the context of massive wildfires faced by the Greek state lately. 90 Romanian firefighters from the inspectorates for emergency situations will replace colleagues who participated in a similar mission in the last two weeks, within the European Civil Protection Mechanism of the European Union, and who return to Romania on Friday.
PM Ciolacu: Neptun Deep Project will increase Romania's energy security

Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu says that the Neptun Deep project, which involves the extraction of gas from the Black Sea, is a strategic one that will turn Romania into the largest natural gas producer in the European Union, told Agerpres.

"This strategic project to Romania will contribute to the country's energy security. Romania will thus become the largest producer of natural gas in the European Union," Ciolacu said in a social media post on Friday.

The development plan for the Domino and Pelican Sud deposits in the Neptun Deep block has been confirmed by the National Agency for Mineral Resources.

OMV Petrom and Romgaz will invest up to EUR 4 billion at this stage of project development, which will generate a production of about 100 billion cubic metres of natural gas. The first quantities of Black Sea gas would be extracted in 2027.
Security in the Western Balkans is a strategic priority of the Romanian Army, Romanian Chief of Defense Staff, General Daniel Petrescu, declared during a visit to Serbia undertaken at the invitation of his counterpart, General Milan Mojsilovic.

In this context, the Romanian troops deployed on NATO and EU missions and operations in the Balkans are "substantial contributions of our country to maintaining regional stability", Petrescu underscored, as cited in a Friday release of the National Defense Ministry.

The talks of the top Army officials focused on the regional security situation and the intensification of military cooperation. Joint training is one of the main ways of stepping up cooperation. Therefore, the "Platinum Wolf" land forces multinational exercise and the "Air Solution" bilateral air forces exercise will remain training platforms for the Romanian and Serbian troops, they said. Also, the Defense chiefs of the two countries identified training opportunities in the line of special operations forces.

General Daniel Petrescu's agenda included meetings with representatives of the Serbian Armed Forces at the Military Academy and the Military Medical Academy in Belgrade, as well as at the 72nd Special Operations Brigade in Pancevo.

The Serbian visit of the Romanian CoD, which took place between August 2 and 4, is part of the series of joint activities aimed at improving military cooperation within the framework of the traditional good neighborly relations between the two countries, the National Defense Ministry said.
UNION  A 67-year-old man who confessed to a role in the 1987 strangulation death of a Franklin County woman was sentenced Thursday to 10 years in prison.

Circuit Judge Craig E. Hellman sentenced Kirby R. King for involuntary manslaughter and felonious restraint on Thursday in the death of 22-year-old Karla Jane Delcour. She was found dead more than 35 years ago in a wooded area of Franklin County with her wrists and neck bound by a cord.

Kirby was originally charged with second-degree murder but reached a plea deal in June with Lincoln County prosecutors for the lower charge. Judge Hellman sided with prosecutors' sentencing recommendation of 10 years in prison. Kirby's defense team recommended a five-year sentence.

King was arrested in December 2019 after Franklin County Sheriffs Office investigators reopened the cold case.

Kirby had been interviewed as a suspect during the early stages of the investigation in 1987. In the early 2000s, according to people familiar with the case, he admitted to investigators that he had a role in the killing, but he wasn't charged.

Investigators have not publicly said if there was any new information that led to the charges in 2019.

Investigators believe Delcour was killed at a home off Iron Hill Road in Union on June 21, 1987. Her body was found about four days later along the North Service Road of Interstate 44, about 2 miles west of St. Clair, where she was living.

Delcours father had reported her missing just before her body was found after he hadnt heard from her for several days. He became alarmed when he never received a Fathers Day card from her, authorities said at the time.

Delcours brother, John Delcour, said in 2019 that the sheriffs office called his parents shortly before Christmas to tell them of the arrest.

He added that his sister always was devoted to her family.

She was a great person, and we lost her forever, Delcour said at the time.

Kings attorney Steven Waterkotte said in June that King was happy to put this all behind him.
JEFFERSON CITY  Jay Nixon's Republican opponent in his first campaign for governor used the slogan "that's the wrong way, Jay" in criticizing the Democrat. Now, 15 years later, Nixon's fellow Democrats are the ones saying the former governor is moving in the wrong direction.

Nixon, who left office in 2017 after two terms as Missouri governor, announced last weekend he would help the group No Labels as its director of ballot integrity, an unpaid role, the group has said.

No Labels is attempting to gain access to state ballots for the 2024 presidential election  an effort that could result in a well-funded challenge by a moderate to the likely major party candidates, President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.

Nixon's announcement came after other Democrats began to mobilize against the No Labels effort, including former House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt, D-St. Louis, who is helping lead the group Citizens to Save Our Republic, which launched a super political action committee last month, The Associated Press reported.

No Labels opponents fear an alternative choice for voters would hand the White House back to Trump.

But Nixon said it was wrong to stop the group from seeking space on state ballots.

"People should not impede the ability of folks to get on the ballot and vote in states like Missouri and all across the country," Nixon said.

He said No Labels hasn't chosen a candidate, and that at this juncture, he is working to ensure "that folks that have the statutory and constitutional right to get on the ballot can do that."

But for at least one Democrat, the action is reflective of Nixon's time in office, when the Missouri Democratic Party withered under his watch.

Former state Sen. Jeff Smith, D-St. Louis, said Nixon "wasn't responsive" to requests for financial support in 2008 when Smith was leading fundraising efforts for Senate Democrats.

Rather than campaign as a Democrat in television ads, Nixon portrayed himself as an "independent" and "experienced" voice in his 2012 reelection campaign for governor.

Smith said Nixon rarely attended St. Louis party events and that he wasn't aware of Nixon's presence at party-building county-level events elsewhere.

"For most Dem electeds and politicos that I knew, the perception was that (U.S. Sen.) Claire McCaskill was the senior party leader who would chip in to help if you needed it," Smith said in a text message.

So it went over the weekend. With Nixon coming out in favor of the No Labels effort, McCaskill spoke out against it to the PostDispatch.

In an email to supporters, Nancy Jacobson, founder and CEO of No Labels, said Nixon "couldn't believe" political leaders from Missouri, such as McCaskill and Gephardt, had joined an "antidemocratic campaign" against No Labels.

"It is because we care deeply about our democracy that many thoughtful patriotic Americans are worried about this effort," McCaskill said. "They know, and the data is clear, that their efforts will only do one thing in 2024. And that is to help the criminally indicted Donald Trump."

In response to Smith, Nixon said, "My duty was to the people of Missouri, also to the Democratic Party, but the people of Missouri first." He added, in response to Mc-

Caskill, that, "I am not for Trump, obviously."

"I don't think anybody involved with No Labels that I have run into or talked to is trying to do anything other than to give the people of the states and the country another alternative," Nixon said, adding it comes at a time of "so much gridlock, so much difficulty to get things done."

Leaders of the No Labels organization have said the group would kill the effort if it appeared they were aiding Trump's bid.

Nixon said he wasn't feuding with his former colleague, McCaskill.

"I'm not going to have an argument with my good friend Claire McCaskill," Nixon said. "No problem, we're good."

Another Democrat, House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, who is running for governor in 2024, said she was proud to back the current president next year.

"I'm sure Governor Nixon is doing what he thinks is best for Missourians of all parties, but I'll be proudly voting for President Biden in 2024," Quade said. "His administration's historic investments in infrastructure, the fact that more folks are working than ever before, and investments in making more products in America are just a few of the reasons why."

Nixon said he was "pretty convinced that providing this alternative option for the voters is a good thing. But once again, No Labels will pull the plug if it's going to have those deleterious effects."

Nixon's nod to No Labels isn't the first time in recent memory the former governor has broken with members of his party.

In 2020, Nixon supported the ill-fated presidential campaign of former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg over Biden as the current president's campaign showed early signs of trouble. (He eventually endorsed Biden ahead of Missouri's primary that year.)

Asked if he believed the Democratic Party had shifted too far to the left, Nixon said he thought there were movements "in that fashion."

But, he said, the shifts were "not as significant as the movements of the other party, of going to, you know, the equivalent of autocracy." Jack Suntrup  573-556-6186 @JackSuntrup on Twitter jsuntrup@post-dispatch.com
JEFFERSON CITY  With an eye on making rail travel safer, Missouri transportation officials are turning a historic $50 million earmark from the General Assembly into lights and safety gates at 27 unprotected road crossings on three Amtrak routes in the state.

Another 17 mostly rural crossings will be closed to traffic, potentially drawing opposition from local communities or private landowners who may have to travel longer distances to get around the rail line.

In an announcement Thursday, the Missouri Department of Transportation said the so-called passive crossings would be transformed in the coming five years to prevent collisions between the passenger trains and vehicles.

"These changes are critical to address safety along these passenger rail lines in Missouri," said Missouri Department of Transportation Director Patrick McKenna. "We look forward to working with the railroads and the communities who own these local roads to work through and finalize plans and agreements to make these safety improvements."

The announcement came just a day after the National Transportation Safety Board issued a report on last year's fatal Amtrak derailment in Mendon, Missouri, that showed a crossing where the train hit a dump truck was steep and poorly designed.

The crossing didn't have any lights or signals to warn that a train was approaching.

The Southwest Chief was traveling from Los Angeles to Chicago when it hit the rear right side of the truck near Mendon. Two locomotives and eight cars derailed. The train had 12 crewmembers and 271 aboard.

The crash killed four people and injured 146 others.

During the press conference, officials held a moment of silence to honor the victims of the June 27 crash.

Gov. Mike Parson said the derailment was a "wake-up call for all of us."

"We've got to step up our game to make things safer," said Parson, who has made infrastructure improvement a key plank during his administration.

Although there are an estimated 1,400 crossings in Missouri where there are no gates or lights, the state is focusing its efforts on the three Amtrak routes in the state.

Those include the Southwest Chief, which runs from Chicago to Kansas City, the Texas Eagle, which goes through St. Louis and Poplar Bluffen route to San Antonio, and the Missouri River Runner, which operates between St. Louis and Kansas City.

Among those at the announcement were Jennifer Homendy, chairwoman of the NTSB, and Federal Railroad Administrator Amit Bose.

"Today really is the result of a partnership," Homendy said. "It's very rare that everyone comes together to improve safety."

"Missouri will benefit for years to come," added Bose, who said Missouri's investment in crossing safety is a model for other states.

In January, Parson asked lawmakers to approve $35 million in spending for the work. But with a massive, post-pandemic budget surplus, the Legislature sent him a budget with $50 million.

That's a huge jump from normal years. Missouri typically budgets about $1.5 million annually for rail safety improvements from a 25-cent state motor vehicle licensing fee. In addition, MoDOT typically gets about $6 million in federal funds to work on crossings.

That level of funding improved about 20 crossings each year.

McKenna acknowledged that the state did not pump enough money into the safety program.

"We haven't kept pace," he said.

Among the proposed closures is one in Centertown west of Jefferson City that has seen chronic backups due to trains stopping and blocking the roadway for lengthy periods of time.

On the Texas Eagle route, MoDOT is calling for a handful of closures in Butler County near the Arkansas border.

Four crossings would be closed in Chariton County where the Southwest Chief runs, including the scene of last year's collision near Mendon.

In St. Louis, gates and lights will be installed on Dock Street near the riverfront north of downtown. On nearby Buchanan Street, only flashing lights will be installed.
Tim Ezell, a features reporter at KTVI (Channel 2) news, announced on the air Friday that he has Parkinsons disease.

Ezell, who has been with the station off and on for 25 years, said he received the diagnosis two years ago. His symptoms currently include a lack of balance, slow-motion movement, stiffness and fatigue. He plans to keep working.

Its a progressive disease, which means it will get worse over time. But at what rate, nobody knows, he said.

Ezell, 54, left the station and its powerhouse AM Show in July 2014, to become a pastor. He returned to television in October 2018.

First and foremost, I know that Gods got this, Gods got me and he will be glorified through it, he said.

There is no known cure for Parkinsons disease, although medicines, surgery and other therapies can help alleviate some symptoms, according to the National Institute on Aging.

This is the path that has been laid out for me, so Im going to walk it out. Walk it out openly and honestly the best way I can, he said.

In a 2018 interview with a religious podcast, Ezell admitted that he became an alcoholic in eighth grade after his parents divorced. He continued drinking to a black-out stage through his senior year of college, he said. His uncle took him to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting on Nov. 3, 1991, and he has been sober ever since.

Ezell and his wife, Kim, are both natives of Fort Worth, Texas; they met there while working at a Walmart store. They have three children.

Because Parkinsons is a progressive disease, today is my best day, which means each day from here on in is my best day. So Im going to celebrate each and every one of them. Because today is all were promised. Im going to walk it out and celebrate each and every one, he said.

Now, lets get back to living, all right? Lets do it.

For more information about Parkinsons disease, Ezell said people should go to the American Parkinsons Disease Association or the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinsons Research.
The famous question during the Watergate hearings half a century ago was, "What did the president know, and when did he know it?" The newly unveiled criminal case against former President Donald Trump hinges in part on a variation of that question that might be summarized as: Did Trump know he lost the 2020 election? Or did he actually believe his own big lie about mass election fraud?

That tricky element  how to prove Trump's state of mind as he went about attempting to overthrow a valid national election  is just one of the challenges that faces special counsel Jack Smith as he pursues this historic case.

Notwithstanding the predictable, irresponsible chorus of attacks against the Justice Department from Missouri congressional Republicans and others who know better, the indictment handed up against Trump on Tuesday is a valid response to an unprecedented assault on democracy by a sitting president. Which makes it all the more urgent that prosecutors get it right.

The grand jury's four-count indictment alleges that immediately after the 2020 election, Trump and a half-dozen co-conspirators launched a multipronged effort to reverse the results through illegal means.

Republicans who point out that Democrats also challenged George W. Bush's 2000 election victory are being deeply disingenuous in that those challenges were conducted entirely within the court system. Trump's campaign, too, took that perfectly legal approach (dozens of times, all of which failed). But that's not why he was indicted.

The indictment accuses Trump of defrauding the United States, obstructing an official proceeding and conspiring to "oppress, threaten and intimidate" officials in order to deny Americans the right to have their votes counted.

Trump's alleged crimes go far beyond merely standing at a microphone on Jan. 6 and whipping up the mob. They include:

 Pressuring Georgia's secretary of state to "find" more than 11,000 votes for Trump so he could claim that state's electoral votes, even though Joe Biden clearly won the state;

 Recruiting false slates of electors to cast electoral votes for Trump in seven states that Biden won;

 Pressuring Vice President Mike Pence to use those fake electors to derail the rightful certification of the election results on Jan. 6;

 Attempting to install a new Justice Department head, Jeffrey Clark, who would wield the power of the office to help overthrow the election results  in part by drafting letters to state legislatures pressing them to throw out Biden electors chosen by the voters and replace them with Trump electors.

Notably, the facts regarding these and most of the other allegations aren't even in dispute. It has long since been established beyond any doubt that Trump did these things. Trump himself has admitted (even boasted about) some of them, such as his pressure on Pence.

The only question is whether his actions constituted crimes. That's the part that will come down largely to whether Trump understood that he was attempting to overturn not a fraudulent election but a valid one. Toward that end, the indictment includes extensive examples in which Trump's inner circle told him repeatedly that he lost the election. That may or may not be enough to prove that Trump knew he was attempting to defraud Biden voters of their rightful outcome.

On one hand, Trump is almost certainly the most psychologically unstable president America has ever had. If anyone can pull off the I really did believe the delusional nonsense I was spouting defense, it's him.

On the other hand are passages in the indictment like the description of Trump haranguing Pence for refusing to go along with the scheme, saying: "You're too honest." It will be interesting to hear how the defense attempts to spin that one.

Of course, the spinning started almost immediately from Trump's die-hard defenders in Congress, whose knee-jerk reactions were as predictable as they were reckless.

"Biden DOJ unveils the latest effort to stop Trump from running against Biden," tweeted Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., further cementing his party's disturbing contempt for America's top law enforcement agency. Hawley's complaint that the indictment is "totally unprecedented in American history" is true but ignores the unprecedented nature of Trump's alleged crimes.

"[A] two tiered system of justice," alleged Missouri's other Republican senator, Eric Schmitt  echoing the exact, clearly coordinated phrase being publicly promoted by Rudy Giuliani and other top Trump lieutenants. Does Schmitt take his orders from Missouri or Mar-a-Lago?

Missouri Rep. Jason Smith, referring to Biden, declared without irony: "Never in our Nation's history has a President weaponized the federal government against his political opponent." Clearly he needs to read this indictment more carefully.

In fact, the 45-page document presents a sober, clearly articulated case that doesn't overreach. It doesn't formally charge Trump with inciting the Jan. 6 riot, despite a strong argument to be made that he did. It doesn't allege sedition, which Trump arguably committed but which would have required a daunting new level of evidence and risked the case becoming even more politically explosive than it already is.

And the indictment's language goes to lengths to stress that the case isn't just about what Trump said: Trump "had a right, like every American, to speak publicly about the election and even to claim, falsely, that there had been outcomedeterminative fraud during the election and that he had won," it states. Even the biggest of lies is protected by the First Amendment.

What's not protected is a president's decision to take concrete action  ordering underlings to thwart official congressional proceedings, pressuring political officials to change election results, scheming to improperly seat fake electors  in attempting to deny voters their right to be counted.

"Despite having lost," the indictment states, "the defendant was determined to remain in power." That's the most succinct summary of Trump's offenses. And it's the ball on which the prosecution must keep its eye as the case moves forward.
KYODO NEWS - Aug 4, 2023 - 22:53 | World, All, Japan

Former Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso, who is currently serving as vice president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, will visit Taiwan next week, the party announced Friday in a move that triggered a backlash from China.

Aso, 82, will be the highest-ranking LDP member to visit Taiwan, a self-ruled democratic island that Communist-led China regards as its own territory, since Tokyo switched diplomatic ties from Taipei to Beijing in 1972, according to the party.

During his planned three-day trip through Wednesday, Aso plans on Tuesday to hold separate meetings with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and Vice President Lai Ching-te with the aim of reinforcing relations with the island, the LDP said.

Lai is a major candidate from Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party in the presidential election scheduled for next January.

Aso met with Lai's major contenders -- New Taipei Mayor Hou Yu-ih of the main opposition Nationalist Party and former Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je, chairman of the opposition Taiwan People's Party -- when they visited Japan earlier this year.

The second-highest ranking LDP figure after Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will also visit the grave of former Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui on Monday and deliver a speech at an international forum on Tuesday, according to the party.

Taiwan's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it welcomes Aso's planned visit, adding that it appreciates the "practical action" he is taking in support of the island.

His visit "will not only highlight the solid friendship between Taiwan and Japan but will also further deepen cooperation in various fields," the ministry said.

The visit comes amid China stepping up military pressure on Taiwan, which Beijing sees as a breakaway province awaiting reunification with the mainland, by force if necessary. China opposes any official contact between Taipei and other countries.

"China has consistently and resolutely opposed Japanese politicians' visits to Taiwan for political benefit," a spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a written response to Kyodo News over the planned visit by Aso.

In August last year, the Chinese military conducted large-scale drills around Taiwan in response to a trip to the island by then U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who held talks with Tsai.

Against a backdrop of intensifying U.S.-China geopolitical rivalry, Japan emphasizes it seeks to continue cooperating with Taiwan, the world's leading chip supplier, on economic security issues, such as diversifying semiconductor supply chains.

Taiwan and mainland China have been governed separately since they split due to a civil war in 1949.

Related coverage:

Taiwan Vice President Lai to transit U.S. during Paraguay trip

U.S. invites China's top diplomat Wang Yi to Washington

China-Taiwan military balance "rapidly tilting" toward Beijing: Japan
NEW YORK  The U.S. workplace safety regulator said Amazon.com Inc. has subjected workers at yet another of its sprawling warehouses to hazardous conditions by imposing onerous production quotas and failing to provide proper medical care.

The U.S. Department of Labors Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) on Thursday said workers at the Logan Township, New Jersey, warehouse suffered bodily stress that was causing muscular disorders and neck and back injuries. And Amazon failed to ensure that injured employees received adequate treatment, the agency said.

OSHA said it had recommended $15,625 in penalties, which is the maximum fine allowed under U.S. law. Amazon has 15 days to either pay the fine or appeal to a review board.

Since January, OSHA has levied about $150,000 in fines on Amazon for allegedly creating hazardous conditions or failing to record work-related injuries at several other warehouses across the country.

Separately on Thursday, a worker advocacy group said it had filed a complaint with OSHA on behalf of employees at an Amazon warehouse near St. Louis. They claim the online retailer imposes excessive, unsafe work rates and that they were mistreated by Amazons in-house medical staff.

Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday. The company has said that it invests millions of dollars in worker safety and has cooperated with OSHAs nationwide investigation.

Critics of Amazon have long accused the company of putting profit over safety by requiring employees to work at an unsafe pace and forgo breaks to meet demanding quotas.

The companys safety record came under renewed scrutiny during the COVID-19 pandemic. Those concerns helped spur union campaigns at warehouses across the country, including one in New York City where workers voted to unionize last year.
ST. LOUIS  A judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed against Green Street Real Estate Ventures by a former executive.

Paul Giacoletto had alleged in a St. Louis County Circuit lawsuit filed in January that the St. Louis-based development company locked him out of lucrative contracts worth $2.3 million, while also directing his construction division to cover costs on other projects.

Sign up for the Brick City newsletter Steph Kukuljan and other business reporters bring you insights into St. Louis-area real estate and development.

Green Streets attorney, Gerard Carmody, of Carmody MacDonald, filed to dismiss both the initial petition and an amended petition. Judge John Borbonus agreed, and the case was dismissed on July 28.

Giacoletto said in a statement through his attorney Robert Jackstadt, of Tueth Keeney, that he was disappointed he was not able to present his claims in court.

Unfortunately, Missouri law makes it difficult for a former member to bring suit against current members of a limited liability company, he said. The claims made in my lawsuit remain true and are fact-based. The judge dismissed the case because I had no standing with which I could sue, not because of the validity of the claims. We respect the courts ruling and will honor the decision.

Carmody declined to comment.
This story was updated Thursday at 6:05 p.m.

ST. LOUIS  South City Hospital, formerly known as St. Alexius, plans to shut down in the coming weeks, the latest in a series of hardships for the 154-year-old St. Louis institution.

The hospital began transferring patients to other facilities this week, and will start closing the 178-bed facility on Friday, according to a notice filed with the state. In a letter to employees, the hospitals receiver said medical services would be cut back in stages and layoffs are underway.

Residents needing emergency care should go elsewhere, a hospital official said.

The hospital, founded in 1869 by the Catholic order of Alexian Brothers, has been in financial distress for years and has been under receivership for the past couple of months.

Compared with other hospitals, South City Hospital serves a high portion of patients who are uninsured or underinsured, a financial pressure for the facility. Ownership has changed hands every few years lately, and the hospital has had a revolving door of administrators as the facility and its owners drifted in and out of bankruptcy court.

St. Louis Alderman Shane Cohn, whose ward includes the hospital, said officials have been attempting behind the scenes to find alternatives to a closure.

It is a vital employer and service provider in South City, Cohn said. It is the only hospital outside of the central corridor.

St. Louis University Hospital is 5 miles north, and Mercy Hospital South is 12 miles southwest.

In an email to the Post-Dispatch, the hospitals receiver, Daniel Wiggins, said local health care providers are helping transfer patients to other hospitals and finding jobs for its employees.

In a letter to staff, which an employee forwarded to the Post-Dispatch, Wiggins said that the hospital has begun discontinuing most or all of the hospitals services. Some employees would be laid off Friday, the letter said, but others may be employed for another several weeks.

The hospital has money for its Aug. 10 payroll and to cover any workers asked to stay on the job for the coming weeks, the staff letter said. The hospital had about 600 employees as of September, an official said at the time.

An attorney for the ownership group, SA Hospital Acquisition Group, did not respond to multiple requests this week for more information about the expected changes.

In recent years, South City Hospital has operated its main hospital at 3933 South Broadway, and until last year, it ran the Lutheran School of Nursing at 2639 Miami Street.

South City has claimed to be the oldest hospital west of the Mississippi, and the hospital has said that in 1949 the majority of the 12-week exorcism that inspired the novel and movie The Exorcist took place in the 19th century wings of the Alexian Brothers Hospital. Those wings were torn down in 1976.

In 2004, St. Alexius was acquired by Argilla HealthCare Inc., which became Envision Hospital Corp. after a merger. Florida-based Success Healthcare bought the hospital from Envision in 2008.

Success Healthcares parent company, Florida-based Promise Healthcare Group, filed for bankruptcy in 2018. The bankruptcy court allowed Promise to sell its ownership stake in the hospital to Florida-based Americore Holdings in January 2019.

By the end of 2019, Americore, too, had filed for bankruptcy. Over the course of a year, the hospital accumulated at least a half-dozen lawsuits from vendors alleging nonpayment, and at one point, a federal inspector found a document on site that listed millions of dollars owed to various vendors.

In court documents, the U.S. Trustees office, which oversees bankruptcy cases, said Americores CEO grossly mismanaged his business and did not operate his hospitals in a manner that is consistent with public safety and welfare.

A bankruptcy court judge approved a trustee to take over management of the hospital in early 2020. Over that summer, the judge approved a sale to SA Hospital Acquisition Group, a group of businessmen with backgrounds in nursing homes, health systems and investment banking. They renamed it South City Hospital.

Then last year, the new owners entered into an interim management agreement with California-based American Healthcare Systems, to take over day-to-day operations. AHS CEO Michael Sarian did not respond to requests for comment this week.

The nursing school the hospital ran, the Lutheran School of Nursing, shut down last year, citing financial issues. In the years leading up, it had been under scrutiny from the State Board of Nursing for high employee turnover and outdated facilities.
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The iconic pictures of summer  sunsets, beaches, mountains and famous landmarks  have filled my social media feed for weeks.

Pent-up demand for travel has delivered legions of airline passengers to far-off destinations. We joined these masses last month to take a family vacation to Europe we had postponed since 2021.

We planned to cover six cities across four countries over 10 days. Pulling off this itinerary would require planes, trains, automobiles and a fair amount of luck. I had read enough horror stories about lost luggage that I made one rule: No checked bags. We would each take a carry-on and backpack.

As fate would have it, our travel troubles did not involve luggage.

We enjoyed the sights and ate our way through spots in Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium before heading to England. Exactly 24 hours before our return from London, my husband attempted to check into our flights. He kept getting an error message.

I tried the American Airlines app. It showed us leaving on a flight three hours later than the flight we had booked. This was strange. We are old school enough that we print copies of our reservations before we travel. We double checked the paperwork and our emails. It all reflected the earlier time. How were we mysteriously rebooked on a later flight? I messaged American customer service through the app, but I had no idea when I would get a reply.

Normally, this delay wouldnt be a big deal. But we had a connection through OHare airport in Chicago, where we would have to go through Customs. This later flight left us an hour and a half to make it. That seemed unlikely.

We were traveling with another family from St. Louis. When they checked in to the same flight we had all booked, they received an offer to change to a later flight for hundreds in travel credit because the flight was overbooked. They stuck with the original flight.

Were we victims of involuntary bumping? I learned about this term last year during the meltdown at Southwest Airlines when thousands of flights were canceled. I watched TikTokers explain how airlines owe passengers refunds and compensation when this happens. Maybe our flight issues would end up covering some of these vacation costs.

We boarded our later flight. We planned to hustle off the plane as soon as we landed on the long shot chance of making our connection. Bad news: Our plane was stuck on the runway waiting for a gate. Apparently, a tug had broken down in front of the plane.

We had less than an hour, and I gave up any hope when I saw the line at passport control. It was longer than most queues weve waited in at Disney. A young boy, who looked to be 8 or 9 years old, got so tired standing in this line that he would frequently sit on the floor in between starts and stops.

He also threw up in front of me. On the floor. Twice.

I looked at my watch at the exact time our plane to St. Louis was taking off. When we finally made it to the customer service desk, I asked if they knew anything about our mysterious flight change or possible compensation for the delay.

They did not. The agent advised me to send an email to customer service or seek a response through social media. They did, however, pay for our hotel stay that night and gave us $12 meal vouchers for dinner.

Twelve dollars for dinner in an airport felt like salt in the wound.

Given that this delay was happening on the return portion of our trip  we werent missing an important event or shortchanging our vacation  I could keep a healthy perspective on the inconvenience. It had been a terrific vacation, and no point in ruining the mood, I thought.

That evening things got more complicated. Our son woke up with a piercing earache in the middle of the night. The last time he flew with an ear infection, his ear drum ruptured, which he said was excruciating. Rather than risk that on our morning flight to St. Louis, my husband and son bought tickets on Amtrak.

My magnanimous attitude was wearing thin.

My daughter and I got on the flight the next morning. It was delayed on the runway for 40 minutes. At this rate, I wondered if the train would beat us home.

Thankfully, we all eventually made it back.

I received an email and followup phone call from American Airlines in response to my queries about what went wrong. Apparently, they had emailed both my husband and myself weeks in advance that our flight time had been changed. Strangely, neither of us could find these emails in our inboxes, spam or junk folders. Then again, Congress recently held hearings on aliens and UFOs, so anything is possible, I guess.

They blamed the delay on the runway on air traffic control, and the broken tug on the airport. As far as rebooking us on an international flight with such a short connection time, they said it still met the minimum time regulations. The bottom line was they didnt owe us a refund or any compensation for the flight change or delays.

To their credit, they did say they would refund the two unused portions of the Chicago to St. Louis flights. And, they offered each of us a travel credit that could add up to a single round trip fare if we combined them all.

Well, its better than nothing, I thought. In an era of airline chaos, Ive adopted a mantra to help me deal with the stress of unexpected delays and cancellations, all of which is entirely out of our control: It could be worse.

Also, things are never as easy as they look on TikTok.
ST. LOUIS  A chiropractor and radio host from Creve Coeur has agreed to pay an $80,000 fine and refrain from marketing his vitamin products as effective preventatives against COVID-19.

Eric Nepute agreed Wednesday to pay the fine to the federal government. The company Quickwork LLC, of which Nepute is a part-owner, agreed separately last year to pay a $1 million fine.

Nepute did not admit to any of the allegations. Instead, he signed the agreement to avoid further expense uncertainty and expense associated with this lawsuit, according to the settlement document.

Its a very favorable settlement, said Naputes attorney Jay Dobbs in an interview. He admitted no liability and paid less than it wouldve cost to go to trial.

Nepute has a morning talk show on Real Talk radio, KRTK 93.3FM, and operates wellness centers in south St. Louis County and Creve Coeur in addition to selling vitamins and supplements. In 2021, as controversy over COVID-19 and the effectiveness of a newly released vaccine reached a fever pitch, Nepute and Quickwork caught the eye of federal officials, who said he falsely claimed his vitamin D and zinc supplements could help prevent or cure COVID-19.

Nepute and Quickwork were defendants in the first lawsuit brought under the COVID-19 Consumer Protection Act, passed in late December 2020 to crack down on scams and misinformation related to the coronavirus pandemic. Federal officials accused Nepute of disseminating misinformation, exploiting fears in the midst of a pandemic, and posing a significant risk to public safety through popular Facebook videos and other false advertising.

A month later, Nepute signed a consent order agreeing not to claim that his vitamin products would treat or cure COVID-19. But he got into hot water again in March 2022 when federal officials tried to hold him in civil contempt because they said he continued to make claims on his radio show saying vitamins were a hell of a lot more beneficial than vaccines.

Heres a big old up your nose with a rubber hose, federal government, Nepute said in a radio show broadcast. Have a listen to this. Brand-new study confirms that vitamin D significantly, significantly reduces the risk of dying from COVID-19.

Nepute was not held in contempt. Instead, he agreed to remove all content that violated his consent order from the internet, according to court filings.

In November 2022, Quickwork agreed to stop marketing their products as effective against COVID-19 and to pay a $1 million civil penalty, according to court documents. Part of that payment was suspended due to an inability to pay, according to a Department of Justice news release. Neputes lawyer, Dobbs, said his client had no role in those settlement negotiations.

Nepute continued to fight his case, arguing in court filings that he was not advertising products but rather providing educational information.

On July 19, a federal judge found there was no reasonable basis to support claims that zinc or vitamin D provides better support against COVID-19 than vaccines. But, he ruled, the government would have to prove at trial that Nepute actually made those claims in advertisements.

The government and Nepute ultimately reached a settlement, which was filed Wednesday. Nepute and Quickworks are required to pay damages if they violate their agreements.

Editors note: Updated at 7:30 p.m. Thursday with comments from Jay Dobbs.
Weeks after former President Donald Trump lost his bid for a second term, the effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election found its way to Missouri.

Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City and one of Trumps lawyers, appeared via Zoom before a Missouri House oversight committee in December 2020 to tout disproven claims about hacked voting machines and phony mail-in ballots.

He also told lawmakers that Georgia election officials had surreptitiously counted illegal ballots in order to steal the presidency for Joe Biden, pointing to a video from Atlanta he insisted shows demonstrably the theft of about 40,000 ballots right in front of your eyes.

None of it was true.

Before his testimony, Giulianis allegations about Georgia had already been debunked by government officials, law enforcement and the media.

And last week, three years after his virtual appearance in Missouri, Giuliani conceded in a carefully worded court filing that his assertions about Georgia election workers committing fraud during the 2020 presidential race were false.

That concession  made as part of a defamation suit against him filed in Washington, D.C., by two Georgia election workers  has rekindled interest in Giulianis 2020 Missouri testimony and the impact it could have in a separate defamation suit filed in St. Louis by the same election workers against the Gateway Pundit, a right-wing outlet.

Soon after his 2020 testimony, Merideth pointed to that form in a letter to the New York State Bar Association asking that Giulianis law license be revoked. A year later, Giulianis license to practice law was suspended after a court ruled he made demonstrably false and misleading statements about election fraud.

Rudy blatantly lied to us, under oath, Merideth said Wednesday. Thats perjury.

Meanwhile, the ongoing defamation suit against the Gateway Pundit in St. Louis alleges that by trumpeting Giulianis false tales of election fraud, the right-wing site incited months of death threats and harassment against Ruby Freeman and Wandrea Shaye Moss, the mother and daughter accused of trying to steal the Georgia election by the former presidents supporters.

Giulianis admission wont help the Gateway Pundit fend off the allegations, said Daxton Stewart, an attorney and journalism professor specializing in media law at Texas Christian University.

Just repeating something that someone else said that was false still makes a publisher subject to defamation claims, Stewart said.

It could make the plaintiffs case harder, Stewart said, if they cant show that the Gateway Pundit published the claims knowing they were false or acted recklessly in publishing them at the time.

But were talking about wild accusations by Trump loyalists that should have made anyone skeptical, he said, even the most fierce partisans.

Dueling defamation claims

In a two-page declaration filed in Washington, D.C., Giuliani acknowledged he had made statements about Freeman and Moss, and that the remarks carry meaning that is defamatory per se.

He also admitted that his statements were actionable and false, and that he no longer disputed the factual elements of liability raised in the lawsuit.

However, Giuliani said he continues to believe his accusations about Freeman and Moss were constitutionally protected under the First Amendment and refused to concede that they caused any damage.

That distinction is important because plaintiffs in a defamation case must prove not only that a statement made about them was false but that it also resulted in actual damage.

Ted Goodman, a spokesman for Giuliani, said in an email to PBS that the filing was made in order to move on to the portion of the case that will permit a motion to dismiss.

The Gateway Pundit, run by brothers Jim and Joe Hoft, picked up Giulianis accusations, which were magnified by the former president, and published stories for months identifying Freeman and Moss as crooked operatives who helped steal the 2020 election.

Freeman and Moss said the accusations resulted in an avalanche of violent threats, many tinged with racial slurs. Under advice from the FBI, Freeman said she had to flee her home. On Jan. 6, 2021  the day of the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol  she said her home was surrounded by Trump supporters shouting through bullhorns.

Moss said strangers tried to get into her grandmothers home to make a citizens arrest.

The Gateway Pundit would go on to publish numerous stories about Freeman and Moss with headlines like: WHERES BILL BARR?  We Got Your Voter Fraud AG Barr  Its On Video and They Attempted to Steal Georgia with It!  HOW ABOUT A FEW ARRESTS?

Its turned my life upside down, Moss testified last year to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Rhetorical hyperbole

In December 2021, Moss and Freeman filed a lawsuit in St. Louis Circuit Court against the Gateway Pundit for defamation and emotional distress.

The Hofts argue that any stories published by the Gateway Pundit regarding Freeman and Moss were either statements of opinion based on disclosed facts or statements of rhetorical hyperbole that no reasonable reader is likely to interpret as a literal statement of fact.

Rhetorical hyperbole, the Hofts argue, cannot form the basis of defamation and related tort claims.

A legal standard set in a 1964 U.S. Supreme Court decision states that public officials must establish actual malice  or reckless disregard of the truth  before recovering defamation damages. In this case, the Hofts say the plaintiffs are limited purpose public figures, and must prove actual malice to claim defamation.

The Hofts filed a counterclaim in the case alleging the lawsuit against them is solely intended to drive the Gateway Pundit out of business. St. Louis Circuit Judge Michael Stelzer dismissed that counterclaim last month, clearing the way for a trial next year.

Giulianis concession was made in a separate case, Stewart noted, and the former mayor is not a party in the Gateway Pundit litigation.

But I could see the attorneys for the Georgia election workers wanting to depose him or bring him in as a witness in the Missouri case, he said. They could use this other filing to keep his testimony in line with what hes said elsewhere.

As for his 2020 testimony in Missouri, Merideth still believes Giuliani perjured himself and should be prosecuted.

Republican leadership in the Missouri House could ask the local prosecutor in Cole County to file criminal charges for perjury, a class E felony with a three-year statute of limitations. Alternatively, the House could pursue holding Giuliani in contempt, which carries a small fine and could result in 10 days in jail.

But Merideth says there is zero chance of that ever happening in Missouri.

Republicans love to scream about nonexistent voter impersonation, he said, all while trying to commit the greatest voter fraud in American history.

Missouri Independent is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Missouri Independent maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jason Hancock for questions: info@missouriindependent.com. Follow Missouri Independent on Facebook and Twitter.
JEFFERSON CITY  A prosecutor is stepping in after Missouris attorney general asked an appeals court to reverse the conviction of a former Missouri police officer who is white and killed a Black man in 2019.

Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker this week asked the states Western District Court of Appeals to let her handle the appeal of former Kansas City police detective Eric DeValkenaere, who was convicted of second-degree involuntary manslaughter and armed criminal action in the November 2021 of killing 26-year-old Cameron Lamb. Lamb was shot as he backed his truck into his garage.

Typically, Missouris attorney general handles all appeals of criminal cases. But Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey in June asked the appeals court to reverse DeValkenaeres conviction, arguing that DeValkenaere was justified because he believed Lamb was going to shoot his partner.

Peters Baker originally secured DeValkenaeres conviction.

The attorney general accepts an alternative view of the facts in this case, Peters Baker wrote in a brief asking the appeals court to allow her to defend the conviction.

Police said DeValkenaere and his partner, Troy Schwalm, went to Lambs home after reports that Lamb was involved in a car chase with his girlfriend on residential streets.

Jackson County Circuit Court Presiding Judge J. Dale Youngs, who convicted the former detective after a bench trial, sentenced DeValkenaere to prison  three years for involuntary manslaughter and six years for armed criminal action, with the sentences to run consecutively.

Youngs later ruled that DeValkenaere could remain free while his conviction is appealed.
JEFFERSON CITY  Thousands of Missouri prison guards have the opportunity to jump-start their beleaguered labor union as part of a legal settlement outlined in an email sent this week to workers at the Missouri Department of Corrections.

The message contains the settlement and outlines the process for correctional officers to opt in to having their union dues once again deducted from their paychecks.

If they agree by an Aug. 15 deadline set by Gov. Mike Parsons Office of Administration, $5 will come out of each of their paychecks to begin rebuilding the Missouri Corrections Officers Association.

If you choose to opt in ... OA will begin deducting your dues from your paycheck during the August 16 through August 31 payroll period, said the email, which was obtained by the Post-Dispatch.

The changes come as the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the 10.1% rate of union membership in 2022 is the lowest on record.

In 1983, the first year where comparable union data are available, the union membership rate was 20.1% and there were 17.7 million union workers, the agency said.

However, the union membership rate of public-sector workers stands at 33.1%, which is more than five times higher than the rate of private-sector workers.

The correctional officers union has been in court since 2019, when the Republican governors administration abruptly stopped payroll deduction when the labor agreement covering guards expired.

That left the union scrambling for money. Staff left the organization, and its headquarters were shuttered.

It attempted to remain afloat through voluntary payment methods, but too few workers made the effort to pay dues directly to the organization, rather than through the simpler payroll deduction method.

A lawsuit ensued.

In a 2021 decision, Cole County Circuit Judge Jon Beetem said the administrations maneuver was unconstitutional because officials did not apply similar decisions to other unions representing state employees.

In December, the Western District Court of Appeals upheld the lower court decision calling the administrations arguments for ending payroll deductions absurd and arbitrary.

The practical result of the rule is to give (the administration) an unfair advantage in the negotiations by starving the labor union for dues funding during the contract negotiations process, the appeals court said.

Parson, who has been in office for five years, has not renewed any of the labor agreements that represent unionized workers on the state payroll, leaving employees to operate under the terms of contracts that expired in 2019.

Administration officials have blamed the impasses on legal uncertainties and said the COVID-19 pandemic kept them away from the bargaining table.

The legal uncertainties stem from a 2018 law signed by former Gov. Eric Greitens, which placed all state employees under the same, nonmerit regulations.

The law, which has since been ruled unconstitutional, removed testing requirements to qualify for jobs and terminated the appeals process for a merit system employee who was disciplined or fired.

In addition to using a check-off system outlined in the email, union members also can contact the officers association directly to begin payroll deduction, the settlement agreement says.
ST. LOUIS  A woman was found shot and killed Thursday evening in the city's Mark Twain I-70 Industrial neighborhood.

The woman was found shot in the head just before 6:30 p.m. at Stratford Avenue and Planned Industrial Court. She has not been identified, but police said she was in her 20s.

Police on the scene said she was pulled from a car and left behind by a man who then drove away in the car.

Photographer Arthur H. Trickett-Wile contributed to this story.

Check back for updates.
JEFFERSON CITY  Missouri cannabis regulators have stopped three marijuana facilities from operating due to potential product safety concerns.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Senior Services, which regulates Missouris medical and recreational marijuana programs, said Friday the agency had suspended operations for three facilities to investigate potential product safety concerns.

Sami Jo Freeman, spokeswoman for the state health department, said all product related to these investigations will be placed on administrative hold until the product is deemed safe, remediated or destroyed.

She didnt immediately provide additional information, including which facilities were suspended.

Investigations are ongoing, so we cannot comment further at this time, Freeman said.

The Missouri cannabis industry publication Greenway Magazine reported Thursday hundreds of products had been placed on hold.

Holds initially began Wednesday, the outlet reported.

Missouri as of late July had 67 licensed cultivators, 89 manufacturers and 215 dispensaries, according to state records.

Missouri cannabis regulations dont allow cannabis flower to be delivered to dispensaries until it passes mandatory testing, outlined in state regulations.

The testing is conducted by companies licensed by health departments Division of Cannabis Regulation.

Testing licensees arent allowed to be owned by an entity or entities under substantially common control, ownership, or management as a cultivator, manufacturer or dispensary, according to the regulations.

Its not the first time the state has investigated product safety concerns.

Regulators in 2020 investigated a complaint of moldy medical marijuana sold at a St. Louis dispensary, the Springfield News-Leader reported at the time.

The grower that was subject to the complaint, Perryville-based Archimedes, told the News-Leader the product passed all state-mandated testing and that the company conducted further testing after a consumer complaint.

Archimedes, along with two other license-holders, in 2022 signed an agreement with the state forcing the owners to surrender their licenses and destroy their product, the Post-Dispatch reported last year.
KYODO NEWS - Aug 4, 2023 - 15:40 | All, Japan

Japan will grant special permission to stay to certain foreign minors born and raised in the country without residence status, with more than 140 children expected to fall into the category, the justice minister said Friday, adding that the measures are "for this time only."

Calls have been growing for support for such children as they have been unable to access adequate medical care due to their non-resident status. Many of them attend Japanese schools and mostly speak Japanese.

The justice minister will also consider taking a similar step for their family members.

Issuance of special residence permission is granted in special cases to those who would otherwise face deportation and is left up to the discretion of the justice minister. While its criteria are unclear, whether the applicant is married to a Japanese or has a child at school in Japan are among factors given consideration.

Based on the announcement by Saito, the grants of special permission will apply to foreign nationals under the age of 18. They should be born in Japan and attending school and also have expressed a desire to continue living in the country. Children whose parents have criminal records will not be eligible.

According to data from the Immigration Services Agency as of the end of last year, a total of 4,233 foreign nationals have refused to leave Japan even though they were given deportation orders due to illegal overstays and other reasons. Of them, 201 were born in Japan and aged below 18.

The measure will mean that special permission will be granted to at least 70 percent of such children, excluding those who have returned to their home country at their own volition.

During the five years through 2020, the permission was granted annually to about 1,400 people on average, according to the agency.

While noting that the swift repatriation of foreign nationals who resist deportation is necessary, Saito also said the government has been considering measures to help children living in Japan "who have done no wrong themselves" but face hurdles in their lives.

"We will appropriately manage immigration while protecting children," he said.

Related coverage:

Japan eases rules on entertainer visas to spur international exchanges

Japan grants long-term visas to 2 Russians who oppose Ukraine war
ST. LOUIS  The city of St. Louis has the highest rate of Alzheimers dementia cases in Missouri, and new evidence from Washington Universitys School of Medicine shows that social factors like income, race and education play a role in access to treatment and diagnosis.

The new observational study, focused on the Washington University Memory Diagnostic Center, showed that patients who live in less affluent neighborhoods, as well as people of color, were less likely to receive care from the memory clinic.

While age is well-known as the primary risk factor for developing Alzheimers, racial disparity has started attracting more attention in the last few years as well  particularly in St. Louis, where 13% of residents 65 and older have the disease, according to a recent Alzheimers Association report. Rates in St. Louis County fall between 12% and 13%.

Another report from the association says that Black Americans face about double the risk of developing the disease compared to white Americans, and Hispanics face about 1 times the risk.

Suzanne Schindler, a clinical neurologist involved in the Washington University study, said that requirements of the diagnostic process, or the patient journey, can be a barrier to receiving treatment. At the Memory Diagnostic Center, for example, a patient needs health insurance, a primary care doctors referral, and a support person who knows them well they can help provide doctors with a patient history and information about new symptoms.

Because of the shortage of memory specialists, Schindler said, patients often have to wait up to six months to get an appointment.

Roadblocks to treatment

The researchers found that Black patients tended to have more advanced dementia compared to white patients at initial evaluations.

Reasons for this are myriad. In addition to all of the other barriers to accessing treatment, stigma surrounding the disease and a distrust of the medical community are likely limiting racial minorities from receiving treatment, experts say.

Risk levels may also have more to do with differences in the social environment that people live in, rather than an inherent likelihood of developing the disease.

Its not typically due to the biology, said Ganesh Babulal, an assistant professor of neurology at Washington Universitys School of Medicine. Its the social determinants that impact a differential risk.

Arnesia Calk, an outreach manager for Oak Street Health in Jennings and community educator for the Alzheimers Association said she has personally felt the effects of this stigma in the African American community, as well as in her own family, after her grandfather was diagnosed with the disease. He died in 2017.

The stigma is definitely there, she said. And it also comes along with that privacy that a lot of our older family members are so used to, that We dont talk about that, What happens in my house stays in my house, Nobodys supposed to know about this. And it bleeds into us generationally.

We have a lot of families that are still dealing with that, Calk said. How do I get care for this individual if Im not willing to admit that this is where they are in life?

Early diagnosis of Alzheimers is becoming increasingly important as new drugs reach FDA approval. Aduhelm and Leqembi, two recent arrivals, are only meant to treat early, mild cases.

Because of this, Schindler said shes concerned that even though Alzheimers is more frequent in Black populations, patients will get less benefit because they usually arrive at a memory clinic with more advanced dementia, when the drugs are no longer effective.

Sarah Lovegreen, vice president of programs at the Missouri chapter of the Alzheimers Association, also highlighted the impact of social factors on residents of St. Louis, where, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the poverty rate is almost 20% and around 12% of people younger than 65 are without health insurance.

There are so many social determinants of health that are impacting residents of St. Louis  not only age and race, which we know are risk factors that would increase risk for Alzheimers disease, she said. We also know that in parts of our city, its very difficult to get access to healthy food or participate in safe physical activity; housing and education isnt consistent through the city.

And so I think thats where were seeing some of those rates come up, she said. Some of those other social determinants of health were learning, more and more, impact ones risk for Alzheimers disease as well.

Changes possible

Finding solutions to these large, complicated problems is going to require multiple approaches, researchers and advocates say.

I think its really going to take going to people and meeting them where they are, Calk said. Community education is incredibly important. We definitely need to be maximizing that for St. Louis.

Schindler, with Washington University, believes this is where their new study will be especially important. Having identified the current disparities in the clinic, researchers will have a baseline to measure the impact of any changes made.

Theres an interest in interventions, in changing the process for the clinic, Schindler said. Altering policies, like the requirement that a patient be accompanied by a support person, might ease an obstacle to treatment, she said.

Were still defining exactly what we should do to help with the problem, but theres at least a way that we can see whether any of those interventions might be helpful, Schindler said.
SAN FRANCISCO  An appeals court Thursday allowed a rule restricting asylum at the southern border to stay in place. The decision is a major win for the Biden administration, which had argued that the rule was integral to its efforts to maintain order along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The new rule makes it extremely difficult for people to be granted asylum unless they first seek protection in a country theyre traveling through on their way to the U.S. or apply online. It includes room for exceptions and does not apply to children traveling alone.

The decision by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals grants a temporary reprieve from a lower court decision that had found the policy illegal and ordered the government to end its use by next Monday. The government had gone quickly to the appeals court asking for the rule to be allowed to remain in use while the larger court battles surrounding its legality play out.

The new asylum rule was put in place back in May. At the time, the U.S. was ending use of a different policy called Title 42, which had allowed the government to swiftly expel migrants without letting them seek asylum. The stated purpose was to protect Americans from the coronavirus.

The administration was concerned about a surge of migrants coming to the U.S. post-Title 42 because the migrants would finally be able to apply for asylum. The government said the new asylum rule was an important tool to control migration.

Rights groups sued, saying the new rule endangered migrants by leaving them in northern Mexico as they waited to score an appointment on the CBP One app the government is using to grant migrants the opportunity to come to the border and seek asylum. The groups argued that people are allowed to seek asylum regardless of where or how they cross the border and that the government app is faulty. They also argue that the new asylum rule is essentially a reboot of two previous rules put forward by President Donald Trump that sought to limit asylum  the same point Judge VanDyke alluded to in his dissent.

One of the groups, the American Civil Liberties Union, noted in a news release Thursday that the ruling didn't weigh the legality of the asylum rule and that they were confident they'd ultimately prevail.

We are pleased the court placed the appeal on an expedited schedule so that it can be decided quickly, because each day the Biden administration prolongs its efforts to preserve its illegal ban, people fleeing grave danger are put in harms way, said the ACLU's Katrina Eiland, who argued the case.

The groups also have argued that the government is overestimating the importance of the new rule in controlling migration. They say that when the U.S. ended the use of Title 42, it went back to whats called Title 8 processing of migrants. That type of processing has much stronger repercussions for migrants who are deported, such as a five-year bar on reentering the U.S. Those consequences  not the asylum rule  were more important in stemming migration after May 11, the groups argue.

The government has no evidence that the Rule itself is responsible for the decrease in crossings between ports after Title 42 expired, the groups wrote in court briefs.

But the government has argued that the rule is a fundamental part of its immigration policy of encouraging people to use lawful pathways to come to the U.S. and imposing strong consequences on those who dont. The government stressed the enormous harms that would come if it could no longer use the rule.

The Rule is of paramount importance to the orderly management of the Nations immigration system at the southwest border, the government wrote.

The government also argued that it was better to keep the rule in place while the lawsuit plays out in the coming months to prevent a policy whipsaw whereby Homeland Security staff process asylum seekers without the rule for a while only to revert to using it again should the government ultimately prevail on the merits of the case.

Photos: Migrants rush across US border in final hours before pandemic rule expires
PYEONGTAEK, South Korea  The dogs bark and stare as Kim Jong-kil approaches the rusty cages housing the large, short-haired animals he sells for their meat. Kim opens a door and pets one dog's neck and chest.

Kim says he's proud of the dog meat farm that has supported his family for 27 years, but is upset over growing attempts by politicians and activists to outlaw the business, which he is turning over to his children.

"It's more than just feeling bad. I absolutely oppose these moves, and we'll mobilize all our means to resist it," Kim, 57, said at his farm in Pyeongtaek city, just south of Seoul.

Dog meat consumption is a centuries-old practice on the Korean Peninsula and has long been viewed as a source of stamina on hot summer days. It's neither explicitly banned nor legalized in South Korea, but more and more people want it prohibited. There's increasing public awareness of animal rights and worries about South Korea's international image.

The anti-dog meat campaign recently received a big boost when the country's first lady expressed her support for a ban and two lawmakers submitted bills to eliminate the dog meat trade.

"Foreigners think South Korea is a cultural powerhouse. But the more K-culture increases its international standing, the bigger shock foreigners experience over our dog meat consumption," said Han Jeoungae, an opposition lawmaker who submitted legislation to outlaw the dog meat industry last month.

Prospects for passage of an anti-dog meat law are unclear because of protests by farmers, restaurant owners and others involved in the dog meat industry. Surveys suggest that one in three South Koreans opposes such a ban, though most people don't eat dog meat anymore.

Dogs are also eaten in China, Vietnam, Indonesia, North Korea and some African countries, including Ghana, Cameroon, Congo and Nigeria.

Last month, Indonesian authorities announced the end of dog and cat slaughter at an animal market on the island of Sulawesi following a yearslong campaign by local activists and world celebrities. The Tomohon Extreme Market will become the first such market in Indonesia to go dog and cat meat-free, according to the anti-animal cruelty group Humane Society International.

South Korea's dog meat industry receives more international attention because of its reputation as a wealthy, ultra-modern democracy. It is also the only nation with industrial-scale farms. Most farms in South Korea have more than 500 dogs, according to a dog farmers' association.

During a recent visit, Kim's farm, one of the country's largest with 7,000 dogs, appeared relatively clean but there was a strong stench in some areas. All dogs are kept in elevated cages and are fed with food waste and ground chicken. They are rarely released for exercise and typically are sold for meat one year after they are born.

Kim said two of his children, ages 29 and 31, are running the farm with him, and that business has been going pretty well. He said the dogs bred for their meat are different from pets, an idea opposed by activists.

It's difficult now to find dog meat restaurants in Seoul's bustling downtown, though many still exit in the countryside.

"I only earn one-third of the money I used to make. Young people don't come here. Only ailing old people come for lunch," said Yoon Chu-wol, 77, the owner of a dog meat restaurant in Seoul's Kyungdong traditional market. "I tell my elderly customers to come and eat my food more frequently before it's banned."

Farmers also face growing scrutiny from officials and increasingly negative public opinion. They complain that officials visit them repeatedly in response to complaints filed by activists and citizens over alleged animal abuse and other wrongdoing. Kim said more than 90 such petitions were filed against his farm during a recent four-month span.

Son Won Hak, general secretary of the dog farmers' association, said many farms collapsed in recent years because of falling dog meat prices and weaker demand. He thinks that's a result of activist campaigns and unfair media reports focusing on farms with inferior conditions. Some observers, however, say consumption of dog meat was already declining, with younger people staying away from it.

"Quite honestly, I'd like to quit my job (as a farmer) tomorrow. We can't confidently tell our children that we're raising dogs," Son said. "When my friends called me, they said 'Hey, are you still running a dog meat farm? Isn't it illegal?'"

The number of farms across South Korea has dropped by half from a few years ago to about 3,000 to 4,000, and about 700,000 to 1 million dogs are slaughtered each year, a decline from several million 10 to 20 years ago, according to the dog farmers' association.

Ju Yeongbong, an official of the farmers' association, said farmers want to continue for about 20 more years until older people, their main customers, die, allowing the industry to naturally disappear. Observers say most farmers are also in their 60s to 70s.

Borami Seo, a director of the South Korea office of the Humane Society International, said she opposes the continued killing of millions of dogs for such a prolonged period. "Letting this silent cruelty to (dogs) be committed in South Korea doesn't make sense," Seo said.

"(Dog meat consumption) is too anachronistic, has elements of cruelty to animals and hinders our national growth," said Cheon JinKyung, head of Korea Animal Rights Advocates in Seoul.
On June 22, the Church of England, the parent church of a global communion of 85 million Christians, announced it would cease all investments in Shell, BP, ExxonMobil and other top oil and gas companies. The rationale? After decades of shareholder engagement, the Church concluded that these firms are not serious about limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, the limit beyond which climate changes impacts become cataclysmic.

Ascension Health, based in St. Louis and one of the largest Catholic health institutions in the world, should follow its Catholic values and do the same.

When the Church of England acted, it joined nearly 1,600 institutions representing $40.51 trillion in assets which have fossil fuel divestment policies in place. Hundreds of religious institutions worldwide have committed to divestment. Religious organizations including local houses of worship, Buddhist retreat centers, a rabbinic retirement fund, the Islamic Society of North America, Christian colleges and seminaries, and national denominations have all come to the same conclusion. If it is wrong to destroy the planet, it is wrong to profit from that destruction.

The same moral logic applies to Ascension Health, which lives out its Catholic call to protect the poor and vulnerable in many admirable ways. Ascension manages 150 hospitals and senior care facilities in 19 states. Sixteen-million people visit its clinics annually. Its doctors perform half a million surgeries and deliver 80,000 babies per year. It provides $2.3 billion in care to persons living in poverty and administers a host of programs that provide invaluable community support, including during climate change-induced heat waves which threaten the health of seniors and many in poor communities.

To say Ascension is an institution of compassion and care is no hyperbole. This makes it all the more important that Ascension divest from the fossil fuel industry.

As many of Ascensions health care staff know, fossil-fuel air pollution has devastating impacts on human health. This pollution causes 2 million cases of pediatric asthma per year. Over seven million people die prematurely annually due to air pollution, with fossil fuels responsible for the lions share of these deaths. Oil, gas and coal-generated air pollution is linked to leukemia, neurological disorders, cardio-vascular diseases, and more.

In addition to air pollutions toll, the impacts of fossil fuel-driven climate change are now frighteningly clear. This summer has seen an international onslaught of deadly floods, fires and heatwaves. Droughts are impoverishing millions of people across Africa. The thick orange haze and blankets of smoke that recently engulfed communities from hundreds of Canadian wildfires show that the climate change impacts are not limited by borders.

There is a precedent for healthcare institutions divesting when an industry demonstrates an entrenched, callous disregard for human wellbeing. In the 1980s and 90s, healthcare institutions around the country divested from tobacco holdings. Then, as now, the industry in question not only created a product that caused massive harm to human health, but also misled the public about the harm their products caused.

Whatever happened to Thou shalt not bear false witness?

These impacts are why Ascension Health must divest from fossil fuels. Yet a new report titled The Biggest Malpractice: How Hospitals Betray the Public Trust with Billions in Fossil Fuel Pension Investments, reveals that the healthcare giant has $258,753,173 in fossil fuel holdings. This includes direct investments in some of the worlds most-polluting projects, such as $30 million of holdings in Strathcore, the giant oil sands (tar sands) extraction company based in Alberta Canada, according to its 2021 public finance reporting of its pension portfolio.

The same report estimates that US hospital pensions have nearly $10 billion in fossil fuel holdings. The dissonance between these holdings and a commitment to health and healing is painful.

Pope Francis himself has spoken consistently about the responsibility of fossil fuels for the climate crisis. After undertaking efforts at dialogue with oil industry leaders, he too concluded that the time had come for Catholic institutions to divest. Now is the time for courage in abandoning fossil fuels, he said in 2022 while calling on Catholics everywhere to divest from fossil fuels as a moral imperative.

We urge Ascension Healths senior leadership to heed the call of His Holiness Pope Francis and its own values of service to the poor and respect and compassion for the dignity and diversity of life.

Our religions teach us to care for the earth and each other. For the sake of life, we urge Ascension Health to divest from fossil fuels.

Editor's note: An earlier version of this column incorrectly identified Ascension Health as being Jesuit-affiliated.
The first duty of a doctor is to provide the best possible care for the patient. But doctors in Missouri and other red states around America today could face prison time if that duty requires ending a patients pregnancy based on medical concerns that might later be deemed insufficient to justify an abortion under new state bans.

The fact that hospitals in Missouri and around the country have started erring on the side of legal caution, literally endangering their patients lives in the process, is both horrific and predictable.

But now a lawsuit in Texas could point the way to a response that might finally force anti-choice politicians to consider the real-world implications of their ideological extremism. It alleges that Texas law endangers womens lives.

It does  clearly  as does Missouris.

Texas, like Missouri, bans all abortions except those deemed to be medical emergencies. In the wording of the Texas law, those are defined as situations that risk either death or substantial impairment of a major bodily function for the woman.

What is substantial, versus unsubstantial? What is major versus minor? For medical professionals forced to make immediate decisions in the course of assessing a pregnancy in distress, these arent academic questions but issues that could, based on subsequent second-guessing by prosecutors, land them in prison.

More than a dozen Texas women now claim in a lawsuit that the Texas abortion law endangered their lives by forcing doctors to hesitate in ending dangerous pregnancies for fear of being unable to later defend that decision in court.

The suit cites multiple cases like that of lead plaintiff Amanda Zurawski of Austin, who ended up in intensive care and almost died after doctors refused to perform an abortion after her water broke at 18 weeks.

[W]ith the threat of losing their medical licenses, fines of hundreds of thousands of dollars, and up to 99 years in prison lingering over their heads, it is no wonder that doctors and hospitals are turning patients away, states the suit, referencing the penalties in the Texas abortion ban.

The suit alleges that, As a direct result of Texass abortion bans, Texas is in the midst of a health care crisis. Among the other Texas women impacted was one who had to travel out of state to end an non-viable pregnancy  a necessity, the suit states, that made her feel like a medical refugee.

The term is apt.

The suit also points to similar dangers endured by more than 20 women in 11 abortion-ban states outside of Texas, including Missouri.

In a similar Missouri case, Joplin resident Mylissa Farmer last year was 17 weeks pregnant when her water broke, negating the possibility she could carry the fetus to term and presenting potential life-threatening complications if the pregnancy wasnt terminated.

But because Missouris near-total abortion ban makes an exception only for a medical emergency  a situation Farmer arguably wasnt in yet, though she eventually, inevitably would be  doctors in both Missouri and Kansas declined to end the pregnancy for her. This particular medical refugee was finally forced to make the long trip from southwestern Missouri to Illinois to save her life.

Defenders of the abortion bans argue that in these and similar cases, doctors were protected by the statutory exceptions for emergencies. Their certainty that no ambitious prosecutor with an ideological agenda will dispute doctors definition of that term is, at best, naive. Especially considering the politically charged atmosphere surrounding abortion services since Roe v. Wades reversal last year.

It isnt difficult to see where this is going. As Kaiser Family Foundation Health News put it in a report in June: To some physicians and malpractice attorneys, the question is when  not if  a pregnant patient will die from lack of care and set the stage for a big-dollar wrongful death claim.

Policymakers in Missouri and other red states can wait for that to happen, bringing with it all the legal and human complications it will bring. Or they can acknowledge that real-world medical issues dont align neatly with political and religious dogma, and consider revisiting these extremist laws.
Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine  Russian drones on Wednesday hit a Ukrainian port city along the border with Romania, causing significant damage and a huge fire at facilities that are key to Ukrainian grain exports.

The attacks followed the end of a deal with Russia that allowed Ukrainian shipments to world markets from the Black Sea port of Odesa. Since scrapping the deal, Russia has hammered the country's ports with strikes, compounding the blow to the key industry. In the past two weeks, dozens of drones and missile attacks targeted Odesa and the region's river ports, which are being used as alternative routes.

The head of the Ukrainian president's office, Andriy Yermak, said the city of Izmail, on the Danube River that forms part of the Ukraine-Romania border, was hit in the strikes.

Video obtained by The Associated Press showed explosions and a large fire in the distance on the Danube, captured by fishermen in Romania, a NATO member, on the other side of the river.

Three Ukrainian ports along the Danube are currently operating.
SALEM, Ore.  He called it "Operation Take Over," with a list that included a chilling reminder to go after women who wouldn't be missed to avoid "any kind of an investigation," according to the FBI.

Accompanying the bullet point notes was a sketch of an apparent dungeon, to be built with cinder blocks, foam insulation and waterproof concrete.

Police found the legal pad with the notes in the southern Oregon home of a man who is now a suspect in sexual assaults around the country. Also in the home: a cinder block cell where police say the man, Negasi Zuberi, held a woman he had allegedly kidnapped in Seattle until she escaped by pounding at the door with bloodied hands. Court and police records show Zuberi, 29, had been on law enforcement's radar before  for offenses such as punching someone in the face and being a bad tenant whose landlord sought to evict him.

The FBI set up a website asking anyone who believes they may have been a victim to come forward. The site says the FBI's investigation has extended to states where Zuberi, who used several aliases, including Sakima, previously resided since August 2016. Those states could include California, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Utah, Florida, New York, New Jersey, Alabama and Ne-
This will be the last regular update for the Philippines. The organized violence there has declined to the point where it no longer qualifies for regular updates. Instead, we will cover any major outbreaks of violence in our updates of neighboring countries or in a Potential Hotspot piece. Past updates for all wars remain available.

Since StrategyPage began in 1999 weve retired more wars than weve added. As we have noted frequently, the trend since the 1990s has been fewer wars. Those we have retired since 1999 include Haiti (2009), Nepal (2010), Sri Lanka (2010), Central Asia (2012), Ivory Coast (2012), Indonesia (2013), Chad (2013), Uganda (2013), Kurds (2013), Philippines (2023), Rwanda (2013), Balkans (2013), Ethiopia (2013), Congo Brazzaville (2013), Colombia (2017), Mexico (2017), Myanmar (2020), Algeria (2020), Sudan (2020) and Thailand (2020). Some of these former updates included nearby conflicts that also ended, like Micronesia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

August 4, 2023: EU (European Union) leaders back the Philippines and efforts to halt Chinese aggression in the South China Sea. The EU wants to reduce its trade with China, which is seen as an increasingly unreliable trading partner. Because of that the EU wants to establish better trade relationships with other nations in east and southeast Asia. The EU is also interested in helping the Philippines improve its armed forces and cooperate with the Philippines and its regional allies (like Japan) to confront Chinese aggression. China insists it is not a threat and offers military cooperation with the Philippines. Meanwhile China continues to fortify its artificial islands in the South China Sea and increase the military personnel, equipment and weapons on those islands.

July 27, 2023: One of the conditions for establishing an autonomous Moslem region in the south was agreement to formally disarm the thousands of armed men belonging to Moslem resistance groups. So far, 24,000 men have been disarmed and another 14,000 will be disarmed over the next two years to complete the disarmament program.

In 2014 the majority of Moslems and Christians in the Philippines agreed to an autonomous Moslem region on the southwest coast of the large southern island, Mindanao and the string of smaller islands (Sulu, Basilan, Tawi, Tawi) extending from southwestern Mindanao towards Malaysia. Bangasamoro is where most Filipino Moslems live and the new Moslem entity, which has more autonomy. Bangasamoro Moslems are now responsible for maintaining the peace. This is no small matter because, more than elsewhere in the Philippines, the Moslem south has long had many more clan militias that believed it was their right to engage in private wars. Not all the clans share the official attitudes about who has the right to make war in Bangasamoro. In late 2018 the decades-long state of war against MILF ended and since then MILF has been a lot more useful in eliminating Islamic terror groups.

Bangasamoro governs the four million Moslems in the south. Down there the Moslems are outnumbered by Christians who had moved south during the last half century. Nationwide there are about 11 million Moslems and over 90 million Christians. The Christian Filipinos are better organized, more industrious and economically more successful. The Moslems believe they should run Mindanao even if they are the minority, because Mindanao is the local "Islamic homeland." While some in the government were willing to concede this, the Christian majority in Mindanao and the rest of the Philippines, does not. Because of this groups like BIFF, ISIL and Abu Sayyaf are treated as outlaws in Bangasamoro and have lost support and members since 2014, but remain active, but a lot less active.

Maute Group is similar to BIFF and both joined Abu Sayyaf in forming the Filipino branch of ISIL in 2016. Maute Group was nearly wiped out during the May-October 2017 battle for Marawi City. In December 2017 the army confirmed that all seven Maute brothers died as a result of Marawi. These men were the core leadership and the largest ISIL faction in Marawi City was from the Maute Group who unexpectedly brought in hundreds of their own gunmen who were willing to fight to the death and triggered an existing plan to gather in Marawi City to inspire local Moslems to rise up and drive out Christians. That did just the opposite and resulted in nearly all the thousand or so ISIL gunmen who showed up getting killed. Only about a dozen were willing to surrender and a hundred or so apparently escaped. The thousands of soldiers and police sent in to eliminate the ISIL force suffered 168 dead.

The Maute Group was formed in 2012 by members of the Maute family, which is one of the larger and wealthier clans in the south. The seven Maute brothers got mixed up with clan politics, MILF and eventually ISIL. Because all seven brothers died in Marawi City, the group limped on by recruiting from outside their clan. That has kept the Maute Group going but, like BIFF, both groups have fewer than a hundred active members and Abu Sayyaf has about twice that.

July 26, 2023: In the south (Misamis Oriental province) Dionisio Micabalo, one of the few remaining NPA (New Peoples Army) leaders, was killed when he encountered an army patrol and refused to surrender. Micabalo was also one of the few remaining members of the CPP (Communist Party of the Philippines) Central Committee. The NPA is the armed element of the CPP.

July 10, 2023: The army believes only one of the 89 known units (Fronts) of the NPA (New Peoples Army) is still active with about 1,800 armed members. In 2022 there were still five Fronts active. This Front operates in the central Philippines (Samar Island) and is not expected to last much longer. During the last two years the NPA rapidly fell apart after several senior leaders were killed or captured, some of them with over fifty years NPA experience. Many were found because of tips from local civilians.

Most of the political violence in the Philippines since World War II has come from communists, who were present but not very active before World War II. The communists became a major part of the armed opposition fighting the brutal 1942-45 Japanese occupation. After independence in 1946, leftist rebels continued fighting, trying to establish a communist dictatorship. That proved difficult to do. A major reorganization took place in the 1960s, resulting in the creation of the NPA in 1969. The new communist rebel organization adopted the Chinese Maoist long term strategy. That was not very successful despite lots of economic and social problems they could promise to fix if they were in charge. Enthusiasm for a "communist solution" went sharply downhill after the collapse of the Soviet Union and its East European communist allies between 1989 and 1991. That massive failure of communist states left the NPA much weaker ideologically and vulnerable to subsequent amnesty programs. A decade ago, NPA leaders admitted that they had only a small fraction of their peak (in the 1980s) strength of 26,000 armed members. There were some serious attempts to reverse the decline in popularity. NPA gunmen were instructed to behave better around civilians and the NPA were found giving some civilians, especially health or aid workers, cash compensation of a few hundred dollars each for wounds received during NPA attacks on soldiers or police. The government increased its efforts to provide medical care for such victims of NPA violence, the NPA tried to compete and found they couldnt afford it. Many NPA members arrested recently were wanted for banditry and similar crimes.

Information on the location of NPA camps, weapons storage sites or covert supporters is now regularly obtained from local civilians or surrendering NPA members. Because of that more NPA camps are being attacked, weapons storage sites seized and key supporters arrested or killed, even in traditional strongholds like Bukidnon and Negros Occidental provinces.

July 6, 2023: In the south (Lanao del Sur province) police arrested Acmad Casim. Police had a warrant for the arrest because Casim was one of the few known members of the Maute Group still believed to be active, or at least alive. Maute Group is one of the few ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) Islamic terrorist groups to establish itself, if only briefly, in the Philippines. There have been little heard from the Manute Group in 2023 and the last activity of them occurred in late 2022 when troops encountered and killed eight Maute Group members. One soldier was killed and four wounded. The dead were identified as members of the Maute Group, which preferred to be called DITG (Dawlah Islamiyah Torayfie Group). Members of this group tend to fight to the death if trapped, rather than even consider surrender. Remnants of several ISIL factions have been trying to survive in this area since 2017. The Maute Group appears to be the last of them.
WHEAT RIDGE, CO / ACCESSWIRE / August 4, 2023 / Lifeloc Technologies, Inc. (OTC PINK:LCTC), a global leader in the development and manufacturing of breath alcohol and drug testing devices, has announced financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2023.

Second Quarter Financial Highlights

Lifeloc posted quarterly net revenue of $2.280 million in the second quarter of 2023, resulting in a quarterly net profit of $55 thousand, or $0.02 per diluted share. These results compare to net revenue of $2.180 million and quarterly net loss of $(202) thousand, or $(0.08) per diluted share in the second quarter of 2022. Revenue for the quarter increased 5% versus the second quarter last year, as demand continued to recover from the impact of the COVID-19 global pandemic and the government ordered shutdowns. Six-month net revenues of $4.445 million and a net profit of $1 thousand, or $0.00 per diluted share, compared to net revenue of $4.341 million and a net loss of $(346) thousand, or $(0.14) per diluted share, for the same six months of 2022. Total gross margin in the second quarter improved to 45.7% versus 30.4% for the same quarter last year. For the first six months of 2023 gross margin was 44.5% versus 34.7% for the same period last year.

Margin improvement was the biggest difference over last year, resulting from a combination of price increases, lower depreciation, and reduced inefficiencies because of fewer supply constraints this year. The margin improvement along with a small sales increase was sufficient to offset the rising research and development investment for SpinDx and still result in a profitable second quarter and a breakeven first half of the year 2023.

We believe our product line-up is strong. The new platforms LX9 and LT7 have features and performance that have driven market penetration by meeting previously unaddressable market needs, such as wider temperature ranges and fast customization that incorporates local languages. We expect that most L-series sales will be incremental to FC-series devices rather than displacing FC sales. The L-series devices have been certified to meet the requirements of most modern registration standards, such as SAI's (Standards Australia International) latest AS 3547:2019 standards for Breath Alcohol Detectors. Our FC-series devices remain favored in many law enforcement and international organizations. The workplace Phoenix 6.0 BT and EV30 models have been gaining market share. And our Easycal automated calibration station builds important protection around our brand with the only automated calibration available for portable breath alcohol testers.

We believe our most important goal and best opportunity remains the convergence of the global need for rapid detection of drugs of abuse with Lifeloc's proven capability to build easy-to-use portable testing equipment. We are focusing our research and development efforts on leveraging the SpinDx" technology platform, sometimes referred to as "Lab on a Disk," to develop a series of devices and tests that can be used at roadside and in emergency rooms, forensic labs and workplace testing to get a rapid and quantitative measure for a panel of drugs of abuse, beginning with a device that allows for detection of delta-9-THC (the major intoxicating component of the cannabis plant) from a test subject's saliva. Testing has commenced to validate the SpinDx technology against the definitive standard liquid chromatography-mass spectroscopy (LCMS) measurement utilizing human samples. The LCMS data are validating the SpinDx test results on real-world human saliva tests at a limit of detection of approximately 10 ng/ml. With our research and development work, we continue to improve our technology's robustness and convenience of operation. The release of our SpinDx saliva testing system for beta testing is expected this year and is projected to result in commercialization in 2024. We expect to accelerate development on combining our LX9 breathalyzer with the THC SpinDx detection unit, to produce our roadside marijuana breathalyzer system.

"In the second quarter we experienced a loosening of supply chain constraints as well as healthy demand. As a result, a portion of our production backlog was satisfied this quarter with some carryover into the third quarter. We are optimistic that supply will no longer be a significant constraint to our normal order flow," commented Dr. Wayne Willkomm, President and CEO. "Keeping product flowing is critical to funding our biggest opportunity, which is pushing the SpinDx product platform across the finish line to commercialization. We anticipate that our research and development expenses will continue to rise in this final push.

Charles Gonzales, Research and Development Manager, added, "We have moved into the next critical phase of the SpinDx product development cycle, now developing our custom microfluidic disk with the first targeted drug being cannabis. We have also added tests for cocaine and amphetamines and have initiated work to detect fentanyl for our subsequent drug panel. The project is maintaining good momentum. We continue with validation testing utilizing actual human samples obtained through the Colorado School of Public Health at the University of Colorado Anschutz, with results to date confirming SpinDx performance."

About Lifeloc Technologies

Lifeloc Technologies, Inc. (OTC PINK:LCTC) is a trusted U.S. manufacturer of evidential breath alcohol testers and related training and supplies for Workplace, Law Enforcement, Corrections and International customers. Lifeloc stock trades over-the-counter under the symbol LCTC. We are a fully reporting Company with our SEC filings available on our web site, www.lifeloc.com/investor.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which involve substantial risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by the forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements expressed or implied in this press release, including statements about our strategies, performance, expectations about new and existing products, market demand, economic conditions, acceptance of new and existing products, technologies and opportunities, market size and growth, and return on investments in products and market, are based on information available to us on the date of this document, and we assume no obligation to update such forward-looking statements. Investors are strongly encouraged to review the section titled "Risk Factors" in our SEC filings.

Phoenix and Easycal are registered trademarks of Lifeloc Technologies, Inc.

SpinDx" is a trademark of Sandia Corporation.

Amy Evans

Lifeloc Technologies, Inc.

http://www.lifeloc.com

(303) 431-9500

LIFELOC TECHNOLOGIES, INC.

Condensed Balance Sheets

ASSETS

CURRENT ASSETS: June 30, 2023 (Unaudited) December 31, 2022 Cash $ 1,913,499 $ 2,352,754 Accounts receivable, net 762,670 627,919 Inventories, net 2,904,064 2,732,463 Employee retention credit receivable - 107,575 Prepaid expenses and other 207,778 58,203 Total current assets 5,788,011 5,878,914 PROPERTY AND EQUIPMENT, at cost: Land 317,932 317,932 Building 1,928,795 1,928,795 Real-time Alcohol Detection And Recognition equipment and software 569,448 569,448 Production equipment, software and space modifications 1,162,803 1,147,992 Training courses 432,375 432,375 Office equipment, software and space modifications 216,618 216,618 Sales and marketing equipment and space modifications 226,356 226,356 Research and development equipment, software and space modifications 480,684 480,684 Less accumulated depreciation (3,199,561) (3,072,961) Total property and equipment, net 2,135,450 2,247,239 OTHER ASSETS: Patents, net 67,747 69,679 Deposits and other 500 500 Deferred taxes 320,376 321,429 Total other assets 388,623 391,608 Total assets $ 8,312,084 $ 8,517,761 LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY CURRENT LIABILITIES: Accounts payable $ 329,839 $ 413,957 Term loan payable, current portion 50,652 50,028 Customer deposits 174,967 201,031 Accrued expenses 290,942 344,944 Deferred revenue, current portion 63,676 80,222 Reserve for warranty expense 46,500 46,500 Total current liabilities 956,576 1,136,682 TERM LOAN PAYABLE, net of current portion and debt issuance costs 1,195,158 1,219,677 DEFERRED REVENUE, net of current portion 3,782 6,191 Total liabilities 2,155,516 2,362,550 COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY: Common stock, no par value; 50,000,000 shares authorized, 2,454,116 shares outstanding 4,668,014 4,668,014 Retained earnings 1,488,554 1,487,197 Total stockholders' equity 6,156,568 6,155,211 Total liabilities and stockholders' equity $ 8,312,084 $ 8,517,761

LIFELOC TECHNOLOGIES, INC.

Condensed Statements of Income (Unaudited)

Three Months Ended June 30, REVENUES: 2023 2022 Product sales $ 2,246,407 $ 2,144,813 Royalties 10,150 12,572 Rental income 23,789 22,639 Total 2,280,346 2,180,024 COST OF SALES 1,237,902 1,516,389 GROSS PROFIT 1,042,444 663,635 OPERATING EXPENSES: Research and development 395,781 352,910 Sales and marketing 300,075 276,669 General and administrative 284,116 293,421 Total 979,972 923,000 OPERATING INCOME (LOSS) 62,472 (259,365) OTHER INCOME (EXPENSE): Interest income 19,200 1,190 Interest expense (10,290) (10,817) Total 8,910 (9,627) NET INCOME (LOSS) BEFORE PROVISION FOR TAXES 71,382 (268,992 BENEFIT FROM (PROVISION FOR) FEDERAL AND STATE INCOME TAXES (16,237) 67,462 NET INCOME (LOSS) $ 55,145 $ (201,530) NET INCOME (LOSS) PER SHARE, BASIC $ 0.02 $ (0.08) NET INCOME (LOSS) PER SHARE, DILUTED $ 0.02 $ (0.08) WEIGHTED AVERAGE SHARES, BASIC 2,454,116 2,454,116 WEIGHTED AVERAGE SHARES, DILUTED 2,454,116 2,454,116

LIFELOC TECHNOLOGIES, INC.

Condensed Statements of Income (Unaudited)

Six Months Ended June 30, REVENUES: 2023 2022 Product sales $ 4,379,766 $ 4,256,570 Royalties 18,356 39,212 Rental income 46,778 44,878 Total 4,444,900 4,340,660 COST OF SALES 2,467,029 2,835,136 GROSS PROFIT 1,977,871 1,505,524 OPERATING EXPENSES: Research and development 792,547 742,934 Sales and marketing 587,958 553,306 General and administrative 603,131 646,254 Total 1,983,636 1,942,494 OPERATING INCOME (LOSS) (5,765) (436,970) OTHER INCOME (EXPENSE): Interest income 29,000 1,622 Interest expense (20,825) (21,727) Total 8,175 (20,105) NET INCOME (LOSS) BEFORE PROVISION FOR TAXES 2,410 (457,075) BENEFIT FROM (PROVISION FOR) FEDERAL AND STATE INCOME TAXES (1,053) 111,037 NET INCOME (LOSS) $ 1,357 $ (346,038) NET INCOME (LOSS) PER SHARE, BASIC $ - $ (0.14) NET INCOME (LOSS) PER SHARE, DILUTED $ - $ (0.14) WEIGHTED AVERAGE SHARES, BASIC 2,454,116 2,454,116 WEIGHTED AVERAGE SHARES, DILUTED 2,454,116 2,454,116

Lifeloc Technologies, Inc.

Condensed Statements of Stockholders' Equity (Unaudited)

Three Months Ended June 30, Six Months Ended June 30, 2023 2022 2023 2022 Total stockholders' equity, beginning balances $ 6,101,423 $ 6,466,460 $ 6,155,211 $ 6,593,766 Common stock (no shares issued during periods): Beginning balances 4,668,014 4,668,014 4,668,014 4,650,812 Stock based compensation expense related to stock options - - - 17,202 Ending balances 4,668,014 4,668,014 4,668,014 4,668,014 Retained earnings: Beginning balances 1,433,409 1,798,446 1,487,197 1,942,954 Net income (loss) 55,145 (201,530) 1,357 (346,038) Ending balances 1,488,554 1,596,916 1,488,554 1,596,916 Total stockholders' equity, ending balances $ 6,156,568 $ 6,264,930 $ 6,156,568 $ 6,264,930

LIFELOC TECHNOLOGIES, INC.

Condensed Statements of Cash Flows

Six Months Ended June 30, CASH FLOWS FROM OPERATING ACTIVITIES: 2023 2022 Net income (loss) $ 1,357 $ (346,038) Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash provided from (used in) operating activities- Depreciation and amortization 132,088 267,455 Provision for inventory obsolescence, net change - 94,578 Deferred taxes, net change 1,053 (111,037) Stock based compensation expense related to stock options - 17,202 Changes in operating assets and liabilities- Accounts receivable (134,751) (173,583) Inventories (171,601) 273,224 Employee retention credit and income taxes receivable 107,575 - Prepaid expenses and other (149,575) (67,884) Accounts payable (84,118) (146,322) Customer deposits (26,064) 276 Accrued expenses (54,002) (58,337) Deferred revenue (18,955) (3,990) Net cash (used in) operating activities (396,993) (254,456) CASH FLOWS FROM (USED IN) INVESTING ACTIVITIES: Purchases of property and equipment (14,811) (40,753) Patent filing expense (1,404) - Net cash (used in) investing activities (16,215) (40,753) CASH FLOWS FROM (USED IN) FINANCING ACTIVITIES: Principal payments made on term loan (26,047) (25,144) Net cash (used in) financing activities (26,047) (25,144) NET INCREASE (DECREASE) IN CASH (439,255) (320,353) CASH, BEGINNING OF PERIOD 2,352,754 2,571,668 CASH, END OF PERIOD $ 1,913,499 $ 2,251,315 SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION: Cash paid for interest $ 18,673 $ 19,575

SOURCE: Lifeloc Technologies, Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:
ABU DHABI, UAE / ACCESSWIRE / August 4, 2023 / LumiShare, a pioneering entity in the blockchain-driven financial world, is excited to announce the imminent listing of its revolutionary $LUMI token on multiple exchanges on August 8th, 2023, 4PM UTC. This pivotal event signifies a grand stride in overhauling the trillion-dollar renewable energy market, echoing the industry-wide shift towards blockchain-powered economies.

The Green Future Beckons: Tokenizing Renewable Energy Assets

LumiShare's primary mission is to transfigure the renewable energy industry, deploying tokenization and fractionalization of real-world assets. Anchored by three uncorrelated assets - Gold, Cash, and Technology, $LUMI stands as a bedrock for credible and sustainable investments within the renewable energy space. By fuelling verifiable renewable energy initiatives with increased accessibility to funding from both individual and institutional investors, LumiShare is propelling the global shift towards clean, green energy.

Innovating the Landscape with Real-World Applications

LumiShare, in its endeavor to metamorphose the renewable energy sector, has surpassed several notable milestones. Among these accomplishments are the inception of a state-of-the-art Cold Staking solution, successful deployment of the MVP assets-backed NFT Marketplace - LumiPlace, and an exponential expansion of its ambassador program boasting 170+ passionate representatives across 40 countries globally.

A Visionary Team Guiding the Path

Behind LumiShare's remarkable journey is an elite cadre of professionals and advisors from fintech, blockchain, banking, and renewable energy sectors. This includes stalwarts from BlackRock, Polygon, OpenSea, J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, along with the backing of the Private Office of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed Bin Ahmed Bin Hamdan Al Nahyan, a member of the Royal Family of Abu Dhabi. This collaboration has birthed pivotal alliances, including Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) signed with four renewable energy companies, marking their debut as creators on the platform.

Charting the Course Forward

The tokenization of renewable energy assets unfurls a trillion-dollar opportunity for sustainable progression. As an aim of being at the forefront of this transformative movement, LumiShare, with the support of a visionary team and a committed community, endeavors to pave the way for a sustainable future.

Driving Impact: The DAO Donation Plan

In addition to revolutionizing the renewable energy sector, LumiShare is also committed to making a broader environmental and sustainable impact through the DAO Donation Plan. This innovative approach reserves 4% of the total $LUMI token supply to kick-start 15 transformational projects, notably focusing on environmental and sustainability initiatives. The $LUMI community, in conjunction with the DAO, will democratically select the top eight initiatives for implementation. This strategy not only bolsters the donation fund but also actively involves the community in creating sustainable changes and fostering a greener future.

About LumiShare

LumiShare is a next-generation blockchain ecosystem dedicated to tokenizing and fractionalizing real-world assets, with an initial focus on renewable energy assets. The financial instruments are powered by $LUMI, a unique digital asset underpinned by uncorrelated assets - Gold, Cash, and Technology. The $LUMI token is NOT a stable coin.

It is a unique token with limited downside and unlimited upside and its floor price will always be correlated with its all-time high market cap value. On every new all-time high market cap record, LumiShare will increase the Gold and Cash reserves, and the floor price will be increased accordingly. The primary utilization of $LUMI tokens is to invest on LumiPlace and receive yields from renewable energy asset investments through our platform.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Lumishare_Lumi

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lumishare_lumi/

Media Contact

Organization: LumiShare

Contact Person: Ben Sharon

Website: https://lumishare.io/

Email: [email protected]

City: Abu Dhabi

Country: United Arab Emirates

SOURCE: LumiShare

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KYODO NEWS - Aug 4, 2023 - 23:33 | Japan, All

Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Masatoshi Akimoto is under fire for allegedly accepting bribes from a wind power company, prompting Tokyo prosecutors on Friday to search his offices and leading him to resign as parliamentary vice foreign minister.

The prosecutors suspect questions raised by Akimoto during Diet questioning in connection to a bid on an offshore wind power project involving Tokyo-based Japan Wind Development Co. may be linked to the tens of millions of yen he allegedly received as bribes.

Akimoto's resignation from the governmental post may deal another blow to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, as approval ratings for his Cabinet have recently dipped due largely to issues surrounding the trouble-plagued national identification card system.

Akimoto, 47, has also resolved to resign from the LDP over the scandal, sources familiar with the matter said.

The prosecutors searched the offices and home of Akimoto, a prominent advocate for renewable energy within the LDP, over the bribery allegations. They have also questioned the president of the company over the bribe allegation, the sources said.

During a session of the House of Representatives in February 2019, Akimoto expressed hope for offshore wind power development in a sea area off Aomori Prefecture and asked that there be no excessive and unnecessary restrictions on such facilities.

Japan Wind Development was bidding for a location in Aomori.

"It is completely untrue that our company paid bribes to a lawmaker or to any public servant. There is objective evidence to prove this point," the firm said in a statement.

A lawyer for the company's president denied the allegations, telling reporters Friday that the money was for a racehorse owners' group set up around the fall of 2021 and "was not provided to Mr. Akimoto."

"A lump sum was given sometime last year," the lawyer said, adding it was used to purchase horses and that the president and Akimoto are "acquainted through racehorse breeding."

According to the lawyer, the prosecutors suspect a payoff of possibly around 30 million yen, but that amount is actually the share given by Akimoto and others to the racehorse owners' group.

"The incident has raised concerns among the people, which is extremely regrettable," Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said during a press conference.

The Foreign Ministry said in a press release that Akimoto had made a "request" to resign as parliamentary vice foreign minister. However, it did not provide a specific reason.

Government sources said the lawmaker informed Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno on a phone call that he would be quitting as vice foreign minister due to "personal reasons."

His offices in Tokyo and Chiba Prefecture, which is his electoral base, as well as his home in the city of Chiba, were searched.

Akimoto did not respond to questions from reporters at Haneda airport in Tokyo on Thursday when he returned from an overseas trip.

For around a year through October 2018, Akimoto served as parliamentary vice minister at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.

During his stint, he pushed for legislation setting uniform rules for offshore renewable energy development in a bid to promote wind power. The legislation was enacted in November 2018.

In June that year, he told a lower house committee on land, infrastructure, transport and tourism that "operators' expectations for the legislation are high."

Based on the legislation, the government designated three marine zones in Akita and Chiba prefectures for electricity generation for up to 30 years. The first round of bidding for development rights, held in December 2021, was won by a consortium led by major trading house Mitsubishi Corp.

Japan Wind Development sought to join that development project, sources close to the matter said.

Established in 1999, Japan Wind Development has developed 293 turbines within and outside Japan with a combined output of over 570 megawatts, according to its website.

Related coverage:

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4 Japan utility groups slapped with business improvement order

Ex-chairman of suit retailer convicted for Tokyo Olympics bribery
NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / August 4, 2023 / This spring, the KFC Foundation awarded $2.5 million in scholarships to over 500 restaurant employees. Eleven exceptional individuals were selected to receive $20,000 toward pursuing their educational dreams. Read about their stories of resilience and determination.

Haili Austin

Cadillac, MI

Franchisee: Bells & Birds

Haili is a first-generation college student pursuing a bachelor's in accounting at the University of Phoenix. After becoming a mother, she made the courageous decision to go back to college in 2020 to secure a better future for her family. In 2023, she began working part-time at KFC as a team member to help alleviate the financial burdens of securing her degree. After completing her degree, Haili plans to become a certified public accountant and fulfill her dream of assisting others in attaining financial stability.

Mara Heino

Marquette, MI

Franchisee: Roubekas Enterprises

Mara is a three-time scholarship recipient pursuing an associate's in radiology at Northern Michigan University. She began her journey with KFC on her sixteenth birthday as a team member and in the four years since has risen to the role of shift supervisor. Outside of work and school, Mara serves as vice president with her local 4-H and is passionate about teaching the younger generation how to raise and show livestock correctly. After graduation, Mara is excited to start her career as an x-ray technician and hopes to continue her education to become a computed tomography or interventional radiology technician.

Trinity Jenson

Lebanon, OR

Franchisee: The Chick, Inc.

Trinity is a senior double majoring in accounting and business information systems at Oregon State University. She has been working at KFC since her sophomore year of high school and was a scholarship recipient last year. Trinity's decision to major in accounting was inspired by her promotion to assistant manager, where she discovered her passion for money management. After graduation, Trinity plans to work as an accounting manager and teach accounting courses at a high school or university.

Marleesa May

West Hartford, CT

Franchisee: D.E. Foods

Marleesa is a freshman pursuing a bachelor's in psychology at Johnson & Wales University. She started working at KFC as a team member in 2022 to help pay for college expenses and just a few months later experienced a devasting house fire, forcing her to use those savings to help her family recover. However, she didn't let this experience define her future and still enrolled for college in the fall as previously planned. Marleesa is passionate about mental health and the psychological aspect of it and plans to use her future degree to help support and motivate others in securing their dreams.

Wilfred Nazario

Chicopee, MA

Franchisee: Houston Enterprises

Wilfred is a first-generation college student who will start his journey at Elms College to pursue a bachelor's in nursing this fall. He started working at KFC as a team member in 2021 to help support his mother and younger brother after they immigrated to the mainland from Puerto Rico. He looks forward to helping others in the future as a nurse.

Brandon Partida

Sun City, AZ

Franchisee: PAK Foods

Brandon is a first-generation college student who will start his journey at Arizona State University to pursue a bachelor's in business management this fall. He started working with KFC as a team member in 2022 determined to save for college. With his education, Brandon hopes to become a successful entrepreneur who positively impacts the Mexican American community through his business ventures.

Esha Patel

White House, TN

Franchisee: AJS

Esha is a first-generation college student who will start her journey at the University of California, Irvine to pursue a bachelor's in biology. She started working at KFC in 2022 as a team member to finance her dream of becoming a medical doctor. Esha hopes to use her future degree to inspire other minority girls and serve as a role model for those who dare to dream big.

Kaden Thomas

Alma, AR

Franchisee: KBP Foods

Kaden is a first-generation college student who will start his journey at the University of the Ozarks to pursue a bachelor's in theatre. He started working with KFC as a team member in 2022 before his senior year of high school and plans to continue working part-time at a local KFC after moving into the dorms. Kaden has been a passionate theatre enthusiast his entire life and his dream is to become a successful actor.

Jaden Thompson

Cincinnati, OH

Franchisee: KBP Foods

Jaden is three-time scholarship recipient pursuing a bachelor's in music therapy at Baldwin Wallace University. They began their journey with KFC as a team member during high school and return each year during holiday breaks, excited to see the growth of the rest of their team. Jaden is a first-generation college student and looks forward to fulfilling their dream of becoming a music therapist and aiding those in need.

Paige Trosper

Demotte, IN

Franchisee: Second Gen, Inc.

Paige is a four-time scholarship recipient pursuing a bachelor's in education from Valparaiso University. She began working at KFC in 2018 as a team member and in the five years since has risen to the role of shift supervisor. Growing up with a tough economic status, Paige plans to use her personal experiences to help her future students see that they still have a future, despite their financial situation. After graduating, Paige hopes to inspire and mentor future generations by teaching at a small-town school.

Valerie Vazquez

Perris, CA

Franchisee: RBD

Valerie is a freshman double majoring in education and liberal studies at the University of California, Riverside. She began working at KFC in 2022 as a team member and was quickly promoted to shift supervisor. After graduation, Valerie plans to attend graduate school before becoming an elementary school teacher and working hard to improve the education system by advocating for mental health awareness.

Mara Heino and KFC team members from Marquette, MI celebrating her scholarship award.

View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from Yum! Brands on 3blmedia.com.

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Spokesperson: Yum! Brands

Website: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/yum-brands

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MAPLE LEAF SHORT DURATION 2022-II FLOW-THROUGH LIMITED PARTNERSHIP NATIONAL CLASS & QUEBEC CLASS

Notice of Rollover Transaction

VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / August 4, 2023 / This notice is being sent to advise that Maple Leaf Short Duration 2022-II Flow-Through Limited Partnership - National Class (CUSIP Class A - 56532T105, CUSIP Class F - 56532T204) and Quebec Class (CUSIP Class A - 56532T303, Class F- 56532T402) (the "Partnership") will be proceeding with a transaction (the "Liquidity Transaction") pursuant to which the assets of the Partnership (the "Assets") will be transferred on a tax-deferred basis to the Maple Leaf Resource Class (the "Resource Class Mutual Fund"), a class of shares of Maple Leaf Corporate Funds Ltd., an open-ended mutual fund corporation, in exchange for Series A or Series F shares of the MutualFund.

Additional information about the Resource Class Mutual Fund is available in their simplified prospectus and annual information form. These documents are available at www.sedar.com and www.mapleleaffunds.ca.

How the Rollover Will Work:

Pursuant to the Liquidity Transaction, Limited Partners of the Partnership ("Investors") will receive shares of the Resource Class Mutual Fund in connection with the dissolution of the Partnership. The effective date of the Liquidity Transaction (the "Effective Date") is expected to be on or about Wednesday, October 4th, 2023. Shortly after the Effective Date, the shares of the Resource Class Mutual Fund will be distributed on a pro rata basis to investors and thereafter the Partnership will be dissolved.

Investors will receive the Resource Class Mutual Fund shares in exchange for, and with a value equal to, the value of the units of the Partnership held at the time of such transfer of Assets. When the shares of the Resource Class Mutual Fund are received, the Partnership units will be removed from each Investors account. Processing may take 5 to 7 business days (in some cases longer) to complete, after the rolloveroccurs.

The Partnership will issue a press release once the Liquidity Transaction has been completed and the conversion ratio has been determined.

The ACB (adjusted cost base) for each unit of the Partnership and each share of the Resource Class Mutual Fund will be determined by the General Partner upon the wind-up of the Partnership's affairs. The Partnership will dissolve within 60 days of the Effective Date. The General Partner will post these details on its website at www.mapleleaffunds.ca.

Investors should consult with their investment advisor and/or tax advisor for all tax-related matters.

Simplified Example:

An Investor holds 100 Partnership units with a final Net Asset Value of $20.00 at the time of rollover and the net asset value per share of the Resource Class Mutual Fund is $5.00 on the same date. Based on these net asset values, the conversion ratio will be

4.0 (4.0 = $20.00 / $5.00). The Investor's 100 units, valued at $2,000, are removed from the Investor's account and 400 shares (400 = 100 x 4.0) of the Resource Class Mutual Fund, valued at $2,000, are added to the Investor's account.

Processing can be delayed after the rollover occurs, therefore transactions such as switches or redemptions may not be processed until the Resource Class Mutual Fund shares have been credited to client accounts.

Neither the Partnership nor the Resource Class Mutual Fund will accept any liability for transactions executed prior to dealer records being updated.

Specific Information about the Mutual Fund:

Organization and Management of the Mutual Fund Manager: CADO Investment Fund Management Inc. 609 Granville Street, Suite 808 Vancouver, British Columbia V7Y 1G5 Tel: 604-684-5742 Fax: 604-684-5748 Toll free: 1-866-688-5750 Email: [email protected] CADO Investment Fund Management Inc.is the manager of the Mutual Fund and is responsible for managing the overall business and operations of the Mutual Fund. Portfolio Advisor: Backer Wealth Management Inc. ("Backer") Toronto, Ontario Backer is responsible for managing the investment portfolio of the Funds. Custodian: RBC Investor & Treasury Services Toronto, Ontario The custodian has physical custody of the Mutual Fund's property. Administrator: The IAS Investment Administration Solution Inc. ("IAS") Toronto, Ontario The administrator keeps track of the owners of shares of the Mutual Fund and processes purchases. Auditor: KPMG LLP Vancouver, British Columbia The auditors are responsible for auditing the annual financial statements of the Mutual Fund. The auditors of the Mutual Fund may not be changed unless the independent review committee of the Mutual Fund has approved the change and a written notice describing the change is sent to unit holders at least 60 days before the effective date of the change. Independent Review Committee (the "IRC") Canadian securities legislation requires the Mutual Fund to have an IRC. The IRC is composed of three members, each of whom is independent of us. The mandate of the IRC is to review, and provide input on, our written policies and procedures that deal with conflict of interest matters in respect of the Mutual Fund and to give their recommendation regarding and, in some cases, approve, conflict of interest matters identified and referred to the IRC by us. The IRC will prepare, at least annually, a report of its activities for investors. This report will be available at our website at www.mapleleaffunds.ca or you may request a copy, at no cost to you, by contacting us at [email protected]. Additional information about the IRC, including the names of the members, is available in the Mutual Fund's Annual Information Form.

Portfolio Advisor:

Backer Wealth Manager Inc. ("Backer") will be responsible for the Mutual Fund's investment activities. Mr. Craig Porter, President of Backer, will act as Portfolio Manager on behalf of Backer. Mr. Porter has over 30 years of experience investing in the Canadian capital markets and was a Senior Portfolio Manager at Front Street Capital 2005 to 2017. Prior to that, he rose from his role as an equity analyst to portfolio manager at Altamira Management Ltd. and its successor Natcan Investment Management Inc. from 1992 to 2005.

During his tenure at Altamira, the firm was awarded the Precious Metals Equity Fund of the Year award at the Morningstar Canadian Investment Awards.

As lead or co-manager while working at Front Street Capital, Mr. Porter managed or co-managed over $900 million in flow-through limited partnerships, and in addition he managed the firm's resource equity and resource income mutual funds.

Additional Information:

Additional information about the Mutual Fund will be available in the Mutual Fund's simplified prospectus, annual information form, management reports of fund performance and financial statements. You can obtain a copy of these documents at your request and at no cost by contacting Maple Leaf Funds toll free at 1-866-688-5750, by e-mailing [email protected], by download from www.mapleleaffunds.ca or from your financial advisor.

Other information about the Mutual Fund, is available at SEDAR (the System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval established by the Canadian Securities Administrators) at www.sedar.com.

For further information or assistance with respect to the Mutual Fund or the Limited Partnership, please contact:

CADO Investment Fund Management Inc.

609 Granville Street, Suite 808, Vancouver, BC V7Y 1G5

Tel: 604-684-5742 | Toll Free: 866-688-5750 | Fax: 604-684-5748

Email: [email protected]| Web: www.mapleaffunds.ca

SOURCE: Maple Leaf Short Duration 2022-II Flow-Through Limited Partnership

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NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / August 4, 2023 / VMware



We often hear big promises from companies hoping to make a splash into sustainability. And while they're probably well-meaning, they quickly discover that promises are easy to make and much harder to keep. The proof is in the pudding, show me the receipts, pics or it didn't happen, and put up or shut up. These expressions all convey the same message: "Prove what you're telling me actually occurred."

So when VMware launched our 2030 Agenda in 2020, we committed to sharing progress towards our goals. Every year, we showcase our impact, partner, and customer stories, detailed information about our latest sustainability innovations, and of course, ESG data so our stakeholders can hold us accountable.

I recently wrote about the novel placement of our ESG Team inside of the Office of the CTO and how that positioning helped give our outcome-driven ESG strategy the fuel needed to influence the entire enterprise, driving what we call "Smart Impact" to deliver the most significant results for ourselves and our stakeholders. This is the time of year when that impact is on full display as we continue reporting on our 2030 Agenda progress, sharing meaningful ESG impact - and I couldn't be more excited about what we've accomplished.

Last week, VMware's Chief Sustainability Officer, Nicola Acutt, announced the publication of our 2023 ESG Report. I certainly encourage you to review the full report, but let me give you a quick TL;DR of our impact over the last year:

Launched the Green Score feature in VMware Aria Operations Cloud, which provides recommendations for customers to further optimize energy and carbon in their cloud environments

Expanded the VMware Zero Carbon Committed initiative by adding 24 VMware Cloud Services Provider" partners committed to renewable energy, reaching a total of more than 50 partners

Improved diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) representation with 33 percent of global hires self-identifying as a woman, and 16 percent of U.S. hires self-identifying as an underrepresented minority

Enhanced VMware Anywhere Workspace solutions with VMware Workspace ONE Mobile Threat Defense" to provide customers with added security for their distributed workforce

Achieved a 100 percent malware protection score with VMware Carbon Black Cloud Endpoint" Standard in an independent cybersecurity test by AV-Comparatives

These five bullet points, though impressive, are just the tip of the iceberg. We know that more work lies ahead, and our dedication to transparency and accountability is unwavering. Every year, VMware continues to prove that our ESG goals are not just empty words but a driving force behind actions and innovations.

So, for those seeking proof of a company's commitment to ESG, here are "the receipts." VMware's 2023 ESG Report is a great example of what it looks like when you combine purpose, promise, and innovation, producing tangible and impactful results. And as we traverse a path in ESG innovation, we invite customers, partners, and all stakeholders to join us on a journey toward a more sustainable, equitable, and secure future. Please share your ideas and thoughts below.

Best,

Kit

Click here to view the original content

View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from VMware on 3blmedia.com.

Contact Info:

Spokesperson: VMware

Website: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/vmware

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE: VMware

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VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / August 4, 2023 / Rock Edge Resources Ltd. (the "Company" or "Rock Edge") (CSE:REDG) is pleased to announce Medaro Mining Corp. has contracted Ombabika Group Inc. (100% First Nations owned) to drill 4 holes along strike of Dyke #1 (discovery outcrop) at Superb Lake Property, situated in northwestern Ontario, where Rock Edge has an option to earn a 70% interest in the Superb Lake lithium project from Medaro Mining Corp. (see PR dated Nov. 29, 2022).

The company plans to test the orientation and thickness of Dyke #1. Due to slight alteration and deformation of the dyke, seen in the 2022 exploration program, it is difficult to estimate the true strike and dip on the surface. The 4 holes will provide the company with enough detail to develop a 3D orientation of the dyke and any parallel zones. This will be used to develop a full-scale drill program and provide compliant intersections of lithium mineralization, capturing both contacts, which was not achieved in 2022. Due to permitting constraints, the contractor is using a lightweight ATV portable JKS-15 drill to produce IAW size core 26mm. The drill size and core size has allowed the company to conduct exploration and the first-ever drill holes targeting lithium on the project, which has seen diamond drilling for gold, copper, and zinc since 1959.

The Superb Lake Property encompasses approximately 2,378 hectares in the O' Sullivan Lake / Maun Lake Area of the Thunder Bay Mining District of Northwestern Ontario, Canada. Geologically, the property is situated in the eastern part of Wabigoon Subprovince of the Superior Geological Province. The Superb Lake area has historical exploration carried out since the 1950s with the discovery of lithium along the shores of Superb Lake. The discovery outcrop is reported to have a minimum outcrop exposed length of 16 m, while its exposed width varies from 2.5 m to a maximum of 3.7 m. In 2020, four samples collected from a spodumene rich part of the dyke returned 1.77 % to 4.03% Li2O.

About Rock Edge Resources Ltd.

Rock Edge Resources Ltd. is focused on acquiring and exploring mineral property assets, with a specific emphasis on the Northwestern Ontario Lithium belt and the province of Quebec. Its objective is to locate, develop and bring to market economically viable properties that contain critical minerals, base metals and precious metals. With the support of the Ontario government's Critical Minerals Strategy, Rock Edge is poised to take advantage of the growing demand for these essential minerals and contribute to the region's economic growth.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

Charles Desjardins

Chief Executive Officer and Director

Phone #604-808-3156

Email: [email protected]

The Canadian Securities Exchange has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release and accepts no responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy hereof.

Forward Looking Statements

This news release contains "forward-looking statements" and "forward looking information" (as defined under applicable securities laws), based on management's best estimates, assumptions, and current expectations. Such statements include but are not limited to, statements with respect to the plans for future exploration and development of the Company's properties and the acquisition of additional exploration projects. Generally, these forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "expects", "expected", "budgeted", "forecasts", "anticipates" "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "aims", "potential", "goal", "objective", "prospective", and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "can", "could" or "should" occur. 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 expressed or implied by such statements, including but not limited to: risks related to the receipt of all necessary regulatory and third party approvals for the proposed operations of the Company's business and exploration activities, risks related to the Company's exploration properties; risks related to international operations; risks related to general economic conditions, actual results of current exploration activities, unanticipated reclamation expenses; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined; fluctuations in prices of commodities including lithium and gold; fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates, increases in market prices of mining consumables, possible variations in reserves; failure of plant, equipment or processes to operate as anticipated; accidents, labour disputes, title disputes, claims and limitations on insurance coverage and other risks of the mining industry; delays in the completion of exploration, development or construction activities, changes in national and local government regulation of mining operations, tax rules and regulations, and political and economic developments in jurisdictions in which the Company operates. . Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. 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. The forward-looking statements and forward-looking information are made as of the date hereof and are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. The Company disclaims any obligation to revise or update any such factors or to publicly announce the result of any revisions to any forward-looking statements or forward-looking information contained herein to reflect future results, events or developments, except as require by law. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and information. Please refer to the Company's most recent filings under its profile at www.sedar.com for further information respecting the risks affecting the Company and its business.

SOURCE: Rock Edge Resources Ltd.

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LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- AM Best has affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of B+ (Good) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of bbb- (Good) of Dunav-Re a.d.o. (Dunav-Re) (Serbia). The outlook of these Credit Ratings (ratings) is positive.

The ratings reflect Dunav-Res balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as strong, as well as its adequate operating performance, limited business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management. In addition, the ratings reflect a neutral impact from Dunav Res ownership by Dunav osiguranje a.d.o. (Dunav Insurance).

Dunav-Res risk-adjusted capitalisation remains at the strongest level, as measured by Bests Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR). AM Best expects future business growth to be supported by internal capital generation and financial support from the companys parent. Dunav-Re is somewhat dependent on retrocession to manage domestically sourced business; however, the credit risk associated with this is mitigated partially by the excellent credit quality of the companys retrocession panel. Offsetting factors in the balance sheet strength assessment include the companys high exposure to Serbias financial system and its small capital base.

Dunav-Re has a track record of favourable underwriting performance, with a five-year (2018-2022) weighted average combined ratio of 80.8%. However, the companys business written outside of Serbia has grown rapidly in recent years. Although initial indications suggest that this new business is performing well, the sustainability of its performance will not be clear for some time. In addition, Dunav-Res technical results remain susceptible to potential volatility due to its exposure to catastrophe events. Overall profitability is supported by positive investment results. The positive outlooks reflect AM Bests expectation that the company will continue to demonstrate a trend of favourable underwriting and operating performance over the medium term.

Dunav-Re is a multiline reinsurer operating from within Serbia. It has a dominant position in its local market, where it generates the majority of its business, with Dunav Insurance being its largest cedant. The company is active outside of its domestic market and expects internationally sourced business to be the primary driver of premium growth in the medium term.

This press release relates to Credit Ratings that have been published on AM Bests website. For all rating information relating to the release and pertinent disclosures, including details of the office responsible for issuing each of the individual ratings referenced in this release, please see AM Bests Recent Rating Activity web page. For additional information regarding the use and limitations of Credit Rating opinions, please view Guide to Bests Credit Ratings. For information on the proper use of Bests Credit Ratings, Bests Performance Assessments, Bests Preliminary Credit Assessments and AM Best press releases, please view Guide to Proper Use of Bests Ratings & Assessments.

AM Best is a global credit rating agency, news publisher and data analytics provider 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/20230804305475/en/

Stanislav Stoev, ACCA, CFA

Senior Financial Analyst

+44 20 7397 0306

[email protected]

Christopher Sharkey

Associate Director, Public Relations

+1 908 882 2310

[email protected]

Kanika Thukral

Associate Director, Analytics

+44 20 7397 0327

[email protected]

Al Slavin

Senior Public Relations Specialist

+1 908 882 2318

[email protected]

Source: AM Best
Fisker began inaugural deliveries of Fisker Ocean Ones in Austria, Denmark, Germany, and the US with deliveries starting in Norway and Sweden shortly.

Fisker Ocean One and Extreme achieved EPA range of 360 miles, which is the longest range of any new electric SUV in its class1.

Opened new customer locations in London, Oslo, and Stockholm, with additional customer facilities opening in North America and Europe this year.

Q2 2023 was Fiskers first quarter with automotive sales revenue. First vehicles delivered achieved a 7.5% gross margin; excluding early-stage investor vehicles, gross margin was 18.5%. EPS was ($0.25), compared to ($0.36) in the prior year.

Raised $300 million in gross proceeds from convertible bond offering in July, with potential to double proceeds in 12-months, bolstering quarter-end cash, cash equiv., and restricted cash to $822 million on a proforma basis; this excludes $33 million in VAT receivables.

Fisker published its Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) report, highlighting that the Fisker Ocean had the lowest published carbon footprint of any electric SUV.

Fisker held its Product Vision Day event on August 3, 2023, where it showcased its product lineup and how it plans to disrupt and innovate in every market segment it enters.

1,022 vehicles produced in Q2 2023 and 1,009 produced in July, which had fewer working hours due to the planned Magna Steyr annual summer shutdown. Calendar 2023 production forecast updated to a range of 20,000-23,000 units due to a short-term capacity constraint at one supplier.

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Fisker Inc. (NYSE: FSR) (Fisker), driven by a mission to create the worlds most emotional and sustainable electric vehicles, today announced its financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2023.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230804532764/en/

FSR) (Fisker), driven by a mission to create the worlds most emotional and sustainable electric vehicles, today announced its financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2023. Fisker began inaugural deliveries of Fisker Ocean Ones in Austria, Denmark, Germany, and the US with deliveries starting in Norway and Sweden shortly. (Photo: Business Wire)" /> FSR) (Fisker), driven by a mission to create the worlds most emotional and sustainable electric vehicles, today announced its financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2023. Fisker began inaugural deliveries of Fisker Ocean Ones in Austria, Denmark, Germany, and the US with deliveries starting in Norway and Sweden shortly. (Photo: Business Wire)" /> Fisker Inc. (NYSE: FSR) (Fisker), driven by a mission to create the worlds most emotional and sustainable electric vehicles, today announced its financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2023. Fisker began inaugural deliveries of Fisker Ocean Ones in Austria, Denmark, Germany, and the US with deliveries starting in Norway and Sweden shortly. (Photo: Business Wire)

Our second quarter marked an important milestone for Fisker as we started deliveries of our first Fisker Ocean vehicles to customers. We are currently in a quarter that truly marks the inflection for Fisker  our business model has now been proven, by the fact that we are already making a positive profit margin on the first vehicles we are selling, stated Henrik Fisker, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Fisker.

Feedback from our first customers and the numerous members of the media who have now reviewed the Fisker Ocean has been quite positive, and we are not slowing down. We unveiled our future product vision to investors, the press, and our customers and are excited to enter a range of new vehicle segments, including pickup trucks. We look forward to getting more and more vehicles into the hands of our loyal customers so they can experience the unique and class-leading features of the Ocean, continued Fisker.

Recent Updates:

Fisker achieved an EPA estimated total range of 360 miles for the Fisker Ocean Extreme on 20-inch wheels, exceeding Fiskers previous estimates. The EPA values confirm the Fisker Ocean Extreme has the longest range of any new electric SUV under $200,000 sold in the US today.

The Fisker Ocean Extreme received EPA Certificate of Conformity and California Air Resources Board Executive Order, approving it for sale and delivery in the US at the end of May.

1,022 Fisker Ocean vehicles were produced in Q2 2023. A couple of suppliers had challenges ramping to targeted Q2 levels, but the company is intently focused on working with all suppliers to swiftly ramp. In July, 1,009 Fisker Oceans were produced up from 741 units in June while the assembly rate per day reached 140 at the end of July, up from 80 per day at the end of June. July had reduced shifts and fewer working days due to the planned Magna Steyr annual summer shutdown.

Fisker updates 2023 production outlook to 20,000-23,000 units as a key supplier required additional time to ramp their capacity to meet our 2H 2023 timeline.

The Company began US and European deliveries of the Fisker Ocean One in California, Denmark and Germany with 11 customer deliveries completed in 2Q partly due to a later start in the quarter, logistics optimization, and extra time required to accumulate appropriate quantities for efficient transport.

Fisker recently opened customer facilities in London, Oslo and Stockholm. The Company plans to open additional locations in Los Angeles, Neuss/Duesseldorf, Paris, Frankfurt, Arizona, Maryland, New York, and Tennessee, and is in negotiations on a few dozen other properties across North America and Europe. Vehicle test drive events began recently.

Bolstered the companys balance sheet with a successful offering of $340 million in aggregate principal of 0% senior unsecured convertible notes due 2025 to an institutional investor, with the potential to increase the aggregate principal amount of the notes to $680 million. The transaction resulted in gross proceeds of $300 million to Fisker.

Published Fisker Ocean LCA report which highlights unprecedented sustainability through 5 phases of the vehicles life, from raw materials to vehicle end of use. With the lowest published carbon footprint of any electric SUV, the Fisker Ocean LCA is yet another testament to how sustainability has been built into the company from the beginning.

Completed first large-scale media event with production vehicles in Vienna, Austria where two dozen media correspondents put the Ocean vehicles through the paces.

Fisker held its inaugural Product Vision Day event on August 3, 2023, where it showcased its future product lineup and its vision of a Clean Future for All. Fisker believes this exciting lineup of EVs, combined with its innovation, design, and company-wide commitment to environmental responsibility, will resonate with consumers globally. Fisker opened reservations for the Ronin and Alaska.

Announced the company will produce 100 Fisker Ocean Extreme Vigyan Edition vehicles for the India market. Fisker expects to complete the homologation process for India by September and to commence deliveries in Q4 2023.

The company expects to open a delivery center in China in 2023 and expects to begin deliveries of the Fisker Ocean in China in 1H 2024.

Fisker continues to expand its internal technical capabilities and our global team now totals more than 1,000 as of August 3, 2023.

Second Quarter 2023 Financial Highlights:

Revenue totaled $825 thousand compared to revenue of $10 thousand in the second quarter of 2022.

Gross margin was 7.5% on a reported basis, and 18.5% excluding discounted early-stage investor deliveries.

Loss from operations totaled $87.9 million, including $9.0 million of stock-based compensation expense.

Net loss totaled $85.5 million and $0.25 loss per share. Weighted average shares outstanding totaled 335.9 million for the three months ended June 30, 2023.

Net cash used in operating activities totaled $128.1 million and capital expenditures totaled 91.3 million.

Cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash was $521.8 million as of June 30, 2023; this excludes $300 million in gross proceeds from the July convertible note offering and $33.4 million in VAT receivables which we expect to receive as refunds or to monetize against vehicle sales taxes.

2023 Business Outlook

Fisker expects to produce 20,000-23,000 units in 2023, provided Fiskers suppliers and partners can support this volume and ramp. The following information reflects Fiskers expectations for key non-GAAP operating expenses and capital expenditures for full-year 2023. Fisker is projecting the total of these items to be within a range of $565 million to $640 million. Fisker anticipates an 8-12% gross margin range for full year 2023, provided input costs do not change dramatically.

Key Expense Item USD, millions Research & Development (Non-GAAP)1 $ 160 - 190 Selling, General, and Administrative (Non-GAAP)1 $ 160 - 190 Capital Expenditures $ 245 - 260 Total $ 565 - 640

1Excludes stock-based compensation expense. A reconciliation to the corresponding GAAP amount is not provided as the quantification of stock-based compensation excluded from the non-GAAP measure, which may be significant, cannot be reasonably calculated or predicted without unreasonable efforts. The Non-GAAP adjustment for stock-based compensation expense requires additional inputs such as number of shares granted and market price volatilities that are not currently ascertainable and cannot be reasonably estimated.

Conference Call Information

Fisker Inc. will host a conference call to discuss the results at 6:00 a.m. Pacific Time (9:00 a.m. Eastern Time) today, August 4, 2023. The live audio webcast will be accessible on Fiskers Investor Relations website at https://investors.fiskerinc.com. A recording of the webcast will also be available following the conference call.

Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures (Unaudited)

This press release and the accompanying tables references certain non-generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (GAAP) financial measures, including non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA, non-GAAP selling, general, and administrative expense, non-GAAP research and development expense and non-GAAP total operating expenses. These non-GAAP financial measures differ from their directly comparable GAAP financial measures due to adjustments made to exclude stock-based compensation expense. None of these non-GAAP financial measures is a substitute for or superior to measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP and should not be considered as an alternative to any other performance measures derived in accordance with GAAP.

Fisker believes that presenting these non-GAAP financial measures provides useful supplemental information to investors about Fisker in understanding and evaluating its operating results, enhancing the overall understanding of its past performance and future prospects, and allowing for greater transparency with respect to key financial metrics used by its management in financial and operational-decision making. However, there are a number of limitations related to the use of non-GAAP measures and their nearest GAAP equivalents. For example, other companies may calculate non-GAAP measures differently, or may use other measures to calculate their financial performance, and therefore any non-GAAP measures Fisker uses may not be directly comparable to similarly titled measures of other companies. Therefore, both GAAP financial measures of Fiskers financial performance and the respective non-GAAP measures should be considered together. Please see the reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measure in the tables below.

Disclosure Information

Fisker uses the investor relations section on its website as a means of complying with its disclosure obligations under Regulation FD. It also uses various social media channels as a means of disclosing information about Fisker and its products to its customers, investors and the public (e.g., @fiskerinc on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and LinkedIn). Accordingly, investors should monitor Fiskers investor relations website and these social media channels in addition to following Fiskers press releases, SEC filings, and public conference calls and webcasts.

About Fisker Inc.

California-based Fisker Inc. is revolutionizing the automotive industry by developing the most emotionally desirable and eco-friendly electric vehicles on Earth. Passionately driven by a vision of a clean future for all, the company is on a mission to become the No. 1 e-mobility service provider with the worlds most sustainable vehicles. To learn more, visit www.FiskerInc.com  and enjoy exclusive content across Fiskers social media channels: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

Download the revolutionary new Fisker mobile app from the App Store or Google Play store.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release includes forward-looking statements, which are subject to the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements may be identified by words such as feel, believes, expects, estimates, projects, intends, should, is to be, or the negative of such terms, or other comparable terminology and include, among other things, the statements quoted by our Chief Executive Officer, the timing of start of production and delivery of the Fisker Ocean or the Fisker PEAR, the sufficiency of our cash to fund production launch of the Fisker Ocean, and statements regarding Fiskers future performance under 2023 Business Outlook, the reported financial results for the second quarter of 2023, which are subject to completion of Fiskers internal review, and other future events that involve risks and uncertainties. Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements contained herein due to many factors, including, but not limited to: Fiskers limited operating history; Fiskers ability to enter into additional manufacturing and other contracts with Magna, or other OEMs or tier-one suppliers in order to execute on its business plan; the risk that OEM and supply partners do not meet agreed upon timelines or experience capacity constraints; Fisker may experience significant delays in the design, manufacture, regulatory approval, launch and financing of its vehicles; Fiskers ability to execute its business model, including market acceptance of its planned products and services; Fiskers inability to retain key personnel and to hire additional personnel; competition in the electric vehicle market; Fiskers inability to develop a sales distribution network; and the ability to protect its intellectual property rights; and those factors discussed in Fiskers Annual Report on Form 10-K, under the heading Risk Factors, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC), as supplemented by Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and other reports and documents Fisker files from time to time with the SEC. Any forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made, and Fisker undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this press release.

Second Quarter 2023 Financial Results*

Fisker Inc. and Subsidiaries Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations (amounts in thousands, except share and per share data) Three Months Ended June 30, 2023 March 31, 2023 June 30, 2022 Revenue $ 825 $ 198 $ 10 Costs of goods sold 763 164 8 Gross margin 62 34 2 Operating costs and expenses: Selling, general and administrative 38,948 44,648 17,521 Research and development 49,032 76,999 71,160 Total operating costs and expenses 87,980 121,647 88,681 Loss from operations (87,918 ) (121,613 ) (88,679 ) Other income (expense): Other income (expense) (1,408 ) (45 ) (452 ) Interest income 6,581 6,894 1,353 Interest expense (4,605 ) (4,601 ) (4,751 ) Foreign currency gain/(loss) 3,797 (401 ) (3,417 ) Unrealized gain/(loss) recognized on equity securities 340 (730 ) (10,030 ) Total other income (expense) 4,705 1,117 (17,297 ) Net loss before income taxes (83,213 ) (120,496 ) (105,976 ) Provision for income taxes (2,271 ) (59 ) - Net loss $ (85,484 ) $ (120,555 ) $ (105,976 ) Basic and Diluted net loss per share $ (0.25 ) $ (0.38 ) $ (0.36 ) Basic and Diluted weighted average common shares outstanding 335,888,051 320,983,589 298,269,801

Fisker Inc. and Subsidiaries Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets (amounts in thousands, except share and per share data) As of: June 30, 2023 December 31, 2022 Current assets: Cash and cash equivalents $ 467,549 $ 736,549 Restricted cash 54,233 - Inventory 172,113 4,276 Prepaid expenses and other current assets 148,650 87,489 Equity investment 2,750 3,140 Total current assets 845,295 831,454 Non-current assets: Property and equipment, net 539,742 387,137 Intangible assets 236,896 246,922 Right of use asset, net 53,037 33,424 Other non-current assets 54,434 16,489 Total noncurrent assets 884,109 683,972 Total assets $ 1,729,404 $ 1,515,426 Current liabilities: Accounts payable $ 183,279 $ 58,871 Accrued expenses 395,676 264,925 Lease liabilities (short term) 9,251 7,085 Total current liabilities 588,206 330,881 Non-current liabilities: Customer deposits 15,310 15,334 Lease liabilities 42,655 27,884 Convertible notes 661,683 660,822 Total non-current liabilities 719,648 704,040 Total liabilities 1,307,854 1,034,921 Stockholder's equity 421,550 480,505 Total liabilities and equity $ 1,729,404 $ 1,515,426

Fisker Inc. and Subsidiaries Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows (amounts in thousands, except share and per share data) Three Months Ended June 30, 2023 2022 Cash flows from Operating Activities Net loss $ (85,484 ) $ (105,976 ) Stock-based compensation 9,026 1,195 Depreciation and Amortization 17,084 205 Accretion of debt issuance costs 433 421 Unrealized (gain)/loss recognized on equity securities (340 ) 10,030 Change in operating assets and liabilities (64,815 ) (61,319 ) Other operating activities (3,971 ) 5,964 Net cash used in operating activities (128,067 ) (149,480 ) Cash flows from Investing Activities Purchase of property and equipment (91,314 ) (54,161 ) Net cash used in investing activities (91,314 ) (54,161 ) Cash flows from Financing Activities Proceeds from exercise of stock options 6 218 Proceeds from stock issuance under "At-the-market" offering 87,942 14,568 Payments for "At-the-market" issuance costs (1,175 ) (353 ) Payments to tax authorities for statutory tax withholdings (2,768 ) (1,415 ) Net cash provided by financing activities 84,005 13,018 Net increase / (decrease) in cash and cash equivalents (135,376 ) (190,623 ) Cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash, beginning of period 657,158 1,042,562 Cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash, end of period $ 521,782 $ 851,939

Fisker Inc. and Subsidiaries Unaudited Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Financials Measures (amounts in thousands, except share and per share data) Adjusted EBITDA Three Months Ended June 30, 2023 March 31, 2023 June 30, 2022 Net loss (GAAP) $ (85,484 ) $ (120,555 ) $ (105,976 ) Provision for income taxes 2,271 59 - Interest income (6,581 ) (6,894 ) (1,353 ) Interest expense 4,605 4,601 4,751 Depreciation and amortization 17,084 9,150 2,043 Stock-based compensation expense/(benefit) 9,026 (1,642 ) 1,195 Foreign currency loss/(gain) (3,797 ) 401 3,417 Unrealized loss/(gain) recognized on equity securities (340 ) 730 10,030 Adjusted EBITDA (non-GAAP) $ (63,216 ) $ (114,150 ) $ (85,893 )

*The financial results discussed herein are presented on a preliminary basis; final data will be included in Fiskers Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended June 30, 2023

Source: Fisker Inc.

1 EPA estimated range. Actual results may vary for many reasons, including driving conditions, wheel size, state of battery charge, and how the vehicle is driven and maintained. Class refers to mid-size SUVs with an MSRP under $200,000.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230804532764/en/

Fisker Inc. Communications

Frank Boroch, VP, Investor Relations & Treasury

[email protected]

Matthew DeBord, Sr. Director, Communications Strategy & Storytelling

[email protected]

Source: Fisker Inc.
WALTHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Global Partners LP (NYSE: GLP) (Global or the Partnership) today reported financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2023.

We delivered solid second-quarter results with Wholesale and GDSO performing above our expectations, said Eric Slifka, the Partnerships President and Chief Executive Officer. In June, we began operating the 64 Houston-area convenience and fueling facilities acquired in our previously disclosed joint venture with ExxonMobil, expanding our presence into Texas. The expansion of our retail footprint reflects the continued execution of our overall growth strategy: to acquire, invest and optimize.

Financial Highlights

Net income was $41.4 million, or $1.05 per diluted common limited partner unit, for the second quarter of 2023, compared with net income of $162.8 million, or $4.61 per diluted common limited partner unit, in the same period of 2022.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) was $90.7 million in the second quarter of 2023 compared with $211.8 million in the same period of 2022.

Adjusted EBITDA was $91.6 million in the second quarter of 2023 versus $134.9 million in the same period of 2022.

Distributable cash flow (DCF) was $54.8 million in the second quarter of 2023 compared with $178.2 million in the same period of 2022.

Net income, EBITDA and DCF for the second quarter of 2022 included a net gain on sale and disposition of assets of $76.8 million, primarily related to the sale of the Partnerships terminal in Revere, Massachusetts in June 2022.

Gross profit in the second quarter of 2023 was $242.7 million compared with $281.5 million in the same period of 2022.

Combined product margin, which is gross profit adjusted for depreciation allocated to cost of sales, was $265.6 million in the second quarter of 2023 compared with $301.9 million in the same period of 2022.

Combined product margin, EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA, and DCF are non-GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) financial measures, which are explained in greater detail below under Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures. Please refer to Financial Reconciliations included in this news release for reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measures for the three months ended June 30, 2023, and 2022.

Gasoline Distribution and Station Operations (GDSO) segment product margin was $199.1 million in the second quarter of 2023 compared with $198.9 million in the same period of 2022. Product margin from gasoline distribution decreased to $127.9 million from $129.9 million in the year-earlier period, reflecting a slight decrease in volume sold. Product margin from station operations increased to $71.2 million from $69.0 million in the second quarter of 2022, in part due to the acquisition of Tidewater Convenience in the third quarter of 2022.

Wholesale segment product margin was $59.7 million in the second quarter of 2023 compared with $90.5 million in the same period of 2022, primarily due to less favorable market conditions in distillates and residual oil.

Commercial segment product margin was $6.8 million in the second quarter of 2023 compared with $12.5 million in the same period of 2022, primarily due to less favorable market conditions in bunkering.

Total sales were $3.8 billion in the second quarter of 2023 compared with $5.3 billion in the same period of 2022. Wholesale segment sales were $2.1 billion in the second quarter of 2023 compared with $3.0 billion in the same period of 2022. GDSO segment sales were $1.5 billion in the second quarter of 2023 versus $1.9 billion in the same period of 2022. Commercial segment sales were $226.5 million in the second quarter of 2023 compared with $363.4 million in the second quarter of 2022.

Total volume was 1.3 billion gallons in the second quarter of 2023 and 2022. Wholesale segment volume was 809.6 million gallons in the second quarter of 2023 compared with 792.6 million gallons in the same period of 2022. GDSO volume was 417.4 million gallons in the second quarter of 2023 compared with 422.3 million gallons in the same period of 2022. Commercial segment volume was 102.5 million gallons in the second quarter of 2023 compared with 95.4 million gallons in the same period of 2022.

Recent Developments

In June, a joint venture owned by subsidiaries of Global and ExxonMobil Corporation completed its previously disclosed acquisition of 64 Houston-area convenience and fueling facilities. Global manages and operates the facilities.

Global announced a quarterly cash distribution of $0.6750 ($2.70 on an annualized basis) on all of its outstanding common units for the period from April 1 to June 30, 2023. The distribution will be paid on August 14, 2023 to unitholders of record as of the close of business on August 8, 2023.

Business Outlook

We have a healthy and well-capitalized balance sheet that continues to position us positively for long-term growth, Slifka said. Looking ahead, we remain focused on executing our strategic priorities to maintain our competitive position and drive value for our unitholders.

Financial Results Conference Call

Management will review the Partnerships second-quarter 2023 financial results in a teleconference call for analysts and investors today.

Time: 10:00 a.m. ET Dial-in numbers: (877) 709-8155 (U.S. and Canada) (201) 689-8881 (International)

Please plan to dial in to the call at least 10 minutes prior to the start time. The call also will be webcast live and archived on Global Partners website, https://ir.globalp.com.

About Global Partners LP

With approximately 1,700 locations primarily in the Northeast, Global Partners is one of the regions largest independent owners, suppliers and operators of gasoline stations and convenience stores. Global also owns, controls or has access to one of the largest terminal networks in New England and New York, through which it distributes gasoline, distillates, residual oil and renewable fuels to wholesalers, retailers and commercial customers. In addition, Global engages in the transportation of petroleum products and renewable fuels by rail from the mid-continental U.S. and Canada. Global, a master limited partnership, trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol GLP. For additional information, visit www.globalp.com.

Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

Product Margin

Global Partners views product margin as an important performance measure of the core profitability of its operations. The Partnership reviews product margin monthly for consistency and trend analysis. Global Partners defines product margin as product sales minus product costs. Product sales primarily include sales of unbranded and branded gasoline, distillates, residual oil, renewable fuels and crude oil, as well as convenience store and prepared food sales, gasoline station rental income and revenue generated from logistics activities when the Partnership engages in the storage, transloading and shipment of products owned by others. Product costs include the cost of acquiring products and all associated costs including shipping and handling costs to bring such products to the point of sale as well as product costs related to convenience store items and costs associated with logistics activities. The Partnership also looks at product margin on a per unit basis (product margin divided by volume). Product margin is a non-GAAP financial measure used by management and external users of the Partnerships consolidated financial statements to assess its business. Product margin should not be considered an alternative to net income, operating income, cash flow from operations, or any other measure of financial performance presented in accordance with GAAP. In addition, product margin may not be comparable to product margin or a similarly titled measure of other companies.

EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA

EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are non-GAAP financial measures used as supplemental financial measures by management and may be used by external users of Global Partners consolidated financial statements, such as investors, commercial banks and research analysts, to assess the Partnerships:

compliance with certain financial covenants included in its debt agreements;

financial performance without regard to financing methods, capital structure, income taxes or historical cost basis;

ability to generate cash sufficient to pay interest on its indebtedness and to make distributions to its partners;

operating performance and return on invested capital as compared to those of other companies in the wholesale, marketing, storing and distribution of refined petroleum products, gasoline blendstocks, renewable fuels, crude oil and propane, and in the gasoline stations and convenience stores business, without regard to financing methods and capital structure; and

viability of acquisitions and capital expenditure projects and the overall rates of return of alternative investment opportunities.

Adjusted EBITDA is EBITDA further adjusted for gains or losses on the sale and disposition of assets and goodwill and long-lived asset impairment charges. EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA should not be considered as alternatives to net income, operating income, cash flow from operating activities or any other measure of financial performance or liquidity presented in accordance with GAAP. EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA exclude some, but not all, items that affect net income, and these measures may vary among other companies. Therefore, EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA may not be comparable to similarly titled measures of other companies.

Distributable Cash Flow

Distributable cash flow is an important non-GAAP financial measure for the Partnerships limited partners since it serves as an indicator of success in providing a cash return on their investment. Distributable cash flow as defined by the Partnerships partnership agreement is net income plus depreciation and amortization minus maintenance capital expenditures, as well as adjustments to eliminate items approved by the audit committee of the board of directors of the Partnerships general partner that are extraordinary or non-recurring in nature and that would otherwise increase distributable cash flow.

Distributable cash flow as used in our partnership agreement also determines our ability to make cash distributions on our incentive distribution rights. The investment community also uses a distributable cash flow metric similar to the metric used in our partnership agreement with respect to publicly traded partnerships to indicate whether or not such partnerships have generated sufficient earnings on a current or historical level that can sustain distributions on preferred or common units or support an increase in quarterly cash distributions on common units. Our partnership agreement does not permit adjustments for certain non-cash items, such as net losses on the sale and disposition of assets and goodwill and long-lived asset impairment charges.

Distributable cash flow should not be considered as an alternative to net income, operating income, cash flow from operations, or any other measure of financial performance presented in accordance with GAAP. In addition, distributable cash flow may not be comparable to distributable cash flow or similarly titled measures of other companies.

Forward-looking Statements

Certain statements and information in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements. The words believe, expect, anticipate, plan, intend, foresee, should, would, could or other similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, which are generally not historical in nature, although not all forward-looking statements contain such identifying words. These forward-looking statements are based on Globals current expectations and beliefs concerning future developments and their potential effect on the Partnership. While management believes that these forward-looking statements are reasonable as and when made, there can be no assurance that future developments affecting the Partnership will be those that it anticipates. Forward-looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties (some of which are beyond the Partnerships control) including, without limitation, uncertainty around the timing of an economic recovery in the United States which will impact the demand for the products we sell and the services that we provide, and assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Partnerships historical experience and present expectations or projections. We believe these assumptions are reasonable given currently available information. Our assumptions and future performance are subject to a wide range of business risks, uncertainties and factors, which are described in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

For additional information regarding known material factors that could cause actual results to differ from the Partnerships projected results, please see Globals filings with the SEC, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K.

Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. Global undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements after the date they are made, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

GLOBAL PARTNERS LP CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS (In thousands, except per unit data) (Unaudited) Three Months Ended Six Months Ended June 30, June 30, 2023 2022 2023 2022 Sales $ 3,831,690 $ 5,323,650 $ 7,862,017 $ 9,824,188 Cost of sales 3,589,031 5,042,174 7,397,294 9,336,474 Gross profit 242,659 281,476 464,723 487,714 Costs and operating expenses: Selling, general and administrative expenses 66,696 60,870 128,952 117,151 Operating expenses 110,379 108,525 218,732 207,758 Amortization expense 2,018 2,117 4,102 4,616 Net loss (gain) on sale and disposition of assets 884 (76,849 ) (1,244 ) (81,760 ) Total costs and operating expenses 179,977 94,663 350,542 247,765 Operating income 62,682 186,813 114,181 239,949 Other income (expense): Income from equity method investment 1,204 - 1,204 - Interest expense (21,806 ) (21,056 ) (43,874 ) (42,530 ) Income before income tax expense 42,080 165,757 71,511 197,419 Income tax expense (691 ) (2,950 ) (1,091 ) (4,127 ) Net income 41,389 162,807 70,420 193,292 Less: General partner's interest in net income, including incentive distribution rights 2,339 2,166 4,121 3,343 Less: Preferred limited partner interest in net income 3,463 3,463 6,926 6,926 Net income attributable to common limited partners $ 35,587 $ 157,178 $ 59,373 $ 183,023 Basic net income per common limited partner unit (1) $ 1.05 $ 4.63 $ 1.75 $ 5.39 Diluted net income per common limited partner unit (1) $ 1.05 $ 4.61 $ 1.75 $ 5.37 Basic weighted average common limited partner units outstanding 33,986 33,928 33,986 33,940 Diluted weighted average common limited partner units outstanding 34,006 34,066 34,008 34,074

(1) Under the Partnership's partnership agreement, for any quarterly period, the incentive distribution rights ("IDRs") participate in net income only to the extent of the amount of cash distributions actually declared, thereby excluding the IDRs from participating in the Partnership's undistributed net income or losses. Accordingly, the Partnership's undistributed net income or losses is assumed to be allocated to the common unitholders and to the General Partner's general partner interest. Net income attributable to common limited partners is divided by the weighted average common units outstanding in computing the net income per limited partner unit.

GLOBAL PARTNERS LP CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (In thousands) (Unaudited) June 30, December 31, 2023 2022 Assets Current assets: Cash and cash equivalents $ 11,044 $ 4,040 Accounts receivable, net 430,792 478,837 Accounts receivable - affiliates 10,745 2,380 Inventories 343,866 566,731 Brokerage margin deposits 15,647 23,431 Derivative assets 16,539 19,848 Prepaid expenses and other current assets 72,354 73,992 Total current assets 900,987 1,169,259 Property and equipment, net 1,199,986 1,218,171 Right of use assets, net 271,051 288,142 Intangible assets, net 22,753 26,854 Goodwill 427,715 427,780 Equity method investment 70,686 - Other assets 43,732 30,679 Total assets $ 2,936,910 $ 3,160,885 Liabilities and partners' equity Current liabilities: Accounts payable $ 398,648 $ 530,940 Working capital revolving credit facility - current portion 89,400 153,400 Lease liability - current portion 60,102 64,919 Environmental liabilities - current portion 4,941 4,606 Trustee taxes payable 55,992 42,972 Accrued expenses and other current liabilities 140,236 156,964 Derivative liabilities 5,027 17,680 Total current liabilities 754,346 971,481 Working capital revolving credit facility - less current portion - - Revolving credit facility 119,000 99,000 Senior notes 741,867 741,015 Long-term lease liability - less current portion 218,879 231,427 Environmental liabilities - less current portion 62,419 64,029 Financing obligations 140,235 141,784 Deferred tax liabilities 66,159 66,400 Other long-term liabilities 58,473 57,305 Total liabilities 2,161,378 2,372,441 Partners' equity 775,532 788,444 Total liabilities and partners' equity $ 2,936,910 $ 3,160,885

GLOBAL PARTNERS LP FINANCIAL RECONCILIATIONS (In thousands) (Unaudited) Three Months Ended Six Months Ended June 30, June 30, 2023 2022 2023 2022 Reconciliation of gross profit to product margin Wholesale segment: Gasoline and gasoline blendstocks $ 39,023 $ 41,034 $ 59,409 $ 38,749 Distillates and other oils (1) 20,699 49,541 53,446 98,914 Total 59,722 90,575 112,855 137,663 Gasoline Distribution and Station Operations segment: Gasoline distribution 127,883 129,852 248,699 244,738 Station operations 71,196 69,008 133,926 127,105 Total 199,079 198,860 382,625 371,843 Commercial segment 6,757 12,512 14,884 20,653 Combined product margin 265,558 301,947 510,364 530,159 Depreciation allocated to cost of sales (22,899 ) (20,471 ) (45,641 ) (42,445 ) Gross profit $ 242,659 $ 281,476 $ 464,723 $ 487,714 Reconciliation of net income to EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Net income 41,389 $ 162,807 $ 70,420 $ 193,292 Depreciation and amortization 26,797 24,951 53,445 51,652 Interest expense 21,806 21,056 43,874 42,530 Income tax expense 691 2,950 1,091 4,127 EBITDA 90,683 211,764 168,830 291,601 Net loss (gain) on sale and disposition of assets 884 (76,849 ) (1,244 ) (81,760 ) Adjusted EBITDA $ 91,567 $ 134,915 $ 167,586 $ 209,841 Reconciliation of net cash provided by operating activities to EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Net cash provided by operating activities $ 265,262 $ 362,565 $ 245,937 $ 385,193 Net changes in operating assets and liabilities and certain non-cash items (197,076 ) (174,807 ) (122,072 ) (140,249 ) Interest expense 21,806 21,056 43,874 42,530 Income tax expense 691 2,950 1,091 4,127 EBITDA 90,683 211,764 168,830 291,601 Net loss (gain) on sale and disposition of assets 884 (76,849 ) (1,244 ) (81,760 ) Adjusted EBITDA $ 91,567 $ 134,915 $ 167,586 $ 209,841 Reconciliation of net income to distributable cash flow Net income $ 41,389 $ 162,807 $ 70,420 $ 193,292 Depreciation and amortization 26,797 24,951 53,445 51,652 Amortization of deferred financing fees 1,364 1,347 2,711 2,737 Amortization of routine bank refinancing fees (1,155 ) (1,138 ) (2,293 ) (2,319 ) Maintenance capital expenditures (13,595 ) (9,778 ) (23,155 ) (17,296 ) Distributable cash flow (2)(3)(4) 54,800 178,189 101,128 228,066 Distributions to preferred unitholders (5) (3,463 ) (3,463 ) (6,926 ) (6,926 ) Distributable cash flow after distributions to preferred unitholders $ 51,337 $ 174,726 $ 94,202 $ 221,140 Reconciliation of net cash provided by operating activities to distributable cash flow Net cash provided by operating activities $ 265,262 $ 362,565 $ 245,937 $ 385,193 Net changes in operating assets and liabilities and certain non-cash items (197,076 ) (174,807 ) (122,072 ) (140,249 ) Amortization of deferred financing fees 1,364 1,347 2,711 2,737 Amortization of routine bank refinancing fees (1,155 ) (1,138 ) (2,293 ) (2,319 ) Maintenance capital expenditures (13,595 ) (9,778 ) (23,155 ) (17,296 ) Distributable cash flow (2)(3)(4) 54,800 178,189 101,128 228,066 Distributions to preferred unitholders (5) (3,463 ) (3,463 ) (6,926 ) (6,926 ) Distributable cash flow after distributions to preferred unitholders $ 51,337 $ 174,726 $ 94,202 $ 221,140

(1) Segment reporting results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2022 have been reclassified within the Wholesale segment to conform to the Partnership's current presentation. Specifically, results from crude oil previously shown separately are included in distillates and other oils as results from crude oil are immaterial.

(2) As defined by the Partnership's partnership agreement, distributable cash flow is not adjusted for certain non-cash items, such as net losses on the sale and disposition of assets and goodwill and long-lived asset impairment charges.

(3) Distributable cash flow for each of the three and six months ended June 30, 2023 includes $1.2 million of income from the equity method investment related to the Partnership's 49.99% interest in its Spring Partners Retail LLC joint venture.

(4) Distributable cash flow for the three and six months ended June 30, 2022 includes a net gain on sale and disposition of assets of $76.8 million and $81.7 million, respectively, primarily related to the sale of the Partnership's terminal in Revere, Massachusetts in June 2022.

(5) Distributions to preferred unitholders represent the distributions payable to the Series A preferred unitholders and the Series B preferred unitholders earned during the period. Distributions on the Series A preferred units and the Series B preferred units are cumulative and payable quarterly in arrears on February 15, May 15, August 15 and November 15 of each year.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230803240628/en/

Gregory B. Hanson

Chief Financial Officer

Global Partners LP

(781) 894-8800

Sean T. Geary

Chief Legal Officer and Secretary

Global Partners LP

(781) 894-8800

Source: Global Partners LP
Alwood Pharmacy of Alpha, Ill. announced as annual Pharmacy of the Year award winner

CONSHOHOCKEN, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Good Neighbor Pharmacy, a national independent pharmacy network offered through AmerisourceBergen, convened nearly 5,000 independent pharmacy owners and other partners to celebrate its annual, marquee event, the ThoughtSpot tradeshow and conference. This years event showcased the extraordinary collaboration, commitment and perseverance of the Good Neighbor Pharmacy network of pharmacists dedicated to improving community health.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230804214953/en/

The conference, held at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, highlights and builds on the tremendous momentum that Good Neighbor Pharmacy members have ignited in their communities, transforming the way pharmacies deliver patient care and empowering consumers to take better control of their health. Featuring more than 25 live and on-demand continuing education sessions and certification programs, this years programming outlined strategies for addressing the most pressing opportunities and challenges in the pharmacy industry, including expanding point-of-care testing and immunizations, among other topics.

Participants also connected with experts through a series of presentations and networking events during the conference and experienced a vibrant exhibition hall featuring the solutions and products driving the future of the pharmacy practice.

Were delighted to welcome our Good Neighbor Pharmacy members to another impactful and informative ThoughtSpot event that features innovations, resources and educational opportunities to advance our practice, said Jennifer Zilka, President of Good Neighbor Pharmacy. With a unique view of the challenges pharmacies have endured through years of the COVID-19 public health crisis and ensuing economic difficulty, Good Neighbor Pharmacy is focused on finding long-term solutions in pharmacy care, including new tools, technology and streams of revenue, alongside continued public policy advocacy that advances our goals. Im excited to bring together this close-knit family for a forum of inspiration and action as we continue to expand our impact on pharmacy.

The surge in patients choosing their local pharmacies to help them meet their healthcare needs is a testament to the unwavering excellence and all-hands-on-deck commitment our Good Neighbor Pharmacy partners embody, said Brian Nightengale, RPh, PhD, President of Community and Specialty Pharmacy and Long-Term Care at AmerisourceBergen. ThoughtSpot provides an opportunity to celebrate our partners lasting achievements under our shared purpose of supporting communities. As we continue to navigate the evolving healthcare landscape, we remain committed to supporting our pharmacy partners where they are, while preparing for the future we create.

New Solutions for Streamlined Pharmacy Services

At this years show, Good Neighbor Pharmacy unveiled and demoed two new customer solutions on the exhibit hall floor. Tailored to meet the needs of customer-facing and back-end solutions, these innovations ease the operational burden of day-to-day tasks, ultimately unlocking time for pharmacists to support their customers. The solutions are:

AmerisourceBergen Marketplace , a new third-party marketplace that seamlessly integrates into the ABC Order eCommerce platform, creating a convenient shopping experience for pharmacies to procure their storefront. Marketplace connects pharmacies to 50+ verified suppliers and a variety of unique products in categories such as beauty, snacks, toys, personal care and other everyday essentials all in one place, creating a faster, more efficient procurement experience, all through a single invoice.

, a new third-party marketplace that seamlessly integrates into the ABC Order eCommerce platform, creating a convenient shopping experience for pharmacies to procure their storefront. Marketplace connects pharmacies to 50+ verified suppliers and a variety of unique products in categories such as beauty, snacks, toys, personal care and other everyday essentials all in one place, creating a faster, more efficient procurement experience, all through a single invoice. AmerisourceBergens Telehealth Solution, the latest innovation expanding Good Neighbor Pharmacys telehealth capabilities, which provides clinical services so patients can cut down on wait times for appointments at physician and urgent care offices. The solution will further advance pharmacies role in providing clinical services and helping community members obtain treatment when needed.

Honoring Excellence in Pharmacy

Good Neighbor Pharmacy also celebrated the extraordinary achievements of its members, recognizing the significant innovations Good Neighbor Pharmacys pharmacy members continue to deliver on, while maintaining the highest levels of customer care.

Alwood Pharmacy was named the 2023 Pharmacy of the Year , winning the top spot from a field of more than 4,900 nominations representing more than 800 pharmacies in the US. Located in Alpha, Ill., Alwood Pharmacy has been a pillar of the community for over 40 years. Pharmacist and Owner Donna Merideth, RPh, is committed to serving her town of 600 by going beyond working behind the counter to help patients in a more personal way, providing services such as vaccinations, testing, compounding, medication packaging, and much more. Additional finalists included Avalon Pharmacy of Yucca Valley, Calif. and Spruce Mountain Pharmacy of Jay, Maine.

, winning the top spot from a field of more than 4,900 nominations representing more than 800 pharmacies in the US. Located in Alpha, Ill., Alwood Pharmacy has been a pillar of the community for over 40 years. Pharmacist and Owner Donna Merideth, RPh, is committed to serving her town of 600 by going beyond working behind the counter to help patients in a more personal way, providing services such as vaccinations, testing, compounding, medication packaging, and much more. Additional finalists included Avalon Pharmacy of Yucca Valley, Calif. and Spruce Mountain Pharmacy of Jay, Maine. The J.D. Power 2023 US Pharmacy StudySM announced Good Neighbor Pharmacy has been ranked the Highest in Customer Satisfaction with Chain Drug Store Pharmacies. The achievement marks the 7th consecutive win for the network, serving as a testament to the incredible innovation and service Good Neighbor Pharmacys independent pharmacy members provide. A full release announcing this achievement can be found here.

Advancing Diversity, Representation and Inclusion Across the Pharmacy Profession

ThoughtSpot also highlighted how Good Neighbor Pharmacy is recognizing historically underrepresented groups in the pharmacy practice. This years conference celebrated the role of women in pharmacy, including several programming sessions highlighting the importance of female advocacy in pharmacy. Additionally, Good Neighbor Pharmacy  in partnership with the AmerisourceBergen Foundation  honored the winners of the inaugural Good Neighbor Pharmacy Scholarship program, supporting Black and African American graduate students pursuing a pharmacy career. A full release announcing the scholarship winners can be found here.

About ThoughtSpot

ThoughtSpot is an annual conference and trade show hosted by Good Neighbor Pharmacy on behalf of AmerisourceBergen, which aims to equip independent pharmacists with practices and resources they can use to transform their businesses to improve profitability and maintain their position as a vital source of patient care in their local communities. For more information on ThoughtSpot, please visit https://www.wearegnp.com/thoughtspot2023.

About AmerisourceBergen

AmerisourceBergen is a leading global pharmaceutical solutions organization centered on improving the lives of people and animals around the world. We partner with pharmaceutical innovators across the value chain to facilitate and optimize market access to therapies. Care providers depend on us for the secure, reliable delivery of pharmaceuticals, healthcare products, and solutions. Our 46,000+ worldwide team members contribute to positive health outcomes through the power of our purpose: We are united in our responsibility to create healthier futures. AmerisourceBergen is ranked #11 on the Fortune 500 and #24 on the Global Fortune 500 with more than $200 billion in annual revenue. Learn more at https://amerisourcebergen.com/.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230804214953/en/

Mackenzie Liberatori

267.252.5704

[email protected]

Source: AmerisourceBergen
CORAL GABLES, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Insigneo, a leading financial services firm, is delighted to announce the opening of its new office in Coral Gables, reaffirming its commitment to serving the needs of its growing community of Investment Professionals in South Florida.

The inauguration of the Coral Gables office marks another milestone for Insigneo as it continues to expand. Located in the heart of Coral Gables, The Plaza is a brand-new development, that has already attracted several new businesses and restaurants and established itself as a landmark location within the city. The new Insigneo office will provide a state-of-the-art facility for our growing network of Investment Professionals. The new office will accommodate over 25 Investment Professionals as well as Insigneo staff, fostering service, collaboration, knowledge sharing, and client engagement.

Javier Rivero, President & COO of Insigneo, expressed his enthusiasm about the company's latest milestone, stating, "We are thrilled to expand our footprint in South Florida. The opening of the Coral Gables office is a testament to Insigneo's commitment to providing our valued Financial Advisors with the resources and support they need to thrive in today's dynamic financial landscape."

As part of its mission, Insigneo will continue to foster relationships within the community and support initiatives that promote economic prosperity. The Mayor of the City of Coral Gables, Vince C. Lago stated, "We welcome Insigneo's new office to our city with open arms. This expansion not only reflects the company's success but also highlights Coral Gables as an attractive destination for leading financial institutions. We look forward to the positive contributions Insigneo will make to our community."

**About Insigneo:**

Insigneo is a leading international wealth management firm providing services and technologies that empower investment professionals to successfully serve their clients globally. Insigneo leverages its customized solutions, client-first service, and custodial relationship with BNY Mellons Pershing to provide a fully integrated, best-in-class independent wealth management platform. With over $21B in supported customer assets, Insigneo empowers more than 440 investment professionals serving over 30,000 clients. For more information, visit www.insigneo.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230804628499/en/

Miguel Reyes

Insigneo

[email protected]

Source: Insigneo
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- KBRA releases research that examines the criticisms surrounding the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ). The report discusses the GFANZ and Race to Zero partnership, greenwashing, and antitrust concerns, notable membership departures, and the path forward for climate alliances.

In 2015, the United Nations Climate Change Conference established the Paris Agreement, an international treaty on climate change aimed toward limiting global temperatures from exceeding 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. This treaty became the catalyst for many global organizations and industries to come together and align on commitments toward carbon reduction efforts and long-term emissions goals.

One of the largest groups to form is known as the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ), an international initiative designed to mobilize the finance sectors commitment toward achieving global net zero emissions by 2050. Though the alliance was formed to foster and facilitate the finance sectors transition to a low carbon future, the organization has faced criticism from both internal and external parties. Since the end of 2022, the increasing pressure that GFANZ as an organization and aligned members have faced has led to significant departures from the alliance.

Some banks and financial institutions have filed complaints, claiming certain targets that the alliance promised were unrealistic and proposed without consultation. Other organizations have since left, citing insufficient progress toward global objectives, lack of transparency, and accusations of greenwashing. As members continue to withdraw from the alliance, including founding members, the organizations efficacy has been brought into question. Understanding the challenges and criticism that this alliance continues to face may provide insight on the path forward for GFANZ, as well as other emerging climate coalitions.

Click here to view the report.

Related Publications

About KBRA

KBRA is a full-service credit rating agency registered in the U.S., the EU and the UK, and is designated to provide structured finance ratings in Canada. KBRAs ratings can be used by investors for regulatory capital purposes in multiple jurisdictions.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230804855768/en/

Arianne Schreier, Associate

+1 646-731-1345

[email protected]



Pat Welch, Chief ESG and Ratings Policy Officer

+1 646-731-2481

[email protected]



Business Development



Jason Lilien, Managing Director

+1 646-731-2442

[email protected]

Source: KBRA
KYODO NEWS - Aug 4, 2023 - 20:08 | All, Japan

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Friday that his government will mainly adhere to its plan to scrap health insurance certificates and combine their functionality with "My Number" identification cards, despite public skepticism over the policy.

But Kishida said at a press conference that the administration will carry out necessary inspections by the fall and then decide, after assessing the outcome of the probes, whether "additional time will be needed."

A series of personal information leaks and registration errors related to My Number cards have heightened public anxiety about the ID system, triggering a decline in approval ratings for Kishida's Cabinet in recent months.

Kishida said his government will prioritize improving trust in the national ID system by examining all relevant data, with the aim of pushing ahead with the integration plan.

Apologizing for the troubles with the My Number card system, he said, "We will regain the trust of the people and earnestly advance essential digital reforms in our country."

As part of efforts to reduce concern about the policy shift, the government will allow those who do not have a My Number card or have not registered for one to use a "status confirmation certificate" for up to five years, Kishida said.

In October 2022, Digital Minister Taro Kono suddenly proposed a plan to integrate national insurance certificates with My Number cards in the fall of 2024, as Japan has lagged behind other major economies in digital transformation.

Numerous My Number cards, however, have been erroneously registered with the information of other individuals, including bank accounts used to receive state benefits.

In spite of increasing public awareness about the issues, legislation was enacted in early June to abolish the existing health insurance certificate system, effectively making the usage of My Number cards mandatory.

In a rare case of an intragovernmental probe, meanwhile, the Personal Information Protection Commission has started an on-site investigation of the Digital Agency, with an eye on issuing administrative guidance to the public entity headed by Kono.

A Kyodo News survey conducted last month showed 76.6 percent of respondents expressed their desire for the My Number integration plan to be postponed or canceled, while some senior members of the ruling party have called for the program to be paused.

Under the My Number ID card system launched in 2016, every citizen and foreign resident living in Japan receives a 12-digit number linking various personal data together, such as taxes and social security information.

Around 70 percent of holders -- about 65.34 million people -- have already registered to use their My Number card as their health insurance certificate as of July 23, according to the health ministry.

Related coverage:

41% of local leaders want "My Number" insurance card shift delayed

Japan PM Kishida Cabinet's support rate at 34%, nears lowest level

"My Number" ID system faces further setback with erroneous deliveries
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- All amounts are in U.S. Dollars unless otherwise indicated:

SECOND QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS

Average production for the second quarter of 2023 was 2,415 BOEPD, an increase of 25% compared to the second quarter of 2022 average production of 1,928 BOEPD. This increase is due to production from the Emery 17-2H, the Brock 9-3H and the Glenn 16-3H wells which started production at the end of 2022 and the Barnes 8-1H, Barnes 8-2H and Barnes 8-3H wells which started production in the last week of June 2023. The production increases were partially offset by existing wells that were shut-in for two to four weeks of the quarter while completion operations were underway. Approximately 800 BOEPD was shut-in for two weeks and 300 BOEPD was shut-in for four weeks during the second quarter

Adjusted EBITDA(1) was $7.6 million in the second quarter of 2023 compared to $8.6 million in the second quarter of 2022, a decrease of 12%. The decrease was due to a decrease in average prices of 37% partially offset by a 25% increase in production

Revenue, net of royalties was $10.1 million in the second quarter of 2023 compared to $12.4 million for second quarter of 2022, a decrease of 19%, due to lower average prices partially offset by higher production

Net income in the second quarter of 2023 was $4.3 million and EPS was $0.12/share compared to $7.0 million and EPS of $0.20/share in the second quarter of 2022. The decrease was due to lower average prices and higher depletion and depreciation expense partially offset by higher production and lower realized losses on commodity contracts compared to the prior year second quarter

Average netback from operations(2) for the second quarter of 2023 was $39.97/boe, a decrease of 37% from the prior year second quarter due to higher average prices in 2022. Netback including commodity contracts(2) for the second quarter of 2023 was $38.60/boe which was 28% lower than the prior year second quarter

Production and operating expenses per barrel averaged $6.04 per BOE in the second quarter of 2023 compared to $7.77 per BOE in the second quarter of 2022, a decrease of 22%. The decrease was due to increased production which reduced the per barrel fixed costs and lower production taxes due to a decrease in prices

At June 30, 2023, the Company had $21.8 million of available borrowing capacity on its credit agreement and its net debt outstanding was $16.8 million

(1) Adjusted EBITDA is considered a non-GAAP measure. Refer to the section entitled Non-GAAP Measures of this earnings release. (2) Netback from operations and netback including commodity contracts are considered non-GAAP ratios. Refer to the section entitled Non-GAAP Measures of this earnings release.

Kolibris President and Chief Executive Officer, Wolf Regener commented:

We are extremely excited about the execution of our 2023 drilling program as we continue to make progress in maximizing the development of our Tishomingo field. The early performance of the Barnes 8-1H and Barnes 8-2H wells is on track to confirm that we can economically downspace to six Caney wells per section and the early results of the Barnes 8-3H T-zone well indicate that T-zone wells are also likely to be economic.

We are now accelerating our development plans by drilling five continuous wells to close out our 2023 drilling program. We are currently drilling the Barnes 7-5H well, to be followed immediately by the Barnes 7-4H well, which are both located in the lower Caney. We will then begin drilling the next three well pad, consisting of two lower Caney wells and one T-zone well, while we simultaneously fracture stimulate the Barnes 7-5H and Barnes 7-4H wells. We will continue to fund our drilling program primarily from operating cash flow but expect our net debt to increase slightly at year-end as we manage our working capital from the accelerated drilling schedule.

Average production for the second quarter of 2023 was 2,415 BOEPD, an increase of 25% compared to the second quarter of 2022 average production of 1,928 BOEPD due to the five wells that were drilled in the prior year partially offset by the shut-in wells during completion operations. At the end of the second quarter, our exit rate production was about 3,400 BOEPD. This does not include about 300 BOEPD of production that was either shut-in or was in the process of dewatering after being impacted by the completion operations.

Adjusted EBITDA(1) was $7.6 million in the second quarter of 2023 compared to $8.6 million in the second quarter of 2022, a decrease of 10%. The decrease was due to a 37% decrease in average prices, partially offset by a 25% increase in production.

Net revenue decreased by 19% to $10.1 million in the second quarter of 2023 compared to $12.4 million for the second quarter of 2022 due to the average price decline partially offset by higher production. We expect revenue to increase in the third quarter due to production from the three recently completed wells in addition to production from the Barnes 7-4H and Barnes 7-5H wells which we anticipate to begin before the end of the third quarter.

Net income in the second quarter of 2023 was $4.3 million with EPS of $0.12/share compared to $7.0 million with EPS of $0.20/share in the second quarter of 2022. The decrease was due to lower average prices and higher depletion and depreciation expense partially offset by higher production and lower realized losses on commodity contracts compared to the prior year second quarter.

Netback from operations(2) for the second quarter of 2023 was $39.97/boe, a decrease of 37% from the prior year second quarter due to higher average prices in 2022. Netback including commodity contracts(2) for the second quarter of 2023 was $38.60/boe, which was 28% lower than the prior year second quarter.

Operating expenses per barrel averaged $6.04 per BOE in the second quarter of 2023 compared to $7.77 per BOE in the second quarter of 2022, a decrease of 22%. The decrease was due to increased production which reduced the per barrel fixed costs and lower production taxes due to a decrease in prices.

Second Quarter First Six Months 2023 2022 % 2023 2022 % Net Income : $ Thousands $ 4,268 $ 7,007 (39 )% $ 12,164 $ 4,551 167 % $ per basic common share $ 0.12 $ 0.20 (40 )% $ 0.34 $ 0.13 162 % $ per diluted common share $ 0.12 $ 0.19 (37 )% $ 0.33 $ 0.13 154 % Capital Expenditures $ 15,742 $ 7,572 108 % $ 19,930 $ 14,973 33 % Average Production (Boepd) 2,415 1,928 25 % 2,803 1,493 88 % Average Price per Barrel $ 58.00 $ 92.02 (37 )% $ 60.75 $ 86.06 (29 )% Average Netback from operations(2) per Barrel $ 39.97 $ 63.06 (37 )% $ 42.07 $ 58.11 (28 )% Average Netback including commodity contracts(2) per Barrel $ 38.60 $ 53.66 (28 )% $ 40.66 $ 47.78 (15 )% June

2023 March

2023 December

2022 Cash and Cash Equivalents $ 975 $ 3,058 $ 1,037 Working Capital $ (8,274 ) $ 113 $ (6,569 ) Borrowing capacity $ 21,842 $ 6,842 $ 6,842

(1) Adjusted EBITDA is considered a non-GAAP measure. Refer to the section entitled Non-GAAP Measures of this earnings release. (2) Netback from operations and netback including commodity contracts are considered non-GAAP ratios. Refer to the section entitled Non-GAAP Measures of this earnings release.

Second Quarter 2023 versus Second Quarter 2022

Oil and gas gross revenues totaled $11,989,000 in the quarter versus $14,365,000 in the second quarter of 2022. Oil revenues decreased $2,376,000 or 17% as average oil prices decreased by $37.41 per barrel or 34%, partially offset by an oil production increase of 27% to 1,821 bopd. Natural gas revenues decreased $518,000 or 69% to $232,000 as average natural gas prices decreased by $4.65/mcf or 72% to $1.83/mcf partially offset by a natural gas production increase of 10% to 1,397 mcfpd. Natural gas liquids (NGLs) revenues decreased $504,000 or 49% as average NGL prices decreased 61% to $15.97/boe partially offset by a NGL production increase of 30% to 361 boepd.

Average production for the second quarter of 2023 was 2,415 BOEPD, an increase of 25% compared to the second quarter of 2022 average production of 1,928 BOEPD due to the five wells that were drilled in the prior year partially offset by the shut-in wells during completion operations.

Production and operating expenses decreased to $1,147,000 in the second quarter of 2023, a decrease of 21%. The decrease is due to lower production taxes and compressor costs which are accounted for as leases under IFRS 16 and therefore not included in the second quarter of 2023 production and operating expenses. Production and operating expenses including these compressor costs would have been $1.3 million for the second quarter of 2023. The decrease was partially offset by the increase in production.

Depletion and depreciation expense increased $1,288,000 or 62% due to increased production and a higher PP&E balance.

G&A expense increased $177,000 or 27% due to increases in both payroll costs and director fees in 2023 and an increase in investor relations and marketing costs in 2023.

Share based compensation for the second quarter of 2023 was $356,000 compared to $32,000 in the second quarter of 2022. The increase was due to stock option and restricted share unit grants made in the second quarter of 2023.

Finance expense decreased $1,145,000 in the second quarter of 2023 compared to the prior year quarter primarily due to lower realized losses on commodity contracts in 2023 compared to the prior year partially offset by higher interest expense in 2023.

FIRST SIX MONTHS 2023 HIGHLIGHTS

Average production for the first six months of 2023 was 2,803 BOEPD, an increase of 88% compared to the first six months 2022 average production of 1,493 BOEPD. This increase is due to production from the Emery 17-2H, the Brock 9-3H and the Glenn 16-3H wells which started production at the end of 2022 and the Barnes 8-1H, Barnes 8-2H and Barnes 8-3H wells which started production in the last week of June 2023 partially offset by wells that were shut-in during completion operations

Adjusted EBITDA(1) was $19.0 million in the first six months of 2023 compared to $11.4 million in the first six months of 2022, an increase of 67%. The increase was due to a 88% increase in production partially offset by a 29% decrease in average prices

Revenue, net of royalties was $24.4 million in the first six months of 2023 compared to $18.0 million for first six months of 2022, an increase of 36%, as production increased by 88% partially offset by lower average prices

Net income in the first six months of 2023 was $12.2 million compared to $4.6 million in the first six months of 2022. The increase was primarily due to an increase in production and lower realized losses on commodity contracts partially offset by a decrease in average prices and higher depreciation expense

Average netback from operations(2) for the first six months of 2023 was $42.07/boe, a decrease of 28% from the prior year period due to higher prices in 2022. Netback including commodity contracts(2) for the first six months of 2023 was $40.66/boe which was a decrease of 15% compared to the prior year period

Production and operating expenses per barrel averaged $6.04 per BOE in the first six months of 2023 compared to $8.40 per BOE in the first six months of 2022, a decrease of 28%. The decrease was due to increased production which reduced the per barrel fixed costs and lower production taxes due to a decrease in prices

(1) Adjusted EBITDA is considered a non-GAAP measure. Refer to the section entitled Non-GAAP Measures of this earnings release. (2) Netback from operations and netback including commodity contracts are considered non-GAAP ratios. Refer to the section entitled Non-GAAP Measures of this earnings release.

First Six Months of 2023 versus First Six Months of 2022

Oil and gas gross revenues totaled $28,267,000 in the first six months of 2023 versus $20,544,000 in the first six months of 2022. Oil revenues increased $7,723,000 or 38% as oil production increased by 97% to 2,125 boepd partially offset by an average oil price decrease of $31.76 per barrel or 30%. Natural gas revenues decreased $94,000 or 8% to $1,047,000 as average natural gas prices decreased by $2.46/mcf or 43% to $3.28/mcf partially offset by a natural gas production increase of 61% to 1,765 mcfpd. Natural gas liquids (NGLs) revenues decreased $64,000 or 4% as average NGL prices decreased 42% to $21.67/boe partially offset by a NGL production increase of 66% to 384 boepd.

Average production for the first six months of 2023 was 2,803 BOEPD, an increase of 88% compared to the first six months 2022 average production of 1,493 BOEPD. This increase is due to production from the Emery 17-2H, the Brock 9-3H and the Glenn 16-3H wells which started production at the end of 2022 and the Barnes 8-1H, Barnes 8-2H and Barnes 8-3H wells which started production in the last week of June 2023 partially offset by wells that were shut-in during completion operations.

Production and operating expenses increased to $2,700,000 in the first six months of 2023, an increase of 19%. The increase was due to the increase in production and was partially offset by compressor costs which are accounted for as leases under IFRS 16 and therefore not included in the first six months of 2023 production and operating expenses. Production and operating expenses including these compressor costs would have been $3.1 million for the first six months of 2023.

Depletion and depreciation expense increased $4,487,000 or 139% due to increased production and a higher PP&E balance.

G&A expense increased $421,000 or 28% due to increases in both payroll costs and director fees in 2023 and an increase in investor relations and marketing costs in 2023.

Share based compensation for the first six months of 2023 was $374,000 compared to $157,000 in the first six months of 2022. The increase was due to stock option and restricted share unit grants made in the second quarter of 2023.

Finance income increased by $2.1 million for the first six months of 2023 due to an unrealized gain on commodity contracts in 2023.

Finance expense decreased $4.6 million in the first six months of 2023 compared to the prior year period primarily due to an unrealized loss on commodity contracts in the prior year and lower realized losses in the first six months of 2023 compared to 2022.

KOLIBRI GLOBAL ENERGY INC. CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF FINANCIAL POSITION (Unaudited, Expressed in Thousands of United States Dollars) ($000 except as noted) June 30 December 31 2023 2022 Current Assets Cash $ 945 $ 1,037 Trade and other receivables 4,272 5,773 Other current assets 369 670 Fair value of commodity contracts 123 5,709 7,480 Non-current assets Property, plant and equipment 189,441 176,554 Right of use assets 1,299 48 Fair value of commodity contracts 206 - 190,946 176,602 Total Assets $ 196,655 184,082 Current Liabilities Trade and other payables $ 13,075 $ 12,596 Lease payable 908 32 Fair value of commodity contracts - 1,421 13,983 14,049 Non-current liabilities Loans and borrowings 17,746 17,799 Asset retirement obligations 1,704 1,425 Lease payable 415 17 Fair value of commodity contracts - 594 19,865 19,835 Equity Share capital 296,227 296,221 Contributed surplus 23,693 23,254 Deficit (157,113 ) (169,277 ) Total Equity 162,807 150,198 Total Equity and Liabilities $ 196,655 184,082

KOLIBRI GLOBAL ENERGY INC. CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS AND COMPREHENSIVE LOSS (Unaudited, expressed in Thousands of United States dollars, except per share amounts) ($000 except as noted) Second Quarter First Six Months 2023 2022 2023 2022 Oil and natural gas revenue, net $ 10,114 12,428 24,407 17,975 Other income - 28 1 29 10,114 12,456 24,408 18,004 Production and operating expenses 1,147 1,364 2,700 2,271 Depletion and depreciation expense 3,375 2,087 7,713 3,226 General and administrative expenses 1,021 844 1,951 1,530 Stock based compensation 356 32 374 157 5,899 4,327 12,738 7,184 Finance income 777 747 2,167 10 Finance expense (724 ) (1,869 ) (1,673 ) (6,279 ) Net income 4,268 7,007 12,164 4,551 Net income per basic share $ 0.12 0.20 0.34 0.13 Net income per diluted share $ 0.12 0.19 0.33 0.13

KOLIBRI GLOBAL ENERGY SECOND QUARTER 2023 (Unaudited, expressed in Thousands of United States dollars, except as noted) Second Quarter First Six Months 2023 2022 2023 2022 Oil revenue before royalties $ 11,987 14,365 28,267 20,544 Gas revenue before royalties 232 750 1,047 1,141 NGL revenue before royalties 525 1,029 1,506 1,570 Oil and Gas revenue 12,746 16,144 30,820 23,255 Adjusted EBITDA(1) 7,646 8,572 19,042 11,384 Additions to property, plant & equipment 15,742 7,572 19,930 14,973 Statistics: 2nd Quarter First Six Months 2023 2022 2023 2022 Average oil production (Bopd) 1,821 1,439 2,125 1,078 Average natural gas production (mcf/d) 1,397 1,271 1,765 1,097 Average NGL production (Boepd) 361 277 384 232 Average production (Boepd) 2,415 1,928 2,803 1,493 Average oil price ($/bbl) $ 72.33 $ 109.74 $ 73.51 $ 105.27 Average natural gas price ($/mcf) $ 1.83 $ 6.48 $ 3.28 $ 5.74 Average NGL price ($/bbl) $ 15.97 $ 40.82 $ 21.67 $ 37.40 Average price (Boe) $ 58.00 $ 92.02 $ 60.75 $ 86.06 Less: Royalties (Boe) 11.98 21.19 12.64 19.55 Less: Operating expenses (Boe) 6.05 7.77 6.04 8.40 Netback from operations(2) (Boe) $ 39.97 $ 63.06 $ 42.07 $ 58.11 Price adjustment from commodity contracts (Boe) (1.37 ) (9.40 ) (1.41 ) (10.33 ) Netback including commodity contracts(2) (Boe) $ 38.60 $ 53.66 $ 40.66 $ 47.78

(1) Adjusted EBITDA is considered a non-GAAP measure. Refer to the section entitled Non-GAAP Measures of this earnings release. (2) Netback from operations and netback including commodity contracts are considered non-GAAP ratios. Refer to the section entitled Non-GAAP Measures of this earnings release.

The information outlined above is extracted from and should be read in conjunction with the Company's unaudited financial statements for the three and six months ended June 30, 2023 and the related management's discussion and analysis thereof, copies of which are available under the Company's profile at www.sedar.com.

NON-GAAP MEASURES

Netback from operations, netback including commodity contracts and adjusted EBITDA (collectively, the "Companys Non-GAAP Measures") are not measures or ratios recognized under Canadian generally accepted accounting principles ("GAAP") and do not have any standardized meanings prescribed by IFRS. Management of the Company believes that such measures and ratios are relevant for evaluating returns on each of the Company's projects as well as the performance of the enterprise as a whole. The Company's Non-GAAP Measures may differ from similar computations as reported by other similar organizations and, accordingly, may not be comparable to similar non-GAAP measures and ratios as reported by such organizations. The Companys Non-GAAP Measures should not be construed as alternatives to net income, cash flows related to operating activities, working capital or other financial measures and ratios determined in accordance with IFRS, as an indicator of the Company's performance.

An explanation of how the Companys Non-GAAP Measures provide useful information to an investor and the purposes for which the Companys management uses the Non-GAAP Measures is set out in the management's discussion and analysis under the heading Non-GAAP Measures which is available under the Company's profile at www.sedar.com and is incorporated by reference into this earnings release.

Netback from operations per barrel and its components are calculated by dividing revenue, less royalties and operating expenses by the Companys sales volume during the period. Netback including commodity contracts is calculated by adjusting netback from operations by the realized gains or losses received from commodity contracts during the period. Netback is a non-GAAP ratio but it is commonly used by oil and gas companies to illustrate the unit contribution of each barrel produced. The Company believes that the netback is a useful supplemental measure of the cash flow generated on each barrel of oil equivalent that is produced in its operations. However, non-GAAP measures and non-GAAP ratios do not have any standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS and therefore, may not be comparable to similar measures or ratios used by other companies and should not be used to make comparisons.

The following is the reconciliation of the non-GAAP ratio netback from operations to net income (loss) from continuing operations, which the Company considers to be the most directly comparable financial measure that is disclosed in the Companys financial statements:

(US $000) Three months ended June 30, Six months ended June 30, 2023 2022 2023 2022 Net income (loss) 4,268 7,006 12,164 4,551 Adjustments: Finance income (777 ) (746 ) (2,167 ) (10 ) Finance expense 724 1,869 1,673 6,279 Share based compensation 356 32 374 157 General and administrative expenses 1,021 844 1,951 1,530 Depletion, depreciation and amortization 3,375 2,087 7,713 3,226 Other income - (28 ) (1 ) (29 ) Operating netback 8,967 11,064 21,707 15,704 Netback from operations per BOE 39.97 63.06 42.07 58.11

Adjusted EBITDA is calculated as net income before interest, taxes, depletion and depreciation and other non-cash and non-operating gains and losses. The Company considers this a key measure as it demonstrates its ability to generate cash from operations necessary for future growth excluding non-cash items, gains and losses that are not part of the normal operations of the Company and financing costs. The following is the reconciliation of the non-GAAP measure adjusted EBITDA:

(US $000) Three months ended June 30, Six months ended June 30, 2023 2022 2023 2022 Net income 4,268 7,007 12,164 4,551 Depletion and depreciation 3,375 2,087 7,713 3,226 Accretion 44 6 89 12 Interest expense 375 212 860 437 Unrealized (gain) loss on commodity contracts (777 ) (746 ) (2,167 ) 3,040 Share based compensation 356 32 374 157 Interest income - (1 ) - (3 ) Other income - (28 ) (1 ) (29 ) Foreign currency loss (gain) 5 3 10 (7 ) Adjusted EBITDA 7,646 8,572 19,042 11,384

CAUTIONARY STATEMENTS

In this news release and the Companys other public disclosure:

(a) The Company's natural gas production is reported in thousands of cubic feet ("Mcfs"). The Company also uses references to barrels ("Bbls") and barrels of oil equivalent ("Boes") to reflect natural gas liquids and oil production and sales. Boes may be misleading, particularly if used in isolation. A Boe conversion ratio of 6 Mcf:1 Bbl is based on an energy equivalency conversion method primarily applicable at the burner tip and does not represent a value equivalency at the wellhead. Given that the value ratio based on the current price of crude oil as compared to natural gas is significantly different from the energy equivalency of 6:1, utilizing a conversion on a 6:1 basis may be misleading as an indication of value. (b) Discounted and undiscounted net present value of future net revenues attributable to reserves do not represent fair market value. (c) Possible reserves are those additional reserves that are less certain to be recovered than probable reserves. There is a 10% probability that the quantities actually recovered will equal or exceed the sum of proved plus probable plus possible reserves. (d) The Company discloses peak and 30-day initial production rates and other short-term production rates. Readers are cautioned that such production rates are preliminary in nature and are not necessarily indicative of long-term performance or of ultimate recovery.

Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This release contains forward-looking information including information regarding the proposed timing and expected results of exploratory and development work including production from the Company's Tishomingo field, Oklahoma acreage, projected cash flow, adjusted EBITDA and net debt, the Companys reserves based loan facility, including scheduled repayments, expected hedging levels and the Companys strategy and objectives. The use of any of the words target, plans, "anticipate", "continue", "estimate", "expect", "may", "will", "project", "should", "believe" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements.

Such forward-looking information is based on managements expectations and assumptions, including that the Company's geologic and reservoir models and analysis will be validated, that indications of early results are reasonably accurate predictors of the prospectiveness of the shale intervals, that previous exploration results are indicative of future results and success, that expected production from future wells can be achieved as modeled, that declines will match the modeling, that future well production rates will be improved over existing wells, that rates of return as modeled can be achieved, that recoveries are consistent with managements expectations, that additional wells are actually drilled and completed, that design and performance improvements will reduce development time and expense and improve productivity, that discoveries will prove to be economic, that anticipated results and estimated costs will be consistent with managements expectations, that all required permits and approvals and the necessary labor and equipment will be obtained, provided or available, as applicable, on terms that are acceptable to the Company, when required, that no unforeseen delays, unexpected geological or other effects, equipment failures, permitting delays or labor or contract disputes are encountered, that the development plans of the Company and its co-venturers will not change, that the demand for oil and gas will be sustained, that the Company will continue to be able to access sufficient capital through financings, credit facilities, farm-ins or other participation arrangements to maintain its projects, that the Company will continue in compliance with the covenants under its reserves-based loan facility and that the borrowing base will not be reduced, that funds will be available from the Companys reserves based loan facility when required to fund planned operations, that the Company will not be adversely affected by changing government policies and regulations, social instability or other political, economic or diplomatic developments in the countries in which it operates and that global economic conditions will not deteriorate in a manner that has an adverse impact on the Company's business and its ability to advance its business strategy.

Forward looking information involves significant known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. These risks include, but are not limited to: the risk that any of the assumptions on which such forward looking information is based vary or prove to be invalid, including that the Companys geologic and reservoir models or analysis are not validated, that anticipated results and estimated costs will not be consistent with managements expectations, the risks associated with the oil and gas industry (e.g. operational risks in development, exploration and production; delays or changes in plans with respect to exploration and development projects or capital expenditures; the uncertainty of reserve and resource estimates and projections relating to production, costs and expenses, and health, safety and environmental risks including flooding and extended interruptions due to inclement or hazardous weather), the risk of commodity price and foreign exchange rate fluctuations, risks and uncertainties associated with securing the necessary regulatory approvals and financing to proceed with continued development of the Tishomingo Field, the risk that the Company or its subsidiaries is not able for any reason to obtain and provide the information necessary to secure required approvals or that required regulatory approvals are otherwise not available when required, that unexpected geological results are encountered, that completion techniques require further optimization, that production rates do not match the Companys assumptions, that very low or no production rates are achieved, that the Company will cease to be in compliance with the covenants under its reserves-based loan facility and be required to repay outstanding amounts or that the borrowing base will be reduced pursuant to a borrowing base re-determination and the Company will be required to repay the resulting shortfall, that the Company is unable to access required capital, that funding is not available from the Companys reserves based loan facility at the times or in the amounts required for planned operations, that occurrences such as those that are assumed will not occur, do in fact occur, and those conditions that are assumed will continue or improve, do not continue or improve and the other risks identified in the Companys most recent Annual Information Form under the Risk Factors section, the Companys most recent management's discussion and analysis and the Companys other public disclosure, available under the Companys profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Although the Company has attempted to take into account important factors that could cause actual costs or results to differ materially, there may be other factors that cause actual results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. The forward-looking information included in this release is expressly qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements, other than as required by applicable law.

About Kolibri Global Energy Inc.

KEI is a North American energy company focused on finding and exploiting energy projects in oil, gas and clean and sustainable energy. The Company owns and operates energy properties in the United States. The Company continues to utilize its technical and operational expertise to identify and acquire additional projects. The common shares of the Company trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) under the symbol KEI and on the Over the Counter QX (OTCQX) under the symbol KGEIF.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230803209219/en/

For further information, contact:

Wolf E. Regener, President and Chief Executive Officer +1 (805) 484-3613

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.kolibrienergy.com

Source: Kolibri Global Energy Inc.
Powered by Green Dot and Green Dot Bank1, PLS will offer the Xpectations! Plus Demand Deposit Account (DDA), which will Include Enhanced Digital Banking and Other Features for Customers

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- The PLS family of financial service centers, one of the nations largest providers of community based financial services, and Green Dot Corporation (NYSE: GDOT) today announced a new partnership to build and deliver seamless, affordable and useful financial tools and services to PLS five million-plus customers. Powered by Green Dots embedded financial services platform, PLS will offer Xpectations! Plus featuring a new demand deposit account (DDA) and other tools that help customers more seamlessly access, manage and move their money.

We are excited to collaborate with Green Dot on this important new product, says Rob Fisher, Senior Vice President of Support Operations, PLS. Xpectations! Plus will empower our customers to manage many of their day-to-day financial needs. Combining Green Dots products and technology with our customer focus will allow PLS to further our mission. Our customers deserve better! Better products, more options, and lower fees.

For more than 25 years, PLS has been a community hub for the financial needs of millions of Americans. The company operates as a one-stop-shop for a wide variety of financial services: in addition to being among the nations leading providers of check cashing services, PLS also offers money transfer services, bill payment services, free money orders, and much more in its more than 200 locations. PLS ability to offer customers a full range of both traditional and alterative financial services in a single outing provides substantial value to its customers.

Americans want convenience and flexibility in how they access, manage and move their money, said Jamison Jaworski, GM/SVP of Retail and Green Dot Network, Green Dot. With our comprehensive financial technology platform, were well-positioned to enable our partners to offer their customers that convenience and flexibility. Were proud to partner with PLS to help their customers lead better, healthier financial lives.

By partnering with Green Dot, PLS will now offer customers modern demand deposit accounts that allow them to easily manage their money digitally or in store, receive direct deposits of paychecks or government benefits up to four days early, establish and grow credit through a secured credit card, and more. This expands upon PLS and Green Dots existing partnership offering PLS customers access to the Green Dot Network of more than 90,000 retail locations throughout the U.S. that offer cash-in and cash-out capabilities.

About PLS

PLS, headquartered in Chicago, operates over 200 community financial services centers across the country. PLS believes that customers deserve better than the existing services available in the marketplace to meet their critical financial needs. PLS financial service centers offer free money orders, check cashing, Xpectations! Prepaid Mastercard, money transfer services, and bill payments. Some PLS locations offer auto insurance, and vehicle license and registration services. The PLS brand also includes an automobile dealership located in Indianapolis, IN. PLS employs over 3,000 team members from the neighborhoods it serves. PLS does not offer any lending products. Visit PLS at www.pls247.com for additional information on products and services.

About Green Dot

Green Dot Corporation (NYSE: GDOT) is a financial technology and bank holding company committed to giving all people the power to bank seamlessly, affordably and with confidence. Green Dot's technology platform enables it to build products and features that address the most pressing financial challenges of consumers and businesses, transforming the way they manage and move money, and making financial empowerment more accessible for all.

Green Dot offers a broad set of financial services to consumers and businesses, ranging from debit, prepaid and payroll cards, to embedded financial and money movement services, to tax products and more. The companys banking-as-a-service (BaaS) platform enables a growing list of the worlds largest and most trusted consumer and technology brands to deploy seamless, configurable, value-driven money management solutions for their customers. Its digital bank GO2bank offers consumers simple and accessible mobile banking designed to help improve financial health over time. And its expansive Green Dot Network of more than 90,000 retail distribution locations nationwide  more than all remaining bank branches in the U.S. combined  enables it to operate primarily as a "branchless bank".

Founded in 1999 and headquartered in Austin, Texas, Green Dot has powered more than 33 million accounts directly, and many millions more through its partners. Green Dot Bank is a subsidiary of Green Dot Corporation and member of the FDIC1. For more information about Green Dots products and services, please visit www.greendot.com.

_________

1 Green Dot Bank also operates under the following registered trade names: GO2bank, GoBank and Bonneville Bank. All of these registered trade names are used by, and refer to, a single FDIC-insured bank, Green Dot Bank. Deposits under any of these trade names are deposits with Green Dot Bank and are aggregated for deposit insurance coverage up to the allowable limits.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230804154797/en/

PLS

Kathy Weber

[email protected]

Green Dot

Alison Lubert

[email protected]

Source: Green Dot Corporation
The Pony.ai and Toyota joint venture will enable the full commercialization of autonomous mobility

FREMONT, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Pony.ai, a leading global autonomous driving company, held a joint venture signing ceremony today with Toyota Motor (China) Investment Co., Ltd. (TMCI) and GAC Toyota Motor Co., Ltd. (GTMC). The three parties announced that they will form a joint venture to jointly advance the future mass production and large-scale deployment of fully driverless robotaxis.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230804774136/en/

Executives from Pony.ai, Toyota Motor (China) Investment Co., Ltd. (TMCI) and GAC Toyota Motor Co., Ltd. (GTMC) held a joint venture signing ceremony on August 4, 2023. (Photo: Business Wire)

The joint venture company will be established in 2023, with an estimated investment of more than RMB 1 billion (approx. USD 139.2 million). GTMC will provide Pony.ai with Toyota branded battery electric vehicles, which are equipped with Toyotas vehicle redundant systems that are suitable for L4 autonomous driving development. The vehicles will be equipped with Pony.ais advanced autonomous driving technology and will run on Pony.ais robotaxi network platform, PonyPilot+. The parties joint efforts will deliver safe and convenient robotaxi services for riders.

The joint venture combines Pony.ai's world-class autonomous driving technology and robotaxi operations experience, Toyotas highly regarded vehicle technologies, and GTMC's advanced production experience. It will provide the capacity for scaled-up robotaxi services, encourage the full commercialization of advanced autonomous mobility, and drive the development of the entire industry into a new stage.

The joint venture will deepen the long-time collaboration between Pony.ai and Toyota. In August 2019, Pony.ai and Toyota announced they would jointly advance the development of autonomous vehicles in China. In September 2019, the two companies joined hands to lead autonomous driving testing on public roads in China, using Toyota's Lexus RX 450h model and Pony.ais autonomous driving systems. In April 2023, the Toyota Sienna Autono-MaaS (S-AM) vehicle equipped with Pony.ai's sixth generation autonomous driving software and hardware system started public road testing in both Beijing and Guangzhou.

Among its self-owned fleets, Pony.ai currently has a combined fleet of around 200 Toyota and Lexus brand robotaxis, located in all four of Chinas Tier-1 cities (Guangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen) for road tests and public-facing robotaxi operations.

About Pony.ai

Leading global autonomous driving company Pony.ai, Inc. (Pony.ai) is pursuing an ambitious vision for autonomous mobility. We aim to bring safe, sustainable, and accessible mobility to the entire world. We believe that autonomous technology can make our roads exponentially safer for travelers. Founded in late 2016, Pony.ai has been a pioneer in extending autonomous mobility technologies and services at a rapidly expanding footprint of sites around the world. Pony.ai has formed partnerships with leading OEMs, including Toyota, SAIC, SANY, FAW Group, GAC Group, etc. To date, Pony.ai has driven over 24 million autonomous testing and operation kilometers (nearly 15 million miles) on open roads worldwide.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230804774136/en/

Adam Steinberg

[email protected]

Source: Pony.ai, Inc.
MELBOURNE, Australia--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Rio Tinto has today disclosed detailed information on 14 of its global tailings facilities and their progress towards conformance with the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management (GISTM).

These tailings facilities are those rated Very High or Extreme under GISTM classifications, based on the highest potential consequences in the extremely unlikely event of a failure.

Rio Tinto Chief Technology Officer Mark Davies said "Since the tragic failure of the tailings facility at Brumadinho in Brazil in 2019, the entire industry has been working to improve the way we manage tailings facilities.

"Responsible tailings management is critical to ensure the safety of our people and communities and to protect the environment. It is fundamental for our business and social license. We have made considerable progress since August 2020 towards conformance with the GISTM. We have completed most of the work and have detailed plans to complete outstanding items.

GISTM has meant a step change in how the industry manages its tailings facilities. Good tailings management is also about transparent partnership, and we have been working with the local communities near our facilities to increase awareness of our management practices and how we can best work together to continue to keep people and the environment safe from harm.

Details of these facilities and their progress in implementing the requirements of the GISTM can be accessed via an interactive map available at http://www.riotinto.com/tailings.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230803143822/en/

Please direct all enquiries to [email protected]

Media Relations,

United Kingdom

Matthew Klar

M +44 7796 630 637

David Outhwaite

M +44 7787 597 493

Media Relations,

Australia

Matt Chambers

M +61 433 525 739

Jesse Riseborough

M +61 436 653 412

Alyesha Anderson

M +61 434 868 118

Media Relations,

Americas

Simon Letendre

M +1 514 796 4973

Malika Cherry

M +1 418 592 7293

Investor Relations,

United Kingdom

Menno Sanderse

M +44 7825 195 178

David Ovington

M +44 7920 010 978

Laura Brooks

M +44 7826 942 797

Investor Relations,

Australia

Tom Gallop

M +61 439 353 948

Amar Jambaa

M +61 472 865 948

Rio Tinto plc

6 St Jamess Square

London SW1Y 4AD

United Kingdom

T +44 20 7781 2000

Registered in England

No. 719885

Rio Tinto Limited

Level 43, 120 Collins Street

Melbourne 3000

Australia

T +61 3 9283 3333

Registered in Australia

ABN 96 004 458 404

riotinto.com

Category - General

Source: Rio Tinto
CASTRIES, Saint Lucia--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- The Saudi Fund for Development (SFD) Chief Executive Officer, H.E. Sultan Al-Marshad, signed today SFDs first development loan agreement worth USD $75 million with the Prime Minister of Saint Lucia, Hon. Philip Joseph Pierre, to fund the Reconstruction and Rehabilitation of St. Jude Hospital Project in Saint Lucia, through SFD.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230804295858/en/

(holding the agreement from left to right): The Saudi Fund for Development (SFD) Chief Executive Officer, H.E. Sultan Al-Marshad, and the Prime Minister of Saint Lucia, Hon. Philip Joseph Pierre (Photo: AETOSWire)

Also in attendance was Saint Lucias Minister for External Affairs, International Trade, and Civil Aviation, Hon. Alva Baptiste, Saint Lucias Minister for Health, Wellness and Elderly Affairs, Hon. Moses Jn. Baptiste, the Cabinet of Ministers, and government officials from both sides.

SFDs development loan will help to provide an integrated medical facility offering secondary medical care to Saint Lucias population, with a capacity of approximately 100 beds. The project will also renovate several of its wings and sub-buildings, and as part of this, the hospital will be equipped with state-of-the-art facilities that will help to deliver excellent healthcare services to Saint Lucias population.

On this occasion, the Prime Minister of Saint Lucia, Hon. Philip Joseph Pierre, said: Today, we are one step closer to making amends to the people of Saint Lucia, particularly to the people of the south of the island, by securing funding for the reconstruction of the St. Jude Hospital. We have been able to achieve this milestone with the support of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia through the SFD, as we embrace a new era of collaboration to find sustainable solutions to tackle pressing issues.

On his part, the Chief Executive Officer of the Saudi Fund for Development, H.E Sultan Al-Marshad, said: Todays agreement signifies an important step in the development cooperation between both countries. The project to reconstruct and rehabilitate St. Jude Hospital will not only help empower local communities, but also contribute towards strengthening the health sectors capacity to cater to the requirements of Saint Lucias residents, and the surrounding areas.

Saint Lucias Minister for Health, Wellness and Elderly Affairs, Hon. Moses Jn. Baptiste, stated: The St. Jude Hospital is very special to the people of Saint Lucia, and particularly to the people of the south of our nation. We may have a small population, but St. Jude Hospital lies at the heart of our nation, serving approximately 50,000 people annually.

*Source: AETOSWire

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230804295858/en/

Nawaf Alojrush

[email protected]

Source: Saudi Fund for Development
NEEDHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Worldwide tablet shipments posted decline of 29.9% year over year in the second quarter of 2023 (2Q23), totaling 28.3 million units, according to preliminary data from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker. Demand for tablets continued to be weak in the quarter and most of the top vendors recorded double-digit declines as consumer confidence and purchasing power remained low. Elevated levels of channel inventory also acted as headwinds for new tablet shipments though the issue is expected to ease further in the coming months. Chromebook shipments also contracted in 2Q23 with shipments totaling 5.8 million units for a year-over-year decline of 1.8%. Their decline was minimal, as there were pull-in orders from H2 2023 due to the expected increase in the Chrome OS licensing cost in the second half of the year.

Apple once again led the tablet market with shipments of 10.5 million units, but still recorded a year-over-year decline of 16.8%. Despite the decline, Apple is arguably better positioned than its competitors as the company typically caters to a more affluent userbase that is perhaps less impacted by the economic downturn. Samsung shipped 5.8 million units in the quarter and ranked second overall. The company posted a decline of 18.3% year over year due to weakness in demand. However, Samsung aims to increase demand in the high-end segment, including premium and large screen products, in the second half of 2023. Lenovo moved up in rank to the third position this quarter with shipment volume of 2.1 million units. The company posted a decline of 38.8% year over year but grew 12.9% quarter over quarter as it was the start of its fiscal year and Lenovo increased marketing efforts in several promotional events. Chinese vendors Huawei and Xiaomi finished the quarter in the fourth and fifth positions respectively. Huawei shipped 1.7 million units and posted a decline of 22.9% year over year. Chinas consumer demand has been weak. The recent shopping festival in China performed below expectations resulting in excess inventory again, leaving vendors like Huawei and Honor wondering how they can increase the consumer spend. Xiaomi marked its debut in the top 5 this quarter with shipments of 1.0 million units, a substantial increase of 41.6% year over year, owing to the company's strategic model launches (with early bird discounts and exchange offers) and a well-established channel presence in the Asian market. The company has built a good reputation in the market with its flagship models, and with better allocation of their shipments they were able to boost sales in the quarter.

"There's further bifurcation in the tablet market as iPads capture the high end and brands such as Xiaomi and Lenovo proliferate within the low end," said Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for IDC's Mobility and Consumer Device Trackers. "This poses challenges for the mid-market as many consumers gravitate towards the extremes in pricing."

"The economic market conditions in the past years made way for several tablet deployments. Products that have more features but are also economically priced are well accepted, especially in the emerging markets as they bring in high value to consumers," said Anuroopa Nataraj, senior research analyst with IDC's Mobility and Consumer Device Trackers. "This is where several new players have pitched in and as a result the emerging markets have had a relatively better growth rate than the mature markets."

Top Five Tablet Companies, Worldwide Shipments, Market Share, and Year-Over-Year Growth, Q2 2023 (Preliminary results, combined company view for the current quarter only, shipments in millions) Company 2Q23 Unit

Shipments 2Q23 Market

Share 2Q22 Unit

Shipments 2Q22 Market

Share Year-Over-Year Growth 1. Apple 10.5 37.0 % 12.6 31.2 % -16.8 % 2. Samsung 5.8 20.6 % 7.1 17.7 % -18.3 % 3. Lenovo 2.1 7.6 % 3.5 8.7 % -38.8 % 4. Huawei 1.7 5.9 % 2.1 5.3 % -22.9 % 5. Xiaomi 1.0 3.6 % 0.7 1.8 % 41.6 % Others 7.2 25.3 % 14.3 35.3 % -49.7 % Total 28.3 100.0 % 40.3 100.0 % -29.9 % Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker, August 4, 2023

Top Five Chromebook Companies, Worldwide Shipments, Market Share, and Year-Over-Year Growth, Q2 2023 (Preliminary results, combined company view for the current quarter only, shipments in millions) Company 2Q23 Unit

Shipments 2Q23 Market

Share 2Q22 Unit

Shipments 2Q22 Market

Share Year-Over Year Growth 1. HP Inc. 0.9 15.6 % 1.6 26.9 % 69.2 % 2. Lenovo 1.3 21.7 % 1.3 22.8 % 3.1 % 3. Dell Technologies 1.5 25.6 % 1.3 22.2 % -14.9 % 4. Acer Group 1.3 22.7 % 1.1 18.3 % -20.7 % 5. ASUS 0.6 9.4 % 0.3 6.0 % -37.7 % Others 0.3 4.9 % 0.2 3.8 % -24.7 % Total 5.9 100.0 % 5.8 100.0 % -1.8 % Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker, August 4, 2023

Table Notes:

Data is preliminary and subject to change.

Shipments include shipments to distribution channels or end users. OEM sales are counted under the company/brand under which they are sold.

The "Company" represents the current parent company (or holding company) for all brands owned and operated as subsidiary.

Chromebook numbers include Notebook PCs running Chrome OS.

About IDC Trackers

IDC Tracker products provide accurate and timely market size, company share, and forecasts for hundreds of technology markets from more than 100 countries around the globe. Using proprietary tools and research processes, IDC's Trackers are updated on a semiannual, quarterly, and monthly basis. Tracker results are delivered to clients in user-friendly Excel deliverables and on-line query tools.

Click here to learn about IDC's full suite of data products and how you can leverage them to grow your business.

About IDC

International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. With more than 1,300 analysts worldwide, IDC offers global, regional, and local expertise on technology, IT benchmarking and sourcing, and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries. IDC's analysis and insight helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community to make fact-based technology decisions and to achieve their key business objectives. Founded in 1964, IDC is a wholly owned subsidiary of International Data Group (IDG), the world's leading tech media, data, and marketing services company. To learn more about IDC, please visit www.idc.com. Follow IDC on Twitter at @IDC and LinkedIn. Subscribe to the IDC Blog for industry news and insights.

All product and company names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230804800224/en/

Jitesh Ubrani

[email protected]

416-873-0315

Ryan Reith

[email protected]

508-935-4301

Michael Shirer

[email protected]

508-935-4200

Source: International Data Corporation
MONTREAL & TORONTO & VANCOUVER, British Columbia--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- After months of speculation, Telus has finally revealed this morning how many jobs it intends to cut, delivering a devastating blow to good jobs, working people and their families and the communities where they live, says the United Steelworkers union (USW). Telus will cut 6,000 jobs, including 4,000 here in Canada.

Telus has been deceptive to its workforce and to Canadians more generally, said USW Local 1944 President Donna Hokiro, representing close to 7,000 members who work at Rogers/Shaw, TELUS and other telecommunications-related companies.

Telus has been eroding good Canadian jobs at a dramatic rate for the last decade, with no end in sight. Corporate executives have been more concerned about their reputation than the truth or their responsibility to Canadian consumers.

In June when the union called out Telus for cutting jobs, Telus swiftly rebutted, claiming jobs were not being cut as they were being reduced through attrition via Voluntary Severance Packages.

In December 2022, Telus threatened litigation in response to a series of ads sponsored by the union during collective bargaining, highlighting Telus historic and ongoing job cuts, contrasted by the exorbitant executive compensation of the CEO.

In light of pending job cuts, USW National Director Marty Warren and Hokiro called on the federal government to make all current and future contracts with Telus contingent upon maintaining domestic jobs, otherwise urged suspending the contracts.

Telus has benefited from procurement contracts worth billions of dollars with the federal government and provincial governments in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec among other jurisdictions, with governments never once tying contracts to continued local jobs, said Warren. This has been deeply irresponsible and we are seeing the fall-out from that today.

Todays news also comes in light of damning second-quarter results, after a number of very profitable years. It is grossly unjust that working people are paying the most for poor corporate decision-making and bungling leadership, said Warren. We see this right across the economy, including here at Telus.

The USW represents 225,000 members in nearly every economic sector across Canada and is the largest private-sector union in North America, with 850,000 members in Canada, the United States and the Caribbean.

Each year, thousands of workers choose to join the USW because of our strong track record in creating healthier, safer and more respectful workplaces and negotiating better working conditions and fairer compensation  including good wages, benefits and pensions.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230804050272/en/

Shannon Devine, USW Communications, 416-938-4402 [email protected]

Donna Hokiro, USW Local 1944 President, 780-499-9994 [email protected]

Source: United Steelworkers
CALGARY, Alberta--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- In a huge victory, the United Steelworkers union (USW) has successfully negotiated and secured the first-ever collective agreement for Starbucks workers at the Calgary Millrise Centre store. The workers voted to accept their new three-year contract on Thursday. This milestone agreement sets a new standard for workers' rights and protections within the coffee industry and reinforces the USW's commitment to advocating for fair wages, workplace safety and improved working conditions.

After months of negotiations, the contract becomes the first unionized corporate Starbucks agreement reached in Alberta and the second in Canada with the USW.

Reaching this deal is such a ground-breaking achievement for us because it does not just benefit the Starbucks workers in Calgary, it sets a precedent for all Starbucks workers as well as the broader coffee industry, said Jacob Dickenscheid, USW Local 1-207 bargaining committee member.

The union was able to bargain improved working conditions, better job security, established mechanisms for resolving disputes and the contract gives the workers the ability to have a voice in the issues that impact their work lives. The workers will also receive wage increases of 5% upon ratification and an additional 5% over the following two years.

I am so proud of my fellow partners. Every step of the way, along a road that was foreign to all of us, they stayed the course and kept engaged, ensuring that the process and results were informed and democratic. This contract shows Starbucks does value us, as difficult as negotiations were, said Dickenscheid.

One of the most exciting parts of our accomplishment is that we have taken the 'blueprint' the Douglas St. Starbucks store in Victoria set out for us and improved upon it wherever we could. This new deal will hopefully inspire partners here in Canada and across the United States where over 300 stores are currently struggling to reach their first collective agreements, added Dickenscheid.

In July 2022, the Calgary Starbucks workers voted to unionize after reaching out to the USW to achieve better working conditions and to address quality concerns and safety problems that had become daily issues in the store.

"We are thrilled to have secured the first contract for Starbucks workers in Calgary, said Scott Lunny, USW Director for Western Canada and the Territories.

This achievement demonstrates the power of collective action and highlights the significance of unions in securing better wages, benefits and working conditions for all workers. This success is because of the support and solidarity of the Starbucks workers, from organizing their workplace through to this ground-breaking first contract, added Lunny.

The USW represents Starbucks workers at stores in Calgary, Edmonton and Sherwood Park in Alberta, and Victoria, Vancouver, Surrey and Langley in British Columbia, as well as a newly organized store in Waterloo, Ontario. The USW also represents 225,000 members in nearly every economic sector across Canada and is the largest private-sector union in North America, with 850,000 members in Canada, the United States and the Caribbean.

Each year, thousands of workers choose to join the USW because of our strong track record in creating healthier, safer and more respectful workplaces and negotiating better working conditions and fairer compensation  including good wages, benefits and pensions.

Starbucks workers interested in joining the USW can learn more about the benefits at betterworknow.ca/starbucks.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230804661445/en/

Scott Lunny, USW Western Canada Director, 604-329-5308, [email protected]

Brett Barden, USW Communications, 604-445-6956, [email protected]

Source: United Steelworkers
Badges allow participants to showcase leadership skills in Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB)

PHOENIX--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- University of Phoenix is pleased to share it has issued more than 450 digital badges to qualifying attendees at the Universitys second annual Inclusive Leadership Summit and Career Fair, held May 2-4, 2023. The virtual event, titled Developing a Culture of Belonging: Prioritizing Social and Emotional Well-Being, gave participants the opportunity to earn two digital badges demonstrating inclusive leadership skills. The badges, which are digital icons that display skills acquired through learning, are sharable on resumes and digital platforms. The University of Phoenix offered attendees the opportunity to earn digital badges as part of a larger commitment to skills-aligned programs and courses.

University of Phoenix is proud of our continued commitment to relevant, skills-based learning, shares John Woods, Ph.D., provost and chief academic officer. Making badges an integral part of the summit experience allowed learners to highlight the valuable leadership skills they gained during the event. Providing busy adult learners with tangible evidence of skills through digital badging is just one way we are committed to empowering learners and job seekers.

The Inclusive Leadership Summit aims to foster an atmosphere conducive to life-long learning and addressing systemic inequities to inform an ever-changing workforce. According to the recently released 2023 Career Optimism Index study by University of Phoenix Career Institute, 47% of American workers are experiencing burnout on the job. Findings of the study suggest that by investing in employees professional development, mental health and engagement, employers can foster feelings of employee optimism.

All summit attendees had the opportunity to earn the Inclusive Leader: Social and Emotional Wellbeing digital badge. Summit attendees earned this digital badge by actively engaging in critical dialogue examining aspects of trauma, prioritizing accessibility as an aspect of inclusion, post-pandemic challenges and the ongoing social and systemic issues that hinder performance and retention. Participant engagement was captured with written reflections on practices meant to foster a safe, inclusive environment that promotes social and emotional wellbeing. During the event, 303 attendees earned the Social and Emotional Wellbeing badge.

Event attendees who earned the Inclusive Leader: Owning a Personal narrative digital badge focused practical methods for improving their brand as a champion for diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB). Attendees who earned this badge participated in the inaugural Workforce Diversity Leaders Seminar, three highly interactive sessions facilitated for participants to leverage their authenticity as a value proposition to contribute to their practice of inclusive leadership. As a result, 154 summit attendees earned this workforce-focused badge. The Workforce Diversity Leaders Seminar also served as a meeting place for the advancement and empowerment of employee resource group (ERG) or business resource group (BRG) leaders, ERG or BRG sponsors and emerging leaders who serve in workforce areas related to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging.

Summit participant Carla Johnson, a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Manager for Allegis Group, says she valued the opportunity to participate in the Workforce Diversity Leaders Seminar at this years event. As a professional committed to fostering diversity, equity and inclusion, I was happy to see the Inclusive Leadership Summit offer the Workplace Diversity Leadership Seminars and associated badge this year, she shares. Although strategies for inclusive leadership were offered throughout the event, the seminars really focused on strategies for leaders to expand our skills and support our teams. The change to earn a digital badge was important as well, as it helps bring visibility to these important skillsets.

Learn more here about the University of Phoenix Inclusive Leadership Summit.

About University of Phoenix

University of Phoenix is continually innovating to help working adults enhance their careers in a rapidly changing world. Flexible schedules, relevant courses, interactive learning, and Career Services for Life help students more effectively pursue career and personal aspirations while balancing their busy lives. For more information, visit phoenix.edu.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230804530049/en/

Michele Mitchum

University of Phoenix

[email protected]

Source: University of Phoenix
China Life Insurance Company Limited (the "Company") (NYSE: LFC) announced today that due to the adjustment of work arrangements, Mr. Zhao Peng tendered his resignation as the President, an Executive Director and a member of the Strategy and Assets and Liabilities Management Committee of the Company on August 4, 2023 , which took effect on the same day. Mr. Zhao Peng has confirmed that he has no disagreement with the board of directors (the "Board") of the Company and there are no other matters relating to his resignation that need to be brought to the attention of the shareholders of the Company. The Company would like to express its gratitude to Mr. Zhao Peng for his contribution to the Company during his tenure of service.

The Company further announced that at the twenty-seventh meeting of the seventh session of the Board of the Company held on August 4, 2023 , Mr. Li Mingguang has been appointed as the President of the Company and his qualification as the President of the Company is subject to the approval of the National Administration of Financial Regulation. Prior to obtaining such approval, the Board has appointed Mr. Li Mingguang as the person temporarily in charge of the Company.

The biographical details of Mr. Li Mingguang are set out below:

Mr. Li Mingguang , born in July 1969 , has been serving as the Secretary to the Party Committee of the Company since July 2023 , an Executive Director of the Company since August 2019 , and a member of the Party Committee of China Life Insurance (Group) Company since April 2023 . Mr. Li Mingguang joined the Company in 1996 and subsequently served as the Deputy Division Chief, the Division Chief, an Assistant to the General Manager of the Product Development Department, the Responsible Actuary of the Company, the General Manager of the Actuarial Department, the Chief Actuary, the Board Secretary and the Vice President of the Company. He was the Chief Actuary of China Life Pension Company Limited and a Director of China Life Asset Management Company Limited. He graduated from Shanghai Jiao Tong University with a bachelor's degree in computer science in 1991, Central University of Finance and Economics majoring in monetary banking (actuarial science) with a master's degree in 1996 and Tsinghua University with an EMBA in 2010. Mr. Li Mingguang is a Fellow of the China Association of Actuaries (FCAA) and a Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (FIA). He was the Chairman of the first session of the China Actuarial Working Committee and the Secretary-general of both the first and the second sessions of the China Association of Actuaries. He is currently the Vice Chairman of the China Association of Actuaries. Mr. Li Mingguang receives a special government allowance from the State Council.

China life insurance

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/china-life-insurance-company-limited-change-of-president-301893533.html

SOURCE China Life
By Caroline Tam, KYODO NEWS - Aug 5, 2023 - 07:30 | Arts, World, All

An exhibition featuring some of Hong Kong's most iconic glowing signs is being held with the event's organizer aiming to preserve the city's fading neon legacy amid a shift to light-emitting diode technology.

The exhibition, "Vital Signs," at the Tai Kwun art center and running through Sept. 3, celebrates Hong Kong's distinct visual identity through its iconic neon heritage.

Over 20 neon signs are featured, many of which have been conserved and recommissioned by the nonprofit organization Tetra Neon Exchange and are on public display for the first time.

Tai Kwun will also hold a series of events, including workshops, talks, screenings and tours, to further teach visitors about the cultural heritage of Hong Kong's neon industry.

First introduced in the 1920s, neon signs have been a ubiquitous feature of Hong Kong's urban landscape since the 1950s, with thousands of signs lighting up the city's streets and skyline.

With the rise of LED technology in the 1990s, however, neon signs began to disappear from the city's streets as many businesses switched to the cheaper and more energy-efficient alternative.

The number of neon signs in the former British colony was estimated at some 120,000 around 2010 but has plunged to about 400 in 2022, according to Hong Kong media.

This decline in popularity has been further exacerbated in recent years as the city government has tightened regulations on unauthorized signage, issuing mass removal orders for the signs.

Last year, the decades-old Tai Tung bakery was forced to remove a sign that had represented the business for over half a century due to safety concerns. Another company, traditional bridal wear store Koon Nam Wah, was compelled to take down a sign that had been on display since the 1980s.

Both signs were picked up by Tetra Neon Exchange after removal and are currently on display at the exhibition.

Related coverage:

Double trouble: Rubber ducks come back to Hong Kong waters
Fisker Inc. (NYSE: FSR) (Fisker), driven by a mission to create the worlds most emotional and sustainable electric vehicles, today announced its financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2023.

Our second quarter marked an important milestone for Fisker as we started deliveries of our first Fisker Ocean vehicles to customers. We are currently in a quarter that truly marks the inflection for Fisker  our business model has now been proven, by the fact that we are already making a positive profit margin on the first vehicles we are selling, stated Henrik Fisker, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Fisker.

Feedback from our first customers and the numerous members of the media who have now reviewed the Fisker Ocean has been quite positive, and we are not slowing down. We unveiled our future product vision to investors, the press, and our customers and are excited to enter a range of new vehicle segments, including pickup trucks. We look forward to getting more and more vehicles into the hands of our loyal customers so they can experience the unique and class-leading features of the Ocean, continued Fisker.

Recent Updates:

Fisker achieved an EPA estimated total range of 360 miles for the Fisker Ocean Extreme on 20-inch wheels, exceeding Fiskers previous estimates. The EPA values confirm the Fisker Ocean Extreme has the longest range of any new electric SUV under $200,000 sold in the US today.

The Fisker Ocean Extreme received EPA Certificate of Conformity and California Air Resources Board Executive Order, approving it for sale and delivery in the US at the end of May.

1,022 Fisker Ocean vehicles were produced in Q2 2023. A couple of suppliers had challenges ramping to targeted Q2 levels, but the company is intently focused on working with all suppliers to swiftly ramp. In July, 1,009 Fisker Oceans were produced up from 741 units in June while the assembly rate per day reached 140 at the end of July, up from 80 per day at the end of June. July had reduced shifts and fewer working days due to the planned Magna Steyr annual summer shutdown.

Fisker updates 2023 production outlook to 20,000-23,000 units as a key supplier required additional time to ramp their capacity to meet our 2H 2023 timeline.

The Company began US and European deliveries of the Fisker Ocean One in California, Denmark and Germany with 11 customer deliveries completed in 2Q partly due to a later start in the quarter, logistics optimization, and extra time required to accumulate appropriate quantities for efficient transport.

Fisker recently opened customer facilities in London, Oslo and Stockholm. The Company plans to open additional locations in Los Angeles, Neuss/Duesseldorf, Paris, Frankfurt, Arizona, Maryland, New York, and Tennessee, and is in negotiations on a few dozen other properties across North America and Europe. Vehicle test drive events began recently.

Bolstered the companys balance sheet with a successful offering of $340 million in aggregate principal of 0% senior unsecured convertible notes due 2025 to an institutional investor, with the potential to increase the aggregate principal amount of the notes to $680 million. The transaction resulted in gross proceeds of $300 million to Fisker.

Published Fisker Ocean LCA report which highlights unprecedented sustainability through 5 phases of the vehicles life, from raw materials to vehicle end of use. With the lowest published carbon footprint of any electric SUV, the Fisker Ocean LCA is yet another testament to how sustainability has been built into the company from the beginning.

Completed first large-scale media event with production vehicles in Vienna, Austria where two dozen media correspondents put the Ocean vehicles through the paces.

Fisker held its inaugural Product Vision Day event on August 3, 2023, where it showcased its future product lineup and its vision of a Clean Future for All. Fisker believes this exciting lineup of EVs, combined with its innovation, design, and company-wide commitment to environmental responsibility, will resonate with consumers globally. Fisker opened reservations for the Ronin and Alaska.

Announced the company will produce 100 Fisker Ocean Extreme Vigyan Edition vehicles for the India market. Fisker expects to complete the homologation process for India by September and to commence deliveries in Q4 2023.

The company expects to open a delivery center in China in 2023 and expects to begin deliveries of the Fisker Ocean in China in 1H 2024.

Fisker continues to expand its internal technical capabilities and our global team now totals more than 1,000 as of August 3, 2023.

Second Quarter 2023 Financial Highlights:

Revenue totaled $825 thousand compared to revenue of $10 thousand in the second quarter of 2022.

Gross margin was 7.5% on a reported basis, and 18.5% excluding discounted early-stage investor deliveries.

Loss from operations totaled $87.9 million, including $9.0 million of stock-based compensation expense.

Net loss totaled $85.5 million and $0.25 loss per share. Weighted average shares outstanding totaled 335.9 million for the three months ended June 30, 2023.

Net cash used in operating activities totaled $128.1 million and capital expenditures totaled 91.3 million.

Cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash was $521.8 million as of June 30, 2023; this excludes $300 million in gross proceeds from the July convertible note offering and $33.4 million in VAT receivables which we expect to receive as refunds or to monetize against vehicle sales taxes.

2023 Business Outlook

Fisker expects to produce 20,000-23,000 units in 2023, provided Fiskers suppliers and partners can support this volume and ramp. The following information reflects Fiskers expectations for key non-GAAP operating expenses and capital expenditures for full-year 2023. Fisker is projecting the total of these items to be within a range of $565 million to $640 million. Fisker anticipates an 8-12% gross margin range for full year 2023, provided input costs do not change dramatically.

Key Expense Item USD, millions Research & Development (Non-GAAP)1 $ 160 - 190 Selling, General, and Administrative (Non-GAAP)1 $ 160 - 190 Capital Expenditures $ 245 - 260 Total $ 565 - 640

1Excludes stock-based compensation expense. A reconciliation to the corresponding GAAP amount is not provided as the quantification of stock-based compensation excluded from the non-GAAP measure, which may be significant, cannot be reasonably calculated or predicted without unreasonable efforts. The Non-GAAP adjustment for stock-based compensation expense requires additional inputs such as number of shares granted and market price volatilities that are not currently ascertainable and cannot be reasonably estimated.

Conference Call Information

Fisker Inc. will host a conference call to discuss the results at 6:00 a.m. Pacific Time (9:00 a.m. Eastern Time) today, August 4, 2023. The live audio webcast will be accessible on Fiskers Investor Relations website at https://investors.fiskerinc.com. A recording of the webcast will also be available following the conference call.

Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures (Unaudited)

This press release and the accompanying tables references certain non-generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (GAAP) financial measures, including non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA, non-GAAP selling, general, and administrative expense, non-GAAP research and development expense and non-GAAP total operating expenses. These non-GAAP financial measures differ from their directly comparable GAAP financial measures due to adjustments made to exclude stock-based compensation expense. None of these non-GAAP financial measures is a substitute for or superior to measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP and should not be considered as an alternative to any other performance measures derived in accordance with GAAP.

Fisker believes that presenting these non-GAAP financial measures provides useful supplemental information to investors about Fisker in understanding and evaluating its operating results, enhancing the overall understanding of its past performance and future prospects, and allowing for greater transparency with respect to key financial metrics used by its management in financial and operational-decision making. However, there are a number of limitations related to the use of non-GAAP measures and their nearest GAAP equivalents. For example, other companies may calculate non-GAAP measures differently, or may use other measures to calculate their financial performance, and therefore any non-GAAP measures Fisker uses may not be directly comparable to similarly titled measures of other companies. Therefore, both GAAP financial measures of Fiskers financial performance and the respective non-GAAP measures should be considered together. Please see the reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measure in the tables below.

Disclosure Information

Fisker uses the investor relations section on its website as a means of complying with its disclosure obligations under Regulation FD. It also uses various social media channels as a means of disclosing information about Fisker and its products to its customers, investors and the public (e.g., @fiskerinc on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and LinkedIn). Accordingly, investors should monitor Fiskers investor relations website and these social media channels in addition to following Fiskers press releases, SEC filings, and public conference calls and webcasts.

About Fisker Inc.

California-based Fisker Inc. is revolutionizing the automotive industry by developing the most emotionally desirable and eco-friendly electric vehicles on Earth. Passionately driven by a vision of a clean future for all, the company is on a mission to become the No. 1 e-mobility service provider with the worlds most sustainable vehicles. To learn more, visit www.FiskerInc.com  and enjoy exclusive content across Fiskers social media channels: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

Download the revolutionary new Fisker mobile app from the App Store or Google Play store.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release includes forward-looking statements, which are subject to the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements may be identified by words such as feel, believes, expects, estimates, projects, intends, should, is to be, or the negative of such terms, or other comparable terminology and include, among other things, the statements quoted by our Chief Executive Officer, the timing of start of production and delivery of the Fisker Ocean or the Fisker PEAR, the sufficiency of our cash to fund production launch of the Fisker Ocean, and statements regarding Fiskers future performance under 2023 Business Outlook, the reported financial results for the second quarter of 2023, which are subject to completion of Fiskers internal review, and other future events that involve risks and uncertainties. Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements contained herein due to many factors, including, but not limited to: Fiskers limited operating history; Fiskers ability to enter into additional manufacturing and other contracts with Magna, or other OEMs or tier-one suppliers in order to execute on its business plan; the risk that OEM and supply partners do not meet agreed upon timelines or experience capacity constraints; Fisker may experience significant delays in the design, manufacture, regulatory approval, launch and financing of its vehicles; Fiskers ability to execute its business model, including market acceptance of its planned products and services; Fiskers inability to retain key personnel and to hire additional personnel; competition in the electric vehicle market; Fiskers inability to develop a sales distribution network; and the ability to protect its intellectual property rights; and those factors discussed in Fiskers Annual Report on Form 10-K, under the heading Risk Factors, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC), as supplemented by Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and other reports and documents Fisker files from time to time with the SEC. Any forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made, and Fisker undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this press release.

Second Quarter 2023 Financial Results*

Fisker Inc. and Subsidiaries Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations (amounts in thousands, except share and per share data) Three Months Ended June 30, 2023 March 31, 2023 June 30, 2022 Revenue $ 825 $ 198 $ 10 Costs of goods sold 763 164 8 Gross margin 62 34 2 Operating costs and expenses: Selling, general and administrative 38,948 44,648 17,521 Research and development 49,032 76,999 71,160 Total operating costs and expenses 87,980 121,647 88,681 Loss from operations (87,918 ) (121,613 ) (88,679 ) Other income (expense): Other income (expense) (1,408 ) (45 ) (452 ) Interest income 6,581 6,894 1,353 Interest expense (4,605 ) (4,601 ) (4,751 ) Foreign currency gain/(loss) 3,797 (401 ) (3,417 ) Unrealized gain/(loss) recognized on equity securities 340 (730 ) (10,030 ) Total other income (expense) 4,705 1,117 (17,297 ) Net loss before income taxes (83,213 ) (120,496 ) (105,976 ) Provision for income taxes (2,271 ) (59 ) - Net loss $ (85,484 ) $ (120,555 ) $ (105,976 ) Basic and Diluted net loss per share $ (0.25 ) $ (0.38 ) $ (0.36 ) Basic and Diluted weighted average common shares outstanding 335,888,051 320,983,589 298,269,801

Fisker Inc. and Subsidiaries Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets (amounts in thousands, except share and per share data) As of: June 30, 2023 December 31, 2022 Current assets: Cash and cash equivalents $ 467,549 $ 736,549 Restricted cash 54,233 - Inventory 172,113 4,276 Prepaid expenses and other current assets 148,650 87,489 Equity investment 2,750 3,140 Total current assets 845,295 831,454 Non-current assets: Property and equipment, net 539,742 387,137 Intangible assets 236,896 246,922 Right of use asset, net 53,037 33,424 Other non-current assets 54,434 16,489 Total noncurrent assets 884,109 683,972 Total assets $ 1,729,404 $ 1,515,426 Current liabilities: Accounts payable $ 183,279 $ 58,871 Accrued expenses 395,676 264,925 Lease liabilities (short term) 9,251 7,085 Total current liabilities 588,206 330,881 Non-current liabilities: Customer deposits 15,310 15,334 Lease liabilities 42,655 27,884 Convertible notes 661,683 660,822 Total non-current liabilities 719,648 704,040 Total liabilities 1,307,854 1,034,921 Stockholder's equity 421,550 480,505 Total liabilities and equity $ 1,729,404 $ 1,515,426

Fisker Inc. and Subsidiaries Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows (amounts in thousands, except share and per share data) Three Months Ended June 30, 2023 2022 Cash flows from Operating Activities Net loss $ (85,484 ) $ (105,976 ) Stock-based compensation 9,026 1,195 Depreciation and Amortization 17,084 205 Accretion of debt issuance costs 433 421 Unrealized (gain)/loss recognized on equity securities (340 ) 10,030 Change in operating assets and liabilities (64,815 ) (61,319 ) Other operating activities (3,971 ) 5,964 Net cash used in operating activities (128,067 ) (149,480 ) Cash flows from Investing Activities Purchase of property and equipment (91,314 ) (54,161 ) Net cash used in investing activities (91,314 ) (54,161 ) Cash flows from Financing Activities Proceeds from exercise of stock options 6 218 Proceeds from stock issuance under "At-the-market" offering 87,942 14,568 Payments for "At-the-market" issuance costs (1,175 ) (353 ) Payments to tax authorities for statutory tax withholdings (2,768 ) (1,415 ) Net cash provided by financing activities 84,005 13,018 Net increase / (decrease) in cash and cash equivalents (135,376 ) (190,623 ) Cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash, beginning of period 657,158 1,042,562 Cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash, end of period $ 521,782 $ 851,939

Fisker Inc. and Subsidiaries Unaudited Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Financials Measures (amounts in thousands, except share and per share data) Adjusted EBITDA Three Months Ended June 30, 2023 March 31, 2023 June 30, 2022 Net loss (GAAP) $ (85,484 ) $ (120,555 ) $ (105,976 ) Provision for income taxes 2,271 59 - Interest income (6,581 ) (6,894 ) (1,353 ) Interest expense 4,605 4,601 4,751 Depreciation and amortization 17,084 9,150 2,043 Stock-based compensation expense/(benefit) 9,026 (1,642 ) 1,195 Foreign currency loss/(gain) (3,797 ) 401 3,417 Unrealized loss/(gain) recognized on equity securities (340 ) 730 10,030 Adjusted EBITDA (non-GAAP) $ (63,216 ) $ (114,150 ) $ (85,893 )

*The financial results discussed herein are presented on a preliminary basis; final data will be included in Fiskers Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended June 30, 2023

Source: Fisker Inc.

1 EPA estimated range. Actual results may vary for many reasons, including driving conditions, wheel size, state of battery charge, and how the vehicle is driven and maintained. Class refers to mid-size SUVs with an MSRP under $200,000.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230804532764/en/

Fisker Inc. Communications



Frank Boroch, VP, Investor Relations & Treasury



[email protected]

Matthew DeBord, Sr. Director, Communications Strategy & Storytelling



[email protected]

Source: Fisker Inc.
MORAGA, Calif., Aug. 04, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via IBN -- AtomBeam CEO Charles Yeomans and Chief Scientist Joshua Cooper will share their insights into the companys groundbreaking innovations during an open Fireside Chat webinar, scheduled for Aug. 18 at 11 a.m. PST.

"We are thrilled to bring together the expertise of our CEO, Charles Yeomans, and our esteemed Chief Scientist, Joshua Cooper, in this fireside chat. It's a unique opportunity for participants to gain valuable insights into the world of data search and random access technology and witness the groundbreaking innovations that AtomBeam is spearheading." - CEO Charles Yeomans

Joshua Cooper holds a bachelors degree in Mathematics and Linguistics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in Mathematics (Extremal Combinatorics) from University of California, San Diego. As a Professor of Mathematics at the University of South Carolina, Joshua's expertise in Data Science and Machine Learning has made him a sought-after consultant in these fields. With an extensive track record of 40+ published papers covering diverse subjects in discrete mathematics and computer science, Cooper brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the AtomBeam team.

Register for the webinar here: https://dnagency.lpages.co/atombeam-firesidechat/

Company Contact:Charles YeomansCEO At[email protected]

About AtomBeam

AtomBeam Technologies is a pioneering data compaction software company that is revolutionizing the way data is transmitted and stored. With a strong focus on IoT connectivity and data compaction, AtomBeam's groundbreaking technology offers enhanced efficiency, security, and speed. Their successful crowdfunding campaign, raising over $3 million, highlights the industry's recognition of their innovative solutions. AtomBeam continues to lead the charge in transforming the data landscape, with a mission to empower businesses and individuals with advanced data compaction technology.

For more information visit: AtomBeamTech.com

Wire Service Contact:IBNLos Angeles, Californiawww.InvestorBrandNetwork.com310.299.1717 Office[email protected]

Source: AtomBeam
WASHINGTON, D.C., Aug. 04, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, Vice President Harris announced the recommended awardees for the MBDA Capital Readiness Program. The Capital Readiness Program is a $125 million technical assistance program to help underserved entrepreneurs grow and scale their businesses. Once final awards are made, the awardees will launch and operate business incubators or accelerators designed to prepare underserved entrepreneurs to secure capital from the historic $10 billion State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI) and other capital sources.

The launch of the Capital Readiness Program marks a monumental milestone for MBDA, following the Agencys enactment as a permanent Federal Agency in November 2021 as part of President Bidens Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

The Capital Readiness Program marks the largest investment to support underserved entrepreneurs and businesses in Commerce Department history, said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. The Biden Administration continues to make historic investments in building a strong, equitable economy, including by supporting our Nations small and disadvantaged businesses. The Capital Readiness Program will provide the resources and tools to prepare businesses to access capital and funding, and ensure prosperity is within reach for all American entrepreneurs.

The investments through the State Small Business Credit Initiative and the Capital Readiness Program are helping fuel a small business boom by providing small businesses and entrepreneurs the resources they need to succeed, said Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo. Today's announcement is an important step toward helping to unlock the potential of entrepreneurs in underserved communities across the nation who may have otherwise never had the support needed to pursue their business ideas and ambitions.

MBDAs Capital Readiness Program is funded by the Department of Treasurys State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI) and was reauthorized under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. SSBCI is a nearly $10 billion fund designed to drive new investment and capital to small businesses across America. SSBCI provides funding to states, the District of Columbia, territories, and Tribal governments to promote entrepreneurship, increase access to capital, and help businesses growespecially in traditionally underserved communities.

MBDA is the only federal government agency dedicated solely to supporting the growth and global competitiveness of minority business enterprises. The Capital Readiness Program awardees will join MBDAs National Network of 88 business centers and other projects that provide technical assistance and business support services to minority business enterprises.

The purpose of the Capital Readiness Program is to provide every American entrepreneur an equitable shot at building a successful business, said Donald R. Cravins, Jr., Under Secretary of Commerce for Minority Business Development. The Biden Administration is investing $10 billion to support small businesses and empower them to access the capital needed to invest in job-creating opportunities. Through the Capital Readiness Program, MBDA will prepare socially and economically disadvantaged entrepreneurs to take advantage of this historic funding opportunity. Once final awards are made, the 43 Capital Readiness Program awardees will join MBDAs already robust National Network of business and specialty centers, giving our Agency and the Department of Commerce greater reach and influence in helping to create an economy that works for all businesses.

The above-referenced applications are being recommended for funding. This announcement does not constitute an authorization to start a project and is not a guarantee of funding. A Grants Officer will notify successful applicants in a written Award Notice when such applicants have been selected for an award, at which point the approval and obligation of funds for the above-referenced applications will become final. To see the locations, awardees, and amounts for the recommended awards under the Capital Readiness Program, and for more information on the recommended awardees and the program itself, visit www.mbda.gov.

###

Attachments

Gabriel Cushing Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) [email protected]

Source: Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA)
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Aug. 04, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cannabix Technologies Inc. (CSE: BLO) (OTC PINK: BLOZF) (the Company or Cannabix) developer of marijuana and alcohol breath testing devices reports that it has filed an International Patent Application (PCT) titled, Apparatus and Methods for Capturing Non-Volatile and Semi-Volatile Substances from Breath. This PCT application covers new innovations and intellectual property related the development to the detection of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and Semi-Volatile Substances (like delta-9 THC) using the handheld Cannabix Breath Collection Unit (BCU). The BCU allows for the efficient collection, adsorption and desorption of analytes of low volatility from human breath.

Highlights and Updates:

The Company has filed a new patent for its BCU related technology allowing for effective breath sample collection from humans for typically very difficult to detect non-volatile compounds in breath (like delta-9 THC).

Cannabixs Mass Spectrometer Breath Sampler (MSBS) technology along with BCU have been providing consistent results in the detection of delta-9 THC in breath from smoking and THC infused edibles consumption. The Company reports that early testing with Delta- 8 THC in standards, in the low 10-100 picogram range, have been detected using the MSBS technology. Delta-8 THC is present in small amounts in hemp and has psychoactive and intoxicating effects, similar though less potent compared to delta-9 THC. Since it is extracted from legal forms of cannabis and concentrated, it has been of increasing concern for law enforcement and state governments. The Company is planning testing with metabolized delta-8 THC.

Cannabix is advancing discussions with industry leading forensic laboratory organizations on how to best integrate its novel MSBS hardware into current forensic testing and analysis methods.

California to usher in a new employment statute for cannabis testing that will position breath testing for cannabis as an important alternative to legacy methods.

The new PCT covers various novel methods for efficient collection of analytes of low volatility from human breath developed by the Company. This includes liquid secondary adsorption, the concept behind the MSBS, which has repeatedly demonstrated efficient capture and release of THC. This novel method uses the breath aerosol as a carrier of solid and viscous liquid particle analytes as well as a secondary adsorbent to prevent sample loss from droplet surface contact and deposition. This is a unique capability in that current methods focus solely on volatile analytes in breath, while the non-volatile components provide much more information about the subject. Cannabix has been continuously improving collection efficiency of the BCU, and sample transfer efficiency of the MSBS such that the results are comparable or better relative to conventional Liquid chromatographymass spectrometry (LC-MS) forensic methods, which are time-consuming and expensive.

Breath samples collected portably with the BCU have detected and confirmed delta-9 THC in breath out to 4 hours after smoking even after being stored and analyzed up to two days after sample collection, demonstrating the robustness and utility of the method. The Company is advancing discussions with industry leading forensic laboratory organizations on how to best integrate its BCU and MSBS hardware into current forensic testing and analysis methods. Cannabixs marijuana breath testing technologies are meeting the growing demand for new non-invasive, fairer, and more accurate delta-9 THC testing.

Significant changes in Californias employment laws have been adopted by its state legislature (known as Assembly Bill 2188 or AB 2188) whereby employers in California will be prohibited from making employment decisions based upon the presence of non-psychoactive cannabis metabolites in drug screening  these are molecules that stay in a cannabis users system for days, weeks, or even months after use. Furthermore, employers will need to ensure that commencing January 1, 2024, they do not make any adverse employment decisions based upon an applicants or employees off-duty cannabis use (1). Cannabixs MSBS technology has been specifically built to detect recent cannabis use  detecting Delta-9 THC, the psychoactive component of marijuana that causes impairment  using breath samples, within 1-4 hours after consumption.

Rav Mlait, CEO, commented, We have been steadily growing and strengthening our intellectual property portfolio in the arena of breath testing -- this is testament to the ability of Cannabix engineers to innovate. Our BCU and MSBS hardware continue to show very good sensitivity due to the ability to effectively collect and desorb breath samples containing non-volatiles like delta-9 THC.

(1) https://www.perkinscoie.com/en/news-insights/california-to-protect-employee-off-duty-cannabis-use-effective-2024.html

About Cannabix Technologies Inc.Cannabix Technologies Inc. is a developer of marijuana and alcohol breathalyzer technologies for law enforcement, workplaces and laboratories. Cannabix is working to develop delta-9 THC and alcohol screening devices. Delta-9 THC is the psychoactive component of marijuana that causes impairment. Breath testing for delta-9 THC would allow employers and law enforcement to identify recent marijuana use that better aligns with impairment. Cannabix is the developer of contactless breath alcohol detection devices for employers and other settings.

We seek Safe Harbor.

On behalf of the Board of Directors

Rav Mlait

CEOCannabix Technologies Inc.

For further information, contact the Company at [email protected]

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 technologies 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.

501-3292 Production Way, Burnaby, B.C., V5A 4R4Phone: (604) 551-7831 Fax: 604-676-2767[email protected]cannabixtechnologies.com

Source: Cannabix Technologies Inc.
EDMONTON, Alberta, Aug. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Youth in Edmonton have the potential to shape a bright future for our community  but they are navigating challenges that when left unsupported could lead them toward a very different path. YMCA of Northern Alberta (YMCA) and Boys & Girls Clubs Big Brothers Big Sisters of Edmonton & Area (BGCBigs) are two youth-serving organizations that experience first-hand how positive, early intervention can help our young people overcome these challenges and be set up for success. Together with the Edmonton Police Service (EPS), YMCA Youth Diversion and BGCBigs collaborate to provide this critical intervention.

Through the DIVERSIONfirst partnership, YMCA Youth Diversion and BGCBigs work with EPS to help direct youth away from the criminal justice system by intervening before they are criminally charged. These programs help support vulnerable youth to be accountable for their actions and find a positive path forward.

Homeward Trust Edmonton and the Government of Alberta have both stepped up to fund the YMCAs and BGCBigs critical programs, which are invaluable tools to help counter housing insecurity and crime.

For youth, experiencing homelessness strongly correlates to a lifetime of housing challenges, and involvement in the criminal justice system can significantly hinder their future opportunities, said Susan McGee, Executive Director of Homeward Trust Edmonton. This is why Homeward Trust is proud to partner with the YMCA and BGCBigs on the DIVERSIONfirst program, which works to prevent homelessness and the mental, financial and emotional toll it takes on people.

Since its inception in 2018, DIVERSIONfirst has steered hundreds of youth away from the criminal justice system. Instead of charging youth who commit low-level offenses, EPS' DIVERSIONfirst Unit refers youth to the YMCA or BGCBigs, who then help these young people reach their full potential through developing positive mentoring relationships, bolstering their support systems and encouraging them to explore their goals in positive ways. By meeting youth where they are and building on their unique strengths, YMCA Youth Diversion and BGCBigs have an incredible impact.

By avoiding criminalizing youth and supporting them on a positive journey forward, we can be part of the solution at this critical juncture in a young persons life, explained Nick Parkinson, President and CEO of YMCA of Northern Alberta. We have seen first-hand the positive outcomes of this program and are excited to continue our partnership with EPS, BGCBigs, Homeward Trust and the Government of Alberta to continue making a difference in young peoples lives each day.

The success of this program depends on collaboration between these agencies who all have the best interest of local youth at heart. Without the critical funding from Homeward Trust Edmonton and Government of Albertas Crime Prevention program, BGCBigs and the YMCA would not be able to deliver this lifechanging programming.

So often when youth find themselves in trouble its because they, for one reason or another, didnt have access to the support and resources that are so important from a young age, said Liz ONeill, Executive Director, BGCBigs. We see the impacts of this program every day with the young people we work withthey forge positive relationships, build self-confidence and start to envision a brighter future for themselves that they might not have been able to see before. Were grateful to Homeward Trust Edmonton and the Government of Alberta for seeing the value of this important work.

About YMCA of Northern Alberta

YMCA of Northern Alberta is a registered charity dedicated to building healthy communities since 1907. From providing quality child care and supporting people in their health and wellness to providing important community outreach programs, the YMCA of Northern Alberta works to strengthen communities in the Red Deer, Wood Buffalo, Grande Prairie, and Edmonton regions. For more information, visit ymcanab.ca.

About Boys & Girls Clubs Big Brothers Big Sisters of Edmonton & Area (BGCBigs)

Boys and Girls Clubs Big Brothers Big Sisters of Edmonton and Area (BGCBigs) is a community-supported organization providing safe supportive spaces and positive mentoring relationships where young people can experience new opportunities and develop confidence and skills for life. BGCBigs Mentoring and After-School programs seek to support vulnerable children and youth challenged by the impacts of poverty. BGCBigs also works in partnership with other community organizations to develop and deliver programs geared to specific populations, such as the immigrant and refugee community, the Indigenous community and other vulnerable groups. Visit bgcbigs.ca or find BGCBigs on social media @bgcbigs.

About Homeward Trust Edmonton

As a community-based organization and system planner, we develop and implement strategies and programs to end homelessness in Edmonton. Working collaboratively with the entire homeless-serving sector, we take a community and data-informed approach to allocate funding from all orders of government to programs and projects based on potential impact and current priority needs. Guided by the Community Plan to End Homelessness, we adapt to changing community needs while working towards our end goal of providing safe and stable housing for every unhoused individual and ensuring they have the needed supports to be successful long-term. We are grateful to the Government of Canada, the Government of Alberta and the City of Edmonton for their ongoing commitment to our efforts.

Contact: Amber Niemeier Chief Community Engagement Officer YMCA of Northern Alberta 780-966-9035 [email protected]

Source: YMCA of Northern Alberta
Europe, Aug. 04, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Altr, an innovative platform for luxury collectibles, has sold a Ferrari F40 supercar for $2.5M using blockchain technology to transparently transfer ownership. The F40 was first presented during the Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix on a 55m superyacht in the heart of Monacos port.

Built on Polygon, Altr issues a digital proof of ownership in the form of an NFT for each unique collectible sold through the platform. The digital certificate owners can either hold, trade, collateralize, or redeem the NFT for the physical item at any time. All collectibles are safely stored and maintained by Altrs Oracles in safe storage facilities until the NFT holder decides to redeem the physical collectible. This demonstrates the immense potential of the platform and its ability to revolutionize the way collectors, dealers, and enthusiasts access and trade luxury assets through blockchain technology.

The Ferrari F40, an exhilarating testament to Ferrari's 40-year legacy, stands as a masterpiece of speed and design. Penned by the legendary Pininfarina, it represents the final automotive opus personally approved by the visionary Enzo Ferrari himself. With its cutting-edge components, turbo-charged powertrain, and masterfully engineered chassis, the F40 exudes a racing pedigree that defies conventions.

"We are delighted with the successful launch of Altr with this incredible F40. The speed with which the car sold is a testament to the confidence that the community has in Altr and the technology on which it is built said Davide Rovelli, one of Altrs initial supporters, "The sale of the Ferrari F40 demonstrates that there is a growing market for collectors to buy physical assets using blockchain technologies, enabling a secure and transparent solution for acquiring, owning, exchanging and storing high-value assets. This monumental accomplishment is only the beginning of our journey as we work towards a regular program of epic collectible drops!"

Altr serves as the perfect gateway to the world of luxury collectibles. Collectors can easily purchase the rarest and finest collectibles, either in full or as a fraction, with digital ownership stored securely on the blockchain. On Altr, collectors can also digitise their existing collections and use them as collateral to borrow liquidity without the need to sell them. Once a collectible is introduced to Altr, it can be either sold as a whole through the sale of one single digital ownership certificate - NFT - or it can be split into fractions, offering the possibility to everyone of co-owning their dream Ferrari, a vintage Patek or other luxury collectibles offered by Altrs trusted sellers.

The successful F40 sale joins the line of other collectibles sold on Altr. Back in January 2023, Altr sold a new-old-stock vintage Rolex Daytona to its community. Offered by Altr Oracle The Watch Boutique, the yellow gold reference 6265 Cosmograph Daytona was sold for $195K in the form of 100 equally valued fractions. Altr has built an ecosystem of Oracles - renowned experts in the luxury collectibles industry, providing valuable services such as appraisals, valuations, and secure storage. Altrs Oracles are hand-picked world-class specialists in their chosen fields.

About Altr:

Altr's cutting-edge innovation continues to redefine the collector's landscape, catering to the growing needs of collectors, dealers, and enthusiasts in this sector. Its innovative e-commerce platform for luxury collectibles, connects the real and digital world, making it easier for collectors and aspiring collectors to purchase, trade, and secure their assets using blockchain technology. Sellers can access a new source of liquidity, and buyers can purchase unique collectibles directly using digital or traditional currencies. The collectibles are valued by Altrs Oracles: world-renowned experts and stored in a free-port vault in Switzerland. To learn more about Altr, visit https://altr.trade/ and on Instagram @altr.trade

Alnura Belyalova Director of PR, Luna PR [email protected]

Source: Altr
REGULATED RELEASE

INFORMATION REGARDING THE TOTAL VOTING RIGHTS AND SHARES OF KLEPIERRE SA

AS OF JULY 31, 2023(1)

Paris  August 4, 2023

NUMBER OF SHARES AS OF JULY 31, 2023

Date 07/31/2023 Company name Klepierre Trading place Euronext Paris (Compartment A) Mnemonic LI Symbols EPA:LI / LI:FP / LOIM.PA ISIN FR0000121964 Total number of shares 286,861,172 Total number of voting rights Number of theoretical voting rights(2) 286,861,172 Number of exercisable voting rights(3) 285,618,707





AGENDA October 20, 2023 Trading update for the first nine months of 2023 (before market opening)



INVESTOR RELATIONS CONTACTS Paul Logerot, Group Head of IR and Financial Communication

+33 (0)7 50 66 05 63  [email protected]

Hugo Martins, IR Manager

+33 (0)7 72 11 63 24  [email protected]

Tanguy Phelippeau, IR Officer



+33 (0)7 72 09 29 57 [email protected]

ABOUT KLEPIERRE

Klepierre is the European leader in shopping malls, combining property development and asset management skills. The Companys portfolio is valued at 19.4 billion at June 30, 2023, and comprises large shopping centers in more than 10 countries in Continental Europe which together host hundreds of millions of visitors per year. Klepierre holds a controlling stake in Steen & Strm (56.1%), Scandinavias number one shopping center owner and manager. Klepierre is a French REIT (SIIC) listed on Euronext Paris and is included in the CAC Next 20 and EPRA Euro Zone Indexes. It is also included in ethical indexes, such as CAC SBT 1.5, MSCI Europe ESG Leaders, FTSE4Good, Euronext Vigeo Europe 120, and features in CDPs A-list. These distinctions underscore the Groups commitment to a proactive sustainable development policy and its global leadership in the fight against climate change.

For more information, please visit the newsroom on our website: www.klepierre.com

(1) Provided pursuant to article l. 233-8-II of the French commercial code and article 223-16 of the general regulation of the Autorite des marches financiers.

(2) Theoretical voting rights correspond to the total number of voting rights attached to all shares, including those deprived of voting rights (article 223-11 of the General Regulations of the Autorite des marches financiers). As of July 31, 2023, Klepierre SA owns 1,242,465 of its own shares.

(3) Exercisable voting rights correspond to the number of voting rights net of shares deprived of voting rights.

E





Attachment
Wallace, La., Aug. 04, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Joy and Jo Banner, founders of the Descendants Project, issued the statement below following a ruling today in their favor by Judge J. Sterling Snowdy of the 40th Judicial District in Louisiana.

We thank the Court for ruling that the Greenfield site in Wallace be returned to residential zoning, which will prevent the continued development of environmentally devastating projects like the proposed Greenfield Terminal. We are hopeful this ruling puts an end to the illegal 30-year-old rezoning ordinance that categorized the historic St. John the Baptist Parish in Louisiana as an industrial area. Judge Snowdy and the 40th District Court have soundly rejected the notion that the rich history of this region and the environment and health of our community should be disregarded in favor of corporate greed.

We must protect the historic legacy of this Parish and its people, and ensure that our community remains a vibrant one for everyone who calls Wallace home. We invite those who want to join us in this fight to sign the petition at https://only.one/act/we-love-wallace. We urge the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to do the right thing and deny the permit for the Greenfield Terminal out of respect for the rich history and culture of our region. Go to http://thedescendantsproject.org to learn other ways you can get involved.

Background:

The Descendants Project was formed by sisters Joy and Jo Banner of Wallace, La., to preserve and protect the health, land and lives of the Black descendant community in Louisianas River Parishes. The site in dispute is adjacent to two former plantations  one of which is also a slavery museum  that likely contain important archaeological resources, including the remains of unmarked burial grounds for enslaved people.

On May 9, the National Trust for Historic Preservation named the 11-mile corridor along the Mississippi River known as the West Bank in St. John the Baptist Parish in Louisiana as one of its 11 Most Endangered Historic Places for 2023.

The National Trust noted in its announcement that if Greenfield Louisiana LLC builds its proposed grain elevators in the region, the port facility would be 275 feet tall, as tall as the Louisiana Superdome, and could tower over historic communities and buildings, disturb archaeological remains, and dramatically harm the St. John Parish community with negative visual and environmental impacts. The permitting of Greenfield Terminal could also encourage further heavy industrial development within this nationally significant historic area.

The community of Wallace and the West Bank of St. John the Baptist Parish is in the middle of Louisianas Cancer Alley  an 85-mile stretch between Baton Rouge and New Orleans inundated with pollution from petrochemical plants, grain elevators, an aluminum plant and more. As plantation-owning families sold their land to these plants, Black descendant communities like the community of Wallace have borne the brunt of the health impacts including increased risks of Cancer and asthma.The Descendants Project is a 501c3 nonprofit organization established to support descendant communities in river parishes working together to dismantle the legacies of slavery and to achieve a healed and liberated future.

Jo Banner The Descendants Project [email protected]

Source: The Descendants Project
Parsippany, New Jersey, USA, Aug. 04, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Wireless Telecom Group, Inc. (the Company or WTT), a leading test & measurement solutions provider, today announced that Maury Microwave, a leading provider of state-of-the-art RF measurement and interconnect solutions for wireless communication technologies, completed its previously announced acquisition of WTT.

The combination of Maury Microwave and WTT, including its prominent test and measurement divisions Boonton, Holzworth, and Noisecom, will enable us to provide even more comprehensive solutions and superior service to our customers, Maury Microwave Executive Chairman Bill Pezza said. We welcome the talented team from WTT to the Maury organization and look forward to a future of innovative growth together.

Daniel Monopoli, WTTs General Manager stated, At WTT, we are all excited to collaborate with the Maury team to usher in the Companys next phase of growth and look forward to developing a complementary technology portfolio that provides even greater value to our customers, suppliers, and employees.

The all-cash transaction was announced on May 25, 2023. Under the terms of the merger agreement, Maury acquired all the outstanding shares of the Company for cash consideration of $2.13 per share. Payment of the merger consideration will be made as promptly as practical following receipt of written confirmation of administrative approval by the State of New Jersey, which is expected in approximately seven business days.

In connection with the completion of the transaction, WTTs common stock ceased trading and is no longer listed on the NYSE American.

Advisors

CDX Advisors served as exclusive financial advisor and Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP served as legal counsel to WTT. Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP served as legal counsel to Maury Microwave.

About Wireless Telecom Group, Inc.

Wireless Telecom Group, Inc., comprised of Boonton, Holzworth, and Noisecom, is a global designer and manufacturer of advanced RF and microwave components, modules, systems, and instruments. Serving the wireless, telecommunication, satellite, military, aerospace, and semiconductor industries, Wireless Telecom Group products enable innovation across a wide range of traditional and emerging wireless technologies. With a unique set of high-performance products including peak power meters, signal generators, phase noise analyzers, signal processing modules, noise sources, and programmable noise generators, Wireless Telecom Group enables the development, testing, and deployment of wireless technologies around the globe. Wireless Telecom Group is headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey, in the New York City metropolitan area, and maintains a global network of Sales and Service offices for excellent product service and support. Wireless Telecom Groups website address is http://www.wirelesstelecomgroup.com.

About Maury Microwave, Inc.

Headquartered in Ontario, CA, Maury Microwave, Inc. designs and manufactures state-of-the-art RF measurement and interconnect solutions that enable the worlds best wireless communication technologies and networks to get better, faster, and stronger.

For more information, please visit https://www.maurymw.com

ContactsMichael Kandell25 Eastmans RoadParsippany, NJ 07054Tel: (973) 386-9696Fax: (973) 386-9191www.wirelesstelecomgroup.com

Source: Wireless Telecom Group, Inc.
Year to Date Bookings of Approximately $6,900,000SPS Signs Long Term Lease for Additional Office/Production/Warehouse Space

HAUPPAUGE, New York, Aug. 04, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Orbit International Corp. (OTC Expert Market: ORBT), an electronics manufacturer and software solution provider, today announced that bookings from its Simulator Product Solutions LLC subsidiary (SPS) for the month of July 2023 were approximately $1,250,000 bringing its year-to-date bookings to approximately $6,900,000, an increase of approximately 27% over the entire 2022 fiscal year. Deliveries for the July 2023 orders are expected to commence in the third quarter of 2023 and are expected to continue through the third quarter of 2024.

In addition, the Company also announced that SPS has entered a new five-year lease with its existing landlord for an additional approximately 6,700 square feet of office/production/warehouse space in Carson, California. Possession of the newly acquired space is expected to occur at the end of the third quarter.

Mitchell Binder, President and CEO of Orbit International commented, We are pleased to report that bookings from our SPS subsidiary for the month of July 2023 were approximately $1,250,000. This brings SPS year-to-date bookings to approximately $6,900,000, an increase of approximately 27% over the approximately $5,400,000 in bookings for the entire 2022 fiscal year. In addition to the strong booking performance through July 2023, SPS has several new and follow-on business opportunities that it hopes will be awarded in the second half of 2023.

Binder added, In order to support the anticipated continued growth of SPS, during July, we entered into a new five-year lease with our existing landlord for an additional approximately 6,700 square feet of office/production/warehouse space in our existing industrial park in Carson, California. Possession of the newly acquired space will take place after the completion of landlord and tenant improvements, which are estimated to be completed by the end of the third quarter 2023. The addition of the new space, net of certain space in the industrial park that will be returned to the landlord, will give SPS a total of 8,650 square feet of contiguous office/production/warehouse space in our current industrial park.

Orbit International Corp., through its Electronics Group, is involved in the development and manufacture of custom electronic device and subsystem solutions for military, industrial and commercial applications through its production facilities in Hauppauge, NY and Carson, CA. Orbits Power Group, also located in Hauppauge, NY, designs and manufactures a wide array of power products including AC power supplies, frequency converters, inverters, VME/VPX power supplies as well as various COTS power sources.

Certain matters discussed in this news release and oral statements made from time to time by representatives of the Company including, statements regarding our expectations of Orbits operating plans, deliveries under contracts and strategies generally; statements regarding our expectations of the performance of our business; expectations regarding costs and revenues, future operating results, additional orders, future business opportunities and continued growth, may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and the Federal securities laws. Although Orbit believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, it can give no assurance that its expectations will be achieved.

Forward-looking information is subject to certain risks, trends and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Many of these factors are beyond Orbit International's ability to control or predict. Important factors that may cause actual results to differ materially and that could impact Orbit International and the statements contained in this news release can be found in Orbit's reports posted with the OTC Disclosure and News service. For forward-looking statements in this news release, Orbit claims the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Orbit assumes no obligation to update or supplement any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

CONTACT David Goldman Chief Financial Officer 631-435-8300

Source: Orbit International Corp.
TORONTO, Aug. 04, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Spruce Ridge Resources Ltd. (Spruce Ridge or the Company) (TSX-V: SHL) is pleased to announce that on August 4th, 2023 the Ontario Securities Commission (the OSC) granted a full revocation of the failure-to-file cease-trade order (the CTO) issued against the Company on September 2, 2022. The Company had been subject to the CTO for failure to meet the deadlines to file the annual audited financial statements, CEO and CFO certifications, and management discussion and analysis (the Annual Filings).

The Company completed the filing of the Annual Filings on March 2, 2023. The Company also filed financial statements and managements discussion and analysis for the interim periods ended July 31, 2022, October 31, 2022, and January 31, 2023. After a review of the Companys continuous disclosure record by the OSC, the Company has also been advised of its failure to file the letter from the former auditor, and the statement of executive compensation for the year ended April 30, 2022. Copies of all these filings have now been filed and are available under the Companys SEDAR+ profile at www.sedarplus.ca.

Spruce Ridge is working actively with the TSX Venture Exchange to revoke the trading halt imposed on its common shares. The timing and success of this application is currently unknown, but the Company is working diligently to ensure that its securities resume trading as soon as possible. The Company confirms that its business has not changed and that the Company remains active and well financed with all properties in good standing.

Update on Great Burnt Technical Report

The Company wishes to comment on its disclosure found in Technical Report entitled Updated Mineral Resource Estimate, and Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) Of The Great Burnt Copper-Gold Property, Central Newfoundland (the Report) as requested by the OSC. Page 127 of the Report lists the formula: CuEq% = Cu% + (Au g/t x 0.687). The Company notes that the value 0.687 (not specifically defined in the Report) is the ratio between 1 gram of gold to 1% Cu net of recovery and payables, and at $3.62/lb Cu at 95% recovery and 95% payable would be worth approximately US$73.03 per 1%. At $1,650/oz Au at 95% recovery and 98% payable it would be worth approximately US$49.39 per gram. The ratio between $49.39/$72.03 results in the value of 0.687 which was used to convert gold to copper equivalent. The resource estimate in section 14 was completed about a year prior to the PEA and the metallurgical testwork recorded a recovery of 55% for Au. The economic model in section 22 of the Report uses 55% Au recovery. For more information, readers are encouraged to consult the full text of the Report found on the Companys SEDAR+ page at www.sedarplus.ca.

Update on Audit Committee Composition

The Company is pleased to confirm the composition of its current audit committee, which consists of H. Vance White (Chair), Stephen Balch, and Birks Bovaird. Messrs. White and Bovaird are independent within the guidelines prescribed by National Instrument 52-110  Audit Committee. Mr. Balch is not independent by virtue of his position as a senior officer of the Company. The majority of the Audit Committee is thus independent.

Update on Dispute with Former CEO

Upon taking control of the Companys records in August of 2022, current management was notified of funds (the Receivable) owed to the Company by the former President and CEO. Part of the Receivable was secured by a pledge of shares of another publicly traded company (the Pledge) between the former President and CEO and the Company, and the funds were reported as a miscellaneous receivable on the Companys most recent financial statements and managements discussion and analysis for the nine months ended January 31, 2023. To date, the former President and CEO has not repaid the Receivable. After reviewing the accounting records, current management does not believe the funds were advanced for legitimate business purposes. Further, after reviewing the matter with their legal counsel, current management is of the opinion that the Pledge is unenforceable.

Current management has been negotiating with the former President and CEO to reach acceptable repayment terms which would not have a negative impact on the Company. Despite best efforts, current management has been unable to reach an acceptable settlement and has commenced litigation to recover the Receivable and costs by filing a statement of claim with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on April 5, 2023. The Company continues to seek full repayment of the Receivable.

Due to these factors, subsequent to filing of the January 31, 2023 financial statements and MD&A, there is now greater uncertainty surrounding the timing of recovery and quantum of the Receivable. As a result of this, management has assessed the receivable for impairment and now intends to impair the full amount of the miscellaneous receivable in the upcoming annual financial statements for the year ended April 30, 2023 which is an amount of $631,030. Current management continues to seek a resolution that will minimize negative impacts on the Company, and will update shareholders as these matters progress.

Cautionary Statement:

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. No stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained herein.

This news release contains statements that constitute forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and include, but are not limited to, disclosure regarding possible events, that are based on assumptions and courses of action, and in certain cases, can be identified by the words expects, plans, anticipates, believes, intends, estimates, projects, potential and similar expressions, or that events or conditions will, would, may, could or should occur, or the negative forms of any of these words and other similar expressions. Forward-looking statements include statements related to future plans for the Company, statements and information regarding the anticipated timeline for revocation of the trading halt, collection of amounts owing by the former President and CEO, economic assessments of the Companys mineral properties, plans to update future financial statements, including impairing the Receivable, and other forward-looking information. Forward-looking statements are based on various assumptions including with respect to the anticipated actions of securities regulators, management plans and timelines, performance, business prospects and opportunities. Although the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are based upon what management of the Company believes are reasonable assumptions on the date of this news release, such assumptions may prove to be incorrect. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, they should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results, and they will not necessarily be accurate indications of whether or not such results will be achieved. A number of factors could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to: delays or failures to resume trading on the facilities of the TSX Venture Exchange; an inability to collect the amounts owing by the former President and CEO in a timely fashion or at all; an inability to develop and successfully implement exploration strategies; the inability to successfully recover mineral property interests; general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; the lack of available capital; impact of COVID-19 or the evolving situation in Ukraine on the business of the Company; and other risks detailed from time-to-time in the Companys ongoing filings with securities regulatory authorities, which filings can be found at www.sedarplus.ca. The Company cannot assure readers that actual results will be consistent with these forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements in this press release. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release and the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless otherwise required by law.

Contacts:

Steve Balch, President & CEO (interim)Phone: 905.407.9586Email: [email protected]

Source: Spruce Ridge Resources Ltd.
HAWTHORNE, Calif., Aug. 04, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Electric Vehicle upfitting pioneer Unplugged Performance is revolutionizing police fleets with their new fleet division, "UPfit," as they unveil their inaugural Tesla Model Y Police vehicle. The UPfit patrol vehicle represents a leap into the future of law enforcement vehicles and showcases the cutting-edge contributions UPfit is making to bring police fleets into the electric vehicle era.

This significant unveiling further solidifies Unplugged Performance's commitment to revolutionizing the automotive industry with innovative electric vehicle solutions. This new Public Safety platform joins a lineup of other high-performance vehicles Unplugged Performance has innovated for customized use-cases.

WHY EV POLICE CARS:

The needs of law enforcement, public safety, military, and corporate fleets are rapidly changing. EVs provide an ideal outcome of taxpayer savings, cleaner air, minimized maintenance downtime, and extreme capability on the job. Police vehicles require an always-on state to support onboard electronics and maintain a readiness to respond at a moment's notice. As a result, 60% of all gasoline burned in internal combustion Police Vehicles occurs during idling. Strictly idling, a 2018 Ford Police Interceptor Utility Police Car on average consumes 1633 gallons of fuel per year. Hybrids are a bit better, as a 2022 Ford Interceptor Hybrid consumes 730 gallons yearly, on average. EVs, on the other hand, can power all electronics using minimal energy requirements, and zero gallons of fuel. Communications can always be on, climate control can always be on, and the car is always a split second away from response readiness. This cost-effective solution garners community support, safety and compliance planning.

WHY UNPLUGGED PERFORMANCE:

An UPfit Tesla has many unique complexities that differ from traditional upfitting. Unplugged Performance has an unprecedented 10 years of experience working within Tesla's unique ecosystem to create ground up winning solutions. Our unique Tesla experience and know-how ensures the upfitting process is done safely and will be reliable for the heavy use of Law Enforcement. Unplugged Performances UPfit is a 1-stop solution for specialized vehicle upfitting including electrical, safety, lighting, charging, technology and more, that works seamlessly with Tesla vehicle infrastructure. UPfit holds a key focus on reliability utilizing extensive research, development and rigorous validation testing in the harshest environments, from extremely high elevations to extremely high temperatures.

In our 10 years of innovation on Tesla platforms our role has always been to push the limits, be it in motorsports, consumer applications, complete custom vehicles, and now with fleet upfitting for Police Departments. There is no doubt in our mind that the most capable, safest, most comfortable environment for an officer to spend the bulk of their day is inside a properly equipped Tesla police car. Unplugged Performance has the deepest expertise in developing holistic integrated solutions that work seamlessly with the unique Tesla ecosystem. Were excited to introduce our UPfit division for Tesla Police Vehicles and are confident we represent the best choice for taxpayers and police officers alike., stated Ben Schaffer, CEO of Unplugged Performance.

WHY TESLA:

Tesla is the undisputed leader in high-volume EV production, making them the validated safest platform choice. In recent years Tesla's EVs have passed the theoretical stage of being a good idea and have reached critical mass with clear facts supporting low cost of ownership, high uptime, infrastructure solutions and critical mass. Tesla has a proven safety and performance record that ensures that law enforcement can have peace of mind. While competing fleet vehicles brands currently have an up-to 2 year waiting period, Tesla vehicles are available, ready for immediate upfitting. Tesla has proven its the industry leader further by having its proprietary charge-port adopted as the new North American Charging Standard (NACS) by competing brands across the globe.

"Selecting Tesla as the platform for our Tesla Patrol Vehicles is a testament to the unparalleled engineering excellence and proven performance they offer," stated James Hedland, Director of Fleet at Unplugged Performance. "By leveraging Tesla's technology, we are proud to deliver law enforcement solutions that are not just cutting-edge but also reliable and sustainable, empowering officers to serve their communities with confidence."

This debut is representative of the Tesla Model Y Police Vehicle that Unplugged Performances UPfit will be delivering to South Pasadena, the first city in the US to replace its entire police fleet with EVs. For more information, visit unpluggedperformance.com/upfit.

Media Contact: Brendan Sangerman Director of Marketing [email protected]

About Unplugged Performance: Unplugged Performance is a leading provider of high-performance upgrades for Tesla vehicles. With a commitment to engineering excellence and a passion for pushing the boundaries of electric vehicle performance, Unplugged Performance has established itself as an industry leader. Their meticulously crafted products and modifications cater to the needs of Tesla enthusiasts, delivering enhanced performance, aesthetics, and an unparalleled driving experience. Visit unpluggedperformance.com to explore their range of performance parts and upgrades.

Photos accompanying this announcement are available at

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/d56f3814-6f76-42b7-a470-381d6cc98719

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https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/e8817599-90ab-4885-a105-958f6047c3e1

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Source: Unplugged Performance Inc.
Vivoryon Therapeutics N.V. Announces Proposed Appointment of Dr. Frank Weber as Chief Executive Officer





Frank Weber, MD, current Chief Medical Officer (CMO), promoted to Chief Executive Officer (CEO) to lead Company through next stage of development with focus on upcoming VIVIAD trial readout in 1Q24

To-Date, varoglutamstat has demonstrated potential for meaningful safety and ease of use advantages over antibody-based therapies, continues to show encouraging safety data at therapeutic dose of 600 mg twice daily, a dose demonstrated to result in nearly 90% target occupancy

Anne Doering, CFA, to assume newly created position of Chief Strategy & Investor Relations Officer (CS&IRO) to bolster continued efforts to support varoglutamstat and Vivoryon corporate goals

Vivoryon to report first half 2023 financial results and operational progress on September 7, 2023





Halle (Saale) / Munich, Germany, August 4, 2023  Vivoryon Therapeutics N.V. (Euronext Amsterdam: VVY; NL00150002Q7) (Vivoryon, or the Company), a clinical stage company focused on the discovery and development of small molecule medicines to modulate the activity and stability of pathologically altered proteins, announced that Frank Weber, MD, Vivoryons Chief Medical Officer (CMO) will assume current CEO Dr. Ulrich Dauer's responsibilities effective August 14, 2023. Dr. Weber has a long-standing history with the Company, having joined Vivoryon in 2010. He has deep knowledge of the scientific foundation of the Company and has been integral in shaping varoglutamstats rigorous clinical development strategy. Dr. Ulrich Dauer will support the Company through the transition period in an advisory role through the end of 2023.

I am honored to become the next CEO of Vivoryon and to continue to work alongside Uli and the team through this transition period. We have developed a truly differentiated and compelling small molecule for the treatment of Alzheimers disease, and I am excited to lead this team through varoglutamstats late clinical-stage development as we work tirelessly to bring this exceptional product to patients in need. I look forward to leading the Company through VIVIADs trial readout in the first quarter of 2024 as well as partnering with the broader management team and the Board to further support Vivoryon along its future growth path. Contrasted with currently approved products, varoglutamstats convenient oral administration and promising safety profile with no ARIAs has potential to be a transformative medicine that can deliver extraordinary value to patients with Alzheimers disease and their caregivers. As varoglutamstat approaches the final stages of its Phase 2 development, I feel confident that the Company is poised to become a leader in the field of Alzheimers disease treatment with our novel approach, commented Frank Weber, MD. I also would like to express my deep gratitude to Uli not only as the leader of Vivoryon for many years, but also as a trusted partner throughout my role as CMO.

Further management changes include Anne Doering, CFA, the Company's current Head of Investor Relations, taking on the newly created position of CS&IRO effective August 14, 2023, supporting Dr. Weber. Ms. Anne Doering joined Vivoryon as Head of Investor Relations in April 2023, focusing on expanding the Companys investor communications and network by leveraging her capital markets experience. In this newly created position, Ms. Doering will lead the development and execution of portfolio and growth strategies for the Company while remaining responsible for investor relations activities.

Ulis leadership has transformed Vivoryon to become a financially stable company with clinical and operational success. Vivoryon has never been stronger and is well-positioned for the future with a clear, differentiated strategy in Alzheimers disease and is at the cusp of delivering extraordinary value for patients and shareholders. It is with great pleasure that we announce Franks designation as CEO. The Board has worked closely with Frank for several years and we believe that he will be a significant asset to the company in this new role, having been a true partner in all aspects of Vivoryons business in a leadership capacity. Given Franks extensive clinical development expertise and his integral role in varoglutamstats clinical development strategy, combined with his corporate strategy and financial experience resulting from numerous successful transactions throughout his tenure, we feel he is the natural choice to succeed Uli. We have full confidence that he will successfully steer Vivoryon as we approach a clinical inflection point with our upcoming VIVIAD results in the first quarter of 2024 and we anticipate a smooth and effective leadership transition, commented Dr. Erich Platzer, Chairman of the Board. In addition, Annes experience complements the new leadership team very well, broadening the Companys visibility in the capital markets and supporting Frank through key inflection points with varoglutamstat. We welcome her on board.

Dr. Weber brings 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and life science industry. He supported InterMune (now Genentech/Roche), in particular, its launch of Esbriet in Europe, as Global Clinical Advisor. Prior to this, he served as Chief Medical Officer at Merck KGaA in Germany and Switzerland, where he contributed to several marketing authorizations and market access agreements in the EU, U.S. and Japan and also spearheaded personalized medicine, biomarker and companion diagnostics. During his career, he has also been involved in several M&A transactions as well as licensing deals. Dr. Weber started his industry career after ten years in academic clinical research and patient care in the areas of cancer, immunology, infectiology and maxillo-facial surgery. His past roles include management positions in medical affairs and clinical development at American Cyanamid (Lederle), USA and at Synthelabo (now Sanofi), France. Dr. Weber is also a board member at Zambon Biotech SA, a Swiss-based private company searching for innovative in-licensing projects for the Zambon Group. Dr. Weber is a licensed physician and received his MD in Cancer Immunology from the Medical University Cologne, Germany.

Ms. Doering brings over 25 years of capital markets, investment and corporate biopharmaceutical industry experience. Prior to joining Vivoryon, Ms. Doering was Director of Investor Relations at BioNTech and Director of Group Strategy at Merck KGaA, where she contributed to the strategic direction of the company. Her additional corporate experience includes R&D finance and strategy at Merck & Co. On the investment front, Ms. Doering helped build the Franklin European Equity Funds franchise at Franklin Templeton, a leading global asset manager, as portfolio manager and analyst and has spent time in venture capital at Creathor Ventures in Germany. In addition, for several years Ms. Doering was a healthcare equity research analyst covering pharmaceutical companies for a number of investment banks in New York including Bear Stearns, Credit Suisse, Bank of America and Commerzbank, during which time she was instrumental in the team achieving a #1 Institutional Investor ranking. Ms. Doering holds an MBA from The Wharton School and an MA in International Studies from The Lauder Institute, both of the University of Pennsylvania. She is also a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Charterholder.

Vivoryon will hold an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) on Friday, September 15, 2023, in connection with the appointment of Dr. Weber and Ms. Doering to the Companys Board as executive directors

###

About Vivoryon Therapeutics N.V.

Vivoryon is a clinical stage biotechnology company focused on developing innovative small molecule-based medicines. Driven by our passion for ground-breaking science and innovation, we strive to change the lives of patients in need suffering from severe diseases. We leverage our in-depth expertise in understanding post-translational modifications to develop medicines that modulate the activity and stability of proteins which are altered in disease settings. Beyond our lead program, varoglutamstat, which is in Phase 2 clinical development to treat Alzheimers disease, we have established a solid pipeline of orally available small molecule inhibitors for various indications including cancer, inflammatory diseases and fibrosis. www.vivoryon.com



Vivoryon Forward Looking Statements

This press release includes forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, those regarding the business strategy, management plans and objectives for future operations of the Vivoryon Therapeutics N.V. (the Company), estimates and projections with respect to the market for the Companys products and forecasts and statements as to when the Companys products may be available. Words such as anticipate, believe, estimate, expect, forecast, intend, may, plan, project, predict, should and will and similar expressions as they relate to the Company are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance; rather they are based on the Managements current expectations and assumptions about future events and trends, the economy and other future conditions. The forward-looking statements involve a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties and other factors could materially adversely affect the outcome and financial effects of the plans and events described herein. Actual results, performance or events may differ materially from those expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements and from expectations. As a result, no undue reliance should be placed on such forward-looking statements. This press release does not contain risk factors. Certain risk factors that may affect the Companys future financial results are discussed in the published annual financial statements of the Company. This press release, including any forward-looking statements, speaks only as of the date of this press release. The Company does not assume any obligation to update any information or forward-looking statements contained herein, save for any information required to be disclosed by law. This press release contains inside information within the meaning of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014.

For more information, please contact:

Investor Contact

Stern IR

Julie Seidel

Tel: +1 212-698-8684

Email: [email protected]



Media Contact

Trophic Communications

Valeria Fisher

Tel: +49 175 8041816

Email: [email protected]



Attachment
SEATTLE, WA - (NewMediaWire) - August 04, 2023 - 3DX Industries Inc. (OTCM: DDDX), a leading global manufacturing company specializing in cutting-edge additive manufacturing capabilities, announces it will be attending Bonneville Speedweek at the Salt Flats in Wendover, Utah from August 5-11, 2023.

The Bonneville Salt Flats is home to all kinds of speed-shattering records that are usually set at a myriad of racing events held here including: the Bonneville Motorcycle Speed Trials and Bonneville Speed Weekthe largest meet of the year, attracting hundreds of drivers in all racing classes who compete to set new land speed records in all kinds of racing categories.

3DX Industries, Inc. has been involved in the design and printing of custom racing parts for years and is one of the sponsors for Jessco Racing in their quest to set a new land speed world record in the 3000CC, partial Streamliner, pushrod class. Not only will 3DX be a part of the crew team, but this is also a great networking event to connect with like-minded individuals and discuss the future of 3D printing.

We have designed and manufactured custom racing parts for over 10 years, including 3D metal printed intake manifolds, billet machined brake calipers, blower bearing end caps, an intake for a Toyota Supra Race Team, various parts for KTM off road motorcycles and other racing components, said CEO Roger Janssen. Were honored to be a part of and attending for a second year in a row this world class event, he added.

Roger continued, We can manufacture custom and production parts with complexity and precision more efficiently using our additive manufacturing capabilities. I am excited to be part of the Jessco Racing Team and will be right there working as a member of the pit crew to support their needs.

About the Company: 3DX Industries, Inc. (OTCM: DDDX) is a leading manufacturer specializing in additive and subtractive manufacturing capabilities. The company is committed to pioneering innovative solutions and driving advancements in the manufacturing industry. Through strategic partnerships, extensive research and development, and a steadfast commitment to customer satisfaction, 3DX Industries is poised to capitalize on emerging opportunities and deliver sustainable growth.

Safe Harbor: 3DX encourages those interested in our Company to rely only on information included in our filings. Statements released by 3DX Industries, Inc. that are not purely historical are forward-looking within the meaning of the "Safe Harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding the company's expectations, hopes, intentions, and strategies for the future. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainties that may affect the company's business prospects and performance. The company's actual results could differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. Risk factors include but are not limited to general economic, competitive, governmental, and technological factors as discussed in the company's filings. The company does not undertake any responsibility to update the forward-looking statements contained in this release.

For additional information please contact:

3DX Industries, Inc.

Investor Relations Contact:

Andrew Barwicki

516-662-9461 / [email protected]

[email protected]

Visit the 3DX Industries, Inc. web site at www.3dxindustries.com. Information included on the Company's website is not incorporated herein by reference or otherwise.

View the original release on www.newmediawire.com
Dieppe, New Brunswick--(Newsfile Corp. - August 4, 2023) - Colibri Resource Corporation (TSXV: CBI) ("Colibri" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that, further to its news release of June 30, 2023, it has closed the first tranche of its previously announced non-brokered private placement (the "Offering") of units ("Units"). The aggregate gross proceeds for the Units issued in the first tranche totals US$487,000. The Company anticipates completing a second tranche of the Offering within the next few weeks.

Each Unit is comprised of: (i) US$1,000 principal amount of 10% secured convertible debentures (the "Debentures") issued by the Company with a maturity date ("Maturity Date") of 2 years from the date of issuance; and (ii) 5,416 common share purchase warrants of the Company (each, a "Warrant").

Each Debenture will bear interest at 10% per annum, calculated in US dollars, from the date of issuance, payable in arrears quarterly and upon maturity or redemption. The Debentures will mature on the date that is two (2) years from the date of issuance (the "Maturity Date"). Further to the Company's news release dated June 30, 2023, for clarification, all interest accrued on the Debentures will be payable in cash only and there can be no conversion of the Debenture interest into Common Shares of the Company.

The principal amount of the Debentures are convertible into Common Shares, at the holder's option, at a price of (i) C$0.08 per Common Share upon issuance and 12 months thereafter; and (ii) at C$0.10 per Common Share between 12 months and one day to the Maturity Date (the "Conversion Price"), at any time prior to the Maturity Date. The Debentures carry a fixed foreign exchange rate of C$1.30 for each US$1 of principal for conversion purposes only.

Each Warrant is exercisable to acquire one Common Share at an exercise price of $0.12 per share for a period of 24 months from the date of issuance.

The Offering, including the terms of the Offering, received the conditional approval of the TSX Venture Exchange (the "Exchange") prior to closing but is subject to the final approval of the Exchange. The Debentures, Warrants and any Common Shares resulting from the conversion of the Debentures, or the exercise of the Warrants will be subject to a hold period of four months and one day after the date of issuance thereof. The Company intends to use the proceeds of the Offering for general working capital purposes and exploration expenses including drilling on the Evelyn/Plomo and Diamante/El Mezquite/Jackie projects.

About Colibri Resource Corporation

Colibri is a Canadian-based mineral exploration company listed on the TSX-V (CBI) and is focused on acquiring and exploring prospective gold & silver properties in Mexico. The Company holds six high potential precious metal projects, all of which have planned exploration programs for calendar 2023.

For more information about all Company projects please visit: www.colibriresource.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.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release may contain certain "forward looking statements." Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions, and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of this news release and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise.

For further information, please contact:

Ronald J. Goguen, President, CEO and Director

Tel: (506) 383-4274

[email protected]

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/176145
Gibraltar, Gibraltar--(Newsfile Corp. - August 4, 2023) - Covesting, an esteemed provider of innovative software solutions, today announces a strategic decision to voluntarily surrender its Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) license in Gibraltar.

A New Chapter: From Crypto Services to Software Solutions

In a move that reaffirms a pivot in the company's focus, Covesting has chosen to let go of its DLT license, an action that directly aligns with the company's continued evolution. This decision echoes Covesting's ongoing commitment to honing its expertise and resources into its core mission-creating advanced software solutions that provide exceptional value to its business partners.

The change in strategy was met with steadfast commitment from the Covesting team, who have tirelessly worked to deliver on their promise of advancing technology for their partners.

Covesting Remains Committed to Trust and Transparency

Covesting's transformation began in 2021, as the company began its transition away from offering cryptocurrency-related services. The shift in focus was toward delivering cutting-edge software solutions that address the evolving needs of the fintech industry. Covesting made a conscious decision to refrain from client engagement and ceased offering cryptocurrency exchange services to the public, doubling down on its technological innovation drive instead.

In line with this move, Covesting remains staunch in its commitment to uphold the values of transparency, integrity, and excellence. The firm deeply appreciates the unwavering trust and support received from its partners and stakeholders as it continues to innovate in this new phase.

About Covesting

Covesting is a renowned developer of innovative technology, known for creating the technology behind its copy-trading module. This software solution provides comprehensive risk and performance metrics to the peer-to-peer copy trading community. Covesting's commitment to providing advanced technological solutions propels the industry forward, delivering exceptional value to its business partners.

For more information, visitwww.covesting.io.

Mike Karkhalev

[email protected]

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/176124
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - August 4, 2023) - GOLD'N FUTURES MINERAL CORP. (CSE: FUTR) (FSE: G6M) (OTC Pink: GFTRF) (the "Company" or "Gold'n Futures") is pleased to provide an update respecting its non-brokered, private placement. The announcement of the offering was made yesterday in Gold'n Futures' news release, dated August 3, 2023. This Private Placement will comprise up to 18,000,000 units ("Units") with each Unit consisting of one common share in the capital of the Company ("Common Share") and one Common Share purchase warrant ("Warrant"). Each Unit is priced at $0.015 and the total offering is for approximately $270,000.

Each Warrant shall be non-transferable and exercisable to acquire one common share of the Company (a "Warrant Share") at C$0.05, for a period of 24 months from the closing date of the Private Placement.

The securities sold pursuant to the Private Placement including the Common Shares and Warrant Shares, will be subject to a four month and one day hold period in Canada and thereafter will be freely tradable.

The net proceeds of the Private Placement will be used to advance the Company's Hercules project and for general working capital purposes.

About Gold'n Futures Mineral Corp.

Gold'n Futures Mineral Corp. (CSE: FUTR) (FSE: G6M) (OTC Pink: GFTRF) is a Canadian-based, exploration company focused on advancing its Hercules gold project. The Hercules is located 220 km northeast of Thunder Bay, Ontario, in the townships of Elmhurst and Rickaby, within the Thunder Bay North Mining District. The Project is in the heart of the Beardmore Geraldton gold mining camp, the 4th largest gold camp in Ontario and is 40 km west of the Equinox Gold's Greenstone gold mine which reportedly hosts 6.9 million ounces in its Measured and Indicated Resources. The Property comprises 475 contiguous claim cells (10,052 ha). From the historical work and its own drill and geophysical programs, the Company has built an extensive database including reconnaissance grab samples; channel samples; a variety of geophysical surveys; and a drill hole database that includes historical and current drilling totalling in the order of 547 holes and 114,000 meters of available drill core.

Qualified Person

The scientific and technical content of this press release has been prepared, reviewed, and approved by Mr. Walter Hanych, P. Geo., who is a Qualified Person under NI43-101 regulations and is a director of the Company.

For more information on the Company, please visit our website at: www.goldnfuturesmineralcorp.com

On behalf of the Board of Directors

For further information

Stephen Wilkinson,

President and CEO

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +1.236.886.8808

Forward-Looking Statements:

This news release includes certain forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein including, without limitation, statements regarding the trading of the Company's common shares on the Canadian Securities Exchange, future capital expenditures, anticipated content, commencement, and cost of exploration programs in respect of the Company's projects and mineral properties, anticipated exploration program results from exploration activities, resources and/or reserves on the Company's projects and mineral properties, and the anticipated business plans and timing of future activities of the Company, are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Often, but not always, forward looking information can be identified by words such as "pro forma", "plans", "expects", "will", "may", "should", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", "believes", "potential" or variations of such words including negative variations thereof, and phrases that refer to certain actions, events or results that may, could, would, might or will occur or be taken or achieved. In making the forward-looking statements in this news release, the Company has applied several material assumptions, including without limitation, that market fundamentals will result in sustained precious and base metals demand and prices, the receipt of any necessary permits, licenses and regulatory approvals in connection with the future exploration of the Company's properties, that the COVID-19 global pandemic will not affect the ability of the Company to conduct the exploration program on the Hercules Gold Project, the availability of financing on suitable terms, and the Company's ability to comply with environmental, health and safety laws.

Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such risks and other factors include, among others, statements as to the anticipated business plans and timing of future activities of the Company, including the Company's option to acquire the Hercules Gold Project, the proposed expenditures for exploration work thereon, the ability of the Company to obtain sufficient financing to fund its business activities and plans, delays in obtaining governmental and regulatory approvals (including of the Canadian Securities Exchange), permits or financing, changes in laws, regulations and policies affecting mining operations, risks relating to epidemics or pandemics such as COVID-19, including the impact of COVID-19 on the Company's business, financial condition and results of operations, the Company's limited operating history, currency fluctuations, title disputes or claims, environmental issues and liabilities.

Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any of the forward-looking statements in this news release except as otherwise required by law.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/176154
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - August 4, 2023) - NuGen Medical Devices Inc. (TSXV: NGMD) (the "Company" or "NuGen") is pleased to provide shareholders the following corporate update.

Corporate mission :

NuGen's mission is to reduce the daily burden of diabetes care by providing a needle-free insulin injection device and supplies tailored to each diabetic's personal needs with our InsuJet" device which is approved for sale as a medical device in 42 countries. It is noteworthy that InsuJet" is not yet approved for sale in the USA, leaving America as a large untapped market for NuGen to pursue. NuGen anticipates reporting to shareholders in the coming weeks its plans on how it looks to obtain U.S Food and Drug Administration ("FDA") approval for InsuJet" along with its plans for distribution in the USA if FDA approval is obtained.

Estimated business margins in excess of 70% :

NuGen has three business verticals that include B2B with estimated margins of 72%, B2C with estimated margins of 76% and a bio similar business vertical where margins are estimated to be 80%+.

B2B business vertical :

Our B2B vertical was the first business silo to launch in Q2 2023 where NuGen has signed distribution agreements with Science-Link Trading SAPI de CV in Mexico, Trustmed SRL in Romania, and Rosheta in Yemen. Sales in each Mexico, Romania and Yemen were announced during Q2 of 2023.

The Company also reported InsuJet" is registered for supply and distribution through the NHS Drug Tariff with Reliance Medical Ltd. ("Reliance Medical") which is NuGen's PL partner and distributor for InsuJet" in the United Kingdom.

Reliance Medical is a leading trade distributor of high-quality surgical dressings, healthcare products, medical equipment and first aid supplies in the United Kingdom.

The Company further announced on July 25th that it entered into a master sales distribution agreement for its needle-free InsuJet" medical device and consumables with Sol-Millennium Medical Inc. ("Sol-M") of Chicago, Illinois USA, for a term of five years commencing on June 30, 2023. Sol-M is now the preferred distributor of InsuJet" in Canada, Brazil, France and Spain. NuGen estimates the value at approximately $204 million dollars with estimated gross margins of 72%.

NuGen is pleased to further report to shareholders that it has sufficient production capacity at its factory in China along with inventory on hand to meet 2024 anticipated product sales demand.

Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, USA, Sol-M are global leaders in the diabetic industry with offices in Brazil, Polland, Switzerland, the USA, and China.

B2C business vertical :

NuGen engaged Porter Media ("Porter"), a growth marketing team that specializes in scaling online businesses, to develop product awareness and grow sales of NuGen's needle-free injection device, InsuJet". Porter was selected based on their demonstrated ability to grow sales from inception to large seven-figure levels.

Porter takes a holistic approach to growing direct-to-consumer brands and blend the art of psychology with the science of data-driven strategies, creating effective paid social advertising campaigns. Their pragmatic approach, deep understanding of consumer behaviour, and profit-first mindset enable them to develop innovative solutions beyond the conventional.

NuGen's B2C business vertical, with home delivery on a subscription basis as built by Porter is now nearing completion after months of development work. NuGen looks to provide more details surrounding its official launch of our B2C subscription website in mid-September 2023.

Bio similar business vertical :

Utilizing InsuJet's" needle-free technology for pain-free drug delivery of other medications offers a 3rd business vertical referred to as 'bio similar'. InsuJet's" patented technology may possibly be used for other medications allowing drug manufacturers an opportunity to differentiate themselves from their competition. Brand name by needle, generic by InsuJet's" needle-free technology; an opportunity NuGen is pursuing. An active example is semaglutide. "Would you like your injection by needle pen, or would you select a bio similar that injects needle free using the InsuJet" needle-free method of drug delivery? This is the alternative that NuGen wants to offer to semaglutide users," said Richard Buzbuzian, CEO of NuGen.

In Q2, 2023 NuGen announced it engaged Basic Pharma Technologies ("Basic Pharma"), a pharmaceutical company located in the Netherlands, to perform an assessment and feasibility study which will include validation testing of semaglutide if administered using NuGen's needle-free injection device, InsuJet". Semaglutide is currently administered by a pen-needle method.

Integrity testing of semaglutide being administered via InsuJet" will be conducted by Basic Pharma over a seven-to-eight-month period comprised of three phases:

Phase 1 will focus on regulatory compliance and literature search, method development literature search, and reference standard research and sourcing.

Phase 2 will focus on the feasibility study method and development.

Phase 3 will focus on the QC method and writing, composing and validating, method and validation protocol writing review and effectiveness, method validation study execution and data review, method validation report writing and effectiveness and sample measurement and reporting of sample measurement.

The conclusion of Phase 3 will determine a Go/No-Go outcome which will be reported to shareholders. This bio similar opportunity represents NuGen's third business vertical. NuGen anticipates reporting the outcome to shareholders in late Q4 2023 and into Q1 2024.

Basic Pharma is an advanced, independent pharmaceutical company primarily engaged in the development, licensing, manufacture and commercialization of pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical products. Basic Pharma is a full-service package for the Pharmaceutical, Biotech and Medical Device industry.

For more information, visit www.basicpharma.nl.

Clinical evidence and efficacy of InsuJet" :

Clinical evidence of InsuJet" is supported by four peer-reviewed clinical studies published in academic journals from 2011 to 2016. The efficacy of InsuJet" shows improved insulin uptake of upwards of 40%. Clinical studies, certificates, and InsuJet" reports are found at: https://www.insujet.com/pages/partners.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to sell any securities in the United States. The securities of NuGen have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act") or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to U.S. Persons unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available.

About NuGen

NuGen is a specialty medical device Company that is marketing and selling its next-generation InsuJet" needle-free injection system designed to improve the lives of millions of diabetics. InsuJet" is approved for sale in 42 countries around the world.

For further information, please visit:

Websites: www.insujet.com and www.nugenmd.com

Instagram: @NuGenMD

Twitter: @NuGenMD

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nugenmd/

For further information, please contact:

Tony Di Benedetto

Executive Chairman

(416) 791-9399

[email protected]

Richard Buzbuzian

President & CEO

(647) 501-3290

[email protected]

To arrange a media interview with NuGen, please contact:

Morna Gorman

(416) 553-1732

[email protected]

Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Information:

Neither TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSXV) accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This news release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and are based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. Any statement that involves discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often but not always using phrases such as "expects", or "does not expect", "is expected", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", "plans", "budget", "scheduled", "forecasts", "estimates", "believes" or "intends" or variations of such words and phrases or stating that certain actions, events or results "may" or "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken to occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements 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 information. The forward-looking information contained herein is given as of the date hereof and the Company assumes no responsibility to update or revise such information to reflect new events or circumstances, except as required by law.

Notice Regarding Future-Oriented Financial Information and Financial Outlooks

To the extent any forward-looking information in this presentation constitutes "future-oriented financial information" or "financial outlooks" within the meaning of applicable securities laws, such information is being provided to demonstrate the impact to the Company with potential market penetration and the reader is cautioned that this information may not be appropriate for any other purpose and the reader should not place undue reliance on such future-oriented financial information and financial outlooks. Future-oriented financial information and financial outlooks, as with forward-looking information generally, are, without limitation, based on the assumptions and subject to the risks set out above. The Company's actual financial position and results of operations may differ materially from management's current expectations. Such information is presented for illustrative purposes only and may not be an indication of the Company's actual financial position or results of operations.

The forward-looking information contained herein was prepared by the management of the Company based on information available at the time this press release was prepared. Unless otherwise stated, information in this press release is current as of July 25, 2023.

This press release may contain certain financial performance measures that are not recognized or defined under International Financial Reporting Standards ("IFRS"), which measures are "Non-GAAP Measures". As a result, this data may not be comparable to data presented by other companies. The Company believes that any Non-GAAP Measures included in this presentation are useful indicators of performance and are specifically used by management to assess the current and future performance of the Company. Non-GAAP Measures should be considered together with other financial information prepared in accordance with IFRS to enable readers to evaluate the Company's performance and prospects in a manner similar to the Company's management. Accordingly, any Non-GAAP Measures are intended to provide additional information and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for measures of performance prepared in accordance with IFRS.

Any third-party information contained herein has not been independently verified. No warranties or representations can be made as to the origin, validity, accuracy, completeness, currency or reliability of the information. The Company disclaims and excludes all liability (to the extent permitted by law), for losses, claims, damages, demands, costs and expenses of whatever nature arising in any way out of or in connection with the information in this press release, its accuracy, completeness or by reason of reliance by any person on any of it.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/176139
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - August 4, 2023) - PORTOFINO RESOURCES INC. (TSXV: POR) (OTCQB: PFFOF) (FSE: POTA) ("Portofino" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that Mr. Alex Molyneux and Mr. Blake Steele have agreed to accept appointments to its newly created Advisory Board.

Mr. Alexander Molyneux is a metals and mining industry executive with 25 years industry experience and a proven track record with critical mineral and energy metal project development. He was Chairman of ASX-listed Argosy Minerals Ltd. (2018 - 2022), during which time the company initiated its Rincon Lithium Project in Salta Province, Argentina, developed a resource and commissioned its first battery-grade lithium carbonate production facility.

Mr. Molyneux completed three-years as CEO of Paladin Energy Ltd., one of the world's largest uranium companies, where he completed a US$700M successful recapitalization. Prior to Paladin, he was Founder and Executive Chairman of Azarga Uranium Corp. with development stage uranium projects in USA and Central Asia, subsequently sold for C$200M to EnCore Energy Corp. Prior to Azarga Uranium Corp., he spent approximately five years with Ivanhoe Mines Group and Ivanhoe Energy in various leadership capacities including CEO and Director of SouthGobi Resources Ltd. (2009 - 2012).

Prior to his mining industry roles, Mr. Molyneux was Managing Director, Head of Metals and Mining Investment Banking, Asia Pacific for Citigroup. He spent approximately 10-years providing investment banking services to natural resources companies.

Mr. Blake Steele is an experienced metals and mining industry executive, director and advisor with extensive knowledge across public companies and capital markets, with an extensive track record delivering shareholder value with energy metal projects. Mr. Steele was most recently President and CEO of Azarga Uranium Corp., a TSX-listed uranium development and exploration company. Under Mr. Steele's stewardship, Azarga Uranium grew into an advanced stage multi-asset company through M&A and organic growth and, in February 2022, EnCore Energy Corp. completed the successful acquisition of Azarga Uranium for C$200m.

Before joining Azarga Uranium Corp., Mr. Steele worked at SouthGobi Resources Ltd. (part of the Ivanhoe Mines group), a Mongolian-focused energy metal company, where he worked in multiple senior finance and corporate development roles.

Mr. Steele began his career with Deloitte & Touche where he worked in both the audit and financial advisory practices. Mr. Steele is a Chartered Professional Accountant and Chartered Business Valuator in Canada. Mr. Steele received a Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) degree from the UBC Sauder School of Business. Mr. Steele currently serves as a director or advisor to a number of public companies in the metals and mining space.

Mr. David Tafel, CEO comments: "We are extremely pleased to welcome these 2 highly proficient executives to Portofino. Besides participating in our recent financing, both individuals have been very successful in financing and developing critical and energy metal projects around the world and in doing so, creating significant returns for shareholders. Mr. Molyneux's direct experience and success advancing Argosy's Rincon lithium project in Salta, Argentina should prove to be very beneficial to Portofino in its efforts to finance and advance a successful tender/bid proposal in the near term, related to the Arizaro Lithium Project."

Share Options Grant

Portofino announces that, in accordance with the Company's Share Option Plan it has granted options to purchase an aggregate of 6.5 million common shares of the Company to certain directors, officers, employees, and consultants of the Company. Each Option is exercisable into one Common Share at an exercise price of $0.05. The Options are subject to certain vesting conditions and expire five years from the grant date.

About Portofino Resources Inc.

Portofino is a Vancouver-based Canadian company focused on exploring and developing mineral resource projects in the Americas. Portofino has an opportunity to earn a majority interest in several lithium projects in Salta, Argentina and up to 100% of the Yergo Lithium property in Catamarca. The properties are situated in the heart of the world-renowned Argentine Lithium Triangle and in close proximity to multiple world-class lithium projects. The Company also has the right to earn 100% interest in three northwestern Ontario, Canada lithium projects: Allison Lake North, Greenheart Lake and McNamara Lake.

Portofino's South of Otter and Bruce Lake projects are in the historic gold mining district of Red Lake, Ontario, Canada proximal to the Dixie gold project discovered by Great Bear Resources and now owned by Kinross Gold Corp. In addition, Portofino holds three other northwestern Ontario gold projects; the Gold Creek property located immediately south of the historic Shebandowan mine, as well as the Sapawe West and Melema West properties located in the rapidly developing Atikokan gold mining camp.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

"David G. Tafel"

Chief Executive Officer

For Further Information Contact:

David Tafel CEO, Director 604-683-1991

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This news release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. All statements contained herein that are not clearly historical in nature may constitute forward-looking statements. Generally, such forward-looking information or forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or may contain statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "will continue", "will occur" or "will be achieved". The forward-looking information and forward-looking statements contained herein include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the Company's future business plans. Forward-looking information in this news release is based on certain assumptions and expected future events, namely the growth and development of the Company's business as currently anticipated. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list is not exhaustive. Readers are further cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which they are placed will occur. Such information, although considered reasonable by management at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect and actual results may differ materially from those anticipated. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement and reflect the Company's expectations as of the date hereof and are subject to change thereafter. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, estimates or opinions, future events or results or otherwise or to explain any material difference between subsequent actual events and such forward-looking information, except as required by applicable law.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/176102
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - August 3, 2023) - Telescope Innovations Corp. ("Telescope" or the "Company") (CSE: TELI), a chemical technology company, announces that it has granted a total of 800,000 incentive stock options (the "Options") to certain directors of the Company in accordance with the Company's incentive stock option plan.

The Options are exercisable at a price of $0.27 until August 2, 2028, and vest in five tranches over a 12 month period with the first tranche vesting on August 31, 2023.

About Telescope

Telescope is a chemical technology company developing scalable manufacturing processes and tools for the pharmaceutical and chemical industry. The Company builds and deploys new enabling technologies including flexible robotic platforms and artificial intelligence software that improves experimental throughput, efficiency, and data quality. Our aim is to bring modern chemical technology solutions to meet the most serious challenges in health and sustainability.

On behalf of the Board,

Telescope Innovations Corp.

Jason Hein, Chief Executive Officer

E: [email protected]

Forward-Looking Information

Forward-looking information is necessarily based on a number of opinions, assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by the Company as of the date of this news release, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including but not limited to the factors described in greater detail in the "Risk Factors" section of the prospectus filed by the Company and available at www.sedarplus.ca.

The CSE has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release. Neither the CSE nor its Market Regulator (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/175914
KYODO NEWS - Aug 4, 2023 - 09:27 | World, All

Former U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday pleaded not guilty to criminal charges accusing him of trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election, appearing in a courthouse located between the White House and the Capitol, the scene of a deadly riot by his supporters in 2021.

Trump's arraignment in the Washington federal courtroom, lasting nearly 30 minutes, came two days after he was indicted on four felony counts, including conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding.

The 77-year-old, who remains the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, and his allies have denounced the indictment as politically motivated, casting it as an attempt to undermine his chances of a return to the White House.

"When you look at what's happening, this is a persecution of a political opponent," he told reporters before boarding his plane to return to New Jersey from the U.S. capital. "This was never supposed to happen in America."

Law enforcement authorities stepped up security, including setting up barricades around the courthouse. Some pro- and anti-Trump protestors were seen, but there were no reports of serious incidents.

The building is just blocks away from the Capitol, which was overrun on Jan. 6, 2021, by a mob of pro-Trump protesters seeking to obstruct the certification of President Joe Biden's win in the election.

This is Trump's third criminal indictment since leaving office in January 2021, with all charges coming in the span of only four months.

The latest 45-page indictment accuses him of carrying out a months-long campaign to overturn the election results with six co-conspirators, mostly attorneys. But the former president is the only one charged in the case.

The actions, it says, included spreading "destabilizing lies" and making knowingly false statements on many occasions to convince his supporters there had been "outcome-determinative fraud" in the election.

The two other counts are obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights.

Trump is the first former U.S. president to face criminal prosecution. But his popularity among Republican voters remains strong enough for him to be the party's presumptive nominee for the 2024 contest.

The next hearing in his latest case was set for Aug. 28, five days after the first Republican presidential primary debate to be held in Milwaukee.

In addition to the election-related case, he has already been indicted on both state and federal charges, and is facing a looming fourth indictment in Georgia in the probe into his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in the state.

His other pending trials are for a New York case stemming from a hush money payment to a porn star and for a federal case over his retention of classified national security documents at his resort in Florida.

Trump has pleaded not guilty in both those cases.

Under the U.S. Constitution, an indictment or a potential conviction would not disqualify Trump from running for the White House or serving in office if elected.

Related coverage:

Trump indicted for efforts to overturn 2020 presidential election

Trial in Trump classified documents case set for May next year
HONG KONG , Aug. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the Future Technology: AI Empowering Bioprocessing Development summit hosted by Great Bay Bio (hereinafter referred to as "GBB") was successfully held at the Suzhou International Expo Center, where industry players gathered to celebrate the feast of technological innovation. At the summit, Great Bay Bio announced the official launch of its self-developed AI-enabled, no-screening culture media development platform, AlfaOPA. The platform innovatively integrates AI to optimize culture media, replacing the blind screening process in traditional culture media development. The launch of the AlfaOPA platform symbolizes a new milestone for Great Bay Bio's fast, high-yield, and generalized CMC platform construction  taking its AI-enabled cell engineering platform to new heights. It also signifies the complete implementation of a business development system that centers on "cell engineering" and integrates "cell line construction" and "culture media development".

The AlfaOPA platform integrates the dry and wet experimental platforms of Great Bay Bio to establish a key component metabolic model for multiple cell lines. By comparing and simulating with the optimal metabolic model, it generates optimized supplements. The culture media development work can be completed in a single step by adding these to the existing culture media. The platform is applicable for various cell lines without the need of replacing customers' existing current media. Within 2 months of optimization, data from customers indicate that the protein expression level of formulas optimized by the AlfaOPA platform has increased by more than 30% on average, and the protein quality is consistent with the control.

Mr. Kingsley Leung , chairman and co-founder of GBB, expressed his pleasure at discussing the industry's new future with many bioprocess peers in Suzhou . With the goal of enhancing the productivity of drug development, the driving force of technological innovation, and the guidance of market demand, Great Bay Bio has always been a steadfast practitioner. The AlfaOPA platform uses AI technology to precisely optimize customers' existing culture media, achieving high-quality culture media optimization in one step. Paired with the company's AI-enabled, site-specific integration cell line platform, it can fully unlock the products' maximum potential and effectiveness. The no-screening style of culture media development is a market-oriented technological outcome. The launch of AlfaOPA signifies the beginning of a new stage in AI-driven culture media development technology."

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AFR announced the decision to sell 100% of the Company to an investment group

PARSIPPANY, N.J. , Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- American Financial Resources, Inc. (AFR) today announces the definitive agreement to sell 100% of the Company to an investment group led by Proprietary Capital, LLC (Proprietary Capital), subject to state and regulatory approvals. Founded in 1997, Proprietary Capital is a fund manager based in Denver Colorado . The firm provides an institutional platform for investors to gain exposure to the U.S. residential-mortgage market and housing-related assets.

Rich Dubnoff , Chief Executive Officer of AFR, said, "Today is a historic day for AFR. With the support and investment of Proprietary Capital, AFR will begin a new phase of rapid growth that will directly benefit our borrowers, wholesale and correspondent clients, and employees."

Craig Cohen , Managing Member of Proprietary Capital, noted, "With the Acquisition of AFR, we will build on our already strong mortgage platform. With the addition of AFR's robust operational platform, loyal customer base, long-term dedicated employees, and their breadth of products and services, we will catapult our growth for many years to come."

Headquartered in Parsippany NJ , AFR was founded in 1997 by Corey Dubnoff , the current Chief Administrative Officer. AFR is a full-service mortgage banking company with Direct, Wholesale, and Correspondent lending divisions that offer products ranging from Agency, Non-Agency, and Government lending with a niche in construction and manufactured home mortgage programs.

STRATMOR Group served as the transaction advisor to AFR.

About Proprietary Capital

Proprietary Capital, LLC, (Proprietary Capital) is an alternative investment manager (headquartered in Denver with an office in Los Angeles ) primarily focused on mortgage and housing-related assets. Since inception, Proprietary Capital has provided an institutional platform for investors looking to gain exposure and receive excess returns within various segments of the U.S. residential-mortgage market. With the success of its recent whole loan funds and ongoing addition of mortgage professionals, Proprietary Capital continues to expand its suite of mortgage related investments and opportunities.

About American Financial Resources, Inc.

American Financial Resources, Inc. (AFR) offers a comprehensive array of residential-mortgage products to meet a variety of financing needs. AFR is a leading manufactured home lender amongst wholesalers and is a leading FHA 203(k) lender for sponsored originations and an innovator in construction and renovation lending. AFR utilizes the latest technology and delivers educational resources to correspondent lenders, mortgage brokers, loan originators and consumers. American Financial Resources, Inc. is an Equal Housing Lender and Equal Opportunity Employer Lender. NMLS 2826 at www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org. For more information, visit www.afrcorp.com. Source: American Financial Resources, Inc.

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SOURCE American Financial Resources, Inc.
BOSTON , Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE: BHLB) today announced that its Board of Directors has approved a quarterly cash dividend of $0.18 per common share to shareholders of record at the close of business on August 17, 2023 , payable on August 31, 2023 .

ABOUT BERKSHIRE HILLS BANCORP

Headquartered in Boston , Berkshire Hills Bancorp is the parent of Berkshire Bank. Providing a wide range of financial solutions through its consumer banking, commercial banking and wealth management divisions, the Bank has approximately $12.1 billion in assets and a community-based footprint of 100 financial centers in Massachusetts , New York , Vermont , Connecticut and Rhode Island . Access more information about Berkshire Hills Bancorp at ir.berkshirebank.com.

Investor Relations Contact

Kevin Conn , Senior Managing Director, Investor Relations & Corporate Development

Email: [email protected]

Tel: (617) 641-9206

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SOURCE Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc.
SHANGHAI , Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Boqii Holding Limited ("Boqii" or the "Company") (NYSE: BQ), a leading pet-focused platform in China , today announced that it will hold an extraordinary general meeting (the "EGM") on Monday, September 11, 2023 at 3:00 p.m. ( China Time ) / 3:00 a.m. (Eastern Time) at the offices of Building 9, No. 388, Shengrong Road , Pudong New District , Shanghai , People's Republic of China , 201210.

The board of directors of the Company has fixed the close of business on August 14, 2023 (Eastern Time ), as the record date (the "Record Date") for determining the shareholders entitled to receive notice and to attend and vote at the EGM or any adjourned or postponed meeting thereof pursuant to the memorandum and articles of association of the Company currently in effect. Holders of record of the Company's Class A ordinary shares or Class B ordinary shares at the close of business on the Record Date are entitled to notice of, to attend and vote at, the EGM or any adjournment or postponement thereof. Holders of the Company's American Depositary Shares (the "ADSs") who wish to exercise their voting rights for the underlying Class A ordinary shares must act directly through the depositary of the Company's ADS program, The Bank of New York Mellon (the "Depositary"), if the ADSs are held by holders on the books and records of the Depositary or indirectly through a bank, brokerage or other securities intermediary if the ADSs are held by any of them on behalf of holders. The resolutions put to the vote at the EGM will be decided by poll.

The notice of the EGM, which sets forth the resolutions to be submitted to shareholder approval at the meeting, is available on the Company's website at http://ir.boqii.com.

The Company expects to continue implementing additional further funding options, including issuances of equity securities, in the foreseeable future, to optimize its business and seize opportunities to grow and to create greater value for shareholders.

About Boqii Holding Limited

Boqii Holding Limited (NYSE: BQ) is a leading pet-focused platform in China . We are the leading online destination for pet products and supplies in China with our broad selection of high-quality products including global leading brands, local emerging brands, and our own private label, Yoken, Mocare and D-cat, offered at competitive prices. Our online sales platforms, including Boqii Mall and our flagship stores on third-party e-commerce platforms, provide customers with convenient access to a wide selection of high-quality pet products and an engaging and personalized shopping experience. Our Boqii Community provides an informative and interactive content platform for users to share their knowledge and love for pets.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements. These statements are made under the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about the Company's beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties, and a number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by words or phrases such as "may," "will," "expect," "anticipate," "target," "aim," "estimate," "intend," "plan," "believe," "potential," "continue," "is/are likely to" or other similar expressions. The Company may also make written or oral forward-looking statements in its reports filed with, or furnished to, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, in its annual reports to shareholders, in press releases and other written materials and in oral statements made by its officers, directors or employees to third parties. Further information regarding such risks, uncertainties or factors is included in the Company's filings with the SEC. All information provided in this press release is as of the date of this press release, and the Company does not undertake any duty to update such information, except as required under applicable law.

For investor and media inquiries, please contact:

Boqii Holding Limited

Investor Relations

Tel: +86-21-6882-6051

Email: [email protected]

DLK Advisory Limited

Tel: +852-2857-7101

Email: [email protected]

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SOURCE Boqii Holding Limited
MEXICO CITY , Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- On Thursday, July 27, 2023 , leaders across Mexico participated in 'The 100,000 Strong in the Americas' (100K Strong) initiative, a hybrid (virtual/in-person) event to discuss the impact of 100K Strong. Representatives from the U.S. Embassy in Mexico , Fundacion Banorte, and Fundacion Gruma, as well as from higher education institutions were among the group, all of whom support academic exchanges between Mexico and the United States .

The event highlighted the visionary leadership of Fundacion Banorte and Fundacion Gruma in joining the U.S. Embassy in Mexico , the Office of Western Hemisphere Affairs of the U.S. Department of State, and Partners of the Americas to work together to increase crucial access to innovative and inclusive student exchanges and training programs.

The collaboration between Fundacion Banorte, Fundacion Gruma, and the U.S. Embassy in Mexico resulted in eleven new 100K Strong partnerships between Mexican and American universities. These partnerships enabled approximately 300 students and professors to acquire technical, linguistic, and intercultural skills in the areas of financial inclusion, entrepreneurship, agricultural sustainability, natural resource conservation, and business administration.

Mexico is a regional leader in the 100K Strong educational initiative, due to a decade of work in the public, private, and academic sectors of the US and Mexico . With over 130 partnerships between universities and colleges in 29 states across the U.S. and 23 states across Mexico , Mexico's devotion to this important cause has impacted 2,100 students and professors.

Ambassador Ken Salazar highlighted, "The 100,000 Strong in the Americas Innovation Fund embodies what we can achieve when our nations work together and invest in the talent and potential of our people through educational exchanges. I acknowledge the Banorte and Gruma Foundations for their commitment to this successful initiative that fosters the leadership and work of our students, professors, and academic institutions to transform our common challenges into shared opportunities. We promote the #Bicentennial200EducationChallenge so students from both countries live the experience international education and continue building their future and the future of North America ."

Carlos Hank Gonzalez , President of Banorte, said, "Today, as we witness the culmination of three years of collaboration, research, and dedication on topics such as financial and economic inclusion, let's celebrate the great achievements that have been possible thanks to the joint efforts of all of us. As part of the Bicentennial 200 Challenge for Education, we join this incredible program and are pleased to have contributed together to the commitment of the U.S. Embassy in Mexico to promote education."

Juan Gonzalez Moreno , President of Gruma, emphasized, "At Gruma, we congratulate ourselves on the achievements of the 100,000 Strong in the Americas Innovation Fund because it aligns with our company's vision and commitment to drive research that improves sustainable agriculture and rural development globally, and particularly in the United States . It was also an opportunity to demonstrate that Mexico and the United States work together to create more and better opportunities for our countries, companies, and people."

The Hemispheric Initiative 'The 100,000 Strong in the Americas' , between the Office of Western Hemisphere Affairs, the U.S. Embassies, and Partners of the Americas , together with the regional private sector, governments, and higher education institutions create innovative and inclusive student exchange programs. The 100K Strong Innovation Fund creates interregional networks between governments, businesses, and academia to support this flagship educational initiative throughout the hemisphere to build partnerships, strengthen institutional capacity, and increase access to innovative and inclusive exchange programs for students and professors from the Americas . As of June 2023 , after 34 contests, the 100K Strong Innovation Fund has awarded 315 grants (USD $25,000-$45,000 each) to 578 higher education institutions working in teams in 25 countries and 49 U.S. states, impacting more than 9,800 students and professors. Currently, more than 4,000 members have joined the 100K Network, including professors, administrators, U.S. embassies, and others.

JOIN the 100K Strong Network: www.100kstrongamericas.org

Follow: #100KStrongAmericas

About Partners of the Americas

The mission of Partners of the Americas is to connect people and organizations across and within borders to serve and change lives through lasting partnerships. These partnerships create opportunity, foster understanding, and solve real-life problems. Inspired by President Kennedy and founded in 1964, under the Alliance for Progress, Partners is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization with international offices in Washington, D.C. Learn more at www.partners.net or via Twitter @partnersamerica.

About Banorte

Grupo Financiero Banorte (GFNorte), led by Carlos Hank Gonzalez , is the largest Mexican financial institution. It offers financial services to individuals and corporations through its banking, brokerage, fund operator, insurance, pensions, leasing and factoring, warehousing, portfolio management, and the remittance company Uniteller. GFNorte also integrates Afore XXI Banorte, the largest Afore in the country by asset management. GFNorte is a public company listed on the main indicator of the Mexican Stock Exchange, and has more than 31,000 employees, 1,159 branches, 10,144 ATMs, 179,989 Point of Sale Terminals, and 19,800 correspondents.

About Carlos Hank Gonzalez

Carlos Hank Gonzalez is a seasoned professional in both the business and banking sectors, has amassed a wealth of experience through his numerous high-ranking roles within the industry and his membership on the boards of several notable corporations.



He ascended to the position of Board Chairman for Grupo Financiero Banorte in January 2015 , having been a board member since October of the previous year.



In addition to his corporate responsibilities, Carlos Hank Gonzalez also heads the Banorte Foundation. This non-profit organization is dedicated to providing support to underprivileged communities and promoting progress in various sectors including education, science, medicine, technology, and economic and sustainable development.



He holds a bachelor's degree in business administration with a focus on finance, which he obtained from Universidad Iberoamericana.



For further information about Carlos Hank Gonzalez:

Official website - www.carloshankgonzalez.com/

LinkedIn: - www.linkedin.com/in/carloshankgonzalez/

Twitter: www.twitter.com/CarlosHankG

Facebook: www.facebook.com/CarlosHankGonzalezBanorte/

About GRUMA

Since 1949, GRUMA, S.A.B. de C.V., is one of the world's leading tortilla and corn flour producers. With leading brands in most of its markets, GRUMA has operations in the United States , Mexico , Central America , Europe , Asia and Oceania . GRUMA is headquartered in San Pedro Garza Garcia, Mexico , and has approximately 25,800 employees and 74 plants. In 2022, GRUMA had net sales of US$5.6 billion , of which 75% came from non Mexican operations. For further information, please visit www.gruma.com.

Media Contact:

Victor Palma Villarreal

Public Affairs Manager at Banorte

Cell: +52 55 8471 7481

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SOURCE Banorte
BEIJING , Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- China Life Insurance Company Limited (the "Company") (NYSE: LFC; SSE: 601628; HKSE: 2628) announced today that due to the adjustment of work arrangements, Mr. Zhao Peng tendered his resignation as the President, an Executive Director and a member of the Strategy and Assets and Liabilities Management Committee of the Company on August 4, 2023 , which took effect on the same day. Mr. Zhao Peng has confirmed that he has no disagreement with the board of directors (the "Board") of the Company and there are no other matters relating to his resignation that need to be brought to the attention of the shareholders of the Company. The Company would like to express its gratitude to Mr. Zhao Peng for his contribution to the Company during his tenure of service.

The Company further announced that at the twenty-seventh meeting of the seventh session of the Board of the Company held on August 4, 2023 , Mr. Li Mingguang has been appointed as the President of the Company and his qualification as the President of the Company is subject to the approval of the National Administration of Financial Regulation. Prior to obtaining such approval, the Board has appointed Mr. Li Mingguang as the person temporarily in charge of the Company.

The biographical details of Mr. Li Mingguang are set out below:

Mr. Li Mingguang , born in July 1969 , has been serving as the Secretary to the Party Committee of the Company since July 2023 , an Executive Director of the Company since August 2019 , and a member of the Party Committee of China Life Insurance (Group) Company since April 2023 . Mr. Li Mingguang joined the Company in 1996 and subsequently served as the Deputy Division Chief, the Division Chief, an Assistant to the General Manager of the Product Development Department, the Responsible Actuary of the Company, the General Manager of the Actuarial Department, the Chief Actuary, the Board Secretary and the Vice President of the Company. He was the Chief Actuary of China Life Pension Company Limited and a Director of China Life Asset Management Company Limited. He graduated from Shanghai Jiao Tong University with a bachelor's degree in computer science in 1991, Central University of Finance and Economics majoring in monetary banking (actuarial science) with a master's degree in 1996 and Tsinghua University with an EMBA in 2010. Mr. Li Mingguang is a Fellow of the China Association of Actuaries (FCAA) and a Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (FIA). He was the Chairman of the first session of the China Actuarial Working Committee and the Secretary-general of both the first and the second sessions of the China Association of Actuaries. He is currently the Vice Chairman of the China Association of Actuaries. Mr. Li Mingguang receives a special government allowance from the State Council.

China life insurance

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SOURCE China Life
SAN ANTONIO , Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: CCO) (the "Company") will release 2023 second quarter results before the market opens on Monday, August 7, 2023 , by 7:00 a.m. and will host a conference call to discuss the results at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time . This is a change from the August 9 th date announced on June 26, 2023 .

The conference call number remains the same and is 1-833-470-1428 ( U.S. callers) and 1-929-526-1599 (international callers), and the access code for both is 924865. A live audio webcast of the conference call will be available on the "Events and Presentations" section of the Company's website (www.investor.clearchannel.com). The related earnings materials, including reconciliations of any non-GAAP financial measures to GAAP financial measures and any other applicable disclosures, will be available on the "Financials" section of the Company's website after 7:00 a.m. Eastern Time .

Approximately two hours after the live conference call, a replay of the webcast will be available for a period of thirty days on the "Events and Presentations" section of the Company's website.

About Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, Inc.

Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: CCO) is at the forefront of driving innovation in the out-of-home advertising industry. Our dynamic advertising platform is broadening the pool of advertisers using our medium through the expansion of digital billboards and displays and the integration of data analytics and programmatic capabilities that deliver measurable campaigns that are simpler to buy. By leveraging the scale, reach and flexibility of our diverse portfolio of assets, we connect advertisers with millions of consumers every month across more than 470,000 print and digital displays in 21 countries.

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SOURCE Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, Inc.
AUGUSTA COUNTY, Va. , Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- ESA's Fishersville Road Solar Farm Community Grant Program has awarded funding to three community-based organizations who are making positive impacts locally in community revitalization, environmental sustainability, education support or healthy living.

The organizations awarded were Blue Ridge CASA for Children, Magnolia Rose , and Arc of Augusta .

"Cultivating relationships with local organizations and amplifying their impact is core to our ethos as a company. We are humbled to support such phenomenal organizations who work tirelessly every day to make Augusta County an even better place," said Justin Vandenbroeck , executive vice president at ESA. "We are inspired by their work and look forward to doing our part to ensure that low-to-moderate income community members have pathways to economic relief from rising electricity costs."

The first recipient of the Fishersville Road Solar Farm Community Grant is Blue Ridge CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates), a non-profit organization that recruits, trains, and empowers volunteers to advocate for abused and neglected children who cannot safely remain in their homes. CASA Advocates build relationships, review records, and provide detailed court reports based on the child's best interests. Supported by knowledgeable Advocate Managers, these volunteers improve the children's physical and mental health, address trauma, and increase their chances of a healthy life.

CEO of the Blue Ridge CASA for Children said "ESA's $2,500 grant enables Blue Ridge CASA for Children to expand its services and support additional children in the foster care system, providing them with crucial advocacy and resources to ensure their safety and well-being during challenging times. With this funding, the organization can recruit and train more volunteer advocates, conduct outreach efforts, and offer essential services to a greater number of vulnerable children in need."

Magnolia Rose , another grant recipient, is a non-profit organization in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia dedicated to providing hope and healing to victims of human trafficking. They offer an emergency shelter with fully furnished apartments, ensuring a safe and nurturing environment for survivors to begin their transformative journey. Through a partnership with Augusta Health's medical mobile unit, they provide on-site detox recovery and comprehensive healthcare services. With a storefront in downtown Waynesboro , they generate funds to sustain their impactful programs. Their commitment extends to street outreach and the future establishment of a Healing Center for at-risk teen girls, offering counseling, tutoring, and mentorship. Magnolia Rose is deeply committed to empowering survivors and making a lasting impact on their lives.

Jessica Garcia , secretary of Magnolia Rose , said "This grant will have a great impact on our local community by ensuring Magnolia Rose can continue our mission of bringing hope and healing to women and girls that have survived human trafficking in the Shenandoah Valley . Thanks to ESA and their generous grant, we are able to provide safe housing, detox and recovery services, advocacy, and a neighborly support system for vulnerable women and their families."

The final recipient of the Fishersville Road Solar Farm Community Grant Program is Arc of Augusta , a non-profit organization dedicated to serving individuals with developmental disabilities in the Staunton , Waynesboro , and Augusta County areas. Established in 1960 by a group of parents who wanted their children to have access to education, the organization has since provided a range of services including summer camps, holiday parties, day programs, and legal advocacy. Currently, the focus is on promoting socialization and providing education on healthy living for individuals with developmental disabilities.

"With the grant, we can plan fun community events and workshops that bring everyone together, creating an inclusive and welcoming environment. It'll open up opportunities for people of all abilities to make meaningful friendships and community connections," said Tosha Berry , Executive Director for the Arc of Augusta .

ESA is in the process of developing a small community solar farm on approximately 8 acres of land in Augusta for low-to-moderate income residents who are currently Dominion Energy customers. They will be able to "subscribe" to the Fishersville Road Solar Farm as part of the Virginia Shared Solar Program and save money on their electric bill.

About ESA

ESA is a prominent clean energy development and decarbonization platform. Over the past decade, ESA has successfully transacted over 6 GW of operating solar energy projects and pre-construction development assets. Our diverse portfolio spans a broad array of asset classes, including installations at corporate headquarters, commercial and industrial facilities, community solar portfolios, and multi-100 MW utility-scale solar projects. ESA's influence extends across 22 states, where projects have interconnected with 27 distinct utilities. ESA operates with the freedom and flexibility inherent in a privately owned and managed corporation. To learn more about ESA, please visit our website at esa-solar.com. You can also stay up to date with our latest developments by following us on LinkedIn.

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SOURCE ESA Solar Energy
Entrepreneur Of The Year celebrates ambitious entrepreneurs who are building a better world

SAN DIEGO , Aug. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Ernst & Young LLP (EY US) today announced that Shahab Elmi , CEO and Founder of Cymbiotika was named an Entrepreneur Of The Year 2023 Pacific Southwest Award winner. The Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards program is one of the preeminent competitive awards for entrepreneurs and leaders of high-growth companies. Elmi was selected by an independent judging panel made up of previous award winners, leading CEOs, investors and other regional business leaders. The candidates were evaluated based on their demonstration of building long-term value through entrepreneurial spirit, purpose, growth and impact, among other core contributions and attributes.

"I am honored and humbled to be named an Entrepreneur Of The Year 2023 Pacific Southwest Award winner," said Shahab Elmi . "This award further validates our mission and serves as a reminder of the positive impact we are making. I am grateful for this recognition and excited about the opportunities that lie ahead as we continue to innovate and drive positive change."

For nearly four decades, EY US has honored entrepreneurs whose ambition, courage and ingenuity have driven their companies' success, transformed their industries and made a positive impact on their communities. Entrepreneur Of The Year Award winners become lifetime members of a global, multi-industry community of entrepreneurs, with exclusive, ongoing access to the experience, insight and wisdom of program alumni and other ecosystem members in over 60 countries  all supported by vast EY resources. Since 1986, the Entrepreneur Of The Year program has recognized more than 11,000 US executives.

As a Pacific Southwest award winner, Elmi is now eligible for consideration for the Entrepreneur Of The Year 2023 National Awards. The National Award winners including the Entrepreneur Of The Year National Overall Award winner will be announced in November at the Strategic Growth Forum, one of the nation's most prestigious gatherings of high-growth, market-leading companies. The Entrepreneur Of The Year National Overall Award winner will then move on to compete for the World Entrepreneur Of The Year Award in June 2024 .

The Entrepreneur Of The Year program has honored the inspirational leadership of entrepreneurs such as:

Andreas Bechtolsheim and Jayshree Ullal of

Arista Networks

Daymond John of FUBU

Hamdi Ulukaya of Chobani, Inc.

Holly Thaggard and Amanda Baldwin of

Supergoop!

Howard Schultz of Starbucks Coffee Company James Park of Fitbit

Jodi Berg of Vitamix

Joe DeSimone of Carbon, Inc.

Kendra Scott of Kendra Scott LLC

Reid Hoffman and Jeff Weiner of LinkedIn

Corporation

Joe Kudla of Vuori

About Entrepreneur Of The Year

Entrepreneur Of The Year is the world's most prestigious business awards program for unstoppable entrepreneurs. These visionary leaders deliver innovation, growth and prosperity that transform our world. The program engages entrepreneurs with insights and experiences that foster growth. It connects them with their peers to strengthen entrepreneurship around the world. Entrepreneur Of The Year is the first and only truly global awards program of its kind. It celebrates entrepreneurs through regional and national awards programs in more than 145 cities in over 60 countries. National Overall Award winners go on to compete for the World Entrepreneur Of The Year title. Visit ey.com/us/eoy.

About Cymbiotika

Cymbiotika is an innovative wellness brand based in San Diego . Cymbiotika is driven by the higher purpose of inspiring everyday people to achieve their optimal health. Founded in 2018, Cymbiotika uses the most advanced bioavailable absorption technology and sources only the highest quality plant-based nutrients to resolve specific nutritional deficiencies and support healthy aging, detoxification, and longevity. Cymbiotika never uses synthetics, GMOs, fillers, chemicals, preservatives, or additives in its products. For more information, visit www.cymbiotika.com.

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SOURCE Cymbiotika
NEW YORK , Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- FatBrain AI (LZG International, Inc., OTCQB: LZGI) (the "Company," or "we"), the leader in powerful and easy-to-use AI solutions for small business, announced a new distribution agreement for its IntellAgent Advisor AI Sales Enablement solution.

Its distribution partner Appulate offers an industry-leading software that has been digitizing insurance transactions across agency brokers, distribution/MGA and carrier systems over 18 years. It reaches nearly 300,000 users at 35,000 agencies, connected with 150 carriers. Appulate enables 240,000 insurance requests per year, with $3B+ in premiums annually.

Last week FatBrain AI's Insurance subsidiary IntellAgents announced its latest product; IntellAgent Advisor, which is a sales enablement tool for agents' rapid growth and productivity boost. It personalizes the exclusive underwriting knowledge from Rough Notes, Inc., a trusted leader supporting independent agents and underwriters since 1878. It automates 145 years of insurance expertise and delivers it at the "point of sale" using FatBrain's FatGPT private data model technology, similar to the popular large language models or LLMs. In its simplicity, the IntellAgent Advisor aligns and enhances the underwriting knowledge, the agent-client experience and FatBrain's existing innovation ecosystem continuously scoring industry and region-specific business risks.

"With IntellAgent Advisor, our clients now get 'on the spot' analysis of the insurance risks and recommended coverages for 700 different industries," said Dimitri Nikouline , CTO of Appulate. "It gives them the much-needed advantage in a highly competitive landscape  to grow new business and retain their existing customers. Each agent instantly knows more about their customers' business and their insurance needs with a few clicks."

"Our goal is to reach as many agents as quickly as possible," said Mark Stender , president of FatBrain AI insurance business and 27-year veteran of insurance technology. "The Appulate partnership enables mass adoption by a large number of agents embedded into a high volume of 'real business' transactions accelerating the commercial insurance application process."

"The Appulate relationship empowers multi-level business insights across the seller-distributor-carrier/manufacturer dynamics," said Peter B. Ritz , co-founder and CEO of FatBrain AI. "We are excited to make the entire experience more personalized for sellers and their clients, while automating the augmented decision-making across the entire P&C insurance supply chain."

About FatBrain AI (LZG International, Inc., OTCQB: LZGI)

FatBrain AI provides powerful and easy-to-use AI solutions to empower the enterprise stars of tomorrow to grow, innovate, and drive the majority of the global economy. FatBrain's AI 2.0 technologies and advanced data services transform continuous learning, narrative reasoning, large language models, and cloud and blockchain technologies into auditable, explainable and easy to integrate AI solutions. FatBrain's subscriptions allow all companies to deploy its advanced AI solutions quickly, easily, and securely behind their firewalls or via cloud. FatBrain's global delivery includes 600+ team across design, development centers in the US, UK, India, and Kazakh Republic.

For more information, please visit: https://www.fatbrain.ai

About Appulate, Inc.

Appulate the #1 digital distributor of P&C insurance and the leading insurtech company providing innovative solutions to streamline and enhance insurance processes for agents and markets. Appulate facilitates the evolution of technology and changes the way more than 300,000 independent agents and over 35,000 agencies generate quotes and expand their business. Appulate powers the digital transformation of insurance by bringing together the insured, agent, wholesale broker, MGA and carrier in a digital ecosystem designed to expedite the rate, quote, and bind process for property and casualty risks.

For more information, please visit: https://appulate.com

Forward Looking Statement

This release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of offers to buy any securities of any entity. This release contains certain forward-looking statements based on our current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements in this release are based on information available to us as of the date hereof. Our actual results may differ materially from those stated or implied in such forward-looking statements, due to risks and uncertainties associated with our business, which include the risk factors disclosed in our Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on September 13, 2022. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding our expectations, beliefs, intentions, or strategies regarding the future and can be identified by forward-looking words such as "anticipate," "believe," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "should," and "would" or similar words. All forecasts provided by management in this release are based on information available at this time and management expects that internal projections and expectations may change over time. In addition, the forecasts are based entirely on management's best estimate of our future financial performance given our current contracts, current backlog of opportunities and conversations with new and existing customers about our products and services. We assume no obligation to update the information included in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Contact

Brokers and Analysts:

Chesapeake Group

410-825-3930

[email protected]

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SOURCE LZG International, Inc.
BEIJING, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- China firmly opposes any visit by "Taiwan independence" separatists to the United States in any name or under whatever pretext, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said on Thursday.

The spokesperson made the remarks when asked to comment on the deputy leader of the Taiwan region Lai Ching-te's visit to Paraguay via the United States.

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities announced on Aug. 2 that Lai will leave on Aug. 12 for Paraguay to attend the president's inauguration. He will "transit" in New York and San Francisco in the United States on his way to and from Paraguay.

The spokesperson said China firmly opposes any form of official interaction between the United States and the Taiwan region, firmly opposes any visit by "Taiwan independence" separatists to the United States in any name or under whatever pretext, and firmly opposes any form of U.S. connivance and support for "Taiwan independence" separatists and their separatist activities.

The Taiwan question is at the core of China's core interests and a red line that cannot be crossed, the spokesperson said.

China urges the United States to abide by the one-China principle and the three China-U.S. joint communiques, act on its leaders' commitment of not supporting "Taiwan independence," stop official interactions with Taiwan, stop upgrading its substantive exchanges with the region, stop sending wrong messages to separatist forces seeking "Taiwan independence," and refuse to let Lai "transit" the United States, the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson noted that China will closely follow the developments and take firm and strong measures to safeguard our nation's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

"We would like to tell the DPP authorities seriously that 'Taiwan independence' is a dead end, fawning on the United States and selling Taiwan away will only harm the people of Taiwan, and any attempt to seek 'independence' and make provocation in collusion with external forces is doomed to failure." the spokesperson said. 
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. , Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- For the second year in a row, Florida Realtors, the largest professional trade association in Florida , has been named one of Florida's "Best Companies To Work For."

The annual "Best Companies To Work For In Florida" list, featured in a special August issue of Florida Trend magazine, ranks 100 companies in small, medium and large employer categories. Florida Realtors ranked 33rd in the mid-size employer category.

"At Florida Realtors, we invite our employees into the discussion for our mission to be the 'Voice for Real Estate in Florida '  they're as important to our brand as any of our products, tools or services," says Florida Realtors CEO Margy Grant . "Creating a culture of trust and empowerment is an everyday process. When given the opportunity to do the right thing at the right time, employees will choose to do so when they feel trusted and empowered."

Florida Realtors has 146 employees and two Florida offices: its headquarters in Orlando and a public policy office in Tallahassee . As the state Realtor association, it provides programs, services, continuing education, research and legislative representation to 238,000 members in 51 local Realtor boards and associations.

To participate in the "Best Companies To Work For In Florida" program, companies or government entities were required to have at least 15 workers in Florida and to be in operation at least one year. Those that chose to participate underwent an evaluation of their workplace policies, practices, philosophy, systems and demographics. The process also included a survey to measure employee satisfaction. The combined scores determined the top companies and the final ranking.

"It's clear the nature of the workplace has fundamentally changed, not only in hybrid work becoming a permanent part of the business landscape but in the expectations of employees when they do come to the office," says Florida Trend Executive Editor Vickie Chachere . "What remains unchanged is that companies who listen to their employees and create workplaces that enhance the quality of life for their teams are rewarded with productivity, stability and a thriving work environment."

Florida Trend Publisher David Denor adds , "Innovative, inspirational and visionaries ... these Florida companies continue to set trends for others to follow. This group of impressive companies continues to recruit, retain and deliver unique workplace environments for their employees and clients alike. Not afraid to takes chances or step outside the norms, the 'Best Companies To Work For In Florida' are risk takers that provide us with a glimpse of what tomorrow's workforce and workplace environments could look like."

The "Best Companies To Work For In Florida" program is managed by Florida Trend and Workforce Research Group and is endorsed by the HR Florida State Council. Workforce Research Group handled the registration, survey and analysis and determined the final rankings. Check out Florida Trend's list of 100 Best Companies To Work For In Florida online.

Florida Trend business magazine is read by 270,000 business executives, civic leaders and government officials each month. It covers regional and statewide business news, industry executives and the business sectors they represent, as well as Florida's lifestyle, arts and culture scene.

Florida Realtors serves as the voice for real estate in Florida . It provides programs, services, continuing education, research and legislative representation to 238,000 members in 51 boards/associations. Florida Realtors Newsroom website is available at http://floridarealtors.org/newsroom.

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SOURCE Florida Realtors
MISSION VIEJO, Calif. , Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- International humanitarian charity, Human Appeal, has opened a new permanent healthcare center in Al Zohoor town, Northwest Syria , thanks to the generous support of Americares, the health-focused relief and development organization.

Recognizing the critical need for basic health services in Al Zohoor following the devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck the region on February 6, 2023 , Americares provided Human Appeal with $300,000 in emergency funding to establish a health clinic for earthquake survivors, including displaced women, children and the elderly.

The new center provides facilities spanning first aid, in-patient treatment, children and women's clinics, a laboratory, pharmacy, and dental clinic, offering free healthcare to families displaced by the earthquake. It also includes a psychological support clinic, offering invaluable psychiatric aid to children who have been affected by the crisis.

"This new clinic will increase access to critical health services in a region where health care is needed now more than ever," said Americares Director of International Emergency Response Cora Nally . "We're proud to be part of this effort."

Americares responds to more than 30 natural disasters and humanitarian crises worldwide each year, establishes long-term recovery projects and brings preparedness programs to communities vulnerable to disasters. Since its founding more than 40 years ago, Americares has provided more than $22 billion in aid to 164 countries, including the United States .

Since recently opening its doors in June 2023 , the facility has already treated over 2,000 people, and has the capacity to serve 225 patients per day.

Dr. Nihat Kashoor, a Medical Coordinator for Human Appeal in northwest Syria , comments: 'It's been an incredibly difficult year for the people of Syria . Millions are still trying to piece their lives back together following the devastating earthquake earlier this year. We quickly recognized the importance of Al Zohoor as a refuge for those displaced by the quake. In the initial aftermath, we prioritized offering shelter and food security. Once established, it was a vital priority to provide free medical care to those who lost everything in the natural disaster. We're proud to have opened the healthcare center in Al Zohoor in collaboration with one of our longstanding partners, Americares, and hope to provide a stable future for all those affected by the earthquake.'

In the aftermath of the deadly earthquake, which killed just over 8 thousand people in Syria , Human Appeal began moving families who lost their homes in the earthquake into the 1,000 brick homes it recently built in the town it named Al Zohoor or the floral town. Now in conjunction with Americares, the new clinic is serving these families with a wide range of healthcare.

About Human Appeal USA

Here for Every Human. Human Appeal is a non-profit organisation working across the globe to strengthen humanity's fight against poverty, social injustice and natural disaster. Through the provision of immediate relief and the establishment of self-sustaining development programmes, we aim to invest in real, effective solutions.

Human Appeal USA is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization.

Tax ID # 87-2410117. Your donations are tax deductible.

Human Appeal Inc. 26050 Acero, Suite 415, Mission Viejo, CA 92691, USA .

Tel: +1 949 569 9060.

Email: [email protected]

For more information visit: www.humanappealusa.org

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2169762/Human_Appeal.jpg

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SOURCE Human Appeal
IEM contributes nearly $90,000 in supplies for pediatric care, disaster response and training

MORRISVILLE, N.C. , Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- IEM and IEM Health are honored to donate emergency medical kits, automated external defibrillators, and other medical supplies to Texas Children's Hospital, the largest pediatric hospital system in the nation.

The items, valued at nearly $90,000 and originally purchased in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, will now be used for first responder training, emergency response, preparation, and planning.

"Equipping medical centers with the proper resources could provide a lifeline for the communities they serve," said IEM Health Chief Medical Director Dr. Rashid Chotani . "These items will be invaluable tools to be used in emergency situations, educate first responders, and ultimately to save lives. We hope the pediatric doctors, staff, patients, and their families benefit greatly from IEM's donation."

In November 2022 , Texas Children's Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine announced plans to lead the Gulf 7  Pediatric Disaster Network (G7). This regional pediatric disaster network provides specialized care during widespread crises in Alabama , Florida , Georgia , Louisiana , Mississippi , Puerto Rico , and Texas . G7 works to improve regional capacity to provide pediatric care in large-scale crises and serves as a hub for disaster-focused education, training, and resource deployment.

Chotani and Deputy Director of IEM Health Dr. Lori Van Wagenen presented the items to Dr. Brent Kaziny , Medical Director of Emergency Management and Attending Physician, Emergency Center at Texas Children's Hospital.

"As health care professionals and providers, we have a responsibility to our hospital, our city, and our community to prepare for disasters and to respond to them as quickly and effectively as possible," said Dr. Kaziny . "We are so grateful for IEM's generous donation, which will enhance our preparedness by providing us with the tools we need to train our staff and to educate first responders."

Kaziny also serves as Co-Director, Disaster Preparedness Domain, EMS for Children Innovation and Improvement Center and Department of Pediatrics, Section of Emergency Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine.

"Coordinating attainable medical care for children from an expansive network of experts in times of crisis aligns with IEM's mission," Chotani added. "IEM Health is proud to have had the opportunity to deliver highly specialized and efficient, quality supplies that will help people of all ages, including the youngest survivors of disasters and emergencies."

About IEM

As the largest woman- and minority-owned crisis management firm in the world, IEM's 1,200+ consultants are at the forefront of building a safe, secure, and resilient world. Founded in 1985, IEM integrates science, technology, and real-world experience to provide our clients with innovative solutions and outcomes that matter. Our services encompass emergency management, homeland security long-term disaster recovery, project and grants management, logistics, infrastructure security and resilience, public health, digital citizen services, innovative technologies for national security and law enforcement, and public engagement and outreach. For information, visit www.iem.com.

ABOUT TEXAS CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL

Texas Children's, a nonprofit health care organization, is committed to creating a healthier future for children and women throughout the global community by leading in patient care, education and research. Consistently ranked as the best children's hospital in Texas and among the top in the nation, Texas Children's has garnered widespread recognition for its expertise and breakthroughs in pediatric and women's health. The system includes the Texas Children's Duncan NRI; the Feigin Tower for pediatric research; Texas Children's Pavilion for Women, a comprehensive obstetrics/gynecology facility focusing on high-risk births; Texas Children's Hospital West Campus, a community hospital in suburban West Houston ; and Texas Children's Hospital The Woodlands, the first hospital devoted to children's care for communities north of Houston . The organization also created Texas Children's Health Plan, the nation's first HMO for children; Texas Children's Pediatrics, the largest pediatric primary care network in the country; Texas Children's Urgent Care clinics that specialize in after-hours care tailored specifically for children; and a global health program that's channeling care to children and women all over the world. Texas Children's Hospital is affiliated with Baylor College of Medicine. For more information, visit www.texaschildrens.org.

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SOURCE IEM
MIAMI , Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- NTM Info & Research (www.ntminfo.org), a pioneering global organization committed to addressing NonTuberculous Mycobacterial (NTM) and improving respiratory health, proudly announces the first-ever World NTM Awareness Day, to be held on August 4, 2023 . This significant milestone celebrates the organization's 20-year anniversary, paying tribute to its founders' Fern and Philip Leitman's unwavering commitment to advancing knowledge, support, and treatment options for individuals affected by NTM.

Experience the full interactive Multichannel News Release here: https://www.multivu.com/players/English/9188151-non-tuberculous-mycobacterial-awareness-day/

World NTM Awareness Day is the ideal platform to raise global awareness about NTM, a complex and often misunderstood group of bacteria that cause chronic infections, predominantly affecting the respiratory system. With this observance, NTMir honors the vision and dedication of its founders, who embarked on this journey two decades ago with a mission to transform the lives of those impacted by NTM.

Nearly all NTM patients have bronchiectasis, either before or as a result of NTM. "There hasn't been enough emphasis on the connection between NTM lung disease and the underlying lung damage, bronchiectasis, but the two go hand-in-hand, and impacts millions of people worldwide, costing tens of thousands of dollars per year for each patient," said Amy Leitman JD, President of NTMir and daughter of Fern and Philip Leitman . "Understanding and managing both conditions gives patients the chance for improved quality of life and better outcomes." Throughout the years, NTM Info & Research has partnered with global organizations that have been at the forefront of advocacy, research, and collaboration, driving positive change in the NTM and bronchiectasis community.

NTM awareness and treatment options have made great strides. This anniversary celebration underscores the organization's continued commitment to its founding principles and recognizes the remarkable progress made in NTM awareness, diagnosis, and patient care."We are thrilled to announce the first World NTM Awareness Day as we commemorate our 20-year anniversary," said Leitman. "This special day not only celebrates the achievements of our organization but also shines a spotlight on the global NTM community, honoring the resilience and strength of individuals impacted by this challenging condition.We'd like to thank all our sponsors for helping make this event a reality, especially our platinum sponsor, Insmed."

The inaugural World NTM Awareness Day will feature a virtual webinar and panel discussion featuring renowned experts, researchers, and advocates, providing valuable insights into the latest advancements in NTM diagnosis, treatment, and support. However more awareness and research is needed for earlier detection and treatment options that will support NTM patient's quality of life. Visit worldntmday.org to learn more on how to take concrete steps towards supporting those affected by NTM, promoting early detection, and improving treatment outcomes.

NTM Info & Research (NTMir) is a national 501(c)(3) non-profit organization formed on behalf of patients with pulmonary nontuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) disease for patient support, medical education and research. The organization serves patients, healthcare providers and researchers dealing with bronchiectasis and NTM. It advocates a broad agenda to promote early diagnosis, improved treatments, and research. The mission is to bring a voice to the concerns of all our constituents with government officials and agencies that guide, research, and regulate therapies developed to treat these diseases. NTM Info & Research recognizes the need for advancement in education and treatment of bronchiectasis.

NTMir was founded by Fern Leitman , an NTM patient, and her husband Philip. During treatment at National Jewish Health in Denver , they met many patients from different parts of the country, who had experienced delayed diagnoses and were frightened for being unfamiliar with many aspects of NTM disease.

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SOURCE NTM Info & Research
InCheck will offer pre-employment background checks and educational content for employers and candidates as a component of The Way Out's Newly Launched Fair Chance Employment Platform

MILWAUKEE , Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- InCheck, a leading national provider of background screening and monitoring solutions, is pleased to announce a new partnership with The Way Out, a second chance employment platform provider. This collaboration aims to offer employers and candidates a seamless experience in conducting background checks while providing valuable educational resources to promote Fair Chance Hiring.

InCheck and The Way Out Join Forces to Help Justice Involved Individuals Find Jobs

Fair Chance Hiring has emerged as a critical issue in today's job market, as employers increasingly recognize the importance of considering the hire of individuals with criminal records. This partnership between InCheck and The Way Out will address potential challenges by offering innovative solutions that empower employers to make fair and informed hiring decisions, and help candidates understand how screening and monitoring programs work.

InCheck is known for their comprehensive and accurate background screening services, customized programs, and friendly, helpful customer service. With access to a vast network of data and reporting capabilities, InCheck enables employers to obtain thorough candidate reports efficiently and effectively. By partnering with The Way Out, they will now be able to provide employers with educational content that sheds light on the benefits of Fair Chance Hiring and the best practices to implement it.

Rachel Morafcik , CEO of InCheck, expressed her enthusiasm about the partnership, stating, "We are thrilled to collaborate with The Way Out in our endeavor to make background checks informative, inclusive, and equitable. By combining our expertise in background screening with The Way Out's connections and platform, we aim to empower employers to adopt Fair Chance Hiring practices and provide job opportunities for deserving candidates."

Eli Rivera , CEO of The Way Out, emphasized the importance of education in Fair Chance Hiring, stating, "We are excited to partner with InCheck to bring meaningful educational content to employers. By educating employers about the benefits of Fair Chance Hiring and equipping them with the necessary resources, we believe that we can create positive change and opportunities for individuals who deserve a second chance. The Way Out is committed to navigating the complexities of hiring individuals with criminal records to create a more inclusive workforce."

By joining forces, both organizations aim to make a significant impact on the hiring practices of organizations across various industries. For more information about InCheck or The Way Out, please visit inchecksolutions.com or thewayoutelps.com.

About InCheck

Founded in 2002 and located in southeastern Wisconsin , InCheck offers a full suite of background screening and monitoring services. From criminal background checks and employment or education verifications, to drug screening, occupational health services and reference checks, InCheck provides customized, collaborative solutions for organizations seeking process flexibility and a smooth, candidate-friendly experience. InCheck's technology platform allows for seamless ordering and reporting  along with easy integrations with over 50+ popular applicant tracking systems. Learn more about how InCheck's international screening solutions can be customized to your organization, skill sets, locations, and process at inchecksolutions.com, or by calling (414) 727-1718.

About The Way Out

Founded in 2021 by two justice impacted individuals, The Way Out connects justice impacted persons with employers, helping to eliminate implicit or other biases in the hiring process. The Way Out additionally focuses on development and retention by offering ongoing training and support opportunities, through its partnership with workforce development boards and supportive services providers. By providing a streamlined, support and communication platform for justice impacted job seekers, employers, and supportive services providers, The Way Out is able to continuously fill its pipeline with qualified, talented, and eager-to-work individuals, waiting to fill open positions across various industries. Learn more about The Way Out's solutions for job seekers, employers and service providers at Fair Chance Employment Platform | The Way Out (thewayouthelps.com).

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SOURCE InCheck
Motorcycle thefts rose 7% last year, according to a new NICB report

DES PLAINES , lll., Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- As motorcycle enthusiasts get ready for The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota , the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) is encouraging riders to take extra care before taking to the streets. Motorcycle thefts increased 7 percent from 2021 to 2022, marking another year of rising thefts according to the NICB's 2022 Vehicle Type Theft Report.

Motorcycle thefts rose 7% last year, according to a new NICB report

An average of 4,561 motorcycles were reported stolen each month in 2022. Thefts climbed steadily from a low of 2,879 in February, peaking in July at 6,394. Motorcycle thefts surpassed the monthly average during the warmer season from May through October.

"While we witness the rise in vehicle thefts year after year, we are encouraging all owners, and especially motorcycle riders to take great care in protecting their property," said David J. Glawe , president and CEO of NICB. "Even though you can't completely control when criminals target you or your vehicle, you can help deter would-be thieves by taking proactive, easy, and effective steps to prevent these thefts."

Californians again led the pack in reporting the most motorcycle thefts with 9,838 stolen bikes in 2022, accounting for 30 percent of all motorcycle thefts in the United States . Reporting less than half of California's total thefts, Florida's and Texas' riders experienced the second and third most motorcycle thefts during the same period with 4,563 and 4,145 reports, respectively.

The top 10 states for motorcycle thefts made up 60 percent of the 54,736 motorcycle theft reports in the U.S. in 2022. As reports of stolen motorcycles rise, more than 40 percent are recovered thanks to the efforts of law enforcement agencies. The National Insurance Crime Bureau works with state and federal law enforcement agencies to target criminal organizations engaged in insurance fraud.

The NICB recommends the following tips to protect your motorcycle from bad actors:

Be cautious when parting with your ride; park in well-lit areas, lock your ignition and remove your keys.

Lock your bike even when stored in a garage. Investing in an alarm system can significantly deter potential thieves.

Keep your title secure. Don't store it in your motorcycle's storage compartment.

By placing unique markings on your motorcycle and documenting them, if your bike is ever stolen, you can use these markings to identify your property.

Always keep an eye on your vehicle while leaving it idle. Riderless, running motorcycles are prime targets for thieves.

If your vehicle is stolen, call law enforcement and your insurer immediately. NICB data shows that reporting a vehicle as soon as possible after it is stolen increases the chance of recovery.

Learn more about reporting stolen vehicles here.

ABOUT THE NATIONAL INSURANCE CRIME BUREAU: Headquartered in Des Plaines, Ill. , the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) is the nation's leading not-for-profit organization exclusively dedicated to combatting and preventing insurance crime through Intelligence, Analytics, and Operations; Education and Crime Prevention; and Strategy, Policy, and Advocacy. NICB membership includes more than 1,200 property-casualty insurance companies, vehicle rental companies, auto auctions, vehicle finance companies and self-insured organizations. NICB member companies wrote over $582 billion in insurance premiums in 2021, or more than 82% of the nation's property-casualty insurance. That includes more than 96% of the nation's personal auto insurance. To learn more, visit www.nicb.org.

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SOURCE National Insurance Crime Bureau
Kovacich first attorney to be selected for MTLA honor three times

GREAT FALLS, Mont. , Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The trial firm of Kovacich Snipes Johnson is pleased to announce that Mark Kovacich and Ben Snipes have been recognized as Trial Lawyers of the Year for 2023 by the Montana Trial Lawyers Association. The two firm partners received the award at the association's annual conference at the University of Montana School of Law in Missoula yesterday evening.

This is the third time Mr. Kovacich has received the honor, a record for the 35-year history of the award. He was recognized by the MTLA in 2005 and 2019 in addition to receiving the group's Appellate Advocate of the Year award in 2008 and 2016. This is the second time Mr. Snipes has been named Trial Lawyer of the Year, previously sharing the honor with his law partner in 2019.

The award was established to honor an attorney or trial team for effective representation of victims and consumers in a Montana judicial or administrative forum, as well as consideration for the nature and circumstances of that representation.

The nomination by retired District Judge James A. Manley cites the pair's work on behalf of a West Glacier -based mortgage broker. A Flathead County jury awarded the firm's client $1.5 million in damages following a five-day trial, finding that another law firm acted maliciously in pursuing accusations of bank fraud against the broker.

"It's exceedingly difficult and troubling to bring such a case against another member of the legal profession, but Ben and I strongly believed it was the right thing to do," says Mr. Kovacich . "We appreciate the mission of the MTLA to serve the public good, and hope our work exemplifies and upholds that mission of justice for all."

A principal and managing partner of the firm, Mr. Kovacich represents plaintiffs in claims involving serious personal injury, construction accidents, environmental litigation, toxic torts, product liability, workers' compensation and safe workplace litigation.

A partner and firm shareholder, Mr. Snipes' practice centers on plaintiff personal injury claims, such as trucking accidents, construction accidents and ski accidents, with an additional focus on workers' compensation claims.

About Kovacich Snipes Johnson

Kovacich Snipes Johnson Trial Lawyers is a law firm serving clients in Great Falls and throughout Montana . With decades of experience and numerous prestigious awards, the firm's attorneys have successfully represented plaintiffs in cases ranging from truck accidents to oilfield accidents, mining accidents and beyond. The firm has recovered more than $500 million in judgments and settlements to date.

Media Contact:

Barry Pound

800-559-4534

[email protected]

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SOURCE Kovacich Snipes Johnson, P.C.
NEW LONDON, N.H. , Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Orange Photonics, a pioneering leader in the cannabis testing industry, proudly reports on the unprecedented impact of LightLab 3 High Sensitivity (HS) Cannabis Analyzer. Launched in November 2022 , this groundbreaking analytical instrument has been driving cannabis industry and infrastructure growth by providing the robust analytical capabilities of high-performance liquid chromatography, at the point of need.

Orange Photonics, a leader in portable HPLC science, reports on the impact of LightLab 3 HS Cannabis Analyzer.

Prior to LightLab 3 HS, analysis of low dose cannabis products was not possible in non-laboratory environments. Since LightLab 3's launch, cultivators, manufacturers, regulators, and law enforcement agencies can make fast, data-driven decisions informed by LightLab's real-time cannabinoid analysis. Non-technical users can now perform rapid and cost-effective in-house potency testing on cannabis plants and concentrates, as well as all types of cannabis-infused edibles and beverages.

Stephanie McArdle , the President of Orange Photonics, emphasizes the significance of the LightLab 3 HS in the current cannabis landscape: "Since the launch of LightLab 3 HS in November 2022 , LightLab 3 HS has truly democratized science by giving non-technical operators the agency to run low-level compound analysis and immediately use the data for benchmarking, label audits, GMP programs and quality assurance. Over the last nine months, we have witnessed the beginning of transformation in the way potency testing is conducted across the industry."

It has never been more crucial for operators to implement efficiencies and develop robust Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). Dylan Wilks , the Chief Technology Officer of Orange Photonics, says, "In an industry where every aspect of production is scrutinized, LightLab 3 HS has proven to be a vital tool for businesses seeking accuracy, efficiency, and consistency in their operations."

LightLab 3 HS tests the potency of 19 cannabinoids down to 1.7 parts per million, reported as percent, mg per sample, and mg per package. GMP-ready, LightLab 3 HS offers traceability, and consistent and reliable data essential to strategic decision-making. Each analysis is accompanied by a QR code that links to a Certificate of Analysis, ensuring transparency and accountability at every step of the process.

About Orange Photonics:

Orange Photonics (OP) has been the cannabis industry's go-to solution for real-time cannabinoid analysis since 2015, specializing in purpose-built HPLC's designed for non-technical users. It is the mission of the OP team to democratize science, and make accurate compound analysis more broadly available to those without a scientific background. Customers drive innovation and recapture margins with Orange Photonics' on-demand analytical capabilities.

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SOURCE Orange Photonics
By Lisandra Paraguassu

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Amazon countries meeting next week for a summit on cooperation to save the rainforest aim to set up a scientific body like the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to share research, Brazil's environment minister told Reuters.

"The idea is to have a scientific panel for the Amazon with scientists from different countries, along the lines of the IPCC," Marina Silva said in an interview on Thursday.

The panel would help produce sustainable development policies for the countries of the region while remaining independent of governments, and monitor the impact of climate change on the Amazon rainforest and ecosystem, she said.

It would also seek to determine the limits of what scientists call the "point of no return" when the rainforest is damaged beyond repair.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Wednesday that leaders of the eight countries in the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) would seek to draw up a common policy for the first time to protect the rainforest.

Marina Silva said the meeting on Aug. 8-9 in Belem, at the mouth of the Amazon river, was long overdue.

"The summit took 14 years to assemble. This is unacceptable, given everything that is happening in the world, the speed of changes occurring to the detriment of the Amazon and its inhabitants, and the dynamics of global geopolitics on the climate issue," she said.

Lula has overhauled Brazil's environment policies since taking office in January, succeeding far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, who relaxed protection the environment and encouraged development of the Amazon, where deforestation soared.

Preliminary government figures showed on Thursday that deforestation in Brazil's Amazon fell in July to its lowest level since 2017, boosting Lula's credibility on environmental policy ahead of the summit.

(Reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu, writing by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
Cars intended for export wait at the port for loading, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues in Bremerhaven, Germany, April 24, 2020. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer/File photo

BERLIN (Reuters) - China is losing importance as a market for German exporters, with data showing a steady decline in its share of total exports, a trend set to continue as Berlin and Beijing rethink their economic ties.

Despite hopes of a trade boost after Beijing lifted pandemic restrictions, exports to China made up just 6.2% of total German exports in the first half of the year - the lowest share since 2016 - according to data from the German statistics office to which Reuters had access on Friday.

After peaking at 7.9% in 2020, the share of Germany's exports going to China has been on a steady decline, falling to 7.5% in 2021 and to 6.8% in 2022.

China's emergence as a market economy in the 2000s provided a massive boost to German companies and has proved a big contributor to the overall health of the German economy since.

However, this driver of growth for Europe's largest economy is set to lose steam in the coming years.

"For some years now, euro zone exports to China have no longer been growing faster than overall exports, and recently they have even been somewhat weaker, which has weighed more heavily on Germany's manufacturing sector than on that of its peers," Commerzbank's chief economist Joerg Kraemer said.

One reason for the slowdown is that growth in the Asian giant is faltering. China's economy grew just 0.8% in the second quarter as a post-COVID recovery faltered, after 2.2% growth in the first quarter.

Carsten Brzeski, global head of macro at ING, said it was too early to speak of the end of the China boom, since the Chinese economy could yet recover and the U.S. economy cool, changing trade dynamics.

"In the long term, however, China's share of our exports will decline significantly, and we should prepare ourselves for the fact that China will no longer save our export sector," Brzeski said.

Germany exported goods worth 791.5 billion euros ($866.61 billion) in the first half of the year, posting a 3.2% increase compared with the same period last year.

A breakdown by destination shows Germany exported 78 billion euros in goods to the United States in the first half of 2023, a 4.8% increase on the year, while China received exports from Germany to the value of 49.4 billion euros, a 8.4% decline.

That China is increasingly able to produce goods it previously bought from Germany is weighing on German exports, Brzeski noted.

"At the same time, however, Germany's import dependence on China remains high as the energy transition is currently impossible without Chinese raw materials or solar panels," he said.

China is climbing the technological ladder, said trade expert Vincent Stamer of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW) in Germany. With its growing technological progress, the country is able to create an increasing part of the value added itself.

"This then no longer has to be imported from Germany and the rest of the world," he said.

However, Stamer believes it is premature to sound the death knell for China as a customer.

"China will remain an important sales market in the coming decade. However, the dependence of many companies on the Chinese market will no longer be so visible in export figures, but in their balance sheets," Stamer said.

For example, many German carmakers are increasingly producing locally for the Chinese market.

Weaker demand from China has had a strong impact on the German manufacturing sector. German industry has been in the doldrums, with a PMI survey this week showing that a downturn in the manufacturing sector deepened in July.

($1 = 0.9133 euros)

(Reporting by Rene Wagner and Maria Martinez; editing by Christina Fincher)
BEIJING, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese mainland spokesperson on Thursday slammed Lai Ching-te, a politician with Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), for his upcoming "transit" trip to the United States.

Zhu Fenglian, a spokesperson for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, made the remarks in response to a media inquiry concerning the DPP's recent announcement on Lai's trip, which is scheduled for mid-August.

"We firmly oppose Lai Ching-te visiting the United States by any excuse or form, and firmly oppose any form of official exchange between the United States and China's Taiwan region," the spokesperson said, urging the U.S. side to abide by the one-China principle and the three China-U.S. joint communiques.

Lai obstinately adheres to the separatist position of "Taiwan independence," and his "transit" trip to the United States is for soliciting U.S. support for independence and grab selfish gains for his own election, which will ultimately damage the interests of the people of Taiwan and undermine the peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, Zhu said.

Facts will prove that Lai is an out-and-out "troublemaker," she said. 
FILE PHOTO: A view shows one of the superconductor coils which are assembled to form the giant magnet within which the magnectic field is 11.7 T., the core component of the most powerful MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) scanner in the world to be used for

By Stephen Nellis

(Reuters) - Last week, two papers by South Korean scientists made an extraordinary claim that sparked a social media frenzy and pushed up prices of some stocks in China and South Korea: the discovery of a practical superconductor.

Superconductors are materials that allow electrical current to flow with no resistance, a property that would revolutionize power grids where energy is lost in transmission as well as advance fields such as computing chips, where electrical resistance acts as a speed limit.

The papers, which appeared on a website used by scientists to share research before formal peer review and publication, spurred researchers around the world - including in at least two U.S. national labs and three Chinese universities - to take a closer look at the proposed material.

Superconducting materials already exist in places like MRI machines for medical imaging and some quantum computers, but only display their superconducting properties at extremely low temperatures, making them impractical for wide use.

The South Korean researchers last week said they found a superconductor that works at room temperature, which has long been considered a holy grail for scientists in the field.

The researchers also published a recipe for making the material - dubbed LK-99 - which involves taking a relatively common mineral called lead apatite and introducing a small number of copper atoms into it.

The South Korean researchers published two papers - one initial paper with three authors and a second, more detailed paper with six authors that included only two of the authors from the first paper. None of the authors contacted by Reuters responded to a request for comment.

Physicists interviewed by Reuters said the good news is that there is no law of physics that says a room temperature superconductor cannot exist, and the material described by the South Korean team is easy to grow, meaning other researchers should be able to start getting results as soon as this week.

The gold standard for proof of discovery is other labs reliably replicating the South Korean researchers' findings.

Researchers from at least three Chinese universities have in recent days said they produced versions of LK-99 with varying results. One team from the Huazhong University of Science and Technology posted a video purporting to show the material levitating over a magnet, which is important because true superconductors can float over a magnet in any orientation, without spinning like a compass.

But another team, from Qufu Normal University, said they did not observe zero resistance, one of required characteristics of a superconductor. A third, from the Southeast University in the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing, said they measured zero resistance, but only at a temperature of 110 Kelvin (-163 degree Celsius).

On Thursday, South Korean experts said they would set up a committee to verify the claims.

Eric Toone, a scientist-turned investor at Bill Gates Breakthrough Energy Ventures, said he is monitoring any peer review and reproduction efforts by reputable labs.

"The measurements you need to verify or to demonstrate superconductivity are very difficult to make," said Toone. "It's completely game changing if it's right, but until we have more validation, we just have to be patient."

'YOU CAN BE FOOLED'

The possible bad news for LK-99 is that the superconducting field is full of materials that hold promise at first but fall apart under scrutiny. Researchers even have a handy name for them - unidentified superconducting objects.

"We call them USOs," said Mike Norman, a condensed matter physicist at Argonne National Laboratory. "There's a long history of USOs going a long way back, including some very famous people who thought they had a superconductor and they didn't. It's like anything in science - you can be fooled. Even good people can be fooled."

Norman said the original papers had problems. Some may have been honest typographical mistakes from rushing to post the research, but more troubling was a lack of data over a broad temperature range to show how the material behaves when it is in a superconducting state and when it is not.

"People often use that method to show how much of the sample is actually a superconductor and how much of it is not," Norman said.

Other researchers have also found reasons for caution. Sinead Griffin, a solid-state physicist and staff scientist Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, used a U.S. Department of Energy supercomputer to simulate the proposed material.

Griffin found that inserting copper atoms into lead apatite caused the material's atoms to rearrange in an unexpected way that resembles existing superconductors. But that effect depends on the copper atoms going to a spot that they don't naturally want to go, which could make it harder to produce the material in bulk quantities.

Griffin cautioned that her simulation has limits - it cannot conclusively prove that the material is a superconductor, and the work assumed that researchers can place copper atoms into the lead apatite with perfect precision. In the real world, that's unlikely and could have a big effect on the material.

And even if LK-99 does turn out to be a room temperature superconductor, it will still take time to determine how useful it might be, said Michael Fuhrer, a professor of physics at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. For example, Fuhrer said no data was provided on how much electrical current the material might be able to carry and still be a superconductor, a key question for improving power grids.

Still, Fuhrer and other physicists said the results are worth studying given all that remains unknown about superconductors and the possibility that they could be discovered serendipitously in a common material.

"There's lots and lots of minerals out there that we haven't looked at yet," said Argonne's Norman. "And there's probably some very interesting physics hiding in these minerals."

(Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco, Joyce Lee in Seoul and Brenda Goh in Shanghai, Krystal Hu in New York; editing by Kenneth Li and Deepa Babington)
The logo of the ANZ Bank is seen at Lambton Quay, in Wellington, New Zealand November 10, 2022. REUTERS/Lucy Craymer

By Byron Kaye and Himanshi Akhand

(Reuters) -Australia's competition regulator on Friday blocked a A$4.9 billion ($3.2 billion) buyout planned by No.4 bank ANZ Group of insurer Suncorp's banking arm, setting the scene for a drawn-out legal challenge.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said it was concerned a tie-up between the financial firms would worsen competition and "further entrench an oligopoly market structure" where four lenders including ANZ have three quarters of the country's A$2 trillion in home loans.

"The proposed acquisition increases the likelihood that the major banks adopt a 'live and let live' approach to each other ... instead of competing strongly on price, innovation and the quality of their service," ACCC Deputy Chair Mick Keogh said in a statement on Friday.

"A substantial lessening of competition in home loans would have major flow-on impacts to Australians with a mortgage," he added.

The decision leaves Melbourne-based ANZ, which has trailed behind its larger rivals in the cutthroat mortgage market for years, without a straightforward path to growing its loan book at a time when banks are struggling to attract new borrowers after 400 basis points of interest rate hikes in a year.

It also leaves Suncorp, one of Australia's biggest general insurers, without an avenue for simplification as extreme weather events put pressure on its core business.

The financial firms said in separate statements that they were disappointed and disagreed with the decision. The companies said they would seek a review of the determination at the Australian Competition Tribunal, an offshoot of the federal court which oversees takeover rulings.

ANZ shares rose 1% and Suncorp shares dipped 0.6% in morning trading, against a flat overall market, as analysts noted that the regulator had previously flagged its concerns and the deal had become less attractive in a softening property market.

"If the transaction is abandoned, ANZ avoids a transaction that is increasingly unpopular with investors and gains a material capital surplus," Citi analysts said in a client note.

Taking the deal to the competition tribunal would delay its completion to mid-2024, if the tribunal approved it, from the late 2023 timeline the companies gave when they announced it a year ago.

However, the most recent major ACCC-rejected deal to go to the tribunal, a telecommunications network-sharing arrangement between heavyweights Telstra and TPG Telcom, was blocked again there.

The ANZ-Suncorp deal was one of the biggest deals for the ACCC since chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb started in March 2022, but she recused herself from the matter because of potential conflicts with her previous work as a private competition lawyer.

The ANZ-Suncorp deal also needs sign-off from Treasurer Jim Chalmers who declined to comment.

($1 = 1.5249 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Byron Kaye in Sydney and Himanshi Akhand in Bengaluru; Editing by Stephen Coates)
FILE PHOTO: A burnt shop is seen next to a deserted road during a curfew imposed by the authorities following clashes between Hindus and Muslims in Nuh district of the northern state of Haryana, India, August 1, 2023. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi/File Photo

By Sakshi Dayal

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Local authorities in India's northern state of Haryana have begun demolishing what they term illegal houses that were allegedly used in an attack on a Hindu procession earlier this week that sparked deadly Hindu-Muslim clashes across the state.

The violence erupted in the Nuh district on Monday and quickly spilled over into adjoining areas, including the business hub Gurugram, which neighbours New Delhi and where some vehicles, a mosque and some scrap shops were torched, and several eateries were vandalised.

Seven people died in the clashes, including two police personnel.

Narendra Singh Bijarniya, who has been Nuh's top police official since the clashes, said police action would be taken on houses that were used to pelt stones at the procession, and would take place according to the law.

The violence brought to the fore Hindu-Muslim tensions brewing in the region since 2015, a year after the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) captured power nationally and in Haryana.

Police spokesperson Krishan Kumar said the clashes drew attention to the houses, which he said authorities had found were constructed illegally on government land. Although officials said there was no data on the number of structures demolished, local media reported that over 200 houses were razed.

Nuh's state lawmaker Aftab Ahmed, a member of the opposition Congress party, questioned the action.

"This is a short (quick) trial taking place, which is not allowed under any law," he said, referring to the fact that it took place before any court convictions.

In recent years authorities in some states ruled by the BJP have demolished what they term illegal houses of people accused of crimes, many of them Muslims.

The trend has been cheered by BJP supporters as instant justice, but deplored by political rivals and rights groups as circumventing the judicial process.

(Reporting by Sakshi Dayal; Editing by Frances Kerry)
Migrants expelled from the U.S. and sent back to Mexico under Title 42, walk towards Mexico at the Paso del Norte International border bridge, in this picture taken from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico October 1, 2021. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez/File Photo

By Ted Hesson

(Reuters) -President Joe Biden's new regulation restricting asylum access at the U.S.-Mexico border can remain in effect for now, a U.S. appeals court said on Thursday, a short-term win for the Democrat as he grapples with legal challenges to his immigration strategy.

The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals put on hold a district judge's July 25 ruling that found the regulation violated U.S. law by cutting off asylum for some migrants caught crossing the border illegally.

The restrictions can remain in place pending the outcome of Biden's appeal, the 9th Circuit said, saying it would expedite the process.

Biden took office in 2021 pledging to reverse many of the hardline policies of former President Donald Trump, a Republican, but has adopted some Trump-like border measures as his administration has faced record migrant crossings.

Biden's new asylum regulation presumes most migrants are ineligible for asylum if they passed through other nations without seeking protection elsewhere first, or if they failed to use legal pathways for U.S. entry. The measure took effect on May 11.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other groups challenged the Biden regulation, arguing it unlawfully denied asylum to some migrants caught crossing the border illegally and mirrored Trump-era restrictions that were also blocked in court.

U.S. District Court Judge Jon Tigar - who blocked the previous Trump policies - vacated the Biden regulation, but stayed his ruling for 14 days to allow an appeal.

Tigar said U.S. law does not limit asylum access for people crossing the border illegally and that transit countries to the south do not offer safe and feasible alternatives to migrants.

The 9th Circuit's decision to allow the Biden policy to stay in effect does not mean it will ultimately rule in favor of it.

In 2020, the 9th Circuit upheld Tigar's decision to block a similar Trump regulation that restricted asylum for migrants who transited through other countries en route to the United States.

The order on Thursday came from a three-judge panel, with a strident dissent from Judge Lawrence VanDyke, a Trump appointee.

VanDyke criticized his two colleagues - appointees of Democratic former President Bill Clinton - for keeping Biden's border policy in place despite the 9th Circuit ruling against Trump's version years earlier.

"Its hard to shake the impression that something other than the law is at work here," he wrote.

The ACLU could appeal the latest ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, where conservative justices outnumber liberals 6-3.

(Reporting by Ted Hesson; editing by Mica Rosenberg, Aurora Ellis and Cynthia Osterman)
A sea drone shows the silhouette of Olenegorsky Gornyak ship near the port of Novorossiysk, Russia, in this screengrab obtained from social media video released on August 4, 2023. Video obtained by Reuters/via REUTERS

By Tom Balmforth

(Reuters) -A Russian warship was seriously damaged in an overnight Ukrainian naval drone attack on Russia's Black Sea navy base at Novorossiysk, the first time the Ukrainian navy has projected its power so far from the country's shores.

The port, which handles 2% of the world's oil supply and also exports grain, temporarily halted civilian ship movement before resuming normal operations, according to the Caspian Pipeline Consortium which operates an oil terminal there.

Russia's Defence Ministry said a Ukrainian attack by two sea drones had been repelled in the waters outside the base and that the drones had been destroyed. It made no mention of any damage in its short statement.

A Ukrainian intelligence source said the Olenegorsky Gornyak, a Russian Navy landing ship with around 100 Russian servicemen on board, had been hit by a sea drone carrying 450 kilograms of TNT.

"As a result of the attack, the Olenegorsky Gornyak received a serious breach and currently cannot conduct its combat missions," the source told Reuters, adding that the operation had been carried out by Ukraine's Security Service and the navy. "All the Russian statements about a 'repelled attack' are fake."

Video footage verified by Reuters showed the Olenegorsky Gornyak being towed to shore by a tug, listing heavily to its port side.

Andriy Ryzhenko, a retired Ukrainian Navy captain and naval consultant, estimated the sea drones had travelled 740 km (460 miles) from their likely launch area to Novorossiysk, which would amount to a significant increase in their range.

"It was the first time ... the Ukrainian navy projected power so far away," he said.

A source with knowledge of the port's operations said a large Russian naval vessel had to be towed ashore because it could not move under its own power after being damaged.

The source, who did not name the vessel, said oil and grain loadings were still taking place at the port, which resumed normal operations hours after the attack.

Ukraine referred to the Olenegorsky Gornyak without directly claiming responsibility for the attack.

"We have open information that it is indeed damaged," said Natalia Humeniuk, spokesperson for the southern military command said, adding "it is absolutely legal to destroy the potential of the enemy in time of war."

The Kremlin referred questions to the defence ministry, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Ukrainian source shared a grainy video that looked like it had been shot from the top of a maritime drone that sails right up to the side of a large vessel before the video abruptly cuts out and turns to pixels.

"Another Russian ship is teetering, undermining the aggressor's security reputation in the Black Sea waters," Ukraine's foreign ministry said on X, previously known as Twitter, adding that one of its compartments had flooded.

Andrei Kravchenko, a Novorossiysk city official, said on the Telegram app that the Olenegorsky Gornyak was one of two ships that had "instantly reacted" to fend off the Ukrainian attack.

RISING BLACK SEA TENSIONS

Russian social media users had reported hearing explosions and gunfire near Novorossiysk on Friday morning.

"Tonight, the armed forces of Ukraine attempted to attack the Novorossiysk naval base with two unmanned sea boats," the Defence Ministry said in its statement.

"In the course of repelling the attack, the unmanned boats were visually detected and destroyed by fire from the standard weapons of the Russian ships guarding the outer waters of the naval base."

The Caspian Pipeline Consortium which loads oil onto tankers in Novorossiysk said its facilities had not been damaged and that oil loadings continued onto tankers which were already moored.

The port is one of the biggest in the Black Sea, and a major terminal for the export of oil and oil products. The Caspian Pipeline Consortium is the main exporter of Kazakh crude oil.

Exports of Russian and Kazakh oil from Novorossiysk average around 1.8 million barrels per day, or about 2% of global oil supply.

Britain's military intelligence service said last September that Russia's Black Sea Fleet had relocated some submarines from the Crimean port of Sevastopol to Novorossiysk, probably because of the increased threat of Ukrainian long-range strikes.

Retired Ukrainian Navy captain Ryzhenko said the drone video suggested the Russian vessel had been taken by surprise.

"Open windows were visible with the lights on inside. No sailors on the top deck (were) looking for a possible threat. This drone just hit in the middle and caused significant damage to this ship," he said.

"This is quite a serious signal to Russia that other attacks can be conducted and for them it will be unsafe to keep vessels even in Novorossiysk."

Tensions in and near the Black Sea have escalated since Russia last month withdrew from a deal allowing the safe export of grain from Ukrainian ports. Russian drones and missiles have since repeatedly struck Ukrainian port facilities and grain silos on or near the Black Sea.

Ukraine sank Russia's flagship, the cruiser Moskva, in April 2022 and said in June last year that it had hit a Russian naval tugboat with Western-supplied anti-ship missiles.

The Ukrainian source did not mention other attacks on warships, but said Friday's hit was the latest in a string of successful operations by the security service, including sabotage operations on Russia's bridge to occupied Crimea last year and last month.

The Russian Defence Ministry said on Friday that its forces had also repelled an attempted Ukrainian attack on Crimea, which it annexed from Ukraine in 2014, using at least 13 aeroplane-like drones. It said there were no casualties or damage.

(Additional reporting by Olena Harmash and Reuters bureaux; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
FILE PHOTO: Chinese Special Envoy for Eurasian Affairs Li Hui leaves the headquarters of the Russian foreign ministry following talks in Moscow, Russia, May 26, 2023. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/File Photo

BEIJING (Reuters) -Chinese Special Envoy for Eurasian Affairs Li Hui will visit Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, for international talks on the peaceful settlement of the Ukraine crisis, China's foreign ministry said on Friday.

"China is willing to work with the international community to continue to play a constructive role in promoting a political solution to the crisis in Ukraine," Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson at the Chinese ministry, said in a statement.

Ukrainian and Western diplomats hope the meeting in Jeddah this weekend of national security advisers and other senior officials from some 40 countries will agree on key principles for a future peace settlement to end Russia's war in Ukraine. Moscow will not be attending.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday he hoped the initiative will lead to a "peace summit" of leaders from around the world this autumn to endorse the principles, based on his own 10-point formula for a peace settlement.

The biggest diplomatic prize would be endorsement from China, which has maintained close economic and diplomatic ties with Russia and so far rejected international calls to condemn the invasion. China was invited to a previous round of talks in Copenhagen in late June but did not attend.

(Reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by Toby Chopra)
FILE PHOTO: A prepared dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine (COVID-19) for 5-11 year olds is seen in Storrs, Connecticut, U.S., November 3, 2021. REUTERS/Michelle McLoughlin/File Photo

By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK (Reuters) -A divided federal appeals court on Friday rejected a challenge to a Connecticut law that ended the state's decades-old religious exemptions from immunization requirements for children in schools, colleges and day care.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said ending religious exemptions, while still allowing medical exemptions, was a rational means to promote health and safety by reducing the potential spread of vaccine-preventable diseases.

In a 2-1 decision, Circuit Judge Denny Chin said the April 2021 law contained "no trace" of hostility toward religious believers, and did not violate objectors' constitutional rights to due process and the free exercise of religion.

He said many U.S. courts have reviewed vaccination mandates for children that lack religious exemptions, and only one, in Mississippi, has ever found constitutional problems.

"We decline to disturb this nearly unanimous consensus," Chin, an appointee of Democratic President Barack Obama, wrote.

Five other U.S. states--California, Maine, Mississippi, New York and West Virginia--also lack religious exemptions.

Connecticut's law, signed by Governor Ned Lamont, does not apply to children from kindergarten to 12th grade who previously had received religious exemptions.

The law had been challenged by the groups We the Patriots USA and the CT Freedom Alliance, and by three Connecticut parents.

Circuit Judge Joseph Bianco, an appointee of Republican President Donald Trump, dissented.

He said the majority was too quick to dismiss the free exercise claims, and that its approach could imperil challenges to other vaccine mandates, including against COVID-19, "once the government invoked generalized concerns about public safety."

Norm Pattis, a lawyer for the objectors, said they may ask the three-judge panel, the full 13-judge appeals court or the Supreme Court to review the case.

"The dissent got it right--it is irrational to permit students to claim a medical exemption but to deny other students the right to claim a religious exemption," he said.

We The Patriots USA co-founder Brian Festa said Connecticut's position reflected a "fundamental misunderstanding" of First Amendment rights.

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong called the decision, which upheld a lower court ruling, "a full and resounding affirmation of the constitutionality and legality of Connecticut's vaccine requirements. Vaccines save lives."

Lamont, in a separate statement, said: "I applaud the courts for upholding decades of medical research and understanding how important it is to stop the spread of preventable diseases."

The law did not mandate COVID-19 vaccinations, and not all children were eligible at the time for vaccines.

The case is We the Patriots USA Inc et al v Connecticut Office of Early Childhood Development et al, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 22-249.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by David Gregorio, Leslie Adler and Deepa Babington)
VinFast Global CEO Michael Lohscheller looks on during the Vietnamese car company's EV global premiere during the 2021 LA Auto Show in Los Angeles, California, U.S. November, 17, 2021. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File photo

By Akash Sriram and Abhirup Roy

(Reuters) -Nikola lost more than a quarter of its market value on Friday after the U.S. electric truck maker named its fourth CEO in as many years and reiterated for the third time this year its doubts about continuing as a going concern.

The news came a day after shareholders approved a plan to issue more stock to bolster much-needed cash despite worries of dilution, as Phoenix-based Nikola navigates lingering supply chain snags and a pivot to hydrogen fuel-cell technology.

The company said Chairman Stephen Girsky, a former General Motors executive, will immediately take over from Michael Lohscheller, who is stepping down due to a family health matter.

Nikola's investors on Thursday approved a proposal that will allow the company to issue more shares. It needs $600 million to execute its business plan but it will not be entirely dilutive equity capital, Girsky said on a call with reporters.

Before Friday's 26.4% fall - closing at $2.50 - Nikola's share price had soared nearly 60% this year.

Nikola flagged "substantial doubts" about its ability to continue as a going concern for the next 12 months, reiterating its warning for the third time since February, as it awaits "critical" additional capital.

Shares were also dragged by a downbeat current-quarter revenue forecast. The maker of Tre model electric trucks has decided to make battery electric trucks only to order and focus on hydrogen fuel cell trucks.

The company laid off 270 employees in June and liquidated assets of a recently acquired battery maker last month.

Nikola forecast third-quarter revenue of $18 million to $28 million, compared with estimates of $34.5 million, according to Visible Alpha. The company said it expects 300 to 400 deliveries this year, up from between 250 and 350 it projected earlier.

Other electric vehicle (EV) startups also have toiled to ramp up production, meet delivery targets and raise funds as cash reserves dwindled.

Supply chain delays forced EV maker Fisker to slash its annual production target on Friday.

Nikola, which also flagged supply bottlenecks, had cash and cash equivalents of $226.7 million at the end of the second quarter, compared with $441.8 million, a year earlier.

Nikola this summer adjourned and rescheduled its shareholder meeting twice to build support for the share issuance among investors worried it would dilute their stakes. The move was also opposed by founder Trevor Milton, who stepped down in 2020 after fraud allegations and was later convicted.

Separately, Nikola reported a narrower second-quarter loss as lower production of its Tre battery-electric trucks in the April-June period helped keep costs in check.

(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru and Abhirup Roy in San Francisco; Editing by Will Dunham, Anil D'Silva, Sriraj Kalluvila and David Gregorio)
FILE PHOTO: Euro, Hong Kong dollar, U.S. dollar, Japanese yen, pound and Chinese 100 yuan banknotes are seen in this picture illustration, January 21, 2016. REUTERS/Jason Lee/Illustration/File Photo

(Reuters) - Global money market funds attracted massive inflows in the week to Aug. 2 as investors sought safer assets amid a U.S. credit downgrade and weak economic data from the euro zone and China.

Investors poured in a net $67.52 billion into global money market funds during the week, marking the biggest weekly net purchase since March 22, according to Refinitiv Lipper data.

Investor caution was sparked after rating agency Fitch unexpectedly cut the United States' top-tier sovereign credit rating to AA+ from AAA on Tuesday, citing fiscal deterioration.

Reports this week showed a sharp contraction in factory activity in Europe and a slowdown in manufacturing activity in China, tempering investors' expectations about global growth.

The U.S. and the European money market funds drew $58.56 billion and $14.35 billion worth of inflows, respectively, while Asia faced a second weekly outflow, amounting to $360 million.

Riskier global equity funds still received inflows worth about $4.45 billion in a second straight week of net purchases.

Most equity sector funds, however, booked outflows, with investors withdrawing a net $490 million, $468 million and $318 million, respectively, from utilities, healthcare and tech sector funds.

Global bond funds received $2.98 billion, their smallest weekly inflow in six weeks.

Global government bond funds attracted $2.02 billion, the biggest in three weeks, but high-yield bonds faced outflows worth $749 million.

Data for commodity funds showed precious metal funds lost about $892 million in a tenth straight week of net selling. Investors also disposed of energy funds of about $82 million.

Data for 24,127 emerging market funds showed that investors withdrew about $487 million from bond funds after eight straight weeks of net purchases. Equity funds, however, received about $196 million worth of inflows.

(Reporting by Gaurav Dogra and Patturaja Murugaboopathy in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)
The new GM logo is seen on the facade of the General Motors headquarters in Detroit, Michigan, U.S., March 16, 2021. Picture taken March 16, 2021. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -General Motors (GM) on Thursday said it expected to offer unionized workers higher wages, but granting the United Auto Workers' (UAW) ambitious contract demands including large pay rises would hurt its ability to make sound business decisions.

Company and union sources told Reuters the UAW was seeking at least a 40% pay hike over the life of the four-year contract, including an initial 20% hike upon ratification.

The UAW said earlier this week that the CEOs of the Detroit Three had won 40% pay hikes on average over the last four years and singled out GM CEO Mary Barra, who received $29 million in 2022 in total compensation.

The UAW presented its economic demands to Chrysler-parent Stellantis on Tuesday, General Motors on Wednesday and Ford on Thursday ahead of the Sept. 14 expiration of the current four-year contracts.

GM, the largest U.S. automaker, said the proposals "would threaten our ability to do what's right for the long-term benefit of the team."

The union said earlier it was seeking double-digit hikes in wages, defined-benefit pensions for all workers and shorter work weeks. It wants to make all temporary workers at U.S. automakers permanent, a substantial increase in paid time off and restore retiree health care benefits and cost of living adjustments.

UAW President Shawn Fain on Tuesday expressed support for a 32-hour work week, down from the traditional 40 hours.

Sources said the union wants the companies to agree to the equivalent of a paid day off per week, at a time of growing trials globally of a four-day working week.

GM said a fair agreement would reward employees but also allow the company to retain its momentum now and into the future.

"We think it's important to protect U.S. manufacturing and jobs in an industry that is dominated by non-unionized competition," GM said.

The UAW did not immediately comment on GM's statement.

Fain on Tuesday said the union demands were its "most audacious and ambitious" proposals in decades.

Fain also said the UAW was proposing to have the right to strike over plant closures and to eliminate a two-tier wage system under which veteran hires earn 25% or more than newer employees.

(Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington and Shivansh Tiwary in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai, Cynthia Osterman and Jamie Freed)
Li Tengchu (L) works with other female workers at a banana plantation in Wulie Township of Changjiang Li Autonomous County, south China's Hainan Province, July 12, 2023. (Xinhua/Luo Jiang)

HAIKOU, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- As dawn breaks, Li Tengchu hops on an electric bike and sets off for a banana plantation, embarking on her daily work routine in areas surrounding her hometown. Li never envisioned that her efforts in the farmlands would pave the way for skilled women workers in her hometown to pursue prosperous lives.

"I've been working here for farmland owners for over a decade. Now, job opportunities keep pouring in, and employers call me daily to schedule work for their lands," said Li, a devoted forewoman leading over 100 adept women in farming activities in Wulie Township of Changjiang Li Autonomous County, in south China's Hainan Province.

As the only tropical island province in China, Hainan has leveraged its favorable natural conditions and abundant resources in recent years to develop tropical high-efficiency agriculture on its fertile soil, particularly in Changjiang, spurring employment opportunities for women skilled at farming.

Li said that it was a fortuitous job opportunity that led her to discover the high demand for workers in agricultural activities among numerous companies and farmland owners, and that her exceptional agricultural skills and strong sense of responsibility impressed employers, leading them to trust her and seek her assistance in recruiting women workers.

"At first, I mainly teamed up with friends, but as the job began offering higher wages and rewards, word spread quickly in my village. Women started sharing these opportunities, and more like-minded individuals responded by joining the group," said Li.

She added that such workers now earn up to 500 yuan (about 70 U.S. dollars) per day, a substantial increase compared to their previous income, which was derived from cultivating small plots of land at home.

Despite the scorching summer sun, Li and her team persevere in scrupulously removing stray weeds and planting banana seeds. Their work is not deterred by the high temperatures, as they continue with nimble hands and feet.

"It is important to work with dedication from start to finish. Perfunctory efforts are not acceptable or desirable," said Li in expressing her motto.

Not just Li, but all the female workers share this same simple idea: it's crucial to work diligently to help businesses earn more profits because there will be more job opportunities available for them when the companies thrive.

Li and her team's dedication explains the remarkable growth of this female workers' group. Official statistics report 17 forewomen and over 800 other women specializing in farming in Wulie Township.

Li said that the women workers of Wulie Township have brought together versatile agricultural expertise spanning crop cultivation, management, harvesting, and packaging, and that their meticulous workmanship meets the demands of precise farming practices, earning them recognition from farmland owners and enterprises.

In a notable feat, an agricultural company last year invited the precise and responsible Wulie female workers to participate in a month-long edamame cultivation program in south China's Guangdong Province, providing all necessities including meals, accommodation and round-trip tickets, as well as fair remuneration.

However, the highest wages are usually paid in winter, which is the busiest period of the year when they are hired for transplanting across various parts of Hainan for important tropical breeding research programs. To facilitate their travel to distant working locations, the local government specially arranges a bus service.

"Even though it's low season now, we still have farming work to do for 10 to 20 days every month. We remain ceaselessly engaged in agricultural pursuits throughout the year," Li said proudly.

Sun Changliu, one of the female workers under Li's guidance, also finds comfort in the stable farming work. "In the past, I had no choice but to plant paddy rice and sweet potatoes at home, living a frugal life. But now, engaging in farming work nearby offers me a regular income," said Sun.

She also mentioned that she is given professional instructions by Li and other technicians whenever she encounters unfamiliar tasks, which helps her achieve self-improvement, leaving her more grateful for Li's encouragement to join this group.

According to Ma Yujie, head of Wulie Township, women workers in the town have now established a highly organized and united group, while the government is making concerted efforts to elevate this bevy of women into a renowned brand of the town.

"We aim not only to empower women workers to work in surrounding regions, but also to create more employment opportunities close to their homes with respectable incomes," said the official.

Li revealed that, over the past few years, the government has been dedicated to creating favorable employment prospects that demand agricultural expertise, instilling confidence in workers' ability to increase their savings.

"At the moment, I hope to save enough money to purchase a vehicle. That way, it's much more convenient for me to do farming work in nearby villages and town along with my fellow women workers," said Li. 
By Devayani Sathyan

BENGALURU (Reuters) - Indonesia's economy likely grew 4.93% from a year earlier in the April-June quarter, the slowest since the third quarter of 2021, due to weakening global demand for its exports, according to the median forecast of 22 economists polled by Reuters.

On quarter-on-quarter basis, the economy was expected to have grown 3.72% in the June quarter, according to a smaller sample of forecasts received in the July 31-Aug.3 poll.

In the January-March quarter the economy grew 5.03% from a year ago but reported a quarter-on-quarter contraction.

The gross domestic product data will be published on Aug. 7.

Despite recording a large trade surplus in June, the surplus for the first half of 2023 remained below last year's. And exports have slowed, with prices dropping for palm oil and other commodities sold by the resource-rich country.

Indonesia's gross domestic product (GDP) growth was expected to average 4.9% this year, within Bank Indonesia's estimate of 4.5% to 5.3%, and then pick up slightly to 5.0% in 2024, a separate Reuters survey showed.

"Economic activity is starting to normalise after the rebound from the sharp pandemic contraction...the high growth recorded from the low base will not be sustainable as the economy moves back closer to the pre-pandemic trend," noted Kunal Kundu, an economist at Societe Generale.

"Indonesia's economy had barely been growing at 5% y-o-y sustainably before the pandemic, and the post-pandemic recovery phase has proven to be incapable of pushing the economy much beyond that threshold. We consider that level well below what the country needs."

(Reporting by Devayani Sathyan; Polling by Anant Chandak; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
By Elvira Pollina and Giuseppe Fonte

ROME (Reuters) - Italy is preparing measures to support strategic industrial sectors including microelectronics and promote foreign investment programmes worth at least 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion), a draft decree seen by Reuters showed on Friday.

Rome will reserve the right to appoint a special commissioner to take all necessary steps "for the timely and effective implementation of the investment programmes," the draft said.

Tax breaks amounting to roughly 630 million euros between 2024 and 2028 will further help to promote research and development in microelectronics.

Set to be discussed by the cabinet on Monday and therefore still subject to changes, the draft decree comes amid talks between Italian authorities and chipmakers including U.S. group Intel on potential investments in the country.

Intel last year announced it aimed to build an advanced packaging and assembly chip factory in Italy as part of a wider long-term investment plan to expand capacity across Europe. However, that plan remains to be confirmed.

The government also plans to strengthen golden power regulation aimed at shielding strategic assets in sectors of artificial intelligence, semiconductor manufacturing, cyber security, aerospace, energy storage, quantum and nuclear technologies.

Golden powers can be used in these areas also in relation to corporate decisions within a group if companies located outside the European Union stand to benefit, the document said.

In a bid to boost the rollout of 5G networks, the scheme envisages raising limits on electromagnetic emissions which mobile telecoms operators complain are too low in Italy compared with other European countries.

Other measures will allow local municipalities to release additional permits to tackle a taxi shortage that has irked tourists and residents across Italian biggest cities.

Moreover, the decree includes rules limiting air fares to Italy's islands, the draft showed. Companies will be forbidden from increasing tariffs at times of high bookings if this leads to prices "200% higher" than the average fare.

($1 = 0.9074 euros)

(Additional reporting by Angelo Amante; Editing by Keith Weir)
Visitors cast their shadows past the logo of Google at the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, France, June 15, 2023. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes

By David Shepardson and Diane Bartz

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A U.S. judge hearing the Justice Department's antitrust lawsuit accusing Google of unlawfully maintaining monopolies in the internet search market let stand key claims made by the federal government.

Google, a unit of Alphabet, had asked for summary judgment on all the government's claims in the case.

U.S. Judge Amit Mehta, in a decision made public in Washington on Friday, granted Google's request on some grounds but allowed the remainder of the claims to proceed to trial next month.

The Justice Department sued Google in 2020, accusing the $1.6 trillion company of illegally using its market muscle to hobble rivals in the biggest challenge to the power and influence of Big Tech since it sued Microsoft Corp in 1998.

Mehta is also hearing a case brought against Google by the attorneys general of 38 states and territories.

Mehta tossed out accusations brought by the states that Google made it harder for internet users to find specialized search engines, like Expedia for travel or OpenTable for restaurants, saying the states "have not demonstrated the requisite anticompetitive effect in the relevant market."

Google said Friday it appreciated the court's "careful consideration and decision to dismiss claims regarding the design of Google Search" in the case brought by the states.

"We look forward to showing at trial that promoting and distributing our services is both legal and pro-competitive," added Kent Walker, Google's chief legal officer.

Google has denied any wrongdoing in both cases.

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said he was pleased with Mehta's opinion, adding: "We will continue to evaluate how to best press forward and establish Googles pattern of illegal conduct that harms consumers and competition."

Mehta noted Google LLC operates the largest U.S. internet general search engine whose "brand name has become so ubiquitous that dictionaries recognize it as a verb." He noted Google in 2020 had nearly 90% market share and advertisers spend over $80 billion annually alone to reach general search users.

"A company with monopoly power acts unlawfully only when its conduct stifles competition," Mehta wrote.

Mehta also said that the government would have to show that each particular action - for example how Google handles search advertising - is a violation of antitrust law. This means that the government cannot show a string of actions and argue that these cumulatively break antitrust law.

The government, which filed its lawsuit in the waning days of the Trump administration, has argued that Google illegally paid billions of dollars each year to smartphone makers like Apple, LG, Motorola and Samsung, carriers like Verizon and browsers like Mozilla to be the default search for their customers. Mehta declined to throw out that argument.

The Justice Department did not immediately comment.

In late April, a U.S. judge in Virginia denied Google's motion to dismiss a separate Justice Department antitrust case focused on advertising technology, saying the government's case was strong enough to go forward.

The government has argued that Google should be forced to sell its ad manager suite. Google has also denied any wrongdoing in this case.

(Reporting by Diane Bartz and David Shepardson; Editing by Mark Porter, Diane Craft and Marguerita Choy)
By Alvise Armellini

ROME (Reuters) - Migrants trying to cross from Italy to France at the Ventimiglia border point on the Mediterranean coast are mistreated by French police and offered little help by Italian authorities, the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) charity said on Friday.

Migration has long been a cause of friction in Franco-Italian relations, amid a wider political battle within the European Union on how to respond to people trying to get to the region, and rising arrivals from North Africa.

The Italian interior ministry declined to comment on the group's report, called "Denied Passage", while its French counterpart did not immediately respond to an emailed request from Reuters.

French law enforcement "systematically" sends back to Italy migrants found to have entered illegally, "often with violence, inhumane treatment as well as arbitrary detention," MSF said in the report.

It said migrants are forcibly returned regardless of their individual circumstances without appropriate assessment, and "vulnerable people such as minors, pregnant women and new mothers, elderly or severely ill persons are not exempted from this practice".

In Ventimiglia, the Italian seaside town just next to the French border where hundreds, if not thousands, of migrants pass through every month, most of them sleep in the street or in makeshift shelters.

"Access to adequate shelter, healthcare, clean water, or sanitary facilities is extremely limited", MSF said, adding that only "two out of four promised" government accommodation facilities for migrants are operational.

MSF runs a mobile clinic in Ventimiglia.

Some migrants have resorted to sleeping in the town's cemetery and using its water fountains, but Ventimiglia's rightist mayor Flavio Di Muro this week hired security guards to evict them from the premises.

(Additional reporting by Ingrid Melander in Paris and Angelo Amante in Rome; Editing by Frances Kerry)
Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny and Daniel Kholodny, technical director of Navalny's YouTube channel, appear on a screen via video link before an external hearing of the Moscow City Court in the criminal case against Navalny on numerous charg

(Reuters) - Daniel Kholodny, a TV technician working for the YouTube channel of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, was found guilty on Friday of organising an extremist group, Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta reported on Friday.

Kholodny was on trial alongside Navalny at the Melekhovo penal colony east of Moscow.

In a statement on the eve of the verdicts against both men, Navalny described the 25-year-old Kholodny as an "inspiration", saying he had declined many offers to have himself released in exchange for testifying against others.

"Kholodny is bright, cheerful, doesn't lose his presence of mind. And the main thing is he understands why this trial was invented but he doesn't let it intimidate him or break his will. Be like him," Navalny added in a message to supporters.

(Reporting by Reuters, writing by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The Dutch government is temporarily suspending its direct cooperation with Niger's government following the coup on July 26th, it said in an official statement on Friday.

The Netherlands was supporting programs in the field of development cooperation and security which ran through the Nigerien government, but said it does not want to support the perpetrators of the coup.

In the statement, the Dutch government added that it was looking into sponsoring other humanitarian programs in Niger that are run through the United Nations, other international organizations, or local partners.

Since the coup, various Western nations have cut aid, even though Niger is one of the poorest nations in the world and relies on outside help for nearly half of its annual budget.

Given its uranium and oil riches and pivotal role in the war with Islamist rebels in the Sahel region, Niger has strategic significance for the United States, China, Europe, and Russia.

(Reporting by Charlotte Van Campenhout)
FILE PHOTO: Thirty-nine year old Ewa from Berlin holds a Union Jack flag with a picture of late Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and flowers before the welcome ceremony for Britain's King Charles in Berlin, Germany, March 29, 2023. REUTERS/Anne Barth/File Pho

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's King Charles will not mark the first anniversary of the death of Queen Elizabeth with an official public event or a private family gathering, a royal spokesperson said on Friday.

Charles, 74, ascended to the throne on Sept. 8 after the death of his mother Elizabeth.

The death of the 96-year-old monarch, Britain's longest-reigning king or queen, prompted an outpouring of emotion around the globe, a 10-day mourning period and a state funeral with crowds of thousands of people lining the streets of central London.

But the first anniversary of the day she died will not be a public affair. The king and his wife, Queen Camilla, will be spending the day quietly and privately, said a spokesperson for Buckingham Palace.

In doing so, Charles follows in the footsteps of his mother, who used to spend the anniversary of her father's death in the same way.

(Reporting by Sarah Young; editing by William James)
Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with members of the Security Council via video link at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia August 4, 2023. Sputnik/Aleksey Babushkin/Kremlin via REUTERS

(Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law allowing for foreign investors from "unfriendly" countries to be barred from holding stakes in major Russian companies and banks, state news agency RIA said on Friday.

It said the government would draw up a list of Russian firms to be covered by the law, including all systemically important banks and firms above a certain size in terms of revenue, employees, assets or taxes paid.

Under the law, the rights of foreign investors from unfriendly countries - meaning those that have imposed sanctions on Russia over its war in Ukraine - could be suspended, and their shares distributed proportionally among Russian owners.

Russia has moved increasingly in recent months to take control of the assets of Western companies in retaliation for the seizure of Russian-owned assets abroad.

Last month it took control of Danish beer company Carlsberg's stake in a Russian brewer, as well as a Russian subsidiary of French yoghurt maker Danone. In April it took similar steps against Finnish utility Fortum and Germany's Uniper.

(Writing by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
FILE PHOTO: India's main opposition Congress partys leader Rahul Gandhi walks on the day of a news conference, after he was disqualified by India's parliament on Friday as a lawmaker, at partys headquarter in New Delhi, India, March 25, 2023. REUTER

By YP Rajesh and Arpan Chaturvedi

NEW DELHI (Reuters) -India's top court suspended opposition Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi's defamation conviction on Friday, allowing him to return to parliament and contest national elections due next year.

Gandhi was convicted in March in a case brought by a lawmaker from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the western state of Gujarat over comments he made in 2019 deemed insulting to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and others with the same name, including the lawmaker.

"How come all thieves have the name Modi?" Gandhi had asked in an election campaign speech, referring to two fugitive businessmen, both surnamed Modi.

Gandhi, 53, from a dynasty that has given India three prime ministers, was sentenced to two years' imprisonment but the jail term was put on hold and he was granted bail.

He also lost his parliamentary seat following the conviction, since lawmakers sentenced to jail terms of two years or more are automatically disqualified.

After the Supreme Court's ruling, the lower house of parliament should now formally reinstate Gandhi.

Lower courts and the high court in Gujarat, where the BJP holds power, had rejected appeals by Gandhi to suspend the conviction, prompting the appeal to the Supreme Court.

Besides seeking suspension of the conviction, Gandhi has also sought to overturn it. That challenge has yet to be heard by the lower court in Gujarat.

"Come what may, my duty remains the same. Protect the idea of India," Gandhi said in a post on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, in his first comments since the court ruling.

"If not today then tomorrow, if not tomorrow then the next day, truth prevails. But whatever happens, my path is clear," he later told reporters at a party news conference. But he did not take questions.

Supreme Court judge Justice B.R. Gavai said the lower court had not given any reasons for handing down the maximum sentence of two years' jail which led to his disqualification from parliament.

While Gandhi's comments about Modi were "not in good taste", the conviction not only punished Gandhi but also voters who had elected him to represent them, said Gavai, who headed a bench of three judges which suspended the conviction.

"VICTORY OF TRUTH"

Congress members broke out into celebration, shouted slogans, waved giant party flags and set off firecrackers at party headquarters in New Delhi.

Gandhi, who had to vacate his official residence following his disqualification and move in with his lawmaker mother, Sonia Gandhi, waved to the celebrating members as he visited the party office with his sister, Priyanka Vadra.

Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, leader of Congress in the lower house of parliament, said he and other Congress leaders met the speaker and sought Gandhi's reinstatement to allow him to take part in a no-trust vote opposition parties have moved against Modi's government.

"Rahul Gandhi has got relief from the false allegations that were made against him," Chowdhury told reporters. "This is the victory of truth...it will cost Modi heavily."

Gandhi's disqualification from parliament was only the second in history and came as a blow to opposition parties a year ahead of parliamentary elections.

It galvanised the opposition to form an alliance of 26 parties called "INDIA" (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) to jointly take on the BJP in 2024.

The alliance also moved a no-trust motion against Modi's government over what it says is the government's failure to tackle ethnic clashes in the northeastern state of Manipur in which at least 180 people have been killed since May 3.

The motion is scheduled to be taken up for debate in parliament on Aug. 8 and Modi is expected to reply on Aug. 10 before it is put to vote.

Gandhi will be a key speaker during the debate if he is reinstated by then, as expected.

The BJP government enjoys a strong majority in parliament and the vote poses no risk to its stability. But it is seen as an opportunity for the opposition to score political points.

Also, Modi remains widely popular and the BJP is a strong favourite to win a third term on the back of its welfare and Hindu nationalist agenda despite high unemployment and uneven growth.

There was no immediate reaction to the court ruling from the BJP.

"We will fight the battle legally during the case's trial...on behalf of the Modi community," said Purnesh Modi, the Gujarat lawmaker who complained against Gandhi's speech.

(Reporting by YP Rajesh and Arpan Chaturvedi; Additional reporting by Shivam Patel and Sakshi Dayal; Editing by Kim Coghill, Simon Cameron-Moore and Nick Macfie)
FILE PHOTO: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission logo adorns an office door at the SEC headquarters in Washington, June 24, 2011. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo

By Jody Godoy

(Reuters) - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission fined electric vehicle company Canoo Inc $1.5 million on Friday for what the regulator alleges were reporting failures related to hundreds of millions of dollars of unreasonable revenue projections.

The SEC said Canoo, former CEO Ulrich Kranz and Paul Balciunas, its former chief financial officer, misled investors about the company's financial prospects before it went public in a merger with a special purpose acquisition company in December 2020.

In the run-up to the deal, Canoo had projected revenue of $120 million in 2021 and $250 million in 2022 based on deals to provide engineering services to other companies.

In March 2021, the carmaker's stock tumbled 21% after it announced it would not achieve the anticipated revenue, the SEC said in court papers.

Canoo did not admit to wrongdoing in the settlement. The company said in May that it reached a tentative deal with the SEC to end the investigation, which began in April 2021.

The SEC also settled with former CEO Kranz and former CFO Balciunas. Kranz agreed to be barred from serving as an officer or director of public companies for three years and to pay a $125,000 fine. Balciunas agreed to a two-year bar, to pay a $50,000 fine and return $7,500 in profits.

The SEC said Kranz and Balciunas knew before the merger that the projects were unlikely to generate revenue.

The regulator also alleged that Kranz failed to disclose more than $900,000 in compensation he received from two Canoo investors in October 2020 to stay with the company.

Daniel Wachtell, an attorney for Balciunas, said his client was pleased to have the matter resolved. An attorney for Kranz declined to comment.

Canoo said in May it had tentatively agreed to pay a $1.5 million penalty to settle with the SEC.

A spokesperson for the company did not immediately reply to a request for comment on Friday.

The Texas-based company warned investors in May that it might not be able to meet its financial obligations, saying it had access to $600 million in funding but added it had "substantial doubt" about continuing as a going concern.

The carmaker is scheduled to report its second quarter results on Aug. 14.

Canoo's stock peaked at $20.28 per share around its public debut in December 2020, but has declined, trading below $1 per share since February.

The SPAC boom of 2020 and 2021 brought the likes of DraftKings Inc (DKNG.O) and electric truck maker Nikola (NKLA.O) public, but drew scrutiny from watchdogs and the SEC over what they described as less stringent due diligence.

The SEC pursued a number of SPAC-related enforcement investigations and also sought to overhaul rules for the blank-check companies to boost disclosures and increase accountability.

(Reporting by Jody Godoy in New York; editing by Jonathan Oatis, Nick Macfie, Deepa Babington and David Gregorio)
SYDNEY, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Australian police have charged 11 people after a seizure of approximately 60 million Australian dollars (about 39.5 million U.S. dollars) worth of cannabis in the state of Queensland.

Queensland police said in a statement on Friday that a search warrant was executed in Coonambula on July 28, where detectives located 11 alleged greenhouses measuring 50 meters in length and nine meters in width.

The greenhouses contained 4,932 cannabis plants, ranging from seedlings to full maturity as well as dried and drying cannabis, which had an estimated street value of 24.7 million Australian dollars (about 16.24 million dollars).

Four men were arrested at the scene and remanded in custody, to appear before Bundaberg Magistrates Court on Oct. 3, 2023.

A fifth man was arrested the following day, after appearing on the property with drug equipment and resources.

He was remanded in custody to appear before Bundaberg Magistrates Court on Aug. 24, after being charged with producing dangerous drugs and possessing anything for use in the commission of a crime.

On July 29, a further search warrant was executed in Mount Maria, with officers finding 15 sophisticated hydroponic, purpose-built greenhouses.

The greenhouses contained 6,189 cannabis plants and 564.23 kg of dried cannabis, at an estimated street value of 35.3 million Australian dollars (about 23.21 million dollars).

Officers also located a significant amount of drug-related equipment and a small amount of cocaine. A subsequent search with the assistance of the dog squad led to the arrest of six men. They were taken into custody and treated for minor injuries sustained in the bushland.

A 28-year-old man was remanded in custody, to appear before Bundaberg Magistrates Court on Aug. 17, while the remaining five men would appear before Bundaberg Magistrates Court on Oct. 3. 
FILE PHOTO: A building is seen at the former Trnopolje detention camp near Prijedor, Bosnia and Herzegovina November 13, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File Photo

(Reuters) - Serbia and Bosnia's Serb Republic on Friday marked the 1995 exodus of Serbs from Croatia in a Bosnian town notorious for Serb war crimes during the Bosnian war, triggering outcry from survivors and human rights activists.

The memorial was held in the northern town of Prijedor where the first Serb-run detention camps for non-Serbs were opened at the start of the Bosnian war in 1992 and more than 3,000 Catholic Croats and Muslim Bosniaks were killed and buried in mass graves.

"This is an ugly political message," said Gordana Katana, a journalist and activist from the Serb Republic's city of Banja Luka. "This is an attempt to find a balance in the crime."

Each August since 1995, Serbia and Croatia separately mark the anniversary of the military operation Oluja (Storm), which Croatia sees as its decisive victory in the 1991-95 independence war, and which Serbia commemorates as the ethnic cleansing of about 200,000 Serbs from Croatia.

The former socialist Yugoslav federation begun crumbling in 1991 with the declarations of independence by Slovenia and Croatia, followed by wars - first in Croatia and then in Bosnia waged by Belgrade-backed nationalist Serbs who wanted to carve their ethnically pure Serb states in the two countries.

In August 1995, the Croatian army took clawed back almost all of the territory taken by breakaway Serbs in a four-day operation, when some 200,000 ethnic Serbs fled to Bosnia and Serbia from the advance of Croatian forces.

Many Bosniak survivors feel hurt that victims from another state are commemorated in the town in which Bosniak victims have been ignored. Local Serb authorities have for years rejected pleas to raise a monument to the 102 children killed in Prijedor.

"It is not right to commemorate the Oluja victims in Prijedor, it is the politicization of the crime," said Satko Mujagic, who was detained at the age of 20 in two Serb-run camps near Prijedor.

Serb Republic nationalist President Milorad Dodik, who has offered to Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic to organise the memorial in Prijedor, dismissed the criticism.

"It is monstrous to dispute our right to mark the events commemorating our victims," Dodik said.

(Reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic; Editing by Louise Heavens)
FILE PHOTO: A logo of Ericsson is seen outside the company's office in Kanata, Ontario, Canada April 17, 2023. REUTERS/Lars Hagberg/File Photo

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -Thirty-seven Ericsson shareholders are suing the Swedish telecoms company for a combined 1.8 billion Swedish crowns ($170 million), saying its CEO's disclosure of activities in Iraq depressed the stock, business daily Dagens Industri reported on Friday.

Ericsson and CEO Boerje Ekholm have been criticised heavily in the past year for their handling of an internal probe into the company's operations in Iraq and a scandal involving potential payments to Islamic State.

The shareholders, including several investment firms and pension funds, have filed separate lawsuits with a Swedish court but their actions are coordinated, the paper reported.

"Ericsson disputes the claims in their entirety and intends to defend itself vigorously in this matter, which is unprecedented in Swedish litigation and contrary to fundamental principles of Swedish corporate law," the company said in an emailed statement.

The Swedish court did not respond after business hours to a request for comment.

Dagens Industri said the shareholders are demanding compensation for a sharp drop in Ericsson shares since Feb. 16, 2022, after the paper published CEO Ekholm's disclosure in an interview of an internal report about company activities in Iraq. The share price has halved since then to 52.71 crowns on Friday.

In May this year, Nasdaq Stockholm concluded a review of the company's public disclosures concerning the report.

It found that it "cannot come to the conclusion that the content of the report was such that a reasonable investor would have used such information as part of his/her investment decision."

($1 = 10.5496 Swedish crowns)

(Reporting by Gwladys Fouche in Oslo and Marie Mannes in Stockholm; Editing by Louise Heavens and Richard Chang)
A copy of a superceding indictment is seen, after U.S. prosecutors broadened their criminal case against Donald Trump as they charged a second of his employees with helping the former president evade officials who were trying to recover sensitive national

By Jack Queen and Doina Chiacu

(Reuters) -Former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty on Friday to three new charges related to his handling of U.S. classified documents after he left the White House in 2021 - raising the total brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith in the case to 40.

Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, also waived his right to be present in Florida federal court for his arraignment on the three additional charges on Aug. 10, a court filing showed.

The action came a day after he appeared in federal court in Washington to plead not guilty to four charges brought in a separate investigation led by Smith that alleged that Trump orchestrated an illegal plot to try to overturn his 2020 election loss.

The new charges against Trump in the documents case include an additional count for unlawful retention of national defense information and two more counts of obstruction of justice.

Trump appeared in federal court in Miami on June 13 to plead not guilty to 37 charges that he unlawfully kept the national security documents - including details about the U.S. nuclear program and military plans - and lied to officials who sought to recover them. He entered his latest pleas in a written filing.

His valet, Walt Nauta, is also facing new charges, and prosecutors added a third defendant and another Trump employee, Carlos De Oliveira, to the case in a superseding indictment last week. The charges against Nauta and De Oliveira include concealing documents, conspiracy to obstruct justice and false statements.

It was unclear on Friday whether Nauta and De Oliveira would be present in court to enter their pleas on Aug. 10. Their lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Trump has proclaimed his innocence and has accused Democratic President Joe Biden's administration of targeting him for political reasons. He has called Smith, who was appointed by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in November to lead the documents and 2020 election investigations, a "Trump hater."

The judge in the documents case has scheduled the trial to begin next May, though that could change.

Opinion polls show Trump, who served as president from 2017 to 2021, with a large lead over a crowded field of candidates for his party's 2024 nomination as he seeks a rematch with Biden, who defeated him in 2020.

Prosecutors accused Trump of taking hundreds of documents containing the nation's most closely held secrets and storing them haphazardly at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. Trump at his golf resort in Bedminster, New Jersey also showed classified information to people who were not authorized to see it, according to the indictment.

Trump faces charges that include violations of the Espionage Act, which criminalizes unauthorized possession of defense information, and conspiracy to obstruct justice, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

Nauta and De Oliveira, a property manager at Mar-a-Lago, are accused of trying to hide the documents from federal investigators seeking their return and attempting to destroy evidence, including security camera footage.

Trump in April became the first sitting or former U.S. president to face criminal charges when he was indicted in New York state court, accused of falsifying business records to conceal hush money payments to a porn star ahead of the 2016 U.S. election. He pleaded not guilty in that case as well.

He was indicted for the third time on Tuesday in Washington federal court regarding his efforts to overturn his 2020 loss to Biden. Prosecutors in Fulton County, Georgia are also probing Trump's efforts to reverse his 2020 election loss in that state and are expected to announce a charging decision by Aug. 18.

(Reporting by Jack Queen in New York and Katharine Jackson and Doina Chiacu in Washington; Editing by Will Dunham and Tim Ahmann)
FILE PHOTO: Republican U.S. presidential candidate and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie addresses The Faith and Freedom Coalition's 2023 "Road to Majority" conference in Washington, U.S., June 23, 2023. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz/File Photo

By Doina Chiacu and Katharine Jackson

(Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv on Friday and underscored strong U.S. support for its fight against Russia.

Christie, once an ally of former President Donald Trump, is challenging him for their party's nomination in the 2024 election - and drawing a stark contrast on Ukraine with front-runner Trump.

Trump's former vice president Mike Pence in June became the first Republican candidate to meet Zelenskiy during the campaign.

Christie visited Ukraine a day after Trump returned to Washington to plead not guilty to federal charges he orchestrated a plot to try to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

Former New Jersey governor Christie met with Zelenskiy at the presidential palace after visiting a mass grave in Bucha, a town where Ukraine accuses Russian troops of having committed atrocities soon after their February 2022 invasion. He also saw damage in Irpin near Kyiv. Both places were retaken by Ukrainian forces.

Christie said he came to Ukraine to give Americans a view of the war and its toll and he emphasized that he wanted U.S. support to continue. The United States has provided billions of dollars worth of weapons to Ukraine to defend itself.

"I am an advocate for there being more aid to Ukraine, more significant aid to Ukraine, broader aid for Ukraine," Christie told Zelenskiy.

"It's really important to hear all these words from you," Zelenskiy replied.

Christie's stance sets him apart from some of the other Republican candidates including Trump.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a distant second in public opinion polls, this year suggested that the war was simply a "territorial dispute" before backtracking.

Trump, who left office in 2021 after one four-year term, was impeached in 2019 on allegations he pressured Ukraine to investigate Biden. Senate Republicans acquitted him of those charges.

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu and Katharine Jackson in Washington; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Grant McCool)
FILE PHOTO: A schoolboy walks along the Kenya-Uganda railway line during the reopening of schools, after the government closed learning institutions due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Kibera slums of Nairobi, Kenya January 4, 2021. REU

By Elias Biryabarema

KAMPALA (Reuters) - Uganda has begun restoring a branch of a century-old, British-built railway line that is expected to cut the cost of shipping goods to the country's north, South Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo, a railway spokesperson said.

The line, which has been out of use for roughly 40 years, is part of the East Africa rail network that stretches from Kenya's Indian Ocean seaport of Mombasa. It was built by Kenya and Uganda's former colonial ruler Britain around the beginning of the 20th-century.

"Our ambition is to move all long-distance bulk cargo transportation onto rail from roads in a few years because rail is cheaper in terms of cost and time," John Linnon Sengendo, spokesman for state-run Uganda Railways Corporation (URC) told Reuters.

Uganda decided to revamp the old network after plans to build a separate modern standard gauge railway (SGR) failed to secure financing from China.

Early this year Uganda terminated a contract with China Harbour and Engineering Company Ltd (CHEC) to build the $2.2 billion SGR and is seeking a new contractor.

Meanwhile, Sengendo said China Road and Bridge Corporation(CRBC) would restore the old line over the course of two years at a cost of 200 billion shillings ($55.48 million) provided by the Ugandan government.

The 382 km (237 mile) section of the line to be repaired connects Tororo town in Uganda's east near the border with Kenya and terminates at a logistics hub in Gulu in Uganda's north near the border with South Sudan.

The European Union funded construction of the Gulu hub, completed in late 2021, as part of the effort to revamp Uganda's railway network, which fell into disrepair during the country's economic collapse in 1970s and early 80s.

Ugandan officials hope once the link is restored, rail will replace trucks in shipping transit goods to South Sudan and northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

Last week, Kenya's and Uganda's transport ministers said they would accelerate another project to build a standard gauge railway to link Naivasha in Kenya and Uganda's capital Kampala.

($1 = 3,605.0000 Ugandan shillings)

(Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by George Obulutsa and Barbara Lewis)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy awards a Ukrainian service member during a ceremony marking the Day of Ukrainian Statehood, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine July 28, 2023. Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via REUTERS/F

(Reuters) - President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Thursday decried "revolting" practices exposed during an audit of Ukraine's military recruitment centres and pledged to fix the system by placing in charge people who understood the meaning of war.

Zelenskiy has expressed indignation at corruption uncovered during the audit last month after a high-profile incident of wrongdoing came to light in the Black Sea port of Odesa.

"We had a detailed conversation," Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address after meeting Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko and the head of the SBU security service, Vasyl Maliuk.

"The investigation is revealing numerous abuses," Zelenskiy said. "And they are frankly revolting."

The probe of recruitment offices is part of a long-running campaign to root out corruption, a critical issue as Ukraine presses a campaign to join NATO and the European Union.

Zelenskiy said all the findings of the investigation would be made public and subject to criminal proceedings.

"The conclusion is clear: the recruitment system needs people who understand the value of protecting Ukraine," he said.

"Recruitment centres must be staffed with people who have seen the war, experienced it," he added. "And those who, sadly, may have lost limbs but not their dignity and not Ukraine. Let me thank them."

The head of a military recruitment centre in Odesa accused of corruption and embezzlement was ordered held in pre-trial detention last month.

The official stood accused of acquiring without explanation funds equivalent to a little more than $5 million. Ukrainian media reports said his family had acquired property in Spain.

(Reporting by Ron Popeski. Editing by Gerry Doyle)
FILE PHOTO: The One World trace Center and the New York skyline are seen while United Airlines planes use the tarmac as pilots from United Airlines take part in an informational picket at Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark, New Jersey, U.S., M

By David Shepardson and Rajesh Kumar Singh

(Reuters) - United Airlines on Friday said it is spending $33 million to buy 113 acres (46 hectares) in Denver as part of its growth strategy.

The Chicago-based U.S. airline said it plans to use "part of this land as the site for the expansion of our world-class Denver pilot training facility."

Asked if United could use the land to move its corporate headquarters, a United spokeswoman said, "The land in Denver gives us options for the future as we implement our big plans to grow."

United is acquiring two parcels, including one just outside Denver International Airport with access to its Flight Training Center.

United added that it has "been in Chicago for decades and have thousands of employees here" and that the airline has an immediate need to expand its Flight Training Center.

"Beyond that, its prudent for any large company to take advantage of opportunities to buy land in its key cities when the opportunity arises  so we didnt want to miss this opportunity in Denver," the airline said.

In June 2022, United broke ground on a new four-story building at the flight training facility. The airline says it is the Denver areas largest employer, with about 10,000 employees and 400-plus daily flights from Denver, the most of any airline.

If United moved out of Chicago, it would be a blow to Illinois, which has lost other major corporate headquarters, including Boeing, which in May 2022 announced it was moving its headquarters from Chicago to Arlington, Virginia.

Also last year, Caterpillar moved its global headquarters to a Dallas suburb from the construction equipment maker's century-long home in Deerfield, Illinois, a Chicago suburb.

(Reporting by David Shepardson and Rajesh Kumar Singh; Editing by Mark Porter and Jonathan Oatis)
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UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-Q

 QUARTERLY REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the quarterly period ended

or

 TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the transition period from ______ to ______

Commission File Number 000-56309

Grayscale Ethereum Classic Trust (ETC)

SPONSORED BY GRAYSCALE INVESTMENTS, LLC

(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in Its Charter)

Delaware 82-6239281 (State or Other Jurisdiction of Incorporation or Organization) (I.R.S. Employer Identification No.)

c/o Grayscale Investments, LLC

290 Harbor Drive, 4th Floor

Stamford , Connecticut 06902

(Address of Principal Executive Offices) (Zip Code)

( 212 ) 668-1427

(Registrants telephone number, including area code)

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:

Title of each class Trading Symbol(s) Name of each exchange on which registered Grayscale Ethereum Classic Trust (ETC) Shares ETCG N/A

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes  No 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes  No 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of large accelerated filer, accelerated filer, smaller reporting company, and emerging growth company in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

Large accelerated filer  Accelerated filer  Non-accelerated filer  Smaller reporting company  Emerging growth company 

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes  No 

Number of Shares of the registrant outstanding as of August 1, 2023: 13,993,800

Grayscale Ethereum classic Trust (ETC)

Table of Contents

2

Forward-Looking Statements

This Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q contains forward-looking statements with respect to the financial conditions, results of operations, plans, objectives, future performance and business of Grayscale Ethereum Classic Trust (ETC) (the Trust). Statements preceded by, followed by or that include words such as may, might, will, should, expect, plan, anticipate, believe, estimate, predict, potential or continue, the negative of these terms and other similar expressions are intended to identify some of the forward-looking statements. All statements (other than statements of historical fact) included in this Quarterly Report that address activities, events or developments that will or may occur in the future, including such matters as changes in market prices and conditions, the Trusts operations, the plans of Grayscale Investments, LLC (the Sponsor) and references to the Trusts future success and other similar matters are forward-looking statements. These statements are only predictions. Actual events or results may differ materially from such statements. These statements are based upon certain assumptions and analyses the Sponsor made based on its perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors appropriate in the circumstances. Whether or not actual results and developments will conform to the Sponsors expectations and predictions, however, is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, those described in Part I, Item 1A. Risk Factors of our Annual Report on Form 10-K and in Part II, Item 1A. Risk Factors herein. Forward-looking statements are made based on the Sponsors beliefs, estimates and opinions on the date the statements are made and neither the Trust nor the Sponsor is under a duty or undertakes an obligation to update forward-looking statements if these beliefs, estimates and opinions or other circumstances should change, other than as required by applicable laws. Investors are therefore cautioned against relying on forward-looking statements.

Unless otherwise stated or the context otherwise requires, the terms we, our and us in this Quarterly Report refer to the Sponsor acting on behalf of the Trust.

A glossary of industry and other defined terms is included in this Quarterly Report, beginning on page 28.

This Quarterly Report supplements and where applicable amends the Memorandum, as defined in the Trusts Second Amended and Restated Declaration of Trust and Trust Agreement, for general purposes.

Industry and Market Data

Although we are responsible for all disclosure contained in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, in some cases we have relied on certain market and industry data obtained from third-party sources that we believe to be reliable. Market estimates are calculated by using independent industry publications in conjunction with our assumptions regarding the Ethereum Classic industry and market. While we are not aware of any misstatements regarding any market, industry or similar data presented herein, such data involves risks and uncertainties and is subject to change based on various factors, including those discussed under the headings Forward-Looking Statements, Part I, Item 1A. Risk Factors in the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC) on March 1, 2023 (the Annual Report), and Part II, Item 1A. Risk Factors in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q.

3

PART I  FINANCIAL INFORMATION:

Item 1. Financial Statements (Unaudited)

GRAYSCALE Ethereum Classic TRUST (ETC)

STATEMENTS OF ASSETS AND LIABILITIES (UNAUDITED)

(Amounts in thousands, except Share and per Share amounts)

June 30, 2023 December 31, 2022 Assets: Investment in ETC, at fair value (cost $ 88,314 and $ 89,416 as of June 30, 2023 and December 31, 2022, respectively) $ 230,513 $ 187,327 Total assets $ 230,513 $ 187,327 Liabilities: Sponsors Fee payable, related party $ - $ - Total liabilities - - Net assets $ 230,513 $ 187,327 Net Assets consists of: Paid-in-capital 100,243 100,243 Accumulated net investment loss ( 33,312 ) ( 30,436 ) Accumulated net realized gain on investment in ETC 21,383 19,609 Accumulated net change in unrealized appreciation on investment in ETC 142,199 97,911 $ 230,513 $ 187,327 Shares issued and outstanding, no par value (unlimited Shares authorized) 13,993,800 13,993,800 Net asset value per Share $ 16.47 $ 13.39

See accompanying notes to the unaudited financial statements.

4

GRAYSCALE Ethereum Classic TRUST (ETC)

SCHEDULES OF INVESTMENT (UNAUDITED)

(Amounts in thousands, except quantity of ETC and percentages)

June 30, 2023 Quantity of ETC Cost Fair Value % of Net

Assets Investment in ETC 11,695,248.44602377 $ 88,314 $ 230,513 100 % Net assets $ 88,314 $ 230,513 100 % December 31, 2022 Quantity of ETC Cost Fair Value % of Net

Assets Investment in ETC 11,841,144.97143656 $ 89,416 $ 187,327 100 % Net assets $ 89,416 $ 187,327 100 %

See accompanying notes to the unaudited financial statements.

5

GRAYSCALE Ethereum Classic TRUST (ETC)

STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS (UNAUDITED)

(Amounts in thousands)

Three Months Ended June 30, Six Months Ended June 30, 2023 2022 2023 2022 Investment income: Investment income $ - $ - $ - $ - Expenses: Sponsors Fee, related party Net investment loss ( 1,365 ) ( 1,965 ) ( 2,876 ) ( 4,768 ) Net realized and unrealized (loss) gain from: Net realized gain on investment in ETC 812 1,398 1,774 3,525 Net change in unrealized (depreciation) appreciation on investment in ETC ( 12,304 ) ( 395,089 ) 44,288 ( 232,349 ) Net realized and unrealized (loss) gain on investment ( 11,492 ) ( 393,691 ) 46,062 ( 228,824 ) Net (decrease) increase in net assets resulting from operations $ ( 12,857 ) $ ( 395,656 ) $ 43,186 $ ( 233,592 )

See accompanying notes to the unaudited financial statements.

6

GRAYSCALE Ethereum Classic TRUST (ETC)

STATEMENTS OF CHANGES IN NET ASSETS (UNAUDITED)

(Amounts in thousands, except change in Shares outstanding)

Three Months Ended June 30, Six Months Ended June 30, 2023 2022 2023 2022 (Decrease) Increase in net assets from operations: Net investment loss $ ( 1,365 ) $ ( 1,965 ) $ ( 2,876 ) $ ( 4,768 ) Net realized gain on investment in ETC 812 1,398 1,774 3,525 Net change in unrealized (depreciation) appreciation on investment in ETC ( 12,304 ) ( 395,089 ) 44,288 ( 232,349 ) Net (decrease) increase in net assets resulting from operations ( 12,857 ) ( 395,656 ) 43,186 ( 233,592 ) (Decrease) Increase in net assets from capital share transactions: Shares issued - - - - Net increase in net assets resulting from capital share transactions - - - - Total (decrease) increase in net assets from operations and capital share transactions ( 12,857 ) ( 395,656 ) 43,186 ( 233,592 ) Net assets: Beginning of period 243,370 569,530 187,327 407,466 End of period $ 230,513 $ 173,874 $ 230,513 $ 173,874 Change in Shares outstanding: Shares outstanding at beginning of period 13,993,800 13,993,800 13,993,800 13,993,800 Shares issued - - - - Net increase in Shares - - - - Shares outstanding at end of period 13,993,800 13,993,800 13,993,800 13,993,800

See accompanying notes to the unaudited financial statements.

7

GRAYSCALE Ethereum Classic TRUST (ETC)

NOTES TO THE UNAUDITED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

1. Organization Grayscale Ethereum Classic Trust (ETC) (the Trust) is a Delaware Statutory Trust that was formed on April 18, 2017 and commenced operations on April 24, 2017. In general, the Trust holds Ethereum Classic (ETC) and, from time to time, issues common units of fractional undivided beneficial interest (Shares) (in minimum baskets of 100 Shares, referred to as Baskets) in exchange for ETC. The redemption of Shares is not currently contemplated and the Trust does not currently operate a redemption program. Subject to receipt of regulatory approval and approval by the Sponsor in its sole discretion, the Trust may in the future operate a redemption program. The Trust currently has no intention of seeking regulatory approval to operate an ongoing redemption program. The Trusts investment objective is for the value of the Shares (based on ETC per Share) to reflect the value of ETC held by the Trust, less the Trusts expenses and other liabilities. The Trust may also receive Incidental Rights and/or IR Virtual Currency as a result of the Trusts investment in ETC, in accordance with the terms of the Trust Agreement. Incidental Rights are rights to claim, or otherwise establish dominion and control over, any virtual currency or other asset or right, which rights are incident to the Trusts ownership of ETC and arise without any action of the Trust, or of the Sponsor or Trustee on behalf of the Trust; IR Virtual Currency is any virtual currency tokens, or other asset or right, received by the Trust through the exercise (subject to the applicable provisions of the Trust Agreement) of any Incidental Right. Grayscale Investments, LLC (Grayscale or the Sponsor) acts as the Sponsor of the Trust and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, Inc. (DCG). The Sponsor is responsible for the day-to-day administration of the Trust pursuant to the provisions of the Trust Agreement. Grayscale is responsible for preparing and providing annual and quarterly reports on behalf of the Trust to investors and is also responsible for selecting and monitoring the Trusts service providers. As partial consideration for the Sponsors services, the Trust pays Grayscale a Sponsors Fee as discussed in Note 6. The Sponsor also acts as the sponsor and manager of other investment products including Grayscale Basic Attention Token Trust (BAT) (OTCQB: GBAT), Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (BTC) (OTCQX: GBTC), Grayscale Bitcoin Cash Trust (BCH) (OTCQX: BCHG), Grayscale Chainlink Trust (LINK) (OTCQB: GLNK), Grayscale Decentraland Trust (MANA) (OTCQX: MANA), Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETH) (OTCQX: ETHE), Grayscale Filecoin Trust (FIL) (OTCQB: FILG), Grayscale Horizen Trust (ZEN) (OTCQX: HZEN), Grayscale Litecoin Trust (LTC) (OTCQX: LTCN), Grayscale Livepeer Trust (LPT) (OTCQB: GLIV), Grayscale Solana Trust (SOL) (OTCQB: GSOL), Grayscale Stellar Lumens Trust (XLM) (OTCQX: GXLM), Grayscale Zcash Trust (ZEC) (OTCQX: ZCSH), Grayscale Decentralized Finance (DeFi) Fund LLC (OTCQB: DEFG), Grayscale Digital Large Cap Fund LLC (OTCQX: GDLC), and Grayscale Smart Contract Platform Ex Ethereum (ETH) Fund LLC, each of which is an affiliate of the Trust. The following investment products sponsored or managed by the Sponsor are also SEC reporting companies with their shares registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the Exchange Act): Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (BTC), Grayscale Bitcoin Cash Trust (BCH), Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETH), Grayscale Horizen Trust (ZEN), Grayscale Litecoin Trust (LTC), Grayscale Stellar Lumens Trust (XLM), Grayscale Zcash Trust (ZEC), and Grayscale Digital Large Cap Fund LLC. Grayscale Advisors, LLC, a Registered Investment Advisor and an affiliate of the Sponsor, is the advisor to the Grayscale Future of Finance (NYSE: GFOF) product. Authorized Participants of the Trust are the only entities who may place orders to create or, if permitted, redeem Baskets. Grayscale Securities, LLC (Grayscale Securities or, in such capacity, an Authorized Participant), a registered broker-dealer and wholly owned subsidiary of the Sponsor, is the only Authorized Participant, and is party to a participant agreement with the Sponsor and the Trust. Additional Authorized Participants may be added at any time, subject to the discretion of the Sponsor. The Authorized Participant(s) may engage Liquidity Providers from time to time and at any time. Genesis Global Trading, Inc. (Genesis), a wholly owned subsidiary of DCG, serves as a Liquidity Provider to Grayscale Securities. The custodian of the Trust is Coinbase Custody Trust Company, LLC (the Custodian), a third-party service provider. The Custodian is responsible for safeguarding the ETC, Incidental Rights, and IR Virtual Currency held by the Trust, and holding the private key(s) that provide access to the Trusts digital wallets and vaults. The transfer agent for the Trust (the Transfer Agent) is Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company. The responsibilities of the Transfer Agent are to maintain creations, redemptions, transfers, and distributions of the Trusts Shares which are primarily held in book-entry form. On May 2, 2018, the Trust received notice that its Shares were qualified for public trading on the OTCQX U.S. Marketplace of the OTC Markets Group, Inc. (OTCQX). The Trusts trading symbol on OTCQX is ETCG and the CUSIP number for its Shares is 38963Q107.

8

2. Summary of Significant Accounting Policies In the opinion of management of the Sponsor of the Trust, all adjustments (which include normal recurring adjustments) necessary to present fairly the financial position as of June 30, 2023 and December 31, 2022 and results of operations for the three and six months ended June 30, 2023 and 2022 have been made. The results of operations for the periods presented are not necessarily indicative of the results of operations expected for the full year. These unaudited financial statements should be read in conjunction with the audited financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2022, included in the Trusts Annual Report on Form 10-K. The following is a summary of significant accounting policies followed by the Trust: The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (GAAP). The Trust qualifies as an investment company for accounting purposes pursuant to the accounting and reporting guidance under Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) Topic 946, Financial ServicesInvestment Companies. The Trust uses fair value as its method of accounting for ETC in accordance with its classification as an investment company for accounting purposes. The Trust is not a registered investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940. GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts in the financial statements and accompanying notes. Actual results could differ from those estimates and these differences could be material. The Trust conducts its transactions in ETC, including receiving ETC for the creation of Shares and delivering ETC for the redemption of Shares and for the payment of the Sponsors Fee. At this time, the Trust is not accepting redemption requests from shareholders. Since its inception, the Trust has not held cash or cash equivalents. Principal Market and Fair Value Determination To determine which market is the Trusts principal market (or in the absence of a principal market, the most advantageous market) for purposes of calculating the Trusts net asset value (NAV), the Trust follows ASC 820-10, which outlines the application of fair value accounting. ASC 820-10 determines fair value to be the price that would be received for ETC in a current sale, which assumes an orderly transaction between market participants on the measurement date. ASC 820-10 requires the Trust to assume that ETC is sold in its principal market to market participants or, in the absence of a principal market, the most advantageous market. Market participants are defined as buyers and sellers in the principal or most advantageous market that are independent, knowledgeable, and willing and able to transact. The Trust only receives ETC in connection with a creation order from the Authorized Participant (or its Liquidity Provider) and does not itself transact on any Digital Asset Markets. Therefore, the Trust looks to market-based volume and level of activity for Digital Asset Markets. The Authorized Participant(s), or a Liquidity Provider on behalf of the Authorized Participant(s), may transact in a Brokered Market, a Dealer Market, Principal-to-Principal Markets and Exchange Markets, each as defined in the FASB ASC Master Glossary (collectively, Digital Asset Markets). In determining which of the eligible Digital Asset Markets is the Trusts principal market, the Trust reviews these criteria in the following order: First, the Trust reviews a list of Digital Asset Markets that maintain practices and policies designed to comply with anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) regulations, and non-Digital Asset Exchange Markets that the Trust reasonably believes are operating in compliance with applicable law, including federal and state licensing requirements, based upon information and assurances provided to it by each market. Second, the Trust sorts these Digital Asset Markets from high to low by market-based volume and level of activity of ETC traded on each Digital Asset Market in the trailing twelve months. Third, the Trust then reviews pricing fluctuations and the degree of variances in price on Digital Asset Markets to identify any material notable variances that may impact the volume or price information of a particular Digital Asset Market. Fourth, the Trust then selects a Digital Asset Market as its principal market based on the highest market-based volume, level of activity and price stability in comparison to the other Digital Asset Markets on the list. Based on information reasonably available to the Trust, Exchange Markets have the greatest volume and level of activity for the asset. The Trust therefore looks to accessible Exchange Markets as opposed to the Brokered Market, Dealer Market and Principal-to-Principal Markets to determine its principal market. As a result of the aforementioned analysis, an Exchange Market has been selected as the Trusts principal market. The Trust determines its principal market (or in the absence of a principal market the most advantageous market) annually and conducts a quarterly analysis to determine (i) if there have been recent changes to each Digital Asset Markets trading volume and level of activity 9 in the trailing twelve months, (ii) if any Digital Asset Markets have developed that the Trust has access to, or (iii) if recent changes to each Digital Asset Markets price stability have occurred that would materially impact the selection of the principal market and necessitate a change in the Trusts determination of its principal market. The cost basis of ETC received in connection with a creation order is recorded by the Trust at the fair value of ETC at 4:00 p.m., New York time, on the creation date for financial reporting purposes. The cost basis recorded by the Trust may differ from proceeds collected by the Authorized Participant from the sale of the corresponding Shares to investors. Investment Transactions and Revenue Recognition The Trust considers investment transactions to be the receipt of ETC for Share creations and the delivery of ETC for Share redemptions or for payment of expenses in ETC. At this time, the Trust is not accepting redemption requests from shareholders. The Trust records its investment transactions on a trade date basis and changes in fair value are reflected as net change in unrealized appreciation or depreciation on investments. Realized gains and losses are calculated using the specific identification method. Realized gains and losses are recognized in connection with transactions including settling obligations for the Sponsors Fee in ETC. Fair Value Measurement Fair value is defined as the price that would be received to sell an asset or paid to transfer a liability (i.e., the exit price) in an orderly transaction between market participants at the measurement date. GAAP utilizes a fair value hierarchy for inputs used in measuring fair value that maximizes the use of observable inputs and minimizes the use of unobservable inputs by requiring that the most observable inputs be used when available. Observable inputs are those that market participants would use in pricing the asset or liability based on market data obtained from sources independent of the Trust. Unobservable inputs reflect the Trusts assumptions about the inputs market participants would use in pricing the asset or liability developed based on the best information available in the circumstances. The fair value hierarchy is categorized into three levels based on the inputs as follows:  Level 1  Valuations based on unadjusted quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities that the Trust has the ability to access. Since valuations are based on quoted prices that are readily and regularly available in an active market, these valuations do not entail a significant degree of judgment.  Level 2  Valuations based on quoted prices in markets that are not active or for which significant inputs are observable, either directly or indirectly.  Level 3  Valuations based on inputs that are unobservable and significant to the overall fair value measurement. The availability of valuation techniques and observable inputs can vary by investment. To the extent that valuations are based on sources that are less observable or unobservable in the market, the determination of fair value requires more judgment. Fair value estimates do not necessarily represent the amounts that may be ultimately realized by the Trust. Fair Value Measurement Using (Amounts in thousands) Amount at

Fair Value Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 June 30, 2023 Assets Investment in ETC $ 230,513 $ 230,513 $ - $ - December 31, 2022 Assets Investment in ETC $ 187,327 $ 187,327 $ - $ -

3. Fair Value of ETC ETC is held by the Custodian on behalf of the Trust and is carried at fair value. As of June 30, 2023 and December 31, 2022, the Trust held 11,695,248.44602377 and 11,841,144.97143656 ETC, respectively. The Trust determined the fair value per ETC to be $ 19.71 and $ 15.82 on June 30, 2023 and December 31, 2022, respectively, using the price provided at 4:00 p.m., New York time, by the Digital Asset Exchange Market considered to be the Trusts principal market (Coinbase). 10 The following represents the changes in quantity of ETC and the respective fair value: (Amounts in thousands, except ETC amounts) Quantity Fair Value Balance at December 31, 2021 12,155,893.99048110 $ 407,466 ETC contributed - - ETC distributed for Sponsors Fee, related party ( 314,749.01904454 ) ( 8,638 ) Net change in unrealized depreciation on investment in ETC - ( 217,762 ) Net realized gain on investment in ETC - 6,261 Balance at December 31, 2022 11,841,144.97143656 $ 187,327 ETC contributed - - ETC distributed for Sponsors Fee, related party ( 145,896.52541279 ) ( 2,876 ) Net change in unrealized appreciation on investment in ETC - 44,288 Net realized gain on investment in ETC - 1,774 Balance at June 30, 2023 11,695,248.44602377 $ 230,513

4. Creations and Redemptions of Shares At June 30, 2023 and December 31, 2022, there were an unlimited number of Shares authorized by the Trust. The Trust creates (and, should the Trust commence a redemption program, redeems) Shares from time to time, but only in one or more Baskets. The creation and redemption of Baskets on behalf of investors are made by the Authorized Participant in exchange for the delivery of ETC to the Trust or the distribution of ETC by the Trust. The number of ETC required for each creation Basket or redemption Basket is determined by dividing (x) the number of ETC owned by the Trust at 4:00 p.m., New York time, on such trade date of a creation or redemption order, after deducting the number of ETC representing the U.S. dollar value of accrued but unpaid fees and expenses of the Trust, by (y) the number of Shares outstanding at such time and multiplying the quotient obtained by 100. Each Share represented approximately 0.8357 and 0.8462 of one ETC at June 30, 2023 and December 31, 2022, respectively. The decrease in the number of ETC represented by each Share is primarily a result of the periodic withdrawal of ETC to pay the Sponsors Fee. The cost basis of investments in ETC recorded by the Trust is the fair value of ETC, as determined by the Trust, at 4:00 p.m., New York time, on the date of transfer to the Trust by the Authorized Participant based on the creation Baskets. The cost basis recorded by the Trust may differ from proceeds collected by the Authorized Participant from the sale of each Share to investors. The Authorized Participant may realize significant profits buying, selling, creating, and, if permitted, redeeming Shares as a result of changes in the value of Shares or ETC. At this time, the Trust is not operating a redemption program and is not accepting redemption requests. Subject to receipt of regulatory approval and approval by the Sponsor in its sole discretion, the Trust may in the future operate a redemption program. The Trust currently has no intention of seeking regulatory approval to operate an ongoing redemption program.

5. Income Taxes The Sponsor takes the position that the Trust is properly treated as a grantor trust for U.S. federal income tax purposes. Assuming that the Trust is a grantor trust, the Trust will not be subject to U.S. federal income tax. Rather, if the Trust is a grantor trust, each beneficial owner of Shares will be treated as directly owning its pro rata Share of the Trusts assets and a pro rata portion of the Trusts income, gain, losses and deductions will flow through to each beneficial owner of Shares. If the Trust were not properly classified as a grantor trust, the Trust might be classified as a partnership for U.S. federal income tax purposes. However, due to the uncertain treatment of digital assets, including forks, airdrops and similar occurrences for U.S. federal income tax purposes, there can be no assurance in this regard. If the Trust were classified as a partnership for U.S. federal income tax purposes, the tax consequences of owning Shares generally would not be materially different from the tax consequences described herein, although there might be certain differences, including with respect to timing. In addition, tax information reports provided to beneficial owners of Shares would be made in a different form. If the Trust were not classified as either a grantor trust or a partnership for U.S. federal income tax purposes, it would be classified as a corporation for such purposes. In that event, the Trust would be subject to entity-level U.S. federal income tax (currently at the rate of 21 %) on its net taxable income and certain distributions made by the Trust to shareholders would be treated as taxable dividends to the extent of the Trusts current and accumulated earnings and profits. In accordance with GAAP, the Trust has defined the threshold for recognizing the benefits of tax return positions in the financial statements as more-likely-than-not to be sustained by the applicable taxing authority and requires measurement of a tax position meeting the more-likely-than-not threshold, based on the largest benefit that is more than 50% likely to be realized. Tax positions not deemed to meet the more-likely-than-not threshold are recorded as a tax benefit or expense in the current period. As of and during the 11 periods ended June 30, 2023 and December 31, 2022, the Trust did not have a liability for any unrecognized tax amounts. However, the Sponsors conclusions concerning its determination of more-likely-than-not tax positions may be subject to review and adjustment at a later date based on factors including, but not limited to, further implementation guidance, and on-going analyses of and changes to tax laws, regulations and interpretations thereof. The Sponsor of the Trust has evaluated whether or not there are uncertain tax positions that require financial statement recognition and has determined that no reserves for uncertain tax positions related to federal, state and local income taxes existed as of June 30, 2023 or December 31, 2022.

6. Related Parties The Trust considers the following entities, their directors, and certain employees to be related parties of the Trust: DCG, Genesis, Grayscale, Grayscale Securities and CoinDesk Indices, Inc. As of June 30, 2023 and December 31, 2022, 3,002,894 and 3,258,770 Shares of the Trust were held by related parties of the Trust, respectively. The Sponsors parent, an affiliate of the Trust, holds a minority interest in Coinbase, Inc., the parent company of the Custodian, that represents less than 1.0 % of Coinbase, Inc.s ownership. In accordance with the Trust Agreement governing the Trust, the Trust pays a fee to the Sponsor, calculated as 2.5 % of the aggregate value of the Trusts assets, less its liabilities (which include any accrued but unpaid expenses up to, but excluding, the date of calculation), as calculated and published by the Sponsor or its delegates in the manner set forth in the Trust Agreement (the Sponsors Fee). The Sponsors Fee accrues daily in U.S. dollars and is payable in ETC, monthly in arrears. The amount of ETC payable in respect of each daily U.S. dollar accrual will be determined by reference to the same U.S. dollar value of ETC used to determine such accrual. For purposes of these financial statements, the U.S. dollar value of ETC is determined by reference to the Digital Asset Exchange Market that the Trust considers its principal market as of 4:00 p.m., New York time, on each valuation date. The Trust held no Incidental Rights or IR Virtual Currency as of June 30, 2023 and December 31, 2022. Incidental Rights or IR Virtual Currencies have been distributed in payment of the Sponsors Fee during the three and six months ended June 30, 2023 and 2022. As partial consideration for receipt of the Sponsors Fee, the Sponsor is obligated under the Trust Agreement to assume and pay all fees and other expenses incurred by the Trust in the ordinary course of its affairs, excluding taxes, but including marketing fees; administrator fees, if any; custodian fees; transfer agent fees; trustee fees; the fees and expenses related to the listing, quotation or trading of the Shares on any secondary market (including customary legal, marketing and audit fees and expenses) in an amount up to $ 600,000 in any given fiscal year; ordinary course legal fees and expenses; audit fees; regulatory fees, including, if applicable, any fees relating to the registration of the Shares under the Securities Act or the Exchange Act; printing and mailing costs; the costs of maintaining the Trusts website and applicable license fees (the Sponsor-paid Expenses). The Trust may incur certain extraordinary, non-recurring expenses that are not Sponsor-paid Expenses, including, but not limited to, taxes and governmental charges, expenses and costs of any extraordinary services performed by the Sponsor (or any other service provider) on behalf of the Trust to protect the Trust or the interests of shareholders (including in connection with any Incidental Rights and any IR Virtual Currency), any indemnification of the Custodian or other agents, service providers or counterparties of the Trust, the fees and expenses related to the listing, quotation or trading of the Shares on any secondary market (including legal, marketing and audit fees and expenses) to the extent exceeding $ 600,000 in any given fiscal year and extraordinary legal fees and expenses, including any legal fees and expenses incurred in connection with litigation, regulatory enforcement or investigation matters (collectively Additional Trust Expenses). In such circumstances, the Sponsor or its delegate (i) will instruct the Custodian to withdraw from the Digital Asset Account ETC, Incidental Rights and/or IR Virtual Currency in such quantity as may be necessary to permit payment of such Additional Trust Expenses and (ii) may either (x) cause the Trust (or its delegate) to convert such ETC, Incidental Rights and/or IR Virtual Currency into U.S. dollars or other fiat currencies at the Actual Exchange Rate or (y) when the Sponsor incurs such expenses on behalf of the Trust, cause the Trust (or its delegate) to deliver such ETC, Incidental Rights and/or IR Virtual Currency in kind to the Sponsor in satisfaction of such Additional Trust Expenses. Effective April 1, 2022, the Sponsors Fee was lowered from 3.0 % to 2.5 %. From the inception of the Trust through April 2022, the Sponsor directed up to one-third of the Sponsors Fee towards initiatives that supported development, marketing, and other community efforts relating to the Ethereum Classic Network at the sole discretion of the Sponsor. Historically, these amounts were contributed to the Ethereum Classic Cooperative, a 501(c)(3) non-profit whose mission is to steward the development of the Ethereum Classic protocol and to support the growth of a mature ecosystem around the protocol. The Ethereum Classic Cooperative is governed by a board of directors, which has historically included Barry E. Silbert, Digital Currency Group, Inc.s Chief Executive Officer, as well as another employee of the Sponsor. Effective April 1, 2022, the Sponsor ceased directing up to one-third of the Sponsors Fee towards initiatives supporting the Ethereum Classic Network and Barry E. Silbert resigned from the Ethereum Classic Cooperative board of directors. 12 For the three months ended June 30, 2023 and 2022, the Trust incurred Sponsors Fees of $ 1,364,119 and $ 1,964,068 , respectively. For the six months ended June 30, 2023 and 2022, the Trust incurred Sponsors Fees of $ 2,875,359 and $ 4,767,539 , respectively. As of June 30, 2023 and December 31, 2022, there were no accrued and unpaid Sponsors Fees. In addition, the Sponsor may pay Additional Trust Expenses on behalf of the Trust, which are reimbursable by the Trust to the Sponsor. For the three and six months ended June 30, 2023 and 2022, the Sponsor did t pay any Additional Trust Expenses on behalf of the Trust. On June 21, 2021, the Board of the Sponsor (the Board) approved the purchase by DCG, the parent company of the Sponsor, of up to $ 50 million worth of Shares of the Trust. Subsequently, DCG authorized such purchase. On March 2, 2022, the Board approved the purchase by DCG of up to an aggregate total of $ 200 million worth of Shares of the Trust and shares of any of the following five investment products the Sponsor also acts as the sponsor and manager of, including Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (BTC) (OTCQX: GBTC), Grayscale Bitcoin Cash Trust (BCH) (OTCQX: BCHG), Grayscale Digital Large Cap Fund LLC (OTCQX: GDLC), Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETH) (OTCQX: ETHE), and Grayscale Stellar Lumens Trust (XLM) (OTCQX: GXLM). This increased DCGs prior authorization to purchase up to $ 50 million worth of Shares by up to a maximum of $ 200 million. The Share purchase authorization does not obligate DCG to acquire any specific number of Shares in any period, and may be expanded, extended, modified, or discontinued at any time. From June 21, 2021 through December 31, 2021, DCG purchased $ 45.3 million worth of Shares of the Trust. From January 1, 2022 through June 30, 2023, DCG had no t purchased any Shares of the Trust under this authorization.

7. Risks and Uncertainties The Trust is subject to various risks including market risk, liquidity risk, and other risks related to its concentration in a single asset, ETC. Investing in ETC is currently highly speculative and volatile. The net asset value of the Trust relates primarily to the value of ETC held by the Trust, and fluctuations in the price of ETC could materially and adversely affect an investment in the Shares of the Trust. The price of ETC has a limited history. During such history, ETC prices have been volatile and subject to influence by many factors, including the levels of liquidity. If Digital Asset Markets continue to experience significant price fluctuations, the Trust may experience losses. Several factors may affect the price of ETC, including, but not limited to, global ETC supply and demand, theft of ETC from global exchanges or vaults, competition from other forms of digital currency or payment services, global or regional political, economic or financial conditions, and other unforeseen events and situations. The ETC held by the Trust are commingled and the Trusts shareholders have no specific rights to any specific ETC. In the event of the insolvency of the Trust, its assets may be inadequate to satisfy a claim by its shareholders. There is currently no clearing house for ETC, nor is there a central or major depository for the custody of ETC. There is a risk that some or all of the Trusts ETC could be lost or stolen. There can be no assurance that the Custodian will maintain adequate insurance or that such coverage will cover losses with respect to the Trusts ETC. Further, transactions in ETC are irrevocable. Stolen or incorrectly transferred ETC may be irretrievable. As a result, any incorrectly executed ETC transactions could adversely affect an investment in the Shares. The Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC) has stated that certain digital assets may be considered securities under the federal securities laws. The test for determining whether a particular digital asset is a security is complex and difficult to apply, and the outcome is difficult to predict. Public, though non-binding, statements by senior officials at the SEC have indicated that the SEC did not consider Bitcoin or Ethereum to be securities, and does not currently consider Bitcoin to be a security. The SEC staff also provided informal assurances to a handful of promoters that their digital assets are not securities. On the other hand, the SEC has brought enforcement actions against the issuers and promoters of several other digital assets on the basis that the digital assets in question are securities. If ETC is determined to be a security under federal or state securities laws by the SEC or any other agency, or in a proceeding in a court of law or otherwise, it may have material adverse consequences for ETC. For example, it may become more difficult for ETC to be traded, cleared and custodied as compared to other digital assets that are not considered to be securities, which could, in turn, negatively affect the liquidity and general acceptance of ETC and cause users to migrate to other digital assets. As such, any determination that ETC is a security under federal or state securities laws may adversely affect the value of ETC and, as a result, an investment in the Shares. In addition, if ETC is in fact a security, the Trust could be considered an unregistered investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940, which could necessitate the Trusts liquidation. In this case, the Trust and the Sponsor may be deemed to have participated in an illegal offering of securities and there is no guarantee that the Sponsor will be able to register the Trust under the Investment Company Act of 1940 at such time or take such other actions as may be necessary to ensure the Trusts activities comply with applicable law, which could force the Sponsor to liquidate the Trust. To the extent a private key required to access an ETC address is lost, destroyed or otherwise compromised and no backup of the private keys are accessible, the Trust may be unable to access the ETC controlled by the private key and the private key will not be capable of 13 being restored by the Ethereum Classic Network. The processes by which ETC transactions are settled are dependent on the peer-to-peer network, and as such, the Trust is subject to operational risk. A risk also exists with respect to previously unknown technical vulnerabilities, which may adversely affect the value of ETC. The Trust relies on third party service providers to perform certain functions essential to its operations. Any disruptions to the Trusts service providers business operations, resulting from business failures, financial instability, security failures, government mandated regulation or operational problems could have an adverse impact on the Trusts ability to access critical services and be disruptive to the operations of the Trust. The Sponsor and the Trust may be subject to various litigation, regulatory investigations, and other legal proceedings that arise in the ordinary course of its business.

8. Financial Highlights Per Share Performance Three Months Ended June 30, Six Months Ended June 30, 2023 2022 2023 2022 Per Share Data: Net asset value, beginning of period $ 17.39 $ 40.70 $ 13.39 $ 29.12 Net (decrease) increase in net assets from investment operations: Net investment loss ( 0.10 ) ( 0.14 ) ( 0.21 ) ( 0.34 ) Net realized and unrealized (loss) gain ( 0.82 ) ( 28.13 ) 3.29 ( 16.35 ) Net (decrease) increase in net assets resulting from operations ( 0.92 ) ( 28.27 ) 3.08 ( 16.69 ) Net asset value, end of period $ 16.47 $ 12.43 $ 16.47 $ 12.43 Total return - 5.29 % - 69.46 % 23.00 % - 57.31 % Ratios to average net assets: Net investment loss - 2.50 % - 2.50 % - 2.50 % - 2.77 % Expenses - 2.50 % - 2.50 % - 2.50 % - 2.77 % Ratios of net investment loss and expenses to average net assets have been annualized. An individual shareholders return, ratios, and per Share performance may vary from those presented above based on the timing of Share transactions. The amount shown for a Share outstanding throughout the period may not correlate with the Statement of Operations for the period due to the number of Shares issued in Creations occurring at an operational value derived from an operating metric as defined in the Trust Agreement. Total return is calculated assuming an initial investment made at the net asset value at the beginning of the period and assuming redemption on the last day of the period.

9. Indemnifications In the normal course of business, the Trust enters into certain contracts that provide a variety of indemnities, including contracts with the Sponsor and affiliates of the Sponsor, DCG and its officers, directors, employees, subsidiaries and affiliates, and the Custodian as well as others relating to services provided to the Trust. The Trusts maximum exposure under these and its other indemnities is unknown. However, no liabilities have arisen under these indemnities in the past and, while there can be no assurances in this regard, there is no expectation that any will occur in the future. Therefore, the Sponsor does not consider it necessary to record a liability in this regard.

10. Subsequent Events As of the close of business on , the fair value of ETC determined in accordance with the Trusts accounting policy was $ 18.29 per ETC. There are no known events that have occurred that require disclosure other than that which has already been disclosed in these notes to the financial statements.

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Item 2. Managements Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations should be read together with, and is qualified in its entirety by reference to, our unaudited financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this Quarterly Report, which have been prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (U.S. GAAP). The following discussion may contain forward-looking statements based on assumptions we believe to be reasonable. Our actual results could differ materially from those discussed in these forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to these differences include, but are not limited to, those set forth under Part II, Item 1A. Risk Factors in this Quarterly Report, or in Part I, Item 1A. Risk Factors and Forward-Looking Statements or other sections of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022.

Trust Overview

The Trust is a passive entity that is managed and administered by the Sponsor and does not have any officers, directors or employees. The Trust holds ETC and, from time to time on a periodic basis, issues Creation Baskets in exchange for deposits of ETC. As a passive investment vehicle, the Trusts investment objective is for the value of the Shares (based on ETC per Share) to reflect the value of ETC held by the Trust, determined by reference to the Index Price, less the Trusts expenses and other liabilities. While an investment in the Shares is not a direct investment in ETC, the Shares are designed to provide investors with a cost-effective and convenient way to gain investment exposure to ETC. To date, the Trust has not met its investment objective and the Shares quoted on OTCQX have not reflected the value of ETC held by the Trust, less the Trusts expenses and other liabilities, but instead have traded at both premiums and discounts to such value, which at times have been substantial. The Trust is not managed like a business corporation or an active investment vehicle.

Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates

Investment Transactions and Revenue Recognition

The Trust considers investment transactions to be the receipt of ETC for Share creations and the delivery of ETC for Share redemptions or for payment of expenses in ETC. At this time, the Trust is not accepting redemption requests from shareholders. The Trust records its investment transactions on a trade date basis and changes in fair value are reflected as net change in unrealized appreciation or depreciation on investments. Realized gains and losses are calculated using the specific identification method. Realized gains and losses are recognized in connection with transactions including settling obligations for the Sponsors Fee in ETC.

Principal Market and Fair Value Determination

To determine which market is the Trusts principal market (or in the absence of a principal market, the most advantageous market) for purposes of calculating the Trusts net asset value (NAV), the Trust follows Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) 820-10, which outlines the application of fair value accounting. ASC 820-10 determines fair value to be the price that would be received for ETC in a current sale, which assumes an orderly transaction between market participants on the measurement date. ASC 820-10 requires the Trust to assume that ETC is sold in its principal market to market participants or, in the absence of a principal market, the most advantageous market. Market participants are defined as buyers and sellers in the principal or most advantageous market that are independent, knowledgeable, and willing and able to transact.

The Trust only receives ETC in connection with a creation order from the Authorized Participant (or its Liquidity Provider) and does not itself transact on any Digital Asset Markets. Therefore, the Trust looks to market-based volume and level of activity for Digital Asset Markets. The Authorized Participant(s), or a Liquidity Provider on behalf of the Authorized Participant(s), may transact in a Brokered Market, a Dealer Market, Principal-to-Principal Markets and Exchange Markets, each as defined in the FASB ASC Master Glossary (collectively, Digital Asset Markets).

In determining which of the eligible Digital Asset Markets is the Trusts principal market, the Trust reviews these criteria in the following order:

 First, the Trust reviews a list of Digital Asset Markets that maintain practices and policies designed to comply with anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) regulations, and non-Digital Asset Exchange Markets that the Trust reasonably believes are operating in compliance with applicable law, including federal and state licensing requirements, based upon information and assurances provided to it by each market.

 Second, the Trust sorts these Digital Asset Markets from high to low by market-based volume and level of activity of ETC traded on each Digital Asset Market in the trailing twelve months.

 Third, the Trust then reviews pricing fluctuations and the degree of variances in price on Digital Asset Markets to identify any material notable variances that may impact the volume or price information of a particular Digital Asset Market.

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 Fourth, the Trust then selects a Digital Asset Market as its principal market based on the highest market-based volume, level of activity and price stability in comparison to the other Digital Asset Markets on the list. Based on information reasonably available to the Trust, Exchange Markets have the greatest volume and level of activity for the asset. The Trust therefore looks to accessible Exchange Markets as opposed to the Brokered Market, Dealer Market and Principal-to-Principal Markets to determine its principal market. As a result of the aforementioned analysis, an Exchange Market has been selected as the Trusts principal market.

The Trust determines its principal market (or in the absence of a principal market the most advantageous market) annually and conducts a quarterly analysis to determine (i) if there have been recent changes to each Digital Asset Markets trading volume and level of activity in the trailing twelve months, (ii) if any Digital Asset Markets have developed that the Trust has access to, or (iii) if recent changes to each Digital Asset Markets price stability have occurred that would materially impact the selection of the principal market and necessitate a change in the Trusts determination of its principal market.

The cost basis of ETC received in connection with a creation order is recorded by the Trust at the fair value of ETC at 4:00 p.m., New York time, on the creation date for financial reporting purposes. The cost basis recorded by the Trust may differ from proceeds collected by the Authorized Participant from the sale of the corresponding Shares to investors.

Investment Company Considerations

The Trust is an investment company for GAAP purposes and follows accounting and reporting guidance in accordance with the FASB ASC Topic 946, Financial ServicesInvestment Companies. The Trust uses fair value as its method of accounting for ETC in accordance with its classification as an investment company for accounting purposes. The Trust is not a registered investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940. GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts in the financial statements and accompanying notes. Actual results could differ from those estimates and these differences could be material.

Review of Financial Results (unaudited)

Financial Highlights for the Three and Six Months Ended June 30, 2023 and 2022

(All amounts in the following table and the subsequent paragraphs, except Share, per Share, ETC and price of ETC amounts, are in thousands)

Three Months Ended June 30, Six Months Ended June 30, 2023 2022 2023 2022 Net realized and unrealized (loss) gain on investment in ETC $ (11,492 ) $ (393,691 ) $ 46,062 $ (228,824 ) Net (decrease) increase in net assets resulting from operations $ (12,857 ) $ (395,656 ) $ 43,186 $ (233,592 ) Net assets $ 230,513 $ 173,874 $ 230,513 $ 173,874

Net realized and unrealized loss on investment in ETC for the three months ended June 30, 2023 was ($11,492), which includes a realized gain of $812 on the transfer of ETC to pay the Sponsors Fee and net change in unrealized depreciation on investment in ETC of ($12,304). Net realized and unrealized loss on investment in ETC for the period was driven by ETC price depreciation from $20.68 per ETC as of March 31, 2023, to $19.71 per ETC as of June 30, 2023. Net decrease in net assets resulting from operations was ($12,857) for the three months ended June 30, 2023, which consisted of the net realized and unrealized loss on investment in ETC, plus the Sponsors Fee of $1,365. Net assets decreased to $230,513 at June 30, 2023, a 5% decrease for the three-month period. The decrease in net assets resulted from the aforementioned ETC price depreciation and the withdrawal of approximately 73,126 ETC to pay the foregoing Sponsors Fee.

Net realized and unrealized loss on investment in ETC for the three months ended June 30, 2022 was ($393,691), which includes a realized gain of $1,398 on the transfer of ETC to pay the Sponsors Fee and net change in unrealized depreciation on investment in ETC of ($395,089). Net realized and unrealized loss on investment in ETC for the period was driven by ETC price depreciation from $47.20 per ETC as of March 31, 2022, to $14.50 per ETC as of June 30, 2022. Net decrease in net assets resulting from operations was ($395,656) for the three months ended June 30, 2022, which consisted of the net realized and unrealized loss on investment in ETC, plus the Sponsors Fee of $1,965. Net assets decreased to $173,874 at June 30, 2022, a 69% decrease for the three-month period. The decrease in net assets resulted from the aforementioned ETC price depreciation and the withdrawal of approximately 74,977 ETC to pay the foregoing Sponsors Fee.

Net realized and unrealized gain on investment in ETC for the six months ended June 30, 2023 was $46,062, which includes a realized gain of $1,774 on the transfer of ETC to pay the Sponsors Fee and net change in unrealized appreciation on investment in ETC

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of $44,288. Net realized and unrealized gain on investment in ETC for the period was driven by ETC price appreciation from $15.82 per ETC as of December 31, 2022, to $19.71 per ETC as of June 30, 2023. Net increase in net assets resulting from operations was $43,186 for the six months ended June 30, 2023, which consisted of the net realized and unrealized gain on investment in ETC, less the Sponsors Fee of $2,876. Net assets increased to $230,513 at June 30, 2023, a 23% increase for the six-month period. The increase in net assets resulted from the aforementioned ETC price appreciation, partially offset by the withdrawal of approximately 145,897 ETC to pay the foregoing Sponsors Fee.

Net realized and unrealized loss on investment in ETC for the six months ended June 30, 2022 was ($228,824), which includes a realized gain of $3,525 on the transfer of ETC to pay the Sponsors Fee and net change in unrealized depreciation on investment in ETC of ($232,349). Net realized and unrealized loss on investment in ETC for the period was driven by ETC price depreciation from $33.52 per ETC as of December 31, 2021, to $14.50 per ETC as of June 30, 2022. Net decrease in net assets resulting from operations was ($233,592) for the six months ended June 30, 2022, which consisted of the net realized and unrealized loss on investment in ETC, plus the Sponsors Fee of $4,768. Net assets decreased to $173,874 at June 30, 2022, a 57% decrease for the six-month period. The decrease in net assets resulted from the aforementioned ETC price depreciation and the withdrawal of approximately 164,569 ETC to pay the foregoing Sponsors Fee.

Cash Resources and Liquidity

The Trust has not had a cash balance at any time since inception. When selling ETC, Incidental Rights and/or IR Virtual Currency in the Digital Asset Market to pay Additional Trust Expenses on behalf of the Trust, the Sponsor endeavors to sell the exact number of ETC, Incidental Rights and/or IR Virtual Currency needed to pay expenses in order to minimize the Trusts holdings of assets other than ETC. As a consequence, the Sponsor expects that the Trust will not record any cash flow from its operations and that its cash balance will be zero at the end of each reporting period. Furthermore, the Trust is not a party to any off-balance sheet arrangements.

In exchange for the Sponsors Fee, the Sponsor has agreed to assume most of the expenses incurred by the Trust. As a result, the only ordinary expense of the Trust during the periods covered by this Quarterly Report was the Sponsors Fee. The Trust is not aware of any trends, demands, conditions or events that are reasonably likely to result in material changes to its liquidity needs.

Selected Operating Data

Three Months Ended June 30, Six Months Ended June 30, 2023 2022 2023 2022 (All ETC balances are rounded to the nearest whole ETC) ETC: Opening balance 11,768,374 12,066,302 11,841,145 12,155,894 Creations - - - - Sponsors Fee, related party (73,126 ) (74,977 ) (145,897 ) (164,569 ) Closing balance 11,695,248 11,991,325 11,695,248 11,991,325 Accrued but unpaid Sponsors Fee, related party - - - - Net closing balance 11,695,248 11,991,325 11,695,248 11,991,325 Number of Shares: Opening balance 13,993,800 13,993,800 13,993,800 13,993,800 Creations - - - - Closing balance 13,993,800 13,993,800 13,993,800 13,993,800

As of June 30, 2023 2022 Price of ETC on principal market(1) $ 19.71 $ 14.50 NAV per Share(2) $ 16.47 $ 12.43 Index Price $ 19.77 $ 14.43 Digital Asset Holdings per Share(3) $ 16.52 $ 12.37

(1) The Trust performed an assessment of the principal market at June 30, 2023 and 2022, and identified the principal market as Coinbase.

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(2) As of June 30, 2023 and 2022, the NAV per Share was calculated using the fair value of ETC based on the price provided by Coinbase, the Digital Asset Exchange that the Trust considered its principal market, as of 4:00 p.m., New York time, on the valuation date.

(3) The Trusts Digital Asset Holdings per Share is derived from the Index Price, as represented by the Index as of 4:00 p.m., New York time, on the valuation date. The Trusts Digital Asset Holdings per Share is calculated using a non-GAAP methodology where the price is derived from multiple Digital Asset Exchanges. See Item 1. BusinessOverview of the ETC Industry and MarketETC ValueThe Index and the Index Price in the Trusts Annual Report on Form 10-K for a description of the Index and the Index Price. The Digital Asset Exchanges included in the Index as of June 30, 2023, were Coinbase, Kraken, and Crypto.com. Effective June 17, 2023, the Index Provider removed Binance.US from the Index, due to Binance.USs announcement that the exchange was suspending U.S. dollar deposits and withdrawals and planned to delist its U.S. dollar trading pairs, and added Crypto.com as a Constituent Exchange as part of its review. The Digital Asset Exchanges included in the Index as of June 30, 2022, were Coinbase, Kraken, and Binance.US. See Item 1. BusinessValuation of ETC and Determination of Digital Asset Holdings in the Trusts Annual Report on Form 10-K for a description of the Trusts Digital Asset Holdings per Share.

For accounting purposes, the Trust reflects creations and the ETC receivable with respect to such creations on the date of receipt of a notification of a creation but does not issue Shares until the requisite number of ETC is received. At this time, the Trust is not accepting redemption requests from shareholders. Subject to receipt of regulatory approval from the SEC and approval by the Sponsor in its sole discretion, the Trust may in the future operate a redemption program. The Trust currently has no intention of seeking regulatory approval to operate an ongoing redemption program.

As of June 30, 2023, the Trust had a net closing balance with a value of $231,215,062, based on the Index Price (non-GAAP methodology). As of June 30, 2023, the Trust had a total market value of $230,513,347, based on the principal market (Coinbase).

As of June 30, 2022, the Trust had a net closing balance with a value of $173,034,825, based on the Index Price (non-GAAP methodology). As of June 30, 2022, the Trust had a total market value of $173,874,217, based on the principal market (Coinbase).

Historical Digital Asset Holdings and ETC Prices

As movements in the price of ETC will directly affect the price of the Shares, investors should understand recent movements in the price of ETC. Investors, however, should also be aware that past movements in the ETC price are not indicators of future movements. Movements may be influenced by various factors, including, but not limited to, government regulation, security breaches experienced by service providers, as well as political and economic uncertainties around the world.

The following chart illustrates the movement in the Trusts Digital Asset Holdings per Share versus the Index Price and the Trusts NAV per Share from April 24, 2017 to June 30, 2023. For more information on the determination of the Trusts Digital Asset Holdings, see Item 1. BusinessOverview of the ETC Industry and MarketETC ValueThe Index and the Index Price in the Trusts Annual Report on Form 10-K.

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The following table illustrates the movements in the Index Price from July 1, 2018 to June 30, 2023. During such period, the Index Price has ranged from $3.43 to $148.63, with the straight average being $19.31 through June 30, 2023. The Sponsor has not observed a material difference between the Index Price and average prices from the constituent Digital Asset Exchanges individually or as a group.

High Low Period Average Index Price Date Index Price Date End of period Last business day Twelve months ended June 30, 2019 $ 8.22 $ 18.48 7/9/2018 $ 3.62 12/14/2018 $ 7.95 $ 8.02 Twelve months ended June 30, 2020 $ 6.17 $ 12.31 1/29/2020 $ 3.43 12/17/2019 $ 5.73 $ 5.73 Twelve months ended June 30, 2021 $ 19.17 $ 148.63 5/6/2021 $ 4.86 11/3/2020 $ 55.60 $ 55.60 Twelve months ended June 30, 2022 $ 40.24 $ 74.71 8/15/2021 $ 12.80 6/18/2022 $ 14.43 $ 14.43 Twelve months ended June 30, 2023 $ 22.76 $ 44.09 8/11/2022 $ 13.95 7/13/2022 $ 19.77 $ 19.77 July 1, 2018 to June 30, 2023 $ 19.31 $ 148.63 5/6/2021 $ 3.43 12/17/2019 $ 19.77 $ 19.77

The following table illustrates the movements in the Digital Asset Market price of ETC, as reported on the Trusts principal market, from July 1, 2018 to June 30, 2023. During such period, the price of ETC has ranged from $3.43 to $148.51, with the straight average being $19.34 through June 30, 2023.

High Low Period Average Digital Asset Market Price Date Digital Asset Market Price Date End of period Last business day Twelve months ended June 30, 2019 $ 8.25 $ 18.52 7/9/2018 $ 3.56 12/15/2018 $ 7.95 $ 8.01 Twelve months ended June 30, 2020 $ 6.18 $ 12.33 2/5/2020 $ 3.43 12/17/2019 $ 5.73 $ 5.73 Twelve months ended June 30, 2021 $ 19.29 $ 148.51 5/6/2021 $ 4.86 11/3/2020 $ 55.63 $ 55.63 Twelve months ended June 30, 2022 $ 40.25 $ 74.78 8/15/2021 $ 12.77 6/18/2022 $ 14.50 $ 14.50 Twelve months ended June 30, 2023 $ 22.76 $ 44.05 8/11/2022 $ 13.96 7/13/2022 $ 19.71 $ 19.71 July 1, 2018 to June 30, 2023 $ 19.34 $ 148.51 5/6/2021 $ 3.43 12/17/2019 $ 19.71 $ 19.71

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The following chart sets out the historical closing prices for the Shares as reported by OTCQX and the Trusts Digital Asset Holdings per Share from May 10, 2018 to June 30, 2023.

ETCG Premium/(Discount): ETCG Share Price vs. Digital Asset Holdings per Share ($)

The following chart sets out the historical premium and discount for the Shares as reported by OTCQX and the Trusts Digital Asset Holdings per Share from May 10, 2018 to June 30, 2023.

ETCG Premium/(Discount): ETCG Share Price vs. Digital Asset Holdings per Share (%)

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Item 3. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk

The Trust Agreement does not authorize the Trustee to borrow for payment of the Trusts ordinary expenses. The Trust does not engage in transactions in foreign currencies which could expose the Trust or holders of Shares to any foreign currency related market risk. The Trust does not invest in derivative financial instruments and has no foreign operations or long-term debt instruments.

Item 4. Controls and Procedures

The Trust maintains disclosure controls and procedures that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed in its Exchange Act reports is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the SECs rules and forms, and that such information is accumulated and communicated to the Principal Executive Officer and Principal Financial and Accounting Officer of the Sponsor, and to the audit committee of the board of directors of the Sponsor, as appropriate, to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure.

Under the supervision and with the participation of the Principal Executive Officer and the Principal Financial and Accounting Officer of the Sponsor, the Sponsor conducted an evaluation of the Trusts disclosure controls and procedures, as defined under Exchange Act Rule 13a-15(e). Based on this evaluation, the Principal Executive Officer and the Principal Financial and Accounting Officer of the Sponsor concluded that the Trusts disclosure controls and procedures were effective as of the end of the period covered by this report.

Changes in Internal Control Over Financial Reporting

There was no change in the Trusts internal controls over financial reporting that occurred during the Trusts most recently completed fiscal quarter that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, these internal controls.

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PART II  OTHER INFORMATION:

Item 1. Legal Proceedings

The Sponsor and an affiliate of the Trust, Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (BTC) (Grayscale Bitcoin Trust), are currently parties to certain legal proceedings. Although the Trust is not a party to these proceedings, the Trust may in the future be subject to legal proceedings or disputes.

On November 18, 2022, the Sponsor received a letter on behalf of Fir Tree Master Fund, L.P. and certain of its affiliates (together, Fir Tree) demanding access to certain of the Sponsors and the Grayscale Bitcoin Trusts books and records pursuant to Section 3819 of the Delaware Statutory Trust Act and certain provisions under the Trust Agreement. The Sponsor and Grayscale Bitcoin Trust disputed Fir Trees entitlement to the requested books and records and, therefore, declined to comply with the demand. On December 6, 2022, Fir Tree filed a suit in Delaware Chancery Court (the Fir Tree Action) against the Sponsor and Grayscale Bitcoin Trust alleging that the Sponsor and Grayscale Bitcoin Trust violated Fir Trees information rights and seeking to compel access to the requested books and records.

On January 13, 2023, the Sponsor received a letter on behalf of 210K Capital, LP (210K Capital) demanding access to certain of the Sponsors and Grayscale Bitcoin Trusts books and records pursuant to Section 3819 of the Delaware Statutory Trust Act and certain provisions under the Trust Agreement. The Sponsor and Grayscale Bitcoin Trust disputed 210K Capitals entitlement to the requested books and records and, therefore, declined to comply with the demand. On March 6, 2023, 210K Capital filed a suit in Delaware Chancery Court (the 210K Capital Action and, together with the Fir Tree Action, the Demands) against the Sponsor and Grayscale Bitcoin Trust alleging that the Sponsor and Grayscale Bitcoin Trust violated 210K Capitals information rights and seeking to compel access to the requested books and records.

On July 10, 2023, the Sponsor, Fir Tree, and 210K Capital entered into a Settlement Agreement which resolved the Demands, in which the Sponsor and Grayscale Bitcoin Trust agreed to voluntarily produce certain books and records in response to the Demands without any admission of liability or fault, without conceding the shareholders entitlement to any information, and without the payment of any money.

On January 30, 2023, Osprey Funds, LLC (Osprey) filed a suit in Connecticut Superior Court against the Sponsor alleging that statements the Sponsor made in its advertising and promotion of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust violated the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act, and seeking statutory damages and injunctive relief. On April 17, 2023, the Sponsor filed a motion to dismiss the complaint and, following briefing, a hearing on the motion to dismiss was held on June 26, 2023. The Sponsor and Grayscale Bitcoin Trust believe this lawsuit is without merit and intend to vigorously defend against it.

In October 2021, NYSE Arca filed a proposal with the SEC pursuant to Rule 19b-4 under the Exchange Act for a rule change to list the Shares of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust on NYSE Arca as an exchange traded product, and on June 29, 2022, the SEC issued a final order disapproving NYSE Arcas proposed rule change. On June 29, 2022, the Sponsor filed a petition for review of the SECs final order in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The DC Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in the case on March 7, 2023. As of the date of this Quarterly Report, the Sponsors petition remains pending and the Sponsor expects to receive a decision from the DC Circuit Court of Appeals by fall of 2023.

On March 6, 2023, Alameda Research, Ltd. (Alameda) filed a suit against the Sponsor, DCG, Michael Sonnenshein and Barry Silbert in the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware alleging various breach of contract and fiduciary duty claims, including that the defendants had breached the terms of the trust agreements for the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust and Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETH) for failing to reduce its fees and authorize a redemption program. On April 4, 2023, the Sponsor, DCG, Michael Sonnenshein and Barry Silbert moved to dismiss the Alameda complaint. On May 19, 2023, the Sponsor filed its brief in support of its motion to dismiss. Alameda has indicated in court filings that it intends to amend its initial complaint in response to the pending motions to dismiss. The Sponsor believes this lawsuit is without merit and intends to vigorously defend against it.

As of the date of this report, the Sponsor does not expect the foregoing proceedings, either individually or in the aggregate, to have a material adverse effect on the Trusts business, financial condition or results of operations.

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Item 1A. Risk Factors

There have been no material changes to the Risk Factors last reported under Part I, Item 1A. Risk Factors of the registrants Annual Report on Form 10-K, except as set forth below.

A determination that ETC or any other digital asset is a security may adversely affect the value of ETC and the value of the Shares, and result in potentially extraordinary, nonrecurring expenses to, or termination of, the Trust.

Depending on its characteristics, a digital asset may be considered a security under the federal securities laws. The test for determining whether a particular digital asset is a security is complex and difficult to apply, and the outcome is difficult to predict. Public, though non-binding, statements by senior officials at the SEC have indicated that the SEC did not consider Bitcoin or Ethereum to be securities, and does not currently consider Bitcoin to be a security. The SEC staff has also provided informal assurances to a handful of promoters that their digital assets are not securities. On the other hand, the SEC has brought enforcement actions against the issuers and promoters of several other digital assets on the basis that the digital assets in question are securities. More recently, the SEC has also brought enforcement actions against digital asset exchanges for operating unregistered securities exchanges on the basis that certain of the digital assets traded on their platforms are securities. For example, in June 2023, the SEC brought charges against Binance and Coinbase for alleged violations of a variety of securities laws. In its complaints, the SEC asserted that SOL, ADA, MATIC, FIL, ATOM, SAND, MANA, ALGO, AXS, COTI, CHZ, FLOW, ICP, NEAR, VGX, DASH and NEXO, are securities under the federal securities laws.

Whether a digital asset is a security under the federal securities laws depends on whether it is included in the lists of instruments making up the definition of security in the Securities Act, the Exchange Act and the Investment Company Act. Digital assets as such do not appear in any of these lists, although each list includes the terms investment contract and note, and the SEC has typically analyzed whether a particular digital asset is a security by reference to whether it meets the tests developed by the federal courts interpreting these terms, known as the Howey and Reves tests, respectively. For many digital assets, whether or not the Howey or Reves tests are met is difficult to resolve definitively, and substantial legal arguments can often be made both in favor of and against a particular digital asset qualifying as a security under one or both of the Howey and Reves tests. Adding to the complexity, the SEC staff has indicated that the security status of a particular digital asset can change over time as the relevant facts evolve.

As part of determining whether ETC is a security for purposes of the federal securities laws, the Sponsor takes into account a number of factors, including the various definitions of security under the federal securities laws and federal court decisions interpreting elements of these definitions, such as the U.S. Supreme Courts decisions in the Howey and Reves cases, as well as reports, orders, press releases, public statements and speeches by the SEC and its staff providing guidance on when a digital asset may be a security for purposes of the federal securities laws. Finally, the Sponsor discusses the security status of ETC with external counsel and has received a memorandum regarding the status of ETC under the federal securities laws from external counsel. Through this process the Sponsor believes that it is applying the proper legal standards in determining that ETC is not a security in light of the uncertainties inherent in the Howey and Reves tests. In light of these uncertainties and the fact-based nature of the analysis, the Sponsor acknowledges that ETC may currently be a security, based on the facts as they exist today, or may in the future be found by the SEC or a federal court to be a security under the federal securities laws notwithstanding the Sponsors prior conclusion; and the Sponsors prior conclusion, even if reasonable under the circumstances, would not preclude legal or regulatory action based on the presence of a security.

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As is the case with ETC, analyses from counsel typically review the often-complex facts surrounding a particular digital assets underlying technology, creation, use case and usage, distribution and secondary-market trading characteristics as well as contributions of the individuals or organizations who appear to be involved in these activities, among other relevant facts, usually drawing on publicly available information. This information, usually found on the Internet, often includes both information that originated with or is attributed to such individuals or organizations, as well as information from third party sources and databases that may or may not have a connection to such individuals or organizations, and the availability and nature of such information can change over time. The Sponsor and counsel often have no independent means of verifying the accuracy or completeness of such information, and therefore of necessity usually must assume that such information is materially accurate and complete for purposes of the Howey and Reves analyses. After having gathered this information, counsel typically analyzes it in light of the Howey and Reves tests, in order to inform a judgment as to whether or not a federal court would conclude that the digital asset in question is or is not a security for purposes of the federal securities laws. Often, certain factors appear to support a conclusion that the digital asset in question is a security, while other factors appear to support the opposite conclusion, and in such a case counsel endeavors to weigh the importance and relevance of the competing factors. This analytical process is further complicated by the fact that, at present, federal judicial case law applying the relevant tests to digital assets is scant, with no federal appellate court having considered the question on the merits, as well as the fact that because each digital asset presents its own unique set of relevant facts, it is not always possible to directly analogize the analysis of one digital asset to another. Because of this factual complexity and the current lack of a well-developed body of federal case law applying the relevant tests to a variety of different fact patterns, the Sponsor has not in the past received, and currently does not expect that it would be able to receive, opinions of counsel stating that a particular digital asset is or is not a security for federal securities law purposes. The Sponsor understands that as a matter of practice, counsel is generally able to render a legal opinion only when the relevant facts are substantially ascertainable and the applicable law is both well-developed and settled. As a result, given the relative novelty of digital assets, the challenges inherent in fact-gathering for particular digital assets, and the fact that federal courts have only recently been tasked with adjudicating the applicability of federal securities law to digital assets, the Sponsor understands that at present counsel is generally not in a position to render a legal opinion on the securities-law status of ETC or any other particular digital asset.

As such, notwithstanding the Sponsors receipt of a memorandum regarding the status of ETC under the federal securities laws from external counsel and the Sponsors view that ETC is not a security, the SEC or a federal court may in the future take a different view as to the security status of ETC.

If the Sponsor determines that ETC is a security under the federal securities laws, whether that determination is initially made by the Sponsor itself, or because a federal court upholds an allegation that ETC is a security, the Sponsor does not intend to permit the Trust to continue holding ETC in a way that would violate the federal securities laws (and therefore would either dissolve the Trust or potentially seek to operate the Trust in a manner that complies with the federal securities laws, including the Investment Company Act). Because the legal tests for determining whether a digital asset is or is not a security often leave room for interpretation, for so long as the Sponsor believes there to be good faith grounds to conclude that the Trusts ETC is not a security, the Sponsor does not intend to dissolve the Trust on the basis that ETC could at some future point be finally determined to be a security.

Any enforcement action by the SEC or a state securities regulator asserting that ETC is a security, or a court decision to that effect, would be expected to have an immediate material adverse impact on the trading value of ETC, as well as the Shares. This is because the business models behind most digital assets are incompatible with regulations applying to transactions in securities. If a digital asset is determined to be a security, it is likely to become difficult or impossible for the digital asset to be traded, cleared or custodied in the United States through the same channels used by non-security digital assets, which in addition to materially and adversely affecting the trading value of the digital asset is likely to significantly impact its liquidity and market participants ability to convert the digital asset into U.S. dollars. Any assertion that a digital asset is a security by the SEC or another regulatory authority may have similar effects.

For example, in 2020 the SEC filed a complaint against the issuer of XRP, Ripple Labs, Inc., and two of its executives, alleging that they raised more than $1.3 billion through XRP sales that should have been registered under the federal securities laws, but were not. In the years prior to the SECs action, XRPs market capitalization at times reached over $140 billion. However, in the weeks following the SECs complaint, XRPs market capitalization fell to less than $10 billion, which was less than half of its market capitalization in the days prior to the complaint. Likewise, in the days following the announcement of the SECs complaints against Binance and Coinbase, the price of various digital assets, including BTC, ETH, and ETC, declined significantly and may continue to decline as these cases advance through the federal court system. Subsequently, in July 2023, the District Court for the Southern District of New York held that while XRP is not a security, certain sales of XRP to certain buyers amounted to investment contracts under the Howey test. The SECs actions against Binance, Coinbase and XRPs issuer, as well as the judgments of federal courts, underscore the continuing uncertainty around which digital assets are securities, and demonstrate that such factors as how long a digital asset has been in existence, how widely held it is, how large its market capitalization is and that it has actual usefulness in commercial transactions, ultimately may have no bearing on whether the SEC or a court will find it to be a security.

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In addition, if ETC is in fact a security, the Trust could be considered an unregistered investment company under SEC rules, which could necessitate the Trusts liquidation. In this case, the Trust and the Sponsor may be deemed to have participated in an illegal offering of securities and there is no guarantee that the Sponsor will be able to register the Trust under the Investment Company Act at such time or take such other actions as may be necessary to ensure the Trusts activities comply with applicable law, which could force the Sponsor to liquidate the Trust.

Moreover, whether or not the Sponsor or the Trust were subject to additional regulatory requirements as a result of any determination that its assets include securities, the Sponsor may nevertheless decide to terminate the Trust, in order, if possible, to liquidate the Trusts assets while a liquid market still exists. For example, in response to the SECs action against the issuer of XRP, certain significant market participants announced they would no longer support XRP and announced measures, including the delisting of XRP from major digital asset trading platforms, resulting in the Sponsors conclusion that it was likely to be increasingly difficult for U.S. investors, including Grayscale XRP Trust (XRP), an affiliate of the Trust, to convert XRP into U.S. dollars. The Sponsor subsequently dissolved Grayscale XRP Trust (XRP) and liquidated its assets. If the SEC or a federal court were to determine that ETC is a security, it is likely that the value of the Shares of the Trust would decline significantly. Furthermore, if a federal court upholds an allegation that ETC is a security, the Trust itself may be terminated and, if practical, its assets liquidated.

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Item 2. Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities and Use of Proceeds

Purchases of equity securities by the issuer and affiliated purchasers The table below sets forth information regarding open market purchases of Shares of Grayscale Ethereum Classic Trust (ETC) (OTCQX: ETCG) by DCG, the parent company of the Sponsor, on a monthly basis during the three months ended June 30, 2023:

Period (a) Total Number of Shares of ETCG Purchased (b) Average Price Paid per Share of ETCG (c) Total Number of Shares Purchased as Part of Publicly Announced Plans or Programs(1) (d) Approximate Dollar Value of Shares that May Yet Be Purchased Under the Plans or Programs (in millions) April 1, 2023 - April 30, 2023 - $ - - $ 204.7 May 1, 2023 - May 31, 2023 - - - 204.7 June 1, 2023 - June 30, 2023 - - - 204.7 Total - $ - - $ 204.7

(1) On June 21, 2021, the Board approved the purchase by DCG, the parent company of the Sponsor, of up to $50 million worth of Shares of the Trust. Subsequently, DCG authorized such purchase. On March 2, 2022, the Board approved the purchase by DCG of up to an aggregate total of $200 million worth of Shares of the Trust and shares of any of the following five investment products the Sponsor also acts as the sponsor and manager of, including Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (BTC) (OTCQX: GBTC), Grayscale Bitcoin Cash Trust (BCH) (OTCQX: BCHG), Grayscale Digital Large Cap Fund LLC (OTCQX: GDLC), Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETH) (OTCQX: ETHE), and Grayscale Stellar Lumens Trust (XLM) (OTCQX: GXLM). This increased DCGs prior authorization to purchase up to $50 million worth of Shares by up to a maximum of $200 million. The Share purchase authorization does not obligate DCG to acquire any specific number of Shares in any period, and may be expanded, extended, modified, or discontinued at any time. From June 21, 2021 through December 31, 2021, DCG purchased $45.3 million worth of Shares of the Trust. From January 1, 2022 through August 1, 2023, DCG had not purchased any Shares of the Trust under this authorization.

Item 3. Defaults Upon Senior Securities

None.

Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures

Not applicable.

Item 5. Other Information

None.

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Item 6. Exhibits

* Pursuant to Rule 406T of Regulation S-T, these interactive data files are deemed not filed or part of a registration statement or prospectus for purposes of Sections 11 or 12 of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, are deemed not filed for the purposes of Section 18 of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and otherwise are not subject to liability under those sections.  Portions of this exhibit (indicated by asterisks) have been omitted as the Registrant has determined that (i) the omitted information is not material and (ii) the omitted information would likely cause competitive harm to the Registrant if publicly disclosed.

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Glossary of Defined Terms

Actual Exchange RateWith respect to any particular asset, at any time, the price per single unit of such asset (determined net of any associated fees) at which the Trust is able to sell such asset for U.S. dollars (or other applicable fiat currency) at such time to enable the Trust to timely pay any Additional Trust Expenses, through use of the Sponsors commercially reasonable efforts to obtain the highest such price.

Additional Trust ExpensesTogether, any expenses incurred by the Trust in addition to the Sponsors Fee that are not Sponsor-paid Expenses, including, but not limited to, (i) taxes and governmental charges, (ii) expenses and costs of any extraordinary services performed by the Sponsor (or any other service provider) on behalf of the Trust to protect the Trust or the interests of shareholders (including in connection with any Incidental Rights and any IR Virtual Currency), (iii) any indemnification of the Custodian or other agents, service providers or counterparties of the Trust, (iv) the fees and expenses related to the listing, quotation or trading of the Shares on any Secondary Market (including legal, marketing and audit fees and expenses) to the extent exceeding $600,000 in any given fiscal year and (v) extraordinary legal fees and expenses, including any legal fees and expenses incurred in connection with litigation, regulatory enforcement or investigation matters.

Administrator FeeThe fee payable to any administrator of the Trust for services it provides to the Trust, which the Sponsor will pay such administrator as a Sponsor-paid Expense.

AgentA Person appointed by the Trust to act on behalf of the shareholders in connection with any distribution of Incidental Rights and/or IR Virtual Currency.

Authorized ParticipantCertain eligible financial institutions that have entered into an agreement with the Trust and the Sponsor concerning the creation of Shares. Each Authorized Participant (i) is a registered broker-dealer, (ii) has entered into a Participant Agreement with the Sponsor and (iii) owns a digital wallet address that is known to the Custodian as belonging to the Authorized Participant or such Authorized Participants Liquidity Provider.

BasketA block of 100 Shares.

Basket AmountOn any trade date, the number of ETC required as of such trade date for each Creation Basket, as determined by dividing (x) the number of ETC owned by the Trust at 4:00 p.m., New York time, on such trade date, after deducting the number of ETC representing the U.S. dollar value of accrued but unpaid fees and expenses of the Trust (converted using the Index Price at such time, carried to the eighth decimal place), by (y) the number of Shares outstanding at such time (with the quotient so obtained calculated to one one-hundred-millionth of one ETC (i.e., carried to the eighth decimal place)), and multiplying such quotient by 100.

Blockchain or Ethereum Classic BlockchainThe public transaction ledger of the Ethereum Classic Network on which transactions in Ethereum Classic are recorded.

Creation BasketBasket of Shares issued by the Trust in exchange for deposits of the Basket Amount required for each such Creation Basket.

Custodial ServicesThe Custodians services that (i) allow ETC to be deposited from a public blockchain address to the Trusts Digital Asset Account and (ii) allow the Trust and the Sponsor to withdraw ETC from the Trusts Digital Asset Account to a public blockchain address the Trust or the Sponsor controls pursuant to instructions the Trust or the Sponsor provides to the Custodian.

CustodianCoinbase Custody Trust Company, LLC.

Custodian AgreementThe Amended and Restated Custodial Services Agreement, dated as of June 29, 2022, by and between the Trust and the Sponsor and Custodian that governs the Trusts and the Sponsors use of the Custodial Services provided by the Custodian as a fiduciary with respect to the Trusts assets.

Custodian FeeFee payable to the Custodian for services it provides to the Trust, which the Sponsor shall pay to the Custodian as a Sponsor-paid Expense.

DCGDigital Currency Group, Inc.

Digital Asset AccountA segregated custody account controlled and secured by the Custodian to store private keys, which allow for the transfer of ownership or control of the Trusts ETC on the Trusts behalf.

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Digital Asset ExchangeAn electronic marketplace where exchange participants may trade, buy and sell ETC based on bid-ask trading. The largest Digital Asset Exchanges are online and typically trade on a 24-hour basis, publishing transaction price and volume data.

Digital Asset Exchange MarketThe global exchange market for the trading of ETC, which consists of transactions on electronic Digital Asset Exchanges.

Digital Asset HoldingsThe aggregate value, expressed in U.S. dollars, of the Trusts assets (other than U.S. dollars or other fiat currency), less its liabilities (which include estimated accrued but unpaid fees and expenses) calculated in the manner set forth under Item 1. BusinessValuation of ETC and Determination of Digital Asset Holdings in our Annual Report. See also Item 1. BusinessInvestment Objective in our Annual Report for a description of the Trusts NAV, as calculated in accordance with GAAP.

Digital Asset Holdings Fee Basis AmountThe amount on which the Sponsors Fee for the Trust is based, as calculated in the manner set forth under Item 1. BusinessValuation of ETC and Determination of Digital Asset Holdings in our Annual Report.

Digital Asset MarketA Brokered Market, Dealer Market, Principal-to-Principal Market or Exchange Market, as each such term is defined in the Financial Accounting Standards Board Accounting Standards Codification Master Glossary.

DSTAThe Delaware Statutory Trust Act, as amended.

DTCThe Depository Trust Company. DTC is a limited purpose trust company organized under New York law, a member of the U.S. Federal Reserve System and a clearing agency registered with the SEC. DTC will act as the securities depository for the Shares.

ETC or Ethereum ClassicEther Classic tokens, which are a type of digital asset based on an open-source cryptographic protocol existing on the Ethereum Classic Network, comprising units that constitute the assets underlying the Trusts Shares.

Ethereum Classic NetworkThe online, end-user-to-end-user network hosting the public transaction ledger, known as the Ethereum Classic Blockchain, and the source code comprising the basis for the cryptographic and algorithmic protocols governing the Ethereum Classic Network. See Item 1. BusinessOverview of the ETC Industry and Market in our Annual Report.

Exchange ActThe Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended.

FINRAThe Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc., which is the primary regulator in the United States for broker-dealers, including Authorized Participants.

GAAPUnited States generally accepted accounting principles.

GenesisGenesis Global Trading, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, Inc., which as of the date of this Quarterly Report, is the only Liquidity Provider of the Authorized Participant.

Grayscale SecuritiesGrayscale Securities, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Sponsor, which as of the date of this Quarterly Report, is the only acting Authorized Participant.

Incidental RightsRights to acquire, or otherwise establish dominion and control over, any virtual currency or other asset or right, which rights are incident to the Trusts ownership of ETC and arise without any action of the Trust, or of the Sponsor or Trustee on behalf of the Trust.

IndexThe CoinDesk Ether Classic Price Index (ECX).

Index License AgreementThe license agreement, dated as of February 1, 2022, between the Index Provider and the Sponsor governing the Sponsors use of the Index for calculation of the Index Price, as amended by Amendment No. 1 thereto and as the same may be amended from time to time.

Index PriceThe U.S. dollar value of an ETC derived from the Digital Asset Exchanges that are reflected in the Index, calculated at 4:00 p.m., New York time, on each business day. See Item 1. BusinessOverview of the ETC Industry and MarketETC ValueThe Index and the Index Price in our Annual Report for a description of how the Index Price is calculated. For purposes of the Trust Agreement, the term ETC Index Price shall mean the Index Price as defined herein.

29

Index ProviderCoinDesk Indices, Inc., a Delaware corporation that publishes the Index. DCG is the indirect parent company of CoinDesk Indices, Inc. As a result, CoinDesk Indices, Inc. is an affiliate of the Sponsor and the Trust and is considered a related party of the Trust.

Investment Advisers ActInvestment Advisers Act of 1940, as amended.

Investment Company ActInvestment Company Act of 1940, as amended.

InvestorAny investor that has entered into a subscription agreement with an Authorized Participant, pursuant to which such Authorized Participant will act as agent for the investor.

IR Virtual CurrencyAny virtual currency tokens, or other asset or right, acquired by the Trust through the exercise (subject to the applicable provisions of the Trust Agreement) of any Incidental Right.

Liquidity ProviderA service provider engaged by an Authorized Participant to source ETC on behalf of the Authorized Participant.

Marketing FeeFee payable to the marketer for services it provides to the Trust, which the Sponsor will pay to the marketer as a Sponsor-paid Expense.

NAVThe net asset value of the Trust determined on a GAAP basis.

OTCQXThe OTCQX tier of OTC Markets Group Inc.

Participant AgreementAn agreement en
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UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-Q

 QUARTERLY REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d)

OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the quarterly period ended

or

 TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d)

OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the transition period from _______________to _______________

Commission File Number 333-200624

TRENDMAKER, INC. LIMITED

(Exact name of registrant issuer as specified in its charter)

Nevada 80-0979537 (State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization) (I.R.S. Employer Identification No.)

Lot 56935 Jalan 9/8 , Seksyen 9 , Bandar Baru Bangi , Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia 43650 (Address of principal executive offices) (Zip Code)

Registrants phone number, including area code

+603 8923 1880

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Securities Exchange Act:

Title of each class Trading Symbol(s) Name of each exchange on which registered: Common Stock TMIN The OTC Market  Pink Sheets

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.

YES  NO 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically and posted on its corporate Web site, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (section 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding twelve months (or shorter period that the registrant was required to submit and post such files).

YES  NO 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, or a smaller reporting company. See the definitions of large accelerated filer, accelerated filer and smaller reporting company in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act. (Check one):

Large Accelerated Filer  Accelerated Filer  Non-accelerated Filer  Smaller reporting company  Emerging growth company 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act).

Yes  No 

Indicate the number of shares outstanding of each of the issuers classes of common stock, as of the latest practicable date.

Class Outstanding at August 4, 2023 Common Stock, $0.0001 par value 13,537,000

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART I  FINANCIAL INFORMATION

ITEM 1. UNAUDITED CONDENSED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

TRENDMAKER, INC. LIMITED

CONDENSED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

CERTAIN TERMS USED IN THIS REPORT

When this report uses the words we, us, our, and the Company, they refer to Trendmaker, Inc. Limited. SEC refers to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

F-1

TRENDMAKER, INC. LIMITED

CONDENSED BALANCE SHEETS

As of June 30, 2023 (Unaudited) and December 31, 2022 (Audited)

(Currency expressed in United States Dollars (US$), except for number of shares)

June 30, 2023 December 31, 2022 (Unaudited) (Audited) $ $ ASSET CURRENT ASSET Due from related party 165,226 185,013 Total Current Asset 165,226 185,013 TOTAL ASSET 165,226 185,013 LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS EQUITY CURRENT LIABILITIES Accrued liabilities 5,298 10,298 Due to related party 214,842 214,842 Total Current Liabilities 220,140 225,140 TOTAL LIABILITIES 220,140 225,140 STOCKHOLDERS EQUITY Preferred stock, $ 0.0001 par value; 10,000,000 shares authorized, none issued and outstanding - - Common stock, $ 0.0001 par value; 100,000,000 shares authorized, 13,537,000 and 13,537,000 issued and outstanding as of June 30, 2023 and December 31, 2022 1,354 1,354 Additional paid in capital 825,166 825,166 Accumulated deficits ( 881,434 ) ( 866,647 ) TOTAL STOCKHOLDERS EQUITY ( 54,914 ) ( 40,127 ) TOTAL LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS EQUITY 165,226 185,013

See accompanying notes to condensed financial statements.

F-2

TRENDMAKER, INC. LIMITED

CONDENSED STATEMENT OF OPERATION AND COMPREHENSIVE INCOME

For the three and six months ended June 30, 2023 and 2022

(Currency expressed in United States Dollars (US$), except for number of shares)

(Unaudited)

2023 2022 2023 2022 Three months ended June 30 Six months ended June 30 2023 2022 2023 2022 $ $ $ $ REVENUE - - - - OTHER SERVICE FEES - - - - COST OF REVENUE - - - - GROSS PROFIT - - - - PROFESSIONAL FEES - - - - GENERAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSES ( 6,150 ) ( 6,586 ) ( 14,787 ) ( 15,919 ) LOSS BEFORE INCOME TAX ( 6,150 ) ( 6,586 ) ( 14,787 ) ( 15,919 ) INCOME TAX PROVISION - - - - NET LOSS ( 6,150 ) ( 6,586 ) ( 14,787 ) ( 15,919 ) Net loss per share, basic and diluted: ( 0.0005 ) ( 0.0005 ) ( 0.001 ) ( 0.001 ) Weighted average number of shares outstanding  Basic and diluted 13,537,000 13,537,000 13,537,000 13,537,000

See accompanying notes to condensed financial statements.

F-3

TRENDMAKER, INC. LIMITED

CONDENSED STATEMENT OF CHANGES IN STOCKHOLDERS EQUITY

For the six months ended June 30, 2023 and 2022

(Currency expressed in United States Dollars (US$))

(Unaudited)

Six months ended June 30, 2023

Number of Shares Amount PAID-IN CAPITAL ACCUMULATED

DEFICIT TOTAL EQUITY COMMON STOCK ADDITIONAL Number of Shares Amount PAID-IN CAPITAL ACCUMULATED

DEFICITS TOTAL EQUITY Balance as of December 31, 2022 (Audited) 13,537,000 $ 1,354 $ 825,166 $ ( 866,647 ) $ ( 40,127 ) Net loss for the period - - - ( 8,637 ) ( 8,637 ) Balance as of March 31, 2023 (Unaudited) 13,537,000 1,354 825,166 ( 875,284 ) ( 48,764 ) Net loss for the period - - - ( 6,150 ) ( 6,150 ) Balance as of June 30, 2023 (Unaudited) 13,537,000 1,354 825,166 ( 881,434 ) ( 54,914 )

Six months ended June 30, 2022

COMMON STOCK ADDITIONAL Number of

Shares Amount PAID-IN CAPITAL ACCUMULATED

DEFICITS TOTAL EQUITY Balance as of December 31, 2021 (Audited) 13,537,000 $ 1,354 $ 825,166 $ ( 826,657 ) $ ( 137 ) Net loss for the period - - - ( 9,333 ) ( 9,333 ) Balance as of March 31, 2022 (Unaudited) 13,537,000 1,354 825,166 ( 835,990 ) ( 9,470 ) Balance, value 13,537,000 1,354 825,166 ( 835,990 ) ( 9,470 ) Net loss for the period - - - ( 6,586 ) ( 6,586 ) Balance as of June 30, 2022 (Unaudited) 13,537,000 1,354 825,166 ( 842,576 ) ( 16,056 ) Balance, value 13,537,000 1,354 825,166 ( 842,576 ) ( 16,056 )

See accompanying notes to condensed financial statements.

F-4

TRENDMAKER, INC. LIMITED

CONDENSED STATEMENT OF CASH FLOWS

For the six months ended June 30, 2023 and 2022

(Currency expressed in United States Dollars (US$), except for number of shares)

(Unaudited)

2023 2022 Six months ended June 30 2023 2022 $ $ CASH FLOWS FROM OPERATING ACTIVITIES: Net loss ( 14,787 ) ( 15,919 ) Changes in operating assets and liabilities: Due from related party 19,787 19,809 Accrued liabilities ( 5,000 ) ( 3,890 ) Net cash generated from operating activities - - Net increase/ (decrease) in cash and cash equivalents - - Cash and cash equivalents, beginning of period - - CASH AND CASH EQUIVALENTS, END OF PERIOD - -

See accompanying notes to condensed financial statements.

F-5

TRENDMAKER, INC. LIMITED

NOTES TO CONDENSED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

For the six months ended June 30, 2023

(Currency expressed in United States Dollars (US$), except for number of shares)

(Unaudited)

1. SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES Basis of preparation The reporting currency of the Company is United States Dollars (US$) and the accompanying financial statements have been expressed in US$. The accompanying condensed unaudited financial statements have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America and the rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission for interim financial information. Accordingly, they do not include all the information necessary for a comprehensive presentation of financial position and results of operations. It is managements opinion however, that all material adjustments (consisting of normal recurring adjustments) have been made, which are necessary for a fair financial statements presentation. The results for the interim period are not necessarily indicative of the results to be expected for the year. Nuts and Bolts International, Inc. (the Company) was incorporated under the laws of the State of Nevada on to create and publish electronic non-fiction multimedia books for the hobby and do-it-yourself consumer markets (eBooks) through the internet. Its eBook publishing operations were conducted through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Nuts and Bolts Publishing, LLC, which was organized under the laws of the State of North Carolina on August 22, 2013. Effective as of February 29, 2016, the Company had a change of control as a result of the sale of its previous controlling shareholder of 5,000,000 shares of its common stock, representing approximately 76.5 % of the Companys issued and outstanding common stock. Following the change of control, the Company has discontinued the eBook publishing operations previously carried on through the previous companys subsidiary. Also, following the change of control, the Company is now engaged in the business of providing management and consulting services to Trendmaker Private Limited. Effective as of April 14, 2016, the Company amended its Articles of Incorporation to change its name to Trendmaker, Inc., Limited. Use of estimates In preparing financial statements in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles, management is required to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and revenues and expenses during the reported period. Significant estimates include valuation of in kind contribution of services, valuation of deferred tax assets. Actual results could differ from those estimates. Revenue recognition The Company follows the guidance of Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) 606, Revenue from Contracts. ASC 606 creates a five-step model that requires entities to exercise judgment when considering the terms of contracts, which includes (1) identifying the contracts or agreements with a customer, (2) identifying our performance obligations in the contract or agreement, (3) determining the transaction price, (4) allocating the transaction price to the separate performance obligations, and (5) recognizing revenue as each performance obligation is satisfied. The Company only applies the five-step model to contracts when it is probable that the Company will collect the consideration it is entitled to in exchange for the services it transfers to its clients. F-6 TRENDMAKER, INC. LIMITED NOTES TO CONDENSED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS For the six months ended June 30, 2023 (Currency expressed in United States Dollars (US$), except for number of shares) (Unaudited) Cash and cash equivalents The Company considers all highly liquid temporary cash investments with an original maturity of three months or less to be cash equivalents. At June 30, 2023, the Company had no cash and cash equivalents. Income taxes The Company accounts for income taxes under FASB Codification Topic 740-10-25 (ASC 740-10-25). Under ASC 740-10-25, deferred tax assets and liabilities are recognized for the future tax consequences attributable to differences between the financial statement carrying amounts of existing assets and liabilities and their respective tax bases. Deferred tax assets and liabilities are measured using enacted tax rates expected to apply to taxable income in the years in which those temporary differences are expected to be recovered or settled. Under ASC 740-10-25, the effect on deferred tax assets and liabilities of a change in tax rates is recognized in income in the period that includes the enactment date. Related party Parties, which can be a corporation or individual, are considered to be related if the Company has the ability, directly or indirectly, to control the other party or exercise significant influence over the other party in making financial and operating decisions. Companies are also considered to be related if they are subject to common control or common significant influence. F-7 TRENDMAKER, INC. LIMITED NOTES TO CONDENSED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS For the six months ended June 30, 2023 (Currency expressed in United States Dollars (US$), except for number of shares) (Unaudited) Fair value of financial instruments The carrying value of the Companys financial instruments: cash and cash equivalents, and accounts payable and approximate their fair values because of the short-term nature of these financial instruments. The Company also follows the guidance of the ASC Topic 820-10, Fair Value Measurements and Disclosures (ASC 820-10), with respect to financial assets and liabilities that are measured at fair value. ASC 820-10 establishes a three-tier fair value hierarchy that prioritizes the inputs used in measuring fair value as follows: Level 1: Observable inputs such as quoted prices in active markets; Level 2: Inputs, other than the quoted prices in active markets, that are observable either directly or indirectly; and Level 3: Unobservable inputs in which there is little or no market data, which require the reporting entity to develop its own assumptions. Recent accounting pronouncements The Company has reviewed all recently issued, but not yet effective, accounting pronouncements and do not believe the future adoption of such any pronouncements may be expected to cause a material impact on its financial condition or the results of its operations. F-8 TRENDMAKER, INC. LIMITED NOTES TO CONDENSED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS For the six months ended June 30, 2023 (Currency expressed in United States Dollars (US$), except for number of shares) (Unaudited)

2. SHAREHOLDERS EQUITY (A) Preferred Stock The Company was incorporated on August 21, 2013. The Company is authorized to issue 10,000,000 shares of preferred stock with a par value of $ 0.0001 per share. Preferred stock may be issued in one or more series with rights and preferences are to be determined by the board of directors. As of June 30, 2023, no shares of preferred stock have been issued. (B) Common Stock The Company is authorized to issue 100,000,000 shares of common stock with a par value of $ 0.0001 per share. As of June 30, 2023, the Company has 13,537,000 shares of common stock outstanding.

3. COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES As of June 30, 2023, the Company has no commitment or contingency involved.

4. ACCRUED LIABILITIES Accrued liabilities consisted of the followings at June 30, 2023 and December 31, 2022. SCHEDULE OF ACCRUED LIABILITIES June 30, 2023 December 31, 2022 (Unaudited) (Audited) $ $ Accrued expenses 5,298 10,298 Total accrued liabilities 5,298 10,298 F-9 TRENDMAKER, INC. LIMITED NOTES TO CONDENSED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS For the six months ended June 30, 2023 (Currency expressed in United States Dollars (US$), except for number of shares) (Unaudited)

5. RELATED PARTY BALANCES SCHEDULE OF RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS June 30, 2023 December 31, 2022 (Unaudited) (Audited) $ $ Due from related party: Related Party A 165,226 185,013 Due to related party: Related Party B 214,842 214,842 As of June 30, 2023, the balance $ 165,226 represented an outstanding amount due from Related Party A and $ 214,842 represented an outstanding amount due to Related Party B. Related Party A and Related Party B respectively are having common director with the Company. The amount due are unsecured, interest-free with no fixed repayment term.

6. GOING CONCERN As of June 30, 2023, the Company has an accumulated deficit of $ 881,434 , stockholders liabilities of $ 54,914 and a net loss of $ 14,787 for the six months ended June 30, 2023. This raises substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern. The ability of the Company to continue as a going concern is dependent on the Companys ability to raise additional capital and implement its business plan. The financial statements do not include any adjustments that might be necessary if the Company is unable to continue as a going concern. Management is taking various steps to provide the Company with the opportunity to continue as a going concern.

7. SUBSEQUENT EVENTS The Company has evaluated subsequent events from the balance sheet date through June 30, 2023 the date the Company issued unaudited consolidated financial statements in accordance with ASC Topic 855, Subsequent Events, which establishes general standards of accounting for and disclosure of events that occur after the balance sheet date but before financial statements are issued. During this period, there was no subsequent event that required recognition or disclosure.

F-10

ITEM 2. MANAGEMENTS DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

Going Concern

As of June 30, 2023, the Company has an accumulated deficit of $881,434, stockholders liabilities of $54,914 and a net loss of $14,787 for the six months ended June 30, 2023. This raises substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern. The ability of the Company to continue as a going concern is dependent on the Companys ability to raise additional capital and implement its business plan. The financial statements do not include any adjustments that might be necessary if the Company is unable to continue as a going concern. Management is taking various steps to provide the Company with the opportunity to continue as a going concern.

Results of Operations

For the three months ended June 30, 2023 and 2022

For the three months period ended June 30, 2023 and 2022, the Company has generated no profit but loss of $6,150 and $6,586 respectively.

For the six months ended June 30, 2023 and 2022

For the six months period ended June 30, 2023 and 2022, the Company has generated no profit but loss of $14,787 and $15,919 respectively.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

As of June 30, 2023 and December 31, 2022, the Company has no cash on hand, but has a total asset entirely consisting due from related party of $165,226 and $185,013 of which is the amount due from Phyto Science Sdn. Bhd.

As of June 30, 2023 and December 31, 2022 the Company has total liabilities of $220,140 and $225,140 consisting accrued liabilities and amount due to Trendmaker Pte. Ltd.

The Company has a stockholders liabilities of $54,914 and $40,127 as at June 30, 2023 and December 31, 2022 respectively.

Net cash used in operating activities for the period ended June 30, 2023 and 2022 was $0 and $0 respectively. The cash used in operating activities are mainly for professional fees, legal fees, and general expenses.

Critical Accounting Policies

We have identified the policies outlined below as critical to our business operations and an understanding of our results of operations. The list is not intended to be a comprehensive list of all of our accounting policies. In many cases, the accounting treatment of a particular transaction is specifically dictated by accounting principles generally accepted in the United States, with no need for managements judgment in their application.

The Company accounts for income taxes under FASB ASC Topic 740 income taxes (ASC Topic 740). Under ASC Topic 740, deferred tax assets and liabilities are recognized for the future tax consequences attributable to differences between the financial statement carrying amounts of existing assets and liabilities and their respective tax bases. Deferred tax assets and liabilities are measured using enacted tax rates expected to apply to taxable income in the years in which those temporary differences are expected to be recovered or settled. Under ASC Topic 740, the effect on deferred tax assets and liabilities of a change in tax rates is recognized in income in the period that includes the enactment date.

2

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

The Company has reviewed all recently issued, but not yet effective, accounting pronouncements and do not believe the future adoption of such any pronouncements may be expected to cause a material impact on its financial condition or the results of its operations.

All other newly issued accounting pronouncements but not yet effective have been deemed either immaterial or not applicable.

Off Balance Sheet Transactions

None

ITEM 3. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK

As a smaller reporting company as defined by Item 10 of Regulation S-K, the Company is not required to provide information required by this Item.

ITEM 4. CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES

Disclosure Controls and Procedures

Pursuant to Rule 13a-15(b) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (Exchange Act), the Company carried out an evaluation, with the participation of the Companys management, including the Companys Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chief Financial Officer (CFO), of the effectiveness of the Companys disclosure controls and procedures (as defined under Rule 13a-15(e) under the Exchange Act) as of the end of the period covered by this report. Based upon that evaluation, the Companys CEO and CFO concluded that the Companys disclosure controls and procedures were not effective to ensure that information required to be disclosed by the Company in the reports that the Company files or submits under the Exchange Act, is recorded, processed, summarized and reported, within the time periods specified in the SECs rules and forms, and that such information is accumulated and communicated to the Companys management, including the Companys CEO and CFO, as appropriate, to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure as a result of continuing material weaknesses in its internal control over financial reporting.

During the assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting, our management identified material weaknesses related to the lack of requisite U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) expertise of our Chief Financial Officer and our internal bookkeeper. This lack of expertise to prepare our financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP without the assistance of the outside accounting consultant hired to ensure that our financial statements are prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP constitutes a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting. In order to mitigate the material weakness, we engaged an outside accounting consultant to assist us in the preparation of our financial statements to ensure that these financial statements are prepared in conformity to U.S. GAAP. This outside accounting consultant has significant experience in the preparation of financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP. We believe that the engagement of this consultant will lessen the possibility that a material misstatement of our annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis, and we will continue to monitor the effectiveness of this action and make any changes that our management deems appropriate. We expect to continue to rely on this outside consulting arrangement to supplement our internal accounting staff for the foreseeable future. Until such time as we hire the proper internal accounting staff with the requisite U.S. GAAP experience, however, it is unlikely we will be able to remediate the material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting.

Changes in Internal Controls over Financial Reporting

There were no changes that occurred to our internal control over financial reporting during our most recently completed fiscal quarter that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.

3

PART II  OTHER INFORMATION

Item 1. Legal Proceedings.

None.

Item 1A. Risk Factors.

Smaller reporting companies are not required to provide the information required by this item.

Item 2. Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities and Use of Proceeds

None.

Item 3. Defaults Upon Senior Securities.

None.

Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures.

Not applicable.

Item 5. Other Information.

None

ITEM 6. Exhibits

* Filed herewith.

4

SIGNATURES

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.

TRENDMAKER, INC. LIMITED (Name of Registrant) Date: August 4, 2023 By: /s/ Puan Sri Datin Sri Tan Chin Yee Puan Sri Datin Sri Tan Chin Yee, CEO and CFO (Principal Executive Officer) (Principal Financial Officer)

5

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UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM F-N

APPOINTMENT OF AGENT FOR SERVICE OF PROCESS

BY FOREIGN BANKS AND FOREIGN INSURANCE

COMPANIES AND CERTAIN OF THEIR HOLDING COMPANIES

AND FINANCE SUBSIDIARIES MAKING PUBLIC OFFERINGS

OF SECURITIES IN THE UNITED STATES

A. Name of issuer or person filing (Filer): Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce B. This is (select one): x an original filing for the Filer  an amended filing for the Filer C. Identify the filing in conjunction with which this Form is being filed: Name of registrant Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce Form type F-3 File Number 333-272447 Filed by Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce Date Filed (if filed concurrently, so indicate) August 4, 2023 D. The Filer is incorporated or organized under the laws of Canada and has its principal place of business at CIBC Square, 81 Bay Street, Toronto, ON M5J 0E7, telephone (416) 980-3096. E. The Filer designates and appoints Achilles M. Perry (the Agent), located at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, 300 Madison Avenue  6 th Floor, New York, NY 10017, telephone (212) 667-8316, as the agent of the Filer upon whom may be served any process, pleadings, subpoenas, or other papers in: (a) any investigation or administrative proceeding conducted by the Commission, and (b) any civil suit or action brought against the Filer or to which the Filer has been joined as defendant or respondent, in any appropriate court in any place subject to the jurisdiction of any state or of the United States or any of its territories or possessions or of the District of Columbia, arising out of or based on any offering made or purported to be made in connection with the securities registered by the Filer on Form F-3 filed on June 6, 2023, or any purchases or sales of any security in connection therewith. The Filer stipulates and agrees that any such civil suit or action or administrative proceeding may be commenced by the service of process upon, and that service of an administrative subpoena shall be effected by service upon, such agent for service of process, and that the service as aforesaid shall be taken and held in all courts and administrative tribunals to be valid and binding as if personal service thereof had been made.

F. Each person filing this Form stipulates and agrees to appoint a successor agent for service of process and file an amended Form F-N if the Filer discharges the Agent or the Agent is unwilling or unable to accept service on behalf of the Filer at any time until six years have elapsed from the date of the Filers last registration statement or report, or amendment to any such registration statement or report, filed with the Commission under the Securities Act of 1933 or Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Filer further undertakes to advise the Commission promptly of any change to the Agents name or address during the applicable period by amendment of this Form referencing the file number of the relevant registration form in conjunction with which the amendment is being filed.

G. Each person filing this form undertakes to make available, in person or by telephone, representatives to respond to inquiries made by the Commission staff, and to furnish promptly, when requested to do so by the Commission staff, information relating to the securities registered pursuant to the form referenced in paragraph E or transactions in said securities.

The Filer certifies that it has duly caused this power of attorney, consent, stipulation and agreement to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized, in the City of Toronto, Province of Ontario, Country of Canada, this 4th day of August, 2023.

Filer: Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce By: /s/ Kikelomo Lawal Name: Kikelomo Lawal Title: Executive Vice-President and Chief Legal Officer

This statement has been signed by the following person in the capacity and on the date indicated.
ANKARA, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- At least five members of the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) were killed by Turkish forces in northern Syria, Turkiye's Defense Ministry said on Friday.

Turkish Armed Forces "neutralized" the YPG members while they were preparing an attack in the (operation) Peace Spring region in northern Syria, the ministry said in a statement.

Turkish authorities often use the term "neutralized" in their statements to imply the "terrorists" in question surrendered or were killed or captured.

The Turkish army launched Operation Euphrates Shield in 2016, Operation Olive Branch in 2018, Operation Peace Spring in 2019, and Operation Spring Shield in 2020 in northern Syria in order to create a YPG-free zone along its border within the neighboring country.

Turkiye sees the YPG group as the Syrian branch of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkiye, the United States and the European Union, has rebelled against the Turkish government for more than three decades. 
UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

SCHEDULE 13G

Under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934

(Amendment No. _1_)*

Innovator ETFs Trust

(Name of Issuer)

Innovator U.S. Equity Buffer ETF - February

(Title of Class of Securities)

N/A

(CUSIP Number)

July 31, 2023

(Date of Event which Requires Filing of this Statement)

Check the appropriate box to designate the rule pursuant to which this Schedule is filed:

[X] Rule 13d-1(b)

[_] Rule 13d-1(c)

[_] Rule 13d-1(d)

*The remainder of this cover page shall be filled out for a reporting person's initial filing on this form with respect to the subject class of securities, and for any subsequent amendment containing information which would alter the disclosures provided in a prior cover page.

The information required in the remainder of this cover page shall not be deemed to be "filed" for the purpose of Section 18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 ("Act") or otherwise subject to the liabilities of that section of the Act but shall be subject to all other provisions of the Act (however, see the Notes).

SCHEDULE 13G

CUSIP No. Not Applicable

1 Names of Reporting Persons



Brookstone Capital Management, LLC 2 Check the appropriate box if a member of a Group (see instructions)



(a) [ ]

(b) [ ] 3 Sec Use Only



4 Citizenship or Place of Organization



USA Number of

Shares

Beneficially

Owned by Each

Reporting Person

With:

5 Sole Voting Power



None 6 Shared Voting Power



16,613 7 Sole Dispositive Power



None 8 Shared Dispositive Power



16,613 9 Aggregate Amount Beneficially Owned by Each Reporting Person



16,613 10 Check box if the aggregate amount in row (9) excludes certain shares (See Instructions)



[ ] 11 Percent of class represented by amount in row (9)



0.53% 12 Type of Reporting Person (See Instructions)



IA

Item 1.

(a) Name of Issuer: Innovator ETFs Trust

(b) Address of Issuer's Principal Executive Offices: 109 North Hale Street Wheaton, IL 60187

Item 2.

(a) Name of Person Filing: Brookstone Capital Management, LLC

(b) Address of Principal Business Office or, if None, Residence: 1745 S. Naperville Rd., Suite 200 Wheaton, IL 60189

(c) Citizenship: Illinois

(d) Title and Class of Securities: Innovator U.S. Equity Buffer ETF - February

(e) CUSIP No.: N/A

Item 3. If this statement is filed pursuant to  240.13d-1(b) or 240.13d-2(b) or (c), check whether the person filing is a:

(a) [_] Broker or dealer registered under Section 15 of the Act;

(b) [_] Bank as defined in Section 3(a)(6) of the Act;

(c) [_] Insurance company as defined in Section 3(a)(19) of the Act;

(d) [_] Investment company registered under Section 8 of the Investment Company Act of 1940;

(e) [X] An investment adviser in accordance with Rule 13d-1(b)(1)(ii)(E);

(f) [_] An employee benefit plan or endowment fund in accordance with Rule 13d-1(b)(1)(ii)(F);

(g) [_] A parent holding company or control person in accordance with Rule 13d-1(b)(1)(ii)(G);

(h) [_] A savings associations as defined in Section 3(b) of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act (12 U.S.C. 1813);

(i) [_] A church plan that is excluded from the definition of an investment company under section 3(c)(14) of the Investment Company Act of 1940;

(j) [_] A non-U.S. institution in accordance with Rule 240.13d-1(b)(1)(ii)(J);

(k) [_] Group, in accordance with Rule 240.13d-1(b)(1)(ii)(K). If filing as a non-U.S. institution in accordance with Rule 240.13d-1(b)(1)(ii)(J), please specify the type of institution: ____

Item 4. Ownership

(a) Amount Beneficially Owned: 16,613

(b) Percent of Class: 0.53%

(c) Number of shares as to which such person has:

(i) Sole power to vote or to direct the vote: None

(ii) Shared power to vote or to direct the vote: 16,613

(iii) Sole power to dispose or to direct the disposition of: None

(iv) Shared power to dispose or to direct the disposition of: 16,613

**Note 1** Brookstone Capital Management, LLC ("Brookstone"), an investment adviser registered under Section 203 of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, furnishes investment advice to un-registered accounts (collectively, the "Accounts"). In its role as investment adviser or manager, Brookstone possesses shared voting and investment power over securities of the Issuer described in this schedule that are owned by the Accounts, and may be deemed to be the beneficial owner of such shares of the Issuer held by the Accounts. However, all securities reported in this schedule are owned by the Accounts. Pursuant to Rule 13d-4 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act"), Brookstone disclaims beneficial ownership of such securities. In addition, the filing of this schedule shall not be construed as an admission that the reporting person or any of its affiliates is the beneficial owner of any securities covered by this Schedule 13G for any other purposes than Section 13(d) of the Exchange Act.

Item 5. Ownership of Five Percent or Less of a Class.

If this statement is being filed to report the fact that as of the date hereof the reporting person has ceased to be the beneficial owner of more than five percent of the class of securities, check the following [ X ].

Item 6. Ownership of more than Five Percent on Behalf of Another Person.

The Accounts described in Note 1 above have the right to receive or the power to direct the receipt of dividends from, of the proceeds from the sale of, the securities held in their respective accounts. Brookstone disclaims beneficial ownership of all such securities.

Item 7. Identification and classification of the subsidiary which acquired the security being reported on by the parent holding company or control person.

Not Applicable

Item 8. Identification and classification of members of the group.

Not Applicable

Item 9. Notice of Dissolution of Group.

Not Applicable

Item 10. Certifications.

SIGNATURE

After reasonable inquiry and to the best of my knowledge and belief, I certify that the information set forth in this statement is true, complete and correct.

Dated: August 2, 2023

/s/ Matt Lovett

Name/Title

The original statement shall be signed by each person on whose behalf the statement is filed or his authorized representative. If the statement is signed on behalf of a person by his authorized representative (other than an executive officer or general partner of this filing person), evidence of the representative's authority to sign on behalf of such person shall be filed with the statement, provided, however, that a power of attorney for this purpose which is already on file with the Commission may be incorporated by reference. The name and any title of each person who signs the statement shall be typed or printed beneath his signature.

Attention: Intentional misstatements or omissions of fact constitute Federal criminal violations (See 18 U.S.C. 1001).
Arlington, Va., Jan. 4, 2017: President Barack Obama conducts an inspection of the troops during the Armed Forces Farewell Tribute held at Joint Base Meyer-Henderson Hall in the last days of his second term as president. In his remarks the president noted that there has been no greater privilege, and no greater honor, than serving as the commander-in-chief of the greatest military in the history of the world.

The former president is turning 62 today.

You can read the full text of Obamas speech here.
Tucked away in the green forests of western Germanys Eifel region is Buerresheim Castle, an imposing fortress high on a rocky promontory that was built late in the 12th century.

Movie fans might recognize Buerresheim from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Its exterior was used as the fictional Castle Brunwald, where Indy rescues his dad from the Nazis. The interiors were shot elsewhere.

Like many medieval castles in Germany, this one changed hands over the years, and one of these ownership transfers even led to a division of the castle in two.

Because the border of two archdioceses ran through the fortress, Buerresheim Castle was split into the Koelner Burg, owned by the archbishop of Cologne, and the Trierer Burg, belonging to his counterpart in Trier.

Later, the whole castle came into the possession of the noble von Breidbach family. Koelner Burg was abandoned and now is in ruins, but Trierer Burg was kept up and expanded. Today, it is a melange of towers, turrets, gables and mighty walls.

Despite the many owners, one thing sets Buerresheim Castle apart from many others in Germany: It never was taken or destroyed in battle.

Trierer Burg now consists of two buildings, the medieval fortress and the half-timbered Baroque residence. A tour is the only way to see inside, and visitors travel from the 15th century to the 20th century in the process.

They see the expansive old kitchen, which was the center of medieval life in the castle. The hunting room, like many others, is adorned with trophy antlers. The knights hall features two giant Flemish tapestries.

Nearby is the chapel. The glass discs in its windows are from the 13th century but were installed here in the 19th century. The tour ends in the Baroque amtshaus. In the ancestral hall is a gallery of family portraits of the castles owners.

What makes Buerresheim so interesting is it was lived in continuously for centuries, and about 90% of the items displayed are original to their surroundings and were used by the inhabitants.

The last owner of the castle, Elisabeth von Westerholt-Gysenberg, lived there until she sold it in its entirety to the Prussian Rhineland Province in 1938. Following World War II, it fell to the state of Rheinland-Pfalz.

Visible in a large early 18th-century painting of the castle is a small town. This was Mayen, which still has a medieval feel, with narrow cobblestoned lanes, half-timbered buildings and an expansive market square.

It even has a castle, the Genovevaburg. Built in 1280, it has, unlike Buerresheim, been destroyed many times. Today, it hosts theater performances in the summer.

A curious sight in Mayen is the misshapen steeple of St. Clemens Church. Experts attribute its crookedness to construction errors that left it 5.5 feet out of balance.

But according to legend, when the devil was fooled by residents into helping build the church, he became angry and tried to tear down the steeple. He managed to get in only the twist seen today before the saint stopped him.

On the QT:

Directions: Use Schloss Buerresheim as the destination in navigation devices. The castle and Mayen are about 80 miles from Wiesbaden and about 60 miles from Spangdahlem.

Times: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, Sunday and German holidays, Feb. 1 to March 14; 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Thursday through Sunday, March 15 to Oct. 31; and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, Sunday and German holidays in November. Closed in December and January. Last entrance is one hour before closing. Access to the inside of Buerresheim Castle is by tour only. The first tour starts at about 10:45 a.m. A guide booklet sold on site for 2.50 euros is worth buying. All tours are in German.

Costs: Admission is 5 euros for adults and 3 euros for children 7 and older. Parking at the castle is free. Expect to pay about 1.50 euros per hour for parking in Mayen.

Information: https://kulturerbe-eifel-mosel.de/en/buerresheim-castle/, www.mayen.de. Photography is not allowed on the tour.
Mount Asama is one of Japans most active volcanoes and its murderous 18th century eruption is a tragic page in the nations history.

The 8,425-foot mountain killed more than 1,500 people on Aug. 5, 1783, when a pyroclastic flow  a fast-moving deluge of ash, lava and hot gases  blew out of Asama and started a mud flow that raced downslope into the Agatsuma River and continued for 125 miles.

The event is remembered as the Burning of Asama in Tenmei and probably contributed to the Great Tenmei Famine. Downstream, bodies were pulled from the muck and buried. Twenty-five survivors were carried with the mud as far as 25 miles from the volcano.

Today, Asama slumbers fitfully. It last erupted in August 2019, a monthlong fit of tremors and an ash plume that rose over a mile high. From time to time the crater emits noxious gas and sometimes at night an eerie incandescent glow illuminates the summit.

Since March 15, the mountain has been under a level 2 advisory from the Japan Meteorological Agency, meaning no one may come closer than 2 kilometers, 1  miles, from the summit. The mountain is expanding in places, however indiscernible to the naked eye, and the number of shallow, volcanic tremors has recently increased.

Still, the mountain is a popular hiking destination. Scores of people, including groups of seniors and children, filled a 7-mile loop trail on a Saturday in late July.

From Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo, the trip to the trailhead is just over two hours on the expressways and costs about $60 in tolls. A no-frills hike that skipped visits to the nearby volcano museum, onsens and shrine took just over seven hours.

A lollipop trail, one of several paths that reach the mountain, starts at the Takamine Kogen Hotel and visitor center at Takamine Kogen atop a twisty, two-lane mountain highway. Parking is free at the visitor center; come early for an open spot.

Morning mist floats through the forest of conifers until the trail breaks into the open with a vista of Asama and the long, high ridge to the north where the loop trail leads. Turn left to follow the trail to the ridgetop and several overlooks for a changing view of Asama and the neighboring cliffs as the sun and rising mist play on the mountains.

The area is part of Joshin-etsu Kogen National Park and the shallow valley between the ridge and volcano rivals any view in Colorado or California. East of the volcano is Onioshidashi Volcanic Park, which preserves the landscape left behind by that 1783 disaster.

The loop trail is a challenging hike, but some stretches of it are downright easygoing. Root- and rock-infested sections give way to hardpacked earth punctuated with the occasional stone. Undergrowth yields to an open forest and the slant of morning light offers fine photographic potential.

The ridge trail is well marked and passes two peaks, Mount Kurofu and Mount Jakotsu. At Jakotsu, however, its character shifts from easy striding to rock clambering. Signs warn hikers to move quickly off this section if they sense an eruption, because this narrow ridge line is prone to rock falls. The looming face of Asama evokes visions of incoming projectiles hurled in anger.

Eventually, the trail finds another junction and drops off the ridge to the valley floor at the foot of Asama, where the open landscape and intermittent vegetation will be familiar to any native of the Pacific Northwest. This is as close to the summit as hikers may get and as intimate a view.

The trail continues along the base, into a mixed conifer and deciduous forest to another trail junction. A left turn leads to Mount Maekake, one of two summits atop the volcanic cone and the one normally considered safe to visit. Instead, cables were strung across the trail, and signs in Japanese and English warn hikers to go no farther.

Instead, continue going straight and enjoy the relative ease of this charming footpath. Take a right turn at the Yunodaira branch and head through bamboo grass and groves of trees, past the rocky summits on your left, and begin the slog uphill toward Kurofu to close the loop.

This section is out in the open, and though the temperature never exceeded 80 degrees at this altitude, the pitiless mid-afternoon sun called for a break or two and constant hydration. The slope at some points is in-your-face steep. This being Japan, however, a caretaker with shears stood at the highest sections clearing the grass and nettles crowding the trail.

Atop the ridge, at the Tominoatama trail intersection, do yourself a favor and opt for the shorter Naka return course. Its a lot easier on the knees even though it, too, has a couple of steep, rocky parts that resemble empty streambeds more than they do footpaths.

Throughout the day, a steady flow of hikers grew stronger, evincing a disregard for the apparent hazard. Remember, if you go, the unpredictable volcano at any time may belch a cloud of deadly gas, choking ash or ballistic rock.

On the QT

Directions: Set your GPS for Takamine Kogen Visitor Center, a two-hour drive from Yokota Air Base via the Kanetsu and Joshinetsu expressways. Parking is available at the center. The trailhead is across the street on the mountain highway between the center and an adjacent hotel.

Times: Dawn to dusk.

Costs: 8,200 yen, or about $60, in tolls. The visitor center serves lunches and nearby onsens will ease those hiking muscles. Rail and bus service will get you there, too.

Food: Lunch is served at the Takamine Kogen Hotel and the adjacent visitors center.

Information: Online: asama2000.com/green
NIAMEY, Niger  Defense chiefs from West African nations finalized an intervention plan Friday and urged militaries to ready resources after negotiations deadlocked with Niger's military junta, which says it is severing military agreements with France, its former colonial ruler.

With two days remaining before a deadline set by the regional bloc to release and reinstate President Mohamed Bazoum or face possible force, the junta announced that it was firing some of the previous government's key ambassadors and warning citizens of the West African nation to watch for foreign armies and spies. In a plea published in a Washington Post opinion piece, Bazoum said, "I write this as a hostage" and urged the U.S. and partners to help.

The junta's announcement late Thursday deepens the post-coup isolation for what had been the United States' and allies' last major security partner in the Sahel, the vast region south of the Sahara Desert that Islamic extremist groups have turned into the global center of terrorism.

Niger's soldiers, who staged a mutiny July 26, face a Sunday deadline set by the regional bloc known as ECOWAS, whose envoys arrived Thursday for talks. But those discussions stalled, with the delegation unable to meet the coup leader, Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, or go into the capital, Niamey, according to a person with close knowledge of the talks who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to comment.

However, defense chiefs from ECOWAS countries excluding Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, Guinea and Niger met Friday in Abuja, Nigeria, concluding with several measures including a military intervention outlined as recommendations to the regional leaders.

"All the elements that would go into any eventual intervention have been brought out here and been refined, including the timing, the resources needed and the how and where and when we are going to deploy such a force," said Abdel-Fatau Musah, ECOWAS commissioner for political affairs, peace and security.

Musah did not say whether ECOWAS would deploy such a force at the end of the one-week deadline given to the junta but added that the junta should reinstate Bazoum as president in the coming days or "we will make them handover to the civilians authorities."

Nigerian chief of defense staff asked the regional military chiefs to follow "a sense of urgency" and allocate the necessary resources as they had agreed.

"ECOWAS will not be used for coups. Democracy is what we stand for and democracy is what we will sustain," said Christopher Musa, the Nigerian defense chief. He called for action to also address security lapses in West Africa, saying the latest mutiny highlights "the fragility of our region."

The junta's announcement brought further skepticism about any deal. It said it was terminating the military agreements and protocols signed with France and announced the end of functions for Niger's ambassadors to France, the United States, Togo and neighboring Nigeria, which is leading ECOWAS efforts on dialogue.

"All aggression or attempt at aggression against the state of Niger will see an immediate response and without warning," said a spokesman for the coup leaders, Col. Maj. Amadou Abdramane, with the exception of Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea, which have expressed support for the coup. Mali and Burkina Faso have said such an intervention would be a declaration of war against them.

France's Foreign Ministry responded that Paris only recognizes "the legitimate Nigerien authorities," dismissing the move by coup leaders. France reiterated its call for "the re-establishment of the democratic institutions of Niger," the ministry said.

Bazoum wrote that Niger's security situation had been improving before the coup, in contrast to neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso that are led by military juntas, but said that's now at risk because Niger would lose aid from foreign partners and extremist groups would take advantage of the country's instability.

"In our hour of need, I call on the U.S. government and the entire international community to help us restore our constitutional order," he wrote.

France has 1,500 military personnel in Niger, which had been envisioned as the base for counterterror operations in the region after anti-French sentiments grew elsewhere.

The U.S. has 1,100 military personnel in Niger, including at a key drone base, and indicates it's reluctant to leave, especially with the growing influence of the Russian private military group Wagner in the Sahel.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters it was concerned about emerging regional tensions but the "interference by non-regional powers is unlikely to change the situation for the better."

ECOWAS has been unsuccessful in stemming coups and is trying to change course with Niger in a region that has seen five of them in the past three years  two each in Mali and Burkina Faso.

Nigeria's President Bola Tinubu, fulfilling a legal requirement, informed lawmakers Friday of the ECOWAS intention to intervene militarily in Niger if the coup leaders "remain recalcitrant."

But there are risks that any intervention could get Bazoum killed, said James Barnett, a researcher specializing in West Africa at the Hudson Institute.

"You would have to have a very surgical rescue operation to ensure that doesn't happen," he said.

Another concern is that the junta might arm civilian militias to resist any intervention.

"I fear the junta would gladly use its own people as cannon fodder or human shields, and ECOWAS militaries don't have a good record when it comes to avoiding collateral damage," Barnett said.

Many people in Niamey didn't appear concerned that ECOWAS will use force, while others wondered why the regional bloc hasn't had the same resolve to tackle extremist violence.

"If ECOWAS has an army, it could mobilize 1,000 soldiers per country ... 15,000 soldiers. If ECOWAS was serious, why didn't it consider mobilizing 15,000 soldiers to help Mali, Burkina and Niger, which are undergoing insecurity?" said Annassa Djibrilla, president of the Dynamic Citizen activist group.

Niger's roughly 25 million people live in one of the poorest countries in the world, and any cuts in foreign aid could be disastrous. Already, citizens are feeling the effects after ECOWAS suspended all commercial and financial transactions between its member states and Niger and froze Nigerien assets held in regional central banks.

The bloc's sanctions include halting energy transactions with Niger, which gets up to 90% of its power from Nigeria, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency. Earlier this week, power transmission from Nigeria to Niger was cut off, an official at one of Nigeria's main electricity companies said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment.

The People's Coalition for the Sahel, an informal alliance of several dozen Sahelian and West African civil society organizations, expressed concern for the military takeover and called for the protection of civilian populations to be a priority for all parties.

"Nigerien civil and political liberties must be preserved and safeguarded, including protecting the rights of civil society organizations and human rights defenders to continue their activities freely and safely," the group said in a statement.

Asadu reported from Abuja, Nigeria; AP writers Elaine Ganley in Paris; Carley Petesch in Chicago and James Heintz contributed.
CAIRO  A leading human rights group called Friday on the United States and the United Nations to impose further sanctions on those in Sudan "responsible for the atrocities" in the troubled Darfur region, where evidence of scorched-earth attacks is mounting.

The northeast African country plunged into chaos in April when monthslong tensions between the military, led by Abdel Fattah Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, commanded by Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, exploded into open fighting in the capital of Khartoum, and elsewhere. In Darfur, the scene of genocidal war in the early 2000s, the conflict has morphed into ethnic violence, with the RSF and allied Arab militias targeting African communities in the western region, U.N. officials say.

In a press release, Human Rights Watch said Washington should impose targeted sanctions to "ensure that the U.N. Security Council finally acts to protect civilians and to hold those responsible for the atrocities to account." The U.S. took over the rotation presidency of the U.N. Security Council on Aug. 1.

The New York-based watchdog group said at least seven villages and towns have been almost completely burned to the ground or destroyed in West Darfur alone, according to satellite footage and testimonies analyzed by the group. These include Habilla Kanari, Mejmere, Misterei, Molle, Murnei, Gokor, and Sirba.

"The world should not stand by as town after town in West Darfur is burned to the ground, sending tens of thousands of civilians fleeing for their lives," said Tirana Hassan, executive director at HRW.

In June, the U.S. imposed sanctions against four key companies either linked to or owned by the warring factions. The White House also placed visa restrictions on army and RSF officials, and leaders from the former government led by ousted President Omar al-Bashir. It did note specify which individuals were affected.

Al-Bashir, who ruled Sudan for more than 30 years, is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes and genocide linked to the Darfur conflict.

Later Friday, the U.S., Britain and Norway called in a joint statement for an end to the bloodshed in Darfur. The three countries condemned the ongoing violence, "especially reports of killings based on ethnicity and widespread sexual violence by the Rapid Support Forces" and allied militias.

Since the latest fighting erupted in mid-April, there have been at least nine temporary cease-fire agreements between the military and the RSF, most of which were brokered by Washington and Riyadh during cross party talks in the Saudi coastal city of Jeddah. However, all the truces foundered.

Last Month, Karim Khan, a prosecutor from the ICC, told the United Nations that he would be investigating alleged new war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Darfur.

Earlier this week, Amnesty International separately accused both warring parties of committing extensive war crimes, including deliberate killings of civilians and mass sexual assault. Amnesty said almost all rape cases were blamed on the RSF and its allied Arab militias.

In its 56-page report, HRW said the RSF abducted 24 women and girls  some as young as 12  and held them "for several days during which they were raped by several RSF members."

The now nearly four-month conflict in Sudan has killed more than 3,000 people and wounded more than 6,000 others, according to the last government figures, released in June. The true tally is likely much higher, according to doctors and activists.

Meanwhile, the fighting has forced 4 million people to flee their homes either to safer areas inside Sudan or to neighboring countries, according to figures from the U.N. migration agency.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, or FAO, said on Thursday that 20.3 million people in the country now "face severe hunger," double the number from the same time last year.
Survivors of the Japanese World War II occupation of Guam and their descendants have received $4.13 million in compensation under a 2021 territorial law, according to the governors office.

Over the past year, claimants were given between $25,000 and $10,000 each as part of the Guam World War II Reconciliation Act of 2021. The compensation covered death, personal injury, forced labor, forced marching or internment during the occupation.

The act, sponsored by the Guam Legislatures Committee on Rules, drew $10 million from the U.S. territorys general fund to pay survivors and descendants who missed the deadline for war claims under federal law, according to the legislatures website.

Lt. Gov. Joshua Tenorio, then acting governor, signed the measure into law Feb. 3, 2022. The application window opened on April 1, 2022, and closed on July 26, the governors office said in a news release Thursday.

The Guam War Claims Adjudication Committee approved 386 of the 429 claims submitted, according to its program closure report.

The programs goal was to provide a final measure of closure, peace, and healing for members of our islands Greatest Generation, who were unable to make a claim under the Guam World War II Loyalty Recognition Act Program signed into law under President Barack Obama in 2016, said Krystal Paco-San Austin, the governors spokeswoman.

Our administration is appreciative of the work of the War Claims Adjudication Committee in being able to adjudicate these claims quickly for the benefit of our Greatest Generation and their families, she told Stars and Stripes by email Friday.

Under the Loyalty Recognition Act, claimants had between June 2017 and June 2018 to file a claim, according to the U.S. Department of Justice website. The program received nearly 4,000 claims and awarded more than $34.28 million.

Giving just compensation to Chamorro elders was of great importance to Guerreros administration, Paco-San Austin said.

She referred additional questions, including whether the 428 claims represented 428 individuals, to the Guam War Claims Adjudication Committee, which did not respond to multiple emails or calls on Thursday and Friday.

Imperial Japanese forces attacked Guam on Dec. 8, 1941, just one day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii; U.S. and local forces surrendered two days later.

Over the next three years, the local Chamorro people endured significant hardships, including forced labor, relocation and Japanese indoctrination until American forces liberated it in 1944, according to the National Park Service website.
TOKYO  Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Friday he hopes to discuss further strengthening of three-way strategic cooperation with leaders of the United States and South Korea at a summit hosted by U.S. President Joe Biden at Camp David later this month.

The Aug. 18 summit with Biden and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol is the first stand-alone summit among leaders of the three countries, not in connection with international meetings.

The summit is also the latest sign of warming ties between Tokyo and Seoul. Both governments have moved to set aside decades-long tensions over wartime history, while Washington seeks to deepen its commitment in the Indo-Pacific region.

"I have high hopes that this summit meeting will further strengthen the foundation for strengthening ties with the United States and South Korea, which have been built up through multi-layered efforts including at the summit level," Kishida said, responding to a question about the summit, during a news conference Friday.

"On top of that, I expect we will further reinforce our strategic cooperation among the three countries, Japan, the United States and South Korea" as the three leaders discuss joint responses to North Korea's threats and maintaining and strengthening a rules-based, free and open international order, Kishida said.

He declined to provide more details, saying he should avoid prejudging the outcome of the summit ahead of time.

The Biden administration has been urging stronger economic and defense ties between South Korea and Japan as it looks to bolster the region against China's assertive territorial moves and economic influences, and to secure their cooperation in support of Ukraine's fight against Russia's full-scale invasion.

Japan and South Korea are both key U.S. allies and their cooperation is key to Washington's security strategy in the Indo-Pacific as tensions grow with China, North Korea and Russia.

Ties between Japan and South Korea have rapidly thawed since earlier this year, largely because of Washington's pressure and their shared sense of urgency over escalating regional security threats.

The improved ties between Tokyo and Seoul, and Japan's new security and defense strategies are apparently making the stronger trilateral partnership possible. Under the new strategies issued in December, Kishida's government pledges a drastic military buildup with strike capabilities and doubling defense spending in a major break from Japan's postwar self-defense-only principle.

Japan, the United States and South Korea have agreed to start sharing real-time data on North Korean missile launches by the end of this year, as their trilateral cooperation is increasingly important amid growing nuclear and missile threats from the North. Washington and Seoul have also agreed to step up their nuclear deterrence cooperation, and Japan also wants stronger extended deterrence by U.S. nuclear weapons.

After the White House announcement of the summit, the U.S. ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel, posted a message on Twitter that the upcoming summit promises to make history and "will lead to a strategic paradigm shift" as the three countries form "a united front for a free and open Indo-Pacific."
BRISBANE, Australia  A recently concluded, massive military exercise across Australia demonstrated strengthened ties between the U.S. and its allies with smaller Pacific nations courted by China, according to security experts.

Talisman Sabre, a biennial set of multifaceted drills, ended its largest iteration to date on Friday with a ceremony off-limits to the public and press. This year, 30,000 mostly U.S. and Australian troops trained together over 14 days with smaller contingents from Europe and the Pacific.

The training followed a tense series of drills by Chinese forces in the air and sea around Taiwan the past year. Chinese leader Xi Jinping has vowed to reunify Taiwan, a self-governing island democracy, with the mainland, by force if necessary.

China also continues to harry nations like Malaysia and the Philippines, another U.S. ally, over contested maritime territory in the South China Sea.

New players, new roles

Troops from eight countries took on new roles at this years Talisman Sabre, according to Carlyle Thayer, an emeritus professor at the University of New South Wales and a lecturer at the Australian Defence Force Academy.

Service members from Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Tonga were fully integrated with the Australian Defence Force for the first time, he said by email Thursday. Japan deployed 1,500 troops, its largest-ever contingent, and South Korea also expanded its involvement.

Indonesia was a full participant for the first time along with newcomer Germany, he said.

At a minimum, Talisman Sabre consolidated and deepened military ties between the first tier of the democratic alliance in the Western Pacific, which includes the U.S., Australia and Japan, with regional nations like Indonesia, Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Tonga, according to Paul Buchanan, a U.S. security expert based in New Zealand.

The latter is important because it is the first time that the Pacific Island states have been included in the exercise, which demonstrates a visible shift in them towards a Western-oriented geopolitical perspective, he said in an email Thursday.

Fiji, for example, has flirted with establishing military ties to both China and Russia in recent years, Buchanan said. China has subjected Tonga and Papua New Guinea to checkbook diplomacy in hopes of swaying their perspectives away from the West.

Indonesias participation indicates the country sees its security interests as tied to the Western-centric alliance rather than geopolitical neutrality, Buchanan said.

The irony is that [Chinas] military assertiveness in the WestPac Rim has produced a tangible pushback not just in South China Sea littoral states, Western powers and neighboring competitors such as [South Korea] and Japan, but now in Melanesia and Polynesia as well, he said.

Growing network

The deaths of four Australian aviators, killed July 28 when their MRH-90 Taipan helicopter ditched in waters off Queensland, cast a shadow over the drills Down Under. Human remains were found in wreckage Wednesday at a depth of 131 feet off the northeast coast of Australia, Lt. Gen. Greg Bilton, the Australian Defense Forces chief of joint operations, said Thursday in a report by Australian broadcaster ABC.

Talisman Sabre was the largest military exercise to take place in Australia in geographic scope, covering 3,700 miles from Western Australia to the Northern Territory, Queensland, New South Wales and Norfolk Island, Thayer said.

Combined military forces undertook amphibious landings, paratroop insertions, land maneuvers and other military exercises in this vast area, he said.

The Japan Ground Self-Defense Force fired its Type 12 surface-to-ship missile, South Korea fired its K239 Chunmoo system and the U.S. shot its High Mobility Artillery Rocket System  HIMARS  and MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile System during the drills.

The logistics component of the exercise, which involved the cargo ships USNS Bob Hope and USNS Fisher and offloading artillery and armored vehicles onto an Australian beach, was significant, Thayer said.

The involvement of many more nations in Australias largest and most complex exercise indicates that momentum is growing to build a network of like-minded countries in the Indo-Pacific to strengthen regional security, Ross Babbage, a former Australian assistant defense secretary, said by email Thursday.

All members have shown a keenness to sharpen their skills and work together to maintain their individual sovereignty and independence as well as the security of the region, he said.
BUCHA, Ukraine  Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has become the second 2024 Republican presidential hopeful to visit Ukraine, meeting Friday with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv, touring ravaged villages and saying what he saw further impressed to him that the U.S. should continue to help the country fend off Russia's attack.

"I feel the cruelty, and you feel the inhumanity," Christie said during his trip, which included stops in the villages of Bucha and Moshchun, both on the outskirts of Kyiv. "And you look at this, and I don't think there's anyone in our country who would come here and see this and not feel as if these are the things that America needs to stand up to prevent."

During the visit, Christie placed flowers at the memorial complex in Bucha, where there was a mass grave of civilians, and prayed for Ukrainian volunteers who were killed by Russian troops at the beginning of the war in Moshchun.

"I really suspected that if I saw this in person that it would arm me to be a better advocate for support, I think, from the stuff I saw today just now, and the meeting with the president ... I think I'm much better off," Christie said after his meeting with Zelenskyy.

Christie said the Ukrainian president spoke about his desire for there to be bipartisan support for Ukraine, but made no comments on the U.S. presidential race.

"He was very complimentary of President Biden, some of the things that he's advocated for, but also made clear that he thought there was more that needed to be done," Christie said. "There was no conversation at all from him about, you know, the race that I'm in."

The GOP presidential field is divided over the future of U.S. involvement in the war.

Christie has leveled criticism over Ukraine at President Joe Biden, whose administration has provided more than $43 billion in military aid to Ukraine since Russia invaded in February 2022. On Friday, he said that "America needs to stand up to prevent and to work with friends like the Ukrainians to give them the means necessary for them to be able to secure once again their liberty and their freedom."

During a July town hall in Columbia, South Carolina, Christie called the conflict "a proxy war between the United States and China," arguing that Ukrainians "don't want American men and women on the ground in Ukraine, nor would I send American men and women on the ground in Ukraine. What they want is the hardware to have a fair chance to beat the Russians."

Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and former Vice President Mike Pence have both also warned that the failure to stem Russia's advances could lead to further global conflict, potentially signaling to China that it could be successful in moving to overtake Taiwan.

Last month, the U.S. announced $345 million in military aid for Taiwan, in what is the Biden administration's first major package drawing on America's own stockpiles to help Taiwan counter China and to deter China from considering attacking, by providing Taipei enough weaponry that it would make the price of invasion too high.

Pence made a trip to Ukraine in June after launching his own presidential bid.

Former President Donald Trump, the current GOP front-runner, has called on congressional Republicans to halt all military support for Ukraine until the Biden administration cooperates with their investigations into the president and his son Hunter Biden's business dealings. Trump has also argued that he could stop the war swiftly after returning to the White House.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis  who drew criticism in March from a number of fellow Republicans who expressed concern about his dismissive description of the conflict as a "territorial dispute," subsequently walking it back  has endorsed a cease-fire and argued that the U.S. should not get more involved in the war.

In an interview with The Washington Post aboard a train from Poland to Kyiv, Christie said he hoped Republican voters had begun to reconsider which of their party's candidates will have the bandwidth to grapple "with the really complicated issues that the next president will have to deal with"  including Ukraine  "and who is going to be dealing with trying to keep themselves out of jail."

Christie also told the Post that some of his fellow GOP contenders, including Trump, DeSantis and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy "are giving people a false choice, which is 'Well, we can only do one thing; we can either improve things in the States or we can help Ukraine,'" calling that "a ridiculous statement."
BEIJING, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- In the past few months, the Voice of America (VOA) and the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), among other U.S. media outlets, have been hyping up the narrative of "security concerns related to Chinese investments in overseas ports," alleging that they "could be used for military purposes" in the future.

Besides commercial value, "Chinese-run port terminals can be used not only for logistics support but also intelligence gathering and as future potential basing options," a WSJ report entitled "China's global port investments give rise to security worries" claimed, citing American security analysts, yet without giving any evidence.

"As commercial ports could be used for military purposes, analysts have long been concerned about the security implications of ports controlled by Beijing," another report by the VOA, entitled "China's Global Network of Shipping Ports Reveal Beijing's Strategy", said.

The above claims are nothing but groundless speculations, analysts say, emphasizing the fact that whether an investment in a foreign port can be used militarily depends on many conditions, among which is permission from the government of the host country as a sovereign state.

In fact, China's rapidly expanding investments in overseas ports in recent years are a natural outcome of its rapidly growing trade with the international market.

Given China's status as the world's largest trader of goods and a major trading partner of more than 140 countries and regions around the world, it is not in line with commercial logic if China did not expand its investments in overseas ports considering such factors as trade and shipping facilitation and transaction cost saving, the analysts say.

THE TRUE PICTURE

"Chinese companies' investment in some foreign ports is first and foremost an economic act, and its starting point and focus are to facilitate China's ocean freight logistics," said Wang Zaibang, a senior fellow at Taihe Institute, a Beijing-based think tank.

"This kind of investment is not only beneficial to the business activities of China's overseas shipping companies, but also conducive to stimulating the local economy and promoting employment. We can be optimistic that, barring extreme circumstances, such investment can only grow as the size of China's economy and the stock of overseas interests continue to grow," he told Xinhua in a recent interview.

Currently, China's shipping fleet control capacity has risen to the second place in the world from the third place in 2015. As the world's most important intermediate goods provider and the largest supplier of final products, China's docking with the international market not only requires the continuous facilitation of bilateral or multilateral trade and investment, but also the orderly docking and arrangement of global transportation channels, said Zhang Yugui, dean of the School of Economics and Finance of Shanghai International Studies University.

Over the past decade since the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was launched in 2013, China has signed more than 200 cooperation documents with more than 150 countries and more than 30 international organizations, resulting in more than 3,000 cooperation projects and generating nearly 1 trillion U.S. dollars in investment, official statistics show.

Under the joint efforts of participating countries, a connectivity framework involving six corridors, six types of routes, multiple countries and multiple ports have taken shape, playing a key role in transcending geographical constraints and cultural differences, and in facilitating economic development across the world.

During this process, Chinese companies and overseas local authorities have carried out port cooperation projects with an aim to create opportunities for common development under the principles of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits on the basis of respecting the will of relevant countries. China has never interfered in other countries' internal affairs, targeted a third party, or posed a security threat to any country.

Since 2009, Chinese shipping giant COSCO has invested more than 600 million euros (about 660 million U.S. dollars) in the construction and upgrading of the Container Terminals 2 and 3 in Greece's Piraeus port. In 2019, the port's container throughput has exceeded 5.65 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent unit), becoming the first integrated port in the Mediterranean, the fourth largest in Europe and one of the fastest growing container ports in the world, with revenue of 195 million euros (214.5 million dollars) in fiscal year 2022, an increase of 26.2 percent, and a net profit of 52.9 million euros (58.2 million dollars), an increase of 43.9 percent.

The Colombo Port City in Sri Lanka, the first special economic zone constructed and operated by Chinese firms outside of China, has been designated as one of the "Five New Cities Affecting the Future" by Forbes magazine in the United States.

According to management consulting firm Price Waterhouse Coopers Consulting, Colombo Port City will attract more than 9.7 billion dollars in foreign direct investment for Sri Lanka during its development and operation, generate more than 5 billion dollars in fiscal revenue for the Sri Lankan government, and create more than 400,000 quality jobs for the locals.

The project "will promote Sri Lanka's economic development, improve people's livelihood and boost the modernization process of Sri Lanka," said Sri Lankan Ambassador to China Palitha Kohona, adding that "many of the great changes that have taken place in Sri Lanka have benefited from the BRI."

Launched in January 2023 and invested, constructed and operated by China Harbour Corporation, the Nigerian Lekki Deep Water Port project is Nigeria's first modern deep-water port and one of the largest ports in West Africa, with an annual designed handling capacity of 1.2 million standard containers, which can accommodate the world's largest container ships.

Nigeria's former President Muhammadu Buhari said that the Lekki Port will "open up a new pattern for Nigeria's economic development, strongly promote the export of Nigerian products, especially agricultural products," and create many jobs, contributing to poverty reduction goals.

Built by Shanghai International Port (Group) Co., Ltd., the new Port of Haifa in Israel opened in September 2021, becoming the first large new port in Israel in nearly 60 years. It is by far the most advanced, greenest, fastest and most cost-effective terminal on the Mediterranean coast, using the most advanced port technology in the world.

"We have high hopes for the new port of Haifa to serve the entire region and become a regional logistics hub," said Yitzhak Blumenthal, CEO of the government-owned Israel Ports Company.

The above are just a few examples of the cooperation projects Chinese companies have implemented overseas, which have not only garnered considerable revenue for local governments and driven economic development, but also boosted the construction of local infrastructure and increased employment in these regions.

STRONG REBUKES

As a country long committed to peaceful development and promoting a community with a shared future for mankind, China currently has only one overseas naval support base in Djibouti, the main function of which is to serve the Chinese warships fighting piracy in the Gulf of Aden, Wang said.

Responding to the WSJ report's claim that "China's navy has stopped for replenishment or diplomacy at a third of the ports where China-based firms have investments," Wang said it is a matter of course and nothing wrong with China investing in foreign ports for non-war operations in peacetime.

As the world has been constantly threatened by hegemonism and power politics, terrorism and extremist forces, as well as local wars and regional conflicts, and Western countries led by the United States have been waging color revolutions in many countries triggering regional unrest, there is often a need for non-war operations such as the evacuation of Chinese nationals.

"Under such circumstances, warships of any country can naturally dock at foreign ports for supplies or transshipment, which is really not surprising," Wang said.

Meanwhile, various countries have come out to deny the U.S. allegations about the Chinese-invested ports' so-called "military purposes".

In a recent interview with France 24, Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe said, "So far there has been no (Chinese) military base in Hambantota harbour... the security is controlled by the government of Sri Lanka... these are just speculations... We have no military agreement with China, there won't be a military agreement, I don't think China enters into one."

As for the Gwadar port in Pakistan, Shakeel Ahmad Ramay, chief executive officer of the Asian Institute of Eco-civilization Research and Development, an Islamabad-based think tank, has also recently said that "there was no (Chinese) military involvement."

"The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a purely economic development initiative... Since the very beginning, Western countries and their allies in the region have started propaganda. Why did they start to malign the BRI and the CPEC by one name or another name? Because they cannot compete in the development," Ramay told Xinhua.

Besides the "military purposes" hype, the WSJ report also alleged that "They (Chinese companies) are also aggregating shipping data in ways that some in Washington worry could give Beijing access to information about rivals' supply-chain vulnerabilities."

On that topic, insiders and analysts from Germany have provided an opposite perspective.

Chinese companies have contributed to the alleviation of the supply chain crisis in the Port of Hamburg through mutual cooperation and learning from German companies. In the future, Chinese companies will also play an important role in addressing challenges such as the digitalization and sustainable development of the Port of Hamburg, said Angela Titzrath, chairwoman of Hamburg Ports and Logistics AG.

"Both sides have established an equal and trusted partnership," she added.

"Numerous Chinese companies have settled in the city (Hamburg) and in the port, with whom the players in the port as well as we have been cooperating successfully for a long time," Axel Mattern, chief executive officer of Port of Hamburg Marketing, told Xinhua.

"In addition, cooperation with Chinese companies secures cargo in Hamburg and thus the supply flows in Germany and Europe," he added.

"The Chinese investment in the port of Hamburg is normal. (Yet) (t)here is a tendency that wants to separate the German economy from China, and the German government is facing pressure and constraints from this," Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder and chairperson of the German think tank Schiller Institute, told Xinhua.

"I would say this is purely ideological, so I'm quite glad that the agreement of the Port of Hamburg went through at the last moment," she said.

Yannis Stournaras, governor of the Bank of Greece, told media recently: "Greece is one of the few countries in Europe (where) China has a very crucial investment, the Piraeus port, and it is going very well... Piraeus was a big port with huge competitiveness problems and now is one of the most competitive ports in Europe, so I think it was a successful investment."

MOTIVE BEHIND "CHINA THREAT"

As a matter of fact, the United States has also benefited from Chinese companies' investments in port management. Since 2002, COSCO Group has been an important customer and partner of Boston Port, and practical cooperation between both sides during the past 20 years has not only saved 9,000 jobs in Boston Port, but also created 400,000 more new jobs.

Mike Meyran, director of the Boston Port Authority, said that the Boston Port "is a perfect example of U.S.-China economic and trade cooperation."

However, some U.S. politicians and media have been wilfully neglecting these positive exchanges between their country and China, and have been continuing to churn out various versions of the "China threat" for many years, as a result of "the hegemonic behavior and deep-rooted militaristic thinking of the United States in the past hundred years," said Wang.

Yet these allegations are increasingly losing appeal. Even Americans are now beginning to see the truth. "Do you know how many military bases we have surrounding China? Three hundred and thirteen. Americans need to wake up. It is a different world. We have about 750 military installations in 80 countries," U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson said recently.

"Look at how the rest of the world sees this. Do you think that they see China as a greater military threat to global security or the United States as a greater military threat to global security?" she asked.

The motive behind the U.S. exaggerations is "to sow discord and undermine the mutually beneficial cooperative relations between China and relevant countries," Wang said.

In the context of a serious decline in the United States' ocean transportation capacity, the U.S. playing up this new version of "China threat" is only meant to intimidate countries that accept Chinese port investments into giving up or weakening their cooperation with the Chinese side, with the intent to hurt China and hurt the investment target countries for its own benefit, Wang noted. Enditem

(Xinhua reporters Jiang Chao in Islamabad, Du Zheyu in Berlin and Chen Zhanjie in Rome contributed to the story.)
(Tribune News Service)  A Russian court sentenced opposition leader Alexey Navalny to another 19 years in prison after convicting him of extremism, a decision he had earlier described as Stalinist.

The closed hearing Friday held inside a strict-regime prison found President Vladimir Putins most outspoken critic guilty of charges of founding an extremist group and six other related counts. The judge ordered the new term also to be served in a strict-regime prison.

Navalny, 47, had predicted a huge sentence, what they call a Stalinist sentence in a statement on his website the day before the verdict. He said he also expected prosecutors to open a case accusing him of terrorism soon as well, aimed at keeping him in prison for a further 10 years.

Hes already serving a nine-year term for fraud and contempt of court that was imposed after he returned to Russia in early 2021. Navalny had received treatment in Germany for a nerve-agent poisoning in Siberia that he and Western governments blamed on the Kremlin. Russian authorities denied responsibility.

Navalny and his supporters have continued to face a relentless crackdown by the authorities since Putin ordered the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Putin is trying to intimidate millions by imposing harsh sentences on opposition activists, Navalny wrote to his supporters. When the sentence is announced, please think about only one, really important thought  what else can I personally do to resist?

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BANJA LUKA, Bosnia-Herzegovina  Serbia will ignore U.S. sanctions recently imposed on top Bosnian Serb officials for undermining a 1995 peace agreement that ended a war that left more than 100,000 dead and millions homeless, the Serbian president said Friday.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said that the sanctioned ethnic Serb officials from neighboring Bosnia will still be welcome in Serbia.

"The Republic of Serbia will treat the sanctions as if they do not exist," Vucic said, during a visit to the Serb region of Bosnia. "It is hard, but that's the only possible decision."

The four Bosnian Serb officials sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury on Monday include Zeljka Cvijanovic, a Serb member of the tripartite collective Bosnian presidency, as well as the prime minister of the Serb entity in Bosnia, Radovan Viskovic. The separatist leader of the Bosnian Serb entity, Milorad Dodik, has earlier been sanctioned by the United States.

The four are alleged to have taken part in drafting a law that U.S. and other international officials say undermines the unity of Bosnia by ignoring the decisions of the country's constitutional court.

The Bosnian Serb parliament has passed the law to not recognize or implement any decisions by Bosnia's multi-ethnic Constitutional Court, which is seen as another of the leadership's attempts to separate from the fragile Bosnian federation.

Dodik, the Bosnian Serb leader, mirrored Vucic's allegations at a joint news conference, saying the U.S. sanctions are aimed against Serbs in general and that Washington has always led "anti-Serb" policies.

The U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo rejected such allegations, saying in a statement that they were a conspiracy theory about "some imaginary anti-Serb policy."

"The truth is that the United States Government sanctioned these individuals because their actions threatened the stability, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, not because of their ethnicity," the statement said.

The Bosnian War started in 1992, pitting mostly Muslim Bosniaks, Serbs, and Croats against each other. It ended with the U.S.-sponsored Dayton accords that created two regions, the Republika Srpska and the Bosniak-Croat Federation.

"When the most powerful country in the world imposes sanctions against you, it is something that we should be worried about," Vucic said, adding that the "inappropriate and underserved" sanctions "produce wrong effects."

The U.S. recently also imposed sanctions on the pro-Russian head of Serbia's security agency, Aleksandar Vulin, accusing him of involvement in illegal arms shipments, drug trafficking and misuse of public office.

There are widespread fears that Serbia, an ally of Russia, could inflame tensions in the Balkans to divert at least some of the world attention from the war in Ukraine.

Serbian populist leader Vucic on Friday attended in the Bosnian Serb entity commemorations for tens of thousands Serbs who in 1995 fled Croatia after a Croatian military offensive that marked the end of the war.

The Croatian "Operation Storm," which started on August 4, 1995, saw the Croatian Army liberate a large part of the Croatian territory that had been under the control of rebel Serbs since 1991.

Croatian forces achieved their military goals in just three days, ousting the rebel Serbs' unrecognized statelet, the Republic of Serbian Krajina. The anniversary is marked each year in Croatia as a national triumph, with mainstream media echoing the celebratory patriotic theme.

Among Serbs however, the narrative is very different. Operation Storm is seen by Serbs and their officials as a tragedy because it caused a huge exodus of Serb civilians from Croatia; several hundred Serbs were killed in the operation.

Adding to the simmering ethnic tensions in Bosnia nearly 30 years after the wars ended, Serb officials have decided to hold the exodus commemorations in the northern Bosnian town of Prijedor, where thousands of Bosniaks and Croats were killed during the Bosnian war, many in infamous prison camps set up by the Bosnian Serbs.

In their fiery speeches later Friday in Prijedor, both Vucic and Dodik launched into an anti-Western narrative, saying the "biggest exodus since World War II" was the result of a "joint criminal enterprise" of the U.S. and Croatia, and pledged that Serbia would never allow such a tragedy to happen again.
The Afghan villager was afraid the American soldiers might come. And one cool night in fall, as his children lay asleep, helicopters roared overhead.

At the first sound of gunshots, he yelled for his wife and 10 children to take cover. His young daughter grabbed her sleeping infant sister off the bed. Their mud compound exploded, and a blast sent a huge shock through the home.

"My small sister fell away from my arms," the girl, now a teenager, whispered, so quietly she could barely be heard above the breeze. "The wind blew her out of my hands."

Today, what exactly happened that night is at the center of a bitter international custody dispute over an orphaned baby found amid the rubble. The high-profile legal battle pits an Afghan family against an American one, and has drawn responses from the White House and the Taliban.

The Afghan government and the International Committee of the Red Cross determined that the baby belonged to this Afghan villager. Friends and family say he was a farmer, not a militant. The Red Cross found surviving relatives, and united her with them.

However, a U.S. Marine attorney, Maj. Joshua Mast, believed he should get the girl instead. He insists that the child is the stateless orphan of foreign fighters who were living in an al-Qaida compound, and convinced a rural Virginia judge to grant him an adoption from 7,000 miles away.

Were it not for this little girl, now 4 years old, the events that began on the night of September 5, 2019, in this remote, impoverished region might have remained locked away among clandestine stories of the thousands of raids the American and Afghan militaries carried out during the long war. But once-secret documents, now filed in court records, reveal details that thrust this raid into an ongoing controversy over who the military killed when they blew down walls in the middle of the night in Afghanistan, if those people were fighters or civilians, and whether the military ever tried to find out.

The Mast family has submitted a summary of the raid in a federal court case, an account Joshua Mast helped create after he said he "personally read every page of the 150+ classified documents" on the operation. The summary describes how as many as six enemy fighters were killed and possibly one civilian. The only child the document mentions is the injured baby.

But survivors and villagers who pulled bodies from the rubble told The Associated Press that more than 20 people were killed that night. Among them were this local farmer, his wife and five of their children, ages 4 to 15. The villagers said that after the raid, they also found four more of the farmer's children  three girls and a boy  covered in dirt, crying amid flames and ruins.

Attorneys for the federal government said the summary the Mast family submitted in court was written on "purported" military letterhead and "does not appear to have been created or endorsed by the Department of Defense." Nonetheless, they asked the court to seal it because they claim it contains government information the public should not see.

"The 'mission summary' document was created by Major Mast in 2019 for use in his efforts to adopt the Afghan child, using his access to United States government information that he obtained through his Department of Defense employment, but does not necessarily reflect accurate or complete information," a Defense Department official told the AP.

The military refuses to talk about its own account of the raid, and asked the AP to instead use a redacted version that blacks out certain details, including any reference to civilian deaths. Several soldiers involved in the raid, who have testified in locked-door state court hearings about what happened there, declined to comment, and what they said on the witness stand remains sealed.

The total cost of the war in civilian lives is impossible to pin down. The Defense Department estimates 48,000 Afghan civilians were killed and at least 75,000 injured between 2001 and 2021, though the agency acknowledges the true toll is likely significantly higher.

Night raids have long been a particularly controversial tactic, said Patricia Gossman, associate Asia director at Human Rights Watch. Military investigations into who was killed in night raids were rare, and even more rarely made public. Gossman said a representative of the U.S. military told her American soldiers hardly ever returned to the scene of a raid to see if civilians were killed.

"They said to us, 'We can't, we can't go back there because we'd be a target,'" Gossman recalled. "But then how do you ever know?"

The AP spoke with 12 villagers who described what happened on the night of Sept. 5, 2019, including four who said they were the orphan's siblings and uncles. The AP has agreed not to name the village or the family out of fear of tribal conflict and retaliation from the Taliban, who now rule the country. But neighbors said they never saw anyone return to account for the dead and injured, including the children, or to verify if they were militants.

The farmer's brother-in-law wept as he walked around the site of the raid, pointing out where he had found his surviving nephews and nieces and the mutilated corpses of his loved ones. He showed the AP where they lived, where they made fires, where they sat, where they ate. The farmer was around 55 or 60, grew mung beans, corn and wheat, and was poor but generous enough to share any money he had, the brother-in-law said.

"Now that I come here and look at these places, they do not leave my eyes," he said. "My heart is very sad."

THE FOREIGNERS NEXT DOOR

Here in this rugged desert, families live among the ruins of a 20-year war  rusted tanks, bombed-out houses, bullet-riddled buildings.

Dust kicks up from the wheels of motorcycles on dirt paths, where squat mud homes blend into mountains that stretch for miles in every direction. It is a hard life: There are no paved roads, no running water or electricity, no bathrooms or cell service.

While locals said their tiny village was not targeted by the American military before September 2019, they feared the air strikes, night raids and fierce fighting decimating communities around them. Many raids happened in places like this  hard-to-reach outposts, far from city-based media outlets and human rights organizations that might look into civilian deaths.

About 200 people scratch out a living raising animals and farming on the green fertile patch of land alongside the river. The farmer and his family tended to their goats and sheep in the courtyard of their home, villagers said.

The home was a windowless one-story compound of mud and straw. Like many in this conservative region, women stayed within the walls for most of their lives.

Years and ages can be difficult to calculate in Afghanistan, which uses different calendars than much of the world, but neighbors said the farmer and his family had lived there for a long time.

Neighbor Abdul Khaliq said he had known the farmer for more than 20 years, and described him as kind and amiable. "He was a very good person," Khaliq said.

The farmer's wife was younger, around 40, and they'd been married for about 25 years. She was the daughter of an imam at a local mosque, and remained close to her family. She had a sense of humor  her brother said she would laugh as she teased him for not visiting often enough.

There is no way the AP could independently verify who the baby's parents were. Identification documents such as birth certificates aren't issued in this remote region  especially for women and girls  and few have cell phones or cameras. The AP has located no records of the birth of the farmer's baby or photographs of her with the family before the raid.

The Afghan government claimed the child, and the U.S. government agreed that the girl, who is referred to in court records as "Baby Doe," belonged to an Afghan family: "Baby Doe is a citizen of Afghanistan with biological family in Afghanistan," attorneys for the federal government wrote in court filings.

But the Masts strongly disagree. Several foreign families arrived in the village around 2017 and settled into a home next to the Afghan farmer and his family, neighbors said. These men, women and children shared a wall, but kept to themselves and spoke an unfamiliar language, villagers told the AP.

The light-skinned, bearded foreigners were a source of gossip. Some neighbors speculated they were from another, faraway Afghan province, or Turkey, or "the West."

Local mechanic Abdul Rahim, 25, said the foreigners often brought their cars, trucks and motorcycles to be fixed at his shop. No matter where they came from, one thing was clear to Rahim: They liked their weapons. They'd clean their guns while he fixed their cars.

"I tried very hard to talk to them, but I couldn't understand the language," Rahim said. "There was never a fight or quarrel with them."

In Afghanistan, hospitality is of foremost importance, and nobody confronted the visiting foreigners. The locals said they were friendly, but cautious.

The farmer told his brother-in-law he was considering moving his family to another relative's house nearby. He was frightened that the military might come for the foreigners so close to his home.

"THERE WERE RED FIRES"

The day of the raid unfolded like any other; the family fed corn and grass to the animals in the morning and cooked potatoes for lunch. They had no idea that U.S. and Afghan forces were loading up in helicopters to head toward their village.

The soldiers were targeting three men in two compounds believed to be al-Qaida-affiliated fighters from neighboring Turkmenistan, according to the summary the Masts submitted in court. As soldiers approached, they called out, offering the people inside a chance to surrender, according to the summary. One man was detained.

Rahim, the local mechanic, said he had just fallen asleep under a tree outside a friend's home when he heard someone shouting in Pashto, "stop, don't run." Awakening beside him, Mohammad Zaman remembers door-to-door knocks with orders "not to move" and "not to run." The friends lay still, even as wind from a helicopter shook the branches and leaves above them, Zaman said.

Then gunfire erupted. A barricaded shooter opened fire on the attacking troops, according to the summary. He was killed, but there were multiple shooters firing: a barrage of gunshots and grenades continued to pour out of the building. Attorneys representing Mast family members say the Americans suffered numerous injuries.

Joshua Mast was not at the raid. In emails filed in federal court, he said the baby was in the room with the fighters shooting at soldiers. He wrote that her biological father blew himself up with a suicide vest, just a few feet away from her.

U.S. troops blasted a hole in a wall and tossed in grenades, according to the summary. Next door to the foreigners' home, the farmer's family was woken up by the noise, the surviving children said. The son said his father shouted at the children to get to another room, but he didn't know where he should run. His sister grabbed the baby.

The blast that blew apart the walls of their home was so powerful that to this day, villagers believe the military dropped a bomb.

"Get out of this place," the sister heard her father shout. Then came gunshots, she said. His shouting stopped. She dropped the baby.

The mangled bodies of her father and siblings lay on the floor, the girl said. Their father's motorcycle exploded into flames that spread and engulfed them.

"There were soldiers, there were bombs.there were red fires," said the sister, her eyes darting, her voice shaking.

She burned her shoulder, hand and head. She ran and hid among the animals until the shooting stopped.

Neighbors said the assault lasted until early the next morning. Green smoke lingered in the air, along with the smell of gunpowder and burned bodies.

Soldiers found an injured woman and tried to save her life, but couldn't, Mast's summary says. They spotted a wounded baby nearby and assumed the dead woman was her mother.

The American soldiers took the baby.

A MISSING BABY GIRL

After the helicopters flew away and it grew quiet, neighbors say they ventured out of their homes and walked toward the flames. They called out, doubting anyone had survived.

That's when they said they heard the cries.

Four of the farmer's children had survived, so covered with dust and dirt they were almost unrecognizable, said neighbor Rahim. They staggered out of what once was their home, reduced to flames and ashes littered with charred corpses and limbs. It was difficult to tell who was alive and who was dead, Rahim said.

A little boy had been hit in his belly by a metal fragment, and wailed that his family was killed, his uncle remembers.

The stench from the bodies was overwhelming, so villagers scooped up the children and drove the injured to a government hospital. The boy would remain there for a month.

"It was a very bad scene. There was nothing left," Rahim said. "The houses were blown away, and every dead body was under the soil."

As neighbors wept and pulled bodies from the rubble, people poured in from neighboring towns to help, villagers recalled. Soon everyone from the home was accounted for, either living or dead  except for one. They could not find the baby girl.

They dug through the dirt floor of the home with shovels and their hands. They moved furniture and soil. They were worried that surely the baby  only 40 days old  was stuck under the earth or the debris and just too small to find.

But she was gone.

A CHILD'S FATE IN LIMBO

The farmer, his wife and their five children were buried in a row in the family graveyard, where generations of kin had been laid to rest. Villagers said more than 100 people came to help dig their graves in the hard ground.

They buried the foreigners  more than a dozen men, women and children  in two other cemeteries.

The farmer's family says they were not fighters. If true, the American military might never have known that  during raids, they believed they were going in on hostile operations, and often assumed everyone there was a threat, said Erica Gaston, a human rights researcher who worked for years in Afghanistan with several advocacy groups.

"Often that creates a bias where there's just a presumption that the people that were hit were, you know, quote unquote, all bad guys," said Gaston. "And civilians very often tell a different story.that they hit the wrong house."

In the village, survivors continued to search for the farmer's missing baby, visiting a U.S. military base, going to government offices and talking to the International Committee of the Red Cross. They heard a baby had been taken by the Americans to a military hospital.

For months, as the girl was treated for a skull fracture, burns and a broken leg, the Afghan government and the Red Cross worked to confirm who she belonged to. In the end, they decided she was the farmer's daughter.

The U.S. State Department wrote in an email to AP earlier this month that it trusted the finding of the Red Cross "through a family trace and verification process, that the child was Afghan, not 'stateless.'" So when the government of Afghanistan requested the child be transferred to its custody to be returned to her family, the U.S. complied.

"We understood at the time that all appropriate procedures had been followed under Afghan law, and that remains our understanding," the State Department wrote.

The Masts argue the Afghan government wrongly linked the child to the family without DNA testing, pictures of her with this family or any documentation connecting her to them.

Joshua Mast's brother, lawyer Richard Mast, is now named in a federal lawsuit filed by the Afghan family that alleges the Masts fraudulently claimed the child was "stateless" in their quest to adopt her. Richard Mast's lawyer, David Yerushalmi, questioned why an innocent farmer would be "living in the same compound as heavily armed foreign fighters." He said there is no proof the orphan belonged to the farmer in the first place.

But the Masts' efforts to stop the U.S. government from turning her over failed, and the child was taken to the farmer's brother. Since he couldn't afford to take care of her, he gave her to his son and daughter-in-law, who were better off, educated newlyweds living in the city. They gladly agreed to raise her as their own.

"They are her parents," the uncle told AP.

Over the next 18 months, as she grew to be a toddler in Afghanistan, Joshua Mast did not give up. He convinced a Virginia state court to grant him an adoption. All he needed was to get her on U.S. soil.

Less than two years after the raid, Mast helped the Afghan couple and the toddler flee as the country collapsed and the Taliban took over. Days after they arrived in the U.S., the Masts worked with federal employees at a refugee resettlement camp to take custody of the child. The Afghan couple are suing to get her back, but she remains in limbo.

Joshua Mast, his lawyer and attorneys representing the Afghan couple did not respond to requests for comment.

Meanwhile, in remote Afghanistan, the farmer's surviving family is haunted by all they saw, and all they lost. When his brother-in-law sees his nephew smile, he thinks of how his sister, now dead, would laugh when he teased her.

"God will make him grow," he said, "he will bring life to this house."

The boy continues to struggle and finds it hard to be around other families. When asked if he remembered his parents, he began to cry. He bit his lip and looked away.

The girl who dropped her baby sister is tormented by ghosts. When she speaks to strangers covered in a shawl, she is so small and frail that it seems to swallow her. She fidgets nervously with the hem.

She could speak perfectly before the soldiers came that night, but now she stutters.

"My life is sad, my heart is sad, and I miss my parents," she said. "I see this attack every night.it comes to me in my dreams."
The man who organized lawsuits that led the Supreme Court to reject race-based affirmative action in college admissions announced a new target Thursday: military service academies.

Edward Blum, president of Students for Fair Admissions, announced the launch of a website called WestPointNotFair that aims to gather information from applicants who were rejected by the U.S. Military Academy, the U.S. Naval Academy and the U.S. Air Force Academy. All three of those military institutions have considered race alongside numerous other factors, including academic credentials and leadership qualities, in their competitive admissions.

It is the hope of Students for Fair Admissions that the service academies will soon end the use of racial classifications and preferences in their admissions policies, the organization said in a statement. Failure to do so may result in polarizing litigation.

In late June, the Supreme Court ruled that race-conscious admissions programs at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill violated equal protection guarantees under the Constitution. The ruling affects colleges and universities across the country and is expected to prevent admissions officers from considering race as a separate factor in their decision-making.

A footnote in the ruling also carved out an apparent exception for the military academies in West Point, N.Y., Annapolis, Md., and Colorado Springs. The ruling, written by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., noted that the Biden administration had argued race-based admissions programs furthered compelling interests at the academies.

No military academy is a party to these cases, however, and none of the courts below addressed the propriety of race-based admissions systems in that context, the footnote said. This opinion also does not address the issue, in light of the potentially distinct interests that military academies may present.

For the academies, which educate and train future military officers, racial diversity is a crucial matter. Military leaders want to ensure, as much as possible, that officers reflect the diversity of the nation and enlisted forces.

Federal education data shows that the share of cadets at West Point who identify with a racial or ethnic minority group rose from 20 percent in 2000 to 36 percent in 2021. There were similar demographic trends at the Naval and Air Force academies.

The Biden administration has argued that diversity within the officer corps is a critical national security imperative and that race-conscious admissions is an essential tool for meeting that goal.

How the academies will respond to the court ruling is not yet clear.

Were currently assessing the decision and its potential impacts on our practices, Air Force Academy spokesman Dean J. Miller wrote in an email Thursday.

The Naval Academys public affairs office said in a statement: Historically, race has been one of many non-determinative factors (such as geographic and socio-educational backgrounds, work experience, STEM interest/propensity, etc.) considered when holistically evaluating candidates for appointment consideration. The statement did not say whether there would be changes in the admissions process.

The media office at West Point did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Blums announcement does not necessarily mean a lawsuit against the academies is imminent. Even if a suit were filed, it would likely take years to work its way through the courts. In previous cases, he has first sought examples of rejected applicants who would have standing to challenge the policy in court. His message Thursday appears to replicate that strategy.

Blum, 71, who is White and lives in Maine, is a longtime opponent of racial preferences.

Looking beyond the service academies, Blum said, the mission of Students for Fair Admissions is shifting.

Compliance is the next big task here, he said. SFFA really will evolve into a watchdog group more than a litigation group. If we find that a university is skirting the ruling, literally going over the bright lines and violating what we think should be the proper admissions processes, then we will sue.
WASHINGTON  The White House on Thursday said U.S. intelligence officials have determined that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu spoke last week to North Korean officials during a visit to Pyongyang about increasing the sale of munitions to Moscow for its war in Ukraine.

Shoigu made the pitch during his visit to North Korea for events marking the 70th anniversary of the armistice that halted fighting in the 1950-53 Korean War, according to White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby. Russian President Vladimir Putin dispatched Shoigu to lead the Russian delegation for the commemoration.

The Biden administration says Shoigu's pitch to tighten cooperation with North Korea underscored that the Kremlin has become reliant on the country, as well as Iran, for the arms it needs to fight its war against Ukraine. North Korea and Iran are largely isolated on the international stage for their nuclear programs and human rights records.

"This is yet another example of how desperate Mr. Putin has become because his war machine is being affected by the sanctions and the export controls," Kirby said. "He is going through a vast amount of inventory to try to subjugate Ukraine, and he's reaching out to countries like North Korea, like Iran, and certainly he's been trying to reach out to China to get support for his war machine."

In March, the White House said it had gathered intelligence that showed that Russia was looking to broker a food-for-arms deal with North Korea, in which Moscow would provide the North with needed food and other commodities in return for munitions from Pyongyang,

Late last year, the White House said it had determined that the Wagner Group, a private Russian military company, had taken delivery of an arms shipment from North Korea to help bolster its forces fighting in Ukraine on behalf of Russia.

Both North Korea and Russia have previously denied the U.S. allegations about weapons. North Korea, however, has sided with Russia over the war in Ukraine, insisting that the "hegemonic policy" of the U.S.-led West has forced Moscow to take military action to protect its security interests.

The Biden administration says the Kremlin's reliance on North Korea and Iran shows Russia's desperation.

The White House says Iran has been a crucial supplier of attack drones for Russia as the war in Ukraine grinds on and Moscow has had to maneuver around sanctions that keep it from obtaining sophisticated parts to build and sustain its weapons supply.

The United States long has been concerned that China may provide weapons to Russia. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned earlier this year that U.S. intelligence showed Beijing was weighing it. But U.S. officials have said that, to date, they do not believe China has provided Moscow with weapons.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping promised Russian President Vladimir Putin a partnership with "no limits" when they met just weeks before Putin sent his troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.

The Biden administration has repeatedly released intelligence findings over the course of the war that aim to demonstrate Russia has limited options to help it resupply weapons.
WASHINGTON  China is expanding its influence into Latin America and the Caribbean, and it could present increasingly greater threats to the United States, the top U.S. military commander for the region said Friday.

The importance of the region cannot be overstated, said Army Gen. Laura Richardson, who leads U.S. Southern Command. [Chinas reach] is absolutely global and right under our nose and so close to our homeland.

Last year, President Joe Bidens National Security Strategy and the Pentagons National Defense Strategy identified China as the No. 1 global pacing challenge for the United States and repeatedly warned of rising Chinese influence  primarily in the Indo-Pacific region. But officials also warned China is becoming a greater threat in Latin America by spending large amounts of money in the region.

They are on the 20-yard line to our homeland, Richardson said, noting recent Chinese investments in the region on 5G cellular networks, deep-water ports and space-related infrastructure.

What usually happens is [Latin American countries] are offered almost a zero-cost upgrade to the 5G, so its really hard for these leaders [to resist], she said. We need to be able to have alternative options for them to be able to select. And thats where were being outcompeted by the Chinese right now.

As many as 29 countries in Latin America have upgraded cellular networks with help from China, Richardson said.

U.S. concerns about Chinas global expansion have escalated in 2023. In February, the U.S. military shot down what officials called a Chinese surveillance balloon after it floated across a large swath of the United States. The Pentagon later said the airship was one of many balloons that China has used in recent years to carry out surveillance activities around the world. Officials also said China had previously floated other balloons over the U.S. going back to former President Donald Trumps administration. Just days after the balloon was shot down off the U.S. East Coast, another Chinese balloon was spotted over Colombia and Costa Rica. In both cases, China denied the objects were spy balloons.

Richardson, who in 2021 became the first woman to lead SOUTHCOM, said Chinas Belt and Road Initiative  a large-scale project to engage economically with dozens of countries and organizations around the world on infrastructure and trade  has been a major reason why Beijing has been able to gain so much power in South and Central America. The National Bureau of Asian Research said a few years ago that the Chinese initiative had potential to partner them with more than 60 countries, influence more than 4 billion people and affect almost half of the global economy. Last year, the British-based Centre for Economics and Business Research said it expects the initiative to expand the global economy by $7.1 trillion annually by 2040.

According to the Council on Foreign Relations, a New York-based think tank, China already has surpassed the United States as South Americas largest trading partner.

The United States and its allies fear that Beijing is using these relationships to pursue its geopolitical goals, including the further isolation of Taiwan, and to bolster authoritarian regimes such as those in Cuba and Venezuela, the council said in June. President Joe Biden, who sees China as a strategic competitor in the region, has pledged greater economic cooperation with Latin America, but some analysts argue the United States should be doing more.

Part of the reason so many Latin American and Caribbean countries are signing on to the Chinese project, Richardson said, is because they have no alternative. Often, she said, these countries cannot afford to turn down the billions of dollars offered by China. Some of the largest investments so far include an $8 billion nuclear power plant in Argentina, a $5.6 billion highway in Jamaica, a $5 billion energy refinery in Cuba and $6 billion worth of projects near the Panama Canal.

When you are desperate for help, youre going to turn to whoever is there. If someone throws you a rope, you dont necessarily look at whos giving you the rope. You just grab it, Richardson said. So, we need to have alternatives to [China].

Other elements in Latin America and the Caribbean that are compounding the national security concerns, she said, are transnational criminal organizations that are heavily involved in drug and human trafficking.

They stir the pot and make things very insecure; they scare the populations, and that allows China to come in, she said. These countries  are still digging out from [the coronavirus pandemic]. And when you talk about an 8% to 18% drop in gross domestic product, its huge. So, we have got to be there.

Richardsons predecessor, Adm. Craig Faller, voiced similar warnings when he was in charge of SOUTHCOM.

We are losing our positional advantage in this hemisphere and immediate action is needed to reverse this trend, he said two years ago. We have seen many of these same tactics in Asia and Africa over the last few decades and we are well aware of the results. We must act now to avoid those same results in our own hemisphere.

Richardson, 59, has been in command of SOUTHCOM since late 2021 and has held several other commands, including Army North, Army Forces Command and the Army Office of the Chief Legislative Liaison. She joined the Army in 1986 and became a Black Hawk helicopter pilot and was a military aide to Vice President Al Gore from 1999 to 2001. She was awarded several medals, including the Bronze Star and Legion of Merit.
Two U.S. military veterans were killed in a drone attack in Ukraine last month after volunteering to fight invading Russian forces alongside Ukrainian troops, according to the State Department and those who served with the men.

Andrew Irvin Webber, a former Army officer, and Lance Lawrence, a former machine gunner in the Marine Corps, died during a military operation in eastern Ukraine on July 29. The State Department on Friday confirmed the deaths of two unnamed American citizens in Ukraine that day.

The veterans are the latest casualties of a war that is believed to have claimed at least 16 American lives, though no official count is available.

Ryan OLeary, an American who said he is serving as a company sergeant with the Ukrainian ground forces, tweeted Lawrence had been providing cover for fellow soldiers under heavy enemy fire when he was killed.

Lance was enlisted into the Ukrainian armed forces, OLeary wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. He was not a mercenary out for blood or excited for combat. He came because he thought what was happening in Ukraine by Russia was wrong.

A man from southern Florida who said he was wounded in the same operation that killed the veterans described Lawrence as one of the hardest-charging dudes Ive ever known who never failed to brighten the moods of anyone and everyone around him.

Lance was an integral part of Chosen Company, our friend, and our family, wrote the man using the X handle @floridasoldat. I wish I couldve done something differently during the operation and have you still here with us. Im proud to have called you a brother in arms, and a brother forever.

He said Chosen Company is not part of the International Legion, a unit for foreign fighters within the Ukrainian military but is instead one element of Ukraines 59th Motorized Brigade. The formation was activated shortly after Russias first invasion of the country in 2014.

Lawrence joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 2013 and achieved the rank of private first class after serving for three years, according to Capt. Ryan Bruce, a spokesman for the Marine Corps. He deployed to the Red Sea and Mediterranean Sea in 2015 and last served with the 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division at Camp Lejeune, N.C.

His awards included a National Defense Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, Sea Service Deployment Ribbon and Navy Meritorious Unit Commendation, according to Bruce.

Webber enlisted in the Ukrainian armed forces in May, volunteering with the 59th Motorized Brigade, according to his LinkedIn page. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., in 2005 and served in the Army as a chemical officer and infantry officer for a decade.

He deployed to Iraq and twice to Afghanistan and held the rank of captain at the end of service, according to Heather Hagan, an Army spokeswoman. His numerous awards include a Bronze Star medal and a Purple Heart.

Webber earned a law degree from Northwestern University after leaving the military and was working as a corporate attorney in Seattle when he decided to go to Ukraine.

He was a veteran education mentor, a relentless patriot and a defender of freedom who valued justice and liberty for others just as much as his own life, wrote Kristen Edwards, the organizer of an online fundraiser for Webbers family.

Webber leaves behind a wife and two young daughters.

OLeary, the sergeant in Ukraine, said Webber brought a lot of knowledge and experience to planning operations and was a cool head in the thick of battle.

His smile, humor, and caringness will be missed, OLeary wrote on X.

The volunteer from Florida said Webber was fighting for the people of Ukraine, who he loved dearly.

The obligation to put his life on the line to help others in need was in Andrews blood, he wrote on X. Compassionate and kindhearted to the core, and a warrior through and through. He died a hero, he died our brother, and he will remain both forever.

The State Department said it is in touch with the families of both men and is providing all possible consular assistance.

The U.S. government has repeatedly advised Americans from traveling to Ukraine to fight in the large-scale war launched by Russia last year. The warnings have not stopped Americans, especially former service members, from taking up arms on behalf of Ukrainians.




* Over the past few days, Beijing has seen the heaviest rainfall since records began 140 years ago.

* The torrential rains and massive floods have left 11 dead in Beijing and 9 dead in Hebei Province.

* Authorities are mobilizing an all-out effort to safeguard the people from the impact of disasters.

BEIJING, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- In response to the torrential rainstorms and floods that have wreaked havoc in Beijing and its surrounding regions, authorities are mobilizing an all-out effort to safeguard the people from the impact of disasters.

Over the past few days, Beijing has seen the heaviest rainfall since records began 140 years ago. It logged 744.8 millimeters of rain, the maximum amount of precipitation recorded during the rainstorm, between 8 p.m. Saturday and 7 a.m. Wednesday at a suburban reservoir.

The torrential rains brought by a typhoon and the massive floods triggered by the rains have left 11 dead in Beijing and 9 dead in neighboring Hebei Province.

Statistics released on Tuesday showed that over 44,000 people in Beijing were affected by the disasters and 127,000 people had been evacuated. In Hebei, over 1.2 million people had been evacuated as of Wednesday.

Rescuers transfer an injured villager in Shuiyuzui Village in flood-hit Mentougou District, Beijing, capital of China, Aug. 1, 2023. (Xinhua/Ju Huanzong)

In the port city of Tianjin, local authorities have evacuated about 66,000 people and taken measures to brace for flooding from upstream rivers.

Mentougou and Fangshan districts in southern and western Beijing were the hardest-hit areas in the national capital. Floods have cut off roads, washed away vehicles, and damaged a bridge near the Lugou Bridge.

More than 2,000 members of the armed police force in Beijing have been dispatched to a township in Fangshan to assist with rescue and relief efforts. Amidst the relentless downpour, they were seen diligently wielding shovels and operating heavy equipment like bulldozers and loaders to construct a protective dam in the low areas of the riverbed, effectively mitigating the threat of flooding.

On Tuesday, police helicopters delivered emergency relief supplies such as food, medicine and water to affected areas of Beijing.

Earlier on Wednesday noon, the police helicopter dispatched by the Beijing municipal government rescued six trapped and injured people in Changping District.

In Mentougou, an elementary school has been converted to a temporary relief camp, providing shelters for over 100 residents evacuated from the floods.

Li Xuemei, a community worker and head of the relief camp, said local authorities had allocated separate rooms for pregnant women and parents with babies.

"We have kept records of everyone's information, and provided them with food and health care," she said. "Electricity supply and telecommunication remain unaffected."

"We feel reassured after the evacuation," said Peng Zengying, as she fed an egg to her one-year-old baby. "A doctor came to check on the baby. And the room is equipped with a kettle, which makes it convenient for preparing powdered milk."

On Wednesday morning, Beijing lifted the red alert for flood as the water flow in major rivers has gone below the warning mark.

People take a rescue boat to a transshipment point in Fangshan District of Beijing, capital of China, Aug. 2, 2023. (Xinhua/Ren Chao)

The city of Zhuozhou is one of the worst-affected areas in Hebei. As of 10 a.m. Tuesday, the floods have affected a total area of 225.38 square kilometers, impacting the lives of 133,913 people.

Local authorities set up 28 emergency rescue teams with a total of 8,755 people to help with the rescue and relief efforts. They worked in collaboration with soldiers stationed there and professional rescue teams.

More than 2,000 relocated people are currently taking shelter at a settlement site in a vocational school in Zhuozhou. In the hallways of the school, some villagers were calling their families to reassure them of their safety, while others were charging the phones using backup batteries.

"I've never seen such massive floods," said 42-year-old Sun Yanhong, who, together with four family members, was among the first group of people relocated from her village. "I feel much assured here. The safety of the family is the most important thing."

Rescuers transfer flood-trapped people in Zhuozhou, north China's Hebei Province, Aug. 2, 2023. (Xinhua/Mu Yu)

Over the past few days, central and local authorities have mobilized various resources at their disposal to accelerate disaster relief and reconstruction.

The Organization Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee has allocated 44 million yuan (about 6.17 million U.S. dollars) in funds to assist with flood control and disaster relief work in Beijing, Hebei and Tianjin.

The department stressed the swift allocation of the fund to the primary level, aiming to support frontline workers and individuals severely affected by the floods, among others.

Soldiers distribute food and water to passengers of Train K396 in Miaofengshan Town of Mentougou District, Beijing, capital of China, Aug. 2, 2023. (Xinhua/Ju Huanzong)

The Chinese government has earmarked 100 million yuan to support post-disaster reconstruction in Beijing and Hebei, the National Development and Reform Commission said on Wednesday.

The funds from the central budget will be used to support the reconstruction of infrastructure and public service facilities in areas that have been hit hard by rainstorms and floods.

In Hebei, the provincial transportation department has dispatched more than 26,000 emergency personnel to help with the relocation of the affected people and the transportation of supplies. As of Wednesday, 512 road sections that were previously damaged by flooding had reopened.

(Video reporters: Yang Shujun, Xia Zilin, Yue Wentin, Liu Runzhi; Video editors: Zhang Qiru, Zhao Xiaoqing, Hui Peipei, Ma Ruxuan, Wang Han) 
The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Friday concluded all appeals pertaining to the Toshakhana case involving former Prime Minister and chairman PTI.

A three-member bench, led by Justice Yahya Afridi, presided over the hearing, during which both the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) representative and PTI chiefs lawyer, Khawaja Haris, presented their arguments before the court.

During the proceedings, the court inquired about the status of a stay order from the high court. Khawaja Haris, representing PTI Chairman, informed the bench that no decision has been issued yet, and the matter remains reserved.

Subsequently, upon PTI Chairmans withdrawal of his plea, the Supreme Court disposed of all petitions related to the Toshakhana case.

In its remarks, the Supreme Court expressed that both the high court and the trial court should uphold the spirit of the law throughout the proceedings.

The court acknowledged that the request to transfer the case to another court is still pending before the high court.

Earlier, the Supreme Court had constituted a fresh three-member bench to preside over the Toshakhana case against former Prime Minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman .

The newly formed bench was headed by Justice Yahya Afridi, with Justice Hasan Azhar Rizvi and Justice Mussarat Hilali as the other two members.

Notably, Justice Hasan Azhar Rizvi has replaced Justice Mazahir Ali Naqvi in the bench.

During the previous hearing, it was announced that the next hearing would be scheduled with an available bench.
The court heard today that Long has 31 previous convictions that span 50 years from 1966 to 2016

James Sheehan (left in photo), Katie Sheehan, grand daughter of Nora Sheehan, and Bernie Sheehan pictured leaving the sentencing of Noel Long Co. Cork at the The Criminal Courts of Justice today. Pic Collins Courts

Cold case killer Noel Long, who this afternoon has been jailed for life, has lived without taking accountability nor "showing an ounce of remorse" for the murder and sexual assault of a vulnerable woman 42 years ago, the victim's family have told the Central Criminal Court.

"We hope you are at peace now mom. We never gave up hoping that one day we would get justice for you and we hope we have done you proud," the family of Nora Sheehan wrote.

The oldest prosecution for murder ever brought in Ireland, which saw the jury weigh evidence that was silent on a cause of death and did not include any evidence from the accused himself or his interactions with gardai, ended this morning with a jury unanimously finding Long guilty.

Nora Sheehan

Katie Sheehan said that her grandmother's life was "taken from her in the cruelest way imaginable" and it was hard to convey in words "the hurt we have carried over four decades, the legacy of which carries on to new generations".

The testimony was heard as part of an emotional victim impact statement read today to the Central Criminal Court by the chief investigating officer in the case, where 74-year-old Noel Long was sentenced to the mandatory term of life imprisonment for murdering Mrs Sheehan. The sentence was backdated for a period of four weeks for the time he previously spent in custody.

Noel Long. Pic: Paddy Cummins

Sentencing judge Mr Justice Paul McDermott said that in cases of this kind, the sentence is mandatory and despite the detailed evidence in the trial and the detailed account of the effect of the crime on the family, what he had to say on the matter was quite short.

The judge said at this stage of the case focus is brought back to the victim of the crime, who had been "eloquently described" in the statement he had received. "Sometimes the family of the victim feels the focus is not as central as they think it should be, but of course it is all about the victim and how Nora Sheehan came to meet her death," he said. He sympathised with the Sheehan family and extended his condolences to them.

The court heard today that Long has 31 previous convictions that span 50 years from 1966 to 2016; 27 of those are for offences committed in Ireland and four are in the UK. These include six counts for common assault, four counts for burglary and a large number of road traffic convictions.

Detective Inspector Eamonn Brady said Long received a 12-month sentence from Cork Circuit Court in December 1971 for assault with intent to ravish, attempted carnal knowledge and common assault. He said Long's most recent conviction was from Cork Circuit Court for assault causing harm on February 11, 2014 in Cork city. The court heard the four convictions in the UK were from the 1960's, when Long served in the British Army with The Royal Irish Rangers.

Long, with an address at Maulbawn, Passage West, Co Cork had pleaded not guilty to murdering 54-year-old Mrs Sheehan between June 6 and June 12, 1981 at an unknown place within the State. Her naked and bruised body was found by forestry workers at The Viewing Point, Shippool Woods in Cork six days after she went missing.

Katie Sheehan, grand daughter of Nora Sheehan, James Sheehan and Bernie Sheehan comfort one another outside The Criminal Courts of Justice today. Pic Collins Courts

Earlier, Det Insp Brady, from Macroom Garda Station, told Brendan Grehan SC, prosecuting, that matters had commenced a long time before his involvement in the investigation when Mrs Sheehan's body was discovered in Shippool Woods on June 12, 1981. He said Long became a suspect and was arrested in relation to another matter on June 16, 1981 and questioned over the course of a number of days and subsequently on July 6, 1981.

As a result of the directions of the then Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Eamonn Barnes, Long was charged with the murder of Mrs Sheehan and brought before the District Court in Cork on July 7, 1981. He was admitted on bail two weeks later on July 18, said the Inspector.

The witness agreed with Mr Grehan that the pathologist who carried out the postmortem on the body of Mrs Sheehan died on August 5, 1981. The Inspector also agreed that as a result, the DPP decided this was an "insurmountable obstacle" in pursuing the murder charge, leading to its withdrawal on November 10, 1981.

Mr Grehan said due to a change in the science of DNA Long was charged again with the murder of Mrs Sheehan on June 28, 2022 and was granted bail by the High Court on July 7 of that year.

The barrister said that Long was married with small children in June 1981 but he and his wife later separated. Long has been in a new relationship for the past 25 years, he said.

The trial, which began on July 13, heard evidence that a partial DNA profile generated from semen found in the body of Nora Sheehan and preserved for decades had matched DNA found on clothing taken from Long in 2021. There was also evidence that Long had been in the same area as Mrs Sheehan when she went missing, that fibres recovered from the victim matched those taken from the carpeting of Long's car and that paint fragments removed from the victim's clothing also matched paint taken from the same vehicle.
Long, a former British Army soldier with an address at Maulbawn, Passage West, Co Cork had pleaded not guilty to murdering 54-year-old Mrs Sheehan between June 6 and June 12, 1981

The State has been successful in pursuing the oldest murder prosecution in Irish history with a jury this morning finding a 74-year-old sex offender guilty of murdering vulnerable Cork woman Nora Sheehan 42 years ago.

The panel of seven men and four women unanimously accepted the prosecution case that Noel Long, who has a 1972 conviction for sexual offending and multiple previous assault convictions, is guilty of murder. The jury agreed with the State's case that the evidence in the trial all pointed to the "inescapable conclusion" that the mother-of-three had met her death in June 1981 at the hands of Long.

The 11 jurors rejected the defence put forward by Long's legal team, who had argued that the State had failed to prove the intent required for murder and that in those circumstances, the most they could consider was a verdict of manslaughter.

The trial, which began on July 13, heard evidence that a partial DNA profile generated from semen found in the body of Mrs Sheehan and preserved for decades had matched DNA found on clothing taken from Long in 2021.

There was also evidence that Long had been in the same area as Mrs Sheehan when she went missing, that fibres recovered from the victim matched those taken from the carpeting of Long's car and that paint fragments removed from the victim's clothing also matched paint taken from the same vehicle.

Long, a former British Army soldier with an address at Maulbawn, Passage West, Co Cork had pleaded not guilty to murdering 54-year-old Mrs Sheehan between June 6 and June 12, 1981 at an unknown place within the State. Her naked and bruised body was found by forestry workers at The Viewing Point, Shippool Woods in Cork six days after she went missing.

Senior counsel Brendan Grehan, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, told the jurors they were being asked to infer that after Mrs Sheehan was last seen alive she came to be in a car, was badly assaulted including sexually assaulted and was ultimately killed in the course of a vicious assault or to cover up her murderer's "misdeeds".

In his closing speech, Michael Delaney SC, for Long, told the jury that one of the most significant issues they would have to decide is whether "what happened here was a murder at all".

Former State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy, who was called by the defence, said the victim's cause of death was unascertained.

Mr Delaney said the State couldn't precisely say how Mrs Sheehan met her death and that Dr Cassidy's evidence was important in their decision as to whether the case was "anything more than an unlawful killing; whether there was an intent to kill or cause serious injury".

Mr Delaney asked the jurors to consider if there would have been a motive for someone to conceal Mrs Sheehan's body if she had died from a heart attack in the course of a physical and sexual assault.

The jurors today found Long guilty of murder by unanimous verdict after five hours and 32 minutes considering their verdict.

They had the option of returning three verdicts in relation to the murder charge against the defendant, namely; guilty of murder, not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter or not guilty.

Following the murder verdict, Mr Justice Paul McDermott thanked the 11 jurors for their service and application to the case. The judge exempted them from jury service for ten years.

Mr Grehan asked for a recess of twenty minutes and told the judge that the prosecution would probably be in a position to proceed to sentence in a short while. He said the jury was entitled to come back to court for this.

It is expected that Mr Justice McDermott will hand down the mandatory sentence of life imprisonment to Long later this morning. It is also expected that the Sheehan family will have an opportunity later this morning to make a statement to the court about the impact Nora's death has had on their lives.
Judge Gerard Jones ordered Abbott to donate 500 to the Garda Benevolent Fund and he struck out the charges, leaving the defendant without a conviction.

Ciaran Abbott said he couldnt really remember the incident. Photo: Paddy Cummins

A supermarket worker who verbally abused gardai by telling them to f**k off, you c***s had been at a house party and was not really sure what had happened to him, a court heard.

Ciaran Abbott (33) resisted arrest and had to be brought under control with pepper spray by gardai in the incident last month.

Judge Gerard Jones ordered Abbott to donate 500 to the Garda Benevolent Fund and he struck out the charges, leaving the defendant without a conviction.

The defendant, of Ballentree Square in Tyrrelstown, admitted public drunkenness, threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour and resisting arrest.

Sergeant Maria Callaghan told Blanchardstown District Court that gardai were on mobile patrol at the green car park of Blanchardstown Shopping Centre shortly before 9am on July 23.

Sgt Callaghan said officers observed the defendant, who was highly intoxicated and unsteady on his feet, and holding two empty cans of alcohol.

Sgt Callaghan said gardai told Abbott he was going to be arrested for his own safety, but he became verbally abusive, telling them to f**k off, you c***s.

The sergeant said that Abbott then resisted arrest by gardai and he had to be sprayed with pepper spray in order to effect an arrest.

The court heard that the defendant had no previous convictions and had never been in trouble before.

Defence lawyer Ciaran MacLoughlin said Abbott had been at a house party, couldnt really remember the night and was not really sure what had happened to him.

Mr MacLoughlin said this incident was very much out of character for his client, who was very embarrassed and ashamed at the way he had behaved.

Mr MacLoughlin said that Abbott, who was working in a supermarket, had apologised to gardai for his behaviour, and wished to apologise again.

The lawyer asked Judge Jones to be as lenient as possible and consider leaving Abbott without a conviction.

Mr MacLoughlin also said he was confident that the defendant would not come before the courts again.
After the prosecution had closed their case, Noel Long's defence team made an application to halt the trial on the grounds of delay.

Noel Long Co. Cork at the The Criminal Courts of Justice today. He is accused of murdering Nora Sheehan, whose body was found in June 1981. Pic Collins Courts.

After the oldest case in Irelands history ended with the conviction of Noel Long for murdering vulnerable woman Nora Sheehan in 1981, here we look at evidence that the jury did not hear during the trial.

OTHER SEXUAL ASSAULTS

After the prosecution had closed their case, Noel Long's defence team made an application to halt the trial on the grounds of delay.

Trial judge Mr Justice Paul McDermott heard that gardai at the Serious Crime Review Team had tried to progress a rape allegation against Long from 1982 but the victim was not willing to become involved.

Gardai also looked at other sexual assault cases from around this time where Long was a suspect in an attempt to determine if he could be arrested and DNA obtained from him, which could then have been used in Nora Sheehan's trial.

The application to stop the trial on the delay ground was refused by Mr Justice McDermott in a detailed ruling on July 28, where he said that Long was not prejudiced by the delay given the nature of the scientific evidence in the trial.

ARMED ROBBERY

During a pre-trial hearing that ran for three weeks in June before a jury was sworn in, prosecution counsel Brendan Grehan SC told the court that Noel Long was identified as a suspect early on in the case, at a time when he was living at Riverbank on the Curraheen Road in Bishopstown in Cork with his then wife and two young sons.

He said that on June 16, 1981 - four days after Mrs Sheehan's body was found at Shippool Woods - Long was arrested and detained for two days under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act in relation to an armed robbery at a post office in Cork city.

The jury never heard about Long's arrest nor that he was questioned by gardai regarding the murder of Mrs Sheehan, where he denied any involvement and denied that he knew the victim or that she was in his Opel Kadett car.

Long was released from custody two days later on June 18, 1981. During the pretrial hearing, Matthew Thorne (91) said that he had in fact arrested Long for the murder of Mrs Sheehan, although Section 30 would not permit such an arrest.

BROWN FIBRES

The jury was unaware that Long's home had been searched while he was detained at the Bridewell Garda Station in Cork in June 1981 and that a brown jumper was seized. It was examined by forensic scientist Dr Maureen Smith, of Forensic Science Ireland, who found matching brown acrylic fibres on Mrs Sheehan's clothes. However, the garda officer who had issued the search warrant is deceased and the evidence could not be proven at trial as a result.

BLOOD SAMPLE

The jury also did not hear that during Long's detention in June 1981, he gave a voluntary blood sample from which his DNA profile was later developed and found to match a DNA profile taken from semen recovered from the body of Mrs Sheehan.

Gardai knew this since 2008 but could not use the blood sample in evidence as the trial judge ruled that Long had been unlawfully detained in breach of his constitutional rights, as gardai had used Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act to detain him for the murder.

'HELPING GARDAI WITH THEIR ENQUIRIES'

The jury was also unaware that Long was again questioned about Mrs Sheehan's murder on July 6, 1981. This was done outside of a formal arrest in circumstances where the gardai had no power to effect such an arrest, it being stated instead that Long was "helping gardai with their enquiries".

It turned out that gardai questioned Long that day for over 14 hours using relays of detectives attached to what was then known as the "Murder Squad".

Former detective Gerry O'Carroll gave evidence in the pre-trial hearing that Long had admitted Mrs Sheehan was in his car. The prosecution stated they were not seeking to rely on this admission at trial.

CHARGED

While Long was present in the garda station on July 6, 1981, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) gave directions that he was to be charged with the murder of Mrs Sheehan. Long was duly charged and brought before the District Court in Cork the following day.

However Dr Robert Dermot Coakley, the pathologist who had carried out the postmortem on Mrs Sheehan, died unexpectedly on August 5, 1981 and was therefore not available as a witness.

This resulted in the DPP withdrawing the charge of murder on November 10, 1981 as it was believed that the cause of death could not be proven.

CAUSE OF DEATH

Dr Coakley's opinion as to Mrs Sheehan's cause of death did not go before the jury because he wasn't available to give evidence as he died weeks after conducting the post mortem. His opinion was that the victim's cause of death was due to asphyxia in the course of a sexual assault.

Before Dr Coakley died he had prepared a draft report which had been typed up. He had also made handwritten amendments to that report and added his conclusion. His record of the postmortem could not have been used in evidence until a change in the law under the Criminal Justice Evidence Act of 1992. However, this change did not permit evidence of his opinion as to the cause of death to be given to the jury.

04/08/2023 ****FILE PHOTO *** 15/06/2023 Noel Long Co. Cork at the The Criminal Courts of Justice today.He is accused of murdering Nora Sheehan, whose body was found in June 1981. Pic Collins Courts.

ASSAULT

The jury also did not hear that in 2017, gardai obtained another DNA profile from Long under the DNA Database Act, which had just come into effect. This was possible because he had been convicted of an assault and was obliged to provide a DNA sample.

However, the DNA sample provided in that way could not be used in evidence under the Act. It also emerged during the pre-trial hearing that gardai retrieved "a discarded fork" used by Long, which was also used to develop his DNA profile. However, this evidence was not used during the trial proper.

'A MILLION MILES AWAY'

Although the jury heard that a search warrant was executed by gardai on Long's house on November 30, 2021 they didn't hear that detectives made contact with the defendant subsequent to this.

On May 7, 2022 Long returned a call to Detective Inspector Eamonn Brady in which the Inspector explained that he was still investigating the murder of Mrs Sheehan and had new evidence which he wished to put to him on a formal footing.

He explained to the defendant that he had no power to arrest or detain him and informed Long that if he did meet with them, it would be on a voluntary basis.

The Inspector informed Long that they would meet him at Bandon Garda Station at a time and date suitable to him and his solicitor. He asked Long to consult with his solicitor before making any decision.

The Inspector said Long informed him that he didn't want to have anything to do with the case and that he wanted to stay "a million miles away from it". Long said he didn't want to know about the new evidence as it had nothing to do with him. The defendant said there was no point in talking to his solicitor as it had nothing to do with him. Long said he wouldn't be meeting with gardai.

The Insp said he informed Long that this was a serious investigation, that Mrs Sheehan had been murdered and that he should consult with his solicitor before making a definite decision not to meet gardai. Long repeated that he wanted to stay a million miles away from this, that he had kept his head down for 40 years and just wanted to get on with his life.

DONAL BOYLE

Donal Boyle (81) gave evidence to the jury about meeting Long at his [Mr Boyle's] own home in Togher on the evening of June 6, 1981 close to where Mrs Sheehan lived.

However, following defence objections Mr Boyle was not permitted to give evidence that Long had failed to show up at an arranged meeting the following morning on June 7 [the morning after Mrs Sheehan went missing] at the 'Speckled Door' Pub near the Old Head of Kinsale for an organised dive.

This location was near Shippool Woods, where Mrs Sheehan's body was found on June 12, which the prosecution maintained showed that Long was familiar with the area.
Love and miss you always Robbie.

The family of Robert OConnor (34) who was savagely beaten to death in his cell in Mountjoy by a gang of four men one year ago, have paid tribute to him.

The prisoner, from Darndale, was kicked and punched to death on the C-wing of the capitals prison in an attack which reportedly only lasted seconds.

It is understood Robert died from injuries received to the head.

A whole year, we think of you every day it is heartbreaking, his partner wrote on social media.

The couple have a child together who was described as thinking about and loving her father all the time. Tributes also described how his family Love and miss (him) always.

Back in May, Mr OConnors partner celebrated his birthday when she wrote: Biggest happy birthday to the brightest star, not a day goes bywe love and miss you more than youll ever know, have the best one up there.

Mr OConnor was rushed to the Mater on July 29, 2022 by ambulance after the savage assault when he should have been safe inside his cell.

He died from his injuries in the hospitals intensive care unit three days later.

Most recently, no decision has been announced by the DPP about criminal charges in relation to the killing.

Inspector Mary T McCormack told a preliminary hearing in June into Mr OConnors death at Dublin District Coroners Court that a Garda file on the case had been prepared and forwarded to the DPP.

A timeline could not be provided for when a decision would be made.

Coroner Crona Gallagher informed members of Mr OConnors family who were in court that post-mortem results showed he had died from blunt force trauma to his head.

Its a head injury essentially, the coroner said.

Dr Gallagher granted an application by Insp McCormack for a three-month adjournment of the case on the basis that criminal proceedings in relation to Mr OConnors death are being considered.

Mr OConnor had only just begun a six-year jail sentence in Mountjoy Prison for possession of a firearm.

Four prisoners were subsequently arrested and questioned about the attack.

All four men were identified from CCTV footage within the Mountjoy campus and moved to other prisons around the country following the assault.

Mr OConnor was discovered by prison officers lying on the floor of a cell in a pool of blood.

He had also been the victim of a separate assault within the prison just two days before the fatal attack when he was struck on the head with a kettle.

The prisoner was subsequently moved to the prisons C wing, it was reported.

At Mr OConnors funeral, his father had issued a plea for no further retaliation over his sons death.
UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday hailed the new phase of the peace process between the Colombian government and the National Liberation Army (ELN), said his deputy spokesman.

Guterres congratulated the government and the ELN as they embark on a new phase in their peace process, with the entry into force of their bilateral cease-fire agreement and the launch of the National Participation Committee, said Farhan Haq, the deputy spokesman, in a statement.

"By adhering to the cease-fire in good faith and with a clear commitment to alleviating the suffering of civilians, the parties can significantly reduce violence while enhancing trust at the peace table," said the statement.

The UN Verification Mission in Colombia is ready to do its part in the monitoring and verification of the cease-fire in accordance with the new mandate given to it by the Security Council on Wednesday, said the statement.

The Security Council on Wednesday unanimously adopted a resolution to expand the mandate of the UN Verification Mission in Colombia, which was set up in 2017 to oversee the peace deal between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a larger leftist rebel group, to also monitor and verify the implementation of the cease-fire between the government and the ELN.

The United Nations stands ready to support the critically important work of the National Participation Committee in facilitating the inclusive participation of Colombian society in the peace process, said the statement.

Colombia's persistent efforts to expand peace through dialogue are advancing. The secretary-general calls on the international community to continue to assist these initiatives both politically and through support for the implementation of agreements, it said. 
The suspect is due to appear in court later today.

A man in his 30s has been arrested after gardai seized drugs worth an estimated 100,000 in North Dublin yesterday.

A garda spokesman said a total of seven premises were searched in Dublin 5 and Dublin 13 as part of an operation targeting the sale and supply of drugs in the Dublin Metropolitan Region (DMR) North yesterday,

During the searches, quantities of suspected cannabis herb and cocaine were seized.

The searches were conducted by the District Drugs Units in Raheny and Coolock, with assistance from the Community Policing Unit, Street Crime Unit and National Dog Unit.

A garda spokesman sad the estimated value of drugs seized is approximately 100,000. The drugs are subject to analysis by Forensic Science Ireland (FSI).

He said: One male (aged in his 20s) was arrested during the course of the operation, and detained under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984 at a Garda station in North Dublin.

He has since been charged and is due to appear before the Criminal Courts of Justice this morning, Friday 4th August 2023 at 10.30am.

Investigations are ongoing.
Houses were evacuated in Mullingar.

The Irish armys bomb squad rushed to to the scene of a suspicious device today in Westmeath, where homes were evacuated and a device removed.

Gardai were alerted to the suspicious device outside a residence in Grange Meadows, Mullingar, early this morning.

A statement from Gardai this afternoon said:

A number of houses were evacuated and a cordon put in place.

The services of the Irish Defence Forces Explosive Ordnance Disposal were requested. The device has been removed from the scene for controlled explosion.

Enquiries are ongoing at this time.

This is the second call out in the space of two days for the bomb disposal experts, after a threatening device was found in a housing estate in Drogheda on Wednesday.
Living with her mum was pain-filled, but with the hope that death would reconcile them

FROM the forest of sadness, to sprout and entangle the soul of Sinead OConnor  none feels more unfathomable.

Sineads own mother pinning her to the floor, pummelling her mercilessly and demanding her daughter  who has curled up in a terrified ball  repeat, again and again, I am nothing.

Picture yourself as that broken, sobbing child, every atom of innocence and self-regard pilfered from your being.

It must be a kind of psychic Armageddon, the mental equivalent of the deadly payload from the atom bomb that did for Hiroshima being dropped on your young, fragile heart.

How could anybody ever withstand the fallout, ever hope to recover, from such emotional annihilation? I guess the answer is they couldnt.

A mothers love is so elemental to all we become, that warm blanket of unconditional affection acting as a blessed maternal shield from the chill of the big, bad outside world.

Denied the oxygen of that life-affirming tenderness, the world must become a suffocating and unbearably lonely hellscape.

A haunting kind of self-loathing always seemed to co-habit with Sineads genius, anger, irreverent humour and beauty.

She could be at once larger than life and tiny, assertive yet afraid.

How could it be otherwise?

A mother-child relationship plays such an integral role in shaping the adult. When that connection short-circuits, when the child knows only dysfunction, the effect must be devastating.

Sineads brother, Joseph  literary titan, author of, amongst others, My Fathers House and the towering Star of the Sea  is a kind of hero to your columnist, his fertile, wordsmiths mind yielding an impossibly abundant harvest of lyrical, wise, gorgeous sentences.

His sister, too, could write and when she did her hunger for love and affection  the emotional food and drink of which she was for so long starved  was insatiable.

It is a thread running through her sharp and self-deprecating memoir, Rememberings, where she vividly describes those grotesque childhood beatings.

Equally graphic are her words and frightened body language, the familiar tattooed superstar again a vulnerable fledgling, in a 2017 TV interview with Dr Phil.

Recounting her relationship with her alcoholic mother, Marie, who was killed in a car crash when Sinead was 18, OConnors words are unsparing.

She kicked the s**t out of me. She wont change her clothes. She wont wash. The same for us, five years of living in the same clothes. No washing.

She wont heat the house. She wont get lights. She wont stop taking drugs.

She never tells me Im pretty. She never tells me Im sweet. She makes my brother scream. She smells. There was a smell about her that was sickness. The smell of evil, you know.

Speaking those words, she is a porcelain vase, a fragile infant wishing to be held, craving that emotional umbilical cord so many of us take for granted.

I write a lot about my late mother, a selfless creature, a bottomless well of love from which my brothers and I could ladle great, soothing draughts of kindness from dawn to dusk.

Sineads experience was at the opposite end of the bandwidth.

The sum of all a childs fears.

You dont have to be a descendant of Freud to recognise that such a grotesque opening chapter to a life story must be the catalyst for so much of the darkness that ensued.

Those of us who, as children, never had to worry about our place in our mothers affections, yearned for bikes and toys and trips to McDonalds.

A ravenous Sinead  as she details in that 2017 audience with Dr Phil  hankered after a literal Happy Meal.

Asked what she craved from her mother, she delivers a heart crushing response: Cuddles, love, kisses, sweet names, snuggles.

Instead, she found herself plunged into an emotional acidic bath.

Kicking me, kicking me, kicking me, kicking me and kicking me. And telling me Im evil and telling me I shouldnt have been born and the reason my father left is my fault.

This is the burden that Sinead OConnor carried, for 56 years, in the backpack of life.

The pain  the bone-deep torment, the thirst to matter to somebody else  is everywhere in the fury and tenderness and fathomless depths of that extraordinary singing voice.

There is a deeply moving, almost unendurably touching moment in the TV interview where, despite everything, or maybe precisely because of it, she reveals her longing to be reunited with her mother.

I cannot wait until the day that I naturally get to Heaven so that I can see my mother again. Id throw myself on her like a monkey and Id never let go. Id tell her I love you, I love you, I missed you so bad.

My life has been terrible, terrible, terrible. I miss her so bad. I cant wait to see her again.

I have never read anything quite like those last two paragraphs, a beautiful, overwhelming, desirous river of heartbreak.

One in which a wounded, exhausted creature swum as best she could.
Anna Lucy changed her name to Meenakshi Ammal.

An Irish woman who moved to India 15 years ago and devoted her life to the Hindu religion has been cremated in the temple town of Tiruvannamalai.

The decomposed body of Anna Lucy (75) was found in her house at Nedungavadi village by an un-named person on July 23. Police exhumed her body and sent it for post-mortem on July 27.

The autopsy confirmed that she had died of natural causes and old age. A social worker in the town described to a local newspaper how the burial took place on Wednesday of Anna.

I and 12 other volunteers together cremated the body at the ground near the Girivalam path as per Hindu practice, Mr Manimaran told DT Next.

Anna Lucy, known as Meenakshi Ammal

The social worker had bumped into Ms Lucy 15 years ago after she had moved to India from Ireland. Anna apparently became enamoured by the peaceful atmosphere in the temple town of Tiruvannamalai and decided to stay for life.

She settled in the town and switched over to Indian ways wearing a sari and bindi and changed her name to Meenakshi Ammal. During a chance meeting three years ago, Ms Lucy reportedly witnessed a funeral procession and requested to be cremated the same way.

The social worker explained why there had been a delay in the burial of Ms Lucy.

Police had preserved the body in the mortuary as they had to receive permission from her relatives abroad, Mr Manimaran said.

Once this was received, the police requested me to do the needful. After this, I and 12 other volunteers together cremated the body at the ground near the Isanya Lingam on the Girivalam path as per Hindu practice.

We purchased one litre of green camphor (pachai kalpuram) and used 3 kg of turmeric (manjal) and cremated the body in the presence of police officials, he added.

It was further reported that Ms Lucy live a quiet life alone with her two dogs.

Hinduism is an Indian dharma, a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.21.35 billion followers, or 1516% of the global population, known as Hindus.
Historical cases against alleged former terrorists are extremely rare

PACEMAKER BELFAST REMAINS OF THE BUS BLOWN UP BY THE IRA IN BALLYGAWLEY IN AUGUST 1988 KILLING 8 BRITISH SOLDIERS

Seamus Martin Kearney leaves Derry Courthouse on bail after being charged for the murder of RUC reserve constable John Proctor

Arthur McNally askes reporter Steven Moore to leave after he approached him at his Minadinna Road, Sixmilecross about his upcoming court appearance.

An OAP Provo once arrested for the horrific Ballygawley bus bomb which killed eight men has been charged with trying to kill a soldier, we can reveal.

Prosecutors have charged 70-year-old Arthur McNally with two counts of attempted murder in relation to an attack in January 1987  18 months before the Ballygawley attack for which he was held for four days.

Court papers seen by the Sunday World show the east Tyrone man is accused of trying to murder a soldier named only as Soldier A and a second man on January 20 that year.

Hes further accused of causing an explosion likely to endanger life, robbery, hijacking and membership of the IRA as well as possessing explosives with intent to endanger life and possessing a firearm with intent.

Historical cases against alleged former terrorists are extremely rare, with some victims groups and veterans publicly complaining of an unfair bias because so many British soldiers have been prosecuted.

The last IRA man to be prosecuted for a pre-Good Friday Agreement Troubles murder was Seamus Kearney.

He was jailed in 2013 after he was found guilty of killing 25-year-old RUC man John Proctor minutes after he visited his wife June and newborn son John in hospital.

Arthur McNally askes reporter Steven Moore to leave after he approached him at his Minadinna Road, Sixmilecross about his upcoming court appearance.

McNally, from Minadinna Road, Sixmilecross, is due to appear at Dungannon Magistrates Court today (Friday).

Yesterday when the Sunday World approached him at his home to ask him about the charges, he responded by telling us to go away.

The pensioner was once held for four days along with several other suspected IRA men in the aftermath of one of the most infamous bomb attacks to take place during the Troubles.

He was arrested on August 24 1988  four days after an IRA bomb had killed eight soldiers and injured dozens of others in what became known as the Ballygawley Bus Bomb.

He was released without charge and along with a number of other suspects successfully won a case at the European Court of Human Rights about his detention for that attack as he had not been brought before a judge in the right time before his detention was extended.

Nobody has ever been convicted of carrying out the shocking attack and a number of suspects have since died.

The current charges against McNally relate to offences allegedly committed on January 20 1987  18 months before the Ballygawley attack.

That attack was carried out shortly after midnight on August 20 1988. As unmarked civilian buses were travelling along the main road from Ballygawley to Omagh, an explosive device of approximately 100lbs, concealed by the side of the road, was detonated by a command wire which ran for 300 metres to a battery pack located on a hill overlooking the road.

In the explosion, eight soldiers, travelling in one of the buses from Aldergrove airport to their base in Omagh, were killed and another 28 were injured, many seriously.

The Tyrone Brigade of the Provisional IRA subsequently admitted responsibility for the explosion and McNally was one of eight men arrested in the days shortly afterwards. The suspects included mid-Tyrone IRA commander Gerard Harte, who was killed by the SAS ten days later in an ambush.

In the wake of the bombing, the British Army began ferrying its troops in and out of County Tyrone by helicopter.

According to the court papers, the fresh charges facing McNally state he attempted to murder Soldier A and a second man, named as John McFarland.

PACEMAKER BELFAST REMAINS OF THE BUS BLOWN UP BY THE IRA IN BALLYGAWLEY IN AUGUST 1988 KILLING 8 BRITISH SOLDIERS

On the same day hes accused of unlawfully and maliciously caused by an explosive substance, namely an improvised explosive device containing ammonium nitrate based fertiliser and fuel oil (ANFO), an explosion of a nature likely to endanger life or to cause serious injury to property...

The papers state hes further accused of possessing explosive substances, namely a beer keg type improvised explosive device, and possessing handguns and a quantity of ammunition on Main Street, Gortin.

Hes accused of robbing the manager of the Ulster Bank, Main Street, Gortin, of 875.50 in cash and hijacking a Datsun Cherry car.

And finally hes charged with belonging to a proscribed organisation, namely The Irish Republican Army.

If convicted, he would serve just two years in prison under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.According to public documents posted by the European Commission of Human Rights, Arthur McNally refused to cooperate with police during interviews about the Ballygawley bus bomb.

The documents state McNally was convicted in 1976 of conspiracy to cause explosions, possession of explosives (2 counts) and of firearms (2 counts).

They state he was arrested at his home and was told he was suspected of being involved in terrorism.

He was taken to Armagh RUC station and detained for four days, 14 hours and 30 minutes.

According to the papers: At the outset of his first interview, which began at 09.44hrs on the morning of his arrest, he was told that the police were making inquiries into the bomb explosion on 20 August and he was asked to account for his movements on 19 and 20 August.

He gave no reply. This line of questioning was repeated at subsequent interviews, and he was asked about his involvement in the bombing... his membership of the Provisional IRA and his participation in Provisional IRA activities.

He remained silent throughout for the most part, staring at the floor or interview table or otherwise avoiding eye contact with those interviewing him, though on occasions blushing as matters were put to him.

At one point, on the evening of 27 August, he shook his head as if to deny involvement in the bombing of the soldiers bus, but he made no indication when immediately thereafter he was asked if he wished to provide an alibi. He declined to sign the interview notes.
The intruder struck her on the cheek and forehead before switching tactics and heading for the kitchen. He told Ms Perkins that he was awfully hungry, she said.

Marjorie Perkins fought off the intruder but went on to give him food and drink (News Center Maine via AP)

An 87-year-old woman in the United States fought off a teenage attacker then fed him because he said he was awfully hungry.

Marjorie Perkins, from Brunswick in Maine, said she awoke at 2am on July 26 and saw the young man standing over her bed. He had taken off his shirt and pants and told her he was going to cut her.

I thought to myself, ifs hes going to cut, then Im going to kick, she said.

She put on her shoes and fought back, putting a chair between them as the two jostled.

The intruder struck her on the cheek and forehead before switching tactics and heading for the kitchen. He told Ms Perkins that he was awfully hungry, she said.

She gave him a box of peanut butter and honey crackers, two protein drinks and two tangerines.

Ms Perkins dialled 911 on her rotary phone and was talking to a dispatcher while the intruder collected his pants and left. He left behind a knife, shirt, shoes and a water bottle containing alcohol, she said.

Ms Perkins said she still feels safe in the home where she has lived for 42 years, but worries about rampant crime. She said it seems to have become worse over the past few years and that criminals do not fear going to jail.

I think our law has just folded up, she said. People arent afraid of anything anymore. They feel they can do as they please.

Police quickly tracked down the teenager and charged him with burglary, criminal threatening, assault and consuming liquor as a minor, news outlets reported. Authorities did not release his identity because of his age.
Ekin-Su and her beau Davide Sanclimenti became firm fan favourites when the couple won the popular ITV reality dating show back in August 2022

Love island winner and actress, Ekin-Su Culculoglu, braved the rain and brought throngs of fans into the heart of Cork city for the opening of a brand-new store this week.

The British born Turkish star cut the ribbon on BPerfect Cosmetics new store on Oliver Plunkett Street.

We couldn't be more excited to bring BPerfect to the wonderful people of Cork, said CEO Brendan McDowell.

Ekin-Su and her beau Davide Sanclimenti became firm fan favourites when the couple won the popular ITV reality dating show back in August 2022 after securing nearly two-thirds of the public vote.

Ekin-Su Culculoglu

Sadly, however the pair broke up after less than a year together.

David said in June Ekin and I are no longer together. I am grateful for the memories and opportunities we shared together and I wish her nothing but the best.

Ekin clearly has put the situation behind her as she brightened up the Irish summer opening the new premises which boasts 1,600 sq ft and brings 12 news jobs to Cork.

The 28-year-old turned heads in a denim crop top with a matching pleated mini skirt and a pair of cream ankle boots.

Excited fans formed huge crowds in the city for a glimpse of the Love Island star, as she announced the BPerfect store officially open for business.

Mr McDowell explained his vision for welcoming people down to Cork for all their beauty needs.

With this new store, the team and I aimed to create an inviting and immersive experience where every visitor can discover their favourite products, explore the latest beauty trends, and even receive some make-up advice from our in-store team.

Ekin-Su Culculoglu with BPerfect Cosmetics founder Brendan McDowell

We believe that beauty should be inclusive, empowering, and fun, and we can't wait to share this with the city.

We are really looking forward to welcoming you all to our beautiful new space, filled with some of the hottest products on the planet, and all of the wonderful brands on offer, he said.
New Zealands largest youth innovation programme, yia! (Young Innovator Awards) has received more than 670 registrations from nine schools as it enters its 14th year in the Western Bay of Plenty.

The programme is delivered by Western Bay of Plenty economic development agency, Priority One, in partnership with local businesses and schools.

Intermediate and secondary school students are challenged to develop and apply key skills of Design Thinking such as creativity, collaboration, and communication while coming up with an innovative product or service.

Priority Ones yia! Project Manager, Meg Davis, says its encouraging to see so many schools and students involved.

We are now in our 14th year and the programme just keeps growing, which is fantastic! We have a great group of partners and sponsors, as well as judging support from our local business community, and of course, the essence of yia!, an amazing bunch of curious and highly-motivated kids.

Otumoetai College has the most registrations for 2023, with 28 teams signed up.

Ceri Blears-Woodcock, Otumoetai College teacher and yia! programme facilitator, has facilitated the programme at the school for ten years.

The yia! programme is an amazing opportunity for students to solve a real-life issue in a collaborative way. The process challenges students to think critically and develop key life skills that will serve them well in the future.

She says the programme is an asset to the local community, bridging the gap between schools, the business community, and Tauranga City Council.

We are hoping that the ideas our students come up with will, in the future, be used in the wider community to solve issues that are important to us all.

Ceri says there have been many highlights over the years, but the innovation process stands out the most.

All students learn something about themselves and the 'real world' that they live in. Students will, at some stage during the programme, sit in a space that is out of their comfort zone, which sets the foundation for resilience.

For me is the most profound learning experience that we can offer our students.

The programme is also an opportunity for local businesses and educators to help arm students with the skills theyll need in a rapidly changing work environment.

The yia! programme wouldnt be possible without its loyal group of sponsors and partners, including Cucumber, a local software development company that has supported the event for a decade.

General Manager, Mignon Olivier Green, says Cucumbers support for the yia! programme has given the organisation the opportunity to witness the remarkable growth and innovation of young minds in the Bay of Plenty.

As a technology partner to the primary sector, we recognise the importance of fostering creativity and empowering the next generation of innovators in this important region of New Zealand.

It has been an honour to play a part in this transformative journey, and we remain committed to nurturing young talent and driving technological advancement for years to come.

Priority One partners with Bluelab, Woods, The Shine Collective and Cucumber to deliver the programme, with sponsors including Robotics Plus, BECA, Page Macrae, Tauranga City Council and the University of Waikato.

Rangatahi can win up to $2000 cash, plus the chance to develop their innovation with leading businesses as a category winner.

Peoples Choice voting opens on August 14, and the awards night takes place on Wednesday, September 6.
Kiwifruit marketer Zespri is taking legal action to try to stop the unauthorised production and sale of its gold kiwifruit in China.

Zespri owns the rights to Sun Gold, or G3, and growers in New Zealand pay hundreds of thousands of dollars per hectare to grow it.

A grower took clippings to China and since 2016, the amount being grown there has been increasing - it is now believed there are more gold vines in China than in New Zealand.

In an update sent out to growers this morning, Zespri chief executive Dan Mathieson said a civil case had been filed against two defendants involved with the unauthorised production, sale and marketing of the G3 fruit in China's Intellectual Property Court.

Mathieson said it was a significant step in protecting the investment made by New Zealand producers in developing the licensed kiwifruit varieties - and also for its consumers.

Zespri's latest assessment indicates there are now more 7850 hectares of the lucrative fruit planted in China.

Recent law changes in China strengthened the intellectual property rights of the horticulture sector in China, Mathieson said.

He said changes to its Seed Law last year enabled action to be taken against those selling the fruit - rather than just growing it.

An Industry Advisory Council delegation is planning to visit China in the coming months to better understand the situation from orchard to market.

The case will commence in mid-September.

- Monique Steele/RNZ.
New Zealand's Defence Force will ramp up its readiness for combat, taking a more "proactive and purposeful" approach as part of a new government strategy.

High-level documents - published Friday morning - warn current capabilities are "not in a fit state" to respond to increasing security threats and the impacts of climate change in the region.

Unveiling the new direction at Parliament, Minister of Defence Andrew Little told guests New Zealand is facing more geostrategic challenges than it has in decades.

"The changes in the domestic and international security environment mean our response and preparedness must change too."

Little says the government will improve the effectiveness of combat and other military capabilities, ensuring the Defence Force can act "early and deliberately" in protecting the interests of New Zealand and the surrounding region.

"We must be prepared to equip ourselves with trained personnel, assets and material, and appropriate international relationships in order to protect our own defence and national security - and we are."

The documents come as part of a Defence Policy Review commissioned by the government a year ago and chaired by Sir Brian Roche.

The resulting 37-page Defence Policy Strategy Statement concludes there is a need for "a combat-capable, credible, deployable force" ready to respond when and where required.

"Defence will need to act earlier to prevent threats, for example through increased presence, as part of broader New Zealand efforts and in concert with international partners.

"Where possible, Defence will seek to act to constrain hostile actions, will be prepared to employ military force, and engage in combat if required."

New Zealand's security was assured by the collective strength of a network of partners to which the country needed to offer "operationally credible" contributions, says the statement.

"Our region is now a strategic theatre, and New Zealand needs a defence posture that reflects this reality... Defence must be able to defend, if necessary, New Zealand's sovereign territory and maritime interests."

A primary goal will be preventing states that don't share New Zealand's values from establishing a military or paramilitary presence in the region.

The report identified the Chinese government's efforts to increase its "political, economic, and security influence" in the Pacific as a potential risk to regional security.

"The relationship with China is significant for New Zealand, and its cooperation will continue to be essential in addressing many global challenges. At the same time, the Chinese government's assertive pursuit of its strategic objectives is the major driver for the new era of strategic competition among states.

"An increasingly powerful China is using all its instruments of national power in ways that can pose challenges to existing international rules and norms.

"Beijing continues to invest heavily in growing and modernising its military, and is increasingly able to project military and paramilitary force beyond its immediate region, including across the wider Indo-Pacific."

A related document - titled Future Force Design Principles - says the current Defence Force has been designed for a "relatively benign strategic environment".

"As a result, it is not in a fit state to respond to future challenges," the report says.

"A more challenging environment means that the Defence Force will be called upon more often, and personnel must be ready, equipped, and trained for a range of contingencies including armed conflict, humanitarian assistance, and disaster relief."

National security strategy

Little also unveiled New Zealand's first 'National Security Strategy' with directions to the intelligence community on how to navigate the changed environment.

"Kiwis want to know more about the national security challenges we face, and crucially they want to be part of the discussion about how we can address them," Little says.

The document also highlights the wider Indo-Pacific region as the centre of strategic competition with potential flashpoints located in Taiwan, the South China Sea and East China Sea.

"North Korea continues to destabilise the Korean Peninsula. In any of these instances, even tensions that fall short of full conflict could have unpredictable but significant impacts on trade and supply chains, with global effects, including for New Zealand and the rules-based international system."

China has become more assertive in the region and efforts to develop ports and airports bring the possibility of dual-use facilities for both civilian and military purposes, says the document.

"The 2022 China-Solomon Islands security agreement and ongoing attempts to create new groupings in the Pacific demonstrate China's ambition to link economic and security cooperation, create competing regional architectures, and expand its influence with Pacific Island countries across policing, defence, digital, and maritime spheres."

The 'National Security Strategy' sets out major initiatives through to 2025, including commitments to publish an annual overview of threats along with a ministerial speech.

-RNZ.
Doctor Tao Yuwen talks about the detail of an operation with foreign medical workers of a medical seminar at the digestive endoscopy center of Jiangsu Province Hospital in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, Aug. 1, 2023. In recent years, Jiangsu Province Hospital cooperated with medical institutions in Pakistan, Egypt and other countries and regions in the field of digestive endoscopy to promote medical cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative. (Xinhua/Ji Chunpeng)

Fan Zhining (2nd R), expert of digestive endoscopy, talks with foreign medical workers of a medical seminar at Jiangsu Province Hospital in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, Aug. 1, 2023. In recent years, Jiangsu Province Hospital cooperated with medical institutions in Pakistan, Egypt and other countries and regions in the field of digestive endoscopy to promote medical cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative. (Xinhua/Ji Chunpeng)

Fan Zhining (2nd L), expert of digestive endoscopy, attends a morning session with foreign medical workers of a medical seminar at Jiangsu Province Hospital in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, Aug. 1, 2023. In recent years, Jiangsu Province Hospital cooperated with medical institutions in Pakistan, Egypt and other countries and regions in the field of digestive endoscopy to promote medical cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative. (Xinhua/Ji Chunpeng)

Fan Zhining (L front), expert of digestive endoscopy, visits the inpatient wards with foreign medical workers of a medical seminar at Jiangsu Province Hospital in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, Aug. 1, 2023. In recent years, Jiangsu Province Hospital cooperated with medical institutions in Pakistan, Egypt and other countries and regions in the field of digestive endoscopy to promote medical cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative. (Xinhua/Ji Chunpeng)

Fan Zhining (back), expert of digestive endoscopy, gives a lecture to foreign medical workers of a medical seminar at Jiangsu Province Hospital in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, July 25, 2023. In recent years, Jiangsu Province Hospital cooperated with medical institutions in Pakistan, Egypt and other countries and regions in the field of digestive endoscopy to promote medical cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative. (Photo by Hou Yumeng/Xinhua)

Foreign medical workers of a medical seminar watch as Fan Zhining, expert of digestive endoscopy, performs an operation at digestive endoscopy center of Jiangsu Province Hospital in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, Aug. 1, 2023. In recent years, Jiangsu Province Hospital cooperated with medical institutions in Pakistan, Egypt and other countries and regions in the field of digestive endoscopy to promote medical cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative. (Xinhua/Ji Chunpeng)

Fan Zhining (C) and Liu Li (4th R), experts of digestive endoscopy, pose for photos with foreign medical workers of a medical seminar at Jiangsu Province Hospital in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, Aug. 1, 2023. In recent years, Jiangsu Province Hospital cooperated with medical institutions in Pakistan, Egypt and other countries and regions in the field of digestive endoscopy to promote medical cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative. (Xinhua/Ji Chunpeng)
Twenty years of the life-saving little red button The telecare service has seen exponential growth thanks to both new users joining and new devices developed to help achieve independent living without losing security

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At 90 years old she gives a strong impression of remaining very lucid and eloquent, but time has left her with more ailments than are apparent to the naked eye.

Ana Maria Perraut (born in 1933 and originally from Malaga) was a determined, independent woman, daunted by very little ... until the near-fatal accident suffered at home last year. Apart from some outside help with housework, she has always lived alone since she settled back in Malaga a decade ago after 44 years living in the UK.

Her daughters continue to live there but, after being widowed, she thought that the time had come to return to her birth city. Since then, and although she lives by herself, she never feels totally alone.

She always has "company" - 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. There is no one physically with her but, at the other end of the red button that hangs around her neck, there are 250 people in Malaga willing to listen to her, guide her, comfort her and to move mountains if necessary if she asks for help, no matter what time of day or night.

All these people are part of the Andalusian Telecare Service (SAT), 20 years in operation since it was first set up in Seville, then later (2006) in Malaga, with its headquarters in the Andalusian Technology Park (PTA). This project of great social significance has gone from attending to 144 people in its first year, to the current 256,268 across Andalucia. Today, in Malaga province alone, there are 42,107 registered users, although since its launch, more than 97,000 people have used the services.

Ana Maria Perraut had always trusted that remote device, but she had also harboured the hope that she would never have to use it. However, just before Easter last year, she had no choice, despite having tried by her own means to overcome the crisis she found herself in. She had fallen to the floor while cooking. The oil that she had put in a pan on the hob was rising in temperature as Ana Maria made an unsuccessful effort to get up.

"I tried to by grabbing hold of a drawer, but I have an artificial knee and the strength in my legs failed me. I couldn't reach the hob to turn it off and in the end, for fear of the whole house catching fire, I ended up pressing the red button for the first time in my life," she explained.

Help is on the way

While Ana Maria was being given reassurance over the phone, the SAT operator tried to locate her emergency contacts, but neither her neighbour's nor her sister's phones were picking up, forcing them to alert a fire crew, who had trouble gaining entry through a window. Meanwhile, the smoke was getting thicker in the house but the telecare operators encouraged Ana Maria to summon the strength to crawl from the kitchen while she desperately waited to be rescued.

Eventually, the firefighters were forced to break down the front door and Ana Maria lived to tell the tale.

"I have no words to thank them for what they did for me. And also the police, who escorted my sister's taxi to my house after they managed to locate her and all while the city centre was cut off to traffic for the Palm Sunday processions," she said.

Although in the end they got there on time and Ana Maria appeared to be unhurt, some days later they found that she had two broken ribs - and a fear in her mind that continues to this day. For this reason, she relies not only on her mobility walker, but also on the person who accompanies her 24 hours a day. Despite all that, she still will not part with the pendant that saved her life. "At first this gave me independence, because even when alone, I could ask for help if I needed it, but now, above all, it gives me peace of mind," she said.

In addition to the immediate response in the case of a real emergency, the telecare service goes way beyond just attending promptly to user requests.

In Malaga this year nearly 3,000 calls per day are being handled, of which 33% are incoming calls and 67% outgoing. The work continues with follow-up calls to find out how the user is after an incident. Other calls are to remind users of their daily meds to take or a medical appointment, to offer advice about benefits and any other procedures to do with public services, to wish them a happy birthday or even just to listen when a user has called in simply because they feel lonely. This latter type of call represents almost 30% of the total.

"Some call us simply to tell us about their day-to-day life, to let off steam or to ask us about things as trivial as what might be the winning number for the ONCE ticket draw for that day. There are also those who contact us on New Year's Eve to feel that they are with someone as they eat their grapes. We are here for that, to lessen that loneliness," said Valeria Chianello, head of the telecare centre in Malaga.

Although the service is aimed primarily at the over-65s, anyone in a situation of dependency on others for their care can also apply. Depending on their degree of dependency and abilities, the service is provided directly either to the dependent or their caregiver. In addition, those people between the ages of 16 and 65 with a recognised disability equal to or greater than 65%, and who are registered in any municipality of Andalucia, can also benefit.

Currently, 71.5% of users receive the service for free. The rest pay a monthly fee of 3.60 or 10.80 euros, depending on their financial resources and their personal situation.

In addition to the basic device, which consists of the home unit (its installation and maintenance are free) and the remote push button or red button, there is a mobile telecare alarm system that allows the user to leave home and yet still be found by GPS. In addition, this telecare service can be bolstered by two additional devices to detect gas or smoke at home so that, should a leak occur, an alarm will go off at the telecare centre. Also from the centre they can raise the volume of any home unit and activate the loudspeaker if, in the event of a call, the user takes too long to answer. This way they can quickly rule out if anything has happened to them.

"All this allows them to live alone but without feeling alone, because on the other end of the line they will always have someone to turn to. It enables autonomy that would not otherwise be viable for the user and it also creates enormous peace of mind for their relatives," said Chianello.

This was the case with Maria Antonia Rodriguez (born in 1946), also a user of telecare after a cousin spoke with a social worker about getting her such a device. She has lived alone since her mother passed away nine years ago. That sense of loss continues and she opens her eyes every morning with the weight of depression upon her.

"I miss someone listening to me." This is her cry for help as she takes solace in the affection that her four cats show her. "They understand me better than people," she said, as she praised the "commendable" work they do from telecare.

"If I am alive today it is thanks to them," stated Maria Antonia who, on 3 January this year, tripped over an exercise bike at her home and fell face-first to the ground. Dazed, bleeding from the nose and unable to get up due to her problems with osteoarthritis and osteoporosis, for the first time ever she decided to press the red button that she always carried with her.

"In a matter of minutes they had referred me to the Local Police, who were able to access my house through my neighbours' patio. They whisked me away in the ambulance, but thank God it just gave me a scare," she said.

Overwhelming loneliness

That accident only brought her spirits down further, even though the telecare service regularly calls her to see how she is doing.

"I am very grateful because getting up every day to utter silence is awful. The day after the accident, I called because I felt that I had not thanked them enough for how I was treated by them all, but since then I have not called because I do not want to trouble them or make a nuisance of myself," said Maria Antonia, acknowledging that having the red button close by feels "more secure".

Both these women fit the majority profile of the service's registered users. That is, eight out of every ten users are female, with an average age of 82, living alone.

Over the course of these 20 years, growth has not only been in the number of users, but also in the infrastructure and the human resources needed "to respond to this growing demand", said Chianello. While the elderly were the first to benefit from the service, those with disabilities were added and finally, after the dependency law came into force in 2007, other people in a situation of dependency could join. "This law marks a milestone in the telecare service by including it in the catalogue of services available for dependency care," stated Chianello.
JERUSALEM, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah group, said on Thursday that the United States is the "root" of all the problems in the Middle East, Israeli media reported.

In his address to a memorial ceremony for a Lebanese Muslim scholar, Nasrallah said that "the main problem (in the Middle East) is the scandalous and crude American interference in everything," Israel's English newspaper The Jerusalem Post said in a report on its website.

"We are facing a culture and policy based on submission to the Americans, who break all their promises," Nasrallah was quoted as saying.

"The two-state solution is fading because of America," he said, referring to the U.S. inaction on ending the stalemate in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process since 2014.

He also said that the Lebanese who are complaining about the ministers should instead "pour out their anger" on "tyrannical America" which caused a power shortage in Lebanon due to the "American ban on Egyptian gas and Jordanian electricity."

Nasrallah has long been an outspoken critic of the United States. In March, he accused the U.S. of being a "partner" in Lebanon's corruption and was hindering deposits, loans and investments from reaching the country. 
San Francisco  Get ready to say goodbye to the once ubiquitous incandescent light bulb, pioneered by Thomas Edison more than a century ago. You can thank  or blame  new federal energy efficiency regulations that went into full effect Tuesday. Quite possibly without you even noticing.

The Energy Department rules, which date back to the Obama administration, have been whipsawed in the political process for years. Some conservatives and Republican lawmakers long denounced them for interfering with consumer choice and placing undue burdens on business. Under former President Donald Trump, the Energy Department scrapped them in 2019; the Biden administration subsequently revived them.

Yet by the time Aug. 1 rolled around, the critics had gone quiet, possibly because companies and consumers have already started voting for better lighting efficiency with their wallets.

Heres what you need to know.

WHAT CHANGES UNDER THE NEW RULES?

The rules establish strict new efficiency standards for bulbs used in homes and businesses and bans the manufacture and sale of those that dont meet those requirements. Practical incandescent bulbs, which trace their origin to an 1880 Edison patent, cant meet those standards. Neither can halogen bulbs. The rules also ban imports of less efficient bulbs.

But those requirements carry a bit less heft than they would have several years back, largely because advances in LED technology and manufacturing have dramatically lowered prices and improved quality. LED stands for light emitting diode, a semiconductor device that converts electricity directly into light.

Between 2015 and 2020, for instance, the percentage of American households that reported using LED bulbs for most or all of their lighting jumped more than tenfold  from 4% to 47%, according to the Energy Information Administration, an independent federal statistics agency.

SO DO I HAVE TO THROW AWAY MY OLD INCANDESCENTS?

Fortunately not. The rules dont affect bulbs that you already own; they also exempt special purpose incandescents such as those used inside ovens.

But suppose you discard  or give away  your halogen and incandescent bulbs. Odds are good that replacing them with LED bulbs could save you a fair amount of money.

As the rules reinforce existing market changes, the Energy Department believes that U.S. consumers can save almost $3 billion annually on their utility bills. Similarly, it projects that the rules could cut carbon emissions by 222 million metric tons over the next 30 years.

WHY DO LED BULBS SAVE ENERGY AND MONEY?

Incandescent bulbs create illumination by running an electric current through a filament that heats it until it glows. Edisons first practical light bulb used a carbonized cotton thread for that purpose; modern bulbs use tungsten filaments in an inert gas.

But incandescents are not very efficient. Only roughly 5% of the energy used by an incandescent bulb produces light; the remaining 95% or so is lost as heat. This is why you let an incandescent bulb cool off before unscrewing it.

They also burn out frequently, requiring replacement roughly every year.

The light-emitting components in LED bulbs, by contrast, are manufactured via the same process used to make computer chips, which makes them extremely efficient. They generate almost no heat and use up to 90% less energy than incandescent bulbs while lasting up to 25 times longer, according to the Energy Department.
Watertown, N.Y.  A Watertown man was sentenced to prison Wednesday for having more than 50 grams of meth that he intended to sell, federal prosecutors said.

Ryan D. Monroe, 41, of Watertown, was sentenced to 10 years and 10 months in federal prison for possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, according to a news release Thursday from the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Northern District of New York.

He was arrested in May 2022, less than three months after he got out of state prison on a previous drug conviction.

Court documents and prosecutors provided the following details:

On May 18, 2022, the Metro-Jefferson Drug Task Force started surveilling Monroe, who had two outstanding bench warrants in Jefferson County for failing to appear in court for sentencing on two state felony cases.

That day, the task force saw Monroe get into a blue Ford sedan after he visited a home in Watertown.

Detectives directed deputies to pull over the sedan, but the vehicle did not stop. The sedan drove two city blocks before it came to a stop and Monroe fled from the passenger side door.

Monroe led detectives and deputies on a foot pursuit as he carried a brown shoulder bag. He discarded the bag during the chase before he was stopped by officers.

While searching Monroe and the bag, officers discovered 56 grams of meth in his pants pocket along with $2,388. The bag contained 29 grams of cocaine, a set of digital scales, 12 grams of cocaine base, or crack and about 50 glassine envelopes with a heroin and fentanyl mixture.

Forty-three of those envelopes were labeled Saks Fifth Avenue, six were labeled John Wick, and one was labeled Ironman. Also in the bag was a yellow pill, a glass smoking device and 24 suboxone strips.

Monroe has served time in state prison on drug charges three times in 2010, 2013 and 2018. He last got out of state prison in March 2022.

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
Join NY Cannabis Insider at our next industry networking event on Aug. 15 at Madame Mikettes in NYC. Tickets will sell out.

Columbia Care, one of the states medical cannabis companies, has closed its Rochester dispensary for nearly a week after the Office of Cannabis Management denied the company a waiver to operate with a virtual pharmacist.

The closure affects roughly 750 patients and comes after the company found itself with a shortage of pharmacists caused by a mixture of unexpected medical and parental leaves and vacations.



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In response, the NY Medical Cannabis Industry Association  which represents the interests of nearly all of the states registered organizations  issued a statement:

Once again, New Yorks cannabis regulators have shown a complete lack of consideration for medical patients, leaving them in a potentially vulnerable and precarious position. The temporary closure of Columbia Cares Rochester dispensary poses serious threats to those who depend on this specific location for access to essential medications and sends a troublesome message to all patients and medical operators statewide.

OCM spokesperson Aaron Ghitelman told NY Cannabis Insider that waivers for virtual pharmacists arent allowed under the MRTA or by OCM.

If an emergency absence leaves a medical dispensary without an on-site pharmacist, they can bring a pharmacist from one of their other locations to serve on-site, or have temporary or per diem pharmacist employees on call, Ghitelman said.

On Tuesday, Columbia Care sought a waiver from OCM that would allow a pharmacist to virtually supervise the Rochester dispensary through Monday. (During COVID, the state allowed virtual supervision.)

We already provide telehealth, so the telemedicine aspect of virtual medical consultations is happening all the time in the medical program, said Ngiste Abebe, VP of Public Policy at Columbia Care. This is clearly an emergency need  but OCM appears unwilling to work with us.

Abebe added, I would just highlight that OCM keeps trying to be creative with its problem solving within other parts of the industry, but when it comes to the medical part, we dont see the same commitment.

However, Geoffrey Brown, a NYS-registered medical cannabis pharmacist and the founder of CannaBuff, said that while the Columbia Care closure is unfortunate, there is not a shortage of pharmacists willing to work at dispensaries, especially in Western New York where hundreds of pharmacists enter the job market every year from pharmacy schools in the region.

What has worked in the past in situations like this is hiring a per diem pharmacist to cover these temporary changes in staffing or offering pharmacists from other stores in the state an incentive to come cover the store, Brown said.

Columbia Care will pay its employees for their planned shifts during the closure since this was not anything they could have anticipated, Abebe said.
Syracuse, N.Y. -- CNY Fair Housing is launching a community 5K that will lead runners through city neighborhoods that are still living with the ripples of racist federal housing policies established during the Great Depression.

The run, named Run the Redline, will trace portions of the redline that was drawn on city maps by federal government officials around neighborhoods that were labeled too risky to receive federal housing assistance. The risk was based on the racial and ethnic make-up of the neighborhoods. Black families were locked out of certain neighborhoods and barred from getting mortgages.

The ripples of those practices can still be seen in some city neighborhoods that now have among the highest rates of concentrated poverty in the nation.

The race will be Sept. 17. To register, visit CNY Fair Housing.

CNY Fair Housing is a nonprofit agency that works to prevent housing discrimination in Central New York.

Marnie Eisenstadt writes about people and public affairs in Central New York. Contact her anytime email | Twitter| Facebook | 315-470-2246.
Alfred D. Frederick, 85, a former SUNY Oswego professor, died July 29 following a battle with cancer.

He is described in his obituary as a multicultural pioneer, distinguished professor...and global citizen. who was awarded six Fulbright scholarships.

Frederick was born in Opelika, Alabama and graduated valedictorian from J.W. Darden High School in 1956.

He received his bachelors degree in science education from Northern Illinois University and his masters degree in educational administration from Columbia Teachers College in New York City, He received his Ph.D. in pedagogical science from the University of Brussels in Belgium.

Frederick was drafted in 1963 while teaching at Novak Elementary School in North Chicago. He served in the Army as a military policeman in Paris, France. While there, he attended school at night and received a certificate in French language and civilization from the University of Paris.

After his military service, he returned to Novak, but later obtained a position with the International School of Brussels in Belgium. He taught science at the school for 14 years.

While in Belgium, he joined the Brussels-based American Theater Company and the Brussels Shakespeare Society, where he had leading roles. He also did some modeling work for such designers as Yves St. Laurent, according to his obituary.

Frederick made his way to Central New York to become a professor at SUNY Oswegos School of Education. There, he created Project CLIMB, linking Oswego State students and faculty with the Republic of Benin in West Africa. According to a 2009 Post-Standard article, he also spearheaded Project SMART, a collaborative effort between Oswego State and Zumbi Dos Palmares, the first Afrocentric university in Brazil.

He received a Post-Standard Achievement award in 2009.

Alfred Frederick after receiving his People of Achievement award at the Holiday Inn in 2009.Photo by Dick Blume/The Post Standard

He decided he needed to understand students in order to help educators reach their students, so in 1999 he began substitute teaching in the Syracuse School District. He did that for seven years.

In 2015, Frederick received the outstanding international education award from the International Center of Syracuse. U.S. Sen. Kristen Gillibrand (D-NY) recognized him for his work in the United States and overseas.

Prof. Alfred Frederick talks to student Patrick Lewis while teaching his class Education of Diverse Populations at the SUNY Oswego campus in Syracuse.Photo by Mike Greenlar / The Post Standard

His obituary said that Fredericks work and advocacy spanned more than four continents, in a career that spanned nearly six decades.

One of his former students left this tribute: ...I experienced first hand Dr. Fredericks passion for culturally responsive teaching. as well as inclusivity...I will forever be thankful for the teachings, wisdom and love he showed consistently to all of his students.

Visitation will take place at 10 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 5 at Bethany Baptist Church of Syracuse, 149 Beattie St., Syracuse, followed by a funeral service at noon. A repast will follow.

Services will be streamed via Facebook.

Internment will be in Opelika, Alabama on August 12.

Donations may be made to the American Lung Association and/or Cancer Research Institute.

You may contact Sharon Dellinger by phone at 315-470-2265 or email.
A town of Orleans man is serving time behind bars for failing to pay penalties related to past poaching crimes.

Last October, Lane Angus killed an eight-point buck despite losing his hunting privileges in 2021 for multiple hunting violations and the unlawful harvest of numerous white-tailed deer.

New York State Department of Environmental Conservation police officers (ECOs) seized Anguss deer and rifle and ticketed him.

Soon afterward Angus picked up additional charges for his role in the illegal take of another deer at night, with a light, and from a vehicle. Angus pleaded guilty to the charges but failed to pay fines as required by his plea agreement.

Angus was arrested on July 18 and remanded to the Jefferson County Jail for 30 days due to his continued disregard for the Court and State Environmental Conservation Law.

The following reports are excerpted from DEC:

An ECO rescued this egret that got stuck in the mud for hours in Barger Pond, in the town of Putnam Valley. The bird was underweight but otherwise unharmed.

An egret got stuck in the mud on July 24 in Barger Pond, in the town of Putnam Valley. By the time an ECO arrived to rescue the muck-bound egret, the bird had been trapped for several hours and appeared unresponsive. The ECO transported it to a local wildlife rehabilitator, who assessed to be underweight but otherwise unharmed.

Seven inches of ran fell in parts of the Hudson Valley on July 9 , washing out roadways and stranding hikers. ECOs conducting routine fishing checks along the Hudson River diverted to the storm hit region to help local authorities, including assisting 300 passengers disembarking a train stuck on the tracks by floodwaters.

A Nassau County homeowner decided last month they no longer wanted this 14-foot Burmese python they kept in a five foot aquarium inside their garage. ECOs ticketed the owner and transferred the snake to a licensed facility in Massachusetts.

A Nassau County homeowner decided last month they no longer wanted a 14-foot Burmese python they kept in a five foot aquarium inside their garage. ECOs scrambled to find an appropriate home for the snake, eventually transferring it to a licensed facility in Massachusetts. Burmese pythons are classified as dangerous animals requiring a special license from New York State to possess. The homeowner was ticketed for illegal possession of dangerous wildlife.

Utility workers conducting maintenance at a cell tower in the town of Hancock discovered a 40-inch timber rattlesnake inside the door of one of the towers electrical boxes on July 17. A member of DECs Wildlife Response Team safely removed the snake using snake tongs and returned it to the wild. Rarely seen, timber rattlesnakes are venomous pit vipers native to New York State and considered a threatened species protected by law.

Two men were ticketed for using cast and gill nets at Jones Beach State Park to take 300 bait-sized fish, including this wee little black sea bass. Legal size for black sea bass is 16.5 inches.

Fishing compliance checks in Nassau, Suffolk, and Westchester counties resulted in several tickets for a host of violations:

On July 11, two men were ticketed for using cast and gill nets at Jones Beach State Park to take 300 bait-sized fish including silversides, cunner, 240 Atlantic menhaden (bunker), and two black sea bass. The daily limit for bunker is 100 per person and the size limit for black sea bass is 16.5 inches.

On July 15, a Suffolk County woman was ticketed for 27 undersize blue crabs. Most of the crabs were still alive and were returned to the Forge River where they were caught.

Also on July 15, an angler was ticketed for keeping short fish at Cordwood Landing County Park, including 35 porgies and two black sea bass.

On July 18, an ECO caught two men scurrying away from a Hudson River kayak launch carrying two five-gallon buckets and a large garbage bag containing 301 pumpkinseed, 8 bluegill, 3 red breast sunfish, 39 white perch, 5 brown bullhead, 3 Atlantic silverside, a gizzard shad, a golden shiner, and a banded killifish, all illegally caught with a cast net.

On July 21, ECOs in New York City joined forces with DEC Bureau of Pesticides to crack down on illegal sale of pesticides by street vendors in Washington Heights. One pesticide seized in this detail is a potent and volatile organophosphate known as Sniper DDVP, which is occasionally sold in repurposed spray bottles labeled for hair care products. This pesticide can potentially injure or poison people and pets.

On July 25, an ECO working alongside Nassau County Police busted the owner of an auto body shop in Elmont for running an illegal outdoor spray-painting operation, among other environmental quality violations. The ECO found approximately 25 gallons of paint, primer, and paint thinning agents as well as masks and spray bottles inside a makeshift booth. The shop owner received five tickets. Nassau County Fire Marshals also issued the owner multiple fire safety violations and seized all spray guns.



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Upstate New York man charged for killing bear, hiding it under swimming pool - newyorkupstate.com

Conservation cops catch Upstate NY anglers for netting 71 fish, ticket tree thief - syracuse.com

New Jersey hikers hauled chairs up Catskills highest peak, ticketed for leaving them - syracuse.com

Rangers find lost kid in ADKs, break up fight at Hamilton County campground - newyorkupstate.com

Steve Featherstone covers the outdoors for The Post-Standard, syracuse.com and NYUP.com. Contact him at sfeatherstone@syracuse.com or on Twitter @featheroutdoors. You can also follow along with all of our outdoors content at newyorkupstate.com/outdoors/ or follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/upstatenyoutdoors.
By Rachel Silberstein | Times Union, Albany

Albany, N.Y.  Former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomos health commissioner  who backed the states controversial Covid-19 nursing home policies  has been hired by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dr. Howard Zucker, who resigned in 2021 after it was revealed that Cuomo administration officials had manipulated a Department of Health report to downplay nursing home casualties, has been working as the federal agencys deputy director for global health since January, according to his biography on the CDC website.

In this role, [Zucker] has broad operating authority and responsibility for overall planning, direction, and management of global strategy and programs across CDC, Zuckers bio states.

Previously, Zucker was a visiting research professor at the School of Global Health at New York University. He has also served as assistant director general at the World Health Organization.

He served as New Yorks top health official between 2014 and 2021, overseeing the states response to public health crises including Covid-19, Ebola, Zika and a measles outbreak.

Early in the pandemic, the Cuomo administration took heat for ordering nursing homes to accept coronavirus-positive hospital patients in order to ease what they believed would be bed shortages in emergency rooms and intensive care units.

Some 9,000 infectious patients were directed to long-term care facilities before the policy was reversed. A 33-page Department of Health report that concluded the move did not result in a higher death toll was undermined after Cuomos staff admitted they changed details of the report, including the number of nursing home residents who died of Covid.

Zucker has repeatedly defended the states pandemic response, saying nursing home outcomes were a result of community spread  asymptomatic nursing home staff who inadvertently brought the virus into facilities at a time when little was known about the virus.

He also oversaw the establishment of a VIP-only testing program that prioritized members of Cuomos family and inner circle for coronavirus screenings when testing resources were still scarce early in the pandemic.

His department also took heat for its handling of the 2014 contamination of drinking water supplies in and around the village of Hoosick Falls, where a toxic manufacturing chemical had polluted underground wells. According to a Times Union investigation, health officials failed to notify the community in a timely manner after learning of the contamination and then dismissed concerns about high rates of cancer in the community.

Even after the Environmental Protection Agency warned in November 2015 that no one in Hoosick Falls should be drinking the water, the Health Department published a fact sheet the following month that claimed health effects are not expected from normal use of the water.

The CDC and Zucker did not immediately respond for comment Thursday on the former health commissioners new CDC role.

___

(c)2023 the Times Union (Albany, N.Y.)

Visit the Times Union (Albany, N.Y.) at www.timesunion.com
By Mark Scheer | Niagara Gazette, Niagara Falls

New Yorks four licensed, non-Native American casinos havent produced the level of financial benefits that state lawmakers anticipated when they authorized them several years ago.

Thats the finding of a report issued Thursday by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, whose office reviewed operations at del Lago Resort and Casino, Rivers Casino and Resort, Resorts World Catskills, and Tioga Downs Casino from 2017 to 2022.

While DiNapolis office found those casinos generated $176 million in gaming tax revenue for local and regional governments, the comptroller said only the three smaller towns playing host to casinos realized significant fiscal benefits relative to their overall revenue.

DiNapolis office found in 2020 that all four state-sanctioned casinos fell well short of the projected gross revenues on which local taxes are levied. Three years later, he said, the revenues and tax contributions continue to lag behind expectations, reaching only 50% to 60% of projections, with the sole exception of Tioga Downs in the Southern Tier.

Overall, the findings of his office led DiNapoli to concluded casinos are not a sure bet.

Casinos are not a magic fix that will solve local fiscal challenges, DiNapoli said. While casinos have generated local gaming tax revenue, the impacts vary for the communities that receive such revenues.

On the plus side, casino gaming has helped at least three New York towns from a financial standpoint. In the towns hosting state-sanctioned casinos, Nichols, Tyre and Thompson, gaming tax revenue made up 30% to 60% of total revenue, which DiNapoli said allowed those communities to dramatically cut property taxes.

In contrast, DiNapolis office said, in the larger host city of Schenectady, as well as the four host counties, gaming tax was a much smaller percentage of local revenue, just 1% to 3% of their total revenue.

For regional non-host counties, the comptrollers office found casino taxes generally amounted to less than 0.5% of their total revenue.

The comptrollers report acknowledged that the pandemic contributed to casino shortfalls, noting that gaming sites were shut down for six months in 2020 and did not fully reopen until capacity restrictions were lifted in June 2021. The report noted that all four casinos saw gross gaming revenues exceed pre-pandemic levels in 2022.

However, DiNapolis office said, the increased revenues did not translate to more local gaming taxes collected because amendments to New Yorks gaming law allowed casinos to keep a greater percentage of their gross revenue.

Three casinos were granted cuts in their tax rates for Slot & Electronic Table Games to 30%. A bill to reduce Tioga Downs Slot & ETG tax rate to 30% has been presented to Gov. Kathy Hochul.

According to DiNapolis office, those tax cuts reduced collections by a combined $41.9 million in 2022, including $8.4 million that would have gone to local governments.

In his report, the comptroller stressed the importance of what he described as realistic fiscal planning by localities regarding expectations for gaming revenues. He also said for municipalities that will host soon-to-be announced downstate casinos, an appropriate plan for the new revenue will be key.

The report did not examine the non-financial impacts of hosting a casino, such as gambling addiction or quality of life issues, but DiNapoli said his office is planning to release a report addressing those issues at a later date.

To read the full report released by DiNapoli on Thursday, go to: https://tinyurl.com/5xyc5a5b

___

(c)2023 the Niagara Gazette (Niagara Falls, N.Y.)

Visit the Niagara Gazette (Niagara Falls, N.Y.) at www.niagara-gazette.com
ADDIS ABABA, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Ethiopian federal government on Friday declared a state of emergency in the Amhara region amid ongoing clashes between the military and local militiamen.

The decision was made by the Ethiopian Council of Ministers Friday, at the formal request of the Amhara regional government administration Thursday calling on the federal government to "take appropriate measures" in response to the expanding clashes.

The state of emergency decision followed several days of fighting in towns across Amhara, the country's second most populous region, between federal forces and local militia known as Fano.

The Council of Ministers said the armed illegal activities in the Amhara region have become impossible to control through the regular law enforcement system. It said the armed activities have greatly disrupted the overall economic and social activities of the residents of the region and threatened the constitutional order.

The council said it is necessary to take emergency measures to maintain public peace and security and enforce law and order, stressing the threat posed by the armed movement in the region on national security and public peace is increasing.

In a letter addressed to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, Amhara regional president Yilkal Kefale on Thursday said the unrest was causing significant human, social and economic damage.

"It has become difficult to control the situation through regular legal means. Therefore, we respectfully call upon the federal government to take appropriate measures based on the required legal frameworks," Yilkal said in the letter, which was published by Ethiopian state-owned media.

On Wednesday, Ethiopia's Deputy Prime Minister Demeke Mekonnen described the ongoing security situation in the Amhara region as "concerning" and called for a peaceful resolution of the situation. 
The Taos News delivered to your Taos County address every week for a full year! We offer our lowest mail rates to zip codes in the county. Click Here to See if you Qualify. Plan includes unlimited website access and e-edition print replica online. Your auto pay plan will be conveniently renewed at the end of the subscription period. You may cancel at anytime.
NINGBO, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Shen Deyong, a former senior political advisor, was sentenced Friday to 15 years imprisonment for accepting bribes.

Shen was formerly a member of the Standing Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee and head of the Committee on Social and Legal Affairs of the CPPCC National Committee. He also once served as the vice president of the Supreme People's Court.

According to the verdict issued by the Intermediate People's Court of Ningbo Municipality, Shen was also fined 6 million yuan (about 840,124 U.S. dollars). Shen's illegal gains from bribery and the interest it generated will be confiscated and handed over to the state treasury.

The court established that Shen took advantage of his various positions to assist individuals and organizations on matters related to case handling, job promotion and project contracting between 1995 and 2022.

In return, he directly or indirectly accepted money and valuables worth over 64.56 million yuan, said the court.

After his arrest, Shen confessed to his crimes and was cooperative in returning all of his illegal gains and exposing crimes committed by other individuals. However, in light of the fact that he grossly infringed upon the judiciary system and caused serious consequences to society, Shen will not be granted a lenient sentence, according to the court. 
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re: Government restricts the imports of laptops & computers

There is something called covered telecommunications devices. Made by Huawei and ZTE and all.

The US also asks for declarations that any of their service vendors are NOT using such things.

Now on one side GOI could be concerned about various devices which potentially can be embedded in these laptops and other Made in China/ Korea etc machines and sit quietly there like sleepers and gathering information of different kinds and relaying it back to China or Korea or wherever.

(Or something more nefarious!Remember the movie Kingsman!?)



https://youtu.be/z7-tkkcC6d0



But I think the real reason is to push all these brands to become serious about manufacturing in India and invest in the same instead of just paying lip service. I would only worry about essential micro-component parts and their consistency of quality and availability of regular supply.

Its great to encourage manufacturing here in India. But it would be good if the GOI put out some timelines within which the brands need to become compliant, and restricts all the imports after that time has elapsed rather than this one fell swoop draconian diktat being announced one morning. The same logic goes for tyres and tyre imports and more or less anything else which is not made in India, like scale model toy cars for example. I was just reading some more on this new policy.There is something called covered telecommunications devices. Made by Huawei and ZTE and all.The US also asks for declarations that any of their service vendors are NOT using such things.Now on one side GOI could be concerned about various devices which potentially can be embedded in these laptops and other Made in China/ Korea etc machines and sit quietly there like sleepers and gathering information of different kinds and relaying it back to China or Korea or wherever.(Or something more nefarious!Remember the movie Kingsman!?)But I think the real reason is to push all these brands to become serious about manufacturing in India and invest in the same instead of just paying lip service. I would only worry about essential micro-component parts and their consistency of quality and availability of regular supply.Its great to encourage manufacturing here in India. But it would be good if the GOI put out some timelines within which the brands need to become compliant, and restricts all the imports after that time has elapsed rather than this one fell swoop draconian diktat being announced one morning. The same logic goes for tyres and tyre imports and more or less anything else which is not made in India, like scale model toy cars for example. Last edited by shankar.balan : 4th August 2023 at 06:55 .
What just happened? Apple's third-quarter earnings were a case of good news, bad news for the Cupertino giant. The company did experience a year-on-year decline in hardware sales, but things weren't as bad as analysts expected. Moreover, its services business - Apple's fastest-growing segment - saw an 8% YoY increase.

Apple's hardware categories didn't have a great quarter. The $39.67 billion revenue brought in from iPhone sales represented a 2% fall compared to the same quarter a year ago. Mac revenue was down 7% to $6.84 billion, and iPad revenue dropped a massive 20% to $5.79 billion.

Tablet shipments were the best-performing sector in Canalys' recent report on the PC market, falling by only 7% to 10.8 million in the most recent quarter. That was mostly due to the iPad, which has long led the tablet industry - Apple's YoY decline in sales was due to the release of the latest iPad Air in the same quarter last year.

Apple did have more hardware success in the "Other Products" category, where wearables such as the Apple Watch and AirPods reside. It was up 2% YoY, generating $8.28 billion in revenue.

The brightest spot for Apple was the services section, which includes Apple TV+, Apple Music, Apple Fitness, Apple Arcade, Apple Podcasts, Apple Books, Apple Cloud, and the Apple App Store, among others. The business recorded $21.2 billion worth of sales, marking an 8% YoY rise, an improvement over the 5.5% increase seen in the same quarter of 2022. Apple expects growth to be even faster during fiscal Q4, though it does not provide specific guidance for its businesses for the upcoming quarter.

The gross margin for services last quarter was 70.5%, almost double the 35.4% margin for all of Apple's hardware products.

CEO Tim Cook said Apple now boasts more than 1 billion paying customers across all of its services, up by 150 million compared to last year.

"From education to the environment, we are continuing to advance our values, while championing innovation that enriches the lives of our customers and leaves the world better than we found it," said Cook.

Apple's overall revenue was down 1% to $81.8 billion, while earnings of $1.26 per share beat the anticipated $1.19.

Apple will see a boost in its hardware sales when it launches the iPhone 15 series during what most believe will be the second half of September. The phones are rumored to feature thinner bezels, a USB-C port, and titanium materials.
What just happened? With all the prosperity, the dawn of new technology, and virtually no threat of global nuclear annihilation, the nineties really was the best decade. It was also a time when Nokia gained fame for releasing phones that could double as lethal weapons or body armor. Now, almost 30 years later, the company has released two new feature phones that will ignite 90s nostalgia.

HMD Global, the licensee of the Nokia brand, has been manufacturing and releasing phones carrying the iconic name since 2016. The latest of these, the Nokia 130 and Nokia 150, are two new feature (or dumb) phones that add to the company's lineup of similar devices.

Somewhat confusingly, this will be the third refresh of the Nokia 150, following the original model that was announced in 2106 and a successor from 2020.

The latest Nokia 150 features a more modern design along with a comparatively tiny 2.4-inch QVGA display, a 0.3MP VGA main camera, an onboard mic and a speaker, and a 1,450 mAh removable battery that is said to offer up to 20 hours of talk time or up to 30 days of standby time.

There's also an FM radio, MP3 player, audio jack, and a microSD slot that supports up to 32GB of additional memory. This is a feature phone that will probably cost around $50, so it's only 2G, uses a micro USB port, and comes with Nokia's own S30+ operating system instead of Android. Elsewhere, the IP52 rating means it's mostly safe against dust ingress but not water, and both handsets come with physical buttons and Snake, naturally.

Nokia is also releasing the third version of the Nokia 130, following on from the original 2014 model and 2017 successor. The main change here is the addition of a large speaker on the back that the maker says will offer "loud audio." The specs are the same as the Nokia 150, with the main difference being the lack of any kind of camera. It could mean that the 130 is even cheaper, though that big speaker might be Nokia's justification for charging the same amount.

A report from April showed that while feature phones weren't selling the way they used to in many nations, one county that has seen their popularity grow is the US. This is mostly thanks to a wave of Gen Z users - those born between 1997 and 2012 - looking to limit their screen time to protect their mental health from social media apps.
In context: Diamonds are among the most promising materials for tech applications, such as fast telecommunications and power conversion in electric vehicles or power plants. However, diamonds aren't easy to work with, as they tend to crack when trying to cut wafers out of them.

A new laser-based technique developed by a team of Japanese scientists from Chiba University seemingly provides a way to "effortlessly slice" diamonds along the optimal crystallographic plane. The research was recently published in the journal Diamond and Related Materials, and it could assist the semiconductor industry in adopting one of the sturdiest materials known to man.

Diamonds have attractive properties for semiconductor applications, the researchers said, as they have a wider bandgap than silicon. They could theoretically be employed to create more efficient semiconductors, capable of working at higher voltages, frequencies, and temperatures. However, diamonds are challenging to adapt into semiconductors because there is no efficient technique to slice them into thin wafers.

Professor Hirofumi Hidai and his team at Chiba University are proposing a solution to the problem: a laser-based slicing process that can cleanly cut diamonds without breaking them. The researchers stated that the new technique prevents the propagation of undesirable cracks during the laser-cutting process by focusing short laser pulses onto a narrow cone-like volume within the material.

The laser pulses turn diamond into amorphous carbon with lower density levels. Therefore, the regions shot with the laser undergo a reduction in density and crack formation, Professor Hidai said. The researchers created a grid-like pattern to guide the propagation of cracks along the designated cutting path, while a sharp tungsten needle was used to "easily" separate a smooth wafer from the rest of the diamond block.

Chiba University said the new proposed technique could be a pivotal step towards turning diamonds into a "suitable semiconductor material" for future, more efficient technologies. Professor Hidai remarked how slicing diamonds with a laser "enables the production of high-quality wafers at a low cost" and is indispensable for fabricating diamond semiconductor devices.

The Japanese research brings the industry closer to realizing diamond semiconductors for various technology applications, Hidai said. The laser-sliced wafers could improve the power conversion ratio in electric vehicles and trains.

Chiba University and Hidai's team are not alone in their effort to turn diamonds into semiconductors. Amazon Web Services recently partnered with Element Six (a subsidiary of the De Beers diamond consortium) to create synthetic diamonds and use them in quantum cryptography. The two companies are attempting to exploit photon-absorbing defects in diamonds to create a global network for quantum key distribution.
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has captured a captivating infrared image of a galaxy cluster known as "El Gordo," revealing distant, dusty objects never seen before.

El Gordo, a massive cluster of galaxies that existed 6.2 billion years ago, acts as a natural cosmic magnifying glass through gravitational lensing.

A team of researchers targeted El Gordo due to its gravitational lensing effect, where its powerful gravity bends and distorts the light of objects behind it. This lensing effect provided a unique opportunity to observe distant galaxies that were otherwise challenging to detect.

The Fishhook

One of the most striking features in the image is a bright arc nicknamed "El Anzuelo" or "The Fishhook." This distant galaxy took 10.6 billion years for its light to reach Earth, and its red color is a result of reddening from dust within the galaxy and cosmological redshift due to its extreme distance.

Through careful correction of the lensing distortions, the Prime Extragalactic Areas for Reionization and Lensing Science (PEARLS) team revealed that this background galaxy is disk-shaped and about one-fourth the size of the Milky Way.

Another prominent feature in the image is a long, pencil-thin line called "La Flaca" or "The Thin One." It is another lensed background galaxy, and nearby, researchers discovered three images of a single red giant star they nicknamed "Quyllur," the Quechua term for a star.

Using Webb's infrared filters and sensitivity, Quyllur becomes the first individual red giant star observed beyond 1 billion light-years from Earth.

Furthermore, the image uncovers five multiply lensed galaxies, implying the formation of a baby galaxy cluster approximately 12.1 billion years ago. Additionally, researchers observed faint, smudge-like galaxies called ultra-diffuse galaxies scattered throughout the El Gordo cluster.

These distant galaxies exhibit distinct characteristics compared to their local counterparts, suggesting the significant impact of residing in the cluster environment for the past 6 billion years.

Read Also: NASA's James Webb Space Telescope Catches an 'Asteroid Photobomber' Roughly the Size of Rome's Colosseum

PEARLS-Clusters

The PEARLS-Clusters branch of the PEARLS team led the analysis of the El Gordo observations. The images provided by Webb are not only scientifically valuable but also breathtakingly beautiful, showcasing the power of gravitational lensing and the potential of the James Webb Space Telescope to unlock the secrets of the universe as envisioned by Albert Einstein over a century ago.

"Gravitational lensing was predicted by Albert Einstein more than 100 years ago. In the El Gordo cluster, we see the power of gravitational lensing in action," said Rogier Windhorst of Arizona State University, principal investigator of the PEARLS program.

"The PEARLS images of El Gordo are out-of-this-world beautiful. And, they have shown us how Webb can unlock Einstein's treasure chest."

Related Article: [LOOK] NASA James Webb Space Telescope's Largest Image of the Universe to Date - Made Out of 690 Individual Frames!

 2023 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
BEIRUT, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- Lebanon will begin exploratory drilling in its territorial waters by the end of August to see if it has rich energy deposits, Public Works and Transport Minister Ali Hamieh announced on Thursday.

An oil and gas exploration vessel will arrive in Lebanon's territorial waters on August 14 and start drilling operations in Block 9 there, the National News Agency quoted the minister as saying.

The results of the exploration will be known before the end of this year to determine whether Lebanon is an oil-rich country, he added.

Lebanon and Israel finalized a U.S.-brokered maritime border demarcation deal in October last year after years of negotiations, opening up the possibility for both countries to explore energy deposits in the Mediterranean Sea.

Lebanon needs revenues from the oil and gas sector to facilitate its recovery from a protracted financial crisis that started in 2019. 
A recent study conducted by researchers from the University of Cambridge reveals that the adoption of robots in businesses can have a peculiar impact on profit margins - a "U-shaped" effect.

The researchers analyzed industry data from the UK and 24 other European countries spanning over two decades, from 1995 to 2017. Surprisingly, they found that profits initially decline at low levels of robot adoption, but at higher levels, they rise again.

Adoption of Robots in Businesses: The U-Shaped Phenomenon

The U-shaped phenomenon on profits causes profit margins to fall initially before rising again. It can be attributed to the interplay between cost reduction, process innovation, and the development of new products.

In the early stages of robot adoption, companies tend to implement these technologies to cut costs and streamline their processes. However, as this "process innovation" becomes more common and easily replicable by competitors, the focus shifts to product innovation.

Only when robots are fully integrated into a company's operations can they be used to innovate new products, giving businesses greater market power and setting them apart from competitors.

Robots have been prevalent in various industries since the 1980s, particularly in sectors that involve physically intensive jobs. Over the years, robot adoption has steadily increased worldwide, and their precision and versatility make them highly valuable in high-value manufacturing applications, including electronics, according to the study.

Previous research has demonstrated that robots boost labor productivity at the industry or country level, but the specific influence on profit margins has received less attention on a macro scale.

In an effort to explore this aspect, the researchers set out to investigate whether robots follow a pattern similar to computers in influencing productivity.

To analyze the impact of robots on profit margins, the researchers delved into industry-level data from 25 EU countries, with a primary focus on manufacturing sectors where robots are widely employed.

This data was then compared with robotics data from the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) database. Surprisingly, the analysis revealed an unforeseen U-shaped curve, showing the intricate relationship between robot adoption and profit margins.

The initial adoption of robots tends to focus on cost reduction and process streamlining, leading to a competitive advantage. However, margins start to shrink as competitors catch up by adopting robots themselves.

Read Also: New Robot Inspired by Cute Baby Sea Turtles: Here's What It Can Do

The Turning Point

The turning point occurs when businesses start to integrate robots fully into their processes, requiring a bottom-up redesign of the entire operation. According to the study's authors, this crucial step allows companies to utilize the power of robotics to develop new products and drive profits.

Interviews with an American medical equipment manufacturer further confirmed the challenges of robot adoption. While the benefits are evident, incorporating robots into a business is a costly and complex endeavor.

Companies need to adapt their business models simultaneously with robot adoption to maximize the benefits and reach the profitable side of the U-shaped curve more quickly.

The study sheds light on the intricacies of robot integration in businesses, urging companies to carefully strategize the adoption process to reap the long-term rewards of increased profit margins and innovation.

"When you start bringing more and more robots into your process, eventually you reach a point where your whole process needs to be redesigned from the bottom up," said co-author Professor Chander Velu from Cambridge's Institute for Manufacturing.

"It's important that companies develop new processes at the same time as they're incorporating robots, otherwise they will reach this same pinch point," Velu added.

The study's findings were published in the journal IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management.

Related Article: Can AI Robots Teach Other Robots? A New Study Reveals the Answer

 2023 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
A recent study conducted by University College London (UCL) reveals that humans are only able to detect deepfake speech only 73% of the time, regardless of whether it's in English or Mandarin.



Deepfakes are a form of synthetic media created using generative artificial intelligence (AI) that imitates a real person's voice or appearance. These AI algorithms are trained to replicate original sound or imagery by learning patterns and characteristics from a dataset, such as audio or video of a real individual.



While early versions required extensive data, newer pre-trained algorithms can recreate someone's voice using just a three-second clip, according to the study.

TTS Algorithm

In the UCL study, researchers used a text-to-speech (TTS) algorithm trained on publicly available datasets in English and Mandarin to generate 50 deepfake speech samples in each language. These samples were distinct from the data used to train the algorithm to ensure it did not reproduce the original input.



The researchers then played both the artificially generated and genuine speech samples to 529 participants, aiming to assess their ability to identify real from fake speech.



Surprisingly, the participants were only able to detect deepfake speech with a 73% accuracy rate. Even after receiving training to recognize deepfake speech characteristics, their detection accuracy only marginally improved.



Kimberly Mai, the first author of the study, highlights that this finding demonstrates humans' inability to consistently identify deepfake speech, even with training.



Furthermore, the study used relatively older algorithms, raising concerns about human detection capabilities against the most sophisticated technology available now and in the future.

Read Also: Deepfake Movie Remakes Prompt False Memories in Viewers, New Study Reveals

Better Automated Speech Detectors

The research team plans to develop better-automated speech detectors to counter the potential threats posed by artificially generated audio and imagery. While generative AI audio technology does offer benefits, such as increased accessibility for individuals with limited speech abilities, there are also growing fears that criminals and nation-states could exploit this technology to inflict harm on individuals and societies.



Documented cases of deepfake speech misuse include a 2019 incident where a British energy company's CEO transferred funds to a false supplier after being deceived by a deepfake recording of his boss's voice.



Professor Lewis Griffin, the senior author of the study, emphasizes the need for governments and organizations to devise strategies to address the potential misuse of generative AI technology.



However, he also acknowledges the positive prospects that lie ahead, as this technology has the potential to bring about numerous benefits if used responsibly.



"With generative artificial intelligence technology getting more sophisticated and many of these tools openly available, we're on the verge of seeing numerous benefits as well as risks," Griffin said in a statement.

"It would be prudent for governments and organizations to develop strategies to deal with abuse of these tools, certainly, but we should also recognize the positive possibilities that are on the horizon."

The study's findings were published in the journal PLOS ONE.

Related Article: Nicki Minaj Hopes Internet Gets "Deleted" After Seeing Deep Fake Video of Her, Tom Holland

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In a significant expansion of its autonomous ride-hailing service, Waymo announced that Austin, Texas, will become its fourth commercial market, joining the ranks of Phoenix, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

As TechCrunch reports, this move puts Waymo directly in competition with rival Cruise, which also operates self-driving ride-hailing services in San Francisco and Phoenix.

The same report notes that the official announcement marks a full-circle moment for Waymo, bringing its cutting-edge robotaxi service back to Austin, where the company's journey into driverless technology began.

The initial phase of operations will kick off this fall, with full autonomy and public rides slated for the following months.

Waymo Launched in Austin

Saswat Panigrahi, Chief Product Officer at Waymo, expressed enthusiasm about the city's complex cityscape, which the Waymo Driver is adapting to incredibly quickly.

"Autonomous vehicles make transportation safer, greener, and more accessible, and we can't wait for Austinites to experience these benefits for themselves," Panigrahi stated.

"The Waymo Driver also improves access to sustainable transportation, helping connect many more Austinites to their local communities through an all-electric, zero-emissions ride-hailing service that could help the city meet its ambitious targets to reach net-zero emissions by 2040," the company noted.

Read Also: Tesla's Steering Problems Arise, NHTSA to Investigate on User Complaints Alongside Other Issues

Prioritizing Accessibility

The company highlights in a blog post that Waymo's expansion into Austin will also address the issue of transportation accessibility for traditionally underserved groups, such as individuals who are blind.

Emily Coleman, Superintendent of the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired, stressed the significance of autonomous vehicles for individuals with visual impairments.

"Providing access to autonomous vehicles gives them the ability to be independent travelers and feel empowered to seek out the lives they want without the obligation to trust strangers," she emphasized.

The new service will undoubtedly boost local sustainability efforts as well. Waymo's all-electric, zero-emissions ride-hailing service aligns with Austin's ambitious targets to reach net-zero emissions by 2040.

Waymo plans to cover an extensive area in Austin, including popular locations like downtown Barton Hills, Riverside, East Austin, and Hyde Park. The company intends the service to be a valuable transportation option for residents and visitors, available day and night.

What's Next?

For those familiar with Waymo's deployment strategy, TechCrunch explains that the expansion in Austin will follow the company's proven playbook.

Initially, human safety operators will be behind the wheel of the test vehicles, ensuring smooth operations and providing a safety net. As the technology matures and demonstrates its reliability, the human operator will be gradually removed, making way for fully driverless rides.

Waymo One, the official name of the company's commercial ride-hailing service, will be accessible to vetted members of the public before opening to all riders.

Currently, Waymo only charges for rides in Phoenix, but the company awaits the final permit from the California Public Utilities Commission to charge passengers in the state, similar to Cruise.

Stay posted here at Tech Times.

Related Article: Ford Resumes F-150 Lightning EV Production as Pre-Orders Spiked After Price Slash

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Microsoft researchers recently disclosed that a hacker gang with ties to the Russian government, known as "Midnight Blizzard" or APT29/Cozy Bear, planned a series of highly focused social engineering assaults against international organizations using Microsoft Teams as a front, aimed at stealing login information and obtaining unauthorized access to confidential data.



Less than 40 distinct worldwide organizations have fallen prey to the campaign since late May, with the Russian-back hackers using sophisticated techniques to take advantage of Microsoft Teams users' confidence, according to a Reuters report.

The Hackers' Strategy

Recent operations associated with the hacker gang demonstrate how they use new subdomains to target renters who have already been penetrated in order to start Teams talks and win over future victims.

In order to trick unwary users into starting conversations that seemed to be from Microsoft's technical support staff, the hackers painstakingly created domains and accounts that closely resembled real technical support or Microsoft's Identity Protection team.



Once in the discussion, the attackers used deception to induce their targets to agree to multifactor authentication (MFA) prompts so they could secretly access user accounts.

If they fell for the trick, the target user would get a notification asking them to input a code into the Microsoft Authenticator app on their mobile device, per TechCrunch. The hackers were able to access the victim's account in its entirety after following several steps.

Read Also: OceanGate Co-Founder's Ambitious Venus Mission: Risking Another Tragedy?

For initial entry into targeted settings, the Midnight Blizzard gang has a history of using complex tactics such as authentication spear-phishing, password spray, and brute-force assaults, according to The Hacker News. Their strategy involves moving laterally from on-premises systems to the cloud and using the service providers' trust chain to get access to downstream clients.

Microsoft has been actively looking into the issue and taking action to prevent future damage. The business prevented the hackers from utilizing the shady domains, but they constantly monitor the case.

Hackers Wanted to Spy on Organizations

According to law enforcement organizations in the United States and the United Kingdom, the APT29 gang has a reputation for being involved in the infamous SolarWinds assault in 2020. It is associated with Russia's SVR Foreign Intelligence Service.



Government, non-governmental, IT, technology, discrete manufacturing, and media organizations are affected by the cyberattack. According to Microsoft, the targets indicated that the hackers had particular espionage goals in mind.



Microsoft recommends that users be attentive and take the appropriate actions to secure their accounts and sensitive information in light of the continuing investigations and the growing complexity of such attacks.

Related Article: FCC Faces Appeals from Internet Service Providers Seeking More Funds, Amnesty Window Amid RDOF Grant Concerns

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In a move to safeguard investors from potential risks associated with the unchecked growth of artificial intelligence (AI), Massachusetts securities regulators have taken the initiative to investigate the use of AI by investment firms in the state.

Reuters reports that the investigation, spearheaded by Massachusetts Secretary of State Bill Galvin, addresses concerns about how AI is utilized in investor interactions.

Some prominent investment firms under scrutiny include JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Tradier Brokerage, US Tiger Securities, ETrade, Savvy Advisors, and Hearsay Systems.

AI Used in Criminal Activities

In recent years, AI's tremendous development has presented companies with new tools to streamline operations, increase customer interactions, and optimize revenues.

However, as this technology spreads across industries, regulators are becoming more concerned about its possible implications, notably in the financial sector.

There is growing fear that AI may unwittingly expose investors to greater risk or even facilitate fraudulent activity.

Read Also: Humans Fail to Identify Quarter of Deepfake Speech Samples, According to Study

Regulatory Inquiry on AI

The Massachusetts regulators' inquiry involves sending letters to a number of firms that either currently employ AI or are developing AI-based systems for their businesses.

The letters of inquiry seek detailed information about how these firms employ AI, the algorithms and data sources used, and the measures to ensure transparency, accountability, and investor protection.

AI Benefits Fraud

In parallel with this investigation, another pressing concern regarding AI's impact on the financial industry has emerged.

Earlier this week, we reported that the Social Security Administration, responsible for safeguarding the interests of beneficiaries, is grappling with the escalating threat of AI-backed fraud schemes.

Gail Ennis, the inspector general at the Social Security Administration Office of the Inspector General, has raised the alarm about criminals exploiting AI to carry out fraud more effectively and profitably.

According to Ennis, these fraudulent deceptions are becoming increasingly credible and realistic, making it difficult for beneficiaries and authorities to detect and prevent them.

To counter this growing threat, the Social Security Administration has set up an internal task force focused on studying AI and devising strategies to prevent AI-related fraud. The task force aims to stay ahead of the curve by understanding the evolving tactics used by criminals and deploying advanced AI-based solutions to safeguard beneficiaries proactively.

AI in Banks

While the Massachusetts investigation and the Social Security Administration's response are essential steps toward addressing AI's potential risks, another concern has been raised by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

The CFPB has warned about banks' use of generative AI chatbots, citing numerous customer complaints about the difficulties in obtaining timely and straightforward answers to their inquiries.

More banks are leveraging AI-driven virtual assistants to enhance customer service. Examples include Bank of America's Erica, USAA's Eva, and US Bank's Smart Assistant, which offer support for various banking tasks and facilitate easy access to account information.

Stay posted here at Tech Times.

Related Article: SettleMint Introduces 'AI Genie' to Help Developers Create Smart Contracts, Integrate Data, and More!

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To track brain activity during interactions, University of Texas at Austin researchers customized a commercial VR headgear.

The noninvasive electroencephalogram (EEG) sensor in the Meta VR headset has potential uses in reducing anxiety and enhancing human-robot interactions.

By revealing how the brain responds to outside stimuli and perhaps improving VR experiences, this ground-breaking technology has the potential to transform whole industries.

(Photo: GREG BAKER/AFP via Getty Images) Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon tries out a virtual reality headset during a demonstration of a conservation partnership between the Palace Museum and Historic Environment Scotland, at the Forbidden City, the former home of China's emperors, in Beijing on April 10, 2018.

Previous Restrictions

It was awkward and difficult to connect traditional EEG equipment with electrode caps with VR headsets. To enhance user experience, researchers created spongy electrodes utilizing soft, conductive materials.

These electrodes, together with a flexible circuit with conductive traces and an EEG recording device at the rear, were placed into the headset's top strap and forehead pad.

Read Also: VR Headset with Mouth Haptics Attach to Device-Will It be Available Built-In?

Introduction of EEGs

Modern EEG sensors have transformed VR technology, opening up possible uses for it in the treatment of anxiety disorders and training for pilots.

Clinicians can design specialized therapy strategies by closely observing patients' brain activity while they engage in virtual reality experiences.

Additionally, VR headsets can assess the degree of stress and concentration that pilots are under while boosting safety during flight operations.

Physical Testing

A driving simulation game that lets players respond to turn orders and record their brain activity was developed by researchers using VR EEG headsets.

This experiment shows how the technology may be used to gauge cognitive involvement and attention during interactive activities.

Future Possibilities for VR

For VR EEG technology, researchers have submitted preliminary patent paperwork, and their openness to working with VR firms to develop built-in versions suggests a readiness to make it broadly available.

The VR business might undergo a revolution thanks to this technology, which would also improve consumer security.

Related Article: VR-Based Mental Wellness Platform Powered by Oxford University's Oxford VR is Launched

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Google has announced major changes to its "Results About You" tool in an effort to improve user control over their personal information and privacy.

The tool, which launched in May 2022, allows users to manage the personal information that shows in Google Search results.

Users can now receive instant alerts from Google about new instances of their personal information appearing on the search engine, making it easier than ever to take control of their online presence.

New Privacy Tools for Google Users

Android Authority notes that the most exciting addition to the "Results About You" tool is the opt-in warning system.

Previously, users needed to actively search for their personal information on Google and manually request its removal. This process could be time-consuming and leave users unaware of new appearances of their private details.

With the warning system, Google proactively alerts users whenever fresh instances of their personal information emerge on the search engine.

This means users can promptly identify and address privacy concerns, saving time and effort in the process.

Read Also: Discord Adds Xbox Streaming Ability Allowing Users to Live Stream Gameplay

Dashboard for User Reports

To complement the warning system, Google is rolling out a new dashboard that aggregates all the user's reports. This dashboard will serve as a central hub for monitoring and managing personal contact information visible on Google Search.

By streamlining access to these reports, users can conveniently request the removal of unwanted search results directly from the tool.

The new dashboard and warning system were initially available only in English for users in the United States. However, Google has assured users that it intends to expand these features to more countries and languages in the near future.

What Is SafeSearch Blurring?

Additionally, Google is taking a strong stance on explicit imagery with two new Search features. First, it introduces "SafeSearch blurring," a tool designed to automatically blur explicit and graphic imagery from search results.

While this feature aims to protect users from encountering adult content inadvertently, users retain the flexibility to turn it off if desired. The global rollout of SafeSearch blurring is scheduled for this month, ensuring users worldwide can benefit from this added layer of protection.

Removing Explicit Images

Secondly, Google is updating its policies on personal explicit images. Previously, users could request the removal of non-consensual explicit images from Search.

Now, Google is extending this protection to enable users to remove their personal explicit images that they no longer wish to be visible in Search. For example, suppose users had previously uploaded explicit content to a website and later removed it.

In that case, they can now request its removal from Google Search if it continues to appear elsewhere without their approval. This policy, however, does not apply to content that users are currently commercializing.

To facilitate the process of content removal requests, Google has also revamped and simplified the submission forms.

Better Parental Controls

In addition to these changes, Google is making parental controls more accessible. Users can now type in relevant queries like "google parental controls" or "google family link" in the Search bar, and a box with information on managing parental controls will appear.

This enhancement aims to assist parents, guardians, and educators create a safer online environment for young users.

Stay posted here at Tech Times.

Related Article: Goodbye Google Chrome's Download Bar at the Bottom, Hello New Tray at the Taskbar

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Scammers have launched a new phishing campaign where they send an email bearing a Google logo.

At first, it's tricky to identify if it's legitimate or not, but if you look closely at the letter, you will notice some signs that it does not originally come from the company.

The new cyberattack involves informing recipients that their device is infected by a virus. The deceptive link might later steal the victim's credentials.

New Phishing Attack Impersonates Google Via Email

Almost everything on the internet is believable. You can check Google and search for fake products and compare them to the original ones. The resemblance might be closer than what you're expecting and you can barely notice their difference.

In fact, it's easier to be fooled online if you don't pay enough attention to the details of a website especially if you're just mindlessly clicking a spammy link.

According to Fox News, hackers are sending bogus emails to users. The latest attack involves a security-related phishing scheme that imitates Google when it sends emails to its customers.

Once you click the suspicious link that will urge you to delete a virus on your computer or any device, it will automatically obtain your personal information without you knowing.

Based on the screenshots provided by Kurt Knuttsson, scammers will send an email that bears "Suspicious Virus Detected." In case you see this, don't panic and check the email of the sender.

Related Article: Security Expert Warns iPhone, Android Users to Delete These 2 Types of Apps ASAP-Why?

Best Practices to Avoid This Phishing Scam

Fox News reached out to Google to confirm if the email really came from it. It turns out that the search engine titan has confirmed that this is a new phishing attack to monitor.

Here's what Google said regarding the cybersecurity matter.

"We urge people to proceed with caution when reading emails from someone claiming to be an authoritative resource. Unfortunately, unscrupulous people sometimes try to use the Google brand to scam and defraud others. In Gmail, our sophisticated protections will block more than 99.9% of spam, phishing, and malware, but whichever email service you use, we encourage users to follow these three best practices to help avoid becoming a victim of a scam:

Scrutinize the email and ask yourself some questions about its legitimacy. Slow it down.

Research the details and compare them to the usual emails that you receive from Google. If there's something malicious about them, don't attempt to click anything.

Stop from here and don't send any reply. If the scammers get your precious information, they would demand you a downpayment/ransom. Worst case scenario, they would tell you that they would leak it if you don't pay a hefty sum of money.

Most importantly, you have the power to report this incident to Google's security team for immediate action.

Always remember that regularly updating your software will help you stay protected against these hackers. You can also activate two-factor authentication to achieve an extra layer of security.

Read Also: Google Gives Gmail Users Helpful Tips to Avoid 'Bank-Raiding' Scams

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The latest update from Nothing announces the new brand that will arrive soon, called the "CMF," which would center on developing the accessories including its wireless earbuds and smartwatches. This announcement is massive for the fans of the massive startup brand, as it would be the first time it would be bringing a smartwatch made by the company.

One of the most significant accessories for smartphones now are smartwatches, and looking at Nothing's development of the Nothing Phone lineup, the company is targeting a more massive audience.

Nothing Unveils CMF to Focus on Earbuds, Smartwatches

(Photo : Nothing via YouTube Screenshot)

Nothing brings news to the world with its latest Community Update, sharing the new sub-brand of the company which it would delegate all the developments of its new devices. These devices include plans for more earbuds, continuing its development of the Nothing Ear, and bringing more to its wearable audio devices.

However, one of the most iconic devices which the new brand would focus on is the smartwatch, and this is the first time that the company unveiled its plans regarding the wearable.

As revealed by Nothing CEO and founder, Carl Pei, the goal is to provide more accessible and affordable to the world, with its design focused also on bettering the entirety of its brand.

Read Also: Nothing Phone 2 Upgrades Confirmed by CEO Carl Pei - Here's Everything You Need to Know

Nothing's First Smartwatch from CMF: What Will It Bring?

According to 9to5 Mac, Nothing claimed that this sub-brand would focus only on its tasks and not affect the main devices of its lineup, namely the Nothing Phone and Ear developments.

It is also worth noting that the company mentioned a smartwatch, and being that its operating system is based on Android, there were no mentions of using the Wear OS for this development. However, it is not yet a closed book, as there might be a future announcement regarding the Nothing "Watch" to use the Wear OS from Google and Samsung.

Nothing's Brand and Its Tech Development

Earlier this Summer 2023, Nothing unveiled the latest development of its technology, centering on its flagship smartphone, the Nothing Phone 2, to bring its latest update to the world. In this release, Nothing made sure to include the United States after the massive request from American fans who sourced its earlier smartphone from other regions.

With Nothing Phone (2) already out in the market, there are massive speculations about how the company would proceed with its devices and the future of its technological developments. The company only released two types of products, one is the smartphone based on Android, and the two versions of the Nothing Ear, its wireless earbuds.

The growing brand of Nothing is seeing massive traction now as it opened its doors in the US and other regions, set for a massive expansion for its future releases. Soon, Nothing will bring more tech to the world that focuses on its sub-brand, CMF, to bring earbuds and smartwatches to pair to its mainline releases of the Phone lineup.

Related Article: Carl Pei's Nothing Is Not Invested to Foldables, No Expanding Smartphones; Calls it a 'Niche'

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Businesses must now transition into the digital landscape to evolve alongside the advancements of technology. Failure to do so means a potential loss in revenue or, worse, a declaration of bankruptcy. They need software development services from an IT solutions company like PCA Technology Group to assist them in the transition and achieve a successful digital transformation.

Why is digital business transformation important?

Digital transformation is important for a business to improve office operations and keep up with the modern trends. This means embedding technologies provided by an IT solutions company like PCA to enhance its IT infrastructure, secure its systems, and streamline its processes to achieve its goals and reach its desired revenue.

PCA's IT support can allow a business to focus on its core operations instead of wasting time dealing with the complexities of implementing software development solutions. With its industry expertise and partnerships, PCA can digitally transform any business.

Overview of PCA

PCA embraced and leveraged new technologies since its founding in 1989. It is an IT solutions company that cares deeply about its clients in its approach to delivering tailored IT solutions. It caters to small and medium-sized businesses in New York.

For over 30 years, PCA also has been recognized by Clutch, UpCity, and Channel Futures, proving its credibility as a trusted IT solutions company, receiving awards for its managed IT services. It has been named the Most Promising Managed IT Services Provider in 2022 by CIO Review.

Besides its recognitions, PCA is also praised by its clients for its outstanding customer service and IT support, stating the company is an excellent partner for its display of care and skill in providing tailored IT solutions. This is evident in the 5-star reviews its customers have left on the platform of Clutch.

Software Development of PCA

The custom software development of PCA can ensure the proper set up of applications for businesses to achieve digital transformation. This includes every stage of the software cycle, from design, creation, deployment, and even maintenance of the new applications.

The IT solutions company can also update the existing systems of a business to improve its operations which can result in better delivery of services. With its 30 years of experience in software development, PCA can guide businesses through their digital transformation by implementing the following IT solutions:

Business Process Automation

Clients can save time and money through business process automation. PCA can streamline processes, integrate applications, restructure labor resources, and use custom software applications to achieve digital transformation. This solution lessens the time spent on resistive tasks and allows the business to focus on implementing new strategies to meet its KPIs.

Data Analytics & Reporting

Businesses can gain valuable insights into their processes through data analytics and reporting. This solution allows them to make informed decisions based on real-time data, enabling them to build a framework to optimize their operations as they keep pace with the trends for digital transformation.

Desktop & Mobile App Development

Digital transformation is not complete without implementing desktop and mobile app development. This solution enables companies to run their business from anywhere instead of solely relying on the brick-and-mortar setup.

When customers can access their services or products online, they have a better chance of increasing their sales to achieve the desired ROI. With its custom desktop and mobile app, a business can better organize its communications with its target market, resulting in better customer service.

Web Application Development & Data Integration

The web application development and data integration solution of PCA can optimize the data and workflows of a business. This solution centralizes all data collected from multiple sources into a single platform, improving management and user experience. A business can improve its efficiency and transparency in task completion by unifying all operations.

Legacy System Integrations & Conversions

Legacy systems are often outdated or lacking in features, resulting in ineffective IT systems to accommodate the expansion of a business. PCA can address this predicament through its legacy system integrations and conversions without disrupting the operations of a business. The company can extend them into internet-based systems to maximize digital transformation.

Benefits of Choosing PCA for Software Development

Access to innovative products: PCA can create software applications that match the values of the businesses. The IT solutions company tailors its software development service to fit the IT needs of the company.

Flexibility and scalability: The custom IT solutions of PCA are designed to cover all the required functionalities of the business. They can scale to accommodate its increasing size. The company also offers analysis into the prototyping phases of the software, showcasing flexibility to prioritize the different needs of each client.

Improved productivity and employee drive: Since the IT solutions are tailored to fit the different operations of businesses, this leads to improved productivity and employee drive, enabling staff to perform their jobs with confidence when using the newly developed custom software applications.

Increased return on investment: Choosing to invest in the software development service of PCA eventually reflects in the short-term and long-term goals of the business. The company creates scalable solutions

with growth and expansion, resulting in better ROI and prolonged partnerships.

Application of Software Development

Over the years, PCA has partnered with different businesses needing software development services. One client, for example, comes from the logistics and supply chain sector. The client's company switched to a consulting-based development plan and hired PCA to fill in as a software developer.

The goal was to reduce the costs and replace the lost knowledge by replacing in-house skills. The IT solutions company handled all in-house development, from developing interfaces among core systems and custom report writing for customized software development. The client was impressed with the work ethic and skills displayed by the team of software developers from PCA, praising their attention to detail and persistence in completing tasks.

Another client comes from the transportation industry. He needed PCA to develop interfaces between the financial system and the external system of his company. As the provider of IT solutions, PCA helped the company generate and develop reports and the interfaces for its existing systems. This also included developing portals where the reports would pass through along with workflows for approvals.

The client commended PCA for its flexibility and responsiveness. Both clients now have an ongoing partnership with the IT solutions company.

Other Services

PCA also offers other services to ensure full coverage of the IT infrastructure, like cybersecurity, cloud computing, and business phone systems. The company also accepts outsourcing services for businesses needing additional IT support. Businesses can leverage the services of PCA for their tailored IT solutions and their key emphasis on putting their clients first.

Conclusion

Overall, PCA can fully equip businesses for digital transformation through its long credible history of delivering tailored IT solutions. The company considers every request and the IT environment of its client before proceeding to implement new software applications. Businesses can leverage PCA for its industry expertise and access to the latest technologies to achieve a successful digital transformation.

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Students of plant sciences check samples of dried Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) plants at Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad, Pakistan, on May 18, 2023. (Xinhua/Ahmad Kamal)

by Misbah Saba Malik

ISLAMABAD, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Iqra Qayyum, a student of plant sciences pursuing a PhD degree from Pakistan's prestigious Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad, carefully examined a sample of dried Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) plant for her research, aiming to improve the lives of pregnant women in her remote village in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.

Since her childhood, Qayyum observed her mother using Pakistani traditional medicine to cure non-serious diseases for her and her siblings. After studying TCM during her Master's degree in plant sciences, she realized how the women in her village could utilize these remedies in a more scientific way to reap greater benefits.

"Pregnant women in my area lack access to good doctors, leading to complications and risks for both the mothers and the fetuses. I want to make a difference by conducting research on TCM to help these women use traditional plants more effectively," she told Xinhua.

Her current research focuses on six plants used to treat various diseases, with a particular emphasis on addressing bacterial infections in young girls and pregnant women, two prevalent health issues in her village.

Qayyum's work is just one example of the extensive research being conducted by hundreds of students in the department on TCM. They firmly believe that TCM can significantly improve Pakistan's healthcare system, offering a cost-effective solution with minimal side effects.

Professor Mushtaq Ahmad, head of the department and an alumnus of the Chengdu Institute of Biology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province, successfully produced a TCM drug using the peony medicinal plant to treat epilepsy. He is now collaborating with local pharmaceutical companies for its clinical trials and production.

Ahmad said that as the interest in TCM grows in Pakistan, it will become a household name and emerge as a powerful traditional or alternative medicine in the South Asian country.

"Pakistani herbal company Qarshi Industry is already producing and distributing an effective TCM drug for hepatitis and liver diseases, incorporating the Chinese traditional plant milk thistle. Users have responded positively to TCM's potential, showing its big scope in the future in Pakistan," he added.

To promote detailed knowledge and research about TCM, the university offers courses in Master of Science and PhD in the field. Additionally, the Islamia University of Bahawalpur has introduced a bachelor's degree in Eastern Medicine, with plans to seek approval from the Higher Education Commission to be considered equivalent to the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery.

Apart from the plant sciences department, two more departments in the university actively work on TCM. The department of Pharmacy conducts TCM clinical trials, while the chemistry department focuses on studying active ingredients and natural compounds present in TCM plants.

Their coordinated efforts involve biological screening and chemical analysis, leading to valuable research shared with the industry for commercial medicine production.

Naveed Abbas, another student majoring in plant sciences in the university, recalled that his mother would treat his gastrointestinal diseases with wild bitter gourd, wild cucumber, and other plants from the Cucurbits family when he was a child living in a less-developed desert area in Pakistan's eastern Punjab province.

With his research mainly focused on the gourd family, Abbas said the study of TCM has helped him a lot on his research.

With the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) proving to be a game-changer for Pakistan and the rest of the world, the introduction and promotion of TCM in BRI countries could greatly benefit humanity, according to Ahmad.

"As people worldwide seek alternative therapies and treatments due to proven side effects of conventional medicine, TCM, being one of the oldest and most effective systems in the history of medicine, should be promoted globally," he said.

The professor suggested that a chapter about TCM should be added to the books of botany to introduce it to students at an earlier age to have knowledge about its benefits as an alternative medicine.

Abbas plans to pursue his PhD study in China, aiming to collaborate with local pharmaceutical companies to promote the medicine upon his return.

"The uses of TCM have fewer side effects with cheaper prices compared to the medicine which are available in the pharmacies. I want to work on it and convince local people to work on it," he said. 

A student of plant sciences checks samples of dried Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) plants at Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad, Pakistan, on May 18, 2023. (Xinhua/Ahmad Kamal)

Professor Mushtaq Ahmad (1st R), head of the department on Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) at Quaid-i-Azam University and an alumnus of the Chengdu Institute of Biology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province, demonstrates a dried Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) plant sample to students at Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad, Pakistan, on May 18, 2023. (Xinhua/Ahmad Kamal)

Professor Mushtaq Ahmad (R), head of the department on Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) at Quaid-i-Azam University and an alumnus of the Chengdu Institute of Biology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province, demonstrates a dried Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) plant sample to students at Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad, Pakistan, on May 18, 2023. (Xinhua/Ahmad Kamal)

A student of plant sciences observes a lab sample using a microscope at Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad, Pakistan, on May 18, 2023. (Xinhua/Ahmad Kamal)
A New York couple infamously referred to as "Bitcoin Bonnie and Clyde" has pleaded guilty to charges of laundering billions of dollars in stolen bitcoin, prosecutors said.

According to AFP, Ilya Lichtenstein, 35, and Heather Morgan, 33, were taken into custody in February 2022 after the US government seized 95,000 bitcoin, with a valuation of $3.6 billion during that period.

Prosecutors disclosed that the couple had acquired these digital assets utilizing sophisticated hacking techniques back in 2016. Authorities effectively tracked and recovered the stolen funds from wallets overseen by the pair.

After their apprehension, an additional sum of roughly $475 million, linked to the cyberattack, has been confiscated by the Southern District of New York, according to an official announcement.

'Bitcoin Bonnie and Clyde' Money Laundering Schemes

Lichtenstein and Morgan have admitted their involvement in money laundering schemes associated with the misappropriation of about 120,000 bitcoin from Bitfinex, a prominent global cryptocurrency exchange. The charges against them hold the potential for a maximum prison sentence of 20 years.

The prosecutors revealed that Lichtenstein, at times with Morgan's collaboration, employed intricate methods for laundering. These tactics encompassed the creation of fake identities to establish online accounts alongside the automation of transactions using computer programs.

The stolen funds were channeled into diverse accounts within the darknet markets and cryptocurrency exchanges. Following this, the pair proceeded to withdraw the funds, effectively obscuring the trail of transactions.

Additionally, they transformed bitcoin into alternative forms of cryptocurrency and even converted some of the stolen assets into gold coins, which Morgan then concealed by burying them.

While pursuing their illicit endeavors, the couple adopted aliases. Morgan used "Razzlekhan," while Lichtenstein operated under the name of "Dutch." The prosecutors said that Lichtenstein took steps to cover his tracks and enlisted his wife's help in laundering the funds.

Their distinctive narrative led to them being playfully dubbed "Bitcoin Bonnie and Crypto Clyde," a title the financial newsletter Morning Brew bestowed upon them.

Read Also: North Korean Hackers Behind JumpCloud Breach, Says Security Experts

The Lives of 'Bitcoin Bonnie and Clyde'

CNN reported that their lives after being apprehended have attracted significant attention within the media landscape of New York. The couple's distinctiveness was highlighted by their practice of strolling with their Bengal cat, Clarissa, on a leash throughout Manhattan.

Morgan, recognized for her online music persona and lyrics, raps about being "the crocodile of Wall Street." In her Twitter bio, she also characterized herself as a multi-faceted individual, noting that she is a "tech entrepreneur, surrealist artist, rapper, prolific writer, & fashion designer with synesthesia."

Morgan will be subjected to house arrest, while Lichtenstein, originally hailing from Russia, will remain in custody as he awaits his sentencing. Lichtenstein has participated in a collaboration agreement with the authorities, committing to provide testimony and cooperate with law enforcement as necessary.

He has also pleaded guilty to the charge of conspiring to commit money laundering, which could potentially lead to a maximum prison term of 20 years.

On the other hand, Morgan has admitted guilt to accusations of participating in a money laundering conspiracy and conspiring to defraud the United States. These charges carry the possibility of a maximum prison sentence of five years each.

In the event that their cooperation is deemed advantageous to government prosecutors, they can ask the judge to consider sentences that fall below those guidelines.

Related Article: Damus Faces Potential Ban from Apple App Store Due to Bitcoin-like Tipping

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Amazon reported impressive revenue and profits for the second quarter, surpassing market expectations and leading to a surge in its stock value during after-hours trading.

The renowned e-commerce giant achieved earnings of $6.7 billion, equivalent to 65 cents per share, in the quarter ending on June 30. This figure significantly exceeded the projections of industry analysts surveyed by FactSet, who had anticipated profits of $3.64 billion.

Associated Press reported that in contrast to the previous year's equivalent period, during which Amazon experienced losses primarily due to a substantial setback in its investment with electric vehicle startup Rivian Automotive, the company marked a considerable turnaround.

Notably, the profits for the second quarter were augmented by a pre-tax valuation gain of $0.2 billion related to its investment in Rivian.

Amazon's Financial Report Summary

During this period, net sales demonstrated an 11% increase, reaching $134.4 billion compared to the $121.2 billion recorded in the second quarter of 2022.

An adjustment from the $0.3 billion adverse impact stemming from changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter, net sales experienced an 11% growth compared to the same period in the preceding year.

Specifically, the North American segment contributed significantly to this positive trend, witnessing an 11% rise in sales to $82.5 billion. Similarly, the International segment displayed a 10% surge in sales, amounting to $29.7 billion.

The Amazon Web Services (AWS) segment also exhibited a 12% increase in sales, totaling $22.1 billion. Operating income rose remarkably, reaching $7.7 billion in the second quarter. It stands in contrast to the $3.3 billion recorded in the second quarter of 2022.

The North American segment's operating income surged to $3.2 billion, a significant progression from the $0.6 billion operating loss reported in the same period of the preceding year.

In contrast, the International segment's operating loss narrowed to $0.9 billion, compared to the $1.8 billion loss in the second quarter of 2022. The AWS segment maintained solid performance with an operating income of $5.4 billion, slightly lower than the $5.7 billion reported in the second quarter of 2022.

Net income for the second quarter amounted to $6.7 billion, equivalent to $0.65 per diluted share. It is in stark contrast to the net loss of $2.0 billion, or $0.20 per diluted share, reported during the same period in 2022.

Read Also: Amazon CEO Andy Jassy Highlights 'Multiple Generative AI Initiatives' Across All Divisions

Robust Financial Operation of Amazon

The second quarter of 2023 has also included a pre-tax valuation gain of $0.2 billion related to Amazon's investment in Rivian Automotive. It marks a significant shift from the pre-tax valuation loss of $3.9 billion in the same quarter of the previous year.

Amazon's robust financial performance is further evidenced by its substantial improvements in cash flow. Operating cash flow demonstrated a remarkable 74% increase, reaching $61.8 billion for the trailing twelve months compared to $35.6 billion for the same period ending June 30, 2022.

Additionally, free cash flow displayed marked improvement, transitioning from an outflow of $23.5 billion in the trailing twelve months ending June 30, 2022, to an inflow of $7.9 billion for the same period in 2023.

Furthermore, various metrics of free cash flow, including those accounting for different financial obligations, showcased notable improvements, underscoring Amazon's strong financial position.

Related Article: Amazon Prime Day 2023 Hailed 'Biggest Ever' Sales in the US With $12.7 Billion Consumer Spending

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TikTok, the wildly popular video-sharing platform, is undergoing a significant transformation in the European Union (EU) to comply with the Digital Services Act (DSA) before the looming August 28 deadline.

As Engadget highlights, this overhaul will grant EU users the unprecedented power to decide whether they want algorithms to curate their For You page (FYP) or opt for a non-personalized feed.

The move comes as part of the company's efforts to adhere to the DSA requirements and provide alternative options to users without data profiling.

What's Coming

Under the new system, EU users will soon be able to switch off personalization for their FYP, which is currently the bedrock of TikTok's success.

The FYP, powered by an addictive algorithm, tailors content to individual users based on their interests, keeping them endlessly scrolling.

However, with the impending changes, users can populate their FYP with trending videos from their geographical location and across the globe, rather than receiving personalized content.

Additionally, TikTok will introduce a non-personalized search function, showing users search results based on popular content in their region and preferred language.

This means users can explore a broader range of content without the platform tracking their activity for targeted suggestions.

Read Also: TikTok to Delete US User Data From Servers as Part of Project Texas

Opt-Out Personalized TikTok Recommendations

TechCrunch reported in April that the European Commission has categorically mandated that "providers of very large online platforms," including TikTok, offer users the choice to opt out of personalized content recommendations. This move aims to enhance user privacy and give individuals more control over their online experience.

Although the changes pose a significant challenge for TikTok, as its algorithm-powered FYP has been the primary driver of user engagement, the company is adapting to comply with regulatory requirements.

TikTok has recognized the importance of transparency and will provide users with more information about its content moderation decisions. For instance, if a video contains unverified claims about an ongoing election, TikTok will inform users of its ineligibility for recommendations.

More Changes

Furthermore, we learn in a recent TikTok news release that the platform will implement an additional reporting option, enabling users to flag content they believe is illegal.

TikTok's content moderation team will review reported content, remove it globally if it violates community guidelines, or restrict access based on local laws in the relevant EU member state. Users will be informed of the decisions and given the opportunity to appeal if they disagree.

In line with the DSA's provisions, TikTok will no longer serve personalized advertising to users aged 13 to 17 in Europe, focusing on protecting the privacy of younger audiences. Users within this age group will only see generic ads based on their preferences, which can be toggled on or off in their settings.

The DSA is set to bring significant changes to other major platforms as well, such as Instagram and YouTube, which have relied heavily on algorithmic recommendations to boost user engagement and advertising revenue.

The new regulation aims to tackle the concerns around algorithm-driven recommender systems, which have been linked to spreading hate speech, disinformation, and other harmful content.

Stay posted here at Tech Times.

Related Article: Is TikTok Shop Outpacing Shopee, Lazada in Southeast Asia?

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Hospital computer systems in multiple states have been devastated by a hack, prompting emergency rooms to close and ambulances to be redirected. Experts are working nonstop to evaluate the damage and find a solution as healthcare professionals struggle with an unprecedented cybersecurity threat.



The cyberattack began on Thursday and was directed at institutions owned and run by Prospect Medical Holdings, a renowned healthcare organization with headquarters in California, per AP News. The corporation runs hospitals and clinics in Texas, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania. Healthcare facilities in many states are trying to secure their networks and preserve patient data after this sophisticated attack.

Healthcare Services Disrupted

Prospect Medical Holdings swiftly shut down all systems in reaction to the frightening intrusion to stop further damage. On Friday, the firm announced that it had started a thorough investigation and hired outside cybersecurity experts to determine the origin and nature of the assault.



On Thursday, Manchester Memorial and Rockville General Hospitals in Connecticut closed their emergency departments due to the attack. Medical facilities nearby were selected as alternate locations to guarantee that patients got attention.



Primary care services were affected by the cyberattack, which led to their suspension on Friday at several hospitals under the control of Eastern Connecticut Health Network. Patients are being notified by the network that runs the impacted institutions.



Eastern Connecticut Health Network Chief Operating Officer Jillian Menzel tried to comfort the public by announcing that the firm's team of experts is already looking into "the impact of the attack on all of the organizations."



Numerous additional clinics in the vast network of Prospect Medical Holdings reported experiencing similar difficulties. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that Crozer-Chester Medical Center in Upland, Taylor Hospital in Ridley Park, Delaware County Memorial Hospital in Drexel Hill, and Springfield Hospital in Springfield have suspended services.

Read Also: Russian Ships Clash with Ukrainian Drone Boats in Fatal Battle: Who Won?

Cyberattacks: A Serious Threat to US Healthcare Sector

The United States Department of Health and Human Services warns that cyberattacks are the biggest threat to American hospitals and need immediate action to prevent human deaths, Sierra Daily News reported. Experts warn that most hospitals must still be prepared to detect and address these hazards. Smaller hospitals may need more funds to invest in cybersecurity, particularly after the epidemic.



More funding and federal regulation will be needed to close the critical gaps. Recently, the Food and Drug Administration issued a mandate that medical equipment adheres to cybersecurity standards and by prospective congressional legislation imposing strict cybersecurity requirements on hospitals.



Additionally, healthcare staff need cybersecurity and readiness training to be prepared for scenarios in which digital tools are unavailable due to cyber attacks.



Hospital defenses are inadequate to stop these more frequent and sophisticated assaults, cautions Dameff, a recognized authority.



Although raising awareness about healthcare cybersecurity has been challenging, more healthcare officials are becoming aware of the severe problem. Hospitals often find themselves scrambling to react after an assault, underscoring the urgent need to strengthen defenses and put preventative measures in place to safeguard patients and vital healthcare systems.



Healthcare providers and cybersecurity specialists remain steadfast in repairing the issue and restoring smooth healthcare delivery for those impacted while investigating the cyberattacks continue.

Related Article: Danger of Nuclear Catastrophe Is 'Great and Growing,' Warn Over 100 Top Medical Journals

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Under the control of artificial intelligence (AI), the experimental XQ-58A Valkyrie managed to glide to the skies on July 25.

According to the Air Force Research Laboratory (ARFL), the test took place at the Eglin Test and Training Complex in Florida.

The experiment lasted for around three hours and the aircraft was seen flying thanks to the AI pilot.

XQ-58A Valkyrie Drone Flies With AI

The short test that ARFL conducted last week was made possible with the help of Skyborg Vanguard. The unmanned fighter drone successfully moved around with AI-controlled command.

The aircraft that's being tested under the United States Air Force's Low-Cost Attritable Strike Demonstrator (LCASD) program is the unmanned Kratos XQ-58 Valkyrie combat aerial vehicle (UCAV).

The team created this drone to be a stealthy mini-jet as part of the project portfolio of the USAF Research Laboratory's Low-Cost Attritable Aircraft Technology (LCAAT).

"This sortie officially enables the ability to develop [artificial intelligence and machine learning] 'agents' that will execute modern air-to-air and air-to-surface skills that are immediately transferrable to the CCA program," Col. Tucker Hamilton, the chief of AI test and operations with the Air Force said.

The CCA program aims to produce combat-ready drones that can accompany humans with AI intervention. These aircraft also involve Loyal Wingmen, the human-controlled F-35 and F-22 aircraft.

Related Article: AI Surveillance: Military-Grade Tech May Now Be Used to Spy on US Civilians, Workers

Flight Testing of Machine Learning AI

As per the lab's commander Brig. Gen. Scott Cian, AI will be a future indicator of warfare that's why it's important to understand how the aircraft's operations run under AI control.

To keep pace with the growing AI adoption, the squad relies on Human-Machine Learning to discover more findings about the Valkyrie drone. This will also help their partners to study their coordinated tests.

With the combined use of simulation, modeling, and high-performance computing, AACO has taken the testing of the uncrewed vehicle to a new level, per Interesting Engineering on Friday, Aug. 4.

The most recent series of experiments only proves that military men are catching up with AI's capability. The test also involves the safe flight of the XQ-58 while on air, per AACO Program Manager Dr. Terry Wilson.

AFRL says that the Department of Defense (DOD) will remain dedicated and faithful to the responsible application of AI. The collaboration will continue among developers and AI experts.

Back in 2022, California Institute of Technology researchers created an AI-powered drone that can adjust even to the most extreme wind conditions.

At that time, the group of experts developed "Neural-Fly," a special deep-learning method for drones so they could fly even in hurricanes and other catastrophes.

The drone is said to be resistant to the meteorological conditions happening inside a hurricane. In doing so, it can tweak its track and safely get out of the disaster smoothly.

Read Also: Revolutionizing Warfare: Israel Implements AI Systems in Military Operations

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Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and his fiancee, Lauren Sanchez, celebrated their engagement in front of a distinguished Amalfi Coast crowd, including Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. The couple's intentions to wed were formally announced during the engagement celebration, which was held aboard Bezos' luxurious yacht.

During a romantic trip to Europe in May that included stops in Saint-Tropez, Portofino, Cannes, and Capri, Bezos, 59, and Sanchez, 53, got engaged, according to People. The celebration on the Amalfi Coast in Italy further sweetened the couple's joyful path toward marriage.

At the Jeff Bezos engagement event, Bill Gates, a well-known philanthropist, and co-founder of Microsoft, was one of the notable attendees. He went to the event with Paula Hurd, his girlfriend. The pair had been dating for some time; in late 2022, news of their relationship broke. Bill Gates and Paula Hurd's most recent photo together was taken in January at the Australian Open's Men's final.

Bill Gates and his girlfriend Paula Hurd on Jeff Bezos's yacht. Gates's girlfriends certainly have gotten older since his Jeffrey Epstein days. How he must miss corporate philanthropy & High School Seniors! pic.twitter.com/kZKVwr0rqq  Gary LM Martin (@T1000Gary) August 4, 2023

Who is Paula Hurd?

Paula Hurd, a 60-year-old former NCR Corporation employee who worked in sales and alliance management for the IT sector, has a long history of volunteerism, according to Hello! magazine. Bill Gates's girlfriend is also known for creating and planning unique event experiences, which makes her participation at Bezos and Sanchez's event even more significant. From her marriage with former HP CEO Mark,

Paula Hurd has two adult daughters: Kathryn and Kelly. Bill has three adult children of his own with Melinda: Jennifer, Rory, and Phoebe. Whether any of the new couple's kids have already met their prospective new stepparents is still being determined.

Read Also: Elon Musk Secures ai.com URL: How Will It Impact the Tech Industry?

Bill Gates' attendance at the Jeff Bezos celebration brought attention to his personal life as the happy couple continued to be the center of attention. Following 27 years of marriage, the tech mogul and his ex-wife, Melinda French Gates, announced their divorce in August 2021. Gates and Hurd have enjoyed their public relationship ever since.

Jeff Bezos, Lauren Sanchez Start a New Chapter

After Jeff Bezos divorced MacKenzie Scott in January 2019, they went public with their relationship. The pair has a shared history of achieving business success, and they now want to wed. The couple's pleasure was evident as they began this new chapter together, even though the Jeff Bezos engagement party was a private event.

Jeff Bezos & Lauren Sanchez at their engagement party on a yacht pic.twitter.com/Bbnh6lSLDv  2Cool2Blog (@2Cool2Blog) August 4, 2023

The $500 million superyacht Koru, owned by Bezos, contributed to the event's opulent atmosphere. On the exquisite boat, Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez traveled to Portofino, Italy, where the Amazon CEO was seen taking pictures of his stunning fiancee.

Because of his activities as Lauren Sanchez's personal photographer, Jeff Bezos, with an estimated net worth of $148 billion, was mockingly referred to as the world's most overpaid "Instagram boyfriend" during the couple's engagement party, The Independent reported.

Related Article: Mark Zuckerberg Discloses 4,000-Calorie Daily Diet, Reveals McDonald's Order Details

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KIEV, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Ukrainian Grain Association (UGA) on Thursday upgraded its forecast for the country's combined grain and oilseeds harvest this year by about 11 percent to 76.8 million tons.

"The increase in the forecast for this year's crop is due to favorable weather conditions and better crop yields than expected," the association said in a statement on its website.

Although Ukrainian farmers have reduced planting areas this year by 2.2 million hectares, the 2023 harvest will exceed the previous year's yield by about 3 million tons, the statement said.

The association estimated that Ukrainian farmers will reap 26.9 million tons of corn, 20.2 million tons of wheat and 13.9 million tons of sunflower seeds this year.

Ukraine has the potential to export 48 million tons of grain and oilseeds in the 2023-2024 marketing year, the UGA said.

According to it, Ukraine harvested 73.8 mln tons of grains and oilseeds in 2022, and exported 58 million tons in the 2022-2023 marketing year which ended on June 30. 
Circumnavigation of the moon next year: Crew of the "Artemis 2" visits their spacecraft

The best beach bars in Ibiza to eat and enjoy the sunset

Fire in a cottage in Alsace: what we know in the aftermath of the tragedy that claimed the lives of 11 people

Male employee's claim for paternity care leave pay wins The court said that the period of nursing leave should be regarded as normal attendance

The "diamond non-stick pan" contains only trace diamonds The merchant was sentenced to triple punitive damages

Ministry of Public Security: Infringing on citizens' personal information has become a predicate crime for a large number of Internet-related crimes

How to see reconstruction after the rare heavy rainstorm in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei?

Ministry of Public Security: There are six main ways for criminals to obtain personal information data

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism announced the list of countries and regions related to the resumption of outbound group tours for the third batch

Zhuozhou enterprises that have experienced floods: People are there, hope is there

After fatal shots on the film set: "Rust" trial planned for the end of December

(m+) "Otherwise, we've lost in China": How far Audi's new China alliance really goes

U.S. soccer: Da'vian Kimbrough becomes the youngest professional in the world at the age of 13

Stealing the spotlight in the Gamper Cup. Barcelona's plan to keep its young star Amin Jamal

Champions League: OM beaten by Panathinaikos in the first leg of the third preliminary round

Zakharyan's free kick and Zabolotny's miss: Dynamo squeezed Krasnodar in the 96th minute in the Russian Cup, CSKA lost to Fakel

The novelties of the League to come: an added minute after each goal, elimination of the 'penalties' and fewer interventions of the VAR

Cata Coll, Vilda's unexpected bet in the World Cup: "She always had reflexes and goalkeeper pose"

"Beijing-Tianjin Derby" reflects China's stadium culture, there is "competition" between cities, and there is "you next door"

The price of "Dingxi wide powder" is about 4 yuan higher than that of other powders, why is there countless "powders"?

The Supreme People's Procuratorate Discloses the Characteristics of Crimes Involving Intellectual Property Rights The proportion of "inner ghosts" who infringe on trade secrets is high

Shandong has promulgated a plan to strengthen financial supervision and serve the high-quality development of the economy

Focus Media's revenue in the first half of the year was 55.17 billion yuan, and highlights of performance growth were frequent

Zhejiang County Observation: Government and enterprises "go in both directions" and the economy of the millennium capital city is "new"

(Economic Observation) China-Indonesia "Two Countries and Two Parks" Construction Enters the "Fast Lane" and Becomes a "Strong Engine" for Economic and Trade Cooperation between Fujian and ASEAN

National Development and Reform Commission: Improve the government's creditworthiness performance mechanism and optimize the environment for the development of the private economy

"It's still going to be theft", the hypothesis of a tax on heavy goods vehicles on the A1 makes truck drivers jump

Chinese police crack down on illegal crimes that infringe on citizens' personal information In the past three years, the number of cases solved and the number of people arrested have reached a new high

At least six dead and thousands of evacuations in Hawaii, ravaged by multiple fires

The third accused of beating a member of the NWO was arrested in absentia in Transbaikalia

Fire in a cottage in Alsace: elected officials and residents still have "difficulty accepting the situation"

United States: Hawaii ravaged by flames, at least six dead and thousands of evacuations

Beijing issued another orange warning for geological disasters! How to protect and save yourself?

In the past ten years, the number of national key clinical specialty construction projects has reached more than 2200,<>

The butcher Daniel Sancho and his victim "were going to set up a business" and saw each other in Spain

Rodolfo Sancho's son speaks for the first time after his arrest for murder: "I am guilty, but I was his hostage"

The Thai police reached Daniel Sancho following the trail of the label of the bags where he put the mutilated remains of his victim

Daniel Sancho admits his sexual link with Edwin Arrieta: what is known about the relationship between the chef and the Colombian doctor

L'Orient-Le Jour: UAE wants to organize a meeting between Putin and Zelensky at the UN conference

The cry of the sister of Edwin Arrieta, victim of Daniel Sancho: "I want this nightmare to stop"

The daughter of the general director of "Piro-Ross" received messages from Ukrainian numbers after the state of emergency in Sergiev Posad

Ministry of Public Security: Infringing on citizens' personal information has become a predicate crime for a large number of Internet-related crimes

China Group travel to Japan to be lifted on 10th Inform the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Typhoon Kanu is about to make landfall, Jilin, Heilongjiang, and other places in South Korea, with heavy rainfall

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism announced the list of countries and regions related to the resumption of outbound group tours for the third batch

 Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.
ANKARA, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Turkish intelligence service on Friday killed a senior PKK member in the northern Iraqi province of Sinjar, the semi-official Anadolu Agency reported.

The PKK member was identified as Yilmaz Bayram, also known by his codename Agit Gever, the report quoted security sources as saying.

Bayram is the group's top logistics man providing weapons and ammunition to PKK militants in northern Iraq, according to the report.

Turkiye's National Intelligence Organization, which has been monitoring high-ranking members of the PKK, recently intensified cross-border operations in northern Iraq, particularly in the Qandil Mountains, the main base of the group, and killed several senior PKK cadres. Turkiye said the PKK militants often launched cross-border attacks.

On Wednesday, the Turkish Defense Ministry said one of the group's largest ammunition depots was seized in northern Iraq this week, and a total of 15,400 pieces of anti-aircraft ammunition were confiscated.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkiye, the United States and the European Union, has rebelled against the Turkish government for more than three decades. 
MACAO, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- China's Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) government on Friday started seeking public consultation on the Development Plan for Appropriate Economic Diversification of the Macao SAR (2024-2028), running until Sept. 2.

The development plan proposes major tasks and key projects for the period from 2024 to 2028, aiming to facilitate development of new industries using a multi-pronged approach in terms of policy, human resources and financial resources, according to the Macao SAR government.

The plan sets a detailed path for tourism and integrated leisure business, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), modern financial services, high and new technology, the conversion and enhancement of traditional industries, and for the convention and exhibition, sports, commercial and trade industries, said the government.

The plan also closely aligns with the country's 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) and the development plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, focusing on Macao's second five-year plan, and the SAR's "1+4" strategy for appropriate economic diversification, said the SAR government.

During the 30-day consultation period, public sessions will be held. The public are also invited to contribute suggestions and opinions online or via telephone, email, post or fax. 
Kim Kardashian is advocating for the release of New Orleans rapper Corey Miller, who once went by the stage name of C-Murder and is serving a life sentence in the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola.
U.S. Rep. Troy Carter, D-New Orleans, argues for an additional congressional seat for Louisiana in Washington, D.C. in June 2022. He is the only Democrat and the only Black representative in a state with a Blsck population of 33%.
NEW DELHI, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- A mid-air scare forced an IndiGo airlines flight to make an emergency landing Friday at the airport in Patna, the capital city of the eastern Indian state of Bihar, officials said.

All the passengers are said to be safe.

The Delhi-bound flight 6E 2433 carrying 181 passengers and eight crew made the landing shortly after taking off from the Jay Prakash Narayan International Airport, Patna, after one of its engines became inoperative.

Officials said the flight returned to its origin barely three minutes after its departure.

A passenger posted a video of his experience on the flight on social media saying he felt scared due to the turbulence and noise.

Media reports said the passengers will be sent to Delhi on a separate flight. 
Australias top-selling cars are becoming more dangerous for other motorists, pedestrians and cyclists, as sports utility vehicles and utes replace family sedans as the countrys vehicle of choice.

Experts say the countrys lack of emissions standards has driven the importation of larger gas guzzlers while tax perks have encouraged motorists to buy bigger vehicles than they need, as alarm now grows over the new generation of oversized American trucks arriving on local streets.

A RAM truck stopped over the pedestrian crossing in Melbournes CBD on Friday. Credit: Joe Armao

SUVs and light commercial vehicles including utes made up 76 per cent of new vehicles sold in Australia in 2022  up from 45 per cent a decade ago. Sedans and other passenger cars dropped from half of all new cars sold to just one-in-five over the same period.

Most new vehicles sold in Australia have a 5-star rating under the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP), but Monash University Accident Research Centre director Stuart Newstead said those ratings did not fully reflect the danger posed to others when motorists bought larger vehicles.
A woman has suffered facial fractures after a man allegedly punched her in the face when she honked her horn at him at an intersection in Sydneys south-west, police say.

Tori Lee, 31, was driving through Campbelltown between 5.45pm and 5.55pm on Saturday when she stopped at the intersection of Blaxland Road and Campbelltown Road.

Lee told police that she honked her horn at a black Mitsubishi sedan in front of her when it did not move, and the driver got out of his car and punched her in the face.

The man then allegedly attempted to drag her from her vehicle before she was able to drive away. She received medical assistance at Campbelltown Hospital.
Each week, Benjamin Law asks public figures to discuss the subjects were told to keep private by getting them to roll a die. The numbers they land on are the topics theyre given. This week, he talks to David Suzuki. The 87-year-old Canadian geneticist, environmentalist, academic and broadcaster has authored over 50 books and will virtually attend the Now or Never Forum in Melbourne later this month.

The chances are becoming very remote that we, as a species, will be able to survive the conditions weve created. Credit: Kevin Van Paassen for CBC

POLITICS

As a child during World War II, you and your Japanese-Canadian family were interned, despite all of you having been born in Canada. How did that experience affect the way you saw the world? It shaped my whole outlook on life. Its easy for a country like Australia or Canada to talk about democracy and all of these guarantees of freedom, but the only time those guarantees matter is when times are tough. If you cant guarantee them when times are tough, then they dont mean a goddamn thing. The other lesson is, you always have to go in to bat for the other person, otherwise bigotry continues to flourish.

So ultimately, dont be so naive? Yes. Its interesting. My daughter Sarika Cullis-Suzuki has taken over the David Suzuki Foundation. One of the first things she said is, Weve got to establish DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion]. I cant believe the pushback shes getting! Its been very revealing to me how good, well-meaning people arent aware of the extent to which theyre caught up in a system that still oppresses people.
A physician has labelled a coronial investigation into his wifes death that recommended him for criminal charges dubious as he tried to fight suspension of his medical registration.

Peter Spencer, a Melbourne sleep and respiratory doctor, was referred to prosecutors in June to consider a negligent manslaughter charge, after a coronial investigation into the death of his wife Mayumi.

Peter Spencer has been referred to prosecutors by the state coroner over concerns he may have committed negligent manslaughter.

The 29-year-old woman died from cocaine toxicity in 2015, after she started vomiting and had a fit following a night out with Spencer.

Spencer sliced her throat open using a kitchen knife and pen, in an attempt to open her airways, but was unsuccessful.
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 Whether youre a student pondering life beyond high school, or a university graduate looking to do further study, the decision about which course to do at which institution can seem overwhelming. This month universities across Victoria are throwing open their doors to prospective students, giving them the chance to explore first-hand courses, facilities, student clubs and more. Campus tours offer the chance to see all the highlights of a university, which you wouldnt get the opportunity to see as a casual visitor. Open days also offer information sessions about support services, fees, careers, accommodation, scholarships and other financial assistance. Here, experts and students answer everything you need to know to get the most out of open days. When should I start going to Uni open days? Its never too early, says Roula Karakostas, director, future students at Deakin University. You certainly shouldnt be waiting until you get to year 12 to get great value. Ideally, Id be saying years 9, 10, 11 and 12 students.

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Karakostas says open days are a practical way for students to discover what universities have to offer, and the study areas that may interest them. There are many activities and demonstrations available on campus, lots of information sessions, et cetera. So, its a good way to start exploring what youre passionate about. How many open days should I go to? Professor Kylie Readman, deputy vice-chancellor (education and students) at the University of Technology Sydney, suggests students should go to as many open days as they can, which is why its good to start early. Its important to keep your options open and explore a few universities, so you can find the one thats the best fit for you, she says. And youre looking at a few things. So, the course that you want to study  which is obviously the main consideration  the type of experience youre after, and the support that the university provides in terms of whats going to suit you. Should parents go along? Definitely, Readman says. If you are comparing your experience with your parents experience, things have changed a lot, she says. And if youre the first one in your family to come to university, I think thats a really important thing to think about as well, because youre educating yourself but also your familys being educated, potentially. Whats it all about? What is the commitment ... all of those things.

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Readman says taking along a parent to open day, or even an older sibling or friend, can be incredibly helpful. Even though youve got guidance officers and teachers at school, its the conversations that happen in homes that really help people shape what the opportunities are, she says. Do I need to do any preparation? Start by jumping on to the universitys open day website, or reading the program. Many universities will let you filter your search by study areas, experiences, tours and so on. You can also prepare questions you want to ask teaching staff or students, including queries around entry requirements or student life. Readman suggests giving yourself plenty of time to find the events and activities on the day, and keeping an open mind. Finally, she says choosing a uni course is important, but its not a do-or-die decision. There are lots of different ways into university, lots of opportunities to change your mind, lots of flexibility. Our goal is that students will have the learning experience that they need for what they imagine their future to be.



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FIVE STUDENTS ON WHAT THEY WISH THEYD ASKED AT OPEN DAY Taarish Kadam from Melbourne University, Daisy Rose Sipiti of Victoria University and Celene Meraz Benavente, who attends Federation University Australia. Credit: Nine How can I get more involved? If I could go back to open day, I would probably ask more about the uni community and how to get involved with clubs and societies, especially those relating to my course.

Tarish Kadam, Bachelor of Science, Melbourne University What does a unit count for in a double degree? I should have asked if a uni counts towards both degrees in a double degree. After completing some maths units, I found it did. So I would finish both degrees in four years - quicker than I had thought.

Mackenzie Yandell, Bachelor of Engineering/Bachelor of Science, Monash University What clubs are there?

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Residents in Glenroy rallied on Friday morning to protest against plans to shut down their post office, the latest in a string of closures by Australia Post.

Locals found out the Glenroy post office in Melbournes north would close at the end of the month when a notice was posted on the post offices door.

Australia Post has closed 13 post offices across Victoria in the past year including the recent closures of post offices in Hampton, Essendon and Box Hill.

Glenroy residents protest against the closure of their post office. Credit: Joe Armao

About 200 residents gathered outside the Glenroy shop holding protest signs, booing and calling out shame on Australia Post.
A Clarkson woman who allegedly threw her dog from the top of a two-storey car park broke down in court as it was revealed prosecutors were seeking jail time over the egregious, callous and cruel incident.

Amy Lea Judge, 25, appeared in Joondalup Magistrates Court charged with ill-treatment of an animal following the death of her Maltese shih-tzu, Princess.

Amy Lea Judge, 25, broke down in court when she heard prosecutors were seeking jail time for throwing her dog off a two-storey car park. Credit: Facebook

On Friday, the court heard Judge drove to Westfield Whitford City shopping centre in Hillarys on the morning of April 7 last year with her partner Scott Frost, 22, from Madeley.

The pair were then allegedly caught on CCTV on the top floor of the centres car park taunting Princess by allowing her to walk along a low wall bordering the car park.
Even those following the Home Affairs contract corruption issue closely might have been befuddled by Fridays events in Senate estimates.

The Australian Federal Police apparently came to set the record straight, but mainly managed to raise more questions, few of which its senior officers could answer.

Australian Federal Police Deputy Commissioner Neil Gaughan during Fridays hearing. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

This is what we know: For five years from 2015, the AFP was pursuing Sydney businessman Mozammil Bhojani and his company for making under-the-table payments to senior officials on Nauru. These bought him preferential access to lucrative shipments of Naurus phosphate in 2015 and 2017. He made millions.

Phone taps confirmed that Bhojani made the payments, and he pleaded guilty in 2020 and quit as a director of his company, Radiance International. The company itself kept operating.
WELLINGTON, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- The New Zealand government has released for the first time its strategy for defense development and national security in a world "contending with a range of complex and disruptive security challenges," Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said on Friday.

While releasing the Defense Policy Review and New Zealand's first National Security Strategy, Hipkins urged the defense force to be clear-eyed on risks and to put in place the right capabilities to be effective.

The Defense Policy Strategy Statement sets out New Zealand's defense goals and how to achieve them. The National Security Strategy is the government's direction to the wider national security community on how to navigate the changed environment.

Defense Minister Andrew Little said the areas to focus the national security efforts include investing in a combat-capable defense force and the wider national security system; and tackling emerging issues like disinformation, and undertaking more concerted efforts in areas where threats are growing, like economic security. 
In contrast, the support for his closest rival, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, has fallen so far behind that he now trails Trump by more than 30 percentage points. To some extent, none of this should be surprising. While Trump may pose a threat to democratic norms, few other politicians have ever been so successful at tapping into the grievances and alienation of millions of Americans, particularly those who fear their country is being taken through deception and lies. Now his legal woes have become central to his campaign pitch. As he wrote on social media on Thursday (US time) before pleading not guilty to four conspiracy and obstruction charges relating to his attempts to stay in power: I am now going to Washington DC to be arrested for having challenged a corrupt, rigged & stolen election. It is a great honour because I am being arrested for you. Its a message that has resonated wherever the former president has been charged.

Loading If they can come after him, they can come after anyone, Long Island resident Diane Lewis told me in Manhattan on the day Trump was charged there. Cuban-American businessman Evelio Medina explained after the former president was arraigned in Miami: Theres no point talking about Democrats and Republicans because the traditional party system is dead. This is a movement. And this week in Washington? Democrats think theyre helping the country, but theyre hurting the country, said Dion Cini, who stood outside the courthouse holding a flag emblazoned with the words Trump or Death.

Weve gone beyond division. We were friendlier in the Civil War. Dion Cini (right) takes a selfie with a fellow Trump supporter outside court. Credit: Reuters Theres no doubt Trumps legal woes will exacerbate tensions in the Divided States of America, but whether any of these charges stick, let alone make a difference, is the obvious question. The latest indictment puts the 77-year-old front and centre of a months-long, multipart conspiracy to obstruct and overthrow Bidens election victory. Much loved by Republicans, Trump greets fans at a Florida restaurant after his second indictment, in June. Credit: AP

That conspiracy involved stoking lies about voter fraud, embracing a scheme designed to use fake electors to flip electoral college votes in seven battleground states, mounting a pressure campaign on state and federal officials to overturn the results, and exploiting the protest that led to the Capitol riots. Trumps lawyers say he will fight the charges by arguing that he is protected by Americas right to free speech, and that he genuinely believed that the 2020 election was rigged. Its a very straightforward defence  that he had every right to advocate for a position that he believed in and that his supporters believed in, his lawyer, John Lauro, told NPR. Trump supporters rally before the riot at the US Capitol in Washington on January 6, 2021. Credit: AP What we will argue to the jury  and well win  is that the president was arguing for the truth to come out in that election cycle, rather than the truth to be denied.

Legal scholars and Trumps own former attorney general, Bill Barr, however, are not convinced that the First Amendment defence will fly. As the indictment says, they are not attacking his First Amendment right, Barr said this week. He can say whatever he wants, he can even lie. He can even tell people that the election was stolen when he knew better. But that does not protect you from entering into a conspiracy. Whats more, Trump allegedly perpetuated his stolen election claims despite being repeatedly told by his own aides, national intelligence officials and White House counsel, that there was no evidence of voter fraud. Wilful delusion is not a defence in criminal law, said Professor Alan Rozenshtein, a national security law expert and former Justice Department official.

Loading Its always tricky to establish a defendants frame of mind, but I do think the special counsel is prepared, as we can see from the voluminous evidence of Trump being told over and over again that he had lost. Maybe none of these defences will come to pass any time soon. Trumps main strategy, after all, is to delay his trials beyond the next election: that way, if he wins, he can pardon himself; if he doesnt, hell hope someone might do so for him. Half a century after Ford pardoned Nixon, will the tranquillity of the nation be irreparably lost by then?
In that kind of system, with political parties acting as the gatekeepers of media attention, public messaging and fundraising, a politicians career would likely be over long before an indictment landed. In the 21st century, political parties are much weaker and cant always play that role. Thanks to the internet and social media, politicians can speak to voters directly  and raise money from them  leaving parties with far less influence on politicians behaviour, Levitsky says. Thats especially true in systems with direct elections, like in the US, where parties already had less power than in parliamentary democracies. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has appealed to religious Hindu voters by defying Indias secular establishment and has limited his interaction with domestic media. Credit: AP So violating taboos is no longer as likely to be career-ending as it once was  and in some cases, it can even be career-making. For charismatic politicians with a populist bent  like Trump, Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, Narendra Modi of India, and the late Silvio Berlusconi of Italy, offending the establishment was part of the pitch to voters: evidence of a politicians independence and courage to confront elites. That might help to explain why Trump has remained so popular with many voters, despite the criminal charges against him. A recent New York Times/Siena poll found that his support within his core MAGA base remains exceptionally strong.

That base isnt a majority of American voters. But it is such a large portion of Republican voters  an estimated 37 per cent  that it would be very difficult for any other primary candidate to beat Trump if the rest of the field remains divided. And the party is probably not strong enough to unify behind another candidate. The limits of islands of honesty When parties struggle to police their members, independent prosecutors can be an important check on abuses of power  islands of honesty, as a researcher once called them. In extreme cases, such as when institutional corruption is pervasive, outside prosecutors can be the only way to disrupt cycles of bribery and theft. But prosecutions can have unintended consequences, prolonging or even worsening political crises. The rule of law, including holding leaders accountable for wrongdoing, is a foundational element of liberal democracy. Particularly when, as in the case of both Trump and Bolsonaro, the crimes in question involve subverting democracy itself.

Loading But in highly polarised political systems, indicted politicians can recast prosecutions as attempts to thwart the will of the people  another foundational element of democracy. That can undermine faith in the legitimacy of the courts and political system, which can be used to justify attempts to interfere with them, fuelling further cycles of political crisis or even violence. Although Trump has been accused of trying to subvert the will of a majority of voters in 2020, he and his supporters have accused prosecutors of engaging in a politically motivated witch-hunt. The authorities, in turn, have taken their messages seriously enough to provide a security detail to the special counsel overseeing the investigation. Prosecutions can sometimes create opportunities in politics for unpredictable players. In the early 1990s, for instance, Italys national clean hands investigation revealed wide-ranging corruption infecting businesses, public works and politics, and found that major political parties were largely financed by bribes. In the wake of the scandal, Italys established parties collapsed.

But rather than forcing political parties to clean up their acts, the prosecutions simply became part of a longer, bigger sequence of political crises. The party system that was the anchor of the democratic regime in the post-war period basically crumbled, says Ken Roberts, a Cornell University political scientist. What you end up with is a political vacuum that gets filled by a populist outsider in Berlusconi. Berlusconi eventually faced criminal charges himself. He also became Italys dominant leader over three decades, presiding over several coalition governments. Brazils far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro speaks at an event in Miami. Credit: AP Something similar happened in Brazil after the Operation Car Wash corruption investigation of the 2010s. Mainstream parties, implicated in the scandal, fell apart. In the aftermath, an obscure lawmaker  Bolsonaro  won the presidency on a far-right populist platform. He now faces criminal charges, too, relating to baseless claims of electoral fraud and his own failed re-election bid.
Wellington: New Zealand needs to spend more on its military and strengthen ties with countries in the Indo-Pacific to help meet the challenges of great power rivalry and climate change, the government said on Friday amid an ongoing defence review.

Launching the countrys first national security strategy, Defence Minister Andrew Little said New Zealand faced more geostrategic challenges than it had in decades.

A New Zealand soldier during a joint training exercise with the US, Britain and Australia in Fiji last year. Credit: US Navy/AP

The inaugural security strategy underscores how Chinas rise is upending old norms and behaviours, even 9000 kilometres away in Wellington.

An increasingly powerful China is using all its instruments of national power in ways that can pose challenges to existing international rules and norms, read one policy document.
Stockholders approve increase in authorized number of common shares

PHOENIX, Aug. 3, 2023 -- Nikola Corporation , a global leader in zero-emissions transportation and energy infrastructure supply and solutions, today announced that Nikola has received the requisite number of votes to elect all nominees for director and approve each of the other proposals, including a sufficient number of shares voted in favor of Proposal 2, the Amendment to the Second Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation to Increase the authorized number of shares of common stock.

"We are immensely grateful for the unwavering support and confidence our stockholders have demonstrated in Nikola with the passage of all of this year's Proposals," expressed Michael Lohscheller, Nikola's Chief Executive Officer. "This positive outcome, particularly with respect to Proposal 2, was critical for continued growth and success as we move forward with our strategic priorities, including autonomous technologies and software, our HYLA hydrogen ecosystem and the recent launch of the Nikola hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle."

ABOUT NIKOLA CORPORATION

Nikola Corporation is globally transforming the transportation industry. As a designer and manufacturer of zero-emission battery-electric and hydrogen-electric vehicles, electric vehicle drivetrains, vehicle components, energy storage systems, and hydrogen station infrastructure, Nikola is driven to revolutionize the economic and environmental impact of commerce as we know it today. Founded in 2015, Nikola Corporation is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona. For more information, visit www.nikolamotor.com .

SOURCE Nikola Corporation
WASHINGTON, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- Former U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday pleaded not guilty to federal charges against him for plotting to overturn the 2020 presidential election, U.S. media reported.

Trump was arraigned in a federal courthouse in Washington, D.C., on Thursday afternoon, two days after he was formally indicted.

Trump appeared before a magistrate judge to face the charges. When asked for his plea to the four counts with which he was charged, Trump replied, "Not guilty."

The former president reportedly did not have a mug shot taken.

A federal grand jury on Tuesday indicted Trump with four criminal counts: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.

"Despite having lost, the defendant (Trump) was determined to remain in power. So for more than two months following election day on Nov. 3, 2020, the defendant spread lies that there had been outcome-determinative fraud in the election and that he had actually won," reads the 45-page indictment.

Shortly after election day, Trump also pursued unlawful means of discounting legitimate votes and subverting the election results. In so doing, Trump perpetrated three criminal conspiracies: a conspiracy to defraud the United States by using dishonesty, fraud, and deceit to impair, obstruct, and defeat the lawful federal government function; a conspiracy to corruptly obstruct and impede the Jan. 6 congressional proceeding to certify the results of the presidential election; a conspiracy against the right to vote and to have one's vote counted, says the indictment.

Trump is the first former U.S. president to face criminal charges. Apart from the charges for attempts to overturn the 2020 election, he is also under indictment in two other cases.

He was charged in June with mishandling classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. In March, he was indicted on New York state charges of falsifying business records in connection with hush-money payments to an adult film actress ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

Trump is also under investigation in Georgia over his alleged attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state. 
A protester stands with a sign outside E. Barrett Prettyman United States Court House, in Washington D.C., the United States, Aug. 3, 2023. Former U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday pleaded not guilty to federal charges against him for plotting to overturn the 2020 presidential election, U.S. media reported. (Photo by Aaron Schwartz/Xinhua)

WASHINGTON, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- Former U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday pleaded not guilty to federal charges against him for plotting to overturn the 2020 presidential election, U.S. media reported.

Trump was arraigned in a federal courthouse in Washington, D.C., on Thursday afternoon, two days after he was formally indicted.

Trump appeared before a magistrate judge to face the charges. When asked for his plea to the four counts he was charged with, Trump replied, "Not guilty."

The former president reportedly did not have a mug shot taken.

A federal grand jury on Tuesday indicted Trump with four criminal counts: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.

The charges could lead to a lengthy prison sentence if convicted, with the most serious counts calling for up to 20 years, according to U.S. media.

"Despite having lost, the defendant (Trump) was determined to remain in power. So for more than two months following election day on Nov. 3, 2020, the defendant spread lies that there had been outcome-determinative fraud in the election and that he had actually won," reads the 45-page indictment.

Shortly after election day, Trump also pursued unlawful means of discounting legitimate votes and subverting the election results. In so doing, Trump perpetrated three criminal conspiracies: a conspiracy to defraud the United States by using dishonesty, fraud, and deceit to impair, obstruct, and defeat the lawful federal government function; a conspiracy to corruptly obstruct and impede the Jan. 6 congressional proceeding to certify the results of the presidential election; a conspiracy against the right to vote and to have one's vote counted, says the indictment.

The next court date is scheduled for Aug. 28, when a tentative trial date will be set. It would fall just days after the first debate in the 2024 Republican presidential primary set to take place on Aug. 23 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Trump is the first former U.S. president to face criminal charges. Apart from the charges for attempts to overturn the 2020 election, he is also under indictment in two other cases.

He was charged in June with mishandling classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. In March, he was indicted on New York state charges of falsifying business records in connection with hush-money payments to an adult film actress ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

Trump is also under investigation in Georgia over his alleged attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state.

By far, Trump remains the front-runner in the 2024 Republican presidential primary.

"The Constitution has very few requirements to serve as President, such as being at least 35 years of age," Richard L. Hasen, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, told CNN. "It does not bar anyone indicted, or convicted, or even serving jail time, from running as president and winning the presidency."

Multiple opinion polls show that Trump dominates his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination by a landslide, as primary voters wave off concerns about his escalating legal jeopardy.

According to the New York Times/Siena College poll conducted July 23-27, Trump led his nearest challenger, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, 54 percent to 17 percent among likely Republican primary voters, while no other candidate reached more than 3 percent support. 

Former U.S. President Donald Trump (in the vehicle) is seen departing from E. Barrett Prettyman United States Court House, in Washington D.C., the United States, Aug. 3, 2023. Former U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday pleaded not guilty to federal charges against him for plotting to overturn the 2020 presidential election, U.S. media reported. (Photo by Aaron Schwartz/Xinhua)

Former U.S. President Donald Trump (in the vehicle) is seen departing from E. Barrett Prettyman United States Court House, in Washington D.C., the United States, Aug. 3, 2023. Former U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday pleaded not guilty to federal charges against him for plotting to overturn the 2020 presidential election, U.S. media reported. (Photo by Aaron Schwartz/Xinhua)

Members of the media wait for the arrival of former U.S. President Donald Trump outside the E. Barrett Prettyman United States Court House, in Washington D.C., the United States, Aug. 3, 2023. Former U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday pleaded not guilty to federal charges against him for plotting to overturn the 2020 presidential election, U.S. media reported. (Photo by Aaron Schwartz/Xinhua)
Representatives from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Latin American Coalition at the organizations Charlotte headquarters on June 8. Latin American Coalition received a grant from the church to boost its capacity to serve Hispanics, immigrants and allies in the community. Photo courtesy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
The Wyoming Office of Tourism (WOT) - in partnership with Ford Bronco Wild Fund and Outside - has released the first episode of Wildly Wyoming, a competition-style series. The five-part series will air every Thursday on Outside TV.

Wildly Wyoming features three groups of Team Bronco Ambassadors as they embark on different adventures across the state while competing to win $10,000 to donate to a local non-profit  all in the name of keeping Wyoming wild. Competitions include rock climbing, fly-fishing, mountain biking and more, while showcasing the beautiful and diversity of Wyomings wide-open spaces.

The Team Bronco Ambassadors for the series include:

Team One

Aaron Mulkey, an ice climber from Cody, WY.

Kayla Lockhart, a traveling fly fishing angler from Portland, OR.

Team Two

Lael Johnson, a fly-fishing guide from Seattle, WA.

Andrew Muse, an adventure athlete from Park City, Utah.

Team Three

Micayla Gatto, a freeride mountain biker from Vancouver, BC.

Tyrhee Moore, a mountaineer and outdoor educator from Washington, DC.

Wildly Wyoming captures the state in a completely new perceptive; youll see scenes that will take your breath away, said Diane Shober, executive director of WOT. This partnership has taken the value-based mission of WY Responsibly to a much higher level of educating and facilitating responsible recreation.

Along each route, teams will meet with local guides and organizations to learn how to be stewards of Wyomings natural spaces, wildlife, communities and culture.

The WY Responsibly campaign was initially launched as a response to COVID-19, providing safe travel tips and resources that resonated with travelers and residents alike, and led to WOT expanding the campaign into 2021 by fostering three main initiatives  adventure, wildlife and community.

To catch each action-packed episode every Thursday, go to watch.outsideonline.com/series/wildly-wyoming with the winning team to be announced during the fifth and final episode. For more information on WY Responsibly and WOT, visit travelwyoming.com.
Batavia, NY (14020)

Today

Cloudy with rain in the morning...then scattered thunderstorms in the afternoon. High 74F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms in the evening, with mostly clear skies overnight. Low 56F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%.
UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese envoy on Thursday called on the international community to address the root causes of food insecurity.

At present, the global food security situation faces greater challenges. While addressing urgent issues, the international community must focus on the root causes and conduct a systematic review of the situation in order to thoroughly resolve the issue, said Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the United Nations.

The most severely affected victims of the food crisis are, without exception, developing countries. Food insecurity is essentially the result of insufficient and unbalanced development worldwide, and a concrete manifestation of the development gap between the North and the South, he told a UN Security Council open debate on famine and conflict-induced global food insecurity.

"It is closely related to the longstanding, unjust and unreasonable food production and trade system and the global governance system as a whole. The international community should address both the symptoms and root causes, improve rules and regulations, and take comprehensive measures to achieve the goal of zero hunger in 2030 as planned," he said. 
The art of dance transcends different cultures and brings people together at the China Xinjiang International Ethnic Dance Festival in Urumqi! Watch dancers from over ten countries come together to give 60 beautiful performances.

Produced by Xinhua Global Service
HARBIN, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- A total of 11 counties and districts in Harbin City, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, had suffered floods as of 4 p.m. Friday due to the impact of Typhoon Doksuri, local authorities said.

The floods affected 135,430 residents in the city, forcing 53,355 individuals to relocate. It has also damaged a total of 41,592.89 hectares of crops.

The city's flood control and drought relief headquarters has mobilized 1,630 people and 81 boats to assist in rescue efforts in Wuchang and Shangzhi, two cities administered by Harbin, since Thursday.

The emergency response for flood control in the city has been raised from Level III to Level I. 
Agents, traders oppose entry fee on vehicles at Kalamna market





Business Bureau

A large number of commission agents and traders operating inside Kalamna Market Yard observed a strike and raised slogans against the newly imposed entry fee by the Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) Nagpur on Thursday. The agitators also blocked the main entrance of the market by parking more than 100 mini trucks and tempos in front of the gate which led to major traffic jam in the area for a significant time. Bowing down to the pressure mounted by the agitators, the APMC officials allowed entry of only mini trucks and tempos without collecting the entry charges.

The APMC officials also have allowed two-wheelers and cars to enter the market yard without charging an entry fee. However, they continued collecting entry fees from three-wheeler, five-wheeler, Maxi, Eicher trucks and other heavy vehicles.Kanda Batata Bazar Aditya Welfare Association President Gaurav Harde demanded the APMC Nagpur to withdraw the new rule immediately saying that it would discourage farmers from bringing their agricultural produce to the market yard. Though the commission agents and traders conducted the strike, the APMC officials seem to be not very serious on the matter as they have not yet called for a meeting on the issue. On the other hand, the APMC has awarded a contract to a private agency to collect the entry fees. From August 1, APMC Nagpur has been charging an entry fee of Rs 10 per day (or Rs 250 per month) on heavy vehicles and daily Rs 5 per day (or monthly fee of Rs 100) on small vehicles.
Delhi Services Bill passed by LS; Shah tears into Oppn alliance





NEW DELHI :

AAP member Sushil Kumar Rinku, who tore a copy of the Bill and threw it towards the Chair, was suspended by Speaker Om Birla

THE Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023, which will replace an ordinance promulgated for handling the transfers and postings of senior officers in the City Government, was passed in Lok Sabha on Thursday amid a walkout by Opposition parties.

The Delhi Services Bill was passed after a nearly four-hour-long debate which was replied to by Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Shah made it clear that the Central Government has the power to make laws on Union Territories and Delhi, being a Union Territory, the Centre enjoys full rights to make rules also. Launching a scathing attack on the Opposition for joining hands against the Central Governments move to bring the Bill, Shah predicted that once the Bill is passed, the Opposition alliance will collapse. He alleged that the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP Govt in Delhi has not been functioning within rules and it is even not convening Assembly session regularly. Even the Cabinet meeting of the Delhi Government is not convened regularly, he said.

The Bill is constitutionally valid and it is for the benefit of the people of Delhi, he said. Shah also asked the Opposition parties to support the Bill, saying it is for the welfare of the people of the national capital. As the Bill was being passed, members of several Opposition parties walked out of the Lok Sabha as a mark of protest. AAP member Sushil Kumar Rinku, who tore a copy of the Bill and thew it towards the Chair, was subsequently suspended by Speaker Om Birla for the remaining part of the Monsoon session for unruly behaviour. During his address, Shah also said the Government was ready for a discussion on the situation in violence-hit Manipur for as long as the Opposition wants and that he would respond to it.
DIRTY DESIGN





THE country is being made a victim of a dirty political design as part of the Opposition tool-kit aimed at keeping India disturbed ahead of the next Lok Sabha elections. The purpose obviously is to malign the image of Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi so that the national electorate downgrades the Central Government, which in turn result in adverse electoral outcome for Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance. There also are a few State legislative elections whose outcome too can be impacted by this dirty design, as most political observers apprehend. Politics is often described as a dirty business, a game scoundrels play. So some vile designs are going to be part of the political action that keeps haunting the nation. Yet, when those designs include planned violence on a widespread geography, then considerations are different. Such an impression gathers gravitas considering the planned violence in Manipur and Haryana. Add to this overall picture the filth the Opposition is practising in Parliament by refusing to cooperate in running the parliamentary business in a dignified manner. So dirty has the Oppositions approach been that Lok Sabha Speaker Mr. Om Birla has stressed that he would not chair the meetings until the Members of Parliament start behaving in a dignified manner and in accordance with the rules of the House.

No matter what the Government does and says, the Opposition refuses to join the proceedings of the House -- Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha -- with dignity, sanity and sanctity. It raises issues with which the Government just cannot agree for reasons of discipline, decorum and dignity of the House and the purpose of the business at hand. Yet, the Opposition refuses to see sense in the Governments argument -- in the process driving the chair to frustration. This is what has happened in the case of Speaker Mr. Om Birla. All this is an integral part of the dirty tool-kit the Opposition is masterminding in the country. In Haryana, for example, there is every evidence available showing that the attack on a Hindu procession was a planned affair that invited an emotional reflux as well -- resulting ultimately in extended violence engulfing a big part of the State of Haryana. And the Opposition has nothing to say about the Haryana incidents of violence. That is very surprising, as the otherwise very vocal Opposition chooses to keep quiet when Haryana burns.

None of the Opposition leaders has condemned the attack on the peaceful procession. These many other pointers are available to suggest a well-planned violence into which the country is being pushed. In the next few months before the Lok Sabha elections, many incidents of planned violence would come to fore -- with the shameless Opposition unconcerned about the decline of the quality of the countrys social fabric. The Oppositions calculated responses to the violent developments create an impression that it is happy about what is happening in the country. This is where the suspicion about a dirty political design at work gets strengthened. No matter what the ideal situation should be like, the Opposition in India has generally proved itself to be highly irresponsible, interested in heaping abuses and blame on the Government in the most thoughtless manner. As a newspaper, we hold no brief for the Government, since it is also our job to keep pointing to the flaws in governance etc. But we realise that the Opposition parties should be more responsible and sensible while doing its work as Devils Advocates. If they realise this role properly and act accordingly, the country will be happier. But what is being witnessed at the moment is a dirty design at work ahead of the next Lok Sabha elections.
LS Speaker returns to Chair as members assure good behaviour





NEW DELHI,

LOK Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Thursday skipped the House proceedings in the first half to express displeasure over disruptions and returned post-lunch only after several Opposition leaders met him and assured him that they would maintain the dignity of the Chair. The Speaker had skipped the House proceedings on Wednesday, upset at the repeated disruptions and disrespect towards the Chair by opposition members, particularly during the passage of bills on Tuesday. Birla did not turn up for the Question Hour on Thursday, prompting Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury to make a plea to him to return to the Chair.

Several Opposition leaders met Birla in his chamber with an assurance of their cooperation in the conduct of business and upholding the dignity of Lok Sabha. The Speaker returned to the Chair in the post-lunch session when the House took up the Delhi Services Bill for consideration and passing. When BJP leader Rajendra Agarwal assumed the chair during Question Hour, Chowdhury said all the members wanted the Speaker to return. Besides Chowdhury, Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi, TMCs Saugata Ray, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, NCP leader Supriya Sule, DMKs Kanimozhi, RSP member N K Premachandran also met the Speaker and assured him their cooperation in upholding the dignity of the House.
Mosque set on fire in Nuh, 2 Muslim men thrashed in Gurugram





GURUGRAM :

A total of 176 people have been arrested and 78 taken into preventive detention in connection with the communal clashes in Haryana 93 FIRs have been registered

A MOSQUE was set on fire and a short circuit apparently triggered a blaze in another in Haryanas Nuh district, while two brothers belonging to Muslim community were allegedly beaten up in Gurugram by a group of about 30 people, police said on Thursday. No one was injured in the mosque incidents that took place around 11:30 pm on Wednesday, they said. While one of the mosques is located near Vijay Chowk, the other is near a police station. Both mosques suffered some damage. Superintendent of Police (Nuh) Varun Singla said, Light arson has been done in one mosque while short circuit seems to be the reason for the fire in the other.

The police took control of the situation and are conducting raids to nab the suspects. A total of 176 people have been arrested and 78 taken into preventive detention in connection with the communal clashes in Haryana, a top State Government official said here on Thursday. (Contd from page 1) Additional Chief Secretary (Home) T V S N Prasad also said 93 FIRs have been registered, including 46 in Nuh, 23 in Gurugram, three in Faridabad, three in Rewari, and 18 in Palwal. Soon after getting the information, fire brigades were rushed to the two mosques and the blaze was doused, police said. A senior police officer said they are trying to identify the accused with the help of CCTV cameras installed in nearby areas. Earlier, police had said that Molotov cocktails were hurled at the two mosques. In neighbouring Gurugram, two men identified as Nisar Ali and his brother Rustam Ali, were allegedly beaten up on Wednesday evening by a group of about 30 people, police said. The victims, natives of Malda district in West Bengal, are living in a slum in Palda village here. According to a complaint by Nisar Ali, a group of about 25 to 30 youths came to the slum on Tuesday and told the dwellers to leave the city by Wednesday.

Curfew, meanwhile, was relaxed in Nuh on Thursday. The Haryana Government has constituted a committee that will monitor social media platforms to prevent the circulation of provocative material, including videos, photographs, and hate speeches, to maintain law and order and communal harmony in the State. The committee has been formed in the wake of communal violence in Nuh. According to an order issued on Thursday by Additional Chief Secretary (Home), T V S N Prasad, the committee will coordinate with all relevant agencies to take remedial/corrective measures in this regard. We have to take a full comprehensive view of the situation. Provocative or false information should not be spread on social media, Additional Chief Secretary (Home) T V S N Prasad said while addressing the media.
New Space Ecosystem





By Gyan Pathak

SPACE economy for the new space is now face to face with mounting concerns which include the fragility of current growth and the worrying rate of increase in orbital debris. An OECD report prepared for the G20 Space Leaders Meeting under Indias G20 Presidency titled Harnessing New Space for Sustainable Growth of the Space Economy says that the space sector undergoing a transformation as new space is being provided with disruptive new offerings in space manufacturing and operations among other offerings, investment, and innovations models. The phenomenon called New Space has begun about 15 years ago, but it has gained significant momentum in the last couple of years. This major shift is due to several factors: the emergence of new space technologies such as small satellites, lean manufacturing processes, billionaires from tech companies investing in space projects and paving the way for more private investment, advances in computing power and digitalisation leading to new space applications, and eventually key policy decisions to support the development of a new ecosystem of commercial space actors. New space is characterised by new commercial actors who are introducing innovative industrial practices and funding strategies to the space sector.

This has led to a reduction in the cost of access to space technologies and has fostered further space innovation. In just over a decade, new space actors have had a major impact on the global space sector. This has led to a more intensive use of orbital resources, with higher launch activity and many more operational satellites on orbit. It has also democratised space access around the world with many Governments supporting the development of national space capabilities, better distributing the benefits of space technologies and further improving conditions for innovation. However, increasingly, there are concerns about the sustainability of this growth. Increases in launch activity are associated with a worrying increase in orbital debris, which could (in a worst-case scenario), disrupt orbits of high socio-economic value. Furthermore, the vitality of the new space ecosystem is fragile to economic shocks and market entrenchment. The rising concerns about the sustainability of the growth in the new space ecosystem is associated with a worrying increase in space debris, and recent years succession of economic shocks threaten the vitality of the innovation ecosystem. From a policy perspective, this creates multiple challenges in terms of sustainable and secure use and equitable access to technologies and orbital resources, which will require close collaboration between stakeholders at both the domestic and international level.

Launch activities have picked up from 2011 onwards, with the launch of the first nanosatellite constellations for earth observation. Commercial missions in the low-Earth orbit are often deployed in multi-satellite constellations to improve geographic coverage and shorten revisit times, leading to a notable increase in the number of launched satellites or payloads. Starting from 2019, the bulk of global launch activity is dedicated to the deployment of satellite broadband constellations in the low-Earth orbit. By the end of 2022, the constellations from two commercial operators, US SpaceX and UKs OneWeb (3000 and 500 satellites respectively) represented more than half of all operational satellites on orbit. Commercial operators and their infrastructure now dominate in low-Earth orbits and in geostationary orbits. This is just the beginning. The US Kuiper constellation, backed by Amazon, is set to start deployment in 2023 and has booked up to 83 launches on various rockets in coming years to place their planned 3 000+ satellites on orbit. Other G20 economies have their own projects. The Canadian Government is supporting the commercial Telesat Lightspeed constellation, projects in the Peoples Republic of China (Guo Wang) and Korea (Hanwha Systems) were announced in 2021; and in 2022, the European Union introduced its IRIS2 constellation for secure communications, expected to be fully operational in 2027. This comes in addition to multiple fully commercial projects. Even if they do not all come to fruition, these initiatives increase the demand for space manufacturing and launch services, as well as orbital resources such as orbital occupancy and radio spectrum and fuel the creation of additional activities.

There are now projects for commercial spaceports across the globe, from Norway to New Zealand. There is also increased commercial interest for other space resources. By 2022, the United States, Luxembourg, the United Arab Emirates and Japan had voted laws concerning resources extracted commercially from celestial objects. The rapid growth of the space economy is raising concerns about the environmental sustainability of future activities. Furthermore, the current economic climate puts the continued vitality of the new space ecosystem at risk. Finally, there are doubts about the economic viability of several of the proposed projects for satellite broadband and other ambitious activities, such as in-space resources extraction. Increased density on orbit increases risk for collisions and debris generation, as well as light pollution disrupting astronomic observations. There is also pollution associated with manufacturing, launch and spacecrafts re-entry into the atmosphere. New space business model also faces multiple technological, market and regulatory risks, the report warns. However, to sustain the growth, policy action is needed to ensure that this growth is sustained, sustainable, and equitable. Finally, multi-actor collaboration and partnerships are needed to solve mutual challenges such as the long-term stability of a crowded orbital environment. (IPA)
Noted Marathi poet Namdeo Dhondo Mahanor passes away





PUNE,

NOTED Marathi poet and lyricist Namdeo Dhondo Mahanor, a Padma Shri recipient and popularly known as Na Dho Mahanor, died in a hospital in Maharashtras Pune city on Thursday morning due to old age-related ailments, a family member said. He was 81. Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis, NCP president Sharad Pawar and many other leaders expressed grief over his demise. Namdeo Dhondo Mahanor was admitted to the Ruby Hall Clinic here for the last few days and was on ventilator support, his grandson Shashikant Mahanor said. Born at Palaskheda in Aurangabad district in 1942, the poet and lyricist had been awarded Padma Shri, the fourth-highest civilian award. He had also been a member of the State Legislative Council.

He penned several popular poems and songs, including Jagala Prem Arpave, Ganga Wahu De Nirmal and Divelaganichi Vel, and also wrote songs for Marathi movies like Ek Hota Vidushak, Jait Re Jait, Sarja and others. Mahanor is survived by two sons and three daughters. His last rites will be performed at his native place Palaskheda in Aurangabad on Friday, a family member said. CM Shinde in a tweet condoled the death of the poet, saying he sang songs of the soil. His literary works had an earthy aroma, he said. He was connected to the land, but touched the sky (with his literary works), the CM said. He was a recipient of the Krishi Bhushan award of the Maharashtra government. I am thankful for the contribution made by Mahanor, Shinde said. Deputy CM Fadnavis in a tweet said, We have lost a poet who connected the human minds with nature. We have lost a writer who took Marathi literature to a different height. His poetries were centred around nature and women. Maharashtra has lost a great litterateur, he added.
Public representatives reach out to distressed denizens





Staff Reporter

In the wake of incessant rainfall wreaking havoc across the city, public representatives wasted no time in tackling the dire situation of water-logging in several areas within municipal limits. With a positive approach, they conducted inspection of affected areas from crack of dawn. By promptly calling the municipal authorities, they ensured implementation of effective measures to mitigate overflow of rainwater and extend much-needed relief to distressed citizens. MLA Ashok Rohani and Mayor Jagat Bahadur Singh who conducted inspection of a number of areas under Cantt. Assembly separately, met with individuals affected by waterlogging. After listening to peoples concerns and assessing the extent of the damage, they assured them that the government would take full responsibility and provide compensation for losses incurred due to the relentless downpour.

MLA Rohani and Mayor Singh also ensured distribution of food packets and clean drinking water to hundreds of affected residents during the inspection. They directed municipal authorities to remain on high alert for a span of 24 hours, fully prepared to confront potential waterlogging incidents. They also directed concerned officials to take immediate action on reports or grievances arise during heavy rains. MLA Ashok Rohani visited Narmada Nagar, Pink City, Chaitanya City, New Kanchanpur and others areas under Cantt. Assembly. Likewise, Mayor, Jagat Bahadur Singh also visited many such areas and ensured needed arrangements. It may be noted that the continuous rainfall over the last two days has resulted in waterlogging in many areas under Cantt. Assembly. The inhabitants of Chaitanya city, Pink City and adjoining areas were unable to venture out of their homes due to the flooding situation caused following overflow of Khandari nullah.
RTMNU: Central Indias centenarian signature





By Vijay Phanshikar

Even as Vice President Mr. Jagdeep Dhankhar graces the launch of centenary celebrations of the Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University (RTMNU), a rich panoply of memories from Central Indias intellectual history springs to fore. Several generations of students -- countless among them undoubtedly illustrious -- have passed through the portals of the RTMNU, giving Central India its impressive intellectual persona, and proving in the process to be the mother of most universities in the region. Such an institution deserves salutes as well as recognition for its salutary contribution! Of course, when an institution lives through a century of its existence, it leaves behind mixed memories. With times gone by, most memories lose their sting of the given moment and finally remain intact in public recall as something that can be viewed with disinterested interest -- almost impersonal, almost to be enjoyed no matter their texture or flavour or fragrance of the moment gone by. The Nagpur University can now boast of all those emotionally criss-cross experiences after a hundred years of purposeful academic existence. Those were the times when India was increasingly getting introduced to modern education, and the birth of Nagpur University was an important landmark in that expanding scenario.

The Hitavada was there when the Nagpur University was born -- welcoming the development, and looking forward to its growth with pleasant anxiousness. The Hitavada has been there with the university ever since -- through its good days and not so good days. It has stood by the university in trying times, but also has not missed its duty to expose the undesirable elements and influences that dominated the institution in some of the dark patches of its history. No matter those unavoidable, essential chores of journalistic duty, The Hitavada also did not miss expressing its innate sense of pride in the Nagpur University. For, most of The Hitavada staffers have been the proud products of the very institution -- making a mark in journalism and on larger social canvas. But with pride also came some moments of serious questioning. Looking back, The Hitavada realises that even those moments have had their own sweetness stemming from a deep sense of closeness and kinship. The Hitavada remembers that moment as well when the university was named after Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj. It also remembers the moments when the Nagpur University was split into universities at Amravati and later at Gadchiroli. At each such moment, The Hitavada joined the region to celebrate what it thought to be the reasonable and essential expansion of the academic footprint as per the call of changing times.

The RTMNU has been fortunate to have had some very wonderful personages as Vice-Chancellors who put their signatures on Central Indias academic and intellectual mural. The universaity also produced for the country great legal luminaries, great soldiers, great sportspersons, great scientists, great litterateurs, great historians, great scholars in different subjects. It also boasts of one of the best academic libraries in the country. Through its hundred-year journey, the Nagpur University hosted some annual national sessions of the Indian Science Congress. It also was the host for several nationally important academic events in the country from time to time. Eventually, the RTMNU became an indelible intellectual landmark of the region of Central India. It may have been housed in Nagpur, but its familial influence spread all over Central India. But, even as all this was happening, the university appeared to be losing its steam on occasions, in the process also losing its distinctiveness. Those were surely sad times, we must admit. But there have also been some very bright moments when the university shone out. As the RTMNU officially reaches the hundred-year mark, it carries on its shoulders a big weight of peoples expectations. In changing times, when the nation is engaged in the process of implementing the new educational policy, the university -- any university -- is going to be a nerve centre of an altogether different and modern academic activity. In such moments of new challenges, the people expect the Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University to be a nucleus of academic and intellectual excellence, an indisputable centenarian signature of both -- a hundred-old past and an infinite future.
Take India to Utkarsh of all-round development: President Murmu





Staff Reporter

President Droupadi Murmu has said that the tribal heritage of Madhya Pradesh is extremely rich. Maximum tribes reside here. Our collective efforts should be to become partners in the modern development of the tribal community while preserving our culture, folk tradition, customs and natural environment. The talents using innovations should take India to the pinnacle of overall development. Events like Unmesh and Utkarsh are logical as well as responsive in this direction. Such an event will create a strong cultural eco system. The active co-operation of the Madhya Pradesh Government in this is commendable. President Murmu said that after becoming the President, most of my visits have taken place in Madhya Pradesh. Today, I have come on a visit to Madhya Pradesh for the fifth time. I thank the 8 crore residents of Madhya Pradesh for warmly welcoming me here. President Murmu was speaking at the launch of Utkarsh and Unmesh festival at Ravindra Bhavan. Sangeet Natak Academy and Sahitya Academy, under the Union Ministry of Culture, in collaboration with the Department of Culture, Government of Madhya Pradesh, are organising national festivals of Indias folk and tribal expressions Utkarsh and Unmesh for the first time from August 3 to 5 in Bhopal. President Murmu formally inaugurated the festival by lighting the lamp.

Murmu said that patriotism and universal brotherhood have always been in the thinking stream of our country. Since ancient times our tradition says Yatra Vishwa Bhavati Ekneedam. The whole world is one family. This time India is chairing the G-20 and its motto One Earth, One Family and One Future is an expression of this spirit. The same feeling is reflected in the poem of the great poet Jaishankar Prasad: Arun Yeh Madhumai Desh Hamara, Jahan Pahuch Anjan Kshitij Ko Milta Ek Sahara. President Murmu said that the truth of literature is always above the truth of history. This is evident in the writings of poet Ravindranath Tagore and Maharishi Narada. Literature is the mirror of humanity, it protects it and also takes it forward. Literature and art protect sensitivity, compassion and humanity. This event dedicated to literature and art is meaningful and commendable. President Murmu said that the world is passing through serious challenges today. Literature and art have an important contribution in developing co-ordination and mutual understanding among different cultures. Literature empowers the global community. Everyone is familiar with the timeless superiority of literature. The immortal works of William Shakespeare are proof of this even today. She said that literature connects as well as unites together. Literature and art created by rising above me and mine are meaningful. President Murmu said that the languages and dialects of 140 crore countrymen are mine. Translation of works in different languages will further enrich Indian literature. The effort of former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to include Santhali language in the 8th Schedule was highly commendable.

President Murmu said that the meaning of Unmesh is opening of eyes and blossoming of flowers. It is the light and awakening of wisdom. In the 19th Century, the currents of new awakening continued till the first half of the 20th century. During the freedom struggle, the ideals of independence and renaissance were well expressed by the litterateurs. The literature of that time is an immortal expression of the spirit of patriotism. The literature of that time gave divinity to the motherland. Every stone of India became Shaligram. The creations of great litterateurs like Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, Subramaniam had a deep impact on the public mind. President Murmu said that Utkarsh is a celebration of progress of tribal society. President Murmu said that the day Indias tribal society will be advanced, that day India will be established as a developed nation in the world. India has more than 700 tribal communities and almost doubled are their languages. Today, when Indias Amrit Kaal is going on, it is our responsibility that the tribal languages and culture should remain alive and developed.
SACRAMENTO, United States, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese province of Hainan and the U.S. state of California announced a new initiative on Thursday to accelerate joint actions against the climate change.

The two sides signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in Sacramento, California, aiming to establish a flexible framework to collaborate on protecting environment, combating climate change and advancing clean energy development.

The MOU, signed by Vice Governor of Hainan Chen Huaiyu and Secretary of the California State Transportation Agency Toks Omishakin, outlined a few key areas of cooperation, including climate action and air quality, clean transportation, clean energy and clean technologies, and nature-based climate solutions.

The two sides are also expected to conduct special activities, such as providing mutual advice on climate policies and programs, sharing information and experiences, and organizing symposia, workshops and annual meetings, according to the MOU.

California Governor Gavin Newsom met with the Hainan delegation and witnessed the signing of the MOU. Zhang Jianmin, Consul General of China in San Francisco also attended the event.

"We're an ocean apart but share the same goals -- leaving this planet better off for our kids and grandkids," said Newsom in a statement.

"Working together with global partners like the province of Hainan, we stand a chance to address the existential crisis of climate change by cutting pollution and transitioning to clean energy," said Newsom.

Chen said that "we're glad to partner with California as we both take meaningful steps to fight the global climate crisis. We share the desire to raise the bar for climate solutions like cleaning our air, advancing zero-emission vehicles, and embracing clean energy."

Following the signing ceremony, the two sides convened a roundtable to discuss shared climate priorities and the areas of cooperation outlined in the MOU.

Chen also expressed his hope that the MOU would help encourage research cooperation between universities, promote exchanges between trade groups, and stimulate more investment in renewable energy. 
DAMASCUS, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Islamic State (IS) leader Abu Hussein al-Husseini al-Quraishi was killed in Syria's northwestern province of Idlib by a rival rebel group, a war monitor reported on Friday.

Al-Quraishi was killed during clashes near a refugee camp in the village of Atama in northern Idlib, which is a few kilometers away from the town of Jindires in Aleppo province, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Both areas are under the control of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), previously known as the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front.

The UK-based watchdog group didn't specify when the killing took place, but it cited a recording by the IS spokesperson as saying that the HTS is behind the killing of al-Quraishi and that it happened last month.

Following his assassination, IS named Abu Hafs al-Hashimi al-Quraishi as his replacement. 
CGN Advisors LLC cut its position in JPMorgan BetaBuilders U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF (NYSEARCA:JAGG  Free Report) by 5.5% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 261,513 shares of the companys stock after selling 15,328 shares during the period. JPMorgan BetaBuilders U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF accounts for 1.7% of CGN Advisors LLCs holdings, making the stock its 14th largest position. CGN Advisors LLC owned about 1.08% of JPMorgan BetaBuilders U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF worth $12,077,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in JPMorgan BetaBuilders U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF by 28.2% during the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 19,293,369 shares of the companys stock worth $905,824,000 after buying an additional 4,244,542 shares during the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC lifted its stake in shares of JPMorgan BetaBuilders U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF by 7,683.8% in the 1st quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 3,642,815 shares of the companys stock valued at $171,030,000 after purchasing an additional 3,596,015 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its stake in shares of JPMorgan BetaBuilders U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF by 50.2% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,436,216 shares of the companys stock valued at $67,430,000 after purchasing an additional 480,118 shares during the last quarter. Berger Financial Group Inc lifted its stake in shares of JPMorgan BetaBuilders U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF by 6.5% in the 1st quarter. Berger Financial Group Inc now owns 947,210 shares of the companys stock valued at $44,472,000 after purchasing an additional 57,820 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of JPMorgan BetaBuilders U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF by 1,666.2% in the 1st quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 721,426 shares of the companys stock valued at $33,871,000 after purchasing an additional 680,580 shares during the last quarter.

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JPMorgan BetaBuilders U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF Stock Performance

Shares of JPMorgan BetaBuilders U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF stock traded down $0.28 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $45.14. The companys stock had a trading volume of 112,046 shares, compared to its average volume of 236,280. JPMorgan BetaBuilders U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF has a twelve month low of $44.07 and a twelve month high of $52.88. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $46.16 and a 200-day moving average of $46.57.

Further Reading

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Partners Group Holding AG trimmed its position in shares of Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (NYSE:EPD  Free Report) by 7.9% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 24,344 shares of the oil and gas producers stock after selling 2,083 shares during the period. Partners Group Holding AGs holdings in Enterprise Products Partners were worth $631,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in EPD. Fairfield Bush & CO. acquired a new position in Enterprise Products Partners during the first quarter worth $31,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Enterprise Products Partners by 2.6% in the 1st quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 6,571,535 shares of the oil and gas producers stock valued at $169,611,000 after purchasing an additional 169,059 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Enterprise Products Partners by 4.7% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 25,050,292 shares of the oil and gas producers stock valued at $646,548,000 after purchasing an additional 1,114,690 shares during the last quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. lifted its stake in Enterprise Products Partners by 3.2% during the 1st quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. now owns 89,367 shares of the oil and gas producers stock worth $2,307,000 after acquiring an additional 2,804 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sei Investments Co. lifted its stake in Enterprise Products Partners by 76.5% during the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 888,439 shares of the oil and gas producers stock worth $22,931,000 after acquiring an additional 385,008 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 26.54% of the companys stock.

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Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Mizuho increased their target price on Enterprise Products Partners from $32.00 to $33.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 19th. StockNews.com started coverage on Enterprise Products Partners in a report on Thursday, May 18th. They set a buy rating on the stock. Barclays upped their price target on Enterprise Products Partners from $29.00 to $30.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 18th. TD Securities cut their price target on Enterprise Products Partners from $32.00 to $31.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Morgan Stanley reissued an equal weight rating and set a $33.00 target price on shares of Enterprise Products Partners in a research report on Thursday, July 20th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven 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 a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $30.82.

Enterprise Products Partners Price Performance

EPD traded up $0.09 during trading on Thursday, reaching $26.66. 5,949,556 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,493,212. Enterprise Products Partners L.P. has a 1 year low of $22.90 and a 1 year high of $27.36. The company has a market capitalization of $57.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.79 and a beta of 1.08. The businesss 50 day moving average price is $26.30 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $26.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.93 and a quick ratio of 0.72.

Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE:EPD  Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 1st. The oil and gas producer reported $0.57 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.59 by ($0.02). Enterprise Products Partners had a net margin of 10.39% and a return on equity of 19.77%. The business had revenue of $10.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.34 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.64 earnings per share. The businesss revenue for the quarter was down 33.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Enterprise Products Partners L.P. will post 2.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Enterprise Products Partners Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, July 31st will be given a $0.50 dividend. This is an increase from Enterprise Products Partnerss previous quarterly dividend of $0.49. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 28th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.50%. Enterprise Products Partnerss dividend payout ratio is presently 80.97%.

Enterprise Products Partners Profile

(Free Report)

Enterprise Products Partners L.P. provides midstream energy services to producers and consumers of natural gas, natural gas liquids (NGLs), crude oil, petrochemicals, and refined products. The company operates through four segments: NGL Pipelines & Services, Crude Oil Pipelines & Services, Natural Gas Pipelines & Services, and Petrochemical & Refined Products Services.

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Stairway Partners LLC raised its stake in iShares Russell 2000 ETF (NYSEARCA:IWM  Free Report) by 3.8% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 202,822 shares of the exchange traded funds stock after purchasing an additional 7,500 shares during the quarter. iShares Russell 2000 ETF makes up about 3.3% of Stairway Partners LLCs portfolio, making the stock its 9th biggest holding. Stairway Partners LLC owned 0.07% of iShares Russell 2000 ETF worth $37,982,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Richard W. Paul & Associates LLC bought a new position in shares of iShares Russell 2000 ETF during the 4th quarter worth approximately $25,000. Annapolis Financial Services LLC boosted its stake in shares of iShares Russell 2000 ETF by 94.7% during the 1st quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 148 shares of the exchange traded funds stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 72 shares during the period. Your Advocates Ltd. LLP boosted its stake in iShares Russell 2000 ETF by 450.0% in the 1st quarter. Your Advocates Ltd. LLP now owns 154 shares of the exchange traded funds stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 126 shares during the period. Tandem Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in iShares Russell 2000 ETF in the 4th quarter valued at $29,000. Finally, Ten Capital Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in iShares Russell 2000 ETF by 78.6% in the 4th quarter. Ten Capital Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 184 shares of the exchange traded funds stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 81 shares during the period. 97.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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iShares Russell 2000 ETF Price Performance

IWM traded down $0.56 during trading on Thursday, hitting $194.55. The stock had a trading volume of 24,280,706 shares, compared to its average volume of 29,376,955. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $187.17 and a 200-day moving average price of $183.21. The firm has a market cap of $56.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.99 and a beta of 1.15. iShares Russell 2000 ETF has a one year low of $162.50 and a one year high of $201.99.

iShares Russell 2000 ETF Company Profile

iShares Russell 2000 ETF (the Fund) is an exchange-traded fund. The Fund seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance of the Russell 2000 Index (the Index). The Index is a float-adjusted capitalization weighted index that measures the performance of the small-capitalization sector of the United States equity market and includes securities issued by the approximately 2,000 smallest issuers in the Russell 3000 Index.

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Superdry plc (LON:SDRY  Get Free Report) shares hit a new 52-week low during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as low as GBX 70.10 ($0.90) and last traded at GBX 74.30 ($0.95), with a volume of 59954 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at GBX 74.50 ($0.96).

Superdry Stock Performance

The firms fifty day moving average price is GBX 78.46 and its 200-day moving average price is GBX 97.90. The company has a current ratio of 1.07, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 293.27. The company has a market cap of 73.53 million, a P/E ratio of 931.25, a P/E/G ratio of 0.56 and a beta of 2.14.

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Insider Activity

In other news, insider Julian Dunkerton purchased 1,929,874 shares of Superdry stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 17th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of GBX 79 ($1.01) per share, for a total transaction of 1,524,600.46 ($1,957,376.38). In the last three months, insiders have acquired 2,279,875 shares of company stock worth $180,110,125. Corporate insiders own 35.88% of the companys stock.

About Superdry

Superdry plc design, produces, markets, and sells clothing, footwear, and accessories primarily under the Superdry brand for men and women in the United Kingdom and internationally. It operates through Retail and Wholesale segments. It operates stores, concessions, various Internet sites, multi-brand independents and distributors, franchise, and license stores.

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John G Ullman & Associates Inc. lowered its holdings in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT  Free Report) by 0.4% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 30,944 shares of the healthcare product makers stock after selling 125 shares during the period. John G Ullman & Associates Inc.s holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $3,133,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in ABT. Altshuler Shaham Ltd acquired a new position in Abbott Laboratories during the 4th quarter worth approximately $28,000. Monumental Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Abbott Laboratories in the 1st quarter valued at $32,000. FWL Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Abbott Laboratories in the 4th quarter valued at $33,000. True Wealth Design LLC purchased a new stake in Abbott Laboratories in the 4th quarter valued at $33,000. Finally, WFA of San Diego LLC purchased a new stake in Abbott Laboratories in the 4th quarter valued at $34,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.08% of the companys stock.

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Insider Activity at Abbott Laboratories

In other Abbott Laboratories news, Director Daniel J. Starks sold 50,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.76, for a total value of $5,688,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 6,775,316 shares of the companys stock, valued at $770,759,948.16. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Abbott Laboratories Trading Down 1.0 %

NYSE:ABT traded down $1.08 on Thursday, reaching $107.54. The stock had a trading volume of 4,800,045 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,057,108. The company has a market cap of $187.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.07, a P/E/G ratio of 4.94 and a beta of 0.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 1.68 and a quick ratio of 1.22. The firms fifty day moving average is $106.80 and its two-hundred day moving average is $106.29. Abbott Laboratories has a 12-month low of $93.25 and a 12-month high of $115.83.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT  Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 20th. The healthcare product maker reported $1.08 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.05 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $9.98 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.71 billion. Abbott Laboratories had a net margin of 12.83% and a return on equity of 20.60%. The companys revenue was down 11.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.43 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Abbott Laboratories will post 4.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Abbott Laboratories Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, August 15th. Investors of record on Friday, July 14th will be issued a $0.51 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 13th. This represents a $2.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.90%. Abbott Laboratoriess payout ratio is 69.62%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently commented on ABT. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price target on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $132.00 to $133.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Thursday, April 20th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research report on Thursday, May 18th. They set a buy rating for the company. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Abbott Laboratories from an underperform rating to a peer perform rating in a research report on Friday, July 21st. Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research report on Friday, July 21st. Finally, Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $125.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 19th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $120.82.

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Abbott Laboratories Company Profile

(Free Report)

Abbott Laboratories, together with its subsidiaries, discovers, develops, manufactures, and sells health care products worldwide. It operates in four segments: Established Pharmaceutical Products, Diagnostic Products, Nutritional Products, and Medical Devices. The Established Pharmaceutical Products segment provides generic pharmaceuticals for the treatment of pancreatic exocrine insufficiency, irritable bowel syndrome or biliary spasm, intrahepatic cholestasis or depressive symptoms, gynecological disorder, hormone replacement therapy, dyslipidemia, hypertension, hypothyroidism, Meniere's disease and vestibular vertigo, pain, fever, inflammation, and migraine, as well as provides anti-infective clarithromycin, influenza vaccine, and products to regulate physiological rhythm of the colon.

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American International Group (NYSE:AIG  Get Free Report) announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday. The insurance provider reported $1.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $1.54 by $0.21, Briefing.com reports. American International Group had a return on equity of 9.46% and a net margin of 8.94%. The company had revenue of $13.22 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.28 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.19 EPS.

American International Group Stock Performance

Shares of American International Group stock traded down $0.45 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $60.69. 3,235,703 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,527,666. American International Group has a 1 year low of $45.66 and a 1 year high of $64.88. The company has a current ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 0.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09. The business has a 50-day moving average of $57.52 and a 200-day moving average of $56.17. The stock has a market capitalization of $43.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.38, a P/E/G ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 1.13.

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American International Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.36 per share. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.37%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 14th. American International Groups dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.37%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Insider Transactions at American International Group

AIG has been the topic of several research reports. Bank of America dropped their target price on shares of American International Group from $73.00 to $68.00 in a report on Friday, June 2nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price objective on American International Group from $76.00 to $73.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 18th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on American International Group from $75.00 to $67.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 10th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on American International Group from $57.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Evercore ISI decreased their price target on American International Group from $70.00 to $63.00 and set an in-line rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 13th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $67.79.

In related news, Director William G. Jurgensen sold 475 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Monday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.03, for a total transaction of $26,139.25. Following the transaction, the director now owns 1,025 shares of the companys stock, valued at $56,405.75. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, major shareholder International Group American sold 74,750,000 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Monday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $16.25, for a total value of $1,214,687,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 426,395,000 shares of the companys stock, valued at $6,928,918,750. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director William G. Jurgensen sold 475 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Monday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.03, for a total value of $26,139.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 1,025 shares of the companys stock, valued at $56,405.75. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 85,732,218 shares of company stock worth $1,394,947,575 over the last 90 days. 0.49% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On American International Group

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund grew its position in shares of American International Group by 0.7% in the third quarter. Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund now owns 27,251 shares of the insurance providers stock valued at $1,294,000 after purchasing an additional 186 shares during the period. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust boosted its holdings in American International Group by 20.9% in the first quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 1,110 shares of the insurance providers stock valued at $69,000 after acquiring an additional 192 shares during the last quarter. Kinneret Advisory LLC boosted its holdings in American International Group by 2.3% in the first quarter. Kinneret Advisory LLC now owns 10,413 shares of the insurance providers stock valued at $654,000 after acquiring an additional 233 shares during the last quarter. Veritable L.P. boosted its holdings in American International Group by 2.5% in the first quarter. Veritable L.P. now owns 10,672 shares of the insurance providers stock valued at $537,000 after acquiring an additional 256 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SVB Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in American International Group by 4.5% in the first quarter. SVB Wealth LLC now owns 6,002 shares of the insurance providers stock valued at $377,000 after acquiring an additional 261 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.18% of the companys stock.

About American International Group

(Get Free Report)

American International Group, Inc offers insurance products for commercial, institutional, and individual customers in North America and internationally. It operates through General Insurance, and Life and Retirement segments. The General Insurance segment provides commercial and industrial property insurance, including business interruption and package insurance that cover exposure to made and natural disasters; general liability, environmental, commercial automobile liability, workers' compensation, excess casualty, and crisis management insurance products; and professional liability insurance.

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Equities research analysts at StockNews.com began coverage on shares of American Shared Hospital Services (NYSE:AMS  Get Free Report) in a report issued on Thursday. The brokerage set a hold rating on the stock.

American Shared Hospital Services Stock Performance

American Shared Hospital Services Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

American Shared Hospital Services provides radiosurgery and radiation therapy equipment to health care providers. The company offers radiosurgery equipment for the Gamma Knife stereotactic radiosurgery, a non-invasive procedure to treat malignant and benign brain tumors, and arteriovenous malformations, as well as for trigeminal neuralgia.

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StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Ampio Pharmaceuticals (NYSEAMERICAN:AMPE  Free Report) in a research report report published on Tuesday. The brokerage issued a sell rating on the specialty pharmaceutical companys stock.

Ampio Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

Shares of AMPE stock opened at $0.21 on Tuesday. Ampio Pharmaceuticals has a 52-week low of $0.18 and a 52-week high of $1.90. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $0.26 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $0.26. The company has a market capitalization of $3.20 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -0.17 and a beta of 1.72.

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Ampio Pharmaceuticals (NYSEAMERICAN:AMPE  Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Monday, May 8th. The specialty pharmaceutical company reported ($0.26) earnings per share for the quarter.

Institutional Trading of Ampio Pharmaceuticals

About Ampio Pharmaceuticals

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. BlackRock Inc. lifted its stake in Ampio Pharmaceuticals by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 13,996,074 shares of the specialty pharmaceutical companys stock worth $6,578,000 after purchasing an additional 61,269 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Ampio Pharmaceuticals by 0.8% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,307,338 shares of the specialty pharmaceutical companys stock worth $4,375,000 after purchasing an additional 77,822 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Ampio Pharmaceuticals by 2.0% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,430,770 shares of the specialty pharmaceutical companys stock worth $1,612,000 after purchasing an additional 66,375 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC lifted its stake in Ampio Pharmaceuticals by 998.6% in the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 2,035,413 shares of the specialty pharmaceutical companys stock worth $342,000 after purchasing an additional 1,850,138 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can purchased a new stake in Ampio Pharmaceuticals in the 1st quarter worth approximately $168,000. 3.44% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

(Get Free Report)

Ampio Pharmaceuticals, Inc, a biopharmaceutical company, develops therapies for the treatment of osteoarthritis-related pain. It focuses on the preclinical development of AR-300, a novel proprietary, small molecule formulation for the treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee. The company is headquartered in Englewood, Colorado.

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Arcadia Investment Management Corp MI grew its stake in Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY  Free Report) by 10.4% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 111,590 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock after acquiring an additional 10,490 shares during the quarter. Bristol-Myers Squibb comprises approximately 1.7% of Arcadia Investment Management Corp MIs investment portfolio, making the stock its 18th biggest position. Arcadia Investment Management Corp MIs holdings in Bristol-Myers Squibb were worth $7,734,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Dakota Wealth Management purchased a new stake in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb during the first quarter worth approximately $332,000. Covestor Ltd raised its position in Bristol-Myers Squibb by 111.5% in the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 2,052 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock worth $150,000 after acquiring an additional 1,082 shares in the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC raised its position in Bristol-Myers Squibb by 53.2% in the first quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 165,336 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock worth $12,075,000 after acquiring an additional 57,444 shares in the last quarter. Ergoteles LLC acquired a new stake in Bristol-Myers Squibb in the first quarter valued at $1,997,000. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp grew its holdings in Bristol-Myers Squibb by 25.1% in the first quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 338,563 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock valued at $24,725,000 after purchasing an additional 68,018 shares during the last quarter. 74.57% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Bristol-Myers Squibb Stock Performance

Bristol-Myers Squibb stock traded down $0.52 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $61.23. 6,850,376 shares of the companys stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 8,312,897. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $63.94 and a 200 day moving average price of $67.63. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08. The company has a market cap of $127.92 billion, a PE ratio of 16.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 0.42. Bristol-Myers Squibb has a one year low of $60.05 and a one year high of $81.43.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Dividend Announcement

Bristol-Myers Squibb ( NYSE:BMY Get Free Report ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 27th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $1.75 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $1.99 by ($0.24). Bristol-Myers Squibb had a return on equity of 50.51% and a net margin of 17.62%. The firm had revenue of $11.23 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.81 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.93 EPS. The firms quarterly revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Bristol-Myers Squibb will post 7.47 EPS for the current year.

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 7th were paid a $0.57 dividend. This represents a $2.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.72%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 6th. Bristol-Myers Squibbs dividend payout ratio is presently 60.64%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BMY has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on Bristol-Myers Squibb from $78.00 to $65.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 28th. HSBC assumed coverage on Bristol-Myers Squibb in a research note on Friday, July 14th. They set a reduce rating and a $56.00 price objective on the stock. Barclays decreased their price target on Bristol-Myers Squibb from $64.00 to $62.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 28th. Cantor Fitzgerald decreased their price target on Bristol-Myers Squibb from $88.00 to $85.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 19th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reissued an underweight rating and issued a $59.00 price target on shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb in a research note on Wednesday, July 19th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $71.14.

Read Our Latest Stock Analysis on Bristol-Myers Squibb

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company Profile

(Free Report)

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company discovers, develops, licenses, manufactures, markets, distributes, and sells biopharmaceutical products worldwide. It offers products for hematology, oncology, cardiovascular, immunology, fibrotic, and neuroscience diseases. The company's products include Eliquis, an oral inhibitor for reduction in risk of stroke/systemic embolism in NVAF, and for the treatment of DVT/PE; Opdivo for anti-cancer indications; Pomalyst/Imnovid indicated for patients with multiple myeloma; Orencia for adult patients with active RA and psoriatic arthritis; and Sprycel for the treatment of Philadelphia chromosome-positive chronic myeloid leukemia.

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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  Free Report).

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Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG  Free Report) had its price objective boosted by Raymond James from $245.00 to $255.00 in a report released on Tuesday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have a strong-buy rating on the financial services providers stock.

A number of other analysts have also weighed in on AJG. VNET Group reaffirmed a maintains rating on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. in a research note on Tuesday, May 23rd. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $215.00 to $220.00 in a research note on Friday, April 28th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. in a research note on Thursday, May 18th. They issued a hold rating for the company. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $247.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Friday, July 28th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $225.00 to $230.00 in a research report on Friday, April 28th. Four 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $229.08.

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Check Out Our Latest Research Report on Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of AJG opened at $222.20 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $47.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.31, a P/E/G ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 0.70. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has a 12-month low of $167.93 and a 12-month high of $222.68. The company has a current ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $212.77 and a 200-day moving average price of $202.39.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG  Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 27th. The financial services provider reported $1.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $1.86 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $2.44 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.36 billion. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. had a net margin of 12.11% and a return on equity of 18.65%. The businesss revenue was up 19.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.70 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. will post 8.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 15th. Investors of record on Friday, September 1st will be issued a $0.55 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 31st. This represents a $2.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.99%. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 42.88%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. news, CAO Richard C. Cary sold 3,204 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $217.62, for a total value of $697,254.48. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 37,285 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,113,961.70. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, VP Joel D. Cavaness sold 2,750 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $204.23, for a total transaction of $561,632.50. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 2,023 shares in the company, valued at approximately $413,157.29. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Richard C. Cary sold 3,204 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $217.62, for a total value of $697,254.48. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 37,285 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,113,961.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 9,284 shares of company stock worth $1,976,237. Corporate insiders own 1.60% of the companys stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AJG. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,431,788,000. Boston Partners purchased a new position in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $418,715,000. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich lifted its position in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 39,117.3% during the 2nd quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 987,492 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $216,824,000 after buying an additional 984,974 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 40.6% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 2,143,144 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $404,069,000 after purchasing an additional 619,008 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Axiom Investors LLC DE purchased a new position in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. in the 4th quarter valued at $116,254,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.55% of the companys stock.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Company Profile

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Arthur J. Gallagher & Co, together with its subsidiaries, provides insurance and reinsurance brokerage, consulting, and third-party property/casualty claims settlement and administration services to businesses and organizations worldwide. It operates in Brokerage and Risk Management segments. The Brokerage segment offers retail and wholesale insurance and reinsurance brokerage services; assists retail brokers and other non-affiliated brokers in the placement of specialized and hard-to-place insurance; and acts as a brokerage wholesaler, managing general agent, and managing general underwriter for distributing specialized insurance coverages to underwriting enterprises.

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Mourners carry the body of Mahmoud Abu Sa'an during his funeral in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, on Aug. 4, 2023. Two Palestinians were killed on Friday during clashes with Israelis in two separate incidents in the West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said. (Photo by Ayman Nobani/Xinhua)

RAMALLAH, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Two Palestinians were killed on Friday during clashes with Israelis in two separate incidents in the West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said.

Qusai Ma'tan, 19, died after he was shot by Israeli settlers during clashes in the village of Burqa, northwest of Nablus, while two other Palestinians were moderately injured, the ministry said in a statement.

Palestinian eyewitnesses said clashes broke out in Burqa between dozens of Palestinians and Israeli settlers who stormed the village.

During clashes in the Noor Shams refugee camp near Tulkarem in the northern West Bank, Mahmoud Abu Sa'an, 18, died after he was shot by Israeli soldiers in the head, according to the ministry.

The clashes broke out in the refugee camp after an Israeli army force stormed the area to arrest Palestinians wanted by Israeli security forces, said Palestinian eyewitnesses.

Meanwhile, the Israeli army said its soldiers shot at Palestinians who threw stones and explosives at them.

Speaker of the Palestinian National Council Rawhi Fattouh said in a press statement that he condemned what he termed "the execution of Abu Sa'an by the occupation soldiers," holding the Israeli government accountable for "the escalation against Palestinian people."

Since January, 26 people, most of them Israelis, have been killed in a series of attacks carried out by Palestinians, and more than 200 Palestinians, including children and women, were killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers, according to official figures. 

Mourners carry the body of Mahmoud Abu Sa'an during his funeral in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, on Aug. 4, 2023. Two Palestinians were killed on Friday during clashes with Israelis in two separate incidents in the West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said. (Photo by Ayman Nobani/Xinhua)

People mourn during the funeral of Mahmoud Abu Sa'an in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, on Aug. 4, 2023. Two Palestinians were killed on Friday during clashes with Israelis in two separate incidents in the West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said. (Photo by Ayman Nobani/Xinhua)

Mourners carry the body of Mahmoud Abu Sa'an during his funeral in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, on Aug. 4, 2023. Two Palestinians were killed on Friday during clashes with Israelis in two separate incidents in the West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said. (Photo by Ayman Nobani/Xinhua)
Mawer Investment Management Ltd. grew its position in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG  Free Report) by 8.2% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,053,768 shares of the financial services providers stock after purchasing an additional 79,414 shares during the period. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. makes up approximately 1.1% of Mawer Investment Management Ltd.s holdings, making the stock its 29th largest holding. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. owned approximately 0.49% of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. worth $201,596,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Compagnie Lombard Odier SCmA acquired a new position in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. during the 1st quarter worth approximately $29,000. ZRC Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. during the 1st quarter worth approximately $29,000. Carderock Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Clear Street Markets LLC raised its position in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 21,100.0% in the 4th quarter. Clear Street Markets LLC now owns 212 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 211 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fred Alger Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $41,000. 85.55% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Stock Up 1.5 %

NYSE:AJG traded up $3.24 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $225.44. 303,054 shares of the companys stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 878,736. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a current ratio of 1.04. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has a twelve month low of $167.93 and a twelve month high of $225.79. The stocks fifty day moving average price is $212.77 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $202.39. The firm has a market cap of $48.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.31, a P/E/G ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 0.70.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Dividend Announcement

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. ( NYSE:AJG Get Free Report ) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 27th. The financial services provider reported $1.90 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.86 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $2.44 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.36 billion. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. had a return on equity of 18.65% and a net margin of 12.11%. The businesss revenue was up 19.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.70 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. will post 8.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.55 per share. This represents a $2.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.98%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 31st. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.s payout ratio is presently 42.88%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AJG has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. StockNews.com initiated coverage on Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. in a report on Thursday, May 18th. They issued a hold rating for the company. UBS Group upped their price objective on Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $212.00 to $220.00 in a research note on Friday, June 16th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $231.00 to $233.00 in a research note on Friday, June 16th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $238.00 to $245.00 in a research note on Friday, June 16th. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their price objective on Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $215.00 to $220.00 in a research note on Friday, April 28th. Four equities research 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. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $229.08.

Get Our Latest Analysis on Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.

Insider Transactions at Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.

In other news, Director David S. Johnson sold 1,000 shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $216.40, for a total transaction of $216,400.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 46,538 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $10,070,823.20. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, Director David S. Johnson sold 1,000 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Friday, June 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $216.40, for a total value of $216,400.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 46,538 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $10,070,823.20. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Sherry S. Barrat sold 2,330 shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. stock in a transaction on Monday, May 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $215.00, for a total value of $500,950.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 18,808 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $4,043,720. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 9,284 shares of company stock valued at $1,976,237. 1.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.

(Free Report)

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co, together with its subsidiaries, provides insurance and reinsurance brokerage, consulting, and third-party property/casualty claims settlement and administration services to businesses and organizations worldwide. It operates in Brokerage and Risk Management segments. The Brokerage segment offers retail and wholesale insurance and reinsurance brokerage services; assists retail brokers and other non-affiliated brokers in the placement of specialized and hard-to-place insurance; and acts as a brokerage wholesaler, managing general agent, and managing general underwriter for distributing specialized insurance coverages to underwriting enterprises.

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Want to see what other hedge funds are holding AJG? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG  Free Report).

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Banco BBVA Argentina S.A. (NYSE:BBAR  Get Free Report) announced a  dividend on Friday, August 4th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 14th will be given a dividend of 0.0837 per share by the bank on Monday, August 21st. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 11th. This is a positive change from Banco BBVA Argentinas previous  dividend of $0.06.

Banco BBVA Argentina Trading Up 2.7 %

Shares of BBAR stock traded up $0.14 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $5.27. The stock had a trading volume of 307,136 shares, compared to its average volume of 692,817. Banco BBVA Argentina has a twelve month low of $2.50 and a twelve month high of $6.60. The stocks 50 day moving average is $5.62 and its 200 day moving average is $4.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 0.78 and a quick ratio of 0.87.

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Banco BBVA Argentina (NYSE:BBAR  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 23rd. The bank reported $0.38 EPS for the quarter. Banco BBVA Argentina had a return on equity of 16.80% and a net margin of 7.95%. The business had revenue of $808.72 million during the quarter.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Institutional Trading of Banco BBVA Argentina

Separately, StockNews.com upgraded Banco BBVA Argentina from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research report on Friday, June 30th.

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Banco BBVA Argentina by 273.3% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 514,510 shares of the banks stock worth $1,230,000 after buying an additional 376,680 shares during the last quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC acquired a new stake in Banco BBVA Argentina in the 1st quarter worth about $976,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its stake in Banco BBVA Argentina by 233.5% in the 1st quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 317,588 shares of the banks stock worth $1,127,000 after buying an additional 222,368 shares during the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Banco BBVA Argentina in the 4th quarter valued at about $746,000. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its holdings in shares of Banco BBVA Argentina by 32.9% during the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 698,352 shares of the banks stock worth $2,479,000 after purchasing an additional 173,057 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 1.80% of the companys stock.

About Banco BBVA Argentina

(Get Free Report)

Banco BBVA Argentina SA provides various banking products and services to individuals and companies in Argentina. It provides retail banking products and services, such as checking and savings accounts, time deposits, credit cards, consumer and pledge loans, mortgages, insurance, and investment products to individuals; and small and medium-sized companies products and services, including financing products, factoring, checking accounts, time deposits, transactional and payroll services, insurance, and investment products to private-sector companies.

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Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT  Get Free Report) had its target price upped by equities research analysts at Bank of America from $283.00 to $323.00 in a report released on Wednesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The firm currently has a buy rating on the industrial products companys stock. Bank of Americas price objective would suggest a potential upside of 16.96% from the companys current price.

Several other brokerages have also issued reports on CAT. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price objective on Caterpillar from $228.00 to $225.00 and set a hold rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 12th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on Caterpillar from $210.00 to $208.00 in a report on Friday, April 28th. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on shares of Caterpillar from $185.00 to $180.00 in a research note on Monday, May 8th. Evercore ISI decreased their target price on shares of Caterpillar from $288.00 to $263.00 in a research note on Tuesday, May 9th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on shares of Caterpillar from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research note on Wednesday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $267.00.

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Caterpillar Stock Down 1.9 %

NYSE:CAT traded down $5.29 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $276.16. The companys stock had a trading volume of 2,693,998 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,256,307. The stock has a market capitalization of $142.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.13. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $245.49 and a 200-day moving average of $235.90. The company has a current ratio of 1.43, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.37. Caterpillar has a 52-week low of $160.60 and a 52-week high of $293.88.

Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 1st. The industrial products company reported $5.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.57 by $0.98. The company had revenue of $17.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.46 billion. Caterpillar had a return on equity of 57.36% and a net margin of 12.91%. The businesss quarterly revenue was up 21.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $3.18 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Caterpillar will post 17.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Lange Bob De sold 20,000 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.00, for a total transaction of $5,500,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 53,671 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $14,759,525. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Caterpillar news, insider Lange Bob De sold 20,000 shares of Caterpillar stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.00, for a total value of $5,500,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 53,671 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $14,759,525. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Cheryl H. Johnson sold 6,415 shares of Caterpillar stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.00, for a total transaction of $1,667,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 16,362 shares of the companys stock, valued at $4,254,120. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.33% of the companys stock.

Institutional Trading of Caterpillar

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of CAT. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in Caterpillar by 130,632.5% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 9,784,017 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $2,343,859,000 after acquiring an additional 9,776,533 shares during the period. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich boosted its holdings in shares of Caterpillar by 98,763.3% in the 2nd quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 8,679,209 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $2,135,519,000 after purchasing an additional 8,670,430 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Caterpillar in the 4th quarter valued at $1,175,255,000. Gateway Advisory LLC acquired a new position in shares of Caterpillar in the 1st quarter valued at $4,004,000. Finally, Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board acquired a new position in shares of Caterpillar in the 1st quarter valued at $433,134,000. 74.28% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Caterpillar

(Get Free Report)

Caterpillar, Inc engages in the manufacture of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines, and diesel-electric locomotives. It operates through the following segments: Construction Industries, Resource Industries, Energy and Transportation, Financial Products, and All Other.

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Basilea Pharmaceutica AG (OTCMKTS:BPMUF  Get Free Report)s stock price hit a new 52-week low on Tuesday . The stock traded as low as $50.00 and last traded at $50.00, with a volume of 0 shares. The stock had previously closed at $50.00.

Basilea Pharmaceutica Price Performance

The companys 50 day moving average price is $50.00 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $51.19.

About Basilea Pharmaceutica

(Get Free Report)

Basilea Pharmaceutica AG, a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the development of products that address the medical needs in the therapeutic areas of oncology and anti-infectives. It offers Cresemba, an intravenous and oral azole antifungal drug for the treatment of invasive aspergillosis and mucormycosis in the United States, and the European Union, as well as in Phase III clinical trials for invasive fungal infections in Japan.

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Bio-Rad Laboratories (NYSE:BIO  Get Free Report) had its price objective boosted by equities research analysts at Royal Bank of Canada from $522.00 to $524.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an outperform rating on the medical research companys stock. Royal Bank of Canadas price objective points to a potential upside of 25.91% from the stocks current price.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Credit Suisse Group cut their price objective on shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories from $580.00 to $550.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. StockNews.com raised shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company started coverage on shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories in a research report on Friday, June 16th. They issued an overweight rating and a $550.00 price target on the stock. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Bio-Rad Laboratories has a consensus rating of Buy and a consensus target price of $541.33.

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Bio-Rad Laboratories Trading Up 3.6 %

NYSE BIO traded up $14.38 on Friday, reaching $416.18. The company had a trading volume of 187,673 shares, compared to its average volume of 194,627. The firm has a market cap of $12.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -63.44 and a beta of 0.89. Bio-Rad Laboratories has a fifty-two week low of $344.63 and a fifty-two week high of $572.70. The business has a 50 day moving average of $384.61 and a two-hundred day moving average of $430.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 5.56 and a quick ratio of 4.28.

Bio-Rad Laboratories (NYSE:BIO  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 3rd. The medical research company reported $3.00 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $2.55 by $0.45. The business had revenue of $681.10 million for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $697.96 million. Bio-Rad Laboratories had a negative net margin of 7.01% and a positive return on equity of 4.10%. The businesss quarterly revenue was down 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.38 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Bio-Rad Laboratories will post 13.81 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Bio-Rad Laboratories

In other Bio-Rad Laboratories news, EVP Michael Crowley sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $379.39, for a total value of $189,695.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 6,040 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,291,515.60. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, EVP Michael Crowley sold 500 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $379.39, for a total transaction of $189,695.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 6,040 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,291,515.60. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Ajit Ramalingam sold 198 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $368.30, for a total transaction of $72,923.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 17.06% of the companys stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Bio-Rad Laboratories

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Simplicity Solutions LLC increased its stake in shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories by 303.7% during the 1st quarter. Simplicity Solutions LLC now owns 2,067 shares of the medical research companys stock worth $990,000 after purchasing an additional 1,555 shares during the last quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Bio-Rad Laboratories by 17.5% in the 4th quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 949 shares of the medical research companys stock valued at $399,000 after buying an additional 141 shares in the last quarter. Picton Mahoney Asset Management purchased a new position in Bio-Rad Laboratories in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $149,000. FORA Capital LLC grew its stake in Bio-Rad Laboratories by 34.2% in the 4th quarter. FORA Capital LLC now owns 1,569 shares of the medical research companys stock valued at $660,000 after buying an additional 400 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A. grew its stake in Bio-Rad Laboratories by 5.3% in the 4th quarter. Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A. now owns 538 shares of the medical research companys stock valued at $226,000 after buying an additional 27 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 64.11% of the companys stock.

Bio-Rad Laboratories Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc manufactures, and distributes life science research and clinical diagnostic products in the United States, Europe, Asia, Canada, and Latin America. The company operates through Life Science and Clinical Diagnostics segments. The Life Science segment develops, manufactures, and markets reagents, apparatus, and laboratory instruments that are used in research techniques, biopharmaceutical production processes, and food testing regimes.

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Black Hills (NYSE:BKH  Get Free Report) released its earnings results on Wednesday. The utilities provider reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $0.38 by ($0.03), Briefing.com reports. Black Hills had a net margin of 9.46% and a return on equity of 7.92%. The company had revenue of $411.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $552.13 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.52 earnings per share. The businesss revenue was down 12.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Black Hills updated its FY23 guidance to $3.65-$3.85 EPS.

Black Hills Stock Down 1.3 %

Shares of BKH traded down $0.78 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $57.05. The company had a trading volume of 226,460 shares, compared to its average volume of 514,063. The company has a market capitalization of $3.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.23 and a beta of 0.58. Black Hills has a 52 week low of $56.60 and a 52 week high of $79.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.88. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $60.65 and a 200 day moving average price of $63.42.

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Black Hills Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.625 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 17th. This represents a $2.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.38%. Black Hillss dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 67.02%.

Insider Activity

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Black Hills

In other news, CFO Richard Kinzley sold 10,033 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.49, for a total transaction of $657,061.17. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 36,576 shares in the company, valued at $2,395,362.24. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website . Insiders own 0.61% of the companys stock.

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Belpointe Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Black Hills by 60.6% during the 1st quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC now owns 652 shares of the utilities providers stock worth $41,000 after acquiring an additional 246 shares in the last quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co raised its holdings in Black Hills by 63.3% in the 3rd quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co now owns 890 shares of the utilities providers stock valued at $61,000 after acquiring an additional 345 shares during the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Black Hills by 24.6% during the 4th quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 1,499 shares of the utilities providers stock worth $105,000 after buying an additional 296 shares during the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Black Hills by 120.0% during the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 2,200 shares of the utilities providers stock worth $169,000 after buying an additional 1,200 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Neuberger Berman Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Black Hills during the 4th quarter worth approximately $216,000. 86.24% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently weighed in on the company. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on Black Hills from $66.00 to $62.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Mizuho lowered their target price on Black Hills from $60.00 to $56.00 and set an underperform rating for the company in a report on Friday, July 21st. Finally, StockNews.com cut Black Hills from a hold rating to a sell rating in a report on Monday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and four have assigned a hold rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Black Hills has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $66.29.

Get Our Latest Stock Analysis on Black Hills

About Black Hills

(Get Free Report)

Black Hills Corporation, through its subsidiaries, operates as an electric and natural gas utility company in the United States. It operates in two segments, Electric Utilities and Gas Utilities. The Electric Utilities segment generates, transmits, and distributes electricity to approximately 220,000 electric utility customers in Colorado, Montana, South Dakota, and Wyoming; and owns and operates 1,482 megawatts of generation capacity and 9,024 miles of electric transmission and distribution lines.

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Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:BR  Get Free Report) saw a large drop in short interest in July. As of July 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,100,000 shares, a drop of 7.5% from the June 30th total of 2,270,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 557,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.8 days.

Insider Transactions at Broadridge Financial Solutions

In related news, Director Leslie A. Brun sold 6,900 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $148.98, for a total value of $1,027,962.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 59,916 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $8,926,285.68. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Broadridge Financial Solutions news, Director Leslie A. Brun sold 6,900 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $148.98, for a total value of $1,027,962.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 59,916 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $8,926,285.68. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, VP Laura Matlin sold 4,052 shares of Broadridge Financial Solutions stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $153.73, for a total value of $622,913.96. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 5,825 shares in the company, valued at approximately $895,477.25. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 1.60% of the companys stock.

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Institutional Trading of Broadridge Financial Solutions

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in shares of Broadridge Financial Solutions by 10.7% during the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 8,155 shares of the business services providers stock worth $1,270,000 after purchasing an additional 788 shares during the period. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS grew its position in Broadridge Financial Solutions by 6.8% during the first quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 15,625 shares of the business services providers stock worth $2,433,000 after buying an additional 992 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. grew its position in Broadridge Financial Solutions by 126.2% during the first quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. now owns 3,384 shares of the business services providers stock worth $527,000 after buying an additional 1,888 shares in the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board grew its position in Broadridge Financial Solutions by 1,851.9% during the first quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 527 shares of the business services providers stock worth $82,000 after buying an additional 500 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Allianz Asset Management GmbH grew its position in Broadridge Financial Solutions by 13.2% during the first quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 12,722 shares of the business services providers stock worth $1,981,000 after buying an additional 1,487 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.05% of the companys stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have issued reports on BR. StockNews.com started coverage on Broadridge Financial Solutions in a research report on Thursday, May 18th. They issued a hold rating for the company. Royal Bank of Canada began coverage on Broadridge Financial Solutions in a research note on Monday, April 24th. They issued an outperform rating and a $169.00 target price for the company. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $161.40.

Read Our Latest Report on Broadridge Financial Solutions

Broadridge Financial Solutions Stock Down 0.5 %

BR traded down $0.79 on Thursday, hitting $165.90. 392,022 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 546,251. Broadridge Financial Solutions has a 12 month low of $131.35 and a 12 month high of $183.33. The company has a market cap of $19.57 billion, a PE ratio of 35.60 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.04, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a current ratio of 1.35. The stocks fifty day moving average is $161.57 and its 200-day moving average is $151.09.

Broadridge Financial Solutions (NYSE:BR  Get Free Report) last released 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. The firm had revenue of $1.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.65 billion. Broadridge Financial Solutions had a return on equity of 40.29% and a net margin of 9.33%. The businesss revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.93 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Broadridge Financial Solutions will post 6.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Broadridge Financial Solutions Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 6th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 15th were paid a $0.725 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, June 14th. This represents a $2.90 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.75%. Broadridge Financial Solutionss dividend payout ratio is 62.23%.

About Broadridge Financial Solutions

(Get Free Report)

Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc provides investor communications and technology-driven solutions for the financial services industry. The company's Investor Communication Solutions segment processes and distributes proxy materials to investors in equity securities and mutual funds, as well as facilitates related vote processing services; and distributes regulatory reports, class action, and corporate action/reorganization event information, as well as tax reporting solutions.

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C2P Capital Advisory Group LLC d.b.a. Prosperity Capital Advisors boosted its stake in iShares MSCI EAFE Value ETF (BATS:EFV  Free Report) by 122.8% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 17,166 shares of the companys stock after purchasing an additional 9,463 shares during the period. C2P Capital Advisory Group LLC d.b.a. Prosperity Capital Advisors holdings in iShares MSCI EAFE Value ETF were worth $833,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of EFV. Coastal Investment Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in iShares MSCI EAFE Value ETF by 66.5% in the 4th quarter. Coastal Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 536 shares of the companys stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 214 shares during the last quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of iShares MSCI EAFE Value ETF by 2.5% in the 1st quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc. now owns 8,867 shares of the companys stock worth $430,000 after buying an additional 218 shares during the last quarter. Tompkins Financial Corp raised its holdings in shares of iShares MSCI EAFE Value ETF by 66.1% during the first quarter. Tompkins Financial Corp now owns 553 shares of the companys stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 220 shares in the last quarter. Marino Stram & Associates LLC lifted its stake in iShares MSCI EAFE Value ETF by 5.3% in the first quarter. Marino Stram & Associates LLC now owns 5,215 shares of the companys stock worth $253,000 after acquiring an additional 262 shares during the period. Finally, Harbor Group Inc. boosted its holdings in iShares MSCI EAFE Value ETF by 2.8% in the first quarter. Harbor Group Inc. now owns 9,819 shares of the companys stock valued at $476,000 after acquiring an additional 263 shares in the last quarter.

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iShares MSCI EAFE Value ETF Trading Down 0.2 %

BATS EFV traded down $0.12 during trading on Friday, hitting $49.41. The company had a trading volume of 1,851,050 shares. The companys fifty day moving average is $49.21 and its 200-day moving average is $49.08. The company has a market cap of $15.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.51 and a beta of 0.84. iShares MSCI EAFE Value ETF has a one year low of $49.15 and a one year high of $59.57.

About iShares MSCI EAFE Value ETF

iShares MSCI EAFE Value ETF (the Fund), formerly iShares MSCI EAFE Value Index Fund, is an exchange-traded fund (ETF). The Fund seeks to provide investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the MSCI EAFE Value Index. The Index is a subset of the MSCI EAFE Index and constituents of the Index include securities from Europe, Australasia (Australia and Asia), and the Far East.

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Cheniere Energy Partners (NYSEAMERICAN:CQP  Get Free Report) released its earnings results on Thursday. The energy company reported $0.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $0.82 by $0.02, Briefing.com reports. The company had revenue of $1.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.27 billion. Cheniere Energy Partners had a net margin of 25.45% and a negative return on equity of 133.75%. The firms quarterly revenue was down 53.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.25 EPS.

Cheniere Energy Partners Stock Down 4.4 %

Shares of CQP stock traded down $2.31 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $49.94. The companys stock had a trading volume of 237,605 shares, compared to its average volume of 182,126. Cheniere Energy Partners has a fifty-two week low of $42.96 and a fifty-two week high of $62.08. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.00 and a beta of 0.83. The companys 50 day moving average is $46.59.

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Cheniere Energy Partners Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 7th will be given a $0.255 dividend. This represents a $1.02 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.04%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 4th. Cheniere Energy Partnerss payout ratio is 44.99%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Insider Buying and Selling

CQP has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Cheniere Energy Partners from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a report on Thursday, May 11th. Wolfe Research downgraded Cheniere Energy Partners from a peer perform rating to an underperform rating and set a $43.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Thursday, June 1st. UBS Group upgraded Cheniere Energy Partners from a neutral rating to a buy rating and set a $57.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 19th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on Cheniere Energy Partners from $53.00 to $49.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 3rd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $50.38.

In other Cheniere Energy Partners news, COO Corey Grindal sold 7,649 shares of Cheniere Energy Partners stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.93, for a total transaction of $351,318.57. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cheniere Energy Partners

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CQP. Evermay Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Cheniere Energy Partners during the first quarter valued at approximately $25,000. State of Wyoming increased its stake in Cheniere Energy Partners by 90.6% in the 4th quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 974 shares of the energy companys stock worth $55,000 after buying an additional 463 shares during the period. Samalin Investment Counsel LLC purchased a new position in Cheniere Energy Partners in the 1st quarter worth about $59,000. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC grew its holdings in Cheniere Energy Partners by 54.2% during the 3rd quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 1,056 shares of the energy companys stock worth $56,000 after acquiring an additional 371 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fortis Capital Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Cheniere Energy Partners by 514.9% during the 1st quarter. Fortis Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,691 shares of the energy companys stock worth $80,000 after acquiring an additional 1,416 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 46.48% of the companys stock.

Cheniere Energy Partners Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Cheniere Energy Partners, L.P., through its subsidiaries, provides liquefied natural gas (LNG) to integrated energy companies, utilities, and energy trading companies worldwide. It owns and operates natural gas liquefaction and export facility at the Sabine Pass LNG production terminal located in Cameron Parish, Louisiana.

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Cove Street Capital LLC purchased a new stake in OUTFRONT Media Inc. (NYSE:OUT  Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 9,870 shares of the financial services providers stock, valued at approximately $160,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its position in shares of OUTFRONT Media by 223.9% during the 1st quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,629 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 1,126 shares in the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in OUTFRONT Media during the first quarter worth approximately $28,000. CWM LLC increased its stake in OUTFRONT Media by 86.6% during the 4th quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,726 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 801 shares during the period. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. bought a new position in OUTFRONT Media during the 4th quarter worth $33,000. Finally, Ellevest Inc. lifted its position in shares of OUTFRONT Media by 272.8% during the 1st quarter. Ellevest Inc. now owns 2,151 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 1,574 shares during the period.

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OUTFRONT Media Price Performance

NYSE OUT traded down $2.50 during trading on Friday, hitting $12.01. 4,761,976 shares of the companys stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,786,746. The stocks 50 day moving average price is $15.28 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $16.31. OUTFRONT Media Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $11.54 and a fifty-two week high of $21.65. The company has a current ratio of 0.57, a quick ratio of 0.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.30. The company has a market cap of $1.98 billion, a PE ratio of 18.42, a P/E/G ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 1.69.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently commented on OUT. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on OUTFRONT Media from $19.00 to $18.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. StockNews.com lowered shares of OUTFRONT Media from a hold rating to a sell rating in a report on Friday, May 12th. Oppenheimer downgraded shares of OUTFRONT Media from an outperform rating to a market perform rating in a report on Friday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of OUTFRONT Media from an overweight rating to a neutral rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $20.00 to $14.00 in a research note on Friday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $20.25.

Get Our Latest Stock Report on OUTFRONT Media

OUTFRONT Media Company Profile

(Free Report)

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.

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People take part in a march commemorating the third anniversary of the 2020 Beirut port blasts in Beirut, Lebanon, Aug. 4, 2023. Families of the victims who died in the 2020 Beirut port blasts commemorated the third anniversary of the catastrophic incident on Friday, urging authorities to accelerate investigations into the incident to bring justice to their loved ones.(Xinhua/Bilal Jawich)

BEIRUT, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Families of the victims who died in the 2020 Beirut port blasts commemorated the third anniversary of the catastrophic incident on Friday, urging authorities to accelerate investigations into the incident to bring justice to their loved ones.

Thousands of people, including civil society activists, political figures, and parliament members, participated in a commemoration march, which started from the Beirut Fire Brigade to run until the main road opposite the city port.

Families of the victims held photos of their loved ones and banners calling for holding those involved accountable, while demanding to form an international fact-finding committee.

"We came here because, after three years, we still have hope; we are still asking for justice for all the victims who died on Aug. 4, 2020, including my sister Diana Khoury," said Zeina Khoury, one of the marchers.

Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati also expressed his hope that justice would be manifested as soon as possible.

"The truth alone heals the wounds, and there is every hope that the sun of justice will appear in the Beirut port explosion case as soon as possible so that the souls of the martyrs may rest in peace," he said.

The investigation into the port explosion was suspended because of disagreements between political forces regarding interrogating former ministers suspected of negligence.

The judicial investigator into the blasts, Judge Tarek Bitar, was suspended from completing the investigation in December 2021, pending a decision on lawsuits filed against him by several deputies and ministers accusing him of violating the provisions of the constitution and laws.

Bitar had accused several former ministers, including former Prime Minister Hassan Diab, former Ministers of Public Works Youssef Fenianos and Ghazi Zeaiter, of negligence at the time of the explosion.

Judge Bitar re-opened the investigation in January this year by pressing charges against several security officials. However, the Public Prosecutor Ghassan Oweidat considered the charges as void, saying the judiciary has not yet decided on cases calling for Bitar's suspension from probing the case or transferring the investigation to another judge.

The Beirut port was rocked by two massive explosions on Aug. 4, 2020, killing over 220 people, injuring thousands, and destroying around 50,000 housing units with material losses estimated at 15 billion U.S. dollars. 

People take part in a march commemorating the third anniversary of the 2020 Beirut port blasts in Beirut, Lebanon, Aug. 4, 2023. Families of the victims who died in the 2020 Beirut port blasts commemorated the third anniversary of the catastrophic incident on Friday, urging authorities to accelerate investigations into the incident to bring justice to their loved ones.(Xinhua/Liu Zongya)

People take part in a march commemorating the third anniversary of the 2020 Beirut port blasts in Beirut, Lebanon, Aug. 4, 2023. Families of the victims who died in the 2020 Beirut port blasts commemorated the third anniversary of the catastrophic incident on Friday, urging authorities to accelerate investigations into the incident to bring justice to their loved ones.(Xinhua/Bilal Jawich)

Smoke is released during a march commemorating the third anniversary of the 2020 Beirut port blasts in Beirut, Lebanon, Aug. 4, 2023. Families of the victims who died in the 2020 Beirut port blasts commemorated the third anniversary of the catastrophic incident on Friday, urging authorities to accelerate investigations into the incident to bring justice to their loved ones.(Xinhua/Liu Zongya)
Credit Suisse X-Links Monthly Pay 2xLeveraged Mortgage REIT ETN (NYSEARCA:REML  Get Free Report)s stock price was up 0.2% during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $6.00 and last traded at $5.99. Approximately 562,400 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 9% from the average daily volume of 620,396 shares. The stock had previously closed at $5.98.

Credit Suisse X-Links Monthly Pay 2xLeveraged Mortgage REIT ETN Stock Up 0.2 %

The firms fifty day moving average price is $5.99 and its 200 day moving average price is $5.99.

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Delta Investment Management LLC decreased its position in shares of Sprott Physical Gold and Silver Trust (NYSEAMERICAN:CEF  Free Report) by 7.4% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 71,699 shares of the companys stock after selling 5,720 shares during the quarter. Delta Investment Management LLCs holdings in Sprott Physical Gold and Silver Trust were worth $1,356,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in CEF. Bank of Montreal Can raised its holdings in shares of Sprott Physical Gold and Silver Trust by 15.5% during the 1st quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 44,961 shares of the companys stock valued at $867,000 after buying an additional 6,035 shares in the last quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Sprott Physical Gold and Silver Trust by 5.5% in the 1st quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,439,262 shares of the companys stock valued at $27,893,000 after purchasing an additional 75,569 shares during the period. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV lifted its stake in shares of Sprott Physical Gold and Silver Trust by 12.5% in the 1st quarter. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV now owns 96,484 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,870,000 after purchasing an additional 10,710 shares during the period. Mariner LLC raised its stake in Sprott Physical Gold and Silver Trust by 33.3% during the first quarter. Mariner LLC now owns 42,707 shares of the companys stock valued at $828,000 after buying an additional 10,676 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Verition Fund Management LLC purchased a new position in Sprott Physical Gold and Silver Trust during the first quarter valued at $194,000.

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Sprott Physical Gold and Silver Trust Price Performance

Shares of CEF remained flat at $18.25 during trading hours on Friday. The company had a trading volume of 610,154 shares, compared to its average volume of 473,263. Sprott Physical Gold and Silver Trust has a one year low of $15.11 and a one year high of $20.12.

Sprott Physical Gold and Silver Trust Company Profile

Sprott Physical Gold & Silver Trust operates as a closed-ended investment fund/investment trust. The company was founded on October 26, 2017 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.

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Dorian LPG (NYSE:LPG  Get Free Report) released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday. The shipping company reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $1.64 by ($0.43), MarketWatch Earnings reports. The business had revenue of $111.56 million during the quarter. Dorian LPG had a return on equity of 23.20% and a net margin of 46.96%. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.56 earnings per share.

Dorian LPG Price Performance

NYSE:LPG opened at $28.06 on Friday. The businesss 50-day moving average price is $25.36 and its 200 day moving average price is $22.66. The firm has a market cap of $1.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 1.14. Dorian LPG has a 52-week low of $12.90 and a 52-week high of $30.09. The company has a quick ratio of 2.47, a current ratio of 2.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69.

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Dorian LPG Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a Variable dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 6th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.00 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 9th. Dorian LPGs payout ratio is currently 80.81%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on LPG shares. Evercore ISI upgraded Dorian LPG from an in-line rating to an outperform rating and raised their target price for the company from $25.00 to $32.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 24th. Jefferies Financial Group cut Dorian LPG from a buy rating to a hold rating and set a $30.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Thursday. DNB Markets cut shares of Dorian LPG from a buy rating to a hold rating and set a $26.90 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Monday, July 10th. Finally, StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Dorian LPG in a research note on Thursday, May 18th. They set a buy rating on the stock. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $26.98.

Get Our Latest Stock Analysis on Dorian LPG

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Theodore B. Young sold 3,000 shares of Dorian LPG stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.00, for a total value of $78,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 87,805 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $2,282,930. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, Director Thomas Jason Coleman sold 17,000 shares of the companys stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.60, for a total value of $418,200.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 298,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,330,800. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Theodore B. Young sold 3,000 shares of the companys stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.00, for a total value of $78,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 87,805 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,282,930. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 63,700 shares of company stock valued at $1,621,038 over the last three months. Company insiders own 28.60% of the companys stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Dorian LPG

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in LPG. BlackRock Inc. grew its stake in shares of Dorian LPG by 8.2% in the 3rd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 5,263,675 shares of the shipping companys stock valued at $71,427,000 after buying an additional 400,804 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in Dorian LPG by 11.8% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,240,874 shares of the shipping companys stock worth $64,622,000 after purchasing an additional 341,453 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its position in Dorian LPG by 364.5% during the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 367,400 shares of the shipping companys stock worth $7,326,000 after purchasing an additional 288,300 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its position in Dorian LPG by 549.5% during the second quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 319,025 shares of the shipping companys stock worth $4,849,000 after purchasing an additional 269,906 shares during the period. Finally, Balyasny Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Dorian LPG in the third quarter valued at approximately $3,435,000. Institutional investors own 64.37% of the companys stock.

About Dorian LPG

(Get Free Report)

Dorian LPG Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the transportation of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) through its LPG tankers worldwide. It owns and operates twenty-five very large gas carriers (VLGCs). The company was incorporated in 2013 and is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut.

Further Reading

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Dorian LPG (NYSE:LPG  Get Free Report) issued its earnings results on Wednesday. The shipping company reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $1.64 by ($0.43), MarketWatch Earnings reports. The company had revenue of $111.56 million for the quarter. Dorian LPG had a return on equity of 23.20% and a net margin of 46.96%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.56 earnings per share.

Dorian LPG Trading Up 1.9 %

LPG traded up $0.52 during trading on Friday, hitting $28.47. 718,435 shares of the companys stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 618,903. The firm has a market cap of $1.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 1.14. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $25.36 and a 200 day moving average price of $22.66. The company has a current ratio of 2.50, a quick ratio of 2.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69. Dorian LPG has a 1 year low of $12.90 and a 1 year high of $30.09.

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Dorian LPG Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a Variable dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 6th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 10th will be given a $1.00 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 9th. Dorian LPGs dividend payout ratio is presently 80.81%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Dorian LPG

Institutional Trading of Dorian LPG

In other Dorian LPG news, Director Thomas Jason Coleman sold 43,700 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.74, for a total transaction of $1,124,838.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 365,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,395,100. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink . In other Dorian LPG news, CFO Theodore B. Young sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.00, for a total transaction of $78,000.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 87,805 shares of the companys stock, valued at $2,282,930. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website . Also, Director Thomas Jason Coleman sold 43,700 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.74, for a total transaction of $1,124,838.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 365,000 shares in the company, valued at $9,395,100. The disclosure for this sale can be found here . Insiders have sold 63,700 shares of company stock worth $1,621,038 in the last ninety days. 28.60% of the stock is owned by insiders.

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of LPG. Squarepoint Ops LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Dorian LPG in the 1st quarter worth about $262,000. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Dorian LPG in the 4th quarter worth about $242,000. Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new stake in shares of Dorian LPG in the 2nd quarter worth about $223,000. FMR LLC increased its holdings in shares of Dorian LPG by 33.2% in the 1st quarter. FMR LLC now owns 8,713 shares of the shipping companys stock worth $174,000 after acquiring an additional 2,170 shares during the period. Finally, Toroso Investments LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Dorian LPG in the 1st quarter worth about $153,000. 64.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

LPG has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of Dorian LPG from a buy rating to a hold rating and set a $30.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Thursday. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Dorian LPG from an in-line rating to an outperform rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $25.00 to $32.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 24th. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Dorian LPG in a research note on Thursday, May 18th. They set a buy rating on the stock. Finally, DNB Markets lowered shares of Dorian LPG from a buy rating to a hold rating and set a $26.90 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Monday, July 10th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Dorian LPG has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $26.98.

Dorian LPG Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Dorian LPG Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the transportation of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) through its LPG tankers worldwide. It owns and operates twenty-five very large gas carriers (VLGCs). The company was incorporated in 2013 and is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut.

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Fortis (NYSE:FTS  Get Free Report) issued its earnings results on Wednesday. The utilities provider reported $0.46 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts consensus estimates of $0.46, MarketWatch Earnings reports. The business had revenue of $1.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.99 billion. Fortis had a return on equity of 6.63% and a net margin of 12.42%. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.44 EPS.

Fortis Stock Down 4.2 %

Shares of FTS traded down $1.73 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $39.80. The company had a trading volume of 848,362 shares, compared to its average volume of 576,224. The company has a market capitalization of $19.36 billion, a PE ratio of 17.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.43 and a beta of 0.44. The company has a current ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.25. Fortis has a one year low of $34.76 and a one year high of $47.89. The companys fifty day moving average price is $42.68 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $42.41.

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Fortis Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 21st will be given a $0.427 dividend. This represents a $1.71 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 18th. Fortiss payout ratio is 75.68%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

FTS has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Raymond James decreased their target price on Fortis from $65.00 to $62.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. StockNews.com initiated coverage on Fortis in a research report on Thursday, May 18th. They set a hold rating for the company.

Get Our Latest Analysis on FTS

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in FTS. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Fortis by 3.9% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 17,872,872 shares of the utilities providers stock worth $678,990,000 after buying an additional 675,957 shares during the last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. grew its stake in Fortis by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 9,519,651 shares of the utilities providers stock worth $381,167,000 after buying an additional 58,862 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc grew its stake in Fortis by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,551,122 shares of the utilities providers stock worth $221,977,000 after buying an additional 86,880 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its stake in Fortis by 6.4% during the 1st quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 3,674,861 shares of the utilities providers stock worth $181,906,000 after buying an additional 221,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in Fortis during the 4th quarter worth $104,121,000. 45.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Fortis

(Get Free Report)

Fortis Inc operates as an electric and gas utility company in Canada, the United States, and the Caribbean countries. It generates, transmits, and distributes electricity to approximately 443,000 retail customers in southeastern Arizona; and 102,000 retail customers in Arizona's Mohave and Santa Cruz counties with an aggregate capacity of 3,328 megawatts (MW), including 68 MW of solar capacity and 250 MV of wind capacity.

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Fresnillo (OTCMKTS:FNLPF  Get Free Report) had its price target decreased by equities researchers at Credit Suisse Group from GBX 620 ($7.96) to GBX 580 ($7.45) in a report issued on Wednesday, FlyOnTheWall reports.

A number of other equities analysts have also issued reports on the company. Berenberg Bank decreased their price objective on Fresnillo from GBX 700 ($8.99) to GBX 670 ($8.60) in a report on Friday, July 7th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on Fresnillo from GBX 620 ($7.96) to GBX 590 ($7.57) in a report on Friday, July 28th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on Fresnillo from GBX 790 ($10.14) to GBX 690 ($8.86) in a report on Monday. Barclays decreased their price objective on Fresnillo from GBX 630 ($8.09) to GBX 525 ($6.74) in a report on Monday, July 10th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on Fresnillo from GBX 650 ($8.35) to GBX 600 ($7.70) in a research report on Friday, April 28th.

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Read Our Latest Research Report on FNLPF

Fresnillo Price Performance

About Fresnillo

Shares of OTCMKTS FNLPF opened at $7.17 on Wednesday. Fresnillo has a 12-month low of $7.11 and a 12-month high of $11.95. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $8.03 and a 200-day simple moving average of $8.95. The company has a current ratio of 2.82, a quick ratio of 2.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22.

(Get Free Report)

Fresnillo plc mines, develops, and produces non-ferrous minerals in Mexico. It operates through seven segments: Fresnillo, Saucito, Cienega, Herradura, Noche Buena, San Julian, and Juanicipio. The company primarily explores for silver, gold, lead, and zinc concentrates. Its projects include the Fresnillo silver mine located in the state of Zacatecas; Saucito silver mine situated in the state of Zacatecas; Cienega gold mine located in the state of Durango; Herradura gold mine situated in the state of Sonora; Noche Buena gold mine located in the state of Sonora; San Julian silver-gold mine situated on the border of Chihuahua/Durango states; and Juanicipio mine located in the state of Zacatecas.

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Genesco Inc. (NYSE:GCO  Get Free Report) saw a significant decline in short interest in the month of July. As of July 15th, there was short interest totalling 537,300 shares, a decline of 7.5% from the June 30th total of 580,800 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 357,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.5 days. Approximately 4.6% of the companys shares are short sold.

Insider Buying and Selling at Genesco

In other news, Director Gregory A. Sandfort acquired 11,500 shares of the companys stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 9th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $22.05 per share, with a total value of $253,575.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 15,780 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $347,949. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, Director Gregory A. Sandfort acquired 11,500 shares of the companys stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 9th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $22.05 per share, with a total value of $253,575.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 15,780 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $347,949. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, VP Daniel E. Ewoldsen acquired 1,545 shares of the companys stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 30th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $19.31 per share, with a total value of $29,833.95. Following the completion of the purchase, the vice president now directly owns 42,555 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $821,737.05. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have acquired 28,447 shares of company stock worth $572,170 over the last quarter. 6.33% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Hussman Strategic Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Genesco by 78.8% during the 2nd quarter. Hussman Strategic Advisors Inc. now owns 46,500 shares of the companys stock worth $1,164,000 after purchasing an additional 20,500 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can acquired a new position in shares of Genesco during the 2nd quarter worth about $4,009,000. Strs Ohio boosted its position in shares of Genesco by 8.9% during the 2nd quarter. Strs Ohio now owns 6,100 shares of the companys stock worth $152,000 after acquiring an additional 500 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Genesco by 13.5% during the 2nd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 30,937 shares of the companys stock worth $775,000 after acquiring an additional 3,687 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC boosted its position in shares of Genesco by 34.5% during the 2nd quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 12,481 shares of the companys stock worth $313,000 after acquiring an additional 3,204 shares in the last quarter. 83.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, StockNews.com initiated coverage on Genesco in a research note on Thursday, May 18th. They issued a hold rating for the company.

Get Our Latest Report on Genesco

Genesco Stock Up 1.1 %

GCO traded up $0.32 on Thursday, hitting $28.73. 183,339 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 258,753. Genesco has a twelve month low of $17.31 and a twelve month high of $66.42. The company has a market cap of $360.85 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.46 and a beta of 2.04. The company has a current ratio of 1.70, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $23.81 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $34.07.

Genesco (NYSE:GCO  Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 25th. The company reported ($1.59) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($1.10) by ($0.49). Genesco had a return on equity of 8.05% and a net margin of 2.05%. The company had revenue of $483.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $478.01 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.44 earnings per share. The companys revenue for the quarter was down 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Genesco will post 2.24 earnings per share for the current year.

Genesco Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Genesco Inc operates as a retailer and wholesaler of footwear, apparel, and accessories in the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the Republic of Ireland. The company operates through four segments: Journeys Group, Schuh Group, Johnston & Murphy Group, and Licensed Brands.

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GFG Capital LLC cut its position in The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS  Free Report) by 36.2% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 1,917 shares of the investment management companys stock after selling 1,090 shares during the period. GFG Capital LLCs holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group were worth $1,032,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in GS. Fairfield Bush & CO. bought a new position in The Goldman Sachs Group in the first quarter valued at $66,000. Candriam Luxembourg S.C.A. grew its position in The Goldman Sachs Group by 1,505.1% in the first quarter. Candriam Luxembourg S.C.A. now owns 41,300 shares of the investment management companys stock valued at $13,633,000 after purchasing an additional 38,727 shares in the last quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. grew its position in The Goldman Sachs Group by 18.5% in the first quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 118,609 shares of the investment management companys stock valued at $39,153,000 after purchasing an additional 18,540 shares in the last quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. grew its position in The Goldman Sachs Group by 79.4% in the first quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. now owns 827 shares of the investment management companys stock valued at $273,000 after purchasing an additional 366 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Covestor Ltd grew its position in The Goldman Sachs Group by 118.3% in the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 310 shares of the investment management companys stock valued at $102,000 after purchasing an additional 168 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.90% of the companys stock.

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The Goldman Sachs Group Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:GS traded up $0.06 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $353.22. The stock had a trading volume of 1,275,080 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,600,590. The companys 50-day moving average price is $333.03 and its 200-day moving average price is $337.64. The company has a market capitalization of $117.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.39. The company has a quick ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.99. The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $287.75 and a fifty-two week high of $389.58.

The Goldman Sachs Group Increases Dividend

The Goldman Sachs Group ( NYSE:GS Get Free Report ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 19th. The investment management company reported $3.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.25 by ($0.17). The company had revenue of $10.90 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.61 billion. The Goldman Sachs Group had a net margin of 9.74% and a return on equity of 8.08%. The companys revenue for the quarter was down 8.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $7.73 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. will post 25.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 28th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 31st will be issued a dividend of $2.75 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 30th. This is a positive change from The Goldman Sachs Groups previous quarterly dividend of $2.50. This represents a $11.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.11%. The Goldman Sachs Groups payout ratio is 42.66%.

Insider Activity at The Goldman Sachs Group

In other The Goldman Sachs Group news, CEO David M. Solomon sold 10,000 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $345.71, for a total transaction of $3,457,100.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 128,982 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $44,590,367.22. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, CEO David M. Solomon sold 10,000 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $345.71, for a total value of $3,457,100.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 128,982 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $44,590,367.22. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO David M. Solomon sold 4,200 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $356.28, for a total transaction of $1,496,376.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 124,782 shares in the company, valued at $44,457,330.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 34,979,159 shares of company stock valued at $660,308,838. 0.54% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $385.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Monday, July 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $390.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 19th. Citigroup downgraded shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from a buy rating to a neutral rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $370.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 25th. Barclays cut their target price on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $495.00 to $437.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 12th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $339.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a sector perform rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 19th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven 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 an average target price of $396.93.

The Goldman Sachs Group Company Profile

(Free Report)

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc, a financial institution, provides a range of financial services for corporations, financial institutions, governments, and individuals worldwide. It operates through Global Banking & Markets, Asset & Wealth Management, and Platform Solutions segments. The Global Banking & Markets segment provides financial advisory services, including strategic advisory assignments related to mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, corporate defense activities, restructurings, and spin-offs; and relationship lending, and acquisition financing, as well as secured lending, through structured credit and asset-backed lending and involved in resale agreements.

Further Reading

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GFG Capital LLC lessened its stake in shares of iShares MSCI USA Momentum Factor ETF (BATS:MTUM  Free Report) by 4.4% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 10,228 shares of the companys stock after selling 475 shares during the quarter. GFG Capital LLCs holdings in iShares MSCI USA Momentum Factor ETF were worth $2,818,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of MTUM. TimeScale Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in iShares MSCI USA Momentum Factor ETF during the 1st quarter valued at $26,000. HHM Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of iShares MSCI USA Momentum Factor ETF by 900.0% in the 1st quarter. HHM Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 190 shares of the companys stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 171 shares during the period. WFA of San Diego LLC acquired a new stake in shares of iShares MSCI USA Momentum Factor ETF in the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. GeoWealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of iShares MSCI USA Momentum Factor ETF in the 4th quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, BNP Paribas Arbitrage SNC increased its stake in shares of iShares MSCI USA Momentum Factor ETF by 1,202.4% in the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Arbitrage SNC now owns 534 shares of the companys stock valued at $70,000 after buying an additional 493 shares during the period.

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iShares MSCI USA Momentum Factor ETF Stock Down 0.0 %

BATS MTUM traded down $0.04 on Friday, reaching $144.30. The company had a trading volume of 314,315 shares. iShares MSCI USA Momentum Factor ETF has a 52 week low of $81.37 and a 52 week high of $113.60. The stocks 50 day moving average is $142.30 and its 200-day moving average is $141.36. The stock has a market cap of $8.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.35 and a beta of 0.91.

iShares MSCI USA Momentum Factor ETF Profile

The iShares MSCI USA Momentum Factor ETF (MTUM) is an exchange-traded fund that is based on the MSCI USA Momentum SR Variant index. The fund tracks an index of large- and mid-cap US equities, selected and weighted based on price appreciation over 6- and 12-month periods and low volatility over the past 3 years.

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Green Dot Co. (NYSE:GDOT  Get Free Report)s share price gapped down before the market opened on Friday . The stock had previously closed at $19.17, but opened at $18.21. Green Dot shares last traded at $17.06, with a volume of 57,462 shares trading hands.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. StockNews.com upgraded Green Dot from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report on Thursday, July 20th. Truist Financial raised their price objective on shares of Green Dot from $22.00 to $24.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 19th. BTIG Research began coverage on shares of Green Dot in a research report on Tuesday, June 13th. They set a neutral rating for the company. Finally, Needham & Company LLC downgraded shares of Green Dot from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Monday, May 8th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Green Dot has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $23.71.

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Green Dot Price Performance

The firms fifty day moving average price is $19.13 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $17.96. The stock has a market cap of $859.70 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.29 and a beta of 1.04.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Green Dot

Green Dot ( NYSE:GDOT Get Free Report ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 4th. The financial services provider reported $0.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $0.55 by $0.29. Green Dot had a net margin of 4.20% and a return on equity of 13.13%. The business had revenue of $412.36 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $385.33 million. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Green Dot Co. will post 1.21 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. CWM LLC grew its position in Green Dot by 291.0% in the 4th quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,685 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 1,254 shares in the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Green Dot by 543.8% during the 4th quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 3,290 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $52,000 after acquiring an additional 2,779 shares during the period. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd bought a new position in shares of Green Dot during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $114,000. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank grew its position in shares of Green Dot by 34.1% during the 4th quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 7,652 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $121,000 after acquiring an additional 1,945 shares during the period. Finally, State of Wyoming grew its position in shares of Green Dot by 7.7% during the 4th quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 8,812 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $139,000 after acquiring an additional 633 shares during the period. 93.83% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Green Dot Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Green Dot Corporation, a financial technology and bank holding company, provides various financial services to consumers and businesses in the United States. It operates through three segments: Consumer Services, Business to Business Services, and Money Movement Services. The company offers deposit account programs, including consumer and small business checking account products, network-branded reloadable prepaid debit cards and gift cards, and secured credit programs.

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UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- UN humanitarians have facilitated cross-border deliveries of assistance from Chad into Sudan's Darfur region despite the ongoing conflict, said a UN spokesman on Thursday.

"The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs tells us that today it facilitated cross-border deliveries of food items by the World Food Programme from Chad into West Darfur," said Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

In the coming weeks, UN agencies and partners are hoping to provide additional assistance, especially food, nutrition, health, water, hygiene and sanitation supplies, he said.

UN Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths said cross-border access into the Darfur region represents a key milestone, as the United Nations seeks to access all hard-to-reach areas in Sudan and provide critical humanitarian assistance to people in need, wherever they are, according to the spokesman.

Meanwhile, the UN secretary-general's deputy special representative and resident and humanitarian coordinator in Sudan, Clementine Nkweta-Salami, is calling for more support for relief efforts immediately, amid the ongoing conflict in the country, said Haq.

During her mission to Gedaref and Kassala in eastern Sudan this week, Nkweta-Salami met people displaced by the conflict and the humanitarian workers. But she noted that the situation remains dire, and that additional assistance is urgently needed to meet food, health, and protection needs, said Haq.

The spokesman said the UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan is gravely concerned about the severe impact of the fighting between the Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese Armed Forces on civilians in the Darfur region.

The UN mission strongly condemns the indiscriminate targeting of civilian populations and public facilities by the Rapid Support Forces and allied militias, and is concerned by similar incidents in Central Darfur, he said, adding that the UN mission urges all forces engaged in hostilities to cease military operations immediately and to resume the Jeddah-facilitated talks.

The military conflict in Sudan broke out in mid-April this year. 
Lenovo Group (OTCMKTS:LNVGF  Get Free Report) and 3D Systems (NYSE:DDD  Get Free Report) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, dividends, institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, analyst recommendations and risk.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Lenovo Group and 3D Systems top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

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Gross Revenue Price/Sales Ratio Net Income Earnings Per Share Price/Earnings Ratio Lenovo Group N/A N/A N/A $0.09 12.84 3D Systems $538.03 million 2.04 -$123.31 million ($0.99) -8.30

Lenovo Group has higher earnings, but lower revenue than 3D Systems. 3D Systems is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Lenovo Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets Lenovo Group N/A N/A N/A 3D Systems -23.82% -11.82% -6.11%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

This table compares Lenovo Group and 3D Systems net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

23.3% of Lenovo Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 68.6% of 3D Systems shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.5% of 3D Systems shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Lenovo Group and 3D Systems, as reported by MarketBeat.

Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score Lenovo Group 0 0 0 0 N/A 3D Systems 1 0 0 0 1.00

3D Systems has a consensus target price of $7.00, indicating a potential downside of 14.84%. Given 3D Systems higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe 3D Systems is more favorable than Lenovo Group.

Summary

Lenovo Group beats 3D Systems on 5 of the 9 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Lenovo Group

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Lenovo Group Limited, an investment holding company, develops, manufactures, and markets technology products and services. It operates through Intelligent Devices Group, Infrastructure Solutions Group, and Solutions and Services Group segments. The company offers commercial and consumer personal computers, as well as servers and workstations; and a family of mobile Internet devices, including tablets and smartphones. In addition, it provides laptops, monitors, accessories, smart home and collaboration solutions, augmented and virtual reality, commercial internet of things, and smart infrastructure data center solutions. Further, the company manufactures and distributes IT products, computers, computer hardware, and peripheral equipment; and offers IT, business planning, management, supply chain, finance, administration support, procurement agency, data management, intellectual property, and investment management services. Additionally, it is involved in the retail and service business for consumer electronic products and related digital services; development, ownership, licensing, and sale of communications hardware and software; and develops software and applications. Furthermore, the company distributes smartphone, tablet, server, and storage. It operates in China, the Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Americas. Lenovo Group Limited was founded in 1984 and is headquartered in Quarry Bay, Hong Kong.

About 3D Systems

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3D Systems Corporation provides 3D printing and digital manufacturing solutions in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, and internationally. The company offers 3D printers technologies, such as stereolithography, selective laser sintering, direct metal printing, multi jet printing, color jet printing, polymer extrusion, and extrusion and SLA based bioprinting that transform digital data input generated by 3D design software, computer aided design (CAD) software, or other 3D design tools into printed parts. It also develops, blends, and markets various print materials, such as plastic, nylon, metal, composite, elastomeric, wax, polymeric dental materials, and biocompatible materials. In addition, the company provides digital design tools, including software, scanners, and haptic devices, as well as solutions for product design, simulation, mold and die design, 3D scan-to-print, reverse engineering, production machining, metrology, and inspection and manufacturing workflows under the Geomagic brand. Further, it offers 3D Sprint and 3DXpert, a proprietary software to prepare and optimize CAD data and manage the additive manufacturing processes, which provides automated support building and placement, build platform management, print simulation, and print queue management; and Bioprint Pro, a software solution that allows researchers to design and bioprint repeatable experiments. Additionally, the company provides maintenance and training services; manufacturing services; and software and precision healthcare services. It primarily serves companies and small and midsize businesses in medical, dental, automotive, aerospace, durable goods, government, defense, technology, jewelry, electronic, education, consumer goods, energy, biotechnology, and other industries through direct sales force, channel partners, and appointed distributors. 3D Systems Corporation was founded in 1986 and is headquartered in Rock Hill, South Carolina.

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Enel Chile (NYSE:ENIC  Get Free Report) and Terna (OTCMKTS:TERRF  Get Free Report) are both utilities companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings, profitability, valuation and institutional ownership.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

2.2% of Enel Chile shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 20.2% of Terna shares are owned by institutional investors. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

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Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Enel Chile and Ternas top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

Gross Revenue Price/Sales Ratio Net Income Earnings Per Share Price/Earnings Ratio Enel Chile $4,657.14 billion 0.00 $1.38 billion $1.05 3.14 Terna N/A N/A N/A $0.26 31.99

Profitability

Enel Chile has higher revenue and earnings than Terna. Enel Chile is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Terna, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

This table compares Enel Chile and Ternas net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets Enel Chile 24.59% 90.28% 33.39% Terna N/A N/A N/A

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Enel Chile and Terna, as provided by MarketBeat.

Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score Enel Chile 0 1 0 0 2.00 Terna 1 2 1 0 2.00

Dividends

Enel Chile pays an annual dividend of $0.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 8.5%. Terna pays an annual dividend of $0.16 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. Enel Chile pays out 26.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Terna pays out 61.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Enel Chile has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Enel Chile is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Summary

Enel Chile beats Terna on 8 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Enel Chile

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Enel Chile S.A., an electricity utility company, engages in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity in Chile. The company operates through Generation, and Distribution and Networks Segments. It generates electricity through various sources, such as hydroelectric, thermal, wind, solar, and geothermal power plants. It distributes electricity in various municipalities of the Santiago metropolitan region. The company also engages in the sale and transportation of natural gas, and provision of engineering consulting services. It serves residential, commercial, industrial, and other customers. The company was formerly known as Enersis Chile S.A. and changed its name to Enel Chile S.A. in October 2016. The company was incorporated in 2016 and is headquartered in Santiago, Chile. Enel Chile S.A. (SNSE:ENELCHILE) operates as a subsidiary of Enel SpA (BIT:ENEL).

About Terna

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Terna S.p.A., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the electricity transmission and dispatching activities in Italy, Euro-area countries, and internationally. The company operates through Regulated, Non-Regulated, and International segments. It is involved in the planning, development, management, operation, and maintenance of national transmission grid; dispatching and metering; and construction of storage systems. The company also offers connectivity services, energy solutions, telecommunications systems and equipment, and operation and maintenance services. In addition, it designs, produces, commercializes, and repairs power transformers for electricity transmission and distribution grids, industrial transformers for the steel and metals industries, and special transformers for convertors used in electrochemical production; designs, produces, and supplies marine and terrestrial cables; implements and develops renewable energy projects; and undertakes private interconnector projects. The company was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Rome, Italy.

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Howmet Aerospace (NYSE:HWM  Get Free Report) had its price target upped by investment analysts at Morgan Stanley from $50.00 to $60.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Morgan Stanleys price objective suggests a potential upside of 22.32% from the companys previous close.

Several other analysts have also issued reports on the company. Robert W. Baird began coverage on Howmet Aerospace in a report on Monday, July 24th. They set an outperform rating and a $61.00 price target for the company. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Howmet Aerospace from $45.00 to $52.00 in a report on Tuesday, May 9th. SpectralCast reiterated a maintains rating on shares of Howmet Aerospace in a research report on Tuesday, June 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Howmet Aerospace from $48.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Howmet Aerospace from $44.00 to $52.00 in a research note on Tuesday, May 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $51.31.

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Howmet Aerospace Stock Performance

HWM stock traded up $0.87 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $49.05. 5,030,824 shares of the companys stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,848,310. The company has a current ratio of 2.18, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08. Howmet Aerospace has a 52-week low of $30.59 and a 52-week high of $51.34. The stock has a market cap of $20.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.24, a PEG ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.42. The stocks 50-day moving average is $47.75 and its 200 day moving average is $44.09.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Howmet Aerospace

Howmet Aerospace ( NYSE:HWM Get Free Report ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 2nd. The company reported $0.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.04. Howmet Aerospace had a net margin of 8.58% and a return on equity of 19.14%. The firm had revenue of $1.60 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.49 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.31 EPS. The companys revenue for the quarter was up 21.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Howmet Aerospace will post 1.71 EPS for the current year.

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Howmet Aerospace during the 4th quarter worth approximately $134,379,000. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. bought a new stake in Howmet Aerospace in the first quarter worth $111,102,000. American Century Companies Inc. raised its stake in Howmet Aerospace by 7,858.9% during the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,201,744 shares of the companys stock valued at $93,281,000 after purchasing an additional 2,174,080 shares in the last quarter. Macquarie Group Ltd. lifted its position in Howmet Aerospace by 5,231.1% during the first quarter. Macquarie Group Ltd. now owns 1,575,116 shares of the companys stock valued at $66,738,000 after purchasing an additional 1,545,570 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in shares of Howmet Aerospace by 25.0% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 5,867,049 shares of the companys stock worth $290,771,000 after buying an additional 1,175,026 shares in the last quarter. 87.98% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Howmet Aerospace Company Profile

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Howmet Aerospace Inc provides advanced engineered solutions for the aerospace and transportation industries in the United States, Japan, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Italy, Canada, Poland, China, and internationally. It operates through four segments: Engine Products, Fastening Systems, Engineered Structures, and Forged Wheels.

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Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund boosted its holdings in NVR, Inc. (NYSE:NVR  Free Report) by 9.0% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,810 shares of the construction companys stock after purchasing an additional 150 shares during the quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Funds holdings in NVR were worth $10,086,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund grew its position in shares of NVR by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund now owns 568 shares of the construction companys stock worth $2,620,000 after buying an additional 2 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of NVR by 50.0% during the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 6 shares of the construction companys stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 2 shares in the last quarter. ETF Managers Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of NVR by 1.3% in the 1st quarter. ETF Managers Group LLC now owns 161 shares of the construction companys stock worth $897,000 after buying an additional 2 shares during the last quarter. Schubert & Co lifted its holdings in NVR by 66.7% during the first quarter. Schubert & Co now owns 5 shares of the construction companys stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 2 shares during the period. Finally, Marks Group Wealth Management Inc increased its position in shares of NVR by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Marks Group Wealth Management Inc now owns 564 shares of the construction companys stock valued at $3,143,000 after purchasing an additional 2 shares during the last quarter. 83.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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NVR Stock Down 0.9 %

NVR opened at $6,248.02 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 4.43, a current ratio of 7.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. The businesss fifty day simple moving average is $6,096.71 and its 200 day simple moving average is $5,665.72. NVR, Inc. has a 52 week low of $3,816.55 and a 52 week high of $6,474.53. The stock has a market cap of $20.31 billion, a PE ratio of 13.34, a P/E/G ratio of 3.43 and a beta of 1.03.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

NVR ( NYSE:NVR Get Free Report ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 25th. The construction company reported $116.54 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $103.76 by $12.78. The firm had revenue of $2.28 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.39 billion. NVR had a return on equity of 44.26% and a net margin of 16.44%. The companys revenue was down 12.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $123.65 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that NVR, Inc. will post 431.84 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NVR has been the subject of a number of research reports. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of NVR from $6,500.00 to $7,200.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 26th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft assumed coverage on NVR in a report on Wednesday, May 31st. They set a sell rating and a $4,400.00 price objective on the stock. StockNews.com upgraded NVR from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 26th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn restated a buy rating on shares of NVR in a research report on Wednesday, June 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $5,650.00.

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Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Susan Williamson Ross sold 125 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $6,300.00, for a total transaction of $787,500.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 405 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $2,551,500. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, Chairman Paul C. Saville sold 2,200 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Monday, May 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $5,828.93, for a total transaction of $12,823,646.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now directly owns 106,860 shares in the company, valued at approximately $622,879,459.80. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Susan Williamson Ross sold 125 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $6,300.00, for a total transaction of $787,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 405 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,551,500. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 9,666 shares of company stock valued at $57,599,326. 8.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

NVR Profile

(Free Report)

NVR, Inc operates as a homebuilder in the United States. The company operates through, Homebuilding and Mortgage Banking segments. It engages in the construction and sale of single-family detached homes, townhomes, and condominium buildings under the Ryan Homes, NVHomes, and Heartland Homes names. The company markets its Ryan Homes products to first-time and first-time move-up buyers; and NVHomes and Heartland Homes products to move-up and luxury buyers.

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Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund decreased its stake in shares of CMS Energy Co. (NYSE:CMS  Free Report) by 20.5% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 179,113 shares of the utilities providers stock after selling 46,229 shares during the quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund owned about 0.06% of CMS Energy worth $10,994,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Covington Capital Management acquired a new stake in shares of CMS Energy during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $27,000. Pinebridge Investments L.P. acquired a new stake in shares of CMS Energy during the 4th quarter worth approximately $29,000. Spirit of America Management Corp NY acquired a new stake in shares of CMS Energy during the 1st quarter worth approximately $34,000. Householder Group Estate & Retirement Specialist LLC acquired a new stake in CMS Energy in the 1st quarter valued at $37,000. Finally, BerganKDV Wealth Management LLC grew its position in CMS Energy by 1,614.6% in the 4th quarter. BerganKDV Wealth Management LLC now owns 823 shares of the utilities providers stock valued at $52,000 after purchasing an additional 775 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.92% of the companys stock.

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CMS Energy Trading Down 2.4 %

Shares of CMS Energy stock opened at $58.35 on Friday. CMS Energy Co. has a 52-week low of $52.41 and a 52-week high of $71.19. The stocks 50-day simple moving average is $59.97 and its 200 day simple moving average is $60.65. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.34, a P/E/G ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 0.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a current ratio of 0.95.

CMS Energy Dividend Announcement

CMS Energy ( NYSE:CMS Get Free Report ) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 27th. The utilities provider reported $0.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $0.69 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $1.56 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.04 billion. CMS Energy had a return on equity of 10.38% and a net margin of 9.07%. The companys quarterly revenue was down 19.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.53 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that CMS Energy Co. will post 3.1 EPS for the current year.

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.4875 per share. This represents a $1.95 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.34%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 3rd. CMS Energys payout ratio is 78.00%.

Insider Transactions at CMS Energy

In other CMS Energy news, SVP Catherine A. Hendrian sold 7,500 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.26, for a total value of $451,950.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 48,436 shares of the companys stock, valued at $2,918,753.36. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 0.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently issued reports on CMS shares. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of CMS Energy in a research report on Thursday, May 18th. They issued a sell rating for the company. Mizuho reduced their price target on shares of CMS Energy from $68.00 to $65.00 in a research report on Monday, June 5th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of CMS Energy from $61.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research report on Friday, July 21st. UBS Group raised shares of CMS Energy from a neutral rating to a buy rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $63.00 to $68.00 in a report on Tuesday, June 6th. Finally, Argus cut their price objective on shares of CMS Energy from $75.00 to $62.00 in a report on Monday, June 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $65.60.

View Our Latest Research Report on CMS Energy

About CMS Energy

(Free Report)

CMS Energy Corporation operates as an energy company primarily in Michigan. The company operates through three segments: Electric Utility; Gas Utility; and Enterprises. The Electric Utility segment is involved in the generation, purchase, transmission, distribution, and sale of electricity. This segment generates electricity through coal, wind, gas, renewable energy, oil, and nuclear sources.

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Jacobi Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS  Free Report) by 1.2% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 17,214 shares of the companys stock after purchasing an additional 198 shares during the period. Jacobi Capital Management LLCs holdings in General Mills were worth $1,471,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of General Mills by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,358,325 shares of the companys stock worth $951,206,000 after purchasing an additional 50,601 shares in the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of General Mills by 123,599.0% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 11,076,005 shares of the companys stock worth $928,723,000 after purchasing an additional 11,067,051 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of General Mills by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 10,852,150 shares of the companys stock worth $734,907,000 after purchasing an additional 75,902 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its stake in shares of General Mills by 14.6% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 8,249,549 shares of the companys stock worth $691,725,000 after purchasing an additional 1,051,169 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of General Mills in the 4th quarter worth $382,081,000. 76.73% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Analysts Set New Price Targets

GIS has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Piper Sandler cut their price target on General Mills from $95.00 to $88.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 29th. 888 reissued a maintains rating on shares of General Mills in a report on Thursday, June 29th. Evercore ISI decreased their price target on General Mills from $85.00 to $80.00 in a report on Thursday, June 29th. StockNews.com cut General Mills from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Friday, July 7th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on General Mills from $89.00 to $80.00 in a report on Thursday, June 29th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $82.67.

Insider Buying and Selling at General Mills

In related news, CAO Mark A. Pallot sold 4,081 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.32, for a total value of $368,595.92. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 13,121 shares in the company, valued at $1,185,088.72. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CAO Mark A. Pallot sold 4,081 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.32, for a total value of $368,595.92. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 13,121 shares in the company, valued at $1,185,088.72. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Jodi J. Benson sold 3,009 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.59, for a total value of $272,585.31. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 35,491 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $3,215,129.69. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.67% of the companys stock.

General Mills Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE:GIS traded up $0.32 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $74.84. 153,811 shares of the companys stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,416,973. General Mills, Inc. has a 1 year low of $73.70 and a 1 year high of $90.89. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $78.73 and a 200-day moving average price of $81.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $43.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 0.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.93, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.40.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS  Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, June 28th. The company reported $1.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.07 by $0.05. General Mills had a return on equity of 24.47% and a net margin of 12.91%. The business had revenue of $5.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.18 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.12 earnings per share. The companys revenue for the quarter was up 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that General Mills, Inc. will post 4.5 earnings per share for the current year.

General Mills Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 10th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.15%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, July 7th. This is a positive change from General Millss previous quarterly dividend of $0.54. General Millss payout ratio is 54.76%.

General Mills Profile

(Free Report)

General Mills, Inc manufactures and markets branded consumer foods worldwide. The company operates through four segments: North America Retail; International; Pet; and North America Foodservice. It offers grain, ready-to-eat cereals, refrigerated yogurt, soup, meal kits, refrigerated and frozen dough products, dessert and baking mixes, bakery flour, frozen pizza and pizza snacks, snack bars, fruit and salty snacks, ice cream and frozen desserts, nutrition bars, and savory snacks, as well as various organic products, including frozen and shelf-stable vegetables.

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JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd. (NYSE:JKS  Get Free Report) was the target of a large drop in short interest in July. As of July 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,640,000 shares, a drop of 6.8% from the June 30th total of 1,760,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 763,700 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.1 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

JKS has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. HSBC lifted their target price on shares of JinkoSolar from $77.00 to $78.00 in a research report on Thursday, May 4th. StockNews.com cut shares of JinkoSolar from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $63.00.

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View Our Latest Stock Analysis on JKS

Institutional Investors Weigh In On JinkoSolar

JinkoSolar Stock Performance

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of JKS. Toroso Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of JinkoSolar in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $35,000. Carmignac Gestion purchased a new position in JinkoSolar in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Natixis purchased a new position in JinkoSolar in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Quadrant Capital Group LLC grew its stake in JinkoSolar by 63.9% in the 4th quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 1,131 shares of the semiconductor companys stock valued at $46,000 after buying an additional 441 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in JinkoSolar by 1,105.0% in the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,205 shares of the semiconductor companys stock valued at $61,000 after buying an additional 1,105 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 38.40% of the companys stock.

Shares of NYSE:JKS traded up $0.03 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $38.55. The company had a trading volume of 476,520 shares, compared to its average volume of 794,534. The company has a current ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The firm has a market cap of $1.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.30 and a beta of 0.81. The companys 50-day moving average price is $43.05 and its 200-day moving average price is $47.83. JinkoSolar has a one year low of $37.90 and a one year high of $69.14.

About JinkoSolar

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JinkoSolar Holding Co, Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the design, development, production, and marketing of photovoltaic products. The company offers solar modules, silicon wafers, solar cells, recovered silicon materials, and silicon ingots. It also provides solar system integration services; and develops commercial solar power projects.

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Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated (NYSE:JLL  Get Free Report) was the recipient of a large decline in short interest during the month of July. As of July 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,920,000 shares, a decline of 8.1% from the June 30th total of 2,090,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 365,700 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 5.3 days. Currently, 4.1% of the companys stock are short sold.

Jones Lang LaSalle Price Performance

NYSE JLL traded down $1.19 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $164.32. The stock had a trading volume of 554,186 shares, compared to its average volume of 321,980. Jones Lang LaSalle has a 52-week low of $123.00 and a 52-week high of $189.28. The company has a market cap of $7.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.09 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $156.62 and a 200 day simple moving average of $155.18. The company has a quick ratio of 2.62, a current ratio of 2.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40.

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Jones Lang LaSalle (NYSE:JLL  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 4th. The financial services provider reported $0.65 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.69 by ($1.04). The firm had revenue of $4.72 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $4.43 billion. Jones Lang LaSalle had a net margin of 2.41% and a return on equity of 10.30%. The businesss revenue for the quarter was down 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.47 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Jones Lang LaSalle will post 12.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Jones Lang LaSalle

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Paralel Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Jones Lang LaSalle in the second quarter valued at $2,024,000. Barclays PLC increased its stake in shares of Jones Lang LaSalle by 457.0% in the second quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 70,124 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $10,924,000 after acquiring an additional 57,535 shares during the last quarter. CWM LLC boosted its holdings in Jones Lang LaSalle by 17.0% during the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,339 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $209,000 after acquiring an additional 195 shares during the period. Equity Investment Corp lifted its stake in Jones Lang LaSalle by 2.7% during the second quarter. Equity Investment Corp now owns 395,172 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $61,568,000 after purchasing an additional 10,338 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can acquired a new stake in shares of Jones Lang LaSalle during the second quarter worth approximately $1,262,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.63% of the companys stock.

JLL has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. TheStreet lowered Jones Lang LaSalle from a b- rating to a c rating in a research report on Thursday, May 4th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price target on Jones Lang LaSalle from $193.00 to $133.00 and set a sell rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 10th. StockNews.com assumed coverage on Jones Lang LaSalle in a report on Thursday, May 18th. They set a hold rating on the stock. Finally, Raymond James decreased their price objective on Jones Lang LaSalle from $239.00 to $222.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $198.33.

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About Jones Lang LaSalle

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Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated, a professional services company, provides real estate and investment management services in Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. The company offers a range of real estate services, including agency leasing, tenant representation, property management, advisory, and consulting services; and capital market services, such as equity and debt advisory, loan sales, equity advisory, loan servicing, merger and acquisition, corporate advisory, and investment sales and advisory services.

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Mawer Investment Management Ltd. lifted its stake in TriNet Group, Inc. (NYSE:TNET  Free Report) by 66.3% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,394,957 shares of the business services providers stock after acquiring an additional 1,752,532 shares during the period. TriNet Group makes up 1.9% of Mawer Investment Management Ltd.s portfolio, making the stock its 16th largest holding. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. owned approximately 7.40% of TriNet Group worth $354,277,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its stake in TriNet Group by 283.4% during the first quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 6,146 shares of the business services providers stock valued at $495,000 after acquiring an additional 4,543 shares during the period. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of TriNet Group by 2,866.7% during the first quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 445 shares of the business services providers stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 430 shares during the period. CM Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of TriNet Group in the first quarter valued at $460,000. Handelsbanken Fonder AB lifted its position in TriNet Group by 62.8% in the first quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 6,737 shares of the business services providers stock worth $543,000 after purchasing an additional 2,600 shares during the period. Finally, Arizona State Retirement System boosted its stake in TriNet Group by 2.9% during the first quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 11,720 shares of the business services providers stock worth $945,000 after buying an additional 327 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.09% of the companys stock.

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Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on TNET. StockNews.com upgraded shares of TriNet Group from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note on Saturday, July 29th. Needham & Company LLC increased their price target on shares of TriNet Group from $115.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Thursday, July 27th. Finally, Credit Suisse Group restated a neutral rating and set a $87.00 price target on shares of TriNet Group in a research note on Thursday, July 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $89.40.

Insider Buying and Selling at TriNet Group

In other TriNet Group news, CEO Burton M. Goldfield sold 7,000 shares of TriNet Group stock in a transaction on Monday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $104.58, for a total value of $732,060.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 176,239 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,431,074.62. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, Director L.P. Agi-T sold 3,364,486 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Sunday, July 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $107.00, for a total value of $360,000,002.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 3,169,354 shares of the companys stock, valued at $339,120,878. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Burton M. Goldfield sold 7,000 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Monday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $104.58, for a total value of $732,060.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 176,239 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,431,074.62. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 3,392,750 shares of company stock worth $362,737,878 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 37.40% of the companys stock.

TriNet Group Price Performance

Shares of TNET traded up $0.09 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $104.36. The stock had a trading volume of 228,905 shares, compared to its average volume of 371,095. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.78 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.28. The companys fifty day moving average is $96.54 and its two-hundred day moving average is $87.58. TriNet Group, Inc. has a 52 week low of $60.60 and a 52 week high of $111.85.

TriNet Group Profile

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TriNet Group, Inc provides human resources (HR) consulting services, employee benefit options, payroll services, and employment risk mitigation services for small and medium size businesses in the United States. The company offers multi-state payroll processing and tax administration; employee benefits programs, including health insurance and retirement plans; workers compensation insurance and claims management; employment and benefits law compliance; and other HR related services.

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Mohawk Industries (NYSE:MHK  Free Report) had its price objective hoisted by Loop Capital from $115.00 to $130.00 in a report issued on Monday, Marketbeat reports. Loop Capital currently has a buy rating on the stock.

MHK has been the subject of a number of other reports. Bank of America reduced their price objective on shares of Mohawk Industries from $110.00 to $108.00 and set an underperform rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 19th. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Mohawk Industries in a research note on Thursday, May 18th. They issued a hold rating for the company. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on shares of Mohawk Industries from $115.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a research note on Thursday, July 13th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $119.38.

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Mohawk Industries Stock Down 2.5 %

NYSE MHK opened at $104.12 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.78, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $103.53 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $103.74. Mohawk Industries has a 12-month low of $87.01 and a 12-month high of $130.63.

Mohawk Industries (NYSE:MHK  Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 27th. The company reported $2.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $2.65 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $2.95 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $2.95 billion. Mohawk Industries had a negative net margin of 2.82% and a positive return on equity of 7.27%. The companys revenue was down 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $4.41 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Mohawk Industries will post 9.36 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Mohawk Industries

In other Mohawk Industries news, VP Rodney David Patton sold 2,600 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Monday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.76, for a total value of $277,576.00. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 14,487 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $1,546,632.12. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders own 17.20% of the companys stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Mohawk Industries

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Mohawk Industries in the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. Gyon Technologies Capital Management LP acquired a new position in Mohawk Industries during the 4th quarter worth about $30,000. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. lifted its position in Mohawk Industries by 143.7% during the 4th quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 307 shares of the companys stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 181 shares in the last quarter. Sentry Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Mohawk Industries by 75.6% during the 4th quarter. Sentry Investment Management LLC now owns 339 shares of the companys stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 146 shares in the last quarter. Finally, WASHINGTON TRUST Co lifted its position in Mohawk Industries by 156.8% during the 2nd quarter. WASHINGTON TRUST Co now owns 339 shares of the companys stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 207 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.55% of the companys stock.

About Mohawk Industries

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Mohawk Industries, Inc designs, manufactures, sources, distributes, and markets flooring products for residential and commercial remodeling, and new construction channels in the United States, Europe, Russia, and internationally. It operates through three segments: Global Ceramic, Flooring North America (Flooring NA), and Flooring Rest of the World (Flooring ROW).

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KIGALI, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- African nations need to adopt new approaches to realize the benefits of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and accelerate the continent's development, a UN official said Thursday.

Ozonnia Ojielo, the UN resident coordinator in Rwanda, told a development policy dialogue in Kigali, Rwanda's capital, that Africa needs to build integrated, diversified and resilient economies more than ever before.

The AfCFTA is the flagship program of Agenda 2063 of the African Union designed to boost intra-African trade in goods and services.

"AfCFTA is a game-changer but translating it into reality requires preparedness and readiness supported by accompanying measures to ensure that countries make the most of this agreement. This is where we all have a role to play," Ojielo said. "It is not about time to think outside the box. It is time to think without the box."

Ojielo highlighted a range of potential benefits of the AfCFTA, such as providing productive employment and poverty reduction, which he said are some of the urgent challenges that the continent has to address. "But without preparedness, no benefit can be realized," he warned.

He said countries need to think about how to be more intentional by shifting to new ideas that create acceleration in terms of economic development, integration, and scaling up the number of projects.

Ojielo also mentioned the need for discussions that translate into developing reliable and efficient transboundary infrastructure, by increasing investments in education and health systems for a more competitive workforce and overall human capital.

The inaugural development policy dialogue was held under the theme "A Lens on the African Continental Free Trade Area preparedness, best practices and opportunities for East Africa and Rwanda."

Deputy Secretary General of Customs, Trade and Monetary Affairs at the East African Community Annette Ssemuwemba Mutaawe said while many people are aware of AfCFTA's benefits, concerted efforts are needed to turn the aspirations into reality.

She called for youth and women empowerment to unleash the continent's full potential and foster economic integration and inclusive growth across Africa.

Richard Niwenshuti, the permanent secretary of Rwanda's Ministry of Trade and Industry, said the Rwandan government fully subscribes to regional economic integration and believes as a region much can be done within that wider market of AfCFTA. 
Bright Horizons Family Solutions (NYSE:BFAM  Get Free Report) had its target price lifted by Morgan Stanley from $61.00 to $64.00 in a report released on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an underweight rating on the stock. Morgan Stanleys price objective would suggest a potential downside of 31.54% from the companys current price.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on BFAM. BMO Capital Markets cut shares of Bright Horizons Family Solutions from an outperform rating to a market perform rating and set a $99.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Monday, July 17th. StockNews.com cut shares of Bright Horizons Family Solutions from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research report on Monday. Citigroup cut shares of Bright Horizons Family Solutions from a buy rating to a neutral rating and boosted their price target for the company from $95.00 to $101.00 in a research report on Friday, May 12th. UBS Group initiated coverage on shares of Bright Horizons Family Solutions in a research report on Wednesday, May 31st. They set a sell rating and a $79.00 price target on the stock. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Bright Horizons Family Solutions from $88.00 to $104.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Wednesday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $84.13.

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Bright Horizons Family Solutions Stock Performance

Bright Horizons Family Solutions stock traded up $1.21 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $93.48. The companys stock had a trading volume of 221,285 shares, compared to its average volume of 444,695. Bright Horizons Family Solutions has a 12-month low of $54.19 and a 12-month high of $98.87. The company has a market capitalization of $5.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 83.07, a PEG ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a current ratio of 0.47. The firms fifty day moving average price is $92.11 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $83.70.

Bright Horizons Family Solutions (NYSE:BFAM  Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 2nd. The company reported $0.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $0.37 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $553.61 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $531.41 million. Bright Horizons Family Solutions had a net margin of 2.92% and a return on equity of 11.77%. The firms revenue was up 20.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.39 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Bright Horizons Family Solutions will post 2.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Bright Horizons Family Solutions

In other Bright Horizons Family Solutions news, CEO Stephen Howard Kramer sold 4,800 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.44, for a total transaction of $434,112.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 137,518 shares of the companys stock, valued at $12,437,127.92. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Bright Horizons Family Solutions news, Director Lightfoot Sara Lawrence sold 2,282 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $82.25, for a total transaction of $187,694.50. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 4,435 shares in the company, valued at $364,778.75. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Stephen Howard Kramer sold 4,800 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.44, for a total value of $434,112.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 137,518 shares in the company, valued at $12,437,127.92. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 17,082 shares of company stock worth $1,527,207 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 1.28% of the companys stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Bright Horizons Family Solutions

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BFAM. Signaturefd LLC increased its stake in Bright Horizons Family Solutions by 60.7% during the 2nd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 323 shares of the companys stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 122 shares in the last quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. increased its holdings in Bright Horizons Family Solutions by 3.7% in the second quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 3,999 shares of the companys stock valued at $339,000 after buying an additional 142 shares during the last quarter. Intercontinental Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Bright Horizons Family Solutions by 3.7% during the second quarter. Intercontinental Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,053 shares of the companys stock worth $375,000 after purchasing an additional 145 shares during the last quarter. BSW Wealth Partners boosted its stake in shares of Bright Horizons Family Solutions by 3.0% during the first quarter. BSW Wealth Partners now owns 5,061 shares of the companys stock worth $390,000 after buying an additional 146 shares during the period. Finally, Eagle Bay Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Bright Horizons Family Solutions by 33.0% during the first quarter. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC now owns 617 shares of the companys stock worth $48,000 after buying an additional 153 shares during the period.

About Bright Horizons Family Solutions

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Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc provides early education and childcare, back-up care, educational advisory, and other workplace solutions services for employers and families. The company operates through three segments: Full Service Center-Based Child Care, Back-Up Care, and Educational Advisory and Other Services.

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Motorola Solutions (NYSE:MSI  Get Free Report) issued an update on its FY 2023 earnings guidance on Thursday morning. The company provided earnings per share guidance of $11.40-$11.48 for the period, compared to the consensus earnings per share estimate of $11.29. The company issued revenue guidance of $9.88 billion-$9.90 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $9.79 billion. Motorola Solutions also updated its FY23 guidance to $11.40-11.48 EPS.

Motorola Solutions Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE MSI traded up $0.06 during trading on Thursday, reaching $287.71. The stock had a trading volume of 787,580 shares, compared to its average volume of 749,265. Motorola Solutions has a one year low of $212.76 and a one year high of $299.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 24.15, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a current ratio of 1.22. The stock has a market cap of $48.25 billion, a PE ratio of 35.96, a P/E/G ratio of 3.18 and a beta of 0.92. The firms 50 day moving average price is $287.06 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $278.92.

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Motorola Solutions (NYSE:MSI  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $2.22 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $2.05 by $0.17. Motorola Solutions had a negative return on equity of 1,549.95% and a net margin of 14.63%. The business had revenue of $2.17 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.12 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.53 EPS. The businesss quarterly revenue was up 14.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Motorola Solutions will post 10.07 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Motorola Solutions Dividend Announcement

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 15th were issued a $0.88 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, June 14th. This represents a $3.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.22%. Motorola Solutionss dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 44.00%.

MSI has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on Motorola Solutions from $310.00 to $335.00 in a research report on Friday, May 5th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Motorola Solutions from $303.00 to $329.00 in a research report on Friday, May 5th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Motorola Solutions from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Thursday, July 6th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $301.67.

Read Our Latest Stock Report on MSI

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Katherine A. Maher sold 1,933 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $289.01, for a total value of $558,656.33. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 1,611 shares in the company, valued at $465,595.11. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, CAO Katherine A. Maher sold 1,933 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $289.01, for a total transaction of $558,656.33. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 1,611 shares of the companys stock, valued at $465,595.11. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Gregory Q. Brown sold 50,000 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Friday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $291.13, for a total value of $14,556,500.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 91,843 shares in the company, valued at $26,738,252.59. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 101,933 shares of company stock worth $29,642,156 over the last 90 days. 1.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Motorola Solutions

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of MSI. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Motorola Solutions in the 2nd quarter worth about $35,000. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL purchased a new stake in shares of Motorola Solutions in the first quarter worth approximately $35,000. Almanack Investment Partners LLC. acquired a new stake in shares of Motorola Solutions during the third quarter worth approximately $38,000. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. grew its position in Motorola Solutions by 881.8% during the first quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 324 shares of the communications equipment providers stock valued at $78,000 after purchasing an additional 291 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Money Concepts Capital Corp increased its stake in Motorola Solutions by 100.0% in the 4th quarter. Money Concepts Capital Corp now owns 310 shares of the communications equipment providers stock valued at $80,000 after buying an additional 155 shares during the period. 82.93% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Motorola Solutions

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Motorola Solutions, Inc provides public safety and enterprise security solutions in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and internationally. The company operates in two 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 infrastructure, as well as the implementation and integration of systems, devices, software, and applications for government, public safety, and commercial customers who operate private communications networks and video security solutions, as well as manage a mobile workforce.

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Nan Fung Trinity HK Ltd. lessened its holdings in shares of Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL  Free Report) by 15.4% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 694,896 shares of the transportation companys stock after selling 126,100 shares during the period. Delta Air Lines makes up 6.5% of Nan Fung Trinity HK Ltd.s portfolio, making the stock its 6th biggest position. Nan Fung Trinity HK Ltd. owned approximately 0.11% of Delta Air Lines worth $24,266,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Delta Air Lines by 1.9% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,234,306 shares of the transportation companys stock valued at $2,700,032,000 after acquiring an additional 1,267,578 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Delta Air Lines by 2.9% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,817,518 shares of the transportation companys stock worth $420,667,000 after purchasing an additional 365,622 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its stake in shares of Delta Air Lines by 12.2% during the 4th quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 9,893,400 shares of the transportation companys stock worth $325,097,000 after purchasing an additional 1,077,500 shares in the last quarter. GMT Capital Corp raised its stake in shares of Delta Air Lines by 41.5% during the 4th quarter. GMT Capital Corp now owns 5,399,600 shares of the transportation companys stock worth $177,431,000 after purchasing an additional 1,584,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Delta Air Lines by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,203,432 shares of the transportation companys stock worth $138,114,000 after purchasing an additional 169,588 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 68.35% of the companys stock.

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Insider Buying and Selling at Delta Air Lines

In other Delta Air Lines news, Director Michael P. Huerta sold 3,350 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.43, for a total value of $162,240.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 27,465 shares in the company, valued at $1,330,129.95. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Delta Air Lines news, Director Michael P. Huerta sold 3,350 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.43, for a total value of $162,240.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 27,465 shares in the company, valued at $1,330,129.95. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Joanne D. Smith sold 7,513 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.90, for a total value of $277,229.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 107,782 shares of the companys stock, valued at $3,977,155.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.89% of the companys stock.

Delta Air Lines Price Performance

Shares of DAL traded up $0.40 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $44.59. 7,240,241 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 10,826,053. The company has a quick ratio of 0.41, a current ratio of 0.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.24. Delta Air Lines, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $27.20 and a fifty-two week high of $49.81. The company has a market cap of $28.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.63, a P/E/G ratio of 0.18 and a beta of 1.30. The firms fifty day moving average is $43.90 and its 200 day moving average is $38.75.

Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL  Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 13th. The transportation company reported $2.68 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.40 by $0.28. Delta Air Lines had a return on equity of 59.56% and a net margin of 5.36%. The business had revenue of $15.58 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.44 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.44 EPS. Delta Air Liness revenue for the quarter was up 12.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Delta Air Lines, Inc. will post 6.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Delta Air Lines Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 7th. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 17th will be given a $0.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 14th. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.90%. Delta Air Liness dividend payout ratio is presently 8.62%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on DAL shares. TheStreet upgraded Delta Air Lines from a c rating to a b rating in a research note on Thursday, July 13th. Wolfe Research boosted their target price on Delta Air Lines from $51.00 to $54.00 in a report on Friday, July 14th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Delta Air Lines from $70.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Friday, July 14th. StockNews.com raised Delta Air Lines from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report on Saturday, July 15th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on Delta Air Lines from $81.00 to $69.00 in a report on Monday, May 8th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat, Delta Air Lines presently has a consensus rating of Buy and a consensus target price of $56.88.

About Delta Air Lines

(Free Report)

Delta Air Lines, Inc provides scheduled air transportation for passengers and cargo in the United States and internationally. The company operates through two segments, Airline and Refinery. Its domestic network centered on core hubs in Atlanta, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Detroit, and Salt Lake City, as well as coastal hub positions in Boston, Los Angeles, New York-LaGuardia, New York-JFK, and Seattle; and international network centered on hubs and market presence in Amsterdam, Mexico City, London-Heathrow, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, and Seoul-Incheon.

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Parker-Hannifin (NYSE:PH  Get Free Report) posted its earnings results on Thursday. The industrial products company reported $6.08 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $5.48 by $0.60, Briefing.com reports. Parker-Hannifin had a net margin of 8.28% and a return on equity of 29.14%. The firm had revenue of $5.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.01 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $5.16 EPS. The companys revenue for the quarter was up 21.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Parker-Hannifin updated its FY24 guidance to $21.90-22.90 EPS and its FY 2024 guidance to $21.90-$22.90 EPS.

Parker-Hannifin Price Performance

Parker-Hannifin stock traded up $12.31 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $418.18. 1,563,598 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 886,512. The companys fifty day moving average is $376.33 and its 200-day moving average is $346.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a current ratio of 1.25. The firm has a market cap of $53.70 billion, a PE ratio of 36.21, a PEG ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.52. Parker-Hannifin has a 52 week low of $235.69 and a 52 week high of $421.18.

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Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Parker-Hannifin news, VP William R. Bowman sold 2,403 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $357.65, for a total value of $859,432.95. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 11,152 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $3,988,512.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other news, VP Thomas C. Gentile sold 1,759 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Friday, June 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $352.94, for a total value of $620,821.46. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 5,465 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $1,928,817.10. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP William R. Bowman sold 2,403 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Monday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $357.65, for a total transaction of $859,432.95. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 11,152 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $3,988,512.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 34,526 shares of company stock valued at $11,618,868 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 1.37% of the companys stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Parker-Hannifin

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Parker-Hannifin by 2.0% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,849,497 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $2,794,892,000 after buying an additional 190,889 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Parker-Hannifin by 2.3% in the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,637,380 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $884,432,000 after purchasing an additional 58,506 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Parker-Hannifin by 1.3% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,990,847 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $564,923,000 after purchasing an additional 24,977 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Parker-Hannifin in the 4th quarter worth $519,286,000. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in Parker-Hannifin by 11.4% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,737,517 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $505,618,000 after purchasing an additional 178,108 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.62% of the companys stock.

A number of research firms have recently commented on PH. KeyCorp upped their price objective on shares of Parker-Hannifin from $390.00 to $450.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 13th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Parker-Hannifin from $390.00 to $405.00 in a research note on Tuesday, May 9th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Parker-Hannifin from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Wednesday. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Parker-Hannifin from $411.00 to $415.00 in a research note on Friday, May 5th. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of Parker-Hannifin from $413.00 to $440.00 in a report on Tuesday, May 9th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $418.85.

Read Our Latest Research Report on Parker-Hannifin

Parker-Hannifin Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Parker-Hannifin Corporation manufactures and sells motion and control technologies and systems for various mobile, industrial, and aerospace markets worldwide. The company operates through two segments, Diversified Industrial and Aerospace Systems. The Diversified Industrial segment offers sealing, shielding, thermal products and systems, adhesives, coatings, and noise vibration and harshness solutions; filters, systems, and diagnostics solutions to monitor and remove contaminants from fuel, air, oil, water, and other liquids and gases; connectors, which control, transmit, and contain fluid; control solutions for extreme corrosion resistance, temperatures, pressures, and precise flow; and hydraulic, pneumatic, and electromechanical components and systems for builders and users of mobile and industrial machinery and equipment.

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PCJ Investment Counsel Ltd. lowered its stake in shares of Enbridge Inc. (NYSE:ENB  Free Report) (TSE:ENB) by 7.8% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 85,728 shares of the pipeline companys stock after selling 7,220 shares during the quarter. Enbridge makes up about 1.3% of PCJ Investment Counsel Ltd.s investment portfolio, making the stock its 28th largest holding. PCJ Investment Counsel Ltd.s holdings in Enbridge were worth $3,268,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Assetmark Inc. grew its stake in shares of Enbridge by 138.9% in the 1st quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 20,215 shares of the pipeline companys stock valued at $771,000 after buying an additional 11,752 shares in the last quarter. Trust Co of Kansas lifted its holdings in Enbridge by 0.5% in the 1st quarter. Trust Co of Kansas now owns 174,131 shares of the pipeline companys stock worth $6,643,000 after purchasing an additional 801 shares during the last quarter. Renasant Bank lifted its holdings in Enbridge by 14.3% in the 1st quarter. Renasant Bank now owns 12,860 shares of the pipeline companys stock worth $491,000 after purchasing an additional 1,607 shares during the last quarter. Wilbanks Smith & Thomas Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Enbridge by 5.3% in the 1st quarter. Wilbanks Smith & Thomas Asset Management LLC now owns 11,828 shares of the pipeline companys stock worth $451,000 after purchasing an additional 600 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cobblestone Capital Advisors LLC NY lifted its holdings in Enbridge by 11.6% in the 1st quarter. Cobblestone Capital Advisors LLC NY now owns 25,179 shares of the pipeline companys stock worth $961,000 after purchasing an additional 2,627 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 45.70% of the companys stock.

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Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, StockNews.com assumed coverage on Enbridge in a report on Thursday, May 18th. They set a hold rating for the company. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $57.00.

Enbridge Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of Enbridge stock traded up $0.41 during trading on Friday, reaching $36.40. The stock had a trading volume of 2,233,107 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,539,010. Enbridge Inc. has a 52 week low of $35.02 and a 52 week high of $44.58. The company has a market capitalization of $73.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.56, a P/E/G ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a current ratio of 0.59, a quick ratio of 0.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.23. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $36.88 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $38.24.

Enbridge (NYSE:ENB  Get Free Report) (TSE:ENB) last released its earnings results on Friday, May 5th. The pipeline company reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.62 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $8.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $10.33 billion. Enbridge had a return on equity of 10.23% and a net margin of 5.44%. Sell-side analysts predict that Enbridge Inc. will post 2.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Enbridge Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 15th will be given a $0.67 dividend. This is a boost from Enbridges previous quarterly dividend of $0.66. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 14th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.36%. Enbridges dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 295.51%.

Enbridge Profile

(Free Report)

Enbridge Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an energy infrastructure company. The company operates through five segments: Liquids Pipelines, Gas Transmission and Midstream, Gas Distribution and Storage, Renewable Power Generation, and Energy Services. The Liquids Pipelines segment operates pipelines and related terminals to transport various grades of crude oil and other liquid hydrocarbons in Canada and the United States.

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Perpetual Ltd acquired a new position in Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM  Free Report) during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm acquired 2,074,850 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $201,779,000. Philip Morris International makes up 1.7% of Perpetual Ltds holdings, making the stock its 18th largest holding.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Riverpoint Wealth Management Holdings LLC purchased a new position in Philip Morris International during the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. Red Tortoise LLC purchased a new position in Philip Morris International during the 4th quarter valued at about $29,000. Optiver Holding B.V. purchased a new position in Philip Morris International during the 4th quarter valued at about $29,000. Stone House Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Philip Morris International during the 1st quarter valued at about $29,000. Finally, Winch Advisory Services LLC increased its holdings in Philip Morris International by 200.0% during the 4th quarter. Winch Advisory Services LLC now owns 294 shares of the companys stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 196 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.43% of the companys stock.

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Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PM has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Citigroup upgraded Philip Morris International from a neutral rating to a buy rating and boosted their price target for the company from $109.00 to $117.00 in a report on Tuesday, June 20th. StockNews.com started coverage on Philip Morris International in a research report on Thursday, May 18th. They set a hold rating on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus started coverage on Philip Morris International in a research report on Thursday, April 13th. They set a buy rating and a $114.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, 22nd Century Group reaffirmed a reiterates rating on shares of Philip Morris International in a research report on Tuesday, June 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Philip Morris International has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $111.40.

Philip Morris International Trading Down 1.2 %

PM stock traded down $1.21 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $96.21. The companys stock had a trading volume of 2,560,332 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,428,706. The company has a market cap of $149.35 billion, a PE ratio of 18.73, a P/E/G ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 0.69. Philip Morris International Inc. has a 12 month low of $82.85 and a 12 month high of $105.62. The firms 50-day moving average is $95.91 and its 200-day moving average is $97.47.

Philip Morris International (NYSE:PM  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 20th. The company reported $1.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.50 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $8.97 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $8.76 billion. Philip Morris International had a negative return on equity of 127.84% and a net margin of 11.63%. The firms quarterly revenue was up 14.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.48 EPS. Analysts expect that Philip Morris International Inc. will post 6.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Philip Morris International Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 11th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 23rd were paid a dividend of $1.27 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, June 22nd. This represents a $5.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.28%. Philip Morris Internationals dividend payout ratio is presently 98.26%.

Philip Morris International Company Profile

(Free Report)

Philip Morris International Inc operates as a tobacco company working to delivers a smoke-free future and evolving portfolio for the long-term to include products outside of the tobacco and nicotine sector. The company's product portfolio primarily consists of cigarettes and smoke-free products, including heat-not-burn, vapor, and oral nicotine products primarily under the IQOS and ZYN brands; and consumer accessories, such as lighters and matches.

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JGP Global Gestao de Recursos Ltda. lessened its holdings in Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE  Free Report) by 90.9% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 841 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock after selling 8,428 shares during the quarter. JGP Global Gestao de Recursos Ltda.s holdings in Pfizer were worth $234,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in Pfizer by 89,592.7% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 161,143,638 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock worth $8,257,000,000 after purchasing an additional 160,963,976 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Pfizer in the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,150,472,000. Morgan Stanley boosted its position in Pfizer by 10.3% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 79,499,361 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock worth $4,073,547,000 after purchasing an additional 7,419,929 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in Pfizer by 13.2% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 59,828,849 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock worth $3,097,341,000 after purchasing an additional 6,972,650 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in Pfizer in the 1st quarter worth approximately $311,238,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.80% of the companys stock.

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Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on Pfizer from $45.00 to $44.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Pfizer from $42.00 to $40.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. HSBC assumed coverage on Pfizer in a research report on Friday, July 14th. They set a buy rating and a $50.00 target price on the stock. UBS Group decreased their price objective on Pfizer from $41.00 to $39.00 in a report on Friday, May 5th. Finally, Bank of America decreased their price objective on Pfizer from $50.00 to $45.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 21st. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $46.35.

Insider Transactions at Pfizer

In other Pfizer news, Director Scott Gottlieb purchased 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 8th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $38.58 per share, with a total value of $38,580.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 6,000 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $231,480. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.05% of the companys stock.

Pfizer Trading Down 1.0 %

PFE traded down $0.35 on Thursday, hitting $35.00. The company had a trading volume of 25,398,972 shares, compared to its average volume of 24,499,576. The firm has a market cap of $197.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.40, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 0.60. Pfizer Inc. has a 1 year low of $34.92 and a 1 year high of $54.93. The companys fifty day moving average price is $37.41 and its 200 day moving average price is $39.83. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 1st. The biopharmaceutical company reported $0.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $12.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.36 billion. Pfizer had a net margin of 27.55% and a return on equity of 28.55%. The businesss revenue for the quarter was down 54.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.04 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Pfizer Inc. will post 3.34 earnings per share for the current year.

Pfizer Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 5th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 28th will be given a dividend of $0.41 per share. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.69%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 27th. Pfizers dividend payout ratio is presently 43.62%.

Pfizer Profile

(Free Report)

Pfizer Inc discovers, develops, manufactures, markets, distributes, and sells biopharmaceutical products worldwide. It offers medicines and vaccines in various therapeutic areas, including cardiovascular metabolic, migraine, and women's health under the Eliquis, Nurtec ODT/Vydura, and the Premarin family brands; infectious diseases with unmet medical needs under the Prevnar family, Nimenrix, FSME/IMMUN-TicoVac, and Trumenba brands; and COVID-19 prevention and treatment, and potential future mRNA and antiviral products under the Comirnaty and Paxlovid brands.

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John G Ullman & Associates Inc. reduced its position in Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE  Free Report) by 2.5% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 592,521 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock after selling 14,969 shares during the period. Pfizer accounts for about 3.8% of John G Ullman & Associates Inc.s portfolio, making the stock its 4th largest position. John G Ullman & Associates Inc.s holdings in Pfizer were worth $24,175,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of PFE. Wilbanks Smith & Thomas Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Pfizer by 1.6% during the first quarter. Wilbanks Smith & Thomas Asset Management LLC now owns 192,254 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock worth $7,844,000 after purchasing an additional 2,951 shares in the last quarter. Versor Investments LP purchased a new stake in Pfizer in the first quarter valued at about $864,000. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund boosted its holdings in Pfizer by 8.8% in the first quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 753,664 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock worth $30,749,000 after acquiring an additional 61,036 shares in the last quarter. Capital Analysts LLC increased its holdings in shares of Pfizer by 6.4% during the first quarter. Capital Analysts LLC now owns 64,351 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock valued at $2,626,000 after acquiring an additional 3,861 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. boosted its stake in Pfizer by 2.0% in the 1st quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 608,210 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock worth $24,815,000 after purchasing an additional 11,712 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.80% of the companys stock.

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Pfizer Price Performance

Shares of Pfizer stock traded down $0.35 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $35.00. 25,398,972 shares of the companys stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 24,499,576. The business has a fifty day moving average of $37.41 and a two-hundred day moving average of $39.83. The company has a quick ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The company has a market capitalization of $197.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 0.60. Pfizer Inc. has a 1 year low of $34.92 and a 1 year high of $54.93.

Pfizer Announces Dividend

Pfizer ( NYSE:PFE Get Free Report ) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, August 1st. The biopharmaceutical company reported $0.67 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.10. Pfizer had a return on equity of 28.55% and a net margin of 27.55%. The business had revenue of $12.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $13.36 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.04 EPS. The businesss revenue for the quarter was down 54.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Pfizer Inc. will post 3.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 5th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 28th will be paid a dividend of $0.41 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 27th. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.69%. Pfizers dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 43.62%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of Pfizer from $45.00 to $41.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 17th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on Pfizer from $40.00 to $38.00 in a research note on Wednesday. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Pfizer from $41.00 to $39.00 in a research note on Friday, May 5th. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Pfizer from $42.00 to $40.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an overweight rating on shares of Pfizer in a report on Wednesday, May 17th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $46.35.

View Our Latest Analysis on PFE

Insider Transactions at Pfizer

In related news, Director Scott Gottlieb acquired 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 8th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $38.58 per share, with a total value of $38,580.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 6,000 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $231,480. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 0.05% of the companys stock.

About Pfizer

(Free Report)

Pfizer Inc discovers, develops, manufactures, markets, distributes, and sells biopharmaceutical products worldwide. It offers medicines and vaccines in various therapeutic areas, including cardiovascular metabolic, migraine, and women's health under the Eliquis, Nurtec ODT/Vydura, and the Premarin family brands; infectious diseases with unmet medical needs under the Prevnar family, Nimenrix, FSME/IMMUN-TicoVac, and Trumenba brands; and COVID-19 prevention and treatment, and potential future mRNA and antiviral products under the Comirnaty and Paxlovid brands.

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Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG  Free Report) had its target price upped by Royal Bank of Canada from $165.00 to $167.00 in a research report sent to investors on Monday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage currently has a sector perform rating on the stock.

A number of other equities analysts also recently commented on the stock. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of Procter & Gamble from $167.00 to $160.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Procter & Gamble from $164.00 to $172.00 in a research report on Friday, July 28th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Procter & Gamble from $165.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research report on Monday. StockNews.com upgraded Procter & Gamble from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 25th. Finally, Truist Financial lowered Procter & Gamble from a buy rating to a hold rating and decreased their target price for the company from $165.00 to $155.00 in a research report on Thursday, May 18th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Procter & Gamble has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $164.82.

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Check Out Our Latest Analysis on PG

Procter & Gamble Trading Up 0.2 %

PG opened at $156.95 on Monday. Procter & Gamble has a one year low of $122.18 and a one year high of $158.11. The stock has a market cap of $369.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.60, a P/E/G ratio of 3.88 and a beta of 0.42. The stocks 50 day moving average price is $149.52 and its 200-day moving average price is $147.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 0.44 and a current ratio of 0.63.

Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, July 28th. The company reported $1.37 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.32 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $20.60 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $20.01 billion. Procter & Gamble had a return on equity of 32.73% and a net margin of 17.87%. The firms quarterly revenue was up 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.21 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Procter & Gamble will post 6.38 EPS for the current year.

Procter & Gamble Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 21st will be issued a $0.9407 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 20th. This represents a $3.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.40%. Procter & Gambles dividend payout ratio is currently 63.73%.

Insider Transactions at Procter & Gamble

In related news, CAO Matthew W. Janzaruk sold 33,022 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $156.26, for a total transaction of $5,160,017.72. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 888 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $138,758.88. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In related news, CAO Matthew W. Janzaruk sold 33,022 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $156.26, for a total transaction of $5,160,017.72. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 888 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $138,758.88. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Ma. Fatima Francisco sold 8,387 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $156.87, for a total transaction of $1,315,668.69. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 962 shares in the company, valued at $150,908.94. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.26% of the companys stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Procter & Gamble

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Atomi Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Procter & Gamble by 4.0% in the 2nd quarter. Atomi Financial Group Inc. now owns 11,878 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,802,000 after purchasing an additional 460 shares during the last quarter. SP Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Procter & Gamble by 0.6% in the 2nd quarter. SP Asset Management LLC now owns 39,944 shares of the companys stock valued at $6,061,000 after purchasing an additional 232 shares during the last quarter. AlphaStar Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Procter & Gamble by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter. AlphaStar Capital Management LLC now owns 15,370 shares of the companys stock valued at $2,332,000 after purchasing an additional 272 shares during the last quarter. Paragon Private Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Procter & Gamble by 3.6% in the 2nd quarter. Paragon Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,173 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,544,000 after buying an additional 355 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Asio Capital LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Procter & Gamble by 0.6% in the 2nd quarter. Asio Capital LLC now owns 18,650 shares of the companys stock valued at $2,830,000 after buying an additional 119 shares in the last quarter. 64.65% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Procter & Gamble Company Profile

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The Procter & Gamble Company provides branded consumer packaged goods worldwide. It operates through five segments: Beauty; Grooming; Health Care; Fabric & Home Care; and Baby, Feminine & Family Care. The Beauty segment offers conditioners, shampoos, styling aids, and treatments under the Head & Shoulders, Herbal Essences, Pantene, and Rejoice brands; and antiperspirants and deodorants, personal cleansing, and skin care products under the Olay, Old Spice, Safeguard, Secret, and SK-II brands.

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Prudential Financial (NYSE:PRU  Get Free Report)s stock had its equal weight rating restated by equities researchers at Morgan Stanley in a research report issued on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $102.00 price target on the financial services providers stock. Morgan Stanleys price target suggests a potential upside of 5.69% from the stocks current price.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on PRU. Barclays raised their price target on Prudential Financial from $88.00 to $91.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 11th. VNET Group reaffirmed a maintains rating on shares of Prudential Financial in a research note on Monday, May 15th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a sector perform rating and issued a $94.00 price objective on shares of Prudential Financial in a report on Tuesday, July 25th. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Prudential Financial in a research report on Thursday, May 18th. They issued a hold rating on the stock. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Prudential Financial from a neutral rating to an overweight rating and set a $114.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 4th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Prudential Financial currently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $100.33.

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Prudential Financial Price Performance

NYSE PRU traded down $0.28 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $96.51. The companys stock had a trading volume of 1,996,346 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,171,567. The stock has a market capitalization of $35.23 billion, a PE ratio of 32.26, a P/E/G ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 0.07 and a quick ratio of 0.07. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $88.72 and a 200 day moving average of $89.57. Prudential Financial has a one year low of $75.37 and a one year high of $110.96.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Prudential Financial

Prudential Financial ( NYSE:PRU Get Free Report ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 1st. The financial services provider reported $2.94 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.04 by ($0.10). Prudential Financial had a return on equity of 17.00% and a net margin of 1.82%. The company had revenue of $12.64 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.68 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.74 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Prudential Financial will post 11.81 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Aspire Private Capital LLC bought a new stake in Prudential Financial in the 1st quarter worth $18,699,240,000. Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. bought a new stake in shares of Prudential Financial during the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. Tanglewood Legacy Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Prudential Financial during the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Fairfield Bush & CO. bought a new stake in shares of Prudential Financial during the 1st quarter valued at about $36,000. Finally, Householder Group Estate & Retirement Specialist LLC bought a new stake in shares of Prudential Financial during the 1st quarter valued at about $25,000. Institutional investors own 55.36% of the companys stock.

Prudential Financial Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Prudential Financial, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides insurance, investment management, and other financial products and services in the United States and internationally. It operates through PGIM, Retirement Strategies, Group Insurance, Individual Annuities, Individual Life, Assurance IQ, and International Businesses segments.

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CANBERRA, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Australian researchers have found that liquid metal could be crucial in the global fight against antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

In a study published recently, a team led by Flinders University in South Australia (SA) discovered that a simple metallic coating treatment for bandages, drug treatments and medical devices is capable of resisting and killing bacteria.

Vi Khanh Truong, lead author of the research from Flinders University, said that gallium in its liquid form, known as GaLM, with improved biocompatibility and low cytotoxicity to cells, is "one of the most promising" candidates for an antimicrobial agent.

His team, including scientists from Australia and the United States, examined how combining GaLM with other elements expands its tunable features.

GaLM can dissolve other metallic elements that can later be released, improving the efficiency of the release of drugs, and is compatible with human tissue.

"The liquid state of GaLM enables it to be easily combined or functionalized with other components to create various forms of more efficient antimicrobial metals," Truong said in a media release on Thursday.

"As well gallium appears to be compatible with human cells in preparations and concentrations relevant to its antimicrobial activity, so could one day be administered orally or intravenous injection."

He said this material's antimicrobial performance would also be activated by external stimuli, resulting in novel solutions which can outperform antimicrobial mono-metallic nanoparticles and may lead to the next generation of antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory metal-based agents.

AMR occurs when bacteria, viruses, parasites and fungi evolve to become resistant to medicines that were designed to kill them.

It is considered one of the biggest global threats to human health. 
Community Bank System (NYSE:CBU  Free Report) had its target price upped by Raymond James from $55.00 to $60.00 in a research report released on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an outperform rating on the banks stock.

A number of other research analysts also recently commented on CBU. TheStreet downgraded shares of Community Bank System from a b- rating to a c+ rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 11th. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on shares of Community Bank System from $54.00 to $50.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on shares of 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, Hovde Group upgraded shares of Community Bank System from a market perform rating to an outperform rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $59.83.

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Community Bank System Stock Down 1.2 %

Community Bank System Increases Dividend

NYSE CBU traded down $0.65 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $53.68. 76,187 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 396,993. Community Bank System has a 12 month low of $42.10 and a 12 month high of $72.86. The company has a current ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.88 billion, a PE ratio of 18.97 and a beta of 0.59. The company has a 50 day moving average of $49.70 and a two-hundred day moving average of $52.46.

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 15th will be given a $0.45 dividend. This is an increase from Community Bank Systems previous quarterly dividend of $0.44. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.35%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 14th. Community Bank Systems dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 61.32%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of CBU. Benjamin Edwards Inc. lifted its position in Community Bank System by 159.2% in the 1st quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 547 shares of the banks stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 336 shares during the last quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC lifted its position in Community Bank System by 80.4% in the 4th quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 487 shares of the banks stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 217 shares during the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in Community Bank System in the 4th quarter valued at about $31,000. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Community Bank System in the 2nd quarter valued at about $32,000. Finally, Covestor Ltd lifted its position in Community Bank System by 82.8% in the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 585 shares of the banks stock valued at $41,000 after purchasing an additional 265 shares during the last quarter. 71.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Community Bank System

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Community Bank System, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Community Bank, N.A. that provides various banking and other financial services to retail, commercial, and municipal customers. It operates through three segments: Banking, Employee Benefit Services, and All Other. The company offers various deposits products, such as interest and noninterest -bearing checking, savings, and money market deposit accounts, as well as time deposits.

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Countryside Partnerships (OTCMKTS:CSPLF  Get Free Report) and Century Communities (NYSE:CCS  Get Free Report) are both consumer cyclical companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, earnings, profitability, valuation and dividends.

Profitability

This table compares Countryside Partnerships and Century Communities net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

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Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets Countryside Partnerships N/A N/A N/A Century Communities 7.87% 14.70% 8.32%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Countryside Partnerships and Century Communities gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

Gross Revenue Price/Sales Ratio Net Income Earnings Per Share Price/Earnings Ratio Countryside Partnerships N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A Century Communities $4.51 billion 0.54 $525.13 million $9.55 7.92

Analyst Ratings

Century Communities has higher revenue and earnings than Countryside Partnerships.

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Countryside Partnerships and Century Communities, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score Countryside Partnerships 0 0 0 0 N/A Century Communities 1 1 2 0 2.25

Countryside Partnerships currently has a consensus target price of $264.00, indicating a potential upside of 7,035.14%. Century Communities has a consensus target price of $76.33, indicating a potential upside of 0.41%. Given Countryside Partnerships higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Countryside Partnerships is more favorable than Century Communities.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

89.7% of Century Communities shares are owned by institutional investors. 11.9% of Century Communities shares are owned by 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.

Summary

Century Communities beats Countryside Partnerships on 7 of the 8 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Countryside Partnerships

(Get Free Report)

Countryside Partnerships PLC operates as a home builder and urban regeneration partner in the United Kingdom. The company offers mixed tenure developments, including affordable homes, homes for the private rental sector, and homes for private sale across London, the North, the Midlands, the South West and the Home Counties. It has a total land bank of 56,806 plots. The company also offers estate management services. The company was formerly known as Countryside Properties PLC and changed its name to Countryside Partnerships PLC in January 2022. Countryside Partnerships PLC was founded in 1958 and is headquartered in Brentwood, the United Kingdom.

About Century Communities

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Century Communities, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the design, development, construction, marketing, and sale of single-family attached and detached homes. It is also involved in the entitlement and development of the underlying land; and provision of mortgage, title, and insurance services to its homebuyers. The company offers homes under the Century Communities and Century Complete brands. It sells homes through its sales representatives, retail studios, and internet, as well as through independent real estate brokers in 18 states in the United States. Century Communities, Inc. was founded in 2002 and is headquartered in Greenwood Village, Colorado.

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BCE (TSE:BCE  Get Free Report) (NYSE:BCE) had its target price cut by equities research analysts at Royal Bank of Canada from C$64.00 to C$63.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday, BayStreet.CA reports. The brokerage currently has a sector perform rating on the stock. Royal Bank of Canadas price objective would suggest a potential upside of 11.78% from the companys current price.

A number of other research firms have also recently commented on BCE. National Bank Financial lowered their price objective on shares of BCE from C$63.00 to C$62.00 in a research report on Monday, June 26th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on BCE from C$64.00 to C$67.00 in a research report on Friday, May 5th. National Bankshares cut their price objective on BCE from C$63.00 to C$62.00 and set a sector perform rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 26th. Cormark lowered their target price on BCE from C$69.00 to C$68.00 in a research note on Friday, May 5th. Finally, TD Securities raised shares of BCE from a hold rating to a buy rating and cut their price target for the company from C$63.00 to C$61.00 in a research note on Friday. Four research 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 a consensus target price of C$63.54.

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BCE Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of TSE:BCE traded up C$0.84 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching C$56.36. The stock had a trading volume of 970,695 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,156,474. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of C$59.45 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of C$61.25. BCE has a twelve month low of C$55.40 and a twelve month high of C$66.05. The firm has a market cap of C$51.41 billion, a PE ratio of 20.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.30 and a beta of 0.51. The company has a current ratio of 0.57, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 151.81.

BCE (TSE:BCE  Get Free Report) (NYSE:BCE) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 4th. The company reported C$0.85 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of C$0.80 by C$0.05. The firm had revenue of C$6.05 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of C$5.99 billion. BCE had a net margin of 11.19% and a return on equity of 12.07%. On average, research analysts predict that BCE will post 3.2180822 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About BCE

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BCE Inc, a communications company, provides wireless, wireline, Internet, and television (TV) services to residential, business, and wholesale customers in Canada. The company operates through three segments: Bell Wireless, Bell Wireline, and Bell Media. The Bell Wireless segment offers integrated digital wireless voice and data communication products and services, as well as consumer electronics products.

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Sandy Spring Bank grew its position in shares of Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL  Free Report) by 3.9% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 102,131 shares of the energy companys stock after buying an additional 3,869 shares during the period. Sandy Spring Banks holdings in Shell were worth $5,877,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SHEL. Householder Group Estate & Retirement Specialist LLC acquired a new position in shares of Shell in the first quarter worth approximately $25,000. Corrado Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Shell during the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. America First Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Shell during the 1st quarter worth about $32,000. Venturi Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Shell in the 1st quarter worth about $32,000. Finally, Concord Wealth Partners bought a new position in Shell in the 4th quarter worth about $38,000. Institutional investors own 8.52% of the companys stock.

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Shell Stock Performance

NYSE SHEL traded up $0.59 on Friday, hitting $61.18. 3,714,618 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,787,880. The businesss 50 day moving average price is $60.07 and its 200-day moving average price is $59.85. Shell plc has a 52-week low of $46.74 and a 52-week high of $63.69. The company has a market capitalization of $213.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.56, a P/E/G ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 0.67. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38.

Shell Increases Dividend

Shell ( NYSE:SHEL Get Free Report ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 27th. The energy company reported $1.50 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.59 by ($0.09). Shell had a return on equity of 17.65% and a net margin of 7.94%. The company had revenue of $76.02 billion for the quarter. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.04 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Shell plc will post 8.63 earnings per share for the current year.

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.662 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 10th. This represents a $2.65 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.33%. This is a positive change from Shells previous quarterly dividend of $0.58. Shells dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 28.12%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on SHEL shares. Morgan Stanley upgraded Shell from an underweight rating to an equal weight rating in a report on Wednesday, June 21st. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on Shell from $75.00 to $67.00 in a research note on Tuesday, June 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Shell has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $2,385.20.

Shell Company Profile

(Free Report)

Shell plc operates as an energy and petrochemical company Europe, Asia, Oceania, Africa, the United States, and Rest of the Americas. The company operates through Integrated Gas, Upstream, Marketing, Chemicals and Products, and Renewables and Energy Solutions segments. It explores for and extracts crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids; markets and transports oil and gas; produces gas-to-liquids fuels and other products; and operates upstream and midstream infrastructure necessary to deliver gas to market.

Further Reading

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Seiko Epson Co. (OTCMKTS:SEKEY  Get Free Report) shares reached a new 52-week high during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $8.24 and last traded at $8.22, with a volume of 68965 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $8.18.

Seiko Epson Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 2.40 and a quick ratio of 1.30. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $7.83 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $7.41. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.66 and a beta of 0.97.

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Seiko Epson (OTCMKTS:SEKEY  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 28th. The company reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.15 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $2.29 billion for the quarter. Seiko Epson had a net margin of 5.10% and a return on equity of 9.73%. As a group, analysts expect that Seiko Epson Co. will post 0.75 EPS for the current year.

About Seiko Epson

Seiko Epson Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, develops, manufactures, sells, and provides services for products in the printing solutions, visual communications, manufacturing-related and wearables, and other businesses. It operates through three segments: Printing Solutions, Visual Communications, and Manufacturing-related and Wearables segments.

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Service Co. International (NYSE:SCI  Get Free Report) had its price objective reduced by equities research analysts at Raymond James from $80.00 to $75.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an outperform rating on the stock. Raymond James price target points to a potential upside of 14.73% from the companys current price.

A number of other analysts also recently issued reports on the company. StockNews.com started coverage on Service Co. International in a research report on Thursday, May 18th. They issued a hold rating for the company. Credit Suisse Group reduced their target price on Service Co. International from $85.00 to $80.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a report on Thursday.

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Check Out Our Latest Stock Analysis on Service Co. International

Service Co. International Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of SCI traded up $0.70 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $65.37. The companys stock had a trading volume of 272,505 shares, compared to its average volume of 975,568. The company has a quick ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 0.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.67. The company has a market cap of $9.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 0.76. The business has a fifty day moving average of $65.37 and a 200 day moving average of $67.52. Service Co. International has a 1 year low of $56.85 and a 1 year high of $74.66.

Service Co. International (NYSE:SCI  Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 1st. The company reported $0.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.02. Service Co. International had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 12.11%. The firm had revenue of $1.01 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $986.10 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.84 EPS. The businesss revenue for the quarter was up 2.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Service Co. International will post 3.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Service Co. International news, CEO Thomas L. Ryan sold 62,417 shares of Service Co. International stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.54, for a total transaction of $4,090,810.18. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 962,409 shares in the company, valued at approximately $63,076,285.86. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 5.10% of the companys stock.

Institutional Trading of Service Co. International

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in SCI. Argent Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Service Co. International by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Argent Capital Management LLC now owns 40,332 shares of the companys stock worth $2,774,000 after buying an additional 154 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI raised its holdings in shares of Service Co. International by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 32,817 shares of the companys stock worth $2,119,000 after acquiring an additional 155 shares in the last quarter. ETF Managers Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Service Co. International by 1.5% in the first quarter. ETF Managers Group LLC now owns 11,057 shares of the companys stock worth $760,000 after purchasing an additional 165 shares during the last quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Service Co. International by 23.1% during the first quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC now owns 960 shares of the companys stock valued at $66,000 after purchasing an additional 180 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Private Advisor Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Service Co. International by 2.2% during the first quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 8,269 shares of the companys stock worth $544,000 after purchasing an additional 181 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 86.75% of the companys stock.

Service Co. International Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Service Corporation International provides deathcare products and services in the United States and Canada. The company operates through Funeral and Cemetery segments. Its funeral service and cemetery operations comprise funeral service locations, cemeteries, funeral service/cemetery combination locations, crematoria, and other businesses.

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ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW  Get Free Report)s stock had its buy rating reiterated by investment analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $660.00 price target on the information technology services providers stock. Needham & Company LLCs target price would indicate a potential upside of 18.19% from the companys current price.

A number of other research firms have also commented on NOW. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on shares of ServiceNow from $640.00 to $650.00 in a research report on Thursday, July 27th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of ServiceNow from $465.00 to $545.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Friday, April 14th. Citigroup boosted their price target on ServiceNow from $506.00 to $562.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 19th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on ServiceNow from $625.00 to $650.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 27th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on ServiceNow from $600.00 to $640.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Thursday, July 27th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $589.48.

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ServiceNow Stock Performance

Insider Activity at ServiceNow

NYSE NOW traded down $1.97 on Friday, reaching $558.43. The stock had a trading volume of 734,271 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,567,908. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 1.14 and a quick ratio of 1.14. The company has a market cap of $113.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 80.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.74 and a beta of 1.02. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $560.90 and a two-hundred day moving average of $490.93. ServiceNow has a 1-year low of $337.00 and a 1-year high of $614.36.

In other news, COO Chirantan Jitendra Desai sold 13,000 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $538.15, for a total value of $6,995,950.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 40,558 shares in the company, valued at $21,826,287.70. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, General Counsel Russell S. Elmer sold 69 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $453.30, for a total value of $31,277.70. Following the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 4,047 shares in the company, valued at $1,834,505.10. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, COO Chirantan Jitendra Desai sold 13,000 shares of ServiceNow stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $538.15, for a total transaction of $6,995,950.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 40,558 shares of the companys stock, valued at $21,826,287.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 20,969 shares of company stock worth $11,223,940. 0.24% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Mcdaniel Terry & Co. lifted its position in ServiceNow by 4.0% in the second quarter. Mcdaniel Terry & Co. now owns 472 shares of the information technology services providers stock valued at $265,000 after purchasing an additional 18 shares during the last quarter. Capital Investment Advisory Services LLC raised its holdings in ServiceNow by 3.1% during the 2nd quarter. Capital Investment Advisory Services LLC now owns 668 shares of the information technology services providers stock valued at $375,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. boosted its position in ServiceNow by 16.0% during the 2nd quarter. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. now owns 145 shares of the information technology services providers stock valued at $81,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the period. Atomi Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in ServiceNow by 2.8% in the 2nd quarter. Atomi Financial Group Inc. now owns 763 shares of the information technology services providers stock worth $429,000 after acquiring an additional 21 shares during the last quarter. Finally, New Hampshire Trust increased its position in shares of ServiceNow by 4.0% in the first quarter. New Hampshire Trust now owns 599 shares of the information technology services providers stock valued at $278,000 after acquiring an additional 23 shares during the period. 86.72% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About ServiceNow

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ServiceNow, Inc provides enterprise cloud computing solutions that defines, structures, consolidates, manages, and automates services for enterprises worldwide. The company operates the Now platform for workflow automation, artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotic process automation, process mining, performance analytics, electronic service catalogs and portals, configuration management systems, data benchmarking, encryption, and collaboration and development tools.

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Sigma Planning Corp grew its holdings in shares of iShares MSCI USA Min Vol Factor ETF (BATS:USMV  Free Report) by 1.5% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 298,192 shares of the companys stock after purchasing an additional 4,323 shares during the quarter. iShares MSCI USA Min Vol Factor ETF comprises approximately 0.7% of Sigma Planning Corps portfolio, making the stock its 20th biggest holding. Sigma Planning Corps holdings in iShares MSCI USA Min Vol Factor ETF were worth $21,691,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Bank of Montreal Can grew its position in shares of iShares MSCI USA Min Vol Factor ETF by 7.8% in the 1st quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 8,253 shares of the companys stock worth $646,000 after buying an additional 594 shares during the last quarter. Blair William & Co. IL grew its stake in shares of iShares MSCI USA Min Vol Factor ETF by 1.7% during the 1st quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 95,612 shares of the companys stock valued at $7,417,000 after purchasing an additional 1,612 shares during the period. AJ Wealth Strategies LLC grew its stake in shares of iShares MSCI USA Min Vol Factor ETF by 4.4% during the 1st quarter. AJ Wealth Strategies LLC now owns 1,348,690 shares of the companys stock valued at $104,618,000 after purchasing an additional 57,434 shares during the period. Founders Financial Securities LLC grew its stake in shares of iShares MSCI USA Min Vol Factor ETF by 27.0% during the 1st quarter. Founders Financial Securities LLC now owns 88,779 shares of the companys stock valued at $6,887,000 after acquiring an additional 18,853 shares during the period. Finally, West Michigan Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of iShares MSCI USA Min Vol Factor ETF by 6.1% during the 1st quarter. West Michigan Advisors LLC now owns 12,575 shares of the companys stock worth $975,000 after acquiring an additional 719 shares in the last quarter.

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iShares MSCI USA Min Vol Factor ETF Stock Performance

USMV stock traded down $0.41 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $74.30. The companys stock had a trading volume of 2,113,812 shares. The firm has a market capitalization of $28.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.17 and a beta of 0.75. iShares MSCI USA Min Vol Factor ETF has a 1 year low of $47.44 and a 1 year high of $55.45. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $73.72 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $72.84.

iShares MSCI USA Min Vol Factor ETF Profile

The iShares MSCI USA Min Vol Factor ETF (USMV) is an exchange-traded fund that is based on the MSCI USA Minimum Volatility (USD) index. The fund tracks an index of US-listed firms selected and weighted to create a low-volatility portfolio subject to various constraints. USMV was launched on Oct 18, 2011 and is managed by BlackRock.

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SiteOne Landscape Supply (NYSE:SITE  Get Free Report) released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday. The industrial products company reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $2.69 by $0.02, Briefing.com reports. The firm had revenue of $1.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.31 billion. SiteOne Landscape Supply had a return on equity of 16.13% and a net margin of 5.15%. The businesss quarterly revenue was up 11.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.07 earnings per share.

SiteOne Landscape Supply Trading Down 0.9 %

Shares of NYSE SITE traded down $1.47 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $160.73. The companys stock had a trading volume of 396,206 shares, compared to its average volume of 286,929. The company has a current ratio of 2.58, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The businesss 50 day moving average is $159.79 and its two-hundred day moving average is $149.09. SiteOne Landscape Supply has a 12-month low of $97.36 and a 12-month high of $176.16. The firm has a market cap of $7.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.91 and a beta of 1.48.

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Insider Transactions at SiteOne Landscape Supply

In other news, CEO Doug Black sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $167.33, for a total value of $1,338,640.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 558,886 shares in the company, valued at $93,518,394.38. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other SiteOne Landscape Supply news, EVP L Briley Brisendine, Jr. sold 2,900 shares of SiteOne Landscape Supply stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.00, for a total transaction of $464,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 8,322 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,331,520. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Doug Black sold 8,000 shares of SiteOne Landscape Supply stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $167.33, for a total value of $1,338,640.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 558,886 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $93,518,394.38. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 2.70% of the companys stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On SiteOne Landscape Supply

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of SITE. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of SiteOne Landscape Supply by 15.4% during the 1st quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 4,436 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $717,000 after buying an additional 593 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC increased its stake in shares of SiteOne Landscape Supply by 186.3% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC now owns 2,525 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $408,000 after purchasing an additional 1,643 shares in the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. increased its stake in shares of SiteOne Landscape Supply by 14.8% in the 1st quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 10,831 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $1,751,000 after purchasing an additional 1,398 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can purchased a new position in shares of SiteOne Landscape Supply in the 1st quarter valued at about $410,000. Finally, MetLife Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of SiteOne Landscape Supply in the 1st quarter valued at about $309,000.

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on SITE. Loop Capital upped their price objective on SiteOne Landscape Supply from $155.00 to $175.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 4th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on SiteOne Landscape Supply from $140.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a research note on Tuesday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price target on SiteOne Landscape Supply from $163.00 to $153.00 in a research note on Friday, May 5th. Barclays lowered SiteOne Landscape Supply from an equal weight rating to an underweight rating and dropped their price target for the company from $146.00 to $144.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 24th. Finally, Robert W. Baird increased their price target on SiteOne Landscape Supply from $163.00 to $170.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $160.30.

View Our Latest Research Report on SITE

About SiteOne Landscape Supply

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SiteOne Landscape Supply, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the wholesale distribution of landscape supplies in the United States and Canada. The company provides a selection of approximately 155,000 stock keeping units, including irrigation supplies, which comprise controllers, valves, sprinkler heads, and irrigation pipes; fertilizer, grass seed, and ice melt products; control products, such as herbicides, fungicides, rodenticides, and other pesticides; landscape accessories that include mulches, soil amendments, drainage pipes, tools, and sods; nursery goods, which consist of deciduous and evergreen shrubs, ornamental, shade, evergreen trees, field grown and container-grown nursery stock, roses, perennials, annuals, bulbs, and plant species; hardscapes, such as pavers, natural stones, blocks, and other durable materials; and outdoor lighting products that include lighting fixtures, LED lamps, wires, transformers, and accessories.

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Sonoco Products (NYSE:SON  Get Free Report) issued an update on its FY23 earnings guidance on Tuesday morning. The company provided earnings per share guidance of $5.10-5.40 for the period, compared to the consensus earnings per share estimate of $5.66. Sonoco Products also updated its Q3 guidance to $1.25-1.35 EPS.

Sonoco Products Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of SON stock traded up $0.33 on Friday, reaching $58.10. 86,051 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 518,854. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.23, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 0.79. Sonoco Products has a one year low of $53.78 and a one year high of $65.96. The stock has a market cap of $5.69 billion, a PE ratio of 11.84, a P/E/G ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.68. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $59.25 and a 200 day moving average price of $59.49.

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Sonoco Products (NYSE:SON  Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 31st. The industrial products company reported $1.38 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $1.50 by ($0.12). Sonoco Products had a return on equity of 26.87% and a net margin of 6.89%. The business had revenue of $1.71 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.83 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.76 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Sonoco Products will post 5.1 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Sonoco Products Announces Dividend

Analyst Ratings Changes

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 8th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 10th will be paid a $0.51 dividend. This represents a $2.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.51%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 9th. Sonoco Productss payout ratio is presently 41.80%.

Several brokerages have commented on SON. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of Sonoco Products from $61.00 to $55.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Bank of America cut their price objective on shares of Sonoco Products from $80.00 to $68.00 in a research report on Monday, July 10th. StockNews.com cut Sonoco Products from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Friday, July 21st. Citigroup cut their price target on Sonoco Products from $70.00 to $68.00 in a report on Monday, July 10th. Finally, Argus downgraded Sonoco Products from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Thursday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $62.17.

View Our Latest Research Report on SON

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Deutsche Bank AG lifted its holdings in shares of Sonoco Products by 1.5% in the 1st quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 13,645 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $832,000 after purchasing an additional 207 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning lifted its stake in shares of Sonoco Products by 4.1% in the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 5,426 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $309,000 after buying an additional 214 shares in the last quarter. Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Sonoco Products by 3.5% during the first quarter. Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC now owns 7,289 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $456,000 after buying an additional 247 shares during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. increased its position in shares of Sonoco Products by 1.8% during the first quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 17,102 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $1,070,000 after acquiring an additional 298 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AXA S.A. raised its holdings in shares of Sonoco Products by 3.7% in the 1st quarter. AXA S.A. now owns 8,500 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $518,000 after acquiring an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.74% of the companys stock.

Sonoco Products Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Sonoco Products Company, together with its subsidiaries, designs, develops, manufactures, and sells various engineered and sustainable packaging products in North and South America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. The company operates through two segments: Consumer Packaging and Industrial Paper Packaging.

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VIENTIANE, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Lao Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Saleumxay Kommasith and Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs Enrique Manalo have agreed to work together to enhance ties and broaden cooperation between the two countries.

Manalo and his delegation arrived here on Thursday for an official visit to Laos in response to an invitation from Kommasith, Lao News Agency reported on Friday.

The two co-chaired the second meeting of the Laos-Philippines Joint Commission for Bilateral Cooperation.

The two parties discussed bilateral cooperation in various areas including politics, defense, security, economy, trade and investment, energy, technology, etc.

Both sides noted that the friendship and cooperation between the two countries have been strengthened constantly over the past 68 years as this is reflected in the regular exchange of visits between high-ranking officials of the two countries.

The two sides agreed to maintain high-level contacts and exchanges of visits, and further promote trade and investment by encouraging their companies to explore business opportunities in areas of potential.

They pledged to offer mutual support in the regional and international arenas and discussed regional and international issues of mutual interest. 
Sudzucker AG (ETR:SZU  Get Free Report)s share price was down 0.9% on Thursday . The stock traded as low as 15.52 ($17.05) and last traded at 15.69 ($17.24). Approximately 149,802 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 64% from the average daily volume of 410,903 shares. The stock had previously closed at 15.84 ($17.41).

Sudzucker Stock Down 0.9 %

The company has a market capitalization of $3.20 billion, a PE ratio of 6.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.44 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 2.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 55.49. The firm has a 50-day moving average of 16.44 and a two-hundred day moving average of 16.27.

About Sudzucker

(Get Free Report)

Sudzucker AG produces and sells sugar products in Germany, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and internationally. It operates through five segments: Sugar, Special Products, CropEnergies, Starch, and Fruit. The Sugar segment produces and sells sugar, sugar specialty products, glucose syrup, and animal feed to food industry, retailers, and agriculture markets, as well as offers by-products of sugar.

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Summit Creek Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Mister Car Wash, Inc. (NYSE:MCW  Free Report) by 0.7% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,172,646 shares of the companys stock after acquiring an additional 8,401 shares during the period. Summit Creek Advisors LLC owned about 0.38% of Mister Car Wash worth $10,108,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Mister Car Wash by 84.9% during the first quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 30,672 shares of the companys stock worth $264,000 after acquiring an additional 14,080 shares during the period. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp grew its position in Mister Car Wash by 33.1% in the first quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 70,560 shares of the companys stock valued at $608,000 after purchasing an additional 17,558 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new position in Mister Car Wash in the first quarter valued at $119,000. New York State Teachers Retirement System grew its position in Mister Car Wash by 18.3% in the first quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 25,124 shares of the companys stock valued at $217,000 after purchasing an additional 3,884 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Simplicity Solutions LLC bought a new position in Mister Car Wash in the first quarter valued at $967,000.

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Mister Car Wash Stock Performance

Shares of MCW stock traded down $1.38 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $7.40. 7,262,694 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,338,860. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.68. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.29, a PEG ratio of 4.62 and a beta of 1.15. Mister Car Wash, Inc. has a 52 week low of $7.24 and a 52 week high of $12.57. The firms 50 day moving average price is $9.10 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $9.06.

Insider Buying and Selling at Mister Car Wash

Mister Car Wash ( NYSE:MCW Get Free Report ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 2nd. The company reported $0.06 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $0.08 by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $225.96 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $231.61 million. Mister Car Wash had a net margin of 11.16% and a return on equity of 13.15%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Mister Car Wash, Inc. will post 0.27 earnings per share for the current year.

In other news, CEO John Lo-Minn Lai sold 198,200 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $8.87, for a total value of $1,758,034.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,518,130 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,335,813.10. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In related news, CEO John Lo-Minn Lai sold 198,200 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $8.87, for a total transaction of $1,758,034.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,518,130 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,335,813.10. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Jedidiah Marc Gold sold 4,079 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $8.46, for a total transaction of $34,508.34. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 23,588 shares of the companys stock, valued at $199,554.48. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 957,755 shares of company stock valued at $8,730,299 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 71.20% of the companys stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on shares of Mister Car Wash from $11.00 to $10.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of Mister Car Wash from $11.00 to $10.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 3rd. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on shares of Mister Car Wash from $13.00 to $11.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 3rd. Finally, Guggenheim assumed coverage on shares of Mister Car Wash in a research report on Thursday, June 29th. They issued a buy rating and a $11.00 price objective for the company. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Mister Car Wash has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $10.13.

About Mister Car Wash

(Free Report)

Mister Car Wash, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides conveyorized car wash services in the United States. It offers express exterior and interior cleaning services. The company was formerly known as Hotshine Holdings, Inc and changed its name to Mister Car Wash, Inc in March 2021. Mister Car Wash, Inc was founded in 1969 and is headquartered in Tucson, Arizona.

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Shares of Swiss Life Holding AG (OTCMKTS:SWSDF  Get Free Report) were down 4.3% during trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as $612.50 and last traded at $612.50. Approximately 53 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 46% from the average daily volume of 98 shares. The stock had previously closed at $640.00.

Swiss Life Stock Performance

The stocks 50 day moving average is $595.83 and its 200 day moving average is $601.57.

Swiss Life Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Swiss Life Holding AG provides life, pensions, and financial solutions for private and corporate clients. It operates through Switzerland, France, Germany, International, Asset Managers, and Other segments. The company offers a range of life, pension, health, annuity, and investment-type policies to groups and individuals, as well as disability coverage.

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EOG Resources (NYSE:EOG  Get Free Report) had its target price lifted by stock analysts at TD Securities from $125.00 to $135.00 in a research report issued on Friday, BayStreet.CA reports. The brokerage presently has a hold rating on the energy exploration companys stock. TD Securities target price would suggest a potential upside of 3.92% from the stocks current price.

EOG has been the topic of a number of other reports. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on EOG Resources from $128.00 to $125.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 18th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of EOG Resources from $149.00 to $152.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Friday, July 21st. UBS Group started coverage on shares of EOG Resources in a report on Wednesday, April 19th. They issued a buy rating and a $152.00 price objective for the company. Truist Financial lowered their target price on shares of EOG Resources from $152.00 to $150.00 in a report on Monday, July 24th. Finally, Mizuho upgraded shares of EOG Resources from a neutral rating to a buy rating and dropped their price target for the company from $150.00 to $146.00 in a research report on Friday, May 19th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eighteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $144.92.

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EOG Resources Stock Performance

Shares of EOG traded down $1.78 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $129.91. The company had a trading volume of 3,384,142 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,560,796. The firm has a market cap of $75.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.15, a PEG ratio of 0.43 and a beta of 1.55. The company has a quick ratio of 1.90, a current ratio of 2.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The business has a fifty day moving average of $117.03 and a 200-day moving average of $118.03. EOG Resources has a 12 month low of $97.39 and a 12 month high of $150.88.

EOG Resources (NYSE:EOG  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 3rd. The energy exploration company reported $2.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.28 by $0.21. EOG Resources had a net margin of 33.83% and a return on equity of 30.34%. The firm had revenue of $5.57 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.74 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.74 earnings per share. The businesss revenue for the quarter was down 24.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that EOG Resources will post 10.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Jeffrey R. Leitzell sold 2,031 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Friday, July 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.26, for a total transaction of $238,155.06. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 37,607 shares of the companys stock, valued at $4,409,796.82. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, EVP Jeffrey R. Leitzell sold 2,031 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.26, for a total transaction of $238,155.06. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 37,607 shares in the company, valued at $4,409,796.82. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO Lloyd W. Helms, Jr. sold 5,000 shares of EOG Resources stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $115.87, for a total value of $579,350.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 149,689 shares in the company, valued at $17,344,464.43. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.30% of the companys stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On EOG Resources

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich increased its stake in shares of EOG Resources by 100,317.5% in the 2nd quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 538,528,863 shares of the energy exploration companys stock valued at $61,629,243,000 after acquiring an additional 537,992,573 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in EOG Resources by 2.8% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 36,299,584 shares of the energy exploration companys stock valued at $4,161,014,000 after purchasing an additional 1,005,328 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in shares of EOG Resources by 12.4% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 26,897,413 shares of the energy exploration companys stock valued at $3,083,250,000 after purchasing an additional 2,977,408 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of EOG Resources by 10.5% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 12,826,112 shares of the energy exploration companys stock worth $1,661,238,000 after purchasing an additional 1,222,209 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of EOG Resources by 2.3% during the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,814,421 shares of the energy exploration companys stock worth $1,352,283,000 after purchasing an additional 262,445 shares in the last quarter. 89.58% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About EOG Resources

(Get Free Report)

EOG Resources, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, explores for, develops, produces, and markets crude oil, and natural gas and natural gas liquids. Its principal producing areas are in New Mexico and Texas in the United States; and the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. The company was formerly known as Enron Oil & Gas Company.

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Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund lowered its holdings in The Clorox Company (NYSE:CLX  Free Report) by 15.1% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 71,166 shares of the companys stock after selling 12,617 shares during the quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Funds holdings in Clorox were worth $11,261,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. AE Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Clorox by 5.3% in the 4th quarter. AE Wealth Management LLC now owns 15,148 shares of the companys stock worth $2,126,000 after purchasing an additional 769 shares during the last quarter. Simmons Bank acquired a new position in shares of Clorox in the 4th quarter worth approximately $218,000. Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Clorox by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC now owns 7,574 shares of the companys stock worth $1,063,000 after purchasing an additional 178 shares during the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP grew its stake in shares of Clorox by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 3,812 shares of the companys stock worth $603,000 after purchasing an additional 81 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Versor Investments LP acquired a new position in shares of Clorox in the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,064,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.37% of the companys stock.

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Clorox Stock Performance

CLX stock opened at $166.13 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 14.40. The company has a market capitalization of $20.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 139.61, a P/E/G ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 0.29. The Clorox Company has a 12 month low of $124.58 and a 12 month high of $178.21. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $156.58 and a two-hundred day moving average of $156.38.

Clorox Increases Dividend

Clorox ( NYSE:CLX Get Free Report ) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 2nd. The company reported $1.67 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.19 by $0.48. The company had revenue of $2.02 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.88 billion. Clorox had a net margin of 2.02% and a return on equity of 163.73%. The companys revenue for the quarter was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.93 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that The Clorox Company will post 5.64 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 25th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 9th will be given a $1.20 dividend. This represents a $4.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.89%. This is an increase from Cloroxs previous quarterly dividend of $1.18. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 8th. Cloroxs payout ratio is currently 396.64%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on CLX shares. Raymond James boosted their price target on shares of Clorox from $165.00 to $185.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 3rd. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Clorox from $130.00 to $140.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of Clorox from $137.00 to $151.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 3rd. Atlantic Securities upgraded shares of Clorox from an underweight rating to a neutral rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Clorox in a report on Thursday, May 18th. They set a hold rating on the stock. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat, Clorox has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $148.00.

Read Our Latest Analysis on Clorox

Clorox Company Profile

(Free Report)

The Clorox Company manufactures and markets consumer and professional products worldwide. It operates through four segments: Health and Wellness, Household, Lifestyle, and International. The Health and Wellness segment offers cleaning products, such as laundry additives and home care products primarily under the Clorox, Clorox2, Scentiva, Pine-Sol, Liquid-Plumr, Tilex, and Formula 409 brands; professional cleaning and disinfecting products under the CloroxPro and Clorox Healthcare brands; professional food service products under the Hidden Valley brand; and vitamins, minerals and supplement products under the RenewLife, Natural Vitality, NeoCell, and Rainbow Light brands in the United States.

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TopBuild Corp. (NYSE:BLD  Free Report)  Stock analysts at Seaport Res Ptn issued their Q2 2023 earnings per share (EPS) estimates for TopBuild in a report issued on Tuesday, August 1st. Seaport Res Ptn analyst K. Zener expects that the construction company will earn $3.97 per share for the quarter. Seaport Res Ptn currently has a Buy rating on the stock. The consensus estimate for TopBuilds current full-year earnings is $16.43 per share. Seaport Res Ptn also issued estimates for TopBuilds Q3 2023 earnings at $3.88 EPS, Q4 2023 earnings at $3.97 EPS, FY2023 earnings at $16.18 EPS and FY2024 earnings at $17.79 EPS.

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Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Bank of America raised their price objective on TopBuild from $255.00 to $305.00 in a research note on Friday, July 14th. StockNews.com upgraded TopBuild from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report on Thursday, July 6th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on TopBuild from $262.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Thursday, July 13th. Loop Capital increased their target price on TopBuild from $225.00 to $285.00 in a research report on Friday, June 30th. Finally, Stephens boosted their price target on shares of TopBuild from $230.00 to $250.00 in a report on Monday, May 8th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat, TopBuild presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $262.29.

TopBuild Price Performance

Shares of BLD opened at $285.06 on Wednesday. TopBuild has a 52 week low of $140.66 and a 52 week high of $289.48. The company has a current ratio of 2.15, a quick ratio of 1.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The firm has a market cap of $9.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.86, a PEG ratio of 3.22 and a beta of 1.58. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $252.11 and a 200-day moving average of $219.61.

TopBuild (NYSE:BLD  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 4th. The construction company reported $4.36 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $4.06 by $0.30. The firm had revenue of $1.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.26 billion. TopBuild had a return on equity of 30.52% and a net margin of 11.31%. TopBuilds revenue for the quarter was up 8.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.50 earnings per share.

Insider Transactions at TopBuild

In related news, CEO Robert M. Buck sold 4,473 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $240.04, for a total transaction of $1,073,698.92. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 78,330 shares of the companys stock, valued at $18,802,333.20. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, insider Robert Jeffrey Franklin sold 1,000 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $212.97, for a total value of $212,970.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 19,091 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $4,065,810.27. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Robert M. Buck sold 4,473 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $240.04, for a total value of $1,073,698.92. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 78,330 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,802,333.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 16,876 shares of company stock valued at $3,722,427. 0.46% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On TopBuild

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of TopBuild by 1.7% during the second quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 45,520 shares of the construction companys stock valued at $12,109,000 after buying an additional 750 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC grew its holdings in shares of TopBuild by 59.1% during the second quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 56,096 shares of the construction companys stock valued at $14,923,000 after buying an additional 20,840 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia purchased a new position in shares of TopBuild during the second quarter valued at $224,000. Jennison Associates LLC purchased a new position in shares of TopBuild during the second quarter valued at $277,000. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp grew its holdings in shares of TopBuild by 16.2% during the second quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 4,612 shares of the construction companys stock valued at $1,227,000 after buying an additional 642 shares in the last quarter. 94.27% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

TopBuild Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

TopBuild Corp., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the installation and distribution of insulation and other building material products to the construction industry. The company operates in two segments, Installation and Specialty Distribution. It provides insulation products and accessories, glass and windows, rain gutters, afterpaint products, fireproofing products, garage doors, fireplaces, closet shelving, roofing materials, and other products; and insulation installation services.

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Triad Financial Advisors Inc. cut its holdings in Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY  Free Report) by 5.6% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,703 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock after selling 337 shares during the period. Triad Financial Advisors Inc.s holdings in Bristol-Myers Squibb were worth $395,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,873,696,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb by 114,228.7% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 21,469,785 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock valued at $1,544,751,000 after buying an additional 21,451,006 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb by 2,077.2% in the 1st quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 4,049,072 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock valued at $280,641,000 after buying an additional 3,863,095 shares during the period. Boston Partners grew its stake in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb by 35.7% in the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 13,794,089 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock valued at $992,048,000 after buying an additional 3,627,705 shares during the period. Finally, Edmp Inc. grew its stake in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb by 6,884.3% in the 4th quarter. Edmp Inc. now owns 3,343,588 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock valued at $46,471,000 after buying an additional 3,295,715 shares during the period. 74.57% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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Bristol-Myers Squibb Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE BMY traded down $0.52 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $60.71. The companys stock had a trading volume of 3,833,936 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,280,898. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08, a current ratio of 1.39 and a quick ratio of 1.28. The stock has a market capitalization of $126.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.12, a PEG ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 0.42. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $63.87 and a 200-day moving average price of $67.59. Bristol-Myers Squibb has a 12-month low of $60.05 and a 12-month high of $81.43.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Dividend Announcement

Bristol-Myers Squibb ( NYSE:BMY Get Free Report ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 27th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $1.75 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $1.99 by ($0.24). The company had revenue of $11.23 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.81 billion. Bristol-Myers Squibb had a return on equity of 50.51% and a net margin of 17.62%. The companys revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.93 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Bristol-Myers Squibb will post 7.47 earnings per share for the current year.

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 1st. Investors of record on Friday, July 7th were issued a $0.57 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 6th. This represents a $2.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.76%. Bristol-Myers Squibbs dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 60.64%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently commented on BMY. SVB Securities started coverage on Bristol-Myers Squibb in a research note on Monday, July 10th. They issued a market perform rating and a $66.00 target price for the company. HSBC started coverage on Bristol-Myers Squibb in a research note on Friday, July 14th. They set a reduce rating and a $56.00 price target for the company. Barclays cut their price target on Bristol-Myers Squibb from $64.00 to $62.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a research note on Friday, July 28th. Credit Suisse Group cut their price target on Bristol-Myers Squibb from $72.00 to $66.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 12th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on Bristol-Myers Squibb from $87.00 to $79.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research note on Friday, July 28th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $71.14.

Check Out Our Latest Research Report on BMY

About Bristol-Myers Squibb

(Free Report)

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company discovers, develops, licenses, manufactures, markets, distributes, and sells biopharmaceutical products worldwide. It offers products for hematology, oncology, cardiovascular, immunology, fibrotic, and neuroscience diseases. The company's products include Eliquis, an oral inhibitor for reduction in risk of stroke/systemic embolism in NVAF, and for the treatment of DVT/PE; Opdivo for anti-cancer indications; Pomalyst/Imnovid indicated for patients with multiple myeloma; Orencia for adult patients with active RA and psoriatic arthritis; and Sprycel for the treatment of Philadelphia chromosome-positive chronic myeloid leukemia.

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Truist Financial Corp reduced its stake in shares of iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF (NYSEARCA:AGG  Free Report) by 4.6% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 5,403,148 shares of the companys stock after selling 261,875 shares during the period. iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF makes up 0.9% of Truist Financial Corps investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th largest position. Truist Financial Corps holdings in iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF were worth $538,370,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Roble Belko & Company Inc acquired a new position in shares of iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF in the 4th quarter valued at $28,000. Sound Financial Strategies Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF during the 4th quarter worth about $30,000. New Millennium Group LLC grew its position in shares of iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF by 188.4% during the 4th quarter. New Millennium Group LLC now owns 323 shares of the companys stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 211 shares during the period. Compagnie Lombard Odier SCmA purchased a new position in shares of iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF in the 4th quarter valued at about $31,000. Finally, First Manhattan Co. raised its holdings in iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF by 697.9% in the 4th quarter. First Manhattan Co. now owns 375 shares of the companys stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 328 shares during the period. 80.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF Stock Up 0.8 %

AGG traded up $0.76 during trading on Friday, hitting $96.65. The companys stock had a trading volume of 2,796,505 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,144,945. iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF has a twelve month low of $93.20 and a twelve month high of $103.68. The businesss fifty day simple moving average is $97.79 and its 200 day simple moving average is $98.60.

iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF Profile

IShares are index funds that are bought and sold like common stocks on national securities exchanges as well as certain foreign exchanges. iShares are attractive because of their relatively low cost, tax efficiency and trading flexibility. Investors can purchase and sell shares through any brokerage firm, financial advisor, or online broker, and hold the funds in any type of brokerage account.

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Trust Co of Kansas acquired a new position in Cboe Global Markets, Inc. (BATS:CBOE  Free Report) in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 1,575 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $211,000.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. grew its position in Cboe Global Markets by 6.6% during the 1st quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 75,115 shares of the companys stock worth $10,083,000 after acquiring an additional 4,680 shares during the last quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. raised its holdings in Cboe Global Markets by 4.5% during the 1st quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 3,165 shares of the companys stock valued at $425,000 after buying an additional 135 shares during the last quarter. Essex Investment Management Co. LLC purchased a new stake in Cboe Global Markets during the 1st quarter valued at $851,000. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina grew its holdings in Cboe Global Markets by 7.7% in the 1st quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 74,103 shares of the companys stock worth $9,948,000 after acquiring an additional 5,270 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CX Institutional purchased a new position in shares of Cboe Global Markets in the first quarter valued at about $1,891,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.73% of the companys stock.

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Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CBOE has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on shares of Cboe Global Markets from $147.00 to $148.00 in a report on Monday, May 8th. Barclays started coverage on Cboe Global Markets in a research note on Wednesday, June 28th. They issued an equal weight rating and a $146.00 price target for the company. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a buy rating and issued a $175.00 price target on shares of Cboe Global Markets in a research note on Thursday, April 6th. StockNews.com began coverage on Cboe Global Markets in a report on Thursday, May 18th. They issued a hold rating for the company. Finally, Oppenheimer lifted their price target on shares of Cboe Global Markets from $147.00 to $156.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned 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 $143.33.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP John P. Sexton sold 2,999 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $138.00, for a total value of $413,862.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 16,793 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,317,434. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, EVP John P. Sexton sold 2,999 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Friday, June 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $138.00, for a total value of $413,862.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 16,793 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,317,434. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Joseph P. Ratterman sold 15,000 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $135.96, for a total value of $2,039,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 22,615 shares in the company, valued at $3,074,735.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 37,849 shares of company stock valued at $5,141,405 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.51% of the companys stock.

Cboe Global Markets Stock Performance

Shares of BATS:CBOE traded up $0.20 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $140.01. 933,352 shares of the companys stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 636,231. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a quick ratio of 1.21 and a current ratio of 1.21. Cboe Global Markets, Inc. has a one year low of $103.82 and a one year high of $139.00. The company has a market cap of $14.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 71.93 and a beta of 0.61. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $137.49 and a 200 day moving average of $136.51.

Cboe Global Markets (BATS:CBOE  Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Friday, May 5th. The company reported $1.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.87 by $0.03. Cboe Global Markets had a net margin of 5.77% and a return on equity of 20.05%. The business had revenue of $471.40 million for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $482.03 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.73 EPS. The businesss revenue for the quarter was up 12.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Cboe Global Markets, Inc. will post 6.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cboe Global Markets Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 31st were paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 30th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.43%. Cboe Global Marketss dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 98.97%.

About Cboe Global Markets

(Free Report)

Cboe Global Markets, Inc, through its subsidiaries, operates as an options exchange worldwide. It operates through six segments: Options, North American Equities, Europe and Asia Pacific, Futures, Global FX, and Digital. The Options segment trades in listed market indices. The North American Equities segment trades in listed U.S.

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U.S. Global GO GOLD and Precious Metal Miners ETF (NYSEARCA:GOAU  Get Free Report)s share price dropped 4.3% during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $16.82 and last traded at $16.82. Approximately 30,081 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 13% from the average daily volume of 34,383 shares. The stock had previously closed at $17.58.

U.S. Global GO GOLD and Precious Metal Miners ETF Price Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $92.35 million, a P/E ratio of 8.94 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a fifty day moving average of $17.22 and a 200 day moving average of $17.51.

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Institutional Investors Weigh In On U.S. Global GO GOLD and Precious Metal Miners ETF

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Bard Financial Services Inc. bought a new position in U.S. Global GO GOLD and Precious Metal Miners ETF during the first quarter worth $2,331,000. OLD Mission Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of U.S. Global GO GOLD and Precious Metal Miners ETF in the 4th quarter worth about $461,000. Finally, Stonebridge Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of U.S. Global GO GOLD and Precious Metal Miners ETF in the 1st quarter valued at about $36,000.

U.S. Global GO GOLD and Precious Metal Miners ETF Company Profile

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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PHNOM PENH, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia's anti-drug police have arrested six foreigners for allegedly trafficking illicit drug, confiscating nearly 790 kg of ketamine, the country's Anti-Drug Department (ADP) said in a news release on Friday.

The suspects, all males aged between 26 and 46, were apprehended on Tuesday during raids in the coastal city of Sihanoukville and the capital Phnom Penh, following a four-month probe, the ADP said.

"A total of 789.78 kilograms of ketamine was seized from the suspects during the raids," the ADP said, adding that four cars, two motorcycles, seven telephones and eight bank accounts were also impounded.

The Southeast Asian country has no death sentence for a drug trafficker. Under its law, someone found guilty of trafficking more than 80 grams of illicit drug could be jailed for life.

According to the ADP, Cambodia nabbed 10,167 drug-related suspects, including 215 foreigners, during the January-July period of 2023, seizing more than 979 kg of narcotics.

Most of the seized drugs were heroin, ecstasy, ketamine, cocaine, crystal methamphetamine, methamphetamine pills and cathinone. 
Ventas (NYSE:VTR  Get Free Report) updated its FY 2023 earnings guidance on Thursday. The company provided earnings per share (EPS) guidance of $2.92-$3.02 for the period, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.00. The company issued revenue guidance of -. Ventas also updated its FY23 guidance to $2.92-3.02 EPS.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have commented on the company. Raymond James upgraded Ventas from an outperform rating to a strong-buy rating and set a $55.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday, June 23rd. StockNews.com downgraded Ventas from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 26th. Barclays dropped their price target on Ventas from $57.00 to $55.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 25th. Mizuho dropped their price target on Ventas from $60.00 to $53.00 in a research report on Tuesday, May 30th. Finally, Credit Suisse Group decreased their price objective on Ventas from $51.00 to $50.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ventas has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $53.00.

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Ventas Stock Performance

Ventas Announces Dividend

Shares of NYSE:VTR traded down $0.26 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $48.22. 1,858,908 shares of the companys stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,190,001. The company has a market cap of $19.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -266.21, a P/E/G ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.23, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a current ratio of 0.63. Ventas has a one year low of $35.33 and a one year high of $53.15. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $46.72 and a 200 day moving average of $46.95.

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 13th. Investors of record on Monday, July 3rd were given a dividend of $0.45 per share. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.73%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 30th. Ventass dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -999.94%.

Insider Activity at Ventas

In related news, Director Walter C. Rakowich sold 1,242 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Friday, May 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.57, for a total transaction of $52,871.94. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 24,528 shares in the company, valued at $1,044,156.96. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 1.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ventas

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Fairfield Bush & CO. bought a new position in Ventas during the first quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Resurgent Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ventas in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $50,000. Belpointe Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Ventas by 99.3% in the 1st quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC now owns 1,427 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $62,000 after purchasing an additional 711 shares during the last quarter. ICA Group Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ventas in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $82,000. Finally, First Manhattan Co. lifted its stake in shares of Ventas by 885.9% in the 1st quarter. First Manhattan Co. now owns 1,400 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $86,000 after purchasing an additional 1,258 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.87% of the companys stock.

About Ventas

(Get Free Report)

Ventas Inc, an S&P 500 company, operates at the intersection of two large and dynamic industries healthcare and real estate. Fueled by powerful demographic demand from growth in the aging population, Ventas owns a diversified portfolio of over 1,200 properties in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

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Versor Investments LP cut its holdings in shares of Autoliv, Inc. (NYSE:ALV  Free Report) by 6.0% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 9,152 shares of the auto parts companys stock after selling 588 shares during the period. Versor Investments LPs holdings in Autoliv were worth $854,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. BlackRock Inc. lifted its position in Autoliv by 6.1% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 1,994,029 shares of the auto parts companys stock valued at $152,425,000 after purchasing an additional 113,949 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Autoliv by 21.0% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,814,404 shares of the auto parts companys stock valued at $138,693,000 after acquiring an additional 315,473 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Autoliv by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,413,529 shares of the auto parts companys stock valued at $108,248,000 after acquiring an additional 19,712 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC raised its position in shares of Autoliv by 292.3% in the 4th quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,146,435 shares of the auto parts companys stock valued at $87,794,000 after acquiring an additional 854,212 shares during the period. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. raised its position in shares of Autoliv by 403.8% in the 4th quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 987,896 shares of the auto parts companys stock valued at $75,653,000 after acquiring an additional 791,811 shares during the period. 57.29% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ALV has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Autoliv from $95.00 to $96.00 in a research report on Monday, July 10th. Mizuho increased their price target on shares of Autoliv from $96.00 to $106.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Monday, July 24th. Barclays increased their target price on Autoliv from $95.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 25th. Citigroup increased their target price on Autoliv from $97.00 to $99.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Friday, July 28th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Autoliv from $98.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Thursday, July 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $103.17.

Autoliv Price Performance

Shares of ALV opened at $100.72 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.54, a P/E/G ratio of 0.52 and a beta of 1.70. Autoliv, Inc. has a twelve month low of $65.74 and a twelve month high of $103.99. The company has a 50 day moving average of $89.79 and a 200-day moving average of $89.11. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50.

Autoliv (NYSE:ALV  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 21st. The auto parts company reported $1.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.41 by $0.52. The company had revenue of $2.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $2.55 billion. Autoliv had a net margin of 3.98% and a return on equity of 19.67%. The businesss quarterly revenue was up 26.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.90 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Autoliv, Inc. will post 6.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Autoliv Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 25th were issued a $0.66 dividend. This represents a $2.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.62%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, May 24th. Autolivs payout ratio is presently 58.93%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Jan Carlson sold 2,614 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $88.98, for a total value of $232,593.72. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 77,493 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $6,895,327.14. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Autoliv Profile

(Free Report)

Autoliv, Inc, through its subsidiaries, develops, manufactures, and supplies passive safety systems to the automotive industry in Europe, the Americas, China, Japan, and rest of Asia. It offers passive safety systems, including modules and components for frontal-impact airbag protection systems, side-impact airbag protection systems, seatbelts, steering wheels, and inflator technologies.

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Weave Communications, Inc. (NYSE:WEAV  Get Free Report) major shareholder Bessemer Venture Partners Ix L sold 37,789 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.65, for a total value of $440,241.85. Following the sale, the insider now owns 7,228,870 shares in the company, valued at approximately $84,216,335.50. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Large shareholders that own more than 10% of a companys shares are required to disclose their transactions with the SEC.

Bessemer Venture Partners Ix L also recently made the following trade(s):

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On Wednesday, July 26th, Bessemer Venture Partners Ix L sold 149,496 shares of Weave Communications stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.48, for a total value of $1,716,214.08.

On Monday, July 24th, Bessemer Venture Partners Ix L sold 1,500 shares of Weave Communications stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.10, for a total value of $16,650.00.

On Friday, July 21st, Bessemer Venture Partners Ix L sold 1,200 shares of Weave Communications stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.01, for a total value of $13,212.00.

On Wednesday, July 19th, Bessemer Venture Partners Ix L sold 8,541 shares of Weave Communications stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.13, for a total value of $95,061.33.

On Monday, July 17th, Bessemer Venture Partners Ix L sold 66,580 shares of Weave Communications stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.24, for a total value of $748,359.20.

Weave Communications Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of WEAV stock opened at $11.00 on Friday. Weave Communications, Inc. has a 1-year low of $3.74 and a 1-year high of $12.45. The stocks 50-day moving average is $9.82 and its 200 day moving average is $6.82. The company has a quick ratio of 2.05, a current ratio of 2.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Weave Communications ( NYSE:WEAV Get Free Report ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 3rd. The company reported ($0.12) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of ($0.15) by $0.03. Weave Communications had a negative return on equity of 38.54% and a negative net margin of 24.45%. The company had revenue of $39.57 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $37.71 million. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Weave Communications, Inc. will post -0.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

A number of research firms have weighed in on WEAV. Loop Capital upgraded Weave Communications from a hold rating to a buy rating and increased their target price for the stock from $5.00 to $13.00 in a research note on Monday, June 26th. Bank of America increased their target price on Weave Communications from $7.50 to $14.00 in a research note on Friday, June 30th. Raymond James raised their price target on Weave Communications from $6.00 to $13.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Friday, June 30th. Citigroup raised their price target on Weave Communications from $6.00 to $12.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Friday, July 28th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their price target on Weave Communications from $6.00 to $12.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Monday.

View Our Latest Stock Report on Weave Communications

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Weave Communications

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WEAV. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new stake in Weave Communications during the first quarter valued at about $98,000. Citigroup Inc. boosted its position in Weave Communications by 236.3% during the first quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 7,325 shares of the companys stock valued at $44,000 after purchasing an additional 5,147 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. boosted its position in Weave Communications by 31.6% during the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 135,395 shares of the companys stock valued at $807,000 after purchasing an additional 32,474 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC bought a new stake in Weave Communications during the first quarter valued at about $291,000. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Weave Communications by 116.7% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 86,024 shares of the companys stock worth $513,000 after acquiring an additional 46,333 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 53.73% of the companys stock.

Weave Communications Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Weave Communications, Inc provides a customer communications and engagement software platform in the United States and Canada. Its platform enables small and medium-sized businesses to maximize the value of their customer interactions and minimize the time and effort spent on manual or mundane tasks.

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Tri Pointe Homes (NYSE:TPH  Free Report) had its price objective hoisted by Wedbush from $30.00 to $36.00 in a research report report published on Tuesday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. They currently have an outperform rating on the construction companys stock. Wedbush also issued estimates for Tri Pointe Homes Q3 2023 earnings at $0.53 EPS, Q4 2023 earnings at $1.16 EPS, FY2023 earnings at $3.02 EPS, Q1 2024 earnings at $0.68 EPS, Q2 2024 earnings at $0.87 EPS, Q3 2024 earnings at $0.97 EPS, Q4 2024 earnings at $1.37 EPS, FY2024 earnings at $3.87 EPS, Q1 2025 earnings at $0.72 EPS, Q2 2025 earnings at $0.95 EPS and FY2025 earnings at $4.40 EPS.

Other research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. StockNews.com cut Tri Pointe Homes from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Friday, July 28th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft began coverage on Tri Pointe Homes in a research report on Wednesday, May 31st. They issued a buy rating and a $42.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Tri Pointe Homes from $29.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a sector perform rating in a research report on Friday, July 28th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $31.75.

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Tri Pointe Homes Stock Down 4.3 %

Tri Pointe Homes stock opened at $30.64 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $3.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.44, a PEG ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 1.48. The company has a current ratio of 2.18, a quick ratio of 2.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48. Tri Pointe Homes has a 12 month low of $14.59 and a 12 month high of $34.04. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $31.87 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $27.36.

Tri Pointe Homes (NYSE:TPH  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 27th. The construction company reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.55 by $0.05. Tri Pointe Homes had a return on equity of 17.37% and a net margin of 11.71%. The company had revenue of $819.08 million for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $703.67 million. Equities analysts predict that Tri Pointe Homes will post 3.1 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Lawrence B. Burrows sold 7,677 shares of Tri Pointe Homes stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $31.48, for a total transaction of $241,671.96. Following the sale, the director now owns 86,891 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $2,735,328.68. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CFO Glenn J. Keeler sold 21,413 shares of Tri Pointe Homes stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.01, for a total transaction of $706,843.13. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 102,194 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $3,373,423.94. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Lawrence B. Burrows sold 7,677 shares of Tri Pointe Homes stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.48, for a total value of $241,671.96. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 86,891 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,735,328.68. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 2.00% of the companys stock.

Institutional Trading of Tri Pointe Homes

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new stake in Tri Pointe Homes in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd bought a new position in shares of Tri Pointe Homes during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $45,000. Captrust Financial Advisors increased its position in shares of Tri Pointe Homes by 30.4% during the 1st quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 2,275 shares of the construction companys stock valued at $46,000 after purchasing an additional 531 shares during the last quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Tri Pointe Homes during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $78,000. Finally, Gibson Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Tri Pointe Homes by 6,200.0% during the 4th quarter. Gibson Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 5,670 shares of the construction companys stock valued at $99,000 after purchasing an additional 5,580 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.53% of the companys stock.

About Tri Pointe Homes

(Get Free Report)

Tri Pointe Homes, Inc engages in the design, construction, and sale of single-family attached and detached homes in the United States. The company operates through a portfolio of six regional home building brands comprising Maracay in Arizona; Pardee Homes in California and Nevada; Quadrant Homes in Washington; Trendmaker Homes in Texas; TRI Pointe Homes in California, Colorado, and the Carolinas; and Winchester Homes in Maryland and Northern Virginia.

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Floor & Decor (NYSE:FND  Get Free Report) had its price objective dropped by stock analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from $125.00 to $115.00 in a note issued to investors on Friday, FlyOnTheWall reports. Wells Fargo & Companys price objective suggests a potential upside of 9.52% from the companys current price.

A number of other research firms also recently commented on FND. Truist Financial began coverage on shares of Floor & Decor in a research note on Friday, June 23rd. They set a buy rating and a $120.00 price objective for the company. Telsey Advisory Group upped their price objective on shares of Floor & Decor from $85.00 to $105.00 in a research note on Friday. Credit Suisse Group reissued a neutral rating and set a $95.00 target price on shares of Floor & Decor in a research report on Friday. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of Floor & Decor from a buy rating to a hold rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $110.00 to $108.00 in a research report on Friday, July 21st. Finally, Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of Floor & Decor from $133.00 to $122.00 in a research report on Friday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $102.38.

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Floor & Decor Price Performance

FND stock traded down $6.05 during trading on Friday, hitting $105.00. The stock had a trading volume of 1,521,964 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,374,851. The companys 50 day moving average price is $102.77 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $96.39. Floor & Decor has a 1-year low of $63.51 and a 1-year high of $116.03. The stock has a market cap of $11.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 1.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 0.15 and a current ratio of 1.32.

Floor & Decor (NYSE:FND  Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 3rd. The company reported $0.66 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.66. Floor & Decor had a net margin of 6.86% and a return on equity of 18.37%. The firm had revenue of $1.14 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.15 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.76 EPS. The firms revenue for the quarter was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Floor & Decor will post 2.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Floor & Decor

In other news, EVP David Victor Christopherson sold 5,804 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.00, for a total transaction of $580,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 42,356 shares in the company, valued at $4,235,600. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other Floor & Decor news, CEO Thomas V. Taylor sold 18,656 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $115.00, for a total value of $2,145,440.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 177,891 shares in the company, valued at $20,457,465. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP David Victor Christopherson sold 5,804 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Friday, June 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.00, for a total value of $580,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 42,356 shares in the company, valued at $4,235,600. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 48,920 shares of company stock worth $5,323,160 over the last three months. 2.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Floor & Decor

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Brighton Jones LLC grew its holdings in shares of Floor & Decor by 1.0% during the second quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 11,300 shares of the companys stock worth $1,175,000 after purchasing an additional 111 shares during the last quarter. Salvus Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Floor & Decor by 0.3% during the second quarter. Salvus Wealth Management LLC now owns 42,259 shares of the companys stock valued at $4,393,000 after acquiring an additional 115 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Floor & Decor by 1.3% during the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 10,982 shares of the companys stock valued at $889,000 after acquiring an additional 141 shares during the period. Alliance Wealth Advisors LLC UT lifted its stake in shares of Floor & Decor by 4.6% during the first quarter. Alliance Wealth Advisors LLC UT now owns 3,362 shares of the companys stock valued at $330,000 after acquiring an additional 149 shares during the period. Finally, CWM LLC lifted its stake in shares of Floor & Decor by 23.6% during the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 848 shares of the companys stock valued at $88,000 after acquiring an additional 162 shares during the period.

About Floor & Decor

(Get Free Report)

Floor & Decor Holdings, Inc together with its subsidiaries, operates as a multi-channel specialty retailer and commercial flooring distributor in Georgia. The company offers tile, wood, laminate, vinyl, and natural stone flooring products, as well as decorative accessories, wall tiles, and installation materials and tools.

Further Reading

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Wilbanks Smith & Thomas Asset Management LLC lessened its stake in UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH  Free Report) by 3.7% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 28,514 shares of the healthcare conglomerates stock after selling 1,095 shares during the quarter. Wilbanks Smith & Thomas Asset Management LLCs holdings in UnitedHealth Group were worth $13,475,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Axiom Financial Strategies LLC bought a new stake in UnitedHealth Group during the first quarter valued at $210,000. McGowan Group Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in UnitedHealth Group by 8.9% during the 1st quarter. McGowan Group Asset Management Inc. now owns 744 shares of the healthcare conglomerates stock valued at $379,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares in the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its position in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 31.8% during the first quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 250,196 shares of the healthcare conglomerates stock worth $127,592,000 after acquiring an additional 60,300 shares in the last quarter. MAS Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 10.8% in the first quarter. MAS Advisors LLC now owns 463 shares of the healthcare conglomerates stock worth $241,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the period. Finally, First Western Trust Bank bought a new stake in shares of UnitedHealth Group in the 1st quarter valued at about $875,000. 92.61% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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UnitedHealth Group Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE:UNH traded up $0.71 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $505.51. 1,548,900 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,624,182. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a current ratio of 0.80. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated has a 52-week low of $445.68 and a 52-week high of $558.10. The firms 50 day simple moving average is $483.80 and its 200 day simple moving average is $485.56. The firm has a market cap of $470.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.59, a PEG ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 0.66.

UnitedHealth Group Increases Dividend

UnitedHealth Group ( NYSE:UNH Get Free Report ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 14th. The healthcare conglomerate reported $6.14 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $5.92 by $0.22. UnitedHealth Group had a net margin of 6.06% and a return on equity of 26.72%. The business had revenue of $92.90 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $90.97 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $5.57 earnings per share. UnitedHealth Groups revenue for the quarter was up 15.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that UnitedHealth Group Incorporated will post 24.83 EPS for the current year.

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 27th. Investors of record on Monday, June 19th were paid a $1.88 dividend. This is a positive change from UnitedHealth Groups previous quarterly dividend of $1.65. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, June 15th. This represents a $7.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.49%. UnitedHealth Groups payout ratio is currently 33.65%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have issued reports on UNH. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of UnitedHealth Group from $527.00 to $532.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Monday, July 17th. StockNews.com lowered UnitedHealth Group from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a report on Wednesday, June 14th. Cantor Fitzgerald assumed coverage on UnitedHealth Group in a report on Thursday, April 20th. They issued an overweight rating and a $591.00 target price on the stock. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of UnitedHealth Group from $510.00 to $520.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 19th. Finally, TD Cowen dropped their price target on UnitedHealth Group from $562.00 to $555.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Buy and a consensus target price of $579.89.

View Our Latest Stock Analysis on UNH

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other UnitedHealth Group news, CEO Andrew Witty sold 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $506.19, for a total value of $2,024,760.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 78,573 shares in the company, valued at $39,772,866.87. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.35% of the companys stock.

About UnitedHealth Group

(Free Report)

UnitedHealth Group Incorporated operates as a diversified health care company in the United States. It operates through four segments: UnitedHealthcare, Optum Health, Optum Insight, and Optum Rx. The UnitedHealthcare segment offers consumer-oriented health benefit plans and services for national employers, public sector employers, mid-sized employers, small businesses, and individuals; health care coverage, and health and well-being services to individuals age 50 and older addressing their needs; Medicaid plans, children's health insurance and health care programs; and health and dental benefits, and hospital and clinical services, as well as health care benefits products and services to state programs caring for the economically disadvantaged, medically underserved, and those without the benefit of employer-funded health care coverage.

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The Customs boss, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi MFR, on Thursday, 3rd August 2023, paid a courtesy visit to the Ag. Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, at the Force Headquarters, Abuja.

The visit sought inter-agencies' cooperation and collaboration to fast-track sustainable working relationships between the Nigeria Customs Service and Nigeria Police Force to ensure adequate security of lives and properties in the country.

Addressing the leadership of the Force, the Ag. CGC Bashir Adewale Adebiyi MFR congratulated the IGP on his appointment by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR and further expressed the commitment of NCS to join forces and fight the challenges of insecurity.

He also assured the IGP that Nigeria Customs is willing to learn more from the Nigeria Police Force in areas of investigation and other operations through coordinated capacity-building programs.

Criminal activities are inter-connected, thus a need for the two security agencies to collaborate to mitigate the menace of smuggling, which will help the Nigeria Customs Service to generate revenue for the nation. I will therefore request to build a strong relationship between the Nigeria Customs Service and the Nigeria Police Force. The CGC said.

According to him, the major issues that bother the two organizations can be mitigated through sharing intelligence to help achieve a common goal in the fight against criminals.

He also briefed the Ag. IGP on the proliferation of checkpoints from Mile 2 to Seme Border, saying that agencies responsible need to look into the possibility of rationalizing them.

CGC Adeniyi, however, said that the Nigeria Customs Service is considering using geospatial intelligence to monitor the borders.

The Ag. CGC expressed the willingness of the Nigeria Customs Service to sign a Memorandum of Understanding between the Service and the Nigeria Police Force.

Responding, the Inspector General of Police, Ag. IGP Kayode Egbetokun described the CGC's visit to the Force Headquarters as timely, affirming his readiness to unanimously establish a solid working bond with the Nigeria Customs Service.

The Ag. IGP, who congratulated the CGC on his appointment, appreciated his vibrant steps of re-branding the Service, adding that your bold steps to uplift the organization is well recognized by Nigerians, and you will surely succeed.

You are coming at a time that the Nigeria Police Force is committed to having strong collaboration with other security agencies. I want to inform you that we also share the vision of having a strong platform where all Services will interact, share intelligence and leverage on our different expertise.

He told the CGC that the best time to actualize the synergy is now, adding that the Nigeria Police Force is determined to form a system that appropriately responds to the dynamics of criminalities in the Country.

Corroborating the CGC's call on the state of Mile 2-Seme Checkpoints, the Ag. IGP proposed the need to constitute a joint tour of the area, adding that I will also be paying unscheduled visits to Mile 2-Seme axis.

He also ensured that the Nigeria Police Force would commit to dismantling illegal checkpoints on the affected roads.

He also promised to take their partnership to the crest, adding that forming a synergy to fight against criminals in some strategic places is much needed.
NANNING, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese medical aid team left south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region for Laos on Friday for a two-month ophthalmic surgery assistance mission.

The team consists of four doctors and four nurses from a prestigious hospital in Guangxi, and they are expected to conduct free cataract surgeries for local patients and help train local eye doctors.

The mission is jointly organized by the Guangxi regional health commission and the Lao Ministry of Health.

Since the launch of the mission in September 2022, Guangxi has dispatched 26 medical workers in three batches and performed 1,834 free cataract surgeries in Laos. 
Following the recent overthrow of a Democratically elected government in Niger Republic, which prompted the Nigerian Government to shut down the Nigeria-Niger borders, the Acting Comptroller-General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi MFR, has re-echoed President Tinubu's cardinal reason for taking the measure, saying that the exercise was not meant to infuse hardship on Nigerians.

The CGC, who was on a working visit to Illela Border Station on Friday morning to monitor and assess the implementation of the exercise, expressed delight with the level of compliance by the residents.

According to him, the measure was a decision taken by ECOWAS, which the Nigerian President chairs, adding that we are optimistic that this effort will yield positive results, and I must tell you that President Tinubu is committed to restoring peace in this axis.

He also said that the exercise would secure Nigeria's Democracy and social stability, considering the current state of uncertainty in the neighbouring Niger Republic.

Responding to questions from newsmen as to whether the exercise will affect Customs' mandate of generating revenue, the CGC said the Service is aware of the situation - and has already taken proactive measures to address it strategically.

He reiterated that the administration of President Ahmad Bola Tinubu is committed to protecting the well-being of the citizens and their businesses, saying that I have the optimism that borders will soon be opened and businesses of Nigerians will continue to thrive.

He said, President Tinubu, as a champion of the region, has measure responsibility to promote trade, and we are all aware that trade can't be achieved where there's no peace. However, considering what's happening in Niger, which affects the political stability of the sovereign nation, my mission here is to restate the directive of President Tinubu as the ECOWAS Chairman.

Similarly, the Comptroller-General had also engaged traditional rulers and other stakeholders at the Illela border.

Chairman Association of Customs License Agents, Alhaji Aminu Dan-Iya, who spoke on behalf of the stakeholders, consoled residents around the affected area and the entire stakeholders to understand the situation, stressing that the decision was for our benefit, thus no need to panic.

In another development, the CGC also paid a courtesy visit to Sarkin Gobir of Gwadabawa, Alhaji Lawali Muhammad Zayyana, to seek his support towards achieving the mandates of the service.

Addressing the Emir, the CGC told him that today, with our delegation, we are embarking on a journey to Illela Border Station to inspect and monitor the level of compliance of President Tinubu's order of closing borders and to also interact with the members of the border community.

While appreciating the traditional ruler for his sustained support to the Service, the CGC also commended his passion towards promoting good cordial relationships between the community and the operatives of the Service.

Responding, the Sarkin Gobir of Gwadabawa, Alhaji Zayyana, welcomed the CGC and his entourage while also taking him through the history of the Palace.

He felicitated with the CGC on his appointment and assured him of his Palace's unwavering support to ensure he spent a hitch-free tenure.

Having disputes could sometimes be seen as natural, but I wish to give assurance of my support to win over the residents of this Emirate. He concluded.
I am deeply troubled about the events that unfolded and are currently unfolding in Niger Republic. These events have complications and implications for our nation.

President Tinubu has just indicated to the National assembly on ECOWAS' proposed military action including penalties and sanctions against the coup participants in Niger Republic.

In the letter from the President, He informed the upper chamber that sanctions without exclusion to freezing utility services and closing land borders were imposed on Niger Republic at an emergency meeting.

Nigeria has an existing leadership role in West Africa. Most definitely, we must act. We as a nation should be very observant and cautious in our actions.

A military intervention in Niger would be resisted by the new military junta there as an invasion and as it stands it would be backed by Russia, China and possibly Mali or Burkina Faso. Nigeria is already messy enough to encroach in such events. It could turn out like what is currently happening in Ukraine.

Holistically, our economy can't carry the cost of such interventions in Niger Republic. We are still in an economic quagmire due to the hike in petrol and other essentials. Nigerians are not living adequately enough, there was a nationwide protest just recently due to hardship across the nation. We still have the menace of Boko Haram and other internal insecurities.

It is also important to note that Niger's coup is a part of a power tussle between the west and the others. Some have called likened it with a scramble for Africa.

Nigeria must be decisive at this point. The international community is very much aware of the occurrences and optimism aside, the world system deals more with selfish interests, especially at times of conflicts.

What are our options?

We must embrace dialogue and diplomatic tactics to deal with the present Niger Republic government. Obviously, we can't fight fire with fire, in this context, a democratic solution must be upheld to restore democracy there. President Tinubu took a right step in appointing General Abdulsalami Abubakar who is an experienced international mediator to negotiate with the Niger junta.

The coups occurring in Africa's Sahel region is a huge concern for us and other democracies. Also in dealing with these issues, we must look within.

British multinational drug-maker and biotechnology company, GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK) said Thursday that its operations in Nigeria will no longer involve commercialising its prescription drugs and vaccines. This is a major setback for our nation.

African countries in addressing potential conflicts or coups must embrace the real ethics of democracy which entails importance of the governed.

In all honesty, African leaders should treat this as a lesson which is essential for democracy to thrive in the continent.

Chinedum Anayo can be reached via [email protected]
Former Presidential Campaign Director-general of Peter Obis Labour Party, Doyin Okupe, has been lambasted on social media for his support of President Bola Tinubus proposed military invasion of the Niger Republic.

It was learnt that following Tinubus proposed military action and other penalties against the coup plotters in the Niger Republic, Okupe, in a post via Twitter, said there is a need to protect democracy, and Nigerians must not be quiet due to internal differences.

He noted that irrespective of who the president is, Nigerians and political leaders must unite in defence of the country.

However, some netizens perceived to be supporters of LP have frowned over Okupes call to support Tinubu.

@iamdlaw2 wrote: Doyin Okupe youre such a disappointment to whatever Peter Obi stands for. Hide your empty head in shame forever

@ToEnugu wrote: Doyin Okupe should have just kept quiet. The man who exhibited the highest level of political brigandage cannot be defended under the guise of patriotism

@OkaniEkene wrote: These old men will start a war for their selfish interests at the expense of the lives of our Youths. Doyin Okupe should look towards avoiding the war than making people lose their lives for an avoidable war

@_realkingsley wrote: Dear, Doyin Okupe, following your tweet that Niger rubbish Nigeria, I beg to disagree with you on that because they were specific. If you say they did, I have a realistic question for you: Why didnt they rubbish Ghana, Kenya, Zambia, Benin, Rwanda or Egypt? Why Nigeria?

@EzechiEmeka wrote: I never expected this from Egbon Doyin Okupe. Are you now CORNfilled?

@June12 wrote: What do you mean, it matters not who is president? It does matter. U should be advising Tinubu @officialABAT not to declare war against its neighbour. It matters who is president, becos he is the one with the final decision to declare war

@shyna4me wrote: This man!!!! You play too much. Who is coming after Nigerians sovereignty? Blulaba is the one encroaching the sovereignty of Niger.. abeg if u don chop dont be fused at this time. We have our issues has a country

@Manofwisdon wrote: Nigeria should wait for the repercussion, so you think you can west the blood of another countrys citizens and walk free? people learn when the consequences are severe

@HealTheWorldWi2 wrote: Have you ever been to niger ?..a country that animals feeds on paper that sand storm disturb regularlya country that most of the roads are not tile..where alot of Nigerians have inter merry and have businesses thereis that the country u are encouraging to be invade? Colos

@TOMTG15 wrote: Sir we honorably disagree with you on this, were not in any conflict with anyone. Nigeriens are very happy with their new government, so whats our problem with that? Tinubu wants war so the court case will be delayed
The Perspective

Atlanta, Georgia

Posated August 3, 2023



Former VP Boakai Admonished Liberians to Think Liberia, Love Liberia and Build Liberia

Mr. Winston Gould, Acting Chairman, Liberian Community Association of Rhode Island

Officers and members of the Liberian Community Association of Rhode Island

Me. Joe Norris, Chairman of JNB Movement of New England (Our host for todays program)

Officers and members of UP-USA & Canada present here & by extension on the Rescue Team

Foreign friends, fellow Librarians, Ladies, and Gentleman:

Officers and members of our collaborating parties

It is always my pleasure and joy to be warmly welcomed and commune with members of the Liberian Diaspora Community in the United States whenever I am here, even if on an unofficial business - as I am on this trip - to attend to family and personal matters. I must say, however, that this community of Liberians has a way of pushing you to the limit whenever it comes to the demand for a conversation on some of the vexing issues facing our country. It is in this light that I see a 36-hour notice to serve as an Independence Orator for this year's Independence celebration as quintessential Diasporan, even as important as this occasion is.

I am honored, however, to be invited to serve as the speaker for the celebration of the 176th independence anniversary of the founding of Liberia. The celebration of this anniversary in the United States is more than just a reflection of the day in the motherland as many of you nostalgically remember it many years back; it should also be a moment to ponder over the question of why after 176 years, we are still groping in the dark and not even a minimum reflection of the heights attained by the United States, a country from whom it is usually believed we got the inspiration of statehood.

During Christmas of 2015, as Vice President of Liberia, l prepared a Christmas Card and these were the words: Liberia is 168 years old, lets ask ourselves, are we where we should be, are we satisfied with where we are? From now on, THINK LIBERIA, LOVE LIBERIA, and BUILD LIBERIA. During Independence of 2016, I asked our one-time Interim President, the late Dr. Amos Sawyer, as to what are we celebrating, age or development? He did not respond.



Ladies and gentlemen, permit me to speak to you on this momentous occasion on the topic Society Rebrand: Creating an Equal Future for Liberians.

Although it has largely been romanticized as the establishment of the first black republic in Africa and a necessary project to escape the throes of slavery, and arguably the continents first self-governing country, the founding of Liberia was inspired by noble ideals; ideals of freedom, equality and human dignity; values intrinsic to the aspiration of all persons and their personal development.

But the unfolding formation of the Liberian state, in spite of the lofty ideals of the founders, was soon to be fraught with political, economic and social fissures - largely occasioned by bad leadership - that has and continues to threaten the very foundation of the country and the desire to create a just and fair society. As a result, state-building as opposed to nation-building became and continues to be the common object of the ruling elite, where the state is used as an agency for elite corruption and social and economic deprivation.



A Reflection

On the 176th anniversary of the founding of our country, it is fitting to reflect on our past; how far we have come, where we are and where we hope to go. Either by design or by error, we must admit that our system, as it were, has contributed in a way to many of the inequities in the country, thus, depriving many of our people of a voice in their own affairs, and of the opportunities for a better and dignified livelihood.

Politically, the central state system, where decisions about the affairs of the country are made in Monrovia, with little participation by other citizens across rural and urban communities, has been one of the major causes of inequality in society. It is not surprising, therefore, that the nature of our governance system is such that the Liberian state has become predatory, with few people illegitimately using the institutions of the state to accumulate and control wealth at the expense of the majority in society.

Instead of the ruling elite personalizing the resources of the state, a more participatory engagement in governance and decision-making by all Liberians in my view, guarantees a more wholesome and functioning society.

Similarly, the economic foundation of our development has left much to be desired as the nature of the Liberian economy underlies some of the strains in our society.

Liberia is largely an agrarian society with an abundance of natural resources. However, the majority of the active population operates in subsistence agriculture with little opportunity for growth. At its expense is a concession regime supported by Liberia's rich endowment of natural resources, where these commodities are extracted with little value addition. The irony is that while commodity extraction has supported the economy over the years and increased growth, such growth has been unequal because we have not plowed profits back into development to benefit the majority of our people.

Hence, growth without development - where economic growth based on commodity extraction has little to show in terms of palpable development for the public good. The result is that only a few people benefit, while the majority, many of whom work in the less-supported agrarian sector are left out. With a third or more of the population poor, and a historic rural neglect despite abundant resources, it calls for a substantial rethinking of how we do business and order our society.

It can equally be argued that the political and economic foundations of the Liberian state have also provided the undercurrents of social tensions in our society. Age-old political patronage and huge economic and wealth disparity, have created a social gulf between a few groups of people, their social, political, and economic networks, and a large section of the population, many of whom live far below the poverty line. With the delivery of social services including health and education highly unequal, the result is public mistrust of the governing elite, a poor relationship between the state and its citizens, and political and other social conflicts.



Rebranding the Society and Looking Forward to an Equitable Future

After 176 years of independence, it appears improbable to change the very nature of an old country like Liberia with all the trappings of a society much afflicted by the vestiges of an old order rooted partly in the origin of the state. But it is possible!



I believe with the right leadership to mobilize citizens to work, we can make the changes required to transform the country and ensure an equitable society. Given my experience, years of interaction and knowledge about Liberians at all levels of society, I know for sure, we deeply love our country, and long for genuine peace, reconciliation and development. We, therefore, must make the hard decisions necessary to begin the steps of transformation.

First, the crises of Liberia are crises of governance. It does not take much for an observer of the Liberian Society to understand that much of the countrys problems are intrinsically related to governance. This is why addressing the issues of governance is foremost. We must act with deliberate resolve that governance will not be the exclusive preserve of a few people, and that the nature of governing, as it is, must be improved to include the broad participation of the people, including those in rural communities, in the decision-making process.

This means the constitutional review process and reforms initiated by our government in the last term, which include decentralization, local service delivery, and local government should be fast-tracked. When people are able to determine their welfare and seek their own solutions based on local context, the impact becomes more concrete. It is my view that when governance is shared, marginalization is much more tamed and equity becomes more visible. Similarly, strong governance outcomes are obtained with a focus on democratic tenets such as accountability, transparency, the rule of law, and functional and capable institutions that are able to provide effective public service. When society shares the values of good and participatory governance it becomes more functional.

Second, the economy must be made to work for everyone. It means pursuing a diversified economy that leverages the countrys comparative advantage in agriculture in particular, where more than 70% of the labor force operates. With 60% of the population made up of young people, the demographic dividend on the economy as a result of effectively deploying this cohort, especially in agriculture, will not only increase productivity but mitigate poverty nationwide. I believe as the economy opens up, and more Liberians become involved, economic wealth can then be leveraged to promote a just and equitable society, where every Liberian can live a dignified life.

Third, historical social cleavages based on political, economic, social, and cultural lines, and other stereotypes are adversarial to the values of an equitable society. It is common knowledge that these cleavages particularly defined the relationships between the descendants of the settler class who founded the state and their African kinsmen along the Pepper Coast. In later years, cleavages were perpetrated by ethnic dominance in politics. But as I have mentioned, providing equal opportunity to all Liberians in all spheres of national life including the economy and governance removes these cleavages and mitigates their associated tensions. In addition, access to social services such as quality education and healthcare will help develop well-grounded citizens including a capable and productive labor force able to thrive in a society based on merit. More importantly, reconciliation and nation-building, with a common national aspiration will serve as guardrails against social tensions and conflicts.

Leveraging Relationship with the United States

Liberias relationship with the United States is spoken about in glorious terms by every Liberian, myself included. But as we celebrate 176 years since our founding, we are yet to show how we have made this traditional relationship work for us in ways that have helped transform the country. This is not to suggest, however, that I am not cognizant of the debate over the dynamics of nearly two centuries of a relationship nurtured across the Atlantic. But given the long relationship, it is a bit discomforting to be found debating about how we as a country are still struggling to come to terms with the extent to which we think the relationship might benefit us.

I believe we deserve more, but it is my view that we cannot ask the United States to do for us what we can do for ourselves, including leveraging the relationship for the good of our country. For example, how might we expect American taxpayer money to support our development when government officials embezzle public funds with impunity and government officials personally pocket taxes raised locally, or, why do we not speak up when the rule of law is violated but expect America to raise her voice on our behalf?

I am of the fervent conviction that we can make the relationship work when we properly partner with the United States in ways that promote an equitable society. In this light, working with the US to build our democracy, end the culture of corruption and impunity, and to promote deep economic and cultural cooperation, while collaborating on serious global challenges like climate change and international security cooperation will help lift the relationship to a level beneficial to both countries.

The Role of the Diaspora Community

The role of the Diasporan community in the United States is also crucial in the effort to build an equitable society and to help improve the country's political, economic and social conditions. Over the last few decades, a steady stream of Liberians immigrating to the United States has built a sizable and strong community, which for many years has left an indelible mark on Liberias political, economic and social life. I believe you still have a pivotal role to play and can be an important partner in rebranding the country and improving our society.

As they say, you must put your money where your mouth is. That means you must lend your wealth, expertise, skills and your network to this effort. I understand this is not a one-way street. You have concerns about security, infrastructure, utilities, healthcare, education, etc. I can promise you that I will work with all Liberians to create an enabling environment that would support you to thrive and contribute to the development of our beloved country.



Conclusion

Ladies and gentlemen, our country is at a crossroads. Liberia holds so much promise, but that promise, as envisaged originally by the founders, has faced many stumbling blocks over a century of statehood. Many of these problems are foundational and have their roots in the origin of its unique statehood in Africa. But many more have been the result of recent deficiencies in leadership. I have said on many occasions that Liberia is not a poor country, but the problem of this country is mainly triggered by the lack of sound and honest leadership. It is this leadership we promise the Liberian people and together we can build a country with a vision aimed at promoting a functional and equitable society for generations to come.



We can when we begin to Think Liberia, Love Liberia, and then Build Liberia. Now is the time.



I wish you and all Liberians back home and in the rest of the Diaspora a HAPPY 26th.



May God bless us all and save our country.
Chinese arrivals to Phuket spike in July

PHUKET: Direct arrivals to Phuket from Mainland China have reached 74,766 visitors in July, showing an impressive 70% growth compared to June, according to the most recent report by the Phuket office of the Immigration Bureau. The overall volume of Chinese tourists is even higher, as the report only includes tourists passing passport clearance at Phuket International Airport and doesnt include those making a stop in Bangkok before proceeding to the island.

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By The Phuket News

Friday 4 August 2023 03:50 PM

The 74,766 visitors from China show impressive growth compared to the previous months: March  45,147 visitors; April  46,697; May  37,949; June  44,066.

As reported by Phuket Immigration today (Aug 4), arrivals from other top source markets did not show any drastic changes compared to June. The main suppliers of tourists for the island in July were:

China  74,766 (vs 44,066 in June);

Russia  35,521 (vs 25,947);

Australia  24,761 (vs 21,902);

India  17,224 (vs 20,223);

Hong Kong  13,817 (vs 15,234 from Singapore).

A total of 320,264 arriving international passengers passed through Phuket Immigration counters at the airport in July compared to 248,325 in June, meaning a 29% surge in direct arrivals from abroad.

Not fully satisfied with the pace of the recovery, Thai tourism operators have already urged the authorities to reintroduce a visa fee waiver scheme for Indians and Chinese to boost arrivals from these two countries. The call has been publicly supported by Marisa Sukosol Nunbhakdi, President of the Thai Hotels Association (PHA), and Sisdivachr Cheewarattanaporn, President of the Association of Thai Travel Agents (ATTA).

Mr Sisdivachr said that once the government is formed, it should immediately introduce the visa fee waiver scheme for at least three months, as seen in 2014 and 2018, Bangkok Post reported earlier this week.

Foreign crime report

Having already outnumbered Russians in terms of arrivals, Chinese nationals are still only second in the ranking of foreign nationals being screened in the ongoing Crime-free Phuket campaign conducted by Phuket Immigration.

According to the Phuket Overstay Report released on Aug 4, a total of 321 addresses were checked by Phuket Immigration officers in July (compared to 586 in June), and 553 foreign nationals were screened for possible immigration-related violations (compared to 867 in June).

The top five nationalities in terms of screening were as follows:

Russia  260 people;

Myanmar  94;

China  71;

UK  57;

France  37.

A total of 17 foreigners were arrested and prosecuted in July for various violations related to Phuket Immigration (compared to 30 in June), according to the report.

Among those were eight cases of Immigration Act violations (including five cases of overstay and two cases of illegal entry into the country), one case of fraud, one case of illegal firearm possession, and three cases of illegal entry.

Additionally, four foreign nationals were arrested on outstanding warrants, which usually include people on Interpols Red List as well.

There were 23 cases of Immigration Act breach including 14 cases of overstay processed by Phuket Immigration in June.
Fireworks couple hiding in Malaysia

BANGKOK: The two owners of a fireworks warehouse that exploded recently in Narathiwat have been hiding out in Malaysia, police confirmed yesterday (Aug 3). Their business is allegedly connected to influential figures in the southern Thai province, reports said.

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By Bangkok Post

Friday 4 August 2023 09:59 AM

An aerial view of the buildings damaged by the fireworks explosion that killed 12 people and injured dozens in Narathiwats Sungai Kolok on July 29. Photo: Border Patrol Police Unit 4414

Pol Maj Gen Anurut Im-arb, the Narathiwat police chief, told the media that Sompong Nakul, 42, and his wife, Piyanuch Peungwirawat, 42, have not contacted officers to turn themselves in.

The couple were summoned due to the explosion at their warehouse on July 29 in tambon Muno, which killed 12 people, injured 121 and damaged 292 houses.

A source said the couple are backed by local politicians whose business involves smuggling fireworks, cigarettes, liquor, narcotics and workers, reports the Bangkok Post.

The source mentioned that, back in 2016, they had been arrested for storing and selling 60 tonnes of fireworks and other flammable materials without a permit. However, the prosecutor did not file the case with the provincial court.

Specifically, high-profile activist Achariya Ruengrattanapong requested an investigation into Laem Chabang Port Customs Office, the Royal Thai Paramilitary Force in Muno subdistrict, and officials from the Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc) and 4th Army Region.

He said bringing fireworks into Narathiwat - a province governed by an emergency decree and Internal Security Act - would require approval from the Isoc. It remains unclear whether bribes were involved.

National police chief Pol Gen Damrongsak Kittiprapas later acknowledged Mr Achariyas letter and said officers are probing the previous arrest of the factorys owners in 2016 to see if they had a legitimate licence to transport fireworks into the area.

Narathiwat governor Sanan Pongaksorn said most of the injured victims had returned home from the shelter as they were concerned about their property.

He said boxes of donations have been installed in front of the survivors houses after some donors complained they were sceptical about donations made via less than transparent public agencies.

Acting Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha will reportedly fly to Narathiwat today to visit the site.
ISTANBUL, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Turkish police detained 17 suspects related to the Islamic State (IS) during a simultaneous operation against the militant group at five addresses in four districts in the city, the NTV television reported on Friday.

The operation came after counter-terror police designated the individuals believed to have connections with the IS and conflicts in Syria and Iraq, according to the report.

The IS has claimed a number of deadly attacks in Turkiye, and the Turkish counter-terrorism units, in response, have been frequently conducting operations against the group. 
Russian man drowns at Surin Beach

PHUKET: A 41-year-old Russian was pronounced dead after being pulled from the surf at Surin Beach late yesterday afternoon (Aug 3).

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By Eakkapop Thongtub

Friday 4 August 2023 09:37 AM

Photo: Phuket Tourist Police

He was the second man to drown at Surin Beach since last Sunday, and became the fifth victim to drown in dangerous surf along Phukets west coast in the past week.

Tourist Police stationed at Phuket airport were informed at 6:40pm that a man had been pulled from the surf at Surin Beach. The man had no pulse, police were told.

Officers arrived to find lifeguards performing CPR on the man. He was rushed to Thalang Hospital but later pronounced dead, police reported.

Officers were told that the man had ignored red flags posted along the beach, marking areas where it is too dangerous to swim.

The man, later identified as Aleksandr Iunemen, had travelled to Phuket with relatives. He was staying at a hotel near Surin Beach, Tourist Police reported.

The Russian Consulate in Phuket had been informed of the incident, police said.

Mr Iunemens death at Surin Beach yesterday was the fifth drowning death at Phuket west coast beaches in the past week.

Two Indian men drowned at Karon Beach on Tuesday (Aug 1).

Earlier that same day local residents found the body of a 44-year-old Thai man from Phatthalung who disappeared amid large waves at Surin Beach last Sunday (July 30). His body was found washed up on rocks about a kilometre away two days later.

Last Friday, (July 28), a 22-year-old man from Senegal was pulled out to sea by a strong current at Freedom Beach, south of Patong. His body was found washed ashore two days later.

LIfeguards have repeatedly urged all beach-goers to observe lifeguards warnings and any red no swimming flags posted on the beach, marking areas where it is too dangerous to enter the water.

Following the spate of drownings earlier this week, a provincial order was issued on behalf of the Phuket Governor on Wednesday (Aug 2).

The order empowers police, Tourist Police and local officials to support lifeguards when it comes to people ignoring red flags on the beach and ignoring lifeguards warnings.
Manipur discussion in Parliament on Aug 11 Eyes on the two MPs

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How well prepared are Lok Sabha MP RK Ranjan and Rajya Sabha MP Leishemba Sanajaoba to present the case of Manipur, when the ethnic violence here comes up for discussion on the floor of Parliament on August 11 ? One certainly would not want to listen to rhetoric and half baked assertions when the issue comes up for discussion and this is where questions ought to be raised on whether the two MPs have got their records straight or any information that would help the case of Manipur. Statistics dont lie and the question is whether the two MPs have the figures that can and should negate the victim story that has been peddled around for too long. The Parliament is the right place to set the record straight and for this, it is important that the correct information is supplied to them. This is where the different civil society organisations which have been at the forefront batting for the existence of Manipur as a distinct geo-political reality should be in the position to supply or supplement the data available with them. Go back to May 3, 2023 or the immediate days preceding May 3 and enlighten Parliament on the charged atmosphere under which the Tribal Solidarity March was held. If possible present photographic evidences of gun toting elements taking part in the rally, which was otherwise taken out under the banner of a Tribal Solidarity March. Highlight the fact too that violence broke out only at Churachandpur and quickly spread to Kangpokpi and Moreh while the said rally wounded up peacefully in the Naga dominated districts of Senapati, Chandel, Tamenglong and Ukhrul. If it was a rally against any policy of the State Government then why target the houses of Meitei civilians at Torbung, for remember the trouble started at Torbung and the violence that erupted at Imphal and elsewhere was in retaliation to what happened at Torbung. It was the burning of the Churches which was highlighted with so much effect that it figured in the European Parliament and this is where the two MPs would need to point out how places of worship of the Meiteis were first desecrated at Churachandpur and how Kondong Lairembi at Moreh was vandalised and dismantled. The different CSOs should provide the needed figures of temples and places of worship of the Meiteis which have been desecrated. Just talks will not do for it would be important for the two MPs to present facts backed by figures.

Present it on the floor of Parliament that Thanglian Pau, the president of the Zomi Revolutionary Army is a former Member of Parliament in Myanmar. That the Centre is in talk with an outfit headed by a person of Myanmar origin is a point that needs to be presented in Parliament. Present the facts and one can then see how Delhi responds to the facts and not merely to the extremely one sided stories that have been sold by the media of mainland India. The issue is Manipur and it is important that the people representing the State on the floor of Parliament make a strong case for Manipur. The issue should not be allowed to be hijacked by anyone and this is where it becomes important for all concerned to accept that MPs from Mizoram would probably make a strong pitch to realise their aspiration of a Greater Mizoram. This move should be anticipated and the required steps should be taken up accordingly. Of the three MPs from Manipur, one is a Naga, a community which has remained neutral, but it is important for Manipur and the different CSOs here to see what inputs he may give when the violence on Manipur comes up for discussion on the floor of Parliament. As an MP representing the NPF from Outer Manipur, the position of Dr Lorho Pfoze on the question of illegal immigrants should be clear to all but it remains to be seen how Manipur goes about trying to capitalise on this.
RIMS Executive Council Meeting held

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Imphal, Aug 4 : The 50th Executive Council Meeting of Regional Institute of Medical Sciences, Imphal was held on August 1 at Nirman Bhawan, New Delhi under the chairmanship of Sudhansh Pant, Secretary of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India.

Prof G Sunil Kumar Sharma, Director, RIMS, Imphal; Prof N Sanjib Singh, Medical Superintendent, RIMS Hospital, Imphal and other officials from the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India also attended the meeting, said RIMS in a release.

During the meeting, RIMS authority placed for approval to procure new instruments like Digital Subtraction Angiography (DSA), MRI machine, Lumenis Pulse 120H Holmium Laser System (Moses Technology) for Urology in public interest. They also demanded free medicines and Test facilities for in-patient/admitted patients, CGHS/EHS like facilities for RIMS employees among others.
The Kukis in Manipur

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Lt Col M Ranjit Singh (Retd), ex-President, Manipur Equestrian Association

Contd from previous issue

The administration of hill areas of Manipur during the reign of kings and after annexation of Manipur by the British and just before the World War 1 was not very close, and the Kukis, ruled as they were by their own well-recognised Chiefs, and treated, as they had been in the past at any rate, by the Manipur State as allies almost as much as subjects, managed their own affairs in their own way and had recourse to the courts only in exceptional cases.

In conflict situations, the Kukis carry out massacre on a fairly large scale from deliberate frightfulness adopting that method of cowing down the other side. The best example of such types of massacre had happened during the Kuki Rebellion in 1917-18 at Kashom, a Tangkhul village. They murdered 40 persons from that Village on the plea that the villagers had refused to give rice when demanded by them. The Khullakpas wife was presented with the severed head of her husband. The Kukis in large numbers use to settle at Lushai Hills, the present Mizoram State. They were driven out from there during the beginning of nineteenth century and settled at North Cachar Hills. They were known as the Old Kukis. Fifty years later another group known as the New Kuki also migrated from Lushai Hills to Cachar and North Cachar Hills.

The Lushais butchered 20 Kuki Chiefs then living with them in Lushai Hills (Mizoram), in revenge for the loss caused by the exodus of the new Kukis. The British armed some of the new Kukis and settled them in Cachar to fight against the Lushais. The British even raised a Kuki Levy of 40 Kukis.

The Levy under Mangjahu Kuki killed many mutineers from 34 Bengal Native Infantry at Cachar during the Sepoy Mutiny in 1857-58. Later this Kuki Levy was absorbed to 2nd Assam Rifles. In the book Gazetteer of Manipur written by Captain EW Dun and published in 1886, he mentioned the names of around thirty new Kuki villages in Churachandpur which was found by him during his survey. The emigrants of these new Kuki villages mostly Simtes were all from Mizoram. Chengjapao Dongel, a Kuki Chief and a leader during the Kuki Rebellion was from Aishan in Naga Hills. He was thrown out from Naga Hills by Captain Wood, DC of Naga Hills in 1909 and settled in Manipur.

After his release from detention after the Kuki Rebellion he was not allowed to settle in Naga Hills. Maharaj Churachand allowed him to settle in the Saikhul area.

The present Kuki invested areas of Saikhul was expanded during his lifetime. In a resolution passed by Manipur State Darbar on May 13, 1917, William Pettigrew was given a temporary permission to start a school and a Church in the present Kangpokpi area. Since the Kangpokpi village did not exist then, the allotment letter says the allotment was in general area of Lam No. 5. A Survey of India map of general areas of Kangpokpi area published in 1930s had only Songyangjang as the existing village in that area. The name of Kangpokpi does not exist in that map. The Census Report of Manipur of 1951 records the existence of 13 houses and a population of 64 in Kangpokpi area.

One can imagine the numbers of migrants both legal and illegal who must have settled in that area since 1950s. A post in the social media regarding influx of large numbers of Kuki refugees from Burma to Kongan area in Ukhrul during 1968 went viral just at the start of present crisis in Manipur. No further research could be done on this viral message due to ongoing uncertainties in Manipur.

It can be seen from the above account that large numbers of Kukis have settled in Manipur since long time. They are Manipuri Kukis. But there are many more illegal Kuki settlers in Manipur who have never applied for permission to settle in Manipur. They must apply for permission and obtain from the competent authorities and should settle on sites specially assigned to them for the purpose. Those persons not having permission should be sent back to their original country.

Before I conclude my article, I must add a point concerning the present conflict going on in Manipur. The present conflict created by the Kukis in Manipur are similar to the Kuki Rebellion of 1918-19. The rebellion then started with much bravado and high hope had fizzled out in short time.

All the leading Kuki leaders were either killed or apprehended. Failed in their mission, they then put the entire blame for the start of their so called rebellion on Chingakham Sanajaoba, a Meitei.

Likewise when the present chaos created by them cannot sustain for a long time as they wanted, they would point finger to someone and blame him for the start of present conflict. The most likely candidate for their blame game will be the present Chief Minister of Mizoram.


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MADRID, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- Members of the Catalan regional police force (Mossos d'Esquadra) arrested two men in the north-west of Spain late on Wednesday after a Russian family reported a robbery with value over 8 million euros (8.75 million U.S. dollars).

The Mossos d'Esquadra confirmed that the robbery took place on Wednesday evening close to the city of Girona as the family of Russian tourists were waiting in the check-in area at Terminal 1 at Barcelona's El Prat airport.

According to the police, the suspected thieves made off with a Louis Vuitton designer handbag containing a haul of jewelry and high-value watches belonging to the family, which in terms of value is thought to be the biggest robbery of its kind in Spain.

Among the items in the handbag were a golden ring weighing 47 carats, which is estimated worth over 5 million dollars, and 20,000 euros in cash. The family immediately notified the Mossos of the robbery and quickly identified the 41 and 54-year-old thieves after scanning footage from security cameras.

The police also discovered the type of car the thieves were travelling in, its registration and the direction it took upon leaving the airport. That allowed the police to block their attempted escape, make the arrests and recover the bag and its contents within a couple of hours after the robbery. 
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee will go to Jangalmahal on 9 August to take part in a distribution programme. Miss Banerjee will take part in the International Day of the Worlds Indigenous Peoples on 9 August at Jhargram. She will be accompanied by the chief secretary HK Dwivedi and senior officials of the tribal welfare department and backward classes welfare department.

She will reach Jhargram on 8 August and take part in the distribution programme on 9th. She will spend two nights in Jangalmahal. Miss Banerjee will distribute caste certificates and other facilities to the beneficiaries. Jhargram district administration has taken special drive to issue caste certificates. Within the next couple of days the district administration will achieve the target of issuing 2 lakh caste certificates.

Getting caste certificates was a major problem before Trinamul Congress came to power in 2011. The people belonging to SC and ST categories had to run from pillar to post to get caste certificates. As they could not get caste certificates on time, they had to forgo many facilities. Babulal Mahato, SDO (sadar) Jhargram said forms needed to get caste certificates were sent to the beneficiaries. Once they fill up the forms, they are verified and the certificates are issued.

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Application forms had also been distributed from Duare Sarkar camps. Maoists were very active in Jhargram during the Left Front regime. Miss Banerjee went to the area and won the confidence of people. The tourists have started visiting the area once again and now Jhargram is one of the sought after tourist destinations in Bengal. Miss Banerjee will be put up at Jhargram Rajbari. She is likely to hold a meeting with local Trinamul leaders.

The party did well in the recently-concluded panchayat election. Senior administrative officials today reviewed the security arrangements around the area. Because of Miss Banerjees initiative, a college, a super specialty hospital and a flyover has come up in Jhargram.
Didi led the way. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee was one of the first to greet the news. The news that the Supreme Court had today stayed a Gujarat lower court order sentencing Rahul Gandhi to two years imprisonment in a criminal defamation case. The apex court questioned why Rahul Gandhi was given a sentence of two years which stripped him of his MPship. The SCs stay paved the way for the restoration of Gandhis MPship in Parliament. Didis congratulatory tweet read, I am happy with the news of the MPship of Rahul Gandhi. This will further strengthen the resolve of the INDIA alliance to fight for our motherland and win. A victory of the judiciary.

For those who are just tuning in, a criminal case of defamation was filed against the Congress leader before the Parliamentary polls of 2019 after he made a denigrating comment during an election campaign about those whose surnames were Modi. Gandhi was sentenced to two years imprisonment by the Court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Surat on March 23 this year and this led to his disqualification as a Member of Parliament. Later, this sentence however was suspended and he was granted bail. This enabled him to file an appeal against his conviction within thirty days. The Supreme Courts order restored his MPship.

Mamatas comments are reminiscent of her statement during the second round of Opposition Unity discussions in Bengaluru on July 18  the day that the acronym I.N.D.I.A was coined  that Rahul was her favorite.

Her tweet today welcoming the Supreme Court order strengthens speculations in political circles that Mamata will not be unwilling to accept Rahul as a possible Prime Ministerial candidate if the INDIA alliance is able to defeat the BJP-led NDA government in the Parliamentary elections of 2024.

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Interestingly, the INDIA alliance has truly turned the tables for the relationship between Trinamool and Congress in West Bengal. Political analysts recall the Assembly Elections of 2016 when the Communist Party of India (Marxists) and the Congress forged an alliance to fight Trinamool. Who can forget how Rahul Gandhi had flown to Kolkata to share the stage with CPIM leader and former West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattachary and embraced one another in a show of solidarity to take on Mamata? said veteran Bengal political analyst Tarun Ganguly.

Of course, in Bengal, the CPIM and the Congres are still together and last heard they are still rivaling Didi in the state. The equations dont change for West Bengal, CPIM leader Sujan Chakraborty had told The Statesman in an interview after the alliance was forged in the first Opposition Unity meeting in Patna on June 23. He added, The CPIM is in an alliance which has been formed in order to fight the BJP in the Centre and the Trinamool happens to be one of the partners. In the state the CPIM will continue to politically rival Trinamool.

Congress leader and Bengal Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury too had said that the status quo would remain as far as equations between Trinamool and the Congress in the state was concerned.

However, with the camaraderie between Trinamool and Congress growing stronger by the day as far as the Centre is concerned, by the time the Parliamentary elections come around less than a year from now, will the CPIM, Congress and Trinamool be on the same side in the state too? Only time will tell.
Sunil Mondal, MP from Bardhaman (Purba), allegedly slapped a toll plaza employee near Burdwan town yesterday. A video footage of the incident showing him assaulting the man leaked from the plaza on the NH-19 and went viral last evening.

Mondal, as he claimed, was on his way to Mongalkote from Kolkata by car to attend a virtual inauguration by the chief minister yesterday when the incident occurred. He, however, denied that hed either attacked or slapped Ujjwal Singh Sardar, the toll-plaza employee at Palsit.

The MP said: I just went to convince him that I was their MP and my car was entitled to enjoy toll-free service.

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He further claimed: If anyone could show me a footage that Id attacked the youth unprovoked, Id resign from my Parliamentarian post, for sure.

The video shows that Mondals white car was stopped by the staff after it hit the no entry post. The staff was seen instructing the car driver to buy toll ticket and in just 10 seconds Mondal was seen getting down the vehicle angrily and without any arbitration, he slapped the staff. A depressed Ujjwal said: He thrashed me just because Id asked him to follow the rule.
Stating that the case has rocked the entire banking system, the Supreme Court on Friday rejected the bail plea of YES Banks founder Rana Kapoor on Friday.

The apex court also questioned why the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is taking so long to investigate the YES Bank scam pertaining to Rs 3,642-crore.

Rejecting the bail application, Justice Sanjiv Khanna stated, This case rocked the Indian banking system. YES Bank went into difficulty and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had to step in to protect investors.

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You have to take cases on priority where there are heavy stakes and a large number of persons involved. There is something wrong if the ED investigation is taking so long, he added.

Representing the ED, the Additional Solicitor General (ASG) said, There are hundreds of shell companies. The investigation is taking a long time because we are trying to get information from foreign countries.

Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who was appearing for Rana Kapoor, told the court, The bank was put in difficulty but thats no reason to keep a man behind bars indefinitely. Hes been behind bars since March 8, 2020. He has been incarcerated for over three years and has undergone more than the minimum sentence possible.

Responding to this, the ASG informed the court that it is a complicated investigation.

When the court stated that it saw no need to intervene in the case, Abhishek Singhvi said that this is a never-ending investigation and that the PMLA court is overburdened.

Singhvi has also further said there was no loss of public funds and that Rana Kapoor demitted office in 2019.

The DHFL money laundering case pertains to mis-selling of the banks AT1 (Additional Tier-1) bonds to retail investors by the YES banks officials.

It was alleged that the bank and certain executives did not inform investors of the risk involved while selling the AT-1 bonds in the secondary market that began in 2016 and continued till 2019.

Founder Rana Kapoor has been imprisoned since March 2020.
The Supreme Court on Friday refused to grant interim bail, for now, to the former Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi, Manish Sisodia as it said that the plea for interim bail would be taken up along with plea for regular bail in the week commencing from September 4.

A bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice S V Bhatti listed the matter for September and asked the ED to explain the money trail involved in the case as well as policy decisions.

The court took note of the CBI affidavit wherein it has been said that Sisodias wife has been suffering from the disease for the last 23 years.

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Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Sisodia explained that his wifes health has recently deteriorated leading to her hospitalisation and she is facing various issues including walking difficulty. But the court was not convinced and said that it will examine it on the next date of hearing.

The court also asked Additional Solicitor General S V Raju to give a clear picture on the aspects relating to the money trail involved in the matter. The court noted that the agencys affidavit does not give clear pictures on this aspect.

It also granted more time to the Enforcement Directorate to file an affidavit in the matter.

The CBI, in its affidavit, has opposed the bail plea of Sisodia, stating that he is the kingpin and architect of the conspiracy in liquor policy irregularities. The health condition of the wife of Manish Sisodia is nothing new as her treatment has been ongoing for 23 years as mentioned by him.

Sisodia had also approached the Delhi High Court for interim bail on the ground of his wifes health condition, which he later withdrew, after it was pointed out before the high court that Sisodia had suppressed vital facts relating to the discharge of his wife from the hospital, CBI said.

Furthermore, while withdrawing the said interim bail application, Sisodia also stated before the high court that the condition of his wife was stable, CBI stated in its affidavit.

Manish Sisodia moved the Supreme Court for bail both in CBI and ED cases in the alleged irregularities in the Delhi Excise Policy case. He challenged Delhi HC order rejecting his bail plea.

The Delhi High Court denied him bail in both the matters. In its order passed on July 3, 2023, in the ED case, the court had stated that this court inter alia was of the view that in view of the high political positions held by the accused and his position in the party in power in Delhi, the possibility of influencing the witnesses cannot be ruled.

During arguments, the CBI had opposed the bail plea moved by Manish Sisodia and stated, The applicant (Sisodia) enjoys close nexus with the executive, offices and bureaucrats and his influence and clout is evident. His party colleagues holding high ranks continue to make factually wrong claims in order to influence the investigation and also claim the applicant to be a victim of a political vendetta.

In February 2023, Sisodia was arrested by the CBI last for alleged irregularities in the framing and implementation of Delhis new excise policy. The policy was withdrawn amid allegations of foul play by the Opposition. He is currently in judicial custody.
Pop icon Britney Spears ex-husband, Jason Alexander is being held by the police on charges of stalking, TMZ reported.

Online data indicate that Alexander is being held in a jail in Tennessee. Its unknown if he has a bail of any kind or when he is expected in court. He was arrested at around 10:30 on Wednesday morning.

Of course, this is not the first legal issue that Jason has had. He and Britney were married for a mere 55 hours in 2004 following a Vegas wedding.

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According to the incident reported by TMZ, on June 22, 2022, Jason broke into Britney Spears house and kept saying he needed to talk to her, even though he wasnt invited to the wedding.

Police believe Alexander carried a knife and managed to get as close as Britneys bedroom door, but he mercifully avoided confronting Britney. Eventually, workers putting up for the wedding pinned him down outside the house until police arrived and hauled him into arrest.

Jason Alexander was charged with numerous felonies, including stalking, vandalism, and trespassing battery. As a result of the event, Britney obtained a three-year restraining order against him.

Two counts were dropped which are misdemeanor vandalism and felony stalking. He entered a plea of not guilty to aggravated trespass and violence, both misdemeanours. As a result of the disastrous wedding, Jason received a 128-day jail sentence.

A warrant for an alleged jewellery theft was issued in 2016, which led to Jasons arrest just a few months after the wedding day drama. As a result, his legal problems are still mounting.
Nitin Chandrakant Desai, the Bollywood art director who was discovered dead at his Karjat studio outside of Mumbai on Wednesday, had 11 audio messages recorded before he died.

The Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) has been given the audio recorder to examine.

The police claim that Mr. Desai named specific individuals in the audio messages with whom he was angry. The FSL report may influence the course of the inquiry, according to the police, who are not yet disclosing the names of the individuals.

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Desai, who was discovered hanging in his studio, was battling to pay back a loan that had originally been for Rs 180 crores but had already ballooned to 252 crores. Additionally, his company, NDs Art World Pvt Ltd, had just had an insolvency petition authorised by a bankruptcy court.

The case is currently listed as an accidental death report (ADR), but the police are also looking into its financial component. If the loan load contributed to the art directors passing, the police are looking into it. Mr. Desai died by hanging, according to the autopsy report generated after a post-mortem examination of his body at Mumbais publicly funded JJ Hospital.

Mobile phones and other electronic equipment discovered on the property have been seized by the police, who will inspect them as part of their investigation. Additionally, they captured comments from Mr. Desais carers and attendants at the facility.

Eknath Shinde, the chief minister of Maharashtra, and Ajit Pawar, the deputy chief minister, paid their tributes today at the JJ Post Mortem Centre, where Mr Desais body is still being examined. According to the wishes of his family, his funeral would be held at ND Studios, the police reported.

Desai designed opulent sets for hit films like Jodha Akbar and Lagaan as well as the well-known TV game show Kaun Banega Crorepati.
The police in Andhra Pradeshs Visakhapatnam city have cracked the mystery behind the death of a police constable under suspicious circumstances with the arrest of his wife who murdered him with the help of her lover and another person, an official said on Friday.

The police revealed details of the sensational case on Friday, two days after B. Ramesh died at his residence. His wife Shivajyoti a.k.a. Shivani had claimed that he died of cardiac arrest during sleep after consuming liquor.

However, the police had registered it as a case of death under suspicious circumstances and sent the body for autopsy.

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Following a complaint lodged by the deceaseds brother, the police took up thorough a investigation.

Visakhapatnam Police Commissioner C.M. Trivikrama Varma told mediapersons that Shivani got her husband murdered for a man, with whom she had extra marital relations.

The womans lover Rama Rao, a taxi driver, was her neighbour.

They were having an affair for the last one-and-a-half years.

Ramesh and Shivani had fought over this many times. Ramesh had asked her to leave children and go with her lover but she told him that she wants children as well as lover.

Ramesh, who joined the police force in 2009, was working at One Town police station. He had married Shivani in 2012. They had two daughters.

Police investigations also revealed that Shivani hatched a plan to kill Ramesh.

She made Ramesh consume liquor on Tuesday night. Rama Rao was waiting outside the house.

After Ramesh fell asleep, he along with his friend Neela entered the house. Neela used a pillow to suffocate Ramesh to death while Shivani held Rameshs feet.

Police said Shivani had given Rs.1.5 lakh to Neela for killing Ramesh by mortgaging her gold jewelry.

Police arrested all three accused.

While Shivani is the main accused, Rama Rao and Neela were booked as second and third accused, respectively.

Police said the woman had a shady character and was also not on good terms with her parents.

Meanwhile, several videos made and uploaded by Shivani in the past were being widely circulated on social media.

She had also allegedly made a video while offering liquor to Ramesh and making him sleep. Police were investigating why she made this video.
Son of a BJP MLA in Madhya Pradesh allegedly shot and injured a tribal man over a petty dispute in the Singrauli district on Thursday evening.

According to police, the accused, Vivekanand Vaishya (40), is the son of BJP MLA Ram Lallu Vaishya. He has been booked under Section 307 for attempt to murder and other relevant sections of the IPC on the complaint of the tribal victim, Surya Kumar Khairwar (34).

The victim alleged that Vaishya shot at him over a trivial matter near the Budhi Bai Mata Temple under the Morba police station jurisdiction. The tribal man sustained a bullet injury on his right hand and was admitted to the trauma ward of the district hospital.

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The accused is said to be at large and police said a search was on to arrest him.

According to sources, the MLAs son had bashed up and fired at a forest guard too on 20 July 2022. He was arrested in that matter and was currently out on bail in that case.

The Congress attacked the ruling BJP over the matter. The Opposition party asked whether CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan would wash the feet of this tribal victim too and run a bulldozer on the house of the accused.

A few days ago, when a local BJP leader in the Sidhi district was arrested on the charge of publicly urinating on the face of a tribal, the CM had called the victim to the CM House in Bhopal and washed his feet as atonement. The house of the accused was also razed by a bulldozer in that case.
MOSCOW, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Russian Defense Ministry said Friday that two Ukrainian unmanned boats attempted to attack the Russian naval base in Novorossiysk, a major Black Sea port, but were destroyed by Russian ships.

"Tonight, the Ukrainian armed forces attempted to attack the Novorossiysk naval base with two unmanned sea boats. During the repulsion of the attack, the unmanned boats were visually detected and destroyed by fire from the standard weapons of the Russian ships," the ministry said.

The Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which loads oil onto tankers in Novorossiysk, said its infrastructure was not damaged by the attack and the oil loading is going on as usual.

A temporary ban on ship movements in the port has been imposed, it said.

The consortium has a pipeline system that connects Kazakhstan with a seaport in Novorossiysk, where oil is loaded onto tankers for shipment to world markets. 
The Ashok Gehlot cabinet in Rajasthan on Friday approved the notification of 19 new districts of the state. With this, Rajasthan now has 50 districts.

Pali, Sikar and Banswara have been made divisions, after which the state has a total of 10 divisions, the Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot told a press conference at his residence after the cabinet meeting.

Senior IAS and IPS officers have been appointed as OSDs in all the new districts, and a fund of Rs 2,000 crore has been earmarked for this purpose in the first year, Gehlot said quoting his budgetary announcement made in March this year.

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The minister in-charge of all the new districts will inaugurate their offices on August 7, and the other offices linked with superintendent of police and collector would start taking shape at the earliest, he said.

Dudu is the smallest district in size while Jaisalmer is the biggest district area wise, according to the notification.

The Jaipur and Jodhpur districts have also been divided into two. Their municipal corporation area has been included in Jaipur-Jodhpur and tehsils outside it in Jaipur-Jodhpur Rural.

On a question of setting up of new district courts, Gehlot said it will take time but there would be SDM and ADM to deal with legal cases in the beginning.

When asked as to whether the move will be beneficial to the ruling Congress in upcoming assembly polls, he said, It was the demand of concerned public representatives for new districts. My government has made not just one or two districts, but 19 in one go. The general public and the farmers would be happy to have district offices in their vicinity to solve their problems related to revenue, banks, school, colleges, and hospitals. This is a happy sign for us.

On a similar demand for new district formation from Malpura, Devli, Suratgarh cities, Gehlot said the Ramlubhaya Committee that drafted and finalised 19 new districts would take up the matters related to public and MLAs demands.

Among others who addressed the press conference included Revenue Minister Ramlal Jat, Chief Secretary Usha Sharma and Revenue Secretary Aparna Arora.
The Supreme Court on Friday refused to interfere with the Allahabad High Court order permitting the scientific survey of the Gyanvapi mosque premises stating that at this stage it will not go into the root of the matter whether such an order can be passed in the face of Places of Worship (Special Provision) Act, 1991.

Refusing to stay the August 3 high court order, a bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, heading a bench including Justice J B Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra said, What is frivolous to one is faith to other side.

Chief Justice Chandrachud said this as senior advocate Huzefa Ahmadi appearing for the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee told the bench that If someone now comes and files a frivolous plea saying that there is a monument below this structure, will you order ASI survey.

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A similar survey was carried out in the Ayodhya case as well and the same was leaked even before it was used as evidence in court in the case.

In its order not interfering with the high court order, the bench said, The district judge has ordered scientific investigation by ASI. The high court has found no reason to interfere having set out the legal position while dealing with an interlocutory order of this nature. The high court has introduced certain safeguards. Having regard to the nature and ambit of court appointed commission we are unable to differ with the high court.

To ensure that no damage is caused, the order said that ASI will use non-invasive methods during the survey. The court said this noting that the High Court order says invasive.. But that must be a typing error or a printers devil. That is why we clarified.

Ahmedi read out the statement of object and certain provisions of the Places of Worship (Special Provision) Act to the bench to contend that the religious places that stood on August 15, 1947, their character cannot be interfered with.

CJI Chandrachud made a distinction between the prohibition on the conversion of any place of worship and to maintain the religious character of any place of worship as it existed on August 15, 1947. He said these are two distinct aspects.

Ahmadi told the bench, Where is the question of excavation here? He is saying in future he may do it. These are all techniques, one after another Let me speak on places of worship act It is like uncovering wounds of the past and that is what places of worship Act sought to prevent You are unravelling wounds of past here.

Ahmadi urged the top court to order that the survey results be kept in a sealed cover and not be leaked, but to no avail. After the passing of the order, Justice Pardiwala said that the Chief Justice has made it clear and I think it protects the interest of both the sides.

Senior advocate Ahmedi said, I am sanguine on that hope But history has taught us something else on December 6 (Demolition of Babri Masjid).

While today not interfering with the high court order permitting ASI survey, earlier on July 24 the Supreme Court had halted till July 26, 05.00 pm, the Varanasi district court order directing the ASI to undertake a survey of the Gyanvapi mosque complex including excavation.

Stopping the survey by the ASI of the mosque complex, the top court had asked the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee to approach the Allahabad High Court against the district courts order.

On July 21, Varanasi district judge A K Vishvesha ordered the ASI survey of Gyanvapi complex on an application moved by four Hindu women on May 16, 2023.

The order of the district judge, however, excluded the ablution pond area of the complex, which has been sealed on the order of the top court.

On May 12, 2023, the Allahabad High Court had allowed the scientific survey of this purported shivling but the top court stayed it on May 19.

The high court on May 12 set aside the Varanasi District judge order which had rejected the application for a scientific survey and carbon dating of the Shivling on October 14, 2022.

The high court had directed the Varanasi district judge to proceed, in accordance with law, on the application by the Hindu worshippers for conducting a scientific probe of the Shivling.

Petitioners Laxmi Devi and three others had filed a plea in the High Court, challenging the lower court order.

During the survey, a structure  claimed to be a Shivling by the Hindu side and a fountain by the Muslim side  was found in the mosque premises on May 16, 2022, during a court-mandated survey of the mosque located next to the Kashi Vishwanath temple.

Petitioners Laxmi Devi and three others had filed a plea in the High Court, challenging the lower court order.
In an unusual development, Justice Rohit B Deo of the Bombay High Court announced his resignation in an open court today. His cases for the day were adjourned after Justice Deo of the Nagpur bench made the announcement.

According to a lawyer in the courtroom, Justice Deo declined to give a reason for his resignation but stated that he cannot work against his self-respect.

In 2022, Justice Deo exonerated former Delhi University professor G.N. Saibaba in a case involving alleged Maoist ties and overturned the life sentence, stating that the trial proceedings were null and void because there was no sanction in place that was legally binding under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

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The Supreme Court overturned the decision and mandated that the Nagpur bench of the HC hear the case from scratch.

Last week, Justice Deo stayed the effect of a Maharashtra Government Resolution (GR) from January 3 that gave the State authority to drop legal actions brought by the revenue department against contractors working on the Nagpur-Mumbai Samruddhi Motorway to recoup illegal minor mineral excavation.

He expressed his desire for the solicitors in attendance to keep working hard on Friday and apologies for occasionally being tough with them.

In June 2017, Justice Deo was assigned to the Bombay High Court, where he would serve until his retirement in December 2025.

Justice Deo served as the government of Maharashtras Advocate General in 2016 before to being appointed as a judge of the High Court.
Condemning the incident on Jaipur-Mumbai Express train, Telangana Industry Minister and BRS working president KT Rama Rao today promised to provide a job to the widow, a two-bedroom house and fixed deposits of Rs 2 lakh each for the three daughters of Syed Saifuddin, who was killed by RPF Constable Chetan Singh.

Rao immediately agreed to provide a government job to the widow and a two-bed room house after AIMIM floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi raised the issue on the floor of the Telangana Assembly. He said that he is yet to speak to Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and so could not assure them of any monetary help on behalf of the state government but promised to extend a helping hand from the BRS party. Syed Saifuddin was buried at Bidar in Karnataka but his family resides at Bazarghat in Nampally.

Akbaruddin Owaisi raised the incident of Jaipur-Mumbai Express while speaking on increasing incidents of hate across the country. Saifuddin, who worked in a small mobile shop, had three daughters aged six years, three and a half and six months respectively. He requested the government that Anjum Shaheen, the widow who has studied till the Intermediate be given a government job, a two-bedroom flat as well as some financial assistance.

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This will send a good message to the masses that under this government, we will not allow religious sectarianism to proliferate or allow those who are dividing Hindus and Muslims on the basis of hate, said Owaisi.

Responding to the plea, KT Rama Rao said they will provide her a job in either the government or government agencies and a house under the 2 BHK scheme and promised to issue the government order by tomorrow.

On behalf of the BRS party, we will set up fixed deposits of Rs 2 lakh for each of his daughters and we hope that the AIMIM will also come forward and contribute something and the government will also come up with something, said Rao.

Politics on the basis of religion is a condemnable act. This is not good for anyone, not even for our future generations. We hope that wisdom will prevail. This country will come to its senses. This city and our state will continue to remain in the hands of a gentleman like KCR who has ensured communal harmony thoroughly, he said.
The Lok Sabha on Friday passed the Inter-Services Organisations (Command, Control and Discipline) Bill, 2023 and the Indian Institutes of Management (Amendment) Bill, 2023, within 40 minutes after short discussions through voice vote, amid protests by opposition members over the Manipur violence.

As the House convened at 12 p.m. opposition members arrived and stood in the Well of the House, displaying placards and shouting slogans.

Rajendra Agrawal, who was officiating the proceedings, urged them to stop the protests and let the House function.

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Yesterday was good (as the discussion on Delhi services bill was held with opposition also participating in it). There should be discussion on the House like yesterday, Agrawal said.

Amid protests, the House took up the two bills for discussion and passing.

Even the Anusandhan National Research Foundation Bill, 2023 was introduced in Lok Sabha, which aims to set up the Anusandhan National Research Foundation.

Meanwhile, the Indian Institutes of Management (Amendment) Bill, 2023 was also passed in Lok Sabha after a short discussion through voice vote.

The bill seeks to amend the Indian Institutes of Management Act, 2017, to upgrade the National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE) in Mumbai into an IIM. NITIE was set up by the government of India in 1963 with the help of the UN Development Programme and the International Labour Organization.

The bill proposes amendments to the IIM Act of 2017, including increased presidential powers in IIMs which has raised concerns over the balance between accountability and autonomy of these eminent management institutes in the country.

The amendment declares the 20 IIMs across the country as institutions of national importance.

The bill introduced in Lok Sabha by Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan proposes to appoint the President as the Visitor to all the IIMs.

As per the proposed changes, the Visitor will have powers to conduct audits, and even appoint or remove the chairpersons of the board of governors and directors.

The bill allows the President, as the Visitor, to appoint the chairperson of the coordination forums for each IIM.

The coordination fora have been proposed for better coordination among all management insinuating common policy objectives.
Haryana home minister Anil Vij on Friday said the violence in Nuh was pre-planned, with shots even being fired from the hills.

Speaking to reporters, Vij said stones were collected on rooftops, and fronts were set up to stop the religious procession passing through Nuh.

Details about these incidents are currently being gathered, and action will be taken against the culprits, he added.

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The home minister said the Nuh incident was pre-planned, as shots were fired, barricades were erected, and the entire act was conspired by someone. The event was carried out with planning, and a thorough investigation is currently underway, he said.

Vij said action will be taken for any cases registered in connection with the Nuh violence, and bulldozers could also be deployed if necessary. He said statements from individuals are being collected, and CCTV footage is being carefully reviewed.

Journalists who were present for coverage have also been requested to provide videos and footage to the authorities for further actions, Vij said.

He said during the religious procession, if someone recorded a video on a mobile and that individual should come forward to provide the video.

Responding to a question about the transfer of Nuh superintendent of police (SP) Varun Singla who has been replaced by Bhiwani SP, Narendra Bijarniya, the minister said about two years ago, SP was posted in Nuh while the current SP was on leave during the incident.

As a result, the SP from Bhiwani was temporarily assigned to the role, and he has now been officially designated as the permanent SP of Nuh, he added.

Vij announced an investigation into the questions surrounding who received the intelligence input, at what level it was received, and who was informed about it.

Responding to a question about the attack on the cyber police station during the Nuh violence, he said that officials have been instructed to investigate whether the cyber police station was targeted by cybercriminals or not.

The minister said the district administration is gradually easing the curfew restrictions in Nuh. Officials are continuously assessing the situation and will gradually restore internet services as the situation normalizes. Internet access will be reinstated step by step as the conditions return to normal. he said.
Both the Houses of Parliament witnessed ruckus by the Opposition over the Manipur issue on Friday.

The Rajya Sabha was adjourned for the day amid pandemonium created by both the Opposition party members and the treasury benches. The House will reconvene on Monday at 11 am.

Soon after the House reassembled after its first adjournment at 12 noon, the Opposition party members reiterated their demand to hold a comprehensive discussion on the Manipur ethnic violence issue under Rule 267.

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Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar declined all the 48 notices given under Rule 267 by the Opposition MPs pointing out that they are not ready to discuss Manipur violence even after the assurance given by the chair that there will not be any time limit during the discussion on the issue and that each members will be allocated as much time as they want.

Meanwhile, BJP MP from Rajasthan Ghanshyam Tiwari raised a point related to crime against women in Rajasthan and sought a discussion on the issue too.

Leader of the Upper House Piyush Goyal also requested the chair to conduct a discussion over crime against women in Rajasthan.

It is a very serious matter and the Rajasthan Government has failed to protect the dignity of the women in the state, Piyush Goyal said.

At the same time, treasury benches started sloganeering Charcha ho, Charcha ho, Rajasthan pe charcha ho (there should be a discussion on Rajasthan).

Amid the din, the Chairman adjourned the House for the day to meet at 11 am on August 7.

In the Lok Sabha, the House passed the Inter-Services Organisations (Command, Control and Discipline) Bill, 2023 and the Indian Institutes of Management (Amendment) Bill, 2023, within 40 minutes after short discussions through voice vote, amid protests by opposition members over the Manipur violence.

As the House convened at 12 pm, Opposition members arrived and stood in the Well of the House, displaying placards and shouting slogans.

Rajendra Agrawal, who was officiating the proceedings, urged them to stop the protests and let the House function.

Yesterday was good (as the discussion on Delhi services bill was held with opposition also participating in it). There should be discussion on the House like yesterday, Agrawal said.

Amid protests, the House took up the two bills for discussion and passing.

Even the Anusandhan National Research Foundation Bill, 2023 was introduced in Lok Sabha, which aims to set up the Anusandhan National Research Foundation.
Rahul Gandhis conviction in a criminal defamation case stemming from his Modi surname statement from 2019 was overturned by the Supreme Court on Friday, clearing the way for the renewal of his Lok Sabha membership. He will be able to run in the upcoming national elections thanks to the stay.

Justice BR Gavai stated that the conviction of Gandhi would have broad repercussions because it would also undermine the electorates right to vote.

The bench stated, Since the trial judge could not provide any justification for imposing the maximum punishment, the order of conviction needs to be stayed awaiting final adjudication.

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With regard to Gandhis remark, How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname? made on April 13, 2019, at an election rally in Kolar, Karnataka, Purnesh Modi, a former minister in the Gujarat government, filed a criminal defamation action against Gandhi in 2019.

Senior attorney Abhishek Manu Singhvi argued on behalf of Gandhi that the BJP MLA Purnesh Modis lawsuit against the Congressman was odd because none of the people he had mentioned in his speech had filed a lawsuit.

Its interesting to note that the only plaintiffs in this 13-crore-strong small group of complaints are BJP office holders. Very odd, he remarked.

Purnesh Modis attorney, senior lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani, stated that while the appeal is still ongoing before the sessions court, the petitioner must have a compelling argument for the court to overturn the conviction without reexamining the evidence.

Justice BR Gavai questioned whether it was important that the Wayanad constituency was not represented because of the petitioners conviction because the electorates right to vote was being compromised. Gavai asserted that the trial judge must defend his decision to impose the maximum sentence.

Rahul Gandhi once again refused to apologise for his remark on the Modi surname, which resulted in his conviction in the defamation case and subsequent expulsion from the Parliament. Instead, he asked the Supreme Court to stay his conviction on the grounds that he is innocent.
Amid the raging controversy over Kerala Assembly Speaker AN Shamseers remark that the Hindu deity Ganesha is a myth , CPI-M state secretary MV Govindan on Friday said neither he nor Shamseer termed the Hindu deity a myth.

Allah and Ganesha are part of the belief. Neither me, nor Speaker AN Shamseer has said that Ganesha is a myth. There is no need to say that beliefs are myths, Govindan said in New Delhi.

He asserted that he wont take any stance against believers. Believers have the right to believe in Ganapati (Lord Ganesha) or Allah. I didnt term Ganapati (Lord Ganesha) a myth or endorse Allah as a non-mythical concept, MV Govindan said.

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Shamseer has been accused of insulting Hindu god, Lord Ganesha during the inauguration of the Vidyajyothi programme held at a school at Kunnathunadu in Ernakulam district some days back. During his speech at the event, Shamseer termed Hindu god Ganesha as myth which lack scientific facts.

The remark triggered a controversy after BJP and RSS launched a campaign against Speaker Shamseer demanding his resignation. They also demanded that the speaker should apologise for his remarks on Lord Ganesha. However, the CPI-M put up a strong defence for Shamseer.

Govindan had said on Wednesday that there was no question of Shamseer either expressing regret or withdrawing his comment. What Shamseer stated was misconstrued. There is nothing to rectify in his statement on Ganesha. Is the concept of Ganapati (Ganesha) science? Is it not a myth, he asked a journalist while addressing the media in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday.

Now on Friday, taking a volte-face, he said, neither me nor Speaker AN Shamseer has said that Ganesha is a myth. His statement came amid reports that outrage against Shamseers remarks is gaining momentum.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday urged the researchers working under the Chief Ministers Fellowship Scheme in aspirational development blocks of the state to work with full commitment, considering themselves connectors.

Addressing an event organized here, the CM said: Focus on the work that can be done in the fields of education, health, farmers, women, and infrastructure in development blocks.

The research scholar who will complete his tenure of three years with hard work and commitment and will present the best research management in writing will be given weightage in government jobs along with age relaxation by the government, he said.

Emphasizing that NITI Aayog had selected 112 districts of the country as aspirational districts in 2018, the CM said, Eight districts of Uttar Pradesh, namely, Siddharthnagar, Balrampur, Shravasti, Bahraich, Chandauli, Sonbhadra, Chitrakoot, and Fatehpur, were also included in the list.

All eight districts of Uttar Pradesh were also at the most backward positions in the list of 112 aspirational districts of the country and lagged behind in the areas of education, health, agriculture, water resources, employment, skill development, financial inclusion, and infrastructure, he added.

The Chief Minister expressed pleasure that, due to teamwork and regular monitoring, today four of the eight districts are in the top 10 aspirational districts of the country, while all eight districts have been included in the top 20. The Chief Minister said that villages play a pivotal role in Indias development.

The Chief Minister said that we have neither a shortage of funds nor manpower. Researchers who are working on fellowships for three years in their respective development blocks should act as connectors.

Make sure to connect the schemes of the government with the public. All research scholars should proceed with a common goal that, until the tenure of their fellowship ends, their Blocks participation in the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan should be 100 percent, and their Block should have become tuberculosis-free.

Information about government schemes related to farmers, women, and girls should also be shared among the public, and people should be encouraged to take advantage of the schemes.

The CM continued by saying, Make people aware of cleanliness in your area to keep it free from communicable diseases. Also, ensure that better connectivity can be provided in your area. Visit 30 Gram Panchayats every month and prepare a report on it, he added.

During this program, the Chief Minister awarded Rs 2 crore to the Vishunpura Block of Kushinagar for its outstanding performance in the overall delta ranking.

Additionally, the Majhgawan Block of Bareilly, Wazirganj Block of Badaun, Behti Block of Ambedkar Nagar, Fatehganj Block of Bareilly, and Sohanv Block of Ballia were granted rewards of 60 lakh rupees each. He also unveiled the Annual Report 2022-23 showcasing the progress of ambitious development regions.
MOSCOW/KIEV, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- The following are the latest developments related to the Ukraine crisis:

Ukraine on Thursday launched talks with the United States on a bilateral agreement on security guarantees, Ukraine's public broadcaster Suspilne reported Friday, citing the Ukrainian President's Office.

Andriy Yermak, head of the office leading the Ukrainian delegation to the talks, said that the United States became the first country to start negotiations on security commitments with Ukraine.

According to Ukrainian authorities, the security guarantees will reinforce Ukraine's progress towards future membership in the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin and leaders of seven African countries involved in a peace mission on Ukraine agreed to continue their dialogue, a Russian official said on Thursday.

"Indeed, the dialogue will continue," Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov told Russia's TASS news agency. "There are no exact dates yet."

South African authorities released on Thursday a joint statement by Putin and the African peace mission following their meeting on the sidelines of the Russia-Africa Summit held in St. Petersburg in late July.

The statement said that the leaders agreed to continue the dialogue, supported lifting sanctions on Russian grain and fertilizer exports and acknowledged the progress made on humanitarian aspects of the initiative.

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The Russian Defense Ministry said Friday that two Ukrainian unmanned boats attempted to attack the Russian naval base in Novorossiysk, a major Black Sea port, but were destroyed by Russian ships.

"Tonight, the Ukrainian armed forces attempted to attack the Novorossiysk naval base with two unmanned sea boats. During the repulsion of the attack, the unmanned boats were visually detected and destroyed by fire from the standard weapons of the Russian ships," the ministry said.

The Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which loads oil onto tankers in Novorossiysk, said its infrastructure was not damaged by the attack and the oil loading is going on as usual. 
India is charting a new course following its triumphant lunar landing, named Samudrayaan. The nation is gearing up for a remarkable journey beneath the waves. It prepares for a research expedition, led by three scientists, to plumb the oceans depths at 6,000 meters.

Unveiling this initiative, Union Geosciences Minister Kiren Rijiju shared details in a written response earlier. At the heart of this endeavor is the Samudran project, which marks Indias maiden foray into a manned undersea mission.

The missions prime objective is to delve into the mysteries of the deep. It aims to shed light on the hidden resources and diverse life forms. Crucially, the expedition aims to safeguard the delicate marine ecosystem even as it embarks on its journey of discovery.

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This venture aligns with the broader mission of unraveling the oceans secrets, in harmony with the governments overarching Blue Economy policy. The policys overarching goal is to harness the vast potential of marine resources, propelling economic growth, job creation, and bolstering the well-being of countless livelihoods, all while ensuring the oceans vitality.

Samudrayaan to see a future

As the clock ticks towards 2026, the stage is ready for the grand maritime odyssey. The pioneering vessel at the heart of this venture is Matsya 6000. The National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) in Chennai has masterfully crafted it. With an astonishing ability to withstand the crushing pressures of the abyssal depths for up to 12 hours, and up to 96 hours in dire emergencies, this technological marvel is a testament to human ingenuity and dedication to safety.

Embracing this mission with open arms, marine scientists will be poised to unlock the enigmas of the uncharted deep. As the financial wheels turn, the projected cost over a five-year span stands at an estimated Rs 4,077 crore. In this noble pursuit, India can rely on the wisdom and collaboration of global partners including the USA, Russia, France, Japan, and China, all poised to contribute their expertise to this extraordinary undersea odyssey.
The tension prevailed at Angallu in Kurabalakota of the Annamayya district after YSRCP and TDP activists clashed with each other and spread to neighbouring Ponganur ahead of N Chandrababu Naidus visit leaving several people including 20 policemen injured.

The former chief minister and TDP president is on a visit to the Rayalaseema districts as a part of his Yudha Bheri programme to highlight the failures of the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy-led YSRCP Government to complete the various irrigation projects initiated during his tenure regime as chief minister.

The TDP accused YSRCP minister Pedireddy Ramchandra Reddy of sending goons to disrupt Naidus programme, but according to police, the TDP president had made provocative statements and even instigated TDP cadre to attack YSRCP activists and police.

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As Naidu reached Angallu, the YSRCP cadre blocked the road and staged a protest against the TDP president for calling the YSRCP MLA of Thambepalli Ravana leading to fracas between the two sides and pelting of stones amid heavy deployment of police. The police had to resort to lathicharge to disperse the protesting party workers. The TDP alleged that their activists were first attacked by the YSRCP workers and were later lathicharged by the police causing injuries to them.

Later, Naidu visited the incomplete lift irrigation works of Nayani Lake in Annamayya district before addressing a gathering.

The TDP chief has Z-plus security cover and NSG commandos covering him, who were seen trying to shield him against stone pelting by holding foldable screens in front. The TDP president condemned the stone pelting alleging that the YSRCP were unleashing violence on TDP activists.

He also warned Peddireddy Ramchandra Reddy of dire consequences in his own bastion Punganur if the violence continued. When these rowdies are attacking me, what could be the fate of common people, asked Naidu. He also threw a challenge at the YSRCP supporters to come without police protection, adding that the police should give up their uniforms since they were acting like YSRCP goons.

Anticipating trouble at Ponganur, the police barricaded the town entrance and diverted the roadshow via the bypass, but the TDP cadre, who were waiting for Naidus arrival, attacked the police and set a bus alight and Vajra vehicle. According to SP Chittoor Rishanth Reddy at least 20 policemen were injured and police fired tear gas shells to bring the situation under control.

With less than a year left for assembly polls, Naidu is making an all-out effort to win this time. Yesterday, he took a selfie in front of KIA factory in Anantpur which began during his regime and posted on microblogging site X with a post reading  I brought KIA you brought mafia, taking a dig at YS Jagan Mohan Reddy.
After the Supreme Court stayed his conviction in the criminal defamation case over Modi surname remark, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday asserted that truth always wins and he has clarity about his path.

Addressing the media at AICC headquarters after the Supreme Courts verdict, Rahul Gandhi said: Aaj nahi toh kal, kal nahi toh parson sachai ki jeet hoti hai (whether it is today or tomorrow or the day after, truth always triumphs). But my path is clear. I have clarity in my mind that what I have to do and what is my work.

I thank the people who helped us. I also thank the people for their love and support, he said.

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The Supreme Court in an interim order on Friday stayed the conviction of Rahul Gandhi in the criminal defamation case over the Modi surname remark

Addressing the mediapersons, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge welcomed the Supreme Court judgement staying the conviction of Rahul Gandhi in Modi surname remarks defamation case, saying that it is a victory of democracy and the Constitution.

Kharge said earlier Rahul Gandhi was disqualified within 24 hours from the Lok Sabha as a Member of Parliament (MP) with effect from his conviction in the case.

Now, we will see, how many hours will they take in reinstating Rahul Gandhis membership as Member of Parliament in Lok Sabha, he wondered.

Top party leaders including Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal and Congress national spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi were also present at AICC headquarters.

Meanwhile, Congress workers celebrated at AICC headquarters in Delhi following the Supreme Courts decision.

Earlier, Rahul Gandhi said that he will continue to work to protect the idea of India.

Come what may, my duty remains the same. Protect the idea of India, Gandhi said in a tweet.

Earlier in the day, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said he will write to the Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to revoke the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi from the House following the apex court order.

Its a happy dayI will write and speak to Lok Sabha Speaker today itself, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury told a news agency.

This is the victory of truth. This will prove costly for Prime Minister, he said.

Chowdhury sought to raise the demand for revocation of Rahul Gandhis disqualification in Lok Sabha on Friday. He said he will also make the demand on Monday.

Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh said Rahul Gandhi has refused to bend despite the relentless efforts of BJP.

The Supreme Court judgment is a strong vindication of truth and justice. Despite the relentless efforts of the BJPs machinery, @RahulGandhi has refused to bend, break or bow, choosing instead to place his faith in the judicial process, Jairam Ramesh said in a tweet.
According to new UEA research, positive contact with people from diverse groups can lessen the amount of negative conspiracy beliefs about those groups.

Conspiracy theories about minority groups are common and can potentially lead to everything from misinformed voting to extreme expressions of prejudice. But a new study published today reveals that bringing people from diverse backgrounds together can reduce the endorsement and tolerance of conspiracy theories.

The team say that their findings could help educators and policymakers create a more harmonious society.

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Dr Charles Seger, from UEAs School of Psychology, said: Some conspiracy beliefs are about things like the moon landing, or more seriously about things like the nature and effectiveness of vaccines.

We know from past research that simply being exposed to conspiracy beliefs, even without endorsing them, can have detrimental effects, such as a decreased willingness to engage in politics.

But a lot of conspiracy beliefs are about groups of people. Specifically, people often have conspiracy beliefs about disadvantaged or minority groups such as Jewish people or immigrants.

These beliefs can take the form of believing that these groups of people are involved in secret plots and schemes or are attempting to harm the fabric of society at large.

These sorts of conspiracy beliefs are associated with increased prejudice towards those groups, and it can be argued that intergroup violence and genocide are fuelled by unwarranted conspiracy beliefs.

We wanted to find out whether friendly interactions with other groups of people can reduce conspiracy beliefs.

The research team carried out three studies with more than 1,000 people. They explored whether positive inter-group contact helps combat conspiracy theories about other social groups.

The first two studies explored relationships, where British participants were asked about their experience of contact with immigrants or Jewish people and their belief in conspiracy theories in relation to them.

In a third study, participants were asked to think about a positive contact experience with a Jewish person and then report their conspiracy beliefs held about this group. Participants also reported their feelings of prejudice towards the target group in each study.

Dr Seger said: We found that people who had experienced friendly interactions with Jewish people or immigrants or even imagined a positive contact experience, were less likely to believe conspiracy theories about them.

Importantly, these effects remained even beyond the prejudice-reducing effects we know such interactions to have.

Conspiracy theories seem to be escalating in society, perhaps due to social media There are complex reasons for why people believe conspiracy theories about different groups, and conspiracy theories are notoriously hard to correct.

Providing accurate information often does not work. Therefore, it is exciting that this intervention shows promise in reducing conspiracy beliefs.

Our research suggests that bringing people from diverse backgrounds together can reduce the endorsement and tolerance of conspiracy theories.

This could be used as a useful tool for educators, policymakers, and those invested in promoting a more harmonious society.

Dr Daniel Jolley, from the University of Nottingham, said: The research findings offer a promising potential starting point for developing tools to bring diverse groups of people together who may not usually have contact and try to foster positive conversations to help reduce potentially harmful conspiracy theories from taking hold.

Whilst the problems are often very complex, and positive contact will not solve all the issues surrounding conspiracy theories towards certain groups, the fact that this work offers a potential tool to reduce intergroup conspiracy theories is a notable breakthrough.

Our work offers a framework that, along with future research, might lead to the reduction of conspiracy beliefs in the general population, he added.

This research was led by the University of Nottingham in collaboration with UEA.

More than a prejudice reduction effect: Positive intergroup contact reduces conspiracy theory beliefs is published in the European Journal of Social Psychology.
Economic growth is not enough. Erosion of democracy is not enough. Expectations matter. Expectations management matters even more. And yet, see what happened in Chile, a country with fairly high economic growth and a stable democracy. In 2019, it witnessed an outburst of anger on the streets paving the way for the leftists to emerge victors. This can happen to other elected autocracies

Charles Dickens aphorism, ask no questions, and you will be told no lies, has been turned on its head in the post-truth world. A larger part of the media across the world has stopped asking questions but the political class, self-serving maximum leaders in particular, havent stopped telling lies. The empire of lies is flourishing in the age of permacrisis, what Hannah Arendt had called generalised crisis in her book Crisis of Culture.

Uncertainty and volatility have become the new normal. It has led to a sense of pessimism. Artificial Intelligence is a new form of technological arrogance. Nothing will perhaps remain uniquely human in future. An alarming thought! Techno-solutionism is giving way to technopessimism. American economist Paul Craig Roberts book Empire of Lies lays bare how the Western mainstream media provides propaganda rather than news. The story is no different in other parts of the world. The false narratives, he argues, have the intended objective of surrounding the public with a fog of misinformation so as to condition them to hate and fear. The posttruth world is witnessing brainwashing on an Orwellian scale. Social media is far worse.

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Elon Musks boast about Twitter being important to the future of civilisation notwithstanding, social media platforms are essentially money-making enterprises. As former CBS president Les Moonves said in 2016, Trump may not be good for democracy, but hes damn good for CBS. Last year, speaking at the University of Chicago, former US President Barack Obama blamed these platforms uncontrolled pursuit of profits which is undermining democracy. Hate speeches against Asians, Afro-Americans, Muslims, Jews, LGBT+ have surged after Elon Musk bought Twitter. Navigating through the minefield of partisan agendas and hyperbole that permeate our political discourse is a huge challenge. We are bombarded with AIgenerated information. Fake news is truth-proof.

Today media no longer informs, much less enlightens. But these are not new problems. Socrates believed that writing was not an effective means of communicating knowledge. Plato cautioned that the written word would lead to lying. Many contended that the printing press was an instrument of spreading lies. Joseph Goebbels used radio to channel Nazi propaganda into German homes. Karl Popper had serious reservations about television.

He warned that democracy will not survive if it doesnt place effective controls on television and the power it wields on shaping our cultural and moral environment. Imagine what he would have to say today about internet and the social media. But who benefits? Europes far right is marching steadily into the mainstream. What we are witnessing is electronically enhanced totalitarianism. The conservatives across the world are embracing autocracy. The far-right is winning in country after country in Europe.

It is not necessarily the triumph of capitalism. It is its ability to hijack the narrative of growth in the post-truth world. The far right is riding high on anti-migration and Euroscepticism. These parties have succeeded in creating a spectre of a new globalised crisis. Voters are also disillusioned with conventional parties. The left and democratic parties are no match as they suffer from a poverty of dreams. It is not enough to invoke egalitarianism. The left, in particular, needs to articulate theoretically how socialism is a path to equity and fairer distribution of wealth.

University of Barcelona professor Laura Llevadot says that the moralistic left has limited itself to lecturing people. Capitalism, on the other hand, has understood how to pander to voters narcissistic desires. The lefts ideas on eco-socialism, platform socialism, post-work and basic income are good.

But have the left parties articulated them enough? The pantomime of the absurd thus has a field day. Much of what media does is propaganda which is information with an agenda. Media scholar James Carey says that without the institutions of democracy, journalists are reduced to propagandists or entertainers. Governments led by strong leaders know how to win.

They have a formula to have their narratives pass as truth in the mind of the people. The powerful consensus that once upheld the neutrality of key institutions as essential to maintaining peace in liberal societies is collapsing. What is distressing is that digital oligarchs have begun weaponising the banks and other institutions. As Jacob Siegel, columnist of the Tablet Magazine, says, today it is banks terminating customers for their beliefs; tomorrow it may be primary schools and hospitals.

What he finds even more alarming is the fact that individuals can be disconnected and depersoned by institutions that they didnt realise possessed such powers. Banks and other agencies are engaging in such nefarious games under the watchful eyes of governments. A world in which eccentric billionaires and digital oligarchs control our public spheres is a very dangerous place to live in. With big leaders, people and institutions have become small.

Recent polls show that millions of American whites would approve of a dictatorship. Tens of millions would again elect Donald Trump as president. They still prefer to vote for him even though he said he would suspend parts of the Constitution. But there is a silver lining. Economic growth is not enough. Erosion of democracy is not enough. Expectations matter. Expectations management matters even more. And yet, see what happened in Chile, a country with fairly high economic growth and a stable democracy. In 2019, it witnessed an outburst of anger on the streets paving the way for the leftists to emerge victors. This can happen to other elected autocracies.

French sociologist Georges Bernanos says, there remains the unforeseen. And the unforeseen is never negligible. The crisis is multiplying. Thanks to the same social media, people are fast losing faith in institutions including those gatekeeping institutions having the power to decide what passes as truth. All said, a lie can travel halfway around the world, to borrow a phrase from Mark Twain, while the truth is putting on its shoes. French novelist Emile Zolas words give us hope.

She says, when truth is buried underground, it grows, it chokes, it gathers such an explosive force that on the day it busts out, it blows up everything with it.

(The writer is director, Institute of Social Sciences, Delhi)
Satoshi Furukawa is a well known personality from Japan who is M.D., Ph.D. in Medical Science. He was born in 1964 in Kanagawa Japan. He spent 165 days aboard the International Space Station (ISS) in 2011 as a Flight Engineer with Expeditions 28 and 29. In addition to conducting experiments on Kibo and performing maintenance on the ISS, he also supported the final mission of the Space Shuttle, STS-135.

Furakawa was graduated from Eiko high school, Kamakura, in 1983; he acquired a Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Tokyo in 1989, and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Medical Science from the same in 2000.

Furukawa worked in the Department of Surgery at the University of Tokyo from 1989 to 1999, also worked in the Department of Anesthesiology at JR Tokyo General Hospital, the Department of Surgery at Ibaraki Prefectural Central Hospital and at Sakuragaoka Hospital.

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In 1999, Satoshi Furukawa was selected as an astronaut and finished his training in 2001. In 2011, he flew in a Soyuz spacecraft to the Space Station for a 165-day mission as part of Expedition 28 and 29.

He will be a mission specialist on Crew-7 in summer 2023, where he will fly with ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen to the International Space Station.

Since April 2001, he has been participating in ISS Advanced Training, as well as supporting the development of the hardware and operation of the Japanese ISS Experimental Module Kibo.

On October 1, 2003, NASDA merged with ISAS (Institute of Space and Astronautical Science) and NAL (National Aerospace Laboratory of Japan) and was renamed JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency).

In May 2004, he completed Soyuz-TMA Flight Engineer-1 training at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC), Star City, Russia.

In February 2006, he finished off NASA Astronaut Candidate Training that included scientific and technical briefings, intensive instruction in Shuttle and International Space Station systems, physiological training, T-38 Talon flight training, and water and wilderness survival training. Completion of this initial training qualified him for various technical assignments within the NASA Astronaut Office and for flight assignment as a mission specialist on Space Shuttle missions.

In August 2007, Furukawa served as an aquanaut during the NEEMO 13 project, an exploration research mission held in Aquarius, the worlds only undersea research laboratory.
Altina Schinasi was an American sculptor, filmmaker, businesswoman, window dresser, designer, and inventor who lived from August 4, 1907, to August 19, 1999.

She was recognised for creating the cat-eye glasses, often known as the Harlequin eyeglass frame.

She was the youngest among all the Schinasi children.

Altina had home tutoring before attending Horace Mann School. At the age of twelve, she moved out to board at Wellesley, Massachusettss Dana Hall School. She went to Paris to study art and then moved back to the US and worked as a window dresser for several stores on Fifth Avenue. This provided her the chance to work for Salvador Dali and Geroge Grosz. After this, she designed the Harlequin cat-eye glasses.

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In the 1940s, Schinasi travelled west to Los Angeles with the intention of spending more time on her work. She first expanded her business before selling it. A new level of dedication to her art was made possible by her decision to leave her business and New York.

In the 1960s she produced a documentary called George Grosz Interregnum which was applauded. Schinasi was later drawn to Martin Luther King Jr.s March on Washington, the film to which she acquired the rights.

She published her memoir in 1995, The Road I Have Travelled.

Even today, about a century after the Harlequin cat-eye glasses were designed, these are the most famous design for womens sunglasses.

Schinasi persisted in her artistic endeavours, settling in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she spent her final years of life with her fourth husband, painter Celestino Miranda. In 2014, Altina, a documentary about her life, was released.
A group of four astronauts is set to fly to the International Space Station (ISS) on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket aboard the companys Dragon spacecraft on August 25.

NASAs SpaceX Crew-7 mission to the International Space Station is set to depart at 3.49 am EDT (1.19 pm India time) on Friday (August 25).

Additional time was required for teams to complete pad readiness after SpaceXs recent Falcon Heavy mission lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the US space agency said in a statement.

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The adjustment also takes advantage of consecutive launch opportunities and deconflicts the stations cargo spacecraft traffic schedule.

NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Andreas Mogensen, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov will launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to the ISS.

Crew-7 is scheduled to dock to the orbiting laboratory on Saturday (August 26), to the space-facing port of the stations Harmony module.

If needed, Crew-7 has additional launch opportunities on August 26-27, said NASA.

Meanwhile, two cosmonauts are scheduled to begin the years 10th spacewalk next week.

Commander Sergey Prokopyev and Flight Engineer Dmitri Petelin are due to exit the Poisk airlock on August 9 to install micrometeoroid orbital debris shields and relocate hardware.
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Today

Showers and scattered thunderstorms. High 81F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%..

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Thunderstorms. Low 61F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- Former U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday pleaded not guilty to federal charges against him for plotting to overturn the 2020 presidential election, U.S. media reported.

Trump was arraigned in a federal courthouse in Washington, D.C., on Thursday afternoon, two days after he was formally indicted.

Trump appeared before a magistrate judge to face the charges. When asked for his plea to the four counts he was charged with, Trump replied, "Not guilty."

The former president reportedly did not have a mug shot taken.

A federal grand jury on Tuesday indicted Trump with four criminal counts: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.

"Despite having lost, the defendant (Trump) was determined to remain in power. So for more than two months following election day on Nov. 3, 2020, the defendant spread lies that there had been outcome-determinative fraud in the election and that he had actually won," reads the 45-page indictment.

Shortly after election day, Trump also pursued unlawful means of discounting legitimate votes and subverting the election results. In so doing, Trump perpetrated three criminal conspiracies: a conspiracy to defraud the United States by using dishonesty, fraud, and deceit to impair, obstruct, and defeat the lawful federal government function; a conspiracy to corruptly obstruct and impede the Jan. 6 congressional proceeding to certify the results of the presidential election; a conspiracy against the right to vote and to have one's vote counted, says the indictment.

Trump is the first former U.S. president to face criminal charges. Apart from the charges for attempts to overturn the 2020 election, he is also under indictment in two other cases.

He was charged in June with mishandling classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. In March, he was indicted on New York state charges of falsifying business records in connection with hush-money payments to an adult film actress ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

Trump is also under investigation in Georgia over his alleged attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state.

By far, Trump remains the front-runner in the 2024 Republican presidential primary.

"The Constitution has very few requirements to serve as President, such as being at least 35 years of age," Richard L. Hasen, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, told CNN. "It does not bar anyone indicted, or convicted, or even serving jail time, from running as president and winning the presidency." 
Defense chiefs from West African nations finalized an intervention plan and urged militaries to ready resources after negotiations deadlocked with Nigers military junta, which says it is severing military agreements with France, its former colonial ruler
After 27 years, authorities identify woman whose remains were found along Gilgo Beach parkway

Authorities say a woman whose remains were among discoveries that became known as the Gilgo Beach killings has been identified after 27 years
MEXICO CITY, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- A passenger bus plunged into a ravine in northwest Mexico's Nayarit state early Thursday morning, killing 18 people, local authorities said.

Among the dead were three minors, with 22 others injured, local media said, citing Jorge Benito Rodriguez, Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection of Nayarit.

According to local reports, the bus was traveling from Mexico City to Tijuana on the border with the United States. It fell into a ravine about 50 meters deep along the north bypass of Tepic.

Rescue efforts were "extremely" complicated due to the location, said Rodriguez, adding that state police and firefighters, in coordination with the Mexican Red Cross and other agencies, were on the scene.

The cause of the accident remains unknown, he said. 
China confirms participation in Saudi Arabia summit for Ukrainian peace formula 4 August, 05:40 PM Flag of China (Photo:REUTERS/Dado Ruvic)

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China has confirmed its participation in the upcoming negotiations in Saudi Arabia focused on the Ukrainian peace formula, in a press release on August 4.

According to the ministrys press service, Chinas Special Representative for Eurasian Affairs, Li Hui, will attend the meeting. Li Huis previous tour to Ukraine, as well as Poland, France, Germany, the EU headquarters in Brussels, and Russia, is part of Chinese President Xi Jinpings efforts to engage in in-depth communication with all parties regarding the political settlement of the conflict.

Video of day

During Li Huis visit to Ukraine, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba emphasized that Ukraine rejects any proposals involving territorial losses or freezing of the conflict.

The Wall Street Journal had earlier reported that Li Hui suggested a ceasefire and temporary control of Ukraines occupied territories by Russia, which Kuleba refuted. He clarified that none of his colleagues in the capitals Li Hui visited confirmed such discussions. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs also denied the WSJs information.

The WSJ, which previously reported on Chinas potential involvement in the Saudi Arabia meeting, highlighted that Chinas stance is evolving in response to the Wagner Groups insurrection attempt in Russia and the Kremlins withdrawal from the grain deal. As a result, China is now showing indications of considering the Ukrainian peace formula.

Saudi Arabia negotiations: Key details

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has officially announced that a meeting involving advisors to leaders from approximately 40 countries and representatives of foreign ministries will convene in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The main objective of the meeting is to discuss the peace formula for Ukraine. This meeting follows a previous session held in Copenhagen, Denmark, in June.

On July 30, The Wall Street Journal reported that Saudi Arabia has scheduled negotiations on the Russia-Ukraine conflict for August 5-6. Notably, Russia, being the aggressor country, will not participate in these talks. Andriy Yermak, head of the Presidents Office, has confirmed the meetings preparation at the leaders advisors level. The discussions will center on the key principles of peace based on the Ukrainian peace formula.

During the G20 Summit in November, Zelenskyy presented a ten-point peace formula, encompassing vital elements such as the restoration of Ukraines territorial integrity, withdrawal of Russian troops, release of all detainees, establishment of a tribunal for those responsible for aggression, and the provision of security guarantees for Ukraine. Additionally, Kyiv is proposing that foreign partners take a leading role in implementing one of the plans points.

Read also: Investors like inflation and the NATO summit

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The Supreme Court on Friday rejected the bail plea of Yes Bank founder Rana Kapoor in the money laundering case.

While hearing the bail plea, a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and S.V.N. Bhatti asked Kapoor to file a fresh bail plea once he spends half his normal sentence.

The SC was hearing the bail petition filed by Kapoor in connection with a Rs 600 money laundering case involving Kapil Wadhawan, director of the Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd (DHFL).

"Normally we consider based on the period already undergone...but here he rocked the entire financial system,"Justice Khanna was quoted by Bar and Bench.

The bench also asked the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to speed up the trial. Kapoor has been in jail since March 2020 in connection with the DHFL money laundering case.

"Some cases are extraordinary. You have to take it on priority basis. What is this (delay)? There is something wrong. You cannot take it up like this. And thing is once they get bail, trial will not end in at least 10 years," said the bench.

Enforcement Directorate (ED) was probing Kapoor's role in connection with the disbursal of a loan to corporate entity and subsequent alleged kickbacks received in his wife's accounts.

Earlier, the Bombay High Court had rejected his bail plea observing huge loss of public funds allegedly on account of the criminal activities of his companies.
The central government has agreed to discuss the situation in violence-hit Manipur in parliament on August 11 under a middle path solution proposed by the opposition parties, reports said on Thursday.

Earlier in the day, Union ministers Piyush Goyal and Pralhad Joshi had reached out to Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and other opposition leaders to break the logjam in the Rajya Sabha over the issue. The opposition, however, stuck to its demand for a statement by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in both Houses of Parliament, followed by a comprehensive discussion, even though sources said it has relented on its stand for holding such discussion under Rule 267.

After the meeting, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh wrote on X that the INDIA alliance parties have offered a middle path solution to get a discussion on Manipur in the House.

INDIA parties have offered a middle path solution to the Leader of the House to break the logjam and get a discussion on Manipur going in an uninterrupted manner in the Rajya Sabha. Hope the Modi government agrees, he said.

Trinamool Congress MP Derek O'Brien also confirmed on X that the opposition had offered a 'middle path solution'.

INDIA parties in Rajya Sabha want a discussion on Manipur. We have no ego or arrogance. Manipur needs healing. INDIA parties dont believe in roadblocks. We've offered a concrete Middle Path solution. We remain optimistic that the govt accepts it, he said.

The opposition has already moved notice for a no-confidence motion against the BJP government as it wants to get Prime Minister Modi to speak in parliament about the situation in Manipur which has been rocked by ethnic clashes over the last two months. The Lok Sabha will debate the no-confidence motion between August 8 and 10 with the prime minister likely to reply on the last day.

Meanwhile, in fresh incidents of violence in the northeast state, 19 people were injured as the Army and RAF personnel fired tear gas shells at Kangvai and Phougakchao area in Bishnupur district on Thursday.

The district magistrates of Imphal East and Imphal West also withdrew curfew relaxations, imposing the restrictions during the day as a precautionary measure, on top of night curfew throughout the Imphal valley.

In the last 24 hours, 130 checkpoints were set up in different districts, both in the hill and the valley, and police detained 347 persons in connection with various violations, Manipur police tweeted.
India may be benefiting from the war in Ukraine, because it allows the country to import oil from Russia at a lower rate. But the Indians fighting the Russians in Ukraine are not impressed.

People in India do not understand the real situation in Ukraine because of the pro-Russia propaganda working there, Naveen, from Haryana, told THE WEEK in Kostyantynivka, just 27km from Russian-occupied Bakhmut. Naveen and a fellow Indian who goes by the nom de guerre Andrii, are part of the International Legion of Territorial Defence of Ukraine. I am requesting the Indian government to help Ukraine, said Andrii. I escaped death three or four times. I had an option to leave Ukrane in the beginning of the war, but I did not leave. Even now, I have the option, but I will not go.

They both said that they will fight till the end of the war or their life.

Currently, there are three Indians with the International Legion, and two of them met THE WEEK's Deputy Photo Editor Bhanu Prakash Chandra in Kostyantynivka on July 19. They said they are talking to the media for the first time. Andrii, who was the first of the three Indians to join the Ukrainian army in March 2022, was just 32 but his beard was already greying. Before the war, my beard was completely black, he said. War has turned it grey.

Bhanu Prakash Chandra with a Ukrainian soldier

Andrii had covered his face with a bandana. Main chehra nahi dikhana chahta (I dont want to show my face), he said. Both go by their first names, because Ukrainian soldiers are not allowed to give their surnames, as it will reveal their nativity. They said that they were proud Indians but wanted to fight for Ukraine as it was their home now. They both had come to Ukraine as students. They later fell in love with and married Ukrainian women. Andrii has children as well.

If someone attacks your home, will you sit or fight? said Andrii, who has been in Ukraine for 12 years. Russians are killing people. They are targeting places, even if soldiers are not there. I know of incidents where Russian soldiers raped women in front of their husbands. They are not humans, not even animals. Animals are better than them. They have to leave Ukraine, nothing is here for them.

According to him, Russians are firing leftover rockets from the Soviet-era. If they come for a face-to-face fight, they will lose, he said.

Naveen, who studied at the Kharkiv Aviation Institute, first joined the Territorial Defence Forces, which is Ukraines military reserve. He joined the army only this January. Naveen had to undergo a special verification process because he is a foreigner. Before his frontline posting, he was trained by French, German and Israeli military instructors for six weeks. Naveen said he was scared of war in the beginning, but his commander Alex helped him face dire situations. He said new recruits were joining the legion every day. Were there any Indians among the new recruits? No, our people are not motivated to fight like us, said Naveen. They said their families and authorities back home knew that they were fighting for Ukraine, but had no clue what they thought about it.

THE WEEK issue dated August 13

There are things that they miss about India though. Andrii, for instance, misses south Indian foodidli and dosa are his favourites. He is also a movie buff and prefers south Indian movies. He has watched K.G.F: Chapter 1 and K.G.F: Chapter 2, and is a fan of Jr NTR.

Bhanu Prakash Chandra travelled to battlefronts in Ukraine, and spent more than two weeks there. In THE WEEK issue dated August 13, which is now on stands, he recounts the spirit of the soldiers and the resilience of civilians. He saw and heard it all - air raid sirens, drone bombs, artillery firing, missile strikes, land mines, damaged buildings, ghost villages, and what not. But, as Bhanu writes, the war has destroyed many things, but it has not broken Ukraine's spirit.

You may also buy the issue online:

Subscribe to THE WEEK Magzter:

http://mgztr.co/TheWeekIndia

Single issue purchase link:

https://tinyurl.com/d7bxzdfy

Subscription link:

https://tinyurl.com/3nt95zcm
After days of Parliament logjam, the Centre and Opposition's INDIA bloc may have reached a consensus with regard to the Manipur discussion in Rajya Sabha. This came as the government on Thursday reached out to the Opposition leaders to break the logjam in the Upper House.

As per unconfirmed reports, Opposition leaders may drop their demand for a statement from the Prime Minister on the ethnic conflict in the northeastern state, but would still insist on the debate in Rajya Sabha to take place under Rule 167, which includes a resolution to be passed at the end. The government has so far been adamant about the discussion happening under Rule 267.



The first hint in this direction was given by Congress chief whip Jairam Ramesh, who tweeted that a suggestion had been mooted by the opposition. "INDIA parties have offered a middle path solution to the Leader of the House to break the logjam and get a discussion on Manipur going in an uninterrupted manner in the Rajya Sabha. Hope the Modi government agrees."



Trinamool Congress MP Derek O'Brien too confirmed that the opposition had offered a 'middle path solution'. "INDIA parties in Rajya Sabha want a discussion on Manipur. We have no ego or arrogance. Manipur needs healing. INDIA parties dont believe in roadblocks. We've offered a concrete Middle Path solution. We remain optimistic that the govt accepts it," he said.



The Opposition reportedly decided to budge on the PMs statement after its delegation met President Droupadi Murmu on Wednesday. "Meeting the president was the key moment for us. The Opposition parties met on Thursday to plan a new strategy. Now the onus to discuss Manipur lies with the government," Hindustan Times quoted a senior Opposition leader. The Opposition wants "efforts to restore peace" and "violence against women" to be a part of the motion.



However, the government is yet to take a decision and the resolution to be adopted at the end of the debate could be "a point of contention".



There are also other issues, including the fact that the chair had already given sanction for the discussion to take place under Rule 176. However, the INDIA leaders want it under Rule 267 and have insisted that MPs who gave notices for the discussion to be taken up under Rule 176 withdraw their request, the Hindustan Times added.



Meanwhile, the INDIA parties floor leaders will hold a meeting on Friday at 10 am in the office of LoP Rajya Sabha in Parliament to chalk out the strategy for the floor of the House.
As former Congress President Rahul Gandhi received a hero's welcome at the party headquarters today, after the Supreme Court stayed his conviction by a Gujarat court in a defamation case, an immediate priority for his party is his reinstatement as a Member of Parliament in time for the discussion on no confidence motion on the Manipur issue in Parliament early next week.

Party leaders and workers lined up at the AICC headquarters to welcome him as he arrived there to make a brief statement before the media. He was offered sweets and flowers by party chief Mallikarjun Kharge. There were smiles all around and the leaders showed the victory sign.

The Supreme Court's order clears the way for Rahul's reinstatement as a member of the Lok Sabha. He stayed out of the house for two sessions after he was disqualified upon his conviction in a defamation case by a lower court in Gujarat. The stay on the conviction also means that Rahul can contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Party leaders are hopeful that Rahul will make a powerful re-entry into the Lok Sabha as a participant in the no-confidence motion against the Modi government, scheduled to be taken up on August 8.

Congress leaders approached Speaker Om Birla immediately after the Supreme Court's decision.

"We all saw the speed with which Rahul Gandhi was disqualified. He should be reinstated with the same speed," said Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Congress leader in the Lok Sabha. He said the party will submit the relevant documents from the Supreme Court to the Speaker's office at the earliest.

Congress is wary of a repeat of the case of Lakshadweep MP Mohammed Faizal, whose reinstatement as a Lok Sabha MP following the stay of his conviction by the Kerala High Court took one-and-a-half months.

"There is no need for the Lok Sabha Speaker to seek legal advice from the law ministry in the matter. It is not a complicated issue of law. The base for the disqualification, which was the conviction, is gone. So the reinstatement should happen immediately," said party leader and senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who represented Rahul in the case.

Singhvi said any delay in reinstatement of Rahul as an MP would be malafide, unfair and graceless.

Going to the Supreme Court is an option before the party if Rahul's status as an MP is not renewed immediately.
A key bill, which Defence Minister Rajnath Singh termed an important step in the direction of military reforms, passed the Lok Sabha on Friday. The Inter-Services Organisations (Command, Control and Discipline) Bill, 2023, empowers commanders of inter-services organisations to exercise control over personnel, irrespective of their service branch.

Singh, who tabled the bill, passed it amid Opposition protests over the Manipur issue. According to the defence minister, the bill is a significant step towards the integration of the three wings of the Armed Forces.



"This bill is an important step towards integration and jointness in the three wings of our Armed Forces so that they will be able to face the challenges of the future in a united and integrated manner", Rajnath Singh said. He added that the bill does not include any additional financial implications.



The Inter-Services Organisation (Command, Control, and Discipline) Bill, 2023, was introduced in Lok Sabha on March 15. On April 24, the Speaker sent it to the Standing Committee on Defence for review and a report. The Standing Committee on Defence approved all the provisions of the bill and the House panel recommended that the bill should be passed without any amendments.



According to the defence minister, at present, the service personnel of the Air Force, Army and Navy are governed by the provisions of the Air Force Act, 1950, the Army Act 1950, and the Navy Act, 1957. Only officers of the respective services are empowered to exercise disciplinary powers over the service personnel.



Meanwhile, the Rajya Sabha was adjourned for the day on Friday amid an uproar in the House over the issue of law and order situation in Rajasthan.



Soon after the House met at 12, the ruling party members referred to the killing of a girl in Rajasthan and wanted the House to take up a discussion on the law and order situation in the state.



A 14-year-old girl was allegedly murdered and later burned in a coal furnace in Rajasthan's Bhilwara district, with locals claiming that she was also gang-raped.



Leader of the House Piyush Goyal said the situation is "very bad" in Rajasthan and that the state government has failed on all counts to maintain law and order. Alleging that crimes against women were on the rise in the state, he said "our daughters and sisters in the state were not safe and urged the chairman to take up the matter for discussion".



After the Chairman allowed the Leader of the Opposition to raise his point, there was uproar in the House by treasury benches. The chairman then adjourned the House for the day.



(With inputs from PTI)


Erdogan offers help in processing Russian grain 4 August, 08:30 PM Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that his country is ready to receive Russian grain, process it into flour, and export the products to African countries and underdeveloped states. (Photo:REUTERS/Umit Bektas)

Turkey is ready to process Russian grain coming through the Black Sea grain corridor into flour and send it to poor countries in Africa and underdeveloped states, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Aug. 4, as reported by Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform.

You know, we are in agreement with Russia on this matter, said Erdogan.

That is, the grain coming from Russia through the Black Sea corridor, we will process into flour and transport it as flour to poor countries in Africa, underdeveloped countries.

The president noted that "even now, the (Turkish) Agriculture Ministry will continue to take these steps and support poor countries."

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On July 28, The Wall Street Journal reported that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin was ignoring requests from Erdogan to hold negotiations on the continuation of the Black Sea Grain Initiative (BSGI).

On Aug. 2, Erdogan announced that Putin agreed to visit Turkey after a joint phone call.

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A tribal man in Singrauli district of Madhya Pradesh sustained an injury on his right hand after the son of the local BJP MLA shot at him while the victim was trying to intervene in an altercation.



Singrauli is just 80km from Sidhi, where the infamous urination incident involving a tribal man and the alleged representative of a BJP MLA that took the nation by storm last month, happened.



Vivekanand Vaishya, son of MLA Ramlallu Vaishya, allegedly opened fire at Surya Prakash Khairwar without any provocation in a busy area on Thursday early evening.



A case was registered by Morwa police six hours after the incident, only after the victim did not deter from his decision to file a case, local Congress leaders have alleged.



Former district Youth Congress president Praveen Singh Chauhan alleged that Vaishya was a habitual offender who assaulted and shot at forest officials last year, attacked a nurse and also some cops. However, no action was taken against him because of the influence of his father, Chauhan said. They also alleged that sections under SC/ST (prevention of atrocities) Act were not added in the current case despite the victim being a tribal.



Sub-divisional officer of police (SDOP), Singrauli, Rajeev Pathak, however, told THE WEEK that relevant sections of the SC/ST Act were added to the FIR after the caste certificate of the victim was produced. We added the sections yesterday night itself. We just waited to see the caste certificate, which was not immediately available.



A case has been registered against Vaishya for attempted murder under Section 307 of the Indian Penal Code, and Section 25 of the Arms Act too, he said.



Pathak said though the accused was absconding, he would be arrested soon as multiple police parties are on the lookout for him. The officer said the victim had been discharged from the hospital after necessary treatment.



Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra told reporters in Jabalpur: "Action will be taken. A case has been registered. The law will take its course."



According to the police report, the complainant, Surya Prakash Khairwar (34), saw his brothers Aditya Khairwar and Rahul Khaiwar in a heated argument with one Deepak Panika, while he was going to purchase groceries on his bike. Khairwar stopped and tried to intervene in the altercation when he was suddenly hit by a bullet. He then saw Vaishya sitting inside a car nearby holding the gun, and when he tried to question him, Vaishya reportedly tried to flee. The crowd that had gathered broke the windows of the car, but Vaishya managed to escape, sources said.



Madhya Pradesh Congress chief and former chief minister Kamal Nath lashed out at the BJP government and questioned Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan.



There is a competition among the BJP leaders of Madhya Pradesh to persecute the tribal community. Not long after the incident of urinating on a tribal youth in Sidhi, Vivekananda Vaishya, son of BJP MLA Ramlallu Vaishya, shot a tribal youth in Singrauli. The young man is seriously injured. I wish the victim tribal youth a speedy recovery, he tweeted.



Nath added: I want to know from the Chief Minister whether the only work left for BJP leaders is to harass tribals, Dalits, women and people of deprived sections. Far from curbing such crimes, you are seen promoting the criminals. Recently, you have made it clear that you are fast progressing in the campaign of criminalising the BJP, when you inducted a person from Harda, convicted for running a sex racket, in the BJP. State-nurtured crimes have become a stigma on Madhya Pradesh.
In a fresh case of arms looting, a mob broke into the police armoury and stole weapons including AK and 'Ghatak' series of assault rifles in Manipur. It seems there is no respite for the violence in the state as the weapons looting is increasing with incidents reported from several areas.

The recent incident took place at the battalion headquarters of the 2nd India Reserve Battalion (IRB) at Naranseina in Bishnupur district. Reportedly, over 19,000 bullets of various calibres were stole by the mob.

According to officials, an AK series assault rifle, three 'Ghatak' rifles, 195 self-loading rifles, five MP-5 guns, 16 9mm pistols, 25 bulletproof jackets, 21 carbines, 124 hand grenades were looted by the mob.

The incident happened when a large crowd had gathered in the area to take out a march towards Churachandpur where tribals were planning for a mass burial of those killed in the clashes that broke out on May 3, said officials.

"At about 9.45 hours. A large number armed miscreants individuals who came by some 40/45 light vehicles and on foot numbering around 500 overpowered the sentry of main gate and Quarter Guar," said the FIR registered.

Meanwhile, a police official was killed in Imphal West district.

Police official T. Rishi was shot in the head during the clashes with suspected militants, reported NDTV.



A fresh unrest broke out in the violence-hit state against the mass burial programme by the tribal. Many communities had opposed the move.

Around 25 people were injured in the fresh clashes that occurred in Kangvai and

Phougakchao areas in Bishnupur district on Thursday. The Army and the RAF personnel fired tear gas shells to stop the processions towards the burial site.

It was violation of restrictions on gatherings, said an official. The mass burial was stayed by the Manipur High Court on Thursday. The Kuki community claimed that they had postponed the programme after discussions with the Union Home Ministry.

Earlier too there were attempts to loot police armouries but it was foiled. Reportedly, around 4,000 weapons and lakhs of ammunition have been looted so far.

Chief Minister N. Biren Singh and Home Minister Amit Shah had appealed to the people to return the looted weapons.

The Supreme Court is currently hearing the petitions related to the Manipur violence. In its latest hearing, SC had summoned the state DGP for a personal appearance.

Over 160 people lost their lives and several hundred were injured since the clashes broke out in Manipur.
A key bill to give strategic direction to research and innovation in the field of sciences was introduced in Lok Sabha on Friday. The bill aims to set up a national research fund, to be headed by the prime minister, with an estimated cost of Rs 50,000 crore in five years. The fund will substantially increase the countrys contribution to research. The move is expected to put India in the league of developed countries that focus on and promote cutting-edge research critical to human needs in the future.



Minister of State (independent charge) for Science and Technology Jitendra Singh presented the bill to set up Anusandhan National Research Foundation. Singh said when passed by Parliament, the Act will provide high-level strategic direction for research, innovation and entrepreneurship in the fields of natural sciences, including mathematical sciences, engineering and technology, environmental and earth sciences, health and agriculture. The minister added that it will also promote scientific and technological interfaces of humanities and social sciences to monitor and provide support as required for such research.



The bill marks a new beginning. It will put India in the league of elite nations and make us a serious global player, Singh said.



Sources said the fund will aim to fill the gaps that exist in funding research as the majority of funds go to institutes like IITs, while the state universities only get 20 per cent of the funds. The NRF will fund state universities involved in research to create an atmosphere of research so that newer inventions can power Indias move towards advanced countries.



Where the developed countries score is the higher amount of funds that flow into research. The NRF seeks to correct that imbalance. In the case of the USA, the funds spent for research is 2.6 per cent of the GDP, but in India it is .64 per cent of the GDP. Our funding for research has increased by three times in last nine years. As our size of GDP has increased, so has the funds for research and development. In case of the USA also, the contribution of the government for R&D is .8 per cent; the rest is by the private sector. In India, the figures stand at .45 per cent. With the NRF, we are increasing contributions from the private sector, including philanthropists, as we aim to bring Rs 36,000 crore through them. If the companies devote even 10 per cent of the total CSR funding towards research, it will give us the funds, a government source said.



The remaining amount will be funded by the governmentRs 10,000 crore from the Centre and Rs 4,000 crore through subsuming Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) into the NRF.



Once set up, the funds aim to foster a culture of research and innovation throughout Indias universities, colleges, research institutions, and R&D laboratories, the minister said in Lok sabha.



The Department of Science and Technology (DST) will be the administrative department of NRF which will be managed by a governing board consisting of eminent researchers and professionals across disciplines. The bill, after approval in the Parliament, will establish NRF, an apex body to provide high-level strategic direction to scientific research in the country as per recommendations of the National Education Policy (NEP), at a total estimated cost of Rs. 50,000 crore during the next five years (2023-28).



Since the scope of the NRF is wide-ranging  impacting all ministries, the prime minister will be the ex-officio president of the board and the Union minister of science and technology and Union minister of education will be the ex-officio vice-presidents. NRFs functioning will be governed by an executive council chaired by the principal scientific adviser to the government of India.



Referring to certain misgivings that such a prestigious science funding body is being helmed by the political leadership, the government sources said it was the same case in countries like the USA. In the USA, the national science fund reports to the president.



The government said the NRF will forge collaborations among the industry, academia, and government departments and research institutions, and create an interface mechanism for participation and contribution of industries and state governments in addition to the scientific and line ministries. It will focus on creating a policy framework and putting in place regulatory processes that can encourage collaboration and increased spending by the industry on R&D.



The bill will also repeal the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) established by an act of Parliament in 2008 and subsume it into NRF which has an expanded mandate and covers activities over and above the activities of SERB.


As the five BRICS countriesBrazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa meet in Johannesburg this month, on the agenda will be the expansion of membership as there is a high demand for inclusion into the club. As many as 13 countries reportedly have applied to join the club, and six more are waiting in the queue. But, just like all membership, it all boils down to certain criteria.



Like every club worth its salt, admission of new members in the BRICS clubs is complicated. Even as China pushes for expansion, India wants to maintain a delicate balance. While India has supported the expansion, there is concern that China may choose to tilt the balance of the forum in its favour. Among the countries waiting to join are Argentina, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Iran and Venezuela.



BRICS, like the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, is viewed as an anti-West forum. With reports that member countries may float a BRICS currencyto be used in place of dollar for trade, and which may come as a direct threat to AmericaIndia will certainly want to play it safe. India has also strongly denied any opposition to the expansion of the grouping.



When asked about the expansion, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said, This is still a work in progress. We are approaching this with positive intent, with an open mind. There are many aspects to it. One part of it is to consolidate how the existing BRICS members are working with each other. The second part of it is how the BRICS engages non-BRICS countries. And the third part is how we look at possible BRICS expansion  what will be the appropriate format; for that is also something we need to work on.



The rather cautious approach is also essential at a time when Russia has become weaker. Russia has publicly supported the idea.



India is not the only country that has chosen to view the expansion bidsupported by Chinathrough the prism of altruism. Brazil too wants to ensure that the expansion is based on rules. Possibly, in this meeting, we can already consensually decide which new countries can join BRICS, President Lula has been quoted as saying on Thursday, clarifying his countrys position. I am of the opinion that as many countries want to enter, if they are in compliance with the rules we are establishing, we will accept the countries entrance.



However, this cautious stand has been interpreted (read by China) as resistance to the expansion. With the meeting of leaders coming up at the end of the month, it is likely to be a practice round for the G20 meeting next month. And with the rumour that President Xi Jinping is also likely to make an appearance, the summit promises to be an exciting one.








Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, on Friday, thanked people for their support after the Supreme Court stayed his conviction in a defamation case.



The apex court stayed Gandhi's conviction in a 2019 defamation case over his Modi surname remark, paving the way for the revival of his Lok Sabha membership.



Truth always triumphs, the Congress leader said. "My path is clear. I have clarity in my mind about what I have to do and what my work is. I thank the people who helped us. I also thank the people for their love and support," Gandhi added.



Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said this victory was not just for Gandhi but for the people of the country and democracy. "This is the victory of people, the victory of voters, the victory of voters of Wayanad," Kharge said.



Earlier in the day, Gandhi had tweeted saying, Come what may, my duty remains the same. Protect the idea of India."

A three-judge bench of Justices B.R. Gavai, P.S. Narasimha and Sanjay Kumar, on Friday, said no reason was given by the trial court judge while convicting Gandhi except that he was admonished by the apex court in a contempt case.

The top court was hearing a plea by Gandhi challenging the Gujarat High Court verdict which dismissed his plea seeking a stay on his conviction in the defamation case filed by Purnesh Modi over his "Modi surname" remark.

Gandhi had persistently refused to apologise for his remark but urged the Supreme Court to stay his conviction in the criminal defamation case stemming from his comment, asserting he is not guilty.
Former US President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty on Thursday to charges against him in conspiring to overturn his US elections defeat in 2020.

Trump appeared before a magistrate judge in Washington's federal courthouse two days after being indicted on four felony counts by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith.

He was accused of trying to subvert the will of voters and obstruct the certification of Democrat Joe Biden's victory before January 6, 2021. A mob of supporters stormed the US Capitol in a violent clash with law enforcement.

Trump entered through the backdoor of the courthouse on Thursday afternoon in the centre of nation's capital.

Four charges against him included conspiracy to defraud the US, obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy against the rights of citizens.

Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya told the former president not to communicate about the facts of the case.

Failure to comply would result in an arrest warrant, warned the Judge.

Trump's defence attorney John Lauro said they would need more time to prepare.

The allegation laid out on Tuesday in an indictment or charge sheet include a count of "conspiracy to impair, obstruct, and defeat the federal government function through dishonesty, fraud and deceit."

Trump is running for the 2024 US elections.

Speaking to the reporters he said that his was arraignment was a "very sad day for America".

"Was sad to see the filth and the decay and all of the broken buildings and walls and the graffiti" in the Washington DC, he said.

"I think that everybody was made aware that he lost the election, but that doesn't mean that was the only advice he was given," said Alina Habba, one of his lawyers.

She argued that Trump was given bad guidance by his team in the aftermath of the election.

"But that doesn't mean there weren't other people advising him exactly the opposite. And the president has a right, as every one of us do, to listen to several opinions and make a decision," she added.

A group of Trump supporters assembled outside the courthouse to support him.

The next hearing will take place on August 28. However, the judge may set a trial date.

Altogether, Trump is facing five trials, three in New York over hush-money payment, and civil trials over business practices and alleged defamation of a woman who accused him of rape.

The fourth trial will take place in Florida relating to the alleged mishandling of classified documents.

(With agencies inputs)
Japan's Vice Foreign Minister Masatoshi Akimoto, on Friday, resigned from his post. A leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, Akimoto stepped down after bribery allegations amounting to tens of millions of Yen from a wind power company were levelled against him, reported the Kyodo News.



Reportedly, authorities also searched the offices of the Japanese ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker in Tokyo and China. The president of the wind power company too was questioned over payments made to Akimoto. Lawyers of the company's president denied charges and said the money was for a racehorse cooperative and not Mr Akimoto.

Japan Wind Development said in a statement, There is no proof whatsoever that our company paid bribes to a lawmaker or to any public servants. There is objective evidence to prove this point, Kyodo News reported.

The scandal comes as Prime Minister Fumio Kishida battles low approval ratings. The support rate for his cabinet is at its lowest level since Kishida took office nearly two years ago.

Akimoto had pushed for legislation to set uniform rules for renewable energy operators to use the sea and promote offshore wind power. The legislation was enacted in November 2018. The Japan Wind Development sought to join the development project where the government designated three marine zones in Akita and Chiba prefectures for electricity generation for up to 30 years based on the legislation.
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has told the coalition partners that he would recommend the dissolution of the National Assembly on August 9, three days before the end of its term and setting the stage for general elections in the cash-strapped country.



Sharif at a dinner reception hosted in honour of the ruling allies at the Prime Minister's House on Thursday said the National Assembly or the lower house of Parliament would stand dissolved as soon as the President signs the notification he plans to send to him, the Pakistani media reported on Friday.

Sharif, also President of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party, has repeatedly said that his government will dissolve the National Assembly and the election commission will announce general elections under the provisions of the Constitution.

However, if, for any reason, the president does not sign the advice, the 342-member Assembly will be automatically dissolved after 48 hours of receiving the prime minister's notification.

The move will prompt general elections in Pakistan within 90 days as the ruling coalition government gets ready to face polls after the five-year term of Parliament on August 12.

The Constitution provides that if the assembly completes its tenure, elections are to be held in 60 days, but in case of premature dissolution - which will be the case here - this period is extended to 90 days.

The prime minister will send a notification to President Arif Alvi for the dissolution of the National Assembly on August 9, The Express Tribune newspaper reported.

At the reception, Sharif apprised the participants that the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had finalised consultations within the party, and the premier would begin a final round of discussions with allies on the caretaker set-up on Friday.

Sharif had last week ruled out the possibility of the appointment of Finance Minister Ishaq Dar as the caretaker prime minister, saying a "neutral person" will be selected to lead the interim government next month to make upcoming general elections transparent.

A bill to empower the caretaker set-up to initiate policy decisions was recently passed by Pakistan's Parliament.

Sharif has also indicated that Nawaz Sharif, three-time former prime minister and his elder brother, who has been living in self-imposed exile in London since 2019 will return to Pakistan in the next few weeks.

The 73-year-old PML-N supremo will be the Prime Minister if the party wins the election, he said.

The prime minister during the reception said the process of appointing the interim premier was expected to take at least three days.

An online meeting with allies on the caretaker set-up is also expected to be held on Friday.

On Thursday, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari also held a lengthy meeting with the prime minister on this issue, the source said, according to the report.

The premier briefed his allies at the dinner about the coalition government's performance. He claimed that the government had increased revenue collection by 13 per cent in 15 months as more than 1.3 million new taxpayers were included in the tax net.

Sharif claimed recoveries remained over 90 per cent in the power sector. However, it may be noted that the circular debt posted an 18 per cent Rs 393 billion increase in the past 11 months, according to the report.

The prime minister said that significant progress was witnessed during the last four months in the IT sector and added that the total volume of IT exports went up to USD 2.6 billion in the previous fiscal year.

He said that foreign investment remained at USD 1.45 billion during the fiscal year 2022-23 and hoped that with the establishment of the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), more foreign investment would be fetched.

Sharif said with the Rs 1.8 trillion Kissan Package, the government has met 99 per cent of targets and saved the country from default. He added that comprehensive policies have been devised for the welfare of the people.

The reception was attended by Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani, Speaker of National Assembly Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Pakistan People's Party (PPP) leaders Yousuf Raza Gilani, and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Convener Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui.

Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam(F) (JUI-F) leader Asad Mehmood, Balochistan Awami Party leaders Khalid Magsi and Senator Ahmed Khan, Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP) Chairman Shahzain Bugti, Aslam Bhootani, Mohsin Dawar and were also among those who attended the reception, according to the report.

Meanwhile, Federal Minister for Water Resources Syed Khursheed Shah expressed reservations over Sharif's decision to hold forthcoming general elections as per the new census.

He was of the view that the new census required new delimitations which was not possible in three months.

The PPP, which is one of the major allies in the ruling coalition, also disagreed with the idea of selecting a caretaker prime minister from any political party.

In a statement, the PPP said the party had finalised five names for the post of caretaker prime minister. However, it added that any other name could also be considered for the coveted slot.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will be the final authority to pick the caretaker prime minister if the parliamentary committee responsible for the selection of the interim premier fails to select a caretaker PM.

On the caretaker setup, Prime Minister Sharif said the ruling coalition would try to bring in a person acceptable to all stakeholders and added that his government would go home in the coming days.

At the same time, he thanked all the parliamentarians for reposing trust in him and lauded National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf and Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani on how he ran the house.

Shehbaz Sharif became the prime minister in April last year after the National Assembly passed a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan and ousted the chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party from the top post. Khan's PTI won last general election in 2018.
Chandigarh, Aug 3 (PTI) Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema Thursday said the state taxation department will adopt the latest software and technological solutions to strengthen its digital tax administration.

Chairing a review meeting with the officials of the taxation commissionerate who visited Telangana to study the GST administration, Cheema said the digital technologies adopted by the newly established tax intelligence unit (TIU) were helping the tax authorities in better enforcement, increasing the tax base and plugging leakages.

He encouraged officials to look for more technological solutions, especially tailored as per the requirements of the state, to plug any possible tax evasion, incorrect reporting, and administrative errors.

The taxation commissionerate team shared its experience about the study tour of Telangana and elaborated the best practices adopted by the state in the GST (Goods and Services Tax) administration.

They apprised the finance minister that the state of Telangana is being assisted by IIT Hyderabad in data analytics and development of IT-based modules in the implementation of GST administration.
The style sensibilities of Bollywood stars and entrepreneurs, often considered bellwethers of the fashion world, are singing praises of a vintage trend: the Jodhpur breeches. Once the sophisticated uniform of polo players in the early '20's in Jodhpur, these breeches have now transformed into a fashion statement, walking off the polo grounds onto the fashion runways and red carpets. The Jodhpur breeches echo a timeless elegance, recalling the regal essence of their equestrian origins. From being an integral part of the royals casual wardrobe, they have now seamlessly integrated into the style arsenal of modern, fashion-conscious individuals, completely democratizing the look. A significant part of this revival can be credited to the venerable fashion house, Raghavendra Rathore Jodhpur. Over its 25-year journey, the brand has been instrumental in re-establishing this piece of heritage wardrobe into mainstream fashion.







(Disclaimer: The above content is a press release and PTI takes no editorial responsibility for the same.). PTI PWR

PWR
ICC may issue another arrest warrant for Putin  Ukrainian intelligence 4 August, 10:00 PM Not only Putin, but also "new names from his entourage" can expect a new warrant (Photo:Serhiy Bobylev/ Host Photo Agency via REUTERS)

The International Criminal Court in the Hague may issue another arrest warrant for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin for the crimes committed by Wagner mercenaries, Ukrainian Military Intelligence spokesman Andriy Yusov told Ukrainian TV broadcasters on Aug. 4.

We know that the work of the ICC is a complex process, said Yusov.

But, nevertheless, both for these episodes and for many other crimes of Putin, his regime, and Putin's Russia, new investigations and corresponding decisions are possible.

He added that not only Putin, but also other individuals from his entourage could be named in future warrants from the couty.

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Earlier, former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice David Scheffer said that the International Criminal Court could investigate the ties between Wagner mercenaries and Russian leadership, which could potentially lead to new arrest warrants for Putin.

On March 17, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin on suspicion of committing war crimes related to the deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia.

Putin now faces arrest in 123 countries that have ratified the Rome Statute.

Will you support Ukraines free press? Dear reader, as all news organizations, we must balance the pressures of delivering timely, accurate, and relevant stories with requirements to fund our business operations. As a Ukrainian-based media, we also have another responsibility  to amplify Ukraines voice to the world during the crucial moment of its existence as a political nation. Its the support of our readers that lets us continue doing our job. We keep our essential reporting free because we believe in our ultimate purpose: an independent, democratic Ukraine. If youre willing to support Ukraine, consider subscribing to our Patreon starting from 5$ per month. We are immensely grateful.

Please help us continue fighting Russian propaganda. Truth can be hard to tell from fiction these days. Every viewpoint has its audience of backers and supporters, no matter how absurd. If conscious disinformation is reinforced by state propaganda apparatus and budget, its outcomes may become deadly. There is no solution to this, other than independent, honest, and accurate reporting. We remain committed to empowering the Ukrainian voice to push against the muck. If youre willing to stand up for the truth  consider supporting us on Patreon starting from 5$ per month. Thank you very much.

Will you help tell Ukraines story to the world? Twenty years ago, most people hadnt even heard of Ukraine. Today, the country is on everyones lips and everyones headlines. War pushed us on the front page. But there are many other things we do that we are proud of  from music and culture to technology. We need your help to tell the world Ukrainian story of resilience, joy, and survival. If youre willing to back our effort, consider supporting us on Patreon starting from 5$ per month. We are immensely grateful.

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Surat (Gujarat) [India], August 4: Subhash Dawar, a prominent industrialist hailing from the diamond city of Surat, has been chosen to spearhead 'Vanar Sena,' an organization dedicated to social welfare and providing essential aid to the underprivileged across the country, particularly in the state of Gujarat.



Vanar Sena was established by Ajit Pratap Singh, the deputy director in the Social Welfare Department of the Uttar Pradesh Government, with the noble mission of building a large army of selfless angels serving those in need.



With the sole aim of extending a helping hand to the needy in various domains such as medical assistance, blood donation, employment support, providing financial aid for the marriages of impoverished girls, and facilitating education opportunities, Vanar Sena has attracted thousands of volunteers from diverse backgrounds. These volunteers range from high-ranking officers like IAS and IPS to individuals from all walks of life, including well-known personalities.



Ajit Pratap Singh expressed his confidence in Subhash Dawar's leadership abilities and acknowledged his significant presence in both the industrial and film worlds. He believes that Subhash Dawar's extensive contacts will bolster Vanar Sena's growth in Gujarat, a major state in the country.



The core idea behind the organization, as explained by Ajit Singh, is to emulate the behavior of a herd of monkeys coming together to aid a fellow monkey in distress. Similarly, when a person is in need, Vanar Sena strives to have a network of compassionate individuals ready to lend assistance promptly. The initiative began during the challenging times of the Covid-19 pandemic and has since made remarkable progress, touching the lives of thousands.



In a formal ceremony to inaugurate the organizations operations in Gujarat, international president Preeti Srivastava, affectionately known as 'Helicopter Didi,' visited Surat last week. Alongside her, Padma Shri Anand Kumar, (Movie Super 30 Fame) renowned for his exemplary contributions to the field of education, graced the event. The duo received a warm welcome and felicitation from the attendees.



During the event, Anand Kumar praised Subhash Dawar for taking up the mantle of 'Vanar Sena' and expressed his hope that Dawar's efforts would significantly impact the lives of the underprivileged.



Preeti Srivastava acknowledged the invaluable role of volunteers like Subhash Dawar in her mission to support the education of needy children, and she vowed to continue her work in this area in the future, bearing the cost of education for those in need.



Subhash Dawar's involvement with 'Vanar Sena' promises to be a significant step forward in uplifting the less fortunate and providing a strong support system for those facing hardships in Gujarat. With the support of dedicated volunteers and visionary leaders, the organization aims to create a more compassionate and equitable society.



(Disclaimer: The above press release comes to you under an arrangement with PNN and PTI takes no editorial responsibility for the same.). PTI PWR

PWR
Lucknow, Aug 4 (PTI) Bengaluru-based e-commerce platform Meesho is planning to deliver furniture items to customers in some pockets of the country by Diwali this year, a company official said.

Referring to the Manipur incidents, the company official said that the business has been impacted owing to the recent violence in the North-East.

Meesho's Director of Fulfillment and Experience Sourabh Pandey also feels that cracking the supplier ecosystem in Uttar Pradesh will be a big challenge.

Pandey, who was in Lucknow on Wednesday to attend a roundtable meeting, told PTI, "Ethnic wear has been a strong point for us, but cracking the western wear market is very, very important. Kids wear, we are focussing on. Beauty and personal care is doing well and is growing very quickly for us.

"We are also getting into branded products now, we have launched Meesho mall. We will start doing furniture very soon, and by Diwali, Meesho will be delivering furniture items in pockets on a pilot basis," Pandey added.

On being asked about the items in demand in Uttar Pradesh, Pandey said that it is sarees, kurtis and kurtas from a category perspective.

"Electronic gadgets are an emerging category for us. We have not penetrated that market very well, we are growing fast, but we are on the verge of penetrating that market fully. So, that's not a very big market from the perspective of the number of orders, it is very big from the value perspective, as there are expensive items," he said.

When asked if there was some impact on the business due to the recent incidents in the North-East, Pandey said, "The internet was down, so obviously there has been some impact. We tried to ensure that anything the customers have ordered has been delivered, but obviously, whenever there are internet downtimes in small places, in pockets, it does impact the business. But, again these are small pockets anyways."

He added that every day, the company is reaching to anything between 13,000 to 15,000 PIN codes in the country.

Further, Pandey said, "In terms of supply, we are having 11,000 sellers in Lucknow alone, and 1.3 lakh sellers from UP. So, from the supply point of view, it is a big market in itself.

"From a demand perspective as well, UP is one of our biggest states. It is the number 1 state in terms of demands, from where we get our orders from," he added.

He further said that cracking the supplier ecosystem in Uttar Pradesh is going to be a big challenge for the company.

On the suitability of the state government policies for the business, Pandey said, "I think from a manufacturing capability perspective, from things which can be built out of UP, there is a lot that can be done...you have leather in Kanpur, footwear in Agra, Chikan in Lucknow.

"We have to ensure that we create an ecosystem where they see value in online selling. I think that there is a lot of headroom for us to go and get people online a lot more. The policies are obviously in terms of enabling some of these."

Asked about how the company looks after the delivery personnel, Pandey said, "We work with Third Party Logistic Partners. Now, what we work with on delivery boys specifically is what type of incentive policies are being created for them.

"How are we ensuring the right framework, so that they are able to do their job better, work a lot on the tech (technology) side if they are having a problem in finding the address (of the customer), and how do we provide them payment solutions on the last mile? If their job becomes easier, they are able to serve the customers better."
Colombo, Aug 4 (PTI) Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe on Friday slammed what he termed as "efforts" by smaller political groups to derail the domestic debt restructuring (DDR) through court orders.

The government in late June got parliamentary approval for the DDR as part of its efforts to tide over the worst-ever economic crisis.

We got parliamentary approval for local debt restructuring. Some of the opposition groups opposed it. Some didnt come to vote in parliament," Wickremesinghe said addressing a gathering.

Now some groups try to sabotage this by using the court. If this programme came to a halt the foreign governments will stop working with us. There will be fuel queues again in the country and the farmers will be left without fertiliser," the president said, underscoring the importance of the debt restructuring programme.

He said the government would only be dictated by the Parliament.

All fiscal matters are handled by the parliament, only the parliament can decide on these issues," he added.

Wickremesinghes remarks were an apparent reference to the opposition JVP (Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna or 'People's Liberation Front') which late in June filed a fundamental rights petition in the Supreme Court seeking an order to prevent the DDR measures being applied to pension funds.

Citing 46 respondents, the JVP sought an order that would prevent the curtailment of loans obtained by the government from the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and Employees Trust Fund (ETF) under the DDR.

The JVP claimed the EPF and ETF funds would take a hit from the DDR, hurting employee savings.

Sri Lanka has to finalise its external and domestic debt restructuring by September when the International Monetary Fund (IMF) carries out its first review of the USD 2.9 billion bailout granted in March this year.

Sri Lanka was hit by its worst economic crisis in history when the country's foreign exchange reserves fell to a critical low and the public came out on the streets to protest the fuel, fertilisers as well as essential commodities shortage.
New Delhi, Aug 4 (PTI) Extraordinary cases involving high stakes should be taken up on high priority, the Supreme Court on Friday told the Enforcement Directorate while refusing to grant bail to Yes Bank founder Rana Kapoor in a money laundering case.

Observing that Kapoor has rocked the entire financial system of the country, a bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and SVN Bhatti pulled up the ED for the slow pace of investigation in the case.

"There are some cases which are extraordinary and which involve high stakes. You have to take it on high priority. You cannot take it like this. Point is that once he gets bail, you will not be able to finish the trial for the next hundred years", the bench told Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, appearing for the Enforcement Directorate.

Raju said it becomes difficult to trace the money trail which goes to foreign countries and therefore the probe agency gets information in bits and pieces from abroad and hence the delay.

Justice Khanna said that by looking at the case diary it seems that things are moving at a slow pace.

The bench, which eventually allowed senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi to withdraw the plea, said he can file a fresh plea for bail once he completes half a sentence in custody.

It said, "Normally, we consider the bail petition on the basis of the period already undergone. He is the one who rocked the entire financial system. Did the Yes Bank not run into difficulty."

Singhvi said Kapoor is one month short of serving half of his total sentence in the offence for which he is accused of and there was no loss of the public money.

The bench said, "Sorry, this is not a case to interfere at this time. You can come after some time."

On May 4, the Bombay High Court had refused to grant bail to Kapoor in connection with the DHFL money laundering case, noting that he was one of main accused in the case and he faced a "serious charge" of having laundered public money. It had said Kapoor misused his official position to gain undue financial benefit for himself, his family members and associates and around Rs 378 crore have been invested overseas for which the investigation is still on.

The high court had said it cannot ignore Kapoor's role in the crime, the magnitude and seriousness of the crime and there was also an apprehension of tampering evidence.

Kapoor had sought bail on the ground that he had been in custody since March 2020 and trial in the case would take a long time to begin and that his custody was not required.

In 2018, Yes Bank allegedly invested Rs 3,700 crore in short-term debentures of DHFL. It also sanctioned a loan of Rs 750 crore to a subsidiary of DHFL.

Kapoor allegedly received kickbacks of Rs 600 crore by extending a loan to DOIT Urban Ventures (India) Pvt Ltd, which is wholly owned by RAB Enterprises, a company owned by Kapoor's wife and daughters.

His first bail application was rejected in February 2021 by the high court.

Kapoor had filed the second bail application on the ground that the maximum sentence under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) was seven years, and Kapoor had been in custody for three years.
Mumbai, Aug 4 (PTI) Actor Mrunal Thakur is set to receive the Diversity in Cinema Award at the upcoming Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (IFFM), the organisers announced Friday.

The "Sita Ramam" star will be honoured with the award in recognition of "her outstanding performances across diverse roles and languages in the world of Indian cinema", according to a press release.

The actor, who made her film with "Love Sonia", and then featured in movies such "Super 30", "Toofan", "Jersey", will receive the award during the annual gala night on August 11 in the Australian city.

"I am truly honoured and humbled to receive the Diversity in Cinema Award at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne. This recognition reaffirms my belief in the power of storytelling that transcends languages and cultures.

"As an artist, I've always aimed to explore a wide spectrum of characters, and this award motivates me to continue pushing boundaries and taking up roles that challenge and inspire me. I am grateful for the opportunities I've had and excited for what the future holds in this incredible journey of cinema," the 31-year-old actor said.

The 14th edition of the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne will run from August 11 to 20.
Mumbai, Aug 4 (PTI) The last rites of the National Award-winning art director Nitin Desai were held on Friday at his studio in Karjat in the presence of family members and colleagues.

The 57-year-old, known for designing the sets of films such as "Lagaan", "Jodhaa Akbar", "Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam", and the popular TV quiz show "Kaun Banega Crorepati", was found dead on the premises of his studio at Karjat in Raigad district on Wednesday morning.

The last rites were performed by Desais son.

Superstar Aamir Khan, filmmaker Ashutosh Gowariker, Sonali Kulkarni, Madhur Bhandarkar, Marathi actor Subodh Bhave, among others visited ND Studios to pay their last respects.

Filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar said he is disheartened with the passing away of Desai, whose work, he believes will be remembered forever.

"It was very sad. Its unfortunate that he is not with us. I cant believe this news. It was shocking. He has always supported all kinds of films, big, small, regional. He elevated things for art directors. He will always be remembered for his great body of work," the filmmaker who worked with Desai on films like "Traffic Signal", "Fashion", "Jail", and "Indu Sarkar", told PTI.

Earlier in the day, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar paid their last respects to Desai at JJ Hospital in South Mumbai, where his post-mortem was conducted.

As per the post-mortem report, the death was due to hanging, said Somnath Gharge, Raigad superintendent of police.

The body was kept at the hospital and was handed over to Desais family on Friday morning, from there it was taken to ND Studios for the funeral.

Desai's company had defaulted on a Rs 252 crore loan repayment to creditors and the Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal had initiated insolvency proceedings against it.
Islamabad, Aug 4 (PTI) Former Pakistan prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and independent lawmaker from Balochistan Aslam Bhootani's names were doing rounds as coalition partners on Friday discussed the appointment of the caretaker prime minister.

Former finance minister Hafeez Sheikh and Fawad Hassan Fawad, former principal secretary to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, were also among those names discussed at the Zoom meeting held by members of the allies parties in the ruling coalition led by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Geo News quoted a source as saying.

Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto, and other senior leaders attended the meeting.

The source, however, added the coalition parties have decided to continue further consultations and the meetings, also attended by Balochistan National Party Chairman Akhtar Mengal, Jamhoori Wattan Party (JWP) leader Shahzain Bugti, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM) leader Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, Bhootani, and National Democratic Movement (NDM) Chairman Mohsin Dawar, will be held again.

The PPP, which is one of the major allies in the ruling coalition, has disagreed with the idea of selecting a caretaker prime minister from any political party.

In a statement, the PPP said the party had finalised five names for the post of caretaker prime minister. However, it added that any other name could also be considered for the coveted slot.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday told the coalition partners that he would recommend the dissolution of the National Assembly on August 9, three days before the end of its term and setting the stage for general elections in the cash-strapped country.

Sharif at a dinner reception hosted in honour of the ruling allies at the Prime Minister's House on Thursday said the National Assembly or the lower house of Parliament would stand dissolved as soon as President Arif Alvi signs the notification he plans to send to him.

Sharif, also President of the PML-N, at the reception apprised the participants that the PML-N had finalised consultations within the party, and the premier would begin a final round of discussions with allies on the caretaker set-up on Friday.

Sharif had last week ruled out the possibility of the appointment of Finance Minister Ishaq Dar as the caretaker prime minister, saying a "neutral person" will be selected to lead the interim government next month to make upcoming general elections transparent.

A bill to empower the caretaker set-up to initiate policy decisions was recently passed by Pakistan's Parliament.

The prime minister during the reception said the process of appointing the interim premier was expected to take at least three days.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will be the final authority to pick the caretaker prime minister if the parliamentary committee responsible for the selection of the interim premier fails to select a caretaker PM.

On the caretaker setup, Prime Minister Sharif said the ruling coalition would try to bring in a person acceptable to all stakeholders and added that his government would go home in the coming days.

At the same time, he thanked all the parliamentarians for reposing trust in him and lauded National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf and Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani on how he ran the house.

Shehbaz Sharif became the prime minister in April last year after the National Assembly passed a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan and ousted the chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party from the top post. Khan's PTI won the last general election in 2018.
Lahore, Aug 4 (PTI) In the latest apparent case of honour killing in Pakistan, a newly-wed couple has been shot dead in the Punjab province, police said on Friday.

According to police, Muhammad Zulfiqar, 30, and Shagufta Bibi, 23, were killed in the early hours of Wednesday, when unidentified suspects entered his house and shot them dead on the spot.

Zulfiqar, a resident of Phoolnagar, Kasur district, around 60 km from Lahore, got married to Shagufta a couple of weeks ago without the consent of her family, police said.

"The family of Shagufta was against her choice as they wanted to marry her off to a relative. A couple of weeks ago she eloped with Zulfiqar whom she loved and contracted court marriage," they said.

An FIR has been registered against the father and brothers of Shagufta.

According to human rights activists, around 1,000 women are killed in the name of honour every year in Pakistan.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has reported an average of 650 honour killings annually over the past decade.

But since most go unreported, the real number is likely to be much higher.

The victims of honour killings are widely perceived to have brought shame and dishonour to their families either by marrying against their will or having an affair.

Most often the family members are behind such killings.
Kathmandu, Aug 4 (PTI) At least three Nepalese pilgrims were killed and eight others were missing after a flash flood swept away a hotel where they were staying near the Kedarnath temple area in Uttarakhand in India, a media report said here on Friday.

The bodies of at least three Nepalese pilgrims have been recovered while those of eight others continue to remain missing following the landslide that hit the Kedarnath Yatra route in Uttarakhand due to heavy rains on Thursday, Nepal's government-run Gorkhapatra daily reported.

Officials said that the landslide swept away the entire hotel where the Nepalese pilgrims were staying near the Kedarnath temple area.

"Among eleven people from Nepal, who went missing in the incident, three dead bodies have been recovered, and eight are still missing," Purna Singh Bohara, the chairman of Patasari Rural municipality, was quoted as saying in the report.

He said that all the three deceased Nepalese pilgrims were from the Patasari Rural municipality.

With the recovery of the three dead bodies of the Nepalese pilgrims, the toll from the landslide in the Kedarnath Yatra route touched 7 while 12 continued to remain missing. The flash flood was caused by the incessant rain.

Meanwhile, the Nepal Home Ministry's spokesperson Narayan Prasad Bhattarai has said that the government has received information regarding the tragedy and necessary efforts are being made to facilitate the rescue of the Nepalese nationals who went missing in the incident.

Nepals Kanchanpur district is adjacent to India's Uttarakhand.

He also said that a letter has also been dispatched to the Nepalese Foreign Ministry so as to make necessary coordination with the Indian authorities.
Melbourne, Aug 4 (PTI) A court in Australias Queensland state has overturned a law that banned Sikh students to wear a kirpan on campus, a religious article in Sikhism, calling it "unconstitutional", according to media reports.

The ruling by the state's highest court came after Kamaljit Kaur Athwal took the state government to court last year, claiming that the ban discriminated against the kirpan -- one of five religious symbols that Sikhs are supposed to carry at all times as part of their faith, 9news.com reported.

Sikhs are required to wear a kirpan as part of their religious uniform as prescribed by their code of conduct. It's one of five religious symbols they carry at all times as part of their faith.

The Queensland Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that "the ban is unconstitutional under the Racial Discrimination Act (RDA)," the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.

An initial court ruling dismissed the claim the act was discriminatory but now after an appeal, there has been a win for the Sikh faith.

Bill Potts from Potts Lawyers Queensland said the original legislation meant Sikhs "were not able to go to school, not able to go to effectively carry out their religion".

Potts said the overturning of the law is giving freedom back to those practising the faith and is a "great step forward".

"This just simply means that they have the same freedoms that everybody else has and are not discriminated against by the state legislation," he said.

Carrying a kirpan as a symbol of a religious commitment would, at least ordinarily, constitute a use of the knife for a lawful purpose  namely, religious observance, the court found.

To say that both Sikhs and non-Sikhs cannot practise their religion while wearing a knife ignores the fact that carrying a knife is only a feature of the religious observance of Sikhs."

A law which prohibits a person from carrying a knife in a school for religious purposes impacts on Sikhs by preventing them from lawfully entering schools while adhering to their religious beliefs.
Poland detains Belarusian spy collecting intelligence about the Polish ports and military facilities 4 August, 04:35 PM A Belarusian spy has been detained in Poland (Photo:Pixabay)

Officers of the Internal Security Agency of Poland have detained a Belarusian whom they suspect of being part of a Russian spy network in Poland.

The court has placed the suspect in custody for three months, Polish press agency PAP reported on Aug. 4.

The Minister of Internal Affairs of Poland, Mariusz Kaminski, said that the suspect is already the sixteenth person suspected of participating in the Russian spy network.

"Belarusian Mykhailo Oleksandrovych took part in reconnaissance of military facilities and ports. He also carried out propaganda activities in favor of Russia. He was taken into custody," Kaminsky wrote on Twitter.

Video of day

The Polish Internal Security Agency said the 39-year-old Belarusian was operating within a criminal group, carrying out tasks for the Russian secret services.

According to the intelligence services, the man worked in Moscow in 2008-2010, and later moved to St. Petersburg. He had earlier served six years behind bars in Russia.

He came to Poland in 2021 and contacted the coordinator of the spy network.

It is reported that he was regularly rewarded for carrying out tasks aimed at undermining Poland's internal security and interests, including through collecting intelligence on critical infrastructure, such as military facilities and seaports, and taking part in propaganda activities.

According to the investigation, the Belarusian often changed his means of communication and erased traces of his criminal activities, which had made his identification difficult.

The spokesman of the National Prosecutor's Office of Poland, Lukasz Lapczynski, said that after his arrest, the man was taken to the Lublin Department of Combating Organized Crime and Corruption of the National Prosecutor's Office. The prosecutor accused him of participating in foreign intelligence activities against Poland.

He was remanded in custody.

Russian spies in Europe  What is known

Earlier, Moldova decided to expel a number of diplomats from the Russian Embassy in Chisinau. This happened after media outlets Jurnal TV and The Insider published an investigation in which they said that the Russian intelligence services were monitoring the Moldovan government through antennas on the roof of the Russian embassy.

It was noted that movements on the roof were observed especially often before presidential and parliamentary elections or visits of foreign delegations to Moldova.

After that, the Russian ambassador in Chisinau, Oleg Vasnetsov, was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Moldova. He was asked to clarify the situation.

The UK newspaper the Financial Times, citing a high-ranking Western intelligence official, has reported that after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Austrian capital Vienna has become the center of espionage in Europe. More than 180 accredited Russian diplomats are still in the city, a third of whom are claimed to use their diplomatic cover to gather intelligence.

In early April, U.S. news website Politico reported that Russia's foreign intelligence service and its military intelligence service were actively trying to rebuild their spy networks in Europe.

In March, several Russian spies who monitored the supply of military equipment to Ukraine were detained in Poland. And on April 13, Norway declared 15 employees of the Russian embassy as personae non grata on suspicion of committing espionage under diplomatic cover.

It was also reported that in the spring of 2022, France expelled more than 40 Russian diplomats suspected of espionage.

On April 25, Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Bjorstrom announced the decision to expel five Russian diplomats.

Denmark, Italy, Germany, Austria, Macedonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia have also recently announced the expulsion of Russian diplomats.

Will you support Ukraines free press? Dear reader, as all news organizations, we must balance the pressures of delivering timely, accurate, and relevant stories with requirements to fund our business operations. As a Ukrainian-based media, we also have another responsibility  to amplify Ukraines voice to the world during the crucial moment of its existence as a political nation. Its the support of our readers that lets us continue doing our job. We keep our essential reporting free because we believe in our ultimate purpose: an independent, democratic Ukraine. If youre willing to support Ukraine, consider subscribing to our Patreon starting from 5$ per month. We are immensely grateful.

Please help us continue fighting Russian propaganda. Truth can be hard to tell from fiction these days. Every viewpoint has its audience of backers and supporters, no matter how absurd. If conscious disinformation is reinforced by state propaganda apparatus and budget, its outcomes may become deadly. There is no solution to this, other than independent, honest, and accurate reporting. We remain committed to empowering the Ukrainian voice to push against the muck. If youre willing to stand up for the truth  consider supporting us on Patreon starting from 5$ per month. Thank you very much.

Will you help tell Ukraines story to the world? Twenty years ago, most people hadnt even heard of Ukraine. Today, the country is on everyones lips and everyones headlines. War pushed us on the front page. But there are many other things we do that we are proud of  from music and culture to technology. We need your help to tell the world Ukrainian story of resilience, joy, and survival. If youre willing to back our effort, consider supporting us on Patreon starting from 5$ per month. We are immensely grateful.

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Wellington, Aug 4 (AP) New Zealand said Friday it plans to boost its defence capabilities as tensions rise in the Pacific, due in part to a military buildup by China.

Defence Minister Andrew Little said current defence spending amounted to about 1 per cent of the nation's economy, a proportion he expected would need to increase, although not as high as 2 per cent.

He said replacing aging navy frigates and patrol vessels is among the most pressing needs under consideration. He said the country is also facing an increase in domestic threats such as misinformation, cyberattacks and terrorism.

The new defence policy paper released by Little contained no specifics about increases in spending, equipment or troops, with those details expected to be finalized in a later plan.

Rather the paper pointed to a rethinking about the role of the nation's military, which has often been used primarily to act as peacekeepers or provide aid when Pacific countries are hit by natural disasters.

Now, the paper said, New Zealand is facing more challenging times than it has in decades and the military needs to improve combat readiness. The military has been struggling with outdated equipment and difficulties recruiting and retaining staff.

Little said New Zealand had thought until recently that it was protected by its remoteness.

The changes in the domestic and international security environment mean our response and preparedness must change, too," he said.

The paper took direct aim at China for heightened tensions, saying it is using its national power in a way that challenges existing international rules and norms.

Beijing continues to invest heavily in growing and modernising its military, and is increasingly able to project military and paramilitary force beyond its immediate region," the paper said.

Little stressed that he doesn't think "we are close to war in the Pacific.

I think there is some rising tension in the Pacific. I think it puts the onus on all countries with a stake in the Pacific, and involved in the Pacific, to be engaged, he said.

US Ambassador Tom Udall told The Associated Press that New Zealand has an important role in Pacific security.

I think the first thing that this recognizes is that we are seeing a big security change in the region, Udall said of the defence paper. And I don't think there is any doubt that New Zealand is on top of that, and moving forward to take very aggressive action to put in place policies and plans to address it. (AP)



GRS

GRS
Islamabad, Aug 4 (PTI) Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said that the National Assembly would be dissolved on August 9, three days before the term of the lower house of Parliament is scheduled to end, a move which will prompt general elections in the country within 90 days.

Sharif said this on Thursday at a dinner reception hosted in honour of the ruling allies at the Prime Minister's House, the Dawn newspaper reported on Friday

The ruling coalition government is getting ready to face an election at the completion of the five-year term of Parliament on August 12.

The Constitution provides that if the National Assembly completes its tenure, elections are to be held in 60 days, but in case of premature dissolution, this period is extended to 90 days.

The prime minister will send a notification to President Arif Alvi for the dissolution of the National Assembly on August 9, The Express Tribune newspaper reported.

According to the Constitution, the assembly will stand dissolved as soon as the president signs the notification.

However, if, for any reason, the president does not sign the advice, the assembly will be automatically dissolved after 48 hours of receiving the prime ministers notification, the report said.

At the reception, Sharif apprised the participants that the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had finalised consultations within the party, and the premier will begin a final round of discussions with allies on the caretaker set-up on Friday. This process is expected to take at least three days.

An online meeting with allies on the caretaker set-up is also expected to be held on Friday.

On Thursday, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari also held a lengthy meeting with the prime minister on this issue, the source said, according to the report.

The premier briefed his allies at the dinner about the coalition government's performance. He claimed that the government had increased revenue collection by 13 per cent in 15 months as more than 1.3 million new taxpayers were included in the tax net.

Sharif claimed recoveries remained over 90 per cent in the power sector. However, it may be noted that the circular debt posted an 18 per cent  Rs 393 billion  increase in the past 11 months, according to the report.

The prime minister said that significant progress was witnessed during the last four months in the IT sector and added that the total volume of IT exports went up to USD 2.6 billion in the previous fiscal year.

He said that foreign investment remained at USD 1.45 billion during the fiscal year 2022-23 and hoped that with the establishment of the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), more foreign investment would be fetched.

Sharif said with the Rs 1.8 trillion Kissan Package, the government has met 99 per cent of targets and saved the country from default. He added that comprehensive policies have been devised for the welfare of the people.

The reception was attended by Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani, Speaker of National Assembly Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Pakistan People's Party (PPP) leaders Yousuf Raza Gilani, and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Convener Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui.

Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam(F) (JUI-F) leader Asad Mehmood, Balochistan Awami Party leaders Khalid Magsi and Senator Ahmed Khan, Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP) Chairman Shahzain Bugti, Aslam Bhootani, Mohsin Dawar and were also among those who attended the reception, according to the report.
Moscow, Aug 4 (AP) Russia accused Ukraine early Friday of attacking its Black Sea navy base in the port of Novorossiysk with sea drones.

Novorossiysk is just across the water from Crimea, where Russia's Ministry of Defense said it thwarted another attack by Ukraine overnight, taking down 13 drones.

Russia's Ministry of Defence said Russian ships patrolling the perimeter of the naval base destroyed two Ukrainian sea drones.

Footage published on Russian social media channels appeared to show a ship firing into the sea and a burning object exploding. Ukrainian agencies carried footage from social media channels they suggested showed a Russian ship listing to one side after the attack.

The Associated Press could not verify the videos. Ukrainian officials have not commented on the attack, in keeping with the country's security policy.

Minutes after confirming the attack on the Black Sea port, Russia's Ministry of Defence said it had also repelled another attack by Ukraine on Moscow-annexed Crimea. The defence ministry said air defence systems shot down 10 drones and it had electronically jammed another three. (AP)



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Niamey (Niger), Aug 4 (AP) Niger's military junta says it is severing military agreements with France, its former colonial ruler, firing some of the previous government's key ambassadors and warning citizens of the West African nation to watch for foreign armies and spies. A regional delegation's efforts at negotiation quickly deadlocked.

The junta's announcement on state television late Thursday deepens the post-coup isolation for what had been the United States' and allies' last major security partner in the Sahel, the vast region south of the Sahara Desert that various Islamic extremist groups have turned into the global centre of terrorism.

With two days remaining before a deadline set by the West African regional bloc to release and reinstate President Mohamed Bazoum or face possible force, Bazoum in a plea published in a Washington Post opinion piece said, I write this as a hostage.

Niger's mutinous soldiers face a Sunday deadline set by the regional bloc known as ECOWAS, whose envoys arrived on Thursday for talks.

But those discussions quickly stalled, with the delegation unable to meet the coup leader, Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, or go into the capital, Niamey, according to a person with close knowledge of the talks who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorised to comment.

The junta's announcement brought further skepticism about any deal. It said it was terminating the military agreements and protocols signed with France and announced the end of functions for Niger's ambassadors to France, the United States, Togo and neighboring Nigeria, which is leading ECOWAS efforts on dialogue.

All aggression against the state of Niger will see an immediate response and without warning, said a spokesman for the coup leaders, Col. Maj. Amadou Abdramane, with the exception of Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea, which have expressed support for the coup. Mali and Burkina Faso have said such an intervention would be a declaration of war against them.

Bazoum wrote that Niger's security situation had been improving before the coup, in contrast to neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso that are led by military juntas, but said that's now at risk because Niger would lose aid from foreign partners and extremist groups would take advantage of the country's instability.

In our hour of need, I call on the US government and the entire international community to help us restore our constitutional order, he wrote.

France has 1,500 military personnel in Niger, which had been envisioned as the base for counterterror operations in the region after anti-French sentiments grew elsewhere.

The US has 1,100 military personnel in Niger, including at a key drone base, and indicates it's reluctant to leave, especially with the growing influence of the Russian private military group Wagner in the Sahel.

ECOWAS has been unsuccessful in stemming coups and is trying to change course with Niger in a region that has seen five of them in the past three years  two each in Mali and Burkina Faso.

The ECOWAS delegation is led by former Nigerian head of state Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar.

A second group led by Ambassador Babagana Kingibe has gone to engage with the leaders of neighboring Libya and Algeria, said Ajuri Ngelale, special adviser to Nigeria's president.

But analysts said they're not putting much faith in talks.

I don't expect mediation efforts to bear fruit in the short term. The junta is digging in ... Seems like uncharted territory, said Alex Thurston, assistant professor of political science at the University of Cincinnati.

Niger's roughly 25 million people live in one of the poorest countries in the world, and any cuts in foreign aid could be disastrous.

Already, citizens are feeling the effects after ECOWAS suspended all commercial and financial transactions between its member states and Niger and froze Nigerien assets held in regional central banks.

The bloc's sanctions include halting energy transactions with Niger, which gets up to 90 per cent of its power from Nigeria, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency.

Earlier this week, power transmission from Nigeria to Niger was cut off, an official at one of Nigeria's main electricity companies said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to comment.

Some residents in Niamey said things can hardly get worse.

Abdou Naif lives in a makeshift community on the side of a road with some 140 other people, unable to pay rent or find work. Our suffering is already enough, he said. (AP) FZH
Moscow, Aug 4 (AP) Russia accused Ukraine early on Friday of attacking its Black Sea navy base in the port of Novorossiysk with sea drones.

The attack on Novorossiysk is the first time a commercial Russian port has been targeted in the 18-month war. The city is a major port on the Black Sea and hosts a naval base, shipbuilding yards and an oil terminal. It is a key port for Russian exports.

Novorossiysk is just across the water from Crimea, where Russia's Ministry of Defence said it thwarted another attack by Ukraine overnight, taking down 13 drones.

Russia's Ministry of Defence said Russian ships patrolling the perimeter of the naval base destroyed two Ukrainian sea drones. The mayor of Novorossiysk, Andrey Kravchenko, said the crews of the Olenegorsky Gonyak and Suvorovets ships immediately reacted to the attack and helped to avoid consequences.

Veniamin Kondratiev, the governor of the Krasnodar region where the base is located said there were no casualties.

The Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which operates an oil terminal in the port, said Russian navy ships repelled an attack of sea drones and that maritime traffic was banned temporarily. The company said its facilities were not damaged and that loaded tankers will be moved after the ban is lifted.

Footage published on Russian social media channels appeared to show a ship firing into the sea and a burning object exploding. Ukrainian agencies carried footage from social media channels they suggested showed a Russian ship listing to one side after the attack.

The Associated Press could not verify the videos. Ukrainian officials have not commented on the attack, in keeping with the country's security policy.

Minutes after confirming the attack on the Black Sea port, Russia's Ministry of Defence said it had also repelled another attack by Ukraine on Moscow-annexed Crimea. The defence ministry said air defence systems shot down 10 drones and it had electronically jammed another three.

Videos shared on Russian social media channels reportedly from around the city of Feodosia in Crimea showed what appeared to be air defense systems working, as well as loud explosions.

Meanwhile Russia's defence ministry also published videos on Friday of the Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu visiting a commander center in Ukraine. The defence ministry did not say exactly where Shoigu was but said he heard a report from the group commander Lt. Gen. Andrei Mordvichev and inspected a captured Swedish infantry fighting vehicle CV90.

The Russian Ministry of Defence said Shoigu thanked personnel for conducting successful offensive operations in the direction of Lyman and for capturing more advantageous positions. (AP) PY

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Nairobi, Aug 4 (AP) Ethiopia's Council of Ministers is declaring a state of emergency in the country's Amhara region after authorities pleaded for help as clashes intensify between regional forces and the military.

The prime minister's office announced the decision on Friday after the region's leader said regular law enforcement was no longer able to contain the violence.

Ethiopia's second most populous region has been gripped by instability since April, when federal authorities moved to disarm Amhara's security forces following the end of the devastating two-year war in the neighbouring Tigray region.

Authorities last year also tried to dismantle the informal Amhara militia known as Fano.

This week, residents have reported fighting across the Amhara region as militia members attacked army units and protesters blocked roads.

Flights to two popular tourist towns, Lalibela and Gondar, have been suspended. Internet access has been affected. (AP) FZH
Lisbon, Aug 4 (AP) Pope Francis visited a once troubled and crime-plagued neighbourhood of Portugal's capital on Friday to draw attention to the charitable side of the Catholic Church and the need to protect the world's most vulnerable people with concrete gestures that get your hands dirty.

The midway point in Francis' five-day visit to Portugal began with the pontiff hearing confessions of some young people who were in Lisbon for World Youth Day. The big Catholic youth festival will end Friday with a traditional Way of the Cross procession recreating Christ's crucifixion.

Francis visited a community centre in the city's Serafina neighbourhood, which sits beneath a giant 18th century aqueduct that is a symbol of the bounty that gold from Portugal's Brazilian colony once afforded the country.

Two decades ago, drug and crime problems dogged the neighbourhood, but it has largely left them behind thanks in part to efforts by church charity groups, including one that was created to provide a home for children with parents unable to care for them.

Speaking off the cuff to young people and the charity organisers, Francis said true service must be done with concrete gestures that make an impact. He thanked church groups that have gotten your hands dirty, touching the reality and the misery of others.

There is no such thing as abstract love. It doesn't exist, the pope said. He said he couldn't come to Lisbon to celebrate World Youth Day without visiting the centre because this is also youth, in the sense that you generate new life continually.

With your conduct, your commitment and getting your hands dirty by touching the reality and misery of others, you are giving inspiration and generating life, he said.

Francis has long said that true service and charity has to hurt, and that it's not enough just to give a beggar a coin on the street. He has championed the charitable side of the Catholic Church, including boosting the Vatican's own charitable efforts by providing showers and medical care to area homeless people while also sending regular truckloads of aid to Ukraine and other places wracked by conflict or natural disasters. (AP) PY

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Bucharest (Romania), Aug 4 (AP) Andrew Tate, the divisive internet influencer who is charged in Romania with rape, human trafficking and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women, won an appeal on Friday to be released from house arrest, his spokesperson said.

Tate won't be able to leave the country. He also will not be allowed to be "in close proximity with any of the other defendants, any of the witnesses or any of the alleged victims and their immediate family, his spokesperson, Mateea Petrescu, said in a statement.

This positive outcome gives us confidence that more favorable developments are on the horizon," Petrescu said.

The decision at the Bucharest Court of Appeal comes after prosecutors formally indicted the 36-year-old Tate in June along with his brother, Tristan, and two Romanian women in the same case. All four were arrested in late December near Bucharest and have denied the allegations against them.

The court's decision says all four defendants will be subjected to geographical restrictions limiting them to the territories of Bucharest Municipality and the nearby Ilfov County unless they get prior approval from a judge.

After 10 months. 3 in jail, 7 at home. After 15 million euro of asset seizures. After an inditement based on nothing. The file was passed to a Judge who has ruled it weak and circumstantial. I have been released from house arrest but must remain within Romania, a post on Andrew Tate's Twitter read after Friday's ruling.

If the defendants violate the terms of their judicial obligations, the court reading states, they can be returned to house arrest or preventive arrest.

The Tate brothers, who are dual UK and US citizens, challenged a court's July 18 decision to keep them under house arrest as the criminal case against them continues. The brothers won an appeal in late March to be moved to house arrest after spending three months in a police detention facility.

Romania's anti-organized crime agency, DIICOT, had requested in June that judges extend the house arrest measure after the agency filed its criminal investigation.

Andrew Tate, who has been accused of peddling conspiracy theories online and has amassed 7.5 million Twitter followers, has repeatedly claimed that prosecutors have no evidence against him and that there is a political conspiracy designed to silence him.

DIICOT alleges that the four defendants formed a criminal group in 2021 to "commit the crime of human trafficking in Romania, as well as in the United States and Britain.

Seven female victims in the case, DIICOT said, were lured with false pretenses of love and transported to Romania, where the gang sexually exploited and subjected them to physical violence. One defendant is accused of raping a woman twice in March 2022, according to the agency. The women were allegedly controlled by intimidation, constant surveillance and claims they were in debt, prosecutors said.

Andrew Tate was previously banned from several prominent social media platforms for expressing hate speech and misogynistic comments, including that women should bear responsibility for being sexually assaulted.

Several women in Britain also are pursuing civil claims to obtain damages from Tate, alleging they were victims of sexual violence. (AP) PY

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Islamabad, Aug 4 (PTI) Pakistan's National Assembly has passed a bill, which will help the country avoid the Financial Action Task Forces grey list forever if it is enforced and properly implemented.

The lower house of Parliament passed the bill on Thursday that seeks to form a central authority to curb money laundering and terror financing, bringing all institutions related to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) under one command.

Last year, Pakistan was taken off the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global watchdog on terror financing and money laundering, four years after the country was put in the infamous categorisation.

The bill  the National Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Financing of Terrorism Authority Act, 2023  was presented by Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar, who said that the proposed law would bring all institutions related to FATF under one authority, The Express Tribune newspaper reported on Friday.

Currently, money laundering, financing of terrorism and targeted financial sanctions are enforced under different laws, mainly via the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2010, the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997 and the United Nations Security Council Act of 1948, the report said.

Recalling when Pakistan was put on the Paris-based FATF's grey list, Khar said that the proposed authority would function as a focal institution and help the state give a unified response to curb the menace of money laundering and terror financing.

"This is a good bill, and if it is enforced and properly implemented, then Inshallah [God willing] Pakistan never sees the FATF grey list again," Khar was quoted as saying in the report. She added that the proposed law would institutionalise different entities and greatly benefit Pakistan.

Noting that Pakistan faced difficulties in three different arenas, namely anti-money laundering (AML), countering financing of terrorism (CFT) and targeted financial sanctions (TFL) when it was put on the FATF grey list, Khar hoped that the newly-passed bill would effectively address these issues.

In 2018, the FATF found Pakistan's deficiencies in its legal, financial, regulatory, investigation, prosecution, judicial and non-government sectors to fight money laundering and combat terror financing, which are considered severe threats to the global financial system.

According to the statement of objects and reasons, the bill's purpose is to have an overarching body to supervise and coordinate matters about AML, the CFT and the TFS, the report said. It added that to unify state response; there is a need for a focal institution, a sustainable and permanent authority with the required mandate to operate under the direct supervision of the prime minister.

The ultimate objective of the authority would be to coordinate matters at the national level about anti-money laundering, countering the financing of terrorism and targeted financial sanctions, including proposing changes to the policy, laws, rules and regulations to bring them in compliance with the international requirements and best practices and to mitigate the risk of the money laundering and the terror financing most effectively and efficiently.

The authority shall act as the focal point for the FATF and related international organisations and bodies and will liaise with the competent authorities and other national, and international organisations, bodies, and/or entities for facilitating cooperation in areas relating to the AML, the CFT and the TFS.

Headed by a chairman to be appointed by the prime minister, the authority will include the finance, foreign affairs and interior division secretaries and the Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan.

It will also include chairmen of Pakistan's Securities and Exchange Commission, the National Accountability Bureau and the Federal Board of Revenue, DGs of the anti-narcotics force and the financial monitoring unit, chief secretaries and any members recommended by the premier, the report said.

The FATF is an inter-governmental body established in 1989 to combat money laundering, terror financing and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system.
Vilnius (Lithuania), Aug 4 (AP) Lithuania declared more than a thousand citizens of Russia and Belarus living in the country to be threats to national security on Friday and said it was stripping them of their permanent residency permits.

The decision comes after the government asked the Russians and Belarusians to answer a questionnaire that included questions about their views on Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the status of Crimea, the Ukrainian territory which Russia illegally annexed in 2014.

Lithuania, a Baltic nation which declared its independence from the Soviet Union more than 30 years ago, is a democracy that belongs to NATO and the European Union.

It has been a strong backer of Ukraine and also a place of refuge in recent years for many who have fled an authoritarian crackdown in neighbouring Belarus and increased repression in Russia.

The Migration Department said on Friday that it had established that 1,164 Belarusian and Russian citizens residing in Lithuania posed a threat to national security, a decision that was based on an evaluation of public and non-public information. It said 910 of those were Belarusian citizens and 254 Russian citizens.

How people answered the questionnaire was taken into consideration in deciding whether to grant or deny residence, according to the Migration Department, the government office that carried out the survey.

Those deemed to be national security threats are only a fraction of the Belarusians and Russians living in Lithuania. According to the Migration Department, more than 58,000 Belarusian citizens and 16,000 Russian citizens are currently residing in Lithuania. They are required to renew their residence permits every three years.

Those stripped of permits can appeal the decision in court. Others will have up to a month to leave the country, according to the Migration Department.

There was no immediate reaction from the Russian or Belarusian governments.

Viktor Voroncov, a businessman who moved from Russia several years ago, learned Lithuanian and obtained citizenship, said he agreed with the move.

I know many Russians who served in the Soviet and later in Putin's army. They are married to Lithuanian wives, they live here, maintain close contacts with comrades in arms back in Russia and are spreading Kremlin propaganda constantly, Voroncov said.

Lithuania is a democratic country and tolerates different views. Even their propaganda was OK until the war started, but things have changed and they must go, he said.

Lithuania also has an ethnic Russian minority that makes up about 5 per cent of the population. They are citizens of Lithuania and were not required to answer the questionnaire. (AP) PY

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Venerable Russian warship, damaged in sea drone attack, had been one of Russias best 4 August, 03:05 PM The large amphibious ship of the Russian Federation Olenegorsky Gornyak (Photo:Netelo/Unsplash)

After almost 50 years of service, the prize landing ship of Russias Northern Fleet, the Olenegorsky Gornyak, may be headed for an inglorious retirement  if not the bottom of Novorossiysk Bay.

Dramatic footage circulating on social media on Aug. 4 showed the view from the onboard camera of a Ukrainian sea attack drone as it raced, apparently undetected, towards the port (left) side of the Russian warship as it sailed near the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk.

The video cuts out just as the drone reaches the side of the Russian warship. According to Ukraines SBU security service, which says it organized this special operation together with the Ukrainian Navy, the drone was armed with a warhead of 450 kilograms of TNT.

Video of day

Russian authorities reported that they had thwarted an attack on Novorossiysk overnight on Aug. 4 by sea drones, claiming two of the drones were "visually detected and destroyed by fire."

But the video footage of the attack on the Olenegorsky Gornyak appears to prove the Russian claims false  there is no sign of any fire being directed at the drone as it approaches and apparently strikes the warship.

And video and pictures of the warship, listing heavily to port and apparently being towed by tug boats, also tell another story. The vessel, which has a crew of almost 100, appears to be in danger of sinking, the deck on its port side almost tilting to the level of the water.

The videos and photos appear to indicate that one or more compartments on the port side of the vessel have been flooded.

The large amphibious assault ship, a Project 775 or Ropucha-class landing ship is the pride of the 121st Amphibious Assault Brigade of Russias Northern Fleet.

It was built in Gdansk, Poland and entered the fleet in 1976. At first it was called SDK-91, and then BDK-91. Since 2000, it has been called the Olenegorsky Gornyak, as the Olenegorsk Mining and Processing Plant took over patronage of the ship.

In 2007, it was named the best landing ship of the Northern Fleet of the Russian Federation.

The 47-year-old ship has been repeatedly repaired, and in 2016 it underwent a complete refitting and modernization.

The Olenegorsky Gornyak is armed with two twin 57 mm AK-725 naval cannons, two Grad-M multiple rocket launchers and four Strela-2 portable anti-aircraft missile launchers. It can carry up to 500 tons of equipment and cargo, along with 225 fully-armed paratroopers.

The large amphibious assault ship has a crew of 87 and a speed of up to 18 knots, with a range of 6,000 miles at 12 knots. The length of the Russian vessel is 112.5 meters, its width 15 meters, and its draft  3.7 meters.

The Olenegorsky Gornyak was one of five Ropucha-class landing ships that Russia sailed into the Black Sea in February 2022 to support its full-scale invasion and war on Ukraine. However, Russian invasion forces met stiff resistance by troops in Ukraine, and Moscow was never able to launch any amphibious assaults on the Ukrainian coast.

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Kyiv, Aug 4 (AP) Ukrainian sea drones attacked a major Russian port on the Black Sea on Friday, damaging a naval ship, according to a Ukrainian official, the latest in a series of strikes inside Russia as Kyiv vowed to bring the fight home to them. Moscow claimed it repelled the attack.

The strike on Novorossiysk marks the first time a commercial Russian port has been targeted in the 18-month war.

The port  which hosts a naval base, shipbuilding yards and an oil terminal and is key for exports  lies just across the Black Sea from Crimea, where Russia's Defence Ministry said it thwarted another attack overnight, taking down 13 drones.

The Security Service of Ukraine and the country's navy carried out the attack on Novorossiysk, according to an official with the security service, and the landing ship, Olenegorsky Gornyak, suffered a serious breach.

As a result, the ship is unable to carry out its combat missions, the official added, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to give the information to the media.

Ukrainian news agencies carried footage from social media channels that they suggested showed the Olenegorsky Gornyak listing to one side.

The ship is designed to transport troops and heavy equipment and was sent for repairs in 2014, according to Russian media reports. It is normally based with Russia's Northern Fleet in the Arctic.

Russia, however, claimed it fended off the attack on Novorossiysk, saying ships patrolling the perimeter of the naval base, including the Olenegorsky Gornyak, destroyed two sea drones.

The Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which operates an oil terminal in the port, said maritime traffic was halted for a few hours but that its facilities were not damaged. The regional governor said there were no casualties.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to comment on the attack during a conference call with reporters.

Footage published on Russian social media channels appeared to show a ship firing into the sea and a burning object exploding.

Ukrainian social media channels also posted nighttime video shot from what they indicated was a sea drone, floating near a ship. The Associated Press could not verify the videos.

Friday's attack is the latest in a string of assaults inside Russian territory. Earlier this week, drones hit a building in Moscow  and a drone even struck the Kremlin harmlessly in May.

The assault comes as the Black Sea becomes an increasingly important battleground in the war following Russia's withdrawal from a deal that had allowed Ukrainian grain shipments through the sea.

Since scrapping the deal, Russia has hammered the country's ports, compounding the blow to food markets worldwide.

On Wednesday, Russian drones caused significant damage and a huge fire at facilities in the Odesa region that are key to Ukrainian grain exports.

A day earlier, the Russian military said Kyiv's forces tried to attack two patrol vessels in the sea, southwest of the Russian-controlled city of Sevastopol on the annexed Crimean peninsula.

Shortly after Russia invaded, Ukraine said it successfully sunk the flagship of Russia's Black Sea fleet, the Moskva.

Ukraine said it hit the Moskva, a guided-missile cruiser, with missiles in a devastating symbolic blow to Russia.

The Russian Defence Ministry said the heavily damaged Moskva sank in a storm under tow after being gutted by fire.

It previously said a fire set off some of its weapons and forced the crew to evacuate. It denied there had been an attack by Ukraine on the ship.

Minutes after confirming the attack on the Black Sea port early Friday morning, Russia's Ministry of Defence said it had also repelled another attack by Ukraine on Crimea.

The Defence Ministry said air defence systems shot down 10 drones and it had electronically jammed another three.

Videos shared on Russian social media channels reportedly from around the city of Feodosia in Crimea showed what appeared to be air defense systems working, as well as loud explosions. (AP) FZH
Berlin, Aug 4 (AP) The United Nations' human rights office in Uganda will close this weekend after the East African country decided not to renew an agreement allowing it to operate, the UN's top human rights official said on Friday.

The closure comes amid concern over human rights violations including extrajudicial killings in Uganda and a new law that prescribes the death penalty for some homosexual acts.

The office in Kampala will formally cease operations on Saturday, while sub-offices in Gulu and Moroto closed at the end of June and on Monday respectively.

I regret that our office in Uganda had to close after 18 years, during which we were able to work closely with civil society, people from various walks of life in Uganda, as well as engaging with state institutions for the promotion and protection of the human rights of all Ugandans, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said in a statement from Geneva.

The closure was prompted by the government's decision not to renew the host country agreement under which the office operated.

Turk expressed concern about the situation in Uganda ahead of elections in 2026, given an increasingly hostile environment for human rights defenders, journalists and others, his office said.

He noted that most of the 54 non-governmental organisations that were arbitrarily suspended two years ago are still closed.

He also warned Uganda against backsliding from its commitments under human rights treaties, including with the deeply discriminatory and harmful anti-homosexuality law, that is already having a negative impact on Ugandans, his office said.

Last week, a panel of UN experts urged Uganda to repeal that law, which has prompted intense international criticism but has wide support at home, in a report that expressed wider concerns over the human rights situation.

Uganda's security forces face growing allegations of brutality in their encounters with perceived opponents of the government of President Yoweri Museveni, a US ally who has held power since 1986.

Turk called on authorities to ensure that the national human rights body, the Uganda Human Rights Commission, can function effectively. He said it is chronically under-funded and under-staffed, and reports of political interference in its mandate undermine its legitimacy, independence and impartiality. (AP) PY

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Washington, Aug 4 (PTI) India has asked Pakistan to concentrate on addressing its internal matters rather than raising the Kashmir issue and indulging in frivolous allegations against New Delhi.

To best utilise this council's time, I suggest the concerned delegation concentrate on addressing their internal matters and restoring order within their own borders, rather than indulging in frivolous allegations against my country, R Madhu Sudan, a Counsellor in Indias UN Mission, told members of the Security Council on Thursday.

Madhu Sudan was responding to the issue of Kashmir raised by a Pakistani representative during the UN Security Councils Open Debate on Famine and Conflict-Induced Global Food Insecurity.

Unfortunately we saw one delegation misuse this forum yet again, to divert the attention of this council from the important topic of food security," he said in his remarks, adding that one delegation consistently sought to exploit various United Nations platforms to further its agenda.

Emphasising that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India is non-negotiable, Madhu Sudan deemed it unnecessary to further engage in arguments or debates with those who resort to terrorism to advance their unlawful goals.

He advised Pakistan to address internal matters and restore order within its own borders rather than indulging in frivolous allegations against my country.

India and Pakistan have a strained relationship over a number of issues including Islamabad's continued support of cross-border terrorism and the Kashmir issue.

India asserts that Jammu and Kashmir "was, is and will" always be part of the country.

Bilateral relations between Islamabad and New Delhi have been tense since August 2019 when India changed the special status of Jammu and Kashmir.
Banja Luka (Bosnia-Herzegovina), Aug 4 (AP) Serbia will ignore US sanctions recently imposed on top Bosnian Serb officials for undermining a 1995 peace agreement that ended a war that left more than 100,000 dead and millions homeless, the Serbian president said on Friday.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said that the sanctioned ethnic Serb officials from neighbouring Bosnia will still be welcome in Serbia.

The Republic of Serbia will treat the sanctions as if they did not exist, Vucic said, during a visit to the Serb region of Bosnia. It is hard, but that's the only possible decision.

The four Bosnian Serb officials sanctioned by the US Treasury on Monday include Zeljka Cvijanovic, a Serb member of the tripartite collective Bosnian presidency, as well as the prime minister of the Serb entity in Bosnia, Radovan Viskovic. The separatist leader of the Bosnian Serb entity, Milorad Dodik, has earlier been sanctioned by the US.

The four are alleged to have taken part in drafting a law that US and other international officials say undermines the unity of Bosnia by ignoring the decisions of the country's constitutional court.

The Bosnian Serb parliament has passed the law to not recognise or implement any decisions by Bosnia's multi-ethnic Constitutional Court, which is seen as another of the leadership's attempts to separate from the fragile Bosnian federation.

The Bosnian War started in 1992, pitting mostly Muslim Bosniaks, Serbs, and Croats against each other. It ended with the US-sponsored Dayton accords that created two regions, the Republika Srpska and the Bosniak-Croat Federation.

When the most powerful country in the world imposes sanctions against you, it is something that we should be worried about, Vucic said, adding that the inappropriate and underserved sanctions produce wrong effects.

The US recently also imposed sanctions on the pro-Russian head of Serbia's security agency, Aleksandar Vulin, accusing him of involvement in illegal arms shipments, drug trafficking and misuse of public office.

There are widespread fears that Serbia, an ally of Russia, could inflame tensions in the Balkans to divert at least some of the world attention from the war in Ukraine.

Serbian populist leader Vucic on Friday attended in the Bosnian Serb entity commemorations for tens of thousands Serbs who in 1995 fled Croatia after a Croatian military offensive that marked the end of the war.

The Croatian Operation Storm, which started on August 4, 1995, saw the Croatian Army liberate a large part of the Croatian territory that had been under the control of rebel Serbs since 1991.

Croatian forces achieved their military goals in just three days, ousting the rebel Serbs' unrecognized statelet, the Republic of Serbian Krajina. The anniversary is marked each year in Croatia as a national triumph, with mainstream media echoing the celebratory patriotic theme.

Among Serbs however, the narrative is very different. Operation Storm is seen by Serbs and their officials as a tragedy because it caused a huge exodus of Serb civilians from Croatia; several hundred Serbs were killed in the operation. (AP) PY

PY
London, Aug 4 (PTI) A radical Islamist preacher with dual British and Pakistani nationality charged with three terrorism-related offences will face a trial in May next year, a UK court ruled on Friday.

Anjem Choudary, 56, was arrested at his home in east London by the Metropolitan Police last month and charged with membership of a proscribed (banned) organisation, addressing meetings to encourage support for a proscribed organisation, and directing a terrorist organisation under different sections of the UKs Terrorism Act 2000.

He appeared before the Old Bailey court in London via a videolink on Friday, when a provisional trial date was set for May 20.

A Canadian national, 28-year-old Khaled Hussein, who was also arrested in a related counter-terrorism inquiry on charges of membership of a proscribed organisation will also face trial next year. Both men were remanded into custody to appear before Kingston Crown Court on January 5, 2024.

On Monday, July 17, Met counter-terrorism detectives investigating alleged membership of a proscribed organisation arrested a 56-year-old man in east London and a 28-year-old Canadian national at Heathrow Airport, after he arrived on a flight, the Met Police had said in a statement at the time of charging the suspects last month.

They were held under Section 41 of the Terrorism Act 2000 and detectives were granted warrants of further detention allowing them to detain the men until Monday, July 24, the statement added.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) told the court at the time that Choudary spoke online to weekly small groups from June 2022 until his arrest, giving lectures on the establishment of an Islamic State in Britain. Co-accused Hussein is said to have effectively worked for Choudary in Canada.

The charges relate to the proscribed organisation Al Muhajiroun, also known as the Islamic Thinkers Society. Criminal proceedings against Mr Choudary and Mr Hussein are now active and they each have the right to a fair trial, said Nick Price, from the CPS Counter Terrorism Division.

It is extremely important that there should be no reporting, commentary or sharing of information online which could in any way prejudice these proceedings. The function of the CPS is not to decide whether a person is guilty of a criminal offence, but to make fair, independent and objective assessments about whether it is appropriate to present charges for a criminal court to consider, he said.

UK-born Choudary has been associated with different radical outfits, including the now-banned Islamist group Al Muhajiroun. He was released from Londons high-security Belmarsh prison back in 2018 where he was held after being convicted by the Old Bailey court in London in September 2016 for radical preaching and calling on Muslims to support the terrorist group ISIS.
Mumbai, Aug 4 (PTI) A man accused of sexually assaulting and murdering an 8-year-old girl earlier this week in Jalgaon in Maharashtra was arrested on Friday, a police official said.

Irate people tried to attack the 19-year-old accused when he was brought to the site of crime, leading to injuries to three policemen and damage to a police vehicle, the official said.

The girl had gone missing on July 30 from her native Bondgaon village in Bhadgaon tehsil and her body was found on August 1 close to her home, with a police probe finding out she was sexually assaulted and then bludgeoned to death with a stone, he said.

"When he was brought to the village as part of the probe into the crime, irate people tried to attack him. They pelted stones on the police vehicle in which he was brought there and damaged it. Three police personnel suffered injuries," he said.

"Angry residents were demanding that the accused be handed over to them. In order to control the situation, police resorted to a mild baton charge. The situation is under control in the village and a sizable number of police have been stationed there," he said.

The man, who has been charged under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code for murder and sections 3,4,5,6,7,8 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act for penetrative sexual assault and other offences, was produced in court during the day.

Villagers also took out a silent march till the tehsildar's office seeking stringent action against the 19-year-old man.
Kohima, Aug 4 (PTI) An apex students organisation of the northeast on Friday urged the Centre to come out with measures to restore normalcy in ethnic strife-torn Manipur to save the future of the people. The appeal by the North East Students Organisation to the Centre came after the conclusion on Thursday of a three-day 'Goodwill Mission' by it to Imphal and Churachandpur districts of Manipur.

NESO secretary general Mutsikhoyo Yhobu told reporters that a delegation of the student body has submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi through the Manipur governor seeking his immediate intervention for the restoration of peace and normalcy in the state at the earliest.

NESO, its leaders said is "deeply pained" to witness the present "anarchical" situation in Manipur as violence and arson continue to engulf most parts of the state for over three months.

Violence had broken out in Manipur on May 6 during protests against demands by the majority community Meitei for ST status.



Yhobu said the NESO team visited the trouble-torn state to spread the message of peace and harmony to its indigenous people.





Despite the presence of over 40,000 central forces currently stationed in Manipur along with the state police and the intervention of the Union Home Minister, Amit Shah, the situation there is still volatile. Normalcy is yet to return in Manipur, he said.

The present situation in that state can only be reversed if only the Centre takes the matter seriously and comes out with immediate measures to bring the two communities to a common platform for dialogue, the NESO leader said.

Speaking about his experience, Yhobu said security forces are present in the heart of the city and are preventing clashes. But their absence is being felt in interior areas and villages, where the situation is the worst.

He said that during their visit the NESO team met the civil society organisations of both Meiteis and the Kukis and also interacted with the people in relief camps at Imphal and Churachandpur.



NESO will continue its efforts and take initiatives to create a common platform for the two communities to sit across the table, discuss their issues and resolve them.

NESO coordinator Ejanthung Ngully said the organisation is concerned about the well-being and future of the students from other states, including Nagaland, studying in various institutions in Manipur.





He asked the students who were forced to quit Manipur and need help to continue their studies and in other related issues can approach the NESO for support.

NSF president Kegwayhun Tep, who was a part of the Goodwill Mission, appealed to the Manipur government to take measures to restore peace as the state is an educational hub for students from Nagaland.

The organisations which are members of NESO are Khasi Students Union, All Assam Students Union, Naga Students Federation, Mizo Zirlai Pawl, Twipra Students Federation, All Manipur Students Union, Garo Students Union and All Arunachal Pradesh Students Union.
Ranchi, Aug 4 (PTI)Three persons were arrested in connection with the murder of CPI(M) leader Subhash Munda in Ranchi, police said on Friday.

Munda was shot dead at his office in the city's Daladali Chowk in Nagri police station area around 8 pm on July 26.

Police said they have also recovered the weapons used in the murder, and seized some motorcycles.

"Munda, who was also a land dealer, was killed due to a land dispute. The three accused involved in the crime were arrested on Thursday night," said Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Kishore Kaushal.

Munda had a dispute with another land dealer, identified as Chotu Khalko alias Chotu Oraon, over two plots of land, he claimed.

Khalko wanted to acquire one of the two plots, and cracked a deal with one Vinod Kumar alias Kanhiya, a close aide of Munda, the officer said.

It was agreed that if they were able to acquire the plot, they would divide it in half among themselves, he said.

Khalko and Kanhiya hatched the conspiracy to kill Munda, he added.

Khalko's driver Abhijit Pari was also involved in the crime. They hired shooters, and promise to pay them Rs 15 lakh in cash and a part of the plot, the SSP said.

Police said that while they arrested Khalko, Kanhiya and Pari, a search is underway for the shooters.
Itanagar, Aug 4 (PTI) To prevent drug abuse, Changlang district administration in Arunachal Pradesh has made it mandatory for all government employees and civilians of the district, to mandatorily go through drug tests, an official said.



The district administration also cautioned that if anyone is found positive during the test, appropriate action would be taken as per law.

"The district administration will not spare drug peddlers and consumers whether he or she is a government servant, public or student," Deputy Commissioner (DC) Sunny K Singh said.

He said that drug testing kits have already been made available in all primary health centres and community health centres of the district for testing and checking of drug peddlers and drug consumers.

"The state government has provided ample opportunity to its employees, who have been consuming drugs and directed them to voluntarily surrender or avoid drugs or go to the de-addiction centre and come out clean," Singh said.

The DC while quoting the district medical officer (DMO), said that the drug testing kit is capable of detecting the presence of drugs such as - Amphetamine (AMP), Barbiturates (BAR), Benzodiazepines (BZD), Buprenorphine (BUP), Cocaine (COC), Marijuana (THC), Methamphetamines (MET), Tri-Cyclic aid depressants (TCA), Methadone (MTD), Morphine (MOP), Oxycodone (OXY), Phencyclidine (PCP), and Propoxyphene (PPA) in urine samples.

Meanwhile, one person of Khuchep-I village was apprehended on Wednesday after finding him positive following a drug test. He was immediately sent to jail upon registration of a case under a stringent section of the NDPS Act.

In another incident, the Changlang town magistrate along with a police team, conducted raids in some areas of Changlang on Wednesday and seized 250 gm of heroin from the possession of one person of Phangsum village.

Three other drug consumers were also nabbed on the spot and a case was registered against them at Changlang police station.

Drug abuse has been a serious problem in Changlang district due to its porous border with Myanmar and Assam, from where illegal drugs enter the district.
New Delhi, Aug 4 (PTI) Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday said his party's alliance with DMK remains strong in Tamil Nadu and urged leaders to reach out to the people to win their trust, as he chaired a Lok Sabha poll strategy meeting for the southern state.

Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, Tamil Nadu Congress chief K S Alagiri, AICC in-charge of state Dinesh Gundu Rao, senior leaders P Chidambaram, Mani Shankar Aiyar and MP Karti Chidambaram, among others attended the meeting at the AICC headquarters here.

In a tweet after the meeting, Kharge said, "Lok Sabha Elections preparation meeting with @INCTamilNadu leaders reflected upon a number of critical issues."

"Our alliance with DMK and like minded parties remains strong. Our leaders must reach out to the people and strengthen their trust in us," Kharge asserted.

"The people of Tamil Nadu always identify Congress party with the era of the great Kamarajar and we intend to follow his path of welfare and social justice," the Congress chief said.

In a Facebook post, Gandhi said he had a fruitful discussion with the leaders of Tamil Nadu Congress about the preparations for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in the meeting led by Kharge.

"Fostering a better future for all Tamilians is an integral part of the Congress party's vision for the country," Gandhi said.

The party is holding poll strategy meetings for every state in order to prepare for next year's Lok Sabha elections.
Minsk and Moscow are provoking Poland 4 August, 07:30 PM Military helicopters of Belarus violated Polish airspace allegedly during "exercises" (Photo:Eliza Kowalczyk/Facebook)

So far, it is psychological. What are its goals and objectives?

The entry of Belarusian aircraft above the territory of Poland, which Polish officials initially did not want to notice, and then, when a bunch of photographic evidence from Polish citizens was made public, they were forced to admit it, is clearly not an ordinary "incident."

It's worth recalling the joint "concert" of dictators Putin and Lukashenko, who told tales of the Wagnerian "walk" to Poland. Putin suddenly remembered that Polish territories were "given to the Poles by Stalin," then there was the movement of Prigozhin mercenaries to Belarus, and so on.

Video of day

It is clear that all this is part of a special operation. So far, it is a psychological one. What are its goals and objectives?

The Kremlin dictator is not planning to fight against NATO. No matter what his propagandists say, he has neither the resources nor the capabilities to do so, and he has no desire to do so either. However, he is well aware that NATO's support (even as limited as it is now) significantly affects the fundamental possibility of achieving the "goals of the special military operation."

Putin does not want to fight with NATO, but he does want to isolate Ukraine from NATO member states. It is also desirable to put NATO in a crisis that could provoke uncertainty, instability, and disintegration. For this purpose, Poland has been chosen as a target, not for the first time, by the way, and a mustachioed Belarusian stand-up guy as a tool.

The scheme seems to be as follows: Constantly keep Poland in a state of "Russian" threat

, reinforcing it with permanent provocations on the border. The "padding" in the form of the "Belarusian authorities" allows for minimizing risks and making the dictator from Minsk responsible if the situation turns out to be unwanted. Putin also shows himself as a coward here, promising an "attack" on Poland by someone else's hands.

The logic is simple. NATO constantly declares that it will not fight Russia. An attack on one NATO state should mean a reaction from all members. This means a war of all (including the United States) against Russia, which the United States itself does not want. So, we need to push them into a situation where an undesirable choice is close and then offer them an option: we reduce provocations, and you reduce support for Ukraine.

Of course, the logic is flawed, but it fits the Kremlin dictator's thinking. In the end, even if it doesn't come to that, any demonstration of NATO's "weakness" in protecting its members is already a trump card in the Kremlins game.

Unfortunately, the Poles have so far reacted weakly. We must understand that forceful arguments against the Kremlin are the only effective arguments. This has been demonstrated repeatedly by Erdogan, who is still listened to even in the Kremlin. Did you shoot down a Russian plane? That means you are a "serious guy." You can be dealt with.

The Poles should be determined to shoot down Belarusian planes, kill militants who enter from Belarus, and kill them immediately and without talking. This will immediately stop any provocations. There will be no attack on NATO. Russia will simply change the vector of its actions. Because, in reality, they are more afraid of fighting NATO than even NATO itself.

Otherwise... No, there will be no war between Russia and the West, but there will be a huge crisis, the consequences of which will be unpredictable from a political point of view.

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New Delhi, Aug 4 (PTI) The National Investigation Agency has filed a supplementary charge sheet against four arrested cadres of the Popular Front of India in a case related to the "unlawful and anti-national activities" of the proscribed outfit in Bihar, an official said on Friday.

The fresh charge sheet has been filed in the NIA Special Court, Patna, against Md Tanweer, Md Aabid, Md Belal and Md Irshad Alam, all residents of East Champaran district of Bihar, a spokesperson of the anti-terror federal agency said.

The official said the four accused were operating, along with other accused in planning of "violent criminal acts by arranging arms and ammunition and in propagating the PFIs ideology and agenda of violent extremism".

They have been charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, and Arms Act on Thursday, the spokesperson said.

The official said a total of 15 accused, including the four chargesheeted, have been arrested so far for promoting the unlawful activities of the PFI and channelising illegal funds from abroad to PFI members/accused in this case.

According to investigations, the agency said Alam is a member of the criminal syndicate which was involved, along with other PFI cadres, in a criminal conspiracy related to attack and kill a youth belonging to a particular community, with the intention to spread terror and communal hatred.

"Tanweer and Abid already had the terror hardware for carrying out the hate crime and handed over the same to one of the arrested accused, Yaqub Khan, who is a PFI master trainer of weapons and tactics and had conducted multiple arms training sessions for furthering the banned outfit's violent and unlawful activities," the spokesperson said.

The case was initially registered on July 12 last year at Phulwarisharif Police Station in Patna against 26 people and was taken over and re-registered by the NIA on 10 days later.

On January 7, the NIA had filed a charge sheet against four people in the case, in which investigations are continuing.
New Delhi, Aug 4 (PTI) The Congress on Friday hailed the Supreme Court ruling staying the conviction of Rahul Gandhi in a 2019 defamation case, calling the judgment a strong vindication of truth and asserting that "no force can silence the voice of the people".

The Congress described it as a "victory of love over hate".

The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the conviction of Gandhi in the defamation case over his Modi surname remark.

Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said the Supreme Court judgment is a strong vindication of truth and justice.

"Despite the relentless efforts of the BJPs machinery, Rahul Gandhi has refused to bend, break or bow, choosing instead to place his faith in the judicial process," he said on Twitter.

"Let this be a lesson to the BJP and its acolytes: you can do your absolute worst but we will not back down. We will continue to expose and call out your failures as a Government and as a party. We will continue to uphold our Constitutional ideals and repose faith in our institutions which you so desperately want to destroy. Satyameva Jayate!" Ramesh said.

Congress' general secretary organisation K C Venugopal also hailed the verdict.

"We welcome the Honble Supreme Courts verdict staying Sh. @RahulGandhi jis conviction. Justice has prevailed. No force can silence the voice of the people," Venugopal said on Twitter.

In a tweet in Hindi, the Congress said, "It is a victory of love over hate. Satyamev Jayate -- Jai Hind

Congress general secretary Randeep Surjewala also hailed the ruling, saying justice has prevailed.

"The roar of truth will be heard again the halls of democracy!" he said.

A three-judge bench of Justices B R Gavai, P S Narasimha and Sanjay Kumar said there is no doubt that the utterances were not in good taste and that a person in public life is expected to exercise caution while making public speeches.

"No reason has been given by the trial judge for imposing maximum sentence, the order of conviction needs to be stayed pending final adjudication," the bench said.

The top court was hearing a plea by Gandhi challenging the Gujarat High Court verdict which dismissed his plea seeking a stay on his conviction in a defamation case over his "Modi surname" remark.

Former Gujarat minister Purnesh Modi had filed a criminal defamation case in 2019 against Gandhi over his "How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname?" remark made during an election rally in Kolar in Karnataka on April 13, 2019.
New Delhi, Aug 4 (PTI) India and Kazakhstan agreed to expand cooperation in combating terrorism, radicalisation and drug trafficking besides resolving to boost overall defence engagement, officials said on Friday.

The decisions were taken at the fourth India-Kazakhstan security dialogue that took place in Astana on Thursday.

The Indian delegation at the talks was led by Deputy National Security Advisor Vikram Misri while the Kazakh team was headed by Nurzhan Kajiakbarov, Deputy Secretary of the Security Council of Kazakhstan.

The officials cited above described the talks as "productive".

"The discussions at the security dialogue focused on bilateral and regional issues, including the situation in Afghanistan, and international issues of mutual concern," said an official.

"Both sides welcomed the convergence of views on these issues and agreed on steps to be taken to further enhance bilateral security cooperation between the relevant organisations, including in the fields of counter-terrorism, combating radicalisation, narcotics control, cyber security, connectivity and defence cooperation," he said.

Misri also called on Gizat Nurdauletov, an aide to the Kazakh President, and Secretary of the Security Council.

The Deputy NSA also held discussions with Kanat Tumysh, the Deputy Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan.

The Indian delegation also visited facilities of interest, considering the bilateral strategic relationship between the two countries, the official said.
New Delhi, Aug 4 (PTI) TMC Rajya Sabha MP Derek O'Brien said on Friday the opposition bloc will find ways to "expose" in the Upper House the government on the Manipur issue while speaking on the bill related to services matter in Delhi when it comes in for a discussion next week.

Sources indicate opposition parties are unhappy with the government suggesting they will debate Manipur in the Rajya Sabha on August 11, the last day of this session. They said they want the debate on Monday (August 7) or Tuesday (August 8).

On Friday morning too, two leaders of the INDIA bloc met Leader of the House in Rajya Sabha Piyush Goyal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi in a bid to break the logjam.

They contended that while it is understandable that a debate on Manipur was not possible this week in Rajya Sabha, it could be taken up early next week.

Opposition leaders, during their own meeting have, however, decided that the Manipur issue has to be brought into the discussion in some way.

"The INDIA alliance will find ways, within the rules of Parliament, to expose the Modi govt on Manipur while speaking on the Delhi bill," O'Brien, the leader of the TMC in Rajya Sabha, told a select group of mediapersons.

The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023 was passed by Lok Sabha amid a walkout by opposition parties.

The numbers appear to be stacked against the opposition in the Rajya Sabha too with the the BJD and the YSRCP pledging support to the government.

Sources said Congress MP Rajani Patil's suspension last session is likely to be revoked and she will make it to the House during the discussion on the bill.
Jaipur, Aug 4 (PIT) A 45-year-old labourer was killed while he was asleep at his rented house here, police said on Friday.

The incident took place in the Kho Nagoriyan area here on Thursday night, they added.

On Friday morning, the body of Hariprasad, who hailed from Uttar Pradesh, was found on the roof of a house where he lived on rent with other labourers, the police said.

Hariprasad's head was hit with a stone while he was sleeping, the police said, adding that he died due to excessive bleeding.

Two labourers residing with the victim who went missing following the incident are being searched, they added.
New Delhi, Aug 4 (PTI) Lok Sabha proceedings were on Friday adjourned till 12 noon following protests by opposition members demanding a statement from Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the Manipur issue.

As soon as the House met, opposition members came to the well of the House seeking a statement from the prime minister on the Manipur issue. They also demanded a debate.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi told opposition members that there are important bills listed for Friday's business like that on Thursday.

On Thursday, when the House had taken up the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill 2023 for discussion, most of the opposition members had participated in it.

Not only yesterday's bill, even today's bills are equally important. We are ready for even private members' bills today. Please take part in the proceedings, he said.

As the opposition MPs ignored the pleas and continued their protests, Speaker Om Birla allowed the members to ask questions related to different ministries as per the schedule.

Despite the protests, the proceedings continued for about 20 minutes after which the speaker appealed to the protesting members to go back to their seats and take part in the proceedings.

Question Hour is important. The House has taken up the farmers' issue today but you are not interested to take part in it. I will given enough opportunity to all of you on any issue that you would like to raise, he said.

As the opposition members did not pay any heed to Birla's appeal, he adjourned the proceedings till 12 noon.

The Delhi bill was related to handling of senior officers of the city government.

Delhi's AAP government has vehemently opposed the bill.

Most of the opposition parties had supported the AAP in its opposition to the bill and took part in the debate on Thursday before staging a walk out when it was getting passed through voice vote.

The Manipur violence has rocked proceedings in both Houses of Parliament ever since the Monsoon session began on July 20, with the opposition demanding a statement from Prime Minister Modi and a discussion on the situation in the northeastern state.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Union Home Minister Amit Shah had said that the government was ready for a debate on the Manipur issue.

The speaker also had said that the opposition can't decide who would reply, on behalf of the government, to the debate.

The opposition subsequently moved a no-confidence motion against the Modi government.

The session started a day after a video of two women being paraded naked by a mob on May 4 in a Manipur village went viral, triggering a nationwide outrage.
Mangaluru, Aug 4 (PTI) The Cyber, Economic offences and Narcotic (CEN) crime police here have arrested a youth for posting derogatory comments on a Hindu God on Instagram.



The arrested has been identified as Mohammed Salman (22) from Kulshekar in the city, police sources said.



The accused has been charged under Sections 67 of the IT Act and 153(A) and 505(2) of the Indian Penal Code in the case registered at the CEN police station on Thursday.



He was later produced before the 7th JMFC court and remanded to judicial custody, the sources said.
Ranchi, Aug 4 (PTI) Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren Friday lashed out at BJP in the state Assembly calling it 'anti-tribal'. He said that not only Manipur but the entire northeast is undergoing a phase similar to it.

In the ongoing monsoon session of Lok Sabha the Centre has made amendments in the Forest Conservation Act that will deprive tribals of their forest rights too.

They (BJP) talk about tribals, but they are most anti-tribal. What happened in Manipur is not hidden. It is not just Manipur, but the entire hill areas of the northeast are going through a similar phase ... The tribal society is being oppressed in Manipur and the (BJP) government there is watching the spectacle as a mute spectator ... ," he said.

Ethnic violence which broke out in Manipur in May this year has continued sporadically to plague Manipur for the last three months and has claimed more than 160 lives.

Soren also raised the issue of communal tension-affected Haryana and lambasted the BJP for creating uproarious scenes in the assembly for the past five days over tribal and law and order issues. BJP talks about law and order situation in Jharkhand, but what is happening in Haryana?"

"Their (BJP'S) policy is to divide and rule," he said and attacked the Centre for misusing constitutional institutions for fuelling riots as 2024 elections are drawing near.

On the amendments in the Forest Conservation Act, he said "I will neither allow last year's amended rules that snatched the right of the gram sabha to be implemented in this state, nor will I allow the central government's plan to evict the tribals from their forests by changing the law to succeed ... The state government is going to constitute the Displacement Commission, SC and ST Commission," he said.

He also attacked the saffron party for ''misleading'' the youth with its employment policy and said his government would bring and pass legislation in the state assembly that will ensure 100 per cent employment to the local youth.

"The opposition gave a 60-40 slogan to mislead the youth of Jharkhand, when the fact is that it was done during the tenure of the previous (BJP) government ... Our government in a bid to ensure 100 per cent jobs to Jharkhand youth brought a domicile policy based on the 1932 khatiyan. It got stuck with the Raj Bhawan and we could not do anything.

"But, our effort for the 1932 khatiyan-based employment policy will continue. We will bring a bill again and pass it in the Assembly, Soren told the House.



He said a decision on the 1932 land record-based policy for employment was taken through a consensus with consultation with the youth and the process is on to ensure the recruitment of about 50,000 posts in Jharkhand.



"In the existing policy, 50 per cent of the seats are already reserved for SC/ST/OBC and another 10 per cent for EWS. In the remaining 40 per cent seats, Jharkhand students are entitled, he said.



Soren alleged that during the tenure of the BJP in the state around 75 per cent of the seats were filled with outsiders.



With our strict vigil now, only 15-20 per cent of the seats go to outsiders. But, our effort is to bring it down to zero percent, he said.

The monsoon session of the Jharkhand assembly was adjourned sine die soon after Soren''s speech late in the evening.
Bhubaneswar, Aug 4 (PTI) Union Home Minister Amit Shah arrived in Bhubaneswar on Friday night.

Shah's flight landed at 11.50 pm, and he was received at the airport by BJP state president Manmohan Samal and Bhubaneswar MP Aparajita Sarangi, among others.

He will stay the night at a private hotel.

On Saturday, he is scheduled to launch a national highway project and attend meetings on Left-Wing Extremism and disaster management. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik will also attend the two back-to-back meetings at the state secretariat.

Though there is no official confirmation about a one-to-one meeting between Shah and Patnaik, the Union minister's programme list showed that a 30-minute meeting is scheduled after the two meetings at the state secretariat. However, there is no mention whom Shah will meet.

The home minister is also scheduled to attend a meeting at the airport lounge before leaving for Delhi on Saturday evening, officials said, without specifying who would be present in it.

Shah's visit to the state comes amid the BJD extending its support to the bill replacing the Delhi services ordinance in a boost to the treasury benches, especially in Rajya Sabha, and also backing the BJP-led NDA government against the no-confidence motion brought by opposition parties in Parliament.

Shah will also visit the BJP's state office on Saturday afternoon, and hold a closed-door meeting with party leaders.

His last visit to the state on June 17 was cancelled in view of cyclone Biparjoy hitting Gujarat.
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Time to stop the row between Poland and Ukraine 4 August, 06:50 PM Mateusz Morawiecki (Photo:REUTERS/Carlos Osorio)

Polish Ambassador Bartosz Cichocki was invited to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry after Marcin Przydacz, head of the Office for International Policy in President Andrzej Duda's administration, said Ukraine was "ungrateful" for its assistance. The Polish side did not like this step. What happened between Poland and Ukraine?

In Poland, there is an essential factor to keep in mind: the upcoming parliamentary elections. I think it played a significant role in this incident. I wouldn't call it a diplomatic scandal, although it has a scandalous tinge. I would say that this is not a good incident in our bilateral relations, and we need to draw the correct conclusions and overcome the mistakes made on both sides.

Video of day

There is a common denominator in this situation. Unfortunately, it is now manifesting very powerfully, visibly, and tangibly within Ukraine and many countries that are our partners.

These are the consequences of the prolongation of the war and emotional fatigue from the war.

This is also related to the intensification of discussions about what to do next and the strategy and tactics in this war. Well, this is manifested purely emotionally by some politicians in the following statements that became the reason for this diplomatic incident.

I noticed that it was a statement by a Polish official. A high-ranking official, but an official. Not a decision-maker. He is not a minister. This is not the official position of Poland. I don't know exactly what this person's motives were. There may have been some personal motives that we do not know about. Perhaps the approach of the election campaign in Poland, and the parliamentary elections in the fall, worked. And this factor most likely became the impetus for such a statement. It is related to the discussion about exporting our grain to the EU, particularly Poland.

The ruling party in Poland has its base among farmers, who are against Ukrainian grain entering Poland. This is a challenge for them. There is a conflict of interest here, a purely economic and social conflict.

The ruling party is trying to focus on its potential electorate and reflect its positions in one form or another. In this case, it was done incorrectly and not diplomatically. This was indeed a problem to which the Ukrainian side should have responded, but to respond in a mirror image.

It is correct and polite to say that it is not quite right to make such statements. We are allies and grateful to the Polish side for their support  we should always repeat words of gratitude. But we are also doing a lot, and in the end, we are doing more  we are also protecting Poland. This is how we should have reacted. Correctly, gently, politely, and diplomatically. The form is vital in this case.

This could be done, for example, in an interview with Mykhailo Podoliak, an adviser to the head of the Presidential Administration. He usually reacts in such situations. Or the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.

There was no need to call the ambassador. Regarding bilateral relations, summoning an ambassador is always a way to raise the temperature and fix tensions in the relationship. It was an excessive step on our part. We should have reacted purely informationally and at the same level that corresponds to the level of this Polish official.

When we summoned the ambassador and made a critical statement, it was a demarche on our part, to which the Poles responded with their own demarche. As a rule, diplomatic relations are governed by the law of reciprocity. Therefore, we should avoid such situations in the future.

Unfortunately, we are experiencing many emotions inside the country right now. Recently, a post by one of our experts that we deserved this war has been discussed on social media. This is also an emotion of irritation caused by fatigue from the war. Only the emotion is wrong, directed in the wrong direction; it demotivates. This generalization that all Ukrainians deserve this war works in the interests of the aggressor country: one more step and it will be a justification for the war, that it is not Russia's fault. This is an example of an emotion that has become very acute in our country.

Unfortunately, emotions also manifest in the actions and statements of our officials. They should be avoided. We cannot afford tensions and conflicts in our relations with our partners right now. We need to maintain this support. The war is dragging on, and it may drag on indefinitely. That is why we need flexibility and rationality in our actions. We have to respond to things that are not in our interests and answer when it comes to officials in partner countries. We have to react diplomatically and politely, at the appropriate level, so as not to create tension and problems in bilateral relations.

It makes sense for us to intensify our gratitude campaigns to our partners at both the public and state levels. We should do this for both its own value and to maintain support for Ukraine. The emotion of war fatigue is evident among our partners. This is evident from publications in the Western media. Therefore, we should not respond to this emotionally.

At the same time, we have a widespread opinion, particularly among officials, that everyone owes us a favor because we are defending democracy, democratic values, and the entire civilized world. But, unfortunately, our partners have no sense of this obligation. They have their own interests, which do not always coincide with ours. Some of these interests may seem selfish to us. We need to abandon this stereotype that everyone is automatically obliged to us. Unfortunately, this is not entirely true. We need to understand this. Therefore, we have to control our emotions, not the other way around.

For now, we need to stop. We need an informal conversation, perhaps even a meeting between the two ministers. We need to ease the tension and demonstrate that both countries maintain a high level of partnership. Yes, there was an outburst of emotions, and the pre-election situation in Poland had something to do with it, but we need to demonstrate that the high level of partnership between Ukraine and Poland remains. This is in the interests of both countries. Therefore, this incident should not be developed further, it should be stopped, and the tension that has arisen should be relieved. This is what needs to be done.

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For days now, newly arrived international immigrants have waited night and day outside New York Citys Roosevelt Hotel, sleeping shoulder-to-shoulder on the sidewalk in hopes of a bed in the citys shelter system. And for weeks, Mayor Eric Adams has said the city is out of room and sought to dissuade more migrants from arriving.

The scene outside the former hotel  now a migrant shelter and intake center  has underscored the extreme overcrowding in a homeless housing system filled to record levels. City officials and activists alike call it heartbreaking.

But some critics accuse New York City officials of exploiting the lines outside the Roosevelt as part of a campaign to pressure state and federal officials to come up with more money to tackle the crisis and discourage more migrants from entering the U.S. from Mexico.

Mayor Adams should not be using asylum seekers as props to get the attention of the Biden administration or discourage asylum seekers from coming to New York, said Murad Awawdeh, the executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition.

He added the city should work harder to free up space in shelters and keep migrants off the streets. Its hard to imagine that there are not enough beds to actually accommodate the people that the Adams administration is leaving out on the street, he told The Associated Press in a statement.

At a briefing Thursday, one of the mayors deputies pushed back.

I dont think I or any person in this administration would use people to do any type of a stunt, said Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom.

She said the city has conducted itself with humanity and with compassion, adding the shelter system is at a breaking point.

City officials say the number of migrants arriving in New York since the spring of 2022 is approaching 100,000, overwhelming a shelter system designed to hold tens of thousands fewer people.

New York City has a unique court-ordered obligation to provide emergency shelter to anyone who asks for it, but officials have said in recent weeks that the influx of migrants seeking asylum in the U.S. had made it increasingly difficult to fulfill that duty.

While the number of migrants crossing the border has fallen in recent months, busloads still arrive nearly every day. City officials said that some 2,300 more migrants came to the city seeking shelter last week alone.

Adams last month dispatched emissaries to the border to hand out fliers, informing migrants that shelter space in his city is no longer guaranteed and that housing and food in New York City is expensive. It urged them to consider other U.S. cities.

Outside the Roosevelt hotel recently, migrant Miguel Jaramillo talked about sleeping in the street while waiting for a bed, saying he was willing to endure the process.

We came here for a future, he said.

On another day, security guards ordered migrants not to speak to journalists. During one interview, a migrant was told by a guard to stop speaking  first putting his finger on his pursed lips then dragging it across his throat like a knife.

The migrant, who had been speaking about his arduous passage to the U.S. and his hopes for a better life, immediately stopped talking.

Thats pretty plainly a threat, said Joshua Goldfein, an attorney for the Legal Aid Society in New York.

Theres no question that the city could provide additional spaces for the folks who are on the sidewalk, he said, though he added state and federal governments should do more, too.

Adams, a Democrat, has insisted the city is doing everything it can, including leasing entire hotels for migrants and opening multiple new shelters.

In a frantic search for more housing, city officials are considering building a tent city on an island in the East River, even though it closed a similar facility nearly a year ago just weeks after it opened. And soon a new shelter will open in the parking lot of a psychiatric hospital in Queens, providing about 1,000 beds for single men, who comprise the majority of arriving migrants.

Adams tough rhetoric, though, has implied more migrants would find themselves sleeping outdoors.

Its not going to get any better. From this moment on its downhill. There is no more room, he said Monday while quickly vowing he wouldnt let sidewalk encampments become a citywide problem. I can assure you that this city is not going to look like other cities where there are tents up and down every street.

Goldfein and others accused the mayor and city of shifting their tone from were going to treat people with dignity and respect to were going to treat people very badly to send a message.

Williams-Isom, the deputy mayor, countered that the city would remain compassionate.

We are trying to say that if less people were coming through the front door, maybe we could catch up a little bit, she said.

(AP)




A Russian court on Thursday imposed fines on Apple and the host of Wikipedia for failing to remove material deemed to be false information about Russias military actions in Ukraine.

A justice of the peace in a magistrates court, which handles administrative violations and low-level criminal cases, fined the Wikimedia Foundation 3 million rubles ($33,000) for retaining material on Russian-language Wikipedia pages that violated a law against discrediting Russias military and spreading false information about the Ukraine conflict, the Interfax news agency reported.

The same justice found Apple guilty of failing to delete podcasts and apps with such information and fined the company 400,000 rubles ($4,400).

Since sending troops into Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has enacted an array of measures to punish any criticism or questioning of the military campaign.

Some critics have received severe punishments. Opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Murza was sentenced this year to 25 years in prison for treason stemming from speeches he made against Russias actions in Ukraine.

(AP)




Donald Trump on Thursday promised to go after those who are prosecuting him now if re-elected president in 2024, saying it will be our turn.

Look, its not my fault that my political opponent in the Democrat Party, Crooked Joe Biden, has told his Attorney General to charge the leading (by far!) Republican Nominee & former President of the United States, me, with as many crimes as can be concocted so that he is forced to spend large amounts of time & money to defend himself, Trump wrote on Truth Social. The Dems dont want to run against me or they would not be doing this unprecedented weaponization of Justice. BUT SOON, IN 2024, IT WILL BE OUR TURN. MAGA!

Trump was indicted on Tuesday with charges relating to his attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. Special Counsel Jack Smith brought these charges against Trump, who also faced allegations of mishandling classified documents in June. Trump has been separately indicted in New York for falsification of business records and was found liable for an incident involving the physical abuse of a journalist this year, all while he gears up for his 2024 presidential campaign.

According to reports from The New York Times, President Biden has been clear that he wants to see Trump prosecuted for his role in the January 6 Capitol riot, but he has not said so clearly to Attorney General Merrick Garland. Instead, the Times claims Biden has expressed privately to his inner circle that he views Trump as a threat to democracy and believes he should face prosecution.

(YWN World Headquarters  NYC)




In what promises to be a fiery showdown, Florida Governor and presidential candidate Ron DeSantis has accepted a challenge to debate California Governor Gavin Newsom, who is rumored to be eyeing a potential presidential run himself. The two governors will go head-to-head with Fox News host Sean Hannity moderating the event.

The idea of a one-on-one debate between the two prominent governors emerged during their ongoing social media battles but was formally proposed by Hannity during an interview with Newsom on Fox News.

During a Wednesday interview with DeSantis, Hannity played the clip of Newsom agreeing to the debate and asked for the Republicans response. Without hesitation, DeSantis declared, Absolutely. Im game. Lets get it done. Just tell me when and where well do it.

Taking to Twitter, DeSantis further emphasized his enthusiasm, stating that the debate between California and Florida is already over. People have been voting with their feet for years. He expressed readiness to discuss his plans to reverse the countrys decline anytime, anywhere.

In response to the challenge, the Newsom camp promptly sent their proposal for the debate to Fox News. They suggested that the event take place on November 8th or 10th in Georgia, Nevada, or North Carolina, with Hannity moderating the 90-minute encounter.

The prospect of this debate has captured the attention of the nation, with pundits predicting it to be a godsend for Governor DeSantis, as it will thrust him into the spotlight and cement his position as a top contender in the Republican race for the 2024 presidential nomination.

(YWN World Headquarters  NYC)




In an appearance on CNN on Wednesday night, former Trump fixer Michael Cohen said hes sure that key allies of the former president have spilled the beans about him to prosecutors  including his own son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Jack Smith is not allowing anybody to escape. So each and every one of them knows that this is me that theyre talking about. And I think its necessary for me to have my attorneys reach out to Jack Smith and his team to ensure that at least I have an opportunity to provide information if they havent already. Like, Im a firm believer that Rudy Giuliani has already spoken, Cohen told host Alisyn Camerota.

What makes you think that? Camerota asked.

Because I understand Rudy. Rudy has no interest in spending his remaining days on this planet behind bars for Donald Trump, Cohen said.

In fact, you know, I think the more important thing in this indictment to look at are not who the six coconspirators are, but rather who is missing from this indictment. Like, for example, you dont see any mention of Mark Meadows. You see nothing of Jared Kushner. Jared Kushner was the secretary of everything. How is it possible that he is not listed here? He was there. He was on Donalds lap the entire time from the day Donald entered the White House to the day that he left, he added.

So how do you explain it? the anchor questioned.

I believe hes probably a cooperating witness, Cohen replied.

Jared Kushner, thats interesting, because people have pointed out that Mark Meadows is conspicuously absent from the indictment. But, Jared Kushners his son in law. You think that his son in law would cooperate against Donald Trump? a clearly stunned Camerota asked.

Oh, in a heartbeat. Do you think Jared is any different than Donald? Do you think that Donald wouldnt throw Jared under the bus in order to save himself? The answer is an emphatic yes, Cohen said.

And you think the same is true of Mark Meadows? Camerota pressed.

Absolutely. Well, whats the one thing that Bill Barr said that I totally agree with, that Donald doesnt care about anyone or anything other than himself. Hes a one way street. And if that means that Jared has to go down or Mark Meadows or Rudy Colludy or Eastman or any of them, he doesnt care. Thats just who he is, Cohen concluded.

(YWN World Headquarters  NYC)




A Chareidi ten-year-old from the UK fell off a fourth-floor balcony in a hotel in the town of Zermatt in southern Switzerland on Sunday night.

The boy, who was on vacation with his family, woke up in the middle of the night and sleepwalked onto the porch, and somehow fell off the porch in his sleepy state, hitting the concrete below and seriously injuring himself. Meanwhile, his parents were sound asleep in bed, totally unaware that their son lay seriously injured outside, crying softly.

In an incident of Hashgachas Pratis, another Chareidi family from the UK arrived at the hotel at 3:30 a.m. after being delayed for many hours their the way due to heavy rain. One of the children heard the sound of crying and Mommy, Mommy and asked his father to look for the source. The father said it was probably a child inside the hotel but the son insisted on looking around and they soon found the injured child and called for help.

In another incident of hashgacha, another person who arrived in the middle of the night for a vacation was a medical professional who treated the boy immediately. He was later evacuated to a hospital in the Swiss city of Lausanne, where he is being treated for serius injuries.

The public is asked to daven for a refuah sheleimah for Pinchas Zelig ben Bluma btoch shaar cholei Yisrael.

(YWN Israel Desk  Jerusalem)
More New Look stores are set to close their doors for the final time this month, after several closures this year.

The fashion chain is said to be closing the doors of three of its branches in August.

It has been a bleak summer for UK high streets as stalwart brands continue to disappear from towns and cities across the country.

Littlehampton in Sussex will be the first of the three to face the chopping block, closing its doors on Sunday, August 6.

New Look is set to close even more of its high street stores after closing 11 already this year

Locals in Littlehampton will no longer be able to shop at their New Look (pictured). They will now have to travel to Bognor Regis to shop at a New Look store

A map showing all the New Look locations that have closed this year and the three set to shut up shop this August

Three days later on August 9, another store in King Chase Shopping Centre, Bristol, will also shut up shop for the last time.

Crossgates Shopping Centre in Leeds, is also set to shutter this summer, however no date has been confirmed by the fashion retailer.

New Look Stores set to shut in August Littlehampton - August 6

Kings Chase Shopping Centre - Bristol - August 9

Crossgates Shopping Centre - Leeds - end of August (TBC)

This comes after a fellow UK staple store, Wilko, signaled it was on the brink of administration, with 12,000 jobs and 400 stores now at risk.

The closure of these branches comes as a blow to residents. Those in Littlehampton will now have to travel to Bognor Regis to browse a New Look store.

A New Look spokesperson told SussexWorld: 'We would like to thank all of our colleagues and the local community for their support over the last few years.

'We hope shoppers continue to shop with us at the nearby Bognor Regis store.'

The Bristol branch also announced its shuttering via the Kings Chase Shopping Centre page on Facebook.

Kings Chase expressed sadness regarding New Look's farewell from the centre.

Kings Chase Shopping Centre said: 'We would like to thank Carol and the New Look Kingswood team for their service over the years and we wish them all the very best for the future.'

Locals were left less than happy with the news, one commented: 'This is such a shame. We need more clothes in Kingswood not less.'

Another echoed their sentiment: 'Shame it's closing. Only decent shop left in Kingswood.'

Shoppers expressed sadness at the closure of the New Look at Kings Cross Shopping Centre, Bristol (pictured). They said: 'We need more clothes in Kingswood not less'

Crossgates Shopping Centre in Leeds (pictued) is among the three New Look shops set to close this August. Its closure date is yet to be confirmed

These aren't the first set of closures for New Look this year. The fashion brand has already shut stores in Coventry, Middlesbrough. Rhyl, Trowbridge, Birmingham, Stockton-on-Tees, Walthamstow and Witham so far this year.

But its not all bad news. In November 2022, New Look opened multiple new branches across the country.

Earlier this year, in April, the retailer opened branch in a new location in Sunderland.

The high street chain also intends on opening more stores this year, however it has not been confirmed, how many and where they will open.

A spokesperson for New Look commented: 'As part of the normal course of business, New Look occasionally closes stores, while also undertaking relocations and new site openings.

'While some sites have closed recently, we have opened a number of new stores this year and we remain on the lookout for appropriate new opportunities across the country.'
An Australian safety equipment manufacturer has become the latest company to be acquired by London-listed Halma.

Based in the Western Australian capital of Perth, Lazer Safe supplies hardware designed to protect workers when operating industrial press brakes.

Founded 25 years ago by Ian Costley and Rob Appleyard, the business reported A$21.8million (around 11.2million) in turnover for the 12 months ending March, with a return on sales of 18 to 22 per cent.

Safety: Based in the Western Australian capital of Perth, Lazer Safe supplies hardware that is designed to protect workers when operating industrial press brakes

Costley, the chief executive of Lazer Safe, said that burgeoning industries ranging from mass transportation and construction to automobiles are driving demand for press brake machines.

He added: 'By joining Halma, Lazer Safe can continue to grow internationally, helping more manufacturers protect their workforce, adapt to increasing safety regulations and enhance productivity.'

Halma is spending A$45million (about 23million) from its existing facilities to buy Lazer Safe, which will operate as a standalone business in the firm's safety division.

It marks the fourth takeover by the FTSE 100 company this year, with the most recent being Sewertronics, a Polish wastewater pipeline repair firm, three months ago in a 59million deal.

The technology group also acquired fire extinguishing systems designer FirePro in March and Bradford-based fire detection products designer Thermocable.

Halma bought another four businesses in the previous year, including underwater robots manufacturer Deep Trekker and IZI Medical Products, a creator of medical consumable devices.

Marc Ronchetti, CEO of Halma, said: 'Lazer Safe is highly aligned to our purpose of protecting people and their environment to grow a safer, cleaner and healthier future for everyone, every day.

'We are delighted to welcome a company that will serve as an important addition to Halma's portfolio of machine and industrial safety technology.'

This acquisition-led approach helped the firm score a record 1.85billion of sales in 2022, as well as two successive decades of rising profits and a dividend hike of at least 5 per cent for the 44th consecutive year.

Halma began operating during the Victorian era as a tea estate in Sri Lanka, before becoming a prominent rubber producer until its plantations were nationalised in the 1950s.

From the early-1970s, the company focused on acquiring mechanical, electrical and electronic engineering firms under the long-time leadership of David Barber.

Analysts at Investec said: 'Halma has a proven business model, which should continue to generate long-term revenue and profit growth.

'The critical nature of its product portfolio, geared towards non-discretionary and sustainability-related demand, should continue to underpin positive momentum.'

Halma shares were just 0.2 per cent lower at 21.29 on Friday morning, but have declined by approximately a third since the beginning of last year.
WPP has lowered its revenue guidance after US tech clients cut spending on advertising and growth in China was slower than expected in the last quarter.

The group told shareholders it now expects like-for-like revenue of 1.5 to 3 per cent in 2023, down from previous guidance of 3 to 5 per cent growth.

Comparable revenues rose by 3.5 per cent to 7.2billion in its first half, but second quarter growth slowed to 2.3 per cent.

Tech slowdown: WPP said US tech clients had spent less on advertising in the last quarter

Pre-tax profit for the six months more than halved to 204.3million, from 418.6million, mostly as a result of a 200million impairment charge from a property review.

Operating profit rose to 666million, from 639million the year before.

WPP shares tumbled 7.4 per cent to 784p in morning trading on Friday.

Mark Read, chief executive of WPP, said: 'Our performance in the first half has been resilient with Q2 growth accelerating in all regions except the USA, which was impacted in the second quarter by lower spending from technology clients and some delays in technology-related projects.

'This was felt primarily in our integrated creative agencies.

'China returned to growth in the second quarter albeit more slowly than expected.

'In the near term, we expect the pattern of activity in the first half to continue into the second half of the year.'

Read said WPP won deals with consumer goods giant Reckitt Benckiser, budget airline easyJet and Lloyds Banking Group during the reporting period.

And he reiterated the group's focus on artificial intelligence, which Read said will be 'fundamental to WPP's future success'.

'We have exciting future plans in AI that build on our acquisition of Satalia in 2021 and our use of AI across WPP,' he added.

'We are leveraging our efforts with partnerships with the leading players including Adobe, Google, IBM, Microsoft, Nvidia and OpenAI.

'We are delivering work powered by AI for many clients including Nestle, Nike and Mondelez.'
The Shocking New Price for Evertons Branthwaite Unveiled to Man Utd

Everton has surprised Manchester United by disclosing a staggering 25 million asking price for Jarrad Branthwaite, an unexpected twist in the summer transfer saga.

The Rising Star: Jarrad Branthwaite

Having spent an impressive season on loan at PSV Eindhoven, where he played a vital part in 37 appearances and contributed four goals and two assists, Branthwaites value has significantly soared. He has even lifted the Dutch Cup during his time in the Netherlands.

Manchester Uniteds interest in the giant left-sided centre-back has grown amid doubts surrounding Harry Maguires future, but the Merseyside clubs sudden increase in Branthwaites value has thrown a spanner in the works.

Evertons Aspirations and Connections to Man Utd

Only a few months ago, Everton valued Branthwaite at a modest 6 million. Yet, the club now demands 25 million for the player who has made just 13 appearances for their first team.

Intriguing connections emerge, as Everton leads the race for former Man United skipper Maguire, with rivals West Ham, Tottenham, and Chelsea also in contention. Could these interlinked negotiations between Everton and Man Utd influence the outcome of the Branthwaite deal?

Branthwaites Everton Future

With Branthwaites contract at Goodison Park set to expire in June 2025 and worth a reported 15,000-a-week, Everton seems to be playing hardball. The player, expressing a desire to leave before the window shuts, has returned to pre-season training with Everton, having also enjoyed loans at Blackburn and Carlisle.

Conclusion

The clock is ticking, and with other Premier League clubs on Branthwaites radar, the tussle over his future at Everton and the possibility of a switch to Man Utd continues. As the transfer window progresses, will Evertons shocking new price tag pave the way for a record deal or stall negotiations altogether?
Capita shares slumped after the outsourcing group swung to a first-half loss and said March's cyber attack would cost it more than previously expected.

The group, which has 6.5billion of public sector contracts including with the NHS, expects to incur costs of 20million to 25million as a result of the attack that left staff unable to access IT systems and disrupted services.

The figure is higher than the 15-20million it had estimated in May and comprises 'specialist professional fees, recovery and remediation costs, and investment to reinforce Capita's cyber security environment'.

Cyber attack: Capita confirmed that some data was 'exfiltrated' following the incident

A charge of 21.8million relating to the accident was recognised in its first half, contributing to Capita swinging to a 67.9million pre-tax loss for the six months to the end of June, from 100,000 profit a year earlier.

The loss was also driven by business exits and a goodwill impairment, the group said. Revenues slipped 3 per cent to 1.48billion.

Capita shares fell 12 per cent to 23.60p in morning trading on Friday. They have lost around 22 per cent of their value over the last 12 months.

The company confirmed that some data was 'exfiltrated' following the cyber incident, but from less than 0.1 per cent of its servers, adding that its probe was close to completion.

'There was minimal operational impact to the majority of our clients and their customers during the incident,' it told shareholders.

The business also said it was making continued progress on its lengthy turnaround plan and left its expectations for the full-year unchanged.

It signed a new contract with the Student Loans Company in July worth 250million and was the preferred bidder for a 565million contract with the Department for Work and Pensions, which it expects to sign in the second half.

The update comes days after chief executive Jon Lewis said he will retire next year.

On Friday, the outgoing boss said: 'I am pleased with the good progress we continued to make at Capita during the first half of the year as we accelerate our financial performance.

'Our strategy, focused on two core, growing markets, is working.

'We have delivered increased adjusted revenue growth for the fourth successive reporting period, improving profitability, winning an increasing amount of work with new clients, and remain on track to deliver on our full-year expectations.

'Our strong client relationships, long-term contracts, increasingly competitive and digitised solutions, engaged colleagues and reputation for delivery mean we have a resilient business, well positioned for further growth.'
Liontrust has prolonged the deadline for its proposed takeover of Gam for the third time, a day after the Swiss fund manager urged investors to back the bid.

Having been due to conclude today, the main offer period is now set to close at 4pm on 23 August, almost a month after the original deadline of 25 July and following two previous extensions.

London-listed Liontrust has conditionally agreed to buy GAM in a 96million deal that would create a business holding 53billion of assets under management, and widen its fund range and asset class offering.

Proposed deal: London-listed Liontrust has conditionally agreed to buy GAM for 96million

More than 80 per cent of the company's shareholders approved the prospective transaction at a general meeting four weeks ago.

On Thursday, GAM called on its shareholders to vote for the acquisition at the same time that the firm revealed half-year underlying pre-tax losses accelerated to 22.5 million Swiss francs.

Chairman David Jacobs said the results 'demonstrate the challenges which GAM faces, which are among the reasons why the board continues to recommend the Liontrust offer'.

But the takeover is being held up by several GAM investors, including Geneva-based financial adviser Bruellan and investment vehicle NewGAMe, which is backed by French telecoms tycoon Xavier Niel.

They claim the deal is lopsided, 'undervalues' GAM, and would not bring stability given Liontrust's share price performance over the past couple of years.

Liontrust Asset Management shares have slumped by around two-thirds during that time as investors pull cash out of riskier funds.

They were 1.3 per cent, or 8p, down at 619p on early Friday afternoon.

NewGAMe and Bruellan, who collectively own a 9.6 per cent stake in GAM, have put forward an alternative partial offer to buy 28 million GAM shares for 13.7million.

They released a '100-day plan for the GAM turnaround' yesterday, which includes a capital injection of 25 million Swiss francs, appointing a new board and bringing the cost structure in line with assets under management.

John Ions, the chief executive of Liontrust, has responded with a letter to NJJ, the ultimate controller of NewGAMe via Rock Investments, describing the blueprint as 'anything but a detailed proposition'.

He claimed that GAM needs a minimum investment of 200 million Swiss francs in order to rebound to profitability and said Liontrust had been unable to have a 'direct conversation' with NewGAMe's associates.

Ions went on to say that the offer period extension would give GAM shareholders the opportunity to 'make a straight choice' on the two proposals.
Apple's stay as the world's only $3 trillion (2.3 trillion) was short-lived after it failed to woo Wall Street with its quarterly results.

Shares dropped nearly 4 per cent yesterday in New York, giving it a market value of $2.89 trillion.

In June, Apple became the first ever company to hit the $3trillion landmark, amid a broad tech rally driven by speculative artificial intelligence enthusiasm.

Decline: IPhones, Macbooks, computers and iPads were a particular area of weakness for the company

The iPhone maker reported a 1 per cent decrease in total revenue to 63.4billion for the quarter ending in June, marking the third consecutive year-on-year decline.

IPhones, Macbooks, computers and iPads were a particular area of weakness for the company, which posted its results late on Thursday.

Apple predicted a similarly flat performance in the coming quarter, spooking investors despite rising profits.

Ben Barringer, equity research analyst at investment management firm Quilter Cheviot, said: 'Apple is guiding to a similar decline in growth for the next quarter. Other tech giants have navigated the uncertain environment much more efficiently and as such for investors we prefer them over Apple.'

Rival Amazon saw shares surge close to 10 per cent yesterday after its cloud business posted a better-than-expected performance in the second quarter.

The online retail giant said overall sales hit 105billion, up 11 per cent, and told Wall Street it expected its near-term revenues and profits to smash expectations. The Seattle-based firm has been on a mission to cut costs this year, slashing 27,000 roles in 2023 alone.

'The second quarter was a game-changing quarter for Amazon,' said Michael Morton, analyst at research firm SVB MoffettNathanson.
Belden Inc. (NYSE:BDC  Get Free Report) has earned a consensus recommendation of Moderate Buy from the five brokerages that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $101.80.

A number of research firms recently commented on BDC. StockNews.com raised shares of Belden from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research report on Monday, July 24th. Truist Financial lifted their price target on shares of Belden from $107.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Friday, July 14th.

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Belden Trading Down 5.6 %

NYSE BDC opened at $88.79 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.78 billion, a PE ratio of 13.85 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a fifty day moving average of $94.24 and a 200 day moving average of $86.85. Belden has a 1 year low of $58.53 and a 1 year high of $99.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04, a current ratio of 2.70 and a quick ratio of 2.00.

Belden (NYSE:BDC  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 3rd. The industrial products company reported $1.68 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.55 by $0.13. Belden had a net margin of 10.69% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The firm had revenue of $641.79 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $624.46 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.31 EPS. The companys revenue for the quarter was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Belden will post 7.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Belden Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 6th. Investors of record on Thursday, June 15th were issued a $0.05 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, June 14th. This represents a $0.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.23%. Beldens dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 3.12%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Ashish Chand sold 26,371 shares of Belden stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $94.81, for a total value of $2,500,234.51. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 45,682 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $4,331,110.42. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, EVP Brian Lieser sold 829 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $94.34, for a total transaction of $78,207.86. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 17,363 shares of the companys stock, valued at $1,638,025.42. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ashish Chand sold 26,371 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $94.81, for a total transaction of $2,500,234.51. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 45,682 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,331,110.42. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 34,421 shares of company stock valued at $3,241,593 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 1.42% of the companys stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Belden

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Bank of Montreal Can boosted its position in shares of Belden by 8.2% in the first quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 15,131 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $867,000 after acquiring an additional 1,142 shares during the period. MetLife Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Belden by 40.1% during the first quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 52,012 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $2,881,000 after purchasing an additional 14,895 shares in the last quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in Belden in the 1st quarter worth approximately $961,000. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS lifted its position in Belden by 10.5% in the first quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 16,455 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $912,000 after purchasing an additional 1,569 shares during the last quarter. Finally, APG Asset Management N.V. bought a new position in shares of Belden during the first quarter valued at approximately $762,000.

About Belden

(Get Free Report

Belden Inc provides portfolio of signal transmission solutions in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific. It operates in two segments, Enterprise Solutions and Industrial Automation Solutions. The Enterprise Solutions segment offers copper cable and connectivity solutions, fiber cable and connectivity solutions, interconnect panels, racks and enclosures, and signal extension and matrix switching systems for use in applications, such as local area networks, data centers, access control, 5G, fiber, and home and building automation.

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Ossur hf. (OTCMKTS:OSSFF  Get Free Report) and Butterfly Network (NYSE:BFLY  Get Free Report) are both medical companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, earnings, risk, dividends, valuation and analyst recommendations.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

37.3% of Butterfly Network shares are held by institutional investors. 27.2% of Butterfly Network shares are held by 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.

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Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Ossur hf. and Butterfly Networks gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

Gross Revenue Price/Sales Ratio Net Income Earnings Per Share Price/Earnings Ratio Ossur hf. N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A Butterfly Network $73.39 million 6.78 -$168.72 million ($0.79) -3.09

Profitability

Ossur hf. has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Butterfly Network.

This table compares Ossur hf. and Butterfly Networks net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets Ossur hf. N/A N/A N/A Butterfly Network -215.28% -46.69% -36.29%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Ossur hf. and Butterfly Network, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score Ossur hf. 0 0 1 0 3.00 Butterfly Network 0 1 2 0 2.67

Butterfly Network has a consensus price target of $5.42, indicating a potential upside of 121.99%. Given Butterfly Networks higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Butterfly Network is more favorable than Ossur hf..

Summary

Butterfly Network beats Ossur hf. on 5 of the 9 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Ossur hf.

(Get Free Report)

Ossur hf., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the design, development, production, and sale of non-invasive orthopedic products in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Americas, and the Asia-Pacific. The company operates through two segments: Prosthetics and Bracing & Supports. The Prosthetics segment offers mechanical products, such as lower limb prosthetics and finger prostheses; and bionic products microprocessor-controlled feet, knees, hands, liners, fingers, and other components integrated with sensors, computing power, internal intelligence, and actuators for amputees. The Bracing & Supports segment provides bracing and supports products, such as supporting devices for spinal, knee, hip, foot, ankle, and hands that are primarily used to support joints and other body parts for therapeutic and preventative purposes; and injury solutions to enhance the healing process of fractures and ligament injuries. It serves specialized healthcare providers, including orthopedic and prosthetic clinics, hospitals, and surgery centers. The company sells its products through its direct sales networks and distributors. Ossur hf. was incorporated in 1971 and is headquartered in Reykjavik, Iceland. Ossur hf. is a subsidiary of William Demant Invest A/S.

About Butterfly Network

(Get Free Report)

Butterfly Network, Inc. develops, manufactures, and commercializes ultrasound imaging solutions in the United States and internationally. It offers Butterfly iQ, a handheld and single-probe whole body ultrasound system; Butterfly iQ+, a point-of-care ultrasound imaging device that connects with a smartphone, tablet, and hospital computer system; and Butterfly Blueprint, a system-wide ultrasound platform with Compass software that integrates into a healthcare system's clinical and administrative infrastructure. The company also provides Butterfly system, which includes probes, and related accessories and software subscriptions to healthcare systems, physicians, and healthcare providers through a direct sales force, distributors, and eCommerce channel. In addition, it offers cloud-based software solutions to healthcare systems, teleguidance, in-app educational tutorials, and formal education programs through its Butterfly Academy software, as well as clinical support and services. Butterfly Network, Inc. was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts.

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Pinnacle Associates Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of The Travelers Companies, Inc. (NYSE:TRV  Free Report) by 6.7% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 13,871 shares of the insurance providers stock after purchasing an additional 868 shares during the period. Pinnacle Associates Ltd.s holdings in Travelers Companies were worth $2,378,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FWL Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Travelers Companies during the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. US Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Travelers Companies in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $29,000. FNY Investment Advisers LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Travelers Companies in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC raised its position in shares of Travelers Companies by 203.3% in the 4th quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 364 shares of the insurance providers stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 244 shares during the period. Finally, Glass Jacobson Investment Advisors llc acquired a new stake in shares of Travelers Companies in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $38,000. 81.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on TRV. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Travelers Companies from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Monday, June 19th. Morgan Stanley restated an equal weight rating and set a $185.00 target price on shares of Travelers Companies in a report on Friday, July 21st. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Travelers Companies from $179.00 to $185.00 in a report on Thursday, April 20th. Roth Capital restated a buy rating on shares of Travelers Companies in a report on Friday, April 21st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Travelers Companies from $183.00 to $185.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 20th. Eight 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 companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Travelers Companies presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $196.08.

Travelers Companies Stock Down 1.0 %

TRV stock opened at $169.40 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $38.78 billion, a PE ratio of 18.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 0.59. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $172.79 and a 200 day simple moving average of $177.19. The Travelers Companies, Inc. has a 52 week low of $149.65 and a 52 week high of $194.51. The company has a quick ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 0.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37.

Travelers Companies (NYSE:TRV  Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 20th. The insurance provider reported $0.06 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $2.05 by ($1.99). The company had revenue of $10.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.97 billion. Travelers Companies had a net margin of 5.77% and a return on equity of 10.75%. The firms revenue for the quarter was up 10.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.57 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that The Travelers Companies, Inc. will post 12.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Travelers Companies Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 8th will be given a $1.00 dividend. This represents a $4.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.36%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 7th. Travelers Companiess dividend payout ratio is presently 42.60%.

Travelers Companies announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback program on Wednesday, April 19th that permits the company to buyback $5.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the insurance provider to repurchase up to 12.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the companys management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Travelers Companies

In other Travelers Companies news, EVP Michael Frederick Klein sold 10,246 shares of Travelers Companies stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $182.85, for a total value of $1,873,481.10. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 14,080 shares in the company, valued at $2,574,528. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 1.29% of the companys stock.

Travelers Companies Company Profile

(Free Report)

The Travelers Companies, Inc, through its subsidiaries, provides a range of commercial and personal property, and casualty insurance products and services to businesses, government units, associations, and individuals in the United States and internationally. It operates through three segments: Business Insurance, Bond & Specialty Insurance, and Personal Insurance.

Further Reading

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Informatiile publicate de evz.ro pot fi preluate de alte publicatii online doar in limita a 500 de caractere si cu citarea sursei cu link activ. Orice abatere de la aceasta regula constituie o incalcare a Legii 8/1996 privind dreptul de autor.
Three Indiana women were recognized by the Purdue Women in Agriculture Team for their dedication and leadership during a ceremony at the Indiana State Fair on Aug. 3.

Each year, Purdue Extension has the honor of awarding three Indiana women who contribute to the success of agriculture in Indiana. It is a pleasure to highlight each of these women and their many accomplishments, said Angie Abbott, interim director of Purdue Extension and associate dean in the College of Agriculture.

Purdue University rising senior, Kassidy Oliger, received the Emerging Women in Agriculture Leadership award, which recognizes the accomplishments of a high school or undergraduate student who has made a positive impact on agriculture. Oliger is studying agribusiness management and is involved in multiple student organizations including Purdue Dairy Club, Sigma Alpha Professional Agriculture Sorority and Purdue Agricultural Council. She serves as one of 16 Ag Econ Envoys who represent the department to prospective students and parents, alumni and industry representatives.

Oliger has further developed her connections and skills in agriculture through her internships with Farm Credit Mid-America, Merck Animal Health in Western Pennsylvania and Purdue Extension  Wayne County. She was a 10-year 4-H member and a six-year FFA member, earning her Hoosier Degree in 2019. Oliger served as the National Ambassador for the National Brown Swiss Youth Association and Indiana Ambassador for the American Dairy Association in 2020-2021.

The Purdue Women in Agriculture Leadership Award recognizes a woman in an agribusiness or policymaking position who has actively influenced Indiana agriculture. Katrina Hall, Indiana Farm Bureau Senior Director of Policy Strategy and Advocacy, was honored with the 2023 award. Halls efforts have extensively shaped Indiana agricultural policy including being a driving force behind large and small tax changes to support Indiana farms. She spearheaded the effort to create the Indiana Broadband Strategic Partnership to help bring broadband to underserved communities and continues to help farmers and landowners gain control in local decision-making to reduce extraterritorial jurisdiction and involuntary annexation.

Hall has also helped Indiana local governments understand local tax policy changes and school referendums. She is a reliable source for partners in the agriculture industry because of her expertise in state tax and budget issues. Prior to joining Indiana Farm Bureau, Hall worked at the Indiana State Board of Tax Commissions as the director of the budget division.

Bethany Gremel, Becks Hybrids director of culture and brand experience and a member of Becks leadership team, is the 2023 Women in Agriculture Achievement Award winner. This award recognizes women who are directly involved in a home farm operation. Gremel remains active in her parents farming operation in Howard County by assisting with strategy, operations and finances. She is the seventh generation to be involved in farming on the Kingseed side of her family and the third generation on the Cates side. Gremel recounts learning to shuck sweet corn and riding tractors from a young age, with her farm responsibilities only growing from there.

Off the farm, Gremel uses her passion for helping others in the agriculture industry through her efforts at Becks Hybrids. She created an industry-leading onboarding program for employees, a talent management program and helped create a leading education and training department for Becks. Gremel also has oversight of not only the human resources and education departments, but also the commitment rewards department, safety department, agronomy/research/practical farm research department, and the travel & events department. Gremel is a graduate of the 2012-2014 Indiana Agricultural Leadership Program cohort and a member of the Agribusiness Council of Indiana.

The Purdue Women in Agriculture awards committee was co-chaired by Beth Vansickle, an Extension educator in Madison County, and Bec Wicker of Rushville, Ind. The Purdue Extension Women in Agriculture team provides educational opportunities and resources for women in the agriculture industry and coordinates the Ag Women Engage Conference.
In this article, we will list 15 states that produce the most corn in the US. If you want to skip our detailed analysis of the corn sector in the US, go directly to the 5 States That Produce the Most Corn.

The United States produces and consumes the most corn. It is the lifeblood of the US Agricultural sector, with over 95% share in the feed grain industry. So, this article will list 15 states that produce the most corn annually according to the latest figures.

Corn is the edible grain of the grass family. About 1000 years ago, natives in the North American region started the domestication of corn. It has now become one of the most grown and distributed crops in the world, with the United States taking the lead in its production. China, Brazil, Argentina, and Ukraine are also major producers of corn after the United States.

Corn is often regarded as yellow gold because of its versatility and high yields. It is used as industry raw materials, biofuel, and human food. Companies such as Archer Daniels Midland Co (NYSE:ADM), which supply corn syrup are huge in the United States. The primary use of corn in the US, however, is to make ethanol.

America's leadership position in corn production is credited to the Hybrid Vigour method, discovered by Edward East and George Shull. This method combines inbreeding and cross-pollination to achieve consistent corn stocks with high yields. Today, at least 41 Sates produce and grow corn commercially.

Why is corn important for the United States?

Corn plays a vital role in maintaining the US balance of payment because it is an essential component of its trade. In addition, it is also important for many companies headquartered in the United States.

Many publicly traded food processing companies throughout the United States are major stakeholders in the corn industry. Kellog Co (NYSE:K), one of the leading marketers and manufacturers of cereals and snacks, has offices and retail locations all over the United States.

Story continues

The highest chunk of revenue Kellog Co (NYSE:K) generates, comes from cereals that use corn as their main ingredient. Kellogg Co (NYSE:K) reported an annual revenue of $15.315 billion in 2022.

Corn is the main ingredient in high fructose syrup. So, fructose corn syrup suppliers like Archer Daniels Midland Co (NYSE: ADM) are also stakeholders in the corn industry. Archer Daniels Midland Co (NYSE:ADM) reported revenue of $101.6 billion in 2022.

Corn also helps meet the energy requirements of the United States. It is used to produce corn ethanol, which accounts for 26% of Americas gasoline consumption. This also explains why the United States is the largest ethanol producer.

Challenges for Corn Production in the United States

Thanks to its high yields, the US is the leading producer of corn. However, this position of a market leader is under threat from Brazil and the challenges it currently faces in corn production.

While the United States produced more corn during the marketing period of 2022-2023 compared to the last, the growth rate has not been impressive. It produced less than expected corn because of dry weather conditions and limited rainfall. Some farmers also had to deal with nutrient-depleted soil which further decreased production.

Climate change and environmental factors are not the only challenges the US corn producers face. Logistical issues because of the pandemic also caused delays in the availability of seed, which led to decreased production.

The crop production summary of 2022 by the US Department of Agriculture shows that corn production in the United States is concentrated in the northern and midwestern states. Our analysis of the data shows that the top 4 corn-producing states account for more than half of United States corn production. Here are some of the key findings from the report:

Iowa is the leader in terms of total harvested area and yield. It is also the leader in terms of overall corn production, accounting for 18.06% of total volume.

Utah had the lowest yield per acre and produced the lowest volume of corn. It accounted for only 0.02% of the corn produced in the United States in 2022.

Arkansas comes last in the list of the top 15 states that produce the most corn. It contributed 0.88% of the total corn produced in the United States.

Our methodology

We used the latest report from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), which is regarded as the authority on agricultural statistics of the United States. We looked at the 2022 figures and calculated the percentage of corn stock each state contributes to the national cumulative to curate our list. For our analysis, we also looked at the yield and the total area harvested for corn stock.

Without further ado, let's look at the states that produce the most corn.

15 - Arkansas

Area harvested in 2022 - 6845,000 acres

Production in 2022 - 120,235,000 bushels

Yield per acre in 2022 - 184 bushels

Contribution in 2022 - 0.88%

As the second largest producer of Poultry in the United States, corn produced in Arkansas is mostly used domestically as poultry feed. Arkansas also exports some corn through the Mississippi River. Its corn acreage has increased and taken over cotton production substantially in the last decade.

14 - Texas

Area harvested in 2022 -11,080,000 acres

Production in 2022 - 152,950,000 bushels

Yield per acre in 2022 - 128 bushels

Contribution in 2022 - 1.11%

The northern high plains of Texas contribute to most of its corn acreage. It is worth noting that corn plantations in Texas can begin as early as January and as late as June. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, corn quality in Texas is declining.

13 - Kentucky

Area harvested in 2022 -5,809,000 acres

Production in 2022 - 210,600,000 bushels

Yield per acre in 2022 - 192 bushels

Contribution in 2022 - 1.53%

While every county in Kentucky grows corn, its western parts have the highest acreage. Corn is the leading crop in Kentucky, along with soya beans. It uses corn mainly for live feed and as a cash crop. A considerable portion of corn in Kentucky is used for fuel as well.

12 - Michigan

Area harvested in 2022 - 6,210,000 acres

Production in 2022 - 336,000,000 bushels

Yield per acre in 2022 - 174 bushels

Contribution in 2022 - 2.45%

Most of the corn grown in Michigan is exported out of state. A substantial portion is also used for the production of ethanol. The corn plantation season in Michigan takes place during May, with 45% of acreage planted by May 15th. This is an interesting contrast to Texas, where corn planting season lasts for six months.

11 - North Dakota

Area harvested in 2022 - 21,144,000 acres

Production in 2022 - 349,770,000 bushels

Yield per acre in 2022 - 105 bushels

Contribution in 2022 - 2.55%

North Dakotas corn is mainly produced for animal feed and ethanol production. It is the second most grown crop after soya beans. Most of the corn here is planted during May. North Dakota corn crops are always at risk of fall and frost damage, so early planting is recommended.

10 - Missouri

Area harvested in 2022 - 13,417,000 acres

Production in 2022 - 502,320,000 bushels

Yield per acre in 2022 - 159 bushels

Contribution in 2022 - 3.66%

Missouri is one of the top corn producing states. It is often grown with a two-year rotation with soya beans. The corn plantation season in Missouri starts in the last week of April and lasts till the first week of August. The majority of Missouri corn is utilized as livestock feed, while a significant portion is used for ethanol production.

9 - Kansas

Area harvested in 2022 - 21,906 acres

Production in 2022 - 510,600,000 bushels

Yield per acre in 2022 - 139 bushels

Contribution in 2022 - 3.72%

Kansas's agriculture sector is highly dependent on corn, as it contributes the most in terms of production and economic contribution. Corn plantations in Kansas start as early as late March and continue till mid-May.

8 - Wisconsin

Area harvested in 2022 - 7,555,000 acres

Production in 2022 - 545,400,000 bushels

Yield per acre in 2022 - 180 bushels

Contribution in 2022 - 3.97%

Most of the corn produced in Wisconsin is utilized for livestock feed. However, a substantial portion is also used for ethanol production, and a very small portion is exported. The majority of corn produced in Wisconsin is grown in its central, south-central, and eastern parts.

7 - Ohio

Area harvested in 2022 - 9,740,000 acres

Production in 2022 - 594,660,000 bushels

Yield per acre in 2022 - 193 bushels

Contribution in 2022 - 4.33%

Ohio produces field corn, which is primarily used for livestock feed and ethanol production. The plantation season in Ohio spans the months of April and May. Corn plantations in Ohio face the risk of frost damage but it remains one of the states that produce the most corn.

6 - South Dakota

Area harvested in 2022 - 15,993

Production in 2022 - 661,320,000 acres

Yield per acre in 2022 - 134 bushels

Contribution in 2022 - 4.82%

Corn is the most planted crop in South Dakota. Plantation season begins in May and lasts till July. While South Dakotas sweet corns are popular throughout the United States as a great snack, most of the corn produced here is utilized for ethanol.

Click to continue reading and see 5 States That Produce the Most Corn.

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Disclosure: none. 15 States That Produce the Most Corn is originally published on Insider Monkey.
[August 03, 2023] Block Announces Second Quarter 2023 Results Tweet

Block, Inc. (NYSE: SQ) has posted its results for the second quarter of 2023 on the Financials section of its Investor Relations website at investors.block.xyz and filed these results with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Block will host a conference call and earnings webcast at 2:00 p.m. Pacific time/5:00 p.m. Eastern time today to discuss these financial results. To register to participate in the conference call, please visit the Events & Presentations section of Block's Invetor Relations website at investors.block.xyz.



About Block Block, Inc. (NYSE: SQ) (formerly, Square, Inc.) is a global technology company with a focus on financial services. Made up of Square, Cash App, TIDAL, and TBD, we build tools to help more people access the economy. Square makes commerce and financial services easy and accessible for sellers with its integrated ecosystem of technology solutions. With Cash App, anyone can easily send, spend, or invest their money in stocks or bitcoin. Afterpay brings Square and Cash App together, connecting consumers and businesses. Artists use TIDAL to help them succeed as entrepreneurs and connect more deeply with fans. TBD is building an open source platform and developer infrastructure that enables everyone to access and participate in the global economy.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230803437241/en/

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[August 03, 2023]

BRANDSTARS "2023 Korea Luxury Brand " Announcement

SEOUL, South Korea, Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Brand Stars Selection Committee announced the final selection of "2023 Korea Luxury Brand".

We selected the most popular brand among Asian consumers first and announced it in Korea, China, and Asia at the same time.

The final industry brand selected was Car_'Genesis', Smartphone_Samsung Electronics 'Galaxy Fold', TV_LG Electronics OLED TV, Refrigerator_LG Electronics 'Dios', Shopping_'Shinsegae', Duty Free_' Shilla', Boiler_'Kyungdong Navien', Healthy Food_'Jeonggwanjang', Reay-to-eat food_'CJ Bibigo', Petfood_'Harimpetfood', K-pop idol_'Blackpink'







For K-Beauty Part, AmorePacific 'Sulhwasoo, Laneige', LG Household & Health Care ' whoo, sum37', Beauty Device_'Glampalm', Natural cosmetics_ 'Ballonblanc', Naturalistic cosmetics_ 'Accoje' , Natural Vegan cosmetics, 'One-day's you', Anti-aging_'K-Pop Cosmetics Miko' were selected.

In K-Fashion, Bag_'MCM', Women's Clothing_'Time', sunglasses_'Gentle Monster' were selected.







View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/brandstars-2023-korea-luxury-brand--announcement-301893262.html

SOURCE BrandStars
[August 03, 2023] Syracuse University's Forensic Science Institute Partners with Leda Health to Explore Feasibility of Early Evidence Sexual Assault Kits Tweet

According to recent data from the Department of Defense, there were over 7,000 reports of sexual assault against service members in 2022. That number could be even higher, but unfortunately, many instances of sexual assault in the armed forces go unreported. This aligns with national statistics stating that less than 30 percent of sexual assault survivors make it to the hospital for a forensic medical exam. Without DNA evidence from an examination, it becomes more challenging to bring someone to justice. In response, the Defense Department has declared that it's a top priority to prevent, respond to, and ensure accountability for sexual assault. As part of this effort, the Air Force Work Project (AFWERX), a Technology Directorate of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), has contracted with Leda Health, a company specializing in healthcare innovation, to explore the use case of early evidence - or self-collection - sexual assault kits. Leda's Early Evidence Kits are a resource that allows survivors of sexual assault to collect their own evidence privately following a rape or sexual assault. As a result of this collaboration, Leda has partnered with the Forensic and National Security Sciences Institute at Syracuse University, which is providing forensic expertise and subject matter insight as Leda looks to scale up the distribution of their test kits. Co-investigators from SU's Forensic Science Institute include Executive Director Kathleen Corrado and Research Associate Professor Michael Marciano. They bring to the project extensive experience and knowledge of sexual assault kit processing and are well-versed in the latest technologies being used in the field. Both Corrado and Marciano have also served on the National Institute of Science and Technology's Organization of Scietific Area Committees for Forensic Science (OSAC) Human Forensic Biology Subcommittee, which develops forensic science standards, including those related to the collection of biological evidence and forensic DNA analysis.



"Mike and I have contacts within the field, both on the scientific side and on the military side, that we're bringing into this project," says Corrado." It's great to be able to combine our experience in the sexual assault forensic evidence realm as well as in the national security realm in a way that contributes to the public good and honors the University's longstanding commitment to active members of the military and veterans." Marciano and Corrado are specifically assisting Leda with gap analysis assessment, examining evidence collection processes, the chain of custody, documentation, and legal issues that need to be considered when using early evidence kits. While currently wrapping up phase one of the project, which explores the feasibility of the self-collection test kits, Leda hopes to soon advance to phase two, which would involve a more in-depth exploration into the uses of the kits and their potential impact across different branches of the military.

"Sexual assault within the military is a growing issue, with reported assaults increasing year after year, yet the rates of prosecution have nearly halved, one of the reasons being a lack of sufficient evidence," says Madison Campbell, co-founder, and CEO of Leda. "Having our kits available to members of the military could provide survivors with different options. We're thrilled to partner with Syracuse University's Forensic Science Institute on this collaboration that will drive advancements in healthcare and forensic science." https://artsandsciences.syracuse.edu/news-all/news-2023/forensic-science-institute-partners-with-leda-health-to-explore-feasibility-of-early-evidence-sexual-assault-kits/ Leda Health is a company built in 2019 for survivors, by survivors. It seeks to revolutionize SA prevention, care, and reporting with modern technology to reduce the amount of violence and increase the number of survivors who seek care. To advance this mission, Leda partners with like-minded individuals and organizations to advocate for change on both institutional and governmental levels. For campus organizations, businesses, and governments interested in Leda's services, please contact the partnerships team at leda.co to learn more and bring Leda's resources to the greater community. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230803728590/en/

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[August 04, 2023] KILSA AND MOGOS INTRODUCE MOGOS SCM TO ENHANCE SOCIAL SERVICE SECTOR Tweet

SINGAPORE, Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- KILSA Global Pte Ltd, a leading cross-border business service provider, in partnership with its Korean partner, MOGOS Pte Ltd, announced the introduction of MOGOS SCM, a mobility solution for the social service sector at the NCSS Social Service Summit 2023, a two-day event at Raffles City Convention Centre organised by the National Council of Social Service. A revolutionary mobility solution tailored for Singapore's social service sector, MOGOS SCM is a subscription-based service that dramatically increases social workers' work efficiency and enhances planning and reporting. MOGOS SCM is positioned as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution which various NCSS agencies can connect securely with and access services seamlessly from. The solution allows these workers to not only prepare for their tasks on hand but also update their respective agencies about their activities and status on the fly. Leveraging mobile technology, MOGOS SCM automates the process and enables dynamic, real-time updates. Additionally, the incorporation of geospatial technology adds a dimension of mobility, enabling the sharing of users' and members' locations. Meanwhile, the use of intuitive, colour-coded visualisation allows important information to be displayed in a meaningful, easy-to-understand manner. Mr Kim Dong-ho, CEO of MOGOS, said during the sideline of NCSS Social Service Summit 2023, "In the past, geospatial technology was used for the monitoring, tracking and analysis of machine-based activities, like road traffic and vehicle fleets. We saw an opportunity for the underserved social service sector to leverage this technology, while ensuring security for members' confidential data. Geospatial technology can be a useful long-term solution to enable important connections between agencies and community members." Apart from enhancing practice for social service workers in the community, the integrated nature of MOGOS SCM functions also allows for dynamic, real-time analysis of data for team leaders and management. In a departure from past practice, users do not have to manually analyse siloed information. MOGOS SCM takes real-time input from multiple sources, analyses it and presents it in a meaningful way so that right decisions can be made. This new way of collecting, accessing and analysing information with the use of modern technology assists social service agencies in improving their efficiencies and accuracy, leading to higher productivity. More importantly, it also raises the standards of the social service sector. This is in line wit NCSS' goals of digitalising and improving the sector, with the aim of reaching out to even more community members and benefiting them better.



Viriya Community Services, a social service agency under NCSS that provides services to communities in HDB heartlands, is the pioneering agency partner involved in the design, trial and implementation of MOGOS SCM. The joint collaboration resulted in a mobile app, Viriya ICM (Interactive Community Map), the first live application in Singapore and the physical manifestation of the wider platform, MOGOS SCM. Since trials began for the integrated solution, its users have seen their productivity increase, resulting in better engagement with the beneficiaries. Viriya ICM is part of a broader strategy by KILSA Global and MOGOS to leverage geospatial technology for civil and community services in Singapore and the region. The companies are looking to deploy similar technology for services like healthcare, policing and civil defence. Alluding to the future possibilities, Mr Kim said, "There is enormous potential for geospatial technology to play an important role in the provision of civil services. Enhancing community support with technology allows society to thrive. Technology does not replace human beings; it enhances their well-being". Mobile and geospatial technologies have the potential to disrupt the way things are currently done. Mr Kim added, "With MOGOS SCM, as we provide help, we also analyse and turn daily social activities into meaningful data to benefit the ecosystem. Social care transforms into human care. Currently, we manage cases block by block. Going forward, we want to manage estate by estate. Eventually, we want to expand that into the entire nation."

Agreeing, Mr Philip Park, Managing Director of KILSA Global, added, "We wish to support community services based on real-time information. In this way, we become more proactive and allocate resources better, resulting in the optimisation of processes. Building a better society is contingent upon many factors. Policy-making and execution of these policies are two important components in effective governance. To this end, technology can play a very useful role and we are proud to partner MOGOS in the design and implementation of this solution." Apart from the good working relationship between KILSA Global and MOGOS, the companies also credit MOGOS SCM's success to the participation of Viriya Community Services. While KILSA Global is the market entry service provider and MOGOS provides the technology, Viriya Community Services is the anchor client. The tripartite working relationship resulted in a tight, consultative and collaborative approach. The synergy that developed went on to allow the group to go from issue identification, to detailed planning and design, to in-depth trials and finally project implementation. MOGOS SCM is MOGOS' first foray into the social service space. Armed with its strong background in mobility technology services, MOGOS is well positioned to bring about transformative changes to this sector. As Mr Kim put it, "MOGOS is not just an application developer. Yes, MOGOS possesses many IP and is capable of developing solutions for the social service sector that are scalable, practical, workable and fully integrated with their workflows. However, we also want to use our technology know-how to benefit the greater society. At the end of the day, entrepreneurship is different from business. Business is a short-term, profit-centred activity with a focus on shareholder ROI. Entrepreneurship, on the other hand, is about building something new to benefit society. Entrepreneurs have the moral duty to do things with a heart to create something that is long-term and sustainable." About KILSA Global KILSA Global is a cross-border market entry execution and management specialist that helps innovative business accelerate business expansions in Southeast Asia. It envisions to be the market entry platform of choice of companies for their business transformation, globalisation, acceleration and funding needs. KILSA Global strives to achieve the best for its clients by being a collaborative and inclusive strategic platform that adds value to existing business ecosystems in Asia. About MOGOS MOGOS is the leading mobility solutions company in Singapore and a subsidiary of FATOS in Korea. Backed by years of experience in the telecommunications, navigation and mobility space, the company specialises in real-time monitoring and analysis based on flexible 3D maps. MOGOS possesses in excess of 20 years of research and development experience and more than 30 technologies across different fields. Since its incorporation in Singapore in 2019, MOGOS has successfully completed multiple projects across the region in collaboration with over 50 partners. Media Contact Eunbee Jeong, eunbee@kilsaglobal.com View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/kilsa-and-mogos-introduce-mogos-scm-to-enhance-social-service-sector-301893390.html SOURCE KILSA Global Pte. Ltd.

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[August 04, 2023] Generative Red Team Challenge Opens Next Friday at DEF CON 31 Tweet

With the largest first-ever public Generative Red Team (GRT) Challenge (www.airedteam.org) just one week away, SeedAI, AI Village, and Humane Intelligence are making final preparations to host the event at AI Village at DEF CON 31. The goal of the GRT Challenge is to advance AI and better understand the risks and limitations of this technology at scale, because open and extensive evaluation and testing bring us closer to inclusive development. At the GRT Challenge, organizers expect more than 3,000 people from all walks of life - including 120 community colleges students, the varied universe of DEF CON 31 attendees, and others from organizations traditionally left out of the early stages of technological change - to come together to test generative LLMs (large language models) for bias, potential harms, and security vulnerabilities with the aim of progressing AI innovation forward. Since this is the first instance of a live hacking event of a generative AI system at scale, organizers and participants will be learning together. As the purpose of the event is to break/manipulate these AI systems, organizers and participating companies fully expect that will happen. The GRT Challenge was designed around the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy's (OSTP) Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights and reinforces its five principles to protect the American public in the age of artificial intelligence. The GRT Challenge brings an ethical perspective to traditional red teaming by addressing societal impact - including categories to gather vulnerabilities in information integrity, multilingual harms, societal bias, and more. Planning around the GRT Challenge prioritized and engaged diverse and underserved community partners who will work with the hacker community in order to foster the exchange of ideas and information while simultaneously addressing risks and opportunities. The hacker community is exposed to different ideas and community partners gain new skills that position them for the future. The Wilson Center Science and Technology Innovation Program (STIP) joins host organizations as a policy partner. Nonprofit community partners include Houston Community College; Black Tech Street from Tulsa, OK; Internet Education Foundation's Congressional App Challenge; and the AI Vulnerability Database. The Challenge is also supported by the National Science Foundation's Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Directorate, and the Congressional AI Caucus. In the future, this exercise will be adapted into educational programming for the Congressional AI Caucus and other officials - as well as for the national networks of our community partners. Competition Format & Prizes

The GRT Challenge competition will take place between 10 am and 5 pm PT on Friday, August 11, between 9 am and 5 pm PT on Saturday, August 12, and from 9 am to 12 noon PT on Sunday, August 13. The GRT Challenge takes place in the AI Village at DEF CON 31 at Caesar's Forum in Las Vegas, Nev. GRT Challenge participants will test large language models (LLM) through challenges designed by the hosts and their community partners. Models built by Anthropic, Cohere, Google, Hugging Face, Meta, NVIDIA, OpenAI, and Stability, with participation from Microsoft, with the testing evaluation platform built by Scale AI. The challenges were designed by a committee with representatives from all stakeholders. There will be 20 sessions of approximately 150 participants per session, with each session lastng 50 minutes, during which participants will have timed access to multiple LLMs from eight leading vendors. Participants will be competing on secured Google Chromebooks.



The competition will feature a capture-the-flag (CTF) style point system to promote testing a wide range of harms. Participants will be presented with a "Jeopardy"-style board to select challenges at varying levels of difficulty and point value, with the ability to do as many challenges as possible in the time limit and earn as many points as possible. There will be some open-ended challenges that allow exploration, and each participant will have access to a locally-hosted copy of Wikipedia for information and verification. There is no open internet access on the Challenge Chromebooks.

Participants can return to do the exercise again following the end of the 50-minute session, with no limits on the number of times they can participate. Multiple sessions from a single participant will not be tracked or linked. The four participants with the highest points at the end of the Challenge will receive one of four NVIDIA RTX A6000 GPUs. Data

Every user input and the generated response from the models will be collected, along with the challenge the participant was attempting. As part of the grading process, challenges participants choose to submit for grading will be marked. Every time the user submits a finding with reasoning the submission is graded based on the prompt and generation with the user reasoning as a guide. The session data from the users will be collected for the post event research into the safety and security of the technologies behind these impressive LLMs. There is also an optional opt-in demographic survey at the end of the participants' competition time. This data will be unverified but researchers may use it at their own risk. Demographic data will include: gender, race, experience level, level of education. The dataset will be scrubbed of obvious identifiers to the model name/owner. Findings & Research

Organizers plan to publish the findings, including process and learnings, to help other organizations conduct similar exercises. The ability to replicate this exercise and put AI testing into the hands of thousands is foundational to its success. Organizers announced today they will also release the scrubbed data in mid- to late-September 2023 to researchers who agree to the following: An embargo of their research paper until February 10, 2024

An agreement that the stakeholders get to review the paper no later than January 10, 2024

An agreement that the researchers will delete all copies of the data set by February 15, 2024 A full dataset will be released publicly one year after the conclusion of the GRT Challenge in August 2024. Researchers interested in learning more about the GRT Challenge Call for Research Proposals can visit www.airedteam.org/news/call-for-research-proposals-generative-red-team-challenge. To learn more about the GRT Challenge, visit www.airedteam.org About SeedAI

Founded in 2021, SeedAI is a nonprofit advocacy organization working toward responsible development of and increased access to AI. SeedAI coordinates and collaborates with public and private stakeholders, conducts research, and works to facilitate AI resources designed to help communities create transparent, trustworthy, and transformative technology. Without the involvement of a diverse, large community to test and evaluate the technology, AI will simply leave large portions of society behind. To learn more, visit www.seedai.org. AI Village

The AI Village is a community of hackers and data scientists working to educate the world on the use and abuse of artificial intelligence in security and privacy. We aim to bring more diverse viewpoints to this field and grow the community of hackers, engineers, researchers, and policy makers working on making the AI we use and create safer. We believe that there needs to be more people with a hacker mindset assessing and analyzing machine learning systems. We have a presence at DEF CON, the world's longest running and largest hacking conference. To learn more, visit https://aivillage.org/. Humane Intelligence

Founded and led by industry veterans and optimists, Dr. Rumman Chowdhury and Jutta Williams, Humane Intelligence provides staff augmentation services for AI companies seeking product readiness review at-scale. We focus on safety, ethics, and subject specific expertise (eg medical). We are suited for any company creating consumer-facing AI products, but in particular generative AI products. To learn more, visit https://www.humane-intelligence.org/. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230803759072/en/

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[August 04, 2023] Thomas Scientific Expands Distribution and Sales Capabilities with the Acquisition of Day Associates, Inc. Tweet

120+ year industry veteran expands presence in New England area, broadens cleanroom, safety, and industrial product portfolio SWEDESBORO, N.J., Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- North America's largest pure-play distributor of scientific and controlled environment products, Thomas Scientific, has completed the acquisition of Massachusetts-based cleanroom, safety, and industrial products provider Day Associates, Inc. Finalized August 2, 2023, the transaction immediately expands Thomas Scientific's national footprint, while enhancing its ability to provide products and services to companies in advanced technology and industrial segments with controlled and industrial environments.

Thomas Scientific has made six previous acquisitions since late 2017, adding eight inventory stocking locations, numerous new product lines, and teams of subject matter experts. The experience and learnings the team has gained from these very strategic acquisitions have not only substantially improved the overall capabilities to serve our customers, but to continue to add talented individuals that align with Thomas Scientific's strong culture and core values. Thomas Scientific's CEO, Stan Haas, stated, "We at Thomas Scientific are very proud to partner with an industry veteran in Billy Day and his entire team. Billy has built a business over the past 45 years founded on providing personalized service and many great product brands to meet the stringent needs of their customers. By Day Associates joining the Thomas Scientific family of companies, the customers will have access to an even broader portfolio of products and a national network of distribution centers and inventory to meet their needs now and into the future." The Day Associates, Inc team has been led by Billy Day, who founded Day Associates in February 1977 in Dracut, MA. Day Associates continues to grow through the hard work of a dedicated team of ten employees, most of whom have been with the company for many years. Billy Day, founder and owner of Day Associates stated, "We at Day Associates look forward to joining the ThomasScientific team. Together, our combined resources and energies will create a stronger full-service cleanroom supply chain that will be unmatched in service, selection and quality. We are grateful to our customers. Thank you for your business. We look forward to your continued support. During this transition and into the future, the Day Associates employees you have come to know will continue to provide you with the same great service that you have come to expect."



The primary product categories offered by Day Associates, Inc include gloves, apparel, wipers, tacky mats, masks & veils, cleanroom bags & paper, and safety products. Day has provided cleanroom, safety, and industrial products to support diverse customer segments that produce products within critical environments. Thomas Scientific has made five previous acquisitions since late 2017, adding eight inventory stocking locations, numerous new product lines, and teams of subject matter experts. The experience and learnings the team has gained from these very strategic acquisitions have not only substantially improved the overall capabilities to serve our customers, but to continue to add talented individuals that align with Thomas Scientific's strong culture and core values.

"I'm thrilled to welcome Day Associate's valued customers, suppliers, and experienced associates to the Thomas Scientific Controlled Environments (CE) team! This acquisition further enhances our capability to serve our CE customers in the Northeast - New England region and reinforces our commitment to delivering personalized local  high-touch service and supply solutions to our CE customers. Together, we are well-positioned to meet the evolving needs of the advanced technology market" - Kareem Dossa, SVP, Controlled Environments at Thomas Scientific. For the time being, Day Associates, Inc. will continue to operate independently under the Thomas Scientific umbrella. Learn more about their solutions and culture at daysupply.com (cleanroom) https://www.daysupply.com/. Thomas Scientific online at ThomasSci.com. https://www.thomassci.com/ About Thomas Scientific

Founded in 1900, Thomas Scientific provides a comprehensive offering of suppliers, equipment, and solutions to the scientific community  supporting all cleanroom, laboratory research, biopharmaceutical, medical device, clinical diagnostics, and other related end markets. With a national network of 9 distribution and service centers, supported by a highly technical commercial, customer service, and strategic sourcing organization, Thomas Scientific is an important partner to the scientific community. About (Day Associates, Inc.)

Since 1978, Day Associates, Inc. has prided itself on providing valued customers with the products that meet their requirements at the best possible prices. Their commitment continues to provide exceptional customer service. Their expertise and trained specialists in the cleanroom product industry is ready to meet and exceed all expectations. Media Contact

Diane Skala, Vice President, Corporate and Supplier Marketing Services

856.832.3296

362539@email4pr.com View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/thomas-scientific-expands-distribution-and-sales-capabilities-with-the-acquisition-of-day-associates-inc-301892907.html SOURCE Thomas Scientific, LLC

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[August 04, 2023] Insigneo Opens New Coral Gables Office to Expand its Presence in South Florida Tweet

Insigneo, a leading financial services firm, is delighted to announce the opening of its new office in Coral Gables, reaffirming its commitment to serving the needs of its growing community of Investment Professionals in South Florida. The inauguration of the Coral Gables office marks another milestone for Insigneo as it continues to expand. Located in the heart of Coral Gables, The Plaza is a brand-new development, that has already attracted several new businesses and restaurants and established itself as a landmark location within the city. The new Insigneo office will provide a state-of-the-art facility for our growing network of Investment Professionals. The new office will accommodate over 25 Investment Professionals as well as Insigneo staff, fostering service, collaboration, knowledge sharing, and client engagement. Javier Rivero, President & COO of Insigneo, expressed his enthusiasm about the company's latest milestone, stating, "We are thrilled to expand our footprint in South Florida. The pening of the Coral Gables office is a testament to Insigneo's commitment to providing our valued Financial Advisors with the resources and support they need to thrive in today's dynamic financial landscape."



As part of its mission, Insigneo will continue to foster relationships within the community and support initiatives that promote economic prosperity. The Mayor of the City of Coral Gables, Vince C. Lago stated, "We welcome Insigneo's new office to our city with open arms. This expansion not only reflects the company's success but also highlights Coral Gables as an attractive destination for leading financial institutions. We look forward to the positive contributions Insigneo will make to our community." **About Insigneo:**

Insigneo is a leading international wealth management firm providing services and technologies that empower investment professionals to successfully serve their clients globally. Insigneo leverages its customized solutions, client-first service, and custodial relationship with BNY Mellon's Pershing to provide a fully integrated, best-in-class independent wealth management platform. With over $21B in supported customer assets, Insigneo empowers more than 440 investment professionals serving over 30,000 clients. For more information, visit www.insigneo.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230804628499/en/

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[August 04, 2023] AM Best Affirms Credit Ratings of Dunav-Re a.d.o. Tweet

AM Best has affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of B+ (Good) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of "bbb-" (Good) of Dunav-Re a.d.o. (Dunav-Re) (Serbia). The outlook of these Credit Ratings (ratings) is positive. The ratings reflect Dunav-Re's balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as strong, as well as its adequate operating performance, limited business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management. In addition, the ratings reflect a neutral impact from Dunav Re's ownership by Dunav osiguranje a.d.o. (Dunav Insurance). Dunav-Re's risk-adjusted capitalisation remains at the strongest level, as measured by Best's Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR). AM Best expects future business growth to be supported by internal capital generation and financial support from the company's parent. Dunav-Re is somewhat dependent on retrocession to manage domestically sourced business; however, the credit risk associated with this is mitigated partially by the excellent credit quality of the company's retrocession panel. Offsetting factors in the balance sheet strength assessment include the company's high exposure to Serbia's financial system and its small capital base. Dunav-Re has a track record of favourable underwriting performance, with a five-year (2018-2022) weighted average combined ratio of 80.8%. However, the company's business written outside of Serbia has grown rapidly in recent years. Although initial indications suggest that this new business is performing well, the sustainability of its performance will not be clear for some time. In addition, Dunav-Re's technical results remain susceptible to potential volatility due to its exposure to catastrophe events. Overall profitability is supported by positive investment results. Thepositive outlooks reflect AM Best's expectation that the company will continue to demonstrate a trend of favourable underwriting and operating performance over the medium term.



Dunav-Re is a multiline reinsurer operating from within Serbia. It has a dominant position in its local market, where it generates the majority of its business, with Dunav Insurance being its largest cedant. The company is active outside of its domestic market and expects internationally sourced business to be the primary driver of premium growth in the medium term. This press release relates to Credit Ratings that have been published on AM Best's website. For all rating information relating to the release and pertinent disclosures, including details of the office responsible for issuing each of the individual ratings referenced in this release, please see AM Best's Recent Rating Activity web page. For additional information regarding the use and limitations of Credit Rating opinions, please view Guide to Best's Credit Ratings. For information on the proper use of Best's Credit Ratings, Best's Performance Assessments, Best's Preliminary Credit Assessments and AM Best press releases, please view Guide to Proper Use of Best's Ratings & Assessments.

AM Best is a global credit rating agency, news publisher and data analytics provider 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/20230804305475/en/

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[August 04, 2023] UBS declares coupon payments on 5 ETRACS Exchange Traded Notes Tweet

UBS Investment Bank today announced coupon payments for 5 ETRACS Exchange Traded Notes (the "ETNs"), all traded on the NYSE Arca.







NYSE Ticker ETN Name and

Prospectus

Supplement* Coupon

Valuation

Date Ex-Date Record

Date Payment

Date Coupon

Amount Payment

Schedule Current Yield

(annualized) HDLB** ETRACS Monthly Pay 2xLeveraged US High Dividend Low Volatility ETN Series B 7/31/2023 8/10/2023 8/11/2023 21-Aug-23 $0.1374 Monthly 12.50% SMHB** ETRACS Monthly Pay 2xLeveraged US Small Cap High Dividend ETN Series B 7/31/2023 8/10/2023 8/11/2023 21-Aug-23 $0.0445 Monthly 12.57% PFFL** ETRACS Monthly Pay 2x Leveraged Preferred Stock ETN 7/31/2023 8/10/2023 8/11/2023 21-Aug-23 $0.1049 Monthly 10.45% CEFD** ETRACS Monthly Pay 1.5X Leveraged Closed-End Fund Index ETN 7/31/2023 8/10/2023 8/11/2023 21-Aug-23 $0.2091 Monthly 13.22% MVRL** ETRACS Monthly Pay 1.5x Leveraged Mortgage REIT ETN 7/31/2023 8/10/2023 8/11/2023 21-Aug-23 $0.1412 Monthly 16.60%

* The table above provides a hyperlink to the relevant prospectus and supplements thereto for each of our ETRACS ETNs, which are identified by their names. For more information on each ETRACS ETN, see "List of ETNs". ** "Current Yield (annualized)" equals the current Coupon Amount and the two immediately preceding Coupon Amounts, multiplied by four (to annualize such coupons), divided by the closing Current Indicative Value of the ETN on its current Coupon Valuation Date rounded to two decimal places for ease of analysis. The Current Yield is not indicative of future coupon payments, if any, on the ETN. You are not guaranteed any coupon or distribution amount under the ETN. Note: HDLB, SMHB and PFFL pay a variable monthly coupon linked to 2 times the cash distributions, if any, on the respective underlying index constituents, less withholding taxes, if any. CEFD and MVRL pay a variable monthly coupon linked to 1.5 times the cash distributions, if any, on the respective underlying index constituents, less withholding taxes, if any. Variations in the amount of monthly distributions will lead to large variations in the Current Yield as calculated above. As such, the Current Yield is not indicative of future coupon payments, if any, on these ETNs. About ETRACS ETRACS ETNs are senior unsecured notes issued by UBS AG, are traded on NYSE Arca, and can be bought and sold through a broker or financial advisor. An investment in ETRACS ETNs is subject to a number of risks, including the risk of loss of some or all of the investor's principal, and is subject to the creditworthiness of UBS AG. Investors are not guaranteed any coupon or distribution amount under the ETNs. We urge you to read the more detailed explanation of risks described under "Risk Factors" in the applicable prospectus supplement for the ETRACS ETN. UBS AG has filed a registration statement (including a prospectus and supplements thereto) with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, for the offerings of securities to which this communication relates. Before you invest, you should read the prospectus, along with the applicable prospectus supplement to understand fully the terms of the securities and other considerations that are important in making a decision about investing in the ETRACS. The applicable offering document for each ETRACS may be obtained by clicking on the name of each ETRACS identified above. You may also get these documents without cost by visiting EDGAR on the SEC website at www.sec.gov. The securities related to the offerings are not deposit liabilities and are not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other governmental agency of the United States, Switzerland or any other jurisdiction. About UBS UBS convenes the global ecosystem for investing, where people and ideas are connected and opportunities brought to life, and provides financial advice and solutions to wealthy, institutional and corporate clients worldwide, as well as to private clients in Switzerland. UBS offers investment solutions, products and impactful thought leadership, is the leading global wealth manager, provides large-scale and diversified asset management, focused investment banking capabilities, and personal and corporate banking services in Switzerland. The firm focuses on businesses that have a strong competitive position in their target markets, are capital efficient and have an attractive long-term structural growth or profitability outlook. UBS is present in all major financial centers worldwide. It has offices in more than 50 regions and locations, with about 30% of its employees working in the Americas, 30% in Switzerland, 19% in the rest of Europe, the Middle East and Africa and 21% in Asia Pacific. UBS Group AG employs more than 72,000 people around the world. Its shares are listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). This material is issued by UBS AG and/or any of its subsidiaries and/or any of its affiliates ("UBS"). Products and services mentioned in this material may not be available for residents of certain jurisdictions. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. Please consult the restrictions relating to the product or service in question for further information. Activities with respect to US securities are conducted through UBS Securities LLC, a US broker/dealer. Member of SIPC (http://www.sipc.org/). ETRACS ETNs are sold only in conjunction with the relevant offering materials. UBS has filed a registration statement (including a prospectus, as supplemented by the applicable prospectus supplement, for the offering of the ETRACS ETNs) with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") for the offering to which this communication relates. Before you invest, you should read these documents and any other documents that UBS has filed with the SEC for more complete information about UBS and the offering to which this communication relates. You may get these documents for free by visiting EDGAR on the SEC website at www.sec.gov. Alternatively, you can request the prospectus and applicable prospectus supplement, by calling toll-free (+1-877-387 2275). In the US, securities underwriting, trading and brokerage activities and M&A advisor activities are provided by UBS Securities LLC, a registered broker/dealer that is a wholly owned subsidiary of UBS AG, a member of the New York Stock Exchange and other principal exchanges, and a member of SIPC. UBS Financial Services Inc. is a registered broker/dealer and affiliate of UBS Securities LLC. The financial instrument is not sponsored, promoted, sold or supported in any other manner by Solactive AG nor does Solactive AG offer any express or implicit guarantee or assurance either with regard to the results of using the Index and/or Index trade mark or the Index Price at any time or in any other respect. The S-Network Composite Closed-End Fund Index is a service mark of S-Network Global Indexes, Inc. ("S-Network") and its use is granted under a license from S-Network. S-Network does not guarantee the accuracy and/or completeness of the S-Network Composite Closed-End Fund Index or any data included therein, and S-Network shall have no liability for any errors, omissions, interruptions, or defects therein. 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The ETRACS Monthly Pay 1.5x Leveraged Mortgage REIT ETN ("ETN") is not sponsored, endorsed, sold or promoted by MarketVector Indexes GmbH ("Licensor") and Licensor makes no representation or warranty, express or implied, to the owners of the ETN or any member of the public regarding the advisability of investing in securities generally or in the ETN particularly or the ability of the Market Vectors US Mortgage REITs Index to track the performance of the US mortgage REIT market. The ETRACS Monthly Pay 1.5x Leveraged Mortgage REIT ETN ("ETN") is not sponsored, endorsed, sold or promoted by Market Vectors Index Solutions GmbH ("Licensor") and Licensor makes no representation or warranty, express or implied, to the owners of the ETN or any member of the public regarding the advisability of investing in securities generally or in the ETN particularly or the ability of the Market Vectors US Mortgage REITs Index to track the performance of the US mortgage REIT market. UBS specifically prohibits the redistribution or reproduction of this communication in whole or in part without the prior written permission of UBS and UBS accepts no liability whatsoever for the actions of third parties in this respect.  UBS 2023. The key symbol, UBS and ETRACS are among the registered and unregistered trademarks of UBS. Other marks may be trademarks of their respective owners. All rights reserved. ___________________

1 Individual investors should instruct their broker/advisor/custodian to call us or should call together with their broker/advisor/custodian. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230804127646/en/

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[August 04, 2023] University of Phoenix issues More than 450 Digital Badges at 2023 Inclusive Leadership Summit and Career Fair Tweet

University of Phoenix is pleased to share it has issued more than 450 digital badges to qualifying attendees at the University's second annual Inclusive Leadership Summit and Career Fair, held May 2-4, 2023. The virtual event, titled "Developing a Culture of Belonging: Prioritizing Social and Emotional Well-Being," gave participants the opportunity to earn two digital badges demonstrating inclusive leadership skills. The badges, which are digital icons that display skills acquired through learning, are sharable on resumes and digital platforms. The University of Phoenix offered attendees the opportunity to earn digital badges as part of a larger commitment to skills-aligned programs and courses. "University of Phoenix is proud of our continued commitment to relevant, skills-based learning," shares John Woods, Ph.D., provost and chief academic officer. "Making badges an integral part of the summit experience allowed learners to highlight the valuable leadership skills they gained during the event. Providing busy adult learners with tangible evidence of skills through digital badging is just one way we are committed to empowering learners and job seekers." The Inclusive Leadership Summit aims to foster an atmosphere conducive to life-long learning and addressing systemic inequities to inform an ever-changng workforce. According to the recently released 2023 Career Optimism Index study by University of Phoenix Career Institute, 47% of American workers are experiencing burnout on the job. Findings of the study suggest that by investing in employees' professional development, mental health and engagement, employers can foster feelings of employee optimism.



All summit attendees had the opportunity to earn the "Inclusive Leader: Social and Emotional Wellbeing" digital badge. Summit attendees earned this digital badge by actively engaging in critical dialogue examining aspects of trauma, prioritizing accessibility as an aspect of inclusion, post-pandemic challenges and the ongoing social and systemic issues that hinder performance and retention. Participant engagement was captured with written reflections on practices meant to foster a safe, inclusive environment that promotes social and emotional wellbeing. During the event, 303 attendees earned the Social and Emotional Wellbeing badge. Event attendees who earned the "Inclusive Leader: Owning a Personal narrative" digital badge focused practical methods for improving their brand as a champion for diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB). Attendees who earned this badge participated in the inaugural Workforce Diversity Leaders Seminar, three highly interactive sessions facilitated for participants to leverage their authenticity as a value proposition to contribute to their practice of inclusive leadership. As a result, 154 summit attendees earned this workforce-focused badge. The Workforce Diversity Leaders Seminar also served as a meeting place for the advancement and empowerment of employee resource group (ERG) or business resource group (BRG) leaders, ERG or BRG sponsors and emerging leaders who serve in workforce areas related to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging.

Summit participant Carla Johnson, a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Manager for Allegis Group, says she valued the opportunity to participate in the Workforce Diversity Leaders Seminar at this year's event. "As a professional committed to fostering diversity, equity and inclusion, I was happy to see the Inclusive Leadership Summit offer the Workplace Diversity Leadership Seminars and associated badge this year," she shares. "Although strategies for inclusive leadership were offered throughout the event, the seminars really focused on strategies for leaders to expand our skills and support our teams. The change to earn a digital badge was important as well, as it helps bring visibility to these important skillsets." Learn more here about the University of Phoenix Inclusive Leadership Summit. About University of Phoenix University of Phoenix is continually innovating to help working adults enhance their careers in a rapidly changing world. Flexible schedules, relevant courses, interactive learning, and Career Services for Life help students more effectively pursue career and personal aspirations while balancing their busy lives. For more information, visit phoenix.edu. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230804530049/en/

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UN official calls for multilateral system for peace to tackle hunger

Xinhua) 08:59, August 04, 2023

The UN Security Council holds an open debate on famine and conflict-induced global food insecurity at the UN headquarters in New York, on Aug. 3, 2023. UN Famine Prevention and Response Coordinator Reena Ghelani on Thursday called for a reinvigorated multilateral system for peace in order to address the root causes of hunger. (Manuel Elias/UN Photo/Handout via Xinhua)

UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- A UN official on Thursday called for a reinvigorated multilateral system for peace in order to address the root causes of hunger.

A quarter billion people suffered from acute food insecurity last year, the highest number recorded in recent years. Of these people, some 376,000 were facing famine-like conditions in seven countries. Another 35 million people were on the edge. As in all crisis situations, women and children are the most impacted, said UN Famine Prevention and Response Coordinator Reena Ghelani.

Hunger and conflict feed off of each other. Conflict and insecurity remain key drivers of hunger and famine, she told the Security Council in a briefing.

Every one of the seven countries where people faced famine-like conditions last year was affected by armed conflict or extreme levels of violence. Five of those seven countries -- Afghanistan, Haiti, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen -- are regularly on the Security Council's agenda, she said.

"Armed conflict destroys food systems, shatters livelihoods and drives people from their homes, leaving many extremely vulnerable and hungry. Sometimes these impacts are by-products of war. But all too often they are inflicted deliberately and unlawfully -- with hunger utilized as a tactic of war," she said.

Food insecurity itself also fuels instability. Recent research highlighted by the World Food Programme has shown how food insecurity -- when coupled with pre-existing grievances, desperation fueled by poverty and inequality, and governance issues -- cause people to choose violence over peace, she said.

Conflict-induced hunger is compounded by a toxic mix of climate change and economic shocks, said Ghelani.

Climate change is increasingly becoming a threat multiplier. As the stress on water and other natural resources leads to increased competition and displacement, conflicts and hunger spread. Of the 10 countries most vulnerable to climate-related risks, seven are affected by conflict, six host a UN peacekeeping or special political mission, and four have more than a million people one step away from famine. At the same time, insecurity in conflict-affected countries hinders climate adaptation efforts. This leaves already vulnerable communities even poorer, hungrier and less resilient, she said.

The UN official called for more efforts to prevent, reduce and end conflict in all its forms.

"There needs to be a renewed commitment to peace through a reinvigorated multilateral system where governments, the United Nations and regional organizations work hand in hand," she said.

As immediate steps, she called for action in five areas.

One, ensuring parties to conflicts respect international humanitarian law. This includes protecting objects necessary for survival, such as food stocks, water systems, and other objects necessary for food production and distribution systems.

It also includes facilitating unimpeded humanitarian access to all civilians in need and protecting humanitarian staff and assets. States must spare no effort in exerting their influence to ensure parties respect the rules of war.

Two, making better use of existing early-warning mechanisms in a focused and effective manner and following up with concerted action.

Three, being bold and creative in finding ways to mitigate the impact of war on the most vulnerable.

Four, putting women and girls at the center of efforts. Crises and hunger affect them disproportionately, and they also hold the key to lasting solutions.

Five, acknowledging that a halfway, fragmented response to the interconnected risks will not work. There is a need for adequate humanitarian funding, and for efforts to address the climate and economic crises.

UN Famine Prevention and Response Coordinator Reena Ghelani (Front) speaks at a Security Council meeting at the UN headquarters in New York, on Aug. 3, 2023. The UN official on Thursday called for a reinvigorated multilateral system for peace in order to address the root causes of hunger. (Manuel Elias/UN Photo/Handout via Xinhua)

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
This article will look at the 20 cheapest places to retire in Europe. You may skip our detailed analysis on Europe's real estate and it's retirement options and go to 5 Cheapest Places to Retire in Europe instead.

Real Estate in Europe

Due to a string of recent banking crises in Europe, investors are questioning the health of it's real estate market. Borrowing costs have increased due to high-interest rates, valuations in the property sector have depressed, and there are speculations that Europes real estate sector could be the next one to implode. There have been "clear signs of vulnerability," as noted by the European Central Bank, concerning the property sector. While January witnessed inflows of European funds invested directly in real estate amounting to 300 million (around $380 million), February saw outflows of 172 million (around $188 million), notes CNBC.

Moreover, as the impact of higher interest rates further pans out, analysts speculate that European real estate stocks could fall by 20%-40%. On the contrary, Brookfield Corporation (NYSE:BN), one of the world's largest investors in real estate, thinks otherwise. The company, Brookfield Corporation (NYSE:BN), suggests taking a look beyond the prevailing headlines, further stating that the real estate market could open a host of opportunities in the future. This is because Europe has been at the forefront as a leader on the environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) regulatory frameworks, providing opportunities to create value and strong demand for sustainable properties.

According to Brookfield Corporation (NYSE:BN) analysis, household formations will continue to expand despite population growth leveling off in the medium term. Also, since mortgage rates are increasing, it is further driving the costs of homeownership upwards. Residential renters are rising, providing various opportunities for the housing market. Since affordability is being constrained due to house price growths and interest rate hikes, renting homes seems to be the norm across Europe.

Story continues

Retirement Options in Europe

Many renters in Europe are migrating to the continent from across the pond. According to BlackTower, Americans are moving across due to many reasons, such as free healthcare, affordable housing, and a strong exchange rate. Some of the best places to retire in Europe include Cascais, Portugal; Alicante, Spain; Algarve, Portugal; Lisbon, Portugal; and Berlin, Germany, to name a few. Many of these countries have also made it to our list of easiest countries to retire to, such as Bulgaria, Portugal, and Malta.

For those concerned about language barriers and the difficulties of learning a new language, there are many English-speaking countries in Europe that they can retire to instead. Some of these best places to retire in Europe for English speakers include Portugal and Malta. Even in places where English is not the official language, a large proportion of people speak the language, especially in expatriate communities.

Finally, in order to retire to Europe, individuals must apply for a European visa depending on their country of retirement. Each country sets financial requirements and criteria that EU/EEA and Non-EU nationals must meet, depending on where they want to settle. Some European countries with recognized retirement visas include Ireland, Albania, Switzerland, Latvia, and Portugal.

In order to help you explore your options regarding retiring to Europe, we have compiled a list of all the cheapest places to retire in Europe.

20 Cheapest Places to Retire in Europe

Hurghea Constantin/Shutterstock.com

Methodology

In order to come up with the list of the 20 cheapest places to retire in Europe, we began by listing out all the European countries. Next, we ranked them individually on their cost of living index, rent index, groceries index, restaurant and price index, as well as their local purchasing power index, sourced from Numbeo.

The scores from individual rankings were summed up to come up with a total Insider Monkey Score. Countries were then ranked in ascending order from the lowest to the highest scores. After compiling the 20 cheapest countries from our list, we picked out one cheapest place in each country recommended on forums such as Quora and Reddit.

20. Murska Sobota, Slovenia

Insider Monkey Score: 23

Slovenia calls out to all adventurists, bee-keeping aficionados, and culture enthusiasts alike. Retirees especially love it for its golden honey, a cherished, delectable nectar like no other. One of the towns worth retiring to within Slovenia is Murska Sobota. Retirees get to enjoy a traditional, rural living experience here. The monthly cost of living in the town for a single individual is as low as $786, making it one of the cheapest places to retire in Europe.

19. Prague, Czech Republic

Insider Monkey Score: 23.6

The Czech Republic is a beautiful country brimming with enchanting towns and cities. One popular yet cheap city to retire to is Prague. Retirees love to move here for its excellent healthcare system, stunning architecture, and affordable living. The city is also home to a flourishing expatriate community, and a single individual can expect to live with $900 to $1,500 monthly.

18. Vilnius, Lithuania

Insider Monkey Score: 25

One of the cheapest places to retire in Europe is Vilnius, Lithuania. Retirees shift to the city in order to stretch their retirement savings. Despite being an affordable European destination, residents also get to enjoy a high quality of life. The architecture of its Old Town, amongst other things, is a popular attraction. It is one of the largest and best-preserved old towns in Europe. It has also been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The monthly cost of living is around $1,000 for a single individual.

17. Thessaloniki, Greece

Insider Monkey Score: 25

Embracing a Mediterranean climate, historical appeal, and rich cultural heritage, Thessaloniki has a lot to offer retirees. Flavorful Greek cuisine revolves around the exquisite use of golden olive oil, offering a healthy yet delectable experience. Healthcare in the city is high quality, and there are plenty of recreational opportunities to engage in. A retiree can live here on $800 a month.

16. Riga, Latvia

Insider Monkey Score: 26.5

Riga, Latvia is one of the cheapest places to retire in Europe, with the cost of living 30.5% lower than in the United States. A single individual can live here easily for under $1,000 a month. The city enjoys a unique cultural identity; shaped by its vibrant culture, rich traditions, and beautiful architecture. Expat retirees can live here with peace of mind, as it is a safe place to live with a low crime rate. Boasting all four seasons, residents also enjoy seasonal activities throughout the year.

15. Braganca, Portugal

Insider Monkey Score: 26.5

From the rolling vineyards of the Douro Valley to the golden beaches of the Algarve, Portugal provides a beautiful backdrop for retirees to call home. Not only is the country a popular retirement destination, but many places in the country have landed on our list of best places to retire in Europe. One of the cheapest places in Portugal is Braganca, revered for its relaxed pace of life. A single individual can expect to live comfortably on $642 monthly.

14. Split, Croatia

Insider Monkey Score: 27.5

Quality healthcare, welcoming communities, and natural beauty draws retirees to the beautiful city of Split. Not only is it a stunning destination to retire to, but it is also home to delicious wines and savory cuisines. The place is relatively safe, so expat retirees can live here with a sense of security and peace of mind. The cost of living in Split, Croatia, is, on average, 35.6% lower than in the United States, and a single individual needs $1,093 monthly to live comfortably.

13. Bratislava, Slovakia

Insider Monkey Score: 28

Bratislava is another one of the cheapest places to retire in Europe, offering breathtaking natural beauty, quality healthcare, and rich history and culture. Mysterious caves and beautiful castles are enticing, with retirees often spending the day on the beach or at the spa. Healthcare in the city has made significant improvements as well, an important consideration for retirees. The cost of living is 36% lower than in the United States, and a single individual can live on $1,353 monthly.

12. Krakow, Poland

Insider Monkey Score: 30

In Poland, retirees can choose to live anywhere between the Tatra mountains and the charming Baltic Sea coastline. One particularly attractive yet cheap destination within Poland is Krakow. The city is a favorite for nature enthusiasts, offering four distinct seasons and beautiful parks for retirees to relish the outdoor life. Polish cuisine is heartwarmingly delicious, boasting diversity and tradition alike. The city is one of the cheapest retirement destinations in Europe, alongside places in Hungary and Bulgaria.

11. Kaliningrad, Russia

Insider Monkey Score: 30.8

Retirees choosing Russia as their retirement destination will find living expenses to be 59.2% lower than in the United States. Kaliningrad in Russia is a cheap retirement destination, offering a nice blend of historical appeal, nature, and modern amenities. There are plenty of cultural festivals and events happening throughout the year. Residents also learn their language, a nice pastime for their golden years.

10. Szeged, Hungary

Insider Monkey Score: 31.8

Szeged is the place to be for retirees looking for modern amenities and quality services at affordable rates. The cost of living is, on average, 38.8% lower than in the United States. Moreover, rent is, on average, 73.8% lower than in the United States. Housing options are affordable, public transportation is cheap, and food prices are also low. Apart from being one of the cheapest European retirement destinations, Szeged is also revered for its delicious cuisine, friendly locals, and scenic views.

9. Sofia, Bulgaria

Insider Monkey Score: 32

Sofia is the cheapest capital in the European Union and is an ideal choice for many. Retirees will find the city to be one of Europe's most affordable destinations, offering quality healthcare and reasonably priced lifestyle options. On average, the cost of living is 45.6% lower than in the United States, with $921 being enough for a single individual to live comfortably throughout the month.

8. Podgorica, Montenegro

Insider Monkey Score: 32.8

Montenegro is one of the world's cheapest and safest countries to retire to. Podgorica, in particular, is home to majestic mountains, historical landmarks, and unique architectural sites. An individual can live modestly on $800 a month, with expenses increasing depending on amenities and comfort level. On average, the cost of living is 43.1% lower than in the United States.

7. Craiova, Romania

Insider Monkey Score: 34.2

Craiova is on many retirees' wish lists these days, offering the perfect blend of affordability and quality. Its rich cultural heritage, surrounding countryside, and warm and friendly community make it ideal to spend your retirement years. The cost of living is 48.1% lower than in the United States, with a decent lifestyle for a single individual costing around $630 monthly in Craiova.

6. Minsk, Belarus

Insider Monkey Score: 36.2

Cheaper than many European cities, Minsk offers retirees a welcoming environment, natural beauty, and adequate healthcare. Expats can expect to live a high-quality life at considerably low costs. The cost of living is 51.7% lower than in the United States, with an individual living comfortably for $489 a month. While there is a certain level of foreign influence in the country, the government remains in control of the country. The lack of political freedom, however, is made up for in terms of quality of life which is higher than the world average.

Click to continue reading and see the 5 Cheapest Places to Retire in Europe. Suggested Articles:

Disclosure: none. 20 Cheapest Places to Retire in Europe is originally published on Insider Monkey.
[August 04, 2023] AtomBeam to Hold Aug. 18 Fireside Chat Webinar with Chief Scientific Officer Joshua Cooper Tweet

MORAGA, Calif., Aug. 04, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via IBN -- AtomBeam CEO Charles Yeomans and Chief Scientist Joshua Cooper will share their insights into the companys groundbreaking innovations during an open Fireside Chat webinar, scheduled for Aug. 18 at 11 a.m. PST.

"We are thrilled to bring together the expertise of our CEO, Charles Yeomans, and our esteemed Chief Scientist, Joshua Cooper, in this fireside chat. It's a unique opportunity for participants to gain valuable insights into the world of data search and random access technology and witness the groundbreaking innovations that AtomBeam is spearheading." - CEO Charles Yeomans Joshua Cooper holds a bachelors degree in Mathematics and Linguistics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in Mathematics (Extremal Combinatorics) from University of California, San Diego. As a Professor of Mathematics at the University of South Carolina, Joshua's expertise in Data Science and Machine Learning has made him a sought-after consultant in these fields. With an extensive track record of 40+ published papers covering diverse subjects in discrete mathematics and computer science, Cooper brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the AtomBeam team. p align="left">Register for the webinar here: https://dnagency.lpages.co/atombeam-firesidechat/



Company Contact:

Charles Yeomans

CEO At

[email protected] About AtomBeam

AtomBeam Technologies is a pioneering data compaction software company that is revolutionizing the way data is transmitted and stored. With a strong focus on IoT connectivity and data compaction, AtomBeam's groundbreaking technology offers enhanced efficiency, security, and speed. Their successful crowdfunding campaign, raising over $3 million, highlights the industry's recognition of their innovative solutions. AtomBeam continues to lead the charge in transforming the data landscape, with a mission to empower businesses and individuals with advanced data compaction technology. For more information visit: AtomBeamTech.com Wire Service Contact:

IBN

Los Angeles, California

www.InvestorBrandNetwork.com

310.299.1717 Office

[email protected]



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[August 04, 2023] COMPREHENSIVE HEALTHCARE PROVIDES UPDATE ON DISCLOSURE REGARDING NAMEH HOTELS' SUBSCRIPTION OF UNITS DURING PRIVATE PLACEMENT AND ANNOUNCES DEPARTURE OF INTERIM CFO Tweet

CALGARY, AB, Aug. 4, 2023 /CNW/ - Comprehensive Healthcare Systems Inc. (TSXV: CHS) (the "Company" or "CHS"), a provider of healthcare benefits administration software and services wishes to issue a correction to is press release disseminated on January 30, 2023 with respect to its Insider disclosure as it related to the non-brokered private placement of units of the Company that closed on January 30, 2023 (the "Private Placement"). In particular, the update relates to the subscription by an Insider of the Company, Nameh Hotels and Resorts Limited ("Nameh"), of 6,871,515 units of the Company (the "Nameh Units") pursuant to the Private Placement. The Company has been informed that Nameh has concluded that certain legal requirements in India as applicable to foreign investment (the "Applicable Indian Laws") by Indian entities does not permit Nameh to be a direct or indirect owner of the Nameh Units. Accordingly, considering these restrictions, Nameh will be transferring the Nameh Units, which were initially registered to Nameh, to an arm's length third-party who is not an Insider of the Company (the "Third Party"). According to Nameh, due to the uncertainty of Applicable Indian Laws with respect to the subscription of the Nameh Units at the time of closing of the Private Placement, Nameh had not filed an early warning report required by applicable Canadian securities legislation. Nameh has confirmed to the Company that it still owns 17,459,965 common shares of the Company representing 14.07% of the issued and outstanding share total of the Company and its respective insider trading report via the System for Electronic Disclosure by Insiders (SEDI) for all transactions involving securities of the Company during the period in which it has been an insider of the Company is up to date. Nameh's current investment in the Company is for investment purposes only. Nameh will review its investment on an ongoing basis and depending upon such factors that Nameh, may from time to time, deem relevant, may, among other things, acquire additional or dispose securities of the Company. Corrected Insider Disclosure from the Private Placement The Insiders are each considered a "related party" (as such term is defined under Multilateral Instrument 61-101  Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101")). The partcipation by the Insiders constitutes a related party transaction as defined under MI 61-101. In aggregate, Insiders purchased 1,739,215 units of the Company (the "Units"). Such participation is exempt from the formal valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements of MI 61-101 as neither the fair market value of the Units acquired by the interested party, nor the consideration for the Units paid by such interested party, exceed 25% of the Company's market capitalization. The Company did not file a material change report more than 21 days before the closing of the Private Placement as the participation therein by the Insiders was not settled until shortly prior to the closing of the Private Placement.



Resignation of Chief Financial Officer The Company also announces the resignation of its interim Chief Financial Officer, Kevin Waters, effective August 3, 2023. Mr. Waters was appointed on an interim basis and has decided to pursue other opportunities. The Company wishes Mr. Waters well in his future endeavors. Siddhartha Gautam Mohanty, an advisor and a representative of Hunch Ventures/Nameh, the largest shareholder of the Company, has assumed the role of interim Chief Financial Officer until a replacement is identified. Mr. Mohanty has worked in the financial services industry for several years. He worked in Merchant Banking with J. Rothschild Partnership in London. He holds an M. A. in Economics from the London School of Economics, University of London.

About Comprehensive Healthcare Systems Inc. Comprehensive Healthcare Systems Inc. is a corporation incorporated under the laws of the Province of Alberta and is the parent company of Comprehensive Healthcare Systems Inc. (Delaware). The Company is a vertically integrated software as a services (SaaS) company focused on digitizing healthcare with Telehealth and Healthcare Benefits Administration solutions, providing reliable and high-volume transaction capable systems. The Company's state-of-the-art Novus 360 Healthcare Welfare and Benefits Administration (HWBA) SaaS platform is used by clients for all aspects of healthcare benefits administration (including self-funded employers, hospitals, doctors, and labor unions, through various corporations in which the majority shareholder has controlling ownership), providing healthcare administrative software, licensing and maintenance services. FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION: The press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as: "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "budget," "believe," "project," "estimate," "expect," "scheduled," "forecast," "strategy," "future," "likely," "may," "to be," "could," "would," "should," "will" and similar references to future periods or the negative or comparable terminology, as well as terms usually used in the future and conditional. An example of a forward-looking statement in this news release is the intended replacement of the Chief Financial Officer and the statements from Nameh as it relates to their security holdings of the Company. These forward-looking statements are based on assumptions as of the date they are provided. However, there can be no assurance that such assumptions will reflect the actual outcome of such items or factors. Additionally, there are known and unknown risk factors that could cause the Company's actual results and financial conditions to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements. Therefore, you should not rely on any of these forward-looking statements. Important risk factors that could cause actual results and financial conditions to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements, include among others: reliance on key personnel, general economic, market and business conditions and market volatility. All forward-looking information is qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement, and the Company disclaims any obligation to revise or update any such forward-looking statement or to publicly announce the result of any revisions to any of the forward-looking information contained herein to reflect future results, events or developments, except as required by law. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service 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 Comprehensive Healthcare Systems Inc.

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[August 04, 2023] Shareholder Alert: Robbins LLP Informs Shareholders of Class Action Filed Against RTX Corporation (RTX) f/k/a Raytheon Technologies Corporation Tweet

Robbins LLP informs investors that a shareholder filed a class action on behalf of persons who purchased or otherwise acquired publicly traded RTX Corporation (NYSE: RTX) securities between February 8, 2021 and July 25, 2023. RTX purports to be "an aerospace and defense company that provides advanced systems and services for commercial, military and government customers worldwide." One of its four primary business segments is Pratt & Whitney, described as "among the world's leading suppliers of aircraft engines for commercial, military, business jet and general aviation customers." For more information, submit a form, email Aaron Dumas, Jr., or give us a call at (800) 350-6003. What is this Case About: RTX Corporation (RTX) Misled Investors Regarding the GTF Engines' Quality Control Issues Accoring to the complaint, during the class period, defendants failed to disclose that: (1) the GTF engines produced by Pratt & Whitney had been affected from at least 2015-2020 by a quality control issue; and (2) this quality control issue would require RTX to recall and reinspect many of its GTF airplanes, affecting customers, and harming its business.



On July 25, 2023, Reuters released an article entitled "RTX shares tumble on Pratt & Whitney airliner engine problem." On this news, RTX's share price fell $9.91 per share, or 10.2%, to close at $87.10 on July 25, 2023. What Now: Similarly situated shareholders may be eligible to participate in the class action against RTX Corporation. Shareholders who want to act as lead plaintiff for the class must file their motion for lead plaintiff by October 2, 2023. A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation. You do not have to participate in the case to be eligible for a recovery. If you choose to take no action, you can remain an absent class member. For more information, click here.

All representation is on a contingency fee basis. Shareholders pay no fees or expenses. About Robbins LLP: Some law firms issuing releases about this matter do not actually litigate securities class actions; Robbins LLP does. A recognized leader in shareholder rights litigation, the attorneys and staff of Robbins LLP have been dedicated to helping shareholders recover losses, improve corporate governance structures, and hold company executives accountable for their wrongdoing since 2002. Since our inception, we have obtained over $1 billion for shareholders. To be notified if a class action against RTX Corporation settles or to receive free alerts when corporate executives engage in wrongdoing, sign up for Stock Watch today. Attorney Advertising. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230804358015/en/

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Lots of crime reporting, updates and legal action to consider this evening . . .



Check TKC news gathering . . .

'ChiefsAholic' to appear in Kansas City federal court Friday Court records show Xaviar Michael Babudar will have a first appearance in Kansas City federal court at 3 p.m. Friday.

Police reviewing whether evidence from Haslett home matches remains of missing woman Excelsior Springs police are exploring a connection between the remains Jaynie Crosdale was found in to evidence pulled from Tim Haslett's property.

Charges filed in Grandview, KC shooting spree The Jackson County Prosecutor's Office has filed charges in connection to three shootings that happened Wednesday within miles of each other.

KC man sentenced in connection with shooting death of off-duty firefighter A Kansas City man is sentenced to 7 years on gun charges connected to the shooting death of an off-duty firefighter.

Kansas City man sentenced for illegally possessing machine gun used in shooting of firefighter On October 6, 2022, an altercation took place between Taylor and Anthony Santi at Liquor Land in Independence, Missouri.

KCK murder, stabbing suspect out of hospital after being shot by police A Kansas City, Kansas, man accused of stabbing his father to death and attacking another woman last month is now in jail after being in the hospital after being shot by police.

Former Jayhawk guard suspended following DWI The former Jayhawk will miss the first two games of the upcoming season.

Clay County mom sentenced to decades in prison for daughters' deaths A Clay County judge sentenced Kearney mother Jenna Boedecker to over 50 years in prison Thursday for the deaths of her two daughters.

'Trying to destroy our joy': Lawrence family's pride decor vandalized, again The Hartford family's pride flag and decorated mailbox have been stolen, broken, and/or burned twice this month.

High-ranking military man pleads guilty to beating wife A high-ranking military man pled guilty Thursday to beating his wife inside their Lansing home.

FBI's Kansas City office recovers 4 children, 3 adults from sex-trafficking initiative Kansas and western Missouri law enforcement recovered four children and three adults who are believed to be the victims of sex trafficking as part of a national initiative coordinated with the FBI.

Stabbing inside Jackson County, Missouri Detention Center sends male inmate to the hospital Jackson County Sheriff Darryl Forte said a 53-year-old man was stabbed by another inmate "with an unknown" instrument.

Two dead in Kansas City, Independence in overnight shootings Police are searching for answers in two deadly shootings at opposite ends of the metro.

New crime-fighting initiative in Kansas City works to create a community with artwork KMBC 9 Investigates is tracking the results of a new crime-fighting initiative in the Santa Fe Neighborhood of Kansas City.

Developing . . .
Tamara Shephard is a journalist in Etobicoke reporting hard news, politics and health and human-interest stories. Tamara loves to travel and is a fan of foreign and independent films.
The Damages: the thriller with a narrator you wont be able to get out of your head this summer
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There's no doubt that salary is an important part of anyone's job. But these days, company benefits also play a big role in attracting -- and retaining -- job candidates.

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Most companies offer employee benefits such as health insurance and paid vacation and unlimited PTO. Many also offer 401(k) plans, which have become a key tool in helping employees plan their financial futures. According to a May 2023 report from Fidelity, employers contributed an average of 4.8% of employees' salaries to their 401(k)s in the first quarter of 2023.

But not all 401(k) plans are created equal. Some employers match employee contributions at a higher percentage and some include profit-sharing in the deal. A competitive 401(k) plan should have both low fees and a good company match.

Although not all of the companies here provide specifics on their fees or what they match, they all have one thing in common -- their employees love their job benefits, and that includes their 401(k)s. Here are 30 companies whose matching percentage is 4% or higher.

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3M

3M is a multinational conglomerate known for its innovation. They demonstrate their dedication to employees through a comprehensive 401(k) employer matching program.

3M offers a nonelective base contribution of 3% of compensation to all its employees, regardless of whether they contribute themselves or not. They also provide a dollar-for-dollar match on contributions up to 5% of their compensation.

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jejim / Shutterstock.com

Accenture

Accenture helps clients grow and transform their businesses. New employees don't have to wait to become active in the 401(k) program at Accenture -- everyone is immediately eligible to contribute. After meeting eligibility requirements, employees get a matching contribution for each dollar they contribute up to 6% of their eligible compensation.

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The company doesn't publicly disclose vesting information, but employees report they are 100% vested in their own contributions immediately and become 100% vested in Accenture's matching contributions after two years.

More: I Lost $400K of My Retirement Savings in a Roth 401(k) -- If You're Not Careful, You Could, Too

Ken Wolter / Shutterstock.com

Adobe

To be eligible for employer match contributions, employees at this software company must complete a minimum of 15 months of service, which may require some patience before reaping the benefits. Additionally, the vesting period at Adobe is longer than most, lasting 2 years.

However, once employees become eligible, they are rewarded with an attractive offer--full dollar-for-dollar matches to their 401(k) contributions, allowing them to receive a generous match on up to 6% of their compensation.

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Amazon

Right from the start, employees at the e-commerce giant can take advantage of a favorable 50% match, allowing them to receive half of their contributions up to 4% of their compensation, thereby boosting their retirement savings. However, to become fully vested, employees must either be employed for three years or complete 3,000 hours of service, whichever occurs first.

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Amgen

Amgen, a biotechnology company, stands out by providing nonelective contributions: regardless of whether employees contribute to their accounts or not, Amgen contributes 5% of their salaries into their 401(k) each year. For those who do contribute, Amgen matches their contributions dollar-for-dollar, up to 5% of their compensation, resulting in a total maximum employer match of 10% annually.

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Apple

Apple offers varying levels of employer matching based on years of service. For employees with less than two years of service, a 50% partial match is provided. Those with two to five years of service receive a 75% partial match. And for employees who have worked there for over five years, Apple offers a full dollar-for-dollar match, allowing them to maximize their savings potential with a match on up to 6% of their compensation.

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AT&T

After completing a year of service, employees at AT&T become eligible for a substantial 80% partial match to their 401(k) plans. Employees who advance to managerial positions can reap even greater benefits. Managers at AT&T have reported receiving a generous dollar-for-dollar match, allowing them to enjoy a full match on their contributions up to 6% of their compensation.

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Biogen

Biogen, a leading biotechnology company, offers an impressive 200% match on contributions, providing a remarkable opportunity for employees to double their savings. By contributing just 3% of their compensation, employees can enjoy a substantial 6% match from Biogen. Employees are also immediately eligible to participate and are vested immediately as well.

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BOK Financial

At BOK Financial, a financial services company, all employees receive a solid 6% match of their compensation. The partial match percentage scales based on the length of an employee's tenure.

For those with less than four years of service, BOK provides a respectable 50% partial match, while employees who have dedicated 4-10 years receive an enticing full dollar-for-dollar match. Those with 10 to 14 years of service receive an extraordinary 150% employer match, and those who have been with the company for over 15 years are rewarded with an astonishing 200% match.

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Boeing

The aerospace and defense company provides nonelective contributions to its employees' retirement savings. Even if employees opt not to contribute at all, Boeing automatically contributes a significant 3% to 5% of their salaries into their 401(k) accounts. For employees who do participate and contribute to their 401(k) plans, Boeing offers a 75% partial match, allowing them to enjoy additional savings with a match of up to 8% of their compensation.

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IvanMikhaylov / Getty Images

Bosch USA

With a competitive 401(k) employer matching program, employees at Bosch USA have the opportunity to secure their retirement nest egg with a substantial 75% match on contributions, capped at 9% of their compensation.

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Blizzard

With an impressive full dollar-for-dollar match, employees at this video game developer can receive up to 25% of their compensations. Blizzard employees can also take advantage of this perk immediately upon joining the company, and employees become fully vested right from the start.

Sundry Photography / Getty Images

Charles Schwab

Employees at Charles Schwab, the well-known financial services company, can kickstart their savings with an attractive incentive--Charles Schwab will contribute $250 to their 401(k) account as soon as they contribute their first $1. For those who continue to contribute, Charles Schwab offers a full match on contributions up to 5% of their compensation.

Joshua Rainey Photography / Shutterstock.com

Comcast

With a dollar-for-dollar match on contributions, employees at Comcast can take advantage of the company's generous offer, receiving up to 6% of their compensation contributed by Comcast itself. What's even more appealing is the seamless eligibility and immediate vesting, allowing employees to start saving for their retirement with peace of mind from day one.

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jetcityimage / Getty Images

Dollar General

Dollar General, a discount retailer with a vast network of stores across the United States, has an impressive employer matching program. Employees can take advantage of the company's generous dollar-for-dollar match. Dollar General also has an immediate vesting policy, which allows employees to have complete ownership of their matched funds right from the start.

Colleen Michaels / Getty Images

Farmers Insurance

Farmers Insurance goes above and beyond with a robust 401(k) employer matching program. They offer their employes an automatic 4% base match through nonelective contributions. This means that employees receive this match regardless of whether they contribute themselves or not. For those who choose to contribute to their 401(k), Farmers Insurance provides an attractive incentive with a full dollar-for-dollar match on up to 6% of their compensation.

400tmax / Getty Images

Google

Employees at the tech giant have the option to choose between two appealing match structures: they can either receive a remarkable 100% dollar-for-dollar match on contributions up to $3,000 or a generous 50% match up to the IRS contribution limit. This allows employees the freedom to customize their retirement savings approach based on their individual financial goals. For those who wish to invest their money elsewhere, Google sets a fair structure by offering dollar-for-dollar matching up to $3,000 per year.

josefkubes / Shutterstock.com

Honeywell International

In 2018, Honeywell looked to bolster its workers' retirement savings by increasing how much it matches employee contributions to its 401(k) plan. According to an article on Forbes' site, Honeywell employees who had been getting a 75% match on the initial 8% of pay had their match boosted to 87.5%. The maximum company match for these workers rose to 7% from 6%. Those numbers still hold true today, according to Honeywell. With Honeywell, employees are always 100% vested in their own contributions. However, employees become eligible for the match after three years of service.

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Fritz Jorgensen / Getty Images

Meta (Facebook)

The social media company formerly known as Facebook places a strong emphasis on employee financial well-being through an impressive 401(k) employer matching program. Regardless of an employee's tenure, all are eligible for full employer matching right from the start. Meta generously matches contributions up to 50% of the IRS contribution limit for the year, providing a significant boost to employees' retirement savings. Employees are also fully vested from day one.

NicolasMcComber / Getty Images

Microsoft

Unlike many companies, Microsoft doesn't impose a cap on matched contributions, giving employees the opportunity to receive substantial benefits. With a 50% partial match, Microsoft contributes up to the IRS contribution limit for the year, allowing employees to enjoy a rewarding boost to their retirement savings.

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Netflix

The global streaming giant stands out for its straightforward and employee-friendly 401(k) employer matching program. While it may not be the highest match percentage, employees highly value its simplicity. Netflix provides a dollar-for-dollar match on contributions, up to 4% of their compensation. There is no vesting period, and no waiting period for eligibility--employees can immediately participate and start benefiting from the employer match.

Eric Broder Van Dyke / Shutterstock.com

Samsung

Samsung takes employee benefits seriously with a well-structured 401(k) employer matching program. Employees can take advantage of a combination of full and partial matches. With a dollar-for-dollar match on the first 3% of contributions and a generous 50% partial match on the subsequent 3%, Samsung ensures that their workforce can secure an impressive 4.5% in total employer matching each year.

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rypson / Getty Images

Southwest Airlines

Employees of Southwest Airlines can save for retirement through both Roth and pretax 401(k) plans. The company matches employee contributions dollar-for-dollar for up to 9.3% of their eligible earnings. Not only is Southwest's 401(k) plan very competitive, the company also offers employees a profit-sharing benefit that has ranged over the past 10 years from 1%-16% of their eligible compensation.

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Starbucks

Starbucks, the global coffeehouse chain, proves its dedication to employee financial well-being with a straightforward 401(k) employer matching program. Keeping it simple yet effective, Starbucks offers a dollar-for-dollar match on employee contributions, allowing them to maximize their retirement savings by receiving an employer match up to 5% of their compensation.

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Ultimate Software

Ultimate Software, a provider of cloud-based HR and payroll solutions, takes a unique approach to their 401(k) employer-matching program by offering a 45% partial match. What sets this offering apart is the absence of a set cap, allowing employees to benefit from the match up to the yearly contribution limits set by the IRS. The total contribution amount typically reaches around $10,000 per year.

jetcityimage / Getty Images

Uber

Uber, the ride-sharing and food delivery giant, boasts one of the most generous 401(k) employer matching programs in the industry. Employees can benefit from a full dollar-for-dollar match, where the company contributes up to 10% of their compensation. Employees are eligible to participate immediately and there is no vesting period.

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13-Smile / Getty Images/iStockphoto

USAA

USAA, an insurance and financial services provider servicing members of the U.S. military and their families, has an impressive 200% match. Employees have the opportunity to witness their retirement savings soar to new heights, as the company contributes twice the amount they invest, capped at 8% of their compensation. There is no waiting period for eligibility or vesting.

onebluelight / iStock.com

Visa

With a remarkable 200% match, employees at Visa have the opportunity to supercharge their retirement savings by receiving twice the amount they contribute, up to 10% of their earnings. What sets Visa apart is its generosity, offering a unique structure where even a 5% employee contribution results in an astounding 10% match from the company.

cifotart / Getty Images

Vimeo

Vimeo is a video-sharing platform formed by a group of filmmakers in 2004. Today it serves more than 80 million creators who can share and promote their work on the platform. Employees gave its benefits program 4.5 stars out of 5 on Glassdoor. Reviews report that there's 10% 401(k) matching that vests after two years employment. Plus, there's a monthly wellness stipend and unlimited time off.

wellesenterprises / iStock.com

Walmart

Despite what you might have read or heard about Walmart as an employer, the retail giant is very competitive in terms of matching 401(k) contributions. After one year of service, Walmart will match employees' contributions dollar-for-dollar for up to 6% of their eligible pay. Say you earn $30,000 a year at Walmart and contribute 6% of your salary, or $1,800, to your 401(k). Walmart will match that with a $1,800 contribution of its own. Hourly associates can also contribute to Walmart's 401(k).

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Barri Segal, Cynthia Measom and Sam DiSalvo contributed to the reporting for this article.

Photo Disclaimer: Please note photos are for illustrative purposes only. As a result, some of the photos might not reflect the actual companies listed in this article.

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: 30 Companies That Match 4% or Higher on 401k
Hello again.

Someone from Ravinala Airports (who manage the airport) just came back with this reply:

Answer: Hello, let me answer your question. The lounge is open and accessible to business class passengers. To be able to access it, the corresponding airline must inform Ravinala Airports so that we can in turn register it at the airport.

My next question: So, no access for economy class passengers?

Answer: Unfortunately no, this service is not yet available. For their wait, there is a coffee point as well as a workspace in the boarding lounge, which is available.

So it looks like you are out of luck.

There is just one lounge, the airport is tiny. We only have 300,000 international passengers a year. Let's compare that with Johannesburg, which has say 22 million passengers a year. Even little Mauritius has nearly 4 million passengers per year.
The Secretary for Health Dr Faith B. Yisrael says she is aware of complaints that some TRHA 
(Bloomberg) -- As investor interest in artificial intelligence sends shares of technology giants soaring, a little-known circuit board maker in South Korea is cashing in big.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Isu Petasys Co., which counts Alphabet Inc., Nvidia Corp. and Microsoft Corp. as customers of its multilayered boards, has seen its share price surge 487% this year  among the biggest gainers on South Koreas benchmark stock index. The companys recent boom has also helped boost the value of stakes held by Chairman Kim Sang-Beom and his family to more than $800 million as of August 3.

Kim, who controls 100% of holding company Isu Corp., is just the latest example of how soaring demand for AI investments is creating massive wealth. Jensen Huang, chief executive officer of leading AI company Nvidia, has seen his fortune surge almost three-fold this year to $39.9 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Hardly any local companies directly supply Nvidia and Google, but Isu Petasys got the job, said Baik Gil-hyun, an analyst at Yuanta Securities Korea Co. If the AI boom continues, so will the interest in the company.

Isu Petasys, founded in 1972, began distributing printed circuit boards, mainly for hard disk drives, in 1989. Its parent company, Isu Group, has businesses in industries including chemicals, construction and biopharmaceuticals.

Kim became the groups chairman in 2000 after his father, Joon-sung, stepped down after four years. Before joining Isu, the younger Kim worked at the now-defunct industrial conglomerate, Daewoo Group, which was founded by his father-in-law Kim Woo-choong, according to local newspaper Korea Joongang Daily.

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On top of their 26% stake in Isu Petasys, Kim and his family also own stock in the groups other publicly traded units, including Isu Specialty Chemical and Isu Chemical. Company filings show that shares pledged for loans account for just under half of the total value of their stakes.

Diversifying Base

Isu Petasys didnt make Kim available for an interview. The company didnt respond to questions about their customers or the value of the familys stakes.

In recent years, Isu Petasys has leaned into the AI craze, diversifying its customer base from predominantly telecommunications manufacturers like Nokia Oyj, and adding technology giants such as Alphabet and Nvidia, according to Park Hyung-woo, an analyst at SK Securities Co. in Seoul.

Orders for its boards used for AI accelerators jumped almost eight-fold to 47.3 billion won ($36.4 million) in the first quarter from a year earlier, according to a June presentation.

Other prominent players in high-end printed circuit boards include Japans Ibiden Co., Taiwans Unimicron Technology Corp. and Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co.

While the companys revenue grew 3.9% to 172 billion won in the first three months of this year from the previous quarter, its operating profits fell 33% to 20.2 billion won, according to filings.

Obvious Beneficiaries

SK Securities Park said he expects a drop in operating profits for the year, partly because Isu Petasyss AI products are less lucrative than those sold for telecommunications devices. Despite that, he remains optimistic.

The company is one of the most obvious beneficiaries because its actually seeing a growing portion of its revenue from AI-related sales, Park said.

Increasing tensions between the US and China may have also contributed to Isu Petasyss expansion, as US companies prefer non-Chinese suppliers, according to analyst Baik. Park said he expects AI-related business to make up 20% of the companys revenue this year and at least 30% in 2024.

It doesnt look like AI is a temporary trend that will fade soon, he said. It could change the direction of the industry, like how PCs and smartphones did in the past. Then things look bright for Isu Petasys.

--With assistance from Debby Wu.

(updates Jensen Huangs fortune in third paragraph.)

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2023 Bloomberg L.P.
Alaska blueberries are good for you. Right?

Photo by Pat Holloway

Zuzana Vanekova works in a University of Alaska Fairbanks lab, where she freeze-dried Alaska blueberries in order to carry them home to Austria for analysis.

Our beloved Alaska blueberry seems to have a bad reputation in parts of Europe and Scandinavia. There, people have called it the mad berry, intoxicating berry and vomit berry.

Zuzana Vanekova, a pharmacology researcher at the University of Vienna in Austria, recently visited Alaska to gather blueberries in order to help solve a mystery regarding the bog blueberry (Vaccinium uliginosum).

Ever since I was little, people told me not to eat it because it would make me vomit and hallucinate, she said.

Bog blueberries are a favorite of Alaskans and grizzly bears, but the fact that some people across the Atlantic have long avoided them was a puzzle to Vanekova. She studies the pharmaceutical properties of plants.

Vanekova recently got funded on a study to analyze the berries for possible toxicity. She flew to Alaska to get samples from a country where people never heard such tales. I wanted to know why it is such a prevalent story in Europe.

As part of her first visit to Alaska, Vanekova met Alaska plant expert Pat Holloway, a professor of horticulture emerita at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Holloway has performed her own research proving the health benefits of Alaska berries.

Holloway hosted Vanekova while she was in Fairbanks.

She shows up at my home, and the first thing I hand her is a blueberry muffin, Holloway said.

Vanekova ate that muffin, just as she consumed bowls of bog blueberries in Europe and of course popped berries into her mouth on her Alaska gathering missions to Wickersham and Murphy domes near Fairbanks.

She freeze-dried the Alaska blueberries at a UAF lab for transport back to Vienna. There, she will determine the genetic signature of the Alaska berries, as well as look for compounds that might be toxic.

While in Fairbanks, Vanekova visited UAFs Rasmuson Library and pored through a collection of Arctic books. She found one on shamanism in Russia in which the writer described Native peoples making moonshine from fermented bog blueberries.

I think that might be the source (of the bog-blueberry folklore), she said.

As for the health benefits of Alaska berries, Holloway performed studies and found bog blueberries had more antioxidants than cultivated berries from the Lower 48.

Photo by Chris Dart

Pat Holloway, left, and Zuzana Vanekova pick blueberries on Murphy Dome near Fairbanks for Vanekovas study to test the possible toxicity of the berries.

Base map by Sean Baker

The heavy black line encloses the approximate range of the bog blueberry on Earth.

Vanekova knew of those studies, but she had to come over and pluck some Alaska berries for herself. She said every Alaskan to whom she explained her quest was a bit incredulous at the claim that blueberries might be anything but wonderful.

When you are over here, everybody looks at you like youre crazy for saying these claims, she said.

Before flying back with her Alaska blueberries, Vanekova said she wanted to perform the study because every plant she knows in the Vaccinium genus is good to eat and she found the vomit berry description bizarre. She knew she could perform the science to debunk it.

I dont believe there is anything wrong with blueberries anywhere in the world, she said. But I have to prove it.

Since the late 1970s, the University of Alaska Fairbanks' Geophysical Institute has provided this column free in cooperation with the UAF research community. Ned Rozell is a science writer for the Geophysical Institute.
Slovakia handed over two Zuzana 2 self-propelled howitzers to Ukraine as part of an assistance package financed by Denmark, Germany, and Norway.

The handover of weapons took place at the Konstrukta-Defence enterprise in the city of Dubnica nad Vahom. The event was attended by Prime Minister of Slovakia Ludovit Odor, Minister of Defense of Slovakia Martin Sklenar, the ambassadors of Ukraine, Germany, Denmark, and Norway, the Embassy of Ukraine in Slovakia reports.

According to the Prime Minister of Slovakia, the project for the production of self-propelled howitzers for Ukraine is an example of how international cooperation works and proof of joint solidarity with Ukraine.

"The protection of Ukraine and the ability to resist Russian aggression are in our common interests. A world in which rules have no effect and international rules are not respected is unacceptable to us. Our duty is to help where we can and how we can," Odor said.

In total, the current assistance package includes 16 pieces of equipment, two of which will soon enter service with the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Such combat vehicles cost 92 million euros.

As reported, in January, Slovakia sent the last of the eight Zuzana 2 self-propelled howitzers purchased by Ukraine. At the same time, the General Staff reported that after the fulfillment of this Ukrainian order, Slovakia will produce 16 more Zuzana 2 howitzers which will be financed by Denmark, Germany, and Norway.

Zuzana self-propelled howitzer is equipped with a 155 mm howitzer with a 52 calibre barrel length and a maximum range of 41 km. It can fire up to six rounds per minute.

Photos: Yaroslava Borzova
There are already 674 suspects in the main criminal proceedings over the Russian invasion of Ukraine. They are representatives of the military and political leadership of the Russian Federation.

"We have 674 suspects in the main case over aggression. This is a so-called elitist crime, the suspects are people who hold very high positions. We have 312 cases of this category in courts and 20 sentences. The sentences were passed against the members of the State Duma of the Russian Federation," Yuriy Bielousov, Head of the Department for Combating Crimes Committed During Armed Conflict at the Prosecutor General's Office, told Interfax-Ukraine in an interview, Ukrinform reports.

According to him, prosecutors, together with colleagues from the Security Service of Ukraine and the National Police, have identified hundreds of thousands of Russians who are in Ukraine. Bielousov spoke about relevant databases which contain profiles of all identified Russians  service members and intelligence agents. The head of the "War Department" said that not all of them committed war crimes.

According to his data, tens of thousands of Russians may be involved in war crimes in the opinion of law enforcement officers.

"Let's call them potential suspects. As for the officially suspected, there are two major directions: war crimes and the crime of aggression. In the first direction, we have 386 suspects. Of these people, indictments against 225 were sent to court, and of those sent to court, we have 54 convicted people. Out of 54 sentences, 15 are real, not in absentia. As a rule, these are low-ranking soldiers, privates or low-level officers," the representative of the Prosecutor General's Office said.
The military associates the air strikes on Zmiinyi Island with continued pressure on civilian shipping.

Head of the Joint Coordination Press Center of the Southern Defense Forces of Ukraine Nataliia Humeniuk said this during a briefing at the Media Center Ukraine - Ukrinform.

"Three of these sorties were labeled as an air threat to foreign civilian vessels that could have made a voyage to Ukrainian ports. All this was aimed at continuing pressure on civilian shipping in view of the future prospects of the grain deal," Humeniuk said.

The head of the Joint Coordination Press Center of the Defense Forces of Southern Ukraine added that there were no direct hits on the island.

"The area of the island was bombed," Humeniuk clarified.

As Ukrinform reported, the Baltic states are ready to provide the capacities of five large ports on their territory to participate in the safe export of Ukrainian grain to world markets.
Ukraine's Offensive Guard soldiers are already performing tasks on the front line, including on the eastern and southern axis.

Colonel Mykola Urshalovych, acting director of the Planning Department for the Use of the Main Directorate of the National Guard of Ukraine, said this at a briefing at the Military Media Center, according to an Ukrinform correspondent.

"Now, as part of battalions and some crews, Offensive Guard soldiers are already performing their tasks, that is, they have engaged in battles," the colonel said.

He noted that National Guard units "Bureviy" and "Rubizh" are currently conducting defensive operations on the eastern borders, whereas units of the "Sparta," "Kara-Dag" and "Chervona Kalyna" brigades are already successfully participating in the Ukrainian offensive on the southern axis.

Earlier reports said that units of a Ukrainian National Guard brigade had advanced 650 meters deep into the enemy's defenses and entrenched themselves on the achieved lines.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said he thinks that the Kremlin hears and understands the demands of the international community on the need to stop using food as a weapon of war and restore grain supplies from Ukraine.

He said this in an interview with the ABC television channel on Thursday, August 3, Ukrinform reports.

"I think Russia is hearing a demand signal from countries around the world that they need to stop using food as a weapon of war in Ukraine," Blinken said.

In this regard, he mentioned a summit between Russia and African countries last week.

"Half the African leaders didnt show up, which tells you something," Blinken said.

According to him, the leaders that did made it very clear to Vladimir Putin that they wanted the Black Sea grain export deal back on.

"Kenya said that Russia tearing up this deal was a stab in the back," he added.

Photo: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
The majority of contract soldiers in the Russian Federation are trying to avoid going to the front line in Ukraine.

Representative of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine Andriy Yusov informed this on the air of Channel 24, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"(In the Russian Federation - ed.) even contract soldiers are trying in every way to avoid moving to the front line and directly participating in assault operations. Another thing is that they are not asked about it," Yusov said.

According to him, the whining of these people that everything is bad, that the commanders are inept, that Russian President Vladimir Putin is leading everyone in the wrong direction, of course, has little effect on the overall decisions and plans of the leadership.

"And the task today is to convey this real picture of horror, hopelessness, and despair that Russians see in the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories when they come under the actions of the Ukrainian Security and Defense Forces to the residents of the so-called Russian Federation. Because at the moment, of course, Russian propaganda is hiding this reality from them, not showing them," the DIU representative said.

He noted that unlike the PSYOP against Ukraine, where Russians can sometimes give 10 percent of the truth and cover everything else with lies, Russian propaganda inside the Russian Federation itself works on the principle of total lies.

"That is, they have a completely upside-down reality there, and you have to break through it. And this critical mass (of people - ed.) will definitely be shifted and will influence the general mood within the Russian Federation itself. In the end, this is one of the arguments that restrains the Putin regime from further public partial (or actually full) mobilization and forces it to resort to hybrid mobilization measures," Yusov said.

Read also: One of IAEA missions completes its work in Ukraine

He recommended that Ukrainians always (when creating or distributing messages - ed.) answer the question: what does this message generally work for, does it help the Ukrainian Security and Defense Forces, the Ukrainian military on the front line, the Ukrainian command and military-political leadership to liberate Ukrainian lands, restore sovereignty and destroy the occupiers, or not.

As reported, the DIU said that Russian political technologists have prepared another round of disinformation campaign against Ukraine.

Photo for illustration
On the Southern Front, the Russian invasion forces are losing their artillery fire advantage as their ammunition stocks keep getting hit, which leads to them also losing ground.

Thats according to the spokesperson for Operational Command South, Natalia Humeniuk, who spoke at the national telethon, Ukrinform reports.

"The initiative on the Southern Front is moving very slowly, but very confidently toward our side, Humeniuk said, adding that the destruction of ammunition depots leads to the fact that the enemy starts losing in terms of munitions quantity and also starts losing its territorial position because we knock them out of the line where they are trying to deploy."

She noted that Ukraine needs to clear about 30 kilometers from the left bank of the Dnipro so that the Russian military cannot attack the peaceful city of Kherson.

Humeniuk emphasized that the powerful performance of Ukraines forces is being complicated by the fact that the enemy continues to hide behind locals. In the temporarily occupied territories, a lot of Ukrainians remain as they have nowhere to go as the Russians denied them an opportunity to evacuate precisely so that they serve as human shields.

She hinted at further intensification of fire pressure, which will definitely bear fruit.

In addition, Humenyuk informed that the damage to the bridges in the temporarily occupied territories led to the slowdown and complication of the enemy's logistics. That is, it continues, but it continues extremely slowly, which does not correspond to the pace of development of combat events.

According to the spokesperson, the Russian military is getting what they intended to receive, but with a several-day delay, so Ukraine now has a certain advantage in being able to purge Russian stocks in those few days so that they have nothing to operate with.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, the Armed Forces of Ukraine are advancing in the south and holding off enemy attacks in four directions.
Russia is attacking Ukraine with Kh-55 missiles that it received from Kyiv in exchange for repayment of debt for natural gas consumed in 1999.

That's according to an investigation carried out by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Schemes project, Ukrinform reports.

The journalists received the text of the agreement and the list of numbers of the transferred missiles and compared them with the numbers of the Kh-55s that the Russian army began to use against Ukraine during the full-scale invasion.

The project discovered at least ten missiles from the list that Russia launched at Ukrainian cities - some of them were shot down by Ukrainian air defense forces and some hit residential buildings.

The issue concerns an agreement between the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine headed by Valeriy Pustovoitenko and the Russian government led by Vladimir Putin, signed in Yalta in 1999. Under the agreement, Kyiv transferred eight Tu-160, three Tu-95MS bombers, as well as 575 Kh-55 cruise missiles to Moscow. For this, Russia compensated Ukraine for the debt for Russian gas worth UAH 275 million.

Three missiles that Ukrainian air defenses intercepted in January, May and April 2023 in Kyiv and in the Kyiv region appeared on the list of those handed over to Moscow in 1999.

At the end of 2022, one more Kh-55 missile hit an apartment building in the Ukrainian capital, killing a woman. One more missile hit a house in the Kyiv region, injuring a child.

Several more missiles were identified, using photos with numbers on the wreckage obtained from law enforcement sources.
Ukrainian pilots will be sent to Europe at the end of this summer to begin training to fly F-16 fighter jets.

Yurii Ihnat, spokesperson for the Ukrainian Air Force Command, said this at a briefing at the Ukraine-Ukrinform Media Center.

"We expect our pilots to be sent to European countries for serious training at the end of summer. Therefore, it is necessary to understand that the training will not be that quick, but it won't be long-lasting as the Russians hope. I think our pilots will master the F-16 training program as quickly as they mastered the Patriot system. The only thing is that it's important the entire jets coalition joins - all the countries that have training bases, simulators, instructors, training planes -because we need as many people as possible to go through the training program as quickly as possible," Ihnat said.

He noted that Ukrainian pilots needed not only to learn how to fly the F-16 but also how to use dozens of types of its weapons. Ihnat recalled that the United States, after evaluating Ukrainian pilots, concluded that their retraining would take about four months. At the same time, only in practice will it be clear which of the pilots will be trained and how much time will be needed for their training, he added.

At the same time, according to Ihnat, Ukraine desperately needs to strengthen its air defenses before it receives fighter jets.

"They must be strengthened, especially ahead of the winter period and given that the Russians may want to carry out certain provocations. Therefore, there are no options - we need to strengthen air defenses," Ihnat said.

NATO allies at the summit in Vilnius officially announced the creation of a fighter jet coalition for Ukraine. The Netherlands, Denmark and Romania officially confirmed that they would train Ukrainian pilots. The White House also announced that Ukraine could receive F-16s this year.
(Bloomberg) -- A New York judge declined to dismiss charges against Gregoire Tournant, a former Allianz SE hedge fund manager accused of fraud in connection with billions of dollars in investor losses.

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Tournant was chief investment officer and co-lead portfolio manager of a US-based group of Allianz hedge funds that collapsed. He has pleaded not guilty to charges including securities fraud and conspiracy to obstruct justice.

US District Judge Laura Taylor Swain, in a one-page order Friday, denied Tournants motion to dismiss the indictment against him. She said she will publicly file a redacted version of an opinion providing her reasoning as soon as this month.

Lawyers for Tournant declined to comment on the ruling.

Tournant claims that lawyers at Sullivan & Cromwell who initially represented both him and Allianz misused their client relationship with him, gaining information they used to push the government to focus on him instead of the company. Prosecutors said he was trying to avoid trial by making inflammatory and baseless claims about his former attorneys and the government.

Tournant says he met with Sullivan & Cromwell lawyers on June 3, 2021, to prepare for planned testimony to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, even though the firm was already aware it had a conflict of interest representing both him and Allianz. The lawyers later passed information to prosecutors that Tournant provided during the meeting, he claims.

Cooperating Witnesses

Two executives who worked with Tournant, Stephen Bond-Nelson and Trevor Taylor, agreed to plead guilty to charges and are cooperating with prosecutors. The government claims Tournant conspired to obstruct an SEC investigation by telling Bond-Nelson to lie to the companys lawyers, knowing the information would be passed on to the regulator.

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The US argued that Tournant signed a written waiver, when he was represented by three different law firms, that allowed his employer to disclose information to prosecutors. The government later ended up charging both Tournant and an Allianz unit.

A New York judge last month approved a plea deal under which a unit of Allianz SE, the German insurer, agreed to pay about $6 billion and pleaded guilty to a single criminal charge of securities fraud to resolve charges it misrepresenting the investment risk posed by the hedge funds.

The case is US v. Tournant, 22-cr-00276, US District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

(Adds declined comment in fourth paragraph.)

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On August 4, the Bulgarian government approved the transfer of almost a hundred armored personnel carriers to Ukraine.

Thats according to Novinite, Ukrinform reports.

"The Bulgarian Government approved a draft Agreement between the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine on the free provision of armored transport equipment," the report reads.

It is noted that the handover of armored vehicles not used by the Bulgarian Ministry of Internal Affairs was agreed upon during President Volodymyr Zelensky's visit to Bulgaria last month.

Also last month, Bulgarian lawmakers backed the provision of 100 armored personnel carriers from the reserve of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in support of Ukraine. A total of 148 deputies voted "for" with 52 being "against".
Western politicians who want to put an end to the Russo-Ukrainian war as soon as possible should understand that there is only one way to move forward, which is to provide more military aid to Kyiv.

Security and foreign policy analyst and commentator Jessica Berlin stated this in an interview with Ukrinform.

"If the war needed to end as soon as possible in the eyes of Western capitals, then the way forward is clear. Send more help. Full stop. If you want this war to be over ASAP, give Ukraine the long-range missile systems, the ammunition, and the air support capacity (the jets that you need), she stressed.

According to the analyst, the West asks Ukraines Armed Forces to carry out a " to conduct a counteroffensive across thousand-plus kilometers of heavily mined entrenched defensive front without air superiority.

This is something that no NATO military would ever even consider. It's madness, really, from a military strategic perspective if you're a NATO military planner. But this is precisely what NATO is expecting of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. So anybody who is complaining that the offensive going too slowly, the answer is clear. We need to send more help more quickly  demining equipment, long-range missiles, and air support capacity," Berlin said.

As reported, the Pentagon foresees that the counteroffensive against Russia will be difficult and long but the United States will continue to support Ukraine "for as long as necessary."
There are no restrictions in place in Ukraine, and Kyiv does not intend to ask anyones permission to destroy the enemy's military targets.

Thats according to NSDC Secretary Oleksiy Danilov, who spoke in an exclusive interview with Ukrainian Radio, commenting on the drone attack on the Russian landing ship Olenegorsky Gornyak off the coast of Russias Novorossiysk overnight Friday.

"We will act as we deem necessary, firstly, to provide the world with food products, and secondly, to provide our economic component for our agricultural producers," Danilov noted.

As reported, kamikaze maritime surface drones attacked the Russian navys landing ship Olenegorsky Gornyak, which was based in the city of Novorossiysk (Russia). Despite the fact that Russias Ministry of Defense assured the public that the attack had been repulsed, footage appeared in the media this morning showing the ship being tugged, listed to the port side, with clear signs of damage sustained. Russia was forced to introduce a temporary ban on the movement of ships in the port of Novorossiysk.
In some places, the Ukrainian military have already broken through Russias first line of defense in the south.

The relevant statement was made by Ukrainian Defense Deputy Minister Hanna Maliar during a nationwide telethon, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

Speaking of the south, our forces continue to persistently carry out offensive actions there despite the enemys very strong resistance. Firstly, this refers to continuous artillery attacks and, secondly, mining efforts. But, our troops in the south have already broken through the first line of defense in some places and moved to the so-called intermediate line, Maliar told.

In her words, at the intermediate line, Russians set up concrete engineering fortifications within their main heights, which is complicating the movement of Ukrainian forces.

Both in the south and in the east, Russians are bringing up personnel reserves, mainly professional military units, such as air assault units.

According to Maliar, Russia is focusing efforts on the east as the epicenter of hostilities.

Fierce battles are raging in the Marinka and Avdiivka direction. The situation is changing there on a daily basis but, most importantly, Ukraines Defense Forces do now allow the enemy to advance, Maliar stressed.
A court sentenced a resident of Kramatorsk, in the Donetsk region, to nine years in prison for passing on information about the location of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

This was reported by the Office of the Prosecutor General, according to Ukrinform.

The investigators found that in March, a local amateur photographer used the Telegram messenger to communicate with two administrators of local pro-Russian chat rooms created to collect intelligence.

The defendant acted knowing that the information he provided could get to the Russian military and harm the national security of Ukraine.

Read also: Fourteen Crimean businessmen suspected of collaborationism

The man sent photos of the locations of Ukrainian army units in Kramatorsk. Some time later, the Russian army hit one of these facilities with a missile, which caused its destruction.

The offender was convicted under Part 3 of Art. 114-2 (unauthorized dissemination of information about the location of the Armed Forces of Ukraine) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

As reported, a Russian intelligence agent who wanted to destroy Ukrainian Air Defense in Dnipropetrovsk region was sentenced to 15 years in prison with confiscation of property.
Ukraine proposes to gradually impose sanctions against Rosatom.

Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said this at a conference of Ukrainian ambassadors, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"We propose to do this in several stages. The first stage is to impose personal sanctions on representatives of Rosatom. The second stage is to impose partial sanctions on the supply of Russian nuclear fuel and Russian technologies. For example, to introduce a 50% quota by 2025. Then, starting on 2025 or 2026, to impose 100% sanctions on the supply of Russian nuclear technology and Russian nuclear fuel. Such steps will be perceived much easier than the inflexible and rigid approach of introducing everything," Shmyhal said.

According to him, Russian metallurgy, diamonds, and the price cap on gas and oil should not be ignored by the sanctions pressure.

"Sanctions are no less important tool than weapons. Unfortunately, today we see that Russia is adapting to the sanctions. They are finding ways to get high-tech products for their weapons. Unfortunately, they do not respond to warnings against nuclear blackmail," the Prime Minister stated.

The Prime Minister drew attention to the fact that recently, the wreckage of missiles and drones found in Ukraine contained parts made from high-tech components from almost 50 countries, including the G7 countries. These components were supplied in 2022 and 2023 despite the sanctions. The lists of manufacturers are available. Diplomats should pay attention to them.

As reported, Ukraine is constantly calling on its partners to strengthen sanctions against Russia to weaken the aggressor's ability to wage a full-scale war.
As of August 4, 2023, Ukraine harvested 16.574 million tonnes of grains and pulses on 3.782 million hectares with a yield of 44 centners/ha.

According to Ukrinform, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine reported this.

Farmers have already threshed 12.513 million tonnes of wheat from 2.698 million hectares (yield, 46.4 c/ha), 3.755 million tonnes of barley from 939,000 hectares (yield, 40 c/ha), and 306,400 tonnes of peas from 125,300 hectares (yield, 24.5 c/ha).

Mykolaiv region's agricultural producers remain the leaders in grain harvesting, having threshed 82% of the area. The largest harvest in Odesa region is over 2 million tonnes.

Farmers in 9 regions have finished harvesting peas. Farmers in Dnipro region have started harvesting buckwheat.

Winter rapeseed harvesting continues, with 3.319 million tonnes of seeds harvested on 1.182 million hectares, yielding 28.1 c/ha.

As Ukrinform reported, Ukrainian Grain Association predicted that in 2023 Ukraine would harvest 76.8 million tonnes of grains and oilseeds.
Reconstruction of 13 apartment buildings damaged by Russian aggression is already underway in the Kyiv region, and work will begin on five more sites in the near future.

Ruslan Kravchenko, the head of the Kyiv Regional Military Administration, announced this on Facebook, according to Ukrinform.

"We have already started reconstruction of 13 apartment buildings in the Kyiv region. Work will start on five sites in the near future," said Kravchenko.

In particular, the works are underway in Irpin ( five houses), Gostomel (three houses), Borodyanka (two houses), Myla (two houses) and Buzova (one house).

Read also: Russia attacking Ukraine with missile it received from Kyiv for gas debts

Kravchenko noted that the reconstruction of the first three buildings began in May, and all work is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

In total, the project will restore 18 facilities with funds raised on the United24 platform. All of these buildings were damaged as a result of Russian aggression.

UAH 638.9 million has already been allocated for the repair of 18 facilities.

Read also: Priority tasks for rebuilding region presented in Kyiv region

The head of the RMA noted that UNDP is providing independent oversight of the use of recovery funds and the quality of reconstruction at all stages.

As reported, over 27,000 facilities have been destroyed or damaged since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of the Kyiv region.
Judging by the examples of North Korea and Iran, Russia, unfortunately, will have the funding to continue its war.

Ukrainian investment banker Serhiy Fursa said this in a commentary to Ukrinform.

"They (Russians - ed.) will still have the resources. Iran has been under sanctions for 40 years, but it has the resources to produce kamikaze drones and terrorize Israel," the investment banker said.

He clarified that "this year Russia has fewer resources than the previous year. The intensity of the fighting and the capacity are also much lower. So, next year they will have even fewer resources, but they will still have them."

In the investment banker's opinion, for sanctions against Russia to be fully effective, India and China should join them.

"Unfortunately, this will never happen, so we just need to tighten control so that the Kremlin has fewer opportunities to circumvent sanctions," Fursa emphasized.

China, India, and African countries support the Russian economy by actively buying oil and oil products.

Russia continues to generate revenue through oil exports. Russian exports amounted to 8.3 million barrels of oil per day year to date, the highest level since April 2020, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). China was the largest buyer (43% of Russian crude oil exports), followed by India (36%), the EU (8%) and Turkiye (3%).

As reported, Chinese exports to Russia in the first five months of 2023 increased by 75.6% compared to the same period last year and reached $42.9 billion. Imports increased by 20.4% to $50.9 billion.
More than 200 private houses have been restored in the Kherson region as part of the 'Plich-o-plich' initiative, and the same amount will be completed in the near future.

This was reported by the Kherson Regional State Administration, according to Ukrinform.

"More than 200 private houses have already been restored in the Kherson region as part of the project, and the same amount will be completed in the near future. In total, we plan to restore more than 3,500 objects in 26 communities as part of the pilot," the statement said.

The second phase of the project is also starting, which includes 50 more de-occupied settlements where residential buildings and social facilities will be restored.

The RMA talks about Ivanivka, one of the three villages in the Kherson region that the Cherkasy region is restoring as part of the 'Plich-o-plich' initiative.

As noted, the Russian occupants destroyed everything they saw there - houses, a school, farms and agricultural enterprises. The village was shelled with mortars, artillery, and aircraft. Almost no surviving objects were left there.

Currently, work is underway in Ivanivka, with entrepreneurs, builders, volunteers and communities from the Cherkasy region joining in to restore the damaged areas as soon as possible. Despite everything, people are returning to their homes in the Kherson region.

As reported, the 'Plich-o-plich' project is designed to help rebuild the communities in the Kherson region that have suffered the most as a result of Russian aggression. 15 regions of Ukraine have united to rebuild 26 settlements in the Kherson region.
LONDON, August 04, 2023--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AM Best has affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of B+ (Good) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of "bbb-" (Good) of Dunav-Re a.d.o. (Dunav-Re) (Serbia). The outlook of these Credit Ratings (ratings) is positive.

The ratings reflect Dunav-Res balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as strong, as well as its adequate operating performance, limited business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management. In addition, the ratings reflect a neutral impact from Dunav Res ownership by Dunav osiguranje a.d.o. (Dunav Insurance).

Dunav-Res risk-adjusted capitalisation remains at the strongest level, as measured by Bests Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR). AM Best expects future business growth to be supported by internal capital generation and financial support from the companys parent. Dunav-Re is somewhat dependent on retrocession to manage domestically sourced business; however, the credit risk associated with this is mitigated partially by the excellent credit quality of the companys retrocession panel. Offsetting factors in the balance sheet strength assessment include the companys high exposure to Serbias financial system and its small capital base.

Dunav-Re has a track record of favourable underwriting performance, with a five-year (2018-2022) weighted average combined ratio of 80.8%. However, the companys business written outside of Serbia has grown rapidly in recent years. Although initial indications suggest that this new business is performing well, the sustainability of its performance will not be clear for some time. In addition, Dunav-Res technical results remain susceptible to potential volatility due to its exposure to catastrophe events. Overall profitability is supported by positive investment results. The positive outlooks reflect AM Bests expectation that the company will continue to demonstrate a trend of favourable underwriting and operating performance over the medium term.

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Dunav-Re is a multiline reinsurer operating from within Serbia. It has a dominant position in its local market, where it generates the majority of its business, with Dunav Insurance being its largest cedant. The company is active outside of its domestic market and expects internationally sourced business to be the primary driver of premium growth in the medium term.

This press release relates to Credit Ratings that have been published on AM Bests website. For all rating information relating to the release and pertinent disclosures, including details of the office responsible for issuing each of the individual ratings referenced in this release, please see AM Bests Recent Rating Activity web page. For additional information regarding the use and limitations of Credit Rating opinions, please view Guide to Bests Credit Ratings. For information on the proper use of Bests Credit Ratings, Bests Performance Assessments, Bests Preliminary Credit Assessments and AM Best press releases, please view Guide to Proper Use of Bests Ratings & Assessments.

AM Best is a global credit rating agency, news publisher and data analytics provider 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.

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Having grown a good harvest during Russia's war, the villagers hope to sell it, including for export.

For the second year in a row, farmers in Zhytomyr region have been sowing and harvesting crops amid Russia's full-scale war. On the one hand, they are in a much better position than their colleagues in eastern and southern Ukraine, as there are no battles, and the land is not mined. However, the war has also had a significant impact on the work of agricultural enterprises there. The biggest challenge now is the inability to export grain, which is compounded by the lack of labor, as many workers are defending the country.

Under the current conditions, farmers only slightly complain about the rains, which do not allow for uninterrupted grain harvesting. At the same time, the weather is favorable for late crops, which will yield a better harvest than last year. But will there be room to sell it? The question is rather rhetorical, as farmers cannot predict anything now.

An Ukrinform correspondent visited the harvest in Zviahel district, where organic spelt (wild wheat) is being harvested, and talked to those who work on the land and care about food security.

Organic spelt grows on 2,000 hectares

My colleagues and I are on our way to a field in the village of Stryjeva in Zviahel district, where the harvest is underway. Buckwheat is blooming on the left side of the road. Harvesters and trucks are working on the right one. In the afternoon, the temperature reached over 30C. No rain is predicted, so harvesters are continuously threshing the field. Where the grain has already been harvested, cylindrical straw bales are instantly growing.

"Come and see what we are growing here," Serhii Leonets, Executive Director of Galeks-Agro, says. "This is an ancient crop, wild spelt wheat, which we grow under organic conditions on 2,000 hectares. In this field, 110 hectares are sown with it. Spelt is very valuable, but there is not much information about it. We try to spread the word so that people know about this crops benefits. For example, spelt porridge is very healthy. Besides, spelt is low in gluten... There, behind you, buckwheat grows, where our apiary is located, and we collect buckwheat honey."

The company specializes in organic farming. It cultivates 10,000 hectares of land, where it grows over a dozen organic crops, including spelt, sunflower, soybeans, corn, and buckwheat. In addition to crop farming, the company is also engaged in organic livestock farming, and has two plants that process milk and meat. They also have a workshop that produces cereal grains (wheat, barley, oat, buckwheat, spelt) and flour.

The executive director explains that all production at the company is certified. No pesticides, herbicides, or plant protection products are used to grow the crops, which could help to get a better harvest or more profit. As proof, Leonets shows a green weed growing between the spelt.

"In our farm, the harvest started a week ago. We started harvesting this field today. So far, we have harvested only 80 tonnes. In general, there are problems with harvesting due to frequent rain. If it's a day off for the agronomist, it's a nervous day for the director. This year, for the first time in 10 years, we turned on the drying system for winter crops. Now we are drying wheat and spelt, which is an additional and quite significant expense, but I think we can manage," Serhii adds.

Lack of labor and closed European markets

Rainy weather is only half the problem. There are other, much more complicated problems that agribusiness has faced in the context of Russia's full-scale war.

Last year, Galeks-Agro, like all other Ukrainian farmers, experienced a crisis in the diesel fuel market during the sowing season. Now they do not complain about the situation with the fuel supply. But there is a shortage of labor, as about 35% of the company's employees are in the Armed Forces. Serhii Leonets notes that the key factor in agriculture is people, without whom the land is worthless.

"Today, when we are talking to you here in the field, sales have stopped altogether," the executive director says. "No one is interested if it's organic or not now. The market has completely stopped. I can't say what will happen tomorrow... We sent inquiries to all the partners we worked with before the full-scale war, and there are about 20 of them in Europe. All of them refused our products, explaining that there was no need for them. They are faced with the task of buying out everything that is already on the European market. When a gap appears, we may enter Europe with our products. But this is not yet predicted. This is a big problem. Business is in a critical state now."

Previously, the company exported 40% of its grain products and processed the rest for the Ukrainian market. Now the company has only one contract with Italy, where it will sell 10 tonnes of spelt. For Galeks-Agro, this is an insignificant amount, but at the same time, it is a chance to declare that Ukraine is engaged in organic production. Until February 2022, European countries were the main buyers of unprocessed spelt.

The new harvest adds to the hassle

According to forecasts, this year the company will harvest 5-10% more grain than last year, thanks to regular rains. Some of last year's grain had to be packed in grain storage. If the sales market does not work, farmers will remain in a vicious circle, as there will be no need to sow grain that cannot be sold. This will lead to a lack of funds to pay salaries, buy diesel fuel, and maintain machinery.

Roman Savchuk, the company's chief agronomist, is cautiously optimistic about the situation.

"The farm did not stop or reduce its sown areas during the war. Wheat is doing well now, so everything should be fine," the man says.

An agronomist has work to do in the field all year round. First, he controls the quality of sowing, then germination, monitors the plants' condition in winter and spring, and assesses when they can be harvested. Colleagues joke that Roman is now "cooling off," but in fact he makes sure that the harvester does not go too fast and does not leave any losses behind.

The chief agronomist adds that there are 5 harvesters, 5 trucks, and a press working in this field. The harvester works for 14 hours. Two people operate such equipment. The harvesters will rest on December 31, as they will still be harvesting corn by then.

We are leaving the field. The blue sky is cloudless over the spelt plot and sunflower plantation. The scenery resembles the flag of Ukraine, which, like the farmers, is now fighting its battle.

Iryna Chyrytsia, Zhytomyr

Photos by the author
A meeting of advisers to heads of state and representatives of the foreign affairs ministries regarding Ukraines Peace Formula will kick off in Saudi Arabia tomorrow. It is very important that the world sees that a fair and honest end to Russian aggression will benefit everyone in the world.

Thats according to President Volodymyr Zelenskys traditional address to the nation, Ukrinform reports referring to the Presidential Office.

Dear Ukrainians, I wish you good health!

A brief report for the day.

The first is a meeting of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief's Staff. The meeting was long, much longer than planned.

The situation on the front line was analyzed in detail, all areas  those where we are holding the line, and those where we are moving forward step by step.

The commanders reported: Commander-in-Chief Zaluzhny, General Syrsky, General Tarnavsky. We discussed in detail how and in what terms, what kind of support, what kind of logistics would be the best result for Ukraine.

Manufacturing of ammunition and weapons in Ukraine, by our defense industry. We simplify all procedures as much as possible, remove all red tape still hindering manufacturers. Minister for Strategic Industries Kamyshin reported. The result will be.

The Black Sea and food exports, the security of our ports  the commander of the Navy, government officials, intelligence chiefs reported. Let not the Russian terrorists even hope they would manage to provoke a global food crisis or create another price calamity.

Ukrainian food exports are a key factor in the stability of food markets. And we work with all our partners both in the region and in the world in general to guarantee food security.

By the way, Tomorrow in Jeddah  in Saudi Arabia  a meeting of advisors to heads of state and representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding the Peace Formula will begin. Many countries will be represented, different continents, including the countries of the Global South.

It is very important because in such matters as food security, the fate of millions of people in Africa, Asia, and other parts of the world directly depends on how fast the world will be in implementing the Peace Formula.

I am grateful to Saudi Arabia for this platform for negotiations. A meeting in the same format was recently held in Copenhagen. We are moving step by step towards the Global Peace Summit.

It is very important that the world sees: a fair and honest end to Russian aggression will benefit everyone in the world. Everyone! Liberating Ukrainian land from the occupiers means restoring full respect for international law and the UN Charter. Eliminating all threats created by Russia to Ukrainian and global security means returning peace to international relations and stability to global life. I am grateful to everyone who supports the Peace Formula and has already joined the joint efforts for the full implementation of the Formula.

Today, I had the opportunity to once again thank everyone who in the United States is helping Ukraine to defend its freedom: both parties, Congress, President Biden, every American family and community. American leadership is indeed vital. And not only for freedom in our region  these are global things. And at a meeting with Christopher Christie, one of the influential figures in American politics, a member of the Republican Party, we talked about exactly how important it is to strengthen support for freedom, support for democracy. And I am grateful that Mr. Christie is one of those people who wants to see the situation with his own eyes. He began his visit to Ukraine with a visit to Bucha. There one can fully see what Russian aggression brings to Ukraine and all of Europe, the entire free world.

Today, there was also a report by SSU Chief Maliuk. I will not voice the content. I will only say that we are all grateful to the Security Service of Ukraine for returning the war to the aggressor state. What you bring to the world, you end up with it yourself.

Thankful to all our heroes! Thankful to everyone in the world who supports Ukraine! Thankful to everyone who brings the implementation of the Peace Formula closer!

We must win. And we will win!

Glory to Ukraine!
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy Mike Blake/Reuters

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy says the company is working on multiple generative AI projects.

The CEO called AI a "significant investment and focus" for the company.

Amazon has been trying to keep pace with its competitors when it comes to the AI boom.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy says the company is working really hard on generative AI.

Jassy said during the company's Q2 earnings call on Thursday that "every single one" of Amazon's businesses had "multiple generative AI initiatives" going on. He called AI a "significant investment and focus" for the company, adding that the tech was going to be "at the heart of what we do."

The CEO said the projects ranged from internal operations to make the company more "cost-effective and streamlined" to work on products like Alexa.

Representatives for Amazon did not immediately respond to Insider's request for further details made outside normal working hours.

Amazon has been trying to keep pace with fellow tech peers when it comes to generative AI.

Since the launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT sparked mainstream interest in the technology, tech companies across the board have been keen to appear on top of the hype. Companies including OpenAI, Google, Meta, and Microsoft have been flooding the market with new AI-powered products.

Insider's Eugene Kim reported that Amazon set up a new group to work on the 'most ambitious' AI models within the company. Jassy has direct oversight of the new group, Insider previously reported citing leaked emails.

Internally, Amazon has been scrambling to respond to the AI boom. Managers have been asking staff for input on ways to incorporate AI-powered products like ChatGPT into everyday workflows or consumer-facing products, Insider reported.

Read the original article on Business Insider
FILE PHOTO: A Marathon Oil well site is seen in the Eagle Ford Shale oil field in south Texas

By Muyu Xu, Alex Lawler and Arathy Somasekhar

SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Surging U.S. crude exports in 2023 are pushing down oil prices in Europe and Asia, proving a key source of supply as producers cut output and sanctions on Russian crude disrupt trade flows.

The introduction in June of U.S. crude grade WTI Midland to set the price of the dated Brent benchmark assessed by S&P Global Commodity Insights has not only spurred the rising exports but also helped to cap Brent and the European, African, Brazilian and Asian oil that are priced off the benchmark, traders and analysts said. U.S. crude exports are also easing the loss of supply after Saudi Arabia deepened output cuts from July, above what major producers agreed to in June.

The widening exports illustrate the increasing influence of crude from the U.S., the world's biggest oil producer, in the global market. It further cements the role of U.S. supplies in balancing the market, especially as outlets for sanctioned Russian crude are limited.

U.S. crude exports have averaged 4.08 million barrels per day so far in 2023, up from an average of 3.53 million bpd in 2022, according to the Energy Information Administration.

Out of the 61 dated Brent assessments to July 27 that have included WTI Midland, the U.S. grade has been among the most competitive in all but one, while it's been the single most competitive alone on half of those days, said Joel Hanley, global director, crude and fuel oil markets at S&P Global. This means WTI Midland is effectively setting the price for the benchmark.

Other physical crude grades are feeling the pressure as a result of the U.S. supplies. The price difference for Forties crude cargoes loading in the North Sea to dated Brent averaged a discount of 2.9 cents a barrel in July, down from a premium of 12.4 cents in June and 24.5 cents in May, according to data on Refinitiv Eikon.

"As Midland becomes more and more important in the dated Brent assessment, it has a knock on effect on other grades having to price themselves lower to compete with WTI Midland," said Rohit Rathod, market analyst at energy researcher Vortexa.

Story continues

PRESSURE EXTENDS

The pressure exerted from the WTI Midland exports is even extending to Asian markets for Middle Eastern crude.

Murban crude from the United Arab Emirates is close in density to WTI Midland, but with more sulphur, and is used by traders to compare the economics of shipping WTI to the east.

The premium of Murban futures to Dubai quotes averaged $1.90 a barrel, steady from the previous month, while that for cash Dubai gained 43 cents to $1.57 a barrel during the month, according to Reuters calculations using market trade data.

A near-record volume of WTI Midland is set to be shipped east in August.

"There is more and more WTI production flooding the global markets," said Adi Imsirovic, director at Surrey Clean Energy, who formerly headed global oil trading at Gazprom Marketing and Trading.

Unlike crude from producers in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), who are currently reducing output to support prices, "WTI is freely traded, without destination and output restrictions, and WTI value has become a key to the global pricing," he said.

The increased WTI flow to Europe has weakened Brent futures relative to Dubai, though Dubai has also strengthened after Saudi Arabia announced in June additional output cuts beyond what OPEC and its allies agreed to, which has reduced the amount of high-sulphur Middle Eastern crude, particularly medium and heavy grades, available to Asian refiners.

Brent's premium to Dubai, or the Exchange of Futures for Swaps (EFS), averaged 78 cents a barrel in July, the narrowest in more than two years.

The effect has been to make low-sulphur Atlantic Basin crude such as those from Europe, Africa and Brazil more affordable for Asian buyers and boosted demand for WTI Midland in the region, with a Singapore-based oil trader saying the grade kept Murban prices in check in July.

Even as crude demand to Asia should be falling as some refiners carry out maintenance ahead of the Northern Hemisphere winter there is great interest in bringing WTI to Asia, said John Evans of brokerage PVM Oil. He notes that the grade's discount to Dubai, expensive Saudi Arabian crude and low freight rates are making WTI attractive.

The flow of WTI into Asia in August is high but not quite at the previous record, and that is "impressive enough to keep the bulls interested," he said.

(Reporting by Muyu Xu, additional reporting by Alex Lawler in London and Arathy Somasekhar in Houston; Editing by Florence Tan, Simon Webb and Christian Schmollinger)
UNODC contributes to the suppression of the illegal drug trafficking in Kyrgyzstan

At present, the drug threat is not confined to the borders of any one state or region, but has a transboundary, global character. The direct consequences of drug trafficking include cross-border crime, the degradation of public institutions and the destabilization of the economic systems of the countries affected by this phenomenon. Drug proceeds contribute to the growth of corruption and are often used to finance and support various extremist groups, purchase weapons and prepare for terrorist attacks. In addition, drug trafficking is inextricably linked with illegal activities in the areas of human trafficking and money laundering.

In the Kyrgyz Republic, only in November - December 2020, the total amount of seized drugs reached 10 tons. The approximate estimated cost of which was 380 thousand US dollars.

According to Mr. Bakyt Matmusaev, Head of the Counter Narcotic Services under the Ministry of Interior of the Kyrgyz Republic, as a result of the comprehensive support provided by the UNODC Programme Office in the Kyrgyz Republic, the service has successfully carried out a number of special operations aimed at suppressing distribution channels, as well as the seizure of large consignments of narcotic drugs from illicit trafficking .

These seizures became possible thanks to the implementation of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Program Office in the Kyrgyz Republic project XACZ60: Sub-programme - 1 Counteracting transnational organized crime and drug trafficking and prevention of terrorism, and in particular support provided to develop the capacity of employees of Counter Narcotic Service. The provided training seminars within the framework of the sub-programme used the capabilities of the Analytical Center, which has become a key element in conducting investigations and special, stressed Mr. Bakyt Matmusaev.

Mr. Andrey Seleznev, Head of the UNODC Programme Office in the Kyrgyz Republic noted that only coordinated actions will lead to a decrease in illegal drug trafficking, suppression of corruption, organized crime and terrorism.

As a result of special investigative actions and search measures, most of the flow of heroin found and seized in the Kyrgyz Republic falls on Osh oblast and Kara-Suu rayon - 8 kg. 268 gr. Hashish in the weight of 16 kg. 509 gr. was seized in Jalal-Abad, Naryn, Issyk-Kul and Chui regions. 142 kg. 160 g of Marijuana was seized in the Issyk-Kul and Ak-Suu regions. 1,320 kg. of sulfuric acid used for the production of heroin was seized in Bishkek and Kara-Suu regions, and 9 tons of cannabis- in Chui oblast.

In 2020, with the assistance of the UNODC Programme Office in the Kyrgyz Republic, the Analytical Center of the Counter Narcotic Service of the Ministry of Interior of the Kyrgyz Republic was established to provide organizational, analytical, informational and methodological support to operational units, including in planning general activities in the field of combating drug trafficking, and also in planning and coordinating activities during special operations. During the implementation of the project, all employees of the analytical department of the the Counter Narcotic Service of the Ministry of Interior of the Kyrgyz Republic were trained on the use of analytical tools and techniques in the fight against drugs. During the inaguration of the center, in October 2020, the Minister of Interior of the Kyrgyz Republic emphasized that "the Analytical Center has become an institution for advanced training for other departments of the Ministry and law enforcement agencies".

UNODC is the key among UN agencies that fully supports the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic in achieving Sustainable Development Goal 16 to promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, ensure access to justice for all and create effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

This work is conducted as part of the UNODC Programme office in Kyrgyz Republic XACZ60 project under Sub-programme-1 "Countering Transnational Organized Crime and Illegal Drug Trafficking and Prevention of Terrorism" of the UNODC Programme for Central Asia 2015-2021, with the financial support from US State Departments Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL).

Article in Russian language.

***

For more information, please contact Vasilina Brazhko (Ms.)

Communication and Public Relations Specialist

UNODC in Central Asia

by +996775987817 WhatsApp or

email mail: vasilina.brazhko [at] un.org
NANNING, Aug. 4 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Aug, 2023 ) --:A Chinese medical aid team left south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region for Laos on Friday for a two-month ophthalmic surgery assistance mission.

The team consists of four doctors and four nurses from a prestigious hospital in Guangxi, and they are expected to conduct free cataract surgeries for local patients and help train local eye doctors.

The mission is jointly organized by the Guangxi regional health commission and the Lao Ministry of Health.

Since the launch of the mission in September 2022, Guangxi has dispatched 26 medical workers in three batches and performed 1,834 free cataract surgeries in Laos.
Bameno, Ecuador, Aug 4 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Aug, 2023 ) :Armed with a long blowgun and darts laced with poison extracted from plants, Kominta walks naked through the thick Ecuadorian jungle, where oil exploration is threatening his way of life.

"The jungle is my home, and I don't want strangers in my territory," the Waorani hunter tells AFP in the southeastern village of Bameno, in a region bordering Peru.

His community of about 200 people is in Yasuni National Park, one of the most diverse biospheres in the world, and home to two of the world's last uncontacted Indigenous populations.

On August 20, along with general elections, Ecuadorans will vote in a referendum on whether to halt the exploitation of crude oil within the reserve, which currently provides 12 percent of the 466,000 barrels per day produced by the country.

"I don't want an oil company to reach my territory. That's how I want to live, freely, in a healthy place," adds Kominta in the Wao Terero language.

The government -- which opposes the referendum that was granted by the Constitutional Court in May -- estimates losses of some $16 billion over 20 years if the oil is left underground.

There are about 4,800 Waorani, who own some 800,000 hectares (1.9 million acres) of jungle in the Amazon provinces of Orellana, Pastaza and Napo.

However, the community -- some of whom still choose to live in isolation -- is divided, with some supporting the oil companies and the benefit economic growth has brought to their villages.

Drilling inside the Yasuni reserve began in 2016 after years of fraught debate and failed efforts by then President Rafael Correa to persuade the international community to pay Ecuador $3.6 billion not to do so.

But with his government strapped for cash amid a plunge in global oil prices, in the end the leftist leader asked Congress to give the go-ahead to drill.

Current President Guillermo Lasso, who took office in 2021, wants to double Ecuador's oil production.
New Delhi, Aug 4 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Aug, 2023 ) :India's top court on Friday suspended the defamation conviction of Rahul Gandhi, a decision that could pave the way for the senior opposition politician to return to parliament after his disqualification.

Gandhi, 53, was sentenced to two years' imprisonment in March in a case that critics have said showed threats to the rule of law in the world's largest democracy.

He was turfed out of the legislature as a result but has stayed out of jail while appealing the case up to the Supreme Court in New Delhi.

A justice there said that the initial trial judge had failed to justify imposing the maximum sentence on Gandhi for his comments, made during a campaign rally four years ago.

"The order of conviction needs to be stayed pending final adjudication," Justice B.R. Gavai said in his ruling.

Gandhi is the leading face of the opposition Congress party, once the dominant force of Indian politics.

He is also the scion of India's premier political dynasty and the son, grandson and great-grandson of former prime ministers, beginning with independence leader Jawaharlal Nehru.

But Congress has for years been repeatedly crushed in elections by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and its nationalist appeals to India's Hindu majority.

The conviction stemmed from a remark made during the 2019 election campaign when Gandhi had asked why "all thieves have Modi as (their) common surname".

His comments were portrayed as a slur against the prime minister and against all those with the same surname, which is associated with the lower rungs of India's caste hierarchy.

Anyone sentenced to a custodial term of two years or more is ineligible to sit in India's parliament, forcing Gandhi's expulsion from the body in March.

Gandhi's 731-page submission to the Supreme Court said his speech was made "in the course of democratic political activity".

His sentence was "gravely detrimental to democratic free speech", added the document, which his party provided to AFP.

The case -- one of several lodged against Gandhi in recent years -- had until Friday only been heard by courts in Gujarat, Modi's home state.

Legal action has been widely deployed against opposition party figures and institutions seen as critical of the Modi government during its nine years in power.

Domestic and international media have also come under growing pressure. In February, tax inspectors raided the local offices of Britain's BBC.
Inverness, United Kingdom, Aug 4 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Aug, 2023 ) :Around Scotland's Loch Ness, famous for hosting a mythical monster in its murky depths, another prolonged dry spell earlier this year has heightened fears of a different kind.

The drier than usual start to 2023, alongside other gradual climate shifts, is having implications for everything from native wildlife and species -- including Scotland's famous salmon population -- to farming and power production.

"Water is becoming a commodity that's becoming scarce in this part of the world," salmon fisherman Brian Shaw told AFP during a visit early last month, as Scotland reeled from its hottest June on record.

"Everybody's looking to use the water for their own needs." Figures released in May by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) confirmed what seasoned observers could already see: Loch Ness's fresh waters -- Scotland's largest by volume -- had dropped to their lowest level in decades.

It had not been this shallow -- with a depth of around 109 cms (3.5 ft) at a hydroelectric dam halfway along its eastern shore -- since the early 1990s.

"It's held at this level for several months now," Gordon Mangus, 84, who grew up near the legendary lake and now serves as its harbour master, noted.

"We are used to rain, but we are not used to having quite such dry spells." The situation is mirrored in other Highlands areas, including Loch Maree to the northeast and Black Isle to the west.

- More dry weather - "Everybody thinks of Scotland as a wet country, but the droughts are becoming more frequent now, as a result of climate change," explained Nathan Critchlow, the head of water and planning at Sepa.

"We used to see drought very rarely, about once every 18 years. By 2050, we predict you will have very low water levels about every other year.

"So Scotland's climate is changing and we are starting to see the impacts of that change." On the banks of the River Ness, which flows from the loch into the sea at Inverness, the UK's northernmost city, Shaw pointed to the waterway's visible stone bed as evidence of its diminishing levels.

The director of the Ness District Salmon Fishery board said the river's depth had been falling steadily for years, but the trend had become more noticeable.

"A dry winter, a really dry spring, a very hot June and the river just got smaller and smaller," he told AFP.

The warmer, drier weather had hit its wild salmon population, Shaw said.

One of the small streams that feeds the river has already dried up, leaving dead fish behind, he added.

"You're starting to see this sort of event happening all the time and I think there's real concern about the future of salmon and a more challenging environment as we go ahead." While much-needed rain in recent weeks has brought some respite to parts of Scotland, water levels remain depleted to "an alert point" in some areas, according to Sepa.

And Britain's Meteorological Office is forecasting another dry period later in the summer.

- Demand for water - Demand for water in summer is also intensifying, with more competition for it among farmers, fishermen, domestic users including tourists and hydroelectric firms, according to locals.

SSE Renewables, which runs a hydroelectric scheme at Loch Ness, has faced claims from fishermen and others that it was causing the loch's levels to drop by storing water to generate electricity.

The operator has denied that, saying the months of dry weather had depleted it.

Environmental experts are warning residents and businesses must adapt to the changing weather patterns and to prepare for periods of water scarcity and floods as the average temperature rises.

According to the Climate Change Committee (CCC), an advisory body appointed by the UK Government, Scotland's 10 warmest years on record have all occurred since 1997.

The average temperature between 2010 and 2019 was around 0.7 degrees Celsius warmer than the average between 1961 and 1990.

Wetter weather in some places has arrived in tandem with the temperature rises, mainly in winter, with the annual average rainfall between 2010 and 2019 up nine percent on 1961-1990.

At Loch Ness, before retreating back to his cabin to monitor the boats, Mangus recalled childhood memories, from entering its waters to exploring its shoreline with his father and brother.

Although the octogenarian blames the hydroelectric dam as much as the changing climate for Loch Ness's shifting water levels, he conceded that what is happening there now is "rare".
Wellington, Aug 4 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Aug, 2023 ) :Facing ageing equipment and difficulties recruiting personnel, New Zealand's military needs a revamp, the government said Friday.

The South Pacific nation's roughly 15,000-strong defence force "is not in a fit state to respond to future challenges", according to a policy review presented by Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and Defence Minister Andrew Little.

According to the review, New Zealand's military is designed for a "relatively benign strategic environment" rather than the region's current predicaments, including climate-fuelled challenges and intense strategic competition between China and the West.

Little said New Zealand needs to invest in a "combat-capable" force and cannot count on being protected by its remoteness.

"The changes in the domestic and international security environment mean our response and preparedness must change too," Little told reporters Friday "We must be prepared to equip ourselves with trained personnel, assets and material, and appropriate international relationships in order to protect our own defence and national security." The military revamp announcement comes during intensifying talks around New Zealand's possible role in the AUKUS alliance, a landmark pact between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States aimed at countering China's rise in the Pacific.

New Zealand has been treading carefully around involvement in the deal, hoping to avoid angering its largest trading partner Beijing.

But late last month, Hipkins said New Zealand was "open to conversations" about a possible role in parts of the pact that would not violate its nuclear-free status.

This would mean working with the other partners on defence technologies such as cyber, artificial intelligence and hypersonic weapons -- the agreement's so-called "pillar two".

While New Zealand's strategy document called its relationship with China "significant", it also said Beijing has been trying to increase its influence in the Pacific "at the expense of more traditional partners such as New Zealand and Australia".

"An increasingly powerful China is using all its instruments of national power in ways that can pose challenges to existing international rules and norms.

"Beijing continues to invest heavily in growing and modernising its military, and is increasingly able to project military and paramilitary force beyond its immediate region, including across the wider Indo-Pacific." New Zealand said it will seek to boost its presence in the Pacific, become the partner of choice for Pacific nations and help to build resilience to security and climate-related threats in the region.

In addition to its own defence, New Zealand is responsible for the defence of Tokelau, the Cook Islands and Niue, all small Pacific nations, but its only formal ally is its much larger neighbour Australia.
Niamey, Aug 4 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Aug, 2023 ) :Niger's newly installed junta has threatened an immediate response to any "aggression or attempted aggression", as the clock ticks down on a deadline given by its neighbours to reverse last week's coup.

It also made diplomatic swipes against international condemnation of the putsch, scrapping military pacts with France and pulling its ambassadors from Paris and Washington as well as from Togo and Nigeria.

On Sunday, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) gave the junta a week to reinstate democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum, who was toppled by his guard on July 26, or risk a possible military intervention.

Regional military chiefs are in Nigeria's capital Abuja to discuss the possibility of a such an intervention, but Nigerian President Bola Tinubu on Thursday told the bloc's delegations to do "whatever it takes" to reach an "amicable resolution".

Niger's junta warned it would meet force with force.

"Any aggression or attempted aggression against the State of Niger will see an immediate and unannounced response from the Niger Defence and Security Forces on one of (the bloc's) members," one of the putschists said in a statement read on national television late Thursday.

This came with "the exception of suspended friendly countries", an allusion to Burkina Faso and Mali, neighbouring countries that have also fallen to military coups in recent years.

Those countries' juntas have warned any military intervention in Niger would be tantamount to a "declaration of war" against them.

Nigeria, West Africa's pre-eminent military and economic power, is the current ECOWAS chair and has vowed a firm line against coups.

The bloc has already imposed trade and financial sanctions on Niger.

Senegal said it would send soldiers to join ECOWAS if it decided to intervene militarily.

"It is one coup too many," said Foreign Minister Aissata Tall Sall.

One ECOWAS delegation headed by ex-Nigeria leader Abdulsalami Abubakar arrived in Niamey on Thursday, according to an airport source, and was due to meet the junta leaders later.

Another was due to hold talks with leaders in Algeria and Libya.

Bazoum, who has been held by the coup plotters with his family since his ouster, said Thursday that if the putsch proves successful, "it will have devastating consequences for our country, our region and the entire world".

In a column in The Washington Post, he called on "the US government and the entire international community to help us restore our constitutional order".

- Nationwide protests - Across Niger on Thursday, thousands of people rallied to back the coup leaders on the anniversary of the country's 1960 independence from France, with some brandishing giant Russian flags and chanting anti-French slogans.

Anti-French sentiment in the region is on the rise, while Russian activity, often via the Wagner mercenary group, has grown.

In his letter, Bazoum had warned that Niger's neighbours had increasingly invited in "criminal Russian mercenaries such as the Wagner Group at the expense of their people's rights and dignity".

"The entire Sahel region," he said, "could fall to Russian influence via the Wagner Group, whose brutal terrorism has been on full display in Ukraine".

Such concerns did not seem to worry a crowd in Niamey, who chanted "Down with France", "Long live Russia, long live (Vladimir) Putin".

Protester Issiaka Hamadou said it was "only security that interests us", irrespective of whether it came from "Russia, China, Turkey, if they want to help us".

"We just don't want the French, who have been looting us since 1960 -- they've been there ever since and nothing has changed," he said.

Several thousand people also took to the streets of other cities.

In a sign of the junta's displeasure with Paris, it also announced Thursday that it was scrapping military pacts made between Niamey and France.

Paris was also among four capitals from which it is recalling its ambassadors.

"The functions of the extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassadors of the Republic of Niger" to France, Nigeria, Togo and the United States "are terminated", it said.

Blaming France's "careless attitude and its reaction to the situation", it said it had "decided to scrap the cooperation agreements in the field of security and defence with this state".

Niger has had a key role in Western strategies to combat a jihadist insurgency that has plagued the Sahel since 2012, with France and the United States stationing around 1,500 and 1,000 troops in the country, respectively.

- 'Hard-earned democracy' - In response to the turmoil, Britain and the United States have announced the pulling back of embassy personnel.

France said it has evacuated 1,079 people from the country, more than half of them French nationals.

The United States has chartered a plane to evacuate non-essential personnel and American citizens wishing to leave the country, the State Department said.

Bazoum, 63, was feted in 2021 after winning elections that ushered in Niger's first-ever peaceful transition of power.

He took the helm of a country burdened by four previous coups since independence and survived two attempted putsches before his ouster.

France refocused its anti-militant mission in Niger after pulling out of Mali and Burkina Faso last year.

After joining a regional revolt in northern Mali, armed Islamists advanced into Niger and Burkina Faso in 2015 and now carry out sporadic attacks on fragile states on the Gulf of Guinea.

The impact has contributed to army takeovers in all three Sahel countries and devastated some of the world's poorest economies.
Moscow, Aug 4 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Aug, 2023 ) :Russia said Friday it had thwarted Ukrainian sea and air drone attacks on a naval base in the Black Sea and the Crimean peninsula.

The number of attacks in the sea has increased from both sides since Moscow exited a deal last month that had allowed Ukrainian grain exports via the shipping hub during the conflict between the two countries.

"Tonight, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, with the use of two unmanned sea boats, attempted an attack on the Novorossiysk naval base of the Russian Armed Forces," the defence ministry said on Telegram.

Russian ships destroyed the naval drones, it said. It was the first such attack targeting the port city.

The Black Sea port of Novorossiysk hosts the terminus of a pipeline that carries most Kazakh oil exports through Russia.

The fuel artery's operator Caspian Pipeline Consortium said it was continuing to ship oil to moored tankers at the terminal, Russian state media reported Friday.

But "a temporary ban has been established on the movement of ships in the port", said the company, as quoted by Interfax news agency.

Russia's Black Sea Fleet has been targeted since the beginning of Moscow's military campaign in Ukraine more than a year ago, but attacks have increased in recent weeks.

On Tuesday, Russia's defence ministry said it foiled a Ukrainian drone attack targeting patrol boats in the Black Sea.

Three drones were trained on ships navigating in waters 340 kilometres (210 miles) southwest of Sevastopol, the base of Russia's Black Sea fleet in Crimea.

A similar attack was repelled a week earlier.

- Crimea attack repelled - The ministry also said Friday it had downed 13 drones over the Crimean peninsula.

There were no casualties or damage in either attack, the ministry said.

Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014, has been targeted by Kyiv throughout Moscow's Ukraine offensive but has come under more intense, increased attacks in recent weeks.

Ukrainian drone attacks on Crimea in July blew up an ammunition depot and damaged a strategic and symbolic bridge linking Russia's mainland to the peninsula.

Kyiv has repeatedly said it plans to take back Crimea, which is a regular target for its forces.

On Sunday, Russian-installed authorities in Crimea said 25 Ukrainian drones were destroyed over the peninsula.

Kyiv says Russia has repeatedly attacked Ukraine's Odesa, a centuries-old city on the shores of the Black Sea and one of Ukraine's main ports.

- Frontline under the microscope - Also announced Friday was Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu's visit to a combat zone in Ukraine to inspect a command post and meet senior military officers.

Shoigu got an update on the situation on the front and "thanked commanders and soldiers... for successful offensive operations" in Lyman in eastern Ukraine, the army said, without mentioning when the visit took place.

Shoigu last visited the front at the end of June after a failed rebellion by the Russian paramilitary group Wagner fighting along with Moscow's forces in Ukraine.

Ukraine began its long-awaited counteroffensive in June but has made modest advances in the face of stiff resistance from Russian forces on the front line.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday that the counteroffensive was difficult, reporting "very violent" fighting in the key areas on the eastern and southern fronts.

In late summer and early autumn 2022, Ukraine retook swathes of territory around Kherson and Kharkiv in rapid counteroffensives.

But Ukrainian forces are now contending with well-entrenched Russian defensive positions built over several months.
(@FahadShabbir)

An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Friday extended the judicial remand of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Dr Yasmin Rashid for another 13 days in a case of blocking roads and delivering a speech against institutions

LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Aug, 2023 ) :An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Friday extended the judicial remand of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Dr Yasmin Rashid for another 13 days in a case of blocking roads and delivering a speech against institutions.

Earlier, the police produced Dr Yasmin Rashid before ATC Judge Abher Gul Khan on expiry of her judicial remand.

The investigation officer submitted that the case challan was being prepared and it would be filed after completion. He pleaded with the court to extend the judicial remand of the PTI leader.

At this, the court extended the judicial remand for another 13 days and directed for producing Dr Yasmin Rahsid on August 17.

The Sarwar Road police had registered a case against Dr Yasmin Rashid and others over blocking roads near Sherpao Bridge and delivering a speech against institutions, during May-9 riots.
Minister for Aviation, Khawaja Saad Rafique, on Friday, warned that Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) may endure alarming losses of Rs 259 billion by the year 2030 if urgent corrective measures are not implemented, which includes the transfer of its administrative control to the private sector

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Aug, 2023 ) :Minister for Aviation, Khawaja Saad Rafique, on Friday, warned that Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) may endure alarming losses of Rs 259 billion by the year 2030 if urgent corrective measures are not implemented, which includes the transfer of its administrative control to the private sector.

While presenting "The Pakistan International Airlines Corporation (Conversion) (Amendment) Bill, 2023" for passage in the Senate, the Minister emphasized the necessity of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and granting administrative control to the private sector to sustain PIA. The airline is facing a daunting debt burden of Rs 742 billion.

However, due to severe opposition from Senators, the Senate Chairman referred the standing committee concerned, stating that the injection of FDI and administrative control to the private sector was essential to make PIA a profitable entity.

Former minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan's reckless statement has resulted in PIA incurring losses amounting to Rs 71 billion in the European Union and United Kingdom sectors.

Amidst the proceedings, PTI lawmakers raised the issue of quorum, leading the chairman to call for a fifteen-minute bell ringing. However, once the quorum was satisfied, the House proceedings resumed.

The Senate Chairman referred the bill to the relevant standing committee for further perusal.
Visitors gather at Applied Materials and Micron Technology kiosks before the start of 'SemiconIndia 2023' in Gandhinagar

By Shivangi Acharya and Munsif Vengattil

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Applied Materials wants its suppliers from Europe, Japan and elsewhere to set up operations in India, as the semiconductor toolmaker works to expand the local supply chain, its India head told Reuters.

India is a key market for U.S.-based Applied Materials where the firm plans to invest $400 million over coming years in a new engineering centre in the tech hub of Bengaluru. The centre will focus on developing technology for chipmaking tools.

Srinivas Satya, president of Applied Materials India, in an interview said the firm attracted as many as 25 of its suppliers from Japan, South Korea, the U.S. and Europe to a flagship semiconductor event in Gujarat last week to assess the market, with multiple states pitching to those firms to set up base.

Applied Materials does not manufacture in India - and has no plans to - but having suppliers based locally will help its new engineering centre speed up technology development and testing.

"Having the suppliers closer to us is so important just to accelerate our product learning cycle. We want to introduce a much broader set of products, much faster," said Satya.

"We can accelerate how these technologies get adopted into our high volume manufacturing solutions."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has been courting investment for India's nascent chip sector with aspirations to develop a chipmaking hub.

Though a major chip manufacturing deal has yet to be signed, Advanced Micro Devices last week announced plans to set up a chip design centre in India, while Micron Technology has said it will invest $825 million in a semiconductor testing and packaging unit.

Such investment creates opportunities for Applied Materials, the world's biggest maker of tools used in manufacturing chips.

"As and when Micron and other global players or domestic players set up their manufacturing plants here, Applied will certainly be ready to support those," Satya said.

Story continues

Modi met Applied Materials CEO Gary Dickerson in Washington in June and invited the company to strengthen the chip industry in the south Asian nation.

Applied Materials started its India operations in 2002 and has about 7,500 employees in the country working in product development, software and other business operations.

(Reporting by Munsif Vengattil in Bengaluru and Shivangi Acharya in New Delhi; Additional reporting by Sumit Khanna in Gujarat; Editing by Aditya Kalra and Christopher Cushing)
(@Abdulla99267510)

Conflict-Induced Global Food Security in New York Deputy Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the UN Ambassador Aamir Khan calls for a UN supervised plebiscite to enable the people of Jammu and Kashmir to exercise their inalienable right to self determination.

ISLAMABAD: (UrduPoint/UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News-August 4th, 2023) Pakistan on Friday stressed for implementation of the UN Security Council resolutions regarding Jammu and Kashmir.

Speaking at the UN Security Council High-Level Open Debate on Famine and Conflict-Induced Global Food Security in New York, Deputy Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the UN , Ambassador Aamir Khan called for a UN supervised plebiscite to enable the pepole of Jammu and Kashmir to exercise their inalienable right to self determination.

Ambassador Aamir Khan said the world community must ensure that economic deprivation and food insecurity are not utilized by the Indian occupation to crush the legitimate freedom struggle of the Kashmiri people.

He said the best solution to food insecurity in conflict zones is the earliest cessation of the use of force and violence and the durable and just solution to these conflicts.

Alluding to the situation in Afghanistan, the Ambassador assured that Pakistan will continue to provide support to the 29 million Afghans in need of humanitarian assistance and to help revive Afghanistans economy.

Ambassador Aamir Khan also urged to support the early end of the war in Ukraine in accordance with the principles of the UN Charter and international agreements. He said Pakistan has commended the UN Secretary-Generals Black Sea Grain initiative, which aimed to ease the impact of the Ukraine war and accompanying restrictions on food security. He expressed hope that this agreement will be revived at the earliest with the concurrence of the parties and implemented effectively and comprehensively.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed the possibility of restarting US food assistance to the African country, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Friday

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 04th August, 2023) US Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed the possibility of restarting US food assistance to the African country, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Friday.

In June, the United States announced it suspended food aid to Ethiopia after US officials uncovered widespread theft in the country.

"Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken spoke today with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on advancing peace, prosperity, and stability in Ethiopia," Miller said in a press release. "The Secretary and Prime Minister discussed establishing a humanitarian aid distribution system with strengthened oversight to meet the shared goal of restarting food aid as soon as possible.

"

More than 20 million people in Ethiopia depend on food assistance, according to media reports.

Moreover, Blinken noted progress in Ethiopia's efforts to implement the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement in northern Ethiopia, but expressed concern regarding the situations in the Amhara and Oromo regions.

Regarding the Horn of Africa, Miller said Blinken affirmed full US support for a diplomatic resolution on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and expressed appreciation for Ahmed's leadership in regional efforts to resolve the crisis in Sudan.
ATHENS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 04th August, 2023) The Cypriot Foreign Ministry condemned the "illegal" visit of US Congressman Pete Sessions to the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus on a direct flight from Turkey.

Sessions became the first US politician to arrive in Northern Cyprus on a direct flight from Turkey. He went to Cyprus's separatist north at the invitation of the Turkish Cypriot Chamber of Commerce on Thursday and was received by local leader Ersin Tatar. Cyprus' internationally-recognized government considers it illegal to travel to Northern Cyprus through Turkey, bypassing Cypriot checkpoints.

"The illegal entry of US Congressman Pete Sessions to the occupied territories is condemned as a violation of international law and a deviation from the official position of the United States," the statement read.

The ministry noted that the visit was a conscious choice of the lawmaker himself and "contradicts the related resolutions of the UN Security Council."

"The Republic of Cyprus maintains direct and close contacts with the United States on this issue as well, based on their long-term cooperation, which is based, among other things, on the official position of the US authorities on the Cyprus issue, which remains unchanged and complies with the norms of international law," the statement said.

Tatar, at the meeting with Sessions, urged the international community and the United States to recognize the sovereign equality of both parts of Cyprus, which he believes would create a fair and sustainable basis for the Cyprus settlement.

In June, the Cypriot Foreign Ministry strongly condemned Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's visit to Northern Cyprus as "provocative."

Cyprus has been de facto divided into Greek and Turkish parts since 1974. The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus was declared in 1983 with Turkey's backing. Negotiations on the reunification of Cyprus have been underway almost from the moment of its partition.

The United Nations has attempted to mediate reunification talks, but the negotiations have reached an impasse. While the Cypriot Greeks believe that the issue can be settled only on the basis of UN decisions within the framework of a two-zone federation, the Cypriot Turks advocate the establishment of a confederation of two equal republics.
(@FahadShabbir)

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 04th August, 2023) The US Department of State called the lack of accountability for the Beirut port explosion "unacceptable" on Friday, the third anniversary of the avoidable tragedy that killed more than 200 people.

"The lack of progress towards accountability is unacceptable and underscores the need for judicial reform and greater respect for the rule of law in Lebanon," State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a release.

The explosion of hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate is believed to have been set off by a fire.

The chemicals, of uncertain provenance and ownership, had been improperly stored in a port warehouse since 2013.

Many Lebanese officials, including the prime minister and president at the time, were aware of their presence yet failed to take firm and decisive action.

A judicial investigation into the blast has been repeatedly stymied by political factions, with no officials held accountable thus far.
(@ChaudhryMAli88)

The task force investigating a series of murders that happened between 1996 and 2011 in Gilgo Beach, Long Island, New York has identified a victim that went missing over two decades ago, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said on Friday

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 04th August, 2023) The task force investigating a series of murders that happened between 1996 and 2011 in Gilgo Beach, Long Island, New York has identified a victim that went missing over two decades ago, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said on Friday.

"Today we are here to announce that, as part of the Gilgo Task Force reexamination of all the evidence in the case, we are able to identify our Fire Island Jane Doe as Karen Vergata, who was 34 years old at the time of her disappearance," Tierney told reporters.

"Fire Island Jane Doe" is one of the Names that law enforcement was using for the victim before identification.

Tierney noted that Vergata, who was a Manhattan resident, went missing on approximately February 14, 1996.

One set of her remains was found in 1996, and a skull was discovered 15 years later in a different place.

"It is important to note that there are no charges at this time," the district attorney said.

US media reported in July that authorities took into custody a suspect in the serial killings. The suspect is Rex Heuermann, 59. He was charged with the murders of three of the Gilgo Beach victims. The sex workers Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello disappeared in 2009-2010, and their bodies were found on Long Island in 2010.

The arrest became the first one in the case, which has remained unresolved for years and involves nearly a dozen sets of human remains found in Gilgo Beach.
Wyomings Future of Learning, a collaboration that includes the University of Wyomings College of Education, is moving forward in its efforts to instill more student-centered approaches in the states K-12 education system.

The collaboration recently announced the selection of nine school districts for the first year of the Reimagining and Innovating the Delivery of Education (RIDE) pilot program. A statewide kickoff of the program is scheduled Monday, Sept. 18, from 8 a.m.-3:30 p.m. at Casper College.

And Jenna Shim, UWs interim John P. Jack Ellbogen Dean of the College of Education, is scheduled to join Gov. Mark Gordon and Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder Friday, Aug. 11, to discuss the collaboration on the governors The Morning Gather podcast. Other members of the collaboration are the Wyoming Department of Education and the State Board of Education.

As we launch the Wyomings Future of Learning collaborative initiative, we embark on a transformative era in education, one that holds the promise of unlocking the full potential of our education system and our students, Shim says. By embracing student-centered learning design and focusing on competency-based learning, flexible pathways, personalized learning and student choice, we empower educators, engage students in their own learning journeys and foster a culture of lifelong learning.

Seventeen school districts across the state responded to the call for applications for the RIDE pilot program. The collaboration selected these districts -- Albany County School District 1, Converse County School District 1, Laramie County School District 1, Lincoln County School District 1, Park County School District 6, Park County School District 16, Sweetwater County School District 2, Teton County School District 1 and Weston County School District 7 -- providing statewide representation and including both urban and rural communities.

I applaud these nine districts and their communities for their commitment and willingness to engage in a pilot program that will help empower educators to implement more student-centered classrooms, Gordon says. This paradigm shift could provide a unique opportunity for students, educators and parents to partner in the creation of a purposeful, engaging education experience that prepares students for the future. Launching these pilots will give us feedback from classrooms to keep innovating.

The pilot program will allow participating districts to engage in more student-centered learning design through four areas of focus: competency-based learning; flexible pathways; personalized learning; and student choice.

The pilots will formally begin with the kickoff event in Casper, a day of celebration and learning designed to support all interested districts to design shifts in the practices, systems and policies that more fully support a student-centered approach in K-12 schools. Gordon, Degenfelder and Shim will be joined by State Board of Education Chair Bill Lambert and others in speaking at the event, to which members of the UW community are invited -- and for which they can register here.

The state board is committed to supporting schools and communities in their endeavors to innovate and prepare students for their futures, Lambert says.

In addition to the work occurring in these nine districts, statewide professional development opportunities supporting student-centered learning practices will be offered to all schools across the state.

This partnership and pilot program are an opportunity to fundamentally change how we educate students in Wyoming, Degenfelder says, noting that the goal is to shift from a traditional one-size-fits-all model based on traditional seat time to a model that is based on individual learning needs and interests and partnership with Wyoming industries to better prepare students for jobs -- our No. 1 goal in education.

The podcast discussion involving the governor, Degenfelder and Shim is scheduled to be recorded, edited and released in conjunction with the start of the new school year on the governors website here.
The logo of the ANZ Bank is seen at Lambton Quay, in Wellington

By Byron Kaye and Himanshi Akhand

(Reuters) -Australia's competition regulator on Friday blocked a A$4.9 billion ($3.2 billion) buyout planned by No.4 bank ANZ Group of insurer Suncorp's banking arm, setting the scene for a drawn-out legal challenge.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said it was concerned a tie-up between the financial firms would worsen competition and "further entrench an oligopoly market structure" where four lenders including ANZ have three quarters of the country's A$2 trillion in home loans.

"The proposed acquisition increases the likelihood that the major banks adopt a 'live and let live' approach to each other ... instead of competing strongly on price, innovation and the quality of their service," ACCC Deputy Chair Mick Keogh said in a statement on Friday.

"A substantial lessening of competition in home loans would have major flow-on impacts to Australians with a mortgage," he added.

The decision leaves Melbourne-based ANZ, which has trailed behind its larger rivals in the cutthroat mortgage market for years, without a straightforward path to growing its loan book at a time when banks are struggling to attract new borrowers after 400 basis points of interest rate hikes in a year.

It also leaves Suncorp, one of Australia's biggest general insurers, without an avenue for simplification as extreme weather events put pressure on its core business.

The financial firms said in separate statements that they were disappointed and disagreed with the decision. The companies said they would seek a review of the determination at the Australian Competition Tribunal, an offshoot of the federal court which oversees takeover rulings.

ANZ shares rose 1% and Suncorp shares dipped 0.6% in morning trading, against a flat overall market, as analysts noted that the regulator had previously flagged its concerns and the deal had become less attractive in a softening property market.

Story continues

"If the transaction is abandoned, ANZ avoids a transaction that is increasingly unpopular with investors and gains a material capital surplus," Citi analysts said in a client note.

Taking the deal to the competition tribunal would delay its completion to mid-2024, if the tribunal approved it, from the late 2023 timeline the companies gave when they announced it a year ago.

However, the most recent major ACCC-rejected deal to go to the tribunal, a telecommunications network-sharing arrangement between heavyweights Telstra and TPG Telcom, was blocked again there.

The ANZ-Suncorp deal was one of the biggest deals for the ACCC since chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb started in March 2022, but she recused herself from the matter because of potential conflicts with her previous work as a private competition lawyer.

The ANZ-Suncorp deal also needs sign-off from Treasurer Jim Chalmers who declined to comment.

($1 = 1.5249 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Byron Kaye in Sydney and Himanshi Akhand in Bengaluru; Editing by Stephen Coates)
Show more Show less

VOA  CONNECT

EPISODE # 290

AIR DATE: 08 04 2023

TRANSCRIPT





OPEN

((VO/NAT/SOT))

((Topic Banner))

Dogs Helping People

((Ashlyn Cohill

Executive Director, Heeling House))

We train psychiatric, autism and mobility dogs.

((NATS))

Yeah. What brand is this?

((Ashlyn Cohill

Executive Director, Heeling House))

What we, as trainers, are going for and need to see is that the handler is capable of managing the dog and that the dog is able to perform the tasks for their person in a variety of situations.

((Animation Transition))

((Topic Banner))

Raising Ike

((Deborah Wydra

Teacher & Guiding Eyes for the Blind))

The Walk & Talk covers my interaction with the dog. There will be exposure to people in retail store.

((Open Animation))





BLOCK A





((PKG)) TRAINING SERVICE DOGS

((TRT: 07:52))

((Topic Banner: Training Service Dogs))

((Producer/Camera/Editor: Jeff Swicord))

((Map: Ashburn, Virginia))

((Main characters: 2 female; 0 male))

((Sub characters: 0 female; 0 male))

((Blurb:

The demand for service dogs to assist people with special needs is growing throughout the U.S. We visit Heeling House, a non-profit organization that trains Psychiatric and mobility dogs for children and some adults.))

((NATS/MUSIC))

Hi, thank you. Thank you so much.

((Jackie Meline

Service Dog Owner))

Ive been in a wheelchair my whole life. I have cerebral palsy, and then I also have a GI [gastrointestinal] condition that causes me not to be able to digest food.

Ive lived at home until about a year and a half ago. I definitely wouldnt be able to live on my own without Nathan.

((NATS))

Get it.

((Jackie Meline

Service Dog Owner))

Nathan is my arms and my legs. He helps me so much when I am out and about and when I am home.

((NATS))

Thank you.

((Jackie Meline

Service Dog Owner))

When Im home without my caregiver, he really is my caregiver.

I heard about Heeling House maybe a little before the summer of 2019. And we started training together in August of 2020.

((NATS))

((Jackie Meline

Service Dog Owner))

He opens drawers and doors. He can turn off or turn on lights.

((NATS))

Get the light. Good boy.

((Jackie Meline

Service Dog Owner))

He picks up dropped items.

((NATS))

Good boy.

((Jackie Meline

Service Dog Owner))

And also can get me items that I cant reach on my own.

((MUSIC))

((Jackie Meline

Service Dog Owner))

When youre training with a service dog, the training kind of never really stops. Its hard to put into words everything that Nathan and Heeling House has done for me.

((MUSIC/NATS))

So, you didnt tell him to wait.

((MUSIC/NATS))

Stay.

Yeah, I think I gave you one that one time like, Is this good enough? And then

((Ashlyn Cohill

Executive Director, Heeling House))

I had a dog who had a lot of behavioral problems, and she was kind of aa problem child. And I loved her so much. I took her to classes and then I decided I was going to learn everything I could. And the program set me up with Kathy, who is the founder of the Heeling House.

And after doing this for like three or four years, I was like, Hey, can I have a job? I will train dogs, do the service dog stuff. Yeah. So, helping my dog brought me here to help other people with their dogs.

((NATS/MUSIC))

((Ashlyn Cohill

Executive Director, Heeling House))

So, still doing all of our same expectations. So, were all going to be waiting at the door when we enter. We are going to have some nice walking.

((Ashlyn Cohill

Executive Director, Heeling House))

The puppies in our program have come to us from breeders throughout the country. They are ranging between ten weeks old and six months old.

((NATS))

((Ashlyn Cohill

Executive Director, Heeling House))

All right, Rob. Two rounds.

((Ashlyn Cohill

Executive Director, Heeling House))

Our puppy raisers are volunteers. Theyre not professional trainers or anything. Theyve been training with them as soon as they get home. At minimum, potty training and basic obedience. Lots of socializing. So, even if they are little, we take them on field trips so they can experience the world.

((NATS))

((Ashlyn Cohill

Executive Director, Heeling House))

In the elevator, they do love to swing out and lay in open spaces.

((Ashlyn Cohill

Executive Director, Heeling House))

The mall is a great place that we take our dogs to learn to work through a lot of distractions, different environments.

((NATS))

((Ashlyn Cohill

Executive Director, Heeling House))

All right, lets see how many of you all we could fit.

((Ashlyn Cohill

Executive Director, Heeling House))

We have different textures. So, like tile floors and carpets. There's things that are dropped on the ground that the dogs need to ignore. There are lots of people around that they need to learn that they can't always say hi to, in addition to all the sounds and the noises.

((NATS))

((Ashlyn Cohill

Executive Director, Heeling House))

Same thing. Yes, exactly. It's just the implied.

((Ashlyn Cohill

Executive Director, Heeling House))

It offers us this ability that we can work in those environments and be far enough away that we can work the dog successfully while putting in some controlled challenges.

((NATS))

((Ashlyn Cohill

Executive Director, Heeling House))

All right, cool.

We're going to walk them against this. They should be close. They don't have to be too tight, but we want them to feel comfortable.

Chuck, are you afraid ofyou're not afraid of heights?

So, he's like concerned. So, hishe might have a height thing. So, you're going to give him more space against the rail. So right now, forcing him is just going to make him feel kind of worse about it.

((NATS))

((Ashlyn Cohill

Executive Director, Heeling House))

Good job, Bud.

((Ashlyn Cohill

Executive Director, Heeling House))

So, the dog that was afraid of heights, he is about six months old. So, he's on this kind of cusp of a bunch of developmental periods right there.

((NATS))

((Ashlyn Cohill

Executive Director, Heeling House))

All right, Rob. Let me take his leash.

((Ashlyn Cohill

Executive Director, Heeling House))

So, we want him to work through it because he's going to have to learn to deal with situations as a service dog.

((NATS))

((Ashlyn Cohill

Executive Director, Heeling House))

You're going to show the treat to him.

((Ashlyn Cohill

Executive Director, Heeling House))

Giving him something, incentivizing that he can do well, is the best way to approach it.

((NATS))

((Ashlyn Cohill

Executive Director, Heeling House))

He said, no, forget this. Good job, dude.

((Ashlyn Cohill

Executive Director, Heeling House))

We don't teach any task work until the puppies are over 14 months old and they've been placed because we train the task work for the person.

((NATS))

((Ashlyn Cohill

Executive Director, Heeling House))

Good.

((Ashlyn Cohill

Executive Director, Heeling House))

But foundationally, we do try to kind of set them all up. So this way, that translates into task work that they could be doing as a grown up.

((NATS/MUSIC))

((Ashlyn Cohill

Executive Director, Heeling House))

Aww, there you go. Youre friendly girl. Hi. Hi, how are you all?

((NATS/MUSIC))

((Ashlyn Cohill

Executive Director, Heeling House))

So, our older dogs right now are about 16 months old. So, they've gone through all of their socialization, their basic obedience training, and they're learning to work with their handlers. The service dogs gonna [going to] go to them. We train psychiatric, autism and mobility dogs.

((NATS))

Yeah. What brand is this?

((Ashlyn Cohill

Executive Director, Heeling House))

What we, as trainers, are going for and need to see is that the handler is capable of managing the dog and that the dog is able to perform the tasks for their person in a variety of situations.

((NATS))

((Ashlyn Cohill

Executive Director, Heeling House))

On the evaluation...

((Ashlyn Cohill

Executive Director, Heeling House))

For our psychiatric and autism task work, there is some overlap. It's kind of dependent on what the person exhibits and then what they need.

((MUSIC/NATS))

((Ashlyn Cohill

Executive Director, Heeling House))

It is so satisfying to see the dogs on graduation day with their owners. So, weve learned that person and like how their life is impacted on the daily by their disability and then how these dogs come in and just change that for them.

((NATS/MUSIC))

((Jackie Meline

Service Dog Owner))

Thank you.

((Jackie Meline

Service Dog Owner))

I definitely would recommend other people with special needs to look into getting a service dog.

((NATS))

((Jackie Meline

Service Dog Owner))

Go through.

((Jackie Meline

Service Dog Owner))

I think for my mental and emotional well-being, I don't even know how much I need Nathan before he came into my life.

Hes made me a more outgoing person. I'm just a lot more confident. We know each other so well and I really feel like we work as a team.

((NATS/MUSIC))





TEASE

((VO/NAT/SOT))

Coming up

((Topic Banner))

Raising Ike

((Deborah Wydra

Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))

I always hope that my students see that message that, you know, service is a way of life for you.

((NATS))





BREAK ONE

USAGM SHARE

((LogOn Voice Diagnosis Tech (TV/R)

HEADLINE: LogOn: Could Your Voice Help Diagnose Your Next Illness?

TEASER: Technology analyzing thousands of voices may play a role in the future of medicine

BYLINE: Julie Taboh

DATELINE: Washington

PRODUCER: Julie Taboh, Adam Greenbaum

SCRIPT EDITORS: Michelle Quinn, Amy R

TRT: 1:54 & 2:00

[[Voice experts have long known that a person's voice can provide important information about their emotional, physical and mental health. Now a U.S. government-funded project is collecting and analyzing thousands of voices and using artificial intelligence to diagnose illnesses. VOAs Julie Taboh has more.]]

((Courtesy: Allison Long/USF Health))

((NATS  patients voice being tested))

((NARRATOR))

Dr. Yael Bensoussan examines the vocal cords of a patient.

At the University of South Florida Health Voice Center, she treats patients with a range of voice disorders, such as upper airway, voice and swallowing disorders.

And lately, shes been helping to lead a new project to build a database of 30,000 human voice recordings and train computers to detect diseases through changes in the human voice.

((Radio track: She spoke with VOA via Skype.))

((Dr. Yael Bensoussan, Voice Specialist)) ((SKYPE))

Not only to build that data, but also to develop the guidelines on how to share that data, how to collect that data, and also how to use that data for future AI [artificial intelligence] research. ((Courtesy: Weill Cornell Medicine))

((NARRATOR))

She works with a team of 45 investigators across 12 different universities in North America as well as a startup in Europe. ((NATS - Parkinsons voice demo, Text on graphic: "Parkinson's disease"))

They study voice samples to help them detect illnesses like Parkinsons disease

((NATS - Glottic cancer voice demo, Text on graphic: "Glottic cancer"))

((NARRATOR))

cancer

((NATS - Vocal fold paralysis demo, Text on graphic: "Vocal Fold Paralysis"))

((NARRATOR))

And voice disorders such as vocal fold paralysis

The team also studies mood disorders such as depression and anxiety.

((Dr. Yael Bensoussan, Voice Specialist)) ((SKYPE))

So when somebody is depressed, sad, has anxiety, of course their speech changes.

((NARRATOR))

((Courtesy: NIH))

The study is one of four data-generation projects funded by the National Institutes of Health's Bridge to Artificial Intelligence program, designed to use AI to tackle complex biomedical challenges.

((Dr. Yael Bensoussan, Voice Specialist)) ((SKYPE))

They realized that there was such a big gap between the technology that we had available, and the clinical knowledge, and what we use in clinical care in our hospitals.

((NARRATOR))

And doing it while maintaining participants privacy.

[[Radio track: Grace Peng is one of the coordinators of the National Institutes of Healths Bridge2AI program. She spoke with VOA via Zoom.]]

((Grace Peng, National Institutes of Health)) ((Zoom))

We want to think about the ethics associated with collecting people's voices. And how do we keep it private? ((NARRATOR))

((Courtesy: NIH))

The study will start enrolling participants in the coming year. ((Julie Taboh, VOA News, Washington))

BUMP IN ((ANIM))



BLOCK B



((PKG)) RAISING IKE, THE SERVICE COMPANION

((TRT: 14:40))

((Topic Banner: Raising Ike, The Service Companion))

((Producer: Faiza Elmasry))

((Camera/Editor: Lisa Vohra))

((Map: Oakton, Virginia))

((Main characters: 1 female; 0 male))

((Sub characters: 1 female, 1 male))

((Blurb:

We spend some time with Deborah Wydra, who has been raising service dogs since she was in high school. Find out what it entails to get their current puppy, Ike, ready to enter phase 1 of his formal training, and the bond that she and her husband have cultivated with Ike.))

((NATS/MUSIC))

((Deborah Wydra

Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))

Hello there, sir. How are you?

I'm Deb Wydra, and I teach English at Chantilly High School, and I'm also a puppy raiser for Guiding Eyes for the Blind.

Our job as raisers is to start with them in about three months old, somewhere in that area, and gradually increase the time and duration that we expose that puppy to really intense experiences in society. So, that's why coming into a school, which is what I do with my puppies, can be really intense. That's a lot of dynamic. It's a lot of people in a small space. It's a lot of noise. It's fire drills. It's just all of the things that create a great list of experiences for a guide dog that will need to go out someday and not be rattled by an emergency vehicle going by or someone touching them or someone stepping on them. So, they learn all of that as they go through that year of training.

((NATS))

((Deborah Wydra

Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))

He will be chewing loudly because hes a little nervous. Theres a lot of people in here. He knows youre here and hes just saying, Okay, well Im just going to try to work out my stress by chewing aggressively on a yak cheese thing.

((Deborah Wydra

Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))

The students really love when I bring Ike in. Ike does bring an element of calm to the room, sometimes a little bit of fun. Many times, I will say, they don't even know he's there. He's next to me. He's very quiet. All the dogs I raise, theyre usually very quiet. They can lie down for the whole school day, which is what they'll probably do with a guide dog user someday. They'll just go to work and they'll be under a desk and it'll be very quiet for most of the day.

((NATS))

((Deborah Wydra

Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))

Im answering these questions.

((Deborah Wydra

Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))

Sometimes, for students, its a struggle having a dog in the classroom. So I have to remind them, hes basically a service dog and you cant touch him, just as you wouldnt touch a real guide dog out working, because it breaks their concentration and it can cause some trouble for them. So what we want to do is honor their space and remember that they are a service dog and theyre working and your job is to just let them be.

((NATS))

((Deborah Wydra

Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))

As we travel through our day, I will take Ike out when I have my lunch break, and thatll be pretty good for him. He has to get used to being in a place for about six to seven hours before he takes a break, just as hell do when he is working with an actual person who needs a guide dog.

I always hope that my students see that message that, you know, service is a way of life for you.

((NATS))

((Student))

I think its really cool how Ms. Wydra trains service dogs. Shes giving back to the community in a really nice way and I think thats really admirable of her.

((NATS))

((Deborah Wydra

Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))

Youre such a movie star.

((Deborah Wydra

Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))

I grew up around dogs and spent a lot of time with dogs and we would take them backpacking. They came everywhere with us. And when I was in school in California, one of my classmates mother was blind. And that got me interested in the world of service dogs and the service dog I introduced to her. And she didn't realize that service dogs are free. And right after that, she got her first guide dog. And I realized what an amazing feat of independence having one of these dogs is.

((NATS/MUSIC))

((Deborah Wydra

Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))

Ike, get busy.

((Deborah Wydra

Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))

These are examples of some of the dogs that weve raised and, of course, Farrow, whos up here, she decided that being a guide dog was not as, really not her thing, and she prefers instead to live here with us. Sometimes dogs will have medical concerns and it would just be too costly for someone who is blind or visually impaired to take care of that dog. Theres no way you can possibly keep making VET [veterinarian] visits and doing things that are time intensive.

((NATS)

((Deborah Wydra

Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))

You are trying to steal treats. Thats not lady like.

((Deborah Wydra

Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))

I found out about Guiding Eyes for the Blind when I was working with Guide Dogs for the Blind, and I remember the folks at Guide Dogs for the Blind saying, If you ever go to the East Coast, you have to check out Guiding Eyes for the Blind, that they're another really reputable service dog agency and nonprofit. So we moved here and years later, when I was considering this as a great hobby for my children, I said, Oh, I've heard of this wonderful organization, Guiding Eyes for the Blind. Let's go ahead and look for their website and well look up and see what we need to do to raise a puppy. And sure enough, found their

((Courtesy: Guiding Eyes for the Blind))

Website, and applied, and went through all of the training, and got our first puppy.

((MUSIC))

((Deborah Wydra

Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))

While Guiding Eyes puppies are going through their training, we do train them how to be polite in kennels. Ike actually has never barked in the kennel. He's very quiet, and the expectation is while he's here in the kennel, that he's lying down. We do not open the door until he is lying down and behaving and quiet, and then we will open the door and let him out.

((NATS)

((Paul Wydra

Deborahs Husband & Dog Raiser))

Free.

((Deborah Wydra

Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))

So, Im going to start cooking and unfortunately, Ike will come over and get very interested in what Im doing. And there is a lot of hot stuff over here. So, I'm going to have to go place.

Ike, go place.

And this is a skill hell need to learn and improve on as he gets off of the step here.

And this is a skill that a guide dog user will use pretty frequently. Now, he is not great at it here in the kitchen. He will nail it every time at class. So, everybody thinks Ike is the best at this and actually he's not. So, we're really, really working with him. So, one of the techniques that Guiding Eyes found works really well is to intermittently give him treats while he's behaving here. And every once in a while, I'll come over to him, and say, Yes. And he knows, Oh, I think hes doing something good here by staying in place.

My husband has always been like 100 percent behind this.

((NATS))

((Paul Wydra

Deborahs Husband & Dog Raiser))

Up.

I got into raising guide dogs because of my wonderful wife. Never occurred to me to do it. And then she's like, Hey, I did it when I was a kid. And I was like, Hey, it sounds like fun. Let's give it a try. And seven dogs later, here I am.

((Paul Wydra

Deborahs Husband & Dog Raiser))

One of the things I love about him is, he's very cuddly. He's also one of the best behaved dogs that we've ever had. So, just as an example, Ike, heel. That's literally perfect. Like that's the definition of how he's supposed to do that command. When there are people around, he sometimes gets excited and it's a little bit more of a struggle, butuh, uh, uh, come on, Ike. This way, good boy. Sitnice.

How long the dog can guide sometimes depends on how stressful it is. So a dog, maybe in New York City, cant guide as long as a dog thats living in Vermont.

((NATS))

((Paul Wydra

Deborahs Husband & Dog Raiser))

Free.

((Deborah Wydra

Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))

Guiding Eyes has found that the dogs best suited are Labrador Retrievers and German Shepherds. So, those are the two breeds that they work with primarily.

They seem to have that ability

((Courtesy: Guiding Eyes for the Blind))

((Deborah Wydra

Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))

to people please, to love, to have the stamina to go out and work, and they love to work. That's really what they live for.

So, they seem to make the best guides. They're good size. They're easy to care for in the home.

((Courtesy: Guiding Eyes for the Blind))

((Deborah Wydra

Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))

It helps people stay social. And they also do provide a lot of protection that's needed. People who use guide dogs tell wonderful stories about, Yeah, I was getting ready to go into the elevator and my dog wouldn't lead me into the elevator and, you know, I was puzzled.

And then I heard someone behind me say, Please stop. There's no elevator there. It's an open shaft. Don't go forward. So, you know, that's just one example of how

((Courtesy: Guiding Eyes for the Blind))

((Deborah Wydra

Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))

guide dogs will protect their user. They will body block in traffic. They will just do these amazing things to make sure that they keep their person safe.

((NATS/MUSIC))





TEASE

((VO/NAT))

((Banner))

More to come after the break



BREAK TWO

USAGM

((LogOn Underwater Drones (TV, R)

HEADLINE: LogOn: Underwater Drones Take Off Like Those in the Air

TEASER: The discovery of the Endurance shipwreck in Antarctic waters this year has encouraged hobbyists to take up underwater drones

BYLINE: Genia Dulot

VIDEOGRAPHER: Genia Dulot

PRODUCER: Genia Dulot

SCRIPT EDITORS: Michelle Quinn

TRT: 2:01

[[As they overcome the challenges of operating in water, underwater drones are becoming more available for hobbyists, researchers and public agencies. Genia Dulot reports.)) ((NARRATION))

Jesuit Robotics, a high school robotics team from Sacramento, California, has been designing remotely operated vehicles, or ROVs, for more than a decade.

[[For Radio: Charlie Diaz, a member of the Jesuit Robotics team]]

((Charlie Diaz, Jesuit Robotics))

We developed the grippers ourselves, the cameras, our modularly adjustable buoyancy systems.

((BROLL: Shots of Jesuit Robotics team))

((NARRATION))

Jesuit Robotics recently exhibited its underwater drone at a competition in Long Beach, California. Called the Manatee, this underwater drone can map shipwrecks or work on environmental projects.

((Charlie Diaz, Jesuit Robotics))

We have our custom AI detection software.  Our bottom gripper helps us to restore seagrass beds.

((NARRATION))

((Courtesy: FALKLANDS MARITIME HERITAGE TRUST, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC / AFP))

Entrancing many, the recent discovery by ROV of the Endurance, which sank in Antarctic waters in 1915. That effort cost an estimated $10 million.

ROVs have been slow to take off among hobbyists, however. Several startup companies are making design changes and adding technology to make drones work better underwater and reduce costs.

Blue Robotics, a Los Angeles firm, works on waterproofing underwater drone parts such as the thruster, which propels the ROV in the right direction, and has added various sensors measuring temperature, pressure and depth.

[[For Radio: Rustom Jehangir is founder and CEO of Blue Robotics]]

((Rustom Jehangir, CEO Blue Robotics))

Instead of trying to protect the motor from the water, why dont we make a waterproof motor? Thats really the innovation here.

((Courtesy: Blue Robotics))

((NARRATION))

These new underwater drones cannot go to the deep sea, but they are being used in conditions unsafe for human divers, and by hobbyists, says Fritz Stahr, an ocean technology expert.

[[For Radio: Fritz Stahr, a judge at the competition, and chief technology officer at Open Ocean Robotics, a marine technology firm.]]

((Fritz Stahr, Ocean Tech Expert))

The ability for everybody or more people to be that explorer, to be that person who understands whats going on in their local environment, is really important.

((NARRATION))

Unlike aerial drones, technology has yet to solve the problem of underwater communications. For now, these drones are controlled by a tether.

((Genia Dulot for VOA News, Los Angeles))

BUMP IN ((ANIM))



BLOCK C



((PKG)) RAISING IKE, THE SERVICE COMPANION contd.

((NATS))

So, she is fully up to date on everything.

((Deborah Wydra

Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))

So today, we are here getting Ikes last vaccine. When we do our VET [veterinarian] visits, we actually have a whole list of things that we have to go through from the time we get the puppy, sometimes at about three months. Ike joined us when he was almost a year.

((VET Doctor))

As far as I can see, things look okay.

((Deborah Wydra

Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))

Were hoping Ike makes it.

((VET Doctor))

Yeah.

((Deborah Wydra

Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))

Right Ike? A lot just riding on you right now.

((VET Doctor))

All of our hopes and dreams, Ike.

((NATS/MUSIC))

((Jennifer Bartolotta

Regional Instructor, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))

Our puppy, Ike, is doing his Walk and Talk, which is basically an evaluation to see where he is in the program at this point, and if there's anything that we need to continue to help him with. He's getting very close to going back to Guiding Eyes for his formal harness training. So, this is just checking out where he is at this point in our program.

((NATS/MUSIC))

((Deborah Wydra

Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))

There will be exposure to people in a retail store.

((NATS))

Very strange dog.

Ike, lets go.

((Deborah Wydra

Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))

The Walk and Talk covers my interaction with the dog.

((NATS))

((Jennifer Bartolotta

Regional Instructor, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))

I would work on seeing if you can get him to be a little more fluid rather than making that hesitation and stopping.

Guiding Eyes graduates about 150 guide dogs teams every year. And we have about 450 puppies on puppy program, working toward becoming guide dog.

((NATS/MUSIC))

((Deborah Wydra

Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))

Were all here for you, sweetie.

((Jennifer Bartolotta

Regional Instructor, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))

With body handling, the guide dogs are always going to be touched a lot. As, you know, the graduates are working with them, and wanting to get a hold of them, and get their harness on and things like that. So, we want the dogs to be very comfortable with VET exams and any kind of body handling.

((NATS))

((Paul Wydra

Deborahs Husband & Dog Raiser))

Nice job!

((Paul Wydra

Deborahs Husband & Dog Raiser))

We practice it probably, for me, at least not maybe daily but definitely weekly, that sort of procedure. But then daily, were definitely snuggling with him and doing other things.

((NATS/MUSIC))

((Deborah Wydra

Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))

Youre so nice and gentle with him.

Whats so good about this is, of course, Paul and I dont have younger children at home. So, Ike is able to have exposure to smaller humans. And the point of having him greet smaller children is, so that he can learn to behave and become accustomed to humans of all ages and sizes.

((NATS))

((Jennifer Bartolotta

Regional Instructor, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))

I think Ike is ready to go and continue on his journey to become a guide dog. And he will go back to New York now and he will have his In for Training Test [further testing of temperament and ability].

((NATS/MUSIC))

((Deborah Wydra

Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))

Is it raining out there? Did you check up in the room and make sure we had everything?

((Paul Wydra

Deborahs Husband & Dog Raiser))

I think we have everything.

((Deborah Wydra

Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))

Okay.

Going to college is what I refer to that time when he's going to leave me a puppy raiser, not a professional trainer at all.

So today, we are driving a van up to Guiding Eyes. My husband is cleared to drive the van, so were driving a big van up I-95 [Interstate 95] that says Guiding Eyes for the Blind on the side. What well be doing is dropping Ike and another puppy off at the training center.

((NATS/MUSIC))

((Deborah Wydra

Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))

You ready to get busy one more time?

Todays his last day, so well be saying goodbye to him when we drop him off at Guiding Eyes.

Thats a good boy.

It is a very, very emotional experience, and you know that this animal you've spent so much time with is going to do something really great for another person. So yeah, sorry about that. Get emotional.

((NATS/MUSIC))

((Deborah Wydra

Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))

This is always an exciting day when we load up the van and watch the dogs go up. Of course were happy that we get to go up with Ike, and be with him on his journey, and then turn him over when we get to Guiding Eyes.

((NATS/MUSIC))

((Paul Wydra

Deborahs Husband & Dog Raiser))

Its kind of a game of tetris, putting all of our stuff in and making sure the puppies are situated. All the activity keeps us from thinking about the fact that were, this is our last day with Ike. ((NATS/MUSIC))

((Deborah Wydra

Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))

This is Ikes little montage.

Oh, my gosh! That looks so cute. Thats beautiful. What do you think Katie? Is he going to do it?

((Katie

Regional Instructor, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))

Yeah, I think so. I think he is.

((NATS/MUSIC))

((Deborah Wydra and Paul Wydra))

Ready? Im ready. Lets go. Its an adventure.

((NATS/MUSIC))

((Text on screen))

Ike passed phase 1 (of 3) of his In for Training' Test to become a Guide Dog.

He is now in phase 2: Harness Training.

((NATS/MUSIC))





((PKG)) NATURE: DAIRY FARM

((TRT: 02:00))

((Topic Banner: Nature: Dairy Farm))

((Camera/Editor: Jeff Swicord))

((Text on screen:

Dairy cows enjoying grazing,

playing with farmer, being milked.))



CLOSING BUMPER ((ANIM))

voanews.com/connect





BREAK THREE

USAGM SHARE

((LogOn: Space Camera (TV, R)

HEADLINE: LogOn: Giant Camera Focuses on the Invisible

TEASER: Camera will document the universe for 10 years, gathering data for dark energy and dark matter research

BYLINE: Matt Dibble

VIDEOGRAPHER: Matt Dibble

PRODUCER: Matt Dibble

SCRIPT EDITORS: Michelle Quinn, Reifenrath

TRT: 1:55

[[In California, a camera the size of a car is being prepared for its mission: documenting unseen phenomena in the universe. Matt Dibble has the story.]]

((Courtesy: SLAC))

((NARRATOR))

At the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park, California

((Courtesy: SLAC))

((NARRATOR))

engineers are building the worlds largest digital camera. The LSST camera, as its called,

((Courtesy: Rubin Observatory/NSF/AURA))

((NARRATOR))

will be installed at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in southern Chile to record images of the night sky over a ten-year period.

((Courtesy: Rubin Observatory/NSF/AURA))

((NARRATOR))

By observing a wide swath of the universe over time, researchers expect to gain insight into some of sciences biggest questions.

[[For Radio: PhD student Theo Schutt is running final tests on the camera.]]

((Theo Schutt, Stanford University Ph.D Student))

How old is the universe, how fast is it expanding, why is it expanding?

So we're really like going for the 95% of the universe that we basically don't understand at all.

((Courtesy: NASA))

((NARRATOR))

Scientists theorize that 95% of the universe is made up of dark energy and dark matter, which cant be seen directly.

((Courtesy: SLAC))

((NARRATOR))

However, the effect that dark energy has on its surroundings can potentially be detected if observed over time.

[[For Radio: ...says astrophysicist Aaron Roodman, who leads the camera project.]]

((Aaron Roodman, Rubin Observatory Deputy Director))

We can study it by looking at galaxies, ((Courtesy: NASA)) studying how the light from distant galaxies has been bent by all the matter between us and the distant galaxy.

((Courtesy: Rubin Observatory/NSF/AURA/ Todd Mason Productions))

((NARRATOR))

The camera will record on most nights, essentially compiling a time-lapse movie.

((NARRATOR))

Each image will be made up of about 3 billion pixels, ((Courtesy: Rubin Observatory/NSF/AURA)) about 300 times the size of a smartphone image. ((end courtesy))

((NARRATOR)) ((Mandatory CG: SLAC))

Funded by the US government, the project will share images ((Courtesy: Rubin Observatory/NSF/AURA))

with international researchers, directing attention to short-lived phenomena as they happen.

((Aaron Roodman, Rubin Observatory Deputy Director))

Within two minutes, we will compare ((Courtesy: NASA))

the objects we see in it  the stars, galaxies, asteroids ((end courtesy))  with how they previously appeared in prior images. And we will flag any differences.

((NARRATOR))

Researchers are eagerly expecting the unexpected.

((Matt Dibble for VOA News, Menlo Park, California))

BUMP IN ((ANIM))





SHOW ENDS








Chinas Peoples Liberation Army marked the 96th anniversary of its founding this week with President Xi Jinping overseeing celebrations in China, but the anniversary was also commemorated in many African countries where Beijing has influence and is keen on expanding military cooperation.

Among them was Zimbabwe, where ties with the PLA date back to the 1960s and Chinas support for the guerilla movement  now the ruling party  that fought for the countrys independence from white minority rule.

"The precious memories of the solidarity and synergy between our two armies are our shared legacy which continues to shape and inject momentum to our relations nowadays," China Ambassador to Zimbabwe Zhou Ding said at a reception attended by Zimbabwes acting minister of defense and army officials from both nations.

Zhou noted that just the previous week, Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa had commended a group of young Zimbabwean pilots who trained for four years in China, reflecting the fraternal relations between our two countries and our two militaries, Zimbabwes state-owned newspaper, the Herald, reported. Mnangagwa himself trained at the PLA Army Command College in Nanjing.

Paul Nantulya, a research associate at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, told VOA the PLA anniversary celebrations are not only happening in Zimbabwe.

Youre going to see the same thing in South Africa, Kenya and all these embassies where you have a military attache. ... With the case of Zimbabwe, I think what China wants to put across is the special relationship that it has with Zanu-PF first and foremost, he said, referring to the ruling party.

For his part, Zimbabwes acting defense minister, Daniel Garwe, vowed to continue to cement ties with China today and in the future as we are both faced with geopolitical threats, the Herald reported. Zimbabwe, where the same party has been in power for over 40 years, is under Western sanctions for corruption and human rights abuses.

In neighboring South Africa, also governed by a former liberation movement that benefitted from Chinese support, a local newspaper ran a lengthy op-ed by Major General Shang Hong, Chinese defense attache to the country.

As an important part of our overall bilateral relationship, the PLA-SANDF (South African National Defense Forces) friendship, guided by our two presidents, has been embracing pragmatic cooperation in various fields with tangible results, including high-level exchanges, mechanism building, joint training and exercise, military academies, medicine and health, international peacekeeping, etc., he wrote.

He noted that South Africa had hosted China, along with Russia, for joint naval exercises earlier in the year and that the head of South Africas army had recently visited China, thus laying a solid foundation for enhancing strategic mutual trust and deepening pragmatic cooperation.

Events to mark the PLA anniversary were also held in South Sudan, Tanzania and Ethiopia.

Nantulya said the PLA uses these occasions to emphasis how it contributes to Africa, whether through participating in U.N. peacekeeping missions or military education.

A recent paper by Nantulya details how China treats the education and training of foreign military personnel as an opportunity to promote Chinas governance model to develop closer relationships with foreign militaries and governments and to build a shared understanding of security."

Many alumni of these programs go on to play leading roles in their countries militaries and governments, he wrote, noting that thousands of African officers attend such trainings each year.

Russian competition

Many analysts contend that in an increasingly polarized world, the African continent  which is resource rich, has a growing population and is strategically located  is a stage where major powers are vying for influence, not only China and the United States but increasingly Russia.

Russia  which also has ties to many former liberation movements  has long been by far the biggest arms supplier to Africa.

However, China is ahead on every other metric, when you look at military professionalism, when you look at military training and capacity building, when you look at support to the African Union, said Nantulya.

Analysts think the war in Ukraine and related Western sanctions could benefit China in terms of catching up to Russia in weapons sales too.

Russia's ability to supply military equipment, for instance, is hampered both by its expulsion from international cross-border payment networks like SWIFT and by it having to consume most new arms production for its own needs, Darren Olivier, director of conflict research consultancy African Defense Review, told VOA.

China is well placed to take over much of Russia's market share in that regard. It has increasingly been a supplier of weapons to African armed forces over the years, with deliveries ranging from basic infantry weapons to increasingly sophisticated transport aircraft, helicopters, UAVs and air defense systems, he said.

Asked whether sanctions on Russia had seen an increase in Chinese arms sales to Africa, the Chinese Embassy in Washington declined to comment.
President Joe Biden is expected to issue his long-awaited executive order to screen outbound investments in sensitive technologies to China early next week, according to people familiar with the matter.

A White House spokesperson declined to comment.

The goal of the order is to prevent U.S. capital and expertise from accelerating the development of technologies that would support China's military modernization and threaten U.S. national security.

The order is expected to target U.S. private equity, venture capital and joint venture investments in China in semiconductors, quantum computing and artificial intelligence. Most investments captured by the order will require that the government be notified about them. Some transactions will be prohibited, sources have said.

"It fills a gap in our current regime," said Cordell Hull, a former U.S. Commerce Department official. "We have prohibitions on exporting the technology. We have restrictions on in-bound investment. This will help to plug that gap on funding and know-how and give the government visibility into these capital flows."

The regulations are not expected to take effect right away, and the administration will solicit comments on its proposals, according to sources. It has already conducted meetings with stakeholders and has been consulting with allies. The topic also came up during U.S Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen's recent trip to China.

Yellen last month described the potential restrictions as "highly targeted, and clearly directed, narrowly, at a few sectors where we have specific national security concerns."

Laura Black, a former policy director for the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which reviews certain transactions in the United States, said the order was not expected to establish a "reverse CFIUS," because it would not involve a case-by-case review in which a committee would clear, mitigate or block a transaction. However, it is expected to prohibit certain investments, she said.

Two sources said briefings were expected Monday, with the announcement Tuesday. But the timing has slipped many times before and could do so again.

Sources have told Reuters the investments that will be restricted are expected to track export control rules for China issued by the U.S. Department of Commerce in October.

Emily Kilcrease, a former U.S. official who has worked on China investment policy, said the U.S. also has been trying to define what counts as artificial intelligence, and aiming to control offshore investments by U.S. people and companies.

She described the order as a major step in setting up a U.S. system of oversight to screen transactions to countries of concern and said that it was expected to expand in time.

She also said the United States should be prepared for retaliation by China.
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called out Russia Thursday at a meeting of the U.N. Security Council for the effect its invasion of Ukraine is having on global hunger. VOA's Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports.
PARIS, August 04, 2023--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Regulatory News:

TotalEnergies (Paris:TTE) (LSE:TTE) (NYSE:TTE) and its partner SOCAR (State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan) have signed an agreement to sell a 15% participating interest each in the Absheron gas field to ADNOC (Abu Dhabi National Oil Company).

After completion of this transaction, which is subject to the approval by the relevant authorities, TotalEnergies will own a 35% interest in Absheron gas field, alongside SOCAR (35%) and ADNOC (30%).

Absheron gas and condensate field is located in the Caspian Sea and operated by JOCAP (Joint Operating Company of Absheron Petroleum).

"TotalEnergies is pleased to welcome ADNOC, one of its strategic partners, into the Absheron gas field, where production of the first phase started in early July, and which offers a significant further development potential to meet the growing gas demand", said Nicolas Terraz, President, Exploration & Production at TotalEnergies.

***

About TotalEnergies in Azerbaijan

TotalEnergies has been present in Azerbaijan since 1996, where it is a 50% partner of SOCAR in the Absheron gas and condensate field and holds a 5% stake in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline.

About TotalEnergies

TotalEnergies is a global multi-energy company that produces and markets energies: oil and biofuels, natural gas and green gases, renewables and electricity. Our 100,000 employees are committed to energy that is ever more affordable, cleaner, more reliable and accessible to as many people as possible. Active in nearly 130 countries, TotalEnergies puts sustainable development in all its dimensions at the heart of its projects and operations to contribute to the well-being of people.

@TotalEnergies - TotalEnergies - TotalEnergies - TotalEnergies

Cautionary Note

The terms "TotalEnergies", "TotalEnergies company" or "Company" in this document are used to designate TotalEnergies SE and the consolidated entities that are directly or indirectly controlled by TotalEnergies SE. Likewise, the words "we", "us" and "our" may also be used to refer to these entities or to their employees. The entities in which TotalEnergies SE directly or indirectly owns a shareholding are separate legal entities. This document may contain forward-looking information and statements that are based on a number of economic data and assumptions made in a given economic, competitive and regulatory environment. They may prove to be inaccurate in the future and are subject to a number of risk factors. Neither TotalEnergies SE nor any of its subsidiaries assumes any obligation to update publicly any forward-looking information or statement, objectives or trends contained in this document whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Information concerning risk factors, that may affect TotalEnergies financial results or activities is provided in the most recent Universal Registration Document, the French-language version of which is filed by TotalEnergies SE with the French securities regulator Autorite des Marches Financiers (AMF), and in the Form 20-F filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Story continues

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230804851965/en/

Contacts

TotalEnergies

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A severe drought coupled with Chinese dams blocking the Mekong River as Beijing moves to meet power demands means one of the world's mightiest rivers is likely to face severe water shortages this summer.

This will directly create food insecurity with lower crop yields due to irrigation problems and a reduction in nutrient-rich sediment delivered by the Mekong.

Indirectly, the reduced water flow will impact the economies of downstream Southeast Asian nations, according to experts who say the loss of food sourced from the Mekong will drive up prices and cause increased hunger, reducing worker productivity.

"Climate indicators suggest there is a severe drought developing in the Mekong," said Brian Eyler, senior fellow and director of the Southeast Asia Program at the Stimson Center, who spoke after a recent event in Washington on the Mekong.

The Mekong River is Asia's third-largest transboundary river, stretching nearly 5,000 kilometers from China through six countries where it serves as the primary or secondary food source for millions of people.

The El Nino weather pattern developing this summer is expected to reduce precipitation, causing a severe drought and dramatically reducing water levels on the Mekong, according to experts at the Stimson Center who presented the assessment of river conditions last month.

The situation is expected to be exacerbated by how China uses its 11 dams straddling the Mekong's upper reaches.

China takes "water out of the river during the wet season and then puts it back during the dry season for hydropower production," said Eyler. "That exacerbates the kind of drought conditions that are setting in now."

He added that China "needs to recognize that wet season flows need to be robust, and to date, China denies this."

China has been repeating the pattern for years. In 2020, China's dams removed "as much water" as possible and withheld 10% of the water from the Mekong, reducing the flow of the river downstream during the wet season, said Eyler.

Chinese Embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu in Washington told VOA's Korean Service on Thursday that there is no specific information to share on the situation this summer. But he did mention that in the past, "the international science community and the Mekong River Commission [MRC] have already made a fair judgment on the role of dams on the upper reach of the Lancang River."

China refers to the Mekong River as the Lancang.

Pengyu continued, "The MRC acknowledged in its report that cascade reservoirs on the Lancang River store water in the flood season for later use in the dry season, which helps maintain the steady flow of the Mekong." He added that Beijing has been providing "year-round hydrological information" on the river and making "contributions to sharing the water resources."

The MRC, an intergovernmental organization that fosters cooperation among Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam to manage water resources along the Mekong, has invited China to join the commission, according to Anoulak Kittikhoun, the MCR's chief of mission.

"We have opened for China and Myanmar to join [the commission] for a long time," but "they still do not want to join," said Kittikhoun. "They said they have been increasingly cooperative."

Kittikhoun said the two countries have been dialogue partners since 1996 and have engaged in discussions, joint studies, technical workshops and personnel exchanges "to increase understanding between upstream and downstream countries."

However, he added, "Most upstream countries tend to have different perspectives from downstream countries in terms of river management.  If we talk about obligations or law, it is another perspective."

China's two largest dams, Xiaowan and Nuozhadu, both in southwestern Yunnan Province, hold more water than the 53 dams tracked by the Mekong Dam Monitor, which Eyler co-leads. There are 430 dams, 11 of them in China, along the entire Mekong.

The river widens and quickens when there is plenty of rainfall during the wet season, from June to November. It contracts during the dry season of December to May.

When there is a drought, Chinese dams blocking the river worsen conditions downstream, creating food insecurity for nearly 60 million people in countries such as Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam that rely on the river for agriculture and fisheries.

Cambodia relies heavily on fisheries in the lower Mekong River Basin for protein intake, and Vietnam produces about 50% of the country's rice using water from the Mekong Delta.

Prices of Thai and Vietnamese rice soared in July with the expected drought and the rise in global rice demand. Thailand and Vietnam are the world's second- and third-largest rice exporters after India.

"If there's food security crisis, then the industry suffers as well as labor," said Eyler. "If there's no food on the table, then you can't grow economically. Water security is one thing, but water underpins the food security of these countries. And [if] people are starving, what chance is there for economic growth?"

Since the pandemic, economic growth in some Southeast Asian nations has come from their emergence as an attractive alternative location for supply chain networks currently in China.
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Russian authorities blame Ukraine after a naval base is attacked, a look ahead to a possible upcoming battle in the counteroffensive. We talk to young Ukrainians in Portugal attending World Youth Day and a conversation about Ukraine and NATO.
Thousands of people threatened by storm-swollen rivers were evacuated in China's northeast on Friday while areas on the outskirts of Beijing cleared debris from flooding that wrecked roads, knocked out power and left neighborhoods in shambles.

China is struggling with record-breaking rains in some areas while others suffer scorching summer heat and drought that threatens crops. Flooding near Beijing and in neighboring Hebei province this week killed at least 22 people.

Resident Xie Xin in the western outskirts of Beijing said the floodwaters had risen so fast that his family house was submerged in less than 10 minutes.

"Objects can be replaced," said Xie, 25, as he moved a desk. "But neighbors that have gone missing, this is what hits me the most."

In the northeast, some 54,000 people were forced out of their homes around Harbin, the biggest city in Heilongjiang province, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. It said rescue crews in 81 boats were evacuating residents.

On Thursday, a highway bridge in Heilongjiang collapsed, sending two cars plunging into the Mudan River, according to state media. There was no word on possible deaths or injuries.

The Haihe Basin, which includes Beijing and nearby major cities, was experiencing its heaviest flooding since 1963, the Ministry of Water Resources said Friday.

The death toll in Beijing and the neighboring province of Hebei rose to 22 after the body of a volunteer rescuer was found in a river. Another rescuer was declared dead Wednesday after a rubber boat flipped in a raging river.

Beijing recorded its heaviest rainfall in at least 140 years as the remnants of Typhoon Doksuri deluged the region, according to the weather agency.

Some 1.2 million people in Hebei were relocated, according to the government. It said more than 100,000 government employees were mobilized for relief work.

Rains that started last weekend overwhelmed drainage systems. School classes in Beijing, China's capital of more than 20 million people, were suspended. Power to some areas was knocked out.

To protect Beijing, flood waters were diverted to neighboring areas, prompting complaints Friday on social media that destruction could have been reduced if more water had been channeled through the capital's rivers and canals.

"Do people in another city have to be superior and sacrifice this place to protect them?" said a posting on the Sina Weibo social media platform. "I think it's really unspeakable."

In the Mentougou, a district of more than 260,000 people on the western outskirts of Beijing, residents on Friday were clearing mud out of their homes. The district was the hardest hit around the capital.

A resident of the district's Nanxinfang Village, Li Mingmei, said the floodwaters nearly reached her head.

"People in our village were washed away," said Li, 45. "It was very fortunate for us to be at least alive. What about people who didn't make it?"

The city recorded 744.8 millimeters (29.3 inches) of rain between Saturday and Wednesday morning, the Beijing Meteorological Bureau said.

In Zhuozhou, southwest of Beijing, about 125,000 people from high-risk areas were moved to shelters, Xinhua said.

In early July, at least 15 people were killed by floods in the southwestern region of Chongqing.

China's deadliest and most destructive floods in recent history were in 1998, when 4,150 people died, most of them along the Yangtze River.

In 2021, more than 300 people died in flooding in the central province of Henan. Record rainfall inundated the provincial capital of Zhengzhou, turning streets into rushing rivers and flooding a subway line, trapping passengers in the cars.

Meanwhile, in the eastern Shandong province, authorities also warned of flooding risks as water levels on the Zhangwei River continued to rise.

China was largely spared by Typhoon Khanun, which on Thursday lashed Japan, damaging homes and knocking out power on Okinawa and other islands.

China's National Meteorological Center had expected the typhoon to make landfall in Zhejiang province south of Shanghai. Authorities called ships into port and halted passenger ferry services.
The regional economic forum APEC has begun hosting senior official and ministerial meetings in Seattle, Washington. This year, the United States will host the annual gathering as it navigates a range of complex topics and diplomatic challenges. Natasha Mozgovaya attended a ministerial on food security Thursday and has this report.
Haitians are expressing skepticism over an offer by Kenya to lead an international police force aimed at combating the gang violence that has wracked the Caribbean nation.

They say the sexual abuse and a devastating cholera outbreak that have accompanied foreign forces in past decades don't inspire much trust. But Haitians also say uncontrolled bloodshed in their country leaves them with few other options.

Florence Casimir, an elementary school teacher, said that while past international interventions have damaged Haiti, their abuses don't compare to the current brutality of gangs, which kidnap her students and force parents to pay hefty ransoms.

"It will never be better [than past interventions], but the Haitian people don't have a choice at this point," Casimir said. "The Haitian people can't fight it on their own."

After Prime Minister Ariel Henry urged the world in October to deploy an armed force to fight the gangs, the United Nations has struggled to persuade a nation to lead efforts to restore the order in the Caribbean country, in part due to past controversy over peacekeeping missions. There's been little appetite for a U.S.- or U.N.-led force, and the United States unsuccessfully tried to persuade Canada to lead a force.

As the search continued, gang warfare worsened, leading to a wave of hundreds of kidnappings and the emergence of vigilante forces taking justice into their own hands. Today, armed groups control an estimated 80% of Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince.

Kenya has offered to send 1,000 police officers to help train and assist an overwhelmed Haitian police force, saying it hopes to "restore normalcy in the country." This week, the United States said it will put forward a resolution to the U.N. Security Council to authorize the force.

"This is not a traditional peacekeeping force," the U.S. ambassador at the U.N., Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said at a news conference.

Kenya's proposal has sparked debate among Haitians, many of whom distrust international interventions after the failures and abuses of U.N. peacekeeping missions over the decades.

Haitians saw rounds of foreign interventions throughout the 1900s, often a response by nations like the U.S. to political instability in Haiti. In some cases, such missions helped ease chaos and in the 1990s led to the creation of the Haitian National Police.

But successes are often overshadowed by scars that Haitians carry with them from abuses that came with those missions.

A U.N. peacekeeping mission from 2004 to 2017 was plagued with allegations of mass sexual abuse, including claims that peacekeepers raped and impregnated girls as young as 11. Investigations by The Associated Press found evidence of high levels of impunity.

In 2010, sewage runoff from a U.N. peacekeeper camp into the country's biggest river started a cholera epidemic that killed nearly 10,000 people.

"They left a bitter taste in the mouths of the Haitian people," said Valdo Cene, who sells cooking gas. "Bringing in international forces could mean repeating our history."

The newly proposed international police force would not be a U.N. force. So, if deployed, Kenyan police would be in charge rather than answer to a U.N. force commander as they would be required to do in a U.N. peacekeeping mission.

Haiti's prime minister said Tuesday that he spoke with Kenyan President William Ruto to thank Kenya for the "demonstration of fraternal solidarity." Henry said Kenya plans to send a task force in the coming weeks to assess the mission's operational requirements.

Haitians aren't the only ones questioning the plan. Watchdog groups are raising alarms about the human rights track record of police in Kenya, saying the force may export their abuse.

Police in the East African nation have been long accused of killings and torture, including gunning down civilians during Kenya's COVID-19 curfew. One local group said officers fatally shot more than 30 people during protests in July, all of them in Kenya's poorest neighborhoods.

Louis-Henri Mars, head of the Haitian grassroots peacekeeping organization Lakou Lape, echoed those concerns.

"People are puzzled about this," Mars said. "It may just become just another big mess."

While Mars is among many who say a Kenyan force would be an important step to stabilizing Haiti, he expressed hope its deployment will be a temporary effort that paves the way to a longer process of untangling rampant violence in Haiti, such as the kidnapping of an American nurse and her daughter.

Others, like Jerthro Antoine, say Kenya's police can't come soon enough.

The cellphone repairman said he dreams of once again setting foot on one of Haiti's beaches, but violence in his country has gotten so bad that even walking on the street is a risk.

"I feel trapped in my home. Any foreign force in support of Haitian police is more than welcome," Antoine said. "The Haitian people need it, we need a break and to have a life again."
India's top court has suspended the conviction of Congress Party leader Rahul Gandhi in a criminal defamation case, paving the way for the country's main opposition leader to return to Parliament.

Gandhi was disqualified from Parliament in March after a lower court in the western Gujarat state handed down a two-year jail sentence to him for remarks he had made four years ago at an election rally alluding to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's surname.

Friday's suspension of Gandhi's sentence is a major boost for the opposition Congress Party as it gears up for next year's general elections.

Unless the top court upholds his conviction and two-year jail term in its final judgment, the ruling will enable Gandhi to contest the upcoming polls.

Under Indian law, a jail term of two years or more makes a person ineligible to be a lawmaker and to contest elections for eight years.

"Come what may, my duty remains the same. Protect the idea of India," Rahul Gandhi tweeted after the ruling.

Congress Party leaders hailed the court's decision as a victory for truth and justice.

"This is a win for democracy, for our constitution and the Indian people," Congress Party President Mallikarjun Kharge said at a press conference.

Party workers danced, distributed sweets and waved flags as they celebrated outside the party's headquarters in New Delhi.

The Congress Party and several other opposition parties had called the case against Gandhi politically motivated and accused Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, of targeting opposition leaders and crushing free speech. The BJP had said due process of law had been followed.

The Supreme Court said Friday the lower court had cited no reason for imposing the maximum jail term of two years on Gandhi.

Supreme Court Judge B.R. Gavai said that while Gandhi's remarks were "not in good taste" and he "ought to have been more careful while making public speeches," the conviction had not only punished him but also voters, who had elected him to represent their constituency.

"The order of conviction needs to be stayed pending final adjudication," Gavai said.

The defamation case against Gandhi was filed by a BJP lawmaker in Gujarat state, which is ruled by the BJP.

The jail sentence was imposed for remarks Gandhi made at an election rally in the run-up to the 2019 general elections.

"Why do all thieves have Modi as their surname?" Gandhi said before going on to name fugitive Indian diamond tycoon Nirav Modi, banned Indian Premier League boss Lalit Modi, and Narendra Modi.

Gandhi said his remarks were meant to highlight corruption and were not directed against any community.

The suspension of Gandhi's conviction will allow him to contest next year's polls unless the top court upholds the two-year jail term in its final judgment.

Gandhi's Congress Party suffered crushing electoral defeats in 2014 and 2019 as Modi led his party to huge victories. This time, the Congress Party and a raft of regional parties have formed an alliance called "India" to mount a collective challenge to Modi.

While Modi is one of India's most popular leaders in decades, critics accuse him of undermining India's democracy, polarizing the country along communal lines, and targeting opposition leaders.

The opposition alliance has said the "character of our republic is being severely assaulted in a systematic manner by the BJP" and stated that its goal in next year's elections is to protect democracy.
Donald Trump on Thursday entered not guilty pleas to four felony charges for alleged attempts to overturn his 2020 loss to President Joe Biden. Secretary of State Antony Blinked calls out Russia for using food as a weapon of war. The efforts to protect one of the world's most coveted coral reefs.
Prominent Iranian human rights defender Narges Mohammadi has been sentenced to an additional year in prison by the judiciary.

A post on an Instagram account managed by her close associates says Mohammadi had been found guilty of propaganda against the Islamic Republic system due to her recent statements.

Mohammadi's total sentence now increases to ten years and nine months in prison, in addition to 154 lashes.

The Instagram account says the recent ruling is part of the five pending cases against her in the Evin Security Court and was heard in Branch 29 of the Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Mazloom. Mohammadi said that she did not recognize the legitimacy of the Islamic Republic and its show trials and consequently, she refused to participate in the proceedings.

The verdict was communicated to her through a document in the women's ward of Evin Prison, but Mohammadi refused to sign it.

Mohammadi is a 51-year-old human rights activist, who has faced several sentences. In September 2020, she was released after serving five years. In June 2021, she received a new sentence of 80 lashes and 30 months of imprisonment on charges, including "propaganda against the system, prison sit-in, mutiny against prison authorities, breaking glass," and "defamation." Mohammadi openly rejects the trial verdict and has been detained since November 2021.

Over the past year, Mohammadi has consistently raised her voice from within the confines of the prison, protesting many issues. Recently, she wrote a report about the health condition of Zohreh Sayadi, a child labor rights activist, and questioned what she called the ethical background of the judges in the Islamic Republic who commit such crimes against fellow human beings.

Regarding the election of the Islamic Republic's U.N. ambassador to chair the U.N. General Assembly's Social Forum by the Human Rights Council last month Mohammadi voiced her strong disapproval, saying "The Islamic Republic is destructive to Iranian civil society... It is an oppressive and violent government, one of the most flagrant and blatant human rights violators."

During her speech at the International Alexander Langer Foundation award ceremony in 2009, Mohammadi said that women, as pioneering and advancing forces for change, have faced the wrath and violence of the government. She emphasized that compulsory hijab wearing has been weaponized as a tool of oppression against women by religious authorities.
Pakistan and China are marking a decade of economic cooperation with much fanfare these days as the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, popularly known as CPEC, completes 10 years. Experts say while the mega-project helped Pakistan develop much-needed infrastructure, the less-than-generous loans from Beijing coupled with Islamabads mismanagement has kept the project from turning Pakistans economy around.

Estimated to be the largest partnership of Beijings Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a global investment and infrastructure project, CPEC launched in 2013 with more than $45 billion in planned investments. Over time, it grew to more than $62 billion, of which at least $25 billion was invested in Pakistan, according to both governments.

Mustafa Hyder Sayed, executive director of the Islamabad-based, nongovernmental Pakistan-China Institute, told VOA that the project came at a critical time for Pakistan.

At that time, we had a lot of terrorism, there was a lot of turmoil and it [Pakistan] wasnt seen as one of the best places to invest in, particularly," he said. "And China reposed its trust in Pakistan at that time and dove right in. All in.

Pakistani government data indicates CPEC has so far created 200,000 jobs, built more than 1,400 kilometers (897 miles) of highways and roads and added 8,000 megawatts of electricity to the national grid. The countrys deep-sea southwestern port of Gwadar, the centerpiece of CPEC, handled 600,000 tons of cargo in the last 18 months, according to officials.

At an event in Islamabad this week celebrating a decade of CPEC, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called the project a game-changer.

And this was the result of vision and commitment and friendship, Sharif told an audience of Pakistani and Chinese dignitaries.

Visiting Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, who received Pakistans highest civilian honor for his services in promoting economic cooperation, called the project exemplary.

It has set an example of common trust and mutual development, Lifeng said.

While Pakistan is among the top recipients of Chinas infrastructure and energy investments, Islamabad now owes nearly one-third of its overwhelming external debt to Beijing.

Research shows that Chinese investments, largely shrouded in secrecy, do not come cheap. A 2021 report by U.S.-based research lab AidData found that most Chinese development financing in Pakistan between 2000 and 2017 were loans, not grants, given at or near commercial rates.

Pakistan-based economist Ammar Habib Khan, a nonresident senior fellow with the Washington-based Atlantic Council, told VOA this financial burden is partly why Pakistan has struggled to stimulate its economy through CPEC.

A lot of that infrastructure came at a fairly high cost, and a lot of that borrowing was essentially in dollar terms and fairly higher than market terms, he said. Because of that, Pakistan continues to make significant dollar payments for the Chinese debt. Because of that we continue to have a current account crisis and some serious debt issues.

In 2018, complaining of unfavorable terms, then-Prime Minister Imran Khan's government set out to review CPEC projects. By 2021, the government was promising to prioritize the projects, however, in a bid to revive cooling bilateral relations that observers believe stemmed from the Khan government's unease with CPEC's terms.

Economist Khan said Pakistan definitely has a debt problem but not a Chinese debt problem. He blamed Islamabad for mismanaging resources.

We added a lot of generation capacity, but we did not make efficient the distribution channels, due to which whatever electricity is generated, a lot of it is wasted," Khan said.

That wasted electricity is costing the government millions of dollars every year, and its debt to power plants built under CPEC is piling up.

Islamabad and Beijing reject Washington's assertion that China's development financing to Pakistan and other BRI recipients is a debt-trap.

Pakistan has plenty of say in CPEC projects, Sayed said, through the Joint Coordination Committee that includes Chinese and Pakistani officials.

So, this perception of China coming in by predatory financing and weakening a host country and gaining political influence is unfounded, he said.

A report last year by Taiwan-based anti-disinformation lab DoubleThink's China in the World network placed Pakistan at the top of the list of countries most exposed to Chinese influence.

According to the AidData report, Chinese loan terms are less generous than what Western countries usually offer. Khan said a lack of Western funding for Pakistan left Islamabad with little choice.

The choice was simply whether to have a power plant or whether to have 12 to 15 hours of electricity shutdown, Khan said. So, yes, CPEC did provide Pakistan with a base of necessary infrastructure required for industrial growth. Meanwhile, Western countries have not been able to provide the same over the last many years.

Under the BRI, China is spending over eight times more in Pakistan than the United States is, according to AidDatas research. The U.S. spends on soft infrastructure in Pakistan such as education, governance, and law and order capacity building, while China spends on hard infrastructure there.

Pakistan is the biggest recipient of Chinas energy investment in Asia, while its share of BRI's transportation and storage projects is the highest in the world.

Along with being Pakistans biggest single creditor country, China also routinely rescues it from economic collapse. In the last few months, Beijing rolled over close to $8 billion in debt, according to the Pakistani government, preventing Islamabad from default.

Experts say that to lessen the debt burden stemming from CPEC, Pakistan must find ways to efficiently use the energy and infrastructure it acquired through the mega-project and strengthen domestic production and exports.
Japans foreign minister, following a one-on-one meeting Thursday with Ethiopias deputy prime minister, expressed hope their two nations would work together on the resumption of the Black Sea Grain Initiative.

Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, making his first visit to Ethiopia, said he shared concerns about the impact of Russias aggression against Ukraine on food security in Africa. following a one-on-one meeting with Ethiopia's Demeke Mekonnen.

Japan deplores the termination of the Black Sea Grain Initiative by Russia, and Japan hopes to work together with Ethiopia towards the resumption of the initiative, Hayashi said.

Since the start of the Black Sea grain deal, which took effect in July 2022, the United Nations has overseen the export of more than 262 metric tons of wheat to Ethiopia.

Climate shocks that brought about severe droughts and conflict in Ethiopia have put over 20 million people in need of food assistance.

Hayashi also talked about the Japanese governments support of the peace deal that ended the war in Ethiopias Tigray region.

I mentioned Japans support for implementation of the peace agreement signed between the Ethiopian government and the TPLF [Tigray Peoples Liberation Front] and stated that Japan would give serious consideration to further cooperation toward the implementation of this agreement, he said.

Demeke, who also serves as Ethiopias foreign minister, said the two had a productive discussion on issues of mutual interest.

In our talks, we pledged to deepen our partnership in the political, economic and social sectors," Demeke said. "In particular, we renewed our commitment to strengthen our investment, trade and development cooperation.

The Japanese foreign minister's stop in Ethiopia wrapped up a six-nation tour of Southwest Asia and Africa.
Media titan Michael Bloomberg has had it with federal employees logging in from home, saying taxpayers are footing the bill for empty offices.

Bloombergs cofounder, CEO, and majority shareholder delivered a scathing view of federal agencies that are still allowing staff to work from home the majority of their time in an article for the Washington Post.

The man worth $94.5 billion describes the capital city as a shadow of its former self, claiming tax money is being wasted on empty offices and the public is getting worse service.

This has gone on too long. The pandemic is over. Excuses for allowing offices to sit empty should end, too, Bloombergwho was mayor of New York from 2002 to 2013wrote.

A report from the United States Government Accountability Office published in July revealed that federal agencies spend around $5 billion a year to lease office buildings, and a further $2 billion on maintaining and operating offices regardless of utilization.

However, the analysis, which worked with 24 government agencies, found that 17 of the organizations were using the sites less than 25% of the time.

Although the report found that agency managers were reluctant to share office space with other federal teams, it pointed out that any reduction in office space would reduce both costs and energy consumption.

As Bloomberg puts it: Some people argue that remote work for federal employees isnt a problem. Tell that to the taxpayers who are footing the bill for empty floor space and the costs of maintenance, as the GAO emphasizes.

Tell it to the small businesses that are suffering, whose tax payments fund city services. Tell it to the many residents who rely on those services, especially poor people and elderly people.

The Biden administration has been pushing federal employees back to their office chairsthough Bloomberg, who himself harbored ambitions to become president in 2020, feels not hard enough.

In April the Executive Office of the President said there was an expectation that agency headquarters and equivalents [plan to] generally continue to substantially increase meaningful in-person work in federal offices.

Story continues

It caveated this with, Agencies should still use flexible operational policies as an important tool in talent recruitment and retention.

Private offices are another matter

The argument for talent retention and recruitment is acknowledged by Bloomberg as reasonablebut more relevant to the private sector.

The difference between federal employees and private staff is choice, he points out: Remote work by civil servants is especially troubling because the federal government is a monopoly supplier.

In the private sector, if remote workers do a poor job, business suffers, and customers take their spending elsewhere. In the public sector, people just have to put up with poor service.

According to a new report from workplace utilization specialists XY Sensewhich took into account approximately 25,000 office spaces across 17 countriesprivate sector office use is faring just as badly as its public counterpart.

In North America average utilization for Q1 of 2023 was 21%33% lower than the average recorded across the rest of the globe.

Empty offices are a problem that could result in another run on the banks, some economists have warned, with swaths of new office buildings financed on short-term loans with no leases taken out to pay for it. Morgan Stanley estimates that $1.5 trillion in commercial real estate loans are due to be repaid by 2025.

With 176 offices across the worldsome of which cost more than $1 billion to buildits perhaps not a surprise that Bloomberg is keen to get his own staff back through the doors, a sentiment echoed by JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon.

More than 80% of staff are in more than three days a week Bloomberg saidthough added there will always be exceptions to this ruleand in the fall the majority will go back four days a week.

Bloomberg concluded that hybrid work offers could even be valuable in order to increase competition in the job marketespecially when recruitment and retention is a challenge.

But he finished: Theres no good reason why government workers have been so much slower than everyone else to get back to the office at least a few days a week.

Taxpayers deserve immediate action and hard deadlinesand the better service and stronger capital city that will result.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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Nearly one year after the slaying of investigative reporter Jeff German, his former colleagues at the Las Vegas Review-Journal say the legal aftermath is raising press freedom issues that threaten to compound the tragedy.

After German was stabbed to death outside his home, the Review-Journal said, city police investigating the crime seized his phone, which may contain sensitive information such as the names of confidential sources.

"Our position is not that the phone and his computers cannot be searched. Our position is that we need independence from the people who are searching it," Review-Journal Executive Editor Glenn Cook told VOA.

The Review-Journal wants independent hearing masters to review German's devices first for any information related to confidential sources or sensitive unpublished information.

Nevada's Supreme Court will decide on the issue in the coming months.

Precedent feared

Press freedom groups are concerned that if police are given unrestricted access to German's devices, it will set a legal precedent allowing reporters' private source material to be accessed after they are killed.

The trial against Robert Telles, a former Clark County public administrator charged with German's slaying, is set to begin in November. Telles was the subject of German's reporting on alleged office mismanagement.

Telles entered a not-guilty plea to murder charges when he appeared in court in October.

The fight for justice in German's slaying is also a fight for his legacy and media freedom, Cook said.

"Having a colleague brutally murdered is bad enough," Cook told VOA in March. "But the fact that Jeff German's murder now threatens press rights and freedoms is outrageous and really has us, as a news organization, absolutely determined to make sure Jeff's legacy is the upholding of the First Amendment and not a damaging court precedent that hurts journalism everywhere."

On Wednesday, the Washington-based National Press Club announced that German and Lizzie Johnson, the Washington Post reporter who collaborated with the Review-Journal to complete the story German was working on when he was killed, would be given the President's Award at the end of August.

"This award really shows that people really care about what happened to Jeff German. And they care about this project, and they care about what it meant and that it was preserving his legacy," Johnson told VOA. "That's really gratifying to know that he's not just going to be forgotten but people are going to continue to care and follow what happens with his case."

Cook agreed that it was important to keep German's memory alive and to continue following his case.

"News media as well as news consumers move on from most stories fairly quickly. And Jeff's story is such a cautionary tale and an outrage for our own industry and for Americans in general," Cook said. "The fact that the National Press Club would recognize Jeff posthumously, even though it's been 11 months since his death, is very meaningful."

Reminder of dangers

In a statement announcing the award, National Press Club President Eileen O'Reilly said German's death underscores the threats facing journalists.

"German's career covering crime in Las Vegas spanned four decades and he was well-known for his outstanding investigative work. His loss was felt across the profession, across the region and in many a newsroom," O'Reilly said.

While Johnson appreciates the recognition for her own contribution, she said she wanted the focus to be on German.

"To me, what's more important is him getting the award and him being honored and his name continuing to stay in the spotlight. And I'm really glad that I could help do that," she said.

"I will never stop wishing that it was just his name [on the award] and that he was here and could accept it for himself and that he could have done the work himself," she said. "But he couldn't, so to be able to help out with that mission is just the honor of a lifetime."

Cook said the Review-Journal staff is in a good place a year after German's death. "We've found a lot of comfort in the company and camaraderie of each other," he said.

But Telles' trial looms, and Cook said he knows covering it will be an emotional challenge.

"I'm not kidding myself, and no one in the room is kidding themselves," he said. "We know that whenever this trial starts, it's going to be very difficult for all of us."
Latest Developments:

Poland has detained another suspected member of a Russian spy network, bringing the total number of people detained as part of an investigation to 16, Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski said on Friday.

The direct channel between the Russian Agricultural Bank and JPMorgan, as part of the U.N.-brokered Black Sea grain deal, was closed on August 2, RIA news agency said, citing Russia's foreign ministry on Friday.

U.S. Republican presidential hopeful Chris Christie met Friday with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv and toured ravaged villages. He said seeing the "cruelty" and "inhumanity" of war impressed upon him the need for continuing U.S. support of Ukraine against Russia.

The International Atomic Energy Agency was granted access to the roofs of reactors three and four of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and found no mines or explosives there, agency chief Rafael Grossi said Friday.

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Ukrainian forces are breaking through the Russian southern front line of defense, moving to the "intermediate one," Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar reported Friday.

According to Maliar, Ukraine is prioritizing its counteroffensive operations in the country's south, while for Russia, the focus is the east.

Most Russian resources are currently concentrated near Kupiansk, Kharkiv Oblast, as Moscow seeks to retake the territories liberated by Ukrainian forces last fall, Maliar said. "It is important for them both from a morale and a military point of view."

Meanwhile, around Bakhmut, Ukrainian troops are "slowly but persistently" moving forward on the southern flank, Maliar told reporters. Russia is attacking the city's northern flank, trying to regain positions previously retaken by the Ukrainian army.

"Fierce battles" also continue near Avdiivka and Marinka, Donetsk Oblast, she said.

Jeddah summit

Chinese Special Envoy for Eurasian Affairs Li Hui will participate in the Saudi Arabia-initiated Jeddah talks on the peaceful settlement in Ukraine, China's foreign ministry said on Friday.

"China is willing to work with the international community to continue to play a constructive role in promoting a political solution to the crisis in Ukraine," Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson at the Chinese ministry, said in a statement.

Ukraine and Western diplomats hope the meeting this weekend in the port city of Jeddah will be an opportunity for officials to agree on key principles to inform any peace agreement that would end Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine.

About 40 countries are set to be represented at the session, but the biggest diplomatic prize would be an endorsement from China, which has kept close economic and diplomatic ties with Russia  and so far has rejected international calls to condemn the invasion.

China was invited to a previous round of talks in Copenhagen in late June but did not attend.

Ukraine and its allies are optimistic the Jeddah summit will help ramp up global support for a peace plan in Ukraine.

Zelenskyy formula

In his nightly video address Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed hope the discussions in Jeddah would lay the groundwork for an upcoming peace summit with leaders from around the world this fall. The aim is to endorse the principles based on Zelenskyys 10-point formula for a peace settlement.

It is very important that the world sees: a fair and honest end to Russian aggression will benefit everyone in the world. Everyone! said Zelenskyy. Liberating Ukrainian land from the occupiers means restoring full respect for international law and the U.N. Charter. Eliminating all threats created by Russia to Ukrainian and global security means returning peace to international relations and stability to global life. I am grateful to everyone who supports the peace formula and has already joined the joint efforts for the full implementation of the formula.

The main discussions at the Jeddah summit will take place Saturday and Sunday.

Russia says it will not be involved in this weekend's talks or the summit planned for the fall.

Beyond its Western backers, Ukraine hopes to garner diplomatic support from more Global South countries, including Brazil, India, South Africa and Turkey.

Part of Ukraine's strategy to gain support from Global South countries will reportedly be to emphasize how food prices have risen after Russia quit the U.N. brokered Black Sea grain deal last month and began attacking Ukrainian port facilities.

That facet of the conflict has been a top priority for U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who on Thursday pressed all countries at the United Nations to tell Moscow to stop using the Black Sea as blackmail after Russia killed the Black Sea Grain Initiative.

Russian warships

A Russian warship was seriously damaged in an overnight Ukrainian naval drone attack on Russia's Black Sea navy base at Novorossiysk, in the first Ukrainian naval show of power so far from its base.

A Ukrainian intelligence source said the Olenegorsky Gornyak, a Russian navy landing ship with about 100 Russian servicemen on board, had been hit by a sea drone carrying 450 kilograms of TNT.

"As a result of the attack, the Olenegorsky Gornyak received a serious breach and currently cannot conduct its combat missions," a source told Reuters, adding that the operation had been carried out by Ukraine's Security Service and the navy. "All the Russian statements about a 'repelled attack' are fake," the source said.

Video footage verified by Reuters showed the Olenegorsky Gornyak being towed to shore by a tug, listing heavily to its port side.

Earlier, Russia's Defense Ministry said the two Ukrainian sea drones had been repelled in the waters outside the base and that the drones had been destroyed. It made no mention of any damage in its short statement.

The port, which handles 2% of the world's oil supply and exports grain, temporarily interrupted maritime traffic before resuming normal operations, according to the Caspian Pipeline Consortium which operates an oil terminal there.

It is the first time a Russian commercial port has been targeted in the war between Russia and Ukraine.

Navalny sentencing

In an interview Friday with VOA, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield expressed strong discontent with the announcement by a Russia court Friday of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny's additional 19-year prison term on extremism charges.

"Sad but not surprised," the U.S. ambassador said. "It is clear that the Russian government, that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, that this authoritarian government will use any means to restrict the voices of the opposition, restrict the voices of criticism. Navalny represents that. He is being held in an unacceptable way. He should not have been in this court system, and we condemn the actions of the Russian government as it relates to him."

VOA U.N Correspondent Margaret Besheer contributed to this report. Some information came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
Nigers military junta has revoked military cooperation agreements with France as a deadline to release and reinstate ousted President Mohamed Bozoum looms and efforts by a West African delegation to meet with coup leaders faltered.

Speaking on national television late Thursday, junta representative Amadou Abdramane read out the decision to end the military agreements with France, Nigers former colonial ruler. The junta also fired the previous governments ambassadors to France, the United States, Togo and neighboring Nigeria, which is leading efforts by the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, on dialogue.

ECOWAS, the West African regional bloc, has given coup leaders until Sunday to reinstate Bozoum, warning that it could resort to military intervention as a last resort.

Junta leaders have responded in turn by saying that force would be met with force.

In a statement that was also read on national television late Thursday, the junta said: "Any aggression or attempted aggression against the State of Niger will see an immediate and unannounced response from the Niger Defence and Security Forces on one of (the bloc's) members."

The warning came with an exception to "suspended friendly countries," a reference to Burkina Faso and Mali, two countries that have fallen to military coups in recent years.

Those countries' juntas have warned any military intervention in Niger would be tantamount to a "declaration of war" against them.

ECOWAS has tried unsuccessfully in the past to stop coups and restore democracies and it is doing the same thing with Niger. A delegation that arrived in Niger's capital, Niamey, Thursday ended up leaving without meeting with coup leader General Abdourahamane Tchiani or Bazoum.

Tchiani, the former head of Niger's presidential guard, ousted Bazoum last week in a military coup and declared himself head of state.

Tchiani said the power grab was necessary because of ongoing insecurity in the country caused by an Islamist insurgency.

But violent incidents in Niger actually decreased by almost 40% in the first six months of 2023 compared with the previous six months, according to data published Thursday by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project.

The project is a crisis-monitoring group based in the United States. Its data also indicate that insecurity in Niger was improving because of strategies of Bazoum's government and assistance from French and U.S. forces.

U.S. President Joe Biden called Thursday for Bazoum's immediate release.

He said in a statement that Niger is "facing a grave challenge to its democracy."

The White House, which has stopped short of calling this a coup, said Thursday it is "going to continue to review all our options around our cooperation with the Nigerien government."

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby refused to predict how the U.S. would react if the putschists ignore the deadline.

"You saw ECOWAS come out yesterday and say that, in their view, any use of force would be a last resort," Kirby told reporters. "I think I'd let them speak to that eventuality and the parameters of it. Right now, we're focused on diplomacy. We still believe there's time and space for that."

Military leaders put Bazoum under house arrest on July 26 and named Tchiani as their new leader on Monday.

On Thursday, Bazoum, who has been held by the coup plotters with his family since his ouster, warned that if the putsch proved successful, "it will have devastating consequences for our country, our region and the entire world."

In a Washington Post column, he called on "the U.S. government and the entire international community to help us restore our constitutional order."

The coup has been condemned by Western countries, including the U.S., which says it stands with Nigeriens, ECOWAS and the African Union as they work to roll back the coup. The State Department said U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Bazoum by telephone Wednesday to discuss the situation.

Some information is from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
A leading human rights group called Friday on the United States and the United Nations to impose further sanctions on the Sudanese individuals "responsible for the atrocities" in Darfur, as evidence of scorched-earth attacks mounts.

The northeast African country plunged into chaos in April when monthslong tensions between the military, led by Abdel Fattah Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, commanded by Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, exploded into open fighting in the capital of Khartoum and elsewhere. In Sudans western Darfur region, the scene of genocidal war in the early 2000s, the conflict has morphed into ethnic violence, with RSF and allied Arab militias targeting African communities, U.N. officials say.

In a news release, Human Rights Watch said Washington should impose targeted sanctions to "ensure that the U.N. Security Council finally acts to protect civilians and to hold those responsible for the atrocities to account." The United States is set to take over the presidency of the U.N. Security Council later this month.

The New York-based rights group said at least seven villages and towns have been almost completely burned to the ground or destroyed in West Darfur alone, according to satellite footage and testimonies analyzed by the group. These are Habilla Kanari, Mejmere, Misterei, Molle, Murnei, Gokor and Sirba.

"The world should not stand by as town after town in West Darfur is burned to the ground, sending tens of thousands of civilians fleeing for their lives," said Tirana Hassan, executive director at Human Rights Watch.

In June, the United States imposed sanctions against four key companies either linked to or owned by the warring factions. The White House also placed visa restrictions on army and RSF officials, as well as on leaders from the former government led by Omar al-Bashir. It did not specify which individuals were affected.

Last Month, Karim Khan, a prosecutor from the International Criminal Court, told the United Nations that he would be investigating alleged new war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Darfur.

Human Rights Watchs call for sanctions comes just days after Amnesty International separately accused both warring parties of committing extensive war crimes, including deliberate killings of civilians and mass sexual assault. Amnesty said almost all rape cases were blamed on the RSF and its allied Arab militias.

In its 56-page report, Human Rights Watch said the RSF abducted 24 women and girls  as young as 12  and held them "for several days during which they were raped by several RSF members."

The nearly four-month conflict in Sudan has killed more than 3,000 people and wounded more than 6,000 others, Health Minister Haitham Mohammed Ibrahim said in televised comments in June. The true tally is likely much higher, according to doctors and activists.

Meanwhile, the fighting has forced another 4 million people to flee their homes either to safer areas inside Sudan or to neighboring countries, according to figures from the U.N. migration agency.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said Thursday that 20.3 million people in the country now "face severe hunger," double what the figure was this time last year.
Rohingya refugees living in squalid and sprawling camps in Bangladesh are casting a skeptical eye on a Chinese initiative to facilitate their return to Myanmar, where they were subjected to a campaign of murder and burning by the same military forces that now rule the country.

"We want to return home. However, under this pilot scheme, the Myanmar military will confine us in camps. They won't allow us to go back to our homes and villages," Aung Myaing, a Rohingya relief volunteer at the Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, told VOA by phone.

"We feel that China's intervention in the Rohingya repatriation issue has been motivated by China's own self-interest rather than concern for the refugees here. If China truly wishes to assist, it must act to ensure that the Rohingya return safely and with dignity," he said.

Nearly 1 million Rohingya are living in camps in the border district of Cox's Bazar, most having fled a military-led crackdown in Myanmar in 2017, now the subject of a genocide case at the International Court of Justice.

More than two years since the military coup in Myanmar, China has resumed close ties with the now-ruling junta. On July 27, during a surprise two-day visit to Myanmar, Chinese special envoy Deng Xijun met with key military officials, including Senior General Min Aung Hlaing.

"We had a detailed discussion about our peace process, the stability of the China-Myanmar border region, and security and law enforcement issues," junta spokesperson Major General Zaw Min Tun told VOA by phone.

Chinese representatives, including former Foreign Minister Qin Gang, have made several trips to Myanmar this year. According to analysts, the frequent visits are a sign that China is attempting to reimplement its large investment projects there.

In January, China renewed discussions with Bangladesh about a pilot repatriation program for displaced Rohingya. In April, Deng visited Dhaka to discuss Rohingya repatriation with Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen and Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen. That same month, China hosted a Rohingya repatriation tripartite (China, Myanmar, Bangladesh) meeting in Kunming, capital of Yunnan province.

The committee proposed to repatriate just 1,176 Rohingya under the pilot program. A Rohingya delegation was sent to Myanmars Rakhine state to assess housing conditions there, and later that month, a Myanmar delegation met with Rohingya in Cox's Bazar. According to local news reports, a Bangladeshi official said it was unclear when the pilot program would begin.

Chinas involvement

"China is pressing for stability in a region that is part of its Belt and Road Initiative project, specifically the Rohingya's home, Rakhine state," Hla Kyaw Zaw, a Burma-China scholar based in China, recently told VOA. "This will connect the important trading hub, the border town, Ruili, in southern Yunnan state, to Kyaukphyu seaport, which lies on the Bay of Bengal.

"As a world power, China likes to be seen as taking the initiative to solve regional issues. China's slogan is 'Development, Peace and Cooperation,'" she said. "There is a meeting at the end of this year to mark the 10th anniversary of the start of President Xi Jinping's BRI project, and the Kyaukphyu deep sea port in Rakhine state is quite important to them, especially now.

"Another factor," she said, "is that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor plan has already been completed; but in Myanmar, the road has not yet been built. In order to do this more quickly, China stepped in, thinking that it would help to solve the Rohingya problem in Burma." Burma is another name for Myanmar.

Legacy of violence

China tried to broker an agreement with Myanmar in November 2017 to repatriate about 700,000 Rohingya Muslims who had fled persecution in their home country. Again, in 2019, further efforts were made to return the refugees, but Rohingya refugees rejected the move, fearing a reemergence of the violence that forced them to flee, a sentiment still widely held among Rohingya refugees.

Shwe Maung, a former Rohingya lawmaker during the Thein Sein presidency who now lives in the United States, told VOA that the Rohingya have serious reservations about China's involvement.

"China is characterizing the Rohingya pilot repatriation project as a kind of humanitarian aid," Shwe Maung said. "In fact, it should be seen through the lens of their actions against the minority Uyghur Muslims in their own country. They are put in prison camps called 'educational camps' and cut off from the world."

He continued: "Since the coup in Myanmar, the world's attention to the Rohingya issue has diminished, which is beneficial for both China and the junta's interests."

According to Shwe Maung, China has provided the junta with an example of how to control the Rohingya in a new way.

"The junta likes the way the Uyghurs were controlled," he said. "More than 1,000 Rohingya who are now slated to be sent back to their home country will be kept in a detention center. This detention center will become a concentration camp in the long run."

Bangladesh's role

As the host country to one of the world's largest refugee populations, Bangladesh has sought cooperation from the international community, including China, to repatriate Rohingya refugees to Myanmar.

China is an important trade partner for Bangladesh, mostly for raw materials used in manufacturing, and the two countries get along well. But keeping close ties with Beijing is not easy for Bangladesh since it must balance political and trade ties with China's major rivals: India and the United States.

Aung Myaing, the relief volunteer, told VOA that the government and the people of Bangladesh support repatriation of the Rohingya refugees to Myanmar.

"The prime minister of Bangladesh has appealed directly to the United Nations and the international community for help to resolve the crisis," he said. "Bangladesh is also involved in the International Criminal Court case of possible crimes against humanity in Myanmar since 2019."

He continued: The international community, however, hasn't been able to provide effective assistance in the past six years. Bangladesh is a very densely populated country with many internal issues that make hosting so many refugees that much more difficult. Therefore, international aid should be provided quickly and effectively."

Yearn to return

"Looking at the situation in Myanmar," Aung Myaing said, "the military junta has yet to resettle the Rohingya IDP [internally displaced persons] to their homes in Rakhine state. If we do any pilot resettlement projects, we should deal with IDP in Myanmar first. Only after we do that, we can begin the process of repatriation of Rohingya currently in Bangladesh."

Aung Myaing is keen to return to Myanmar but says he wants his citizenship rights there guaranteed. "We are the citizens of Myanmar by birth. We want to go back home with all our rights, including citizenship, free movement, livelihood, safety and security," he told VOA, adding that, "the refugees here still hold out hope for help from the international community, including from the United Nations."
Former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty on Friday to three new charges related to his handling of U.S. classified documents after he left the White House in 2021, a court filing showed.

Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, also waived his right to be present in Florida federal court for his arraignment on the three additional charges on August 10.

The action came a day after Trump appeared in federal court in Washington to plead not guilty to separate charges that he orchestrated an illegal plot to try to overturn his 2020 election loss.

Trump now faces 40 charges in the documents case after originally being indicted on 37 counts last month. His valet, Walt Nauta, is also facing new charges, and prosecutors added a third defendant and another Trump employee, Carlos De Oliveira, to the case in a superseding indictment last week.

It was unclear on Friday whether Nauta and De Oliveira would be present in court to enter their pleas on August 10. Their lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Prosecutors accused Trump of taking hundreds of documents containing the nation's most closely held secrets  including details about the U.S. nuclear program and military plans  and storing them haphazardly at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. Trump also showed classified information to people who were not authorized to see it, according to the indictment.

Nauta and De Oliveira, a property manager at Mar-a-Lago, are accused of trying to hide the documents from federal investigators seeking their return and attempting to destroy evidence, including security camera footage.

Trump in April became the first sitting or former U.S. president to face criminal charges when he was indicted in New York state court, accused of falsifying business records to conceal hush money payments to a porn star. He pleaded not guilty.

He was indicted for the third time on Tuesday in Washington federal court regarding his efforts to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss. That case and the documents case are being pursued by Special Counsel Jack Smith.

Prosecutors in Fulton County, Georgia are also probing Trump's efforts to reverse his 2020 election loss in that state and are expected to announce a charging decision by August 18.
The United States took over the rotating presidency of the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday for the month of August. The Biden administration has used the opportunity to draw attention to global food insecurity, particularly how conflict is a major driver of hunger.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield spoke Friday to VOA about how Russias invasion of Ukraine and its withdrawal from the Black Sea Grain Initiative have impacted international food security. She also discussed U.S. concerns about the attempted military coup in Niger, relations with China at the U.N., and other priority issues for the United States.

The following interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

VOA: This is your third time sitting in the Security Council chair as president and the third time you've used this opportunity to focus on global food insecurity. So, tell us what you hope to achieve drawing the council's attention to this issue, and how it could make a positive difference on the ground.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations: This has been a priority for the administration. It has been a priority for me since I arrived here in New York. And as you know, this is the third time that I will be focusing on this issue. It has gotten worse. It has gotten worse because of Russia's unprovoked war on Ukraine.

More than 170 million people have been impacted by conflict, and the conflict that we see in Russia is certainly contributing to that. So, we are focusing on the issue of food being used as a weapon of war. And there is no better example of that  no worse example of that  than what Russia is doing as it relates to Ukrainian grain being allowed to get into the market to reach the people in Africa, in the Middle East, elsewhere in the world who are dependent on grain coming out of Ukraine.

VOA: On the grain, is a return to the Black Sea grain deal, is that even possible now after Russia has spent the last couple of weeks bombing infrastructure at multiple Ukrainian ports?

Thomas-Greenfield: Russia's bombing of Ukrainian ports and infrastructure is unacceptable, and of course is making the situation even worse. But I know that [U.N.] Secretary-General [Antonio] Guterres and OCHA [the U.N. office of humanitarian affairs] are continuing to attempt to bring the Russians back into the grain deal. The government of Turkey has also been engaged with the Russians to urge them to come back into this deal. Other countries in the world have issued statements urging Russia to come back into the deal. So, we remain guardedly hopeful, but in the meantime, the impact of this on the worlds market is really, really devastating.

VOA: What are you hearing from some of your counterparts here at the U.N. about that, from other countries, especially in the Global South?

Thomas-Greenfield: Well, we had a Security Council high-level meeting yesterday, where countries from all over the world, including many countries from the Global South, spoke. They all called on Russia to return to the grain deal. They expressed their concerns about the impact this is having on food supplies around the world, and I think the Russians heard the message loudly and clearly that they need to return to this deal. But this is not the only place where Russia has had such a devastating impact on the humanitarian situation. Just look at the situation on the border with Turkey and Syria, where Russia vetoed the resolution that would have allowed for the continuation of needed humanitarian assistance to reach the Syrian people across the border.

VOA: Speaking of Russia, there's a bit of breaking news today from Moscow. Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been sentenced to a further 19 years in prison on extremism charges. Your reaction?

Thomas-Greenfield: Sad but not surprised. It is clear that the Russian government, that Putin, that this authoritarian government, will use any means to restrict the voices of the opposition, restrict the voices of criticism. Navalny represents that. He is being held in an unacceptable way. He should not have been in this court system, and we condemn the actions of the Russian government as it relates to him.

VOA: Moving to another council member  there's been a lot of talk and analysis about U.S.-China relations recently. How would you characterize U.S.-China relations here at the United Nations, and are there any areas where you've been able to cooperate?

Thomas-Greenfield: We sit on the Security Council together. We are both permanent members of the Security Council; we're part of the P5 [P5 is a nickname for the five permanent members of the Security Council]. We do work together on issues of mutual interests, and there are issues where we have differences. And certainly, we have significant differences as it relates to Russia's unprovoked war in Ukraine. We have differences on how we should respond to the DPRK [North Korea] threats. But there are areas where we're working together with them. We were able to get a resolution on BINUH [the U.N. Integrated Office in Haiti]  this is the Haiti resolution  passed and will hopefully be able to work again with them on Haiti.

VOA: Niger: The ECOWAS [Economic Community of West African States] deadline for the military to reverse the coup and restore President [Mohamed] Bazoum is quickly approaching, but the military seems to be doubling down in the face of possible ECOWAS action. So how worried is Washington that this crisis could rapidly evolve into a regional conflict?

Thomas-Greenfield: We have been very, very clear in our support for ECOWAS, for ECOWASs statements, for ECOWASs involvement in trying to find a solution. They have called for the military to step aside to restore President Bazoum, who was democratically elected. We support the president, and we continue to support the Nigerien people. This is an unacceptable action by the military, and we have to work together with the region to try to push back on this.

VOA: And have nonessential U.S. personnel and their families begun departing Niger?

Thomas-Greenfield: We are in the process of removing some American citizens in an ordered departure. But our embassy remains open. Our diplomatic contacts with the various parties, including with President Bazoum, continues in Niger.

VOA: Have you spoken to your colleague [Nigerien] Ambassador [Yaou] Bakary here? Because I know today the military has fired some ambassadors, including the ambassador to Washington.

Thomas-Greenfield: I have been in touch with him. I spoke to him early on, when the situation started, and I've stayed in contact with him. I've also spoken with President Bazoum.

VOA: And finally, Ambassador, I just wanted to ask you about Afghanistan. You've been very outspoken about the Talibans human rights record. They've not fulfilled many commitments to the international community. They are ignoring international calls to give women their rights, minorities, et cetera. So, is the U.S. considering any alternative approaches to encourage the Taliban to address these demands?

Thomas-Greenfield: We are continuing to put pressure on them on issues related to human rights and the rights of women. We have not recognized this government, and we have been clear that we will not recognize them until they are  until they behave in such a way to show that they deserve to be  to be recognized. So, we're continuing to engage on this issue. We want to be clear to Afghan women and girls that we see no world where the women and girls of Afghanistan cannot be allowed to acquire education, to work, to pursue their dreams like women everywhere else in the world.

VOA: Ambassador, before I let you go, anything else you would like to touch upon?

Thomas-Greenfield: I'm looking forward to our month as president of the Security Council. We will be looking to bring before the council what is happening still in Sudan, and particularly, we have some concerns about the situation in Darfur, so you can look to the council having meetings on that in the coming days and weeks.
In 2017, Catherine Herridge, then a journalist at Fox News, reported that a Chinese American scientist was under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Now, a judge is ordering her to reveal her confidential sources in a move that experts say could have severe ramifications for press freedom in the United States.

On Tuesday, Judge Christopher Cooper of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued a ruling that would force Herridge, currently a CBS News correspondent, to participate in a deposition regarding the identity of her anonymous sources from that 2017 series of stories.

In Herridges investigation, she reported that scientist Yanping Chen was the subject of a federal counterintelligence probe.

The ruling was a result of a lawsuit that Chen filed against the FBI in 2018. Chen alleges that federal authorities violated the Privacy Act by leaking information about her.

Then in 2022, Chen subpoenaed Herridge and Fox News to try to determine the alleged leakers identity, but the journalist and news outlet rebuffed her efforts, citing First Amendment protections afforded to the press.

But in Coopers ruling, he said Chens need for the evidence outweighed Herridges First Amendment privilege.

The Court recognizes both the vital importance of a free press and the critical role that confidential sources play in the work of investigative journalists like Herridge, Cooper wrote in the ruling. But applying the binding case law of this Circuit, the Court concludes that Chens need for the requested evidence overcomes Herridges qualified First Amendment privilege in this case.

Cooper quashed a subpoena seeking Herridges documents. The judge also quashed subpoenas seeking testimony and documents from Fox News. But he left standing the subpoena for testimony from Herridge regarding her sources.

Its unclear whether Herridge and Fox News will abide by Coopers order. In an email, Herridge told VOA, We have been declining to comment for now.

Fox News did not immediately reply to VOAs email requesting comment.

Press freedom experts have long warned that the threat of unmasking sources can have a chilling effect.

Quality journalism, especially investigative journalism, depends on the assurance of anonymity that reporters can give to their sources, so judicial decisions like this weaken journalism and its ability to provide the public with the information they need, Clayton Weimers, executive director of the Reporters Without Borders U.S. bureau, told VOA.

Weimers added that cases like this really underscore the importance of passing a federal press shield law.

Shield laws protect journalists from being forced by the government to disclose information such as the identities of sources.

Nearly every U.S. state and the District of Columbia have either a shield law or court recognition of qualified privilege for sources, but no federal law is in place.

In June, a bipartisan group of senators reintroduced a landmark federal shield bill, known as the PRESS Act, and it is currently working its way through the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The bill would protect journalists communications records from the government, with narrow exceptions for terrorism and the threat of imminent violence.
The Biden administration says they don't expect "tangible deliverables" from upcoming Ukraine peace plan talks hosted by Saudi Arabia but rather a continuing discussion on President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's "peace formula" for ending the brutal conflict.

John Kirby, director of strategic communications for the National Security Council, also told VOA on Thursday that the administration continues to work with Saudi Arabia on a process of eventual normalization with Israel, and that the administration believes that normalization is "better for our national security interests."

The following interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

VOA: I'd like to start with Ukraine peace plan talks in Jeddah. Can this summit be an effective way to get more countries behind Ukraine's peace plan, especially countries from the Global South?

John Kirby, National Security Council: I think what you're going to see coming out of Jeddah is a continuation of a process to socialize the peace formula that President Zelenskyy has put forward and to find ways to actualize it, to move on it, to help get traction for it. So the short answer to your question is, yes. Part of the object here is to expose more of the international community to President Zelenskyy's peace formula and try to garner some support for that moving forward. A key component of this and something we should never lose sight of is the respect for territorial integrity, for sovereignty. Because President Zelenskyy's whole formula really hinges on that idea, that principal idea in the [United Nations] charter. And that's something that every nation  except Russia, of course  can sign up to.

VOA: Mexican President [Andres Manuel Lopez] Obrador has said that his country will only participate if both Ukraine and Russia are at the peace talks. At what point does the administration believe that Russia can be included? What needs to happen?

Kirby: I think it's important to remember what this is and what it's not. This is not peace talks. This is not negotiations about ending the war. People shouldn't look at the meeting in Jeddah as a forum through which there's going to be certain and tangible deliverables. This is really about having an ongoing conversation about what this peace formula can look like. Whenever Mr. Zelenskyy is ready to sit down with Mr. [Vladimir] Putin  and that doesn't appear to be anytime soon  we have said and will continue to say that Mr. Zelenskyy's perspectives, Ukraine's perspectives, have to be the foundational element. They have to be fully respected as negotiations occur. But we're just not there yet. Mr. Putin has shown no indication that he's willing to negotiate  quite the contrary. We're seeing more attacks in just the last 24 to 48 hours on grain shipments in the Danube River. He's doing everything possible to not only try to hold on to the territory that doesn't belong to him in eastern Ukraine, but limit Ukraine's ability to export grain and foodstuffs to many countries around the world, including the Global South.

VOA: Is there a timeframe that the administration believes would be most effective to find a solution for an effective, just and durable peace  and is there a concern that the 2024 presidential campaign could impact U.S. support for Ukraine?

Kirby: It's difficult to put a timeframe on what that end is going to look like. Right now, we are focused squarely on making sure that Ukrainian armed forces can be successful in their counteroffensive so that they can claw back even more territory that belongs to them from Russian forces and hopefully push Mr. Putin to the table. But again, we're just not at that point right now.

VOA: You're confident that the U.S. election will not impact this?

Kirby: This has nothing to do with domestic politics and everything to do with Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

VOA: [National security adviser] Jake Sullivan was in Jeddah last week, and President [Joe] Biden is pushing for diplomatic normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia. What is he willing to provide to Riyadh to secure that?

Kirby: We are having ongoing conversations with our partners in the Middle East about trying to achieve a more cooperative region, a more integrated region. And we believe that normalization with Israel can be a key part of that. And so Mr. Sullivan's conversations were a continuation of discussions that we have been having since the beginning of the administration. We certainly would like to see normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia, but we understand and respect that that has got to be up to those two countries. We do believe that an Israel that is more integrated in the region is better for the region, quite frankly, it's better for our national security interests.

VOA: Riyadh is seeking a security pact from Washington as a part of a normalization deal with Israel. Is this something the president would consider?

Kirby: I don't want to get ahead of where we are in discussions. These are ongoing talks about how to get better regional cooperation and regional integration. And there's no agreed-to framework right now, no set agreement or a final negotiation on what the regional integration looks like.

VOA: I want to circle back [to Ukraine-related talks] in Saudi Arabia. The fact that it's happening there and also the fact we expect to see more representatives from countries from the Global South  what does this say to Putin? Because Moscow said they will be watching.

Kirby: I certainly hope that they are watching and I hope that they take away from this that more and more countries around the world are realizing that what Mr. Putin is doing is illegal, unprovoked and completely in violation of the U.N. charter. I also hope that when they're watching, the Russians realize that more and more countries are beginning to see that Mr. Putin's reckless decision to pull out of that grain deal is making them more hungry, is exacerbating existing famine conditions in many countries and contributing to food insecurity in places throughout the Global South. Many, many African leaders are realizing that the troubles that they're experiencing at home on the continent are directly related to what Mr. Putin is doing in Ukraine.
West African defense chiefs have drawn up a plan for a possible military intervention in Niger if that countrys military coup is not reversed by a Sunday deadline and President Mohamed Bazoum is not released and reinstated.

"All the elements that will go into any eventual intervention have been worked out here, including the resources needed, the how and when we are going to deploy the force," Abdel-Fatau Musah, Economic Community of West African States commissioner for political affairs, peace and security, said Friday.

Several ECOWAS military chiefs convened from Wednesday to Friday in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, to discuss the political crisis in neighboring Niger. A separate diplomatic delegation that arrived in Niger's capital, Niamey, on Thursday ended up leaving without meeting junta chief General Abdourahamane Tchiani or Bazoum.

The leaders of the attempted coup have shown no sign of backing down, warning that the ECOWAS threat of force would be met with force. The warning came with an exception to "suspended friendly countries"  a reference to Burkina Faso and Mali, two countries that have fallen to military coups in recent years.

Late Thursday, junta spokesperson Amadou Abdramane read a decision on national television ending bilateral military agreements with France, Nigers former colonial ruler. France has about 1,500 soldiers in the country focused on counterterror operations.

Abdramane also announced the dismissal of the Bazoum governments ambassadors to France, the United States, Togo and neighboring Nigeria, which is leading dialogue efforts by ECOWAS.

The coup has been widely condemned by the African Union, Western governments and the United Nations. U.S. President Joe Biden called Thursday for Bazoum's immediate release, adding that Niger is "facing a grave challenge to its democracy."

The U.S. paused some aid programs that benefited the government of Niger, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday in a statement. But he said humanitarian and food aid would continue.

"As we have made clear since the outset of this situation, the provision of U.S. assistance to the government of Niger depends on democratic governance and respect for constitutional order," Blinken said in the statement.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield told VOA on Friday that the coup was an unacceptable action by the military, and we have to work together with the region to try to push back on this.

She said the U.S. was in the process of removing some American citizens in an ordered departure from Niger.

But our embassy remains open, she added. Our diplomatic contacts with the various parties, including with President Bazoum, continue in Niger.

Bazoum, who has been under house arrest with his family since July 26, described himself in a Washington Post column Thursday as a hostage, and warned that if the mutiny proved successful, "it will have devastating consequences for our country, our region and the entire world."

He called on "the U.S. government and the entire international community to help us restore our constitutional order."

On Monday, Tchiani, the former head of Niger's presidential guard, declared himself the new leader, saying the move was necessary because of insecurity in the country caused by an Islamist insurgency.

But violent incidents in Niger actually decreased by almost 40% in the first six months of 2023 compared with the previous six months, according to data published Thursday by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project.

The project is a crisis-monitoring group in the United States. Its data also indicate that insecurity in Niger was improving because of strategies of Bazoum's government and assistance from French and U.S. forces. The United States has about 1,100 military personnel in Niger.

U.N. Correspondent Margaret Besheer contributed to this report. Some information came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
Singapore --News Direct-- BingX

SINGAPORE - Media OutReach - 4 August 2023 - BingX, a cryptocurrency exchange , is thrilled to unveil the listing of a new trading pair, BOBA USDT. This momentous move comes as part of BingX's commitment to offer a diverse range of trading opportunities to its esteemed users.

Boba Network is a multichain layer-2 scaling solution built on optimism, aiming to enhance blockchain communication through rollup technology. It is compatible with EVM-based tools and supports multiple chains like Avalanche, BNB, Moonbeam, and Fantom, offering rapid transactions and significantly reduced fees. Boba Network utilizes Hybrid Compute technology to integrate Web2 capabilities into the blockchain, enabling smarter smart contracts with off-chain compute and real-world data. Boba Network's native token, BOBA, plays a pivotal role in the governance of Boba DAO, allowing holders to vote, propose, and delegate for community initiatives and network direction based on staked tokens.

With the addition of the BOBA/USDT trading pair, BingX is reinforcing its reputation as a leading cryptocurrency exchange. As of 4 August 2024, 08:00:00 (UTC+0), users can engage in BOBA coin spot trading on BingX.

BingX is devoted to performing comprehensive assessments of projects that have been listed on its platform. A group of skilled researchers diligently examines the inherent risks linked with new coin projects prior to providing them a place on the exchange. This rigorous evaluation procedure guarantees that only projects which adhere to the most elevated criteria are presented on BingX's prestigious spot trading platform.

Furthermore, BingX maintains vigilant oversight over the stability and performance of projects listed on its platform, even subsequent to their initial introduction to the trading arena. This continuous assessment phase enables BingX to reevaluate the project's appropriateness for potential inclusion on its Futures trading platform. Through this meticulous strategy, BingX strives to mitigate potential risks for traders and establish a trading environment that is both secure and dependable.

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About BingX

Founded in 2018, BingX is a leading crypto exchange that offers spot, derivatives, copy, and grid trading services to over 100 countries and regions worldwide with over 5 million users. BingX continues to connect users with expert traders and the platform in a safe and innovative way. Trade tokens like Toshi, FDUSD, and SOLO on BingX platform, suitable for all trader levels.

BingX Official Listing of BOBA coin

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elvisco@bingx.com

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https://bingx.com/en-us/

View source version on newsdirect.com: https://newsdirect.com/news/bingx-to-list-boba-toshi-solo-and-fdusd-coin-on-spots-trading-platform-173057941
A wildfire caused by hot weather briefly flared in grassland around Evin prison in north Tehran, detonating landmines in a security zone around the facility on Friday, Irans judiciary said.

The judiciarys Mizan news agency said the fire lasted only a few minutes, was immediately brought under control," and caused no damage to prison facilities.

The fire spread to the protected area of the hills around Evin prison and caused the explosion of a number of mines, Mizan said. It did not report any casualties or elaborate on the kind of mines involved.

The prison, which is also surrounded by electrified barbed wire, has long been the main site for holding prominent Iranian political prisoners, as well as foreigners and dual nationals.

The facility in Tehran's Evin neighborhood also holds dissidents arrested in a wave of unrest triggered by the death last September of 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian Mahsa Amini while in custody of Iran's morality police.

Human Rights Watch says the prison has grown over the years to several buildings.

A fire in October ripped through a section of Evin prison, killing at least eight people.

Unprecedented heat this summer forced the government to declare Wednesday and Thursday as public holidays.

Many cities in southern Iran have already suffered from days of exceptional heat. State media reported temperatures had exceeded 51 Celsius (123 Fahrenheit) in the southern city of Ahvaz.
Two conservative groups are asking a federal court to block the Biden administration's plan to cancel $39 billion in student loans for more than 800,000 borrowers.

In a lawsuit filed Friday in Michigan, the groups argue that the administration overstepped its power when it announced the forgiveness in July, just weeks after the Supreme Court struck down a broader cancellation plan pushed by President Joe Biden.

It asks a judge to rule the cancellation illegal and stop the Education Department from carrying it out while the case is decided. The suit was filed by the New Civil Liberties Alliance on behalf of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy and the Cato Institute.

The Education Department called the suit "a desperate attempt from right wing special interests to keep hundreds of thousands of borrowers in debt."

"We are not going to back down or give an inch when it comes to defending working families," the department said in a statement.

It's part of a wave of legal challenges Republicans have leveled at the Biden administration's efforts to reduce or eliminate student debt for millions of Americans. Biden has said he will pursue a different cancellation plan after the Supreme Court decision, and his administration is separately unrolling a more generous repayment plan that opponents call a "backdoor attempt" at cancellation.

The Biden administration announced July 14 that it would soon forgive loans for 804,000 borrowers enrolled in income-driven repayment plans. The plans have long offered cancellation after borrowers make 20 or 25 years of payments, but "past administrative failures" resulted in inaccurate payments counts that set borrowers back on their progress toward forgiveness, the department said.

The new action was announced as a "one-time adjustment" that would count certain periods of past nonpayment as if borrowers had been making payments during that time. It moved 804,000 borrowers across the 20- or 25-year mark needed for cancellation, and it moved millions of others closer to that threshold.

It's meant to address a practice known as forbearance steering, in which student loan servicers hired by the government wrongly pushed borrowers to go into forbearance  a temporary pause on payments because of hardship  even if they would have been better served by enrolling in one of the income-driven repayment plans.

Under the one-time fix, past periods in forbearance were also counted as progress toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness, a program that offers cancellation after 10 years of payments while working in a government or nonprofit job.

Biden's action was illegal, the lawsuit says, because it wasn't authorized by Congress and didn't go through a federal rulemaking process that invites public feedback.

"No authority allows the Department to count non-payments as payments," the lawsuit says. It adds that the action came in "a press release that neither identified the policy's legal authority nor considered its exorbitant price tag."

The conservative groups say Biden's plan undercuts Public Service Loan Forgiveness. The Mackinac Center and Cato Institute say they employ borrowers who are working toward student loan cancellation through the program. They say Biden's action illegally accelerates progress toward relief, diminishing the benefit for nonprofit employers.

"This unlawful reduction in the PSLF service requirement injures public service employers that rely on PSLF to recruit and retain college-educated employees," the suit alleges.

The Cato Institute previously sued the administration over the cancellation plan that was struck down by the Supreme Court. The Mackinac Center is separately challenging Biden's pause on student loan payments, which is scheduled to end this fall with payments resuming Oct. 1.
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP)  Zimbabwes main opposition party said that one of its supporters was beaten and stoned to death while on his way to a political rally on Thursday, allegedly by activists from the ruling party, three weeks ahead of the country's general elections.

The party offered no evidence to support its claim. Police said in a statement that an incident of public violence had left one person dead as a result of the clashes but did not refer to the victim's political affiliation.

The southern African nation of 15 million people has a history of violent and disputed elections since it gained independence from white minority rule in 1980 following a bloody guerilla war. It will hold general elections on Aug. 23 to chose a president, the parliament and local government councilors.

Ahead of the vote, there have been accusations that the administration of President Emmerson Mnangagwa is using violence and intimidation to crack down on its political rivals.

Fadzayi Mahere, spokeswoman for the opposition Citizens Coalition for Change, said Tinashe Chitsunge was among the party's supporters heading for a rally in a politically volatile township in the capital, Harare, on Thursday when they were ambushed by activists from the ruling ZANU-PF party who assaulted and stoned them.

Images on social media showed the body of a man wearing the yellow colors of the opposition party lying on the ground in a pool of blood and apparently dead.

Other videos posted on social media purported to show ruling party supporters hurling rocks and stones at a truck carrying CCC followers to the rally in the Glen View township.

The information ministry called for calm and for people to heed the president's message of peaceful campaigns, free contestation of ideas and political tolerance.

Earlier on Thursday, a report by Human Rights Watch titled Crush Them Like Lice alleged that there has been violence, intimidation, harassment, and repression" linked to Mnangagwa's party and aimed principally at CCC members and civil society activists.

ZANU-PF supporters have engaged in widespread harassment, threats, and acts of violence, preventing opposition parties from staging rallies, mobilizing, campaigning, and associating with supporters across the country, the New York-based watchdog said.

Mnangagwa took power after a coup in 2017 and won a disputed election in 2018. He and his officials have repeatedly denied allegations that they have overseen a campaign of violence and intimidation ahead of this month's election, with the president often publicly telling his supporters to conduct peaceful campaigns.
Police say they have arrested two suspects over the killing of opposition CCC activist Tinashe Chitsunge in Glennorah, Harare, by suspected Zanu PF activists on Thursday.

Police spokesperson Paul Nyathi tweeted: Reference is made to the ZRP press statement on the violence which occurred in Riverside area, Glennorah near Tanaka Grounds, Harare on 03/08/23. The Police have arrested two suspects as efforts to account for the remaining suspects continue.

The callous murder was widely condemned with many people saying it shows that the August 23 elections will not be free or fair.

Zanu PF spokesperson, Farai Marapira, said his party also condemns the killing, adding those responsible must be brought to book.

The Associated Press reports that the opposition CCC offered no evidence to support its claim.

The southern African nation of 15 million people has a history of violent and disputed elections since it gained independence from white minority rule in 1980 following a bloody guerilla war. It will hold general elections on Aug. 23 to chose a president, the parliament and local government councilors.

Ahead of the vote, there have been accusations that the administration of President Emmerson Mnangagwa is using violence and intimidation to crack down on its political rivals.

Fadzayi Mahere, spokeswoman for the opposition Citizens Coalition for Change, said Tinashe Chitsunge was among the party's supporters heading for a rally in a politically volatile township in the capital, Harare, on Thursday when they were ambushed by activists from the ruling ZANU-PF party who assaulted and stoned them.

Images on social media showed the body of a man wearing the yellow colors of the opposition party lying on the ground in a pool of blood and apparently dead.

Other videos posted on social media purported to show ruling party supporters hurling rocks and stones at a truck carrying CCC followers to the rally in the Glen View township.

Earlier on Thursday, a report by Human Rights Watch titled Crush Them Like Lice alleged that there has been violence, intimidation, harassment, and repression" linked to Mnangagwa's party and aimed principally at CCC members and civil society activists.

ZANU-PF supporters have engaged in widespread harassment, threats, and acts of violence, preventing opposition parties from staging rallies, mobilizing, campaigning, and associating with supporters across the country, the New York-based watchdog said.

Mnangagwa took power after a coup in 2017 and won a disputed election in 2018. He and his officials have repeatedly denied allegations that they have overseen a campaign of violence and intimidation ahead of this month's election, with the president often publicly telling his supporters to conduct peaceful campaigns.
Bowen Yang "almost died" shooting 'Nora From Queens'.

The 'Saturday Night Live' star recalled how things went badly wrong when he was shooting a scene on horseback for the Comedy Central series - in which he plays the titular character's cousin Edmund - and the creature got spooked by a drone.

Speaking on his 'Las Culturistas' podcast, he said: Actually, not fun, not fun to be on a horse. [Ive] ridden a horse for camera. Guess what? This crew, and I love this crew, but this crew decided to have a drone, and of course the horse dont know what the f*** that is, and then I almost died."

He asked co-host Matt Rogers: I didnt tell you this? I almost died in Iceland!

The 32-year-old star joked he felt falling from a horse would be a "good way" to die.

He continued: Even hundreds of yards away, these horses can clock. They were spooked and then I almost [fell off].

I almost got bucked, and there was part of me, though, that was like, This is a good way to go.'

And Bowen, who stars in the show alongside Awkwafina, had another unforgettable moment while filming in Iceland, though it was less dramatic.

He said: The other narrative from Iceland was that I had a piece of used toilet paper  my own used toilet paper  stuck to my shoe and then everybody on set saw."

Last month, Bowen took a break from his podcast because he was struggling with "bad bouts of depersonalisation", a disorder which is described as feeling you are observing yourself from outside of your body or feel things around you aren't real, and can be "very disturbing".

He wrote on his Instagram Story: "Taking a very short break from last clutch. Bad bouts of depersonalization are f****** me up bad but I am doing my best to get better! Please take care, be back soon.(sic)"
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Legian, Bali (345.3 km SE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 5-10 s : i was sitting on toilet and felt the floor swaying and my girlfriend in bed also said she could feel as if the building was moving | One user found this interesting.

Nusa Dua Bali (355.9 km SE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging : Lying in bed. Bed started moving like someone standing and pushing against the mattress, happened four or five movements of bed | One user found this interesting.

Nusa Dua (359.7 km SE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / very short : On a third floor balcony, heard the door rattle and then felt a rolling motion like sitting in the ocean and just rolling over a wave | One user found this interesting.

Bali (348.1 km SE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / 20-30 s : I was sleeping on the 3rd floor and my bed began to shake it wake me up | One user found this interesting.

Ubud (337.8 km SE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / rattling, vibrating / 2-5 s

Seminyak bali (345.2 km SE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / 15-20 s

Ubud (337.8 km SE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / rattling, vibrating / 2-5 s

kuta lombok (447.5 km SE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 1-2 s

near Lembar, West Nusa Tenggara (436.9 km SE of epicenter) [ Map ] / not felt

Yogyakarta (347.5 km WSW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / rattling, vibrating (reported through our app / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / rattling, vibrating

Depok, Yogyakarta (343.3 km WSW of epicenter) [ Map ] / not felt I didn't feel any jolt. Perhaps because I was on the ground floor, so I didn't notice any shake. (reported through (reported through our app / not felt

Ubud (337.8 km SE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / rattling, vibrating / 2-5 s

Bali (358.9 km SE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) : Weak shake

Yogyakarta (346.8 km WSW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 1-2 s

Bali (358.4 km SE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) : Lying in bed. Curtains shaking for 5 seconds

Ubud (337 km SE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / 20-30 s : Working on computer, at third floor,, table slightly shaking

Bali (345.5 km SE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II)

Bali, Kuta (348.6 km SE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 5-10 s

kuta lombok (447.5 km SE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 1-2 s

Bali (339.3 km SE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III)

Ubud (338.1 km SE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 5-10 s

Kuta, Bali (340.9 km SE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / rattling, vibrating / 2-5 s : Weak shaking of bed

Kuta (348.3 km SE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV)

Seminyak bali (345.2 km SE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / 15-20 s

Seminyak (345.6 km SE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 2-5 s

Nusa Dua, Bali (356.8 km SE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) : bed is shaking

Bali (339.9 km SE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II)

Kuta, Bali, Indonesia (349.6 km SE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / rattling, vibrating / 2-5 s : Weak shaking,

Nusa Dua (360.5 km SE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 2-5 s

mandalika, lombok (451.4 km SE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / very short

Kuta, Kabupaten Badung, Bali (349.3 km SE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) (reported through our app / Very weak shaking (MMI II)
A married couple dubbed "Bitcoin Bonnie and Clyde" pleaded guilty Thursday to laundering funds stolen from cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex in a yearslong heist dating back to 2016.

Ilya Lichtenstein admitted to hacking the exchange and enlisting his wife, Heather Morgan, an online rapper also known as "Razzlekhan," the "Crocodile of Wall Street," to help hide nearly 120,000 stolen bitcoins through an elaborate scheme.

Lichtenstein pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering and faces up to 20 years in prison. Morgan pleaded guilty to one count of money laundering conspiracy and one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, each of which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

The couple were arrested in New York in February 2022 in what the Department of Justice said was the largest financial seizure in its history.

The DOJ recovered $3.6 billion in assets at the time and has since recovered another $475 million. Lichtenstein, 35, and Morgan, 33, jointly agreed in court to forfeit another $72 million.

BITCOIN ON TRACK TO CHALLENGE U.S. DOLLAR?

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When the hack occurred, the tokens were worth around $71 million, but their value ballooned to $4.5 billion at the time of the duo's arrest.

Prosecutors say the bitcoins were stolen from Bitfinex's website over five years via some 2,000 transactions that were transferred to Lichtenstein's digital wallet. Morgan told the court Thursday that her husband had informed her in 2020 that he had hacked the exchange.

Heather Morgan, who had been arrested along with Ilya Lichtenstein in February 2022 on charges of laundering more than 100,000 bitcoins that were stolen after a hacker attacked Bitfinex in 2016, exits the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse, in Washington, on Aug. 3, 2023.

The couple took several trips to Ukraine and Kazakhstan, and prosecutors said Lichtenstein used the visits to meet with "money mules" who converted cryptocurrency into government-issued currency and deposited it into Russian and Ukrainian banks. Lichtenstein and Morgan would then withdraw cash from the accounts in the United States.

BITCOIN CASE: MEET THE COUPLE WHO ALLEGEDLY SCAMMED $4.5B IN CRYPTO

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According to the criminal complaint, Lichtenstein and Morgan used an array of laundering techniques to hide the funds, including using fake identities to set up online accounts, depositing stolen funds into numerous crypto exchange accounts to cover transaction history, converting Bitcoin to other forms of virtual currency, and using U.S.-based business accounts to make the funds seem legitimate.

Lichtenstein admitted to converting some of the funds into gold coins and giving them to Morgan, who buried them in California. Authorities have since dug them up.

Morgan is free on bail, and Lichtenstein remains jailed. Sentencing dates have not yet been set for either defendant.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Photo: Kyle Gordon

Not even a week after music was revived from its lifeless state, its dead again, both at the hands of DJ Crazy Times. His Planet of the Bass, featuring the dean of motherlogical studies at the University of Servington, Ms. Biljana Electronica, went viral on July 28 ahead of its official release on August 15. On August 3, DJ Crazy Times posted an alternate music video, notably not shot in the Oculus, with a person who is not Ms. Biljana Electronica. Mr. Women are my favorite guy pulled a Riverdale and just replaced her as if nobody would notice. The DJ may be telling the world to stop the war, but with this not-so-slick maneuver, he inadvertently started a new one. DJ, if youre reading this, the people have spoken and the message is clear: Bring back Ms. Biljana Electronica immediately. My rhythm is NOT glad rn.

Planet of the Bass comedian Kyle Gordons parody of Every European Dance Song in the 1990s is the only real contender for song of the summer. The better original video had the Oculus in New York as a backdrop for its nonsensical, grammatically incorrect lyrical gems like All of the dream, how does it mean? As DJ Crazy Times, Gordon slicks his hair in maroon and wears a bold, if not show-stopping, combination of all-black battle-adjacent attire and swim goggles. In the original video, Audrey Trullinger, a TikToker, portrays the vocalist diva Ms. Biljana Electronica. In reality, Ms. Biljana Electronica is voiced by singer Chrissi Poland, according to the New York Times. Gordon wrote the song with Tonight Show writer Brooks Allison and tapped Jamie Siegel to produce, who put him in contact with Poland.

However, Gordons most recent post and/or public display of betrayal features Mara Olney, a self-proclaimed person that likes yoga. Gordon says the swapping was not a Scandoval level of betrayal but a deliberate joke made as an ode to the Eurodance genre, which would often switch out actresses. Also, Trullinger is in Montauk and therefore couldnt participate in a second video, he told the Times, adding that there will be a third video soon with yet another Ms. Biljana Electronica. Some fans have pointed to the genius joke they believe Gordon is pulling, claiming that switching out the women in famous songs and music videos was a staple of the European dance-song genre, but the true seekers of morality are outraged over the attempt to overthrow a titan of music.
The girlies are going to be sat for this one. Nearly 20 years after Pedro Almodovar refused to direct Brokeback Mountain because he knew Hollywood wouldnt let him make the movie explicit enough, were finally getting a gay western from the Spanish auteur and queer-cinema champion. Strange Way of Life has everything: sex symbol Pedro Pascal, salt-and-pepper baddie Ethan Hawke, and a star of Netflixs horny, pulpy teen drama Elite, Manu Rios. It has Almodovars signature style: exaggerated acting, a visual palette with touches of crimson and blue, extreme close-ups, and sexually tense two-shots, per the trailer, above. Strange Way of Life tells the story of Sheriff Jake (Ethan Hawke) and Silva (Pedro Pascal), former friends/potential lovers who reunite in Bitter Creek after a couple of decades. They reunite not to rekindle their relationship, but to investigate a murder. The directors sophomore English featurette premieres at Cannes Film Festival. Pascal stans, indie-cinema heads, and Almodovar obsessives have much to look forward to. Thanks to Sony Pictures Classics, Strange Way of Life will make its way to theaters in New York City and Los Angeles on October 4, ahead of a nationwide release on October 6.

This post has been updated.
When you buy and hold a stock for the long term, you definitely want it to provide a positive return. But more than that, you probably want to see it rise more than the market average. But BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) has fallen short of that second goal, with a share price rise of 47% over five years, which is below the market return. Meanwhile, the last twelve months saw the share price rise 2.0%.

So let's assess the underlying fundamentals over the last 5 years and see if they've moved in lock-step with shareholder returns.

View our latest analysis for BlackRock

In his essay The Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville Warren Buffett described how share prices do not always rationally reflect the value of a business. 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 five years of share price growth, BlackRock achieved compound earnings per share (EPS) growth of 0.7% per year. This EPS growth is lower than the 8% average annual increase in the share price. So it's fair to assume the market has a higher opinion of the business than it did five years ago. That's not necessarily surprising considering the five-year track record of earnings growth.

The image below shows how EPS has tracked over time (if you click on the image you can see greater detail).

It might be well worthwhile taking a look at our free report on BlackRock's earnings, revenue and cash flow.

What About Dividends?

As well as measuring the share price return, investors should also consider the total shareholder return (TSR). 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. As it happens, BlackRock's TSR for the last 5 years was 67%, which exceeds the share price return mentioned earlier. This is largely a result of its dividend payments!

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A Different Perspective

BlackRock shareholders are up 5.0% for the year (even including dividends). Unfortunately this falls short of the market return. On the bright side, the longer term returns (running at about 11% a year, over half a decade) look better. Maybe the share price is just taking a breather while the business executes on its growth strategy. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand BlackRock better, we need to consider many other factors. Consider risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 1 warning sign for BlackRock you should know about.

If you are like me, then you will not want to miss this free list of growing companies that insiders are buying.

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on American exchanges.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
Six night clubs in Italy sign up to pilot project for drivers over alcohol limit.

Italy's transport ministry is to introduce trial measures to provide free taxis to drivers who, after undergoing alcohol tests on leaving night clubs, exceed the legal limit for driving.

Transport minister and deputy premier Matteo Salvini on Thursday announced the pilot project whose aim is to "prevent the increasingly frequent carnage" on the country's roads at weekends.

The experimental scheme will initially involve six venues around Italy, on Saturday nights from August to mid-September, with the results to be evaluated at the end, Salvini said.

Taxi e navette gratuite a fine serata per chi ha bevuto troppo: uniniziativa concreta, finalizzata a prevenire rischi e tragedie sulle strade, per la quale oggi al Mit abbiamo firmato un protocollo dintesa con le associazioni dei locali di intrattenimento notturno.



Lidea, pic.twitter.com/yrh0JV7yaP  Matteo Salvini (@matteosalvinimi) August 3, 2023

The initiative will involve the night clubs identifying those who are unfit to get behind the wheel, providing vouchers to taxis to take the driver home along with the friends they had driven to the venue earlier that night.

The transport ministry, which will fund the scheme, drew up the measures in collaboration with representatives from the night club industry.

The trial project will be offered at the following six clubs, in agreement with local taxi companies: Mascara All Music, Mantua; Il Muretto, Jesolo Lido (Venice); Praja, Gallipoli (Lecce); Baia Imperiale, Gabicce Mare (Pesaro - Urbino); Naki Discoteca, Pavia; La Capannina, Castiglione della Pescaia (Grosseto).
Skipper of speed boat results positive in toxicology test.

Italian authorities have opened an investigation into the death of a 45-year-old American tourist who was killed after the chartered motorboat she was travelling in crashed into a sailing ship off the southern Amalfi coast on Thursday.

The woman has been named by Italian media as Adrienne Vaughan, the president of the publishing house Bloomsbury USA, best known for publishing the Harry Potter books.

The motorboat collided violently with the 45-metre yacht, which was carrying a wedding party of around German and American tourists, near the Fiordo di Furore.

The impact threw Vaughan over board where she suffered fatal injuries from the boat's propellers.

The 30-year-old skipper of the motorboat, who was injured in the crash, failed toxicology tests, according to Italian news reports.

Vaughan had been visiting Italy on a family vacation with her husband, who was taken to Ravello hospital with limb injuries, and her two children, aged 12 and eight, who are being treated for shock.
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BUCHA, Ukraine  Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has become the second 2024 Republican presidential hopeful to visit Ukraine, meeting Friday with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv, touring ravaged villages and saying what he saw further impressed to him that the U.S. should continue to help the country fend off Russias attack.

I feel the cruelty, and you feel the inhumanity, Christie said during his trip, which included stops in the villages of Bucha and Moshchun, both on the outskirts of Kyiv. And you look at this, and I dont think theres anyone in our country who would come here and see this and not feel as if these are the things that America needs to stand up to prevent.

During the visit, Christie placed flowers at the memorial complex in Bucha, where there was a mass grave of civilians, and prayed for Ukrainian volunteers who were killed by Russian troops at the beginning of the war in Moshchun.

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I really suspected that if I saw this in person that it would arm me to be a better advocate for support, I think, from the stuff I saw today just now, and the meeting with the president ... I think Im much better off, Christie said after his meeting with Zelenskyy.

Christie said the Ukrainian president spoke about his desire for there to be bipartisan support for Ukraine, but made no comments on the U.S. presidential race.

He was very complimentary of President Biden, some of the things that hes advocated for, but also made clear that he thought there was more that needed to be done, Christie said. There was no conversation at all from him about, you know, the race that Im in.

The GOP presidential field is divided over the future of U.S. involvement in the war.

Christie has leveled criticism over Ukraine at President Joe Biden, whose administration has provided more than $43 billion in military aid to Ukraine since Russia invaded in February 2022. On Friday, he said that America needs to stand up to prevent and to work with friends like the Ukrainians to give them the means necessary for them to be able to secure once again their liberty and their freedom.

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During a July town hall in Columbia, South Carolina, Christie called the conflict a proxy war between the United States and China, arguing that Ukrainians dont want American men and women on the ground in Ukraine, nor would I send American men and women on the ground in Ukraine. What they want is the hardware to have a fair chance to beat the Russians.

Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and former Vice President Mike Pence have both also warned that the failure to stem Russias advances could lead to further global conflict, potentially signaling to China that it could be successful in moving to overtake Taiwan.

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Last month, the U.S. announced $345 million in military aid for Taiwan, in what is the Biden administrations first major package drawing on Americas own stockpiles to help Taiwan counter China and to deter China from considering attacking, by providing Taipei enough weaponry that it would make the price of invasion too high.

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Pence made a trip to Ukraine in June after launching his own presidential bid.

Former President Donald Trump, the current GOP front-runner, has called on congressional Republicans to halt all military support for Ukraine until the Biden administration cooperates with their investigations into the president and his son Hunter Bidens business dealings. Trump has also argued that he could stop the war swiftly after returning to the White House.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis  who drew criticism in March from a number of fellow Republicans who expressed concern about his dismissive description of the conflict as a territorial dispute, subsequently walking it back  has endorsed a cease-fire and argued that the U.S. should not get more involved in the war.

In an interview with The Washington Post aboard a train from Poland to Kyiv, Christie said he hoped Republican voters had begun to reconsider which of their partys candidates will have the bandwidth to grapple with the really complicated issues that the next president will have to deal with  including Ukraine  and who is going to be dealing with trying to keep themselves out of jail.

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Christie also told the Post that some of his fellow GOP contenders, including Trump, DeSantis and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy are giving people a false choice, which is Well, we can only do one thing; we can either improve things in the States or we can help Ukraine, calling that a ridiculous statement.

___

Kinnard reported from Columbia, South Carolina, and can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP
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BEIRUT  Damage to the school complex in Lebanons largest Palestinian refugee camp from recent clashes between factions could delay the start of the school year for some 6,000 children, a United Nations official said Friday. Are you on Telegram? Subscribe to our channel for the latest updates on Russias war in Ukraine. ArrowRight The concern arose after heavy street battles broke out Sunday in Ein el-Hilweh between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Fatah party and Islamist groups Jund al Sham and Shabab al Muslim. The clashes erupted after Fatah accused the Islamists of gunning down a Fatah military general, Abu Ashraf al Armoushi, in the camp.

The fighting has killed at least 13 people, injured dozens more and displaced thousands from the camp, which is home to more than 50,000 people.

Although an uneasy calm has prevailed over the past two days, staff from the UNs agency for Palestinian refugees in Lebanon have been unable to access the camp to make a full damage assessment or to provide services.

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Dorothee Klaus, Director of UNRWA in Lebanon, told The Associated Press that a heavily fortified complex of four of the agencys schools was raided by the involved militants and was unfortunately also used as a starting point for the battle.

Militants from the Islamist groups reportedly shot Armoushi from a position inside the school complex.

In the fighting that followed, the schools incurred significant damages, Klaus said, and the school year for 6,000 children  may have to be delayed until we enact the necessary repairs. The UNRWA school year is currently slated to begin in the first week of October, in parallel with Lebanese schools.

This weeks clashes were not the first that have broken out between factions in the camp. As a result, Klaus said, the school complex was over time fortified to ensure that when ... clashes erupted outside during school time, (the children) are safe. But recently, its also been used as a fortress, she said.

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I believe we will have to reflect on the entire architectural design of the school to ensure that looking forward, the school cannot  ever again be used as a launchpad for assassinations and armed activities, she said.

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The cost of repairs and reconstruction within the camp is likely to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, Klaus said. It is unclear where that funding will come from.

Even before the recent clashes, UNRWA officials had warned of major shortfalls in the agencys funding that could result in service cuts or being unable to pay staff salaries by the fall.

UNRWA was founded after the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 to serve hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled or were forced from their homes. Today, their numbers have grown to some 5.9 million people, most in the Gaza Strip and Israeli-occupied West Bank, as well as neighboring countries in the Middle East. In recent years, the agency has been in a near-perpetual state of financial crisis.

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Reconstruction of another camp in Lebanon, Nahr al-Bared, which suffered massive destruction in 2007 during fighting between Islamist militants in the camp and the Lebanese army, has still not been completed. Klaus said the agency is still missing $40 million to complete the reconstruction.

Klaus said any reconstruction taking place in Ein el-Hilweh should be tied to a road map to ensure that the clashes are not repeated.

Any investment that would be undermined by further destruction ... later in the year because no sustainable solution has been found, would be very much deplorable, she said.

There are nearly 500,000 Palestinian refugees registered in Lebanon, although the actual number in the country is believed to be around 200,000, as many have emigrated but remain on UNRWAs roster.

Palestinians in Lebanon are restricted in their rights to work and own property, and the vast majority of them live in poverty.

Klaus said the recent clashes are reflective of an unresolved conflict, of the unresolved status of Palestine refugees here in Lebanon.

One can only hope that major crises, such as weve just undergone in Ein el-Hilweh, would also open the door to reflecting on how can more sustainable approaches to the Palestine refugee presence in Lebanon be found, she said.
Employees and security staff work at the reception area of Cipla at its headquarters in Mumbai

(Reuters) - U.S.-based private equity fund Blackstone will submit a bid next week to acquire a 33.47% stake in Indian drugmaker Cipla, the Economic Times reported on Friday, citing people in the know.

The stake sale will formally start the exit of the Hamied family who had founded Cipla in 1935, the report added.

Cipla and Blackstone did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment.

The move will also trigger an open offer for an additional 26% of Cipla, upon full subscription of which Blackstone would end up owning as much as 59.4% of Cipla's stake, according to the report.

Last Month, Moneycontrol had reported that top shareholders of the pharma major, which includes Blackstone are in talks to sell a part of their stake to private equity players.

Shares of the company have risen over 14% since the Moneycontrol report, and hit record high on Friday.

(Reporting by Manvi Pant in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza and Rashmi Aich)
ANZ Bank will challenge the competition watchdogs rejection of its $4.9 billion planned purchase of Suncorps banking division, after the regulator said the deal would further entrench the countrys banking oligopoly.

In a blow to ANZs growth ambitions and Suncorps hopes to becoming a pure-play insurer, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) on Friday vetoed what would have been the biggest transaction in Australian banking since Westpacs 2008 takeover of St George.

The competition watchdog said second-tier banks were important competitors against the major banks. Credit: Arsineh Houspian, Paul Harris

In a sign the watchdog would also oppose other big banks from buying regional lenders, the ACCC said if ANZ was allowed to buy Suncorps bank, there was a higher risk of coordination in the $2.1 trillion mortgage market.

ACCC deputy chair Mick Keogh said the competition watchdog weighed up whether there would be any substantial lessening in competition in banking, and whether that could be offset by public benefits from the merger.
The documents, which have not been previously reported, offer new insight into Ellisons psychology during the final months of FTX. Ellison, now 28, was a prolific writer whose Tumblr posts about Harry Potter and Jane Austen have been widely dissected. But the Google documents are more personal and raw, with some directly addressed to Bankman-Fried, illustrating the complexity of their relationship and her ambivalence about Alameda. Sam Bankman-Frieds trial is set to start in October. Credit: Bloomberg In one Google document addressed to Bankman-Fried in April 2022, Ellison wrote that an earlier breakup with him had significantly decreased my excitement about Alameda. Life at the hedge fund, she added, felt too associated with you in a way that was painful. A representative for Ellisons legal team and a lawyer for Bankman-Fried declined to comment. A spokesperson for the US Attorneys Office for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan, the unit prosecuting the case, also declined to comment. Ellison, a Stanford graduate, got to know Bankman-Fried at Jane Street, the quantitative trading firm where he worked after college. They shared a commitment to effective altruism, the charitable movement that has gained adherents in the tech and finance industries.

After Bankman-Fried left Jane Street to start Alameda in 2017, he recruited Ellison as a trader. In 2021, he promoted her to co-CEO, alongside another early hire, Sam Trabucco. Bankman-Fried and Ellison also started an unsteady romantic relationship, with multiple breakups and reconciliations. At times, Ellison worried that Bankman-Fried thought she wasnt good enough. When he was around, she wrote in the February 2022 Google document, she had an instinct to shrink and become smaller and quieter and defer to others. Loading After one split, Ellison cut off communication with Bankman-Fried. I felt pretty hurt/rejected, she wrote in the April 2022 Google document. Not giving you the contact you wanted felt like the only way I could regain a sense of power. By last year, Bankman-Fried had become one of the worlds most prominent crypto entrepreneurs, his face plastered on billboards and magazine covers. His fame seemed to make life at FTX and Alameda harder for Ellison.

Staying put meant having to be around you all the time, hearing people talk about how great you are all the time, she wrote in the April 2022 document. Ellison was compensated far less generously than other top executives at FTX and Alameda, though its unclear whether she was aware of it. According to court filings, the exchanges founders and other key employees received $US3.2 billion ($4.8 billion) in payments and loans. Of that total, $US6 million went to Ellison, compared with $US587 million for Singh, FTXs head of engineering, and $US246 million for Wang, one of the founders. Bankman-Fried received $US2.2 billion. In May 2022, the crypto market crashed, sending coin prices spiralling and plunging several prominent companies into bankruptcy. During the crisis, regulators have asserted, Bankman-Fried, Wang, Singh and Ellison filled a hole in Alamedas accounts using billions in customer funds deposited with FTX. Even before then, Ellison doubted her own abilities. In the April 2022 document, she made a list of areas where she struggled, including leadership and decisiveness. Running Alameda doesnt feel like something Im that comparatively advantaged at or well suited to do, she wrote.

By last fall, Bankman-Fried had lost faith in Alameda. He considered shutting the firm, according to court records, and invested more than $US400 million in another trading company, Modulo Capital, which was led by a different former Jane Street trader whom he had also dated. Moira Penza, a former federal prosecutor, said that the best government cooperators accepted blame on the witness stand and that the power differential between Ellison and Bankman-Fried could make her a compelling voice. Ellison expressed jealousy and resentment toward Modulo in some of her writings, as well as a feeling that she was being squeezed out, two people who have seen the documents said. Bankman-Frieds business empire collapsed in November after a run on deposits exposed an $US8 billion deficit. I just had an increasing dread of this day that was weighing on me, Ellison wrote to him in a message that month, which was excerpted in court records. Now that its actually happening it just feels great to get it over with.

In December, Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas, where FTX was based, and taken to a prison not far from the luxury penthouse that he and Ellison had shared with eight other roommates, including Wang and Singh. Bankman-Fried is now under house arrest at his parents home in Palo Alto, California. People who know Ellison say they have been struck by her earnestness and her willingness to admit her own failings. In court in December, she said she was truly sorry for committing fraud. I knew that it was wrong, she said. Sam Bankman-Fried, Gary Wang, Nishad Singh and Catherine Ellison are accused of filling a hole in Alamedas accounts using billions in customer funds deposited with FTX. Credit: AP Ellison is expected to repeat that assertion at Bankman-Frieds trial, which is set to last four or five weeks. Much of the trial will revolve around messages that Bankman-Fried and the three cooperators exchanged on the messaging app Signal, two people briefed on the matter said. As a woman in the male-dominated crypto industry, Ellison may appear more sympathetic to the jury than the other cooperators, lawyers familiar with the case said. In interviews last year, Bankman-Fried shifted some blame for the collapse to Alameda, saying he had little involvement in the hedge funds day-to-day management.
Now that Physical has reached its third and final season, those who exited early or havent yet given this series a chance should strongly reconsider. As a sharply chiselled body of work across 30 half-hour episodes, the show feels authoritative and complete. It dug deep into Sheilas trauma  the second season featured a blistering reckoning with her mother  and weighed up the wayward motivations she carried: to be commercially successful, to understand herself, and to be free of her husband, Danny (Rory Scovel).

Fluent in the language of self-loathing, the initial episodes of this darkly comic period piece scared off some viewers. Rose Byrnes Sheila Rubin, a deeply unfulfilled graduate of the 60s counter-culture stewing away in 1981 San Diego, was berated by her own inner monologue, which in turn set off the ritualised binges that punctuated her eating disorder. Sheila experienced a Road to Damascus moment when she discovered aerobics. Annie Weismans show never took a step backwards as its protagonist tried to move forward.

With its exuberant production design and welter of voices both real and imaginary, Physical hit upon a fluid tone that let it infiltrate the dark interior that prestige dramas try to batter down. The mood could flip between the farcical and the fearsome. The new season, with Sheila in recovery and her aerobics studio looking for national exposure, adds a different wrench. The voice in her head has fallen silent, but Sheila is in conversation  or a mentorship  with a projection of her blonde rival, Kelly Kilmartin (Zooey Deschanel).

Byrne has had a terrific last decade as a late blooming comic actor (see her other Apple TV+ series Platonic), but Sheila may well be her definitive role. Byrnes ability to make an edge of doubt palpable, to let you sense how shes trying to tamp down Sheilas emotions, is masterful. And the story never lets Sheila off  her false starts and feminist slips, little lies and comic panic, are all illustrative.

Physical found more to explore in less obvious supporting roles, forging a magnet for Sheila in the ramrod form of mall owner John Breem (Paul Sparks), and with each season its approach has grown more specific and accomplished. There are camera set-ups in the new season that perfectly delineate the space around Sheila in telling ways, while a single scathing line can encapsulate years: your feelings arent my job anymore, Sheila tells Danny. And whats more, the final episode sticks the landing. Physical played the long game and won.

They Cloned Tyrone 

Netflix
Recipe collection

21 sticky, saucy finger-lickin chicken recipes, starring Adam Liaws quick one-pan honey soy dinner

From teriyaki to satay, honey soy to Singapore-style: These recipes are deliciously and gloriously messy to eat thanks to their sweet, savoury and even a little spicy marinades and glazes. So get stuck in!
It is one of the most iconic images of the 20th century  two African-American athletes standing on the winners podium at the 1968 Summer Olympics thrusting black leather glove-clad fists into the air as their countrys national anthem played.

Tommie Smith and John Carloss gesture of solidarity with the Black Power movement and the respect shown them by Australian sprinter Peter Norman is now revered. But at the time their breathtaking act of defiance was roundly condemned.

Matilda Lane-Rose, 19, centre, is one of the activists arrested and charged over a protest at Woodside boss Meg ONeills home on Tuesday.

They were booed by the crowd in the stadium in Mexico City; IOC president Avery Brundage eviscerated Smith and Carlos for making a political statement during an apolitical event and booted them out of the Olympic Village; Time magazine labelled their action (in a play on the Olympic motto) as angrier, nastier, uglier and on returning home they received death threats.

The same reversal of fortunes occurred with Western Australias own Nicky Winmar, whose gesture of lifting his jumper and pointing to his skin was savaged in 1995 but then celebrated in 2019 with a statue outside Optus Stadium.
Barley, which is mainly used in animal feed and beer production in China, is the second Australian export to have restrictions removed by the Chinese government after more than three years of diplomatic hostility over national security, human rights and COVID-19. Loading Beijing froze ministerial contact and imposed billions of dollars in tariffs across half-a-dozen industries at the height of its diplomatic disputes with Canberra. But the sanctions had little impact on Australian government policy with both Liberal and Labor governments maintaining a largely bipartisan consensus on national security and human rights despite differences in tone. The Australian exports also quickly found other markets and Chinas power generators, seafood suppliers and manufacturers suffered from having to use lower quality and more expensive products.

The Productivity Commission said in July that the impact of Chinas trade sanctions reduced the total value of Australian exports to the world by just 0.2 per cent as producers diversified their exports to other countries. Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong said barley was one of several exports that found a diversified market in the volatile period. In fact, barley producers have increased their exports to the rest of the world during this period from $400 million to $3 billion, an increase of in excess of 600 per cent, she said. Grain Producers Australia chairman Barry Large said the resolution of the case would allow Australian producers to recommence selling and exporting our high-quality barley to China.

While other export markets have purchased Australian barley over the past two years, and trade for other important Australian grains such as wheat have continued with China, growers will look forward to the added opportunity this reopening of the barley trade delivers, he said. Loading Australian coal returned to China in February after Chinese regulators issued verbal instructions to importers in 2020 to stop buying $14 billion worth of coal. The ban backfired and hit Chinese power generators last year as the economy reeled from ongoing power cuts. Relations with Beijing have stabilised since Labor came to government last year but restrictions on wine, lobsters, beef and cotton remain in place. Farrell said the total value of exports that remained affected has now been reduced to about $2 billion. Its very significant progress in that 15 months, he said. Beijing has maintained the restrictions were due to pests, labelling and concerns over dumping. Those claims were disputed by the former Liberal government, which accused it of economic coercion.

Former trade minister Simon Birmingham took China to the World Trade Organisation over the barley tariffs in December 2020 and his successor Dan Tehan lodged a complaint over tariffs of up to 200 per cent on Australian wine in June 2021. Loading Farrell said Australia had made it clear to China that it preferred to resolve the disputes through dialogue. But the WTO case, which China was expected to lose, gave Canberra leverage in discussions with Chinese ministers once high-level diplomatic contact resumed last year. Wong said Australia was now confident of winning the wine case.

We have a dispute before the WTO in relation to wine. We are confident of our case. We retain our view, which we have expressed publicly and to the Chinese officials, that it is in the interest of both countries for these impediments to be removed, she said. Wong said the removal of the tariffs on barley was a positive development but would not give a firm commitment to a visit by Albanese to Beijing later this year. What I would say is the prime minister has made clear he would welcome a visit, and we hope we can continue on the positive path that we are on, she said. Detained Australian journalist Cheng Lei has not been allowed to speak with her children who live in Melbourne. Credit: CGTN Two Australians, Cheng Lei and Yang Hengjun remain behind bars in Beijing on unspecified national security charges. Their families have urged the government to continue raising their cases with Chinese authorities at every opportunity.
Brookfield Infrastructure Partners LP (NYSE:BIP) is a leading global infrastructure company that owns and operates high-quality, long-life assets in the utilities, transport, energy, and data infrastructure sectors across North and South America, Asia Pacific, and Europe. As of August 4, 2023, the company's stock price stands at $33.17, with a market capitalization of $15.29 billion. Despite a 9.99% loss over the past four weeks, the stock has seen a gain of 4.11% today. In this article, we will delve into the company's GF Score of 91 out of 100, indicating the highest outperformance potential, and what it suggests about the company's future performance.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners LP: A High-Performing Stock with Strong Growth Prospects

Financial Strength Analysis

The Financial Strength of a company is a crucial indicator of its ability to withstand economic downturns. BIP's Financial Strength Rank stands at 3 out of 10, suggesting a relatively weak financial situation. This is primarily due to its high debt to revenue ratio of 2.34 and a low interest coverage of 2.04. Furthermore, the company's Altman Z-Score of 0.43 indicates potential financial distress.

Profitability Rank Analysis

On the brighter side, BIP's Profitability Rank is 9 out of 10, indicating a high level of profitability and business stability. The company's operating margin stands at 23.53%, and it has maintained profitability for 9 out of the past 10 years. However, the company's Piotroski F-Score of 5 suggests average business operations health.

Growth Rank Analysis

BIP's Growth Rank is a perfect 10 out of 10, indicating robust revenue and profitability growth. The company has demonstrated a 5-year revenue growth rate of 29.40% and a 3-year revenue growth rate of 28.20%. Additionally, its 5-year EBITDA growth rate stands at 24.90%, suggesting strong operational growth.

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GF Value Rank Analysis

The GF Value Rank of BIP is also at the maximum of 10 out of 10, indicating that the stock is significantly undervalued. This suggests that the company's stock offers good value at the current price.

Momentum Rank Analysis

The Momentum Rank of BIP is 7 out of 10, indicating a positive momentum in the company's stock price and the potential for continued growth.

Competitor Analysis

When compared to its main competitors in the Utilities - Regulated industry, BIP stands out with its high GF Score. Canadian Utilities Ltd (GF Score: 76), Atco Ltd (GF Score: 74), and ONEnergy Inc (GF Score: 0) lag behind BIP in terms of GF Score. More details can be found on the competitors page.

Conclusion

In conclusion, despite some financial weaknesses, Brookfield Infrastructure Partners LP's high GF Score of 91, strong growth prospects, and undervalued stock position it as a promising investment. However, investors should keep an eye on the company's financial strength and monitor its debt levels. As always, it's crucial to conduct thorough research and consider various factors before making investment decisions.

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.


Bucharest, Romania: A Bucharest court has ruled to release internet personality Andrew Tate from house arrest where he is awaiting trial on charges of human trafficking, placing him under judicial control, a lighter restrictive measure.

Tate was charged in June along with his brother Tristan and two Romanian female suspects for human trafficking, rape and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women.

Police officers escort Andrew Tate to the Court of Appeal in Bucharest, Romania on February 1. Credit: AP

The suspects have denied the allegations.

Under Romanian law, the case is now with the Bucharest courts preliminary chamber, where a judge has 60 days to inspect the case files to ensure legality. The trial will not start until that process is completed.
Dubai: The US military is considering putting armed personnel on commercial ships travelling through the Strait of Hormuz, in what would be an unheard of action aimed at stopping Iran from seizing and harassing civilian vessels, five American officials told The Associated Press on Thursday.

Since 2019, Iran has seized a series of ships in the strait, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf, as part of its efforts to pressure the West over negotiations regarding its collapsed nuclear deal with world powers. Putting US troops on commercial ships could further deter Iran from seizing vessels  or escalate tensions further.

US Navy sailor stands guard next to a machine gun aboard the USS Paul Hamilton in the Strait of Hormuz. Credit: AP

The contemplated move also would represent an extraordinary commitment in the Mideast by US forces as the Pentagon tries to focus on Russia and China. America didnt even take the step during the so-called Tanker War, which culminated with the U.S. Navy and Iran fighting a one-day naval battle in 1988 that was the Navys largest since World War II.

While officials offered few details of the plan, it comes as thousands of Marines and sailors on both the amphibious assault ship USS Bataan and the USS Carter Hall, a landing ship, are on their way to the Persian Gulf. Those Marines and sailors could provide the backbone for any armed guard mission in the strait, through which 20 per cent of the worlds crude oil passes.
(Bloomberg) -- Nu Holdings Ltd., the Brazilian digital bank that counts Warren Buffetts Berkshire Hathaway Inc. among its biggest stockholders, is betting big that its high-yield savings accounts will stoke growth in Latin Americas second-largest economy.

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Within a month of launching the product, the company had 1 million customers enrolled in its Cuenta Nu accounts and expects the product to be pivotal for the growth in the number of customers, said Ivan Canales, head of Mexico for Nubank. Overall, the company has hit 3.2 million customers nationwide with minimal marketing expenditures, he added, with two thirds of new accounts in Mexico coming through customer referrals.

Nubank, as the company is known, has invested $1.3 billion in its operations in Mexico while still holding $2.4 billion in excess cash at the end of the first quarter. In keeping with its burgeoning operation in Mexico, the company on Thursday opened its new country headquarters in the affluent Polanco neighborhood, complete with perks like a health center, rooftop lounge and foot massage machine. Nubank works in a hybrid modality, with teams asked to attend only one week of every eight.

The company plans to first boost the number of customers in Mexico and later seek to increase revenue per customer. Nu is working to adapt its Brazil product offerings to the Mexican market, added Cristina Junqueira, the companys co-founder and chief growth officer, in an interview at the new office.

Investors are valuing many avenues of growth, one of them is growing customers, and in Mexico were still in the very beginning, she said. We just reached 80 million users in Brazil, one of two adults. Theres nothing stopping us from getting to those levels here in Mexico, too.

Story continues

In Mexico, the unit economics are different from those in Brazil, as people dont pay the full amount on their credit cards at the end of the month and that leads to a lot more revenue from interest, Canales added.

Shares of Nubank rose as much as 2.7% on Friday. The company will publish its second-quarter earnings results Aug. 15 after market close.

Other key points from the interview:

The company invested $300 million last year in Mexico, bringing its total to $1.3 billion. It declined to say how much it was investing this year

Nu isnt eyeing entering new markets, but rather is focusing on growing in Mexico and Colombia, Junqueira said

While there were some headcount reductions in June, those were only in Brazil and a result of merging teams following a restructuring and some discontinued projects. None of the cuts were in Mexico

The company is adapting fraud technology from Brazil to its Mexican operations, where fraud levels are also high

--With assistance from Cristiane Lucchesi.

(Adds Friday share trading, second-quarter earnings schedule in seventh paragraph. An earlier version of story corrected spelling of Buffett in headline)

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View of a wood flooring sales office and an employment agency in Toronto

By Ismail Shakil

OTTAWA (Reuters) -The Canadian economy unexpectedly shed a net 6,400 jobs in July while the jobless rate ticked up to 5.5%, data showed on Friday, cementing analyst expectations that the Bank of Canada will pause its interest rate hike campaign.

Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast a net gain of 21,100 jobs and for the unemployment rate to edge up to 5.5% from 5.4% in June. The economy has lost jobs in two of the previous three months, Statistics Canada said.

The labor market, supported in part by strong immigration, has until now been resilient even as the central bank raised its key overnight rate ten times since March 2022.

The Bank, fretting about inflation still well above its 2% target, lifted rates in June and July and said it would study data closely before moving again. It is due to make its next announcement on Sept. 6.

Money markets see a 28% chance of a rate hike in September, down slightly from 32% before the data. Money markets see a 60% chance of another rate hike by the end of the year, down from 80% before the data.

Doug Porter, chief economist at BMO Capital Markets, said there were real signs the economy was starting to soften and noted the unemployment rate had increased by six tenths of a percentage point since July 2022.

"I think their (the Bank's) conclusion from this would be that it's probably not a bad idea to pause on the rate hike front," he said by phone.

The Canadian dollar edged down to C$1.3375 against the U.S. dollar, or 74.77 U.S. cents.

Royce Mendes, director and head of macro strategy at Desjardins, said "today's data reinforce our view that the central bank is done raising rates for this cycle."

While headline figures indicated some slowness, the average hourly wage for permanent employees - a figure the Bank of Canada watches closely - rose 5.0% from July 2022. That was higher than the 3.9% annual rise in June, but lower than May's 5.1% and April's 5.2% year-over-year increases.

Story continues

Stephen Brown, deputy chief North America economist at Capital Economics, said the jump in year-over-year wages was unlikely to be sustained.

"The softer labor market data support our view that the Bank is unlikely to follow through with current market pricing by raising rates further," he said.

Including July's losses, Canada's monthly employment growth has still averaged 22,000 this year, Statscan said.

The central bank has two more major data sets to ponder before the Sept 6 rate announcement - July inflation, due on Aug 15, and second quarter growth, due on Sept 1.

(Additional reporting by David Ljunggren and Dale Smith in Ottawa and Fergal Smith in Toronto; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Nick Zieminski)
Truck drivers from across the Ontario, Canada area say rampant wage theft is hurting the commercial transportation industry in the country. (Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves)

Truckers in Canada are fighting to claim part of an estimated $9 million in wages that has been withheld from them by various employers in recent years while calling on the federal government to do more to help fight against carriers that operate the scheme known as Driver Inc.

A group called Justice for Truck Drivers held a rally outside Torontos federal labor program office on July 8 to bring attention to wage theft in the trucking industry. Justice for Truck Drivers includes 42 people who said collectively they are owed more than $300,000 in unpaid wages from several different carriers.

I did not get my first paycheck until three months after I started working, said Manjinder Singh, one of the drivers who spoke at the rally. Singh eventually left his trucking job in 2021 and said he is still owed more than $10,000 in unpaid wages from his former employer.

The money Singh and other members of Justice for Truck Drivers said they are owed is part of approximately $9 million in unpaid wages that companies in the Canadian province of Ontario failed to pay out to employees in the 2021-22 fiscal year, according to data from Canadas Ministry of Labour.

The data was obtained through freedom of information requests by two Toronto-based organizations  Downtown Legal Services and Parkdale Community Legal Services, according to CBC News.

The majority of companies listed as owing unpaid wages to workers from the 2021-22 fiscal year are primarily operators in the transportation and logistics spaces.





Workers advocates said wage theft is an exploitative practice that is getting worse across the trucking and logistics industries, particularly for immigrants working as drivers in the country.

Navi Aujla, executive director of Brampton, Canada-based Labour Community Services of Peel, said hundreds of drivers have come to her organization in recent years seeking help with recovering money they are owed by carriers.

The majority of cases that come to us regarding wage theft or anything else, the driver has been misclassified by their employer, Aujla told FreightWaves. When theres misclassification, employees arent getting their full rights, employers are taking part in practices that would never be acceptable when someone is an employee.

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In Canada, misclassifying truck drivers as independent contractors is known throughout the trucking industry as Driver Inc.  a business model involving a carrier telling a driver who does not own a truck to register as a corporation and sell its driving services to the company.

Using the Driver Inc. model, carriers can avoid paying taxes and benefits to workers, while also often disregarding labor laws by withholding wages and payments to drivers.

In May, several major trucking industry groups  including the Canadian Trucking Alliance, Teamsters Canada and Quebec Trucking Association  held a joint news conference asking the government to crack down on carriers using the Driver Inc. model.

The key issue here is about fairness and assuring that all play by the same rules so that no one employer is able to have an unfair advantage over another, John McCann, the national freight and tank haul director for Teamsters Canada, said during the news conference. Its about assuring that a vulnerable labor force is not taken advantage of simply because they just want an opportunity to work and support their families.

On July 22, Labour Community Services of Peel and Justice for Truck Drivers held a town hall meeting in Brampton to discuss everything from wage theft to illegal deductions, harassment and unsafe working conditions in the trucking industry.

Justice for Truck Drivers includes 42 people who said collectively they are owed more than $300,000 in unpaid wages from several different carriers. The organization participated in a town hall meeting July 22. (Photo: Labour Community Services of Peel)

Aujla said that while truck drivers only make up about 17% of federally regulated workers, they account for 85% of claims for unpaid wages filed with the Ministry of Labour.

It became clear that the problems are rooted at a systemic level, Aujla said. This was not one or two drivers and it was not one or two bad employers, it was hundreds.

Labour Community Services of Peel, founded in 1979, is an organization that helps residents with employment-related issues. The region of Peel, located near the Toronto area, is located in Ontario, a province in east-central Canada that borders the U.S. Peel is considered by many to be the heart of the trucking industry in the region.

Another big reason we are seeing so much wage theft is that in Canada, trucking is one of the jobs or industries where workers can have access to permanent resident status through the LMIA (Labour Market Impact Assessment) process, Aujla said. Theres so many loopholes and ways for employers to exploit workers through the immigration policy system. It creates a lot of opportunities for exploitation and wage theft when employees or drivers are so dependent on an employer to be able to access permanent resident status.

Canadas federal Labour Program (similar to the U.S. Department of Labor) is an organization meant to help workers dispute payment issues with their employers without having to hire lawyers or go to small claims court.

Aujla said authorities need to enforce wage payment orders with more strictness and enact harsher penalties for companies that dont pay up.

The main thing that were really trying to push the government on is the lack of enforcement and consequences for employers who break the law, Aujla said. Were seeing that even where drivers are filing so many claims in the Labour Program  theres a huge wait time for the claims to be processed.

Aujla said when a company finally does receive a payment order from the Labour Program, theres not much enforcement from the federal government.

If the employer doesnt voluntarily pay what they owe the worker, what the company does is theyll then send the payment order to federal court, which now the worker is waiting more than a year or more for their money and you get back a certificate, which the worker has to take on themselves to hire a lawyer or private investigator to try to track down these employers assets or different things like that, Aujla said.

Employers that are breaking the law, especially repeat violators, are not facing any real consequences. Weve had companies that have had several claims filed against them from different workers over the same span of time, and we havent really seen anything other than maybe a little administrative fine.

Watch: Where do spot rates go from here?

Click for more FreightWaves articles by Noi Mahoney.

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The post Canadian truckers fight to claim millions in unpaid wages appeared first on FreightWaves.
Manchester Memorial Hospital is seen Friday, Aug. 4, 2023 in Manchester, Conn. A cyberattack has disrupted hospital computer systems in several states, forcing some emergency rooms to close and ambulances to be diverted, and many primary care services remained closed on Friday, Aug. 4, 2023 as security experts worked to determine the extent of the problem and resolve it. In Connecticut, the emergency departments at Manchester Memorial and Rockville General hospital were closed for much of Thursday and patients were diverted to other nearby medical centers.(Jim Michaud/Hearst Connecticut Media via AP)
ORLANDO, Fla.  More than 10 months after Hurricane Ian tore through Florida, millions of dollars raised through first lady Casey DeSantis Hurricane Ian relief campaign remain to be spent.

Over $63 million in donations rolled into the Florida Disaster Fund as images of the storms devastation filled the airwaves, according to Volunteer Florida, the nonprofit organization that oversees the fund.

Volunteer Florida reports it has awarded about $54 million to charity and response agencies. About $9 million is left to be allocated as the one-year anniversary of the storm approaches, the organization said.

In Central Florida, money from the fund is being used to build affordable housing for seniors, clean up flooded houses, cut down storm-damaged trees and address other damage not covered by insurance or FEMA, disaster relief officials said.

Those dollars extended a lifeline to many in Central Florida, but more assistance could be put to good use with families still struggling to complete repairs, said Alan Harris, Seminole Countys emergency management director and vice president of the disaster relief nonprofit organization Seminole Heart.

Most people have moved on from the storm.  If you are one of the families who has black mold or has a damaged roof, its something you think about every day, he said.

In all, 1,082 households are still living in recreational vehicles and other temporary housing, including 164 in Osceola, Orange, Seminole and Volusia counties, according to the Florida Division of Emergency Management.

Where it went

On its website, Volunteer Florida says the fund has awarded $32.5 million in grants to groups such as the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army.

The organization lists success stories in its operations report, highlighting how it provided badly needed relief in Central Florida and Southwest Florida, which suffered the worst damage in the state. Donations were used to help low-and-middle-income homeowners elevate their storm-prone houses, deliver meals to seniors, assist educators with insurance deductibles, open emergency food banks and deep-clean damaged homes.

Story continues

But details are limited on other initiatives. The governors office announced a $25 million program in December through the disaster fund to provide lodging for volunteers, protective equipment and other necessary supplies and commodities.

Another $4 million was set aside for a Small Business Recovery Program and $3 million for the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Associations disaster-relief program in March.

Volunteer Florida hasnt provided a list of which businesses, nonprofit organizations and individuals received funding through those programs. The governors office referred questions to Volunteer Florida, which oversees the fund.

The organization should be more forthcoming, particularly with programs that send money to for-profit businesses, said Laurie Styron, executive director of CharityWatch.

Those funds can end up benefiting private individuals, she said. The public needs to know who are those private individuals.

Its not unusual that millions of dollars would still be unallocated almost a year after a disaster, and it can be a good thing if charities take time to ensure they responsibly distribute funds, Styron said.

But charities should also be careful not to cling to their purse strings if emergency needs havent been met, she said.

People who donate in response to a natural disaster want to ease the suffering of the people affected, Styron said. Thats why they donate. So if you still have people who are unhoused, buried in debt as a result of disaster losses, or otherwise not back on their feet, it is safe to say that the intentions of donors are not being honored.

The disaster relief fund was established in 2004 to help with losses not covered by insurance or government funding.

Donations, both small and large, quickly poured into it after it was activated for Hurricane Ian. Donors spanned from a California second-grader who chipped in the proceeds from his lemonade stand to $1 million contributions from businesses like Amazon, Florida Blue and Publix. The rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd sent $100,000.

Some of the governors top individual and corporate political donors also made sizable contributions to the disaster relief fund, including the Las Vegas hotelier Robert Bigelow and hedge fund manager Ken Griffin.

Casey DeSantis vowed to quickly get aid to those in need as she promoted the fund.

We can take those resources and micro-target them and get them directly to the ground as quickly and as efficiently as possible.  Were going to cut through any red tape and bureaucracy because we know people need those funds and they need help, she said during a press briefing on Sept. 29.

Putting dollars to use

Seminole Heart, a nonprofit disaster relief organization, got $100,000 from the disaster fund in the spring. About $25,000 has been spent so far to address 565 unmet needs, which include projects like fixing damaged wheelchair ramps, cleaning up mold and cutting down damaged trees for home-bound seniors, said Harris, Seminoles emergency chief.

To make the money go further, Seminole Heart is relying on volunteer labor to complete projects. More funding would allow contractors to be hired and speed up the repair process, Harris said.

If we had just wanted to spend the money really quickly, we would have done three or five roofs and been done, he said.

In Osceola County, the Council on Aging got $600,000 to help with the construction of the 60-unit Buen Vecino affordable housing development near Kissimmee. Work is expected to start by the end of the year with the units being available by 2025.

When completed, it will address a critical affordable housing shortage for seniors in Osceola County that was worsened by Hurricane Ian, said Wendy Ford, president and CEO of the Osceola Council on Aging.

We have seniors in Osceola County living in their cars, she said. Its horrible. It is heartbreaking to see what happens. They come from a generation where they dont ask for things.

Osceola REDI, a disaster relief nonprofit, got $100,000 from the fund and another $50,000 from the United Way and corporate partners, said Sue Ring, the groups secretary.

Those dollars are providing furniture, new bedding and other move-in needs to people displaced by the storm, she said.

Our focus has been on helping people get back into homes or housing they secured, Ring said. I would absolutely say it is making a difference. Osceola County doesnt necessarily have those resources to step in like that.

Whats next for the fund?

The governors office and Volunteer Florida have not announced plans for the $9 million that remains to be allocated.

Volunteer Florida remains in constant contact with organizations and people who are actively involved in the recovery process and continue to assess the unmet needs in Southwest Florida, Brittany Dover, a Volunteer Florida spokeswoman, said in an email.

Fort Myers Mayor Kevin B. Anderson said his community is mostly out of the emergency response phase and is now working on long-term recovery.

Charitable donations are making a big difference, but the recovery isnt finished, he said.

There are a lot of people straggling with insurance companies to get reimbursement for damage and keeping coverage on their home, Anderson said. The state has made an effort, but its going to take a lot more work.

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PINE GROVE TWP., Pa. - A man with outstanding extradition warrants out of Alabama and Georgia was captured in Schuylkill County Friday morning, Pennsylvania State Police said.

Police said they previously encountered the man, 36-year-old Jeremy Hunter, just after 7 p.m. Thursday near Mile Marker 100.8 of Interstate 81 in Pine Grove Township.

Police said Hunter fled over the guard rail of I-81 North into the woods when they tried to take him into custody.

Hunter was ultimately taken into custody around 8:30 a.m. Friday, after about 13 hours on the run.
DELAWARE WATER GAP, Pa. - Representatives from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation will visit Monroe County on Friday, according to a PennDOT press release.

Billed as "Safety Day," the event will be held at the Pennsylvania Welcome Center off Interstate 80 in Delaware Water Gap Borough from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

It will feature PennDOT representatives, members of various state and local agencies, and safety partners. Speakers will address a variety of topics with visitors, including impaired driving, work zones, and motorcycle and truck safety.
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is seen on a TV screen, as he appears in a video link provided by the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service, during a hearing in the colony, in Melekhovo, Vladimir region, about 260 kilometers (163 miles) northeast of Moscow, Russia, on Friday, Aug. 4, 2023. Imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is preparing to hear the verdict in his latest trial on extremism charges. The prosecution has demanded a 20-year prison sentence, and the politician himself said he expects to receive a lengthy term. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
Today

Mainly cloudy and increasingly humid with periods of rain developing, including a few heavy downpours and a thunderstorm or two, but no severe storms expected. Clearing towards evening.

Tonight

Clearing and drying overnight; turning less humid.

Tomorrow

Partly to mostly sunny, a bit breezy; comfortably warm and less humid.
A child died and a woman was critically injured after an apartment fire ignited Wednesday afternoon near Second Avenue and Bell Road, according to Phoenix fire officials.

The woman was treated at the Cyprus Apartments in Phoenix and taken to a burn center in critical condition. A man suffered lacerations while trying to get inside the burning apartment before Phoenix Fire Department crews arrived. Two firefighters were taken to a hospital for minor burns and are in stable condition.

The fire at 220 W. Bell Road happened at a first-floor apartment and quickly spread to the second and third floors above. Fire officials say that more than a dozen residents were displaced due to the fire. The exact age of the child has not been released by officials.

The fire is under investigation, and the fire investigations task force was on scene. Phoenix police are also involved in the fire investigation.

This is a developing story

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Child dies, woman in critical condition after Phoenix apartment fire
(Bloomberg) -- China will scrap import tariffs on Australian barley from Aug. 5 in the latest sign of improving ties between the two countries.

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The commerce ministry said its no longer necessary to continue imposing anti-dumping and anti-subsidy tariffs on Australian barley following changes in the Chinese market, according to a statement Friday.

Beijing imposed tariffs of more than 80% on Australian barley in May 2020, accusing its exporters of dumping on the Chinese market. The move came as bilateral ties were spiraling downward after then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison called for an international investigation into the origins of Covid-19. Beijing also restricted imports of other Australian goods including wine and lobsters.

But since the election of the center-left Labor government in May 2022, communications between Canberra and Beijing have resumed and relations improved markedly.

The Australian government said Friday it expects to follow a similar process to remove Chinese duties on the countrys wine. In the meantime, we are continuing to pursue our wine dispute at the WTO and remain confident in a positive outcome, according to the statement, referring to the World Trade Organization by its initials.

Shares of Australias Treasury Wine Estates Ltd. rose as much as 3.9%, the most since April 11. Barley exporters including United Malt Group Ltd. and GrainCorp Ltd. also edged higher before paring gains.

In April, Beijing announced it would hold a three-month review into the barley tariffs, in return for which Canberra agreed to suspend its case against China in the WTO. Beijing sought a one-month extension of the barley review in July, meaning a decision was due by late next week.

Story continues

The value of Australian barley exports to China averaged around A$1.2 billion ($790 million) a year between 201415 and 201819, according to estimates from the Canberra government.

Even with the tariffs lifting, Australian barley exporters will remain cautious of rushing back to China. Many have found new markets, boosting shipments to Saudi Arabia, Japan, Vietnam, Kuwait and Mexico.

Its important to note that Australia found alternative buyers of barley while the Chinese anti-dumping tariffs were in place, Rabobank agricultural analyst Dennis Voznesenski said. A risk premium will likely be required, at least initially, for exporters to redirect trade flows into China.

--With assistance from Hallie Gu, Jackie Edwards and Ben Sharples.

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2023 Bloomberg L.P.
Alpha DNA Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE:ANF  Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 41,566 shares of the apparel retailers stock, valued at approximately $1,153,000. Alpha DNA Investment Management LLC owned 0.08% of Abercrombie & Fitch as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in ANF. Quadrant Capital Group LLC grew its holdings in Abercrombie & Fitch by 1,051.9% during the 4th quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 1,221 shares of the apparel retailers stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 1,115 shares in the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in Abercrombie & Fitch during the 1st quarter valued at $95,000. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. NY raised its position in Abercrombie & Fitch by 19.9% during the 4th quarter. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. NY now owns 3,078 shares of the apparel retailers stock valued at $71,000 after purchasing an additional 511 shares in the last quarter. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co NY increased its holdings in shares of Abercrombie & Fitch by 19.9% in the 4th quarter. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co NY now owns 3,078 shares of the apparel retailers stock valued at $71,000 after acquiring an additional 511 shares during the period. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors increased its holdings in shares of Abercrombie & Fitch by 46.3% in the 1st quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 3,667 shares of the apparel retailers stock valued at $117,000 after acquiring an additional 1,161 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 99.03% of the companys stock.

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Analysts Set New Price Targets

ANF has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group upped their target price on Abercrombie & Fitch from $28.00 to $32.00 in a research report on Thursday, May 25th. Citigroup upped their target price on Abercrombie & Fitch from $24.00 to $33.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 25th. Argus upgraded Abercrombie & Fitch from a hold rating to a buy rating and set a $41.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 12th. StockNews.com downgraded Abercrombie & Fitch from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Friday, July 21st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on Abercrombie & Fitch from $35.00 to $30.00 in a report on Tuesday, May 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Abercrombie & Fitch presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $30.50.

Insider Activity at Abercrombie & Fitch

In other Abercrombie & Fitch news, CEO Fran Horowitz sold 4,521 shares of Abercrombie & Fitch stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.08, for a total transaction of $181,201.68. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 793,507 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $31,803,760.56. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, CEO Fran Horowitz sold 4,521 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.08, for a total value of $181,201.68. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 793,507 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $31,803,760.56. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Scott D. Lipesky sold 10,000 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.00, for a total value of $400,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 121,918 shares of the companys stock, valued at $4,876,720. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 284,504 shares of company stock worth $10,498,332. Company insiders own 3.77% of the companys stock.

Abercrombie & Fitch Trading Up 0.1 %

ANF stock traded up $0.05 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $39.05. 698,636 shares of the companys stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,725,471. Abercrombie & Fitch Co. has a 1-year low of $14.02 and a 1-year high of $40.50. The company has a current ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $35.80 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $29.85. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.96 billion, a PE ratio of 55.54 and a beta of 1.50.

Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE:ANF  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 24th. The apparel retailer reported $0.39 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of ($0.02) by $0.41. The business had revenue of $836.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $814.93 million. Abercrombie & Fitch had a return on equity of 6.82% and a net margin of 0.96%. The companys revenue was up 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.27) earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Abercrombie & Fitch Co. will post 2.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Abercrombie & Fitch Company Profile

(Free Report)

Abercrombie & Fitch Co, through its subsidiaries, operates as a specialty retailer in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, the Asia-Pacific, Canada, and internationally. The company operates through two segments, Hollister and Abercrombie. It offers an assortment of apparel, personal care products, and accessories for men, women, and kids under the Hollister, Gilly Hicks, Social Tourist, Abercrombie & Fitch, and abercrombie kids brands.

See Also

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Alpha DNA Investment Management LLC increased its position in Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE  Free Report) by 7.1% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 92,667 shares of the technology companys stock after buying an additional 6,146 shares during the period. Alpha DNA Investment Management LLCs holdings in Hewlett Packard Enterprise were worth $1,476,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 60.0% in the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 21,641,979 shares of the technology companys stock worth $345,406,000 after purchasing an additional 8,116,822 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 52.5% in the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 9,586,843 shares of the technology companys stock worth $152,047,000 after purchasing an additional 3,298,626 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise in the 4th quarter worth $41,433,000. Cowa LLC lifted its stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 14,778.9% in the 1st quarter. Cowa LLC now owns 2,594,739 shares of the technology companys stock worth $434,000 after purchasing an additional 2,577,300 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE lifted its stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 4.1% in the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 52,716,520 shares of the technology companys stock worth $841,356,000 after purchasing an additional 2,092,725 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 81.69% of the companys stock.

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Insider Buying and Selling at Hewlett Packard Enterprise

In other Hewlett Packard Enterprise news, EVP John F. Schultz sold 226,078 shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise stock in a transaction on Monday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $16.01, for a total value of $3,619,508.78. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 224,491 shares of the companys stock, valued at $3,594,100.91. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CFO Tarek Robbiati sold 159,180 shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise stock in a transaction on Monday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $16.01, for a total transaction of $2,548,471.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 159,073 shares in the company, valued at $2,546,758.73. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP John F. Schultz sold 226,078 shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise stock in a transaction on Monday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $16.01, for a total transaction of $3,619,508.78. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 224,491 shares of the companys stock, valued at $3,594,100.91. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 454,635 shares of company stock worth $7,327,919 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.53% of the companys stock.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Trading Up 0.5 %

HPE stock traded up $0.08 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $17.40. The company had a trading volume of 6,906,872 shares, compared to its average volume of 12,809,881. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.65. The company has a market capitalization of $22.47 billion, a PE ratio of 22.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.26. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $16.64 and a 200 day moving average of $15.73. Hewlett Packard Enterprise has a 12 month low of $11.90 and a 12 month high of $17.74.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 30th. The technology company reported $0.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.03. Hewlett Packard Enterprise had a net margin of 3.46% and a return on equity of 5.05%. The firm had revenue of $6.97 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.30 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.19 earnings per share. The companys quarterly revenue was up 3.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that Hewlett Packard Enterprise will post 1.36 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 15th were paid a dividend of $0.12 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, June 14th. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.76%. Hewlett Packard Enterprises dividend payout ratio is presently 61.54%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently issued reports on HPE shares. Barclays decreased their target price on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $18.00 to $16.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 31st. StockNews.com cut shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Tuesday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price objective on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $16.00 to $15.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 31st. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $17.00 to $18.00 in a research report on Wednesday, June 21st. Finally, Citigroup initiated coverage on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise in a research report on Thursday, June 29th. They issued a neutral rating and a $18.00 price objective on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Hewlett Packard Enterprise currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $16.73.

Check Out Our Latest Stock Analysis on Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Profile

(Free Report)

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company provides solutions that allow customers to capture, analyze, and act upon data seamlessly in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, and Japan. It operates in six segments: Compute, HPC & AI, Storage, Intelligent Edge, Financial Services, and Corporate Investments and Other.

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Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd acquired a new position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX  Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 2,784,786 shares of the natural resource companys stock, valued at approximately $113,926,000. Freeport-McMoRan comprises about 2.6% of Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltds investment portfolio, making the stock its 18th largest holding.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in FCX. Truist Financial Corp raised its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 13.6% during the first quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 93,488 shares of the natural resource companys stock valued at $3,825,000 after acquiring an additional 11,201 shares in the last quarter. Mattern Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 14.5% during the first quarter. Mattern Wealth Management LLC now owns 22,568 shares of the natural resource companys stock valued at $923,000 after acquiring an additional 2,850 shares in the last quarter. Fortitude Advisory Group L.L.C. bought a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the first quarter valued at approximately $206,000. Meridian Investment Counsel Inc. raised its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 3.7% during the first quarter. Meridian Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 24,748 shares of the natural resource companys stock valued at $1,012,000 after acquiring an additional 890 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Financial Connections Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the first quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Institutional investors own 79.35% of the companys stock.

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Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently weighed in on FCX shares. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $24.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an underweight rating in a research note on Friday, April 21st. Scotiabank lowered their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $49.00 to $48.00 in a report on Tuesday, July 25th. Morgan Stanley restated an equal weight rating and set a $38.50 target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a report on Friday, July 21st. StockNews.com lowered Freeport-McMoRan from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Friday, June 9th. Finally, Raymond James upped their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Friday, July 21st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $39.29.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Down 0.8 %

Shares of FCX stock traded down $0.34 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $42.71. 4,093,864 shares of the companys stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 12,597,255. The stocks 50 day moving average is $39.72 and its 200-day moving average is $39.97. The company has a market cap of $61.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.59 and a beta of 2.03. The company has a current ratio of 2.94, a quick ratio of 1.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $26.03 and a fifty-two week high of $46.73.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX  Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 20th. The natural resource company reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.36 by ($0.01). Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 9.63% and a return on equity of 9.45%. The firm had revenue of $5.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.61 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.58 earnings per share. Freeport-McMoRans revenue was up 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.53 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 1st. Investors of record on Friday, July 14th were given a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.40%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 13th. Freeport-McMoRans payout ratio is 20.69%.

Insider Activity at Freeport-McMoRan

In other news, Director Sara Grootwassink Lewis bought 4,000 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 12th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $34.90 per share, with a total value of $139,600.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 17,800 shares in the company, valued at $621,220. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.78% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Freeport-McMoRan Profile

(Free Report)

Freeport-McMoRan Inc engages in the mining of mineral properties in North America, South America, and Indonesia. It primarily explores for copper, gold, molybdenum, silver, and other metals, as well as oil and gas. The company's assets include the Grasberg minerals district in Indonesia; Morenci, Bagdad, Safford, Sierrita, and Miami in Arizona; Tyrone and Chino in New Mexico; and Henderson and Climax in Colorado, North America, as well as Cerro Verde in Peru and El Abra in Chile.

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Want to see what other hedge funds are holding FCX? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX  Free Report).

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Ashford Hospitality Trust (NYSE:AHT  Get Free Report) issued its earnings results on Wednesday. The real estate investment trust reported ($0.88) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $0.41 by ($1.29), MarketWatch Earnings reports. The business had revenue of $375.75 million during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $361.41 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.23 EPS.

Ashford Hospitality Trust Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE:AHT traded up $0.01 during trading on Friday, hitting $3.54. 178,765 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 617,378. Ashford Hospitality Trust has a fifty-two week low of $2.61 and a fifty-two week high of $12.09. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $3.93 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $4.27.

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Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AHT. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Ashford Hospitality Trust during the 1st quarter worth approximately $230,000. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Ashford Hospitality Trust by 22.6% during the 1st quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 26,230 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock worth $268,000 after acquiring an additional 4,827 shares during the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers boosted its stake in Ashford Hospitality Trust by 12.6% in the 1st quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 38,017 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $388,000 after purchasing an additional 4,251 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. boosted its stake in Ashford Hospitality Trust by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 1,710,372 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $17,446,000 after purchasing an additional 6,539 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in Ashford Hospitality Trust by 5.7% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 246,645 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $2,516,000 after purchasing an additional 13,399 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.22% of the companys stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, StockNews.com upgraded Ashford Hospitality Trust to a sell rating in a research note on Wednesday.

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About Ashford Hospitality Trust

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Ashford Hospitality Trust is a real estate investment trust (REIT) focused on investing predominantly in upper upscale, full-service hotels.

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Block (NYSE:SQ  Get Free Report)s stock had its outperform rating restated by analysts at Credit Suisse Group in a report released on Friday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $100.00 target price on the technology companys stock. Credit Suisse Groups price target suggests a potential upside of 56.40% from the stocks previous close.

A number of other equities analysts have also issued reports on SQ. Wolfe Research lowered their price target on Block from $90.00 to $85.00 in a report on Monday, June 5th. Bank of America decreased their price target on Block from $96.00 to $86.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 10th. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of Block from $103.00 to $95.00 in a research note on Sunday, May 7th. StockNews.com raised shares of Block from a sell rating to a hold rating in a report on Thursday, July 27th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on Block from $108.00 to $105.00 in a research note on Friday, May 5th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and twenty-one have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $91.53.

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View Our Latest Stock Report on SQ

Block Trading Down 13.1 %

NYSE:SQ traded down $9.61 on Friday, reaching $63.94. 16,129,676 shares of the companys stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 12,641,989. The business has a fifty day moving average of $68.76 and a 200-day moving average of $69.53. The company has a quick ratio of 1.83, a current ratio of 1.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. Block has a 52-week low of $51.34 and a 52-week high of $93.19. The firm has a market capitalization of $38.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -107.55 and a beta of 2.34.

Block (NYSE:SQ  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 3rd. The technology company reported $0.39 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $0.35 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $5.53 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $5.10 billion. Block had a negative net margin of 1.92% and a negative return on equity of 1.22%. The firms revenue for the quarter was up 25.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned ($0.19) earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Block will post -0.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Lawrence Henry Summers sold 3,669 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Monday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.46, for a total value of $295,207.74. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 18,611 shares of the companys stock, valued at $1,497,441.06. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other Block news, insider Alyssa Henry sold 2,357 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.61, for a total value of $140,500.77. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 486,262 shares in the company, valued at $28,986,077.82. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Lawrence Henry Summers sold 3,669 shares of Block stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.46, for a total value of $295,207.74. Following the sale, the director now owns 18,611 shares of the companys stock, valued at $1,497,441.06. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 37,868 shares of company stock valued at $2,545,857. Company insiders own 10.79% of the companys stock.

Institutional Trading of Block

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in SQ. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich lifted its position in Block by 77,283.6% during the 2nd quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 11,698,072 shares of the technology companys stock worth $778,741,000 after acquiring an additional 11,682,955 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Block by 148.7% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 11,359,972 shares of the technology companys stock worth $713,861,000 after purchasing an additional 6,791,842 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Block during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $353,954,000. ARK Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in Block by 16.3% in the 1st quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC now owns 10,470,931 shares of the technology companys stock valued at $718,829,000 after buying an additional 1,467,630 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Echo Street Capital Management LLC increased its position in Block by 133.3% in the 4th quarter. Echo Street Capital Management LLC now owns 2,353,238 shares of the technology companys stock worth $147,877,000 after buying an additional 1,344,567 shares during the period. 63.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Block

(Get Free Report)

Square, Inc provides payment and point-of-sale solutions in the United States and internationally. The company's commerce ecosystem includes point-of-sale software and hardware that enables sellers to turn mobile and computing devices into payment and point-of-sale solutions. It offers hardware products, including Magstripe reader, which enables swiped transactions of magnetic stripe cards; Contactless and chip reader that accepts EMV chip cards and Near Field Communication payments; Chip card reader, which accepts EMV chip cards and enables swiped transactions of magnetic stripe cards; Square Stand, which enables an iPad to be used as a payment terminal or full point of sale solution; and Square Register that combines its hardware, point-of-sale software, and payments technology, as well as managed payments solutions.

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Conagra Brands, Inc. (NYSE:CAG  Get Free Report) has been given a consensus recommendation of Hold by the eleven analysts that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $38.25.

Several equities analysts recently commented on the company. TheStreet downgraded Conagra Brands from a b rating to a c+ rating in a research note on Thursday, July 13th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price target on Conagra Brands from $36.00 to $35.00 in a research report on Friday, July 14th. Morgan Stanley lowered Conagra Brands from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $46.00 to $37.00 in a report on Monday, July 17th. Bank of America dropped their price objective on shares of Conagra Brands from $40.00 to $38.00 in a report on Friday, July 14th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on shares of Conagra Brands from $38.00 to $35.00 in a research note on Friday, July 14th.

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Read Our Latest Stock Analysis on CAG

Insider Transactions at Conagra Brands

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Conagra Brands

In other news, COO Thomas M. Mcgough sold 75,522 shares of Conagra Brands stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.07, for a total transaction of $2,497,512.54. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 157,125 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $5,196,123.75. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink . 0.98% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. increased its position in shares of Conagra Brands by 3.3% in the second quarter. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. now owns 25,037 shares of the companys stock valued at $844,000 after acquiring an additional 807 shares during the period. JNBA Financial Advisors increased its position in shares of Conagra Brands by 501.0% during the second quarter. JNBA Financial Advisors now owns 2,482 shares of the companys stock valued at $84,000 after buying an additional 2,069 shares during the period. Barclays PLC increased its position in shares of Conagra Brands by 102.4% during the second quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 2,133,862 shares of the companys stock valued at $71,954,000 after buying an additional 1,079,516 shares during the period. Scotia Capital Inc. increased its position in shares of Conagra Brands by 1.1% during the second quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. now owns 52,971 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,786,000 after buying an additional 591 shares during the period. Finally, Berkeley Capital Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Conagra Brands by 18.1% during the second quarter. Berkeley Capital Partners LLC now owns 51,184 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,726,000 after buying an additional 7,828 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.80% of the companys stock.

Conagra Brands Stock Performance

NYSE CAG opened at $32.51 on Friday. Conagra Brands has a 1 year low of $32.05 and a 1 year high of $41.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.76 and a quick ratio of 0.26. The firm has a market cap of $15.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.89, a PEG ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 0.54. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $33.76 and a 200-day moving average price of $35.79.

Conagra Brands (NYSE:CAG  Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 13th. The company reported $0.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $2.97 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3 billion. Conagra Brands had a net margin of 5.57% and a return on equity of 15.19%. The businesss revenue was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.65 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Conagra Brands will post 2.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Conagra Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, July 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.35 per share. This is an increase from Conagra Brandss previous quarterly dividend of $0.33. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 28th. Conagra Brandss payout ratio is currently 98.59%.

Conagra Brands Company Profile

(Get Free Report

Conagra Brands, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a consumer packaged goods food company primarily in the United States. The company operates through Grocery & Snacks, Refrigerated & Frozen, International, and Foodservice segments. The Grocery & Snacks segment primarily offers shelf stable food products through various retail channels.

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Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (NYSE:BIP  Get Free Report) (TSE:BIP.UN) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, August 3rd, Zacks reports. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 31st will be paid a dividend of 0.382 per share by the utilities provider on Friday, September 29th. This represents a $1.53 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 30th.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has raised its dividend by an average of 6.5% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 1 years. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has a dividend payout ratio of 161.1% meaning the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Analysts expect Brookfield Infrastructure Partners to earn $3.35 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.53 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 45.7%.

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Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Stock Performance

Shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners stock traded up $0.76 on Friday, hitting $32.62. 92,078 shares of the companys stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 346,092. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has a 1 year low of $30.03 and a 1 year high of $43.62. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $35.83 and a 200-day simple moving average of $34.93. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.96 billion, a PE ratio of 398.05 and a beta of 0.86.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Brookfield Infrastructure Partners

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners ( NYSE:BIP Get Free Report ) (TSE:BIP.UN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 3rd. The utilities provider reported ($0.07) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $0.72 by ($0.79). Brookfield Infrastructure Partners had a net margin of 1.67% and a return on equity of 1.00%. The company had revenue of $4.22 billion for the quarter. On average, analysts expect that Brookfield Infrastructure Partners will post 3.07 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its holdings in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 4.0% in the first quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 28,684 shares of the utilities providers stock worth $969,000 after purchasing an additional 1,103 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 201.6% during the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 23,991 shares of the utilities providers stock worth $810,000 after purchasing an additional 16,037 shares during the last quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. raised its holdings in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 6.7% during the first quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. now owns 326,502 shares of the utilities providers stock worth $11,026,000 after purchasing an additional 20,381 shares during the last quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 21.2% during the first quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 26,424 shares of the utilities providers stock worth $892,000 after purchasing an additional 4,618 shares during the last quarter. Finally, HBK Sorce Advisory LLC purchased a new position in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners during the first quarter worth $254,000. 47.41% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BIP has been the subject of several research analyst reports. StockNews.com upgraded Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research report on Thursday. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an outperform rating and set a $47.00 price objective on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners in a research report on Thursday, April 13th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $40.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Thursday, April 13th. Finally, National Bankshares boosted their price target on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $38.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a sector perform rating in a research note on Friday, May 5th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $42.60.

Read Our Latest Analysis on BIP

About Brookfield Infrastructure Partners

(Get Free Report)

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. owns and operates utilities, transport, midstream, and data businesses in North and South America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. The company's Utilities segment operates approximately 60,000 kilometers (km) of operational electricity transmission and distribution lines; 2,900 km of electricity transmission lines; 4,200 km of natural gas pipelines; 7.8 million electricity and natural gas connections; and 540,000 long-term contracted sub-metering services.

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Buildings under construction are seen among fog in Rizhao, Shandong province, China. Reuters/Stringer

China's housing market is so tough that buyers have been heading to the US to purchase a home.

Chinese buyers spent $13.6 billion on US residential real estate in the year ending March 2023.

A shaky economy and lower confidence in the property sector have weakened the housing market in China.

China's housing market is so bad that homebuyers appear to be flocking overseas to purchase a home in the US, according to data from the National Association of Realtors.

Chinese buyers were the biggest source of foreign capital into the residential real estate market through the year ending in March 2023, NAR said in a recent report, with buyers spending $13.6 billion on US residential properties in the period. That's more than double the total amount spent in the prior year, with Chinese buyers spending $6.1 billion on home purchases in the period ending March 2022.

Chinese buyers represented 13% of foreign buyer home purchases in the US, up from 6% of foreign buyer purchases last year. Their median purchase price for a home was $723,200, almost double the US median home price of $419,103, per Redfin data.

In a shift from recent trends, most buyers purchased homes as a primary or secondary residence rather than as an investment, the NAR report said.

The increased interest in US real estate comes amid a downturn in China's domestic housing market, with home sales plunging through the first half of the year.

Though the government has implemented measures to boost its property market, new home sales plummeted 33% year-over-year in July, up from a 28% annual decline reported in June.

That's largely due to the nation's economic woes, with the youth unemployment rate recently notching a record 21%, as well as shaken confidence in the property sector after major property firms defaulted in 2021.

Waning attention in Chinese real estate spells trouble for the nation's broader economy, as the housing sector makes up around 25% of national GDP when accounting for activity in related sectors, per an estimate from JPMorgan.

That's partly the reason why China's economic reopening has so far been a disappointment. Demand has failed to rev up in large chunks of its economy since the pandemic, resulting in prices plunging to near-deflationary levels and weak economic growth.

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StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Chicago Rivet & Machine (NYSEAMERICAN:CVR  Free Report) in a report issued on Tuesday. The brokerage issued a sell rating on the stock.

Separately, TheStreet cut Chicago Rivet & Machine from a b- rating to a c+ rating in a report on Tuesday, June 6th.

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Chicago Rivet & Machine Trading Up 2.5 %

Shares of CVR stock opened at $25.63 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $24.86 million and a P/E ratio of 8.63. The stocks 50 day simple moving average is $25.31. Chicago Rivet & Machine has a 1-year low of $23.65 and a 1-year high of $32.94.

Chicago Rivet & Machine (NYSEAMERICAN:CVR  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 8th. The company reported ($0.60) EPS for the quarter. Chicago Rivet & Machine had a return on equity of 9.41% and a net margin of 8.52%. The firm had revenue of $8.73 million for the quarter.

Chicago Rivet & Machine Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 20th. Investors of record on Monday, June 5th were paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.43%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 2nd. Chicago Rivet & Machines payout ratio is 29.63%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Chicago Rivet & Machine

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Captrust Financial Advisors acquired a new stake in Chicago Rivet & Machine in the 2nd quarter valued at about $41,000. Advisor Group Holdings Inc. acquired a new stake in Chicago Rivet & Machine in the 4th quarter valued at about $43,000. Cannell Capital LLC raised its position in Chicago Rivet & Machine by 16.2% in the 4th quarter. Cannell Capital LLC now owns 11,486 shares of the companys stock valued at $329,000 after purchasing an additional 1,600 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its position in shares of Chicago Rivet & Machine by 8.6% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 12,696 shares of the companys stock worth $363,000 after acquiring an additional 1,005 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Chicago Rivet & Machine by 91.7% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 28,479 shares of the companys stock worth $746,000 after acquiring an additional 13,626 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 22.36% of the companys stock.

Chicago Rivet & Machine Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Chicago Rivet & Machine Co operates in the fastener industry in North America. The company operates in two segments, Fasteners and Assembly Equipment. The Fastener segment manufactures and sells rivets, cold-formed fasteners and parts, and screw machine products. The Assembly Equipment segment manufactures and sells automatic rivet setting machines and assembly equipment, as well as parts and tools for related machines.

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Citizens & Northern Corp acquired a new position in shares of The Charles Schwab Co. (NYSE:SCHW  Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 13,799 shares of the financial services providers stock, valued at approximately $723,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SCHW. Vontobel Holding Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Charles Schwab by 7.5% in the 1st quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 20,822 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $1,847,000 after buying an additional 1,452 shares during the last quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. lifted its position in shares of Charles Schwab by 4.3% in the 1st quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 6,263 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $528,000 after buying an additional 259 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Charles Schwab by 25.4% in the 1st quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 13,064 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $1,101,000 after buying an additional 2,648 shares during the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its position in Charles Schwab by 7.5% in the 1st quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 3,807 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $321,000 after purchasing an additional 267 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Covestor Ltd lifted its position in Charles Schwab by 16.6% in the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,239 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $104,000 after purchasing an additional 176 shares during the last quarter. 82.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Charles Schwab Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of Charles Schwab stock traded down $0.44 during trading on Friday, hitting $65.43. The stock had a trading volume of 3,719,406 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,354,029. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $58.23 and a 200 day simple moving average of $61.46. The company has a market capitalization of $115.75 billion, a PE ratio of 19.20, a P/E/G ratio of 3.77 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a quick ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 0.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. The Charles Schwab Co. has a 1 year low of $45.00 and a 1 year high of $86.63.

Charles Schwab Dividend Announcement

Charles Schwab ( NYSE:SCHW Get Free Report ) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 18th. The financial services provider reported $0.75 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.71 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $4.66 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.61 billion. Charles Schwab had a net margin of 33.15% and a return on equity of 27.81%. The firms quarterly revenue was down 8.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.97 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that The Charles Schwab Co. will post 3.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 11th will be given a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.53%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 10th. Charles Schwabs dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 29.15%.

Insider Transactions at Charles Schwab

In related news, Chairman Charles R. Schwab sold 72,047 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.66, for a total transaction of $4,802,653.02. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now directly owns 59,748,538 shares in the company, valued at $3,982,837,543.08. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Charles Schwab news, Chairman Charles R. Schwab sold 75,760 shares of Charles Schwab stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.60, for a total value of $5,045,616.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now directly owns 59,672,778 shares in the company, valued at $3,974,207,014.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Chairman Charles R. Schwab sold 72,047 shares of Charles Schwab stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.66, for a total transaction of $4,802,653.02. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now owns 59,748,538 shares of the companys stock, valued at $3,982,837,543.08. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 225,447 shares of company stock valued at $13,866,915 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 6.60% of the companys stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of Charles Schwab from $86.00 to $85.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 18th. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Charles Schwab from $62.00 to $70.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 19th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Charles Schwab from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research report on Friday. Raymond James upgraded shares of Charles Schwab from a market perform rating to an outperform rating and set a $63.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 15th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on shares of Charles Schwab from $89.00 to $65.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 6th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $72.09.

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About Charles Schwab

(Free Report)

The Charles Schwab Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a savings and loan holding company that provides wealth management, securities brokerage, banking, asset management, custody, and financial advisory services. The company operates in two segments, Investor Services and Advisor Services.

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Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR  Get Free Report) had its target price raised by equities researchers at Credit Suisse Group from $75.00 to $80.00 in a research note issued on Friday, MarketBeat.com reports. The firm currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Credit Suisse Groups target price suggests a potential upside of 21.41% from the stocks previous close.

FOUR has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Mizuho assumed coverage on shares of Shift4 Payments in a report on Monday, July 24th. They set a buy rating and a $80.00 price target on the stock. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Shift4 Payments from $35.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an underweight rating in a research note on Monday, April 17th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Shift4 Payments from $86.00 to $93.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 12th. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group upgraded shares of Shift4 Payments from a neutral rating to an outperform rating and set a $85.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 11th. Finally, Piper Sandler reiterated an overweight rating and issued a $85.00 price objective on shares of Shift4 Payments in a research note on Wednesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $80.25.

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Shift4 Payments Stock Up 0.9 %

Shares of Shift4 Payments stock traded up $0.59 during trading on Friday, hitting $65.89. The companys stock had a trading volume of 249,757 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,307,876. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.31, a quick ratio of 3.69 and a current ratio of 3.71. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $65.73 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $65.81. The company has a market capitalization of $5.48 billion, a PE ratio of 45.03, a P/E/G ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.23. Shift4 Payments has a 52 week low of $36.33 and a 52 week high of $76.40.

Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR  Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 4th. The company reported $0.28 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.02. Shift4 Payments had a net margin of 4.55% and a return on equity of 18.30%. The company had revenue of $200.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $191.93 million. Equities research analysts predict that Shift4 Payments will post 1.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Shift4 Payments

In related news, insider David Taylor Lauber sold 10,000 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.33, for a total transaction of $663,300.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 212,192 shares of the companys stock, valued at $14,074,695.36. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 32.14% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. IFP Advisors Inc increased its position in Shift4 Payments by 695.8% during the second quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 1,130 shares of the companys stock valued at $38,000 after acquiring an additional 988 shares during the last quarter. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. bought a new position in Shift4 Payments during the second quarter valued at $359,000. Jennison Associates LLC increased its position in Shift4 Payments by 26.7% during the second quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,404,436 shares of the companys stock valued at $163,285,000 after acquiring an additional 506,539 shares during the last quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund bought a new position in shares of Shift4 Payments in the second quarter worth about $550,000. Finally, Handelsbanken Fonder AB grew its holdings in shares of Shift4 Payments by 9.7% in the second quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 7,900 shares of the companys stock worth $536,000 after purchasing an additional 700 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 67.00% of the companys stock.

Shift4 Payments Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Shift4 Payments, Inc (NYSE FOUR) provides integrated payment processing and technology solutions in the United States. Its payments platform provides omni-channel card acceptance and processing solutions, including end-to-end payment processing for various payment types; merchant acquiring; proprietary omni-channel gateway; complementary software integrations; integrated and mobile point-of-sale (POS) solutions; security and risk management solutions; and reporting and analytical tools, as well as tokenization, risk management/underwriting, payment device and chargeback management, fraud prevention, and gift card solutions.

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Dana (NYSE:DAN  Free Report) had its price objective raised by Royal Bank of Canada from $16.00 to $19.00 in a research report released on Monday, Marketbeat reports. The brokerage currently has a sector perform rating on the auto parts companys stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also weighed in on DAN. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on Dana from $15.00 to $16.00 in a research note on Monday, May 1st. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Dana from $15.00 to $18.00 in a research note on Monday, July 10th. Barclays upped their target price on Dana from $17.00 to $19.00 in a research note on Monday, July 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Dana from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Thursday, July 20th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Dana from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 25th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $19.00.

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Dana Stock Performance

Shares of DAN opened at $18.22 on Monday. The stocks 50-day simple moving average is $16.65 and its 200 day simple moving average is $15.86. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -12.48 and a beta of 2.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.54, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a current ratio of 1.59. Dana has a 52-week low of $11.17 and a 52-week high of $19.75.

Dana (NYSE:DAN  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, July 28th. The auto parts company reported $0.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $0.16 by $0.21. The business had revenue of $2.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $2.71 billion. Dana had a positive return on equity of 6.59% and a negative net margin of 1.99%. The firms quarterly revenue was up 6.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.08 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Dana will post 0.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Dana Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 11th will be given a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 10th. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.20%. Danas dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -27.40%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO James D. Kellett sold 14,437 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.08, for a total transaction of $275,457.96. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 6,279 shares in the company, valued at approximately $119,803.32. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, EVP Aziz Aghili sold 30,000 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.19, for a total transaction of $575,700.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 14,975 shares in the company, valued at approximately $287,370.25. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO James D. Kellett sold 14,437 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.08, for a total value of $275,457.96. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 6,279 shares in the company, valued at $119,803.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.71% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Dana

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Yousif Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Dana by 3.1% in the 2nd quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 73,620 shares of the auto parts companys stock worth $1,252,000 after buying an additional 2,198 shares during the period. Versant Capital Management Inc purchased a new stake in Dana in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Martingale Asset Management L P lifted its holdings in Dana by 53.8% in the 1st quarter. Martingale Asset Management L P now owns 35,480 shares of the auto parts companys stock worth $534,000 after buying an additional 12,405 shares during the period. Rhumbline Advisers lifted its holdings in Dana by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 462,809 shares of the auto parts companys stock worth $6,965,000 after buying an additional 1,311 shares during the period. Finally, Great Lakes Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Dana in the 1st quarter worth approximately $814,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.67% of the companys stock.

Dana Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Dana Incorporated provides power-conveyance and energy-management solutions for vehicles and machinery in North America, Europe, South America, and the Asia Pacific. It operates in four segments: Light Vehicle Drive Systems, Commercial Vehicle Drive and Motion Systems, Off-Highway Drive and Motion Systems, and Power Technologies.

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Eldorado Gold Co. (NYSE:EGO  Get Free Report) (TSE:ELD) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in July. As of July 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,890,000 shares, a growth of 5.1% from the June 30th total of 2,750,000 shares. Approximately 1.6% of the companys stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,520,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.9 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of EGO. Hollencrest Capital Management acquired a new stake in shares of Eldorado Gold during the 4th quarter valued at $35,000. Employees Retirement System of Texas acquired a new position in shares of Eldorado Gold in the first quarter valued at approximately $68,000. Prelude Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Eldorado Gold during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $78,000. LPL Financial LLC grew its holdings in Eldorado Gold by 19.5% during the 2nd quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 12,286 shares of the basic materials companys stock worth $79,000 after acquiring an additional 2,008 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. acquired a new position in Eldorado Gold in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $80,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 59.09% of the companys stock.

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Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on EGO. StockNews.com cut Eldorado Gold from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Wednesday. National Bank Financial raised Eldorado Gold from a sector perform rating to an outperform rating in a report on Wednesday, June 7th. BMO Capital Markets started coverage on Eldorado Gold in a research note on Friday, June 9th. They issued an outperform rating and a C$17.00 price target on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus cut shares of Eldorado Gold from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Thursday, April 20th. Finally, TD Securities dropped their price objective on shares of Eldorado Gold from $12.00 to $11.00 and set a hold rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and two have 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 $13.57.

Eldorado Gold Price Performance

Shares of EGO traded down $0.16 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $9.22. 1,154,275 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,679,785. The company has a quick ratio of 2.67, a current ratio of 3.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Eldorado Gold has a fifty-two week low of $5.06 and a fifty-two week high of $12.11. The company has a market cap of $1.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 115.26, a P/E/G ratio of 0.45 and a beta of 1.21. The firms fifty day moving average is $10.16 and its 200 day moving average is $10.10.

Eldorado Gold Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Eldorado Gold Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the mining, exploration, development, and sale of mineral products primarily in Turkey, Canada, Greece, and Romania. The company primarily produces gold, as well as silver, lead, and zinc. It holds a 100% interest in the Kisladag and Efemcukuru gold mines located in western Turkey; Lamaque gold mines located in Canada; and Olympias, Stratoni, Skouries, Perama Hill, and Sapes gold mines located in Greece, as well as the 80.5% interest in Certej development projects located in Romania.

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Franklin Parlapiano Turner & Welch LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS  Free Report) by 0.2% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 80,413 shares of the companys stock after acquiring an additional 172 shares during the quarter. Novartis comprises approximately 2.4% of Franklin Parlapiano Turner & Welch LLCs holdings, making the stock its 15th biggest holding. Franklin Parlapiano Turner & Welch LLCs holdings in Novartis were worth $7,398,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in NVS. DT Investment Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Novartis during the first quarter worth about $26,000. TCI Wealth Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Novartis by 193.0% during the 4th quarter. TCI Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 293 shares of the companys stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 193 shares in the last quarter. Fortis Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Novartis in the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. ZRC Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Novartis in the first quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Finally, Syverson Strege & Co acquired a new stake in Novartis in the first quarter valued at approximately $34,000. 8.07% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Novartis Stock Performance

Shares of NVS stock traded down $0.24 on Friday, hitting $101.80. 759,903 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,054,681. The company has a market capitalization of $215.78 billion, a PE ratio of 28.42, a PEG ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 0.54. The companys fifty day moving average is $100.31 and its 200 day moving average is $95.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 1.05 and a quick ratio of 0.79. Novartis AG has a 1-year low of $74.09 and a 1-year high of $105.61.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Novartis ( NYSE:NVS Get Free Report ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 19th. The company reported $1.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $1.68 by $0.15. Novartis had a net margin of 14.76% and a return on equity of 25.12%. The company had revenue of $13.62 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.32 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.56 EPS. The companys revenue for the quarter was up 6.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts predict that Novartis AG will post 6.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NVS has been the subject of several analyst reports. HSBC initiated coverage on shares of Novartis in a research note on Friday, July 14th. They issued a buy rating for the company. BTIG Research boosted their price target on Novartis from $75.00 to $85.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 19th. StockNews.com began coverage on Novartis in a research note on Thursday, May 18th. They set a strong-buy rating for the company. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded Novartis from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report on Wednesday, April 26th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat, Novartis has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $82.25.

Novartis Company Profile

(Free Report)

Novartis AG researches, develops, manufactures, and markets healthcare products in Switzerland and internationally. The company operates through two segments: Innovative Medicines and Sandoz. The Innovative Medicines segment offers prescription medicines for patients and physicians. It also provides cardiovascular, ophthalmology, neuroscience, immunology, hematology, and solid tumor products.

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General Electric (NYSE:GE  Get Free Report) has earned an average rating of Moderate Buy from the fourteen ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 12 month price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $118.47.

GE has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Oppenheimer cut General Electric from an outperform rating to a market perform rating in a research report on Monday. Argus boosted their price objective on General Electric from $112.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 26th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on General Electric in a research report on Thursday, May 18th. They set a buy rating for the company. UBS Group boosted their price objective on General Electric from $95.00 to $109.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 13th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on General Electric from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Monday, July 17th.

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General Electric Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE GE opened at $112.36 on Friday. The businesss 50-day moving average price is $108.16 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $96.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 1.25 and a quick ratio of 0.90. General Electric has a one year low of $48.06 and a one year high of $117.96. The company has a market capitalization of $122.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.93 and a beta of 1.28.

General Electric (NYSE:GE  Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 25th. The conglomerate reported $0.68 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $0.46 by $0.22. General Electric had a return on equity of 9.30% and a net margin of 13.32%. The company had revenue of $15.85 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $14.76 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.78 earnings per share. The businesss quarterly revenue was up 18.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that General Electric will post 2.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

General Electric Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 25th. Investors of record on Tuesday, July 11th were given a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, July 10th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.28%. General Electrics dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 3.80%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other General Electric news, SVP Scott Strazik sold 173,873 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $99.56, for a total value of $17,310,795.88. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 56,049 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,580,238.44. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, major shareholder General Electric Pension Trust acquired 35,160 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Friday, June 30th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $995.44 per share, for a total transaction of $34,999,670.40. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 175,160 shares of the companys stock, valued at $174,361,270.40. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Scott Strazik sold 173,873 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $99.56, for a total value of $17,310,795.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 56,049 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,580,238.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 344,779 shares of company stock worth $36,385,935 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.67% of the companys stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Sei Investments Co. raised its stake in General Electric by 10.0% during the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 305,384 shares of the conglomerates stock worth $27,925,000 after buying an additional 27,682 shares during the period. Prudential PLC acquired a new stake in General Electric during the 1st quarter worth $1,518,000. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC raised its stake in General Electric by 2.9% during the 1st quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 11,748 shares of the conglomerates stock worth $1,075,000 after buying an additional 334 shares during the period. Merit Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in General Electric during the 1st quarter worth $388,000. Finally, West Family Investments Inc. bought a new position in General Electric during the 1st quarter worth about $230,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.75% of the companys stock.

About General Electric

(Get Free Report

General Electric Company operates as a high-tech industrial company in Europe, China, Asia, the Americas, the Middle East, and Africa. It offers gas and steam turbines, full balance of plant, upgrade, and service solutions, as well as data-leveraging software for power generation, industrial, government, and other customers.

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Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (NYSE:RCL  Get Free Report) CFO Naftali Holtz sold 5,949 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Friday, July 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $110.62, for a total transaction of $658,078.38. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 30,967 shares in the company, valued at $3,425,569.54. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website.

Royal Caribbean Cruises Stock Down 0.5 %

RCL stock opened at $104.67 on Friday. Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. has a 12 month low of $36.92 and a 12 month high of $112.95. The company has a quick ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 0.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.28. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $97.44 and a 200 day moving average price of $78.32.

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Royal Caribbean Cruises (NYSE:RCL  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 27th. The company reported $1.82 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $1.58 by $0.24. Royal Caribbean Cruises had a negative net margin of 0.47% and a positive return on equity of 6.76%. The firm had revenue of $3.52 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $3.41 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned ($2.08) EPS. The firms revenue for the quarter was up 61.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. will post 6.23 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on RCL. William Blair reiterated an outperform rating on shares of Royal Caribbean Cruises in a report on Thursday, May 4th. Susquehanna lifted their price target on shares of Royal Caribbean Cruises from $85.00 to $127.00 and gave the company a positive rating in a report on Friday, July 28th. VNET Group reiterated a maintains rating on shares of Royal Caribbean Cruises in a report on Monday, June 12th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Royal Caribbean Cruises from $109.00 to $127.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Friday, July 28th. Finally, Argus lifted their price target on shares of Royal Caribbean Cruises from $88.00 to $92.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 31st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $104.00.

Check Out Our Latest Analysis on RCL

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Royal Caribbean Cruises

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Silvant Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Royal Caribbean Cruises by 24.5% in the 1st quarter. Silvant Capital Management LLC now owns 313,561 shares of the companys stock valued at $20,476,000 after buying an additional 61,698 shares during the period. CIBC Asset Management Inc boosted its position in Royal Caribbean Cruises by 9.9% in the 4th quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 34,293 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,695,000 after buying an additional 3,077 shares during the period. Virtu Financial LLC boosted its position in Royal Caribbean Cruises by 81.0% in the 1st quarter. Virtu Financial LLC now owns 17,829 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,164,000 after buying an additional 7,977 shares during the period. Acrisure Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Royal Caribbean Cruises in the 4th quarter valued at about $265,000. Finally, Intech Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Royal Caribbean Cruises in the 4th quarter valued at about $301,000. 71.08% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Royal Caribbean Cruises Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. operates as a cruise company worldwide. The company operates cruises under the Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises, and Silversea Cruises brands, which comprise a range of itineraries. As of February 13, 2023, it operated 64 ships. The company was founded in 1968 and is headquartered in Miami, Florida.

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iShares Core Canadian Universe Bond Index ETF (TSE:XBB  Get Free Report)s share price dropped 0.6% during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as low as C$26.89 and last traded at C$26.96. Approximately 48,947 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 69% from the average daily volume of 156,305 shares. The stock had previously closed at C$27.12.

iShares Core Canadian Universe Bond Index ETF Stock Performance

The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of C$27.27 and a 200 day simple moving average of C$27.66.

iShares Core Canadian Universe Bond Index ETF Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

iShares DEX Universe Bond Index Fund seeks to provide income by replicating, to the extent possible, the performance of the DEX Universe Bond Index, net of expenses. The DEX Bond Index consists of a diversified selection of investment-grade Government of Canada, provincial, corporate and municipal bonds issued domestically in Canada and denominated in Canadian dollars.

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Jacobi Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Dominion Energy, Inc. (NYSE:D  Free Report) by 6.4% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 15,459 shares of the utilities providers stock after purchasing an additional 929 shares during the period. Jacobi Capital Management LLCs holdings in Dominion Energy were worth $864,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Carson Advisory Inc. increased its stake in Dominion Energy by 10.9% in the 1st quarter. Carson Advisory Inc. now owns 50,387 shares of the utilities providers stock worth $2,817,000 after purchasing an additional 4,950 shares during the period. Cobblestone Capital Advisors LLC NY increased its stake in Dominion Energy by 37.3% in the 1st quarter. Cobblestone Capital Advisors LLC NY now owns 8,971 shares of the utilities providers stock worth $502,000 after purchasing an additional 2,438 shares during the period. Colonial River Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Dominion Energy by 1.5% during the first quarter. Colonial River Wealth Management LLC now owns 41,112 shares of the utilities providers stock valued at $2,299,000 after buying an additional 613 shares during the period. ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co Ltd increased its stake in shares of Dominion Energy by 758.9% during the first quarter. ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co Ltd now owns 74,653 shares of the utilities providers stock valued at $4,174,000 after buying an additional 65,961 shares during the period. Finally, Canal Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Dominion Energy by 2.0% during the first quarter. Canal Capital Management LLC now owns 13,526 shares of the utilities providers stock valued at $756,000 after buying an additional 265 shares during the period. 69.58% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Dominion Energy Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:D traded up $0.08 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $50.82. 478,974 shares of the companys stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,239,016. The company has a market cap of $42.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.48, a P/E/G ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 0.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.75. Dominion Energy, Inc. has a one year low of $48.47 and a one year high of $86.28. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $52.27 and a 200 day moving average of $55.45.

Dominion Energy Announces Dividend

Dominion Energy ( NYSE:D Get Free Report ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, May 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $0.98 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $5.25 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.46 billion. Dominion Energy had a return on equity of 12.67% and a net margin of 7.05%. The companys quarterly revenue was up 22.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.18 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Dominion Energy, Inc. will post 3.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 20th. Investors of record on Friday, September 1st will be given a dividend of $0.6675 per share. This represents a $2.67 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 31st. Dominion Energys dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 186.71%.

Insider Activity at Dominion Energy

In related news, COO Diane Leopold sold 6,250 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.16, for a total transaction of $307,250.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 100,115 shares in the company, valued at $4,921,653.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.14% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on D shares. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on Dominion Energy in a research note on Wednesday, June 7th. They set a neutral rating on the stock. StockNews.com raised Dominion Energy from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research note on Saturday, May 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on Dominion Energy from $63.00 to $55.00 in a research note on Friday, June 9th. 51job reaffirmed a maintains rating on shares of Dominion Energy in a research note on Friday, June 9th. Finally, Bank of America reduced their price target on Dominion Energy from $54.00 to $52.00 in a research note on Tuesday, May 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $57.70.

View Our Latest Stock Analysis on Dominion Energy

Dominion Energy Profile

(Free Report)

Dominion Energy, Inc produces and distributes energy in the United States. It operates through four segments: Dominion Energy Virginia, Gas Distribution, Dominion Energy South Carolina, and Contracted Assets. The Dominion Energy Virginia segment generates, transmits, and distributes regulated electricity to approximately 2.7 million residential, commercial, industrial, and governmental customers in Virginia and North Carolina.

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Coinbase has asked a judge to scrap the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit against the cryptocurrency exchange.

The San Francisco-based exchange said in a federal filing Friday that the SECs claims must be dismissed because the subject matter falls outside the agencys delegated authority.

The SEC in June hit Americas biggest digital asset exchange with a lawsuit, alleging that it operated for years as an unlicensed securities exchange.

Coinbase is now arguing that none of the digital assets and services it offers do not qualify as securities.Because as a matter of law none of them [digital assets] are, the claims must be dismissed, the filing said.

Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal said on Twitter Friday that the core argument is simplewe do not offer investment contracts as that term has been construed by decades of Supreme Court and other binding precedent.

Today, @coinbase filed our brief asking the Court to dismiss the SECs case against us. Our core argument is simple  we do not offer "investment contracts" as that term has been construed by decades of Supreme Court and other binding precedent. 1/3 https://t.co/r2EkDgkEuc  paulgrewal.eth (@iampaulgrewal) August 4, 2023

By ignoring that precedent, the SEC has violated due process, abused its discretion, and abandoned its own earlier interpretations of the securities laws, he wrote.

The SECs lawsuit alleges that Coinbase operated as an unregistered national securities exchange, broker and clearing agency for years and elevated its interest in increasing its profits over investors interests.

Wall Streets top regulator also alleges that Coinbase offered and sold unregistered securities via its staking service.

Story continues

The SEC this year has intensified its crackdown on the cryptocurrency industry. This is largely in part because its Chairman Gary Gensler claims that many major crypto brandsmostly exchangesare selling unregistered securities.

Every Crypto Project Must Reckon With the SEC's Howey Test

Under his watch, the regulator has sued Kraken, gone after Binance and its sister company Binance US and hit Genesis with a lawsuit.

Binance, the worlds biggest crypto company, has sought dismissal of one of its many lawsuits, last week accusing the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) of overreach. It has yet to dismiss the SECs complaint.
Jacobi Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Energy Transfer LP (NYSE:ET  Free Report) by 3.2% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 103,758 shares of the pipeline companys stock after acquiring an additional 3,248 shares during the quarter. Jacobi Capital Management LLCs holdings in Energy Transfer were worth $1,294,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in shares of Energy Transfer by 4.6% during the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 79,889 shares of the pipeline companys stock valued at $894,000 after acquiring an additional 3,501 shares during the period. Cibc World Market Inc. boosted its stake in Energy Transfer by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. now owns 424,932 shares of the pipeline companys stock worth $4,755,000 after purchasing an additional 2,403 shares during the period. Blair William & Co. IL boosted its stake in Energy Transfer by 13.7% in the 1st quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 260,824 shares of the pipeline companys stock worth $2,919,000 after purchasing an additional 31,407 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its position in shares of Energy Transfer by 7.3% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 159,249 shares of the pipeline companys stock valued at $1,782,000 after acquiring an additional 10,856 shares during the last quarter. Finally, NewEdge Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Energy Transfer by 43.0% during the 1st quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 192,394 shares of the pipeline companys stock valued at $2,153,000 after acquiring an additional 57,880 shares during the last quarter. 34.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently weighed in on the company. Barclays increased their price target on Energy Transfer from $15.00 to $16.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 18th. Mizuho increased their price target on Energy Transfer from $17.00 to $18.00 in a report on Tuesday, July 18th. Finally, Morgan Stanley restated an overweight rating and set a $17.00 price target on shares of Energy Transfer in a report on Thursday, July 20th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Energy Transfer currently has an average rating of Buy and an average target price of $16.57.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Energy Transfer news, EVP Bradford D. Whitehurst acquired 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 30th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $12.43 per share, with a total value of $124,300.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 1,303,055 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,196,973.65. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, EVP Bradford D. Whitehurst bought 10,000 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 30th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $12.43 per share, with a total value of $124,300.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 1,303,055 shares in the company, valued at $16,196,973.65. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Chairman Kelcy L. Warren acquired 1,000,000 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Monday, May 15th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $12.49 per share, with a total value of $12,490,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 60,078,477 shares in the company, valued at approximately $750,380,177.73. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have purchased a total of 1,510,000 shares of company stock worth $18,749,300 in the last quarter. 3.28% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Energy Transfer Trading Up 0.2 %

NYSE ET traded up $0.02 on Friday, reaching $12.86. 1,370,194 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 11,225,226. The businesss fifty day moving average price is $12.87 and its 200 day moving average price is $12.75. The stock has a market capitalization of $40.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.72 and a beta of 1.70. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.37. Energy Transfer LP has a fifty-two week low of $10.02 and a fifty-two week high of $13.67.

Energy Transfer (NYSE:ET  Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 2nd. The pipeline company reported $0.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.30 by ($0.05). Energy Transfer had a net margin of 5.05% and a return on equity of 11.88%. The firm had revenue of $18.32 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $20.40 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.39 EPS. Energy Transfers quarterly revenue was down 29.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Energy Transfer LP will post 1.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Energy Transfer Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 21st. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.31 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 11th. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 9.64%. Energy Transfers dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 102.50%.

Energy Transfer Profile

(Free Report)

Energy Transfer LP provides energy-related services. The company owns and operates approximately 11,600 miles of natural gas transportation pipeline, and three natural gas storage facilities in Texas and two natural gas storage facilities located in the state of Texas and Oklahoma; and 19,945 miles of interstate natural gas pipeline.

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Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd grew its stake in shares of Keysight Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:KEYS  Free Report) by 17.6% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 1,648,059 shares of the scientific and technical instruments companys stock after buying an additional 246,391 shares during the period. Keysight Technologies makes up 6.0% of Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltds investment portfolio, making the stock its 7th biggest holding. Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd owned about 0.93% of Keysight Technologies worth $266,129,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Truist Financial Corp raised its position in shares of Keysight Technologies by 10.0% during the first quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 27,367 shares of the scientific and technical instruments companys stock valued at $4,419,000 after buying an additional 2,495 shares during the last quarter. Transatlantique Private Wealth LLC increased its stake in Keysight Technologies by 19.1% in the first quarter. Transatlantique Private Wealth LLC now owns 3,457 shares of the scientific and technical instruments companys stock valued at $558,000 after acquiring an additional 554 shares during the period. Hussman Strategic Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in Keysight Technologies in the first quarter valued at about $2,503,000. Andesa Financial Management Inc. increased its stake in Keysight Technologies by 87.4% in the first quarter. Andesa Financial Management Inc. now owns 3,683 shares of the scientific and technical instruments companys stock valued at $428,000 after acquiring an additional 1,718 shares during the period. Finally, Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund increased its stake in Keysight Technologies by 3.4% in the first quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund now owns 35,376 shares of the scientific and technical instruments companys stock valued at $5,713,000 after acquiring an additional 1,175 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.08% of the companys stock.

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Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have weighed in on KEYS shares. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of Keysight Technologies from $184.00 to $180.00 in a research note on Monday, April 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of Keysight Technologies from $218.00 to $205.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 19th. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Keysight Technologies in a report on Thursday, May 18th. They issued a buy rating for the company. VNET Group reissued an initiates rating on shares of Keysight Technologies in a report on Friday, June 30th. Finally, Citigroup assumed coverage on shares of Keysight Technologies in a report on Thursday, June 29th. They issued a buy rating and a $200.00 price target for the company. 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 an average target price of $193.67.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Keysight Technologies news, Director Kevin A. Stephens bought 420 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Friday, May 19th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $157.45 per share, for a total transaction of $66,129.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 5,589 shares in the company, valued at approximately $879,988.05. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, SVP Soon Chai Gooi sold 29,139 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $161.95, for a total transaction of $4,719,061.05. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 227,874 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $36,904,194.30. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kevin A. Stephens purchased 420 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 19th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $157.45 per share, with a total value of $66,129.00. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 5,589 shares in the company, valued at approximately $879,988.05. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Company insiders own 0.51% of the companys stock.

Keysight Technologies Stock Performance

KEYS traded up $0.81 on Friday, reaching $159.38. The company had a trading volume of 467,196 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,128,226. Keysight Technologies, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $139.63 and a fifty-two week high of $189.45. The stock has a market cap of $28.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.17, a P/E/G ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 1.05. The companys fifty day moving average is $164.47 and its 200 day moving average is $162.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 2.68 and a current ratio of 3.35.

Keysight Technologies (NYSE:KEYS  Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 16th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $1.95 by $0.17. Keysight Technologies had a net margin of 21.11% and a return on equity of 31.75%. The business had revenue of $1.39 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.38 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.68 EPS. Keysight Technologiess quarterly revenue was up 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Keysight Technologies, Inc. will post 7.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Keysight Technologies Company Profile

(Free Report)

Keysight Technologies, Inc provides electronic design and test solutions to commercial communications, networking, aerospace, defense and government, automotive, energy, semiconductor, electronic, and education industries in the Americas, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. Its Communications Solutions Group segment provides electronic design automation (EDA) software; radio frequency and microwave test solutions, and related software; hardware and virtual network test platforms and software applications, including data center, routing and switching, software defined networking, security, and encryption; oscilloscopes, logic and serial protocol analyzers, logic-signal sources, arbitrary waveform generators, and bit error rate testers; and optical modulation analyzers, optical component analyzers, optical power meters, and optical laser source solutions, as well as resells refurbished used Keysight equipment.

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Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS  Free Report)  Investment analysts at Zacks Research issued their FY2023 EPS estimates for shares of Las Vegas Sands in a note issued to investors on Wednesday, August 2nd. Zacks Research analyst H. Ray anticipates that the casino operator will earn $1.88 per share for the year. The consensus estimate for Las Vegas Sands current full-year earnings is $1.86 per share. Zacks Research also issued estimates for Las Vegas Sands Q4 2023 earnings at $0.62 EPS and FY2024 earnings at $2.73 EPS.

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Las Vegas Sands (NYSE:LVS  Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 19th. The casino operator reported $0.46 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $0.44 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $2.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.41 billion. Las Vegas Sands had a net margin of 0.75% and a return on equity of 5.73%. Las Vegas Sandss quarterly revenue was up 143.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned ($0.34) EPS.

A number of other analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of Las Vegas Sands from $71.00 to $70.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 20th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Las Vegas Sands from $76.00 to $80.50 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Thursday, April 20th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Las Vegas Sands from $71.00 to $69.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 20th. Roth Mkm upped their price target on shares of Las Vegas Sands from $74.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Thursday, April 20th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of Las Vegas Sands from a buy rating to a hold rating and cut their price target for the stock from $69.00 to $65.00 in a report on Thursday, June 8th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $70.81.

Check Out Our Latest Report on Las Vegas Sands

Las Vegas Sands Stock Performance

NYSE LVS traded down $0.02 during trading on Friday, reaching $58.05. The companys stock had a trading volume of 273,305 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,620,349. The company has a current ratio of 2.76, a quick ratio of 2.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $44.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 829.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.26 and a beta of 1.17. Las Vegas Sands has a 12 month low of $33.38 and a 12 month high of $65.58. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $58.01 and a 200 day moving average price of $57.95.

Las Vegas Sands Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 16th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 8th will be given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.38%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 7th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Las Vegas Sands

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd increased its position in shares of Las Vegas Sands by 15.6% during the second quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 52,702 shares of the casino operators stock worth $3,057,000 after buying an additional 7,107 shares during the period. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Las Vegas Sands during the second quarter worth $7,016,000. Geneva Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Las Vegas Sands during the second quarter worth $3,062,000. Scotia Capital Inc. boosted its stake in Las Vegas Sands by 3.1% during the second quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. now owns 6,227 shares of the casino operators stock worth $361,000 after acquiring an additional 186 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Nova Scotia boosted its stake in Las Vegas Sands by 97.7% during the second quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 59,011 shares of the casino operators stock worth $3,423,000 after acquiring an additional 29,162 shares in the last quarter. 39.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Las Vegas Sands

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Las Vegas Sands Corp., together with its subsidiaries, develops, owns, and operates integrated resorts in Macao and Singapore. It owns and operates The Venetian Macao Resort Hotel, the Londoner Macao, The Parisian Macao, The Plaza Macao and Four Seasons Hotel Macao, Cotai Strip, and the Sands Macao in Macao, the People's Republic of China; and Marina Bay Sands in Singapore.

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Lemonade (NYSE:LMND  Get Free Report) had its price objective reduced by analysts at Piper Sandler from $18.00 to $17.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a neutral rating on the stock. Piper Sandlers target price would suggest a potential downside of 1.33% from the stocks current price.

Other equities analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on shares of Lemonade from $13.00 to $11.50 and set an underperform rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 10th. Bank of America dropped their price target on shares of Lemonade from $14.00 to $12.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 4th. Barclays increased their price objective on Lemonade from $16.00 to $17.00 in a report on Tuesday, May 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Lemonade from $14.00 to $15.00 and gave the stock an underweight rating in a research report on Thursday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have assigned a hold rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat, Lemonade has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $17.06.

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Lemonade Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE LMND traded down $0.08 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $17.23. The companys stock had a trading volume of 1,482,201 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,467,163. Lemonade has a 1-year low of $10.28 and a 1-year high of $32.97. The firms fifty day moving average price is $19.18 and its 200-day moving average price is $16.30. The firm has a market cap of $1.20 billion, a P/E ratio of -4.10 and a beta of 1.46.

Lemonade (NYSE:LMND  Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 2nd. The company reported ($0.97) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($1.03) by $0.06. The company had revenue of $104.60 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $97.58 million. Lemonade had a negative return on equity of 33.30% and a negative net margin of 79.54%. The businesss revenue was up 109.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned ($1.10) earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Lemonade will post -3.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider John Sheldon Peters sold 5,000 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Monday, July 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.00, for a total value of $100,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 47,784 shares in the company, valued at approximately $955,680. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In related news, insider John Sheldon Peters sold 5,000 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.00, for a total transaction of $100,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 47,784 shares in the company, valued at $955,680. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Timothy E. Bixby sold 1,474 shares of Lemonade stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $18.26, for a total value of $26,915.24. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 268,581 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,904,289.06. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 7,012 shares of company stock valued at $136,739 over the last three months. 11.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Lemonade

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in LMND. WMG Financial Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Lemonade by 20.3% during the 2nd quarter. WMG Financial Advisors LLC now owns 16,800 shares of the companys stock valued at $283,000 after purchasing an additional 2,830 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its stake in shares of Lemonade by 22.6% in the second quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 19,854 shares of the companys stock worth $335,000 after acquiring an additional 3,657 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in shares of Lemonade by 21.2% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 209,696 shares of the companys stock worth $3,533,000 after acquiring an additional 36,675 shares during the last quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. acquired a new position in Lemonade during the 2nd quarter worth $198,000. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can bought a new position in Lemonade in the 2nd quarter valued at $219,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 51.70% of the companys stock.

Lemonade Company Profile

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Lemonade, Inc provides various insurance products in the United States and Europe. Its insurance products include stolen or damaged property, and personal liability that protects its customers if they are responsible for an accident or damage to another person or their property. The company also offers renters, homeowners, car, pet, and life insurance products, as well as landlord insurance policies.

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StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Life Storage (NYSE:LSI  Free Report) in a report released on Tuesday. The firm issued a hold rating on the real estate investment trusts stock.

Several other research firms also recently issued reports on LSI. Wolfe Research downgraded Life Storage from an outperform rating to a market perform rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 12th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on Life Storage from $140.00 to $145.00 in a research note on Friday, May 12th. Truist Financial lifted their price target on Life Storage from $120.00 to $122.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 15th. KeyCorp lifted their target price on Life Storage from $136.00 to $154.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 5th. Finally, Raymond James lifted their target price on Life Storage from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 4th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat, Life Storage presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $128.63.

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Life Storage Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of LSI traded down $1.02 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $133.10. The stock had a trading volume of 7,208,600 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,059,395. The company has a quick ratio of 0.42, a current ratio of 0.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95. Life Storage has a 52 week low of $94.02 and a 52 week high of $146.66. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $131.65 and a 200 day moving average of $127.63. The company has a market cap of $11.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.88 and a beta of 0.65.

Life Storage Dividend Announcement

Insider Transactions at Life Storage

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 19th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 13th were issued a dividend of $0.90 per share. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.70%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, July 12th. Life Storages dividend payout ratio is presently 83.53%.

In other news, Director Stephen R. Rusmisel sold 2,500 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.92, for a total transaction of $324,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 17,801 shares in the company, valued at $2,312,705.92. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, Director Stephen R. Rusmisel sold 2,500 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.92, for a total value of $324,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 17,801 shares in the company, valued at $2,312,705.92. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Joseph Saffire sold 5,036 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $131.03, for a total value of $659,867.08. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 83,780 shares of the companys stock, valued at $10,977,693.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 10,161 shares of company stock worth $1,320,037 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.40% of the companys stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Life Storage

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Sheets Smith Wealth Management bought a new stake in shares of Life Storage in the first quarter valued at approximately $236,000. Graham Capital Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Life Storage during the first quarter valued at approximately $245,138,000. V Square Quantitative Management LLC acquired a new position in Life Storage during the second quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. acquired a new position in Life Storage during the first quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Finally, Point72 Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new position in Life Storage during the first quarter valued at approximately $38,000. 90.28% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Life Storage Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Life Storage, Inc is a self-administered and self-managed equity REIT that is in the business of acquiring and managing self-storage facilities. Located in Buffalo, New York, the Company operates more than 1,200 storage facilities in 37 states and the District of Columbia. The Company serves both residential and commercial storage customers with storage units rented by month.

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NTV Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA  Free Report) by 5.1% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,074 shares of the credit services providers stock after buying an additional 52 shares during the period. NTV Asset Management LLCs holdings in Mastercard were worth $390,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in MA. Versor Investments LP acquired a new stake in shares of Mastercard during the first quarter valued at about $959,000. CFS Investment Advisory Services LLC increased its holdings in Mastercard by 5.9% during the 1st quarter. CFS Investment Advisory Services LLC now owns 714 shares of the credit services providers stock worth $259,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. CTC Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Mastercard in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $1,058,000. Steward Financial Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Mastercard by 35.1% in the first quarter. Steward Financial Group LLC now owns 508 shares of the credit services providers stock worth $184,000 after buying an additional 132 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund raised its holdings in Mastercard by 6.8% in the first quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 68,998 shares of the credit services providers stock valued at $25,075,000 after acquiring an additional 4,372 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.33% of the companys stock.

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Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently commented on MA. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of Mastercard from $438.00 to $442.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 18th. Credit Suisse Group boosted their price target on Mastercard from $400.00 to $430.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Friday, July 28th. Susquehanna raised their price objective on Mastercard from $433.00 to $486.00 and gave the stock a positive rating in a research note on Friday, July 28th. KeyCorp boosted their target price on shares of Mastercard from $425.00 to $430.00 in a research note on Monday, April 24th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Mastercard from $463.00 to $488.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Friday, July 28th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have issued a buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $436.00.

Mastercard Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE:MA traded down $1.17 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $391.84. 139,454 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,780,218. The company has a market capitalization of $371.41 billion, a PE ratio of 36.83, a P/E/G ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 1.11. Mastercard Incorporated has a 52-week low of $276.87 and a 52-week high of $405.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.57, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a current ratio of 1.13. The businesss fifty day simple moving average is $385.80 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $374.03.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 27th. The credit services provider reported $2.89 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.84 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $6.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.18 billion. Mastercard had a net margin of 43.37% and a return on equity of 178.10%. The companys revenue for the quarter was up 14.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.56 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Mastercard Incorporated will post 12.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mastercard Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 9th. Investors of record on Friday, July 7th will be issued a $0.57 dividend. This represents a $2.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.58%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 6th. Mastercards dividend payout ratio is presently 21.37%.

Insider Transactions at Mastercard

In other news, insider Raj Seshadri sold 5,164 shares of Mastercard stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.24, for a total value of $1,927,411.36. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 11,164 shares of the companys stock, valued at $4,166,851.36. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, insider Craig Vosburg sold 6,333 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $400.00, for a total transaction of $2,533,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 46,491 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,596,400. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Raj Seshadri sold 5,164 shares of Mastercard stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.24, for a total value of $1,927,411.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 11,164 shares in the company, valued at $4,166,851.36. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 525,599 shares of company stock worth $201,292,515. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Mastercard

(Free Report)

Mastercard Incorporated, a technology company, provides transaction processing and other payment-related products and services in the United States and internationally. It facilitates the processing of payment transactions, including authorization, clearing, and settlement, as well as delivers other payment-related products and services.

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MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET  Get Free Report) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of Moderate Buy from the ten ratings firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $76.36.

Several analysts have issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on MetLife from $72.00 to $75.00 in a report on Friday, May 26th. StockNews.com assumed coverage on MetLife in a report on Thursday, May 18th. They issued a hold rating for the company. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on MetLife from $68.00 to $65.00 in a report on Friday, May 26th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an overweight rating and set a $78.00 price target on shares of MetLife in a report on Thursday. Finally, TheStreet cut MetLife from a b- rating to a c+ rating in a report on Wednesday, May 24th.

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Institutional Inflows and Outflows

MetLife Stock Up 2.7 %

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in MET. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of MetLife in the 4th quarter valued at about $444,205,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in shares of MetLife by 27.0% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 25,610,023 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $1,853,397,000 after acquiring an additional 5,444,254 shares during the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of MetLife in the 4th quarter valued at about $234,761,000. Toronto Dominion Bank increased its holdings in shares of MetLife by 564.8% in the 4th quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 2,097,455 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $151,703,000 after acquiring an additional 1,781,934 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich increased its holdings in shares of MetLife by 42,754.1% in the 2nd quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 1,766,876 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $99,882,000 after acquiring an additional 1,762,753 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.83% of the companys stock.

Shares of MET opened at $64.42 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 0.13 and a current ratio of 0.13. MetLife has a one year low of $48.95 and a one year high of $77.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $49.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.07, a PEG ratio of 0.70 and a beta of 1.10. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $56.85 and a 200 day moving average price of $60.62.

MetLife (NYSE:MET  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 2nd. The financial services provider reported $1.94 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $16.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $16.91 billion. MetLife had a return on equity of 17.75% and a net margin of 3.14%. The firms revenue for the quarter was up 7.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.00 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that MetLife will post 7.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MetLife Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 14th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 8th will be given a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 7th. MetLifes dividend payout ratio is currently 80.93%.

MetLife announced that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, May 3rd that authorizes the company to repurchase $3.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the financial services provider to buy up to 7.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally a sign that the companys board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

MetLife Company Profile

(Get Free Report

MetLife, Inc, a financial services company, provides insurance, annuities, employee benefits, and asset management services worldwide. It operates through five segments: U.S.; Asia; Latin America; Europe, the Middle East and Africa; and MetLife Holdings. The company offers life, dental, group short-and long-term disability, individual disability, pet insurance, accidental death and dismemberment, vision, and accident and health coverages, as well as prepaid legal plans; administrative services-only arrangements to employers; and general and separate account, and synthetic guaranteed interest contracts, as well as private floating rate funding agreements.

Further Reading

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Motorola Solutions (NYSE:MSI  Get Free Report) had its target price hoisted by equities research analysts at Morgan Stanley from $290.00 to $300.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an equal weight rating on the communications equipment providers stock. Morgan Stanleys price objective would suggest a potential upside of 6.87% from the stocks current price.

Several other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on MSI. StockNews.com cut shares of Motorola Solutions from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Thursday, July 6th. Barclays cut their price objective on Motorola Solutions from $329.00 to $322.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Raymond James increased their price target on Motorola Solutions from $315.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on Motorola Solutions from $310.00 to $335.00 in a report on Friday, May 5th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $309.00.

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Motorola Solutions Price Performance

Shares of MSI stock traded down $6.99 on Friday, hitting $280.72. 887,755 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 749,976. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 24.15, a current ratio of 1.22 and a quick ratio of 0.94. Motorola Solutions has a 52 week low of $212.76 and a 52 week high of $299.43. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $287.17 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $278.98. The firm has a market cap of $47.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.13, a PEG ratio of 3.18 and a beta of 0.92.

Motorola Solutions (NYSE:MSI  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 3rd. The communications equipment provider reported $2.65 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $2.51 by $0.14. Motorola Solutions had a negative return on equity of 1,549.95% and a net margin of 14.63%. The firm had revenue of $2.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.36 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.87 earnings per share. The businesss quarterly revenue was up 12.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Motorola Solutions will post 10.07 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Motorola Solutions

In other news, CEO Gregory Q. Brown sold 50,000 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Friday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $291.13, for a total value of $14,556,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 91,843 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $26,738,252.59. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, CAO Katherine A. Maher sold 1,933 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $289.01, for a total transaction of $558,656.33. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 1,611 shares in the company, valued at approximately $465,595.11. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Gregory Q. Brown sold 50,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $291.13, for a total value of $14,556,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 91,843 shares of the companys stock, valued at $26,738,252.59. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 101,933 shares of company stock valued at $29,642,156. Company insiders own 1.50% of the companys stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Motorola Solutions

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Atria Investments Inc increased its holdings in shares of Motorola Solutions by 1.0% in the second quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 17,913 shares of the communications equipment providers stock valued at $5,254,000 after purchasing an additional 175 shares during the period. Evercore Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Motorola Solutions by 8.8% in the second quarter. Evercore Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,670 shares of the communications equipment providers stock worth $490,000 after acquiring an additional 135 shares during the period. Oxbow Advisors LLC grew its position in Motorola Solutions by 1.4% during the 2nd quarter. Oxbow Advisors LLC now owns 5,442 shares of the communications equipment providers stock worth $1,596,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares during the period. Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A. grew its position in Motorola Solutions by 2.6% during the 2nd quarter. Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A. now owns 62,558 shares of the communications equipment providers stock worth $18,335,000 after purchasing an additional 1,575 shares during the period. Finally, Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLC acquired a new position in shares of Motorola Solutions in the 2nd quarter valued at about $201,000. 82.93% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Motorola Solutions

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Motorola Solutions, Inc provides public safety and enterprise security solutions in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and internationally. The company operates in two 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 infrastructure, as well as the implementation and integration of systems, devices, software, and applications for government, public safety, and commercial customers who operate private communications networks and video security solutions, as well as manage a mobile workforce.

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Mount Logan Capital Inc. (TSE:MAR  Free Report)  Research analysts at Cormark raised their FY2024 EPS estimates for shares of Mount Logan Capital in a research report issued to clients and investors on Tuesday, August 1st. Cormark analyst S. Ioannou now expects that the company will earn ($0.07) per share for the year, up from their previous estimate of ($0.16).

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Mount Logan Capital (TSE:MAR  Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Monday, May 15th. The company reported C($0.01) EPS for the quarter.

Mount Logan Capital Stock Performance

About Mount Logan Capital

The company has a 50 day simple moving average of C$0.52. Mount Logan Capital has a 12-month low of C$0.36 and a 12-month high of C$0.87. The company has a market cap of C$9.21 million and a P/E ratio of -20.80.

(Get Free Report)

Marret Resource Corp. focuses on natural resource lending activities in Canada. The company engages in investing in public and private debt securities of companies in various natural resource sectors comprising energy, base and precious metals, and other commodities, as well as companies involved in exploration and development activities.

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Ormat Technologies (NYSE:ORA  Get Free Report) released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday. The energy company reported $0.40 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.02, Briefing.com reports. Ormat Technologies had a return on equity of 5.35% and a net margin of 11.74%. The business had revenue of $194.80 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $196.74 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.22 earnings per share. The companys quarterly revenue was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. Ormat Technologies updated its FY 2023 guidance to EPS.

Ormat Technologies Stock Performance

ORA traded up $1.84 during trading on Friday, reaching $77.66. The companys stock had a trading volume of 205,065 shares, compared to its average volume of 440,973. Ormat Technologies has a 52-week low of $75.56 and a 52-week high of $101.81. The companys fifty day moving average price is $83.13 and its 200-day moving average price is $85.51. The company has a market capitalization of $4.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 48.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 0.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 1.96 and a current ratio of 2.07.

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Ormat Technologies Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 30th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 16th will be issued a $0.12 dividend. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.62%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, August 15th. Ormat Technologiess dividend payout ratio is presently 30.97%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ormat Technologies

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ORA. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Ormat Technologies by 43.0% during the 4th quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 1,008 shares of the energy companys stock worth $87,000 after acquiring an additional 303 shares in the last quarter. Toroso Investments LLC raised its position in shares of Ormat Technologies by 15.8% during the 3rd quarter. Toroso Investments LLC now owns 1,065 shares of the energy companys stock worth $91,000 after purchasing an additional 145 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Ormat Technologies by 13.0% during the 2nd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,465 shares of the energy companys stock worth $115,000 after purchasing an additional 169 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Ormat Technologies during the 1st quarter worth approximately $177,000. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp acquired a new position in shares of Ormat Technologies during the 1st quarter worth approximately $214,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.23% of the companys stock.

Several research firms have recently commented on ORA. StockNews.com assumed coverage on Ormat Technologies in a research report on Thursday, May 18th. They set a sell rating for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Ormat Technologies from $86.00 to $89.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 19th. Bank of America lifted their target price on Ormat Technologies from $85.00 to $87.00 in a report on Wednesday, June 14th. Finally, Barclays assumed coverage on Ormat Technologies in a research note on Monday, May 22nd. They issued an equal weight rating and a $89.00 price target on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $91.38.

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About Ormat Technologies

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Ormat Technologies, Inc engages in the geothermal and recovered energy power business in the United States, Indonesia, Kenya, Turkey, Chile, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Ethiopia, New Zealand, Honduras, and internationally. It operates through three segments: Electricity, Product, and Energy Storage. The Electricity segment develops, builds, owns, and operates geothermal, solar photovoltaic, and recovered energy-based power plants; and sells electricity.

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(Bloomberg) -- About 13% of crypto hedge funds have shut down so far this year, as weak performance and difficulties in accessing banking services weighed on the industry, according to data tracked by Switzerland-based investment adviser 21e6 Capital AG.

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Crypto funds on average generated 15.2% return in the first half of 2023, underperforming Bitcoin, which gained 83.3% over the same period, the data provided to Bloomberg News showed.

Many funds held larger-than-normal cash positions following industry turmoil in 2022, which peaked with the collapse of crypto exchange FTX. These funds missed out on Bitcoins surge since the start of the year, according to a report by 21e6. Meanwhile, most major altcoins - tokens that are not Bitcoin - underperformed the biggest cryptocurrency.

Maximilian Bruckner, head of marketing and sales at 21e6, said many funds are still struggling to find new partners for banking services after the closure of crypto-friendly institutions Silvergate Capital Corp. and Signature Bank earlier this year. That, along with regulatory uncertainty and the scramble for secure exchanges and custodians, presented a difficult set of hurdles for these funds.

The Swiss company tracks the status of more than 700 crypto funds globally, including 123 funds across 70 firms that regularly report performance data. So far this year, 97 funds, or 13%, have shut down. The US is still the dominant location for crypto fund managers, Bruckner said.

Funds with market-neutral strategies performed the worst, generating only 6.8% return on average from January to June. Funds that make directional bets returned 21.9% on average, the data show.

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Some funds shut down after losing assets which had been stored on platforms that collapsed. FTX, in particular, was a favorite among hedge funds and professional crypto traders.

Earlier this year, Galois Capital, a crypto investment firm known for betting against the Luna token before its implosion, closed its flagship fund after it was hit by the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX.

BlockTower Capital, a Miami-based digital-asset investment firm, wound down a market-neutral crypto fund that at one point oversaw more than $100 million.

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2023 Bloomberg L.P.
PCJ Investment Counsel Ltd. cut its stake in Manulife Financial Co. (NYSE:MFC  Free Report) (TSE:MFC) by 21.5% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 130,291 shares of the financial services providers stock after selling 35,730 shares during the period. PCJ Investment Counsel Ltd.s holdings in Manulife Financial were worth $2,391,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Manulife Financial by 3.2% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 65,706,458 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $1,402,832,000 after purchasing an additional 2,032,695 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI boosted its stake in shares of Manulife Financial by 3.2% during the 1st quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 30,949,156 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $567,474,000 after buying an additional 951,500 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Manulife Financial during the 4th quarter worth about $406,195,000. Scotia Capital Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Manulife Financial by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. now owns 12,802,468 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $228,346,000 after buying an additional 190,339 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Amundi boosted its stake in shares of Manulife Financial by 13.4% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 8,766,993 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $196,454,000 after buying an additional 1,038,637 shares during the last quarter. 40.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Manulife Financial in a research note on Thursday, May 18th. They set a hold rating for the company.

Manulife Financial Trading Up 2.0 %

Shares of Manulife Financial stock traded up $0.39 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $19.61. 1,626,579 shares of the companys stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,242,923. The company has a 50 day moving average of $19.05 and a two-hundred day moving average of $19.12. The stock has a market cap of $35.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.82, a P/E/G ratio of 0.79 and a beta of 1.10. Manulife Financial Co. has a fifty-two week low of $14.92 and a fifty-two week high of $20.40.

Manulife Financial (NYSE:MFC  Get Free Report) (TSE:MFC) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 10th. The financial services provider reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $9.32 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.68 billion. As a group, analysts expect that Manulife Financial Co. will post 2.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Manulife Financial Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 19th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 24th were given a $0.269 dividend. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 23rd. Manulife Financials payout ratio is presently 49.54%.

Manulife Financial Company Profile

(Free Report)

Manulife Financial Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides financial products and services in Asia, Canada, the United States, and internationally. The company operates through Wealth and Asset Management Businesses; Insurance and Annuity Products; and Corporate and Other segments. The Wealth and Asset Management Businesses segment offers investment advice and solutions to retirement, retail, and institutional clients through multiple distribution channels, including agents and brokers affiliated with the company, independent securities brokerage firms and financial advisors pension plan consultants, and banks.

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Regal Rexnord (NYSE:RRX  Get Free Report) had its price objective hoisted by equities research analysts at Robert W. Baird from $184.00 to $211.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The firm presently has an outperform rating on the stock. Robert W. Bairds target price indicates a potential upside of 32.38% from the stocks current price.

Separately, StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Regal Rexnord in a report on Thursday, May 18th. They set a hold rating on the stock. One 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.com, Regal Rexnord has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $193.40.

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Regal Rexnord Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:RRX traded down $1.27 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $159.39. 325,765 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 443,681. Regal Rexnord has a one year low of $111.84 and a one year high of $166.00. The company has a current ratio of 2.92, a quick ratio of 1.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12. The businesss fifty day moving average is $149.52 and its two-hundred day moving average is $143.47. The stock has a market cap of $10.56 billion, a PE ratio of 43.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.08.

Institutional Trading of Regal Rexnord

Regal Rexnord ( NYSE:RRX Get Free Report ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 31st. The company reported $2.56 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.44 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $1.77 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.77 billion. Regal Rexnord had a net margin of 4.45% and a return on equity of 10.57%. The firms revenue was up 31.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.76 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Regal Rexnord will post 10.32 earnings per share for the current year.

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Regal Rexnord in the 1st quarter worth approximately $978,777,000. Capital World Investors acquired a new stake in Regal Rexnord in the 1st quarter worth approximately $793,975,000. State Street Corp acquired a new stake in Regal Rexnord in the 1st quarter worth approximately $266,837,000. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich boosted its stake in Regal Rexnord by 98,060.5% in the 2nd quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 1,203,448 shares of the companys stock worth $185,211,000 after purchasing an additional 1,202,222 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in Regal Rexnord by 168.4% in the 1st quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,848,402 shares of the companys stock worth $260,126,000 after purchasing an additional 1,159,687 shares in the last quarter. 97.12% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Regal Rexnord

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Regal Rexnord Corporation manufactures and sells industrial powertrain solutions, power transmission components, electric motors and electronic controls, air moving products, and specialty electrical components and systems worldwide. It operates in four segments: Commercial Systems, Industrial Systems, Climate Solutions, and Motion Control Solutions.

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Several brokerages have updated their recommendations and price targets on shares of Canadian Utilities (OTCMKTS: CDUAF) in the last few weeks:

7/31/2023  Canadian Utilities had its price target lowered by analysts at National Bank Financial from C$37.00 to C$36.00.

7/28/2023  Canadian Utilities had its price target lowered by analysts at Royal Bank of Canada from C$43.00 to C$40.00.

7/28/2023  Canadian Utilities had its price target lowered by analysts at BMO Capital Markets from C$39.00 to C$38.00.

7/28/2023  Canadian Utilities had its price target lowered by analysts at Scotiabank from C$41.00 to C$40.00.

7/28/2023  Canadian Utilities had its price target lowered by analysts at TD Securities from C$39.00 to C$37.00.

7/21/2023  Canadian Utilities had its price target lowered by analysts at CIBC from C$40.00 to C$38.00.

Canadian Utilities Stock Down 3.0 %

Shares of CDUAF traded down $0.71 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $23.03. 3,387 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,026. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $25.94 and a 200-day simple moving average of $27.05. Canadian Utilities Limited has a 12-month low of $23.03 and a 12-month high of $31.95.

Canadian Utilities Limited, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the electricity, natural gas, and retail energy businesses in the United States, Australia, and internationally. It operates through Utilities, Energy Infrastructure, and Corporate & Other segments. The Utilities segment provides regulated electricity transmission and distribution services in northern and central east Alberta, the Yukon, and the Northwest Territories; and integrated natural gas transmission and distribution services in Alberta, the Lloydminster area of Saskatchewan, and Western Australia.

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Rockwell Automation (NYSE:ROK  Get Free Report) updated its FY23 earnings guidance on Tuesday. The company provided EPS guidance of $11.70-$12.10 for the period, compared to the consensus EPS estimate of $12.03. The company issued revenue guidance of $8.85-$9.0 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $8.94 billion.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently commented on ROK. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Rockwell Automation from $334.00 to $375.00 in a report on Monday, July 10th. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of Rockwell Automation in a research report on Tuesday, June 27th. They set a hold rating and a $335.00 price target on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on shares of Rockwell Automation from $272.00 to $273.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 12th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Rockwell Automation from $260.00 to $290.00 in a research report on Monday, July 10th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Rockwell Automation from $340.00 to $345.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research report on Wednesday. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $288.24.

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Rockwell Automation Stock Performance

NYSE:ROK traded down $2.55 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $301.73. 1,095,450 shares of the companys stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 737,049. Rockwell Automation has a one year low of $209.27 and a one year high of $348.52. The firm has a market capitalization of $34.66 billion, a PE ratio of 24.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 1.43. The businesss fifty day simple moving average is $318.88 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $295.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a current ratio of 1.08.

Rockwell Automation (NYSE:ROK  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 1st. The industrial products company reported $3.01 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $3.19 by ($0.18). Rockwell Automation had a return on equity of 41.59% and a net margin of 16.51%. The business had revenue of $2.24 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.33 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.66 earnings per share. Rockwell Automations revenue was up 13.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Rockwell Automation will post 11.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Rockwell Automation Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 14th will be paid a dividend of $1.18 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 11th. This represents a $4.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.56%. Rockwell Automations payout ratio is 38.50%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Rockwell Automation news, VP Isaac Woods sold 150 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total transaction of $48,750.00. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 940 shares in the company, valued at $305,500. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Rockwell Automation news, VP Isaac Woods sold 150 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total transaction of $48,750.00. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 940 shares in the company, valued at $305,500. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Frank C. Kulaszewicz sold 7,729 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $310.00, for a total transaction of $2,395,990.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 13,660 shares in the company, valued at $4,234,600. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 14,661 shares of company stock worth $4,532,531 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.64% of the companys stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Rockwell Automation

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in ROK. Neo Ivy Capital Management acquired a new stake in Rockwell Automation during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $29,000. Clear Street Markets LLC acquired a new stake in Rockwell Automation during the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,000. First Manhattan Co. boosted its position in Rockwell Automation by 150.0% during the 4th quarter. First Manhattan Co. now owns 125 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 75 shares during the period. Fortis Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Rockwell Automation during the 1st quarter worth approximately $37,000. Finally, Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL acquired a new stake in Rockwell Automation during the 1st quarter worth approximately $38,000. 79.28% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Rockwell Automation

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Rockwell Automation, Inc provides industrial automation and digital transformation solutions in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, and Latin America. The company operates through three segments, Intelligent Devices, Software & Control, and Lifecycle Services. Its solutions include hardware and software products and services.

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Sandy Spring Bank raised its holdings in NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE  Free Report) by 5.6% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 150,743 shares of the utilities providers stock after acquiring an additional 7,969 shares during the period. Sandy Spring Banks holdings in NextEra Energy were worth $11,619,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Appleton Partners Inc. MA grew its stake in NextEra Energy by 3.3% in the first quarter. Appleton Partners Inc. MA now owns 13,360 shares of the utilities providers stock valued at $1,030,000 after acquiring an additional 432 shares during the period. Trust Co. of Virginia VA grew its stake in NextEra Energy by 14.0% in the first quarter. Trust Co. of Virginia VA now owns 8,776 shares of the utilities providers stock valued at $676,000 after acquiring an additional 1,075 shares during the period. Central Bank & Trust Co. grew its stake in NextEra Energy by 2.7% in the first quarter. Central Bank & Trust Co. now owns 5,511 shares of the utilities providers stock valued at $425,000 after acquiring an additional 143 shares during the period. Mission Wealth Management LP boosted its position in shares of NextEra Energy by 9.7% during the first quarter. Mission Wealth Management LP now owns 36,563 shares of the utilities providers stock worth $2,818,000 after buying an additional 3,230 shares during the period. Finally, PFG Advisors boosted its position in shares of NextEra Energy by 3.6% during the first quarter. PFG Advisors now owns 30,032 shares of the utilities providers stock worth $2,315,000 after buying an additional 1,042 shares during the period. 77.70% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Insider Buying and Selling at NextEra Energy

In other news, CEO John W. Ketchum bought 13,600 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 14th. The shares were bought at an average price of $74.26 per share, for a total transaction of $1,009,936.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now owns 184,485 shares in the company, valued at $13,699,856.10. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other NextEra Energy news, EVP Robert Coffey sold 4,000 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.90, for a total transaction of $299,600.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 11,292 shares in the company, valued at approximately $845,770.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO John W. Ketchum acquired 13,600 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 14th. The shares were bought at an average price of $74.26 per share, for a total transaction of $1,009,936.00. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer now owns 184,485 shares in the company, valued at $13,699,856.10. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.38% of the companys stock.

NextEra Energy Stock Performance

NYSE:NEE traded down $0.90 on Friday, hitting $69.20. The companys stock had a trading volume of 6,494,839 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,128,014. The company has a current ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $73.71 and a two-hundred day moving average of $75.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $140.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 0.46. NextEra Energy, Inc. has a one year low of $69.02 and a one year high of $91.35.

NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 25th. The utilities provider reported $0.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $7.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.68 billion. NextEra Energy had a return on equity of 12.25% and a net margin of 30.05%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.81 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that NextEra Energy, Inc. will post 3.11 earnings per share for the current year.

NextEra Energy Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 30th will be paid a $0.4675 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 29th. This represents a $1.87 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.70%. NextEra Energys dividend payout ratio is 46.29%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an overweight rating and set a $93.00 price objective on shares of NextEra Energy in a research report on Friday, July 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on NextEra Energy in a research report on Wednesday, June 7th. They set a buy rating and a $90.00 price objective for the company. StockNews.com assumed coverage on NextEra Energy in a research report on Thursday, May 18th. They set a hold rating for the company. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on NextEra Energy from $95.00 to $90.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. Finally, Guggenheim reduced their price objective on NextEra Energy from $92.00 to $86.00 in a research report on Friday, July 7th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, NextEra Energy has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $91.36.

NextEra Energy Company Profile

(Free Report)

NextEra Energy, Inc, through its subsidiaries, generates, transmits, distributes, and sells electric power to retail and wholesale customers in North America. The company generates electricity through wind, solar, nuclear, coal, and natural gas facilities. It also develops, constructs, and operates long-term contracted assets that consists of clean energy solutions, such as renewable generation facilities, battery storage projects, and electric transmission facilities; sells energy commodities; and owns, develops, constructs, manages and operates electric generation facilities in wholesale energy markets.

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The Chemours Company (NYSE:CC  Get Free Report) saw a large decline in short interest in the month of July. As of July 15th, there was short interest totalling 5,340,000 shares, a decline of 7.5% from the June 30th total of 5,770,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,530,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.5 days. Approximately 3.7% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Chemours news, SVP Matthew S. Abbott sold 8,912 shares of Chemours stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.20, for a total transaction of $304,790.40. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 29,869 shares in the company, valued at $1,021,519.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, SVP Matthew S. Abbott sold 8,912 shares of the companys stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.20, for a total value of $304,790.40. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 29,869 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $1,021,519.80. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Newman bought 7,661 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 9th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $34.63 per share, for a total transaction of $265,300.43. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer now directly owns 266,955 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $9,244,651.65. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Company insiders own 1.63% of the companys stock.

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Hedge Funds Weigh In On Chemours

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Raymond James & Associates raised its position in shares of Chemours by 31.0% in the 1st quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 135,617 shares of the specialty chemicals companys stock valued at $4,269,000 after buying an additional 32,121 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC raised its position in Chemours by 21.3% during the first quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC now owns 9,636 shares of the specialty chemicals companys stock valued at $303,000 after purchasing an additional 1,695 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can boosted its holdings in shares of Chemours by 36.4% in the 1st quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 73,197 shares of the specialty chemicals companys stock valued at $2,361,000 after purchasing an additional 19,552 shares in the last quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. acquired a new stake in Chemours in the first quarter valued at about $208,000. Finally, MetLife Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Chemours by 35.7% in the first quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 107,133 shares of the specialty chemicals companys stock valued at $3,373,000 after buying an additional 28,160 shares in the last quarter. 70.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Chemours Stock Performance

Shares of Chemours stock traded down $0.08 during trading on Thursday, hitting $36.55. 1,524,820 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,294,356. The company has a current ratio of 1.54, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.45. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $35.07 and a 200-day moving average price of $32.69. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -53.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 1.96. Chemours has a 1-year low of $23.58 and a 1-year high of $39.05.

Chemours (NYSE:CC  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, July 28th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $1.09 by $0.01. Chemours had a positive return on equity of 46.14% and a negative net margin of 1.40%. The company had revenue of $1.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $1.75 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.89 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Chemours will post 3.35 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Chemours Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 15th will be given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.74%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 14th. Chemourss payout ratio is -147.06%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently weighed in on CC. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Chemours from $38.00 to $40.00 in a report on Tuesday, July 11th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on shares of Chemours from $64.00 to $53.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Chemours from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Saturday, May 20th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Chemours from $37.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a sector perform rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, Bank of America downgraded Chemours from a buy rating to a neutral rating and dropped their price target for the company from $41.00 to $37.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $38.22.

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About Chemours

(Get Free Report)

The Chemours Company provides performance chemicals in North America, the Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. It operates through three segments: Titanium Technologies, Thermal & Specialized Solutions, and Advanced Performance Materials. The Titanium Technologies segment provides TiO2 pigment under the Ti-Pure brand for delivering whiteness, brightness, opacity, durability, efficiency, and protection in various of applications, such as architectural and industrial coatings, flexible and rigid plastic packaging, polyvinylchloride, laminate papers used for furniture and building materials, coated paper, and coated paperboard used for packaging.

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Sigma Planning Corp lessened its holdings in iShares U.S. Medical Devices ETF (NYSEARCA:IHI  Free Report) by 3.3% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 148,198 shares of the companys stock after selling 4,980 shares during the period. Sigma Planning Corp owned 0.13% of iShares U.S. Medical Devices ETF worth $8,000,000 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. Aspire Private Capital LLC acquired a new position in iShares U.S. Medical Devices ETF in the 1st quarter valued at $11,499,629,000. Castleview Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of iShares U.S. Medical Devices ETF during the 4th quarter worth $27,000. WFA of San Diego LLC acquired a new stake in shares of iShares U.S. Medical Devices ETF during the 4th quarter worth $32,000. Red Lighthouse Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of iShares U.S. Medical Devices ETF during the 4th quarter worth $35,000. Finally, Key Financial Inc grew its holdings in shares of iShares U.S. Medical Devices ETF by 683.3% during the 1st quarter. Key Financial Inc now owns 705 shares of the companys stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 615 shares in the last quarter.

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iShares U.S. Medical Devices ETF Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of IHI traded down $0.32 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $54.12. 1,076,021 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 896,727. The company has a market cap of $5.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.50 and a beta of 0.85. iShares U.S. Medical Devices ETF has a fifty-two week low of $46.21 and a fifty-two week high of $57.95. The firms fifty day moving average is $55.37 and its 200 day moving average is $54.54.

About iShares U.S. Medical Devices ETF

The iShares U.S. Medical Devices ETF (IHI) is an exchange-traded fund that is based on the DJ US Select \u002F Medical Equipment index, a market-cap-weighted index of manufacturers and distributors of medical devices in the US. IHI was launched on May 1, 2006 and is managed by BlackRock.

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Southern (NYSE:SO  Get Free Report) issued an update on its third quarter 2023 earnings guidance on Friday morning. The company provided earnings per share guidance of $1.30-$1.30 for the period, compared to the consensus earnings per share estimate of $1.43. The company issued revenue guidance of -. Southern also updated its FY 2023 guidance to $3.55-$3.65 EPS.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. Mizuho lowered their target price on Southern from $77.00 to $76.00 in a research report on Tuesday, May 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on Southern from $73.00 to $69.00 in a research report on Thursday, June 8th. Guggenheim lowered their target price on Southern from $79.00 to $77.00 in a research report on Friday, July 7th. VNET Group reiterated a maintains rating on shares of Southern in a research report on Friday, April 28th. Finally, Morgan Stanley restated an underweight rating and issued a $60.00 price objective on shares of Southern in a research report on Friday, July 21st. Five analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Southern currently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $73.57.

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View Our Latest Analysis on Southern

Southern Trading Up 0.1 %

NYSE SO traded up $0.04 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $68.66. 1,772,052 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,203,018. The company has a quick ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $70.81 and a 200 day moving average price of $69.72. Southern has a 52 week low of $58.85 and a 52 week high of $80.57. The stock has a market cap of $74.87 billion, a PE ratio of 22.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.93 and a beta of 0.50.

Southern (NYSE:SO  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 3rd. The utilities provider reported $0.79 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.74 by $0.05. Southern had a return on equity of 10.78% and a net margin of 11.53%. The firm had revenue of $5.75 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.47 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.07 earnings per share. The companys revenue for the quarter was down 20.2% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Southern will post 3.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southern Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 6th. Investors of record on Monday, August 21st will be paid a $0.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 18th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.08%. Southerns dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 90.32%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Southern news, CEO Thomas A. Fanning sold 50,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.16, for a total transaction of $3,758,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 847,592 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $63,705,014.72. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, EVP Bryan D. Anderson sold 9,491 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Monday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.03, for a total value of $712,109.73. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 36,119 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $2,710,008.57. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Thomas A. Fanning sold 50,000 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.16, for a total value of $3,758,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 847,592 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $63,705,014.72. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 225,678 shares of company stock valued at $16,334,121 over the last quarter. 0.28% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Southern

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. acquired a new stake in shares of Southern in the 4th quarter worth $34,000. Dark Forest Capital Management LP purchased a new position in Southern in the 1st quarter worth $43,000. Compass Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Southern in the 4th quarter worth $54,000. Achmea Investment Management B.V. purchased a new position in Southern in the 1st quarter worth $68,000. Finally, Certified Advisory Corp purchased a new position in Southern in the 1st quarter worth $73,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 63.25% of the companys stock.

Southern Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

The Southern Company, through its subsidiaries, engages in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity. It operates through three segments: Gas Distribution Operations, Gas Pipeline Investments, and Gas Marketing Services. The company also develops, constructs, acquires, owns, and manages power generation assets, including renewable energy projects and sells electricity in the wholesale market; and distributes natural gas in Illinois, Georgia, Virginia, and Tennessee, as well as provides gas marketing services, gas distribution operations, and gas pipeline investments operations.

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Sunoco (NYSE:SUN  Get Free Report) posted its earnings results on Wednesday. The oil and gas company reported $0.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.02 by ($0.24), Briefing.com reports. The company had revenue of $5.75 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.66 billion. Sunoco had a net margin of 1.56% and a return on equity of 41.03%. Sunocos revenue was down 26.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.20 EPS.

Sunoco Price Performance

Shares of SUN stock traded down $0.75 on Thursday, reaching $44.94. The companys stock had a trading volume of 172,769 shares, compared to its average volume of 193,198. The stocks fifty day simple moving average is $44.22 and its 200-day simple moving average is $44.70. Sunoco has a 1 year low of $37.10 and a 1 year high of $48.59. The company has a current ratio of 1.48, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.47. The company has a market capitalization of $4.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.89 and a beta of 1.30.

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Sunoco Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 21st. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.842 per share. This represents a $3.37 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 11th. Sunocos dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 89.15%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SUN has been the topic of several recent research reports. Raymond James increased their price objective on shares of Sunoco from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Friday, April 21st. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Sunoco from $48.00 to $51.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 18th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Sunoco in a research note on Thursday, May 18th. They issued a buy rating on the stock. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Sunoco from $49.00 to $50.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 11th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $50.29.

View Our Latest Stock Report on Sunoco

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of SUN. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Sunoco by 8.9% in the first quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 13,939 shares of the oil and gas companys stock worth $569,000 after buying an additional 1,140 shares during the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Sunoco by 70.2% during the first quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 23,016 shares of the oil and gas companys stock worth $941,000 after purchasing an additional 9,491 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC lifted its position in shares of Sunoco by 7.1% during the first quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC now owns 5,369 shares of the oil and gas companys stock worth $219,000 after purchasing an additional 357 shares during the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Sunoco by 5.3% during the first quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 25,640 shares of the oil and gas companys stock worth $1,048,000 after purchasing an additional 1,300 shares during the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Sunoco by 1.7% during the first quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 15,519 shares of the oil and gas companys stock worth $634,000 after purchasing an additional 266 shares during the last quarter. 17.66% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Sunoco Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Sunoco LP, together with its subsidiaries, distributes and retails motor fuels in the United States. It operates in two segments, Fuel Distribution and Marketing, and All Other. The company's Fuel Distribution and Marketing segment purchases motor fuel from independent refiners and oil companies and supplies it to independently operated dealer stations, distributors and other consumer of motor fuel to commission agent locations.

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StockNews.com downgraded shares of Sunstone Hotel Investors (NYSE:SHO  Free Report) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note issued to investors on Monday morning.

Several other research firms also recently weighed in on SHO. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Sunstone Hotel Investors from $9.50 to $11.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 12th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Sunstone Hotel Investors from an underweight rating to an equal weight rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $9.00 to $10.00 in a research report on Tuesday, June 27th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and four have given a hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Sunstone Hotel Investors presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $10.57.

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Sunstone Hotel Investors Stock Performance

SHO stock traded down $0.05 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $9.52. 4,368,923 shares of the companys stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,115,169. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.97 billion, a PE ratio of 25.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 1.27. Sunstone Hotel Investors has a 52 week low of $8.60 and a 52 week high of $12.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a current ratio of 0.55. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $10.09 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $10.08.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Sunstone Hotel Investors

Sunstone Hotel Investors ( NYSE:SHO Get Free Report ) last announced its earnings results on Friday, May 5th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.08 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $0.17 by ($0.09). Sunstone Hotel Investors had a return on equity of 5.22% and a net margin of 9.60%. The business had revenue of $243.44 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $223.93 million. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Sunstone Hotel Investors will post 0.94 EPS for the current year.

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Advisors Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Sunstone Hotel Investors by 168.4% in the 4th quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,065 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock worth $30,000 after acquiring an additional 1,923 shares during the last quarter. Wolverine Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in Sunstone Hotel Investors during the 4th quarter valued at about $37,000. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC lifted its holdings in Sunstone Hotel Investors by 56.5% during the 1st quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 4,257 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 1,537 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd bought a new stake in Sunstone Hotel Investors during the 1st quarter valued at about $91,000. Finally, Point72 Middle East FZE bought a new stake in Sunstone Hotel Investors during the 4th quarter valued at about $94,000.

About Sunstone Hotel Investors

(Get Free Report)

Sunstone Hotel Investors, Inc is a lodging real estate investment trust ("REIT") that as of the date of this release owns 15 hotels comprised of 7,735 rooms, the majority of which are operated under nationally recognized brands. Sunstone's strategy is to create long-term stakeholder value through the acquisition, active ownership and disposition of hotels considered to be Long-Term Relevant Real Estate.

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Cybercriminals attacked the computer systems of a California-based health care provider causing emergency rooms in multiple states to close and ambulance services to be redirected.

The data breach happened at Prospect Medical Holdings of Los Angeles, which has hospitals and clinics in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Texas. Prospect Medical is working on resolving the issue, the company said in a statement Friday.

"Prospect Medical Holdings, Inc. recently experienced a data security incident that has disrupted our operations," the company said in a statement. "Upon learning of this, we took our systems offline to protect them and launched an investigation with the help of third-party cybersecurity specialists. While our investigation continues, we are focused on addressing the pressing needs of our patients as we work diligently to return to normal operations as quickly as possible."

Officials with the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, the nurses union at Crozer-Chester Medical System, say the hospital has reverted to a paper system because most of the computers are offline, CBS News reported. The computers are unlikely to be back online until next week, according to the labor group, citing Prospect Medical.

Elective surgeries, urgent care centers closed

The data breach forced the emergency departments Manchester Memorial and Rockville General in Connecticut to close Thursday. Hospital officials there diverted patients to nearby medical centers. All Prospect Medical-owned health care facilities "are experiencing IT complications" and many services including elective surgeries and urgent care has been closed, the company posted on its website.

"Our computer systems are down with the outage affecting all Waterbury Health inpatient and outpatient operations," Prospect Medical's hospital in Waterbury, Connecticut, posted on its Facebook page. "We are in the process of reevaluating our downtime capabilities and may reschedule some appointments. Affected patients will be contacted."

In Pennsylvania, the attack affected services at facilities including: the Crozer-Chester Medical Center in Upland, Taylor Hospital in Ridley Park, Delaware County Memorial Hospital in Drexel Hill and Springfield Hospital in Springfield, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

The Associated Press contributed to this report
Tanger Factory Outlet Centers (NYSE:SKT  Get Free Report) issued an update on its FY 2023 earnings guidance on Thursday morning. The company provided EPS guidance of $1.85-$1.92 for the period, compared to the consensus EPS estimate of $1.88. The company issued revenue guidance of -. Tanger Factory Outlet Centers also updated its FY23 guidance to $1.85-1.92 EPS.

Tanger Factory Outlet Centers Price Performance

SKT stock traded up $0.23 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $23.62. The stock had a trading volume of 1,350,002 shares, compared to its average volume of 939,386. The companys fifty day simple moving average is $22.12 and its 200 day simple moving average is $20.02. The company has a current ratio of 2.97, a quick ratio of 2.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.82. The company has a market cap of $2.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.32 and a beta of 1.82. Tanger Factory Outlet Centers has a 52-week low of $13.26 and a 52-week high of $23.90.

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Tanger Factory Outlet Centers Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 31st will be paid a $0.245 dividend. This represents a $0.98 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.15%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 28th. Tanger Factory Outlet Centerss dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 124.05%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have issued reports on SKT shares. StockNews.com started coverage on Tanger Factory Outlet Centers in a research note on Thursday, May 18th. They issued a hold rating for the company. Evercore ISI raised their target price on Tanger Factory Outlet Centers from $20.00 to $22.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 31st. Finally, 888 reaffirmed a maintains rating on shares of Tanger Factory Outlet Centers in a research note on Wednesday, May 31st.

Read Our Latest Research Report on SKT

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Susan E. Skerritt sold 3,310 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $21.04, for a total transaction of $69,642.40. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 52,621 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $1,107,145.84. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Tanger Factory Outlet Centers news, Director Susan E. Skerritt sold 3,310 shares of Tanger Factory Outlet Centers stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $21.04, for a total value of $69,642.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 52,621 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $1,107,145.84. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Thomas Reddin sold 5,000 shares of Tanger Factory Outlet Centers stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.95, for a total value of $99,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 45,067 shares of the companys stock, valued at $899,086.65. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 228,374 shares of company stock valued at $4,938,179. 2.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Tanger Factory Outlet Centers

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of SKT. FMR LLC grew its position in Tanger Factory Outlet Centers by 16,418.2% in the 1st quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,249,283 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $44,153,000 after acquiring an additional 2,235,666 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Tanger Factory Outlet Centers in the 4th quarter valued at about $16,663,000. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Tanger Factory Outlet Centers by 12.6% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,252,459 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $107,480,000 after buying an additional 700,755 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in shares of Tanger Factory Outlet Centers by 40.1% in the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,329,080 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $45,720,000 after buying an additional 667,077 shares during the period. Finally, Neuberger Berman Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Tanger Factory Outlet Centers by 507.8% in the 3rd quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC now owns 503,989 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $6,895,000 after buying an additional 421,062 shares during the period. 81.30% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Tanger Factory Outlet Centers Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Tanger Factory Outlet Centers, Inc (NYSE: SKT) is a leading operator of upscale open-air outlet centers that owns (or has an ownership interest in) and/or manages a portfolio of 36 centers with an additional center currently under development. Tanger's operating properties are located in 20 states and in Canada, totaling approximately 13.9 million square feet, leased to over 2,700 stores operated by more than 600 different brand name companies.

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TELUS International (Cda) Inc. (NYSE:TIXT  Get Free Report) shares saw unusually-high trading volume on Friday . Approximately 103,792 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 47% from the previous sessions volume of 196,233 shares.The stock last traded at $9.52 and had previously closed at $9.04.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

TIXT has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on shares of TELUS International (Cda) from $26.00 to $21.00 in a research report on Monday, May 8th. Bank of America decreased their target price on shares of TELUS International (Cda) from $26.00 to $21.00 in a research note on Sunday, July 16th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on shares of TELUS International (Cda) from $24.00 to $19.00 in a research note on Friday, July 14th. National Bank Financial lowered shares of TELUS International (Cda) from an outperform rating to a sector perform rating and cut their price target for the stock from $32.00 to $17.00 in a report on Friday, July 14th. Finally, William Blair reiterated an outperform rating on shares of TELUS International (Cda) in a report on Friday, July 14th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, TELUS International (Cda) has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $20.36.

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TELUS International (Cda) Stock Up 3.8 %

The stocks 50-day moving average price is $13.57 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $18.10. The stock has a market capitalization of $685.53 million, a P/E ratio of 15.38, a P/E/G ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 0.57. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

TELUS International (Cda) ( NYSE:TIXT Get Free Report ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 4th. The company reported $0.24 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $0.22 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $686.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $693.05 million. TELUS International (Cda) had a net margin of 6.38% and a return on equity of 17.21%. As a group, research analysts expect that TELUS International will post 0.81 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Lazard Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of TELUS International (Cda) in the first quarter worth approximately $46,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale bought a new position in shares of TELUS International (Cda) during the second quarter valued at about $63,000. Citigroup Inc. lifted its stake in shares of TELUS International (Cda) by 18.8% in the 1st quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 4,781 shares of the companys stock valued at $96,000 after acquiring an additional 755 shares during the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC bought a new position in TELUS International (Cda) during the 1st quarter worth approximately $101,000. Finally, BNP Paribas Arbitrage SNC purchased a new position in TELUS International (Cda) in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $101,000. Institutional investors own 61.30% of the companys stock.

TELUS International (Cda) Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

TELUS International (Cda) Inc design, builds, and delivers digital solutions for customer experience (CX) in Europe, North America, the Asia-Pacific, and the Central America. The company provides digital experience solutions, such as AI and bots, omnichannel CX, enterprise mobility solutions, cloud contact center, big data analytics, platform transformation, and UX/UI design; and customer experience solutions, including work anywhere/work from home, contact center outsourcing, technical support, sales growth and customer retention, healthcare/patient experience, and debt collection.

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TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU  Get Free Report) (TSE:T) shares reached a new 52-week low during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $17.51 and last traded at $17.53, with a volume of 632719 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $17.79.

Analyst Ratings Changes

TU has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on shares of TELUS from C$33.00 to C$29.00 in a research report on Monday, July 17th. TD Securities lowered their price objective on shares of TELUS from C$31.00 to C$30.00 in a research report on Monday, July 17th. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of TELUS from $23.00 to $21.00 in a research report on Monday, May 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on TELUS from C$33.00 to C$31.00 in a report on Thursday, July 20th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on TELUS from C$32.00 to C$31.00 in a report on Monday, July 17th.

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TELUS Price Performance

The company has a market cap of $24.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.73, a PEG ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 0.73. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $18.97 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $19.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a current ratio of 0.75.

TELUS (NYSE:TU  Get Free Report) (TSE:T) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 4th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.20 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.21 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $3.67 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.58 billion. TELUS had a net margin of 7.65% and a return on equity of 9.14%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that TELUS Co. will post 0.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On TELUS

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Bessemer Group Inc. raised its stake in TELUS by 227.5% in the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 1,598 shares of the Wireless communications providers stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 1,110 shares during the period. Ridgewood Investments LLC bought a new stake in TELUS in the 1st quarter valued at $32,000. CWM LLC raised its stake in TELUS by 44.5% in the 4th quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,989 shares of the Wireless communications providers stock valued at $38,000 after acquiring an additional 613 shares during the period. CVA Family Office LLC acquired a new position in TELUS in the 4th quarter valued at $50,000. Finally, Clear Street Markets LLC acquired a new position in TELUS in the 4th quarter valued at $54,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 45.03% of the companys stock.

TELUS Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

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 services; mobile technologies equipment; data services, such as internet protocol; television; hosting, managed information technology, and cloud-based services; software, data management, and data analytics-driven smart food-chain and consumer goods technologies; home and business security; healthcare software and technology solutions; and voice and other telecommunications services.

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Wilbanks Smith & Thomas Asset Management LLC increased its stake in The Clorox Company (NYSE:CLX  Free Report) by 5.6% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 19,895 shares of the companys stock after purchasing an additional 1,056 shares during the quarter. Wilbanks Smith & Thomas Asset Management LLCs holdings in Clorox were worth $3,148,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Clorox by 53.5% during the first quarter. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 5,346 shares of the companys stock valued at $846,000 after purchasing an additional 1,863 shares during the last quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Clorox by 5.0% in the first quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 4,098 shares of the companys stock valued at $648,000 after buying an additional 194 shares during the last quarter. Pitcairn Co. increased its position in Clorox by 5.0% in the first quarter. Pitcairn Co. now owns 8,228 shares of the companys stock worth $1,302,000 after purchasing an additional 391 shares during the period. Ten Capital Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Clorox by 429.7% during the 1st quarter. Ten Capital Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 196 shares of the companys stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 159 shares during the period. Finally, Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund grew its position in shares of Clorox by 0.9% during the 1st quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund now owns 9,531 shares of the companys stock worth $1,508,000 after buying an additional 85 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.37% of the companys stock.

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Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the company. StockNews.com initiated coverage on Clorox in a report on Thursday, May 18th. They set a hold rating on the stock. Raymond James increased their target price on Clorox from $165.00 to $185.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 3rd. Atlantic Securities raised Clorox from an underweight rating to a neutral rating in a report on Thursday. Barclays dropped their price objective on Clorox from $124.00 to $117.00 and set an underweight rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 20th. 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 research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat, Clorox presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $148.00.

Clorox Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CLX traded down $3.25 on Friday, hitting $162.88. The companys stock had a trading volume of 427,758 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,208,717. The Clorox Company has a 12-month low of $124.58 and a 12-month high of $178.21. The company has a market capitalization of $20.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 139.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 0.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 14.40, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.51. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $156.58 and a 200-day moving average of $156.38.

Clorox (NYSE:CLX  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 2nd. The company reported $1.67 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.19 by $0.48. Clorox had a net margin of 2.02% and a return on equity of 163.73%. The firm had revenue of $2.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.88 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.93 earnings per share. Cloroxs revenue for the quarter was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that The Clorox Company will post 5.64 EPS for the current year.

Clorox Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 25th. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 9th will be given a $1.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, August 8th. This is an increase from Cloroxs previous quarterly dividend of $1.18. This represents a $4.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.95%. Cloroxs dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 396.64%.

Clorox Profile

(Free Report)

The Clorox Company manufactures and markets consumer and professional products worldwide. It operates through four segments: Health and Wellness, Household, Lifestyle, and International. The Health and Wellness segment offers cleaning products, such as laundry additives and home care products primarily under the Clorox, Clorox2, Scentiva, Pine-Sol, Liquid-Plumr, Tilex, and Formula 409 brands; professional cleaning and disinfecting products under the CloroxPro and Clorox Healthcare brands; professional food service products under the Hidden Valley brand; and vitamins, minerals and supplement products under the RenewLife, Natural Vitality, NeoCell, and Rainbow Light brands in the United States.

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Transatlantique Private Wealth LLC increased its position in shares of Union Pacific Co. (NYSE:UNP  Free Report) by 30.8% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,700 shares of the railroad operators stock after buying an additional 400 shares during the period. Transatlantique Private Wealth LLCs holdings in Union Pacific were worth $342,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of UNP. Jacobi Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Union Pacific by 6.5% in the first quarter. Jacobi Capital Management LLC now owns 8,370 shares of the railroad operators stock worth $1,684,000 after purchasing an additional 514 shares during the period. Phoenix Wealth Advisors purchased a new position in Union Pacific during the first quarter worth about $2,398,000. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in Union Pacific by 103.2% in the first quarter. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 16,484 shares of the railroad operators stock worth $3,318,000 after acquiring an additional 8,372 shares during the period. Sentinel Trust Co. LBA raised its position in Union Pacific by 362.0% in the first quarter. Sentinel Trust Co. LBA now owns 10,784 shares of the railroad operators stock worth $2,170,000 after acquiring an additional 8,450 shares during the period. Finally, Horrell Capital Management Inc. raised its position in Union Pacific by 0.6% in the first quarter. Horrell Capital Management Inc. now owns 85,051 shares of the railroad operators stock worth $17,117,000 after acquiring an additional 530 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 84.04% of the companys stock.

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Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

UNP has been the topic of several research reports. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on shares of Union Pacific from $245.00 to $240.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 21st. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Union Pacific from $200.00 to $245.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 27th. TD Cowen lowered their price target on shares of Union Pacific from $222.00 to $218.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 21st. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Union Pacific from $210.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Friday, April 21st. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of Union Pacific from $171.00 to $168.00 in a report on Thursday, July 6th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $233.97.

Union Pacific Stock Performance

Shares of UNP traded down $0.36 on Friday, reaching $229.53. The companys stock had a trading volume of 464,131 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,051,376. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.39, a current ratio of 0.71 and a quick ratio of 0.57. The stock has a market capitalization of $139.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.97, a PEG ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 1.11. The stocks 50 day simple moving average is $207.97 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $202.75. Union Pacific Co. has a 12-month low of $183.69 and a 12-month high of $242.35.

Union Pacific (NYSE:UNP  Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 26th. The railroad operator reported $2.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $2.75 by ($0.18). The business had revenue of $5.96 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $6.09 billion. Union Pacific had a return on equity of 55.03% and a net margin of 27.18%. The businesss quarterly revenue was down 4.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.93 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Union Pacific Co. will post 10.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Union Pacific Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 29th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 31st will be paid a dividend of $1.30 per share. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.27%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 30th. Union Pacifics payout ratio is 47.45%.

Union Pacific Company Profile

(Free Report)

Union Pacific Corporation, through its subsidiary, Union Pacific Railroad Company, operates in the railroad business in the United States. The company offers transportation services for grain and grain products, fertilizers, food and refrigerated products, and coal and renewables to grain processors, animal feeders, ethanol producers, and other agricultural users; petroleum, and liquid petroleum gases; and construction products, industrial chemicals, plastics, forest products, specialized products, metals and ores, soda ash, and sand, as well as finished automobiles, automotive parts, and merchandise in intermodal containers.

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Berenberg Bank restated their hold rating on shares of Travis Perkins (LON:TPK  Free Report) in a report issued on Tuesday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. They currently have a GBX 955 ($12.26) target price on the stock.

Several other brokerages also recently commented on TPK. Shore Capital restated a sell rating on shares of Travis Perkins in a research note on Monday, June 19th. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Travis Perkins from GBX 965 ($12.39) to GBX 850 ($10.91) and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, June 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target on shares of Travis Perkins from GBX 1,250 ($16.05) to GBX 1,200 ($15.41) and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of Travis Perkins from GBX 850 ($10.91) to GBX 780 ($10.01) and set an underweight rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 19th. Finally, Numis Securities reissued a hold rating and set a GBX 935 ($12.00) price objective on shares of Travis Perkins in a report on Friday, June 16th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of GBX 988.50 ($12.69).

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Travis Perkins Price Performance

Travis Perkins Cuts Dividend

TPK opened at GBX 872.80 ($11.21) on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 57.30, a current ratio of 1.42 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The businesss fifty day simple moving average is GBX 851.03 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is GBX 928.40. The firm has a market capitalization of 1.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 980.67, a P/E/G ratio of 6.44 and a beta of 1.49.

The business also recently declared a dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 10th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 5th will be paid a GBX 12.50 ($0.16) dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 5th. This represents a dividend yield of 1.44%. Travis Perkinss dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 4,382.02%.

About Travis Perkins

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Travis Perkins plc engages in distribution of building material products in the United Kingdom. It operates through Merchanting and Toolstation segments. The company supplies tools and building materials. It also distributes pipeline related products, as well as provides heating solutions. In addition, the company engages in civils and drainage related services.

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Virginia Wealth Management Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of United Parcel Service, Inc. (NYSE:UPS  Free Report) by 3.1% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 20,558 shares of the transportation companys stock after acquiring an additional 621 shares during the quarter. United Parcel Service comprises about 2.7% of Virginia Wealth Management Group Inc.s portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest position. Virginia Wealth Management Group Inc.s holdings in United Parcel Service were worth $3,988,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in UPS. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of United Parcel Service by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,787,793 shares of the transportation companys stock valued at $2,220,088,000 after buying an additional 255,287 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of United Parcel Service by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 9,273,417 shares of the transportation companys stock valued at $1,988,777,000 after buying an additional 54,401 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in shares of United Parcel Service by 33.7% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 7,730,090 shares of the transportation companys stock valued at $1,343,799,000 after buying an additional 1,949,775 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of United Parcel Service in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,255,623,000. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of United Parcel Service by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,529,088 shares of the transportation companys stock valued at $1,135,017,000 after buying an additional 148,213 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 58.94% of the companys stock.

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Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

UPS has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Wolfe Research raised United Parcel Service from an underperform rating to a market perform rating in a report on Tuesday, April 25th. Raymond James reduced their price target on United Parcel Service from $207.00 to $205.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 26th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on United Parcel Service from $185.00 to $180.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. Credit Suisse Group lowered United Parcel Service from an outperform rating to a neutral rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $200.00 to $204.00 in a research note on Monday. Finally, Oppenheimer cut their price objective on United Parcel Service from $199.00 to $188.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $189.96.

United Parcel Service Price Performance

United Parcel Service Dividend Announcement

Shares of UPS stock traded down $0.56 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $180.94. 4,426,564 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,312,543. The firms 50 day simple moving average is $178.38 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $181.25. United Parcel Service, Inc. has a 1-year low of $154.87 and a 1-year high of $209.39. The firm has a market cap of $155.41 billion, a PE ratio of 14.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.72 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 1.34 and a quick ratio of 1.34.

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 14th will be paid a dividend of $1.62 per share. This represents a $6.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.58%. United Parcel Services dividend payout ratio is presently 52.43%.

About United Parcel Service

(Free Report)

United Parcel Service, Inc, a package delivery company, provides transportation and delivery, distribution, contract logistics, ocean freight, airfreight, customs brokerage, and insurance services. It operates through two segments, U.S. Domestic Package and International Package. The U.S. Domestic Package segment offers time-definite delivery of letters, documents, small packages, and palletized freight through air and ground services in the United States.

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Shares of VAALCO Energy, Inc. (LON:EGY  Get Free Report) rose 1.6% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as GBX 325 ($4.17) and last traded at GBX 325 ($4.17). Approximately 2,689 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 278% from the average daily volume of 712 shares. The stock had previously closed at GBX 320 ($4.11).

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Canaccord Genuity Group reduced their target price on shares of VAALCO Energy from GBX 715 ($9.18) to GBX 700 ($8.99) and set a buy rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 11th.

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VAALCO Energy Stock Performance

VAALCO Energy Announces Dividend

The firm has a market cap of 347.00 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 738.64 and a beta of 1.45. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of GBX 311.94 and a 200-day moving average price of GBX 348.19. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 1.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 19.73.

The business also recently declared a dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 23rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 23rd were issued a $0.06 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 23rd. This represents a dividend yield of 1.47%. VAALCO Energys dividend payout ratio is presently 4,545.45%.

About VAALCO Energy

(Get Free Report)

VAALCO Energy, Inc, an independent energy company, acquires, explores for, develops, and produces crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids. The company holds Etame production sharing contract related to the Etame Marin block located offshore in the Republic of Gabon in West Africa. It also owns interests in an undeveloped block offshore Equatorial Guinea, West Africa.

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Viad Corp (NYSE:VVI  Get Free Report)s share price gapped down before the market opened on Friday . The stock had previously closed at $27.25, but opened at $25.16. Viad shares last traded at $26.25, with a volume of 535 shares.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VVI has been the topic of several analyst reports. StockNews.com cut Viad from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research report on Monday, July 24th. Craig Hallum assumed coverage on Viad in a research note on Wednesday, June 28th. They set a buy rating and a $40.00 price objective for the company.

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Viad Trading Up 6.6 %

The firm has a market cap of $605.32 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.69, a PEG ratio of 4.52 and a beta of 1.75. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $26.04 and a 200 day moving average price of $24.14. The company has a quick ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.84.

Insider Transactions at Viad

Viad ( NYSE:VVI Get Free Report ) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, August 3rd. The business services provider reported $0.36 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $320.31 million during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $302.28 million. Viad had a return on equity of 20.26% and a net margin of 2.76%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Viad Corp will post 0.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

In other Viad news, Director Joshua Schechter bought 2,000 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 9th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $21.85 per share, with a total value of $43,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 49,323 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,077,707.55. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 3.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Viad

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Keybank National Association OH acquired a new stake in Viad during the second quarter valued at $255,000. Deroy & Devereaux Private Investment Counsel Inc. acquired a new stake in Viad during the second quarter valued at approximately $1,626,000. Voss Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Viad in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $2,040,000. Forum Financial Management LP bought a new position in Viad in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $246,000. Finally, River Road Asset Management LLC raised its position in Viad by 5.0% in the 2nd quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC now owns 1,817,948 shares of the business services providers stock worth $48,866,000 after purchasing an additional 86,382 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.95% of the companys stock.

About Viad

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Viad Corp operates as an experiential leisure travel, and live events and marketing services company in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Netherlands, and Iceland. It operates through Pursuit, Spiro, and GES Exhibitions segments. The Pursuit segment offers vertically integrated attractions and hospitality in destinations with a collection of attractions, lodges, and sightseeing tours.

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Weave Communications (NYSE:WEAV  Get Free Report) had its target price increased by equities research analysts at The Goldman Sachs Group from $5.00 to $11.00 in a research report issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a neutral rating on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Groups price objective would suggest a potential upside of 4.36% from the stocks current price.

WEAV has been the topic of several other reports. Raymond James increased their target price on shares of Weave Communications from $6.00 to $13.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Friday, June 30th. Loop Capital upgraded shares of Weave Communications from a hold rating to a buy rating and increased their target price for the stock from $5.00 to $13.00 in a report on Monday, June 26th. Piper Sandler increased their target price on shares of Weave Communications from $6.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Monday. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Weave Communications from $6.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Friday, July 28th. Finally, Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Weave Communications from $7.50 to $14.00 in a report on Friday, June 30th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat, Weave Communications currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $12.50.

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Read Our Latest Stock Analysis on WEAV

Weave Communications Trading Down 4.2 %

Shares of WEAV traded down $0.46 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $10.54. 476,542 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 451,002. The stocks fifty day moving average price is $9.82 and its 200 day moving average price is $6.82. The company has a current ratio of 2.05, a quick ratio of 2.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The firm has a market cap of $703.23 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -18.32 and a beta of 2.03. Weave Communications has a 12-month low of $3.74 and a 12-month high of $12.45.

Weave Communications (NYSE:WEAV  Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 3rd. The company reported ($0.12) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of ($0.15) by $0.03. Weave Communications had a negative net margin of 24.45% and a negative return on equity of 38.54%. The firm had revenue of $39.57 million for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $37.71 million. Sell-side analysts forecast that Weave Communications will post -0.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Weave Communications

In related news, major shareholder Bessemer Venture Partners Ix L sold 8,541 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.13, for a total value of $95,061.33. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 7,434,055 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $82,741,032.15. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders sold 265,106 shares of company stock valued at $3,029,738 in the last three months. 41.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Weave Communications

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Strs Ohio grew its stake in shares of Weave Communications by 245.5% during the 2nd quarter. Strs Ohio now owns 3,800 shares of the companys stock worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 2,700 shares during the period. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC grew its stake in Weave Communications by 90.8% in the 1st quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 6,800 shares of the companys stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 3,236 shares during the period. Citigroup Inc. grew its stake in Weave Communications by 236.3% in the 1st quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 7,325 shares of the companys stock valued at $44,000 after acquiring an additional 5,147 shares during the period. Barclays PLC grew its stake in Weave Communications by 443.1% in the 4th quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 8,488 shares of the companys stock valued at $39,000 after acquiring an additional 6,925 shares during the period. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in Weave Communications in the 4th quarter valued at $38,000. 53.73% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Weave Communications Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Weave Communications, Inc provides a customer communications and engagement software platform in the United States and Canada. Its platform enables small and medium-sized businesses to maximize the value of their customer interactions and minimize the time and effort spent on manual or mundane tasks.

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SAF-Holland SE (ETR:SFQ), might not be a large cap stock, but it saw a decent share price growth in the teens level on the XTRA over the last few months. With many analysts covering the stock, we may expect any price-sensitive announcements have already been factored into the stocks share price. However, could the stock still be trading at a relatively cheap price? Today I will analyse the most recent data on SAF-Hollands outlook and valuation to see if the opportunity still exists.

See our latest analysis for SAF-Holland

Is SAF-Holland Still Cheap?

According to my valuation model, SAF-Holland seems to be fairly priced at around 1.8% below my intrinsic value, which means if you buy SAF-Holland today, youd be paying a reasonable price for it. And if you believe that the stock is really worth 13.02, then there isnt much room for the share price grow beyond what its currently trading. Is there another opportunity to buy low in the future? Since SAF-Hollands share price is quite volatile, we could potentially see it sink lower (or rise higher) in the future, giving us another chance to buy. This is based on its high beta, which is a good indicator for how much the stock moves relative to the rest of the market.

What kind of growth will SAF-Holland generate?

Future outlook is an important aspect when youre looking at buying a stock, especially if you are an investor looking for growth in your portfolio. Although value investors would argue that its the intrinsic value relative to the price that matter the most, a more compelling investment thesis would be high growth potential at a cheap price. With profit expected to grow by a double-digit 12% over the next couple of years, the outlook is positive for SAF-Holland. It looks like higher cash flow is on the cards for the stock, which should feed into a higher share valuation.

What This Means For You

Are you a shareholder? SFQs optimistic future growth appears to have been factored into the current share price, with shares trading around its fair value. However, there are also other important factors which we havent considered today, such as the track record of its management team. Have these factors changed since the last time you looked at the stock? Will you have enough confidence to invest in the company should the price drop below its fair value?

Story continues

Are you a potential investor? If youve been keeping tabs on SFQ, now may not be the most advantageous time to buy, given it is trading around its fair value. However, the optimistic prospect is encouraging for the company, which means its worth diving deeper into other factors such as the strength of its balance sheet, in order to take advantage of the next price drop.

If you'd like to know more about SAF-Holland as a business, it's important to be aware of any risks it's facing. For example - SAF-Holland has 2 warning signs we think you should be aware of.

If you are no longer interested in SAF-Holland, you can use our free platform to see our list of over 50 other stocks with a high growth potential.

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.
XY Capital Ltd trimmed its holdings in Yum China Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:YUMC  Free Report) by 68.1% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 65,471 shares of the companys stock after selling 140,009 shares during the period. Yum China comprises approximately 1.6% of XY Capital Ltds holdings, making the stock its 9th largest holding. XY Capital Ltds holdings in Yum China were worth $4,150,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in YUMC. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Yum China by 788.9% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,628,571 shares of the companys stock valued at $787,029,000 after purchasing an additional 14,757,971 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Yum China in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $294,441,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Yum China in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $182,104,000. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. acquired a new position in shares of Yum China in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $57,147,000. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its position in shares of Yum China by 56.5% in the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 2,270,121 shares of the companys stock valued at $124,062,000 after purchasing an additional 819,840 shares in the last quarter. 75.56% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Yum China Stock Performance

YUMC traded down $0.77 during trading on Friday, reaching $56.01. 1,554,962 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,714,625. The stock has a market cap of $23.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.93, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 0.55. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $58.07 and a 200 day moving average of $60.06. The company has a current ratio of 1.77, a quick ratio of 1.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. Yum China Holdings, Inc. has a 52 week low of $38.58 and a 52 week high of $64.70.

Yum China Announces Dividend

Yum China ( NYSE:YUMC Get Free Report ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 31st. The company reported $0.47 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $0.39 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.72 billion. Yum China had a return on equity of 10.38% and a net margin of 7.20%. The firms revenue was up 24.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.20 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Yum China Holdings, Inc. will post 2.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 28th will be paid a $0.13 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 25th. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.93%. Yum Chinas payout ratio is 29.38%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently issued reports on YUMC. TheStreet raised Yum China from a c+ rating to a b rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 2nd. OTR Global raised Yum China from a mixed rating to a positive rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 12th. Finally, StockNews.com began coverage on Yum China in a research report on Thursday, May 18th. They set a buy rating on the stock.

Insider Transactions at Yum China

In other news, CEO Joey Wat sold 2,800 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.94, for a total value of $173,432.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 256,723 shares of the companys stock, valued at $15,901,422.62. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, Director Peter A. Bassi sold 17,500 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.96, for a total value of $1,066,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 46,264 shares in the company, valued at $2,820,253.44. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Joey Wat sold 2,800 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.94, for a total value of $173,432.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 256,723 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $15,901,422.62. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.33% of the companys stock.

Yum China Company Profile

(Free Report)

Yum China Holdings, Inc owns, operates, and franchises restaurants in China. The company operates through two segments, KFC and Pizza Hut. It operates restaurants under the KFC, Pizza Hut, Little Sheep, Huang Ji Huang, Lavazza, COFFii & JOY, Taco Bell, and East Dawning brands, which specialize in chicken, pizza, hot pot cooking, simmer pot, Italian coffee, specialty coffee, Mexican-style food, and Chinese food categories.

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Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM  Get Free Report) posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday. The restaurant operator reported $1.41 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.24 by $0.17, RTT News reports. The company had revenue of $1.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.75 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 16.02% and a net margin of 20.31%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.05 EPS.

Yum! Brands Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of Yum! Brands stock opened at $135.62 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $135.19 and a 200 day moving average of $132.97. Yum! Brands has a 12 month low of $103.96 and a 12 month high of $143.24. The firm has a market cap of $37.99 billion, a PE ratio of 27.45, a PEG ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.01.

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Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 9th. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 30th were paid a dividend of $0.605 per share. This represents a $2.42 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.78%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 26th. Yum! Brandss payout ratio is presently 48.99%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on YUM. Bank of America increased their price objective on Yum! Brands from $151.00 to $158.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Thursday. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on Yum! Brands from $140.00 to $144.00 in a report on Monday, May 8th. Citigroup lowered their price target on Yum! Brands from $179.00 to $173.00 in a report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an overweight rating and issued a $155.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Thursday. Finally, Piper Sandler began coverage on Yum! Brands in a report on Tuesday, June 13th. They issued a neutral rating and a $142.00 price target on the stock. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Yum! Brands has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $148.47.

Check Out Our Latest Research Report on Yum! Brands

Insider Activity at Yum! Brands

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,920 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $138.90, for a total value of $544,488.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 57,325 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $7,962,442.50. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, VP David Eric Russell sold 5,000 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $137.27, for a total value of $686,350.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 16,052 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $2,203,458.04. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,920 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $138.90, for a total value of $544,488.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 57,325 shares of the companys stock, valued at $7,962,442.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 16,681 shares of company stock valued at $2,289,403. Insiders own 0.31% of the companys stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Cornerstone Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Yum! Brands during the 1st quarter worth $222,000. Stokes Family Office LLC purchased a new position in Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter worth $214,000. Fiduciary Group LLC purchased a new position in Yum! Brands during the 1st quarter worth $214,000. Aureus Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter worth $213,000. Finally, Shepherd Financial Partners LLC purchased a new position in Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter worth $209,000. 92.82% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Yum! Brands

(Get Free Report)

Yum! Brands, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, develops, operates, and franchises quick service restaurants worldwide. The company operates through four segments: the KFC Division, the Taco Bell Division, the Pizza Hut Division, and the Habit Burger Grill Division. It operates restaurants under the KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and The Habit Burger Grill brands, which specialize in chicken, pizza, made-to-order chargrilled burgers, sandwiches, Mexican-style food categories, and other food products.

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The new Twitter X logo at the company's headquarters in San Francisco, California, US, on Saturday, July 29, 2023. Credit - David Paul Morris/Getty Images

On Monday, Elon Musks X Corp, formerly known as Twitter, filed a lawsuit against an anti-hate speech group, accusing it of intentionally and unlawfully accessing the companys data and conducting a scare campaign to drive away advertisers from the X platform.

The complaint, filed in a California federal court, alleges that research conducted by the advocacy group Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) cost the company tens of millions of dollars. The suit alleges that 16 unnamed advertisers either stopped spending on the platform, paused plans to advertise, or decided not to reactivate campaigns following CCDHs research.

In an interview with TIME, Imran Ahmed, CCDHs founder and CEO, said that the nonprofit, which has yet to be physically served by Xs legal team, plans to fight the lawsuit, and warned that the lawsuits outcome could have an adverse impact on independent researchers.

Its an unprecedented and shocking escalation in the war Twitter [X Corp] is waging with transparency, says Ahmed.

Ahmed also notes other recent moves by Musk to reduce transparency, like requiring third-party developers to pay to access X Corp's API, which had long provided researchers data into how people communicate online. Now he's suing the voice holding him accountable.

The lawsuit

X Corp. is seeking unspecified damages for breach of contract, violation of the computer fraud and abuse act, intentional interference with contractual relations and inducing breach of contract. Ahmed says it's significant that the company is suing the advocacy group for breach of contract and a loss of revenue, rather than attacking the research itself. If you look at what they've said, they haven't claimed defamation. They haven't claimed untruth, he says. They are suing us for $10 million for losing them advertising.

Story continues

The lawsuit alleges that the nonprofit mischaracterized data to make it appear as if a few specific users (often media organizations and high profile individuals) are overwhelming social media platforms with content that CCDH deems harmful.

CCDH has published several reports covering hate speech on X Corp since Musk bought the platform last October. One report found that X Corp accounts previously banned for publishing hateful content, and then revived under Musks general amnesty policy, generate millions of dollars in advertising revenue for the platform. Another study published in June found that the company failed to act upon 99% of hate speech posted by Twitter Blue subscribers and reported to the platform.

X Corp has asserted that the platform has seen a reduction in hateful content. Free expression and platform safety are not at odds, the company wrote in a July 31 blog post. We are proving this every day through innovative enforcement policies that have helped reduce hateful content viewed on the platform.

X Corp did not respond to TIMEs request for comment.

Fighting back

As they work to raise money to fight the lawsuit (CCDH has seen more small donations in the past few days than in all of its history) Ahmed says that it has also seen an outpouring of support from other advocacy groups in recent days, an indication that the fight extends far beyond their organization.

A lot of other civil society groups understand that this has broader implications. Not just because there are other groups that do research on [X Corp], and they might be in the firing line next, but also, other companies are looking at this and if they think there is the sliver of possibility that you can sue critics for damaging your business, because they just report the truth, we're in huge amounts of trouble, he says.These are fundamental aspects of a democratic society. If we cannot hold the wealthiest in our society to account and report on them without fear, then we don't have a democracy.

Three Congressional representatives, Lori Trahan (D. Mass.), Adam Schiff (D. Calif.), and Sean Casten (D. Ill.), sent a letter to Musk and Linda Yaccarino, the companys CEO, expressing concerns about the impact on independent research and free speech.

Independent researchers and advocates, including those at the Center for Countering Digital Hate, regularly study trends of potentially harmful behavior on social media platforms and post articles detailing their findings. This is true of X as well as of its competitors, including Meta, Google, TikTok, and others, the letter read. However, under your leadership, X is taking a hostile stance toward those efforts, further contributing to existing concerns about Xs abilities to effectively address the harms that exist on your platform.

Ahmed says the outcome of the suit could set a precedent for researchers everywhere. What weighs on me is that I know that if we lose, we don't just lose for us. We lose for a lot of other people too, he says. We didn't mean to be put in this position, but we are absolutely up for it.

Write to Simmone Shah at simmone.shah@time.com.
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Based on new data from JLL, Asia Pacific hotel investment volumes declined by 51% year-on-year in the first half of 2023 as macroeconomic challenges and the rising cost of debt influenced capital deployment. Coming off a high base in 2022 and despite supportive market fundamentals, hotel investments moderated to $3.13 billion in the first half versus $6.41 billion during the same period last year.

Activity during the first half was most robust in Japan ($1.54 billion) and Australia/New Zealand ($820 million), which grew by 56% and 189% year-on-year, respectively. Gateway markets such as Singapore ($30 million) dropped by 95% year-on-year as the number of transactions declined however with the recent sale of PARKROYAL on Kitchener Road for $388 million, the outlook for the second half of the year will be stronger, China also ($300 million) saw activity moderate by 76% year-on-year. Despite strong performance metrics, activity in the resort sector was muted as assets remained tightly held.

"We have observed the impact of a continued disconnect between the robust tourism demand and macroeconomic and geopolitical challenges in the first half of 2023, resulting in a gap between sellers' pricing expectations and buyers' access to capital," says Nihat Ercan, Chief Executive Officer, Asia Pacific, JLL Hotels & Hospitality Group. "However, trading performance of the sector remains strong and other fundamentals including tourism arrivals and high occupancy rates provide us with full confidence that the current investment environment is externally-based, rather than industry-specific."

Factors including the recent reopening of China in January 2023, which was earlier than expected, fuelled existing travel demand strength. As a result, there has been a considerable improvement in trading performance, particularly in the upscale and luxury segments, supported by an increase in average daily rates (ADR) across the region's hotels. Furthermore, according to JLL analysis, the rise in tourism arrivals since January 2022 has been predominantly driven by leisure demand, leading to continued growth in performance among hotels in the region, with occupancy rates leading the recovery as more tourists return. Despite facing economic, health, and geopolitical challenges, the United Nations World Travel Organization (UNWTO) foresees the recovery in travel to continue throughout 2023.

When considering factors including the macroeconomic environment and the project interest cycle, coupled with broad investor interest in strong-performing assets, JLL has revised its full year 2023 forecast to $8.7 billion, down 24% from its initial 2023 estimate.

"Approaching 2024, we expect to see more specific opportunities emerge in some destinations across Asia Pacific, where prices have been adjusted downwards, enabling interested parties to reconsider. Investors remain very committed to the Asia Pacific hospitality sector and we see an ongoing appetite among buyers to invest in key markets and strategic assets, with the ability to deploy capital," says Ercan.

The long-term appeal of Asia Pacific's hotels sector has recently been reinforced by the completion of several recent marquee transactions. In July, JLL advised on the largest ever single-asset hotel transaction in Singapore for the PARKROYAL on Kitchener Road and on the first transaction of 2023 in the Maldives for the Amari Havodda Maldives resort. Earlier in June, JLL had announced the completion of Southeast Asia's first hotel portfolio sale in 2023 - Pullman Jakarta Central Park, the ibis Saigon South and Capri by Fraser, both in Ho Chi Minh City - for a combined $106.1 million.

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Tennessee Reps. Justin Pearson, D-Memphis, left, and Justin Jones, D-Nashville, speak to reporters outside the West Wing after meeting with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, April 24, 2023. Pearson and Jones, who became Democratic heroes as members of the so-called Tennessee Three, are hoping to once again reclaim their legislative seats Thursday, Aug. 3, after being expelled for their involvement in a gun control protest on the House floor. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
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Texas Department of Public Safety highway patrol troopers look over the Rio Grande as migrants walk by a string of buoys placed on the water along the Rio Grande border with Mexico in Eagle Pass, Texas, on July 15.
Key Insights

The projected fair value for Engtex Group Berhad is RM1.17 based on 2 Stage Free Cash Flow to Equity

Engtex Group Berhad is estimated to be 49% undervalued based on current share price of RM0.60

The average premium for Engtex Group Berhad's competitorsis currently 5,759%

Does the August share price for Engtex Group Berhad (KLSE:ENGTEX) reflect what it's really worth? Today, we will estimate the stock's intrinsic value by estimating the company's future cash flows and discounting them to their present value. We will take advantage of the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model for this purpose. Believe it or not, it's not too difficult to follow, as you'll see from our example!

We would caution that there are many ways of valuing a company and, like the DCF, each technique has advantages and disadvantages in certain scenarios. For those who are keen learners of equity analysis, the Simply Wall St analysis model here may be something of interest to you.

See our latest analysis for Engtex Group Berhad

Step By Step Through The Calculation

We are going to use a two-stage DCF model, which, as the name states, takes into account two stages of growth. The first stage is generally a higher growth period which levels off heading towards the terminal value, captured in the second 'steady growth' period. In the first stage we need to estimate the cash flows to the business over the next ten years. Where possible we use analyst estimates, but when these aren't available we extrapolate the previous free cash flow (FCF) from the last estimate or reported value. We assume companies with shrinking free cash flow will slow their rate of shrinkage, and that companies with growing free cash flow will see their growth rate slow, over this period. We do this to reflect that growth tends to slow more in the early years than it does in later years.

A DCF is all about the idea that a dollar in the future is less valuable than a dollar today, and so the sum of these future cash flows is then discounted to today's value:

Story continues

10-year free cash flow (FCF) estimate

2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030 2031 2032 2033 Levered FCF (MYR, Millions) RM86.6m RM87.8m RM89.5m RM91.7m RM94.3m RM97.1m RM100.2m RM103.5m RM107.0m RM110.7m Growth Rate Estimate Source Analyst x1 Analyst x1 Est @ 1.96% Est @ 2.44% Est @ 2.78% Est @ 3.02% Est @ 3.18% Est @ 3.30% Est @ 3.38% Est @ 3.44% Present Value (MYR, Millions) Discounted @ 20% RM72.4 RM61.4 RM52.3 RM44.8 RM38.5 RM33.2 RM28.6 RM24.7 RM21.4 RM18.5

("Est" = FCF growth rate estimated by Simply Wall St)

Present Value of 10-year Cash Flow (PVCF) = RM396m

After calculating the present value of future cash flows in the initial 10-year period, we need to calculate the Terminal Value, which accounts for all future cash flows beyond the first stage. For a number of reasons a very conservative growth rate is used that cannot exceed that of a country's GDP growth. In this case we have used the 5-year average of the 10-year government bond yield (3.6%) to estimate future growth. In the same way as with the 10-year 'growth' period, we discount future cash flows to today's value, using a cost of equity of 20%.

Terminal Value (TV)= FCF 2033  (1 + g)  (r  g) = RM111m (1 + 3.6%)  (20% 3.6%) = RM715m

Present Value of Terminal Value (PVTV)= TV / (1 + r)10= RM715m ( 1 + 20%)10= RM120m

The total value, or equity value, is then the sum of the present value of the future cash flows, which in this case is RM516m. In the final step we divide the equity value by the number of shares outstanding. Relative to the current share price of RM0.6, the company appears quite undervalued at a 49% discount to where the stock price trades currently. Valuations are imprecise instruments though, rather like a telescope - move a few degrees and end up in a different galaxy. Do keep this in mind.

dcf

The Assumptions

Now the most important inputs to a discounted cash flow are the discount rate, and of course, the actual cash flows. You don't have to agree with these inputs, I recommend redoing the calculations yourself and playing with them. The DCF also does not consider the possible cyclicality of an industry, or a company's future capital requirements, so it does not give a full picture of a company's potential performance. Given that we are looking at Engtex Group Berhad as potential shareholders, the cost of equity is used as the discount rate, rather than the cost of capital (or weighted average cost of capital, WACC) which accounts for debt. In this calculation we've used 20%, which is based on a levered beta of 2.000. Beta is a measure of a stock's volatility, compared to the market as a whole. We get our beta from the industry average beta of globally comparable companies, with an imposed limit between 0.8 and 2.0, which is a reasonable range for a stable business.

SWOT Analysis for Engtex Group Berhad

Strength

Debt is well covered by .

Weakness

Earnings declined over the past year.

Interest payments on debt are not well covered.

Opportunity

Annual earnings are forecast to grow faster than the Malaysian market.

Good value based on P/E ratio and estimated fair value.

Threat

Debt is not well covered by operating cash flow.

Looking Ahead:

Although the valuation of a company is important, it shouldn't be the only metric you look at when researching a company. The DCF model is not a perfect stock valuation tool. Instead the best use for a DCF model is to test certain assumptions and theories to see if they would lead to the company being undervalued or overvalued. If a company grows at a different rate, or if its cost of equity or risk free rate changes sharply, the output can look very different. What is the reason for the share price sitting below the intrinsic value? For Engtex Group Berhad, we've put together three essential aspects you should explore:

Risks: Every company has them, and we've spotted 3 warning signs for Engtex Group Berhad (of which 1 makes us a bit uncomfortable!) you should know about. Future Earnings: How does ENGTEX's growth rate compare to its peers and the wider market? Dig deeper into the analyst consensus number for the upcoming years by interacting with our free analyst growth expectation chart. Other High Quality Alternatives: Do you like a good all-rounder? Explore our interactive list of high quality stocks to get an idea of what else is out there you may be missing!

PS. Simply Wall St updates its DCF calculation for every Malaysian stock every day, so if you want to find the intrinsic value of any other stock just search here.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
Evolent Health, Inc. (NYSE:EVH) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript August 2, 2023

Evolent Health, Inc. misses on earnings expectations. Reported EPS is $0.02 EPS, expectations were $0.09.

Operator: Welcome to the Evolent Earnings Conference Call for the Quarter Ending June 30, 2023. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. Your host for the call today from Evolent are Seth Blackley, Chief Executive Officer; and John Johnson, Chief Financial Officer. This call will be archived and available later this evening and for the next week via the webcast on the companys website in the section entitled Investor Relations. I will now hand the call to Seth Frank, Evolents Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Seth Frank: Thank you, and good evening. This conference call will contain forward-looking statements under the U.S. federal laws. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from historical experience or present expectations. A description of some of the risks and uncertainties can be found in the companys reports that are filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including cautionary statements included in our current and periodic filings. For additional information on the companys results and outlook, please refer to our second quarter press release issued earlier today. Finally, as a reminder, reconciliations of non-GAAP measures discussed during todays call to the most direct comparable GAAP measures are available in the summary presentation available in the Investor Relations section of our website or in the companys press release issued today and posted on the Investor Relations section of the companys website ir.evolenthealth.com and Form 8-K filed by the company with the SEC earlier today.

During managements presentation and discussion will reference certain GAAP and non-GAAP figures and metrics that can be found in our earnings release as well as a summary presentation available on the Events section of Evolents IR website, ir.evolenthealth.com. And now with that, Ill turn the call over to Evolents CEO, Seth Blackley.

Story continues

Seth Blackley: Good evening, and thanks for joining us. Were pleased to be here to discuss another strong quarter of execution against our plan. As context for todays call, I want to reiterate three key elements of that plan. First, organic growth driven by a conviction that our integrated value-based specialty management approach is a winning strategy for both attracting new clients and expanding with existing clients. Second, our ability to drive earnings expansion given the operating leverage and margin maturation inherent in our business. And third, our commitment to cash generation and thoughtful balance sheet management, including delevering. I think youll see our results this quarter affirm all three elements of this plan, and then weve taken another step towards our target of $300 million of adjusted EBITDA exiting next year with continued sales momentum thereafter.

Turning to the quarter. Second quarter revenue was at the high end of our outlook for the quarter, while adjusted EBITDA came in right above the midpoint. Specifically, strong revenue growth was driven by substantial organic membership growth both quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year. Our profit growth year-on-year was driven by the high flow-through margins from incremental technology and services, fee-based business, continued maturation of our Performance Suite portfolio, acquired revenue from NIA plus initial benefits from our integration work. Given the results for the quarter and our visibility for the remainder of 2023, we are raising the midpoint of our 2023 adjusted EBITDA outlook. For revenue, we are maintaining our 2023 outlook based on the timing of several significant client go-lives across quarters three and four.

John will provide more detail as well as the third quarter outlook shortly. As part of the guide for the remainder of the year, we anticipate continued growth from the Humana Performance Suite announced this past January. That contract went live in Arizona in July, and we plan to go live in Florida later this year. Our other existing and new contracts are also performing at or above expectations, contributing to high confidence in the remainder of 2023. Looking briefly at the numbers, Evolents second quarter 2023 revenue was $469.1 million, growth of 46.6% over the same period of 2022. Sequentially, revenue grew approximately 10% compared to the first quarter of 2023. We focus on Evolents specialty revenues representing 83% of this quarters total revenue.

Total reported growth was 72% with acquisitions contributing 39.8 points of year-on-year growth. So before the impact of acquisitions, Evolents core specialty base grew over 32% year-over-year. Second quarter adjusted EBITDA totaled $47.4 million, more than doubling compared to the second quarter of last year. The growth in adjusted EBITDA year-over-year was driven both by expansion in the base business as well as the addition of the NIA and IPG acquisitions. Now lets turn to Evolents three core operating priorities of strong organic growth, expanding margins and optimal capital allocation. Starting with organic growth, we had a robust quarter of four new agreements, consisting of two new operating partners against our target of six to eight per year as well as two new cross-sell expansions.

Starting with the two new operating partnerships, we are first pleased to announce that we will expand to both Cardiology and Oncology Performance Suite for Molinas Medicaid and exchange members in Florida. This agreement marks an important milestone for Evolent as our first Medicaid Performance Suite agreement in Florida on the heels of years of success in the MA market. Continue to be pleased with our Molina relationship as we have been able to expand our footprint to multiple Molina states and specialties in rapid succession, including Florida, the relationship will cover seven states and approximately 2.4 million product numbers, representing approximately 8% of the total addressable product members at Molina, leaving the opportunity for further strong expansion ahead.

Its also important to note that this Molina expansion to Florida allows Evolent to continue to establish critical mass in Florida for the Performance Suite. Molina and their market leadership understand the fact that providers in the market are confident in Evolent and our ability to collaborate both with the health plan and most importantly, with providers in the market. Evolents strong performance in Florida makes it increasingly attractive for payers to contract with Evolent because of our existing scale and track record of the market. As more payers work with Evolent, our services providers become more of a standard of care and therefore, easier for providers to use. As provider population in any given market become increasingly familiar with Evolent and more proficient in our clinical pathways, this network effect can help facilitate additional growth and share opportunities over time.

We anticipate the new Molina agreement will go live in the first quarter of 2024, and we anticipate approximately 100,000 unique members at typical Medicaid Performance Suite PMPMs. The second operating agreement in the quarter is a new logo and first-time corporate level relationship with a regional not-for-profit health plan with over a million members. As part of the agreement, Evolent will be replacing several legacy specialty vendors, helping create a more integrated environment for the health plan. This new agreement will be going live in the third quarter. Beyond the two new operating agreements, were excited to announce two significant cross sales. The first is with a Blue Cross Blue Shield plan in the Southeast. This agreement renews an NIA contract expands into a new line of business and simultaneously adds an Evolent specialty technology and services solutions.

This agreement is a proof case of one of the strategic elements of the recent acquisitions, whereby health plans using either an acquired product or an Evolent product to adopt some or all of the products to the other. As we believe will often be the case, the broader and more integrated product platform was a key buying criterion for this particular Blue Cross Blue Shield plan. Finally, were announcing the second cross-sell arrangement today whereby Centene will deploy Evolents surgery management offering, formerly known as IPG for certain of their commercial members. As with the Blue Cross Blue Shield announcement above, were seeing good evidence to our integrated product platform and cross-sell approaches are working. This agreement with Centene is over and above the $20 million of incremental adjusted EBITDA we anticipate from Centenes expansion of NIA solutions which was built into our fully synergized estimate of $85 million of EBITDA from NIA by the end of 2024.

Across all four of the agreements announced today, we see our thesis playing out that large payers are looking for innovative value-based specialty solutions that can better integrate care for patients across multiple specialties. Our strategy of expanding and deepening Evolents capabilities into the largest, most complex and challenging medical specialties is resonating and providing a basis for conversations about how we can improve costs and quality for the leading risk-bearing plans and physician groups in the country. These agreements announced today bring our total new operating partnership count to six compared to our annual goal of six to eight new operating agreements. Finally, while new logos like the regional plan we announced today, always remain a target opportunity.

Our primary focus, as weve indicated at the time of the NIA acquisition and reiterated at Investor Day are the large opportunities cross-selling into our existing health plan footprint. Its worth noting that the top 20 plans in the country insure four out of five Americans and Evolent now does business with approximately 13 of those 20 plans, and we have a direct cross-sell TAM of over $50 million right in front of us. Regarding our new business pipeline, were seeing some evidence of clients moving faster on accelerating sales processes to manage their MLRs or to consolidate vendors because they see the value of working with us across more domains. Further, our recent acquisitions are absolutely helping elevate our profile nationally and contributing to an accelerating pipeline.

In addition, were starting to see a lot more RFP activity from multispecialty solutions consistent with our thesis around our recent acquisitions. Lets turn to our second quarter operating priority of expanding adjusted EBITDA. Adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter more than doubled year-over-year to $47.4 million. Adjusted EBITDA margin for the quarter totaled 10.1%, growing from 6.8% one year ago. While acquisitions contributed a portion of the year-over-year growth in adjusted EBITDA, were also benefiting from a healthy mix of higher pull-through of specialty technology and services as well as maturation of the performance we book. I would note, we spent time at the Investor Day focused on Performance Suite margin ramp, and that margin maturation is continuing to perform as expected.

Looking forward, were focused on reaching $300 million of adjusted EBITDA run rate exiting 2024, while continuing to quickly grow market share and revenues thereafter. As you can see from our quarterly results and the mix of agreements I discussed, we feel confident that were on plan to achieve the $300 million of adjusted EBITDA. And our pipeline depth gives us confidence in continued strong sales momentum. Obviously, its important that we continue to manage costs, utilization and acuity in the populations where we have Performance Suite contracts. Were aware of conflicting reports of evidence of increased utilization and demand for services, higher health care costs post-COVID and reports of pent-up elective outpatient surgeries, particularly in Medicare.

alexkich/Shutterstock.com

For our part, 2023 is running as expected in terms of overall utilization trends on the heels of preventative screenings returning to normal over 18 months ago. You can see that utilization remains consistent with our expectations based on our results and the guide for the remainder of 2023. In addition to the strong Q2 results and the Q3 guide, let me provide you a couple of 2023 year-to-date leading indicator data points to support our confidence in our results across the quarters ahead. First, our own oncology data for the combination of prevalence of disease and authorizations per member is generally flat in the first half of 2023 versus the first half of 2022 on a mix-adjusted per member basis. Within cardiology, while weve seen some expected increase in both disease prevalence and authorizations, the absolute growth numbers are relatively small and the overall combination of prevalence per member and authorizations per member also remain below 2019 levels on a mix-adjusted per member basis.

Overall, across both cardiology and oncology, where we hold direct underwriting risk, our utilization trends remain at or better than expectations. We believe that our utilization experience may be more favorable than other plans because of our robust clinical management of the conditions we manage and we likely also benefit from a diversified mix across commercial, Medicare and Medicaid populations. We will of course continue to monitor utilization closely. Our third operating priority is optimal capital allocation. John will walk you through our cash flow dynamics for the quarter. I do want to reiterate our relentless focus on translating profitable growth into cash flow. As adjusted EBITDA grows and we delever, you can expect us to focus on capital allocation on our three capital allocation priorities of one, investing in the business to further accelerate our leadership and value-based specialty care, two, discipline and strategic M&A, which as you can see in the results is starting to pay off and third, maintaining a discipline and efficient capital structure.

As of Q2, we lowered our adjusted net leverage ratio to 3.3x on a trailing 12 month basis compared to 3.9x on March 31, and we reiterated at Investor Day our goal being below 2x net leverage by the end of 2024. Lets close to the macro view on where Evolent stands at midyear on the integration front and the demand profile for our markets. Regarding integration, innovation and product roadmap, we shared a significant amount of new information during Investor Day. Since then, we officially rolled out our One Evolent approach and our new integrated logo to our clients. The fact is were bringing to market what our clients want, which is an integrated platform to help improve outcomes for people with the most complex and costly health conditions.

The initial feedback from our clients is extremely positive and theyre pleased with the pace of our integration efforts, while we continue to provide strong day-to-day operational performance. Our clients also continue to tell us that theyre impressed with our focus on product innovation. As an example, we recently signed a new agreement to pilot an oncology navigation program with the Blue Cross Blue Shield plan. The navigation program will enable us to provide member engagement earlier in the patient journey and to promote shared decision making that will help the patients and their families better navigate the healthcare system. As part of the program, we will enhance our Advanced Care planning capabilities, which we acquired through vital decisions and make them available to plan members in order to empower them as early as possible in their cancer journey.

In this pilot program, we will identify members where there is a suspicion of early cancer or a very recent diagnosis, and an subset of members provide proactive outreach by a licensed therapist to support members with care coordination, navigation to clinical and nonclinical resources, education for patients on their diagnosis and treatment options, as well as aligning treatment with their goals of care and assisting them with meeting their preferences for Advanced Care. All of this will occur in a tightly coordinated and collaborative manner between the payer, primary care providers and oncologists to ensure a seamless experience and coordination with other care programs. In addition to this navigation product, we continue to drive rapid innovation in several other strategic areas like artificial intelligence.

Across our entire product innovation roadmap, we remain focused on market leadership and value-based specialty care with an eye towards a long-term plan of capturing larger and larger share in our $150 billion addressable market. With that, Ill hand it over to John.

John Johnson: Thanks, Seth. As you see in our release this afternoon, our operating focus and discipline continue to translate into financial results that are at or better than our targets. Let me go through those targets now before turning to the detailed numbers. First, we said wed drive significant organic growth. As Seth highlighted earlier, specialty revenue for the quarter is up approximately 32% year-on-year, excluding acquisitions. Were excited about this growth engine. Second, we identified cross-selling new solutions into existing customers as one of our primary objectives to drive growth. Were excited to announce some early returns on this strategy and the partnership expansions that Seth outlined, and we continue to be enthusiastic about the integrated specialty model we are taking to market.

Third, we expect earnings expansion on our current book of capitation business as we implement our value-based initiatives with new populations. We continue to see steady improvements in Performance Suite populations that went live in 2021 and 2022. Our second quarter revenue number includes more than $200 million in annualized Performance Suite revenue that has been under management for less than a year. These new populations contribute minimally to our second quarter earnings, but represent more than $25 million in annual earnings opportunity at maturity. Fourth, we are focused on turning EBITDA into cash. During the second quarter, we added $5 million to our available cash balance, which was impacted by collection timing. The net of increases in our AR and claims reserve consumed about $34 million of cash during the quarter.

In fact, we received over $40 million in catchup payments from customers during July. Excluding these working capital fluctuations, we wouldve added $39 million of available cash in the quarter. Note that consistent with our plan, we are investing incremental resources this year in integrating and repositioning our business to best capitalize on the value-based specialty opportunity. Without these targeted and non-recurring investments, cash generation in the quarter wouldve been even higher. Now, lets go through the numbers in more detail. Revenue in the quarter was $469.1 million, an increase of 46.6% versus the same period in the prior year. In total, we had an estimated 41.8 million unique members during the second quarter of 2023 with a total of 78.6 million product members for an average of 1.9 products per unique member an increase compared to the first quarter of this year.

Note that most of the sequential increase in average product members is driven by having NIA in the numbers for a full quarter. Excluding that factor, we added about 1.5 million product members in the quarter. Turning to the breakdown of membership. We averaged 3.8 million product members in the Performance Suite during the second quarter compared to 2.1 million in the second quarter of the prior year, and about 600,000 higher than Q1. Average PMPM fee was $24.20 versus $32.53 a year ago and in line with both our forecast and flat quarter-on-quarter. As a reminder, the year-over-year change in average PMPM is from sales mix, a result of higher growth in Medicaid and commercial lines of business, which run lower than our corporate average. PMPMs will average higher later this year as the Medicare Advantage business from Humana begins to roll through.

Average product membership at our Specialty Technology and Services Suite was 73 million members during the second quarter inclusive of a full quarter of NIA membership compared to 15.1 million in the same period last year. Average PMPM fees were $0.35 in the second quarter versus $0.28 in the second quarter of 2022. Product members and administrative services were 1.8 million compared to 2.1 million in the same period of the prior year with an average PMPM fee of $14.22 versus $14.68 in the second quarter of 2022. Recall, that we will continue to carry the wind down lives from Bright HealthCare totaling roughly 360,000 through the end of this year. Total quarterly cases associated with Advanced Care planning and Surgical Management totaled 15,000 for the second quarter, and average revenue per case totaled approximately $2,500 for the second quarter, both in line with seasonal expectations.

Note that these numbers reflect build cases only and do not include cases for our Performance Suite populations. As a reminder, our strategic priority for these services is deployments as part of our Performance Suite. Our adjusted EBITDA result was $47.4 million versus $21.7 million in the second quarter of 2022, reflecting organic growth, maturation of our Performance Suite contracts and the additions of IPG and NIA. Adjusted EBITDA margin of 10.1%, represented expansion of about 330 basis points over the same quarter last year with the same drivers. Recall that our quarter-to-quarter adjusted EBITDA trends this year reflect the pull forward of about $4 million into the first quarter of 2023 from quarters two and three, which we addressed back on the May call.

Turning now to the balance sheet, we finished the quarter with $142.5 million of cash and cash equivalents, including approximately $12 million in cash held in regulated accounts related to the wind down of Passport. Excluding the cash held for Passport, we had $130.6 million of available cash, an increase of $4.7 million versus the end of the first quarter. Cash deployed for capitalized software development in the quarter was $5.7 million. In addition, we recognized a non-cash lease impairments of $24.1 million from closing our Chicago office as we reduce our overhead footprint and drive efficiencies across the business. Finally, in our 8-K this afternoon, we announced an early redemption of our remaining 2024 convertible notes as we continue to execute our de-levering priority.

Turning now to guidance. As Seth mentioned, were raising the bottom end of our adjusted EBITDA outlook for the year. Lets go through a couple of macro factors we consider as we think about this outlook. First, Medicaid redeterminations continue to be a focus of many who watch the space. Our expectations here have not changed that we will see a gross decline in Medicaid membership in the mid-teens, which translates to about a 6% gross decline, meaning before new adds in our overall revenue, given our particular Medicaid mix. As we have previously noted, our Medicaid book is weighted towards states that are moving slower in the redetermination process. For example, more than 50% of our Q2 Medicaid revenue was in states that started the process in July.

While less than 3% of our Q2 Medicaid revenue within Florida and Texas states that are pursuing redeterminations more aggressively. We will continue to monitor these trends closely throughout the fall and into next year. Second, our revenue guidance implies approximately 17% sequential growth in the second half of 2023 when compared to the first half of 2023, despite the expected redetermination impact. This is largely driven by new go lives in the Performance Suite that Seth reviewed. Recall that these will contribute minimally to adjusted EBITDA this year, but start to flow through as they mature into next year and beyond. Turning now to our positive revision to our outlook for the year. With continued strong core business performance, we are raising the bottom end of our full year adjusted EBITDA range to between $185 million and $200 million, and we are maintaining our revenue guidance for the year of $1.935 billion to $1.965 billion.

We expect Q3 total revenue of $500 million to $520 million. We continue to expect Q3 to be sequentially lower in EBITDA given the pull forward I mentioned earlier into Q1 of this year, and we are forecasting consolidated adjusted EBITDA of $42 million to $47 million before stepping back up in Q4 to finish the year strong. We continue to expect the target net leverage ratio under 3x, including outstanding convertible notes by the end of 2023, and we forecast between $35 million and $40 million in annual capitalized software development expenses. With that, lets go ahead and open it up for Q&A.

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To continue reading the Q&A session, please click here.
The message came via a text message and consisted of a few words. On July 28, the Italian government told 169,000 households that they would lose their incomes in four days. From August 1, they would no longer receive a cent from the states basic income support.

The 169,000 are only the beginning. In the coming months, hundreds of thousands more households will have their support cut off. In total, about 2.5 million people will be affected by the cuts. In this way, the government wants to save several billion euros, which it will pass onto the rich in the form of tax breaks.

In its current form, the Citizens Income (Reddito di cittadinanza) had only been introduced in 2019. It was a central election promise of the Five Star Movement, which won many votes with it, especially in the poor south of the country. It provided those in need with an additional income of up to 500 per month. Spouses received an additional 200, children 100 each and a maximum of 280 for rent. Given the high level of poverty in the country, however, this was only a drop in the ocean.

In the future, only households in which minors, disabled people or senior citizens live will receive a maximum of 480. On the other hand, 18- to 59-year-olds are considered employable and go empty-handed. Only if they participate in further education and training courses do they receive 350 per month, limited to a maximum of one year. So far, however, there are no such courses and the Ministry of Labour has not even set up an internet platform for them.

As a result, hundreds of thousands of people in Italy are to be left without income overnight and will not know how to pay the rent and utility bill or buy food. Large cities in the south of the country, such as Naples, Bari, Palermo, and Caserta, are particularly affected. In Naples, one in six households receives Citizens Income, and in the northern city of Bolzano it is one in 30.

As a result, there were protests in front of the offices of the social INPS welfare agency in many places. In the Sicilian municipality of Terrasini, a man stormed the mayors office, poured petrol all about and threatened to set everything on fire.

The cancellation of the Citizens Income and the brutal way in which it is being carried out are a deliberate provocation. The government of Giorgia Meloni is now showing its true fascist face. It wants to achieve two things.

Firstly, it is giving workers the choice of accepting the lowest-paid job or face starving to death. In this way, the Meloni government is trying to lower the overall level of wages and introduce compulsory work. And secondly, it is trying to divide the middle and working classes by turning better-off layers against the unemployed and those on benefits, just as it has so far turned them against refugees.

Melonis Fratelli dItalia railed against the Citizens Income during the election campaign, denouncing it as an invitation to do nothing on the sofa. Those who can work should not be reliant on the states pockets, Meloni had repeatedly stressed. She was supported in this by business associations that complained about the lack of staff in the catering and tourism industries because those receiving aid refused to take the low-paid jobs.

With her declaration of war on the poor, Meloni stands in the tradition of Mussolini, who continues to serve as a shining example for the Fratelli dItalia, even though Meloni has declared him a matter of history for tactical reasons.

Mussolinis fascist dictatorship embodied the direct and immediate rule of finance capital. Its populist phrases served only to mobilise its supporters. Its main task was to smash the workers organisations. It dissolved the trade unions into corporations dominated by the state and the employers associations and introduced forced labour on a large scale under the guise of job creation measures.

Germanys Nazi dictatorship then went even further. During the war, more than 20 million forced labourers worked for the German economy in the Reich and conquered territories. While the leading industrialists such as the Flicks, Krupps and Quandts remained owners of their companies and raked in millions in profits, an army of slaves were worked to death. This practice reached its macabre climax in the inscription Arbeit macht frei (Work makes you free), which was emblazoned above the entrance to many concentration camps, such as Auschwitz.

Melonis attack on the poorest in society has met with support in bourgeois circles throughout Europe. Typical is a commentary in German daily Die Welt.

Without much ado, the right-wing government under Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has implemented its controversial plan to completely cancel basic assistance for a large proportion of those on benefits, cheers the papers chief economist, Dorothea Siems. Those who are considered fit for work now mostly have to look to their own resources to see how to make ends meet.

In Germany, too, many citizens lacked any understanding for the fact that in many places it is not possible to place more long-term unemployed into service jobs, for example in restaurants, hotels or in construction. It was urgently necessary to abolish the incentives for non-work. Those who were too hard-working, writes Siems, citing Ifo head Clemens Fuest, not only lose their entitlement to the Citizens Income, but also to housing benefit and other social payments. De facto, this is tantamount to a work banand no welfare state can afford that in the long run.

In France, President Macron is using brute police force to force through a pension reform that will drastically reduce retirement benefits. Governments in other European countries and the US are also recouping the trillions they spend on war and trade war, bailing out the banks and increasing the profits of the rich, by cutting wages and benefits. Resistance to this is growing; in the long run, the attacks cannot be realised by democratic methods.

This and her unconditional support for NATO in the Ukraine war explain why the red carpet is being rolled out for the fascist Meloni in Brussels, Berlin and Paris. US President Joe Biden has also received her for a two-way meeting at the White House. Meloni serves as a lever to help right-wing and fascist forces break through in other countries as well.

The close cooperation with Meloni underlines that there is no question of an alleged firewall against the extreme right. In Germany, too, the AfD is courted by all parties and the media. At the European level, the integration of the fascists is particularly advanced.

Melonis governing coalition unites the three largest right-wing and far-right groups of European parties and serves as a blueprint for a similar alliance at the European level.

Meloni herself is the leader of the European Conservatives and Reformers (ECR), which, in addition to the Spanish Vox, also includes the Polish ruling party PiS and the Czech ruling party ODS. Meloni appeared in the Spanish election campaign at major events organised by Franco supporters from Vox. Matteo Salvinis Lega is a member of Identity and Democracy (ID), alongside Marine Le Pens Rassemblement National in France and Germanys AfD. And Forza Italia, founded by Silvio Berlusconi, belongs to the European Peoples Party (EPP), as do the German Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) and the Spanish Peoples Party (PP).

The German European Peoples Party (EPP) group leader Manfred Weber, in particular, is busily preparing an alliance with the far right to secure another term for EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen after the 2024 European elections. Spanish PP leader Alberto Feijoo has even called on Meloni to join the EPP. It would be good for the EPP if Ms. Meloni ended up with the EPP, he said in an interview.

The Social Democrats, Greens and Left parties and the trade unions associated with them have done nothing to oppose this. Their policiesfrom support for the Ukraine war, to social cuts, to fending off refugees, to arming the policeare not much different from those of the right and ultra-right.

In Italy, the leader of the Democrats (PD), Elly Schlein, rails against Melonis war on the poor. But the PD itself has led or supported several governments that have vigorously pushed though social cuts, paving the way for Meloni to come to power. Italys largest trade union, CGIL, invited Meloni to its last congress in March, giving the fascist a platform to promote her anti-working class programme.

Only an independent working-class movement that combines the struggle against war and social devastation with the struggle against their cause, capitalism, can stop the danger of fascism.
Ex-president Donald Trump was arraigned Thursday afternoon at the federal courthouse in Washington DC, where he pleaded not guilty to four felony charges relating to his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, which culminated in the violent assault on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Former President Donald Trump arrives to board his plane at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Thursday, August 3, 2023, in Arlington, Virginia, after facing a judge on federal conspiracy charges that allege he conspired to subvert the 2020 election. [AP Photo/Alex Brandon]

Trump appeared before Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya, who set the terms for his remaining free on his own recognizance, rather than having to post bail or surrender his passport. Special Counsel Jack Smith, who brought the charges against Trump, did not seek bail, only a provision that Trump not directly contact anyone who is a potential witness in the case. All such contact, with a vast number of people, must go through one of Trumps own lawyers.

Federal district Judge Tanya Chutkan, who will handle the criminal trial, was not at the arraignment. But she set an initial hearing on the case in her courtroom on August 28, five days after the first Republican presidential debate. The judge indicated that she expected to set a trial date at that hearing, suggesting an expedited schedule that could lead to a trial sometime next spring.

This would be during or just after the conclusion of the primaries and caucuses that will decide the presidential nominee of the Republican Party. Trump currently is the frontrunner for the nomination, with a huge lead in the polls over his declared rivals.

The latest case is the third in which Trump faces felony criminal charges, and it is expected that he will soon face a fourth. Fulton County (Atlanta) District Attorney Fani Willis, who has overseen a more than two-year investigation into Trumps efforts to steal the presidential election in Georgia, has said that she will present charges to the grand jury before the end of this month. These are expected to center on Trumps attempt to pressure Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, with the demand that he find 11,780 votes, the number required to overturn Democrat Joe Bidens narrow lead in the state.

Trump has portrayed his prosecution as an example of weaponization of the Department of Justice, with the Democratic Biden administration unleashing supposedly baseless charges against the leading prospective opponent of Bidens reelection bid. Trump has said nothing about the substance of the charges, other than to repeat endlessly the claim that the 2020 election was stolen by the Democrats.

Trump has fostered the image of himself as a political martyr. He rejected an offer by the court to allow him to attend the arraignment remotely, insisting on flying down from his country club in Bedminster, New Jersey and traveling in a caravan of black SUVs from the airport to the courthouse to make an appearance in person. Only a handful of supporters turned out to cheer him, however.

Only hours after the indictment was handed down, Trump had sent out a fundraising email to supporters claiming that he could face 561 years in prisona figure apparently derived by adding up the maximum sentence for every one of the 80 federal charges brought against him in two federal indictments, one for illegally possessing and withholding secret documents after leaving office, the other for the effort to steal electoral votes in 2020.

On his proprietary social media outlet, Truth Social, Trump added a scarcely veiled racist attack on the District of Columbia, heavily Democratic and majority black, and urged that the trial be moved to an impartial Venue such as the politically unbiased nearby State of West Virginia! He wrote that Washington DC is over 95% anti-Trump and is now a high crime embarrassment to our Nation and, indeed, the World.

Trump carried West Virginia over Biden with 68 percent of the vote, while losing the District of Columbia by an even larger margin.

None of the four charges brought by Smith relates directly to Trumps role in planning, instigating and perpetrating the attempted coup of January 6, 2021, whose purpose was to block the certification of his defeat in the Electoral College and keep him in the White House in defiance of the election result and of the US Constitution.

The charges concern only one aspect of his criminal conspiracy to stay in powerthe series of fraudulent maneuvers devised by his lawyers and advisers to create bogus slates of Trump electors in seven states that Democrat Joe Biden won narrowly, and induce state legislators, the federal Department of Justice and Vice President Mike Pence to assist Trump in substituting these fake electors for the Biden electors actually chosen by the voters.

The 45-page indictment filed by Special Counsel Smith does not charge Trump with seeking to overthrow the government and mobilizing fascist supporters to carry this out by attacking the Capitol. Instead, it suggests that Trump brought thousands of violent thugs to Washington merely to put more pressure on Pence. As president of the Senate, Pence chaired the joint session of Congress tasked with officially certifying the pro-Biden Electoral College. Trump demanded that he use this purely ceremonial post to block certification of Biden electors in the contested states and install the Trump electors instead.

As noted by many legal analysts, Pence is named more than 100 times in the text of the indictment, and his contemporaneous notes and sworn testimony comprise much of the evidence. Pence declined to make these available to the House select committee that investigated January 6, but has done so for the special counsel.

This has sparked a series of bitter exchanges between the ex-president and his ex-vice president that have no parallel in American history. After the indictment was issued, Pence released a statement declaring, Today's indictment serves as an important reminder: Anyone who puts himself over the Constitution should never be President of the United States.

Trump replied the following day, mocking Pences presidential campaign. I feel badly for Mike Pence, who is attracting no crowds, enthusiasm, or loyalty from people who, as a member of the Trump Administration, should be loving him, he wrote on Truth Social.

Trump apologists, beginning with his attorneys, have responded to the indictment by claiming that the special counsel is seeking to criminalize speech in violation of the First Amendment. This was rebutted by Trumps former attorney general, William Barr, in an interview on CNN Wednesday.

As the indictment says, theyre not attacking his First Amendment right. He can say whatever he wants. He can even lie, Barr said. He can even tell people that the election was stolen when he knew better. But that does not protect you from entering into a conspiracy. All conspiracies involve speech, and all fraud involves speech.

The comments of Pence and Barr were arguably more critical of Trump than the statements issued by congressional Democrats.

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries issued a joint statement saying that the latest indictment illustrated in shocking detail that the violence of that day was the culmination of a months-long criminal plot led by the former president to defy democracy and overturn the will of the American people.

They were silent on the fact that the indictment does not hold Trump accountable for the events of January 6 and that it makes no mention of his many declarations, throughout the year leading up to the election, that he would not accept the results of the election if he lost. The indictment, while threatening Trump with significant jail time if he is convicted, avoids his most serious and politically important crimes, above all, his effort to establish a presidential dictatorship.

The White House, for its part, said nothing at all about the indictment.

Whatever the outcome of the legal process, there will be no serious struggle by the Democrats against Trump and the increasingly fascistic Republican Party. Virtually every leader of the House Republicans denounced the indictment in the most strident terms, even suggesting that Special Counsel Smith should be indicted himself for bringing charges against Trump.

Yet this is the party that Biden habitually addresses as his friends and colleagues, and seeks to engage in bipartisan collaboration to further the interests of American imperialism and the ruling financial aristocracy.
The Japanese cabinet approved the governments annual military white paper on July 28. Produced by the Defense Ministry, the document is presented as a justification for Japans remilitarization and makes clear that China is the primary target of this massive buildup. It is the first white paper to come out since the formal release of Tokyos new military strategy last December.

Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) destroyer JDS Kongou (DDG 173) in formation with other JMSDF ships and ships assigned to the USS Kitty Hawk Carrier Strike Group in 2005. [Photo: US Navy Chief Photographer's Mate Todd Cichonowicz]

The paper presents China as Japans greatest strategic challenge, while also denouncing Russia and North Korea. Tokyo claims that Beijing is continuing and amplifying its unilateral changes to the status quo by force in the East and South China Seas, an accusation that appears throughout the document. This provides the pretext for Tokyo to drastically ramp up its military spending; acquire cruise missiles and drones to launch offensive attacks; and further strengthen alliances with the US and other like-minded countries in the region.

The white paper states that Japans three defense objectives include shaping the security environment in the region, preparing to respond to so-called forceful unilateral changes to the status quo, and plans to disrupt and defeat an invasion. Put more simply, Tokyo intends to possess the military capacity to threaten other countries, namely China, while preparing to launch a war in league with the US using the supposed threat posed by Beijing as the excuse.

The focus on China is significant. Prior to the release of the revised National Security Strategy last December, along with the National Defense Strategy and the Defense Buildup Program, Tokyo claimed North Korean aggression as its main justification for remilitarization. That phony rationale has been pushed aside. Now, it is Beijings unilateral changes to the status quo by force that supposedly makes war preparations necessary.

In reality, Japanese and the US are targeting China for Beijings refusal to acquiesce to US hegemony in the Indo-Pacific, or the so-called international rules-based order where the rules are written in Washington. China is being cast as the aggressor to cover up the ambitions of US and Japanese imperialism and the responsibility of Washington for inflaming tensions in the region.

Under the Obama administrations pivot to Asia, minor territorial disputes in the East and South China Seas were deliberately stoked, including between China and Japan. When the Trump administration took power, Washington inflamed tensions between mainland China and Taiwan, a policy that Biden has continued. This includes sending war ships on freedom of navigation operations through the Taiwan Strait; high-ranking diplomatic exchanges between US and Taiwanese officials; and major sales of weaponry to Taipei.

Tokyo has backed Washington over Taiwan. The white paper states Beijing is increasing military pressure on Taiwan, which Tokyo claims is also a threat to nearby Japanese islands. It hypocritically denounces China for conducting air and naval transits in the region while supporting US naval and air provocations around Taiwan and in the South China Sea. Washington and Tokyo are ultimately attempting to goad China into a conflict over Taiwan using the same tactic as in Ukraine to provoke a war with Russia.

In preparation for such a war, the Defense Ministry in last Decembers Defense Buildup Program pledged to increase military spending in the 20232027 period to 43 trillion yen ($US300 billion), a 56.5 percent increase over the previous five-year period. The white paper reiterates the pledge to bring annual military spending up to Washingtons benchmark by fiscal year (FY) 2027. It stated Tokyo will take the necessary measures to ensure that the budget level for both the fundamental reinforcement of defense capabilities and complementary initiatives reaches 2 percent of the GDP in FY2022, up from the current 1 percent it currently spends.

This will be achieved through an 8.9 trillion-yen ($US62 billion) military budget in 2027 as well as additional spending on the Coast Guard, infrastructure, and technology research, raising the total to approximately 11 trillion yen ($US77 billion). Under Japans revised military strategy, the government will create new mechanisms for incorporating the additional spending and operations of separate sectors into its armed forces. By doing so, Tokyo further militarizes these areas, brings them in line with the war drive against China, and de facto doubles its annual military spending.

The manipulation of expenditures to reach the 2 percent benchmark is no doubt meant to deflect public opposition to war. Longstanding anti-war sentiment exists in Japan, particularly within the working class, which suffered heavily under militarist regimes in the 1930s and 1940s before Japans defeat in World War II.

Widespread public opposition exists to efforts to eliminate Article 9 from the countrys constitutionthe so-called pacifist clause. It states that Japan forever renounce(s) war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes while land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained.

An Asahi Shimbun survey this past May found 55 percent of respondents believe Article 9 should not be changed.

To skirt around public opposition, the Japanese ruling class instead has chipped away at and carried out numerous constitutional reinterpretations over the years. After signing the Japan US Security Treaty in 1951, Tokyo established the Self-Defense Forces in 1954, the formal name of Japans military. From 1972 to 2014, the government claimed it had the so-called right to collective self-defense in theory.

The administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe explicitly claimed in 2014 that Japan could conduct collective self-defense operations alongside an ally and pushed related military legislation through parliament the following year. Now the Defense Ministrys white paper pledges closer collaboration with like-minded countries such as South Korea.

Tokyo has moved closer to Seoul in recent months under pressure from Washington, which regards cooperation between its two major allies in North East Asia as critical for its war drive. Both countries are part of the anti-ballistic missile system that Washington has established in the region directed at China. Japan has also increased military exercises with the US and South Korea in the region, further provoking Beijing.

Japans white paper amounts to a justification for remilitarization and the intensification of the war drive against China in alliance with the US. There is nothing defensive about Tokyos intentions, as the Japanese ruling class seeks to do away with the fetters of its post-war constitution so as to wage war in pursuit of its imperialist interests.
On Wednesday, Robert Bowers, the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter who murdered 11 people and wounded six others in an antisemitic rampage in October 2018, was sentenced to death by a 12-person federal jury.

The jury deliberated for more than 10 hours before rendering its decision in what is now the first federal death penalty imposed under the Biden administration. According to federal law, a death sentence can only be imposed on a capital defendant by a unanimous vote of the jury, and the judge cannot reject the jurys decision. If a unanimous decision cannot be reached, a lesser sentence such as life in prison will be rendered.

This undated Pennsylvania Department of Transportation photo shows Robert Bowers, the gunman who massacred 11 worshipers at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018. [AP Photo/Pennsylvania Department of Transportation via AP]

The same jury had convicted Bowers on June 16 of all 63 charges against him. The US Justice Department brought 13 hate crime charges and 22 capital charges, including 11 for the use of a firearm to commit murder in the deadliest attack on a Jewish community in US history.

After the jurys decision, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clark of the Justice Departments Civil Rights Division said, A jury of his peers held the defendant accountable for his hateful actions and provided justice for those killed and injured.

The trial lasted two-and-a-half weeks. Along with eyewitness accounts of the cold-blooded execution of Bowers victims, the evidence presented included his antisemitic social media activity.

On the morning of October 27, 2018, Bowers walked into the Tree of Life Synagogue during Shabbat services and opened fire with a Colt AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and three Glock .357 semi-automatic pistols. He used all four of his weapons for a span of more than 15 minutes, systematically killing congregation members at point-blank range throughout the building, while yelling at one point, All Jews must die!

After 911 calls were placed, a SWAT team was mobilized and arrived on the scene. It was immediately engaged by Bowers in a gun fight. Among the injured were two SWAT team members, who were shot during the exchange of gunfire. Bowers also sustained multiple bullet wounds before he surrendered to police. At his arraignment several days later, he pleaded not guilty.

Bowers far-right and racist views became known during the criminal investigation and it was established that he was motivated at least in part by the fascistic rantings of Donald Trump, who was president at the time of the massacre, as well as others seeking to stir up anti-immigrant and antisemitic sentiment within the public. Bowers was attracted to the ideology of white nationalism and became fascinated with the right-wing radio host based in Pittsburgh, Jim Quinn.

Posting on the social network Gab, Bowers, referring to Central American migrant caravans and immigrants, wrote, HIAS [Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society] likes to bring invaders in that kill our people. I cant sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, Im going in.

In the course of the trial, evidence was presented that Bowers had brain damage and serious mental illnesses such as schizophrenia. One expert said he was blatantly psychotic and suffered from epilepsy. During his teenage years, Bowers attempted suicide multiple times and tried to kill his mother by setting her on fire when he was 13 years old.

Another evaluation showed that Bowers remained proud of his violent crime against Jews and that he had planned for it as much as six months in advance.

The World Socialist Web Site does not support the death penalty in general or in the case of Bowers, notwithstanding the heinous nature of his crime and its antisemitic, fascist motivation. Capital punishment is a barbaric practice that persists at the federal level and in most US states despite being banned in 23 states and the District of Columbia. Its use against Bowers will only facilitate the inevitable efforts of fascists to turn him into a supposed martyr. He should be imprisoned for the rest of his life.

It is significant that some members of the victims families as well as some survivors of the attack have spoken out against putting Bowers to death. The Death Penalty Information Center reported that the New Light and Dor Hadash congregations, including Rabbi Jonathan Perlman, who was wounded in the attack, and Miri Rabinowitz, whose husband was killed, urged [Attorney General Merrick] Garland to forego the death penalty and instead seek a life sentence.

On Wednesday, Stephen Cohen and Barbara Caplan, co-presidents of New Light Congregation, which lost three members in Bowers attack, issued a statement that said: Many of our members prefer that the shooter spend the rest of his life in prison, questioning whether we should seek vengeance or revenge against him or whether his death would make up for the lost lives.
On July 27, the Communication Workers Union (CWU) and Australia Post (AP) jointly informed workers that a new delivery model trial would be expanded to three additional facilities in New South Wales (NSW), Queensland and South Australia (SA), with locations in Victoria and Western Australia still to be announced.

The proposed new delivery model is part of Post 26, a major restructuring operation that threatens to destroy thousands of jobs at the postal service. Already, around 400 middle-management positions have been slashed, while AP subsidiary Decipha, which provides outsourced mailroom services for business customers, will close by 2025, destroying 321 jobs.

Australia Post worker delivers mail in Sydney

The memo is the latest demonstration that the union bureaucracy is acting on behalf of management to implement the new model, in an effort to preemptively shut down opposition to changes that will increase delivery workloads and force experienced posties out of full-time jobs.

Earlier this year, in meetings called by management, but addressed solely by union officials, members were told that, under the proposed model, delivery routes served by Electric Delivery Vehicles (EDVs), motorbikes and pushbikes would be expanded by as much as 50 percent. Ordinary letters and junk mail would be delivered to half the round on alternate days, while parcels, large letters and priority mail would continue to be delivered each day along the entire expanded route.

The first stage of trials was held at the Hornsby depot in Sydneys northwest. The CWU told workers in March that it would only be expanded after consultation with members, but the first mention that the Nepean (NSW), Brendale (Queensland) and Camden Park (SA) facilities would be involved was the July 27 notice.

Throughout the trial, the CWU bureaucracy has kept workers in the dark. At no point during the process has the union held mass meetings to discuss its progress and what it means for workers. The union has sent members just two emails regarding the Hornsby trial, both co-authored by management.

The scant detail contained within these notices, which amount to little more than two pages in total, is nevertheless revealing.

While the initial proposal did not include walking posties, they have now been included as part of the trial. According to the joint statement, walking posties at Hornsby requested this. But this has implications for workers throughout the country, who had, until last week, been explicitly assured by the CWU that they would not be affected by the new model. This makes clear that the CWU leadership is working with AP management to incorporate all modes of delivery in the restructuring operation, behind the backs of workers.

Both emails triumphantly report an average increase of 20% more parcels delivered, confirming that the aim of the new model is to deprioritise letters and transform AP into a parcel delivery service.

Ahead of the trial, the CWU claimed that no round under this proposed model will exceed rostered hours, but the latest email notes only that posties are covering their round in the usual amount of time.

The union and management are proceeding in this secretive fashion because they are sensitive to the hostility of postal workers towards yet another restructuring operation.

In April 2020, using the COVID-19 pandemic as a pretext, AP introduced the Alternative Delivery Model (ADM), under which postal workers were assigned two rounds instead of one, delivered on alternate days. This virtually doubled posties workload overnight, leading to an increase in injuries and mental health issues, and the exodus of thousands of workers.

This could not have been carried out without the total collaboration of the CWU, which went behind workers backs to sign a memorandum of understanding containing a 12-month no-strike clause, ensuring there could be no organised opposition to the hated ADM.

The CWU bureaucracy was eventually compelled by the anger of workers to posture as an opponent of the ADM, and claimed its demise as a union win. In fact, AP abandoned the ADM not because of any union campaign, but because it failed to deliver the demands of management for reduced costs and faster parcel delivery times.

Many AP workers have correctly identified the new delivery model as a renewed attack on their conditions, along precisely the same lines of the ADM, raising these concerns in recent Our AP Way management meetings.

But this opposition cannot go forward within the straitjacket of the CWU leadership, which has not organised even one mass meeting to discuss the new model. In fact, the union is playing the leading role in imposing the restructure, in an even more open fashion than it did with the ADM.

AP is publicly owned but run as a corporation, with highly paid executives and a board of directors tasked with maximising profits. Facing a decline in revenue from ordinary letter mail, the company is appealing to the federal Labor government to modify legislated Performance Standards, which require delivery to 98 percent of addresses five days per week.

This would enable even more sweeping changes than those currently being trialled, allowing AP to further shift its focus towards the lucrative parcel delivery business. Ultimately, this is directed at a full or partial sell-off of the postal service. While the federal government denies this, AP boss Paul Graham has declared that nothing is out of the question.

Labor is completely on board with APs plans to end everyday delivery, as part of the governments broader agenda for productivity increases through intensified exploitation of the working class. Through its Postal Services Modernisation initiative, the federal government is working with Australia Post to ramp up productivity, including by increasing the size of delivery rounds and loading workers up with an ever-growing number of parcels.

This means that, in order to fight the deepening assault on their conditions, AP workers need to take up a fight, not just against management and the new delivery model, but in opposition to Labor and the drive towards privatisation. This is impossible under the leadership of the CWU bureaucracy, which serves as the enforcer of the profit-driven demands of management and government.

This poses the need for AP workers to build new organisations of struggle, rank-and-file committees that are democratically controlled by workers themselves, in order to fight for their own interests.

In doing so, Australian postal workers will not be acting alone, but as part of a global fightback of postal and delivery workers against union-management-government attacks.

The British Communications Workers Union has worked with Royal Mail over the past year to ram through a new agreement, slashing the wages and conditions of postal workers, including the systematic undermining of the Universal Service Obligation, the equivalent to Australias Performance Standards.

The unions movesin line with those of the rest of the British union apparatusto crush the Royal Mail struggle, met with major opposition. In order to build an organised rebellion against this betrayal, a group of Royal Mail workers formed a Postal Workers Rank-and-File Committee, whose statements and articles have been read hundreds of thousands of times, prompting hundreds of postal workers to contact the WSWS and join the fight.

A similar struggle is underway at United Parcel Service (UPS) in the US. More than 300 UPS workers attended a rank-and-file committee meeting last weekend, to discuss how to defeat a sellout union-management proposed agreement and take on the Teamsters union bureaucracy.

As part of this global fight, a group of AP workers formed the Australian Postal Workers Rank-and-File Committee in 2021 to take forward the struggle against the ongoing restructuring operation and the total complicity of the CWU in the attacks on our jobs and conditions.

We urge postal and delivery workers in Australia to contact us today to discuss how you can join this fight.
Little by little, accounts of the true toll of the US-NATO war against Russia on Ukraines soldiersmany forcefully conscriptedare beginning to filter through the American media.

On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal published an article describing levels of mass injury among Ukrainian troops that are horrendous.

The article claimed that 50,000 or more Ukrainians have become amputees, citing data from Germanys Ottobock, the worlds largest prosthetics manufacturer. As the article explains, this would put the level of amputations in the Ukraine war on par with those of major combatants in the First World War.

Funeral workers down the coffin with Ukrainian soldier Andrii Husak aka Lytsar of 47th brigade during a funeral ceremony in Dnipro, Ukraine, Tuesday, July 11, 2023 [AP Photo]

The article reports, 67,000 Germans and 41,000 Britons had to have amputations during the course of World War I, when the procedure was often the only one available to prevent death.

The number of Ukrainian troops who have died in the war is one of the most closely guarded secrets of the conflict. The number is known by the Ukrainian and American governments, but not revealed to the public. But using the data published by the Wall Street Journal, it is possible to draw certain conclusions.

During World War I, 880,000 British forces died, or 12.5 percent of those serving. If amputations among Ukrainian troops have eclipsed those of the UK in the First World War, when the procedure was far more common than it is now, this implies that the death toll among Ukrainians is in the hundreds of thousands.

The article contains another horrifying figure. The Journal reports that between 5% and 10% of all deployed troops were killed, according to Ukrainian military estimates shared with a group of US military surgeons. It adds, In comparison, only 1.3% to 2% of US troops deployed in recent conflicts died in action. In other words, the fatality rate of Ukrainian troops is up to five times greater than that suffered by American soldiers in recent wars.

This is the context in which the US military and political establishment issues its constant demands that Ukraine renew its offensive. In an article titled, Ukrainian Troops Trained by the West Stumble in Battle, the New York Times on Thursday explained, in the form of yet another buried lede, a major motivating factor in the United States insistence that Ukraine carry out wave after wave of attacks on well-defended Russian positions.

The Times wrote that The Americans called for combined arms tacticssynchronized attacks by infantry, armor, and artillery forces. It continued, Western officials championed that approach as more efficient than the costly strategy of wearing Russian forces down by attrition, which threatens to deplete Ukraines ammunition stocks.

In other words, given the shortage of ammunition, US officials have called for repeated assaults on Russian trenches, which have resulted in tens of thousands of casualties. Clearly, the American generals believe that Ukrainian lives are more expendable than shells.

The US medias touting of the Ukrainian counter-offensive and Kievs combined arms offensives has been shown to be nothing but self-deluded propaganda. In reality, as recent reports in the US media reveal, US military officials knew that these supposedly sophisticated military operations, conducted without air support, would simply be World War I-style frontal assaults, resulting in World War I-level carnage.

The total failure of the counteroffensive can be inferred from the shift in tone of the US media: from triumphal declarations that the tide of the war is about to turn to desperate assertions that all may not be lost, after all.

Writing in the Guardian, Julian Borger admits that Hopes of a rapid breakthrough proved over-optimistic in the face of entrenched defenses. He continues: The first casualty of the Ukrainian counteroffensive was wishful thinking. Any hope that Russian troops would abandon their trenches and flee has now been left far behind on the battlefield.

This is coming from a newspaper that was a central proponent of such wishful thinking. In an article published in May by Timothy Garton Ash, the Guardian called the coming period a make-or-break counteroffensive, potentially bringing a decisive Ukrainian victory.

In words that now sound delusional, Ash compared the offensive to the victorious Normandy invasion against Nazi Germany. Decisive Ukrainian victory is now the only sure path to a lasting peace, a free Europe, and ultimately a better Russia. This alone would be the new VE (Victory in Europe) Day.

He mused: If the Ukrainian army can push rapidly south to the Sea of Azov, encircle a large number of demoralised Russian forces and cut the supply lines to the Crimean peninsula, there might be some non-linear collapse of Russian military morale on the ground and regime cohesion in Moscow.

Such claims prevailed throughout the American media. Writing in the Washington Post, David Ignatius exulted, This assault could turn the tide of the battle for Ukraine, just as the Allied assault on the Normandy beaches altered the trajectory of World War II.

These illusions have been shattered. Initial Ukrainian assaults got mired in dense, overlapping minefields, Borger writes in the Guardian. For all the focus on the delivery of Leopards and other Western tanks in the run-up to the launch of the offensive on June 4, Ukrainian armor failed to provide the clenched fist needed to breach the lines.

For all their talk of defending self determination, the US and NATO powers view Ukrainians as so much cannon fodder in their conflict with Russia. The United States has sought to weaken Russia in a bloody war of attrition with the aim, in the words of US President Joe Biden, of turning the ruble to rubble. This was to be accomplished through the destruction of an entire generation of Ukrainian youth, whose lives are being squandered in the name of king dollar.
Three victims of a notorious Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)-orchestrated entrapment scheme targeting Muslims have been given compassionate release from prison on the orders of Judge Colleen McMahon of the United States District Court in Manhattan after more than a decade in prison.

The Newburgh Sting

The threeOnta Williams, Laguerre Payen and David Williams (no relation to Onta)were convicted in 2010 of participating in what Judge McMahon termed an F.B.I.-orchestrated conspiracy. The forth frame-up victim, James Cromitie, remains in prison.

McMahon, who originally sentenced the four in 2011 to a minimum of 25 years imprisonment, expressed reservations at the time about the governments case, remarking, The government did not have to infiltrate and foil some nefarious plotthere was no nefarious plot to foil. Cromitie, Onta Williams and David Williamss guilty verdict was upheld by a federal appeals court in 2014.

The alleged terrorist plot of which the men had been convicted, supposedly consisting of plans to blow up synagogues in New York City and use stinger missiles to shoot down military aircraft at Stewart International Airport in Newburgh, New York, was entirely the creation of the FBI. A longtime agency informant, Shahad Hussain, initially lured Cromitie with the promise of as much as $250,000 and the chance to participate in a jihadist mission. Cromities task was to recruit other individuals into a bogus conspiracy to carry out the phony attacks.

The three individuals whom Cromitie ultimately ensnared had no political motivations but were in fact simply impoverished Newburgh residents, converts to Islam and members of a local mosque, who were lured with the promise of jobs, money, cars, cell phones and computers. The bombs and missiles supplied by the FBI were fakes. It reportedly took nearly a year for Cromitie, who had recently joined the mosque, to convince the three to participate in this government-fabricated conspiracy. It was revealed during the original trial that other members of the mosque were suspicious of Cromitie and urged that congregants distance themselves from him.

It became clear during the trial of the Newburgh Four that Hussain was a longtime government asset. He had previously been sent by the FBI to infiltrate and spy on members of other mosques in upstate New York. He is reportedly now living safely in Pakistan.

During the original trial, it was revealed that Hussain had an extremely shady past, including an arrest for murder in Pakistan. Hussain admitted entering the US on a fake British passport and had fraud convictions for a driving license scam. He became an FBI informant in exchange for help with those charges. Much of the evidence presented during the trial at which the four were convicted was based on the testimony of this admitted liar.

Subsequent to the trial of the Newburgh Four, in 2018, Hussain was responsible for the deaths of 20 partygoers who were killed in an accident involving a defective vehicle rented from a company he owned.

The Newburgh Four conspirators were arrested in the Bronx by New York City police in a highly stage-managed, made for TV sting operation as they were planting the phony bombs at a synagogue in the Bronx.

The bourgeois political and media establishment was deployed in a propaganda storm to paint this and other FBI-made Islamic terrorist plots as part of a vast conspiracy, seeking to terrorize the population into accepting increased police-state measures and supporting US imperialist wars in the Middle East.

At the time of the Newburgh Four trial, Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan, who had been nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed unanimously by the US Senate in 2009, said: Homegrown terrorism is a serious threat, and todays convictions affirm our commitment to do everything we can to protect against it.

A defense campaign for the four led by family members as well as civil rights organizations and members of the New Yorks Islamic community brought the facts to public attention in the face of this onslaught. A forum sponsored by the National Lawyers Guild and the American Civil Liberties Union at New York University in March 2010 highlighted the government persecution of Muslims, and connected it to the widespread practice of police entrapment.

At the forum, Alicia McWilliams, the aunt of David Williams, said, They must pick the most vulnerable county in the state where theres no jobs, where theres no training. [Newburgh] is where the unskilled live. You cant tell me these individuals masterminded anything. Since the Patriot Act came out, we are targets, communities are targets. Nobody from the FBI interviewed David Williamss family. Why is that? Because they had their own script.

The frame-up of the Newburgh Four was a part of a whole series of terrorist entrapment cases by the FBI that included Noelle Velentzas and Asia Siddiqui in 2015, the Fort Dix Five in New Jersey in 2008 and Yassin Aref and Mohammed Hossein in Albany in 2004. In the Albany case, the FBI used the same informant, Shahad Hussain, as in the case of the Newburgh Five.

These entrapment cases occurred during a period in the aftermath of the passing of the antidemocratic Patriot Act in October 2001, on the heels of the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The supposed anti-terrorist initiatives of the state were accompanied by a vast increase in the illegal surveillance of Muslim communities not only by the FBI, but also by the New York Police Department (NYPD).

The NYPD only disbanded in 2014 its notorious Demographics Unit, which sent undercover officers to locations in the whole New York metropolitan area to spy and harass business-owners and mosque congregants. The full scope of these police-state activities were brought to light in a suit against the NYPD, which put toothless restrictions on the surveillance by the police in a 2017 settlement.

The case was made into a documentary film in 2014, The Newburgh Sting. The review of the film by the WSWS concludes, Despite these shortcomings the documentary still stands out for revealing how media hysteria and government operations work hand-in-glove to attack democratic rights. The logic of the exposure also shows a connection between economic inequality and the attack on democratic rights, possibly more than the filmmakers intended.

This and other such examples of government-manufactured terrorist conspiracies are testimony to the fact that the agencies of the ruling class will resort to any measures, no matter how despicable, to create an atmosphere in which the imposition of increasingly direct methods of repression against the working class, at home and abroad, can be justified.
The ancient disease leprosy, also known as Hansens disease, named for the Norwegian physician Gerhard Henrik Armauer Hansen, who first identified the causative agent in 1873, may be endemic in Florida. A report published in the current (August) edition of Emerging Infectious Diseases, the journal of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), draws this alarming conclusion.

This is lepromatous leprosy which characterized by multiple skin lesions that are smaller than those observed in tuberculoid leprosy. [Photo by Dr. Roshan Nasimudeen - Department of Pathology, Government Medical College, Kozikode / CC BY-SA 3.0

Although many news outlets have stated that the CDC is warning people regarding travel to Southeastern US states, the public health agency released a statement on August 2 saying it had not issued a travel advisory for Florida, or any other state, due to Hansens disease.

In an email, the CDC wrote, [We] do not believe there is a great concern to the American public, noting that the number of cases remain very small.

However, the endemic nature of a disease that usually affects persons who had immigrated from leprosy-endemic areas raises significant concerns about the general state of public health in the United States, and the outright dismissal on the part of the CDC is extremely problematic. Moreover, the concerns about leprosy come on the heels of recent reports by the CDC of endemic malaria in Florida and Texas.

Hansens disease is a chronic infection caused by strains of bacteriaMycobacterium leprae and Mycobacterium lepromatosisthat continue to maim or kill hundreds of thousands in the developing world, while still very rare in Europe and the US. In 2018, there were more than 200,000 such cases, with close to 95 percent of all cases confined to 14 countries. India accounts for 60 percent of all global cases, followed by Brazil (13 percent) and Indonesia (8 percent), predominantly in poverty-stricken areas.

Previously it was thought that the disease was caused only by the single strain of bacterium, M. leprae. M. lepromatosis is a newcomer by comparison, first identified in 2008 after having been isolated from a fatal case in a 53-year-old man from Mexico who had been admitted to a hospital in Texas for treatment of extensive leg wounds.

He died of sepsis from his infection. An autopsy revealed that he died of diffuse lepromatous leprosy. Chronic and late-stage infection can lead to peripheral nerve and vascular skin damage, which predisposes the afflicted to the risk of secondary infections and potential sepsis.

M. leprae and M. lepromatosis have a 9 percent overall difference in their genetic sequences, suggesting they are two distinct species that had a common ancestor almost 14 million years ago. Although both are thought to produce similar diseases, worldwide occurrences and clinical characteristics of Hansens disease caused by M. lepromatosis have not been sufficiently studied.

The number of leprosy cases in the US peaked in the mid-1980s, after which they declined until 2000, when cases began climbing, albeit slowly. However, as the report notes, the number of cases has more than doubled in the southeastern states over the last decade.

Of the 159 new cases in 2020 for which data is available, 110 (69 percent) were reported in seven statesFlorida, California, Louisiana, Hawaii, New York, Oregon and Texas.

Specifically, leprosy cases in Florida account for 20 percent of all national cases, and 81 percent of these have been reported in central Florida. One-third of new cases between 2015 and 2020 were acquired locally. The report notes: Several cases in central Florida demonstrate no clear evidence of zoonotic exposure or traditionally known risk factors.

In its report, the CDC highlights the case of a 54-year-old man, landscaper by trade, who sought medical attention at a dermatology clinic with a complaint of a painful and progressive red rash involving his hands, trunk and face.

The patient reported no significant travel history, having resided in Florida his whole life. He was eventually diagnosed with leprosy, though he reported no contact with immigrants from endemic regions nor anyone with leprosy. He had never had exposure to armadillos, which are known as zoonotic sources.

He was referred to an infectious disease clinic, where he began prolonged therapy with a triple regimen of dapsone, rifampin and clofazimine, which has been the mainstay of treatment for more than four decades.

The authors of the article observed: Our case adds to the growing body of literature suggesting that central Florida represents an endemic location for leprosy... travel to this area, even in the absence of other risk factors, should prompt consideration of leprosy in the appropriate clinical context.

As the CDC noted, since 2002 the rate of cases in people borne outside of the US has been declining.

More recent evidence indicates that the transmission of Hansens disease is via prolonged exposure to respiratory aerosol and droplets. Although the disease is mainly spread between people, as they are the major reservoir of the pathogen, it has a low pathogenicity. Ninety-five percent of people who contract M. leprae will not go on to develop the disease. Other evidence suggests a genetic predisposition and reduced immune function in the propensity to developing the disease.

Even if infected, the long incubation period means it can be several years before the disease clinically manifests. Systemic disease primarily affects the skin, nerves, upper respiratory tract and eyes. The first symptoms may be patches of discolored skin that are either numb or tender due to underlying nerve damage. If left untreated, the physical deformity associated with the disease can lead to stigmatization and discrimination. Up to 30 percent may experience nerve injury, which can be reversed if treatment is initiated early.

The authors concluded that the absence of traditional risk factors in many recent cases of leprosy in Florida, coupled with the high proportion of residents, like our patient, who spend a great deal of time outdoors, supports the investigation into environmental reservoirs as a potential source of transmission.

However, this requires investment in contact tracing and tracking and earnest initiatives to rebuild the public health infrastructure, which has been decimated by the ruling class subordination of public health to corporate profit-making, which has not excluded the CDC.

The appearance of malaria, monkeypox and leprosy underscores the international scope of all human activity, in the negative. Such diseases know no national boundaries and have, like the coronavirus, evolved out of capitalisms disregard for the welfare of the working class in every region of the world. Indeed, globalization means that all diseases now pose an immediate and potentiaally existential threat to the worlds population and require a coordinated international response.
(Bloomberg) -- Former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker Roger Ng was granted a last-minute postponement of his 10-year prison sentence for his role in the looting of Malaysian sovereign wealth fund 1MDB.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Ng, who was scheduled to begin serving his sentence Aug. 7, was on Friday allowed to delay his surrender for 30 days to allow for talks between the US and Malaysian governments about his possible return to the Southeast Asian nation to assist in its 1MDB probe.

If he is allowed to return to Malaysia, Ng will be free for even longer, a fact which prosecutors opposed to the delay stressed in court at a hearing before US District Judge Margo Brodie in Brooklyn, New York.

He wants to go back to Malaysia where he will continue to be free, Assistant US Attorney Drew Rolle said.

The prosecutor said there was a strong public interest in Ng starting his sentence immediately and that the former banker could help the Malaysian government while he was in custody.

Lawyers for Ng, who had asked to postpone his surrender by 45 days, said the Malaysian government was seeking Ngs return under a previous agreement with the US.

They want Mr. Ng in Malaysia, Marc Agnifilo, a lawyer for Ng, told the judge during a hearing Friday morning. They want to finish their case.

Ng was convicted in April 2022 of conspiring with his former Goldman boss Tim Leissner and financier Jho Low in the multibillion-dollar looting of 1MDB. Prosecutors said Ng received millions of dollars in kickbacks from three bond deals Goldman Sachs arranged for 1MDB.

The bank paid more than $2.9 billion, the largest penalty of its kind in U.S. history, and more than $5 billion globally for its role in the scheme.

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Ng, who faces charges in Malaysia, was extradited to first face US prosecution. In asking Brodie for leniency ahead of his March sentencing, Ng had said he suffered enough during six months he spent in a Malaysian prison before being sent to New York. He said he was held in squalid conditions, sometimes chained to 20 other inmates.

Read More: Ex-Goldman Banker Ng Says Malaysian Jail Was Absolute Hell

Rolle said the US is in continued talks with Malaysia about how Ng can return after beginning to serve his sentence. It is a process resolved by discussions between two sovereign governments, the prosecutor said.

Brodie granted the request to allow those discussions to continue between the two governments, noting that their interests may not be aligned.

It really is up to the countries what they want to do and how they want to do it, Brodie said.

Ng was previously granted a three-month delay to the start of his sentence. He had asked for that delay so he could spend more time with his wife and 10-year-old daughter, who had traveled to New York from Malaysia.

The case is US v Ng, 18-CR-538, US District Court for the Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn).

--With assistance from Greg Farrell and Patricia Hurtado.

(Updates with details from hearing starting in third paragraph.)

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2023 Bloomberg L.P.
By Xie Yu and Selena Li

HONG KONG (Reuters) - China and Saudi Arabia's stock exchanges are in talks to allow exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to list on each other's bourses, three sources familiar with the matter said, as the countries look to deepen financial ties amid warming diplomatic relations.

The talks are in the early stages, said the sources, and could mark a major first step by Beijing and Riyadh towards broadening cooperation beyond energy, security, and sensitive technology sectors.

The Shenzhen Stock Exchange, one of the two major bourses in the Chinese mainland, is in negotiations with the Saudi Tadawul Group, operator of the Saudi Stock Exchange, for ETF Connect, as the programme is called, two of the sources said.

For China, an 'ETF Connect' tie-up with Saudi Arabia will be the first such beyond East Asia and affirm a commitment to open up its trillions of dollars worth of financial markets to international investors.

Some of China's biggest ETF operators have been notified in recent months about the possibility of a cross-listing agreement with Saudi Arabia and some are considering the option, one of the sources said.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and the Tadawul Group did not respond to Reuters' requests for comment. The sources declined to be named as they were not authorised to speak to the media.

The cross-listing of ETFs will allow investors in China and Saudi Arabia to trade funds tracking specific stocks or bond indexes listed on each other's stock exchanges.

China has launched 'ETF Connect' projects in recent years with offshore stock exchanges in Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore.

Industry insiders said trading volumes for these programmes have not yet taken off, although some products have proved popular.

The ICBC CSOP FTSE Chinese Government Bond Index ETF, launched by China's CSOP Asset Management in 2020 under the 'ETF Connect' scheme with Singapore, is one of the largest ETFs domiciled in the city-state.

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NICHE OFFERINGS

At the end of June, a total of 886 ETFs worth $256.8 billion were listed on the Chinese and Hong Kong bourses, according to Morningstar's data.

Saudi Arabia's ETF market is relatively nascent with only eight products listed on the exchange, although it is one of the biggest stock markets in emerging markets with a $2.7 trillion capitalisation.

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd (HKEX) is also in separate talks with its Saudi counterpart for a similar programme, said one of the sources and two people familiar with the matter.

HKEX signed an agreement with the Tadawul Group in February this year to explore cooperation in a number of areas, including cross-listings, for mutual benefit to the financial markets of both organisations, the Hong Kong bourse said at that time.

"We will update the market should there be any material developments in our cooperation," it said this week in response to a Reuters query.

Jackie Choy, director of passive investment ratings for Morningstar Asia, said the Saudi ETFs would offer "a very niche and small offering" for China and Hong Kong investors with their exposures in Arabic equity, bonds, gold and U.S. equity.

"The local investors knowledge of the market under the scheme will also be key" before any investment, he said.

Beijing, frustrated by what it sees as Washington's weaponisation of economic policies, has sought to expand ties with countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Its diplomatic push to court others include U.S. ally Saudi Arabia.

While economic cooperation between Beijing and Riyadh remain anchored on energy interests, ties in trade, investment and security have been expanding. China is Saudi Arabia's top trading partner with trade worth $87.3 billion in 2021.

Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Investment has signed a $5.6 billion deal with Chinese electric car maker Human Horizons to collaborate on the development, manufacture and sale of vehicles, the Saudi state news agency said in June.

In March, oil giant Saudi Aramco increased its multi-billion dollar investment in China by finalising and upgrading a planned joint venture in northeast China and acquiring an expanded stake in a privately controlled petrochemical group.

(Reporting by Xie Yu and Selena Li in Hong Kong; Additional reporting by Hadeel Al Sayegh in Dubai; Editing by Sumeet Chatterjee and Muralikumar Anantharaman)
Extra Space Storage (EXR) came out with quarterly funds from operations (FFO) of $2.06 per share, missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.14 per share. This compares to FFO of $2.13 per share a year ago. These figures are adjusted for non-recurring items.

This quarterly report represents an FFO surprise of -3.74%. A quarter ago, it was expected that this self-storage facility real estate investment trust would post FFO of $2.05 per share when it actually produced FFO of $2.02, delivering a surprise of -1.46%.

Over the last four quarters, the company has surpassed consensus FFO estimates two times.

Extra Space Storage , which belongs to the Zacks REIT and Equity Trust - Other industry, posted revenues of $511.39 million for the quarter ended June 2023, missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 2.57%. This compares to year-ago revenues of $474.99 million. The company has topped consensus revenue estimates two times over the last four quarters.

The sustainability of the stock's immediate price movement based on the recently-released numbers and future FFO expectations will mostly depend on management's commentary on the earnings call.

Extra Space Storage shares have lost about 7% since the beginning of the year versus the S&P 500's gain of 17.6%.

What's Next for Extra Space Storage?

While Extra Space Storage has underperformed the market so far this year, the question that comes to investors' minds is: what's next for the stock?

There are no easy answers to this key question, but one reliable measure that can help investors address this is the company's FFO outlook. Not only does this include current consensus FFO expectations for the coming quarter(s), but also how these expectations have changed lately.

Empirical research shows a strong correlation between near-term stock movements and trends in estimate revisions. Investors can track such revisions by themselves or rely on a tried-and-tested rating tool like the Zacks Rank, which has an impressive track record of harnessing the power of estimate revisions.

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Ahead of this earnings release, the estimate revisions trend for Extra Space Storage: mixed. While the magnitude and direction of estimate revisions could change following the company's just-released earnings report, the current status translates into a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) for the stock. So, the shares are expected to perform in line with the market in the near future. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

It will be interesting to see how estimates for the coming quarters and current fiscal year change in the days ahead. The current consensus FFO estimate is $2.18 on $533.14 million in revenues for the coming quarter and $8.51 on $2.15 billion in revenues for the current fiscal year.

Investors should be mindful of the fact that the outlook for the industry can have a material impact on the performance of the stock as well. In terms of the Zacks Industry Rank, REIT and Equity Trust - Other is currently in the bottom 31% of the 250 plus Zacks industries. Our research shows that the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries outperform the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1.

Another stock from the same industry, Creative Media & Community Trust (CMCT), has yet to report results for the quarter ended June 2023.

This real estate investment trust is expected to post quarterly earnings of $0.02 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of -81.8%. The consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has been revised 76.5% lower over the last 30 days to the current level.

Creative Media & Community Trust's revenues are expected to be $29.19 million, up 10.6% from the year-ago quarter.

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Its getting down to the wire for The Bachelorettes Charity Lawson as she approaches a potential engagement with one of the three remaining suitors.

Though she is looking forward to one of the men getting down on one knee following hometowns, Charity is in for a major surprise during next weeks episode and Shadow and Act has an exclusive preview.

In a new clip for episode 7, Charity heads to Fiji to continue her journey to find love. But while in paradise, Charity is surprised by a mystery person as shes relaxing by the pool.

Check out the exclusive clip below:

What happened last week:

Before sending Aaron B. home during last weeks episode, Charity recapped her four hometown dates with host Jesse Palmer. She confirmed to Jesse that she was falling in love with four people at once.

Im still trying to make sense of it because two people are going to be heartbroken tonight and Im one of those people, she said.

Due to her having strong feelings for all four of the remaining men, Charity struggled to make a decision on who to send home.

This has been the hardest day of my life because I know that theres only three roses up here  that means Im saying goodbye to one of you all. It absolutely destroys me, Charity told the four men at the start of the rose ceremony. I have been going back and forth all day on what to do, but its necessary to get to what I want and what we all want, which is to find our forever person. God help me.

In an emotional end, Charity eliminates Aaron as she felt their relationship wasnt as strong as the others.

I probably do feel that if I had more time, then I wouldve probably gotten there with Aaron, Charity told the cameras.

Before getting in the car, Aaron told Charity, I hate that it wasnt me cause I really thought  I can truly say that I felt feelings that I never felt before.

Season 20 of The Bachelorette airs Mondays at 8 p.m. on ABC.
Legendary activist Dominique Morgan is believed to be the first out Black trans woman to have a street named after her, an honor that was bestowed on her earlier this week. Morgan is also the first formerly incarcerated person to receive that honor in Nebraska history, according to Gaye Magazine.

Morgan is currently the director of the Fund for Trans Generations at the social justice philanthropy organization, Borealis Philanthropy. Shes a longtime organizer for the abolition of the prison industrial complex, having served as the executive director of queer abolitionist organization Black and Pink from 2018 to 2022. At the end of July, the Omaha City Council unanimously voted to rename a street in Morgans honor, on Taylor St. between 25th St. and 25th Ave. Its a street that has deep personal significance to Morgan, a longtime resident of Omaha, as she explained at a naming ceremony held by the reproductive justice organization I Be Black Girl on Monday.

There is something incredibly moving about the idea that young Black folks will walk down a street in a historically Black neighborhood named after a Black trans woman, who at the age of 12 was placed into the back of a police car for the first time on the exact street, Morgan said in comments reported by GLAAD. And at 16, she found herself navigating homelessness. And by 18, incarceration.

She was arrested for so-called survival crimes at 18, explaining to local outlet KETV that she would steal cars and sleep in them when she was homeless. Morgan was incarcerated for 10 years, including 18 months in solitary confinement, and got out in 2009, having earned an associates degree in culinary management while incarcerated. Shes since earned a Masters degree from Georgetown University, and is one of the few Black trans women to run a multi-million dollar philanthropic fund, according to GLAAD.

In a press release, Morgan added that her maternal grandmother owned a home on that street, where she realized her queerness and trans identity as a child.

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She went on to say that the street naming ceremony is a declaration to the world that the existence of trans people is non-negotiable. And for every queer and trans person who walks down Dominique Morgan Street, they will know that no matter where their story began, they will get to determine where their story ends, Morgan said, per GLAAD.

Get the best of whats queer. Sign up for Thems weekly newsletter here.

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Rapper Cardi B will not be facing charges for hurling a microphone at a fan, after a criminal battery investigation was dropped Thursday.

The incident occurred last Saturday during a Las Vegas performance, when Cardi took offense to a fan tossing a drink at her, and forcefully chucked her mic in the fan's direction. Allegedly, the mic ricocheted and hit another audience member, who then filed a police report, according to TMZ.

Before the incident, the rapper had reportedly encouraged the audience to splash water on her to help cool her down from the Las Vegas heat, but evidently did not appreciate the action coming without warning.

This afternoon we were notified by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department that as a result of their investigation, there will be no charges against Cardi, said her lawyers, Drew Findling, David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld. On behalf of Cardi, we appreciate the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department's diligent and prompt resolution of this matter.

Although she was listed as a battery suspect in the police filing, the case was never referred to the district attorney, and the authorities concluded Cardis actions did not constitute a criminal offense.

The microphone involved in the incident is now being auctioned off by the audio production company that owns it, and bids have already hit nearly $100,000.

The money will reportedly go to charities including the Wounded Warrior Project and Friendship Circle Las Vegas, which assists teens and adults with special needs.


Fraudsters made over 5 billion auto warranty scam calls to more than 500 phone numbers.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) slammed a multinational network of companies with a record-breaking $299,997,000 fine for making more than 5 billion scam auto warranty robocalls to more than 500 million phone numbers in 2021.

During a three-month period, multiple violations were racked up by the international enterprise, the FCC said in an Aug. 3 statement . These included making pre-recorded voice calls to mobile phones without prior express consent, dialing numbers included on the National Do Not Call Registry, failing to identify the caller at the start of the message, and failing to provide a call-back number that allowed consumers to opt out of future calls.

The calls also violated spoofing laws by using misleading caller IDs to disguise the operations role and prompt consumers to answer, the agency added.

The enterprise did business as Sumco Panama, Virtual Telecom, Davis Telecom, Geist Telecom, Fugle Telecom, Tech Direct, Mobi Telecom,and Posting Express, the FCC said. Two of the masterminds behind the operation, Roy M. Cox and Aaron Michael Jones, were previously issued lifetime bans from making telemarketing calls following lawsuits by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the State of Texas, the FCC said.

The enterprise had been in operation since at least 2018 and aimed to scam call recipients by facilitating the sale of vehicle service contracts under false and misleading claims of being auto warranties.

Hawaii, NM join partnership

We take seriously our responsibility to protect consumers and the integrity of U.S. communications networks from the onslaught of these types of pernicious calls, said Loyaan Egal, FCC Enforcement Bureau chief.

The agency will continue to work with federal and state partners to hold all other entities engaged in similar conduct accountable for their actions, Egal said.

In addition, the FCCs Robocall Response Team announced the launch of a robocall investigation partnerships with the attorneys general of Hawaii and New Mexico. Forty-six states, the District of Columbia and Guam have now signed a memoranda of understanding to work with the FCC to share evidence, coordinate investigations, pool enforcement resources, and work together to combat illegal robocall campaigns, the agency said.
(photo: swaia.org)

SANTA FEThis week, the organization that hosts the Santa Fe Indian Market announced it is expanding its marquee Southwestern Association for Indian Art (SWAIA) program into a stand-alone fashion event.

Santa Fe Native Fashion Week by SWAIA Indigenous Fashion will debut next spring in a four-day fashion event, May 2-5, 2024.

The four-day event will feature a fashion symposia, a soiree, and runways that feature Indigenous fashion professionals from the United States and Canada.

Santa Fe Indian Market has always been about showcasing and making sure our artists have that same voice and that includes fashion, said SWAIA Executive Director Jamie Schulze in an interview with Native News Online. That is a really important voice to me because thats representation and thats something our cultures have struggled with and have been invisible for so many years.

It is important for us to come out as the creatives that we have always been historically, not only through our jewelry, our sculpture, and these amazing art pieces, but what we wore, said Schulze who is Northern Cheyenne and Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate.

It takes an entity like SWAIA to take the lead in creating an overdue runway that will now showcase and celebrate the first Designers of these lands, the Indigenous people, said Norma Baker-Flying Horse, a Grammy Award-winning fashion designer from the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota, to Native News Online.

Since SWAIA launched its Indigenous Fashion Show in 2014, its shows have grown, from attendance of 150 to 9 separate fashion events planned at this years market weekend. It is now a highlight of the largest American Indian arts festival in the world, attracting dedicated Indigenous fashion designers from the United States and Canada.

The organization is responding to growing success amongst Indigenous fashion designers, models, makeup artists, and producers.

Jen Atchico, an enrolled Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma citizen and makeup artist living in the Seattle area, says that the announcement of SWAIAs Santa Fe Native Fashion Week is huge for Native professionals in the industry. Im super excited for SWAIAs Native Fashion Week, she said in a comment to Native News Online.

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Cora Kay Chandler, a fashion show producer from the Fort Belknap Indian Community and producer of the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Developments (NCAIED) Reservation Economic Summits fashion show, said she heard of SWAIAs announcement online.

I am very glad for the artists that they are promoting as well as the up-and-coming ones, Chandler told Native News Online. It would be great to invite emerging artists because a lot of times we focus on mainstream artists that are definitely well known.

Kelly Holmes, founder and editor of Native Max Magazine, said SWAIAs announcement is good news for many in the industry. A long time fashion show producer, Holmes told Native News Online, we need more events like this because they empower our growing Nation fashion community and market.

SWAIA launched a website in conjunction with its announcement at swaianativefashion.org as well as an Instagram page @swaianativefashion. More information will be announced at this years Santa Fe Indian Market, August 19-20, 2023 in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

About the Author: "Darren Thompson (Lac du Flambeau Ojibwe) is a staff reporter for Native News Online who is based in the Twin Cities of Minnesota. Thompson has reported on political unrest, tribal sovereignty, and Indigenous issues for the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, Indian Country Today, Native News Online, Powwows.com and Unicorn Riot. He has contributed to the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Voice of America on various Indigenous issues in international conversation. He has a bachelor\u2019s degree in Criminology & Law Studies from Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. "

Contact: dthompson@nativenewsonline.net
Former President Donald Trump pled not guilty Thursday to charges from the Department of Justice that he illegally conspired to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

Trump spoke to reporters at the airport following the plea. On Fox News The Five, co-host Jesse Watters praised Trumps composure during his statement. Watters called Trump calm, steady and loose.

This is his third indictment, conservative political commentator Watters said. I would have probably been wetting myself.

Following other recent indictments, Watters said, Were kind of tired of it.

Despite drizzle at the airport, Trump spoke with reporters gathered on the tarmac outside his plane at the airport.

This is a very sad day for America, Trump said to reporters. When you look at whats happening, this is a persecution of a political opponent. This was never supposed to happen in America. This is the persecution of the person thats leading by very, very substantial numbers in the Republican primary and leading Biden by a lot. So if you cant beat him, you persecute him or you prosecute him. We cant let this happen in America.

Trump also criticized the streets of Washington D.C., saying that he saw filth and decay, broken buildings and walls and graffiti on his way to the airport.

Everything that has come out so far has landed with a dud, Watters said. And the timing of all of these legal actions has really benefited him.

Outside the courtroom, the spokesperson for Trumps legal team called the prosecution election interference at its finest, against the leading candidate, right now, for president.

The Five co-host Dana Perino, who served as press secretary under President George W. Bush, said that she felt the Justice Department hasnt won in the court of public opinion since filing these charges against Trump.

Watters mentioned allegations against President Joe Biden and his family without mentioning the specifics of what he was referring to. Watters also called the previous indictment by the Manhattan District Attorneys Office against Trump a pile of garbage and said that it didnt make legal sense.

The post Fox News Jesse Watters Praises Trumps Composure During 3rd Arraignment: I Would Have Probably Been Wetting Myself (Video) appeared first on TheWrap.
Sunday marks 13 years since Johnny Joey Jones survived stepping on an Improvised Explosive Device in Safar Bazaar, Afghanistan. The Taliban, aware the forces were coming, left a minefield in their wake in the hopes of inflicting as much harm on us as possible, long after they departed, Jones writes in his first book, Unbroken Bonds of Battle," published in June.

Then a 24-year-old bomb technician for the Marines, Jones had been clearing streets and buildings for five days, as his two-man team discovered more than 30 bombs.

It blew up underneath me, Jones says in a recent interview. I landed on my back. The dust cloud went away I felt my face before anything, oddly enough, and so I wasnt sure if it was still there, as it should be.

Jones lost both legs above the knee due to the explosion. He was hired as a Fox News contributor in 2019, offering opinions on veteran affairs. But his role expanded as a sought-after voice on a variety of topics, including politics and pop culture. Jones has been a substitute host of "Fox & Friends," "Fox & Friends Weekend," and the network's primetime programming.

"Be thankful for that and go do great things, Jones, 37, says. "We celebrate it like a birthday every year.

Johnny Joey Jones, a former Marine who lost both legs in Afghanistan, is now an author and contributor to Fox News Channel.

Jesse Watters is ready for Fox News 'Primetime' slot: 'I'm not nasty; I'm brutally honest'

He views Aug. 6, 2010, as his Alive Day, a term referring to the day when a veteran nearly dies in action but lives.

Jones had a modest upbringing in Dalton, Georgia. His dad was a brick and block mason; his mom cleaned houses. Jones enlisted after being dumped by his high school sweetheart, Meg Garrison. Listen, he recalls telling her at her house, I'm not joining the Marine Corps because of you, but you're the only reason I would stay home. She looked at me and smiled and said, Well, have fun. She was pretty resolute in her decision making, and it was up to me to prove her wrong.

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Garrison showed Jones that he needed to mature and learn to put others first: I didn't understand the nuance of what being selfless meant, and the Marine Corps taught that to me."

Jones learned about Explosive Ordnance Disposal while serving in Iraq in 2007. These specialists were just the epitome of selflessness, he says. They're basically saying, These bombs are here to kill us. If somebody has to walk down there and take them apart, let it be me, and I love that.

Johnny Joey Jones, a Fox News contributor since 2019, lost his legs above the knee in Afghanistan.

The night before his accident, Jones lay beneath his truck on a rack, complaining of mosquito bites and hoping to sleep in before more IEDs were found. But no such luck: Jones good friend, Corporal Daniel Greer, woke him, requesting Jones help investigating a storage unit. While analyzing a flare, Jones stepped on an IED.

He noticed his legs were partially missing and went to reach for his tourniquets. But he couldnt see or feel his left arm.

I actually was afraid I didn't have one, Jones says. It was tucked behind his back. He tried to use his right arm, but his forearm was severed. "The only thing holding it together was the muscle on the back, and so it was useless to me.

Marines came to retrieve Jones and Greer. As Jones didnt see any obvious wounds on Greer, he thought hed only been rendered unconscious. But Greer had suffered a fatal traumatic brain injury.

'They don't frighten us': 5 takeaways from Trump town hall with Hannity

When Jones woke up on Aug. 8, 2010, at an Army hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, he asked a nurse Wheres Greer?

She looked at me, and she smiled and she said, You've lost both your legs above the knee. But don't worry, hon, you're going to walk again, says Jones. For more than a decade Jones has found that response inspiring. "She understood the fragility of that moment and how important it was that the first thing I hear in assessing myself is something positive," he says. "If she wouldve just answered that question, Daniel Greers three doors down (and clinically brain dead)' ... that could have set a trajectory to where I didn't want to walk again. That could have put me in a really bad place.

Greers wife Stacy writes about her husband in Jones book.

Jones was transferred to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. It took him about 10 months to physically recover. He learned to walk again. Doctors had reattached muscles in new places. So that creates all this frustration.

I was never resentful that I didn't have my legs, he continues. The hardest part was taking what I had and getting through the frustration and the pain to use it. But I had so much to get me out of bed and make me want to do it. I had a brand new son, I had a family that loved me, and at some point, I knew I owed it to Daniel Greer to make something of it.

Marine veteran Johnny Joey Jones

Jones graduated from Georgetown University with a Bachelor of Arts degree. In addition to being a Fox News contributor, he also currently hosts Fox Nation Outdoors on the networks streaming service.

Jones says what he most enjoys most about his job is spotlighting people without a platform.

I live in a small town (in Georgia) that has more cows than people, Jones says. And when I go home or I go to these towns (that) I like to hunt in or do speaking engagements in, they look at me and they may talk with the same twang I do and they go, Man, thank you for saying that, because that's what I think and nobody else says it that way.'

Jones also sits on the board of directors for Boot Campaign, a civilian-founded organization that provides veterans with treatment for post-traumatic stress, traumatic brain injuries, chronic pain, insomnia, and substance abuse. This weekend, hell be spending part of his Alive Day at a Warrior Bonfire Program event in Madison, Mississippi. The nonprofit organizes retreats for Purple Heart recipients.

I try to work on my Alive Day, because I think that's the ultimate thumb in the face to the Taliban, says Jones. "The work I've chosen and (am) blessed to do is to still have a voice and still have an impact and help create that spirit in others.

Jones speaks on Saturday: On Aug. 6, I'll wake up and have breakfast with those folks and fly home.

Once home hell be reunited with his son, Joseph, his high school sweetheart whom he wed in 2012, and their daughter, Margo.

Geraldo Rivera says 'toxic relationship' with one Fox News co-host caused his exit

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fox News' Johnny Joey Jones reflects on 'Alive Day' after losing legs
A whole new definition of thick.

Its hard to deny that whales are some of the most charismatic megafauna on our planet. The blue whale, specifically, with its massive size, friendly demeanor, and devastating backstory is one that has captured imaginations for decades. But there may be a new contender for the largest animal to live on earthor at least there was one around 40 million years ago.

An international team of scientists recently uncovered some giant bones in a fossil-filled coastal desert Peru, namely 13 vertebrae, four ribs and a hip bone. These fossils lead them to a discovery of a sea-dwelling mammal that wouldve weighed up to 340 metric tons. Blue whales have gotten to around 190 metric tons at their heaviest, and the most massive dinosaur, the supersized sauropod Argentinosaurus, was estimated to weigh around 76 tons.

[Related: Millions of years ago, marine reptiles may have used Nevada as a birthing ground.]

Despite their incredible size, the newly-named Perucetus colossus was likely not a fighter, similar to some of the worlds other favorite sea mammals.

"Because of its heavy skeleton and, most likely, its very voluminous body, this animal was certainly a slow swimmer. This appears to me, at this stage of our knowledge, as a kind of peaceful giant, a bit like a super-sized manatee. It must have been a very impressive animal, but maybe not so scary," paleontologist Olivier Lambert of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences in Brussels told Reuters. Lambert and his colleagues published their findings August 2 in Nature.

The chilled-out attitude of the Perucetus was likely not the only thing they had in common with todays manatees. Its dense, vast skeleton was even estimated to be twice as heavy as a blue whales at 5 to 8 tons, even though length-wise, the blue whale still had them beat.

"It took several men to shift them [the fossils] into the middle of the floor in the museum for me to do some 3D scanning, author Rebecca Bennion from the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences in Brussels told the BBC. The team that drilled into the center of some of these vertebrae to work out the bone densitythe bone was so dense, it broke the drill on the first attempt."

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This characteristic doesnt exist in todays cetaceans (the family including whales, dolphins and porpoises), but it does appear in sirenians. One author especially noted the Stellers sea cow, which was discovered in the 1700s only to go extinct within three decades of its discovery due to overhunting.

[Related: These now-extinct whales were kind of like manatees.]

Like manatees, the Perucetus also appears to have had front limbs. Strangely enough, the animal also possessed vestigial back limbs, a possible evolutionary hangover from when whales evolved from land-based, dog-sized mammals 50 million years ago.

One looming question about the Perucetus is how it atethe researchers unfortunately didnt find its skull, so the authors have multiple hypotheses: it may have scavenged, ate sea grass, or even scooped up shellfish and worms from the mud floor like todays gray whales.

Nevertheless, just finding a creature that couldve been this size opens a whole new can of worms for paleontologists to uncover.

The extreme skeletal mass of Perucetus suggests that evolution can generate organisms with characteristics that go beyond our imagination, study author and Italian paleontologist Giovanni Bianucci told CNN. And that is a massive deal.
John Bolton says the erratic foreign policy decision-making of Donald Trump would surely lead to an exit from NATO in a potential second term, and blames the former president for the disastrous withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan that was finalized on Joe Bidens watch.

Republicans have pointed to the September 2021 fall of Kabul and rapid collapse of the Afghan government as a blight on Biden, who had been in the White House for less than a year. But Bolton said Thursday on NewsNation that the incoming administration merely implemented the deal Trump negotiated with the Taliban.

Donald Trump doesnt really have a philosophy as we understand it in political terms  he doesnt think in policy directions when he makes decisions, the former Trump national security adviser and ambassador to the United Nations said in his appearance on The Hill on NewsNation to talk about his recent opinion piece, Erratic, Irrational and Unconstrained: What a Second Trump Term Would Mean for Americas Foreign Policy.

NewsNation host Blake Burman, playing Republicans advocate, noted that the GOP would say Trumps foreign policy track record speaks for itself: No new wars. He left the Iran nuclear deal. Peace deals throughout the Middle East. The reworked trade deals.  When you look at the actual record, Republicans would say not bad, right?

Bolton, who turned on Trump after his exit from the White House, wasnt ready to give that credit to his former boss.

Well, lets lets talk about no new wars  he negotiated a deal with the Taliban that Biden later implemented. That was a disastrous mistake for america and for national security in the world, Bolton said.

Its true that Trumps Taliban deal, negotiated in early 2020 without the participation of the Afghan government, called for a withdrawal. The Biden Administration decided three months after his inauguration to pull out by September and not leave a residual force, citing intelligence reports that a Taliban takeover would be considerably less swift than it turned out to be.

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But Bolton brought more ammo than just Afghanistan:

[Trump] did not put forward a really effective effort to squeeze the Iranians after he got out of the nuclear deal, he continued. He did not deal with the threat of terrorism from Iran effectively. He threatened the existence of NATO  and I think in a second Trump term would almost certainly withdraw from NATO.

A bold prediction at a time when the United States is bankrolling Ukraines war against Russian invasion, especially after many U.S. leaders seem to be warming to the idea of a post-war induction for Ukraine. But Bolton wouldnt put anything past the former president and current GOP front-runner.

I mean, theres a long list here and I think those who make these claims about what Trump did his first term dont really understand how we got to the places we did, because many of the things they now give Trump credit for  he wanted to go in the opposite direction.

Watch the entire exchange in the video above.

The post John Bolton Blames Trump for Afghanistan Withdrawal, Warns Hed Exit NATO in 2nd Term: Extremely Erratic (Video) appeared first on TheWrap.
MSNBCs Joy Reid sat with Atlanta journalist George Chidi on Thursday, who announced Monday that he had been subpoenaed for the second time to testify before a Fulton County grand jury looking into bringing criminal charges against former President Donald Trump.

Contributing to the investigation of Trumps alleged efforts to overturn Georgias 2020 presidential election results, Chidi said he came upon a meeting of fake electors at the Georgia State Capitol in December 2020.

The Atlanta journalist also testified last summer before a grand jury that was weighing whether to recommend charges in the case.

On Thursday, Reid explained that DA Willis is a proponent of using Georgias Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, also known as a RICO Act. These laws are used to prosecute alleged criminal conspiracies.

Since Willis took office, the use of the Georgia RICO statute in Fulton County has multiplied, Reid said.

One of Willis high-profile indictments in Atlanta is rapper Young Thug, who was arrested as part of a sprawling racketeering indictment alleging that he was the leader of a violent gang, continued Reid. Many are speculating that Trump and his allies could be charged under the same statute.

Chidi went to the Georgia State Capitol in December 2020 to observe the electors meeting and was a little concerned that political extremists may try to disrupt the process, Chidi said.

President Joe Biden had won the states electoral votes, but Republicans were preparing their own slate of competing electors  which, Chidi noted earlier this week, was potentially illegal.

As it happens, I recognized one of the Republican electors, Chidi told Reid, one of the people who would have been an elector.

He went into a room in the Capitol, and I thought that was curious, continued the Atlanta journalist. So I followed him in with my camera going, and lo and behold, I entered the room where it was happening.

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According to Chidi, The Republican so-called electors were having their meeting right then, and they pretty quickly threw me out of the room.

But before they did, I asked what they were doing, said Chidi. They said it was an education meeting. So they were not truthful with me, and because of that I have been subpoenaed to go and testify to that in front of the Trump grand jury, here in Fulton County.

Chidi said, The circumstances here are a little different because of the nature of what Im being asked to testify to and the case.

Yeah, just a little bit different, Reid responded sarcastically.

Watch the interview from The ReidOut in the video above.

The post Journalist Who Walked In on Room Full of GOP Fake Electors Called as a Witness in Trump Probe (Video) appeared first on TheWrap.
LOCARNO New titles from The Pretenders Vallo Toomla and Sara Summa, director of The Last to See Them, rub shoulders with Nina Menkes Minotaur Rex and scarefest All the World Drops Dead, from Kevin Kopacka, in a lineup of some 150 projects being brought to Locarno Pro networking and co-production forum Match Me!

Shepherding them are 30 producers hailing from the length and breadth of Europe, plus Taiwan and the Dominican Republic, in town for the three-day event, kicking off Friday.

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Set up at mainly young-ish production houses, they underscore major trends now coursing through European cinema: the rise of genre and animation  such as Christophe Reveilles To Live and Die with Che Guevara an animated doc feature about three guerrillas who pledged allegiance to Che Guevara  as well as films of large artistic ambition made on contained budgets, such as Taiwans Goodbye North, Goodbye.

Above all, theres a gathering shift from straight-arrow arthouse drama to genre-bending thrillers that nevertheless maintain art pics traditional social issue focus.

Following, a drill down on Match Me! producers, their companies and some of the banner titles hitting the Locarno market this year:

Dominican Republic

Ico Abreu, iFilm

Eco/social issue focused over a building 20-year plus TV and experimental career, Ico is now moving into ever more substantial works such as anthology double movie Motel and

two features in development: Historical drama El Guerrillero y el General, and action-thriller Predicament A sordid story with the natural beauty of La Hispaniola island (Dominican Republic and Haiti) as a canvas, says Abreu, Predicament turns on a principled man driven to crime to rescue his daughter.

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Lei Gonzalez, Media Jibara

Behind coming of age drama Mermaid (Sirena), from Olivia De Camps (Digital Bodies) and Nayibe Tavares Colosal, Media Jibara is a production house that centres on films from female filmmakers, emerging directors, the LGBTQ+ community and personal stories with a global reach. At Locarno with Sofia, a visceral and provocative movie, Gonzalez says, about a woman whose self-destructive behaviour in relationships can be put down to a bitter buried past of abuse.

Estonia

Adeele Tahemaa, Taska Film

One of Estonias weightiest outfits, specialised in big period pieces, and behind one of the countrys biggest B.O. hits of all time, Names in Marble, as well as the smash hit movie trilogy Melchor the Apothecary, a Medieval procedural picked up by Global Screen. At Locarno with Life and Love, a 1933-set tragic love story, and Dirt in Your Face, a rock band drama set in a soon-to-end Soviet Union Estonia, an inside view of the youth in a society that longed for freedom and finally sang itself free, says Tahemaa.

Johanna Maria Paulson, Stellar Film

Behind The Sleeping Beast, Jaak Kilmis dark coming of age tale, and The Weight of Light, from Smoke Sauana Sisterhoods Anna Hints. At Locarno with At Your Service, a Variety Estonia highlight, and one of Locarno Pros most anticipated market debuts: Beatrice, a futuristic love story marking the second fiction film of director Vallo Toomla, who wowed at 2016s San Sebastian with debut Pretenders. Although the main premise of the film is an idea straight out of science-fiction, the most important question it poses is who we are as human beings, says Paulson.

France

Clemence Crepin Neel, Moderato

Founded in 2019 by Crepin Neel and Igor Courtecuisse, after producing 15 shorts, Moderato is now developing a first feature slate of committed, eclectic productions, at the crossroads of different genres. Among them, and a banner Locarno project, is Kingdom of the Blind, the feature debut of Francois Robic, about a woman who flees a well-kept secret on her farm in the Pyrenees to start a new life in the neighboring valley. Its an original story, coupled with Francois extremely rich visual universe, says Crepin Neel.

Gaetan Trigot, Pentacle Productions

Founded in 2020 by sales agent Trigot and producer Baptiste Salvan, with a sales distribution arm and a strong line in animation, such as Christophe Reveilles To Live and Die with Che Guevara, an animated doc feature about three guerrillas who pledged allegiance to Guevara, and after his death, are hunted by thousands of Bolivian soldiers. I was told that it was impossible to meet all these witnesses of Ches last expedition. After fifty years of silence, they are in front of my camera. For the first time, their story is told. The story of men of the shadows, says Trigot.

Katia Khazak, Aurora Films

A fest favorite, of the 11 features that Aurora has made since launching in 2002, six were selected for Cannes, including Leila Kilanis On the Edge. Its flagship Locarno title, Denis Spiridonovs Fog, is set in Moscow in 2016, as a former political prisoner convicted on fabricated charges snaps after struggling to re-enter society. He must now go on the run or go back behind bars. I would like the audience to feel the complex choices and questions that the late-Putin regime imposed on my fellow countrymen, says Russia-born Khazak.

Germany

Britta Strampe, Bandenfilm

We focus on audience-driven content that we create with a sense of zeitgeist, humor and intellect, exceeding the limits of traditional storytelling regardless of format or genre, says Strampe at the Berlin-based Bandenfilm. Behind 2022s The Ordinaries, picked up by The Match Factory, an auspicious quirky comedy feature debut by Sophie Linenbaum, about a girl who feels she is a supporting character in a scripted movie existence. At Locarno with Octavia Jordan is Not Missed, about an accidental kidnapping which sparks a love story, an almost epic drama that combines elements of comedy and fantasy, unfolding into a fantastic drama, Strampe says.

Lili Villanyi, Manderley Films

Diversely talented, Manderleys Villanyi doubled up as VFX producer on All Quiet on the Western Front and a producer and co-writer of Kevin Kopackas Dawn Breaks Behind the Eyes. At Locarno, Villanyi will unveil new details of Kopackas follow up, another ambitious mystery horror, All the World Drops Dead, a life-affirming film that tells an entertaining and imaginative story with multi- faceted and flawed characters  while still managing to scare its audience senseless, says Kopacka.

Roxana Richters, Chromosom Film

Encouraged by the success of Jan-Ole Gersters Oh Boy, and York-Fabian Raabes Borga to make courageous films with powerful voices and singular penmanship, she says, at Locarno Richters will be pushing A Safe Place. A musical set in the snowy wonderland of a wintery small town haunted by recession and depression, its the latest from Sara Summa, director of Berlinale 2019 entry The Last to See Them. A Safe Place is a tragic love story with a genre edge that works as an oneiric allegory for a world where fear of the other has taken over, says Summa.

Israel

Jiries Copti, Fresco Films

Producing and providing production services and finance structuring, an exec producer on Ziad Doueris The Attack, Fresco Films is re-teaming with Nina Menkes after Dissolution on her Minotaur Rex, a transposition of the Greek myth to the labyrinthine streets of old Jersualem. A thriller/horror film with a neo-realistic style, Minotaur Rex will combine dream-like, surreal hallucinations and a brutal, quasi-documentary shooting style, says Copti.

Kobi Mizrahi, KM Productions

A producer on Academy Award nominated White Eye, Cannes selected short Butterflies and Locarno Silver Leopard winning Aridity, all shorts, KM Productions is now looking to move ever more into fiction features. In the hopper, Wild Animals, from Yona Rozenkier whose first feature, The Dive, was produced by Kobi. A survival drama and parable on peoples difficulty in escaping the fear theyre born with, says Rosenkier, Wild Animals turns on two Jewish sisters hiding deep in the forests who believe the Nazis still rule the world.

Italy

Angelo Rocco Troiano, Mediterraneo Cinematografica

Based in southern Italy, and broad-based in its skill-set, producing Mohsen Makhmalbafs Marghe and Her Mother, and co-producing Rinoceronte with Argentinas AltoCine and working on its distribution. Mediterraneos Rocco Troiano will be talking up at Locarno Sema. Set in 1947 Italy, it centers on the Gravini family which accuses its young African maid of theft. Daughter Laura, who is close to her, discovers a strange golden box among the stolen items.

David Pagano, Casa delle Visioni

Milan-based, Casa delle Vision hit the ground-running with its first feature, 2019 Berlinale Panorama hit Selfie  vibrant, moving, unexpectedly charming, said a Variety review. At Locarno with Aditi, the story of Leo, 8, taken into foster care with his pet panther Aditi, after his mother is killed. The story is told by a boy who uses his creative power, imagination, and fantasy, to explain to himself the killing of his mother, which he witnessed. Everything in Aditi is developed along the fine line between the real and the imaginary, says Pagano.

Francesca Riccardi, Start

At Locarno to talk up, among other projects, Mia, from young Italian doc director Enrico Maisto, a mainstay director at Start, having directed 2017s The Call and Leta dellinnocenza for the Milan-based production and post-pro company. In Mia, an Italian woman, around 70, takes in a couple who have immigrated from Senegal and who want their child to be born in Italy. The doc feature describes forms of kinship described by anthropologists, far from the idea of the traditional Western family, a kind of contemporary anthropological fairy tale, says Maisto.

Latvia

Antra Gaile, Air Productions

Air Productions is a female-led production studio based in Riga. Aiming to create impactful stories with a focus on Baltic narratives and women empowerment stories, its latest features include Sisters in Longing and Zoryana Horobraya, from director Elita Klavina. Advanced in development are Secrets of the Great Bog, from Linda Olte, developed at 2021 CineKid Script LAB, a family-adventure feature about two young sisters helping a young-boy from another world. In early stages of development. from director Dace Puce, Superheroine on the Wrong Side of Forty weighs in as a superhero comedy feature turning on a middle-aged divorcee.

Darta Krasone, Trickster Pictures

Recently created, Trickster Pictures was founded by writer-producer-director Matiss Kaza, involved as a producer on the highly awaited animated feature Flow, from Gints Zilbalodis. Developing now The Child, about a fortysomething couple co-produced by Trickster Pictures, Lithuanias Afterschool Productions and Polands Serce. The film marks the second feature film from Latvian director Olte whose previews work, Sisters, was picked up by True Colours and won 1-2 Best Film at the 2022 Warsaw Film Festival. It speaks about a womans struggle with infertility, the role of motherhood in a womans life and society, explains Krasone.

Lithuania

Brigita Beniusyte, M-Films

Vilnus-based, M-Films was launched by Marija Razgute in 2008. Recent hits include Sundance 2023 directing award Slow, from Marisa Kavtaradze, and Spains Goya.winning Out of Sync. In development The Visitor  a second collaboration with new director Vytautas Katkus whose short Cherries was selected for last years Cannes Competition  has been selected for the Torino FeatureLab. It follows a mans reconnection with his dads old town roots.

Juste Michailinaite, Broom Films

Established in 2016, recent hits include 2022 Annecy nominee Auroras Sunrise, by Inna Sahakyan, and Beyond Time and Light, a music-documentary about Lithuania rock-band Skyle. Already in post-production, Pozerskis: In Focus is a feature documentary that explores the close relationship between artist and their context, turns on photographer Romualdas Pozerskis.

Pozerskis

Poland

Anna Wereda, Autograf

Autograf is looking for international collaborations and co-productions in films and TV series. At Locarno with black comedy The Funeral is Ready but Death Hasnt Come, family drama The Townhouse Secrets and psychological drama The Day of Birth, in which Natalia, as an adult woman, finds out that she is a child conceived as a result of rape. Despite this, she wants to get to know her father in order to fully know herself. This is a story about identity, roots, family and burdens. Its a story about how gaps in knowledge of ones origins never lose their expiry date, says Wereda.

Jaroslaw Cieslreski, Forma Production

Produced with PFI, Di Factory and TVP between Ukraine and Germany while shot in Polish and Ukrainian, Makary Janowskis Free Yourself, Cieslreskis banner project at Locarno, is a manifesto of freedom and youth. The characters find in dance a remedy for failures and the drive to fight for their dreams and values, says the logline.

Justyna Kluczewka, Raban

Comprising the Raban Foundation and Raban Film Studio, Raban makes TV  collaborating with companies such as Canal+, Netflix, Viaplay and TVP  and films. Film is our way of telling extraordinary stories that we believe in and want to share with the audience, says Kluczewka. One case to point: Cristine, by Sylwia Rosak, who, Kluczewka adds, was a would-be Miss Poland of 1930 who became Churchills favourite spy and the prototype for Vesper Lynd in Ian Flemings James Bond novels.

Portugal

Bernardo Lopes, Omaja

Our mission is to give voice to new auteurs and embrace projects that we consider culturally relevant and geographically decentralised, says Lopes. Fast growing, rolling off Portugals cash rebate and streaming services entry into Portugal, the Lisbon-based Omaja plans to shoot in late 2023 Tomorrows Rain. Produced, co-written and directed by Lopes, it turns on a summer day in the life of a crumbling family at the peak of the Portuguese financial crisis of 2012, he says.

Catarina de Sousa, Foi Bonita a Festa

Co-founder in 2021 of Foi Bonita a Festa, developing films driven by singular visions of our times, and shooting in October My Senses Are All I Have to Offer, by Isabela Neves Marques. Set 20 years after the companys Becoming Male in the Middle Ages, a Rotterdam Ammodo Tiger Short Award winner, it turna on Lourdes and Lana, who can communicate by telepathy, and visit one of the couples parents home.

Paul Carneiro, Bam Bam Cinema

Co-founded by Portuguese directors around the world, behind Fern Silvas Berlinale Encounters 2021 title Rock Bottom River. One banner project at Locarno: Savanna and the Mountain, a doc fiction feature recording village locals battle to halt a lithium mining project in Portugals Tras-os-Montes Barroso, a place included in 2018 on the U.N.s Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems. Co-produced and co-written by Alex Piperno (Window Boy Would Also Like to Have a Submarine) at Uruguays La Pobladora Cine.

Spain

Chemi Perez, Cabo Sur Films

Based out of Spains Canary Island of Las Palmas, self-described as a young production company that explores the boundaries between fiction and nonfiction, telling stories with a powerful social and cultural background. At Locarno with a project that ticks multiple boxes, Ever and the Sharks, part coming-of-age tale, part high-seas adventure, part eco-drama, as leading marine biologist Alejandra Mendoza Pfennig and Ever Apolo, a grieving teen boy, set off together to geotag whale sharks off the Peruvian coast for the first time.

Ever And The Sharks

Diego Saniz, Kabiria Films

Founded in 2018, and aiming at a broad-audience art cinema, says Saniz, Saniz hits Locarno with a Madrid Film School ECAM Incubator project, Manuel Manriques Head On The Wall. It is set in a not-so-distant future Spain where bullfighting is banned, leaving protagonist Rafael Jesus, a bullfighter, at a large loss. This is the story of a man who cant find his place in this century, Saniz relays.

Nadine Rothschild, Materia

Ultra busy and well-connected, Rothschild and Ines Massa, her partner at Materia Cinema, have at Locarno competition player The Permanent Picture, which they co-produced. Rothschild will also be presenting Qui som, by Salvador Sunyer, a non-fiction feature, about Baro devel, a traveling peformace troupe led by an extraordinary couple, both performance artists, who receive an assignment that will lead them to understand who they are and what really matters, a description runs.

Taiwan

PingYu Chiu, Volos Film

A Taiwanese production company founded in 2018 by Italian producer Stefano Centini with an adventurous line in production across Europe and Asia, supporting emerging voices such as Chilean Felipe Galvezs Los Colonos, a Cannes Fipresci prize winner and Mubi pick-up. At Locarno with Midnight Inn, a social drama from Chun Hing Wang, about a man working night shifts at a hotel who becomes involved in a client, a Chinese escort.

Midnight Inn

Yifang Lee, G-Spot

A go-getting hyphenate currently promoting her first feature film as a director, Little Blue, seen at Busans A Window on Asian Cinema. Bringing to Locarno one of its most fascinating projects, Goodbye North, Goodbye, which frames a story set in a divided Taiwan after a horrific U.S.-China war, reflecting the real-life uncertainty felt by young Taiwanese envisioning their futures, caught between superpower cultures, says director Albert Ventura.

Goodbye North Goobye

Yu-Hao Su, Mascot Films

Telling Taiwanese tales with an international art-house vision, Mascot Films will bring to Locarno Will You Still Be My Friend? to be helmed by Po-Shun Lu, who grew up in the same small town as producer Yu-Hao Su. Weve always wanted to make films about stories happening in the rural areas in Taiwan. We hope to let the audience reevaluate the social issues caused by the gap between urban and rural areas [in a film made] with Po-Shuns distinct and realistic cinematic approach, says Yu-Hao Su.

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Mdou Moctar

Mdou Moctar has set up a GoFundMe after the military coup detat in his home country Niger has left him and his Nigerien bandmates stranded in the US, where they have recently been touring.

Moctar is one of the worlds most exciting players. He and rhythm guitarist Ahmoudou Madassane have an incredible chemistry. Moctar has developed a psychedelic electric guitar thats rooted in Tuareg and desert blues styles, influenced by classic rock players such as Hendrix and Eddie Van Halen, but is inextricably connected to a sense of place, informed by the desert and by everyday life there.

He and his band was in Canada playing at Montreals Theatre Fairmount on 26 July when the the coup took place, and a junta operating under presidential guard commander general Abdourahamane Tchiani detained the president Mohamed Bazoum and took control of the country.

Foreign nationals have been evacuated as unrest gripped the country. Moctar concluded his tour with a set at Central Park SummerStage on 29 July, thereafter he was scheduled to fly home. But the borders have been closed. Moctar, Ahmoudou, and drummer Souleymane Ibrahim are unable to return home.

Bassist Michael Mikey Coltun  who also produces the band, and has acted as van driver and tour manager  is from New York.

In an Instagram post, the band said they would have to remain abroad indefinitely until the security situation at home improves.

Last week while we were on tour our home of Niger was plunged into chaos when a Coup took place, read the statement. As a result, we are unable to return home to our loved ones and must remain abroad indefinitely. We have launched this GoFundMe to help offset the living costs associated with that.

We are so appreciative of our fans and community and their unending support and are so appreciative of whatever you are able to do to help us in this unprecedented and scary time. Thank you so much.

A post shared by Mdou Moctar (@mdou_moctar) A photo posted by on

Moctar had only just released a pair of EPs in 2022 bearing the title of his homeland, and featuring some of his most outre guitar improvisations yet. When Moctar spoke to MusicRadar in 2021, he detailed some of the political tensions that he has written about in song, and of the threat from terrorism.

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Currently, Im really feeling the suffering of Africa, especially since Gaddafi was killed, he said. Terrorism has been on the rise in various countries. You know, the terrorists of Boko Haram hit us every day. And there's crimes in various countries in the whole of the Sahel and Africa.

Of course, each country has more specific problems  theres some diversity. And in Niger, I would say its mostly the terrorists in the desert and the impact of the installation of French and US military bases in the country. Other Arab countries have been impacted. For instance, recently, the African leader Idriss Deby was murdered. He was a leader from Chad. He was fighting terrorists and especially Boko Haram. And sadly, hes no more.

If you can help, you can find Mdou Moctars GoFundMe here. The band has raised $91,921 of its $100,000 target.
MSNBC

An MSNBC panel was shocked by a pair of television interviews Thursday where Donald Trump lawyer John Lauro seemed to confirm an allegation contained within the Jan. 6-related indictment of the former president.

Lauro had told Fox News host Laura Ingraham earlier in the evening that, leading up to Jan. 6, Trump voiced his approval for Pence to send the election back to the states rather than have the Electoral College vote be certified.

What President Trump said is, Lets go with option D,' Lauro said on The Ingraham Angle. Lets just halt, lets just pause the voting and allow the state legislatures to take one last look and make a determination as to whether or not the elections were handled fairly. Thats constitutional law. Thats not an issue of criminal activity.

Lauro said basically the same thing on Newsmax a bit later.

MSNBC anchor Lawrence ODonnell was surprised at the revelation.

That is a Trump criminal defense lawyer quoting Donald Trump committing a crime, he said. Donald Trumps criminal defense lawyer tonight added information to Jack Smiths 42-page description of Donald Trumps crimes. The conversation that John Lauro just described appears on page 34 of the indictment against his client.

Rudy Giuliani Goes Personal on Mike Pence After Crackpot Lawyer Jab

The indictment alleges there that during a Jan. 4 meeting, The Defendant and Co-Conspirator 2 then asked the Vice President to either unilaterally reject the legitimate electors from the seven targeted states, or send the question of which slate was legitimate to the targeted states legislatures.

Additionally, the indictment states that on the evening of Jan. 6, that same co-conspirator emailed Pences counsel suggesting that the vice president violate the Electoral Count Act. I implore you to consider one more relatively minor violation [of the ECA] and adjourn for 10 days to allow the legislatures to finish their investigations, as well as to allow a full forensic audit of the massive amount of illegal activity that has occurred here, wrote the person, who is believed to be lawyer John Eastman.

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MSNBC contributor and former Department of Justice lawyer Andrew Weissman considered Lauros statements to be an admission, as he wrote in a tweet.

So, I dont know why a defense lawyer is going to start giving facts about a critical moment, he said on air, prompting ODonnell to exclaim: Its the whole case!

Weissman added: It is such a damning thing when you put it in context because remember what the indictment alleges[that] the reason this had to be done with the vice president is because prior to that, all the efforts that Donald Trump took with respect to the secretaries of state did not work.

I just dont know why John, who is a good lawyer, didnt just zip it and not say anything, he continued.

They dont teach TV in law school, ODonnell quipped.

Former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner, also an MSNBC contributor, was stunned as well, saying bluntly, It makes no sense.

Trump pleaded not guilty in a federal court in D.C. on Thursday to a four-count indictment where the former president is accused of attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

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The Office is remaining closed for the time being.

Leslie David Baker, a series regular on the popular NBC comedy series announced on social media Thursday that, three years after a Kickstarter campaign attempting to fund a spinoff show based on his character, he will be returning donations received to fans.

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In 2020, Baker launched a Kickstarter campaign for Uncle Stan, a potential spinoff of The Office based on his character Stanley, a grumpy office worker at the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company. According to the description, the series would focus on Stanley as he reluctantly comes out of retirement to help his nephew run a motorcycle/flower shop business. The campaign launched with a $300,000 crowdfunding goal, and raised $336,450 by the end of its run.

In a post on Instagram, Baker said that, although he still intends to make the project, he will return $110,629.81 in donated money to backers. In the update, Baker explained that the project stalled indefinitely because of the COVID pandemic and the current WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Although Baker intends to resume work on the series once the strikes continue, he decided it was the best course of action to refund backers. He further stated that although $336,450 dollars was pledged to the project, only $110,629 was actually received by the campaign, and no funds raised were pocketed or used for personal gain.

In light of the current economic situation, we felt that this was the best course of action, Baker wrote. You will receive a message notifying you of your refund as soon as it is issued and you can expect to receive it over the following weeks. We will also be contacting Kickstarter to facilitate expediting this matter. We have remained in constant communication with our backers via direct messaging and rewards have continued to be fulfilled during this time.

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FYI, although the total funded amount shown on our Kickstarter campaign page was stated as $336,450.53, that was not the actual final amount we received, the post continues. A large portion of backers pledges were lowered, or completely dropped and never collected once the campaign was completed. The final amount that we received from Kickstarter was exactly $110,629.81. The funds were never used for any purposes other than reward fulfillment and backer refunds, and have otherwise remained accounted for and untouched in the account.

Developed by Greg Daniels for NBC, The Office ran for nine seasons from 2005 to 2013. Based on Ricky Gervais British series of the same name, the show starred Steve Carrell as Michael Scott, the Scranton, Pennsylvania regional manager of Dunder Mifflin. The cast of the show was rounded out by Rainn Wilson, John Krasinski, Jenna Fischer, B. J. Novak, Ed Helms, Mindy Kaling, Craig Robinson, and Ellie Kemper. Baker joined the series as a recurring actor in the first season, and was promoted to a regular for the second.

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The U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) issued a cease and desist notice to Georgia-based technology company Unbanked, Inc. on Friday, citing false and misleading claims made by the crypto firm related to its insurance status.

The FDIC alleges that Unbanked, which provided crypto debit card services, falsely implied that financial products, such as cryptocurrencies, are insured by the FDIC. The agency has made it a point to go after companies it believes are making these claims.

Unbanked has advertised the availability of FDIC insurance on its website above marketing regarding checking accounts and the ability to 'deposit, withdraw, and seamlessly trade between a number of crypto assets' without a disclaimer that the crypto assets are not FDIC insured or guaranteed, the agency wrote.

But the federal bureaucracy may have gotten in the way of the letter to Unbanked Inc. going out. Unbanked, in fact, first became aware of the cease and desist notice from Decrypts inquiry after the FDIC announced the notice on its official mailing list.

In June, Unbanked announced that the company would be winding down its operations and advised members to remove their assets from the site.

All Unbanked customers and those through our white-label programs should begin withdrawing all funds (crypto and USD) as soon as possible, Unbanked said in a letter shared on Twitter on June 19. We plan to leave the withdrawal functionality on for the next 30 days, but please do not wait to start withdrawing funds.

In its letter to customers, Unbanked said the decision to cease operations came after a $5 million investment failed to materialize.

We have not received those funds as of this moment, Unbanked said. We are still optimistic that we will receive these funds; if we doUnbanked will resume operations and will be stronger than ever. However, the money doesnt count until its in the bank, the company said, adding that it would continue to explore alternative funding sources.

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Unbanked also cited a challenging regulatory environment in the United States in its decisions to cease operations.

The Unbanked dashboard (and all white-label dashboards) will be going offline on the 25th of June, 2023. Please act now to ensure you have withdrawn all of your crypto and fiat from your account before this date. pic.twitter.com/tRbYg4HfCn  Unbanked (@UnbankedHQ) June 19, 2023

We hope that one day, perhaps sooner than later, we can revive Unbanked or another company with better funding can continue on with our core mission, the company said.

The FDIC pointed to posts made by Unbanked on social media that the agency says claim being FDIC insured.

"A companys intent to wind down operations doesnt mean it has ceased operations," a FDIC spokesperson told Decrypt, adding that anything further would need to be addressed with FDIC general counsel.

The FDIC has demanded that Unbanked, Inc. immediately remove any statements suggesting that funds held in cryptocurrencies or other uninsured financial products are protected by FDIC insurance.

The agency has given Unbanked 15 days to provide written confirmation that the firm has complied with the order and also demands that Unbanked cease making such statements in the future.

FDIC to Investigate Bankrupt Voyager Digitals Insurance Claims

The FDIC has gone after other cryptocurrency companies over claims that assets were FDIC insured. Last year, the agency opened an investigation into bankrupt Voyager Digital after the company said its assets were insured. In reality, it was only the bank Voyager Digital did business with, Metropolitan Commercial Bank, that was insured.

In June, the FDIC warned cryptocurrency exchange OKCoin over false and misleading statements on its website and promotional channels.

Unbanked co-founder Daniel Gouldman told Decrypt that while the company has already ceased operations it fully intends to comply with the FDICs request.

Over our five years in operation we were always very proud of our commitment to complying with laws in any jurisdiction we operated, Gouldman said. When we were operational, we did offer FDIC-insured bank accounts from our bank partners and those bank accounts allowed customers to buy and sell crypto, Gouldman said, reiterating that Unbanked was never a bank.

The crypto was never FDIC insured, and we never intended to infer that it was," he said. "We're actively working to resolve this.
NEW BEDFORD  The Pilgrim United Church of Christ will be unveiling the newly created mural of Booker T. Washington on Aug. 10 as part of AHA! night.

"It is important to honor the past, but also to talk about the relevance of the conversation that was going on, and that needs to be going on," said Reverend Donnie Anderson, who spearheaded the installation project.

Washington was an African-American civil rights leader, born into slavery in Virginia, but after the Civil War, his family was able to obtain their freedom and his father started a school for former slaves. He was a founder of the National Negro Business League and was a leader in the African-American civil rights movement.

Washington is best known for his Atlanta Compromise speech, given in 1895, in which he called for African-Americans to make progress through hard work, education and cooperation with whites. His legacy includes the Tuskegee Institute, which he later founded, and his advocacy for African-American civil rights.

Mario Vieira and Cameron Ferreira of Extreme Drywall install the mural featuring Booker T. Washington on the back of the original First Pilgrim United Church on Purchase Street in New Bedford. The mural celebrates Mr. Washington who in 1895 made a speech at this location.

Anderson said it was important for the church to involve the local community in the celebration of an important American figure such as Washington. They achieved this by reaching out to the NAACP and the community for their opinions, hiring local artists and discussing the conflicting perspectives of Booker T. Washington and American sociologist W. E. B. Du Bois.

More: Have a collection that might interest the 'American Pickers?' Here's how to be on the show.

Despite having differing perspectives, Du Bois and Washington both worked to secure economic and social advancement for African Americans.

New Bedford played a part in supporting Washington

According to Anderson, while Washington advocated for economic and educational advancement among African Americans as a means of eventual acceptance into mainstream white American society, Du Bois sought civil rights and political power to effect immediate change.

"I hope that people understand that this community values the importance that New Bedford played in issues related to slavery and its reconstruction and that New Bedford was a player and a very significant part of that," Anderson added.

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A man walks past the Pilgrim United Church of Christ on Purchase Street in New Bedford.

This artwork is the work of local artist, Eden Soares, and is meant to remember Washingtons 1895 visit to New Bedford, to raise funds for the Tuskegee Institute, a historically black college in Tuskegee, Alabama.

The event, August 10 at 5 p.m., is part of the August's AHA! set events. The program will include an introduction to the artist, readings from Booker T's autobiography, "Up from Slavery" and musical performances by local City Councilor Shane Burgo.

Refreshments will be provided afterwards in the Church Home.

Becoming a permanent part of New Bedford

Anderson, who recently went from interim to permanent pastor at Pilgrim United Church of Christ, said that it has made it easier for her to feel a more permanent part of the city and become engaged in the city knowing she can follow through on things.

"Now I can be engaged in conversations that involve longer term projects, and longer term issues. And I'm really enjoying that," she said.

Questions about this event can be emailed to puccnbcouncil@gmail.com. It is supported in part by the New Bedford Cultural Council, which is funded by Massachusetts Cultural Council.

More: They don't have to be alone: LGBTQ+ activist to serve as interim pastor in New Bedford

It also received a Wicked Cool Places grant, organized through the New Bedford Creative at the NBEDC and made possible with support from the City of New Bedfords Arts, Culture and Tourism Fund, as well as additional funding from Bristol County Savings Bank.

Standard-Times staff writer Seth Chitwood can be reached at schitwood@s-t.com. Follow him on twitter: @ChitwoodReports.Support local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to The Standard-Times today.

This article originally appeared on Standard-Times: Booker T. Washington mural at Pilgrim United Church of Christ
Two brothers from Placer County were sentenced for their roles in the murder of a Lincoln man who was beaten and shot before his body was dumped at the bottom of an embankment two years ago in Yuba County.

A Yuba County jury found on June 14 found Carl Royd Olsen guilty of voluntary manslaughter and using a gun to kill 60-year-old Robert Blass Mendoza, according to the Yuba County District Attorneys Office.

On May 31, Eric Tait Olsen pleaded no contest to charges of assault with a deadly weapon and being an accessory-after-the-fact in Mendozas murder. Prosecutors said the the judge reduced Eric Olsens felony assault charge to a misdemeanor charge over objections by the District Attorneys Office.

Yuba Superior Court Judge Benjamin Wirtschafter sentenced the Olsen brothers on Monday. Prosecutors said Carl Olsen, 60 of Lincoln was sentenced to 15 years in prison for shooting and killing Mendoza on Thanksgiving Day 2021.

Eric Olsen, 63 of Lincoln was sentenced two years in the county jail for hitting Mendoza with a metal billy club before the homicide and helping his brother dump Mendozas body off in the Wheatland area near the Nevada-Yuba county line.

On Nov. 26, 2021, a man walking his dog along Spenceville Road  in the Spenceville Wildlife Area near Penn Valley  spotted Mendozas body. Authorities originally deemed the death suspicious due to Mendozas visible injuries.

Prosecutors said detectives found that Mendoza had severe blunt trauma to his face and an apparent gunshot wound to his head. An autopsy later confirmed Mendoza died from the gunshot wound. Detectives followed leads back to the Olsens property in Lincoln.

Homicide investigation launched

A week after Mendozas body was found, the Yuba County Sheriffs Office announced that the Placer County man was a victim of a homicide. Sheriffs Sgt. Charles May led the homicide investigation.

Yuba and Placer county sheriffs officials later served a search warrant at Mendozas home on Hungry Hollow Road in Lincoln. Yuba sheriffs detectives followed leads back to the Olsens property in Lincoln.

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Witnesses told investigators that the Olsen brothers confronted Mendoza about stealing a firearm from them, according to the District Attorneys Office. Mendoza had been unloading the bed of a truck, and he was standing on the tailgate above the Olsen brothers when the confrontation began.

Prosecutors said Eric Olsen yelled at Mendoza, demanding he tell them where the stolen gun was before hitting Mendoza with a metal billy club twice.

Then, Carl Olsen pulled out a .22 caliber revolver and fired a single gunshot; the bullet hit Mendoza in the head, according to the District Attorneys Office. Witnesses saw Mendoza fall face-first to the ground from the truck tailgate.

The detectives served a search warrant at the Olsens property, where they found multiple guns, including the revolver used to kill Mendoza and blood on Carl Olsens truck, prosecutors said. The truck is believed to have been used to dump Mendozas body in Yuba County.

The Sheriffs Office arrested the Olsen brothers in mid-December 2021. Senior Deputy District Attorney Monique McDevitt and Deputy District Attorney Caitlin Smith prosecuted the homicide case.

Both Olsen brothers testified in the trial. Carl Olsen said he believed Mendoza had a gun, and that it was necessary to shoot Mendoza to protect himself and his brother Eric, according to the District Attorneys Office. Eric Olsen testified that he was surprised his brother shot Mendoza.

Prosecutors said the jury concluded  based on the verdict  that Carl Olsen acted with imperfect self-defense when he shot Mendoza. That means Carl Olsen actually believed he or someone else was in imminent danger of being killed or suffering great bodily injury. The prosecution argued that Carl Olsens belief was objectively unreasonable under the circumstances.

Mendozas brother and sister spoke in court on Monday before the Olsens were sentenced. They said their family has been devastated by the murder of their brother, according to the District Attorneys Office. They said their brothers killing has forever changed the way they feel about and celebrate Thanksgiving, which now reminds them of the senseless and tragic end to their brothers life.
The Porterhouse steak at Okeechobee Steakhouse.

One local steakhouse brand cant stop making headlines. Its family of restaurants continues to expand with new concepts that go from fine-dining to backyard barbecue. And this week, the iconic Okeechobee Steakhouse earned national acclaim.

The West Palm Beach classic was named one of the 30 most legendary steakhouses in the South by Southern Living magazine. Founded in 1947, Okeechobee Steakhouse landed at No. 23 on the list, which features a casual-to-fancy range of nostalgia-evoking favorites.

Now run by third-generation owners, the family business is more successful than ever, writes the magazines travel and culture editor, Tara Massouleh McCay, in the story.

Okeechobee Steakhouse has been a fixture on Okeechobee Boulevard in West Palm Beach for more than seven decades.

The success comes as no surprise to those of us who have dined at Okeechobee Steakhouse and followed its growth through the years. We have our reasons and memories for admiring the restaurant thats considered to be the oldest steakhouse in Florida: the benchmark service, the dry-aged, hand-cut steak, the cozy feel of an old-school leather booth, the happy-hour filet sliders, the annual birthday-steak freebee.

The reasons I outlined in this 2014 dining review still ring true to me today.

Other Florida steakhouses that made Southern Livings legendary list include the Western-themed Angelos Steak Pit in Panama City Beach (No. 10), the star-studded Prime 112 in Miami Beach (No. 17) and Tampas beloved Berns Steak House.

Okeechobee Steakhouse: 2854 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach, 561-683-5151, OkeeSteakhouse.com

Smokin Gator takeover at The Regional

On the Pig Pickin' menu at The Regional restaurant in West Palm Beach: hush puppies served with whipped Florida honey butter.

The Regional Kitchen Southern restaurants popular summer barbecue series returns tonight (Aug. 4). This time, executive chef Lindsay Autry collabs with the local, Memphis-inspired Smokin Gator BBQ.

Thats the fan-favorite, Lake Clarke Shores-based father and son team of weekend pitmasters. Lawyers by day, theyre also civic leaders by tradition. Dad Bob Shalhoub is the towns vice mayor and former mayor. Son Paul also has served as the towns mayor.

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For tonights collab event, the Shalhoubs are making street-style pork belly with spiced pork rinds, cotija and crema, sausage links, Lebanese coleslaw and other dishes. The special menu, which is offered a la carte, also features prime brisket, half-rack baby back ribs, sweet tea-brined grilled chicken thighs, Eastern Carolina Duroc pulled pork and brisket burnt ends.

The Smokin' Gator BBQ father-son team returns to The Regional restaurant Friday, Aug. 4, for a collaboration dinner. From left: Bob Shalhoub, Paul Shalhoub and The Regional's executive chef/partner Lindsay Autry, shown here during a previous collab.

The menu also includes shareable starters like Autrys summer peach and cherry salad with shaved fennel, goat cheese, Marcona almonds, butter lettuce and sherry vinaigrette ($18). Entrees, which range in price from $25 to $32, are served with a choice of two sides.

Smokin Gator also inspired the nights cocktails and mocktails. Theres a Smokin Gator Old Fashioned tinged with hickory smoke ($19), a tequila-based Gator Bite mixed with tamarind and lime ($15), a lemony-minty Swamp Water mocktail ($12) and a non-alcoholic Mangrove Tea, passion fruit tea sweetened with candied lemon syrup and brightened with Florida citrus ($10).

The Regional's dinner service starts at 5:30 p.m. Reservations are accepted via OpenTable.com.

The Regional Kitchen is at 651 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach, 561-557-6460.

Brick & Barrels kids brunch

Chef David Schroeder's son David enjoys a pancake during brunch at Brick & Barrel restaurant in Abacoa, Jupiter.

Saying goodbye to summer break is never easy for a school-age kid. Abacoa chef/restaurateur and father of two David Schroeder knows this well. This weekend, he hopes to ease the back-to-school scaries with a never-ending stack of pancakes.

Schroeder is hosting his annual Back to School Kids Brunch at his Brick & Barrel restaurant on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Its a fun, family-friendly brunch with treats for kids and their grown-ups.

The fun stuff: bottomless pancakes and a toppings bar ($12), face-painting, sidewalk drawing with chalk, kid-favorite tunes played by a DJ. With each order of bottomless pancakes, kids get one order of potatoes and bacon.

For the grown-ups, there are bottomless mimosas and Old Fashioned cocktails for $20.

Its just an excuse for me to take my kids to brunch, says Schroeder, dad to sons David, 7, and Luke, 4.

Family and kid-friendly brunches will return every Saturday in September at Brick & Barrel pub in Jupiter. The Abacoa restaurant will host a special back-to-school brunch Saturday, Aug. 5.

Schroeder and his wife Lisa thought of the brunch idea as a way to get the neighborhood families together just before school starts next week. They loved the idea so much, in fact, that theyll bring back the family brunch every Saturday in September.

Brunch reservations are strongly suggested and can be made via OpenTable.com.

Brick & Barrel is at 1153 Town Center Dr., Suite 101, in Abacoa, Jupiter, 561-623-0916.

Other back-to-school dining specials

Several other restaurants have rolled out deals to help ease the stress of the back-to-school rush.

Rapoports restaurants

Pasta primavera is on the kids menu at Burt & Max's restaurant in suburban Delray Beach.

The restaurants of Rapoports Restaurant Group  Deck 84 and Burt & Maxs restaurants in Delray Beach and Maxs Grille in Boca Raton  are running two kid-friendly deals. Both of these offers are available Sunday through Thursday through Aug. 31:

Kids age 12 and younger get a free (kids) meal with the purchase of an adult entree at any or all of the three restaurants.

Parties of three or larger with school-age kids get a free appetizer when they spend at least $40. The appetizer options are Deck 84s guacamole and chips, Burt & Maxs Margherita flatbread and Maxs Grille sun-dried tomato hummus with Parmesan-sesame breadsticks.

Deck 84 is at 840 E. Atlantic Ave. in Delray Beach.

Burt & Maxs is at 9089 W. Atlantic Ave. in the Delray Marketplace, suburban Delray Beach

Maxs Grille is at 404 Plaza Real in Mizner Park, Boca Raton.

Blaze Pizza

Blaze Pizza's Simple Pie.

Kids get free pizza throughout August at this national-chain pizzeria thats known for its build-your-own pies. Every Tuesday this month, kids get a complimentary Blaze Simple Pie with the purchase of a full-priced pizza.

The Simple Pie is an 11-inch pizza topped with mozzarella, Parmesan and red sauce (regularly $8.95). The offer is good at all five Blaze Pizza locations in Palm Beach County only on Tuesdays in August.

Blaze Pizza locations are listed at this BlazePizza.com page.

Did you know

Bay Bays fried chicken is back?

Bay Bays Chicken & Waffle Balls offers a variety of crispy chicken, including on the bone and boneless, spicy and mild.

It is! The cult-favorite, sweet-spicy chicken has returned after five years gone. Owner Israel Johnson told me why he switched up the waffle shape and whats new on the menu.

Heres my full story on the new Bay Bays!

Hatcher Mango Hill, the countys most beloved mango farm, is closing?

A fresh mango at the beloved Hatcher Mango Hill grove in unincorporated Palm Beach County.

The farm is being sold. My colleague Giuseppe Sabella explains why and what makes the farm so special to locals and mango lovers in a story published this week.

Heres the mango story link!

Chef Rick Mace of Tropical Smokehouse makes gourmet food for dogs?

Made from human-grade ingredients and without fillers or preservatives, Tropical Smokehouse's "Good Dog" dog food is available now in two-pound portions at the store on Dixie Highway.

He does! My food-team colleague Eddie Ritz writes all about it in a story this week.

Read all about Tropicals new Good Dog cuisine here!

Have a delicious weekend!

Liz Balmaseda

Here's how to stay up-to-date with your local dining scene: follow our food & dining writer, Liz Balmaseda on Twitter @LizBalmaseda, Instagram at @silkpalm or sign up for our free weekly foodie newsletter, At the Table.

Read recent columns by Liz Balmaseda

Liz Balmaseda is The Palm Beach Post's food critic.

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Liz Balmaseda is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA Today Network. She covers the local food and dining beat. Follow her on Instagram and on Threads @Silkpalm and Post on Food Facebook. She can be reached by email at lbalmaseda@pbpost.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Best restaurants: West Palm Okeechobee Steakhouse 'legendary' in South
Tia Mowry is feeling fairly nervous about entering the dating scene months after her divorce from fellow actor Cory Hardrict.

On Wednesday, the actor shared in an Instagram post that shes nervous and terrified about dating again, and that shes actually never been on the dating scene. She shared a fun video of herself getting ready in the mirror with a text overlay that read: Welp never thought Id be here, but here goes...

Even though Im in my [40s], I feel so inexperienced! she wrote in the caption of the post. And while it would be easy to just throw in the towel and avoid the potential for awkwardness and hurt, I know Gods got me!

Cory Hardrict and Tia Mowry photographed together at the 2016 BET Awards on June 26, 2016, in Los Angeles, California.

Cory Hardrict and Tia Mowry photographed together at the 2016 BET Awards on June 26, 2016, in Los Angeles, California.

Mowry announced on social media in October that she and Hardrict were separating after 14 years of marriage and over 20 years as a couple. Their divorce was finalized in April, according to People.

These decisions are never easy, and not without sadness, she said in the October statement. We will maintain a friendship as we co-parent our beautiful children.

Hardrict and Mowry share two children: Cree, 12, and Cairo, 5.

Mowry told HelloBeautiful in June that her decision to divorce from Hardrict was partly inspired by her kids.

For them seeing their mother walk in truth. I feel like its a great lesson for them because it was not an easy decision, she said.

Related...
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.  Former President Donald Trump removed the need to fly to Florida next week when he pleaded not guilty Friday in a paper filing to three new charges brought against him in a superseding indictment related to his handling of classified documents after he left office.

In doing so, he waived a court appearance in Fort Pierce, Florida, that was scheduled for Aug. 10 before U.S. Magistrate Judge Shaniek Mills Maynard.

Trump, 77, personally appeared in a U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., on Thursday to plead not guilty to a third federal indictment brought against him by prosecutors. The long-awaited indictment brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith, whose office also brought the documents case, alleges the former president orchestrated an illegal attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to President Joe Biden.

Following that plea, Trump boarded his private jetliner and flew back to New Jersey, where he is spending the summer.

The not-guilty plea entered in the South Florida federal court in the classified documents case and posted to the case docket on Friday took the form of a one-page filing titled, Waiver of Appearance for Arraignment.

I have received a copy of the Indictment and the plea ls NOT GUILTY to the charged offense(s), the filing reads. I am aware that I have the right under Rule 10 of the Federal Rues of Criminal Procedure to be present In court for my arraignment. I waive my right to appear in court at my arraignment.

The document was signed and dated Friday by Trump and by his Florida-based attorney, Christopher Kise.

The new charges against Trump involve an attempt to delete Mar-a-Lago security footage sought by a grand jury subpoena, making false statements to the FBI, and the unlawful retention of a document containing national defense information.

Trump pleaded not guilty in a Miami courtroom on June 12 to dozens of felony counts in the first indictment that accuses him of hoarding classified documents and refusing government demands to return them.

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Trumps paper plea on Friday leaves co-defendants Waltine Nauta, 40, an aide to Trump, and Carlos De Oliveira, 56, the property manager at the former Presidents Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, as the others who still need to be arraigned on charges brought in the superseding indictment.

De Oliveira apparently still needs to retain a Florida lawyer who is authorized to represent him in the Southern District of Florida. No notice of a hiring has appeared in the court file since De Oliveira made his initial appearance in Miami this past Monday.

The Fort Pierce magistrate is likely to expect De Oliveira to have a local attorney at his side at the hearing next Thursday.

_____
Faced with alarming teacher shortages, Virginia agreed last month agreed to partner with a for-profit online teacher credentialing company, hoping to get more teachers into classrooms faster and without the higher tuition costs of traditional colleges and universities.

Though some of the Virginia school board members had qualms about the process, they agreed to give it a try because of the naggingly high teacher vacancy rate. The board unanimously approved a three-year pilot program and partnered with one of the bigger companies in the fast-track credentialing business iteach.

Such companies pledge they will get a candidate teacher-ready in about a year. The iteach program includes online courses, after which candidates are placed in classrooms with some supervision and the agreement of the school districts.

According to state statistics, Virginia had more than 3,500 full-time teacher vacancies for the 2022-2023 school year, a rate of about 4.5%, though vacancies in some specialties are higher. Vacancies were worse than the year before, statistics showed.

A classroom is pictured in this file photo.

Daniel Gecker, then a member of the state board of education who voted for the online certification plan, said he agreed only because the program is a three-year pilot and an opportunity to gather data.

We are in the middle of a fairly significant teacher shortage, Gecker said in an interview. Having the online-trained teachers is better than having the untrained subs weve been having.

He said that before the COVID-19 pandemic, it probably would have been possible to make up the teacher gap with better retention. Post-pandemic, the gulf is just too wide; we cant fill it with better retention and people coming out of school.

Virginia is just the latest state to turn to for-profit teacher certification companies in an effort to recruit and train more teachers. The states hope the new paths to certification will help ease the shortages, but opponents argue those who take the programs are not as well trained as traditionally credentialed teachers and will do a disservice to students.

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States have other options to address the teacher shortage, including lowering standards to try to bring in more recruits.

Education Week reported last year that about a dozen states had relaxed credentialing standards for teachers or were considering doing so. California lawmakers decided in 2021 to allow aspiring teachers to eliminate two exams as long as they had taken courses to address basic skills and the subject matter they intend to teach. Oklahoma enacted a law last year to remove the requirement for a general-education exam.

A school library in Vero Beach, Florida.

Some states are pressing temporary teachers into service. Arizona allowed substitute teachers to take full-time positions last year to address its teacher shortage. In addition, a law passed last year allows Arizona teacher candidates working toward a college degree to teach at the same time.

Iteach is working in 11 states, according to its website: Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Hawaii, Indiana, Louisiana, Nevada, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. The Mississippi Teacher Licensure Commission, a panel created to evaluate such programs for that state, unanimously recommended iteach as a certification provider at the commissions meeting July 7. That recommendation now goes to the state board of education.

Another large company, Teachers of Tomorrow, is working in nine states, though its credentials may be in jeopardy in Texas, where the company has been placed on probation after state regulators found the company misled potential teachers in its advertising and hadnt shown its training was based on research.

Iteach has been accredited by the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation, which credentials traditional educator training colleges. Andrew Rozell, president of certification at iteach, said it is the only for-profit program of its kind so credentialed.

The for-profit companies are separate and different from online university programs, such as Western Governors University or the Southern New Hampshire University, which also have teacher education courses but are not focused on quick credentialing. The for-profit credentialing firms tout their ability to get people into classrooms within a year or 18 months, depending on when they begin.

Serious need for teachers

Nationwide, teacher shortages are just as bad as in Virginia, particularly in rural or low-income inner-city school districts. A working paper from Brown University conservatively estimated that as of August 2022, there were 36,000 teacher vacancies across the United States.

And the paper noted that those vacancies are not distributed equally. The vacancy rate per 10,000 students is more than 159 times as high in Mississippi as it is in Missouri, the authors wrote. The paper found a shortage of 0.43 teachers per 10,000 students in Missouri and 68.59 teachers per 10,000 in Mississippi.

By taking the step to help fill the vacancies, the Virginia state education board was following Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkins Executive Directive No. 3 to address the teacher shortage, in part by reducing red tape associated with teacher licensure, while assuring high standards.

Iteach fills that criteria, according to Youngkin spokesperson Macaulay Porter, in an email to Stateline. Governor Youngkin fully supports high-quality alternative pathways to becoming a teacher. The State Board of Education rigorously reviewed iteach data to ensure that iteach will provide school divisions with another effective and efficient option for recruiting and preparing new teachers, Porter said.

The iteach method counts on reducing barriers to time and cost, Rozell said, without reducing rigor. It is designed to take about a year to get candidates ready for initial teaching, if they pass state exams.

The newly trained teachers are granted temporary licenses and teach under intermittent observation by iteach professionals who drop into classes, sometimes unannounced. All this occurs with the knowledge of school administrators, who can provide their own support.

Opponents question fast-track credentialing

But critics contend iteach and the other programs that turn out teachers quickly are not subject to the same requirements and depth of instruction as teachers who go the traditional path of four undergraduate years, sometimes at least a year getting a masters degree, and many months of student teaching under nearly constant supervision by a trained teacher.

Heather Peske, president of the National Council on Teacher Quality, a research and advocacy group, said in a phone interview that for-profit online teaching programs are a blunt instrument to address teacher shortages. The programs, she said, dont take into account whether the teachers are qualified for the subjects they will be teaching or whether they will be satisfied with their jobs and stay in the profession or leave after a year or two.

If you have a fast-track program and your model is entirely online, it begs the question of how they are assuring aspiring teachers get a place to practice  content knowledge and clinical practice, she said. School districts should tailor recruiting and educating new teachers to the vacancies and needs, she said, which are most often specialized teachers such as special education or multi-language learners.

Iteach advertises that its cost for a complete program is $4,399, plus a $99 enrollment fee. Teachers of Tomorrows program costs about $5,000.

By contrast, annual average tuition at a four-year institution in education can range from $9,193 at an in-state school to $26,543 at an out-of-state school, according to the website College Tuition Compare, an independent college evaluation site. Elite institutions are higher. Graduate tuition ranges from $10,806 annually to $19,796, the site found.

Iteachs Rozell said many of the students in his companys programs are already working in classrooms, as paraprofessionals, aides for special-needs kids or in other nonteaching capacities, and they already have some idea of classroom management and other skills needed to be a teacher.

Debate continues about what's best for students

But Peske said the grow your own movement, which takes paraprofessionals or other employees and turns them into teachers, while a good idea, still requires thoughtful clinical experience to prepare them. The notion that you would rely on candidates themselves to already be in the classrooms or already working with students, that concerns me.

Someone could have been a paraprofessional working as an aide to a student with disabilities but may never have had the experience (learning) about neuro-differences in those students or who may never had had a mentor.

The American Federation of Teachers, the nations largest teachers union, in a 2022 report called for more rigor in teacher training, not less, and criticized states' efforts to lower the qualifications needed to be a teacher.

There are more alternative and nontraditional ways to become a teacher in the U.S. than ever before, and unfortunately many of them are low quality, the report said.

The teachers union stressed methods that are reflected in traditional training, saying aspiring teachers should get extensive classroom experiences alongside a skilled practitioner over a significant period and a strong foundation in subject-area content.

We cannot put a bandage on the teacher and school staff shortage by cutting corners and lowering the bar for entry, the report said.

Study suggests university-credentialed teachers are better

The biggest knock on the swift accreditation companies came in Texas, where Texas Teachers of Tomorrow, also known as A+ Texas Teachers, has been put on probation. The Texas Education Agency found that the company failed to address numerous deficiencies, including the number of content hours required for teacher candidates and whether candidates' existing skills were appropriate for the certification sought. The audit came after complaints from school districts and teacher candidates who used the firm, The Dallas Morning News reported.

Attempts to reach Texas Teachers of Tomorrow were unsuccessful.

A University of Texas at Austin College of Education 2021 study of teacher preparation nationally found that in every tested subject, students do better if they have university-certified teachers, and that for low-income students, having a university-certified teacher can offset half or more of the disadvantages that comes from living in poverty.

In addition, the study showed that university-certified teachers had a 73% retention rate over nine years, while only 59% of alternatively certified teachers remained teaching.

But Rozell said that study was skewed because of the problems with Teachers of Tomorrow. He said an internal survey of his companys students showed that after the first year in the classroom, 93% said they were excited to be back next year and planned to teach for at least five years.

Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a national nonprofit news organization focused on state policy.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Teacher shortages spur fast-track credentialing, criticism in states
Former Columbus, Ohio, police officer Ricky Anderson has been indicted on charges of murder and reckless homicide for the shooting of a Black man last year.

Anderson shot and killed 20-year-old Donovan Lewis in August 2022 during a search warrant while he was unarmed and in bed.

Body camera footage was released of the encounter last September and Anderson, a 30-year veteran of the Columbus Police Department, appears to open fire almost immediately after police open the bedroom door to where Lewis was sleeping. He later died at a hospital.

Anderson retired in bad standing months after the shooting.

PHOTO: Former Columbus, Ohio police officer Ricky Anderson, in a booking photo. (Franklin County Jail)

"We are relieved that a grand jury concluded what we've known all along: Officer Ricky Anderson broke the law when he shot and killed an unarmed Donovan Lewis as he laid in his bed," the attorneys for Rebecca Duran, Lewis' mother, said in a statement Friday. "CPD bodycam video showed this clearly and nothing has changed in almost a year. Although Mr. Lewis' family is pleased that his killer will soon face a jury of his peers, they are incredibly disappointed that it took so long to come to this conclusion in the first place."

Police officers were executing a warrant on Lewis' home to arrest him on three separate charges: domestic violence, assault and improper handling of a firearm.

Mark Collins, the attorney for Anderson, said in a statement last September, "When we analyze police-involved shootings, we must look to the totality of the circumstances, and we are expressly forbidden from using 20/20 hindsight, because unlike all of us, officers are not afforded the luxury of armchair reflection when they are faced with rapidly evolving, volatile encounters in dangerous situations."

MORE: Family files wrongful death lawsuit against Columbus police officer who shot Donovan Lewis

Lewis' mother said she was "grateful" for the indictment but that she is trying to trust the process.

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"I'm doing my best to keep it together day by day," Duran said at a press event on Friday with her attorneys and Tariq Stewart, Lewis' brother. "Bottom line is he should still be here and I'm going to be grieving that for the rest of my life."

Rex Elliott, one of her attorneys, said he was also grateful for the charges but criticized what he called an "unreasonable" amount of time to get to them.

PHOTO: Family members, friends and community members attend a rally for Donovan Lewis at the Columbus Division of Police Headquarters on Sept. 2, 2022, in Columbus, Ohio. (Gaelen Morse/Getty Images, FILE)

"The reality is that there is a different justice system for citizens and there's a different justice system for police officers," Elliott said at the press event. "This never should have taken this long."

"They want people to become numb to what happened, and we are not numb to what happened," he continued, adding that he is "confident" Anderson will be convicted and "held accountable for what he did."

Lewis' family filed a civil suit against Anderson, as well as four other officers involved in the raid, in February.

According to the complaint, Anderson had a total of 58 complaints against him over the years, including use of force complaints, and has also been reprimanded for sexual harassment while on the job.

"As prosecutors pursue Mr. Anderson in the criminal case, we will continue to fight for justice and accountability in our civil case," the lawyers for Duran said Friday. "Our hope is that no other parent has to bury their child as the result of a reckless act by a member of law enforcement."

ABC News' Nakylah Carter and Erica Y. King contributed to this report.

Police officer Ricky Anderson charged with murder for shooting Black man in his bed originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
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One of the most fun things about Thanksgiving dinner with your friends and family (besides the delicious feast, of course!) is the opportunity to show off your fall style. Whether you're rocking a cute fall dress, a cozy fall sweater, or trying one of Ree Drummond's favorite fall fashion ideas, we highly recommend accessorizing with some festive Thanksgiving nails!

We've rounded up the best fall manicures for you to choose from, with ideas for every taste, including neutral or solid color nails as well as some more dramatic options with cute nail art that nods to the holiday season. We're talking pumpkins, falling leaves, acorns, and even a couple of manicures with tiny turkeys! Heck, some of these fall and Halloween nail designs can be worn again at the Thanksgiving dinner table. There are also some designs that are a little less on the nose, like an "autumn kisses" manicure featuring an all-over lip print in everyone's favorite fall colors, or a pumpkin pie-inspired manicure featuring bright orange polish and creamy half moons and tips reminiscent of whipped cream topping.

The best thing about these designs is that they're all relatively simple so even beginners can try them as an at-home manicure. No matter which manicure you choose, it's sure to impress everyone at the Thanksgiving dinner table!



Autumn Kisses Nails

You're sure to fall in love with this autumn kisses manicure! It features an all-over lips pattern in everyone's favorite fall colors, against a neutral backdrop.

See more at Chalkboard Nails.

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Chalkboard Nails

Pumpkin Pie Nails

Craving pumpkin pie? This bright orange mani features creamy half moons and tips that are reminiscent of whipped cream. This one is neutral enough to wear in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, too!

See more at Nailed It.

Nailed It

Turkey Nails

Get ready to gobble 'til you wobble with this fun turkey manicure! With bright fall colors on four nails and turkey nail art on the thumb, this manicure looks festive enough as it isbut when you strike this pose, you'll feel even more Thanksgiving-ready.

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See more at jjooyoo.

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Fall Metallic Nails

For more subtle Thanksgiving style, try this metallic manicure in muted shades of brown and tan. The shimmer will still make it feel celebratory without being too over the top.

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Terrazzo Tile Nails

All your favorite fall colors are present in this playful manicure, but the terrazzo pattern offers an unexpected twist on a Thanksgiving manicure.

See more at Nailed It.

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Nailed It

Matte Fall Botanical Nails

Dip a toeor should we say finger?in the matte trend with this colorful manicure featuring hand-painted fall botanicals. Top it all off with OPI's Matte Top Coat for a smooth, subtle finish.

See more at Nailed It.

Nailed It

Maroon and Yellow Fall Leaves Nails

If you usually prefer dark nails for the holidays, but want to mix things up a little this year, try this deep maroon manicure with a few lively pops of yellow. The fall leaves add just the right amount of festive appeal.

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Sparkly Leaves Nails

Sparkle this holiday season with a rust red manicure topped with colorful glitter and bright orange leaf art. It's a fall celebration on your fingernails!

See more at Nailed It.

Nailed It

Leafy Patterned Nails

Who says a Thanksgiving manicure has to use traditional fall colors? We love this fun color palette of neutrals with pops of pink and orange. Top each nail off with leafy patterns to add fall flair.

See more at Nailed It.

Nailed It

Neutral Maple Leaf Nails

On the other hand (pun intended), a glossy neutral Thanksgiving manicure can be just as pretty, especially when you add orange and yellow maple leaves to just a couple of nails.

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Fall Florals

Incorporate fall florals into your style with this pretty pumpkin-hued manicure. You can even add a couple of glittering gold nails for a touch of holiday glamor.

Christina Radcliffe - Getty Images

Matte Turkey Nails

Let's talk turkey manicures: This one is tons of fun and the art is simple enough for even beginners to try.

Christina Radcliffe - Getty Images

Pumpkin Plaid Nails

Pumpkins, fall leaves, and plaid come together for the prettiest Thanksgiving manicure. The subdued colors would pair just as nicely with neutral styles as it would with bright colors.

Christina Radcliffe - Getty Images

Brown Manicure with Maple Leaf Nails

You can never go wrong with a rich, glossy color during the cooler months. Wear this manicure all through November and add some fall leaf nail art right to one accent nail right before Thanksgiving.

Oleksandr Smirnov - Getty Images

Candy Corn Nails

Whether you hate or love candy corn, you've got to give it up for this sweet and playful manicure inspired by the fall treat. These nails look almost good enough to eat!

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marinafrost / 500px - Getty Images

Cranberry Nails

If cranberry sauce is your favorite Thanksgiving side, why not embrace that color for your holiday nail look this year? It's a color you can wear through Christmas, too!

Marina Chernyakova - Getty Images

Fall Foliage Nails

You'd never miss a chance to admire the fall foliageeven when it's just on your nails! A matte orange manicure is elevated by nail art featuring gorgeous autumn trees.

Christina Radcliffe - Getty Images

Warm Glittery Nails

Embrace a fall color palette for your nails in shades of warm orange, white, and brown. Add a few layers of gold glitter to your tips to really make this look shine.

Christina Radcliffe - Getty Images

Fall Harvest Nails

Celebrate the harvest season with this fun mani featuring a blue-gray base and cute illustrations of fall gourds and fruits.

Christina Radcliffe - Getty Images

Long French with Fall Floral Nails

If you're all about the long, pointed nail trend, this one is for you! It features a classic french manicure with a fall twist: delicate little flowers in autumnal colors.

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marigo20 - Getty Images

Fall Acorn Nails

Call us nuts, but we love this fall acorn mani! You can alternate between solid color nails, nails with one larger acorn, and nails with tiny acorns and polkadots. So cute!

Christina Radcliffe - Getty Images

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Another shooting in downtown Boise on Thursday marks the fourth fatal shooting by Boise police this year, a record number for the agency in decades, according to Idaho Statesman data.

The shooting occurred near Ann Morrison Park on South Dale Street. Around 2:40 p.m., police confirmed the person involved, identified only as a man in his 50s, died at the scene.

Boise police have been involved in six shootings since the start of the year. The three most recent shootings  of 22-year-old Payton Wasson on June 24, 28-year-old Macey Juker on July 26 and Thursdays unidentified man  have been fatal. Boise police also shot and killed 32-year-old Eli Nash in a Meridian parking lot in January.

Boise police were involved in three fatal shootings in 2016 and two fatal shootings in 2021, 2017 and 2004, according to data analyzed by the Statesman. The Statesmans records date back to 2000.

Last year, the Boise Police Department shot three people, but none of the shootings were fatal. It was the first year since 2014 that the agency was not involved in a fatal shooting.

According to data compiled by the Washington Post and the Statesman, various law enforcement agencies have shot and killed eight people in Idaho this year. One of those was killed by Ada County sheriffs deputies outside of Boise in April. The three others were killed by police in Blackfoot, Idaho Falls and Pocatello.

Thursdays shooting makes 2023 one of the deadliest years for police shootings in Idaho since 2000. Statesman data shows police killed eight people in 2019 and 13 people in both 2018 and 2021.
damircudic / Getty Images

Saving for retirement can be a tall task; in fact, millions are heading into their golden years with no savings. One of the reasons that saving for retirement is difficult is that you have to balance it with other financial goals that are equally essential.

Balancing multiple goals at once can be tough  especially when it comes to finances. And not all goals exist on the same timeline, which only adds to the challenge. With the help of financial planning experts, GOBankingRates has cobbled together a way to balance your retirement savings with your other goals.

Retirement Savings: Experts Say This Magic Number Is the Key  and Its Not $1 Million

Find Out: 3 Ways To Recession-Proof Your Retirement

Set Clear Financial Goals

First, you should outline your short, medium and long-term financial goals so that you have a firm grasp on what you need to do.

While these do include long-term items like planning for retirement, there will likely also be goals across your financial journey, like building an emergency fund, saving for a down payment on a house, funding higher education or paying off debt, said Maya Sudhakaran, head of growth and acquisition at Plynk.

Learn More: Heres the Average Social Security Check for Men vs. Women

Budget Aggressively

Budget planning is essential, and the more clear and detailed and aggressive with cuts you are, the better shape you and your money will be in.

Writing down your budget and decluttering expenses will help identify areas where you can cut back and increase your retirement savings, said Jeremy Babener, president at Structured Consulting. Targeting small items to remove from your budget, like a daily luxury drink or meal, can free up more money for retirement savings without major sacrifices.

Save and Invest the Right Amount for Retirement

Saving for retirement while balancing your other goals is impossible to do if you dont know how much to set aside for retirement investments. Try to live off of only 70% of your take-home pay and then invest the rest, said Paul Tyler, CMO at Nassau Financial Group. If you do the math, youll be astonished at how fast your savings will grow over time.

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If you cant get by on 70% of your take-home pay, aim for putting aside 10% to 20%.

Then, budget for your other goals based on the remaining income, ranking them by importance and time sensitivity, said Sammie Ellard-King, personal finance advisor at Up the Gains.

Diversify Your Investment Portfolio

Creating a diversified investment portfolio is crucial.

This not only spreads the risk but also allows for different investment vehicles to cater to different goals, said Casey Jones, founder and head of marketing and finance at CJ&CO. For example, high-risk, high-return investments could be used for long-term goals like retirement, while safer, low-return investments could be used for short-term goals.

Build Out a Solid Retirement Strategy

Setting aside as much as you can for retirement investments is one thing; but you also need to have an ironclad plan for these savings. Start with your place of employment.

Many employer plans allow the participant to use payroll deductions to fund their retirement account, said Evan Potash, wealth management advisor at TIAA. This makes it easy to save for other short and midterm goals. You cant miss the income you dont receive. At minimum, you should save enough to get a full employer match. If you can add more, then you should.

The 2023 limit for a 403(b) or 401(k) is $22,500 per year, and if you are 50 or older, you can add another $7,500 as a catchup provision. Typically, you can change the payroll deductions on an employer plan as needed until you are comfortable with your net paycheck.

Those not covered by an employer plan can fund a traditional IRA.

There are income limits on whether you can deduct it, Potash said. 2023 limits are $6,500, and there is a $1,000 catchup provision for being 50 or older. There may be an opportunity to save in a Roth IRA with the same limits, but there is an income threshold limit, as well. Self-employed people may be able to shelter more into a different type of IRA, like a SEP, Simple IRA or a solo 401(k).

Save the Right Amount for Emergencies

Emergencies are exactly that: emergencies. Its imperative that you have an untouchable fund to cover any sudden expenses that may pop up.

You never know what unexpected expense will come up, Potash said. Whether you need a new roof, a water heater or a car repair, its important to be ready. You shouldnt rely on credit cards, since the average rate is about 20% if you carry a balance. A general rule is to have 6 months of expenses saved in a liquid, insured bank account. Many banks are currently offering 5% APY for a savings or money market [account].

Automate All Savings

Youll want to make saving as seamless and easy as possible. Take the automated route.

Setting up automatic contributions to your investing accounts can make reaching your retirement or other financial goals an easy habit, Sudhakaran said.

Use Smart Apps

There is no shortage of smart apps on the market that will increase your potential to trim costs.

Dont forget to utilize smart apps to find affordable gas, restaurants or special deals, Babener said. These apps can help you save money without compromising your quality of life.

These apps prove especially useful if youre budgeting for a big expense, like a vacation.

Be proactive and use apps or a travel agent to find good deals, Babener said. This ensures your budget remains intact while still enjoying time away from work.

Stay Flexible

Being flexible and adapting to changes is the key to staying on track, Babener said. Balancing affordability and quality allows you to enjoy life within your budget through research and creativity.

Get a Financial Advisor or Retirement Planner

Financial advisors and retirement planners specialize in these issues and can address your situation in a tailored way.

They stay up-to-date on the latest tax laws, investment strategies and financial products to help you make informed decisions that will make your money work for you, said Young Pham, a financial advisor and investment analyst at BizReport. Additionally, a professional will assess your unique financial situation, goals and risk tolerance to create a personalized retirement plan that meets your needs and aspirations.

More From GOBankingRates

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Financial Planning Experts: How To Balance Retirement Savings With Your Other Goals
Delaware law enforcement cracked down on a serial Nike shoplifter last week.

Delaware State Police charged 22-year-old Maicol Matias-Pena of Bridgeton, N.J. with felony shoplifting and organized retail crime after he was arrested for stealing from a Nike Factory Store in Rehoboth Beach twice in a matter of weeks.

More from Sourcing Journal

Police first responded to the store on May 31 when employees reported that suspects had stolen shoes. Law enforcement learned that two men had concealed 28 pairs of shoes in two shopping bags and left the store without paying. The suspects returned to the Nike outlet store on June 29 and stole nine more pairs of sneakers for a total of nearly $4,000 in illicit merchandise.

Store surveillance video identified Matias-Pena as one of the suspects. New Jersey State Police took him into custody on July 15 before he was extradited to Delaware and charged on July 27. Matias-Pena was released on a $2,000 unsecured bond while he awaits trial.

An officer with New Jerseys Wayne Police Department last month conducted a suspicious vehicle traffic stop that led to the recovery of more than $5,000 in stolen merchandise from the Express, Forever 21, Gap, H&M, Hollister, Old Navy, Pacsun, and Zara stores at the Willowbrook Mall.

The four suspects were charged with receiving stolen property and possession of an anti-shoplifting device countermeasure, according to Wayne PD.

Pennsylvania State Police reported two recent shoplifting incidents involving the same Lululemon store in Glen Mills. Three suspects on June 17 who stole roughly $4,480 worth of apparel assaulted and threatened to shoot a security guard before fleeing. On Monday, five suspects stole mens clothing valued around $3,000 before fleeing the Lululemon store in a gray Toyota sedan.

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Additional reporting by Jessica Binns.

Click here to read the full article.
Diva More





Diva More has addressed the rumors that shes politically conservative.

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On Friday, August 4, Drag Race Brasil contestant Diva More shared an open letter addressing the long-standing rumors that she voted for conservative candidate Jair Bolsonaro  a politician that firmly stands against LGBTQ+ rights  in the last Brazilian presidential election, which took place in 2022.

The Drag Race Brasil star wrote:

My name is Eduardo Jonata. Im a makeup artist, actor, costume designer, and also known for my drag as Diva More. Im writing this open letter to inform you that Ive never voted in favor of former President Bolsonaro. I was never a Bolsonarist, nor did I campaign for him.

For context, the Bolsonarist label in Brazil is equivalent to something like MAGA in the US. Those labels refer to similar groups of conservative voters who support candidates like Trump and Bolsonaro in their respective countries.

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Quite the contrary, I denounced the governments disregard for the pandemic on my social networks and protested in the streets in favor of his impeachment. Through democracy, I chose to campaign for a fairer and less unequal Brazil. [For a country that is] more developed, with quality education and opportunity for all. This is my ideology. This is what I believe. I stayed true to my thinking.

The queen then started to explain how she voted in each of the last few presidential elections in Brazil.

In 2018, I voted for Ciro [Gomes] in the first round and [Fernando] Haddad in the second [round].

For context, both of those candidates were opposing Bolsonaro in the 2018 elections, so More is claiming she voted against the conservative politician that year. Alas, Bolsonaro still went on to win the 2018 elections.

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Mores preferred candidate, Gomes, once again ran as a candidate in the 2022 presidential elections. However, he was not one of the top two candidates who received the largest number of votes and moved forward to the second round of the elections. Instead, the elections narrowed down to Lula (leftist candidate) and Bolsonaro (conservative candidate).

The queen wrote:

In the 2022 elections, I openly campaigned for Ciro Gomes. At the end of the first-round vote [in the 2022 elections], I expressed my frustration on Instagram for [Ciro Gomes not making it to] the second round. This story was screenshot, taken out of context, and thrown into hate groups on social media.

As a result, I received a swarm of DMs. In regard to the messages I received from strangers, I ignored and blocked their respective profiles. Regarding messages from those I knew, out of consideration, I explained that I would not vote in the second round, as I had moved to Buzios after the voting card transfer deadlines.

The criticism against More for choosing this political stance is that, by not voting in favor of Lula, she was ultimately not helping the LGBTQ+ community to defeat Bolsonaro.

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I was also going through financial struggles. Traveling back to my electoral zone in Rio de Janeiro would involve expenses that were outside of my budget. Some people understood this situation. Others chose to ignore my explanation and went back to directing offensive messages against me.

I received over 800 messages of hate via DMs and was given the nickname of Bolsonarist Drag Queen. Just like that, I was not only under threat, but I was also transformed into everything I fought against. And I had no chance of defense.

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twitter.com

But why are you only going public now to explain what happened, Diva? At the same time that Im currently realizing a dream [of being cast on Drag Race Brasil], Ive found myself even more exposed to this hatred that is motivated by a mistake. Now that the spotlight has turned to me, along came a new wave of disproportionate and repeated attacks from the side of the trenches where I also belong.

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twitter.com

Even though keeping your vote a secret is a constitutional right in a democracy, I understand the threat that the candidate in question poses to our LGBTQ+ community. And for that reason, I reiterate that I didnt vote and have never campaigned for Bolsonaro. I dont align with his priorities or worldview that he defends.

I hope that my version of the story can be heard and considered at this time. And I ask, with all my heart, that before you continue to reproduce this wave of hatred, youre aware of the damage that an act or word can cause. Otherwise, the appropriate legal measures are being taken in regard to the actions and crimes committed, as well as my safety.

Drag Race Brasil premieres August 30 on WOW Presents Plus.
Michelle Yeoh has shared more snapshots from her recent wedding, unveiling the somewhat unusual bridal dress she wore to the intimate nuptials.

Designed by couture label Schiaparelli, the gown featured a bodice adorned with a large, bejeweled face. In a caption accompanying her Instagram post, Yeoh described it as the French brands Face of Happiness dress.

The Oscar-winning actress wed French businessman Jean Todt in Geneva, Switzerland, last Thursday, nearly two decades after he proposed.

An earlier social media post showed her wearing a different white gown for what appeared to be a wedding ceremony. But two further sets of images, which were recently posted to Yeohs official Instagram account, revealed she also sported a second, less conventional gown.

Yeoh posted a close-up of the bodice of her Schiaparelli gown. - Michelle Yeoh/Instagram

She appeared to have brought her Oscar statuette along for the festivities. - Michelle Yeoh/Instagram

In the photos, Yeoh is pictured wearing the surrealist-inspired dress as she cut a three-tiered wedding cake and posed with guests  and with what appeared to be her Best Actress Oscar trophy. (Yeoh won at this years Academy Awards for her turn as Evelyn Wang in the genre-defying Everything Everywhere All At Once.)

Another post featured a close-up of the bejeweled bodice and a snap taken with Schiaparellis owner Diego Della Valle, whom she described in the caption as her darling big brother.

Yeoh also thanked the labels creative director, Daniel Roseberry.

Ornate face motifs are a recurring theme in Schiaparelli's designs, like this bag carried by fashion blogger Chriselle Lim at Paris Fashion Week last month. - Jeremy Moeller/Getty Images

Yeoh has often turned to Schiaparelli for red-carpet appearances  including at this years Screen Actors Guild Awards, where she wore a black silk column dress embellished with gold sequins from the labels Spring-Summer 2023 Haute Couture collection.

Founded in Paris in the 1920s, Schiaparelli is renowned for fantastical designs. Founder Elsa Schiaparelli famously collaborated with the seminal surrealists Salvador Dali and Jean Cocteau.

Speaking to CNN in 2021, Roseberry said the brands identity is really rooted in (Elsa Schiaparellis) relationship with art and surrealism.

Its Schiaparelli  its meant to be something that challenges the status quo, added Roseberry, who since 2019 is the first  and to date, the only  American to have led a French couture house.

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A look from Schiaparelli's Fall-Winter 2023-24 collection. - Courtesy of Schiaparelli

Face motifs have been a recurring theme in Roseberrys collections.

Schiaparellis signature jewelry items, known as bijou, come shaped like eyeballs, noses, hands and lips. Several of the labels latest bag designs feature bejeweled faces, while others feature a nose-shaped magnetic closure.

And the labels Fall-Winter 2023-24 collection, unveiled in March, meanwhile includes a black velvet bustier dress adorned with trompe-loeil face made from gilded brass jewels.

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building in London

Haunted castles, plantations, and catacombs probably arent at the top of the list for most travelers. However, for some people, a trip isnt complete without a touch of horror.

If youre interested in haunted sites, or those with a morbid history, here are four suggestions.

Rose Hall  Jamaica

This plantation house was the home of the infamous Annie Palmer. Youll be hard-pressed to find a Jamaican who hasnt heard of the White Witch of Rosehall.

By all accounts, Palmer was a sadist, who was versed in the dark arts. Shortly after arriving in Jamaica, she married her first husband and later killed him. Her two other husbands, and the slaves she took as lovers, met the same grisly fate. Shes buried in a tomb on the property, and her ghost is believed to haunt the grounds.

The house fell into disrepair for a time, before being restored. For those who want that extra layer of horror, night tours are available.

The Tower of London  England

Since the Tower of London was a site of imprisonment, torture, and execution for centuries, of course, it would be haunted.

Some of Englands most famous historical figures are linked to the Tower. Two of Henry VIIIs wives were executed on Tower Green, and Guy Fawkes was imprisoned for plotting to blow up Parliament. Dont be surprised if you encounter a ghost or several.

Consider buying tickets in advance to avoid the lines.

Cape Coast Castle  Ghana

This slave castle sends chills down your spine on sight. Some visitors have had visceral reactions, especially while touring the dungeons.

Whether theres paranormal activity cant be confirmed. The reality of what happened there is terrifying enough. The guided tours range from 45 minutes to an hour.

Il Convento dei Cappuccini  Italy

The Eternal City of Rome has witnessed it all: murder, intrigue, and war. Il Convento dei Cappuccini features a museum, church, and crypt.

When you approach the crypts threshold, youll see a message that translates to, That which you are, we once were; that which we are, you shall be.

On display along the walls and ceiling, are the bones of 4,000 friars from centuries ago. Its creepy, but also artistic in a macabre kind of way. Tickets can be purchased online or on-site.
Maine's Camden Harbour Inn just opened a chic villa in a farmhouse that dates back to 1871.

Irvin Serrano/Courtesy of Camden Harbour Inn

Camden, nestled along Maines Penobscot Bay, is the quintessential New England coastal destination (and one of the countrys most beautiful small towns). With lush and wild islands that dot the bay, an idyllic waterfront, and family-owned businesses lining its historic downtown, there are plenty of reasons to include Camden in your summer or fall getaway plans. And if you happen to visit with family or friends, the towns most luxurious stay just debuted a brand-new villa for up to six guests.

Tucked between lush trees on quaint Chestnut Street behind The Camden Harbour Inn, a Relais & Chateaux property, the villa was a former farmhouse dating back to 1871. Until recently, the building was one of the Inn's owners' private residence. Keeping its lusciously cozy vibe was at the center of the renovation.

Irvin Serrano/Courtesy of Camden Harbour Inn

Irvin Serrano/Courtesy of Camden Harbour Inn

Personally, my hope is for our guests to feel utterly at home and free to be themselves during their stay, Raymond Brunyanszki, co-owner of the villa and The Camden Harbour Inn, told Travel + Leisure.

Brunyanszki, who is Dutch, explained that he preserved many of the houses original features as he found himself reminiscing about historic houses in the Netherlands, where you often find a blend of old floors and moldings with white-painted walls, contemporary light fixtures, and minimalist lines.

The result is a three-bedroom, two-bathroom home with plenty of character, blending Old World charm with modern aesthetics through vibrant pops of color, textures, and a collection of contemporary art. The kitchen, fully stocked with snacks and drinks, has been reconfigured to accommodate private cooking classes.

Irvin Serrano/Courtesy of Camden Harbour Inn

Irvin Serrano/Courtesy of Camden Harbour Inn

We want our guests to relax and know that we will take care of every detail, providing a deeply personalized experience that embodies the essence of old-fashioned hospitality, Brunyanszki added. The villas hotel-level perks include a private gym on the third floor, smart TVs, complimentary Wi-Fi, ample outdoor spaces and a grill, and a dedicated workspace.

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Resort-style services such as daily housekeeping, turndown service, and in-villa dining courtesy of the Inns restaurant Natalies are also available.

Nightly rates at Camden Harbor Villa start from $1,275, and you can book your stay on camdenharbourinn.com.

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Rare Beauty launched in 34 countries in less than two years.

When I say that, its hard to believe, said chief sales officer Kim Magee.

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With Sephora as its retail partner (and Space NK in the U.K.), the Southern California brand is now found in 36 countries. First came North America, in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, then Europe at all Sephora locations online, and in brick-and-mortar shops in France, Spain and Germany. The Asia-Pacific area was next, followed by the Middle East, U.K. and Brazil.

Early on, we decided to take one step at a time, explained chief executive officer Scott Friedman. So we focused on North America, in Sephora specifically. But based upon our conversations with their team mainly and the way we work together, we realized that Sephora was the one that could take the learnings and the brand DNA that were developing and help us launch globally, particularly once they created the global team in San Francisco to use those best learnings and help North American brands navigate the nuances of their international markets. So once that happened, we were all in and thats how we decided we were going to launch globally.

We would work with [Sephoras] support global team and the local teams to plan out a launch strategy, added Magee.

The most recent launch was in India on June 15, a significant market and one with great potential as Rare Beautys second-largest first-week launch after the U.S. Demand was already there; prior to launch, India was the brands second-largest audience on Instagram after the U.S., said Magee.

When brand founder and star Selena Gomez revealed the Sephora India launch in a playful Instagram video on June 1, it got more than 1 million likes on Rare Beautys account (which has 6 million followers). Its the brands number-two most viewed and number-one most liked post on the platform. Doubling the action, that same day Gomez was seen in another video announcement with beauty influencer Mrunal Panchal, which has nearly 12 million views and more than 1.5 million likes and counting on Panchals page.

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That was by far our most engaged post weve ever had as a company, said Magee.

In India, echoing other markets, consumers have been who the brand expected: largely an equal amount of Gen Z and Millennial shoppers.

I know that Sephora speaks about that, how we are bringing that Gen Z client into Sephora and growing that community for them and for us, said Magee.

Along with the U.S., the most successful markets have been Canada, France and Australia.

Were really leaning in and focusing on those, and theyre doing very, very well for us, said Magee.

The biggest learning as the brand expands globally is forecasting, they echoed. Items  with Soft Pinch Liquid Blush as the hero, followed by Soft Pinch Tinted Lip Oil, Positive Light Liquid Luminizer Highlight, Perfect Strokes Universal Volumizing Mascara and Warm Wishes Effortless Bronzer Stick  are selling out faster than expected.

Its very difficult to forecast whats going to happenWeve been trying to keep up with demand, said Magee. And as were getting them back in stock, now were starting to slowly see what the true potential is because we have yet to see our baseline. I can tell you our last four weeks have been the biggest weeks weve ever had.

By a lot, chimed in Friedman.

Were a top brand in every single region online, added Magee. Because of some of our out-of-stocks, we over-index by sending the inventory to the dotcom. So that is showing what the potential of the brand is by seeing that were the top-performing brand in all regions online.

Rooted in the brand DNA is Rare Beautys mission to impact with its Rare Impact Fund  the brands nonprofit affiliate working to expand mental health awareness and services, particularly in underserved communities (with one percent of all Rare Beauty sales going to the fund). As revealed on Thursday, in India, the brand has partnered with organizations Kolkata Sanved and Labhya, which share the mission of expanding access to mental health resources and education for young people.

Gomez is the face at the center of the mission, sharing the message and new product launches as the brand grows. Her fans are global, with 427 million on Instagram and 59 million on TikTok, and theyve been eager to access Rare Beauty goods.

When we were at the Brazil launch, the influencers and the community, they knew everything about the brand before we were there, said Friedman.

They care about the same things, he added, of global shoppers. To me, its a testament to the brandThat helps us lean into the same content, and it helps us train beauty advisers, also.

When Selena is talking about a product, everybody wins, because its the whole synchronized message, said Magee. Its a 360 strategy around the world. And that is where Sephora has set us up to be able to do that globally. Its really powerful.

So other than supply chain, its much easier when you do everything at the same time, added Friedman. Theres different lead times for different markets so it creates some healthy stress on our team.

Of future plans, he said: The reality is we still have tremendous room to grow. Within our current Sephora partnership, we are adding space within existing doors and will be part of new door growth in existing markets. But the existing space will allow us to add so many exciting new product collections. We dont want to get ahead of ourselves. At some point, well be interested in other possible partners but right now were focused on really leaning into whats working, and its working.

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These rug sources are designer-approved.

Dash & Albert

Shopping for rugs may seem like a daunting task, as floor coverings are often pieces that will remain in your home for the long haul. However, with so many designer-vetted sources to consider, you can browse confidently, knowing that youre reviewing durable, stylish options that are pro-approved. Below, Southern designers weigh in with seven of their favorite rug sources.

Many designers appreciate Dash & Alberts vast selection of rugs. They have an extensive range of weaves and textures that can suit almost any style or color palette, explains Suzanne Barrow, founder of Barrow Interiors in Isle of Palm, S.C. In particular, the Barrow team likes using the retailers jute and sisal rugs as well as their indoor/outdoor offerings. We are located at the beach, and coastal homes are our bread and butter, Chait explains.



Atlanta, Georgia, based Ashley Miller appreciates the companys made-to-last rugs as well. Not only are these rugs competitively priced, but they also boast superior durability and stain resistance, making them an excellent choice for busy families with children and pets, says the founder of Ashley Miller Design. I appreciate their commitment to providing both style and practicality, allowing me to effortlessly elevate the ambiance of both indoor and outdoor spaces with their exceptional rug selection.



Fran Murphy, the founder of Francoise Murphy Interiors in Louisville, Kentucky, agrees. They hold up to quite a bit of traffic and the herringbone pattern hides stains, she says of the indoor/outdoor offerings. Their website has an online quiz to help you pull the perfect selections for your space and style.

Amy Studebaker, the founder of Amy Studebaker Design in St. Louis, Missouri, also relies on Dash & Albert in her work, having used their pieces in showhouses, many client homes, and even throughout her own home.

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Related: 15 Things Interior Designers Would Never Do

Leslie May, the founder of Leslie May Designs in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, likes to source rugs at the Raleigh, North Carolina, based Eatmans Carpets and Interiors. They carry everything from my favorite synthetic sisal that is virtually stain proofand can be hosed off outside if things really go wrong at a cocktail partyto gorgeous custom pieces, and everything in between, she says. May appreciates how precise the Eatman measuring team is when they come to a job site, too, noting, It takes away those install day jitters of worrying if the carpet will fit perfectly!

Emily Porche, the founder of Porche & Co. in Marietta, Georgia, always turns to Etsy in search of vintage rugs for her projects. A simple search for turkish vintage rugs or Oushak rugs will yield some gorgeous one of a kind runners and rugs, which are sure to make a timeless statement within your home while supporting small businesses, she says.

Keivan Woven Arts, located in Atlanta but available to shop online through 1stDibs, is Michelle Workmans absolute favorite rug resource. They have a wide selection of exquisite antique rugs, and they also have a great collection of new and modern rugs, the Chattanooga, Tennessee-based founder of Michelle Workman Interiors explains. They are incredibly knowledgeable and very helpful, Workman adds, noting that shes even had West Coast-based clients fly to the showroom to examine and purchase offerings in person. Both Keivan and his wife Hedi are so easy to work with, and very accommodating, she adds.

When it comes to shopping for newly made, bright rugs, Kristina Petit, the founder of Kristinas Collective Interiors, relies on Milagro Collective, a Southern, female owned business. The rugs are heirloom quality in a variety of fun colors, shares Petit, who is based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. You can even customize them to your space, which I love being able to do for my clients homes.

Jessicah Kolter, the founder of Jessicah Kolter Interior Design in Houston, Texas, appreciates West Elms variety of rug options, which range from modern to classic to eclectic and beyond. It makes it easy to finish a space, as they have so many color selections and material options, she says, adding that the retailer also has some budget-friendly synthetic options in many sizes.

Paige Dick, the founder of Paige Designs in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, says that Zuma is a local favorite rug store. I love that the rugs actually age better with time, like a fine wine, she says. The unique character and charm of each piece is what drew me in, and I love that each rug has a story to tell. You wont see the same Zuma rug at your next door neighbors house!

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John Eastman

Longtime anti-LGBTQ+ activist John Eastman is one of the unindicted co-conspirators mentioned in Tuesdays indictment of former President Donald Trump.

Special Counsel Jack Smith released a 45-page indictment Tuesday, charging Trump with four counts related to his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. They are conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy to violate civil rights  the right to have ones vote counted. Trump is scheduled to appear Thursday in federal court in Washington, D.C.

The document cites six co-conspirators who are not charged  yet  and therefore doesnt include their names. However, news outlets have figured out the identities of five of the six, and Eastmans attorney has confirmed that he is one of them, The Hill reports. The indictment describes Co-Conspirator 2 as an attorney who devised and attempted to implement a strategy to leverage the Vice Presidents ceremonial role overseeing the certification proceeding to obstruct the certification of the presidential election.

Eastman circulated a memo with the plan, and the indictment quotes from the it. Those quotes match a two-page memo that Eastman wrote, CNN notes.

Before his association with Trump, Eastman was best known as an activist against marriage equality. In 2011, he became chairman of the board of the National Organization for Marriage, a group with the primary mission of opposing marriage equality, although it has taken up some other far-right causes too, including, recently, opposition to transgender rights. NOM's website no longer lists Eastman as a leader, although it did a little over a year ago.

At NOM's March for Marriage in 2014, Eastman likened fighting marriage equality to fighting slavery. "The courts should never take away controversial issues away from the voters in this country," he said. "And that's absolutely right. The last time the court tried to do that a century and a half ago on the slavery question, Abraham Lincoln refused to comply. He said if we let the court be the final word, we cease to be our own rulers."

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That same year, NOM sought to defend Oregon's same-sex marriage ban in court, since the state's attorney general refused to defend it. Eastman said at the time that NOM was compelled to defend the ban because its Oregon members voted for it in 2004. However, a federal judge ruled in 2014 that NOM did not have the legal standing to do so. The ban was struck down shortly thereafter. Eastman argued in support of bans in other states as well.

Among Eastman's other greatest hits, compiled by GLAAD and others, he has said marriage should be limited to male-female couples because it's for procreation; voiced support for Uganda's efforts to criminalize homosexuality, potentially imposing the death penalty; questioned Kamala Harris's eligibility to be vice president, even though she was born in the U.S., because her parents were not citizens at the time of her birth; said homosexuality is barbaric and will undermine marriage and all of civil society; and opposed gay-straight alliances and LGBTQ-inclusive lessons in schools.

Eastman was once a law professor at Chapman University in Orange, Calif., and was dean of its law school from 2007 to 2010. In 2021, he agreed to resign from Chapman immediately in the wake of his appearance at the pro-Trump rally that led to the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6 of that year, as Congress was certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election. At the rally, he spread the lie that the election was stolen from Trump: "We know there was fraud. We know that dead people voted." Numerous Chapman faculty members had demanded that Eastman leave the school.

At the hearings of the U.S. House committee investigating the events of January 6, Eastman's name came up several times. When an aide to Vice President Mike Pence showed Pence an email from Eastman urging him to suspend the certification session, Pence called it "rubber room stuff," Greg Jacob, a lawyer for the former vice president, said at one hearing.

It has also emerged that Eastman sought a presidential pardon before Trump left office, emailing Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani about the matter. And the committee further looked into email exchanges between Eastman and right-wing activist Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, for whom Eastman was once a law clerk. The emails "show that [Ginni] Thomas's efforts to overturn the election were more extensive than previously known," The Washington Post reported last year.

National media outlets have identified other unindicted co-conspirators as Giuliani and three other lawyers, Sidney Powell, Jeffrey Clark, and Kenneth Cheseboro. The identity of the sixth, described in the indictment as a political consultant, remains a mystery.

Harvey Silverglate, an attorney for Eastman, told The Hill that Eastman is indeed "Co-Conspirator 2." Silverglate defended his client's actions, saying, If you look closely at what Eastman did, it is not a crime. He acted as a lawyer coming up with far-out theories. Thats our duty. The Constitution gives people a right to effective representation of counsel.
The Louisville Metro Police Department showed up in full force for Riley Cottongim.

Louisville Metro Police Department

Roughly two dozen police officers from the Louisville Metro Police Department lined up to greet Riley Cottongim on his first day of kindergarten Tuesday. They performed the moving gesture in honor of the five year olds late father, 29-year-old Officer Zach Cottongim, who was killed in the line of duty in 2021.

"I could just feel Zach. I could feel him standing there with them," Cottongim's widow, Jamie Cottongim, told Good Morning America. "I just felt so close with him in that moment and to see Riley smiling and high-fiving all of them, it was amazing."

Jamie said she struggled emotionally in the days leading up to Riley starting school because she knew how much Zach would have wanted to be there for his oldest son.

Officer Donna Morgan, who worked as Zach's partner for more than two years, said that a group of officers' wives came together to make sure a police presence was there for Riley in his absence.



"The friendships and camaraderie amongst the squad were extremely important to Zach, and so it's been important to us as a squad to be present for special moments in order to carry on his legacy," Morgan explained to GMA. "We really want to ensure his sons always know how much he loved them, and that if he were here, he would be the one that was present for these moments."

Jamie, who works for Louisville Metro Police Department as a civilian, said that the officers' presence was a "shock" for both her and Riley.

"He had an amazing day. He told me it was the best day ever," she said. "His teacher also told me that by the time he got to class he had the biggest smile on his face."

Zach was killed in the line of duty on December 18, 2021, when he was struck by a passing vehicle as he inspected an abandoned car on the side of the road. In addition to Jamie and Riley, he is also survived by a second son, Alexander, who is now 2.

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"He was extremely passionate about it and he was just such a light and just wanted to help everyone," Jamie told GMA. "He was the true definition of what it is to put that badge on and to serve others."



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One of the worlds largest container shipping companies expects container demand will continue falling this year as clients clear through massive product stockpiles, part of the prolonged inventory correction thats been going on since last year.

AP Moller-Maersk expects cargo volumes to fall by as much as 4 percent this year, versus a previous worst-case scenario of down 2.5 percent as companies cut their inventories and recession risks linger in both the U.S. and Europe.

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Maersk officially has the volume expectations falling by 1 percent to 4 percent this year, versus a previous forecast of a gain of 0.5 percent to a 2.5 percent decline.

Maersks second quarter earnings report noted no sign of a substantial rebound in second-half volumes.

We had expected customers to draw down inventories around the middle of the year, but so far we see no signs of that happening, said Maersk CEO Vincent Clerc said during a media briefing. It may happen at the beginning of next year.

The ocean carriers report suggests the holiday season could disappoint if consumers are still worried about arecession.

Christian Roeloffs, CEO and founder of container logistics platform Container XChange, told Sourcing Journal that he didnt expect shipments to pick up for the August-October peak shipping season.

If there was [an uptick], we would have seen it already. Theres not a significant uptick in demand. Theres not a significant uptick in prices, Roeloffs said. According to Drewry, the Aug. 3 composite World Container Index (WCI) has plummeted 73.4 percent to $1,761.33 per 40-foot container when compared with the same week last year.

Roeloffs observations mirrored Kuehne + Nagel CEO Stefan Paul, who said in a July earnings call there is no peak season to be expected in 2023, citing no signals either on air or sea. Unlike Clerc, Paul sees end-of-year volume potentially improving, noting a potential to return to a positive year-on-year volume growth versus easier comps in the second half.

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Maersk noted a 6.1 percent decrease in the number of containers loaded onto ships between April and June compared to the same period last year, and a 51 percent decline in average freight rates. On a sequential basis, it reported a 15 percent drop in quarterly rates.

Despite the disappointing container volume, Roeloffs believes freight rates are responding to supply versus demand.

Each of the carriers [has] been very strict in capacity discipline, Roeloffs said. Youve had port disruptions, first on the U.S. West Coast and now on the Canadian West Coast, that have really restricted capacity, further allowing shipping companies to increase prices.

Though collapsing volume isnt good news for holiday, the current environment supports shippers looking to lock in long-term contracts.

If they have something to ship, then now is a good time, Roeloffs said.

Rates are up to start August, with Drewrys composite WCI figures increasing 11.8 percent on a week-to-week basis.

Falling freight rates hurt Maersks top line. The company saw a 40 percent decline in revenue to $13 billion from $21.7 billion in the year-ago quarter. Ocean freight drove the weight of the decrease, with revenue falling 50 percent to $8.7 billion.

Underlying profit plummeted 84 percent to $1.3 billion, down from $8.6 billion a year ago. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) fell to $2.91 billion in the quarter from $10.3 billion a year earlier, beating analysts expectations of $2.41 billion in a Refinitiv poll.

The Maersk CEO didnt seem overly concerned by the falling profits as the carrier cuts operating costs.

Within ocean freight alone, operating costs were 17 percent lower at $6.5 billion, driven by lower bunker costs (34 percent), lower container handling costs (14 percent) and lower slot charter costs (28 percent), compared to a year ago.

The Q2 result contributed to a strong first half of the year, where we responded to sharp changes in market conditions prompted by destocking and subdued growth environment following the pandemic-fueled years, said Clerc in a statement. Our decisive actions on cost containment together with our contract portfolio cushioned some of the effects of this market normalization. Cost focus will continue to play a central role in dealing with a subdued market outlook that we expect to continue until end year.

With the cost cuts, Maersk raised its full-year guidance. It now expects EBITDA between $9.5 billion and $11 billion, up from $8 billion to $11 billion. It also expects $3 billion in free cash flow, up from the original $2 billion forecast.

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Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves

Over the past century, Henry Fords innovation  the automotive assembly line  has transformed virtually every manufacturing process. Now a new innovation is following a similar trajectory. Real-time visibility solutions, developed and battle-tested by the automotive leaders, are transforming every industry, from health care to retail to defense.  Greg Nelson, FreightVerify

When Greg Nelson discussed FreightVerifys carrier certification program at FreightWaves Future of Supply Chain event in Cleveland, the audience took note. Nelson is one to know; after all, he spent 35 years in automotive, with nearly 28 years at Ford Motor Co. before joining the team at FreightVerify in Ann Arbor, Michigan, to lead its carrier program.

For those unfamiliar, FreightVerify delivers total visibility at the most precise level of detail available in the industry. Every day thousands of supply chain, manufacturing, procurement and commercial professionals turn to FreightVerify for detailed content, unparalleled insight and the ability to track inventory around the world in real time. The company serves some of the worlds most demanding corporations  four of the six largest automotive manufacturers.

We think of ourselves as laser-focused on our customers, while some may not know us as well as our competitors, Nelson said.

Thousands of components go into a new vehicle, he explained, multiple modes, global reach, enormous pressure to meet every production schedule and then ensure the delivery of finished vehicles to the network of dealerships to appease ever-demanding buyers.

From automotive to the Fortune 500

Just as business leaders filed through Detroit in the 1920s to study Henry Fords innovative manufacturing process, the same rush is underway as leaders from medical device manufacturers, health care systems, retail and consumer goods are eager to learn how the automotive industry has navigated post-pandemic disruptions with a more resilient global supply chain that is directly attributed to increased operating performance. In fact, as recently as last month, one of the largest automotive manufacturers in the world raised guidance on its financial performance for the next four quarters.

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If you look at the global automotive industry, you cant think of an industry more impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, yet its recovery has been swift, decisive, and candidly, faster and smoother than most peoples expectations, Nelson said. Then you add the fundamental shift in the business to electric vehicles [EVs] and realize how, at FreightVerify, it is a distinct honor to play a role in the industrys transformation.

In fact, as recently as last quarter, FreightVerify expanded its platform to include solutions for health care, energy, retail and consumer goods.

Quite honestly, those industries want to learn from automotive; they want to understand what the automotive manufacturers see and when they see it since many of them cant, added Nelson.

Pillar of FreightVerifys success: The platforms ease of use

When asked to account for the factors contributing to FreightVerifys growth, Nelson stated that the company consistently puts its customers front and center.

Weve heard that it is easy to do business with FreightVerify, which reflects our commitment to putting our customers and transportation partners at the center of everything we do, Nelson continued. We cant exist  nor can our shipper customers  without the support and collaboration of our carriers.

In fact, FreightVerifys continued investment in its onboarding programs reflects this commitment.

It doesnt matter if youre a top five carrier with a name you recognize or a small up-and-coming family business, we welcome you to the FreightVerify network, and our onboarding process is designed to be seamless and intuitive, regardless of whether you have a large IT department or none at all, Nelson said.

Nelson stressed that while FreightVerify works with carriers of all sizes, a common theme united them all: quality. With my background in the industry, we pride ourselves on working with quality customers and quality partners. Carriers that value commitments and provide a heightened level of service and support are the ones that gravitate to our programs.

Breaking news: FreightVerify Verified Certification Program

To provide additional resources and support to its growing network of transportation partners and carriers, FreightVerify recently announced its Verified Carrier Certification Program. This free program  available to carriers of all sizes that work with their shippers  is designed to recognize and reward carriers that consistently deliver an exceptional experience to mutual customers.

Theres so much were doing with our carriers today, from the ease of onboarding and our data improvement and hygiene initiatives, that it makes sense to package our services and formalize how we work with  and more importantly, recognize and reward  the carriers that consistently exceed expectations.

Carriers are invited to learn more about the Verified program by contacting Nelson at greg.nelson@FreightVerify.com.

The post What Fortune 500 is learning from the automotive industry appeared first on FreightWaves.
A man walked into a Holiday Inn Express in 2019 and held three employees at knifepoint, including a woman who was nine months pregnant, South Carolina police say.

Armed with a large kitchen knife, he demanded an employee open a safe, then took two cash boxes and fled, authorities say.

(He) forced the three employees to sit with their backs against a wall so they could not see him depart, according to an Aug. 2 news release from the 7th Circuit Solicitors Office.

Frank L. Mills Jr., 55, of Spartanburg, South Carolina, was convicted this week of armed robbery, possession of a weapon during commission of a violent crime and three counts of kidnapping, the release says.

The trial began Monday, July 31, according to officials. By Aug. 2, the jury had delivered a guilty verdict, and the judge handed down four sentences of life in prison without parole, to run concurrently.

Less than two weeks after the robbery at the Spartanburg Holiday Inn in September 2019, Mills was arrested in nearby Union County in connection with a bank robbery, according to WSPA.

One of the employees from the Holiday Inn recognized Mills in a news story about the bank robbery and contacted investigators, authorities said. Union County police had also recovered a large kitchen knife upon arresting Mills, the news release said.

Almost 40 years ago, Mills was sentenced to 21 years in prison on similar charges of armed robbery and housebreaking, officials said.

We are thankful to the jury for ending Mr. Mills long violent criminal history in the community, Assistant Solicitor Spenser Smith said.

Lawyers for Mills could not be reached immediately for comment.

Spartanburg is about 90 miles northwest of Columbia.

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Restaurant ignored reports about lead server sexually harassing SC workers, feds say

Detectives 3-year-old daughter dies in crash, SC officials say. Heart full of love

23-year-old angler drowns returning to spot he dropped phone in river, SC coroner says
After an unsuccessful hours-long manhunt, police called off the search for escaped detainee Joseph Harrison Baynes in the area of the Savannah-Hilton Head International Airport. Baynes escaped while being taken to the airport for a flight to Minnesota, where he is wanted on felony stalking charges.

Authorities from Dakota County, Minnesota ruled to stop the manhunt just after 5 p.m. due to inclement weather.

The escape happened around 1:30 p.m. somewhere outside the airport, according to spokesperson Lori Lynah. Police were searching the woods near the main parking lot as of 3:45 p.m. Tuesday.

Baynes was arrested in early June by the Georgia Southern University Police Department for felony vehicle theft, hindering a law enforcement officer, possession of tools associated with a crime and one drug charge, according to court documents. Minnesota judicial records show two felony domestic abuse convictions and nearly two dozen other convictions for felonies and misdemeanors from 2007 to present, with many violations related to his status as a predatory offender in the state.

Airport operations were running normally Tuesday afternoon, Lynah said, and traffic into the area was not affected.

Authorities from the Bulloch County Sheriffs Office, Georgia State Patrol, Pooler Police Department and the Chatham County Sheriffs Office were searching for the escapee, who has handcuffs on one wrist, according to reporting from WJCL.

This report will be updated as more information becomes available.
Martha Stewart was photographed by Ruven Afanador in the Dominican Republic. Ruven Afanador/Sports Illustrated

Eighty-two years ago today, a legend was born. Martha Stewart, author, influencer and one of the 2023 SI Swimsuit cover models, turns 82 years old today, Aug. 3.

The phenom has made a substantial impact throughout her long life, from declaring home trends in print and on television to creating her own lifestyle brand, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. She has left an indelible mark on American culture and society. In honor of her special day, her company shared a fashionable and fun Instagram throwback tribute for their fearless leader.

Happy birthday to our founder @marthastewart48!  As we reflect on the lessons Martha has taught us (whether it's how to bake the best birthday cake, host the ultimate party, or fold a fitted sheet) we also know that mastering these life skills is really all about one thing: Finding the good things that make life that much better, the caption on the post read.

In the snap, a young Stewart smiled softly at the camera. She donned a chic two-toned one-piece swimsuit adorned with a thin white belt.

What has Martha taught you over the years? Leave your comments and birthday wishes below! the caption continued, encouraging love and support for Stewart from hundreds of followers and fans.

She taught me that every single aspect of homekeeping can be beautiful and inspired, that one woman can influence our entire culture and beyond , one follower said of her far-reaching impact.

The businesswoman, who traveled to the Dominican Republic for her 2023 cover photoshoot, is as beautiful now as ever. Happy birthday, Martha!

Make sure to follow SI Swimsuit on YouTube!
PHOTO: WALTER LYLE PHOTO

A military veteran and his family received the keys to their new mortgage-free home in Conway, Arkansas last week.

U.S. Marine Corps Lance Corporal Cory Hixon and his family were recognized on stage during the Southern Living Home Summit, where they were surprised with the announcement of their new custom-built home.

The opportunity was made possible through Operation Finally Home, a nonprofit organization based in New Braunfels, Texas, that provides custom-built, mortgage-free homes for veterans, first responders and their families.

Operation Finally Home partnered with the Little-Rock-based builder Bret Franks of Bret Franks Construction, as well as the Southern Living Custom Builder Program, to relocate Corporal Hixson and his family from Chattanooga, Tennessee, to Conway, Arkansas.

PHOTO: WALTER LYLE PHOTO

A symbolic key was presented to the family during the Summit by Rusty Carroll, Executive Director of Operation Finally Home, Bret and Beth Franks, with Bret Franks Construction, and Sid Evans and Deirdre Finnegan from Southern Living.

Representatives from the organizations as well as friends, family members, and new neighbors lined the driveway to welcome the Hixson family home, followed by a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

PHOTO: WALTER LYLE PHOTO

I dont think thank you is enough, I cant articulate enough words to express what it means to me and what its going to do for my family, Im okay its all about my wife and kids, Hixson said.

Hixson was deployed to Iraq in October 2004, and was critically injured during his 2nd tour while conducting a resupply. A blast of shrapnel striking his upper torso and face resulted in an emergency surgery to enucleate his left eye.

Cory was awarded a Purple Heart, Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal, Combat Action Ribbon, Iraq Campaign Medal, and more, Operation Finally Homes website states.



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Read the original article on Southern Living.
The main focus right off the bat was Los Alamos, Oppenheimer production designer Ruth De Jong tells AD. Christopher Nolan had this idea of wanting to shoot on location, to rebuild the town, and what was most important to him in our early conversations was this epic plateau vista, but we weren't sure where we would be able to find it.

Oppenheimer, the three-hour epic by Christopher Nolan, follows the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the so-called father of the atomic bomb. Though the movie spans 45 years of the theoretical physicists life, the meat of the film unfolds at the aforementioned Los Alamos National Laboratory. The site was established in 1943 by the US governmentafter forcibly displacing the Hispanic and indigenous populations that lived on that land and commandeering the Los Alamos Ranch Schoolas a locale to develop the atomic bomb in secret. In the film, the locale feels unsettling and surreal but not cartoonish, grounded in realism by De Jongs production design.

Photo: Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures

Dorothy Johnson Walking Out of Beauty Shop Photo: Bettmann/Getty Images

Some of that sensibility comes from using interiors at the actual Los Alamos, which still stands today, even if the exteriors at the real Los Alamos were disqualified because they no longer match the period thanks to new buildings in the surrounding area. The interiors of Oppenheimers house and the Fuller Lodge were shot on location, while the exteriors of Los Alamos were created at Ghost Ranch, elsewhere in New Mexico, per De Jong.

Researcher Lauren Sandoval dug up a bevy of information about the look and feel of Los Alamos during Oppenheimers time there to inform De Jongs work, but even still, the end goal wasnt to create something that was obsessively similar to the old Los Alamos. Chris also just didn't want it to be a replica. We weren't making a documentary. As much as we wanted to be accurate, we weren't obsessed with making it a mirror, De Jong continues. Both Chris and I wanted this to be a very transformative experience, and we wanted to push modernity. The lack of a diorama-esque approach is evident in the film, which isnt showing off its period details and locales so much as its using those details to communicate the changing world the characters were moving through.

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Entrance to the Technical Area at Los Alamos Photo: Historical/Getty Images

OPPENHEIMER Photo: Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures

We wanted to de-gloss all of it and deglamorize all of it in a way, just have it be honest and raw and truthful and gritty and natural. I think even the way he doesnt put a lot of makeup on all the actors [speaks to that]. Everyone loved that drive up to Ghost Ranch, our Los Alamos, because you are in the middle of nowhere, there's no modernity anywhere as far as the eye can see, De Jong says. You pass base camp for a second, and then youre just in the set. We didn't allow any modern cars on set; everyone had to come to work in costume, except for the crew of course. The whole show up in puffy coats and Ugg boots and rehearse thing [didn't happen]. It kept everyone in the film and in the world that they were making.

The real Los Alamos featured a lot of distracting equipment that ultimately would have been cost prohibitive to reproduce and, additionally, would have done little for the nuanced storytelling Nolan was aiming for. Instead, De Jong focused her energy on the design of the bomb specifically, giving the dynamic object room to breathe amidst the otherwise less-is-more backdrop. In a film with such commanding performances, the understated, thoughtful sets allow the work of the actors to speak all the more clearly.

Cyclotron at Los Alamos Photo: Historical/Getty Images

Manhattan Project Photo: Galerie Bilderwelt/Getty Images

Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest

More Great Celebrity Style Stories From AD
River otters can be very protective of food and offspring, experts say.

An evening float on the Jefferson River near Cardwell, Montana, turned into a medical emergency for three residents after an otter approached the group and attacked. All three women were injured in the encounter, and one required helicopter transport to a hospital in Bozeman for treatment.

The women were floating the river in inner tubes when the incident occurred around 8:15 p.m., Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks reports in a press release. There are mixed accounts of whether one or two otters were present, but it's clear that just one otter attacked them. The floaters escaped the water as fast as possible and called 911 once they made it to shore. Montana Highway Patrol, Jefferson County Sheriff's Office, Jefferson Valley Ambulance, MFWP, Life Flight, and a local landowner all responded to the scene.

The woman who was life-flighted to the hospital received multiple, severe bites to her face and arms, Jefferson County Undersheriff James Everett told NBC Montana. The location of the incident was remote, which required responders to use a jet boat and a side-by-side to reach the victims. The two victims with less serious injuries were treated by responders and eventually went to the hospital in Bozeman, too.

"While attacks from otters are rare, otters can be protective of themselves and their young, especially at close distances," MFWP wrote. "They give birth to their young in April and can later be seen with their young in the water during the summer. They may also be protective of food resources, especially when those resources are scarce."

The entire Jefferson River has been under hoot owl restrictions, or early closure to fishing due to warm water temperatures and low flow rates, since July 19. It will stay that way until water temperatures stay below 70 degrees for three consecutive days and flow rates return to an adequate level. While these restrictions don't limit floating or other river travel, they do paint a picture of stressed conditions for fish and wildlife.

Read Next: Montana River Guide Attacked by a Bear While Cowboy Camping

Otters are just one of many charismatic wildlife species that are more dangerous than they look. One particularly aggressive female sea otter recently terrorized surfers off the coast of Santa Cruz, California. The otter approached multiple surfers and climbed onto their boards, even biting chunks out of them, before wildlife officials eventually captured her. River otters are much smaller than sea otters and have longer tails, but are equally as protective of food and offspring.
Brands

Columbia Sportswear Company announced that Tricia L. Shumavon will join the company as Prana brand president, effective in September. She has previous experience in the sportswear industry, most recently with Adidas in Europe as global vice president of womens, mens and kids sportswear apparel. Shumavon also has experience in merchandising with a track record at brands including Nike, The Gap and L Brands.

Global fashion platform Farfetch announced that Tim Stone has joined the company and will become chief financial officer on Sept. 1. He succeeds Elliot Jordan, who will leave the luxury marketplace on Aug. 31 following a statement that hed exit the company by the end of the year, as announced in February.

More from Sourcing Journal

Tim Stone

Having spent more than 20 years in senior finance roles at Amazon.com, including serving as CFO for the AWS, devices and digital content businesses, Stone brings vast experience from marketplace and technology platform businesses to Farfetch. He also previously served as CFO for Ford Motor Company.

Retail

American Eagle Outfitters (AEO)s chief operations officer, Michael Rempell, has decided to leave the company in early fiscal 2024. After over 23 years with the Aerie parent brand, Rempell will pursue personal interests and spend more time with his family. The company has begun the search for a successor, with Rempell staying on to ensure a smooth transition.

Michael Rempell

During his tenure, Rempell was instrumental in taking the company from $1 billion to over $5 billion in revenue, investing in technology and launching its digital channel, according to Jay Schottenstein, AEOs executive chairman of the board of CEO.

Childrens specialty apparel retailer The Childrens Place has made several leadership changes. Maegan Markee has been appointed to the new role of brand president. Sheamus Toal has been promoted to the companys chief operating officer and chief financial officer. Mary Beth Sheridan has been hired as chief merchant, effective immediately.

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In the new role of brand president, Markee will oversee all customer-facing activities across the companys family of brands, covering design, sourcing, merchandising, marketing, planning, allocation and the companys wholesale and international businesses. In the expanded role of COO and CFO, Toal will have oversight for IT, logistics, distribution and store locations, in addition to his current responsibilities for finance, accounting, investor relations, real estate and legal. In the new role of chief merchant, Sheridan will be directly responsible for merchandising, sourcing, planning and allocation, reporting to Markee.

Tractor Supply Company

Meg Ham

Rural lifestyle retailer Tractor Supply Company has announced that Meg Ham has been appointed an independent member of its board of directors, effective immediately. She brings experience with a 35-year career in the retail industry to the company and currently serves as the president of Food Lion.

With the addition of Ham, Tractor Supplys board of directors now consists of nine members. She joins eight current members with expertise and experience across multiple industries.

Lululemon created a mental well-being global advisory board to improve the mental well-being of both its employees and global communities. The 11-person board is chaired by Susan Gelinas, chief people and culture officer, and Nikki Neuburger, chief brand officer. Members will provide a platform to voice opinions and raise awareness to help the company destigmatize the need for well-being assistance and provide tools and resources to its employees in their individual mental health journeys.

Logistics

V. James Vena resigned effectively from the FedEx board after he was named CEO and a board member of Union Pacific Corporation, effective Aug. 14, on July 26.

Kimberly A. Jabal also notified FedEx that she wouldnt stand for reelection at the 2023 annual meeting on Sept. 21.

The Port of Oakland named Colleen Liang as acting director of the environmental programs and planning (EP&P) division and Dorin Tiutin was named acting director of the commercial real estate division. Liang has been with the port for 23 years and most recently served as environmental supervisor since 2017.

Collen Liang

Tiutin will be responsible for the oversight of approximately 840 acres of Port-owned property, including managing a portfolio of about 100 tenant agreements that range from retail outlets and restaurants to hotels and offices, among others.

Hellmann Worldwide Logistics

Hellmann Worldwide Logistics, a German logistics service company, has appointed Jens Drewes, effective Aug. 2024, to succeed Reiner Heiken in the CEO role when the latter retires next year. Drewes will take on the CEO role encompassing Hellmanns five regions, HR, sales and marketing, corporate development as well as corporate communications.

Jen Drewes

The supervisory board expanded the management board by appointing a chief digital officer to complement its pre-existing roles. Starting in January, Stefan Borggreve will assume the new board position, overseeing the existing functions, IT and digital, as well as innovation and sustainability.

Technology

Optera

ESG and carbon management software company Optera hired Megan Dunne as vice president of finance and Derek Kuhl as vice president of sales. Dunne offers considerable experience building finance functions and guiding financial and operational strategy for startup and pre-IPO companies. Kuhl joins Optera with nearly 25 years of experience in sales and marketing at companies including Spotify and Google.

Optera promoted Nancy Schoemann to senior vice president, operations; Katie Oakes to vice president, marketing; Alekhya Reddy to vice president, product; and Ilya Sukhanov to vice president, engineering.

Click here to read the full article.
So, do we start packing now?

Wirestock/Getty Images

Southwest Airlines is already preparing for spring break next year with new flights to Belize, Los Cabos, and San Juan.

Starting March 9, 2024, the airline plans to offer new nonstop service on Saturdays between Baltimore and Belize. Additionally, the airline will resume flying between Baltimore and Grand Cayman, Turks and Caicos, and Cabo San Lucas.

To address seasonal travel patterns and demand, the airline brings more nonstop options for Southwest Customers, including those traveling on peak days when new time-saving nonstop service complements a schedule of daily connecting or same-plane service, the airline wrote in a statement.

Wirestock/Getty Images

Also on March 9, Southwest plans to add a seasonal nonstop flight between St. Louis and Los Cabos as well as resume service between St. Louis and Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. The airline will also resume seasonal weekend service between St. Louis and Palm Beach, Pensacola, and Destin in Florida.

A couple days earlier, Southwest will also resume daily flights between St. Louis and San Francisco.

And from Austin, TX, Southwest plans to add new nonstop flights to San Juan, Puerto Rico, on March 9. That same day, the airline will add flights from Austin to Cozumel, Puerto Vallarta, Panama City, FL, and Montrose, CO.

The airline also plans to resume daily flights between Austin and Charleston on March 7.

Southwest may be adding new flights to popular vacation destinations (its latest expansion plans), but the airline has announced a decision to significantly reduce midweek flying capacity next year due to a shift in the type of traveler flying post-pandemic. CEO Robert Jordan has said the airlines network is largely restored at this point, but is not optimized for business travel.

The airline is also in the process of upgrading its onboard experience, including installing USB A and USB C power ports at every seat, offering better Wi-Fi, and adding new beverages like Community Coffees Espresso + Cream iced coffee.

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Read the original article on Travel & Leisure.
For Teresa Giudice, there is nothing like spending some quality time with her girls!

Over the past week, the Real Housewives of New Jersey star has been soaking up everything Greece has to offer, alongside her four daughters: Gia, 22, Gabriella, 19, Milania, 17, and Audriana, 13, whom she shares with her ex-husband Joe Giudice.

As seen in her latest Instagram post, Teresa summed up the idyllic Greek getaway by sharing a snap of the family posing together in the sand while visiting Scorpios Mykonos, with her girls standing on either side of their mom. Another snap showed the reality star posing with her stepson Louie Ruelas Jr., the son of her husband, Louie Ruelas, who was also in attendance for the trip.

"This past week with you guys was amazing!" the mom of four wrote in the caption of her Instagram post. "Loved every moment we spent together and every memory weve created for a lifetime!"

>>> Sign up for Parade's Trending News newsletter and we'll keep you in the know on the viral pop culture moments and celebrity news everyone is talking about <<<

"Miss you guys and already planning our next adventure together as a family  LOVE you all so much," she wrote, adding, "TANTI TANTI BACI ," which is the Italian way of saying "many, many kisses."

"Love you ," Louie Jr. commented under the post, while Audriana chimed in to leave a red heart emoji in the comments: "."

"I love you," Gia added.

RHOSLC's Meredith Marks also left a comment under Teresa's post, calling the crew, a "Beautiful fam ."

"Love this so much ," added Teresa's fellow Namaste Bitches podcast host Melissa Pfeister.

Next: Teresa Giudice Slams Sofia Vergara as 'Rudest Woman' After Alleged Awkward Encounter
Francesca Gino

Francesca Gino has filed a $25 million defamation lawsuit against Harvard, the dean of the Harvard Business School, and Data Colada

On June 24  the day after a prominent data blog published its third post in a four-part series detailing alleged fraud in several of her research papers  renowned Harvard Business School Professor Francesca Gino told her followers to stay tuned.

There will be more to come on all of this, she wrote in a LinkedIn post.

The more to come came Wednesday. Thats when Gino took to her LinkedIn for just the second time since the fraud allegations surfaced to announce that she was suing Harvard University, Harvard Business School Dean Srikant Datar, and the three authors of Data Colada  the blog that brought the allegations to light. Gino is seeking $25 million in damages.

I want to be very clear: I have never, ever falsified data or engaged in research misconduct of any kind, she wrote on Wednesday, August 2.

Beyond those two public LinkedIn posts, Gino has been mum. Harvard also isnt talking. To evaluate her response to the fraud allegations, you have to read the 100-page lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Boston. Not all of her fellow academics are buying her answers.

HOW THE SCANDAL UNRAVELED

Much has already been written about the fraud allegations against Gino. If you havent been keeping track, start with The Rise & Fall Of A Harvard Business School Superstar.

Then, brush up with an overview of Ginos lawsuit in Harvard Business School Professor Sues The School For $25 Million. In short, Ginos lawsuit asserts that Harvard created a new interim research misconduct policy specifically to investigate her case, that Data Colada engaged in a vicious, defamatory smear campaign against her research, and Harvard engaged in gender discrimination by treating her differently than men who have also been investigated for research misconduct.

In this particular story, well look in more detail at the specific fraud allegations against Gino and her response outlined in pages 52-61 of her lawsuit.

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Francesca Gino

Heres the abbreviated backstory: Gino is an award-winning behavioral scientist at Harvard Business School. Since joining Harvard in 2010, she authored or co-authored more than 100 academic and journal articles and racked up nearly 33,000 Google citations. Shes been featured in Ted Talks, wrote two bestselling books, and was named one of the worlds 50 most influential management thinkers by Thinkers 50 three different times. In 2015, at age 36, Poets&Quants named her one of our 40-Under-40 Best MBA Professors.

Fortune magazine noted that Harvard paid Gino more than $1 million per year, and her books, speaking engagements, and corporate trainings earned her tens of thousands more. She also published in an average of more than 10 journals a year compared to Harvards faculty average of two or three.

She was an undisputed rising star in a research field that already invites a fair amount of skepticism. Because it delves into human behavior, study results in behavioral science can be hard to replicate, or analysis can be tilted one way or another with creative math, skeptics say.

As far back as 2021, the three authors of blog site Data Colada alerted Harvard Business School to concerns with some of Ginos studies. The authors are prominent data and behavioral scientists themselves, and they hail from three of the worlds top business schools: Uri Simonsohn, Professor of Behavioral Science at ESADE; Leif Nelson, the Ewald T. Grether Professor in Business Administration & Marketing at Berkeley Haas; and Joe Simmons, the Dorothy Silberberg Professor of Applied Statistics at The Wharton School. (All have been named as defendants in Ginos lawsuit.)

Harvard launched an 18-month investigation, and Gino was quietly put on administrative leave. Her title  the Tandon Family Professor of Business Administration  was removed from her HBS profile page, and she has been banned from the schools publishing platforms.

CLUSTERFAKE

Between June 17-30 of this year, Data Colada published a four-part series titled Data Falsificada detailing data anomalies in four of Ginos published papers, three of which have since been retracted or are under review. It was these posts that attracted widespread media attention including stories in The Chronicle of Higher Education, The New York Times, The Guardian and other leading news sites.

The most revealing aspects of Ginos lawsuit are her response to the specific fraud charges in these four blog posts. And these are the pages that have garnered the most intense reactions from her detractors on social media. The lawsuit covers  blog post by blog post  why Gino asserts that the four-part series is false and defamatory.

Blog Post 1, Clusterfake, published on June 17, asserts that someone manipulated data in one of Ginos experiments used in a 2012 paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (The paper, Signing at the beginning makes ethics salient and decreases dishonest self-reports in comparison to signing at the end, has since been retracted.)

The post outlines a data anomaly in which six rows of out-of-order data appear to have been manually moved from the control condition to a condition being tested in the experiment. The blogs explanation is highly detailed, walking readers step-by-step why it believes these rows were manually manipulated and not the result of a sorting error.

If this data tampering was done in a motivated fashion, so as to manufacture the desired result, then we would expect those suspicious observations to show a particularly strong effect for the sign-on-the-top vs. sign-on-the-bottom manipulation, the post reads. And they do.

Ginos lawsuit says that the blog post asserts that the experiment faked data as a matter of fact (not opinion). It goes on to explain that data was collected on paper, a common practice in behavioral science studies at the time, and data was entered into the Excel database from stacks of paper in no particular order. It also attributed a duplicate observation as an honest error. In other words, the data may have been disorganized and perhaps a bit sloppy, but not fraudulent.

This seems to be a theme in Ginos response to the fraud allegations: That behavioral science is, by nature, a bit speculative as researchers are trying to assign data to human behavior. She also claims that others  such as research assistants  were involved in data entry and clean up. These are also the themes that most angered other academics.

I especially like the defense that the data werent manipulated, it was really poor and unreliable data that you knew was prone to being poor and unreliable, and you included it anyways, despite having a huge impact on the results, Jeremy Coles, Assistant Professor and Program Chair in School Psychology at The University of Findlay, wrote on Ginos LinkedIn post announcing the lawsuit.

So when your best defense is that it wasnt fraud and it was just sheer incompetence or just outright disregard of the poor quality of the data, time and time again, then at best you still lack the integrity and competence and you dont deserve to be in academia, let alone collecting a $500k salary and $50k speaking fees as an expert.

MY CLASS YEAR IS HARVARD

Blog Post 2, My Class Year Is Harvard, published June 20, covers a series of anomalies in which 20 Harvard students filling out demographic survey info seemingly replied Harvard when asked for their Year in School. The student survey was part of a study Gino led for The Moral Virtue of Authenticity: How Inauthenticity Produces Feelings of Immorality and Impurity published in Psychological Science in 2015.

Data Colada authors point out that a few students making the error might be reasonable, but its harder to believe that 20 students all made the same mistake. Moreover, the 20 Harvard errors all came within 35 rows of each other (in rows 450 to 484) in a dataset with hundreds of rows. The mistakes, they argue, were likely made by someone manipulating data, and not by individual students.

Without access to the original (un-tampered) data files  files we believe Harvard had access to  we can only identify instances when the data tamperer slipped up, forgetting to re-sort here, making a copy-paste error there, the authors wrote. There is no reason (at all) to expect that when a data tamperer makes a mistake when changing one thing in a database, that she makes the same mistake when changing all things in that database.

In her lawsuit, Gino answers the charge by saying that the students were simply sloppy. Data Colada, as experienced behavioral scientists, knew that participants frequently respond to a survey to obtain payment due for their participation (as study participants) and may rush through questions, sometimes more than once to get paid, and use extreme values as their answers. It is widely known in behavioral science that participants in online studies at times provide poor-quality data by answering surveys without the attention they require, the lawsuit reads.

She also points out that Harvard did not collect original (un-tampered) data files with which to compare to the files she publicly posted to Center for Open Science in 2015  an open source site to promote research transparency and accessibility from which Data Colada got data from Ginos studies. Gino also asserts that Harvard did not prove she tampered with data in its investigation.

Because Data Colada had no evidence that Professor Gino tampered with the data underlying the 2015 Psychological Science Paper, Data Colada published Blog Post 2 with knowledge of its falsity or, at the very least, reckless disregard as to its falsity, her lawsuit reads.

THE CHEATERS ARE OUT OF ORDER

Blog Post 3, The Cheaters Are Out of Order, published June 23, outlines anomalies in data sorting from a Gino experiment conducted for the 2014 paper, Evil Genius? How Dishonesty Can Lead to Greater Creativity, in Psychological Science. Again, the post authors assert that their findings could be checked against original datasets that it told Harvard to examine in its investigation.

Ginos lawsuit says that, in fact, this dataset no longer exists as it was discarded in accordance with routine data maintenance practices, given its age. So, Data Colada made its assertions of fraud with no evidence. Gino also notes that she provided Nelson with the data in 2014 for a weekly journal discussion group at Berkeley Haas. He raised no fraud concerns at the time.

And finally, Blog Post 4, Forgetting The Words, published June 30, details how data from an experiment does not appear to match the written descriptions of the studys subject. The study was part of the 2020 paper, Why Connect? Moral Consequences of Networking with a Promotion or Prevention Focus, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

The post alleges that someone tampered with the data in the networking experiment, but forgot to tamper with the associated descriptions the subjects provided.

Ginos lawsuit counters: Overall, Data Coladas statements that it was looking at the words that study participants had used to describe their subjective feelings to uncover purported malfeasance were false, as Data Colada knew such words did not, and indeed, could not, demonstrate evidence of data tampering.

ACADEMIA RESPONDS

Ginos Wednesday Linkedin Post announcing the lawsuit has prompted a passionate debate between her supporters and detractors. By Friday afternoon, there were 151 comments, 22 reposts, and 573 reactions. The majority of the supporters on her post appear to be practitioners, and people who have followed her career or who have engaged with her classes or executive trainings.

Many of the detractors come from academia.

Brian Nosek is the executive director at Center for Open Science  the open-sourced website where scholars post their data and findings in an effort to promote transparency and accessibility. Much of Ginos data scrutinized in the Data Colada blog posts were posted to Open Science.

I have admired your work, and I found the Data Colada work to be damning for identifying fraudulent data in four of your papers. Your responses to that evidence in your lawsuit (p. 52-61) were not at all compelling about the combined evidence of data manipulation and how the claims of the paper were served by that manipulation, Nosek wrote on Ginos LinkedIn post. I would like to believe that you are innocent of fraud, but right now I do not. If you share compelling alternative explanations for how the data from each of those four papers came to be without fraud, I will publicly retract my belief that fraud occurred and apologize for ever saying that publicly. I would genuinely love to have to confront my error here.

Gino is certainly not the first scholar to be accused of research malfeasance. Another Harvard Business School professor, Amy Cuddy, stepped away from her tenure-track job after a Data Colada blog post criticized her 2010 study on the effects of power poses. Just last month, Stanford University president Marc Tessier-Lavigne announced he will step down on August 31 after an undergrad working at the schools newspaper, The Stanford Daily, uncovered flawed research in four Tessier-Lavigne studies.

When cases like this are brought to light, they cast a shadow over scholarly research in any field. Theres an immense pressure for up-and-coming academics to publish or perish in order to secure tenure and advance in their field. They are often underpaid and must compete for few appointments. The superstars  like Gino  are in turn often awarded with lucrative book deals and public attention.

When someone is found or alleged to be taking shortcuts, it reflects poorly on the whole system.

I dont believe weve ever met, but as a moral judgment researcher Im familiar with a lot of your work. I think what you are doing is disgraceful, Yoel Inbar, professor of Psychology at University of Toronto, wrote on Ginos post. If the data are not fraudulent, you ought to be able to show that. If they are, but the fraud was done by someone else, name the person. Suing individual researchers for tens of millions of dollars is a brazen attempt to silence legitimate scientific criticism and sets a terrible example for our field.

Andrew King, professor at Boston Universitys Questrom School of Business believes Ginos alleged actions are a stain on the reputation of the universities themselves. Harvard and other elite schools bear part of the responsibility for situations like this. They demand unreasonable numbers of publications for promotion, and richly reward stars that become thought leaders, but then are shocked, shocked, when poor oversight, p-hacking, or fabrication is uncovered, he writes.

But, there are a few academics standing behind Gino. Frances Frei, the UPS Foundation Professor of Service Management at Harvard Business School, wrote this in response to Ginos lawsuit: My field is operations management. Which means we are obsessed with #process. My employer is Harvard Business School. Which has always seemed to me to be similarly obsessed with process. But after reading this complaint, my, I have great pause. And many, many questions.

From my first hand observation, Francesca Gino overflows with integrity. I hope justice is served here.

DONT MISS: THE RISE & FALL OF A HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL SUPERSTAR AND HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PROFESSOR SUES THE SCHOOL FOR $25 MILLION

The post What Francesca Ginos Harvard Lawsuit Says About Data Coladas Fraud Allegations appeared first on Poets&Quants.
A dead brown found on the Big Hole this June.

In May, a coalition of more than 30 fishing guides sounded the alarm about the historic trout declines taking place in Montanas Jefferson River Basin. Fed up with what they saw as a slow response to a serious problem, the guides wrote a letter to Gov. Greg Gianforte demanding that more action be taken by the state.

We have an emergency in southwest Montanas rivers, and we need to act immediately to avoid a total collapse of those trout fisheries, they wrote. This is an all-hands-on-deck moment.

The Jefferson River Basin, which includes the Big Hole, Beaverhead, and Ruby Rivers, comprises some of the most productive trout water in the West. The three streams (and the main stem of the Jeff) have historically supported thousands of wild trout per mile, along with prolific bug hatches that draw anglers from all over the U.S. But in recent years, the Basins trout populations have taken a nosedive due to low water levels and a mysterious disease that no one has a handle on.

The growing frustration over the state of these fisheries was compounded by the fact that the region lacked a fisheries manager for two years, not to mention a full understanding of whats driving the declines.

Finally, Gov. Gianforte held a meeting on Friday at a packed community center in Wise River. He tried to assure the crowd that Montana Fish, Wildlife, & Parks had formed an adequate response to trout declines in the Basin. This news was welcomed by the locals. It was also long overdue, which only underscores the fact that it could be some time until we fully understand the crisis at hand.

The Lowest Fish Counts on Record

In the Big Hole River, fisheries biologists with MFWP are seeing the lowest numbers of brown and rainbow trout since record-keeping began in 1969. Similar declines have been recorded on the Beaverhead and Ruby Rivers, which along with the Big Hole flow into the Jeffersonone of three main forks that form the Upper Missouri River.

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The most recent fish counts on the Jerry Creek Section of the Big Hole show fewer than 1,000 brown and rainbow trout per mile. Thats compared to roughly 1,750 trout per mile in 2017, and its a third (at best) of the 3,000 to 3,500 trout per mile that were counted along the same section in 2000.

Were talking about the lowest fish counts on record in the Big Hole, Ruby, and lower Beaverhead. Its bigger than a singular river, says Brian Wheeler, a fly-fishing guide at Big Hole Lodge and the executive director of the Big Hole River Foundation. This is a basin-wide crash at the headwaters of the Missouri River, and were right in the middle of it.

Trout populations in the Big Hole peaked in the early aughts, and they've trended downward over the past 11 years.

Trout populations in the Basin have trended downward over the past 11 years, and scientists will point out that other streams in southwest Montana have seen their trout populations dip recently during low water years. But they also agree that something more troubling seems to be taking place on the Big Hole.

Weve seen declines[but] nothing on that magnitude, MFWP fisheries biologist Jim Olsen told the Montana Standard last month. In the past, theyve really followed water. And so, during drought times, populations [on the Big Hole] would decline. But were talking a 20 to 25 percent decline.

What makes these low numbers even more concerning is that no one knows exactly whats causing them. As Olsen and others have pointed out, low, warm water has been linked to trout declines in rivers across the Intermountain West. But brown trout are usually more tolerant of warm water than rainbow trout and native cutthroat throatwhich also inhabit the Big Holeand the browns seem to be faring the worst out of the three.

Low water conditions on the Big Hole River in September 2021.

Its the browns that seem to be the ones getting this diseasethis funguswhatever it is, Wheeler says. Another odd aspect is that the rainbows arent increasing to fill the voids the browns are leaving. And then you have cutthroat, which seem to be doing great. These are some things that dont quite make sense and lead us to think there is an additional factor at play thats probably disease.

Olsen and other biologists found several of these dead, fungus-covered browns in the Big Hole last fall. They say the only way to positively identify the mystery disease is to bring a live tissue sample from a living fish to a histopathologist in a lab. But the agency has so far been unable to pull this off.

This spurred Big Hole Lodge owners Craig and Wade Fellin to launch the Save Wild Trout campaign in the spring. The group partnered with Yeti to acquire some coolers that were retro-fitted with aerators. These serve as temporary fish tanks, and they could be essential in helping the guides achieve their number-one goal: getting a live-but-dying brown trout into MFWPs hands.

Filled with water and retro-fitted with an aerator, a Yeti cooler serves as a temporary fish tank.

Were just trying to get this done as quickly as possible, and the best-case scenario is providing an answer so the state can chart a path forward, Wheeler says. Weve had a few situations where a guide caught a sick fish, rowed down and wasted their day to get to the boat rampbut didnt care because this is as close as anybody has gotten to getting a sick fish to a biologist. Then they got to the takeout where they had service, but the fish didnt quite make it because there was nobody available to come meet us at the boat ramp.

The Mysterious Fish Fungus

Mike Duncan, who was hired as the Region 3 Fisheries Manager just three weeks ago, says he understands the frustrations voiced by the outfitting community.

I get it. I get that folks worry that were not being proactive or responsive enough, but were working on it best we can.

A former fisheries biologist on the Madison River, Duncan points to the agencys recently announced four-pronged response to trout declines. This includes three key studies into fish mortality, recruitment, and any potential diseases that could be impacting populations. The three studies are slated to begin sometime in 2024. This feels like an eternity for the guides and private anglers, who are now trying to work in tandem with the state to speed the process up. In the meantime, Duncan is working to better understand what's killing the trout.

The fungus on their sides, thats saprolegnia. We know what that is, Duncan tells Outdoor Life. But these other lesions were seeing on the top of their heads, tails, and bellies. We dont know what exactly is causing that, and saprolegnia could be a secondary effect from that.

A handful of dead, fungus-cover browns that MFWP biologists came across in November 2022.

Duncan points to the new online portal that FWP launched in July, which allows the public to report sick or dead fish to the agency. (This represents the fourth prong in MFWPs ongoing response.) And he says that as much as hed like to see a sick brown trout tested in a lab, its not always that easy. There aren't many histopathologists who can run this specific live-tissue test, he explains, and the agencys staff is already spread thin across a large geographic area.

I think we need to have realistic expectations on how we can respond to these calls, Duncan says. The one that came through the other week  I was finishing up a meeting and hit the road to head over there, and then the fish died before we got there.

Duncan adds that while the moribund browns are a real concern, its not like every brown trout in the Big Hole is sick or dying. He and other biologists have spent days on the river looking for sick trout without finding one.

I get that when you see a dead or dying fish, its concerning  especially when you have a population that is at or near historic lows, Duncan says. And when the biologists cant tell you exactly what it isI understand why the public wants answers. And were gearing up to get them those [answers].

Declining Water and Quality Concerns

The myriad problems plaguing the Big Hole might not be fully understood just yet, but two things are certain. They arent unique to southwest Montana, and they all tie back to a shortage of cold, clean water.

Flows in the Big Hole Rifer are wholly dependent on snowpack, but the region has been getting less snow in recent years.

Below-average snowpack, weakened runoff, higher water temps, lower soil moisture levels, and longer fire seasons. As the effects of climate change bear down on watersheds across the West, many of the people whose livelihoods are tied to these rivers start blaming one another. And on the Big Hole, this conflict is too often portrayed as the fishing community versus the ranchers.

Beaverhead County is home to more cows than any other county in Montana, and cattle operations have long been linked to poor water quality. Wheeler runs a water-quality-monitoring program at various points along the river, and hes seen nutrient-loading issues with some stretches containing high levels of nitrogen and phosphorus. He also says that since some irrigators dont measure how much water they use, its hard to determine the amount of water being taken out of the system at any given time.

We know we have nutrient problems, but I want to say explicitly that this is not a ranchers versus fishermen debate, Wheeler says. The whole cows not condos thing is a real mentality out here and we hope that ag stays on the landscape. These problems are not unique to here. Theyre also not unfixable.

Excessive amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus can cause algal blooms, which consume oxygen and kill trout. This photo was taken in 2022 near the Big Hole's confluence with Mud Creek.

This is where the Big Hole Watershed Committee is trying to make a difference. Executive director Pedro Marques explains that the group was formed to get ranchers engaged in voluntary conservation, and so far, theyve been successful. Marques and Wheeler both point to the Arctic Grayling Recovery Program, which is run by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and supported by MFWP. The program relies on dozens of ranchers along the river whove either cut down on their water use, engaged in restoration work, or bothall with the common goal of preserving one of the last viable grayling populations in the Lower 48.

These ranchers are doing the best they can, Marques says. We know there are improvements to be made, like installing water measurement devices at diversion points and making headgates more efficient to operate. And if we can find some spots where we can help ranchers move their production and concentration of cows further from the riverthose are relatively easy projects once we identify them.

But based on our drought management plan that weve had for 20-something years, ranchers have been giving back water, and theyre all trying to share in that sacrifice for the rivers sake, he continues. The hard truth of the matter is that these landowners could dry up the river tomorrow and not break a single law.

Volunteers with the Big Hole Watershed Committee work on a river restoration project on a tributary of the Big Hole.

Duncan agrees.

Were confident that its the amount of water in the river that continues to drive the bus, he says. And we can work with water users to be as efficient as possible  But we cant make snow. Ranchers are already taking voluntary cuts on the Big Hole, Beaverhead, and Ruby Rivers, and every one of those rivers could be dried up multiple times if it werent for their efforts.

Marques adds that its important to look beyond the barbed wire fences to the roughly 2,800 square miles of mountainous country the Big Hole drains. He brings up the loss of beaver in the region, which has significantly reduced the landscapes ability to hold water, along with the roughly 42 percent of rangeland thats been lost to conifer encroachment over the last 30 years.

If you ask the ranchers wheres the water? they look up at the mountains, Marques says. These forests are overstocked. And every tree uses water: roughly eight to thirty-five gallons per lodgepole pine per day.

Are Anglers Contributing to Trout Declines?

Marques also brings up a hard question that some anglers might not want to answer: Is there a chance that were part of the problem?

The ranchers in the Big Hole Valley have dealt with water shortages before. Both Marques and Duncan point to the drought of 1988, when the river went totally dry near Wisdom. Trout populations dipped as a result, but they say the 88 crash still wasnt as substantial as the one were seeing today.

One thing to keep in mind is that agricultural practices in this valleyand the amount of water they usehavent changed substantially in 100-plus years, Marques says.

One thing that has changed substantially is the amount of fishing pressure the Big Hole receives every summer. MFWP keeps track of this pressure by gauging the number of angler days in a year. (One angler day equals one angler fishing one body of water for any amount of time on a given day.) Past surveys by the agency showed 71,553 angler days on the Big Hole in 2011. That number jumped to 95,233 in 2017 and then to 118,140 in 2020, which equals a 65-percent increase over a nine-year period.

Floaters on the Madison River, which has also seen a huge increase in fishing pressure in recent years.

The question, then, is whether all this increased angling pressure is having a real impact on the fishery itself. Duncan cant be certain it isnt. Catch-and-release anglers have long seen themselves as having minimal to no impacts on wild fish populations. But the jurys still out as to what percentage of trout survive, die, or get sick after theyre caught, handled, and released.

Weve seen a lot of increased pressure in recent years, just a lot more folks fishing on these rivers, Duncan says. And I think one of the reasons were interested in the impacts of catch-and-release angling is because its the one thing we have the most control over.

These impacts can also vary depending on the waterway. Its possible that some rivers in the West can handle more catch-and-release because theres enough clean, cold water to keep fish populations healthy and strong in the first place. As an example, Marques points to the Madison River tailwater, which sees roughly three times the angling pressure at Big Hole.

Read Next: How a Dam Malfunction on the Madison River Nearly Wrecked a Blue-Ribbon Fishery

People point to that river and say, See, you can still hammer these fish as long as you release themtheyll be fine. But thats because the Madison has a dam that provides abundant cold water. I dont think you can hammer these fish under certain situations. I think it adds a significant stressor to a fishery thats already struggling.

The most obvious stressor is the direct handling of fish, which can remove the protective slime that serves as a trouts immune system. Playing fish for too long can also wear them down and make them more susceptible to predation or disease.

But there are secondary effects of angler pressuremore cars driving through the valley, more feet walking along the riverbed, and all the bug spray and sunscreen from 120,000 angler daysthat could be impacting the rivers overall health and its bug populations. And fewer bugs means less food for trout.

Emergency Regs and Fishing Closures

While the state looks for answers, MFWP has enacted emergency fishing regulations on the Big Hole, Beaverhead, and Ruby Rivers. Catch and release is now mandatory throughout most of the Big Hole, as is fishing with single barbless hooks. The agency also plans to shut down fishing during the brown trout spawning season, which takes place in the fall. Duncan explains that browns are extremely vulnerable when theyre on their spawning reddsespecially after dealing with low water conditions all summer.

These emergency regs are separate from the state-mandated Hoot Owl restrictions that are already in place on the Big Hole, Beaverhead, and Ruby Rivers. The restrictions close certain stretches to fishing after 2 p.m. and theyre triggered when water temps exceed 73 degrees for three days in a row. (You can find a list of the current closures and angling restrictions here.)

Other Things Anglers Can Do

Right now, all the changes regulation-wise are being implemented on the fishing side of things, Wheeler says. And we have absorbed that happily because until we know, the outfitting community is willing to take these hits. We know we have to be extra cautious until we figure this out.

Keep 'em wet.

For Wheeler and the other guides at Big Hole Lodge, this means carrying a thermometer and reeling up when water temps reach 68 degrees, which is even stricter than the states Hoot Owl rules. (Trout start to get stressed when water temps exceed 65, and theyre already struggling to survive by the time temps reach the mid-70s, according to Trout Unlimited.) It means keeping fish wet and handling them as gently as possible. It means staying off closed sections and not ripping browns off their spawning redds in the fall.

These fish can be resilient when we figure out whats happening and manage accordingly. But job number one is to define the problem, Wheeler says. Thats why I carry one of those coolers and aerators in my truck. And anytime I have a single fishing client, were bringing that in the boat with us andI never thought Id say this beforehoping to catch a sick fish.
In light of recent political developments in Niger, the U.S. Department of State has reissued its travel advisory for the country. They are urging U.S. citizens to reconsider travel plans, due to ongoing security concerns.

As of July 26, President Mohamed Bazoum was placed under house arrest because of attempts to overthrow the government. In response to the evolving situation, the Department of State ordered the departure of non-emergency U.S. government personnel and eligible family members from Embassy Niamey.

Flight Options Impacted

The political instability impacted flight options, leading to limitations on travel to and from Niger. Consequently, the U.S. Embassy in Niamey has reduced its personnel and suspended routine services. It is focusing solely on providing emergency assistance to U.S. citizens currently in Niger.

Photo credit: BBC News Africa

The advisory highlights the risk of civil unrest and government instability amid ongoing efforts to overturn the constitutional order. Increased demonstrations and potential violent crime, including armed robberies, have been reported. The threat of terrorist activities, such as kidnappings and attacks, remains a serious concern. Terrorist groups operating in the border regions, including Mali, Libya, Burkina Faso, and northern Niger, may target foreign, local government facilities, and other areas frequented by Westerners.

U.S. Advises Against Travel To Niger

The U.S. Department of State strongly advises against travel to Nigers border regions, particularly areas near Mali, the Diffa region, and the Lake Chad region. Militant groups from Mali have crossed the border to launch lethal attacks on Nigerien security forces.

The U.S. Embassys capacity to provide emergency services to U.S. citizens in Niger is limited, due to the temporary reduction in staff. However, the U.S. government continues to closely monitor developments in Niger to assess the security and safety risks.

U.S. Citizens in Niger Should Remain Vigilant

Those currently in Niger are advised to remain vigilant, avoid large gatherings and adhere to the guidance of local authorities.

The U.S. Department of State continues to work with its partners and embassies abroad to ensure the safety and well-being of U.S. citizens.
Union LA is back for another collaborative team-up with Jordan Brand, this time taking over the classic Air Jordan 1 KO Low.

Serving as the follow-up to its 2018 Air Jordan 1 release, the new-and-improved collab actually appears to be a three-way team-up, this time made in partnership with Bephie's Beauty Supply -- the streetwear imprint founded by Beth Birkett (aka wife of Union LA owner Chris Gibbs.)

Crafted with a neutral-hued Air Footscape-inspired upper, the new kicks feature call-outs to Bephie's Beauty Supply on the heels alongside woven detailling throughout. Celebrating "The Summer of '96," the two-piece collab seemingly draws from the time when Gibbs and Birkett first met, paying tribute to their shared love.

Take a closer look at the Union LA x Bephie's Beauty Supply Air Jordan 1 KO Low above, slated for release on August 24.

In other footwear news, Vans and the Mac Miller estate teamed up to commemorate five years of Swimming.
Ocean carriers arent happy with proposed Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022 rule changes that would modify what could be considered unreasonable behavior in turning away cargo.

The Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) put forth multiple revisions to the Act, including requiring carriers to file an annual export policy with the agency. This would force them to submit detailed pricing strategies and service offerings. Carriers want this provision removed.

More from Sourcing Journal

Creating this export policy would only add costs and unnecessary regulation, said Douglas Morgante, vice president of government relations, Maersk Agency USA, in a letter to the FMC.

Rival Hapag-Lloyd, the worlds fifth-biggest ocean freight carrier, shared concerns about revealing intricate details of its business strategies.

In the global market, companies must safeguard their trade secrets, market research, pricing structures, and supply chain information to maintain their edge over competitors, the Hamburg, Germany-based carrier said. If any of this critical information becomes publicly accessible, it may be exploited by rival companies, leading to a loss of competitive advantage and potential market share erosion.

Three unreasonable conduct scenarios were highlighted in the rule changes, including: quoting wildly expensive rates that dont qualify as a serious negotiation; categorically or systematically excluding exports in providing vessel space accommodations; andthe third and vaguestany other interactions or communications with the shipper or other conduct the Commission finds unreasonable.

These scenarios aim to prevent carriers from unfairly refusing to give customers vessel space, or engaging in price gouging behavior.

The attempts to define unreasonableness are vague, subjective and are likely to result in a flood of FMC litigation if adopted in their current form, Morgante said.

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John McCown, the container shipping industry veteran who compiles the McCown Report newsletter, a monthly report of container volume at the top 10 U.S. ports, suggested the FMC create a clearinghouse website storing detailed historical information on aggregate container shipping prices so that market participants can use the data to make their own decisions.

This information is already available monthly around 30 days after the end of each month for a fee. Because of that fact, the carriers cant argue that it is confidential, McCown told Sourcing Journal. However, to have this same information readily available for free to shippers and the public at large seems like an appropriate goal. It would go a long way towards reducing opacity and defining actual market pricing levels and trends.

McCown stressed that the terminology defining unreasonable conduct, like quoting rates that are so far above current market is part of the current problem, because its too vague and does little to address root issues like opaque pricing.

The sunlight of transparency cures many ailments, McCown said. There simply shouldnt be as wide a range of views on actual market pricing for shipments that have already occurred.

The proposed change comes after the FMC fined Hamburg Sud $9.8 million for refusing to fulfill shipping contract obligations with Florida-based furniture retailer OJ Commerce. In that case, the agency found that the ocean carrier violated the refusal to deal provision of the Shipping Act of 1984.

Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, shippers heavily criticized carriers that rejected certain business in favor of higher paying shipments, a problem the FMC has tried to address over the past year.

The FMCs powers were expanded in June last year after the OSRA signing, which helps the commission promote competition in the ocean shipping market, and investigate complaints related to carrier detention and demurrage charges.

However, one industry insider believes the price problem usually works out over time.

I wouldnt expect the FMC to take too much additional action, because over time, it all balances out, Christian Roeloffs, CEO and co-founder of container logistics platform Container XChange, told Sourcing Journal. Its the market that makes the prices, and as long as thats the case, I dont think that a competitive authority should intervene too much and try to steer prices or capacity.

The agency also seeks to address supply chain bottlenecks at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and the Port of New York and New Jersey. It plans to reform container collection and return practices currently used by ocean carriers and marine terminal operators at each gateway.

The agency would require carriers and operators to coordinate information providing shippers with an electronic notice that a container is available for pickup. And while containers must be returned to the terminal of original pickup, which helps those grabbing a new load, truckers must have the option to return empty containers to another location to facilitate double moves.

In rare cases, where it is not possible for a trucker to return a container to the terminal where they originally picked it up, notices to truckers of the new container receiving terminal must occur no later than 12 p.m. the previous day.

Click here to read the full article.
Women in Afghanistan have held a rare protest against the Taliban's decision to shut female beauty parlours and salons.

Women shouted "work, bread and justice" while they were gathered in the capital city, Kabul.

Taliban guards responded with water cannons, and some protesters said stun guns were also used against them.

Women's rights have been increasingly restricted since Taliban rulers returned to power in 2021.

Around 50 women took part in the protest on Wednesday, according to AFP news agency.

The Taliban have given businesses one month from 2 July to close thousands of beauty salons across the country.

They said the wearing of wigs and the practice of eyebrow-plucking were against Islamic values and parents were wasting money on beauty parlours when couples get married.

The decision further restricts the spaces accessible to Afghan women, who are already barred from classrooms, gyms and parks. More recently, the Taliban also banned them from working for the United Nations.

The closure of all beauty salons will lead to the loss of 60,000 jobs, Afghanistan's chamber of commerce said.

Beauty salons were last shut when the Taliban ruled between 1996 and 2001. They stayed open after the Taliban retook power two years ago following the withdrawal of US forces, but shop windows were often covered up and images of women outside salons were spray painted to hide their faces.

The Taliban's restrictions on women, which include strict dress codes and limits to them travelling alone, have continued despite international condemnation.

There have been minor sporadic protests against measures introduced by the Taliban, but any form of dissent is being crushed.

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MADISON  As Wisconsin continues to put to use millions of dollars in settlement funds from opioid manufacturers, law enforcement officers are touting the importance of increasing access to Narcan in what they say is a new phase of the state's substance abuse epidemic.

Since the state Department of Justice began investigating drug manufacturers shortly before Attorney Josh Kaul took office in 2019, the state has secured more than $750 million in funds that will continue to be distributed throughout the state and among local governments for programs that address opioid abuse.

"Our efforts continue; they're not done yet," Kaul told reporters Thursday during a news conference with law enforcement and public health officials. "Though, wherever that dollar amount ends up, we're talking about major resources that can transform our response to this epidemic. At the same time, we are really in a new phase of the epidemic."

More: Facing opioid crisis, Milwaukee County installs vending machine stocked with free Narcan, Fentanyl test strips

Efforts implemented over time, including educational campaigns and a prescription drug monitoring program, have helped alert people to the dangers of opioids and cut down on over-prescription, Kaul said. But new challenges have emerged.

"One is the continuing impacts of social isolation from the (COVID-19) pandemic, which has led to all sorts of strains on social networks and increased anxiety, depression, mental health issues and also substance use disorder," Kaul said. "We're also seeing a major increase in the prevalence of fentanyl, an incredibly dangerous narcotic that's far more potent than morphine or heroin. And that can lead to overdose deaths even in very small quantities."

In many Wisconsin counties last year, fentanyl was the number one cause of death for young- and middle-aged adults, said Julia Olsen, public health supervisor with Public Health Madison & Dane County.

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"Wisconsin lost more of our family, friends and neighbors to drug overdose in the past year than we ever have," Olsen said. "All of this loss and trauma was preventable. We have the ability to save lives and prevent future harms in our communities."

As the state continues to take in funds, plans to spend the money must be approved by the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee. A plan approved by lawmakers last September allocated funding to increase the availability of Narcan (a drug that can counter the effects of an opioid overdose), fentanyl test strips, treatment programs and law enforcement training.

According to DOJ, more than 31,500 doses of Narcan have been provided to law enforcement thanks to settlement funds.

Every State Patrol officer carries Narcan, Wisconsin State Patrol Superintendent Tim Carnahan told reporters, as drug-impaired driving becomes an increasingly common factor in crashes and deaths.

"(Officers) come across drivers who are often passed out behind the wheel, on the side of the road, or in traffic  or after they've already caused a serious crash. Without the intervention of officers, the opioid crisis would be even more destructive," Carnahan said. "Law enforcement access to naloxone or Narcan means an overdose call has the potential to become an opportunity for recovery."

Administering Narcan while on patrol is "more common than you would think," Carnahan said, adding that in some cases, officers themselves need to be treated after inadvertently ingesting fentanyl during a traffic stop.

Over time, Carnahan said, settlement funds will provide State Patrol officers with more than 4,000 doses of the life-saving drug.

"There is almost always time to intervene to save a life," Olsen said.

Wisconsin will continue to receive opioid settlement funds in years to come. Kaul said he expects they will be allocated with a similar approach, investing in treatment, recovery, harm reduction and education, as well as enforcement actions against those who have contributed to the addiction epidemic.

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: Kaul touts expansion of Narcan for a 'new phase' of opioid epidemic
One of the best things about childhood is getting to go to the library. Oh, sure, public libraries are for adults too  but for kids, theyre often magical. Its not just all the thousands of books, but the stories within those books that spark the imagination. Getting a first library card is a rite of passage, a step into a wider world, a claiming of ones own emerging identity.

For some Missouri kids, though, obtaining that first card has become slightly more difficult.

The board of St. Charles City-County Library in eastern Missouri last month approved a new rule that teens under the age of 18 must bring a parent or guardian with them to sign up for a library card. (Previously, 16- and 17-year-olds could sign up without a parent.) That probably wont be a problem for most families, but for some young people whose parents are too busy with work  or who cant be bothered  the new rule will be an impediment to their full enjoyment of the librarys offerings.

Librarians usually prefer to expand rather than narrow access to their materials. So what happened?

What happened is Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, who in May implemented a new rule threatening to pull funding from states public libraries over providing materials considered pornographic or obscene to minors. Yes, we want to make sure libraries have the resources and materials they need for their constituents, Ashcroft said in May, but we also want our children to be children a little longer than a pervasive culture may often dictate.

That goal sounds potentially praiseworthy. In practice, though, the new rule has proven confusing and vague to Missouris librarians  What materials violate the policy? Does it count if minors are accessing a librarys digital services from their home?  and put them on defense, resulting in policy changes like the one in St. Charles.

Theyre treading cautiously.

Libraries throughout Missouri are taking various approaches in an attempt to comply with the rule, said Kimberly Moeller, president-elect of the Missouri Library Association. Many libraries have reached out to lawyers and to the secretary of states office for guidance, but there has been very little available, so each library is doing their best to comply.

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While the association is trying to help local libraries, she said, it cant give much advice to our colleagues since the rule is so vague and open to interpretation.

The good news locally is that the Kansas City Public Library remains open to all ages. There is still no minimum age here to obtain a library card  one of the few big libraries in the state with such open access.

There are many factors that parents/guardians may take into consideration when or if theyd like their child(ren) to have their own card and those differ from family to family, the library says on its website. Therefore, the library does not presume to impose age restrictions.

But Ashcrofts rule has produced some changes locally. The library now offers a form that parents can fill out to deactivate their childs library card. And another new procedure allows patrons to request an age designation for some materials and exhibits  perhaps pushing items out of view of the childrens areas of the library.

So far, no one has utilized the new forms. But it is easy to see how they could be used or abused by the censorious-minded. Hopefully that wont happen.

Our goal is to have as open access as possible for teenagers and children, said Crystal Faris, deputy director of youth and family engagement at KCPL.

We previously expressed concern that Ashcrofts new rule opens the door to book bans in Missouri. Thats still a problem, but the real effects may be more subtle if no less pernicious: A slight narrowing of library access here, a bit of self-censorship there.

Missouris libraries are still magical. There is a danger, though, that the light is starting to dim.
Bryan Kohberger enters the courtroom for his arraignment hearing in Latah County District Court on May 22, 2023, in Moscow, Idaho. On Wednesday, Aug. 2, attorneys for Kohberger, accused of stabbing four University of Idaho students to death last year, said he was on a long drive by himself around the time of the slayings. | Zach Wilkinson, The Moscow-Pullman Daily News via Associated Press

Bryan Kohberger acknowledges he was out driving alone the night four University of Idaho students were murdered  but he wont say exactly where, or when, he was driving.

Thats according to an objection filed this week in Idahos 2nd District Court by Kohbergers defense in response to prosecutors attempt to get the precise location of his alibi and the names of witnesses who could corroborate it.

Kohberger has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder in the stabbing deaths of Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen, both 21; and Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, both 20. All students of the University of Idaho, they were found murdered in their apartment in Moscow, Idaho, on Nov. 13. For the next two months, police remained tight-lipped about a suspect and motive, until Kohberger was arrested on Dec. 30 in Pennsylvanias Pocono Mountains.

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According to an affidavit, police believe the murders took place between 4 a.m. and 4:25 a.m. A white Hyundai Elantra  the same car owned by Kohberger  was seen leaving the home in Moscow at about 4:20 a.m., the affidavit notes, citing statements from a surviving witness.

Now, in the objection filed by his attorneys, Kohberger claims he has long had a habit of going for drives alone. Often he would go for drives at night, stating that he did so around the time of the murders.

Mr. Kohberger is not claiming to be at a specific location at a specific time; at this time there is not a specific witness to say precisely where Mr. Kohberger was at each moment of the hours between late night November 12, 2022 and early morning November 13, 2022. He was out, driving during the late night and early morning hours, the court filing reads.

His attorneys claim that information could come out through cross-examination of witnesses called by the state. They note that case law requires specific locations to be disclosed in an alibi, but state Mr. Kohberger has complied to the extent possible at this time.

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At this time, Mr. Kohberger cannot be more specific about the possible witnesses and exactly what they will say. The defense has been hampered by the states own choices, the objection reads, because it chose a secret grand jury rather than the planned preliminary.

Had the state chosen to conduct a preliminary hearing, Kobhergers attorneys say, they could have developed testimony through cross-examination and witness presentation.

Kohberger had just completed his first semester at Washington State University, where he was pursuing a doctorate in the schools Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology, according to the university. He lived in Pullman, about a 15-minute drive from the University of Idaho.

Kohberger is pleading not guilty, and prosecutors are pursuing the death penalty. He is also charged with one count of felony burglary. The trial is scheduled to start in October.

A previous version of this story misspelled Bryan Kohbergers name as Brian Kohberger.
Scientists have found a naturally occurring strain of bacteria which can help stop the transmission of malaria from mosquitoes to humans.

They found it by chance, after a colony of mosquitoes in one experiment did not develop the malaria parasite.

The researchers say the bacteria could be a new tool for fighting one of the world's oldest diseases, which kills 600,000 people every year.

Trials assessing its safety in the real world are now taking place.

Scientists at a research facility in Spain, run by the GSK pharmaceutical company, made the discovery after noticing that a colony of mosquitoes being used for drug development had stopped carrying malaria.

"The infection rate in the mosquitoes started dwindling and so by the end of the year the mosquitoes just would not be infected with the malaria parasite," says Dr Janneth Rodrigues, who led the programme.

The team froze the samples from their 2014 experiment and went back to them two years later to explore what had happened.

Further studies revealed that a specific strain of bacteria - TC1 - which is naturally present in the environment, had stopped the development of the malaria parasites in the gut of the mosquitoes.

"Once it colonises the mosquito, it lasts for the entire lifespan," says Dr Rodrigues.

"And we found out that, yes, it is the bacteria which was responsible for reducing transmission in those mosquitoes."

New data published in Science magazine suggests the bacteria can reduce a mosquito's parasite load by up to 73%.

The bacteria works by secreting a small molecule, known as harmane, which inhibits the early stages of the malaria parasite growing in the mosquito's gut.

In conjunction with Johns Hopkins University, the GSK scientists discovered that harmane can either be ingested orally by the mosquito, if mixed with sugar, or absorbed through its cuticle on contact.

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This lays open the possibility of treating surfaces in areas where the insects rest with the active compound.

End the threat

More trials are now taking place at a contained field research facility called MosquitoSphere in Burkina Faso to assess how effective and safe it would be to use harmane at scale in the real world.

The hope is that by developing this bacteria-based intervention into a product, scientists may soon have another tool in the box against one of the world's oldest diseases.

Malaria kills about 620,000 people a year - often children under the age of five. Vaccines have now been developed, but they are still in the early stages of being rolled out in Africa.

Gareth Jenkins, from the charity Malaria No More, said the new discovery was promising.

"Malaria kills a child every minute. Significant progress has been made in reducing the global burden of malaria, but to get us back on track we need new and innovative tools in the arsenal.

"With a strong innovation pipeline, it is possible to end the threat of malaria in our lifetimes."
In an unannounced trip to Ukraine on Friday, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie -- now running for the Republican presidential nomination, met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv.

The trip marks Christie's first visit to the ravaged nation since the start of the war in March 2022. The United States has positioned itself a diplomatic ally to Ukraine and sent billions of dollars' worth of assistance over its ongoing, nearly year-and-a-half-long war against Russia.

PHOTO: Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shakes hands with Republican presidential candidate and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie during his visit to Kyiv, Ukraine, Aug. 4, 2023. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Service via Reuters)

MORE: Trump's 'ego' won't let him skip 1st GOP primary debate, Christie predicts

Christie met with Zelenskyy at the presidential palace in Kyiv. During the meeting, President Zelenskyy thanked Christie for visiting and for U.S. support in the war.

"Its very important that all the country, all the Americans, are on the right side of the truth, democracy," Zelenskyy said.

Christie told Zelenskyy that the "biggest reason" he wanted to visit Ukraine was so he could see what was happening in Ukraine for himself.

"Because then it will best enable me to go home and describe to people in detail the things that I've seen," Christie said at the press event.

Christie noted that in his travels, he has seen many Americans show their support for Ukraine by displaying the blue and yellow Ukraine flag outside and around their homes.

"I believe that the overwhelming majority of the American people understand that we need to be with Ukraine on this fight," Christie told Zelenskyy. "But there are political arguments and I want us who support you to win those political arguments because that means the support will be better, faster and more significant."

Christie's itinerary included tours of various sites across multiple war-torn areas of the country, including a mass civilian burial site in Bucha and a history museum in the nation's capital, among other commemorative and educational sites.

PHOTO: Republican presidential candidate and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie lays flowers at the Wall of Remembrance to pay tribute to killed Ukrainian soldiers, Kyiv, Ukraine, Aug. 4, 2023. (Efrem Lukatsky/AP)

He was also briefed on the March 2022 Ukrainian evacuation and the current states of the frontline, energy security, and U.S.-Ukrainian cooperation efforts.

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While Christie has criticized the Biden, Trump, and Obama administrations for their handling of Russia, Christie has expressed ardent support of the United States' alliance with Ukraine.

"America has never been a great country and the leader of the world by filling in the moat and pulling up the drawbridge," he said on ABC's "This Week" in June.

PHOTO: Republican presidential candidate and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, center, participates in a flowers laying ceremony as he visits a former defense line in the village of Moshchun, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Aug. 4, 2023. (Efrem Lukatsky/AP)

Christie commented in a July town hall that he believes President Joe Biden has given Zelenskyy only the bare minimum supply of defensive aid. "And Joe Biden, by the way, is giving him just enough not to lose," Christie said, adding that he would give Ukraine "the F-16s, too."

In his "This Week" interview, Christie also emphasized his belief that the Ukrainians' fight with Russia is a "proxy war" against China, stating, "We need to make sure that we continue to engage in this way. We do not want a world that is dominated by Communist China. And so this is a fight that America needs to have. It always involves sacrifice. But in the end, at the end of this sacrifice, I am absolutely a believer in the fact that America will be bigger, stronger, richer and more influential in the world because we stood by our principles and stood by our friends."

Christie is not the only presidential contender to make the trip mid-campaign; Former Vice President Mike Pence, who announced his presidential bid in early June, made a surprise visit to Ukraine later that month. The two candidates are making their foreign policy stances on the war in Ukraine clear to potential voters before the 2024 election season revs up this fall with the first Republican debate scheduled for Aug. 23.

PHOTO: Republican presidential candidate former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, third left, participates in a flowers laying ceremony in the village of Moshchun, outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Aug. 4, 2023. (Efrem Lukatsky/AP)

ABC News' Nicholas Kerr and Sarah Beth Hensley contributed to this report.

Chris Christie meets with Zelenskyy during Ukraine trip originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
A member of the far-right German political party Alternative for Germany (AfD) has issued a stark warning against Worldcoin's iris-scanning operations.

"The eye scanner was not developed for medical purposes, but serves to collect biometric data," reads a translation of Christina Baum's statement on the official AfD site. "These devices are used solely for the global monitoring of people." Baum is a member of the Bundestag, Germany's federal parliament.

She also claimed that users who scan their eyes can have their activities "permanently tracked," including movement patterns and purchasing habits. "The transparent human being is thus becoming a reality. And that is more than frightening," she said."

A Worldcoin spokesperson pointed Decrypt to the project's data privacy documentation, adding that "we are letting the facts and public-facing content about the project serve as a response" to Baum's claims.

The AfD is an extreme right-wing political party in Germany. It's become known for its Euroscepticism and anti-immigration stance, as well as for peddling Islamaphobic narratives in the name of nativism. One of the party's leading figures, Alexander Gauland, said in 2018 that "Hitler and the Nazis as just a speck of bird's muck in more than 1,000 years of successful German history."

"It is also not about a fundamental ban on Worldcoin," Baum told Decrypt. "It is rather about collecting private data, whereby it is unknown who and where this data is stored and how this data is further used. The system is supposed to be used globally to identify peoplethus their whereabouts can be traced at any time and anywhere."

'Show Your Face to the Orb': Eyes-on With Sam Altman's Worldcoin

Worldcoin is yet another project from the latest Silicon Valley Wunderkind Sam Altman, who is also the co-founder of OpenAI, the organization behind the massively popular AI-powered language model ChatGPT. The Worldcoin crypto project claims to promote a more human internet experience in a world that's become overpopulated by robots and algorithms.

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Worldcoin's eye-scanning technology

Worldcoin has set up its signature "orbs" in locations all around the world, where people can scan their iris to create a WorldID in exchange for the project's WLD token.

The project aims to create a new identity standard for the Internet era and has revealed plans to enable governments and businesses to use its identity-verifying technology.

Worldcoin's official FAQ claims that no personal data is collected by default and that the iris scan is "immediately deleted once the iris code is created."

Sam Altman's Worldcoin Unveils Hardware That Will Scan Your Eyeballs for Crypto

Users can, however, opt-in to a more comprehensive data agreement which would give Worldcoin to store those images "for the purposes of training our algorithms." This data can also be sent around the European Union and the United States should users opt in.

Baum's comments join a posse of other data watchdogs and countries issuing similar privacy concerns.

The Bavarian State Office for Data Protection Supervision said that it had been probing Worldcoin since November 2022. Earlier this week, Kenya suspended the firm's activities, while government agencies asses their "authenticity and legality."

Both French and British data watchdogs have also raised concerns over the legality of collecting such high-risk data.
(Public Domain)

Its not uncommon for warships to serve the navies of different countries in their lifetimes. The Argentine cruiser ARA General Belgrano (C-4) that was sunk during the Falklands War in 1982 was first commissioned as the USS Phoenix (CL-46) in 1938. In a similar vein, Japans first ironclad warship was originally built for the Confederate States Navy.

Stonewall in Spain (Public Domain)

On October 12, 1861, CSS Manassas became the first ironclad to see combat at the Battle of the Head of Passes on the Mississippi River. Protected by iron or steel armor plates, ironclads held a significant tactical advantage over conventional warships made of wood. During the Civil War, the Union built dozens of the type. The Confederacy built ironclads domestically but also purchased them from Europe. While the CSA was able to place ironclad orders overseas, getting the ships to America was a challenge. Most were confiscated, especially by Russia which openly supported the Union.

In 1863, the Confederacy struck a deal with French Emperor Napoleon III. French shipbuilder Lucien Arman, a close acquaintance to Napoleon, would construct two ironclads for the CSA in secret so as not to openly violate the French law against providing warships to a nation at war. To that end, the guns for the ships were manufactured separately and the ironclads were named Cheops and Sphinx to suggest they were commissioned by Egypt.

Stonewall was the Confederacy's last ironclad (Public Domain)

However, prior to the delivery of the ironclads, the U.S. discovered France's secret arrangement with the Confederacy. Under political pressure, the French government blocked the sale of the ships. Instead, on March 31, 1864, Cheops was sold to Prussia as Prinz Adalbert and Sphinx was sold to Denmark as Strkodder. The Danish Navy took delivery of the ironclad on June 21, 1864, and conducted a shakedown cruise. Strkodder arrived in Copenhagen on November 10, 1864.

At the beginning of 1865, Denmark sold Strkodder to the Confederate States of America, the ship's original customer. On January 6, 1865, a Confederate Navy crew took delivery of the ironclad in Copenhagen. Renamed CSS Stonewall, the ship was damaged in a storm before it left Europe. While repairs were made in Spain, news of the Confederate ironclad reached the Union. During February and March, Union ships observed Stonewall from afar. When Stonewall put to sea on March 24, 1865, the Union ships declined to fight her and she sailed across the Atlantic for the Caribbean. The ironclad arrived in Nassau, Bahamas, on May 6. Five days later, Stonewall arrived in Havana, Cuba, where her crew learned of the war's end.

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A closeup of Stonewall's armor (Public Domain)

Stonewall was turned over to the Spanish government in Cuba, who then turned her over to the U.S. The ironclad arrived at the Washington Navy Yard on November 24, 1865. Two years later, seeking to modernize their navy, representatives of the Tokugawa shogunate in Japan purchased Stonewall from the U.S. for $400,000. In Japanese service, she was renamed Kotetsu, which translates to "Ironclad." When the ship arrived in Japan in March 1869, the new Meiji government took possession of Kotetsu.

Sailed by the Imperial Japanese Navy, Kotetsu served as the flagship of a task force dispatched to engage the remnants of the Tokugawa Navy that remained loyal to the shogunate. On March 25, 1869, Kotetsu repelled a surprise night attack at the Battle of Miyako Bay with her Gatling gun. She also supported the Imperial invasion of Hokkaido and fought in the Naval Battle of Hakodate Bay.

Kotetsu leads the charge at Hakodate Bay (Public Domain)

On November 15, 1871, Kotetsu was reclassified as a third-class warship and renamed Azuma the next month. With her fighting ability assessed as low compared to newer and better-armed ships, she was relegated to naval guard duty. Azuma was struck from the IJN register on January 28, 1888, and sold for scrap on December 12, 1889. In 1895, her armor plating made armature shafts for electric generators in Tokyo's Asakusa Thermal Power Station.
COVID-19 virus levels are rising at wastewater treatment plants in the two largest metropolitan areas in North Carolina, indicating that case counts could be on the rise.

According to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, rising levels of COVID-19 virus particles in wastewater can be an early sign of community spread.

At the Mallard Creek plant in Charlotte, an average of 11 million viral gene copies per person were recorded on May 23, according to the most recent data available from NCDHHS. By July 25, that number climbed to 32 million.

Viral gene copies at a plant in Raleigh rose to 42 million near the end of July, up from 2 million just seven weeks prior.

COVID-19 wastewater levels have remained relatively flat at the other plants in both areas, data show.

COVID-19 in Mecklenburg, Wake counties

As COVID-19 wastewater levels rise in some parts of the state, so have the number of hospitalizations related to the virus.

From July 15-22, there were 33 COVID-related hospitalizations reported in Mecklenburg County, a 32% increase from the previous week, according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Wake County saw a similar increase, with 21 hospitalizations reported during the same week.

Wastewater data usually corresponds with the number of cases reported in a particular area, and people should be cautious despite the low number of hospitalizations compared to previous months, Virginia Guidry, the branch head for occupational and environmental epidemiology at NCDHHS, told The Charlotte Observer last June.

Were pretty confident in our wastewater data as a way to measure whats going on in the community, Guidry said. And it captures both symptomatic and asymptomatic folks, regardless of whether they get tested, and that is one the real advantages of wastewater monitoring.

How can wastewater help detect COVID spread?

Wastewater can be an important tool for scientists who study SARS-CoV-2, according to the CDC. Heres how:
Sometimes police officers dont have to go far to make an arrest.

At 1:03 a.m. Friday, Leesburg Officer David McClain reported that he was at the police station when the driver of a Toyota pulled into the parking lot and made several maneuvers."

The driver "appeared to be unable to park the vehicle within a designated parking spot, McClain wrote in an arrest affidavit.

The man got out of the car and walked to the police departments front door.

He advised he was intoxicated and in an altercation with his husband at his residence. He decided to leave the property and come to the police department to report the disturbance, the affidavit says.

McClain said the mans speech was slurred, that he had bloodshot eyes, and had strong odor of alcohol.

He read the man his rights and began questioning him. The man said he had consumed two or three half cups of vodka.

The Daily Commercial is withholding the man's name because of the case circumstances.

Officer McClain had the man perform a series of field sobriety tests, which he failed. The man was arrested, handcuffed, and taken inside the police department for breath tests.

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According to the affidavit, the man was led inside the building, where he was given three breath tests. His blood-alcohol content registered at 0.22, 0.242 and 0.216, the affidavit says. Thats three times the legal limit, Capt. Joe Iozzi told the Daily Commercial.

Because the readings were greater than 0.02, officers conducted a mandatory test on the breath tester.

The man was then taken to the Lake County jail, where he was booked on a charge of DUI/first offense. Bail was set at $1,000.

The man's home address is listed on the arrest affidavit. It's just a few blocks from the police station.

This article originally appeared on Ocala Star-Banner: DUI charge for man who drove to Leesburg Police station seeking help
Federal authorities seized large quantities of fentanyl, methamphetamine, cocaine, guns and cash in an investigation into drug distribution that led to the arrest of 12 believed participants in a local trafficking ring in Carlsbad.

Police said they believed the organization was tied to alleged drug cartels in Mexico.

Seven indictments in the case were returned by a federal grand jury in the case on April 19 and July 19, and a criminal complaint was issued Tuesday stemming from the year-long operation, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice.

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The investigation began in February 2022 when agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration and Pecos Valley Drug Task Force were tipped off to people believing trafficking drugs throughout southeast New Mexico.

The subsequent investigation led to charges against 16 defendants for trafficking drugs and firearms.

During the arrests, agents acting on four search warrants seized about 56 kilograms of meth, four kilograms of cocaine. Four kilograms of fentanyl, 31 firearms and $75,000 from the organization.

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Heres what we know about those arrested and charged in the drug trafficking investigation.

Feds bust up Carlsbad drug trafficking operation, defendants face life in prison

On April 19, Jesus Daniel Sonora-Gonzalez, 29 of Carlsbad, Guerrero Muro, 33, of Midland, Texas and Antonio Torres-Vivas, 40 of Carlsbad were charged with conspiracy to distribute controlled substances including 50 grams or more of meth and 500 grams of fentanyl.

They faced nine counts of distribution of meth and fentanyl and one count of attempt to distribute 400 grams or more of fentanyl.

If convicted, the three men could be sentenced to life in prison.

More: Was your child locked down at school? Here's what Carlsbad schools are doing about it

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In separate indictments filed July 19, Damon Michael Johnsey, 28, and Kelly Lamar Burke, 31, both of Carlsbad, were charged with intent to distribute 40 grams or more of fentanyl, along with charges of using a firearm during drug trafficking and possession of a gun by a felon.

Both men had prior drug possession charges and Burke was also previously charged with child abuse. If convicted, both face life sentences.

Charges of conspiracy to distribute cocaine, possession with intent to distribute cocaine, 400 grams or more of fentanyl, 50 grams or more of meth 5 grams or more of meth were filed July 19 against seven other Carlsbad defendants: Kinny Gonzalez, 29, Kassandra Lee Perales, 32, Carlos Michael Venegas Jr., 24, Amber Kathleen Owen, 50, Brian Kain Purdy, 41, Sabino Alfonso Maldonado, 31 and Jared Michael Moore, 42.

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Jesus Alonso Cerezo-Espido, 50, of Mexico was also charged July 19 with possession and intent to distribute cocaine, 400 grams or more of fentanyl, 50 grams or more of meth, and 5 grams or more of meth, and smuggling goods from the U.S. including firearms and ammunition to promote drug trafficking, along with a charge of using a firearm during drug trafficking.

If convicted, Purdy and Maldonado face up to 10 years in prison, while Moore faces up to 20 years and the rest named in that indictment face life in prison.

Another Carlsbad man Manuel Pineda Montoya, 43, was charged July 19 with possession with intent to distribute 400 grams or more of fentanyl, 50 grams or more of methamphetamine and 40 grams of fentanyl, using a firearm during a drug trafficking incident while also being a felon in possession of a firearm. He faced life in prison.

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Silvester Cruz Rueda, 44, and Jaycelyn Amberly Marrujo, 22, both of Carlsbad were also charged July 19 with conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute fentanyl, while Rueda was charged with using a firearm during drug trafficking. Rueda faces life in prison, while Marrujo faces up to 20 years.

David Haynes, 55, of Carlsbad was charged July 19 with possession with intent to distribute 400 grams of fentanyl, facing life in prison. He is a fugitive not yet arrested, police said.

Freddy Trevino, 48, was charged possession with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of a mixture substance containing methamphetamine and possession of a firearm during drug trafficking. He was arrested Aug. 1 in Carlsbad and faces life in prison.

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Gonzalez, Owen, Purdy, Maldonado, Moore, Rueda, Marrujo, Johnsey and Burke were arrested in Carlsbad Aug. 1, while Perales and Venegas were arrested that day in North Dakota.

Law enforcement, Congress cracking down on drug trafficking

U.S. Attorney for the District of New Mexico Alexander Uballez said investigations would continue even in rural areas of New Mexico where drug trafficking is prevalent.

No corner of New Mexico is beyond the reach of federal criminal investigators. Through strong partnerships with local law enforcement, we struck at the heart of this drug trafficking network, disrupting its operations from the source to the streets, he said in a statement.

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Eric Castaneda, acting special agent in charge of the DEAs El Paso Division said the organization based in Carlsbad was connected to Mexican drug cartels distributing the substances into southern New Mexico.

This is a violent organization with links to cartel activity, he said. DEA will continue to aggressively pursue this and other organizations responsible for bringing these dangerous drugs into the communities of southern New Mexico.

The Pecos Valley Drug Task Force in Eddy County led the investigation alongside the DEA, Department of Homeland Security, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and was assisted by the Carlsbad, Artesia and Roswell police departments, and the Eddy and Chaves County sheriffs offices.

The push to increase drug enforcement was taken up by New Mexicos Democrat U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, who cosponsored the Fentanyl Eradication and Narcotics Deterrence (FEND) Off Fentanyl Act which was included in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed by the Senate last week.

The bill would declare international drug trafficking of fentanyl a national emergency, and require Presidential sanctions on transnational drug organizations and cartels, while allowing the use proceeds from property seized during fentanyl enforcement to further law enforcement activities.

Im proud to help advance the FEND Off Fentanyl Act in the Senate to cut off the illicit supply of fentanyl from China and Mexico  so we can target fentanyl before it ever hits our borders, Heinrich said in a statement.

Adrian Hedden can be reached at 575-628-5516, achedden@currentargus.com or @AdrianHedden on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Carlsbad Current-Argus: Fentanyl, meth trafficking investigation leads to arrests in Carlsbad
MIDDLEBORO  A judge may have ruled against a Middleboro middle schooler who says he has a First Amendment right to wear a "There are only two genders" T-shirt to school  but it's not over.

The United States District Court of Massachusetts ruled on June 16 against Liam Morrison's request for a preliminary injunction that would have forbidden the school from banning his T-shirt while the case is pending.

Then in July both sides agreed to ask the court to convert that preliminary ruling into a final judgment against Morrison  thus paving the way for an appeal to a higher court.

This isnt about a T-shirt. This is about a public school telling a middle-schooler that he isnt allowed to express a view that differs from the schools orthodoxy, said Legal Counsel Logan Spena from the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF)  the organization representing Morrison.

In March, staff pulled Morrison from class and sent him home when he wore a black T-shirt to class reading, "There are only two genders." In May, he wore the same T-shirt to school again with the words "only two" taped over, replaced with the word "censored." The school required him to remove the T-shirt or be sent home again.

'Im calling it whack-a-mole' Nichols Middle School in chaos as students damage building

Public school officials cant force Liam to remove a shirt that states his position when the school lets every other student wear clothing that speaks on the same issue. Their choice to double-down and silence him when he tried to protest their censorship is a gross violation of the First Amendment that were urging the 1st Circuit to rectify, Spena said in a written statement Friday.

Then-Acting Principal Heather Tucker told Morrison the shirt violated the school's dress code  which states that clothing must not state, imply, or depict hate speech or imagery that target groups based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, religious affiliation, or any other classification.

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Liam Morrison, 12, on Friday, May 5 wearing a "censored version" of the T-shirt he wore to school the day he was sent home.

Carolyn Lyons, Middleboro superintendent of schools, told Morrison and his father that the message on his shirt "targeted a protested class of students; namely in the area of gender identity."

At a hearing on July 12, both parties requested that the court finalize the June 16 ruling against Morrison so ADF could file an appeal.

"They agree that further evidentiary hearings would serve little purpose and that the interests of the Partiesand resources of the Courtwill be better served by an appeal from a final judgment," said the joint motion for entry of final judgment.

Lawyers representing Liam Morrison, the Nichols Middle School student who sued school and town officials after being sent home for his "There are only two genders" T-shirt, filed a notice of appeal on Friday, Aug. 4.

The lawsuit sparked a major debate among parents in Middleboro, who spoke out passionately at a School Committee meeting in May on both sides of the issue, in support of school officials, on the one hand, and Morrison on the other.

In June, The Enterprise reported that a bullying epidemic at Nichols Middle has caused physical damage to the building and prompted students and the superintendent to call for intervention.

The superintendent of schools and school committee chair could not immediately be reached for comment on the appeal Friday afternoon.

This article originally appeared on The Enterprise: Middleboro student appeals in free speech 'two genders' shirt case
WASHINGTON  More than three dozen House Democrats are calling on the policymaking body for federal courts to permit live broadcasting of court proceedings in the Justice Department's cases charging former President Donald Trump with federal crimes.

In a letter led by Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who served on the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, Democrats asked that the Judicial Conference "explicitly authorize the broadcasting of court proceedings in the cases of United States of America v. Donald J. Trump."

"It is imperative the Conference ensures timely access to accurate and reliable information surrounding these cases and all of their proceedings, given the extraordinary national importance to our democratic institutions and the need for transparency," the lawmakers wrote in the letter, sent Thursday to Judge Roslynn R. Mauskopf, the secretary of the Judicial Conference.

Image: Donald Trump, Todd Blanche, Jack Smith (Dana Verkouteren / AP)

The letter, whose signatories also included other members who served on the former Jan. 6 committee, noted that the Judicial Conference has "historically supported increased transparency and public access to the courts activities."

"Given the historic nature of the charges brought forth in these cases, it is hard to imagine a more powerful circumstance for televised proceedings," the letter said. "If the public is to fully accept the outcome, it will be vitally important for it to witness, as directly as possible, how the trials are conducted, the strength of the evidence adduced and the credibility of witnesses."

The letter was sent on the same day that Trump was arraigned at the federal courthouse in Washington during a proceeding that was not televised or livestreamed. He pleaded not guilty to four federal counts over his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, which led to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Federal prosecutors filed the grand jury indictment Tuesday.

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Trump's next court hearing in the case is set for Aug. 28. A trial date has not yet been set.

The former president, meanwhile, is set to go on trial in May in the Justice Department's case that charged him in a 37-count indictment in June over his alleged mishandling of classified documents after he left the White House. That trial will be held in Florida. He also pleaded not guilty to those charges. Trump was charged with additional counts in the case last week.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Ortega United Methodist Church, whose history dates back to 1912, is among churches scheduled to be part of a disaffiliation vote Saturday within the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church. The church's interior was photographed in 2012.

The futures of 10 Methodist congregations in Northeast Florida  and dozens statewide  hang on a vote Saturday about separating from the United Methodist Church, a multimillion-member denomination shrinking nationwide.

Forty-six congregations are asking the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church (UMC) to approve their inclusion in a process called disaffiliation.

The process lets congregations sever ties and keep their buildings in return for payments known as exit obligations to help answer intense disagreements about church stances on homosexuality and ordaining gay clergy.

The Florida Conference lay and clergy leadership respects that the decision to stay or leave the denomination should be one of conscience, the conference notes in an FAQ section to a guide it prepared for Saturdays online meeting.

Suing UMC: 'We are not enemies': Florida Methodists' cohesion tested by lawsuit

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A man prays inside Lake Shore United Methodist Church durnig a vigil for military members involved in the 1991 Persian Gulf war.

The vote will be the second time this year that congregations in the Lakeland-based conference will have a chance to disaffiliate.

A third meeting on Dec. 2 will be the final chance for disaffiliation through the conference.

A rule laying out conditions for disaffiliating because of the current deep conflict expires Dec. 31. The rule includes preconditions for leaving, such as a vote by two-thirds of congregation members.

Some congregations leaving UMC plan to join the newly-organized Global Methodist Church, which has reported growing to more than 3,000 congregations since its launch last year. Other churches could remain independent or join other denominations.

The 46 churches seeking to leave represent 13,193 members, about nine percent of the Florida conferences 145,577 members, according to conference figures from the end of last year.

Southside United Methodist Church in Jacksonville, whose building is shown in a 2009 photo, is among 46 Florida congregations seeking to disaffiliate from the United Methodist Church.

Whos trying to leave?

In Jacksonville, congregations from these churches have asked to disaffiliate:

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CrossRoad Church, 10005 Gate Parkway North;

Lake Shore UMC, 2246 Blanding Blvd.;

Mount Zion UMC, 1238 Ballard Ridge Road;

Ortega UMC, 4807 Roosevelt Blvd.;

Southside UMC, 3120 Hendricks Ave.;

Spring Glen UMC, 6007 Beach Blvd.

Outside of Duval County, disaffiliation is being sought by Ponte Vedra UMC, Orange Park UMC, First UMC in Green Cove Springs and First UMC in Macclenny as well as churches in Bradford and Putnam counties.

UMCs Florida conference reports having more than 500 congregations now but has already lost 72 congregations to disaffiliation, according to a count by UM News, UMCs newsgathering agency.

Nationwide, conferences have approved 6,179 disaffiliations since 2019, UM News reported.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: 10 Jacksonville-area churches trying to leave United Methodist Church
Marya Crigler, Travis County's chief appraiser since December 2011 and an unsparing critic of state laws she says make appraisals in Texas needlessly hard, will retire in early 2024.

Crigler, a former intern who over 30-plus years occupied many positions at Travis Central Appraisal District, on Friday notified the district's board of her decision. Her position isn't an elected one, and the board will begin a search for her replacement.

"It's time for me to retire," Crigler told the American-Statesman.

Crigler's departure deepens a makeover of the Travis County offices that handle real estate or tax matters. Bruce Elfant, who works closely with Crigler as the county's tax assessor-collector, is not running for reelection next year for a position he has held since 2013. Vying to replace him in the Democratic primary is Celia Israel, a former state representative who ran for Austin mayor last year. Another potential candidate is Austin City Council Member Leslie Pool, who will leave the council after three terms, and who informed a local Democratic club she is considering running to succeed Elfant.

The county clerk's office, which maintains real estate records, is also in transition under newcomer Dyana Limon-Mercado, who took over in January from Dana DeBeauvoir, who led the office for 36 years.

"I see our role as appraisal districts as gatekeepers of fairness in the entire system," Travis County Chief Appraiser Marya Crigler said. "I'm not an advocate for the taxing unit, and I'm not an advocate for the taxpayer. I'm trying to get the fair market value and doing what's right."

Elfant, who as a member of the appraisal board will help pick the next chief appraiser, said Crigler's departure will be a big loss.

"Marya's been an incredible resource," he said. "She's one of the most knowledgeable appraisers in the state, and having proximity to the Capitol, she's taken advantage of that."

The departures come in the wake of an explosion in Austin's housing market, fueled by the arrival of major technology companies like Google, Oracle and Samsung. In 2022, when housing demand in Austin greatly exceeded housing supply, the value of the median home in Travis County was $632,000  a 53% increase from just a year earlier.

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In the past 10 years, the number of taxable properties in the county has increased by 18% to 477,000.

Crigler's office employs 65 appraisers who analyze properties to establish market value. A property's value is among many factors that determine a tax bill, an equation that also includes the tax rate set by school districts and other taxing jurisdictions.

"I see our role as appraisal districts as gatekeepers of fairness in the entire system," Crigler said. "I'm not an advocate for the taxing unit, and I'm not an advocate for the taxpayer. I'm trying to get the fair market value and doing what's right. If I'm following that gold standard, and I'm on the line right, the system works."

Crigler has long railed against state laws that she says make it hard to accurately and promptly assess property values. Texas is among 12 nondisclosure states, meaning a home's sales price  a figure that draws a close connection to value  is not automatically available to appraisal districts. In Texas, appraisal offices must instead depend on less reliable sources.

Crigler's attempt to gain better information in 2019 led to her creating a formula, pulling from bank and deed records. It was needed, she said, after the Austin Board of Realtors sent a cease-and-desist accusing the appraisal district of accessing sales data without a license through a third-party vendor. The cease-and-desist prompted Crigler's office to file a lawsuit against the third-party vendor, CoreLogic. The lawsuit is pending.

As a result of the dispute, Crigler's office did not update residential appraisals in 2020.

Crigler's new methodology is now used by other Texas appraisers. It is also used by the state comptroller's office, which grades the quality of appraisals, requiring that they be within 5% of the state's assessment.

In 2018, Crigler was hit with a lawsuit by property owners who said she and Betty Thompson, the review board chair, overbooked hearings on their appraisal protests to keep them from having the professional representation they wanted in a war on tax agents. The case was settled when Crigler agreed to new protest hearings for 135 property owners.

Crigler says the increased volume of appraisal protests has made her job harder. Twenty years ago, her office handled 35,000 protests a year. This year, it handled 180,000.

Austin Mayor Kirk Watson, a former Texas senator, credited Crigler with helping him in 2019 to craft a Senate bill, which became law, that ensured people who inherit their homes without a will receive homeowner protections, such as the homestead exemption.

Being chief appraiser is a thankless job, but Marya absolutely deserves our thanks," Watson said. "I worked with Marya a lot while in the Texas Senate and appreciated the expertise and encyclopedic knowledge she brought to legislative debates. She is a true public servant with a fierce dedication to fairness and integrity in Texas property tax and appraisal system. Some people have service as part of their DNA. Marya is one of them. Shell be missed, but I wish her great happiness."

Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified the defendant in a lawsuit from the Travis County Appraisal District over sales records. The defendant is CoreLogic.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Marya Crigler, Travis County's chief appraiser, announces retirement
(Bloomberg) -- Alphabet Inc.s Google will face a scaled-down antitrust suit over its search business after a federal judge threw out some allegations by state attorneys general.

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In a ruling unsealed Friday, US District Judge Amit Mehta said the state attorneys general couldnt show that Googles search results harmed rivals like Yelp Inc. and Expedia Group Inc.

Mehta left in place allegations by the Justice Department that Googles contracts with Apple Inc., Mozilla Corp. and smartphone makers to preload its search engine harmed competition.

The states allegation on vertical search relies not on evidence but almost entirely on the opinion and speculation of its expert, Mehta wrote. Simply put, there is no record evidence of anticompetitive harm.

The case, set for trial in Sept. 12, will now focus on the agreements Google made with companies to set its search engine as the default, which the plaintiffs allege kept rivals such as Microsoft Corp.s Bing and DuckDuckGo from gaining the scale needed to compete with Google.

Mehta said in Fridays ruling that he needed to see more evidence on how Googles agreements with browsers and smartphone manufacturers affected the market before he could decide on their legality.

Google reiterated that consumers have choices online about where to go for information.

We look forward to showing at trial that promoting and distributing our services is both legal and pro-competitive, Kent Walker, Googles chief legal officer, said in a statement.

Google sought to throw out the two antitrust cases brought by the Justice Department and state AGs, which were filed separately in 2020. The suits allege that Googles deals to ensure its search engine is the default on web browsers and mobile devices violate antitrust laws. Mehta is overseeing both lawsuits.

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The cases are US v. Google, 20-cv-03010, and Colorado v. Google, 20-cv-03715, US District Court, District of Columbia (Washington).

(Updates with Google comment in seventh and eighth paragraphs.)

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PRINCE GEORGE  A fourth staffer of the Federal Correctional Institution-Petersburg has been federally indicted in the January 2021 death of an inmate whose medical needs, according to authorities, were repeatedly ignored.

Yolanda Blackwell, 45, of Chester, is facing a charge of violating the inmates civil rights by showing deliberate indifference while he was amid a health crisis, according to a statement by the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Blackwell, a senior officer specialist willfully failed to ensure that the inmate was provided with necessary medical care, even though she knew that [the inmate] had serious medical needs," the statement said.

The inmate, a 47-year-old man identified only as W.W., died in federal custody a day after he collapsed in his cell.

Blackwell was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury in Richmond.

Two other FCI staffers  Lt. Shronda Covington and registered nurse Tonya Farley, both of Chesterfield County  were indicted last June for their roles in W.W.s death. Both are also charged with filing false statements about the death, and Farley is charged with filing a false report about it.

A fourth prison official, Lt. Michael Anderson, pleaded guilty last month to a similar charge and will be sentenced in November.

The civil-rights violation charge is punishable by a maximum sentence of life imprisonment on a conviction.

This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: One more staffer charged in 2021 inmate death at FCI-Petersburg
Federal and local officials arrested 31 people in a joint operation, targeting a drug operation with believed ties to Mexican drug cartel activity.

The U.S. Marshals Service, Drug Enforcement Administration and Eddy County Sheriffs Office held a press conference Aug. 3 at the sheriffs offices headquarters in Carlsbad, detailing the recent activities officials believe disrupted a segment of a drug trafficking network in southeast New Mexico.

Eddy County Sheriff Mark Cage said there were no injuries reported in the arrests, conducted Aug. 2 and Aug. 3 after the investigation was mostly conducted in the last couple of months with intelligence gathered months before.

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Sonya Chavez with the U.S. Marshals Service District of New Mexico discusses a recent drug trafficking operation in Eddy County, Aug. 3, 2023 at the Eddy County Sheriff's Office.

Thirteen federal arrest warrants were served, along with 17 state warrants on charges ranging from possession with intent to distribute narcotics, armed robbery and kidnapping.

Of the 1,800 fentanyl pills seized in the operation, 1,700 pills came from a single warrant served on an Eddy County defendant.

Cage said the joint operation, seeing local authorities share resources with federal and state officials, made a dent in drug trafficking in the area which he said continued to threaten the safety of local communities.

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Its something that we continue to struggle with in Eddy County. We might as well be a border town. We continue to see enormous amounts of fentanyl coming across the border, Cage said. What gets me is what were not seizing. We can only do so much about it. Its very frustrating. Were making a dent.

Eddy County Sheriff Mark Cage vows to continue pursuing drug traffickers during a press conference, Aug. 3, 2023 at the Eddy County Sheriff's Office.

Assistant Special Agent in Charge James Catalano with the DEAs El Paso Division said federal authorities tied the group of suspects to drug cartels in Mexico bringing fentanyl and cocaine over the border to the U.S. via southeast New Mexico.

He said cartel operations are known throughout New Mexico, and it was hard to say exactly how widespread the Eddy County groups ties were.

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"This organization does have cartel related activity. This is part of that dismantlement of that organization in Eddy County, Catalano said. This is a huge problem in this county, in southern New Mexico. It is widespread.

Among the federal arrests, Aaron Jordan, criminal chief at the Las Cruces Branch of the U.S. Attorneys Office said there were seven indictments handed down and one criminal complaint.

He said federal agencies worked together with local law enforcement to identify and target the worst and most violent offenders within the organization.

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Our collective work this week demonstrates our commitment to protect New Mexicos communities. There is no hiding from the U.S. Marshals Service, Jordan said. Together we will ferret out those who bring chaos and misery to our community.

Aaron Jordan, criminal chief at the Las Cruces Branch of the U.S. Attorney's Office discusses a recent drug trafficking operation in Eddy County, Aug. 3, 2023 at the Eddy County Sheriff's Office.

Personnel used undercover tactics in their operations, buying large quantities of fentanyl, cocaine and heroin to build evidence against the suspects, Catalano said.

This was an extremely violent organization with links to the cartels, he said. The DEA will continue to aggressively pursue the individuals responsible for bringing these dangerous drugs into the communities of southern New Mexico.

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Josh Hernandez with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, himself a Carlsbad native, said more than 20 guns were also seized in the operation, illustrating the violent potential of those arrested.

Were committed to reducing violent crime in Eddy County and all over New Mexico, Hernandez said. The key word here is impact. Operations such as this have a huge impact in communities such as this.

Cage vowed to seek out and punish violent criminals in his community, but said the Sheriffs Office cannot do it alone, and needs resources from federal and state agencies to protect Eddy County.

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Relentless pursuit. That is what violent offenders can expect in Eddy County. Were coming for you, and were going to find you, Cage said. We bring folks to our community to help us make our community safe. Youre not going to play violent games in my county.

Sonya Chavez with the U.S. Marshals Service in New Mexico said the operations were largely funded by the DEAs High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program, which allocates $8 million a year to states and areas known for rampant drug trafficking.

New Mexico unfortunately is identified as a HIDTA community, she said. Its our role to do all we can to bring public safety resources to our communities, particularly to our more rural counties.

Adrian Hedden can be reached at 575-628-5516, achedden@currentargus.com or @AdrianHedden on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Carlsbad Current-Argus: Drug trafficking busts in Eddy County touted by law enforcement
To Rev. Jeffrey Kee, Ohio Issue 1, the Aug. 8 ballot measure that would make it more difficult to change the state constitution, represents a threat to democracy.

My parents migrated from Birmingham, Alabama, and one of the things that motivated them (to move to Ohio) was to have a greater sense of equity, Kee, who heads the predominantly Black New Faith Baptist Church on Columbus Near East Side, told The Dispatch. When it comes to Issue 1, to say that 40% can rule over the majority and to take away from each vote  is unjust, it's unfair, its ungodly and its undemocratic.

Issue 1 would require a 60% majority of voters to pass a constitutional amendment and require petitioners to collect signatures from at least 5% of voters in every county, among other stipulations.

But faith leaders on the other side of the debate see the Aug. 8 vote as important for another reason: abortion.

Christians must defend life. Thats why Issue 1 is so important to us, Jeremy Westbrook, the executive director and treasurer of the State Convention of Baptists in Ohio, part of the Southern Baptist Convention, told The Dispatch.

If Issue 1 passes, it would make it more difficult to pass a Nov. 7 ballot measure that would enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution.

If we endorse or enshrine abortion, that removes the most foundational right that any of us can have, and that's the right to life, said Westbrook.

Jeremy Westbrook is the executive director and treasurer of the State Convention of Baptists in Ohio.

Recent weeks have seen a burst of advocacy by religious groups on both sides of Ohio Issue 1. Unlike elections involving political candidates, churches and faith leaders are generally able to lobby for positions on ballot-based elections without jeopardizing their nonprofit legal status.

Its important to emphasize the fact that you have religious communities speaking out and advocating on all sides of this issue, said Isaac Weiner, an associate professor and director of the Center for the Study of Religion at Ohio State University.

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The Ohio Christian Alliance, an Akron-based nonprofit voter education organization, designed a flier for distribution at the pews calling on the faithful to Vote Yes on Issue 1 on August 8th... to safeguard Ohios Constitution and Ohios pro-life laws that were passed through the legislature.

The Center for Christian Virtue, a Columbus-based nonprofit, posted an online video that also frames Issue 1 in terms of the abortion debate.

In it, a narrator claims Novembers abortion amendment would legalize abortion up until birth and allow a minor to get an abortion without her parents knowledge or consent.

In fact, the proposed amendment text states that abortion may be prohibited after fetal viability except in cases where the mothers life or health are at risk. Law professors interviewed by the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau say it's highly unlikely that the proposed amendment would eliminate parental consent in Ohio.

Aaron Baer, president of the Center for Christian Virtue, spoke to a crowd during the Ohio March for Life in Columbus during October last year.

Some churches in the Catholic Diocese of Columbus have also encouraged their parishioners to vote yes on Issue 1  a move that has received permission from Bishop Earl Fernandes.

Let us pray that we can have the courage to vote yes on Issue 1to help eliminate this attempt by special-interest groups to take away the rights of our parents, to take away the rights of the unborn. These are precious rights that were given to us by God, and they cannot be taken away by a mere majority, Deacon Christopher Walsh said during services at St. Matthew Church in Gahanna on July 23.

On the other side of the debate, several dozen clergy from various faiths gathered for a Faith Votes No rally at Washington Gladden Social Justice Park in Downtown Columbus Wednesday.

Rabbi Hillel Skolnik of Congregation Tifereth Israel said at the event that he opposes Issue 1 on moral grounds because every person should be represented equally.

If you try to allow for the tyranny of the minoritythat is the opposite of the message of what Moses reminded the Israelites so many years ago: that, yes, we listen to God and yes, we follow the commandments, and yes, we also listen to the people equally, Skolnik said.

Amina Burahmi, executive director for the Ohio chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations, framed Issue 1 in terms of government overreach, which she said harms Muslims and other minorities.

The Ohio Council of Churches, which includes regional leaders of the United Methodist Church, the United Church of Christ, the Episcopal Church and others, has also issued a letter opposing Issue 1.

It is clear to us that the resulting power imbalances will significantly damage many segments of Ohios population, particularly African American communities historically weakened by partisan gerrymandering, reads part of the July 28 letter.

Poet Sara Abou Rashed speaks during a gathering of Columbus faith leaders speaking out against Issue 1 in a Faith Votes No rally at Washington Gladden Social Justice Park downtown.

Weiner, from the Center for the Study of Religion, said there is a long history in the U.S. of religious leaders speaking out on political questions of moral concern, ranging from abortion to voting rights.

It's not always clear-cut what communities define as being matters of moral concern, he said. And that itself can be contested for some communities.

Peter Gill covers immigration, new American communities and religion for The Dispatch in partnership with Report for America. You can support work like his with a tax-deductible donation to Report for America at:bit.ly/3fNsGaZ.

pgill@dispatch.com

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio faith leaders divided on Issue 1 constitutional changes
Sebastian Marset recorded a video of himself and sent it to media in Bolivia

An alleged drug trafficker, who is the target of an international manhunt, has sent a video to the media in which he thanks Bolivian police for allegedly giving him prior warning of an attempt to arrest him.

On Saturday, Bolivian officers raided the home of Sebastian Marset, who is wanted in his native Uruguay, as well as in Brazil, Paraguay, and the US.

But Mr Marset, 32, managed to get away.

Bolivian police have denied tipping him off and continue to search for him.

More than 2,250 police officers have been deployed to track him down but he has so far given them the slip.

Officers moved to arrest him in the Bolivian city of Santa Cruz on Saturday but Mr Marset's bodyguards took one of them hostage and the wanted man managed to escape along with his wife and their children.

Police have since searched a total of eight properties and arrested a dozen people with suspected links to the Uruguayan but have so far failed to locate him.

Some of the properties searched were luxurious mansions

On Wednesday, Bolivian media were sent a video recorded by the fugitive in which he appears to try to exonerate those who have been arrested.

"I don't implicate people who are innocent. None of these people who are in trouble have anything to do with my business, and they're going down the drain because of this," he says after briefly looking at the camera before pointing it at the sky above him.

"They're linking people everywhere [to the case against me] who have nothing to do with me."

He then proceeds to thank "the director of the Felcn (Bolivia's Special Force against Drug Trafficking)", whom he credits with helping him elude arrest.

"I managed to get away, because he warned me that the minister had issued an arrest warrant for me. And well, I grabbed some money, and he told me [it was time] to leave."

The director of the Felcn, Ismael Villca, has vehemently denied tipping off Mr Marset.

"I won't allow my career of 30 years to be sullied by the lies and statements of a drug trafficker," Mr Villca said, adding that the police had acted "impeccably".

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The hunt for Mr Marset is being closely watched by the US Drug Enforcement Administration and in South American countries where he allegedly engaged in drug smuggling.

The 32-year-old is is accused of leading an international drugs cartel known as PCU or First Uruguayan Cartel, which smuggles cocaine from Paraguay through Uruguay to Europe.

He has also been named by the Colombian president as the man suspected of ordering the killing of Marcelo Pecci, a Paraguayan anti-crime prosecutor killed while on honeymoon in Colombia.

Pecci played a key part in "A Ultranza Py,", the biggest operation against cocaine trafficking and money laundering in Paraguay's history. Prosecutors say he was killed in revenge for dismantling the lucrative criminal business.

Bolivian authorities say Mr Marset entered their country shortly after he had been named as the man suspected of paying Marcelo Pecci's killers.
Growing up in Montgomery in the 1940s, on Monroe and Adams Streets, I walked a block south to Decatur Street Elementary School for the first of the 12 grades I enjoyed in the Montgomery Public School System. Thereby did I begin an educational journey as a student, faculty member, and administrator that lasted more than six decades at six public universities and, a block east from our apartment, the Alabama Department of Archives and History (ADAH). I've frequented the latter over the years, even researching there my master's degree at Auburn University in the 1960s and the four books I've written after I retired in 2014 from Troy University.

At ADAH, I learned the history of Alabama  or rather the Marie Bankhead Owens white-washed version of it. Even as a seven or eight-year-old, I wondered as I wandered its cool marble halls in the summers before air conditioning, "Where are all the Black people, who once outnumbered the white people in Alabama?"

Jim Vickrey, a native Montgomerian, is a retired lawyer, university president and professor emeritus of Troy University

In those days, the Archives recognized primarily Confederate, Native American, and WWI history. I don't recall learning any African American history or, a more egregious omission, the history of slavery that once dominated business on Court Square, ground zero in the "Cradle of the Confederacy," where I frequented the Strand Theatre on Saturdays. I had to fill in those blanks in history later, reading on my own and taking college courses, such as Dr. Malcolm McMillan's popular AU course in the History of the South.

Over the past sixty years, that deficiency at the ADAH and in public education has been rectified. At least, that was so until defendant Donald J. Trump and a host of Republican "know-nothing" governors, including Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, herself a teacher and a friend of mine since 1963 at Auburn, began trying to undo much of it. Why?  to try to solve such non-problems as the teaching of Critical Race Theory (CRT), "wokeness," and unappreciated laws protecting racial and LGBTQ civil rights.

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Never mind that CRT is not being taught in K-12 here or anywhere else. (Until a few decades ago, the only CRT being taught in Southern public schools was WCRT  White CRT. Never mind that "wokeness" lacks an agreed-upon definition and is only a convenient buzzword of Florida's regularly "rebooting," presidential contender, Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, whose recent book even fails to tell readers clearly what it is. And never mind that LGBTQ community members have only had mostly equal rights in our land for about a decade.

Now comes a state senator from Baldwin County, threatening the ADAH for its continuing efforts to expand our previously biased understanding of Alabama history and to support the teaching of competent, comprehensive state history. Why? Because it recently hosted an LGBTQ historian, grant-funded, at one of its noon Architreats sessions.

I've spoken twice at those brown-bag luncheons, and I was more controversial than she was, arguing, as I did, that my friend Gov. George Wallace was not the greatest national politician to come out of Alabama. That honor goes to U.S. Senator Oscar W. Underwood, his party's leader in both Houses of Congress and twice a presidential contender (1912 and 1924, when he took on the KKK), who turned down President Woodrow Wilson's offer of a U.S. Supreme Court seat (I found the letter in Archives files).

Dr. Ed Bridges's successor as director of ADAH, Dr. Steve Murray, has been doing an outstanding job of bringing the Archives' coverage of our state's history up to date and ensuring that it is no longer biased against certain groups, with a special emphasis on its neglected aspects, including African American history. After all, 27 percent of our population is African American, warranting, according to the U.S. Supreme Court, two Congressional districts for the more than one milion Alabamians who are black or brown. And, if Alabama has the same percentage of gay people as the nation at large (6-7 percent), there must be at least a quarter of a milion LGBTQ citizens in Alabama. Do they not pay taxes? Do they not enrich our communities as much as any other citizens? Do they not bleed when assaulted and battered? Do they not hurt when they are victims of discrimination?

Would you, white, straight Alabamian, trade places with these children of God, made in his image just as you were? Why should they be treated differently from you because of a few cherry-picked Bible verses? Why should their history be slighted at the ADAH, because a state senator says a few, perhaps homophobic, constituents called him to complain about a talk made there to a small audience of adults? Why should the budget of the ADAH take a $5 million hit so that one state lawmaker can placate a few probably prejudiced voters in his district? He told The Advertiser in its July 26th edition (an article from the new "Alabama Reflector" news website) that "he didn't think sex, including heterosexual sex (how broadminded), should be discussed in the government building (ADAH occupies)." That was from a member of a political party that obsesses in statehouses about sex, while legislating irrationally on abortion, LGBTQ rights, contraception, rape, and more, usually curtailing the related rights.

If the senator persists in his quixotic campaign against the ADAH, he will continue to build support for the nation's first state archives, causing me and many others to support it with our dollars, our feet, and our fannies in seats in its auditorium, as we listen to more interesting and informative talks about topics of importance to all Alabamians, teaching us that history is not what we want it to be.

History is what it is

Dr. Jim Vickrey is a retired university president and lawyer, living in his hometown of Montgomery, and still using the ADAH since he was a boy in the 1940s, who has also been an Architreats speaker..

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: State's history is for all Alabamians, not just a favored few
DOVER  Republican Gov. Chris Sununu signed House Bill 75 into law Friday changing the way Strafford County commissioners are elected. The signing sparked loud protests from Democrats around the state and a promise to challenge the law in the New Hampshire Supreme Court.

The law means that rather than the top three vote getters countywide being elected as in the past, starting in 2024 there will be three separate districts in the county, unless the law is successfully challenged. Longtime Strafford County Commission Chairman George Maglaras, a former Dover mayor, would have to run against Commissioner Deanna Rollo in a Democratic primary, if both seek reelection next year.

It also means Strafford County will join all the other counties in New Hampshire with districts for election of commissioners, who are the Executive Branch of the county government, overseeing the day-to-day operations of the county, such as the nursing home and jail.

Gov. Chris Sununu speaks at the Tri-City chambers' State of the State event at the Governor's Inn in Rochester Tuesday, June 7, 2022.

Strafford County commissioners to challenge new law

Maglaras said the all-Democratic commissioners will challenge the law in the state Supreme Court because they contend it is unconstitutional.

"We are extremely disappointed," Maglaras said. "We had forwarded our legal opinion to himself (the governor) and his legal counsel outlining why we believed this bill to be unconstitutional. Obviously, he did not believe us, so we will be going to the Supreme Court. I think it's too bad he politicized this. We were hoping he would not."

Strafford County Commissioner Chairman George Maglaras.

Democrats have long dominated Strafford County commissioner elections. Maglaras, who has served since 1983, is joined on the current commission by Democrats Robert Watson and Rollo. All were reelected in 2022, defeating Republican opponents. The last Republican commissioner was in office in 2011-12, according to county records.

Maglaras said there was never a public hearing on the bill in Strafford County.

"We were denied our voice, the voice of our residents who were not allowed to express their concerns," he said. "Our residents' rights were denied because of the gerrymandering of right-wing radicals. This should never have been done."

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House Bill 75 creates three districts. The cities of Rochester and Dover, by far the most populous in the county at more than 30,000 each, will each be split among two districts.

State Sen. James Gray, R-Rochester, has previously responded to critics who point to this as part of their claims the bill amounts is an example of gerrymandering.

"It's impossible to do math that keeps Rochester or Dover all together," Gray said. "Especially Dover, where you've got Rollinsford that doesn't touch anything other than Dover and Somersworth. It's the only way you can get the numbers to work and have even districts."

The argument over whether HB 75 is unconstitutional

Redistricting of voting maps happens nationally every 10 years, following the once-a-decade Census. Gray helped lead that process in New Hampshire last year with Republicans in majority control of the Senate, House and governor's office. No changes were made to Strafford County commissioner election at that time.

Democrats have argued changing the election now amounts to redistricting outside of the once-a-decade process and would open the door to the party is in power at any given time changing elections districts.

New Hampshire state Sen. Jim Gray, R-Rochester.

Gray has pushed back against claims the bill is unconstitutional and pointed out Strafford was the only one of New Hampshire's 10 counties that elect commissioners by countywide vote rather than districts.

Gray said an attorney told him "districting is different than redistricting," meaning this change isn't part of the redistricting process because there were no districts for Strafford County commissioners. Gray said another attorney advised him that since no action was taken on Strafford County commissioners during the redistricting process last year, "we still have our once-in-10-years opportunity."

What Democrats in state Senate are saying

Following the governors signing of HB 75, a joint statement was released by state Sen. Donna Soucy, D-Salem, who is the party's leader in the Senate, along with Seacoast area state Sens. David Watters, D-Dover, and Rebecca Perkins Kwoka, D-Portsmouth.

The group echoed their argument that "redistricting process is a sacred responsibility of the legislature" and "legally required to only occur every 10 years. Notably, when we took up the redistricting process nearly two years ago, there were no calls from Strafford County officials or residents, who would be impacted by this redistricting, to implement the changes proposed in HB 75."

The senators said, By enacting HB 75 into law, we will bring into question the fairness and integrity of our democratic redistricting process here in New Hampshire moving forward. ... This act will further damage our constituents' trust in the democratic process, and it is deeply concerning that the governor has chosen to further politicize our election systems during these tumultuous political times, rather than working to protect them.

Sununu did not immediately issue a comment upon signing the bill.

This article originally appeared on Fosters Daily Democrat: Sununu signs bill changing Strafford County election. Dems protest.
Texas A&M University reached a $1 million settlement Thursday with a Black journalism professor after botched attempts to hire her unraveled following pushback over her past work promoting diversity.

The nations largest public school agreed to pay Kathleen McElroy $1 million, and apologized to her while admitting mistakes were made during the hiring process.

Texas A&M had initially welcomed McElroy, a Texas A&M graduate, with great fanfare to revive the schools journalism department in June. She is a former New York Times editor and had overseen the journalism school at the more liberal University of Texas at Austin.

But McElroy said soon after her hiring, which including a public signing ceremony, that she learned of emerging internal pushback from unidentified individuals over her past work to improve diversity and inclusion in newsrooms.

McElroy told the Texas Tribune the initial offer of a tenure-track position was first reduced to a five-year post and then reduced to a one-year job from which she could be fired at any time. The 1981 Texas A&M graduate rejected the offer and ultimately chose to stay at the University of Texas as a journalism professor.

Shortly after events around her hiring became public, Texas A&M University President Katherine Banks resigned.

This matter has been resolved, McElroy said in statement.  I hope the resolution of my matter will reinforce A&Ms allegiance to excellence in higher education and its commitment to academic freedom and journalism.
Two US Navy sailors have been indicted and arrested for allegedly sending sensitive US military information to Chinese intelligence officers.

One of the sailors, Jinchao Wei, was arrested Wednesday as he arrived for work at Naval Base San Diego, according to a statement released Thursday by the US Attorney for the Southern District of California. The base is one of the largest Navy installations in the Pacific.

The other sailor who has been arrested, Petty Officer Wenheng Zhao, worked at Naval Base Ventura County in Port Hueneme in California.

The indictment against Wei was unsealed Thursday and is separate from the charges against Zhao. Wei made his first appearance in federal court Thursday, where federal defenders submitted a not guilty plea on his behalf, the US Attorneys Office for the Southern District of California said in a statement.

The charges demonstrate the (Peoples Republic of Chinas) determination to obtain information that is critical to our national defense by any means, so it can be used to their advantage, Matt Olson, the Justice Departments assistant attorney general for national security, said at a news conference Thursday.

Prosecutors say that Wei, who served as a machinists mate on the USS Essex, allegedly entered into a handler/asset relationship with a Chinese intelligence officer beginning in February 2022. Machinists mates are a class of engineers, and are responsible for operating, maintaining and repairing ship equipment.

As part of that alleged arrangement, Wei sent photos and videos of the Essex and other Navy ships to the Chinese officer, the indictment says, as well as dozens of technical and mechanical manuals relating to the ships layouts and weapons systems. In return, Wei allegedly received thousands of dollars.

The indictment indicates that Wei received US citizenship during this period, with the Chinese intelligence officer allegedly congratulating Wei on receiving citizenship on May 18, 2022.

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Much of the information Wei allegedly sent to the Chinese officer was stored on restricted-access Navy computer systems that Wei was able to access because he had a security clearance.

The indictment against Zhao, meanwhile, alleges that between August 2021 and May 2023, Zhao provided sensitive US military information  including operational plans for a major military exercise in the Indo-Pacific  to a person posing as a maritime economic researcher. That person was actually a Chinese intelligence officer, the indictment says.

Zhao, who was responsible for installing, repairing and servicing electrical equipment on US military installations, also had a security clearance, prosecutors say, and allegedly took photos of computer screens that displayed operational orders of military training exercises and provided them to the officer.

He also allegedly transmitted photos of blueprints and diagrams of a US radar system stationed on a military base in Okinawa, Japan, prosecutors say. Those documents were marked unclassified/for official use only, but prosecutors say that as part of his official duties Zhao was required to protect controlled unclassified information, and information related to the Navys operational security. He was also required to report suspicious incidents, the court filing states.

In exchange, Zhao received approximately $15,000 from the officer, prosecutors allege.

The case against Mr. Zhao is part of a larger national strategy to combat criminal efforts from nation state actors to steal our nations sensitive military information, Martin Estrada, the US attorney for the Central District of California, said during Thursdays news conference. The scheme alleged here is just one more example of the Peoples Republic of Chinas ongoing and brazen campaign to target US officials with access to sensitive military secrets.

Taken together, the arrests mark at least the third time this year that US service members have been arrested and charged with espionage. Another US service member with a security clearance and access to classified national defense information, Jack Teixeira, was indicted for allegedly leaking classified intelligence that he obtained as part of his job in the Massachusetts Air National Guard to the social media platform Discord.

The arrests also come amid growing concerns by the US military that China is making strategic strides against the US  particularly the Chinese navy, which has now surpassed the US Navys fleet size, CNN has reported.

We have entrusted members of our military with tremendous responsibility and great faith, said U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman of the Southern District of California. Our nations safety and security are in their hands. When a soldier or sailor chooses cash over country, and hands over national defense information in an ultimate act of betrayal, the United States will aggressively investigate and prosecute.

Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder declined to respond to the news during a briefing on Thursday, telling reporters, I think we have clear policies and procedures in place when it comes to safeguarding and protecting sensitive information.

The broader issue of espionage or the lack of proper handling of classified information is something as old as warfare itself, Ryder said. That said, again, we have a robust set of policies and procedures going through the situation that youre referencing in terms of the airman, as you know, we have done a very thorough analysis on steps that can be taken to further tighten controls and were working through that process now.

This story has been updated with additional information.

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A United Nations working group has voiced its support for what it says are several hundred sexual assault victims of late Japanese boy band producer Johnny Kitagawa, urging the Japanese government to deliver them justice.

Background: Kitagawa, a U.S.-born Japanese talent manager, was credited for launching the careers of some of Japans biggest male acts, including SMAP, KAT-TUN and Arashi.

Allegations of his sexually abusive behavior toward his talents have been around for decades, but they were largely ignored by Japanese mainstream media. Earlier this year, those claims saw a revival in global headlines after a BBC documentary presented them in detail. One alleged victim who came forward later is former J-pop idol Kauan Okamoto, who claimed that Kitagawa had sexually abused him at least 15 times over a course of four years beginning in 2012 at age 15.

What the U.N. is saying: The U.N. Working Group on Business and Human Rights first announced its plans to investigate the sexual abuse claims against Kitagawa last month. They arrived in Japan on July 24 and have since met government officials, companies, trade unions and human rights advocates.

More from NextShark: Suspected Shooter of 6-Year-Old Boy Back in Custody, New Bond Set to $100K

On Friday, the groups chair, Damilola Olawuyi, told reporters that Kitagawas alleged victims may total several hundred, as per the Associated Press. Meanwhile, group member Pichamon Yeophantong urged the Japanese government to do more, calling for transparent investigations of perpetrators and effective remedies in the form of an apology or financial compensation for the victims.

Whats next: The working group is expected to present their full report to the U.N. Human Rights Council next June. While the head of Johnny & Associates  Kitagawas founded agency  has apologized in May, it remains to be seen whether the late producers alleged victims will find justice.

Story continues

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Urbandale schools are hitting pause on removing from its libraries and classrooms books that reference gender identity and sexual orientation, according to an email from the district's superintendent to staff and families.

Though one school board member called the changed course a victory, Urbandale Superintendent Rosalie Daca said in the email there are still 64 books, including some considered classic novels, that will not be allowed in the district because of a new Iowa law that bans books in schools that are not "age-appropriate" because they depict sex acts.

The decision comes days after it was made public that the district had flagged 374 books for removal from classrooms in response to Senate File 496. That law, passed by the Republican-led Legislature this year, bans books in schools that depict sex acts, which an existing Iowa law defines as sexual contact between two or more people, such as penetration with a penis or touching one's genitals at the direction of another person.

More: Iowa school district flags 374 books as potentially banned, from 'Ulysses' to 'Heartstopper'

The law also prohibits schools from providing instruction about gender identity or sexual orientation before seventh grade, which Urbandale officials believed included books, according to instructions provided on the district's list.

Urbandale has since decided not to remove books on the list with LGBTQ-related themes and instead focus on books that depict sex acts. That narrower list now includes 64 titles. (The Urbandale list counted 382 titles, and later 65, but the Register found duplicates.)

"I would first like to recognize that there may be staff and students who were unintentionally negatively impacted by our attempt to comply with the new state law," Daca said in the email. "For anyone who felt marginalized, please accept my sincere apology."

A number of books have been challenged in Iowa in recent years including "The Hate U Give," "All Boys Aren't Blue," "Hey, Kiddo," "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian," "This Book is Gay," "Gender Queer" and "Melissa."

The revised list includes titles such as "The Kite Runner," "The Handmaid's Tale," "Brave New World," "Beloved," "The Color Purple" and "Native Son," as well as books including "Gender Queer," "All Boys Aren't Blue" and "The Hate U Give" that have more recently been the focus of backlash by Republican lawmakers.

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There are 22 new books that weren't on the original list.

Titles taken off the list include classics such as "1984," "The Catcher in the Rye" and "A Farewell to Arms," which Urbandale officials decided don't violate the law. Also removed was "You Don't Know Everything, Jilly P!", which doesn't directly address LGBTQ issues but instead includes a narrator whose sister is deaf and with two aunts who are married to each other.

Dena Claire, spokesperson for the Urbandale district, said the larger list was meant to provide guidance to K-12 teachers about books that might violate the state law. In the absence of guidance from the state, the district said in a statement July 31 that officials did not want to put teachers in a position where they had to guess.

"We had to take a fairly broad interpretation of the law knowing that if our interpretation was too finite, our teachers and administrators could be faced with disciplinary actions according to the new law," the Monday statement said.

But Daca changed course by Thursday afternoon. The pause on removing books referencing gender identity and sexual orientation will continue until the district receives guidance from the Iowa Department of Education, which has not been made available.

Urbandale does not necessarily have all the books on the list in its system, but teachers have been instructed to review their libraries and classrooms and remove them if they are. Daca said any book that is removed will be stored in a central location.

Rosalie Daca has been the superintendent of the Urbandale Community School District since July 1, 2021.

She said the district wanted to move before class started at its year-round school, Karen Acres Elementary, on July 27. State law says teachers or administrators who violate the law could face disciplinary action starting Jan. 1.

"As someone who is tasked with the livelihood of 450 teachers and administrators, I owe it to every staff member and their family to be careful, mindful, and intentional about the guidance we provide knowing that if our guidance is wrong, we could jeopardize their professional and personal lives," she said in the email. "This has weighed heavily on my mind and heart."

What titles are on the new list?

Author Title Aciman, Andre Call Me By Your Name Atwood, Margaret The Handmaid's Tale Atwood, Margaret The Handmaid's Tale Graphic Novel Andrews, Jesse Me and Earl and the Dying Girl Andrews, Jesse The Haters Arnold, Elana Damsel Arnold, Elana Red Hood Arnold, Elana What Girls Are Made Of Asher, Jay 13 Reasons Why Blume, Judy Forever Cabot, Meg Ready or Not Curato, Mike Flamer Danforth, Emily The Miseducation of Cameron Post Evison, Jonathan Lawn Boy Faulkner, William As I Lay Dying Foley, Jessie Ann Carnival at Bray Green, John Looking for Alaska Green, John The Fault in Our Stars Gruen, Sarah Water for Elephants Hopkins, Ellen Tricks Hopkins, Ellen Tilt Hopkins, Ellen Identical Hopkins, Ellen Perfect Hosseini, Khaled The Kite Runner Hurston, Zora Their Eyes Were Watching God Huxley, Aldous Brave New World Johnston, George All Boys Aren't Blue Joyce, James Ulysses Kaur, Rupi The Sun and Her Flowers Kaur, Rupi Milk and Honey Keplinger, Kody The Duff: a Novel Knowles, John A Separate Peace Kobabe, Maia Gender Queer Kuklin, Susan Beyond Magenta Levithan, David Two Boys Kissing Lo, Matinda The Last Night at the Telegraph Club Maas, Sarah A Court of Mist and Fury Maas, Sarah A Court of Frost and Starlight Maas, Sarah A Court of Silver Flames Maas, Sarah A Court of Wings and Ruin Maas, Sarah A Court of Thorns and Roses McCormick, Patricia Sold McGinnies, Mindy The Female of the Species McQuiston, Casey Red, White, and Royal Blue Meyer, Stephanie Twilight (Book 4) Morrison, Toni The Bluest Eye Morrison, Toni Beloved Morrison, Toni Song of Solomon Myracle, Lauren Shine Myracle, Lauren The Infinite Moment of Us Nazemian, Abdi Like a Love Story Niven, Jennifer Breathless O'Brien, Erica The Country Girl Perez, Ashley Out of Darkness Picoult, Jodi Nineteen Minutes Reed, Amy The Nowhere Girls Sanchez, Erika I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter Sapphire Push Snadowsky, Daria Anatomy of a Single Girl Snadowsky, Daria Anatomy of a Boyfriend Thomas, Angie The Hate U Give Vaughan, Brian Saga Walker, Alice The Color Purple Wright, Richard Native Son

Urbandale board member hopes decisions a 'cautionary tale' for other districts

Also Thursday, the Urbandale School Board met for about 45 minutes in a closed session to discuss the performance of an employee.

It was not clear whether the closed session was related to books, though it was posted to the school board's website Wednesday after the initial list was made public. Board members have told the Register they were not consulted on the list before it was finalized.

Randy Evans, executive director of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council, was concerned about any possible correlation.

Evans sent a letter Wednesday to Daca and school board members assuming that the meeting would be about the superintendent and that discussion could move from a performance evaluation into a discussion about the districts broader response to the new law on banning books.

Discussion of the superintendents job performance certainly is appropriate for a closed meeting. But the Iowa FOI Council believes it would be contrary to the spirit and letter of the open meetings law if every discussion of concerns regarding policies implemented by the superintendent could only occur in a private evaluation, Evans said in the letter.

He encouraged the district to consult with legal counsel before the meeting to avoid any violation of open meetings law.

After the meeting, Katherine Howsare, the board's president, would not say what it was about but said performance evaluations are not unusual. Board member Daniel Gutmann also would not comment on the meeting.

But Gutmann said moving forward he wants Iowa school districts to have "thoughtful, open and transparent conversation in front of the public" on ways to stay compliant with Senate File 496.

"There's going to be vocal opposition. There will be conflicting ideas. But that's what America is," he said.

"I hope Urbandale is a cautionary tale for other districts considering exceeding the scope of anti-LGBTQ legislation. It's not acceptable to the communities they're serving," said Gutmann, who is gay.

He credited the district's course change to efforts this week by students, Annie's Foundation  a group that opposes book removals  alumni who wrote letters, former staff and other school board members.

"I'm happy that we saved 320 books," Gutmann said.

Phillip Sitter covers suburban growth and development for the Des Moines Register. Phillip can be reached via email at psitter@gannett.com. He is on Twitter @pslifeisabeauty.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Urbandale pauses pulling books with LGBTQ+ references; some still out
For the last two decades, Brisa Chavez, of Cicero, has found work through staffing agencies.

Like many immigrants, the single mother has been able to find work through temp agencies because they require less paperwork and less schooling than being hired by a company directly, she said.

Unfortunately, we are also more at risk of suffering abuse in the workplace, she said.

Chavez said she had experienced sexual harassment, wage theft and verbal abuse while doing temp work but could not afford to leave those jobs. She usually works in factories, working in packaging or running machines, and typically makes minimum wage, she said.

Now, a new law aimed at strengthening legal protections for temp workers could help Chavez and others like her who are subject to low pay and exploitation because of their employment status, advocates say.

The legislation, signed Friday by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, amends the states day and temporary labor services law to require workers employed by staffing agencies to be paid the same as company employees they work alongside in comparable jobs once the temp workers have worked for a company for 90 days.

It also makes it easier for temp workers to sue over alleged violations of the law. While in the past only the states labor department could do so, interested parties such as workers centers or unions now also have standing to sue.

The amendments also make it harder for companies to use temp workers as strikebreakers, advocates say, and require staffing agencies to institute safety protections, such as additional training, for temp workers.

I hope that this new law encourages workers to speak up against those injustices and that the workplaces, instead of punishing us for speaking up, can take accountability for their actions; punish those responsible for the abuse and change their toxic culture, Chavez said.

According to a Bureau of Labor Statistics estimate, more than 189,000 Illinoisans were working in the temp industry in May 2022, the most recent date for which data is available. The American Staffing Association estimates the total number of people who took on temp work in the state throughout the entire year was a much higher 984,200 because of a high rate of turnover in the industry.

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On average, workers in the temp industry in Illinois made $21.39 an hour in 2022, according to labor department data. Average wages for temp workers vary widely by industry; workers in transportation and moving materials jobs, who made up nearly half of all Illinois temp workers in May 2022, made on average $15.57 an hour. Positions included in that category are truck drivers and manual laborers, among others.

According to a report from the University of Illinois School of Public Health, wages for temp workers in Illinois who worked in transportation and moving materials or production jobs in 2020 were between 72% and 80% of wages paid to workers hired by companies directly.

In cleaning and grounds maintenance jobs, temp workers made around 90% of what directly hired employees did. And in food preparation and serving, temp workers made 106% of what directly hired workers made, though the reports authors note that average wages in those sectors have a low baseline.

Many people who find work through staffing agencies are undocumented or formerly incarcerated people who have trouble getting hired with companies directly, said Jose Frausto, executive director of Chicago Workers Collaborative, a workers center that pushed for the legislation.

Its been really hard for them to find jobs, Frausto said. Staffing agencies know, he said, that temp workers who are in the country without legal permission or formerly incarcerated are not likely to complain about working conditions. And thats a way that they take advantage of them, because they know theyre so, so vulnerable.

State Rep. Edgar Gonzalez Jr. and State Sen. Robert Peters, both Democrats from Chicago, sponsored the bill in the legislature, where it passed both houses during the spring session.

Gonzalez, who represents Little Village, said he had heard from constituents working for temp agencies who said they had not been paid for their work or had been paid late, as well as workers who had been sexually harassed on the job.

Its a huge win for our communities, Gonzalez said of the legislation. Many of them have expressed how they felt like they were second-class workers.

According to a 2021 report from Partners for Dignity & Rights on racial discrimination in the temp industry, 49% of Chicago-area temp workers were Latino and 36% were Black as of 2019.

Though staffing agency industry groups remained officially neutral on the law, they told the Tribune they have concerns about how it will be enforced as they await guidance from the labor department.

The American Staffing Association sent a letter to Pritzker in June asking him to delay enforcement of the law until the labor department has issued guidance and provided the opportunity for agencies to comment on its regulations.

Staffing agencies have no reasonable way of knowing how to comply, especially with the new equal pay provisions, the letter said.

Dan Shomon, spokesperson for the Staffing Services Association of Illinois, said temp agencies are concerned about instituting the amendments equal pay provision because they need pay data from their client companies in order to do so.

This is a lawsuit bill, Shomon said. The Illinois association, like the national association, remained officially neutral on the bill.

In a statement after the bill was signed, Shomon said the association still had serious concerns about implementing the law, particularly the equal pay provision.

We are hopeful this and other issues will be fixed by the (Labor) Department in administrative rulemaking, Shomon said.

In a statement, Labor Department Director Jane Flanagan said the agency planned to file proposed administrative rules early next week and would also issue an advisory to day and temporary staffing agency licensees informing them of the laws requirements.

Flanagan said the agency would continue to work with stakeholders to implement these changes and assist with compliance in the coming months.

Neil Dishman, an attorney at Jackson Lewis who has advised both staffing agencies and companies that use staffing agencies on the potential effects of the law, said at the end of July that some temp agencies had already begun the process of asking for pay and benefits information from client companies.

The staffing agencies are going to have an obligation to ask for the information. The statute creates an obligation for their clients to provide it to them, he said.

Norman Green, a former Chicago temp worker who now works in violence prevention, took temporary jobs on and off for two decades, largely in meat factories.

Green, 40, who worked temp jobs to support his children, said he would sometimes get assignments that only lasted a couple of days. He sometimes borrowed money to get to and from jobs, he said.

And when a staffing agency sent him to a job, he wasnt guaranteed work; he could be sent home after waiting for an hour or two, Green said. Sometimes, agencies would want to do drug tests or background checks on Black workers but not on Latino workers, he said.

I really lost faith in the way they mistreat people, he said.

Now, Green said, his kids and friends who seek work at staffing agencies are treated in the same way he was.

We just cant give up, he said.
Joe Nathan Edward Ortega-Merritt appears via Zoom in Yakima County Superior Court Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2023. He is charged with residential burglary, second-degree assault, eluding police and illegally possessing a firearm.
Santiago Ochoa's reporting for the Yakima Herald-Republic is possible with support from Report for America and community members through the Yakima Valley Community Fund. For information on republishing, email news@yakimaherald.com.
FILE - Attorney Michael Harper holds a photo of Lashawn Thompson's cell in the Fulton County, Ga., Jail at a news conference addressing the results of an independent autopsy determining the cause of death of Thompson, May 22, 2023, at the state Capital in Atlanta. Georgias Fulton County has reached a settlement with the family of Thompson, the man who died in a bedbug-infested cell in the county jails psychiatric wing, the familys lawyers said Thursday, Aug. 3.
Jeff Philipps, the former president and CEO of Rosauers Supermarkets, is shown in his 2021 photo.
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HashKey Exchange and OSL  the only two cryptocurrency exchanges licensed by the Hong Kong Securities and Exchange Commission (SFC)  both received upgrades to their licenses Thursday. A significant milestone in the development of Hong Kongs Web3 industry, the upgrades will allow the two companies to serve retail investors with immediate effect.

See related article: Hong Kongs crypto rules offer level playing field, investor protection, says OSL exchange executive

Fast facts

HashKey and OSL were previously only licensed to serve professional investors with a portfolio of at least US$1.02 million. The upgraded licences make them the first exchanges authorized to provide crypto asset trading services to retail investors in Hong Kong.

Bitcoin and Ether are the only tradable assets currently permitted for retail investors on the two platforms, according to press releases from HashKey Exchange and OSL on Thursday.

The move came after the Hong Kong SFC kicked off its new crypto exchange licensing regime on June 1. That regime allows licensed exchanges to sell highly liquid cryptocurrencies to retail investors within a regulated framework.

With the establishment of licensed trading platforms and the further clarity of regulatory frameworks in Hong Kong, the industry as a whole will witness increased transparency, leading to a significant boost in investor confidence, said HashKey chief operating officer Livio Weng in his companys press release.

This is a monumental moment not only for OSL but for the broader crypto market, Gary Tiu, OSLs head of regulatory affairs, said in his firms press release. By granting this license uplift, the SFC has shown that it is possible for digital asset markets to be regulated and safe.

The two platforms both pledged strict customer protection measures in their separate press releases. Those include maintaining a high cold-to-hot storage ratio for customer funds in line with an SFC guideline that requires crypto exchanges to store at least 98% of client virtual assets in cold storage.

At HashKeys press release, the crypto exchange also announced a partnership with Standard Chartered Bank  one of three note-issuing commercial banks in Hong Kong  to provide fiat currency deposit and withdrawal services. The lender was reportedly urged by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority in May to provide banking services to crypto-related firms.

Meanwhile, other crypto exchanges including Huobi, OKX and BiMex have also expressed interest in obtaining licenses under Hong Kongs new regulatory framework.

See related article: Hong Kong legislator encourages Coinbase to set up shop in city under new crypto rules
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Evergy brought in $186.1 million in profit last quarter as the energy monopoly seeks to raise electric rates on Kansas customers.

Evergy reported second-quarter results on Friday and executives held an earnings call to discuss the company's performance.

"I'm pleased to report that Evergy had a solid second quarter," said David Campbell, Evergy's president and CEO.

While Campbell discussed the company's performance in April, May and June, as well as July's weather, he had little to share with investors about the utility's rate increase request pending before government regulators.

Here's what to know.

How much money is Evergy making?

The Kansas operations of utility monopoly Evergy are headquartered in Topeka.

Evergy's adjusted earnings were $186.1 million in the second quarter, or $0.81 per share. Tor the first half of the year, the company has profited $322.2 million.

That compares to adjusted earnings of $194.5 million in the second quarter of last year and $324.4 million in the first half of 2022.

The company reaffirmed its previous earnings guidance to investors.

"We remain on track to meet our expectations for the year after delivering solid second quarter performance," Campbell said.

"Going forward," he said, "we remain laser-focused on executing our strategy of investing in beneficial infrastructure to drive continued improvement in affordability, reliability and sustainability for our customers and communities."

More: Evergy touts financial earnings to investors while seeking rate hikes from Kansas customers

'Unfavorable' weather cut into Evergy's profits

The company blamed "unfavorable weather" for the dip in profits, though the relatively milder weather was favorable to ratepayers. Higher depreciation, amortization and interest expenses also contributed.

"Weather has been a headwind this year," Campbell said, adding that the company seeks to "manage the things that are within our control so that we are in a position to offset factors that are outside of our control."

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The company brought in 8 cents less per share, or roughly $18 million, because there were fewer days that required heating or air conditioning. July was also relatively mild, though that month is in the third quarter and hasn't yet had its weather affect quantified.

A July 14 storm felled this tree. Evergy said nearly 200,000 customers lost power, while restoration efforts cost about $6.5 million.

"Weather has been less cooperative to start the third quarter," Campbell said, referencing a July 14 storm that was "our most impactful storm in recent history."

Nearly 200,000 customers lost power as the storm brought winds of up to 100 mph that blew down tree limbs and damaged or destroyed nearly 500 power poles. Storm recovery efforts cost about $6.5 million.

Campbell thanked utility workers for power restoration efforts.

"Our crews worked 16 hour shifts through hot and humid conditions, as well as follow-on storms that disrupted the restoration efforts, and our customer teams also worked overtime to field calls and support our customers," he said. "Our frontline workers are the bedrock of safely delivering affordable and reliable power to our customers and community. We're extremely proud of and grateful for their contributions through these challenging conditions."

More: You're paying extra on your utility bills. Kansas price gouging cases could change that.

How much money are EVRG stockholders making?

While EVRG shares have not performed as well as the stock market as a whole, stockholders will still be paid cash dividends. Evergy tends to pay out more of its profit in dividends than an average company, but its dividend payout ratio in line with other utilities.

Evergy declared a quarterly dividend of $0.6125 per share. That amounts to about $140.4 million.

More: Evergy wants to increase your electric rates. Here's what to know and how to speak out

Evergy wants permission to raise rates by $218 million

Evergy is in the midst of asking regulators at the Kansas Corporation Commission for the company's first rate increase since the 2018 merger of Westar Energy and Kansas City Power and Light.

The utility is seeking an extra $218 million a year from its Kansas ratepayers.

The burden of the rate hike would fall more heavily on Evergy's central Kansas region than its Kansas City metro region. Central region ratepayers would see a 10% increase in their utility bill, on average, compared to 2% in the metro area.

For an average residential customer, the increase is $14.24 a month in the central region and $3.47 a month in the metro area.

The KCC is accepting public comment through Sept. 29. Information on how to submit comments is available online at www.kcc.ks.gov/your-opinion-matters.

More: Topekans aren't happy about Evergy's plan to raise electric rates. Will regulators listen?

Customers complained about corporate profits

At a public hearing last month in Topeka, several Evergy customers took issue with the level of corporate profits, shareholder dividends and executive compensation. State regulators on the case are tasked with balancing competing interests, including those of both shareholders and ratepayers.

Darrin Ives, vice president of regulatory affairs at Evergy, defended the company.

"We are a private organization that goes out and finds the shareholders and acquires the debt to invest in the assets in the state to provide service," he said. "We have to be able to pay our shareholders for the use of their funds and to pay our debt providers for the use of their funds."

Darrin Ives, vice presidents of regulatory affairs for Evergy, answers questions during a public hearing last month at Washburn Tech.

Meanwhile, company executives are incentivized to benefit shareholders.

Most of Campbell's nearly $6.9 million in total compensation last year was through stock awards and cash awards.

Equity compensation is intended to "incentivize creation of long-term shareholder value" and "align compensation with shareholder interests," the company's last proxy statement shows. Cash awards are intended to "incentivize behaviors that contribute to achievement of annual financial and operational performance goals in pursuit of shareholder value and strong operational performance."

More: Evergy wants to charge you $14 more a month in raising $218 million from Kansas customers

CEO had little to share with investors on rate case

The rate case schedule calls for testimony to be filed later this month, followed by response deadlines next month. A settlement agreement could also be submitted by the end of September, ahead of October evidentiary hearings and more briefs in November before a December order.

Evergy executives have indicated that they would prefer a settlement.

"We will certainly look forward to the opportunity to work constructively with all parties and in seeking a settlement," Campbell said.

He also views the Kansas regulatory case as less complicated than their western Missouri case, which involved a move to time of use rates.

"It's been five years since the last last rate case, but otherwise, at least in our view, it's a pretty straightforward rate case in terms of the elements that are included," he said. "It's primarily related to the infrastructure investments that have been made over that time period, plus the amount of cost savings that we have been able to achieve as a result of the merger, with a couple of items that I think are pretty clearly described and laid out."

Otherwise, though, Campbell told investors that "we don't have a lot to share" at this point in the rate case.

"We're still in the process of a rigorous back and forth, in terms of our receiving a lot of questions, as happens in all rate cases," he said. "So we'll have a good sense, and you can get some feel for where parties are focusing the questions, we really get a sense of things when the first round of testimony is filed.

"So Aug. 29 is going to be a day that people will be doing a lot of reading, certainly on our side. You'll see staff and intervener testimony on that day."

Jason Alatidd is a statehouse reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached by email at jtidd@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @Jason_Alatidd.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas utility Evergy profited $186M in second quarter: What to know
Stiri pe aceeasi tema

- PM Ciolacu: Neptun Deep Project will increase Romania's energy securityPrime Minister Marcel Ciolacu says that the Neptun Deep project, which involves the extraction of gas from the Black Sea, is a strategic one that will turn Romania into the largest natural gas producer in the European Union, told

- The leadership of the Ministry of National Defense gives maximum priority to the motivation of the Romanian Army personnel, minister Angel Tilvar said on Thursday, at the graduation ceremony of the Ferdinand I Military Technical Academy."We give maximum priority to the identification of measures

- The Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) closed the last session of the week with growth on all indices, and the value of exchanges was 148.69 million RON (30.08 million euros), of which 144.25 million RON (29 .18 million euros) were transactions with shares.The main BET index appreciated by 0.75 pct,

- Romania has assumed the role of a "responsible" ally in strengthening regional security, Defence Minister Angel Tilvar said on Tuesday, in the context of the informal meeting of defence ministers of the North Atlantic Council, with Sweden, held in Vilnius, on the sidelines of the NATO Summit."The

- ForMin Odobescu, Moldova's Sandu discuss Moldova's European agenda, regional security. Romania's Foreign Minister Luminita Odobescu on Monday evening was welcomed in Chisnau, Moldova, by Moldova's President Maia Sandu to discuss Moldova's European agenda and the state of regional security, told Agerpres.

- Chief of Defense Staff: Black Sea is a region of strategic interest for NATO. The Black Sea is a region of strategic interest for NATO, and the consistent presence of some allied structures, especially American ones, in states like Romania, "contributes to the success that deterrence has in any situation

- Minister Angel Tilvar stated on Wednesday that the Romanian Army is currently "one of the most respected armies in NATO", proving that it can provide solid security and defense not only at home, but also in the most difficult theatres of operations in the world, where it acted, many times, alongside

- Serbia se straduieste sa stimuleze dialogul politic cu Statele Unite si considera ca intarirea cooperarii dintre Belgrad si Washington este un obiectiv strategic. Acest lucru a fost declarat de prim-vicepremierul si ministrul afacerilor externe al Republicii, Ivica Dacic, in timpul unei intrevederi
Police have arrested two men in connection with the illegal shooting of a protected wolf, which had wandered from Switzerland to Hungary earlier this year, the National Investigation Bureau (NNI) said on the website police.hu.

The wolf, dubbed M237, had been tracked across Europe through a GPS collar it was fitted with, but in early April the signal was suddenly lost, raising the possibility that the wolf may have died, the NNI said in a statement.







An investigation was ordered into the case against an unidentified perpetrator for causing damage to the natural environment, the statement said. Investigators concluded that the protected wolf had been shot dead by a group of hunters on April 1 on the outskirts of the border village of Hidasnemeti in the northeast.



The perpetrators, one of whom was a professional hunter, removed the GPS collar from the wolf and threw it into the river, the NNI said, adding that the hunters had been aware that they had shot a protected animal.



The authorities have yet to find the wolfs carcass, they added.



The two men were arrested in the early hours of Wednesday morning with the help of counter-terrorism force TEK, as one of them had a legally-owned firearm.
New Delhi: Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to entertain bail plea of Yes Bank founder Rana Kapoor in a money-laundering case against him. Kapoor withdraws bail plea from Supreme Court. SC notes that this case rocked the entire financial system.

In 2018, Yes Bank allegedly invested Rs 3,700 crore in short-term debentures of DHFL. It also sanctioned a loan of Rs 750 crore to a subsidiary of DHFL. Kapoor allegedly received kickbacks of Rs 600 crore by extending a loan to DOIT Urban Ventures (India) Pvt Ltd, which is wholly owned by RAB Enterprises, a company owned by Kapoor's wife and daughters.

His first bail application was rejected in February 2021 by the high court. Kapoor filed the second bail application on the ground that the maximum sentence under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) was seven years, and Kapoor had been in custody for three years.


NEW DELHI: Anju, the Indian woman who married her Pakistani friend Nasrullah on July 25 and converted to Islam, has been granted a two-month visa extension, as reported by Pakistani media outlets and local Twitter handles. Anju's Pakistani husband Nasrullah stated that Fatima (Anju) will now adapt to the customs and traditions of Upper Dir, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He also mentioned that she may work and could even join his company,

A Cross-Border Love Story: Anju Marries Nasrullah

Anju, a woman from Rajasthan's Alwar district, crossed the border to unite with her 29-year-old Pakistani lover Nasrullah in the Upper Dir district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The couple first connected on Facebook back in 2019 and decided to take their relationship to the next level.



Anju's Conversion To Islam And New Identity

Upon entering Pakistan, Anju embraced Islam and took on the name Fatima after her marriage to Nasrullah. Their union garnered attention from the media and local Twitter users in both countries.

Gifts From Pakistani Businessmen: The Intriguing Twist

After her conversion and marriage, Anju received residential plots and monetary gifts from Pakistani businessmen. Notably, Mohsin Khan Abbasi, the CEO of a real estate company, presented her with a significant amount of money in the form of a cheque and a land document during a visit to their residence, adding to the mystery surrounding the situation.

Visa Extension And Future Plans

Despite her visa conditions allowing travel only to Upper Dir, Anju was spotted in Islamabad with Nasrullah. The government subsequently extended her initial one-month visa by an additional two months. Nasrullah expressed hope that Fatima (Anju) would be granted a one-year visa later, as they plan for her to live in Pakistan permanently.

Pakistan has extended the visa of an Indian mother of two who entered the country in July, converted to Islam and married a local man last month.

Read more : https://t.co/AhZMMGmlGt#AajNews #anju #india #pakistan #KPK pic.twitter.com/J0MsYOtEea August 4, 2023

Nasrullah's Appeal For Anju's Children

Nasrullah also appealed to the Indian government to allow Anju's two children, both under 15, to travel to Pakistan and live with their mother. However, he ruled out the possibility of Anju returning to India to be with her children, leaving the future of the family uncertain.

Anju To Embrace Local Traditions In Upper Dir

Nasrullah stated that Fatima (Anju) will now adapt to the customs and traditions of Upper Dir, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He also mentioned that she may work and could even join his company, but she is currently avoiding interactions with local media to avoid potential issues.

Anju Vs Seema Haider

Anju's case draws comparisons to Seema Haider's story, who left Pakistan to be with her Indian lover Sachin Meena in Greater Noida, India. Seema reportedly converted to Hinduism and married Sachin following Hindu customs.

Anju's Family In Distress: Gwalior's Special Investigation

Anju's sudden disappearance, leaving behind her husband and children, has left her family in Gwalior district, Madhya Pradesh, deeply distressed. Anju's father dismisses any sinister involvement in the incident, describing her as "mentally disturbed" and "eccentric," adding to the complexity surrounding the situation.

MP Government Orders Investigation

Given the attention and speculations surrounding the case, the Madhya Pradesh Home Minister has ordered a special investigation into the matter to probe any potential international conspiracy, particularly due to its link to the Gwalior district. As the investigation unfolds, the public remains captivated by the enigmatic cross-border marriage of Anju and Nasrullah.
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi Thursday held meetings with groups of National Democratic Alliance (NDA) MPs from Bihar and MPs from five other states and three Union territories to strategise for the 2024 Lok Sabha election. During the meeting, PM Modi asked the MPs to "rise above case-based politics" and "work for people from all sections of the society", a source told ANI. PM Modi held the cluster-five meeting with 27 MPs of Bihar.

Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Nityanand Rai, RK Singh, Bhupendra Yadav, BJP leader Sushil Modi, Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) Presiden Chirag Paswan, Vinod Tawre and Bhupendra Yadav were among those present in the meeting. PM Modi is holding meetings with MPs of the NDA alliance in view of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections during the ongoing Monsoon session of the Parliament.

Boosting the morale, PM Modi asked the MPs present in the meeting to be ready for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Sources told ANI, that during the meeting, the PM asked the MPs to focus on their constituency, connect with the public, resolve public problems, and highlight central government schemes. "Held several programmes as much as possible to connect with the public. Our moto should be public welfare only," PM Modi said as per a BJP source.



"Many times, sacrifices have to be made for a bigger goal in politics. BJP has always been ready for this and has made sacrifices on several occasions," the source quoting PM Modi told ANI. "Work above caste-based politics and work for people from all sections of society," the PM asked the MPs. He also told the MPs to focus on regional parties in order to strengthen NDA. "After we secured more seats in Bihar, we made Nitish Kumar the Chief Minister," PM Modi said. "He said that we have more seats in Maharashtra too, yet we have given full respect to the allies in the state. In Punjab also, we helped in strengthening the regional parties," the BJP source added.

After the cluster-five meeting, PM held a Cluster -6 meeting with groups of 36 NDA MPs from Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Chandigarh, Uttarakhand, Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir at Parliament Annexe in the national capital. BJP national chief JP Nadda and Union Ministers Nitin Gadkari, Anurag Thakur and Ajay Bhatt were those present at the meeting.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday at the meeting with National Democratic Alliance (NDA) MPs said that the central government had launched many welfare schemes for the common people and it should be properly conveyed to them without the help of state machinery especially in non-BJP ruled states.

"We have to give maximum benefit of the central government schemes to the public without the help of state machinery in non-BJP ruled states," PM Modi said at the meeting. PM Modi held Cluster-4 meetings on Wednesday with the 48 MPs from Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar Island, and Laskshwadeep. The meeting lasted around one hour. The meeting was held at the Parliament Annexe building.

The dignitaries present in the meeting were BJP chief JP Nadda. The host minister were Prahlad Joshi and V Muralidharan. Besides them, Finance Ministe Nirmala Sitharaman, Shobha Karandlaje, K Laxman, Union Minister G Kishan Reddy, Vanathi Srinivasan and other NDA MP' were present in the meeting. Earlier, PM held Cluster- 3 meetings with groups of 48 NDA MPs from Uttar Pradesh's Kashi and Awadh region on Wednesday at Maharashtra Bhawan.

The dignitaries of the Cluster-3 meeting included Union Minister Rajnath Singh and Home Minister Amit Shah. The meeting was hosted by Anupriya Patel and Mahendra Nath Pandey. Earlier on Monday, PM Modi held meetings with NDA MPs from West Uttar Pradesh, Bundelkhand and Braj region as part of BJPs preparations for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and urged them to maximise their connections with people, inform them of government schemes, remain grounded and give priority to programmes that have an impact at the grassroots, sources said.

The Prime Minister who chaired the meeting, called upon the MPs to plan programmes for upcoming festivals to increase their reach among people and try to establish direct connections with people. Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a meeting with NDA MPs held on July 31 from West Bengal, Odisha and Jharkhand said that the journey of 25 years of the alliance has been unprecedented and the NDA intends to take it forward.

"The journey of 25 years of NDA has been unprecedented, we have to take it forward. Whatever role NDA has played is unprecedented. Together we will ensure victory in 2024," Prime Minister Narendra Modi was quoted as saying by a source in the meeting. Prime Minister Modi emphasised on winning the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha polls. He said, "The NDA government in nine years of power has done "unprecedented work in infrastructure development".
When Daniel Cameron clinched the Republican nomination for Kentucky governor in May, he also secured a place in history.

Cameron, 37, became the first Black person to win a major party nomination for Kentucky governor in the commonwealths history. And when he was elected as attorney general in 2019, he became the first Black person to be independently elected to statewide office and the second-ever Black statewide officeholder in Kentucky after former Lt. Gov. Jenean Hampton, who won on the Republican ticket with Matt Bevin in 2015.

Should he win come November, Cameron would become only the fourth elected Black governor in American history  and the first-ever Black Republican to hold such an office.

This campaign has tried to embody the promise of America, that if you work hard and if you stand on principle, anything is possible, he said in his primary night victory speech. Tonight we prove that here in Kentucky, the American Dream is alive and well, because here in Kentucky, you arent judged by the color of your skin, but the content of your character.

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Those achievements contrast sharply with the ire resulting from conservative stances that have often stirred full-throated backlash. Many of the rebukes are especially strong when it comes to his handling of the investigation into the 2020 fatal Louisville Metro Police shooting of Breonna Taylor, including sell-out negro, Uncle Daniel and a Black face of white supremacy.

While Cameron has pushed back against racist remarks made specifically about him, he has also at times, avoided talking about race and racism.

When asked about withdrawing from an event hosted by Eric Deters, a Northern Kentucky right-wing figure with a history of saying racist things  including using the N-word, decrying the prevalence of interracial couples in media and saying Blacks want to control everything  Cameron, repeatedly, would not denounce the comments and instead pivoted to other talking points.

Story continues

Additionally, Cameron made it the first pillar of his education framework to keep Critical Race Theory out of public schools, and has praised the U.S. Supreme Court opinion overturning race-based affirmative action at colleges as being exactly right. In July, he joined a coalition of 13 attorneys general to fight against woke ideology by warning some of the nations largest, most profitable companies against continuing race-based hiring practices.

Alvin B. Tillery, Jr., a professor and the director of the Center for the Study of Diversity and Democracy at Northwestern University, said positions like those are a fast-track to wealth and privilege and power in Republican politics for Cameron and other Black conservatives.

One path to become a rich and powerful, typically Black man, is to adopt positions which 85-to-90% of the Black community disagrees with, Tillery said. Lets just make no bones about it: there are people who elevate their careers by attaching themselves to these positions to do harm to others of their race for gain.

Cameron said the country has made incredible progress when it comes to race relations in the United States. American politics, he said, should be driven by whats in your heart and in your brain; not what you look like.

I grew up in a small town in Kentucky with two hard-working, Christian parents who ran a small business. Ive often said that I was under the impression that everyone voted Republican when I was growing up, he said in a written response to Herald-Leader questions. My parents voted for Republicans as long as I can remember. I registered as a Republican when I turned 18.

The Breonna Taylor case

From the beginning, Camerons approach to discussing his offices role in the Taylor case recognized the tragedy of the 26-year-olds death  one of the defining events of the 2020 racial justice movement  while also making clear the law and facts took precedent above all. In the three years since, he continues to describe his actions as having been done without fear or favor.

Shortly after announcing no officers were indicted for Taylors death, Cameron said criminal law is not meant to respond to every sorrow and grief, and that is true here. He understood, as a Black man, the pain of Taylors death, he said.

My heart breaks for the loss of Ms. Taylor, and Ive said that repeatedly. My mother, if something was to happen to me, he said, taking a long pause before continuing, would find it very hard. And Ive seen that pain on (Taylors mother, Tamika) Ms. Palmers face. Ive seen that pain in the community.

But, he added, the Office of the Attorney Generals responsibility was to make sure that we uncovered every fact, that we utilized every resource that we could bring to bear, to uncover the facts and the truth, and thats ultimately what we presented to the grand jury.

Whether the investigation and prosecution led by Camerons office lived up to that commitment remains subject of debate, especially in light of the federal Department of Justice charging four officers in August 2022 for their roles in the raid at Taylors home.

Because of who he was aligned with, I never expected Daniel Cameron to do the right thing, said Louisville writer and activist Hannah Drake. Cameron being a Black man denying Taylor justice adds a layer of hurt to the situation, Drake said, but only to a degree because I expect Daniel to act like Daniel.

Drake first wrote about Cameron on her blog in a post called When Rooting For Everybody Black Goes Wrong in 2019, just days before hed be elected as Kentuckys first Republican attorney general in decades, and months before Taylor was killed.

While you may want to support Daniel Cameron because he is a young Black man, where he has placed his stake in the ground is diametrically opposed to what is good for the people of Kentucky. How can I support someone who wholeheartedly stands with two people that mean me harm? Drake, who is Black, wrote of Camerons ties to U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell and former President Donald Trump. How can I support someone that is upheld by a man that says there are good people on both sides when it comes to one side protesting injustice and one side whose mission is to kill Black people?

Looking back at that post and his handling of the Taylor case, Drake said its clear what Cameron would be like as governor.

He has shown you who he is, Drake said. Believe him.

Black women and linked fate theory

While Taylors March 2020 death at the hands of police in her own apartment was a galvanizing force for the Black Lives Matter movement, it only became such after video of George Floyds murder in Minneapolis went viral and sparked national outrage; Taylor died two months before Floyd.

Taylors death hit especially close to home for Black women in Louisville  and far beyond. In Taylor, they saw themselves.

Some of Taylors biggest proponents  and Camerons most ardent critics  were high-profile Black women.

Beyonce wrote an open letter to Cameron, urging him to charge the officers for Taylors death. Oprah Winfrey dedicated an issue to Taylor, and paid for 26 billboards around Louisville to commemorate her 26 years on Earth.

After the investigation was over, Rihanna called out Cameron more than once, including in response to a Black History Month post. Im just gon let this sink in to your hollow skull @danieljaycameron, she wrote on Instagram, tagging him, along with the photo of a protest sign that read, A cop shot a Black woman and was only charged for the shots missed. It got more than 1.8 million likes.

One of the most high-profile instances of Black women using their star power against Cameron came on Oct. 3, 2020, when rapper Megan Thee Stallion performed on Saturday Night Live. While performing her hit song Savage, Megan Thee Stallion played audio of Until Freedom activist Tamika Mallory saying, Daniel Cameron is no different than the sell-out negroes that sold our people into slavery.

In a follow-up piece for The New York Times, the rapper called it good trouble like that promoted by late Congressman John Lewis.

Nadia Brown, a professor of government and chair of the Womens and Gender Studies Program at Georgetown University, said Black Americans have become more diversified since the civil rights era, but because of their skin tone and the lived histories of race, they are more tied to one another and often vote accordingly.

Its called the linked fate theory, Brown said, but newer research has shown its limits. Black people tend to be more socially conservative and fiscally liberal, she said. As such, some may want to be Republicans, but dont want the racial backlash from being a Republican because of community ties.

Browns own work has shown that linked fate is not extended to Black women.

Black men dont necessarily see themselves as connected to issues that impact Black women the way that Black women see themselves as affected by issues that impact Black men, Brown said. I think what were seeing in Kentucky are these divergences being played out in linked fate, a concept that really seemed to hold true between the civil rights movement, neoliberal politics, and moving into this now Trumpian era where it doesnt hold up.

There has been a double standard

Cameron has discussed race in interviews, particularly when hes been criticized.

After the Megan Thee Stallion performance, Cameron spoke on Fox News, saying those sorts of comments have been hurled at him for identifying with a different political philosophy since he was in college. Since then hes gone on television to denounce columns and cartoons critical of him, telling Newsmax in May that its not uncommon to see folks, particularly the far-left, attack any Black conservative that dares to think outside of the box.

Cameron said there has been a double standard throughout his campaigns for office.

I often get asked to denounce every racist comment or behavior from any supporter, he said. I can only control my own speech. I cant control everyone elses.

Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat who is on the ballot against Cameron this November, called out Deters comments  unprompted  at a weekly news conference in July. Deters finished fourth in the Republican gubernatorial primary, and has indicated he will mount a primary campaign against Rep. Thomas Massie, R-KY.

I fully condemn each of these statements this individual made, and I call on every other elected official to do so, Beshear said. The way we root out hate and end it is to make sure that we call it out when its there, no matter who is saying it.

Cameron called the governors comments audacious.

I do think its audacious for Gov. Beshear to call on me, a Black man, to weigh in on those sorts of comments when hes remained silent in the face of a number of racist comments about me, Cameron said. Where was he when someone accused me of eating coon flakes, depicted me as a member of the KKK, or his people engaged in racist tropes about my work ethic?

Will Kentuckians vote for a Black candidate?

Scott Jennings, a Republican strategist backing Cameron and political commentator, said the GOP is very, very proud of the diversity that has risen to the top both at the state party and nationally. When his opponents attack Cameron based on his race, Jennings said theyre showing their true colors, which only helps Cameron.

Nothing enrages Republicans more than to hear liberals level obviously racist insults at Black people just because they happen to be conservative or Republican, Jennings, who is white, said. And so the fact that it happens to him is not a surprise, and it does enrage people like me, but it truthfully, ultimately, it endears Daniel more to people, to face down that sort of racism and and keep plowing forward.

Jennings contrasted that with Beshear, a rich, white guy of extreme privilege. When Beshear or other white liberals make their arguments against Cameron, Jennings said, they ring hollow.

Theyre trying to explain why this Black guy just doesnt get it, he said. I mean, it makes them all sound ridiculous.

Jennings also addressed the lazy punditry that has followed Camerons political campaigns, including that he wont perform well in some parts of the state because he is a Black candidate. Kentucky, with a population of just over 4.5 million people, is about 87% white and just under 9% Black.

Every single time I hear somebody say that, Daniel turns around and does even better than anyone would have expected, Jennings said.

In a 12-person primary, Cameron came out on top in 108 of Kentuckys 120 counties, and won with nearly 48% of the Republican votes cast. And in his attorney general primary in 2019, Cameron bested a white, male opponent  a sitting state senator  by nearly 11 percentage points.

According to Cameron, his election against Beshear is about core values  not race.

Its not what you look like, but where your values stand, he said.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the conviction of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in the 2019 'Modi surname' remark defamation case. A three-judge bench of Justices BR Gavai, PS Narasimha and Sanjay Kumar said that no reason was given by the trial court judge while convicting Gandhi except that he was admonished by the apex court in a contempt case. The top court had closed the contempt proceedings against the former Congress president for wrongly attributing to it his 'chowkidar chor hai' remark against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in connection with the Rafale case, with a warning to be more careful in future after he tendered an unconditional apology.

The top court said in so far as conviction is concerned, it has considered that the sentence for an offence punishable under section 499 (defamation) of the Indian Penal Code is maximum of two years imprisonment or a fine or both, and the trial judge has awarded the maximum sentence of two years.

"Except the admonition by Supreme Court in a contempt case, no other reason has been granted for this (conviction) by the trial judge. It is to be noted only on account of this maximum sentence imposed by the trial judge, provisions of the Representation of People Act have come into play. Had the sentence been a day lesser, provisions would not have been attracted, particularly when an offence is non-cognisable, bailable and compoundable. The least the trial court judge was expected was to give some reasons to impose a maximum sentence. Though appellate court and the high court have spent voluminous pages rejecting stay on conviction, these aspects are not considered in their orders," the bench said.



Referring to its earlier order in a contempt case against Gandhi, the apex court said while filing his affidavit in the contempt petition, he ought to have been more careful and exercised a degree of restraint in making such remarks which are alleged to be defamatory.

The apex court said Gandhi's conviction and subsequent disqualification not only affected his right to continue in public life but also that of the electorate who elected him to represent their constituency.

"No doubt the utterances were not in good taste and a person in public life is expected to exercise caution while making public speeches. Taking into consideration these and that no reason has been given by the trial judge for imposing the maximum sentence, the order of conviction needs to be stayed pending final adjudication," the bench said.

During the hearing, Rahul Gandhi told the apex court that the original surname of former Gujarat minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Purnesh Modi, who filed a defamation case against him, is not Modi and that he belongs to the Modh Vanika Samaj.

Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for the former Congress chief, told the bench that his client is not a 'hardened criminal' and that there is no conviction in any case despite several cases filed against him by BJP workers.

Purnesh Modi had filed a criminal defamation case in 2019 against Rahul Gandhi over his 'How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname?' remark made during an election rally in Karnataka in April 2019.

The Congress leader was then disqualified as a Member of Parliament on March 24 this year after a Surat court convicted him and sentenced him to two-year imprisonment for criminal defamation for the comments he made about the Modi surname.

Congress welcomes SC decision on Rahul Gandhi defamation case

Congress MP KC Venugopal welcomed the SC decision on Rahul Gandhi's defamation case and said that they 'believe' in the legal procedure.

"We believe in the legal procedure and the system of the country and welcome the decision," Venugopal said on Supreme Court staying the conviction of Gandhi in the 'Modi surname' remark case.

Rahul Gandhi says conviction 'unsustainable', refuses to apologise

In an affidavit filed before the Supreme Court, Rahul Gandhi had said that Purnesh Modi has in his reply used 'slanderous' terms such as 'arrogant' for him only because he has refused to apologise. The Congress leader once again refused to apologise for his remark that led to his disqualification as an MP but urged the Supreme Court to stay his conviction in the criminal defamation case stemming from his comment, asserting he is 'not guilty'.

"Using the criminal process and the consequences under the Representation of People Act to arm-twist the Petitioner into apologising for no fault is a gross abuse of the judicial process and ought not to be countenanced by this Court... The petitioner maintains and has always maintained that he is not guilty of offence and that the conviction is unsustainable and if he had to apologise and compound the offence, he would have done it much earlier," Gandhi said in the affidavit.

Rahul Gandhi, who was disqualified as MP from Kerala's Wayanad, submitted he has an 'exceptional' case considering the offence was 'trivial', and the irreparable harm that accrues to him having been disqualified as a lawmaker.

"On the other hand, there is no prejudice caused at all to the complainant. It is therefore prayed for that the conviction of Rahul Gandhi be stayed, enabling him to participate in the ongoing sittings of the Lok Sabha and the sessions thereafter," he said in the affidavit.

The former Congress chief claimed there is no community or 'samaj' on record going by the name 'Modi' and hence, the offence of defaming the Modi community as a whole does not arise.

"There is no Modi samaj or community established on record and there are only Modi Vanika Samaj or Modh Ghanchi Samaj existing... He (the complainant) has also admitted that the Modi surname falls under various other castes. There is also the admission that Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi and Mehul Choksi all do not fall within the same caste," the affidavit said.

Earlier, Purnesh Modi had sought the dismissal of Gandhi's appeal against his conviction in the criminal defamation case, saying he has defamed all those bearing the Modi surname, particularly people belonging to the 'Modh Vanik' caste of Gujarat.

On June 21, the top court had sought responses from Modi and the state government on Gandhi's appeal.

In his appeal filed on July 15, Gandhi said if the judgment is not stayed, it would lead to the throttling of free speech, expression, thought, and statement.

It is notable that the high court had dismissed his petition for a stay on conviction, observing that 'purity in politics' is the need of the hour.
New Delhi: 7th Pay Commission Latest update-- The latest AICPI Index data have given the much needed enthusiasm to lakhs of central government employees who have been waiting for the announcement of the Dearness Allowance (DA). AICPI Index is the final data for determining the calculation of Dearness Allowance and the foundation for determining the DA quantum. Figures of AICPI Index number for the month of June paints an optimistic picture.

The figures for June 2023 AICPI index have been declared by the government that shows that there has been a big jump in the index. The June index has reached 136.4 points as compared to the index number in May which was 134.7 points. A total increase of 1.7 points has been registered in June. According to the figures of May, the total DA score was 45.58 percent, which has increased to 46.24 percent in June 2023, depending on AICPI index figures.

DA May Increase To 46 Percent

Media reports are abuzz with speculations that now central employees will be paid Dearness Allowance at the rate of 46 percent. The announced regarding the same will be made by the government in the month of September, reports have added. The recognised formula, which is based on the recommendations of the 7th Central Pay Commission, shall be followed in order to raise DA.

The Dearness Allowance of central government employees is revised twice a year. The first is given from January to June, while the second comes from July to December.

How Much Will Central Government Employee's Salary Increase After 46% DA Hike

Currently the central government employees are getting 42 percent DA hike. After the increase the DA will reportedly be 46 percent. On a basic salary of Rs 18,000, the annual DA increase will be Rs 8640 while on a basic salary of Rs 56,900, the annual DA increase will be 27,312

Here Is The Calculation On Minimum Basic Salary: DA Hike



1. Basic Salary  Rs 18,000

2. Current DA at 42 percent - DA hike by Rs 7,560 per month

3. New DA at 46 percent - DA hike by Rs 8,280 per month

4. DA Increase  Rs 8,280- 7,560 = Rs 720 per month

5. Annual Salary Increase Rs 720 X 12= Rs 8,640



Here Is The Calculation On Maximum Basic Salary: DA Hike

1. Basic Salary  Rs 56900

2. Current DA at 42 per cent  Rs 23,898 per month

3. New DA at 46% - DA hike by Rs 26,174 per month

4. DA Increase - Rs 26,174 - Rs 23,898 = Rs 2,276 per month

5. Annual Increase in DA  Rs 2,276 X 12 = Rs 27,312

DA Hike May be announced in September

Meanwhile, it must be noted that till the new DA rates are announced by the government, the employees will be paid DA at the rate of 42 percent. However, once the Government announces a hike in DA, the increased amount will be paid along with the arrears. The benefit of this increase in dearness allowance will be given to the central government employees, who are getting salary under the 7th Pay Commission. Atotal of more than 1 crore central employees and pensioners will be directly given the benefit of this increase.

Dearness Allowance Hike March 2023

It may be recalled that te Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in March gave its approval to release an additional instalment of Dearness Allowance to Central Governments employees and Dearness Relief to Pensioners with effect from 01.01.2023. The additional instalment will represent an increase of 4% over the existing rate of 38% of the Basic Pay/Pension, to compensate against price rise. The combine impact on the exchequer on account of both Dearness Allowance and Dearness Relief would be Rs.12,815.60 crore per annum.

This will benefit about 47.58 lakh Central Governments employees and 69.76 lakh pensioners.
The words, global warming and climate change are generally used synonymously by many people though they are related but not the same. NASA scientist explained how both global warming and climate change differ from one another.

Global warming

According to NASA atmospheric scientist Dr Yolanda Shea, global warming stands for the increase in the average surface temperature of Earth. On a global scale, the earth's surface is heating up due to the increased amount of heat-trapping greenhouse gases that have been released by humans burning fossil fuels that lead to global warming.



Climate Change

Climate change on the other hand is a general term that refers to long-term changes in the environment over decades or centuries. The term climate change includes all types of changes in typical weather climate that can be observed from a regional to global scale. Melting of glaciers, increase in wildfires, droughts and increase in surface temperature are the indications of climate change.

World Entering In 'Global Boiling' Era

NASA and various other research organizations are extensively studying global warming and climate change as we see. Recently, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced that the world has entered into the "global boiling" era from global warming.

Speaking at UN Headquarters, the Secretary-General warned that the era of global warming has ended and the era of global boiling has arrived. Although climate change is evident, we can still stop the worst, he said. But to do so we must turn a year of burning heat into a year of burning ambition.
The Indian car market is set to welcome multiple new SUVs. These new SUVs have been designed to cater to the growing demand for such vehicles. Specifically, most of the SUV launches scheduled in September 2023 cater to consumers looking for a compact SUV. Furthermore, the upcoming models will raise the competition for the SUVs ruling the market like the Hyundai Creta, Maruti Suzuki Grand Vitara, Kia Seltos, and others. Here we have compiled a list of upcoming SUVs launching in India in September 2023.

Honda Elevate

The Japanese automaker has already unveiled the Honda Elevate SUV for the Indian market. However, the prices of the new SUV will be announced this month. It is to be noted that the five-seater SUV will be launched in India with a 1.5-litre NA VTEC petrol engine working in combination with a six-speed MT and CVT gearbox. Furthermore, the company also has plans to launch the electric version of the SUV in the coming future along with a few other new electric models.



Also read: Tata Tiago, Tigor iCNG Launched In India Starting At Rs 6.55 Lakh: Check Prices, Details

Citroen C3 Aircross

The new Citroen C3 Aircross SUV carries forward the C3 name in India with a 5,7-seater seating layout. As per the information available, the car will be launched in 10 colour schemes with pricing intended to increase the trouble for its competition in the Indian market. The new SUV will be powered by a 1.2-litre petrol paired with a manual gearbox. It is to be noted that the French brand currently has Citroen C3, eC3, and C5 Aircross.

Tata Nexon Facelift

Tata Nexon is one of the best-selling SUVs from the Indian automaker. The SUV has been on the list of the top 10 best-selling SUVs in India consistently. However, it's been a while since the ongoing model received an update. Changing that, Tata Motors is planning on launching a facelift Tata Nexon with multiple updates. Chances are that the new SUV will be launched soon in the Indian market.

Mahindra Bolero Neo Plus

Mahindra Bolero Neo Plus carries the name that has gained the Indian automaker a lot of sales numbers. With this new rendition, the company aims to increase its market share. The SUV has been on the plans for quite a while and the price of the car is expected to be announced in September.

Toyota SUV

The Japanese automaker is expected to launch the rebadged version of the Maruti Suzuki Fronx in India. It is to be noted that Maruti Suzuki has been working in partnership with Toyota and have developed multiple models under the partnership. Increasing the list, Toyota is expected to launch a rebadged version of the Frox with minor changes in its appearance and features.
Ibstock (LON:IBST) First Half 2023 Results

Key Financial Results

Revenue: UK222.7m (down 14% from 1H 2022).

Net income: UK22.4m (down 45% from 1H 2022).

Profit margin: 10% (down from 16% in 1H 2022). The decrease in margin was driven by lower revenue.

EPS: UK0.057 (down from UK0.10 in 1H 2022).

All figures shown in the chart above are for the trailing 12 month (TTM) period

Ibstock Earnings Insights

Looking ahead, revenue is forecast to grow 4.1% p.a. on average during the next 3 years, compared to a 3.9% growth forecast for the Basic Materials industry in the United Kingdom.

Performance of the British Basic Materials industry.

The company's shares are up 1.3% from a week ago.

Risk Analysis

It's necessary to consider the ever-present spectre of investment risk. We've identified 2 warning signs with Ibstock (at least 1 which is concerning), and understanding these should be part of your investment process.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
Kerala TET Results 2023: The Kerala Pareeksha Bhavan (KPB) is expected to release the Kerala Teacher Eligibility Test (K-TET) results on its official website this week. Candidates who are eagerly awaiting the results of the May K-TET 2023 can verify and download their results once they are released via candidate login. The online application period lasted from April 3, 2023 until April 17, 2023.

On May 23, 2023, the admission card was made available. On May 30, 2023, KTET I was held from 10 AM to 12.30 PM and KTET II from 2 PM to 4.30 PM, whereas KTET III was held from 10 AM to 12.30 PM and KTET IV from 2 PM to 4.30 PM on May 31, 2023.

Kerala TET Result 2023: Steps to check here

1. Visit the Official website ktet.kerala.gov.in.

2. Find the Result Link: Look for the "Kerala TET Results 2023" link on the homepage or the "Latest Updates" section.

3. Once you find the relevant link, click on it to access the result page.

4. On the result page, you may need to enter your Kerala TET application number and date of birth or any other specified details as per instructions.

5. Click on Submit or View Result to see your results.

6. Once the result is displayed, download the PDF for future reference.

The passing standards for the SC, ST, and OBC categories are 55%, which implies that these groups must obtain 82 points out of a possible 150, whilst the general category is 60%.
Jaipur: Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot took a swipe at the opposition BJP on Thursday, saying its local leaders are not capable of winning the state for the party and thus it plans to contest the upcoming assembly elections projecting Prime Minister Narendra Modi's face. He also asked why the party was not projecting the face of former chief minister Vasundhara Raje and why she did not attend the party's protest rally near the state secretariat in Jaipur earlier this week.

Rajasthan BJP leaders who are in the race for the chief minister's post are not capable to win the state for the party, he alleged, adding that in such a situation the party has projected the face of Prime Minister Modi. "Modi is an international leader and 'vishwa guru'...Why are you bringing him to the state assembly elections," he said.

In an apparent reference to Raje, Gehlot said, "The CM face is sitting at home. She must have been made to sit at home."

Gehlot said it is blamed on her that she saved his government during the political crisis in 2020.

"She did not save my government. Vasundhara Raje and Kailash Meghwal had given their views that there is no tradition in our state to topple a government by horse trading. Was it wrong to say this? They were right and I just welcomed that,? he said.

It may be noted that Gehlot in May this year had claimed that he survived the 2020 revolt by some Congress MLAs led by Sachin Pilot because BJP leaders Raje and Meghwal refused to support a conspiracy to topple an elected government through money power.

Assembly polls in Rajasthan are slated for later this year. The ruling Congress and the BJP are locked in a bitter contest in the state.

The chief minister also said he would write to the prime minister stating that the Enforcement Directorate was not cooperating with the state government on its request to initiate an inquiry against BJP leader and Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat in the Sanjeevani credit cooperative society case.

He said that according to a report of the Special Operations Group of the Rajasthan Police, Shekhawat and his family members were accused in the Sanjeevani credit cooperative society "scam".

Gehlot also said that no matter how much Shekhawat tries, people will not accept him as a chief ministerial candidate in Rajasthan.
Nagpur: Justice Rohit Deo, a judge of the Bombay High Court, on Friday, said he had resigned due to personal reasons. Making the announcement in his courtroom here -- the high court has a bench at Nagpur -- Justice Deo also said that he could not compromise on self-respect, according to a lawyer who was present. Following the announcement, the matters listed before him for the day stood discharged.

"Those who are present in the court, I apologise to each one of you. I scolded you because I want you to improve. I don't want to hurt anyone of you because you all are like family to me and I am sorry to tell you that I have submitted my resignation. I can't work against my self-respect. You people work hard," Justice Deo was quoted as saying in the court by the lawyer.

Speaking to reporters later, the judge said he had quit due to personal reasons and sent his resignation letter to the President of India.



In 2022, Justice Deo had acquitted former Delhi University professor GN Saibaba in an alleged Maoist links case, setting aside the life imprisonment awarded to him and noting that the trial proceedings were null and void in the absence of valid sanction under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

The Supreme Court later stayed the order and ordered the Nagpur bench of the High Court to hear the case afresh.

Last week Justice Deo stayed the operation of a Maharashtra Government Resolution (order) of January 3 through which the state was empowered to cancel punitive proceedings initiated by the revenue department related to the illegal excavation of minor minerals by contractors engaged in the construction of the Nagpur-Mumbai Samruddhi Expressway.

Deo was appointed as a judge of the Bombay High Court in June 2017 and was due to retire in December 2025.

Before that, he had worked as Advocate General of Maharashtra in 2016.
Three army personnel were injured in an ongoing encounter with terrorists in Kulgam, Kashmir's Halan forest area. As the security forces intensified search operations to locate the hiding terrorists, additional reinforcements and a helicopter were deployed. The joint team of Police, Army, and CRPF continues its efforts to neutralize the threat, making the situation tense in the region.

*Injury of Three Army Personnel:*

Three army troopers sustained injuries in an ongoing encounter with terrorists in the Halan forest area of Kulgam district, South Kashmir.



*Search Operations Intensified:*

Following the incident, the security forces have intensified their search operations in the region to locate the hiding terrorists.

*Gunfight Breaks Out:*

The encounter was triggered when a joint team of Police, Army, and CRPF received intelligence about the presence of terrorists in the woods of Halan.

*Retaliatory Encounter:*

As the security forces closed in on the suspected location, the terrorists opened fire on the searching party, leading to a retaliatory exchange of fire and the initiation of the encounter.

*Trapped in Cordon:*

According to inputs, two to three terrorists are currently trapped and hiding in the area.

*Additional Forces and Helicopter Deployed:*

In response to the injuries sustained by the three army soldiers during the initial firefight, more forces have been rushed to the spot. A helicopter has also been deployed to aid in locating the actual position of the hiding terrorists.
Patna, Aug 4 (PTI) Fresh speculations of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar contesting Lok Sabha polls from adjoining BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh have left the ruling Mahagathbandhan in Bihar and the saffron party, in opposition here, at each other's throat. The speculations were triggered after Shravan Kumar, a Bihar minister, who is also the JD(U)'s in-charge for UP, said there were "demands" that the party boss enters the fray from the adjoining state.

"I was recently in Jaunpur and there are very strong demands that honourable chief minister consider fighting Lok Sabha polls from UP," Shravan Kumar had told a regional news channel.

Bijendra Yadav, the most senior member of the cabinet and a former state JD(U) president, told reporters on Thursday at the party office, "Not just Uttar Pradesh, but our units in many other states want the chief minister to contest from there. Of course, it is a decision for the leader to take".



Shortly after Nitish Kumar had quit the NDA last year, vowing to defeat the BJP-led coalition in 2024, intense speculations had arisen that he could fight elections from Phulpur, famous in history as the seat of Jawaharlal Nehru.

The seat, which covers a major part of the city of Prayagraj, earlier known as Allahabad, has a sizeable population of Kurmi caste, to which Kumar belongs, and is just about a 100 km from Varanasi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's constituency.

Shravan Kumar, however, said, "It is not just Phulpur. During my recent UP visit, I got the sense that there are many other seats, including Fatehpur and Pratapgarh, where our party wants the CM to fight. They feel it will create a buzz across the state."

The JD(U)'s allies in Bihar seem to have little problem.

Congress legislature party leader Shakil Ahmed Khan said, "Why not? When a person from Gujarat can contest and win from Varanasi, then we are so close to Uttar Pradesh".

Notably, despite the seat's association with Nehru, and after his death Vijaylaxmi Pandit, Phulpur has slipped from the grip of Congress which last won it in 1984, riding the wave generated by Indira Gandhi's assassination.

RJD spokesman Shakti Yadav, when asked about what he thought of Nitish Kumar contesting from UP, said, "If the people of that state so wish, he must. It is a matter of pride for Bihar that our leader's popularity transcends Bihar's boundaries".

Interestingly, while Kumar has denied any prime ministerial ambitions, his efforts to galvanize the entire opposition notwithstanding, the prospects of his playing a "national role" enthused not just the JD(U) but also the RJD, which views it as deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav's pathway to the highest seat of power.

Meanwhile, the BJP was predictably annoyed at the talk of Kumar making a foray into UP, which not just sends the PM to Lok Sabha and has the highest number of seats, but is also ruled by Yogi Adityanath, seen as the party's rising star.

Leader of the opposition in Bihar assembly Vijay Kumar Sinha and BJP's state unit chief Samrat Choudhary came out with separate, strongly worded statements, alleging that Kumar had lost his popularity on his home turf and would face humiliation if he moved to the adjoining state.

The two BJP leaders, who have been miffed at Kumar scoring a point with Patna High Court's thumbs up to the caste survey ordered by his government, accused his party of thinking in terms of "caste arithmetic" in UP where JD(U) has never been a force to reckon with.
(Bloomberg) -- Japanese trading houses  a darling of Warren Buffetts  posted strong earnings last quarter, despite a drop in commodity prices over the period and Chinas disappointing economic rebound.

Most Read from Bloomberg

The five major trading firms  Mitsubishi Corp., Mitsui & Co., Sumitomo Corp. Marubeni Corp. and Itochu Corp.  all beat net-income estimates for the first quarter of Japans fiscal year in reports issued this week. Mitsubishi and Mitsui said they will consider additional shareholder returns depending on future results. Itochu said it will buy back up to 0.4% of shares for 25 billion yen.

We think the strong start in 1Q will raise expectations for a guidance hike and additional shareholder returns at 1H results, SMBC Nikko Securities Inc. senior analyst Akira Morimoto said in a note released Tuesday after Mitsui reported.

The results should please Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway Inc. in June raised its stake in the five firms to an average of more than 8.5%. He first invested in the companies in 2020 and traveled to Japan earlier this year to strengthen his ties with the trading houses, known as Sogo Shosha.

The Japanese results are in contrast to energy majors like Exxon Mobil Corp. and Shell Plc, which missed estimates on falling gas prices and weak oil-refining margins. While the trading houses are heavily involved in oil, gas and coal, they have wider portfolios ranging from convenience stores to salmon farming.

Read More: Buffett Boosts Stake in Japan Trading Companies as Shares Surge

Mitsubishis consumer industry segment, which includes the Lawson convenience store chain and other businesses, booked record profits in the quarter. The company has been able to build a strong portfolio, Chief Financial Officer Yuzo Nouchi said at a press conference on Thursday.

Story continues

Still, the firms said they werent immune to the downturn in commodity prices and a stagnating recovery in consumption in China.

Mitsubishi and Mitsui said a drop in metallurgical coal prices had impacted their natural resource segments. Sumitomos earnings were affected by a decline in thermal coal, while Itochu was affected by falling paper pulp prices, both of which they blamed on weak Chinese demand.

--With assistance from Dan Murtaugh.

(Updates throughout, adds earning results from Itochu, Marubeni)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
NOIDA: A 73-year-old woman died of possible cardiac arrest on Thursday after the cable of a lift at a housing complex here snapped, leading to a free fall between floors, police officials said. The lift did not hit the ground but was caught between some of the middle floors of the building, a police official said as details about the incident that took place in a high-rise society were being ascertained.

The woman was alone in the lift when its wire snapped, leading to a free fall, the official said, citing preliminary findings. "Today, a woman going in the lift fainted due to breaking of the lift wire in Paras Tierra Society in Sector 137, under Police Station Sector 142 area. The woman was alone in the lift. She was admitted to Felix Hospital but died during treatment," the police said in a statement.

VIDEO | One dead as a lift collapses at a society in sector 137 in Noida, UP. More details are awaited. pic.twitter.com/lusCbaJsdy  Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) August 3, 2023

The incident took place around 4.30 pm and the woman passed away after an hour in the hospital. "The woman had injuries on the back of her head and soma abrasion on her elbows, which appears to have been caused due to the fall of the lift. There was no pulse and her eyelids were dilated when she was brought to the hospital, suggesting a possible cardiac arrest because of the suddenness of the event," a doctor of the Felix Hospital told PTI.

Attempts were made to resuscitate the patient but were unsuccessful in reviving her, the doctor added.

Meanwhile, hundreds of residents of Paras Tierra came out in the society's complex to protest the incident and upkeep of common services, like the management of the lifts.
New Delhi: The Ashok Gehlot-led Rajasthan Cabinet on Friday approved the proposal of a high-level committee to form 19 new districts and three new divisions in the state. After the Gehlot government's nod, Rajasthan will now have a total of 50 districts.

"These new districts will give a new impetus to the development of the state," Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said after the key cabinet meeting at his residence in the state capital Jaipur.

The formation of new districts will improve governance and bring relief to people who have to cover long distances to go to district headquarters for various works, he said.



The senior Congress leader also told reporters that ministers in charge of the new districts will do a formal launch on August 7.

Press Conference at CM residence | August 04 https://t.co/nKtq0tTEmn August 4, 2023

A high-level committee chaired by retired IAS officer Ramlubhaya was formed in March last year to give recommendations about the formation of new districts.

Rajasthan To Have 19 New Districts, 3 Divisions

While Jaipur district has been divided into Jaipur and Jaipur Rural, the Jodhpur district has been divided into Jodhpur and Jodhpur Rural.

The other new districts are Anupgarh, Balotra, Beawar, Deeg, Didwana-Kuchaman, Dudu, Gangapur City, Kekri, Kotputli-Behror, Khairthal-Tijara, Neem ka Thana, Phalodi, Slumber, Sanchore and Shahpura.

The number of divisions in the state has also been increased from 7 to 10. The new divisions are Banswara, Pali, and Sikar.
New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday welcomed Supreme Court's stay on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's conviction in a 2019 defamation case and said that it 'reinforces people's trust in Indian democracy and judicial system'. The apex court on Friday stayed a Gujarat High Court verdict that had dismissed Gandhi's plea seeking a stay on his conviction in a defamation case over his 'Modi surname' remark.

"I welcome Hon'ble Supreme Court's intervention in an unjust defamation case against Rahul Gandhi ji. It reinforces people's trust in Indian democracy and the judicial system. Congratulations to him and to the people of Wayanad," Arvind Kejriwal tweeted.

I welcome Honble Supreme Court's intervention in an unjust defamation case against Rahul Gandhi ji. It reinforces people's trust in Indian democracy and the judicial system.

Congratulations to him and to the people of Wayanad  Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) August 4, 2023

Earlier in the day, a three-judge bench of Justices BR Gavai, PS Narasimha and Sanjay Kumar said no reason was given by the trial court judge while convicting Rahul Gandhi except that he was admonished by the apex court in a contempt case.

The top court had closed the contempt proceedings against Gandhi for wrongly attributing to it his "chowkidar chor hai" remark against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in connection with the Rafale case, with a warning to be more careful in future after the senior Congress leader tendered an unconditional apology.

The top court said in so far as conviction is concerned, it has considered that the sentence for an offence punishable under section 499 (defamation) of the Indian Penal Code is maximum two years imprisonment or fine or both, and the trial judge has awarded the maximum sentence of two years.

"Except the admonition by Supreme Court in a contempt case, no other reason has been granted for this (conviction) by the trial judge. It is to be noted only on account of this maximum sentence imposed by the trial judge, provisions of the Representation of People Act have come into play.

"Had the sentence been a day lesser, provisions would not have been attracted, particularly when an offence is non cognisable, bailable and compoundable. The least the trial court judge was expected was to give some reasons to impose a maximum sentence. Though appellate court and the high court have spent voluminous pages rejecting stay on conviction, these aspects are not considered in their orders," the bench said.

Referring to its earlier order in a contempt case against Gandhi, the apex court said while filing his affidavit in the contempt petition, he ought to have been more careful and exercised a degree of restraint in making such remarks which are alleged to be defamatory.

The apex court said Gandhi's conviction and subsequent disqualification not only affected his right to continue in public life but also that of the electorate who elected him to represent their constituency.

"No doubt the utterances were not in good taste and a person in public life is expected to exercise caution while making public speeches. Taking into consideration these and that no reason has been given by the trial judge for imposing the maximum sentence, the order of conviction needs to be stayed pending final adjudication," the bench said.

As the hearing began, senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for Gandhi, told the bench his client is not a hardened criminal and was never convicted despite several cases having been filed against him by BJP workers.

Senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, appearing for ex-Gujarat minister Purnesh Modi, whose complaint led to Gandhi's conviction, said there is a plethora of evidence against the former Congress president.

The top court was hearing a plea by Gandhi challenging the Gujarat High Court verdict which dismissed his plea seeking a stay on his conviction in the defamation case filed by Purnesh Modi over his "Modi surname" remark.

Gandhi had persistently refused to apologise for his remark but urged the Supreme Court to stay his conviction in the criminal defamation case stemming from his comment, asserting he is not guilty.

Purnesh Modi had filed a criminal defamation case in 2019 against Gandhi over his "How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname?" remark made during an election rally in Kolar in Karnataka on April 13, 2019.
Memorial Square, a retail center on the northeast corner of N Pennsylvania Avenue and Memorial Road, recently was acquired by local investors.

More power to OKC's Mazaheri Properties  another multimillion-dollar retail power center, anyway.

Memorial Square at N Pennsylvania and Memorial Road  Marshalls, P.F. Changs, Red Robin, Carter's, OshKosh, DSW, Charles Schwab, Party City, Petland, Qdoba, other prominent national stores and restaurants  is the third investment in the past year by Fred Mazaheri, Champ Patel and business partners.

They paid $24.6 million, or $199.10 per square foot, for the 123,557-square-foot center on 14.5 acres in a deal handled by Philip Mazaheri, the group's acquisition and disposition adviser, who also is a retail investment specialist with Oklahoma City brokerage Price Edwards & Co.

The seller was Inland Real Estate Group, which had owned the center since 2007. Inland, based in suburban Chicago, acquired Memorial Square in one of the last major retail investments here before the Great Recession and commercial credit freeze.

Inland acquired 240 Penn Park the same year. A year ago, Mazaheri Properties paid $38 million for the first phase of 240 Penn Park, 241,831 square feet of national name brands on 22.2 acres at S Pennsylvania Avenue and Interstate 240.

Last November, the investors added a Texas retail center, Chisholm Trail Ranch, in Fort Worth, to their portfolio.

In all, the purchases totaled $120 million, Philip Mazaheri said.

More: Yellow Corp.'s shutdown yanks up the trucking company's roots planted in OKC 99 years ago

Memorial Square, at 13700, 13710, 13800 and 13810 N Pennsylvania Ave., shadow anchored by the state's highest-volume Super Target  "shadow," meaning it has a separate owner  is a great addition to the portfolio, he said, even though it needed a little leasing up.

"At the time of the purchase, the property had 89.04% occupancy. The buyers are working on finalizing a lease with a national tenant for the former Bravos restaurant space, which will bring the occupancy to 96.05%," he said.

Story continues

North Oklahoma City and Edmond's appetite for national stores and eateries remains strong, Mazaheri said, which bodes well for the new owners.

The area "benefits from densifying neighborhoods and high local spending power with an estimated annual consumer spending of over $2 billion," he said. "The submarket boasts a strong average household income of $110,000, and the strong consumer spending has supported a retail market marked with consistently high occupancy and exponential rent growth."

A P.F. Chang's restaurant is part of Memorial Square, a retail center on the northeast corner of N Pennsylvania Avenue and Memorial Road, recently acquired by local investors.

CBRE Group reports these commercial real estate transactions

ABC Supply paid $3.5 million to Milestone Investments LP for a 67,464-square-foot industrial building at 6209 and 6417 S Sooner Road. CBRE's Chris Zach and Randy Lacey represented the seller.

Oxbow Land and Cattle Company LLC paid $2,350,000 to HL American Investments LLC for an 18,125-square-foot industrial property at 7313 SW 67. Zach and Lacey represented the buyer and seller.

Supermercados Morelos LLC paid $516,000 to JSK LLC for a 5,000-square-foot industrial building on 0.88 of an acre at 6829 SW 59. Zach and Lacey handled the transaction.

Devon Industries Inc. leased 6,400 square feet of industrial space from W.R. & D. LLC at 7428 Melrose Lane. Zach and Lacey represented the landlord.

J&A Service LLC leased 19,938 square feet of industrial space from GTA Investments LLC at 1709 Enterprise Blvd. in Pauls Valley. Zach and Lacey of CBRE represented the landlord.

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Senior Business Writer Richard Mize has covered housing, construction, commercial real estate and related topics for the newspaper and Oklahoman.com since 1999. Contact him at rmize@oklahoman.com. Sign up for his weekly newsletter, Real Estate with Richard Mize. You can support Richard's work, and that of his colleagues, by purchasing a digital subscription to The Oklahoman. Right now, you can get 12 months of subscriber-only access for $1 a month.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Mazaheri Properties buys retail power centers in OKC, Fort Worth, Texas
New Delhi: As artificial intelligence (AI) develops, it has the ability to automate a wide range of operations that were previously done by people, which is causing a seismic change in the world's employment. People worry that AI will eventually replace people in offices, eliminating jobs. However, despite all the worry about AI replacing human workers in the workplace, a recent study reveals a worrying trend: AI will replace more female workers than male workers.

The McKinsey Global Institute has published research titled "Generative AI and the Future of Work in America" that details the enormous impact that AI would have on the US labour market by 2030.

By 2030, the report estimates that 12 million employment in the US alone would have changed due to automation led by AI replacing jobs that require data collecting and repetitive labour.



Given that AI is anticipated to automate more roles in sectors traditionally dominated by women, one significant issue raised in the paper is that these job transitions will disproportionately affect women compared to males.

According to the McKinsey analysis, women are 1.5 times more likely than males to need to change careers as a result of AI automation.

The fact that women outnumber males in certain industries is not the only factor contributing to inequality. Despite the fact that there are more men than women working, the survey shows that 21 percent more women are exposed to AI automation.

This is a result of the higher proportion of female employees in the areas most susceptible to disruption by AI, such as office assistance, customer service, and the food industry.

For instance, the study discovered that women make up 60 percent of office support staff and 80 percent of customer service agents in the United States. And in the upcoming years, AI is very likely to automate these two professions.

"We predict that there might be a 1.6 million job loss in the need for clerks, in addition to losses of 830,000 jobs for retail salespeople, 710,000 jobs for administrative assistants, and 630,000 jobs for cashiers. These jobs entail a significant amount of repetitive work, data collection, and basic data processingall tasks that automated systems can complete effectively.

The effects of this tendency are extensive. According to the survey, employees in lower-paying positionswhich are frequently held by womenare up to 14 times more likely to need to change careers than those in the highest-paying roles.

Additionally, the majority will need extra abilities to transfer into new roles successfully. Given that women are already paid around 22 percent less than males, according to the Economic Policy Institute, this is especially alarming.
New Delhi: Google has announced that it is rolling out a Q&A moderation feature in the video communication service, Google Meet. The feature allows meeting hosts to review and approve questions before theyre shared with meeting attendees, the tech giant said in a Workspace Updates blogpost.

Question moderation can be used for meetings and in-domain live streams, on web and mobile devices. This feature will help to make sure that questions are appropriate and on topic before they are shared broadly with meeting participants.

Moreover, it does not have admin control, the company said. The feature will be off by default and can be turned on in the host controls Meeting activities section.

Last month, the company had announced that iOS users can now include audio when sharing their screen using Google Meet. The ability to include audio when sharing screen will roll out for Android later this month.

The tech giant also announced that it was testing a new feature that allows Meet users to create background images with artificial intelligence (AI). The feature was in testing under Workspace Labs, which is a trusted tester program for users to try new AI features by invitation.

The company warned to not provide any personal, confidential or sensitive information while using the feature. In June, Google had rolled out a new companion mode check-in feature in the video communication service.

Rather than being represented in a meeting just by the conference room users are in, room check-in helps to make sure that everyone in the meeting can see their name and be aware of their presence.
Logitech International S.A. (VTX:LOGN) has announced that it will be increasing its dividend from last year's comparable payment on the 27th of September to $1.06. This makes the dividend yield 1.8%, which is above the industry average.

See our latest analysis for Logitech International

Logitech International's Earnings Easily Cover The Distributions

A big dividend yield for a few years doesn't mean much if it can't be sustained. Prior to this announcement, Logitech International's dividend was comfortably covered by both cash flow and earnings. This means that a large portion of its earnings are being retained to grow the business.

Over the next year, EPS is forecast to expand by 70.3%. If the dividend continues on this path, the payout ratio could be 34% by next year, which we think can be pretty sustainable going forward.

Logitech International Has A Solid Track Record

Even over a long history of paying dividends, the company's distributions have been remarkably stable. Since 2013, the annual payment back then was $0.22, compared to the most recent full-year payment of $1.21. This works out to be a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 19% a year over that time. Rapidly growing dividends for a long time is a very valuable feature for an income stock.

The Dividend Looks Likely To Grow

Investors could be attracted to the stock based on the quality of its payment history. Logitech International has impressed us by growing EPS at 10% per year over the past five years. Shareholders are getting plenty of the earnings returned to them, which combined with strong growth makes this quite appealing.

Logitech International Looks Like A Great Dividend Stock

Overall, a dividend increase is always good, and we think that Logitech International is a strong income stock thanks to its track record and growing earnings. The company is easily earning enough to cover its dividend payments and it is great to see that these earnings are being translated into cash flow. Taking this all into consideration, this looks like it could be a good dividend opportunity.

Investors generally tend to favour companies with a consistent, stable dividend policy as opposed to those operating an irregular one. Meanwhile, despite the importance of dividend payments, they are not the only factors our readers should know when assessing a company. Taking the debate a bit further, we've identified 1 warning sign for Logitech International that investors need to be conscious of moving forward. Looking for more high-yielding dividend ideas? Try our collection of strong dividend payers.

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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Most Read from Bloomberg

Shipping giant A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S, a bellwether for the world economy, lowered its estimate for global container trade, indicating that weak demand continues to hamper economic activity after years of supply shocks.

Global container trade will probably contract as much as 4% this year, down from Maersks previous prediction of as much as 2.5%, the Copenhagen-based company said in a statement on Friday, as there are no substantial signs that volumes will recover this year.

Our case is not for a recession, but it is for a really subdued environment that will continue for the rest of this year, Chief Executive Officer Vincent Clerc said in an interview with Bloomberg TVs Dani Burger and Mark Cudmore. The expectation is to see some recovery in the market in 2024 and getting back to positive growth territory, he said.

In terms of the global economy, were still quite concerned, Clerc said. Theres a lot of moving parts right now, from rate hikes and the risk of recession as well as uncertainty also about GDP growth in China and what demand is going to be in China next year.

Over the past year, monetary officials from the Federal Reserve to the European Central Bank have been raising interest rates to tame inflation that had shot up to the fastest pace in decades, and their fast ramp-up of borrowing costs has raised the specter of a harder landing. Still, the base case for major forecasters, including the International Monetary Fund, is for expansion to continue.

Read More: War, AI and Climate Change Shake Up $32 Trillion in World Trade

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Maersk, along with the rest of the shipping industry, is facing an abrupt readjustment after generating record profits in 2021 and 2022 thanks to a spike in demand for consumer goods during the pandemic, coupled with limited vessel supply. Now, global economic growth is losing pace and companies are working through existing inventories instead of transporting new goods from Asia to Europe and the US  a process known as destocking.

Maersk had expected to see the inventory correction to be winding down already, but said it appears to be prolonged and is now expected to last through year end, adding that there is no sign of a substantial rebound in volumes in the second half of the year.

The report made the shares seesaw in the Danish capital, falling as much as 3.8% after the open, but then gaining up to 2.4%. As of 12:25 p.m., the shares were down 3.3%.

The company reported second-quarter earnings that beat estimates and raised the lower end of its own 2023 profit forecast range, saying cost reductions softened the impact from the poor economic environment.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization fell to $2.91 billion in the second quarter. That compares with a median estimate of $2.29 billion in a survey of analysts. Maersk said it now sees 2023 underlying Ebitda of $9.5 billion to $11 billion, up from an earlier projection of $8 billion to $11 billion.

What Bloomberg Intelligence Says:

Maersks solid 2Q beat and improved full-year guidance are overshadowed by expectations of a prolonged inventory correction, recession risks and weaker volume, which may shape the companys credit story in the coming months. Softer freight rates, which were down 51% in 2Q, coupled with new ship deliveries and lower disposable incomes could lead to deteriorating credit metrics in 2H and 2024.

 Stephane Kovatchev, BI credit analyst

Our decisive actions on cost containment together with our contract portfolio cushioned some of the effects of this market normalization, Clerc said in the statement. Cost focus will continue to play a central role in dealing with a subdued market outlook that we expect to continue until end year.

The CEO also said he sees supply side risks unfolding over the next 12 to 18 months as new ships enter the market, and that is for us to continue mitigating.

Maersk, which transports about one-sixth of the worlds containers, said box volumes fell 6.1% in the quarter while freight rates declined 51% from the same period of 2022.

Clerc said he expects the US economy to outperform the European one and that Maersk will therefore invest more in North America. The comments come just days after Fitch Ratings cut its grade on US government debt from AAA to AA+, saying the countrys finances will likely deteriorate over the next three years.

We still have more faith in the underlying GDP development of the US economy over the next couple of years, compared with Europe, the CEO said. We expect more activity in the US logistics markets over the next years.

--With assistance from Douglas Lytle.

(Updates with CEO comments in the last two paragraphs.)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
Paul Hendry had shared posts which police feared could have disrupted the Olivia Pratt-Korbel murder trial

A man who was warned by police over social media posts he made about the murder of Olivia Pratt-Korbel has been found guilty of harassment.

The Merseyside force was concerned Paul Hendry's comments could have disrupted Thomas Cashman's murder trial.

A month later he wrongly named innocent people as being linked to other murder cases, leading to a man being assaulted.

His claims were "nothing but fiction", prosecutors said.

Hendry, 59, described himself as a "citizen journalist", Wirral Magistrates Court heard.

He was found guilty of harassment without violence and fined a total of 1,010.

Hendry commented on criminal cases around the UK under the alias of "Art Hostage" to 11,000 followers on Twitter and on YouTube, where he has more than 7,200 subscribers.

'Revel in chaos'

Merseyside Police issued a "cease and desist order" over his posts about the killing of nine-year-old Olivia, who was shot by Cashman after he chased a fellow drug dealer into her home last August.

Officers were concerned that Hendry's comments could disrupt the trial.

He promised to abide by it but weeks later commented on another Merseyside murder case, naming people he claimed were involved.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said Hendry's claims had "caused several issues in the communities where the murders has taken place".

"The unfounded information led to one man being assaulted," they said.

Paul Hendry had thousands of followers on Twitter and YouTube

A CPS spokeswoman said Hendry "seemed to revel in the chaos he had caused" and that he tweeted in all-caps that "all out war declared".

Police received a 999 call from one of the named men, who said Hendry had accused him of being a "high-level gangster" and implicated him in a murder.

The video had given his address and business details, with Hendry telling his followers to "look into it".

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Hendry was later charged with harassment and sharing false information publicly but defended himself by saying his victim would not be caused distress because he was a "scumbag criminal".

However, police inquiries found the victim had "nothing to do" with the crimes he was being connected with.

Senior Crown Prosecutor, Thomas Hanlon, said Hendry claimed "to be a form of crime journalist".

"But his social media posts were nothing but fiction claiming to be fact and caused real problems for those involved."

He said Hendry "creates this content to raise the profile of his social media and YouTube channels, feeding his ego, reckless as to the collateral damage his content causes and without conducting due diligence on the information received".

Why not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk
BONNIE CASH / POOL / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock.com

Remote work might be popular among employees who like the flexibility and lower costs of working from home, but billionaire Mike Bloomberg is no fan of the trend. In a recent column for the Washington Post, the media titan and former New York City mayor said remote work has gone on too long and excuses for allowing offices to sit empty should end, too.

Explore: 7 Best Remote Jobs for Young Professionals, According to Career Experts

Find: What To Do If You Owe Back Taxes to the IRS

He also pointed out that the pandemic is over  a reference to the rise in remote work that coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic, when lockdowns forced offices to close.

A 2022 Gallup survey found that more than half of U.S. workers (56%) described themselves as remote capable, meaning their jobs can be done from home. Of those workers, eight in 10 are either working hybrid jobs (part of the week at home and part on-site) or exclusively remotely. A separate AT&T study estimated that the hybrid work model will grow from 42% in 2021 to 81% in 2024, the FlexJobs website noted in a blog.

These trends probably wont warm the heart of Bloomberg, who claims that because of remote work, tax money is being wasted on empty office space, and the public is getting worse service, Fortune reported. Empty space is a particular problem for federal government agencies.

Fortune cited a July report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office showing that federal agencies spend around $5 billion a year to lease office buildings, and an additional $2 billion on maintaining and operating offices regardless of the utilization rate. The report also found that 17 of 24 agencies analyzed used the sites less than 25% of the time.

Six of these agencies  the Agriculture Department, the General Services Administration, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Office of Personnel Management, the Small Business Administration and the Social Security Administration  recorded an average occupancy rate of less than 10 percent, Bloomberg wrote in his WaPo column.

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He also accused some agencies of dragging their heels even though the pandemic emergency is officially over.

Some are trying to get credit for creating hybrid work arrangements while requiring employees to come in only a handful of days a month, while more and more private companies require people to be back in the office at least three days a week, Bloomberg wrote.

AI and ChatGPT: White-Collar, Higher-Paid Workers Could Be Next To Have Jobs Replaced

The problem of empty office space isnt restricted to the public sector. As Fortune noted, a new report from workplace utilization specialists XY Sense found that private-sector office use is faring just as badly. In North America, the average utilization during the first quarter of 2023 was only 21%  about one-third lower than the average recorded across the rest of the globe.

Some economists have warned that empty offices could result in another run on the banks because of the high number of new office buildings that were financed on short-term loans but have no new leases to pay for the loans.

Bloombergs own media empire has 176 offices across the world, according to Fortune. Those buildings arent cheap, either  some cost more than $1 billion to build. Given Bloombergs own investment in office space, its hardly surprising that he wants his employees back on-site.

Over the past year, his Bloomberg media company has been asking employees to work in offices at least three days a week. In the fall, much of the company will move to four days a week.

Our managers have seen the benefits of returning to in-person work, and we have heard about those benefits from their teams, too, especially from young people just starting their careers, Bloomberg wrote. When senior managers are not present to mentor and nurture junior staff members, it hurts their professional development and prospects for career growth  and the future of the organization, too.

Now, he would like to see the public sector follow that lead.

Theres no good reason why government workers have been so much slower than everyone else to get back to the office at least a few days a week, Bloomberg wrote. Taxpayers deserve immediate action and hard deadlines  and the better service and stronger capital city that will result.

More From GOBankingRates

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Mike Bloomberg: Tax Money Is Being Wasted on Remote Workers
On August 4, 2023, Occidental Petroleum Corp (NYSE:OXY) recorded a daily gain of 3.09%, pushing its share price to $64.13. With an Earnings Per Share (EPS) of 5.89, the question arises: Is this stock modestly overvalued? To answer this, we will delve into a comprehensive valuation analysis. So, let's dive in.

A Glimpse at Occidental Petroleum Corp (NYSE:OXY)

Occidental Petroleum is an independent exploration and production company with operations in the United States, Latin America, and the Middle East. By the end of 2022, the company reported net proved reserves of 3.8 billion barrels of oil equivalent. Its net production averaged 1,159 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2022, with a ratio of 75% oil and natural gas liquids and 25% natural gas.

When comparing the stock price of Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) with its GF Value, an estimation of fair value, it appears that the stock is modestly overvalued. This assessment sets the stage for a deeper exploration of the company's value, combining financial evaluation with crucial company details.

Is Occidental Petroleum (OXY) Modestly Overvalued? An Insightful GF Value Analysis

Understanding the GF Value of Occidental Petroleum

The GF Value is a unique measure of a stock's intrinsic value, calculated based on historical trading multiples, a GuruFocus adjustment factor rooted in the company's past performance and growth, and future business performance estimates. In essence, the GF Value Line provides an overview of the fair value at which the stock should ideally be traded.

According to GuruFocus' valuation method, Occidental Petroleum's stock is modestly overvalued. The GF Value estimates the stock's fair value considering historical multiples, an internal adjustment based on the company's past business growth, and analyst estimates of future business performance. If the share price is significantly above the GF Value Line, the stock may be overvalued and have poor future returns. Conversely, if the share price is significantly below the GF Value calculation, the stock may be undervalued and have higher future returns. At its current price of $ 64.13 per share, Occidental Petroleum's stock appears to be modestly overvalued.

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Given Occidental Petroleum's relative overvaluation, the long-term return of its stock is likely to be lower than its business growth.

Is Occidental Petroleum (OXY) Modestly Overvalued? An Insightful GF Value Analysis

These companies may deliver higher future returns at reduced risk.

Assessing Occidental Petroleum's Financial Strength

Before investing in a company's stock, it's crucial to evaluate its financial strength. Companies with poor financial strength pose a higher risk of permanent loss. The cash-to-debt ratio and interest coverage provide a sound understanding of a company's financial strength. Occidental Petroleum has a cash-to-debt ratio of 0.02, ranking lower than 84.96% of companies in the Oil & Gas industry. Overall, Occidental Petroleum's financial strength is fair, with a score of 5 out of 10.

Is Occidental Petroleum (OXY) Modestly Overvalued? An Insightful GF Value Analysis

Profitability and Growth of Occidental Petroleum

Companies consistently profitable over the long term offer less risk to investors. Higher profit margins often indicate a better investment compared to a company with lower profit margins. Occidental Petroleum has been profitable 6 out of the past 10 years. With a revenue of $31.5 billion and Earnings Per Share (EPS) of $5.89 over the past twelve months, and an operating margin of 29.55%, Occidental Petroleum ranks better than 76.24% of companies in the Oil & Gas industry. Its overall profitability is ranked 7 out of 10, indicating fair profitability.

Growth is a crucial factor in a company's valuation. According to GuruFocus research, long-term stock performance is closely correlated with growth. Companies that grow faster create more value for shareholders, especially if that growth is profitable. The average annual revenue growth of Occidental Petroleum is 12.3%, ranking better than 54.34% of companies in the Oil & Gas industry. Its 3-year average EBITDA growth is 33.1%, ranking better than 71.81% of companies in the Oil & Gas industry.

ROIC vs WACC: A Look at Occidental Petroleum's Profitability

Return on invested capital (ROIC) is a measure of how effectively a company generates cash flow relative to the capital it has invested in its business. The weighted average cost of capital (WACC) represents the average rate a company is expected to pay to finance its assets. Ideally, the ROIC should be higher than the WACC. For the past 12 months, Occidental Petroleum's ROIC is 10.98, and its cost of capital is 8.64.

Is Occidental Petroleum (OXY) Modestly Overvalued? An Insightful GF Value Analysis

Conclusion

In conclusion, the stock of Occidental Petroleum Corp (NYSE:OXY) appears to be modestly overvalued. The company's financial condition and profitability are fair, with growth ranking better than 71.81% of companies in the Oil & Gas industry. For more details about Occidental Petroleum's stock, you can check out its 30-Year Financials here.

To discover high-quality companies that may deliver above-average returns, please check out the GuruFocus High Quality Low Capex Screener.

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.


Legislation expands benefits access for veterans, signaling the importance of VA-Accredited Claims Agents in navigating complex VA disability appeals process, according to Allsup

Brett Buchanan, U.S. Army veteran and Allsup VA-Accredited Claims Agent

The PACT Act makes significant strides toward ensuring that all veterans receive the care and benefits they have earned, irrespective of when they served, said Brett Buchanan, a U.S. Army veteran and Allsup VA-Accredited Claims Agent.

Belleville, Illinois, Aug. 04, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A year after its enactment, the bipartisan Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act, continues to revolutionize healthcare and options for VA disability claims for U.S. veterans, according to Allsup, a nationwide provider of disability benefits assistance, including Allsup Veterans Disability Appeal Services.

The PACT Act makes significant strides toward ensuring that all veterans receive the care and benefits they have earned, irrespective of when they served, said Brett Buchanan, a U.S. Army veteran and Allsup VA-Accredited Claims Agent. It underscores our nations commitment to those who have worn the uniforms, served, and pledged to defend our freedom at risk to their own life and health.

Signed into law by President Biden on Aug. 10, 2022, the PACT Act marked an expansion of benefits and services for veterans exposed to toxins during their military service. Almost half (48%) of U.S. military service members transitioning from active duty to civilian life do not understand the benefits available to them when they have a service-connected disability, and have difficulty navigating their options through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA),, according to a survey by Allsup.

Since the PACT Act was implemented, VA-Accredited Claims Agents with Allsup have been critical allies for veterans navigating the VA disability appeals process when they receive a decision or denial from the VA and seek expert guidance on next steps.

They provide assistance throughout the appeal process, ensure that the VA has the necessary and accurate information to make an informed decision about the appeal, collect and update medical information and evidence to prove the service-connected disability, and maintain contact with the VA to follow the appeal throughout the process.

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The PACT Act represents a shift in our approach to veterans service-related compensation benefits, Buchanan explained. This legislation is a testament to our commitment to the millions of veterans who have served our country, particularly those from the Vietnam, Gulf War, and post-9/11 eras.

For example, to better understand the impact of toxic exposures, the PACT Act required VA to conduct new studies of veterans who served in Southwest Asia during the Gulf War and analyses of post-9/11 veterans health trends. The new law also directed the VA secretary to convene a new interagency working group to develop a five-year strategic plan on toxic exposure research.

If you or a veteran you know has questions about their options for VA disability benefits, please call 888-372-1190 or visit Veterans.Allsup.com.

The PACT Act continues to demonstrate the nations commitment to its veterans, ensuring they receive the healthcare and compensation that they have earned and deserve, alongside the Allsup VA team making the process smoother and more accessible to our veteran customers.

ABOUT ALLSUP

Allsup and its subsidiaries provide nationwide Social Security disability, veterans disability appeal, return to work, and healthcare benefits services for individuals, their employers and insurance carriers. Allsup professionals deliver specialized services supporting people with disabilities and seniors so they may lead lives that are as financially secure and as healthy as possible. Founded in 1984, the company is based in Belleville, Illinois, near St. Louis. Learn more at Allsup.com and @Allsup or download a free PDF of Applying for Social Security Disability Insurance: Getting It Right The First Time.

Attachment

CONTACT: Rebecca Ray Allsup (618) 236-5065 r.ray@allsup.com Laura C. Sala Allsup (618) 409-7079 L.sala@allsup.com




Key Insights

Using the 2 Stage Free Cash Flow to Equity, Padini Holdings Berhad fair value estimate is RM3.07

Padini Holdings Berhad is estimated to be 29% overvalued based on current share price of RM3.95

Analyst price target for PADINI is RM5.06, which is 65% above our fair value estimate

Today we'll do a simple run through of a valuation method used to estimate the attractiveness of Padini Holdings Berhad (KLSE:PADINI) as an investment opportunity by taking the expected future cash flows and discounting them to today's value. The Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model is the tool we will apply to do this. Before you think you won't be able to understand it, just read on! It's actually much less complex than you'd imagine.

Companies can be valued in a lot of ways, so we would point out that a DCF is not perfect for every situation. If you still have some burning questions about this type of valuation, take a look at the Simply Wall St analysis model.

View our latest analysis for Padini Holdings Berhad

The Model

We use what is known as a 2-stage model, which simply means we have two different periods of growth rates for the company's cash flows. Generally the first stage is higher growth, and the second stage is a lower growth phase. To start off with, we need to estimate the next ten years of cash flows. Where possible we use analyst estimates, but when these aren't available we extrapolate the previous free cash flow (FCF) from the last estimate or reported value. We assume companies with shrinking free cash flow will slow their rate of shrinkage, and that companies with growing free cash flow will see their growth rate slow, over this period. We do this to reflect that growth tends to slow more in the early years than it does in later years.

Generally we assume that a dollar today is more valuable than a dollar in the future, so we need to discount the sum of these future cash flows to arrive at a present value estimate:

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10-year free cash flow (FCF) forecast

2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030 2031 2032 2033 Levered FCF (MYR, Millions) RM251.6m RM256.5m RM180.0m RM194.0m RM209.0m RM202.3m RM199.9m RM200.4m RM202.9m RM206.8m Growth Rate Estimate Source Analyst x3 Analyst x3 Analyst x1 Analyst x1 Analyst x1 Est @ -3.21% Est @ -1.18% Est @ 0.25% Est @ 1.24% Est @ 1.94% Present Value (MYR, Millions) Discounted @ 12% RM225 RM204 RM128 RM123 RM118 RM102 RM90.2 RM80.7 RM72.9 RM66.3

("Est" = FCF growth rate estimated by Simply Wall St)

Present Value of 10-year Cash Flow (PVCF) = RM1.2b

After calculating the present value of future cash flows in the initial 10-year period, we need to calculate the Terminal Value, which accounts for all future cash flows beyond the first stage. The Gordon Growth formula is used to calculate Terminal Value at a future annual growth rate equal to the 5-year average of the 10-year government bond yield of 3.6%. We discount the terminal cash flows to today's value at a cost of equity of 12%.

Terminal Value (TV)= FCF 2033  (1 + g)  (r  g) = RM207m (1 + 3.6%)  (12% 3.6%) = RM2.5b

Present Value of Terminal Value (PVTV)= TV / (1 + r)10= RM2.5b ( 1 + 12%)10= RM811m

The total value is the sum of cash flows for the next ten years plus the discounted terminal value, which results in the Total Equity Value, which in this case is RM2.0b. To get the intrinsic value per share, we divide this by the total number of shares outstanding. Relative to the current share price of RM4.0, the company appears slightly overvalued at the time of writing. The assumptions in any calculation have a big impact on the valuation, so it is better to view this as a rough estimate, not precise down to the last cent.

dcf

The Assumptions

The calculation above is very dependent on two assumptions. The first is the discount rate and the other is the cash flows. If you don't agree with these result, have a go at the calculation yourself and play with the assumptions. The DCF also does not consider the possible cyclicality of an industry, or a company's future capital requirements, so it does not give a full picture of a company's potential performance. Given that we are looking at Padini Holdings Berhad as potential shareholders, the cost of equity is used as the discount rate, rather than the cost of capital (or weighted average cost of capital, WACC) which accounts for debt. In this calculation we've used 12%, which is based on a levered beta of 1.058. Beta is a measure of a stock's volatility, compared to the market as a whole. We get our beta from the industry average beta of globally comparable companies, with an imposed limit between 0.8 and 2.0, which is a reasonable range for a stable business.

SWOT Analysis for Padini Holdings Berhad

Strength

Earnings growth over the past year exceeded the industry.

Currently debt free.

Weakness

Dividend is low compared to the top 25% of dividend payers in the Specialty Retail market.

Opportunity

Annual revenue is forecast to grow faster than the Malaysian market.

Good value based on P/E ratio compared to estimated Fair P/E ratio.

Threat

Dividends are not covered by cash flow.

Annual earnings are forecast to grow slower than the Malaysian market.

Moving On:

Valuation is only one side of the coin in terms of building your investment thesis, and it is only one of many factors that you need to assess for a company. The DCF model is not a perfect stock valuation tool. Instead the best use for a DCF model is to test certain assumptions and theories to see if they would lead to the company being undervalued or overvalued. If a company grows at a different rate, or if its cost of equity or risk free rate changes sharply, the output can look very different. Why is the intrinsic value lower than the current share price? For Padini Holdings Berhad, we've compiled three relevant items you should further examine:

Risks: For instance, we've identified 2 warning signs for Padini Holdings Berhad (1 is potentially serious) you should be aware of. Future Earnings: How does PADINI's growth rate compare to its peers and the wider market? Dig deeper into the analyst consensus number for the upcoming years by interacting with our free analyst growth expectation chart. Other Solid Businesses: Low debt, high returns on equity and good past performance are fundamental to a strong business. Why not explore our interactive list of stocks with solid business fundamentals to see if there are other companies you may not have considered!

PS. Simply Wall St updates its DCF calculation for every Malaysian stock every day, so if you want to find the intrinsic value of any other stock just search here.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
From what we can see, insiders were net buyers in Park-Ohio Holdings Corp.'s (NASDAQ:PKOH ) during the past 12 months. That is, insiders acquired the stock in greater numbers than they sold it.

While we would never suggest that investors should base their decisions solely on what the directors of a company have been doing, logic dictates you should pay some attention to whether insiders are buying or selling shares.

Check out our latest analysis for Park-Ohio Holdings

The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Park-Ohio Holdings

Over the last year, we can see that the biggest insider purchase was by Director Edward Crawford for US$969k worth of shares, at about US$20.18 per share. So it's clear an insider wanted to buy, even at a higher price than the current share price (being US$19.42). While their view may have changed since the purchase was made, this does at least suggest they have had confidence in the company's future. In our view, the price an insider pays for shares is very important. Generally speaking, it catches our eye when an insider has purchased shares at above current prices, as it suggests they believed the shares were worth buying, even at a higher price. The only individual insider to buy over the last year was Edward Crawford.

You can see the insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year depicted in the chart below. If you click on the chart, you can see all the individual transactions, including the share price, individual, and the date!

Park-Ohio Holdings is not the only stock insiders are buying. So take a peek at this free list of growing companies with insider buying.

Insiders At Park-Ohio Holdings Have Sold Stock Recently

The last quarter saw substantial insider selling of Park-Ohio Holdings shares. Specifically, Chairman Matthew Crawford ditched US$195k worth of shares in that time, and we didn't record any purchases whatsoever. In light of this it's hard to argue that all the insiders think that the shares are a bargain.

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Does Park-Ohio Holdings Boast High Insider Ownership?

Another way to test the alignment between the leaders of a company and other shareholders is to look at how many shares they own. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. Park-Ohio Holdings insiders own about US$86m worth of shares. That equates to 37% of the company. While this is a strong but not outstanding level of insider ownership, it's enough to indicate some alignment between management and smaller shareholders.

So What Does This Data Suggest About Park-Ohio Holdings Insiders?

An insider sold Park-Ohio Holdings shares recently, but they didn't buy any. But we take heart from prior transactions. And insiders do own shares. So we're happy enough to look past some selling. So these insider transactions can help us build a thesis about the stock, but it's also worthwhile knowing the risks facing this company. For example, Park-Ohio Holdings has 4 warning signs (and 1 which is potentially serious) we think you should know about.

If you would prefer to check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss this free list of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity and low debt.

For the purposes of this article, insiders are those individuals who report their transactions to the relevant regulatory body. We currently account for open market transactions and private dispositions, but not derivative transactions.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - August 4, 2023) - PORTOFINO RESOURCES INC. (TSXV: POR) (OTCQB: PFFOF) (FSE: POTA) ("Portofino" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that Mr. Alex Molyneux and Mr. Blake Steele have agreed to accept appointments to its newly created Advisory Board.

Mr. Alexander Molyneux is a metals and mining industry executive with 25 years industry experience and a proven track record with critical mineral and energy metal project development. He was Chairman of ASX-listed Argosy Minerals Ltd. (2018 - 2022), during which time the company initiated its Rincon Lithium Project in Salta Province, Argentina, developed a resource and commissioned its first battery-grade lithium carbonate production facility.

Mr. Molyneux completed three-years as CEO of Paladin Energy Ltd., one of the world's largest uranium companies, where he completed a US$700M successful recapitalization. Prior to Paladin, he was Founder and Executive Chairman of Azarga Uranium Corp. with development stage uranium projects in USA and Central Asia, subsequently sold for C$200M to EnCore Energy Corp. Prior to Azarga Uranium Corp., he spent approximately five years with Ivanhoe Mines Group and Ivanhoe Energy in various leadership capacities including CEO and Director of SouthGobi Resources Ltd. (2009 - 2012).

Prior to his mining industry roles, Mr. Molyneux was Managing Director, Head of Metals and Mining Investment Banking, Asia Pacific for Citigroup. He spent approximately 10-years providing investment banking services to natural resources companies.

Mr. Blake Steele is an experienced metals and mining industry executive, director and advisor with extensive knowledge across public companies and capital markets, with an extensive track record delivering shareholder value with energy metal projects. Mr. Steele was most recently President and CEO of Azarga Uranium Corp., a TSX-listed uranium development and exploration company. Under Mr. Steele's stewardship, Azarga Uranium grew into an advanced stage multi-asset company through M&A and organic growth and, in February 2022, EnCore Energy Corp. completed the successful acquisition of Azarga Uranium for C$200m.

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Before joining Azarga Uranium Corp., Mr. Steele worked at SouthGobi Resources Ltd. (part of the Ivanhoe Mines group), a Mongolian-focused energy metal company, where he worked in multiple senior finance and corporate development roles.

Mr. Steele began his career with Deloitte & Touche where he worked in both the audit and financial advisory practices. Mr. Steele is a Chartered Professional Accountant and Chartered Business Valuator in Canada. Mr. Steele received a Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) degree from the UBC Sauder School of Business. Mr. Steele currently serves as a director or advisor to a number of public companies in the metals and mining space.

Mr. David Tafel, CEO comments: "We are extremely pleased to welcome these 2 highly proficient executives to Portofino. Besides participating in our recent financing, both individuals have been very successful in financing and developing critical and energy metal projects around the world and in doing so, creating significant returns for shareholders. Mr. Molyneux's direct experience and success advancing Argosy's Rincon lithium project in Salta, Argentina should prove to be very beneficial to Portofino in its efforts to finance and advance a successful tender/bid proposal in the near term, related to the Arizaro Lithium Project."

Share Options Grant

Portofino announces that, in accordance with the Company's Share Option Plan it has granted options to purchase an aggregate of 6.5 million common shares of the Company to certain directors, officers, employees, and consultants of the Company. Each Option is exercisable into one Common Share at an exercise price of $0.05. The Options are subject to certain vesting conditions and expire five years from the grant date.

About Portofino Resources Inc.

Portofino is a Vancouver-based Canadian company focused on exploring and developing mineral resource projects in the Americas. Portofino has an opportunity to earn a majority interest in several lithium projects in Salta, Argentina and up to 100% of the Yergo Lithium property in Catamarca. The properties are situated in the heart of the world-renowned Argentine Lithium Triangle and in close proximity to multiple world-class lithium projects. The Company also has the right to earn 100% interest in three northwestern Ontario, Canada lithium projects: Allison Lake North, Greenheart Lake and McNamara Lake.

Portofino's South of Otter and Bruce Lake projects are in the historic gold mining district of Red Lake, Ontario, Canada proximal to the Dixie gold project discovered by Great Bear Resources and now owned by Kinross Gold Corp. In addition, Portofino holds three other northwestern Ontario gold projects; the Gold Creek property located immediately south of the historic Shebandowan mine, as well as the Sapawe West and Melema West properties located in the rapidly developing Atikokan gold mining camp.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

"David G. Tafel"

Chief Executive Officer

For Further Information Contact:

David Tafel CEO, Director 604-683-1991

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This news release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. All statements contained herein that are not clearly historical in nature may constitute forward-looking statements. Generally, such forward-looking information or forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or may contain statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "will continue", "will occur" or "will be achieved". The forward-looking information and forward-looking statements contained herein include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the Company's future business plans. Forward-looking information in this news release is based on certain assumptions and expected future events, namely the growth and development of the Company's business as currently anticipated. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list is not exhaustive. Readers are further cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which they are placed will occur. Such information, although considered reasonable by management at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect and actual results may differ materially from those anticipated. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement and reflect the Company's expectations as of the date hereof and are subject to change thereafter. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, estimates or opinions, future events or results or otherwise or to explain any material difference between subsequent actual events and such forward-looking information, except as required by applicable law.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/176102
(Bloomberg) -- An unusual display of Chinas commitment to rejuvenating its capital markets has sparked newfound hopes among traders in the nations $10 trillion stock market.

Most Read from Bloomberg

The rare pledge to invigorate capital markets and boost investor confidence at the July Politburo meeting  the strongest endorsement of markets by top leaders in at least a decade  is driving bets that Beijing will take steps to increase trading activity in the coming months. Changes being anticipated range from lower taxes and quicker settlement to measures aimed at boosting secondary-market liquidity and foreign investment.

Regulators have further fueled optimism for change by consulting securities firms on possible initiatives. Key equity gauges in China and Hong Kong rallied on Friday ahead of a briefing by regulators. A Bloomberg gauge of mainland brokerages  seen as one of the best ways to ride market enthusiasm  jumped as much as 4%. Its surge of over 20% since the Politburo meeting kicked off has sharply outperformed the benchmark CSI 300 Index.

A series of policies should be just around the corner, said Dong Baozhen, partner at Lingtongshengtai Asset Management. A moribund and lifeless stock market is detrimental to the economy. This is why repeated calls are coming out.

NOTE: PBOC, NDRC Officials to Speak at Friday Briefing on Economy

Heres a closer look at some of the measures Chinese authorities could consider:

Taxes, Dividends

One thing onshore brokerages have asked for is a lower securities trading stamp duty. Seasoned investors still look back fondly on the bull run spurred by the cut in the levy to the current 0.1% from 0.3% in 2008. While Hong Kong also maintains a rate of around 0.1%, countries including Japan have no such transaction tax.

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Authorities may also consider lowering the 20% levy on dividend income from stocks that have been owned less than one month. Cutting rates charged on margin financing and broadening the scope of stocks eligible for short-selling are other possible reforms that could stoke risk appetite.

READ: China Brokerages Gain as State Media Urges Active Capital Market

Rule Changes

There has been speculation that regulators will lift the ban on same-day trading, a change long sought by quant funds and short-term traders that authorities have resisted in an effort to protect individual investors from being burned by over-speculation. The Shanghai Exchange said in 2020 that it was considering the possibility but no updates have been provided.

Lowering minimum asset requirements could be another way to lure more investors. Currently individuals are required to have at least 100 thousand yuan ($14,000) in an account to be eligible to trade on the tech-heavy ChiNext board, and 500,000 yuan is required to trade in shares of start-ups on the Star board as well as Hong Kong stocks through the trading link.

Pacing IPOs

Investors have complained about the flood of new stocks since China revamped its listing system, lowering requirements and expediting procedures. Mainland equity listings in the first six months of 2023 totaled $35 billion, about half of the global total, with 176 newcomers, much to the frustration of investors who say the influx is diluting funds and dragging indexes lower.

Some slowdown may already be taking shape. Following a recent regulator pledge to maintain equilibrium, the number of IPO aspirants that went to listing hearings dropped to 25 last month from 54 in June, according to a media report. Any delay in Syngentas looming $9 billion Shanghai IPO would be a key signal on the pacing of listings.

READ: Chinas IPO Market Seen Cooling as Beijing Targets Liquidity

Boosting Flows

Lifting investing caps for foreign funds would be one of the most direct ways to support the markets. Foreign ownership is currently limited to a total of 30% for A-shares, with each overseas investor allowed to own a maximum of 10%.

Domestically, authorities could encourage more equity investment by insurance firms as well as the national pension and social security funds.

Chinas $385 billion mutual fund industry is seen as another key source for market growth as households look to transition wealth from the troubled property market into other investments. Some observers have suggested lengthening the horizon for performance reviews for fund managers from the current one-year cycle so they can afford to stay in the market for the longer run.

If enough rule changes take place, they may add up to be sufficient to bring about a bull market, said Shi Peng, managing director at Loyal Capital Ltd.

--With assistance from Mengchen Lu.

(Adds Fridays market moves in the third paragraph.)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
For the quarter ended June 2023, Red Rock Resorts (RRR) reported revenue of $416.13 million, down 1.5% over the same period last year. EPS came in at $0.65, compared to $1.27 in the year-ago quarter.

The reported revenue represents a surprise of -0.41% over the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $417.84 million. With the consensus EPS estimate being $0.44, the EPS surprise was +47.73%.

While investors scrutinize revenue and earnings changes year-over-year and how they compare with Wall Street expectations to determine their next move, some key metrics always offer a more accurate picture of a company's financial health.

Since these metrics play a crucial role in driving the top- and bottom-line numbers, comparing them with the year-ago numbers and what analysts estimated about them helps investors better project a stock's price performance.

Here is how Red Rock Resorts performed in the just reported quarter in terms of the metrics most widely monitored and projected by Wall Street analysts:

Operating Revenues- Casino : $269.51 million compared to the $277.27 million average estimate based on four analysts. The reported number represents a change of -4% year over year.

Net Revenue- Las Vegas operations : $412.58 million versus $416.21 million estimated by four analysts on average. Compared to the year-ago quarter, this number represents a -1.8% change.

Operating Revenues- Food and Beverage : $77.62 million compared to the $73.47 million average estimate based on four analysts. The reported number represents a change of +5.2% year over year.

Operating Revenues- Other : $24.11 million versus the four-analyst average estimate of $22.73 million. The reported number represents a year-over-year change of +3.4%.

Operating Revenues- Room : $44.89 million versus $43.36 million estimated by four analysts on average. Compared to the year-ago quarter, this number represents a +1.4% change.

Net Revenue- Corporate and other : $3.55 million compared to the $3.30 million average estimate based on two analysts. The reported number represents a change of +66.8% year over year.

Adjusted EBITDA- Las Vegas Operations : $193.05 million versus $197.65 million estimated by five analysts on average.

Adjusted EBITDA- Corporate/Other: -$17.75 million compared to the -$18.04 million average estimate based on five analysts.

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View all Key Company Metrics for Red Rock Resorts here>>>



Shares of Red Rock Resorts have returned +4% over the past month versus the Zacks S&P 500 composite's +1.5% change. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), indicating that it could perform in line with the broader market in the near term.

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Republicans keep salivating over so-called witnesses who might link President Biden with corruption involving his troubled son Hunter. Well, they finally found a whopper.

He doesnt have much expertise in the world of business, Devon Archer, former business partner of Hunter Biden, admitted in white-hot testimony before Congress this week.

Joe Biden, that is? a staff lawyer asked.

Right, Archer confirmed.

Its not exactly the graft Republicans were hoping for, but hey, its bad enough. Former President Donald Trump, who could be Bidens opponent in the 2024 campaign, claims to be an ace businessman, with six bankruptcies to prove it. For those who prefer criminality in a candidate, like half the Republican Party, Trumps cornering that market, too.

But back to Bidens crimes, which are still theoretical. Archer was involved in business dealings with Hunter Biden involving Chinese and Ukrainian interests, starting around 2014. Hunter Biden got a sweetheart job as a board member at Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company, almost certainly because his father was vice president of the United States and his long service as a senator before that established the Biden name as one of the most important in Washington, D.C. Hunter's earnings from Ukraine and China totaled at least $11 million from 2013 to 2018.

Hunter Biden spoke frequently with his father by phone, and sometimes he put Dad on speakerphone so business associates, including Archer, could verify that the eminent old man was really on the line. Archer repeatedly told Congressional interrogators that every discussion he was aware of involving Joe Biden was basically about nothing.

There was no business conversation, Archer said, according to a transcript of the interview released on Thursday. It was, you know, just general niceties and, you know, conversation in general, you know, about the geography, about the weather, whatever it may be.

But surely Hunter and Joe must have discussed all the ways Joe, as VP, could manipulate US policy toward Ukraine so Hunter would make bajillions. Right?

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Like Ive said, across the board, there was no business-deal specifics discussed ever at any of these things, but it was, it was a nice, you know, conversation.

Check for yourself: Heres the Devon Archer interview transcript.

And if you really want to nose around in the Biden family business, scroll to p. 117, where theres some discussion about the 2015 cancer death of Beau Biden, Hunters older brother and Joes oldest son. What impact did that have on Hunter Biden? one attorney asks.

He was distraught, Archer said. "Definitely a huge impact. And, obviously, you know, it cascaded into into a relapse. Lasted a long time. Archer continued doing business with Hunter Biden despite what we now know was a tawdry, self-destructive, and obviously embarrassing drug and alcohol binge. Joe Biden kept calling his son during this meltdown.

Archer does a serviceable job of explaining why Hunter Biden really appealed to Burisma, even though he had no meaningful experience in the energy business. He called it the brand. That involved the Biden name and the perception that Hunter Biden could make things happen in the US government, which could be a huge help for an energy firm trying to raise its international profile, shake off domestic critics, and attract private capital.

So what did Hunter Biden actually accomplish for Burisma? He helped them hire Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, a top-notch D.C. law firm that anybody can find on the internet. Ooooh. He also provided advance notice when his father was heading to Ukraine for an official trip.

But Archer has no knowledge of VP Biden ever intervening on Burismas behalf or influencing US policy in any way that benefited Burisma. So what was Hunter Biden really offering?

An illusion of access to his father, according to Archer.

President Joe Biden, and his son Hunter Biden arrive at Fort McNair, Sunday, June 25, 2023, in Washington. (Andrew Harnik/AP Photo)

[Drop Rick Newman a note, follow him on Twitter, or sign up for his newsletter.]

There were at least a couple times when it might have become obvious that Hunter didnt have quite the pull in Washington that he wanted his foreign partners to think he did. At one point, the co-founder of Burisma needed a visa for travel to the United States. Hunter couldnt make it happen. Another time, a Chinese financial executive who had dealings with Hunter asked if the veep could write a college recommendation to help his daughter get into an elite US college. Biden did. She didnt get in.

Devon Archer was never in a position to know everything that went on between Joe and Hunter Biden, so it remains possible theres a smoking gun somewhere, rather than the toy pistols Republicans keep putting on display. But there have been other detailed inquiries into the Joe-Hunter relationship and whether the senior Biden abused his government power to enrich anybody in his family, including himself. So far, nothing.

In 2020, when Trump was president and Republicans controlled the Senate, a GOP inquiry led by Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, a vehement Biden critic, found no evidence of any wrongdoing by Joe Biden. Nor was there anything on the matter from the FBI or the Justice Dept. during Trumps four years as president, and Trump undoubtedly wanted dirt on Biden. Trumps first impeachment occurred because, lacking any US evidence of corruption, Trump tried to shake down Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for something he could use against Biden. Also, bupkis.

The facts paint a consistent narrative about Joe Biden and his damaged son. Hunter Biden clearly cashed in on the family name, and probably committed crimes himself, including tax evasion. Some of this occurred while his life was in a tailspin, due to family tragedy, addiction, and his own bad choices. Joe Biden seems to have tried to stand by his son, while tolerating transgressions that sullied the family name and leaving an opening for enemies to claim the sins of the son are the sins of the father.

But we still havent seen any evidence that Joe Biden committed crimes. And theres been a lot of looking. What we do know is that nobody approaches Joe Biden for business advice. Killer.

Rick Newman is a senior columnist for Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter at @rickjnewman.

Click here for politics news related to business and money

Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance
MELBOURNE, Australia, August 04, 2023--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Rio Tinto has today disclosed detailed information on 14 of its global tailings facilities and their progress towards conformance with the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management (GISTM).

These tailings facilities are those rated Very High or Extreme under GISTM classifications, based on the highest potential consequences in the extremely unlikely event of a failure.

Rio Tinto Chief Technology Officer Mark Davies said "Since the tragic failure of the tailings facility at Brumadinho in Brazil in 2019, the entire industry has been working to improve the way we manage tailings facilities.

"Responsible tailings management is critical to ensure the safety of our people and communities and to protect the environment. It is fundamental for our business and social license. We have made considerable progress since August 2020 towards conformance with the GISTM. We have completed most of the work and have detailed plans to complete outstanding items.

"GISTM has meant a step change in how the industry manages its tailings facilities. Good tailings management is also about transparent partnership, and we have been working with the local communities near our facilities to increase awareness of our management practices and how we can best work together to continue to keep people and the environment safe from harm."

Details of these facilities and their progress in implementing the requirements of the GISTM can be accessed via an interactive map available at http://www.riotinto.com/tailings.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230803143822/en/

Contacts

Please direct all enquiries to media.enquiries@riotinto.com

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FILE PHOTO: Turkish-flagged bulker TQ Samsun is pictured in the Black Sea off Istanbul

By Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -U.S. bank JPMorgan this week stopped processingpayments for the Russian Agricultural Bank, Russia said on Friday, as it demanded action, not promises, from Washington to help Russian grain and fertilizer reach global markets.

JPMorgan had handled some Russian grain export payments for the past few months with reassurances from Washington. However, that cooperation stopped this week, Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

"The direct channel between the Russian Agricultural Bank and JPMorgan ... was closed on Aug. 2," foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova was quoted by Russian media as saying.

The United Nations, the U.S. State Department and JPMorgan declined to comment.

Moscow had allowed the safe export of Ukraine grain via the Black Sea for the past year under a deal it quit on July 17. Russia has a list of demands it wants met before it will return to the arrangement.

Under a related pact - also brokered in July 2022 - U.N. officials agreed to help Russian food and fertilizer exports reach global markets.

"As soon as this is done, this deal will immediately be renewed," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday.

A key Russian demand has been the reconnection of the Russian Agricultural Bank to the SWIFT international payments system. It was cut off by the European Union in June 2022 following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Zakharov, the foreign ministry spokeswoman, said the West and the United Nations "tried to present (payment processing by JPMorgan) as a working alternative to SWIFT."

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters on Thursday that Washington would continue to do "whatever is necessary" to ensure Russia can freely export food if the Black Sea grain deal was revived.

While Russian exports of food and fertilizer are not subject to Western sanctions imposed after Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Moscow has said restrictions on payments, logistics and insurance have hindered shipments.

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US SAYS RUSSIA HAS STRONG EXPORTS

Top U.S. State Department sanctions official James O'Brien said on Friday that Russia needed to be clear about what it was asking for and what constituted success, suggesting it should be how much food and fertilizer reaches the world.

"It has put forth a number of different demands and all of them having to do with various Russian institutions not getting services from the private sector," he told reporters. "We have made clear that we're prepared to help on any of these matters."

"Russia is exporting record amounts of grain," O'Brien said. "So if the measurement is food for the globe ... Russia's complaints amount to minor allegations about a system that is working very well."

Russia may export at least 55 million tonnes of grain in the 2023/24 marketing season, slightly less than the estimated record-breaking 57 million tonnes in the 2022/23 season, Russia's Grain Union said last month.

Ukrainian exports for the 2022/23 season were almost 49 million tonnes, according to Agriculture Ministry data. Nearly 33 million tonnes of that was shipped under the Black Sea deal.

Western countries have accused Russia of using food as a weapon of war by quitting the Black Sea deal, which had helped bring down global food prices, and then carrying out repeated air strikes on Ukrainian ports and grain stores.

Russia has complained that not enough Ukrainian grain was getting to the poorest countries. The United Nations has argued that the deal helped everyone because it brought prices down 23% from a record high in the weeks following Russia's invasion.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols, Daphne Psaledakis, Simon Lewis; Editing by Jane Merriman and Cynthia Osterman)
Capita

Cleanup costs from a Russian cyber attack wiped 58m from Capitas value after the incident pushed the outsourcer to a 68m half-year loss.

Shares in the London-listed company, which collects the BBC TV licence fee, plunged as much as 16pc on Friday after it said dealing with the March cyber incident will cost up to 25m.

The figure represents a 25pc increase on estimated costs previously announced by the company.

It came as Capita posted a pre-tax loss of 67.9m for the first six months of the year, compared with a profit of 100,000 a year earlier.

A company spokesman said: Having taken extensive steps to recover and secure our data, using third party monitoring we still have found no evidence of any information in circulation, on the dark web or otherwise, more than three months after the cyber incident.

In addition to costs related to the cyber attack, Capita said the loss was driven by business exits and write-downs on the value of some of its divisions.

Capita runs outsourced IT services for substantial parts of the NHS, including many NHS Trusts that oversee hospitals as well as some local GP surgeries.

It also holds a 456m contract to collect and enforce the BBC TV licence fee, and runs military recruiting processes for the Ministry of Defence.

The company has tapped up an Amazon executive, turnaround specialist Adolfo Hernandez, as its next chief executive after Jon Lewis announced his retirement on Monday.

Mr Lewis has presided over an 88pc decline in the companys share price since 2017.

He claimed in an April newspaper interview about the hacker incident that Capitas response would go down as a case history for how to deal with a sophisticated cyberattack.

Marchs attack saw Capitas 50,000 staff locked out of its IT systems as the company raced to understand its extent.

Russias Black Basta cybercrime gang claimed responsibility for the attack and shared samples of stolen data on the dark web.

Around 350 pension funds across the UK were put on alert after Capita revealed some of the stolen data contained British pensioners personal information.

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Capita did not comment on whether it had paid a ransom.

Among Capitas innovations to try and stem its losses is its use of so-called metaverse virtual reality technology for training Royal Navy submariners.

It is also making increased use of AI, it said, with the technology contributing to a 30pc reduction in human contact required for one of its customer service clients..

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SINGAPORE, Aug. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- ICEX Spain, the government agency responsible for promoting Spanish firms internationally, has announced the launch of their Restaurants from Spain certification program in Singapore for the third year. Following the success of the 2021 launch, the program aims to further promote and support Spanish restaurants in Singapore, recognizing their efforts in promoting authentic Spanish gastronomy.

This certification program ensures that Spanish restaurants meet specific quality standards and are recognized as authentic ambassadors of Spanish cuisine in Singapore. The certification process includes a rigorous evaluation of the restaurant's menu, wine list, service, and overall dining experience. It is valid for one year and is assessed on an annual basis to ensure that certified restaurants maintain the program's high standards and continue to offer an authentic Spanish dining experience to their customers.

Restaurants from Spain is launching a communication campaign to further promote the certified restaurants in Singapore by reaching out to key influencers and media outlets and sharing exciting news from the restaurants.

To date, a total of 16 Spanish restaurants in Singapore are certified by the program and have received their Restaurants from Spain diploma from the Ambassador of Spain in Singapore. LUMBRE has joined the list of certified establishments in 2023, further enhancing the diverse and vibrant Spanish culinary scene in Singapore.

ASADOR

Asador is a Restaurant inspired by traditional Spanish food and cooking methods. It is located in Joo Chiata neighborhood that is up-and-coming to become a food and lifestyle district. This outlet represents the second chapter of the adventure started in 2020 with Next Door Spanish Cafe. Asador aims to bring a truly Spanish experience that will engage all your senses by cooking food in direct contact with the embers of a fire on a Basque-style grill or in a Castilian oven at high temperatures.

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As a company, our mission is to establish an outlet in Singapore to indulge our customers with authentic Spanish flavours cooked from ancestral wood fire cooking styles. Recently, they opened a post-Prohibition era-inspired Cocktail bar: 60ml by Asador.

Chef Javier Vicente Rejas. Born in Valencia (Spain) and quickly start his culinary career abroad after spending a few years working in Spain. His steps led him to cook in Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Finland, and India before he landed in Singapore. Joining forces with Chef Houssein to showcase a part of Spanish DNA through food.

Book Now Asador

BINOMIO

Binomio Spanish Restaurante showcases a menu of authentic Spanish cuisine. The menu includes popular, all-time Spanish favourites as well as personal dishes prepared by their executive chef, Gonzalo Landin. Balancing the taste, texture, appearance, and colors of dishes, guests will be delighted to find that they do not only enjoy what they eat, they will also enjoy what they see.

The menu changes at least 4 times a year depending on available seasonal ingredients. Chef Gonzalo comes up with special dishes and tapas every day, that are based on fresh produce available on that day to add to the dynamism of the food.

Deviating from the traditional approach to presentation, he has also introduced some interesting twists to some of the tapas dishes. Adopting a simple and uncluttered presentation of dishes, guests will be pampered by creative culinary skills and well-crafted dishes.

Book Now Binomio

ESQUINA

Established in December 2011, ESQUINA continues to be in the forefront of the local Spanish food scene in Singapore. The modern

restaurant, spearheaded by Barcelona-born Head Chef Carlos Montobbio, specialises in contemporary cuisine showcasing Spanish and Catalan flavors.

Located at the corner of Jiak Chuan Street, the two-story space is aptly named ESQUINA ("the corner" in Spanish). Offering two distinct experiences, ESQUINA boasts an overall design with both rustic and modern industrial cues that evokes a sense of being in the heart of Spain with its buzzing atmosphere and vibrant setting.

The ground floor features an open-kitchen concept and communal seating that encourages interaction and allows guests to watch the chefs in action.

Sophisticated and refined, the second floor is designed to create an intimate setting perfect for group bookings and private parties.

The brainchild of renowned hotelier and restaurateur Loh Lik Peng, ESQUINA forms part of the Unlisted Collection's group of design boutique hotels and restaurants in Singapore, London, Shanghai, and Sydney.

Book Now Esquina

FOC Restaurant

FOC Restaurant is the pioneer outlet of FOC Group established in 2014, igniting the rather sleepy Hong Kong Street with its energetic and fun Barcelona spirit. FOC, meaning "fire" in Catalan, is a buzzy, interactive experience, a vibrant Spanish affair in the heart of Singapore.

The 78-seater is located in a refurbished shop house, designed by lauded Barcelona-based design firm, Lagranja. Quintessential Catalan elements have made their way into the art and decor, such as 'Porrons' (traditional Spanish wine decanters) remade into lights, wall decals of the legendary 'Sagrada Familia', and a playful take on the 'Correfoc' (Catalan fire-run) with installations in the shape of giant heads. Banquette seats line the restaurant, with a prized 14-seat bar counter lit with custom-made lamps constructed from pepper grinders. The open-kitchen concept makes for a highly interactive experience, where diners can watch chefs and mixologists working side-by-side, whipping up Fine Fun Food and Drinks from Barcelona.

"Fine Fun Food from Barcelona" features traditional tapas and playful contemporary creations by Michelin-Starred Chef Nandu Jubany and Chef Juanjo Carrillo, providing fine, top-notch quality produce and a fun, creative approach to Spanish cuisine in a laid-back, yet chic atmosphere, evoking the essence of the city of Barcelona.

Book now FOC Restaurant

FOC Sentosa

FOC Sentosa is a Mediterranean Restaurant and Beach Club inspired by Barcelona's world-famous beach culture, the second outlet opened by FOC Group. In line with the island's cheery atmosphere, FOC Sentosa transforms from a relaxing morning hangout to an idyllic Mediterranean lunch spot and, come nighttime, a vibrant gastronomic getaway. Combining truly Mediterranean fare, including Paellas, large-format grilled meats and seafood, summery drinks, and a sophisticated yet laid-back atmosphere, the striking two-story locale is the epitome of stylish beachside living.

Located at the east end of tranquil Palawan Beach, the tasteful and airy beachfront space is resplendent with bright interiors and panoramic views of the sea from the second-story private events space, which can be reserved and transformed to accommodate intimate beach weddings, private parties, or corporate events. Seamlessly transitioning between indoor and outdoor spaces, FOC Sentosa caters to a variety of experiencesfrom beach daybeds and a spacious pool deck to a breezy alfresco terrace and an indoor bar and restaurant to escape the heat. FOC Sentosa was designed by lauded Barcelona-based design firm, Lagranja, and famous Barcelona designer, Javier Mariscal.

The thoughtfully prepared cuisine focuses on the contemporary Mediterranean concept, by Michelin star Chef Nandu Jubany, Alma Mater of FOC Group, and FOC Group Executive Chef Juanjo Carrillo.

Book now FOC Sentosa

GAIG

Located in bustling Telok Ayer district, Restaurant Gaig Singapore is the first international outpost of the Michelin-starred restaurant in Barcelona by Chef Carles Gaig, a celebrated name synonymous with Catalan cuisine. The family-owned restaurant is operated by Carles' daughter, Nuria Gibert, with executive chef Marti Carlos Martinez, who trained under Carles.

To traditional recipes, some as old as 150 years, Chef Marti brings modern cooking techniques, finely-sourced ingredients, and his own personal interpretation to create contemporary dishes that celebrate the vivacious Catalan spirit.

Diners can enjoy a rich array of tapas, paellas, and mains, and a cannelloni recipe that dates from 1869. Now in its 5th generation, the restaurant is steeped in the warm ambiance and heartfelt hospitality the Gaig family is renowned for; making the experience similar to dining in a Catalan home.

A signature at the restaurant, Gaig's Traditional Cannelloni is a comforting dish of roasted meat wrapped in cannelloni sheets and served with a truffled cream sauce. The 150-year-old recipe, traditionally served during Christmas in Barcelona, makes a year-round appearance here.

Book now GAIG

KULTO

Housed in a historic unit of 87 Amoy Street, KULTO takes its customers on an insider trip to Spain through a sensory experience of Spanish food and decor steeped in history.

KULTO brings a slice of Spain to the dining experience with an iconic feature of Madrid and Barcelona apartments, the wooden shutters. The beautifully restored space is lined with wooden shutters and completed with clean and neutral colours featuring accents of wood  so diners will be in the moment to truly enjoy the food and atmosphere.

A customer's experience at KULTO is fully taken care of by the Chefs, customers get front-row seats to see them working their magic in the open kitchen, which is an extension of the private dining room. The dishes come out rhythmically, just like parts of a symphony, landing on the tables, where the colours and energy of the food get to shine on their own.

Born and bred in Rioja, Spain, Head Chef Jose Alonso helms the kitchen of KULTO. Inspired by his heritage, culture, and philosophy of letting good quality products speak for themselves, every plate at KULTO steers close to the traditional rendition of the dish and lets the freshness of seasonal produce take center stage.

"As chefs, we have the power to make people happy or upset, and quickly. In many other jobs, you can't really see that. If you're an architect, you're going to wait years for people to approve your art".

Book now Kulto

LUMBRE

Taking its name after the word for fire and warmth in Spanish, Lumbre is a Spanish restaurant bringing the best from land and sea, farm to table, cooked by two signature means of choice  an open wood-fire grill or Josper charcoal oven.

Lumbre is a new dining concept by AC Concepts (who runs Kulto in Amoy Street and Kilo in Duxton) and Plan B (who runs Senor Taco and La Mexicana).

Book now LUMBRE

PURA BRASA

Born in Barcelona in 2010, Spanish restaurant chain Pura Brasa is a concept created by Josper, the internationally recognised brand of charcoal ovens. Its 100-seater Singapore outlet is its seventh outlet and only overseas outpost, offering an intimate, enjoyable dining experience where diners enjoy a friendly atmosphere while savouring our wide and varied offerings.

Eating at Pura Brasa is the best way to experience the Josper technology in action. The restaurant's menu epitomises originality, and showcases a wide variety of dishes: tapas, salads, burgers, seafood and meat, all with the characteristic flavour of grilled cooking. The best products, coupled with the latest cooking technologies, come together to offer a unique gastronomic experience.

Book now PURA BRASA

THE NEXT DOOR SPANISH CAFE

Next Door Spanish Cafe is a dream of two friends who always wanted to bring a piece of Spain to Singapore. Being situated in a neighbourhood area, chilling and eating traditional tapas and paellas, pairing them with a glass of wine or sangria while you listen to some flamenco music making you feel as if you have been transported to Spain on a summer day.

Chef Houssein Hafian, after studying at the culinary school of Gijon and spending a few years in different restaurants and hotels, arrived in Singapore in 2013 to be part of a Spanish restaurant. In 2019 he decided to give a turn to his life and open Next Door Spanish Cafe. Nowadays, Chef Javier Rejas, originally from Valencia, lends a hand in developing traditional recipes with Chef Houssein.

Book now The Next Door Spanish Cafe

OLIVIA RESTAURANT AND LOUNGE

Olivia Restaurant & Lounge transports guests to a setting that's unique to Barcelona. Embodying the essence of Mediterranean soul, where values are centred around the kitchen, Olivia Restaurant & Lounge exudes a welcoming atmosphere and champions an elevated homestyle cooking.

The Chef and co-owner Alain Devahive unleashes his culinary wisdom on the curation of the menu, drawing upon more than a decade's expertise in Michelin starred restaurants, including the unrivalled El Bulli Restaurant. A meticulous articulation of Alain's love for quality and versatile ingredients, the food at Olivia Restaurant & Lounge uses hearty and honest flavours inspired by Barcelona, channelling the diversity and eclecticism of the Mediterranean coastal city.

Book now Olivia Restaurant and Lounge

TAPAS,24

In 2006, Chef Carles Abellan opened the award-winning Tapas,24. A stone's throw from Passeig de Gracia, the lively tapas bar marries staple Spanish dishes and unfussy service to create one of Barcelona's hottest dining destinations, which continues to attract locals and tourists alike. While the bustling cobbled streets of Barcelona are littered with pavement cafes and tapas bars, Tapas,24 continues to retain its status as one of the best  and busiest  in town. A convivial atmosphere, innovative twists on classic Spanish cuisine, and stellar selection of Spanish wines and cocktails combine to make this a must-do pit stop for every foodie visitor, as well as a local favourite.

Today, Singapore-based L'Angelus Group in partnership with Chef Carles Abellan has brought that signature Barcelona lifestyle to Singapore with its first Asian outpost, located within the cosmopolitan Quayside neighbourhood.

Coupled with a fun-loving service team that is always ready with a smile, we aim to bring you an authentic Barcelonian experience each time you visit Tapas,24

Drawing inspiration from the original concept, the menu at Tapas,24 Singapore focuses on authentic tapas dishes and aims to bridge the gastronomical distance from Barcelona to Singapore, highlighting bold flavours & encouraging social dining.

Book now TAPAS,24

TAPAS CLUB

Tapas Club - A casual Spanish tapas restaurant chain serving cuisine that remains true to its Spanish roots.

Tapas Club is the birth of Spain's sophisticated delicacy to the wider public, offering authentic flavours from the Iberian Peninsula. Our restaurants are a casual dining spot, a meeting point that conveys the traditional and authentic Spanish character, every step of the way: ambiance, food and drinks.

Our food pays homage to Spanish identity, traditions, and culture, showcasing classic Spanish tapas, heirloom fresh produce, and home-like recipes. It will not create a fusion with any local or international cuisine, it will maintain purely, 100% traditional Spanish and only tapas style.

It aims to be a passionate tribute to these little bites and regular dishes that are an essential part of Spain like paella, Spanish omelette, garlic prawns, etc. Tapas Club makes an easy and delicious meal when you're in the vicinity. We carefully prepare each dish using only the best ingredients to make sure that the colour, flavour and texture are perfect to cater to every palate.

We carefully cater a Spanish wine selection to pair with our food. Our selection of wine helps you to travel in Spain enjoying the different grapes and Denomination of Origin such us Rioja, Ribera de Duero, Priorat, etc.

Book now TAPAS CLUB

UNA AT THE ALKAFF MANSION

Housed at Level 2 of The Alkaff Mansion, UNA pays homage to the age-old heritage of Spanish gastronomy with an innovative and contemporary menu that marries authentic signature delicacies from different regions in Spain. Extracting wholesome and robust flavours through modern cooking techniques, experience the best of Spain through sumptuous tapas, paellas, parrilla grills and more.

UNA is your romantic dining destination that balances traditional Spanish flavours with modernity, creativity and soul.

Book now UNA AT THE ALKAFF MANSION

For more info, visit https://www.foodswinesfromspain.com/en/certified-restaurants-from-spain

About "Restaurants from Spain"

The "Restaurants from Spain" certificate is an instrument for the support and recognition of restaurant initiatives that are focused on Spanish cuisine and, by extension, the Spanish culture, guaranteeing the level of quality of these establishments. It recognizes and establishes quality standards and criteria for the consumer who is looking for quality Spanish cuisine, as well as models that can be followed by restaurateurs who may wish to offer Spanish cuisine in other parts of the world. All the restaurants that have the "Restaurants from Spain" certificate will share a feeling of Spanish gastronomy based on genuine roots, ingredients, recipes, and quality

Awarded following a stringent selection process by a joint committee composed of official institutions and sectoral associations strongly linked to gastronomy such as the Royal Academy of Gastronomy, the Ministry of Agriculture, FACYRE, the Regulatory Council for Sherry Wines, ANFACO, INTERPORC, the Spanish Wine Federation, the REPSOL Guide and the Ministry of Tourism of Castilla La Mancha, the certificate will distinguish those establishments that outside Spain offer their diners not only Spanish products but also authentic quality Spanish cuisine, with a unique and differentiated image.

The certification, which will be renewed annually, will have a direct and immediate impact on the HORECA channel, whose activity has been severely affected by the pandemic, by promoting greater knowledge of the restaurant in the country, boosting its occupation, and the dissemination of authentic quality Spanish cuisine.

Besides the certification, the restaurant's team will receive specialized training in both gastronomy and Spanish wines, thus being able to expand the Spanish culinary offer available on the menu. And in parallel, the certificate will facilitate access to the restaurant, and therefore to the market, to a greater number of suppliers of Spanish products, which will boost the presence of Spanish food and wine around the world.

Cision

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SOURCE Restaurants from Spain
A senior couple talks about their 401(k) withdrawals and financial plan for retirement.

Congress could soon change how spouses access their retirement accounts. A pair of Democratic bills recently introduced in the House and Senate would require spouses to consent before either one can make any withdrawals from their 401(k) accounts. The bills, sponsored by Rep. Lauren Underwood, D-Illinois, and Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisconsin, seek to amend the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and potentially change how some married couples access their 401(k) funds.

Need help planning for retirement? Consider speaking with a financial advisor today.

The State of Current Law

Currently, spousal authority over retirement accounts ranges widely. Some accounts, like many pensions, can have significant consent rules when it comes to making any changes to the account or its terms. This is generally because each section of a pension "belongs" to either the retiree or their spouse, so unilateral changes would mean seizing someone else's property rights.

Others, most notably many 401(k) plans, work similarly to a shared private portfolio. Both spouses can unilaterally withdraw money, take loans and make other changes to the accounts at will. However, there are some boundaries around this authority  for example, a spouse cannot unilaterally change the beneficiaries of a 401(k). Defined benefits contribution plans, meanwhile, are broadly treated as fully joint assets.

In 2022, voices in the retirement services community began to call for Congress to reexamine this practice. As SmartAsset wrote at the time:

"Despite their rise in popularity, 401(k) and other defined contribution plans offer little if any spousal protection Aside from a primary residence, retirement accounts are often the largest asset for married couples, making them potential targets in cases of separation and divorce. Current law permits one spouse to withdraw the entire amount without the other spouse's consent or knowledge, and that could potentially prove devastating to a family's future finances."

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Proposed Changes

Two proposed bills have been introduced on Capitol Hill that would require spousal consent for withdrawals from 401(k)s.

The proposed legislation would update the ERISA statute that governs most tax-advantaged retirement accounts. The new rules would require that both spouses consent before taking withdrawals or other distributions from a defined contribution plan, such as a 401(k).

In practice, this means that both spouses would need to sign the related forms before either spouse can take money from a 401(k) or related plan.

The proposed legislation does not affect IRA plans, which will continue to allow unilateral withdrawals without spousal consent.

The American Retirement Association (ARA), which comprises five different retirement-focused organizations, is taking a wait-and-see approach to the proposed legislation.

"While we support the policy goal behind this proposal, which is to protect the retirement security of a spouse, more research needs to be done on this approach to determine whether it would do greater harm than good," Andrew Remo, Director of Federal and State Legislative Affairs for the ARA said in a release.

Bottom Line

Spouses who hold 401(k) accounts may soon need permission from each other before they make any withdrawals from their portfolios, under Democratic legislation thats been proposed in Washington D.C. According to current law, spouses can make withdrawals from 401(k)s, take loans and make other changes to their accounts at will.

Financial Protection Tips

A financial advisor can help you build a comprehensive retirement plan. Finding a financial advisor doesn't have to be hard. SmartAsset's free tool matches you with up to three vetted financial advisors who serve your area, and you can have a free introductory call with your advisor matches to decide which one you feel is right for you. If you're ready to find an advisor who can help you achieve your financial goals, get started now.

No matter who you are and how much you have, it's important to take basic steps to keep your money secure in your accounts. Here are five basic steps to help you do that.

Photo credit: iStock.com/Inside Creative House, iStock.com/traveler1116

The post Spouses May Soon Need to Agree on 401(k) Withdrawals Under This Proposed Law appeared first on SmartReads by SmartAsset.
Analysis published in the Journal of Comparative Effectiveness Research shows ropeginterferon alfa-2b-njft provided a cost-effective benefit in quality-adjusted life years compared to a commonly used treatment pathway

BURLINGTON, Mass., August 04, 2023--(BUSINESS WIRE)--PharmaEssentia USA Corporation, a subsidiary of PharmaEssentia Corporation (TPEx:6446), a global biopharmaceutical innovator based in Taiwan leveraging deep expertise and proven scientific principles to deliver new biologics in hematology and oncology, today announced the publication of a cost-effectiveness analysis of ropeginterferon alfa-2b-njft (marketed as BESREMi) in the Journal of Comparative Effectiveness Research. The analysis, titled "Cost-Effectiveness of Ropeginterferon Alfa-2b-njft for the Treatment of Polycythemia Vera," showed that ropeginterferon alfa-2b-njft provided a cost-effective benefit for a broad range of patients with polycythemia vera (PV) versus first-line hydroxyurea followed by ruxolitinib. Cost effectiveness was demonstrated in a modeled population including both low- and high-risk patients receiving first- or second-line treatment with ropeginterferon alfa-2b-njft.

"PV is a chronic blood cancer that requires lifelong therapy, which can prevent or delay negative clinical outcomes, but is also associated with additional costs to patients and payers. These new data demonstrate ropeginterferon alfa-2b-njfts value not only to people living with PV, but also to the healthcare system at large," said Dr. Aaron Gerds, MD, MS, Medical Director at Case Comprehensive Cancer Center and lead study author. "This study shows ropeginterferon alfa-2b-njft is a cost-effective treatment option over the modeled lifetime and that earlier initiation of treatment of PV with effective therapy can translate to more favorable cost to benefit ratios."

PV is the most common myeloproliferative neoplasm (MPN) and a long-term, potentially life-threatening disease with limited approved treatment options. Patients with PV are at risk for disease progression to myelofibrosis (post-PV MF) or transformation to blast phase (MPN-BP) which is akin to acute myeloid leukemia1-3. Patients are also at an increased risk for arterial and venous thromboembolic events (TEs) which are associated with higher mortality, lower quality of life, and higher healthcare costs4-7.

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This new study used an economic model developed from the United States healthcare system perspective. Inputs were informed by the data from randomized clinical trials, including the PROUD-PV and CONTINUATION-PV studies, and from real-world sources. The model compared ropeginterferon alfa-2b-njft used either as first- or second-line therapy versus an alternative treatment pathway of first-line hydroxyurea followed by ruxolitinib. To reflect the long-term consequences of treating PV, results were presented over a lifetime horizon.

Findings from the study conclude ropeginterferon alfa-2b-njft is a cost-effective treatment option for a broad range of patients with PV, including both low- and high-risk patients and patients with and without prior cytoreductive treatment with hydroxyurea. Of note:

These data show that over the modeled lifetime, patients who receive ropeginterferon alfa-2b-njft have more years alive (0.4), higher quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) (0.4), and higher cost ($60,175) as compared to the alternative treatment pathway. Weighing the additional costs versus the additional QALY gains results in a cost per QALY of $141,783.

This cost per QALY is less than a standard willingness to pay threshold of $150,000 per QALY 8 .

In this study, treating patients at a younger age or those with low-risk disease led to more cost-effective results, suggesting that earlier initiation of treatment of PV with effective therapy can translate to more favorable cost to benefit ratios.

The model was sensitive to treatment costs, the percentage of patients who discontinue hydroxyurea, the percentage of ropeginterferon alfa-2b-njft users who switch to monthly dosing, the percentage of ropeginterferon alfa-2b-njft users as 2nd line treatment, and the treatment response rates.

"Ropeginterferon alfa-2b-njft has demonstrated safety and efficacy in studies including both low- and high-risk patients and patients with and without prior cytoreductive treatment with HU. Recently, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) updated their treatment guidelines to include ropeginterferon as a preferred treatment regimen for both low- and high-risk PV patients9. As ropeginterferon continues to be more widely used in clinical practice, this study was imperative to demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of ropeginterferon alfa-2b-njft for a broad range of patients with PV," said Raymond Urbanski, M.D., Ph.D., Senior Vice President and U.S. Head of Clinical Development and Medical Affairs at PharmaEssentia. "This analysis also underscores the importance of treating low-risk patients and patients early in their disease journey to help minimize more severe events and their corresponding costs to the healthcare system."

The full benefits of ropeginterferon alfa-2b-njft may not be fully captured in the model, and in particular, data on disutility of phlebotomy are lacking. Although some patients may tolerate regular phlebotomies, others can experience iron deficiency which can negatively impact quality of life. While the results from a scenario analysis incorporating a small decrement in utility had minimal impact on the cost-effectiveness results, due to the lack of data in this area, this estimate remains conservative. This study took a U.S. healthcare perspective, and the results may not generalize to other countries given the differences in healthcare resource use, costs and cost-effectiveness thresholds.

Follow PharmaEssentia USA on Twitter and LinkedIn for news and updates.

About Polycythemia Vera (PV)

Polycythemia vera (PV) is a cancer originating from a disease-initiating stem cell in the bone marrow resulting in a chronic increase of red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. PV may result in cardiovascular complications such as thrombosis and embolism, and often transforms to secondary myelofibrosis or leukemia. While the molecular mechanism underlying PV is still subject of intense research, current results point to a set of acquired mutations, the most important being a mutant form of JAK2.10

About BESREMi (ropeginterferon alfa-2b-njft)

BESREMi is an innovative monopegylated, long-acting interferon. With its unique pegylation technology, BESREMi has a long duration of activity in the body and is aimed to be administered once every two weeks (or every four weeks with hematological stability for at least one year), allowing flexible dosing that helps meet the individual needs of patients.

BESREMi has orphan drug designation for the treatment of polycythemia vera (PV) in adults in the United States. The product was approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in 2019, in the United States in 2021, and has recently received approval in Taiwan and South Korea. The drug candidate was invented by PharmaEssentia and is manufactured in the companys Taichung plant, which was cGMP certified by TFDA in 2017 and by EMA in January 2018. PharmaEssentia retains full global intellectual property rights for the product in all indications.

Indication

BESREMi is indicated for the treatment of adults with polycythemia vera.

Important Safety Information

WARNING: RISK OF SERIOUS DISORDERS

Interferon alfa products may cause or aggravate fatal or life-threatening neuropsychiatric, autoimmune, ischemic, and infectious disorders. Patients should be monitored closely with periodic clinical and laboratory evaluations. Therapy should be withdrawn in patients with persistently severe or worsening signs or symptoms of these conditions. In many, but not all cases, these disorders resolve after stopping therapy.

CONTRAINDICATIONS

Existence of, or history of severe psychiatric disorders, particularly severe depression, suicidal ideation, or suicide attempt

Hypersensitivity to interferons including interferon alfa-2b or any of the inactive ingredients of BESREMi.

Moderate (Child-Pugh B) or severe (Child-Pugh C) hepatic impairment

History or presence of active serious or untreated autoimmune disease

Immunosuppressed transplant recipients

WARNINGS AND PRECAUTIONS

Depression and Suicide: Life-threatening or fatal neuropsychiatric reactions have occurred in patients receiving interferon alfa-2b products, including BESREMi. These reactions may occur in patients with and without previous psychiatric illness.

Other central nervous system effects, including suicidal ideation, attempted suicide, aggression, bipolar disorder, mania and confusion have been observed with other interferon alfa products.

Closely monitor patients for any symptoms of psychiatric disorders and consider psychiatric consultation and treatment if such symptoms emerge. If psychiatric symptoms worsen, it is recommended to discontinue BESREMi therapy.

Endocrine Toxicity: These toxicities may include worsening hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism. Do not use BESREMi in patients with active serious or untreated endocrine disorders associated with autoimmune disease. Evaluate thyroid function in patients who develop symptoms suggestive of thyroid disease during BESREMi therapy. Discontinue BESREMi in patients who develop endocrine disorders that cannot be adequately managed during treatment with BESREMi.

Cardiovascular Toxicity: Toxicities may include cardiomyopathy, myocardial infarction, atrial fibrillation and coronary artery ischemia. Patients with a history of cardiovascular disorders should be closely monitored for cardiovascular toxicity during BESREMi therapy. Avoid use of BESREMi in patients with severe or unstable cardiovascular disease, (e.g., uncontrolled hypertension, congestive heart failure ( NYHA class 2), serious cardiac arrhythmia, significant coronary artery stenosis, unstable angina) or recent stroke or myocardial infarction.

Decreased Peripheral Blood Counts: These toxicities may include thrombocytopenia (increasing the risk of bleeding), anemia, and leukopenia (increasing the risk of infection). Monitor complete blood counts at baseline, during titration and every 3-6 months during the maintenance phase. Monitor patients for signs and symptoms of infection or bleeding.

Hypersensitivity Reactions: Toxicities may include serious, acute hypersensitivity reactions (e.g., urticaria, angioedema, bronchoconstriction, anaphylaxis). If such reactions occur, discontinue BESREMi and institute appropriate medical therapy immediately. Transient rashes may not necessitate interruption of treatment.

Pancreatitis: Pancreatitis has occurred in 2.2% of patients receiving BESREMi. Symptoms may include nausea, vomiting, upper abdominal pain, bloating, and fever. Patients may experience elevated lipase, amylase, white blood cell count, or altered renal/hepatic function. Interrupt BESREMi treatment in patients with possible pancreatitis and evaluate promptly. Consider discontinuation of BESREMi in patients with confirmed pancreatitis.

Colitis: Fatal and serious ulcerative or hemorrhagic/ischemic colitis have occurred in patients receiving interferon alfa products, some cases starting as early as 12 weeks after start of treatment. Symptoms may include abdominal pain, bloody diarrhea, and fever. Discontinue BESREMi in patients who develop these signs or symptoms. Colitis may resolve within 1 to 3 weeks of stopping treatment.

Pulmonary Toxicity: Pulmonary toxicity may manifest as dyspnea, pulmonary infiltrates, pneumonia, bronchiolitis obliterans, interstitial pneumonitis, pulmonary hypertension, and sarcoidosis. Some events have resulted in respiratory failure or death. Discontinue BESREMi in patients who develop pulmonary infiltrates or pulmonary function impairment.

Ophthalmologic Toxicity: These toxicities may include severe eye disorders such as retinopathy, retinal hemorrhage, retinal exudates, retinal detachment and retinal artery or vein occlusion which may result in blindness. During BESREMi therapy, 23% of patients were identified with an eye disorder. Eyes disorders 5% included cataract (6%) and dry eye (5%). Advise patients to have eye examinations before and during BESREMi therapy, specifically in those patients with a retinopathy-associated disease such as diabetes mellitus or hypertension. Evaluate eye symptoms promptly. Discontinue BESREMi in patients who develop new or worsening eye disorders.

Hyperlipidemia: Elevated triglycerides may result in pancreatitis. Monitor serum triglycerides before BESREMi treatment and intermittently during therapy and manage when elevated. Consider discontinuation of BESREMi in patients with persistently, markedly elevated triglycerides.

Hepatotoxicity: These toxicities may include increases in serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT) and bilirubin. Liver enzyme elevations have also been reported in patients after long-term BESREMi therapy. Monitor liver enzymes and hepatic function at baseline and during BESREMi treatment. Discontinue BESREMi in patients who develop evidence of hepatic decompensation (characterized by jaundice, ascites, hepatic encephalopathy, hepatorenal syndrome or variceal hemorrhage) during treatment.

Renal Toxicity: Monitor serum creatinine at baseline and during therapy. Avoid use of BESREMi in patients with eGFR <30 mL/min. Discontinue BESREMi if severe renal impairment develops during treatment.

Dental and Periodontal Toxicity: These toxicities may include dental and periodontal disorders, which may lead to loss of teeth. In addition, dry mouth could have a damaging effect on teeth and mucous membranes of the mouth during long-term treatment with BESREMi. Patients should have good oral hygiene and regular dental examinations.

Dermatologic Toxicity: These toxicities have included skin rash, pruritus, alopecia, erythema, psoriasis, xeroderma, dermatitis acneiform, hyperkeratosis, and hyperhidrosis. Consider discontinuation of BESREMi if clinically significant dermatologic toxicity occurs.

Driving and Operating Machinery: BESREMi may impact the ability to drive and use machinery. Patients should not drive or use heavy machinery until they know how BESREMi affects their abilities. Patients who experience dizziness, somnolence or hallucination during BESREMi therapy should avoid driving or using machinery.

Embryo-Fetal Toxicity: Based on the mechanism of action, BESREMi can cause fetal harm when administered to a pregnant woman. Pregnancy testing is recommended in females of reproductive potential prior to treatment with BESREMi. Advise females of reproductive potential to use an effective method of contraception during treatment with BESREMi and for at least 8 weeks after the final dose.

ADVERSE REACTIONS

The most common adverse reactions reported in > 40% of patients in the PEGINVERA study (n=51) were influenza-like illness, arthralgia, fatigue, pruritis, nasopharyngitis, and musculoskeletal pain. In the pooled safety population (n=178), the most common adverse reactions greater than 10%, were liver enzyme elevations (20%), leukopenia (20%), thrombocytopenia (19%), arthralgia (13%), fatigue (12%), myalgia (11%), and influenza-like illness (11%).

DRUG INTERACTIONS

Patients on BESREMi who are receiving concomitant drugs which are CYP450 substrates with a narrow therapeutic index should be monitored to inform the need for dosage modification for these concomitant drugs. Avoid use with myelosuppressive agents and monitor patients receiving the combination for effects of excessive myelosuppression. Avoid use with narcotics, hypnotics or sedatives and monitor patients receiving the combination for effects of excessive CNS toxicity.

USE IN SPECIFIC POPULATIONS

Pregnancy: Based on mechanism of action and the role of interferon alfa in pregnancy and fetal development, BESREMi may cause fetal harm and should be assumed to have abortifacient potential when administered to a pregnant woman. There are adverse effects on maternal and fetal outcomes associated with polycythemia vera in pregnancy. Advise pregnant women of the potential risk to a fetus.

Lactation: There are no data on the presence of BESREMi in human or animal milk, the effects on the breastfed child, or the effects on milk production. Because of the potential for serious adverse reactions in breastfed children from BESREMi, advise women not to breastfeed during treatment and for 8 weeks after the final dose.

Females of Reproductive Potential: BESREMi may cause embryo-fetal harm when administered to a pregnant woman. Pregnancy testing prior to BESREMi treatment is recommended for females of reproductive potential. Advise female patients of reproductive potential to use effective contraception during treatment with BESREMi and for at least 8 weeks after the final dose.

Pediatric Use: Safety and effectiveness in pediatric patients have not been established.

Geriatric Use: In general, dose selection for an elderly patient should be cautious, usually starting at the low end of the dosing range, reflecting the greater frequency of decreased hepatic, renal, or cardiac function and of concomitant disease or other therapy.

Please see accompanying full Prescribing Information, including Boxed Warning.

About PharmaEssentia

PharmaEssentia (TPEx: 6446), headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan, is a global and rapidly growing biopharmaceutical innovator. Leveraging deep expertise and proven scientific principles, PharmaEssentia aims to deliver effective new biologics for challenging diseases in the areas of hematology and oncology, with one approved product and a diversifying pipeline. Founded in 2003 by a team of Taiwanese-American executives and renowned scientists from U.S. biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, today PharmaEssentia is expanding its global presence with operations in the U.S., Japan, China, and Korea, along with a world-class biologics production facility in Taichung, Taiwan.

For more information about PharmaEssentia USA, visit the website, LinkedIn or Twitter.

Forward Looking Statement

This press release may contain forward-looking statements, including statements about a cost-effectiveness analysis involving BESREMi and the expected impact of BESREMi on healthcare outcomes. For those statements, we claim the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and similar legislation and regulations under Taiwanese law. These forward-looking statements are based on management expectations and assumptions as of the date of this press release, and actual results may differ materially from those in these forward-looking statements as a result of various factors. These factors include changes in healthcare policies and regulations, the availability and acceptance of BESREMi in the market, changes in reimbursement that may impact the acceptance and adoption of BESREMi, and competition from other products. We do not undertake to update any of these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that occur after the date hereof.

 2023 PharmaEssentia Corporation. All rights reserved.

BESREMi and PharmaEssentia are registered trademarks of PharmaEssentia Corporation, and the PharmaEssentia logo is a trademark of PharmaEssentia Corporation.

1 McKinnell Z, Karel D, Tuerff D, Sh Abrahim M, Nassereddine S. Acute Myeloid Leukemia Following Myeloproliferative Neoplasms: A Review of What We Know, What We Do Not Know, and Emerging Treatment Strategies. J Hematol, 11(6), 197-209 (2022).

2 Masarova L, Bose P, Daver N et al. Patients with post-essential thrombocythemia and post polycythemia vera differ from patients with primary myelofibrosis. Leuk Res, 59, 110-116 (2017).

3 Finazzi G, Caruso V, Marchioli R et al. Acute leukemia in polycythemia vera: an analysis of 1638 patients enrolled in a prospective observational study. Blood, 105(7), 2664-2670 (2005).

4 Griesshammer M, Kiladjian JJ, Besses C. Thromboembolic events in polycythemia vera. Ann Hematol, 98(5), 1071-1082 (2019).

5 Tefferi A, Rumi E, Finazzi G et al. Survival and prognosis among 1545 patients with contemporary polycythemia vera: an international study. Leukemia, 27(9), 1874-1881 (2013).

6 Marchioli R, Finazzi G, Landolfi R et al. Vascular and neoplastic risk in a large cohort of patients with polycythemia vera. J Clin Oncol, 23(10), 2224-2232 (2005).

7 Parasuraman SV, Shi N, Paranagama DC, Bonafede M. Health Care Costs and Thromboembolic Events in Hydroxyurea-Treated Patients with Polycythemia Vera. J Manag Care Spec Pharm, 24(1), 47-55 (2018).

8 20202023 Value Assessment Framework. Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (2020), https://icer.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/ICER_2020_2023_VAF_02032022.pdf

9 Barbui et al. NEJM Evidence. 2023; Gisslinger et al. Lancet. 2020; Kiadjian et al. Leukemia. 2022; Kiladjian et al. ASH. 2022.

10 Cerquozzi S, Tefferi A. Blast Transformation and Fibrotic Progression in Polycythemia Vera and Essential Thrombocythemia: A Literature Review of Incidence and Risk Factors. Blood Cancer J (2015) 5, e366; doi:10.1038/bcj.2015.95.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230804033861/en/

Contacts

Media:

Rachel Lipsitz, rachel_lipsitz@pharmaessentia.com
(Bloomberg) -- In a residential area in southeastern Seoul is a red-brick, four-story building that looks like any other in the neighborhood. But a basement office there is home to the research center whose extraordinary claims about a breakthrough in superconductor technology have shocked the scientific community and captivated the world.

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The location in Songpa district is the registered address of the Quantum Energy Research Centre, whose researchers Sukbae Lee and Ji-Hoon Kim, along with other South Korean experts, said in pre-publication papers posted last month that they have synthesized the worlds first superconductor known as LK-99 that is capable of conducting electricity with zero-resistance at room temperature with ambient pressure.

The claim has been met with widespread excitement globally, sending related stocks soaring in South Korea and China, but also skepticism as past claims had been later proven wrong.

Multiple attempts to reach the scientists at the Quantum Energy Research Centre were not answered. No one responded when a Bloomberg News reporter knocked on the centers locked doors or reached out via LinkedIn. Goods including bottles of sparkling water delivered to the centers address have been left untouched outside the offices entrance. The centers website has also been closed and says it is under construction.

However, Kim Hyun Tak, one of the authors of the papers who is a research professor of physics at the College of William & Mary in Virginia, said the skeptical reaction is expected.

Its common practice when a new crucial discovery or invention is made public that there are more people who say that its not credible, Kim said in a Zoom interview. Its a natural thing for some people to laugh at it because its the first time, and they dont even know what it is, but as time passes, they start to believe it.

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The scientific community is now focusing on trying to ascertain the extraordinary claims. Michael Biercuk, professor of quantum physics at the University of Sydney and the chief executive officer and founder of quantum sensing company Q-CTRL, said in an interview with Bloomberg TV that it is crucial the claims are verified as there have been major scientific attraction scandals where big claims were made and later shown to be incorrect.

We are hopeful that thats not the case here, but everybody is waiting to see what happens, he said.

The Korean Society of Superconductivity and Cryogenics has asked the Quantum Energy Research Centre to submit samples required for the verification process, the body said in a statement this week.

The claim of a room-temperature superconductor discovery is causing great controversy at home and abroad, but we are concerned about the situation in which unverified claims are being poured out by fellow researchers without an entity responsible for verifying it, the statement said.

Changgu Lee, a material synthesis expert at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul, said that the verification process is similar to cooking in that while the recipe for LK-99 is well written, there are some specifics that are missing. The cooking itself might take around four days, he said, but more trials are needed to match the precise conditions under which the researchers conducted their experiments.

The recipe may say one big spoonful of soy sauce and a carrot, but the carrot may come in different sizes and depending on that the flavor of the dish may change, Lee said. We have to record the materials and methods very precisely.

In response to questions about why the Quantum Energy Research Centre hasnt provided the materials to other scientists, Kim said that it doesnt have enough inventory of the LK-99 compound nor time to recreate it, and that the researchers have been distracted by the number of journalists trying to contact them.

You know that the office is extremely small and in a poor state. he said. Its so small, and you need the money to make the compounds. Thats why they cannot mass-produce it.

Despite the questions, he remained defiant that the research was sound.

The experimental data speaks for itself, Kim said. We know it because were the ones who synthesized it and conducted the studies.

--With assistance from Shinhye Kang.

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(Bloomberg) -- Telus Corp. said its seeking to eliminate 6,000 jobs, or 6% of its workforce, after posting second-quarter profit that missed analysts estimates.

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The cuts comprise of 4,000 workers at Telus and 2,000 at Telus International and includes offers of early retirement and voluntary departure packages, the Vancouver-based telecommunications company said Friday in its earnings statement. The reductions will cost Telus as much as C$475 million ($355 million) this year, and are expected to yield C$325 million in annual savings. Telus had 108,500 employees at the end of 2022.

Shares fell as much as 3.5% to its lowest intraday in three years before trimming some losses. Telus traded 0.4% lower at C$23.01 as of 9:57 a.m. in Toronto.

The companywide cost-cutting initiative comes against the backdrop of rapid transformation in our industry and the ways in which our customers want to engage with us, Chief Executive Officer Darren Entwistle said in an emailed statement. This is in response to the evolving regulatory, competitive and macroeconomic environment that we currently face.

The moves come about two months after rival BCE Inc. said it planned to cut about 3% of its workforce as part of a companywide restructuring, which also included its media operations. Canadian telecom companies have been grappling with a trend of lower cheaper wireless rates as regulators push to encourage more competition in a market that has been dominated by a handful of large companies.

Its a tougher regulatory and competitive environment, CIBC Capital Markets analyst Stephanie Price said in a phone interview, noting increased competition from Quebecor Inc. after its acquisition of Freedom Mobile is pressuring large wireless carriers.

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The cost-cutting measures are well-timed given expectations for less profitable wireless prices, Scotia Capital analyst Maher Yaghi said in a note to clients

Investors who usually invest in a defensive sector like telecom might not appreciate the successive recent guidance reductions from the company, Yaghi said.

Telus reported quarterly earnings that missed expectations, even after adding 110,000 net new phones. Adjusted earnings per share came in at 19 cents, falling short of the 23-cent estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

(Adds CEO comment in fourth paragraph.)

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The mattress giant says a forensic investigation is ongoing.

Mattress manufacturer Tempur Sealy International says it has resumed normal operations after shutting down certain information technology (IT) systems following a cyber attack.

The shutdown resulted in a temporary interruption of operations, said the company, which disclosed the incident in a July 31 Securities and Exchange Commission filing .

The company said it identified the breach on July 23 and took steps to contain the incident, including shutting down some of its IT systems.

A forensic investigation remains ongoing, Tempur Sealy said in the filing. Work continues to determine whether this incident will have a material impact on the companys business, operations or financial results, it said.

Minding personal information

If the Company determines that any personal information was involved, it would endeavor to comply with any reporting obligations it may have with respect to such information under applicable law, according to the filing.

On Aug. 3, Tempur Sealy reported that second-quarter net sales rose 4.8% to $1.3 billion and net income increased 2% to $92 million, compared with the same year-ago period.

This quarter's results were delivered in markets that were a bit less robust than we expected, said Scott Thompson, chairman and CEO, in a statement. The company outperformed the global industry, which partially mitigated the negative impact of headwinds, he said.

Thompson added that the company, which agreed in May to acquire rival Mattress Firm, is in the process of responding to a Federal Trade Commission second request for more information on the planned merger. Thompson added that the company expects to close the transaction next year.

The news of the cyber attack comes days after the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a data breach that exposed the personal information of 612,000 Medicare recipients and millions of other health care consumers.

CMS says it is working with Maximus Federal Services, one of the agencys Medicare program contractors, to notify Medicare beneficiaries who may be affected by the incident. Both CMS and Maximus are offering free credit monitoring services for two years.
The suit accuses the company of "false advertising," claiming Tesla overvalued the cars. Getty Images

Tesla is facing a lawsuit from customers over its vehicles' driving range estimates.

The suit accuses the company of "false advertising," claiming Tesla overvalued the cars.

The lawsuit cites a Reuters investigation which found the carmaker had exaggerated its cars' range.

Tesla is facing a lawsuit from some customers over its vehicles' driving range estimates.

The plaintiffs have accused the electric vehicle company of "false advertising," claiming in court documents Tesla overvalued its cars to consumers.

The lawsuit cites a Reuters investigation which found that the carmaker had exaggerated vehicles' driving range, the distance cars can travel before needing to recharge. The report cited a source familiar with an early design of Tesla software, who claimed the EV maker rigged the range-estimating software on the cars' dashboards.

The Reuters investigation also cited sources with knowledge of a secret team set up to cancel service appointments from drivers with range issues. The secret "Diversion Team" set up in Las Vegas was the result of a flood of complaints about driving range concerning cars that often did not require repairs, per Reuters.

The lawsuit, which is bought by three Tesla owners, says that the company engaged in fraud and unfair competition. It states: "Had Tesla honestly advertised its electric vehicle ranges, consumers either would not have purchased Tesla model vehicles, or else would have paid substantially less for them."

The suit claims driving range is "one of the most important features" for consumers purchasing an electric vehicle. The distance EVs can travel on one charge is one of the main disadvantages the cars face in comparison with gas vehicles.

The three plaintiffs detail instances of lower-than-expected range in the suit which is seeking class-action status. One Tesla owner, James Porter said in the lawsuit "his vehicle lost approximately 182 miles of rangedespite only driving 92 miles."

Representatives for Tesla and the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment, made outside normal working hours.

Read the original article on Business Insider
I've encountered a dining trend that I understand but don't especially like. I found it three times, in different forms, on my recent trip to London. I hadn't thought about it again until I saw a tweet from Washington Post dining critic Tom Sietsema last weekend.

He wrote: "That 90-minute rule some restaurants have for diners? I hadnt thought about it much until tonight, when three of us were mid-meal and asked to vacate the table. We were not lingering, btw. We were at the mercy of the kitchen."

Time restrictions at restaurants? Yes, they are a thing.

Before you even sit down, you're told how long you'll have at your table. This started as a response to the return to dining during the COVID-19 pandemic. There could be only so many diners in a room, so time restrictions made sense.

Most expect that normalcy has returned to restaurants. But these timed diners make sense to busy, popular restaurants in big cities such as London and Washington, D.C. Seats are in demand. Give people 90 minutes or two hours to eat and then they have to get out. The next party enters.

It may well make business sense. But it doesn't necessarily feel good.

Cheers to having your table until you are finished dining.

When I reserved a lunch at Jacuzzi in the Kensington section of London, the rules were clear. (By the way, lunch was all that was open three weeks before my London arrival.) It was right there on the confirmation that my lunch was set for 14:15 to 16:15. We drank, ate and left before our time was up. It was just fine.

When we stopped at a largely empty Southwark restaurant after an afternoon at the Tate Modern museum, we were told we could have a table for one hour. No more. We had no reservations, were hungry, and 22,000 cyclists were finishing a race in the neighborhood. They all had reservations in an hour. So we were grateful to eat, time limit or not. There was no problem as they served us quickly.

But it was at a restaurant in our hotel that I encountered the unexpected time limit. I had booked dinner at 5:45 p.m. on our first night. I knew from experience that arriving at 6 a.m. that day dictated an early dinner. My husband and I invited a London friend to join us. The three of us had drinks and dinner. But instead of offering us dessert, they told us it was time to leave the table. The next party was waiting. I get it. But I didn't like it. I wasn't warned when making the reservation. I wasn't warned when we sat. But we left as requested.

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The Washington Post critic's experience was much worse. His party was still eating when he was de-tabled. That's bad.

I think that knowing the rules before you start makes a difference, as does the explanation. When the restaurant is tiny, getting diners in and out is the only way the business can survive.

That explains the one-hour reservation time limit at Providence, Rhode Island's Little Sister. Owner Milena Pagan was one of this year's James Beard Foundation's semi-finalists for Best Chef: Northeast. When you reserve your table online, it says right there that because there are only six tables, all seatings are for one hour. We can all be sympathetic to the challenges there, right?

Do we have to be similarly understanding of big, corporate restaurants? I'm just not sure.

Some of the most valuable real estate for summer drinks and dining is on the Castle Hill Inn lawn in Newport.

There's also a time limit on the lawn at Castle Hill Inn in Newport, Rhode Island. In summer, the prized Adirondack chairs facing Narragansett Bay have always been first come, first served. They just launched reserved lawn seating, in 2.5-hour seatings, for parties of six to 12 chairs. There's a charge of $25 per person, plus tax and 20% gratuity. That doesn't include food and drink. If you don't like it, you don't have to do it.

I guess that at the heart of it, time restrictions just don't seem very hospitable. I'm not sure how good that is for the service industry.

On the other hand, we've seen a movement of people abusing their restaurant time. A restaurant table isn't your own personal dining room. You don't have to go home, but you can't stay there all night either.

Maybe more consideration of others on both sides would be a step in the right direction.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Restaurant time limits: Reasonable request or inhospitable experience?
(Bloomberg) -- Earnings reports from the big three online travel companies showed that consumers are willing to swallow higher prices to get their international summer trip.

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Airbnb Inc., Expedia Group Inc., and Booking Holdings Inc. all reported second-quarter results on Thursday, presenting differing pictures of what has generally been billed as a sizzling summer of travel. The common trend among them, though, was higher prices  from flights to hotels and short-term rentals  and a preference for European or Asian vacations.

That benefited Booking, which makes almost 90% of its revenue in Europe. The Norwalk, Connecticut-based company, which owns discount reservation site Priceline and flight aggregator Kayak, reported revenue that increased 27% and total gross bookings up 15%. Average daily rates for accommodations were up about 9 percentage points from a year earlier, the company said. Year-over-year room night growth was up in Asia by more than 40% in the second quarter but slightly down in the US.

In the long run, people are always going to want to travel, Chief Executive Officer Glenn Fogel said on Bloomberg TV Friday morning. And you can basically make an estimate that travel is going to increase faster than GDP. Fogel expects a record travel season in the third quarter.

Though ticket prices remain high for international routes, travelers seem to still be willing to spend on the overseas experiences they missed out on during the height of the pandemic. For Americans, the strong dollar also makes that trip to Italy look even more appealing. Hot tourist cities are back on bucket lists too, after several summers of vacations spent in more rural, domestic settings.

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Global airlines like United Airlines Holdings Inc. and Delta Air Lines Inc. raised their annual profit forecasts on strength in international bookings and said they see strong demand continuing into the fall. Marriott International Inc. raised its profit estimates for the rest of 2023, with hotels in Asia and Europe driving revenue growth. At the same time, US domestic-focused carriers like JetBlue and Alaska Air are being forced to slash prices for trips within the US.

Read more: US Airlines Eyeing a Summer Boom Are Slashing Prices Instead

Higher prices are also reflected in lodging prices at Airbnb, where average daily rates have jumped 42% since 2019 to $166 at the end of June. But its all about location: Average daily rates were down 1% in North America in the second quarter from a year earlier, while in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, they were up 8%.

That didnt seem to deter travelers, who booked 115.1 million nights and experiences on Airbnb in the second quarter, up 11% from already elevated levels last year and Airbnbs highest second-quarter ever. The high prices also drove Airbnb to its most profitable second quarter ever on a generally accepted accounting principals basis.

We actually saw acceleration in total growth on nights booked from the first quarter to the second in North America, Airbnb Chief Financial Officer Dave Stephenson said in an earnings call Thursday. So I think that was telling about just the strength and resiliency of the North American consumer, and we continue to see that strength leading into Q3, which is why were forecasting further acceleration of nights growth from Q2 into Q3.

San Francisco-based Airbnb said people were traveling longer distances and that cross-border nights booked were up 16% during the quarter. In particular travel to Asia Pacific grew more than 80% and nights and experiences booked to North America by guests from abroad rose about 20% from a year earlier. Overall consumer demand improved during the second quarter, with nights booked increasing 10% from a year ago in April and 15% year-on-year in June. Airbnb also said more travelers were coming back to cities, its traditional stronghold, with bookings for high-density urban listings up 13%.

For Expedia, whose platforms include flight reservations, hotel stays, car rentals, activities and vacation rentals, some of the recent travel trends werent as beneficial and it reported revenue that missed analysts estimates. The shift in consumer demand toward urban markets and shorter stays impacted Expedias Vrbo vacation-rental business, said Chief Financial Officer Julie Whalen on an earnings call Thursday. The Seattle-based company makes most of its revenue domestically and doesnt have the same international reach as Airbnb. However, given the size and strong growth of our hotel business, Whalen said, we were pleased that we were able to deliver record lodging bookings in total.

(Corrects language in third paragraph to reflect that room nights booked in Asia rose in the second quarter)

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(Bloomberg) -- Yellow Corp. is considering a sale of assets and real estate through a bankruptcy filing, which may come as soon as this weekend, according to people with knowledge of the situation.

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Assets of the beleaguered trucking company have already piqued the interest of a potential financial bidder, according to the people, who asked not to be identified discussing a private matter. The Chapter 11 process could later transition into a liquidation, the people said.

The situation, however, is still evolving and nothing has been finalized. A representative at Yellow didnt reply to request for comment.

The less-than-truckload carrier, which accepts shipments that dont fill a whole trailer, has been teetering toward bankruptcy in recent weeks and told workers Monday it was shutting down, according to the labor union that represents Yellows drivers. The company has more than $1 billion of debt maturing next year that it has struggled to refinance.

Creditors led by Apollo Global Management Inc. are nearing a deal to provide Yellow with fresh cash during a coming bankruptcy, Bloomberg reported earlier this week.

In the case of a bankruptcy, the US government will likely be Yellows biggest creditor due to a controversial $700 million lifeline it provided during the pandemic. Yellow said it expects to repay the government loan in full, citing collateral on all of the companys real estate and vehicle stock.

Yellow is the third largest less-than-truckload carrier in the US and has some 30,000 employees. Shippers of that kind rarely avoid liquidating when they file for bankruptcy, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Lee Klaskow said in a July 27 note.

Story continues

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As his legal peril intensifies, so do Donald Trumps legal fees. Most of these lawyer charges have been paid by draining funds from his political action committee (PAC), Save America, and shifting funds from Trump-supporting Super PACs.

Here: How Obama, Biden and Other Elected Officials Have Made Millions by Being in Office

More: 3 Things You Must Do When Your Savings Reach $50,000

Save America, the leadership PAC founded by former President Donald Trump, has less than $4 million cash on hand, after siphoning over $101 million to pay legal fees for Trump and his allies since the beginning of 2022, reports the New York Times.

Mid-year tax filings for PACs provide awareness about presidential campaign funding and how those funds are being used. In Save Americas case, money that could be going to necessary campaign needs or political work, is being spent overwhelmingly on the former presidents and his associates pending legal cases.

According to its mid-year Federal Election Commission (FEC) filing, the Save America PAC has spent approximately $25 million in the first half of 2023, $21.6 million of that went to legal fees.

A PAC is a tax-exempt, 527 political organization created to raise and spend money to elect and defeat candidates. PACs have donation limits for individuals ($5,000 per year) and cant accept donations from corporate or labor union treasuries.

PACS differ from Super PACs, which can gather unlimited funds from people, corporations, unions and other PACs to finance campaign expenditures independently. They can help finance travel and events and often pay for advertising to support a candidate or cause (or to oppose another candidate) but cant coordinate directly with candidates or contribute money to political parties or campaigns.

CJ GUNTHER / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock.com

The pro-Trump super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., has sent back $12.25 million of the $13.1 million it raised in 2023 to Save America. The extraordinary shift of money from the super PAC to Mr. Trumps political committee, described in federal campaign filings as a refund, is believed to be larger than any other refund on record in the history of federal campaigns, claims The New York Times.

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Although donors would want to know where their contributions are being spent, PACs can use their wealth in any legal way they see fit, including paying for the litigation costs of their candidate. And just like any other organization or entity, political action committees can have negative funds.

PACs are subject to financial ups and downs like businesses or individuals. A negative fund balance indicates that the PAC owes more money than it currently has on hand. This situation can arise for various reasons, such as overspending, insufficient fundraising, unexpected expenses, or financial mismanagement.

However, its important to note that PACs, like all political organizations, are subject to financial regulations and reporting requirements. They are required to disclose their financial activities regularly to the appropriate regulatory agencies, such as the FEC. If not appropriately addressed, negative fund balances and financial issues can lead to regulatory scrutiny and potential penalties.

While the drop in fundraising by the Save America PAC might suggest that the small-dollar donor operation that has helped the former president and his allies could be running out of steam, experience tells us that Trump will continue to bet on his legal troubles supplying big donations from his supporters.

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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Trumps Donor Money Just Plummeted by $101 Million  What Happens to Election Funds If They Go Negative?
Twitter bots activity significantly increased for crypto tokens that were held by Sam Bankman-Fried's trading firm Alameda Research, after being listed by FTX, a report finds.

Cyber-social research and analysis organization Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) published a report suggesting that a "substantial proportion" of online chatter mentioning coins listed prior to the exchanges collapse were from "bot-like" accounts.

NCRI's report examined over 3 million tweets between January 1, 2019, and January 27, 2023. It specifically examined Tweets mentioning 18 different tokens that had been listed on FTX and "officially advertised" by its Twitter account.

The report found that, once listed on FTX, the proportion of "inauthentic chatter" surrounding the token on Twitter steadily grew from approximately 20% to 50%.

FTX Reboot Pitches New Offshore Exchange for Users

Its unclear, however, if the same phenomenon didnt also exist for other exchanges, such as Coinbase or Binance. NCRI did not immediately respond to Decrypts request for comment.

NCRI took a closer look at the meme coin PEPEa token unrelated to Alameda, FTX, and Sam Bankman-Friedthe report concluded that bot-like activity could have been "a driver of PEPE's price dynamic" rather than a side-effect.

"This so-called 'inauthentic chatter' creates an illusion of heightened interest and activity around a particular token, leading people to believe that it's gaining momentum." Jason Wise, Editor-in-Chief of technology research publication EarthWeb, told Decrypt "In many cases, this can result in a temporary price increase due to the 'FOMO' effectthe fear of missing outas more people rush to invest."

More broadly, the report explains that inauthentic social media activity can be a key tool for market manipulation. NCRI urges regulators, platforms, and the public to develop methods to identify and counter such strategies.

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"The situation described suggests a potentially orchestrated effort to manipulate market sentiment using this tactic," Wise said. "The SECand other financial regulatorsmay treat such activity as a market-manipulating violation of regulations designed to ensure fair and transparent trading practices."

The report finished by explaining that "billions of dollars" were lost due to the "scam activity" found.

Elon and Twitter bots

When Elon Musk was racing to buy Twitter, now X, he claimed that he'd "defeat the spam bots or die trying!"

In an early attempt to tackle this issue, the Twitter API was turned into a paid servicecosting up to $42,000.

If our twitter bid succeeds, we will defeat the spam bots or die trying!  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 21, 2022

"A Twitter bot is software that controls a Twitter account via the Twitter API," global cybersecurity advisor for ESET, Jake Moore, told Decrypt. "They can be set up to create interest in particular digital assets and can look convincing at first glance especially when a lot of traction gets behind such activity."

While this API change was a clear attempt at reducing the number of bots on Twitter, it has also negatively affected the research industry. NCRI's report mentions that both Twitter and Meta have limited data accessibility for researchers which may obstruct them from identifying fraudulent activities.

"Contrary to assertions that bot activity on Twitter had diminished since [Musk's] takeover, NCRI's analysis tells a different story," the report said.

Interestingly, there seems to be a trend away from traditional bots that use the API towards paying real people to do the dirty work.

"I'd wager they aren't bots, but literal poor people in developing countries," Adam McMurchie, devops and cloud engineer in the fintech sector, told Decrypt. "It's quite a common technique in places like Bangladesh."

McMurchie added that he's been personally approached by marketers offering this service.

While Musk frantically attempts to crush Twitter's bot problem, bad actors have continued to use the API or, as McMurchie mentioned, outsource the labor to low-income countries.

Meanwhile, "good bots" like PossomEveryHourwhich posts a picture of a possum every hourare being taken out instead.
Key Insights

Using the 2 Stage Free Cash Flow to Equity, United Parcel Service fair value estimate is US$149

United Parcel Service's US$182 share price signals that it might be 22% overvalued

Our fair value estimate is 22% lower than United Parcel Service's analyst price target of US$191

In this article we are going to estimate the intrinsic value of United Parcel Service, Inc. (NYSE:UPS) by taking the expected future cash flows and discounting them to today's value. One way to achieve this is by employing the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model. Models like these may appear beyond the comprehension of a lay person, but they're fairly easy to follow.

We would caution that there are many ways of valuing a company and, like the DCF, each technique has advantages and disadvantages in certain scenarios. For those who are keen learners of equity analysis, the Simply Wall St analysis model here may be something of interest to you.

View our latest analysis for United Parcel Service

The Method

We use what is known as a 2-stage model, which simply means we have two different periods of growth rates for the company's cash flows. Generally the first stage is higher growth, and the second stage is a lower growth phase. To start off with, we need to estimate the next ten years of cash flows. Where possible we use analyst estimates, but when these aren't available we extrapolate the previous free cash flow (FCF) from the last estimate or reported value. We assume companies with shrinking free cash flow will slow their rate of shrinkage, and that companies with growing free cash flow will see their growth rate slow, over this period. We do this to reflect that growth tends to slow more in the early years than it does in later years.

Generally we assume that a dollar today is more valuable than a dollar in the future, and so the sum of these future cash flows is then discounted to today's value:

10-year free cash flow (FCF) forecast

2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030 2031 2032 2033 Levered FCF ($, Millions) US$8.63b US$8.64b US$9.41b US$9.08b US$8.93b US$8.89b US$8.91b US$8.98b US$9.09b US$9.22b Growth Rate Estimate Source Analyst x14 Analyst x7 Analyst x2 Analyst x1 Est @ -1.66% Est @ -0.53% Est @ 0.26% Est @ 0.82% Est @ 1.21% Est @ 1.48% Present Value ($, Millions) Discounted @ 8.3% US$8.0k US$7.4k US$7.4k US$6.6k US$6.0k US$5.5k US$5.1k US$4.7k US$4.4k US$4.2k

("Est" = FCF growth rate estimated by Simply Wall St)

Present Value of 10-year Cash Flow (PVCF) = US$59b

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After calculating the present value of future cash flows in the initial 10-year period, we need to calculate the Terminal Value, which accounts for all future cash flows beyond the first stage. The Gordon Growth formula is used to calculate Terminal Value at a future annual growth rate equal to the 5-year average of the 10-year government bond yield of 2.1%. We discount the terminal cash flows to today's value at a cost of equity of 8.3%.

Terminal Value (TV)= FCF 2033  (1 + g)  (r  g) = US$9.2b (1 + 2.1%)  (8.3% 2.1%) = US$152b

Present Value of Terminal Value (PVTV)= TV / (1 + r)10= US$152b ( 1 + 8.3%)10= US$68b

The total value, or equity value, is then the sum of the present value of the future cash flows, which in this case is US$128b. To get the intrinsic value per share, we divide this by the total number of shares outstanding. Relative to the current share price of US$182, the company appears slightly overvalued at the time of writing. Valuations are imprecise instruments though, rather like a telescope - move a few degrees and end up in a different galaxy. Do keep this in mind.

dcf

The Assumptions

We would point out that the most important inputs to a discounted cash flow are the discount rate and of course the actual cash flows. If you don't agree with these result, have a go at the calculation yourself and play with the assumptions. The DCF also does not consider the possible cyclicality of an industry, or a company's future capital requirements, so it does not give a full picture of a company's potential performance. Given that we are looking at United Parcel Service as potential shareholders, the cost of equity is used as the discount rate, rather than the cost of capital (or weighted average cost of capital, WACC) which accounts for debt. In this calculation we've used 8.3%, which is based on a levered beta of 1.044. Beta is a measure of a stock's volatility, compared to the market as a whole. We get our beta from the industry average beta of globally comparable companies, with an imposed limit between 0.8 and 2.0, which is a reasonable range for a stable business.

SWOT Analysis for United Parcel Service

Strength

Earnings growth over the past year exceeded the industry.

Debt is well covered by earnings and cashflows.

Dividends are covered by earnings and cash flows.

Weakness

Earnings growth over the past year is below its 5-year average.

Dividend is low compared to the top 25% of dividend payers in the Logistics market.

Opportunity

Annual earnings are forecast to grow for the next 3 years.

Good value based on P/E ratio compared to estimated Fair P/E ratio.

Threat

Annual earnings are forecast to grow slower than the American market.

Next Steps:

Although the valuation of a company is important, it is only one of many factors that you need to assess for a company. The DCF model is not a perfect stock valuation tool. Rather it should be seen as a guide to "what assumptions need to be true for this stock to be under/overvalued?" For instance, if the terminal value growth rate is adjusted slightly, it can dramatically alter the overall result. Why is the intrinsic value lower than the current share price? For United Parcel Service, we've put together three further elements you should further examine:

Risks: To that end, you should be aware of the 1 warning sign we've spotted with United Parcel Service . Future Earnings: How does UPS's growth rate compare to its peers and the wider market? Dig deeper into the analyst consensus number for the upcoming years by interacting with our free analyst growth expectation chart. Other High Quality Alternatives: Do you like a good all-rounder? Explore our interactive list of high quality stocks to get an idea of what else is out there you may be missing!

PS. Simply Wall St updates its DCF calculation for every American stock every day, so if you want to find the intrinsic value of any other stock just search here.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
A J-20 stealth fighter jet at the 14th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition in Zhuhai on November 8, 2022. Deng Hua/Xinhua via Getty Images

Rep. Mike Gallagher urged President Biden to widen limits on US investments in China.

Forthcoming restrictions should cover US participation in Chinese public markets, he said.

"If American capital continues to flow to Chinese military companies, we are at risk of funding our own destruction."

Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wisconsin, has appealed to the Biden administration to introduce stricter curbs on US investment in China, according to a letter obtained by the Financial Times.

In the letter to President Biden, he said new limits on US investments expected soon from a White House executive order should include Chinese public markets where stocks and bonds are traded  not just direct investments from private equity and venture capital funds.

"If American capital continues to flow to Chinese military companies, we are at risk of funding our own destruction," Gallagher, who is chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, later told the FT.

"Wall Street needs to recognize that investing in critical technology sectors in the PRC endangers our military service members, imperils the targets of the Chinese Communist Party's human rights abuses, and enhances systemic risks for the global economy. That's a deadly cocktail the American people didn't order and don't want to be served."

His letter cited estimates that put US private investments in China at more than $200 billion, compared to over $1.1 trillion of US capital in stocks and bonds on China's public markets.

A "sizable portion" of that money goes directly to tech companies with ties to China's military and the Chinese Communist Party, he added.

"Despite these clear risks and the US Government's longstanding efforts to address national security threats stemming from inbound foreign investment, no mechanism exists for the US Government to require disclosure of, much less restrict, outbound capital flows into such foreign adversary companies," Gallagher wrote.

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His comments follow earlier US efforts to curb Chinese access to critical technologies, such as semiconductors, quantum computing, and artificial intelligence.

Gallagher's committee is also probing BlackRock and MSCI over their roles in funneling American investments into shares of Chinese firms that have been flagged by the US over security concerns or human rights abuses, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

The congressional panel said it found that American investors have funded 60 such companies, and BlackRock has invested $429 million through five of its funds.

Meanwhile, foreign investors have been souring on China in recent months as the country's post-COVID economic rebound has disappointed.

Read the original article on Business Insider
(Bloomberg) -- Wheat futures rose more than 4%, paring a weekly loss, after an attack forced a major Russian grain-shipping hub to temporarily close.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Traffic at the Novorossiysk port was halted for several hours on Friday after a Ukrainian drone attack on a naval vessel. The overnight assault was repelled without damage to port facilities, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

Read more: Ukraine Attack on Russian Ship Disrupts Commodity-Export Hub.

Although the closure was short-lived, escalating war added to uncertainty over Black Sea trade flows in the midst of this years harvests. Russia pulled out of a deal last month that had established a safe corridor for grain shipments from three Ukrainian ports.

Futures also got a bump from Indias rare move to consider abolishing an import tax, which could see the worlds second-largest wheat producer bringing in more overseas supply. The last time the nation imported a significant amount of wheat was in the 2017-18 season.

Read more: India Considers Scrapping Wheat Import Tax to Cool Prices

Fridays gains are unlikely to prevent wheat from posting the first weekly loss in over a month. Wheat prices have relinquished some of their gains this week as markets weighed the damaged Ukrainian grain supplies and the Russian surplus to satisfy the global demand, Jacqueline Holland, an analyst at Farm Futures, said in a phone interview.

Chicago futures climbed as much as 4.3%, before paring the advance. Paris wheat also rose to trade steady on the week.

--With assistance from Ben Sharples, Pratik Parija and Siddhartha Singh.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
Aristotle Atlantic Partners, an investment management firm, released its "Aristotle Atlantic Value Equity Fund" second quarter 2023 investor letter, a copy of which can be downloaded here. For the second quarter of 2023, Aristotle Capitals Value Equity Composite posted a total return of 4.56% gross of fees (4.51% net of fees), outperforming the 4.07% return of the Russell 1000 Value Index and underperforming the 8.74% return of the S&P 500 Index. Spare some time to check the funds top 5 holdings to know more about their top bets for 2023. In its Q2 2023 investor letter, Aristotle Value Equity mentioned Parker-Hannifin Corporation (NYSE:PH) and explained its insights for the company. Founded in 1917, Parker-Hannifin Corporation (NYSE:PH) is a Cleveland, Ohio-based motion and control technologies and systems manufacturing company with a $52.0 billion market capitalization. Parker-Hannifin Corporation (NYSE:PH) delivered a 39.47% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are down by 38.30%. The stock closed at $405.87 per share on August 02, 2023. Here is what Aristotle Value Equity has to say about Parker-Hannifin Corporation (NYSE:PH) in its Q2 2023 investor letter:

"Parker Hannifin, the manufacturer of motion and control technologies, was a primary contributor during the quarter. In the latter half of 2022, the company closed on the acquisition of Meggitt. The cash transaction value of 7 billion (approximately $8.5 billion) was modest compared to the firms enterprise value of ~$50 billion, however a meaningful indication of managements prowess. This, in our opinion, is a very welltimed combination, as Meggitt adds complementary aerospace and defense businesses to an already existing strong portfolio. It should also support Parker Hannifins goal of shifting its portfolio toward aftermarket exposurea catalyst we had identified forthe companysince aftermarketsales are typically highermargin and result in more predictable recurring revenues than originalequipment sales. Importantly, Parker Hannifin is no stranger to successful acquisitions, having integrated dozens (though mostly smaller than Meggitt) throughout its history. As such, we look forward to the prospect of the latest combination, further positioning the company to achieve new heights."

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Best Software Stocks To Invest In According To Hedge Funds

Our calculations show that Parker-Hannifin Corporation (NYSE:PH) was not able to secure a spot on our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. Parker-Hannifin Corporation (NYSE:PH) was in 49 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the second quarter of 2023, compared to 47 funds in the previous quarter. Parker-Hannifin Corporation (NYSE:PH) delivered a 25.93% return in the past 3 months.We also discussed Parker-Hannifin Corporation (NYSE:PH) in another article. You can find other investor letters from hedge funds and prominent investors on our hedge fund investor letters Q2 2023 page.Suggested Articles:

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
Fredericksburg City Public Schools has purchased Stop the Bleed kits for every classroom in the division, and more than 200 employees attended training this week to learn how to use them.

We are teaching people how to immediately respond to bleeding, said Georgie Athenry, a lieutenant with the Fredericksburg Fire Department. We are first responders, but you are immediate responders, and immediate responders save lives.

Athenry led the training sessions along with Mike Athenry, a lieutenant in the Fredericksburg Police Department. Members of Mary Washington Hospitals trauma team and the Fredericksburg Sheriffs Office also helped present the training.

Together, the team taught 12 classes over four days for City school employees this week.

Jessica King, a trauma performance improvement specialist with Mary Washington Hospital, said members of her team went to a conference in 2016 where they learned about Stop the Bleed, which is now an international program that teaches people how to treat life-threatening bleeding.

The team has led countless trainings in the Fredericksburg area since then, but this is the first time the class has been taught in a public school, Mike Athenry said.

Fredericksburg City schools has really set its employees up for success by putting a kit in every classroom, he said, noting that the kits can cost about $200.

The average national response time to a 911 call is between seven and 10 minutes, Georgie Athenry said. Fredericksburg City has two ambulances on call and it could take one of them between five and seven minutes to arrive at one of the schools from the station.

However, if both are in use, it could take between 10 and 12 minutes for an ambulance to arrive from Stafford or Spotsylvania.

A person can bleed to death in two to five minutes, meaning swift action on the part of people who are on the scene can truly save a life.

Arm and leg wounds are identified as the leading cause of preventable death in trauma cases, Georgia Athenry told class participants. Bleeds can be treated with direct pressure, tourniquets and wound packing.

Participants learned how, when and where to apply a tourniquet and practiced how to put a tourniquet on themselves and on a partner. They also learned how and when to pack a wound, apply direct pressure to a wound and apply a chest seal.

The school division is making safety and security a top priority, deputy superintendent Matt Eberhardt said at the School Boards July meeting.

He described the divisions safety plans as ongoing and multilayered, involving constant dialogue and collaboration with Fredericksburg City staff, law enforcement and first responders.

Safety will also be the topic of the sixth Superintendent Community Roundtable, which will take place this month.
The City of Fremont has defied an order from Dodge County Judge Thomas Klein to return a handgun to a Kansas man who had the firearm confiscated by Fremont police officers after he was arrested for possession of marijuana.

The city  through attorney Molly J. Miller  has also filed an appeal seeking to overturn Kleins June 15 ruling that ordered the Fremont Police Department to return a .38 caliber Ruger LCP2 semi-automatic handgun to the possession of Ronald C. Kurdi, of Kansas.

A hearing on the citys appeal has been scheduled for 1 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 17, in Dodge County Court.

Kurdi, 34, of Burlington, Kansas, was arrested in the early morning of Jan. 14, 2023, after a traffic stop on South Luther Road in Fremont. Kurdi was charged with suspicion of possession of marijuana less than 1 ounce and possession of drug paraphernalia.

In an interview with the Tribune, Kurdi said during the traffic stop he told Fremont police officers that he had in his possession the semi-automatic handgun secured inside a backpack in an un-reachable area of his Suburban SUV.

Kurdi said the officers took the handgun, but did not file any charges against him for possessing the weapon while also being in possession of marijuana.

I live in my Suburban when I am working. The main reason (the police) took it is because they said it was concealed. It was in my backpack. It was a normal traffic stop. I let (the police) know I had it, they searched the vehicle and found it. I was not hiding it or anything, Kurdi said. They didnt do a firearm charge  this is what we landed on, me pleading guilty to marijuana. I just purchased (the gun). It is not a cheap weapon. Thats why I filed the motion to get it back.

After he pleaded guilty to both charges on May 3, Kurdis lawyer  Bradley E. Nick  then filed a motion with Klein seeking to have his clients firearm returned to him.

Klein agreed, granting the motion to return the firearm to Kurdi on June 15. According to court documents, Dodge County Attorney Pamela Hopkins did not object to returning the firearm to Kurdi.

In a July 27 filing made to Klein in Dodge County Court, Miller wrote that the city seeks to vacate his June 15 ruling in which Klein agreed with the motion by Kurdis attorney asking for the return of the firearm.

Miller cited as the reason for the appeal the fact that Kurdi had pleaded guilty to possession of marijuana, 1 ounce or less, as well as possession of use of drug paraphernalia.

Miller then cited federal firearms law  18 U.S. Code 922 (d)(3)  which states it is unlawful for any person to sell or otherwise dispose of any firearm or ammunition to any person who is an unlawful user or is addicted to any controlled substance.

In request for a new hearing  which Klein did grant  Miller also stated that if the Fremont Police Department was forced to return the handgun to Kurdi, then the city police department would itself be violating federal firearms laws.

The Tribune contacted Klein seeking comment, but the county judge said he is unable to comment on any pending litigation or court actions and declined to comment.

The issue of whether or not users of unlawful drugs or other controlled substances can own or possess firearms or ammunition is one of many current restrictions on gun ownership that are now facing an uncertain future after the June 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the case New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen.

In the 6-3 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the State of New Yorks public carry licensing law which had been in place for decades. In their ruling, the high court of the nation also reset to a degree the criteria for restrictions on the ownership of firearms, a legal change that had caused numerous Second Amendment challenges across the nation as well as left many judges flummoxed on how to rule on cases.

Multiple appeals and new cases regarding gun ownership are currently filed or scheduled to be heard in both state and federal courts all over the United States. Many of the cases involve plaintiffs who are claiming that under the new framework created by the 2022 ruling  called the Bruen Test  that many of the long-standing prohibitions on the ownership of firearms are now unconstitutional.

Among the prohibitions being challenged since the Bruen ruling are federal laws barring convicted felons, people convicted of domestic violence or abuse charges, anyone who has served a term of more than one calendar year in prison or the users and addicts of unlawful drugs or controlled substances from owning, possessing or buying firearms or ammunition.

Kurdi admitted he had marijuana with him at the time he possessed the firearm. However, he said due to the ever-changing legality of cannabis across the nation, restricting a persons Second Amendment rights for merely using a substance that is legal in a particular state  in his opinion  doesnt make sense.

I am moving to Missouri. If I were to go to Missouri, became a resident and decided I wanted a medical (cannabis) card, I am signing away my gun rights in that state if I get the card, Kurdi said.

That possibility, he noted, came to his mind when he tried to get his gun back and the FPD clerk would not return it.

I came to Fremont, went to my lawyers office and he handed me the printed court order. I immediately took that to the (Fremont) police department. They took it from me, (the clerk) called the judge.

After that interaction, the police department clerk refused to give Kurdi his firearm.

(The clerk) told me that there is a new federal law that they cant give me the weapon back until a year after this charge, Kurdi said. I asked her, so youre stripping me of my Second Amendment rights because of a drug charge?

On July 27, the City of Fremont lawyer filed the request for a new hearing on the return of the firearm.
Cortland Moseman remembers the first sheep he ever trained.

The animals name was Pee Wee.

Then about 11 years old, Cortland worked with the sheep for months so he could show it at the fair. He even won a reserve junior showmanship title with it. The sheep later was sent to market.

Its really hard, because all year youre making this bond with this animal and then youve got to give it back, Cortland said. Its like losing a best friend.

On Thursday morning, Cortland was showing sheep at the Dodge County Fair in Scribner. Now 14 years old and in his third year at the fair, Cortland paused for a moment before leading a breeding ewe, named Dottie, into the show ring.

To prepare Dottie for the event, Cortland said he walked with her twice a day to help her build muscle so shed look good in the ring.

Every day, he practiced training her to walk on a halter. He then took off the halter and practiced leading her with his hands only.

The Hooper teen practiced setting Dotties feet in the proper position so shed look good for the judge. He shampooed and put conditioner on her legs before the show.

That makes their legs look fluffier, he said.

Dottie typically behaves in the show ring.

Most of the time, shes a good girl, Cortland said. Theres some days where she doesnt want to do stuff. Theres been some shows where she just wants to run around, but you cant let her do that.

Because shes a breeding ewe, Dottie wont go to market like Pee Wee and become food on someones table.

Cortland knows how difficult it can be to send an animal to market. But like other 4-Hers, he maintains a perspective on the situation.

Its the circle of life, he said. If I work all year long and get them in shape that feeds families in the United States. You have to keep who youre helping out in mind.

While Cortland competed in the show ring, 10-year-old Avery Bost was looking after his cross-bred lambs, a wether named Shawn and a ewe called, Flower.

Avery, whos from Fremont, appreciates Shawn and his name.

He reminds me of that show called Shawn the Sheep on Netflix, said Avery, referring to the animated childrens TV series. Its hilarious.

Avery likes his own Shawn.

What I like about him is that he doesnt go crazy like his sister, Avery said. Hes mostly calm, but his sister  her name is Flower  she goes crazy. She runs all over the place.

Avery has a strategy for getting Flower to calm down.

Mostly, I just talk to her and tell her that its going to be OK, Avery said. It works sometimes.

Averys efforts appear to have paid off. He won the 2023 reserve junior showmanship title, third place for a breeding ewe and fourth for a market lamb at the fair.

He shared a few tips for working with lambs.

Youve got to take care of them and make sure theyre alive, he said.

At the fair, Averys lambs also were decked out in nylon mesh jackets to help protect them from fly bites.

Avery smiled as he tenderly took Shawns head in his hands.

It was a quiet moment for a boy and his lamb and another chapter for 4-Hers at the county fair.
Think globally, act locally! Its wonderful if it does not kill.

The treasured phrase has its 1,300-word Wikipedia page, which defines it as a call to consider the health of the entire planet and to take action in their own communities and cities. Its on bumper stickers and apparel.

Think globally + act locally = good person. Our every action has an equal and opposite reaction that might harm people we dont see and hear.

Everyone should think globally and act locally. Thats why we ask our state, federal and local governments to think more clearly when attacking natural gas domestically.

Recent Colorado actions against natural gas include:

 Crested Butte voted in July to ban natural gas for future buildings.

 Lafayette, with thousands of planned new homes, banned natural gas in new construction.

 Golden laid the groundwork for an ordinance banning natural gas in new buildings, which will self-generate electrons.

 Erie and Northglenn have recently adopted building codes to obstruct gas.

 Eight of nine Boulder City Commissioners favor banning natural gas in new buildings and homes, and the ninth ponders joining them.

 Denver and Louisville have requirements that demand all-electric commercial construction.

 The Colorado Air Quality Control Commission wants commercial buildings fully electric, without gas, by target dates.

Weve reached a tipping point. Its like Wisconsin demonizing cheese. Colorado ranks seventh among all states for natural gas reserves, in a country with the worlds most natural gas. Be assured, abandoning and hording gas burdens the globe.

Oppose natural gas + embrace electric = good person. Maybe not.

First, it hurts nearby humanity mostly unseen by Colorados upscale cities and resort towns. The American Petroleum Institute reports Colorados fossil fuel production provides about 340,000 jobs. Anti-gas actions badly hurt people in Colorado who depend on gas production to pay bills, feed children and fund schools.

Behind the war on gas is Net Zero 2050, a movement taking the country by storm. The United Nations estimates costs of Net Zero at tens of trillions. The United States GDP is $25 trillion. In second, China has a GDP of $18 trillion. At tens of trillions, Net Zero  if achievable  could crash the global economy.

The global market distributes gas. As the U.S. forbids local demand, ratcheting down production, we force more people in underdeveloped countries to cook and heat with garbage, wood and dung. Those fumes, multiplied by hundreds of millions of households, are far worse than anything emitted by gas.

In Africa, Asia, the Middle East  even next door in Mexico  masses cook and heat with garbage, wood and dung. The World Health Organization reports about 3.2 million die each year from indoor pollution caused by primitive cooking and heating fuels.

Those suffering increase as the United States imposes costs and reduces access to natural gas and liquid natural gas  a power source easily transported to impoverished homes in take-home tanks.

As our politicians capitulate to Net Zero, they impose harm on the rest of the world. Its not just by curtailing domestic production.

The U.S. and 18 other countries of privilege pledged during the 2021 Climate Conference to think locally and withhold loans from developing nations if they plan to build hydrocarbon infrastructure for clean fuels, synthetic fertilizers and other hydrocarbon-based resources their populations need to survive.

The narrow focus on Net Zero could kill additional millions globally each year. Before they die, people who cook and heat with unclean fuels cough through much of their lives. Weve met them and witnessed their suffering.

Gas and other unfashionable fuels contribute to 80%-plus of the global energy supply. They are essential to 50% of the worlds food production, the manufacture of plastics, building materials, apparel and just about everything else. With this global view, to disparage gas looks mean.

Poverty has plummeted from 90% of the worlds population in the 1800s to 10%. We can directly credit natural gas and other hydrocarbon fuels for most of this humanitarian progress.

The United Nations, the U.S. and other developed nations could end world poverty by 2050 but not while obstructing gas. We will need wind, solar, geothermal and fossil fuels  all the above  along with constant advancements to improve emissions.

Americans are smarter than this. We can put humanity first by ending poverty at its root cause  energy scarcity  by 2050. Think globally, study the facts and examine them clearly. Then act locally for all of humankind.

The Gazette Editorial Board
Days after President Joe Biden selected Colorado Springs as the permanent home for Space Command, an Alabama lawmaker on Thursday threatened to subpoena top military officials for documents related to the decision.

The threat followed days of celebration by Colorado lawmakers who declared victory after tussling with Alabama since 2021 over the command. In his final days in office, former President Donald Trump said in a radio interview he single handedly picked Huntsville, Ala., as the permanent home for the command.

Space Command employs about 1,200 people locally from all service branches and will support numerous high-paying jobs, including defense contractors, making it a valuable asset to the community.

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., sent an outraged letter Thursday to Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall and U.S. Space Command leader Gen. James Dickinson demanding that they release documents related to the command's headquarters and mission requirements.

"Your refusal to abide by the Committees repeated requests for responsive documents and transcribed interviews can only be considered obfuscation and purposeful delay, highlighted by the fact that the basing decision was decided while the Committees requests are outstanding. This is unacceptable," the letter stated. "It now appears you have something to hide."

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If the committee does not receive an adequate response, Rogers said he would seek a subpoena to release documents and compel Kendall and Dickinson to appear for interviews. The latest letter was the committee's fifth request for information.

Rogers gave the two leaders until Aug. 9 to provide the documents and schedule interviews. The committee's deadline to speak with the leaders had been Aug. 18 but neither had scheduled a time to appear.

The demand follows earlier concerns from Rogers, who said in May he was alarmed that fundamental changes had occurred to command's headquarters requirements without civilian oversight.

Dickinson said in testimony before Congress in the spring that he expected the command to reach full operational capability in existing buildings in Colorado Springs.

A spokeswoman for Kendall told The Gazette this week that the Air Force would work with Space Command on plans for headquarters over the next several months. It was unclear from her response if the Air Force still planned to build a 464,000-square-foot headquarters in Colorado Springs as envisioned by an earlier environmental assessment completed for all the potential bases.
The 119 Bikeway, a 9-mile-long hard surface bikeway between Boulder and Longmont, is now funded and in final design with construction on the "facility" scheduled to begin in 2024, Boulder County officials said in a release Thursday.

The announcement comes within a week after United States National Team cyclist-phenom Magnus White died while training on his bicycle. White was struck by a car at the intersection of Colorado 119 (the Diagonal) and North 63rd Street on July 30.

"We at Boulder County join the community in grieving the tragic loss of Magnus White," county officials said in the release.

Boulder County said it partnered with the Colorado Department of Transportation, the city of Boulder, and the city of Longmont on plans for a separated bikeway on Colorado 119 that will connect Boulder and Longmont, with plans to connect to future Bus Rapid Transit stops at 63rd Street, Niwot Road and Colorado 52.

"There will be a public comment period on the final design before construction for the bikeway begins," the county said.

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Boulder County Transportation said it is always accepting suggested improvements to roadways in unincorporated Boulder County and that the public can submit suggested improvements to sidewalk, multiuse paths, crosswalks, bike lanes or bikeable shoulders, changes to traffic signals or intersection improvements, or other improvements to make the roads safer.

Boulder County also said it remains steadfast in its Vision Zero safety commitment to eliminate all serious injury and fatal traffic crashes, continuing to work with local, regional and statewide agency partners, transportation advisory boards, bicycle advocacy groups, local school districts and law enforcement officials.

"A commitment to Vision Zero means that even one traffic fatality is too many," the county said.

A spokesperson from the Colorado State Patrol said via email Friday the crash investigation could take weeks, and it will then be delivered to the district attorney for any potential charges.
A Colorado Springs contractor has been arrested after allegedly stealing over $30,000 in construction materials from Home Depot over a span of nearly 10 months, police said Thursday.

In May, Home Depot's Organized Retail Crime Investigators began investigating Shane Railey, of Railey Custom Renovations, after he was stopped while attempting to steal nearly $800 worth of cabinets, police said.

Railey was then issued a "no-trespass" notice for all Home Depot stores but continued to visit and steal from the store, police said.

Home Depot's team partnered with the Colorado Springs Police Department's Metro Retail Pawn and Metal Theft Unit for an investigation that found a pattern of theft by Railey dating back to "at least" October 2022.

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"Mr. Railey was determined to be stealing job materials for various contracting and remodeling jobs, while charging the customers the value of materials," police said.

Railey was arrested Thursday on theft and money laundering charges. The total value of stolen materials exceeded $31,000, police said.
Fugitive Allen Todd May, 58, was taken into custody at the start of the month in Florida after his mysterious escape from a Colorado prison in 2018.

May was initially sentenced to 20 years in federal prison in 2012 after being convicted of mail fraud in Texas, later transferred to the Federal Correctional Institute in Englewood in January of 2018. On Dec. 21, 2018, it was noticed May was missing during a prisoner count, starting nearly five years of him being on the run from law enforcement.

Over the years, authorities pursued many tips from the public regarding May's whereabouts, but their pursuit yielded few results.

Then, an anonymous tipster reached out in May 2023 suggesting that May was living under the alias of Cary Bailey. While an aggressive follow-up into that information failed to deliver, the same tipster provided a photo related to a new tip on July 27 of a person they believed to be May, published on the Palm Beach Daily News website.

This led investigators to believe May was living at a Palm Beach penthouse apartment. While surveillance of the apartment revealed no signs of May, his suspected partner was spotted leaving the apartment in a U-Haul on Aug. 1.

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Authorities followed the U-Haul, with the U-Haul ultimately parking at a home in an upscale Fort Lauderdale neighborhood, about two miles from the ocean. This address had not been previously linked to May.

Authorities eventually saw a man matching the appearance of May leave the home and took him into custody, with his initial court appearance taking place on Aug. 2. It was decided May would be transported back to Colorado to face new charges.

Id like to recognize and thank the anonymous tipster for the information they provided that directly led to the arrest of this unorthodox fugitive, said District of Colorado U.S. Marshal Kirk Taylor. I would also like to thank and recognize the incredible tenacity of the Deputy U.S. Marshals who pursued every lead over the years in the District of Colorado, culminating in the arrest in the Southern District of Florida last night. Their relentless pursuit of this fugitive and the coordination of the agencies involved is a true testament to the U.S. Marshals Services mission.

The charges faced by May are allegations and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Read more about the case here.
Few Coloradans alive today knew high-profile community benefactors Julie and Spencer Penrose, but the charitable groundwork the couple laid in the first half of last century is familiar to every generation since.

One thing the trustees try to do every year and with every grant they make is to honor the intent of our donors, Julie and Spencer Penrose, said El Pomar president and CEO Kyle Hybl.

In marking the 85th anniversary of the couples founding of the philanthropic foundation in December 1937, Hybl announced that the organization has surpassed $700 million in providing benevolent grants and community programs.

About 24,000 grants have been disbursed to more than 4,000 nonprofits and government entities, to fund projects related to arts and culture, civic and community initiatives, education, health and human services.

The couples original mission to enhance, encourage, and promote the current and future well-being of the people of Colorado hasnt changed, Hybl said.

Spencer and Julie were champions of entrepreneurship and regional pride, and they shared a spirit of generosity and adventure, he said. Theyd be pleased that the bold philanthropic mission they set in motion has flourished and built such a momentum over 85 years of honoring their vision.

The foundation received about 400 grant requests from nonprofits last year, Hybl said, which is more than in 2021 and nearing pre-pandemic numbers.

Post-COVID-19, areas of youth mental health, affordable and attainable housing, and ensuring sound economic development have been the most pressing needs for communities statewide, he said.

During the pandemic, the foundation made three allotments of $1 million primarily for emergency assistance such as food, utilities and housing, Hybl said.

The foundation released another $1 million in 2021 to help kickstart community gatherings, such as a potato festival in Monte Vista in the San Luis Valley, the Pueblo Chile & Frijoles Festival, Grand Lakes Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Troupe event, the Rocky Mountain Womens Film Festival, Fanfest in Colorado Springs and Durangos Autumn Arts Festival.

Julie and Spencer Penrose were an integral part in sewing together whats become the fabric of not only Colorado Springs but also the state, Hybl said.

Whether it was the natural, cultural or health care needs of a community, Julie and Spencer were there, he said.

Spencer Penroses economic development and tourism investments built The Broadmoor hotel, the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, the Pikes Peak Highway that runs to the top of the regions signature mountain and the Will Rogers Shrine of the Sun, where the pair are buried.

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Penrose started The Broadmoor Pikes Peak International Hill Climb in 1916 and, along with his wife, founded the Broadmoor Art Academy, which has evolved into the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College.

Supporting the private, independent Fountain Valley School of Colorado as well as expansions at Colorado College and rejuvenation of the Central City Opera also were important to the Penrose legacy.

Their backing helped develop the Glockner-Penrose Hospital, now Penrose-St. Francis Health Services, and its renowned cancer center.

The Penroses created the foundation with a donation of 15,000 shares of stock in El Pomar Investment Co., which served the couples business ventures, and a $129,500 check, according to historical accounts.

El Pomar Foundation made five grants totaling $81,737 in its first year, to the Junior League of Colorado Springs Nutrition Camp, Fountain Valley School of Colorado, Penrose Colorado Community School, Glockner Hospital and the Boys & Girls Club of Colorado Springs.

Today, El Pomar is one of the largest grant-making foundations in Colorado, awarding some $25 million annually.

However, Hybl said, were fully aware were not the ones doing the good work; its the nonprofits weve had the opportunity to support over the last 85 years that are doing the good work, and were grateful.

To ensure the entire state benefits from the couples generosity, El Pomar relies on 70 representatives from all 64 Colorado counties to help trustees determine where grant money should be spent.

Spencer Penroses initial contribution worth $21 million has generated an endowment of nearly $700 million.

Private foundations by law are required to spend 5% of net investment assets on charity, which for El Pomar Foundation includes awarding grants and operating community leadership development programs, public forums and other enterprises.

Spencer died in 1939, and Julie died in 1956. Their home adjacent to The Broadmoor has been turned into a conference center for nonprofits to use at no cost, and a public Penrose Heritage Museum showcases the history of the couple and the region.

Julie Villiers Lewis McMillan Penrose is one of 16 women scheduled to be inducted into the Colorado Womens Hall of Fame in March.

Contact the writer: 719-476-1656.
By Dawit Endeshaw

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) -Ethiopia's government declared a six-month state of emergency on Friday in the country's second-largest region, Amhara, following days of clashes between the military and local Fano militiamen, giving it powers to impose curfews, restrict movement and ban gatherings.

The fighting that broke out earlier this week has quickly become Ethiopia's most serious security crisis since a two-year civil war in Tigray region, which neighbours Amhara, ended in November.

Amhara's regional government requested additional help from federal authorities on Thursday to reimpose order.

"It was found necessary to declare a state of emergency as it had become difficult to control this outrageous activity based on the regular legal system," Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's office said in a statement.

The unrest is the latest spasm of violence to hit the country, the second most populous in Africa after Nigeria, since Abiy took office in 2018. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 for his peacemaking efforts with Eritrea.

Friday's order gave the government powers to impose curfews, restrict movement, ban the carrying of guns and other sharp objects, ban public gatherings, and to make arrests and conduct searches without warrants.

The government could also close or limit the movements of media outlets it deems to be operating contrary to the emergency orders, the Government Communication Service said in a posting on the messaging platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

The orders applied to Amhara for now, but could be imposed in other areas if needed, the government said.

SOURED RELATIONS

Fano, a part-time militia that draws volunteers from the local population, was a key ally of the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) during the Tigray war.

But the relationship has soured, in part over recent efforts by federal authorities to weaken regional paramilitary groups. Some activists say this has left Amhara vulnerable to attack by neighbouring regions.

Two residents of Amhara's second-biggest city, Gondar, said on Friday that intense fighting took place the previous day near the university.

"ENDF first controlled the university, but they were pushed back by Fano. They were trying to advance to the centre of the city, but they couldn't," said one resident.

The other, a local official, said the military had pulled back from the university but did not say why. Both asked not to be named for security reasons.

A Fano member, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said the militiamen were trying to encircle Amhara's capital Bahir Dar. He said they had captured Merawi, a town 30 km (18 miles) south of Bahir Dar.

Reuters could not independently confirm his claims.

An ENDF spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

However, Education Minister Berhanu Nega told a news conference that 16,000 students in Gondar were unable to do their leaving exams on Thursday.

Mobile internet remained down in the region, residents said. Ethiopian Airlines cancelled flights to three of the four airports it flies to in Amhara, an airline spokesperson said.

Violent protests erupted across Amhara in April after Abiy ordered that security forces from Ethiopia's 11 regions be integrated into the police or national army.

Protesters said the order was meant to weaken Amhara. The federal government denied this and said the objective was ensuring national unity.

Since coming to power, Abiy has tried to centralise power in a country whose regions each have a measure of autonomy.

The war in Tigray was rooted in tensions between regional and federal authority as well as old grievances between ethnic groups. Tens of thousands of people were killed and millions forced from their homes before a truce was signed.

(Reporting by Dawit EndeshawWriting by Aaron RossEditing by Toby Chopra, Angus MacSwan, George Obulutsa and Frances Kerry)
By Andrew Hay

(Reuters) -Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez on Friday waived her right to a preliminary hearing, allowing charges against her over the 2021 shooting death of the movie's cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins, to move toward a possible trial.

In a court filing, Gutierrez's lawyer Jason Bowles waived the hearing set for Aug. 9-16 at which a judge was to decide whether there were grounds for a trial on charges of involuntary manslaughter and evidence tampering in connection with Hutchins' death.

"The standard for a preliminary hearing that prosecutors must meet is exceedingly low, as opposed to what they have to prove at trial," Bowles said later in a statement. "We will test the state's case through other New Mexico procedures."

No trial date has been set.

Actor Alec Baldwin was rehearsing when he fired a live round that killed cinematographer Hutchins and wounded director Joel Souza. Gutierrez, a 25-year-old who was working as chief weapons handler on her second film, told police she mistook the round for a dummy when she loaded the handgun. Live rounds are not allowed on movie sets.

In January, Gutierrez declined to plead guilty to a charge of felony manslaughter in exchange for no jail time on grounds she was not given the same offer as first assistant director Dave Halls, who accepted a plea deal for a misdemeanor charge with no prison time, according to a person close to the talks.

Prosecutors Andrea Reeb and Mary Carmack-Altwies, who handled the case until March, declined to comment on plea bargains.

Prosecutor Kari Morrissey, who took over the case, said in a statement she expected the case to be set for trial in the future.

Prosecutors dismissed charges against Baldwin in April after they disclosed new evidence that the revolver's hammer may have been modified and the weapon could have fired without the actor's pulling the trigger. Baldwin has said he did not pull the trigger.

Morrissey said she may file new charges against Baldwin should results of a new test of the revolver, which had been expected this week, show it did not malfunction.

For now, Gutierrez is the only person charged for the shooting.

Key to her prosecution is where live bullets came from, who brought them on set and whether Gutierrez knew they were present.

Prosecutors said Gutierrez may have brought live rounds on set, but they have yet to present evidence.

Under New Mexico law, to convict Gutierrez of involuntary manslaughter prosecutors must prove she showed willful disregard for firearms safety.

Prosecutors have also accused Gutierrez of evidence tampering for allegedly handing off cocaine to someone to avoid police finding it following the 2021 shooting. Bowles said that accusation lacked corroboration or evidence.

(Reporting By Andrew Hay; editing by Donna Bryson and Andrew Heavens)
By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Texas man who suggested a "mass shooting of poll workers" in 2022 elections and threatened two Maricopa County, Arizona, officials and their children was sentenced to 3-1/2 years in federal prison, the U.S. Justice Department said on Friday.

Frederick Francis Goltz, 52, pleaded guilty in April to interstate threatening communications and was sentenced by U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix, who also ordered three years of supervised release following the prison term.

Goltz threatened several individuals  including a Maricopa County Attorney's Office lawyer and a Maricopa County elections official  on the far-right social media platforms Patriots.win and Gab.com, the Justice Department said. Phoenix, the Arizona state capital, is in Maricopa County.

An FBI investigation into Goltz' social media activity revealed a long history of threatening statements against targets including government officials and law enforcement officers, prosecutors said.

In November 2022, he advocated for "a mass shooting of poll workers and election officials" in precincts he believed had "suspect" results, prosecutors said in mid-term elections.

A few weeks later, he said he was "willing to take lives" to counter a "tyrannical government," according to prosecutors.

Goltz repeatedly emphasized "children are not off limits," prosecutors said.

Some Republican candidates and activists promoted false theories of voter fraud during the 2022 midterm elections.

Kari Lake, a high-profile Republican candidate who lost her bid to become Arizona governor in November, and former President Donald Trump pointed to temporary Election Day problems with electronic vote-counting machines in Maricopa County as evidence that Republican votes were being suppressed.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
By Doina Chiacu and Katharine Jackson

(Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv on Friday and underscored strong U.S. support for its fight against Russia.

Christie, once an ally of former President Donald Trump, is challenging him for their party's nomination in the 2024 election - and drawing a stark contrast on Ukraine with front-runner Trump.

Trump's former vice president Mike Pence in June became the first Republican candidate to meet Zelenskiy during the campaign.

Christie visited Ukraine a day after Trump returned to Washington to plead not guilty to federal charges he orchestrated a plot to try to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

Former New Jersey governor Christie met with Zelenskiy at the presidential palace after visiting a mass grave in Bucha, a town where Ukraine accuses Russian troops of having committed atrocities soon after their February 2022 invasion. He also saw damage in Irpin near Kyiv. Both places were retaken by Ukrainian forces.

Christie said he came to Ukraine to give Americans a view of the war and its toll and he emphasized that he wanted U.S. support to continue. The United States has provided billions of dollars worth of weapons to Ukraine to defend itself.

"I am an advocate for there being more aid to Ukraine, more significant aid to Ukraine, broader aid for Ukraine," Christie told Zelenskiy.

"It's really important to hear all these words from you," Zelenskiy replied.

Christie's stance sets him apart from some of the other Republican candidates including Trump.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a distant second in public opinion polls, this year suggested that the war was simply a "territorial dispute" before backtracking.

Trump, who left office in 2021 after one four-year term, was impeached in 2019 on allegations he pressured Ukraine to investigate Biden. Senate Republicans acquitted him of those charges.

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu and Katharine Jackson in Washington; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Grant McCool)
(Reuters) -The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said its advisory panel on Thursday recommended use of Sanofi and partner AstraZeneca's antibody therapy to prevent respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in infants and toddlers.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices unanimously recommended nirsevimab for preventing lower respiratory tract disease in newborns and infants below eight months of age born during or entering their first RSV season.

It also recommended its use in children aged 8-19 months who remain vulnerable to severe RSV disease through their second such season.

The therapy, branded as Beyfortus, will be available in the U.S. ahead of the upcoming 2023-24 RSV season, Sanofi said.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration had last month approved the long-acting therapy that can be given once every season to prevent infection regardless of additional medical conditions in infants.

(Reporting by Mrinmay Dey and Mariam Sunny in Bengaluru)
Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie made an unannounced visit to Ukraine on Friday, becoming the second GOP contender to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky.

While in Kyiv, Christie expressed his support to Zelensky as his country wages a war with Russia, NBC News reported. Christie's trip also included stops in Bucha and Moshchun, two cities that have seen intense fighting between the two warring nations.

BIDEN AND REPUBLICANS DUKE IT OUT TO DEFINE THE ECONOMY

"I am an advocate for there being more aid to Ukraine," Christie said, according to information provided in a pool report. The former New Jersey governor hopes more U.S. aid would help Ukraine win the war against Russia.

Similarly, former Vice President Mike Pence visited Ukraine to talk with Zelensky in late June about human rights atrocities committed by Russia, the Washington Examiner previously reported. He was the first 2024 Republican presidential candidate to do so.

As the Republican primary season nears, Christie has been increasingly vocal about America's role in aiding Ukraine, saying last month he'd give "every weapon they need to be able to win" if elected president, according to the Hill.

"I don't think there's anyone in our country who would come here and see this and not think this is the kind of the things we need to stand up and prevent," the GOP candidate said on Friday. "We need to give them the means necessary to fight."

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During the former governor's trip, Zelensky reportedly told him, "It's very important that the U.S. is on the right side."

Christie and Pence have both supported increased aid to Ukraine, differing from their top two political rivals, former President Donald Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL). Former Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley and Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) are also in favor of backing Ukraine.

Original Location: Chris Christie becomes second GOP presidential candidate to make surprise trip to Ukraine

Washington Examiner Videos
A Democratic congresswoman with a history of stock trades that have alarmed ethics experts reported a large purchase of shares in a top company more than one year past the federally required deadline, records show.

Rep. Kathy Manning (D-NC) revealed in a periodic transaction report on Thursday that the lawmaker and her spouse snagged $29,122 in shares of Blackstone, an influential private investment banking company, through a joint trust back on June 10, 2022. The buy was only made public after 418 days, falling in stark contrast to the STOCK Act, which requires members of Congress to disclose securities trades of more than $1,000 within 45 days.

WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT FITCH DOWNGRADING US DEBT

The North Carolina Democrat has said in the past her investments are managed by third-party managers, who have control over the assets and don't leave Manning and her husband, Randall Kaplan, discretion over trade decisions. That said, Manning has been a repeat offender of the stock disclosure law, and in 2022 filed 51 trades worth up to $1.25 million past the deadline, according to documents.

"This is more of laws for thee, but not for me from liberals," Tom Jones, president of the American Accountability Foundation, a conservative watchdog group, told the Washington Examiner. "If these requirements are going to protect against insider trading, the disclosures need to happen quickly and in compliance with the ethics requirements."

The STOCK Act, which was enacted in 2012, aims to fight insider trading and conflicts of interest among lawmakers when it comes to securities. While it aims to bolster transparency in Congress, the act is often disregarded by politicians, which has led to bipartisan watchdogs demanding enforcement.

Fines are typically $200 for skirting the STOCK Act. The Office of Congressional Ethics, a nonpartisan body investigating alleged misconduct, is tasked with referring possible violations to the House Ethics Committee, which is currently chaired by Rep. Michael Guest (R-MI)

In the filing, Manning said the Blackstone shares were then sold on June 15, 2022, for $25,755  a roughly $3,300 loss. The sale was reported in 2022, though "the purchase was inadvertently omitted due to an administrative error," according to the filing.

"The error was discovered during preparation for the 2022 Annual Report for timely filing on August 2, 2023," the document added.

Rep. Kathy Manning. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)

It's the latest financial-related slip-up for Manning, who the Washington Examiner reported in October of last year sold up to $30,000 in shares of Amazon and Microsoft before voting in favor of an antitrust bill that would rein in the power of Big Tech companies.

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The White House endorsed the measure, which later was folded into the $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill signed by President Joe Biden in late December 2022.

Manning also bought up to $30,000 in shares of the semiconductor companies Micron and Nvidia in July 2022 before voting in favor of the CHIPS Act, which Biden signed in August of that year and allocated about $280 billion to fund semiconductor research and development in the United States, according to a financial disclosure.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Manning's office did not return a request for comment.

The OCE declined to comment.

Original Location: Democratic House member flouts stock disclosure law with over year late filing

Washington Examiner Videos
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) accepted an invitation to debate Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) on Wednesday and is looking to hype up the matchup of political heavyweights.

DeSantis's presidential campaign has launched online ads that show the matchup between the governors of Florida and California as a video game.

DONALD TRUMP INDICTED: TIMELINE OF 2020 ELECTION INVESTIGATIONS

The advertisements are live on various platforms, including Meta, X (formerly known as Twitter), and Google Display network.

In the advertisements, users are asked to "choose your fighter" or vote for a champion. The two panels describe DeSantis as a "champion of freedom" and Newsom as a "challenger California Dem." Other features of the advertisement include a knockout bonus listed as being "freedom" and the fight date being August 2023.

Newsom's team has reportedly proposed the debate be held in either Georgia, Nevada, or North Carolina on either Nov. 8 or 10. His proposal also suggested the debate be held live for 90 minutes with Fox News host Sean Hannity as the sole moderator and no audience present.

DeSantis accepted the invitation from Hannity on his Fox News show on Wednesday, saying he is "game" for the debate with the California governor.

"Absolutely, I'm game. Let's get it done. Just tell me when and where. We'll do it," DeSantis said on Fox News's Hannity.

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"And here's the thing. I mean, in one respect, the debate between California and Florida has already been had, as you suggest. People have been voting on that. They've been voting on it with their feet. They have fled California in record numbers," DeSantis continued.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Newsom had previously challenged DeSantis to a debate in 2022 amid their feud. The California governor renewed his offer during an interview with Hannity in June.

DeSantis's team initially responded to the calls for debate by criticizing Newsom's "liberal governance" and saying "the debate is already settled." The Florida governor himself told Newsom in June to "stop pussyfooting around" and address problems in California while speaking at a press conference.

Original Location: DeSantis launches digital ads after accepting debate with Newsom

Washington Examiner Videos
Florida has barred teaching Advanced Placement psychology as it stands, telling superintendents that sexual orientation and gender identity curriculum is "illegal under state law."

The regulations stem from Gov. Ron Desantis's (R-FL) legislation, dubbed by critics as the "Don't Say Gay" law, which originally outlawed classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade, but DeSantis pushed to expand the restrictions to apply to all K-12 students. The Florida Board of Education approved the 2022 measure in April this year.

DONALD TRUMP INDICTED: TIMELINE OF 2020 ELECTION INVESTIGATIONS

The College Board, which controls the AP program, condemned the news from the Florida Department of Education coming days before the start of the school year, claiming in a press statement the ban "derails the college readiness and affordability plans of tens of thousands of Florida students currently registered for AP Psychology, one of the most popular AP classes in the state."

The Department of Education blamed the untimely change on the College Board's refusal to modify its courses to meet the requirements under Florida's law.

"Just one week before school starts, the College Board is attempting to force school districts to prevent students from taking the AP Psychology Course," Cassie Palelis, deputy director of communications for the Department of Education, said in a statement to the Washington Examiner.

The College Board said in June that it "will not modify our courses to accommodate restrictions on teaching essential, college-level topics."

The AP status cannot be used on school transcripts if the school continues to offer the course without including all the required curricula from the board.

"If a school bans required topics from their AP courses, the AP Program removes the AP designation from that course and its inclusion in the AP Course Ledger provided to colleges and universities," according to the AP website.

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The Department of Education said other programs did not have a problem complying with Florida's law, including International Baccalaureate.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

"The department didn't 'ban' the course," Palelis said. "The course remains listed in Florida's Course Code Directory for the 2023-24 school year. We encourage the College Board to stop playing games with Florida students and continue to offer the course and allow teachers to operate accordingly."

The Washington Examiner reached out to DeSantis's team for comment.

Original Location: Florida bans AP psychology courses over gender identity curriculum as a result of DeSantis legislation

Washington Examiner Videos
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-AL) requested documents related to the Biden administration's decision to keep the U.S. Space Command headquarters in Colorado.

In a letter addressed to Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall and Space Command's Gen. James Dickinson, Rogers threatened to subpoena the relevant documents if there's a failure to comply, claiming he's asked for the materials five times.

SOCIAL SECURITY UPDATE: DIRECT PAYMENT WORTH UP TO $4,555 GOES OUT TO MILLIONS IN SIX DAYS

Rogers said the officials have failed to answer his request to provide transcribed interviews, which he demanded by Aug. 18.

"Your refusal to abide by the Committee's repeated requests for documents and transcribed interviews can only be considered obfuscation and purposeful delay, highlighted by the fact that the basing decision was decided while the Committee's requests are outstanding," Rogers wrote on Thursday. "This is unacceptable."

The Alabama lawmaker launched an investigation into the ruling to reverse the move, which originally intended to move the base to Huntsville under former President Donald Trump.

"The Biden administration's shameful delay to finalize the permanent basing decision for U.S. Space Command warranted the opening of a Congressional investigation," Rogers said in a statement Monday announcing his investigation.

Biden acted as the tiebreaker in ruling the command should stay in Colorado on Monday, with the split coming from Dickinson and Kendall, per the Associated Press.

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The verdict quickly sparked outrage among some Republican lawmakers like Rogers and Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), who accused the White House of bringing politics into the military. However, White House officials denied allegations, with National Security Council coordinator John Kirby claiming the relocation would undermine military readiness.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

"It now appears you have something to hide, otherwise a forthright response to the Committee's patient and numerous requests would have already come," Rogers wrote.

Rogers asked for a time frame for the delivery of transcribed interviews and materials by Aug. 9.

Original Location: House Armed Services chairman demands documents on Space Command Colorado decision

Washington Examiner Videos
Trump pleads not guilty to charges over efforts to overturn 2020 election

Xinhua) 09:11, August 04, 2023

WASHINGTON, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- Former U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday pleaded not guilty to federal charges against him for plotting to overturn the 2020 presidential election, U.S. media reported.

Trump was arraigned in a federal courthouse in Washington, D.C., on Thursday afternoon, two days after he was formally indicted.

Trump appeared before a magistrate judge to face the charges. When asked for his plea to the four counts with which he was charged, Trump replied, "Not guilty."

The former president reportedly did not have a mug shot taken.

A federal grand jury on Tuesday indicted Trump with four criminal counts: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.

"Despite having lost, the defendant (Trump) was determined to remain in power. So for more than two months following election day on Nov. 3, 2020, the defendant spread lies that there had been outcome-determinative fraud in the election and that he had actually won," reads the 45-page indictment.

Shortly after election day, Trump also pursued unlawful means of discounting legitimate votes and subverting the election results. In so doing, Trump perpetrated three criminal conspiracies: a conspiracy to defraud the United States by using dishonesty, fraud, and deceit to impair, obstruct, and defeat the lawful federal government function; a conspiracy to corruptly obstruct and impede the Jan. 6 congressional proceeding to certify the results of the presidential election; a conspiracy against the right to vote and to have one's vote counted, says the indictment.

Trump is the first former U.S. president to face criminal charges. Apart from the charges for attempts to overturn the 2020 election, he is also under indictment in two other cases.

He was charged in June with mishandling classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. In March, he was indicted on New York state charges of falsifying business records in connection with hush-money payments to an adult film actress ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

Trump is also under investigation in Georgia over his alleged attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
Former President Donald Trump's legal team signaled they would seek "other channels" for judicial review in their effort to keep a Georgia prosecutor from bringing what could be the former president's fourth indictment this year.

Trump's team dropped a lawsuit that sought to force a Georgia state judge to decide on Trump's request to toss out evidence obtained by a Fulton County special purpose grand jury and disqualify District Attorney Fani Willis from the investigation. Their move came just three days after a judge presiding over the grand jury rejected a request to oust Willis, which followed an earlier denial by the state Supreme Court.

BIDEN AND REPUBLICANS DUKE IT OUT TO DEFINE THE ECONOMY

Former President Donald Trump walks over to speak with reporters before he boards his plane at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Thursday, Aug. 3, 2023, in Arlington, Va., after facing a judge on federal conspiracy charges that allege he conspired to subvert the 2020 election. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) Alex Brandon/AP

Attorneys for the former president wrote in a motion Thursday that there are now "other channels to seek judicial review" of the special grand jury and the ability of Willis "to continue forward" with the investigation. Their dismissal filing indicated a plan to appeal the decision by the presiding Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney.

"Although the Petitioner does not agree with the Supervising Judge's analysis or ruling, there are now other channels to seek judicial review of the underlying arguments," the filing states.

Willis has indicated she will decide this month whether to ask a new grand jury to charge Trump and potentially other associates of the former president. The special purpose grand jury that Trump is seeking to quash only had advisory abilities, lacking any power to indict.

Trump is already facing three other indictments, including two by special counsel Jack Smith and one by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

The Fulton County Sheriff's Office said Thursday it will close streets around the courthouse for two weeks beginning on Aug. 7 as a security measure.

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Former President Donald Trump and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. (AP Photos)

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Willis began her investigation in February 2021, spurred by a Jan. 2, 2021, phone call Trump made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, in which Trump asked him to "find 11,780 votes," the exact number Trump needed to defeat his opponent Joe Biden in the state during the 2020 election.

The prosecutor signaled last week that an indictment could be imminent. "We've been working for two and a half years  we're ready to go," Willis said.

Original Location: Trump withdraws bid to challenge Georgia district attorney, citing 'other channels' for judicial review

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The Daniels Fund awarded a $50,000 grant to a Denver-area nonprofit that brings vocational opportunities to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

The money will allow nonprofit Tall Tales Ranch to expand its coffee trailer and catering programs and hire additional employees and I/DD ambassadors.

Their model is really innovative, very inclusive, and so in some ways its both caring and cutting edge, said Luke Ragland, the senior vice president of grants at the Daniels Fund. Im really excited about both what theyre trying to do, their mission, but also the people behind it.

Tall Tales Ranch received 501c3 status in 2014 after founders Susan and Pat Mooneys son, Ross, was diagnosed with an aggressive genetic disease that deteriorated the white matter in his brain.

The Mooneys werent sure what sorts of opportunities were available to a person with Ross needs. The answers concerned them.

We were just not satisfied with what we saw. We thought, You know what? People are good with putting a roof over someones head and making sure that theyre fed, but we want so much more for our son, Susan Mooney said. But we also realized its not just Ross that is going to be lacking. Its the whole community.

The Mooneys wanted their son to feel a part of a greater community and to be involved in something bigger. The idea inspired by Ross has since extended a far broader reach.

It does take a special kind of crazy to take on something like this, to create a nonprofit and to have real dreams about not only enhancing and improving our sons life, but kind of expanding that to the whole community. We have big dreams, Mooney said. But we definitely think we can do that and have that certain kind of crazy.

Daniels Fund namesake Bill Daniels was a cable television pioneer who owned hundreds of cable systems and helped to shape the industry in its early days, according to the foundation website. After growing up poor during the Great Depression, he committed himself to a life of giving back to those in need and left $1.1 billion to establish the Daniels Fund upon his death in 2000.

The Daniels Fund distributed more than $63.8 million through nonprofit grants and student scholarships in 2022, according to the foundation. Colorado nonprofits received $33 million across eight areas: aging, amateur sports, disabilities, drug and alcohol addiction, early childhood education, homeless and disadvantaged, K-12 education reform and youth development.

Daniels had a special place in his heart for those with developmental disabilities, having grown up with his sister, Dorothy, and watching the ways his parents cared for her.

This has always been a key part in what we do, and frankly it will always be something that we do, Ragland said.

Tall Tales Ranch is currently operating out of a coffee trailer in Lone Tree, where ambassadors with I/DD are employed and develop vocational skills while exposing the greater community to the value of diversity and inclusion.

Mooney said the trailer is considered a bridge program as they work to acquire funding to create a larger mixed-use residential community, including a brick and mortar coffee shop, housing where 32 neurodiverse tenants can live next to and learn from each other and a community barn that will host small events and business retreats.

The nonprofit expects to break ground on its vision next summer.

We are trying to demonstrate to the greater community the litany of capabilities that our ambassadors have. I think when people see, Oh I just got served a cup of coffee, and everybody on that trailer has some sort of cognitive disability, and that was such a great experience, other employers will also be encouraged to do the same thing, Mooney said.

People with intellectual and developmental disabilities are the best employees you will ever find due to their dedication, hard work and want to be there, Mooney said. Yet, they often experience much higher unemployment rates, research shows. Typical work environments might not be equipped to employ people who need supports. She hopes that will change and one day there wont be a need for places like Tall Tales Ranch.

Everything we do is about community, its about creating opportunities, its about advocating for our friends with I/DD, and really just breaking that paradigm of isolation and separation. And finally giving us a seat at the table, Mooney said. The Daniels funding allows us to shine a spotlight on what were trying to do. It puts this issue in peoples minds.
The United States and Israel need each other. So, give thanks to Colorado politicians who rank among the strongest defenders of our alliance at a time of antisemitic resurgence.

There is no greater threat to our partnership with Israel, the only Jewish state in the world, than anti-Israel members of Congress. If their anti-Semitic agenda continues catching on, it will increasingly destabilize the Middle East and jeopardize world peace.

Extreme-left members of Congress  notably members of the Progressive Caucus and The Squad  make headlines at least annually for blasting the Jewish state of 9.4 million.

U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Michigan Democrat and Palestinian-American, said no one is progressive  a term embraced by mainstream Democrats  if they support Israel. She spoke of the apartheid government of Israel, while addressing a gathering of American Muslims for Palestine.

The outrageous progressive litmus test on Israel by @RashidaTlaib is nothing short of antisemitic, tweeted Rep. Debbie Wasserman Shultz, D-Fla., who is Jewish. Proud progressives do support Israels right to exist as a Jewish and democratic state.

Thats where most Democrats have stood and remain. Yet, bombastic political radicals easily draw spotlights.

The U.S. must acknowledge that the [Israeli] administration is an apartheid-run thuggery terrorist regime on a mission to kill Palestinians, wrote Democratic Massachusetts Rep. Jamie Zahlaway Belsito. She calls Israel a Zionist hell on earth.

Last month, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., spoke up at a conference of the far-left Netroots Nation to say Israel is a racist state for what she calls the occupation of Palestine.

Overplaying the race card has become a far-left spasm based on ignorance and/or hatred. Palestinian is not a race. It refers to diverse Arabic people living in a region of West Asia called Peleset, meaning neighboring people, by Egyptians in the 12th century B.C. The population includes Arabic Sunni Muslims, Arabic Christians and Arabic Samaritans.

Conflicts between Palestinians and Jews are tribal, religious and geographic  not racial.

Its a matter of time before a member of The Squad  a coalition of Democratic Reps. Ilhan Omar, Minnesota, New Yorks Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Missouris Cori Bush  tries to normalize another antisemitic message that green lights others to follow suit. By calling Israel racist, one might feel virtuous in besmirching it because most Americans abhor racism.

Tel Aviv Universitys Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry and the U.S.-based Anti-Defamation League released a report last year that showed an alarming rise in American antisemitism. It correlates with the rise of The Squad, the Progressive Caucus and the routine verbal assaults on Israel.

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Antisemitism rose in the U.S. in 2022 and shows little sign of abating worldwide as political radicals have gained mainstream popularity, explains an AP article about the report.

Even when they dont say it, this political faction exudes anti-Israeli hostilities. Nine members of the Progressive Caucus voted against a recent House resolution that merely expressed support for Israel and opposed antisemitism. Its a fair assumption those who vote against denouncing hatred are for it. It makes them anti-Israel, anti-United States and likely antisemitic. If they opposed a proclamation against Confederate slavery, wed call them racist.

Historical ties, shared values and interests, diplomacy and military cooperation define Americas commitment to Israel. This alliance secures regional stability and counters common threats against Judeo-Christian populations. Its what we must do as a country of 5 million Jews and 210 million Christians targeted by a faction of Islam that gets heaven time for killing infidels.

Fortunately, Colorados leading politicians provide a stark contrast to The Squad and Progressive Caucus.

Since 1996, Israel has bought more than a trillion dollars in exports from Colorado. Military contractors in Colorado earn about $18 billion a year from Israel  about half the cost of our states budget and 5% of the states GDP. Colorado supports Israel if only to respect the states 100,000 Jews.

In March, Colorado Reps. Jason Crow and Doug Lamborn, a Democrat and Republican, wrote a bipartisan letter signed by a majority on the House Armed Services Committee that asks the secretary of defense to support increased cooperation between the United States and Israel.

Lamborn also teamed up with fellow Colorado Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert to lead oversight into concerns about federal funds helping Palestinians terrorize Israelis. Lamborn recently reintroduced the Taylor Force Martyr Payment Prevention Act to penalize foreign banks that allow payments to terrorists.

Colorados Democratic Gov. Jared Polis, whos Jewish, signed a bill last year to increase anti-terrorism funding for synagogues, Jewish schools, charities and other nonprofits at risk of terrorism.

The fact our governor and the federal government must fortify Jewish organizations on American soil highlights the threat of bigoted, anti-Judeo-Christian hostilities lurking around the globe.

Despite the rise of hard leftists in Congress, our alliance with Israel should not be partisan. It should be common sense. Our country and our state need a safe and stable Israel  for Jews, Christians, Muslims and everyone else  not one ridiculed by the lefts elected extremists.

The Gazette Editorial Board
This year, we celebrate the U.S. Small Business Administrations (SBA) 70th anniversary and recognize the tremendous work the agency does to power the American dream of entrepreneurship. For 70 years, the SBA has empowered Colorado entrepreneurs with the resources and support they need to start and grow their business. The SBA is a Cabinet-level agency that ensures the interests of small businesses are represented in Congress and the Oval Office, and is the only independent voice of small business, backed by the collective power and resources of the federal government.

In Colorado, the SBA has a rich and long history of supporting thousands of businesses with capital, business training, federal contract support, and/or disaster assistance. Companies such as Otterbox, Snooze A.M. Eatery, New Belgium Brewery, Hammonds Candies, and The Fort Restaurant received SBA help during the startup stage of their development.

SBAs creation was largely a response to the pressures of the Great Depression and World War II. The agency got its formal start on July 30, 1953, after President Dwight Eisenhower signed the Small Business Act into law creating the SBA. From its inception, the SBAs mission was to aid, counsel, assist and protect, insofar as is possible, the interests of small business concerns. It was also charged with ensuring that small businesses earn a fair proportion of government contracts and sales of surplus property.

The Biden-Harris administration put small business at the forefront of their historic Investing in America agenda, which includes modernizing SBA programs and resources, expanding networks, and increasing access to capital and contracting so more entrepreneurs can benefit from our national investments in infrastructure and green energy spending.

Over the last 30 months, the SBA has fostered a remarkable small business boom, pivoting from delivering pandemic aid to launching innovative initiatives that advance its equity plan, and expand access to capital for entrepreneurs in underserved and historically marginalized communities.

The agencys equity plan establishes a goal to improve access to capital for underserved communities  including businesses owned by women, minorities, veterans, and those in rural communities; expand access to federal procurement and contracting opportunities; provide support and expanded access to disaster assistance; and increase access to business counseling, training, and services to businesses in communities needing a boost. The agency is well on its way to accomplishing these goals to create a more equitable and sustainable economy supported by Americas small businesses.

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For seven decades, the agency has linked entrepreneurs to the funding, counseling, and mentorship they need to succeed. It has also connected small firms to opportunities for federal contracts and remains ready to provide low-interest loans to businesses and homeowners affected by declared disasters.

Since 1953, SBA approved an estimated $2 trillion in nondisaster related small business lending and assisted nearly three million entrepreneurs through training and counseling. During the pandemic, the SBA dispersed over $1.3 trillion in disaster economic aid to 13 million businesses nationwide.

Small businesses are the innovators and job creators in our communities. They employ half our nations workforce and create two thirds of all net new jobs in the private sector. These businesses give neighborhoods their character, sponsor our Little League teams, and place ads in the local high school yearbook. And in times of trouble or tragedy, its often our small business owners that step up to meet the needs of their neighbors.

Today, we celebrate the SBAs 70th anniversary and reflect on the agencys mission and seven-decade legacy of powering the American Dream. Happy Birthday, SBA!

Aikta Marcoulier is the SBAs region administrator in Denver. She oversees the agencys programs and services in Colorado, Montana, Utah, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming. Frances Padilla is the SBAs Colorado district director.
The Denver-based federal appeals court has agreed a Colorado immigration judge was wrong when he concluded Costa Rican police officers who abducted and raped a man, while wearing their uniforms and using their police car, were not actually acting in their government roles.

Consequently, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit ordered a new look at Dennis Arostegui-Maldonado's plea to avoid deportation to Costa Rica.

In an extraordinary move, two members of the panel also urged a rare all-judges hearing of Arostegui-Maldonado's appeal to determine whether recent U.S. Supreme Court precedent even allowed them to review the case. If the answer was no, it could jeopardize Arostegui-Maldonado's effort to escape further torture in his home country.

Case: Arostegui-Maldonado v. Garland Decided: August 1, 2023 Jurisdiction: Board of Immigration Appeals Ruling: 3-0 Judges: Scott M. Matheson Jr. (author) Timothy M. Tymkovich (concurrence) Allison H. Eid (concurrence) Background: Strategic Considerations for Going En Banc in the Tenth Circuit (2023)

Arostegui-Maldonado was previously deported in 2008 and 2018, but reentered in 2021. An immigration judge reinstated the prior deportation order to once again remove Arostegui-Maldonado. But Arostegui-Maldonado sought protection under the Convention Against Torture. He testified that he feared returning to Costa Rica because of his recent torture at the hands of police officers.

In late 2020, police officers arrived at Arostegui-Maldonado's home in their patrol car and in uniform, demanding he sell drugs for them. Arostegui-Maldonado filed a report with authorities in a neighboring jurisdiction, but was told he needed to report the officers where he lived. He did so.

Shortly afterward, the officers again met him at his home, where they kidnapped him at gunpoint and took him to an isolated location. They beat him and sexually assaulted him, once more demanding he sell drugs on their behalf. They also threatened to kill him if he made a report, and they gained access to his family's contact information. Finally, the officers transported him to jail and held him for 24 hours without any criminal charge.

At a hearing in Aurora, Arostegui-Maldonado told Immigration Judge Steven Caley his stomach still has "the bubble" where the officers hit him and that he has to take medicine for his rape injury. Caley found him credible, but ultimately ordered him returned to Costa Rica. Specifically, Caley decided Arostegui-Maldonado had not shown the police who tortured him were acting as government agents at the time.

"The evidence is insufficient to show that they could not have performed their actions regardless of their connection to the government," Caley wrote.

He added that "any person" could have pointed a gun at Arostegui-Maldonado or abducted him, not just police.

On appeal to the 10th Circuit, Arostegui-Maldonado's lawyer disputed Caley's logic.

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"During each encounter," attorney Laura Lunn told the 10th Circuit panel during oral arguments, the officers "were uniformed and had their police vehicle. They gained control over Mr. Maldonado by arresting him, handcuffing him and placing him in their official patrol car. The officers jailed Mr. Maldonado, which is not something anyone can do. Only officers have that kind of authority."

The 10th Circuit agreed with her, issuing a decision on Aug. 1 that was critical of the way Caley dismissed the officers' connection to the government.

"This interpretation defies logic and the law," wrote Judge Scott M. Matheson Jr. "The police officers wore their uniforms, used a gun and a patrol car, put Mr. Arostegui-Maldonado in jail, and later obtained a warrant for his arrest. Their misuse of power  threatening, beating, raping, and jailing Mr. Arostegui-Maldonado  was thus made possible by virtue of being clothed with the authority of law."

The panel ordered immigration authorities to reevaluate Arostegui-Maldonado's application for protection in light of its decision.

At the same time, in a highly unusual two-person concurrence, Judge Timothy M. Tymkovich wrote for himself and Judge Allison H. Eid to say they were skeptical the 10th Circuit had the authority to hear Arostegui-Maldonado's appeal in the first place.

The dispute pertained to the circumstances of Arostegui-Maldonado's request to avoid deportation. Because his earlier deportation order was reinstated when he came to the U.S. a third time, it was unclear whether he needed to file a challenge within 30 days or if he could wait for his Convention Against Torture proceedings to conclude.

The 10th Circuit decided in 2015 that a non-citizen could wait to appeal until after related proceedings concluded  and Matheson's majority opinion stood by that interpretation. But Tymkovich warned that recent Supreme Court decisions may have compromised the 10th Circuit's earlier position to the point where the panel may not have had the authority to consider Arostegui-Maldonado's case at all.

Federal appeals courts can rehear cases "en banc," meaning with all of the judges instead of the traditional three-member panels. In the 10th Circuit, en banc hearings happen rarely  less than once per year, on average.

However, as Tymkovich pointed out, the only mechanism to overrule a prior 10th Circuit decision, other than the Supreme Court's intervention, is to do so en banc with the vote of a majority of judges. The concurrence made clear that two of the court's 11 members were interested in taking that step.

"The full court should consider whether Mr. Arostegui-Maldonado should have petitioned for review within the 30-day window following the imposition of his reinstatement order," Tymkovich wrote.

The case is Arostegui-Maldonado v. Garland.
A gun rights group on Thursday filed a temporary restraining order to stop a new state law that bans the purchase of firearms by those under the age of 21 from going into effect on Aug. 7.

The new law was one of five major gun bills Democrats in the legislature successfully pushed for this year. The others ban ghost guns, establish a three-day waiting period for purchasing firearms, expand the states extreme risk protection law  popularly known as the red flag law  and repeal the state law that barred gun victims from suing gun manufacturers and dealers.

We are disappointed it has come to this, but we wont give up fighting for our most vulnerable neighbors, Taylor Rhodes, executive director of the Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, said in a statement. It is critical to ensure Colorados latest gun control scheme never sees the light of day and never affects any peaceable adult.

We are filing this TRO to accomplish just that, Rhodes said.

In its motion, the group argued that, among other things, it would suffer irreparable harm in the absence of the temporary relief, adding that the loss of constitutional freedoms for even a short time constitutes irreparable injury.

The judge gave the Polis administration  the group had sued the governor in his official capacity  until noon Monday to respond.

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Senate Bill 23-169 raises the age limit for purchasing firearms to age 21. As amended, the law allows those under the age of 21 to possess firearms if they are active-duty military or enrolled in the Colorado Parks and Wildlife hunter education course for young people, which is open to those as young as 10 years old. Exceptions also apply for individuals under 21 who engage in shooting or target sports, as well as for individuals who need firearms to defend livestock against predators.

That law doesnt ban the possession of firearms by those under 21 under a carefully-crafted compromise by some of the bills sponsors.

Rocky Mountain Gun Owners had immediately challenged both SB 169 and House Bill 1219, the law prescribing a three-day waiting period for firearm delivery, in U.S. District Court, claiming the three-day waiting period violates the constitution and SB 169 denies an adults right to purchase and possess guns.

The group had filed a preliminary injunction against the law in June, but the court has yet to rule on that motion.

Democrats earlier touted the new law, saying it would reduce gun violence.

In a statement, House Majority Leader Monica Duran, D-Wheat Ridge, said: As a survivor of gun intimidation, I am relieved that Colorado law now requires all gun purchasers to be at least 21 years old, which will help reduce senseless gun violence and make our communities safer. With this new law going into effect, we can save countless lives from preventable firearm-related injuries or death and improve public safety.
Only a few hours after state Sen. Dominick Moreno, D-Commerce City, announced he would resign to join the administration of Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, the scramble is underway for his Senate District 21 seat.

The first to announce was Rep. Dafna Michaelson Jenet, D-Commerce City, who already filed for the Senate seat for the 2024 election.

Moreno, who was term-limited for 2024, said his resignation will be effective around Sept. 1. A Senate District 21 Democratic vacancy committee will choose a successor after he steps down.

In a statement Friday, Michaelson Jenet, who has represented House District 30 (and House District 32, after redistricting) since 2017, said, I want to continue my work in the legislature to make sure that Colorados kids are protected, make sure that our communities of color receive the equitable investments that they have historically been denied, and to make sure Colorado continues to expand our renewable energy infrastructure to help fight climate change.

Michaelson Jenet has already been endorsed for the 2024 election by Moreno and state Rep. Lorena Garcia, D-Commerce City, who also lives in Senate District 21, as well as 17 other Democratic members of the state House and Senate.

Michaelson Jenet is a staunch advocate for mental health services, including for youth. She sponsored the 2021 law that mandated health insurance coverage for annual mental health exams, a fight she was willing to wage with Gov. Jared Polis, who had told lawmakers he didn't want to see any more health insurance mandates because they would drive up health care costs.

Polis vetoed Michaelson Jenet's 2020 effort, but he signed the 2021 bill into law.

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Gov. Jared Polis to General Assembly: No more health insurance mandates, please

Michaelson Jenet currently serves on the House Education Committee as chair of the Public and Behavioral Health Care & Human Services Committee and on the joint Legislative Audit Committee.

Of her predecessor, she said, My dear friend, Senator Dominick Moreno, has been an incredible leader and representative for our community. Dominick has moved Colorado forward in innumerable ways, and although he leaves behind big shoes to fill, I am committed to continue providing Senate District 21 with the thoughtful, tenacious, and dedicated public service exhibited by Senator Moreno.

Moreno will become Denver Mayor Mike Johnston's deputy chief of staff for strategy. He has served as the Senate Majority Leader since 2022 and in the legislature since the 2013 session.

The other scramble is over who will become the next Senate Majority Leader.

Among the names already surfacing are Sen. Robert Rodriguez, D-Denver; Sen. Julie Gonzales, D-Denver; and, Sen Faith Winter, D-Westminster, who confirmed to Colorado Politics she also intends to seek that position.
BALTIMORE  More than 70 years after doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital took Henrietta Lacks cervical cells without her knowledge, a lawyer for her descendants said they have reached a settlement with a biotechnology company that they accused of reaping billions of dollars from a racist medical system.

Tissue taken from the Black womans tumor before she died of cervical cancer became the first human cells to continuously grow and reproduce in lab dishes. HeLa cells went on to become a cornerstone of modern medicine, enabling countless scientific and medical innovations, including the development of the polio vaccine, genetic mapping and even COVID-19 vaccines.

Despite that incalculable impact, the Lacks family had never been compensated.

Although she was born in Roanoke, Lacks grew up in neighboring Halifax County, in an area called Clover.

Lacks cells were harvested in 1951, when it was not illegal to do so without a patients permission. But lawyers for her family argued that Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., of Waltham, Massachusetts, continued to commercialize the results long after the origins of the HeLa cell line became well known. The company unjustly enriched itself off Lacks cells, the family argued in their lawsuit, filed in 2021.

The settlement came after closed-door negotiations that lasted all day Monday inside the federal courthouse in Baltimore. Some of Lacks grandchildren were among the family members who attended the talks.

Attorney Ben Crump, who represents the family, announced the settlement late Monday and said the terms are confidential.

In a joint statement, Thermo Fisher representatives and attorneys for the Lacks family said they were pleased to resolve the matter and declined to comment further on the agreement.

A poor tobacco farmer from Halifax County, Lacks got married and moved with her husband to Turner Station, a historically Black community outside Baltimore. They were raising five children when doctors discovered a tumor in Lacks cervix and saved a sample of her cancer cells collected during a biopsy.

Lacks died at age 31 in the colored ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital. She was buried in an unmarked grave.

While most cell samples died shortly after being removed from the body, her cells survived and thrived in laboratories. They became known as the first immortalized human cell line because scientists could cultivate them indefinitely, meaning researchers anywhere could reproduce studies using identical cells.

The remarkable science involved  and the impact on the Lacks family, some of whom had chronic illnesses and no health insurance  were documented in a bestselling book by Rebecca Skloot, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which was published in 2010. Oprah Winfrey portrayed her daughter in an HBO movie about the story.

Johns Hopkins said it never sold or profited from the cell lines, but many companies have patented ways of using them.

In their complaint, Lacks descendants argued that her treatment illustrates a much larger issue that persists today: racism inside the U.S. medical system.

The exploitation of Henrietta Lacks represents the unfortunately common struggle experienced by Black people throughout history, the complaint reads.

In a brief filed in support of the Lacks family, attorneys advocating for civil rights, womens rights and health care equity said the case is one of many in which U.S. doctors and scientists have exploited minority patients. Another example they cited involved James Marion Sims, a 19th century Alabama surgeon heralded as the father of modern gynecology who performed experimental surgeries on a dozen enslaved women without the use of anesthesia, claiming Black people could endure more pain than white people.

Indeed, a great portion of early American medical research is founded upon nonconsensual experimentation upon systemically oppressed people, the attorneys wrote.

In another supporting brief, Southern University law professor Deleso Alford highlighted the discrepancy in status and financial stability between Lacks descendants, including grandson Ron Lacks who wrote a book in 2020, and the medical professionals profiting off her cells.

In the same year Mr. Lacks was self-publishing a book in the hopes of finding some help for his family, the CEO of Thermo Fisher received a compensation package of over $26 million, the brief says.

Thermo Fisher argued the case should be dismissed because it was filed after the statute of limitations expire. But lawyers for the Lacks family said that shouldnt apply because the company is continuously benefiting.

In a statement posted online, Johns Hopkins Medicine officials said they reviewed all interactions with Lacks and her family after the publication of Skloots book. While acknowledging an ethical responsibility, the statement said the medical system has never sold or profited from the discovery or distribution of HeLa cells and does not own the rights to the HeLa cell line.

Though her relatives hadnt received financial compensation, they reached an agreement with the National Institutes of Health in 2013 that gave them some control over how the DNA code from HeLa cells is used.

Crump, a civil rights attorney, has become well known for representing victims of police violence and calling for racial justice, especially in the aftermath of George Floyds murder. The Lacks family joined him Tuesday near Baltimores waterfront to announce the settlement and pay tribute to Lacks on what would have been her 103rd birthday. The group brought balloons and a cake to celebrate.

Lacks only surviving child, Lawrence Lacks Sr., lives to see justice done, grandson Alfred Lacks Carter Jr. said. Now 86, Lawrence Lacks was 16 when his mother died.

There couldnt have been a more fitting day for her to have justice, for her family to have relief, Carter said. It was a long fight  over 70 years  and Henrietta Lacks gets her day.
One of the major pharmaceutical companies accused of flooding America with generic, addictive painkillers is floating a plan to avoid paying over $1 billion as part of a national settlement for victims of the opioid epidemic.

Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals, which produced more than a third of the opioids in circulation from 2006 to 2012, is one of several companies that stood accused of ignoring free-wheeling drug sales, often known as pill mills, as it pursued profits.

In the face of over 3,000 lawsuits, the company filed for bankruptcy in October 2020. The move allowed it to forge an agreement with every state in the nation: $1.7 billion to make all the lawsuits go away, end future litigation, and admit no fault.

The Wall Street Journal reported last month that Mallinckrodt is exploring ways to wriggle out of its payment. So far, the company has paid $450 million of its $1.7 billion debt.

The Dublin-based company owes the state of Virginia a total of $21.1 million, according to the office of Attorney General Jason Miyares.

Filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission hint at the companys internal deliberations, which appear to have resulted from pressure by investors. The Wall Street Journal has reported that these are primarily two hedge funds that are seeking to recoup money they say is owed to them.

The Board is actively evaluating the Companys capital needs in light of its obligations under its opioid settlement and its long-term debt, the filing reads.

It is not clear whether a second bankruptcy proceeding will be accepted in court. But if accepted, it would likely pay out money from the struggling company to creditors first and victims of the opioid epidemic afterward. NPR has reported that the total sum withdrawn is around $1 billion.

A spokesperson for Miyares, Victoria LaCivita, said the office is reviewing the Mallinckrodt reorganization plan approved by the bankruptcy court and evaluating potential options for the states.

Honesty Liller, CEO of recovery nonprofit McShin, said the company should be held accountable. She said meeting families who have lost a loved one to opioids has been heartbreaking for many years.

You cant put a price on a life, but you can do what is right for your wrongs, Liller said. These funds would help families and our community heal from the pain these medications have caused.

In Virginia, much of the opioid settlement money is being managed by a newly formed state body, the Opioid Abatement Authority. The OAA is distributing the money from companies to Virginia localities that apply and show the agency that the funds will be used for abatement.

Some early projects have already been funded, such as a womens shelter in Washington County in Southwest Virginia. The company, which was approved $116,000 from the OAA, says it will be used to build a 54-bed shelter in downtown Abingdon.
Interstate 15 ramp closures are planned this coming week in Wolf Creek.

In a news release sent Friday, Montana Department of Transportation said it will close the southbound Augusta Interchange Exit 228 on-ramp on Monday.

"This closure is anticipated to last a single day, weather and other factors permitting," the news release states. "Those who need to access southbound Interstate 15 (I 15) should take the north I 15 exit, proceed to Craig and take Exit 234. Motorists can take the southbound I 15 on-ramp in Craig."

On Tuesday, the southbound off-ramp exit to Wolf Creek, Exit 226, will be closed and is also expected to last a single day.

Southbound travelers headed to Wolf Creek should take Exit 234 in Craig and drive along the Craig Frontage Road/Recreation Road to access Wolf Creek.

Construction began earlier this spring to repair about 7 miles of I-15 through Wolf Creek.

Traffic patterns will remain the same with both north and southbound traffic traveling in the northbound I-15 lanes until this fall. Work is expected to take three construction seasons to complete. The project is to improve the driving surface and enhance roadway safety, officials said.

More information about the planned improvements and construction activities can be found at: www.mdt.mt.gov/pubinvolve/i15wolfcreek/.

For traffic conditions and up-to-date restrictions visit 511mt.net.

Questions and comments can be directed to Tyler Manning at Tyler@rbci.net or by phone at 406-465-3350.
National, regional and state experts in school safety are set to meet Tuesday and Wednesday in Helena at the fourth annual Jeremy Bullock Safe Schools Summit.

The summit is geared toward school safety teams and professionals who work at improving safety within educational institutions. This year's theme is "Growing Your School's Safety Culture."

The annual event has been established in memory of Jeremy Bullock and his shooting death by a classmate at the Margaret Leary Elementary School in Butte on April 12, 1994.

The event will be at Central Elementary School in Helena, 402 N. Warren St. Registration is still open, either online or on-site. More information, as well as registration details, can be found at: https://jeremybullocksafeschools.com.

The event will unite K-12 school superintendents and principals; counselors and mental health practitioners; teachers and school staff; school resource officers and school-based law enforcement; school safety teams; youth; and affiliated professionals to explore and advance best practices for fostering safer school environments.

Were all here because we share the conviction that keeping our students and staff safe is not just about installing equipment, following protocols and holding drills and then sitting back and calling it good. While each of those measures is vital, we must do more, Helena Public Schools Superintendent Rex Weltz said in a news release.

In partnership with Helena Public Schools, this conference is held through the support of the University of Montana Safe Schools Center, Jeremy Bullock Memorial Trust and Bullock Families, Montana Office of Public Instruction, Jeremy Bullock Safe Schools Summit Planning Committee, and the Helena Police Department.

The unique aspect of our Summit lies in its ability to bring together diverse stakeholders, including school staff, faculty, resource officers, law enforcement, health professionals, and students and families impacted by safety concerns, Jeremys parents Robin and Bill Bullock said in a news release.
WISE RIVER  If any uncertainly lingered about whether people care deeply about the Big Hole River and its sister streams, all doubt evaporated Wednesday afternoon.

A standing-room-only crowd of more than 100 people jammed the Wise River community center for what was billed as a roundtable discussion about the rivers woes. Some attendees wore straw cowboy hats, and some wore caps with fishing logos.

Gov. Greg Gianfortes visit to Wise River occurred more than two months after fishing outfitters and guides pleaded for an emergency meeting with him to ponder the precipitous decline in populations of brown and rainbow trout in the regions renowned fisheries.

As expected, occasional tension floated like a drift boat through the room between the well-represented ranching community  whose members often divert water from the rivers for irrigation  and those with livelihoods linked to outfitting and guiding.

There were more questions than answers about what might be afflicting trout in the Big Hole, Beaverhead and Ruby rivers. Donald Rumsfelds famous quote about known knowns, known unknowns and unknown unknowns would have aptly applied.

One of the first speakers was Al Zale, Ph.D., a professor at Montana State University and leader of the Montana Cooperative Fishery Research Unit. He and graduate students at MSU will be involved in research about the rivers trout.

We want to look at things at a number of different stages and times in their lifecycle and try to figure out where the problems are, Zale said. Once we know where the problems are, then we can work at fixing things.

He said large numbers of fish will be tagged and tracked to gain a better understanding of causes of mortality. In addition, there will be creel surveys of anglers at fishing access sites to gather more information. Anglers who catch tagged fish can report the tag number, he said.

Zale said researchers will field reports about dead or dying fish, like the so-called zombie fish caught on the Big Hole and Beaverhead. And there will be a focus on juvenile fish and identifying how and where they began life, whether in tributaries or the rivers main stems.

We are recruiting internationally, trying to find the best people from anywhere in the world to do this work, he said.

Jim Olsen, a fisheries biologist for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, joined Zale and six others and Gianforte as roundtable participants. Olsen talked about a different sort of recruitment  describing how and whether young fish survive to adulthood.

My biggest hope is that well get some clear management decisions on what to do, Olsen said. If its recruitment limited, we need to improve spawning habitat. Or if its disease issues, there are potentially some things we can do to mitigate disease.

Olsen said experience and data demonstrate clearly that the quantity and temperature of water are key variables in these rivers famous for their fisheries. Yet, he said low flows and warm temperatures alone do not explain diminishing populations of brown and rainbow trout.

What weve seen is decline above and beyond what we would expect given water alone, he said.

Panelist Wade Fellin, a fishing guide who co-owns the Big Hole Lodge with his father, said he has netted fish bearing lesions and apparent fungus and kept them alive but hasnt been able to have someone from FWP quickly retrieve them for lab work.

Fellin raised the prospect with Gianforte of an interagency task force, one involving state and federal agencies sharing data and resources. Gianforte responded that state agencies are already sharing data that should be available to the public. Fellins idea did not gain traction.

The roundtable discussion began around 3:30 p.m. and lasted a little more than an hour. During that time, much of the nearby Big Hole River was closed to fishing due to warm water temperatures known to stress trout.

The discussion focused at times on practices or infrastructure that could enhance water storage during spring runoff.

Pedro Marques, executive director of the Big Hole Watershed Committee, said there are ways to slow down moisture as it travels through the watershed.

There are restoration and conservation practices that can get us there, Marques said.

Rancher Jim Hagenbarth spoke about agricultures prolonged and enduring connection with the Big Hole Valley.

Weve been on the river the longest, he said. We got on the river after we came out of the mines.

Hagenbarth said the people who descended later for recreation did not understand the resource as well as ranchers.

He said encroachments by conifers has affected the watershed and that attempts to complete related logging are blocked by extremists. Similarly, he said, groups oppose dams on tributaries that could help store water.

We love this resource, Hagenbarth said. We made this resource. And we invite you folks to come and use it responsibly.

When discussion turned to fishing pressure as a potential contributor to population declines and the possibility of suspending all fishing for a time, some people in the crowd clapped or murmured agreement.

Wade Fellin responded for the angling community.

We are also very much stewards (of the rivers) and also love the land, he said, noting that anglers  who helped raise the alarm  would come together to identify and execute remedies.

Save Wild Trout, a non-profit coalition recently stitched together as concerns grew about trout populations, announced Monday it has hired a Montana-born scientist and engineer to pursue science-based solutions to the fisheries collapse in rivers within the Jefferson River Basin.

The organization described the scientist, Kyle Flynn, Ph.D., as a professional hydrologist and engineer with an academic and research background in water quality.

During Wednesdays roundtable, Gianforte cited fuels reduction work in the vicinity of the Basin Creek Reservoir to lessen the potential for a catastrophic wildfire that could shut down water treatment there for years. He referenced the Forest Service.

It takes a while to wake them up, but they finally woke up, Gianforte said.

If Butte lost water treatment capacity at Basin Creek, the alternative would be to pull more water from the Big Hole, he said.

Gianforte described Wednesdays meeting as a beginning. He said the rivers problems need to be better understood.

And then we can act with purpose, he said.
DECATUR  The annual Backpack Attack event will be from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, Aug. 5, at the Decatur Family YMCA, at 220 W. McKinley Ave.

Volunteers will distribute 2,100 backpacks pre-filled with school supplies, facial tissue, and disinfecting wipes. Students entering kindergarten through 6th grade can pick up a backpack.

Backpacks also will be distributed at Old Kings Orchard Community Center at 815 N. Church St., Decatur, and Johns Hill Magnet School at 1025 E. Johns Avenue, Decatur.

The YMCA will host onsite vendors, including the Macon County Health Department, Crossing Healthcare, Empowerment Opportunity Center, Familia Dental, Heritage Behavioral Health Center, PNC Bank and YMCA School Age Care Programs.

The health department will be providing school required immunizations at its facility from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. All families with children in need of immunizations are welcome during this time.

The YMCA location will be offering shuttle services to and from thehealth department from 9 a.m. to noon.
DECATUR  Having a birthday when you're thousands of miles from home could be an occasion to feel homesick.

But on Wednesday, when Hikari Deguchi turned 16, his host family threw him a surprise party.

His (host) dad took him out to eat and when they came back, we were all there and jumped out and yelled 'surprise!' said Jaci Osborne, Sister Cities chairwoman.

Hikari and five other teens  Yui Kusanagi, Daiki Ak'yama, Tatsuki Kordo, Miki Sato and Mikoto Shiga  from Tokorozawa, Japan, Decatur's sister city of 57 years, are in town to spend two weeks soaking up as much American culture as they can.

Decatur's Sister Cities program is the second oldest in Illinois, with the oldest being Bloomington-Normal's affiliation with Asahikawa, Japan, which began in 1960 with a letter from then-Mayor Robert McGraw of Bloomington to Mayor Yosokici Maeno of Asahikawa. In March 1962, the Sister Cities program officially began between those two cities with proclamations by their respective mayors.

The food (in the United States) is different, Hikari said. You go to a restaurant and you order a burger and they bring you so many fries, he added, holding his hands several inches apart to show the size of the portion.

In Japan, he said, portions are not nearly so big.

The students have visited Splash Cove, Millikin University, Chicago  an American city they'd all heard of and wanted to see  and the Abraham Lincoln sites in Springfield. On Thursday, they visited the Children's Museum of Illinois to teach children how to make origami, a skill that most Japanese children learn and practice, said Tatsuki Kordo, the elected spokesman for the group as he has the best command of English, though they all speak the language.

When I was a children, I made origami every day, he said. Origami is most famous and is fun.

The kids at the Children's Museum, and their parents, took to origami with enthusiasm and with the Japanese visitors' help, made cranes and swans out of small squares of paper.

This is the first group of Japanese students to visit Decatur since the pandemic began in 2020, said Maki Ostrander, a member of the Sister Cities board who is a native of Japan and helps interpret for the students. She has lived in Decatur for more than 30 years. A group of adults visited in November.

Decatur planned to send a group of students to Japan in 2020, Osborne said, but the pandemic put a stop to that.

We had our tickets and we were all set, she said.

Students apply to be part of the program and six are chosen to make the trip, both in Japan and in Decatur. This year, Ostrander said, Tokorozawa received the most inquiries ever from students who wanted to come to Decatur.

Obviously, a lot of people were waiting for us to resume our programs, Ostrander said. We're so happy to be able to do this again after the pandemic.

Any high school student who lives in the greater Decatur area can apply to be a student ambassador to travel to Tokorozawa, or to Decatur's German sister city of Seevetal, when it's Decatur's turn to visit them. It is not necessary to speak the language. The student ambassadors must pay their own travel expenses and obtain their own passports, but will live with a host family in the Sister City and living expenses during that stay will be provided by the host family. Travel expenses can be raised through individual or group fundraising activities.

Close Herald & Review, Jim Bowling From left, Maria Hiramatsu, hosts Kimberly Miller, middle, and Audrey Miller,8, discuss possible destinations during Hiramatsus visit after her arrival at the Decatur Civic Center with five other members of Decatur sister city, Tokorozawa, Japan, Wednesday afternoon. Herald & Review, Jim Bowling Director of Sister Cities Committee Linda Hasenmyer greets 6 visitors from Decatur sister city, Tokorozawa, Japan, along with host families upon their arrival at the civic center Wednesday afternoon. Herald & Review, Jim Bowling Host Mallory Christensen welcomes Minami Inoue as her father Dana Christensen looks on during the arrival of 6 visitors from Decatur sister city, Tokorozawa, Japan, at the Decatur Civic Center Wednesday afternoon. Herald & Review, Jim Bowling Host families welcome 6 visitors from Decatur sister city, Tokorozawa, Japan, as they arrive at the Decatur Civic Center Wednesday July 29, 2015. Herald & Review, Jim Bowling Host families welcome 6 visitors from Decatur sister city, Tokorozawa, Japan, as they arrive at the Decatur Civic Center Wednesday July 29, 2015. Herald & Review, Jim Bowling Host families welcome 6 visitors from Decatur sister city, Tokorozawa, Japan, as they arrive at the Decatur Civic Center Wednesday July 29, 2015. Herald & Review, Jim Bowling Host families welcome 6 visitors from Decatur sister city, Tokorozawa, Japan, as they arrive at the Decatur Civic Center Wednesday July 29, 2015. Herald & Review, Jim Bowling Host families welcome 6 visitors from Decatur sister city, Tokorozawa, Japan, as they arrive at the Decatur Civic Center Wednesday July 29, 2015. Herald & Review, Jim Bowling Host families welcome 6 visitors from Decatur sister city, Tokorozawa, Japan, as they arrive at the Decatur Civic Center Wednesday July 29, 2015. Herald & Review, Jim Bowling Host families welcome 6 visitors from Decatur sister city, Tokorozawa, Japan, as they arrive at the Decatur Civic Center Wednesday July 29, 2015. Herald & Review, Jim Bowling Host families welcome 6 visitors from Decatur sister city, Tokorozawa, Japan, as they arrive at the Decatur Civic Center Wednesday July 29, 2015. Herald & Review, Jim Bowling Host families welcome 6 visitors from Decatur sister city, Tokorozawa, Japan, as they arrive at the Decatur Civic Center Wednesday July 29, 2015. Herald & Review, Jim Bowling Host families welcome 6 visitors from Decatur sister city, Tokorozawa, Japan, as they arrive at the Decatur Civic Center Wednesday July 29, 2015. Herald & Review, Jim Bowling Host families welcome 6 visitors from Decatur sister city, Tokorozawa, Japan, as they arrive at the Decatur Civic Center Wednesday July 29, 2015. PHOTOS: Decatur Hosts Welcome Japan Sister City Visitors Herald & Review, Jim Bowling From left, Maria Hiramatsu, hosts Kimberly Miller, middle, and Audrey Miller,8, discuss possible destinations during Hiramatsus visit after her arrival at the Decatur Civic Center with five other members of Decatur sister city, Tokorozawa, Japan, Wednesday afternoon. Herald & Review, Jim Bowling Director of Sister Cities Committee Linda Hasenmyer greets 6 visitors from Decatur sister city, Tokorozawa, Japan, along with host families upon their arrival at the civic center Wednesday afternoon. Herald & Review, Jim Bowling Host Mallory Christensen welcomes Minami Inoue as her father Dana Christensen looks on during the arrival of 6 visitors from Decatur sister city, Tokorozawa, Japan, at the Decatur Civic Center Wednesday afternoon. Herald & Review, Jim Bowling Host families welcome 6 visitors from Decatur sister city, Tokorozawa, Japan, as they arrive at the Decatur Civic Center Wednesday July 29, 2015. Herald & Review, Jim Bowling Host families welcome 6 visitors from Decatur sister city, Tokorozawa, Japan, as they arrive at the Decatur Civic Center Wednesday July 29, 2015. Herald & Review, Jim Bowling Host families welcome 6 visitors from Decatur sister city, Tokorozawa, Japan, as they arrive at the Decatur Civic Center Wednesday July 29, 2015. Herald & Review, Jim Bowling Host families welcome 6 visitors from Decatur sister city, Tokorozawa, Japan, as they arrive at the Decatur Civic Center Wednesday July 29, 2015. Herald & Review, Jim Bowling Host families welcome 6 visitors from Decatur sister city, Tokorozawa, Japan, as they arrive at the Decatur Civic Center Wednesday July 29, 2015. Herald & Review, Jim Bowling Host families welcome 6 visitors from Decatur sister city, Tokorozawa, Japan, as they arrive at the Decatur Civic Center Wednesday July 29, 2015. Herald & Review, Jim Bowling Host families welcome 6 visitors from Decatur sister city, Tokorozawa, Japan, as they arrive at the Decatur Civic Center Wednesday July 29, 2015. Herald & Review, Jim Bowling Host families welcome 6 visitors from Decatur sister city, Tokorozawa, Japan, as they arrive at the Decatur Civic Center Wednesday July 29, 2015. Herald & Review, Jim Bowling Host families welcome 6 visitors from Decatur sister city, Tokorozawa, Japan, as they arrive at the Decatur Civic Center Wednesday July 29, 2015. Herald & Review, Jim Bowling Host families welcome 6 visitors from Decatur sister city, Tokorozawa, Japan, as they arrive at the Decatur Civic Center Wednesday July 29, 2015. Herald & Review, Jim Bowling Host families welcome 6 visitors from Decatur sister city, Tokorozawa, Japan, as they arrive at the Decatur Civic Center Wednesday July 29, 2015.
THUMBS UP! To Mystic Greenz, Macon County's first cannabis dispensary. At last, the county has the opportunity to settle an ongoing discussion. Opponents of dispensaries have regularly pointed toward the potential negative effects. Opponents are also good at ignoring the hundreds of video gambling machines in the county and their potential negatives. One group is closer to correct and the other is closer to wrong. Mystic Greenz will be an opportunity to examine to debate close up.

THUMBS DOWN! To rabies. The virus has made enough of a reappearance that the Illinois Department of Public Health has issued a warning about potential exposure to rabies from infected animals. Rabies can be found in bats, raccoons, skunks, foxes and coyotes. A total of 27 bats have been found in 14 Illinois counties, including DeKalb, Macon, McLean, Peoria, and Sangamon counties. A bat that is active during the day, found on the ground or unable to fly is likely to be rabid and should not be handled. If you believe you may have been exposed to a rabid animal, seek medical treatment immediately.

THUMBS UP! To changes at driver service facilities around the state. Starting Sept. 1, 44 driver services facilities around the state will require appointments for driver services. Vehicle services, like title registration, will still be offered on a walk-in basis. But renewing a license, updating a license to meet Real ID requirements or taking a driving test will be by appointment. Among the areas affected are those servicing Champaign, Decatur, Bloomington and Peoria. Certainly, this will take more effort on the user's part. But a little pre-planning can also relieve the normal fury that ensues during wait times at facilities. Hours at all on Sept. 1 will be 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Sixteen locations, including Champaign, Springfield and Bloomington, will offer Saturday morning hours from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

THUMBS DOWN! To obfuscation and language parsing regarding unidentified flying objects. A former Air Force intelligence officer testified to Congress last week, and his claims were promptly denied by the Pentagon. The testimony included a claim that UFOs (or UAPs, "unidentified aerial phenomena," which is the official term the U.S. government uses) are being captured and reverse-engineered. The Pentagon didn't deny the existence of the objects. The parsing is exhausting.

THUMBS UP! And congratulations to Decatur Mayor Julie Moore Wolfe. She is among 40 Illinois public policy leaders who will participate in this year's Edgar Fellows Program. Fellows for 2023 were chosen from a field of more than 200 nominees. They are meant to reflect the state's political, racial, ethnic and geographic diversity. The program, started in 2012 by former Gov. Jim Edgar, is designed to inspire respectful and collaborative leadership to address the state's major challenges.

THUMBS DOWN! To another nightmarish federal government budget ordeal. Congress, presently on recess, has until Oct. 1, the start of the new fiscal year, to act on government funding. The Republican-led House and the Democrat-led Senate are charting vastly different and mostly incompatible paths on spending. Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said, "We're going to scare the hell out of the American people before we get this done." We believe him.
SELLER HAS VERBALLY ACCEPTED AN OFFER AND WILL BE MARKED UNDER CONTRACT ASAP. Great potential in this Two Bedroom home on over 5.5 acres! Nice, open kitchen and large family room with wood stove. Large primary bedroom on main level with two closets. There is a covered deck and open deck, pool, barn and fenced "kennel type" area with large storage building. 2nd bedroom area is in basement along with laundry closet and full bath! Garage has garage doors on both ends! No City Taxes! Convenient to Granite Falls, Hickory, Lenoir and only about an hour from Boone/ASU! This home won't last long so schedule your viewing today! Property is eligible for Freddie Mac "First Look Initiative" for first 20 days; but seller will not review any offers for the first 7 days the property is on the market. NO investor offers will be considered until the 21st day the property is on the market. Please contact agent to view the home: home has mold and a release must be signed before entering home.

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NEWTON  Catawba County Assistant District Attorney Jessica Phillips recently was honored by the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation for her work in the prosecution of an international child sex enterprise.

Phillips received the SBI Directors Partnership Award for Merit during a presentation at the SBI headquarters in Raleigh on May 16.

She was recognized for her work with the SBI, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Homeland Security and forensic computer analysts on a child sex enterprise that originated in the Philippines.

Ms. Phillips works very hard with all stakeholders in the fight against child exploitation, 36th Prosecutorial District Attorney Scott Reilly said. She is very deserving of this merit award.

ADA Phillips worked closely in conjunction with the SBIs Internet Crimes Against Children unit as well as Homeland Security to investigate the crimes and build the case that was necessary to bring charges.

Victims deserve a voice. Children who have been abused have their voices taken. I want to be an advocate for those victims to help restore those voices, Phillips said. I appreciate the opportunity to partner with so many agencies. Together, we were able to work to seek and bring justice to the victims of these crimes.

Phillips was able to successfully prosecute a Hickory man, 76-year-old Robert Oliver Parker, through her efforts working with the multi-agency operation. Parker entered guilty pleas to three counts of second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor in Catawba County Superior Court and was given an active prison sentence of six to 22 years on July 25.

In August 2020, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Homeland Security received a cyber tip about a user communicating with and receiving sexually explicit images of minor children from an individual in the Philippines. That report was sent to the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) for further investigation.

The investigation traced the transmissions to an email account of the defendant. It was discovered that from 2010 to 2020 he received more than 16,000 images from the individual in the Philippines of more than 30 underage girls.

Parker confirmed his relationship with the contact in the Philippines, and that he had traveled there to engage in sexual intercourse with females that involved filming and photographing his interactions with them when interviewed by SBI agents. He denied that the females were underage, and he also told authorities that he sent money to the individual sending images to him on a monthly basis.

When a search warrant was executed for Parkers residence, investigators seized multiple items. All of those forensically examined were found to contain child sexual assault material. The defendant was observed in thousands of videos engaging in sex with minors. Numerous email conversations were uncovered with the defendant specifically requesting girls and different images/poses of them.

Reilly noted the need to address criminal acts of such a nature to provide protection for children from such abuse.

The sexual abuse and exploitation of children robs them of their childhood, irrevocably interfering with their emotional and psychological development, Reilly said. Our priority is to protect the rights of children to be free from sexual abuse and to protect society from the costs imposed by these crimes.
A Lenoir man was sentenced to 35 years in prison on drug and firearms charges after authorities seized more than 34,000 pills and 30 guns during his arrest.

Jermaine Douglas Grandy, 42, was convicted in February on charges of conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute fentanyl, possession with intent to distribute fentanyl, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina Dena J. King said in a news release.

Grandy was sentenced to 35 years in prison followed by five years of supervised release, King said. The sentence was handed down during U.S. District Court on Thursday, according to court documents.

According to evidence presented at Grandys trial, between December 2020 and February 2021, Grandy conspired with others to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute fentanyl in Caldwell County and surrounding areas, King said.

Trial evidence established that Grandy obtained the drugs from a supply source in Arizona. Grandy frequently travelled there to purchase fentanyl pills in bulk quantities. On February 14, 2021, as Grandy was returning to North Carolina from a trip to Arizona, law enforcement stopped Grandys vehicle in Granite Falls, King said.

Officers found three loaded 9mm pistols in the vehicle and 34,221 pills wrapped in 14 bundles that were concealed in the air vent under the hood of the car, King said.

Later the same day, law enforcement executed a search warrant at a residence associated with Grandy, from which they seized a money counter, two digital scales and other items consistent with the packaging and distribution of narcotics, King said.

Law enforcement also seized 29 illegal firearms, including semi-automatic rifles and handguns, ammunition, and approximately 79 magazines from the home, King said.
National trucking company Yellow Corp. has informed the state Commerce Department that it is letting go of at least 1,000 employees in North Carolina.

The company, based in Nashville, is closing all operations amid media reports of an impending federal bankruptcy filing.

According to state officials, Yellows shutdown would affect 200 employees each at its Charlotte and Morrisville facilities, and 150 each in Fayetteville, Jacksonville, Rocky Mount and Wilmington.

The list and locations are based on research efforts by our workforce staff at this point and not coming from the company, Commerce spokesman David Rhoades said.

Some media reports have said there could be as many as 30,000 affected Yellow employees overall.

Yellow has been a low-cost competitor of Old Dominion Freight Line of Thomasville. A core element of Old Dominions growth spurt the past 10 years has been gaining market share and employees from struggling or out-of-business competitors.

Yellow has not made a public statement addressing the media reports.

However, Yellow said in a notice to the state that it shut down regular operations on Monday and that it expects all layoffs and location closures related to the shutdown to be permanent.

The Associated Press reported Yellow gained a $700 million pandemic-era loan from the federal government on national security grounds.

The Teamsters supported the $700 million loan when it was first announced. As of June 30, Yellow had paid $67 million in cash interest on the loan, which is due in 2024, the company said.

Media reports had Yellow laying off hundreds of nonunion employees on Friday.

Yellow has historically proven that it could not manage itself despite billions of dollars in worker concessions and hundreds of millions in bailout funding from the federal government, Teamsters general president Sean OBrien said in a statement. This is a sad day for workers and the American freight industry.
Overseas Chinese media gathered in Loudi, went to the former residence of Zeng Guofan to visit and interview.

Visit and interview the Cai Hesen Memorial Hall.

In a Loudi company.

A few days ago, guided by the China Overseas Chinese Federation, organized by the Hunan Overseas Chinese Affairs Office, the Hunan Overseas Chinese Federation, the "Dreaming of China - Happy Hunan" 2023 Overseas Chinese Media Interview Tour activities held in Loudi, which is the second stop.

On the 25th, nearly 20 overseas Chinese media from France, Germany, Britain, Spain, Canada, the United States, Argentina, Malaysia and other countries and regions have entered the former residence of Zeng Guofan, Cai Hesen Memorial Hall to visit and interviews.

Through in-depth visit, the delegation will share what they have seen and heard in the form of graphics, video and other forms, sent to the world nearly 50 original reports, to show the Loudis vivid and colorful humanities and modernization and construction of the new outlook.
Two churches, four nonprofits and more than 100 volunteers teamed up to ensure students in the greater Charlotte area are ready for success at the start of a new school year.

At the Back to School Service Fair, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Throne of Grace Church filled more than 120 backpacks with crayons, erasers, pencils and other essential supplies that were donated by church and community members in Albemarle, Concord, Charlotte, Harrisburg, Kannapolis and Mint Hill.

Events like the annual backpack service project are important because they remind us of our responsibility to help our friends and neighbors, said Glenn Beckworth, an area faith leader for the Church of Jesus Christ in central Charlotte. Helping others, especially the children, is the Saviors way.

JustServe, a platform that connects volunteers to local community service opportunities, also coordinated service projects for four local nonprofits that fair participants completed:

n Classroom Central  volunteers completed 100 flashcard sets and wrote 175 notes of encouragement

n Esthers Heart for Transformation Ministry  volunteers filled 200 weekend food bags

n Pencils with a Purpose  volunteers filled nearly 100 handmade pencil pouches

n Promising Pages  volunteers cleaned over 850 books and made more than 100 bookmarks

Community members also donated 30 bags of gently used clothing that will be donated to schools in Montgomery and Stanly counties.

[This event] is empowering us to eliminate the distraction of hunger in our community, said Andrea King, the executive director of Esthers Heart for Transformation Ministry. It takes teamwork, and the team today exemplifies that by not just talking about it, but taking action and getting the job done.

Do you need a backpack and school supplies for your child? On Aug. 12 from 10 a.m. to noon, members from both churches will give out more than 300 supply-filled backpacks at Throne of Grace Church at 7200 Albemarle Road in Charlotte.

Were in an area where there is a great need, Dr. M.H. Russell, the pastor at Throne of Grace Church, said. There are a lot of kids in the community, and we just want to give back.

As part of the giveaway event, the Throne of Grace Church is also offering free haircuts, hot dogs and other supplies for local students.
Facebook's parent Meta has started blocking access to news feeds in Canada, something it threatened to do after the country passed an online news law that forces digital platforms to cut deals with publishing firms.

Google has said it will wait until the law is in place  expected by the end of the year  before it starts removing links to Canadian news from its platform.

Andy Stone, a spokesman for Meta, said in a tweet on Wednesday: "As we've always said, the law is based on a fundamentally flawed premise. And, regrettably, the only way we can reasonably comply is to end news availability in Canada."

A statement on Facebook's blog on 1 August said: "In order to comply with the Online News Act, we have begun the process of ending news availability in Canada.

? Canadian news media call for advertiser halt on Facebook for antidemocratic behavior. This comes after Facebooks post it will block sharing of news entirely rather than participate with Google and other stakeholders during the next six months of rulemaking for new law. /1 pic.twitter.com/wnr7hmlkLV  Jason Kint (@jason_kint) August 3, 2023

"These changes start today, and will be implemented for all people accessing Facebook and Instagram in Canada over the course of the next few weeks.

Federal Government advertising with Facebook and Instagram was suspended on 6 July, though no such ban was adopted by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party.

The Online News Act, also known as C-18, was approved by the Senate, the upper chamber of the Canadian parliament, on 29 June. It was later passed by the lower chamber.

Australians have seen something similar play out a few years ago. When the Australian Government tried to push through its News Media Bargaining Code in 2021, digital platforms, chiefly Facebook and Google, lined up in opposition.

The code was derived from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's Digital Platforms Inquiry report which was handed to the government in June 2019.

Today we've begun the process of ending news availability in Canada. Changes will roll out over a few weeks.



As we've always said, the law is based on a fundamentally flawed premise. And, regrettably, the only way we can reasonably comply is to end news availability in Canada. https://t.co/OtpxOW1eUp  Andy Stone (@andymstone) August 1, 2023

Negotiations between digital platforms and news organisations went on for a while, with the provisions for the code being passed into law in February 2021.

But there was plenty of resistance from the digital platforms and though Google took a more low-key stance, Facebook upped the ante and blocked the ingress of news content into Australia.

The government hurried to placate Facebook and made numerous changes to the legislation after which the social media company reversed its block on content.

Update, 5 August: Contacted for comment, Minister of Canadian Heritage, Pascale St-Onge, said: "This is irresponsible. Facebook knows they have no obligations under the Act right now. They have not participated in the regulatory process.

"They would rather block their users from accessing good quality and local news instead of paying their fair share to news organisations. Google and Facebook earn 80% of all digital advertising revenue in Canada.

"Meanwhile, hundreds of newsrooms have closed. A free and independent press is fundamental to our democracy, and Canadians expect tech giants to follow the law in our country.

"The world is watching Canada. Other countries are looking at introducing similar legislation to tackle the same challenges. Canada is standing up to Facebook for the right reasons.

"Facebook is trying to send a message, not only to Canada, but to other countries like New Zealand, the UK, and the US. We're going to keep standing our ground. After all, if the government can't stand up for Canadians against tech giants, who will?"
India has banned the import of laptops, tablets and some PCs with immediate effect unless one has a valid licence from the authorities.

The directorate-general of trade on Thursday said the government said the ban would also extend to all-in-one PCs and ultra-small form factor PCs and servers. [Details in graphic below]

The notice said an exemption would be granted for up to 20 items in a single consignment, for research and development, testing, benchmarking and evaluation, repair and return and product development.

There would also be an exemption when a device in these categories was part of a capital good.

The notice gave no reason why the ban was being put in place, but India has been touting its mantra of "make in India" for a while now and looking to step up manufacturing within the country.

India Today, a well-known Indian news magazine, quoted Ali Akhtar Jafri, former director-general of the Manufacturers' Association of Information Technology, a lobby group, as saying the restrictions showed the governments strong commitment to promoting indigenous production.

"The move's spirit is to push manufacturing to India. It's not a nudge, it's a push, he said.

The magazine said the April-June quarter had seen electronics imports, including PCs, laptops and tablets, grow by 6.25% year-on-year to US$19.7 billion (A$30.1 billion).

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's aspirations to make India a force in the semiconductor space recently suffered a major blow when Taiwanese giant Foxconn pulled out of a deal with metals-to-oil conglomerate Vedanta.

The reason for the withdrawal is believed to be concerns over incentive approval delays by the government.

The cancellation of this joint venture was the second setback for Modi's aspirations. As iTWire reported on 6 July, a deal that Modi signed with American firm Micron Technology during his recent visit to the US is not for any high-level key chip-making technologies.

Prabir Purkayastha, founding editor of Newsclick.in, wrote in an article published both on his site and Asia Times, that the deal was simply a PR exercise.

He pointed out the deal was "only for packaging of the chips, their assembly and testing, a relatively low end of the electronics industry".

"It does not touch the core technologies of designing and fabrication of chips, let alone the holy grail: the lithographic machines that are central to chip fabrication," he added.
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Two sets of laws now operate in an increasingly unrecognizable America.

Consider the matter of unlawfully removing and storing classified papers.

Donald Trump may go to prison for removing contested White House files to his home.

So far, Joe Biden seems exempt from just such legal jeopardy.

But as a senator and vice president with no right, as does a president, to declassify files, Biden removed and, as a private citizen, kept for years classified files in unsecured locations.

Bidens team strangely revealed the unlawful removals after years of silence.

It did so because the Biden administration found itself in the untenable position of prosecuting the former president for "crimes" that the current president committed as well  albeit far earlier and longer.

Impeachable phone calls?

Donald Trump was impeached by a Democratic House for delaying foreign aid until the Ukrainian government guaranteed that Hunter Biden and his family were no longer engaged in corrupt influence peddling in Kiev.

In addition, the Left charged that Trump was targeting Joe Biden, his possible 2020 rival.

Yet Biden, with impunity, bragged that he had fired a Ukrainian prosecutor looking into his own sons schemes by promising to cancel outright American foreign aid.

And the Biden administrations Justice Department is now targeting Trump, currently the front-running challenger to Biden in 2024.

Election denialism?

Trump was indicted by Special Counsel Jack Smith, in part for supposedly conspiratorially "unlawfully discounting legitimate votes."

Will Smith then also indict Stacey Abrams? For years Abrams falsely claimed that she was the real governor of Georgia. She toured the country in hopes of "discounting" the state vote count.

Or maybe Smith was referring to the conspiracist and former president Jimmy Carter.

He alleged that Trump in 2016 "lost the election, and he was put into office because the Russians interfered on his behalf."

Will Smith charge Hillary Clinton?

She serially libeled Trump as an "illegitimate" president.

Clinton hatched the Russian collusion hoax, and bragged she joined the "Resistance" to continue her attacks on an elected president.

Or maybe Smith meant the Hollywood crowd.

Lots of actors cut commercials after the 2016 election  begging viewers to pressure the electors to ignore their constitutional duties to honor their states popular vote and instead swing their ballots to Hillary Clinton?

Was not that "insurrectionary?"

Or was Smith thinking of January 2005?

Then 32 Democratic House members and Sen. Barbara Boxer tried to nullify the legally certified vote in Ohio  to thereby elect the loser John Kerry.

How about destroying evidence?

Trump was also indicted for allegedly attempting to erase video material from his own security cameras in his own house.

Yet Hillary Clinton with impunity eliminated subpoenaed communication devices and thousands of emails.

Violations of security? Trump was indicted for supposedly loosely talking about classified material to visitors at his home.

So, will prosecutor Smiths indictments also extend to Hillary Clinton? She sent classified documents illegally over her unsecured private server.

FBI Director James Comey memorialized a confidential president conversation.

Then he deliberately leaked what properly was a classified document to the media. It was all part of Comeys Machiavellian gambit to prompt the appointment of a favorable special prosecutor.

What about subversion of the electoral process?

Donald Trump was indicted for supposedly undermining the election of 2020 by questioning the integrity of the balloting.

In 2016, Hillary Clintons campaign illegally hired two foreign nationals Christopher Steele and Igor Danchenko to compile falsehoods about her opponent Trump.

Clinton hid her payments behind three paywalls.

Her team, along with the FBI, helped leak the counterfeit dossier to the media and high officials to undermine her opponent  and thus subvert the election itself.

Lying and perjury?

Two Trump aides and Trump himself are indicted for supposedly stonewalling federal investigators by claiming either amnesia or ignorance.

That tact is exactly what James Comey did 245 times while under oath before Congress.

What do former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former Director of the CIA John Brennan, and former interim FBI Director Andrew McCabe all have in common?

All three admitted they flagrantly lied either under oath to Congress or to federal investigators.

The three were never indicted for their false and perjurious testimonies.

We have now serially devolved from the 2016 election "Russian collusion" hoax, to the 2020 election "Russian disinformation" laptop hoax, and down to the 2024 election weaponized indictments.

Out of pathological hatred or fear of Donald Trump, the Left has crafted one set of laws for themselves, and another for all other Americans.

They smugly believe their own moral superiority grants them such a right to apply laws unequally  or to ignore them altogether.

To retain power at all cost, and to destroy a political rival, left-wing Democrats are systematically dismantling the constitutional foundations of the United States as we once knew them.

( Hanson's latest book is "The Dying Citizen" from Basic Books. Buy it in hardcover at a 36% discount! by clicking here or order in KINDLE edition at a 40% discount by clicking here. Sales help fund JWR.)

(COMMENT, BELOW)

Victor Davis Hanson is the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow in Residence in Classics and Military History at the Hoover Institution, a professor of classics emeritus at California State University at Fresno, and a nationally syndicated columnist for Tribune Media Services.
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The Tucson mom found guilty of neglect for letting her 7-year-old son play at the park has finally had her name removed from Arizona's Central Registry, a government blacklist of unfit parents that is maintained by the Department of Child Safety (DCS).

While this is obviously a victory for the mom  and common sense  the constitutional rights of countless other people are still at stake.

The appeal by Sarra (whose full name is being withheld to protect her identity) was handled by the Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) and the Goldwater Institute, two nonprofit organizations that help defend individual rights. They argued that Arizona's actions were unconstitutional.

"But instead of responding to this brief, DCS decided to just permanently remove Sarra's name from the list," says Adi Dynar, an attorney at the PLF. "We suspect they didn't want this kind of ruling on the books, because that affects the other 81,000 names."

Perhaps the state thought it was better to lose one battle than to deal with an army of parents demanding justice.

The case against Sarra was this: In November 2020, as COVID-19 raged, she let her son and his friend, age 5, play at the park while she shopped for a Thanksgiving turkey.

After all, the grocery was asking shoppers not to bring in kids, and Sarra had played in that park herself as a kid. What's more, a friend happened to be teaching a tai chi class there. But after about 20 minutes, the friend called Sarra to say a police officer was talking to her son.

When Sarra got to the park minutes later, the officer said what she'd done was illegal. While county prosecutors quickly dropped the "lack of supervision" charge after Sarra took a "life skills" class, the folks at DCS were not as easily appeased.

The agency ruled that Sarra had put her son at "unreasonable risk of harm for abduction, injury, harm from a stranger, exposure to drugs and death." This meant Sarra's name would go on the registry  and remain there for 25 years.

Employers can access this registry, which essentially functions as a blacklist. People on it can't get jobs involving children  a big problem for Sarra, who worked with refugees, helping them to find jobs and often providing child care.

So Sarra took the Central Registry to court. I testified on her behalf, as an expert on how rare stranger kidnappings are. But Sarra lost, and her name was added to the Central Registry. That's when the PLF and Goldwater Institute swooped in to help her with an appeal.

They drew up a brief arguing that the case against Sarra was unconstitutional because the court used a low standard of proof despite the high stakes. They also argued that the agency's system for determining guilt was manifestly unfair. The DCS brings the case against a parent, and if the parent is found guilty, they can then appeal, as Sarra did, to an administrative law judge. But if they're found guilty and want to appeal again, the next hearing is in front of the director of the DCS.

Ultimately, the department ends up adjudicating itself.

"This means no judge, no jury, no nothing," says Dynar.

Thankfully, a new director took over the DCS at the start of 2023. This change in administration became the ostensible reason the agency dropped its case against Sarra. But her attorneys aren't buying it.

"Although we argued that the department was merely trying to escape a decision on the constitutionality of its actions  something that is not usually allowed  the Superior Court judge agreed to let the department abandon the lawsuit," writes Timothy Sandefur, vice president of legal affairs at the Goldwater Institute.

"Obviously our hope was that we would have had a ruling from the court on the constitutional aspects of the case," says Dynar.

Without that, the DCS is free to return to business as usual.
Insight

Actually, Justice Alito, Congress CAN regulate the Supreme Court By Jeff Jacoby Published August 4, 2023

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Over the weekend, in a lengthy interview with The Wall Street Journal's opinion page, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito offered insights into some of the ways he and his conservative colleagues differ in their approach to judging and the law.

For example, he said, Chief Justice John Roberts "puts a high premium on consensus," which is why "he rarely dissents." Justice Clarence Thomas gives less weight than other justices to stare decisis  the principle that once an issue has been settled in court, it remains settled  and often files solo opinions that disregard precedents he considers mistaken.

Alito observed that while both he and Justice Neil Gorsuch are textualists  i.e., they focus on the plain meaning of a statute's words  Gorsuch is much more likely to interpret a text in a way its author could not have intended. A quintessential example was the 2020 case of Bostock v. Clayton County. Gorsuch, writing for the majority, held that Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits employers from discriminating because of "sex," extends to "sexual orientation and gender identity." Alito dissented, arguing that in 1964, when homosexuality was broadly disfavored, Congress plainly wasn't intending to make sexual orientation a protected category.

It was an interesting interview and well worth reading. But when the conversation turned to efforts by some members of Congress to impose specific ethical disclosure rules on Supreme Court justices and their clerks, Alito vigorously and emphatically voiced a claim that  to put it politely  makes no sense.

"I know this is a controversial view, but I'm willing to say it," he told the Journal. "No provision in the Constitution gives them the authority to regulate the Supreme Court  period."

It was a bizarre thing to say. Article III, Section 2 of the Constitution explicitly empowers Congress to regulate what the justices do. It does so most obviously by giving Congress considerable authority to strip the court of appellate jurisdiction. After listing a handful of areas in which the Supreme Court has "original jurisdiction"  litigation that must begin in the Supreme Court rather than a lower court  the Constitution leaves everything else up to Congress. When it comes to the 99 percent of cases that begin in a lower court, decrees the Constitution, "the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make." (Italics added)

Thus if Congress wanted to, it could pass a law tomorrow barring the Supreme Court from hearing cases involving, say, environmental protection or wage-and-hour laws or disputes arising in Puerto Rico. It could block the Supreme Court from agreeing to settle legislative redistricting challenges. It could exclude the court from hearing arguments in tax matters.

Of course Congress isn't likely to do any of those things, but it has that power. By the same token, Congress could  it won't, but it could  pass the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal and Transparency Act being pushed by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, and include a provision excluding it from Supreme Court review.

Jurisdiction-stripping isn't the only means Congress has of regulating the high court.

Under Section 1 of Article III, the salaries of federal judges "shall not be diminished during their Continuance in Office." Thus, while Congress cannot lower the pay of current judges, it can reduce the compensation (or other benefits) of justices to be appointed in the future. And of course the Supreme Court's budget, like all other federal appropriations, is subject to congressional approval.

Moreover, it is Congress that specifies the text of judicial oaths, that decides how many seats the Supreme Court has, and that authorizes the court to hire law clerks. Congress cannot regulate the inner workings of the court or lean on the justices to rule one way or another. But it could presumably require a supermajority of justices to strike down a federal statute or regulation as unconstitutional.

All that is in addition to the fact that no one can serve on the Supreme Court (or any federal bench) without the consent of the Senate. And while it has never happened, Congress can remove a justice through impeachment by the House and conviction in the Senate.

Alito knows all this. So why would he tell the Journal that Congress has no authority "to regulate the Supreme Court  period"? The likeliest explanation is that he got so caught up in contending that Congress should not presume to impose an ethics code on the high court that he veered into hyperbole. That happens sometimes, especially in unscripted conversations or interviews.

But if Alito and his colleagues really don't want Congress deciding what perks, gifts, and indulgences they may accept, they ought to voluntarily impose a strict code on themselves. The gratuities, lavish vacations, and luxury accommodations that the justices  liberals as well as conservatives  have gotten so used to accepting from wealthy admirers and deep-pocketed institutions are undermining the court's reputation. Rather than argue about Congress's authority to hold members of the Supreme Court to a higher ethical standard, how about if the justices raise that standard on their own? Alito and his colleagues are nine of the most powerful people in America. Their integrity should be beyond reproach.

Right now, it's anything but.

Jeff Jacoby is a columnist for The Boston Globe, from which this is reprinted with permission."
For people who need a photo ID to vote, the county elections boards in each county in North Carolina can now issue the IDs.

The State Board of Elections announced on Wednesday that county boards of elections are now able to produce free photo ID cards. These can help registered voters who lack other acceptable forms of ID. That list includes drivers licenses, military IDs and scores of state-approved college student and public employer ID cards, according to an AP story.

To get the ID, the voter should go to their county election board office and provide their name, date of birth and the last four digits of their Social Security number. The photo ID cards are free and are valid for 10 years.

Photo IDs are also available at N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles offices.

Q: Im due for a license renewal in a few months. Will the renewal automatically renew my REAL ID, or will I have to reapply?

Answer: You do not need to reapply for a REAL ID to renew your license, said John Brockwell, the communications officer for the N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles.

The customer does not need to reapply when renewing a driver license. The REAL ID enhancement is permanent, Brockwell said.

Q: When will the work on Bethabara Road near Bethabara Park be completed? C.S.

Answer: Keith Huff, the field operations director for the City of Winston-Salem, said that a culvert has to be replaced and that design and permit work is being completed.

When permits are in hand, then well proceed to construction. This said, I dont have a definitive time frame for completion of this project, he said.

Q: What is considered Upstate in South Carolina? I saw a news story recently that said Anderson County was Upstate. I guess I thought that Upstate would be across the northern part of the state. J.D.

Answer: According to the official website of the state of South Carolina, sc.gov, there are four regions in South Carolina. The Upstate region is in northwestern part of the state.

It includes the counties of Abbeville, Anderson, Cherokee, Greenville, Greenwood, Laurens, McCormick, Oconee, Pickens, Spartanburg, and Union.

The other regions in South Carolina are Midlands, Pee Dee, and Lowcountry.

Q: Why are gas prices going up again? J. L.

Answer: Oil production has been cut back recently, contributing to the problem.

Andrew Goss, a spokesman for AAA, told the Associated Press that the two major reasons that gas prices are increasing are the heat wave in the Southwest and OPEC+ has been cutting production.

Extreme temperatures cause problems for refineries. They work best at temperatures between 32 and 95 degrees.

They dont like temperature extremes because theyre inherently dangerous places... So, they dial back the production for safety purposes, but that then constrains supply Goss said.

Tom Kloza, an oil analyst, told the AP that OPEC+ has been cutting back on production. He said that in July Saudi Arabia reduced the amount of oil it was producing by 1 million barrels a day.

Traffic notice

Crews from Lusk Tree Services will close the 100 block of Wedgefield Avenue in Winston-Salem to traffic Friday and Monday for removal of a hazardous tree.
The movie Oppenheimer reminds us that a healthy society must leave room for people who face down power to pursue truth, who introduce new ways of thinking or who choose to follow alternative life paths.

A brilliant but eccentric scientist, J. Robert Oppenheimer led the world into the Atomic Age only to run afoul of government investigators. He also calls to mind a similar account in Great Britain in which Alan Turing, who led the world into the computer age and helped crack the German military codes in World War II, was convicted on a morals charge and eventually took his own life.

Both men were ahead of their times. Both made enormous contributions to the war efforts of their countries. Despite their efforts, both faced problems with their respective governments. Oppenheimers problem was his association with far-left colleagues and his defense of arms control, Turings was being gay at a time when it was illegal.

As a result, Oppenheimers security clearance was revoked, while Turing faced public humiliation and chemical castration. Although Oppenheimers clearance was reinstated after his death, and Turing received a posthumous pardon, their fates raise the question of how society deals with talented people who dont abide by the normal rules.

The problem is as old as history itself. Legend has it that the ancient Greek musician who discovered irrational numbers was murdered because his discovery upset normal ways of thinking. Socrates was sentenced to death for impiety. Galileo Galilei was put under house arrest for suggesting that the earth orbits the sun. Albert Einstein received death threats for proposing the theory of relativity and was forced to leave his native Germany due to his Jewish heritage.

Religious history is no different. The prophet Jeremiah was jailed, beaten and left to die. Jesus fate is well known. Joan of Arc was burned at the stake. Reformer Martin Luther went into hiding to avoid being arrested and killed. The rabbinical authorities of Amsterdam excommunicated philosopher Baruch Spinoza. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was put under FBI surveillance, received numerous death threats and was assassinated.

In one way or another, all these people challenged accepted ways of thinking and paid a heavy price for doing so. Granted, societies need cohesion to survive. But they also need freethinkers, whistleblowers and conceptual innovators to stay vibrant. Where should the line be drawn between protecting society from a legitimate threat and stamping out diversity?

While there is no simple answer to this question, one thing is clear: Neither Oppenheimer nor Turing posed a legitimate threat to anyone. In fact, both helped society defend itself against its real enemies. The record shows that time after time, society overreacted and punished people whom history went on to regard as heroic.

What about our society? Who is the J. Robert Oppenheimer of our day? I suggest Dr. Anthony Fauci. The enemy he fought, COVID-19, killed many more Americans than the Germans or Japanese. Although he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2008 for advancing the understanding and treatment of HIV/AIDS, he and his family now require constant security to protect them from harassment and death threats.

Looking further afield, one could cite novelist Salman Rushdie, environmental activist Greta Thunberg, and the journalists and politicians who have opposed Vladimir Putin. Are these people a threat to their societies or have their societies mistaken friend for foe?

If there is a lesson to be learned from all this, it is that societies often get things wrong and deprive themselves of the opportunity to move forward. Without these kinds of people, rather than security, the result would be an oppressive uniformity.
The 17-year-old girl who was brought to Lancaster County illegally last month from Guatemala and allegedly abused by a 34-year-old man until his arrest was also forced to cook, clean and provide child care for eight other occupants in the house south of Lincoln, deputies said in new court filings.

Lancaster County Sheriff's deputies arrested Alvaro Gomez-Lopez on Tuesday at the house where he'd been living  at 3501 Saltillo Road  before prosecutors charged him Wednesday with felony child abuse for allegedly withholding food from her, sexually and verbally abusing her and forcing her to work to repay the debt incurred when he paid to have her brought to Nebraska from Guatemala, according to court filings.

Gomez-Lopez, who authorities said entered the U.S. illegally about six months ago before paying to have the girl brought here in mid-July, is the only person who has yet been arrested or charged with a crime stemming from the girl's alleged abuse, Sheriff's Capt. Tommy Trotter said.

But the girl indicated to deputies that the other occupants of the house  including the registered tenant, his wife and their three children and three other adults  had at least benefited from her abuse, Investigator Joanna Dimas said in the probable cause statement for Gomez-Lopez's arrest.

In an interview Tuesday at the BraveBe Child Advocacy Center in Lincoln, the girl, through an interpreter, told deputies she had lived at the house for three days when a female occupant pushed her into a cupboard and told her she was no longer allowed to eat any food in the home, Dimas wrote in the statement.

When the girl reported that encounter to Gomez-Lopez, he allegedly told her, "We will see how long you can last without food," Dimas wrote.

The girl said she was then told she had to cook and clean for all the residents and was expected to watch the three children, Dimas wrote.

She said she was forced to make meals before being sent downstairs while everyone else ate, then being summoned back upstairs to clean and do dishes, according to the court filing.

Dimas said the girl reported she "sometimes could eat food if the owners allowed her to."

Trotter, the captain of the sheriff's office's patrol division, clarified Thursday that the family who live in the house are tenants and don't own the property.

"It's still under criminal investigation, but the way I understand it was, Gomez-Lopez was the only one who was forcing the victim to do anything," Trotter said. "Everyone else was just, I guess, living there  roommates that were getting the benefits of that, but he was the one who was actually causing this to happen, which is why he was the one immediately arrested.

"But it is still under investigation."

Trotter said the other people living in the home were "family friends or possibly coworkers" of Gomez-Lopez. Their names aren't included in court filings.

It's unclear if they will face criminal charges for any role they may have played in the abuse. Trotter said Thursday he couldn't yet say whether anyone else would face charges since the investigation remains in its early stages.

The girl told deputies she was nearly constantly held inside the house on Saltillo Road, from which she was not permitted to leave, save for when she played outside with one of the family's children for 30 minutes sometime in July, Dimas wrote.

The teen also said she once walked to Walmart to feed herself when the home's other occupants were away.

And, she said, Gomez-Lopez took her to a construction site at 5 a.m. Monday and left her there until 8 p.m., telling her that she would have to work but would not be paid, according to the affidavit. Gomez-Lopez allegedly told the girl her earnings would go toward the debt incurred by bringing her to the U.S.

Trotter said it's unclear if the debt the girl referred to is one Gomez-Lopez feels he is owed for having the girl, who he knew, brought to the U.S. or a debt the 34-year-old owes a third party for her bringing her here.

Gomez-Lopez is also accused of groping the girl and trying to force her to touch him sexually, according to the court filing. The girl told deputies, at times, she locked herself in a bathroom at night so Gomez-Lopez wouldn't sexually assault her.

The girl used the 34-year-old's phone to call Church World Service, an international justice organization focused on ending world hunger, sometime early this week. A Houston-based social worker passed along the girl's report to the sheriff's office Tuesday.

Deputies "immediately responded" to the home on Saltillo Road and took the girl to the Child Advocacy Center, returning later to arrest Gomez-Lopez  but no one else.

"When (deputies) started investigating it, it sounded like the only person that they were gonna be able to prove a criminal case on immediately was Alvaro," Trotter said. "But they are continuing to work the criminal case."

A juvenile court judge ordered Wednesday that the girl be placed temporarily in emergency state custody, according to court filings.

Tom Casady's list of the 10 most infamous crimes in Lincoln history Crimes of the times This is simply one mans perspective from the early 21st century (first written in 2010). I had to make a decision about crimes that occurred at locations that are inside the city today, but were outside our corporate limits at the time they occurred. I chose the latter. Before beginning, though, I have to deal with three crimes that stand apart: the murders of three police officers in Lincoln. Im not quite sure how to place them in a list. They all had huge impacts on the community, and on the police department in particular. Because these are my colleagues, I deal with them separately and in chronological order. Patrolman Marion Francis Marshall Shot in the shadow of the new Nebraska State Capital, Gov. Charles Bryan came to his aid and summoned additional help. Lt. Frank Soukup Marion Marshall was technically not a Lincoln police officer, so Lt. Soukup was actually the first Lincoln police officer killed on duty. One of his colleagues who was present at the motel and involved in the gunbattle, Paul Jacobsen, went on to enjoy a long career and command rank at LPD, influencing many young charges (like me) and leaving his mark on the culture of the agency. Lt. Paul Whitehead In the space of a few months, three LPD officers died in the line of duty. Frank Soukup had been murdered, and George Welter had died in a motorcycle crash. Paul Whitehead's partner, Paul Merritt, went on to command rank, and like Paul Jacobsen left an indelible mark at LPD and the community. No. 1: Starkweather The subject of several thinly disguised movie plots and a Springsteen album, the Starkweather murders are clearly the most infamous crime in Lincolns history  so far. One of the first mass murderers of the mass media age, six of Charles Starkweathers 11 victims were killed inside the city of Lincoln, and the first was just on the outskirts of town. I didnt live in Lincoln at the time, but my wife was a first-grader at Riley Elementary School and has vivid memories of the city gripped by fear in the days between the discovery of the Bartlett murders and Starkweathers capture in Wyoming. The case caused quite an uproar. There was intense criticism of the police department and sheriffs office for not capturing Starkweather earlier in the week after the discovery of the Bartletts' bodies. Ultimately, Mayor Bennett Martin and the Lancaster County Board of Commissioners retained a retired FBI agent, Harold G. Robinson, to investigate the performance of local law enforcement. His report essentially exonerated the local law officers and made a few vanilla recommendations for improving inter-agency communication and training. Now I know that many readers are mumbling to themselves how obvious. Hold your horses, though. Its not quite as obvious as you might think. I had two experiences that drove this fact home to me. The first was a visit by a small group of journalism students. Only one member of the class had any idea, and her idea was pretty vague. You need to remember that the Starkweather murders were in 1957 and 1958  before the parents of many college students were even born. The second experience was a visit by a Cub Scout den. I was giving the kids a tour of the police station one evening. We were in the front lobby waiting for everyone to arrive. As I entertained the boys, I told the moms and dads that they might enjoy looking in the corner of the Sheriffs Office display case to see the contents of Starkweathers wallet  discovered a couple of years ago locked up in the Lancaster County Sheriffs Office safe. After a few minutes, one of the confused fathers asked me who Starkweather was, and why it was significant. No. 2: Lincoln National Bank On the morning of Sept. 17, 1930, a dark blue Buick carrying six men pulled up in front of the Lincoln National Bank at the northwest corner of 12th and O streets. Five of the men entered the bank, while a sixth stood outside by the Buick, cradling a machine gun. Observing the unusual events, a passerby called the police. The officer who responded, Forrest Shappaugh, was casually instructed by the machine-gun-toting lookout to just keep going, which he wisely did. Returning with reinforcements, he found that the robbers had already made good on their getaway, netting $2.7 million in cash and negotiable securities. Ultimately, three of the six suspects were arrested. Tommy OConnor and Howard Lee were convicted and sentenced. Jack Britt was tried twice but not convicted by a hung jury. Gus Winkeler, a member of Al Capones gang, winged a deal with County Attorney Max Towle to avoid prosecution in exchange for orchestrating the recovery of $600,000 in bearer bonds. The following year, Winkeler was murdered in Chicago, the victim of a gangland slaying. The final two robbers were never identified. The Lincoln National Bank robbery stood as the largest cash bank robbery in the United States for many decades. It precipitated major changes at the Lincoln Police Department. Chief Peter Johnstone was rapidly retired after the robbery, the departments fleet was upgraded to add the first official patrol cars, the full force was armed and a shotgun squad was organized. Forty-four years later when I was hired at LPD, the echo of the Lincoln National Bank robbery was still evident in daily bank opening details, and in the Thomspon submachine guns and Reising rifles that detectives grabbed whenever the robbery alarm sounded at headquarters. No. 3: The Last Posse My first inkling about this crime came when I was the chief deputy sheriff. One of my interns, a young man named Ron Boden (who became a veteran deputy sheriff), had been doing some research on Lancaster Countys only known lynching, in 1884. I came across a reference in the biography of the sheriff at the time, Sam Melick, to the murder of the Nebraska Penitentiary warden and subsequent prison break. Melick had been appointed interim warden after the murder and instituted several reforms. Several years later, a colleague, Sgt. Geoff Marti, loaned me a great book, Gale Christiansons "Last Posse," that told the story of the 1912 prison break in gory, haunting and glorious detail. To make a long story short, convict Shorty Gray and his co-conspirators shot and killed Warden James Delahunty, a deputy warden and a guard on Wednesday, March 13, 1912. They then made their break  right into the teeth of a brutal Nebraska spring blizzard. Over the course to the next few days, a posse pursued. During the pursuit, the escapees carjacked a young farmer with his team and wagon. As the posse closed in, a gunfight broke out and the hostage was shot and killed in the exchange, along with two of the three escapees. There was plenty of anger among the locals in the Gretna-Springfield vicinity about the death of their native son, and a controversy raged over the law enforcement tactics that brought about his demise. Lancaster County Sheriff Gus Hyers was not unsullied by the inquiry, although it appears from my prospect a century later that the fog of war led to the tragedy. Christianson, a professor of history at Indiana State University who died earlier this year, notes the following on the flyleaf: For anyone living west of the Mississippi in 1912, the biggest news that fateful year was a violent escape from the Nebraska state penitentiary planned and carried out by a trio of notorious robbers and safe blowers. Bigger news on half the continent than the sinking of the Titanic during the same year would certainly qualify this murder-escape as one of the most infamous Lincoln crimes in history. No. 4: Rock Island wreck The Aug. 10, 1894, wreck of a Rock Island train on the southwest outskirts of Lincoln was almost lost in the mist of time until it was resurrected in the public consciousness by author Joel Williams, who came across the story while conducting research for his historical novel, "Barrelhouse Boys." The wreck was determined to be the result of sabotage to the tracks, perhaps an attempt to derail the train as a prelude to robbery. Eleven people died in the crash and ensuing fire, making this a mass murder, to be sure. G.W. Davis was arrested and convicted of the crime but later received a full pardon. The story was told in greater detail earlier this year by the Lincoln Journal Star. A historical marker is along the Rock Island Trail in Wilderness Park, accessible only by foot or bike from the nearest trail access points about a half-mile away at Old Cheney Road on the north, or 14th Street on the south. Heres the big question that remains unanswered: Was there really significant evidence to prove that George Washington Davis committed the crime, or was he just a convenient scapegoat? The fact that he received a gubernatorial pardon 10 years later leads me to believe that the evidence must have been unusually weak. If he was railroaded, then my second question is this: who really pried loose the tracks with the 40-pound crowbar found at the scene? No. 5: Commonwealth On Nov. 1, 1983, the doors to Nebraskas largest industrial savings and loan company were closed and Commonwealth was declared insolvent. The 6,700 depositors with $65 million at stake would never be fully compensated for their loss, ultimately receiving about 59 cents on the dollar for their deposits, which they all mistakenly believed were insured up to $30,000 through the Nebraska Depository Insurance Guaranty Corporation, which was essentially an insurance pool with assets of only $3 million. The case dominated Nebraska news for months. The investigation ultimately led to the conviction of three members of the prominent Lincoln family that owned the institution, the resignation of the director of the State Department of Banking and the impeachment of the Nebraska attorney general and the suspension of his license to practice law. State and federal litigation arising from the failure of Commonwealth drug on for years. At the Lincoln Police Department, the Commonwealth failure led to the formation of a specialized white-collar crime detail, now known as the Technical Investigations Unit. At the time, municipal police departments in the United States had virtually no capacity for investigating financial crime and fraud of this magnitude, and we quickly became well known for our expertise in this area. The early experience served LPD very well in the ensuring years. No. 6: Candice Harms Candi Harms never came home from visiting her boyfriend on Sept. 22, 1992. Her parents reported her as a missing person the following morning, and her car was found abandoned in a cornfield north of Lincoln later in the day. Weeks went by before her remains were found southeast of Lincoln. Scott Barney and Roger Bjorklund were convicted in her abduction and murder. Barney is in prison serving a life term. Bjorklund died in prison in 2001. Intense media attention surrounded the lengthy trial of Roger Bjorklund, for which a jury was brought in from Cheyenne County as an alternative to a change of venue. I have no doubt that the trial was a life-changing event for a group of good citizens from Sidney, who did their civic duty. I was the Lancaster County sheriff at the time, involved both in the investigation and in the trial security. It was at about this time that the cellular telephone was becoming a consumer product, and I have often thought that this brutal crime probably spurred a lot of purchases. During my career, this is probably the second-most-prominent Lincoln crime in terms of the sheer volume of media coverage. No. 7: Jon Simpson and Jacob Surber A parents worst nightmare unfolded in September 1975 when these two boys, ages 12 and 13, failed to return from the Nebraska State Fair. The boys were the victims of abduction and murder. The case was similar to a string of other murders of young boys in the Midwest, and many thought that these cases were related -- the work of a serial killer. Although an arrest was made in the case here in Lincoln, the charges were eventually dismissed. William Guatney was released and has since died. No. 8: John Sheedy Saloon and gambling house owner John Sheedy was gunned down outside his home at 1211 P St. in January 1891. The case of Sheedy, prominent in Lincolns demiworld, became the talk of the town when his wife, Mary, and her alleged lover and accomplice, Monday McFarland, were arrested. Both were acquitted at trial. The Sheedy murder is chronicled in a great interactive multimedia website, Gilded Age Plains City, an online version that builds upon an article published in 2001 by Timothy Mahoney of the University of Nebraska. No. 9: Patricia McGarry and Catherine Brooks The bodies of these two friends were found in a Northeast Lincoln duplex in August 1977. Their murderer, Robert E. Williams, was the subject of a massive Midwest manhunt during the following week. Before his capture, he committed a third murder in Sioux Rapids, Iowa, and raped, shot and left for dead a victim who survived in Minnesota. He is the last man to be executed in Nebraska, sent to the electric chair in 1997. No. 10: Judge William M. Morning District Court Judge William Morning was murdered in February 1924. He was shot on the bench by an unhappy litigant in a divorce case. His court reporter, Minor Bacon, was also shot, but a notebook in his breast pocket deflected the bullet and saved his life. Many other crimes Choosing Lincoln's 10 most infamous crimes was a challenge. Although the top two were easy, the picture quickly became clouded. We tend, of course, to forget our history rather quickly. Many of the crimes I felt were among the most significant are barely remembered today, if not completely forgotten. Some readers will take issue with my list. In choosing 10, here are the others I considered, in no particular order. They are all murders: -- Mary O'Shea -- Nancy Parker -- Charles Mulholland -- Victoria Lamm and Janet Mesner -- Martina McMenamin -- Regina Bos (presumably murdered) -- Patty Webb -- Marianne Mitzner I also thought about the five murder-suicides in which a mother or father killed multiple family members before taking their own life. Though tragic, these crimes did not command the same kind of attention as the others, perhaps because there was no lengthy investigation, no tantalizing whodunit, no stranger-killer, nor any of the details that come out in the coverage of a major trial.
Nebraska State Patrol investigators arrested a corporal working in the state's prison system Wednesday over her alleged relationship with a parolee who she met and started dating before ever working for the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services, according to court filings.

Angelita Zuniga, 44, started dating the parolee sometime in late 2021  months after the 30-year-old finished a four-year prison stint and at least six months before Zuniga started working for the corrections department, State Patrol Investigator Pedram Nabegh said in the probable cause statement for her arrest.

Still, investigators began looking into Zuniga's relationship with the man after the department carried out a random search of Zuniga's vehicle at the Reception and Treatment Center last week, Nabegh said in the statement.

As a corporal at the south Lincoln prison searched the car Zuniga drove to work that day, the 44-year-old allegedly told prison staff that the car and some of its contents belong to her boyfriend, a parolee, Nabegh wrote in the court filing.

In a Tuesday interview with State Patrol investigators, Zuniga's boyfriend reported the two met on Facebook in 2021 and now live together, describing it as a "healthy and supportive" relationship, Nabegh wrote.

He told troopers he didn't know their relationship violated state law.

Investigators allege that Zuniga did know, pointing in the court filing to her academy training from when she joined the Department of Correctional Services.

Zuniga resigned from her post with the department and turned herself in to State Patrol investigators at the Lancaster County jail Wednesday, the corrections department said in a news release.

Prosecutors charged her Thursday with second-degree sexual abuse of inmate or parolee, a felony.

At her initial court appearance Thursday afternoon, Judge Thomas Zimmerman set the 44-year-old's percentage bond at $10,000. She must pay $1,000 to be released.

Top Journal Star photos for July 2023
Leaders in the next phase of finance spent much of a technology conference Wednesday in Lincoln describing the need for sensible federal regulation that strengthens the guardrails for cryptocurrency and blockchain customers without stifling business innovation.

First District Congressman Mike Flood, a rookie member of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee, hosted a Flyover Fintech forum for 250 people in business, government and academia at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Business.

Attendees included University of Nebraska President Ted Carter, Nebraska Bankers Association President Richard Baier, founders of local financial technology startups and several members of the Nebraska Legislatures Banking, Commerce and Insurance Committee.

I see fintech as an opportunity to create wealth and jobs in Nebraska, Flood told the crowd. I see fintech as an evergreen area of the law where we are literally shaping how this sector is going to move forward  for the entire world.

Panelists, including Lydia Chiu of digital asset firm Ava Labs and Justin Slaughter of crypto technology investment firm Paradigm, described a moment of opportunity as people realize they can own their own data and digital assets.

Cryptocurrency and blockchain experts described a financial future less dependent on cash and credit cards, in which the buyers and sellers of real-world goods, digital items and digital services can send and receive payments faster.

A tool to rethink finance

U.S. Rep. French Hill, R-Ark., who chairs the House Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology and Inclusion, described the shift toward digital currency as the newest financial tool causing people to rethink global finance and its functions.

Hill compared the disruption of cryptocurrency and blockchain to when ATMs first became ubiquitous. He said people and businesses are about to get easy and cheap instant access to their money and assets via digital wallets, a step he called revolutionary.

Flood called the early 2020s an echo of the mid-1990s. Thats when people were getting used to the internet and didnt use email much for business or do much of their shopping online. Personal checks are the snail mail of today, he said.

Venmo today is similar in popularity to the way America Online was when the company first arrived on the scene.

Popular online payment company Venmo is a modern pioneer in consumer payments that will be viewed much like America Online was, as the online leader of its day.

These younger folks, they only know their cell phone, and they are going to lead the way with innovation thats going to change the way we do business, Flood said of global finance. And its going to make it faster and more efficient.

Need for fraud protection

Several speakers, including Flood and Nebraska Lt. Gov. Joe Kelly, a former criminal prosecutor, spoke about the need to boost protections for the public from fraud. A number of speakers referenced the 2022 collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX.

The idea of cryptocurrency and other digital assets is to remove middlemen from financial transactions. This push is driven by the belief in some tech circles that governments and legacy currency and add unnecessary costs and hurdles to financial transactions.

Blockchain can be considered a digital ledger of these peer-to-peer transactions. The ledger is kept in chronological order and shared among participants in the purchases. It is meant to provide a lasting and transparent record.

Making payments this way can be cheaper than paying the processing fees, currency exchange fees and money wiring fees to complete purchases across international borders, crypto advocates explained. But it can also be riskier, some said.

The challenge, several speakers said, is making sure that legal protections for investors and customers that were designed for stocks, bonds and banks are properly calibrated to handle modern financial transactions and the rise of artificial intelligence.

The upside is a chance to make finance quicker and nimbler, panelists said, including Jared Favole of peer-to-peer payment company Circle, and Tom Manatos of Block, formerly called Square.

Opportunities abound

Hill told those attending that business leaders in states such as Nebraska are already creating the infrastructure needed to grow a competitive financial technology sector. The state saw $300 million in venture capital in 2021, he said.

San Francisco, Boston and New York are not the only places with good ideas, Hill said. There is so much money seeking good ideas they will come to where the talent is.  That attracts younger people to your communities.

Several speakers credited Nebraska for being the second state, after Wyoming, to provide a framework in state law for digital assets and digital currencies. A group of young startup leaders said they can reach state banking officials in a single call.

State Sen. Eliot Bostar of Lincoln, a member of the Legislatures Banking Committee, hosted one of the panels. He said Wednesday was just the latest step in the financial industry moving forward, as it always is and it always has.

There was a time where hard currency cash and coin was all anyone had available to them, Bostar said. And you imagine at that point in time trying to envision a world where you swipe a card and money is exchanged digitally through bank accounts and wire transfers, and that would have seemed like magic.

I think thats where we are now, as well. We are all used to that system, and this next iteration, this next evolution of financial technology, seems like magic.

A beginner's guide to crypto lingo Bitcoin Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency created in 2009 by an unknown person (or people) using the alias Satoshi Nakamoto. Unlike traditional currencies such as the US dollar, bitcoin isn't controlled by a bank or government. Bitcoin is by far the most valuable and popular cryptocurrency in use today. Blockchain A blockchain is a digital ledger and the key technology underpinning most cryptocurrencies, non-fungible tokens (more on those later) and other unique digital items. Blockchain can be used to store all kinds of information, but so far its most common use is in recording cryptocurrency transactions. Once a transaction is made, it's entered on this public ledger, which is managed by a global peer-to-peer network  millions of computers, in bitcoin's case. Blockchain is fundamental to bitcoin's appeal: As a decentralized database, it can't be controlled by any one person or group  unlike a fiat currency such as the US dollar, which is managed by a central bank. Buy the f****ing dip (BTFD) A rally cry for crypto bulls that urges investors to buy coins when prices drop. Coinbase The leading cryptocurrency exchange platform. The company went public in April, an event that many viewed as a turning point in the story of cryptocurrencies' journey into the mainstream marketplace. Cryptocurrency An all-digital money system made up of "coins" or "tokens" that are controlled by a decentralized ledger. Dogecoin The oddball of the crypto family began as a joke based on the "doge" meme in 2013. But as cryptos have broadly gained mainstream interest, dogecoin has emerged as an unexpected heavy hitter. It now has a market cap of more than $30 billion and it has surged more than 5,000% so far this year. And unlike its more popular brethren, a single dogecoin is still cheap  it hit an all-time high of about 45 cents in April. Whether or not its a smart investment remains an active question. Elon Musk Tesla CEO whose tweets have been known to spark rallies in cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and dogecoin. Ethereum An open-source blockchain-based software that controls the cryptocurrency Ether. It is the second-largest digital currency by market cap at nearly $300 billion. FUD ("fear, uncertainty, doubt") In crypto parlance, FUD refers to negative information that weighs on an asset's value. Mining The complicated process by which new bitcoins are entered into circulation. Mining is not for amateur enthusiasts: It requires high-powered computers that solve complex mathematical puzzles to create a new "block" on the blockchain. The mining process eats up a lot of computing power and electricity, which has led to concerns about bitcoin's environmental impact. NFT Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, are pieces of digital content linked to the Ethereum blockchain. "Non-fungible" essentially means one-of-a-kind, something that can't be replaced, unlike, for example, a dollar bill that you can replace with any other dollar bill. In the simplest terms, NFTs transform digital works of art and other collectibles into one-of-a-kind, verifiable assets. Satoshi Nakamoto The pseudonym that refers to the person (or people) who invented bitcoin. Their real identity remains unknown. Satoshis, aka "Sats" The smallest unit of bitcoin ever recorded on the blockchain, equal to one one-millionth of a bitcoin. Wallet Like the physical thing you carry your cash and cards in, a wallet in the crypto world is a place to store digital currency. The main thing you need to know about wallets is that you must never, ever lose or forget your password.
The Journal Star reported the proceedings of the July 18 Lancaster County Board meeting, specifically regarding people from a group identified as the Nebraska Voter Accuracy Project. This group has approached the board over the past few meetings raising questions about the legitimacy of past election results.

Credit is due to Commission Chairwoman Christa Yoakum, who invited the Lancaster Election commissioner, Todd Wiltgen, and the deputy secretary of state on elections, Wayne Bena, to address these questions and to provide clear, documented evidence that there was no election fraud in Nebraska elections.

As an election worker since 2020 and a voter in District 3 in Lancaster County, I was disappointed in Commissioner Matt Schultes outrage about Mr. Benas analogy regarding a sixth grade math teacher expecting their students to show how they got their answers.

The analogy was pointing out how neither NVAP nor Mr. Schulte has given any substantive proof of election fraud in Nebraska. The NVAP website is filled with disinformation that sows chaos, doubt and confusion. Mr. Schulte did not comprehend that Mr. Benas metaphor implied that the information on the NAVP website would not pass the standards of a sixth grade math teacher. Instead he inferred that Mr. Bena was disrespectful to the group who questioned our election integrity.

Public servants have a responsibility to ensure that misinformation is not allowed to inform their work.

Ron Todd-Meyer, Lincoln
Recently, my husband travelled to Nashville, Tennessee, on Red Way airline, our family's first time using the airline. We were highly skeptical. Having horrible experiences with other low-fare airlines, I prepared for unexpected high fees when buying the tickets. I was surprised to find that additional fees were exceptionally transparent and not outrageous.

The ticket price did not jump up three-fold by the time I booked it. My husband returned with a glowing review as well. He noted the USB plug-ins, phone mounts and international plug-ins at your seat. Plane was clean and spacious. He had a minor issue with his boarding pass but said that the staff was helpful and friendly and resolved it quickly.

I know this review is typically posted on Google or Yelp, but with all the news around the airline, I thought I might share our personal experience with the airline for any other families looking into using it in the coming months.

I was proud of what the city of Lincoln has done to get this airline here to support the community and even prouder now that I know how easy and nice it was to use it. Two skeptics were proven wrong by Red Way. We will definitely be using it again.

Stephany Maness, Lincoln
YORKVILLE  A Union Grove woman was charged Tuesday in the rollover crash that killed a Kenosha man in October 2022.

Kristi Lichtenwalner was charged with homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle, operating a vehicle while under the influence and operating with prohibited alcohol concentration. Lichtenwalner was previously charged with three other OWIs, according to court records.

On Oct. 3, 2022, Racine County deputies were called to the 17500 block of Durand Avenue in the Village of Yorkville, where a car was in the ditch on its roof. Deputies found an unresponsive man laying on his stomach in the grass. Lichtenwalner and an unidentified woman were sitting about six feet away from him, according to the criminal complaint.

The man was pronounced dead at the scene. His name has not been released to the public.

Lichtenwalner was taken to the Ascension All Saints hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening.

Prior to the crash, the car, a red 2013 Cadillac SRX, was reportedly travelling westbound on Durand Avenue at about 10 p.m. The Cadillac allegedly crossed the centerline, went into the ditch and then rolled several times, according to previous reporting from The Journal Times. The man was ejected from the car. Airbags on both sides of the car were deployed.

A responding deputy reportedly confirmed that the victim was the only person in the vehicle and saw an open bottle of whiskey inside a purse that was on top of the drivers side of the car, according to the complaint.

The complaint said a deputy reported that Lichtenwalners breath smelled like alcohol and that she was slurring her words. During the investigating, she allegedly told officers she and the victim had been drinking quite a bit, but reportedly said multiple times that the victim was the one driving the car.

During the investigation, a witness allegedly told deputies they saw Lichtenwalner driving the vehicle the night of the crash.

Additionally, security footage from a liquor store reportedly showed the Cadillac pull into the parking lot. The complaint said the footage showed the victim get out of the passenger side of the car, go into the store, and then get back into the passenger seat.

On July 30, results from the Wisconsin State Crime Lab found DNA from the car matching both Lichtenwalner and the unidentified male victim, but, according to the complaint, a blood stain on the center of the drivers side airbag only matched Lichtenwalners DNA.

The complaint said Lichtenwalner reportedly had an abrasion on the bridge of her nose after the crash, which is believed to be consistent with an injury from being hit by airbag.

Officers questioned Lichtenwalner on Aug. 1, and she again denied being the one driving the car, the complaint alleged. When the new evidence was presented to her, the complaint said she asked for her attorney, and the interview ended.

A $25,000 cash bond was set for Lichtenwalner. She is due to appear in the Racine County Court on Aug. 9 for a preliminary hearing.

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PLEASANT PRAIRIE  Vice President Kamala Harris visited a Pleasant Prairie manufacturing facility Thursday and highlighted the Biden Administrations efforts to invest in high-speed internet and boost domestic technological investment.

Harris was joined by U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., during a stop at the Sanmina Corporation facility, 8701 100th St., in the village. The visit aimed to help underscore the impact of Bidens legislative agenda as he runs for a second term.

For years manufacturing was the foundation of the economy here in Kenosha, Harris told a crowd of locally elected politicians, activists and business leaders.

Manufacturing jobs created opportunity and prosperity and helped generations of working families thrive, she said. Then in the 1990s and a result of global economic trends, and frankly short-sighted economic policy, American manufacturing began to falter and thousands of good, steady jobs right here in Kenosha were shipped overseas. This is one of many stories of its kind across our country.

Harris said that for years politicians promised to bring those jobs back but have not delivered.

President Joe Biden and I decided to run for office because we believed it was time to fix this and bring manufacturing jobs back to places like Kenosha, Harris said. We are determined to create jobs in America and keep jobs in America ... all of which leads us to today.

New local jobs

Harris visit coincided with an announcement that Nokia will partner with Sanmina to manufacture broadband network electronics for the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program at the southeastern Wisconsin manufacturing facility, creating up to 200 new local jobs.

It makes Nokia, a Finnish telecom equipment company, the first telecom company to begin manufacturing broadband electronics products in the U.S., starting in 2024.

Harris said the new employees will build the parts that are needed to connect people with high-speed internet.

Harris spoke in front of large BIDENOMICS placards and an INVESTING IN AMERICA flag.

Trickle-down economics, well it benefited big corporations and the wealthiest Americans but not regular folks. So when President Biden and I took office we decided to invest in the working people of America to create millions of jobs, to rebuild American manufacturing, to repair our roads and bridges, Harris said.

She said Bidenomics is working and said its a term shes proud of.

Since we took office we have created more than 13 million jobs. Thats more jobs created in two-and-a-half years than any administration has created in four. Today unemployment remains near record lows, Harris said.

Here in Wisconsin we have created 140,000 new jobs, including many good paying union jobs. ... So Wisconsin, together we are rebuilding America. Through Bidenomics we are showing that when we invest in workers and families, when we create jobs and opportunity, when we roll up our sleeves and get to work there is no limit to what we can achieve for Kenosha, for Wisconsin and for our nation.

It was Harris fourth visit to the state since taking office. After her speech she chatted with attendees then was set to head to Milwaukee for a fundraiser.

Highlighting Wisconsin

Harris credited Baldwin for helping bolster the Wisconsin economy through her efforts in Washington.

So much of this project is due to the advocacy of Senator Baldwin, Harris said. These Made in America requirements were a priority for her. ... She was focused on creating jobs in communities like this one.

Baldwin said Wisconsin is well poised to be at the center of the American economy.

I always remind folks that in Wisconsin we make things, whether thats some of our more iconic products like beer, brats, cheese and Harley Davidson ... or, some of the lesser known items like critical components made right here in Sanmina. Manufacturing and innovation are key parts of Wisconsins identity, Baldwin said.

Baldwin also highlighted the bipartisan infrastructure law she said helps provide safe roads and bridges to travel on and expand access to high-speed internet.

But I also saw an amazing opportunity with this legislation to grow our Made in America manufacturing economy, Baldwin said. When we are investing American taxpayer dollars we should be supporting American workers, American businesses and the American economy.

Executive Samantha Kerkman said she was honored to welcome Harris to Kenosha County.

Im happy to welcome her here. We are the gateway to Wisconsin. We are the first thing you see as you cross over the border. Its really exciting to have her here making this announcement, Kerkman said.

Kerkman said the announcement is an exciting thing right here in Kenosha County.

Kerkman said Kenosha County is in a prime location between Chicago and Milwaukee with strong leadership.

Its another exciting thing right here in Kenosha County. We are partners  federal, state and local, Kerkman said, We work together. We do have those times where we might not always agree but we find those areas where we can agree and get things done. Were all a team working together.

Chairman and CEO of Sanmina Jure Sola offered a statement about the new partnership with Nokia.

Sanmina has been manufacturing in the U.S. for more than 40 years and we are excited to partner with Nokia to support their efforts to build robust and resilient high-tech fiber broadband networks that will connect people and societies, Sola said in a prepared release.

By continuing to invest in domestic manufacturing, Nokia and Sanmina will be able to help create a sustainable future for the industry, one that drives job growth and ensures the fiber products produced embody the quality and excellence associated with American manufacturing.
Yes. Killeen has already committed $100,000; if funding is halted, it will all be for nothing.

Yes. It's important for the city to follow through on its obligation to voters on this issue.

No. The city has already spent too much taxpayer money on this. Cut off the funding.

No. The ordinance is illegal. The city should have repealed it and adjusted city policy instead.

Unsure. It's hard to say. There are some valid points on both sides of the argument.

Vote

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HOLDREGE  More than two years of meetings, deliberations and key votes came crashing down one week ago, and the chairman of the Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District said its time to move on.

We have plenty of work to do for Central and we need to get at it, not the least of which includes strengthening our financial resources to take on the significant capital improvement projects that lie ahead, including resurfacing Kingsley Dam, said Central Chairman Dave Rowe of Lexington.

Rowe was disappointed after the Central Board failed during a special meeting to approve submitting an amendment to Centrals charter that would've allowed the district to resurrect its bid to win the Nebraska Power Review Boards support for Centrals proposed merger with Dawson Public Power District.

On July 28, the Central Board voted 7-5 in favor of adopting the amendment; however, under state law, eight votes in favor were required.

The Hub was unable to reach Rowe for his reaction to the failed vote, but one week later, Rowe was ready to talk. Late Thursday he released an official statement regarding the July 28 vote that appears to have foiled the Central-Dawson bid for consolidation.

I respect the boards decision, and the directors of the district. As president, I will not be scheduling a future vote on amending the charter unless and until there is a change in circumstances that makes it a different matter, Rowe said in his statement.

He continued: I am glad roughly 130 members of the public came to our meeting on Friday, several of whom shared their perspectives. We are a public entity and elected directors, and the public is always welcome. I hope they continue to come to our upcoming meetings, where theyll hear directors and management talk about ways to address the challenges facing the district.

The leader of the Citizens Opposed to the Merger, Gary Robison, said his group hoped to pack the Central meeting chamber so board members would be eye-to-eye with their constituents during the vote.

Rowe said in his statement he disapproved of the behavior of some merger opponents.

Friday there was a completely unacceptable reference to frontier justice, implying that directors who vote in favor of the merger may be harmed, Rowe said. Threats to the livelihood of the general public and businesses in the area, as well as directors who might be in favor of the merger are not acceptable and is nothing more than extortion, plain and simple.

We appreciate Daves attempt to be the peacekeeper of the day, Robison said after the July 28 meeting.

Rowe said, These tactics have no place in 2023 at a public meeting, no place in our community and region, and reflect poorly on our area. I call on the leadership of the opposition to condemn these tactics as well, Rowe said.

On Friday, Robison struck a conciliatory tone in his response to Rowe.

Robison added: We are all neighbors and want to be friends when this is all over. We have encouraged peaceful resolution of this process from the beginning despite the challenges imposed upon us. We look forward to working with Central to help solve the challenges facing the district.
KEARNEY  Five teenagers allegedly stole a vehicle and later crashed it Thursday night.

According to a joint release from the Buffalo County Sheriff's Office and Kearney Police Department, around 6:29 p.m. a caller reported a single-vehicle rollover crash near 11th Street and Highway 10 on the east side of town. The caller said several teenagers ran from the vehicle into surrounding farm fields.

Sheriff's office, police department and Nebraska State Patrol members responded to the scene and employed K-9 officers and drones to assist the search. The five teenagers, all of Kearney, were located with no serious injuries, the law enforcement agencies said.

Authorities later determined the vehicle had been reported stolen in southeast Kearney about an hour before the accident. An investigation by the Kearney Police Department into the incident continues and the department will work with the Buffalo County Attorney's Office on potential criminal charges.

Nebraska Juvenile Probation also worked on the incident, the release said.
AMHERST  The Community Action Partnership of Mid-Nebraska will hold a free mobile food pantry Friday morning at the Amherst Fire Hall at 302 S. Ash St.

Free produce, bread and other products will be available to anyone with an appointment. Volunteers will bring bags of food out and put them into vehicles in no-contact delivery.
KEARNEY  Gracie Woods has a heart for helping others.

The recent Grand Island Central Catholic graduate plans to pursue a career in health care this fall, following in the footsteps of her mother and two older sisters.

I think its really rewarding to work in health care  seeing the difference you can make in patients lives, she said. I really enjoy making those connections with not only the people you work with but the patients and their families, too.

Woods is currently employed as a certified nursing assistant at the CHI Health St. Francis skilled nursing facility in Grand Island, but her ultimate goal is to become a physician assistant. Thats why shes attending the University of Nebraska at Kearney this fall.

I chose UNK because I love the community of Kearney and also because of the health science program there, Woods said. I feel like the university is making really great advancements in this area and there are a lot of opportunities for students to get involved and learn more about what our future career paths will be.

Plus, shell likely graduate debt-free thanks to the scholarship opportunities available to students interested in health care and other high-demand career fields.

Woods is among the nearly 90 UNK students who are benefitting from the Nebraska Career Scholarship for the 2023-24 academic year.

Created by the state Legislature in August 2020, this program provides scholarships for Nebraska college students pursuing undergraduate degrees in high-growth, high-demand areas such as computer science, cybersecurity, health care, communication disorders, information technology, mathematics, psychology, engineering and veterinary medicine.

In May, state lawmakers approved a 2023-25 budget that allocates an additional $2 million to the scholarship program, increasing the total funding available to NU students to $8 million.

Nebraska lawmakers and industry leaders recognize that these critical workforce needs are a key to the future of this state, and that we need to do a better job of keeping Nebraskans here for their higher education, Kelly Bartling, vice chancellor for enrollment management at UNK, said.

Scholarships and internships are providing the incentive that students need to stay in Nebraska. Our prospective students and their families are eager to take advantage of these opportunities, and they ultimately benefit everyone," she said.

Incoming freshmen and transfer students in the qualifying fields of study are eligible to receive a Nebraska Career Scholarship, which is renewable and can be worth up to $25,000 per year.

Scholarship funds may be used for tuition, fees, room and board or relevant tools and equipment. Recipients are asked to complete a Nebraska-based internship, apprenticeship, clinical position or other work related to their career before graduation.

Woods is eligible to receive $10,000 annually through that scholarship program, and she also received the Board of Regents Scholarship, which covers the full cost of tuition.

Shes also part of the Kearney Health Opportunities Program (KHOP), a collaboration between UNK and the University of Nebraska Medical Center that recruits and trains students who are committed to practicing in rural Nebraska as health care professionals.

KHOP participants receive academic and financial support throughout their time at UNK, along with valuable professional development opportunities. Theyre also guaranteed admission into their professional program at UNMC if all requirements are met.

Woods called the financial assistance shes receiving at UNK a blessing.

It really will help ease the financial burden of college and allow me to focus more on my schoolwork and studying, she said. That will be really nice.

Once her education is complete, Woods plans to start her career in rural Nebraska, where the need for additional health care providers is greatest.

The rural populations in Nebraska dont have access to as many health care providers as the more urban areas, so people are forced to travel long distances for certain types of care, and thats just not feasible for some people. Having more providers in those areas will allow patients to be better served and lead to better outcomes, Woods said.
The Chicago man accused of setting his girlfriend on fire in a Salem Lakes residence and then fleeing the scene over the weekend has been apprehended and is being held in Chicago, according to the Kenosha County Sheriffs Department.

A felony warrant had been issued for Bowies arrest and multiple law enforcement agencies across the region searched for him.

Myron Faith Bowie, 36, was charged Tuesday in Kenosha County Circuit Court with attempted first-degree intentional homicide, a Class A felony.

Bowie is expected to be returned to Kenosha County pending an extradition hearing in Cook County, Ill.

The Kenosha County Sheriffs Department indicated Bowies vehicle was located in the Chicago Heights area by Chicago Police, who then located Bowies physical location and took him into custody without issue.

On Sunday, July 30, shortly before 5 a.m. Kenosha County sheriffs deputies were dispatched to a residence in the 24500 block of 86th Place in the Village of Salem Lakes in Kenosha County. Dispatch indicated that there was a male subject who set his girlfriend on fire.

The victim remains in critical condition, but is expected to survive, authorities said Friday.

The caller, who was the victim, had stated that she was set on fire and was in pain before the 911 call was disconnected, according to the criminal complaint.

A deputy who arrived on scene made contact with the 33-year-old woman who said [H]e threw something on me and set me on fire, according to the complaint.

The woman reportedly said she was in bed when the incident occurred and appeared to suffer severe and possibly life threatening burns to her head, face and upper arms. These burns, according to the complaint, seemed to be in several small patches on her upper chest and arms consistent with the splashing pattern of a flammable liquid.

The deputy expressed concern the womans upper airway had been burned because she was having difficulty breathing and speaking. Emergency medical services were called and Flight for Life was dispatched.

The woman reportedly said that her boyfriend threw alcohol on her. She said they were fighting over her cousin. She also said that he burned her in the past but that they were small burns.

The male suspect was identified as Bowie, and his wallet and photo ID were found in the residence.

The woman was transported to Ascension Columbia St. Marys Regional Burn Center According to court documents, about 13% of her body, mostly her head, upper chest and upper arms, were covered in second-or third-degree burns.

The Kenosha County Sheriffs Department issued a media alert about Bowie and the vehicle they believed he was using over the weekend and news of the incident sparked headlines across the region.

Kenosha County Sheriff David W. Zoerner thanked the community for the outpouring of support in this case. The sheriffs department received numerous calls from community members that assisted in locating Bowie.

Zoerner also thanked the sheriffs department deputies and detectives, the Chicago Police Department, the U.S. Marshals Service, and all other assisting agencies in the successful arrest and their ongoing commitment to keeping communities safe.
When Kenosha native Katharine Kollman graduated from Lawrence University, she thought she would move on to graduate school.

Instead she found herself working at a cafe in Racine while figuring out what to do next.

I ended up meeting some surfers on Lake Michigan and started surfing with them, Kollman said. I was really curious about surfing so I went to the library to find books on it.

At the library, she stumbled upon books about freediving in the same section and wanted to learn more. She describes freediving as diving underwater in a breath-hold, using your own body with your own lungs and coming up to the surface for air. Its kind of like extreme snorkeling.

I found a class in Hawaii (for freediving) and came out here, Kollman said. She had been living in Honolulu, Hawaii for about five years when she discovered her passion for underwater photography.

Its kind of a natural next step for a lot of free-divers who spend a lot of time underwater  just wanting to document things, Kollman said.

Now 28, Katharine, the daughter of Nancy and Peter Kollman of Kenosha, is becoming well known as an underwater photographer, with images on exhibit around the globe.

After seeing film photography work by Wayne Levin, she was inspired to shoot her photos on 35 mm black-and-white film.

It was one of those eureka moments like, Oh my gosh, I have to try that, Kollman said.

Kollman was inspired to use film photography by her father Peter, who was head of the Art Department at Tremper High School for a long time. Katharine graduated from Tremper in 2013.

One of the classes that he taught was in darkroom skills and basic film photography, Kollman said. By pursuing film it was a nod to my father and to (Wayne Levin) who really shaped who I am.

Insane experiences

She said pursuing photography and freediving has given her some really insane, once-in-a-lifetime experiences.

You go out on these really crazy adventures trying to find wildlife, trying to find these underwater caves and stuff. Ive had really incredible experiences like diving with sperm whales, pilot whales miles off shore. Im so grateful for that, Kollman said.

Kollmans favorite underwater subjects to photograph are eagle rays and pilot whales.

You can never really guarantee those encounters, so when they happen Im grateful for them, Kollman said.

As a photographer, she said its really awesome when she finds unique underwater terrain because of the way the light shines. She said shes always looking for something like that.

Gallery shows

Kollman has had her photos shown in galleries throughout the United States as well as internationally in Italy and Germany. This fall, the Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts in Japan will also be showing her work.

She said shes really excited for her shows and publication opportunities the rest of this year.

Im getting ready to put some work together and create some kind of book because Ive been doing little things here and there but Id love to do something more official, Kollman said.

To look at more of Kollmans work, check out her website at katharinekollman.com or at beacons.ai/katharinekollman.
Did you know there is one country in the world that eats their tea leaves? Resident foodie, Beryl, guides us through this traditional Burmese ingredient, as we travel to Myanmar to learn about Lahpet Thoke, which uses fermented, pickled tea leaves. With local Nyo Nyo Sein as our guide, we explore the process of fermenting, storing, and serving tea leaves - as well as understanding the significant role this dish plays in Burmese culture. Beryl then takes us to the only Burmese restaurant in New York, heres what she ordered: - Lahpet Thoke as well as Bu Thee Kyaw (squash temperature with tamarind garlic dip) - Ohn-No Khaut Swe (noodles in coconut broth with egg and lime). So there we have it. Tea isn't just for a cuppa, it's for supper.
The La Crosse Police Department has released the name of the woman whose body was discovered near a walking trail June 29.

The victim was 45-year-old Julia L. Hedum. She was discovered shortly after 9 a.m. by a couple walking their dog on Bud Hendrickson Trail near the intersection of Cunningham and Harvey streets.

Police described the death as an isolated incident, and there is no danger to the public.

Anyone with information about the case or who has had contact with Hedum between July 15 and 29 is asked to call the La Crosse Police Department at 608-789-7215. Tips can anonymously be provided to the La Crosse Area Crime Stoppers at 608-784-TIPS (8477) or online at lacrossecrimestoppers.com.

Citizen can download the Crime Stoppers App P3 to submit a tip via cell phone.
A 16-year-old accused of killing his 4-year-old niece June 14 was bound over for trial after a preliminary hearing Thursday in La Crosse County Circuit Court.

Kamitri Riles faces a single felony count of first-degree intentional homicide. Judge Ramona Gonzalez ruled there was sufficient evidence for Riles to stand trial.

Riles has been charged as an adult.

The court heard from three prosecution witnesses, including two police officers and a pathologist.

La Crosse Police Department investigator James Mancuso testified that he was called to 910 Winneshiek Road, where he witnessed a chaotic scene after family members discovered the dead girl identified in court by the initials S.H. He said the girl was cold to the touch and had bruises all over her face. He said the left side of her face was severely discolored and that her left eye was swollen shut.

Mancuso said all the family members were hysterically crying except for the defendant.

He showed no emotion and wasnt crying at all, Mancuso said.

Mancuso testified that he interviewed Riles at the scene. He said Riles story changed multiple times, but he was able to determine that Riles was looking after the child and her two older sisters while the girls mother was away. Mancuso said Riles told him the 4-year-old fell face-first on a concrete surface while doing flips the evening before.

Riles was interviewed again June 22 by investigator Alex Burg. Burg told the court that Riles admitted he hadnt been truthful during the June 14 interview.

Burg testified that Riles told him the girl had been crying for a considerable length of time and that he didnt know what to do. Burg said Riles admitted he struck her twice with an open hand. After the second blow, Riles said she fell backward and hit her head. She got back up before Riles pushed her away again, causing her to hit her head on the living room floor.

Burg said Riles told him he picked the girl up, carried her upstairs, put her on the bed and covered her with a blanket. Riles said the girl was still alive at that point and said, I want my mommy.

Under questioning from defense attorney Patricia ONeil, Burg acknowledged Riles didnt admit to any guilt until nearly three hours into the interview.

The autopsy was conducted June 15 by Mayo Clinic pathologist Andrew Layman. He testified that S.H. died from multiple blunt-force injuries to the brain and spinal cord and characterized the death as a homicide.

Layman said the girl sustained injuries on both sides of her body and ruled out a hard fall as the cause of death.

Someone falling down the stairs wouldnt have the same injury pattern, Layman said.

Under questioning from ONeil, Layman admitted that some of the injuries could have occurred at different times. However, he said the bleeding in her brain hadnt clotted, which matches the timeline of injuries sustained June 14.

Layman said he is still waiting for brain sample tests and wont file a complete autopsy report until the results are complete.

Riles is being held in the La Crosse County Jail on a $250,000 cash bond.
After 11 years at Winona State University, former president Scott Olson has started a new adventure in his career.

Olson started in his new role of chancellor of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system Aug. 1, after he was selected for the job in May.

Scott has deep roots in Minnesota State and is known throughout the system as a collaborative and strategic leader, Minnesota State board of trustees chair Roger Moe said of Olsons appointment. He has amassed an outstanding reputation in every role he has played, and has the skills needed to build a common vision of what Minnesota State can become. We are very pleased that he has accepted our offer to serve as the next chancellor of Minnesota State.

Leaving Winona

Olson said he was experiencing many emotions as he prepared for the transition, even though he knew he would visit in the future.

He felt gratitude toward the Winona community, but also sadness as he left behind daily life in the city.

Every Winonan understands this is an amazing, special place to live, Olson said. The 11 years that I spent here, they couldnt have been richer or more fulfilling or happier or better than they were.

Olson isnt just focused on the past, though, as he feels hope and excitement about the promotion.

Olson was interested in the open chancellor position for multiple reasons, some professional and some personal.

He said professionally, he wants to ensure that at the system level, the focus is always on campuses and students.

He believes his predecessor, Devinder Malhotra, had the same focus in mind while serving in the position since 2017.

Personally, Olson had an interest in the position because of his ties to the Twin Cities, as that is where he is originally from.

After recently connecting with high school classmates of his, he said he began examining how and where he wanted to spend the rest of his life.

This led to him wanting to return to the area he grew up in, where he could also be closer to his granddaughter, who was born earlier this year.

Im at that point in my career where Im really thinking backward from the end, not forward from the beginning anymore, he said about the thought process behind his decision.

Favorite memories

He said that he will always remember fondly his first six months as president, when he and his wife lived in the college dorms so that they could see students as they are.

The students welcomed Olson with open arms, even baking him and his wife cakes to celebrate their October birthdays and anniversary during homecoming week.

Olson also said he would remember the accomplishments the university completed during his tenure as president to benefit students.

Some of those major moments include the completion of the Education Village and the pedestrian tunnels.

Olson said his favorite memories include the ones where the university was recognized for its hard work  like in rankings published by US News and World Report each year.

Lessons learned

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Olson said he also learned about the resilience of the university and its community.

Ill remember with pride the way this campus responded to COVID, he said.

While employees faced many unknowns, they worked to continue to support the campus excellence and overall missions, he said.

As for students, they didnt let COVID-19 beat them down either. Olson noted graduation rates were up during the COVID-19 pandemic at the university.

In the case of COVID, it was hard, but like a lot of hard, challenging things, good things can come from them. And we learned some things about our own resilience and we learned some things about our fortitude and what mattered most, he said.

During his time at the university, Olson learned about the importance of involving stakeholders, like students and employees, when making major decisions.

I learned that in this community, when you consult with folks, ideas get better, he said.

While not everybody always agreed on the best approaches toward bettering the university, he said everyone had the same end goal of doing what was best for the institute.

Ive never met anybody who wasnt motivated by what they believed to be in the best interests of students and the community, Olson said. My gratitude for that is boundless.

Future plans

In the future, Olson hopes the university continues on the path that his predecessors set out on long before his tenure.

That journey is that Winona State aspires to be academically excellent and to be student focused and student centered, he said.

Olson said he hopes the university continues to serve students who might not otherwise have access to high quality higher education.

He hopes the university also focuses on being the best, not the biggest.

I think we would lose the essence of who we are. And I think in the end, it would so change our relationship with the community of Winona and the region, he said.

As for his new role as chancellor, Olsons goals match those that the system has determined for its future.

Two major goals currently set out by the system, Olson said, are NextGen and Equity 2030.

Olson said NextGen is a technology update that will be super important to our students, but maybe a little less apparent to the outside public.

The update will include a new records system that will enable students to better plan their academic future, allowing them to create a more efficient path to graduation.

Equity 2030, Olson explained, is a goal set up by the system to enable all individuals to reach success, no matter the hardships they may face in life.

Olson said with Equity 2030, everybodys got the same shot, everybodys got the same opportunity. And people who want to work hard and fulfill their hopes and dreams, the highways open and clear to do that.
Wisconsin-based traveling theater company Summit Players Theatre will perform Shakespeares Macbeth live in two Coulee Region state parks this weekend.

The performances are part of a series of summer series bringing the Bard to 22 different Wisconsin state parks. All performances are free and preceded by a 45-minute educational workshop.

Showtimes are:

Saturday, Aug. 5: Workshop at 5:30 p.m., show at 7:00 p.m., Merrick State Park, S2965 WI-35, Fountain City.

Sunday, Aug. 6: Workshop at 1:00 p.m., show at 2:30 p.m., Perrot State Park, 26247 Sullivan Rd, Trempealeau.

Were bringing something a little different to the parks for our eighth tour, stated executive director A.J. Magoon, a founding member of the organization. Rest assured  our Macbeth will be spooky, but not scary. Were committed to making all of our plays accessible and enjoyable for everyone in the family  get ready for plenty of action and fun alongside the drama.

Each Macbeth show will be 75 minutes long and completely free, in accordance with the companys mission of creating Shakespeare anyone can afford, attend, and understand. Through a collaboration with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, the Summit Players are also able to introduce audiences around the state to their local parks.

The groups educational workshop, Inside Shakespeares Story: Macbeth, is new this year and offered before every show. The workshop may help kids and parents alleviate concerns about the plays more serious or tragic aspects. It serves as a way for kids and fun adults to get comfortable with the play, Shakespeares language and the way nature played into his works. Participants take part in Shakespeare games and exercises culminating in performing a short scene.

The workshop is a great way to learn about the play and how plays like this can still be exciting and interesting, even if theyre more serious, said Caroline Norton, education director and six-year alumna of the companys tours. Plus, the workshop content changes and the play changes, which means that people who have seen our shows for years will enjoy everything just as much as people who have never seen us before.

Summit Players Theatres 2023 season is supported in part by grants from the Wisconsin Arts Board and Wisconsin Humanities, with funds from the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities.
UW-Oshkosh will lay off more than 200 staff, furlough others and consider ending some nonacademic programs as it seeks to close a projected $18 million deficit by the end of fiscal year 2024.

Chancellor Andrew Leavitt announced the measures in an email to staff Thursday morning, citing declining enrollment, the states aging population and decisions by state legislators over the past decade to freeze enrollment and reduce state support.

UW-Oshkosh has been in financial trouble for years. In 2022, it ended its fiscal year $5.3 million in the red; in 2018, a projected $9.5 million gap prompted a cost-cutting plan that increased faculty workloads.

We need a new, bold action to fundamentally reduce expenses, Leavitt told reporters Thursday. We have to operate differently than we have in the past. Our approach faces reality head-on  reorganizing and reducing our payroll and expenses, while shielding classrooms (and) student experiences to the fullest extent possible.

Furloughs are expected to start in September and run through next June, with higher-paid employees forced to take more unpaid days off. Details are to be announced in the coming weeks, UW-Oshkosh spokesperson Peggy Breister said.

Any employee who voluntarily retires between September and January 2024 would be exempt from furlough, Leavitts email states.

About 14% of UW-Oshkoshs employees will be laid off, will not have their contracts renewed or will retire. Faculty positions are not up for elimination because staffing levels remain in line with anticipated student enrollment, Leavitt said.

And any programs that are a drain on UW-Oshkoshs bottom line are up for elimination, Leavitt said. That includes programs such as the UW-Oshkosh child care center, which the Oshkosh Community YMCA took over last month.

UW-Oshkoshs enrollment has been declining each year by between 2% and 3%, Leavitt said. Even as the Systems overall enrollment rebounded last fall to pre-pandemic levels, UW-Oshkosh has seen a combined 17% enrollment decrease across all three of its campuses in the last five years.

UW-Oshkoshs main campus has seen a 10% drop in enrollment since 2018, or about 1,365 students, while the Fond du Lac branch campus lost about 73% of its enrollment, dropping to 320 students from 1,158. The Fox Cities campus in Menasha had 614 students last fall, down from 1,629 in 2018.

The Fond du Lac and Fox Cities campuses, both about 20 miles away from the main campus, were merged with UW-Oshkosh in 2018 as part of a restructuring of the Systems two-year campuses.

UW-Oshkoshs latest cost-cutting strategies wont have an impact on operational decisions for its branch campuses, System spokesperson Mark Pitsch said. Rothman and university chancellors who oversee two-year campuses are in the process of auditing their fiscal viability.

UW-Oshkoshs announcement Thursday comes on the heels of a $32 million cut in state aid to the University of Wisconsin system that Republicans included in the current state budget in an attempt to force campuses to eliminate their diversity, equity and inclusion offices.

System President Jay Rothman has been raising the alarm about strained university finances for months as he tried to sell lawmakers on increasing state support by nearly $436 million. Numbers shared by the System in May showed 10 of the Systems 13 universities would collectively be $60 million short of whats needed to maintain operations.

The System is partnering with Deloitte, a global business analytics firm with an office in Milwaukee, to examine all of the universities finances, excluding UW-Madison.

Rothman cautioned Thursday that UW-Oshkoshs plan wont necessarily be replicated at other struggling System universities.

All of the chancellors are actively engaged in reducing those deficits consistent with the targets set forth in the Systemwide strategic plan. And there will be different paths to resolving those deficits over time, Rothman said. So I dont think you can assume that simply, UW-Oshkosh has taken its path, that it will necessarily follow in all of the other universities.

Rep. Lori Palmeri, D-Oshkosh, said in a statement that UW-Oshkoshs fiscal situation was caused by systemic underfunding of the System, both in the most recent budget and over the long term. Democrats have long criticized Republicans, whove controlled the Legislatures budget-writing committee for more than a decade, for repeatedly cutting the Systems budget or increasing it by a fraction of whats been requested.

Unfortunately, if this pattern of underfunding in education continues, UW-Oshkosh will not be the only university forced to make sacrifices like those announced today, she said.
With fentanyl-linked fatal overdoses on the rise, Wisconsin officials are just starting to work out how best to reverse that deadly trend with the help of more than $750 million in opioid-settlement funds expected to hit state coffers in the next several years.

State and local officials have started spending about $31 million of that money on overdose reversal drugs, fentanyl testing strips, vending machines stocked with life-saving supplies, expanded addiction treatment and more.

Youre going to see these funds expended over many years, Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul said. Funds have begun to go out ... but that process is going to continue over a long period of time.

On Thursday, Kaul announced the state has received another 4,000 doses of Narcan, a form of the overdose reversal drug naloxone, for the Wisconsin State Patrols nearly 500 officers. The agency first started carrying Narcan for overdose cases in early 2018.

Thats the potential to save 4,000 lives, said Wisconsin State Patrol Superintendent Tim Carnahan. Access to naloxone or Narcan means an overdose call has the potential to become an opportunity for recovery.

Wisconsin has distributed more than 31,000 doses of Narcan using a portion of the millions of dollars received through multistate settlements with various opioid manufacturers and distributors, according to the state Department of Justice.

In the Madison area, Julia Olsen, supervisor of Public Health Madison and Dane County, said the agency is using some of the money to install three vending machines around Dane County that will be stocked with life-saving supplies such as Narcan.

Were currently in the process of getting those vending machines fitted to the supplies that need to go in them, Olsen said. I would say we are very close to being able to launch those.

Milwaukee County earlier this year spent about $400,000 to place similar vending machines around the community.

Drug makers pay up

Local communities are in line to receive 70% of an estimated $764 million in opioid-settlement funds, with the state Department of Health Services getting the rest.

Those providing the money include:

$277 million over 15 years from Teva, Allergan, CVS and Walgreens.

$10 million over five years from McKinsey & Co.

$54 million from Walmart.

Between $13.4 million and $19.1 million over seven years from Mallinckrodt.

$410 million over 18 years from Cardinal, McKesson, AmerisourceBergan and Johnson & Johnson.

Another settlement, with Purdue Pharma, remains pending in bankruptcy court. Kaul said his office will continue to pursue efforts to hold distributors and manufacturers accountable, meaning future settlement funds arent out of the question.

While $750 million is a huge amount of money, its also not nearly as significant as the impact that the epidemic has had, said Kaul, who noted that the rise of fentanyl use paired with increased mental health concerns created by the COVID-19 pandemic have directly impacted the states rate of opioid-related overdoses.

To combat increased use of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that doctors prescribe to treat severe pain that can be combined with other drugs without the users knowledge, the state DHS this year plans to spend $300,000 on grants to provide local law enforcement agencies with fentanyl test strips for individuals at risk of an opioid-related overdose.

The strips can be dipped into water containing a small sample from a pill, powder or injectable drug. Lines on the strips show the presence of fentanyl. The goal is to help drug users make informed decisions, such as using less of a drug or using only as long as someone else is present to monitor them.

Of the funding received so far, some $10 million is being spent on upgrading or building new addiction-treatment facilities, with $6 million going to tribal nations for prevention and treatment and $3 million going to law enforcement. Another $3 million is to expand access to naloxone and $2 million is to increase the distribution of fentanyl test strips.

Other efforts include $2.5 million to help pay for residential addiction treatment and $2 million to increase medication-assisted treatment, such as with buprenorphine, or Suboxone.

Paul Krupski, DHS policy director and acting director of opioid initiatives, described the opioid-settlement funds as the most flexible dollars that we are going to have to address the epidemic, but he added the need is considerably larger than the millions of dollars coming to the state.

Theres no amount of money that is going to fix the issue and I think thats a fair statement nationally, Krupski said. So what we need to do is target the funding in ways that are shown to be successful and are shown to be evidence-based, so that we can begin to turn the tide and see fewer overdoses and deaths across Wisconsin.

Overdose deaths

DHS reported a record 1,427 opioid overdose deaths in 2021, 16.3% more than the previous record in 2020 and more than twice the toll from six and seven years earlier.

More than 90% of 2021 opioid overdose deaths in Wisconsin involved fentanyl or other synthetic opioids, with fentanyl overdoses nearly doubling from 2019 to 2021, according to DHS.

In Dane County, 139 people died from opioid overdoses last year, 13% higher than the previous record the year before.

Final numbers for 2022 wont be available until fall. A preliminary count of 1,410 opioid overdose deaths had been reported for last year as of this week, according to DHS.

While Narcan can reverse opioid overdoses in the short term, these two treatments can help patients overcome addiction altogether While Narcan can reverse opioid overdoses in the short term, these two treatments can help patients overcome addiction altogether Methadone has been in use decades longer than buprenorphine While both are effective, the overdose risk of buprenorphine does not increase with higher doses While methadone is more tightly regulated, buprenorphine can be prescribed for at-home use
Photo: The Canadian Press

Andrew Tate, the divisive internet influencer who is charged in Romania with rape, human trafficking and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women, won an appeal on Friday to be released from house arrest, his spokesperson said.

Tate won't be able to leave the country. He also will not be allowed to be "in close proximity with any of the other defendants, any of the witnesses or any of the alleged victims and their immediate family, his spokesperson, Mateea Petrescu, said in a statement.

This positive outcome gives us confidence that more favorable developments are on the horizon," Petrescu said.

The decision at the Bucharest Court of Appeal comes after prosecutors formally indicted the 36-year-old Tate in June along with his brother, Tristan, and two Romanian women in the same case. All four were arrested in late December near Bucharest and have denied the allegations against them.

The courts decision says all four defendants will be subjected to geographical restrictions limiting them to the territories of Bucharest Municipality and the nearby Ilfov County unless they get prior approval from a judge.

Standing outside his large home near Bucharest on Friday, Andrew Tate told the media Weve been completely innocent since the beginning of this.

In January when I was thrown in a jail cell, the media reported and told the world I was a terrible person, they said that I hurt people and that I make a lot of money from criminal enterprises, he said, and here we stand seven or eights month later and Ive not seen a single victim on the news.

Ive seen lots of people sticking up for me, lots of people defending me and Ive not seen a single person stand up and say that I have hurt them, he added.

If the defendants violate the terms of their judicial obligations, the court reading states, they can be returned to house arrest or preventive arrest.

The Tate brothers, who are dual U.K. and U.S. citizens, challenged a courts July 18 decision to keep them under house arrest as the criminal case against them continues. The brothers won an appeal in late March to be moved to house arrest after spending three months in a police detention facility.

Romania's anti-organized crime agency, DIICOT, had requested in June that judges extend the house arrest measure after the agency filed its criminal investigation.

Andrew Tate, who has been accused of peddling conspiracy theories online and has amassed 7.5 million Twitter followers, has repeatedly claimed that prosecutors have no evidence against him and that there is a political conspiracy designed to silence him.

DIICOT alleges that the four defendants formed a criminal group in 2021 to "commit the crime of human trafficking in Romania, as well as in the United States and Britain.

Seven female victims in the case, DIICOT said, were lured with false pretenses of love and transported to Romania, where the gang sexually exploited and subjected them to physical violence. One defendant is accused of raping a woman twice in March 2022, according to the agency. The women were allegedly controlled by intimidation, constant surveillance and claims they were in debt, prosecutors said.

Andrew Tate was previously banned from several prominent social media platforms for expressing hate speech and misogynistic comments, including that women should bear responsibility for being sexually assaulted.

Several women in Britain also are pursuing civil claims to obtain damages from Tate, alleging they were victims of sexual violence.

During their investigations, prosecutors have ordered the confiscation of the Tate brothers assets, including 15 luxury cars, luxury watches and about $3 million in cryptocurrency.
EIR LEAD EDITORIAL FOR FRIDAY AUGUST 4, 2023

August 6 and Sister Demonstrations To Stop Nuclear Wara Time of Break-Out, Not Mere Events

Aug. 3, 2023, 2022 (EIRNS)One of the speakers at the August 6 Humanity for Peace rally at the United Nations in New York, Jose Vega, of the Schiller Institute, said yesterday on the Jimmy Dore Show that we are seeing one big ray of positivity in the public response to activate and demonstrate to stop the drive to nuclear war. There are dozens of sister rallies, and contingency planning for actions in the coming weeks. He remarked that over past months, there were important personal interventions to publicly put individual figures on the spot for their backing for Global NATOs warfare expansion, but that now there is a new phase of people stepping up to get in on that action together. It has been loose and fluid in the past period of interventions, but now, this is the moment in which people are all coming together.

Anastasia Battle, Co-Coordinator of the August 6 rally in New York City remarked today that understanding the truth about the crisis and necessity for action is now being incorporated as their own idea by more and more people. This is what is evident in how things are building for each of the events. Battle reported how people are telling her, Ive been waiting for something like this my whole life. Battle said of the Sunday rally, This is not just an event, this is a break-out.

For one thing, millions of people can see for themselves, despite the info-wars narratives and opinion-manipulation, that money and resources are going for war and destruction when people are needlessly suffering and dying. We need new economic and security frameworks to serve nations and peoples. There are many glaring examples.

This point rang out this morning, even at the meeting of the UN Security Council on the world food crisis, when Russias First Deputy Permanent Representative Dmitry Polyanskiy asked how much food could you buy with the 165 billion spent by the West to arm Ukraine to make war?

The UNSC session was titled, Famine and Conflict-Induced Global Food Insecurity, convened by the U.S. and presided over by Secretary of State Antony Blinken. He, and especially the UN Ambassadors from the U.K. and France, used the proceedings to continue the Global NATO narrative that, Russia is the cause of world hunger. But they rang hollow. Chinas UN Ambassador Zhang Jun denounced the nature of the world food and trade system, which for decades has served the interests of multinationals through monopoly control and price speculation, and took on the impact of sanctions and suppression of poor nations development. Charge dAffaires Polyanskiy named the infamous Big Four cartel transnationals: ADM, Bunge, Cargill, Louis-Dreyfus. As Chinas Ambassador Zhang said, we must have a a fairer and more reasonable international food trade order.

Russian Charge dAffaires Polyanskiy turned away from the UNSC altogether, and addressed, as he said, the nations of Africa, listing exactly how much tonnage of grain Russia is sending to which countries, cost free. He reiterated Russias commitments to build schools, infrastructure, agriculture, and all economic sectors to contribute to African freedom. Pointing to the sanctions from the West, in particular those threatened against Niger by the EU and others, including stopping food and energy supplies, Polyanskiy asked,

Another case is the threats by J. Borrell, as well as the leaders of Great Britain, France, and the United States that they would suspend assistance for Niger. Did people there stop starving overnight after the coup? Clearly, the West uses humanitarian assistance as a tool enabling hand steering of states that have to turn to this aid.

Meantime, the danger worsens of triggering nuclear holocaust, as the zones and lines of conflict grow even hotter. For example, the firing of Ukrainian drones into Russia is now becoming routine. This is untenable. Last night six Ukraine drones were targeted at Kaluga in Russia, and recently there were two volleys of surface drones against Russian ships on the Black Sea.

Now is the moment for all to join in the mobilization to stop the madness. This evening in Britain/afternoon in the United States, an international Internet rally took place, hosted by No 2 NATO/No 2 War, chaired by Chris Williamson, of the Workers Party GB. Among the many speakers were Helga Zepp-LaRouche, for the Schiller Institute, and former President of Guyana, Donald Ramotar.

Attend and bring everyone to the August 6 demonstration at the Dag Hammarskjold Plazathe promenade to the UN, or one of the other actions. To repeat Anastasia Battle, This is not an event. This is a breakout.
Google is developing an artificial intelligence tool that produces news articles. And the development is troubling some experts.

They say such tools risk spreading propaganda or threatening the safety of people who provide reporters with information, or sources.

The New York Times reported last week that Google is testing a new product named Genesis. It uses artificial intelligence (AI) to produce news stories, or articles.

The New York Times said Genesis gathers information, like details about current events, to create news stories. Google already has pitched the product to the Times and other organizations, including The Washington Post and News Corp., which owns The Wall Street Journal newspaper.

The launch of AI chatbot ChatGPT last fall created a debate about how AI ought to be used in the news industry.

AI tools can help reporters research by quickly examining data from large computer files. AI can also help reporters confirm or disprove information from sources. But there is fear that AI tools could spread propaganda and cause journalists to lose the skill of reporting.

John Scott-Railton studies disinformation at the Citizen Lab, part of the University of Toronto. He told VOA that a lot of information gathered by AI comes from places on the internet where disinformation and propaganda get targeted.

Paul M. Barrett is with New York University's Stern Center for Business and Human Rights. He agrees that AI could increase the spread of false information.

"Its going to be easier to generate myths and disinformation, he told VOA. The supply of misleading content is, I think, going to go up.

In an emailed statement to VOA, a Google spokesperson said its tool is designed to help reporters, or journalists, in their work, not replace them. AI cannot replace the role journalists have in reporting, creating and fact-checking their articles, the spokesperson said.

AI tools in journalism could also hurt trust in news organizations. Public opinion researchers Gallup and the Knight Foundation released a study in February about trust in the media. It said that half of Americans believe that national news organizations try to mislead or misinform the public.

Im puzzled that anyone thinks that the solution to this problem is to introduce a much less credible tool, said Scott-Railton. He earlier received support from Googles research group Google Ideas.

Reports say that AI chatbots regularly produce answers that are wrong or made up. Digital experts are also concerned about the security risks of using AI tools to produce news stories.

Reporters would have to be careful not to reveal to AI systems information like the identity of a confidential source, or, I would say, even information that the journalist wants to make sure doesn't become public, Barrett said.

Scott-Railton said he thinks AI probably could be used in most industries. But it is important not to introduce the technology too quickly, especially in the news.

What scares me is that the lessons learned in this case will come at the cost of well-earned reputations, will come at the cost of factual accuracy when it actually counts, he said.

I'm Dan Novak.

Liam Scott wrote this story for Voice of America. Dan Novak adapted it for VOA Learning English.

___________________________________________________

Words in This Story

pitch  v. to try to sell something to someone; to talk about something or someone in a way that will make others accept it

myth  n. an idea or story believed by many people but that is not true

content  n. the information that appears in media such as books, newspapers, television, movies

puzzle  v. to be confused; to make something difficult to understand

confidential  adj. secret or private

scare  v. to make a person afraid or fearful

reputation  n. the common opinion people have about a person

accuracy n. the quality of having no mistake or error
A new study has predicted that a system of ocean currents that transports warm water northward could collapse in the next 70 years.

Climate scientists have warned that such collapse could cause sea level rise in the U.S. and extreme weather in Europe.

The currents spread, or circulate, water in the Atlantic Ocean, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) explains. The currents carry warm water north and cold water south.

Two years ago, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said it was unlikely that ocean currents would cause disastrous conditions in the next 80 years or so.

However, the new study recently published in Nature Communications suggests that the huge ocean current system might collapse sooner than some scientists believe.

Altogether, the currents studied by the scientists are known as the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation, or AMOC. It circulates water throughout the Atlantic Ocean. The circulation is very lengthy, taking an estimated 1,000 years to complete. But NOAA says the circulation has been slowing since the mid-1990s.

The Atlantic current called the Gulf Stream is part of this huge current system, NOAA says.

Scientists in the United States and Germany have warned that a further slowdown or complete halt to the circulation process could create more extreme weather in the Northern Hemisphere. It could also cause sea-level rise on the U.S. East Coast and drought in southern Africa. But predictions about the possible timing remain unclear.

In the new study, Danish researchers Peter and Susanne Ditlevsen examined sea surface temperatures in the North Atlantic between 1870 and 2020. Under current conditions, they have suggested the circulation system could collapse as soon as 2025 or as late as 2095.

Their prediction is different from a prediction made by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2021. The IPCC said the collapse was not likely to happen before 2100.

Julio Friedmann is chief scientist at New York City-based Carbon Direct, a carbon management company. He said in a statement he thinks the latest study makes clear that action must be swift and profound to reduce major climate risks.

Stefan Rahmstorf co-wrote a 2018 study on ocean currents in the Atlantic. He also published his comments about the Danish-led study on the website RealClimate. Rahmstorf noted that the timing of a collapse of Atlantic Ocean currents remains highly uncertain.

He added that he finds the IPCCs estimate conservative. Increasingly, the evidence points to the risk being far greater than 10 percent during this century," Rahmstorf wrote. He added that the problem is likely to remain ...rather worrying for the next few decades.

Im Bryan Lynn.

The Associated Press reported this story. Bryan Lynn adapted the report for VOA Learning English.

_____________________________________________

Words in This Story

drought  n. a long period of time during which there is very little or no rain

swift  adj. happening or moving quickly

profound  adj. very great or intense

uncertain  adj. not sure about something

decade  n. a period of ten years

__________________________________________________

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The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently said that by law food makers are permitted to add sesame to their products. They also must identify sesame content in their foods on product packaging.

Sesame is the seed of the sesamum or benne plant. It is used to make oil and the seeds themselves are often used on bread or baked goods. The seeds come in black and white colors.

Sesame is used in many foods to add a nutty flavor or some crunch.

But the American non-profit group, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), says about 1.6 million people are allergic to the seeds. Someone who is allergic can get very sick after eating the seeds. People with the allergy usually learn to stay away from traditional foods that contain sesame.

The CSPI is protesting to the FDA about a law that went into effect in January.

The Food Allergy Safety, Treatment, Education, and Research Act, known as FASTER, listed sesame as a major allergen requiring identification on packaging for the first time.

Some food companies made changes to their production centers in reaction to the new law. Some cut sesame use completely. Others, however, decided to add sesame to products that did not usually contain it. As long as they identified the sesame on the food packaging, they were obeying the law fully.

The CSPI and other organizations argue that adding sesame to foods that did not contain it in the past limits food choices for allergic people.

Some food companies say it is too hard to prevent sesame from getting into some products, or it is too costly to change their production centers. It is easier to add sesame and identify it legally.

Some restaurants are also adding sesame to their foods and noting it on menus or meal listings in order to meet the requirements of the food law.

Robert Earl is a food safety advocate. He said the practice will put people with food allergies in danger of getting sick. It puts our community at greater risk, he said. Earl added that food companies and restaurants adding sesame to products reduces food choices.

Earl said his organization  Food Allergy Research and Education  has received a number of complaints from people who said they got sick by eating formerly safe products.

Ruchi Gupta is a childrens doctor at Northwestern University. She is director of the Center for Food Allergy and Asthma research there. Gupta called the FDAs decision disappointing, and noted that the food company and restaurant changes are permitted by law. However, she said she hoped the FDA would have come out in a way to try to discourage putting sesame in unusual products.

Robert Califf leads the Food and Drug Administration. In a message posted online in 2023, he wrote about companies adding sesame to their foods. He called it a practice with an outcome we do not support. He said it does not break any rule but that it limits options for consumers who are allergic to sesame.

He also noted that consumers should check the label every time you buy a food product  even if you have eaten it before and didnt have an allergic reaction.

The F.D.A. also said companies cannot use language like may contain sesame if the product does not contain it.

Peter Lurie heads the CSPI. He said he hoped the FDAs recent statements would send a message to food companies. He said its on the companies to act responsibly, if the FDA is not going to force them to make changes.

Im Dan Friedell.

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

____________________________________________________

Words in This Story

packaging n. the outside container a product comes in, such as a box

crunch n. a word used to describe the sound or feeling of chewing something that has a hard outer part

allergic adj. used to describe the experience of getting sick from some part of food or a bite from a bug

advocate n. a person who speaks for something or someone else who does not have a strong voice

discourage v. to argue against something happening

commissioner n. a person who is in charge of an agency or organization

practice n. a way of doing things, such as making a food product

option n. something that may be chosen

consumer n. a person or group of people who purchase a product

label n. a piece of information on the outside of product that tells what is inside

__________________________________________________

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Photo: The Canadian Press

A Russian court convicted imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny of extremism changes and sentenced him to 19 years in prison Friday. Navalny is already serving a nine-year term on a variety of charges that he says were politically motivated.

The new charges against the politician relate to the activities of Navalnys anti-corruption foundation and statements by his top associates.

In 2021, Russian authorities outlawed the foundation and the vast network of Navalnys offices in Russian regions, calling them extremist organizations and exposing anyone involved to possible prosecution. Navalnys allies say the charges retroactively criminalize all the foundations activities since its creation in 2011.

Navalny, 47, is President Vladimir Putins fiercest foe and has exposed official corruption and organized major anti-Kremlin protests. He was arrested in January 2021 upon returning to Moscow after recuperating in Germany from nerve agent poisoning. He blamed that poisoning on the Kremlin, which denied involvement.

The authorities previously sentenced him to 2 1/2 years in prison for parole violations and then to another nine years on charges of fraud and contempt of court. It wasnt immediately clear if he will serve the new sentence concurrently with those.
The Central board voted on Friday and there was not sufficient support by directors to move forward with the consolidation with Dawson Public Power at this time. I respect the boards decision, and the directors of the District. As President, I will not be scheduling a future vote on amending the charter unless and until there is a change in circumstances that makes it a different matter.

We have plenty of work to do for Central and we need to get at it, not the least of which includes strengthening our financial resources to take on the significant capital improvement projects that lie ahead, including resurfacing Kingsley Dam.

I am glad roughly 130 members of the public came to our meeting on Friday, several of whom shared their perspectives. We are a public entity and elected directors, and the public is always welcome. I hope they continue to come to our upcoming meetings, where theyll hear directors and management talk about ways to address the challenges facing the district.

That said, I want to publicly condemn tactics used by some of those opposed in recent weeks. Friday there was a completely unacceptable reference to frontier justice, implying that directors who vote in favor of the merger may be harmed. Threats to the livelihood of the general public and businesses in the area, as well as directors who might be in favor of the merger are not acceptable and is nothing more than extortion, plain and simple. These tactics have no place in 2023 at a public meeting, no place in our community and region, and reflect poorly on our area. I call on the leadership of the opposition to condemn these tactics as well.

Dave Rowe, CNPPID Board President
LEXINGTON  After a special meeting full of emotions, vitriol and accusations, the Lexington Regional Health Centers board of directors agreed to mediations with CEO Leslie Marsh, though it appeared a majority was in favor of termination. Board Chairman Rob Anderson told a crowd that filled the board room and spilled out into the hallways that the special meeting on Thursday, Aug. 3, was the end of a process that started in February.

For the first time since 2018, an evaluation of the job performance of CEO Marsh was being held.

Marsh joined Tri County Hospital in 1998, serving as chief nursing officer until becoming CEO of the rebranded Lexington Regional Health Center in 2010.

The board met for 45 minutes in executive session to discuss litigation or threatened litigation before holding an open session to evaluate the CEOs performance, which Marsh had requested.

In a letter to the board, Marsh said she could not reasonably be expected to provide a meaningful response given the length of time since her last evaluation.

In open session, the board members shared what they had included in their evaluations.

Both Pat Samway and Pam Trampe were in support of Marsh, giving her high marks.

Chairman Anderson, Vice Chair Tucker Case and Secretary/Treasurer Kenneth Harbison praised certain aspects of Marshs performance, such as the new emergency room and her advocacy for the hospital.

All three men, however, listed concerns that included IT issues that have continued to plague LHRC, including a multi-day system crash in November 2022, a lack of communication, a $200,000 expenditure for a network switch that was not included in the capital budget and the alleged failure to disclose a six-figure settlement until after the fact.

When asked to respond, Marsh reiterated that it had been five years since her last evaluation and said asking her to respond in such a short time was not reasonable and not respectful.

Samway said the board itself should receive an F for their lack of support for Marsh and not holding an evaluation in five years.

Another issue was raised by Marshs attorney, former Lincoln County judge Kent Turnbull. He asked why public comments were to be taken at the end of the meeting, only after action was taken regarding Marsh.

Anderson noted that it was the boards practice to take public comment at the end of meetings, and a review of regular LRHC board meetings shows the public comment period coming toward the end of the meeting.

Samway and Trampe were both in favor of moving the public comment period ahead of the action item.

Harbison made it clear that his decision was made and that the public comments would not have an effect. Case said he was of the same opinion.

Both said as board members, they were privy to information on matters not open to the public.

This turn of events caused a wave of jeers from the crowd. Many spoke out, pressing to move the public comments so they could be heard.

Amid this, Case made a motion to move the public comments while still continuing the ongoing open session, which was unanimously approved.

The majority of the public comments were in favor of Marsh, many praising her work and passion for LRHC over the years.

One commenter said that LRHCs Leaving a Legacy was coming up at the end of the month and asked what the boards legacy would be if they terminated Marsh.

Others questioned the board support for Marsh, with many asking how much blame could be attributed to the board. One said the board had failed miserably.

New election! someone yelled.

There were more pointed accusations that the three men had an agenda and were out to remove Marsh. Many said what the board was doing was unethical.

There were a few mentions of the rift between Lexington Regional Health Center and Plum Creek Medical group that had divided the community in 2016, with a few saying this would lead to another divide.

Many who spoke were hospital employees and praised Marsh for her hands-on approach, sometimes helping on the floor or answering phones at the nursing station. Several made it clear that if Marsh was terminated, their resignations would soon follow.

At one point, a staff member said if this was their last chance to speak to Marsh as CEO, they would thank her for her years of dedication and leadership. Many in the room rose to a standing ovation.

Another commenter asked the board members to look around the packed room and think of the lives they were impacting by their decision.

A few in the crowd expressed either mixed feelings about Marsh or noted past issues with her leadership. One commenter asked if the employees cared so much about the quality of their care, should it matter who is in the CEO position.

After a few hours of comment, Turnbull spoke directly to Harbison and Case and asked one of them to vote no on termination and said he would do what was in his power, on his own time and dollar, to ensure that this gap was bridged.

Turnbull said this offer was an olive branch and asked one of them to take hold of it.

Samway asked why Marsh could not be given a chance, asking what they would have to lose by mediation.

One of the last comments was, The evidence is before you, do the right thing.

It was Case who made it clear he had changed his mind and would accept Turnbulls offer, to applause from the room.

A motion was made for Case to coordinate with Turnbull on a mediation process, with a new evaluation of issues on the same format and reevaluation in six months.

Harbison said he still has trepidations but is willing to give the process a chance. He said he intends to go forward in good faith.

The vote for mediation was unanimously approved.
A 27-year-old man was killed in a shooting in South Omaha early Thursday morning.

At 2:44 a.m., police responded to the shooting at an address in a residential neighborhood near 17th and S Streets. They found the man, who police identified as Adrrell Taylor from Omaha. Taylor was taken by paramedics to the Nebraska Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

Omaha police are investigating Taylors death as a homicide. Taylor is the 14th homicide in Omaha this year and third in the last week. Lezah Lewis, who was pregnant, was shot in North Omaha on Sunday. Police found Philipp Kuhns body on Wednesday in Benson Park. He appeared to have been shot to death.

At this time last year, Omaha had recorded 12 homicides.

Review of police shootings in Lincoln since 2013 1. Douglas DaMoude, May 30, 2014 2. Tyson Hubbard, March 5, 2015 3. Tareik Artis, Sept. 22, 2015 4. Zachary Grigsby, Nov. 29, 2015 5. Germichael Kennedy, June 26, 2016 6. Thomas Sailors, Jan. 5, 2018 7. Christopher Brennauer, Dec. 29, 2018 9. Hailey Stainbrook and Christian Alexander, Feb. 20, 2021 10. German Pedraza, Nov. 24, 2021
Against a backdrop of rising military tensions with China and Russia in the western Pacific, the Offutt-based 55th Wing is setting up shop in the Land of the Midnight Sun.

The 55th Operations Group has opened a detachment at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, the Wing announced last week.

The unit, called Detachment 1, will have about 10 members permanently assigned, said Ryan Hansen, a 55th Wing spokesman, with additional members on temporary duty if needed. It will allow the 55th Wing to launch and recover its RC-135 variant reconnaissance jets for missions and exercises in the Arctic and in the Far East.

Other 55th group detachments already operate in Japan (Okinawa), Greece and Great Britain.

The new det will provide us more flexibility and allow us to expand our operations in response to increased intelligence requirements, Col. Derek Rachel, 55th Operations Group commander, said in an article posted on the 55th Wing website. Having this location also available and ready will enable us to respond quicker than ever before.

Hansen said the Operations Group has been working for about six months to stand up the detachment, and it is scheduled to be fully operational early next year.

Alaska is a highly strategic location for monitoring the Far East military activities of rivals Russia and China, said retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Rick Evans, executive director of the National Strategic Research Institute at the University of Nebraska.

Ultimately, the threat in the Indo-Pacific region is probably the key to whats driving this, Evans said. (The 55th Wing) is always looking at where they need to be to stay ahead of the threat.

RC-135 reconnaissance jets have operated out of Alaska for decades. The very first ones built  then called KC-135AII models  were deployed to Eielson Air Force Base near Fairbanks beginning in 1962, said Robert Hopkins III, a former 55th Wing pilot who is now an author and historian of Air Force reconnaissance flights.

Reconnaissance operations at Alaska have a long, long tradition, he said.

During the Cold War, Eielson was home to several RC-135 Cobra Ball missile-monitoring jets, with crews and aircraft detached to the former Shemya Air Force Base (now known as Eareckson Air Station) in the Aleutian Islands.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and a thaw in relations with the Russian government, the need for surveillance grew less urgent.

The argument was, we didnt need a permanent (reconnaissance) presence in Alaska, Hopkins said. They just decided to fly planes up there as needed.

In the late 1990s, the entire RC-135 fleet  which now totals 26 aircraft  was consolidated at Offutt Air Force Base. But the 55th Wing has continued to use Eielson for short-term deployments or as a way station between Nebraska and distant Japan.

The Wing doesnt, however, have much experience at Elmendorf Air Force Base, as the Air Force side of the Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson was long known. It is the home of the 11th Air Force and the 3rd Wing, as well as an Alaska Air National Guard wing.

So it was a surprise to some 55th Wing watchers when an Offutt-based RC-135 Rivet Joint deployed to Elmendorf-Richardson May 5. It flew at least eight missions over the Gulf of Alaska and the Chukchi Sea before returning to Offutt two weeks later, according to information gathered from public flight-tracking websites by a 55th Wing veteran who uses the social media handle MeNMyRC.

The same jet flew back to Elmendorf-Richardson July 7 and has been there ever since, according to MeNMyRC, and has flown at least five times.

Hansen said Elmendorf-Richardson was selected over Eielson for the new detachment because Eielson had become crowded with other Air Force missions.

They had the space and infrastructure that will enable us to answer those long-standing and ever-increasing combatant command and national intelligence requirements, he said in an email.

Evans noted the weather is less harsh in Anchorage than in Fairbanks, which is 360 miles farther north and closer to the Arctic Circle.

He believes the 55th Wing has made a good move, setting up shop in the northernmost U.S. state.

(Alaska) is a strategic location. Theyre pretty routinely up there anyway, he said. Its smart for them to kind of put a flag in the ground there.

Photos: Offutt runway opens after 18-month reconstruction 100122-owh-new-offuttjets-pic-cm004.jpg offuttjets-pic-cm006.jpg Offutt runway reopens after 18-month runway reconstruction 100122-owh-new-offuttjets-pic-cm007.jpg 100122-owh-new-offuttjets-pic-cm005.jpg offuttjets-pic-cm003.jpg 100122-owh-new-offuttjets-pic-cm002.jpg 100122-owh-new-offuttjets-pic-cm001.jpg offuttjets-pic-cm008.jpg offuttjets-pic-cm009.jpg
The bodies of three civil rights workers missing for six weeks have been found buried in a partially constructed dam near Philadelphia, Mississippi.

Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation found the three young men  two white and one black man  about six miles from the town in a wooded area near where they were last seen on the night of 21 June.

They were Michael Schwerner, aged 24, Andrew Goodman, 20, both from New York and James Chaney, 22, from Meridian, Mississippi. All were members of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) dedicated to non-violent direct action against racial discrimination.

As soon as the men were reported missing, the case was made top priority and codenamed Miburn (Mississippi burning). FBI agents headed by Major Case Inspector Joseph Sullivan were sent down to Mississippi to investigate the matter.

After a tip-off they found the mens burnt-out car two days after their disappearance.

The bodies have been taken to Jackson, Mississippi, for further examination into the cause of death. It is believed all three had been shot and the finger of blame is pointing at the Ku Klux Klan white supremacist group.

Church burned down

The three young men had left the CORE office in Meridian six weeks ago to investigate the destruction of a black congregation church in Longdale, Neshoba County because it was used as the site for a freedom school.

The school was set up by Mr Schwerner as part of a wider civil rights campaign in Mississippi teaching black children, among other things, black history and the philosophy of the civil rights movement.

The Mount Zion Church was burned down on 16 June by members of the KKK searching for Mr Schwerner.

His wife, Rita, made an emotional statement to newspapers today.

She said: My husband, Michael Schwerner, did not die in vain. If he and Andrew Goodman had been negroes, the world would have taken little notice of their deaths.

After all, the slaying of a negro in Mississippi is not news. It is only because my husband and Andrew Goodman were white that the national alarm had been sounded.

Courtesy BBC News

1964 Three civil rights

activists found dead

On 13 October 1964 James Jordan, a member of the Ku Klux Klan, told FBI agents he had witnessed the murder and was willing to testify. A total of 19 men were arrested and charged.

On 24 February 1967 Judge William Cox dismissed 17 of the 19 indictments but he was overruled by the Supreme Court and the so-called Mississippi Burning trial took place in October 1967.

It emerged that the three young men had been arrested by Deputy Sheriff Cecil Price on 21 June, then released from Neshoba jail in the middle of the night and attacked and killed by the KKK as they drove out of town.

Among those convicted were Deputy Sheriff Price, who got six years in jail. Ku Klux Klan leader Sam Bowers and KKK member Wayne Roberts were sentenced to 10 years each.

A film based on the FBI investigation was made in 1988 called Mississippi Burning.

In June 2005 Edgar Ray Killen, 80, was convicted of recruiting the killers. Killen was sentenced to 60 years in jail for the three manslaughters.
The Chief Executive (CE), Ho Iat Seng, will attend a plenary session scheduled for Aug. 11 at the Legislative Assembly (AL).

The session will be the last plenary of the current legislative year, which draws to a close on Aug. 15, returning only in October, after the legislative holidays.

It is expected that the lawmakers will come up with proposals and topics related to the policy address for 2024, which the CE will present as usual in mid-November this year.

The increase of civil servants salaries and the resumption of other financial benefits to the population, such as the 7,000 patacas that the government used to transfer annually into the Central Provident Fund accounts of older permanent residents, are topics likely to be discussed.

The last time the government made such a transfer of funds was in 2019 as the CE reaffirmed that such a special contribution is legally attached to the surplus of the governments general account, which has been recording a deficit since 2020 as result of the restrictions to the entry of visitors related to the Covid-19 pandemic. RM
* Border eyes

 Police to test iris-facilitated border crossing on residents

* Coloane Waste Water Plant Tender for modernization and operation attracts seven bidders

* Taste of Edesia

* FAOM lawmaker Leong calls on casinos to increase workers salaries in face of record-breaking gross gaming revenue in July

* MGM China revenue grows to HKD10.5b in H1, focuses on expanding tables

* China proposes to limit childrens smartphone time to max 2 hours a day

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Friday, August 4, 2023  edition no. 4301
Photo: Glacier Media

A new code of conduct being considered by the City of Victoria is likely to fall short of the publics expectations, according to some city councillors.

While council voted unanimously to have city staff draft a bylaw that sets out the citys first code of conduct, some councillors had concerns about the direction staff were given on portions of it.

While some issues were raised around the coverage of legal fees incurred by councillors who find themselves the subject of a complaint, most of the concern was reserved for the fact the public will be held at arms length from any complaint process.

Mayor Marianne Alto, who has been pushing for a code of conduct for nearly a decade, said she was disheartened by amendments that cut the public out.

City staff had recommended that any individual be able to make a complaint about council conduct, but an amendment proposed by Coun. Dave Thompson changed it to allow only council members, members of staff or committee members to lodge complaints.

Alto said the change undermines the principles behind the need for a code of conduct. This is narrowing far too dramatically.

Coun. Marg Gardiner said the change not only excludes the public but passes judgment on them.

I just find it breaks even the whole concept of what we were trying to do, which was to open up and become a more transparent, or at least I hope we were a more transparent, municipal council, she said.

We need something, a way that the general public can come forward.

Thompson, who was supported in making the change by councillors Matt Dell, Jeremy Caradonna, Krista Loughton and Susan Kim, said members of the public would be able to make a complaint by approaching a member of council to do it for them.

I want to emphasize here that this doesnt exclude members of the public from approaching a councillor to take forward a complaint on their behalf, it just puts a little bit of a guardrail on it by requiring that a member of this council feel that its got sufficient merit and its not vexatious, he said.

Thompson justified the change by suggesting its just a matter of time before members of the public lodge complaints in bad faith.

If anyone is looking at social media, they will see that there is a pattern of people fabricating stories in order to do whats called rage farming, he said, suggesting people are getting their followers to believe the lies and are very, very likely, in my opinion, to generate complaints. So, I have no doubt that that would happen here.

The idea behind the code of conduct, which will be drafted and approved this year, is to improve accountability and transparency, provide certainty on how complaints regarding council members conduct are handled, and provide clear guidelines for councillors on activities like social media posts.

The province required all municipal councils to consider adopting such a code.

Victorias code has these pillars:

 A robust set of rules around conduct and the handling of complaints.

 Will apply only to council members, members of city staff and committees of council.

 Will provide for an independent third party that will react to complaints.

 Will allow council members, members of staff or city committee members to make complaints.

 Will not release investigation reports during the period beginning 90 days before general voting day.

 Will reject complaints received about councillors for a period of 90 days before general voting day.

 Will include a list of sanctions.

 Will have the city pay legal fees for councillors unless the complaint is substantiated in whole or in part.

Coun. Chris Coleman said overall the code was supportable, though he had issues with the changes made to who could make complaints.

But Im aware that this is not the bylaw, this is the precursor, he said, noting there will still be work done on each of the points in the code.

Alto said there will be room for additions and adjustments over time.

I think what we have here is a fairly robust baseline and that means that it will help us work better together, not just as a group, but on behalf of the community as a whole, she said. Its a great starting point.

Arising out of Thursdays debate over the code, council will request Alto to contact other municipalities to determine interest in establishing a regional municipal government ethics commissioner.

The city plans to review its code of conduct after two years.
As a pioneer of the park city philosophy, Chengdu is encouraging low-carbon transition by emphasizing green development in its socioeconomic advancement.

Huaizhou New City, located in Chengdus Jintang county, is home to such industrial giants as TW Solar, B&M Science and Technology, CATL and Dynanonic. Over the first half of this year, it welcomed a group of photovoltaic glass and new lithium battery manufacturers from the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Local officials said the growth initiative has helped connect the downstream of the photovoltaic industry while accelerating progress of Chengdus green and low-carbon industry.

In June, the Jintang base of TW Solar, which has a total investment of 3.2 billion yuan ($447.5 million) and is the first gigawatt-level photovoltaic component production base in Southwest China, went into operation. According to the company, the base is expected to achieve an annual output value of 40 billion yuan and provide 3,000 jobs.

In early June, TW Solar announced plans to invest in a photovoltaic project with a capacity of 20 GW in Chengdus Shuangliu district, which is expected to open in 2025. The citys current photovoltaic industry generates nearly 20 billion yuan and includes more than 20 businesses in Jintang county and Shuangliu district.

Chengdu is also boosting hydrogen energy across manufacturing sectors from fuel cells to vehicles. The city has developed a complete hydrogen energy industrial chain that integrates the production, storage, transportation, refueling and application of hydrogen gases and has mapped out function areas in the Pidu and Longquanyi districts.

More than 60 hydrogen businesses and research and development institutions  including Dongfang Electric Corporation, HQHP and SinoHytec  are now operating in the city. The Western Industry Park for Hydrogen, which is being constructed by Chengdu Smart Car City Development, a joint venture between Chengdu Jiaozi Financial Holding Group and the Longquanyi district government, will serve as an industrial hub.

In May, the park completed construction of 21 buildings and opened its demonstration hall. The move helped attract businesses involved in sectors ranging from hydrogen energy and automobiles to electronics and environmental protection.

The park is expected to start operating in the first half of 2024, said Liu Tao, chairman of Chengdu Smart Car City Development. It will be the largest hydrogen energy industrial complex in Chengdu.

By the end of 2025, the park hopes to include 50 to 100 businesses involved in hydrogen energy and automobiles, which will form an industrial chain and reach an output value of more than 10 billion yuan.

Over the past few years, Chengdu has rolled out a series of policies for sectors such as photovoltaic, power batteries, new energy vehicles, hydrogen energy and energy storage to create a green and low-carbon industry with an output value worth 100 billion yuan. In June 2022, the city government issued a guideline on the development of green hydrogen energy, spurring establishment of a whole industrial chain.

With the development of hydrogen energy, the NEV sector sees great potential in Chengdu, and the city has encouraged the application of hydrogen energy vehicles with an industrial chain and the opening of several routes for hydrogen-powered buses.

NEV sales in Chengdu reached 74,100 units through the first five months of this year, up 20.5 percent from 2022, and the sales volume ranked fourth in all of China. And as of the end of May, Chengdu had built a total of 131,000 NEV charging piles.

Yuan Shenggao, China Daily, MDT/China Daily
Donald Trump is due in federal court today [Macau time] to answer to charges that he sought to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, facing a judge near the U.S. Capitol building that his supporters stormed to try to block the peaceful transfer of power.

In whats become a familiar but nonetheless stunning ritual, Trump is expected to be processed by law enforcement, be taken into custody and enter a not guilty plea in front of a judge before being released, so he can rejoin the campaign trail as he seeks to reclaim the White House in 2024.

An indictment earlier this week from Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith charges Trump with four felony counts related to his efforts to undo his presidential election loss in the run-up to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol, including conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding. The charges could lead to a yearslong prison sentence in the event of a conviction.

The Republican former president was the only person charged in the case, though prosecutors referenced six co-conspirators, mostly lawyers, they say he plotted with, including in a scheme to enlist fake electors in seven battleground states won by Democrat Joe Biden to submit false certificates to the federal government.

The indictment chronicles how Trump and his Republican allies, in what Smith described as an attack on a bedrock function of the U.S. government, repeatedly lied about the results in the two months after he lost the election and pressured his vice president, Mike Pence, and state election officials to take action to help him cling to power.

This is the third criminal case brought against Trump in the last six months. He was charged in New York with falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment to a porn actor during the 2016 presidential campaign. Smiths office also has charged him with 40 felony counts in Florida, accusing him of illegally retaining classified documents at his Palm Beach estate, Mar-a-Lago, and refusing government demands to give them back. He has pleaded not guilty in both those cases, which are set for trial next year.

And prosecutors in Fulton County, Georgia, are expected in coming weeks to announce charging decisions in an investigation into efforts to subvert election results in that state.

Trumps lawyer John Lauro has asserted in television interviews that Trumps actions were protected by the First Amendment right to free speech and that he relied on the advice of lawyers. Trump has claimed without evidence that Smiths team is trying to interfere with the 2024 presidential election, in which Trump is the early front-runner to claim the Republican nomination.

Smith said in a rare public statement that he was seeking a speedy trial, though Lauro has said he intends to slow the case down so that the defense team can conduct its own investigation.

The arraignment will be handled before U.S. Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadyaha, who joined the bench last year. But going forward, the case will be presided over by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, an appointee of President Barack Obama who has stood out as one of the toughest punishers of the Capitol rioters.

Chutkan has also ruled against Trump before, refusing in November 2021 to block the release of documents to the U.S. Houses Jan. 6 committee by asserting executive privilege. MDT/AP

MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, ERIC TUCKER & NOMAAN MERCHANT,WASHINGTON
Austrias lively Janoska Ensemble is performing at The Parisian Theatre Aug. 19 as part of the Sands Performing Arts Program.

The string and piano quartet are bringing their signature Janoska Style, where their unique interpretation of classical pieces combines the highest level of technical perfection with the art of improvisation  creating an eclectic mix of classical, jazz, pop and world music.

Their upcoming performance at The Parisian Macao is part of the Sands Performing Arts Program. The program makes use of Sands Chinas world-class venues to stage nationally and internationally acclaimed shows and develop a diverse platform for performing arts projects in Macao. It fully utilises Macaos role as a platform of international exchange, in alignment with the Macao SAR governments vision for the integrated tourism and leisure industry.

The program recently hosted the Macao debut of Floral Princess 65th Anniversary, an innovative hi-tech remake of the classic Cantonese opera Floral Princess that fuses tradition and technology. Later this year, the program will present the mesmerising dance drama, Poetic Dance: The Journey of a Legendary Landscape Painting.

A family of virtuoso musicians from Vienna, the Janoska Ensemble features violin, piano and double bass, with their shows bringing a modern interpretation to classical music, including their own compositions. Their performance at The Parisian Theatre will focus on the great B composers, including Bach, Brahms, Beethoven and even The Beatles  all known for a certain level of improvisation.

The group said: Thanks to the invitation from Sands China, we are thrilled to perform in Macao for the first time as part of The Big Bs World Tour! We have carefully selected pieces from our latest album, The Big Bs, for Macao audiences. There are some real-world sensations and some symphonic works that we play in our unique Janoska Style. We are confident that we can offer a new classical music experience and we have also arranged a special song just for Macao, so stay tuned.

For tickets or to get more information, please visit the Cotai Ticketing website at https://www.cotaiticketing.com/shows/janoska2023.
TRUMP INDICTMENT | 2020 election

The 45-page indictment against Donald Trump announced Tuesday refers to six unindicted "co-conspirators" who prosecutors allege assisted the former president in "criminal efforts to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election and retain power."

The individuals aren't named. But the indictment gives enough detail about their actions  often quoting them directly  to identify five of the six based on publicly available information, particularly the final report of the congressional committee that investigated the 2020 election. A person familiar with the investigation also confirmed those identities.

Although there are limits on how prosecutors can use a grand jury after securing an indictment, they can use it to add defendants to a case. In announcing the latest Trump indictment Tuesday, Special Counsel John "Jack" Smith said "our investigation of other individuals continues."

Rudy Giuliani

The indictment's description of co-conspirator 1 matches former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, labeling him as "an attorney who was willing to spread knowingly false claims and pursue strategies that the Defendant's 2020 reelection campaign attorneys would not."

Co-conspirator 1 is mentioned at least 46 times in the indictment, saying Giuliani "spearheaded" Trump's efforts to overturn the election. The indictment recounts how he tried to get Republican officials in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin to reject the popular vote in their states, often by spreading false conspiracy theories about irregularities.

The indictment quotes co-conspirator 1 telling the Arizona House Speaker in December 2020 words to the effect of, "We don't have the evidence, but we have lots of theories." That tracks a description in the Jan. 6 committee report of a conversation between Giuliani and then-Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers.

Giuliani is facing disbarment proceedings in Washington and New York for promoting postelection conspiracy theories.

John Eastman

The indictment's description of co-conspirator 2 matches Trump lawyer John Eastman, describing him as "an attorney who devised and attempted to implement a strategy to leverage the Vice President's ceremonial role overseeing the certification proceeding to obstruct the certification of the presidential election."

Co-conspirator 2 is mentioned at least 31 times in the indictment. The former Chapman University law school dean was the author of a legal memo about how former Vice President Mike Pence could prevent Joe Biden from being inaugurated. The indictment describes the memo, including a quote from one section describing a proposed series of events: "Pence then gavels President Trump as reelected."

In a civil legal fight over the Jan. 6 congressional committee's demands for Eastman's emails, a federal judge in California held last year that Eastman and Trump "more likely than not" committed crimes. The congressional committee recommended the Justice Department consider bringing charges against both Eastman and Trump. Eastman is facing a legal ethics complaint by state bar regulators in California.

Sidney Powell

The indictment's description of co-conspirator 3 matches conservative advocate Sidney Powell, describing her as "an attorney whose unfounded claims of election fraud the Defendant privately acknowledged to others sounded 'crazy.'"

"Nonetheless," the indictment continues, Trump "embraced and publicly amplified co-conspirator 3's disinformation."

Powell is mentioned at least eight times in the indictment.

On Nov. 16, 2020, the indictment alleges Trump had an assistant send Powell a document containing bullet points making claims about voting-machine maker Dominion Voting Systems Inc.

Powell responded: "IT MUST GO IN ALL SUITS IN GA AND PA IMMEDIATELY WITH A FRAUD CLAIM THAT REQUIRES THE ENTIRE ELECTION TO BE SET ASIDE."

Powell filed a suit against Georgia based on those claims, and it was dismissed two weeks later; the indictment refers to dates in public court records. Trump promoted the claims, even though he told advisers that Powell sounded "crazy," an exchange the Jan. 6 congressional committee noted in its report.

Jeff Clark

The indictment's description of co-conspirator 4 matches former Assistant Attorney General Jeff Clark, describing him as "a Justice Department official who worked on civil matters" and attempted with Trump to "use the Justice Department to open sham election crime investigations and influence state legislatures with knowingly false claims of election fraud."

Clark is referred to 29 times in the indictment, which says he met with Trump at the White House without knowledge of his superiors  and even lying to then-Deputy Attorney General Jeff Rosen about his involvement. When Rosen told Trump the Justice Department could not change the outcome of the election, Trump threatened to replace Rosen with Clark. Trump backed down when top department officials threatened to resign.

Clark is facing a legal ethics case by local bar regulators in Washington over his postelection activities.

Kenneth Chesebro

The indictment's description of co-conspirator 5 matches appellate attorney Kenneth Chesebro, describing him as "an attorney who assisted in devising and attempting to implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification proceeding."

He's mentioned at least 15 times in the indictment, including as the author of memos outlining how the fraudulent election slates would work.

The indictment quotes an email from Jack Wilenchik, an Arizona lawyer working on the project, who said the strategy was legally dubious but could throw just enough uncertainty into the process to buy time. The Jan. 6 congressional committee report refers to the email as well, which names Chesebro. "I just talked to the gentleman who did that memo," Wilenchik wrote, referring to Chesebro. "Kind of wild/creative."

Co-conspirator

6 The indictment refers to co-conspirator 6 as "a political consultant who helped implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification proceeding." The person is named at least eight times in the indictment. Bloomberg News could not confirm his or her identity.
NEENAH  Officers fatally shot a man in eastern Wisconsin after he apparently displayed a weapon while they tried to arrest him, police said.

The 37-year-old man, who was not identified, was confronted by officers with the Lake Winnebago Area Metropolitan Enforcement Group at a gas station Wednesday afternoon in Neenah. They tried to take him into custody on arrest warrants, the Sheboygan County Sheriff's Office said.

A preliminary investigation "would suggest the subject displayed a weapon," before officers shot him, the sheriff's office said in a news release.

The man later died of his injuries at a local hospital.

No officers were injured in the shooting, police said.

It was unclear if any officers involved in the shooting were placed on leave or when the man's name would be released. The Associated Press left a message with the sheriff's office Thursday morning seeking additional details.

The sheriff's office said it is investigating the shooting because the task force is comprised of multiple agencies from Outagamie, Winnebago, Fond du Lac and Calumet Counties and the state's Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigations.

Police said more information would be released Thursday.
Donald Trump is the first former president in our nations history to be indicted. He is also the first former president to be indicted three times, most recently for charges including conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy against the right to vote, and more.

A fourth indictment is expected soon.

His allies say this is overkill, punitive and a continuation of an attack on a beleaguered leader that has continued for seven years. But Trump committed obvious crimes before and during his time in office, and the rule of law is working.

Trumps first 34 felony counts deal with hush-money payments to a porn star. By buying Stormy Daniels silence, the Trump campaign avoided a possible sex scandal in the final weeks of the 2016 campaign. Michael Cohen, Trumps fixer, paid $130,000 to Daniels. Then, while in the White House, Trump reimbursed Cohen with payments from Trumps company. Prosecutors say Trump fraudulently disguised those installments as legal expenses, in violation of New York law.

Trump has also been indicted on 40 charges related to mishandling classified documents once he left office. Jack Smith, special counsel at the Justice Department, has accused Trump of taking highly sensitive national security documents with him when he left the White House. And thanks to a slew of incriminating photos (bathroom storage, anyone?), we know he kept the documents strewn throughout Mar-a-Lago and showed them to individuals without security clearance. He also obstructed the government in its attempts to secure the documents.

The Department of Justice recently announced that Trump has been indicted on four more charges related to his role in the Jan. 6 attack and his planned conspiracy to try to hold onto his presidency despite losing the general election. The Justice Departments work builds on the impressive investigation conducted and then shared with the American people via blockbuster hearings by the bipartisan Jan. 6 Select Committee. As we saw laid out in blistering detail from the committee, Trump and his cronies sought to cast doubt on Bidens victory and then helped to encourage a violent mob on Jan. 6.

The pending indictment in Georgia is also related to Trump's interference in the outcome of the 2020 election. We all know about the perfect phone call, in which Trump called Georgias secretary of state and told him he needed to find him just 11,780 votes to swing the election. In the same call, the former president also invoked the name of Ruby Freeman  amplifying false claims that she and Shaye Moss had pulled thousands of fraudulent ballots from a suitcase and illegally entered them into the voting machines. (In late-breaking justice on this point  Rudy Giuliani, who had also amplified those false claims, recently admitted in reaction to a defamation suit that he made false statements about the two Georgia election workers.)

All of these charges are incredibly serious, both the ones already made public and the ones we expect to come soon. Holding the highest office in the land should not and  according to the Constitution, does not  provide immunity from accountability. As would be the case for any other American, our legal system will review and judge Trumps actions and determine what the consequences of those actions should be.

No one is above the law. To protect the integrity of our legal system and our democracy, it is essential for this case to proceed like any other.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates  Saudi Arabia said Thursday it will extend its unilateral production cut of 1 million barrels of oil a day through the end of September in its effort to boost flagging energy prices, a move that could push U.S. gas prices higher.

The kingdom announced the extension on the state-run Saudi Press Agency, quoting an anonymous official in the Energy Ministry. The Saudi reduction, which began in July, comes as the other OPEC+ producers agreed to extend earlier production cuts through next year. Analysts widely expected the move.

The national average for U.S. gas prices stood at about $3.82 a gallon on Tuesday  about 30 cents higher than a month ago, according to motor club AAA.
A multi-vehicle crash occurred Wednesday afternoon on Interstate 84 in Jerome County after a boat trailer detached from a vehicle, police say.

A 51-year-old-man from Mendon, Utah, was driving west at 4:32 p.m. on I-84 at milepost 197 in a 2023 Chevrolet Silverado towing a 25-foot boat on a trailer, when the trailer detached from the vehicle and went into the median, the ISP said.

A 20-year-old woman from Hillsboro, Oregon, eastbound in a 2010 Subaru Forester, slowed down and was struck from behind by a 2011 GMC Acadia driven. The Arcadia, driven by a 33-year-old man from Rupert, pushed the Subaru into the westbound lanes where it overturned and came to a rest.

There were no reports of injuries and all occupants were wearing their seatbelts.

The incident remains under investigation by the ISP.
"Shuttle trucking" makes air transport more efficient

09:43, August 04, 2023 By Du Haitao ( People's Daily

Goods are stored in a warehouse before they are shipped away by trucks at Haikou Meilan International Airport, south China's Hainan province. (Photo provided by Haikou Meilan International Airport)

A flight from Billund Airport in Denmark recently arrived at Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport in east China's Zhejiang province, carrying 39.6 tons of imported goods.

The cargos were soon cleared through customs. Of that, 39.3 tons, mainly chemicals and spare parts, were shipped by trucks to Shanghai and Beijing.

These shuttle trucks, which run on fixed schedules and routes, connect the final destinations of cargos with the airports at which they arrive. This air-land intermodal transportation utilizes trucks' cost and flexibility advantages to meet enterprises' logistics demands.

It is estimated that shipping goods indirectly by consolidating cargo on flights to Hangzhou first and then trucking them to final destinations in China, reduces shipping costs per kilogram by 10 percent to 15 percent compared to direct air shipping to each destination.

In the first five months of this year, the Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport Customs supervised 4,039 truck shipments totaling nearly 9,109 tons, up 78.3 percent and 16.6 percent respectively compared to the same period last year.

Customs officials inspect a truck that transfers goods delivered by a cargo flight from overseas at Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport, east China's Hangzhou province. (Photo/Wu Xiaojia)

To ensure efficient operations of the shuttle trucks, the Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport Customs implemented a 24/7 clearance plan to quickly process cargo. This mechanism enables goods to be shipped to their final destinations are cleared through customs on the same day they arrive in China.

The Customs is cooperating with airlines and relevant enterprises to expand the coverage area of the trucking service and contribute to the integrated logistics development in the Yangtze River Delta.

As China's economy and society continue to develop, there are increasing demands for more efficient and convenient logistics transportation. As a form of air-land intermodal transportation, these shuttle trucks are more and more favored by the market.

Guangxi Civil Aviation Industry Development based in Nanning, capital of south China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, has launched an interprovincial shuttle truck service for imported express parcels to promote air-land transport connections in Nanning. This has greatly enhanced the capacity of Nanning's airport to guarantee timely delivery of imported express parcels.

The airport of Nanning has an annual international air cargo and mail processing capacity of 150,000 tons. It operates 11 international cargo routes to 12 cities in 8 countries of ASEAN and South Asia.

Photo shows a trucking team of China Southern Airlines. (Photo from the newspaper affiliated to China Southern Airlines)

Thanks to the shuttle truck service, seafood, fruits and other featured products from ASEAN countries can enter the Chinese market more conveniently. The airport of Nanning has become an important channel for ASEAN products to expand their market in China.

A similar services has been launched by Haikou Meilan International Airport, south China's Hainan province, too, which sources goods from Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhengzhou and other cities and then exports them together. This facilitates effective connections between the Hainan Free Trade Port and domestic and foreign cities. At the same time, it expands the airport's import channels, enhances coordination between air cargo services, reduces transportation costs for businesses, and further improves the airport's freight capacity.

Experts said that the air-land intermodal transportation takes advantages of China's developed expressway network and flexible trucking services, and thus well connects air and land transport and makes air transport safer and more efficient.

As innovations are made to improve such shuttle truck services and the transport network, the high-quality development of China's logistics industry is expected to be further advanced.

(Web editor: Chang Sha, Du Mingming)
Photo: BC Gov

The provincial government says it is now formally looking for a contractor to design and build improvements to Highway 1 east of Revelstoke.

Highway 1 will be four-laned over a 2.6-km section about 40 km east of Revelstoke, part of a broader multi-year project by the provincial government to improve the Trans Canada Highway between Kamloops and Alberta.

The latest section of the highway to get safety upgrades is between the recently completed Illecillewaet project and the Jack MacDonald snowshed.

A centre median and roadside barriers will be installed as well as avalanche and rockfall mitigation.

Congestion will be reduced by the addition of a safe passing opportunity. The project will also make the highway more resilient to extreme-weather events, said the provincial government in a news release.

Following the request for qualifications process, a short list of qualified teams will be invited to participate in a request for proposals (RFP).

The total estimated project budget is more than $245 million, with a net provincial contribution of nearly $200 million. The Government of Canada is contributing $45.7 million as part of the New Building Canada Fund.

It is anticipated that the contract will be awarded in the fall of 2024, with construction beginning by spring 2025.
The American justice system, once hailed as a beacon of fairness and equality, is facing a reckoning as a growing divide becomes very evident. Recent developments, including the alleged corruption within the Biden family and the indictment of former President Donald Trump, sheds light on what appears to be a two-tiered approach to justice.

Just this week, Trump was indicted once again, for what is perceived as politically-motivated charges intending to derail his candidacy for president. The sheer number of cases being brought against Trump by President Joe Bidens Department of Justice, while he is Bidens leading opponent for president, raises eyebrows about the integrity of our justice system. Of course, the fake news media has trained their spotlights on Trump, focusing all of their energy on the allegations against him.

Meanwhile, the press and Democratic leadership has given a pass to Hunter Biden, the presidents son, excusing away the damning revelations that have recently come to light. Testimony this week by Hunter Bidens former business associate suggests Hunter used his father, during his tenure as vice president, as political influence in his business dealings.

And weve all seen the video of Joe Biden admitting, in his own words, that he strong-armed a foreign government to fire the prosecutor that was investigating Hunter Biden and his company. And just last week, Hunters sweetheart plea deal with the government was derailed by a judge who, rightly, saw through the deceptive tactics to hide a statement of immunity to other federal crimes in the terms of the agreement. Yet the media is silent on the Biden family.

Amidst the theatrics of the Hunter Biden trial, the larger picture becomes clearer: We are witnessing a performance, a spectacle meant to distract us. Seemingly, the DOJ is playing a role in shielding the Biden family from legal consequences. This further fuels concerns about a two-tiered justice system, further eroding trust in the impartiality of the system.

So where is the collective outrage of the American people? Has our patience been stretched so thin that even repeated indictments of a presidential candidate fail to stir us? We sit and watch the DOJ give preferential treatment to the sitting presidents family, and our press shields Joe Biden from criticism, and we sit on our hands?

Where are the American people? Historically, the answer by Republicans has been to continue living our lives, going to church, raising our families, attending our extracurricular activities, while we wait to cast our ballot at the next election.

That is no longer enough. The time has come to brace ourselves. To stand firm on our American principles. To get ready, prepare and get involved. The year 2024 is approaching and Idaho is poised to take the lead in expressing its voice for our next presidential nominee. We must equip ourselves now to double down on our involvement in local and national politics to express our discontent with the way our beloved America is slipping through our fingers.

We must remember that the strength of a nation rests not only on its leadership but also on the engagement of its citizens. The wheels of change will only turn when we apply our hands to them. Americas legacy is built upon moments when the people stood united and unyielding in the face of challenges.

So, fellow Republicans, the call to action is resounding. How much longer will you wait to engage, to get involved politically, to hold the media accountable, to hold your elected representatives accountable? The future of our nation hangs in the balance, awaiting the answer to this pivotal question.
We know that when our small towns and communities thrive, Idaho thrives. Idaho Democrats have long supported investment in these communities to drive growth, create jobs, and ensure rural youth have the same opportunities as kids across the state.

But for too long, rural Idaho has been left to struggle under the weight of broken promises and failed leadership. Its time to do better.

When rural Idaho is neglected, key sectors of our economy like food production, forestry, and renewable energy suffer. Opportunities for children and working families also narrow. Without access to affordable homes or child care, families are pushed out of their communities to find jobs elsewhere. Consequently, rural industries and small businesses are challenged by labor shortages and a shrinking customer base.

Rural Idaho has different needs than our cities and we need policies that acknowledge this.

Nationally, Democrats delivered big wins that will benefit rural Idaho, including long-needed repairs to roads and bridges that will bring products to market and a $583 million investment in expanded broadband access in our state. Thousands of Idahoans living in small towns and communities will be able to access the reliable, affordable internet they need to work, learn skills, and conduct business.

Here at home, Idaho Democrats are working to deliver solutions, despite pushback from Republican legislators.

Rural Idahoans face limited access to health care and Idaho ranks last in the nation for physicians per capita. The Republican supermajoritys criminalization of medical care is driving more doctors and nurses out of state, causing the discontinuation of rural labor and delivery services, among other issues. When a bill advanced to incentivize nurses to serve rural areas, Democrats backed it unanimously. It passed by a single vote. Idaho Democrats also overcame Republican opposition to increase investments in rural first responders because timely treatment in a medical emergency should not depend on your zip code.

Our rural schools need resources as they face inadequate, crumbling facilities and severe staff shortages. Idaho Democrats continue to advocate for fair funding. In 2022, Democrats successfully passed legislation to incentivize educators to take rural teaching positions. It took several years to overcome GOP opposition to this commonsense proposal.

Whether it comes to approving desperately-needed grant dollars for preschool and child care access or investing in workforce training, it has been hard to understand Republican legislators opposition to policies that address rural Idahos needs.

By prioritizing investments in our rural communities and industries, we can create a stronger, more resilient Idaho for generations to come. The Idaho Democratic Party Rural Caucus is ready to be a strong and united voice for the 500,000 people who call rural Idaho home.
Ampleons investment. Trade Undersecretary and Board of Investments managing head Ceferino Rodolfo (left) meets with Ampleon chief executive Vincent Gerritsma to discuss the companys ongoing operations in the Philippines and insights on recent incentives regime and Philippine investment climate. Ampleon, the top 3 among 8 global key players in radio frequency power products is headquartered in Nijmegen, The Netherlands and has a plant in Cabuyao, Laguna which employs around 1,100 skilled workers.

Dutch company Ampleon, the worlds third biggest manufacturer of safety radios and navigation equipment, expressed confidence on its continuing operations in the Philippines.

Ampleon chief executive Vincent Gerritsma met with Trade Undersecretary and Board of Investments managing head Ceferino Rodolfo discussed the companys local operations during the Department of Trade and Industrys two-week Europe Investment Roadshow last month.

Gerritsma said among the key considerations for their decision to do business in the Philippines are the availability of young, skilled and highly trainable talent, competitive labor cost in the ASEAN region and geopolitical stability.

Ampleon provided invaluable insights on how to strengthen the incentives regime and how the Philippines could become more competitive in the electronics and semiconductor industries.

Its wholly-owned unit in Cabuyao, Laguna is the second strategic facility next to the mother unit based in Nijmegen, Netherlands. It operates similar manufacturing plants in Europe, the US and China.

The companys Cabuyao plant is 100-percent powered by renewable energy and has been operating since 2016. It is considered Ampleons second most important site globally as it employs around 1,100 skilled workers, their biggest hub in terms of manpower.

Ampleon has been designing and manufacturing RF power products for over 50 years. Its innovative portfolio offers products and solutions for 4G LTE and 5G NR infrastructure, industrial, scientific, medical, broadcast, navigation and safety radio applications.

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Jollibee Foods Corp. said Friday it is bringing Singaporen food and beverage brands Tiong Bahru Bakery and Common Man Coffee Roasters to the Philippines via a P250-million joint venture partnership.

JFC and Food Collective Pte. Ltd. formed a 60:40 joint venture company that will own and operate the two F&B brands in the country.

We are excited to enter this joint venture with FCPL to own and operate the Tiong Bahru Bakery and Common Man Coffee Roasters in the Philippines. These brands will be a strong addition to JFCs foreign franchised brands and will allow JFC to capture an even greater opportunity and strengthen JFCs position for further growth in the Philippine market, Jollibee chief executive Ernesto Tanmantiong said in statement to the stock exchange.

Tiong Bahru Bakery is famous for baked goods and coffee with 16 branches in Singapore, while Common Man Coffee Roasters operates an all-day dining cafe with five stores across Singapore and Malaysia.

Both companies committed to invest up to P250 million in the joint venture company, which will have its own resources.

JFC will take the lead in the management and operation of the business. The joint venture company will be the franchisee of both brands in the Philippines.

FCPL is a majority-owned subsidiary of Titan Lifestyle Holdings Pte. Ltd., which is wholly owned by Titan Dining LP where JFC has a 90-percent participating interest.

The company is incorporated in Singapore, and its primary activity is owning and operating lifestyle brands, including Tiong Bahru Bakery and Common Man Coffee Roasters.

JFC operates three foreign franchised brands in the Philippines including Burger King (with 127 stores), Panda Express (18 stores) and Yoshinoya (7 stores).

These brands contribute 3 percent to the groups consolidated system-wide sales.

JFC Group was operating 6,617 stores worldwide, including 3,287 in the Philippines and 3,330 overseas as of end-June 2023.

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The search team found and retrieved the missing Cessna 152 aircraft in Luna, Apayao on Thursday, the Civil Aviation Authority of the

Philippines reported.

After two days of Search and Rescue efforts, the wreckage of the aircraft has been located at Sitio Matad Barangay Salvacion, Luna,

Apayao, said CAAP spokesperson Eric Apolonio.

The authorities also found two bodies believed to be the occupants of the training plane owned and operated by Echo Air International

Aviation Academy, Inc.

Apolonio said the crash site is near the last known position presented by Philippine Aeronautical Rescue Coordination Center during the

emergency briefing conducted by Cagayan Valley Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council last Tuesday.

The aircraft, with registration number RP-C8958, left the Laoag International Airport at 12:16 p.m. and was supposed to arrive at

Tuguegarao Airport at 3:16 p.m. It was bound for Cauayan Airport for a touch-and-go activity then to its final destination at Tuguegarao

Airport.

The aircraft transmitted its last position report approximately 32 nautical miles northwest of Alcala, Cagayan at around 1 p.m., said

Apolonio.

CAAP commended the successful search operations conducted by the composite team from the Armed Forces, national police, local

government units, and other civilian volunteers.

Apolonio said the CAAP sent Aircraft Accident Investigation and Inquiry Board (AAIIB) authorities to Tuguegarao to start their investigation.

Based on CAAPs Aviation Records Management Division (ARMD), Echo Air International Aviation Academy, Inc. owns two aircraft. The missing RP-C8598 has an Airworthiness Certification and is geared with a transponder and an emergency locator transmitter (ELT).

CAAP suspended the operations of the said aviation academy following the incident.

The latest case involving a Cessna plane happened more than five months following the same incident in Isabela province, and the other

one was found near Albay.

In March, a Cessna 206 plane with six people on board that went missing in Isabela province on Jan. 24 has been found with no

survivors.

Four people also died after the Cessna 340 plane they were in crashed on Mayon Volcano in February.

Aside from these, CAAP listed three other air accidents this year, including the case of two helicopters last month and in March.

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A self-confessed serial killer convicted of murdering his wife and another woman was executed by lethal injection in the southern US state of Florida on Thursday, local media reported.

James Barnes, 61, who did not seek to halt his execution, was put to death at 6:00 pm (2200 GMT) at Florida State Prison, local television stations said.

Barnes was serving a life sentence for the 1997 murder of his wife, Linda, when he confessed to the 1988 rape and murder of Patricia Miller, a 41-year-old nurse.

He was sentenced to death in 2007 for Millers murder.

Barnes was interviewed by German director Werner Herzog for a 2012 television series called On Death Row and confessed to two other murders for which he has never faced charges.

In late July, the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops urged Governor Ron DeSantis to stay Barnes execution.

Mr. Barnes willing acceptance of death does not absolve the state from bringing it about, they said in a letter. Simply put, no one should be executed in our modern penal system, even if they willingly accept it.

DeSantis, a candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, signed Barnes death warrant and declined to stay his execution.

Barnes was the fifth inmate executed in Florida in 2023.

There have been 17 executions in the United States this year.

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The Philippines and the United States have agreed to mount joint patrols in the West Philippine Sea before the end of the year, the National Security Council (NSC) said on Friday.

In April, Washington and Manila agreed to resume joint patrols in the South China Sea, which overlaps with the West Philippine Sea, and struck a deal to give US troops access to another four military facilities in the Philippines, on top of five existing Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) sites.

Meanwhile, senators have revived a previous suggestion to make former President Rodrigo Duterte a special envoy to China, following his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing last month.

NSC Assistant Director-General Jonathan Malaya said that among the countrys key strategies in the West Philippine Sea is strengthening partnerships with other countries and allies while supporting a rules-based international order.

Recently, [National Security Adviser Eduardo] Ano met with the national security advisers of Japan and the US in a trilateral meeting. I think in the very near future we will have joint patrols, or joint sailing, the Philippines and the US. Lets wait and see, he added.

That is why the President went to the US, met with the President of the US, President Joe Biden, and reinvigorated our mutual defensetreaty. We also have good relations with Australia, we have a visiting forces agreement with Australia, Malaya said at a West Philippine Summit conference on Friday.

During his weeklong visit to China, Duterte reportedly told Xi that China should look kindly on the Philippines on the WPS.

China claims most of the strategic waters as part of its territory.

The Philippines, Taiwan, Brunei, Vietnam, and Malaysia also have overlapping claims.

Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri shared this with the media on Thursday, quoting President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who hosted Duterte at Malacanang on Wednesday night before meeting 22 senators for dinner shortly afterward.

Malaya said the joint patrol with the US would not necessarily aggravate the situation in the general South China Sea regionwhich China claims in its entirety under its so-called nine-dash line  if international law is strictly followed.

The purpose of the joint patrol is simply to ensure freedom of navigation by keeping sea lanes open, he added.

Its clear under international law what international seas are. Forus, we adhere with the UNCLOS. Whatever UNCLOS says where the international law allows us to sail, thats where we will sail, hesaid.

When asked about the prospect of having a joint military exercise with China, Malaya said there is no legal basis at the moment. The NSC has also yet to receive any proposal on this.

Well, for us to have joint military exercises. we must have a Visiting Forces Agreement with China. That is the really big problem, the official said.

On Duterte representing the country, Senator JV Ejercito said: That would be a good suggestion, making him a super-envoy to China.

He said it is important that lines are open with regards to our maritime dispute with China.

Personally, I dont like what China is doing, but (diplomatic) ties are important, said Ejercito.

Keeping lines open between the two countries is included in the recently-approved Senate Resolution 178, which condemns Chinas incursions on PH territory and harassment of Filipino fishermen, the Philippine Coast Guard, and Philippine Navy.

It is an open book that Duterte is very close to China, Ejercito said.

Sen. Christopher Lawrence Go, Dutertes longtime assistant, said he agreed with Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano that Duterte has a good relationship with Chinas president.

They are friends, they understand each other, and they can easily talk to each other, Go added.

Cayetano, who was Foreign Affairs Secretary under Duterte, said theres no doubt the former President is one of the best representatives of the country when talking to the Chinese government because of his relationship with Xi.

If ever we know someone who can go to the highest levels of theChinese government that the Chinese government trusts and the Filipino trusts, its President Duterte. But then we have to come out with a strategy that is both comprehensive and that will work in the short and long term, he said.

During the WPS summit, the NSC also noted the importance of defense and coastguard modernization, which would help increase the countrys deterrence capabilities.

Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) Commandant Admiral Artemio Abu reiterated his agencys commitment to patrolling the West Philippine Sea to assert the countrys sovereignty.

The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) said 27 percent of the marine fisheries production for the Philippines comes from the

West Philippine Sea.

The BFAR had said Filipino fishermen could have caught more fish in the West Philippine Sea if no Chinese incursions occurred.

The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled in July 2016 that Chinas basis for its claims has no legal backing. Beijing refuses to honor the decision.

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Nigers newly installed junta said Thursday it would respond immediately to any aggression or attempted aggression against it by West African countries, three days before the expiry of an ultimatum to restore order given by a regional bloc.

The landlocked nation is the fourth member of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) hit by a putsch since 2020.

ECOWAS has threatened potential use of force if the junta does not restore ousted President Mohamed Bazoum by Sunday, and military chiefs of the blocs member countries met in Nigeria on Wednesday for three days of consultations.

Any aggression or attempted aggression against the State of Niger will see an immediate and unannounced response from the Niger Defence and Security Forces on one of (the blocs) members, with the exception of suspended friendly countries, one of the putschists said in a statement read on national television, alluding to neighbouring Burkina Faso and Mali.

ECOWAS has already imposed trade and financial sanctions after the putsch.

The junta also announced Thursday it was ending the mandates of its ambassadors to four countries, as well as scrapping military pacts made between Niamey and France.

The functions of the extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassadors of the Republic of Niger to France, Nigeria, Togo and the United States are terminated, it said.

Blaming Frances careless attitude and its reaction to the situation, it said it had decided to scrap the cooperation agreements in the field of security and defence with this state.

Niger has had a key role in Western strategies to combat the jihadist insurgency that has plagued the Sahel since 2012, with France and the United States stationing around 1,500 and 1,000 troops in the country, respectively.

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KodeGo, the innovative online tech boot camp by Globes 917Ventures, is charting a new course for women in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields by providing opportunities that aim to address gender disparity in local employment.

The Philippines currently exhibits a 22% gender-based disparity in the STEM workforce, the largest in Southeast Asia, according to a study by professional networking platform LinkedIn. Although women make up 58.8% of employees in non-STEM fields, this figure dramatically falls to a mere 36.3% within the STEM sectors.

KodeGos mission to democratize education for all is proving to be instrumental in this context, equalizing opportunities for women in these rapidly evolving and highly sought-after disciplines.

The online boot camp has a curriculum patterned after in-demand tech skills and soft skills sought by companies. Short-term tech-related courses include Full-Stack Web Development, UX Design, and WordPress Development.

KodeGo has seen an increasing number of women enrolling in its programs, with the number rising as KodeGo increased the number of boot camps it offers. Currently, women make up 26% of KodeGos student population, with a total of 572 as of June 2023 a testament to increased female interest in traditionally male-dominated fields because of KodeGos dedication to offering accessible, gender-neutral education.

KodeGo is deeply committed to addressing the glaring STEM gender-employment gaps in the country, said Cristina Gervasio, Entrepreneur-in-Residence at KodeGo. By providing quality training, we aim to empower Filipinos, no matter what their gender may be so that they could be more competitive in the IT industry. We envision a future where the tech world sees equal representation of genders, fostering innovation, diversity, and resilience.

Recognizing that the most significant drop in female representation in the STEM workforce occurs between graduation and employment, KodeGo is intensifying efforts to provide a seamless transition for its graduates. By partnering with top-tier companies, KodeGo ensures graduates receive first-rate education and gain hands-on experience in real-world projects, further cementing their place in the STEM workforce.

As an initiative under 917Ventures, KodeGo signifies the Globe Groups ongoing commitment to improving the caliber of Filipino software engineers and promoting gender equality in the tech sector.

For more information about KodeGo and 917Ventures and how they are empowering women in the STEM fields, please visit www.kodego.ph and www.917ventures.com.

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The chaos that enveloped the Roanoke County School Board on Thursday began rolling slowly in February, when a female student at Glenvar High told the board she feared sharing the girls bathrooms with a transgender student who identifies as female.

Among the solutions the complaining student proposed was to segregate restrooms by genitalia, labeling them Penis and Vagina.

At the March meeting, the transgender student from Glenvar addressed the board, telling members she was harassed at school daily. She struggles with mental health issues, and this situation has made it SO much more difficult. I genuinely fear going to school because of the threats being made, she said.

At Mays meeting, north county parent Damon Gettier took the podium and ranted for four and a half minutes about his sons elementary school, even though most speakers are limited to three minutes.

What Im here to talk about is the child abuse, grooming, conditioning and indoctrination by sexual predators disguised as teachers and staff at Glen Cove Elementary, Gettier said.

He complained the school was overrun with LGBTQ decorations, namely Pride flags and rainbows. Gettier found more than a dozen such decorations when he personally inspected the school. Some had been created by students in a music class, he said.

Gettier distributed Glen Cove Elementary yearbook photos he deemed objectionable. Three depicted staffers wearing rainbow clothing or accessories. One was a picture of an EVERYONE WELCOME sign that bore rainbow-hued letters.

The attack later prompted a rainbow-drenched demonstration outside Glen Cove by scores of LGBTQ+-supporting parents and others.

In June, speakers criticized school board members for failing to defend school staff from Gettiers accusations. Not one board member has, at least publicly. And near that meetings end, when some interrupting grumbles arose from the crowd, board Chairman Brent Hudson weirdly shouted parents rights! into his mic.

Which brings us to Thursday night  the school boards July meeting  when evident hard feelings escalated.

Following two outbursts among the crowd during a briefing by the schools superintendent  and an explicit warning from Hudson  order broke down after he directed the room be cleared. Ultimately, police arrested and charged two people.

That happened late in the meeting, after 27 people had addressed the board, warning its policies with respect to transgender students would be harmful to the children.

Among them were a child psychiatrist, a fourth-year medical student, at least two Roanoke County teachers and a licensed counselor. Yet another was Tiffany Sandifer, a Roanoke County mother who reminded board members shes begun organizing an effort to recall them.

The disorder began even later in the meeting, as Superintendent Ken Nicely outlined new, Youngkin-administration-produced guidelines regarding transgender students. (The board could vote on those as early as next month.) A couple of people in the crowd shouted bulls-!

One more outburst, and whoever, well ask the police to have you removed, Hudson warned. A few minutes later, after a shout of bull! Hudson ordered the room cleared so our superintendent can conduct business.

I ask everybody to leave at this time, Hudson said.

At that juncture, someone temporarily cut the meetings video feed. But the pandemonium that ensued was captured by attendees using smartphones.

Most began exiting the hearing room. But at least two people refused. Some began loudly chanting Protect trans kids! Protect trans kids! over and over.

As police handcuffed and dragged Shannon Danny Clawson of Roanoke toward the rear exit, Benjamin James of Roanoke County approached Hudson in the front of the room, with Jamess cell phone recording the video.

Why dont you want people here? James asked.

Back up now! Hudson warned repeatedly. Out of his pocket, he pulled a deputys badge (from his day job with the Roanoke County Sheriffs Office) and displayed it toward James.

This is who I am, Hudson said. Im telling you to back up now. I identified myself as a law-enforcement officer and you need to leave now!

Whats your name and badge number? James asked repeatedly, in the style of First Amendment auditors on YouTube.

Leave now! Hudson shot back. What is your name? Wheres your ID?

The exchange is actually kind of humorous.

Eventually, police handcuffed and ushered James out, too. (He and Clawson were charged with trespassing.) After a break, the meeting resumed  with Nicely speaking to an empty room.

Needless to say, arrests at Roanoke County School Board meetings are highly abnormal. They might even be unprecedented.

Friday, I asked Chuck Lionberger, the school systems spokesman, the last occasion someone was hauled out of a school board meeting in handcuffs.

Ive been with schools since July 2007, he replied in an email. During my time, I cant recall a time when weve had to clear the room, much less see people arrested. Before 2007, Im not personally aware but Ive never heard of any stories of such action.

Earlier in the meeting, the school board unanimously adopted a policy that bans classroom decorations related to political views, sociopolitical issues (such as LGBTQ+) or religion. Though it doesnt address rainbows specifically, it seems the policy would bar them on classroom walls, unless theyre directly related to classroom lessons or the sole purpose is decorative.

A sticker, sign, flag, or other display hung by a teacher may be intended to show support and affinity for a subset of students, but it can unintentionally imply that other teachers who do not display such messages or symbols in their classroom do not support inclusion for all their students, or that students who do not share the same identity are unwelcome, the policy says.

(Thats kind of like arguing the existence of Black History Month could, by implication, unintentionally demean white history. Would any serious person draw such a conclusion?)

At the end of the meeting, board member David Linden said: Nights like this are not good for anybody. Theyre not good for our students, theyre not good for our school system, theyre not good for this community. And Im hopeful that we can find some common ground and some civility.

Vice Chairman Tim Greenway said Thursdays meeting was the most confusion and noise hed seen during his service on the board. Tacitly, Greenway acknowledged rancor persists over the boards failure to address Damon Gettiers accusations  but he framed it vaguely.

I think all of us regret, a little bit, that we didnt say something about someone that presented at one of the meetings, that said specifics about the folks at a school, Greenway began. And we probably got caught up in the moment, maybe didnt even realize it was coming. But we do recognize that it was a mistake  whether, you know, if we come out and say it or not.

A little bit of regret for not responding to Gettiers lurid accusations is hardly the same as condemning them. But 10 weeks after Gettiers rant, thats as far as any school board member has publicly gone.

In a backhanded way, even Hudson seemed to acknowledge Gettiers rant had created problems, because Thursday, the chairman greatly expanded the admonition he typically gives to launch the public comments section.

Speakers should be aware that they may be held legally responsible if they make statements that violate the legal rights of others. For example, if statements are made that are defamatory, threatening, Hudson warned. Comments likely to disrupt the boards work or prompt a breach of the peace may be prohibited, and the speaker will be called out of order by the board chair.

That stuff and more was new, compared to Hudsons admonitions at Junes meeting, at which he merely asked speakers to be respectful and civil in their comments, and to direct comments to the chair.

The school boards next meeting is a 3:30 p.m. work session on Thursday. The next regular public meeting is Aug. 17.

At the latter, the boards expected to take up the Youngkin administrations Model Policies regarding transgender students. Among other things, those say students must use bathrooms that correspond their biological sex, rather than gender identity except to the extent otherwise required by federal law.

Will that meeting wind up even crazier? Stay tuned.

Dan Casey (540) 981-3423
Nigerias President Bola Tinubu urged the ECOWAS delegation, ahead of its departure for Niamey on Thursday, to do everything possible to ensure an amicable resolution to the crisis in Niger, according to a press release from the Presidency.

The delegation, led by former Nigerian Head of state Abdulsalami Abubakar, is due to meet the putschists in Niger to present the demands of ECOWAS leaders, according to the statement.

These officials from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), chaired by Nigeria, arrived in Niamey in the evening, according to a Niger airport source.

Abubakar Abdulsalamis delegation returned empty-handed without meeting the putschists leader, General Tiani, according to ECOWAS.

Last Sunday, the West African bloc gave the coup plotters a one-week ultimatum to reinstate President Mohamed Bazoum, who was overthrown on July 26, announcing that a delegation would soon be sent to find a diplomatic solution. The bloc stated that should this fail, it would not rule out the use of force.

At a meeting with the head of the delegation, Mr. Tinubu asked him to do whatever is necessary to ensure a conclusive and amicable resolution of the situation in Niger in the interest of peace and development in Africa.

On Wednesday, ECOWAS said it was prepared for a military operation should diplomatic negotiations fail, although it stressed that this was the last option on the table.

The organizations chiefs of defense are meeting in Abuja until this Friday August 4, two days before the ultimatum expires on Sunday. Mali and Burkina Faso, Nigers military-led neighbors after coups in 2020 and 2022, support the junta and have stated that any armed intervention would be considered like a declaration of war on their two countries, and would result in their withdrawal from ECOWAS.
The Inclusive Alliance Platform  Terra Ranka, winner of Guinea-Bissaus legislative elections, has not yet been invited to submit a proposal for a name for the post of Prime minister, coalition leader Domingos Simoes Pereira said on Thursday August 3.

None, until this moment none. All the communication that we have some knowledge of is public and what you have transmitted, said Domingos Simoes Pereira, also leader of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) and president of the National Peoples Assembly, the Guinean parliament.

The PAIGC leader was speaking to journalists at the partys headquarters in Bissau, where ceremonies are taking place to mark August 3, 1959, when Guinean dockers and sailors demanded better working conditions and their protests were repressed by Portuguese forces, causing dozens of deaths.

On Monday, Guinean Head of State Umaro Sissoco Embalo told reporters that he was awaiting notification from the National Peoples Assembly that there is a new parliamentary majority.

Our interpretation is that the release of the final results by the CNE (National Electoral Commission) is followed by publication in the Official Bulletin and, therefore, with this publication all the data is sent to the different sovereign bodies and is sent for some purpose, stressed Domingos Simoes Pereira.

Guinea-Bissau held legislative elections on June 4, which were won by the PAI  Terra Ranka coalition with a majority, obtaining 54 of the 102 deputies of the Peoples National Assembly.
Benin and Vietnam Thursday August 3 expressed determination to strengthen their ties and bilateral cooperation.

This came in a phone conversation between Olushegun Adjadi Bakari, Benins top diplomat and his Vietnamese counterpart Bui Thanh Son, 24 Heures Au Benin reports.

Adjaji Bakari indicated that his country is keen to learn from Vietnams development plan experience.

The two officials proposed the signing of a Memorandum of understanding (MoU) to boost cooperation and the scraping of visa requirements and other documents for officials of both countries, in a bid to create a legal environment that will spur bilateral cooperation.

In addition, the two top diplomats promised to create conducive conditions to share information between companies, investors, promote trade and investment as well as cooperation in the area of agriculture, sciences, telecommunication and information technology.
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After HCA Healthcare announced this month that the personal identification data of roughly 11 million HCA patients in 20 states had been exposed in a breach, people may be justifiably concerned that their own medical data and identities could be stolen.

Consumers should realize that such "medical identity" fraud can happen in several ways, from a large-scale breach to individual theft of someone's data.

Just ask Evelyn Miller. The first sign something was amiss was a text Miller received from an Emory University Hospital emergency department informing her that her wait time to be seen was 30 minutes to 1 hour. That's weird, she thought. She no longer lives in Atlanta and hadn't used that hospital system in years. Then she got a second text, similar to the first. Must be spam, she thought.

When she got a call the next day from an Emory staffer named Michael to discuss the diagnostic results from her ER visit, she knew something was definitely wrong. "It amazed me someone could get registered with another person's name and no ID was checked or anything," Miller said.

And while the name and date of birth the staffer had on record for her were correct, Miller's address was not. She now lives in Blairsville, Georgia, a few hours north of Atlanta. Michael said he'd correct the problem. The next week, she got a bill from Emory for more than $3,600.

After an unsatisfactory conversation with someone in the hospital's billing department, Miller sent a letter to the hospital's privacy officer. Miller recalled writing: "I think there's something going on, that someone is using my information, and the visit and the charges appear to be fraudulent."

When contacted, Emory Healthcare spokesperson Janet Christenbury declined to comment on Miller's case specifically but did say, "We take these matters seriously and work with our teams to ensure our processes and procedures are followed."

Miller, 63, a retired health care administrator, was savvier than many about what might have occurred. The average person may have no idea a problem like this can arise until long after a theft occurs.

"The majority of victims find out when they're trying to move on with their lives, if bills have gone to collections," said Eva Velasquez, president and CEO of the Identity Theft Resource Center, a nonprofit that provides free assistance to victims of identity theft. Someone may apply for a mortgage, for example, and learn their credit is ruined due to unpaid medical bills for care they didn't receive.

It's a double whammy. Unlike other forms of identity fraud, medical identity thieves may steal not only their victims' personal dataSocial Security number, date of birth, addressbut also information about their medical records and care, potentially putting their health at risk.

"Sometimes people can't get their prescriptions, if their records are mixed with someone else's," Velasquez said. "Maybe you won't be able to get treatment that you need. There are serious implications."

A theft may affect just one person whose insurance card gets stolen or "borrowed" to pay for health care, or it may result from a data breach, as HCA Healthcare experienced. Such large-scale breaches are more likely to be used in financial fraud schemes than to get medical care, experts say.

Compared with other types of identity fraud, medical identity theft is rare. In 2022, for example, the Federal Trade Commission received 27,821 reports of medical identity theft, while reports for identity theft related to new credit card accounts totaled more than 400,000.

Medical identity theft also presents itself in different ways.

One thief, one victim

If someone gets ahold of another person's health insurance number and driver's license or other ID, they may be able to use it to receive medical services in someone else's name.

Busy hospital emergency departments may make an attractive target for fraudsters. Procedures typically require patients to present insurance and photo identification information at check-in, said Rade Vukmir, an emergency physician in Pittsburgh and a spokesperson for the American College of Emergency Physicians. But these facilities also don't want to put people off from getting care, and people who are uninsured or disadvantaged might not have those documents.

"We want to treat that population," he said. "We're America's safety net. We always provide care."

Medical identity theft can happen if someone loses a wallet with their insurance card in it, for example, or a piece of mail from their insurer goes astray. But it doesn't occur only among strangers. The victim often knows the thief and may even be in on the "friendly fraud," as it's called. According to one study, nearly half of people who failed to report medical identity theft said it was because they knew the thief.

For example, one person might have a higher copayment for emergency department visits, Vukmir said, so they let a family member, such as a cousin or a sibling, use their insurance card to get medical care.

"Usually, in those cases, it wasn't an emergency," said Vukmir.

Gangs of thieves, millions of victims

In 2022, 707 health care data breaches affected nearly 52 million patients, according to an analysis of data from the Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Civil Rights by the HIPAA Journal, which tracks compliance with health care data privacy law. Under federal law, health care organizations must notify individuals when their medical data has been exposed through a breach.

The largest health care data breach to date occurred in 2015, when nearly 80 million Anthem records were exposed. Though the 2022 figures for incidents among all health plans were slightly lower than the year before, there has been a clear upward trend in recent years in breaches, which are typically caused by hacking or IT incidents.

The American Hospital Association is "very concerned" about foreign-based hacking groups from countries like Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran, said John Riggi, the national adviser for cybersecurity and risk for the American Hospital Association.

Riggi said the personal information in people's medical records may be sold in bulk to criminals who create phony providers to submit fraudulent claims on a mass scale that can result in hundreds of millions of dollars in Medicaid, Medicare, or other insurance fraud. Or they may use the information to create fake identities to apply for loans, mortgages, or credit cards.

"They flee with the money, and the individual is left to deal with it," Riggi said.

Health plans could take lessons from the financial services industry to detect red flags, Riggi said. Financial institutions have sophisticated algorithms to identify purchasing and other patterns that are out of the ordinary, Riggi said. In health care, such mechanisms could be used to flag claims in which a provider is located more than 1,000 miles from where a patient lives, for example, or sees a patient for conditions that don't jibe with their age or health status.

AHIP, an insurance industry trade group, didn't respond to requests for comment.

What consumers can do

Consumers should generally monitor the notices and bills they receive from insurers and providers and contact them immediately about anything suspicious.

In Miller's case, it's unclear whether her problem was due to an administrative snafu, such as another patient with the same name, or medical identity theft. But within a month of her initial call, the hospital removed the charges and assured her that her medical record had been disentangled from the other patient's.

Other steps to take:

Go to the FTC's identity theft site to learn about next steps and file an identity theft report, if appropriate.

If someone has used your name, contact every provider who may have been involved and ask for a copy of your medical records, then report any errors to your medical providers.

Notify your health plan's fraud department and send a copy of the FTC identity theft report.

File free fraud alerts with the three major credit reporting agencies and get free credit reports from them. Consider filing a police report. If your health plan offers free credit or identity theft monitoring following a breach, take advantage of it.

"It's best to proceed as if your data has been compromised and will be for sale," said Velasquez, whose organization offers free assistance in recovering from identity theft. "Don't be afraid to ask for help."

2023 KFF Health News.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday recommended that all infants under the age of 8 months be given a new antibody shot to help guard against severe respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

The antibody shot, sold as Beyfortus, has been shown to reduce the risk of both hospitalizations and health care visits for RSV in infants by about 80 percent, the CDC said in a news release announcing the new recommendation.

"This new RSV immunization provides parents with a powerful tool to protect their children against the threat of RSV," said CDC Director Dr. Mandy Cohen. "RSV is the leading cause of hospitalizations for infants and older babies at higher risk and today we have taken an important step to make this life saving product available."

"As we head into respiratory virus season this fall, it's important to use these new tools available to help prevent severe RSV illness," Cohen added. "I encourage parents of infants to talk to their pediatricians about this new immunization and the importance of preventing severe RSV."

Cohen's announcement was preceded by an unanimous vote backing the shot from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), an expert panel that makes recommendations for the CDC on the use of vaccines.

"I'm very excited about this. I think this is going to be incredible," ACIP member Dr. Helen Talbot, a pediatrician at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, said after the vote, CNN reported. "I think this is life-changing and I'm very excited. I just hope we can get through the hurdles," to get it to patients.

The ACIP also recommended unanimously that infants ages 8 to 19 months with underlying health issues should get a second dose of the shot for their second RSV season. The shot will also be added to the federally funded Vaccines for Children Program, CNN reported.

Two companies are making the antibody used in the shot, Sanofi and AstraZeneca. It should be available in a few months, CNN reported.

"Today, we have turned the corner on the threat of RSV to our youngest, most vulnerable population," Thomas Triomphe, executive vice president for vaccines at Sanofi, said in a company news release. "The ACIP's unanimous recommendations for routine use of Beyfortus and inclusion in the Vaccines for Children program are critical steps toward providing millions of parents in the U.S. with the ability to protect their babies through their first RSV season, when they are most susceptible to severe RSV disease."

"I do believe that in terms of the innovation of this, this is a really important step forward," ACIP Chair Dr. Grace Lee, a pediatrician at the Stanford University School of Medicine said, CNN reported.

However, insurance companies have a year to plan for coverage, and that may not start until 18 months from now.

Sanofi said during the ACIP meeting that the charge would be $495 per dose for private payers and $395 a shot for the government's Vaccines for Children program.

The vaccine's approval "is a spectacular advancement," ACIP member Dr. Jamie Loehr, a family physician in New York said, told CNN. "It's going to help families and offices, and keep kids out of the hospital. And two years from now, it'll be covered by insurances and all the implementation will be in place. So, there will be growing pains, but I don't want to lose sight of how important this advancement is."

Infants who are born during or before RSV season begins should get a shot in their first week of life, the CDC recommends. Those under 8 months who haven't had a shot should get one before RSV season.

Once immunized, the antibody will only be effective for five to six months, the CDC noted.

In the United States, RSV season typically runs from October to March. It tends to strike certain racial and ethnic groups harder, including American Indian and Alaska Native children. That group has hospitalization rates for RSV that are 4 to 10 times higher than the general population. The CDC recommends they also get a second shot, CNN reported.

More information: The American Lung Association has more on respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

Copyright  2023 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
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Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

A cyberattack on a US hospital group has forced the closure of urgent care and other critical health services at its facilities across at least four states, officials said Friday.

Prospect Medical Holdings, which operates 16 hospitals across California, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island, suffered a "data security incident," a spokeswoman said in a statement to AFP.

"Upon learning of this, we took our systems offline to protect them and launched an investigation with the help of third-party cybersecurity specialists," she said.

The group's Waterbury Hospital in Connecticut said the computer outage was affecting all inpatient and outpatient operations, with staff using "paper records, until this is resolved."

The Eastern Connecticut Health Network said its urgent care center was closed, and elective surgeries canceled, until further notice.

The incident appeared to be a ransomware attack, but was still under investigation, the spokeswoman said.

Ransomware attacks typically access vulnerable computer systems and encrypt or steal data, before sending a ransom note demanding payment in exchange for decrypting the data or not releasing it publicly.

Health care groups are frequently targeted.

"While our investigation continues, we are focused on addressing the pressing needs of our patients as we work diligently to return to normal operations as quickly as possible," said the statement.

 2023 AFP
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MIT Professor Alexey Makarin, whose research was cited in a recent report by the U.S. surgeon general, discusses the relationship between social media and young peoples mental health. Credit: Jose-Luis Olivares/MIT

It's the height of summer break, and as students decompress from the school year, they also have more time for scrolling social media. What effect do these platforms have on the young people's mental health?

In late May, the U.S. Surgeon General Vice Admiral Vivek H. Murthy published an advisory report on the subject, noting the "unprecedented" challenges faced by today's youth in navigating social media, and emphasizing the "alarming" effects social media can have on many people.

The advisory cited the research of, among others, Alexey Makarin, an assistant professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Last fall, Makarin was co-author of a study published in the American Economic Review, "Social Media and Mental Health," which used an innovative, quasiexperimental approach to conclude that introduction of Facebook on some college campuses in the early 2000s led to an increase in mental health problems in those places.

Makarin talked to MIT News about the advisory report, his work, and the subject in general.

Q: What did you think of the surgeon general's report on social media and youth mental health?

A: The tone and the summary of the evidence seem very appropriate and balanced, in my view. The summary of the literature is on point. Indeed, I think the literature overall is moving toward a consensus that social media has some negative effects on youth mental health.

Q: What was the core finding of the paper you co-authored, which is cited in the surgeon general's report?

A: Our own paper provides pretty persuasive evidence, I would say, that social media has a negative effect on youth mental health. We study the staggered introduction of Facebook across U.S. colleges and use a difference-in-differences estimation strategy to isolate the causal impact of Facebook vis-a-vis any differences across colleges or nationwide changes.

We find Facebook had a negative causal impact of Facebook's rollout on the mental health of college students. In particular, the most affected conditions were depression and anxiety disorders. We find that among people who, based on their observable characteristics, were most predisposed to mental health problems, the effect was bigger, and those people were more likely to take up mental health services, such as antidepression therapy. We also find that students reported experiencing issues with academic performance due to their worsening mental health.

Q: How did this effect occur?

A: If you think about mechanisms, what is actually lying underneath this impact of Facebook on mental health, the evidence in our paper is most consistent with the mechanism of negative social comparisons. People just start to compare themselves negatively to their peers; we believe that is what's beneath [our results]. We provide two pieces of evidence in support of this channel.

First, [the effects we find in the study] are in general bigger for students who might compare themselves negatively to their peers, such as those who live off campus, are overweight, or have personal credit card debt.

Second, students suddenly start to believe that the consumption of alcohol went up significantly in their colleges, while the actual consumption stayed the same. So, students start to have an inflated impression of their peers' social lives.

Q: Your study covers a time period early in Facebook's existence, when it didn't have all the features it has now, and when people may have engaged with it a bit differently. To what extent do these findings apply to current-day social media dynamics?

A: There are two answers to that question. Number one, while this is a particular period that we are studying, this is the only time where we can use a quasiexperimental method to study the general effects of the introduction of social media to a particular group of people.

Number two, in relation to the causal issues we mention: We can compare the estimates we find in our study and the estimates by another influential paper, "The Welfare Effect of Social Media," [by Hunt Allcott, Luca Braghieri, Sarah Eichmeyer, and Matthew Gentzkow], in which they randomly incentivize people to deactivate their Facebook accounts, at the individual level. Their estimate of the impact of this on depression is very, very similar in magnitude to what we find in our case.

So, even though you have these two different studies, one from 20042006, and one from the late 2010s, they find similar effects. They use different methods, but both of them identify causal effects. This causal evidence reassures us that what we find is externally valid.

Q: So to turn my previous question around, in a sense, while your study was very specific, you found a mechanism that is likely at play in the larger world of social media today. After all, on many platforms today, you can compare yourself to others through likes, followers, retweets, and more.

A: Yes, to the extent the mechanism we found is inherently a feature of social mediawhich is something we believe. When Facebook rolled out it was bare-bones, but you saw who had how many friends, and who had the best pictures. This social comparison aspect is still very important to social media. The [cause of the] negative effects we find is something that all social media platforms seem to feature, to one extent or another.

Q: What does the future hold for us, in terms of grappling with social media from an individual or policy perspective, and limiting its negative mental health effects?

A: In general, there is a sense among economists, at least, that there is a lot of value generated by these platforms. People do want to spend a lot of time on them. The issue is with the addictive part, the behavioral influence. There is active research on this topic, and I believe in a couple years we'll have a better understanding of how to live in a more healthy way alongside social media. I don't think we're going to ban social media, and it's not possible to go back in time before it, so I think we need to learn how to live alongside this technology.

This story is republished courtesy of MIT News (web.mit.edu/newsoffice/), a popular site that covers news about MIT research, innovation and teaching.
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Detrended ILI+ is shown for each year between 2006 (top row) and 2015 (bottom row) for each of northern (left column), central (middle column), and southern (right column) Vietnam. Colors denote (sub)types of influenza, with orange representing A/H1, red representing A/H3, and blue representing B. Credit: PLOS Computational Biology (2023). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011317

In temperate climates, like North America and Europe, flu season starts in the fall, peaks in the winter and ends in the spring. While public health officials have generally assumed that influenza is also seasonal in tropical climates, new research led by Penn State has found little evidence of a repeatable pattern in influenza cases in Vietnam.

The findings suggest that influenza is likely unpredictable throughout the tropics, posing substantial challenges for prevention and management of cases for the one-third of the global population living in tropical areas.

"The World Health Organization estimates that seasonal influenza kills up to 650,000 people worldwide each year due to respiratory disease, alone; this does not include the number of people who die from cardiovascular disease caused by influenza," said Joseph Servadio, an NIH postdoctoral scholar at Penn State. "Without the ability to identify a regular interval at which epidemics occur in tropical areas, preparations such as timing an annual vaccine campaign or preparing health care settings for higher caseloads are not possible."

The researchers collected weekly counts of patients with influenza from fifteen hospitals over ten years across Vietnam to identify any consistency in the timing of influenza epidemics. Next, they developed a mathematical model incorporating the peak timings of transmission and the repeatability of these peak timings. They compared these parameters across four temperate locationsincluding Netherlands, Denmark, and two regions of the United Statesand northern, central and southern Vietnam.

After accounting for different subtypes of influenza, the team found little evidence of a repeatable pattern throughout Vietnam. The research published in PLOS Computational Biology.

"The lengths of time between epidemics were highly irregular in Vietnam, varying widely," said Maciej Boni, a professor of biology at Penn State. "In contrast, we found strong evidence of annual seasonality in the temperate locations, which suggests that our statistical estimation procedure performed as expected."

Servadio noted that the four temperate locations consistently showed peak transmission during winter months.

"Possible explanations for this winter peak could include seasonal changes in behavior, such as the notable change in indoor versus outdoor gatherings in cold winter months, as well as different conditions for virus transmission, such as having cold, dry air in temperate winters," he said.

In Vietnam, however, peak transmission occurred throughout the year.

"In contrast to temperate regions, where vaccination and health communication efforts can be strategically focused on autumn, the optimal timing for prioritizing vaccines in Vietnam to achieve maximum protection remains uncertain," stated Dr. Pham Quang Thai, vice head of the Communicable Disease Control and Prevention Department at Vietnam's National Institutes for Hygiene and Epidemiology.

"While Vietnam has a vaccine policy targeting specific at-risk groups, influenza vaccination is not yet widespread. The findings of this study underscore the challenges in implementing a comprehensive national vaccination strategy."

More information: Joseph L. Servadio et al, Repeatability and timing of tropical influenza epidemics, PLOS Computational Biology (2023). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011317 Journal information: PLoS Computational Biology
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The HeLa line of immortal human epithelial cancer cells was derived from cells taken from Henrietta Lacks when she was a cancer patient in 1951. Credit: (Wellcome Collection: Anne Weston, Francis Crick Institute), CC BY-NC

Aug. 1, 2023 would have been Henrietta Lacks's 103rd birthday. It was also the day the Lacks family reached a settlement with Thermo Fisher Scientific, the biotech company that used and profited from her "HeLa" cells.

Though the details remain confidential, this settlement is a long-awaited moment of justice and victory for Lacks and her family.

Lacks's story is well known and has since been popularized in an HBO film, but it is viewed as a tale of the past. However, the inequalities suffered by Lacks remain problems of the present. As a legal researcher and woman of color, I have found that these problems are still alive and kicking today.

Genetic research (and medical practice more generally) are filled with systemic racism, racial discrimination and unconscious biases. For many Black, Indigenous and Peoples of Color (BIPOCs), the battle for an equitable framework is not over yet.

Henrietta Lacks' story

Lacks was a Black tobacco farmer living in Baltimore, Md. and undergoing treatment in 1951 for cervical cancer at Johns Hopkins University Hospital, one of the only hospitals that treated Black patients from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.

Her cells were taken and retained for research purposes by white physicians and researchers at the hospital. Lacks's cells, unlike others, had the innate ability to survive, divide and grow indefinitely. Viewed as extremely valuable in research, the researchers patented "HeLa," the first immortalized human cell line.

"HeLa"derived from the first two letters of her first and last namesis the oldest and most commonly used human cell line. It has since contributed to many lifesaving endeavors, including the development of polio and COVID-19 vaccines.

Although Lacks passed away from cervical cancer in 1951, her story has only been widely told in recent years. It was Rebecca Skloot's 2010 book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks that drew attention to Lacks's story and highlighted the racialized and patriarchal nature of medical ethics and research practices.

Since then, Johns Hopkins University has established a memorial award and university building in her name. The World Health Organization has also bestowed a posthumous award to Lacks for her contributions to medical science.

These actions, however, have only recently been taken. Advocatesmainly people of colorused the pandemic and subsequent COVID-19 vaccine developments to bring Lacks's story back to life.

Not just her: Other stories of inequality

Another story often told alongside Lacks's is that of John Moore, who fought for property rights over his cells. Moore had hairy cell leukemia and, as part of his treatment, underwent a splenectomy at the University of California Los Angeles Medical Center in 1976. Like Lacks's, Moore's cells had been unknowingly and unlawfully processed and patented as the "Mo" cell line.

But unlike Lacksat least, until nowMoore received damages. In 1990, the Supreme Court of California decided that, although Moore did not have a property claim, his doctor breached a fiduciary duty to Moore by not obtaining proper informed consent. This decision has since been taught in property law classes across Canada and the United States.

These stories were covered and received in starkly different ways. Though Moore's story was told in a timely manner, Lacks's story was not. But for her family and Skloot's journalism, the injustices experienced by a Black woman would have been easily overlooked.

Another case is the Havasupai tribe's lawsuit against the Arizona Board of Regents. Blood samples from the tribe were obtained for research on inherited diabetes. The samples were later unlawfully used for other research, including studies on inbreeding and schizophrenia. This violated the Havasupai's consent agreement and had deeper repercussions, as these topics were considered taboo by the tribe.

The fight isn't over yet

News of the Lacks family's settlement should be celebrated. But it should also serve as a reminder that the fight for a fairer and more equitable framework of medical ethics and genetic research is not over.

Genetic materials are generally treated like any other objects and little to no consideration is given to the person. This perpetuates existing systemic inequalities and racial harm in the fields of medicine and scientific research.

Ben Crump, attorney for the Lacks family, said in a news conference that "not only were the HeLa cells derived from Henrietta Lacksthe HeLa cells are Henrietta Lacks." We can continue Lacks's fight by continuing to raise awareness and advocating for the people, and not just the cells.

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Schematic representation of the progression of electromechanical remodeling of the heart atria during atrial fibrillation, indicating at each disease stage the probability of restoring normal rhythm after an uninterrupted atrial fibrillation episode. Credit: CNIC

A multidisciplinary study led by scientists at the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC) presents a new method for assessing the structural and electrophysiological changes, called atrial remodeling, produced in the heart of patients with atrial fibrillation, one of the most frequent forms of cardiac arrhythmia. The new diagnostic method is based on the simultaneous assessment of electrical and mechanical (contractile) activity in the heart atria during atrial fibrillation. The study is published in Nature Communications.

Study leader David Filgueiras explained that until now, "this was an unmet challenge," because on the one hand, "the available technology did not allow the integration of both types of information to provide a more complete evaluation," and on the other hand, "during atrial fibrillation, the contractile movements of the atria are of low intensity, and measuring them is technically challenging."

Atrial fibrillation is an irregular and often very fast heartbeat that can cause the formation of blood clots in the heart, increasing the risk of stroke, heart failure, and related complications. Atrial fibrillation condition affects an estimated 10 million people in Europe, with around 700,000 in Spain.

Atrial fibrillation is currently classified according to the length of time that the patient has been in arrhythmia. Nevertheless, explained Dr. Filgueiras, who leads the Advanced Development in Arrhythmia Mechanisms and Therapy group at the CNIC and is a cardiologist at the Instituto de Investigacion Sanitaria del Hospital Clinico San Carlos (IdISSC), "this temporal classification provides no information about a patient's extent of atrial remodeling, an especially important parameter in the first months of the condition, when the underlying disease processes can progress at different rates."

According to Dr. Filgueiras, "The importance of this new diagnostic method is its ability to provide a personalized assessment of an individual patient's degree of atrial remodeling, independently of the clinical classification based on temporal criteria."

The three first authors on the study are Daniel Enriquez Vazquez, of the Complejo Hospitalario Universitario in A Coruna and a member of the Spanish cardiovascular research network (CIBERCV), and CNIC scientists Jorge G. Quintanilla and Alba Garcia Escolano. Dr. Enriquez Vazquez highlighted that "on a clinical level, the results show that electromechanical dissociation in patients with atrial fibrillation is a solid indicator of disease progression and of the need to take urgent steps to return these patients to normal rhythm in an efficient and stable manner."

The team led by Dr. Filgueiras worked in partnership with colleagues at the Hospital Clinico San Carlos, the Hospital Universitario Central de Asturias, the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, the Complejo Hospitalario Universitario de A Coruna, the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, the Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona, the University of Connecticut, and the CIBERCV. Over the past 10 years, this team of national and international experts has worked together to integrate electrical and mechanical cardiac data to enable a personalized characterization of the status of the pathological changes associated with the progression of atrial fibrillation.

This diverse team was able to achieve this through the use of a multidisciplinary approach.

In the first phase, engineers and physicists devised the most appropriate strategy for integrating the electrical and mechanical data. The solution they found was to measure mechanical activity by Doppler imaginga noninvasive method that provides information on atrial tissue movementsand electrical activity by surface electrocardiography.

Both of these approaches are easy to implement in the clinic because they are noninvasive and can be conducted during a transthoracic ultrasound examination, a routine study of the shape and functioning of the heart and some of its internal structures.

The second phase involved experts in biology, biotechnology, biochemistry, and biomedical engineering working together with the CNIC Proteomics Unit and clinical cardiologists. Experimental studies conducted in this phase correlated the information obtained with the new approach with underlying pathological changes in atrial tissue. This information was used to develop new advanced mapping techniques and computer simulations to reveal the mechanisms underlying electrical and mechanical remodeling during the progression of atrial fibrillation.

The final phase was a multicenter prospective study of 83 patients at an early stage in the development of atrial fibrillation, to determine the prognostic value of simultaneous the electrical and mechanical assessment of the atria in patients with this type of arrhythmia.

The experimental and clinical findings revealed an imbalance between electrical and mechanical (contractile) activation in the atria at early stages of the disease. This causes the two parameters to become dissociated, so that the contractile activation cannot keep up with the electrical activation, a phenomenon the investigators call atrial electromechanical dissociation. The pace of this dissociation is specific to each individual patient, although in the absence of restoration of a normal rhythm it is usually observed within the first 2-3 months after an uninterrupted atrial fibrillation episode.

A key advantage of the new approach is that atrial electromechanical dissociation is identified before the appearance of overt clinical signs of structural atrial remodeling. "The use of this new diagnostic approach allows early characterization of the underlying remodeling in patients with atrial fibrillation," said Dr. Filgueiras. "The study shows that it is possible to integrate electrical and mechanical data from the atria of patients with atrial fibrillation to obtain personalized prognostic information about the clinical progression of the disease."

Nicasio Perez Castellano, of the IdISSC, and David Calvo Cuervo, of Hospital Central de Asturias and currently a member of the IdISSC, emphasized that "in addition to the results obtained, a major strength of this new approach is its noninvasive character, which will greatly ease the management of patients with atrial fibrillation."

Julian Perez Villacastin, a clinical collaborator on the study at Hospital Clinico San Carlos, CIBERCV and currently president of the Spanish Society of Cardiology, added that "this research and its clinical implementation will allow an increasingly personalized management of patients with atrial fibrillation."

More information: Non-invasive electromechanical assessment during atrial fibrillation identifies underlying atrial myopathy alterations with early prognostic value, Nature Communications (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-40196-y Journal information: Nature Communications

Provided by Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares Carlos III (F.S.P.)
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Exclusive breastfeeding of babies born in Wales between 2018 and 2021. Credit: BMJ Paediatrics Open (2023). DOI: 10.1136/bmjpo-2023-001907

A Swansea University-led study revealed breastfeeding rates in Wales increased during the pandemic.

The research, which included all women in Wales who gave birth between 2018 and 2021, found that breastfeeding rates at six months were higher during COVID compared to the pre-pandemic periodwith rates increasing from 16.6 percent before the pandemic to 20.5 percent in 2020.

The study also found a strong correlation between a mother's intention to breastfeed and the likelihood of exclusively breastfeeding for six months.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of a baby's life. However, the UK has one of the lowest breastfeeding rates in the world.

To better understand this issue, Born in Wales researchers based in Swansea's National Centre for Population Health & Wellbeing Research aimed to examine the impact of the pandemic on breastfeeding uptake and duration. The team also investigated whether a mother's intention to breastfeed influenced the length of time she exclusively breastfed her baby.

Their findings have just been published online in BMJ Paediatrics Open. The study analyzed anonymized data from the SAIL Databank, linking information from the Maternal Indicators (MIDS) dataset and the National Community Child Health (NCCH) Births and Breastfeeding dataset.

The team examined two sets of responses to explore the connection between breastfeeding intentions and duration. The first set came from the Born in Wales Survey, which asked expectant mothers about how they planned to feed their baby.

The second set, from the MIDS data, documented mothers' intentions after giving birth. By comparing responses from the two sources, the researchers could explore how a mother's intentions during pregnancy and postpartum influenced breastfeeding.

Key findings from the study include:

Intention to breastfeed was strongly associated with a higher likelihood of exclusively breastfeeding for six months. Women who intended to breastfeed were 27.6 times more likely to continue exclusive breastfeeding to the recommended six months compared to those who did not intend to breastfeed;

Breastfeeding rates at six months were higher during COVID compared to the pre-pandemic period. The rates increased from 16.6 percent before the pandemic to 20.5 percent in 2020; and

Black mothers were significantly more likely to exclusively breastfeed for six months than mothers of other ethnicities.

Based on its findings, the study proposes targeted interventions during pregnancy to encourage motivation and intention to breastfeed and the development of policies and support systems to enable families to spend more time with their babies. Measures such as maternal and paternal leave can contribute to improved breastfeeding duration.

Lead author Hope Jones said, "Our research recommends that interventions promoting motivation to breastfeed during or even before pregnancy could enhance breastfeeding duration."

"Additionally, aspects of the pandemic, such as working from home or increased time with partners, may have positively influenced breastfeeding duration. Therefore, policies and practices facilitating family time can potentially improve breastfeeding duration."

Prof Sinead Brophy, Director of the Centre for Population Health, added, "Breastfeeding has significant health benefits for mothers and babies and plays a vital role in public health as it is a cost-effective way to prevent illness, reduce health care costs and promote population health."

"Our findings contribute to the growing body of evidence on breastfeeding. By understanding what influences how long mothers breastfeed their babies, we can create effective ways to encourage and support breastfeedingimproving uptake, duration of breastfeeding and maternal and child health outcomes."

More information: Hope Eleri Jones et al, Breastfeeding initiation and duration through the COVID-19 pandemic, a linked population-level routine data study: the Born in Wales Cohort 20182021, BMJ Paediatrics Open (2023). DOI: 10.1136/bmjpo-2023-001907
A battle between decorum and free speech is playing out in the Missoula City Council thanks to an effort brought by two councilors to change the bodys rules.

Representatives Sandra Vasecka in Ward 6 and Daniel Carlino in Ward 3 want to amend the citys rules about public comments in a move they say would bring the city of Missoula into compliance with a U.S. 9th Circuit court ruling.

Their changes would strike the current language that prevents public commenters from engaging in name-calling and personal attacks, along with loud, threatening, abusive and indecent comments, among other adjustments.

Theres just some freedom of speech issues that we have going on, Vasecka said, and we just want to make sure that all citizens and folks that want to come in and speak are allowed to do so in a way where their truth actually matters.

I think freedom of speech is one of the foundations of our democracy, agreed Carlino. I think its really important that we make sure everybody in our community gets to say what they have to say at council meetings, even if its uncomfortable.

Interim City Attorney Ryan Sudbury, however, said councils current rule likely doesnt violate the 9th Circuit decision. Missoulas rule, unlike other municipalities, doesnt carry a criminal element. In other cities, including Costa Mesa, California, public commenters could be charged with crimes if their comments breached the bodys rules of decorum. In Missoula, public commenters who dont adhere to the rules are usually asked to bring their language into compliance and eventually made to leave Council Chambers if they refuse.

Councilors who heard the proposed rule change werent sure about its implementation. Councilor Gwen Jones, who represents Ward 3 alongside Carlino, explained she and her colleagues worked for a year to draft the current council rules.

What they came up with regarding public comment, she said, was a rule that would address how to have the most constructive, professional, courteous, civil environment possible.

We want the space to be comfortable for everybody to be able to talk, said Ward 4s Mike Nugent. Its not a rally, its a public meeting.

Nugent added he wanted to make sure public commenters are free to share minority opinions in a safe and constructive way as well.

Councilor Kristen Jordan from Ward 6 pushed to better define disruptive speech in the context of public comments.

I think that as the people sitting in a position of power, she said, we need to check in with ourselves and decide if we can be a little more accommodating to ensure that everybody can come in and also feel comfortable to present.

The conversation stayed in committee with future discussion expected at a later date.
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is entrusted with the responsibility of upholding the rights of private sector employees, ensuring fair labor practices, and promoting harmonious employer-employee relations. However, President Joe Bidens recent renomination of Gwynne Wilcox to the Board raises concerns about partisanship and conflicts of interest that compromise the NLRB's neutrality. It is imperative that Wilcox is not confirmed for another term.

Wilcox's background as a pro-union labor attorney, representing multiple unions before the NLRB, poses significant conflicts of interest. As an associate general counsel of 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East and an advocate for the "Fight for $15" movement, she previously championed the notion of holding franchisors accountable as joint employers of franchisees' employees. Nevertheless, she has failed to recuse herself from the NLRB's ongoing joint employer standard rulemaking, despite numerous calls from Members of Congress to step aside due to the obvious conflict of interest. Does anyone really think Wilcox can maintain objectively when adjudicating cases before the board?

Wilcox's affiliations with radical organizations like the Worker's Defense League and Brandworkers International further undermine her credibility as an impartial board member. These associations, with ties to socialist ideologies, call into question her commitment to fair and balanced decision-making. Former Senator Richard Burr rightfully expressed concern over Wilcox's involvement in a project that disparaged the American free enterprise system, which forms the foundation of our democracy. If Wilcoxs conflicts of interest dont disqualify her, then her extremist ideas should.

The consequences of Wilcox's appointment to the NLRB are already becoming evident. In the recent Atlanta Opera decision, Wilcox and her Democrat colleagues on the board reclassified independent contractors, such as hairstylists and makeup artists, as employees. This ruling disregards the unique nature of independent contractor arrangements and threatens the livelihoods of those who choose this type of work. With Wilcox on the board, we can expect a surge of misguided policies, including limitations on employer free speech rights, a flawed joint employer standard that threatens the survival of franchise businesses, and the return of small bargaining units known as micro-unions.

To safeguard the principles of fairness and impartiality at the NLRB, it is crucial that the U.S. Senate voices opposition to Gwynne Wilcox's nomination through its important constitutional responsibility to offer advice and consent. Workers deserve board members who can objectively analyze labor cases, free from personal bias and conflicts of interest. The NLRB's mandate is to protect the rights and interests of workers, not necessarily employers or union bosses, and this can only be achieved through the appointment of individuals who prioritize fairness and balance.

We have a responsibility to voice our concerns to our senators. By expressing our opposition to the nomination of Gwynne Wilcox, we can help ensure that the NLRB remains an independent and impartial body that effectively upholds the rights of workers while fostering a conducive environment for businesses to thrive.

In the spirit of fairness and neutrality, I encourage Senator Jon Tester to oppose the Wilcox nomination to the National Labor Relations Board.
As we increasingly recognize the necessity of broadband access in this digital age, the federal government has provided financial support to rural states to bring high-speed access to the remaining un- and under-served areas. The latest round of federal money, the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, has been touted as whats needed to finally get the job done and provide broadband access for everyone.

Thats an objective we all support. However, as is the case with so many federal programs, BEAD comes with some apparent strings attached that are more in line with promoting progressive social policy than they are in maximizing an effective and efficient deployment of these taxpayer dollars.

The BEAD program is slated to spend $42.5 billion over the next few years. Of that amount, Montanas share is approximately $629 million. Those are massive numbers, and come on top of previous rounds of federal infrastructure money awarded to states for broadband buildout during the pandemic. We owe it to the taxpayers to ensure that this money is spent as efficiently as possible.

However, an emphasis on efficiency and responsibility are not what were seeing in the suggested BEAD guidelines issued by the Biden administration.

For example, the federal guidance includes a long list of labor standards and protections that the state could decide to require as binding legal commitments, such as prevailing wage, local hire provisions, and use of labor peace agreements. These workforce requirements are included as a payoff to the large labor unions, but they could be very difficult for small, rural broadband providers to meet.

Fortunately, buried in the fine print of the federal guidance is clarification that a state could decide not to make these labor standards mandatory.

A second problem with the guidance from the Biden administration is a strong suggestion to mandate providers set a price ceiling for low-cost plans. This suggestion contradicts separate federal requirements that prohibit rate regulation for broadband. Most Montana broadband providers already offer low-cost plans that include flexibility in their pricing without a mandated price ceiling.

But again, buried in the fine print of the federal guidance is clarification that a price ceiling is a suggestion, not a hard-and-fast requirement for states. We should encourage providers to innovate and compete with each other to attract customers  not mandate a one-size-fits-all regulation for all providers.

Finally, the Biden Administrations guidelines encourage the use of government-owned networks (GONs) to provide broadband access in some areas. This could be a nightmare scenario for Montana consumers forced to rely on the government to provide internet access. We have plenty of companies in the market eager to serve customers  GONs have no place in Montana and should not be included in our plans.

Let us not lose sight of the end goal  reliable, affordable broadband access for all Montanans, completed in an efficient and responsible manner that respects the taxpayers. The focus should be getting people internet  not on providing political handouts to labor unions and progressive special interest groups.

I urge Montanas Communications Advisory Committee to resist the federal overreach included in the guidance documents and come up with a plan that best fits the needs of Montana.
MARION  McDowell County is set to welcome two festivals featuring some of the best performers in classic country and bluegrass music.

Award-winning national music festival promoter Evans Media Source announced Wednesday about a late change to the lineup for the second annual festival called the McDowell County Country Music Roundup.

This event will be held at Camping World of Marion on Friday and Saturday. Country star Lee Greenwood was originally scheduled to be one of the headliners, but Evans said last week that Greenwood has been rescheduled for the 2024 festival.

As a replacement, Grammy Award winners and Grand Ole Opry stars Dailey & Vincent will now lead the bill for the 2023 McDowell County Country Music Roundup. They will take the stage on Saturday.

The rest of the schedule will remain the same, Evans said.

Other stars for the Country Music Roundup will be T. Graham Brown, Tony Jackson, The Malpass Brothers, Mo Pitney, Leona Williams, Redd Volkaert, Ron Williams and others.

On Friday night, Leona Williams, Redd Volkaert and Ron Williams will perform a special tribute to the late country legend Merle Haggard. Volkaert is considered to be one of the greatest Telecaster guitar players, and he has picked that instrument for such greats as Haggard, George Jones and Johnny Paycheck, according to online sources.

The McDowell County Country Music Roundup will be open from noon until 9:30 p.m. on Aug. 11 and Aug. 12. Camping World Rally Park is located at 1885 U.S. 70 West in Marion.

General admission tickets for Aug. 11 and Aug. 12 are $45 per day. Children younger than 12 are free. Reserved seating per day is $50, and VIP seating is $65.

Then less than one week later, the North Carolina State Bluegrass Festival comes back to Marion.

The bluegrass festival will take place Aug. 17-19 at Camping Worlds Rally Park. Rhonda Vincent, Authentic Unlimited and The Malpass Brothers will headline this event. Other groups scheduled to preform include Terry Baucombs Dukes of Drive, Po Rambling Boys, Deeper Shade of Blue, Nothin Fancy, Tim Graves & Farm Hands, Williamson Branch, Retro 78, Bandanah Rhythm, Backline and Ages Past.

Daily ticket prices for the bluegrass festival are $50 at the gate. A three-day adult ticket is $105 at the gate. For children ages 13-16, the cost is $20 per day or $50 for three days with parent. Children younger than 12 are free when accompanied by a parent.

Sherry Boyd will be the mistress of ceremonies for both festivals.

These festivals draw thousands of people to McDowell County, and many of them park their campers and RVs in the rally park. These events will have food vendors selling hamburgers, barbecue, ice cream, funnel cakes and boiled peanuts. There also will be jewelry and craft vendors.

All of the artists will sell their own CDs and souvenirs and sign autographs and pose for pictures with fans.

The shows go on rain or shine under a covered pavilion and tent, with tickets available at the gate.

For more information, visit the Website: www.EvansMediaSource.com or the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/evansmediasource. You can call 386-385-3500 to buy tickets. For information about camping, call Camping World at 877-958-4264.
The Southwest Montana Veterans Home has something to celebrate: a new, 10-passenger van for residents to use.

Chapter 6 of the Disabled American Veterans organization in Butte sold the 2013 Ford van to the Veterans Home Foundation for $17,500, said DAV commander, Eileen Greb, a retired lieutenant commander from the United States Navy.

Greb said the DAV has a van fund, which goes toward vans the organization uses to bus veterans to Veterans Affairs appointments. The money from the sale will go back into the DAVs van fund, she said.

Greb is a trustee on the Veterans Home Foundation board, and she collaborated with the foundations chairman, Dave Williamson, about a month ago to help make the purchase happen, Williamson said.

Bill Willing, a retired Army colonel who also serves on the Veterans Home Foundation board, said the van can be used to take veterans to community events.

It can be used to take them shopping or to haul them down and set them up at a parade, anything to make it feel more like home, Willing said.

Chris Cotton, the Veterans Homes administrator, said they already use a van to transport veterans for trips and to places like Walmart, but it can usually only sit three people at a time  and only two if one has a wheelchair.

When people think of a nursing home, they think of a rest home, but its far from resting, Cotton said.

He said the Veterans Home takes its residents to an annual fishing trip in the spring, but because of the limited seating, they have to take multiple trips, and by the time they get the last attendees transported, its already time to start shuttling people back.

Although the new van isnt currently equipped for wheelchairs, Cotton said the plan is to take two seats out to make room for wheelchairs. In other words, the van should be able to hold 6-8 people and two wheel chairs.

The DAV is also selling a similar 2009 Ford van with around 150,000 miles on it, Greb said, but declined to mention the price.
Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte plans to appeal a judges order that his office release a trove of records related to his administration's decision to drop sanctions against a mining company executive.

In a motion this week to stay Lewis and Clark District Judge Christopher Abbotts order in June requiring the governor to turn over the records, an attorney for the state noted that the administration intends to appeal the June decision to the Montana Supreme Court.

Abbott granted a temporary stay Wednesday. He asked the parties to submit additional briefs as he considers whether to extend the stay while the governor's appeal plays out.

The judge had earlier given Gianforte six weeks to turn over the documents, which were the subject of a 2021 public records request from the Montana Environmental Information Center. That deadline would have been Friday. MEIC, along with another environmental group, Earthworks, sued the administration after it rejected the request. The Attorney Generals office is handling the states case.

Gianfortes office has cited attorney-client privilege and the deliberative process privilege, and also argued that the groups were attempting to circumvent the discovery process in a separate, but related lawsuit challenging the governors actions.

Abbott rejected those arguments in his June order, which he characterized as completely unmoored from the states constitutional right-to-know provisions and public-records laws.

The records request followed the governors decision to drop an enforcement action against Hecla Mining Co. and its CEO Phillip S. Baker, under Montanas bad actor hardrock mining law. The law prevents senior mining executives and companies from getting new permits from state regulators if they failed to either clean up a previous mine site or reimburse the Montana for the costs.

Baker had previously served as an executive with Pegasus Gold, Inc., in the 1990s, when the company filed for bankruptcy and walked away from the cleanup of several gold mines in Montana, including the Zortman-Landusky Mine just upstream from the Fort Belknap Reservation. The ongoing cleanup of Zortman-Landusky has to date cost the state and federal governments more than $83 million to remediate acid mine drainage and other pollution impacts.

Hecla wants to create a pair of copper and silver mines that would involve tunneling next to and underneath the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness. Initially proposed decades ago, the project is opposed by a coalition of environmental groups and has been the subject of multiple lawsuits throughout its lengthy permitting process.
All but seven states tax some form of individual income, and all but nine states tax wage income. In total, individual income tax accounted for 9.9% of total state and local revenue and 22.8% of total state and local tax revenue in 2020, the most recent full year available. Today, individual income tax makes up a much larger proportion of total tax revenue than it did several decades ago in 1977, when it accounted for less than 17% of total tax revenue. While both individual income tax as a share of total revenue and as a share of total tax revenue dipped from 2019 to 2020, individual income taxes continue to be a significant revenue source for most states.

Looking ahead, many of the temporary factors that helped push state rainy day funds to record highs are projected to subside. Another issue for certain locations is that increases in remote work opportunities have encouraged residents to leave high-tax states, especially those states with high income taxes. According to the Tax Foundation, states with double-digit income taxes (such as California, New Jersey, and New York) were among the states that lost the most residents in 2021. Meanwhile, states that forgo individual income taxes altogether (such as Florida, Texas, and Nevada) reported some of the largest population increases.

To find the states that collect the most individual income tax, researchers at HowtoHome.com analyzed data from the U.S. Census Bureau. The researchers ranked states according to each states individual income tax revenue as a share of total revenue. Researchers also calculated individual income tax revenue as a share of total tax revenue, total individual income tax revenue, total tax revenue, and total revenue.

Here are the states that collect the most individual income tax.
Baringo Governor Benjamin Cheboi has commissioned the first ever ultra-modern recreational park in Kabarnet town that will benefit residents and organised groups that for a long time have lacked space to undertake social activities.

Mr Cheboi said that the park established concurrently with market wholesale shades and a back street road, Jua Kali-Anyiny road, funded jointly by county government and World Bank at a total cost of Sh 56 million will enhance the provision of socio-cultural services within the fast-growing county headquarters.

The park is very important because of its proximity to the hospital, which can provide a good relaxing space for patients as well as other residents who might want to use its serene environment to undertake physical exercises for healthy living, Governor Cheboi said.

Speaking Wednesday at Kabarnet Public Park grounds, the county boss added that the market wholesale yard will provide a conducive environment for small-scale traders who have been undertaking their businesses along the roadside and congested streets.

Governor Cheboi, accompanied by his deputy, Eng Felix Kimaiyo, County Commissioner Stephen Kutwa and Secretary for Urban and Metropolitan Development in the state department of Housing and Urban Development, Eng Benjamin Njenga, challenged the town traders to work very hard now that they have been facilitated to engage in 24-hour business so as to uplift their household livelihoods.

He urged residents to make good use of the market facility and avoid roadside hawking, and he said his administration will soon crack the whip on those who defy the directive.

Meanwhile, the governor said the new Jua Kali-Anyiny road will open up and decongest Kabarnet-Eldoret highway, which poses a great risk to market vendors.

He added that they are also developing critical infrastructure within major towns across the county, including cabro paving of pedestrian walkways, drainage works, installation of CCTV cameras and street lighting to promote urban settlements.

In his remarks, the Deputy Governor lauded the construction works of the three projects, which were said to have been completed in less than a year, beating the timeline stipulated in the construction frameworks.

Eng Kimaiyo encouraged the youth to take advantage of the public park in pursuing their creative content and earn income.

Eng Njenga, who supervised the construction of the three critical municipal projects, said there is need for the Baringo county government to charter more municipalities for them to get funding from Kenya Urban Support Programmes (KUSP).

The secretary said that his department has signed a five year collaboration agreement with the county administration and has already pumped Sh 120 million into the establishment of four market centres in Eldama Ravine, Kabartonjo, Marigat and Tangulbei in Tiaty East.

He called for maximum support in the implementation phase of the four markets in order to boost the economy of the common mwananchi.

Kabarnet ward MCA Ernest Kibet said the population of Kabarnet town, the county headquarters, is growing at a very fast rate; hence, there is need for key stakeholders to find ways of addressing sanitation challenges within the town.

Kibet also encouraged investors to expand facilities in the town, calling on landowners to pave the way for industrialization and commercialization of urban settlements.

-Kenya News Agency
The Kenyan government says it has kicked off investigations into Worldcoin and its recent operations in the country.

The Ministries of Interior, National Administration, and ICT jointly issued a statement indicating that it has been established that Tools for Humanity, Worldcoins parent company, is not a legally registered entity in Kenya.

The government says the foreign company outsourced its data capture services to a local firm, now known as Sense Marketing, which was tasked with collecting iris data from Kenyan citizens in exchange for cryptocurrency tokens valued at approximately Sh. 7,000.

Criminal investigations have commenced to establish the authenticity and legality of the aforesaid activities, the safety and protection of the data being harvested, and how the harvesters intend to use the data, read the joint statement by Interior CS Kithure Kindiki and his ICT counterpart Eliud Owalo.

On Wednesday, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) brought in two Worldcoin company officials from Kenya for questioning. Emmanuel Otieno, identified as the Head of Operations, and Rael Mwende, the companys Country Manager, are now assisting with investigations into the companys structure and operations.

The State also noted that it has instructed immigration authorities to prevent Worldcoin officials from leaving the country without DCIs approval.

As a precautionary measure, the Immigration authorities have been directed to ensure that no persons whether Kenyan or foreign nationals associated with this entity leaves Kenya without the clearance of the Director of Criminal Investigations who is in charge of the ongoing investigations, the ministers added.

The State also mentioned that the investigation will include individuals involved in the matter who are based outside the country, utilizing the procedures outlined in the Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) protocol. MLA is a process through which two or more countries cooperate and assist each other in legal matters, particularly in the investigation and prosecution of criminal offenses.

Furthermore, the government says the cautionary statements issued to Kenyans by the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC) were a response to the discovery that Worldcoin had not conducted any public participation exercise before commencing its operations in the country.

The Government has commenced investigations to ensure that Worldcoin complies with the data collection, storage and sharing principles. Immediate mitigation steps being undertaken are the constitution of a multi-agency team comprising of security, financial services and data protection agencies [which] have commenced inquiries and investigations to establish the legality of the activities of Worldcoin, the safety and the protection of data collected with the aim to safeguard personal data and mitigate against any adverse practices, noted the statement.

The Government is not aware of the source of funds. Part of the multi-agency team mandate will be to investigate the source of the money being issued to the participants and the beneficiaries of this activity.
On Thursday, Makueni Governor Mutula Kilonzo Jr urged President William Ruto to assert his authority during his presidency.

Addressing the gathering at Konza City, Mutula told the President that the Kenyan people are firmly supportive of him, and trust him to lead the nation.

We trust you and Kenyans trust you. The sword we gave you is to rule the country. Do it without fear or favour, Mutula said.

The former Makueni Senator at the same time advocated for peace and emphasized that Kenya needs stability to attract investors.

When I say Kenya must have peace it is important because it is that peace that brings us the kind of investment we have seen in Konza, Mutula said.

Ruto on his part reiterated that the security and peace of Kenya are non-negotiable.

There are those who want to destroy Kenya, kill Kenyans and I will not allow that, it is not negotiable, Ruto said.

Making sure that we are a secure nation is one thing we must all agree on, we can negotiate everything but not Kenyas security.
On Thursday, President William Ruto named Equity CEO James Mwangi as the Chancellor of Kenyas inaugural virtual public university, the Open University of Kenya (OUK) located at Konza Technopolis.

Speaking after awarding the government-funded varsity its Charter, Ruto expressed his unwavering confidence in Mwangi, emphasizing his belief in the CEOs exceptional leadership abilities.

The President mentioned that he specifically handpicked the businessman for his dedication to championing access to education through Equitys Wings To Fly scholarship program.

For the appointment of the Chancellor of the Open University of Kenya, I was specific when I told CS Machogu who I wanted to be. I know that with his stewardship, the university is safe, Ruto said.

I didnt give you options to say No because I have seen your passion for education. I am proud that we will be prouder of your stewardship as chancellor of the Open University of Kenya, he added.

Ruto described the virtual public university as a source of great pride, as the project he had envisioned during his tenure as the Higher Education Minister finally came to fruition.

When I began this process when I was minister for Higher Education, I wanted to complete it within a year but I couldnt because of the circumstances then and I am happy we made this a part of the Kenya Kwanza commitment. It is a very proud moment for me to see this coming to fruition, he stated.

Ruto hailed the virtual university as a game-changer, emphasizing its potential to provide university education to individuals who would typically lack access, particularly from remote regions across the country.

Our entire university capacity, in 41 public and 37 private universities, admits 650,638 students in total and remains unable to keep up with the growing demand. Every year, therefore, many eligible and interested young people are unable to enroll for university courses, he said.

Ruto stated that the establishment of the Open University of Kenya (OUK) serves as an intervention to enhance accessibility and reduce the cost of university education, aligning with his governments vision of achieving a 100 per cent transition to higher education.

The President mentioned that the facility required an investment of over Ksh. 100 billion for its establishment.

The power generation facility alone is like Ksh.1.9 billion, together with all the other pieces of infrastructure that have gone here, Ruto said.

The virtual university will offer a diverse range of courses, including Bachelor of Cyber Security and Digital Forensics, Bachelor of Data Science, Bachelor of Technology Education, Bachelor of Science in Business and Entrepreneurship, Bachelor of Statistics, and Bachelor of Science in Agriculture and Food Systems.

The University also offers postgraduate diplomas in Leadership and Accountability as well as Learning Design and Technology. I have been assured that in coming years, masters and doctorate programmes will be introduced, Ruto said.
During the murder trial of Edwin Chiloba, a witness testified in an Eldoret court that the deceased was involved in a romantic relationship with the prime suspect, Jacktone Odhiambo.

The witness, who applied to the court not to be identified by the media, told Magistrate Reuben Nyakundi that Chiloba had confirmed to her that he was in an intimate relationship with Odhiambo.

The 23-year-old witness informed the court that she was not only a close friend of Chiloba but also his classmate at the University of Eldoret, where they both pursued fashion and design studies.

She testified that she used to reside in the same apartment as Chiloba. As fellow students, they frequently visited each other for group discussions, class assignments, and other activities that brought them together during their time at the University of Eldoret.

It is true we were close friends and often visited each other as students and friends on the same campus, the witness submitted.

During her testimony, she revealed to the court that Chiloba resided on the upper floor of the Canan B apartments, located approximately two kilometers from her university.

She also testified that the accused, Jacktone Odhiambo, was a regular visitor to Chilobas residence.

The witness mentioned that Chiloba had initially introduced Odhiambo to her as his official photographer. However, later on, the LGBTQ activist confided in her that he was in a romantic relationship with Odhiambo.

For a long time, I knew them as general friends. But later Chiloba told me that they were having an affair, she said on Wednesday.

The court also heard testimonies from two other witnesses, namely Photographer Dennis Ochieng and Patricia Nyambura. They were the last people seen with Odhiambo and the deceased at the Tamasha club in Eldoret on the eve of the New Year.

The freelance photographer gave his account of the events that occurred on December 31, 2022. He said he and his girlfriend Nyambura joined Odhiambo and Chiloba at the nightclub. He said the couple was in high spirits and danced together.

After enjoying their time at the club, they all left at 4 a.m. and decided to take a taxi together. Ochieng testified that Chiloba was heavily intoxicated and slept throughout the journey.

According to the witness, the following day Odhiambo arrived at their home in the mid-morning with some of his clothes stained with blood. He also had Chilobas phone, which was out of charge, claiming that he had forgotten it in the car.

Odhiambo reportedly informed Ochieng and Nyambura that he had left Chiloba sleeping at their house, which was located 200 meters away.

Ochieng and Nyambura testified in court that they learned of Chilobas death through social media, two days after the incident.

The trial will continue on November 20 and 22.
Alex Blania, co-founder of Worldcoin, has spoken out following the governments decision to suspend the companys operations in Kenya.

In a statement on Thursday, Blania announced that Tools for Humanity, Worldcoins parent company, has paused World ID verifications in Kenya while working with State regulators to address their concerns.

Blania described the World ID as a digital identification system that allows individuals to verify their identity and authenticity while preserving their anonymity. The process involves scanning users irises using a device called the Orb.

He also apologized to Kenyans for the suspension of Worldcoin operations in Kenya.

Tools for Humanity (TFH) has paused World ID verifications in Kenya as we continue to work with local regulators to address their questions. We apologise to everyone in Kenya for the delay, he said.

Meanwhile, Worldcoin emphasized that security was its utmost priority and acknowledged that the large crowds that gathered at the Kenyatta International Conference Center (KICC) for registration posed a significant concern.

The demand for Worldcoins proof of personhood verification services in Kenya has been overwhelming and inspiring, resulting in tens of thousands of individuals waiting in lines over a three-day period to secure a World ID, the company said in a statement.

Worldcoin affirmed its commitment to offering an inclusive, privacy-preserving, decentralized on-ramp to the global digital economy. It expressed its eagerness to resume its services in the country once the issues are resolved.

The Worldcoin Foundation firmly believes in the power of decentralization to drive economic growth and financial inclusion. As part of our efforts to democratize access to cryptocurrencies, Kenyans can now reserve their Genesis tokens on the Worldcoin App to be claimed at a future point in time when verifications have resumed, the statement added.
Data Commissioner Immaculate Kassait has disclosed that Tools for Humanity, the parent company of Worldcoin, failed to disclose its true intentions during registration.

Kassait made these remarks shortly after Interior CS Kithure Kindiki suspended Worldcoins operations in Kenya, citing security concerns.

During an interview with KTN News Wednesday night, Kassait revealed that the Data Protection Commission discovered that Wordlcoin was collecting personal data, which contradicted the information provided during the registration process.

We did a spot-check on Worldcoin and realized the information they were collecting was not in line with what we allowed. In May [2023], we wrote a letter asking them to stop taking personal data, said Kassait.

The commissioner clarified the registration process, emphasizing that merely filling out an online form does not guarantee compliance with the Data Act.

She highlighted that a license is granted to a data operator or controller only after their adherence to the law is thoroughly verified to ensure full compliance.

Kassait disclosed that the Data Commission issued a letter of cessation to Worldcoin specifically concerning the processing of personal data, including the iris.

That letter has never been revoked; we are in the process of investigating. You cannot claim it is on a consent basis and then keep changing your stance. Today, you say it is lawful; we say no. Tomorrow, you say it is a legitimate interest; we say no. You are not clear about what you are doing? Why are you inducing people to give you their consent? she posed.

The Data Commissioner stressed the importance of providing individuals the freedom to make informed and voluntary decisions when sharing their data with companies.

Furthermore, she stated that the Data Protection Commission is actively working on providing guidance to security firms on the proper and responsible collection of personal data.
A new campaign donation law and rural garbage rates are among the issues coming before the Napa County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.

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Supervisors are to discuss a new California law that restricts campaign donations made to them by parties with business before the board. The goal is to reduce pay to play appearances.

They will also hold a 9 a.m. public hearing on garbage rates for Zone 1, which includes the south Napa Valley, Carneros and airport industrial unincorporated areas outside of cities. A county report said commercial rates would rise an average of 5%.

The Board of Supervisors meets at 9 a.m. in the county administration building, 1195 Third St. in downtown Napa. Go to http://napa.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=2 to see agendas and watch the meeting online.

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PG&E Corp. is axing its enhanced tree-trimming program aimed at reducing wildfire risk after deeming it largely ineffective, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The $2.5 billion program thinned and cleared more than one million trees near power lines across Central and Northern California since it went into effect in 2019, the newspaper said after interviews with executives.

Pacific Gas & Electric, which provides electricity and gas to 16 million across the state, credited the program with reducing total fire ignitions by 7% and ignitions during the fall fire season by 13%.

The embattled utility, which has been blamed for several of Californias worst and deadly wildfires, said it would still trim its backlog of about 385,000 potentially hazardous trees that have yet to be cleared  an effort expected to take nine years.

The Oakland-based company also said it would continue its regular tree-trimming maintenance. Twice per year, the company inspects trees around power lines for hazards. It is also piloting a targeted tree-trim program focused on heavily forested areas of the Sierra Nevada foothills.

The enhanced vegetation management program was put into effect in 2019 based on the best information we had at the time. As we operationalized it, we realized that we needed engineer controls said Lynsey Paulo, a PG&E spokeswoman. We cant identify every tree that imposes a risk. Sometimes you can see a green healthy tree on the outside and not know what it looks like on the inside.

PG&Es new strategy relies on a recently introduced type of power line that automatically shuts off when branches or other objects touch them to reduce the risk of sparks. In 2022, the so-called Enhanced Powerline Safety Settings reduced ignitions by 68%, according to PG&E.

The companys longer-term plan prioritizes burying one-third of its overhead power lines  10,000 miles. It will cost an estimated $20 billion and take a decade to complete. Undergrounding power lines reduces ignition risk by 99%, the utility pledged.

In May, California regulators ordered PG&E to pay $150 million in penalties for its role in starting the deadly 2020 Zogg Fire. It caused four deaths and more than $50 million in damages. It started after a pine tree fell on a PG&E power line in the Sierra Nevada Forest.

In 2020, the company was held criminally responsible for 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter and for unlawfully starting a fire after the 2018 Camp Fire. That catastrophic, Paradise-consuming fire left the utility with billions of dollars in liabilities and drove it into bankruptcy.

PG&E is being sued for smoke damage from Dixie and Fly fires

A class-action lawsuit filed by homeowners from 10 Northern California and Nevada counties impacted by the 2021 Dixie and Fly fires. They allege that PG&E caused the fires that exposed them to dangerous levels of air pollutants, which in turn provoked disease and illness.

The wildfire smoke from the Dixie Fire reached levels of over 40,000 feet, blanketing the counties with thick, heavy smoke for approximately three months, the lawsuit says.

The Dixie Fire burned nearly a million acres, killing one person and destroying 1,311 structures, according to Cal Fire. At one point in the summer, air quality index readings reached a value of 834 in the Northern California area around the Dixie Fire. AQI above 150 is deemed unhealthy by the California Air Resources Board and the EPA.

A decaying tree fell on a PG&E wire and sparked the fire, Cal Fires investigation determined. It would have been noticeable at the ground level by inspectors pre-fire, without extraordinary effort, the investigation report says. The lawsuit accuses PG&E of negligence and asks for the establishment of a court-supervised fund to be used for medical monitoring for affected residents.

We have received the filing and believe the complaint is without merit, PG&E said in a statement. We remain focused on reducing wildfire risk across our service area and are committed to doing everything we can to keep our customers and communities safe.

The lawsuit was filed in San Francisco, where PG&Es headquarters were located until 2020, by Singleton Schreiber, a law firm with a track record of suing utility companies in the wake of devastating wildfires.

This isnt the first Dixie Fire-related lawsuit PG&E has faced: in January, the company reached a $24 million settlement with ten public entities.
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Deputy Foreign Minister of Armenia Vahe Gevorgyan on Thursday participated in and delivered remarks at the open debate on Famine and conflict-induced global food insecurity organized by the United States under the agenda item Maintenance of international peace and security of the UN Security Council.

The open debate was chaired by US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. The United Nations Famine Prevention and Response Coordinator Reena Ghelani delivered a briefing, informed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia.

In his remarks, the Deputy Foreign Minister Vahe Gevorgyan particularly noted:

I would like to express my appreciation to the United States for convening this open debate on such a pertinent topic. I thank Ms. Reena Ghelani, UN Famine Prevention and Response Coordinator and other distinguished briefers for presenting their views on the ways to prevent and address famine by strengthening food security in conflict situations.

Starvation has been repeatedly used as a method of warfare and perpetration of genocide throughout history. But today, I am not going to recall examples from the past or assess future risks of famine in the context of the conflict. Instead I would bring to the attention of the Council a situation which is happening right now, a situation wherein people do not know whether today they will be able to find milk formula for their babies, loaf of bread for their children or provide medicines to critically ill relatives.

As we meet, the people of Nagorno-Karabakh face threat to their very existence resulting from the complete blockade, imposed by Azerbaijan. For more than seven months Azerbaijan continues to block the Lachin corridor, a humanitarian lifeline connecting Nagorno-Karabakh with the outside world. This illegal and inhumane action is in blatant violation of the order of the International Court of Justice of 22 February 2023 reconfirmed by July 6 order, norms of the international humanitarian law and the Trilateral Statement of 9 November 2020.

The complete halt of any humanitarian supplies by Azerbaijan since 15 June this year has led to a critical shortage of food, medical supplies and other essential goods, creating a full-fledged humanitarian crisis. Disruption of electricity and gas supplies has been paralyzing social and healthcare services and the transportation system, depriving the besieged population of their fundamental human rights.

The blockade has a particularly devastating impact on the most vulnerable segments of the population. Due to the lack of essential foods and vitamins, approximately 2,000 pregnant women, around 30,000 children, 20,000 elderly persons and 9,000 persons with disabilities are struggling to survive under conditions of malnutrition, absence of basic supplies and medicines.

Motive, Azerbaijan continuously targets civilians conducting agricultural works, augmenting its manifest intent to impose starvation on the population.

These warning signs have already been communicated by the ICRC which remains the only international humanitarian mission in Nagorno-Karabakh. In its July 25 news release the International Committee of the Red Cross expressed concern over growing humanitarian needs and emphasized that it is not currently able to bring humanitarian assistance to the civilian population through the Lachin corridor, while stressing that its humanitarian aid convoys are a lifeline for the population in the area. After 3 days of this communication Azerbaijan arrested 68-year-old Vagif Khachatryan, a person who was being transported by the ICRC from Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia for medical treatment. The arrest of a person under the ICRC protection whose transfer was preliminary agreed with Azerbaijan is not merely perfidious act but well-calculated obstruction of the ICRC work in Nagorno-Karabakh.

To address life-saving needs of the most vulnerable, on 26 July the Government of Armenia decided to deliver a consignment of around 360 tons of essential goods, mainly food and medical supplies to Nagorno-Karabakh. We appealed to the peacekeeping forces of the Russian Federation to organize the delivery of the humanitarian assistance to those in need which was established practice throughout past months. However, up until now, the humanitarian cargo remains at the entrance to the Lachin corridor due to obstruction and denial by Azerbaijani side of its transfer.

The dire humanitarian situation on the ground and the risks of evolving hunger in Nagorno-Karabakh require efficient and timely response by the international community to ensure full and unconditional implementation of the ICJ decisions and full respect of international human rights and international humanitarian law.

We hope that yesterday's statement of the UN Secretary-General wherein he expressed deep concern on the humanitarian situation and emphasized the need of the implementation of ICJ orders for ensuring unimpeded movement of persons, vehicles and cargo along Lachin corridor will be the first step towards full UN engagement on the ground. This engagement is as needed as ever. The cost of inaction is too high to be sustained and this mass atrocity being perpetrated through starvation should and can be prevented and stopped.

We call on the UN and its Security Council to undertake urgent measures to ensure full adherence of Azerbaijan to its legally binding obligations under the ICJ orders and the international humanitarian law, immediately restore the freedom of movement across the Lachin corridor and allow safe and unimpeded humanitarian access of the UN agencies and the ICRC to Nagorno-Karabakh.
The attempt to hastily sign a peace treaty between Azerbaijan and Armenia at the expense of quality and proper preparation will lead to new conflicts in the future. Denis Gonchar, Director of the Fourth Department of the CIS Countries of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), said this in an interview with TASS.

"A hastily prepared, crude peace treaty will not bring lasting peace to the region. On the contrary, it will lay the foundation for new conflicts and tragedies in the future. The priority should not be given to speed, but to quality preparation of balanced and mutually acceptable decisions," the Russian diplomat emphasized.

Thus, he drew attention to the fact that there are recurring announcements from Western capitals that Baku and Yerevan will be able to sign a peace treaty "virtually in the coming weeks and months."

But according to Gonchar, Russia believes that the parties themselves should decide when to sign this peace treaty.

"The task of responsible mediators is not to speed up the negotiation process for the sake of opportunistic considerations, but to contribute to the achievement of solid long-term agreements. They should be based on the realities on the ground; first of all, on the Russian-Armenian-Azerbaijani statements at the highest level and the mechanisms acting on their basis," concluded the director of the Fourth Department of the CIS Countries of the Russian MFA.
Western countries are blackmailing Armenia with "dirty methods," predisposing it against partnership with Russia. Denis Gonchar, Director of the Fourth Department of the CIS Countries of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), said this in an interview with TASS.

As the Russian diplomat noted, a "dense foreign political system" has been established between Moscow and Yerevan within the CSTO, EAEU and CIS frameworks, as well as in various international platforms; first of all, in the United Nations.

"If we talk about some negative aspects of [Moscows] relations with Yerevan, they are primarily due to the ongoing attempts of Western countries to harm the Russian-Armenian partnership. Any, including absolutely dirty methods are usedblackmail of sanctions, unfair competition, amorphous promisesin which, as the Armenian proverb says, "the smoke is more than the barbecue", Gonchar emphasized.

He noted that everyone can be "convinced many times in various parts of the world, including in the post-Soviet area, with examples of how Western friendship is manifested."

"We [i.e. Russia] rely on the wisdom of our Armenian friends. From our side, we are determined, as before, to solve all problematic issues in an allied way, within the framework of a direct and sincere dialogue," concluded the Russian diplomat.
Both before, in the days of the 44-day war in 2020, and after that, to this day, Azerbaijan is carrying out a plan to physically destroy the people of Artsakh, expel them from Artsakh, and forcibly subjugate the rest. Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) Minister of State Gurgen Nersisyan wrote this on Facebook.

He added as follows: "Back on November 9, 2020, when drafting the text of the Tripartite Statement and signing it, the participating parties had rightly come to the conclusion that the existence of the people of Artsakh, their security, obtaining necessary and safe products for their needs, receiving proper medical care, ensuring [their] secure communication with the outside world is possible only under the conditions of the existence of an unhindered connection with the Republic of Armenia [(RA)], for which the Lachin corridor is envisioned.

Since December 12, 2022, Azerbaijan has intentionally created a humanitarian crisis in Artsakh, closed the road connecting Artsakh to Armenia, during that time organized murders, attempted murders, cases of property destruction and damage, used military force, demonstrated a threat to its use; and simultaneously to all that, started forcing humanitarian aid from its hand and through the road it suggested.

"The demand by the people of Artsakh to receive humanitarian aid from the RA and to have contact with the RA is not a willful desire, but an awareness of their own security and simply self-preservation, which fully fits into the logic of international humanitarian law. A person cannot be forced to obtain a livelihood from someone who openly kills or threatens to kill that person; such phenomena were unique to slaveholding social orders.

"The Geneva Convention for the protection of civilian persons guarantees humanitarianism without discrimination and, on the contrary, prohibits humiliating, insulting humanitarianism that demeans human dignity. But today Azerbaijan is trying to deliver this kind of humanity to the people of Artsakh by using coercion, violence and the threat of violence."
Armenia and Azerbaijan have taken as "home processing" Russia's proposals on easing tension in the region. Denis Gonchar, Director of the Fourth Department of the CIS Countries of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), said this in an interview with TASS.

"The last contacts at the level of foreign ministers of Russia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia in Moscow on July 25 took place in an extremely difficult situation in Nagorno-Karabakh," said Gonchar. "Without revealing the sensitive details, I can say that we [i.e. Russia] have proposed compromise solutions for easing tension, which the parties will process at home. We expect that humanitarian considerations, caring for ordinary people will prevail over the political differences between Baku and Yerevan."

The Russian diplomat drew attention to the fact that his country had the most active participation at all phases in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and added that Russia continues its vigorous mediation efforts in all directions..

"Not everything is going as fast as we would like; but it is understandable, taking into account the many problems and disagreements that have accumulated during the years of the conflict," Gonchar continued. "Moreover, we [i.e. Russia] do not artificially speed up the work and do not try to hold meetings for the sake of meetings, which is often done by our Western partners."

As for the unblocking of economic and transport communications in the South Caucasus, the Russian diplomat noted that these matters are being discussed objectively by the tripartite working group under the co-chairmanship of the deputy prime ministers of Russia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia.

According to Gonchar, Russia strives "for all arrangements in this regard to be in parity."

"One of the parties should not have the feeling that someone got more. The unblocking of transport communicationsfirst of all, railwaywill help open the huge economic potential of the South Caucasus and will be a powerful impetus for all directions of trilateral work," added the Russian diplomat.
Azerbaijan and Armenia are not ready to sign a peace treaty under any conditions; some difficult issues still need to be resolved. Denis Gonchar, Director of the Fourth Department of the CIS Countries of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), said this in an interview with TASS.

"The signals being received from Baku and Yerevan about urgently to achieve peace do not mean that the parties are ready to agree to any conditions. There still is a need to find solutions for a number of complicated topics," he said, answering the question about what problems are preventing the establishment of peace between these countries.

As the Russian diplomat noted, the most important of them are the issues of ensuring the security of the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh and protecting the rights accepted by all within the legal framework of Azerbaijan.

"This logic was accepted by the parties after the mutual approval of the 1991 Almaty declaration. An international support mechanism for the implementation of the [peace] treaty is also required, which would not question the sovereignty and political independence of Armenia and Azerbaijan," added Gonchar.

He emphasized that Russia provides active assistance to the two parties in the preparation of the peace treaty.

"The preparation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty is one of the elements of the tripartite agreements between the President of Russia [Vladimir Putin], the President of Azerbaijan [Ilham Aliyev], and the Prime Minister of Armenia [Nikol Pashinyan]. The Russian side actively assists Baku and Yerevan in the preparation of that document, using political-diplomatic channels at all levels. Tripartite summits are held every year, the foreign ministers [of the three countries] meet all the time," said the director of the Fourth Department of the CIS Countries of the Russian foreign ministry.
Several NGOs from Armenia have demanded an urgent call for action by the UN Security Council to address the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh). The respective letter reads as follows:

We appeal to the States  Members of the UN Security Council, as to the primary mandate holder for international peace and security and call for your urgent intervention in relation to the escalating humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh caused by the total blockade of the Lachin Corridor by Azerbaijan. The Lachin Corridor is the only lifeline that connects the local Armenian people to the Republic of Armenia as well as to the rest of the world. The blockade aims to create unbearable living conditions for the ethnic Armenians of the region and push them out from their homes. In recent days the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh has deteriorated further, with its people now facing the imminent threat of starvation.

It is crucial that the United Nations Security Council takes the responsibility to protect the Armenian people of Nagorno-Karabakh from the ethnic cleansing as well as from genocide, which is actually underway through the forced starvation. The Security Council shall particularly:

 Pass a resolution that condemns the blockade and demands to urgently open the Lachin corridor for unimpeded movement of persons, vehicles and cargo, in line with the ICJ interim measure.

 Take urgent measures to ensure international peacekeeping mandate inside Nagorno-Karabakh and Lachin corridor to ensure the security of the Armenian population beyond November 2025, i.e. the end of mandate of the Russian peacekeeping contingent, prescribed in November 10, 2020 trilateral statement, until the durable settlement of the conflict is achieved;

 Request the UN Secretary General to commission a fact-finding mission to the region to assess the situation on the ground; and to appoint Secretary Generals Special Representative on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to ensure longer-term presence in the region;

 Request the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to deploy a fact-finding mission to Nagorno-Karabakh to assess the situation on the ground and present a comprehensive report to the UN Security Council; and to utilize all pertinent UN human rights mechanisms, including Special Advisors and Special Rapporteurs, to promptly generate reports on the human rights, humanitarian, and human security conditions in Nagorno-Karabakh.

 Condemn Azerbaijans policy of ethnic hatred against Armenians, which puts at risk any efforts aimed at establishment of peace and security in the region.

The full letter is available here. Signed by: Transparency International Anticorruption Center Democracy Development Foundation Public Journalism Club NGO Law Development and Protection Foundation Protection of Rights without Borders NGO Helsinki Citizens Assembly  Vanadzor For Equal Rights NGO Peace Dialogue NGO
A man was taken into police custody after allegedly shooting a victim in her jaw during the predawn hours Friday, and barricading himself inside a building in the Lincoln Square neighborhood, Chicago police said.

Officers responded to a call of a person shot in the 2200 block of West Carmen Avenue and found two males and female exiting a residence. The female victim had suffered a gunshot wound to the jaw and was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center where she was listed in fair condition, police said.

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An investigation revealed she was shot by a known offender who had barricaded himself inside of the residence, police said. The SWAT team responded to the scene.

Shortly after 3 a.m., SWAT team members entered the residence and placed the gunman into custody.
Finance minister Vahe Hovhannisyan on Friday received the newly appointed Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to Armenia, Nariman Mohd Sharif Abdulla AlMulla, the Ministry of Finance of Armenia informs Armenian News-NEWS.am.

Hovhannisyan noted that the ambassador begins her work in Armenia at a phase when the trade and economic relations between Armenia and the UAE are in the phase of active development. Also, the minister assured that bilateral relations between the two countries have a great potential for development.

Ambassador AlMulla, for her part, noted that with her activities, she will assist in the further deepening of relations and the effective use of existing potential between the two countries.

During the meeting, the parties discussed a wide range of new prospects for cooperation. In addition, an agreement was reached to join efforts to implement the discussed ideas.
Minister of Defense Suren Papikyan on Friday received Colonel Gregory Pipes, Defense Attache of the US Embassy, on the occasion of the termination of his aforesaid mission in Armenia.

The Minister of Defense expressed gratitude to Colonel Pipes for cooperation, and wished him success in his further career, the Ministry of Defense of Armenia informs Armenian News-NEWS.am.

Also, Minister Papikyan awarded Colonel Pipes with the medal For Military Cooperation for his great contribution to the development of Armenian-American cooperation in the defense sector.
If there were parliamentary elections in Armenia on Sunday, the majority of the respondents would not go to the elections. Aram Navasardyan, director of the Gallup International Association in Armenia, told about this at a press conference Friday, presenting the results of their recent survey conducted with the residents of Armenia.

According to him, the respondents were asked the following question. "Which party or alliance would you vote for?" In response 13.3 percent said the ruling Civil Contract Party (CCP, and the other percentages were distributed in favor of more than a dozen other parties and alliances.

"We have tried not to offend anyone, and we have presented even the minimum indicators obtained. 36.3 percent noted that they will not participate in the elections, 20.2 percent found it difficult to answer," Navasardyan said.

As for why in the current situation the CCP got the mostalbeit the minimumvotes again, Navasardyan explained that there were civil servants, police officers, etc. among the respondents.

"Let's not forget that among the respondents there are huge, overblown state apparatus employees who, as we know, tend to always vote for the ruling power or at least say that they will. There are representatives of police forces, law enforcement agencies here who also try to vote or say that they will vote for the Civil Contract Party," said Navasardyan.

He did not rule out that if the CC does not have power levers, it will get practically equal or less votes than some of the other political parties in Armenia.

According to him, next week they will sum up the ratings of the candidates in the upcoming Yerevan municipal elections.
More than 94% of Armenias citizens consider it impossible for the Armenians of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), as a national minority, to be part of Azerbaijan. Aram Navasardyan, director of the Gallup International Association in Armenia, told about this at a press conference Friday, presenting the results of their recent survey conducted with the residents of Armenia.

In the survey, the respondents were asked: "Is it acceptable for you the granting of the status of a national minority to the people of Artsakh as part of Azerbaijan?"

"1.1 percent of the population of Armenia noted that granting the status of a national minority as part of Azerbaijan to the people of Artsakh is definitely acceptable for them. 2.7 percent noted that it is rather acceptable. 5.5 percent of the respondents noted no, it is rather not acceptable, 88.9 percent noted definitely no. In general, 94.4% of the population of the Republic of Armenia notes that the planning of the minority population of Artsakh as part of Azerbaijan is not acceptable," said Navasardyan.

In May, 86 percent of the respondents had said no to that option, and this percentage has increased in the last two months.

According to the speaker, the reason for the change in this indicator is the critical humanitarian situation created in Artsakh by Azerbaijan.

The aforesaid survey was conducted by telephone, from July 27 to 31, and with 1,100 respondents.
Vagif Khachatryan, 68, who was being transferred from Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) to Armenia for treatment, and escorted by the International Committee of the Red Cross, has not contacted any of his family members ever since his abduction by Azerbaijan on July 29. Khachatryan's daughter, Tsovinar Khachatryan, informed Artsakhpress about this.

"We go to the [Artsakh capital] Stepanakert office of the Red Cross several times a day, and my sisterto the Yerevan [office of the Red Cross] to find out any information. They tell us they have no information. They say that they are negotiating to see my father, but so far to no avail," Tsovinar Khachatryan said.

According to her, a representative of the Red Cross called only at midnight on July 29 and informed that Vagif Khachatryan was in a hospital in Azerbaijani capital Baku, where he was hooked up to an artificial respirator.

According to Tsovinar Khachatryan, her father has health problems, and she once again urged the international organizations to respond to their requests and have their father returned to the homeland as soon as possible in order to save his life.
Armenian foreign minister Ararat Mirzoyan extended condolences for the casualties in the tragic disaster in Georgia.

He wished endurance and patience to the relatives of the dead.

"I am deeply saddened by the news of the disaster that took human lives in the Racha region of Georgia," Mirzoyan wrote on Twitter in Georgian.

A landslide occurred Thursday in the mountainous town of Shovi in Georgia, as a result of which there are casualties and injured. In particular, the death toll has reached six.

Also, several bridges fell, and roads leading to Shovi were damaged.

Rescuers have evacuated 210 people.

And about 40 people are considered missing.
We have never been against negotiations or dialogue with Baku. But those same negotiations and dialogue are not conducted just for the sake of negotiation or dialogue; they should specify something, ensure some progress. David Babayan, advisor to the Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) President and former foreign minister of Artsakh, told this to Armenian News-NEWS.am.

"If the problem is humanitarian, there is no question here because since 2020 there have been regular discussions with the Azerbaijani side on these issues, there have been search operations, someone got lost, etc. But Azerbaijan is now trying to impose another topic and another format on us. Sometimes it's better not to hold a dialogue than to hold a dialogue because after that a more complicated and worse situation may arise," he said.

According to Babayan, there are conflicting views about the future.

"Azerbaijan says: you are not a [negotiating] party, there is no Artsakh, you do not exist, you are some Armenian national population, and we can talk with you only about the so-called integration, which will be the dismantling of the state, the colonization of Artsakh. Artsakh will turn into a reservation at best. That is, we dismantle the state, Azerbaijan establishes its hegemony, and with this the first phase ends, then repressions begin, people will be made to sit under the silent, deaf behavior of the international community. And Armenia is unlikely to do anything either," he said.

"We say: let's talk as equals. But that's not realistic either because seeing our dire situation, they think, who are these [people] that we should negotiate with them? They are a ruined country, their own mother wants to abandon them. Under these conditions, everyone would do that instead of Azerbaijan," Babayan stated.

He added that if Azerbaijan presents an ultimatum during those negotiations, giving 24 or 36 hours to leave Artsakh, what should they do? "When the moment comes to talk with Azerbaijan, it will be an extreme situation during which the future of Artsakh will have to be decided: either leave or I don't know what will happen. In that case, two options remain: either armed resistance with unclear consequences, but with great bloodshed, or simply a manly exit [from Artsakh], not accepting these humiliating conditions. But apparently, that exit will also be from Armenia because people will no longer see a future in Armenia. The concept of the Armenian nation will disappear, the Armenian society will become a mutated society, and it is already becoming because we do not see the care for Artsakh that there should have been. And this will already lead to a great tragedy already for Armenia. Azerbaijan is already announcing that Azerbaijanis should return to Armenia," said the advisor to the Artsakh President.
It is planned to provide 13,000 socially disadvantaged persons in Armenia affected by emergencies with food cards for three months, and in the amount of Armenian drams equivalent to $24 per month. The program is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

And in order to implement this program in Syunik, Vayots Dzor, Kotayk, Lori, Tavush, and Shirak Provinces of Armenia, a memorandum of cooperation was signed between the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs of Armenia and the UN World Food Programme.

Considering the implementation of effective programs aimed at improving the food security of vulnerable groups as a priority, Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Narek Mkrtchyan emphasized the role of the UN World Food Programme. The he expressed hope that by consolidating the necessary efforts and resources and forming clear cooperation mechanisms, it will be possible to fully ensure the results defined by the program.

With this assistance, USAID wants to improve and strengthen Armenias state strategy to withstand possible shocks, as well as to promote social support mechanisms for food-prone population groups.

Nanna Skau, Resident Coordinator a.i. of the UN office in Armenia, also emphasized the importance of their cooperation with the Ministry Labor and Social Affairs of Armenia and the USAID, and welcomed the start of another program.
Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II on Friday received Ambassador Andrea Wiktorin, Head of the European Union (EU) Delegation to Armenia, at the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, the Information System of the Mother See informs Armenian News-NEWS.am.

Karekin II expressed his appreciation to the ambassador for her service rendered to the Armenian people and the EU efforts aimed at the peaceful settlement of the Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) issue.

Also, the Catholicos of All Armenians welcomed the programs being implemented by the EU in various domains in Armenia.

In her turn, Ambassador Wiktorin briefed Karekin II on her activities in Armenia, making a special reference to the efforts being made by the EU Delegation to Armenia in the security, humanitarian, social, and educational domains.

During the conversation, the parties reflected on the importance of a peaceful settlement of the Artsakh conflict, discussed the ways to overcome the humanitarian disaster created there due to the ongoing Azerbaijani blockade, and the security problems in Armenia and Artsakh.
A store security guard fatally shot a gunman whod shot and killed another man Thursday afternoon near a busy intersection in the South Shore neighborhood, according to Chicago police.

The shooting began as an argument between the 25-year-old gunman and a 22-year-old man around 2:50 p.m. in the 7100 block of South Jeffery Boulevard, police said in a media notification.

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As the argument escalated, the older man pulled out a handgun and shot the 22-year-old in the torso, police said. A security guard, a part-time police officer for Cook County health care, according to authorities, saw the shooting and opened fire on the gunman.

The gunman and the man hed shot were both taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where they were pronounced dead, police said. The dead mens identities werent immediately available.
A group of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) residents plan to organize a peaceful march towards Hakari bridge where Azerbaijan has installed an illegal checkpoint and is keeping the Lachin corridor under a blockade.

The they have formed an organization called the Peoples Movement for Unblocking of the Corridor to organize the aforesaid march.

Artur Osipyan, member of the initiative group of this movement, told Armenpress that they see a solution to the situation through peaceful struggle.

Based on the situation we are in, a large number of peaceful, unarmed residents can go to Hakari and resolve the issues on the ground; that is, to negotiate. This doesnt mean that we are renouncing the state bodies of Artsakh, contrary to the opinions claiming that with this step wed be doing what [Azerbaijani president Ilham] Aliyev has said. Thats not so. With this peoples movement we are once again raising the issues that weve raised before, to show that there are no criminals in Artsakh whove usurped power and are dictating their will, but that the people and the authorities actually concur in all the matters concerning the self-determination and the status of Artsakh. This movement is an independent peoples movement. This is a new idea of pan-national movement that we shall go and unblock the corridor ourselves, Osipyan said.
Zhoghovurd daily of Armenia writes: Artsakh [(Nagorno-Karabakh)] DA [(Defense Army)] former commander, former Security Council secretary Samvel Babayan has become [Armenia PM] Nikol Pashinyan's mouthpiece in Artsakh, or for the people of Artsakh.

For a long time now, Pashinyan has been advancing his propaganda arguments and trying to convince the people of Artsakh that they should use the Aghdam road [proposed by Azerbaijan], transport goods through that road; moreover, to have a dialogue with Azerbaijan, arguing that only then will final "peace be established."

There is the impression [that] Samvel Babayan is thus trying to bring the people of Artsakh into integration with Azerbaijan against their will, even seeing how Azerbaijan abducts a sick person from Artsakh, takes him away from the hands of the employees of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Of course, peace is a necessity. But at the cost of integration with the people who hate you and want to commit genocide? (...) Samvel Babayan, however, directs the people of Artsakh to trade and integration with them.
ATLANTA  Emory University Hospital (including Emory University Hospital at Wesley Woods) has once again earned Magnet designation, the highest national honor for professional nursing practice, from the American Nurses Credentialing Center. This is the hospitals third Magnet designation, which is a testament to the high-quality patient care and nursing professionalism demonstrated by Emory nurses.



Emory University Hospital received its first Magnet recognition in 2014 and its second recognition in 2018. Only 10% of hospitals have achieved Magnet designation out of more than 6,000 hospitals in the U.S.



It is an honor to again be recognized by the Commission on Magnet for our nurses accomplishments and outcomes while caring for patients in a collaborative practice environment, says Nancye Feistritzer, DNP, RN, NEA-BC, vice president of patient care services and chief nursing officer for Emory University Hospital and Emory University Hospital at Wesley Woods. We are proud of this third designation, much of which was achieved during the COVID-19 pandemic when we had to care for our patients and our staff in a very new way. This serves as the preeminent external validation of outstanding care delivery provided by Emory nurses as key members of the clinical team.



In this most recent Magnet designation, Emory nurses were praised for the below achievements:

Reached a goal of nearly 91% of professional registered nurses earning a baccalaureate or higher degree in nursing.

Demonstrated interprofessional collaborative practice to ensure coordination of care by reducing the length of stay in the cardiovascular ICU step-down unit, increased discharges per day in the unit, and shortened the time between the discharge orders and actual discharge. These process improvements led to patients receiving cardiac step-down care in a more timely fashion.

Outperformed the benchmark numbers in the ambulatory setting related to falls with injury and surgical errors on 100% of the hospital outpatient units for the majority of eight quarters.

This Magnet re-designation is a wonderful achievement that greatly benefits our patients, demonstrates our commitment to exceptional patient care and allows our nurses to thrive and grow in a professional practice setting, says Joon S. Lee, MD, CEO of Emory Healthcare.



Emory University Hospital is one of 12 Magnet recognized organizations in the state of Georgia. Four other Emory Healthcare organizations have also received Magnet designation including: Emory Saint Josephs Hospital, Emory University Orthopaedics & Spine Hospital, Emory Johns Creek Hospital and the Emory Clinic, which was the first ambulatory clinic in Georgia to receive Magnet recognition last year.

The Magnet Recognition Program recognizes hospitals for elevating patient care in an environment where nurses, supported by interprofessional teams, also flourish, says Sharon Pappas, PhD, RN, chief nurse executive for Emory Healthcare. Magnet is a lifestyle adopted by Emory Healthcare and the gold standard of nursing practice.



Emory University Hospital is a part of Emory Healthcare, the most comprehensive academic health system in Georgia. Emory University Hospital has 791 licensed beds, including 82 beds at Emory University Hospital at Wesley Woods. More than 1,000 nurses staff these two facilities.



A health care facility must reapply for Magnet designation every four years, followed by a thorough site visit to demonstrate patient outcomes through collaborative nursing practice accomplishments.



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Chris Sun to meet Indonesian envoy on helper cost

Chris Sun to meet Indonesian envoy on helper cost

Labour minister Chris Sun said on Friday that he will schedule a meeting with the Indonesian Consul General in Hong Kong to discuss new regulations from Jakarta that will increase the cost of hiring Indonesian domestic helpers in the city.



Earlier this week, union representatives from Indonesia flew in to explain that employers in the SAR will need to pay the local agency fee, instead of helpers.



Sun said the government has reminded Indonesian authorities in the past that any policy change should not significantly increase the cost of hiring Indonesian domestic helpers or reduce their employment opportunities in Hong Kong.



We hope that the Indonesian side can find a proper solution, Sun said.



We will make it clear that any measures should not only target Hong Kong, and should be implemented equally. Therefore, we will actively express our position in this regard and defend Hong Kong's interests, striving for a proper solution.



Sun added that officials will consider bringing in more helpers from other countries, including Cambodia and Bangladesh.
Beijing's envoy to join Ukraine peace talks

Li Hui will head to Saudi Arabia for the talks. File photo: AP

China's Special Envoy for Eurasian Affairs Li Hui will visit Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, for international talks on the peaceful settlement of the Ukraine crisis, the foreign ministry said on Friday.



"China is willing to work with the international community to continue to play a constructive role in promoting a political solution to the crisis in Ukraine," Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson at the ministry, said in a statement.



Ukrainian and Western diplomats hope the meeting in Jeddah this weekend of national security advisers and other senior officials from some 40 countries will agree on key principles for a future peace settlement to end Russia's war in Ukraine. Moscow will not be attending.



Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday he hoped the initiative will lead to a "peace summit" of leaders from around the world this autumn to endorse the principles, based on his own 10-point formula for a peace settlement.



China did not attend a previous round of talks in Copenhagen in late June. (Reuters)
PRNewswire Boston [US], August 4: RecordedFuture, the largest threat intelligence company, today announced that Forrester Research, Inc. named Recorded Future as a leader inTheForresterWave:ExternalThreatIntelligenceServiceProviders." The report, which states "external cyber threat intelligence is now a necessary foundational component of any organization's cybersecurity defenses," recognizes that "Recorded Future is best known for its extensive open source threat intelligence. The Forrester evaluation notes, "Recorded Future is an easy-to-use yet powerful threat intelligence solution. Recorded Future Intelligence Cloud is composed of nine specific threat intelligence modules, strategically designed and grouped for specific use cases and user personas. This allows customers to expand their deployment as they mature." The report goes on to note that Recorded Future boasts "over 10 billion entities in its Intelligence Graph ecosystem, which serves as the foundation for the Recorded Future Intelligence Cloud," further stating, "reference customers believe that Recorded Future's open-source threat intelligence is best in class..." "We agree with Forrester that threat intelligence is a foundational component of cybersecurity defense. Recorded Future's mission is to secure our world with Intelligence, and we believe being recognized as a Leader validates the work we're doing with over 1,750 clients across the Globe. " Dr Christopher Ahlberg, CEO and Co-Founder, Recorded Future With Recorded Future, organizations gain real-time visibility into expanding attack surfaces and threat landscapes, allowing them to act with the speed and confidence needed to reduce risk and securely drive business. The Recorded Future Intelligence Cloud elevates existing security defenses by enhancing the depth and breadth of protection. Organizations receive real-time insights into threats and attacks before they impact, enabling them to stay ahead of attackers at the speed and scale of today's threat environment. Read The Forrester Wave: External Threat Intelligence Service Providers here:https://go.recordedfuture.com/forrester-wave-threat-intelligence-service-providers. Learn more about the Recorded Future Intelligence Cloudhere, or request a demo at:https://go.recordedfuture.com/demo. About Recorded FutureRecorded Future is the world's largest threat intelligence company. Recorded Future's Intelligence Cloud provides end-to-end intelligence across adversaries, infrastructure, and targets. Indexing the internet across the open web, dark web, and technical sources, Recorded Future provides real-time visibility into an expanding attack surface and threat landscape, empowering clients to act with speed and confidence to reduce risk and securely drive business forward. Headquartered in Boston with offices and employees around the world, Recorded Future works with over 1,750 businesses and government organizations across more than 75 countries to provide real-time, unbiased and actionable intelligence. Learn more atrecordedfuture.com. Logo -https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/705622/Recorded_Future_Logo.jpg (Disclaimer: The above press release has been provided by PRNewswire. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same)
SRV Media New Delhi [India], August 4: In an extraordinary ceremony, the directors of Mushroom World group, Sameer Sagar and Shakti Sagar, were honoured for their exceptional leadership and vision. The event was graced by the esteemed presence of Shivraj Singh Chauhan, who awarded the ladies of their family - Anuradha Sagar, Sarika Sagar, and Monika Sagar - with the prestigious title of "Captains of the Industry." This remarkable recognition celebrates their outstanding achievements in the fiercely competitive business world of Madhya Pradesh. The Mushroom World group, under the able guidance of Sameer Sagar and Shakti Sagar, has emerged as a true winner in the real and challenging landscape of business. Their dedication, innovation, and commitment have made the company a shining example of success and growth. The journey of Sameer Sagar and Shakti Sagar as entrepreneurs has been nothing short of inspiring. With a clear vision and a relentless drive, they took the path less travelled and turned a simple mushroom cultivation venture into 9 diverse business empires dealing in different sectors. Their steadfast belief in the potential of their products and the capabilities of their team has been the driving force behind their accomplishments. The felicitation of Anuradha Sagar, Sairka Sagar, and Monika Sagar, the ladies of the Sagar family, adds another layer of pride to the celebration. Their contribution to the success of the Mushroom World group has been invaluable. In a world where gender equality and women's empowerment are gaining momentum, this recognition serves as a testament to their capabilities as leaders and visionaries. Shivraj Singh Chauhan, the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, bestowed the "Captains of the Industry" award on the ladies with great appreciation and respect. Speaking at the event, he praised their determination and the vital role they play in driving the company forward. The recognition of the Mushroom World Group in the Business Leaders & Visionaries category highlights the immense potential that Madhya Pradesh holds for entrepreneurs and leaders. It sends a powerful message to aspiring business minds, encouraging them to dream big and pursue their goals relentlessly. As the event concluded, the felicitation of Sameer Sagar and Shakti Sagar, along with the acknowledgment of Anuradha Sagar, Sairka Sagar, and Monika Sagar, served as a reminder of the power of determination, leadership, and unity in conquering the challenges of the business world. Their success story will undoubtedly inspire countless others to follow in their footsteps and make their mark in the fiercely competitive world of business. Visit Mushroom world group website https://mushroomworldgroup.com Or Visit Mushroom World Umbrella https://www.mushroomworldumbrella.com (Disclaimer: The above press release has been provided by SRV Media. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same)
PNN Bangalore (Karnataka) [India], August 4: edForce, a leading workforce upskilling accelerator, today launched ElevateEdge, an initiative aimed at filling the huge gap between the demand and availability of Soft Skills in the Indian IT Industry. This groundbreaking initiative is set to reshape the landscape of professional development in India. Despite investing over Rupees 20,000 Crores annually to upskill its over 60 lakh employees, the Indian IT industry still faces the challenge of providing its employees with much-needed skills. As per Thirumala Arohi, CLO of Infosys, the increased adoption of new digital technologies and automation would require significant reskilling, and that is reflected in many firms' workplace transformation strategies. With over 100 Corporate customers, such as Walmart, Infosys, Sony, HP, Dell, Mercedes Benz, Tech Mahindra, Samsung, etc, edForce ElevateEdge has been backed by investors and its pilot has been effective in building business communication, dynamic leadership, emotional intelligence, adaptability, and addressing the entire spectrum of business soft skills. According to Ravi Kaklasaria, Co-founder & CEO of edForce, "ElevateEdge is more than a product; it's an emblem of our commitment to empower individuals and organizations, transcending the boundaries of the upskilling industry. Our vision is to ignite a transformative journey for every participant, propelling India's soft skill ecosystem into an era of unparalleled excellence. ElevateEdge is a visionary leap into the future of professional excellence, designed to cater to diverse upskilling requirements across various sectors. It offers a holistic approach to soft skill upskilling, empowering workforce and organizations to navigate the dynamic corporate landscape with unmatched finesse. With this innovative leap forward, edForce is set to become a trailblazer, paving the way for a brighter, more skilled workforce. edForce is the premier Bengaluru-based Workforce Upskilling Accelerator, catering to enterprises of all sizes by providing comprehensive learning solutions, including training, certifications, learning paths, assessments, labs, and infrastructure. Trusted by industry leaders such as Infosys, Walmart, Siemens, Sony, Microsoft, and more, edForce delivers high-quality learning experiences in areas like cloud computing, agile, cyber security, project management, and IT service management. For more information, visithttps://www.edforce.co. (Disclaimer: The above press release has been provided by PNN. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same)
A man and his dog walk along the lakefront and past a stolen 2021 Kia Sportage SUV sitting in the waters of Lake Michigan near 57th and DuSable Lake Shore Drive on Aug. 4, 2023. The car was reported stolen Friday morning by the owner. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)

Ashley Gee got a notification from her cellphone around 2 a.m. saying her Kia Sportage was on the move. She had parked her vehicle in front of a friends residence on the South Side and she wasnt driving it.

Her car was stolen.

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The following hours, she tracked her vehicle moving on the West Side, making stops throughout the city, going to Indiana before returning to the South Side, she said.

I called the police, eventually showing an officer my cellphone, Gee, 32, said. But he told me it was little they could do until the vehicle stops and stays stationary.

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It eventually stayed stationary, but in Lake Michigan.

Gee went to the scene only to find out her Kia was a complete loss from water damage, she said.

Members of the Chicago police marine unit open one of the doors to a stolen 2021 Kia Sportage SUV after it was pulled out of Lake Michigan on Aug. 4, 2023. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)

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Friday morning police confirmed her Kia was recovered from Lake Michigans waters in the area of 57th Street. A second stolen Kia was nearby, stuck in the sand.

Gee, a mother of two boys, 7 and 8, bought the car about six months ago. When she heard about the uptick in thefts of Kia vehicles she did what she could afford, and decided to get a tracking system from her mobile carrier.

I watched the thieves while they were looking for other cars. They were on a joyride looking for other cars to steal, Gee said.

I need my vehicle to take my sons around. I dont know what I am going to do now, she said.
BusinessWire India New Delhi [India], August 4: Vehere, a leading cybersecurity company specializing in network security, is delighted to announce the appointment of Nirbhaya Kishore Mishra as its Director of Corporate Development. With over 25 years of rich and diverse experience across various industries, Nirbhaya brings a wealth of expertise and knowledge to his new role, which encompasses investment banking, corporate finance, and consulting. Prior to joining Vehere, Nirbhaya Mishra held key positions at prestigious organizations, showcasing his exceptional leadership skills and business acumen. He was associated with NECO Group of Industries, IndCap Financial Services (Senior Analyst, Northern India Operations). Furthermore, Nirbhaya had a successful tenure at KIPCO Group, where he was in the India Advisory for business operations in Kuwait. For the last 11 years, Nirbhaya has been working independently and has served as a Board Member and Management Consultant for many reputable companies. Commenting on his new role, Nirbhaya said, "It is indeed an exciting opportunity to be a part of Vehere's meteoric journey. I eagerly anticipate leading strategic initiatives, fostering crucial partnerships, and capitalizing on emerging opportunities to drive the company's growth trajectory in a positive direction." Vehere's Co-founder Praveen Jaiswal expressed enthusiasm regarding the appointment, stating, "We are thrilled to welcome Nirbhaya Mishra as our Director of Corporate Development. With his impressive track record and diverse expertise, we are confident that he will play a pivotal role in guiding Vehere towards new heights. We look forward to leveraging his skills and experience to shape a successful future for our company." Nirbhaya is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), and he earned an MBA from the ICFAI Business School, Bangalore. He also has a Post-Graduate Diploma degree in Computer Science from the JK Institute of Applied Science, University of Allahabad. (Disclaimer: The above press release has been provided by BusinessWire India. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same)
Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation, Amit Shah has launched the transfer of funds to the genuine depositors of Sahara Group of Cooperative Societies through the dedicated portal. 112 beneficiaries have received Rs 10000 each into their bank accounts today, soon all the investors will get their money back, read the Ministry of Cooperation press release In his address, Amit Shah said that the PM Mod-led government is committed to protecting the rights of all. Ministry of Cooperation, he said, has achieved a big success in this direction today. He added that all the agencies have done commendable work to get back the deposited money of depositors in record time. At the time of the launch of the CRCS-Sahara Refund Portal on July 18, 2023, it was informed that the amount would be paid to the genuine depositors within 45 days of registering on the portal, but the committee constituted by the Supreme Court and all the government agencies, working together, have done commendable work in record time. Shah said that around 33 lakh investors have been registered on the CRCS-Sahara refund portal. The portal has been developed for the submission of legitimate claims by the genuine depositors of the Sahara Group of Cooperative Societies namely- Sahara Credit Cooperative Society Ltd, Saharayan Universal Multipurpose Society Ltd, Humara India Credit Cooperative Society Ltd and Stars Multipurpose Cooperative Society Ltd. It is pertinent to mention that to address the grievances of genuine members and depositors of the Sahara Group of Cooperative Societies for payment of their legitimate deposits, the Ministry of Cooperation had filed an application in the Supreme Court of India. The Apex Court in its order dated March 29 this year had directed that Rs 5,000 crores be transferred out of the Sahara-SEBI Refund Account to the Central Registrar of Cooperative Societies (CRCS) for disbursement against the legitimate dues of the genuine depositors of the Sahara Group of Cooperative Societies. (ANI)
Maharashtra chief minister, Eknath Shinde and Deputy chief minister, Ajit Pawar, on Friday, paid their last respects to art director Nitin Desai. CM Shinde and deputy CM Pawar visited Sir JJ Hospitals mortuary in Maharashtra's Mumbai, where Desai's body was kept. Desai was found dead in his studio in Maharashtras Raigad district on Wednesday. After learning about the unfortunate news, Shinde expressed his condolences via a tweet as well. Veteran art director Nitin Chandrakant Desai passed away today. This is an unfortunate and shocking piece of news. The demise of Desai, who created a world of his own through his unique set designs in Marathi and Hindi films, is saddening. He had a special association with Tembhi Naka Devi (a popular temple in Maharashtra). He preserved and carried forward a tradition which started with Dharmaveer Anand Dighe Saheb. Navratri celebrations here came to unforgettable because of him (Desai). There was a lot of curiosity among the people to see his artworks. It pains me that such a nice and humble man, who also happened to be a good friend, is no more with us. Today is a very sad day for me and our film industry," Shinde wrote in Marathi. Desai, 57, worked as an art director in several big-budget films such as Devdas, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Jodhaa Akbar, Prem Ratan Dhan Payo, Once Upon A Time in Mumbai, and Panipat, among others. The funeral of Desai is underway at his ND Art World Pvt Ltd Studios, Maharashtra. (ANI)
Actor Aamir Khan, who paid his last respect to veteran art directorNitin Chandrakant Desaion Friday expressed his grief. Earlier today, his mortal remainswere brought to the ND Art World Studio Pvt Ltd studio. A host of celebrities visited ND studio to pay their last respects to him and extend condolences to the bereaved family. Among those who paid a visit to the art director's kin were actor Aamir Khan and filmmaker Ashutosh Gowariker. During media interaction, Aamir said, This is very shocking news. I am unable to understand how did this happen. I can't believe it. I wish he had not done this and reached out for help instead. But what can we say in such a tragic situation, it is very difficult to understand what has happened. It is very sad. We have lost someone who was very talented." Director Madhur Bhandarkar who also paid their last tribute to Desai while talking to ANI said, It was very upsetting to see... It was a bond of years with Nitin Desai including four movies - Fashion, Jail, Indu Sarkar and Traffic Signal. I believe it was an untimely demise. He gave importance and status to art and art director. The industry has lost a huge talent. We will miss Nitin dada," said Film Director Madhur Bhandarkar on Nitin Desai's demise. Apart from them, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Manoj Joshi, Mukesh Rishi, Sonali Kulkarni, and others were also spotted. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Kirit Somaiya also attended the last rites of Desai. Desai was found dead on Wednesday in his studio in Maharashtras Raigad district, police said on Wednesday. According to police Desais body was found hanging in his ND Studio in Karjat, some 80 km outside Mumbai. Maharashtra chief minister, Eknath Shinde and Deputy chief minister, Ajit Pawar also paid their last respects to Desai. CM Shinde and deputy CM Pawar visited Sir JJ Hospitals mortuary in Maharashtra's Mumbai, where Desai's body was kept. Desai, 57, worked as an art director in several big-budget films such as Devdas, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Jodhaa Akbar, Prem Ratan Dhan Payo, Once Upon A Time in Mumbai, and Panipat, among others. He was noted for his innovative studio design and had collaborated with filmmakers like as Ashutosh Gowarikar, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Rajkumar Hirani, and Sanjay Leela Bhansali. He had won three Filmfare Awards for Best Art Direction and four National Film Awards for Best Art Direction. (ANI)
After the teaser, the makers of Akelli starring Nushrratt Bharuccha on Friday launched the trailer of the film. Taking to Instagram, Nushrratt treated fans with a trailer video. Sharing the video, AKELLI - An Ordinary Girls Battle For Survival. #AkelliTrailer, Out Now. Coming only in cinemas on 18th August....#Akelli. https://www.instagram.com/p/CvhHGuFpFU5/ The film is about an Indian girl who is stranded alone in war-torn Iraq and how she struggles for survival against all odds. The trailer showcased Nushrratts character attempting to flee but is besieged by armed men. It then follows her life, showing how she left Mosul for a career, how she had been working and settling down in a whole new nation until a war breaks out and she is taken alongside other women. Nushrratt Bharuccha in a never-seen-before avatar. 'Akelli' is helmed by Pranay Meshram, who has worked as an associate director for various projects and will debutant as a director with this film. The film is produced by Dashami Studioz' Nitin Vaidya, Ninad Vaidya, Aparna Padgaonkar along with Vicky Sidana & Shashant Shah. ActorsTsahi HaleviandAmir Boutrous, who are known for their performances in the popular Israeli series 'Fauda', are all set to make theirBollywooddebut with the film. Earlier, talking about her experience of shooting for Akelli, Nushrratt said in a statement, "Akelli has been an overwhelming experience altogether and far from any role I have played till now. It was emotionally draining for me to portray a character like this, and it makes you think of all the challenges that someone so young must have to go through to provide for their loved ones. I am hoping the audience will be able to connect with my character's journey and will hopefully like it." Recently, the makers unveiled an intriguing teaser. Taking to Instagram, Dashami Production treated fans with the teaser video along with a caption, Survival is her battle. She is coming this August 18 #Akelli. The first glimpse of the film gives us an insight into the thrilling ride the audience will experience on its release. Starring Nushrratt as the main lead, Akelli is a soul-stirring tale of a girl who falls into the trap of a dangerous world, owing to her circumstances and her eventual struggle to escape. Akelli is all set to release on August, 18. (ANI)
A total of 23 people arrested in connection to the recent incidents of violence in Haryana's Nuh were produced before the court, and were later sent to police remand for up to five days on Thursday. "A total of 23 accused in 6 different cases were produced before the court today. Accused in FIR No. 261 sent to 4-day remand. One accused sent to 3-day remand, five accused sent to 4-day remand and the remaining sent to 5-day remand, said the Counsel of the accused on Thursday. Earlier on Thursday, Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij said that police have registered 83 FIRs and 159 people have been arrested after the violence gripped Nuh and Gurgram districts. Former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda demanded a judicial probe by a high court judge into the government's "failure" to prevent the violence. "We demand a judicial inquiry headed by a high court judge into why the government failed to prevent the riots in Nuh, and that will help bring out the truth about the incident," he told reporters. "The probe should ascertain the truth about what led to the violent clashes, who instigated them, and why the government failed to take preventive steps on time to prevent a communal clash," Hooda said. Earlier on Thursday, the Haryana government partially lifted the mobile internet suspension from 1 pm to 4 pm hours today in multiple districts. The state government, in its order, said that the internet is being lifted for the said period of time to facilitate the candidates of the CET/Screening test (Group C posts) to download their admit cards. The internet will be partially lifted in Nuh, Faridabad, Palwal, and the territorial jurisdiction of Sub Division Sohna, Pataudi, and Manesar of District Gurugram. Clashes between two groups broke out in Nuh after a religious procession passing through the district came under attack, leaving two home guards dead and dozens of peopleincluding around 20 policemen injured in the frenzy of violence that followed. (ANI)
Lok Sabha was adjourned till 12 noon during Question Hour with opposition members protesting over their demands related to Manipur situation. They raised slogans and showed placards. Opposition parties have been demanding early discussion on the no-confidence motion against the government moved by them.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi said that the House yesterday debated bill pertaining to control of services in Delhi and the bills listed today were also important.

In Rajya Sabha, Leader of House Piyush Goyal said there were atrocities against women in Rajasthan and demanded a discussion. He faced disruptions from opposition benches.

Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar asked the Leader of Opposition to speak but members from treasury benches raised slogans concerning Rajasthan.

You will hear him with rapt attention. This will not be countenanced, the Chairman said and cautioned members against causing disruptions.

Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge pointed towards treasury benches and said that they should raise any issue pertaining to Rajasthan in state assembly. If they have strength, they will raise the issue there, he said.

Kharge sought to raise the demand of opposition for discussion on Manipur situation under Rule 267 amid sloganeering.

The Chairman said he has already ruled that the House can discuss anything except some exceptions related to judiciary. Dhankhar said he has allowed discussion on Manipur and matters pertaining to Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh can be discussed.

He adjourned the House till 12 noon amid the din. (ANI)
Chicagos police union, the Fraternal Order of Police, has long acted to serve the special interests of the police over the public safety of the people of Cook County.

The recently released Do Not Call list by Cook County States Attorney Kim Foxx contains a disturbing inventory of 174 current and former police officers who have been so thoroughly discredited that prosecutors cannot put them on the witness stand in a criminal trial. The list includes officers who participated in the Jan. 6 insurrection, lied under oath and had connections with white supremacist groups.

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[ Search the list: Cook Countys Do Not Call on officers to testify ]

No credible union would protect officers who cannot be trusted with the core law enforcement responsibility of telling the truth under oath in a court of law. Remarkably, many of these officers remain on the force. Unions that protect the jobs of officers like these cannot be trusted to shape legislation, prosecutorial reform or police accountability.

In Chicago, and across the country, police unions have stockpiled massive political power that they wield to push special interests and protect dangerous officers. This concentration of power can hinder racial justice efforts and jeopardize lives, particularly those of Black people.

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Its been almost three years since the modern movement for police accountability was sparked by the brutal murder of George Floyd at the hands of police officers. Yet, real change in the culture and practice of policing continues to be inhibited by the roadblocks set up by powerful police unions. From massive political donations to aggressive lobbying, police unions have too often become impervious to change as they push an agenda that makes justice less dependable and hinders progress toward a more equitable system.

[ Charlie Beck: Police reform is possible in Chicago, but it starts with officers ]

To be clear, it takes a lot for an officer to wind up on the Do Not Call list. Just weeks ago, the Illinois Supreme Court decided a case brought by Wayne Washington, who spent more than a dozen years in prison for a crime he did not commit. The court wrote that unrebutted evidence showed that Chicago police detectives isolated Washington, handcuffed him to his chair, kicked his chair over, and pushed and slapped him. The court declared that these detectives undisputedly engaged in coercive conduct at best and torture at worst. Yet even these detectives did not make the Do Not Call list.

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The Do Not Call list contains many police officers who are still paid by the Chicago Police Department, yet these officers cannot do their jobs because their testimony cannot be trusted in a criminal trial by a prosecutor. Rather than being expelled from the force for misconduct, officers can wind up assigned to desk duty. Just last month, several cases of sexual misconduct were alleged between Chicago police officers and newly arrived migrant teenagers being housed in city buildings, including police stations. These accusations were dismissed by the police union as inflammatory, and those officers remain on the force, so far without serious consequence.

[ Editorial: Chicago cops with histories of lying, making false reports, remain on the force. Why? ]

John Catanzara offers a premier example of the FOPs abuse of power. Catanzara has led Chicagos chapter of the police union since 2020 and has a long resume of abuse, including calling Muslims savages who all deserve a bullet, expressing sympathy for Jan. 6 insurrectionists and urging officers to disregard the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

Or consider Robert Bakker, a CPD officer who fraternized with the Proud Boys and lied about it to investigators. After a suspension, he returned to active duty in March, despite repeated calls for Bakkers termination from organizations including the Chicago Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights.

A culture of impunity protected by police unions puts life and liberty at risk. Chicago leads the country in exonerations, which overwhelmingly affect Black communities. While Black people in America represent a little less than 14% of the countrys population, they account for 53% of exonerated people. And even further than unjust prison sentences, Black people account for almost 30% of those killed by police. Retaining untrustworthy officers on the city payroll is inhibiting justice for those who need it most and giving power to officers who have targeted the lives and the futures of Black people.

Moving forward, Chicago must address police misconduct and corruption. We cannot continue to prop up a system that affords so much power to police unions. From robust political influence to impunity, Chicagos FOP has broadly overstepped its purpose and is buttressing a criminal justice system that too often serves police interests over people and communities. This Do Not Call list is one of many signs that police unions too often fail to act in the best interest of public safety. Their excessive power diminishes justice in Cook County and across the nation.

Michael Collins is the senior director for state and local government affairs at Color Of Change, a civil rights organization. David Shapiro is the executive director of the Chicago Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights.

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The House was adjourned till 11 am on Monday as both Treasury benches and the Opposition parties were adamant on their demands to discuss atrocities against women in Rajasthan and Manipur violence, respectively, leading to a ruckus in the House.

Earlier today Rajya Sabha was adjourned till 12 noon.

In Rajya Sabha, Leader of House Piyush Goyal said there were atrocities against women in Rajasthan and demanded a discussion. He faced disruptions from opposition benches.

Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar asked the Leader of the Opposition to speak but members from treasury benches raised slogans concerning Rajasthan.

"You will hear him with rapt attention. This will not be countenanced," the Chairman said and cautioned members against causing disruptions.

Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge pointed towards treasury benches and said that they should raise any issue pertaining to Rajasthan in the state assembly. "If they have strength, they will raise the issue there," he said.

Kharge sought to raise the demand of the opposition for discussion on the Manipur situation under Rule 267 amid sloganeering.

The Chairman said he has already ruled that the House can discuss anything except some exceptions related to the judiciary.

Dhankhar said he has allowed discussion on Manipur and matters pertaining to Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh can be discussed. (ANI)
According to Event Organiser Dr Manoj Ku Sahu, the event will be attended by doctors from 22 international faculties and around 1,500 delegates from various regions of the country and other foreign countries.

Manoj Ku Sahu added that the event will involve pertinent discussions on various liver illnesses and their treatments.

Sahu also stated that this important conference brings together the most eminent national and international liver disease experts from around the world.

"This major conference brings together the world's most distinguished national and international liver disease experts. Hence, extensive discussions about embracing new technology and information exchange on liver disease will be conducted," added Sahu.

Hepatitis B virus is the most common cause of liver cancer in India. It affects 300-400 million individuals worldwide, with India accounting for approximately 60 million, said Sahu.

About 400 police including police commissioners participated in the inauguration program, he stated.

He also added that an awareness program will be held for students and senior citizens from Friday. (ANI)
The Rajya Sabha on Friday was adjourned for the day amid a ruckus created by both the Opposition party members as well as the treasury benches. The House will reconvene on Monday at 11 am. Soon after the House reassembled after its first adjournment at 12 noon, the Opposition party members reiterated their demand to hold a comprehensive discussion on Manipur ethnic violence issue under Rule 267. Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar declined all the 48 notices given under Rule 267 by the Opposition MPs pointing out that they are not ready to discuss Manipur violence even after the assurance given by the chair that there will not be any time limit during the discussion on the issue and that each members will be allocated as much time as they want. Meanwhile, BJP MP from Rajasthan Ghanshyam Tiwari raised a point related to crime against women in Rajasthan and sought a discussion on the issue too. Leader of the Upper House Piyush Goyal also requested the chair to conduct a discussion over crime against women in Rajasthan. "It is a very serious matter and the Rajasthan Government has failed to protect the dignity of the women in the state," Piyush Goyal said. At the same time, treasury benches started sloganeering "Charcha ho, Charcha ho, Rajasthan pe charcha ho" (there should be a discussion on Rajasthan). Amid the din, the Chairman adjourned the House for the day to meet at 11 am on August 7. The Rajya Sabha has been facing a similar logjam since July 20, the day when the Monsoon Session started, over the Manipur violence issue. (ANI)
The Congress on Friday hailed the Supreme Courts interim order staying the conviction of party leader Rahul Gandhi in a criminal defamation case and said the apex court judgment is a strong vindication of truth and justice. The Supreme Court, in an interim order, stayed the conviction of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in the criminal defamation case over 'Modi surname' remark Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said he will write to the Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to revoke the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi from the House following the apex court order. "It's a happy day...I will write and speak to Lok Sabha Speaker today itself," Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury told ANI. "This is the victory of truth. This will prove costly for Prime Minister, he said. Chowdhury sought to raise the demand for revocation of Rahul Gandhis disqualification in Lok Sabha on Friday. He said he will also make the demand on Monday. Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said Rahul Gandhi has refused to bend despite the relentless efforts of BJP. The Supreme Court judgment is a strong vindication of truth and justice. Despite the relentless efforts of the BJPs machinery, @RahulGandhi has refused to bend, break or bow, choosing instead to place his faith in the judicial process, Jairam Ramesh said in a tweet. Let this be a lesson to the BJP and its acolytes: you can do your absolute worst but we will not back down. We will continue to expose and call out your failures as a Government and as a party. We will continue to uphold our Constitutional ideals and repose faith in our institutions which you so desperately want to destroy. Satyameva Jayate! he added. The apex court issued notices to the Gujarat government and the complainant in July on an appeal of the Congress leader challenging the Gujarat High Court order. The Gujarat HC had earlier in its order declined to stay his conviction in the criminal defamation case in which he was sentenced to two years in jail by the Surat court over the 'Modi surname' remark. After his conviction in the case, Gandhi was disqualified as MP from Keralas Wayanad on March 24. Gandhi was sentenced to two years imprisonment which disqualified him as an MP under the rigours of the Representation of People Act. In March, the magisterial court convicted Gandhi for his remarks ahead of the 2019 national polls about the Modi surname. (ANI)
The Delhi High Court on Friday allowed the petition of Tihar Jail Authority to seek permission to produce Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Chief Yasin Malik through video conferencing only due to security reasons. Tihar Jail Authority sought modification of the court's earlier order directing the physical presence of JKLF Chief Yasin Malik in the Delhi High Court. While allowing the plea, the bench of Justice Siddharth Mridul and Justice Anish Dayal noted that the President of India has, in the exercise of powers conferred under the CRPC and after carefully examining the material on the record and having regard to the kind of offences that Yasin Malik has been accused of, directed that he not be moved from Tihar Jail and taken out of the NCT of Delhi for a period of one year or until the completion of the trial. In that view of the matter the order is modified to the extent that the Jail Superintendent is directed to produce Yasin Malik in the present appeal through Video Conferencing, said the Court. The Delhi High Court in its last order, while hearing the NIA appeal for capital punishment or death penalty for Yasin Malik in the terror funding case, had issued a warrant for Yasin Malik to be present before the court on the next date of hearing on August 9, 2023. Tihar in its application stated that Yasin Malik has been lodged in the Tihar Jail, New Delhi under the category of very high-risk prisoners and thus, the present application is in relation to a heavy security issue. Therefore, it is imperative that convict Yasin Malik is not physically produced before this Court in order to maintain public order and safety. He should be allowed to join the proceedings through Video Conferencing, the NIA said. The Delhi High Court on May 29, 2023, issued notice to Yasin Malik on an NIA appeal seeking capital/death penalty for him (Yasin Malik) in a terror funding case. NIA argued that it is a rarest of rare" case. The Trial Court last year awarded life imprisonment to Yasin Malik in a terror funding case. Earlier, the Division Bench comprising of Siddharth Mridul and Justice Talwant Singh after noting down the submissions made, issued notice to Yasin Malik through Jail superintendent as Yasin Malik is lodged in Tihar Jail. He is the sole respondent in the appeal, noted the court. Meanwhile, the bench had also issued a production warrant for Yasin Malik to be present before the Court on the next date of hearing on August 9, 2023. Appearing for NIA, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submitted that Yasin Malik is responsible for killing four IAF personnel and kidnapping Rubaiya Sayeed. He also submitted that four terrorists, who were released after the kidnapping masterminded the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appeared for NIA and submitted that the accused Malik crossed over to Pakistan in the 1980s to receive training in handling weapons. ISI helped him to become head of JKLF. NIA in its appeal submitted that if such dreaded terrorists are not given capital punishment only on the ground that they have pleaded guilty, then the same will result in complete erosion of the sentencing policy of the country and will result in the creation of a device, whereby, such dreaded terrorist after indulging, waging and spearheading an act of war against the state, in case caught, would have a way out to avoid capital punishment. NIA in its appeal also stated that the crime committed by such dreaded terrorists, where due to their act of war, the nation has lost its valuable soldiers and has perpetrated irreparable grief not only to the family members of the soldiers but to the entire nation. NIA stated that the respondent/accused over decades has been indulging and spearheading terrorist activities in the valley and with the help of dreaded foreign terrorist organisations, having interest inimical to India, has been masterminding, planning, engineering and executing armed rebellion in the valley in an attempt to usurp the sovereignty and integrity of a part of India. Earlier on May 25, 2022, the trial court Judge while sentencing life imprisonment to JKLF leader Yasin Malik in the terror funding case said, in my opinion, there was no reformation of this convict. It may be correct that the convict may have given up the gun in the year 1994, but he had never expressed any regret for the violence he had committed prior to the year 1994. The NIA charge sheet submitted in the case stated that the Central Government received credible information that Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, Amir of Jammat-ud-Dawah and the secessionist and separatist leaders including the members of Hurriyat Conference have been acting in connivance with active militants of proscribed terrorist organizations like HM, LeT etc. for raising, receiving and collecting funds domestically and abroad through various illegal channels including hawala. The NIA also stated before the court that this has been done for funding separatist and terrorist activities in J-K and as such, they have entered into a larger conspiracy for causing disruption in the valley by way of pelting stones at security forces, systematically burning schools, damage to public property and waging war against India. (ANI)
"Today, SC has stayed Rahul Gandhi's conviction. We welcome this verdict given by the court. We will continue our legal battle in the court," said Modi.

His statements came after the Supreme Court has stayed Rahul Gandhis conviction in a 2019 criminal defamation case over his Modi surname remark.

Notably, in a relief to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, the Supreme Court, in an interim order on Friday, stayed his conviction in the criminal defamation case over the 'Modi surname' remark.

The apex court earlier in the day began hearing an appeal filed by the Congress leader challenging the Gujarat High Court order which declined to stay his conviction in the criminal defamation case.

Meanwhile, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhary said that he will approach the Lok Sabha speaker to reinstate Gandhi's membership in the lower house. (ANI)
Former Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Friday slammed newly-elected Congress government for 'diverting' Rs 11,000 crores the SC/ST sub-plans to implement the five guarantees and said that this was the "greatest injustice done by Congress Govt on Dalits." Bommai staged a demonstration against the Congress government for the misuse of Scheduled Castes Sub-Allocation & Tribal Sub-Allocation (SCP/TSP) funds in Bengalurus Freedom Park on Friday. While addressing the media, BJP leader and former Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai alleged that Congress had diverted Rs 11,000 crore meant for the development of the SC/ST community to fulfil their (Congress) 5 promises in Karnataka. "It's a disaster that almost Rs 11,000 crores have been diverted...This is a huge injustice done to SC/ST youth, women. This money would have gone to their house building, education...The development of the SC/ST community has been totally denied now. This is the greatest injustice done by Congress Govt on Dalits," said Bommai. BJP MPs representing the SC/ST communities also staged a demonstration in front of the Gandhi statue in the National capital on Friday to protest against the diversion of SC/ST funds by the Karnataka government to other departments. Earlier, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, the Karnataka Cabinet approved the diversion of money from the Rs 34,293-crore corpus of Scheduled Castes Sub-Plan and Tribal Sub-Plan (SCSP-TSP). Significantly, the SCSP-TSP mandates the government to spend 24.1 per cent of the total budget towards Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribes' welfare. The newly-elected Karnataka government had earlier decided to use nearly Rs 11,000 crore from funds of the social welfare department to implement the five guarantees - Gruhalakshmi, Gruhajyoti, Yuvanidhi, Annabhagya and Shakti Yojana. (ANI)
A month after a video of a tribal man being urinated upon by another man in Madhya Pradesh went viral, a new case has come up in the state, where a tribal youth was shot at by the son of a BJP MLA. The incident took place in Morba of Singrauli district when the tribal youth was allegedly shot at by Vivek Vaish, the son of BJP MLA Ramlallu Vaish from Singrauli, Madhya Pradesh. Vaish is accused of opening fire at the youth and severely injuring him and then fleeing from the spot. Police have registered a case against the accused. Madhya Pradesh Police said a case under Section 307 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and 25/27 of the Arms Act has been filed against Vaish. The victim has been identified as Surya Prakash Khairwar. He was hit on his hand and was rushed to a nearby hospital. According to the information received from the FIR, the incident took place near Budhi Mai Mandir at 6.30 pm on Thursday. As soon as the information was received, the police immediately reached the hospital. Shiv Kumar Verma, Addl SP Singrauli told ANI that teams have been formed to nab the BJP MLA's son. The Congress once again attacked the state government for failing to protect tribals. Responding to this, State Home Minister Narottam Mishra said, "Action will be taken. A case has been registered. The law will take its own course." Earlier, a video went viralwhich showed a man allegedly urinating on the face of another man in an inebriated state. The accused was identified as Pravesh Shukla, a resident of Kubri village. (ANI)
Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said that the "conspiracy" against Rahul Gandhi has "failed" and the Supreme Court's stay on the conviction of Rahul Gandhi in the 'Modi' surname defamation case is a major relief to him. "The decision of the top court of our country is a big relief for Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. The conspiracy against Rahul Gandhi has failed today," Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said on Friday hours after the top court's interim order. Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury who is also the president of the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee said that the party met the Speaker and also raised the issue of allowing Rahul Gandhi in the Parliament. "We met the Speaker and raised it in the Parliament that Rahul Gandhi should be allowed in the Parliament. Rahul Gandhi's disqualification must be revoked and his membership be restored. He should be allowed to come to Parliament and give his statement," he said. Speaking on the no-confidence motion to be tabled in the Parliament next week, the senior Congress leader said, "We want Rahul Gandhi to speak on the no-confidence motion in Parliament." "People all over the world should listen to the way in which the ruling party is conspiring against Rahul Gandhi," he added. "I will also write to the Speaker," Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury added speaking about asking the Speaker to revoke the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi from the House following the apex court order. Earlier, speaking to ANI, the senior Congress leader said, "It's a happy day...I will write and speak to Lok Sabha Speaker today itself...This is the victory of truth. This will prove costly for Prime Minister. Chowdhury sought to raise the demand for revocation of Rahul Gandhis disqualification in Lok Sabha on Friday. He said he will also make the demand on Monday. The Supreme Court, in an interim order, stayed the conviction of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in the criminal defamation case over 'Modi surname' remark. The apex court issued notices to the Gujarat government and the complainant in July on an appeal of the Congress leader challenging the Gujarat High Court order. The Gujarat HC had earlier in its order declined to stay his conviction in the criminal defamation case in which he was sentenced to two years in jail by the Surat court over the 'Modi surname' remark. After his conviction in the case, Gandhi was disqualified as MP from Keralas Wayanad on March 24. Gandhi was sentenced to two years imprisonment which disqualified him as an MP under the rigours of the Representation of People Act. In March, the magisterial court convicted Gandhi for his remarks ahead of the 2019 national polls about the Modi surname. (ANI)
The justices' bench in the Supreme Court of Israel, is seen ahead of a hearing on a petition against a law that limits removal of a prime minister from office to medical and mental incapacitation, which makes forcing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from office over a conflict of interest while on trial for corruption more difficult, in Jerusalem on Aug. 3, 2023. (Ohad Zwigenberg/AP)

Authoritarianism can be defined in many ways. A judiciary subservient to the ruling regime is one of them.

No one would expect a court in Russia, China, Turkey, Iran or North Korea to mete out true, unbiased justice. In those countries, rule of law is an empty promise. Israel isnt in the same category, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus push to weaken his nations Supreme Court represents the most ominous threat to Israels democracy in its 75-year history.

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Can Israel save itself from its anti-democratic backslide? Yes it can, provided that a majority of Israelis join forces with civil society and the high court itself to turn back Netanyahus reckless, politically expedient gambit.

It wont be easy, but legions of Israelis have already shown they can send a strong message warning Netanyahu how far he has dangerously strayed from Israels founding ideals. For months, throngs of demonstrators have taken to the streets in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem to protest their prime ministers actions. Many reservists in Israels military forces expressed their opposition to the judicial overhaul by resigning or threatening to resign. A growing number of Israelis, including high-tech workers, scientists and doctors, have said they arelooking into leaving the country.

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Netanyahu put himself in this position by aligning himself with Israels far-right Zionist leaders obsessed with settlement expansion in the West Bank and bent on moving the nation away from a pluralistic society at all costs. Netanyahu may be the face of the judicial overhaul, but his far-right allies are the engine behind it.

Netanyahus stated rationale for the overhaul is that Israels high court has far too much power over the Knesset, the countrys sole legislative chamber. However, a weakened Supreme Court suits Netanyahu perfectly, it gives him a better chance at eluding a potential prison term on pending charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust. A majority of Israelis believe Netanyahus bid to avoid justice is the real driver behind the judicial overhaul; a recent poll by an Israeli television channel found that nearly 60% of Israelis think that the prime minister is motivated by his personal agenda.

A core element of Netanyahus high court overhaul is a law passed late last month that prevents the Supreme Court from overturning government initiatives on the grounds that those measures lack reasonableness. That standard is a crucial tenet of judicial oversight, since Israel lacks a formal constitution to serve as a check against legislative overreach. Without it, Netanyahus far-right coalition can carry out its hard-line agenda as it pleases. Netanyahu wins, but its a monumental loss for a nation that for so long has made democracy an integral part of its identity.

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The Biden administration has tried to carefully navigate the Israeli crisis  warning Netanyahu about the pitfalls of forging ahead with the overhaul, while at the same time avoiding the potential for a rift in its relationship with its biggest ally in the Middle East. Though it makes sense for President Joe Biden to keep up the pressure on Netanyahu, ultimately its Israel that will have to pull itself away from the precipice. Ironically, the crisis is now squarely in the hands of the Israeli Supreme Court, which must decide whether the law the Knesset passed limiting its power should stand or be overturned.

Both options come with risk for the court and the country. Acquiescence essentially green-lights Netanyahus government to do as it wishes, which likely would lead to Israel becoming a Potemkin democracy. Arab minority rights would erode even faster than they have before, and settlements in the West Bank would proliferate in alarmingly greater numbers. Rejecting the law could set up a showdown between the high court and Netanyahu that puts the nations military, police and lower courts in the middle, not knowing which side to obey.

In the end, the court really has no option but to strike down Netanyahus new law. Its less about the courts self-preservation and more about taking a firm stand in defense of Israeli democracy, which surely will wither if the ideal of checks and balances isnt safeguarded.

Its also vital that the high court doesnt take this stand alone. Citizens and Israels civil society must stand alongside the Supreme Court in this moment of crisis. The best way to get Netanyahu and his far-right allies to abandon their assault on Israel democracy is to put up a united front.

Like Americans, Israelis hold dear their countrys adherence to democracy. They must continue defending it.

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Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, on Friday, gave the young officers who joined the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) the mantra of "communication, coordination, and positivity" in order to have a fruitful career. Interacting with 16 officers of the UP cadre of the IAS 2021 batch, the Chief Minister said, Becoming an essential part of the administration of a large state like Uttar Pradesh is filled with significant challenges, and these challenges will shape your personality. As an IAS officer, you will have the responsibility of working from Joint Magistrates to the highest positions in government and formulating policies. On such occasions, you should have a sense of public welfare in your mind. He further guided them to feel connected with the public during their field assignments. The Chief Minister emphasized that the initial 56 years of their work will pave the way for their career for the next 30-35 years. He instructed the young officers to work with a positive attitude and gain the trust of the people. The Chief Minister further said, During your transfers, if people are saddened by your departure, understand that you are moving in the right direction. Referring to various events in the state, the Chief Minister stated that after training, when you receive your first posting as a joint magistrate, there will also be revenue matters and an opportunity to handle law and order. Currently, there are thousands of pending revenue cases, and people are awaiting swift justice, and you can fulfil their expectations, he added. Emphasizing the importance of communication in matters of law and order, the Chief Minister mentioned that no matter how large the crowd or how intense the anger is, if there is proper communication, then every problem can be solved. Officers who had been deployed in positions such as BDO, Sub Collector, and CDPO in districts such as Ayodhya, Kanpur, Hardoi, Rae Bareli Moradabad, Agra, Saharanpur, Azamgarh, Jhansi, Mathura, Gorakhpur, Varanasi, etc. also shared their experiences during the dialogue. These young officers, who are now prepared for phase II of their training, not only discussed the challenges of their respective districts but also acquainted him with the innovations they had introduced. The Chief Minister mentioned that in this vast state with a population of 25 crore, 18 divisions, and 75 districts, every district poses its own challenges. Understanding and facing them as administrative officers is your responsibility, he said. The Chief Minister stated that, as officers, bringing positive change to the lives of the common people is a noble endeavour that should be pursued effectively. (ANI)
The Smart City project work in Coimbatore under the Central Government-funded Smart Cities Mission programme will be completed by September 2023, Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation Commissioner M Prathap said on Friday. Talking to ANI, the Commissioner said that 93 per cent of Smart City works in Coimbatore have been completed and the remaining seven per cent of work will be completed by September 2023. Out of 54 projects under the Smart City, 43 have been already completed and the rest are near completion. Coimbatore Corporation ranks first among the 11 urban local bodies in the State in implementing projects taken up under the Central Government-funded Smart Cities Mission programme. Prathap said that out of Rs 1200 crore allotted for various smart city projects, around Rs 1000 crore has been utilised. Speaking about the key Smart City projects, Prathap said that among the three important projects which we have taken, one is the development of the cascading system of lakes. Lakes have been developed under the Smart City Mission. Lots of people who were living near the lake were rehabilitated to better housing under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Urban (PMAY-U), a flagship Mission of the Government of India. Then we were able to make public spaces like cycle tracks, walking tracks and food joints were made at lakes. We also made boatings and selfie points at lakes. The Commissioner said that the second important Smart City project is pedestrian-friendly model roads which we have developed in Coimbatore. This model road is around nine kilometres of pedestrian-friendly roads that have been constructed in Coimbatore. The Commissioner said that the third important Smart City project was green energy. Under this, green energy solar panels were installed which reduced electricity cost to around four to five crore per year. CFL lights were changed into LED lights which reduced greenhouse gas emissions and carbon emissions as well as electricity charges, he added. The Commissioner said that Coimbatore had been one of the fastest-growing city but had lacked public spaces inside the city. As per the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines, each city should have six square kilometres per capita public space availability, but Coimbatore had less than one. However, after the implementation of the Smart City projects, the per capita land availability of public space availability had risen to more than four square kilometres, he said. Rajeev Jain, the Additional Director General and Spokesman of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development said that the Smart Cities Mission launched on June 25, 2015, is aimed at providing core infrastructure, clean and sustainable environment and a decent quality of life to their citizens through the application of smart solutions. (ANI)
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath reviewed the programs/schemes of the Panchayati Raj Department on Friday and gave necessary guidelines regarding the empowerment of Gram Panchayats adding that there is no shortage of funds for development works in Panchayats. "There is no shortage of funds for development works in the three-tier panchayats (gram, kshetra, and zila panchayats). Funds should be allocated on time for the development of panchayats. Ensure the quality of the work. In view of transparency in the work of three-tier panchayats, the system of the GeM (Government e-Market) portal should be implemented", CM Yogi said. The Chief Minister emphasized that empowerment of villages is necessary for the prosperity of the state, in this direction, the planned efforts made in Uttar Pradesh in the last six years have yielded good results. "Uttar Pradesh, the country's largest state, has about one-fifth of the country's total gram panchayats. At present, the three-tier Panchayat Raj system is functioning ideally in the state through 57,702 Gram Panchayats, 75 Zila Panchayats, and 826 Kshetra Panchayats. Many of our panchayats have presented a model by adopting innovation. We have to make our villages aatmanirbhar. Villages have talent and potential, they just need a little guidance. Concrete efforts should be made in this regard", he added. The CM said that the proposals received so far under the Mathrubhumi scheme are encouraging. "Resourceful families have many options for organizing marriages and other functions. However, organizing such grand functions poses a significant financial challenge for families with limited or unstable incomes. There is a great need for marriage halls in the villages. In such a situation, marriage halls should be constructed in all gram panchayats. The proposals received so far under the Mathrubhumi scheme are encouraging. Proposals are being received from the migrants for each district. This scheme should also be used for the construction of marriage halls in villages", he said. He further highlighted the need for better drainage system in every village adding that the aim should be to make all gram panchayats and revenue villages a model of waste disposal by 2025. "After getting rid of open defecation, now we have to work on the disposal of solid and liquid waste in the villages. There should be a better drainage system in every village. Our aim should be to make all 57702 Gram panchayats and 95826 revenue villages included in them a model of waste disposal by the coming year 2025. Prepare a step-by-step action plan for the success of this goal. For liquid waste management, soakage, a filter chamber, constructed wetland, etc. should be constructed. Composting can be useful for solid waste management. Make efforts to increase public awareness to make villages free from banned plastic. All gram panchayats should be ISO certified in a phased manner", he said. The establishment of village secretariats in all the gram panchayats of the state has made rural life easy, he added. Panchayat Assistant / Accountant cum Data Entry Operator has been appointed here. For the first time, the empanelment of an Architect/Consulting Engineer is being done for the villages. Gram Panchayats are capable of online functions. Today, the person sitting in the village is getting the direct benefit of the government's schemes, the chief minister said. "The village secretariats operating in all the gram panchayats of the state should be equipped with high-speed internet service. Wi-Fi facility should also be provided within a 50-meter radius of the secretariat premises for the use of common people. Every village should be equipped with digital facilities. Prepare the necessary action plan in this regard", he said. The CM further said, "Online Revenue Management System portal should be implemented for the purpose of bringing transparency in the execution of works by implementing an e-governance system in district panchayats of the state. With this portal, it will be possible to do tax collection, license issuance, map approval, etc. smoothly and transparently." In all village secretariats, install public address systems and CCTV cameras. All weather stations and rain gauges should be established in coordination with the Agriculture Department for forecasting weather in rural areas, he added. (ANI)
The accused was produced before a Court on Friday and remanded into Judicial custody.

"A case under the sections of Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) was filed against the accused," said an officer of the local police station, adding, "The victims are minor siblings."

Further, according to the police, the accused and minors lived in the same locality.

The incident came to light during a counselling session at a school, the officer said, adding, "The school authorities altered the local police and the accused was arrested."

The incident comes barely a week after a 5-year-old girl, abducted from her home in Kochi, was raped and strangled to death. The minor, who had been reported missing, was found dead near Aluva market.

According to officials, the girl belonged to a migrant family from Bihar and had been living in Kerala for 8 years.

"The post-mortem report of the minor confirmed that she was raped. The accused smashed her face with a stone. She was strangled to death. The girl had severe injuries to the head," a senior police officer said, citing thepost-mortem report.

After killing the minor, the accused put her body in a sack and dumped it near the market, the officer added. (ANI)
Delhi Police Special Cell has filed a 936-page chargesheet against six accused persons in the Tillu Tajpuria murder case. The chargesheet contains a list of 113 prosecution witnesses. The CCTV footage of the incident has also been included in the evidence. However, reports from the Forensic Science Laboratory are awaited. Patiala House court has taken cognizance of the charge sheet and the next hearing has been scheduled on August 17. According to Delhi Police, CCTV footage of the incident, statements of witnesses under section 161 CrPC and statements recorded before the court under section 164 CrPC of the eyewitnesses who were present at the time of the incident have been included in the chargesheet. Delhi Police said it also recovered the weapons of offence, blood-stained clothes and shoes at the instance of the accused persons. During further investigation, six blood-stained knives were recovered from the accused. Clothes and shoes worn by the accused persons at the time of the incident were also recovered from different jails, as all the accused persons were shifted to different jails after the incident. The police said CCTV footage of the incident was also seized from Tihar Jail. Further, all the blood-stained knives, along with the clothes and shoes of the accused and the victim, were deposited at FSL, Rohini, for DNA profiling. The CCTV footage was also sent to FSL, Rohini, for comparison with photos and videos of the accused. The result of all the exhibits is still pending, and the same will be filed through a supplementary charges sheet, police said. On May 2, Sunil alias Tillu Tajpuria was stabbed to death by members of the rival Gogi gang in Central Jail No 8, Tihar, allegedly to avenge the murder of their leader Jitender Gogi inside a courtroom in 2021. A case was registered at Hari Nagar police station of Delhi and the investigation was entrusted to the Northern Range of the Special Cell, Delhi. During the course of the investigation, six accused persons Deepak alias Tittar, Yogesh alias Tunda, Riyaz Khan alias Sonu, Rajesh alias Karambir, Vinod alias Chavanni and Ata ur Rehman Khan all inmates of Central Jail-8, were arrested in connection with the case. (ANI)
Karnataka Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao praised Delhi's Mohalla Clinics during a visit, but changed his stance after receiving a mysterious phone call, said AAP sources on Friday. Health Minister of Karnataka Dinesh Gundu Rao paid a visit to Delhi's Aam Aadmi Mohalla Clinic in Panchsheel Park. During a media conversation, he initially praised the Mohalla Clinic. He toured the Mohalla Clinic with Delhi's Health Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj, AAP sources said. The Health Minister of Karnataka said that he wanted to see how the Delhi government was implementing its health policies. He observed that the Mohalla Clinic was functioning effectively. Mohalla Clinics have been operational for the last six-seven years, and people have appreciated their services, he said. As per AAP sources, the Karnataka Health Minister mentioned that he learned many things during this visit and planned to visit clinics in Karnataka to improve their systems. Health is a crucial sector, and learning from each other is necessary for all, he said as per AAP sources. However, AAP sources said that later Dinesh Gundu Rao received a phone call following which he mentioned an important meeting and left the location. A while later, he tweeted criticising the Mohalla Clinic. However, only Dinesh Rao can clarify why his statement changed from praising the Mohalla Clinic to criticising it after the phone call, AAP sources said. In his tweet, he claimed that Namma Clinic in Karnataka had better infrastructure than Mohalla Clinic. To verify this claim, Aam Aadmi Party's Karnataka team visited a Namma Clinic in his constituency. The AAP Karnataka team stated that they visited the Namma Clinic in Dinesh Gundu Rao's constituency of Gandhi Nagar. They found that both Namma Clinic and Primary Health Center were located adjacent to each other, AAP sources said. People mentioned that the Primary Health Center had been closed for a long time, AAP sources said. Namma Clinic, in reality, is just a name, they said. It was initiated by the BJP government. The clinic provides only primary treatment for some illnesses like fever, AAP sources said adding that patients are referred to other hospitals, including Kesi General Hospital, from there, they said. Delhi's Mohalla Clinics are well-equipped, and treatment is provided free of cost. Numerous tests are conducted free of charge in Delhi's Mohalla Clinics. MBBS doctors are present in Mohalla Clinics, providing medicines for various illnesses,AAP sources said. Delhi's Mohalla Clinics have world-class facilities. According to the Aam Aadmi Party, it's unfortunate that Karnataka's Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao visited Delhi's Mohalla Clinic and observed its world-class facilities and subsequently, he tweeted praising Namma Clinic as better than Mohalla Clinic. Namma Clinic has hygiene issues, while the operations of Mohalla Clinics are monitored by a private agency, AAP sources said. The claim made by the Health Minister that Namma Clinic's infrastructure is superior to Mohalla Clinic is false, they said adding that Namma Clinic lacks good facilities. (ANI)
Truth has won today, said Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury after Supreme Court stayed Rahul Gandhis conviction in a 2019 defamation case adding that he has spoken to the Speaker in Parliament for reinstating Rahuls membership at the earliest. "We were overjoyed when the SC pronounced its decision. Rahul Gandhi's absence from the Parliament was felt. Through Point of Information, I told the Speaker in the Parliament about the SC's decision and said that his membership should be reinstated at the earliest...Truth won today," MP Chowdhury said. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday hailed the Supreme Court's stay on Rahul Gandhi's conviction in a 2019 defamation case and called it a victory of democracy and the Constitution, adding that it will be seen how long will it take to reinstate him after the Supreme Court relief. "Satyameva Jayate....we all are happy and welcome the judgement of the Supreme Court. It is not only the victory of Rahul Gandhi but a victory of democracy and the Constitution...It's a victory of people. Rahul Gandhi was disqualified within 24 hours. Let's see in how many hours is he reinstated," Kharge said at a press conference in the national capital. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi thanked the people for their support and said that it may take time but the "truth always triumphs". Truth always triumphs, if not today then tomorrow or the day after. I thank people for their support, he said at a press conference in the national capital. Senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala said that the highest court of India realised that this is an attempt to silence Rahul Gandhi who was opposing the mischief of the central government. Asserting that the people of Wayanad are "happy" with the Supreme Court's order, Ramesh Chennithala said, "We will be strengthened by this verdict and the people of Kerala, especially the people of Wayanad will be happy as they have got their Member of Parliament back and his services will be there for the rest of the period of the Lok Sabha." Soon after the Supreme Court stayed the conviction, Congress workers in Kalpetta town of Wayanad district in Kerala carried out a celebratory march and distributed sweets earlier today. Congress workers in Bengaluru also celebrated by distributing sweets following the SC verdict. Responding to the SC verdict, Rajasthan Chief Minister and Congress leader Ashok Gehlot said that everything is going in the right direction adding that Congress will return to power in Rajasthan "After independence, Rahul Gandhi is the first person who got a full sentence of two years in a defamation case. Today, the Supreme Court rejected the verdict of the lower court. Everything is going in the right direction now...Congress will return to power in Rajasthan, CM Gehlot said. Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said, "There is no way forward required by the courts or by us. The only way forward is, please restore his membership, his entry both into Lok Sabha and into his proper rightful house within the same time as you unceremoniously turned him out..." Following Supreme Courts verdict, Tamil Nadu Minister and DMK leader Udhayanidhi Stalin on Friday said that this judgement will morally boost the opposition alliance, INDIA to strengthen democratic and secular values. Welcoming the Supreme Court's verdict, Udhayanidhi Stalin said that the Apex Court valiantly upheld the sentiments and mandate of the people of Wayanad. Democratic Progressive Azad Party Chairman Ghulam Nabi Azad called it a good thing. There was no effect of his disqualification. He was doing the same job which he was doing earlier as an MP, Azad said. Justice has prevailed, remarked Karnataka Deputy CM DK Shivakumar hours after SCs verdict came and said, The highest court of the country has given a message that small internal issues can't be blown up and vendetta politics has no place in democracy...How they removed him from Parliament within 24 hours, the same way he has to be restored. It is the duty of the Speaker. Otherwise, the Speaker will also be in trouble." Karnataka Minister Priyank Kharge said its the triumph of truth and the constitution. We welcome the SC's verdict on Mr Gandhi and I think it's the triumph of truth and constitution, his (Rahul Gandhi's) honesty and politics have been upheld... It's also a good lesson for the BJP not to follow the vindictive politics and it's been ten years since they've been doing this, Priyank Kharge said. Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel demanded that Rahul Gandhis disqualification be revoked. "SC's decision is democracy's win and all the conspiracies against Rahul Gandhi to disqualify him from Lok Sabha have failed. They wanted to keep him away from the Parliament because he raises questions...We welcome SC's decision and his disqualification must be revoked," CM Baghel said. In a relief to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, the Supreme Court, in an interim order on Friday, stayed his conviction in the criminal defamation case over the 'Modi surname' remark. The apex court issued notices to the Gujarat government and the complainant in July on an appeal of the Congress leader challenging the Gujarat High Court order. The Gujarat HC had in its order declined to stay his conviction in the criminal defamation case in which Rahul Gandhi was sentenced to two years in jail by the Surat court over the 'Modi surname' remark. After his conviction in the case, Gandhi was disqualified as MP from Keralas Wayanad on March 24. Earlier in March, a magisterial court convicted Rahul Gandhi for his Modi surname remarks ahead of the 2019 national polls. (ANI)
U.S. steals, moves Syria's bran, oil to bases in Iraq: report

Xinhua) 09:46, August 04, 2023

DAMASCUS, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. forces have stolen and illegally moved a large quantity of bran and more oil from Syria's northeast province of Hasakah to its bases in Iraq, Syria's state news agency SANA reported Thursday.

Citing local sources from the Al-Yarubiyah countryside near the Iraqi border, SANA said that a convoy consisting of 45 trucks carrying bran, which were loaded from Al-Yarubiyah silos, left in batches through the illegal Al-Mahmudiyah crossing for the U.S. occupation bases in northern Iraq on Wednesday.

The convoy also included several tanks loaded with oil stolen from Hasakah, said the report.

Last month, the U.S. forces removed two convoys consisting of 95 tanks and trucks carrying stolen oil and bran to its bases in Iraqi territory.

The "American occupation continued to steal Syrian wealth from the areas it occupies" with the help of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), said the report.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
Amid rising dengue cases in Tripura, Chief Minister Manik Saha on Friday chaired a high-level to assess the prevailing situation in the state, the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) informed through a press release. Further, in a Facebook post, CM Saha wrote,Dengue fever has been reported in a few places, including Dhanpur, in the past few days. The health department is aware of the matter and has taken all necessary measures. A meeting was held today with health officials at the Secretariat to review all aspects related to the impact of dengue. At a press conference later on Friday, Secretary of Health and Family Welfare, Debasish Basu, informed that the chief minister assessed the present situation with regard to cases of dengue fever at the review meeting, which was also attended by Chief Secretary JK Sinha. Basu said, "In Dhanpur, dengue fever has been reported since July 13, and these cases are suspected to have migrated fromBangladesh. Since then, the health department has taken various steps to prevent further spread of this vector-borne disease. We have deployed doctors, paramedics, and other health workers in Dhanpur to intensify efforts to contain the spread of dengue." "Additionally, we have assigned a gynaecologist to look after pregnant women. As of August 1, there were approximately 157 confirmed dengue cases, with 41 reported in the last two days. Around 35 patients are admitted at GB Pant Hospital, with one in the ICU," he added. Basu informed further that he, along with the medical superintendent of GB Pant Hospital, spoke with the patients and their family members. "We have sufficient logistics, including over 1500 ELISA kits in stock. An amount of Rs 2 lakh has been sanctioned from NHM to procure more ELISA kits and other required items are also available in adequate numbers," Basu added. He informed further that the health department has taken several measures, such as massive fogging and declaring the upcoming Sunday as a dry day to clear stored water. "Additionally, there has been an increase in the deployment of health teams in Dhanpur," he was quoted as saying in the statement. (ANI)
The contentious Delhi Services Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha on Thursday by a voice vote, amid an Opposition walkout.

During his visit to the state, Shah is scheduled to inaugurate and lay the foundation stone for various development projects in the city.

Shah was received warmly at the Bhubaneswar airport by leaders of the state unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party as well as party workers.

Taking to Twitter, the office of the Home Minister posted, "Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Shri @AmitShah Ji will Inaugurate & lay the foundation stone of various projects in Bhubaneswar, tomorrow at 11:00 AM".

https://twitter.com/i/status/1687535823468761088

The inauguration ceremony is scheduled to be held at a convention centre, Lok Seva Bavan.

The BJD had earlier announced its support for the Delhi Services Bill, which was tabled in the Lower House by the Union Minister of State for Home, Nityanand Rai.

The Union Home Minister initiated a discussion on the Bill on Thursday.

Having secured passage in the Lower House, the Delhi Services Bill will now be introduced in the Rajya Sabha where the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) does not have a majority.

Meanwhile, speaking to ANI, Lekhashree Samantsinghar, a BJP leader from Odisha,hailed Shah as a tall leader, adding, "He is always seen inspiring the party workers. He is a leader who believes in directly connecting with workers. His smile is enough to enthuse our cadres."

Sharing details of his visit, she said Shah will hold a meeting with party workers, office bearers and the core team in the state on Saturday. (ANI)
Former US President Donald Trump has pleaded not guilty to four federal charges stemming from his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, CNN reported. The next hearing in the Trump election interference case is set for August 28. Magistrate JudgeMoxila Upadhyaya scheduled the next hearing in the election subversion case for August 28 at 10 a.m.ET. That proceeding will happen beforeUS District Judge Tanya Chutkan. Prosecutor Thomas Windom said the government was available on all of the days that the magistrate judge offered as potential hearing days, but would prefer the earliest one. The Trump team requested August 28, the latest of the three options. I will also note, Mr. Trump, that to the extent you are not able to attend as a result of your schedule, I have consulted with Judge Chutkan and she is willing to waive your appearance, Upadhyaya said. Prosecutors from special counsel Jack Smiths office did not seek pretrial detention for Donald Trump. Instead, the former president will be released on very minimal conditions of release, which include not being allowed to communicate with anyone known to be a witness in the case unless through an attorney, CNN reported. Trump stood and raised his right hand, swearing to abide by the conditions of release and he also signed papers agreeing to the conditions. Trumpwas indicted on Tuesdayas part of special counsel Jack Smiths investigation into Trump's efforts to reverse the election leading up to the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. He was charged with these four counts; Conspiracy to defraud the United States, Conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, Obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and Conspiracy against rights. How does Mr. Trump plead? Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya asked Trump how he pleaded to counts 1-4 in the indictment. Not guilty, Trump said. Trump was joined by his attorneys John Lauro and Todd Blanche. Another Trump attorney, Evan Corcoran, who has not formally entered an appearance in the case was seated at a row behind the defense table. The case in Washington is the third indictment filed against Trump in the last four months and the most all-encompassing, accusing him of attempting to undermine the peaceful transfer of power from one president to the next, one of the central tenets of US democracy. It accuses him of orchestrating a plan to retain power even though aides repeatedly told him he had lost the election and there was no proof of substantial fraud that would have changed the outcome, as he claimed then and does to this day, VOA reported. In a fiery fundraising email, the former president assailed his rival, President Joe Biden, for overseeing "a dystopian Third World dictatorship that has only temporarily taken control of our once great and free Republic." Trump is the first US president, in office or after his term, in the country's 247-year history to face criminal charges, VOA reported. Security was tightened around the US courthouse in Washington, with some streets closed to traffic and large trucks with plough blades positioned bumper to bumper to block entryways in the event any troublemakers appear. Dozens of officers stood guard in the area. Tow trucks were removing parked cars. The courthouse is located just blocks from the US Capitol, near where Trump on January 6, 2021, urged thousands of his supporters to go and "fight like hell" to prevent lawmakers from certifying that Biden had won the election, VOA reported. About 2,000 rioters rampaged into the Capitol building that day, clashing with police, ransacking congressional offices and delaying the final votes in the Electoral College showing that Biden had won until the early hours of January 7. Trump, to no avail, had demanded that then-Vice President Mike Pence, presiding over the Electoral College vote count, block the outcome to keep them in power. Despite the growing number of criminal charges Trump is facing, he is far and away the leading Republican contender for the party's 2024 presidential nomination and could again face Biden, the Democrat who defeated him in 2020 and replaced Trump as president in early 2021. Trump is also facing a state trial in New York in March 2024 on charges that he altered business records at his real-estate conglomerate to hide a USD 130,000 hush money payment to a porn film performer ahead of his successful 2016 run for the presidency to silence her claim that she had a one-night tryst with Trump a decade earlier. Trump has denied the affair occurred, VOA reported. In another case, Smith indicted Trump on charges that he illegally retained 32 highly classified national security documents at his oceanside Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida after he left office in early 2021 and then conspired with a personal aide to keep from having to hand them over to federal investigators who had subpoenaed them. That trial is set for next May. (ANI)
India's permanent representative to the United Nations Ruchira Kamboj said that India supports the efforts made by the UN Secretary-General in continuing the Black Sea Grain Initiative. While addressing the United Nations Security Council, Kamboj said, "India supports the efforts of the UN Secretary-General in continuing the Black Sea Grain Initiative and hopes for an early resolution to the present impasse." She also showed appreciation to the United States for its presidency of the Security Council and for bringing to focus the crucial issue of conflict-induced food insecurity. "We must work together to find common solutions through dialogue and diplomacy. Choosing peace, cooperation and multilateralism is essential for building our collective future. Strengthening the international architecture and governance systems to protect the global order. Global laws and global values must therefore be a shared responsibility," Kamboj suggested. "Addressing the growing food grain shortages requires us to go beyond current constraints. As far as India is concerned, we are fully committed to playing our part in addressing contemporary global challenges, as reflected in our membership of the Champions Group of the Global Crisis Response Group Number," she added. Regarding the Black Sea Grain Initiative, India's permanent representative said, "Recent developments in this matter have not helped in securing the larger cause of peace and stability very quickly, Madam President, I would like to state that India has always been proactive in assisting our partners in times of distress." Kamboj also recalled how even in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, India provided food aid in the form of thousands of metric tons of wheat, rice, pulses and lentils to several countries, including in our neighbourhood and Africa, to strengthen food security. "In view of the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, india commenced the donation of 50,000 metric tons of wheat to the people of Afghanistan," she said. "Similarly, India has continued its humanitarian support for Myanmar, including a grant of 10,000 tons of rice and wheat. We've also assisted Sri Lanka, including with food assistance, during its difficult times," she mentioned. "All these were in keeping with our foreign policy priority of neighbourhood first and our firm belief in the abiding ethos of Vasudhev Kutumbakam, where India sees the world as one large interconnected family, leveraging our presidency of the G 20," she added. She said that India has advocated for greater efforts to accelerate the achievement of the SDGs, including SDG Two, calling for zero hunger. "The Indian presidency is committed to depoliticizing the global supply of food, fertilizers and medical products so that geopolitical tensions do not lead to humanitarian crises unquote," she added quoting Prime Minister Narendra Modi. (ANI)
Two Navy sailors in Southern California were arrested and accused of providing military secrets and sensitive information to Chinese intelligence officers, the New York Times reported. Jinchao Wei, known as Patrick Wei, 22, was charged with spying for the Chinese under the Espionage Act. Wei serves aboard the Essex, an assault ship moored at Naval Base San Diego, which is the home of the Pacific Fleet. The investigators said that he misused the clearance to access the sensitive national security information. The second sailor, Petty Officer Wenheng Zhao, 26, also known as Thomas, was charged with taking bribes in exchange for providing sensitive US military information to a Chinese intelligence officer posing as an economic researcher, The New York Times reported. Zhao worked at the Naval Base Ventura County in Port Hueneme, which is home to several aircraft squadrons and the services naval construction battalions in the Pacific. The charges appearto reflect the Chinese governments deep interest in the Navys Pacific Fleet and other aspects of the American militarys operations in that region, part of a broader effort by China to steal American corporate and national security secrets. Grossman said the section of the Espionage Act under which Wei was charged has been used just a handful of times in the past few years, underscoring the seriousness of the crime. The betrayal was particularly acute in San Diego, he added. San Diego indeed has a storied history with the United States Navy, he said. Thats why this conduct is personal for San Diego, and we will not stand for it, he added. The prosecutors said that Wei began working for the Chinese in early 2022. In serving as a machinists mate for the Navy, he is an engineer trained to operate and maintain a range of equipment, from small pumps to refrigerators to large machinery for propelling a ship through the ocean. He provided his handler with the defence and weapons abilities of US warships as well as their vulnerabilities, communicating via encrypted platforms. In one instance in June last year, the Chinese intelligence officer asked Wei for information about the number and training of US Marines during an upcoming international maritime warfare exercise.In another instance, Wei received USD 5,000 for 30 technical and mechanical ship manuals, the court filing said. Some of the information that Wei provided to the Chinese was deemed critical technology by the US Navy. In a news release, the Justice Department said that warships like the Essex serve as the cornerstone of the US Navys amphibious readiness and expeditionary strike capabilities. Wei was evidently seeking US citizenship while working clandestinely with the Chinese, according to the indictment, with his handler congratulating Wei when he received it. In the second indictment, Zhao, who is from Monterey Park, worked at an unnamed Chinese intelligence officers direction from August 2021 through at least May this year. Among the sensitive details he sent the officer were electrical diagrams and blueprints for a radar system stationed on a US military base in Okinawa, Japan, as well as operational plans for a large-scale US military exercise in the Indo-Pacific region. The prosecutors said that those plans detailed the specific location and timing of naval force movements, amphibious landings, maritime operations and logistics support. Zhao was not charged under the Espionage Act, but a Justice Department news release says he faces 20 years in prison if convicted. Both men earned thousands of dollars secretly working for the Chinese, prosecutors say. (ANI)
Donald Trumps supporters gathered outside the DC federal courthouse on Friday to lend their support to the former US President in the election interference case. I'm here supporting Donald Trump and actually supporting all of the political prisoners from January 6 that are being held illegally, said Suzanne Monk, one of the supporter,standing outside the DC federal courthouse on Friday. Monk was standing alongside other Trump supporters waiting for the former US President to arrive at the DC federal courthouse to face 2020 election conspiracy charges. Monk further said: You've seen countries like Venezuela and other countries that are taken over by dictators, and what they do then is use the courts and use jails to control their political opponents. And now we see it in the United States, which is a very sad day for us. But I think that this is something that is going to really energize and wake up the American people..." FormerUSPresidentDonald Trumphas pleadednot guiltyto four federal charges stemming from his efforts to overturn the2020 election, CNN reported. The next hearing in the Trump election interference case is set for August 28. Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya scheduled the next hearing in the election subversion case for August 28 at 10 am ET. That proceeding will happen before US District Judge Tanya Chutkan.Prosecutor Thomas Windom said the government was available on all of the days that the magistrate judge offered as potential hearing days, but would prefer the earliest one. The Trump team requested August 28, the latest of the three options. I will also note, Mr Trump, that to the extent you are not able to attend as a result of your schedule, I have consulted with Judge Chutkan and she is willing to waive your appearance, Upadhyaya said. Prosecutors from special counsel Jack Smiths office did not seek pretrial detention forDonald Trump. Instead, the former president will be released on very minimal conditions of release, which include not being allowed to communicate with anyone known to be a witness in the case unless through an attorney, CNN reported. Trump stood and raised his right hand, swearing to abide by the conditions of release and he also signed papers agreeing to the conditions. Trumpwas indicted on Tuesdayas part of special counsel Jack Smiths investigation into Trump's efforts to reverse the election leading up to the January 6, 2021, attack on theUSCapitol. He was charged with these four counts; Conspiracy to defraud the United States, Conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, Obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and Conspiracy against rights. How does Mr Trump plead? Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya asked Trump how he pleaded to counts 1-4 in the indictment. Not guilty, Trump said. Trump was joined by his attorneys John Lauro and Todd Blanche. Another Trump attorney, Evan Corcoran, who has not formally entered an appearance in the case was seated at a row behind the defense table. The case inWashingtonis the third indictment filed against Trump in the last four months and the most all-encompassing, accusing him of attempting to undermine the peaceful transfer of power from one president to the next, one of the central tenets ofUSdemocracy. It accuses him of orchestrating a plan to retain power even though aides repeatedly told him he had lost the election and there was no proof of substantial fraud that would have changed the outcome, as he claimed then and does to this day, VOA reported. In a fiery fundraising email, the former president assailed his rival,PresidentJoe Biden, for overseeing "a dystopian Third World dictatorship that has only temporarily taken control of our once great and free Republic." Trump is the firstUSpresident, in office or after his term, in the country's 247-year history to face criminal charges, VOA reported. Security was tightened around theUScourthouse inWashington, with some streets closed to traffic and large trucks with plough blades positioned bumper to bumper to block entryways in the event any troublemakers appear. Dozens of officers stood guard in the area. Tow trucks were removing parked cars. The courthouse is located just blocks from theUSCapitol, near where Trump on January 6, 2021, urged thousands of his supporters to go and "fight like hell" to prevent lawmakers from certifying that Biden had won the election, VOA reported. About 2,000 rioters rampaged into the Capitol building that day, clashing with police, ransacking congressional offices and delaying the final votes in the Electoral College showing that Biden had won until the early hours of January 7. Trump, to no avail, had demanded that then-VicePresidentMike Pence, presiding over the Electoral College vote count, block the outcome to keep them in power. Despite the growing number of criminal charges Trump is facing, he is far and away the leading Republican contender for the party's 2024 presidential nomination and could again face Biden, the Democrat who defeated him in 2020 and replaced Trump as president in early 2021. (ANI)
Nigers President Mohamed Bazoum has claimed he has been held hostage, in an opinion pieces in The Washington Post he warned that Niger is under attack from a military that is trying to overthrow a democratically elected government. He said that the coup launched by a faction in the Niger military junta on July 26 has no justification and if it succeeds, it will have "devastating consequences" for country, the region and the entire world. Mohamed Bazoum in The Washington Post opinion piece wrote, "I write this as a hostage. Niger is under attack from a military junta that is trying to overthrow our democracy, and I am just one of hundreds of citizens who have been arbitrarily and illegally imprisoned." He further stated, "This coup, launched against my government by a faction in the military on July 26, has no justification whatsoever. If it succeeds, it will have devastating consequences for our country, our region and the entire world." Nigers President Mohamed Bazoum said that the coup plotters falsely claimed that they acted to protect the security of Niger. He said that the coup plotters have alleged that his "war" against terrorists is failing and his economic and social governance, including partnerships with the United States and Europe has hurt Niger. Bazoum stressed that Niger government came to power through a democratic election in 2021. He said that any attempt to overthrow a "lawful government" must be opposed. He stressed that the rebels must appreciate the unequivocal condemnation of the effort to undermine the progress of Niger. Mohamed Bazoum said that the security situation inNiger has "improved dramatically" facilitated by the partnerships the junta opposes. He noted that foreign aid makes up 40 per cent of Niger's national budget. But, it will not be delivered if the coup succeeds. Mohamed Bazoum in The Washington Post opinion piece wrote, "Any attempt to overthrow a lawful government must be opposed, and we appreciate the strong and unequivocal condemnations of this cynical effort to undermine the remarkable progress Niger has made under democracy." He added, "The United States, the African and European Unions, and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have been loud and clear: This coup must end, and the junta must free everyone they have unlawfully arrested." The Niger President said that the country suffered no major attacks on the north and the west since he took office in 2021, according to The Washington Post report. He said that Niger has been safe in the past 15 years due to allies support and training from partners, including the Indiana National Guard. He said that the security situation in Niger is better than Mali and Burkina Faso. Following the military coup that sparked international condemnation, Abdourahamane Tiani, a Niger general, declared himself as the countrys new leader, by appearing on national television, CNN reported on Friday. Tiani appeared on Tele Sahel with a banner identifying him as President of the national council for the Preservation of the Homeland. The appearance comes a day after the West African countrys military endorsed the leaders behind the toppling of President Mohamed Bazoums government. Tiani said in the broadcast that the coup was motivated by both the desire to preserve our homeland in a context of a deteriorating security situation, and poor economic and social governance, CNN reported. Earlier on Thursday, the Niger army command said it was supporting the seizure in a bid to thwart bloodshed. The militarys statement also warned against foreign military intervention, which it said risks having disastrous and uncontrolled consequences." (ANI)
Russian Defence Ministry on Friday said that it repelled separate Ukrainian drone attacks on Crimea and Black Sea naval base in southwest Russia, CNN reported. According to the Russian Defence Ministry, two uncrewed boats targeted the Novorossiysk naval base in Krasnodar province. "In the course of repelling the attack, the uncrewed boats were visually detected and destroyed by fire from the standard weapons of Russian ships guarding the outer roadstead of the naval base," according to CNN. Russian Defence Ministry also said that it shot down 10 drones over Crimea. Earlier on August 1,Russia has said that Ukraine launched three drones towards Moscow on Tuesday. Russian Ministry of Defence has termed it a "terrorist attack," CNN reported. In the statement, the Russian Ministry of Defence said, "On the night of 1 August, an attempt by the Kyiv regime to launch a terrorist attack by unmanned aerial vehicles against facilities in Moscow... was foiled." The ministry said that three drones were shot down, according to CNN. In the statement, the ministry said, "Two Ukrainian UAVs were destroyed in the air by air defence facilities over the territory of Odintsovo and Narofominsk districts of Moscow region." According to the statement, a third drone was intercepted and lost control before crashing into non-residential buildings complex in Moscow. The drone struck the same building that was hit in Ukrainian drone strikes on Sunday. The Kremlin believes there's "an obvious threat" after the latest drone strike on Moscow, Russian Presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday, according to CNN. Speaking to reporters, Peskov said, "There is an obvious threat, and measures are being taken." However, he did not elaborate on the attacks and steps taken to prevent them. Meanwhile, Ukrainian Presidential Adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said the drone attacks on Moscow demonstrate that Moscow is becoming "used to a full-fledged war," according to CNN. Mykhailo Podolyak tweeted, "Moscow is rapidly getting used to a full-fledged war, which, in turn, will soon finally move to the territory of the "authors of the war" to collect all their debts. Everything that will happen in Russia is an objective historical process. More unidentified drones, more collapse, more civil conflicts, more war." (ANI)
A Levies force senior officer and four others were injured in a bomb attack in the Mazai Adha region of Pakistan's Qila Abdullah on Thursday evening, Pakistan-based Dawn reported. According to officials, unidentified terrorists attached the explosive vehicle to the roof of a Levies vehicle. The explosive device went off when Risaldar Major Mohammad Nasim was travelling in it along with other people. All five people were injured while the vehicle was damaged. Levies and Frontier Corps personnel rushed to the site of the incident. Levies and FC personnel took the injured to the district hospital Qila Abdullah, according to Dawn report. Later, the injured were shifted to Quetta's Trauma Centre at Civil Hospital. Levies officials said the bomb was kept in a bag. Levies officials further said that the investigation into the incident was being carried out. Earlier on August 1, two police personnel escorting a polio vaccination team were killed on Tuesday when armed men opened fire on them in Quetta's Nawa Killi region, Dawn reported citing police. The attack on police personnel comes on the first day of a week-long campaign to administer the polio vaccination to approximately 2.6 million children under five years of age in Balochistan. Zarghoonabad Station House Officer (SHO) Asif Marwat has confirmed the casualties. Marwat identified the deceased as Constable Shaukat Ali and Syed Muhammad, according to Dawn. The SHO said that members of the polio team were not injured in the attack. However, he added that the polio campaign in Nawa Killi and its surrounding areas had been suspended, according to Dawn. Pakistan's Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari condemned what he described as a "terrorist attack" on the police team in Quetta. He expressed grief over the death of two police personnel. Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari expressed hope that the perpetrators of the attack will soon be put behind bars. He further said, "Concerned authorities should ensure foolproof security of polio teams, people should fully cooperate with polio workers." (ANI)
Villagers in Pakistan's Lakki Marwat held a protest over the killing of a prayer leader and blocked the Indus Highway in the Malang Adda area on Wednesday, according to Pakistan-based Dawn. Traffic between Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and other regions of Pakistan was disrupted due to the protest. According to police, prayer leader Maulana Fazalur Rehman was shot dead and his associate was injured in a gun attack on the Tajori Road near Malang Adda. The cleric's son, Ziaur Rehman, aged 15 was unhurt in the attack. Rehman told police that his father was taking Pakistani Rupees (PKR) 2.6 million cash in car to Tajori town when the gun attack took place, according to a Dawn report. He said, "My father kept Rs 2.5 million in a bag and handed it over to me, while Rs 100,000 cash was in his pocket. Armed men riding two motorcycles snatched the bag from me after shooting my father dead." He further said that villager Alibat Khan was wounded in the attack. After the gun attack, villagers arrived at Malang Adda and blocked traffic at Peshawar-Karachi Highway. The villagers even torched old tyres, Dawn reported. Marwat-Bitanni Tehreek chairman Inamullah said law enforcement agencies have not been able to provide security to people. Inamullah said, "In the broad daylight, innocent citizens are being killed and looted in the area." He asked the government to permit people to keep weapons for their safety, as per the Dawn report. Later, a government team which included local police officers held talks with protesters. The team assured the mob that attackers will be brought to book in 72 hours. The team said Bannu regional police officer Qasim Ali Khan had taken a serious notice of the incident. According to the team, a large contingent of police was in the region to find the attackers. (ANI)
Pakistan's Supreme Court on Friday dismissed former Prime Minister Imran Khan's plea against trial proceedings in connection with the Toshakhana criminal complaint after he withdrew the petition, Pakistan-based Dawn reported. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court rejected Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan's request to stay trial in the Toshakhana case being heard at an Islamabad sessions court. However, the apex court had given relief to Imran Khan by postponing further proceedings till today so that he could approach the court again in case Islamabad High Court issued any adverse order. On Thursday, the Islamabad High Court reserved its verdict on a set of petitions filed by Imran Khan against the Toshakhana trial and is expected to issue the said verdict today, according to Dawn's report. The Islamabad High Court will issue the reserved verdict on Imran Khan's appeal against the trial courts order to deny his right to produce witnesses in the case. A three-member apex court bench, led by Justice Yahya Afridi and comprising Justice Musarrat Hilali and Justice Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi was set to hear Imran Khan's plea today, Dawn reported. However, the bench was reconstituted today with Justice Hasan Azhar Rizvi replacing Justice Naqvi. During the hearing, Advocate Khawaja Haris represented Imran Khan andAdvocate Amjad Pervaiz appeared as the counsel for the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). At the outset of the hearing, the Supreme Court observed that the trial court could not reserve its verdict on the Toshakhana case until the Islamabad High Court announces its verdict. Justice Afridi summoned the ECP lawyer to the rostrum, upon which Imrans lawyer informed the court that the IHC had reserved its verdict yesterday on his clients pleas, according to Dawn's report. He asked, "Has the high court given a stay order? to which Advocate Haris answered in the negative." Justice Afridi stressed that the trial court cannot announce a decision until a decision on the plea to transfer the case. During the court proceedings, the ECP counsel said Section 528 (sessions judge may withdraw cases from assistant sessions judge) of the Code of Criminal Procedure was "clear on this matter," Dawn reported. Justice Afridi asked Advocate Haris about the current status of the pleas pending in the Islamabad High Court. In response, he said that the Islamabad High Court (IHC) heard four pleas on Thursday and that requests were made during the arguments. During the court proceedings, he spoke about the Islamabad High Court's dismissal of the PTI chairman's witnesses in the Toshakhana case trial. While dismissing the plea, the Supreme Court said that the application filed to request the transfer of the case to another court was underway in the Islamabad High Court. The apex court hoped that the trial and the Islamabad High Court will make decisions according to the law, the report said. The Toshakhana case registered by ruling party lawmakers is based on a criminal complaint filed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), as per the Dawn report. The case alleges that Imran Khan had deliberately concealed the details regarding the gifts he retained from the Toshaskhana during his time as the prime minister and proceeds from their reported sales. As per the Toshakhana rules,gifts and other such materials received by persons to whom these rules are applicable shall be reported to the Cabinet Division. Notably, PTI Chairman Imran Khan has faced a number of legal cases over his retention of gifts. He has also been disqualified by the electoral body over the issue. (ANI)
A day, after the mass stabbings case came into the spotlight in South Korea, the Police Chief on Friday said that they will beef up patrols and stop and search operations for suspicious people on the streets and declared it as a "special policing" operation, Yonhap News Agency reported. On Thursday, 14 people were wounded with 2 in critical condition after a man drove a car onto a pedestrian walkway and went on a stabbing rampage at a department store in Seongnam. "I'm declaring a special police action to counter heinous crimes until the people's anxiety is relieved," said Yoon Hee-keun, commissioner general of the National Police Agency (NPA), in a statement to the nation. "We will selectively stop and search those suspected of owning a weapon or people acting strangely according to the legal procedures," the police chief said. He also ordered the police to actively use physical force, including the use of firearms or stun guns, in case of another stabbing rampage. The commissioner general stated that they wil utilize themaximum police force in public places, including local police, riot police teams and police detectives, to strengthen patrols and suppress the atmosphere for criminal activity, according to Yonhap News Agency. The police chief also said they will punish those who post threats to commit copycat crimes or spread fake news online "as severely as the law allows." The police will additionally cooperate with local governments and private security guards to make sure people are safe in their living spaces and have discussions with related institutions about expanding infrastructure to secure public order. In the Thursday attack, the attacker stabbed nine people, out of which eight of them are in critical condition. Before stabbing, the attacker hit five people with his car, out of which, two of them are severely injured, Yonhap News Agency reported. The victims lie in the age group of 20s to 70s, reported Yonhap News Agency. The witnesses present at the scene reported that the suspect wore a black outfit and sunglasses and brandished a knife which is estimated to be around 50 to 60 centimetres long. After the incident, the police arrested around 20 suspects, who are only known by their surname Choi, reported Yonhap News Agency. (ANI)
Police in South Korea on Friday arrested a man accused of stabbing a high school teacher in the city of Daejeon, the countrys second apparently random knife attack in two days, reported Al Jazeera. Officials from the Daejeon Metropolitan Police Agency withheld the suspect's identity at first, merely identifying him as a man in his late 20s. The fact that the suspect allegedly waited for the instructor to exit a Songchon High School classroom before stabbing him and fleeing the scene shows that the two men may have known each other. The teacher's health status was not specified by the police or fire department authorities. The incident comes after a different assault on Thursday in which a man drove a car onto a pedestrian walkway and started stabbing at a departmental store in Seongnam hurting a total of 14 people on Thursday in south of Seoul, reported Yonhap News Agency citing police officials. According to the officials, the attacker stabbed nine people, out of which eight of them are in critical condition. Before stabbing, the attacker hit five people with his car, out of which, two of them are severely injured, Yonhap News Agency reported. However, just five minutes after receiving the report at 5:59 pm, the police arrested nearly 20 suspects, who are only known by their surname Choi. The suspect works in the delivery industry, the sources said. The victims lie in the age group of 20s to 70s, reported Yonhap News Agency. The suspect repeated incomprehensible statements to the police. He said 'an unknown group' attempted to murder him with a hitman. Choi tested negative in a rapid drug test and was found not to be under the influence of alcohol. But, the police will send their hair samples to the National Forensic Service to investigate the crime by carrying out detailed tests and checking his mental health records. The witnesses present at the scene reported that the suspect wore a black outfit and sunglasses and brandished a knife which is estimated to be around 50 to 60 centimetres long. Adding to that, they said that the suspect entered the department store after his car did not move. Some of the witnesses claimed that there were more than one offender and the police confirmed that there were no accomplices, Yonhap News Agency reported. Meanwhile, South Korea's police chief called the accident an 'act of terror' and said that the patrols will be increased in the crowded areas and strengthen surveillance through security cameras. National Police Agency Commissioner General Yoon Hee-keun said, "There are concerns over copycat crimes due to a series of accidents, with people expressing fears of coming out onto the street." In South Korea, where gun ownership is strictly regulated, attacks with weapons are uncommon, but there are no significant limitations on the use of knives, particularly kitchen knives, which are frequently used in attacks, Al Jazeera reported. (ANI)
The Indian side was led by Puneet R Kundal, Joint Secretary (East & Southern Africa) and the Malawi side was led by Bernard H Sande, Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Malawi.

5th India-Malawi FOC held in Lilongwe today. Co-chaired by JS (E&SA) @prkundal & Principal Secretary Bernard Sande of @ForeignMalawi. Both sides reviewed bilateral relations and discussed ways for strengthening cooperation in development partnership, trade & economic relations, digital technology, agriculture, health, mining, defence, consular and cultural issues among others, tweeted MEA official spokesperson Arindam Bagchi on Thursday.

During the FOC, both delegations reviewed their wide-ranging bilateral relationship, covering political exchanges, development partnership, defence cooperation, trade and economic matters, consular issues and cooperation in areas such as Agriculture, Education, Health, Mines & Minerals, Digital Technology, Renewable Energy, Art and Culture, etc.

Both sides agreed to further diversify cooperation in various areas to further strengthen this relationship.

Both sides also discussed multilateral issues of mutual interest, including UN Security Council reforms, peace and security in Southern Africa, Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), and the South African Development Community (SADC), read an MEAs official release.

The two sides agreed to continue high-level political exchanges and regular meetings of the joint institutional mechanisms to keep the partnership vibrant and mutually beneficial.

The Indian side invited Malawi to join the Coalition for Disaster, Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) and the International Big Cat Alliance (IBCA).

It was agreed to hold the next round of Consultations at mutually convenient dates in 2024 in New Delhi, the official release said. (ANI)
Indian Naval Ships INS Sahyadri and INS Kolkata on a deployment to the Eastern IOR hosted Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea (PNG) James Marape on Friday during their port call to Port Moresby. Speaking on the need for greater defence cooperation PM Marape encouraged more visits by Indian Naval ships that would help build people-to-people connect. The PM of PNG, accompanied by Cabinet Members and Senior Government Officials, was jointly hosted onboard by the Indian Navy and the High Commissioner of India Inbasekar Sudaramurthi. In his address, PM Marape welcomed the Indian Naval Ships to PNG. He also thanked PM Narendra Modi for visiting PNG on May 23 and highlighted his stellar efforts in strengthening India-PNG ties. A captivating cultural show and a delightful selection of Indian cuisine formed part of the Naval reception which was also attended by the Members of the Indian High Commission and the Indian diaspora. The Indian Navy remains committed to realising the PMs vision SAGAR (Security And Growth for All in the Region) through such port visits wherein apart from Professional interactions and Social events, numerous capability-building activities are also undertaken by the visiting ships. INS Sahyadri & INS Kolkata honoured to host Hon'ble PM Marape onboard Naval reception on Aug 3. Thank PM's inspiring address on coexistence, encouraging regular defence visits. Thank Hon'ble Ministers Daki, Tkatchenko, Schnaubelt, Masiu; Governors Parkop, Bird & Sasindran. A landmark in bilateral ties! the Indian High Commission, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea tweeted on Friday. INS Sahyadriand Kolkata, deployed in the EasternIndian Ocean Region (IOR), on Wednesday arrived at Port Moresby to enhance maritime partnership and cooperation withPapua New Guinea. During the port call, the crew from the two ships will engage with personnel from the PNG Defence Forces in a wide range of activities including professional interactions, cultural exchanges, Yoga sessions and ship visits. The port call is aimed at strengthening ties betweenIndiaandPapua New Guineain themaritime domain. Earlier on Wednesday,Indian Naval teams performed Yoga at the Port Moresby harbour inPapua New Guinea, along with the local residents, theIndian High Commission, Port Moresby said on Thursday. TheIndian sailors were led by Captain Rajan Kapoor,Indian Naval Ships (INS) Sahyadri and they were joined byPapua New Guineans from Active City Development Program, NCD. Today Yoga performed in Port Moresby by Indian Sailors, led by Capt Rajan Kapoor, INS Sahyadri, joined by Papua New Guineans from Active City Development Program, NCD. Yoga for humanity! Vasudheiva Kutumbakam. Pl, enjoy the clip! the Indian High Commission said in a tweet. Yoga atPort Moresbyharbour byIndian Naval Teams! Welcome PNGians who participated, it added in a subsequent tweet.INS Sahyadri(Frigate class) andINS Kolkata(Destroyer class) are on a goodwill visit toPapua New Guineaand will be docked atPort Moresbyfrom August 2-4, the High Commission ofIndiainPort Moresbysaid in a statement. IndiaandPapua New Guineaenjoy warm and friendly relations. The two nations have formalized diplomatic ties since 19 May 1976.Indiaopened its High Commission in Port Moresby in April 1996. (ANI)
After laying a wreath, Delcy Rodriguez also signed the visitor's book at Rajghat.

Delcy Rodriguez arrived in India with a large delegation on Wednesday to participate in the ninth Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) India-LAC Conclave.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met her on Friday and underlined the importance of business collaboration for mutual benefit.

Taking to Twitter. Jaishankar said, "A good meeting with Executive Vice President @delcyrodriguezv of Venezuela during her visit for the 9th India-LAC Conclave. Exchanged perspectives on the global situation and noted our cooperation in the multilateral domain. Spoke about our respective approaches to development challenges. Underlined the importance of business collaboration for mutual benefit."

In a tweet, Rodrguez said that on behalf of Nicols Maduro, the President of Venezuela, she participated in the IX Economic Conclave between India, Latin America and the Caribbean."

We reaffirm our commitment to a multipolar world, respectful of international law and without unilateral coercive measures. United, let's move forward!" she added.

Last year, India and Venezuela held the fourth round of Foreign Office consultations in Caracas.

During the meeting, the two sides reviewed bilateral ties and exchanged views on different sectors, including politics, trade, energy, health, pharmaceuticals, Ayurveda and Yoga, agriculture, culture and science and technology.

India and Venezuela discussed regional and international issues of common interest, the Ministry of External Affairs said in the press release.

According to the Ministry of External Affairs, India and Venezuela have maintained cordial relations. The two nations celebrated the establishment of diplomatic ties in 2009. Resident Embassies have been in Caracas and New Delhi for more than three decades and "there is mutual goodwill and cooperation between the two countries including in multilateral fora." (ANI)
The Federal Investigation Agencies (FIA) as well as other police agencies in Pakistan have been using hacking tools built by Israeli cyber technology firms since 2012, The News International reported citing a report published in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. The tech sold by the Israeli firm to Pakistan enables law enforcement agencies to engage in digital forensic work by hacking into password-protected mobile phones. It then allows security forces to copy all the information stored on such devices, including pictures, documents, text messages, calling histories, and contacts. The report said Cellebrite, the Israeli tech firm, products law enforcement agencies to engage in digital forensic work by hacking into password-protected cellphones and copying all the information stored on them including pictures, documents, text messages, calling histories and contacts, reported The News International. The Israeli newspaper quoted local media in Pakistan and stated that the Sindh police acquired a flagship project UFED Touch Ultimate devices made by Cellebrite in 2012 and its use by the police agencies has been expanding since then, reported The News International. The operating manuals, documents and official invitations for bids showed that police and FIA are regularly operating these systems, the report added. The report further said that the spyware connection between Israel and Pakistan has crossed decades, political parties and ruling administrations, as per The News International. In 2021, during the tenure of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government, the FIA issued a tender for hacking devices. Moreover, in May, the Peshawar police also issued a tender for the acquisition of Israeli hacking tools. Cellebrite responded to the article and said, The company does not sell to Pakistan, directly or indirectly. It added that Cellebrite is committed to its goal of creating a safer world by providing solutions for law enforcement bodies that permit them to solve crimes more quickly, reported The News International. For that purpose, we have developed strict means of oversight that ensure proper use of our technology in the context of investigations carried out by virtue of the law. As a global leader in digital intelligence, Cellebrites solutions assist thousands of law enforcement agencies to convict those who endanger public security and to do justice to the victims of crime," Cellebrite added. (ANI)
Sunil Barthwal, Secretary of the Department of Commerce in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, underscored the significance of India-Latin American and Caribbean collaboration in achieving energy transition goals and called for fresh perspectives in renewable energy, and battery manufacturing. On the last day of the 9th CII India-LAC Conclave, Barthwal highlighted the immense potential for expanding bilateral trade between India and Latin American & Caribbean (LAC) countries, according to a statement released by Commerce Ministry. He alsoemphasized upon the need for innovative approaches to diversify trade exchanges, especially in the context of a re-globalized world and changing energy landscapes. He highlighted the role of the G20, particularly under India's presidency, in addressing the concerns of the Global South and deeper engagements with the LAC region during the G20 Presidency of Brazil in 2024. "Proposing a collaborative framework, Shri Barthwal suggested a Joint Economic and Trade Cooperation model and emphasized the importance of unified efforts in addressing issues at the international forums," the statement read. He reiterated the remarks of the Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles, Piyush Goyal that Trust is the bedrock of cooperation and collaboration between Indian and the Latin American and the Caribbean countries. The closing ceremony of the '9th CII India-LAC Conclave' was graced by the Union Minister of State for External Affairs, Meenakshi Lekhi and Delcy Elona Rodrguez Gmez, Executive Vice President and Minister of Peoples Power for Economy, Finance & Foreign Trade of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. At the event, Lekhi said that India, Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) countries need to speak in one voice globally in the true spirit of South-South Cooperation. Stating that India has set sights on becoming the third largest economy by the year 2047 when the country completes 100 years of Independence, Lekhi said that when India does well, the world does well, and urged LAC countries to work closely with India by leveraging the complementarity that exists between the two regions. Delcy Eloina Rodriguez Gomez, Executive Vice President and Minister of Peoples Power for Economy, Finance and Foreign Trade of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in her address said the two regions need to consider conducting trade in local currency. (ANI)
Tel Aviv [Israel], August 4 (ANI/TPS): Israels Foreign Minister Eli Cohen adamantly denied reports that Israeli officials have been in contact with the leaders of Romanias right-wing nationalistic Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) Party. He dismissed rumors to that effect as Fake news at its peak! Cohen declared that there have been no contacts between the Israeli embassy in Romania and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the AUR party. The Minister said this was due to, among other things, the statements of some of its members who glorify war criminals who committed crimes against Jews during the Holocaust. In recent months, the party leader has been making efforts to change the partys approach towards the State of Israel and the Jewish world, said Cohen, which include statements about accepting responsibility from Romania for the Holocaust of the Jews in its territory during World War II, condemning anti-Semitism, defining the dictator Ion Antonescu (the dictator of Romania during World War II) as a war criminal and the importance of perpetuating the memory of the Holocaust. Following these statements, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Israeli Embassy in Romania are examining, in coordination with various parties including Yad Vashem, whether this is a real change that will allow a change in policy regarding the party. (ANI/TPS)
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif defended his meetings with the army chiefs during his 38 years in politics, adding that the sole purpose of those meetings was the country's interest, reported Dawn. He said, The only objective of those meetings was that politicians and institutions work together to turn the country into a Pakistan for which several Muslims laid their lives. He acknowledged that he can be seen as the establishments man by his detractors adding that the allegation never bothered him, reported Dawn. The premier went on to say: People taunt me, calling me the establishments man. But this doesnt bother me. Why? Because [] I did not intend to get any personal gains. Dawn is a Pakistani English-language newspaper that was launched in British India in 1941. It is the largest English newspaper in Pakistan and also serves as the country's newspaper of record Pakistan PM was addressing a gathering at an inauguration ceremony of Bhara Kahu bypass in Islamabad where he said that he had held several meetings with army chiefs. PM Shehbaz also mentioned his close relations with the Former Army Chief and President Pervez Musharraf and claimed that he never took advantage of that friendship, reported the Dawn news. The statement observed by the Dawn states that But did I get anything [out of it]? Nawaz Sharif went to jail and so did I. Nawaz Sharif went to Attock and so did I. Nawaz Sharif went to the Landhi jail and so did I. Nawaz Sharif was sent into exile and so were I and my family. So what did I get? Pakistan PM said. Pakistan's PM urging the nation to make determined and concerted efforts for making Pakistan regain its "grandeur and stature" also mentioned the progress that happened in neighbouring country India. The publication reports that he highlighted that Pakistans eastern neighbour, India, had progressed far ahead of it but at the same time said there would be nothing to worry about if the nation was resolved to work for the countrys progress. (ANI)
A month after Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit to Egypt, its national carrier EgyptAir on Friday announced the first direct flight from Cairo to New Delhi. EgyptAir, the national carrier of Egypt, encourages tourism and travel movements and continues its plans to develop, modernise and expand the airline's network. Egypt Ambassador to India Wael Hamed addressed the inaugural session of the flight in Delhi and in an exclusive interview with ANI highlighted the role of PM Modis trip to Cairo and said, It (the agreement) was signed during his (PM Modis) visit to Cairo to initiate direct connectivity between both countries. The ambassador stressed it would boost trade between the two countries and said, Of course, direct connectivity will boost our trade and tourism industry. On being asked about easing Visa norms, the ambassador replied, he is very hopeful about issuing visas without any hurdle to the Indian passport holders. The visa should be the least of your worries. The Embassy issues the visa in a very short time. Nobody has ever complained about this. But also, I am happy to announce that holders of Indian passports who have visas from the US or Schengen visas or Canadian visas or Australian visas can enter Egypt with a visa on arrival. There is also the possibility for tourist groups to apply for electronic visas..., the envoy told ANI. Egypt's Ambassador to India Wael Hamed says, "When the PM (Modi) was in Cairo just over six weeks ago, an agreement was signed on strategic cooperation between Egypt and India. But strategic cooperation needs people-to-people contact...Without an air connection, the efforts were very difficult. Now, things are going to be easier for both countries to connect, easier for tourists to go and come...We really have to look at tourism as a means to promote people-to-people contact because they come with opportunities, they come with ideas and this is important for our strategic relationships." Meanwhile, VFS Global, the world's largest outsourcing and technology services specialist for governments and diplomatic missions said that the firm is working closely with Egyptian authorities to promote tourism to Egypt and ease the visa experience for Indians visiting Cairo. "In line with our trusted partnership with the Egyptian government we are committed to aid tourist inflows to the country, also assist visa applicants through our wide network of visa application centres in India as well as our technology-led services," said Prabuddha Sen, Chief Operating Officer, (South Asia), VFS Global. The Cairo-Delhi route will be served by an A320neo aircraft. EgyptAir's eight A320neos have an average age of just 1.8 years. The carrier has six Boeing 787-9s in its widebody fleet and two more Dreamliners are expected in the next few years. It is also expected that it will reduce fuel usage by around 20 per cent as compared to previous generation aircraft. Moreover, EgyptAir's current fleet reduces emissions by 60 percent. PM Modi was on a state visit to Egypt from June 24-25. He met with Egyptian counterpart Mostafa Madbouly, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and interacted with members of the Indian diaspora. PM Modi held a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi during which they signed an agreement to elevate the bilateral relationship to a "Strategic Partnership". The two leaders discussed ways to further deepen the partnership between the two nations, including trade, investment, defence, security, renewable energy, cultural and people-to-people ties. Moreover, he also visited the pyramids of Giza in Cairo and the Al-Hakim Mosque as well. PM Modi also held a roundtable meeting with his Egyptian counterpart Mostafa Madbouly in Cairo. PM Modi also met thought leaders in Egypt as a part of his two-day visit to the Arab nation. Furthermore, the opening of new routes and expansion of EgyptAir's network is in line with the Ministry of Civil Aviation's directives to connect the Arab Republic of Egypt with various countries of the world through the hub of Cairo. EgyptAir recently added Dhaka in Bangladesh, New Jersey in North America and Manchester in England to its network to serve the company's new customers around the world. (ANI)
United Kingdoms top National Health Service (NHS) delegation visited India on Friday to launch the India-UK healthcare alliance. The initiative is aimed at promoting excellence in the healthcare sector, providing a platform for healthcare institutions in two countries and creating synergetic partnerships aimed at improving health outcomes. A high-powered delegation from the UKs Health, Education, research and clinical practice sectors, including Prof Stephen Powis, National Medical Director of NHS England, Prof Simon Gregory MBE, Medical Director for Primary Care, Workforce Training and Education Directorate NHS England, Prof Geeta Menon, Postgraduate Dean, Workforce Training and Education Directorate NHS England and Prof Parag Singhal, Chief Executive of BAPIO Training Academy, were part of the launch here. The Alliance is aninitiative of Bapio Training Academy. Speaking to ANI, Chandru Iyer, British Deputy High Commissioner to Karnataka and Kerala who is also the Deputy Trade commissioner for South Asia responsible for investments, said, "This is a wonderful initiative which brings the two countries together and collaborates together in promoting excellence in the field of healthcare and healthcare skilled resources and that it is "just a continuation of some great initiatives around India - UK corridor." Professor Stephen Powis, National Medical Director of NHS, England, said he believed that both countries face many challenges in healthcare and they have many opportunities too. "India and UK worked closely together for the development of vaccines during the Covid pandemic. Going forward, there will be a lot of opportunities not just in drugs but in many technologies that are being developed including digital healthcare and artificial intelligence," Powis told ANI. According to Dr Sanjay Jaiswal, Member of Parliament and the Chair of the Alliance, the proposal shall strategize its actions in the domains like promoting excellence in education, research, training and capacity building of Human Resources in the healthcare sector in both countries, identifying healthcare providers in India to promote medical tourism, share learning around low-cost innovative models of care to promote healthcare sustainability and promoting the culture of patient safety and clinical governance across Indian health systems through policy, advocacy and projects. The 2030 Roadmap for India-UK future relations was launched on May 4, 2021, at a virtual summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and then UK PM Boris Johnson. The roadmap set out the jointly held vision for a reinvigorated and stronger relationship between the UK and India over the next ten years. "As a Global Force for Good in health, the UK and India will use our combined research and innovation strength to address the biggest global health challenges, save lives and improve health and well-being," the 2030 roadmap stated. "We will expand the breadth and depth of the India-UK Health Partnership to enhance global health security and pandemic resilience, show leadership on Anti-Microbial Resistance (AMR), promote healthy societies and strengthen both our health systems through increased collaboration on clinical education, health worker mobility and digital health," it added. (ANI)
The regional manager of Sri Lankan Airlines for India, Bangladesh and Nepal, V Ravindran, on Friday said the island nation was recovering well from the economic crisis and the carrier was looking to add more destinations, especially in India. He added that Lanka's national carrier was looking forward to operating at its pre-pandemic frequency. "We are interested to operate in any destination in India because it gives us volume potential and revenue as well. At the moment, we are trying to restore our pre-pandemic frequency to all the places where we were operating," Ravindran said. He added, "In India, we used to operate at 11 destinations in the pre-pandemic era. Currently, we have nine destinations after we discontinued Kolkata and Coimbatore. So we want to see how fast we can recommence to those places. Ahmedabad, Calicut and Goa are also in our plans. We are also looking at Odisha and other lucrative markets." "Currently, we are operating 83 flights a week to Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Cochin, Trivandrum, Chennai, Madurai and Trichy," he added. "We are operating in almost 126 countries. We are strong in South Eastern destinations. We also operate in London, Paris, Frankfurt and the Middle East. In the United Arab Emirates, we cover Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Riyadh, Dammam, Jeddah and Doha, among other destinations," the regional manager of Sri Lankan Airlines toldANI. "Currently, we are constrained with regard to the number of aircraft. But once we get our fleet in the right size, we want to bring back the pre-pandemic frequency with which we operated in India, which was more than 110 flights a week. We have recommenced almost 80 per cent of flights with 83 flights a week. We are looking for more destinations where we can get more revenue," he added. Sri Lankan Government and Sri Lankan Tourism Promotion Bureau have announced a plethora ofinitiatives to attract more tourists to the country, he informed. He stated further that the Sri Lankan economy was recovering from the debilitating economic woes and limping back to normal.Last month, the Travel Agents Association Of India hosted their 67th annual Conference in Sri Lanka where more them 500 delegates participated and experienced what Sri Lanka can offer in Tourism and Hospitality, he informed. "Sri Lanka is recovering well and tourism is one of the largest sources to increase foreign exchange reserves. From the Sri Lankan government to Tourism Promotion Bureau and Sri Lankan Airlines, everyone is making an effort to woo tourists to the country from across the world. But India remains our closest market," Ravindran said. He added that Odisha is one of the prominent markets in eastern India and Sri Lankan Airlines was looking to connect to new destinations in Odisha. However, the carrier doesn'thave any specific timeline as of now with regard to launching flights to Odisha, he added. He said India and Sri Lanka have lots of similarities in terms of religion and culture which can play an important role in boosting tourism between the two countries. (ANI)
"The numbers are staggering. Almost 14 million children a number roughly equivalent to every single child in Colombia, France, Germany, or Thailand are in dire need of humanitarian support, UNICEF deputy executive director Ted Chaiban said in a briefing on Friday.

Over 1.7 million children in Sudan have been forced out of their homes facing risks of hunger, disease, violence, and family separation, he said.

This is in addition to the 1.9 million children, who were already displaced in Sudan before the latest crisis, CNN reported.

Three million children under five are malnourished with 700,000 at risk of severe acute malnutrition and mortality. 1.7 million children under the age of one are at risk of missing critical vaccinations, raising the risk of disease outbreaks, Chaiban added.

Since the Sudan conflict began in mid-April, at least 435 children have been killed and more than 2,025 injured, according to UNICEF, CNN reported.

Over 20 million people in Sudan face severe hunger, a figure that has nearly doubled since last year, the UN warned on Thursday.

War broke out between the army and the Rapid Support Forces on April 15. The conflict has since forced some 3.5 million people to flee their homes, including 844,000 who have gone to neighbouring countries in search of safety, according to the United Nations. (ANI)
More than 1,000 New Jersey nurses went on strike Friday at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, the latest walkout among U.S. health care workers pushing for better pay and working conditions.

The union representing the nurses, United Steelworkers Local 4-200, has been unable to reach a deal on a new contract with the hospital. Their most recent three-year agreement expired at the end of June, and the union recently gave the hospital a 10-day warning ahead of the strike.

Judy Danella, a nurse who serves as the unions president, said that members rejected an earlier tentative agreement, and that the hospital came back this week with another proposal that made little improvement.

The roughly 1,700 nurses covered by the contract did not vote on the latest offer, according to Danella.

They were like, Why would we re-vote on something we already voted on? she said. The counter-offer is the same as it was before.

A spokesperson for the hospital said it had done everything it could to avoid a strike, and that it was among the highest staffed hospitals in the state.

We twice accepted the Unions demands. We offered to go to arbitration or submit to a board of inquiry, and the Union rejected both, the spokesperson said in a statement. Even after we extended a new offer on Wednesday that would have further addressed their staffing concerns, it was met with silence.

Picketing was scheduled to begin at 7 a.m. Friday. Video from New Yorks ABC7 showed a throng of nurses in blue union shirts outside the hospital cheering.

The nurses strike at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick has officially started. About 1700 nurses have walked off their jobs. @ABC7NYpic.twitter.com/0GqCQuS0MF  Janice Yu (@JaniceYuNews) August 4, 2023

Danella said sticking points that remain in negotiations include annual pay raises, employee health care costs and nurse-to-patient ratios in the critical care unit.

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The union has asked that there be no more than two patients for each nurse in critical care except under certain circumstances, similar to a new rule drafted by New Yorks health department. Danella said the hospital wants the ability to suspend the ratio when nurses call in sick, a demand the union wouldnt accept.

She also said the union and the hospital havent come to terms on pay increases or caps on annual health care cost increases. Roughly 75% of members voted down a previous tentative agreement that included 4% annual cost-of-living bumps, she said.

Several strikes have hit U.S. health care providers this year. Nurses in particular say theyre overstretched and underpaid in the wake of the pandemic. With their services in high demand, many are calling not only for pay increases but also for lighter patient loads. Nurses say staffing issues have generally gotten worse.

The hospital has said it plans to bring in contract nurses to replace strikers during the work stoppage. Danella said members saw busloads of what appeared to be replacement nurses earlier this week.

They started arriving on Monday, she said.

This story has been updated with comment from Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital.
The Rev. Paul Erickson, bishop of the Greater Milwaukee Synod of the ELCA, speaks Thursday at a rally launching the "We All Belong" campaign to reject Christian nationalism. Behind him, from left, are the Rev. Greg Lewis of Souls to the Polls, the Rev. Mike Bertram of St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church, Rabbi Michal Woll of Congregation Shir Hadash, Tonen O'Connor of the Milwaukee Zen Center, and the Rev. Richard Shaw of St. Matthew C.M.E. Church.

Milwaukee faith leaders on Thursday launched a campaign against Christian nationalism, saying they want to protect American democracy.

About 100 leaders from a variety of faith backgrounds, including Christianity, Judaism, Islam and Buddhism, rallied outside the Martin Luther King Jr. statue on North King Drive before marching to Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church, where they received training on how to engage their congregations in conversation about the issue.

"America is not a Christian nation," said the Rev. Paul Erickson, bishop of the Greater Milwaukee Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, or ELCA.

The U.S. is at its best, Erickson said, when Christianity is one faith among many in the public sphere.

Christian nationalism is a right-wing movement that argues Christian values should influence government and that church and state should not be separate. Some also believe in waging "spiritual warfare" against what they see as an erosion of conservative cultural values in American society, including on gender, sexuality and race.

Christian nationalist symbols were seen at the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, and prominent leaders in the movement railed in recent years against pandemic shutdowns. Experts say the ideology's influence can also be seen in local school board elections around the country over parental fights to ban library books or control curriculum.

The faith leaders who spoke Thursday see Christian nationalism as a wide-ranging threat to the country's future. Among the key issues they mentioned were voting laws, antisemitic and anti-Muslim attacks and state lawmakers' efforts to defund college diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

More: Republicans have a lot to say about UW diversity programs. So do students

Timothy Ramthun, a former Republican state lawmaker who ran for Wisconsin governor in 2022, is one who fused Christian sentiments with pledges to decertify the 2020 election, the New York Times reported.

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The clergy  who were affiliated with MICAH, or Milwaukee Inner City Congregations Allied for Hope  said the values Christian nationalists espouse don't align with the true teachings of Jesus. Their new "We All Belong" campaign aims to share a message of religious inclusivity. Several public events are planned over the next year and a half.

"Leaders and the faithful of all denominations must condemn the bastardization of the message of Jesus that dog-whistles exclusion and white nationalism," said the Rev. Mike Bertram, pastor of St. Francis of Assisi and St. Benedict the Moor Catholic churches.

Janan Najeeb, president of the Milwaukee Muslim Women's Coalition, said she was concerned about anti-immigrant sentiments and the spread of the "great replacement" theory, which posits non-white immigrants are part of a plot to undermine or replace the political power of white residents, according to the National Immigration Forum.

Christian nationalists believe the country has a "special mission from God, and that Christianity should therefore be privileged over other religions," Najeeb said.

"In clear violation of our Constitution they are pushing this agenda," she said.

More: Two years ago, back-to-back attacks rattled an Orthodox Jewish family. Now, they reflect on their place in Milwaukee.

The clergy encouraged people to start conversations with their families and congregations about the ideologies associated with Christian nationalism.

Among those at the rally was Tracey McNeely and her 104-year-old mother, Ruth McNeely-Wells. Tracey, a former English teacher, attended political marches with her mother starting at 5 years old. It was important to support the faith leaders' cause Thursday, Tracey said, because she is concerned about changes to school curriculum that eliminate diverse perspectives.

"They only want one point of view," Tracey said. "That's not right."

As she walked along King Drive with other clergy, Rabbi Taylor Poslosky said she was concerned about rising antisemitism but heartened by how many people of different faiths were pledging support as part of the campaign.

"We're not alone in this," said Poslosky, who is the assistant rabbi at Congregation Shalom in Milwaukee. "We have the support of the entire Milwaukee community."

Tony Bell, who has attended Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church for 40 years, was another marching along King Drive toward the church for training on implementing the new campaign.

"We need prayer, but you also need action after the prayer," he said.

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: Milwaukee faith leader launch campaign against Christian nationalism
A 17-year-old Georgia high school student died in a car crash Friday morning on her way to school, according to the sheriffs office.

Upson County Sheriff Dan Kilgore said the crash happened on Highway 74 at Yatesville Highway around 7:45 a.m. He identified the student as 17-year-old JerMya Eleby, a senior at Upson-Lee High School.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

Investigators said they believe Eleby was driving westbound when a second vehicle turned eastbound from Trinity Road in front of Elebys car as she got to the top of a hill. Eleby lost control as she swerved to avoid the second car. Her car flipped over and landed on its roof, submerged in a creek.

Eleby died at the scene.

TRENDING STORIES:

A Facebook group for the Upson-Lee High School cheerleading squad identified Eleby as one of its members. The school is providing counseling.

The Thomaston-Upson Civic Center said Eleby was a lifeguard on the summer staff.

Today, August 4th The Thomaston-Upson Civic Center lost a loving member of the Summer Staff. Miss JerMya Eleby served... Posted by Thomaston-Upson Civic Center on Friday, August 4, 2023

This loss is devastating to us, and our hearts go out to the family, friends, faculty, and staff members who knew and loved this student, the school district wrote in a statement. We ask the community to join us in keeping her family and loved ones in your thoughts and prayers and to respect their privacy during this very difficult time.

The crash is still under investigation.

IN OTHER NEWS




Glendale Police Department.

Glendale police arrested two men who they say kidnapped and killed a man and then orchestrated a ransom plot to extort 300,000 Mexican pesos  roughly more than $17,600 in U.S. dollars  from the victim's family, court documents say.

The two men, Jose Rochin Ruiz, 27, and Ofelio Quintero, 37, were arrested on Monday in connection with the murder of Luis Solano Pillado, 24. According to court documents, Pillado was killed over money he stole from Ruiz when both of them lived in Mexico.

Police began investigating the case on July 25 when they received reports of a possible kidnapping. Pillado's family told police they had not heard from him since July 23 when he was seen leaving his home, court documents say.

Pillado's body was found by Glendale police on Monday following the arrest of Ruiz and Quintero. According to the investigation, he was killed on July 23  at least a day before Pillado's family began receiving ransom calls, court documents say.

What happened, according to court documents

The calls asking for ransom started on July 24, court documents say. Pillado's brother, who is in Mexico, began receiving text messages and calls from a 480 area code number saying his brother had been kidnapped and demanding he pay $300,000 Mexican pesos as ransom for his brother's release or he would be killed.

Police said they later learned that Ruiz was making these calls. Court documents say the calls were also accompanied by videos of Pillado sitting inside a walk-in closet  gagged with a piece of fabric over his head and his hands tied with electrical cords.

In the video, Pillado told his family that he loved them and asked for the ransom to be paid, court documents say.

Several calls where Ruiz asked the family for a ransom followed until July 28, court documents say.

Court documents show that detectives obtained historical cellphone data for both Ruiz and Pillado.

On the morning of July 28, data from Ruizs phone showed him traveling north toward Interstate 17 and Table Mesa Road near Anthem. Here police say, he remained for about an hour; the area is rural and is desert.

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Police searched the area later but found nothing. Later on July 28, calls continued to be made to Pillado's family, with continued threats.

On July 25, detectives found Pillado's car  the location was not disclosed in court documents  and tried to ping his phone but were unsuccessful. On July 28, Pillado's car left the place where it was originally found and was dropped off at a scrap yard near 43rd Avenue and Broadway Road in Phoenix, court documents say.

Police then interviewed a man who described himself as someone who buys and sells cars, court documents show. He told police that he had met with Ruiz and bought Pillado's car for $100. The man gave police the number Ruiz called him from, which was different from the one being used to call Pillado's family, court documents say.

Detectives tracked that phone number, which led them to the apartment complex where both Quintero and Ruiz were located and arrested, court documents say.

A murder stemming from owed money, court documents say

After the arrest, Quintero cooperated with detectives, leading to Pillado's body in an embankment covered in motor oil, court documents say.

He also told police that the idea to kidnap Pillado stemmed from an incident in Mexico when Pillado stole money from Ruiz. After moving to the United States, Quintero told police that Ruiz had come up with a plan to get his money back from Pillado.

Ruiz convinced Quintero to help him after he offered him half of the money they would get from the family, court documents say.

Quintero told police that Ruiz convinced Pillado to come to their apartment on July 21. Once there, both Quintero and Ruiz tied up Pillado and took the photographs and videos sent to his family days later, court documents say.

On July 23, both Quintero and Ruiz placed Pillado in the trunk of his own car and drove to the deserted area near I-17 and Table Mesa Road where they strangled Pillado and threw him down an embankment, they told police, court documents say.

Quintero told police that the following day, on July 24, Ruiz purchased a new phone, which he used to extort Pillado's family back in Mexico, court documents say.

Both men face first-degree murder, kidnapping and ransom charges.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: $17K ransom sought after man abducted, killed in Glendale
Two women have been charged with hate crimes after allegedly punching and ripping off the hijabs of a group of Muslim women in an unprovoked attack at Cathedral Square Park on Sunday.

Together, Miracle Reed, 34, and Payton Smith, 30, face one felony and five misdemeanor charges in connection with the attack, five of which come with hate crime enhancements.

Janan Najeeb, the president of the Milwaukee Muslim Womens Coalition, said the attack is an example of ongoing Islamophobia locally and nationally, which is often unreported or ignored. She said her organization and other community members pressured the Milwaukee County District Attorneys Office to file the hate crime enhancers in the days after the attack.

We said this is something that requires really serious attention, she said.

Reed and Smith are in Milwaukee County Jail and have yet to make their first court appearance. The Wisconsin State Public Defender's Office said an attorney hadn't yet been assigned to them.

Najeeb said the victims were minding their business with their out-of-state grandmother and their children in the park when the attack occurred. One of them suffered a broken nose and another was placed in a headlock and punched.

Theyre really devastated, said Najeeb, who has met with the victims. It was so unexpected, uncalled-for. They were basically enjoying themselves with their family and it came out of nowhere.

For this to happen around kids, its very traumatic.

It's the 10th time since 2010 that the District Attorneys Office has included a hate crime enhancer in its prosecutions, according to Kent Lovern, the office's chief deputy. The most recent was in 2019 against Clifton Blackwell in an acid attack, which was ultimately tried successfully before a jury.

Criminal complaint details attack of Muslim women

According to the complaint:

Four women, all wearing hijabs, were at the downtown park Sunday with several children when one of them noticed some other women giving them "dirty looks."

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At one point, one of the four women began walking the park, with her prayer mat in tow, in search of a place to pray that was consistent with her religious practices. She returned and prayed near the women's picnic table.

The women then were approached by a woman who said, Were Black, aggressive women, and were going to defend our own kind," the complaint said.

The Muslim women ignored her. The woman then approached the table, sat down and said, "So, what's the problem?"

One of the victims said the attacker grabbed her neck, put her in a headlock and started punching her. The second attacker began punching another victim in back of the head. Both victims reported their hijabs had been removed from their heads.

At one point during the altercation, one of the victims tried to use pepper spray, but an attacker ripped it from her hand and disabled it.

An older man intervened and broke up the fight.

Some of the incident was captured on a cellphone and was aired on a CBS 58 TV news broadcast.

Reed later denied attacking the group and said she has postpartum depression, is subject to "black outs" and didn't remember the incident. Smith confessed to striking two victims twice each and admitted she was captured in the footage, the complaint said.

More: 'We gotta call out racism': Milwaukee Muslim students lead march against police violence

Hate crimes against Muslim women too often taken 'lightly'

Najeeb said many times her organization has fielded complaints from Muslim women who are targeted for harassment because of their scarves or public prayers. At grocery stores, their carts will get rammed into or their scarves tugged on. As they walk down the street, drivers will yell slurs or throw things at them.

It often goes unreported because there's a long history of victims feeling like law enforcement takes the claims lightly, Najeeb said.

She expressed mixed feelings about the circumstances of the attack and the fact that hate crime enhancers were filed. It was especially upsetting that Muslim women would face such abuse from two fellow women of color, she said.

But she also said it was her understanding the two women charged faced significant challenges of their own.

As a faith community, we believe really that, as much as possible, you should forgive people, especially if it is something that is done out of ignorance, Najeeb said. But I think the severity of this crime, and the fact that we dont even know the long-term effect and the trauma that comes from this sort of thing, I think at the end of the day, it was the right call.

Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson issued a statement, calling the unprovoked attack "horrific and unacceptable."

While any violence is intolerable, it is especially egregious when victims are targeted because of their appearance or their religious beliefs.

The Milwaukee District Attorney has leveled charges against the alleged attackers including hate crime enhancers. If the two women charged are found guilty, they deserve the harshest appropriate consequences.

My thoughts are with the victims and their families.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: 2 charged in attack on Muslim women in Milwaukee park
[Source]

Two California-based Navy sailors have been arrested and charged for releasing sensitive U.S. military information to Chinese intelligence officers.

Jinchao Wei: Jinchao Wei, a 22-year-old sailor assigned to the USS Essex, was arrested on Wednesday when he arrived for work at Naval Base San Diego. Wei had allegedly been in an arrangement with a Chinese intelligence officer since February 2022 in which he would send photos and videos of American aircrafts and warships, as well as technical manuals about the USS Essexs weapons systems and power structure, in exchange for money.

Wei, who was born in China, received his U.S. citizenship on May 18, 2022. According to attorney Fred Sheppard, Wei made between $10,000 and $15,000 from the arrangement with the Chinese intelligence officer, who instructed Wei to destroy evidence. Wei was charged under a rarely used Espionage Act statute by the Justice Department. He could face up to life in prison if he is convicted.

Wenheng Zhao: The other arrested sailor, Petty Officer Wenheng Zhao, was based at Naval Base Ventura County in Port Hueneme. Zhao, 26, allegedly collected nearly $15,000 between August 2021 through at least this May in exchange for information on the U.S. militarys exercise plans in the Indo-Pacific region. He is also accused of providing electrical diagrams and blueprints for U.S. radar systems in Okinawa, Japan, as well as security details at naval facilities in California.

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Zhao, who was responsible for repairing electrical equipment on military installations, was allegedly told by a Chinese officer that the information was for maritime economic research to help with investment decisions. Zhao was charged with espionage and could face up to 20 years in federal prison.

Aggressively prosecute: Both men reportedly pleaded not guilty in federal courts in San Diego and Los Angeles. Their separate detention hearings will take place on Aug. 8. Federal officials have not said whether there are any ties between the cases.

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We have entrusted members of our military with tremendous responsibility and great faith, said U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman of the Southern District of California, according to CNN. When a soldier or sailor chooses cash over country, and hands over national defense information in an ultimate act of betrayal, the United States will aggressively investigate and prosecute.

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Retail cannabis sales in Pasco are moving closer to reality, with two of the three potential stores applying for their license location.

Green2Go was the first to request a license for their Pasco shop, which will be off Sandifur Parkway on the west end of town.

Owner Steve Lee told the Herald that once the current tenant moves to a new location theyll be able to begin work on the new store.

Itll just be a little newer version of that same sort of feel, but itll be a distinctly similar experience, said Lee, co-owner of the Green2Go in Finley, just outside the Kennewick city limits.

Itll be the same great products and most educated staff and the same great customer service and medical focus that our customers have come to expect over the years, he said.

The new shop will be on the 5800 block of Road 90. Theyll be taking two suites out of a current strip mall.

Lee said the new location will be larger than their Finley store. He expects theyll be able to start work within the next month.

He also noted that this location, with its easy access to Broadmoor and Interstate 182 also will be the closest retail cannabis shop to Richland.

Marijuana in a jar. Cannabis joint. Medical or recreative

The former Kennewick mayor pro tem said that as soon as they get close to an opening date, theyll start advertising, so theres no need for customers to go scope the new location out before the current tenant has a chance to move.

The second Pasco shop to apply for a retail cannabis sales permit is Lucky Leaf. Owner David Morgan submitted his application this week.

He wants the store to be on the 3500 block of Road 68 near the Maverik travel center, just south of the I-182 interchange, according to the Washington Liquor Control Board application.

Morgan also owns a cannabis shop in Spokane with the same name. He could not be reached Friday morning about his plans.

The third prospective cannabis retailer in Pasco hasnt yet applied with the state for a location. Eric Larson previously told the Herald he plans to open Biggies Pot Shop in a central location.

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West Richland cannabis sales

West Richland is moving closer to a vote on whether to allow retail cannabis sales within the city. They currently dont allow cannabis businesses, but the Nirvana store is located just outside the city limits.

Selection of medical recreational cannabis at a legal retail store

Ken Weaver, owner of Yakima-based cannabis store Slow Burn, has submitted an environmental impact report to the state. The report is required for certain zoning changes within cities.

Weaver estimated that West Richlands city council could vote on the matter as soon as September or October.

He previously submitted a request for changes to light industrial areas, which are only around the Keene Road-West Van Giesen Street intersection.

This new request is for certain area zoned low density residential, commercial general, commercial light industrial and light industrial districts, which would expand possible locations to most non-residential areas of the city, as well as two large low-density residential areas.

Those areas would be the southeast corner of the city and a lightly developed area between just north of Paradise Way and Highway 224.

The council is set for a discussion about which areas would be appropriate at next weeks workshop.
Two people died after police say a domestic dispute led to a murder-suicide at a Chandler residence on Monday night.

What happened: According to Chandler police, officers were dispatched to calls about a shooting at a house near Arizona Avenue and Queen Creek Road. Callers said a woman had been shot by a man in the house, police said.

When officers arrived, two people left the house unharmed but two other people were found dead  45-year-old Michelle Hicks and 49-year-old Rafael Quezada.

Police determined that Hicks had been shot by Quezada who then turned the gun on himself.

When and where: Around 8:30 p.m. on Aug. 1, near Arizona Avenue and Queen Creek Road.

Arrests and charges: Police said no arrests or suspects were identified.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: 2 people dead in suspected murder-suicide in Chandler
Two Tennessee Democrats who were expelled from the states GOP-controlled House over a gun control protest  only to be reinstated days later on an interim basis  won back their legislative seats Thursday night.

State Rep. Justin Jones beat Republican candidate Laura Nelson, and state Rep. Justin Pearson beat independent candidate Jeff Johnston.

The two first-term lawmakers were expelled in April after they joined demonstrators in calling for stronger gun control following a Nashville school shooting that left three children and three adults dead.

Hundreds of protesters  many of them kids  took to the House floor on March 30 to call for an end to gun violence, along with Pearson, Jones, and another Democrat, state Rep. Gloria Johnson. Resolutions to expel the three members, introduced by House Republicans, alleged that the trio did knowingly and intentionally bring disorder and dishonor to the House.

Pearson and Jones, who are Black, were both ousted. Johnson, who is white, was spared.

Tennessee state Reps. Justin Jones, Justin Pearson and Gloria Johnson leave the West Wing after meeting with President Joe Biden at the White House in Washington on April 24.

Tennessee state Reps. Justin Jones, Justin Pearson and Gloria Johnson leave the West Wing after meeting with President Joe Biden at the White House in Washington on April 24.

During his expulsion hearing, Jones defended his actions.

I was standing for those young people ... many of whom cant even vote yet, many of whom are disenfranchised, but all of whom are terrified by the continued trend of mass shootings plaguing our state and plaguing this nation, said Jones, who represents a district in Nashville.

We called for you all to ban assault weapons, and you respond with an assault on democracy, he added.

The House Republicans stunt quickly backfired. Just days after Jones expulsion, the Nashville Metropolitan Council voted 36-0 in favor of reinstating him on an interim basis. Two days after that, the Shelby County Board of Commissioners voted 7-0 to also reinstate Pearson on an interim basis.

You cant expel our voice, and you sure cant expel our fight, Pearson told a crowd of supporters following his reinstatement.

Adding to the House GOPs humiliation, Pearson and Jones raised a combined total of more than $2 million through about 70,400 campaign donations from across the country following media coverage of their expulsions.

By comparison, Nelson raised more than $34,000 for her race against Jones. Johnston raised less than $400 in his contest with Pearson.
The USS Essex ports at the Gulf of Thailand near Cambodias port town of Sihanoukville, 137 miles southwest of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on Nov. 26, 2007. Two U.S. Navy servicemen were accused on Wednesday of transmitting sensitive U.S. military information to the Chinese military. | Heng Sinith, Associated Press

Two Navy servicemen were formally accused of transmitting sensitive military information to officers in Chinas military on Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Justice said on Thursday.

Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen said in a statement that the two men stand accused of violating commitments they made to protect the United States and betraying the public trust, to the benefit of the Peoples Republic of China.

The Department of Justice will continue to use every tool in our arsenal to counter threats from China and to deter those who aid them in breaking our laws and threatening our national security, he said.

Jinchao Wei (Patrick Wei), one of the accused, was stationed at Naval Base San Diego and was arrested Wednesday when he arrived at work, per the release.

He was a machinists mate aboard the USS Essex and had access to ship mechanical manuals, which he allegedly sold to the Chinese military in exchange for thousands of dollars on various occasions starting in February 2022. Along with the manuals, he sent photos and videos of the ships weapons, propulsion and desalination systems, along with locations of various Navy ships, according to the release.

The indictment alleges that Wei was aware that he was violating the International Traffic Arms Regulations, which requires a license from the U.S. government in order to export this kind of data.

Wei is not expected to have coordinated or worked with Petty Officer Wenheng Zhao (Thomas Zhao), who was accused and taken into custody the same day.

Zhao, of Monterey Park, California, is accused of transmitting sensitive U.S. military information to a Chinese intelligence officer who was posing as a maritime economic researcher.

For almost two years, Zhao allegedly communicated and hid his correspondence with the supposed researcher, sending photographs and videos of nonpublic information, including diagrams of a U.S. radar system in Japan and locations and plans for a large-scale U.S. military exercise in the Indo-Pacific Region.

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Zhao could serve a 20-year prison sentence.

When a soldier or sailor chooses cash over country, and hands over national defense information in an ultimate act of betrayal, the United States will aggressively investigate and prosecute, said U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman for the Southern District of California in a statement.

Related
A man has been found not guilty in the shooting death of a 1-year-old at a 2013 cookout in Pittsburghs East Hills neighborhood.

Desaun Watson was found not guilty of five charges, including criminal homicide, for the death of Marcus White Jr. Criminal conspiracy and gun charges were withdrawn.

White, who became known as Baby Marcus, was killed on May 21, 2013. Two adults survived the shooting.

>>PREVIOUS STORY: Police make arrest in shooting death of Baby Marcus, 7 years later

According to the criminal complaint, the shooting was planned after at a party in East Hills the night before the cookout.

A witness who was at the party told police that someone at the cookout sold fake drugs to someone at the party. The next day at the cookout, they got out of a car and started shooting at a group of people, even though they did not specifically see the person they intended to shoot.

Gregory Parker was arrested in the case during the summer of 2020.

He pleaded guilty to third-degree murder, two counts of aggravated assault, criminal conspiracy and firearms violations in 2021.

The plea agreement included a 10 to 20-year term in state prison and he was immediately sentenced.

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Three people are dead after a freight train crashed into a car attempting to cross railway tracks north of Salem, Oregon, authorities said on Thursday.

The vehicle, a 2002 Honda, was carrying four people when it was hit by the freight train on Wednesday, the Marion County Sheriff's Office said in a news release. Authorities said they believed the driver had failed to obey a traffic control device before the crash unfolded.

Three of the four occupants were killed, the sheriff's office said.

The three people killed were identified by the sheriffs office as Catarino Hernandez Guzman, 31, the driver of the vehicle; Francisco Lopez, 33, and Jesus Carrera Avendano 22. The passenger who survived was identified as Anselmo Caballero Herrera, 26.

An investigation found that the Honda had been traveling west on a farm access road when it attempted to cross over the train tracks.

"The farm road was controlled with stop signs, but it appears from the investigation the Honda failed to obey the traffic control device," the sheriff's office said. It added that there was no indication of either alcohol or drugs being a factor.

The sheriff's office said the relatives of those killed in the crash did not wish to speak to the media.

Authorities urged people to take precautions when encountering a railroad crossing, including being prepared to stop at a crossing until it is safe to proceed.

"Slow down, look both ways and listen while honing your senses. Understand the signs and warning devices. Check that you have enough room on the other side of the tracks for your vehicle to cross safely" and "never race the train," it said.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
A 39-year-old man who was reported missing last week has been found safe, according to the Lincoln County Sheriffs Office.

On Aug. 2, family members told police that Antonio Jiminez Trinidad left for work around 5 a.m. and was supposed to pick up a friend to take him to work.

However, Trinidad did not show up for his work and did not pick up his friend.

ALSO READ: Warrants shed new light on investigation into Allisha Watts disappearance

On Aug. 8, police announced that Trinidad had been found safe and was in Mexico visiting other relatives.

VIDEO: Allisha Watts not in nationwide database for missing people despite report of disappearance
We may earn a commission if you make a purchase through one of our links. McClatchy newsrooms were not involved in the creation of this content.

According to the AARP, over 50 million Americans provide unpaid care services, and that number is rapidly rising. From supporting aging relatives to helping those with mental disorders and severe illness, theres no doubt that caregiving is a tough job, and caregivers health can take a toll. Its difficult to support a loved one when you havent taken care of yourself first, which is why online support groups are so beneficial. Daily stress paired with countless responsibilities can leave you feeling exhausted and isolated, but support groups offer the encouragement and resources you need to keep going.

If youre a caregiver, know that youre not alone in your struggle. But with so many choices available, how do you find the right group for you? Since no two situations are identical, theres an option out there for every caregiver. Many of these online groups are free, and all are easy to use, making them accessible whenever you need them. Below, weve narrowed down five of the best online support groups to help guide you on your caregiving journey.

Speak to a family advisor

Dementia Caregivers Support Group

Started by one overstressed caregiver, this popular online group has grown to include over 60,000 members and counting. It has become a global community for sharing encouragement, information, and concerns with thousands of others in a similar position, and the only requirement is being the primary caregiver for someone living with Alzheimers or other forms of dementia.

This online community serves as an educational resource, a great place to find caregiving suggestions and tips, vent, share experiences and find the latest news in dementia care. As a member, you can post and comment on posts from caregivers worldwide while learning how to combat the unique challenges facing those with memory loss. Join the group on Facebook to ask for help, lend a hand or learn something new whenever youve got space in your schedule.

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Caregiver Support Community

This Facebook group was designed for everyday caregivers who are trying to make the most of their situation and receive friendly encouragement along the way  tired, overworked but dedicated friends and family members who are looking out for their loved ones. To join the group, you must be the primary caregiver of a loved one and must share your story to help stimulate conversation and connect to those in similar situations. Caregiver Support Community is open to caregivers of all ages, faiths, and belief systems, so its a great place to share your stories, ask questions and address concerns in a friendly, open environment.

The Caregiver Action Network (CAN)

The Caregiver Action Network is a national nonprofit open to caregivers of all types and offers countless ways to get involved. Whether youre supporting a wounded veteran or caring for a dementia patient, this group offers valuable resources to gain information and encouragement. Have a specific caregiving question that requires an instant answer? Give the CAN help desk a ring or use online chat to receive a response from the dedicated support team. Browse Twitter and Facebook to connect with other caregivers, share your stories, post in the member forum, or browse the CAN caregiver resource list. The online Family Caregiver Toolbox provides dozens of helpful must-haves, from advice on supporting those with various illnesses to educational videos, financial and legal tools, a guide to local and national organizations, and a How-To for new caregivers.

Working Daughter

If youre struggling to balance caregiving with your role as a part-time or full-time employee, this group may be the one to turn to. The Working Daughter website features an interactive online portal, a private Facebook support group, and a podcast. Each of these resources provides a unique way to reach out for help, offers suggestions and information, and provides an outlet to share your story and learn from others as they navigate their own challenges. Founder Liz ODonnell helps women find the delicate balance between caregiving and personal life, and in addition to free resources, she helps members develop personalized plans to guide them through their caregiving journeys as part of an optional paid membership.

The Alzheimers Foundation of America

If youre caring for someone living with Alzheimers or related dementias, youll face some unique challenges that not everyone will relate to. Thankfully, this nationwide nonprofit is there to help with a wide range of educational resources and support groups specifically for caregivers of those with dementia. The Alzheimers Foundation provides services free of charge, with a helpline available 24/7 for those who need it. If you have an important question or need support with a specific issue, licensed social workers are there to help.

Free weekly support groups are also available by phone, giving you the opportunity to connect with fellow caregivers and share your experiences while receiving professional guidance. Call the helpline to register.

The Bottom Line

Online support groups offer a welcome respite from the daily challenges of your caregiving duties. Theyre a place to share experiences, express concerns, learn helpful tips, read up on the latest information and receive emotional comfort all in one place. Explore and observe some groups before you choose a favorite and avoid joining too many to prevent further burnout. Caring for a loved one is no easy task, and its important to take time for some daily self-care, because the better you take care of yourself, the better you can care for others.

Speak to a family advisor

Rachel Lustbader is a writer and editor with a decade of experience working in and writing about health care, the last five of which she has focused on senior health and senior living. Before joining Caring.com, Rachel worked with websites including HealthCare.com, BiteSizeBio.com, MedicareGuide.com, and BetterHelp.com. She studied health science as an undergraduate at Boston University and continued her education in health communication at BU in 2019. She can be reached at editorial@caring.com.
U.S. Border Patrol agents made a surprising discovery last weekend when they arrested a migrant carrying a backpack filled with seven spider monkeys, federal authorities said.

Agents found the monkeys on Sunday when a Mexican juvenile was apprehended in Brownsville, Texas, which is on the U.S.-Mexico border, officials said in a statement. The Border Patrol's Rio Grande Valley Sector posted a video on Facebook showing the monkeys huddled inside a bag that appeared to have holes in it to allow the animals to breathe.

"Extremely proud of our agents for stopping this wildlife smuggling attempt of these critically endangered animals!" the Facebook post reads.

The migrant was arrested and the monkeys, which make their home in Central and South America, were turned over to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Officials did not release any information about the condition of the animals.

Spider monkeys are considered critically endangered and are among the 25 most threatened primates in the world, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society.

"This case highlights the lengths smugglers will go to maximize profits with no regard for the lives of migrants or animals," said Rio Grande Valley Sector Chief Patrol Agent Gloria Chavez.

Attempts to sneak exotic animals into the U.S. are relatively common. Earlier this year, 29 Amazon parrot eggs were seized from a smuggler at Miami International Airport. The Rare Species Conservatory Foundation was able to hatch 26 of the 29 eggs, and 24 of the 26 chicks survived.

Last November, federal prosecutors charged eight people with smuggling endangered long-tailed macaques into the U.S.

Last August, a man in California pleaded guilty to smuggling more than 1,700 wild animals into the United States from Mexico.

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This list is curated by Charlotte on the Cheap, where youll find even more free and cheap things to do every day, and detailed by Denise Casalez.

Friday, Aug. 4

Storytellers Showcase

Location: 4128 South Blvd., Suite A3, Charlotte, North Carolina, 28209

Time: 8 p.m.

Cost: $10-15

Come and see graduates of CATChs first storytelling class share their personal and unique 7-9 minute stories. You can expect transformations large and small, and leaning in to hear more about their time at the Comedy Arts Theater of Charlotte.

Saturday, Aug. 5

Fork Fest

Location: Confluence, 117 Center Street Cramerton, NC 28032

Time: 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

Cost: Free, although tickets starting at $10 are required for some performances.

Kick your Saturday off with a music festival celebrating the South Fork River in Cramerton. You can expect Americana, bluegrass and country musicians singing throughout the day, plus free activities for kids. Your children can learn how to play kazoo or make their own maracas.

Sunday, Aug. 6

Instruments of Love

Location: SouthPark Church, 3151 Apex Drive, Suite 100 Charlotte, NC 28211

Time: 4-6 p.m.

Cost: Free

Enjoy your Sunday afternoon with live music from The Rowan Big Band All Stars at SouthPark Church. Attendees can expect dancing, and food will be available for purchase.

CHARLOTTE FIVE'S 2022 PATIO GUIDE

Monday, Aug. 7

Back to School Bash at McDonalds in Mount Holly

Location: 704 S Main Street, Mount Holly NC 28120

Time: 5-7 p.m.

Cost: Free

The end of summer break is nearing, so come by to Back to School Bash at Mt Hollys McDonalds. There will be face painting, balloon twisting and a school supplies giveaway. The first 100 kids will receive free school supplies (and the children must be preschool age to 12).

Tuesday, Aug. 8

Schiele Museum: Free admission and planetarium show

Location: 1500 East Garrison Blvd, Gastonia NC 28054

Time: 4-8 p.m.

Cost: Free

Enjoy your Tuesday night with free museum admission and planetarium shows at The Schiele Museum. Book your tickets online to reserve your seats. Its a great way to learn something new.

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Wednesday, Aug. 9

Free wine tasting

Location: 917 Central Avenue, Charlotte, NC 28204

Time: 6-9 p.m.

Cost: Free

Sip City hosts a free wine tasting every Wednesday from 6-9 p.m., featuring a new winery each week. Learn about the tastes and the stories behind what makes each wine unique.

Thursday, Aug. 10

Free community concert with Jay D Jones and Band

Location: Mallard Creek Recreation Center, 2530 Johnston Oehler Rd, Charlotte, NC 28269

Time: 11 a.m.- 12:15 p.m.

Cost: Free

Come and listen to some tunes from Jay D. Jones at Mallard Creek Recreation Center. Hosted by Soul Music Company, you can expect live performances in a listening-room environment. Come by and listen to some jazzy soul tunes from Jay D. Jones.

Visit Charlotte on the Cheap for an expanded list of things to do in Charlotte every day. Youll find festivals, kids activities, date night ideas, art, trivia and much more. You can sign up for a daily email that will keep you in the loop.
Our galaxy curves above the water trapped in a collapsed volcano at Crater Lake, Oregon.

If youre part of the 83 percent of Americans who live in an urban area, you probably cant see many stars from your home. Cities are overwhelmed with lights, shining from lamps in skyscrapers, the streets, and the ones in bedroom windows. All of this light from the ground drowns out the stars in a phenomenon called light pollution.

Thankfully, a few organizations including the National Park Service (NPS) and the International Dark Sky Association (IDA) are fighting to preserve stargazing spots across the country and the world. Their goals are to ensure that people can access the majesty of the cosmos and safeguard eons-old cultures tied into the night sky. The IDA designates certain areas as dark sky parksor even dark sky sanctuaries for the most remote, precious locations.

Of the USs many dark sky sites, were highlighting seven of the most spectacular stargazing spots in the continental states. These might not be the country's absolute darkest places, but theyre where you can see some incredible natural views and the beauty of the night sky at the same time.

Crater Lake National Park, Oregon

Crater Lake, Oregons only national park, is a showstopper, as seen in the top photo. The 6,000-plus foot elevation atop the volcanic caldera makes for pristine skywatching, since at this height theres just less atmospheric stuff to get in the way between you and the stars. The website Space Tourism Guide recommends the Scenic Rim Drive, the path that circles the lake, as a popular spot. The starlight is supposedly so bright that flashlights are optional.

Rainbow Bridge National Monument, Utah

People have been photographing this geologic structure since 1909.

The Rainbow Bridge National Monument in Utah, which the IDA recently designated as a dark sky sanctuary, is a magnificent rock formation and one of the worlds largest natural bridges. It is a sacred site to the Hopi, Navajo, Zuni, and other Indigenous nations of the Southwest. Getting there isnt easy: It is only accessible by boat or a lengthy 14-plus mile backpacking trip. If you are looking for a reverent experience of the night sky, this may be the place. As the National Park Service says on its website, Please visit Rainbow Bridge in a spirit that honors and respects the cultures to whom it is sacred.

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Chaco Culture National Historical Park, New Mexico

Stars make trails over Casa Rinconada, an Ancestral Puebloan archaeological site.

Designated as a dark sky park in 2013, Chaco Culture NHP in New Mexico bears the marks of millenia of human astronomical activities. In this canyon, Ancestral Puebloan people built massive structures that reflected their observations of the night sky, such as the solar cycles. They also created astronomical rock art that still stands today. The park even offers night sky programs to carry on this long tradition, including public stargazing nights and a yearly astronomy festival.

[Related: The 10 most underrated national parks in the US]

Cherry Springs State Park, Pennsylvania

The Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources declared Cherry Springs the state's first dark sky park in 2000.

Cherry Springs Dark Sky Park in rural Pennsylvania is a contender for the absolute best stargazing in the United Statesand unlike so many of the national parks, which are located in the southwest, this ones an easy drive for urban New Englanders. Plus, its a personal favorite; my colleges astronomy group took yearly camping trips here, driving out of the glare of New York City and into this idyllic preserve. The park has a designated overnight astronomy observation field, complete with restrooms and telescope domes.

Big Bend National Park, Texas

Big Bend officially takes the title of having the darkest skies in a national park, at least in the lower 48 states. This Texas gem boasts over 150 miles of trails, drawing over half a million visitors per year. The National Park Service offers three campgrounds for stargazers, plus backcountry camping for the more adventurous wilderness enthusiasts. (Just dont forget your permit!) Its a great place to see the splendor of the Milky Way.

Stephen C. Foster State Park, Georgia

The terrain in Georgias Stephen C. Foster State Park is a bit different from the other deserts and forests on this list. Its home to the Okefenokee Swamp, the largest wetland in the Southern US, which is bursting with biodiversity from alligators and black bears to storks and ibis. Plus, Foster State Park is the only gold-tier dark sky part in the Southeast, scoring the highest rating for a dark sky park from the IDA. Its the best bet for folks living in Georgia, Florida, and other nearby states. You can even go for a late night paddle on the swamp and enjoy the stars from the water.

Katahdin Woods & Waters National Monument, Maine

The Milky Way sparkles above the Katahdin Loop Road Overlook.

Although its better known as the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail, this forested region in Maine also hosts a stellar stargazing site. Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument is a reserve that sprawls over 87,000 acres. The NPS claims this monument has some of the darkest night skies east of the Mississippi River. Just be sure to visit in a warmer season, since Katahdin freezes into a snowmobilers paradise in the winter.
Editors note: This commentary was first published in The Conversation. The article has been updated as of 6pm EDT Friday to delete a reference to fighting continuing in Europe, as fighting in Europe ended with Germanys surrender in May 1945, according to the National World War II Museum.

It was 8:15 on a Monday morning, Aug. 6, 1945. World War II was still raging in Japan.

An American B-29 bomber dropped the worlds first atomic bomb over Hiroshima, Japan  an important military center with a civilian population close to 300,000 people.

The U.S. wanted to end the war, and Japan was unwilling to surrender unconditionally.

The bomber plane was called the Enola Gay, named for Enola Gay Tibbets, the mother of the pilot.

Its passenger was Little Boy  an atomic bomb that quickly killed 80,000 people in Hiroshima. Tens of thousands more would later die of the excruciating effects of radiation exposure.

Three days later, U.S. soldiers in a second B-29 bomber plane dropped another atomic bomb on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 40,000 people.

It was the first  and so far, only  time atomic bombs were used against civilians. But U.S. scientists were confident it would work, because they had tested one just like it in New Mexico a month before. This was part of the Manhattan Project, a secret, federally funded science effort that produced the first nuclear weapons.

What might have been a single year of nuclear weapons development ushered in decades and decades of nuclear proliferation  a challenge across countries and professions.

Having worked on nuclear weapons both as a journalist covering the Pentagon and then as a White House special assistant on the National Security Council and undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, I understand how critical it is to educate and inform citizens about the dangers of nuclear war and how to control the development of nuclear weapons.

The man who started it all

Nobel Prize-winning physicist Albert Einstein warned then-President Franklin Roosevelt in 1939 that the Nazis might be developing nuclear weapons. Einstein urged the U.S. to stockpile uranium and begin developing an atomic bomb  a warning he would later regret.

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Einstein wrote a letter to Newsweek, published in 1947, headlined The Man Who Started It All. In it, he made a confession. Had I known that the Germans would not succeed in producing an atomic bomb, I would never have lifted a finger, Einstein wrote.

Einstein repeated his regret in 1954, writing that the letter to Roosevelt was his one great mistake in life.

But by then it was too late.

The Soviet Union began its own bomb development program in the late 1940s, partly in response to Hiroshima and Nagasaki but also as a response to the the Nazi invasion of their country in the 1940s. The Soviet Union secretly conducted its first atomic weapons test in 1949.

The U.S. responded by testing more advanced nuclear weapons in November 1952. The result was a hydrogen bomb explosion with approximately 700 times the power of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

A nuclear arms race had begun.

Arms control

The U.S. atomic bomb attacks on Japan remain the only military use of nuclear weapons.

But today there are nine countries that have nuclear weapons  the U.S., Russia, France, China, the United Kingdom, Pakistan, India, Israel and North Korea. The U.S. and Russia jointly have about 90% of the nuclear warheads in the world.

There has been progress over the past few decades in reducing the global stockpile of nuclear weapons while preventing the development of new ones. But that momentum has been uneven and oftentimes rocky.

The U.S. and the Soviet Union first agreed to limit their respective countries nuclear weapons stockpile and to prevent further development of new weapons in 1986.

And in 1991 the U.S. and the Soviet Union signed on to another legally binding international treaty that required the countries to destroy 2,693 nuclear and conventional ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of about 300 to more than 3,400 miles (500-5,500 kilometers).

The two countries signed another well-known international agreement called START I in 1994, not long after the fall of the Soviet Union.

That treaty is considered by experts one of the most successful arms control agreements. It resulted in the U.S. and Russias dismantling 80% of all the worlds strategic nuclear weapons by 2001.

Russia and the U.S. signed on to a new START treaty in 2011, restricting the countries to each keep 1,550 nuclear weapons.

START II, as it is known, will expire in February 2026. There are no current plans for the countries to renew the deal, and it is not clear what comes next.

Complicating factors

Russias ongoing war in Ukraine  and Russian President Vladimir Putins repeated threats to strike Ukraine and Western countries with nuclear weapons  has complicated plans to renew the new START deal.

Although Putin has not formally ended Russian adherence to the START II agreement, Russia has stopped participating in the nuclear inspection checks that the deal requires. This lack of transparency makes diplomacy over the deal more difficult.

Another complicating factor is that China has made it clear that it is not interested in an arms control agreement until it has the same number of nuclear weapons that the U.S. and Russia have.

Indeed, since 2019, China has increased the size, readiness, accuracy and diversity of its nuclear arsenal.

The U.S. Department of Defense reported in 2022 that China was on course to have 1,500 nuclear weapons within the next decade  roughly matching the stockpile that the U.S. and Russia each have. In 2015, China had an estimated 260 nuclear warheads, and by 2023 that number rose to more than 400.

At the same time, North Korea continues testing its ballistic nuclear missiles.

Iran is enriching uranium to near-weapons-grade levels. Some observers have voiced concern that Iran could soon reach 90% enrichment levels, meaning it would then just be a few months before Iran develops a nuclear bomb.

In a world of potential nuclear terrorism and conflicts that risk the unthinkable use of nuclear weapons, I think that the need to control proliferation and double down on arms control is a useful starting point.

So, what else can be done to contain the real threat of nuclear war?

Diplomacy is the way forward

Diplomacy matters, as was clear in the early years of U.S.-Soviet agreements.

In my view, a formal agreement between the U.S. and Iran to slow down its nuclear development would be valuable. Creating a better relationship between the U.S. and China might reduce the chances of a confrontation over Taiwan with the potential for a nuclear conflagration.

The U.S. can also use public diplomacy tools  everything from official speeches to international educational exchanges  to warn the world of the escalating dangers of unchecked nuclear weapons use. This is one way to get ordinary citizens to put pressure on their governments to work on disarmament, similar to how young activists have moved public opinion on climate change.

The U.S. could potentially use its global podium to underscore the horrific nature of threats that come with the use of nuclear weapons and make clear such use is inadmissible.

Remembering Aug. 6, 1945, is painful. But the best way to honor history is not to repeat it.

Tara D. Sonenshine is Professor of the Practice at Tufts Universitys Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. She is a former U.S. under secretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs is an Emmy-award winning journalist with ABC NEWS, former Newsweek editor, author of numerous articles on foreign affairs.

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A Biden administration policy restricting asylum-seekers at the southern border can proceed for now, a federal appeals court ruled on Thursday, pausing an order from a lower court to block the policy.

In an unexpected win for the Biden administration, a panel of three judges from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voted 2-1 to put a temporary stay on a court ruling from last month that was slated to stop the asylum restrictions next week. The asylum policy  which has contributed to a dramatic dip in border crossings  has been described by some as an asylum ban, preventing some migrants from applying for humanitarian protection if they enter the country illegally.

Judges William Fletcher and Richard Paez, both appointees of President Bill Clinton, voted to allow the asylum policy to proceed temporarily. They did not explain their reasoning, referring only briefly to the courts standards for stays pending appeal. In their ruling, Fletcher and Paez ordered the appeal expedited, with the case ready to be argued by late September.

In a searing dissent, Judge Lawrence VanDyke wrote that the Biden administrations policy was not meaningfully different from Trump administration policies that his fellow judges on the panel voted to overturn.

The Biden administrations Pathways Rule before us in this appeal is not meaningfully different from the prior administrations rules that were backhanded by my two colleagues, wrote VanDyke, who was appointed by President Donald Trump. This new rule looks like the Trump administrations Port of Entry Rule and Transit Rule got together, had a baby, and then dolled it up in a stylish modern outfit, complete with a phone app.

He accused his colleagues of ignoring the precedent they set by overturning the Trump policies, and appeared to suggest political bias by adding that he could not shake the impression that something other than the law is at work here.

In his dissent, Van Dyke took the unusual step of naming Judge Jon Tigar, the appointee of President Barack Obama who issued the injunction against the Biden policy late last month but put his ruling on hold for two weeks to allow the administration to seek a stay. The appeals court judge lauded Tigars consistency in blocking both the Biden policy and the Trump administrations transit ban a few years earlier, and criticized the outcome-oriented mess weve made of our immigration precedent.

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For those who value the rule of law, following precedent, and predictability, one must conclude Judge Tigar had no choice but to vacate the current administrations Pathways Rule for the reasons that he first provided and my colleagues then established as binding precedent during the Trump administration, Van Dyke wrote.

When Tigar halted the Biden policy in July, he dismissed the restrictions on asylum as arbitrary and capricious, arguing that it was based on outdated and inaccurate assumptions. He also expressed concern about the policys requirement that migrants enter the country at legal points of entry, assuming those who enter between points of entry are ineligible for asylum. That assumption, he said, is contrary to policy Congress has set in law.

Justice Department lawyers argued that lifting the policy while litigation proceeds could lead to a new surge of migrants at the border.

The Biden policy generally bars migrants from applying for asylum if they cross the border illegally, or if they do not first apply for safe harbor while traveling through another country before reaching the U.S. It contains some exceptions, including for unaccompanied children, asylum-seekers entering the country at legal points of entry or those escaping imminent harm outside of the United States.

The immigrant rights activists who sued to block the Biden policy reiterated their concern about the policys effects and their ongoing commitment to fighting it in court.

We are pleased the court placed the appeal on an expedited schedule so that it can be decided quickly, because each day the Biden administration prolongs its efforts to preserve its illegal ban, people fleeing grave danger are put in harms way, said Katrina Eiland, deputy director of the ACLUs Immigrants Rights Project, who argued the case. The Biden administration should uphold our asylum laws, which were designed to give people a fair chance to seek safety, not ban them arbitrarily despite their need for protection.

Josh Gerstein contributed to this report.
General James McConville, pictured testified during a Senate hearing on May 10, 2022, has stepped down as chief of staff of the US Army (Kevin Dietsch)

The US Army's chief of staff stepped down Friday, leaving a second military branch without a confirmed leader as a lawmaker stalls the approval of Pentagon nominations to protest efforts to aid abortion access for troops.

More than 300 nominations -- including the generals selected as the next heads of the Army and the Marine Corps -- are awaiting confirmation by the US Senate, and the number continues to grow.

The Senate can still vote on nominees individually, but the "hold" by Senator Tommy Tuberville, a Republican from Alabama, means they cannot be quickly approved in groups by unanimous consent.

"Unfortunately, today, for the first time in the history of the Department of Defense, two of our services will be operating without Senate-confirmed leadership," Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said at a ceremony marking the end of General James McConville's tenure as chief of staff.

"The failure to confirm our superbly qualified senior uniformed leaders undermines our military readiness. It undermines our retention of some of our very best officers. And it is upending the lives of far too many of their spouses, children, and loved ones," he said.

The Pentagon has emphasized that the delay in approving the nominations is negatively impacting military families, as they are unable to plan for things such as school for their children given the uncertainty about where they will be living.

- Lives, careers 'in limbo' -

General Randy George -- the current vice chief of staff of the Army -- has been nominated to replace McConville as the head of the service and will perform those duties in an acting capacity in addition to his current job.

"We need the Senate to act not only on his nomination but also on the over 300 other general and flag officers across the armed services whose careers and lives are now in limbo because of this unprecedented hold," Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth said at the ceremony.

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The US Supreme Court in June 2022 struck down the nationwide right to abortion, meaning troops stationed in places that restricted or banned the procedure must now take leave and travel to areas where it is legal to obtain one.

In response, Austin directed the Defense Department to develop policies -- which were released in February -- to allow service members to take administrative absences to receive "non-covered reproductive health care," and to establish travel allowances to help them cover costs.

Tuberville insists those efforts are illegal and has vowed to delay the approval of senior officers as well Defense Department civilian officials until it is reversed.

The US Marine Corps commandant stepped down on July 10, and the general nominated to replace him has been performing two jobs -- vice commandant and head of the service -- for nearly a month.

The problem is set to worsen as other top officers are leaving office soon, including Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Mike Gilday and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley.

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The Ada County Coroners Office identified the 16-year-old teenager who died after being struck by a truck.

At around 10:10 a.m. Thursday, Jadin Zurawski, of Boise, was skateboarding across West Washington Street in the crosswalk when the truck driver, who was going southbound along 16th Street, hit the teen, according to a news release from the Boise Police Department. Zurawski died at the scene.

Zurawski was a student at Boise High School, district spokesperson Dan Hollar told the Idaho Statesman by email. Hollar said the school made counselors available to any students or staff members on Friday and there will be another opportunity from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday.

We realize that this is difficult information to process and are saddened by this loss, Boise High Principal Deborah Watts said in an internal memo sent to parents and students, which Hollar provided to the Statesman. As a school family and community we will support one another and work through this the best way we possibly can. Please remember this family in your thoughts.

The coroners report said Zurawski died from blunt force injuries and ruled his death an accident. Boise police spokesperson Haley Kramer told the Idaho Statesman by email that any decisions regarding a criminal charge wont be made until the investigation is completed.

Kramer said detectives have completed on-scene interviews and used student resource officers and victim witness coordinators to meet with any witnesses, but that the investigation, including a crash reconstruction, is ongoing.

Anyone with additional information who hasnt spoken to police is asked to call the Ada County Dispatch at 208-377-6790.
The Ada County Coroners Office has identified the man who was fatally shot by Boise police Thursday as Christian Johnson, 54, of Boise.

Johnson was pronounced dead on the 1100 block of South Dale Street after Johnson contacted police at the Morrison Park Apartments near Boise State University, where he lived, Boise Police Chief Ron Winegar said at a news conference Thursday. Winegar said that after speaking with officers from his balcony, Johnson came downstairs and charged officers with several weapons, including a sharp or hitched weapon, after commands to stop.

Johnsons death was multiple gunshot wounds, according to a report by the Coroners Office.

Two officers were involved in the shooting, Winegar said, and neither of them was injured. The Meridian Police Department is leading an investigation on the incident as part of the Critical Incident Task Force, which is launched after every police shooting.

The fatal shooting Thursday was the fourth by Boise police this year, a record number for the agency in decades, according to Idaho Statesman data.
Thirty-eight House Democrats led by Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., are demanding that former President Trumps federal criminal trials be televised for the public.

"We are writing to request the Judicial Conference explicitly authorize the broadcasting of court proceedings in the cases of United States of America v. Donald J. Trump," they said in a Thursday night letter to federal officials.

"It is imperative the Conference ensures timely access to accurate and reliable information surrounding these cases and all of their proceedings, given the extraordinary national importance to our democratic institutions and the need for transparency," they wrote.

It was sent hours after Trump pleaded not guilty to four charges related to his and his allies alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

INDICTMENT OF DONALD TRUMP IS A 'TERRIBLY TRAGIC DAY' AND SHOWS SPEECH IS NOW 'CRIMINALIZED': TRUMP ATTORNEY

Rep. Adam Schiff, left, led a letter to judicial officials calling for former President Trump's trials to be televised.

Trump was arraigned in a Washington, D.C., court on Thursday after Special Counsel Jack Smith announced the second of two federal grand jury indictments against the former president. He is also under an earlier criminal indictment in New York City.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

Federal courts largely do not allow cameras, with a few exceptions.

Howerver, the dozens of Democrats who addressed the Judicial Conference, which guides federal court policy, insisted that putting Trumps trials on TV is critical for Americans to "fully accept" their outcome.

TRUMP INDICTED ON CHARGES OUT OF SPECIAL COUNSEL PROBE INTO JAN 6

Former President Trump's motorcade leaves the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse after his arraignment, in Washington, D.C.

"As the policymaking body for the federal courts, the Judiciary Conference has historically supported increased transparency and public access to the courts activities. Given the historic nature of the charges brought forth in these cases, it is hard to imagine a more powerful circumstance for televised proceedings," the lawmakers wrote.

"If the public is to fully accept the outcome, it will be vitally important for it to witness, as directly as possible, how the trials are conducted, the strength of the evidence adduced and the credibility of witnesses," they wrote.

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SPECIAL COUNSEL JACK SMITH SAYS JAN 6 FUELED BY LIES FROM TRUMP, PRAISES HEROES WHO DEFENDED CAPITOL

Schiff was censured this year for promoting claims, while chairing the Intelligence Committee last Congress, that the Trump 2016 campaign colluded with Russia to win the election.

He also played a central role in both of Trumps impeachment proceedings by House Democrats. He was an impeachment manager during the first, and was a member of the January 6 select committee when the former president was being impeached over the Capitol riot.

Other members of the now-defunct Jan. 6 panel signed Schiffs letter, including its chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., as well as Reps. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, Pete Aguilar of California, and Zoe Lofgren of California.

A spokesperson for Trump did not immediately return a request for comment.
NEW YORK  New York City officials will move migrants to temporary housing in Brooklyns McCarren Park as soon as Friday, local elected officials told POLITICO.

Sunset Park farther south in Brooklyn is also being strongly considered as a so-called respite center, according to text message notices sent to local leaders Thursday and reviewed by POLITICO.

About 100 migrants would be housed in the Sunset Park recreation center, currently closed for recreation. Between 80 and 100 migrants will be sheltered in part of the McCarren Park recreation center, which has been open to the public.

Adams office has assured us that public access to the pool and fitness center will not be impacted and additional security will be in place to ensure everyone's safety," read a joint statement from Democrats representing northern Brooklyn at the federal, state and city levels.



There are still walkthroughs to be conducted at the McCarren Park site, according to the text messages.

The heads-ups came as Adams and his top aides warn that the citys permanent and temporary shelters are at capacity and as migrant adults have been sleeping on the sidewalk outside the Roosevelt Hotel intake center in midtown Manhattan.

City Hall officials have said nothing is off the table in terms of options for shelter, acknowledging they are considering Central Park and other city green space as makeshift housing sites. Adams officials are looking at more city properties as the fastest solutions to relieving lines outside the Roosevelt Hotel, according to an administration adviser.
Refugees from Afghanistan at Heathrow Airport in 2021

Afghan families given refuge by the UK are facing homelessness after being told by the government to move out of hotels, councils have told the BBC.

The families, many of whom worked for the British government, came to the UK after the Taliban takeover in 2021.

Thousands are still living in temporary government-funded hotel accommodation - but are now beginning to be moved out.

Cabinet Office Minister Johnny Mercer has said he will have failed if any of them end up living on the streets.

"That has not happened. And that is not going to happen," he told the BBC.

However, those that can not find permanent homes will be classed as homeless and the responsibility of local councils.

Councils say some families have already presented as homeless this week. The Local Government Association (LGA) said one in five Afghans leaving hotels were presenting to local authorities as homeless.

It said Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire were particularly affected, but Southampton, Basingstoke, Devon and Essex would also be impacted in the coming weeks and months.

One authority in Essex said it had nine families now facing homelessness. In Milton Keynes, the council has received 32 homelessness referrals so far.

Local authorities have a legal duty to find accommodation for homeless people.

The families were given three months notice in April to leave the hotels.

Mr Mercer said the government had done "a huge amount of work" to get Afghans into long-term, sustainable accommodation and this was "what's best for them and what's best for British taxpayers".

He said the "vast majority" of those presenting as homeless "have actually been offered somewhere to live, it's just for some of them, it's not where they want to live".

"Which is understandable, but that's not the same as living on the street because the government hasn't done its job," he added.

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'I would not have come'

Mahmood - not his real name - was evacuated with his wife to the UK in August 2021 and his one-year-old son was born while they were living in a hotel in Lincolnshire.

The family have been in the hotel for two years, but have been told they will have to leave by 25 August.

The 27-year-old said he had viewed dozens of flats, but believes he has not been accepted by any landlords because the salary he earns working in a supermarket is not high enough.

"The council hasn't helped me much - they haven't found anything to offer to me. They say they are looking but I think at the end of the day it's up to landlords who they want to give their place to," he told the BBC.

He said it was "very difficult" living in a single hotel room as a family of three, adding that they were unable to cook their own food or have friends visit.

"We are very grateful to the British government for their help to get us out of Afghanistan," he said.

"But if I had known this in Afghanistan that I would be in a hotel room for two years, I would have not come here to England - I would have been happy to stay in my own country regardless of what could have happened to me."

He said he was worried about the future, adding: "There are 8 other families in this hotel and we don't know what's happening."

The Home Office said it had provided 285m funding to help with the transition, and was running schemes to help more Afghan families find permanent homes.

But councils say the government funding is not enough and although accommodation will be found for the refugees, it may mean they have to move hundreds of miles to other hotels.

Stephen Robinson, the Liberal Democrat leader of Chelmsford City Council, said his housing officers had to find accommodation for nine Afghan families, totalling 60 people.

"They were offered the chance to come to the UK because of their loyalty to the British government and they have been stuck in hotels for the last year, 18 months, and now they are being moved out," he told BBC News.

The families had highly qualified people who wanted to contribute to British society, he added, and had found work and schools for their children.

"They are all becoming homeless next week and we have a statutory responsibility to put them into temporary accommodation," he said.

The council already has to deal with 430 homeless households in Chelmsford, said Mr Robinson, and there was a lack of accommodation.

"We warned the government that this would be a problem and they just covered their ears. They didn't want to think about the end game," he told the BBC.

"We have a moral duty to those who worked for the British government to look after them properly and we have, as a country, this government, has let them down."

How many people have been resettled in the UK from Afghanistan?

In 2021, the government launched the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) scheme for Afghans who had worked for the British military or UK government

The Afghan Citizens' Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) opened in 2022 to allow up to 20,000 refugees to settle in the UK in the coming years

As of March 2023, about 21,000 people had been resettled under these schemes, including British nationals

Currently, 8,799 people - about half of whom are children - are living in hotels or serviced accommodation

Telford & Wrekin Council leader Shaun Davies, chairman of the Local Government Association, said councils shared the Home Office's determination to get Afghan families out of hotels and into permanent homes.

However, he added: "It is wrong that some families are having to leave Home Office-funded hotels only to then end up having to move into temporary accommodation."

"With record numbers of households already living in temporary accommodation and an acute shortage of housing across the country, this is adding huge pressure on to councils on the ground and disruption and distress for families, some of whom are particularly vulnerable," he said.

"This situation is likely to worsen significantly as the Home Office stops paying for the remaining bridging hotels for Afghan families in the coming days and weeks."

He argued the government should continue to pay for hotel places for those families struggling to find accommodation.

Mr Davies also said hotels should not be closed to Afghan refugees only to "switch to becoming hotels for other new arrivals".

Labour MP Dan Jarvis, a former soldier who served in Afghanistan, said the idea Afghans were being "forced to become homeless" was "shameful".

"These are not economic migrants - these are Afghans who placed themselves in mortal peril in order to serve alongside British forces in Afghanistan, and they did so at our request," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Additional reporting by Najiba Feroz and Abdullah Bakhtiar

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By Nelson Banya

HARARE (Reuters) - South African citrus farmers want their government to lodge a complaint against the European Union at the World Trade Organisation over the European bloc's citrus black spot regulations which they say threaten thousands of jobs.

The measures imposed by the EU in June 2022 require enhanced cold treatment for citrus exports due to concerns over False Codling Moth, a pest commonly found in sub-Saharan Africa, and Citrus Black Spot (CBS), a fungal disease which leaves dark spots on fruit.

The EU's plant health rules could cut South Africa's orange exports to Europe by 20% this year, according to the Citrus Growers Association of Southern Africa (CGA).

South Africa's citrus industry says its current pest and disease control measures are highly effective and accuses the EU of protectionism.

Reuters has asked the EU and South Africa's trade department for comment. No other major citrus exporters have complained about the EU measures, which relate to pests and diseases that are most commonly found in South Africa.

South African farmers are currently battling electricity and logistics challenges and increased input costs and cannot absorb the additional 2 billion rand ($106.98 million) annual cost for CBS risk management, Deon Joubert, the CGA's special envoy on market access and EU matters, said in a statement.

"The CGA calls on the South African government to work with the industry to put a stop to these CBS regulations and fight for South African jobs and revenue. Declaring a WTO dispute is truly a matter of urgency," Joubert said.

The CGA says the EU citrus market currently sustains a total of 70,000 jobs in South Africa, generating about $800 million annually in annual export earnings.

Last year, South Africa lodged its first ever WTO dispute complaint when it challenged the EU's phytosanitary requirements for imports of oranges and other citrus products related to the False Codling Moth.

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Consultations are still underway over that complaint, according to the latest update on the WTO website.

($1 = 18.6959 rand)

(Reporting by Nelson Banya, Editing by Angus MacSwan)
Nigers president, in an op-ed published Thursday, raised concerns that the political unrest in his country will present Russia with an opportunity to gain a foothold and advance its interests on the African continent.

"With an open invitation from the coup plotters and their regional allies, the entire central Sahel region could fall to Russian influence via the Wagner Group, whose brutal terrorism has been on full display in Ukraine," Niger President Mohamed Bazoum wrote in The Washington Post.

"Boko Haram and other terrorist movements will surely take advantage of Nigers instability, using our country as a staging ground to attack neighboring countries and undermine peace, safety and freedom around the world," he continued.

"They will ramp up their efforts to target our youths with hateful anti-Western indoctrination, turning them against the very partners who are helping us build a more hopeful future."

HAITI EXPRESSES SKEPTICISM OVER KENYA'S OFFER TO SEND POLICE TO COMBAT HAITI'S GANG VIOLENCE

Bazoum remains detained inside his palace in Niamey in the possession of presidential guards after they claimed to take control of the country.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

Col. Maj. Amadou Abdramane, a spokesperson for Nigers security forces, said in a televised statement last week that the countrys constitution was suspended and that Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani was in charge, The Associated Press reported.

Niger Army spokesman Colonel Major Amadou Adramane speaks during an appearance on national television, after President Mohamed Bazoum was held in the presidential palace, in Niamey, Niger, July 26, 2023, in this still image taken from video.

Pictures of celebrations following the announcement showed a number of people waving Russian flags and signs saying, "Russie Vivie," or "Live Russia."

Niger has also already attracted interest from Russias infamous mercenary Wagner Group, which has targeted the country due to its rich uranium production.

Supporters of the coup set fire to the ruling party HQ while hundreds of them gather in front of the National Assembly in the capital Niamey, Niger July 27, 2023.

Wagner's founder and currently exiled leader Yevgeny Prigozhin celebrated Niger's coup, arguing that "What happened in Niger has been brewing for years."

"The former colonizers are trying to keep the people of African countries in check," Prigozhin said. "In order to keep them in check, the former colonizers are filling these countries with terrorists and various bandit formations, thus creating a colossal security crisis."

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ZIMBABWEAN OPPOSITION CLAIMS PRESIDENT'S SUPPORTERS STONED ONE OF THEIR MEMBERS TO DEATH

"The population suffers. And this is the (the reason for) love for PMC (private military company) Wagner, this is the high efficiency of PMC Wagner," Prigozhin added.

Wagner already has communicated with neighboring Mali, which asked for help after ousting the French military, with many of them moving into Niger. Reports indicate that Wagner could soon arrive in Burkina Faso, too.

People stand next to Russian and Niger flags while hundreds of supporters of the coup gather in front of the National Assembly in the capital Niamey, Niger, July 27, 2023.

Bazoum urged the U.S. "and the entire international community to help us restore our constitutional order," but the U.S. shortly afterward announced plans to evacuate some American citizens out of Niger.

The Pentagon stressed that the countrys "force posture" in Niger has not changed and that the military remains committed even though some Americans will leave the country for safety reasons.

Abdourahmane Tchiani and other army commanders held a meeting in the capital, Niamey, Niger on July 28, 2023. Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, the head of Niger's presidential guard, appeared on national television on Friday and declared himself the new leader of the country after a coup.

"The department continues to operate there," Pentagon Deputy Spokesperson Sabrina Singh said during an appearance on "Americas Newsroom" Friday morning. "Niger's an incredibly important regional partner  in terms of counterterrorism, and so we hope that things can be resolved diplomatically."

VIETNAM WILL EXPORT 2M DOSES OF SWINE FEVER VACCINE TO PHILIPPINES BY OCTOBER

Singh noted, "Again, I hope it's a show of confidence that the department right now is not changing its force posture," she added. "And, yes, we are having an order departure of some American citizens, but the embassy is continuing to run, and our service members are continuing to work side by side their Nigerian counterparts."

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced on Wednesday that he ordered a temporary departure of non-emergency personnel and eligible family members from Niger due to "ongoing developments" and "out of an abundance of caution."

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken (L) meets with Niger President Mohamed Bazoum (R) in Niamey, Niger on March 16, 2023.

"The U.S. is committed to our relationship with the people of Niger. The embassy remains open, and our leaders are diplomatically engaged at the highest levels," he wrote on social media platform X.

The senior pastor of Cornerstone Christian Center in Antioch, California, said the U.S. State Department had arranged a flight home for him and nearly a dozen other volunteers who had gone on a nine-day trip to Niger for a Vacation Bible School mission, he told Fox News.

"Commercial flight options are limited. We updated our travel advisory to reflect this and informed U.S. citizens that we are only able to provide emergency assistance to U.S. citizens in Niger given our reduced personnel," a post from the State Department said.

Fox News Digitals Julia Musto contributed to this report.
An Air Force contractor in Tennessee, who is under federal investigation for allegedly stealing military communications equipment and accessing state and federal networks from home, is already awaiting trial on state-level charges of theft and sex crimes against a minor, the local district attorney confirmed Thursday.

Brent DeSalvo, 48, of Manchester, Tennessee, has pleaded not guilty in Coffee County Circuit Court to charges of felony solicitation of sexual exploitation of a minor and misdemeanor assault by offensive touching, as well as felony theft of property in excess of $60,000.

He faces a total of nine to 14 years in prison and up to $28,000 in fines for the felonies, and up to 11 months and 29 days in jail and a $2,500 fine for the misdemeanor.

New details of those allegations come amid a federal probe into DeSalvos role in a critical compromise of communication networks used by Air Force training units at 17 bases, plus other state and federal agencies, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court.

Feds investigating Air Force contractor for network breach, theft

DeSalvo, who worked at Arnold Air Force Base in southeast Tennessee as a radio communications specialist, allegedly stole nearly $90,000 in military and state government radio equipment and the software that powers it, an agent with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations said in a June 29 request for a search warrant.

He had gained unauthorized administrator access to the radio network used by Air Education and Training Command, and could access Arnolds entire radio system from home, the affidavit said.

Investigators also found that DeSalvo could enter the communications systems of the FBI; the Tennessee Valley Authority, the federally run utility company that provides electricity to 10 million people; and other state agencies.

Its unclear whether DeSalvo did anything to eavesdrop on or harm those networks or their users, or if he shared sensitive information with others. He has not been charged with a crime in the federal investigation; the Justice Department declined to comment.

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DeSalvo has been arrested and released twice in the past seven months as parallel investigations into his professional and personal misconduct continue to unfold.

Local law enforcement first began looking into DeSalvo in May 2022, when the Manchester Police Department received a complaint that DeSalvo had made sexual advances toward a minor, said Craig Northcott, district attorney general for Tennessees 14th Judicial District, in an emailed statement.

Three months later, the Air Force Office of Special Investigations began its own inquiry into communications equipment that had gone missing from Arnold, an aerospace research and development site focused on missile, rocket and engine testing.

Coworkers flagged DeSalvo, who they knew kept government radio equipment in his car and at home, as someone who worked odd hours, was arrogant, frequently lied, displayed inappropriate workplace behavior and sexual harassment, [and] had financial problems, federal court documents said.

One coworker said he had watched the man conduct unauthorized communications using Air Force equipment and twice reported him as a potential insider threat.

When asked in October 2022 about three radios that had disappeared from his workplace at Arnold, the man confirmed he had them at home, court documents said.

In January 2023, local and federal law enforcement searched two of DeSalvos residences for push-to-talk radios, laptops and other equipment and programs.

I witnessed an active computer screen  which contained the entire [Arnold AFB] communications system on [the mans] home network, one Air Force agent said in the affidavit. Multiple other agencies in the state of Tennessee were identified on the home network, to include FBI, Tennessee Valley Authority, Tennessee Emergency Management Agency, Vanderbilt Hospital, Tennessee Highway Patrol, as well as a plethora of other trunk systems.

Trunk systems spread groups of radio users across multiple frequencies so they can talk at the same time without being interrupted.

DeSalvo was arrested Jan. 28, posted a $40,000 bond, and was released Feb. 6 ahead of his trial, Northcott said.

One month later, DeSalvo was again arrested and indicted by a grand jury on the solicitation and assault charges. He paid the $15,000 bond on March 17 and pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in April, Northcott said.

As the theft investigation unfolded in June and July, authorities seized a trove of at least three dozen hard drives, flash drives and memory cards, two cell phones, eight computers and other hardware like hard drive readers and compact discs, according to the warrant.

Several thumb drives held programming software for the two-way radio network used by Arnold AFBs security forces, maintainers and others who run the installation, as well as software used in the Tennessee Advanced Communications Network, the statewide radio system for first responders, according to the warrant.

Investigators also found blueprints of buildings on base, programming for Arnolds Giant Voice announcement system, and information on 17 installations that use radio communications across Air Education and Training Command.

That included digital files for the talk groups that radios at a particular base can tune into at any given time, and passwords for the radio network at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, home to Air Force boot camp and technical training for tens of thousands of airmen each year.

Many of the items seized were sent to a forensic lab to extract their contents.

These devices were used in furtherance of criminal conduct, and in violation of communications security and information security  policies, the Air Force agent said in the June 29 affidavit.

A grand jury in Tennessee charged DeSalvo with theft in July, to which he pleaded not guilty, Northcott said. His next court appearance in both cases is scheduled for Aug. 23.

The total value of the equipment and the monetary damage from the collateral national security issues from DeSalvos conduct is still being investigated, Northcott said.

An Air Force spokesperson said Monday the situation is not an active security concern.

A human resources representative for Abacus Technology, DeSalvos employer, and his attorney in the theft case did not respond to emailed questions. Attempts to reach DeSalvo by phone went unanswered.
Illustration: Lex Villena; Lex Villena; Ilyakalinin

In one Alabama county, women who admit to using marijuana during pregnancy often find themselves charged with a felony. Etowah Countyin northeastern Alabamacharges more women with "chemical endangerment" than any other county in the state. Until recently, these women were often only granted release from jail on the condition that they enter rehab, despite not being addicted to drugs.

In 2006, Alabama enacted a "chemical endangerment" law designed to punish parents who allow their children near meth labs. However, in the years since the law's passage, Etowah County law enforcement officials have used it to throw women in jail for months over minor drug offenses.

Women who aren't even addicted to drugs have often found themselves trapped in jail, unable to be released unless they go to rehab yet denied entry by drug treatment facilities because of their lack of addiction.

Amanda Bradley was arrested in 2021 after she tested positive for THC after giving birth. Bradley says she had been using CBD oil to cope with chronic pain and had no idea the oil could cause a positive drug test.

"The CBD oil they sold at the store, I didn't know it would make me fail for marijuana," Bradley told AL.com. "It seemed like a natural, safe option. That's why I did it. I didn't know you could get in trouble for stuff you bought from the store."

Bradley couldn't be released unless she entered a rehab facility. But Bradley's CBD oil use didn't count as drug addiction, so addiction treatment facilities wouldn't take her.

"I went back and ended up redoing the assessment and telling them I shoot up and all kinds of stuff to get to rehab and it worked," she said. Ultimately, she spent two months in jail and six months at a drug treatment center.

Another woman, Chelsea Stewart, was arrested on a misdemeanor marijuana charge in 2019. She told AL.com that she stopped smoking after this arrest. However, she still tested positive during a random drug test several weeks later. By that point, Stewart had found out she was pregnant.

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Stewart was taken to jail, and after a month, she was released to a halfway house filled with women with histories of heavy addictions to opioids and meth. She told AL.com that she had never used a substance stronger than marijuana, yet she was forced to pay for an unnecessary stay in the halfway house.

"I spent more than $3,000 on that," she said. "I could have been saving for my daughter. I could have been saving for anything, and I wasn't."

In total, 257 pregnant women and new mothers were arrested for chemical endangerment between 2015 and January 2023 in Etowah County. According to Al.com, three-quarters of the people arrested for chemical endangerment (of which 93 percent are women) were too poor to hire an attorney.

However, the situation does seem to be improving slightly. Following reporting last year, Etowah County no longer requires pregnant women to attendand pay forrehab in order to get out of jail.

Even without mandated rehab, Etowah County law enforcement are still using the state's chemical endangerment law to unnecessarily punish women for minor drug offenses.

"They are the most zealous prosecutors and sheriff's department we have encountered anywhere across the country," one attorney told Al.com, "and the data backs that up."

The post Alabama Woman Jailed for 2 Months for Using CBD Oil While Pregnant appeared first on Reason.com.
Navalny, already serving nine years, expects to receive a lengthy "Stalinist" sentence of 18 years on Friday (Natalia KOLESNIKOVA)

Alexei Navalny, a Russian opposition icon who was handed a long sentence on extremism charges Friday, leveraged social media and fatigue with the Kremlin to rise to stardom before being poisoned and jailed.

After being sent to prison in 2021, he has appeared in grainy videos from court hearings at his maximum-security prison to slam the Kremlin over its offensive in Ukraine.

"(Russia) is floundering in a pool of either mud or blood, with broken bones, with a poor and robbed population, and around it lie tens of thousands of people killed in the most stupid and senseless war of the 21st century," Navalny said in his closing statement.

Building on a sweeping clampdown on any dissent since the Kremlin sent troops to Ukraine in 2022, a Russian court on Friday sentenced 47-year-old Navalny to 19 years behind bars on extremism charges.

Navalny's new conviction is just the latest chapter in his long and dramatic fight against ruling elites, and his activism has taken many forms.

- 'I am not afraid' -

He has campaigned across the country to be president, published corruption investigations that embarrassed the Kremlin and rallied massive crowds onto Russia's streets.

His message -- pumped to fans through glitzy social media content -- contrasts dramatically to that of Vladimir Putin, a Soviet-styled, 70-year-old former KGB agent who has ruled for over 20 years.

Navalny returned to Russia from Germany in early 2021 after recuperating from a near-fatal poisoning attack with Novichok, a Soviet-era nerve agent.

His return to Russia despite facing jail put him on a collision course with Putin, after Navalny blamed the poisoning attack in Siberia on the Kremlin.

"I'm not afraid and I call on you not to be afraid," he said in an appeal to supporters as he landed in Moscow, moments before being detained on charges linked to an old fraud conviction.

His arrest spurred some of the largest demonstrations Russia had seen in decades, and thousands were detained at rallies nationwide calling for his release.

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- Putin 'fears me' -

Navalny countered with the release of "Putin's Palace," an investigation into a lavish Black Sea mansion that his team claimed was gifted to Putin through corruption.

The expose forced a rare denial from Putin, who quipped that if his security services had really been behind the poisoning, they would have finished the job.

While Navalny traffics confidently in memes, Putin is known both for not using the internet and asking a teenager who wanted him to follow his YouTube channel: "What should I sign?"

A similar Navalny corruption video targeting then prime minister Dmitry Medvedev spurred large demonstrations in 2017, with protesters carrying rubber ducks which became a symbol of the protests.

Ahead of a presidential election in 2018, Navalny toured cities across the country to drum up support but was barred from running because of the old fraud charge.

"(Putin) fears me and he fears the people I represent," he told AFP at the time.

Before that he had challenged Sergei Sobyanin to become Moscow mayor and forced a runoff.

- 'Crooks and thieves' -

At rallies and in courtrooms, Navalny is a convincing public speaker and rallied protesters around home-grown slogans like "the party of crooks and thieves" to slam the ruling United Russia party.

But he has been tainted by an early foray into far-right nationalism, and a pro-gun video from 2007 routinely resurfaces in which he compares people from the ex-Soviet South Caucasus region to cockroaches.

Navalny also remains a fringe figure for a large portion of Russian society, who back the Kremlin's official portrayal of him as a Western stooge and convicted criminal.

He has become such a thorn in the Kremlin's side that Putin refused to pronounce his name in public. His anti-corruption group was shuttered and his top allies are either imprisoned or in exile.

- 'Cannot shut my mouth' -

Navalny's team says he has been harassed in prison and repeatedly moved to a punitive solitary confinement cell.

He says guards have subjected him and other inmates to "torture by Putin", making them listen to the president's speeches.

Still Navalny is upbeat and sardonic on social media accounts curated by aides.

The lawyer by training has fought for basic rights and taken prison officials to court. He has also tormented them, filing formal requests for a kimono and a balalaika -- a traditional musical instrument -- and to be allowed to keep a kangaroo.

"You cannot shut my mouth," he declared.

bur/y
American Airlines says using Skiplagged creates empty seats, which could have gone to other paying customers. It's under a spotlight after punishing a teen for trying to use the hidden-city ticketing. John Moore/Getty Images

American Airlines punished a teenager for trying to skiplag on a flight from Florida to New York.

The teen's booking was canceled before he boarded in Florida. His family says he's now banned.

The teen's mom says AA's punishment was "extreme," but American explained why it hates the hack.

Last month, American Airlines made headlines when it punished a teenager for "skiplagging."

One family used the strategy on a flight between Gainesville, Florida, and New York. The flight had a connection in Charlotte, North Carolina, and a 17-year-old got off there  his real destination  instead of boarding the next flight onto New York.

At the check-in desk in Charlotte, the teen's North Carolina driver's license tipped off an American Airlines gate agent that he was flying on a so-called hidden-city ticket.

The teen, who hasn't been named, was questioned by the agent and his itinerary canceled, forcing the family to pay $400 for a new nonstop flight.

News of the incident has since ignited online debate, especially after the family said American barred their 17-year-old from flying on the carrier again for three years.

The teen's mother, Lisa Parsons, has since told Insider that American's response to the skiplagging was "extreme." She said the family had never used the hack before that point, and that her son "didn't think it was something that was frowned upon."

American, however, says skiplagging is against its rules. Its contract of carriage, which you agree to when you buy a ticket, says that any intent to not fly all the segments of a flight you've booked is a violation of AA's policies and is subject to punishment, like having your ticket canceled.

Airlines see skiplagging act as cheating the system because it can lead to lost revenue. Airlines know people will pay a premium for the most convenient routing, so a higher-demand nonstop is typically more expensive than a flight that has a connection.

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American further explained to Insider this week that skiplagging can also "lead to operational issues with checked bags and prevent other customers from booking a seat when they may have an urgent need to travel."

"Intentionally creating an empty seat that could have been used by another customer or team member is an all-around bad outcome," the company said in a statement to Insider.

While Parsons said the family is still trying to wrap their heads around their experience with American, she also told Insider they are now "much wiser" because of it.

"Maybe that's the silver lining for us," she said. "And maybe it will improve things for others  or at least keep them from getting in the same situation."

American is particularly strict about hidden-city ticketing. In its contract of carriage, it outlines the consequences of skiplagging, including canceling the return ticket, revoking elite flyer status, and denying boarding.

Most US airlines have similar policies, with United Airlines actually stating it may ban customers for using the hack.

Read the original article on Insider
A tourist who was CEO of the American arm of the British publisher that launched Harry Potter in the UK was killed off Italys Amalfi Coast after the gommone or motorboat she was riding on with her family collided with a sailing vessel rented for special events, according to the Prosecutors office in Salerno, which is conducting the investigation into her death.

Adrienne Vaughan, 45, was the president of Bloomsbury US, the British parent company confirmed to CNN, and she was traveling in Italy with her husband and two children, who survived the accident.

The sailboat company confirmed by telephone to CNN its 45-meter boat, the Tortuga, had 80 guests on board, including Americans and Germans, when the tragedy occurred.

The office of the public prosecutor of Salerno, Marinella Guglielmotti, confirmed to CNN by phone an investigation into the skipper of the boat Vaughan and her family were on has been opened after initial toxicology reports showed he had more than the legal limit of alcohol in his system. Further tests for drugs will be released Friday afternoon in Italy.

The captain of the Tortuga did not test positive for any substances and is not under investigation, the prosecutors office said. Both boats were approaching the Fiordo di Furore area of the Amalfi Coast around 6 p.m. local time on Friday when the accident occurred.

Vaughan was thrown into the water and died after being injured by the Tortugas propellers, the Salerno prosecutors office confirmed. The Amalfi Coast Guard unit responded to the accident. She was treated at the scene, and taken to Amalfi port and then to the emergency room in Castiglione, but died before she could be airlifted to Salerno because a helicopter ambulance arrived at 7 p.m. local time, according to the prosecutors office.

Both boats have been sequestered by the Salerno Port Authority pending the investigation.

The U.S. embassy in Rome did not have information about the case or any support they are giving when reached by CNN.

CNNs Catherine Nicholls contributed to this report.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
Adults supporting a child

The American Academy of Pediatrics on Thursday expressed its support again for gender-affirming health care for transgender minors. That is despite the fact that Republican legislators have been growing their hostility toward gender-affirming medical treatments and continue to spread misinformation about such care.

In an unanimous vote, the groups board of directors, representing 67,000 pediatricians, recommitted itself to its position in support of this essential medical care. As part of the boards decision, pediatricians will also receive supplementary documentation, such as clinical and technical data, and the board intends to accomplish an external examination of research on pediatric care, the Associated Press reports.

The additional recommendations also reflect the fact that the board is concerned about restrictions to accessing evidence-based health care for young people who need it, the academys CEO, Mark Del Monte, said in a statement released by the group, describing state-imposed restrictions as unprecedented government intrusion.

We, therefore, need to provide the best and most transparent process possible, he explained.

Currently, 21 states have passed statutes restricting or banning transgender-related medical treatment for minors, and most are facing litigation. In Alabama and Indiana, federal judges have temporarily blocked state bans, and another judge ruled that Arkansass ban was unconstitutional.

The state filed an appeal with the court in response to this judges decision.

Some of the opponents of gender-affirming care argue that it is not possible for children to make complex medical decisions for themselves because they are too young to do so.

In the majority of cases, these treatments are considered safe by all major medical associations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association, if they are appropriately administered.

The AAP and AMA make it clear that they support the right of children to seek medical attention, but they do not provide any age-specific guidelines.

In June, the American Medical Association committed to opposing any criminal and legal penalties against patients seeking gender-affirming care, family members or guardians who support them in seeking medical care, and health care facilities and clinicians providing it.
The News

Chinese leader Xi Jinpings Chief of Staff indicated three countrys leaders have begun their annual summer retreat in Beidaihe  a coastal resort east of Beijing where top officials typically vacation for two weeks during the summer.

Despite the relaxed setting, the retreat is usually a chance for both current and retired members of the Chinese Communist Party to gather and speak candidly about issues concerning the partys leadership.

This year, the annual event is taking place amid struggles to revive the Chinese economy, questions around the disappearance of former Foreign Minister Qin Gang, and the largest and most widespread floods the country has ever seen.

Weve gathered news and insights about the present and historical significance of Beidaihe.

Insights
By Ross Kerber

(Reuters) - A U.S. congressional examination of Chinese stock holdings in BlackRock funds built on MSCI indexes could presage a broader clampdown on U.S. institutional investment in such shares, analysts said, as Washington fears American capital could help Beijing gain military or technological advantages.

Relations between the two countries are at a low point amid friction on issues including Taiwan and the Ukraine war. The Biden administration is weighing new restrictions on outbound private investment in China on top of existing bans on certain technology sales and other trade measures.

A U.S. congressional committee said earlier this week that BlackRock and index provider MSCI were facilitating investments in companies that Washington has tied to Chinese human rights abuses or its military.

The House of Representatives' Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party sent detailed questions about how the Chinese shares came to be included in products like BlackRock's iShares MSCI Emerging Markets exchange-traded fund.

The committee has also questioned other companies over their China ties, and analysts said more such reviews and increased restrictions on U.S. investing in Chinese shares were likely.

"I'm telling (clients) to expect more and stronger actions prohibiting or making it more difficult to invest in China, and greater scrutiny of those investments," said Jo Ritcey-Donohue, an attorney who advises institutional investors.

"As long as all these cross-border tensions are out there, therell continue to be pressure on U.S. businesses.

BlackRock said on Tuesday it is one of 16 asset managers offering U.S. index funds holding Chinese companies. It said it complies with all U.S. laws and will engage with the select committee.

MSCI said it is reviewing the committee's inquiry.

RUSH OF MONEY

The degree to which Western capital enables authoritarian regimes has been a long-simmering issue, intensified by a rush of money into low-cost index funds.

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For institutional investors, China, as the world's second-largest economy, is an important component in international portfolios and indexes. Chinese companies including Tencent and Alibaba accounted for 31% of the MSCI Emerging Markets index in July.

Committee Chair Mike Gallagher has said the U.S. companies were not doing anything illegal but that Congress needs to close loopholes.

In an interview on Thursday, Gallagher said he is not calling "for a complete cut-off of our economic relationship with China." But he said the committee is debating "this question of guardrails on outbound capital flows."

His committee can make policy recommendations, and a hard line toward China has bipartisan support.

Todd Rosenbluth, head of research for financial analysis firm VettaFi, said while BlackRock and MSCI are the most prominent firms in the index-investment space, new laws or regulations that emerge from the probe also would likely apply to competing products such as the Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF.. Vanguard declined to comment.

"If the end result of this investigation are rules that say that index providers need to exclude certain China-based companies, then those rules would apply to others" across the industry, Rosenbluth said.

RED-FLAGGED COMPANIES

MSCI and rivals removed seven Chinese companies from global indexes in 2020 because of U.S. ownership restrictions. After Russia's invasion of Ukraine last year MSCI and FTSE Russell removed Russian equities from all their indexes. A FTSE Russell representative declined comment.

The committee's letters this week cited contractors to China's People's Liberation Army it identified in BlackRock funds or MSCI indexes.

Some of the companies have been flagged such as appearing on the U.S. Treasury's "Chinese Military-Industrial Complex" companies list. For companies on it, U.S. persons and asset managers face purchase and sale restrictions but not divestment requirements.

Also, a number of those companies' subsidiaries are still eligible for U.S. investment, at least for now, according to Ritcey-Donohue, even if they are subject to other sanctions like the Department of Commerces Military End User list that restricts certain trade with these entities.

(Reporting by Ross Kerber in Boston; Additional reporting by Karin Strohecker in London, Michael Martina and Patricia Zengerle in Washington and Selena Li in Hong Kong; Editing by Megan Davies and Cynthia Osterman)
American analysts have named three options for the development of the Ukrainian counteroffensive, the most successful of which are "steady pressure", "interdiction campaign" and the creation of gaps in Russian defensive lines.

Source: Karolina Hird and Kateryna Stepanenko, analysts at the Institute for the Study of War, together with Frederick Kagan, an expert at the American Enterprise Institute, for TIME magazine

Details: The article says that the situation in Ukraine remains favourable for Kyiv, despite the limited progress made in the counteroffensive.

American analysts pointed out the options for the development of the Defence Forces' counteroffensive under which it will be successful.

Firstly, the current Ukrainian mechanised breakthrough could be successful, and the Ukrainians could exploit it to penetrate deep enough to break part or all of the Russian defence lines.

Secondly, Russian troops, already suffering from serious morale and other systemic problems, could break under pressure and begin a controlled or uncontrolled withdrawal.

Thirdly, a steady pressure and interdiction campaign, supported by a large-scale effort such as the one currently underway, could create gaps in Russian defensive lines that Ukrainian forces could exploit first at local level and then for deeper incursion.

The experts consider the first and second options possible, but relatively unlikely.

The third is the most likely path to Ukraine's success.

It will be slower and more gradual than the other two, and slower than Western supporters of Ukraine want and expect.

And it depends on Western aid to provide Ukraine with a steady supply of equipment, likely for many months, so that Ukraine can maintain its pressure until Russian forces have gaps in their lines that Ukrainians can exploit.

The slow pace of the counteroffensive that Ukraine used until 26 July is designed to minimise Ukrainian casualties. It is also not aimed at exhausting the Russians, but rather at steadily pushing them out of their prepared defensive positions so that the Ukrainians can take advantage of this to make operationally significant gains.

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It is still a war of manoeuvre, not a war of attrition, just at a slower pace. That is why it requires patience, but it can be successful, as the experts said.

With this approach, Ukrainians have achieved success on both Kherson and Kharkiv fronts.

The article reads that Ukraine retains the initiative and uses many advantages. However, its counteroffensive may fail, as the Russians may be more resilient than they seem to be.

Another reason for possible failure is that the West may not be able to provide Ukraine with the necessary equipment and support in time.

The grounds for confidence in the possibility of significant Ukrainian success are closely linked to a number of problems typical for the Russian army.

In particular, Russian troops are stretched thin, and their supply lines are suffering as a result.

Quote: "The defining characteristic of this phase of the war is that the Russians must defend a ground line of communication consisting of a road and a rail line that runs from Rostov-on-Don at the northeastern edge of the Sea of Azov to Crimea. Vast quantities of food, fuel, ammunition, personnel, and other supplies are required by the tens of thousands of Russian troops in southern Ukraine and must travel along this road and rail line."

More details: This is very favourable for Ukraine, the experts believe.

If the Ukrainians can reach the Sea of Azov anywhere and hold their positions, they will cut off ground lines of communication. The Russians will thus have to hold it completely.

In other words, the Ukrainians need only to win and hold one sector to make virtually all of the territory held by Russia to the west of their advance unusable for defence.

The Russians, on the other hand, need to win everywhere and always. The Ukrainians do not even need to reach the shore of the Sea of Azov.

On the one hand, the ground line of communication does not cover the coast along the entire perimeter, and so in some places, it is closer to the current front than to the coastline. If the Ukrainians are able to advance within artillery range of the line of communication (about 25 kilometres), they could begin to shell it intensively in a way that would severely worsen the Russians' ability to continue to use it.

Thus, the Ukrainians could choose any sector of the line or exploit any gap that opens up anywhere along the line to break through in a way that would most likely destroy the Russian defences to the west of the breakthrough.

Ukrainska Pravda is the place where you will find the most up-to-date information about everything related to the war in Ukraine. Follow us on Twitter, support us, or become our patron!
An Ansonia Police Officer is facing charges after allegedly assaulting a child.

Christian Idle, 38, is facing charges of strangulation and domestic violence in connection to an alleged assault that happened Thursday night, according to Darke County Common Pleas Court records.

Documents filed Friday morning show deputies from the Darke County Sheriffs Office were called out to W. High Street Thursday night on a domestic violence complaint.

>> Just a sad, horrible situation; 2 hurt after shots fired by Kettering Police officer

A woman called and said that she had been outside of a home on W. Weller Street when Idle came out and told her she need to get her son out of his house. The woman and her sons had been living with Idle for several months, but further information about any relation was not provided in court documents.

The woman followed Idle back into the house and said he immediately began striking and kicking her 8-year-old son.

When the child spoke to police, he claimed Idle had grabbed him by his neck with two hands and that he also spanked and kicked him several times. The child had redness and bruising around his neck that deputies said appeared to be broken blood vessels.

>> Oregon District Shooting: How 9 victims will be remembered, 4 years later

When deputies spoke with Idle, he said he had spanked the child multiple times and then held him against a wall by the back of his neck before going to get his mother. Idle said he then struck the child again and gave him a kick in the butt when the child tried to lie.

Idle was arrested and booked into the Darke County Jail. He is expected to appear in court today, according to Darke County Sheriff Mark Whittaker.

Idle has been an officer with the Ansonia Police Department since August 2017, according to Ansonia Police Chief Frank Shapiro. Hes currently on administrative leave.

The case is still under investigation by the Darke County Sheriffs Office.
A football field of concrete separated the soldiers stepping off the plane from their squiggling children waiting at the very edge of the Indianapolis airport hangar, where families were asked to stay put.

"If you're not sure, he's the one wearing green!" Bruce Butler, of Greenwood, leaned over to tell his 3-year-old granddaughter, Amelia Brenchley, dressed America-themed from head to toe and already practicing her hand-waving.

"My dad's wearing green!" she said.

It was almost fruitless to enforce the hangar's perimeter. As the soldiers in green neared with their bags, children couldn't help but spill over into the hot sun and run a few feet into their kneeling parents' arms.

About 300 Indiana National Guard soldiers with the 163rd Field Artillery Regiment, headquartered in Evansville, arrived home Thursday after a nine-month deployment in Iraq, plus three months of training. They arrived in two planes in an airfield next to the Indianapolis International Airport; another one went to Evansville.

That's a year away from their families, and Amelia Brenchley's first year without her father, John. During that year, she carried with her a stuffed doll that had a picture of her father on it  her "Daddy Doll."

"Daddy doll went everywhere with us," wife Bridget Brenchley said. "Gosh, so many places. We didnt go a single place without Daddy."

"If she did," 8-year-old sister Melanie said, "it'd be a fit!"

From left, Amelia and Melanie Brenchley wait for their father with the Indiana National Guard 163rd Field Artillery Regiment, headquartered in Evansville, to deplane after deployment in Iraq on Thursday, Aug.3, 2023, near the Indianapolis International Airport.

For her part, Melanie took solace in taking care of her horse, Bubblegum  also known as Bubbles  and taking her to horse shows.

For the single parent left at home, like Bridget, it's a full year of rushing kids to school, shuttling them to activities, putting them to bed and praying for a Wi-Fi signal on the other end in Iraq, one day at a time.

Their spouses were deployed as a part of Operation Inherent Resolve, where they helped Iraqi coalition forces monitor and defend air space. It's been a somewhat busy period for the Indiana National Guard, Master Sgt. Jeff Lowry said  there are still some troops in the Sinai Peninsula, and some more came home a few weeks ago from Kosovo. But deployments are certainly fewer and further between than they were during the height of the Iraq war, he said.

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The U.S. and other countries have been withdrawing troops from Iraq since 2017, when the Iraqi government declared victory over the Islamic State. In December 2021, the U.S. officially ended its combat mission, but a small number of troops  about 2,500  remain in Iraq to help train and advise Iraqi military forces, who still face the challenge of rebuilding their country and defending against a resurgence of the Islamic State.

So younger families are a bit more used to having their soldiers living at home most of the time, reporting for drills once a month and for two weeks in the summer. For the Brenchleys, it's the first deployment since the kids came along. For Anna and Erik Kile, of Greenfield, it's the first deployment since he joined the Indiana National Guard in 2015.

Lt. Eric and Anna Kile hold their daughter Sophia after Lt. Kile, who is with the Indiana National Guard,163rd Field Artillery Regiment, headquartered in Evansville, deplaned upon returning home from deployment in Iraq on Thursday, Aug.3, 2023, near the Indianapolis International Airport.

Last May, the Kiles had just decided on designs for a new house they wanted to build when Erik Kile found out about his deployment. They also got another bit of news: Anna was pregnant with their first child.

"I was wondering how I was going to make it work," she said. But she had family nearby, and Erik took a week-long leave to see the birth of his daughter, Sophia, though he made it there just hours before the delivery.

Other families have been through the ringer before. Every reunion is different, Katie Young, of Lafayette, said: the last time her husband, Matt, came home from Afghanistan, they reunited for an hour, only to have to say goodbye again so he could go through demobilization for a few days at Camp Atterbury.

In Indianapolis on Thursday, families couldn't get out of the hangar fast enough to go home, with no particular plans but to spend time together.

"This is the good kind (of reunion)," Katie Young said. "You don't have to let go again."

For each flight's arrival, dozens of families waved American flags, hollered at their loved ones and held phones out to record video as their soldiers walked toward them. But Rose Prairie, of Brownsburg, stood stoic, waiting for her son, David.

She was thinking of David's two young children, who they planned to surprise at school pickup. The youngest was just 5 months old during the last deployment; this time, he's 4 years old.

She was thinking of her own father, who had served in the Navy and passed away last year.

"With Dad gone, David gone, its been awful," she said, fighting tears. "This is the answer to a prayer."

The multiple generations of this Brownsburg family are close. During the last deployment, the younger Prairies moved into a house just a few blocks from Rose Prairie. So the cover story Thursday was that Grandma would be walking the kids home from school.

But first, she got to greet her son. Her tears flowed; wide-eyed and brimming with joy, David Prairie was also distracted  his mind was already elsewhere, at the school where he'd surprise his kids.

"Im just excited that I get the first David hug," Rose Prairie said.

Indiana National Guard soldiers from the 163rd Field Artillery Regiment, headquartered in Evansville, are greeted by family members upon returning home from their deployment in Iraq on Thursday, Aug.3, 2023, near the Indianapolis International Airport.

Contact IndyStar state government and politics reporter Kayla Dwyer at kdwyer@indystar.com or follow her on Twitter @kayla_dwyer17.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: National Guard troops return home to Indiana from Iraq
By Lucila Sigal

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentina's opposition is polling with a slight lead for the upcoming August primaries, usually a reliable bellwether for the outcome of the presidential election, but with many voters ready to snub the ballot box the results are far from certain.

"There is a lot of apathy," said political analyst Carlos Fara, who predicted the Aug. 13 vote will see more abstentions and perhaps blank votes - which are included in the final count - than in any primary election since 2011.

Most polls peg the center-right opposition alliance Together for Change (JxC) with a slight edge against the center-left ruling coalition Union for the Homeland (UP).

Over 10 percentage points behind is political outsider Javier Milei's Liberty Advances party, which hopes to win votes from those disillusioned with politics.

The primaries will decide the candidates who will compete in the Oct. 22 elections, but polls vary on which candidates will win a place in the race.

Mariel Fornoni, director of the consulting firm Management & Fit, sees JxC candidates Horacio Rodriguez Larreta, the mayor of the city of Buenos Aires, and former security minister Patricia Bullrich as neck and neck.

But another consultancy, Analogias, sees Bullrich winning two-thirds of the JxC vote, while UP, adding the votes of Economy Minister Sergio Massa and his rival Juan Grabois, would come within a hairsbreadth of beating the opposition.

Massa is seen as likely to win a place in the presidential vote, but the country's severe economic crisis has favored Milei, who carries an "emotional vote". Pollsters consider his supporters could favor Bullrich, who is seen as more right-wing, in the October vote.

But voter apathy makes any outcome hard to predict.

"There is a great uncertainty," said Fornoni. "This coincides with what we face in the polls. Seven out of 10 do not want to answer by telephone or in person."

"This climate of apathy clearly makes some of the vote more volatile," added Fara. "It's not going to be a normal election from any point of view."

(Reporting by Lucila Sigal; Additional reporting by Juan Bustamante and Reuters TV; Writing by Sarah Morland; Editing by Sandra Maler)
The Arizona Supreme Court building in Phoenix.

The Arizona Supreme Court this week sought to establish a standard a defendant must satisfy when seeking evidence from a victim of a crime, under limited circumstances, that preserves the rights of both parties guaranteed by the state and federal constitutions.

The ruling, in a case called Draper v. Gentry, forced the state's high court to juggle the right to a fair trial and due process for the accused, as enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, with the rights to privacy for crime victims, as protected by Arizona's constitution. It stemmed from pre-trial litigation in a 2020 murder case.

How potential evidence would be retrieved and handled was key to the case.

In its split opinion issued Monday, the court majority found that a man accused of murder had to meet a higher burden to have a third party collect GPS tracking data from the truck of another man who was present at the crime scene, before presenting it to a judge for review.

The owner of the truck tried to fight the collection of that evidence, claiming that the Arizona Victims' Bill of Rights, enacted in 1990, protected his privacy from intrusive searches.

While the ruling was narrowly focused on these particulars, it could have broader implications, legal experts agree. That's because many crimes are committed within families, with victims and defendants who have competing rights.

Here's what happened in this case, according to a recap in the Supreme Court ruling.

The plaintiff in the case, Lane Draper, is the brother of murder victim Grant Draper. Grant was murdered in 2020 after a night of drinking with his brother and two other men, Jordan Nez and Roessel Jackson.

The men gave contradictory accounts of what happened. Lane and Jackson claimed they left the scene, while Nez said he blacked out and woke to find Grants body surrounded by blood. Police never recovered the knife that killed Grant.

But another tenant in Nezs apartment complex called 911 to report a truck blocking his parking space. The driver and the trucks description matched that of Draper and his truck.

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During the investigation, the Phoenix police sought and received a search warrant for Lanes truck and GPS. They found a knife, but never retrieved the GPS data.

Nez was charged with second-degree murder.

Subsequently, Nez sought the GPS data from Lanes truck, to test Lane's alibi that he had left the scene and returned. Nez hired a third party who could get the data from Lanes truck, and then provide it to a judge who would decide whether any of the data was relevant to the case.

Lane challenged the request in the courts, citing the Arizona Victims Bill of Rights.

Even though he was a potential suspect in the murder, Lane is considered a statutory victim because it was his brother who was murdered. Under Arizona law, crime victims can refuse requests for evidence pre-trial.

"This case presents a confluence of clashing constitutional rights and principles that we seek to reconcile and harmonize," the majority of the court opined.

The court tried to strike that harmony by setting stricter standards for a judge's review of such evidence in an effort to protect the victim's privacy in the pre-trial collection of material that could help the defendant.

The Arizona State Supreme Court heard the case, it wrote, to determine whether the standard established in existing case law is the proper standard in the Nez prosecution, saying the debate "presents an issue of statewide importance.

David J. Euchner candidate for State of Arizona Appellate Court, from Commission on Appellate Court Appointments interview July 26, 2019.

Chief Justice Robert Brutinel, as well as Justices John Lopez, James Beene, William Montgomery, and Kathryn King, ruled that if the data were to be handled by a third party, then the higher standard is needed.

Justice Clint Bolick and Vice Chief Justice Ann Timmer, partly dissenting, argued that the majority opinion inappropriately set too high of a standard with no legal justification.

The proper course is not to deny disclosure or impose requirements that are nearly impossible to meet, but to allow it in a way that is least burdensome to the victim, Bolick wrote.

David Euchner, a criminal defense lawyer, is with the Arizona Attorneys for Criminal Justice, which submitted an amicus brief in the case.

It's difficult for courts to strike the appropriate balance between giving defendants the tools they need for investigating their case and demonstrating their innocence, versus harassing people unnecessarily, Euchner said.

Our position is that the defendant has a right to present his defense, and he has a right to investigate information that would help that defense, Euchner said. And statutory victims do have rights against harassment, but they don't have the right to thwart a federal constitutional right to a defense.

The state supreme court got it right, Euchner said.

When the two rights are in conflict, the defendant's right to due process has to take precedence, he said.

Euchner noted the issue could have been solved much earlier in the case, had Phoenix police or the Maricopa County Attorneys Office told Nez that a warrant for the GPS data had already been approved, but not acted upon. But according to Euchner, that information wasnt shared with Nez until two years into his prosecution.

On a case with this much of a fight over the issue, its very surprising to see this kind of a mistake, Euchner said.

ACLU of Arizona legal director Jared Keenan was also surprised that the police didnt follow through with the initial search.

Attorney Jared Keenan (right) with the ACLU speaks with attorney Michael Wozniak after arguing in Hiskett v. Hon. Lambert/State at the Arizona Court of Appeals in Phoenix on Aug. 22, 2019.

The police got a warrant to search Mr. Drapers truck, which is precisely what Mr. Nez wants to do, Keenan said. But for some reason, the police didnt execute the warrant.

The ACLU of Arizona is not involved in the case, but Keenan said the opinion will have a big impact on the protection of constitutionally protected rights.

You have a situation here where the victims' rights statute is being used, not as a shield to protect victims from harassment and to ensure that they are being treated with dignity, respect and fairness, Keenan said. Instead, the victims' rights statute is being used as a sword to prevent the truth-finding function of the system, and to prevent what could very well be relevant evidence from being admitted in a trial.

The Maricopa County Attorneys Office and attorneys for the Arizona Voice for Crime Victims, which argued on behalf of the plaintiff, did not respond to requests for comment on the opinion.

Now the trial courts have a new precedent to follow in similar future crimes.

Euchner said while the case may seem unique, many crimes occur within families.

This could happen in every intra-familial case, where a family whose statutory victim is a suspect or a defendant, he said. Every homicide victim has brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, children, and all of them are statutory victims.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona high court issues key ruling in 2020 Phoenix murder
The building is expected to be torn down in the coming months

Gun experts have fired live bullets inside a Florida school to re-enact a 2018 mass shooting to gather evidence for a lawsuit.

Families of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School victims in Parkland are suing a school security officer who stayed outside during the attack.

Shots fired inside the school were recorded outside in order to assess whether the officer heard the gunfire.

The building is scheduled to be torn down in the coming months.

The 14 February 2018 attack is one of the deadliest school shootings in US history. Seventeen people died and 17 others were injured.

School office Scot Peterson, who worked for the Broward Sheriff's Office, is now being sued for failing to protect the children in a civil case brought by parents.

Video shows how the armed school security officer lingered outside the building, never entering, as he made calls to other police agencies.

In June, a jury in a criminal trial cleared Mr Peterson of 11 charges including felony child neglect, culpable negligence and perjury.

It was the first time in the US that a criminal trial has been held for a school security officer for their actions during a mass shooting.

Why is the attack being re-enacted?

Mr Peterson has testified that he could not hear some of the shots, and could not identify where they were being fired. He later said he would have acted differently if he knew where the attack was occurring in the three-story building.

On Friday, acoustics and ballistics experts used the same high-calibre rifle used by the gunman to fire some 140 live bullets into a safety device from the same part of the building where the attack unfolded.

The burden of proof is lower in civil cases, although the judge leading the case has not yet decided whether the audio evidence gathered on Friday will be admissible at trial.

The school campus is closed for summer break, and community members have been warned about the re-enactment.

Ahead of the exercise, a group of lawmakers from Congress toured the site, which has been largely untouched since the attack.

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They entered the building through the same door used by the gunman. One congressman, in a news conference afterward, described the tour as "an out-of-body experience".

Bloodstains, broken glass, bullet holes and Valentine's Day cards litter the building, according to reporters who have been inside.

Mr Peterson's lawyer, Michael Piper, told Reuters that multiple witnesses have testified in his client's criminal case that they thought they heard shots coming from all over the campus.

Relatives of victims are now staging "a video and audio-recorded, choreographed re-enactment to counter the testimony of the people who were there that day", he said.

Max Schachter, whose 14-year-old son Alex died in the attack, is attending the tour and re-enactment.

He said in a news conference on Friday that he hopes the visit by lawmakers will encourage them to act to prevent further school shootings, CNN reported.

"I'm scared. I'm nervous," he said ahead of the simulation.

"And obviously I'm going to be here, and it's going to just remind me what Alex was going through, what all of the victims were going through."

"It's going to be scary, but we hope the re-enactment will get a jury to understand that there is no possible way that the school resource deputy only heard two or three shots when 70 went off in that building."

The gunman, who was 19 at the time of the attack, pleaded guilty last year and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine and unprecedented Western sanctions levied on Moscow have created a business opportunity for others (Karen MINASYAN)

A kilometres-long caravan of trailers loaded with used cars meanders on a dusty road leading to a customs terminal in the Armenian city of Gyumri.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine and unprecedented Western sanctions levied on Moscow have created a business opportunity for used car dealers like 31-year-old Yaroslav Kolchenko, who sips a coffee in the sun near the queue.

The US and the EU have banned the export of vehicles to Russia but cars can still be cleared through Armenia, and Kolchenko stands to gain.

"Today even wealthy Russians only have access to used American cars brought to Russia via Armenia," he told AFP.

The native of Saint Petersburg described the arduous journey for vehicles coming to Russia in the wake of sanctions.

"Used, damaged or cheap cars are bought at online auctions in the United States," he explained.

They are then "transported by sea to the Georgian port of Poti, repaired, transported to Armenia for customs clearance, and then taken to Russia by land via Georgia".

The parallel exports are generally seen as a legal grey area and contradict the spirit of sanctions.

- 'Pretty profitable' -

The new and lucrative route helps explain growing Ukrainian and Western concerns that Russia's economic partners in the ex-Soviet Caucasus region or Central Asia are aiding Moscow bypass sanctions.

Armenia fell under the spotlight last year when President Vahagn Khachaturyan said Russia would "withstand sanctions" and vowed closer economic ties with "brotherly" Moscow.

The small and poor Caucasus country has a free trade agreement with Russia and clearing cars at Armenian customs is much cheaper compared to Russia.

This has helped Armenia emerge as a hub for re-exports from the United States to Russia after Western car dealers closed dealerships.

Kolchenko's business partner, Andrei, who gave his first name only, said they have been in the business since the war started last February.

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"We sold eight cars in April alone and plan to expand the business, which is pretty profitable," he said.

By way of example, Andrei said one car he just purchased for $13,000 would be sold in Saint Petersburg for at least $23,000 with customs costs of spend around $5,000.

Those figures help explain why Armenia's trade turnover with Russia skyrocketed since Moscow's all-out invasion of Ukraine.

Official statistics show a 2.4-fold surge in exports that reached a record $2.4 billion last year.

Car re-exports grew last year by 170 percent, and more than 450,000 cars -- mostly from the United States -- were taken to Russia in the first quarter of 2023.

- 'Sanctions could be evaded' -

In March, the US departments of justice, treasury and commerce said in a joint report that Armenia was among the countries used as transhipment points to Russia.

The EU in June introduced new measures to its 11th sanctions package against Russia to clamp down on the evasion of restrictions, specifically closing loopholes on the re-exportation via third countries of sensitive technology like microchips.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told AFP this month that complying with Western sanctions without angering a key economic partner was a difficult balancing act.

"We're in close contact and cooperation with the EU special envoy and the representative of the US to ensure that we act as a responsible member of the international community," he said.

"At the official level, we do not have any objections or complaints from European or American partners, nor from Russia."

Still Yaroslav said that "what is happening here in Gyumri shows that any sanctions could be evaded."

"Of course, the Americans are not happy about it, and they will probably try to cause trouble but they will fail. You can't isolate a country as big as Russia," he said.

Standing nearby in the shadow of a wilted acacia tree, Andrei smiled in agreement.

"A they say, water will always find new channel if you block a river."

im/dt/jbr/giv
And then there were two.

For the first time in U.S. history, two of the eight seats on the Pentagons Joint Chiefs of Staff are filled by interim officers, thanks to Alabama Sen. Tommy Tubervilles eight-month-long hold on military promotions.

On Friday, outgoing Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville retired, handing the job of running the service to his No. 2, Gen. Randy George. And with that, the Army joined the Marine Corps as the second military branch to be without a uniformed leader who's able to act with the full force of Senate confirmation, with no end in sight to the blockade.

The failure to confirm our superbly qualified senior uniformed leaders undermines our military readiness, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said at the changeover ceremony at an Army installation just outside Washington on an uncharacteristically cool and rainy morning. It undermines our retention of some of our very best officers. And it is upending the lives of far too many of their spouses, children and loved ones.

The Republican senator placed the procedural hold on all senior military nominations in protest of the Pentagons new policy of reimbursing troops who travel to seek abortions.

As of Friday, there were 301 senior military officers caught up in Tubervilles hold, ranging from the nominees to lead the Army, Marines, Navy to the next chair of the Joint Chiefs. The blockade is also holding up command changes for the 5th and 7th fleets, which run naval operations in the Middle East and Pacific, and the next leaders of the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Air Forces Air Combat Command.





In the 120 years since the Army chief of staff position was created, there has been only one time  a three-month period in 1972  when a general performed the role without Senate confirmation.

Let me be clear, Austin said, in our dangerous world, the security of the United States demands orderly and prompt transitions of our confirmed military leaders.

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Speaking at the ceremony, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said "we need the Senate to act, not only on [Georges] nomination, but also on the over 300 other general and flag officers across the armed services, whose careers and lives are now in limbo because of this unprecedented hold.

We need to end all of this uncertainty for our military families," she said.

Getting those officers in place, and allowing the leaders already filling those roles to retire or move on to their next jobs is vital for our global leadership  and for the trust and confidence of our outstanding network of allies and partners, Austin added.

George, who has also been nominated by President Joe Biden to succeed McConville, will be forced to do the job as a placeholder until all the sides reach an agreement. That process can't resume until the Senate comes back into session in September.

The Marine Corps is already working under the temporary leadership of Gen. Eric Smith, the services No. 2 officer who was nominated to replace Commandant Gen. David Berger, who retired in July. As a result, Smith has to do both jobs.

You know, its been more than a century since the U.S. Marine Corps has operated without a Senate-confirmed commandant, Austin said at the handover ceremony last month. Smooth and timely transitions of confirmed leadership are central to the defense of the United States.

In the coming days, current Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday will relinquish command, handing off to Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the vice chief of naval operations, who has also been nominated to replace him.

Tuberville has spoken to Austin several times about the hold, but he has also voiced frustration that Biden has yet to reach out to discuss the matter. Democrats, meanwhile, say its the job of Republicans  some of whom disagree with Tubervilles hold  to bring him in line.

The senators procedural holds mean that senior officers across the military are unable to move their families to their new assignments, and in many cases are losing out on the pay raises that promotions entail.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misattributed a quote. The speaker was Lloyd Austin.
After a morning of heavy shelling, Russian forces struck Kherson again in the evening of Aug. 3, Oblast Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on Telegram.

The latest round of shelling hit a shopping center and a medical facility, the governor said.

No casualties were reported at this time.

Earlier on Aug. 3, a Russian strike injured several people, including emergency workers. The attacks targeted residential areas and civilian infrastructure, with the morning shelling hitting a church and a trolleybus.

Days before, on Aug. 1, Russian forces shelled a hospital in Kherson, killing a doctor.

Read also: Uncertainty and despair: War taking heavy toll on mental health of Ukrainians

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Russian forces shelled Nikopol in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast during the evening of Aug. 3 and into the night, injuring two people and damaging more than two dozen homes, Oblast Governor Serhii Lysak said on Telegram.

The attacks injured an 85-year-old woman and a 35-year-old man, Lysak said. Both victims are receiving medical attention.

Lysak said Russian forces struck with heavy artillery and rocket launchers, hitting Nikopol as well as the communities of Chervonohryhorivka and Myrove.

The shelling also damaged over two dozen private homes, two trucks, and a car.

The governor also reported destruction of civilian infrastructure due to the night's attacks. Heavy shelling damaged solar panels, greenhouses, three gas pipelines and two power lines. Two outbuildings were destroyed completely, while another 10 were damaged.

Earlier on Aug. 3, Lysak reported two heavy artillery attacks on Nikopol that did not result in casualties.

Nikopol's precarious position directly across from the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant makes it a regular target of heavy shelling from Russian forces.

Read also: Uncertainty and despair: War taking heavy toll on mental health of Ukrainians

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A still from a video of a Ukrainian naval drone attacking the Russian amphibious assault ship the Olenegorsky Gornyak

A large Russian amphibious assault ship, the Olenegorsky Gornyak, is listing and appears to be in danger of sinking after a nighttime attack by Ukrainian sea drones near the Russian port city of Novorossiysk.

Russian authorities say the attack on Aug.4 was thwarted by their defenses, but grainy video of the actual attack on the ship provided to NV, apparently taken from a camera onboard an attacking sea drone, shows it racing up to the ship and apparently exploding on its port (left) side without being fired on or destroyed.

Later video and pictures of a large Russian amphibious assault ship, under tow and listing heavily to port, which may indicate the flooding of several compartments, were posted by several online media.

According to NVs sources in Ukraines SBU security service, the attack on the Russian warship was a special operation of the SBU carried out together with Ukrainian Navy. The SBU told NV that the warship had been seriously damaged and was currently unable to perform its combat tasks.

Russian claims that all attacks by Ukrainian sea drones were repulsed are false, the SBU said.

About 100 crew members are on board the Russian warship. The Ukrainian sea drone was carrying a warhead of 450 kilograms of TNT, the SBU said.

In the wake of the attack on the Olenegorsky Gornyak, a large number of Russian warships have left port and are now dispersing on the Black Sea, Ukraines military has reported.

"The enemy is deploying a large naval grouping, Nataliya Humenyuk, the head of the United Press Center of the South Operational Command, said on Ukrainian national television in the morning of Aug. 4

Read also: Russians unable to fully blockade Ukrainian ports  Navy spokesperson

Indeed, a large number of ships, now 15 units, are in the Black Sea. One is usually based in Azov," Humenyuk said.

She said that the Russian Black Sea Fleet was trying to spread out its ships so that they were not concentrated in one place.

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Meanwhile, military expert Mykhailo Zhirokhov has commented that the drones would have had to cover a considerable distance to reach Novorossiysk, which he called "a very nice target."

"Even if the range of use allows, it is not clear how they got to Novorossiysk, because in fact the coast of the Sea of Azov is now controlled by the Russians, the military expert said.

He suggested that the drones could have been launched from territory not controlled by Ukraine.

"Maybe there is a (Ukrainian) agent near Berdyansk, or the fighters of some special unit came out and launched (the drone). ... Because it looks unbelievable (that the drone could) go around (the Russian coastal defenses) near Crimea, past the Kerch bridge, and get to Novorossiysk," Zhirokhov said.

Read also: What Russia could do in the Black Sea

The Russian Ministry of Defense early on Aug. 4 said that overnight the Russian naval base at Novorossiysk was attacked by "two Ukrainian unmanned boats," which were allegedly "visually detected, fired on and destroyed.

Meanwhile In the port of Novorossiysk, a temporary ban on all shipping traffic has been imposed, oil company Caspian Pipeline Consortium or KTC said.

KPC owns an oil terminal near Novorossiysk. The company's press service stated that the terminal was not damaged and continues to load oil onto moored tankers.

However, local residents report that there was an explosion and fire at the KPC terminal, with videos and photographs of a fire and a plume of smoke over the port appearing online.

Novorossiysk seaport is one of the largest ports of the Black Sea, and of Russia.

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
VIENNA (Reuters) - Austria's conservative Chancellor Karl Nehammer wants the right to use cash enshrined in the constitution, he told Austrian media in remarks published on Friday, an idea the far-right Freedom Party has been pushing for years.

Most opinion polls show the anti-immigration Freedom Party (FPO) in first place with a clear lead over the opposition Social Democrats and Nehammer's conservatives, who are in a two-party coalition with the left-wing Greens. The current parliament runs until autumn of next year.

"The issue of cash is very important to people," Nehammer told Austrian media, including news agency APA.

"It is important to me that cash be written into the constitution," APA quoted him as saying. He has asked Finance Minister Magnus Brunner to draw up a proposal ahead of a meeting with banks in September, APA added.

Austrians are among the most cash-loving nations in the euro zone. In times of crisis, such as the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, they have rushed to banks and hoarded cash at home. Many tourists are stunned to find that some restaurants and cafes do not accept payment by card.

Despite the Austrian National Bank's repeated assurances that there are no plans to do away with cash, the FPO has argued that the right to use cash and the freedom to pay anonymously are at risk. Until now, the conservatives had dismissed such arguments.

The FPO lambasted Nehammer for his U-turn on the issue.

"Aren't you ashamed of stealing ideas this way from the 'evil and extreme' FPO? Don't you have any sensible ideas of your own?" FPO leader Herbert Kickl said in a party statement.

A two-thirds majority is required in parliament to change the constitution. Together, the FPO and conservatives only control about 55% of seats in the lower house.

(Reporting by Francois Murphy; Editing by Christina Fincher)
An inmate is on the run after officials say he escaped custody while being taken across state lines to answer to other charges he is facing.

The manhunt has been temporarily called off because of weather, according to WJCL.

Bulloch County Sheriff officials said they are looking for 35-year-old Joseph H. Baynes, who was in their custody.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

According to deputies, Baynes is wanted out of Dakota County, Minnesota, on felony stalking charges and had signed a waiver of extradition to return to Minnesota to answer those charges.

On Thursday, Baynes was turned over to authorities from Minnesota for transport.

At some point, while at the Savannah/Hilton Head Airport, Baynes escaped custody, deputies say.

TRENDING STORIES:

Deputies told WJCL that Baynes was arrested in Georgia on June 4 on charges of felony theft by taking, obstruction of law enforcement officer, possession and use of drug-related objects and possession of tools for the commission of a crime.

The manhunt for Baynes was called off just after 5 p.m. Thursday at the direction of Minnesota authorities. Baynes has not been caught.

Anyone with information regarding his whereabouts is asked to call 911.

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IN OTHER NEWS:
The Azov National Guard Brigade has conducted tactical exercises under the leadership of commander Denys Prokopenko, known by his alias Redis, who recently came back to Ukraine from Turkiye, where he was transferred after being held in Russian captivity.

Source: Azov Brigade on Telegram

Details: It is noted that the Azov Brigade has conducted tactical exercises, the main purpose of which is to work out practical issues of planning and organising combat in the offensive and defence, managing units in battle and their all-encompassing support.

Particular attention was paid to the rapid analysis of the situation and decision-making on the battlefield within the context of interaction between different types of troops.

It is indicated that according to the results of tactical exercises, the command and instructors conducted an analysis of errors, after which they began to carry out manoeuvres with live fire.

Previously: On 16 July, it became known that the commander of the Azov National Guard Brigade, Lieutenant Colonel Denys Prokopenko (Redis), had met with his staff after coming back from Turkiye and intended to take up his duties in the near future.

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A joint strike by both the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the Writers Guild (WGA) has effectively shut down Hollywood  with the unions citing in no small part fears over how the use of AI by studios may undermine their professions.

Ever out of the spotlight, background actors have now stepped up to voice similar concerns of their own, bringing attention to how some of them have been made to have their bodies digitized for indefinite use, with little to no warning or input.

One Alexandria Rubalcaba recalls how she, and dozens of other background actors, were pulled aside one-by-one and led into a trailer to be scanned by a rig of multiple cameras for fifteen minutes while working on the Marvel show "WandaVision." The result: a comprehensive digital avatar of themselves.

"Have your hands out," Rubalcaba recalled being told, in an interview with NPR. "Have your hands in. Look this way. Look that way. Let us see your scared face. Let us see your surprised face."

Alarmingly, Rubalcaba alleges that she and others were never told how or when their 3D likenesses would be used. In fact, the only thing she's sure of is that she wouldn't get paid for it, even though she says she never gave permission in the first place.

For roughly the past twenty years, Hollywood projects have made use of techniques such as crowd tiling to duplicate a few actors to create enormous group scenes. Computer simulations are often used in tandem  or on their own  to create believable, variable behavior in these generated actors, which may be based on motion capture work like in "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy.

So while this practice isn't necessarily totally novel, it is now being cast in a much more foreboding light with the pernicious rise of AI in filmmaking, and indeed at large.

To see how far the practice can go, you don't have to look much further than what companies like Disney have done with using digital de-aging, or "re-aging," technology on lead actors like Harrison Ford, or to use digital technology to resurrect dead actors.

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The trend calls to mind a Jet Li anecdote that seemingly anticipated the industry's current quandary. The martial arts superstar revealed in a 2018 interview that he turned down a role in "The Matrix Reloaded" nearly twenty years ago because "they wanted to record and copy all my moves into a digital library," he said. "By the end of the recording, the right to these moves would go to them."

With the automation afforded by AI, the degree to which these background actors can now be replicated is much more thorough  and arguably invasive  than before, and studios haven't been shy about how they'd want to take advantage with the leaps in technology.

According to SAG negotiators, the studios have insisted that they can pay background actors for only one day of work  roughly $180  and scan their likenesses to be used indefinitely without compensation.

"I fear that AI is eventually going to weed out background actors," Rubalcaba said. "They won't have any use for us anymore."

Background acting can be unglamorous work. These actors show up hoping for the gig, and if they get it, they're hurried into signing a contract without the time to read it through, typically leaving them in a more disadvantaged position than principal actors. And without a bankable visage front and center, they're also more expendable.

"I don't often hear people speaking up for background [actors], or if they're being abused, if they're not being treated properly, of if they should be paid more," Dom Lubsey, an LA-based actor, told NPR. "You just don't hear that." Lubsey said he first recalls having his likeness scanned for a movie in 2019.

For its part, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents the studios, has said it will offer "fair compensation" for using an actor's digital likeness.

But while SAG wants permission to be granted for each usage, the studios demand that they only need it the one time  a condition that unabashedly could spell the end of background acting as a feasible profession.

More on Hollywood: Hollywood's Plan to Scan Actors Sounds Exactly Like a Recent Episode of "Black Mirror"
Here is a Lexington list and guide of the best weekend events around Central Kentucky on Friday, Saturday and Sunday if you are bored and need things to do including live music concerts, theatre plays and musicals, kid-friendly and free events, comedy shows, arts and craft fairs, dance performances, concert series, anime conventions and ballet performances such as the popular Ballet Under the Stars at Woodland Park.

Lexington Challenger Tennis Tournament at UK

The Lexington Challenger Tennis Tournament at UKs Hilary J. Boone Tennis Complex will conclude this weekend with mens and womens finals wrapping up the action on Aug. 6 at 1 p.m. $10-50. 454 Complex Dr. LexingtonChallenger.com.

Anime, gaming convention: Kentokyocon at Clarion Hotel

The best of anime will be in one place when Kentokyocon returns to the Clarion Hotel Conference Center North from Aug. 4-6 with cosplay contests, discussion panels, video games and more. $40-60, with children under 10 free. 1950 Newtown Pike. KenTokyoCon.net.

Workshop: Painting At The Speed Of Light at Wildside Winery

Painter Steve Alan will host a workshop at Wildside Winery on Aug. 4 from 6-7:30 p.m. where participants will create their own watercolor masterpiece while sipping on a beverage of their choice and munching on a charcuterie plate. $50. 550 Troy Pike, Versailles. WildsideWinery.com.

First Friday Berea: Music series at Berea Skate Park

The City of Bereas Levitt Amp Concert Series will continue with performances from blues rock group Magnolia Boulevard on Aug. 4 and bluegrass band Dark Moon Hollow on Aug. 5 at 6:30 p.m. nightly. Free. 400 N Broadway, Berea. FirstFridayBerea.com.

Lexington Theatre Company m usical: Memphis at Lexington Opera House

The Lexington Theatre Company will present a rendition of the Tony Award winning Broadway hit Memphis at the Lexington Opera House on Aug. 4 at 7:30 p.m., Aug. 5 at 1 and 7:30 p.m. and Aug. 6 at 1 p.m. From $37. 401 W Short St. LexingtonTheatreCompany.org.

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Jalyn Crosby, left, and Karsen Guldan, right, dance during a musical number on Wednesday, July 26, 2023 at Artworks at the Carver School in Lexington, Ky. They will star in Memphis at Lexington Opera House.

Can rock n roll change the world? Memphis at Lexington Opera House shows it has

Comedian Arnez J. at Comedy Off Broadway

Comedian Arnez J. will perform at Comedy Off Broadway on Aug. 4 at 7 and 9:30 p.m., Aug. 5 at 6:30 and 9 p.m. and Aug. 6 at 7 p.m. $27-30. 161 Lexington Green Cir #C4. ComedyOffBroadway.com.

Summer Nights In Suburbia Concert Series at Moondance Amphitheater

The City of Lexingtons Summer Nights In Suburbia Concert Series will feature a performance from Milenio Salsa Band & The Salsa Center at Moondance Amphitheater on Aug. 4 at 7 p.m. Free. 1152 Monarch St. LexingtonKy.gov.

Theatre play: Little Women at the Spotlight Playhouse

The Bluegrass Players will kick off the 20th season of theatre at the Spotlight Playhouse in Berea with performances of Little Women on Aug. 4 and 5 at 8 p.m. and Aug. 6 at 2 p.m. $7-17 (Aug. 4 show is pay what you can). 214 Richmond Rd N, Berea. TheSpotlightPlayhouse.com.

The Ark Band, Born Cross Eyed, Guster concerts at The Burl

Reggae collective The Ark Band (Aug. 4 at 8 p.m., $17), Grateful Dead cover band Born Cross Eyed (Aug. 5 at 8 p.m., $15) and alt-rock band Guster (Aug. 6 at 7 p.m., $30) will all perform at The Burl this weekend. 375 Thompson Rd. TheBurlKy.com.

Abby Hamilton concert at The Green Lantern

Jessamine County born, Lexington based country artist Abby Hamilton will perform at The Green Lantern on Aug. 4 at 8 p.m. $10. 497 W Third St. facebook.com/greenlanternbarlex.

A tradition during Ballet Under the Stars includes a pre-show of young dancers from area dance schools.

Ballet Under The Stars at Woodland Park

Dancers from the Kentucky Ballet Theatre will perform a Ballet Under The Stars when the Lexington tradition returns to Woodland Park through Aug. 6 with nightly shows beginning at 9 p.m. $8, with children under 3 free. There will be a pre-show youth production, featuring dances with music and inspiration from Encanto, The Princess and the Frog and Frozen II, at 8 p.m. Bring lawn chairs or blankets for seating. 601 E High St. lexingtonky.gov/ballet-under-stars.

Craft fair at Shaker Village

Browse everything from pottery to jewelry, glassware, woven rugs, needlecraft, basketry, leather goods and more during the Shaker Village of Pleasant Hills annual craft fair in Harrodsburg on Aug. 5 and 6 from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. $5-10, with children under 5 free. 3501 Lexington Rd, Harrodsburg. ShakerVillageKy.org.

Community garage sale at Rock House Brewing

Rock House Brewing will host a community garage sale in its parking lot on Aug. 6 at 2 p.m. Free. 119 Luigart Ct. facebook.com/events/1185558518790768.

LEX Smooth Jazz Concert Series at Embassy Suites

Cindy Bradley and Chris Standring will take the stage during the LEX Smooth Jazz Concert Series at Embassy Suites on Aug. 5 at 7:30 p.m. 1801 Newtown Pike. facebook.com/events/1179817736020537.

Exile concert at Equus Run Vineyards

Richmond based country rockers Exile will perform Kiss You All Over and other hits at Equus Run Vineyards in Midway on Aug. 5 at 7 p.m. $39. 1280 Moores Mill Rd, Midway. EquusRunVineyards.com.

Everything is Terrible Kidz Klub! 2023 Tour at Als Bar

Los Angeles based artist collective Everything Is Terrible! Will show off its video editing prowess when its Kidz Klub! psychedelic found footage tour comes to Als Bar on Aug. 5 at 7 p.m. $15. 601 N Limestone. facebook.com/events/282531014212592.

Jordan Lee King concert at Manchester Music Hall

Musicians from throughout Kentucky will converge when the Jordan Lee King Band headlines Manchester Music Hall with support from the Daniel Cain Band, Ethan Wayne & The Mountain Revue, Lance Rogers and Chelsea Adams on Aug. 5 at 7:30 p.m. $10-60. 899 Manchester St. ManchesterMusicHall.com.

Matt Wickstrom is a freelancer covering food, music and more. You can follow him on Instagram at @WickstromWrites .
Cameron Lumsden and his wife, Amanda, arent trying to keep word of their planned downtown Boise lounge under wraps.

But it is in the vault.

The owners of Fork, 199 N. 8th St., are creating a spacious bar directly beneath their restaurant in the basement. It will be in the old vault space of the Boise City National Bank building, also known as the 805 Idaho building.

The Lumsdens hope to open the still-unnamed lounge in December, just in time for holiday libations, Cameron Lumsden said in an email.

The space will be a high quality, yet approachable, lounge featuring balanced cocktails, boutique wines by the glass and bottle, and beer offerings in a comfortable, modern design located in the 131-year-old, historically registered Boise City National Bank building  in the heart of downtown Boise, he wrote.

This old vault will be converted into a seating area in the center of the lounge.

The vault door, which weighs 30,000 pounds, is a work of art, Lumsden explained. Located in the center of the 4,000-square-foot lounge, it will lead to its own seating area.

The underground hangout will cater to a variety of customers, Lumsden said, whether looking for a cocktail before dinner downtown, grabbing a drink after work, hanging with friends, craving a bottle of champagne, thirsty after a bike ride  locals and travelers alike.

In addition to Fork, the Lumsdens also own Alavita restaurant in the same building at 807 W. Idaho St.
Barack and Michelle Obama (left) paid tribute to the late Tafari Campbell (right), who worked as their personal chef. Drew Angerer/ISP POOL IMAGES/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images ; The White House

The Obamas paid tribute to late Tafari Campbell, who worked as their personal chef.

Campbell died while paddleboarding at the Obamas' Martha's Vineyard estate.

In social-media posts, the Obamas shared photos with Campbell from their White House years.

Barack and Michelle Obama have paid tribute to their personal chef, Tafari Campbell, who died while paddleboarding near the couple's Martha's Vineyard estate in July.

Campbell, 45, worked at the Obama White House as a sous chef, and continued working as a personal chef for the Obama family after they left office.

Campbell had been visiting Martha's Vineyard and was near the Obamas' estate when he went missing while paddleboarding in Edgartown Great Pond on July 23, local officials said. Massachusetts State Police said they recovered Campbell's body the following morning approximately 100 feet from the shore.

Police said that the Obamas weren't present at their Massachusetts home at the time of the incident.

In social-media posts on Thursday, the Obamas shared photos of themselves with Campbell from their White House years.

"Tafari Campbell showed us what true character looks like," Barack captioned his Instagram post. "He believed that actions speak louder than words. And he used his immense gifts to bring people together, provide comfort, and spread joy. I'll miss him every day."

"I will miss my friend, Tafari...the emptiness is hard," the former first lady wrote in a separate Instagram post. "But I promise to stay strong, keep living, and honor your legacy in every way possible. Rest in peace, my brother."

A screenshot from a 2012 Obama White House video featuring sous chef Tafari Campbell. The White House

The Obamas previously released a statement sent to Insider on July 24 after Campbell had been found dead.

"Tafari was a beloved part of our family. When we first met him, he was a talented sous chef at the White House  creative and passionate about food, and its ability to bring people together. In the years that followed, we got to know him as a warm, fun, extraordinarily kind person who made all of our lives a little brighter," the statement read.

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"That's why, when we were getting ready to leave the White House, we asked Tafari to stay with us, and he generously agreed," it continued. "He's been part of our lives ever since, and our hearts are broken that he's gone."

Campbell is survived by his wife Sherise and their twin boys, according to the statement.

The Massachusetts State Police said that the chief medical examiner's office "found no evidence that the death was suspicious" after a post-mortem examination, the Associated Press reported.

The Massachusetts State Police did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Read the original article on Business Insider
A postal carrier from the Bay Area who was pulled from the American River late last month in a rescue attempt has died, and his family is raising money to help with funeral expenses.

Steven Lee, 55, of San Francisco died in the July 23 incident along the American River Parkway near the mile marker 16, according to the Sacramento County Coroners Office.

The Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District received a call for a water rescue that day about 2:30 p.m. near Rancho Cordova. Metro Fire officials have said Lee was not wearing a life jacket when he was pulled out of the water that afternoon.

Metro Fire boat crews and Sacramento County park rangers pulled him out of the river, and Lee was hospitalized in critical condition.

This week, Metro Fire spokesman Capt. Parker Wilbourn confirmed Lee was the man pulled from the river. Lee died later that day at the hospital, according to the Coroners Office.

Will To Ng and Lees family has created a GoFundMe page, an online fundraiser to collect donations to help the family after Lee died in a tragic accident on the American River. Lee is survived by his teenage son. The family is raising money to help with funeral expenses and financial support for his son.

Lee worked as a U.S. Post Office mail carrier for more than 25 years. His family said Lee served his community as a mail carrier, working long hours every day and would often take extra shifts and side jobs just to stay afloat.

He spent his only day off in the week being his sons co-pilot, doing father and son things such as biking, laughing and sharing little life lessons here and there, or just grabbing a burger at In-N-Out, Lees family said on the GoFundMe page. Now, even those short precious hours were taken away from his son.

Lees family said he was always there to help others in need or cheer up someone else whether its through his kindness, his positivity, or just his infectious smile.

Lees funeral services are set for Saturday.
A black bear is pictured in this handout photo from the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. A different bear in Colorado is believed to have walked 46 miles after an attempt to relocate her. | Utah Division of Wildlife Resources

A black bear in Colorado is believed to have walked 46 miles to return to Steamboat Springs this spring after wildlife officers relocated her in September 2022 after she had climbed into an improperly closed dumpster.

The bear, identified as No. 1036, according to the ear tag affixed by wildlife officers, returned to the ski resort community in northwestern Colorado to den and give birth to three cubs.

The sow, believed to be in her late teens, was dropped off near the Colorado-Wyoming border, according to media reports. Thus far there do not appear to be any recent reports of negative human interactions with the sow and her cubs.

Darren DeBloois, game mammals program coordinator for the Utah Division of Wildlife Services, said the bears trek was lengthy but not unheard of.

Just last week, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources officers relocated a black bear and no sooner had they dropped her off with a GPS collar, she just turned around, kind of made a big loop and went right back to where she was caught, said DeBloois.

Its one of the mysteries of wildlife management. Weve talked about it for years, and I dont know if anybodys cracked it. How do they orient themselves in their space, especially when you take them somewhere that where theoretically they havent ever been before? How do they figure out exactly where to go to wind up in the same exact place where they were before? DeBloois said.

According to DeBloois, relocations of older bears are more challenging because they appear to develop a mental map of their territory over time. Research by Utah wildlife officials indicates that black bears can be long-lived, some surviving 30-plus years.

Youd think that capturing them, putting them in a trap, tranquilizing them, collaring them and moving them a long way that theyd get lost, but they dont sometimes, he said.

Relocations of younger bears tend to be more successful because 1 or 2 year olds have just gotten kicked off of mom and theyre going to be looking for a new place anyway, DeBloois said.

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According to a Steamboat Pilot report, the percentage of bears that can be relocated is extremely low at about 2% or less of bears that are involved in reported incidents. The success rate of those relocations is even lower.

When bears have located a stable and easy to access food source, they often return to those sites, so it is incumbent on humans to carefully manage access to refuse and food, thereby reducing the potential for conflicts between humans and bears, DeBloois said.

While some relocated bears return to the communities from which they were removed, there are times that the experience changes a bears behavior for the better, he said.

Sometimes you move them and thats enough. Even though they go back, they just dont get in trouble again. It was just enough of a bad experience that they kind of stay out of trouble, but you just never know, DeBloois said.

For more tips about bears, visit the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources website.

Related
Nearly 30 years after a dead womans body was found in a drainage ditch along a Yemassee road, police identified her as Maria Telles-Gonzalez, a resident of Kissimmee, Florida. Since her murder in 1995 until she was identified in October of 2022, she had only been known as Beaufort Countys Jane Doe.

Now, investigators have released new information about their search for Carlos  a former close friend of Gonzalez  who could be crucial in finding out who killed her and why. Carlos last name and many other details about him remain shrouded in mystery.

Following the December 2022 announcement of Gonzalezs identity from the Beaufort County Sheriffs Office, investigators spoke with a female friend of the victim, learning of Carlos first name. In the mid-90s, Carlos was in his early or mid 30s, with a slender build and a height of 5-foot-8. He lived in central Florida, possibly near the Orlando area, according to cold case investigator Bob Bromage.

Finding Carlos is of critical importance to furthering the investigation at this point, Bromage said. Carlos may have information on the circumstances of her disappearance and her death.

Age-progression photos show what Carlos might look like today. He was a close friend of Maria Telles-Gonzalez when both lived in the Orlando area in 1995. Today, he would be in his late 50s or early 60s.

Carlos likely lived in central Florida for a while prior to meeting Gonzalez around 1995, Bromage told The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette, but police dont know if he is still in the area.

Investigators have identified one person of interest in the decades-old murder case but are not ruling anyone out in the search for suspects, Bromage said.

The Beaufort County Sheriffs Office is asking for help in identifying and locating Carlos, a former close friend of Maria-Telles Gonzalez who could have vital information related to her 1995 murder.

What happened to her?

On May 24, 1995, Gonzalezs body was found face-down in a drainage ditch on Yemassees Cotton Hall Road off Interstate 95. State employees who were mowing the grass in the area made the discovery.

Gonzalez had no wallet, purse or other identification. All she had on was a pair of Leonisa underwear, a brand made in Colombia and sold in South and Central America at the time.

The womans three children told police they last saw their mother the morning of May 1995 when they were leaving for school. The day before her disappearance, Gonzalez had returned home from a trip to Puerto Rico to visit family. When the children returned home from school, their mother was nowhere to be found. She hadnt taken her car, but the suitcase she had packed for Puerto Rico was gone.

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The childrens father, Gonzalezs husband, whose name has not been released by police, was alone with her at home at the time, police said.

Although her body was found in Yemassee, Gonzalez was most likely murdered in Florida, according to Bromage.

Maria Telles-Gonzalez of Kissimmee, Florida, was Beaufort Countys Jane Doe

A commitment to cases gone cold

Although the investigation into Gonzalezs death is far from over, the Sheriffs Office has a robust track record in solving cold cases  active investigations in which all leads have been exhausted. Investigation into a 1988 shooting death of a 63-year-old newspaper carrier from Bluffton was reignited 11 years later, when three interviews with incarcerated former witnesses helped secure a murder charge and an eventual conviction for voluntary manslaughter. In 2016, nearly 40-year-old DNA evidence uncovered the killer in the 1980 murder of 18-year-old Beaufort resident David Krulewicz.

Both cold cases were solved through the Beaufort County Sheriffs Office cold case investigations initiative, created in 1999 by Sheriff PJ Tanner at the start of his decades-long tenure. In 2010, Tanner expanded those efforts to include the volunteer Cold Case Committee, composed of retired lawyers, medical pathologists and detectives.

In addition to his role as Hilton Heads director of public safety, Bromage spearheads the Sheriffs Office cold case initiative  but he credits Sheriff Tanner for the task forces strong and storied foundation. Even in the late 90s, he said, teams dedicated entirely to cold case investigations were almost unheard of in the world of law enforcement.

Anyone with information about Maria Telles-Gonzalezs disappearance or muder is encouraged to call cold case investigator Bob Bromage at 843-816-8013.
Tensions rise after Belarusian helicopters cross into Polish territory, the country's state border service said on Aug. 1.

Poland also alleges that around 100 Wagner mercenaries are transferred closer to the Suwalki Corridor, bringing tensions to a new high.

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Belarusians gather over half a million euros in a crowdfunding campaign to support political prisoners in Belarus.

A documentary about the 2020 Belarusian protests reportedly prompted additional arrests of the people appearing on camera.

Five Belarusian fighters with the Kastus Kalinouski Regiment and Pahonia Detachment fighting for Ukraine are killed in action.

Two Belarusian helicopters violate Polish airspace

The Polish Defense Ministry confirmed that two Belarusian helicopters entered the country's airspace on Aug. 1.

Photos depicting the helicopters flying over the Polish village of Bialowieza, located on the border with Belarus, appeared on social media earlier in the day, but the military initially denied the incident.

"The border crossing took place at a very low altitude, making it difficult to detect by radar systems," the defense ministry said afterward.

According to the ministry's statement, the Belarusian side had previously informed Warsaw about the planned training. The Polish National Security and Defense committee was gathered to discuss the incident.

The Belarusian Hajun monitoring group alleged that there is no training in the area involving helicopters.

Read also: Defense Ministry: Belarusian helicopters violate Polish airspace

The group says the two aircraft were dispatched to the border area with Poland from Machulishchy airfield on July 29, followed by one more the next day, in order to monitor the border during Lukashneko's visit to Viskuli Residence and official presidential country retreat located 7.5 km from the Polish border.

We believe that the pilots of the RB Air Force helicopters could well have flown into Polish territory, but everything points to the fact that it was done accidentally," Belarusian Hajun reported.

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After the meeting, Poland's Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak ordered to increase the number of troops at the Polish-Belarusian border and deploy additional equipment, including combat helicopters.

Poland also informed NATO of the airspace violation and decided to summon the charge d'affaires of Belarus to the Foreign Ministry for an explanation.

Poland claims 100 Wagner mercenaries moved toward Suwalki Corridor

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki claimed on July 29 that 100 Wagner mercenaries had been transferred close to Belarus' western border, near the Suwalki Corridor, a 65-kilometer strip of land between Belarus and Russia's exclave Kaliningrad Oblast.

This is a step towards a further hybrid attack on Polish territory," Morawiecki stated, adding that the mercenaries disguised as Belarusian border guards might assist with the artificial migration crisis or attempt to cross the border with Poland.

Belarusian dictator Lukashenko denied the accusations on Aug. 1, saying, "No Wagner detachments of 100 people moved there. And if they did, it was only to train the brigades, which are concentrated in Brest and Hrodna."

Lukashenko went on to claim to have no interest in the Suwalki gap.

Yet just a week before, during the meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on July 23, Lukashenko was "making jokes" about Wagner Group mercenaries eyeing Poland.

Belarusian Hajun, the monitoring group that has tracked the Russian military's movement in Belarusian territory since the start of the full-scale war, noted that Wagner mercenaries were likely moving to the "Gozhsky" training range located in Hrodna.

Read also: Wagner a shadow of what it once was: Russia security expert on the rage of mercenary boss Prigozhin

The joint training of Wagner and Belarus troops was previously observed at another training range next to Belarus' western borders, in the Brest region.

On July 27, Morawiecki said Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia could shut their borders with Belarus in case of serious incidents involving the Wagner Group next to the border.

Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics said that Latvian border guards should be ready to respond to possible provocations of Wagner mercenaries.

Lithuanian Defense Minister Arvydas Anusauskas reminded about the grouping Russia had in Belarus at the beginning of the all-out invasion of Ukraine and suggested that around 3,000 mercenaries do not affect regional security as much.

Following the Wagner Group's failed mutiny in Russia, Lukashenko allegedly brokered a deal to allow Yevgeny Prigozhin's troops to relocate to Belarus. Putin said Wagner mercenaries that did not participate in the armed insurrection would be incorporated into the Russian military.

Record number of illegal migrants tried to breach Polish border from Belarus

The Polish Border Guard reported 292 illegal migrants from Algeria, Sudan, and Sri Lanka attempted to cross into the country from Belarus on July 27.

This is the largest single-day number of migrants attempting to cross into Poland in 2023.

Polish officials suggest that Belarusian border guards are actively helping migrants by providing them with ladders, bolt cutters and guiding them to the least protected areas.

According to Morawiecki, in 2023 alone, Poland recorded 16,000 attempted illegal border crossings from Belarus. On average, nearly 100 crossing attempts are registered daily.

Belarusian State Border Committee responded on July 29 with a video allegedly showing Polish border guards pushing migrants back to Belarus.

Belarusians have been shifting the blame to the Poles throughout the crisis, alleging that Polish border guards forcibly return migrants to Belarus and publishing gruesome videos with dead bodies of migrants found in Belarusian forests next to the border.

Minsk engineered a migration crisis on its borders with the EU in 2021 involving thousands of asylum seekers from the Middle East and Africa that arrived in Belarus.

In November, Human Rights Watch published a report detailing the beating, extortion, and sexual abuse faced by migrants in Belarusian detention centers at the border.

Continuous crossing attempts by migrants prompted Poland, Latvia, and Lithuania to build walls along their borders with Belarus.

Read also: Russia after Wagner revolt: Will Putin stay afloat or face more turmoil?

Documentary about Belarusian protests reportedly causes more arrests

Lithuanian media Delfi published a documentary about 2020 protests in Belarus that reportedly led to 15 new detentions.

The Chronology of the Present documentary is directed by Mikalai Maminau and was published on July 24. The film featured footage from the early days of the 2020 protests, with the faces of the protesters not blurred and easily recognizable.

After a public outcry, the video was deleted.

The film's director Maminau argued that the documentary hadn't provided any new footage as Belarusian law enforcers already had it after detaining him in 2020.

However, telegram channels affiliated with the Belarusian State Department on Countering Organised Crime (also known as GUBOPiK) claimed they found at least 10 additional people in the movie to charge.

On July 28, Belarus law enforcement reportedly detained 15 Belarusians that appeared in the documentary.

The video isn't the first case of Belarusian law enforcers suggesting that a media product serves as the grounds for arrests.

However, Belarusian law enforcers have an extensive database from the protests. Between August and November 2020, at least 30,000 Belarusians underwent administrative proceedings for participating in the protests.

To date, Human Rights Center Viasna records around 19 detentions daily.

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Belarusians gather half a million euro in support of political prisoners

A crowdfunding campaign in support of Belarusian political prisoners held on July 29 has gathered over 574,000 euros in financial aid for the growing number of the country's political prisoners.

The funds collected by former political prisoner Volha Harbunova, a member of opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya's team, would be distributed between 13 NGOs helping families of those persecuted on political grounds.

With the officially reported average salary of around $636.4 per month, families spend hundreds of dollars on attorneys and other related services.

The average care package that includes necessities and food for the inmate costs around $250, according to politzek.me, a project designed to support political prisoners in Belarus.

Human rights watchdog Viasna which keeps track of politically motivated prosecutions currently recognizes 1,488 Belarusians as political prisoners.

The real numbers are likely to be higher as families choose not to report their cases, fearing to harm their relatives in custody. Volha Harbunova says that the real number of political prisoners is closer to 5,000.

Lukashenko cracks down on Catholic Church

After Archbishop Claudio Gugerotti, special envoy of the Pope visited Belarus in early July, Minsk further deepened the repressions against the Catholic Church.

On July 18, state authorities searched the Minsk Archcathedral in the capital's downtown.

According to the Polish-backed TV channel Belsat, the priests were beaten during the searches. The official reason for the investigation is undisclosed.

Priest Uladzislau Beladzied, a recent grad from a local seminary, spent 45 days behind bars before the search. In May, law enforcers launched a criminal investigation against him.

Pastor Antony Klimantovich became the subject of a smear campaign on state TV and was forced to resign and move to a small Catholic Church in Zaslaue.

On July 19, authorities detained priest Andrey Znoska in Lida, and a priest from Navahrudak, Yury Zheharyn, received a fine on July 17 for reposting "extremist" content.

According to the Christian Vision project, documenting the repressions against religious groups, 55 Christian priests have faced prosecution since 2020. The majority of them were Catholic.

The Belarusian Catholic Church defended the Belarusian people during the protests of 2020. Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz addressed the authorities demanding to stop the violence and release all political prisoners detained during the protests.

In response, the Belarusian regime blocked Kondrusiewicz, a Belarusian citizen, from returning to the country until he resigned from his post. In 2021, the authorities seized his church.

A soldier waves the flag of Kastus Kalinouski Regiment during a rally at Sofia Square on March 14, 2023, in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Photo by Oleksii Samsonov /Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)

Five Belarusian fighters killed in action in Ukraine

On July 31, two Belarusian formations within the Ukrainian army reported losses in their ranks.

Without publishing the names of those killed, Pahonia Detachment claimed one fighter was killed, and the Kastus Kalinouski Regiment reported four Belarusians within the Litvin and Volat battalions killed in action.

Since the beginning of the Russian war against Ukraine, a reported 1,500 Belarusian volunteers have been fighting for Ukraine. Belarusian volunteers face imprisonment in Belarus, while Lukashenko's regime persecutes their friends and families.

The real independence day

The Spotlight segment provides readers with the historical context of contemporary events in Belarus.

On July 27, 1990, the Supreme Council (Viarkhouny Saviet) of the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty.

Although remaining a document with no legal power at the moment, the declaration was a crucial event in Belarusian history.

The document proclaimed the sovereignty of Belarus and proclaimed the supremacy of the republican laws over those of the Soviet, declaring that no political party or individual could speak on behalf of the people other than the elected local Supreme Council.

According to the document, Belarus obtained the right to have its own army and police, as well as an independent foreign policy.

Belarus was proclaimed a neutral and nuclear-free state.

A significant role in the document's creation belonged to the Belarusian People's Front (BNF), a pro-independence organization set to spark a national revival in Belarus.

The organization managed to secure 27 seats in the 360-seated Supreme Council, thus forming a parliamentary fraction that advocated for an even more radical version of the declaration.

A year later, on Aug. 25, 1991, after an attempted coup in Moscow, the declaration was proclaimed the country's new constitution, formalizing the full independence of the sovereign Republic of Belarus.

Belarus celebrated its independence on July 27 for the next four years until Lukashenko proposed changing it to July 3, commemorating Minsk being liberated from Nazi Germany in 1944.

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
The Biden administration is retreating from its promises to stop funding oil and gas projects overseas, triggering a split among senior officials over whether to prioritize climate change or the diplomatic alliances the White House has deemed critical to counter Russia and China.

Federal agencies have approved funding for proposals like renovations to an Indonesian oil refinery and shipments of natural gas to Poland  sometimes over the objections of President Joe Bidens special climate envoy, John Kerry, and Democratic lawmakers.

The policy shift shows how the fraught global political situation caused by the war in Ukraine and Washingtons tense rivalry with Beijing is threatening environmental goals. Democratic lawmakers and environmentalists fear the change could erode U.S. climate leadership as greenhouse gas emissions rise steadily and temperatures soar.

The Biden administration continues to approve one fossil project after another, which completely undermines our international dialogue for a faster transition to renewables and undermines our credibility, said Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), who along with Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) has pressed the White House for information on its policy for funding the oil and gas projects.

But defenders of the shift say it is a pragmatic change that acknowledges European allies are dependent on Russian energy exports and developing nations are wary of Chinas growing influence.

No one's overlooking the climate consequences of these policies, but they are being weighed against the broader foreign policy, economic policy and security policies in United States, said Landon Derentz, who worked on international energy policy at State, the Energy Department and the White House during the Obama, Trump and Biden administrations before leaving last year.

The White House did not provide a comment for this story.

Interviews with 21 administration officials, lawmakers, Capitol Hill aides, industry lobbyists, advisers to federal financing agencies and environmental groups show how the policy pivot is splitting the administration.

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The internal policy collision erupted in late April when the U.S. Export-Import Bank was considering whether to approve $100 million in financing to help renovate a century-old oil refinery in Indonesia.

Shortly before the Ex-Im vote to finalize the financing, Kerry and Jon Finer, the deputy national security adviser in the White House, telephoned Ex-Im Chair Reta Jo Lewis to urge her to pull the project from the agenda and delay the decision, according to two administration officials, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the incident.

Kerry and Finer believed the project was at odds with the Biden administrations broader climate efforts, one of the officials said.

But senior staff across agencies had already approved the financing for the refinery in Indonesia, a country that has clashed with Chinas territorial pushes into the South China Sea. Kerry and Finers last-ditch effort failed, and Ex-Im greenlit the project.

Since that incident, the administration has sought to clarify its guidance around potential exemptions to its effort for funding fossil fuel projects. The update may lead to greater scrutiny of the type of investments the agencies have increasingly backed in recent months.

Other deals have cropped up in the last 18 months at the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, an international financing agency that can deploy up to $60 billion. Biden is leaning on the agency to help deliver on his international climate finance commitments, and DFC has pledged to reach net-zero emissions across its portfolio by 2040.

But last year DFC delivered $300 million to the Three Seas Initiative to bolster Baltic energy security after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. That initiative had started under the Trump administration with a focus on natural gas, though the Biden administration has not detailed what its financing will support, according to Ian Brzezinski, a resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council who has held senior National Security Council and Defense Department positions, including NATO policy.

DFC also underwrote a $50 million insurance plan in 2022 for a natural gas power plant in Sierra Leone. And it financed a $400 million gas transaction last year for Moldova, the seventh-priciest deal in two decades, according to DFCs March 31 update of its dealbook. That update omits a more recent and even bigger transaction: backing a $500 million Goldman Sachs investment to lock in gas shipments for Poland that DFC guaranteed in June.

Although an overwhelming majority of the administrations financing flows to clean energy projects overseas, bankrolling oil and gas projects threatens to prolong the use of planet-heating fossil fuels that scientists say need to be phased out by mid-century to avoid catastrophic climate change. Activists say thats especially concerning for regions like Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, where emissions are projected to grow while those from the advanced economies shrink.

Administration officials say the Biden shift to support the oil and gas projects was largely driven by Moscows February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, which put European allies at risk of fuel shortages as nations there scrambled to replace Russian energy supplies. The U.S. and European governments scoured the planet for new supplies  a significant amount of which came from emerging economies.

The war in Europe has dovetailed with U.S. efforts to counter Chinas ambitions to grow its influence through its Belt and Road Initiative, an overseas infrastructure investment strategy. Though its energy spending abroad has slowed in recent months, Beijing holds a sizable chunk of the developing worlds debt as a result of that effort, which has included a focus on energy-intensive projects.

All those U.S. oil and gas investments have caused friction between climate stalwarts atop the Biden administration and the governments foreign policy wing about advancing oil and gas investments.

To some of Ex-Ims advisory council members, the decision to help fund the Indonesian refinery contradicted the Biden administrations January 2021 climate executive order that called on agencies to identify steps through which the United States can promote ending international financing of carbon-intensive fossil fuel-based energy, as well as the November 2021 agreement the U.S. signed at the U.N. climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland, to end overseas oil and gas finance.

The Biden administration backed that U.N. pact up in December 2021 guidance to federal agencies that largely prevented federal investments in overseas oil and gas projects. But those agencies were left to determine for themselves whether proposals satisfied certain exemptions that would permit fossil fuel financing, such as national security or energy access and economic development where clean energy is not viable.

Theres a disconnect between that and the actions of a lot of these agencies precisely because there isnt a clear process, said Kevin Gallagher, director of Boston Universitys Global Development Policy Center, who said the Indonesia investment prompted him to walk away from another term on Ex-Ims China advisory council. These exceptions should be true exceptions. But to just call anything security is just going to lead to insecurity in the future.

A State Department official who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about the policy, which the Biden administration has never publicly released, defended the process as iterative.

Well always be learning as cases come in given the diversity of projects, geopolitical circumstances and agencies the guidance covers, the person said.

That process has fed a perception among industry, environmental advocates and lawmakers that the administration was taking an ad hoc approach to the investments.

Thats frustrated U.S. diplomats in developing nations who want clarity for building oil and gas projects they see as vital for stabilizing fuel prices and supplies. And its angered environmental activists who see enormous loopholes to justify gas and oil projects overseas.

Weve seen a really dangerous pivot, said Bronwen Tucker, global public finance co-manager at Oil Change International. It feels like we are in a moment where the administration is stepping away from its fossil fuel commitments.

The latest iteration of the policy guidance will now hinge on the White House National Security Council granting a national security or development exemption for financing fossil fuel projects, according to one of the administration officials with knowledge of the process.

The new changes, which have not been previously reported, are designed to ensure consistency across the government. But it has encountered resistance from agencies who see it as impinging on their independence, the official said.

The U.S. policy and its opacity has confused allies who want the Biden administration to support their energy security needs, according to industry officials and Capitol Hill aides. Allies in Asia have sought U.S. financing for gas projects but cannot figure out how to press their case, according to one Republican Hill staffer who has had conversations with embassies in the region.

The ambiguity has a chilling effect on seeking U.S. financing, pushing nations toward China to fund projects, the aide said.

Were leaving territory up for grabs for our adversaries, said the aide, who was granted anonymity to shed light on sensitive diplomatic discussions.

Other projects are drawing concern from the U.S. climate activists. They include a Bahrain oil project in Ex-Ims queue, which also includes gas and petrochemicals proposals in Egypt, Guyana, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea, as well as an LNG project in South Africa under consideration at DFC.

To some, the newer posture is a necessary rebalancing of priorities. Other nations witnessed the U.S. speed liquefied natural gas to Europe after the Russia invasion, and Europes turn back to coal. Yet developing nations face energy security challenges daily, not just in times of war or acute crisis.

The State official noted that the administration views facilitating oil and gas shipments differently than bankrolling the construction of new projects. The official said the duration of investments is a key factor for consideration  the Biden administration does not want to unnecessarily lock in decades of additional fossil fuel consumption that would jeopardize global climate goals. The administrations policy is still to veer our resources to clean energy, the official said.

Energy markets are complex, what we're seeing in the world is complex. It is not easy. It is not simple, the State official said. It's not black and white. It's never going to be black and white, and especially following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Capital punishment could emerge as a major campaign issue in the U.S. presidential race for the first time in 30 years, with top GOP rivals Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis already one-upping each other by touting tougher, more far-reaching death penalty laws.

Meanwhile, death penalty foes are poised to draw attention to what Democrat Joe Biden hasnt done as president: He has taken no action on or even spoken about his 2020 campaign pledge to strike capital punishment from U.S. statutes.

A demonstration that the death penalty issue is far from academic came Wednesday when federal jurors in Pittsburgh voted to impose a death sentence for Robert Bowers for killing 11 people in a synagogue. Its the first federal death sentence handed down during Bidens presidency.

Trump, who restarted federal executions after a 17-year hiatus and oversaw 13 in his final six months as president, wasted no time making capital punishment a focus in his current, third presidential run. In declaring his candidacy on Nov. 15, he called for the execution of drug dealers.

In a July campaign video, Trump added another category of criminals he said deserve death.

I will urge Congress to ensure that anyone caught trafficking children across our border receives the death penalty, immediately, he said.

While the Justice Department announced a moratorium on federal executions in 2021, its a temporary pause. Nothing precludes a pro-death penalty candidate elected next year from quickly resuming them.

Florida Gov. DeSantis has put capital punishment on his agenda, too.

After not authorizing state executions for three years, DeSantis signed death warrants for the recent executions of four people  two before and two after he declared his candidacy on May 24.

He has also signed two death penalty laws since April, one allowing for executions of convicted child rapists and another letting jurors impose death sentences with less-than-unanimous votes.

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One juror, DeSantis said, should not be able to veto a capital sentence.

Bidens silence suggests he would rather the death penalty not become a campaign issue. Activists will try to force him to speak about it anyway by lobbying campaign debate moderators to pose questions on capital punishment.

Wed like Biden to articulate his position and say it out loud, said Abraham Bonowitz, director of Death Penalty Action.

Bonowitzs group will also call on Biden to order the demolition of the federal death chamber, a small building on the grounds of a prison in Indiana, as proof that hes serious about permanently ending federal executions.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, support for the death penalty has fallen from nearly 80% in the mid-1990s to around 55% in recent years. As support waned, it faded as a campaign issue.

Among the last times it featured prominently was in 1988, during George H.W. Bushs successful race against Michael Dukakis. Bush spotlighted Dukakis lifelong opposition to capital punishment. In 1992, Bill Clinton emphasized his support for it in defeating Bush.

Declaring such support has long been a way for politicians to send a broader message  that theyre tough on crime.

Trump has mastered that, said Lee Kovarsky, a death penalty scholar at the University of Texas at Austin.

So much of his campaign and government style centers on strength and masculinity  to punish without compromise, he said. Its a damaging combination.

Trump established himself as the most prolific execution president since Grover Cleveland in the 1890s when U.S. executions restarted during his 2020 campaign and continued into the lame duck period after his defeat.

William Barr, Trumps attorney general, argued in his 2022 book that the executions were legally and morally right. He said they delivered long delayed justice to victims of brutal killings, many of them children.

Trumps record may have partly inspired DeSantis, said Melanie Kalmanson, a Florida attorney who writes the Tracking Floridas Death Penalty blog, noting: It seems that theres some sort of competition between the two on capital punishment.

The four Florida executions this year brought the total under DeSantis to six. The most recent on June 15 was of Duane Owen who was convicted in the fatal stabbing of 14-year-old Karen Slattery and the killing of Georgianna Worden, 38.

DeSantis granted a May 22 stay so Owen could undergo mental health exams. Three days later, the day after DeSantis announced his run, he lifted the stay.

The bill lowering the juror-vote requirement to eight made Florida the state with the lowest threshold. He backed the change after jurors failed to reach unanimity to impose a death sentence on Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz, who killed 17.

DeSantis hopes the law he signed allowing for capital punishment for the rape of children will invite the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse its 5-4 finding in 2008 that executions for most crimes not involving murder violate prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment.

Despite his full-throated endorsement of capital punishment, DeSantis doesnt have Trumps knack for wooing voters who respond to over-the-top, anti-crime rhetoric, Kovarsky said.

That space is already occupied by Trump, he said.

As a U.S. senator, Biden enthusiastically supported capital punishment, leading passage of a 1994 crime bill that greatly expanded the number of federal capital crimes.

We do everything but hang people for jaywalking, he boasted then.

Only in 2016 did the Democratic Party platform first call for the abolition of capital punishment. Biden made his opposition explicit in 2020.

Many expected Biden to fulfill his campaign pledge within days of his inauguration, perhaps by commuting all federal death sentences to life. He didnt. And hes taken no executive action since.

Biden may calculate his continued silence is a prudent strategy because even those frustrated by his inaction wouldnt dare back Republicans.

I am not at risk of voting for Donald Trump, Kovarsky said.

Bonowitz says Biden wont take action to keep his 2020 promise during the 2024 campaign, because he understands that voters care more about pocketbook issues than capital punishment. But skittishness by candidates worried that speaking against the death penalty will damage them politically is no longer well founded, he added.

That, he said, should also make it safe for politicians to say what they really believe and stand by it.

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A group of bipartisan lawmakers are calling on Secretary of State Antony Blinken to take aggressive diplomatic action with China to fight the influx of fentanyl.

In a letter sent Wednesday, Rep. Susie Lee (D-Nev.) joined 44 other House members in saying they are concerned about the Peoples Republic of Chinas (PRC) ongoing role, in the U.S. fentanyl crisis.

Stopping fentanyl is a life-or-death issue  not a Republican or Democratic one, Lee said in a statement shared with The Hill. A bipartisan coalition of 45 Members of Congress just made that clear today.

Reps. Lisa McClain (R-Mich.), David Trone (D-Md.), Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas), Annie Kuster (D-N.H.), and Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-Mo.) are co-leads on the letter.

We urge you to drive forward aggressive diplomatic action, as part of a whole-of-government, coordinated effort, to secure an agreement with the PRC that results in a true clamp down on the devastating illicit fentanyl trade, the letter wrote.

During Blinkens high-stakes trip to Beijing in June, the secretary emphasized the need to work with China to stop the flow of synthetic drugs and precursor chemicals into the U.S. that contribute to the fentanyl crisis. Blinken spoke with Chinese leaders on addressing this issue among others through joint working groups.

In a press briefing Tuesday, State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said the U.S. is continuing to make progress, on fentanyl talks with China, but is not yet at the point of establishing the fentanyl working group.

The PRC continues to be the main source for the starting chemical materials used to illicit manufacture drugs that have been involved in the deaths of far too many Americans, the letter wrote.

It argued these precursor chemicals are sold to Mexican transnational criminal organizations, like cartels, who make illegal fentanyl that ends up in the U.S. The lawmakers push Blinken and the U.S. to act with urgency, to save additional American lives from fatal drug overdoses, noting the increase of pills containing fentanyl in recent years.

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The lawmakers said the coordinated relationships, between entities in the PRC and cartels in Mexico have established a sophisticated criminal network that is fueling the drug epidemic in America. To combat this, lawmakers suggested increased monitoring of transactions and trades that have been markers for trafficking operations in the past, such as the wildlife trafficking of international protected species.

Even while tensions remain high in the Pacific, our country cannot afford to look past our national overdose crisis during negotiations with the PRC, Lee said.

The lawmakers presented Blinken with four questions regarding the State Departments actions on the fentanyl crisis and details about his trip to Beijing and the proposed U.S.-China Working Group to Combat Illicit Fentanyl Trafficking.

The letter asked Blinken to provide answers within 60 days.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Heather Morgan faces a 10 year jail sentence after pleading guilty to laundering stolen cryptocurrency

A married couple nicknamed Bitcoin Bonnie and Crypto Clyde have pleaded guilty to laundering $4.5 billion (3.5bn) in stolen cryptocurrency.

Heather Morgan and Ilya Lichtenstein were arrested in New York last year after police linked their lavish lifestyle to a crypto heist, in what the US Justice Department called its largest financial seizure ever.

The Justice Department managed to recover 2.8bn out of the stash of some 120,000 bitcoin, which is today worth 3.5bn.

Prosecutors said the pair stole the bitcoin in 2016 using advanced hacking tools.

As part of a deal, the pair pleaded guilty to money laundering, while Lichtenstein admitted to being behind the hack and Morgan pleaded guilty to an additional count of conspiracy to defraud the US.

Despite her moves to hide her crimes, Morgan masqueraded as a rapper and tech entrepreneur who called herself a bad-ass money maker and the crocodile of Wall Street in her lyrics.

Heather Morgan exits the E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse in Washington after pleading guilty to money laundering charges - ELIZABETH FRANTZ/REUTERS

Morgan, 31, graduated from the University of California, Davis, with a degree in economics and international relations and speaks six languages, including Russian, Japanese and Turkish.

Her business Salesfolk, offering advice on cold email marketing, was launched in 2003. By 2017, she was a columnist for Forbes.

Her rapper alter-ego Razzlekhan was created to help her overcome burnout, she penned in an article. Becoming a musician had been her childhood dream.

Morgan wrote lyrics calling herself a profit magnet with a fondness for risk-taking who was sly as a gator.

In one video shared on YouTube, she could be seen walking boldly around New Yorks Financial District, rapping about being many things, a rapper, an economist, a journalist, a writer, a CEO, and a dirty, dirty, dirty dirty h.

Morgan also claimed to be a successful tech businesswoman in articles published in Forbes.

Details of the eccentric couples lives have emerged since their arrest, including their habit of taking their Bengal cat, Clarissa, for strolls around the streets of Manhattan on a leash.

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Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan pleaded guilty to laundering $4.5 billion (3.5bn) in stolen cryptocurrency - INSTAGRAM

But behind the scenes, she and her husband, a computer programmer, were working to cash out a fortune stolen from the crypto firm Bitfinex.

Court documents revealed that the couple converted the bitcoin into regular currency while hiding in plain sight.

They split the bitcoin into small amounts, transferring it into thousands of different crypto wallets with fake identities, and mixed the stolen cash with other criminal cryptocurrencies on the darknet marketplace AlphaBay.

The pair also purchased gold coins and set up shell companies to make the bitcoin funds look legitimate.

But they accidentally exposed themselves by using a gift card paid for with the funds in a Walmart supermarket.

Police were able to link the Walmart gift cards back to some of the proceeds of the Bitfinex hack, which then opened up the further investigation, said Jonathan Levin, founder of cryptocurrency investigators Chainalysis, who participated in the investigation.

Heather Morgan, who performs as a rapper and calls herself 'the crocodile of Wall Street' in her lyrics, has pleaded guilty to laundering stolen cryptocurrency

Buying gift cards and moving between different exchanges and different cryptocurrency never actually created this sort of break in provenance that the couple intended.

Police discovered hollowed-out books, used to hide burner phones, inside the couples apartment. About $40,000 in cash was also uncovered.

Prosecutors say there was evidence the pair planned to flee to Russia  Lichtensteins country of birth  where they could live out their lives as billionaires without risking US arrest.

Lichtenstein could be behind bars for 20 years and Morgan faces a sentence of 10 years.

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Staghorn coral spawns near North Key Largo, Florida on Sunday, August 14, 2022.

Scientists and conservationists are working to observe and save coral reefs off the coast of Florida after a year of heat waves and alarming ocean temperatures.

Marine organizations, researchers, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have partnered to save these fragile, but important, marine ecosystems, The Guardian reported. Just this week, data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service showed that the average surface temperature of the worlds oceans has hit especially high temperatures of 20.9 degrees Celsius (69 Fahrenheit).

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A buoy in Manatee Bay, which is in the Florida Keys, measured an ocean water temperature of 101 degrees Fahrenheit (38.3 Celsius) in late July, Reuters reported. Average water temperatures during that time of the year are supposed to be between 77 degrees Fahrenheit ( 25 Celsius) and 88 degrees Fahrenheit (31 Celsius).

Researchers have worked to record the extent of the damage throughout the Florida Keys and are working to rescue coral from the especially hot water. The Keys Marine Laboratory at the Florida Institute of Oceanography has rescued over 1,500 pieces of coral, the Guardian reported. Scientists have brought them to labs for safekeeping and to preserve the biodiversity of the marine environment.

A few of our nursery partners will continue to bring more corals in the coming weeks, perhaps doubling or even tripling that number. The challenge will be to allow them to recover and remain healthy until they can be returned to the nurseries to regrow and outplant, Cynthia Lewis, the director of the Keys Marine Lab, said according to the Guardian.

Yes, coral reefs off the coast of Florida are meant to be in warm waters. But when temperatures are too high, it bleaches the coral reef. When the seawater rises above average temperatures, corals expel the algae responsible for their color. Some bleached coral can recover, but its weaker which makes it more susceptible to other forms of damage, like disease.

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Experts are worried because the recent decline is part of a longer trend. Since the late 1970s, the Florida Keys has seen an estimated 90% decline in healthy coral cover, according to a report from NOAA. And even though protections were put into place in the 1990s, coral health has continued to decline due to rising ocean temperatures, damage from boats, and pollution. These corals have taken thousands of years to build up and are important for both marine biodiversity and tourism in the region. About a quarter of all marine fish spend some of their life near coral reefs, they use corals for shelter and to hunt for food. And healthy coral attracts travelers, which in turn boosts marine and island economies, the NOAA report explained.

These elevated ocean temperatures are occurring the same year when most of the worlds population saw heat that wouldnt have been possible without climate change. Plant life is also struggling to survive this years heat. Over in Arizona, cactuses that are made for dry and hot conditions, are struggling to live through the regions record-breaking temperatures. The iconic Saguaro cactuses are supposed to be firm and stand tall, but in extreme heat and drought conditions, they slump and even fall over.

Want more climate and environment stories? Check out Earthers guides to decarbonizing your home, divesting from fossil fuels, packing a disaster go bag, and overcoming climate dread. And dont miss our coverage of the latest IPCC climate report, the future of carbon dioxide removal, and the un-greenwashed facts on bioplastics and plastic recycling.

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When the Blended Retirement System was created more than five years ago, one of its primary goals was to help service members set themselves up financially for the future, even if they didnt stay for 20 years and retire. That aim is being met, according to defense officials.

Before BRS, under the legacy retirement system, fewer than 20 percent of troops served long enough to receive military retired pay. Today, the majority of active duty service members participate in the Blended Retirement System and will receive a government retirement benefit if they serve at least two years, even if they dont qualify for a full retirement.

The setup is called blended because its a blend of the long-standing annuity provision for those who retire from service, plus matching contributions to the Thrift Savings Plan and other features. The TSP, a retirement savings and investment plan for uniformed service members and federal government employees, is similar to 401k plans in the civilian sector.

And its working. Data shows that young troops are building their retirement savings. For BRS participants, as of May, the average balance in their Thrift Savings Plan retirement accounts was $11,657, about $2,000 higher than the previous year, according to the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board.

Take that $11,000 and grow it over the next 40 years, and youve got roughly a quarter million dollars, with no additional contributions, said JJ Montanaro, a certified financial planner with USAAs Military Advocacy Group. That compares favorably as a retirement nest egg for a large slice of the American population.

The 200,000-plus service members who leave the military each year will be leaving with the potential for a solid financial foundation, he said.

Strong participation

As of May, more than 1.2 million service members within the active and reserve components, or about 56% of the force, are enrolled in the Blended Retirement System, said Jerilyn Busch, DoDs director of military compensation. The percentage of participation is larger  65%  for active duty members; more than 850,000 are enrolled in BRS, compared to about 450,000 reserve component members, or 44%, who participate.

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Troops contributing at least 5% of basic pay to their TSP account and getting a DoD matching contribution:

Component__________________________ Percentage____ Marine Corps (active) 82.50% Air Force (active) 82.30% Army (active) 75.50% Navy (active) 73.20% Marine Corps Reserve 75.50% Air Force Guard & Reserve 67.60% Army Guard & Reserve 65.20% Navy Reserve 58.30% Source: Defense Department

Those who entered the military starting in 2018 were automatically enrolled, but service members who had fewer than 12 years of service as of Dec. 31, 2017, could opt in to the new system. Most of those who met the requirements remained under the legacy High-36 retirement system, in which retired pay equals 2.5% times the number of years of service multiplied by the average of the members highest 36 months of basic pay.

But whether they are covered by the Blended Retirement System or the legacy system, service members can contribute to a TSP account. Overall, 84% of the force is contributing to a Thrift Savings Plan account, Busch said, so theyre setting themselves up for their future, and that was one of our main goals.

Service members under the BRS pull up the overall participation rate in TSP, which was about 48% at the end of 2017, just before the BRS was implemented. Now, about 88% of BRS participants and 78% in the legacy system are contributing to their retirement savings, according to the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board.

Service members also seem to be bucking some national trends, defense officials said.

While contributions to 401k programs decreased significantly in 2022 among the U.S. population in general, and withdrawals from 401k programs increased significantly among the U.S. population in general in 2022, service members under the BRS continued to contribute to TSP at high rates and withdrawal rates did not increase, said Pentagon spokeswoman Nicole Schwegman.

BRS offers a combination of monthly retired pay for those who qualify, along with a Defense Department contribution to the service members Thrift Savings Plan. All covered members receive a government contribution that equals 1% of basic or inactive duty pay to their tax-advantaged retirement account after 60 days of service. After two years of service, and continuing through their 26th year, they can also receive up to an additional 4% matching contribution, for a total of 5%. So, if service members are contributing 5% of their basic pay each month, thats 10% going into their retirement accounts.

Schwegman said BRS has resulted in significantly increased retirement savings among service members of all ranks.

Service members with TSP accounts:

Participant___________________ Number or Value__ Legacy retirement system (contributing) 516,000 Legacy (separated or retired) 648,000 BRS (contributing) 915,000 BRS (separated) 224,000 Average amount in TSP account Legacy retirement system participant $39,252 BRS participant $11,657 Source: Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board

Among other features are continuation pay, a mid-career cash payout  a retention incentive in return for additional service. That money can also be contributed to their TSP account, up to the amounts allowed by the Internal Revenue Service.

The BRS, coupled with the ongoing financial literacy training, could be a model for how to incentivize better financial responsibility among young people, said Andrew Corso, principal director in the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Military Manpower and Personnel.

Corso previously administered military retirement and annuity programs for DoD and was the project manager for the implementation of the Blended Retirement System.

Our E-1s, E-2s are putting away hundreds and thousands of dollars a year in retirement, Corso said. Thats a good news message.

USAAs Montanaro agrees.

For me, the potential for the program to be impactful is all about the education wrapper that surrounds BRS and the chance that good habits and decisions will flow from the DoDs work, he said.

Hanging up the uniform

To date, some 224,000 BRS participants have already separated from the military, according to the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board. They can leave that money in their TSP account or move it to another retirement account. But if the money is withdrawn from a retirement account before age 59, there are generally significant tax penalties.

Before BRS, those 224,000 service members would have been among the more than 80 percent of service members who left the military without a retirement benefit from the government.

For those troops who serve until retirement eligibility, the monthly retired pay under the BRS is 20% less than it would have been under the legacy system. So, BRS offers a pension after 20 years of service that equals 2.0% of average basic pay during the members three highest-paid years, multiplied by the total number of years served.

Although service members can reduce their 5% BRS contribution, the vast majority are not making that conscious decision to leave money on the table. According to DoD, about 80% of active duty and 70% of reserve component service members in BRS are contributing at least 5% to their TSP. The percentage is highest in the Marine Corps, with 82.5% of active duty Marines contributing at least 5%.

In addition, 39 percent of active duty members in BRS are contributing more than 5% to their TSP. About one in four reserve component members in BRS are contributing more than the 5%.

Participation in the TSP isnt limited to those enrolled in BRS, of course. Since October 2001, troops have been able to contribute to TSP plans, but DoD didnt offer a matching contribution. As of May, 1.3 million troops in the legacy retirement system had TSP accounts, with an average balance of $39,252, according to the federal board.

Of those, 648,000 were non-BRS service members who have separated or retired from the military, but still have their TSP accounts. While they have accumulated money for their future, they did it on their own without DoD matching contributions.

Has BRS affected recruiting, retention?

fIts too early to tell whether BRS has had an effect on recruiting or retention, especially since the pandemic hit two years after the start of BRS, said those who attended the BRS symposium, which included service branch representatives, current and former DoD compensation experts and academics. The services are also dealing with a recruiting crisis.

Part of the symposium focused on whether the services could better use the BRS continuation pay tool, tailoring it to the needs of the services. The one-time payment is made between eight and 12 years of service, in exchange for a commitment to serve additional years. The services have flexibility in their programs. For 2023, Marine Corps continuation pay for active duty personnel in BRS was twice as high as the other services, at five times monthly basic pay, compared to 2.5 times monthly basic pay for the other branches.

The data we need to make decisions about how to best tailor opportunities of BRS is likely to lag behind when we need to make those decisions, said Col. Eric Reid, director of the Marine Corps Talent Management Strategy Group. He noted that the first service members who opted into the BRS will hit the 20-year service mark in three years.

David Chu, who served as undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness from 2001 to 2009, cautioned against using BRS too much as a management tool. Most of the force is young, thinking about their current car payment, and BRS is about the distant reward, said Chu, now an adjunct staff member and former president of the Institute for Defense Analyses.

BRS is one of few examples where a public compensation benefit has actually been reduced, he said. While it took something away by reducing the retirement pay benefit after 20 years of service, it also provided something extra upfront for retirement savings, he said.

He noted that many felt the legacy retirement system was unfair, because the vast majority of troops left with no financial benefit.

Where BRS was successful was in raising the issue of fairness and social justice as a motivation for change, he said.
A 16-year mystery continues as deputies identify a Jane Doe as a Florida mother  but she was never reported missing.

In February 2007, human remains were found in a shallow grave in the woods by a Sarasota neighborhood, according to an Aug. 2 release from the Sarasota County Sheriffs Office.

The body was found by a teenager, the Herald-Tribune reported, and was lying on its side in a 3-foot hole.

This is not your normal homicide area, Lt. Skip Wood with the Sarasota County Sheriffs Office told the outlet in 2010. This is an area that someone has obviously taken great care to obfuscate the fact that there is a body here.

In the months after the body was discovered, medical examiners determined the person had died from blunt force trauma, the Herald-Tribune reported. They also knew the body belonged to a white woman between 30 and 40 years old, and had been buried for at least seven months before she was discovered.

For more than a decade, law enforcement did not know who the remains belonged to, or how they came to be buried.

In 2022, with advancements to genetic technology, the sheriffs office worked with DNA Labs International Inc. to create a genetic profile for the body, according to the release.

The Florida based company created a DNA profile that was used to discover the womans identity 16 years later.

The body was that of 39-year-old Jeana Lynn Burrus, the sheriffs office announced.

Burrus was unemployed and lived with her husband James and son in Sarasota, just a few miles from where the body was found, according to the release.

Her husband worked at a local body shop nearby, and her son attended the local elementary school.

The Burrus had previously lived in Citrus County before moving to Maryland and then back down to Sarasota County, according to the release.

The investigation into Jeanas death was further complicated as she was never reported missing by family, and her whereabouts had not been questioned, the sheriffs office said.

Story continues

The home where the Burrus used to live and the body shop where James had been employed were searched as part of the investigation, the sheriffs office told McClatchy News in an email.

We know (James) abruptly left Sarasota and moved to California, Det. Mark Lefebve of the Sarasota County Sheriffs Office told WWSB. He was there for a short time and we believe there was a crime stoppers report submitted to the media around that time relating to this case. Then he abruptly left California and went back to Maryland.

James is currently living in Maryland, the sheriffs office confirmed to McClatchy News.

Investigators told WWSB James story had changed between times they spoke with him.

The couples son also said he had been told his mother had abandoned their family, the sheriffs office confirmed.

Now, the sheriffs office is asking the public for any information about Jeana, her husband or the circumstances around her death.

Those with information should call 941-861-4900.

Sarasota is about 60 miles south of Tampa.

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Phoenix police released audio and edited body camera footage after a man died when being detained by officers in July.

On July 20, at about 2:18 p.m., Phoenix police responded to conduct a welfare check at a shopping plaza. When officers arrived, they found a man matching the description from the call on the northeast corner of 19th Avenue and Union Hills Drive.

A critical incident briefing, which included updated information from Phoenix police spokesperson Sgt. Brian Bower, a portion of the 911 call and edited body camera footage was released on Thursday.

In the portion of the 911 call that was released, a woman tells the dispatcher that she saw a homeless man acting "a little aggressive" and walking back and forth along the shopping strip.

New contract for police body cameras: Will $39M in bodycams slow Phoenix police shootings?

The operator then reports to officers that the man was pacing while "yelling at himself" and "hitting himself," the audio shows.

Bower said in the briefing that when officers arrived, they saw the man described on the call walking through the shopping center.

"Officers tried to contact him, however, the man did not respond and continued to walk away," Bower said.

Edited body camera footage from one of the officers on the scene shows him walking toward the man, whistling at him and trying to get his attention. As the man continues to walk away, the officer tells him, "Alright, just keep walking then."

Moments later, a Phoenix police cruiser can be seen driving past the officer, trying to flag the man down before stopping alongside a curb as the man continues to walk.

"Both officers ended their body-worn camera recording while the man continued to walk south through the shopping plaza," Bower said. "From a distance, officers saw the man stumble and fall into a brick landscaping wall near Union Hills Drive."

Upon seeing this, officers drove to the man and restarted their body cameras, Bower said.

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Edited body camera footage at this juncture shows one of the officers telling the man to stop as he has his hand on top of a wall. The officer then pulls down the man's arms, ordering him to "sit down."

Another officer is seen grabbing the man's other arm, with both telling him to sit.

"Kick his feet, Cody," one officer says as they wrestle the shirtless man to the pavement.

Phoenix police: Body-camera footage released of fatal shooting of man who resisted arrest

Officers then pick the man back up off the ground, handcuff him and walk him over into the shade of a nearby storefront and request aid from the fire department.

Footage shows that as Phoenix fire crews respond to provide the man with medical aid, he becomes unresponsive. One of the paramedics can be heard in the footage say, "yeah, he's not breathing, guys." Officers then move in to remove the handcuffs from the man, where the video ends.

The man was later transported to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead, Bower said.

According to the briefing, the officers involved have been with the department for four and 12 years and are assigned to the Black Mountain Precinct, Bower said.

Bower told The Arizona Republic that both officers are back to work on patrol status as the incident continues to be investigated by homicide detectives as well as an ongoing administrative investigation.

"Conclusions about whether the actions of the officers are consistent with department policy and the law will not be made until all facts are known, and the investigation is complete. An internal investigation by the Professional Standard Bureau is currently underway, in addition to a criminal investigation. Once the criminal investigation is complete, it will then be reviewed by the Maricopa County Attorney's Office," a statement accompanying the video release read.

No other information had been released.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Phoenix police release bodycam footage after man dies in custody
Its difficult to describe the insanity of whats happening off the coast of Florida right now. A sensor in the Keys last week recorded water temperatures of more than 101 degreesabout the same as a hot tubin what could be one of the highest ocean temperatures ever recorded; at this time of year, they should be in the 70s and 80s. Corals are bleaching and dying at previously unheard-of rates, thanks in part to the waters steamy conditions.

And its not just Florida. Across the world this summer, heat waves are gripping the worlds oceansand marine experts are sounding the alarm.

Its easy to think of the oceans as a separate entity, but conditions in them matter a lot to life on land. These Jacuzzi temperatures are another example of how badly climate change is altering the entire balance of our world as we know itnot just under the sea.

The earth just lived through its hottest month on recordbut if we didnt have the power of the oceans on our side, things could have been even more catastrophic. Since the 1970s, the worlds oceans have absorbed 93 percent of the excess heat in the atmosphere generated by burning fossil fuels and about one-third of the carbon dioxide emissions released into the atmosphere.

Regina Rodrigues, a professor of physical oceanography and climate at the Federal University of Santa Catarina in Florianopolis, Brazil, specializes in marine heat waves. Oceans, she told me, act as a buffer against the most extreme heat for those of us on land.

If the ocean wasnt absorbing this excess heat, we would be in a much worse situation, Rodrigues said. Its great for us, but all of this comes at a price. That price is a steady increase in sea surface temperatures: The worlds oceans have warmed by around 0.13 degrees Celsius (0.23 degrees Fahrenheit) per decade over the past 100 years.

The unbelievable temperatures recorded in waters across the world this summer arent all thanks to climate change. The El Nino effect is also helping to heat the tropical North Atlantic, Rodrigues said, and could be impacting the jet stream, which is triggering heat waves around the Florida area. Theres several different things all happening in the same spot at the same time, she said. Thats maybe why were getting these real extremes.

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All this ocean warming has real impacts for life on land. Warmer waters accelerate the melting of the worlds glaciers and sea ice, supercharging the rate of sea level rise. Many of the corals that are struggling to survive act as important natural barriers for coastlines, protecting them from storms and floods. Hotter waters can decrease oxygen and key nutrients in the ocean and change the balance of ecosystems, seriously impacting larger species we rely on for food.



We could also be in for some monster storms this year. Warmer sea surface temperatures give hurricanes more ammunition to strengthen before they hit land; warmer air also allows more moisture to form, juicing up these storms. These extreme ocean temperatures are coming right as the Atlantics hurricane season hits its peak. Maybe the El Nino will counteract that, but if it doesnt, we could have a very busy hurricane season, Rodrigues said.

In the longer term, the overheating ocean could change weather patterns around the globe. Scientists have long been worried about the functioning of a key ocean current known as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation in a warming world. The AMOC, which moves warmer water around the Atlantic Ocean, is already slowing down, thanks at least in part to climate change. A study released late last month predicted that, in an absolute worst-case scenario, the AMOC could collapse in as little as two years. While we simply dont know whenor ifthe AMOC will collapse or what exactly may happen when it does, the results could be enormous shifts in worldwide temperatures and precipitationpotentially catastrophic changes.

I asked Rodrigues how she was feeling about all this. Even for those of us who cover the climate crisis regularly, that 100-degree-plus reading in Florida was truly shockingwas she feeling that way too?



Its not that we didnt know extremes would happen, but  whats more surprising is that theyre coming faster than what we previously projected in models, she told me. When scientists say this is shockingwe knew this would happen, but the difference is that we thought it would be a little bit later, not so quick. But these extreme events are coming really hard, and really quick.

Good News

Coal-heavy Wyoming is making a big bid to move into wind energy this year.

Bad News

At least 20 people are dead and thousands forced to evacuate as devastating floods hit Beijing this week.

Stat of the Week

$100 billion

Thats how much lost productivity due to heat exposure reportedly cost the U.S. economy in 2020.

Elsewhere in the Ecosystem

How Floridas insurance crisis is haunting Ron DeSantis campaign

Republican opponents are beginning to use Floridas insurance crisissome companies are ending coverage in the state thanks to climate changeagainst Governor Ron DeSantis on the campaign trail, ABC News reports:

With hurricane season looming this summer, DeSantis is now being pressed to answer for the issue: from Trump, the races frontrunner, who has begun to regularly repeat the insult during his rallies on the national campaign trail, and from other politicians in Florida. Governor, come home and take care of your state, said Democratic State Sen. Tracie Davis, who is asking DeSantis to call a special session and provide immediate financial relief for policyholders, during a recent news conference. We all know that hes running for president, but we have real problems, real issues. While the problem predates DeSantis time in office, it marks a moment of irony for the presidential candidate who made a name for himself dismissing climate-informed financial decision making as a woke ideological ploy, rather than a reasoned response to the physical reality of climate change, which scientists believe is making precipitation from hurricanes more intense.

Read Laura Gersonys full report at ABC News.

This article first appeared in Life in a Warming World, a weekly TNR newsletter authored by contributing deputy editor Molly Taft. Sign up here.
On Aug. 6, 1945, my grandfather rushed into Hiroshima City shortly after the first atomic bombing in history.

As a first responder, he intimately witnessed the horrors of nuclear war that forever changed his perception of the world and his role in it.

Surprisingly, instead of being consumed by anger or sorrow, he devoted his life toward promoting peace.

As Hiroshima rebuilt after the bombing, survivors like my grandfather helped shape an extraordinary culture of peace that permeates every facet of life in the city.

The lesson of Hiroshima for my grandfather was to never forget what happened but to also refuse to become trapped in his feelings of loss, grief, and anger.

Instead, he looked toward the future and joined the greatest generation of Japanese who emerged from the ashes of World War II to rebuild Japan.

For the remainder of his life, this lesson of Hiroshima provided him with the resiliency to work toward making his vision of a thriving, modern Japan a reality.

My mother was three years old when the bomb fell. Growing up near Hiroshima, the shadow of the bomb permeated her daily life.

On the train, she tried not to stare at the keloid scarred survivors traveling to their unknown destinations.

At school, she struggled to understand why no man wanted to marry the hibakusha girl, the atomic bomb survivor who served her lunch. At home, she listened to her mother cry when she thought all of her children were asleep.

Growing up in the suburbs of Boston, my familys stories of Hiroshima combined fretfully with the Reagan era Cold War environment of mutually assured destruction, Olympic boycotts and Matthew Broderick holding off global thermonuclear Armageddon through tic-tac-toe in WarGames.

Following my grandfather and mother, I also embraced the lessons of Hiroshima for my own time and place. Over the past 18 years, I have worked in education and conflict resolution in the Middle East region, where the lessons of Hiroshima of forgiveness and resilience remain as topical and relevant today as ever before.

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EDITORS NOTE: There is a strong connection between the Tri-Cities and the only two cities in the world to be attacked with nuclear weapons. Hiroshima was bombed on Aug. 6, 1945, three months before what experts warned would be a horrific invasion of the Japanese homeland.

On August 9, an atomic bomb using plutonium produced at Hanford , Wash., destroyed Nagasaki. Japanese Emperor Hirohito announced Japans surrender five days later, on August 15. The official documents were signed on September 2 aboard the USS Missouri.

Ray Matsumiya will address the Columbia Basin Badger Club live from Tokyo on Thursday, Aug. 10. The forum will begin at noon PDT. There is no charge for Badger Club members. Nonmembers pay $5. To register please visit www.columbiabasinbadgers.com.

Ray Matsumiya will speak at the Columbia Basin Badger Club on Aug. 10, 2023

Ray Matsumiya has devoted his professional career to unofficial diplomacy, cross-cultural exchange, and peacebuilding. Over the past 22 years, Ray has supervised, implemented, and secured funding for over 50 programs on a variety of topics including peacebuilding, negotiation, and conflict resolution, 21st century work skills, and civic engagement. These programs, implemented in seven countries, have included over 2500 educators, civil society leaders and others who have gone on to impact hundreds of thousands of people in their home communities. Rays programs have been endorsed by former Secretary of State John Kerry and praised by senior US State Department officials to be among the best planned, managed and most effective public diplomacy efforts overseen by the Department.
The head of U.S. Border Patrol says that agents stopped four sex offenders  including those with convictions of crimes against children  attempting to cross into the U.S. illegally in the space of a single day.

Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens, who took over the position in July, announced that his agents arrested four convicted sex offenders on Wednesday.

Those arrested had charges of "Sexual abuse of a child," "rape by force/fear," "indecency with a child and aggravated sexual assault" and "indecency with a child, exposes."

That comes after Owens announced last week that agents encountered three sex offenders in a single day  along with 10 firearms and two armed subjects.

FLORIDA STING TARGETING CHILD SEX EXPLOITATION FINDS NEARLY 40% OF ARRESTEES IN US ILLEGALLY

A U.S. Border Patrol agent stands on a cliff looking for migrants that crossed the border wall between the U.S. and Mexico near Sasabe, Arizona, on Jan. 23, 2022.

It comes a day after Florida officials announced that seven out of 19 arrested in an anti-child trafficking operation in Florida were in the U.S. illegally. Five have no record that shows lawful entry into the U.S. One man was admitted on a B-2 visitors visa that expired in 2021, and another was admitted on a J-1 student visa that also expired in 2021.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

On Thursday, Texas Department of Public Safety announced that its troopers had arrested an illegal immigrant from Mexico for the possession or promotion of child pornography.

The arrests are occurring amid an ongoing crisis at the southern border that has seen record numbers since 2021, including nearly 2.4 million encounters in fiscal year 2022. In that year, there were more 12,000 encounters of criminal illegal immigrants by Border Patrol.

MIGRANT NUMBERS CROSSING DARIEN GAP SET NEW RECORD, DESPITE US EFFORTS

Republican critics of the administration have pointed to the record number of getaways, including nearly 600,000 last fiscal year, and raised concerns about the number of criminals who may be seeking to evade Border Patrol and get into the U.S.

The administration has shot back, calling on Congress to pass reforms to fix the "broken" system in which the Department of Homeland Security says it is working. It has called for additional funding for processing.

Story continues

REJECTION OF BIDEN ASYLUM RULE AFTER COURT CHALLENGE RAISES FEARS OF FRESH BORDER SURGE

It has also pointed to a drop in overall encounters at the border between May and June after a combined strategy that saw a stiffening of penalties for illegal entry and an asylum ban on those crossing illegally who failed to claim asylum in a prior country through which they traveled.

CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

However, that asylum bar was dealt a blow last week when it was blocked by a federal judge, raising new concerns about a looming increase in numbers.
A plane crash at North Perry Airport killed one person and injured two others on Friday afternoon, Pembroke Pines fire-rescue officials said.

At around noon, a single-engine Cessna 172 veered off the runway while taking off from the airport, the Federal Aviation Administration said. The plane is registered to Aeroflyin Corp., a Pembroke Pines business.

A pilot and two passengers were on board when it crashed, said Scott Gunn, a spokesperson for Pembroke Pines Fire Rescue.

One person died at the scene and two others had to be removed from the plane. The pair were critically injured and taken to Memorial Regional Hospital, he said.

The crash didnt affect nearby homes businesses or roadways, Pembroke Pines police said. TV footage shows the small planes wreckage on a grassy area of the airport.

A small fuel leak was contained by firefighters, Gunn said.

As fire-rescue crews worked the crash, airport operations at North Perry were temporarily halted, said Arlene Satchell, spokesperson for the Broward County Aviation Department. One runway has since been reopened.

In May, a banner plane crashed at the Broward airport, injuring the pilot. The week before, a banner plane from Perry Airport crashed on the street near a Target shopping center in Hollywood. The pilot died in the fiery crash.
Tero Vesalainen | Dreamstime.com

The U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has found the FBI improperly searched an intelligence database for information on a U.S. senator, a state senator, and a state judge. It did not release the names of those three. The U.S. senator and state senator were reportedly believed to be the targets of a foreign intelligence service. The judge had come to the FBI's attention by filing a civil rights complaint against a local police chief. An FBI official told ABC News that the agency has policies in place to prevent such searches but the agents who searched the database did not follow those policies.

The post Brickbat: Secret Snooping appeared first on Reason.com.
Special counsel Jack Smith delivers remarks on an indictment against former U.S. President Donald Trump on Aug. 1, 2023. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

In the indictment against former President Donald Trump and his role in the Jan. 6 violent attack against the U.S. Capitol, special prosecutor Jack Smith charged the former president with violating four different federal laws  and Trump pleaded not guilty to each one of them on Aug. 3, 2023.

Three of the charges in United States of America v. Donald J. Trump are fairly easy to understand. They require a jury to determine whether Trump tried to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 election and if he knowingly conspired to obstruct the certification of results on Jan. 6, 2021, all in an attempt to remain in the White House.

But the fourth charge against Trump  of conspiring against the rights of the voters to cast ballots and have them fairly and honestly counted  is more complicated, and it comes from a dark time in U.S. history.

As a historian who studies and writes about democracy and the American South, I believe the 1870s have something to teach us about the fourth count in the Jan. 6 case against Trump.

Ku Klux Klan Acts

The indictment asserts that Trump knowingly conspired to injure, oppress, threaten, and intimidate one or more persons in the free exercise and enjoyment of a right and privilege secured to them by the Constitution and laws of the United States  that is, the right to vote, and to have ones vote counted.

That quote comes from a series of laws enacted in the 1870s called the Ku Klux Klan Acts. They are officially known as the Enforcement Acts because they empowered the federal government to enforce the Civil War amendments  the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments that freed enslaved people and guaranteed equal protection of the laws and the right to vote.

As the Brennan Center for Justice points out, in the 20th century the Supreme Court has ruled that all sorts of election infringements violate the Enforcement Acts, including stuffing ballot boxes and bribing voters. A suspect doesnt have to commit violence against Black voters to violate the law.

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Former President Donald Trump with his attorneys inside the courtroom during his arraignment at the Manhattan Criminal Court on April 4, 2023. Seth Wenig/AFP via Getty Images

Retreat from democracy

When the Ku Klux Klan tried to steal the 1872 presidential election by killing and intimidating newly enfranchised Black men, federal troops swooped into South Carolina and arrested hundreds of Klansmen. The Department of Justice secured convictions in 140 cases by using the law that is being used to prosecute Trump.

Congress had to expand the attorney generals staff into an entire department of government to handle the excessive case load.

The Klan prosecutions worked.

The 1872 election was relatively free and fair. In South Carolina, where the Black population outnumbered the white population, President Ulysses Grant, who had commanded the Union Army in the Civil War and led it to victory over the Confederacy, won with 75% of the vote.

After Grant was reelected, many champions of Black rights lapsed into what historians often characterize as a moral fatigue. According to historian Eric Foners Reconstruction: Americas Unfinished Revolution, a resurgence of overt racism in the North triggered a retreat from Reconstruction.

The turning point was at Colfax, Louisiana.

Just before Easter in 1873, federal soldiers steamed up Louisianas Red River to investigate reports of yet another wave of white terrorism against Black citizens.

As later described by Col. T.W. DeKlyne, as the soldiers approached the town of Colfax, they saw neglected neglected crops and abandoned farmhouses. They followed a trail of corpses to the charred, smoking remains of the courthouse, whose grounds were strewn with more dead bloating in the sun. Some were burnt. Others had been shot, execution style, in the back of the head.

In his history of the Colfax massacre, journalist Charles Lane estimated that between 62 and 81 Black men were killed, most after they surrendered to the white militia.

Despite the bloodshed, Louisiana officials did nothing to hold the murderers accountable.

But federal attorneys indicted 98 men. Nine stood trial, including one William Cruikshank, who Lane described as the burly, self-confident plantation owner who had supervised the executions.

Cruikshank was convicted not of murder but of the federal crime of conspiring to violate the civil and voting rights of Americans  the same crime that Trump is charged with.

The case was appealed to the Supreme Court, where justices heard all sorts of arguments on the authorities of state and federal governments to enforce voting rights laws. But the real issue was whether the federal government, 11 years after the end of the Civil War, still had the will to protect the civil rights of Black people.

In this illustration, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, left, accepts the surrender of Gen. Robert E. Lee. Getty Images

The Supreme Court set William Cruikshank free, and white supremacists established racist regimes in every Southern state for nearly 100 years thereafter.

According to Nicholas Lemann, professor emeritus at Columbia University, the Civil War did not end in 1865 at Appomattox Court House  the Virginia village where Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered his forces to Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant.

The last battle, he contends, was fought at Colfax, and the South won. The South staged unfair elections for the nearly the next 100 years. Not until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 did the federal government signal it would force states to hold free and fair elections.

Civil War amendments today

The latest retreat by the Supreme Court from defending Black civil rights might have begun in 2013, in its Shelby County v. Holder ruling, in which the justices abolished a key part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that ensured federal oversight of voting rules in areas with a history of discrimination. The 5-4 majority held that states could be trusted to guarantee citizens voting rights.

Writing in dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg compared enforcing the Civil War amendments to battling the Hydra, the multiheaded monster that sprouted new heads after one was defeated.

In North Carolina, for instance, the Republican lawmakers tried to put what is known as the independent state legislature theory into practice. That theory holds that state legislatures are the supreme authority in federal elections.

But in the Moore v. Harper case, Chief Justice John Roberts disagreed and wrote in the 6-3 majority opinion on June 27, 2023, that the federal court must not abandon their own duty to exercise judicial review over elections.

Given this long history of advance and retreat, its not surprising, then, that special counsel Jack Smith, in his use of a law to prosecute Trump that dates back to the Reconstruction Eras laws protecting the Black vote, has reasserted the Department of Justices power to enforce the Civil War amendments.

This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. The Conversation has a variety of fascinating free newsletters.

It was written by: Joseph Patrick Kelly, College of Charleston.

Read more:



Joseph Patrick Kelly is affiliated with the Charleston County (SC) Democratic Party.
A small, politically connected brokerage tied to Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago received a $640,000 commission last year from the sale of a downtown Gables lot where embattled real estate developer Rishi Kapoor planned to build a luxury high-rise.

The payment, disclosed in corporate documents obtained by the Miami Herald, came in December as Kapoors Location Ventures scrambled to close on the $35.5 million purchase of the property, located at 1505 Ponce de Leon Blvd.

The commission went to Rosa Commercial Real Estate, a boutique brokerage owned by Lagos business associate, former Hialeah Councilman Oscar De La Rosa.

State records list just five real estate agents whose licenses are registered with the brokerage  including the mayor of Hialeah, Lago and his chief of staff at Coral Gables City Hall.

Lago says he received no money from the deal and was not involved in the sale of the property to Location Ventures, whose business in neighboring Miami and payments to the mayor there, Francis Suarez, are currently under FBI investigation. Lago says his decision to hang his real estate license with the boutique firm in June of last year was merely a matter of paperwork, given that it is standard practice for real estate agents to work under a broker.

But Lagos decision to join Rosa Commercial Real Estate last summer  and to quietly remain involved in the developers affairs at City Hall in the ensuing months  raises questions about how the brokerage became connected to the deal and the extent to which the mayor entangled his private business and public office with Kapoor.

State records show that Lago joined the small firm that would ultimately profit from Location Ventures purchase of the 1505 Ponce development site as Kapoor was seeking City Commission approval to build a 16-story residential tower there.

Weeks earlier, in late May of 2022, Lago and several associates had purchased a storefront directly across the street and then leased it to Location Ventures as a future sales center for roughly $12,400 a month. As the Herald previously reported, Lago said he and his partners were approached by several potential tenants, and the developers attorney said the company paid market rate.

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The mayor disclosed the arrangement when he recused himself last summer from the first of several City Commission votes on the project, noting on June 28 that he had a potential conflict. Two days later, state records show, Lago registered his real estate license with Rosa Commercial Real Estate.

RELATED CONTENT: How a developer pushing a luxury Coral Gables high rise became a tenant of the mayor

It is unclear who at the brokerage was compensated in the closing of 1505 Ponce, or how the boutique firm entered into Location Ventures orbit.

Four of the five real estate agents registered with the brokerage  Lago, Hialeah Mayor Esteban Steve Bovo, who is De La Rosas stepfather, land-use attorney William Riley and Lagos chief of staff, Chelsea Granell  denied involvement. They also said they did not know who received the six-figure commission from the sale, or whether it was distributed among multiple people. A fifth real estate agent at the firm, Anthony Casas, could not be reached.

Location Ventures did not respond to the Heralds request for comment.

City spokeswoman Martha Pantin said the mayor, who could not be reached in person or on his cell phone, would not answer questions about the brokerage.

If you have questions regarding the transaction, suggest you reach out to Mr. De La Rosa, she said in an email.

De La Rosa, who as the broker would be responsible for overseeing closings and divvying up commissions, did not respond to emailed questions from the Herald or attempts to reach him through his cell phone and at his office.

The relationship between De La Rosa and Lago  a registered real estate agent in Florida since 2006  pre-dates the mayors move from a large brokerage called RESF to Rosa Commercial Real Estate. In 2021, Lago and De La Rosa were registered as managers for a company called Capitol Equity LLC. State records show it was administratively dissolved the following year.







A WIN-WIN FOR ALL PARTIES

In public, Lago has maintained an arms-length relationship over the past year with Kapoor, who stepped down from a management role in Location Ventures last month amid mounting legal and financial woes.

Scrutiny of Location Ventures increased this summer after the Herald reported that the development firm was paying Mayor Suarez $10,000 monthly as a consultant at the same time that Suarezs staff was helping Kapoor cut through red tape at City Hall to obtain permits for a $70 million project in Coconut Grove.

READ MORE: Former executive at firm that paid Suarez $170K says CEO improperly redirected loan funds

The FBI, Miami-Dade state attorneys office and Miami-Dade ethics commission are looking into Suarezs work for the developer.

Suarez and Kapoor say they have done nothing wrong, and that the mayors work for Location Ventures subsidiary URBIN was unrelated to City Hall. Suarez has said he was paid to help bring investors into Kapoors projects.

Under Florida ethics laws, elected officials are not allowed to use their official position to secure a special privilege, benefit, or exemption for themselves or others. The law also states that an elected official cannot accept compensation or a thing of value if the official knew or should have reasonably known that it was given to them to influence a vote or action carried out in their official capacity.

When pressed about his own financial relationship with Kapoor, Lago has stressed that he is a part-time mayor who makes his money in real estate, and that he recused himself from four votes last year on the developers business.

City emails, however, show that even after Lago disclosed that he was leasing his property to Kapoor, he continued to help the developer pursue his business at City Hall.

In October  months after Lago became Kapoors landlord and registered his license with Rosa Commercial Real Estate  the mayor met privately with Kapoor and City Manager Peter Iglesias.

Emails obtained through a public records request show the mayor, Kapoor and Iglesias met to discuss a city-owned parking lot that the developer wanted to purchase and include in a new project for the firms URBIN brand. Kapoor described the proposal as a win-win for all parties in emails organizing the meeting.

Weeks later, Iglesias would support the developers request to enter into formal negotiations, with the City Commission voting 4-0 in favor.

Lago, who recused himself from the vote, said in a written statement that he facilitated the meeting, describing it as an effort to benefit the city.

The meeting was an attempt to negotiate a better price on behalf of the city for the Navarre Ave. site and was done in the best interests of Coral Gables, Lago said.

Lago had met previously with Kapoor or Location Ventures employees on at least four other occasions, in 2018, 2021 and 2022, city records show. The developers internal meeting minutes also refer to another meeting between Kapoor, Lago and Iglesias in February of this year to discuss the Navarre Avenue parking lot.

Anthony Alfieri, founding director of the Center for Ethics and Public Service at the University of Miami School of Law, says abstaining from votes does not give the mayor free rein to assist Kapoor privately in City Hall.

Alfieri said that, to the extent that Lago is acting as a de facto lobbyist for a private interest, his conduct raises questions under Miami-Dade ethics laws about whether he is exploiting his official position to secure special privileges now or in the future.

He also expressed concern about whether any of Lagos real estate investments have created a substantial conflict between his private interests and the public interest.

Iglesias, the city manager, said that during the October meeting about the Navarre Avenue parking lot, the mayor was not advocating for Kapoor, nor was he putting pressure on the administration to pursue a deal with Location Ventures. Iglesias said negotiations for the parking lot had ended.

The mayor has never done anything thats not in the best interest of the city, said Iglesias. Thats a fact. Never.

Developer Rishi Kapoor

HOPE TO POP THE BUBBLY BY HAPPY HOUR

Lagos contact in recent months with the developer wasnt limited to the Navarre Avenue parking lot, according to Kapoors own correspondence.

In early December, when Location Ventures was scrambling to nail down required signatures from the City Attorneys Office to obtain a $20 million loan and close on the 1505 Ponce property, Kapoor mentioned Lago in an email to investors.

The Mayor had us meet the Assistant City Atty today at ~9a to get covenants signed for recording, Kapoor wrote on Dec. 1, adding: Hope to pop the bubbly by happy hour.

Kapoor needed the city to sign off on the transfer of development rights, or TDRs, from nearby historic properties, which allowed the developer to build the project to the desired square-footage. The City Commission had approved the TDRs  with Lago abstaining  weeks earlier. But without the underlying covenants, the lender, Altamar Financial Group, wouldnt provide the crucial loan, internal financial documents show.

READ MORE: Lenders $15 million lawsuit is latest setback for developer with ties to Mayor Suarez

Nov. 30 was the 1505 Ponce closing deadline, which had already been pushed back from September, according to internal company records. That evening, Mario Garcia-Serra, a lobbyist for Location Ventures affiliate Location Acquisitions, emailed the city attorney and an assistant city attorney to set up a document-signing meeting.

My apologies for an evening of fire drills, Garcia-Serra wrote to the citys legal staff shortly after 8 oclock that night.

The next day, Dec. 1, Location Ventures obtained the signatures, with an assistant city attorney, Gustavo Ceballos, signing the documents. Garcia-Serra thanked the city for reviewing and signing off on the documents on an expedited basis, and a lawyer for the lender wrote that he appreciated Ceballos intervention to assist on the matter, city emails show.

The deal closed Dec. 2, according to a U.S. Housing and Urban Development settlement statement obtained by the Herald, netting the $640,000 commission for Rosa Commercial Real Estate. The commission was paid by the seller, Florida East Coast Realty, according to the document.

Kapoor did not include further details in his email about the purported interaction with Lago regarding the signatures, but the firms lobbyist, Garcia-Serra, said in an interview that, as far as he knew, the mayor wasnt involved.

Likewise, in an email statement, Deputy City Attorney Stephanie Throckmorton said the City Attorneys Office has no recollection that the Mayor was involved with our offices execution of those TDR covenats for 1505 Ponce.

Through the city spokeswoman, the mayor denied having any role in finalizing the paperwork with the city attorneys office.

He did not set up that meeting, said Pantin, whose son Les Pantin was registered to lobby in Coral Gables on behalf of Location Acquisitions until last week.

As for the 1505 Ponce project, it is the subject of nearly $290,000 in liens from architects who say they have yet to be paid in full for their work. The lot remains vacant, as does the storefront that Location Ventures leased from Lago and the mayors business partners, one of whom is the cousin and past political adviser of Suarez, Miamis Mayor.

Vince Lago, (right) celebrated his win as Coral Gables mayor with Steve Suarez during an election night victory party on Tuesday.

Miami Herald staff writers Sarah Blaskey, Joey Flechas and Catherine Odom contributed to this report.
Bryan Kohberger has finally revealed a vague alibi for his movements on the night that he is accused of brutally stabbing four University of Idaho students to death in their home.

The 28-year-old criminal justice PhD student claims that he went on a solo drive throughout the night of 12 November and into the early hours of 13 November  but admits that there are no witnesses to corroborate his alleged whereabouts.

Mr. Kohberger has long had a habit of going for drives alone. Often he would go for drives at night, his attorney Anne Taylor writes in a new court filing.

He did so late on November 12 and into November 13, 2022. Mr. Kohberger is not claiming to be at a specific location at a specific time; at this time there is not a specific witness to say precisely where Mr. Kohberger was at each moment of the hours between late night November 12, 2022 and early morning November 13, 2022.

He was out, driving during the late night and early morning hours of November 12-13, 2022.

Mr Kohberger was tied to the brutal 13 November murders of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin through a knife sheath left behind at the scene.

The sheath  for a military or Ka-Bar style knife  was found partly under Mogens body after she and Goncalves were found stabbed multiple times on Mogens bed on the third floor of the home.

DNA on the button clasp of the sheath was then found to match that of the 28-year-old accused killer.

Mr Kohbergers attorneys have sought to cast doubts on the strength of this DNA evidence, in particular the use of genetic genealogy.

According to the affidavit in the case, the FBI used genetic genealogy databases to try to identify the DNA source.

Trash was then collected from the suspects parents home in the Poconos Mountains and a familial match  from Mr Kohbergers father  was made to the sheath, according to the criminal affidavit.

Following Mr Kohbergers arrest on 30 December, DNA samples were then taken directly from the suspect and came back as a statistical match, say prosecutors.

Story continues

The home on King Road, Moscow, where the four students were killed (AP)

Mr Kohberger faces the death penalty if convicted of the murders of Goncalves, 21, Mogen, 21, Kernodle, 20, and Chapin, 20.

He is scheduled to stand trial on 2 October after being indicted by a grand jury on four counts of first-degree murder and one burglary charge.

Mr Kohberger is accused of breaking into an off-campus student home on King Road in the early hours of 13 November and stabbing the four students to death with a large, military-style knife.

Two other female roommates lived with the three women at the property and were home at the time of the massacre but survived.

One of the survivors  Dylan Mortensen  came face to face with the masked killer, dressed in head-to-toe black and with bushy eyebrows, as he left the home in the aftermath of the murders, according to the criminal affidavit.

For more than six weeks, the college town of Moscow was plunged into fear as the accused killer remained at large with no arrests made and no suspects named.

Then, on 30 December, law enforcement suddenly swooped on Mr Kohbergers family home in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania and arrested him for the quadruple murders.

The motive remains unknown and it is still unclear what connection the WSU PhD student had to the University of Idaho students  if any  prior to the murders.

However, the affidavit, released in January, revealed that Mr Kohberger was tied to the killings through his DNA on the knife sheath, surveillance footage showing his white Hyundai Elantra close to the crime scene and cellphone activity.

The murder weapon  a fixed-blade knife  has still never been found.

Ethan Chapin, 20, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, took this photo together hours before they died (Instagram/Kaylee Goncalves)

As a criminal justice PhD student at WSU, Mr Kohberger lived just 15 minutes from the victims over the Idaho-Washington border in Pullman.

He had moved there from Pennsylvania and began his studies there that summer, having just completed his first semester before his arrest.

Before this, he studied criminology at DeSales University  first as an undergraduate and then finishing his graduate studies in June 2022.

While there, he studied under renowned forensic psychologist Katherine Ramsland who interviewed the BTK serial killer and co-wrote the book Confession of a Serial Killer: The Untold Story of Dennis Rader, the BTK Killer with him.

He also carried out a research project to understand how emotions and psychological traits influence decision-making when committing a crime.
Carrizo Plain National Monument Bob Wick/Bureau of Land Management

Record-breaking rains may have flooded California this year, but they also provided enough water for one of the state's most dazzling wildflower displays to flourish into a "superbloom" so big it could be seen from space. The Carrizo Plain National Monument, located about 170 miles northwest of Los Angeles, is the largest expanse of grassland remaining in the state and blooms into a brilliant mosaic of explosive yellow, purple, blue and orange flowers each spring. But about a dozen oil wells have also taken root in the Carrizo Plain, sometimes called the "Serengeti of California."

On Wednesday, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management directed oil companies to shut down 11 dormant wells there following public outrage and a lawsuit disputing the Trump administration's decision to permit the wells in the first place. In a legal agreement between conservation groups and the BLM reached last year, it was decided that the wells and the infrastructure supporting them would be removed by August 2028.

In 2021, the Biden Administration announced the suspension of new oil and gas leases on public lands only to reverse the decision the following year, although the acreage of available land for leasing was significantly reduced.

In response to the removal of wells in the Carrizo Plain, Ileene Anderson, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a press release: "This is a place for wildflowers, California condors and kit foxes, not oil wells. It's wonderful to see the fossil fuel era coming to an end here, which will benefit all the rare plants and animals of this stunning landscape."